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It happened in a split second.
One moment, Hunk saw the ion cannon powering up, with the green lion in its line of fire.
The next instant, he cried out as Yellow was hit by the beam.
Before Hunk could process what had happened, the pain from the hit overflowed from the Lion to his nervous system. It burned like liquid fire flooding his veins. His vision turned to white, then black.
When Hunk resurfaced to consciousness, he had to fight a bout of nausea. His whole body felt numb and sluggish. It took him a moment to realize the buzzing in his ears was actually his friends screaming frantically over the comms.
"Keith! Are you done with the cannon? We can't protect Hunk like this!" Pidge, their voice tight with panic.
A frustrated growl from Keith. "I can't get through the shielding!"
"It's fine, I'm distracting them!" Lance exclaimed, followed by a yelp. "Woo, that was close!"
"Thank you Lance. But this won't work for long. There's no place to hide, and they won't take long to notice us." Allura was staying level-headed.
"Yeah, we're like sitting ducks!" Pidge, not so much.
"Come closer to the Castle! If you get the Yellow Lion on the other side of the shield, I can keep him safe!"
"You're too far!"
"Stay where you are, Coran. The Castle's defenses won't hold long against those new ion cannons."
Hunk took a long inspiration through his nose. His vision was adjusting. The yellow Lion was powered down, on life support only. He could discern the green and blue Lions in front of him, firing at any drone coming too close. The Galra cruiser was further away, as if Allura and Pidge had dragged him away for safety. Lance was flying close to the cruiser, drawing their fire, and maneuvering to evade. Keith fired on two drones that were tailing Blue. Then he rammed the Black Lion into the cannon with a grunt. He didn't do much damage.
"Yellow?" Hunk whispered. The holoscreens flickered on. Yellow was coming back online. The readings were no good. The hull's integrity was compromised. Safety systems were using up energy to seal everything and avoid depressurization. He'd need to repair that, but they couldn't go back to the Castle just yet. They'd have to power through, somehow.
"Hunk?" Pidge asked.
"I'm here."
A chorus of exclamations as they realized he was conscious again.
"Finally!"
"Hey man, don't scare me like that!"
"Oh, Hunk, we're all glad to hear from you!"
"Welcome back. What's your status?"
Keith sounded tense, and Hunk made an effort to report honestly. "We took quite a hit. I'll be OKAY, I think. Yellow took some bad damage to the hull, but the system is compensating for it. I sure hope we make it back soon!" His voice was stupidly shaky. He took a deep breath. "Keith, I'll help you with the cannon. They haven't just improved their firepower. They've improved the shielding as well. We need to work together."
"You sure you're okay, buddy?" Lance tried to sound casual; it wasn't landing.
Hunk was still in pain, but there was no time. "I have to! We need to keep them away from Olkarion! Keith, I'm coming. Allura, Pidge, can you help Lance? Keep attacking them and drawing their attention."
He moved Yellow to join Keith trying to stay in the cannon's blind spot.
"Thanks, Hunk."
"Don't worry about it."
Hunk scanned the ion cannon, and sent Keith a graph highlighting its weak point: the joint between two big armored plates.
"See the joint here? We should both smash into it at the same time."
"Okay. You sure you can do this?"
Hunk needed to check that with his Lion.
"Yellow? Can you do this for me?"
Deep resolution poured from Yellow through the telepathic bond.
"Yeah, we're good," Hunk confirmed.
"All right." Keith rasped. "On my count: three, two, one, go!"
Gritting his teeth, Hunk pushed the sticks down and Yellow jumped forward. The contact with the cannon was brutal. Hunk lurched forward, and had to grip the handles tight to keep himself from hitting the dashboard. His head felt like it was splitting in half. There was a high pitched noise which turned out to just be Lance cheering over the comms.
Hunk had closed his eyes on the impact; as he opened them, he saw that the cannon was reduced to a mass of twisted metal.
"We did it!"
"Yeah, we did!" It was nice to hear the relief in Keith's voice.
"Hunk, Keith, we need back up to fight the drones!"
"Yeah, now would be a great time to form Voltron!"
"Pidge is right," Keith told Hunk. "D'you think Yellow can manage?"
Yellow gave an excited roar. Hunk grimaced at the readings: Yellow was diverting so much energy to keep the back up system in case of a hull breach that he was now operating at 25% energy. Still. He decided to trust the Lion.
"Yeah, yeah, we'll make it work."
"Good," Keith replied. "Everyone, on me: form Voltron!"
They regrouped and the Lions assembled. The feeling of power and community, and the grounding sensation of being Voltron's leg overcame Hunk. The adrenaline rush subdued the headache still pulsating between his temples.
Before Voltron could put up much of a fight, the drones all flew back to the cruiser, which disappeared into hyperspeed.
"Booh!" Lance protested. "Unfair!"
"Lance, that's what we wanted," Keith replied flatly. "Olkarion is safe for now."
"For now," Allura underlined. "They will be back."
"And we'll be back too when it happens," Pidge retorted.
"Princess, Paladins: please come back to the Castle," Coran said.
"Let's disassemble," Keith called. "Then, everyone back to their hangars."
Once Voltron separated, Hunk checked on his Lion's readings. Power was only at 10% now, and some systems were shutting down to keep base functions running. He had no firepower left. He could feel his Lion's exhaustion and pain.
"Need help?"
Keith had stayed behind with him.
"We should make it to the Castle," Hunk assessed. "But then Yellow will need some repairs."
"Gotcha."
Hunk moved his Lion to the Castle. Because of the low energy, they had to do so very slow. Black escorted them. Keith was making sure he'd be there if Yellow had any issue. Relief and fondness warmed Hunk's heart at that realization.
Yellow landed in his hanger, and Hunk could finally breathe. They had made it back safe!
On the holoscreen, Keith's face appeared: "Guys, meet me on the deck for debrief."
"I'll join you later, if you don't mind," Hunk replied. "I need to discuss something with Yellow"
"What, now? Can't it wait?" Lance asked. "You should get to the med bay for a check up!"
"Yellow is the one who got injured," Hunk protested.
"Hunk, you were inside, and you were hit hard enough to lose consciousness," Allura said, "this type of quintescence overload can cause internal injuries. It is essential that Coran evaluates your health."
"Fine, I'll go to the med bay! Can I please have a moment with Yellow before that?!" He was getting quite frustrated with their hovering.
There was a silence, then Keith spoke. "Sure, Hunk. Good job out there. We'll see you later then."
One after the other, they disappeared from Hunk's holoscreen as they left the conversation to get out of their lions.
Hunk sighed and leaned back in his pilot chair. His head was still throbing.
"Hey, buddy. Don't worry, I'll fix your wounds, but as I said, we need to talk."
Yellow perked up in the mind link, in spite of his pain and exhaustion.
"You've got to stop that, man. I know you're brave, Allura told me that's one of your big qualities, but you can't just jump in front of enemy fire without my input!"
Yellow's reaction was some kind of stubborn insistence that he had in fact followed Hunk's directions.
"No, I didn't ask you this! I'm 100% certain I did not move the sticks!"
Yellow growled, and prodded at their telepathic link.
"No, no, no. I didn't think that. I'm not that kind of hero. And also, even if I did, you can't just act because you perceived a random thought from me!"
Yellow wasn't budging.
"Man, you've done that from the first day! I didn't even know how to pilot and you jumped in front of the Blue Lion to take those missiles! Look, I know you're brave and all and I'm not sure why you chose me, of all people, because I'm not? I'm kind of known for being the opposite! I—I'm the voice of reason, man. I'm the one who says maybe we don't do the crazy plan. Not just when we plan missions. Even before all that, when we were students on Earth, I played it safe! I told Lance, each time, maybe we don't need to sneak out at all! Maybe we can just stay in the dorms! I don't jump into danger like the others, all right?"
He stopped, breathless. His rant had gotten away from him.
Images of the Green Lion getting hit played inside Hunk's head, Pidge's cry too real to ignore. Of the Blue Lion getting severely damaged by taking two missiles and fire attacks from the Galra ships. Hunk winced.
"Ok, sure, I wouldn't want that," he whispered.
He stayed silent for a while, replaying their conversation and the images Yellow just shared in his head.
"I—I guess you're right. I don't want them to get hurt. I'd do it again, if I had a chance. And it makes sense, because with your armor, we'll take less damage than they would. It's just really scary in the moment. Today wasn't a good time, man! My head is still painful, and look at you! Your hull integrity is compromised and you lost most of your power."
He shuddered.
"You know, I'm glad they didn't hit Green. It would have been way worse. Her hull couldn't withstand that! Depressurization, for sure. And you know what? I don't want to think about that."
He stilled, pondering the whole conversation again.
"Fine, you win. I did want to do that, and if you hadn't anticipated my moves, we might not have made it in time. Thank you, I guess." He scratched his head, feeling sheepish. "And sorry for doubting you. Now I know I can count on you when we need a fast decision."
He pushed himself up from his seat. "Good talk. I need to get to the med bay or the team will continue to nag me. But as soon as I can, I'll patch you up. I promise."
The Lion assented with a quiet growl.
As Hunk exited his Lion, he was greeted by Pidge, who was sitting cross legged, leaning their back on Yellow's huge claws. They looked minuscule in comparison to the huge robot.
"Hunk!" they exclaimed while jumping to their feet and running towards him. He picked them up and hugged them tight.
Pidge laughed breathlessly and squeezed him back."Thanks for saving me," they whispered.
Hunk was first tempted to deny it, to play his usual "it wasn't me, it was my Lion" card. But he decided to own it, instead. "I didn't want you to get hurt," he admitted. "Yellow has the strongest armor of all the Lions. So it's best if we are the ones who take the hits, if all comes down to it."
"But you still got hurt," Pidge protested.
Hunk shrugged. "I'll be ok. And Yellow too. It would have been way worse if it had been Green."
Pidge frowned, then nodded, still bothered by this, but too clever to contradict him.
"Sooo, I'm kind of the one in charge to make sure you go to med bay," Pidge pointed out, before the silence could go on for too long. "The others all insisted on it. Are you coming?"
Hunk smiled, touched by his team's protectiveness. "Sure. But I'm ok, just a headache. At least I don't feel numb anymore."
Pidge scowled. "Well, let's see what Coran thinks of it."
There was no escaping this. "Sure. Just a tick." He patted Yellow's huge paw. "I'll be back soon, buddy. You get into autorepair mode in the mean time, ok?"
A mix of thankfulness and trust flowed over the mind link. It was even dulling the pain of his migraine, as he followed Pidge through the ship's corridors.