Chapter Text
“It’s not a good idea,” Keith grinds out through his teeth. He stands, planting his hands on the table and pushes his chair back with a harsh screech. “Captain, you can’t just-”
Shiro pinches the area between his eyebrows, his usually tidy forelock falling into his eyes. “Number One, you know that I have to.”
Lieutenant-Commanders Garrett and McClain stare nervously between the two of them. Outside the viewports, the stretch of stillness parallels the silence in the briefing room. Shiro’s jaw is clenched tight as he stares down at the datapad he’s holding, and Keith’s eyes are beginning to border on yellow.
“That’s enough,” the other Lieutenant-Commander McClain says firmly. “Captain, if I may, I think we should take some time to cool off.”
Lance exhales audibly and turns to Shiro. “I concur with Allura, Captain. I should be getting back to the bridge.”
“Me- me too, Captain,” Hunk rushes out, leaning away from where he’s sitting next to Keith. “I have to handle repairs at Engineering.”
Shiro looks around the room at each of their exhausted faces. He skips over Keith’s and Keith restrains himself from bristling. “Alright. Let’s reconvene in a while. Dismissed.”
Everyone begins to file out, with Hunk and Lance moving a bit too eagerly, leaving Keith and Shiro alone in the briefing room. Shiro nods at Allura’s comforting pat on his shoulder as she passes and Keith narrows his eyes.
The door slides shut behind them and there’s a tense moment before Shiro makes his way over to Keith’s side of the table, resting his weight against the smooth metal. Keith’s gaze is still resolutely fixed on the datapad in front of him.
“Keith,” Shiro starts, and Keith’s gaze snaps up to him.
“Don’t you Keith me,” Keith growls, and folds his arms. “Do you really want to go and put yourself in danger again? It could be Sendak, Shiro.”
“We only know that they encountered Empire Galra, Keith. It could be any of them. And they took Pidge and two crew members.” Shiro’s shoulders slump. “I shouldn’t have sent an away team down.”
Keith frowns and places a hand on Shiro’s forearm. “Our sensors only detected plant and animal life on the planet. Don’t blame yourself.”
“I still gave the order.” Shiro rests a hand on his forehead. “I need to go down and get them back.”
Keith groans. “Not alone, Shiro. You were suggesting beaming down by yourself-”
“-just to determine the number of hostiles, Keith,” Shiro interjects, voice pleading. “I know how they think, I’m the only one who’s ever made contact with them and made it out.”
“Section twelve, paragraph four.” Keith’s voice is unyielding. “The area has not been secured. Also, away team guidelines mean you can’t go down alone. Come on, Shiro.”
Shiro drags his hand through his hair, the stripes on his cuff reflecting the severe lights overhead, and lets out a huff. “I didn’t think there’d come a day where you’d cite regulation at me.”
Keith raises an eyebrow at him. “Is it working?”
“I think I may have been too… hasty,” Shiro acquiesces and lets out a short bark of laughter at Keith’s triumphant expression.
“You’re right, Keith. I would be no use to Voltron if I got captured too. I just- I saw the Empire uniforms before the transmission cut off and I saw red.” His prosthetic hand tightens around the edge of the table and Keith hears Shiro’s voice shake. “Now Katie’s gone.”
Keith pulls Shiro’s fingers away so he doesn’t crush the metal. “We’ll get her back, Shiro.”
Nodding, Shiro wraps his other arm around Keith and Keith sinks into the expanse of his chest. The room is quiet for a while, only broken by the soft sounds of their breathing.
“Thank you, Keith,” Shiro whispers, lifting a hand to his combadge. “Lieutenant-Commanders Garrett and McClains, meet me at transporter room one."
---
“I know the language and we’ll have our security chief with us as a precaution,” Keith says, gesturing to Allura. “No contact, just in and out to ascertain hostile numbers and get a sense of the lay of the camp.”
Lance bites his lip, glancing nervously at his wife, but she waves his worries off with a gentle smile. “We’ll be fine, Lance. We’ll be on open com-channels throughout.”
Lance and Hunk watch as Shiro, Keith and Allura suit up, lit by the thrumming glow of the transporter pad. They’ve chosen dark, skintight suits to go in under the cover of the planet’s long night cycle and blackened moon.
Shiro helps Keith with the zip, and Keith doesn't miss how Shiro chooses his human hand to move it gently from his tailbone to the nape of his neck.
Keith gestures at Shiro to turn around so he can do the same and has to force his hand to be steady as he draws the zip upwards for what seems like forever, the interlocking material fusing slowly with either side. He has to reach up to fully close the zip, just below the shaved edge of Shiro’s undercut.
He remembers the last time he’d sent Shiro down in this suit and hadn’t seen him again for a year.
When the seam has disappeared, Keith smooths his hand over the planes of Shiro’s back and clears his throat.
“All done,” he mutters. Somehow his voice is still rusty.
Shiro goes to thump Hunk on the back. “We need you to keep working on the repairs, Hunk. Get us back to full communications capability and fill the Garrison in immediately on the situation here.”
Hunk gives them a thumbs up as they step up onto the pad. Keith does a final check on his phaser and slides it into the holder at his hip. He thinks of what would happen if Sendak was really down there. Set it to kill, his brain supplies.
Lance kisses Allura softly and steps down from the pad. “Be safe, guys. Get Pidge back.”
Keith and Shiro nod at him.
“Energise,” Shiro’s voice rings out, and the world shimmers away in particles of silver.
---
Glowing leaves hang from overhead as the away party reforms on the planet. The bioluminescence in the plants helps as Keith’s eyes readjust, but he sees Shiro and Allura blink rapidly.
“Vision isn’t so clear,” Allura mutters. “About forty percent.”
“Same here.” Shiro’s swinging his head around, trying to get a grasp of their orientation.
“I’m good, Allura. Captain, you and Allura can follow me.”
Keith knows he has his Galran half to thank as he steps lightly around tree roots that sprawl across the forest floor. He reaches back to ground his teammates from time to time as both of them struggle not to trip.
They had beamed down about thirty metres from the fringes of the Empire camp, but the low visibility is hampering their travel, making the short distance feel like an eternity. The thin moonlight does little to help.
Finally, the bright lights of the campsite stream through the tree branches as they approach, the quintessence fuelling them violet and corrupted. Container-like buildings have been set up in a rough circle, bordered by a three-metre-high fence.
“Light security patrols,” Keith says grimly. “Buildings for an estimated thirty soldiers altogether.”
“How could our sensors not have picked them up?” Allura’s tone is tight.
The camp lights illuminate Shiro’s frown. “Blocked our scans, maybe. We should get closer, try to figure out where they’re holding Katie and the others.”
Lance’s voice crackles through. “Captain, your transmission is unstable. Hunk’s working on it. We need you to get out of there soon.”
Only two patrols seem to be on duty, so they head towards a shadowed area of fence.
“Strange, it isn’t quintessence-fortified,” Allura says, stretching a hand towards it. “I can’t sense any usual surveillance.”
“Let’s just get in and out,” Shiro directs, eyes fixed on the sentries.
Keith pulls out his phaser and cuts through the net, bending it back so that there’s an opening large enough to fit through. The blue quintessence beam cleaves through the metal silently.
It’s all clear, so Keith forges ahead, running swiftly to crouch behind a container. Allura and Shiro dart across the open to stop behind him.
“I don’t think they’re just after the plants in this planet,” Allura says, pointing at a huge tarp.
Keith follows her gaze and his stomach drops. What had looked like a large tent from afar was actually a shroud over what looks to be multiple military vehicles, primed for action.
“Fuck. Keith to Voltron - they have three tanks and some hoverbikes. This isn’t just a simple operation.”
“Understood, Commander Keith.”
Suddenly, Shiro grabs their arms and jerks his head towards a smaller container with two sentries standing guard outside. They’ve been stationary. If there’s any place they’re keeping Katie, Keith would bet his money on it.
The camp feels at ease and most of the soldiers are asleep. They may not have a better chance. But something’s giving Keith second thoughts.
“Captain,” Keith hisses. “This was meant to be recon only.”
“This may be our only opportunity to get Katie back, Keith.” Shiro’s mouth is set in a hard line. “Those tanks look ready to go. They may not be here when we come back.”
There’s no way for Voltron to track them either. It has to be now. Keith nods reluctantly.
They make their way towards the container as one, ducking behind crates and keeping to the shadows.
Keith throws a pebble to the side of the container so the sentries move to investigate, walking away from the camp lights. Allura strikes immediately, singing a hole in the first sentry’s head with her phaser. Shiro catches it as it falls, lowering the sentry to the ground.
Keith lunges at the other to push its blade away from Allura and kicks the sentry’s legs so that it tumbles towards the ground. He catches it with one arm and aims his phaser at the back of its neck.
They seat the two sentries’ bodies together behind the container. Keith cuts off one sentry arm and runs back to the container doors. Shiro and Allura crouch beside him.
Placing it to the scanner, Keith looks out at the moving sentry light. It’s sweeping over the dirt towards Keith and he readies himself to spring away when the door unlocks with a click. He hurriedly flings open the door and waves Shiro and Allura in. The door shuts behind them just as the sentry light hits the ground that Keith had just occupied.
The room is pitch black.
“Ugh,” Keith groans. “Keith to Voltron.”
There’s only answering static.
“Captain,” Allura says as she takes a step back. “I don’t think this is the right room.”
Suddenly the lights go on, blinding them. Keith is the first to blink away the spots and stares in horror at the scene before him.
“No, Princess, this isn’t the right room.” The corners of Sendak’s mouth curl upwards mockingly as he steps forward, flanked by five other Galra.
Keith feels Shiro stiffen beside him. Allura’s hands fly to her phaser and Sendak shoots it out of her hands. She lets out a cry as the phaser falls to the ground, her hands singed a dark red.
Shiro immediately pushes her behind him.
“Sendak,” he growls, left arm powering up in a wave of violet light.
“Thought we’d established that already.” Sendak lets out a loud yawn. “Good to see you again, Champion.”
“Don’t call him that,” Keith snarls and moves closer to Shiro, flicking his claws out.
“If it isn’t Commander Keith. I wouldn’t say I’m happy to see you again, seeing as you stole our Champion from the Empire,” Sendak sneers. “How does it feel to be a traitor to your own kind?”
“Where are the people you captured, Sendak?” Shiro interrupts, voice cold. He holds his Galra arm in front of him, and Keith sees fear shine in the eyes of some of the Galra soldiers.
“You’ll never see them again if you use that arm we gave you, Champion. I wouldn’t recommend it.”
Sendak waves a hand and the Galra behind him point their guns at the away team. “Drop your weapons.”
Slowly, Shiro and Keith place their phasers on the floor. The soldiers advance on them.
Keith’s looking between Allura and Shiro, trying his best to come up with a plan, anything. He sees a spark of violet light flicker in the hands Allura’s holding behind her back, and that’s all the warning they get before she throws a ball of quintessence towards Sendak.
Keith flings the sentry arm towards the scanner and the door unlocks. The quintessence she threw explodes in a wall of fire and the container is alight with flames and screams, the force propelling the three of them out of the container. They land hard on the ground and Keith groans as he feels something shift in his left arm.
The whole camp is awake now in a riot of sirens. The sentry lights are trained on them. Everywhere they turn, sentries are closing in. Shiro hobbles to his feet and drags Allura up.
“Voltron, three to beam up, now!” Shiro’s hollering into his combadge.
“Captain, we can’t get a lock on you,” Lance cries. “They’re disrupting your signals. You have to get out of the camp.”
Shiro swears and lifts Keith up with his other arm. Keith holds on tightly to him, cringing as his shoulder protests.
The three of them stand back to back as the sentries form a circle around them. Two of them part as Sendak stalks towards them, blood dripping down his shoulder.
“You’ll pay for that, Princess.” There’s a harsh whine as Sendak activates his weapon arm.
Shiro does the same. Keith’s phaser is gone, probably melted down by now in Allura’s fire. But he still has his knife.
He draws it from his boot and there’s a moment where Sendak stares at it incredulously. He breaks out into guffaws and Keith grits his teeth.
“These are supposed to be from the best crew the Garrison has to offer? Come now, Champion, surely you’d rather return to us.”
He steps forwards and Keith braces himself, but suddenly they’re all on their knees as a hail of dirt flies onto the members of Garrison and Empire alike. It’s the tanks, each exploding in turn with a loud noise that rocks the camp, and the tarp goes up in flames.
Shiro exchanges a bewildered glance with Keith. They hadn't had time to sabotage the tanks, but Sendak doesn't know that.
He whips his head back to them, eyes burning with rage. “How dare you,” he screams, as his arm flies out towards them.
“Move,” Shiro yells, and the three of them jump to the side as his fist barely misses them.
Shiro slices through the sentries around them as he whirls around, arm lit a frightening purple. He sprints towards Sendak and Keith tries to follow, only to cry out in frustration as sentries surround him.
Allura’s fighting her own set of Galra soldiers, arms whipping around as she draws the quintessence from the equipment around her. They scream as the beam of light she sends out burns through their armour, but Keith knows that Allura can’t use too much of the corrupted quintessence.
Already she begins to flag, resorting to a mix of combat with her magic. Keith desperately tries to reach her, but the Galra keep coming, and Keith can only attend to a few at a time. They’d obviously greatly underestimated enemy numbers.
He sees a sentry aiming to fire from behind her as he slices through the chest of another.
“Allura! Behind you!” His voice is a hoarse, terrible thing, but she hears it. Keith’s heart seizes as she turns to face the sentry. He knows it’s too late-
The sentry lowers its weapon. Keith can’t make sense of it.
Then it falls to the ground. A masked, hooded figure stands in its wake. Another of the same comes to join them, running from the direction of the smouldering tanks.
Keith doesn’t know who they are, but they rush in to fight alongside Allura. His chest is heaving, his arm now screaming in pain as he sprints towards Shiro and Sendak. They’ve moved towards the edge of the camp, a violent dance of purple light that tears into the containers around them.
Shiro’s bleeding from a gash on his forehead, obviously limping, and Sendak’s bearing down on him with a fury.
Keith doesn’t think. His hand flies out and he launches his knife straight at Sendak. It buries itself in Sendak’s torso with a wet, crunching sound, and Sendak falls backwards with a cry.
“Shiro, Shiro, I got you,” Keith pants out, pulling Shiro’s arm to rest on his shoulders as Allura and the two masked figures reach them.
“You have to get out of here,” The taller one says urgently, as they wrench Keith’s knife out of Sendak. They smash a rock against Sendak’s head, cutting off his bellow of rage. “We will contact you later.”
The motley, bedraggled group move as quickly as they can into the forest, back the way they came with the masked figures helping to hold Allura and Shiro up.
“Captain, we have a lock on you.” Hunk’s voice suddenly comes through, and Keith feels like he could weep with relief.
The masked figure hands him back his knife. Keith nods at them and presses on his combadge. “Three to beam up. Energise.”
“Yes, Commander,” Hunk says. The familiar sensation of his molecules dissipating begins as silver light encircles them and Keith breathes a sigh of relief.
Then Shiro screams. He falls hard onto the muddy earth from where he was propped up on a tree trunk, Sendak’s claws wrapped firmly around his leg.
“Shiro, no,” Keith cries out, utter horror in the realisation that Sendak's arm had somehow followed them. He makes a desperate grab for Shiro, fingertips just missing him as he’s dragged back towards the camp. Just before he disappears into the dark, Shiro’s scared eyes meet his.
Keith takes off.
“You have to hold still! Stop moving!” Hunk’s voice is frantic, and Keith can hear the beeps with how rapidly he’s recalculating the transporter. Keith’s barrelling towards Shiro, who’s clinging onto the roots, rocks, anything he can grasp to slow his abduction.
Sendak’s arm is fast, but Keith’s faster. He pushes off a rock face and launches himself onto Shiro, digging into Shiro’s torso with his hands. He’s halted the arm, but Shiro’s being pulled from both ends and he cries out in pain.
Digging his feet into the ground, Keith draws his knife and stabs Sendak’s hand repeatedly. It slackens a bit, but soon redoubles its efforts. Keith begins to be dragged along as well, his feet uprooting the soil as he strains to hold Shiro in place.
“Voltron, now, now,” Keith yells, his knees buckling. He hears voices coming from the direction of the camp and panics, hands scrabbling for better purchase on Shiro’s back.
“We can’t differentiate between Sendak and Shiro, Keith,” Hunk cries. “We’ve only got a lock on you and Allura. The transporter can barely do it with how close you and Shiro are to the camp!”
The two masked figures are now by Keith’s side, helping to hold Shiro in place and trying to pry Sendak’s hand off Shiro’s leg. Shiro groans in pain as the claws dig even further into his leg. Keith's heart wrenches at the sight of the spilling blood that further darkens the material of Shiro's suit.
“It’s hurting him, stop,” Keith sobs, one hand pulling at Shiro and the other cradling his head, anything to give him some comfort. He shouldn’t have let Shiro beam down. This is all his fault.
“Keith.” Shiro struggles to lift his head, his words barely audible. “You have to go.”
“What are you talking about,” Keith shrieks, stabbing at Sendak’s hand futilely with his knife. He’s pretty sure his other arm is going to pop out of its socket.
“Sendak only wants me,” Shiro pants out. “You and Allura go.”
Keith refuses to even comprehend what Shiro’s saying to him. “Hunk, Hunk, please,” Keith pleads into the combadge.
“I can’t do anything, Keith,” Hunk yells back, and Keith wants to scream but he can’t get enough air.
A huge rumble starts from the direction of the camp. The masked figures look at Keith.
“Tanks are coming this way. They must have hidden them at another location. You need to leave.”
Vibrations start through the ground and the trees fall like dominoes as the tanks approach. Keith’s attacking Sendak’s hand more viciously now, gouging out deep ribbons of metal, but it remains firmly embedded in Shiro’s calf.
“Listen, Keith,” Shiro tries, his words slurring together. “You have to go.” He nods towards the masked figures. “Please, help me get Keith to safety. Please.”
“Shiro, what are you doing?” Keith can barely croak out the words. He feels like his body is going to snap in half. The masked figures look between him and the oncoming tanks and then grab hold of Keith’s arms.
“No, no, please- ” Keith tries to wrench away but they hold on to him with a grip like iron. The tanks are almost upon them and Keith’s hands are letting go off Shiro on their own accord, the muscles in his arms faltering.
“Captain!” Allura cries out somewhere behind them, having stumbled through the forest to them half-blind.
The masked figures pull him off Shiro just as the trees right next to them fall. Keith only has time to see the silhouette of Sendak and the purple lines of two tanks at his back before he gets hauled back into the forest. Sendak’s huddled over the gaping wound in his ribs, held upright by two Galra soldiers, but staring at Shiro captive in his arm with utter glee.
“I have a better lock - on to - Keith and Allura. I can’t - get you Captain!” The static muddles Hunk’s voice as tears begin to muddle Keith’s vision.
Keith stretches a hand out to Shiro as the distance between them grows. He’s helpless against the insistence of their masked allies¸ flopping in their arms like a spent ragdoll as he gets further and further from Shiro.
Shiro, who’s getting pulled back towards Sendak torturously slow, as though Sendak wants him to lie in the mud longer even as he bleeds out from his leg.
He sees the moment Hunk’s words register in Shiro’s mind and time slows before Keith’s eyes as Shiro musters the last of his strength to raise his hand to his combadge. Keith knows what he’s going to do.
“No, don’t do it Shiro!” His own cries fill his ears. “No!”
For a moment, Keith strains against the two masked figures enough that he halts their progress. He’s shaking his head, tears now streaming down his cheeks as he kicks at the ground.
Shiro looks right into his eyes. Keith’s gasping so hard, his mouth still shaping the word stop.
“Shiro to Voltron.” Shiro grounds out, pain leeching into the lines of his face as he speaks. “Two to beam up.”
Keith turns to ice.
“No! Shiro!” Keith howls, his words swallowed by the silver starting to spin around his body. He lunges in a last attempt to grab at Shiro, but it’s too late.
The outline of Shiro’s bowed head stays in the backs of his eyelids as the world fades.