Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Water. Earth. Fire. Air. Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony.

Then, everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked.

Only the Avatar, master of all four elements, could stop them, but when the world needed him most, he vanished.

The moment she opens her eyes, at the end of her speech, Allura already knows she has failed.

Her failure is broadcast by the fear in the faces of her audience, in the nervous shifting of their feet, in how all of them are looking at the exits, eager to flee. She has failed and thrown away a year of exhausting work.

Her father would be so angry. Or maybe not. He had never been truly angry at her—disappointed at times, yes— but mostly a supportive figure.

She misses him with every breath she takes in this new, scared world.

Allura has always known that this was a long shot. Her strength has never been public speaking; her style has always been to lead by example and hope that people realize that the right thing to do is follow her. This is a much more delicate matter.

She looks at the people watching her, at the tired souls that have answered her call, and she wonders when fear had become such a familiar sentiment that she can almost recognize it in the air, like a poisonous gas.

It might have happened the day Zarkon destroyed the last member of the Air Nation, but she fears sometimes that it had happened even before that - that their fates had been condemned by cowardice and weakness.

She knows she is being unfair, but she can’t understand why no one wants to fight, why even her plan is received with such shock and reluctance. It’s risky, of course it is, but it’s the best opportunity they have.

And probably the last.

Allura pushes, then, because if all is lost what other choice does she have if not continue until her voice is hoarse, her strength gone? “I know you are scared, but this is not the time to quiver in front of the enemy! We need the quintessence, we need the power! I have waited a year to track one shipment, to prepare this attack. If we don’t do it now… please!”

Her plea is faced with silence. For a moment she hopes, against all possibilities, but then someone shakes his head and starts to walk towards the exit. It’s the signal everyone was waiting for, apparently, and the crowd starts to disperse with some murmured “I’m sorry” or “I can’t”.

Cowards. All of them.

She will try this on her own if she has to, but she knows it would be a suicide mission.

But what else can she do?

A year of planning, of sacrifices, and this is what she has made of it. She’s ashamed of herself.

“Dammit,” she mutters, closing her eyes. She will not look at them all ruining what could be their best chance; she can’t or she will break.

Allura does not have the time to break.

“So, we’re not doing it?” someone asks and she opens her eyes quickly, noticing the four figures still in the room.

From what she can gather from their clothes, there are two earthbenders and one waterbender in front of her, waiting for some kind of answer. In the back there is another person, but his clothes are plain and don’t betray his bending style, if he has one. He could be a non-bender, or maybe someone that traveled enough to know that broadcasting your bending ability could be a death sentence lately. She can’t really blame him.

“I… you’re staying?” she asks, surprised. She can’t help it, even if she knows she should play it cool. Allura had already resigned herself to doing this alone. Five people still aren’t enough, but it is a step up from one, especially with the two earthbenders. She doesn’t dare to hope that maybe one of them can metalbend, that seems too much to ask for, but any help is welcomed.

“Well, we can’t certainly leave a beauty such as yourself all alone, now can we?” the young man dressed in blue says, with a quick confident smile. It feels out of place, forced, and she has to stop herself from grimacing.

The man beside him doesn’t stop himself from cringing and she can see the look of complete embarrassment in his eyes.

“Also, it’s the right thing to do,” the smaller figure says. With his slim frame, he seems to be younger than the others. Allura wonders how young for just a second, before remembering that in this world it doesn’t really matter: they have all been pushed into this war ready or not, old enough or not.

Guy-in-the-back doesn’t say anything, but he stays. She figures that says enough.

Still, Allura thinks it is only fair to say, “This won’t be easy.” Because she wants them to be prepared. She needs them to know and follow her anyway. “With only five people… it’s practically a suicide mission.”

A tense pause follows her words, and maybe this is it. Maybe they will leave now, too; but at least she won’t have their lives on her conscience.

“When do we leave?” says the cloaked figure in the back and Allura looks up, startled.

The others don’t seem to be leaving, even if the big earthbender seems ready to pass out. They are probably stupid, or they suffer from some kind of hero complex or…

Allura doesn’t really have the time to analyze them. This is already her last resort. She has a mission to plan and to complete and they, as crazy as they might be, are the only possibilities she has.

“The facility is two days from here. We will leave tomorrow morning and debrief during the trip. We don’t have time to try and see how we work together or get to know each other.” The time for insecurity is over, and she has always been better at action than planning. “I hope you’re all great team players.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll keep you safe. You all just have to keep up with me,” the waterbender says, laughing. His friend huffs: a little bit embarrassed, but also fond.

“My name is Hunk,” the earthbender says, before pointing to the waterbender. “He’s Lance. He’s an idiot, but a well-meaning one.”

“I resent that,” Lance says, but doesn’t seem mad. They are good friends, it seems, and Allura envies them a little, even if she doesn’t want to. At least she’s sure that the two of them won’t have trouble working with each other.

“My name is Pidge,” the little guy interrupts, fixing his glasses. Allura smiles at him and nods, and the guy responds in kind.

“I am Allura, but you already knew that,” she says, because it seems only fair. Everyone looks at the last person, then, but their last teammate doesn’t seem to be the talkative kind.

“Keith” is the only thing he says, before huffing.

“Yay, team,” Lance mutters, and Allura does her best to contain her grimace. They don’t have time for fights; she can only hope that however silent Keith might be, he will come through in the end.

Only time will tell.

They have been walking for a long time already and it seems like the waterbender—Lance, Pidge amends in her head—isn’t going to stop talking anytime soon.

Pidge hasn’t really been listening for the last hour, but she can see how the constant chatter is grating on Keith’s nerves.

She gives it another hour, at most, before Keith finally snaps. Normally the situation would amuse her more than anything else, but she needs them. Allura had been right the day before: infiltrating the facility with only five people is suicidal, but doing it alone would be futile.

She doesn’t have the luxury of trying stupid useless tactics; she needs to get inside the compound and figure out if her brother and her father are there. There aren’t many firebender compounds able to contain metalbenders, and she’s running out of options.

This will be the fourth one she has raided this year and if she doesn’t find them here, she will have to travel inside Fire Empire territory. She’s not looking forward to that.

“In my village we have this game where we ride penguins down a hill, it’s the funniest thing. It’s really different from bending down a hill, you see, because the penguins try to free themselves. It’s so exciting,” Lance is saying, and Pidge looks behind her to see if someone is really paying attention.

Hunk has the air of someone who’s heard this all before, Allura appears completely focused on where they are going. Keith seems to be the only one reacting in any way, and it’s mostly with annoyance.

“Can’t you just shut up for five minutes?” Keith mutters, a lot sooner that Pidge had hoped.

Lance stops and looks back at the other guy. “What did you just say to me?”

“That maybe we would be able to concentrate more if you just shut up,” Keith hissed through gritted teeth, and she can already see the fight shaping up in front of her. It’s not going to be a pretty one.

“Enough!” Allura shouts, looking back at them with a glare. “We don’t have the time for bickering. Get your head in the mission or go back.”

She’s harsh, but it’s the reason why Pidge had decided to stay. Allura might not be kind—even her words while trying to convince an entire room to participate in an absurd mission had been rude more than anything else—but she seems to be someone who gets the job done. Pidge needs someone like that.

Keith and Lance stop immediately, but she can see the tension between them. She knows it’s nothing more than a temporary fix, but the important thing is that it holds until they are done.

“He’s just scared,” Hunk tells her, and Pidge looks at him in surprise. She hadn’t sensed him and she doesn’t know when he had gotten so close. “He’s nervous and scared,” he repeats, “and just… he talks when he’s stressed. A little bit like me, but he was just going on so I didn’t have to and…”

Pidge almost sighs out loud, but she stops herself just in time. There is no need to be rude, especially because she’s using them. She doesn’t have to be a total asshole.

“Then let’s talk about the mission,” she interrupts him with a smile. “That way we have something to talk about that won’t annoy anyone, and maybe it can make you feel better?”“Heh. Why not? I don’t think it can be worse than this,” Hunk concedes and they look towards the others.

Lance and Keith are still glaring at each other but Allura seems to be thinking.

“I was planning on stopping somewhere to plan a little more calmly but okay, we can do both,” Allura grants, quickly glancing at Lance and Keith, “if it can help keep everyone focused.”

“I am focused!” Lance huffs angrily, and Keith just shakes his head.

Allura had already given a short version of the plan yesterday, when she had recruited them, so everyone knew the main objective: take the quintessence that Zarkon's soldiers are transporting.

In truth, there aren't many people that really understand what quintessence is, exactly, and Pidge has never been one too in touch with the spiritual side of their world. They have a war to fight. There is no time for spirits, especially because the spirit world has been closed off for a long time.

Quintessence, however, is said to be the only thing left from when the spirits walked the earth.

To be exact, it’s concentrated spiritual energy and it's extremely rare. Apparently, Zarkon has been accumulating all the quintessence he can, but no one knew why.

Allura thinks—hopes—that by taking a sample to study, they might figure out what he's doing and how to stop him.

"We'll arrive at the edge of the compound tomorrow at dusk." Allura keeps walking and they all follow behind her. "The quintessence will be ready to be shipped the next morning at dawn, so we won't have much time to act. It's not going to be easy, and we will have to move quickly."

"Do we know where we have to go?" Hunk asks.

"More or less," Allura answers, which is not what they were expecting.

"Uhm, I'm sorry, I thought you just said ‘more or less’? I thought you said you had already scouted the place!" Lance shouts, surprised.

"I...I know the layout, but...I have never been inside," Allura admits with a sigh.

Pidge grimaces inwardly. This is bad, they don’t have a margin of error if they go in the wrong direction, and they’re not sure of the right direction...

"I know where the cargo is," Keith says quietly, almost like he's not sure if he wants them to hear. Pidge can't really fault him, because this opens up a whole lot of questions.

"What do you mean, you know?" Lance exclaims, surprised. "You were there?"

Keith seems annoyed at the sudden attention and he shrugs, but it's too little too late.

"You were a prisoner?" Pidge asks, and she tries to be neutral, tries not to show how important this information is to her. If Keith had been a prisoner... maybe he knows where her brother and father are, if they were prisoners with him.

"I escaped," Keith answers, with a grave voice.

Hunk seems empathetic while Lance is muttering something under his breath, but Allura…. Allura doesn't seem convinced.

"How?" she asks, and her mistrust is almost palpable. They have stopped walking, but it's probably for the best.

"How do you think?" he bristles. Every moment he closes off more and more. Pidge doesn't like to think about what the firebenders do to the prisoners, but she wonders sometimes what state her family will be in if (when) she saves them.

It's a scary thought that maybe, even if she frees them, they won't be the same.

"I don't know, that's why I'm asking. No one has ever escaped," Allura presses again.

Keith doesn't answer for a while, his entire stance aggressive and defensive at the same time. He's like a feral cat, ready to strike.

"A friend sacrificed himself," he mutters in the end, but every word sounds painful. "He didn't make it. But he freed me. And now I want my revenge."

No one says anything for a minute. She doubts there’s anyone here who hasn't lost someone to the Fire Empire, and Keith's story brings up bad memories for everyone.

They all look at Allura, trying to understand if she’ll keep pushing or give in. They haven’t really talked much about each other, only the basics (name and bending) and it feels strange now, digging so deep. Pidge wouldn’t want to be in Keith’s place; she has her own secrets. She wants to put an end to this, but she doesn’t know how.

"Okay. I'm sorry," Allura says, in the end, and Keith relaxes marginally. "If you know the layout of the facility, it will be helpful. Come on. We’ve lost enough time"

Everyone nods and they start walking, but it takes some time before Allura speaks again, almost as if she wishes to give Keith some time to compose himself.

Pidge spends that time glancing at Keith. It's not like she doesn't believe his story, but at the same time... she wonders if, maybe, Keith’s motives to join this mission are more aligned with hers than with Allura's. Someone who knows the place, who can point her in the direction of the prisoners and where they are held is invaluable.

She needs to talk with Keith alone, tonight.

"So we go into the cargo area, being careful not to let anyone see us. Stealth will be key for the success of the mission. We retrieve the quintessence..." Allura says again, before Lance interrupts.

"And then we go back to Ba Sing Se like heroes!" he says with excitement. "The five people that have bravely faced and conquered one of the Fire Empire's prisons."

It doesn't sound bad and Pidge smiles along with Hunk, but she doesn't want to stop there.

She will free the men held prisoner in the camp, she will save her family, and then... well, she thinks they will be recognized as heroes for more than even Lance imagines.

The knowledge that she's betraying them all weighs heavy on her shoulders, but her life has been one difficult decision after another.

This won't be the last; and at this point, she's too far along to stop.

Keith doesn’t stop to think about what he’s doing because he knows that there’s only guilt waiting for him that way, and he’s already entirely too familiar with that emotion. Sometimes it feels like his entire existence is based on guilt alone.

They talk about the plan while they walk and they iron out the most complicated issues and all he can think about is when it will be the best time to split off from them.

He will go with them to the entrance point, direct them to the quickest way to reach the holding area, tell them where the guards are usually posted, but then he has to go his own way. He is using them, he knows it, but he has no other choice.

There is no way for him to make it inside alone. Escape is one thing, but sneaking in? That’s another thing completely.

He might be doing them a favor, or that’s what he likes to tell himself. After all, he will probably draw a lot of attention when he frees the other prisoners, diverting the attention from them, helping their effort at stealth along.

In the end they stop only because they have been walking for hours and it’s getting dark. Even the annoying waterbender doesn’t seem to have anything more to say (and that’s a miracle all in itself).

“We should eat and then sleep. Someone will have to stand guard, and we will alternate,” Allura says methodically, and he appreciates it. He’s still nervous; her earlier questions were a little too abrasive, but it’s mostly his fault.

After all, her suspicions are right, aren’t they?

“Well,” Hunk says, searching for something from his bag, “I wasn’t sure how we were set for dinner so I… I made some sandwiches for everyone. I didn’t have the best ingredients, because the bakery wasn’t open this morning so it’s bread from yesterday but…”

All Keith has is some stale proteic shit that stopped being edible probably eight years ago, so he shrugs and takes the offered sandwich. “Thanks” he says, because he might be a dick, but not that much of a dick.

He likes Hunk.

He also thinks the big earthbender is too soft, that this war they’re facing will destroy him because there is no place for kind-hearted people. But he likes him.

“Hunk makes the best food,” Lance says, taking his share. “He could be a chef!”

Keith doesn’t like Lance, but he knows it’s mostly because he won’t stop talking and his endless chatter is distracting. Keith doesn’t have time for distraction.

(He’s also self-aware enough to realize that some of his dislike is born from envy. Envy that Lance seems to be relaxed, untouched by all the tragic things that have happened all around them and not grateful enough for it. Keith will never have that, and he would kill to go back to being happy and unburdened.)

Allura and Pidge accept their food as well, but they don’t talk while they eat. It's good, better than anything Keith has eaten in months (though it's not as if that's a high bar, compared to what he's been able to eat living on the streets since his escape).

When they finish it’s clear that everyone is exhausted. Keith knows he won’t be able to sleep anyway so he shrugs and says, “I will take first watch.” He privately decides not to wake them up for the second watch; there is no need to have everyone sleep-deprived the next day.

“I’ll stay awake with Keith,” Pidge says, and Keith watches him suspiciously.

“There is no need for two people to stay awake, we aren’t enough and…” Allura starts, but Pidge shrugs.

“I don’t mind doing two turns. I can’t sleep,” he says, and Keith’s suspicions just get worse.

After than no one says anything and it doesn’t take much time before everyone is sleeping. He doesn’t know if Pidge realizes it as well or if he just isn’t patient enough to wait any longer, but he’s not surprised when the small earthbender sits beside him and whispers, “I need to talk to you”.

“Yeah,” Keith can’t help saying. “You weren’t exactly subtle about that.”

The other has the decency to look embarrassed for a second before he shakes his head and his expression turns resolute again. Keith recognizes the look: someone ready to do anything. It’s a dangerous look.

“You said you escaped from the camp?” Pidge asks, but he doesn’t leave him any time to answer before he continues. “I… you were a prisoner there, right? I’m looking for two people, Matt and Sam Holt”.

Keith frowns and tries to remember. He thinks he remembers someone named Holt, but he’s not really sure. He has never been good with names and he has never really taken an interest in people outside of….

“They’re both metalbenders!” Pidge continues desperately. His voice is starting to rise a little; if he doesn’t calm himself, he will wake everyone up.

Then Keith remembers. It’s mostly a flash, a I can’t leave them here, Matt… whispered in an almost guilty tone.

“Matt. I think,” he says, “he was… he was friends with my friend.”

Pidge doesn’t seem to notice anything wrong with that, doesn’t ask why Matt wasn’t his friend, too focused on the news and he almost jumps. “So he is there!” he says, his voice barely a whisper again, almost as if he can’t believe it.

God, Keith knows the feeling.

“It was months ago,” he feels like he has to say. “I don’t know if…” There had been an insurrection when he had escaped and he doesn’t know what happened after.

“But he was there. And maybe he still is,” Pidge says, and Keith doesn’t really want to crush his hopes. God, he doesn’t want to crush his own. It seems that he hasn’t been hiding his intentions very well anyway. “You want to free the prisoners, don’t you?” the other boy asks him, and Keith looks shocked for a second.

“How…?” he tries, but Pidge just shakes his head.

“I want the same thing, I’m here for the same thing. It wasn’t difficult spotting a kindred spirit,” Pidges says with a smile. “So I say we do it together.”

Keith looks at the others, thinks about their plan, and Pidge glances behind as well. “We’ll help them for as long as we can,” he says, almost like he can read Keith’s mind, “but I can’t give this up. Can you?”

Keith almost laughs in his face.

Every day he has to live with the guilt, the knowledge that he might be too late, that he will never be forgiven for his sins, that he doesn’t deserve it.

Give it up? He’s ready to burn the entire world if he has to.

If anybody had asked Hunk—and unfortunately no one ever did—he would have told them how much of a terrible idea this was. The entire thing, really, from the meeting in the shady warehouse in the lower ring of Ba Sing Se to this suicidal mission.

Unfortunately, again, no one ever asks Hunk, especially Lance, who dashes forward and drags him along for the ride. Okay, this is unfair. Hunk decides to follow of his own accord, but only because he doesn't want to leave his best friend to do these dangerous things alone.

It's not like he doesn't understand why Lance does them either. He just wishes, sometimes, that Lance could stop for a second and realize that sometimes a little strategy goes a long way into assuring their continued survival.

It’s not that he doesn’t trust the people they’re traveling with (even if they’ve been less than forthcoming on a lot of things, but he can understand trauma, and all three of them look like they’ve gone four rounds against PTSD and lost. Who doesn’t these days?) but maybe they could have given it a little more thought than three minutes. He’s just saying.

“We need to do this,” Lance reminds him, and it's not like they have to, but it's something Hunk won't ever say.

"I know," he replies, "but that doesn't mean I'm not scared. Lance, this is... it's not a game. This is dangerous."

"Yeah!" Lance exclaims, excited. "Exactly! And when we pull it off no one will doubt us again!"

Hunk looks at his friend and sighs a little inside. There wasn't ever any chance of Hunk abandoning Lance. He knows that. It's why he's here after all, why he always ends up involved in these kinds of things.

God, he hopes they won't get killed for this, or he will just have to haunt Lance even from the dead.

It's their second day of travel and even Lance can't muster up the energy to be a nervous chatterbox like the day before. It gives them a modicum of peace, but Hunk can feel the shivers of fear running up his spine now that he doesn't have Lance's enthusiasm to concentrate on. If he says anything, he knows Lance would start talking again, but he doesn't want to burden him (even if he would fucking deserve it).

They know the plan, know the details, know the best hours to move, when security would be thinner. Hunk still doesn’t feel at all ready.

He feels nauseated. It's his nerves, he knows that, but it's not something he can control. He doesn't want to puke in front of the scary-looking people that form this ragtag team.

Hunk has always been a good judge of character. It was the reason he had trusted Lance so easily the first time they had met, on the busy streets of Ba Sing Se. He believes that everyone who's traveling with them is at least a decent enough person, but he doesn't want to be the laughing stock.

"We still have an hour of walking," Allura tells them, looking ahead without any doubt in her face. Her stance hasn’t wavered at all since the day before. She has been standing tall and rigid and it makes him think, sometimes, that maybe she's an earthbender too, but he knows it isn't the case.

Non-bender, she had told them yesterday, and he doesn't have any reason to distrust her on this.

"How can you tell?" he asks, because he can't help himself, because he's nervous and even if the dirt underneath his foot is comforting he wouldn't be able to say where they were going in her place. And he can actually tell where buildings are. "It's not that I want to undermine you. Or don't believe you or..."

"I have gone many times to keep an eye on things, Hunk," Allura tells him, and she seems to be amused for the first time since they have known her (which, okay it hasn't been that much, but he feels powerful all the same).

No one else says anything and soon they are walking again in silence. Hunk hates silence.

They are so close to finally starting this mission and all he can think about are the things that could go wrong and the things the Fire Empire’s soldiers would do to them.

He really needs to puke.

"You're going green," Lance tells him, and Hunk nods, without saying anything. "You're not going to be sick, Hunk."

"Easy for you to say," he whispers back, a little bit annoyed. He doesn't want to be here, he's not a fighter, his earthbending is sub-par at best, terrible at worst and it always acts a little uncontrollable when he's nervous.

And he is very nervous

"Everything will be fine. It's more of a stealth mission than anything else," the other reminds him, but Hunk is terrible at that, too, so there’s no comfort to be found there.

Lance seems to understand as well because he grimaces for a second and then he says, as low as possible, "Sorry.”

Hunk knows why Lance is apologizing, knows he's here only because of his disaster of a best friend, but he doesn't want to hear the apology. This is not what it is about.

So he swallows down the bile and answers. "You owe me, like, two thousand pies," he says, and Lance smiles, pleased. He can do this for Lance.

They arrive at the compound after an hour and it's bigger than what they had imagined, more imposing too. How can they do this?

"The external doors and the area where they keep the prisoners are made of platinum," Allura tells them, "so not even Pidge will be able to bend them open."

"Oh, great! You didn't tell us that!" Lance says, surprised. "How will we be able to enter??"

Surprisingly, it's Keith that answers. "The floor. Unlike the prisoner's area the floor near the cargo area is made of normal metal."

"That seems like an oversight," Pidge says, scowling, and he's right. It is a surprising weakness.

Allura's face goes dark and Keith, without an ounce of empathy in his voice, says, "Platinum is expensive. That's the reason why metalbenders were the first to be hunted down."

It's true. No one in Hunk's family had been a metalbender (not that it had helped them when it came to avoiding Zarkon’s anger) but he remembers the story of the great purges. How Zarkon had gone first to destroy the airbenders (where the Avatar should have been born) and then he had searched the earth for any metalbenders.

The fact that Pidge is still free is frankly mind-blowing.

Everyone besides Keith turns to look at their own metalbender, but if the other's blunt words have any impact on him, Pidge doesn’t want to show it. They respect his decision and look away quickly.

"So we enter from below," Allura tells them, with a brisk tone in her voice. “We should be able to resurface somewhere with less security and from there we will have to sneak around until we find the cargo bay. We take the quintessence and we flee. No more heroics than that."

Everyone nods and Hunk is a hundred percent on board with the no heroics part of the plan and he hopes that they don't have to fight. He really isn't good at that.

"We will rest for an hour, look at the situation, and then we strike," Allura concludes, looking at each and every one of them for a second. "I know I didn't sell this terribly well, and I didn't... I don't know why you decided to follow me, but I want to thank you. This will be so important in making sure we not only survive this war, but come out as victors."

Hunk looks at her, surprised, and then says quickly, "I just want everyone to know that if I puke it's not anyone's fault."

Everyone stares at him with various levels of revulsion on their faces and he can't do more than grimaces. Well, he most certainly spoiled the mood.

“Sorry. Keep going. Didn’t mean to interrupt,” he says in the end, shuffling his feet a bit.

Lance is the first to laugh, which doesn’t come at a surprise. But when Pidge and Allura join in (and even Keith cracks a smile) he feels strangely proud.

It doesn’t last long, but for a moment they are more relaxed that they’ve been the whole way here. The nervousness sets in again way too soon, but it is to be expected.

They rest until the sun is nearly up and then Allura nods. Hunk and Pidge look at each other. As the only two earthbenders, it falls to them to create a tunnel to reach the right spot; a wrong move or turn and they might miss their opportunity.

So they start to dig, their bending flowing in synch. Earthbending is not the most elegant of the bendings, but it has always suited him fine, more strong and sharp than fluid and elegant. Bending the earth to your command is something that requires a strong stance; you need to be as unmovable as the rock itself.

It is strange to see Pidge do it, as slim as he is, but he shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, his movements flawless and skilled.

After they’ve been going on for almost thirty minutes, Allura nods and tells them to stop. Hunk is panting, tired from the effort, but when Pidge starts metalbending he holds up the tunnel on his own. There’s nothing more he can do.

It seems they’ve stopped, miraculously, in the right place, and when Pidge finishes creating the hole to climb into they emerge in a little room. If they haven’t messed up anything they have to go right just after the door and then keep going until they reach their destination and hope no one sees them. Easy.

“Okay, Lance, Keith, you two keep point. Lance you’re the only bender who can use his bending in here, and Keith you have your knife so you should be able to fight in a pinch,” Allura starts, and Lance nods, even if he’s a little nervous, but Keith just looks at Pidge.

“Look,” Keith says after a pause, “if you want to avoid the guards you’d best go right at the door then left at the first chance. It takes a little longer, but it’s less patrolled”

“Wait. ‘You?’ Keith, aren’t you coming with us?” Allura says, and her voice is like ice. Cold and unforgiving. Yikes.

Keith doesn’t flinch. Doesn’t even show remorse. “No” is his response, and it shouldn’t come as a surprise, but it does anyway. This was all going too easily.

“I’m going with Keith,” Pidge says, and well, isn’t that just the best?

“What?” Lance explodes. “Keith abandoning us doesn't surprise me! But you, Pidge?” Everyone shushes him, but Lance is on a bad combination of fear, nerves and anger. Never good.

“We brought you here!” Pidge replies. “I’ll leave the hole open so you can escape and Keith has told you the best way! I just… we just…”

“We have unfinished business,” Keith jumps in. “and people to save.”

“We had a plan,” Allura reminds them, angry and hurt. She’s not wrong, but Hunk can see that they won’t be swayed.

He can understand Keith, the torture he must have endured. In a way they should have expected this from the first time Keith had told them that he had escaped from here.

Pidge… he’s a surprise.

“I’m sorry,” Pidge says, and it’s obvious he means it. It’s obvious that it’s not something he and Keith are doing with a light heart, but something they feel they have to do.

It makes it difficult for him to hate them.

Pidge hesitates a second before standing up and nodding towards Keith. They leave quickly after that and Hunk feels the familiar grip of panic getting to him.

God, he’s really going to puke and then where will they be?

He doesn’t want to look at Allura or Lance, he doesn’t think he will be able to mask his fear. He knows that both of them will want to keep going, won’t let this stop their big plans, but he’s not like them. He hadn’t been sure they could do it with five, but three?

And also there is a part of him, the one that trusts them still, the one that always tells him to follow Lance, that he uses to judge what are terrible—but necessary—plans from just terrible plans, that is telling him that they should go after them, help them.

There are people’s lives in the balance, lives that have already suffered so much. The quintessence may help them in the long run but… it’s just a possibility and faced with the choice of saving actual people?

He knows what he wants to do.

It’s not like Lance can’t believe it. He had known since the first minute that there was something wrong about that Keith, but he can’t help being surprised about Pidge.

He looks around at Allura and Hunk, and while his friend seems to be on the fast track for a panic attack, Allura is looking at the door like she still can’t believe what has happened.

From what he remembers of their plan they don’t have a lot of time to sort themselves.

It seems that Lance has to step up, demonstrate that he can do this. Isn’t that what it has all been about?

“We need to move,” he says. “We can still do this!”

Allura looks at him and for a second she looks tired, spent. She looks like she’s lost and doesn’t know what to do.

She recovers quickly, the armor she has been wearing all this time coming up quickly around her and soon her face is like marble, determined and unmovable.

“Yes, we are past the point we needed Pidge. We can do it without them,” she says, nodding along as if to convince herself more than them. She gets up and removes some dirt from her pants.

Lance nods, encouraging her, hoping it will be enough. They have gone too far to turn back and, frankly, he needs this. He wants to go back to Ba Sing Se as a hero, he wants everyone to acknowledge that he and Hunk are not useless. It's all he wants, all he has wanted since the beginning.

"I'm..." Hunk starts then, and both he and Allura look at him. Lance recognizes quickly that Hunk is nervous, scared, but determined. It's the best Hunk, but also the worst. "I think we should help them."

Allura seems outraged by the suggestion and Lance doesn't really want to drop everything to follow the whims of Keith. He and Pidge didn't even seem to think before leaving them with the rotten end of the stick, why should they help them?

"We need the quintessence to understand what Zarkon is planning!" Allura says, and she's raising her voice a little, her control slipping as quickly as water through a river. It's not good.

"No one has ever escaped from one of this prisons!" Hunk continues. "There are good benders here, that don't... don't deserve what's happening to them."

Oh. Right.

Lance closes his eyes and just takes a second to think about what Hunk is saying. They can save a lot of people today; he might be angry at their disappearing companions, hurt by their callousness, but it's not like he can't see what his friend is talking about. They’ve lost so many people over the years, too many to keep count, really, and being able to free some of them, save them from an unknown fate… He knows both he and Hunk would give anything to be able to do it for their families.

"If we don't figure out Zarkon's plan, they will just end up here again!" Allura bristles, and she isn't being rational. Or maybe she's being too rational. Lance has never worked like that.

"But we could free them and then steal the quintessence!" Lance proposes with a triumphant smile. It's the perfect plan, they could find backup, maybe even take down some Fire Empire scum.

He touches the satchel of water he always has on his hip and thinks that he can do it. That he has to do it.

This is a trial by fire, quite literally, and Lance can't really lose.

"We don't have the time!" Allura almost screams. Lance and Hunk look at each other for a moment and they both know that their minds are set.

"We can't leave innocent people to suffer," Lance replies, with the gentlest tone he can muster. He knows it's not easy letting go, he understands better than most, but also he knows that there are people that await the return of these prisoners, that suffer every day.

Maybe it’s not a fancy spiritual stone, but it's worth a lot.

"The whole plan... We need to figure out..." Allura is mumbling and Lance doesn't know what to do, how to convince her. Maybe he can't. She had seemed ready to do this on her own in the beginning and maybe they should help her, maybe it’s a terrible choice to leave her right now. But could they live with themselves if they don’t do it?

"We’re going. If you change your mind...." Hunk tries and Allura huffs.

"You don't even know where the area they're holding the prisoners is," she tells them, unkindly. She's hurt, they both know this.

"Well, we know we have to go left. The rest will come later," Lance says, hoping that maybe it will help Allura relax. It doesn't.

"We will lose this war," she warns them, her tone low and angry.

"But if we won by leaving people to die... I don't think we would be worthy of winning," Hunk says, and Lance smiles at him. That's why this guy is his best friend, dammit.

"So we go," Lance says, nodding, "and then we go back to the city like heroes!"

"Failures, more likely," Allura mumbles, but Lances smiles anyway.

They can do it, he can do it.

They move out then, going left like Pidge and Keith had done and hoping to find some kind of path to follow. They don't find it but the road is pretty linear, a long corridor with a lot of laboratories. This feels more like firebenders’ quarters than anything else.

This has to be a huge compound, and it feels strange that they haven’t yet met anyone. At the same time it’s a blessing. Maybe they can do everything without attracting too much attention. Free the prisoners and then get that stone.

Lance wonders sometimes who can be considered luckier: the ones that are still alive, but doomed to live their lives in places like these, or the ones that died before it even reached this point.

Sometimes he thinks the latter, but it is a depressing thought all in all.

They catch up with Keith and Pidge in the end. They’re whispering quietly in a corner and look surprised when they spot them. Lance can’t really blame them.

"What are you doing here?" Pidge demands and Lance just shrugs.

"Winning the team player awards you refused when you betrayed us!" he replies, a little hurt. Now that he’s here, he realizes that he feels better that they are all together again, even if this plan seems to get more complicated every second. He’s scared, but he’s not alone.

"Jeopardizing the mission," is Allura's answer. It's not like it's false.

Keith and Pidge look at each other for a second—and God, when had they become such pals? The night before?

"Okay," Keith concedes in the end. "There are more guards than before. We can't sneak in by avoiding them completely."

"But we can incapacitate them for a while, right?" Hunk asks, smiling. They are in one of the deepest areas of the base and even if he doesn't normally care about this kind of thing, he can't help but stare at the platinum walls that surround them. This is the heavily secured part of the facility, and they might be way over their head.

"Lance, we’ll have to stop them with our bending,” Pidge says, looking at him. "Hunk doesn’t have anything to bend and Allura and Keith are non-benders.”

"I can take care of myself just fine," Keith tells them, removing the dagger he has as a weapon from his trousers.

"Leave the fight to the bending experts," Lance interrupts and smirks a little at Keith’s expression. He knows it might be a little petty, but at the same time they are here because he betrayed them all, so he can suck it up.

Keith doesn't seem convinced, but there are no other suggestions and he smiles.

Allura hasn't said anything else but as always they don't have the time to make sure to take her feelings into consideration in this. They have a plan, one made by someone who is probably twelve, but they follow Pidge's lead and comply quickly.

Lance uncaps his flask and lets the water flow, slowly. It’s good to feel a modicum of control. It always feels strange, here in the Earth Nation, surrounded by all these rocks and not enough water. If he could he would go back to the South in a second.

He inhales and exhales, centering himself. He has to do this right or their entire plan will fail. It is almost too much, but he can’t back down now.

He brings his arms back in a fluid movement and the water follows him. It’s not the time to get nervous, he has this. He can do this.

He has to.

Lance waits for the others to nod before jumping out of the cover and pushing his arms forward, launching the water towards their enemy. He smiles, proud, but he realizes soon that the pressure isn’t enough.

The water attacks the guard on the right but it doesn’t knock him down and Lance loses his balance and control over his bending. The water flops down at the guard's’ feet and shit.

Keith runs past him, dagger in hand, and he has a second to see that the first guard has been hit in the face by a metal plate. Because Lance is a screw up and Pidge is perfect.

“What are you doing?” Allura yells, frustrated, and he doesn’t know what to answer her. Doesn’t know how to make it better. She launches forward, with a decisiveness he admires.

They need to incapacitate both of the guards as quickly as possible, before others join them and it becomes a fight they can’t win.

Lance looks at Keith, who dodges a burst of fire and tries to stab the guard in the stomach. Looks at Allura, who seem extremely strong and moves quickly, almost like a chi blocker. Pidge seems to be trying to bend another of the metal plates in the walls but he’s tired, after all he has been bending nonstop this entire time. Maybe they can win, but not fast enough.

So he does the only thing he can think of. He can feel the water at the guards’ feet, can sense it as if it was another part of him. He brings a foot back, and an arm forward, he raises his arm over his head and stops for a second before pressing his palms together and bringing them towards his torso.

The water freezes at the guards’ feet, following his command.

The first guard slips while he tries to jump and firebend from his feet. The second loses his footing while he tries to avoid being stabbed. They fall to the ground, surprised.

It is over quickly as Allura and Keith take full advantage of their enemies’ mistakes and strike with quick and deadly accuracy.

When both the guards are on the ground they can all breath again.

He closes his eyes, tries to calm himself. He has done it. He feels Hunk’s hand on his back, a comfort and a silent congratulation.

“Good job, Lance!” Pidge says, smiling, and Lance smiles as well.

“I…” he tries, unsure of what he’s going to say. Apologize? But before he can Allura looks at them, and she doesn’t look happy—this is still not the plan she wanted—but her expression is softer now. Lance doesn’t know how old she is, but he thinks that she looks older than she probably is with the tension and the anger that cloud her face every moment.

“You were nervous, but you recovered. That’s what’s important,” she reassures him and Lance nods, relieved. She seems to be used to comforting people after battle.

“His stupid mistake cost us time,” Keith says immediately and yep, hackles up, Lance is going to fucking murder him. It’s not that Lance doesn’t know that he fucked up, but he doesn’t see Keith bringing much to the mix if not betrayal.

He wants to scream, wants to make him eat his words, show that he’s not useless, but Hunk catches his eyes and stops him. They have more important things to think about.

Okay, right now Lance is going to kick ass, later he’s going to yell at Mullet Head for hours. He picks up the water, lets it flow back into his flask and smiles, teasingly. “We could already be moving if you’re done with your bitching.”

He can be professional, but riling up that asshole is more fun.

Keith looks like he’s almost ready to kill him—which, to be honest, is a little unsettling, seeing he still has a bloody knife in his hand—but Pidge starts to move and it’s like a spell has been broken.

They run towards the door, moving quickly.

“Someone knows the way, right?” Lance asks, because he’s just following them. For all he knows they are going towards the cafeteria.

“Keith escaped from here, remember?” Pidge tells him and Lance makes a face. Keith, right.

“But like, okay,” Hunk says, “not like it isn’t awesome that you escaped. But I… thought there would be more guards. I mean you said they have more security now but…”

It’s a valid point to make. Even with the added security, they’ve run into just two guards—and some they have avoided along the way, but still not enough. It wouldn’t seem so difficult to plan an escape, especially with the added numbers the prisoners have.

“There’s no reason. Usually the prisoners are in no shape to do anything,” Keith answers. It’s not a comforting thought, especially because they are trying to save them. If they aren’t able to walk, what will they do?

“You were,” Allura says, and he can read the accusation in her tone. They all can. Seems like someone is going to keep a grudge. Lance approves.

“Yes. But I’m a special case,” he grumbles, as they reach the end of the corridor.

There is another door there, pure platinum, but it is designed to be opened from the outside so they push a little and it opens quickly.

What they see is chilling. Lance hadn’t really thought about this before, how the firebenders kept their prisoners, but the moment they step inside the actual prison he wants to hurl. He can hear Hunk trying to control himself, and for once he doesn’t judge him.

The air is still with fear, blood, and sweat. There is an open area in the middle and little cells all over the room. It feels claustrophobic.

“You…” someone says and they all look at one of the cages, where one of the men is looking straight at Keith.

“I’m here for Shiro,” Keith says immediately. “We’ll free you all but… is Shiro here?” There is some type of quiet desperation in his tone. It’s the first time he hasn’t sounded angry or condescending. He sounds scared.

“And Matt and Sam Holt!” Pidge pipes up quickly. “They… they’re my family, are they…”

But the prisoner snarls, interrupting him. “Why should I tell you anything?” he says, and his voice is rough and angry. He looks hurt, now that he notices, and he’s hardly staying upright.

“I know you hate me, but…” Keith says, advancing. “Shiro doesn’t deserve this. I… for Shiro.” He really seems desperate. It’s not difficult to see that this Shiro has to be the friend that sacrificed himself for Keith, but this entire discussion is strange.

Shouldn’t the prisoner be jumping at the idea of being rescued?

“Yeah, heard it before. Even the time before. You left us here,” the prisoners almost yells.

Everyone looks at Keith now, who looks like he doesn’t know what to do. Some of the pieces are starting to make more sense, now. And even Pidge now seems to be angry.

If what this prisoner is saying it’s true, Keith had the possibility of freeing them all, maybe even Pidge’s family, and passed it up… he gets why they are angry.

“We couldn’t have made it. I would have… we would have come back. I’m back now,” Keith says, low.

“It’s useless discussing it with him,” someone else says, a woman looking at them from another cell. “He’s one of them.”

Lance looks at Hunk in confusion and his friend is just as lost as him, thankfully. This whole thing seems to be going even more south than before. Allura is silent, looking around the room.

The first prisoner just shakes his head. “Matt Holt was here. He was transferred along with a lot of others when he escaped,” he reveals in the end. “I don’t know your father, but Matt talked about him. Sorry.”

Pidge looks down and Lance can see the way he’s clenching his fist. It mustn’t be easy, being so close and yet so far away. He… he doesn’t know what he would do.

“And…” Keith starts, but the woman answers before he can finish.

“Upstairs,” she says, and her voice betrays a little bit of fear. “For what it’s worth... I’m sorry.”

Uh? Isn’t that good? This Shiro is here, right? And alive? Before they can really register anything else an alarm starts to sound, jarring to their ears, and two guards enter the room from the door they just entered. Lance curses and takes his hand to his flask, but he knows he won’t be fast enough.

It's at that point that Keith rushes forward and punches one of the guards. With his flaming fist.

Oh, shit. Mullet Head is a firebender.

He sees Hunk and Pidge take a step back, Allura hunkering down for a fight, but no one does anything while Keith fights and defeats two firebenders all on his own. Two of his comrades.

He knew he couldn’t trust him. He knew.

They should all always listen to Lance.

Keith has known since the beginning that it was desperate. It's not like he's stupid, he knew that the chances that Shiro was safe and sound were near zero, and hoping had been more like a fool errand than anything else. And yet he hoped, and now he feels like everything has just fallen over.

Shiro is upstairs and had probably been there since the day their foolish and reckless escape had failed. If only Keith had been better, if only he had stayed when Shiro had told him to go.

Maybe he would be dead as well, that’s a possibility, but maybe he could have shielded Shiro from the worst of it.

Now... well…

The alarm sounds distant to his ears. Everything that's happening around him seems unfocused, like a wall that's separating him from everything else. His ears are ringing but it's not the alarm. It's more like a scream.

When the guards enter the room he almost doesn’t notice them. Almost. Everything seems distant, hazy, like a memory, but he’s angry, furious (scared). So he looks at them, sees them and himself reflected in them and he doesn’t know what happens.

He feels his body react without even realizing he's doing it. The fire burns inside of him, inexorable, and he can’t stop it when it engulfs his fist. It feels good to let go finally, after months he had hidden in plain sight, always aware of his surrounding, always aware that if someone had found out who he was, what he was, he would have probably been killed on the spot.

The first guard doesn't expect his attack, doesn't expect to fight another firebender so he uses that to his advantage and he burns him before the other can even realize what's happening. The second one tries to react, sends a burst of flame his way, but Keith moves his hand in a circular motion, manipulating the other's fire and redirecting it back. It feels poetic when the fire burns the other's face, it feels right.

It's over quickly. He has always been better than them, his bending always more refined, stronger. He remembers them too, from shared patrols and the way they had sneered at Shiro when they saw him for the first time. He is happy he had the opportunity to make such fools pay.

He has almost forgotten about the other people in the room. His head is still ringing, his fists still wanting to fight. Every part of him wants revenge and he needs to move.

"You're a fucking firebender?" Lance screams behind him and Keith has to stop himself from attacking him. He's still too wired, too hurt.

Shiro is probably dead. And if he isn't? He has seen his fair share of people coming back from upstairs a shell of themselves.

He doesn't want that to be Shiro. Doesn't even know what of the two options is the best one, if he's being honest.

"I need to find Shiro," is what he says, because Lance accusation doesn't even merit an answer. He doesn't have time to scream at him, he has to go.

No one says anything for a second and Keith counts his blessings. At least until he hears someone move behind him.

He dodges Allura's attack at the last second and almost curses. He has seen her fighting before, when they had taken down those two guards, and she's good. Trained.

Keith doesn't want to fight but he will.

Pidge had asked him how far he was willing to go, but Keith committed to this almost a year ago, when Shiro had become more than one of the prisoners to him.

If he needs to kill Allura to reach Shiro he will and he won't regret it. He abandoned him once before, he won't do it again.

He blocks one of Allura’s punches and tries, with all he has, to make her listen. "Every cell has a lock, you break that, you free them all and..." he tells her, but Allura frees herself and attacks again.

"You let me deviate from my mission. And now I discover you are a firebender? Probably one of their loyal soldiers!"

He gets how she has reached this conclusion, knows that it look suspicious, but Keith doesn't have the time to reassure her, or explain.

"One of the guards might even have the keys!" he says, dodging another attack. "I have to go," he repeats, hoping that maybe this time she will listen.

"Let him go," says the second prisoner, the woman, and he doesn't remember her name. Something with an S? "I understand, I really do, but... Shiro deserves to be out of here."

Keith agrees. It's this desire to save him that has landed them in this situation, in a way. Keith had been so focused on saving Shiro that he hadn't even prepared and the one to have paid the price of his incompetence, of his hastiness, had been Shiro. He needs to make it right now, in whatever way he can. He owes Shiro at least that much.

Allura hesitates a second but it's Pidge that makes everything move along, breaking one of the locks.

He hasn't looked straight at Keith since he showed his true form, and Keith doesn’t blame him. He doesn’t blame any of them for their reactions.

"I'm sorry, we're just going to let him go? He might be a spy!" Lance sputters, outraged than no one seemed to be willing to stop him now. Keith is glad, he doesn't want to hurt them.

When it seems like no one will stop him, Keith starts running. There is a second door at the end of the prisoners’ area, one that leads to a stairwell and the infamous upstairs, the place where Haggar makes her little experiments.

There are some guards waiting for him, on the other side of the door, but Keith feels like his body is moving on its own, freely and deadly. Rage and desperation fueling his flames, making them as strong as he needs. He disposes of them quickly, without too much noise.

Even in tragedy there seems to be something to look forward to.

He reaches the second floor quickly and after that he looks into every single room: they are all empty and he doesn’t want to stop and analyze everything that he’s seeing but at the same time he can’t help himself: there are rooms, like cells, but without bars, no light in sight. They feel like torture chambers more than anything else, and the slabs in the middle of them have chains, heavy and in platinum. Even when he had been a guard he had never been able to come up here, never in the inner circle. He guesses they were right in not trusting him.

When he reaches the last one he doesn’t know what to expect. He opens it carefully and it is immediately clear that it’s not empty. There is someone strapped to the table and for a second, for a mere second, he hopes.

It’s a stupid thing to do, but he can’t stop himself and he lets himself feel, for a second. He relaxes and advances, trying to see who it is. It’s clear that it’s Shiro, Keith could recognize him everywhere, but at the same time he’s different.

Shiro is held to the table by some cuffs on his wrists and on his feet. He looks paler, smaller, that the last time they had seen each other. He also looks more tired. Keith notices immediately that he's not as strong as he used to be, and his hair has a little patch of white where before it had been only black. His stump is still there, of course, and Keith almost reaches for it.

“Shiro,” he whispers, moving quickly to his side. His chest is moving slowly, too slowly, and Keith tries not to think about it too hard. He’s alive, he’s breathing. For now it has to be enough.

He tries to memorize every change, every detail he can in the two seconds he allows himself. He doesn't know this Shiro, doesn’t know what has happened to him, how it has changed him, but it doesn’t really matter. He melts the metal on the other's cuff, making sure to be gentle and burn Shiro’s skin as little as possible.

He hoists him up, passing Shiro’s only arm over his shoulders, so that he can drag him around and still be functional.

From where he is he can’t hear any sound and it’s impossible to know if the others are still freeing the prisoners or if they have gone ahead. He wonders if he can find a way to make them help him, help Shiro. They have to find somewhere where Shiro can recuperate, maybe with a Healer that can do something for his injuries. He doesn’t care if they leave him here, at this point taking Shiro to safety is his priority.

He can only think of Shiro and the way he has trouble breathing, the way he's not responding even when Keith is manhandling him back down the all.

Keith doesn't know what they have done to him, doesn't really want to think about what could be wrong with him. He's scared, but for the first time in months he thinks that maybe he has the power to fix his mistakes.

He might have left Shiro here, to be tortured for months, but he's saving him. At least this he can do.

Thankfully no one intercepts them on the way back to the prison and, when they arrive, only a couple of prisoners are still in their cells and the rest have amassed at the door, keeping it locked.

On the other side of the corridor a little army has probably formed, to block the only way out of the prison. The strategy will probably be to stay on the other side of the corridor and launch fire attacks at them. In the tight space it will be an easy victory for them. It's a strategy he has listened to many times in his days as a guard.

But they don't know he's here.

When he reaches the others, everyone looks at Shiro. He can see the way they are assessing him, trying to understand why Keith has done so much, what's special about him. He almost wants to laugh, but he doesn't want to explain.

"There will be hell on the other side of that door," he says, because he needs their help and the only way he can think of obtaining it is to help them first.

"Well, thank you, traitor, we would have never realized it without your help," Lance says, sarcasm dripping out of his every word. Keith sighs, because he knows he can't use logic with Lance, and at the same time he knows that he has lost Allura. She had fought him with rage in her blows and it’s not something he can work with in the five minutes they have.

So right now the only chances he has are Pidge and Hunk. Pidge is the one that uses logic more of the two, but at the same time, his family has been kidnapped by firebenders. He probably has a healthy dislike for his kind.

That leaves Hunk.

He likes Hunk, but he seems to be more controlled by his emotion than anything else and Keith has never been good at emotions. Hell, Shiro is probably the perfect example for this.

At the same time he realizes that he doesn't have any other choice and he has already fucked this up enough.

"I can help," he says, looking Hunk in the eye. "I can absorb their attacks, for a little while, create a barrier."

"Or maybe you can give us up the moment we step out of there!" Lance says, and he positions himself between Keith and Hunk, as if to shield his friend.

"I've been helping you all this time!" Keith explodes, because every minute they waste arguing it gives Zarkon's soldier more time to regroup and think of a solid strategy to keep them here.

They have numbers on their side, but only if they manage to go beyond the platinum corridor and the only ones that can really help are Keith and Lance (and Lance's bending doesn't seem to be reliable enough).

"No. You've been looking out for your own interests," Allura pipes up and she advances slowly, dangerously. Keith makes sure he has a good handle on Shiro, ensuring he can shield him if it comes to that.

He doesn't think that the other prisoners will let them hurt Shiro, but he can't know. He doesn't want to risk it.

"You would sell us all out to save your friend. You've already done it from what I understand."

She... she isn't wrong. It's not something Keith has a way to refute, after all the prisoners around them can corroborate that story. But right now there is no other way to get out of here than having them trust him.

He has to do it, not for himself, but for Shiro. It's the only thing that matters.

"I.... he needs help. I wouldn't even know where to bring him," he says, looking at Hunk again, hoping that maybe he can make him understand. "That's the only way to get out of here. Even if I wanted to bargain, they wouldn't let me take him away. He... he was experimented on. I don't know what those do, but no one ever comes back from that the same."

He can see everyone looking at each other, Allura trying to understand if he's telling the truth. Shay, one of the two prisoners they have talked with before, nods in his direction. He doesn't know if some of her friends have been taken away. They usually take the strongest, the ones that seem to be able to withstand the most.

Shiro had been on their radar long before their failure of an escape.

"We need to find a way out and we don't have a better idea," Hunk intercedes. He doesn't sound completely on board, but all Keith needs is a chance, nothing more than that.

"And he’s killed like three guards since we've been here," Pidge says as well, with a little sigh.

Keith can tell that he's not going to win any popularity contests with anyone of them, but he doesn't care.

"Shiro wouldn't leave you here," he hisses to the prisoners, because they all looked up to Shiro at one point. He had been respected among them, and Keith will use every single weapon he has. He doesn't care.

Allura and Lance don't seem to be wavering, but at this point it's clear they are outnumbered. And Keith can breathe a little easier.

He advances towards Hunk, but before he can take two steps both Allura and Lance stop him.

"What do you think you're doing?" Lance asks, his face mere inches from Keith's.

"I want Hunk to take care of Shiro. He's the one I trust the most here," he says, because he's sure that at least Shiro will be taken care of. Hunk doesn't seem the type to leave someone behind.

Hunk looks surprised for a moment, and when Lance doesn't seem to want to move, it's Hunk that takes a step forward.

"Okay. I'll make sure nothing happens to him," he says and Keith nods, transferring Shiro (who is still unconscious, this isn't good) to Hunk's shoulders.

"I'm coming with you," Lance says, looking at him with distrust. Keith doesn't care. Honestly, having Lance as a back-up might be good. Even if the waterbender hasn't shown the best control.

So they push past the prisoners and towards the corridor. Keith tries to avoid the others' eyes, because he knows what he will see there, and he doesn't have the time to care or to face them.

He isn't proud of what he has done in his life and, in the end, the excuse that he had known nothing else seems flimsy even to his own ears.

Right now he can't think about any of that, however, he has a mission to complete. He doesn't know what they will do once they are out of here. Maybe he could convince them to take care of Shiro, but he isn't sure that they would let Keith follow them.

The right thing would be to leave Shiro with them, probably, but the moment the thought crosses his mind he also feels the need to go back to the unconscious body and flee.

Before anything they need to get away from this place and then he will think of a way out of this mess. It won't be easy, but he is nothing if not a survivor.

"I'm keeping an eye on you," Lance informs him, like Keith has missed the memo. He hasn't.

"Just don't get in my way," he replies angrily.

The moment they step outside the door Keith can feel the way the entire room heats and he pushes his arms in front of him, moving them in a circular motion, slowly but steadily, forming a circle in front of them.

The first flame gets absorbed easily and Keith moves a step at a time. It's obvious that there is more than one bender on the other side of the corridor and it takes a while but Keith can feel his force leave him bit after bit, step after step.

He has never been particularly good at blocking fire, his style veering more towards combat and attack. But there is no other way and he has to do it. He has to.

Keith is panting, he can feel it, and his arms are getting tired too fast. They won't make it to the end of the tunnel, he knows.

"Go back," he tells Lance, because he might hate the prick, but it's mostly envy and annoyance. He doesn't want to be the reason why this little kid dies, in the end. He has to feel guilty for too many things.

"Yeah, that's not going to happen," Lance huffs, and Keith almost growls at him.

"I can't do this. They’re stronger than I thought," he says, and he hopes it's enough. He doesn't have the strength to bring them back, the only thing he can do is stay here and keep it up until Lance is safe.

The other stays silent for a second before sighing. "That's the reason why you bring down the whole team dynamic. By being a firebender, a traitor, and an idiot.” If he had the strength Keith would tell him to fuck off, but all he can do is grind his teeth.

Then Lance looks down the path and back at Keith. "Just. Give me one minute. You can do that?" he asks and Keith nods. He gives it more or less a minute before he collapses.

Lance turns back but Keith keeps it up.

Now that he's alone he could push forward and try and eliminate as much as he can. Not many, since he thinks he's almost out of strength, but enough to maybe make it better for the others.

That's when he hears the step returning. He looks back and Pidge and Lance are running towards him.

"What the hell are you doing?" he can't help but ask and Lance just arches an eyebrow.

"Saving the situation," he answers before uncapping his flask.

"I can feel it. Not much but... enough," Pidge tells them and Keith has a moment of confusion before he figures it out.

The entire corridor is made of platinum, as well as the door on either side, but outside of it there is metal. And if Pidge is near enough to sense it, he can bend it.

"See?" Lance tells them with a grin. "Saving the mission. Team Lance is rocking this secret spy thing."

"Calm down, secret dork," Pidge replies, but he's smiling and he plants his feet firmly into the ground. His stance is rigid, and he's focusing.

"I have to be a little closer to really do anything," he tells them and both he and Lance nod.

Keith pushes a little forward, a step, two, three, and when he thinks he might be giving out Pidge shouts "Now!" and he can feel the pressure from the heat ease on his shield.

He drops it and Lance, who has uncapped his flask at some point, sends a burst of water from behind him.

Keith looks up and they are near the end of the corridor: there are three firebenders that are imprisoned in the walls by metal chords and another two, drenched in water.

He pushes forward in an instant, drawing his knife and taking down the two guards before they can recover from Lance's attack.

When it's over he looks down at his former colleagues and sighs.

Only five? Where is everyone?

"Okay, call everyone," Pidge tells Lance, before joining Keith in the room. He looks around and makes sure that the guards he has imprisoned aren't going to escape.

For a second Keith wonders if he should say something, if maybe Pidge is waiting for him to tell him something, but at the same time there is nothing that Keith could say that it would make this better.

He stays silent.

Allura can't believe how much of a mess this mission has become.

She can admit that, in the end, she's glad she let herself be convinced to help the prisoners, that she feels a little bit more human now. But this is not a war to be fought with a handful of prisoners that look so skinny that a violent burst of wind might send them flying.

They are letting them get away with the quintessence, she knows, and the defeat weighs heavily on her shoulder, like another proof that she's not going to be able to do this.

There are too many expectations she has to meet and she won't be able to.

She can't believe she has traveled with a firebender for two days. She can't believe she had let herself be fooled, be so trusting when she had thought that a common trauma and hatred had united them.

Allura looks at the man on Hunk's shoulder and wonders who he is and why he is important enough to have a firebender risk so much for him. She's not sure she wants to know.

Fear and hatred are part of her now, consuming her like a poison from the inside out. They have planted the seed, gave it water to grow and fester, and now she doesn't know how else to live.

Lance returns, all smiles, and tells them the way is clear. She can see the apprehension on everyone's faces and she can't fault them. It feels wrong following a firebender, whatever the circumstances.

So she does what she can and she moves first, and hopes everyone else will just follow.

When she looks back she sees them behind her, a little farther that she would have liked, but it's something.

In the next room Keith and Pidge are standing silently. The moment they see them Keith passes them all to reach Hunk and take Shiro from him.

"I can help you, if you want," Hunk tells the other but Keith just shakes his head and holds Shiro as firmly as he can.

"I can do it," he says and Allura has to look away, because she still doesn't know what to feel about this. Can't get her head around it. In her experience all the firebenders she has encountered have been evil, mindless machines marching to Zarkon’s drum. She doesn’t know what to do with Keith.

"I think it would be better to exit from around here," Pidge tells them. "There are more of us and maybe if someone can help me..."

"I'm going to see if I can retrieve some quintessence," Allura interrupts them, because she has to try, even if it's hopeless. Even if....

"They probably secured it the moment they understood there was somewhere here, it's...." Pidge starts but Allura just shakes her head. She has to try, why can't anyone understand at least that?

"I know it was important, but..." Lance tries but Allura doesn't want to listen to them. Doesn't care about logic or reason. If she doesn't even make an attempt, what does it say about her resolve?

"There will be more quintessence," Hunk says. His voice is kind, but it grates on her nerves even more.

It had taken a year to track a transfer correctly, one year to find people she could trust enough to believe their information. They don't understand.

"I can help you." It's Keith this time, and he looks resolute. "I know a little bit about how the transport works. I've read some of the reports. I don't have updated information, but I have friends. And I can find information easily."

Allura looks at him and she hopes her distrust and hatred is clear enough in her face. She can't even think about letting a firebender help, trust him with something as important as this.

"Shut up! We don't trust you," Lance says, advancing towards Keith.

He's right, she doesn't, but at the same time... she's not naive enough to think that she will find something if she goes to the cargo bay now. It's probably the reason why there aren't as many guards as there should be. All of them are busy making sure the quintessence is safe.

She doesn't trust Keith, obviously, but at the same time she knows a desperate man when she sees one and in all this time the only thing she has been able to pick up from Keith is that he is desperate. And the key is the unconscious man on his shoulder.

Still, can she really give up so easily?

The answer comes quickly, and not from her, but from the sound of soldiers approaching their location. There are too many of them and they don't have the numbers or the strength to fight them. Even if she was to fight at her full potential.

"Fine, let's go," she says and all the metalbender surround Pidge to help him create a tunnel. They all go inside when it's ready and the metalbenders close it behind them. They are safe.

Keith and some of the weaker prisoners are in the rear while they travel ahead as far as they can, but there shouldn't be any risks.

They have freed at least fifty people and it should be enough to make her guilt silent, to give her a little bit of peace. But it isn't.

"What will we do once we're out of here?" someone asks and she looks behind her, curious as to who spoke. There are a lot of people that have spent almost all of their life incarcerated, that had no family and no one to get back to.

She wonders if maybe they will get back to Ba Sing Se and decide to have nothing to do with the resistance, but she hopes they decide to fight. Do something.

"I'm sure there will be a place for you if you reach Ba Sing Se. The Earth Kingdom is the only one that has resisted Zarkon. It's a place where you can be free," she tells them, and she knows she is exaggerating. Since the invasion Ba Sing Se has been a place of chaos, sadness and fear.

She has said the truth, it’s the only place where they can go, but it won't be easy.

Her answer seems to appease everyone and she's glad that she could at least do this for them.

"We'll go home, I think," Hunk says, looking at Lance. "If it's still standing."

Pidge doesn't say anything, but it's Keith that breaks the silence from the back.

"I need to find someone to look at Shiro," he says. His voice is strained with fatigue, but he hasn't slowed down once.

Now that he mentions it, it's not a good thing the unconscious man hasn't moved at all in all this time. He's probably still breathing, or Keith would be freaking out, but he's not okay.

There is a second of hesitation before Lance says, "I can do a little bit of healing. When we get out of here I can take a look."

It surprises almost everyone and Lance grits his teeth. "Look I'm not doing it for you," he explains. "I recognize him. Takashi Shirogane, he's a legend. One of the best the resistance had to offer," he says, shrugging.

Allura doesn't know him, but she can see recognition in the eyes of many of the others.

"I..." Keith starts, but then he stops and just exhales. "Thanks."

"Yeah, whatever," Lance replies in a huff and everyone starts walking again. She can't let Keith disappear, she needs him. Right now he's the only lead she has to intercept another wave of quintessence.

And, as terrible as it may sound, this Shiro is the first person to withstand one of Zarkon's experiments and survive and he might be the piece of the puzzle she missed.

She has to keep an eye on them.

"I have somewhere we can stop. It's nearer than Ba Sing Se. It's small so not everyone will be able to come but..." She sighs and looks at the team she had assembled so hastily. "You could come. Let Shiro recuperate there."

They think about it for a second and she fears they might refuse, but each one of them nods and Allura responds in kind.

Well, there's that.

Consciousness comes slowly and for a second Shiro isn't sure if he even wants to wake up.

Will he be in Haggar's laboratory? Or maybe in his cell? Lately he doesn't think he has been anywhere else. He's not even sure when the last time he has eaten was.

He feels tired and even though he's just woken up, he would love to go back to sleep. Ignore everything for a little while longer.

The first thing that makes him think that there's something wrong is the sound of wind. He hasn't heard wind in well over a year. There aren't many drafts in a secure platinum prison.

He's not sure he wants to open his eyes; he knows he's not lying on the cold slab of Haggar's laboratory, but he's not even on the cot in his cell. It is entirely too comfortable for that.

It speaks volumes about his life that when he realizes that he's probably in some different location it doesn't make him relax but just tense further.

Has Haggar brought him somewhere else? Has she finally found the way to reverse what she has done? He doesn't know.

Shiro hasn't used his bending in so long, hasn't felt the pull of earth in such a long time, that he feels he's probably justified for not noticing—after all, he had almost started to forget how it felt—but he's surrounded by earth, he can feel it outside, just a little bit out of reach, in a little rock near him. If he wanted he could reach and just pull.

He's tempted, just to see how it feels, like an itch in your muscles, but it would be irresponsible since he's not really sure where he is.

It's at that point that he hears voices that are getting more and more agitated by the second. There are people fighting, that is obvious, but he doesn't know why or who it is.

He wants to think that maybe they could be allies, but he stopped hoping for rescue months ago.

"And whose fault was that?" one of the voices says, with such ire that for a second he almost grimaces.

"If there was even one chance I could find my family I was going to take it!" someone else screams, and this voice sounds less angry, more hysterical. Mostly disappointed.

"I'm not trying to blame someone, I just..." someone, a woman, says, her voice a little quieter than the others, like she's trying to remain calm even in these circumstances.

"Well I am! And I say it's his fault!" the first voices pipes in again. Shiro can't understand what's happening.

He doesn't know where he is, if he can trust these strange voices. Something is wrong, it is clear, but he doesn't know what.

And then someone says, "I got you out of there!" and Shiro opens his eyes in a second, too shocked to remember that letting his guard down isn't the best idea. He knows that voice.

He can't forget that voice.

Shiro moves and he's on his feet in a second, instincts taking over and he would have gone for the door if his legs hadn't given out under him immediately.

He realizes now that he's tired, incredibly tired, and that his muscles are screaming in pain. He hasn't walked in a month, his muscles are stiff with disuse, but he's sure it should be even worse. Someone has healed him with some healbending; there must be a waterbender near.

At that moment the door of the room opens and what he sees is a ragged Keith, tired and worried, probably called by the noise he made when he fell to the floor.

Shiro doesn't care.

He hadn't really thought he would see Keith again, not after that disastrous escape. He had been sure he wouldn't have seen anyone ever again, dead as a result of one of Haggar’s experiments.

He takes a second to drink Keith in: he hasn't changed much in these months. He's thinner, if that's even possible, and his clothes are rumpled and ruined, unlike the uniform he had always worn in the camp.

He looks good, but, most importantly, he looks alive.

"Keith?" he says, because he still can't believe this, doesn't really know how to react. Should he say something? Should he...

Before he can do anything, however, there are other people entering the room behind Keith and one of them rushes to his side, alarmed.

"You tried to get up? No, dude, your muscles are absolutely not ready for that. Hunk, give me a hand," one says, crouching in front of him. Another one, Hunk, rushes forward and tries to make him rise. Shiro would like to help, but he still feels like he has woken up in an alternative reality so he might need a second.

"Okay, uhm, a little bit of help would be welcome. You're heavy," Hunk says, and Shiro grimaces for a second and nods, trying to put as much pressure as he can on his own legs.

It's a bit of a struggle but soon he's seated on the bed—and it is a bed, with a pillow and everything—and he can finally focus on Keith again.

"What...?" he tries, but there are so many questions swarming his mind. So many things that don't make sense and he doesn't know where to start.

"I've healed some of your injuries," the first boy says, looking at him, "but not everything. I would need some spiritual water to do a complete job because, man, you were messed up."

"Lance!" Hunk hisses, looking between Shiro and the waterbender, Lance, with a mixture of exasperation and... fondness?

"What? It's the truth! I don't think he doesn't know that he was tortured!" The waterbender replies and it is... refreshing in a way. He's right, after all, he remembers every second and he won't ever forget.

He wants to listen to what Lance is saying, and he should, but at the same time his eyes wander without him even realizing and, when he looks up, Keith is still looking at him.

Their eyes meet and they don't avert them.

Keith has bags under his eyes, but they are still as vibrant as he remembered. He had thought of them in these months, as a way to keep himself sane. When the pain had been too much, when he had thought of just giving up, he had thought of the guard that had been ready to give up his life for him. And it had made it a little bit better.

"How?" is the only thing he can ask in the end, trying to understand. The last thing he remembers is the same thing he remembers for the last month or so: Haggar in front of him and pain. He has no idea how he got out of the prison, how Keith even managed.

"I told you I would come back," Keith says, like he's hurt that Shiro hadn't believed him. Which... he hadn't. Not because he hadn't believed Keith would have wanted to, but what were the possibilities?

"Yeah, screwing up the whole plan," Lance mutters and Shiro looks at him, confused, while Keith almost hisses like a cat.

"Shut up, Lance," he says but Shiro is intrigued. He looks around finally, at the whole room but mostly at the others around. Beside Keith, Lance, and Hunk, there is a woman, standing tall behind them all, keeping her distance, but interested in what's happening and then there is a guy, probably, that looks... familiar.

He doesn't know why, but while he can tell this isn't the first time he has seen him, he can't remember who he is. His memory has been scrambled lately, but it feels like he should know this, like it's just a little out of reach, but still in his grasp.

And then it clicks. "Matt!" he says, surprised. But no, it's not Matt. He's smaller, he looks better than Matt ever did. Matt and he had been in adjacent cells and sometimes they had gone the whole night talking about anything they could, when the nightmares were too much and nothing else seemed important.

So it takes him a second to understand who he has in front of him, but he knows for certain, remembers the stories, the fond look on Matt's face.

"No," he corrects himself. "Katie, right?" he asks, because maybe he's wrong, maybe this person just resembles Matt out of coincidence and he's just making this awkward. Maybe he just wants to see his friend again and he's imagining everything.

But then the other nods, and then nods again and then it's like she—because it's a she, Matt had always talked about his sister—can't stop.

"You really knew him. You..." she starts, and he can recognize the panic in her voice, the high pitch it takes just before someone falls completely. He wants to reach out to her, give whatever comfort he can, but he's not sure he can really move.

"Okay, what's going on?" Lance asks, looking between Shiro and Katie. "You said your name was Pidge!"

He sees Katie grimace and then nod, rebuilding whatever walls she has erected.

"Yes. Because that's my name. Now." she replies, looking at Shiro and then at everyone else. "When my father and brother were captured I tried enlisting in some expeditions but they didn't want a kid with them, especially a girl. Pricks," she mutters, under her breath. "I come from a village in the eastern part of the Earth Kingdom. There was a lot of patriarchal shit going on, okay? And I... I needed to search for them!"

Everyone is looking at Katie... Pidge now, and Shiro is too tired to try and understand what everyone is thinking. It feels strange, having people to talk to again. His voice used for nothing but screams for the longest time.

"So I cut my hair," Pidge continues, "and then chose a fake name. When the last expedition was a failure I continued on my own. So yeah. Pidge is my name." It's the finality and certainty in her tone that makes everyone nod, afraid to contradict her.

Matt had never been like that. He was intelligent and a strong bender, but he had been more frail in a way. It feels like Pidge is forged in metal.

"I..." He tries to remember, but it's all hazy in his mind, "I don't remember what happened to Matt. Is he here, too?" he asks, but he already knows the answer by looking at Pidge's reaction.

"He wasn't with the other prisoners," Keith says, and he would seem distant to anyone who didn't really know him, like he didn't really care. Shiro can see all his guilt, all his regret, as plain as snow. "They said he was transferred after.... yeah"

Oh. He tries to remember, but he can't. He honestly doesn't know if he even saw Matt again or if Haggar had brought him directly to her laboratory, it feels like it.

"I'm sorry. I don't remember," he says, honestly, and Pidge nods, but it's obvious she's disappointed. He would like to give her more, but he just can't.

"Do you remember what they were doing to you?" someone says and Shiro looks up at the woman in the back, the only one he doesn't know the name of. She's stern, but her stance feels rigid more out of fear than anything else.

"He just woke up!" Keith snarls, outraged on his behalf, but Shiro knows that he's important now. The first person to see Haggar's torture and survive to tell the tale. He doesn't know if he could consider himself lucky.

"I do," he says, anyway, because it's important, because someone has to try and stop them. "They're... removing bending from people."

He knows that he's saying something horrible. He can see the shock and fear in the other's eyes, mixed with disbelief. Shiro wouldn't have believed it either if he hadn't been there to see, to feel.

"What do you mean?" the woman asks, advancing a little, almost without realizing it. It's important to her, even if he's not sure why.

"I... I don't know the specifics. I just know that they're trying to find a way to remove someone’s bending and then... reverse it, I think?" he says, frowning. It makes no sense when he says it like that, but it is what she had been doing. Every day.

"Reverse it?" Hunk asks and his voice is hoarse, scared. Who can blame him?

"Reopen the connection. I... it's what she was working on recently," he whispers, because he knows it's a confession more than anything else. Haggar had been working on him, on a way to reverse it. It's not difficult adding it up.

"She took away your bending?" Keith asks, and his voice is angry, angrier Shiro has ever seen him.

Shiro only nods. "I can't metalbend anymore," he says. It had been a gruesome discovery, he remembers clearly, the moment she had put a chunk of metal in the room and then dared him to overpower her, to escape.

He had tried so hard to make the metal move, but every position he had known, every trick he had learned in his years had been useless. The metal had stayed there, mocking him and his pain.

Haggar's laugh will haunt him to his dying day.

"I don't think she has perfected it. She hasn't taken my earthbending, just... just a technique," he says, because those are the only thoughts that have been on his mind in the rare moment of clarity between pain and sleep.

"And now she was trying to give it back to you?" Pidge asks, curious and fascinated. Yeah, just like Matt.

"From what I could understand?" he replies, looking at his only hand. "I'm sorry I... I'm not really sure? It has been..." hard couldn't even begin to describe it. It hurt, every moment, everything she had done.

Every time it had been like she was reaching into the deepest part of him and tearing everything apart, trying to make it work, trying to make him work as she wanted, as she needed.

Shiro shudders now at the memories.

"That's it" Keith barks, looking at everyone with ire. "He needs to rest. He can't even stand!"

"As much as I loathe to admit it, I am with Fireboy. I can't do much else for you, but maybe a little more healing would make it easier for you to move around?" Lance tries, with a smile, and Shiro can only nod.

He looks at Keith again, but the other is ushering Pidge and the woman out of the room. For a second Shiro thinks about calling him, asking him to stay.

He doesn't.

Pidge closes the door behind her and she has to breathe for a second. She can see Allura storming off, probably to think about what Shiro has told them. Keith stays behind, just a little to her left, and he looks shaken, fragile.

She still doesn't know how to feel about this, all of this, if she has to be completely honest: a firebender? She might have collaborated with him before she knew what he was, but right now even being beside him strikes her as a betrayal.

How many of her people are suffering right now because of his people? What are they doing to her family?

Pidge sighs and thinks about Shiro's words and tries to take comfort in the knowledge that at least she has news now. At least she knows that her brother was still alive not that many months ago and, after years of nothingness, it’s like a breath of fresh air.

He had also talked about her, enough that Shiro had been able to recognize her immediately, and this makes her happy and sad at the same time. She misses the simple life she used to have, and while she doesn't think her father and brother had been wrong in deciding to fight the Empire, she can harbor a sane dose of resentment towards the situation in general.

And right now Keith is the thing in her vicinity that can be used as a stress relief. She's not proud but this is what war does to people.

Pidge tries to think about what she can say, how she can cut and make him bleed with just words, when Allura resurfaces at the end of the corridor and tells them to follow her.

They both take a second too long before moving and Allura gestures again to make them hurry up.

They move then, with some reticence, and Pidge decides the moment has passed. It wouldn't make sense to try and say something now. They need Keith, after all, and she might not trust him as far as she can throw him with her bending (and she is curious to try and see how far that is), but he's the only connection they have to the Fire Empire.

Allura accompanies them to the living room where Coran is already waiting for them.

Coran had been one of the surprises that this remote villa in the woods had in store for them, beside the house itself. They don't know where it came from and how Allura possesses such a nice place, who she is exactly, but the fact that she isn't a firebender automatically promotes her to trustworthy, at least more than Keith.

"Is your friend well?" Coran asks them, and Keith looks surprised for a moment before scowling, as if the question has pissed him off.

"He's fine. He will be fine," Keith replies curtly and then goes to sit on one of the chairs. Pidge looks at him and then follows, seating herself beside Allura.

"What your friend has told us," Allura starts, "is concerning to say the least. If Zarkon obtains the power to just shut down everyone else's bending at will, there would be no one that could face him. No opposition."

Keith doesn't say anything (but she doesn't expect him to; after all, Zarkon is still his king) and Pidge nods.

"But it's not only that. What could he want with giving the bending back?" Because that's the part that doesn't make sense. She can understand a strategy that focuses on taking away the enemy's advantage, but giving it back? What could be the purpose of that?

"He was confused," Allura tells her, with a serious face. "We can't take everything he says as real." She's right, of course, but there is something strange in this situation, something that continues to run inside of her head just out of reach, and she's not fast enough to catch it.

The silence stretches for a second too long before Keith says, low and almost ashamed, "I never had clearance to know what Haggar’s experiment were.” She doesn't know what Keith wants now, if it's some kind of absolution, but he won't find it here.

"I don't care. You should have checked." She is ready to attack. She feels like a snake now, ready to uncoil and strike. "Just because you saved the prisoners doesn't mean you're forgiven.”

Keith looks taken aback for a second, surprised. Maybe he had probably thought that criticisms would come only from Allura. He doesn't know her well enough to understand her, however, how much her family means to her.

He doesn't know how many sacrifices she has gone through to arrive where she is and, looking at him, knowing that he could have stopped it, saved at least her brother, she's filled with so much anger.

He doesn't say anything, doesn't repeat that he's sorry and she appreciates that he knows it would be useless. Maybe they could have been friends, but the rift between them is too deep for her to try and mend.

"Now, now. I understand you Knickle Knackers are having kind of a rough moment, but it is not the time to lash out in anger," Coran says, playing with his mustache, and they all look at him, surprised.

"Knickle Knackers?" Pidge repeats, because she's not sure that's even a word and Coran smiles.

"Yes. It was a term of endearment that was used on the young apprentices at the temple!" he explains, like it would be obvious.

It hits them then that they don't really know much about Coran. When Allura had brought them here she had only told them that Coran was a friend and that this was her home and they had been too preoccupied with Shiro and then with yelling at Keith to really stop and ask some questions. "The temple?"

"Yeah, hasn't Allura told you..." he stops and looks at her, but she just shakes her head and it seems to be enough to convey whatever she wants him to understand. "Well. I am an Air Acolyte, I believe you can say."

Both Pidge and Keith look surprised at that. They can't really believe what he's saying. It has been so much time since anyone has even heard anything about the Air Nation and it feels even stranger hearing someone admit it so freely. Especially considering what Keith is.

"You're an airbender?" she asks, because she can't really fathom the enormity of it. An airbender? Alive?

But Coran immediately shakes his head and laughs. "Oh, Avatar no. I'm an Air Acolyte, we have unfortunately no bending capacity but we devote our lives to the Air Nation, understanding its customs and learning the principle to spiritual clarity."

Pidge deflates and she sees Keith doing so as well. She wonders what he would have thought had Coran really been an airbender, the last remnant of a civilization his leader had destroyed with terrible effectiveness.

"I'm sorry, I..." but Coran laughs and waves her off.

"You young things have probably never heard about anything regarding the Air Nation since your birth. A grave tragedy, the food of the Air Temples is a prime delicacy and..." he starts and a strange sound brings hers and Keith's attention to Allura, who is making a disgusted face, soon replaced by her usual mask of indifference and anger.

"Do not say that Prin- Allura," Coran says, looking at her. "You always finish the delicacy I make for you," he tells her and Allura sighs, defeated.

It feels light, in the face of all they have seen today, all that they have heard and experienced, and she wants to enjoy it for a second more, before letting reality catch up.

"I..." Keith starts and Pidge looks at him. He seems uncomfortable, but he has always looked that way (a mix between constipated and ready to kill someone) so she doesn't know how to correctly interpret his hesitation. "How can you still be an Air Acolyte? The Air Nation...

"You have some guts asking that!" Allura says, scooting to the edge of her seat, a flash of anger clear in her eyes. Pidge understands her very well, but she's not sure how useful it would be to start a fight right now.

But then Coran puts a hand on Allura's shoulder and she stops, relaxes in almost a second. It's kind of eerie to see. "It's a legitimate question. My family was tasked with a sacred duty long ago and we've been carrying it out since then. Everyone thought the temples were empty, so it was easy laying low after a while.”

Keith stops and then nods. He might have other questions, but it's obvious he's not going to risk it and ask them, not with Allura's reaction.

Pidge asks the only thing she wants to know, the only thing that's making her nervous about this whole thing. "How can you not be angry?" she asks, and her tone is low. She tries not to look at Keith, but it's impossible to resist the urge "What the firebenders have done to your people to... everyone..."

Keith doesn't move, not overtly, but she can see the way his hands clench, the knuckles turning white. He's shaken, even if he doesn't want to show it. Good, she thinks and the most vindictive part of her sneers.

"I have been angry for a long time," Coran says in the end, "and let me tell you, I was a mighty rebel in my youth, even punched a couple of Firey in their faces—no offense. But the teachings of the Air Nation talk about a world in balance, where the four elements live together and it's the only way to keep the peace. Keith here has obviously seen the light in some way. I find that a sign that maybe we may be finally able to kick Zarkon's flaming butt."

They all stop, and the air feels heavy; his words feel like something that an Avatar would say. Balance hasn't been in anyone's mind for such a long time, but it had always been the Air Nation's domain, not only between the elements but also between the spirits and the physical world. The Air Nation and the Avatar, obviously.

Pidge doesn't want to say anything, doesn't want to say what she really thinks. Fuck balance, she whispers in the safe space of her mind, fuck them.

"And in that regard I might have an idea about what you could do about the... well, the problem your friend talked about," Coran continues, nodding towards Keith. "It is sometimes of a long shot, just a possibility but..."

"There were rumors in the old scripts about a kind of bending that could potentially cut off the connection to the element from other people. It was shaky, nothing substantial," Allura cuts in, standing up. She starts to pace around the room. "And obviously most of the ancient tomes have been burned," she whispers with a little glance towards Keith. "But if we manage to acquire enough information maybe we could reverse it. Understand what their plan is."

"But how?" Pidge asks, because it sound good in theory, but they don't have any clue about where to start, really.

"We go to the source!" Coran exclaims, excited. "Of course I haven't been there, but there should be someone who can help us! The energy shouldn't have dissipated at all and I don't think Zarkon has been there in a long time..."

"Where?" Keith cuts in, with a little of an impatient tone.

"Arus! The spiritual forest!" Coran says with a smile and Pidge's eyes widen on their own accord. 

Hunk stays to help Lance mostly because he's not sure he could survive in a room with just Allura, Pidge and Keith. He still doesn't know what to think about Keith’s revelation, about Pidge, about any of this.

He's scared of what this all means, of what they've gotten themselves into, but being with Lance makes him remember that it could be worse. He could be alone in this.

Or he could be without an arm, that would be bad, too.

He really hopes he's not staring too much at Shiro's stump, but he thinks that maybe he is. It's just that earthbending is quite a physical style and he can't imagine bending without one of his hands and doesn't want to think about how it would be without the entire arm.

Lance is working slowly, focusing on where Shiro had been most hurt when he had been freed, and by the looks of Shiro's little posture shifts it's obvious it's working, but it's also uncomfortable.

"You're moving a lot," Lance mutters, and he isn't annoyed, but it's obvious it's making his job a little more difficult.

"I'm sorry." Shiro sounds contrite, but also tired, maybe a little unsure. They should remember that this man had closed his eyes on a creepy torture laboratory and woken up with complete strangers and... whatever Keith is for him.

"So," Hunk starts, trying to find something to say to maybe distract him, something innocuous, and light. "How does it feel to metalbend?" Yep. That's not it. "I mean..." he says, panicking in a flash, "it's just that I've never been able to? Not that I've tried very much I guess? Maybe a little. Or a lot. But mostly it was just... I didn't want to make you think about, you know, because I'm sure that was terrible. I mean it's called torture so..."

"Hunk," Shiro interrupts him, and he says his name like a question, as if maybe he's not sure he got it right. Have they even tried to introduce themselves to him? Probably not, they are terrible rescuers. He nods and keeps his mouth shut, because right now they are obviously in Hunk, shut up territory. "I don't mind. It doesn't feel that different from earthbending, you have to focus more. Earth is all around you, sometimes you have to focus to keep it still, but with metal you have to reach out to it, to the little pieces of earth inside it. It's a lot of precision work."

Hunk nods, and then nods again and still keeps his mouth shut. It's not a surprise that Hunk has never been able to metalbend if that's what one has to do. Focus is not his strong suit, he's more of an exploding ball of anxiety and stress himself.

"I never understand all this talk about the other styles," Lance says, leaving the right shoulder and focusing on Shiro's side. "Water is... is more like something you have no control over. You have to let it use you. It flows and you just have to guide it," Lance says before muttering, low, "or that's what I've been told.”

Neither he nor Shiro say anything to that and he's grateful that the other is quick enough to understand he shouldn't ask for clarification, instinctively knowing that he should let it go.

"I wanted to thank you. Especially you, Lance," Shiro says, with a tired smile. "I wouldn't probably even be able to talk if not for you.”

It's not a completely wrong statement and he can see Lance preen under the compliments. Hunk doesn't really know who this guy is, but Lance had told them that Takashi Shirogane was a hero and even if he doesn't know what he's talking about it's obvious it's important to Lance.

"It's... it's no problem. I mean, it's the least I could do," he says and he's a little red. "You... you tried to retake the South Water tribe, I know. So. You know."

Oh. That explains it.

The other man seems surprised for a second before he sighs and looks down. "We should have succeeded. A lot of people died that day and then... well..."

"A lot of people got out!" Lance immediately tells him, "and sure, I'm not trying to say that everything went well. But no one had ever even suggested going to the south before. It means a lot."

Shiro considers Lance’s words for a moment and then smiles "I'm glad then."

Hunk knows that Lance's family still hasn't made it out. They might be fine, but they're still there under the Fire Empire's rule.

A few minutes pass before Lance asks, low and a a little bit angry. "I... I don't know what the story is but... you do know he's a firebender, right?"

Again the man looks surprised before nodding "Yes. He was one of the guards in charge of the cells."

Hunk nods, not really all that much surprised. Every other prisoner had recognized Keith on sight; it would have been difficult for him to keep his identity hidden from Shiro. "He tried very hard to get to you," he feels compelled to add, even if it gains him a dark look from Lance.

What does his friend want him to say? Tell the injured amputee hero that the one person that had gone to the trouble of saving him from torture and experimentation was a bad person?

Even if he believed that (and he doesn't, which is another problem) he wouldn't have the heart.

Shiro doesn't say anything at first and it seems he's thinking carefully about what he's saying. "I know it's a lot to ask. I understand. But don't judge him too harshly." There is a little wistful smile on his mouth. He looks sad but fond at the same time.

God, he looks like someone in love 

"He has made mistakes and I won't say that I don't understand you anger, but he's not all bad. He helped me a great deal," he tells them. He seems older, tired.

"He's a firebender," Lance mutters, darkly. "His people are the reason we are in this mess. He..."

"I know," Shiro intercedes, "but it's not his fault how he was born."

"He was a guard! It's not like he deserted when he was five!" Lance says and he's starting to get angry. Hunk can see it clearly and he doesn't stop him. He doesn't know where to stand in this situation, if he should try to comprehend Keith, if maybe Keith deserves to have him in his corner, defending him. At the same time Lance isn't the only one who has suffered at the hands of the firebenders and, his gut feeling aside, he doesn't owe Keith anything.

"I know. But he did the right thing in the end. Doesn't that mean something?" It seems that even if Hunk hasn't made his choice yet there is someone firmly seated on Keith's side. Shiro seems unmovable in his belief.

Lance doesn't say anything, but Hunk knows that it's not a confirmation. He thinks Shiro knows it, too.

"I understand, it's too much to ask," he says, with a little smile. "For now I'm just grateful you guys saved me."

At that Hunk nods and smiles as well, feeling like they are returning to safer waters. "Well, it didn't seem like the best accommodations."

"Yeah, I'm not going to recommend it to anyone," Shiro replies, with mirth in his eyes. It floors him that he can joke about it so freely. He's not sure he would be able to.

Lance nods then and gets up, making sure not to spill the water and sending it back to the container by the bed.

"Well, there's nothing else I can do for you," he says. "I mean you're lucky I was there. I'm good, believe me, but without some spiritual water you're just going to have to heal on your own."

Shiro nods and looks gratefully at Lance. "This is already more than enough. I don't think I can do something to repay you, unless you want a pet rock?"

Lance laughs and shrugs his shoulders. "Man, no need. Just a normal day in the life of a hero, right?" It's supposed to come out cocky and sure, Hunk can tell, but there is something under the surface, something he knows way too well, but he's not sure Shiro can pick up on it.

Hunk isn't sure he wants Shiro to.

Shiro just smiles, completely unaware, or maybe deciding to ignore it (Hunk is grateful either way) and then he tries to stand up.

They both rush to him, trying to make him sit back and the man looks at them, taken aback and maybe a little annoyed.

"What are you doing?" Hunk asks, because he's sure Lance told him that moving was a bad idea.

"I'm sure they're talking about what to do in the other room," Shiro explains to them, but it's clear he doesn't understand why he has to. "I want to go and listen."

"Have you already forgotten the fact that the last time you tried to stand up you ended up with your butt on the floor? I didn't. Did you, Hunk?" Lance looks at him and Hunk shakes his head accordingly and Lance points at him, just to prove his point further.

"I was just caught by surprise," Shiro explains, with a shrug. "It won't happen again."

"Yeah, because you aren't going to move!" Lance repeats, with a manic look in his eyes.

Hunk just nods behind him, because he really doesn't think Shiro is ready for walking yet. He doesn't even seem to be ready for sitting if his pale complexion is any indication (of course he probably hasn't seen sunlight in over a year so it might not be a decisive factor).

Shiro doesn't seem to be happy about any of this and he looks more and more like a pissed-off dog so Hunk does the only thing he can think of and just takes Lance and runs out of the room, locking the door with a key.

"Did you just lock in the ex-prisoner we just saved from an year of imprisonment?" Lance asks him, surprised, and Hunk concedes that when you say it like that it doesn't sound good.

"I panicked," he admits, looking at him. "I didn't want him falling again and then Keith coming here all avenging death on fire."

"You know I can still hear you, right?" Shiro's voice comes from inside the room and Hunk winces.

"It's for you own good?" Hunk tries and he can almost physically hear Shiro roll his eyes.

"At least it beats my cell," the other grumbles and okay, Hunk feels kind of bad. But he recognizes emotional manipulation when he hears it and bringing up actual torture is a low blow.

"I'll bring you muffins!" he tries in the end, and he's not even sure if he has the ingredients to make them, but hell, who doesn't love muffins?

Lance looks at him with hope in his eyes and now he will have to make them in any case, won't he 

"Make them with chocolate chips and you've got a deal. I haven't eaten chocolate in..." he stops there and Hunk doesn't really want to dig up that hole.

"You won't regret it! Hunk makes the best muffins. Also you really have to sleep, your muscles will thank us!" Lance says, excited, and they move away from the door, happy to have resolved the situation with as little people falling on the floor as possible.

"Also you're going to bake the muffins and we aren't giving them to Fire Mullet. Not even one," Lance tells him conspiratorially.

Hunk smiles and nods, all in all if Lance’s nefarious plan to get back at Keith is to make him suffer for lack of muffins they are probably going to be okay.

When night comes Keith knows that he won't be able to fall asleep, and staying awake for two nights isn't going to be the worst choice in his life. There is already too much competition for that particular prize.

Everyone has gone to bed quickly, tired from their ordeal, but also to clear their minds a little. Keith understands that. He tries to move silently to go and sit outside in the little patio.

He doesn't know what he wants to do, doesn't know what he should do, but at the same time he doesn't think he has much of a choice. He has promised Allura and Pidge help with their missions and whatever Zarkon is planning is worrisome enough that he can't just let it go.

And yet he wants to.

There is a part of him—and it's the worst part, the one that had led him to become a soldier under Zarkon's army—that wants nothing to do with any of this. He wanted to rescue Shiro and he has, he's sleeping it off in the other room, and it feels like Keith has accomplished what he wanted, what he needed.

He knows Shiro will want to fight. He knows that there is no other way forward for them, but at the same time he has been angry for so long, so uncaring of everything but himself, and it's difficult to avoid reverting back to old habits.

There is no need to explain himself to the others. He doesn't want to tell them his life story, but the need to burn down the world that had left him alone is still strong inside of him. Why should he help save anyone when no one had ever done anything for him?

Except Shiro, obviously, and Keith has saved him, has done everything he could.

He sighs and puts his head between his legs, trying to take a breath, and then another. It all feels too much.

Keith's life was never supposed to go this way, never supposed to take this turn and now, in front of the mess that is his future, he regrets it a little. Not much, but a little.

When he feels something creaking behind him he stands up, creates two little fire blades inside his fists and gets into battle position, ready to hit whoever has managed to almost sneak up on him. He looks up and Shiro is looking at him, amused.

"The first time we meet without bars in between and you already get violent," Shiro says with a smile that always felt out of place in the prison, a reminder of something long gone. He looks better under the light of the moon, but at the same time it's impossible to ignore, even now that he's not dying or unconscious, how much Shiro has changed.

The scar on his nose, the white in his hair, and the haunted look in his eyes. Keith put them all there.

Maybe his blade had not physically made the scar, but he was still the one that had dealt the blow. He wants to say he's sorry, but he wouldn't know where to start or how to finish.

He relaxes, disperses the fire and looks at Shiro.

There had never been that many opportunities to just look and all he remembers from the time in the prison are stolen moments, dangerous looks. Never enough and too much already.

This, being able to talk normally, having a moment to just exist in the same space, feels like a gift he has done nothing to earn.

Shiro sits down on the porch where Keith had been just a moment before and pats his hand beside him, encouraging him to sit with him. He hesitates only a second before complying.

They don't say anything for a few minutes, enough that the air is getting uncomfortable, but not enough that Keith would move (he doesn’t think there is much that could convince him to move now).

"I think I need to thank you," Shiro says in the end and Keith shakes his head, incapable of saying anything. "You got me out. Heard you dragged me around like a proper damsel in distress."

"You weigh a lot," Keith says, and yet he doesn't weigh enough. He has lost muscle mass, and he hasn't properly eaten in more than a year and it shows, but Keith will never tell him that. Never put such an uncomfortable truth in front of this man.

He's glad Hunk didn’t give him any muffins if at least one more was given to Shiro.

Shiro laughs at Keith's response, like he used to do in the prison when Keith would get a little sassy. He likes that laugh.

"It's not my fault you're so slender." It’s a gentle rib, done with a little smirk "earthbending requires strength."

Keith huffs in amusement and looks up again, trying not to stare too much at Shiro. He feels like it's a titanic endeavor.

"You don't need to thank me," he says in the end, because it's the truth, because Keith is so indebted to Shiro that even rescuing him over and over in the course of their lives doesn't feel like it would even the score. "I..." he tries, but he feels Shiro’s hand on his shoulder and he stops.

It's warm, too warm. It's probably Keith's imagination, because he knows that no human hand could ever burn as much, not even a firebender’s hand. It feels like he's marking him.

"I do need to thank you. For the first time, too." Keith recoils from his touch. It's a cold shower, a dive in a frozen lake and he can't stand to feel the warmth of Shiro's touch. Not like this.

"I left you there to..." he starts, but he has to stop, can't even pronounce the words "You were supposed to be the one getting out."

The other doesn't say anything to that and to Keith it feels like a confirmation, like Keith is just voicing Shiro's thoughts out loud.

He wonders how much Shiro had screamed; had he ever called Keith's name? He doesn't ever want to know.

Silence falls between them again, and it feels like it's too much. Keith can't breathe and he doesn't understand how this all got so broken. His talks with Shiro had been the only things he could have counted on, the only things that got him through the day sometimes, but now the words are like glass in his throat.

They say fire is the most aggressive of the elements, and it's not the first time that Keith thinks that destroying everything is the only thing a firebender will ever be good at.

"I'm glad it worked out the way it did," Shiro says, in the end. He talks slowly, measuring each word, like Keith is a feral animal he has to be careful with. He feels exactly that way. "I mean, I would have preferred both of us getting out then. But I'm glad I stayed behind."

"Why?" Keith asks and his voice is croaking, like he's close to crying. He will not do anything like that, he won't show such a weakness. Not even for Shiro.

"They would have done something worse to you." Shiro’s response is immediate and the fire in Keith wants to burn again with anger and shame. He doesn't want to hit Shiro, not really, but he also wants to burn him, make him take it back. He wants Shiro to be angry at him, the same way everyone else is, the way he is.

"How can you even say that? You... they took away your bending, Shiro. You..." He can't even think what that means, how stressing it is. Having a part of you removed so suddenly from you?

The earth moves under his feet, and under his shoes a little pillar of dirt grows, making him elevate his foot. Then the other one.

"They didn't take it all away" Shiro replies, with a devious smirk, in contrast with the terrible thing they are talking about. "And even if they had, at least I would still be alive. They would have killed you immediately. At least I'm here."

Keith doesn't say what he wants to say, doesn't scream that it's an exchange he would have made gladly, that his life doesn't feel as important as what Shiro has just sacrificed. He already knows those aren't things Shiro would accept.

He stays silent instead, and hopes that maybe Shiro will decide to read whatever he wants into it. He should know it's a useless thing to wish, that Shiro will never let it go until he's sure he has convinced Keith.

The problem is: he doesn't want to be convinced.

"I forgave you long ago, Keith," Shiro tells him, like it's a confession, something secret and maybe a little shameful. Probably it is.

He wouldn't be able to do the same if their role were reversed—he doesn't think so, at least—but he has never been a good person like Shiro. If they had met earlier in life, maybe... but there are too many mistakes on his shoulders for Keith to hope for a clean slate.

"You shouldn't have," is the only thing he can say, the only thing that makes sense. The only true thing.

He gets to his feet, and he wants to run away. Shiro is safe, everyone else has his mission, and he could just slip away now, vanish into the night and never return. No one would really miss him.

Shiro's hand touches his wrist briefly, more like a caress than anything else. "You can't tell me what to do, Keith," he says, his tone light. "I'm a free man now."

It's a terrible thing to say, considering their history, and yet Keith laughs, because he can't do anything else.

Can he really have this? Can they really put everything behind them? He looks at Shiro, looks at his new scar, his white hair, the scars that are hidden under his clothes but that he had seen when Lance had cured him.

No. He doesn't deserve it.

So he walks away, just out of reach. "I'm glad you're safe," he says, because it feels important that he knows, that whatever terrible things Keith has done in his life at least this, this one thing, he's proud of.

"I'm glad you saved me," Shiro replies, a kindness that almost hurts, "but before you go, I kept you one of these"

Keith looks back and a single muffin sits where Keith was before. Lance had eaten them with gusto in front of his face, exaggerating every single bite, almost moaning. He hadn't asked for one, had known what it was about, and had accepted the punishment.

He had thought that it was okay if Shiro had eaten his share too, and now he doesn't know what to do with this. Doesn't know what to feel. "Hunk made it for you.”

"Yeah, so I get to decide what I do with it," Shiro answers simply, standing up as well. "I want you to have it."

It's a simple thing, but Keith is floored by it. Who would have thought that a muffin would fuck him up this bad?

Shiro starts to retire to his room, but he stops one foot into the house and says, quietly enough that Keith has to focus to hear it, "You deserve good things too, Keith".

He's gone after that and Keith stays outside, looking at the place where he disappeared for entirely too long. When he eats, the muffin is good, but it leaves a bitter taste in his mouth.

He knows it's not really the muffin.