Gone and Mute

Chapter 4

The blood rang in Lance's ears as he directed Blue towards a Galra intelligence ship. The bandages around his throat were restricting, and he reached up to scratch at them again before Blue let out a low growl in the back of his mind, ordering him to stop.

    "The damage has spread to a larger portion to your throat, so it might hurt to breath or swallow for a little bit, but I did the best I could in repairing the scars and keeping any more damage from happening. You just can't talk- don't even try to. Do you understand?"

Coran's words echoed in Lance's head and made a weight settle in the pit of his stomach. As much as there had been light (hopefully joking) banter about how the Castle would be quieter, what happened if Lance was injured? Or actually had good input on something that they were doing? No. Of course he wouldn't have good input. He was the jokester- the oblivious idiot that didn't know anything. It's not like they would've listened to him before. It mattered even less now.

He landed Blue carefully on the hull of the ship, and Red landed beside him. Keith had been strangely silent during the trip, and it was slightly unnerving. Had he and Keith really bickered so much that it was the only thing that filled the comms during missions?

He forced this thought out of his head as Pidge lasered a hole in the ship, and the Paladins got out of their lions and deposited themselves into the Galra ship. The trek down the hallways was easy and an unsettled sensation joined the stressed one in Lance's stomach. He kept glancing over his shoulder, expecting some droids to show up to apprehend the Paladins (only to be crushed in a short, adrenaline causing battle) but nothing showed. Even PIdge's scanners came up with nothing.

"I don't have a good feeling about this, you guys," Hunk said lowly, casting a similar glance over his shoulder, past Lance who was bringing up the rear. Lance silently thanked Hunk's instinct as they continued down the hallway.

"I still think there's intel on this ship," Pidge said quickly. "We can do a quick check for the information and if there isn't any, we'll get out."

Lance bit his lip but continued with the group, paranoia eating away at his gut. Shiro opened the door to the room and he and Pidge slipped in, leaving Keith, Hunk and Lance to guard the door. Not that it needed any guarding.

Hunk stood between Lance and Keith. Lance watched down one side of the hallway, Keith the other. Hunk glanced between both, swinging his bayard gun around every time hie did so. Lance lowered his own gun after several minutes of nothing, and turned to look at Keith who avoided his gaze. Lance looked down, wondering if he'd done something wrong.

There was a shout of alarm from inside, causing the three to turn around in alarm. Hunk tried to open the door but found it was looked, which elicited pounding on the door from him. Keith tried to jam his bayard into the doorway to pry it open, but to no avail. Lance watched with wide and alarmed eyes before turning and shooting the lock on the door. The metal slabs slid open to reveal an alarming fight, into which Hunk immediately threw himself. Lance was about to follow but was stopped by Keith grabbing his shoulder, giving Lance a stern look.

"Stay here and fend off any more guards if they come. We'll take care of things inside."

Lance watched Keith go and the lock sparked before managing to close the doors again, this time for good until some source somehow blew it up. It cut him off from the team, leaving him alone in the hallway. He looked over his shoulder, spinning a bit to look up and down the dark hallways. Something was stinging at his chest and he reached up to beat a fist against his armor, trying to get the heartache to subside. He couldn't deal with this now, not when he'd been left alone to deal with-

Something shot at him from the side and he ducked, rolling across the hallway into a small enclave the pillars provided against the side of the wall. He reached up and pressed a button that activated the comms, and he flinched at the sudden outpouring of noise that bombarded his ears. He opened his mouth to try and tell them his position had been compromised, that he needed help, but all that came out was a hiss of air, and then a weak cough that spent pain spiking up his throat.

A sudden shot of purple flew past his ear and he whipped around, ducking into the hallway and shooting at the sentries sent after him. One's arm fell to the ground and the other's head flew off before Lance's arm was grabbed by another pair of sentries that had been coming from the opposite end of the hallway. Lance let out a breath of alarm that would've been a yelp otherwise, and tried to grab his bayard that had fallen out of his hand. He merely managed to knock it further away and the sentries started to march Lance down the hallway, away from his friends. He tried to make a noise for help into his microphone again, praying someone would hear, but all that came back in response was Shiro barking at Pidge to retreat. Lance's arm dropped after a long moment of trying to get his friends to pay attention to him, and he slumped, giving up and letting himself go with the sentries.

A roar echoed through the ship suddenly and the tearing of metal could be heard from the ceiling. Lance reached up with his free arm and activated his full face visor before the oxygen was sucked out of the area, along with the sentries and the Paladins. Their jetpacks kicked in and they moved towards each other and closer to Blue, who had been the lion to tear open the ship.

"Lance, what was that?" Shiro cried over the comms as they drifted in a circle. "You could've compromised our position!"

Lance opened his mouth, but no noise came out.

"I'm sure it was an accident, Shiro," Hunk tried to defend. "We all know the lions react when their Paladin is in danger."

"Well then why didn't you say anything?" Keith turned to him.

Lance couldn't say anything.

"Oh, right. I bet you could tell us if you had actually listened to my lessons!"

Lance ignored the aching pain in his chest.

"We'll talk about this when we get back to the Castle," Shiro said.

Blue sent weak purrs of encouragement to the back of Lance's mind, but they both knew it was useless.