Chapter Text
There’s a look people get in their eyes. There’s a scent; the scent of death. Some kind of sixth sense.
When the great beyond is headed for you, you feel it coming.
What’s the one thing you’ve always dreamed of doing before you die?
**
Keith is rather rudely awoken by someone banging incessantly on his door, he mumbles a noise of consent and the door opens to reveal Pidge, holding a box of alien cereal, and still wearing her pyjamas. She sneezes into the crook of her arm before turning to glare at him.
“Get up, we’ve got a mission. And there’s something wrong with Lance.”
Something wrong with Lance? Keith is running through scenarios in his head of all the trouble the blue paladin could have got himself in and is half way to panicking when Pidge picks up on this and says.
“He’s not hurt, just refusing to get out of bed for some reason – something about having a feeling.” The emphasis placed on the last word implies that she thinks he’s just being melodramatic and Keith rolls his eyes.
“Typical.” He mutters as Pidge laughs and leaves to offer him the privacy to change into his armour.
Keith makes it to Lance’s room just in time to hear him say “I’m not going.” in a rather exasperated voice.
“You have to go. You’re a paladin, defending the universe isn’t optional.” Hunk says, Keith watches from the doorway beside Pidge as he tries to gently tug Lance out of bed.
“Yes, it is.” Lance pulls the blanket up to cover his face. “I’m staying here.”
Hunk sighs, then catches site of Pidge and Keith and says, “You’re supposed to be helping.” In a tone that doesn’t suggest room for argument. Keith, scared of Hunk despite his usually cheery personality, steps further into the room. Pidge, who has known Hunk for much longer and knows that the other would never be angry at her, turns and walks away.
Typical.
Keith moves to sit on the edge of the bed, besides Lance’s feet. “Uh, Lance?” he starts awkwardly and Hunk fixes him with a glare. “Maybe they’ll be lots of hot girls there, and after we save them they’ll be all over you?” Keith suggests and Hunk rolls his eyes.
Well, Keith thinks almost bitterly, it’s not like I know what I’m supposed to say.
“I don’t care about girls.” Lance says and, wow, this must be serious if Lance will turn down the option to flirt with hot girls in favour of staying in bed. Lance grabs a spare pillow from the bed and pulls it over his head, effectively cutting off any form of communication.
Hunk sighs again, stands up and moves past Keith out of the door, muttering for Keith to stay with Lance, and then he’s gone. Keith looks down the hallway where Hunk disappeared and then back to Lance, he’s just about to turn and walk away to leave Lance to sulk in his own misery when he spots Pidge walking back towards him, now dressed in her armour.
“Go get food or something, I’ll deal with this.” She says, holding her bayard in a way that implies she may actually intend to use it. All of a sudden, Keith is really glad he’s not Lance.
“I’ll stay, just to make sure you won’t kill him.” He says, and Pidge smirks before turning her attention to the lump on the bed.
“You have a feeling?” She asks, Lance moves the pillow from over his head and props himself up on an elbow to look at her with fluffy, bedraggled hair and a far too serious face.
“Yes.” He says. Pidge steps slightly closer.
“Okay, what kind of feeling?” She asks, voice calm and even but Keith can tell from her defensive body language that she thinks this is stupid.
“Like I might die.” Lance says while flopping back down to lie on his side.
“Today? Tomorrow? In fifty years?” Pidge questions, Hunk appears to stand behind Keith, now also dressed in his armour. “Cause we’re all gonna die eventually. And now we’re late for the meeting. Let’s go.”
“Pidgeee, come on.” Lance whines.
Pidge sighs and rolls her shoulders, before moving to sit on the edge of the bed. “Fine. This is me being supportive.” She fixes him with a glare that does definitely not look supportive.
“Really?” Lance says, voice muffled by blankets. Pidge’s face softens.
“Yeah, hey, fine. I’m totally supportive. What’s up?” Lance pokes his head out from the blanket cocoon again.
“I just have a feeling. I just woke up with this gut instinct that something bad is going to happen today. And that something bad will be me. Dying. And what use am I if I’m dead?” Lance takes a deep breath and sits up. “And I can’t remember the last time I hugged my mom. Cause, like, you never think the last time will be the last time, you think there’ll be more, but there won’t. You think you’ve got forever, but you don’t. What if we get back and they’re all dead?” Lance flops back down as his voice cracks like he might start crying. “Plus, my conditioner decided to stop working and I think I’ve got brittle bones. I just, I just need something to happen. I need a sign that things are going to change. I need a reason to go on. I need some hope. And in the absence of hope I need to stay in bed and feel like I might die today.”
Pidge stands up thoughtfully for a second, before yanking the sheets away from Lance who squawks in indignation. “Whatever,” She begins, “We all have problems.” She jumps up onto the bed behind him. "Now move! Move! Move! Move! " She punctuates each word with a kick to Lance’s back, until the blue paladin rolls out of bed with a muffled shout and a few colourful curse words.
Pidge jumps of the bed and throws Lance his armour, “Get ready.” She mutters. Lance storms into the bathroom and changes in record time before walking out of the door, giving Keith and Hunk disapproving looks as he passes them.
“We’re good to go.” Pidge says, following Lance out of the door and it slides shut behind them.
**
“Quiet planet.” Allura mutters under her breath, arms folded over her chest and face contorted into a worried look.
“I know.” Coran says, reading the screens in front of him.
“That’s always a bad sign.” Allura mutters again, changing the monitor screen to show something different.
“I know that too,” Coran murmurs back. “Don’t you think I know that?”
“What’s so bad about a quiet planet?” Shiro asks from behind them. “I thought that would be a good thing, less trouble?”
“A quiet planet means the opposite! A quiet planet means trouble! A quiet planet is death! A quiet planet bodes bad news!” Coran says, volume increasing with every sentence and eyes open comically wide. His hands wave in a gesture Shiro can’t interpret.
“But why?” Shiro asks, frowning.
“Because a planet should never be quiet. A planet in this system should be sending out regular signals to nearby planets, ships should be orbiting around it, there should be people! People doing interesting and important things! But you know what this planet has?” Coran pulls up a screen showing the surface of the planet, bold blue plants, and bright pink skies. “Nothing. No signs of life for a quarter of a decafeeb, until now. Now that is bad news. It means something terrible has happened.”
“So, is that where we’re going today?” Shiro frowns looking at the monitors, most of the text is in Altean but he’s picked up enough to understand that this isn’t good.
“I’ll explain more when the other paladins arrive. Speaking of, where are–” Allura is cut off by the sound of the door opening and the sound of chatter as the remaining four paladins arrive. “Where the quiznack have you been? This meeting was scheduled for 1000 and it’s now,” She pauses to glance at the screen. “1030. What if this had been an emergency?”
“If it had been an emergency, you would have sounded the alarm.” Pidge chimes in. Allura narrows her eyes but doesn't challenge the green paladin.
“I called you in because this morning we received a rescue signal from a planet that has seen so signs of life for a quarter of a decafeeb and has been presumed to be dead.”
“A quarter of a decafeeb? Isn’t that, like, two years?” Lance asks.
“Yeah, I think so.” Pidge says, squinting her eyes at the screens.
“That’s nowhere near long enough to presume everyone died, is it? What if they were just hiding? In bunkers or something where no signals would detect them?” Lance says and Shiro frowns because he made a good point.
“That’s why we’re going to check it out, in case there are actual people down there who may need our help. And, besides,” Allura changes the monitor. “The Akori were once very powerful allies. They were inventors of magnificent weapons and advanced technologies that could be of significant use in the fight against Zarkon.”
“We’ll go in the lions, in case of any danger, and scope the area out from the ground. Allura and Coran, are you okay to watch from above and provide backup, if needed, in the castleship?” Shiro asks.
“That will be fine.” Allura says and Shiro gives the order for the paladins to head to their lions.
All of them move immediately aside from Lance, who chooses to stand still and stare at the screens showing the planet.
“You all right?” Shiro frowns.
“I have a feeling.” Lance responds, brow pulled tight. Shiro knows exactly what he means, he’s woken up many times with the inexplicable feeling that something will go completely wrong, but more often than not, he’s proven wrong.
“I get those.” Shiro looks the blue paladin up and down, there are dark circles under his eyes suggesting he didn’t sleep well last night.
“And?” Lance asks quietly.
“If you wait long enough, it passes.” He says in way of comfort, because there isn’t much else he can say, nothing that’ll work anyway.
“Promise?” His voice is soft and vulnerable.
“Promise.” Shiro says with all the confidence he can muster. Lance nods and walks away, Shiro watches him with a pensive look.
“Shiro, what are you doing?” Allura asks from her position in the control deck. He sighs and turns to walk towards the hanger.
“Waiting for it to pass.” He mutters. Any response Allura may have is lost as he follows the zipline down towards his lion.
**
Just as expected, the planet is quiet upon entry. It looks different to the pictures Coran had showed them, more similar to earth in terms of colours. The plants are green, not blue, and the sky is a soft orange colour, like that of an earth sunset. It makes Lance’s chest ache with nostalgia.
There’s a village up ahead, small white houses built on the edge of a hill with larger, sturdier, buildings built towards ground level. From where they are, it appears to be empty, then, something explodes. A giant fireball shoots up towards the skies and a building crumbles before flames slowly begin to cover it.
“That looks like trouble.” Shiro’s face appears in the corner of the screen.
“Let’s go check it out.” Keith appears now. Shiro verbalises his consent and Lance flies along with his team towards the site of the explosion.
The first thing they notice is that there are Galra soldiers running up and down, firing their guns and randomly blowing stuff up. There is already a large amount of Akorins sprawled on the floor, Lance is unsure how many of them are dead. A small group is trying to fight and is situated towards the higher end of the hill, firing shots down to the Galra but they are obviously inexperienced with their weapons as the majority of the shots miss.
“Okay, here’s what we’re gonna do.” Shiro’s voice is clear against the muffled shots from outside. “Keith and I will try and fight the Galra from down there, Hunk and Pidge, go help as many of the injured as you can and Lance, go help them fight from up there.”
“Affirmative.” Lance says, hiding blue in a section of dense foliage and ignoring the other confirmations from his teammates. He jetpacks out of his lion and quickly makes his way up. He shoots at any Galra that get in his way and helps any Akorins that he finds. They all seem in awe of the paladins, too caught up in the notion that Voltron is real to be scared of them which is a relief.
Eventually, he finds his way to the fighters, there’s only a half dozen of them but there is also a body lying on the ground. Lance tries hard not to look at it. The Akorins are tall, elegant looking beings with long limbs and nimble fingers, he can see how they’d be good at engineering. They’re humanoid in shape, skin a soft peach colour with intricate pale pink designs tracing their skin. Honestly, each one looks beautiful.
Lance introduces himself and offers his help, they accept it without a fight and show him into the hideout they’ve made. It’s a small bunker with widows for aiming their weapons out of, he takes a place by one of the windows and falls into the repetitive motion of aiming and shooting, until each soldier is lying dead.
Usually, something like that would upset Lance, killing so mercilessly, but now he’s just glad that nothing terrible has happened. The feeling still sits in his stomach, prompting him to check over his shoulder every so often, just in case.
Shiro gives the order to look around, checking for any soldiers lying in wait, but the village is small and they find nothing, thankfully.
Now, all that’s left is to clean up the mess.
The paladins meet in what appears to be the town centre, it’s mostly lying in ruins but the Akorins don’t seem to be disturbed by this as they run around, pulling survivors from wreckages and moving bodies ready for burial.
An alien in royal purple robes holding a gold-plated staff identifies himself as the leader. “Thank you for providing assistance in this fight.” He says with a deep, gruff voice. “The Galra crash landed on our planet, probably after assuming it was uninhabited, and decided to attack us for our supplies. We were not expecting help after we placed protective wards around the entire planet to make it seem deserted.”
“It’s our honour.” Shiro says. “Do you know why the Galra crash landed?”
“I know not, however, I do know that they were alone, otherwise backup would have arrived by now.” The leader responds.
“Okay.” Shiro pauses, uncertain. “Are there any other ways in which we can help?”
“The hospital must surely be overrun, we already had a limited supply of doctors. Perhaps you can help us there?” Shiro nods in agreement.
“Of course, Your Highness.” He replies and follows the leader down a winding path towards a large white building, decorated with a pink swirl across one side.
Inside the hospital is carnage, each room holds six beds and, in each room they pass, every bed is full. There are only a couple of doctors running around the rooms, administering gauze and injections and other surgical procedures. They reach what appears to be a central room in the hospital, a large circular room that stretches up to the top of the building, allowing light in through the glass roof. On each floor, Lance can see people running around, he’s suddenly very aware of why the leader suggested they come here.
The leader turns to face them. “Black paladin, you are good with younglings, correct?”
Shiro stutters. “Uh, yeah?”
“Then you shall help in the paediatrics ward, sixth floor. Red paladin, you are determined and instinctive, you shall help in the resuscitation ward, floor five. The nurses will tell you what to do.” Keith looks nervous but nods anyway. “Yellow paladin, you are easy going and caring, you shall work on the third floor, providing comfort to grieving families and assistance when needed.” Hunk nods. “Green paladin, you are a quick thinker and good at solving problems, you shall work on the second-floor ward where non-essential patients are diagnosed and treated. Do not be afraid to ask for assistance or to think outside the box.” Pidge nods, a look of steeled determination in her eye. “Blue paladin, you are calm under pressure and a tactical thinker, you shall help in the emergency ward on the first floor.”
Lance is fully aware that none of them have the slightest knowledge about medicine, but the leader directs them to a nurse who quickly gives a basic summary of what to do in different situations, how to use certain equipment and other necessities. Lance forgets half of it immediately, but at least Akori biology is similar to human biology so he’s not entirely lost.
The paladins bid their farewells before being ushered off to their own separate duties. It doesn’t take Lance long to find the emergency ward, the loud commotion and beeping of several machines gave it away fairly early on. He turns the corner and is faced by an almost overbearing number of things, the room is larger than any they’d seen so far and lined with about twice as many beds, each filled with patients in different conditions.
The bed closest to him has a young Akori female laid in it, she’s surrounded by nurses, a small pool of blood has gathered under the bed. Beside her bed, another Akori female stands, she’s screaming loudly and continuously, to the point where it’s almost deafening and Lance is wondering how she is managing to breath properly.
A nurse catches him looking and says, “Go help her calm down, she’s been screaming at least 30 minutes and she’s starting to show signs of respiratory distress. Find out what happened to make her that upset.”
Lance looks back towards the screaming alien and his stomach sinks, how an earth will I do that?
He’s on his way over when he hears one of the doctors say, “why do you have your arm inside my patient?” He turns to look, and sees a gloved arm wrist deep in the chest cavity of the first patient he saw and covered in blood up to the elbow. The arm belongs to a female Akori who’s obviously trying not to cry, her face is pinched tight with stress. “She wouldn’t stop bleeding and I panicked.” Lance almost feels bad for her until he decides that isn’t his problem, finding out what’s distressing the screaming woman is.
He approaches her slowly and she watches him, still screaming. Lance holds his hands out in the universal position to show he isn’t a threat and asks her what her name is. She still continues to scream.
Lance tries asking her what happened but the only response he gets is another scream. He recognises the signs of shock and realises that to get any response, he needs to do something to shock her equally as much. With a resigned sigh, he grabs her by the shoulders and screams as loud as he can. It works, she falls silent. Unfortunately, so does the rest of the emergency ward. After a split second, the sound resumes, the woman remains silent until she looks at Lance, purple eyes wide with fear, and says “Is she going to die?”
At the minute, Lance doesn’t know. He tells her that, and follows it by saying that he’ll get an update as soon as possible. He leads her to sit down on a wooden chair a few meters away from the bed. “Are you injured?” He asks.
“I don’t think so?” She says in between sobs. Lance awkwardly wraps an arm around her to comfort her, and she leans forward against his shoulder. “It’s all my fault.” She mutters.
Lance watches as they wheel the patient out for surgery, the females arm still inside her chest. “It’s not your fault. It’s the Galra’s fault, they’re the ones who decided to attack you. Don’t blame yourself.”
“No,” She sobs louder. “You don’t understand, I shot her.”
Lance frowns. “You shot her? Why?”
“We were trying to help and we found a bazooka, we tried firing it at the Galra but it was clearly-” hic “-broken, and-” hic “-it wouldn’t fire so she-” hic “-went to stand in front to-” hic “-see what was wrong.” She takes a long deep breath. “It went off then, she was just lying on the ground and wouldn’t move and, quiznack, I did that to her?” The woman resume her crying but Lance’s mind is whirring.
“She was shot with a bazooka?” He asks, carefully.
“Yeah.” She hiccups out.
“Okay,” He says slowly, trying to think. “What’s your name?”
“Carie” She responds, quietly.
“Okay Carie, what’s your relation to her?” He asks to calm her down because what he’s next about to ask will definitely make her feel worse.
“She’s my girlfriend.” Carie says, thick tears dripping from long eyelashes.
“Okay.” Lance pauses, trying to think of the right wording to use. “Was there an explosion after she was shot? Did the bazooka go off?”
Carie thinks for a second. “No, I don’t think so.” There’s a split second where he can practically see her think. “You don’t think?” She begins but Lance cuts her off.
“Whatever happens will be okay, but I need you to go and wait on the third floor, I will come find you when I get any news, good or bad. Okay, Carie?” She nods slowly and Lance stands, trying not to look like he’s rushing to avoid worrying her more.
“Excuse me,” He asks a nurse, “Can you direct me to the operating room, I need to speak with the surgeon who is operating on that patient.” He points towards the space where she was laid.
“Downstairs, room 09.” The nurse responds curtly after checking something on the device she’s holding.
“Thanks.” He says while turning around, already running.
Lance sprints out of the room narrowly avoiding head-on colliding with a doctor who shouts at him to slow down. He doesn’t. Lance reaches the stairwell and leaps down as many as he can at a time, he stumbles at the bottom and his ankle twists awkwardly, pain shoots up it. He doesn’t stop running, he can’t.
The OR room is similar to the earth ones he’d seen on TV, it’s sterile, clean and smells too much like bleach. He bursts in just as the surgeon is about to make the first cut.
“Stop!” He shouts, so out of breath it comes out as more of a wheeze.
“Why?” The surgeon sounds angry, but places the scalpel down anyway.
“I need to talk to you.” Lance says, “It’s important.”
“You’re not even permitted to be down here, you better have a damn good reason for interrupting me in my OR.” His voice is strict but there’s an air of worry that Lance can detect.
“Was the wound through-and-through?” Lance whispers as the surgeon makes his way over towards the door.
“What?” The surgeon is confused, face scrunched up in a way Lance would usually find endearing.
“The wound on the patient, does it go straight through?” He asks again, more insistent this time.
“No, it was just an entry, no exit. Why?”
“Because everyone in this hospital is now in danger.” Lance says with a frown. “There is an unexploded bomb in her body. She was shot with a bazooka.” He explains.
The surgeon looks pensive. “Marje, can you feel anything with your fingers?” He asks the woman with her hand inside the chest. Marje frowns, and shifts slightly. “Don’t move!” The surgeon snaps at her. “Can you feel anything hard, like metal?”
“Yeah, I think so. It’s cold, should it be cold?” Marje asks and Lance sighs before sharing a look with the doctor.
“Sarki, go and find the chief nurse. Tell her to inform every hospital personnel we have a code-black situation and to evacuate every non-essential person, tell her I am certain and to call the bomb squad.” The doctor named as Sarki nods and walks out of the door. The surgeon turns back to Marje. “Whatever you do, don’t move. Not your hand, not your body. Not an inch.”
“What’s going on? You’re starting to scare me.” Marje asks, Lance knows she was already scared, he doesn’t want to say this, to frighten her anymore, because if she panics, everyone in that room will die. The entire hospital could be blown apart.
“Don’t be scared Marje. Everything is going to be fine.” The surgeon insists.
“Doctor Kaarshi, why are you calling the bomb squad?” She asks, there are tears in her eyes now and she looks to be hyperventilating.
The surgeon – Doctor Kaarshi – turns to look at Lance before nodding slightly. “There is an unexploded bomb inside her body. Marje, you cannot move otherwise you risk endangering every single person in this hospital.”
Marje freezes, her face contorts with fear. “Oh god,” She mutters, “oh god.”
“What do we do now?” A voice calls from the back of the room. Doctor Kaashi frowns.
“We wait for the bomb squad to arrive,” He gestures between himself and Marje, “The rest of you leave. You all leave.”
One by one, the surgical team trails out, until only Lance and the doctor identified as Sarki remain. “You should go.” Doctor Kaashi says, taking a place beside the head of the patient to ensure her oxygen supply remains constant.
“I’m not leaving.” Sarki says. “You still need a surgical team.”
“I’m staying to help.” Lance says, crossing his arms across his chest and daring Doctor Kaashi to argue. He made a promise to Carie, he’s not going back on that.
“Fine.” He says after a second, “But you remain by the stairway until the bomb squad have cleared the room, I don’t want anybody who doesn’t need to be here in this OR.”
Lance nods his consent and follows Sarki out of the room until they’re stood by the stairs, she crosses her arms across her chest and frowns at him.
“How did you figure it out? The bomb thing?” She asks after a second.
“I was talking to the patient’s girlfriend and she mentioned the bazooka, how she was accidentally shot. I just put the pieces together, I guess.” Sarki nods at his answer.
“You potentially saved a lot of lives today, Blue paladin.” She responds.
“I know.” Is all Lance can think to say, it doesn’t seem like enough somehow. “They were just trying to help, she doesn’t deserve this.”
“I know.” Is Sarki’s only response. “Can you imagine how terrifying it must be for Marje though? Quiznack, what was she thinking sticking her hand inside the wound?”
“She was trying to save her life.” Lance responds quietly while leaning back against the wall. Sarki moves to stand beside him.
“And now she might die because of it.” She says after a moment.
**
Keith is not having a good time. First of all, one of his patients died, which really sucks, and now he’s stuck with an old woman whose heart keeps deciding to stop beating every twenty minutes.
In between almost dying, he did find that she was really nice to talk to though.
The woman had been saying that she doesn’t want to die until she sees her husband again, which Keith found quite sweet really, but he was just so bored. And then, the doctors had found a brain bleed so he was stood in the surgical room, just as bored, but with an alien’s brain open on the table in front of him.
God, he’s really, truly, a terrible person.
A nurse checks her vitals. He’s monitoring her blood pressure when the tablet he’s holding beeps. He frowns, mutters something that sounds suspiciously like a curse word and looks up at Keith.
“They want us to evacuate.” The nurse says, slowly.
“Evacuate? Why?” Keith asks, wondering what on earth could have happened.
“I’m not sure, the message just said ‘evacuate – code black’ and I’ve never heard of a code black. Code red, pink, blue and orange; yes. Code black; nope.”
The surgeon looks up when he says that and freezes. “Code black? Are they sure?”
“Yeah I presume so?” The nurse says. “Don’t know why they’d lie about it.”
Keith swallows the urge to laugh.
“It could be a drill, even if it isn't we can’t evacuate. Or this patient will die.” The doctor turns around, removing her equipment from the woman’s brain. “We have a code black situation. Anyone who wants to leave is welcome to.” The nurses look around at each other. “Going once.” Nobody moves. “Going twice.” Again, nobody moves. “Three times.” The OR remains still.
The surgeon – Doctor Akirl if Keith’s memory serves correctly – looks back at the nurse. “Are you sure they said code black?”
The nurse wilts under the intense gaze but his answer doesn’t change. “Yes.”
**
Shiro’s job was going great, the Akori children are really rather sweet to talk to and he finds the healthier one’s antics adorable. But now, he’s been assigned to gather supplies from the ground floor and the elevator is taking twice as long as it should because it’s stopping at every goddamned floor.
It stops at the second floor and Pidge gets on. Shiro is suddenly thankful to see a familiar face. “Hey!” He calls at her and she turns around.
“Wha- Oh, Shiro!” She sounds tired, her uniform is covered in spots of blood.
“That’s not yours, is it?” He asks gesturing to her chest plate.
“No, thank god.” She responds. “Do you know what’s going on? What’s a code black?”
Shiro frowns. “A what?”
“Code black? The nurses are evacuating non-essential people and I guess that includes me.” Pidge frowns dejectedly. “I wonder what’s going on? Do you think it’s something bad?”
The elevator stops at the first floor and Hunk gets on. “I thought you were on the third floor?” Pidge asks.
“I was, they sent me down here to help out because they had it covered.” Hunk responds.
Shiro turns to face him. “Do you know what a code black is?”
Hunk looks back out to the door. “I know it’s something serious.”
The elevator doors open on the ground floor and everyone is pushing their way out. The room is almost completely filled with people, people are pushing and shoving their way around while some nurses and doctors are trying to calm people down. There’s a group of people who look an awful lot like police officers trying to herd people out. Simply put: the room is in chaos.
“You got that right.” Pidge mutters under her breath.
**
“So, I’m touching live, unexploded ammo?” Marje says quietly.
“I’m afraid so.” Doctor Kaashi replies softly, keeping his voice calm to not distress Marje.
“Huh.” Marje sighs. “Not the greatest feeling in the world.”
“No, I guess not.” Doctor Kaashi smiles gently at her, trying his best to be reassuring but probably failing. In a situation like this, there is no way to remain one hundred percent calm anyway.
“Is she still out? Why is she no longer connected to the machines?” Marje asks.
“I had Doctor Sarki take her of the ventilator. The flow of oxygen posed a danger. The ambu bag is breathing for her now.” Doctor Kaashi responds.
Marje nods and looks down. “What if I just take my hand out quickly?” Her voice is raised and panicky, she looks right on the edge of bursting into tears, she’s starting to hyperventilate again.
“We’ll have to ask the bomb squad when they arrive, but I’m guessing that would cause the ammo to shift and explode.” Doctor Kaashi tells her the truth, because he doesn’t see the point in lying to her. There is a very real chance they could both die in that OR and they both know that.
“Oh.” Marje says in an impossibly small voice.
“Marje, your hand is keeping this patient from bleeding out. You are keeping her alive.” Doctor Kaashi says, Marje nods her head and smiles softly.
“Right. And the bomb squad is coming.”
“The bomb squad is coming.” Doctor Kaashi confirms.
**
“You’re saying there is a bomb in someone’s body?” Shiro asks, lips pressed tight and arms folded over his chest.
“That is exactly what I’m saying.” The nurse nods. “You should get out of here while you can.”
Shiro frowns. “We’re not leaving. Not until everyone here is safe.
“It’s your funeral.” The nurse says with a shrug, before turning and walking away.
“Well.” Pidge huffs. “Where the hell are Lance and Keith?” Shiro pauses, amid all of the commotion he’s forgotten to check the whereabouts of his teammates, he groans internally.
“I have no idea. Hopefully they’re not doing anything stupid.” Shiro mutters as a nurse ushers them towards the centre of the room.
“Well the bomb squad just arrived so they’ll probably be sent down here soon.” Hunk says, pointing towards where a group of individuals covered in armour and holding large black boxes have just entered the hospital.
“I hope so.” Shiro mutters, mostly to himself but the other two paladins still hear it.
**
Lance is just starting to reach an unhealthy level of boredom when the elevator dings open and the bomb squad step out. One – obviously the leader – introduces himself as Cirel.
“You’re the surgical team?” Cirel asks.
“What’s left of it.” Sarki responds, uncrossing her arms, and moving to greet him.
“Okay.” Cirel turns back towards his team. “Spread out, check the area and then we’ll secure the patient. Has this area definitely been evacuated?”
“We believe so.” Lance replies, joining Sarki in front of Cirel.
“Okay, where’s the patient?” Cirel runs a hand through his long hair and Lance can see the stress in his features.
“Doctor Kaashi has them down that hall.” He points to show where he means.
“Okay. You stay here, nobody moves until I say so, alright?” Both Lance and Sarki nod, and Cirel nods back, before turning down the corridor towards Doctor Kaashi’s OR.
“We’ve got people over here!” Someone calls out. Lance freezes, there are people down here? Cirel turns back towards them.
“I thought you said this area had been evacuated?” Cirel snaps, Lance flinches at the anger in his voice.
“We thought it had.” Sarki says. “We’re not in charge here or anything.”
Lance hears an all too familiar voice in an all too familiar tone. Keith. He can hear the red paladins shouts from here and pushes past Cirel to see what’s up. Keith is stood, blocking the door to the OR and shouting.
“Keith?” Lance half shouts to be heard over Keith. Keith’s head snaps up, before he turns back to the bomb squad guy.
“Back off.” The red paladin snarls.
“Oh no! Hey, dude, back off. He will hurt you.” Lance pushes himself between the bomb squad guy and Keith, not entirely sure which one he’s talking to.
“Lance,” Keith hisses. “What’s going on?”
“Bomb in a body cavity.” Lance replies with a shrug before turning his attention back to Cirel.
“This OR needs to be evacuated. We have live ammunition on this floor that could blow up at any time.” Cirel says, sticking his head into the OR.
“And I have a patient on the table who I refuse to let die.” The doctor says sounding every bit as frustrated as Lance imagines he would be.
“Well then you close her up. You do whatever you have to do. The chief of this hospital has authorised me to order you to evacuate.” Cirel replies, something clatters from inside the room, and a young woman runs out and past them, followed by a middle-aged man.
“I made an oath to protect the Akori people. I’m not going to run away from that. Everyone else is welcome to go but, bomb or no bomb, I’m staying. Now get out of my OR.” Cirel closes the door. It opens a few seconds later as the majority choose to move out of the OR, a few stay and Cirel closes his eyes and huffs in frustration.
Cirel turns towards Keith, “You are too hot headed to be down here.” He gestures towards part of the bomb squad. “Escort him out of here.”
“And Lance gets to stay?” Keith half shouts as the bomb squad guy grabs the top of his arm.
“Lance is the one who worked out it was actually a bomb. He has every right to be here, if he chooses to stay of course. You do not.” Sarki says, Lance’s eyes widen in surprise and appreciation for his new friend. She turns to him as if questioning whether he will stay.
Lance thinks about his family on earth, he thinks about his duty as a paladin of Voltron. He thinks about the feeling he still has and the promise he made to Carie all those hours ago.
“I’m in.” he says.
“Don’t do anything stupid.” Keith groans, letting the bomb squad lead him away.
“That’s your role, Mullet.” Lance laughs and Keith rolls his eyes, it’s familiar enough that for a split second, Lance forgets that there is a bomb just one room over. “I’ll try not to.” He murmurs.
**
Doctor Kaashi looks at the scans, memorising every detail and trying to decide which way would be best to tackle this with minimum casualty. After sending Sarki and the blue paladin into the room in his place, the doctor had become increasing stressed for the welfare of his patients, and his team. He wonders, briefly, if this is how they die. Blown up in a hospital, a place that is supposed to be safe.
“There is no telling how dangerous this is. We need more information.” Cirel says, cutting off Kaashi’s train of thought.
“But the longer we wait, the greater the chance she will bleed out and die.” He replies.
“I know.” Cirel says, and they come to an understanding. Do what must be done, for the good of the people.
**
“Pink mist.” Marje says.
Lance frowns. “What?”
“That’s what they call you, isn’t it? When you blow up? Pink mist. I read that somewhere. The bomb goes off and anyone in range just explodes into a billion pieces. You’re liquid. Nothing left.” Marje is crying now, a fat tear drips down her face and Lance becomes aware of how much she is shaking. “Just flecks of flesh and blood. Pink mist. Sometimes they don’t even find a finger. One minute you’re a person, the next you’re just bloody rain.” She’s sobbing now, hand twitching in the body cavity.
“Marje, you need to calm down.” Lance says quietly, placing a comforting hand on her arm and subtly trying to stabilise her shaking arm.
“I have children.” She mutters, “I need to be there for them, I can’t die, not here. Not today.”
“Marje, you’re not going to die.” Sarki whispers, looking completely out of her depths.
“You don’t know that.” Marje mutters, tears dripping freely onto the ground below. Her face is flushed red. “I can’t do this much longer.”
**
“You’re wearing the same style armour as the other one, Lance I think his name was.” Someone says, grabbing hold of Hunk’s arm. The woman has clearly been crying recently and still looks really distressed. “Do you know anything about my girlfriend? Do you have an update? Lance said he’d come back with an update soon but he hasn’t yet and that was two hours ago.”
Shiro glances at Pidge and Hunk. “What happened?”
“My girlfriend went down for surgery and I want to know she is okay.” She says.
“Okay,” Shiro says. “What’s your name?”
“Carie.” She’s crying again. “I just want to know that she’s okay.” Shiro looks to Pidge and Hunk for help but both of them look just as lost. Shiro opens his mouth to spew some comforting words when Keith runs up towards then panting for breath.
“Lance is down there.” He wheezes out. “Lance is staying with the bomb in the body.”
“What? Why?” Pidge asks nervously.
“He’s the one who worked out it was a bomb and now he’s staying. Down there.” Keith gestures downwards. “With a fucking bomb.”
“You’re sure?” Shiro asks, to make sure his team doesn’t burst into an operating room unnecessarily, which he is certain they would.
“I literally just saw him. They wouldn’t let me stay.” Keith says, his voice is raised which gives Shiro an indication of just how worried Keith is.
“We’ll go. Pull rank as paladins or something, right? To get lance out of there?” Hunk asks, his hands are shaking.
“We can’t. You know that.” Shiro says and he hates it but it’s the truth. They can’t just burst into an operating room because they don’t have the authority. He doesn’t want to be the one to put them all in danger.
“Oh, screw what we know.” Pidge mutters, storming past Shiro in the direction Keith came from. Keith and Hunk follow with apologetic glances at their leader and, filled with resignation, Shiro turns and walks after them.
**
“I think I’m going to take my hand out now.” Marje mutters with a shaky voice. Lance’s thumb is rubbing soothing circles on her exposed skin just above where her hand is in the body. “I don’t want to die.”
**
“This might not be as bad as it seems, her hand is in there holding the bomb steady.” Doctor Kaashi says, pushing his hair out of his eyes.
“Or her hand is simply in there with the bomb. We don’t know.” Cirel replies, tone curt and showing his frustration with this whole thing.
“We just spoke to the girlfriend. They used a bazooka they found near the courthouse. It could be unstable or damaged for all we know, it could even be a dud but we don’t know. Add in that we have a surgeon in the room next door refusing to leave and a nervous, inexperienced, woman’s hand in the body cavity.” The door creaks open as the second in command of the bomb squad talks.
“This is definitely as bad as it seems.” Doctor Kaashi sighs.
**
Pidge pushes past the person guarding the stairwell with a muttered apology, they let her go. Probably too nervous to try and stop her. The others follow behind her but she’s not paying attention, too preoccupied with worry to care.
They reach the lower floor and Pidge pauses, unsure which way to go. She glances back helplessly at Hunk who just shrugs in response.
She turns to head down the corridor facing right, when a shout from the left corridor draws her attention because she’d recognise that voice anywhere.
It’s Lance.
**
Marje sobs grossly, tears and snot dripping down her face. Lance remains where he is, holding onto her arm and trying to keep her steady. At some point in the past half hour, he’d had to put on the rubbery, blue nitrile gloves as his hands ended up straying far too close to the wound to be sanitary.
“I think I’m gonna take it out now.” She cries, whole body shaking with anxiety.
“Marje, you’re almost there, you can do this.” Lance whispers to her, using the comforting voice he used with younger siblings back on earth when one of them was injured.
“No, no, no, no!” Marje breathes heavily. “I just want this over.”
“Marje,” Sarki says from her position with the ambu bag. “It won’t be much longer, remember that you’re keeping him from dying.”
“No! I shouldn’t even be here, I don’t even know her.” Marje gasps loudly. “I have children for quiznak’s sake.”
Sarki looks at Lance. “What do we do?”
Lance looks at her, looks at the body lying on the table and thinks of the promise he made to Carie to try and help her girlfriend. “Help! We need help!” He shouts, hoping to grab someone’s attention, someone who will actually know what to do.
A few moments later his team come rushing in, followed closely by Doctor Kaashi and Cirel. The later pauses, looks around at the scene and says, “She’s panicking, we need to clear the room.”
Lance frowns. “I’m not leaving.”
“Lance.” Keith snaps. “Come on.”
“Doctor Kaashi, get everyone out.” Cirel says. “Lance, you need to go, same for you Sarki.” Lance feels resentment burn his insides, Cirel can get fucked if he expects Lance to leave Marje like this, alone and scared.
“It needs to go, I need to get out of here.” Marje mutters, Lance resumes murmurs comforting words into her ear. He’s aware of Cirel trying to get everyone to leave, of Doctor Kaashi arguing with Sarki about whether she should leave, but he doesn’t register any of it. He focuses solely on trying to calm Marje down.
“NO! I can’t do this. It need to come out, it has to, please don’t make me stay here.” Marje half shouts, half sobs and it breaks Lance’s heart.
Cirel pauses his arguing with the paladins and turns back. “Marje, you need to calm down. You have got to relax. Everything will be fine.”
If anything, Marje does the exact opposite of calm down. “No!” She cries.
“Marje, look at me.” Lance says, she lifts her tear-stricken face to until she’s looking him in the eyes. Lance can feel everyone watching him, but he doesn’t look. “You can do this. Just a little longer.”
She looks at him, wide eyes far too trusting. “Lance, it has to come out. It has to.” She says all in one breath, looking down from his face to stare at the place where her hand is stuck inside this woman’s body.
“Marje stay where you are, please. Just a little longer.” Lance pleads, he turns to the paladins. “Get out, all of you.”
“Lance we’re not leaving.” Pidge says, standing defiantly.
“I can’t do this.” Marje cries and then she’s moving. Everyone ducks down, throwing themselves to the ground to avoid the imminent explosion. Lance doesn’t even think before he thrusts his hand forwards where Marje’s was. The flesh is warm and he can feel the cool metal of the bomb just underneath his pinky finger. There’s a weird squelch as his hand sinks into the wound.
Lance watches after Marje, she pulls open the door, leaving a bloody handprint on the wall as she passes it. At least she got out, he thinks. She’s going to see her children again.
There’s a second of painful silence where his heart is beating too far to even truly comprehend and he feels like he might actually puke, but the it passes and he’s still standing there, ears ringing in the quiet.
Keith slowly pushes himself up, followed by the rest of the paladins, Doctor Kaashi stands up and so does Cirel and Sarki and they’re all staring at him, more specifically the area where his hand is inside the body on the table.
The blood is warm through his gloves. It’s far too squishy and it’s really bad for his gag reflex.
Hunk looks at him, eyes wide. “Lance.” He whispers across the still operating room.
Lance sees his team, the fear in their eyes and it hits him all at once; his hand is on an unexploded bomb inside someone’s body.
“What did I do? Oh god?” He says, mostly to himself but the quietness of the room means that everyone hears it. Sarki moves back to the ambu bag, continuing to breathe for the patient, she’s the most calm of them all which is reassuring.
Lance looks at the bloody handprint on the wall. “Everyone stay right where they are.” Cirel says, Lance continues to look at the handprint. He hopes Marje is heading home to her kids right now, that would be nice.
He hopes Carie gets to see her girlfriend again, that would also be nice.
Lance takes a deep breath. “What did I do? What did I do? What did I do? What did I do?” he takes another deep breath. “What did I do?” He gasps harshly, recognises the signs of panic. “What did I do?” He murmurs.
His hand feels far too cold to say it’s surrounded by someone’s blood.