The Awaited
Crashing World
The manner in which the blue lion spun out of control left a curdling feeling in his stomach, and a cold sweat running down his spine. Lance remembered the surface rushing up to meet him, his lips pushing together as he braced for impact. The controls worked for him, but he found himself unable to control the blue lion in the manner to the blue paladin's liking. The sound of trees crunching under the weight of Blue sent a groan escaping from Lance's lips.
A breath escaped, wondering what happened to the others. Rather meekly, he spoke up. "Hello." When nobody answered, his voice strained even more. "Come one! IS anybody there!"
"I'm here. Shiro is as well, but…"
Keith's voice irritated Lance, making the blue paladin grind his teeth together, but also forget the worry coursing through his body. The blue paladin found himself unable to understand why the obnoxious red paladin felt the need to speak up for Shiro when their glorious leader could very well do this himself. Memories of how annoying Lance found Keith to be at the Garrison rushed through the young paladin's mind, aggravating his mood. "What the hell! If he's here, he would talk!"
The fact he accused Keith of lying went over Lance's head, as the sixteen-year-old busied himself with preparing to leave Blue, hoping to get an idea of his surroundings. The red paladin said the last thing the blue paladin ever wanted to hear. "He's hurt."
The fact Keith's tone of voice twisted with worry also flew over Lance's head. The blue paladin's blue eyes narrowed, remembering how the red paladin took off, disobeying a direct order from Shiro, something a good soldier should never do. Of course, Keith never was a good soldier, something indicated quite clearly from his being kicked from the Garrison program. In Lance's, had Keith not taken off like he had, things would have turned out much differently. "Well, that's your fault!"
Pain filled Keith's voice. "What do you mean it's all my fault!"
The fact the red paladin's voice filled with pain went right over Lance's head, resulting in a complete misread. "As if I care that he feels guilty. Not that he does feel that way. He's just mad I pointed out the truth and doesn't want to admit it is his fault like always. He's going to blame me like he always does. Drop out." Lance took a deep breath. "You're the one who didn't want to follow Shiro's orders you moron!"
The blue paladin heard the heavy, panicked breathing from Keith's side, letting him know he'd hit a sore spot. Keith's response felt good, as it meant the red paladin practically admitted he'd been wrong. "Shut up." Strangely, though, the other paladin attempted to change the subject. "You didn't hear Shiro and my conversation?"
Lance's mouth twisted up, wondering what about said conversation Keith didn't want him to hear, or that maybe the red paladin lied to him. "I only have your word on that! And don't tell me to shut up! Not only did you disobey orders, you didn't want to go about rescuing Allura!"
"Quiznack!" The blue paladin caught onto the embarrassed strain in Keith's voice and knew he'd hit another sore spot. Lance opened his mouth to gloat, only to hear the red paladin's next words. "I can't let my personal feelings for her get in the way of doing my job as a paladin. That…"
Lance felt his eyes blink a couple of times, the words "personal feelings for her" playing over and over in his head, but also the fact Keith claimed he wouldn't let said feelings get in the way of doing what he needed to do. "Ehh…"
"Forget I said…"
The blue paladin didn't notice Keith go silent on the other end, or pay attention to the sudden sound of escaping air, as if something unexpected, and possibly painful occurred. Instead, his mind focused on the fact his rival now competed with him for yet another thing – the affection of the princess. Irritation became to boil over. "Did you just admit that you have a crush on Allura? Wait until I tell her that you're trying to get a jump on our relationship. Seriously. I saw her first Keith."
Lance heard Keith swallow, not realizing the particular sound indicated something was wrong. The blue paladin, however, noticed the sudden silence and then heard the voice and breath ever so close to Keith's own. "What is your name."
"Keith."
Two blue eyes blinked, the realization that someone got the drop on Keith. A sinking feeling hit Lance in the gut then, as he found himself arriving outside in a forest area. There was no telling how far his location was from the red paladin either. A rather strange sound made the blue paladin close his eyes, trying to place the sound as he heard a moan of pain from Keith, yet Lance couldn't place the sound. "Keith. Who is that? What is going on?"
"What's your full name?"
"My name is Keith Kogane." The tone of voice Lance heard Keith use then puzzled him, but the red paladin continued to speak. "Since I told you mine, care to tell me yours."
"You do realize I'm the one who stabbed you in the gut with a sword that I'm now holding to your throat. Are you really wanting to test me."
The blue paladin felt his throat tightening. "Keith! Why are you trying to goad this guy on?" The troubling situation for the red paladin quickly sank into Lance's mind, and he now found himself able to place the sound. His own voice strangled, tears threatening to escape his eyes, suddenly wishing he'd not come down on his rival a few moments ago. He had to stop Keith from doing something stupid, which would get him hurt more. "Keith…"
"Isn't it common courtesy for someone to give their name to someone they are going to kill?"
Lance felt his blood turn cold, his eyes closing shut, wondering what he should do, yet knowing he could do nothing. Why Keith needed to goad the guy on was beyond him, until he heard the person speak again. "Who says I'm going to kill you? My name is Uchiha Sasuke, and I think I'll keep you as a pet. What do you think about that?"
"I…"
The blue paladin heard the confusion in Keith's voice, and Lance started forward knowing full well he needed to do something. The person with the red paladin sounded like some kind of sick freak. "Keith. I'm coming for you, alright." A single tear fell down, and Lance wiped the drop away. "Seriously. This can't be happening. Don't you dare die on me, buddy." Referring to Keith as something other than rival felt so foreign, and yet Lance's imagination started getting the better of him, the words "keep you as a pet" ringing in his head. "Quiznack. Who'd have thought Keith would end up being some kind of damsel in distress. I hate this kind of damsel in distress. Give me a princess any day of the week."
"Don't you dare Lance! He's too much…"
"You've some kind of communication device?" Lance felt his heart sink, knowing full well Keith just gave away the fact there were others who could help him out. It sunk even more as this Uchiha person – who named their kid something uncool like Uchiha – heard the next part. "How about you tell your friend what will happen if I put pressure on this spot on your neck?"
Lance swallowed, knowing full well the person didn't mean anything good, and soon this was confirmed by Keith. "I'll go unconscious."
"Keith…" The blue paladin's eyes closed, his mind swimming as he took in the idea that Keith of all people could end up in such a situation. He heard a sound that didn't seem to come from the red paladin's end. If Keith heard as well, Lance did not know.
"So they can hear me as well, which means they know my name."
"What the quiznack!" Lance felt his anger boil over, wishing somehow he could run screaming at the guy, but also shooting off his baynard. For some reason, the thought of being a hero fell short of the feeling of anger welling in his chest at the ill treatment of one of his friends. In fact, the fact he thought of Keith as a friend went right over his head.
"Yeah, but Lance is far away from here, so you won't find him, or any of my friends for that matter. They're spread across the entire planet."
"What are quiznack are you trying to do Keith!" The blue paladin felt the color drain even more from his face, a hand suddenly clasping over his mouth, his body frozen as the realization that he could do nothing sunk in."
"Either it's some kind of poison to kill me, or a poison to paralyze me, so in a few minutes I'm either going to be dead, or you're going to torture me, hoping I'll give you some kind of information. For your sake, I hope it's a poison to kill me because I'm not going to give you any kind of information."
"Who says I want to torture you for information?"
Lance heard a gurgling sound, before hearing a crashing sound indicating the person dropped Keith. He still heard Keith breathing, meaning his fellow paladin was alive, but he didn't know for how long. Another thud and he knew the person decided to throw the helmet away. Suddenly, Lance took off running, attempting to stay off the painful feeling welling in his chest. When he finally lost breath, the young paladin sunk to his knees, removing his helmet as he did so in time to see two shooting stars in the sky. He lifted up the helmet. "Pidge! Hunk! Do you guys hear me?"
Nothing.
Then came the sound of vomiting, but also the sound of someone else being tossed around in their compartment, and the shooting out of someone's comms system.
Lance leaned back, yelling at the top of his head. "Keith! You idiot! When I get my hands on you, I am going to seriously kill you!"
A bunch of birds flew out of the bushes at this sound, and the blue paladin leaned over, sobbing uncontrollably as his helmet lay near him, the hot tears hitting the ground below him, his stomach aching due to the stress and worry running through his mind. Lance's hand's twisted up, grabbing the ground with them, his fingers scraping against the rough ground. His eyes clamped shut.
"He doesn't know. That idiot honestly doesn't know what's in store for him. He doesn't understand what it means to be someone's pet." A shudder ran through Lance's body, and he wrapped his thin arms around his thin frame, leaning over to vomit, relieving the contents of his stomach.
"Hey."
The voice startled Lance, making his hand reach for his banyard, letting the gun release out to point at a young man with strange markings on his face. The blue paladin's lip trembled, a few hot tears still in the corner of his eyes, taking in the fact the young man's blue eyes an even more vibrant blue that his own, the blond locks of hair hanging down in front of his eyes, a wide smile on his face. Lance's entire body shook.
One of the youth's hands reached up to rub the back of his head. "You're so uncool, crying like that. Real men don't…"
The next thing Lance knew his banyard in its banyard form instead of gun form hurtled through the air, hitting the youth square in the forehead, knocking him back into the ground, whoever he was.
