#and then theres keith all the way in thr back

[dannyawesome65]

OKKKKKK!!!!!! my favourite who pic of all time.....!

[awigglycultist]

Random How the Grunch Cribbed Christmas thoughts/fav things/live blog/ect. Look you know the drill probably.

"Jinkles Christ what an embarrassing way to start!"

"shake your asses!"

Also Esther with the lights on them djdjjd

*farts into mic* "L'Chaim"

Why is Gwen flossing oh god

The applause sign nddbbd

Esther showing everyone a qr code for everyone to give them money ndjdn

"I can't believe you trust the internet with your money, I keep mine where its safe, irl in the unlocked glove department of my van parked out front... Theres cameras! Jesus Christ!"

"in your hometown where you would revice no attention or fame :)"

"and we're out!" "glad I don't have to listen that" "oh you know what sorry now we're out"

"I got an appointment out back with Jolly Ol Saint Dick"

The whole bit with Scrags interrogating Rudy nfjdd

"she knows we have a special bond. And I think her husband knows that too"

"Keith Swanson you puckish imp!"

"yeah we all agree she's trying to pig out on that Keith beef in thr sheets right?"

I think I would die if I was Ace

Poor Scrags

"it's also a waste of my stage time"

There he is. There's the grunch.

"I do not want to look like one of those amateur shows where there's a long blackout and people judt stumble around like idiots"

Ah yes non denominational Santa

"how old are you supposed to be in this song?" "six" "six?"

"Santa" "what?" "boner" "fuck"

Buddy they seem like they wanna fuck you bc of the song

"baby J, papa G, and... The third one"

"or join us on the naughty list" "I totally fucking will" "Keith"

"project"

Esther not being able to read the card is so funny

I love how fucking excited Esther is the moment they see Kirk

Rip Scrags

"my absolute. Best. Friend."

The Esther and Kirk handshake is incredible

I immediately absolutely love Kirk also so I get where Esther is coming from

"happy... Christmas everyone!"

Orlando's entrance is absolutely wonderful

"oh hey uhmm" "it's like the reindeer" "reindeer"

"and that's my childhood trauma.. Being privileged."

"do what my family did, celebrate both" "pft okay. You can do that!?"

"aren't you a sight for whore eyes"

I'd love to know if this would take place before or after ep1 of sisbib bc of Rhoda's Ark being one of the sponsorships

The absolute tension between Gwen and Lisa

"move on!"

Scrags has no idea what he's doing

"will the squad ever come to Florida?" "absolutely not"

"as the only Christian in the squad uhm... It me" "okay, holy spirit doesn't equate to holiday spirit dipshit" "oh my god can Christians just come out on top for once?"

Omg Nick Gage could write an awesome rock song about Christmas

The bit where Esther is on the floor seemingly about to fall asleep only to go right back into the song is great

Honestly incredibly rude if the grunch to knock everything over after Scrags just cleaned up, I don't even care about him stealing presents or....pissing into the diffuser

"if Gwen was giving anyone a handjob I would know about it!"

"do we have any fuckable singles in the audience?"

"I'm joking! I'm half joking"

So who's gonna do the math to figure out how many lawsuits he has against him and how many years he was in prison

I love Orlando

Also. I shout this out all the time but absolute shout out to the background acting in this show

Are they allowed to use this song?

Keith absolutely ROCKING OUT

Scrags screaming omh

"oh I don't know maybe a vengeful monster wHO WE JUST BEETLEJUICED INTO EXISTENCE"

"OH YEAH EAT SHIT ACE!"

Ah finally. Brian playing a women

"multi-generational ogies with the neighbours"

No he's right Pirates are super cool

:( Scrags <3 beloved poor guy

Joey saying bye to that person getting up in the middle of a song djdndkdb also that person left for the bathroom at the wrong time. Like they left right around the start of the song and then came back at the very end of it when everyone was absolutely going crazy applauding for the song, they really missed the best song

We definitely need more Joey and Corey duets

"what do you want Scrags?" "DAAADDD"

"Scrags what were you thinking?" hey it's not his fault you went live right as he had an emotional song with Orlando about his daddy issues

Omg didn't know Brian could play violin

Scrags just. Sulking. In the background.

Scrags putting up the applause sign for the show getting cancelled ndkdndnd

Keith having these signs prepared to ask for a threesome. Omg.

Brian quick changes!!

Honestly tho what a fun uplifting song

Their step forwards djdndn

"to get over this whole sad boy routine..."

"a threesome with her and who else?" *gets down on one knee and presents himself*

"this is a really long black out"

Joey nearly knocking over the mic sjdndj

"hide your kids hide your wives hide your presents!"

"maybe finally this year the grunch will finally take me and this nightmare will be over"

"he thinks moses is like the Santa of Hanukkah and I thought it was too funny to correct"

Yeah this really is terrifying

Keith you idiot

Yeah go off Gwen

Scrags and Esther doing hand motions in the background for the notes and make faces while Gwen misses her notes kdnddn

"his stink glands you see... We're.. So... Fucking bad"

Wonderful accent Scrags

The slow no fighting ndjd

Oh boy there's three grunches now!

Scrags finally held the sign up right :)

How dare they not give him a song

"Orlando, you remember!" "absolutely not."

Keith yelling "this is what I do when I'm happy!" when Esther tells him to stop flossing sjdbdn

Rip Rudy

YEAH WOO ESTHER

"some random y2k spy wear I had lying around"

"EFFECT ALTRUISM BITCHES" FUCK YEAH ESTHER

YEAH THEY SURE ARE THE MIRACLE

The fact Keith's first wet dream was too one of Esther's parents....

"yeah I got a lot of guilt" "ah yethe one thing you Catholics and us Jews have in common" "pretty sure the Jews call it 'gelt'" "nah that's chocolate coins" "no it's not"

"how many nights of Hanukkah are there??"

Reprise time!

WOO ACE!!

This show really is great and I Iove the music and really wish more people were watching it and talking about it

[nyctolovian]

Ch1

A/N: Heya! I’ve been really tired the past few days but i managed to get off my ass to post this lolllll. Once again, special thanks to @lunasloveliess, @oorubixoo, and @alunaii for helping me to beta-read this!! :)

I originally planned to post a new chapter once every Tuesday but god thats too tiring and i have a life (+ other wip to work on) so.... theres a change in plans! It will not have a fixed schedule but I’ll still try to keep it regular! dun worry!

Okay so we get to the next fun part of torturing Lance even more (i mean,,, thats the entire point of this fic tbh) 

WARNING: Graphic depiction of violence

Lance woke up with a groan. His entire body felt sore. And his head! He rubbed the side of it, and hissed at the stinging sensation.

“What the– What happened?” Gingerly, he pressed the painful spot. A bruise?

He was in a well-lit room with tables and chairs, which were haphazardly shoved to the sides of the room, toppled or broken apart. There had been a struggle or fight or something.

The smell of iron was heavy in the room.

Lance sat up and saw a Galra soldier on the floor, lying in a pool of blood. There was no way she was still alive with that much blood and the flap of flesh dangling at what used to be her throat.

Lance seized up as memories surged back. The distress signal, the capture, the attempted escape, the millions of bottles, the monstrous creature.

Why wasn’t he dead?

He lifted his hand saw it was caked with blood. In fact, both hands were. He felt his throat constrict.

But his hands weren’t wounded. The blood was from elsewhere.

Lance ran his tongue over his lips and cringed as he tasted blood. “Where the heck did that come from?” he muttered to himself.

He did a quick scan of himself. There was no gaping wound or anything of that sort. His back felt like there were glass shards in it, but that was probably because there were glass shards. Otherwise, he was only bruised and battered with a few shallow cuts, most likely from the glass as well.

Did the creature spare him? For what reason?

Maybe it didn’t spare him, so much as it had only sought vengeance from the Galra. It was hard to imagine anyone who would be thankful for being cooped up in a liquid-filled vessel.

But what was he doing here? Did the creature bring him here? For what?

Lance sighed. He decided not to question it. He was alive. That was all that mattered now. That and how he needed to get out. The others must be worried sick.

He rose to his feet, grunting in effort. His vision blacked out for a moment, and Lance had to stretch out his arms to keep himself steady. His sight gradually cleared, although he remained light-headed. The burning sensation in his back intensified, the glass shard relentless, as every other part of his body was aching dully, as though he had been thrown against several walls.

He stumbled out of the room and winced. The corridor was drenched in blood and littered with mauled bodies.

Some of them had their necks ripped through like the Galra in the room. Others had large gash at their torso, their ribs torn apart and left open. The occasional body was missing a limb or two, which could usually be found a couple of metres away, in its own pool of crimson. There were some bodies which were twisted unnaturally, bones snapped in two like toothpicks.

The corridor walls were scratched up and bathed in dark red. Certain parts were slightly charred. They were marks made by Galra blasters.

Then, there were the claw marks on some of the walls. Those clearly were not Galra.

He shuddered.

Jesus. That creature must have gone straight up mad to wreck the place like this. The place reeked of fresh blood and death.

Lance really was lucky to be spared from the massacre. Somehow.

He tried not to breathe in the scent of blood, but it was soon apparent that it was unavoidable. With a resigned sigh, he walked through the corridor, carefully avoiding the corpses.

He needed to find his lion and bayard. Then, he’d get out of here.

Soon, Lance reached a forked road and frowned.

Which way to turn? None of them felt like the right choice. He didn’t even know where he wanted to go in the first place. How on earth would he know if he should turn left or right?

Let’s try left.

He turned that way and continued down the long corridor. Not like he could make an informed decision at this point.

There were several other turns, and he trusted his gut feeling to direct him. It came to him quicker than usual.

Was he becoming another Keith Kogane? Maybe trusting instincts wasn’t that bad since Keith’s premonitions proved right.

After about five minutes of stumbling through the corridors, Lance noticed a familiar yellow figure on the floor. His breath caught in his throat as he dashed and skidded to his knees, uncaring that they would surely be bruised later. “Hunk?!”

He wasn’t… was he? It couldn’t be!

Fingers shaking, Lance held a hand in front of Hunk’s face.

He felt breath! Hunk was breathing!

He nearly collapsed onto his unconscious friend. “Oh, thank goodness.” He pat Hunk several times. “Hunk? Hunk? Wake up.”

When he didn’t respond, Lance’s heartbeat picked up again. He did a quick check on his friend. Hunk didn’t seem to be sustaining any major injuries. Lance turned his unconscious friend onto his back and checked his breathing closely. It seemed normal.

Nothing about Hunk raised any alarms; his life probably wasn’t in danger. Lance patted Hunk’s head, and reassured that he was fine.

The fact that Hunk was mostly unharmed supported Lance’s theory: the monster only attacked and harmed the Galra. Anyone else was left largely unharmed.

His stomach twisted in sympathy for the monster.

That poor fella. It must have been hurt so, so much for it to want vengeance this badly. His heart ached for the tortured soul of the creature, even if it was a scary monster.

With a grunt, Lance grabbed Hunk’s arm and threw it over his shoulder, hissing in pain.

The glass shards. They shifted in his back, digging into his flesh.

Steeling himself, he tried to stand up but tumbled down after every try. He panted with effort. Lance’s head spun violently and his hand shot to the floor to steady himself. It took a few seconds for the world to wobble back in place.

Maybe he had lost more blood than he thought.

Slowly, he placed Hunk back down before scouring through the corridor and the surrounding rooms. Luckily, there was a trolley nearby. He pushed it beside Hunk before half-rolling, half-lifting him onto it as gently as he could.

Lance had to get back to the lions. He sighed and began to push the trolley. When they arrived at a crossroad, Lance peered down all three corridors. This place was a damn maze. He pursed his lips in thought.

Straight ahead?

Lance grunted as he leaned on the handle of the trolley and pushed forward.

Somehow or another, Lance managed to find the lions quickly but their barriers were activated. He knocked on Yellow’s particle barrier and called, “Hey, buddy. Could you open up?” After a small hum of greeting, the yellow lion lowered its barrier and open its mouth for Lance to trolley Hunk in.

He lifted the large guy with a Herculean effort and propped him up on his seat. As a safety precaution so the other boy wouldn’t go tumbling to the floor when they lifted off, Lance strapped Hunk tight with the seatbelt.

When Lance straightened up, he swore he felt his skin rip further. He hissed in pain. To top it all off, his back felt wet. Whether it was blood or cold sweat, he really didn’t know.

Lance sighed loudly. The damn glass shards. He wanted to reach back and just yank them all out. That, of course, would do nothing but make more blood gush out.

Besides, he had better things to do than make his injuries worse.

Slowly so he wouldn’t aggravate his back, he got off the ship and nodded towards the two lions. “Wait for a sec. I still need to get the bayards and armour and stuff. Keep him safe, ‘kay, big guy?” he said, patting Yellow’s leg. “You too, Red.”

When he sensed the soft rumble of acknowledgement from the two lions, he headed back down the hallway, hoping he’d be just as lucky while finding where the bayards and armour were kept.

Walk straight and a fork right up ahead… Turn right.

He turned and continued staggering through the corridor, sighing.

Just a little more.

He made yet another turn at yet another crossroad. But as he walked round the bend, he was hit by a distinct and unwelcome smell.

The rotting stench.

The more he walked, the closer he got to the laboratory, it seemed. The odour only grew stronger and stronger. Truthfully, he didn’t want to go anywhere near that lab. However, he had a strong unexplainable feeling that this was the right direction, so he didn’t turn back.

When he made a turn again, he saw the swinging doors at the end of the corridor. It was the corridor from before. It was empty, save for the spot near the swinging doors, where a large bulge sat in the dark.

Lance pursed his lips. There was a strong urge to investigate it.

You wouldn’t like what you’d see. No point looking.

He pulled his gaze away, focusing on the walls instead. After walking slightly further, he found himself staring into a room. A quick glance was all Lance needed. He spotted their bayards and armour hanging on hooks that weren’t far from the entrance.

Unlike the corridors that smelt like rotting death, this room already reeked of fresh gruesome kill. It was a literal bloodbath in there and Lance hadn’t even stepped in yet. Fortunately, it was dark. He really didn’t want to see more dead people than he must.

Lance glanced at the piles of bodies in the room and did a quick count. It was the same number of druids that had cornered him a while ago.

With a shudder, he turned away, biting the inside of his cheek. The stuff they did was pretty messed up, but surely they shouldn’t have to go through such violent deaths.

No, they did. They would have used you like an experiment if they hadn’t died.

Lance shook his head to clear it. He didn’t want to dwell on that thought. It was too frightening to think about that while standing amongst piles of corpses.

Get what you need and leave.

He steeled himself, held his breath and stepped through the doorway. Quickly, he grabbed the bayards and armour before darting back out into the corridor. Immediately, he put his helmet back on and switched on the communicator.

“Hey, guys?” he tried. “Anyone online?”

“Wait. Lance?” He heard Keith say in disbelief. “Is that Lance?”

Lance laughed at the little crack in his voice, and his chest warmed up at the familiarity of his teammate’s voice.

“It’s him, isn’t it? It’s Lance!” Pidge screamed. “Quiznak, you’re alive!”

There was a flurry of cheers and screaming and talking all at once. Lance couldn’t catch a word they were saying amongst all the noise. “Guys. You need to talk one by one. Can’t understand a word,” he said, a sigh in his voice.

He dropped to the floor and propped his head up on his knees. Feeling a little cold, Lance hugged his legs tightly. His eyelids were heavy with lethargy.

“Shiro and I lost all contact with you!” Coran yelled first.

“I could sense your lions moving away from Regeunde. But I couldn’t do a single thing!” Allura cried. Her voice was wracked with panic and guilt, trembling violently. “I tried to go back to the castle as fast as I could, but–”

“We couldn’t move out of the base! Security was tight and we had to follow for the sentry’s cycle, so we were moving at snail pace. But we’re heading back in now,” Pidge stuttered. “We’re so sorry!”

“Nah. It’s alright now.” Lance chuckled weakly. “Sorry for worrying you guys.”

“Are you okay though, Lance?” Shiro asked.

“Yeah, ‘m fine. A little beat up, but fine. How long has it been?”

“Three vargas!” Keith shouted.

“Geez… No need to yell… My poor ears, Keith. Definitely felt a lot longer than that though. My throat’s all dry.”

“What happened?” Pidge asked. “And where’s Hunk?”

“Apparently, the druids were ordered to stop Voltron from forming. Got dragged into their ship. Hunk’s knocked out or something. He’s in Yellow so he should be safe. Should still check up on him when we get back,” he mumbled. “They’re definitely planning something. Turns out you were right, huh, Keith?”

There was a curt hum from Keith.

Coran said, his voice more composed than before, “I am able to locate you through your communicator now.”

“Hang in there,” Keith said, firm and reassuring. “We’re nearly in the castle.”

Pidge said, “The Galra will most likely have a plan ready if we come to rescue them. We need to be careful.”

Lance bit his lip. “Whatever they’ve got up their sleeves, it probably won’t work now. The entire ship’s wiped out.” His hands were cold and stiff so he rubbed them together.

“What?”

“I’ll… explain later. I don’t feel good talking about that… now,” he said, glancing around the eerily quiet corridor. “Anyway, I’ll try to move away from the ship in the meantime. In case there’s, like, a booby trap or something.”

“Right,” Allura said. “Do stay safe, Lance.”

“As you wish, princess!” Lance said playfully, even adding a small superfluous bow despite his lack of an audience.

The groans and sighs came nonetheless.  

“Just hurry up,” Keith grumbled.

“Alright! Lance out,” he replied before switching the communicator off.

With sore limbs and an aching back, Lance struggled to get back on his knees. When he did, his eyes were drawn to the large bulge right in front of the swinging doors to the laboratory once again.

It sat there, ominous and unmoving, but Lance couldn’t shake off this lurching feeling in his stomach. He had to look at it. Yet, something in him kept warning him that it wouldn’t be a good idea.

It wasn’t moving anymore. Surely it was dead. Why was he so terrified?

Of course you’re afraid! It’s a body! How could you not be? You should just leave it alone.

No, it wasn’t that he was scared of the body or its death. There was something else about it. Something was very off. If he took a closer look, he should be able figure it out.

But perhaps you are better off not knowing.

Maybe.

Still, Lance found himself inching closer. His heart slammed against his ribcage, and his breath was shallow and fast, not unlike that of a terrified rabbit. He activated his bayard and his breath hitched at the transformation. His hands were tightly curled around the gun as he slid his left foot forward, then his right.

A single look was all it took.

He jerked back. “Ay dios mio,” he breathed.

That bulge. It was mangled, resembling a crumpled paper ball rather than the limbed creature it had been.

But the dark green scales and sharp claws were unmistakable. Its head had been ripped off and was sitting wide-eyed beside the body. Still and unseeing, as though paralysed with shock.

It was the monster from the lab.

Lance broke into a run. With what little strength he had left, he dashed him to the lions— to safety.

He didn’t have the courage to look around now. Not when bodies of the Galra were scattered over the floor— disfigured, mauled, destroyed.

As soon as Lance made it to his lion, he fumbled for the buttons and managed to take off. His legs were jelly and his heart was beating quickly, but whether from running or fear, he didn’t know.

When he tried to sit down, pain spiked through his body. Glass shards. He let out a groan and remained standing.

Lance tapped the button at the side of his helmet. “Hey, guys. How much longer are you gonna take?”

“We’re almost there, Lance,” Allura’s calm voice came in. “Wait for us outside the ship. We should be there in a tick.”

“Okay. Thanks, ’llura,” Lance mumbled as he shuffled his weight to his other foot and switched the intercom off. He was way more exhausted than he had thought. “Okay, Red, m’ buddy,” he said. “We gotta drag Yellow and Hunk out. We should be able to reach the rest that way.”

Lance managed to complete that task with a combination of nudging and tugging and dying noises. As soon as they were out, the space in front of their lions folded into itself, and the Castle of Lion winked into existence.

He heaved a huge sigh of relief. His legs buckled and he barely caught himself in time.

Careful!

As he lowered himself, he was careful not to hurt his back any further and lay on his side, tired and sleepy. Every part of his body was aching.

He felt Red being dragged and he looked up to see Blue pushing him and the black lion grabbing Yellow with its massive jaws. By the time Red had landed securely in the castle, Lance was curled into a foetal position. His eyelids were closed and he could feel himself slipping. He managed to open his eyes enough to see the interior of the hangar.

Just a short nap. After that, he’d wake up to make sure Hunk was fine. His eyelids fluttered shut again.

A loud “Lance!” woke him.

Someone touched his shoulder and he hissed in pain. The hand was quickly removed.

“Oh gods. Lance? Are you awake?” Allura asked, tapping his arm frantically. “Please be awake.”

“Hm?”

She let out an audible sigh of relief. Her voice grew a little distant as she turned away from him to speak into her intercom. “Tell Coran to ready the operation table. Bring a stretcher to Red’s Hanger. Lance has lost a lot of blood.” After a brief moment of silence, Allura���s voice was directed to Lance again. “Alright, stay awake. Open your eyes,” she said.

“’m sleepy, princess. And everything kinda hurts,” he mumbled. “Gimme five more minutes.”

“Lance, stay with me. Just open your eyes a little longer,” Allura said as she conducted a check on Lance’s body.

With a groan, Lance forced his eyes open. His vision was blurry for a moment. Then, his eyes found iridescent blue ones and locked on to them. “Y’know, princess, your eyes are really pretty,” he blurted. “Anyone told y’ that? Like jewels.”

“Alright, Lance,” Allura said absently as she ran her hands over his limbs to check for wounds. She let out a soft curse when she saw his arms. “Do you know how badly you’re injured?”

“I know I have glass in my back,” Lance replied.

“Glass?!” Allura cried.

He tried to turn to let Allura see it, but the movement sparked a sharp pain through him and he let out a gasp, too tired to do any more than that. “Ah, fudge ball,” he whimpered. “Didn’t hurt so much jus’ now…”

“Did you jostle it while on the lion?” Allura peered over his shoulder and winced. “Oh, this is much worse than I thought. There’s so much– Why didn’t you say anything?”

Lance shrugged slightly, causing more pain to spike through him like an electric current. He dropped his head against the floor and breathed heavily, trying to steady himself.

Stay awake. She wants you to stay awake.

But surely a short little nap would be fine–

“Lance!” Allura called again. “Stay awake, alright? Stay awake. Help is coming.” She placed a reassuring hand on the back of his.

Lethargically, Lance nodded but he was losing focus. When he found himself staring at blobs of blurry colours, he shook his head and tried to concentrate on Allura.

“’s Hunk okay?” he asked.

“What? Oh. Keith and Coran are attending to him right now.”

“But is he oka–”

“Princess Allura!” Shiro’s voice came. “I have the stretcher.” His worried face hovered above Lance’s. “Hey, Lance. Hang in there.” Shiro gave him his worried-dad smile and Lance returned it with a tired one.

Allura hoisted Lance up and placed him on his side on a stretcher.

“Make sure he does not roll. His back is full of glass. We do not want it to be pushed in any further,” she told Shiro as they strapped Lance securely to the stretcher.

Just as he began to close his eyes, she pat his cheek. “Stay awake, please.”

“As you wish, princess,” Lance mumbled with a quirk of his lips.

Quickly, the two of them carried Lance out of the lion. They ran into Keith, who had just sprinted over from the direction of the infirmary. He matched the pace of Shiro and Allura as he gave them a quick rundown. “Hunk’s fine. Coran ran a check on him in the healing pod. Only bruised and slightly concussed. Nothing too bad. Put him in the healing pod for about two vargas and he’ll be fine.”

“That’s good,” Lance muttered.

Keith shot him a look filled with both rage and worry.

Lance gave him a sheepish grin.

With a groan, Keith squeezed his eyes shut and tore his attention away from Lance. He turned back to Shiro. “The operation room and Coran are free. Pidge prepared the room and some blood bags already.”

“Good,” Shiro replied.

They reached the operation table. As Shiro laid Lance onto the operation table, Allura explained the situation to Coran, “There are multiple glass shards in his back and burns to his arms.”

“Can I sleep now?” Lance mumbled. No one seemed to hear him over the loud clangs of preparation and rapid dissemination of information and instructions.

Try to stay awake.

But he was so, so exhausted.

Just a little bit longer.

Lance still found his eyes blinking slower.

“First degree burns, I believe,” Allura continued. “Multiple wounds to his arms and legs. Blade wounds. I can’t see much of his skin beneath the suit, but there seem to be many bruises.” She pulled at a cut in the suit and exposed some of Lance’s skin to Coran.

Coran winced. “He’s very pale. He must have lost a lot of blood.”

Eyelids heavy, Lance let himself slowly drift away. No one was replying him anyway. “G’night,” Lance mumbled, closing his eyes.

For some reason, Lance was aware that he was in a dream. He wondered if this was one of those lucid dreams Rachel had once talked about. He had never had one before. However, something felt a little different. Because this dream… didn’t feel like his.

His movements weren’t fully under his control. It was as if his actions and feelings and thoughts while in this state were shared with someone else.

In the dream, he was in the druid’s lab again. This time, he was in a jar on the shelf. It was difficult to see anything outside the jar. There was a white rectangle, probably a jar label, obscuring his vision. Behind him was a white wall, and to his sides were similar jars.

Each jar contained a blue and green creature that looked like half-developed foetus, except with a long tail that was twice the length of their body. They had small jagged mouths and two pairs of beady eyes. The twitch of their eight legs, and the slow movement of their feelers were the only indicators that they weren’t dead as they floated about in liquid.

Though they didn’t look alive to Lance either.

When Lance focused on the reflection on his glass jar, he realised he looked just like them. His wrinkly skin was dark green with splashes of bright blue.

His eyes travelled to the creature on his right, who had the most brilliant shade of green on the tip of their tail. They looked rather lethargic with their feelers drooping and head slightly bowed. As though sensing someone watching, they lifted their head, and beady eyes looked back at Lance. Despite never meeting such a creature before, Lance recognised their small tail movement as a greeting. He returned the gesture politely and watched as the other creature shook with joy, a momentary relief from the tense lifeless atmosphere of the room.

Then, there was a click. With a flick of his tail, Lance swirled in the jar and peeked through a thin gap under the jar label. An involuntary shudder ran through him.

Druids.

They got to work. Some prepared the laboratory table and equipment, but Lance’s attention was drawn to the druid approaching the shelf he was on.

His eyes made contact with the creature on his right again. Their tail shivered as they floated backwards in the fluid. Fear.

He glanced around. Everyone else was shaking in terror. He looked forward again to see the druid considering them all as though they were canned soup at a supermarket.

The druid’s arm loomed in Lance’s direction. With a squeak, Lance squeezed his eyes shut and curled into a ball. For several seconds, nothing happened. He worked up the courage to open his eyes again.

The spot on his right was empty. Alarm surged through his body, and he launched himself to the side of the jar. The druid was walking towards the table with a jar in hand.

A flicker of brilliant green.

“Fivirion!” The name slipped from his mouth. The name associated with that beautiful shade of green, something in his mind supplied.

Fivirion swivelled in the jar, and their eyes stared into his. Fivirion was frozen in place.

There was a violent, wrenching tug in Lance’s gut. As if there were millions more memories between them, and this was the final sliver of a moment left that they could ever share.

Lance felt his body press against the glass of jar and his voice screaming Fivirion’s name over and over and over.

A druid twisted the jar open, and Fivirion was poured into a light blue tray. There was sufficient light for Lance to catch their silhouette in the tray, flickering and writhing about frantically.

“Vree! Vree!” they screamed, and Lance felt his voice yell with greater urgency, “Fivirion!”

He moved back and slammed against the front of his jar. His heart was beating a thousands beats per second. He was on the verge of combusting with panic. Desperate, he swished in his jar and jumped to hit the jar cap.

It wouldn’t budge.

Fivirion’s screams morphed into a screech. Lance plunged to the bottom of the jar to look through the gap.

The druid used a pair of tweezers to seize Fivirion. Dread wracked through Lance’s body with fearful familiarity, despite never having seen it before. The druid swished Fivirion in the liquid of the tray for several seconds. When he was done, they were no longer screaming.

There was the occasional defiant twitch. But the druid had them under control.

The druid picked up a small needle and drove it into them and Fivirion spasmed for several seconds before falling deathly still again.

Lance pressed his body against the glass jar again, a sense of defeat washing over him.

A large creature was rolled into the lab. It was heavily sedated, its eyes only open a fraction, allowing its bright orange eyes to peep through. Its huge furry body slumped heavily against the cage it was in.

Lance felt faint. His breathing was heavy and his head felt light.

The druids opened the top of the cage and shoved the creature about roughly as they readied it for their procedure. When it was hooked onto a monitor and several tubes, they began the operation.

They shaved the back of its head and carefully made a small hole in it. Using the pair of tweezers, they picked Fivirion up and inserted them into the creature’s skull.

By this point, Lance could watch no longer. He curled into himself and squeezed his eyes shut.

He’d be lying if he said he knew what exactly was going on.

But he knew it was very wrong. The millions of indecipherable feelings, which welled up inside him and made his feelers shrivel, told him so.