Without Me

Captured (Ch.6)

So there we were, the two of us back at the dorms. Hunk in his bed and me in my bed. It brought back the memories of when Hunk and I used to be roommates back in the other reality. We used to stay up late at night while everyone was asleep and talked for hours just because we felt like it. We talked about our families and our lives before the Garrison, you know, sentimental stuff like that. We also gossiped about people. A lot.
"So you're really gonna do this?" He asked, giving off the hint that he didn't expect me to do this alone.
"It's the only way I can get back to my reality."
I can hear Hunk shift over in his bed, the springs in his mattress softly squeaking. "Why return to the other one? You left Voltron remember."
I scratched at my head. "Yah... but that's because they didn't really need me anymore... besides, I don't intend to go back to Voltron, I want to go back home where my mom actually wants me."
"I doubt that."
"Hey! My mom does want me! Just not in this reality." I pouted.
"No, not that. I mean I doubt that your friends don't need you anymore."
I looked over to Hunk. "What do you mean by that?"
Hunk looked back at me. "Well I mean... just because you feel like you weren't useful to your team anymore doesn't mean your team doesn't want you. They're your friends. In that reality I'm your friend. I wouldn't want my friend abandoning the team if he felt like he wasn't needed anymore."
"You... you really think that?"
"Of course. You know I'm kind of glad I met you today, even though I'm still not sure whether you're telling the truth about this whole crazy story of traveling realities. I felt like we would've been real close friends if I knew you for longer."
"Don't you have friends here Hunk?"
"The only friend I had around was Pidge. And then he left me to go find his brother Matt. Nobody really approaches me unless they need to copy off my homework." He said.
"Oh... that's rough buddy." I felt almost sorry for him. Like I should've been there.
"Yah I know. But it's ok. I mean I have this whole dorm to myself now. Until you came along."
A silence fell upon us before we both broke into laughter. It felt good, talking to Hunk, or any friend in that matter. Maybe I should've talked to all my friends before I left Voltron.

I took a glance at the time on the clock and saw that it was midnight. When most guards patrolling the Garrison would go off duty. It was time to sneak out of here. I sat up in my bed, put on my jacket, and grabbed all my things.
"You leaving now?" Hunk asked as he sat up too.
"Yup."
"I'm coming with you." He said as he slipped on his shoes.
"What? I thought you didn't want to."
"The least a friend can do is help find his friend's lion." He grinned.
I returned the grin, and soon me and him set off to sneak out of this joint.

We casually walked down the halls, cautiously looking around for any faculty members roaming about. I forgot how huge the Garrison was after almost getting lost in the dark while finding a good exit out. Whenever we saw the occasional commander or officer we hid from plain view, and we kept doing this till we found our way outside. "Well that was easier than I expected." I said, running out into the open perimeter that opened up to sandy terrain that stretched out for miles.
"You're crazy." Hunk panted as he tried to keep up. "This whole plan is crazy. We're going to get caught and we're going to be in a hell of a lot of trouble." He wheezed.
"We're not going to get caught." I exclaimed. I found the pod right were I left it.
Hunk stopped and marveled at the small escape pod. It was dented from all the things I hit in space. He ran his hand over all the small dents in the hood.
"Whoa. You came to Earth on this thing? But it's so... small." He said, stroking the surface of it.
"I know. But it'll have to do."
"Man I don't know." He shrugged.
All of the sudden we hear an unfamiliar voice pierce the dead silence of the night. "HAULT!" A Garrison officer raced towards us, a flashlight shining into our eyes. "What are you two doing out of your dorms during this time? This is unauthorized!"
"QUICK HUNK! GET IN!" I opened up the hatch and climbed in, Hunk barley able to squeeze in next to me. I then shut the hatch close and took off.
"WAIT!" The officer yelled after us, but by then we were far off the ground and out of reach.
"AHAHA YOU CAN'T CATCH US SUCKER!!!" I laughed with satisfaction. I accelerated into the night sky and felt high off adrenaline. But Hunk on the other hand appeared to be turning into a shade of a pale sickly green.
"I'm gonna puke." He said, gagging into his hands.
"No Hunk, please not now, there's not much room to puke here, and if you do puke it's gonna land all over me!"
Over time I eased back on the piloting. Trying not to make any sudden movements while making sure Hunk doesn't upchuck on everything. The sun was starting to rise, making everything on the ground easier to spot.
"Keep an eye out for an old wooden shack down there." I told him.
Hunk peered down to see how far we were off the ground and nodded before gagging into his hands again.

As we flew over the dessert terrain Hunk tapped my shoulder. "Lance! I think I see it down below!"
I looked down and spotted the small shack, which would have been really hard to tell apart from it's surroundings if it weren't for Hunk. I landed the pod and me and Hunk got out, finally able to stretch our arms.
"So this is it? It's looks like an old outhouse." Hunk chuckled.
"This was where Keith used to live." I told him.
"Man, what if we find a dead body in there? Keith may have been a good Garrison cadet but that guy was scary. He was someone you did not want to pick a fight with." Hunk shivered.
"Mullet head? He can be pretty intense sometimes but he's not scary. He can't even say the Voltron chant right."
"...the Voltron chant?"
"You know, I say Vol, you say?"
"Tron?"
"See! Exactly!!! He kept saying 'Voltron'. Stupid mullet for brains. Anyways, let's get to business."
I walked up the creeky old wooden steps of the shack and tried to open the door.
"It's locked." I said while jiggling the door handle.
"Let me try." Hunk said. He backed up, shook out his shoulders and cracked his neck and fingers. "You better move out of the way Lance because this door is coming down!"
I walked onto the porch giving him enough space. "This good enough?"
"Yah." Hunk nodded. He then went into a full sprint, preparing his right shoulder to take blunt impact. He looked like a quarterback on a football team or something. Then he rammed into the door, and sure enough the fragile thing collapsed under him.
"Whoa! Hunk that was awesome!!!" I applauded.
Hunk rubbed his shoulder. "Thanks man... ouch."

"You first." He said, stepping back hesitantly. He looked like he was waiting for something scary in the house to pop out, like a ghost or monster. I walked in, and the first thing I noticed was how messy the place was.
"Wow mullet you sure know how to tidy up." I said to myself. Papers were everywhere, things scattered on the floor and on the desk. But nothing looked like it was left alone. It was like someone was here recently. I looked to the wall of Keith's crazy conspiracies to see that everything has been taken down. All clues leading to blue. All hope. Gone.
"Shit." I sighed. "Hunk, everything is gone! Someone must've beaten us to it."
Hunk looked around at the place. "This was Keith's home? It's kind of sad. No wonder the guy joined Garrison. The Garrison must've seemed like a five star hotel to him."
"Hunk now is not the time!" I kept trying to search through the scattered papers to find anything. Anything that at least hinted some sort of location to the blue lion.
"Lance."
I crumpled up all the useless papers and threw them aside. "Come on there has got to be something." As I kept rustling around I found a framed picture of a younger Keith and what seemed to be his old man.
"Lance." Hunk tugged at my jacket.
I tossed the frame aside for now. Frustrated, I tore up some of the other papers. Something about a moth man. "Useless! All of these are useless!" I groaned.
"LANCE." Hunk shouted.
"WHAT???"
"Whoever was here before is here now." Hunk said worriedly, pointing outside.
Puzzled, I walked out only to find that we were completely surrounded by Galra.

"Whatever you're trying to find, it's not going to be here." The Galra soldier said while aiming their gun at me and Hunk. Both of us raised our hands above our heads, surrendering to the multiple soldiers in front of us.