Chapter Text
‘Oh crap. Oh crap. Oh crap. Oh crap.’ Lance frantically muttered under his breath in a panic as he tripped and stumbled through the thick trees and foliage. Behind him he could hear the heavy footfalls of angry Orgs pounding behind him, he couldn’t tell if it was his panic making them sound closer than they were, or they were really gaining on him.
He’d had the advantage, being further away from the rest of the team to get clean shots on the empire drones, but no one had expected giant green natives to come charging out of the facility armed with bone swords, in the confusion his team had been overwhelmed and captured and Lance had made a tactical retreat so that he could regroup and think of a way to save his friends.
Only they were still chasing him.
He leapt over a tree root and tripped over the next one, landing on his face with a crack, and holy shit that was his nose! With a hand covering his nose, he rolled to the side, tumbling down a small incline and neatly into a burrow under a slightly uprooted tree.
Catching his breath, he waited, the pounding growing louder. He closed his eyes and tried to control his breathing as best as he could despite the agonising throbbing of his nose, which was definitely bleeding.
The beating of multiple feet were over him now… and then past him. He sagged, utterly exhausted. He stayed under the tree until the sound began to fade and only then did he crawl out from his hiding place and stagger to his feet.
He propped himself up against the tree and looked around, trees in every direction for as far as he could see.
Now what?
Right ok, so he didn’t have back up, his whole team was captured, he was stranded on a planet filled with people that wanted to kill him, his lion was probably under heavy surveillance and his helmet had been lost back in the fray so he had no way of communicating with the others.
He gingerly touched his nose and hissed. And his nose was broken.
‘Oh crap.’ He said again for good measure.
Whichever way he went it was definitely going to be in the opposite direction of where the Orgs had stampeded off to, so with a heaving sigh, he edged around the tree and started jogging lightly and hoped that it was the right way.
He summoned his bayard and lifted it to hold the rifle with both hands, ready.
Lance was getting nowhere. The second sun was beginning to pass through the trees and the sky was turning red, meaning it would be night soon, every where he looked it was just more trees, sometimes he’d find a clearing and he’d take a moment to catch his breath, but he didn’t linger long since he was fairly sure that group of Orgs were probably still looking for him.
It was eerily quiet here, Lance had noted, no animals scurrying, or leaves rustling, not even a single bird twittered, if this planet even had birds, the point was it was a suffocating silence.
He had nothing to ground him, nothing to focus on and not a single clue as to which direction to go in. His team mates were in trouble and he was running around in circles in a goddamn forest.
He came to a stop and stared blankly in front of him for a moment before dropping down on a fallen tree. What was he going to do? Obviously he had to sneak back to the facility and get to Red, but his bond with Red wasn’t really strong enough yet to call to her from far away, so he’d have to get into the facility as well which by himself, seemed impossible.
He really hoped his team didn’t think he’d abandoned them, Keith had told him to run after all, but maybe if he had stayed, there might have been something he could have done. Or maybe he would have been captured too and then there would be no one to come and save them.
Not that this scenario was any better, there wasn’t much Lance could do alone and even if he could, he was lost in this stupid woods!
With a burst of anger aimed at himself he dropped his head into his hands and groaned. He should have been the one to get captured, Keith would have found a way to save them already, or Pidge, or Hunk. Anyone really, anyone but him.
There was a crack of a twig from somewhere behind him, Lance heard it clearly because this damn forest made no sound. He snapped his eyes open in time to see a shadow looming over him, something raised over their head with a very clear intention.
Grabbing his weapon, he threw himself to the side just in time to avoid being sliced in half by a heavy looking bone axe. The log he’d been sitting on splintered to pieces under the swing. An Org. Must have snuck up on him while he was having a pity party.
Shit. This one was as giant as his brethren, arms bulging as he hefted his massive axe up and on to his shoulder. Black eyes watched him keenly, lips twisted into a snarl, two of his bottom teeth were oversized and jutted up over his top lip.
This was not an enemy that Lance could overpower. But perhaps he could outsmart him.
He aimed his blaster but didn’t shoot straight away, instead he waited, meeting the Org’s gaze head on and glaring. Show no fear or weakness and there’d be nothing for them to exploit.
The Org snarled, losing patience, he charged forward, axe raised, and muscles tensed ready to bring it down on Lance hard.
And Lance waited.
Right until the axe was being swung down on to him in an unstoppable arc. He side-stepped the swing and the axe, with all the ferocity put behind the swing, was wedged deeply into the trunk that had been at Lance’s back.
The Org yanked back, but the axe was stuck, Lance knew he probably had enough strength to get it with a couple of yanks but he’d waste seconds doing it but seconds was all Lance needed.
He put some space between them, the Org tried to keep an eye on him while simultaneously trying to pull his axe out but Lance already had his gun aimed, the Org looked ready to give up on his axe, something in his eyes made Lance pause though and at the last second Lance switched his gun to stun and shot three precise shots that downed the Org.
The Org shook as electricity coursed through his body and then he slumped, unconscious.
Lance stared for a moment, gun still aimed at the enemy until it was clear he wasn’t getting back up. Resignation, he’d seen resignation in the Org’s eyes. He stepped back, the arm holding his gun dropped to his side and he sighed.
He took another step back and his whole world turned upside down.
Literally.
He dangled a couple of feet from the floor by his ankle which was wrapped in a vine. And his gun was now on the floor out of his reach.
‘Oh crap.’
He wiggled, he shook, and he tried to reach the vine around his ankle but every movement seem to tighten the knot further, so for now he dangled uselessly up in the air. Except that blood was rushing to his head and making his nose throb quite uncomfortably and he was sure he was losing feeling in his foot.
A fair amount of time must have passed because Lance drifted off, only the sound of rustling and grunts woke him right up, his eyes snapped open in time to see the Org groggily getting to his feet. Holding his breath, he watched him plant a thick hand on the trunk of the tree and another wrapped around the handle of his axe, with a grunt he yanked it out and to Lance’s misery, the Org turned to face him.
A beat passed where the Org stared at Lance and Lance stared back like a deer caught in the headlights.
He was about to die.
The Org lumbered forward, despite his size his steps were quiet, very unlike those Org that had been chasing him earlier. He stopped in front of Lance, eyes trailing up to look at the vine and he grunted in a way that might have been a laugh.
Lance might have been offended if he wasn’t trying his hardest to control the oncoming panic attack.
‘Why did you not kill me when you had the chance?’ The Org asked in a deep gravelly voice, as his eyes dropped back down to meet Lance’s. Lance had to take a moment to compose himself before he could answer.
‘My job is to save lives, not take them.’ He said. ‘If it can be helped, and you looked as if you weren’t ready to die.’ The Org’s eyes widened a little before narrowing.
‘And if I kill you now?’ He asked. ‘Would you regret letting me live?’
Lance wanted to say yes but given another chance he might have made the same decision, the fear in his eyes had been too real and it wasn’t something he could have ignored, to pull the trigger and end a life wasn’t easy, mechanical droids? Sure. A living breathing creature… not so easy.
‘Murder isn’t my style.’ He settled for, with a small shrug. ‘Besides can’t regret anything if I’m dead.’ He sounded awfully casual despite how scared he was, he was much to young to die, and considering he was still dangling from a tree by his ankle, well, that was just plain embarrassing.
The org just hummed in response, he bent down and picked up Lance’s weapon which had returned to it’s bayard form, he weighed it in his hand and seemed to contemplate something. And obviously he came to a decision, and not in Lance’s favour, because he adjusted his grip on the axe and swung it backwards.
Lance slammed his eyes closed and wished he couldn’t hear the whistle of the axe flying towards him.
But this forest was too quiznacking quiet.
Thump.