MP: Hello, I recently got dragged into Voltron Hell. I'm also now on AO3 in addition to FF. Net . This is my first officially cross posted work. I used BOotB: Book 1 as a test fic to learn their posting system. Enjoy, Lab Rat.
Summary: A Druid has gotten her hands on a prime specimen for her experiments: the Red Paladin of Voltron.
Lab Rat
It seemed as if pain and cold had been his whole life. Keith couldn't remember when he'd been captured by the Galra. Whatever they were injecting him with was making him constantly vomit whatever gruel they actually attempted to feed him and he was getting weaker by the day.
— — — — — —
"Still no change?"
"It takes time, Commander. We must change the inside before we can work on making this one more aesthetically pleasing. His illness is proof the therapy is working. Once it subsides, the rest of the changes will follow."
"Lord Zarkon—."
"Is not here. Leave me to my experiment and I will leave you to your work. No need to alert Lord Zarkon about any of this until we have results."
— — — — — —
Keith was no longer throwing everything up. The injections had been replaced by a pump that had been attached to the inside of his elbow, with a shackle around it to prevent him from removing it. He was constantly tired. He was also losing his hair to stress. More of it was falling out daily. His mouth hurt, but he could have been grinding his teeth in his sleep, his ears hurt, his eyes hurt, really everything was at a low dull throb. His fingers were tinging purple. What the hell was this stuff doing to him?
— — — — — —
The Druid observed the changes and there were slow, but steady. The skin pigmentation would change first, then the follicles would change their pigmentation as the hair cell changed and spread encouraging fur growth, which would happen next. The way the subject was progressing his ears would shift and become more like a sphyrx like those Galra who hailed from the Jungle region, and it was looking like he would also have an impressive mane once it grew in. The changes could be accelerated if she were to submerge the subject in quintessence.
— — — — — —
Keith's usual plate of gruel was slid in without much fanfare. He ate half of it before he realized there was something else in it. The room began to spin he threw the plate away from himself but it was too late. He felt forwards too weak to move, but he was some how fighting off the drug. He was dragged roughly through the ship. The hallway seemed to toss and turn as he was dragged into another room.
"Still conscious? This will be an interesting variable." Keith felt the guards remove the shackle, the pump, and then his clothes. As they were dragging him towards a tank filled with that Qui-whatever stuff, he caught a brief look at his own reflection: he looked horrible. Half his hair was gone, there were dark purple circles under his eyes, and he was pale and covered in purple blotches. He could not have braced for being thrown into the tank, even if he hadn't been half drugged. If there was ever a situation where pain and relief were happening at the same time, and not in a "hurts so good" sort of way, it was this. He lost consciousness after a few moments.
— — — — — —
"Pull him out," the Druid said. the droids complied instantly being nothing more than machines. How those things bored her. The subject had been almost completely changed over with that brief submergence, he had a very impressive coat of fur and her guess abbot the mane had been correct, the ears were fully formed and had a thicker coat of fur on them compared to the rest of him. The claw development wasn't as far as she would have hoped, but a final triple strength injection should take care of that and the teeth. She lifted an eyelid and smiled with satisfaction whenever she saw the yellow instead of that odd white. If she looked closer she could still see the pupil beneath the surface, like a proper galran eye. She readied the last injection before adding something else to the mix. An extra dash of quintessence would hurry this along and satisfy the Commander, and perhaps even Lord Zarkon, once they informed him of this experiment's success. She plunged it into the subject's neck before pressing the plunger in. With that, the last of the weak alien traits would be eliminated.
"He almost looks like a proper Galra." She pulled the needle out and wordlessly ordered the droids to dress the subject.
"I administered the last dose. It should cause his claws to fully develop along with his teeth," the Druid said.
"You could have found the key to our supremacy across the universe," the Commander said.
"I am aware, I am wondering if I could have another subject to work with to see if I can reduce the time it takes," the Druid said.
"I will see to it that you do," the Commander said, he studied the form and frowned, "If this boy's age is correct, we have been facing a half-grown cub."
"I was surprised by that too, but before the changes took, I was unable to tell because aliens all look the same to me," The Druid said.
— — — — — —
Keith regain consciousness back in his cell. Someone had thoughtfully cleaned it. He pushed himself up and held his aching jaw. Whatever happened to him after the bath in that quintessence must have knocked his teeth loose. He paused. He had fur on his face and hand. He could feel it. Keith looked down at his hands in horror. Galra hands. No. No, no, no! They weren't poisoning him slowly, they'd been turning him into one of them! He was suddenly hyper aware of the fur all over. He could feel it and it was so damn weird. He could feel his ears twitching. Twitching? Keith felt his head and found cat-like ears but no human ears. His hair seemed to have grown back, but he had lost his mullet. It was all the same length now and…fluffy. It felt like his…. his fur only silkier. Keith needed to escape before they brainwashed him into working for the Galra, but how?
— — — — — —
Keith's human teeth were rapidly being pushed out in favor of a Galra set and his claws were causing his fingers to bleed as they developed and hardened. The only bright side to this nightmare was no more injections or a pump in his arm. It only took three days of pain for the new set to grow rapidly into place and four days for his claws to finally be finished. Keith was now completely a Galra and he hated it. Hated that, now that he was stable, the food was making him stronger. Hated he could see and hear better than he ever could before, hated his sense of smell was heightened, and hated his own reflection.
— — — — — —
There was an explosion that rocked his cell and he was on alert snarling instinctively. The door was forced open and he was tossed his armor, his bayard, and his dagger.
"Dress now." It was an older male galra. Keith blinked before he did as he was told pulling his armor over his prisoner body suit with plans on burning that once he was free and clear. He carefully pulled the helmet on over his ears, which muffled his hearing but since it was only down to regular human hearing like that, he was alright. He summoned his sword and followed the Galra soldier and summoned his shield to block a hail of blaster bolts from droid. He sliced his way through them and they arrived at the hanger. With the red particle barrier up sat his Lion, mostly repaired.
"I know I look different, but I'm still me," Keith said as he placed a hand o the barrier. It fell and the Red Lion roared at him. Keith paused and looked at his savior.
"Go. Go now!" he said. Keith nodded before he ran into his Lion's mouth and to the cockpit. The Galra operated the controls so the Red Lion was able to get out into space through the airlock into space. A shuttle streaked past his view screen as a shockwave hit the Red Lion. He turned back to see the ship had been destroyed in an explosion.
He was finally free.
Note added April 27, 2019: Since I've now gotten more than one of these types of reviews, I'm going to say this now:
Almost all of this fanfic was written before Season 2 ever released.
16 chapters for sure were done before that point.
There were an additional four that might have also been done pre-s2 but I hadn't posted them so part of them were tweaked.
So that means, there were certain bits of canon information (like Hunk and Lance's heritages) that I didn't know when I wrote this. Since over half the fic was written prior, I am not going back to change it. So, next person who feels the need to Anonymously comment about me having something different than the canon: don't.