Toxic Bias [Voltron Fanfic]

Chapter 2.

Meanwhile (Matt)
Matt, his friend Aldra, and the rest of their group were on another trip outside of their domain of planets. They went on these expeditions occasionally, and mostly was to give some extra assistance, get some inside information, or make new alliances.

This time they got a distress call from a very small planet with legions of Galra inhabiting it. Actually, it wasn't really a planet. It was more of a military base with valuable information and artifacts.

On the way there Matt walked up to Aldra a little nervously.

Matt: Hey.

Aldra looked up at him and smiled, making her fangs a little more visible.

Aldra: Hey.

Matt paused, a little nervous of what he was thinking of saying.

Matt: Uh, are you sure this isn't a trap? We have so little information about this whole thing...

Matt felt weird for saying that, Aldra had more experience with these situations than he could get in a year.

Aldra: It'll be fine, besides if something was really wrong, we would have figured it out by now. Don't worry, Matt, I have a feeling that doing this is a good idea.

Matt: Well, my instincts aren't saying anything. I'm not sure if that means I have bad ones, or what.

Aldra: I don't have a lot of weird feelings either. Usually our team never assigns us to distress calls, so this must be pretty minor, what about you?

Aldra checked the location again, the monitor only saw one major piece of technology in the area. Even then, it didn't seem like a threat for whatever reason.

Aldra: It's probably nothing serious to worry about, we might just end up seeing something or finding out about something that we don't necessarily want to know or see. That makes the most sense, anyway.

Matt took a deep breath then and smiled.

Matt: Now that I think about it, yeah, that's probably it. You think it's a good thing to know then? If it is a knowledge issue?

Aldra shrugged.

Aldra: Usually we may not want to know certain things, but it's important that we do know them, just like it's important that we know why the war started, we may not like it, but we have to be aware of the information, especially if we're directly contributing to it.

Aldra looked back at Matt.

Aldra: Are, you sure you want to stick this out? I mean, you could easily go back to earth, be with your family.

Matt shook his head.

Matt: I know I wouldn't be safe on earth. If I knew about his war going on, and the threat towards my planet, I could at least make myself useful.

Aldra smiled and relaxed a bit.

Aldra: If you say so.

Then there was a beeping from the monitor and the group had to make a stop for a repair.
Meanwhile (Keith)
Keith laid inside his cell struggling with his breathing as blood slowly continued to pour from his head and new scars that the interrogators gave him. He knew they were coming back tomorrow, they'll tend to his wounds so he won't die, but then they'll torture him again. They only want him alive so they could bring him more pain, but then once they got bored of it, he knew he would meet death.

He lived most of his life as an orphan, but then after he met the team he saw them as his family, but then... he found out he was Galra and everything went downhill. Now he was going to die, though he didn't mind, it would end his pain, the physical pain of the torture, and the mental and emotional pain of knowing his family didn't recognize him. And that his family would likely treat him the same even if they knew it was him, second, he had nothing to loose, the love of his life thought he was dead, his family didn't recognize him and let these aliens torture him, he had nothing to loose.

He looked at his stomach. Right, he had his child to lose... this made him think, what if he just lied? And told the interrogators what they wanted to hear, then there will be a slim chance that they'll stop torturing him, and that they might even let him go. Then it dawned on him, what if they knew he was expecting? Would they stop torturing him? Probably not, he knew he'd just be one other Galra Voltron has killed in the name of the space war. Keith laughed quietly. He should probably think of a more dignified name for the war, considering how serious it was... Well, not now, considering he could die tomorrow.

With nothing else to do he gave the lying idea more thought. He knew that they'd keep him hostage until they knew for sure he told the truth. They weren't stupid. He thought back to the day he and Lourea were last on the ship, think... THINK! What was on that screen?! He then looked up, seeing one of the guards looking at him, he was much more scrawny than the other more muscular guards. But he looked like a rookie, so he couldn't judge.

Keith: W—*cough*

Keith tried to speak again but instead choked on the air he was desperately trying to breath in and broke into a sudden and violent coughing fit, a small amount of blood flying from his mouth and onto the floor, which already had blood on it from the torture.

The coughing didn't stop though, so the rookie rushed in and got him a small cup of water. Keith took it and drank desperately, not just to stop the coughing, but because that was the only water he'd had for several hours, even if it was poor quality. Thankfully the coughing stopped, but his breathing was still hitched and impeded by the whacks and cuts to Keith's head and chest. The rookie looked at him, considering he was wearing a mask, Keith couldn't tell if he had a look of annoyance, or possibly pity on his face.

Rookie: Are you okay?

Keith was visibly shocked by those words. Did, the guard seriously just ask if he was okay? Huh, maybe it was pity... Keith just shrugged. Knowing he wasn't asking about him being tortured, that answer was obvious, he was asking about the coughing fit.

Keith: I—I'm—okay now... I g—guess...

Where did this stutter come from?! This torturing thing was even worse than he thought... or he was just surprised by the guard's kindness.

Keith: W—Why did you help me...?

The rookie just shrugged.

Rookie: Look, Voltron and my colleagues think you have a lot of useful information. It's just my job to keep prisoners like you alive. But, I'll be honest, I think they're overdoing this whole torture thing...though I wouldn't exactly blame Voltron, they're dealing with the grief of losing their teammate... and since you killed him, or are at least are the first suspect, their anger is justified, not the extent of the torture of course, but—

Keith: Their teammate isn't dead! I didn't kill him!

The rookie looked surprised, but he wasn't upset or annoyed.

The rookie heard he desperation in his voice, and he had a feeling in his gut.

So, he said the one response Keith needed someone to say.

Rookie: Would you care to elaborate?