Rated T, though it can be M some chapters for:
-Detailed descriptions of blood, torture, past-child abuse, anxiety, and murder/contact killing.
-Light descriptions of muder/contract killing, fighting, training, child desensitizing, a whole lot of other crap.
-Cursing and mentions of sexual intimacy.
If you have a problem with any of this, I do not care. Don't read the story if it bothers you. I have a warning here, at the very first chapter. This warning will begin every chapter, wether or not some of it applies. Do not whine or complain if you read this warning, don't care and then are upset at me for being triggered or that shit.
Lance and Lilly McClain are born in 2064 to proud parents Maria and Steven.
When Lance and Lilly are five, they go through a series of tests by their grandparents. Lance is chosen, Lilly is not.
A month later, Steven turns up dead as the last known victim to the Blue Mask.
For two years, Lance is desensitized by his grandparents to death, murder, blood, and any other thing that would prevent him from embracing his life as a killer.. He then trains for two years in a multitude of things, along with school.
When he turns ten, his grandparents let him become the contract/serial killer known as Blue Rose.
He goes on supervised killings for two years before he is allowed to kill alone. Even then, on his birthday, he'll go on multiple kills to be tested and improved.
Then, on his sixteenth birthday, Lance gets an invitation to the Garrison. Lance then decides to make a deal.
'I will go to the Garrison until I graduate as a fighter pilot. For every day I miss, I 'll kill two people. Also, if I graduate anything less than a fighter, I'll kill another year's worth.'
Lance's grandparents agreed, and he left for school.
Lance made good for the first two years, before suddenly getting demoted at the beginning of the third year. A new fighter had joined and had better skills than Lance. This made him often mad at this new upstart. Lance may kill people and even enjoy it sometimes but the amount would be too much, even for him. But, soon his heart began to fall for the weird boy, without his brain acknowledging it.
At the middle of his third year, the Kerberos mission failed and the upstart got kicked out. Lance then went on to the next level. This is when his team formed.
Then a year later, Lance, Hunk, Pidge, Keith, and Shiro found Azul.
*o0O~O0o*
Lance sat in his room in the castle. Laid across his lap was his old suit and his mask. The mask that had been the last thing so many people had seen. The mask that had controlled his life since the day he was chosen.
Lance had found the secret cubby for personal items underneath the mattress. He knew it was a bad idea to bring his suit, mask, knives, hand gun, and just a few poisons with him that night. The warm pressure in his mind, that had appeared his first night in the Garrison, was insistent that he did.
As he sifts to lay back to think more upon how his life has changed, the scars that litter his body let out a small twinge of pain. Scars not from his job, no, but from the people who he unfortunately has to call his abuelos. Scars from his punishments, from not listening, not following through with orders. Scars that now twinge and itch and are constant reminders. He'll never understand people who wish for scars. All they are is a horrible reminder of what has happened and what you have lived through.
Of course, when his sister introduced him, in one of the few trips where he was allowed to see her, to beauty products, all the scars just...disappeared. Then, Lance went to the Garrison and that eventually led to him meeting Azul. His beautiful lion. She had known what his past looked like and his fears and the amount of hatred he held for himself, and still chose him.
Then, he was thrust into a war where he had to fake who he was. Fake his life. Fake even his family. Of course, that was no different than at the Garrison, but at least there, there was no way for people to mentally bond with him and see his memories and thoughts.
But, no one knew. No one will ever know. They'll hate him. Despise him. He is a monster. He killed so many people. So, so many people and he's still a failure. He can never make the team happy. But living so long without a childhood, when he was finally free, it should be perfectly fine for his repressed side to finally be free too, no? But they don't know and never will. They would kick him off the team. Separate him from Azul. Send him back to the monsters that made him this wa-
"Paladins, and guests, if you could please come to the control center for a quick meeting."
Lance was shaken from his thoughts by Allura's voice over the intercoms. He sighed as he sat back up, stood and picked up the mattress, leaned in, opened the cubby, and inserted his suit and mask. He shivered as the eye holes stared back at him as he shut the cubby and let the mattress fall back down.
Lance slowly left his room and walked through the halls to the main center. He could hear the chatter of the team and the newest guests. Recently, the team had found Shiro and Matt along with the Rebellion. Other than the obvious, only the leader and his council stayed on the ship. Then, finally, yesterday the leader and his annoying lackeys left to go and continue the Rebellion. As he entered, Allura's eyes flicked towards him and she silenced everyone's murmurs.
"Paladins, in celebration of finding Shiro and Matt and gaining a new alliance with the Rebellion, I would like to take you home to see your families and finally offer an explanation for where you have been."
Lance's easygoing grin that had been plastered on his face at some point during his walk, faltered as his mask fell and his body stiffened. This only lasted a second though before he replaced it, checking that no one saw before letting out an ecstatic yell.
As everyone turned to where Lance once was, he was standing next to Hunk who looked like he was about to cry.
"Finally! Buddy, I'm gonna meet your moms and you're going to meet the McClain clan! I can't wait to see Mama and Papi and Lilly and Alex and Sofia and Maria and Max and Vanessa and the newest twins!"
There was silence before Pidge let out a long whistle. "Dang Lance. I knew you have a big family but dang you have a lot of siblings."
Lance shrugged. "My abuela and abuelo help some but the latest twins were a surprise. Me and Lily were supposed to be the last, 'specially 'cause I was chosen."
Before Pidge could reply, Shiro interined. "Lance, what do you mean chosen?"
"Oh yeah," Lance chuckled nervously, "That… that was an agreement made by my father and my abuelos to marry my mother. They would test everyone of my siblings, and me, at five years old to decide to carry on the family business. I passed and was chosen."
Everyone was shocked silent by this piece of information and Lance slowly started walking out the room, heading towards Azul.
It will be fine, cub
Lance smiled softly at his lion's voice flowing into his head with soothing whispers of acceptance and love. He also loved Azul's voice for she sounded like when he would be embraced in his mother's arms after months of not seeing each other's faces or feel each other's warmth.
As Lance walked the halls, his body soon fell into autopilot until he found Azul's hall. Unknown to Allura's and the rest of the Paladins, as far as he knew, each lion has a hall in the castle that leads directly into the hangar. He had found it right after Sendak's attack on the castle while trying to find spots for him to lay and shoot in case an attack reached the inside.
Lance opened the door via handprint and slowly walked down the stairs. As he reached the hangar, the warm presence that lingered in his head increased tenfold. When he reached Azul, he let out a sigh of happiness and a small smile made its way to his face. He slowly sat down to lay down on her ginormous metal paw that extruded a warmth much like the sand on the Florida beaches.
He slowly fell asleep to the sound of Azul's voice singing a song in a long forgotten language, resting his worries and shooing self-deprecating thoughts away. As his eyelids lost to the darkness of sleep, he thought What happens now?
*o0O~O0o*
Back with the rest of the team, Shiro had finally gathered his thoughts and turned to Hunk.
"Hunk, you know him the longest. Did you know about this?"
Hunk shook his head and said "No, I mean, I've only known him since our first year at the Garrison and that's only because we shared a dormitory."
"Well, tell us what you do know," Allura's said.
"Okay, well. When we first met, Lance was silent and looked like he literally couldn't feel emotions." When he saw their disbelieving gazes, he continued. "I'm not kidding guys! He wouldn't talk to anyone, he didn't make or laugh at any jokes, the only thing he cared about was whether or not he passed the class." He paused for a minute then said "That and that stupid trunk of his."
"Wait, wait, wait." Keith said, walking up to Hunk. "You mean to tell me that Lance used to be quiet and was the exact opposite of the way he is now? Yeah, right. I am more likely to believe that Coran sings soprano in the shower."
"I'm serious, guys!" Hunk huffs out stomping over to where Keith stood, who was resting on his left leg while crossing his arms and rolling his eyes.
Shiro walked in between them with his arms up, much like he did when Lance and Keith got out of hand.
"Calm down guys. Keith, remember, this was before I got you into the Garrison. Hunk, you said Lance had a trunk that he cared about."
Hunk frowned, pulling up the memories from long ago. "Yeah. He had this black chest with little blue roses painted all over. It had golden outlines and was huge but I remember Lance carrying it, along with two bags of his stuff, into the room. He was also really protective of it. Like super protective. Said something about how it was full of family heirlooms and that bringing it was part of the agreement he made to come."
Shiro thought about this for a minute before crossing his arms and asking, "Anything else you can think of?"
Hunk's face contorted to one of concentration, before brightening up in realization. "Yeah! One time this guy in our dorm tried to pick the lock to sell some stuff for money and then went missing. A week later, his body was found, stabbed and shot beyond recognition."
Matt frowned at that before saying "I heard about that. His body was found only down the hall from my dorm at the time. Didn't the case go cold when there was no new evidence after a few months?" Hunk nodded in agreement.
The Alteans that were listening at each other with worry.
"I heated about that too and that's what worries me. Lance has more secrets than we thought," Shiro said, turning to face the hall that Lance had left.
Hey guys, I'm back. Now the timeline is for people who want to understand his childhood more. (It's really a bit basic details, more to come later.) Also, from the point the timeline ends it's mainly canon but changes will be noted later. Also what do you think about the chapter? I really suck at dialogue and am (if I say so myself) amazing at detail, though it used to be the opposite. Chapter posting days will be on my profile. Hope you enjoyed the chapter!
Real quick, I should probably mention the difference between Contract Killers and Mercs. See Contract Killers is literally in their name. Contract killing is a form of murder in which one party hires another party to kill a target individual or group of people. Compared to Mercianaries who manly focuse on a matiriel reward, they are known to kill, they do many other things. This is where the confusion sets in. Sorry for ranting but when you right a story like this one, you get mad when someone questions it. I got a PM that went a complete rant about how mercs and CKs were the same thing. No they are not.
~SpritNeigeNouzarAneal