Things had been weird with the team lately.

There'd been more yelling recently. They'd been more... tense.

Of course, there had always been occasional yelling. That was something that was necessary to get the team moving sometimes. It helped keep them motivated to do the right thing. To train hard and fight harder.

But now... there was too much. Just too much yelling. It didn't motivate anymore. It was just hurtful. And maybe that was the intent: to hurt.

Shiro had been acting different lately, too. He wouldn't listen to anyone else on the team, and he yelled. He yelled so much. Sure, he yelled at the other members of the team occasionally, but Lance felt like he was being targeted. Maybe it was selfish to feel that way, but Lance felt that way all the same.

Now that Lotor had taken over the Galra empire, there were exponentially fewer attacks that needed to be dealt with, but there were still Galra who refused to give in to his leadership.

The team was trying to come up with a plan to crush the rebelling Galra. They had gotten a tip from an anonymous source about where some of these rebellious Galra might be located, and wanted to decide what to do with it.

"I say that we just run in and attack them. We have plenty of people to spare now that Lotor's the leader of the empire, and the element of surprise would be helpful," Shiro was saying. He was pacing around the room and not looking at anyone, almost as if he were talking to himself.

"I don't know, Shiro..." Lance said quietly. "I think that we should scope this place out before we go straight in and risk lives. We don't even know who gave us the tip. It could be a trap."

Pidge hummed softly before speaking. "That could be true-"

"Thank you!" Lance said happily. If Pidge was agreeing with him, then that meant that-

"But!" Pidge interrupted, giving Lance a disappointed look. "But, it could be a really good opportunity for us to take. Who knows what could come of it?"

Lance couldn't believe what he was hearing. Was he really the only one who knew how horribly this could go wrong? "This could be a trap."

Keith scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Come on, Lance," he said in frustration. "It'll be fine."

"Yeah, Lance," Hunk says. Even Hunk's agreeing? "This could end really well."

Allura joins in now, too. "Even if it is a trap, we have enough people to be able to overpower whatever they have to throw at us."

Lance just stares at them all. No one is going to defend him? Do they even see what he's talking about? This could get them and countless others killed. Is it really worth that much of a risk?

He sighs but realizes that he won't get anywhere with his arguing. "Fine," he says. "Fine. Let's go."

And so they went. They stormed right into the place and immediately lost half of their soldiers.

It had been a trap, of course. Just like Lance had known it would be. No one just gives an anonymous tip on shit like this unless it's a trap. Lance has seen enough movies to know that. But no one had listened.

There was screaming, and blood was everywhere. The panic was immense, and it was hard to tell which Galra were on what side. Lance wouldn't attack any of them without having them attack him first, and this led to many painful (and, frankly, unnecessary) injuries. He fought through the pain, however, knowing that he couldn't disappoint his team and all the people who were counting on them.

It took the deaths of almost all of the Galra soldiers that they had brought to fight alongside them to realize that they should probably retreat. They were fighting a losing battle. That was a simple fact. It would be impossible to win this fight especially since the other team clearly had a huge advantage. Shiro had been expecting to get the element of surprise, but the rebelling Galra had claimed that prize for themselves. They would never win.

So, with a terrified and hoarse voice, Shiro finally called for them to leave, waving the soldiers and the rest of the team over to the lions and ships. "We have to leave! Run, go!"

It was horrifying to see as the remaining soldiers shouted and refused to leave the battle. They shouted and cried as they fought their opponents. They said that they would win.

"Victory or death!"

They'd never expected the outcome to be the second one.

The trip back to the castle was much quieter than the trip to the base, and that silence remained once they all arrived at the castle once again.

Pidge was the one who finally broke the silence. Her face was pale, and her voice was unsteady. "That was awful."

"Y-yeah..." Hunk agreed. He was still shaking from the horrors that they'd just witnessed. There had been so much death...

"They're... they all... died," Keith murmured quietly from in the corner. Keith always ran to a corner when he felt anxious. He seemed to think that it would keep him safe.

"I'm so sorry, you guys," Shiro began timidly, but he still held his head high. "I had no idea that it would be a trap."

"None of us did, Shiro," Allura said, putting a hand on Shiro's shoulder. "If any of us had, then one of us would have said something, and we never would have gone."

Wait... what?

Did she just...

But Lance...

"Now hold on just a second."

The rest of the team cocked their heads as they looked at Lance.

"What is it, Lance?" Shiro asked, but he didn't seem like he really cared. His voice was apathetic, and he didn't even look at Lance.

"You do remember that I told you guys that this would be a trap, right?" Lance's hands were balled into fists, but he tried hard to keep his cool. He would never get his point across if he lost it now.

"Did you?" Allura obviously thought that this wasn't something that Lance would do. He was much too stupid... wasn't he? Wasn't he?

Lance resisted the urge to roll his eyes as he spoke through gritted teeth. "Yes, Allura. Yes, I did."

"Where is this coming from, Lance?" Shiro shouted, rage in his eyes. "Do you really feel so useless that you think that you have to lie to us?"

"What?" Lance practically screamed. Lance could handle some yelling (living with a big family had conditioned him to it). But this? This was not okay. "How dare you say that to me? I am not lying!"

Keith spoke quietly from his corner. "Lance, chill out." He said the next part even quieter. "God, why are you always so loud?"

Lance's mouth dropped open, and his eyebrows furrowed. "What did you say to me? Did you just tell me to chill out and quiet down when Shiro was the one that started yelling first?" He took a step forward and spoke with a threatening voice. "I told you all that it would be a trap! I'm no liar! I might be useless and worthless to the team, but I would never, ever lie to you!"

"Lance-" Pidge started.

"No!" Lance cut her off with his sharp words. "I don't want to hear any of you guys' shit anymore! I'm tired of this." A pause. "I... I'm not as stupid as you think I am. Is it really that hard for you to believe that I just might have been right about this?"

"Oh, Lance," Hunk says with tears in his eyes. He runs forward and engulfs the boy into a hug. Lance can feel his tears falling onto his back. "I'm so sorry! You're not stupid, and we know that. Do you really think that we think that?"

Silence. Lance doesn't want to answer that question. They wouldn't like to know the answer.

"L-Lance..." Allura starts quietly. "I apologize. I wasn't aware that we were being so unfair to you."

Keith had almost sunk into the darkness of his corner completely after hearing Lance's outburst. "Yeah... sorry. I... I shouldn't have..."

Pidge doesn't say anything and simply joins into Hunk and Lance's hug, but this action says all that she can't.

Shiro just stares. It's almost as if the situation confuses him. He eventually mumbles out a half-assed apology, while not even looking at Lance, before leaving the room swiftly.

The team had been so horrible. Lance knew that. There had been times like this before now, too, but this was the first time that they had enraged Lance enough to get him to bring it up. Lance could take a lot. He really could. But the team had crossed a line today, and Lance made sure that they knew that. Maybe it had been a good thing that they had gotten him mad because nothing of this proportion ever happened again. It seemed as if they all made a conscious effort to avoid doing this to anyone else on the team, too. Lance truly appreciated how hard they were working, and he worked on it too. They all did.

Well... except for Shiro...

Something was up with him...