Gone and Mute

Chapter 1

The battle had been going really well, none of the Paladins could deny it. PIdge and Shiro had successfully gotten into the control room to get the last piece of the puzzle they needed to find Pidge's father. Keith and Lance had run off to work on getting the prisoners to an escape pod. It had successfully taken off too, taking them to a safe planet outside of Lotor's territory, right on the edge of the Galra empire. The ex-Galra base was almost completely evacuated when Hunk let out a yell over the comms several moments before the compound shook and even Shiro lost his balance as half the base exploded under a rain of missiles and slid off the edge of the snowy cliff.

Hunk's voice crackled to life again as Lance dragged Keith to his feet. "Lotor and his generals are back. We need to get out- we don't have the firepower to take them on."

The five paladins had just been expecting a small recon mission- the releasing of the prisoners had been a spontaneous, in-the-moment decision Shiro had made. So the only Lion that had been brought was Hunk's, to ensure a protected escape in case someone did happen to show up.

"Lance, Keith." Shiro's voice pushed through the firing from the other end of the hallway, nearing the two Paladins. "Get to the control room. Hunk, meet us here."

"Copy that." Keith pulled his bayard out, and Lance mimicked the action, before they turned and bolted down the hallway, taking a sharp left just as something whizzed past Lance's ear. He dared a glance around the corner and yelped as Keith grabbed him away from the lasers shooting at him from the two generals coming down the hallway- Zethrid and Acxa, Lance believed. The two Paladins continued running down the hallways. Keith had a map of the base pulled up and Lance could see a red line disappearing as they retraced their steps back to the control room.

Something flew past Lance's shoulder, nearly hitting him, and he pounced forward suddenly, flattening Keith to the floor as a ray hit and singed the wall. Keith let out a cry of alarm as Lance landed on top of him. Lance flicked his wrist and his bayard turned into his gun. He didn't really move from off of Keith as he turned and fired at the two approaching generals, one knee on the floor between Keith's knees and his foot on the other side of Keith's left leg. Keith lifted his head and pulled his leg out from underneath Lance, rolling onto his back and sitting up almost agonizingly slowly. Lance weighed much more than he appeared to.

"Go, go, go!" Lance yelled at Keith, grabbing his arm and pulling him to his feet. Keith stumbled forward as Lance pushed him further down the hallway, closer to the connecting corner that led to the last stretch to the control room.

Keith spun around, flicking his bayard in a similar fashion so it formed a sword. "I'm not leaving you, Lance!"

"Lance? Keith?" PIdge's voice crackled to life, although Lance could barely hear her over the lasers firing at him, and the lasers he was firing back. "What's going on?"

Lance dropped his guard for a mere few moments and opened his mouth to say something into his comm when something warm wrapped around his throat and suddenly yanked him off the floor. Pain shot from the nape of his neck down his spine, making his legs twitch as they dangled in the air. He was slammed against the wall, and his helmet clattered to the ground. His head collided with the metal wall and spots danced in his vision.

Only after the momentary pain had subsided did he notice the fact he couldn't breath. The palm of the hand grabbing his neck was pressed up against his larynx, forcing it back against his trachea and causing pain to shoot up into his jaw line. He choked on it, reaching up and trying to wrap his gloved hands around the thick fingers pressing into his lymph nodes and restricting his throat. He tried to pull, claw, anything to get the grip to loosen, but it just got tighter.

His lungs started to burn and he could feel his face getting cold. For a moment that seemed to stretch for eternity, the grip got impossibly tighter and Lance was immobilized, jaw slack in a silent scream and gasp for air, eyes shut tightly as tears streamed down his cheeks, before he was let go and collapsed to the floor. His legs folded underneath him and he keeled to the side, lying on the floor as he gasped for air past the dryness of his throat. The blackened edges of his vision were replaced with blurriness as the last of his pained tears leaked out of his eyes and rolled down his cheeks.

He took another gulp of air and the burning sensation finally began to subside, before someone grabbed his arm and dragged him to his feet. He started to cough and threatened to topple again, before strong arms wrapped around his abdomen and hoisted him into the air. He coughed as his stomach was pressed repeatedly into his carrier's shoulder piece, and for a faint moment, he swore something hot and sticky was forcing its way up his throat before he was moved again, this time to his back.

The ringing in his ears was deafening as he was moved from dark, to light, to dark again, and set down on something hard on his back. The sticky substance trickled back down his throat and he choked, rolling onto his side and trying to get it out before it could settle into his lungs. Hands grabbed at his arms and pulled him back, further into the dark. He felt something warm behind him and fell back against it, trying to make some sort of communicative noise. All it got was another dose of stickiness coming up his throat, trailing its way down his tongue, to the corner of his lips, and down his cold face.