Another square on my Bad Things Happen Bingo Card.

1hopeforhumanity on tumblr requested: for the bad things happen bingo, if you could write Plance, "I have your loved one" i would be v happy please and thank.

GOD YES I NEEDED TO WRITE PLANCE AT SOME POINT

I'm glad the first time is Plangst ;) A fine addition to my garden

"Stop... stop, please-!"

Pidge felt like throwing up.

She was rewatching the ransom video for what felt like the hundredth time. Lance's broken, bruised face stared back at her, the hooded face of the bounty hunter with a bloody knife in his hand carving lines into Lance's once smooth, unblemished flesh.

She blinked back tears, rewinding and scanning the video, trying to find a moment where Lance's captor showed his face. Or his location. Anything. Anything.

She played the video, choking over Lance's strangled noises that were probably supposed to be screams as the bounty hunter sprinkled salt over the wounds he'd slashed into Lance's arms.

Arms that, just last night, Lance had wound around Pidge.

She choked on another sob.

They had been so happy. It had been a lax, free day where Pidge had too much time on her hands after a call with Matt. Lance had pulled her away with a gentle kiss pressed to her temple and one of his easygoing grins she couldn't say 'no' to. They'd spent the day together, playing Killbot Phantasm and snacking on chips with strange alien labels.

It was so, so nice.

But then, Lance had been sent out to get groceries with Hunk. Afterward, Hunk had returned alone. Lance had stayed to pick something up.

Something Hunk had said was for her.

He hadn't come back.

Six worrisome hours later, they got the ransom video.

"I have one of your Paladins," the bounty hunter had said. "If you don't want me to give him to the Galra, then I'd suggest delivering ten-thousand gak to the warehouse of this planet by midnight the following quintant. If not…"

His threat was hardly thinly-veiled. Pidge had thrown up in the corner after watching the bounty hunter drive a knife through Lance's palm. She'd vomited a second time hearing him scream and pant and beg.

Allura and Shiro had instantly gone for alternatives. Some other way they could get Lance back because there was no way they were getting ten-thousand gak within the day. They could go in with the Lions, guns blazing and angry Paladins on the loose, but it was likely their target was smarter than that. After all, he had the know-how to make his damn transmission untraceable.

Pidge's fingers trembled as she tried to drown out the sounds of Lance crying. She tried to ignore his agonized screams that made her stomach twist into knots. She had to find something - anything - to give them an edge. Otherwise, she was running the risk of losing Lance forever.

"Fuck!"

Pidge swung her arms in a wide arc, tossing the laptop as far away from her as possible. It smacked against the wall, machinery clattering to the ground loudly. The video played Lance's scream - garbled and twisted with audio interference - then went silent, screen flickering uselessly. It was stuck on a warped image of Lance's pain, his head thrown back and mouth agape. Tears were in his beautiful ocean eyes, his arms and face a mess of blood and gore. Pidge threw her head into her arms and let out a long broken wail into her knees.

She didn't know what to do.

For once, she didn't have all the answers. She couldn't magically make everything all better by tracing the signal of the transmission and let Team Voltron kick the door down with their bayards drawn.

She felt so utterly useless.

She knew what Lance would say. He would click his tongue and lean to rest his forehead on hers, a crooked grin playing at his lips.

"It's okay not to have all the answers," she heard his voice whisper in the back of her mind. "You're not useless. You can do this. I believe in you."

But he was wrong this time. Pidge couldn't do anything. She just had to wait. Wait and wallow in terror and guilt until something changed.

Until something brought Lance back.

Pidge sobbed hard. Hot tears stung her eyes, dripping off her chin and dotting her clothes. She hated not knowing where he was. She hated the knowledge that Lance was out there somewhere, hurting and scared and there was nothing she could do.

The door slid open. There was a gentle, unsure knock at her door frame. Pidge lifted her head to see Keith, pushing the hood of his Marmoran uniform off of his messy hair. He'd clearly just come back from a Blade mission, one that had taken most of the week. Pidge sniffled pathetically, raising an eyebrow at him.

"I...heard a banging noise," he said, answering her silent question. "Shiro just told me what happened. A-Are you…?" His unspoken question hung in the air. Pidge let it fester there, her hands balling into fists, nails carving crescent moon shaped grooves into her skin.

The answer Keith was craving was a short, definitive 'no'. Keith seemed to infer this, though, from the way she refused to look at him in the eye, while his amethyst gaze fixed on the laptop, broken and stuck on Lance's silent scream of agony.

"Pidge…" Keith murmured.

"Don't," Pidge's voice was hard. "Just...don't, Keith."

Keith stepped into the room carefully. "I'm sorry. I should have been here."

Pidge did not reply.

Keith stood awkwardly next to her bed, his hand resting against the wall as he peered at her in her nest of green blankets. How Pidge wished Lance was here, sitting next to her and peppering her face in tiny kisses that she swore she hated but secretly loved. She wanted him to toss a lanky arm around her shoulder and pull her into him, wrapping her in an embrace that she would just melt into.

"I...I just…" Pidge's voice cracked. "I want him to be here. I want to be able to go and save him and then things can go on like normal, but there's nothing. There's nothing I can do."

Keith moved an inch closer. "Pidge-"

"I don't know what to do!" Pidge cut across him. She pressed the heel of her palms into her eyes, shoulders heaving with the force of her sobs. "The bastard blocked the fucking signal! I can't find him, we can't get that much money in such a short amount of time, we can't-"

"Pidge," Keith said sharply, sinking down across from her now. He put his hand carefully on her shoulder and she raised her head to look at him, his face blurry with tears. "Breathe, okay? Everything will be okay."

"But-" Pidge.

"No," Keith moved a little bit closer. "No buts. My dad used to tell me that...that one way or another, things will always work out. We just got to do everything we can to make sure the ending isn't bad."

Pidge sniffled miserably, wiping tears away from her puffy eyes. She knew Keith was right, she just didn't know how to change the ending. The chips had all fallen by the bounty hunter. He had Lance, he had the location, and he had the terms of the agreement, all under the palm of his hand.

Pidge hadn't realized she'd said all of this out loud when Keith's eyes brightened up in thought. He turned to look at the laptop, face twisting into a grimace at the look on Lance's agonized face, frozen in time - possibly forever.

"But what doesn't he have?" Keith murmured quietly.

Pidge almost snorted. The Lions, for one. He definitely did not have those. They were all still safely tucked away in their hangars. He didn't have the Castle either, which was almost painfully obvious. But neither of those would do any good in the ensuing trade.

What didn't the bounty hunter have?

The epiphany came to Pidge in the form of her laptop.

She watched static flicker across the screen, breaking apart Lance's face for a split second.

A static that had nothing to do with the damage done to her laptop.

Pidge sat bolt upright. Keith startled next to her.

"His communications," she breathed.

"What?" Said Keith.

"The-the video," Pidge was stumbling through her words as she stared at Keith, amber eyes wide with realization. "It was full of static. He doesn't have a good signal wherever he is. And-and this planet-" (she waved her hand around her as she spoke). "-it's full of sand. It's a desert, Keith. And you know what sand does to communications, even advanced alien ones, right?"

Comprehension dawned in Keith's eyes. "It disrupts the signal."

"Exactly," Pidge almost hissed. "That means he can't get a signal out to the Galra unless they're really close by. Hell, he can't get a signal out to anyone unless they're really close by. So if he was able to get a transmission to us that means…"

"He's nearby," Keith breathed.

Pidge leaped off of the bed and all but tore from the room. Her bare feet pounded against the cold tiles of the Castle. Keith sprinted after her, both of them headed straight for the bridge where they both knew the others would all be gathered.

Determination blossomed in Pidge's chest. She thought of Lance, bleeding, broken, and screaming, once again and set her resolve as hard as iron.

She'd get her boyfriend back.

Or she'd die trying.

tgyhujik I've been waiting for an excuse to write Plance and I'm glad it finally came! Gah! Those two are just too damn cute for their own good

This specific bingo card was requested by my lovely friend 1hopeforhumanity, better known as perilpetrol on AO3. Check out her stuff, she's a fantastic writer 3

Thank you so much for reading! It's the first shippy thing I've done on this account, since I'm more of a gen-fic kinda person. But I will not say no to some Plance every once in a while. Gotta keep my garden sufficiently watered. I hope you enjoyed this!