TW: Includes PTSD and panic attacks

Lance shifted in and out of consciousness until he finally woke from the sedative's hold on him.

When he opened his eyes, he could see that he was in his room, but even in such a familiar place he couldn't shake the feelings of fear and dread.

But somehow, despite those feelings, he remembered his friends' faces, and how they were nearby. Lance tried to go against the instincts that screamed at him to run away, to leave, to just get away from them, but his brain kept reminding him that those instincts were built in to save him.

Still, he figured that repeating the assumption over and over that they were there to help him and that they wouldn't hurt him would help him actually believe it.

Don't tell me you trust them, The voice in his head whispered. They drugged you and yet you still want to believe that they won't hurt you?

Lance felt what seemed to be a laugh echo through his head.

How naive. After what you've been through, you still find it in you to trust? An edge entered the voice. Trusting makes you weak.

Suddenly, a beep, accompanied by the door sliding open, stole Lance's attention and the voice faded away.

The metal door revealed Hunk and Shiro, both of whom were trying to keep their expressions as light and non-intimidating as possible.

While talking, Hunk, Shiro, Pidge, Keith, Allura and Coran had come to the decision to only allow two people in Lance's room so as not to overload his senses and cause another breakdown. Hunk and Shiro were chosen to be first because Hunk had been close to Lance longer than anyone else, and Shiro had been a prisoner of the Galra before, so he could relate to Lance and talk him out of his shell.

Purely on instinct, Lance shied away from them like a lost puppy. Still, he stayed there, pressed up against the back of his bed. The voice's words had caused doubt to grow in him, and he didn't want to take any chances.

Hunk moved forward slowly, his eyes on his friend, ready to back away if it seemed to be too much for him. "Hey, Lance. It's fine now. See?" He waved his hand in the direction of the room. "You remember this, right? We're in the Castle of Lions. Nothing will hurt you here."

Empty promises. They mean nothing.

"We want to help you," Shiro continued, taking over for Hunk. He made his way forward too. "I know it may be hard to trust us, and I understand that. We have no idea what she did to you, but we have only good intentions."

Lies. They're all lies!

Hunk carefully sat down on the edge of his bed. "We just want to talk to you."

They want to use you! The voice screamed at Lance. They never cared about you while you were suffering silently, so why would they start caring now? They ignored you, dismissed you. It's only when something bad happens that people 'care', and even then, they're lying through their teeth! You will never be anything more than a pawn in their game.

Influenced by those words, Lance started to laugh quietly, a sound that startled Hunk and Shiro.

"Um. . . . Lance? Are you okay, buddy?"

His laughter grew with each passing second as all thought of trust was wiped away, replaced with bitter hate.

"Oh, you care now, don't you?!" He looked at his hands, an insane look on his face. "You care so much now, when I'm broken and half-mad?! Ha!" He threw his covers off of him and stood up. "How about all of those times when you ignored me?! 'Anyone but Lance'. 'We can't afford another one of your screw-ups, Lance'. 'Don't mess up, Lance'."

Tears began to form in his eyes as the anger slowly drained away into sorrow. "I get it. I know I'm immature, I know I'm useless, I know that I'm stupid and weak and annoying!" The tears fell, spattering against the floor. "You don't need to tell me that anymore! I get it, okay?! I just want you to leave me alone!"

Lance sobbed, his shoulders shaking at the force of them.

Hunk and Shiro were completely shocked. They had no idea what to do with him, and they were still trying to process everything that he had said.

It was a known fact now that he was completely emotionally unstable, and they knew there was no way that they would get anything else out of him after that. Besides, they needed to tell the others about what had happened. So, they backed out of the room and closed the door behind them, hating themselves for leaving him in such a state.

Lance had always been a constant to them - happy and always ready to crack a joke, even in at incredibly inopportune times. To see him like this, however. . . . was devastating. Somehow, they hadn't realized that he took everything they said to heart and that he had insecurities too, just because he kept them well hidden.

Both of them knew that now, matter what, they would never look at Lance the same again.

. . . .

"How did it go?" Pidge inquired from her seat at the dining table that had been dubbed as their conference space.

Hunk and Shiro stepped into the room, heads slightly bowed.

They looked at each other and sighed. They didn't want to recount the events, but they knew they had to.

"Well, you see. . . ." Hunk began, but he couldn't bring himself to finish.

"He doesn't trust us," Shiro continued.

Allura looked confused. "What?"

"He knows who we are, and I think he knows that we're not a hallucination, but somehow, it's not sinking in. No matter what we do, he wants us to stay away from him." Shiro frowned, trying to think of what could be happening in Lance's brain. "It's as if. . . . something is convincing him that we're here to hurt him, even though it's a blatant lie."

Everyone was silent as they thought over what could be causing this.

"I - it makes no sense," Keith said, tripping over his words. "I don't understand how that's possible. This. . . . can't be the real Lance. If it is. . . . something's wrong with him, and we need to know what it is so we can fix it."

"I agree, Keith, but you cannot neglect your duties as the Voltron paladins." Allura's eyes met his. "There are still people, still whole planets that need you. You can't abandon them. We can't abandon them."

"But we can't form Voltron! Without Voltron, what help could we give them?!" Keith's voice cracked, and he brought it back down to a whisper. "We need Lance. Not just for Voltron, because if this is what happens when we're without him. . . ."

He trailed off, and Shiro said, "I never realized how much he brought this team together."

"Neither did I," Pidge replied, downcast.

A gloomy silence spread over them all, and even though Lance was safely in the castle, it still seemed as though he wasn't. To them, he was still light-years away.

"How. . . . how about we go visit the Kirins?" Hunk suggested hesitantly. "They might be able to help him. And besides, we need to talk to them and find them a long-term home anyway, so. . . . this trip could kill two birds with one stone."

Coran and Allura immediately gasped, horrified looks on their faces.

"Hunk! Why would you ever want to kill two birds with one stone?!" Coran exclaimed, shocked. "Isn't that what you humans call 'animal cruelty'?"

"How could you do that to those poor Earth birds?!" Allura cried.

"No, no, no, that's not what I meant!" Hunk assured them frantically, waving his hands rapidly as if that would help illustrate his point. "You're jumping to conclusions! It's just a saying, okay? I'm not actually planning on killing birds."

He shook his head, repulsed at the very idea. "Especially with stones. That would be a terrible way to die. But I just figured that going along with my idea would be convenient for us, that's all."

Coran and Allura settled back into their chairs, and she sighed with relief. "Good. However. . . . there is one more thing we need to consider in order for this plan to move forward."

Everyone turned to her.

"If we told more people than necessary about Lance's. . . . plight, then rumors could spread about the mental health of the team. It could cause many planets to become distrustful of us and therefore turn to the Galra Empire instead of relying on our help. Remember, they don't know him like we do."

"He helped in the recovery mission, though," Keith said.

"But they also saw how he - accidentally, I know - caused Hunk's capture, and how recklessly he tried to fix his mistake, causing both himself and Pidge to become prisoners too," she pointed out. "And, if I were in their position, I don't think that I would think any differently."

Keith, Shiro, Pidge, Hunk and Coran looked at the floor, silently realizing that's what they would've thought too. They were ashamed that they would've been so narrow-minded, because they knew now that Lance was much more complex than he appeared.

"Unlike us, the Kirins have only seen his mistakes, so this would only add to their negative view of him. They don't have the same knowledge of him as we do."

No one was able to deny her words. They were all valid, and they knew it.

"Alright. We will only tell those with medical experience about Lance's condition," Shiro said.

His gaze roamed over every single person in the room with him and noticed one thing they had in common: dark bags under their tired eyes. They were about at their limit.

So much had been revealed in so little time, and it had taken their last surge of brainpower for them to process it and formulate a plan based off of it. They had had a very long day.

"Now, all of you need to go to sleep. It's not good for you to get the little amount of rest that you've been getting for the past week. Try and catch up on that as much as you can, because tomorrow we're going to be playing the diplomat and that will require your full attention." He stared at them, daring them to defy him. "I'll see you all in the morning."

For once, Keith didn't protest as he made his way out the door. He didn't want to admit that he was tired, but everyone could see it.

After he had made sure his plan was out in the open to be built upon, Hunk had gone into shutdown mode. He slowly made his way to his room, feet dragging as he was finally allowed to appreciate the fact that he was officially done for the day.

Although Pidge had schooled herself strictly in ways of functioning with little sleep - for the purpose of staying up all night on her computer - her eyes were glazed over. It wasn't hard to tell, even through her glasses.

Like Keith, Allura hated showing weakness, and a need for sleep was included in that list of weaknesses. She tried to keep her eyes bright and her thoughts from being jumbled, but she was failing. She hated that, too.

Coran had started to giggle at the slightest things, giddy for no apparent reason. Somehow, he seemed to be even more cheerful now, despite the bags under his eyes.

When everyone had left, Shiro let himself relax. He exhaled and rubbed at his eyes, fighting off a headache.

"Every day gives me another white hair," he mused to himself. He chuckled lightly at his own joke. After a while of smiling tiredly to no one in particular, he got up from the chair, his back popping as he stretched. "I'm getting too old for this," he said, and wandered off to his room.

He had never been more ready for a new day to come.

(A/N): Remember how it the first chapter I said that this story would only be 4 to 5 chapters?

Haha. Jokes. I was way off. This is already chapter 12 (I know, I know, that's not really that much, but it's the longest story that I've published on Wattpad, do I'm proud), and I'm expecting quite a few more.

I had also planned for this story to end with a good ending and a bad ending (which I'm still going to do, BTW), but after chapter . I had to map out the rest of the story from that point since there were so many plot holes and things but I did that, and I'm happy with it. I just. . . . need to get the time to write what I want to write *sweats nervously*

It's fine tho. I can manage, and I'll tell you beforehand if I can't. I can't thank you enough for staying with me, I just want you to know that. So, bye, I'll see you next update :)