Title: It wasn't you
Rating: T
Notes: Warning for referenced/implied non-con/rape in coming chapter
Chapter 7
Images of Shiro the Hero filled the sky. Pidge and Hunk were taking turns, showing bits of the show, showing Kuron's groans at all of Coran's crazy suggestions. Keith was smiling and leaning back. Shiro was smiling and relaxing and glowing. This was working well. It was clear he was getting stronger and no one was cringing in pain at these memories. He looked around. Pidge and Hunk were actually laughing. The current memory had Kuron frowning as a group of young woman swarmed around him begging for autographs. His gaze shifted further over to where Lance was sitting back from the group a little. He'd thought this might have brought him back closer or at least cheered him up, but if anything he looked worse. He looked completely freaked out.
"Lance?" Keith walked over and sat next to him.
"Oh, hey, Keith." Lance waved an arm that was visibly shaking. He took a deep breath and gave Keith the fake smile he hated.
"Can I sit with you?" Keith asked.
"Sure, not my brain, sit where you want." Lance was pale and just seemed wrong.
Keith leaned his shoulder into Lance's and could feel him shaking. Now wasn't the time to press, he knew what it was like to have your memories spread across the sky, even the ones you didn't want to share. But when they got out of here, when Shiro was safe, and when that parasite was taken care of - he was going to make sure Lance was really okay and not just faking it.
The memory currently playing had Lance doing some sort of acrobatic tricks suspended mid air. There was a lot of catcalling and screaming in the background. The show was that Kuron and the others were captured and Lance was coming in as the sniper to save them. It was playing really well to the crowd. Keith couldn't help but laugh at Allura playing him. Next to him Lance had gone still, there were tears running down his checks. Keith wasn't laughing anymore. He went to put an arm around Lance, but he flinched away. Keith dropped his arm shocked. He'd never had Lance turn down a hug or any kind of contact before.
Lance gave him a weak grin and looked away. Keith felt more fear building in his heart. It might take longer than he thought to get Lance back to okay.
The memories transitioned to meetings and alliances, new planets and faces. Lance joined back in the sharing. Keith showed video conversations he'd had with Kuron as well.
The current memory was from Hunk, they were on a planet that had yellow trees. The native people were like salamander lizards walking on two legs, about four feet tall. Kuron was sitting with Allura and Lance was sitting on the ground off to the right. There were five or six smaller lizards, maybe children crawling all over him. Apparently they had the ability to climb like lizards because one was stuck to his back, one was on his head, two were on his arms which he had up in the air and two were making laps around his middle tickling him. He was laughing.
"Aw look at the kiddies!" The parasite appeared behind Lance and Keith, they both scrambled back away from him. "I remember this trip, they had that great training center, didn't they Lance?"
The memory scene shifted. All five paladins were training in a stadium. There were different levels of platforms, they were connected with ropes and pulleys and narrow beams. It was like a giant jungle gym that went thirty feet into the air. They were equipped with guns and vests, like laser tag. The play went on and on and Keith was beginning to wonder why the parasite was choosing to share this memory, because it didn't seem bad. There was a mild jolt when someone was hit, but nothing horrible. The game seemed to be three hits and you were out. A group of the lizard people had gathered and were cheering them on. Kuron eliminated Allura and it was down to just Lance and Kuron. Lance tied a rope to his feet and dove off one of the platforms, catching Kuron unaware and winning the game. He came up smiling, standing with one foot in the rope.
The parasite was clapping and Lance was cringing. The memory shifted to night. Lance was sitting on one of the midlevel platforms with Kuron. Suddenly Kuron grabbed his head and screamed. Shiro also grabbed his head and fell.
The memory Lance backed away, it was clear he knew what to expect at this point. Kuron stood and turned to Lance.
"What the Hell was that?! You think you can make me look bad in front of our allies? You think it's okay to try to undermine my authority?" Kuron kicked Lance hard in the side as he was trying to stand and then slammed into his back with the Galran arm. "Who do you think you are? You think you can be the leader? What? You think you are worthy of being the Black Paladin? Hell you not even good as the Red Paladin. You're just the extra that got brought along for the ride!" He punctuated each sentence with another kick to Lance's gut. Lance was coughing, there was blood on his lips. "We don't need you!" He kicked hard and sent Lance flying off the side of the platform, he banged into two more platforms before landing on the ground. Their Lance screamed and fell back writhing in pain.
The parasite moved back as both Hunk and Pidge tried to hit him with their bayards, "Hurts, huh?" He laughed, "Hard to concentrate like that?"
Lance spit blood from his mouth, he couldn't breath. Shiro came down behind him and lifted him up to a reclined position. Keith was running at the parasite screaming sword swinging.
"Lance, stay with me buddy." He leaned Lance against his chest.
"Shiro…need to concentrate." He breathed blood. The memory was fixed on him laying on the ground alone, bleeding, dying. Lance closed his eyes and frowned.
The memory began to roll forward. Kuron was kneeling next to memory Lance.
"Lance!" He reached out and checked his pulse. "What happened?"
"Fell." He choked out.
"Okay, just hold on. Try to be still, I'm going to get you back to the castle." Kuron gently picked him up. He was calling for help on the com. Asking Coran for a pod to be ready.
"It's going to be okay. Lance, look at me, it's going to be okay." Memory Lance didn't look at him. He closed his eyes and tears streamed down his cheeks. "Okay kid. Okay, almost there."
The memory faded with Lance going into the pod. The parasite was gone again.
Coran held his fingers against Lance's throat. His pulse was erratic and his breathing was coming in gasps. He was afraid, but he didn't know what to do. As long as he was breathing and his heart was beating, it was best he stayed in the astral plane. Trying to remove him would risk losing his mind there forever. Finally, his body relaxed and returned to normal breathing and heart rate. He was pale. Coran brought a hydration pack over and got it into him. This was going too long. He didn't know what was going on in there, but it was taking too long from this side. He'd already had to make accommodations for the fact that they were putting water down their throats, the liquid obviously had to come out as well. Thankfully the body suits from the cryopods were equipped to deal with that sort of waste disposal and he had already decided to wrestle them into the suits at the beginning of his shift.
Allura was also fading. Her skin was getting pale and a fine sheen of sweat had developed on her face. Coran had wiped her face with a wet cloth, and gotten her to drink a hydration pack. He was considering adding vein valves with nutrients. He hated to do something so invasive when he wasn't sure how much longer they would be, but he couldn't let them be weakened. He prepared all of the materials he would need. When the shift changed he would ask the others and they would decide together.
Krolia had already wandered in several times during his shift. It was clear she was not sleeping well, so he was not surprised when she showed up ten dobashes early.
"Coran." She greeted. She'd questioned the change in clothing earlier, but when he explained she had only commented that she would have helped him. He'd smiled and told her it wasn't the first time he'd wrestled them into the suits and he was quite unfortunately proficient at it. "Any change?"
"Lance had a spell a few moments ago, increased heart rate and difficulty breathing, but it passed. I am leaning toward starting vein valves. I think we should provide them nutrition. It was been an entire quintant." Coran signed. "I just wish we knew what was going on in there."
"I'll get Romelle, we can help with the vein valves." Krolia strolled out to fetch Romelle.
"Lance?" Shiro asked as Lance sat up and wiped the blood from his mouth.
"I'm okay." He took a deep breath to clear his mind. "I'm okay." He repeated, whether it was to himself or to Shiro he wasn't sure.
"When did that? How did I not? What the fuck!" Pidge rounded on Lance.
"I asked them not to tell you. I told them it was embarrassing because I fell." Lance stated flatly no emotion in his voice whatsoever.
"Why?" Hunk had tears in his eyes as he kneeled down in front of him.
"I don't know. I just didn't know how to tell you at that point." Lance sighed and wrapped his arms around himself. "I wasn't sure you'd believe me." The last part was a whisper.
"Why wouldn't I?" Hunk asked.
"He just kept saying things like that over and over. I guess it started to seem real, like maybe I should be stronger, should be able to deal with it on my own." Lance answered still looking down.
"You felt like it was your fault." Keith stated. It wasn't a question.
Lance looked up into his eyes and found nothing but understanding and empathy, "Yeah. I did. I thought you'd be better able to handle the issues he was having. I thought you'd handled his PTSD before and I should be able to, but I just wasn't as good." Lance took another deep breath. "I'm okay."
"No, you're not." Keith answered.
"No, I'm not, but we need to focus on what we are doing now. I had a lot more trouble pulling the memory from him. He felt stronger." Lance gave himself a shake and sounded more himself.
"I couldn't get it away from him either. And don't think we aren't talking about this more later." Pidge added narrowing her eyes at Lance for the last part.
"Shiro, how do you feel?" Keith asked.
"I feel stronger. A lot stronger than I did before." Shiro did seem stronger, more vibrant.
"Then why isn't this working, Shiro's getting stronger, but the parasite isn't getting weaker." Hunk pondered.
"That's it." Pidge smacked her head. "It's a parasite feeding off Shiro. When we make him stronger it's still feeding off of him."
"Gold star for the genius!" The parasite was standing behind them. "You make him stronger; you make me stronger." He laughed. "You know, I'm still only a parasite, he's still stronger than me, but what if I gave him something else to use his energy on?"
"What?" Keith growled sword at the ready.
"Well, if you can't get the memory back from me, then you stay in pain, right Lance?" Lance glared at the parasite.
"So, Pidge, do you remember this?" The memory flashed up in front of them. It was Pidge and Kuron fighting back to back on a Galra ship. A Galra soldiers swung a club and smashed it into Pidge's knee. She went down screaming. The scream echoed as the parasite laughed and disappeared.
Pidge was lying on the ground clutching her leg, tears pouring out of her eyes. "FUCK!" she shouted through gritted teeth.
