Title: It wasn't you
Rating: T
Notes: Warning for referenced non-con/rape
Chapter 9
"Lance?" Hunk asked with his arms open. Lance crawled over into his arms and curled up against him. He wasn't making any sounds just kind of hiding himself in Hunk's arms.
"We need to get the fuck out of here!" Pidge was ready to have a mental breakdown and leave the crazy train behind. This had gone too far.
"Pidge, we have to get rid of this thing!" Keith shouted back. He was as near to the end of his rope as Pidge was, but he would not leave Shiro.
"How?! All we've done is make it stronger and hang out here and let us torture us and…" Pidge turned to Lance and she just didn't have any words to continue.
"And this sucks, and we have to figure out a way to stop him. We are going to destroy that fucker for what he did." Keith answered.
"How, I'm back at how, Keith cause the original plan, not working so well." Hunk joined the argument.
"Just go. He is hurting you and you need to leave me here and go." Shiro spoke. He was sitting on the ground staring at them. "I can't let him hurt you like this for me. I'm so sorry."
"Shiro, this is not your fault. You didn't do any of this. Hell, the copy of you didn't even do this. This is completely on Haggar, the fucking bitch!" Pidge spat out.
"What?' Hunk leaned down to Lance who had whispered something.
"Please stop fighting." He whispered again.
"Guys, hey, we need to tone it down." Hunk looked down at Lance and they all got the hint. "Hey, you want to tell me how we didn't know about this?"
"No. But I suppose I should." Lance sighed. "He came in and killed them. I didn't know he was the one behind it. I thought he'd saved me. He took me to a healing thing on the planet, sort of like the cryopods and they healed me."
"And you didn't tell us." Hunk sighed
"I couldn't," Lance choked out the words. "I just wanted to pretend it wasn't real."
"Okay, you know I won't judge you about this." Hunk laid his head against the top of Lance's. "You know I understand."
"I know, but you were a kid and I'm a paladin. I should have been able to do something." Lance's voice was just loud enough to reach Hunk's ear.
"Bullshit, you were drugged and there were four of them." Hunk rubbed his hand on Lance's back.
"We need a new plan." Pidge said as she sat down next to Shiro. "The bayards can chase the parasite off, but only pulling control from him seems to make any real difference, and I can't tell that even that is hurting him."
"What's a paladin without a plan?" The parasite appeared sitting next to Pidge. He blinked away when she tried to slug him. "You can't stop me now. I am stronger than all of you!" His voice echoed from the sky and dark clouds began rolling across it.
Another memory started. Kuron was helping Lance out of some kind of alien hospital bed. He was dressed all in black and seemed disoriented. Kuron grabbed his arm and practically drug him out of the room.
"What the hell?" Lance pulled his arm back rubbing it.
"What, don't tell me you don't remember?!" Kuron shouted.
"I," Lance looked confused and then scared, "what happened?"
"You're a fucking slut. What the hell were you thinking? Oh hey I'll get plastered and sleep with every fucking guy at the bar? Was that it?! What is the matter with you?!" Kuron grabbed Lance's arm again and continued dragging him toward a shuttle.
"I didn't. I…I didn't want that." Lance's face crumbled as images from the previous night filled his mind. "I told them no!"
"Oh sure, you said no, I saw the way you were acting with them. The way you were dressed?!" Kuron shook his head. "Did you think you could do that 'Loverboy' shit and swing around on ropes like a damn stripper and no one would react?" Kuron turned to him with disgust written all over his face. "It's like you advertised for it. Free fucks for the taking."
"Shiro, I…no." Lance had tears running down his face at this point. "I told them no, they forced me. I didn't want that." Lance tried to pull his arm away from Kuron, but he held tight.
"I guess they read between the lines, cause everything you were doing said that you did. I had to kill those idiots. Do you know that? I killed four people for you." Kuron shook Lance by his arm. "One of them was the government official that spoke against us yesterday. How do you think that is going to look?"
"I…It doesn't matter how it looks, what they did was wrong." Lance sobbed.
"What you did was wrong! This is all your fucking fault. I paid off the medical facility and had someone dispose of the bodies. No one is going to say anything to anyone and we are going to hope this blows over." Kuron slammed Lance back against the hall. "Are we clear?"
"You want me to keep quiet." Lance whispered softly.
"Yes. I can't believe this even happened. If you were half a paladin…but I guess you aren't. I'm not even going to tell Allura, she'd probably kick you off the team and risk not having Voltron rather than have shit like this go public. It's disgusting." Kuron let go of Lance's arm and boarded the shuttle. Lance bowed his head and followed quietly.
The memory faded, but the sky was now covered in dark clouds. The parasite appeared behind Keith and put his hands on Keith's head. "Oh what's this? Keith, I didn't know you almost died in the quantum abyss, you must share."
The memory this time was Keith and Krolia on an asteroid. Keith was moving and then was suddenly being literally pulled apart, he body was stretched beyond normal bounds. The parasite laughed and was gone.
Now Keith was left writhing on the ground screaming in pain.
Coran was finishing his shift. He'd replaced the nutrition bags for each paladin, checked everyone's levels which were still dropping and checked the connection between Romelle and Allura. It seemed steady. He'd let Krolia know earlier about the change and she had simply nodded and told him about the predators attacking. It really didn't seem anything was going their way today.
As he was doing his finally check on Keith, his heart and breathing rates spiked dramatically.
"Oh, Quiznak!" He brushed his hand against Keith's head and monitored the vitals. There was absolutely nothing he could do to help and it was incredibly frustrating. Within five dobashes of starting the spell faded. Coran went to check and saw that Shiro's levels had dropped again. He closed his eyes and shook his head. A few levels lower and they would be in danger of him rejecting the body again. What was going on in there?
Krolia was sitting at the feet of the black lion. The predators had been circling for the last varga around the outside of the camp, just past the range of the lights she had put around. They did not like light. She had moved the cow and mice inside of the blue lion and instructed them to stay put. No sense leaving temptation out for the predators to see.
Cosmo laid at her feet resting. He had been up for a long time and was just catching naps as he had the chance. She marveled at how lucky she and Keith had been to find him. He had made life on the whale so much easier. When those awkward silences would crop up, there was also the pup to play with. Keith had been lonely and bored and it had been good for him to have something to occupy his mind. Krolia hadn't needed anything other than seeing Keith. She could have just stared at him the entire time and been content. Though Keith had told her more than once to stop with the creepy staring. She had told him it wasn't creepy, she was just making up for lost time. His eyes had softened and he'd given her a hug. She smiled reliving the memories she had seen of him as a toddler hugging his dad, riding on his shoulders, holding his hand, he'd been quite the little love.
The predators had taken up their barking again. It bothered Krolia, made her skin crawl, there was something unsettling about the sound. Just as she thought that one jumped over the light. She slung a dagger at it and stuck it in the heart. It dropped nearly instantly. She walked over cautiously listening to the growls from the other side of the light. She pulled the dagger and wiped it off in the fur before throwing the body as far as she could into the woods. She heard more barking and growling as the others fought for a piece. There were more than there had been before, at least fifteen of them now.
It was nearly the end of her shift. She stepped into Black giving Cosmo the command to guard. He would alert her if anything happened.
As she came in Coran was shaking his head.
"Another drop?" She asked.
"Yes. Keith had one of the spells and then Shiro dropped again as he came out of it. Shiro must be doing something to protect them in there, I just wish I knew what was going on." Coran turned to Krolia and handed her the scanner. "If Shiro's levels drop to here." He pointed to a bar on the pod. "Call me. We will have to take action."
"I will. Coran, be careful, the predators are becoming bolder. One entered the camp earlier. Hopefully it's carcass will keep them occupied for a while at least."
Coran nodded and picked up his rifle before headed out for his turn at the watch.
Shiro's hand stopped glowing and Keith finally relaxed. Shiro fell backwards and lay panting on the ground. He was getting dim again, almost as bad as when they had first arrived.
"We need to share more memories, Shiro is getting too weak." Pidge wiped his bangs out of his face.
"No, it will just make him stronger." Shiro objected though he could feel himself fading. "You need to leave."
"Not going to happen." Keith declared.
"I want to show him something." Lance said quietly.
The memory started with Lance sitting in his room. He was staring at the black outfit he'd worn in the alien healing pod. There was a knock at the door.
"Come in." Lance shoved the garmet under the cover of his bed.
Kuron opened the door, he looked upset - frazzled.
"Shiro? Are you okay?"
"Lance, I woke up and I have blood on my shirt. I mean it's black, but I'm pretty sure it's blood. I don't remember what happened. We were in the club and then I was here. What happened? What did I do?" His voice almost broke.
Lance took a deep shuddering breath. Kuron moved forward to touch him and he jerked away from him. Kuron just stared or a moment.
"Did I hurt you?" He asked in a small voice.
"No." Lance looked at the floor. "There were some guys at the club. They…" Lance breathed deep again.
"Did they hurt you?" Kuron asked moving a little closer.
Lance nodded not trusting his voice.
Kuron sat heavily down on Lance's bed. "I'm so sorry. I should have been there to help you."
"You were. You killed them." Lance answered still not looking up.
"I…okay."
"Okay? You're not upset about that?" Lance asked finally looking at him.
"If they did what I think you are saying they did, then I am not upset that they are dead and I am not upset that I killed them. I only wish I could have stopped it." He looked up at Lance sincerely.
"Okay." Lance sat on the bed, far enough away that he wasn't touching Shiro. He put his arms around himself and pulled his knees up close.
"Have you talked to anyone?"
Lance shook his head no, "We aren't telling anyone."
"Lance, they will understand. They can help you." Kuron tried again.
"No." Lance shook his head fiercely tears starting to fall. "No, please promise me you won't say anything."
"Okay, okay, I won't. I promise. Maybe you can talk to me? I could listen?" Kuron offered.
Lance closed his eyes and shook his head no again and the memory faded.
Shiro glowed brightly for a moment and was then able to sit up.
"I don't know what to do." Pidge sat on the ground next to Shiro. "I don't know how to fix this."
"We're missing something. Something is wrong with what he said." Lance answered her quietly. "He wasn't Shiro's parasite, he was Kuron's. How can he take from Shiro like that? He only did it to Kuron because he didn't know he was there and couldn't stop him."
A faint glow broke through the dark clouds and another Shiro appeared. This one had the white streak in his hair, but was wearing white. Keith yelled and charged and Pidge joined him. Hunk brought up his bayard. The figure only held out his hands.
"STOP!" Lance yelled.
The others turned to look at him like he was crazy, but he continued. "It's not the parasite. Can't you feel it?"
"He's right." Shiro echoed. "It's not him."
Keith held his blade to the others throat, "Then who are you?"
"I am, well I thought I was Shiro, I guess you are calling me Kuron now." Kuron brushed Keith's hand away from his throat and continued toward Shiro. "He has been lying to you. He isn't able to take energy form you. You are giving it to him."
