AN- Thanks to everyone who reviewed! Here you go!

In the Name of Science

Chapter 4: Switched

"Lance, wake up. Lance."

He opened his eyes, vision blurry. With a low groan, he shifted his body up against the wall. He turned to the side and saw her, and his eyes widened with panic. "Ilana? No, you have to get out of here!"

"I'm not leaving you. Don't be stupid; you're hurt, and you know it."

Lance sighed and shook his head. He moved his leg to try and get in a more comfortable position, and had to hold back a loud cry. He could see on her face that she had noticed.

"Where's Octus?" His chest felt tight again, but talking to Ilana was allowing him to focus on something besides the pain. It had dulled in some places, but intensified in others, and he was afraid that it was getting harder to hide things around her.

"I lost him. When we came in he was right behind me. I'm not sure if they found him or not." She frowned.

"He's Octus, he'll be fine," Lance said. Ilana looked at him in surprise. It wasn't the words that were unusual; but his tone was completely flat. He was fighting so hard to hide his pain from her, but she could see it in his eyes and the way his chest was hitching for breath.

"We need to get out of here. What do they want from you… they said it was your father's blueprints? I don't understand."

"Trawn wants my dad's blueprints for all of his armor, including the Manus ones. He wants to take over Earth. Galaluna has fallen."

"No!" She was shocked, horrified. He couldn't meet her eyes.

"Ilana, listen to me. You need to find Octus and get out of here-,"

"I'm not leaving you!"

"Listen to me!" he demanded, "I can stand this, I'll be okay. But if they hurt you-," he paled. When he continued, his voice was quiet and urgent. "You have to go. We can't let him get this information. He'll destroy everything."

"Lance, I…," The door opened.

"Have you made a decision?" Trawn asked. "I'd consider your options carefully, my boy. It's been a while since most of my men have seen a girl on this ship." He leered at Ilana, and Lance's fists clenched in their cuffs.

"You wouldn't dare."

"Obviously despite all of your time here, you've yet to learn that my limits know no bounds."

Lance was aching to stand, to hit Trawn hard and watch him fall, but his leg trembled uselessly beneath him. It would only make it worse to show Trawn this new weakness, although the bastard probably already knew.

"Alright, I'll tell you. Just…just let her go." He hung his head.

"Lance!"

"I'm not stupid, son, you'll have to do better than that. As soon as I would let her go, she would hide and you'd refuse to talk again. I have leverage now and I intend upon using it. Now I will hurt your precious little friend here, and you will watch, until you can tell me what you know." A guard stepped into the room from behind Trawn and walked to Ilana's side. The guard reached down to grab her wrist, but Lance staggered in front of her just in time. He could hear Trawn laughing as he blocked the blow. The guard glowered at him.

Lance ignored the punch in his gut, despite his watering eyes. The guard reached for Ilana again, and Lance dove in front of her, catching the guard's hand. The guard smirked; he increased the pressure and Lance's strength gave out. He grunted as he fell to the ground. He felt a hard kick on his back and then it was getting hard to think.

He half-opened his eyes from his sprawled position on the floor to see Ilana's bare feet moving towards the door. A shadow fell over him and Lance squinted up at Trawn's face, hardly able to see him for the glare off of his glasses.

"Come, boy, I want you to see." Lance felt Trawn pull on his arm, and he cried out loudly, all pride forgotten. "Stop moaning and come with me." Lance tried to answer him, but his focus was getting even blurrier. Before he could force out any cry of protest, an indescribable pain shot through his entire body and his eyes shut into unconsciousness.

Trawn dropped Lance's body on the ground, grunting in annoyance. The boy just had to go and faint on him. In retrospect, the kid was beat up pretty badly- but no, Trawn didn't care. He motioned to another guard that stood at the door and the guard slung Lance none too gently over his shoulder. He followed Trawn into the hallway, the teen's limp body swinging over his shoulder.

They entered a larger room, a variation of weapons hanging from nails on the walls or lying disorganized in racks. But these weren't guns or grenades or bombs; they were all different kinds of bats and knives and saws, and just seeing them made Ilana feel sick to her stomach. Her knees were already trembling, but her stomach knotted tightly when Trawn entered, closed the door behind him, and she saw the guard drop Lance to the ground. She couldn't even handle looking at how damaged Lance was. All she could think about was how she had gotten there too late to save him.

"There there, no need to cry, sweetie. As long as Lance comes to his senses, there's no need for you to be hurt at all. I don't see why he wouldn't want to save a lovely, innocent young girl like yourself." Ilana could see it in Trawn's eyes; he was already trying to manipulate her. But nothing would turn her against Lance, not that easily. All the same, she was starting to shrink under Trawn's glare. She was glad when his focus was broken by a beep on the other side of the room.

Trawn strode away, and walked to the small screen on the wall. His expression changed to one of delight.

"Oh, General!"

Ilana tried to hear the response, but it was too garbled to understand from her distance. Who was making Trawn so happy? It certainly couldn't be a good thing.

"And that's all you'd like, sir? Oh, thank you!"

The transmission ended and Trawn turned to face Ilana with a devilish grin.

"It seems I managed to strike up a deal. Thanks to you, Princess, we don't need Lance anymore."