All Lance could hear was the footsteps of he and his fellow paladins. The silence was eerie and unnerving to him, and he strained to listen for any sign of life on the abandoned ship.

"Remember," Allura spoke into the comms, making Lance jump. "We still don't know why the Galra would have abandoned a ship. Proceed with caution."

"Right." Shiro confirmed. As he spoke, they passed through a doorway. At the end of a short passageway was what seemed like a large chamber. The team stopped, and Lance nearly bumped into Keith.

"What is that?" Hunk asked worriedly. Up ahead, the chamber was littered with strange looking devices that Lance couldn't identify. Pidge glanced at Shiro, who was grimacing. "It's a torture chamber. A Galra torture room." Lance felt sick; from the way Shiro was acting, he knew that the man had firsthand experience with the devices. Adjusting the grip on his gun, he faced the challenge ahead with new determination.

"Lance, you scout ahead. Be careful; we still don't know what the Galra are up to." Shiro ordered harshly. Lance nodded, and as the team fanned out through the hallway to continue their search, he slowly investigated the room ahead. The devices looked, well torturous. Twisted metals with sharp edges, sleek and lethal, stains on the ground that he tried not to think about. He scanned through the perimeter of the room, avoiding the dangerous objects. The whole atmosphere was sinister and unnatural, and Lance didn't want to stay in there much longer than he had to. He was so focused on the devices he didn't notice the trip wire until after he'd activated it. He muffled a shout as he fell, scraping his hands as he caught himself. Instantly, the room around him dimmed, and he heard the scraping of metal on metal. He whipped his head around to see the doors to the chamber sliding shut.

"Lance? Lance, you okay?" Lance could barely hear Pidge's concerned questions over his heavy breathing. Somewhere, he could hear a thin hiss, like air escaping a tank. His helmet was going to suffocate him; he had to take it off. He gulped air into his lungs as he threw his helmet off, and he fell to his knees. What was this? Why was this happening? Somewhere above him he saw his team looking at him through a glass wall, like scientists observing their experiment.

"What do we do?" Keith asked.

"Please…" Lance rasped. He tried to look up at the team, but he fell weakly back down again.

"Just leave him. Doesn't do us much good anyway." Shiro responded. Hunk and Pidge chimed their agreement. Lance felt tears well up in his burning eyes. Why were they leaving him?

"No, please! Help! You can't leave me!" He screamed.

"Oh my God, he's so pathetic." Pidge scoffed. She turned to Shiro. "Can we just leave?"

"Not yet." Shiro responded. "We still have work to do."

"Lance? Lance, you okay?" Pidge asked, her voice laced with worry. The chamber had been closed off, much to the alarm and concern of the other paladins. Over the comms, Lance was breathing heavily, and, was he crying? Before she identify the sound, there was a clatter, as though the helmet had been thrown. "Lance!"

"Shiro, what's happening?" Keith sounded distressed. "I don't know! Lance isn't responding!"

"Guys, over here!" Hunk was forcing two doors open. "I think there's more stuff up here!" As soon as they were open, the team sprinted up the stairs, which led to a room full of what looked like medical equipment. On one side of the room, there was a glass wall that overlooked the torture chamber. "Oh my god, it's fear gas!" Hunk reported, looking at the screens.

"What do we do?" Keith was panicky. Lance spotted them, and as he looked up they could see the tears streaming down his face.

"Please…" He fell back down to his knees. Shiro looked much more frightened than the team had ever seen him.

"We have to get him out of there. The gas is poisonous, and if we leave him there too long, he'll die!" Pidge and Hunk both choked back sobs.

"Lance, we're coming buddy!" Hunk shouted.

Lance began shedding tears, still unable to get himself up. "No, please! Help! You can't leave me!"

"Oh my god, he thinks we're abandoning him!" Pidge stifled a sob and turned to Shiro. "We have to do something!"

"I know! I'm working on it." Shiro stepped towards the glass, his normal calm demeanor gone. "Pidge, work on the controls. Get him out."

Pidge responded with a small 'yes sir' before furiously working with the controls. Her fingers moved like lightning, but she couldn't figure out what was keeping her from opening the room. "Dammit!" She cried, slamming her fist down. "I can't get it open!"

"Let me try." Keith gently pushed her aside, and looked at the controls. He didn't know what he was doing- at all- but her pushed a few buttons until a handshape came up. He tried placing his hand on it. After a second of silence, the machine beeped, reading 'Acces Denied'. Keith slumped, defeated, and looked out where Lance was looking at him with an expression of pure horror.

"Keith, please." Lance whispered.

"I'm trying, dammit!" Keith shouted, and Lance recoiled. "Shiro, can't you do something?"

Shiro collected himself from his panicky state and walked towards the glass. "Lance, I need you to listen to me. It's not real. Whatever you're seeing isn't true. Please, Lance, calm down! It's not real!"

Lance couldn't believe what was happening. His team was not only abandoning him, but trying to make it worse. He watched as Shiro carefully explained the dangers of the gas chamber, the fear in his heart growing with every word. Pidge nodded her understanding when he finished speaking, and started fiddling with the controls. He was choking, sobbing, gasping as Pidge intensified the poison. She laughed when she was done.

"Let me try." Keith interjected. Lance looked up at him in pure terror. Why would Keith do this? What did he do to make his team hate him so much?

"Keith, please…" He was surprised to hear how desperate his own voice was.

"Get over it, Lance!" Keith shouted with surprising vigor. Lance unconsciously drew back. "Nobody wants you here anyway!"

"Listen Lance," Shiro began, though the blue paladin could barely hear him over his own sobs. "Nobody needs you and nobody wants you. With Earth gone, I doubt there's anyone in the whole galaxy who wants you around. The rest of your family is gone, why haven't you gone too?"'

Lance was suffocating. His family was gone, the entire earth gone. They were dead, all dead, all dead. He couldn't hear more than the roar of blood in his ears. They were dead and gone, yet he was still alive. Why was he still alive?

As his vision started to darken, he wondered if it was for the best.

"Shiro, what did you do?" Keith cried. Lance was sobbing in the corner of the chamber; worse, he was hyperventilating, and rapidly inhaling the poison was only going to kill him faster.

"I-I don't know!" Shiro stuttered. He'd thought he was calming Lance down, not heightening his terror. Yet even worse was when Lance stopped fighting and collapsed, altogether still.

"Lance!" Hunk yelled. He was banging on the glass now, fat teardrops falling from his chin. He pulled out his bayard and slammed it against the glass to no avail. Keith looked at Lance, watching his friend with increasing desperation. Finally, he pulled out his bayard, and started slashing against the glass. He tried to ignore the tears burning in his eyes.

"I got it!" Pidge screamed. "I got the gas to stop! We can open it now!"

There was a moment of hopeful silence, before Hunk yelled in frustration. "It's not opening! He's still stuck."

Shiro looked with increasing resolve at the glass. "Dammit." He muttered. "Dammit!" His galra arm heated up and glowed, before he thrusted it at the glass. There was a loud shatter, then the shimmering glass was raining down on the chamber. Without a second thought, he jumped down to rescue Lance. Keith was already ahead of him, with Pidge and Hunk close behind. Lance was cowering in the corner, his head in his hands and curled into as tiny a ball as possible. "Lance!" Shiro put his hand on the teen's shoulder. When he didn't respond, he gently scooped him into his arms.

"Oh my god... " Pidge whispered. The blue palladin was completely unconscious, but his cheeks were stained with tears. Without thinking about, Keith took Lance's hand in his own and gave it a gentle squeeze.

"We have to get him out of here." Hunk said.

Lance was completely limp in Shiro's arms as they sprinted out of the abandoned Galra ship, the team forming a protective circle around them. They encountered nothing on the way out, but that didn't stop them from worrying. Outside the ship, the lions were waiting, and even without a strong bond to her, they could all feel Blue wailing mournfully for her paladin. Inside of Black, Shiro tenderly laid Lance down in the medical bed, painfully reminding him of the explosion back at the castle. Taking shaky breaths, Shiro strapped himself into his lion and maneuvered away. Blue circled anxiously around the other lions, who were still surrounding Black protectively, before she settled for leading the charge. Through the bonds with their own lions, all the paladins could feel the concern that she was radiating. The castle ship wasn't far. In just a few ticks, the lions were landing in the hangar. Pidge, Hunk, and Keith all rushed over to Shiro, and helped him ease the unconscious blue paladin out into the halls, where Shiro took him back into his arms. All of them had tear-stained cheeks. Moments later, they entered the main room of the castle with slumped shoulders. Allura turned around from where she was manning the ship, a bright smile on her face; she hadn't seen their state of defeat yet.

"Paladins! You've returned!" Her smile dimmed slightly when nobody responded, and she looked at their despondent expressions. "What's…" Her expression quickly morphed from joy, to shock, to horror as she took in the fallen paladin in Shiro's arms. "Lance!" She gasped. "What happened?"

Shiro gently laid Lance in one of the chairs. Hunk struggled to retell the tale; he sniffled through the recalling of the fear gas and Lance's desperation. Allura looked deeply disturbed, and kept stealing concerned glances at Lance. "What do we do?" Hunk finished, looking at Allura desperately.

"I'm afraid not much can be done until Lance wakes up." She said, kneeling by him and cupping a hand around his face. "But the physiological effects of Galra fear gas can be permanently damaging if we leave him to himself. We need to be there for him when he wakes up. But until then…"

And so they waited. Waited through the night, with Lance seemingly in a coma. Waited for Lance to show any sign of waking up, of being okay. Waited by his side, replaying the events in their minds endlessly. How did they let this happen? Not only had Lance been in danger of the poison, but now he was in danger of his own mind. Then finally, finally, Lance woke up. It was in the early hours of the morning, with the crew resting sleepily at his feet. Lance jerked awake, startling Shiro awake. Shiro, the man who'd ordered poison to fill the chamber, who'd tortured him (how did he escape?).

"Lance, you're awake!" He said softly. Lance stared at him with panicked eyes, before leaping from his chair and bolting off. He had to get away from this mad man. Shiro hesitated, then sprinted after him, jolting the others awake. "Lance, wait!"

"Shiro, what's happening?" Pidge huffed from beside him. She was still mildly bleary-eyed, and was struggling to keep up with him. Behind her, Keith, Hunk, and Allura were catching their bearings and nearing them.

"I don't know! He just bolted off!" Shiro thought he'd trained for chases, but damn that boy was fast. It wasn't long before he'd lost track of him within the twisting halls.

"Dammit!" Keith muttered as they slowed to a halt at an intersection. There was no indication of which way he'd gone.

"This is exactly what I was worried about!" Allura said, running a hand through her hair. "Lance still doesn't know his hallucinations weren't real. And we don't know how bad the hallucinations were."

Shiro cursed under his breath. "Team, fan out. We have to find Lance!"

Lance ran faster and longer than he ever had before. He lost track of where he was, but that didn't stop him. Everytime he slowed down, he could've sworn he heard Shiro on his tail. Fear would grip his heart as he would take off again down the halls. Finally, when he knew he wouldn't be able to run any longer if he wanted to, he figured he was safe. He'd just entered a large room that reminded him somewhat of the observation deck. The room itself was spherical, with glowing veins in the walls that illuminated it. A walkway lead around the room. They crossed in the center, where a stand of some kind was. Lance didn't bother to find out what it did, instead immediately jumping down from the walkway and onto the curved floor. He wedged himself under the walkway, and when he was sure he was safe, he finally stopped running.

Before he knew it, he was crying. Crying for all of Earth, that he'd let be destroyed. Crying for his family, crying angry tears that stung his eyes. He tried to muffle the sounds he was making, but to no avail. He sobbed and sobbed until he didn't have anything left to give. The Earth was destroyed. Never again would he be able to walk the beach with his family. He wouldn't ever again be able to laugh with his siblings or whisper late into the night, because they were gone. He wasn't sure how long he'd sat there weeping. It wasn't until he heard the distinct opening of the door that he clamped up, putting a hand over his mouth.

"Lance? Lance, are you in here?" Lance was shaking, because that was Shiro's voice echoing through the room. Silence followed it, then the closing of the doors. Lance let out a sigh of relief, still quivering in terror. He was safe. Then-

Lance screamed, writhing, trying to get away from the distinct metal hand that was on his shoulder. Shiro crouched in front of him, a firm hand on each of his arms. "Lance! Lance, please! Calm down!" Shiro shouted. Lance tried desperately to escape, thrashing and screaming as tears streamed down his face. "Let me go!" Lance arched his back and aimed a kick towards Shiro's face. It struck right on his nose, and Shrio recoiled. His grip loosened, and Lance took the opportunity to free himself, scrambling back on top of the walkway. Without glancing behind him, he took off down the hallway again.

"Shiro? DId you find-" Keith froze as he saw Lance sprinting towards him, then slipping past him. "Wait, Lance!" Lance froze as he felt Keith's hand around his wrist. "Lance, please. You have to listen to us." Keith slowly pulled Lance towards him until he could clasp his other hand, forcing him to face him altogether. "It wasn't real. None of it was real. It was all just the fear gas."

Lance stared at Keith in a mix of confusion and fright. "Fear gas?"

"That was what was in the room. We were trying to get you out, Lance." Keith could feel Lance start to shake, and Keith pulled him into a tight hug. "None of it was real."

Lance stared intently into Keith's eyes, before he broke down, collapsing onto Keith. His weeping echoed through the halls. Keith was beginning to tear up slightly- why was he crying? Before he knew it, Keith was crying almost as hard as Lance, and, unable to hold them both up, he and Lance collapsed on the floor.

"Keith…" Lance sobbed. "I thought the Earth was gone and everyone was dead. I thought… I thought you were going to kill me."

"Oh my God, Lance, I would never…" Keith choked over his words, realizing just how true what he was about to say was. "I-I love you, Lance."

Lance buried his face into Keith's shoulder, still trembling. "I love you too, Keith." Seconds later, the rest of the team came dashing into the hall, concern evident on their expressions.

"Oh my God, Lance!" Hunk cried, racing towards his friend. He threw his arms around the shaking teen. Pidge, Shiro, and Allura wordlessly followed, joining Lance on the floor and comforting him. Lance quivered silently, taking in the support his team was giving him. His family wasn't dead, they were still waiting for him on Earth. His team, they wanted him there, and they loved him. Despite all the events of the last day, Lance had never felt happier.