Silent Lover

Chapter 4

Lance's POV

Lance woke up in a cell, a skull-splitting headache causing him to groan. "What happened?" He slowly started to recall what had happened before: The fight, getting knocked out. He sighed. "Well, fuck." "Who the quiznack are you?" A deep voice asked. Lance jumped, turning. Sitting on the other side of the cell was what seemed to be a reptilian-like human. His skin was a tealish-blue, as was his tail. His eyes were solid navy blue, and his hair matched. The purple prisoner clothes looked off on him. "Um, hi? Who are you?" The alien narrowed his eyes. "I asked you first." The paladin huffed, before responding. "Lance. Lance McLain." The reptilian's coldness was suddenly replaced with awe, as he regarded Lance with surprise. "You're a paladin?" Lance shook my head. "Was. Allura took my position." He tilted his head. "Who's Allura?" And it went like that. In the end Lance did end up getting his name. Aezul. He looked over to the reptilian, who was fast asleep on the slabs of rock they called beds. He didn't know for sure yet, but it seemed like he could trust the guy. Lance fell asleep slowly, unable to get the worry clouding his mind out of his head. Would he be questioned tomorrow? Tortured?

In the morning...

Lance awoke suddenly when he felt a harsh grip on his arms. He inspected his surroundings silently, stomach churning uneasily. He was being dragged somewhere. Probably to be questioned. He groaned softly as he was thrown roughly into what looked like a gurney, but it was standing up. He was chained to it roughly before the guards moved to the perimeter of the room, bowing their heads when the witch came in. Lance glared at her harshly, jaw taut. "Where is Voltron?" She snarled out, her voice low and scratchy. Lance inhaled, ready for the pain that he was sure was to come. "I don't know." There was silence for a moment, before he got blasted with a bolt of electricity, causing him to convulse. He yelled out in agony, struggling and trying to get the chains off of him. "Where is Voltron?" He scoffed warily. "Listen lady, they let me get captured. I'm not even a Paladin anymore. The princess of nothing took my place. I don't know where the fuck they are, and honestly don't care." She looked at me, eyes narrowed. "Put him in the arena. He fights today." Lance looked back and forth between Haggar and the soldier quickly. That was all? He had assumed that it would have been much worse. The Galran nodded, before unchaining Lance and dragging him to the arena.

Without any kind of warning, he was kicked into the ring, the cuffs he had been bound with still on. The crowds roared when they saw him, obviously vying for a bloodbath. Straight ahead of him was a huge metal door, one that slowly opened much to Lance's dismay. Some gigantic monster came out, with spikes running down its back. It was a pale yellow, covered with huge, ugly warts and scales. Lance continued to inspect the thing while he slowly got up, before making an amazing discovery. He zeroed in on the thing's eyes, which had thin, pale films over them. It was blind, wasn't it? The creature, whatever the poor thing was, probably relied on hearing and smell. Lance smirked at his astute observation, before finally doing something. "Hey ugly! Over here!" The thing growled before sticking its nose in the air, sniffing around. There was no way to avoid it, it would find him at some point, so Lance stayed still. It wasn't long before the creature pinpointed his location and rushed towards it, roaring.

Once it got close enough, he ran at it as well, jumping up and cutting the cuffs off with one of the many spikes that lined its back. He placed my hands on one of its broad shoulders as the cuff broke, propelling himself over it. Lance landed softly, rubbing at his wrists. He looked around as the crowds went quiet, before roaring louder. He smirked as he noticed a blade left in the sand. He ran and grabbed it quickly, before turning, facing the creature. He inhaled before rushing the thing, his sword tight in his grip. He finally let the breath he had been holding escape as  before lunging into the air, raising my blade. He swung quickly, the horrible sound of flesh tearing and bones breaking as the things head came clean off, rolling off to the side. He turned and looked back and the body as it crumpled forward, thundering to the ground. Once he finally got his bearings, he walked over to the head and grabbed one of its teeth, snapping it off. A long piece of string off the odd kilt-like thing the creature was wearing, he coiled the string around the tooth before tying it around his neck. The crowds went wild, shouting and pounding their fists on their seats. Lance felt his heart race as he was filled with an odd lightness that he had never felt before. Before he could stop himself, he let out a roar of his own back at them, raising his sword high. He smiled brightly, feeling truly happy despite the situation. He was free. No more yelling. No more backhanded remarks. Sure, his situation wasn't ideal, but he was out. And he didn't plan on going back anytime soon.

He was pulled off the arena and immediately cuffed again, before he was thrown into his cell. He smirked at Aezul, who was doing pull ups on one of the lower hanging pipes. "I'm gonna guess you won, right?" Lance nodded, holding up his necklace. Aezul nodded, impressed. Lance suddenly sat down, sighing. He looked at me, confused. "What's with you?" I looked at him, lips pursed. "It was too easy." He laughed at the insane comment and it wasn't long until Lance joined in, laughing as well. "You're crazy man." Lance nodded thoughtfully, a wry smile on his face. "I just might be." Aezel scoffed, before dropping down. "Whatever, crazy. Tell me more about the Paladins and whatever, what was this... 'phone' thing you talked about?"

The two continued talking late into the night, and as they spoke, Lance learned about his cell mate's planet, Laxul. It was mostly rock, and they built houses on the rock sides. The mood had been damped though, as Aezul spoke about how he was forced to live alone, exiled due to who he loved. He had fallen in love with another male from another clan, who was killed when they were found together. To his elders, being with another male was disgusting and morally wrong. Lance chuckled angrily at that, telling him that it was mostly the same on Earth, but their significant others didn't get killed, we were kicked out. It wasn't long until the two were friends, due to their depressing circumstance, and an  understanding of the other.

And for a long time, so long that Lance started to lose track of the days, that's how it went. The number of teeth on his necklace grew and grew, until he had more then one. His collection grew to such a mass that, he had to start leaving some of the necklaces in the room, only wearing the most recent one. After a while, his arena name was the 'Quiet Killer'. Lance supposed it had something to do with how his footsteps never made a sound, so he went with it. Even though it was odd, he felt an odd pride in knowing that he was the crowd favorite.