I am so sorry this took so long to update. My family has had a few things go wrong in the past two weeks that made it kinda hard to find time to write. Anyways, here’s part two. Inspired by a prompt from my literal goddess. Thanks for giving me courage, @taylor-tut Hope y'all enjoy.
Tags:Lance whump, Langst, electrocution, our boy get hurt, whoops, Keith cares.
“Alright bag it up and meet us back at the rendezvous.”
Shiro turns back to where Pidge and Hunk had stopped ahead in the tunnel, taking sips from their water packs.
“Lance and Keith found the artifact. We’re going to meet them back at the rendezvous, then head back to the village to finish up the treaty.”
The group slides the water packs back into their spot and begin the journey back towards the rendezvous, still scouting out the hallway for anything out of place. As Shiro pans the wall with his torch, he listens to the sounds of the temple and the nature lurking outside. Water drips somewhere behind him. An animal scurries through the passage in front of them, the sound carrying. As they near the exit, a wind blows gently down the tunnel. It’s almost calming. That is, until the wind switches directions, coming from inside the temple, and the speed picks up violently with the temperature. The three paladins quickly crouch down in a huddle as debris and dirt races over them. It lasts for moments before it stops instantly and the sound of silence fills the narrow space.
Sound returns in the form of Pidge coughing. “What was that?”
“I don’t know,” Shiro states as he rises from the crouch,” but, it probably isn’t good news. Is everyone okay?” Shiro takes in the state of Pidge and Hunk’s armour, as well as his own. A fine layer of dust is layered on top, and it seeps into the cracks. Their faces are painted an ashy grey, as is their hair.
“Same here,” Hunk huffs as he stands up.
“Keith? Are you and Lance okay?” Shiro tries over comms. Only a burst of static replies as dust trickles down from the ceiling of the passageway. Shiro curses.
He sighs in relief before replying. “Are you and Lance okay?’
Keith pauses on the other side of link as rocks scuffle in the background. Keith is probably moving to a more stable spot. But, that means he was very close to the explosion, meaning Lance was, too. “I can’t see Lance.”
Shiro motions for Hunk and Pidge to head outside and do a safety check while he talks to Keith. “What happened?”
“Lance went to get the relic,” Keith explains as he continues moving over the rocks. “He went to grab it and it just blew up. I don- Lance!” A scramble can be heard over the link as Shiro hears Keith slide down some rocks.
“I found him, Shiro.” The relief flooding Keith’s voice is clear. “He doesn’t look too bad.”
Shiro’s reply is cut off as Hunk comes back into the tunnel. “Shiro, we have a bit of a problem. There’s a Galra cruiser coming at us and it’s coming fast.”
“Keith, we have a problem.”
Sound filters in. Smoke permeates the air around Lance and the owner of the hand shaking him. Keith is in front of him, a worried look on his face as he speaks. Dust is ingrained in his mullet and armour. Lance takes a peek at the cavern, but only sees pieces of rubble and dust
“-ance? He- with me?” The world seems to spin and fade for a moment and Keith disappears. “Lance?” Keith is back, closer this time. “Hey, you okay?”
“Wha’ happened?” Lance slurs. It’s a little hard to form coherent words when your mouth feels like you’ve eaten a pillow, apparently.
“You touched the thing and it went off like the Fourth of July.”
So that’s why his body feels like he crashed to Earth in a bolt of lightning. Ouch.
“Oh? Lance, you blew up part of a temple,” Keith states, the vexation seeping into his voice. “There isn’t time for this. The Galra are marching up here right now. We’ve gotta go.” Keith start to pull Lance up, causing his world to spin. But, like Keith said, there isn’t time for Lance to mess something up again and be a burden. He’s got to soldier through it. It was Lance’s fault anyways, wasn’t it?
So, Lance manages to stay on his feet once Keith gets him up, even with the world spinning around him and his limbs tingling. He’s determined to finish the mission, then sleep for about 10,000 years.
“Come on,” Keith says over his shoulder as he starts up the small mound of debris in the way of the tunnel. “Shiro said to head to the rendezvous, then head to the lions.”
Lance moves to step forward when the relic catches his eye to his left. He pulls out the bag before sliding it in and packing it away. At least the mission would be a success, even if the temple was damaged and they had to retreat from the Galra.
It only takes them about fifteen minutes to finally get out of the temple, and by that time, the tingling in Lance’s limbs has intensified and invited it’s friend numbness for a party. As he follows Keith to the rendezvous point, it feels like he’s walking through molasses, forcing his legs to push forward. The humidity pushes down on his shoulders, making the effort put into walking and breathing in oxygen that much harder.
“We’re almost to our lions, Shiro. We’ll meet you guys up-”
“No. Head back to the village.” Shiro orders. “Deliver the relic, then come fight.”
Keith huffs at the ground. “We don’t have it. It blew up after Lance touched it. We need to help you fight.”
“Actually,” Lance wheezes,”I got it.”
“Good. Get it back to Allura and the Jeing, then meet up with us.” And with that, Shiro signed off to focus on the battle. Keith doesn’t say a word as he crawls into Red. Lance turns towards Blue, almost too suddenly as black spots dance across his eyes. He manages to get into Blue and begin piloting her back towards the village as waves of comfort and concern come from the lion.
“It’s okay, Blue. I’ll be fine until the mission is over.” But really, Lance is barely managing to stay standing. His legs and arms haven’t stopped tingling and numbness is beginning to spread. But, he had to be okay. He couldn’t mess up the mission any more than he already had. He had to do something right.
As they land, the small party of delegates gathered behind Allura shift on their feet as their hair is tossed and whipped by the wind of the lions. In the distance, in the forest behind the village, blasts from the lions and smoke can be seen rising from under the tree line. Allura strides closer the Blue’s maw to meet Lance as he emerges with the relic. He’s noticed that the black spots have returned to his vision as he walks down the ramp to Allura with the object in hand. He just has to make it fifteen meters to where Allura is across the small meeting square. Fifteen meters.
“Keith, Lance, you have some of the Galra fleet coming towards you at the village. Be ready,” Pidge calls. Lance looks up at Pidge’s information to see one of the slender black and red fighter ships zooming towards them. As he watches more dots grow in the sky and form into a squad of the slender ships.
“Well, this isn’t good. I’ll hold them off and you deliver the relic,” Keith announces as he climbs back into his lion. The ships continue growing closer, ignoring the green lion flying after them. The cannon on the leading ship becomes visible as soon as it is within shooting distance. Red takes of to meet the fighter, but is intercepted but a small squad from out of nowhere.
Lance just has to make it to Allura. Keep her safe. Deliver the relic.
Lance turns towards where Keith is supposed to be stopping the cannon ship, but the Red lion is missing from the picture. The picture begins to change as the cannon powers up and discharges, aiming at Allura and the group of delegates.
“Allura!” He’s running now. The air seems to have disappeared, making it hard for Lance to breathe enough air in to make it to Allura.
Keith watches as the cannon goes off.