This story takes place around the time of Episodes 4 and 5 in Season One. It's basically a 'what-if' story featuring my favorite character, Shiro.

So - what if Sendak had been able to transport the captured Paladins back to the Druids' stronghold?

Warning: Language (and some torture) ahead. You have been warned.

When Shiro opened his eyes, he thought he was having one of his nightmares. A pair of yellow eyes were gleaming in the darkness over him. A cackle from the Druid made shivers run down his spine. Sweat began to bead on his forehead, his breath came faster, and he tried to make himself wake up.

Come on, he told himself. It's just a dream. You're not a prisoner anymore.

Then he felt something cold around both his wrists and ankles, and other, tighter bands around his body, and suddenly the truth came rushing back to him. Sendak had taken the castle - and then -

"NO!" he gasped, coming suddenly back to full consciousness.

He saw the yellow-eyed figure draw closer as the darkness lifted, and he was - he was back - back in the chamber where they'd taken his arm. The light - the smell - the masked, purple-robed figures surrounding him - everything was the same.

NoNoNoNoNONONONONO

His heart hammered in his chest as he tried to move, wrenching and twisting in an effort to get free.

It was like the examination table they'd strapped him onto when he crash-landed on Earth - what cruel irony - damn it, he couldn't get free - and now they were going to experiment on him again - God, no, please no, not again -

The Druid came closer, smiling that crooked smile.

I will make you the perfect weapon, Champion.

Her words struck a deeper chord in him. He tried to get free again, snarling his denial, panic mounting in his chest, and she saw, and she smiled.

But first, you might want to say goodbye to your little friend.

She relished the look of confusion, then dawning horror in his eyes as his gaze flicked back around the room. He saw the other brat on the table close by, and suddenly he was shouting his friend's name.

"Lance! Lance, come on, answer me!"

The other captured Paladin lay eerily still, also surrounded by Druids. He didn't look good at all.

But that was to expected, after barely surviving a bomb blast.

His helmet was missing, and there were burn marks all over his body. Blood was trickling out of his mouth, and his breaths were too shallow, too harsh.

Shiro was afraid his friend might have a punctured lung. He tried calling his friend's name again, but it was no use.

The Black Paladin turned his gaze back toward the Head Druid, and the expression on his face was precisely what she had hoped to see. Not just anger.

Blinding rage.

"It is vital for you to realize how powerless you are, Champion," she hissed. "We cannot force a connection between Paladin and Lion to break, but there are ways …" she seemed to search for the word, then she smiled, "…to encourage it."

The Druid came even closer, still smiling that crooked smile, and now he saw a pulse of purple lightning crackled between her fingertips.

"No!"

He tried to break free again, but one of the other Druids standing behind his head gripped both his shoulders and held him down, forcing him to keep still as the awful yellow eyes of the witch came closer.

Just like last time.

The witch saw Shiro's eyes widen in fear as the energy come closer and closer. Shiro tried to close his eyes, to turn his face away, but another Druid priest gripped him by the hair and pulled his head back with a jerk, forcing him to look directly up at the ceiling. The two Druid priests were helping each other to keep him still, the purple and black energy now mere inches away from the scar between his eyes.

Shiro tried to keep his breaths even, his mind far away. But this was - quite literally - his worst nightmare come back to life, and he couldn't help thinking

Please not again please someone help me please please pleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepl-

Hagar hissed again, something that was almost a laugh.

"I'm sure you've dreamed of this next part."

Then she sent the energy crackling and sizzling into Shiro's skull, right between his eyes.

He was almost glad Lance couldn't hear his screams.

Keith was watching the feed from the cameras with an almost expressionless face.

In the academy, it had been known as his 'blue screen of death' face.

It happened when major shit went down.

In the split second when the castle's particle barrier had faltered from the explosion caused by Pidge, he'd been able to dart through. Allura had been unable to make it, but she stayed behind to meet up with Coran and Hunk.

Keith had managed to get to the core before any of the drones could discover Pidge, who had been knocked unconscious by the backlash of the energy surge. He'd hidden her in a tiny side passage after checking her vital signs, which were slow, but stable.

Until they got this ship out of Galra hands, he couldn't do more for her.

Then, he'd crept into his old quarters to keep out of the way of the Galra soldiers, and also to have a place from which to bring up the video feeds and what audio they could manage. The mice - that was weird - were helping him as much as they could, reordering the cables to feed him information, keeping an eye on Pidge, and trying to get a specific location from the transporters' last usage. As soon as the transporters had been working, Sendak had used it to transport both Lance and Shiro to a Druid ship orbiting another solar system. Sendak was watching the proceedings via a video screen, half-smiling. Keith was tapping into this feed.

Shiro's pain seemed to delight this creep. Maybe it was because Shiro had taken his eye from him in a fight or something.

Either way, Keith wanted to kill Sendak slow. But first, they had to find a way to take him down, regain control of the castle, and use the teleporters to get Shiro and Lance back from the Druids without getting all of them killed in the process.

But in the meantime, all he could do was watch.

After the first round of electroshock therapy - ha, ha, hilarious - the Druid let up long enough to see what progress she had made.

"Rapid-sa," she said.

Shiro felt something begin to shake loose inside his skull, and the words almost seemed a command.

But he fought the urge to respond. He swallowed it down, tried to catch his breath, trying to remember who he was, what he was.

Because he didn't want to obey this witch. He hated this witch. She was trying to brainwash him. Make him a weapon against his friends.

That thought made Shiro grind his teeth and try to turn his head as much as possible to one side, back to where he might be able to see Lance. Out of the corner of his eye, he barely managed to catch a glimpse of his friend, still breathing, but no other movement yet.

"Hang in - there - Lance," he managed. His throat felt dry, and it hurt to talk. He wasn't even sure the other Paladin could have heard him. "Can't - can't die - on me now -"

The Druid's mouth tightened, and she brought another sphere of purple lighting into being in her palm. Despite himself, Shiro flinched at the sound of the crackling energy. The Druids holding him in place readjusted their grips, held on harder. His heart felt as if it would beat right out of his chest. The mere echo of the pain was agony. What was to follow would be worse.

"I will break you, Paladin," she snarled. "You cannot hold out forever."

Shiro - once again forced to look up into her eyes - bared his teeth in what little defiance he could show.

Nothing like telling the truth.

And this might be his last chance.

"You kept - saying that," he spat out. "The first - time - I - was here."

There was a faint groan from the other side of the room, and Shiro tried to look over again, to see if Lance was moving, but this time the Druid priest forced his head so far back that all Shiro could see was the ceiling. But Shiro tried to twist his head away again anyway, intent on trying to get another glimpse of Lance.

"Lance! Lance - buddy, are you awake?" he managed to call before another sudden, fierce pull on his hair and a pressure - the long, curved edge of a knife - was suddenly against his throat, and the Druid priest holding his hair - the same one now holding the knife - was forcing his chin as far upwards as it could go, and he couldn't say anything more. He could barely breathe.

A faint laugh sounded from the other table.

"Good - one - Shiro," Lance managed, coughing twice before falling silent again. The witch looked between the two of the humans, obviously angered.

"My lord," she grated. "May I not kill the Blue Paladin?"

From where he stood hunched behind his chair, hands clenched into fists over the back, suddenly feeling horribly cold, Keith saw Shiro try to wrench free again, despite the knife to his throat, grating out an indistinguishable sound of anger and desperation.

The Druid holding the knife made a small, vicious motion.

Red droplets suddenly jeweled the edge as Shiro jerked in pain when the sharp blade bit into his skin. He couldn't really gasp in a breath, but he tried.

A deeper voice, from off-screen, said "No."

A figure in dark armor stepped from the shadows. "The Lions will not readily accept the deaths of their current Paladins at our hands. Let him be. His injuries will soon take their toll."

Shiro couldn't stay silent. If he didn't try something, they were just going to let Lance die, literally in front of him. He frantically jerked his head to one side, felt something hot and wet begin to pulse down his neck, and didn't care in the slightest.

He had to try - had to try to get them to help Lance.

Keith saw Shiro's desperate attempt to break free, to say something, anything, to get them to help his friend.

That's stupid, Shiro, that's really, really stupid -

And loyal.

Shiro was always loyal.

The knife the Druid was holding bit deeper into Shiro's neck, but he'd been able to gain a second where he could speak.

Shiro didn't care that the deep cut hurt, that it was bleeding more than it had been before. He could at least talk again, if only until the knife was readjusted.

"You can't just let him die!" he tried to shout at them. It came out more like a strangled cry. "Do you think you'd fool the Lions so easily?!"

Then his head was pulled back again, the edge of the knife now digging deeper into the cut it had already made. He couldn't keep back a short moan as the pain flared up, harsh and jagged and deep. Briefly, his sight blurred, and he almost closed his eyes entirely.

Another hiss from the main Druid, a low laugh from the tall figure in the dark.

"Spoken like a true weakling," the low voice said. "As if the life of a single human matters."

Dammit, Keith muttered to himself. Dammit Dammit Dammit-

He saw Shiro force his eyes open again, heard Shiro say please - just once.

Once before his chin was forced fully upwards again, his throat so tight he couldn't talk anymore, the knife now red and dripping, in the place it had been before - how much blood were they willing to spill, anyway?

He had been begging them to help Lance - okay, that was it - the whole Damn Golran Empire was going to die for making Shiro beg -

Oh, shit.

More purple electricity.

As the screams subsided for the second time, the Emperor turned on his heel and left.

Fuckin LEFT the ROOM.

As if Shiro wasn't worth the time it took to witness his pain and agony.

Keith was so angry, he almost didn't hear the communication come in from Allura. But when he realized they had a plan for getting their friends out of there, he gladly distracted himself from the screen.

He'd been just about ready to throw up.

"Fear not, Emperor - we will make this one strong."

The Druid bowed to the departing figure, and turned back to Shiro, whose eyes had gone somewhat hazy.

"Rapid-Sa," she hissed again, and Shiro's mind was so blank, so empty of anything but the pain, he almost echoed the words.

But something - something beyond the agony - wouldn't let him. It wouldn't let him get swallowed by the dark.

His vision cleared just enough for him to see the Druid gazing at him with triumph in her eyes, and then he spat out his defiance.

"You - can't - turn me," he managed to grate out. "You'll - just - have - to kill - me."

A contemptuous laugh from the Druid holding the knife to his neck made his gaze flick upwards, into its' staring, expressionless mask. Lifeless eyes locked onto his.

"Fool", the Druid priest hissed at him. "Do you really think we'd let you die?"

All Shiro could do was close his eyes as the pain and vermillion light enveloped him again.

This time, his screams were more ragged, more painful than ever.

He almost didn't recognize his own voice.

Keith's fingers were flying across the keyboard, and he could only hope this mishmash, improvised, seat-of-the-pants plan would work. A simultaneous teleportation between two ships, switching out their two friends for all the a**holes on this one.

Oh, this was going to be a close one.

"Rapid-Sa," the Druid said again, and this time all Shiro could do was keep his teeth clenched over the reply.

No.

He wouldn't go over.

Not to them.

"KEITH, NOW!" Allura shouted as loud as she could manage.

The plan worked, if just barely.

They got their two friends back.

Hunk and Coran immediately brought Lance to the infirmary. It took a few days, but he was back to his old self, if with some new scars.

Allura found Pidge, still in the safety of the tunnels where Keith had been forced to hide her. A few hours in the healing pod were enough to help her fully recover.

Keith went straight to Shiro's side, and, without ceremony, used the thickest bandage he could to stanch the bleeding cut in Shiro's neck. It took every uninjured member of the team to get him into the infirmary without inflicting further damage.

It took much longer for Shiro to make a full recovery. He was in the healing pod for ten full days, and when he emerged from his cryo-sleep, Keith watched him closely to see if Shiro would give any indication of his experience.

But the only thing Shiro said to Keith was "It's not your fault, Keith. We all thought the village was under attack. It was a bad situation, but we pulled through."

Keith relaxed after that. But he never forgot what he had seen.

And if he ever became a leader, he hoped he could be as strong, as selfless, and as heroic as Shiro.

Because, at the end of the day, he was glad Shiro was his leader.

And he never wanted that to change.