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It's dark when Allura wakes. Not the familiar, vast darkness of the night sky, but the absolute dark inside a small box. Though she cannot see the walls, she gets the impression she is caged in, with not much room to move. Not much air to breathe. She's trapped.
Her breaths turn shallow and fast as she tries to figure out where she is. She can't remember being taken, but is she in a Galra cell? Why is there no light?
She's torn out of her thoughts and lets out a panicked whimper when something unseen in the darkness beside her moves.
"Princess?," a blessedly familiar voice calls out, and she sags in relief. She's not alone in this inky blackness after all.
"I'm here," she says, and tries to sit up. That causes her head to spin violently and nausea to rise in her throat - not a good sign.
"Don't try to move," Shay says, shuffling closer carefully. "I fear you may have been injured."
"Where are we?" Allura asks, fingers reaching out and bumping against something solid. Shay takes her hand in her own gently.
"You don't remember?" There is concern in her voice.
"I think I hit my head," Allura admits, gingerly feeling for injuries. Her hair is matted and sticky on one side of her temple. She suspects it is blood; in the dark, it's hard to be sure.
A hand, much larger than her own but very gentle, feels around the crown of her head until it reaches the gash on her forehead and withdraws.
"We are still on Mars 203 Beta," the Balmeran explains. "An uninhabited desert planet that the Galra have been using for experiments involving Quintessence. They recently abandoned it, and we decided to investigate to gain a greater understanding of Galra science. The surface was barren," she continues. "But we discovered an extensive network of caves underground. They hoped with my Balmeran senses, I could help them navigate it; but shortly after we entered, we got seperated, and there was a fearsome rumble, like an earthquake. Or an explosion."
"So this site might not have been as abandoned as we thought," the Altean concludes. "The others?"
"The comm lines were destroyed, Princess, so we cannot confirm their safety. However, they were closer to the entrance than we were, so the chances they are trapped too are slim."
Allura feels the breath she was taking stutter in her chest before asking, intentionally calm: "So we are trapped, then?"
"Yes. While you were unconscious, I've looked around; the hallway has collapsed, and while the cavern we are in seems to be relatively structurally sound, we should not try to dig our way out, or it might collapse on top of us."
Allura blanches at that image and deliberately stops thinking about it. "It's so dark," she says softly.
"I'm afraid our only light was destroyed along with the comm system when your helmet shattered," Shay says apologetically. Now that they are sitting so close, Allura notices that she can just barely see Shay's eyes glowing, but not bright enough by far for Allura to see by.
"Can you see in the dark?", Allura asks. Shay shifts next to her and there's a moment of silence before she explains, sounding embarrassed: "I just nodded."
"Alright," Allura says, closing her eyes since there is not much difference anyway. She needs to think, and not panic.
Although there doesn't seem to be anything she can really do here. Her helplessness and inactivity frustrate her, and she gives an annoyed huff at the thought that she has no choice but to wait for the Paladins to rescue her.
Annoyance is better than the despair niggling at the corners of her mind. The suffocating darkness reminds her far too much of the dreams she has, about them failing, Voltron falling into the enemy's hands and her being forced to watch as Zarkon slowly but surely extinguishes every light in the Universe.
Oh God. What if the Paladins are dead, or buried like them, unable to reach their Lions? They left them by the surface, practically defenseless but for Coran up in the Castle watching over them. If this was a trap, an ambush, the Galra could easily capture Voltron and then everything would be over. They'd have lost, and doomed the entire Universe in the process.
"Princess? Allura, you have to breathe!", she suddenly hears. It sounds muffled, like someone calling from very far away, but the panic is clear in the voice. It sounds familiar, so she forces herself to inhale deeply and steadily.
When she comes back to herself, Shay is rubbing soothing circles on her back and speaking quietly to her.
"I'm alright," Allura says as soon as she can, although it's a lie. Her breathing still stutters and she has to force herself to exhale deeply, counting along with her breathing until she feels more steady.
"What happened?" Shay asks hesitantly.
"I just thought. What if the Paladins are dead? How will be defeat Zarkon? Or even get out of here before running out of air?"
"I have faith in them," Shay says firmly. "They will save us. They are smart, determined and heroic. Something like this couldn't stop them. Hunk and the others will find a way. They always do."
The Balmeran is quiet for a moment before she hazards: "What about Coran? Can't the Castle detect our life signs and find us that way?"
Allura shakes her head before Shay is even done speaking. "It's not so simple. This planet has a lot of geothermal activity and it's interfering with our sensors. So BLIP tech won't be able locate us. They might not be able to find us at all," she finishes, sounding desolate.
This time, before she can give into the hopelessness of the situation, Shay envelopes her in a hug. For a second, Allura panics, thinking the darkness is closing in and feeling suffocated, but quickly stills when Shay gently cushiones Allura's head against her broad chest.
Like this, Allura can hear her heart beat. The rhythmic thump manages to calm her down like nothing else has done so far, reassure her that she is alive and not as alone as she feels.
Leaning into the embrace, Allura says softly: "I'm glad you're here with me, Shay. I just... I just wish I could see you..." She's embarrassed by the desperation in her voice.
Shay is silent for a moment. Then she runs a hand through Allura's hair and begins emitting a dim blue glow, steadily becoming brighter as she watches.
"Shay..." Allura says in awe. The other girl smiles at her, and Allura can finally see her.
Shay looks dusty but unharmed, several patches of her skin lit up with a familiar shade of light blue.
"How?" Allura manages, though it comes out as a whisper. The skin beneath her cheek is glowing faintly, pulsing in time with Shay's heartbeat.
"I'm sorry I didn't do this sooner, Princess. I know being unable to see affected you. But I wasn't even sure I could... We Balmerans only have legends of this. I have never seen it happen before."
"It's beautiful... you look like the crystals from your home planet."
"... Princess?" Shay, again, sounding endlessly concerned.
It takes Allura second to realise she's crying. She wipes at her eyes with an embarrassed huff. "Sorry. I'm pretty pathetic, aren't I? All I've done since waking up is cower in the dark and panic. I didn't know I was so weak."
Shay looks very serious when she responds: "No one can be brave all the time, Princess. It's okay to be scared. I won't think any less of you after today. You are still the bravest person I've ever met."
Her father had always said she was far too hard on herself. Tears fill her eyes again at the thought, but this time Allura lets them flow freely. They drip onto Shay's shirt, but she doesn't complain, instead pulling her closer.
"Shay? Do you think we'll be okay?", Allura finally asks, voice smaller than Shay has ever heard it.
"I have faith in them," Shay repeats. "They will come for us. And then we can go home."
Warmth flutters in Allura's chest as she listens to her friend call the Castle her home. It hasn't been too long since Shay has left the Balmera, and secretly Allura has been worried she would go back soon. Back home. But now, a worried knot she hadn't realised was there eased.
"Please keep talking to me," the Princess asks, letting herself be vulnerable. She doesn't think she's ever trusted anyone with herself like this.
Shay doesn't ask any questions, just settles against the wall and starts telling her about the Thanksgiving Dinner Hunk has been planning, smiling as she recounts his despair at finding an adequate turkey substitute. "I think the Paladins are a little homesick," Shay confides. "They miss their planet."
"What about you?"
Shay humms in thought. "Living on the Balmera is unlike anything else, because the Balmera itself lives. I do miss it sometimes, the way it is. No matter how deep you go, you are surrounded by it, and never truly alone."
Shay tells Allura about the way the Balmera sings sometimes, the connectedness all Balmerans feel because the stone will carry their messages if they ask.
As the Altean listens to her, her eyelids begin to drop, and she dozes off to the soothing tones of Shay's voice.
◇◇◇
After what feels like an eternity, but is probably closer to an hour, there is finally noise from just outside the cavern.
The shuffling of rocks and a low mechanic whirring is what alerts her and Shay cuts of midsentence.
"We're here!!", she calls out, as loud as she can. She wakes Allura in the process and would feel more regretful about that, but right now she is too busy smiling widely. "They found us," Shay tells Allura, and she looks up at her in surprise.
The blue glow has been steadily dimming, and now goes out entirely, but they are too distracted by the muffled voices they can just hear to notice.
Allura sags in relief before carefully disentangling herself from the embrace. "We're in here!", she calls out now too, and she thinks she hears Shiro yell something in response, but it's too indistinct to make out.
The two aliens sit in silence and wait, listening to their team mates struggling to free them. Soon there's the sound of rocks clattering to the ground and finally, there's a small opening by the entrance of the cave.
A worried looking Hunk sticks his head through, face illuminated by the helmet of his space suit. "Are you two alright?", he asks, and Allura can only nod. They found us, she thinks to herself.
She stumbles to her feet, eager to help clear away the rubble from their side. Shay tucks an arm around her waist before the sudden rush of dizzyness can make her fall and together they clear away enough of the rocks that even the broad Shay can crawl through into freedom.
They drink in the sight of their team, the way they're covered in dust but have cleared away enough of the rocks to make a path to the surface - with the help of a machine that looks like it used to be one of the speeders.
"How did you find us?" Shay asks, and Lance replies with: "Hunk is a genius, obviously. And Pidge managed to upgrade the BLOOP whatever enough to filter out the interference our sensors were getting from the planet's energy."
"It's BLIP tech," the shorter teen points out.
Shiro falls into place next to Allura, eyeing her critically. "Are you OK?"
"I have a slight concussion, I think, but otherwise I'm unharmed. Shay must have protected me from most of the falling debris."
"Shay's sturdy," Shiro says, approval clear in his voice, but Allura isn't listening anymore. Just a few feet away, the cave opens up to the surface, and she can see a bright blue sky.
Stumbling forward into open air, she exhales in relief. Shay comes up to her and takes her hand shyly. "We made it," she says, voice full of awe.
Allura smiles at her, basking in the sunlight. "Let's go home."