Every time Lance moved his unswollen eyelid, there was a creak.

This was more confusing than he was able to cope with. It bugged him. Didn't matter how much he hurt, your eyelids weren't supposed to creak!

"Looks like we found the right place this time."

Lance glanced up and caught only a glimpse of a larger man. He didn't know who it was but he knew it wasn't a friend. He'd been down in that basement for days; how many, he still couldn't tell. But long enough that his stomach had stopped asking for food.

"Too bad Kevin couldn't show us where he put you or we would've been here sooner," the man said and ruffled Lance hair, "in a sense you could say we're your saviors! We've saved you from a slow death!"

Other foot steps could be heard above their heads and it finally came together that the creaking had been the floor boards, not his eyelid.

()

"Allura, do you have anything?" Shiro asked.

"Shiro," Allura's voice came through the com unit pointedly, "We've been looking for almost a week…i told you that i would call you once we found something…did i call you?"

Shiro opened his mouth to argue, but Allura cut him off.

"No, Shiro, you called me, so is it really logical to ask me such a stupid question?"

"We've looked EVERYWHERE!" Shiro couldn't take it, "We've turned this entire state inside out! If you can't find anything, then what do we have to rely on?!"

"We found three other missing persons," Iverson said shaking his head, "but not the one we wanted."

()

"…Murder suicide….no, papa is too selfish…where could they be hiding…they aren't moving or we would have run into them by now….the ones we caught arn't talking…i'm missing something…a motive…a link…stupid police not letting me interrogate them….they'd talk if i had one minute alone…"

Pidge looked over at hunk. They were in the garrison library and Vik had holed herself up under the desk. By now all her nails were nibbled down to the quick; at least she'd stopped crying. She curled up into the darkest corner and hugged her knees as she muttered to herself.

"Paul and Keith are awake and the doctors are finally letting them have visitors," Pidge said poking her head under the desk, "maybe we should go talk to them?"

"Getting out of the library would help you think more clearly," Hunk said.

"….yeah…i wanna see dad…"

Hunk helped her wiggle her way out of the small space under the desk and they walked out of the library.

()

Keith flexed his hands, the scabs on his knuckles pulled and itched.

How had he lost so easily? He'd fought large purple aliens! He'd gotten into mass fights before, and won! These guys had kicked his butt back to kindergarten and then added salt!

"Keith!" Shiro ran in with a scowling nurse behind him, "How are you doing? You ok?"

"…don't know," Keith said, "i don't think my pride has ever gotten a blow like this."

"Oh well, if its only your pride," Shiro embraced him awkwardly through all the wires and tubes that surrounded him.

"Doc says i broke a few ribs…" Keith muttered. His lip also felt weird. He'd had a split lip before, but this one had needed stitches.

"And fractured your arm," Shiro said, "along with all the other injuries, they were kind of amazed you were still in one piece."

"…I reopened the side one," Keith said, impressed that a wound that had already healed had split open again, "didn't know that could happen…"

"Now we do," Shiro said sitting on his bed, "Now that you're awake, Iverson can pull a few strings and we can get you to the castle and into one of the healing pods if you like."

"Shiro…"

"yeah?"

"…how hard do you have to be hit to end up with brain damage?"

"Keith-"

"Cause this hurts, Shiro," Keith felt his eyes burn, "this really hurts."

"AAAAAAAA!"

Shiro was up and had his hand activated before he realized that it was victoria. She had run into the room and dive bombed onto the bed. With a wild grin she looked at Keiths shocked and stunned face and laughed.

"Tears?! For real?!"

"Victoria, that's-"

Shiro was about to scold her and was contemplating throwing her bodily out of the room, but she reached out and wiped Keiths face with her sleeve…and then pinched his nose and giggled. she leaned forward and tilted her head to look up at his face.

"Tears are for the ending," she said, "this is the middle of this story, so now is for the stoic and stiff upper lip. Now is when you realize how messed up your enemy is and you must rise above and defeat the evil!"

She stood on the bed and gave a little bounce as she raised her arms out to either side.

"Now is when you grin and bare your teeth and laugh in the face of danger! MWAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Shiro looked over at Hunk and Pidge who were still standing at the door way. They just shrugged; they'd given up a LONG time ago.

"I-I'm sorry," Keith leaned away from her, not comfortable with how familiar she was behaving, "I couldn't help Paul or Lance or-"

Vik laughed, "anyone who can bounce back and put up a fight after getting a back hand from papa deserves a knighthood. but i'll need to consult with Lance on that first, so i'm making you a squire until further notice."

()

"So this is the castle," hunk said jumping out of the van Iverson was driving. Victorias eyes widened and she ran up to the ship. Shiro and Pidge helped Keith out of the back and carried him into the castle.

"Lance's lion is in her hanger," Allura said as kindly as she could, "would you like to see it?"

the princess had no idea where she stood with Lances sister. Layla loved Allura, but vic hadn't even glanced in her direction since she'd threatened to shoot her in the face. Vik nodded and followed Allura into the castle. Hunk and Iverson followed them.

"…Hunk was telling me that the lions are alive?" Iverson asked, trying to get a better understanding of the technology.

"More or less," Allura chuckled, "they choose their paladin. there is a special bond between a paladin and their lion."

"How very convenient," Vik sneered, "The one that attaches itself to Lance is the one that was left on this planet. And then you wont even let them send a message home, right, Guin?"

"Believe me, it wasn't planned," Allura said, forcing herself to be nice, "It was just how things happened. and my name is Allura, Princess Allura."

"Mmm," Vik grinned showing her pointed teeth, "i see."

"And we turn here to get to the hangar," Hunk said loudly. there was more animosity than he thought was safe between the two girls.

They entered the blue lions hangar and Vik beamed up at the large cat.

"OH! KITTY!"

She ran up to the barrier and even before she touched it the barrier lowered itself.

"WHAT?!"

"Well, i guess they are twins?"

"What just happened?" Iverson asked as Vik, blissfully ignorant, ran around the lion.

"I guess Blue is ok with Victoria flying her," Allura muttered, her face twitching slightly.

"Um, Allura?" hunk asked, "What is the blue lion qualifications? you never really said."

"Che," Allura turned on her heel and stormed out of the hangar, "You show her around!"

()

"See? I told you it would work," the man said patting Lances head. they had shoved food down his throat until he'd stopped throwing it back up. It wasn't what you were supposed to do, but they all seemed to think it was funny how quickly it would come back up.

the strangers had cut the zip ties around his wrists and had tapped his forearms together in front of him instead. His hands burned as circulation was reintroduced to the ends of his fingers.

Lance tried to count how many people he was dealing with, but they were constantly moving around and leaving and coming back in, and his head was spinning too much to get past the number four. But one thing he did know, the ugly guy was always around.

His face was covered with facial hair and his eyes were a hard and cold brown. When he talked Lance could smell his breath and it was a solid effort to not retch. The smell of his previous sick was already starting to get to him, but with all the other bodies and unwashed mouths breathing, the air was rank.

"Now that there's hope for your recovery, what do you say?"

Lance thought for a moment and couldn't think of a single thing to say other than, "tooh…psst.."

Smack!

"Sorry," the man said kindly but with a warning, "i didn't catch that?"

Lances ears rang and he held his breath. What was going on?

"..i..i don'..know..?" Lance swallowed hard as the man gabbed a handful of his hair and jerked his head back.

"you say 'thank you'. We saved you. You owe us. Kevin thought he'd raise the price! You were supposed to be sold to us a long time ago, then that silly bastard went and got thrown into prison for really stupid trumped up charges. Did you know that? Did you know why your old man was in prison?"

Lance knew better than anyone why his dad was in prison; He had put him there.

"Oh yeah, the authorities fished him out of a ditch last week. Sooner than i would have hopped, but they don't know where we are or they would've come by now. Jamie over there says you got a lot of high end friends looking for you. So high end that two of them aren't even registered anywhere. who might they be?"

Lance scowled. who might they be?

"Well…" Lance said slowly, "if you're talking about the cyborg, he's registered. He just doesn't have fingerprints on his right hand anymore. And if you're talking about the really short one, its rude to think Pidge is special just because of her height-"

Smack!

"Next time will be a closed fist," the man said, "We're talking about the white haired girl and the orange haired man. We caught a glimpse of them leaving the hospital after we beat the livin' daylights out of your friends. who are they?"

"…Aliens," Lance said and laughed. the fist hit with solid accuracy and Lance spat out a tooth, "…i liked that one…"

"Let's try a different angle," the man said grabbing another chair and sitting right in front of Lance, "You are going to tell me about all your friends, the ones you went missing with. Let's start with those."

"Mmmm…why?" Lance couldn't fathom why these guys would need to know. Wasn't he here because his papa wanted to get revenge because mom remarried and humiliated him? This wasn't making any sense!

"Monroe," the man gestured to a guy leaning against the wall. Monroe walked over and took out a knife. Making a small cut on Lances shoulder, he took one step back

"Every time you say something other than the answer i want, that cut is going to get deeper and deeper until your arm comes off completely. Now, tell me about your friends."

"Rrrrrriiiight," Lance mouth was a lot more dry than it had been, "ummm…well…two are short…and two are tall? um…i don't know…what you want to know…"

The man nodded to Monroe who grabbed Lances arm again. Lance gritted his teeth as he was sliced in the same spot. He had to think.

He didn't want to think.

He had to find out what they wanted.

He had to keep what they wanted from them.

He wanted to sleep…

Smack!

"Talk."

"Shiro…is awesome," Lance said slowly, he was shaking and he didn't want that to impede his speech and make Monroe cut him again, "he…he's a really good flyer…pilot. A true hero, ya know? Umm…Keith is really good too…but i hate him, so…yeah…umm…Hunk cooks and is really good with, ya know, his hands, and things….Pidge is…well…how do i explain pidge…"

"So this Shiro guy is the most dangerous?" the man asked.

"Shiro?" Lance blinked and laughed a little, "the guy is a teddy bear…he'll offer you a hand before a weapon…"

"Who is the most dangerous?"

"Danger…Dangerous…" Lance racked his brains, "…Pidge…she's the meanest. could kill you with a look…Haha! She once..she once took on, a large guy…had to be about five times her size…hahaha, she…she really awesome…Bedivere…definitely Bedivere…"

"The second most dangerous?" the man asked slapping him again.

"Umm….Hunk…yeah…Hunk is a cruel guy, but more of a follower, ya know? Kind of like Monroe here. When he's with Pidge they're a complete monster. But they're both weakest when they're with Shiro…because he's so nice he kinda just rubs off on everyone else…"

"He's the liability?"

"He was tortured and his arm was cut off, what do you think," Lance said and pulled his arms closer to his body and away from Monroe. Talking was becoming a little easier again, but he was still slurring and his shaking hadn't stopping. He hopped he wasn't giving anything away. He hoped they believed everything.

"Good," the man grinned, "Monroe, make sure this brat-"

There was a banging on the door and Ugly jerked hi head at one of the men by the wall. The man stood and left to see who was upstairs.

There was a high pitched scream and a blast, then heavy foot falls moving toward the back and near the basement door. Guns were drawn, but not one was prepared for the arrival of a large purple alien.