(( Welp. Here is this chapter... the one we've all been waiting for. Let me just say right now that I did plenty of research on a lot of this medical stuff and effects of what Lotor does, so if I make a tiny mistake, please don't feel the need to correct me on it. I tried my best to make this accurate. I felt like it would be too basic if he just shot one of them, so Lotor took a more creative and sadistic approach.

WARNINGS: Blood, and enough angst to make even ME cry. These next few chapters are going to be very very rocky. Happy reading, Loves!))

People always think about a murderer as someone with a bloody knife who suddenly just snapped. And they wonder where the warning signs were, and how they possibly missed them. But it wasn't like there was one specific thing that pushed Lotor over the edge. It wasn't one thing constantly bending him until he broke. He'd snapped a long time ago.

And with Acxa out of the way, he could do whatever the hell he wanted. He could play around with his victims, much like a cat with a ball of yarn. But that yarn was much more than string. It was someone's lifeline.

...

" Hey, did you hear someone broke into the agricultural wing last night?" Shannon asked the lunch table.

" I'm pretty sure everyone has heard. It was on the announcements this morning, remember?" Pidge responded.

" Oh right." She giggled.

" Do they know what all was taken?" Lance asked Pidge with an arched eyebrow. He had gotten to school late because Keith wouldn't get out of bed until first period had already started. Meaning that they didn't get to hear the announcements, or have to be present for the Pledge of Allegiance.

" I think they said some sort of horse tranquilizer or something?" Hunk said before taking a bite from his sandwich.

" What would the school even use that for?" Allura was curious.

" Sometimes the animal science classes bring horses in, they use them if a horse gets out of hand." Matt answered. He only knew that because he'd taken one of those classes before. " They have to keep them locked up, though."

" Why?" Keith looked up from his bag of Cheetos that him and Lance were currently sharing.

" Because it's a drug. I'm pretty sure the name for it is like... uh- it starts with an x... uh-" Pidge struggled to figure it out, and it would bug her until she could remember.

" Xylazine or something like that?" Matt said and Pidge nodded.

" Yeah, that. Anyways, idiots like to shoot up with it to get high. It was probably just some stupid teenagers who broke in and stole it for kicks." She said.

" Who would do that? That sounds really gross." Allura was disgusted.

" Idiots. I remember my chem teacher talking about it." Pidge shrugged and dug into her lunch.

...

" Where are Pidge and Matt?" Allura asked as they arrived up to the football field for practice. They were early by looks of it.

" I don't know, they said that they just had to run home to grab something really quick but they've been gone a long time." Keith said while chucking his cheer bag over to the chain-link fence just in front of the bleachers.

" Great. Just great." Lance nervously said, but then he noticed Keith shivering. " Babe, do you want my jacket? It's in my bag."

" I mean... yeah." Keith shyly admitted.

" Okay, let's head back to the locker room. We'll have to fill up the water jugs anyways since Matt and Pidge aren't here to do it." The alpha kissed Keith quickly, raking his fingers through the boy's dark colored bangs. He tossed his water bottle down in the grass.

" You want help with the water?" Allura offered.

" Why, because you think I can't carry it?" The omega looked at her questionably.

" No- no no. I just figured I can help since I don't have anything better to do anyways." She chuckled.

Keith just stayed silent, on edge.

" Oh." Lance figured Keith was just defensive because of the storm clouds above them. He knew Keith hated being viewed as weak, so if it started raining he'd have to deal with it.

It was slowly misting from the sky, not quite sprinkling droplets of rain. And Lance hoped it would stay that way as him, Allura, and Keith made their way across the field with the water jugs.

...

" I still don't understand why it's so important, the laptop won't just run away if we leave it home alone." Matt said as Pidge and him arrived at their house. " It's raining anyways, why would we take it outside?"

" The case is water proof, and I don't want it out of my sight. I don't anyone stealing it, because then we'd have to get a new one and I'm not about that life." Pidge walked up the stairs, and she went into Matt's room. It was sitting on his bed right where he'd left it and she could breathe a sigh of relief.

" Are we good now? We're going to be late to practice." Matt facepalmed.

" Yes." His sister smiled while coming down the stairs and zipping it up in her backpack. Just as Matt opened the door to exit, there was someone standing there. He could feel his soul practically leave his body from how startled he was. And Pidge scowled.

" What're you doing here, Acxa?" She asked, but then she noticed how worse for the wear the other girl was. She had on her school clothes from the day before, and her face was littered with bruises ranging from blue to greenish-yellow colors. There was dried blood under her nose, and her lip was cut on the bottom. Someone had really fucked her up, and part of Pidge wondered if it was Lance's doing.

" What happened to you?" Matt raised an eyebrow. Sure, he hated her, but nobody deserved that.

Acxa was heavily breathing, like she'd been running for her life.

" I know that you guys hate me... but I didn't know where else to go..." She trailed off, panting more. " It's Lance... Lotor is going to hurt him."

" What?!" The siblings exclaimed in unison.

" I tried to stop him, and then he threw me in his basement so I couldn't warn anyone. You need to help Lance, we don't have much time." Acxa said, hoping that they'd believe her.

" Where's your proof?" Pidge asked, not sure if she was being completely truthful.

" The bruises aren't enough for you?" She made a face at her, but then pulled out her phone that had been chattered. " Fine, I recorded him."

...

Everything was going swimmingly. Lotor had just the opening he needed as he climbed over the chain-link fence. He was wearing a black hoodie, with his hair pulled back into a ponytail to hide it. And he also wore latex gloves to get rid of any finger prints he could possibly leave.

It seemed random, the method he was using. But he didn't want to go the conventional route. Of course using his bare hands to attack Lance would've been more satisfying for him, but that wasn't how he rolled. It was easier to get caught that way. Shooting him would be too simple, and using knife would get it over with too quickly.

He slowly unscrewed the top to Lance's water bottle, and then he pulled the needle from his pocket and removed the cap. Usually, people injected this stuff, but it'd be a hell of a lot more painful to ingest it. If he was being honest, he didn't even know what the drug would do, or if it would kill someone. But he knew it would definitely hurt, and poison anyone who had it.

As he squirted it into the bottom of the water bottle, there wasn't enough to be noticed by anyone who picked it up. It looked like leftover water rimming the inside as he put the lid back on and left. Lotor smirked while running away, he knew he'd won.

" How do you need help carrying that, Lance?" Allura giggled. She looked over to see Lance and Keith both carrying the other water cooler, which happened to be bigger than the one she had.

" Oh whatever." Lance rolled his eyes and Keith could only chuckle while keeping a firm grip on his handle.

" Have you guys seen Pidge and Matt?" Hunk asked as he saw his friends approaching.

" They should be back any minute." Keith told him. And Lance and him were pathetically out of breath while lifting the jug onto the bench. It's surface was covered in droplets of water from the drizzle that had begun to fall around them. The omega was fine with that. It was only when lightning and thunder happened that there was a problem.

Lance grabbed his water bottle from the grass, and he unscrewed the cap to fill it up from the cooler. It was then that Keith realized he'd forgotten a water.

" Hey, can I have some of that?" He asked his boyfriend before he could take a drink.

" Yeah of course." Lance smiled and handed him the blue bottle. " Thirsty much?" He teased. And as Keith gulped back some of the water, his eyes widened. The mouthful went down his throat, but he was coughing on it. At first Lance thought Keith was laughing and his water went down the wrong tube, but he realized it wasn't like that.

" What the fuck did you put in this?" He asked, making a really disgusted facial expression. The water was awful, and tasted horrible. His mouth was tingling, and his throat was almost... prickly.

" Babe, what do you mean? You just saw me fill it." Lance was confused, and he was about to try it for himself, but there was yelling. He looked startled as Pidge and Matt were running across the football field.

Keith zoned out without realizing, and he began to feel very sharp burning in his stomach. He moved his hand over his belly, and hunched over.

" LANCE!" Pidge shouted. " Don't you dare drink that!" She sprinted up and snatched the bottle from him.

" What?" Lance could not have been more confused as the tiny girl began dumping it out.

" Please tell me nobody drank from this?!" She exclaimed, and Keith let out a groan. He started leaning down more, clutching his stomach.

" Keith?!" Lance's voice was panicky. " Babe, what's wrong?!" He asked, but he didn't get an answer as his boyfriend began violently coughing. He was shaking badly as he used his hand to cover it, but when Keith pulled it back to look at his palm, there were trace amounts of blood.

" No!" Matt put his hands on his head. They were too late.

Lance's ocean blue eyes were beading all over the place, and he had no idea what was happening, or what he could do to help. He was about to have Keith sit on the bench, but the omega collapsed first.

" Somebody call 911!" Pidge raised her voice and tears began to fill her eyes. Acxa had told them everything Lotor had told her after beating her half to death, and they still were unable to stop it.

" KEITH?!" Lance yelled even louder though it wouldn't do anything to solve the problem. He watched some white, frothy, foam spill from Keith's mouth as he got down beside him. " No, no, no, no! Please don't do this!" He got an arm under him. " Pidge, WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING?!" He let tears spill out of his eyes.

" Lotor was trying to poison you!" She exclaimed. " But he got Keith instead!"

" Oh my God! This is my fault! I let him drink my-" Lance broke down into a bunch of sobs while hugging Keith tightly.

" Yes! I need an ambulance to the high school this instant! We're up at the football field!" Allura talked rapidly into her phone. Luckily 911 operators were used to that sort of thing.

" Keith, n-no! Please stay with me!" The alpha was trembling and breathing in a way so that barely any air was getting in. " There's still so much we need to do, we need t-to go to college and- and have kids, and I-I still need to p-propose to you and-" He was rambling incoherently while sobbing and watching Keith gurgle with foam in his mouth.

" God damn it, Lance! Roll him over so he doesn't choke!" Pidge exclaimed before doing it on her own. He was too much of a blubbering mess to listen to what she was saying. There was plenty of stuff Keith was coughing up while on his side, and the foam was beginning to look pink from being mixed with blood. But it was being washed into the grass as rain began coming down harder. It was pouring outside in a matter of seconds, soaking everyone down.

" We're supposed to get old together!" Lance buried his face in Keith's- or his- jacket and cried even more. " Don't let him take that from us!" He nearly screeched from hysteria as he was laughing like a crazy person. " I love you so so much- p-please don't leave me!"

Coach Coran was just arriving up to the field for practice when he spotted everyone huddled together and crying. He ran over, looking to see what the issue was.

" Everyone, please calm down, what is going on?" Coran walked up, but as he got closer, he saw Keith laying on the ground and foam coming from his mouth. " Keith?! Someone tell me what happened."

Pidge was bawling her eyes out and hugging Matt, who had tears streaming down his face. And Hunk and Shay were a little more off to the side. She couldn't look at Keith, so she had her face buried into Hunk's football jersey. Allura was about the only one listening to what Coran was saying as she tried to remain calm and keep herself from breaking down.

" Someone poisoned him!" She exclaimed, and the coach looked horrified. He was about to call someone, but then sirens were heard from far away. They were screaming closer, but it would still be a couple minutes before they could get there.

Lance was in shambles as he cried and clutched Keith's shirt. The only thing that kept him the least bit sane was the fact that he could still see his omega breathing, and his heartbeat was still there as he shakily felt for it.

" You c-can't go! I can't live without you!" He wailed and he got snot all over the sleeve of the jacket. He didn't even know if Keith could hear him or not.

It was a painstakingly slow three minutes later when the ambulance and police cars rolled up to the football field gate and EMT personnel stormed the area. Hunk and Pidge had to pry Lance off of Keith for them to even get near, and Lance's cheese had slid off his cracker at that point.

Keith was limp as he was loaded onto a gurney by the responders. His clothes were sopping wet, and he was sticking to it. And the EMT's kept on saying a bunch of things that Lance didn't understand as they rushed Keith across the field and to the back of the ambulance.

" Let me go!" Lance growled at his friends who were holding him back.

" You can't interfere with them!" Matt yelled at him without meaning to.

" I need to b-be in the ambulance with him!" Lance let out a broken excuse of an exclamation. He began struggling to get out of their grip, but he wasn't going anywhere. The alpha's instincts would just get in the way of the EMS people's jobs.

" I'll drive everyone to the hospital." Allura told them.

...

Lance had been dragged into Allura's van with the help of everyone, and if people didn't know better, it would've looked like they were kidnapping him. He was in a state of hysteria while in the backseat.

" Someone needs to call Shiro!" Allura called back to everyone in the van while zooming out of the parking lot. The ambulance was already far ahead of them, so they'd have to find Keith after they got to the hospital.

Lance surprisingly heard her, and started rooting around in his football bag until he found his phone. His fingers were so trembly that he could barely get the fingerprint to work, that and the phone was wet as well. He sniffled while managing to click on Shiro's contact and call him.

" Lance? I'm at work, can this wait?" Shiro picked up on the other end after a few rings.

" No! This can't wait! K-Keith just got-" Lance broke down into sobs yet again and Pidge took the phone from him, seeing that he was clearly not capable of holding a conversation.

" Hi, Shiro." Pidge swallowed the lump in her throat. " We're going to need you to meet us at the hospital right away." She struggled to keep from crying again.

" WHAT?!" He yelled. It seemed like Shiro could never catch a break from finding out something horrible had happened to Keith or Lance or both of them.

" He- Lotor poisoned him." Pidge stammered, and everyone in the car was completely distraught while listening. " Keith got rushed away in an ambulance and we're all going to the hospital right now."

" I'll be right there." Shiro could feel tears in his eyes, knowing that this wasn't good.