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Lance wasn't sure where he was or where he was going.It was too dark, the only thing making him able to see anything were the dim purple lights lining the hallway he was going trough. After walking without purpose for a while, he found himself in what seemed to be a room, he continued forward, trying to see anything at all through the darkness to no avail.
But then..
His breath hitched.
He saw something, someone on the ground, tiny, still, he saw hints of white, and green.
Pidge
He ran towards her, and stopped in his tracks when he saw yellow, then pink, and... red, a lot of red, too much red, on the ground, around them, coming from them, all of them.Pidge, Hunk, Allura, Coran, even Krolia and Romelle, the space wolf too.
All on the ground, unmoving, covered in red. Then his breath caught again.
Red.
Keith.
Where is Keith?
He took a few steps forward and looked around. And there he was, but unlike everyone else he was standing, be it in shaky legs, and he was breathing heavily, hands pressed firmly on his side which was dripping the same dreadful red on the floor. Fiery eyes full of sadness and grieve looking straight ahead at something, and when he glanced at where Keith had his eyes locked, his stomach dropped.
Lance
It was Lance, It was himself, standing there, looking back at Keith, holding his Bayard, his bloodstained Bayard.
Confused, Lance looked down on himself only to find he was wearing the Black Paladin armor, and missing an arm. Shiro, he was Shiro. His head snapped back at the two people in front of him, trying to understand what was going on.
But then, without any warning the other him lunged at Keith, successfully slicing trough his Paladin armor and coating the floor around them with blood. Keith let out a strangled scream and collapsed to the ground.
And he stayed there, like the others, unmoving.
Then Lance, himself, looked up at him.
He stopped breathing. He tried to run, just to find out that he couldn't move at all, he could only watch as he walks towards him, sword in hand. Lance lets out a sob, he's shaking, staring wide eyed at himself, looking back at him with nothing but bloodlust in his eyes.
".. Lance.." He started speaking with a voice that wasn't his. "... please..... calm do-" He didn't get a chance to finish the plea as the other Lance struck him.
He screamed as the blade met his(not his) chest, slicing right through his heart.
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He shot up in bed, shaking like crazy, feeling tears streaming down his face. He tries to even his breathing.It wasn't real. Just a dream.
No.
A nightmare.
One that had felt way too real, the terrifying image of his team, his family, all limp and covered in blood on the ground still too vivid in his mind for him to calm down.
He nearly falls from the bed when the bedroom door opens, barely avoiding the fall, but he ignores that for now, instead looking at the man slowly making his way over to him."Good morning Lance, everyone else is already up, I came to fetch you so you can join us at breakfast" He said and smiled.
Shiro.
The same Shiro from his nightmare. The Shiro he felt die.
The Shiro he killed.
He lets out a sob.
Once Shiro gets a proper look at Lance, his expression changes from relaxed and happy to extremely concerned.
And really, he can understand, he must be quite the sight, shaking frantically and with tears still going down his face.
"Lance?" He asks, walking up to him and sitting on the bed. Shiro wraps an arm around him, he tries to relax, leaning into the comforting touch. "What's wrong buddy?" He asks, voice calm, careful and gentle.
"I-I..." Lance takes a steadying breath, trying to speak evenly, his voice but a whisper.
"I had a n-nightmare"
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It was happening again, the same walls, the same sight, the same armor.
The same nightmare.
However, Lance was already expecting it. He has had this same nightmare for months now, at one point he'd come to actually look forward to it, as awful as it was, it became a familiar occurrence in the chaos around him. At the start, when he still wrongly thought he would eventually stop having the nightmare, he would be in a dark hallway with eerie purple lights, a sight he was accustomed to relate to the insides of a Galra ship, and in the end of said hallway he would come across everyone's limp bodies on the floor.
But with time, the hallway changed, it was still dark, but no longer did It have dark iron walls, in its place there were white ones, and the once purple lights now glowed blue, much like his armor that once was black and even red at times.
But the destination was always the same, it was always the same sight, the same situation.
The same outcome.
He would walk through the hallway and find himself in front of the still bodies of his comrades, he used to be someone else in the past dreams, it started with Shiro, then sometimes Keith he even recalled once being Allura, But as time went on, he became himself, he would walk the hallway and find himself in the open space, and he'd act out the scene, then he'd see Keith, wounded, and he'd strike him, earning the all too familiar agonizing scream of pain.
And then
Nothing.
Then he'd look down on himself and see all the blood on his Paladin armor and on his sword, then he'd look up, and there he was, Shiro, looking at him with eyes filled with pain, fear, confusion, understanding and sadness.
".. Lance..." His voice came out shaky, he was clearly struggling, too hurt to talk. ".. Please... wake up.." Heavy tears streamed down his face.
Lance has tried to wake up before, but he couldn't, he knew he couldn't, not like this, there is only one way to wake up from this nightmare, and he knew what he had to do.
So he lunged forward, and struck Shiro straight through his heart.
And his leader laid there
Unmoving.
And it'd be over, he'd wake up, and Shiro and the others would comfort him, they'd hug and then they'd go right back at saving the universe
So now he just had to wait for it
He couldn't wait to wake up, to finally be free from this nightmare
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He felt like this was it, that that was the last time he's had to live this nightmare, he smiled and looked over at Shiro, peacefully sleeping beside Keith and the others
He laid down next to them, that's right, everything is gonna be fine now
They're finally free
He closed his eyes and gave a relived smiled when he felt the warm sensation coming from his neck pooling around him
And he laid there
Unmoving.