Chapter Text
When Lance awoke, he was being carried through an impressive building with a ceiling that towered over him. The reptilian alien still held him firmly. Two rows of armed dinosaur aliens followed behind them. Lance tried to arch his back to look around, but doing so caused an instant wave of nausea. Lance swallowed thickly and quickly returned to his original position, but as one would imagine being hung upside down didn’t do much to help his nausea either.
Lance’s discomfort didn’t last long though, and they walked through grand white double doors. From the looks of the room and the doors, Lance didn’t need to see the rest of it to know it was a throne room.
Shit.
“I see you were successful,” a female voice said. Without any warning, Lance was throne rather roughly to the ground, earning stinging pain in his shoulder. He grimaced and quickly shifted off the shoulder. When he looked up, he saw another dinosaur alien sitting on an elevated gilded throne. She wore elaborate purple and gold robes, with a bejeweled headdress that clearly marked her as the queen. Glittering rings adorned her fingers, toes, and tail. She sat tall in throne, though standing side by side she may have only came up to Lance’s ribs.
The mercenaries that had captured Lance knelt behind him.
“Queen Kaipra, we have brought the Blue Paladin as requested. Now it is time for you to hold up your end of the deal,” the blue female alien said.
The queen nodded. “Very well.” She motioned and a servant stepped forward, dragging a large bag. The humanoid otter rose and inspected the contents of the bag. He gave a nod to the blue female alien.
“Pleasure doing business with you,” the blue female alien said. And with that, the mercenaries stood and left, leaving Lance alone.
“Now the next phase of my plan can begin,” the queen mused.
“It won’t work,” Lance said.
The queen stared down at him with narrowed eyes.
“I know you intend to use me as a bargaining chip, but I’ll tell you right now it won’t work. They don’t care about me,” Lance pointed out. He said it in hopes to dissuade the queen, but the truth behind his words hurt. Would they even care? They didn’t care enough to call to check in on him. Had they even been alerted that he was missing?
“We’ll see about that,” the queen sneered. “Guards, prepare our guest for the next conference.”
“Wai—” Before Lance could protest any further, one of the guards slapped some sort of tape over his mouth. Lance gulped and realized what she meant as the guards began to drag him away. His heart dropped to his stomach and he thought about struggling, but it would do no good. Lance braced himself for what was to come.
After the guards left Lance’s cell, Lance contemplated how bad it would be if he could just die right then and there. Everything hurt—not an inch of him was spared from the beating he took. It wasn’t the first time his body had hurt this bad—he can think of a bicycle accident from his youth that landed him a few days in the hospital that hurt pretty bad. Not to mention the explosion he shielded Coran from or other injuries he accumulated in space, but not be able to defend himself and just having to lay there and take it was a whole other kind of hurt.
Lance’s pride took a beating too, leaving a hollow feeling in him that was filled up by shame. Even when he tried to stay out of the way he still messed everything up. Whatever was going on between these aliens and the Atlas alliance was about to be mucked up because of him. A part of him wondered if they would even do anything. He used to be certain they would do anything—they all were that was about each other—but now…Lance wasn’t so sure.
Lance’s thoughts were interrupted by a growl from his stomach. Oh, that’s right. I haven’t eaten. In…I don’t know how long. Lance continued to sulk for quite some time, with only his thoughts and his empty stomach to provide him company.
He wasn’t sure how long he sat in that cell, but at some point he must have dozed off because he was awakened when some guards came to collect him. Sleeping didn’t help any with the pain though—in fact it probably made it worse from laying in one position for so long. Lance tried to hold in the tiny gasps of pain as the guards collected him and drug him along. His heart sank when he realized they were headed.
Back to the throne room. Great. Lance’s suspicions were confirmed when they approached the familiar grand double doors. When they entered, the queen was still sitting on her throne, gazing down at him with disinterest, as if he were nothing more than an object instead of an actual living breathing person.
“Excellent,” the queen said. “Contact Atlas. Perhaps now they will be more willing to negotiate with us,” the queen ordered. Lance’s eyes widened when he realized his suspicions were confirmed. The realization only made his heart sank; he was going to be used as a bargaining chip.
“Right away Your Majesty,” a servant replied. The servant turned and pressed something. A tile on the floor slid away, revealing an opening from which a pedestal rose out from the floor. Sitting on top of the pedestal was an egg-shaped crystal that glowed when activated. A large holoscreen appeared from the egg and a beeping sound ensued as they waited for someone on the Atlas to answer. Finally an image popped up on the screen. Lance’s heart sank even further when he saw who it was.
“Queen Kaipra, I hope you have taken the time to think over our negotiations,” Shiro announced.
“I have,” the queen replied coolly. “In fact, I have a counteroffer that you will be very interested in.”
“Oh? Is that so?” Shiro said.
“Yes.” The queen nodded and Lance realized he was being dragged into view. He tried to fight against them, but a swift kick to the side had him going limp. The guards threw Lance unceremoniously to the ground in front of the queen’s throne. Lance groaned from the impact and the pain it brought, but it was quickly replaced by the shame that suddenly burned through him. He wanted nothing more than to curl up into a ball and sink into the floor. He kept his eyes shut, not wanting to see the look on Shiro’s face. The queen continued, “as you can see, we have someone I think you know very well.”
“I see. I suppose this…changes things,” Shiro said. Lance wasn’t sure what hurt worse, the fact that he had been captured and was being used as a bargaining chip, or Shiro’s seemingly indifferent demeanor, like Lance was an inconvenience but not a major concern.
God, he really was useless. Even remaining on Earth and staying out the way, he still managed to screw everything up for everyone else. I can’t believe this happened. I really am a liability to everyone. No wonder no one wants to talk to me anymore. I’m so useless, Lance thought miserably.
The queen and Shiro continued to negotiate, but Lance was too far gone in his head to hear anything that was said. It wasn’t until a pair of guards came over to retrieve Lance that some awareness came back to Lance, and with it the shame and guilt.
“I hope you consider our offer,” the queen reiterated, “otherwise…” Lance snapped fully back to the present as burning pain erupted when one of the guards sliced a knife across his upper arm, near his shoulder. Lance couldn’t help the strangled cry that came out; he was already in a lot of pain to begin with. Before anything else could be said, Lance was dragged out of the throne room and returned to his cell. Part of Lance wanted to know what the queen and Shiro were saying, but a larger part of him was afraid of what the exchange would entail.
When they arrived back at Lance’s cell, there was small female doctor waiting for him. The guards sat him on the floor and held him still so the doctor could work. She knelt next to him ripped the rest of his sleeve off to examine the wound on his arm. Lance refused to look at her and kept his eyes firmly on the ground, retreating back into his head. He hissed she pressed some antiseptic into the cut, applying pressure as well. At least the cut wasn’t deep, but it was still bleeding pretty good, staining his shirt.
Hostages are no good dead, Lance thought bitterly.
The doctor worked quickly and efficiently, and in no time his arm was bandaged and his captors left, leaving Lance alone.
Lance lost track of time in that cell, unable to mark the passage of time with anything. No windows for sunlight, just artificial lighting. No guards entering his cell. No windows to watch shift changes go by. Nothing. He could have been laying in that cell for 10 minutes or 10 hours for all he knew. The hunger that had been annoying before was becoming unbearable, gnawing at his insides. He became so hungry that a terrible headache formed and nausea became his only companion. His mouth and throat were dry from the lack of water, making the hunger pain even worse. All of that was compounded by the pain from the beating he took earlier, making Lance downright miserable.
At some point Lance decided to curl up into as tight of a ball he could manage. It didn’t stop his stomach from growling or from his body aching or from the fact he was dying of thirst, but at least he felt meagerly protected in that position. He managed to doze a little again, but he still would wake up feeling more exhausted than before. To top it off, his wrists and ankles were positively aching now from the binders, throbbing in time with his heartbeat. He wished someone would come along and put him out of his misery.
Lance’s heart quickened when he heard the door being unlocked. Four guards entered, making Lance nervous. He didn’t know if he could take another beating right now. To Lance’s relief, they were only there to collect him. One of the guards stabbed him in the thigh with a syringe, injecting no doubt more sedatives. Lance winced from the pain, but quickly felt the sedatives take over. This time around it wasn’t enough to knock him out, but they were certainly enough to make him extremely drowsy.
He was dragged between the guards until they arrived at a vehicle of sorts. They hauled Lance up onto the vehicle. When the vehicle lurched forward, Lance thought he was going to throw up right then and there. He didn’t bother trying to sit up, not particularly caring where they were going.
When they finally arrived to wherever they were going, they were outside. The bright light hurt Lance’s eyes and he squeezed them shut. The guards then hauled him off of the vehicle and helped him stand.
Lance realized belatedly that the Atlas crew had come for him. A short distance away stood a row of Atlas soldiers, with a large ship behind them. Among the ranks he spotted Shiro and guilt hit him at full force again. If Shiro and the Atlas crew were here, it meant that the dinosaur aliens had succeeded in getting what they wanted. And it was all Lance’s fault. He kept his gaze trained on the ground as two Atlas soldiers came and collected him. Lance wanted nothing more than to disappear into the ground right then and there. He couldn’t bear to look at anyone as he was dragged up the ramp and inside of the ship. The soldiers quietly undid his cuffs and removed the tape over his mouth, but said nothing. Lance said nothing either, wanting the whole ordeal to be over already. He wasn’t sure he could face anyone ever again, but he was going to have to sooner or later.
Turns out it was Shiro who met him first. “Hey there, how you doing?” Shiro asked. He knelt in front of Lance, trying to catch his gaze, but Lance stubbornly kept his gaze trained on the ground. “We’re going to get you fixed up, okay? It’ll be okay,” Shiro reassured.
Tears suddenly sprung to Lance’s eyes and he was too tired to stop them. “Okay?” Lance echoed quietly. “How can everything be okay? I just ruined your negotiations.”
“No Lance, you didn’t ruin them.”
“Yes I did. If I—If I hadn’t gotten captured in the first place—then I…I’m so sorry Shiro.” Lance pressed his hands to his eyes, embarrassed, but it did nothing to stop the tears from flowing. “I’m sorry,” he croaked. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry I got in the way and I’m sorry I ruined everything and soy un idiota. Lo siento mucho Shiro. Lo siento.”
“Hey, it’s okay. You didn’t ruin anything, it’s okay Lance. I’m just glad you’re safe. Lance, it’s okay.” All of the sudden Lance was being pulled into a big bear hug. “We’re just glad you’re safe now. That’s all that matters. Our medical team will look you over and then we can do whatever you want.”
Lance sniffled and his stomach chose that moment to growl. Really loud.
Shiro gave a soft chuckle. “And we’ll get you some food too.”
Lance wiped his nose and gave a weak chuckle. “That would be nice. I’m starving.”