Chapter Text
To say Keith was nervous would be an understatement. More like absolutely freaking out. Despite his reputation as the unbothered loner, it couldn’t be further from the truth.
All things considered, Keith thought he was hiding it pretty well at the moment. His hands gripped the handle of the Galran pod tightly as he navigated through Tolnoth’s atmosphere. The sky was dark, the air thick and greenish, obscuring most of his vision as he followed the GPS tracker to the mission site. Behind him, Regris silently sharpened his blade, his tail flicking intermediately against his thigh.
This was Keith’s first duo mission with Regris–having trained with the Blade of Marmora for over a month now–who had been recently assigned as his mission partner. In fact, it was his first mission in general without Kolivan. The Blade leader had high expectations for him, so there was no way Keith could mess this up.
So yeah, no pressure.
“Over there,” a sibilant voice said behind him. Keith nearly jumped in his seat; Regris could be as much of a ninja at times as Keith was. Not to mention he barely spoke.
Keith followed his pointing hand, and sure enough, a massive metal factory jutted out of the swampy forest canopy, smog billowing into the sky. The land around the factory was barren and grey, completely destroyed by the galra’s activities. Further out, the eerie green swamp spread for miles, no doubt hiding all sorts of unpleasant threats.
He ran over the mission details in his head for the eight time as he maneuvered the pod down to the swamp’s edge on the south side of the factory. Kolivan had explained it quite clearly. There were rumors of the galra working on some sort of bio weapon using a strange plant found on this planet. They were to sneak in, stay low, and investigate the rumors. If true, download the data and return to Blade headquarters. Nothing too crazy for a first mission.
Keith landed the pod gently at the edge of the trees, just out of view of the factory.
Hopefully it would remain hidden until the mission was complete. He stood from the pilot seat, wincing at the visible marks he’d left on the controls from gripping so tightly.
Using the darkness, Keith and Regris ran out across the landscape, pressing their backs to the walls of the factory and hiding under the shadows. A holographic blueprint of the factory popped up on Regris’s wrist, and the Blade beckoned Keith to follow, finding a small back door.
Unsheathing his blade, Keith slashed at the locking mechanism. It sparked momentarily, then the door opened with a whoosh. Keith led the way, blade held in front as Regris trailed behind. With Regris’s mostly silent guidance, the two Blades snuck through the base, avoiding soldiers and sentries as they went. Despite Kolivan’s warning of it being heavily guarded, it felt too easy for the well-trained operatives to make it to the laboratory unseen.
Another locked door stood in their path. Like a well practiced team, Regris knelt down before the control panel while Keith watched the hallway. The blue screen on the hacker’s wrist lit up as he worked, flashing red each time his attempts failed.
Keith let out a slow deep breath, his body relaxing while his mind remained tense and alert. This was just like intel missions when he was with Voltron, covering Pidge’s back while she did her techy stuff. That is, if Pidge was a seven foot tall Galra ninja that barely spoke and set Keith on edge all of the time.
The telltale sound of approaching sentries came from down the hall. Keith glanced worriedly at his teammate, taking a step back towards Regris. He held his blade ready.
“Regris?”
There was a beep, then the door slid open. Regris stepped in first, Keith guarding the rear as they stepped into the lab.
The room was dark, Keith’s eyes taking a moment to adjust. His galra heritage helped quite a bit in these cases, his irises reshaping to absorb more light. He blinked a few times, the room beginning to take shape around him.
They were in a new hallway, lined with glass windows looking into sterile rooms. Looking closer, they were filled with all manner of sharp equipment, no doubt used for sinister experiments.
Some of the rooms had streaks of red on the floors.
Keith shuddered.
Regris got his attention, slowly pointing further down the darkened hall. Somewhere up ahead, a green light shone, beckoning them closer.
Keith approached cautiously, seemingly called forward by the strange green glow. It was so… alluring, the way it called to him from the darkness. The walk down that dark hallway felt like days.
When they made it to the end of the hall, Keith’s heart was hammering in his chest. What were they going to find in this room?
Voices caught their attention, and the pair of them ducked down below the glass window before they could be seen. Unfortunately, from this angle they were unable to see into the room. Getting an idea, Keith held his blade up, catching the light. The scene beyond the window was reflected in the luxite, and he crouched closer to Regris so they could both watch the scene unfold.
Two Galrans in white coats stood next to a chair in the center of the white room. Strapped to the chair was another Galran, blindfolded and gagged and tied up with rope. One of the scientists reached for a syringe on a table, giving it a harsh flick. Then he inserted the syringe into the captive Galrans neck.
Immediately, the test subject’s body relaxed, going limp in the chair. Keith squinted closer into the reflection, and could make out green veins spreading from the puncture wound in his neck. Then the second Galran positioned what was almost a spotlight. He flipped a switch, and the spotlight shone the eerie green light from earlier onto the test subject.
That’s when things started to get weird. Under the strange green light, the captive Galran began to convulse. The green veins grew larger, rapidly overtaking his body as if they were strangling him. His claws elongated to the size of daggers, the rest of his body contorting and tripling in size with a grotesque squelch. The galra tried to scream, but all that came out was an animalistic roar that shook the glass.
The first scientist stepped towards the misshapen beast and removed the blindfold. Its eyes were bloodshot yellow slits, green veins piercing through them.
“Do you know your name?” the scientist asked cooly. Another strangled cry answered. The scientist clicked his tongue, shaking his head disprovingly. “Another failure. Tolvak will be displeased.”
Keith’s eyes met Regris’s. This was… so much worse than he could have imagined. A plant-based serum activated by that strange light that turned Galran’s into mindless monsters? And what if they began experimenting on other species? There was no telling what kind of destruction and terror a creation like this could bring.
He and Regris were on the same page. They could not let this weapon get into circulation in the empire. Keith wished in that moment they had packed explosives, so they could take down this operation from the inside. Unfortunately, their mission was simply intelligence gathering. Get in undetected, get out with the information. Nothing more. The rest could be handled later.
Together, the Blades kept low to the ground as they crept swiftly back out of the laboratory. Time was of the essence here. The sooner they delivered the information to Kolivan, the sooner they could put a stop to this. They entered the hallway from earlier, and Regris pulled up a hologram of the building he downloaded before the mission. After a few seconds, he pointed further down, leading the way to the control room with Keith covering his back.
Two sentries stood guard by the control room. One moment, the hallway was empty, the day boring as usual. The next, there were twin luxite blades buried in their chests. They crumpled to the floor in a heap of metal, and two shadows slipped past into the room.
An armored Galran stood at the main console. He turned suddenly, met with the sight of two masked infiltrators. His eyes widened, his hand darting backwards for a large button. But Keith was faster, the Galran unconscious on the ground by his feet a moment later. Keith nodded for Regris to do his thing.
He stepped up towards the main console while Keith took guard of the door. Reaching into his pocket, Regris pulled out the purple hard drive Kolivan had given him during the mission briefing. He plugged it in, then began hacking into their database, his fingers flickering across the control pad.
Keith tapped his foot, nerves getting the better of him. They were almost finished. They had the information, and he could return home knowing he had done a good job. Kolivan would be proud, and so would his friends.
So why did he have this horrible feeling that something was about to go wrong?
Just as Regris stepped away from the controls, hard drive in hand, the console flashed red, an alarm sounding throughout the base. Keith cursed under his breath.
Time to go.
Keith grabbed Regris by the arm and dragged him to the doorway, just as it opened to reveal a dozen sentries. It was a trap.
Their blasters aimed.
Keith leaped into action.
He jumped forward, kicking the first sentry square in the chest. As the sentry went down, Keith sliced his blade through the air, taking off the heads of two others. He heard the telltale sound of blaster fire. Keith brought his blade up, deflecting two shots back at it. He threw his blade, lodging itself in the barrel of the blaster. Stunned by the interruption, the sentry was too slow to recover before the following blast backfired and knocked it against the wall, lights out.
The youngest Blade made quick work of the rest of the sentries, a heap of metal and sparks laying at his feet. He dematerialized his mask, wiping the sweat from his brow.
That is until another blaster began charging up behind him. Keith turned too late, watching as a previously fallen sentry aimed at him.
Before he could raise his blade to deflect it, a reptilian tail shot out, wrapping around the gun and tearing it from the sentry’s grasp. Regris’s curved blade was buried in its sternum a second later.
Regris turned towards him, his expression unreadable beneath the mask. Probably disappointment, Keith assumed. Or at least something along the lines of ‘oh my god this guy is going to get us killed, how'd I get stuck with someone so useless?’
Yeah, that’s probably it.
Keith was a liability in the field. Reckless, Kolivan had called him. Shiro had too at some point. Even with Voltron, he was getting them into trouble. They were probably relieved he wasn’t working with them as much. He should have known something would go wrong.
The alarm continued to blare, pulling Keith from his self hatred. He needed to get the intel about the weapon out of there, before the whole mission was compromised.
Gripping his luxite blade with determination, Keith took the lead, retracing their steps from the control room to their exit. Regris followed close behind, typing furiously on his wrist computer.
Before they could turn down the next hallway, three more sentries appeared, blocking their escape. Without a second to waste, Keith grabbed his distracted partner by the wrist and slammed him against the wall, out of the direct line of fire. He hissed as a flash of heat and pain pierced his side. Biting his lip to keep from gasping, he leapt out from the wall, throwing his blade through the robot. He raced out, taking the other two out swiftly with his fists. His side burned, but it was nothing he couldn’t handle.
Regris was beside him a moment later, glowing eyes regarding him curiously. Keith realized he was staring intently as his wounded side.
Later, Keith mouthed, shaking his head. The heat from the blast had already cauterised the wound, so he wasn’t bleeding out. It hurt like hell, but he could hold out until they were safely on the pod and heading back to headquarters.
Once again, his recklessness was putting people in danger.
“Come on-” Keith started to say, when he was cut off by an ear piercing, animalistic scream.
Both Blades turned as a hulking shadow emerged before them, easily twice Regris’s height, grotesquely long arms dragging across the floor, knife-like claws spitting up sparks along the metal floors. Green veins coiled around its body, pulsing with a foreign substance. A metal collar sat securely around its neck, crackling with electricity. The monster’s teeth bared, yellow and crooked and foaming. It stared down the two Blades with bloodlust in its bloodshot eyes.
Keith unobtrusively took a step back as the creature’s eyes bore into his. He was never one to back down from a fight. But this? He couldn’t fight this. No matter how much Lance joked that he had a death wish, in this moment all Keith knew was ice cold fear trickling through him. I don’t want to die.
He never got the chance to run.
The creature darted out with a speed rivaling Keith's, covering the distance between them in two long strides. Its knife-like hands reached out, latching onto Regris’s tail and pulling. Claws tore into the scaly flesh, rivulets of red staining both flesh and metal. Regris cried out sharply, losing hit footing and crashing to the floor. He scrambled in vain for handholds that didn’t exist as the creature began to drag him down the hallway.
Keith could only stare for a moment, muscles frozen in place.
Not on my watch.
Blade in hand, Keith raced forward. Putting his crazy ninja skills to use, once he was close enough he leaped towards the wall. Using his built up moment, Keith kicked off the wall, soaring through the air and landing on the creature’s hairy back. In that same moment, he drove his blade straight into its hide.
The beast screamed, loud and screeching and horrid. The grip on Regris disappeared, who immediately scrambled for the wall and out of range. Keith held firmly onto his sword while the creature thrashed beneath him, trying to claw him off its back. In a last ditch effort to remove the metaphorical flee, the creature slammed itself backwards into the wall, crushing Keith.
Keith gasped, feeling the ribs in his chest creak painfully. He slumped to the floor, pulling his sword out in the process. Lights wavered above him, and he blinked the stars from his eyes to see massive claws and fangs looming above him.
Great going, Keith. Mauled to death by some galra monster freak. So much for defender of the universe.
And then scaled hands were sliding underneath him, hauling him out of the way as the creature smashed its fists down where Keith had been, crumpling the metal floor beneath him. Regris set him down as he ran, keeping an arm on Keith’s back until he was sure his partner was steady.
“Are you alright, Keith?” Regris arm around him as they ran was strange, but not unwelcome.
Keith took a deep breath, clearing his head. That had been way too close. “I’m fine,” he answered, despising himself for the way his voice wobbled. He could not mess up like that again.
They managed to lose the beast down the next hallway, but the march of sentries was not far behind.
With the stealth mission out the window, the two Blades ran like their lives depended on it. And in a way, they did. But it was the mission above the individual. As long as the intel was delivered to Kolivan, the mission would be a success. Regardless of whether they made it out alive.
Now, Keith was focused less on fighting every sentry and more on clearing a path for him and his teammate, the small army Kolivan had warned them about racing behind them. Endless clanging on metal tiles followed them, the Blades barely avoiding blaster fire.
They made it back to the door they entered, the daylight approaching rapidly over the swampy forest. Their pod lay just at the edge of the trees, seeming endless far across that barren grey field. But they could make it. They had to make it.
Every step burned in Keith’s chest, his side screaming as he sprinted towards the pod. Almost there. We’re almost there we can make it we have to make it–
“Aim!” called a deeply distinct Galran voice behind them.
Against better judgement, Keith looked back. On the roof of the factory stood a Galran general, fangs upturned in a wicked grin. Beside him, three sentries were cranking a giant cannon, the tip glowing purple as it charged up. And it was aiming straight for–
“Regris!” Keith yelled, but his teammate was too far ahead to hear as he sprinted for the pod. Keith spared another glance back, the general's hand swinging downwards in an arc. “Regris wait!”
It was a trap.
He wasn’t going to make it.
Keith was going to watch his teammate die.
No.
Screw the mission. Screw Kolivan’s code. Just as Keith watched out for his friends in Voltron, he would watch out for his fellow Blades.
And if that meant risking his own life for others, Keith wouldn’t have it any other way.
Maybe that’s why they called him reckless.
“FIRE!”
“REGRIS WATCH OUT! Keith screamed, leaping forward with one final burst of speed and tackling Regris to the ground, shielding him with his body just as the pod exploded.
Fire erupted, followed by an intense, blinding pain scorching through his veins. He could smell smoke, his ears ringing.
Was that him screaming?
Gradually, the ringing began to fade, replaced by far off shouting and the march of metal. As his senses returned, Keith became acutely aware of the hard ground under his back and the searing pain in his calf.
It took tremendous effort to open his eyes. The world came back in a blur of orange and grey and green. He blinked a few times, now able to make out the green sky and smoke billowing nearby. Cocking his head to the side, he could see the wreckage of a ship, steadily burning as smoke filled the air.
Their pod.
The mission.
Regris…
“Regris!” Keith sat upwards, his side and back and head protesting greatly as he groaned. He turned his head in every direction, catching sight of his teammate on the ground several feet away.
As well as the dozens of soldiers now marching across the grey field towards them.
Shit.
At least Regris was breathing, and didn’t seem too injured aside from the bloody gouges in his tail. Keith had taken the brunt of the explosion. If he hadn't stopped him in time…
Keith tried to stand, but the searing pain in his calf returned, keeping him pinned to the ground. Gasping for breath, he let his eyes roam his body for injuries, landing on the fairly large shard of shrapnel jutting out of his calf and piercing through, blood dripping from both ends of the wounds.
“SHIT!”
Shit, shit, shit, this is so bad this is really bad we need to get out. He could feel his breathing picking up, a knife twisting in his lungs as his chest caved in on itself. He’d messed up so bad Regris would never want to work with him again and Kolivan was going to bench him from missions and Shiro would be so disappointed–
The sentries' march was growing closer, and yet all he could focus on was the blood rushing in his ears and steadily pooling around his legs.
What should I do?
I don’t know what to do.
“Patience yields focus.”
Shiro’s words echoed through his head, as they often did in times of need. Shiro believed in him. He could do this. I can do this.
Breathe.
With only a minute before the sentries were upon them, Keith got to work cutting the hood from his Marmora suit. Placing the hilt of his knife in his mouth, he placed both hands on the shrapnel, grimacing as pain jolted through his leg. I can do this.
Nearby, Regris began to stir. With no time to hesitate, Keith ripped the metal from his body. He bit down hard on the knife, holding back a scream as white hot agony ripped through him it burns it burns it hurts I CAN’T BREATHE–
As soon as it was removed, the blood began gushing freely from the wound, pooling around him. Using his hood, he wrapped the tough fabric tightly around his leg to staunch the flow, his bloody hands trembling violently.
A laser blast landed near his foot, shocking him from his world of pain. He needed to get out now.
Crawling over to Regris, Keith shook his waking teammate. The Blade shot up, holding his scimitar at the ready and staring at Keith with wide eyes beneath the mask. “Keith–”
Keith was already hauling the tall galra to his feet, biting his lip to keep from screaming as pain lurched through his leg. “We can hide in the forest,” Keith rasped, glancing again at the approaching sentries. More blaster fire landed near their feet.
Keith pulled Regris towards the looming trees, the Blade quick to understand the situation and forge ahead of him. They were suddenly plunged into darkness as the trees blocked out the sky. The only light came from the smoldering fire of their pod. Keith spared one last glance at it. If the radio still worked…
But the sentries were already entering the trees behind them, the Galran general barking orders not far behind. Right now they needed to get as far away as possible. Then they could worry about a rescue.
Keith raced after the tall Blade, his injury forcing him into a brisk limp that burned with every movement. The semi solid ground soon gave way to the murky green water of the swamp, swiftly submerging Keith up to his thighs. The blaster wound on his side was equally painful, his whole body screaming for him to stop, to rest even though he had to keep moving.
So much for his first duo mission.