I need you //klance

Part 44

Keith's eyes drifted open slowly before snapping shut again under the harsh light. He groaned, turning his head to roll it into his hand but his arm wouldn't meet him. He tried moving it again, the hazy, sleep riddled state quickly departing from his mind as panic started to take over.

He couldn't move his arms.

He tried shifting his position to see if they were stuck on something only to find himself unable to move his legs and torso as well. His eyes were snapping open and closed under the blinding light stinging his eyes. It was too bright, he couldn't see. How was he supposed to protect Lance if he couldn't see?

Limbs straining, he found restraints digging into the bruises already adorning his body as his mind caught up on his memories. Gasping, he went slack and froze. Where was Lance?

He whipped his face around, not caring for how the metal stung the side of his face when he collided with it, blinking furiously against the brightness and desperately searching the room. It was a small white room, lit brighter than any others he'd come across aboard Galran ships. He was laid horizontally on top of some variation of a metal dentist's chair many sizes too big for him but the first thing he noticed that truly opened a sinking dark void in his chest was how bare the room was. No one was there. His Lance wasn't there.

Violet eyes swam around the room again and again, as though if he looked just a couple more times he would find Lance camouflaged against a wall or under a table, but still he was nowhere to be found. He hadn't noticed how hard he was pulling at the restraints until the sticky warmth of blood began to seep into his clothes. He must have reopened some half healed wound - even if he couldn't quite remember obtaining any.
If he could just get them off then he could get on with searching for Lance. He couldn't leave Lance alone here, not after what those guards had threatened to do to him. He just needed to push a little harder and then he could keep Lance safe.

Dread slid into his stomach as the sound of a door opening reached his ears. 

"-stable, indicating it should be awake."

Keith's eyes landed on the pair of Druids as they walked through the door, chirping away to each other with casual ease as if they didn't have someone tied up to a chair in front of them. He froze, watching them cautiously as his mind caught up to what was happening.

"Good, then we can begin."

The taller Druid had a slightly higher voice and stepped forward to a counter a little away from Keith's head and outside of his line of sight. As the creature clinked unseen objects together, Keith voice pushed frantically at his throat, straining to make itself heard.

"Wha- Wait - H-hey!" The one at the table showed no signs of acknowledgement, "Where's Lance? What are you doing?!" 

The other Druid tapped at a pad, facial expressions shielded by the mask on its face. 
"Subject R478 attempts to establish communication." They spoke slowly and haltingly, as if they were spelling out the words as they wrote them.

The first Druid hummed, tracing their hand down Keith's arm and making an odd, gleeful noise when Keith tried to buck away from them. "The subject has already previously made attempts at escape but merely succeeded in damaging itself." The Druid with the pad nodded and tapped away at the screen, "Perhaps we should make the restraints more secure. It is the more useful subject, keeping it alive would be more beneficial." Keith shivered, his protests reduced to sounds rather than words. He couldn't even begin to think of how to respond.

The second Druid shook their head, "This will be brief. There will be no need to make it more comfortable for such an inconsequential amount of time." This was only going to be quick? And then would he be able to go back to Lance? He relaxed minutely before tensing back up again. He couldn't just let them do what they wanted. They were Druids, nothing they did would be good. Shiro had been a living example of that. Keith frowned. No, Shiro was still a living example of that - he wasn't dead. They just had to find him.