Flux

Kolivan's silence was less than reassuring. Keith could tell that the wheels were working in his head as he systematically went through options and possibilities. However, the fact that it wasn't an outright agreement chilled him to his very core.

"Kolivan, please." Shiro pleaded to the communications screen, "We need every bit of help we can get."

Kolivan's eyes drifted to Keith for a brief moment, standing next to Shiro in the mess of Voltron paladins that filled the Galran's own screen. Keith wasn't sure what those gears were shifting then. Was he too angry with Keith to help them? He might have gone against everything Kolivan had ordered when it came to Vartex, but Lance didn't have to pay for that. A small grimace threatened to overcome Keith's features, but it laxed when Kolivan finally spoke.

"We have precious few resources, Paladin." Kolivan gave a minute nod, "But we will do everything we can with what we are able to spare. We will find him."

"Thank you." Shiro's countenance eased visibly, "I knew we could count on the Blade of Marmora for help."

"Indeed. Voltron will always have an ally in us." Kolivan signed off with that.

When the screen cleared, Keith let out a deep breath he didn't even realize that he held. Apparently, there was still doubt lingering in Keith about Kolivan and his judgments. (Perhaps, even, vice versa.) Even so, he was glad that the Marmoran leader offered what help he could. They would need every bit to try and find where these attackers took Lance. And how.

Keith still couldn't believe that they just up and vanished before his own eyes. The edge of his blade cut nothing by air. He scanned his memory of the incident over and over, trying to find what options and windows of opportunity he had missed. Each time he concluded that it was his fault. If he hadn't told Lance they were over, he wouldn't have stormed off on his own. If he had just let Lance have the moment with him he wanted to share, despite the ache of pity-saving pretense, he would still be there. With him. Or at least he could have done better to stop them from taking him. It tore at Keith's innards like a rabid beast and he felt like all that was left were the shredded scraps of his conscience's carcass rotting in his stomach.

"You can't think of anything that might clue us in on who they might have been, Keith?" Matt digitally paged through some images of known bounty hunters that he downloaded from public domain servers as well as what the Rebels had in their databases. "None of these people look close?"

"No." The defeat in his voice was clear to everyone in the room.

Hunk placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. He smiled in soft reassurance when Keith looked over to him. "We'll find him." Keith nodded subtly.

"What's really upsetting to me…" Pidge continued to hack away relentlessly on her panel, "Is that his BLIP is completely undetectable."

"You're not saying that he's-" Allura was cut off before she could finish the thought, not that she wanted to.

"No. I mean, it's vanished. If he was, I would at least get some reading. A flatline. A function ping at minimum." Sister Holt explained. "But it's just… gone."

Keith's guilt-beast rumbled again at the notion Allura had brought forward. There was a dread that pricked at him in that split-second. A dread that would overcome him for the remainder of his days if it had been true. Lance had been stolen for little over two and a half hours by then. Three vargas, at most. They searched much of the square they had been working out of, asked locals if they had seen or known anything about the abductors with little success. Even those within the Rebellion were of little knowledge, though they did promise to keep their wits about should anything present itself. He swallowed thickly when Pidge denied the possibility, suppressing that monster within for a little while longer.

"You don't think that it could have been damaged somehow?" Coran had spoken up, playing the devil's advocate.

"That's possible." Pidge indulged the notion, "But it would have to have been one hell of a beating. I've implemented enough redundancies within everyone's suit that they would have to be utterly destroyed for the BLIP to not even send a simple signal return."

"Well, that's a relief." Coran thought a moment. "On a related note, you wouldn't happen to have one of those upgraded beauties laying around for me, ay?"

Pidge smiled, making a mental note.

Keith took in a deep breath, feeling it stutter as he sucked it into his lungs. He let it out, thinking only of the look on Lance's face as he tried to call out to him. If only. If only to have been faster. If only to have been closer. His knuckles we're bone white beneath the gloves on his hands. He clenched his fists so tight his nails nearly forced through leather. But Keith hardly noticed.

Cloaked and nondescript, but rather burly it seemed. They had to have had some strength to them. Lance struggled with nearly everything and neither grip on him slipped. He was out manned and out muscled from the very beginning. Faces were covered by dark fabric that matched the black of their outfits. It was possible they had been light-skinned - which narrowed their pool by only so much - but everything would have looked pale against blackness. But then the one that had knocked the consciousness right out of McClain did have skin that looked what could be compared to teal. It was lift enough that the tattoo was fairly obvious.

"Wait…" Keith murmured under his breath, brows knitting pensively tight.

Dark markings on his bare arm. He had shorter sleeves than the others. When he turned to look at Keith in his approach, he caught a glimpse of it. What did it look like? He closed his eyes, cleared his mind with a breath, and tried to clarify the picture in his memory. There were several symbols. The focal point was an infinity symbol. But pointed at either end. Upright, akin to teardrops with touching bellies and their tips at an opposite slant. In a clockwise direction from either end followed a group of four dots that began the form of a circle and, next, a stacked set of two lines that completed the round shape.

"Keith?" Hunk noticed the bothered expression pinched on his friend's face. He figured it might have been due to the certain connect Keith had with Lance and he wanted to reassure his dear friend with an understanding. But he didn't know how to communicate it discreetly in the midst of everyone else. "A-are you ok?"

"Hold on a second." there was a slight bite in the abruptness of his response. And Keith hadn't meant it harshly, but he didn't want to lose his concentration. He knew that symbol. Why did he know that symbol? It was right at the edge of his mind's eye. He could see the image, but he couldn't see the whole thing. Where was it from?

"Wait…" Pidge mumbled behind her console, "That. That can't be right."

"What's the matter, Pidge?" Matt scooted over, peeking curiously over her shoulder.

"It's Lance's BLIP signal." she answered and everyone else in the room focused on her, "It's incredibly weak, but it's back online."

"What's the problem?" A thick swallow stuck in Keith's throat as Shiro asked the question.

"It's… nearly five galaxies away."

"What?" Matt and Hunk both leaned in closer to get a clearer look at the screen.

"There's no way he could be that far away in such a short amount of time!" Hunk shook his head in disbelief.

"Even with the Teludav, it would still take at least twice as much time to make such a distance - and that's being generous!" Coran plotted the figures in the castleship's system, "To make a jump like that, the kind of energy it would demand would be incredible. Nevermind the kind of toll that would take on the system - or the princess for that matter!"

"That is quite a considerable distance…" Allura was clearly worried about making an attempt to jump that journey. It was clear there was a war within her between altruistically saving a friend and self-preservation.

"We would never ask you to do such a thing, Princess." Shiro soothed. "Coran, set the ship's heading and make sure to give it everything she's got. Allura, once we get to a distance close enough to make a jump without -"

"Without question!" she nodded solidly.

"Keith, we'll need-" Shiro turned to his protege and stopped when he saw the look on his face. "What is it, Keith?"

He remembered. He remembered exactly where he saw that symbol. The blinking marker on their destination elucidated every detail around it. A bleached-white wall of stone. Stone decorated with intricate carvings embellishing those familiar lines and curves at their center, only shadowed by the overgrowth of centuries of neglect and disuse.

"Pidge." Keith finally said after a deep breath, "Bring up the files from Vartex."

She wasted little time bringing it up for all to see.

"What are you looking for?"

"Just start clicking through. I'm looking for an image…"

Everyone one else in the room focused on the images that Pidge flashed, quickly isolating the files to pictures only. They stood in silence, wondering what it was Keith was in search of and how it was going to help.

"There."

It was an image of what looked to be a royal crest. The image of the symbol Keith sought was emblazoned on a shield. The focus of the picture was most obviously the crest, though, it was easy to tell that the piece was set against a grand stone wall, edges and seams of banners and flags clipped into the corners of the image. The princess took a step toward the projection with a distance in her eyes that few took note of. Something about the image called to her in an ethereally distance voice.

"What is it?" Hunk was the one to ask.

"One of the attackers." Keith studied the picture with fixed, unyielding eyes, "One of them had that tattooed on his arm. I only saw a flash of it for a second. But I know for damned sure that's it."

Keith looked to Shiro. "We have to go to Vartex. NOW."

The gravity of Keith's tone lit an urgency in everyone, figuring that Keith's personal experience on the planet had him privy to the true danger that Lance was in. Coran, having already righted the ship to its proper heading, initiated the main thrusters. Once the ship was in full motion, all engines ripped open and, like the flash of a star, they began their way to cut through the galaxies before them.

Hold on, Lance… We're coming.

I'm coming.

. . . . . . . . .

Lance hit the dirt on all fours and vomited.

It wasn't enough that his stomach was still throbbing from the hook to his gut earlier, but he could hear his captors chuckling at his misfortune. His vision was still blurred only finding his consciousness a mere few minutes prior. The pounding in his head was only dulled by the pain in his body and all of it panged in a fierce ache when he lurched again. He coughed out what was left in his throat and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

"Wow. He's got the constitution of a kaegen-ro." Lance could hear the amusement laced in the deep gravel of a voice. There was a snickering response.

Lance wanted to get up. He wanted to make a break for it. He knew he could cover a good amount of distance. He had the legs for it. He might not have been as fast as Keith, but he was still pretty spry. Plus, judging from the size of his attackers, they would be too burly to keep pace with him for too long. He wanted with everything he had left in him. But he was too dizzy and too nauseated to even see straight. Any effort he made would have been laughable - and he had enough of that from them as it was.

"Get him up." Lance watched a pair of feet scrap passed him, "Haie Ghessa will have quite a few questions for this one."

McClain felt the same unkind hands clasp around his arms again and he was lifted to his feet as though he weighed little more than air. He attempted to make an effort in walking on his own, but for the most part, he was dragged along. But then his sight had focused a bit more and he managed to get a glance around him.

He knew this place.

They were walking down the docking bay of an abandoned ship port. It was Vartex. Oh, this was bad news. Lance could tell that much without having to wonder what kind of questions they had 'in store' for him. This past week he spent still trying to figure out what the last Vartesian did to him. Now that there were more, he wasn't too excited about what they probably had planned.

They moved within the terminal but took halls and passages that Keith and he never glanced twice at. Nothing he saw after his eyes finally adjusted were at all familiar. The only thing he recognized was the same halo of green that followed down every wall. The only sound around them was the hollow echoes of boots down the halls. They traveled in silence. None of the three towering figures - each of them at the very least a head taller than Lance - spoke much of a word to each other, let alone to him. That was hardly Lance's style, but, he just didn't have it in him to bring forward any semblance of a word.

He no longer felt nauseated, which he was glad for. It seemed once he had puked up every bit of lunch he had, he was perfectly fine. His head still throbbed like a anvil that had a blacksmith giving it a hard beating and didn't know when to quit. He had the ringing in his ears to match. But mostly, he felt completely void of energy. He had no drive. No force of will. No fight. He only ever felt that way one other time. That time he had a giant hand wrapped around his throat that wasn't much different from the ones that currently had him at either bicep.

They spent an uncomfortable amount of time in an elevator. The one that Lance had figured was the leader of this rag-tag group stood right in front of him, so he couldn't even see just how far down they went. When they stepped out of the lift, the halls looked exactly the same. It was like the place was designed to confuse anyone that didn't know their way around. Doors were spaced exactly the same and placed in exactly the same way. There were no signs, or information of any sort. Without a map on hand, it was a labyrinth. If he managed to contact anyone - whoever could hear him from a supposedly 'abandoned' planet several thousands of light years away, (yes, he actually paid attention when Coran rattled things like that off once in a while,) - he would never be able to actually tell them where he was. Or remember where he had been if he broke loose with what Keith was probably looking for.

Suddenly, Lance heard a door open and the door of muscle in front of him stepped aside.

Heh. Figures.

It was a bare room. Nothing in it aside from a single chair. That, and a fourth person of their ilk. They stood just to the side of the seat, arms crossed and in a lax stance, all their weight to one side of their hip.

"Took long enough." It was a female.

"You try five galaxies some time." The one to his right snuffed as they moved him into the room.

Her response was silence as they dropped Lance into the chair and secured his arms behind the backrest. They moved back to the door as they first stood waiting. Once they exited, he turned to speak to the woman.

"Try not to kill him too quickly."

"Yes. Thank you, yes." Ah, McClain seemed to have found a little bit of his pep again, "I prefer you to take as long as possible in starting that process."

"It might have been a while since I've done this," she eyed Lance, "But don't confuse that for being rusty, Halvok."

The one called Halvok snorted in contempt before moving to shut the door behind him.

"So tell me, small one." That stung his pride a little, "Where is the one that was with you before?"

It was Keith. They were after Keith. But how was it they were able to find him and not Keith? Especially since Keith was right next to him. They didn't know what he looked like. He was just as covered as they were when he came. He made sure that nothing tied him to Marmora or Voltron. They couldn't be sure who he was when they took him in that town. It could have been anyone of the people in that town.

"You'll have to be more specific." Lance shrugged. "I've got lots of friends."

The outer corners of his interrogator's eyes crinkled slightly. She had smiled behind her mask.

"Very well." She stepped closer and leaned in, looking at Lance face-to-face, "The last time you were here. When you broke into the facility. Who was with you? And what did you take?"

There was no aggression in her tone. It was even and benign. She asked. But she made sure to let Lance know that she expected answers. He was keen to give them to her. They just weren't going to be the ones that she wanted.

"I was here looking for Destiny." Lance answered with a sigh, "But I didn't take anything. However, I'd be willing to take you out for a bit of stargazing later, if you'd like." His brows waggled a bit as he gave her that confident Lance McClain smirk and she gave a soft laugh, standing upright again.

"I always did like it better when they played along."

The sound of her palm striking against Lance's cheek filled the room in a sharp echo.

. . . . . . . . .

The Teludav powered down and the Castle of Lions slipped out of the wormhole. They had made certain to exit to a point that the Galra ship was not able to detect their entry, their distance safe and their view obscured by the planet.

"Alright. We don't have any time to waste." Shiro's voice warned in each headset. "Keep your profiles low and stick close to Keith."

"There's a dense wooded area near the city where the Lions and my ship can tuck away in." Keith added.

The docks of the castleship opened and four lions chased after a small shuttle that made for the surface of Vartex. While the lions managed to keep up well enough, Keith felt that the ship had grown disapprovingly heavy in the gravity of the planet. It just wouldn't move as fast as Keith had wanted it to. There was no reaching Lance fast enough. Who knows what they had done to him. The only relief that Keith could feel was that thin line on his reads that beat to the rhythm of Lance's pulse last they saw in the ship. These inhabitants hardly wasted a second on Keith when they had a hold of him. He didn't know why, but he was glad they didn't have the same sense of urgency to be rid of McClain. He feared what that could have possibly meant otherwise, and every second it took to cover ground was three seconds too long.

Once they reached the city Keith had found before, and double-checking triangulations between that and the Galra ship, they all grounded their vehicles before piling into Green Lion. With her stealth, they were able to bypass the city entirely and make for the plateau. Pidge circled overhead quietly, and every set of eyes were on the lookout for movement. It was quiet. Just as ghostly looking as it had lied about for the first visit Keith had made. Satisfied, Green Lion perched at the end of the run, near the cliff Keith was all-too-familiar with, and they all made for the building, weapons drawn and at the ready.

"I downloaded the floorplan of this place from the intel that Keith had found initially." Pidge spoke softly as they stepped inside, Keith opening the door with no more trouble than before, "But when I tried to access file and initiate schematic, the file corrupted."

"It's too old to work with the new tech…" Matt mused from behind her.

"So what you're saying is you need a new map." Keith sighed heavy, but quiet. "It's this way. Keep your eyes and ears open. That was where we got jumped last time."

Keith felt eerily disturbed at how quiet and simple this was. Just as it had been the first go. He couldn't understand how these people were able to sneak up on him - twice - and when he wasn't alone. Their steps were soft, but their movements seemed to be the only thing echoing off the walls. Things felt too easy.

Just then he heard footsteps as they turned a corner down the last corridor to the control room. He signed for everyone to stop and huddle down. As they did so, he slipped to the end of the wall and carefully snuck a glance. The broad back of a cloaked figure walking away from him and ducked into the door he knew was the control room.

"Shit." Keith muttered under his breath before turning back to the group. "Someone just walked into the control room."

"Everyone get ready. There's no telling how many of them are in there." Shiro moved up ahead to take the lead. He glanced around the corner to double check the clear. "Matt, Hunk. Keep eyes on the rear."

The two of them nodded and the group quietly moved for the doorway. Hunk, Keith and Allura made a quickstep for the other side of the opening. When they all took a look into the room, they found only one solitary sentry within. He stood behind the panel that Keith recalled the last encounter they had in there ended. If it was only one of them, it was possible they could take him down like before with two.

Keith looked over to Shiro and began mouthing to him. You and me.

Shiro nodded and stood ready. Keith took in a deep breath, beginning a mental countdown and with a glance at Shiro they blew into the room like a silent gust of wind. Keith slipped low with a sweep of his leg and knocked the man backward off his feet. At the same time, Shiro had gone high and slammed a mechanical elbow into his nose, hastening the momentum of his fall. If that hadn't been enough, Shiro's natural hand palmed the man's face and forced his head down faster. The Vartesian hit the ground with a hard thud before he could even realize what it was that happened. He was out cold in just a few seconds.

Much to their great relief, there wasn't another soul in the room. Quickly the rest moved in. Keith, Hunk, and Matt worked at getting the poor watchmen out of the way. Hopefully, once stuffing him into one of the empty rooms, he would be out of their hair for a good while if he were to wake up. The Galra pad flashed to life when Keith pressed his palm to it and the door opened. The other two dragged him into the center of it and left. Once they were out, Keith closed the door and stuck the business end of his dagger into the panel. He hoped that would be enough. When they returned, Pidge was already plugged into the panel and working on the file extraction.

"Ngh…" She groaned, "This is no good. These interfaces are just much too different. It keeps corrupting every time I try to access it."

"Just use the console here and reference Lance's signal from your panel remotely." Matt suggested.

"Hey! That's a great idea!" Hunk beamed, "Just run both at the same time and remote project them together!" He paused and frowned, "But wait… That would mean you would be stuck to the console."

"I just might have to be, Hunk." Pidge sighed as she started the process to do so.

"Don't worry. I'll stay here and watch her back." Matt rested his hand on Hunk's shoulder reassuringly.

"Alright, Pidge." Shiro nodded to Matt. "Be our eyes for us."

"All I can give you is a path to Lance's signal. I can't tell you anything else, so make sure you be careful in there. No telling how many more of those guys are wandering around the halls. I sure as hell can't."

The remaining paladins nodded, battle ready and eager to retrieve their companion. They moved back out into the hall. Keith, again dressed in his dark armor and hood, lifted it over his head before he followed behind.

"Keith."

He turned to Pidge.

"Bring him home safe."

His brows furrowed before he made a brisk nod, "I have every intention to."

. . . . . . . . .

Slow, thoughtful fingers slipped into dark milky chocolate strands of hair. She was surprised at how soft it was. She actually really liked it. But that was enough distraction for the moment. Suddenly, the clenched a good handful and pulled, drawing his face up to see.

"Is it really worth all of this?" she asked evenly, "You've got to be tired of it already. You don't have to keep swallowing this pain anymore if you just give it up, already."

Lance was nearly unrecognizable. His face and even his pants were covered in his own once-warm, dark blood - not that one could really make out just how much against the black fabric. Even the front of his paladin armor was beginning to adopt a rusty tinge of bloody trails and spots. This chick had to have been at this for hours now. Trying every way she could think to get him to crack open and give her what she wanted. Still, he refused. He asked for his black eye. He earned his busted lip, his torn brow, his swollen cheek, his probably-busted nose. He was sure there was a bit of bruising in his ribs too because it hurt every time he inhaled, causing his breath to shorten.

Swallowing the pain? He had to laugh at that. He went numb a long time ago. It was barely more than discomfort at this point. He was too tired to hurt anymore. She could keep going if she really wanted to. All Lance wanted was a nap. Tired. He just felt so tired and every time he would get a chance to let himself drift just a little, she would pull him back to consciousness. Just like now, forcing his eyes to open at her voice and focus. That only made the pressure in his head throb more.

But he could keep going forever. He was resolved. He had purpose to. He had Keith in his heart. Knowing that they couldn't get to him without Lance giving him to them made all of this worth it. So the answer to her question was 'yes, Keith was worth it.' In the quiet moments she thought that he was suffering and having to catch his breath, he could hear him. He could see him. He could feel that moment they had together fill him and feed him. Keith's smile. Keith's touch. Even the copper scent of blood couldn't wash away the memory of how Keith's skin tasted. As long as there was breath in him, Keith would never be found.

"Eat… Shit…" He had little left to say anymore.

She let go of his hair, letting her fingers trace down the line of his face until they rested under his chin, tsking. He watched her cock her head to one side through a swollen eyelid and the other clenched shut to keep out the blood. She reached for him with the other hand. To his right shoulder. Where his shirt of his suit was sliced, and his sleeve was ripped slightly. Specifically, over the muscle between his ball joint and chest. That small bit of thick meat that was not quite protected by his chest piece or pauldron, where a blade set itself. It could have been described similarly to a throwing knife, small and streamlined, but it was used for no such thing. Both of his eyes clamped down tightly when he realized she went for it, his teeth clenched, and his jaw locked in anticipation.

She grabbed it gently between her forefinger and thumb and he screamed through caged teeth until he couldn't keep them closed any longer. It burned like fire. It shocked like electricity. It felt like something alive clawing and tearing into him through that blade and he could feel it branching out from there into the rest of his body. Everything burned, every pain that was dulled flared again. It surged through him like a wildfire, like a raging electrical storm, like a dammed lava flow that no longer held. It overtook him until he couldn't take it anymore. Everything went black and Lance passed out.

She sighed to herself, "As entertaining as this has been, I don't think we have any reason to continue any further." The Vartesian pulled a long dagger from her belt and rested the menacing end of its fang just against the front of his shirt at the very center of McClain's chest. "Thanks to you, I'll be getting called 'rusty' for tarzeks now."

. . . . . . . . .

"You're almost there. Just two rights and it's the third door to your left."

Keith wanted desperately to ask Pidge if Lance was still alright. But the basic dumb-down of information she had to do in order to work with both generations of tech, all she could see was his location signal. No vitals. Please, Lance, I'm almost there. Keith turned the corner in a dead run, distracted by his worry, and nearly ran into the second Vartesian in the complex.

"Shit!" he hissed, managing to drop to the floor and slide between his broad legs.

"What the-!" the guard was surprised enough by the flash of quick movement, he jumped in reaction to Keith's slide. When he looked up again he only saw Shiro's glowing fist for a second. The punch connected and sent him tumbling into a wall. He managed to catch himself against it, but not quickly enough to avoid Hunk putting him in a choke hold.

"Keep going! We'll make sure this one stays out of the say." Allura urged Shiro and Keith.

As they turned to leave, Keith saw the guard go limp in Hunk's arms. He would be out for at least a few minutes. Long enough to find Lance and start out of here, Keith thought. He could see it. He could see the door. But before he could say anything to Shiro he dove and rolled away from the swing of what was probably an axe. He turned and skidded to a stop just in time to see Shiro kick off the wall and ram a shoulder into the attacker separating him from his weapon and shoving them both down the hall he came from.

"GO!" he heard Shiro's voice before a mess of grunts and slams. He didn't need to be told twice.

Keith made for the door, his hand finding the panel even before his feet stood at the door. His heart raced from adrenaline, from anxiety, it beat quickly in anticipation of seeing the look on Lance's face when he bust through the door. His chest rose and fell with deep, heavy breaths, doing very little to calm the quick course of blood. But when the door opened, and he saw what stood before him, his breath stopped completely. Lance's head hung limp over his bloodied chest where the edge of a blade poised to sink. No.

"NO!" He yelled, pulling a knife from his waist.

The interrogator turned at the scream, surprised at the interruption. Keith threw it with everything he had in him, blind in rage and panic. The knife flew so fast she didn't even see it until it sank into the left side of her abdomen with a thick, wet thump. She dropped the dagger at her feet, looking down at this foreign protrusion in her body, stumbling backward as her mind tried to make sense of the sudden rush of pain. Shock overcame her and she dropped back against the far wall, falling to the ground.

Keith couldn't have cared less, his focus on Lance and the fact that he didn't budge a muscle. He ran to him, sliding down to his knees in front of the chair.

"Lance…" he called softly at first.

He saw McClain's face, beaten, bruised and swollen. Blood soaked everywhere. And the blade in his shoulder tucked neatly in that articulating space between armor. Keith looked at it and then at Lance. He looked at it again before reaching and yanking it out in a single smoot pull. Nothing. Lance didn't even wince. Keith opened his mouth to call to him again, but the only thing to come out was a sob. His eyes started to burn as tears began to well in his eyes. Was he too late? He should have been there sooner.

"Lance." his voice was hardly a whisper and cracked at what letters he managed to sound. He reached for his face, wanting him to open his eyes and see him with a smile. Tears fell when he won nothing of the sort.

"Lance, talk to me." He noticed his arms still strapped to the chair and moved quick to cut him loose with the tool in his hand.

He was quick to catch him as his weight fell forward and slowly eased him down to the floor, casting the blade aside. It panged aahollow glassy sound as it hit the floor and scraped across the empty room. He held Lance close and gave a heartbroken laugh, pulling back the hood on his head.

"Figures you would miss this a second time, huh?" Keith's face contorted in anguish. He couldn't even feel him breathing. "Lance, please. Just open your eyes and look at me."

This was his fault. All of this was his fault. He should have listened to Kolivan from the very beginning. If he had, Lance would have never ended up on Vartex and he would never had been brought back. Keith did this. It was because of him that he could possibly never see Lance smile again. He might never hear him laugh or tease him. He would never hear any more of those stupid pickup lines or corny jokes. Keith would never see Lance look at him the way he had the night prior. He would never feel that touch again. He would never feel safe in his arms, never taste another kiss, or feel his breath against his skin again.

"Lance, god damn it…" His face had grown hot with tears flowing as openly as his sobs. He clutched McClain close, burying his face in the crook of his neck as McClain's head hung back. "Don't fucking leave me like this."

He heard a clamor at the door but didn't care who or what it was.

"Oh my god…" It was Allura's voice.

"Lance?!" Hunk followed after.

The three other paladins stepped into the room, surprise and distress over Lance's broken form washing over them the closer they came. Before anything else could be uttered between them, they were surrounded by a great number of Vartesians. Out of nowhere, in a swarm of light, they filled the room and encircled them all. There was no possibility, with the kind of strength they seemed to have, for them to fight them all and make it out. Each of them was armed and ready to strike any of them that moved.

"You're really starting to become an actual headache, kid." Keith recognized the gravelly voice as the very first Vartesian that chucked him over the cliff side, "I'm getting real sick of that control room thanks to you."