Marks of changes - chapter 10
It's been three hours
Lance couldn't describe the feeling that spread through his heart, it was toxic and dark and terrifying and heavy. God it was so heavy. It pulled at his soul threatening to bury what little hope was left that Keith would walk through the doors to the silver dining hall.
Lance found himself lost in his own mind, images of all possible things that could have happened that caused Keith to make him wait spiraling and twisting until he couldn't distinguish witch detail match with witch nightmare and they melted into one demonic mass of pain and fear. Images of Keith bleeding out on the floor with bullet holes and knives and glass and shards of metal and burn marks littered across his skin while hundreds of figures stood over him their faces changing with each passing second.
"Lance!" The blue Paladin flinched as his mind crawled from with in itself. Lance blinked a few times feeling his eyes crust from exposure to air for to long. "Dude, you good? You looked like you were kinda lost for a second there"
Lance blinked the last of the images away, bringing himself back to reality to see Pidge leaning on the table next to him, her arms crossed, face stern and slightly annoyed but her eyes showed her concern. "Yeah..." Lance cleared his throat, finding it scratchy and painful due to the lack of use it had endured in the last few... hours. "Sorry, what time is it?"
"It's almost noon, you didn't show up for training so Allura sent me to come find you." Lance took that moment to notice that Pidge was clad in her green and white Paladin armor instead of her normal green sweatshirt and shorts. How hadn't he noticed her armor as soon as she walked in? How hadn't he notice her walk in?
Somewhere amongst the questions in his mind, one in particular slipped from his slightly parted lips. "Did Keith go to training?"
Pidge shook her head slightly "Who went to get him, Pidge?" Lance asked slowly, almost afraid of the answer.
She wouldn't look at him. Why wouldn't she look at him? Lance leaned forward slightly, his arm propped on the table next to a plate of untouched food goo, long forgotten. "Pidge?" Lance could feel his anger slowly rising. He knew that Allura wasn't thrilled about Keith's... complication, but if she dared to...
"Allura didn't send anyone to get Keith, she told us to let him rot alone in his room" her voice was quiet, saddened. As if the words coming out her mouth could possibly hurt her as much as they hurt Lance.
"SHIT!" His voice was foreign to himself, but the anger it came from? That was all Lance. "How dare she? How dare she treat him like that while I've been in here waiting for him for hours worrying my ass off! How DARE she think she's worth any more than him!"
"Lance I know..."
Lance didn't give Pidge room to finish, he could hear her starting to DEFEND Allura as if in some crazy reality she might have had reason to do what she had done "No Pidge! No you don't! You know what? You did your job! You found me! Now go back and tell her to screw herself!"
Pidge sighed, a sigh of defeat but also a sigh of relief. Keith was as much a brother to her as lance and Matt were. And to hell with anyone who disrespect her family. "I'll be sure to pass along the message. Where are you going?"
Lance, in his rage hadn't even noticed he was moving, his feet echoing harshly as he walked out the dinning hall door, pausing only momentarily to glare in the direction of the training hall before stalking to the living quarters, calling over his shoulder "I'm going to check on Keith. Where the hell else would I go?"
Lance could feel his blood raging in his veins, the liquid careening through his heart and to his extremities. His feet barely pausing on the smooth floor before pushing off again.
His head thrummed with constant rapid beating of his heart in in temples, while hate swirled through the rest of him, unwilling to allow him to think of anything with out seeing red at the edges of his vision. How dare she! Leave him to rot?! Keith is a Paladin of fucking Voltron for gods sake! If he was a danger to them, Red never would have accepted him as her Paladin!
Lance rounded a corner, his right shoulder connecting harshly with the panel of the wall. Lance spun on his heel driving his left fist into the corner, a deep growl escaping his throat as the skin of his knuckles split and a singular drop of blood fell that paved a trail down his hand before wrapping around his wrist and dripping to the floor.
Lance tensed, his fingers tightening into fists at his side as he once again started down the hall, his feet clapping loudly on the flooring, but the war in Lances mind drowned it out. How could Allura stand there and act all high and mighty when she's said these horrible things about someone who's saved her ass on so many occasions?! Better question how could Shiro stand beside her when this was Keith? Keith! His little brother?
The scream made Lance stopped dead, the blood in his veins going from an inferno to a tundra in a millisecond. If hell ever freezes over it would feel just like this, sickening drop in the stomach, throat closed, hands shaking, and heart stopped between beats as it was slowly encased in frosty ice crystals.
Lance had never heard a scream that raw and damaged, but it was undoubtedly Keith, lance had become so accustomed to Keith's voice the last few days, he could recognize It from a mile away.
The hallway blurred as lance broke into a sprint, the anguished screams getting louder with each step. His feet didn't even touch the floor as his body moved, his mind several steps behind him, trying desperately to catch up to the instinct driven body it had been cast from.
He skidded to a stop I front of Keith's door, it was closed, blending almost seamlessly into the walls, leaving only the faintest of a crack to indicate another room. Lance hated this door, the amount of times he stood here imagining what stood on the other side.
"Keith!" Lance pounded the heel of his palm onto the flat surface! "Come on! Open!" Lance yelled panic settling in. "Keith!" He was Sure Keith couldn't hear him over his own screaming. Lance wedged the tips of his fingers in the crease of the door pulling as hard as his muscles could. The door didn't budge. Damn it! Why won't it open! With one final pull the panel jerked, throwing lance to floor as he lost his balance, his head snapping.
Lance scrambled to his feet before entering Keith room, frantic. What he saw, broke his heart. Keith was writhing, thin trails of blood dropped from his ears that were pressed flat to his head, his hands latched over them claws digging into his scalp. His eyes clamped shut, but lance could see the tear trails that had slipped through the prison of lashes that shielded his violet irises.
Lance dropped to his knees, placing his hands on Keith shoulders "Keith, what's happening?"
Keith screamed again his claws burrowing further into the indigo fur on his ears, blood seeping through his fingers, trailing down his cheeks to his chin where it slid down his neck and beneath his dark gray shirt.
" Stop it! Your hurting yourself! Keith what's happening?" Lance pried Keith hands away from his ears, clasping them in with his own. He tried hard not to notice the way Keith cringed when he spoke or how his cries intensified every time lance spoke.
"It... loud... ITS TO LOUD! I... I can't... I" Keith yelled, his voice was raw and pained, broken.
"What do I do?" Keith squirmed in Lances grasp as he restrained keith blood tipped claws from doing more damage.
"Make it stop... make it... stop!"
Lance didn't think twice as he released Keith's wrists and snaked his arms around Keith's waist before shifting Keith into his lap. Lance left one hand on Keith's hip bone to balance him while the other tracked lightly up his spine, threading his fingers into the dark hair at the base of Keith Galran ears, where hair and fur collided unnaturally, yet seemed to mix almost perfectly.
Lance let his fingers explore the area before he gently drew Keith's ear to rest on his shoulder, pausing only long enough for Keith to lift the appendage from where it had been flattened, flinching slightly. "Just focus on me, focus on my voice, my breathing. Focus on my heart beat."
Keith's ears twitched. Lance knew his heart was erratic, he could hear it even over Keith's pained screeches, but Keith was listening. "Just listen to my heart beat..."
Keith slowly relaxed, very slowly. They sat there on the floor, Keith wrapped in Lances arms while his ear was pressed to Lances chest, long enough for the blood that had been dripping freely to slow down. Lance sat in compleat silence, save for the occasional wine that escaped from the small purple figure in his arms.
"Shhh... listen..."
0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.
The velvet chain snapped, bolts of pure magic energy shot out, scorching the walls around the alter. Shadowy clouds shrank away from the crimson orb as it throbbed powerfully before it vanished from sight, sending a wave of force through the circular room.
The Galran witch gasped as her magic was broken, her arms falling to her sides as the last of the magic energy twirled around her limp fingers before fading.
Hagar scowled, that spell was unbreakable. It shouldn't have dispersed until the transformation was completed. No matter, she had what she needed, And more. An energy source she had felt before, one of power and an untamed hear, one of rage and instinct. One of fire.
"Lady Hagar?" A voice called from beyond the entrance of the alter.
Hagar tilted her head toward the door, the cloth of her robes falling over the steps that jutted from the far walls as she glided to the panel washed in deep purple. When the panel slid out of view, Hagar moved her eyes to the floor, allowing her hair and hood to shield her markings from the soldier who stood waiting. "Prepare the fleet for departure immediately. Set a course for the Karthulin system"
The gray armor clad Galran started to protest " Our fleet doesn't have clearance for that-"
Hagar has him pinned to the wall in seconds, restrained by a shifting wall of purple essence that pressed against the armor he wore so proudly, crushing it slowly against his chest cavity.
"Set. A. Course. For the Karthulin system" she hissed, he voice strong and unwavering yet almost silent.
The armor groaned under the eminence pressure, the metal warping. The soldier could feel the edges digging into his skin, sending warm trails down his chest "Of course, Is there anything else I can do?"
Hagar allowed her magic to disintegrate, savoring the sound of the body colliding with the floor and the residual sounds of scraping aluminum, as the body scrambled to its feet. Hagar dragged herself back through the threshold of the alter, not even glancing over her shoulder as she spoke "Inform Lord Zarkon that I have located the Red Paladin of Voltron"