At first, the pain was bearable; the idea that the aching would run its course and he would be back to normal soon created a sense of hope within the boy. As the weeks went by, however, his hope started to dwindle steadily. The constant shooting pain traveling down his back started creating a wall against him, making him unable to function properly. Although he had been living like this since being caught in the explosion at the beginning of their voyage to space a number of months ago, it was only recently that the other paladins began to notice the changes in their blue boy's behaviour.

"Come on Lance, you can do this," Shiro encouraged from the sideline with the rest of their team. They were sparring against the gladiators today, focusing on their hand to hand combat one on one. Lance carefully dodged the robots first few swipes of the staff, he was able to bring his bayard up to counter a few of the attacks. He went to dodge the next hit when his back seized up and he was unable to bend the way he wanted to. He caught the butt of the staff in the legs toppling him over and landed with a wheeze on the floor.

"End training sequence," Shiro called after letting out a tired sigh. Lance pushed himself up and looked over at Shiro shame in his eyes.

"Lance you've done this eight times today but the results are all the same, why are you improving?" He asked. Lance looked down at the ground and only looked up when Shiro turned away.

"We're ending here for the day, rest up," He announced to the room before sending one last disappointed stare Lance's way. Lance could feel his throat closing up in guilt and he curled his shoulders into himself. He could hear the others leaving and looked up to see only Keith left.

"When are you going to take this seriously?" Keith spat. Lance winced and curled up further and looked at him wearily. "This isn't a game, this is war,"

"I know," Lance tried to defend himself but was cut off.

"If you know, then you know not to treat training like a joke," he said shortly before leaving the training deck. Lance could only stare after Keith, the guilt only building in his stomach. Another few weeks passed after the training incident and he could feel his mood decreasing every day; the happy, eager to please young man couldn't keep the smile on his face, the pain causing him to become bitter and irritable to the others.

"Are you okay man?" Hunk asked one afternoon. He noticed that Lance was stirring around his food goo and had yet to consume one bite.

"Fine," Lance bit out glaring down at the green gel in front of him. Hunk's eyebrows furrowed in worry and he put down the bowl in his hand approaching his best friend.

"Are you sure, you've been acting really weird for a while now," He added leaning on the counter between the two of them.

"I said I'm fine," Lance practically growled stabbing his food with his spoon.

"Well, I'm just saying that if you need to talk to anyone, I'm he-" Hunk started only to be cut off.

"Would you shut up?! I said I'm fine!" Lance yelled at the shocked Hunk. "Stop sticking your nose where it doesn't belong!"

"Fine," Hunk frowned angrily. "You don't need to be so rude about it," He walked out of the kitchen without a second glance. Lance looked at the door for a few minutes before putting his head in his hands.

"What the hell is wrong with me?" He whispered to himself trying to ignore the throbbing in his back. His head pounded as well, the lack of sleep catching up to him. He would roll around for hours trying to find a comfortable position to rest in. He mourned the relationship he had with his teammates; his recent behaviour had driven them away from him and he doubted that he would be able to regain their trust and loyalty back so easily. He could see Shiro disappointed shake of the head, Keith and Allura's angry scowls after all his failed training attempts, and Hunk and Pidge's annoyed glares after he treated them so unkindly over the past few days. He slunk back to his room, praying that he would be able to get a decent amount of sleep for their mission tomorrow. He curled up underneath his blanket, trying to ignore the sensations of pain.

Although the mission was simple; it was imperative that everything goes off without a hitch. The information stored in this outpost would lead the team to even more Galra prisons, that could potentially house Sam Holt. Lance laid on his stomach in the rafters above his teammates; Pidge who was hacking through the system and the others who were protecting her. He shot anything who got close enough to damage the machine. A Galra soldier was sneaking up beside the machine, Lance chuckled at the easy shot and lined them up with the crosshairs. As he went to squeeze the trigger, spasms started traveling down his back making him freeze. His teeth ground together and his eyes rolled into the back of his head at the pain paralyzing him. He missed the Galra smashing the machine thwarting Pidge's progress, she pulled the drive out of the computer and joined in on the fight. Lance blinked back tears as he came back to the real world, noticing the trouble his friends were in he started laying down cover fire. They fought through back to the lions and took off back to the Castle. Lance gritting his teeth the whole way; his back felt like it was on fire, the spasms weren't completely gone and it took all he had not to shout out loud. He slowly walked out of Blue and was immediately crowded by the others.

"What the hell Lance!?" Keith shouted. "You had one job!"
Lance shrunk back, the guilt in his stomach coming back full force.

"I-I," he stuttered out.

"No excuses this time Lance," Shiro said sternly. Lance's mouth opened and closed uselessly as he glanced from one paladin to the other. A shout came from across the hanger where Pidge sat on her computer; she sprinted across to join the group.

"We got no data!" She yelled in his face. "All that work for nothing!" Lance's eyes widened and he tried to explain himself over the sound of everyone else's accusations. The stress from the past pain filled months caught up with him. The exhaustion of sleepless nights, and the helplessness he felt paired with the guilt building up from every failed training exercise and mission boiled over. A shudder wracked up his frame and his lip began trembling as he pulled it into his teeth. A sob escaped him as tears began to flow over his cheeks, he clutched his sides in his hands as the spasms continued. The paladins quieted and they watched the blue paladin break down in front of them in confusion.

"I-I'm s-sorry," He hiccuped. "M-my back just h-h-hurts so bad," he explained. Shiro immediately stepped forwards worry on his face.

"What? Did you get hurt during the mission?" He asked. Lance shook his head no and tried to explain.

"S-since the explosion, i-it hurts a-all the t-time," he sobbed. "I c-can't sleep, I-I can't eat," he walked forward into Shiro's chest with a sob.

"Why didn't you tell me? Or Coran?" He asked eyebrows furrowed in worry for the teenager.

"I didn't k-know if i-it was that im-important," Lance admitted. Shiro bit his bottom lip between his teeth, as tears filmed over his eyes. His teammate, his friend, had been in pain since they arrived in space and didn't feel that it was important enough to ask for help. He gently hugged the paladin further into his chest. He could feel how bad Lance was trembling and felt his heart squeeze in sympathy. He picked the paladin up in his arms and started carrying him towards the quarters, the other paladins quietly following behind them.

"Rest up Lance, we can fix this," Shiro said quietly. Lance could feel his eyelids growing heavy the further Shiro carried him from the hanger. The first signs of comfort for months, walking protectively around him.