Chapter 10
“Don’t go.” Dalia pleaded, she didn’t want Lance to leave. “I’m sorry, sweetie. I’ll come back as soon as I can, ok?” Lance kneeled in front of Dalia and cupped her cheeks. “I have to go help the universe, this is how I protect you.” Lance smiled and wiped away some of Dalia’s tears, “You’re going to get hurt! You might not come back!” Dalia cried loudly, “I don’t want you to leave.” Dalia was only 4 and a half but she truly felt like something horrible was going to happen, and it wasn’t just because she didn’t want Lance to get hurt. “I will do everything I can, just to get back to you.” Lance hugged his daughter tightly and gave her a kiss on the cheek before saying goodbye and walking reluctantly to his lion. Lance and his family had made an agreement that Dalia would stay with them while he was on missions so she was still with the family. Dalia didn’t mind her tías, tíos o tu abuela o abuelo (aunts, uncles or your grandmother or grandfather). But they weren’t Lance. He was just so similar to her mum, it made Dalia comfortable.
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The room was chaos. Pidge was trying to hack into the Galra system to stop the self-destruct mode on the ship, Hunk was surrounded by centuries and was receiving heavy fire, and Shiro was still the Cryo pod in The Castle of Lions. Keith wasn't on this mission, he had a mission with the Blade of Marmora. He needed to be on that mission. Lance was hiding behind cargo containers, he was afraid but he hadn't stopped fighting. Using the cargo as cover he accurately shot down Galra soldiers one by one, he focused on freeing Hunk from heavy fire but didn't notice the mage appear behind him. The mage quickly shocked Lance into a state of unconsciousness, the team didn't notice Lance's missing presence. "Haggar, I have captured the blue paladin. How should I dispose of him?" The mage asked, the old woman with long white hair, who wore a purple cloak covering her face responded in a raspy voice. "Take him to the interrogation room. I have some questions for him…" the mage did as he was requested. Lance was strapped to a metal platform, soon after Haggar entered the room. "You may leave." Haggar dismissed the mage and turned to Lance who had started to wake up.
"I see you're awake." the woman didn’t sound nice or forgiving, Lance groaned as he woke up, everything hurt. "That's a mighty wound, shall I fix it for you?" Without Lance understanding what Haggar was talking about he screamed in agony, Haggar had just sent a shock through an open wound. Lance hadn't noticed the wound before so he assumed he must've been shot around the time the mage took him away from the fight. Lance screamed again when Haggar shocked him once more. "Where is the pilot of the black lion?" Finally getting a break from immense pain Lance huffed out an answer, "I don't know!" Haggar shocked him again and asked the same question. Lance responded the same despite the increase of pain. Lance was dangling over the edge of unconsciousness or death. Even a slight increase to the shocks Hagger was sending through Lance would mean his second death. "Your efforts are futile, you will break soon. I promise that. Why do you insist on protecting them? They don't care about you, they would have noticed you had gone missing if they did." Haggar motioned towards Lance's Paladin helmet, there had been nothing about his missing presence. Haggar shocked Lance once more with enough power that Lance's body went limp, but he had not passed out, nor had he died. Although at that moment he wished he had died, the pain was barely tolerable. "I protect them because I care about them! I protect them because they are my family!" Lance had yelled loud enough to go through the intercom on his helmet.
"Was that Lance? Hunk is Lance not with you?" Pidge asked, "Yeah- wait no he's not! Oh no! Pidge you need to find him! I'll try to get out of this mess." Hunk was frantically trying to get rid of the centuries. "Hold on. There, all the centuries should be deactivated now. I'm pinpointing Lance's location and sending it to you Hunk." Within a few minutes, Hunk had gotten free and Pidge had given him directions to find Lance. The torture continued for Lance until Hunk arrived, Hunk broke into the room Lance had been held in to find his limp, weak, pale and unconscious body. Blood pooled on the floor, Lance’s wound hadn’t been cauterised by Haggar's torture so blood still streamed down his leg "Lance! Come on buddy, wake up!" Hunk shook Lance trying to wake him up but was unsuccessful. "Hunk! You need to get out! Galra soldiers are coming straight to your location, I can pause the self-destruct mode but it will only last for 5 minutes then it's game over." Pidge was frantically trying to find Hunk and Lance a way out, "Go for it Pidge, I'll figure it out on my end." Hunk said as he carefully untied Lance and lifted Lance onto his shoulder. Hunk carried Lance to an exit point where he met with Pidge. "We need to get him into a Cryo pod as soon as possible!" Hunk spoke frantically as his best friend's blood began to stain his armour. Pidge agreed with Hunk as they used their jetpacks to fly out to their lions, only narrowly missing the explosion.
"Ah- Paladin's welcome back! How did the mission go?" Coran greeted Pidge, Hunk and Lance with his usual chipper attitude. "Lance is hurt! Badly, he needs to get into a Cryo pod." Hunk started to carry Lance to a Cryo pod, "Wait! What happened to him?" Allura stopped Hunk but Hunk was in a panic about his best friend's condition, "Sorry Allura but we don't have time for questions." Hunk continued to rush to the Cryo pod room. Pidge activated a Cryo pod for Lance and he was placed gently in the pod. Hunk sank to the floor, "I didn't even notice he was taken. I'm such a bad friend!" Hunk had tears falling slowly, "You're not a bad friend Hunk, you couldn't even see him when he was there. He must've been captured." Pidge comforted their friend, "But he didn't even call out, surely he would've yelled or something?" Hunk was a mess, he believed he was the reason for his friend getting hurt. "I think we should take him back to Earth, the Cryo pod can only do so much. He should get checked by a doctor trained for your kind." Coran said gently not wishing to hurt the paladins any further. Hunk and Pidge nodded their heads. "What's all the commotion about?" Shiro slowly walked over to the rest of the team, "Shiro!" Hunk jumped up and gave Shiro a tight hug. "Uh hey, Hunk? What, uh what happened" Shiro slowly pulled away from Hunk to look at the others, "We went on a mission and they managed to get Lance and we heard him screaming and telling someone why he didn't give away your location?" Pidge said matter of factly.
"So you're telling me that Lance risked his life to protect you guys as well as Allura, Coran and myself? And now he's in a critical condition that the Cryo pod might not be able to heal. Is that right?" They all nodded, "we should let Keith know we're headed back to Earth. I'll open a hailing frequency now." Allura said before heading to the bridge of the ship, "No, it could jeopardise his mission." Allura turned to Shiro blank-faced, "But he needs to know! If he doesn't, how will he stay safe and protected?" Allura was slightly angry at Shiro's calm nature. "No, that's final. We are not opening that frequency, we cannot afford to risk their lives for a chat about what has happened on our end. Once it's safe for him, Keith will be in contact with us. Plus it's Keith, he's a strong fighter he can protect himself and he's with the Blade of Marmora he'll be fine." With a huff Allura let the subject go. "We should at least let Samuel know. Shouldn't we?" Allura turned to Shiro, "Actually that would be a smart choice, my dad would be able to get the best available treatment when he has been notified. I think we should leave Lance in the pod for as long as possible until the care has been confirmed from earth." Pidge interjected proudly knowing her dad would be able to help her friend. “Then it’s settled, we go back to earth to get Lance treated. And we don’t contact Keith, it would probably just send him into an uncontrolled frenzy anyway.” Shiro sighed.
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"He has suffered severe nerve and muscle damage to his right leg. It looks like the torture he received greatly increased the damage to his leg." The doctor said to Shiro, Pidge and Hunk, "So what does that mean for the future?" Hunk asked curiously, with a sigh the doctor responded. "He might not be able to walk ever again. And if he does he will be considered crippled and will need mobility aids." The group looked at each other, the room filled with a sad atmosphere, guilt washed over Hunk. Lance was going to be crippled for the rest of his life and it was all his fault. “Hunk, It’s not your fault. If it weren’t for you he would be much worse off.” Pidge rested their hand on Hunks arm, Hunk let tears fall before tightly hugging Pidge. "I have a question… Does Keith know about this? Or that we're back on earth?" Hunk asked. Shiro sighed softly, "He knows we're on earth but he doesn't know the full extent of the situation. Neither does Dalia… Iverson and Adam are getting her now." Shiro sounded worried and it concerned Pidge and Hunk. There was a knock at the door before it slowly opened, "Hello all, Dalia is here to say hi. Is that ok?" Adam had a sad smile, he let Dalia in after Shiro nodded. Dalia slowly walked into the room unsure of what she was going to see, as soon as she laid eyes on Lance she ran over to him and began crying. "Papi? Wake up. I- I want to see you smile, you promised! You said you would come back to me! Please! Hunk? What's wrong with him?" Dalia turned to Hunk who was also crying, Hunk kneeled and held his arms out for a hug. Dalia accepted the hug, "Hey sunshine, Lance is healing. Your father is very brave, he risked his life to protect everyone in this room. Including you. But because of his bravery, he got into a dangerous situation and got hurt." With his thumb, Hunk carefully wiped Dalia's tears. Hunk's own words helped to calm him and feel slightly less guilty "However, your father is so brave that he's going to get better. So we all need you to be brave and hope for a quick recovery. Can you do that?" Hunk gave Dalia a soft smile, and she nodded. "You are just like him. You’re so very brave." Pidge walked next to Dalia and smiled. "Sorry to interrupt but we should let him rest, we suspect that he's going to exit his coma in the next few days. The less stimulation the better." The doctor interjected.
"Adam? Do you know where my Papa Keith is?" Adam looked between Shiro and Dalia before answering. "He should be coming in within the next few hours. Would you like to wait for him with me?" Dalia nodded and followed Adam to the landing ground. Adam and Dalia talked about how Adam and Shiro became a couple while they waited for Keith, Kolivan, and Krolia to arrive. After about 2 and a half hours a ship landed, Dalia shot up from where she sat when she saw Keith and ran to him. "Papa Keith!" Keith caught Dalia in a hug and spun her around, eventually holding her on his hip with a wide smile. “Hey, sweetheart!” Keith laughed. Despite not being a legal guardian or remotely related to Dalia, Keith felt a sense of responsibility and love for Dalia. He blamed Lance for trusting him to be around her. Dalia hugged Keith tightly "Adam, how're things around here?" Keith asked, completely unaware of Lance's condition, "Uhh, well it's been better. You should come inside." Adam turned to head back inside and Dalia hugged him tighter. "When were you going to tell us you have a child?" Krolia asked as they started walking, Keith laughed a little. "I don't. Dalia here is Lance's godchild, but she calls me 'papa Keith' so I kind of help take care of her." Krolia looked at Keith then looked at Kolivan who shrugged. "How are the rest of the Paladins? Are they ok?" Keith asked when he saw Shiro inside, Shiro didn't answer but led Keith towards Lance's room. "We'll give you some time, he's not awake yet?" Shiro looked at the floor when he opened the door, Keith saw Lance in his coma and carefully put Dalia down.