Title: More

Rating: T

Summary: The need to be stronger, faster, better…the need to be MORE can drive someone. What if it drove them too far? What if it drove them right off a cliff?

Season 4

"There's one more group to rescue. The far hall, three cells, about fifteen people." Pidge was watching the scanners. This was one of the biggest prison breaks they had taken on. They had some rebels backing them up and had filled ten shuttles full of freed prisoners already. She was thrilled, it was so great working with Matt. He was right beside her, this place was almost as tightly wired as Beta Traz had been.

"On it." Lance's voice echoed over the com. He was the closest. Hunk and Allura had a group of prisoners each and were loading the yellow lion. Shiro was positioned at a critical hall holding back reinforcements and keeping them from getting cut off. Most of the rebels were already aboard ships with the prisoners and on their way to the castle. The last group of three was holding the hangers open.

The sound of battle from Shiro's location began to grow in intensity, "I'm getting a lot of reinforcements this way. Pidge, Matt, I need you guys to fall back. We can hold the halls to the hanger for Lance and the last group."

Pidge unplugged from her vantage. She hated leaving Lance out there blind, but it wasn't like they had a choice. "Come on, Matt."

"Lance," Matt's voice next to her startled her. "I saw a group of at least five headed your way before I disconnected. Keep your eyes open." He grabbed his gear and headed out with Pidge.

"Thanks for the heads up." Lance crept quietly and quickly down the hall. He only had one more group left to move and they'd have rescued over 200 souls today. This was a good days work. He was two turns away form the cells. He could hear voices ahead. As he made the next turn a shot came out him from ahead and he had to duck to avoid being hit.

He pressed his back to the wall and took a quick peek around the corner. Droids, six of them, maybe the group Matt had seen, were spread across the hallway that lead to the prisoners. He would have to eliminate them. He took a breath and leaned out to fire two quick shots. One hit a droid in the head and it went down, the other hit at the shoulder, but didn't drop the droid. Unfortunately a droid also managed to hit him in the shoulder.

"Quiznak." He breathed through the pain, of course it would catch him right between plates. It burned.

"Lance, what's going on?" Shiro's voice over the com.

"Droids, five left, maybe the group Matt saw. They are between me and the prisoners. I took some fire, but I'm okay." Lance spun around and another two shots dropped the wounded droid and another. "Make that three droids left."

He was getting ready to spin for another attack when a blast caught him full in the chest. He could hardly breath through the pain. The armor prevented what would have been a fatal hit, but it still hurt like a son of a bitch.

"Shit!" He pulled his rifle around. There was a galra soldier and four droids coming at him from the hall he had come through. He didn't know how they'd gotten behind him. "Shit! Shit!" He fired rapidly at them driving them around a corner. But they were just going to sit there and take pot shots at him, like he'd been doing to the other droids. On top of that if he wasn't shooting at the first droids then they could move in on him.

"Lance?!"

"I need help, I'm pinned. A Galra and some more droids came in from behind me." Lance kept the rifle that way firing whenever he caught even a glimpse of movement. He kept desperately trying to hear if the droids behind him were coming closer. He kept imaging a metal hand reaching around the corner for him.

"Hunk, Allura, with me. Pidge can you and Matt hold this hall, we'll need it to get back?" Shiro moved to help Lance.

"Yeah. We got it." Pidge slide around so she and Matt were back to back and gave Shiro a grin. "No problem."

"Cocky much?" Matt laughed.

Shiro nodded and he, Hunk and Allura took off at a run.

"Fuck." Another shot had gotten through his armor and Lance was hurting. This one was on his left hip. He kept firing and managed to take out one of the droids with the soldier, but it had sacrificed itself for a solid hit on him. He knew to expect the next one, the soldier was using them to take him out. It stood and he fired right away getting a clean head shot and dropping it. The next two stood at once and he managed to take them both out, but not before taking another shot to the chest plate. Blackness edged his vision and his breath was panting. He couldn't get his arms to cooperate to raise his rifle.

"Lance, can you hear me?" Hunk was yelling over his com. Lance could make out the image of the soldier walking toward him, sword drawn.

"So, which one are you? The blue paladin?" The soldier growled, obviously guessing by the color of his armor.

"Drop your sword and I'll convince them not to kill you." Lance breathed.

"Oh, I'll drop it, right through your skull." He raised the sword and prepared to drive it down. Lance managed to pull the trigger on his rifle and the Galra staggered backwards against the wall. The evil grin on his face didn't match up with the blood dripping from his mouth from the fatal shot he'd just taken. "Activate plan delta." His harsh voice spoke. "Victory or death!"

Lance struggled to stand and move toward the prisoners. There was nothing good in what had just happened, he was sure of it. He turned the corner just in time to see the three remaining droids explode in a huge fireball. The screams of the prisoners echoed in his mind as he was thrown back against the wall and knocked unconscious.

Shiro reached him first. The blast had been loud and they hadn't been able to get Lance to respond. He was lying against a blackened wall. The body of a Galra soldier nearby. Shiro checked and was relieved to find a pulse. There was obvious blood on his shoulder and hip and his nose was bleeding, not a good sign when he was still wearing his helmet with the facemask down.

"Oh." Allura's soft moan of distress had him turning to look down the hall, or at least where the hall had been. The explosion had ripped through the hull of the ship, exposing the hall to hard vacuum. A force field had dropped down at the junction of the hall, likely an automated defense mechanism. There were bodies drifting past. Hunk vomited. They would not be rescuing any more prisoners today.

"Guys, hate to rush you, but this is getting a little challenging even for us." Matt's voice sounded strained as he was fighting. They could hear the zap from Pidge's bayard activation.

Shiro scooped up Lance and they ran.

Pidge saw Allura coming down the hall first, "The prisoners?" Allura shook her head sadly. Shiro rounded the corner, carrying Lance. "Oh no, is he?"

"Alive, hurt." Shiro answered and they moved as one down the hall. They had dropped the last of the current wave of reinforcements and moved quickly to the hanger. The rebels greeted them from behind a pile of deactivated droids.

"Matt, can you ride in Red with Lance? She'll fly him back, but I want someone there in case he wakes up," Shiro requested. Matt nodded and followed Shiro into the lion. They reclined the pilots chair fully and strapped him down. Shiro rushed out to Black and they took off. As they were leaving Red turned and blasted the engines of the ship, blasting it to pieces.

"Matt?" Pidge asked.

"Wasn't me, that was all her." Matt glanced around the cabin, a little unnerved to be riding in an angry sentient robot lion. "Lance is the same." He looked down at the young man. He had found something like pressure bandages to put pressure on the two bleeding wounds, but there wasn't much he could do with a first aid kit for whatever else was wrong. He found himself brushing the hair from Lance's eyes. He wasn't that much younger, but Matt felt like he looked like a kid when he was out like this. He supposed everyone looked younger when they were asleep. Pidge looked like a toddler to him when she slept.

"Lance, just hold on man, we'll get you back to those healing pods and have you as good as new before you even know what happened." Matt spoke to ease the tension in the silent cabin. It was like he could feel Red's worry and anger. He and Lance hadn't hit it off right away, and he guessed it had a lot to do with jealousy over the attention he had given Allura. Not that Matt thought he was getting anywhere with her, he was well aware he was hopeless when it came to flirting, though he thought Lance wasn't exactly better at it.

Lance moaned and blinked his eyes.

"Hey, don't try to move, okay, you're in Red. We're heading back to the castle." Matt, moved to where Lance could see him without moving. His blue eyes looked up at him confused.

"Oh. What happened? The prisoners!" Lance started to sit up, but a hand from Matt restrained him. Honestly, Matt wasn't sure he could have sat up if he wanted to anyway.

"The last group didn't make it." Matt spoke sadly. The devastation on Lance's face was somewhat unexpected. Matt guessed he'd gotten used to cynical and jaded with his time in prison and with the rebels. "I'm guessing it was the explosion, I don't have the details." Lance nodded and took a deep breath. For a horrifying moment Matt was certain he was going to cry. "Hey, everyone else got out okay. We saved a lot of people today."

"Yeah, that's good." Lance's voice was weak and his eyes were drifting back shut.

"Lance? Stay with me here? Red's freaking out so bad she's making me nervous with the vibes in here. She totatlly destroyed the cruiser as we left." Matt patted Lance's face.

"Good kitty," he whispered. He managed to get his eyes back open and watched Matt as he moved about the cabin.

"We're coming into the hanger. Shiro is coming to get you." Matt moved back and patted Lance's shoulder. "Just stay awake." He gave Lance a reassuring smile. They may not have hit it off, but everything he'd learned about Lance and what he'd seen today, told him he could learn to like this flamboyant paladin.

"Thanks." Lance stared at the ceiling in the pilot cabin. He could hear the screams of the prisoners. He had been so close. So close to being enough, but he hadn't been. If he'd been faster, better, if he'd taken out the droids before the soldier got there, if he'd gotten a better hit and the soldier hadn't issued the commands, if he'd gotten up faster and hadn't given the droids a chance to explode, so many different ways he could have saved those prisoners if only he was better if only he was more.

Author's note: Taking on so many stories at once is probably a bad idea, but :) I'm doing it anyway. This one is going to go dark and I'm nervous about writing dark Lance, but wish me luck and send lots of reviews and I'll keep it coming.