Chapter Text
Keith and Hunk ran down another endless corridor. Single shots from Hunk’s bayard blasted the few Galran drones they passed out of the way, and they never halted in their desperate sprint.
Pidge and Shiro were in their lions serving as an explosive distraction at the other end of the ship with Allura and Coran providing backup from the Castle, but they were seriously outgunned in this attack. It was meant to be a quick in and out mission, not the time to properly engage the enemy.
“Take a left up ahead, and he should be in the room at the end of that corridor!” Coran’s voice directed them through their helmets.
Keith put on an extra burst of speed, now that their target was finally so close after so long. He ducked past two sentry drones as he rounded the corner, trusting Hunk at his back to take them down as he rushed at the final obstacle, whirling his bayard sword to take out the remaining set of sentries guarding the door.
Time seemed to slow for Keith and the sound of his own desperate breaths and rapid heartbeat filled his ears as the robots hit the floor. The last month of frantic searching had finally come to an end.
Just one last door and they would have Lance back.
He jumped, brought back to the present when Hunk blasted the lock off the door, and quickly followed him through into the dank cell.
It was empty but for a haggard figure curled up against the far wall. His legs were drawn up to his chest but his arms dangled in chains, suspended above his head and stretched out to each side in a loose V-shape, useless. His clothes were tattered and filthy, his skin a shade darker with a thick coating of grime.
He did not move as they clattered through the door.
“Lance?!” Hunk let out the breath he had been holding and rushed to his friend’s side. “Holy quiznak, oh my God we found you!”
Keith held back at the door. The quiet stillness of the room was unsettling and suddenly he couldn’t bring himself to move closer, to see what had been done to Lance any clearer. The Blue paladin was too still, too small, too quiet. Keith’s guilt churned heavily in his gut. He should really keep a look out at the door, he thought. This rescue was going way too smoothly so far, and Hunk could look after Lance better than he could anyway, he had this. They would also need to find the keys to those chains…
He turned back like a coward and started searching the drones they had taken down.
Hunk rambled as he found Lance’s pulse and checked him over for injury, “Don’t worry buddy, we’re getting you out of here, everything’s gonna be fine ok? Ok. Come on look at me now, let me know you’re ok yeah? It’s me Hunk, and Keith’s here too, come on buddy…”
Finding nothing obviously wrong he gently patted Lance’s cheek, trying to rouse him.
“Come on now Lance, you gotta wake up, we’re getting you out” he said.
Lance’s eyelids fluttered and his head lolled towards Hunk. He started muttering something too low for Hunk to hear.
“Lance? What? You gotta speak up man, come on wake up, you’re gonna be ok now, talk to me...”
“I said, shut up.” Lance whispered turning his head back and hunching his shoulders. He looked like he was trying to curl up as small as he could but his arms were still stretched apart over his head by the chains. “I’m not falling for this again, not this time. You’re not real…”
“Wait, what? Of course I’m real!” Hunk grabbed Lance’s arm. “I’m here now, we’re both here.” He looked back to the door to Keith for support. “Keith’s here, and I’m here and I know we took a long time and I’m so, so sorry Lance, but please man, we’re here now, we’re getting you out. Come on Lance...”
The longer Hunk rambled the more tense Lance seemed to get, curling into himself. His face scrunched up as though he was trying to block out everything around him.
“Stopitstopitstopitstopit,Notrealnotrealnotrealnotreal..” Lance panted out his mantra quietly and kept ignoring Hunk.
“Keith?!”
From outside the cell, Keith heard the desperation in Hunk’s voice and abandoned his search, steeling himself for what he might find as he ran back in.
He stopped behind the bigger paladin, not sure what was wrong or what to do, before he heard Lance’s frantic muttering.
“I don’t think he’s hurt too bad but he’s freaking out, he doesn’t think we’re real.” Hunk looked totally lost as he stared helplessly down at his friend. “He won’t believe anything I say, Keith what do we do?”
And Keith didn’t know.
He’d stuffed his pockets full of bandages as they’d left the Castle in what was retrospectively a pathetic attempt to feel more prepared for the awful conditions they might find Lance in. But he was not prepared for this, bandages couldn’t heal his mind…
Well, at least he isn’t dead, his own mind chipped in helpfully. A small comfort but it certainly could have been worse?...
No, damn it this was all his fault.
Keith swallowed down his rising anxiety and finally reached out to Lance.
“Lance? Uh.. It’s Keith?... Look I don’t know what you think is going on, but I promise you, we’re really here now and we’re getting you out” he said.
Lance quieted and Hunk shot a hopeful smile at Keith before Lance’s head tilted up and they got their first good look at him. The smiles froze on their faces.
Lance looked wrecked.
Dark bags nearly swallowed his eyes and his cheekbones jutted out through tight, waxy skin. His usually flawless complexion was mottled and something which looked like dried blood crusted his hairline and had dribbled down the sides of his face though there was no visible wound. He was clearly exhausted, his eyes were frighteningly blank and his pupils were blown wide. Despite this, he managed to spit defiantly at them through cracked lips “I know you’re not real. Guess the last dose wasn’t high enough because I know this time. I know you’re not them, you’ve never been them and I won’t believe it again.”
He rolled his head against the wall so he was looking up to the ceiling before shouting with false bravado “You hear that?! I KNOW THEY’RE NOT REAL! I’M NOT FALLING FOR IT SO JUST COME ON IN AND LET’S KILL THEM ALREAD—!”
The sound of a huge explosion cut him off as it echoed down the halls and the ship rumbled beneath their feet.
Pidge’s strained voice suddenly piped up from their helmets “Ugh, guys? I don’t know how much longer we can distract these guys without accidently blowing up the whole damn ship with you in it! You gotta hurry up and get out of there, have you found Lance yet?”
Hunk stared forlornly down at Lance as his eyes closed and he started his mantra again, whispered like a prayer “they’renotrealnotrealnotrealnotreal…”.
“Uhh… We’ve almost got him, just a little hiccup, but we’re working on it…” Hunk said.
“What’s happened, is he ok? Do you need back up?” That was Shiro. He sounded tense and Keith could hear the heavy fire he was under in the background. They had to wrap this up fast.
“We’re ok Shiro, just… confused, but don’t worry we’ll get him out” Keith said. He stood up and activated his bayard. They didn’t have time to find keys now, he’d just have to cut through the chains and they’d figure out how to remove the manacles back at the Castle.
But when he stepped over to Lance’s right arm he had to stop as Lance flinched away. His whole body jerked and pushed back against the wall as he tried to move away from Keith. His arm stretched where it was held by the manacle around his wrist, now cutting into the meat of his hand as he wriggled it desperately and strained against the chains. His breathing sped up and his panic and fear shone through his eyes as he stared up at Keith and his bayard.
“Oh ok this again, that’s ok we can do this,” Lance started rambling. “I know it’s not Keith this time though notKeithnotKeithnotKeith-“ his eyes shut tight and he was clearly talking just to himself now. “notKeithnotKeith, hooooo boy ok, this won’t be fun, that thing is sharp… ok, ok come on then let’s do this notKeith, Keith’s already dead you killed him, he’s dead, now you can handle his stupid sword –FAKEsword it’s not even Keith, notKeith, fake-sword, notKeith, FAKEsword—“ he was practically hyperventilating by the end of this weird pep talk and Keith didn’t know what to do.
“Lance it’s me, it’s Keith, I’m not dead, and I’m not going to hurt you but I’ve got to cut you down, we don’t have much time, we’ve got to get out of here.” He looked to Hunk for help but he looked just as helpless as Keith felt.
They didn’t have time for this.
Keith tried to stay as far from Lance as he could as he started using his bayard to hack at the end of the chain furthest from his wrist. Hunk was trying to talk Lance down from his panic, keeping his voice low and calm.
It must have taken no more than ten seconds but to Keith it felt like hours before the chain gave way and Lance’s arm dropped heavily to smack against the floor. There was a moment of silence as they all stared at the limp arm before Lance unfroze. He didn’t look up but his voice was desperately hopeful as he whispered “K-Keith?..”
“Yeah Lance, I’m right here. God, I’m-I’m so sorry Lance. But we’re here now and we’re getting you out. You’re a little confused but we’re real this time I promise you. Just let me free your other arm and we’ll get you back to the Castle.”
“Keith. But… no… you shouldn’t be here… you-you can’t be here… I k-killed you… so you can’t… unless- when did they get you out?! ‘Cause they killed Shiro every time, s-so how did you escape?!” Lance finally met his eyes and Keith noticed again the way his pupils were fixed and dilated.
“We just got here Lance, me and Hunk, look we’re both fine” he tried.
Hunk squatted down again next to Lance and tapped his leg, trying to get the Blue paladin to look at him. “Lance buddy, you gotta calm down, everything’s going to be ok, ok?”
“No….” Lance moaned “no, no you don’t understand….” He finally looked at Hunk and this time it seemed he really saw him. “H-Hunk?” His eyes swam with unshed tears.
“Yeah Lance, it’s really me buddy.”
Something dark clouded behind Lance’s eyes and his voice dropped to a whisper “But Hunk… I-I killed you too… S-So many times, oh my God, Hunk please, I’m so sorry-“ his tears spilled over and any progress they thought they’d made was lost. “Hunk run, please, you can’t be here, don’t get caught again— where’s Pidge?! Don’t let them get her, don’t make me choose again dude, I can’t— Hunk you can’t trust me, please I’m so sorry—“
Keith stepped carefully around to Lance’s left side and cut through the second chain while Lance was distracted. Lance froze again when his left arm flopped down next to him, staring at it like it belonged to someone else.
“Come on Lance, think you can walk?” Keith crouched ready to take Lance’s left side and help him up as Hunk moved to his right. Lance turned his wide-eyed stare to him and shook his head desperately.
“No, Keith you don’t understand, I’ll kill you all, just like last time.”
“Last time? Lance this is the only time we’ve ever been here, trust me. Please, we need to get moving, we don’t have much time.” Keith hauled Lance’s arm over his shoulder and moved in close to him, throwing an arm around his waist as Hunk mirrored his position on the right side. “We’re going to help you stand up now Lance, we’ve seriously got to move.” They stood slowly, dragging Lance upright between them muttering furiously. He struggled weakly and refused to get his feet under him, trying to make himself as heavy and difficult to move as possible. His breathing became ragged again, hitching over barely controlled sobs.
“P-Please Keith, I can’t do this again, please don’t make me do this again…”
Keith felt his heart breaking even as he steeled it against Lance’s pleas. He met Hunk’s eyes and nodded toward the door.
“We don’t have time, we can drag him if we have to but Hunk we’ve got to go now.”
As if to make his point another booming explosion rocked the ship as they took a stumbling step towards the exit. Lance dug his heels in and flailed his arms in one last desperate effort to shake them off. It was pathetically easy for them to just tighten their grips and continue forward despite Lance’s weak struggles and he threw his head back in denial and screamed again at the ceiling.
“It’s not real-- IT’S NOT REAL! PLEASE! I DON’T BELIEVE THEM, I’M NOT ESCAPING, I’M NOT TRYING TO ESCAPE!”
Hunk was keeping up a soothing stream of nonsense, trying to hush Lance and calm him down but every slow step they took closer to freedom made Lance more and more hysterical until they reached the threshold of his cell and the final step through the doorway seemed to break something in Lance. He slumped like a puppet with its strings cut, the fight gone out of him, just a dead weight dragging between the two paladins.
Hunk ducked his head a little to check if he had passed out. (He was kind of hoping that he had).
But when he saw Lance’s face he understood.
Lance had stopped struggling, sure. Resigned himself to whatever new torment he thought they were dragging him towards perhaps, but his eyes were scrunched up tight and his lips moved frantically, muttering words Hunk couldn’t quite make out under his breath. He was resisting the only way he could, protecting himself by cutting off as much sensory input as possible and trying to shut it all out. It broke Hunk’s heart to see his friend, usually so loud and carefree, reduced to this fearful quiet. Lance had always controlled what he allowed others to see of his emotions, hiding his insecurities behind a solid mask of flashy confidence, but there was no trace of that now. There was no barrier protecting Hunk from the raw fear and pain radiating off his friend and it was so wrong to be able to read Lance so easily.
As they fled back through the labyrinth of corridors, Hunk felt the slow burn of his protective rage boil up within him. Once Lance was safe, he vowed, once they got him healed, Hunk was going to rain fire down upon the Galran Empire with all the burning wrath of Hell itself.
Zarkon would pay for this.
Hunk would see to it personally.
When they finally dragged Lance into the stealth pod they had arrived in Keith updated the others through the comms and called for the Infirmary to be ready when they got back.
“How bad is it Keith?” Shiro’s voice was tight and unhappy.
Keith paused in his take-off procedures to glance quickly back at where Hunk was crouched next to Lance in the chair they’d dropped him in, still fruitlessly trying to bring him back to reality. His frantic mantra was finally audible in the quiet of the pod and Keith felt his guilt surge up his throat again to choke him.
His voice cracked as he said “I think we took too long Shiro. He’s really messed up, I mean… really messed up, and it’s… his mind, he- he thinks we’re all dead, he can’t tell what’s real anymore,” he took a deep breath, “Shiro, he doesn’t believe that we’re real.”