Krolia set down on an asteroid.
"Why have we stopped?" one of the guards came up to her.
"This is where we are waiting for our contacts," she said.
"These are not the coordinates that-"
She shot him and the other guard behind him.
"Never said they were Roshaks contacts," she said. Pidge and Hunk stared wide eyed. Krolia pulled out her blade and showed them so they would relax a little as she undid their restraints.
"Now," She said looking at Pidge, "if you could replace the panel behind your back and not cut those wires, that would be preferable."
"Ehe," Pidge and Hunk gave sheepish grins and did as they were told.
"So are we really waiting for someone or are we going back to get Shiro and Keith right now?" Hunk asked. He really wanted to hurry and rescue them so they could get back; Coran and Lance must be worried sick about them.
"I received a message right before I left," she said and a small grin appeared on her face, "Seems someone isn't taking any of Kolivans reasonings and is wanting to meet up to rescue all of you. I thank the stars its worked out so far."
"Farrah," Pidge said at the same time Hunk said, "GG."
"Which means Lance probably knows we've been captured," Hunk said.
"There's no way Farrah would let him come this way," Pidge said, "He'd lock him in one of the cells before that would happen."
"Lance is the brown haired boy?" Krolia asked. Pidge and Hunk nodded. "Then he's already with Haggar on the ship we just left."
"No way…"
"How?"
"She saw an opportunity, and took it," Krolia said, "I was not privy to your capture, however, or I would have tried to intervene sooner."
"So you're just fine with her torturing Lance?" Hunk was mortified, but Pidge patted his arm.
"She's under cover, Hunk, she wouldn't be able to do anything without being caught."
"I'll have to leave with you guys after this," she said, "this will be my shortest and most unsuccessful mission."
"Sorry," Hunk said.
"I don't mind," she said, placing a hand on his shoulder, "Family first."
()
Keith gazed at his arm. He couldn't believe it.
It was a Galra arm; dark and clawed. The left side of his face throbbed and slowly he looked at his right arm.
It was human.
Only part of him had changed. Why?
"You look like a Batman villain."
Leave it to Lance to make what should be a horrifying experience into an irritating one. Keith turned to snap back at him and ended up slamming his head into a set of bars.
"8.5," he said.
"Don't rate it!"
"Boo, poor sportsmanship."
Scowling and sitting up a little more carefully he found he was in a cage. A cage. Did the Galra even do cages?!
"She wasn't sure how you'd react; apparently the last half-blood she experimented on flipped out and destroyed an entire planet all by himself. So there's no way you're breaking those bars."
Looking up he saw Lance strapped down with large welts on the corners of his mouth. He looked terrible, but he was still smirking. On the other side of him was a large container of quintessence, it was about half full.
"How…"
"Well, the castle was attacked. I like to think we put up a good fight. I told them I wasn't allowed to leave, but they vetoed that order. What's your side of the story?"
"Got shot down," Keith said poking at his arm, "But how did this happen?"
"Quintessence is a weird substance," Lance said doing a really bad impression of a deep voiced narrator, "In its raw form it will kill everything upon direct contact with a living beings blood stream. EXCEPT for Alteans and Galra and maybe two or three other races."
"And you?"
"I'm an anonom…anammolly…"
"Anomaly?"
"That," Lance nodded, "…I can't feel my nose…"
"Its still there."
"Oh good."
"Where is everyone else?"
Lance sighed, "Shiro was here a bit ago…the witch messed with his head or something and then she took him away probably to kill him slowly…he's probably still alive. That was a few minutes ago after you stopped twitching. She got a kick out of making him watch you hurt."
Keith already felt sick, now he felt really sick.
"And before we play the 'protagonist game', I just want to remind you that its Haggars fault for being crazy, that's all."
"What are you talking about now?"
"You were about to say something like 'its my fault' or some stupid thing like that," Lance sighed, "Its all over your face…even the purple side."
Keith had to admit that he did feel it was his fault, and it didn't help that he was stopped before he had a chance to say it. He looked up to say something but noticed the container of quintessence was almost empty.
"Where is it going?" he pointed to it.
"Ohhh, that," Lance flopped his head to the other side, "yeah, Haggy is getting impatient. You see, she's-"
The door opened and the witch walked in with two others carrying another container.
"Switch it quickly," she ordered. Lance let out a low whistle.
"This is my fourth one. At this rate I'll have a month long episode!"
He sounded amazed, not afraid, which weirded Keith out. It creeped him out more when Lance started to take bets on how long his voice would last.
"Where is Shiro?" Keith asked. Haggar glanced his way but didn't say anything.
"Where are the others?" Keith tried again. Haggar raised her hand and the Galra stopped what they were doing.
"Never mind, let this much refine," She said. They dispensed with the needle and instead replaced the head strap and the bit.
"What are you doing?!" He shouted as the witch left the room.
()
"You've got to keep it together, Shiro," Allura shook him. They had taken his arm and retrained his other one by strapping it against his side.
"How? I've let this happen."
He was in a daze and Allura couldn't for the life of her snap him out of it!
