Journey Of A Thousand Steps
No one saw how it happened, but they all knew the exact moment. After all, they all heard the scream.
It was like no scream most of them had ever heard, it was primal filled with so much fear and agony it sounded like something right out of a nightmare.
Shiro knew screams like it. He had his fair share of those screams during his year as a Galra prisoner. It was a noise he wanted to forget, it was something he hoped to never hear from his team.
It was Hunk that finally broke the terrified silence that followed the scream with a single world shattering word.
All at once everyone started talking, desperately trying to get a response from the blue paladin. However, even when Shiro called for silence all they heard were soft painfilled whimpered.
“Pidge where is he?” Keith asked his breathing fast ready to run at a moments notice.
“North of the big tree” she yelled and everyone bolted.
Hunk reached him first, he wasn't able to do anything but throw up in the bushes.
Thankfully Keith was a bit more put together, and even though he went pale and shaky he was able to get to Lance.
“Lance?” he asked softly.
Lance was staring wide eyes and unseeing at the sky, his face an ashen grey drained of blood. Which really wasn't a surprise considering he was missing a leg.
Thick dark blood pooled beneath him from a stump of where his leg once was. It was cut roughly like it had taken a few tried to actually get through the bone.
Keith felt bile rise in his throat but thoughts to keep it down. He wanted nothing more to curl up somewhere and pretend this isn't happening.
That he would go to sleep and wake up with Lance smiling and whole.
Hunk removing the armour around Lance’s leg snapped him back to reality.
“We need to stop the bleeding,” he whispered tilting up the wound above Lance’s heart level.
Keith nodded and pulled off the armour on his arm as to get access to the thick rubber-like material underneath. It wasn't ideal but on the battlefield, it was all they had.
He used his knife to cut the arm away and was about to stretch it over the wound when Hunky shook his head “he needs a tourniquet”.
Keith nodded shakily as she doubled the material and wrapped it tightly around the top of Lance’s leg and used his knife handle to twist it until the skin below turned an uncomfortable blue.
The bleeding slowed at least.
By time Shiro showed up the pair were frantic. Lance had lost so much blood he had begun to shiver despite the sweltering heat of the planet.
Shiro knew what he had to do. He also knew that if he did this and it saved Lance’s life the boy would never walk again.
Afterall a prosthetic needed the nerves to function and Shiro was about to fry Lance’s.
He hoped that Lance had passed out and wouldn't have to be awake for this. They weren't so lucky.
Soon as Shiro powered up his hand and pressed it to the stump the same strangled scream ripped itself from his throat again.
Lance thrashed around desperately trying to get away.
It killed Hunk to have to hold him down so Shiro could keep going. The look of terror and betrayal in Lance’s eyes would haunt him till the day he died.
To categorise the entire opening Shiro have to do it twice, the second time Lance tried to scream but no sound came out.
Only a hoarse sob followed by silent tears.
The scent of cooked flesh filled the air but the job was done.
“I'm sorry kiddo,” Shiro said softly as he scooped Lance up into his arms, he expected him to fight to get away. To be terrified of him after the pain he just inflicted.
But instead, all Lance did was rest his head against his leader's chest and cried.
They ran to the lions and got back to the castle as fast as possible with Shiro not loosening his hold for even a second.
Pidge had gone ahead to ready a pod. She gasped when she saw them “he-his leg. Shiro where's his leg?”
Shiro ignored her in favour of lowering Lance into a pod.
“Allura… I had to burn the stump… do you think a prosthetic is still a possibility?” Shiro asked.
Allura shook her head solemnly “ I'm afraid not… not like yours at least. Perhaps once he has healed we could try a simpler one but he won't be able to move like he did before.”
A crash brought everyone's attention to Keith “goddammit! Why Lance?! Why does Lance deserve this out of all people?!”
“Keith...” Shiro tried but he found he didn't really have an answer for him. They don't know why or how this happened, it could have been an accident or Lance could have been targeted for all they knew.
“What matters now is that were are here for him… it's going to be tough for a while.”
Pidge swallowed “what… what about Voltron? There's no way Lance can pilot Blue without a… with how he is now. He could get hurt or w-worse.”
Shiro looked around the room at the teenagers in his care and suddenly felt very old. He’s seen people go through this, even before he went to space he had seen other children with the same condition as him just show up one-day missing limbs and telling themselves that at least their alive.
No one else had really had to deal with seeing someone become so broken before, every other injury had been solved with the seemingly magic Altean tech… but this time there was no miracle solution.
And Lance had to suffer because of it.
“We can cross that bridge when we come to it, there may be planets out there with more advanced medicine then was we currently have and they can help him… in the meantime… Allura can you get us somewhere safe where we can hide out for a while… in an emergency I want you to pilot Blue but I want it clear to everyone, we are not replacing Lance simply letting him recover. Understood.”
There was a chorus of various forms of confirmation.
“Good. get some rest I'll watch over lance.”
No one moved, but then again Shiro didn't expect them to.
That night everyone slept around Lance’s the soft constant beep of his heart monitor allowing their worry to rest even for a little bit.
However soon those beeps turned frantic then into one long drawn out sound.
