Chapter Text
Lance forced his eyes open with a groan. He felt like everything was covered in cotton and grit. His mind was hazy as he tried to figure out what had happened. Then, the memories came flooding back. He and Pidge had been exploring an extinct Balmera, keeping constant contact with the team on the surface through a communication link. She had warned them about mild seismic activity before they went down, but Lance figured it would be fine. They had apparently been nearing the spot where the activity was bad, and they were about to turn back when everything collapsed. Lance felt something painful at the small of his back, but sensation ended there. However, he didn't think about that. His thoughts were focused on his teammate. "Pidge?" He called, before he had to cough. "Pidge? Where are you?" His voice grew stronger after he coughed, and desperation could be heard in his call.
Pidge knew the planet was unstable. She told Lance multiple times but guess the message didn't click. Obviously their mission wasn't going as planned when the seismic activity happened and made everything topple over on them. "Lance!" Pidge called out before getting crushed with him. After that, everything was a blur. She was conscious but everything ached badly, so bad she didn't dare to move a muscle. Hope was almost gone.. until she heard Lance. Oh man was she relieved to hear him! "L-Lance..." Pidge called out, weakly.
Lance sobbed slightly with relief at hearing her voice, activating his flashlight and bouncing the beam around to try and find her. "Pidge! Are you okay? Are you hu-" a coughing fit cut him off before he could finish, filling his mouth with the taste of blood. He spat, the red liquid splattering. That was bad, he thought to himself.
"Peachy.. Can't move a muscle without screaming in agonizing pain..." Pidge huffed small. "You tell me, am I really okay?" Even in a time like this, she would be sarcastic. If this was her truly last moment being alive, her last words would be her sarcasm.
Lance sighed, coughing up another clump of blood and spitting again. "C'mon, be optimistic for once. At least you're not suffocating on your own blood." Yeah, maybe pain Olympics wasn't the best game to play. But humor was hard to come by with a broken back and bleeding lungs.
"You should know me by now, I'm a pessimistic teenage girl who pilots a giant green lion and all her friends are teenage boys." Pidge stated before huffing small.
Lance laughed weakly and drily, before reaching out and hooking his fingers in a groove on the floor. "Fair enough. Keep talking to me, I'm on my way."
"Well I'm gonna say this- we had a good run." Pidge chuckled small but wincing small. "I'm sure nearly every bone in my body is destroyed by these stupid rocks."
Lance sighed, pulling himself forward. Or, trying. The rocks weighed him down, and one of his feet must have been caught. "Yeah. As far as ways to go, though, this sucks. I wanted to go out in a blaze of glory for the history books, man. Not choke to death in a cave in. Sorry you had to get sucked up in my karma." He tugged again, a loud popping noise resonating through the cavern. Yet he was still stuck. Another harsh pull, and a sickening tearing noise, and he was moving. Trying not to imagine what he'd lost.
"You think the other's are going to find us...?" Pidge asked quietly, sighing. "I'm sure Shiro is worried sick, we should've contacted him... I should've.." She glanced away and slowly clutched her hands tightly regardless of the amount of pain she is in. "I was the one who made us go on this mission... it's my fault we almost got killed.. and now we're stuck.."
Lance made a protesting sound, but it was weak and breathless and all he could manage for a moment after stopping. "Are you kidding? This whole thing is my fault. You said not to go. And now-" he was cut off again by a violent coughing fit, the sound distinctly wet as blood flew from his lips. He wheezed for a few minutes, then reached out and kept pulling himself. "This is... my fault."
"Don't be ridiculous. I was about to go alone but you volunteered to come.." Pidge felt guilty. She felt like if either of them did possibly die on this planet, it would still be her fault and she would still blame herself.
Lance slumped slightly, sighing. That was true. So if anything, it was the fault of both of them. But he'd still feel awful if anything happened to Pidge. He dragged himself further, feeling himself growing weaker by the minute.
"Don't get too weak.. Just call Shiro and the others. They'll find us..." Pidge sighed. She already gave up and just wanted the others to save them.
Lance huffed again. "I'll bleed out before they get here. And there's no way in hell I'm dying alone." He sent out a simple SOS, then began dragging himself closer.
Pidge turned her gaze over, noticing Lance. "Least you had relationships in the past. I never had anything... I didn't even my first boyfriend, first date.. first kiss... and I'm gonna die not experiencing that.."
Lance dragged himself another few feet before his strength gave out. He reached to Pidge, grip falling short a few inches. "Never... never had a first kiss. So we're a little even."
"Really?" Pidge slowly extended her hand, reaching out and grunting. "Who would've known? The flirt on the team never had their first kiss.. hehe.. that's the first."
Lance huffed softly, cushioning his head with one arm and curling his pointer finger around Pidge's with his other. "Yeah. I've been waiting for the person who will make the fireworks go off, you know? Of course, maybe I shouldn't have waited."
"Guess I shouldn't have been so negative and pessimistic, I wouldn't be in this mess." Pidge sighed. "But we can't change the past.."
Lance looked down, his breathing hoarse and shallow. "Here's where... I'd say something like... we can only change the future... but we don't have much left of that..." the droop of his eyelids was very telling of what was about to happen. Blackness swam before his eyes, his already weak grip on Pidge's finger going lax. But he still breathed, for now.
Pidge looked over. "Yea.. clearly.." She closed her eyes and turned away. "I just got Matt back.. and now I have to say goodbye to him... God, he'll be so devastated..."
Lance let his eyes close, too weak to even make a pained expression. He could imagine the looks on their faces when their team found the pair. It would be awful... He opened his eyes, wanting to face death head on. Like he would if he'd died heroically like planned. He stared at the back of Pidge's head, watching her helmet blur, and blur, and watching everything go dark. "See you on the other side..." He rasped, before his last breath escaped and the life bled from his eyes.
Pidge tensed and looked over. "Lance..?" She called out. She realized he wasn't answering and her eyes widened. "Lance..? You better not be joking..." She winced as she pulled herself closer to him. "God damn it.. Lance!" She weakly shook him, gripping onto his arm tightly. No, this had to be dream! This wasn't real! All she had to do was open her damn eyes and everything would be the same!
Lance stared, blankly, at nothing. His lips held the slightest curve of a smile, even with the smallest drop of blood collecting at the corner and spilling over. His features were ashen, bloodless, seeimg as most of the blood in him was spilled onto the rocks. He was perfectly still and perfectly silent, something he'd never been before.
Pidge felt tears swell up. "Lance..." She slowly reached up and wiped the blood away as her tears were rolling down her cheeks. "God... no...."
Not even moments later, footsteps and faint voices were heard. They got closer and closer, and the voices were soon detectable as that of the pair's teammates. They managed to find the cavern quickly, Keith arriving first with Matt on his heels.
"Pidge!" Matt cried, rushing to her side to check on her.
As she was about to sob and cry until she meets death, her team finally came. Pidge looked over to Matt and started to tear up even more. No one has ever seen her cry, only Matt has and it was a rare sight to see.. and a really sad one too. "M-Matt..."
Matt carefully removed the rocks from her and gathered her into his arms with the utmost gentleness. He held her close, rocking her gently, murmuring words of comfort. All while avoiding looking at the corpse.
Keith however, couldn't avoid it, and neither could Hunk and Shiro when they arrived.
Hunk couldn't do much more than stare in numb horror, and Keith moved to guide him and Matt out, leaving Shiro to take their dead teammate back. There would be time to mourn when they could do so without worrying about Pidge meeting the same fate. But that didn't prevent the haunted look in Keith's eyes.
Pidge gripped onto Matt tightly. She feared that she would leave everyone just like Lance did. "W-we have to save him.. T-there has to be a way..!" She hid her face in her brother's shoulder. "I-It's my fault Lance is.. dead.. He was only trying to save me.. but he made it just in time.."
Matt held her gently, shushing her softly. "It'll be okay, we'll... we'll figure it out. Just focus on yourself, okay? Let us handle the rest."
Pidge sighed and grew silent, only nodding. She felt like Lance's death was her own fault so his death was on her conscious for good. Only fifteen and already got someone killed.. Just peachy.
Matt shared a look with Hunk and Keith, a million words shared with a little bit of eye contact. They eventually made it out of the unstable caves, Hunk and Keith moving towards Hunk's Lion, Matt carrying Pidge to Allura's.
Pidge didn't speak up at all, afraid she'd choke up again and become a sobbing mess again. All she could do is try to make herself relax but that was impossible since she just watched her teammate die literally only centimeters apart from her.
Allura piloted them back to the Castle, only speaking to tell Coran to prepare a healing pod for Pidge. Matt still held her carefully, wary of the broken bones she had all over.
Pidge had to admit, she was grateful that her team and Matt came to recuse them but they were also late, a little too late to be in fact. If only they gotten there earlier, none of this would've happened.
If only they'd gotten there earlier...