{ ANGST AND VIOLENCE WARNING!!!

*hands over box of tissues* you might want these, too...}

His head hurt... the inside of his nose stung and his lips tingled. What had been on that cloth to make him pass out like that? Keith's eyes struggled open and his vision was blurred as he looked around the room. At first all he saw was red, but as it began to clear, the sights before him were haunting.

He was laying on a huge red bed with a canopy and fancy velvet that hung down from it. The floors were coated in red wood that had been stained with some sort of seal to make it shiny, and it was the same color that was on the walls, which were paneled.

" Where am I...?" He asked, whispering and moving to get up, but that was when he realized that one of his wrists was tethered to the bed.

" Finally awake, huh?" James asked, clearly having been watching him from the staircase. He got up and slowly approached the bed, and Keith's eyes were wide as he froze. It was like he couldn't have moved even if he tried, and his lungs were starting to give out. What the hell was James doing here?! How had he even gotten near him?! What the fuck?!

" Don't touch him you bastard!" Lance yelled from the other corner of the room, where a cage had been constructed. The bars were painted red and a red dog bed sat at the bottom of it, and it was just barely big enough to hold a large dog, let alone a human. " Keith, listen to me! Breathe, okay?!"

Keith heard Lance's voice and managed to turn his head to look at him.

" Wh-What the hell is going on?" He asked, his voice weak.

" What's going on? What's going ON?" James sat at the end of the bed and smirked. " Please... don't act like you didn't know this day would come, Baby..." He licked his lips.

Keith managed to scoot back against the upholstered headboard of the bed, pressing his back to it and wanting to get as far away from James as possible. He looked down at his wrist and figured he could get a couple feet away from the bed before it would stop him.

" Touch him and I'll kill you! Let me out of this cage you coward!" Lance shouted. He'd been sitting in there ever since he'd woken up. He had already noticed that the back of his head was bleeding a bit, and if he yelled too loudly, he got dizzy. Not to mention... his ankle was all swollen and blue. He had bumps and bruises all over, and James had bragged about having thrown him down the stairs.

It had been a waiting game and Lance had been petrified for the moment that Keith would wake up. He couldn't do anything but watch thanks to the giant padlock on the outside of the cage he'd been shoved in.

He knew he had to think of a way to get out, but what even came next? With his ankle looking like that, and how dizzy he was, he wondered if he'd even be worth a damn to fight. Still, though... Keith was his world. He'd be damned if he watched him be tortured like this.

" Figure your own way out..." James scoffed. " And yell all you want for all I care. This room is soundproof..."

" Why are you doing this?! How did you even-" Keith cut himself off and tears rose to the corners of his eyes. He was terrified. Even seeing James was enough to trigger the PTSD. He couldn't even comprehend all the little flashbacks happening in the back of his head.

" I guess you want an explanation... but first, aren't you happy to see me? This is how things are supposed to be..." James smirked to himself, sliding his hand over the bed and inching it toward Keith's thigh.

Keith's body acted on instinct and kicked him in the face, sending him off the bed.

" Yeah! Get him, Keith! Kick his ass!" Lance exclaimed, holding the bars on the cage.

" Don't touch me, asshole. Save that for your slut girlfriend..." Keith growled at him, curling up against himself and blinking back tears. Why was this happening to him? Why did Lance have to get dragged into this, too?

James held his cheek and chuckled to himself.

" That almost hurt, Baby... you're so fiesty." He stood up.

" Eat shit and die." Keith spat.

" You don't mean that..." James approached the bed, coming up to the side of it and looking down at Keith. " You're just confused... brainwashed from that loser in the corner..."

" Lance has nothing to do with this. Let him go." Keith narrowed his eyes, and that's when he felt James' hand clamp around his throat. He used his free arm to try and fight him off, but James wasn't budging.

" Keith!" Lance yelled, shaking the bars on the cage. " Let go of him!"

" Oh... but it has everything to do with him. Since you apparently care about him or some mushy shit like that..." James squeezed Keith until his hand was trembling around his throat and he saw the omega's face turn red. He only let go once he felt like the other was going to pass out, and Keith coughed, sucking in a deep breath and feeling over his neck.

There was no predicting what James would do next.

Keith looked down at his hand and noticed that his engagement ring was gone. He trembled slightly and looked over at Lance, scared. What the hell was going to happen to them? And why had James taken them both? People would surely notice when two celebrities went missing.

" Hell, Keith... you should be thanking me. When I'm done with everything, you'll think you were crazy for ever leaving me in the first place..." James sighed happily and looked up at the ceiling. Yup. He'd gone completely bat shit. There was no coming back from this.

" Thank you?!" Keith sputtered. " You raped me with a dildo! Why would I thank you for anything?! You beat the shit out of me and made me-"

" YOU SHUT YOUR GODDAMN MOUTH!" James threatened him in his alpha voice and Keith winced. To that day... there was nothing that scared him more than that.

" LEAVE HIM ALONE!" Lance countered with his own alpha voice. It was louder than James' right then.

" YA?! WHAT'RE YOU GONNA DO ABOUT IT YOU PUSSY?!" James yelled back, storming over and kneeling before the cage.

" OH, I'M THE PUSSY?! LET ME OUT OF THIS CAGE AND WE'LL SEE WHO THE REAL PUSSY IS!" Lance hissed. He felt like he was going to pass out, but at that point, he was so angry that he didn't even feel it. He was numb to everything except that. No one got to talk to his omega like that or treat him that way. No one.

James grit his teeth and slammed the outside of the cage with his palm from anger. He couldn't do that. He stood up and stomped over to the stairs.

" I expect you'll be on your best behavior at breakfast." He stared at Keith, cold. With that, he went back up the stairs and slammed the door, and Keith turned over to Lance. He was amazed that he hadn't fallen into a panic attack as he tried to get up from the bed again. The tether was some sort of bungee cord, and he didn't know how long it would stretch.

" Keith, stop... you'll hurt yourself..." Lance tried to say, leaning back against the bars. He was so cramped up in there and his back hurt, and he knew that he wasn't supposed to bend in the way he was down there.

" Where even are we?" Keith asked, trying to walk away from the bed. The floor was slippery with the clear finish over top, and he was trying to stretch as far as it would go. Every step was a challenge, until he eventually lost his footing and was pulled back toward the bed, landing on his ass. " Fuck..." He groaned.

" We're in a basement... and his ankle bracelet is still on... so we're probably at his place..." Lance sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. " Just... I can't believe this is happening." He was surprised he even remembered any of what happened after how drunk he'd been, but he did remember being taken to the back of the building by the guards. " He had the guards in on this... but I don't even know how he'd get the money or resources to-"

" Are you forgetting that Allura has daddy's money?" Keith asked, struggling to his feet and trying to walk away from the bed. If he could just get the cord to snap... he could take James down.

" Right..." Lance looked down. It was all his fault. He should've been more careful about picking security.

" What did he do to you?" Keith strained, being dragged back toward the bed. He was out of breath and just sat on the floor after that, looking over at Lance in concern. That cage was so tiny.

" Threw me down the stairs... or so he told me while you were sleeping." Lance replied. " He said he enjoyed it, too..."

" I'm so sorry for all of this... I'm sorry I got you involved... you don't deserve any of this..." Keith put his face into his knees. He felt like such a piece of shit. Lance was a great guy and this was the last thing that he needed.

" Neither do you... this isn't your fault. I love you... even if this is fucked up..." Lance assured. He was in a hell of a lot of pain, but the last thing he wanted was for Keith to blame himself for this. That was the farthest thing from the truth.

" I love you too..." Keith murmured, sniffling and trying not to cry. " He took my ring... I don't know if he told you... but he took it..."

" I have it..." Lance whispered. He knew the room was apparently soundproof, but he knew that they couldn't be too cautious when it came to this sort of shit.

" What?" Keith perked up. " How?"

" He got pissed and threw it over here. I think he just wanted it off and didn't care what happened to it... it's in my pocket..." Lance explained. And in some sort of way, that made Keith feel better. He wasn't usually a material possessions person, but that ring reminded him about how much he and Lance loved each other. He couldn't hug his alpha right then, kiss him, do hardly anything that might help the pain. That ring helped.

Keith nodded.

" Thank god..."

Lance didn't know what else he was supposed to do. He figured they had to start hatching a plan to get out of there, but where would they even start? There were so many things that could go wrong either way, and he wasn't looking to fuck it up. He guessed that they'd only have one chance.

" Keith, do you think you could bust the lock off of here? If you can get out of that cord?" Lance asked.

" I don't know..." Keith looked around. " I don't even think there's anything to bust it with..." A lamp. A rug. An entire bed? He was slim on options.

" We need to get out of here. The longer we wait, the worse my ankle will get and the less chance we have-"

" What's wrong with your ankle?" Keith asked, and his eyes began to bead nervously. What, had James already caused him major damage? That made him scared, angry, violated, any number of things.

Lance ran a hand through his hair. He didn't want to scare Keith, but maybe it was best he knew.

" I'm not sure... it's blue and puffy... it hurts really bad and clicks when I move it... it must've happened when he threw me down the stairs..." He said. " It keeps getting worse."

If a miracle didn't happen, things were only going to get shittier and shittier. Keith didn't have the slightest idea what James wanted... and that meant that he didn't know what their next move should be. Clearly he didn't want Lance dead... he wanted him as a trophy. Or was he just waiting to kill him?

Hell if either of them knew. All that was for certain was that they were in danger, and help needed to come soon if they had any hope of getting out of there with just minor injuries, whether they be physical or mental.

...

By that next morning, all out panic had set in. Shiro and Matt were at the police station, about to be driven to the karaoke bar to investigate. Lance and Keith hadn't been home, and the security company claimed that the car had dropped them off. Neither of their phones could be reached, and the tracker on the car wasn't working the way it should've.

When nothing suspicious turned up at the bar, the cops were stumped.

" There has to be something you can do!" Shiro exclaimed. " I'll hire an entire private detective team if I have to, but you need to find my brother and Lance!"

" If only it was that simple... the drive to the residence is wooded after the main part of the city is left..." The head cop explained. " We'll have to get a team together to sweep the area."

" Keep the media out of this... the internet will erupt if they figure out what's going on." Shiro said, but Matt didn't think that was the best idea. He knew that the more people who heard about what was going, the better their chance of finding Lance and Keith was. Before he could speak up, though, the officer replied to him.

" Too late. It's already all over. If we were going to try and contain this, you should've kept the investigation on a smaller scale."

" It'll take a week to comb those woods! Not to mention there's small lakes all around the area!" Shiro yelled. " And what, I get to sit back and twiddle my thumbs in the meantime?!"

" You're welcome to assist with the search."

" Tell me what you think you're going to find. Are you implying my brother is dead?!"

" We have to consider all possibilities. If the car got into an accident-"

Matt was forced to hold Shiro back so he wouldn't knock the guy into next week, and the omega profusely apologized.

" He's so devastated. Please forgive him..."

The officer told them that it was fine, but that they could probably head home until they had further information. That's how they ended up back at Lance and Keith's place with his family.

" My poor son... I know something fishy is going on. I can just feel it." Camila sniffled into her millionth tissue that day. And Kosmo laid at her feet, confused about what was happening.

" Mom, they'll find them... they have to." V rubbed her shoulder.

Everything would turn out fine... right? Right?! All they could do was pray and hope so.

{ I cannot believe one of you hasn't hunted me down at this point... oop-}