Lance liked to think of himself as a man of many words, ones that could charm woman into falling for him in an instant and ones that made people believe that he was a different species. He was able to speak many languages, some that humans have never even heard of before and one that was even considered dead. His ability to twist the truth to the point that people would get lost in the facts and the fakes made him the best liar in his family, able to lie to even his teammates, who dug around his mind on a semi-regular occurrence, without a single doubt in their mind that his words were indeed false.
So, he could say with confidence this Galran was officially the first person to make him speechless.
Lance wanted to blame it on his concussion, however, the quintessence had fully dissolved into his system now, giving him the impression that he was floating slightly despite being able to feel his body against the ground. All his aches and pains had seemingly disappeared, as if they were never there in the first place, despite knowing that his back was currently an open mess of blood and charred skin.
Would he be able to blame shock? He doubted it, but being blown up by a bomb and then waking up to a Galran commander breathing down his neck and then being injected by quintessence is some decent grounds for shock, right?
(Then there was that nagging thought in the back of his mind about how exactly the Galran commander knew about him being a druid and his cheeks being slightly itchy in a suspicious sort of way, but he shoved those thoughts to the back of his mind and locked them behind a steel door. Nope. Not ready for those thoughts just yet. Just. No.)
"Well, little druid? I'd rather not be kept waiting," Lance stared up at the Galran, and smiled at him innocently. Slowly, he got up from the position he had woken up in, and was mindful of his injuries, despite no longer being able to feel them. Even stood up, the Galran was able to easily tower over Lance, something that he was mindful of, but otherwise ignored, pretending to not even notice the height difference between the two of them.
"As much as I would love to give up my… 'teammate'," Lance started, the Galran language rolling off his tough in the same way that he knew English would, in a same way that he knew English did, "I'm afraid that I do not know enough information to 'sell them out', as you may have notice, I was caught up in your blast, and thus, I only know where the Black Paladin currently is," Lance stated, smiling brightly and tilting his head slightly, making it seem as if he was honoured to be injured. The Commander narrowed his eye, and nodded.
"I'm sure there is other information you can tell me," He stated, his eyes going to look at Shiro, who was now silent in shock, looking between Lance and the Commander.
This was going to be so hard to explain once this was all over, wasn't it?
"I'm sure there's many things I can tell you about the Paladins of Voltron," Lance replied civilly, the smile falling off his face but the tilt in his head still there. The commander blinked as he turned his head to look back down at Lance, before smiling, all teeth and no lip. Maybe Lance should feel scared, or threatened, or submissive at the very least, but he didn't. He was feeling very confident, very daring, very powerful. Maybe it was the quintessence in his system, which make the dust particles sparkle in front of his eyes and his head light, almost like he was drunk without the dizziness and the nausea and the giggles.
Maybe it was wrong of him to feel like this, maybe he shouldn't feel like he could take on the entire universe with his bare hands, but he could feel the Galra in front of him underestimate him, he could hear the thoughts that Lance was on his side, and how druids were easily swayed to do what he wanted, and that thought explained the… modifications to his eye and arm.
The thing was, despite the atrocities that the species had committed, they were a proud race. It did not sit well with them to lie about who they were, or what they can do, and they could never be wrong, or at least they could never admit they're wrong. Alteans are much the same, which explained why they got on so well, and why, when they did fall out, why they fell out as badly as they did.
But Lance grew up surrounded by humans, he grew up pretending to be human. He was used to admitting when he was wrong, apologising for when he wasn't correct.
He was brought up to be able to pass as a human, and thus, he was brought up to be a liar, and he was a good one at that.
So, breathing slowly, Lance began to bow, moving so his head looked towards the ground and his back was bent slightly. He could feel his back twitch and begin to bleed new blood as he did so, and he could only imagine how painful his head would be at this point if not for the quintessence running though his veins.
"If you do not know where the Paladins are, then what of the Lions?" Lance smirked, and as he looked up at the Galran's staring as if he was about to answer, he caught his eyeline, and that was enough to enter his mind, though the Galran was none the wiser to the intrusion.
"Offline, in the hangers," Lance muttered had he maintained eye contact. As soon as he let go off it, the Galran would know that someone had been in his head due to having a massive headache, so the aim of this was to implant ideas, thoughts. If he put too many into his mind, it will confuse him, but the point was to make sure the information planted was utterly useless. A song that got stuck in his head on Earth, the taste of chocolate, the smell of freshly cut grass.
At the same time, Lance also lightly searched though the top most thought, looking through what the galran commander was thinking. None of it seemed really important, nothing that Lance could use against him. A gladiator fight with Shiro as the main fighter, a meeting in Zarkon about finding the Red Lion. All old information really, nothing that was surprising to know about, nothing that they would have to act on when this was all over and done with.
"What about the-" He never got to finish his sentence when there was a power cut, all the power going out of the room, causing the crystal to be the only light source in the room, as well for the Galran, Sendek as Lance had just learned through going though his thoughts, to turn away from Lance, cutting off the eye contact as well as the connection, causing the pair of them to scream out in pain, Lance collapsing to the floor.
All the use of quintessence made his body begin to shake with exhaustion, he should really be unconscious at this point, he vaguely thought. Except, there was still a lot of corruption in his system, which kept him wide eyed despite the overwhelming desire to just close his eyes and sleep for 10'000 decapheobs like Allura and Coran did.
"That was rather sneaky of you, little druid," Lance let out a groan when he was picked up suddenly, because while he couldn't feel the pain in his back, and he could only imagine what sort of pain it was now, he was very tired from what he had done, and when Sendek's face came into view, confused, and disorientated, Lance could only smile in achievement of what he had done.
Shiro was shouting again, for some reason or other. Lance didn't know, and he wasn't sure he cared too much at this point. His head no longer felt light like it did earlier, no, it felt heavier than an elephant, and he wanted to go to sleep. He wanted to be put down, and Sendek did not help this in the slightest by squeezing him tightly, getting tighter and tighter, making him feel like he was going to pop.
He needed to get out of this, he needed to be dropped, let out, thrown across the room, anything to be taken out of the situation. Lance let out a sob as the pressure continued, knowing that he should be in a lot of pain right know, but not feeling it throwing off his mind. Sendek was talking now, but Lance didn't care, because he could only focus on the fact that it needed to stop please make it stop please pleasestopitpleasestop-
The sudden lack of pressure, the sudden sensation of falling, the sudden emptiness of now a lack of corrupted quintessence (and the thoughts of "where did it go" to "good riddance) meant that he was able to finally close his eyes, and he was able to just not worry anymore, the floor feeling slightly soothing against his hot head as his back erupted with a wave of red hot agony that would make the devils of the pits look like amateurs.
He welcomed the void with open arms.
When the dead was done, Lance doesn't dare sit down, because while his legs were shaky with adrenaline and his head was light and dizzy form what he had done, there was the fact that there was collapsed human on the floor.
His mind was racing, with the daunting realisation that he done it, he really had done it, and he done it successfully, with the nagging thought that he was in so much trouble when Mama got home, with memories that weren't his, desires that he had stolen and thoughts that were almost poisonous to ponder one.
"Lance… What did you just do?" Lance looked up at Catharyne, the red slap mark on her face defining her murky green markings more somehow, tear marks trailing over them.
"She found out," Lance said, as if that explained everything, and it's at this point when his head started pulsing, almost like it was too full, which was a strange thing for Lance to comprehend for a second.
Because he was fourteen, still so young, but now not quite as innocent as his family want him to be.
"What the quiznek?" the pair of siblings quickly turned and saw Paulyne, holding poor 7-year-old Skye's hand.
"I accidentally walked in without my human form on," Lance whispered, noting his sister going into shock and the look of horror growing on Paulyne's face. "We tried to explain it to her, to calm her, but she didn't take it well." Lance looked back down at the unconscious body on the floor. "I couldn't let her leave with the memories, not with the state that she was in."
The rest of the night is a blur, Catharyne and Skye stay home while Lance and Paulyne take the girl to her home, and when she woke up again, Lance quickly slipped back into the chaos of her mind, telling her things that she wanted to know and taking the things that she wasn't allowed, finishing the job he had started, all under the resentful view of his older sister.
When they got home, Mama yelled. She never yelled. It was never in her nature to. Paulyne screamed about his actions and raved about how she would never be able to trust him or her own mind anymore, going on and on about how he could slip in whenever he wanted and there was thing that they could do about it. Lance cried silently at that, but he stood his ground. He said what he told Paulyne when she walked in. He said that it was his fault that she found out. That he was the blame. That he was sorry for risking the family, for being the reason why Catharyne's relationship ended, for practicing this art without someone knowing, for wiping someone's mind.
He stood by what he said. He lied to them all, and they did not suspect a thing. Catharyne cried to him later, said that she was sorry for what she did, said that she was sorry for putting him though that. Lance said it was alright, said that he would do more for her, do anything for her.
Lance knew from this day on that he was the bets liar in the family, and that is something that he always kept in mind, from when he went to school and applied to the Garrison, to when he saw two Alteans fall from a cryo-pod and four humans were given access to his deepest, darkest memories and thoughts.
Alteans were not natural liars. It never sat well with them to talk falsely of anything unless it was known that it was a made-up story, meant for younger kids and nothing more.
Lance was raised like that. He was raised on legends of heroes of old instead of magical fairies, raised to speak the truth and the notion of a lie was something that they never had to have go through their thoughts even once. But, at the same time, he had grown up surrounded with humans, who expected him to be the same as they were. There was a reason why he got along with humans better than the rest of his family. He was Blue, he was adaptable, he was able to be what they wanted him to be.
Humans were notorious liars. It would make sense if he was one too.
Falling was a sensation that Lance was not expecting after everything he had gone through, and he knew he was lucky to be caught when he was, because now that his eyes had focused more on the surroundings, he realised how close to the floor his face suddenly was, and how close he had been to landing on it.
He shivered lightly, and lent into the warmth that the person who caught him, signing softly, and closing his eyes, surrendering to the comfort. This person was like a furnace, but if the tense muscles were anything to go by, they were clearly not expecting this sort of reaction.
Tough luck kiddo.
He was just falling asleep when the person seemed to have had enough, and called out, "Uh, guys, a little help here please."
"Ugh, Keith! You interrupted our time measuring race- Wait! Lance is awake!" Hunk's voice sent electricity down his spine, and he jumped from the furnace person's arms (praise the 'Verse was he actually cuddling with Keith! Of all people! Nope. Don't remember. Didn't happen.), landing onto the floor, and he smiled brightly when everyone came rushing over.
Hunk didn't give him a chance to prepare before crushing him with a hug, and Lance let out a small laugh at his reaction, though his back feeling tender still. The others did not react the same as Hunk, however. Pidge looked confused, her eyes letting him that her thoughts were going a thousand miles an hour with no rest pits. Coran was tense, a look that did not suit the older Altean. Allura was the same, but she also held excitement. She too was thinking fast, but she knew what she wanted to find out. She knew what she wanted. Keith was his normal, closed off self, arms tight around his torso and a frown on his face. It was almost like he was emotionless, but Lance knew that it was all just getting to bubble out, and maybe not in a way that he could control.
Shiro's eyes were dark, closed off. He refused to even look at Lance, and it was at this point that Lance remembered that Shiro saw it all, saw every step he took, every growl he made. He had no idea what was said of course, unless he was fluent in Galran or had been giving a translator during his capture, but he saw him bow and there was no way that Shiro had no experience with a druid in the first place, not with the arm that he had attached to his body.
"I guess I have a lot of explaining to do, don't I?"
A.N. And we are done! I somehow got this into one chapter and I am emotions! Guys, it's almost been a year since I've started this series, and every update, no matter how long it's been since the last, I've always gotten such positive comments from all of you which warms my heart so much. Thank you all for being there for me to get this far.
The next story is called Green, but I'm not sure when it will be out. I've got some other things that I want to work on first some bangs that need working on as well as some projects that i still need to finish. I've also been getting into the habit of writing the entire story before uploading it, which will be better for the lot of us XD.
See you guys soon, I guess!