A Cry in the Dark

by cocopops1995

When the Coalition got called in to help evacuate a planet, the last thing Hunk expected was to find Keith tied up in a small box and in very bad shape.

"Alright, everyone," Coran's voice sounded over the comms as Hunk and the rest of Team Voltron stepped out of their lions in the middle of town. "This is the last town you have to clear out. You all know the drill. Split up, find stragglers, send them to the lions. Princess, I do believe it is your turn to stay behind to welcome the last of the locals and ready them for pick up."

"The first think I'm doing when we get back to the castle is taking a long, hot shower." Pidge grumbled over the comms as they all split up in their designated directions

"I hear ya. Nothing like toxic planet sweat to make you feel gross just thinking about it, huh?" Lance added.

Hunk made a grunt of agreement, "Not to mention hiking all day. I feel sticky and gross and I don't even have to think about it."

"At least this is the last town." Shiro said, "Then we can all go back to the castle and relax."

They were on planet Raplilles, a planet that they had liberated from Galra control a couple of months ago, to help out with a dangerous, natural phenomena that took place on the planet once every few decapheebs. Lance had not been wrong in describing it as 'toxic sweat' because that's basically what it was. Toxic liquid literally sprouted out of the ground for five or so feebs. The locals called it "The Great Cleanse" and spent that time living on one of the planet's moons.

Normally, transporting all the locals up to the moon wouldn't have been a problem for them, but the Galra had left them with almost no working ships and nowhere near enough manpower to coordinate a mass exodus. So the Coalition had been called for assistance. Most of the locals had already been transported off planet, but it there were a few in each town that hadn't gotten the message to go to the first pick up, so the team had spent the past two quintants working through each village and town to ensure that everyone made it out safely. From the Castle, Coran used the BLIP tech scans of the planet to direct the paladins to any lost locals. Olia had been doing the same thing with groups of rebels and Hunk was glad that Voltron hadn't had to do the whole planet alone. It was tedious, exhausting work. Fortunately, the 'toxic sweat' was only meant to start sometime during the next spicolian movement, so no one was endanger of melting into a puddle quite yet.

Hunk walked up the main street of the town, knocking on doors, and telling passers by to get to the center of town. Along the way, he ran into three aliens not native to the planet, covered from head to toe in reflective suits with helmets that had darkened visors. Hunk recognised the suits from a different planet they had freed months ago. The planet was called Milnepoe and the people were nocturnal, they couldn't be out in the sun at all or their skin would start to blister, and their eyes were extremely photosensitive. Their people had refused to join the Coalition due to the alliance with the Blade of Marmora.

"Hi, there." Hunk called out to them, "You guys are kinda a long way away from Milnepoe."

The three froze at his words, but then one of them seemed to recover. "We are here on vacation." They answered in that weird, hissing voice that freaked Hunk out.

Something seemed a little off about that answer, but Hunk shrugged it off, maybe they'd come here to get high on the local drugs or something. "Well, sad to say your vacation's about to be cut short. Didn't you get the warnings about The Great Cleanse?"

The three seemed to exchange looks, although Hunk couldn't be too sure with those darkened visors, and then a different one answered up. "We are nocturnal, so we were never awake to hear them. But thank you for telling us, is there somewhere that we should go to?"

Hunk shrugged it off, that wasn't the weirdest excuse he had heard today, and they weren't the first tourists that he'd run into either. "Yeah, just go to the center of town, the blue paladin, Princess Allura, will greet you there and give you further instructions."

"Of course, thank you, Yellow Paladin."

They set off to the middle of town, and Hunk continued his trek to the southernmost outskirts. It was late afternoon by the time Hunk reached the edge of town and announced that he would be turning back to the center of town. The others still busy with bigger groups of locals.

"Just a tick, Number 5." Coran said, "There is still one life form left. They seem to be in a little settlement about a mile or so out of town in your direction."

Hunk groaned, at this rate he was gonna have to trek back to town in the dark.

"You can sit tight when you get there, Hunk. One of us will come to pick you up when we get back to the lions. I don't want you walking through the town on your own in the dark." Shiro said, obviously having had the same thought as Hunk.

"Shiro, you're my hero." Hunk said, "Alright, Coran. Tell me where to go."

It took Hunk almost a varga to reach the little settlement Coran had mentioned. It turned out to be a small, abandoned looking house with boarded up windows. Hunk frowned at that, maybe it was a squatter than just didn't get the memo that everyone needed to leave. Either that or a crazy hermit. Hunk really hoped it wasn't a crazy hermit.

He knocked on the door, but there was no answer.

"Hello? I'm a paladin of Voltron! I've come to help you get out of here before your planet starts spewing toxins!"

Still no answer. "Coran, you sure I'm at the right place?"

"Quite sure, Number 5. The life form is right inside that settlement."

Hunk knocked again, louder this time, but again there was no answer. Hunk let out a long sigh and shrugged before trying the door. It was unlocked and swung open easily, revealing a gloomy interior. He took a step closer to the door and was immediately hit with the sell of sweat and blood so strong that he gagged, and had to activate the lower half of his helmet.

"Oh man." Hunk groaned. He was so not looking forward to going in there, but the blip on the map meant that the whoever was in there was still alive, so he had to.

He stepped inside, the only light came from the now open door and the gaps in the boards. He blinked a couple of times to get his eyes to adjust to the gloom, and then swept his gaze ove the interior of the little house. It was pretty cramped inside. There was a small kitchen off to one side as well as two doors, one of which seemed to lead to a small bathroom, the other was closed, but Hunk guessed there must have been a bedroom or something in there. To the otherside was what looked like a living area, but it was sparsely decorated, with just a few chairs. One of the chairs sat in the middle of the room with ropes lying around it. On closer inspection Hunk felt his stomach flip as he saw a small puddle of what looked a lot like blood lying right by the chair, and more red splatters on the chair itself.

That's when he noticed the hash breathing coming from the furthest dark corner of the little living room. Hunk swung his gaze in the direction of the breathing. His eyes landed on a box about the size of those big chests people on earth used to keep their stuff in hundreds of years ago - definitely not a great place for any living being to be in. Especially not one of the locals, who averaged in height at about a foot taller than Shiro.

Hunk moved closer to the box and found that air holes had at least been drilled into the top of it. The breathing inside the box picked up pace as he stepped closer and Hunk was more than familiar enough with the sound of panicked breathing to know that he needed to get whoever was in there out quickly.

"Hey there," he spoke to the person inside in as calm a tone of voice as he could manage, "My name's Hunk. I'm gonna get you out of there, okay? Everything's gonna be just fine."

There was a lock on the box, but it was rudimentary. Hunk switched his helmet's head lights on and pulled out some tools that he always kept on him and made quick work of it, continuing to calmly reassure the person inside as he did so.

As soon as he had the lock opened he switched off the helmet and set his armour to glow enough to give him enough light to see what he was doing, but not so much as to aggravate the vision of the person that was inside.

Then he opened the box. And his heart stopped.

The person inside was gagged and blindfolded so he couldn't quite make out his face, but he was undeniably human. Even worse, Lance had been right about that mullet being unmistakable.

"Oh God, Keith!"

Hunk didn't understand. Keith was meant to be on the other side of the galaxy, on a mission with the Blade of Marmora. He wasn't supposed to be on this planet, let alone naked and tied up in a little box in this dark, abandoned looking house.

Hunk reached in, meaning to at least get the blindfold off so Keith would at least be able to see that he was safe now. But the moment Hunk's fingers touched at the blindfold, Keith flinched violently away and then let out a muffled cry of pain as he collided with the side of the box. His breathing picked up even more so that he was definitely hyperventilating now.

Hunk cursed, he needed to get Keith out of that box and get him to calm down now.

He spared a quick moment to rip off his helmet and gloves. The smell of sweat and blood was stronger coming from the box, and Hunk can smell the sharp, familiar odour of vomit as well.

"I'm sorry buddy," Hunk said as he reached inside the box again, this time slipping one arm under Keith's legs, and the other around his back and bound arms. "I know you're scared, and I know you're hurting, but I need to get you out of this box, okay? It's just me, it's Hunk. I'm just getting you out of this box."

He forced his voice to stay low and calm as he went about lifting Keith out, even as Keith screamed into the gag and tried to fight his way out of Hunk's grip. Even as Hunk felt white hot fury rise in his chest at whoever had hurt his friend so much.

Hunk settled down against the opposite wall and layed Keith out so that he had Keith's upper body cradled in his arms to make breathing easier. The first thing he did was remove the gag, wincing in sympathy at how the rough material had cut into the corners of Keith's mouth. Hunk could see that Keith's eyes were already beginning to turn blue from lack of oxygen. Hunk went for the blindfold next, Keith's skin was hot to the touch.

Once the blindfold was off, Hunk caught his first good look at the state of Keith's face and his breath caught in his throat. Even in the gloom he could see dark bruises across his cheeks and chin, one of his eyes was completely swollen shut and what little he could see of the remaining open eye, which was only mostly swollen, was wild and unfocused. Dried blood dribbled from his obviously broken nose and tears of pain leaked out of his eyes. Hunk felt his own eyes prickle in sympathy. He wrestled them back though, Keith needed him to be strong right now.

He cupped Keith's cheek in his hand and gently pulled Keith's face to his own, praying that Keith would see him and recognise him.

"Hey, Keith. I need you to focus on me now, okay."

Keith's whole face scrunched up in pain and he let out a low, choked moan of pain as his whole body spasmed against Hunk.

Hunk hushed, "I know, I know it hurts. But you have to focus on me, Keith. We need to get your breathing under control before you pass out. C'mon, Keith. I know you can do it."

It took some doing, Hunk could see how hard Keith fought to regain his focus despite the pain and fever, but eventually he managed to lock eyes with Hunk and Hunk could just make out a glimmer of recognition flash in Keith's open eye.

"That's it, Keith." Hunk encouraged him, "You're doing great, man. Now we gotta get your breathing under control, okay? Just follow me, deep breath in and slowly out. You can do it Keith, come on."

They sat like that for a good few minutes as Keith struggled to match his breaths to Hunks while Hunk kept murmuring words of encouragement to him. The more Keith calmed, the more he seemed to become aware of the situation. Unfortunately, that awareness seemed to include the pain he was in. His breathing calmed until it came out in short, pained gasps. Often accompanied by pained moans and gasps as his body spasmed over and over again. Hunk was beginning to think that Keith had been in that box for a long time.

"That's it Keith, let's try for some deeper breaths now, you're almost there."

"H-hunk." Keith gasped out instead, his voice barely above a whisper "Can't - ribs - hurts."

Hunk cursed again. "Okay, that's fine. You do what you can, okay? Just stay calm for me, and everything will be fine."

Keith gave a weak nod and then moaned as his body spasmed again.

"Keith, can you tell me where it hurts most, besides your ribs, I mean."

"Ev-rywhere." Keith all but moaned. "Cramping."

Hunk made a noise of commiseration, "That's what I thought. Okay, I got some of those Altean painkillers on me. I'm gonna give you a couple of those to take the edge off, and then I'm gonna untie you, okay?"

Keith gave another weak nod and whispered a small "Okay."

"Okay, great. Here, lemme just -" Hunk shifted an inch to reach the small first aid kit that each set of paladin armour came with, drawing a pained whine from Keith. "- Sorry, sorry. Here, I got it."

He shifted back again and propped the kit open on the floor next to him and then fished out a couple painkillers, and then pulled out his water bottle as well. He slipped the painkillers into Keith's mouth and then helped Keith sip from the water bottle to swallow them down. Keith drank greedily and whined in protest when Hunk pulled the bottle away from his lips.

"I'm sorry," Hunk apologised again, "I know you're probably dehydrated, but you have to go slow or you'll just get sick and throw it all back up again. I'll let you have some more after I finish untying you, okay?"

Keith's body spasmed again and he groaned but he gave another one of those weak nods that Hunk was seriously beginning to hate. Keith was one of the strongest people he knew, and it hurt to see him so weak from whatever torture he'd been put through. Hunk hated seeing it, and he hated the people who had done this to him with every fibre of his being.

As gently as he could, Hunk maneuvered Keith into a sitting position and let him lean against Hunk's chest, and then started working on the ropes tied around Keith's wrists. The rope clung to Keith's wrists once Hunk undid the knots, and Hunk moaned right along with Keith has he peeled it away.

Undoing Keith's ankles was a little more complicated as Hunk had to move Keith to actually lean against the wall for that, which meant more pain for Keith. At least the spasming seemed to have mostly stopped - good old Altean medicine. Only once that was done did Hunk pause to actually look at Keith's body.

Even in the gloom he could make out that Keith was a mess of bruises and cuts, but he would have to get Keith into better light to be better able to assess those injuries. Hunk glanced at the open door, the light outside was beginning to fade, but it would be enough for Hunk to actually see. He was pretty sure that the light would also be too much for Keith's most assuredly photosensitive eyes, though. Hunk cast his eyes around, searching for someway to combat that without actually blindfolding Keith again. His eyes landed on his discarded gloves and helmet and an idea popped into his head.

He grabbed his helmet and gloves and then settled down by Keith again and once again maneuvered Keith until Hunk was cradling him again. Then he slipped his helmet on and contacted Coran.

"Number 5!" Coran's voice answered almost immediately, "We've been trying to contact you for the past few dobashes. Is everything alright?"

Hunk glanced down at Keith, lying limp and broken in his arms, and barely kept his voice from breaking when he answered: "No."

"What's happened? Are you injured?" Coran asked, his voice immediately serious.

"No, no." Hunk answered and took a deep, shuddering breath, "That last life form? It - it was Keith, and he's in really bad shape."

"Keith?" Coran asked, incredulous, "But he's meant to be on the other side of the galaxy with the Blade of Marmora!"

"I know." Hunk answered, "I don't know how he's here, but he is."

"What are the extent of his injuries?" Coran asked, his voice clipped and serious, "Do I need to ready a pod for him?"

"Yeah, I think he definitely needs a pod. I don't know the full extent of his injuries yet, but he definitely has a busted rib or two, he's struggling to breathe because of it. His face is also really messed up. I haven't been able to get a good look at the rest of him because it's really dark in here and I'm pretty sure he's been blindfolded and in the dark long enough for his eyes to be really sensitive to light, so I was wondering if you could turn my helmet's training setting on? But not so dark that he can't see at all, just enough to filter out most of the sunlight?"

"I can most certainly do so." Coran answered, just tell me when you're ready."

"Great, thank's Coran. I'll move the helmet over to Keith now. Will you let the others know what's going on? We should get Keith out of here as soon as possible."

"Of course. Darkening the helmet now."

Hunk slipped the helmet off his head just as it started turning dark and glanced down to see Keith staring up at him.

"Hunk, where - where are we? Not… not Koskeon?"

"No, Keith. We're on Raplilles. We didn't even know that you'd gone missing!"

Keith's open eye went as wide as the swollen tissue around it would allow as the full horror of this whole messed up situation settled in and the smallest "Oh." slipped past his cracked lips.

"But it's okay. I've got you now. Soon we'll be back on the Castle of Lions, and we'll get you into the pod Coran's getting ready for you right now, and then this will all be over." Hunk assured him. "Now, I'm gonna put this helmet on you and then I'm gonna carry you to the light so I can get a better idea of the shape you're in, alright? It's gonna hurt, but it won't be for long, I promise."

He waits for Keith to nod his consent, Hunk's not doing anything even remotely against Keith's will, and then slips an arm under Keith's legs. A long, pained moan escapes Keith as Hunk stands and Hunk apologises all the way up and to the doorway. The daylight is fading, but it's still enough to make Hunk squint against it and he's so glad that he's protected Keith's eyes.

He settles Keith down, once again cradling Keith in his lap, and finally got a good look at Keith's body. Hunk's breath caught in his throat again and he felt his stomach drop as he took it all in. Keith's body is a mess of blue and purple, especially around his his ribs and abdomen. His legs are littered with cuts that make it look like a particularly vicious, large cat had got a hold of him. His arms are similar and his fingers...

"Oh, God, Keith." he murmured as he picked on of Keith's hands up as gently as he could. Not one finger was aligned like it was supposed to be. Each one was broken.

Keith said nothing and instead dug his helmeted head deeper into Hunk's chest. Hunk lost the fight against his tears and had to pause to wipe them away. Then he slowly maneuvered Keith back into a sitting position to get a look at his back.

"Holy shit Keith, did they let some wild animal loose on your back?!"

Keith's back was a mess of deep cuts. The cuts on his legs and arms looked more like kitten scratches compared to the gouges on his back. Hunk nearly gagged at how discoloured Keith's back was from the combination of dried blood and bruising. He spitted a few cuts that were definitely infected, which explained Keith's fever. He also noted that the cuts on his back looked much fresher than the ones on his arms and legs.

"No?" Keith answered after a moment, sounding unsure. "They wanted info. Didn't know what they asked about. They didn't - didn't believe me."

Hunk let out a string of curses as the rage bubbled right back up in his chest again.

Keith stiffened against him then, in a soft, broken sounding whisper, he said: "Shiro?"

For a moment Hunk thought that the fever had gotten bad enough for Keith to start hallucinating, but then Keith relaxed again and said: "Okay." And Hunk figured that Shiro was probably talking to Keith over the comms.

A breeze wafted in through the open door, causing Keith's naked body to shiver against Hunk. Hunk cast his gaze around the house, searching for a place where he might be able to find something to cover Keith with while they waited for someone to come pick them up.

His eyes just landed on the closed door to what he thought must be a bedroom when Keith spoke again, "Didn't see them. Always blindfolded."

Hunk pressed his lips into a thin line, he was hoping Keith at least had an idea of what the people who did this to him looked like, but now they had nothing to go on to try and find the bastards.

"Okay." Keith said again and then turned his head up to Hunk, "Shiro says he's almost to his lion."

"Great, okay."

Another breeze drifted lazily through the door, causing Keith to shiver again.

"Okay, hey. I'm gonna set you down against the wall behind us for a bit, okay? Then I'm gonna go find something warm for you."

Keith made a small noise of protest as Hunk started to move. Hunk froze at the sound of it.

"Don't leave. Please."

And, oh, the naked fear in Keith's broken whisper was enough to bring the tears that Hunk had only just got under control back into his eyes again.

Hunk slipped a hand around the back of Keith's neck. "Hey, I'm here, okay? No one's gonna hurt you again. And if they want to try, they'll have to go through me first. But you're cold and shaking. I just want to go into the bedroom that's basically right behind us right now and find something to cover you with. I promise, I'm not leaving you. I'll even leave the door open so you can hear me, okay?"

It takes a long moment, but finally Keith gives another one of those weak little nods. "Okay."

"I'll be as fast as I can." Hunk said as he slowly, and as gently as possible moves Keith to lean against the wall again. Then he stood and went straight to the closed door.

He pulled it open and found it just as dark as the rest of the house. He turned on his flashlight as he entered, sweeping it across the floor in search of anything he could use for Keith. His flashlight landed on the bed and found that it wasn't the style of bed that the locals prefered. Rather it was a nest, actually much like the Milnepoe people prefered…

Hunks thoughts trailed off as several things clicked into place in his head at once. The dark house, the claw marks, the nest, the fact that Keith was captured while on a mission for the Blade of Marmora. He let out a string of curses so colourful that he was pretty sure even a sailor would have blushed at hearing them.

"Hunk?" Keith's voice sounded from just outside the bedroom door.

"I'm fine, I'm fine." Hunk said through gritted teeth, "Be there in a moment."

He looked through the room's closets as quickly as he could, but the softest, warmest blankets he could find was in that damned nest. He grabbed one up and headed back to Keith.

He made quick work of wrapping the blanket around Keith as gently as he could, and then gathered Keith back into his arms.

"I need to talk to Allura quick." He told Keith, "I want you to close your eyes when I take the helmet off and then I'll cover your head with the blanket, okay?"

Keith nods again and soon Hunk has Keith absolutely cocooned in the blanket and his helmet back on his head.

"Allura, you there?"

"Yes, I'm here, Hunk. Is everything alright, how's Keith?"

"Keith's not great but he's hanging in there." Hunk answered, "Listen I met three Milnepoe people when I was working through the town. Did they make it to the centre of town?"

Allura is silent for a moment and then answers, "Ah yes. They're huddled together right at the edge of the crowd."

"Good. Allura, you need to take them into custody right now. They're the ones who did this to Keith, I'm sure of it." Because the Milnepoe have some wicked claws that would easily have been able to inflict the damage on Keith's back.

"I'm on it." Allura said.

"Hunk, I've just gotten to my lion." Shiro said, "I'll be there in less than five dobashes."

"Great. See you soon, Shiro."

"Allura's getting the bastards and Shiro's almost here, Keith." Hunk said, tightening his grip on Keith just a little, "This is almost over, I promise."

Under the blanket, Keith's breathing hitched.

"Keith?"

Keith didn't answer, instead a broken sob escaped him. Followed by another, and another.

"Oh, man." Hunk murmured. The last of the light had faded away, so he pulled the blanket away from Keith's head and started running his hand through Keith's sweat-soaked hair. "Shh, shh. It's okay. I'm here. I've got you. You're safe. Everything's gonna be okay."

Shiro found them like that. Keith's sobbing had quieted somewhat, but he was obviously still crying. Hunk's own tears had yet to dry as well, and the devastated look on Shiro's face when he saw them like that was almost enough to push Hunk all the way over into a crying fit of his own.

"Hey, Keith. Look, Shiro's here." Hunk said, his voice breaking, "We're going home now."

"Yeah." Shiro said, voice strained as he reached out to lay a comforting hand on Keith's hand, and then Hunk's shoulder, "Let's go home."

It took the healing pod almost four quintants to finish healing Keith.

In that time, Shiro contacted the Blade of Marmora and, once Shiro learned that they had lost contact with Keith five quintants ago, Hunk got to experience pleasure of watching Shiro absolutely tear Kolivan apart. It was also kind of terrifying. Hunk had never seen Shiro get that mad before, not even at Slav, and for a moment Hunk thought he could understand how Shiro had ended up being the undefeated Champion of the Galra gladiator arena.

Shiro wasn't the only angry one. Everyone was furious that the Blades had not contacted them as soon as Keith had gone missing. To add insult to the injury, the Blades hadn't even known that Keith wasn't even on the same planet anymore. If the Coalition hadn't been called to help Raplilles, Keith would have been completely dissolved by The Great Cleanse by now. The thought was enough to make Hunk sick to the stomach and he had to excuse himself from that whole situation, which meant that he didn't get to see Allura tear into Kolivan as well. Lance found him in the pod room, watching Keith heal, a while later and told him that the call had ended with Kolivan offering his sincerest apologies and that if he had a tail it would between his legs.

There was a lull in the fighting, and the team could afford to take a few days off. By the time Keith woke up again, they were on Olkarion.

Shiro was the first one to greet Keith, Hunk and the others weren't far behind. When it came to Hunk's turn to hug Keith, Keith held on just a little longer than he had with the others.

"Thank you." Keith whispered fervently into Hunk's ear.

Hunk tightened his grip on Keith, this time without having to worry about hurting him. "Hey man, no problem." he said, not bothering to hide the shake in his voice. They held onto each other for a moment longer before Keith pulled out of the hug, but Hunk kept an arm slung casually his shoulders.

"Now, I've cooked up all your favourites! Let's go celebrate you being alive in true paladin style!"

The smile that unfurled on Keith's face at that was enough to chase the lingering anxiety Hunk hadn't even known was there out of his chest. His weird space family was whole and safe for a little while longer, and that was all Hunk could ask for.