Hey, my peeps! So this is the standard paladins get captured/tortured fanfiction. There will be a lot of the paladins protecting our favorite smoll bean (Pidge) because I absolutely LIVE for that kind of angsty fluff! All relationships are strictly platonic because people falling in love while being tortured mentally and physically is like...it kinda makes for a weird story. Anyway, enjoy! Set in kind of an AU where Allura never became a paladin and everyone already knows that Keith is part Galra (except for the actual Galra of course) so please give this a chance, it's my first fanfic. Reviews are always greatly appreciated because...I crave attention, you know XD? Alrightie, on with the story!
Disclaimer: If I owned Voltron I would've never made Allura a paladin, made Klance happen, and made a season 9
"Lance this is all your fault!" Keith shouted, glaring across the room at the blue paladin.
"MY fault! If I remember correctly, you bumped into a tray table and knocked the whole thing down! Literally the whole building heard us!"
"That's only because YOU bumped into me!"
"Well, YOU were the one who didn't come up with a good plan of attack! Honesty who just goes barging into a building full of galra? YOU THAT'S WHO!"
"Oh, my plan of attack was AMAZING! But WHO WAS THE ONE WHO TRIPPED THE ALARM AND ALERTED THE GALRA THAT WE WERE HERE, HUH? YOU!"
"Oh, the ONE TIME I SCREW UP!"
"One time! You screw up all the time!"
"Well me tripping the alarm didn't matter anyway because you ALREADY KNOCKED A WHOLE TRAY OF TOOLS DOWN WHICH IS JUST AS LOUD AS THE ALARM!"
"YOU DON'T KNOW THAT!"
"OH, YOU BET I DO!"
"YOU WANT TO GO MCCLAIN?"
"YOU'RE ON MULLET!"
"OH IMMA BEAT YOU SO HARD-"
"ENOUGH!" Shiro roared at the top of his lungs. "NO ONE is going to beat ANYONE, UNDERSTAND?"
The boys paused mid yell."Yes, sir." Lance squeaked as Keith rolled his eyes and crossed his arms.
Shiro looked both boys in the eyes. "It is both your faults that we got captured." Shiro turned to Lance. "Mostly yours Lance," he continued, earning a "hey!" in the background from the blue paladin. "But the past is in the past, and now we have to focus on getting out of here."
"Ohmygod guys shut your quiznaks." Pidge murmured from the far right corner of the cell. "I swear if the Galra doesn't kill you people first, then I will."
"Dude I am so with you there." Hunk groaned from the opposite corner. "How long have we been in here anyway?"
"I'd say about an hour," Shiro said, not bothering to use the altean terms for time now that it was only them.
"What do you think they want?" Lance asked, looked around the room skeptically. "I thought that they only wanted Voltron, not the paladins."
Shiro closed his eyes and rested his head against the cool stone wall. "They do want Voltron, they just don't know where it is." Shiro peeked one eye open to look at the rest of the team. "That's why they're going to torture us for information."
The cell went dead silent. "Well, what happens then?" Hunk whispered.
"We can't tell the Galra anything." Shiro shot up so suddenly that the other paladins flinched in surprise. "Team, no matter WHAT we are going to make it through this. We will get hurt, very badly, but we must be strong." Shiro looked every one of his teammates, his friends, his family in the eyes. "We need to be there for each other. THIS EXPERIENCE WILL BRING US TOGETHER LIKE NOTHING HAD BEFORE." The silence in the room was defening. "Are you ready for this?" Shiro whispered after a moment. Before anyone could answer the cell doors flew open, revealing-
"Zarkon." Shiro muttered, staring at the Galra's sickening purple face.
A chilling grin spread across Zarkons face. "Ohhh, dude..." Lance said after a moment of silence. "Gosh, you are uuuuuugly."
Keith elbowed him hard in the side. "LANCE! ARE YOU TRYING TO GET YOURSELF KILLED?!" He whisper-yelled into his ear. Lance merely shrugged, a small smile splitting across his face. Zarkon, however, didn't pay any attention to Lance's outburst.
"I didn't come here to make small talk." He said, his face cool and collected other than the creepy grin. "I came for information."
"Well, you might as well give it up." A small but defiant voice said from the back of the room. All head swiveled to the young green paladin, who was glaring daggers at the Galran Emporer with fire burning in her eyes. Pidge furrowed her eyebrows and grinded her teeth together. "We will never ever ever tell you ANYTHING! No matter WHAT YOU DO! UNDERSTAND?" The young girls breaths were ragged, and her chest heaved up and down from the power of her yell.
After a moment of shocked silence, a small chuckle escaped Zarkon's lips. It grew bigger, and bigger until it was a full-on breakdown. The paladins exchanged worried glances with each other, all thinking the same thing. This can not be good.
Zarkon whipped blood red tears from his eyes. "Oh, child." He said after clearing his throat. "I haven't laughed like that in a long time." The galra walked over to where Pidge was chained and stroked her face with one finger. "The green paladin...interesting..."
Keith and Lance couldn't take this. "Dude don't touch her!" Lance yelled. Zarkon turned toward him with an amused smile on his face.
"Break my arm for all I care buddy, just don't lay another finger on her!" Lance was struggling hard now against the chains holding him back. Keith looked about ready to murder a whole platoon of Galra soldiers. Hunk refused to see his best friend like that, and was biting his lip hard enough to draw blood. Shiro's eyes had closed and he was now leaning against the wall looking like he was trying really hard not to break something.
"Don't touch her, you say?" Zarkon asked, raising one eyebrow. "I bet you won't like it when I do this then." Zarkon roughly grabbed Pidges face with one hand and smiled. "I have chosen my first victim!" He announced to his guards a second later, releasing Pidge from his grasp. He then whirled around and pointed to her. "The girl, grab her immediately!"
As the guards unhooked Pidge from the wall, the other paladins were going absolutely ballistic.
"I said don't touch her! You hear me!" Lance yelled at the guards holding Pidge. "Put her down now or I swear, I will kill every single one of you!"
Shiro's eyes had snapped open at Zarkons announcement and was staring helplessly at Pidge in the galra's grasp. "What? No...no...he was supposed to pick me..." he muttered, staring at Pidge like a lost puppy. "I'm the leader, I should be tortured, right? Not some innocent 14-year-old girl...not Pidge...never Pidge..."
Hunk was angrier than he had ever been before in his entire life. "If you hurt her, I will personally make your life a living hell!" Hunk screamed as they passed him. "Whatever you do to her, I do to you when we break out of here, GOT IT?!"
"PUT HER DOWN NOW!" Keith bellowed. The rest of the paladins went completely silent. None of them, not even Shiro, had seen Keith explode with so much emotion. "I SWEAR TO GOD IF YOU SO MUCH AS PUT ONE TINY BRUISE ON HER YOU ARE ALL AS GOOD AS DEAD!" Keith's eyes began to turn yellow and catlike. As struggled against his restrains, stubby little fangs sprung from his canines.
"Stop." Zarkon had been observing the Paladin's outbursts with a satisfying sense of pride, but that pride quickly turned into curiosity. Keith's yelling ceased. Everyone watched as Zarkon made his way over to the red paladin. As soon as he got within a foot of him, he was instantly hit with a wave of pure hatred. Zarkon stepped back, surprised that a human could hate someone with such vigor. Unless...
Zarkon inspected Keith's face further, his gaze lingering on his yellow eyes and the peculiar fangs protruding from his mouth. Finally, Zarkon gave a snort. "You intrigue me, boy." He inched a bit closer.
"I'll make you an offer." The galra said finally. He glanced at Pidge. "Either I can take your precious green paladin here to be tortured..." Keith looked up at Zarkon with terrified and angry eyes. Zarkon smirked. "Or...you can take her place. But-"
"I'll take her place," Keith said immediately, earning a bunch of yelling from Pidge. Both Keith and Zarkon ignored the small girl and stared at each other.
"You didn't even hear the last part," Zarkon stated.
"I don't have to," Keith said sincerely. "As long as Pidge is safe, I'm fine with anything."
"Keith, don't do this. I'm not worth it." Pidge cried. "Stay here with the others, don't worry about me I can take it. Just please, please don't do this to me." Tears ran across Pidge's face.
Keith looked at Pidge with a soft smile on his face. "Pidge, I would rather be tortured 1,000 times than have you tortured once. I'm going to do it no matter how bad it hurts me."
"Keith please!" Pidge sobbed, her voice shaking. The rest of the paladins exchanged glances of silent agreement. It wasn't that Pidge wasn't strong, it was just... she was small, and her body couldn't take much tortured without shutting down completely. Keith on the other hand, his body had brrn building up stamina over the years and was accustomed to large amounts of pain. The rest of the Paladins still hated that anyone had to be tortured, but it was better for someone to come back hurt than to not come back at all.
The guards dropped Pidge and unhooked Keith from the wall. "I'll see you guys later." He said, a single tear trickling down his cheek as he looked at all the heartbroken faces around him. Before Keith could say anything more, the door slammed and he was being carried to certain doom.
The guards stopped at an all white room a few hallways down from here Keith's fellow paladins were held. "Well," The red paladin thought as he was being led into the room and strapped to the operation table surrounded by various weapons and drugs. "At least everyone else is safe."
Zarkon emerged from the shadows with a syringe filling to the brim with a goopy purple substance. Keith clenched teeth and braced himself. The Galran Emperor stared blankly at the defiant young man, and slowly put the syringe onto the table beside him. Keith's furious expression melted away into confusion, and that was when Zarkon made his move. Quick as lighting, he grabbed the syringe from the table and plunged it into Keith's right arm.
"You have to be relaxed for the drug to work." Zarkon stated. "Tense muscles would mess everything up." His eyes gleamed. "Don't worry my boy, the pain will start in three...two...one."
Keith squeezes his eyes shut, ready for the wave of pain to wash over him. When it never came, he opened one eye slowly, then the other.
"Looks like it didn't work you big fre-" Keith's eyes widened as what felt like fire raged through his body. Keith pursed his lips and looked frantically around the room with wide eyes. He tried not to scream. He knew that if he did, his fellow paladins would hear him.
Keith tried, he really did. But the pain had become absolutely unbearable, and a scream was ripped from his throat with such force that it echoed throughout every hallway, and filled the ears of his friends.
"Keith..." Lance whispered, looking longingly at the thick metal door that held them. "What are they doing to you?"
Zarkon brushes his hands together, satisfied with what he had done, and stood over Keith's withering body.
"Now, why don't you tell me where the red lion is?"