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As Color Fades Away

Chapter Seven

One mad scramble later and everyone was on the bridge, clustered behind Allura as she activated the console to pull up the transmission.

She frowned though at the text that swam to the front of the screen.

"What is it?" Shiro asked, stomach dropping. It wasn't a false alarm, was it? A transmission from another planet, a distress beacon?

"It is a recording," she announced quietly, dark hand hovering over the play button. "It is not a live transmission."

Meaning they could not influence whatever the Galra had already done. It was just like with the Blue Lion; they could do nothing except listen. Allura's hands clenched white-knuckled on the console in frustration. She was sick already of these games; two and a half quintants had already passed with no word and now their response was to send a pre-recorded message?

Damn them.

"It is from the Galra though," Coran confirmed, voice heavy with something Allura could not quite identify. "Their signature is on the receiving log."

"Lance," Hunk whispered from behind.

And despite the urgency of the situation, the desperate desire to have some answers, Allura found her hand hovering over the control to play the message.

Her father had shielded her from the worst of what the Galra Empire had done, but she knew from her time post cryo-stasis that the atrocities and horrors he allowed under his rule had only grown since the fall of Altea. Prison camps and genocide and slavery and... Her gaze flicked to Shiro, more specifically to the metal arm she knew the witch Haggar had forced upon him.

It was not the only scar she knew the Galra Empire had left their Black Paladin with. He tried to hide it from them all and Allura did believe he was mostly successful, but given her need for less sleep than the humans she had been awake far too many times and observed him walking about the castle in the dead of night, sometimes with a determined stalk of patrol and other times with a sweat-soaked shirt plastered to him and a haunted look in his eyes.

She had never once confronted him as she had sensed Shiro was like her; he did not like to show weakness. Still, she had had the mice follow him at a discreet distance to make sure he made it back to bed, although far too often they reported he had gone to the training deck instead where he often ran laps until he near collapsed from the exhaustion.

Allura hated to admit she had no experience in how to handle the situation and so she left it as was. Until it got to the point where Shiro's sleepless nights were affecting the team she would prefer to let him handle things how he found best; she knew he was only twenty-five and such an age was still a near child in Altean but in his species it was about a quarter lifespan; he was fully grown and capable of making his own decisions.

The other Paladins though... they were so young. Had she known their ages and how they reflected on humans she wondered if she would have ever asked them to be Paladins of Voltron. She hated that she likely still would have. They were fighting a war, the future of the universe at stake, and if fate had called then there was no choice but to answer.

Still...

She had no idea what was about to be on this recorded transmission but she doubted it was something children should be privy to. But if she were to start viewing them as children now then she was doing a disservice to their title of Paladin. They were no longer children in that regard; they were warriors. They had seen many of the horrors the Galra Empire had done.

Was it so wrong that she wished to shield them from this one?

"Princess?" Shiro inquired and she realized her pause had been more than a few seconds.

They were all waiting for her.

She swallowed, her hand absolutely not shaking, and pressed to accept the transmission before she could regret it.

The screen in front of them lit up and even bracing for it, Allura was not prepared. Hunk whimpered and Keith and Pidge swore, the girl's voice a soft tremble, and it showed just how shaken Shiro was that he did not even attempt to correct them for their language.

They were finally able to see Lance.

And Lance...

Oh Alaaran. Allura clutched her hands together, eyes tracing over the form of her Blue Paladin.

He was restrained to a chair, straps cutting across his wrists and another one on his chest, which was rapidly raising up and down as though he had just finished an exhausting training run, save for the fact there was a definite tremor to him as well. She had a sickening feeling it may be related to the glowing probes that were littered across his torso and arms.

Shock conductors.

They were shock torturing her Paladin.

It was not only that. There was a blood-soaked bandage wrapped about the boy's torso and cruelly one of the probes was situated atop it. Allura's stomach clenched at the blatant cruelty atop what was already there. Lance was pale too, no doubt she was certain from the loss of the blood, as well as the other injuries that had to paining him; marks she recognized as laser burns and given the recording they had heard in the Blue Lion made sense with how he had been captured.

His eyes looked sunken, dark bags beneath them and she must have whispered that observation aloud as Coran responded with a murmur, "Dehydration symptoms. Fever too; his cheeks are flushed."

Pidge's inquiry as to whether they were feeding Lance came back with a sickening answer. No. No they were not. They did not appear to be giving him anything. Food, water or real medical attention.

Shiro's prosthetic clenched with a grinding force at the state Lance was in. He had known the Galra were not going to be kind but this? This? This was not how one treated a prisoner of war, which given his status as Paladin of Voltron Lance was. And Lance had been in that state for over two days?

The Galra were beyond despicable.

The video had been silent to that point, but all of a sudden there was sound, although nothing discernible. Lance though thrust his chin up, eyes narrowing slightly at whoever was to the right of the chair and offscreen.

It made Shiro give the faintest sigh of relief. If Lance could still find some measure of defiance it meant they hadn't broken him.

Not yet, at least.

He hated that he even thought that.

"Repeat after me and you will be rewarded," a voice off camera said, a terrible familiar rasp that had Shiro letting out a gasp.

Haggar.

Haggar was there.

He had almost forgotten what her voice sounded like, those memories buried as deep as the rest of them, but now he couldn't believe he ever had.

There was no mistaking that low tone, dark humor coloring nearly every word.

She was saying something else then but he couldn't hear the words, just the tone.

It really was her.

His head was beginning to ache, a pressure building behind his eyes. It was a pain Shiro was intimately familiar with.

A memory was trying to lodge itself free.

He groaned, pressing his flesh hand against his forehead as though that could push it back. He felt someone else place a hand on his upper arm – Keith, he identified, touch light but grounding with its clear concern.

It allowed Shiro to open his eyes – when had he closed them? – and he became aware that everyone was looking at him, the video paused in the background.

"Shiro?" Pidge asked, voice small and he felt guilt pool hot and heavy.

He was scaring them. He normally was able to ward off the memories without an audience but this time...

His head pulsed again.

"'M fine," he managed, not fine at all.

"Shiro—" Allura began.

"Later," he interrupted. Please. Not now.

Allura frowned, lips pursed, but she gave him a slow nod and turned back to the recording. Keith kept his hand on Shiro's arm and he flashed him a small, grateful smile.

On the screen Lance seemed pointedly trying to ignore the camera, eyes still narrowed in likely Haggar's direction.

"Greetings, Paladins," came Haggar's voice.

Lance's jaw clenched.

A moment later the probes covering his body lit up bright purple and Lance tensed, veins protruding from his neck as he clearly tried to keep from screaming out. It went out for a few ticks before the probes re-flared and Lance screamed, tossing his head back and slamming it against the chair with an audible thunk.

By the time the probes finally died down Lance was listing sideways in the chair, tremors racking his body and breath coming in harsh gasps.

Allura paused the video.

No.

She did not want them watching this any longer.

They did not need to see this.

Hunk was a mixture of ashen and green and seemed to only be remaining on his feet due to Pidge's hands fisted in his vest, who was trembling just as badly. Shiro was pale, although Allura would bet it was as much from seeing the horror being done to Lance as the sound of the witch's voice, while Keith looked overall the least affected but was betrayed by the rigidity of his posture and the barely perceptible shaking of his fist at his side while his lips were a thin line.

And Coran.

Allura had never seen him look so heartbroken and yet so, so angry.

She would admit she was momentarily frightened by the expression. Coran had been a part of her life since the moment she was born and she viewed him as practically a second father. She had seen him at highs and lows and all matter in between but this?

She had never seen this.

It was too much for them all.

"No more," she said quietly, gaze drifting about the room. She would watch the video, learn whatever it was that Haggar hoped to share. They did not have to see anymore.

"No," Hunk was the one to first protest to Allura's surprise.

"Paladin, I do not–"

"I'm staying," Hunk said, voice fierce above the shaking and Allura was taken aback by the vehemence in the tone.

She supposed he was still angry with her from earlier.

"Me too," Pidge added, voice small.

"Paladins," Allura tried again, looking to Shiro for support. He shook his head at her and Keith was a steady presence at his side. She turned to Coran and he gave her the same.

They were all staying.

"Very well," she said quietly. "Let us... let us continue."

"Greetings, Paladins," Haggar sounded on the recording.

"Qu-quiznack you," Lance snapped, his voice not even sounding familiar; cracked and broken and in so much pain.

Hunk whimpered, the sound swallowed up by Lance's screams as the probes lit up.

It was a terrible pattern to watch, as Lance remained stubbornly silent, broken up only one other time by another reiteration of "quiznack you." It was after the fifth time that instead of gasping for breath, Lance was choking and spitting out blood.

He blacked out several times and the first time it happened they hoped that would be the end of it, Pidge sighing in relief.

But it was not to be.

A large Galran had stepped into view, a syringe in hand. And they had been helpless to watch as he depressed the liquid in it – an adrenaline shot, Coran had surmised – into Lance's neck that each time had him jerking back to consciousness with a gasp and moan of pain and confusion, that would clear somewhat as Haggar continued to repeat her words for Lance to copy.

"Greetings, Paladins," Haggar intoned after Lance had come to again.

This time though, rather than remaining as stationary as his trembling and jittery limbs from the shocks would allow, Lance weakly shook his head against the chair, eyes closed.

"That is enough," Allura paused the video once more her own hand shaking. It had been nearly twenty minutes of repeated torture upon torture and Lance screaming with what little remained of his voice. Hunk had already puked twice and Shiro had broken the bar running along the console.

Her voice softened. "The Blue Paladin – Lance," she corrected, feeling that the title was too formal at this point to describe the wounded, tortured boy on the screen, "would not want you to see this and neither do I."

"Princess," Hunk weakly protested.

"That is an order," she stated firmly. More gently, "Paladin, please. This is torture to you as well. Please. If there is a message here I will share everything. But you are no longer to watch this."

"How can they do that?" Pidge cried, shaking so much she looked ready to topple over. "There's no point! We can hear her just fine; Lance doesn't need to say it!"

Allura bowed her head. They all knew there was no point to what Haggar was doing other than to cause them all to suffer.

Pidge sniffled, rubbing at her eyes and trying not to look at the frozen image of Lance on screen, slumped and bleeding and looking defeated.

That was not Lance. No mater how many times he got knocked down the Lance she knew always got back up. He didn't look like that. He had no business looking that hurt and scared and in pain.

That wasn't her Lance.

That was not the Lance who would invade her personal space, hanging over her shoulders or draping himself across her lap and forcing to her pay attention to him like some pesky kitten when he was bored and despite her outward annoyance she appreciated the distraction, the reminder that life didn't have to be serious all the time. Not the one who would give her a hug when she was feeling down or drag her to dinner to make sure she ate (or sic Shiro on her when she wouldn't listen to him) or gave her piggyback rides around the castle when she was feeling particularly playful and engaging in pillow forts and fights and pranking and confusing the Alteans with Earth customs.

She couldn't put that Lance with the one screaming and bleeding and being tortured by Galrans. He'd scared her half to death when he'd suffered the bomb blast (and although she hadn't said it that was one of the reasons that solidified her decision to stay) when he'd been so lifeless in Shiro's arms and even after in the healing pod. And this?

This was worse.

This was so much worse.

"Coran," Allura called and Pidge found a large hand descending on her shoulder a moment later. She tilted her head up, taking in Coran's profile as he managed a small, tight smile for her.

"Come along now," he murmured, steering her towards the bridge door, pausing on the way and lifting Hunk by the back of his vest where the larger boy had ended up on the floor following his last vomiting session as though he weighed nothing, settling him back on his feet. "Let's get some tea brewing for us all, hmm?"

"Go," Shiro said gently as Pidge looked over her shoulder at him. She nodded and allowed Coran to lead her and Hunk out.

She knew Lance wouldn't want her to see this either. It was the only reason she was leaving.

She would still never be able to forget. Lance's broken screams were going to be on replay in her mind for a long, long time.

"You two as well," Allura said, looking at the remaining Paladins.

"I'm staying," Shiro said firmly, having regained himself with the interlude. He was not going to leave and force Allura to watch this on her own. He was the reason Lance was in space in the first place, why Haggar was even a name known to them all. It was his duty, his responsibility, his penance to see this through.

"Me too," Keith said, his hand still on Shiro's arm, but gripping the fabric unconsciously between his fingers.

"Keith—" Shiro tried.

"I'm staying," Keith said stubbornly. He wouldn't lie and say he wished he could leave. Watching this made him feel sick, his stomach a mess of knots. He'd never liked seeing anyone in pain and never, never like this. He wouldn't have wished something like this on his worst enemy and despite Lance's insistence to be his rival and how much the other boy tended to annoy him he did consider Lance at least as a teammate and this was wrong.

But he could see too how it was affecting Shiro; he could feel his pulse picking up tempo from where he'd grabbed onto Shiro's wrist and the sweat beading along Shiro's hairline. He might not be able to do anything about Lance's situation but he could make sure that Shiro did not suffer through this alone.

And if Lance could endure this... then he could too.

Allura let out a breath and gave a short nod. "Fine." She did not like this at all and she especially did not wish for one as young as Keith to be present, but he was indeed stubborn to a fault and if Shiro did not insist she could not either.

Her hands were trembling again but before she could lift one back to the control she was surprised to feel a heavy hand settle on her shoulder. "You don't have to do this alone," Shiro murmured. "We're a team."

Team.

Allura had never before included herself with the team of Paladins. She was the princess, the taskmaster, the one who resided on the outskirts but never got close, not really.

She...

She was grateful for the inclusion, the show of solidarity.

"Thank you," she murmured, placing one of her hands atop Shiro's on her shoulder and drawing strength from the metal, warming beneath her hand.

And with a newfound strength Allura pressed play for hopefully the last time.

Haggar repeated the greeting once more, and there was a different lilt to her tone, an excitement. She too had apparently seen the change.

And this time...

Lance spoke.

"Gr-greetings," he rasped out, head tucked down and shame dripping from the word.

"Oh, Lance," Shiro whispered, aching to reach out reassure him that it was all right. There was nothing to be ashamed of here. He for one was glad Lance was relaying whatever message this was as hopefully it would end this torture.

At least for now.

He hated that he already knew it wasn't over.

"Paladins," they heard Haggar prompt and Lance's answering whisper of the same.

The next piece went smoothly on Lance's end, as he relayed that Zarkon had a message, although in direct comparison to Lance's shudders slowing Keith's were picking up. Shiro glanced down at the dark head but Keith was staring unblinkingly at the screen while his free hand clenched and unclenched at his side and his lips were a thin, nearly invisible line.

Keith had always been a doer. He'd been that way since Shiro had first met him, after he had come out of his self-imposed shell of apathy that he'd had no choice but to place upon himself. Keith could be reckless, he didn't always think things through, but his decisions were his own.

And now he could do nothing except watch.

Shiro did the only thing he could and pulled him a little closer.

Lance seemed to be worsening, only managing half of the next sentence before giving into a moan and hunching forward on the chair. He was rewarded with more shocks and his body spasmed although no cry issued forth from his chapped and now bloodied lips.

"Come on," Shiro murmured, as Lance gagged out the word "trade."

"The life of the Blue Paladin for the Black Lion," Haggar rasped from the side.

And Shiro's heart froze as Lance's eyes opened and widened and he shook his head. "No," he whispered, continuing to shake his head. The probes lit up, almost angrily, and Haggar repeated the line over the sound of Lance's screams as the pain was too great to do anything else.

"No!" Lance cried out. "No, Shiro no-"

He screamed again.

"The life of the Blue Paladin for the Black Lion."

"Please, no," Lance gasped. "Por favor."

Tears were now dripping down Allura's face and her fingers were crunching the metal on the console, further denting it from where Shiro's prosthetic had dug in earlier. Keith had stopped shaking, horror keeping him frozen.

Shiro felt like his heart had been ripped open and was being pulled further apart as Lance blacked out and the Galran with the syringe moved in again.

They weren't going to stop.

"Lance, please," he whispered himself. "Please just..." Say it, he pleaded silently. They knew what the Galrans wanted. Lance didn't have to keep suffering this anymore.

"The life of the Blue Paladin for the Black Lion."

And as if Lance had heard Shiro's silent prayer the boy let out a strangled sounding sob rather than a protest. "The l-life of the… of the…" Lance's head lolled, exhaustion dragging it down. "Me," he continued, barely audible. "For the Black L-lion." Lance picked his head up then, pain-filled blue eyes looking directly at them. "No. Sh-Shiro no, you c–"

The probes lit up again.

Shiro felt his own eyes watering, crying for Lance who had no tears of his own to shed.

He was going to kill Haggar.

Haggar then instructed Lance to give coordinates for the place of surrender and he mumbled them, pausing intermittently to cough and gasp. One time was too long of a pause and Haggar shocked him, although it did little to rouse him or elicit a reaction.

"His body... it is shutting down," Allura breathed, hand over her mouth in horror.

The Galran appeared once more and emptied another syringe into Lance's neck, a trickle of blood flowing down now from the repeated jabs. Lance's eyes fluttered back into forced consciousness and Haggar repeated what sounded like the final phrase. Shiro prayed it was so.

Lance's eyes were glazed at this point, lips lips barely twitching as he spoke. "We l-look for..ward… your ariv-val." The recording continued for a moment, just enough time for them to see Lance's eyes widen in horror before it cut off to a black screen.

That had apparently been the message.

All of that to deliver a set of coordinates.

Next to Shiro Keith let out a low moan of distress and he felt his arm slide down Keith's form as the smaller boy went to the ground, hunched over his stomach.

Shiro found his own legs giving way too as his head pulsed with the full torrent of pain and memory he had desperately been trying to hold back.

He didn't let it form, he couldn't give into it now.

He wasn't entirely successful. Flashes of memory knifed their way into his head; Haggar's laugh, a metal table, pain of shock prods ushering him out into the arena, sand and blood squelching between bare toes and the laughter and jeers of the crowd echoed as surely as Lance's screams had done just moments before.

A hand descended on his shoulder and Shiro reacted instinctively, grabbing it with his prosthetic at the wrist, flesh hand on its forearm and going to heave, to throw the figure so he could... so he could...

He froze halfway through the action as the jeers of the crowd turned into murmured words and the figure he was grabbing was not struggling but had instead brought their other hand around to place on his other shoulder and squeezed it; not a painful grip but a secure one.

He blinked and the blood and stone and sand rushed away to be replaced with a head of white hair kneeling in front of him and the hands on his shoulders led to Allura, whose face was pinched slightly in pain at his grip but she did not move.

"Shiro," she murmured as his eyes moved to meet her jeweled gaze.

He felt his face flush with embarrassment. He'd just... to the princess...

"Peace," she said, giving his shoulder another squeeze and he hurriedly released her hand and arm, wincing at the reddened marks imprinted around her wrist from his prosthetic. "It is all right. Are you all right?"

"'m fine," he mumbled. "I'm so sorry, Princess. I–"

"It is all right," she assured again and moved to offer him a hand up.

"Keith?" Shiro asked, accepting the lift and nearly stumbling as Allura pulled him up with no apparent effort on her part.

She inclined her head to the left, where Keith was sitting up against the console, knees drawn to his chest. Shiro felt his heart clench. He hadn't seen that pose in... in years.

Shiro crossed the floor and bent down on one knee. "Hey," he said gently, tapping the top of Keith's gloved hand. "Keith, look at me buddy."

No reaction.

"Keith," Shiro repeated, moving closer and tipping his chin up.

Lost purple eyes glanced upward at the movement. "Shiro," he whispered and Shiro was both surprised and not to see tears gathering.

Keith was not as cold-hearted as most seemed to think he was. Shiro had known that from the moment he'd met him and despite the circumstances he was grateful that Keith might finally be willing to open himself up some to the rest of the team. To his friends. They would see too the caring person beneath the fiery demeanor.

"It's going to be okay," he promised, pulling Keith into a hug and the other boy returning it, burying his head underneath Shiro's chin.

Shiro cast his eyes up to Allura, who gazed at him with something he couldn't quite identify. She made a decisive nod with her head though.

"I shall set our course immediately. We will retrieve Lance." Their eyes met and he could feel the intensity and sorrow in them as she grappled with the weight of her decision. "No... no matter what it takes."

"No matter what it takes," he repeated softly, feeling the pain in his chest restrict the tiniest bit. He had her support for whatever the fate of the universe took as they embarked to save their teammate.

He would do both though. He would rescue Lance and protect the universe.

He would protect them all.

Author's Notes:

Apologies for the delay! Ff dot net was having some alert issues and I did not want to upload until they were fixed. Due to the delay I will not be uploading a chapter this Friday as normal, but depending on the response you should be looking for one come Sunday instead :)

Poor everyone this chapter. -hands out hugs- Everyone now, go give your favorite Paladin (or Altean) a hug. They need it.

As always, a huge thank you to my amazing reviewers. I do not know what I did to deserve such lovely comments from you guys. Absolutely blown away. Shout outs go to: Guest, Ace.s (And thank you for the translation; I used it!), DawnoftheShadows, Remi Rukh, Alexa, Swirly Rainbow, fandomspotatoes, Jackson Cipher Overland Frost, wingedflower, deaththecripple, Guest, Abbeyisactualtrash, The Striking Storms, LishaChan, KarleighH, PaintedWings45, QuintessentiallyEccentric, Eeveecat1248, guest, Satan, StrawberryFever3, Ramune, FanaticFangirl2602, Lycinder, Guest, Silly Styx, backdraftt, cookiebook322, Ranger McCorkren, DoctorMerlinReid, and Lady Zephyr.

I'd love to hear what y'all thought of this chapter! I hope you enjoyed everyone's reactions as much as I enjoyed writing them. I know this is primarily Langst, but everyone is going to get some. Because I am an evil person like that :D

On a happier note, I am currently drawing all of the Voltron cast to debut at ACen at my table in the Artist Alley. You can check out my chibis (dark writing, cutesy art, I know it's odd) on my facebook page, link in profile.

Thank you all for reading and please do click that review button before you leave the page! Appreciate it!