Chapter Text
The mission was so simple. Get in, grab the refugees, get out. Simple.
But anything involving the Galra was anything but simple.
The timing was wrong. There wasn’t supposed to be a Galra squadron landing to take the prisoners. There wasn’t supposed to be a battle cruiser orbiting the planet.
None of this was supposed to happen.
Keith slashed at an oncoming drone. It went down in a shower of sparks. Lance shot a drone coming up behind him. The red paladin shouted his gratitude and moved on to his next target. They were everywhere, no end in sight. Keith took down drone after drone, Lance covering him where he could. It was hard in the small corridor to offer cover fire and not hit your teammate.
Pidge fought her way to them, short circuiting everything that stood in her way. She was lucky that her bayard had that ability. Keith’s arms were burning from cutting robots into pieces; they’ve been fighting for so long.
Shiro and Hunk had taken the refugees to the hangar to get them loaded onto escape pods, leaving Lance, Keith, and Pidge to cover them. The only luck that had come their way was that the base was poorly planned out. There were only two or three hallways leading to the hangar. Pidge had hacked into the base mainframe to lock those hallways down, leading them to deal with one hallway. Downside? Well, now they had only one escape route and they were about to be overwhelmed.
Keith raised his shield. Pidge ducked behind him to catch her breath.
“They just keep coming,” she panted.
Like, seriously. Why would the battle cruiser need this many drones? Weren’t there any real soldiers on that ship?
Just as the thought crossed Keith’s mind, he could hear orders being shouted out behind the newest squadron.
Lance was doing his best to thin their ranks, but the damned hallway…
Laser fire shot passed all of them, forcing them to dodge and move to the walls to evade the worst of it.
“Refugees are on the escape pods!” Shiro announced over the coms.
One less thing to worry about.
“Shiro, we need some backup, there's too many," Keith grunted as more shots pounded against his shield. He had it canted in a way that covered him and Pidge. Lance was a few yards back, hidden behind a truss. Drones were marching down the hallway, they couldn't make it out if they even tried at this point.
Shiro cursed and made a quick comment to Hunk before speaking to the three of them again. “Hunk and I are on our way, hang in there, guys.”
“At this point, that’s all we can do, Shiro!” Lance yelled.
The blue paladin looked over the truss and fired off a volley of shots, taking down the front line of drones closing in on them. The commander at the back caught sight of him and directed the drones fire to his side of the hallway. Lance was pinned down.
Keith leaped into action, drawing away some of the fire. Holding his shield up, he ran towards the drones, swiping his sword at anything within his reach. A flash of green beside him and before he knew it, more drones were exploding.
Laser fire was every, pounding on his shield. They singed the air, the smell of burning ozone filling the air. Keith grit his teeth and fought on. He wouldn’t let this be the end of his team. His sword bounced off a drone and thrust his shield forward, knocking the drone back. It gave him enough time to prepare another swing and he cleaved the drone in half this time.
Shiro’s and Hunk's shouts rang out and a spray of yellow bullets burned their way through the robots next to him. About time backup showed up. Shiro, his arm blazing, ran headlong into the ray, drawing the attention of the Galra that were surrounding Pidge. Hunk was laying down suppressing fire, giving Keith a moment to catch his breath. Lasers were still flying everywhere, ricocheting off the walls.
Keith flurry of shots and an explosion went off behind him, but the fight never stopped. Drones were falling left and right between him and the rest of the team. Everyone was communicating, shouting at one another to move, duck, or to cover them. Hunk’s Gatling gun continued to fire in between the team’s three melee fighters.
The fighting began to find its rhythm, but there was something off. Keith could almost feel it in his bones. Slash, block, step aside, slash again. Yellow bullets filled his pauses. Green sparked in his periphery, and purple sliced its way in front of him. Where was…
Lance.
Keith turned away from the fight, something that made his whole body scream at him to turn back around. Lance was on his hands and knees, blood dripping off his face. His helmet was thrown aside, cracked and burned.
The explosion.
It was the explosion from moments ago. That’s what happened.
Keith raced to Lance, not even thinking about the fact that his back was exposed. He danced around all the random robot limbs littering the floor and slid on his knees to Lance’s side.
“Lance?” Keith reached out, his hands hovering over Lance’s shoulders.
“Ungh…”
Lance was shaking like a leaf, his arms barely supporting himself. He reached a slow hand to his face, smearing blood across his cheeks.
“…Keith…?”
The red paladin leaned forward and cupped Lance’s face, lifting it so he could see.
“Lance…! Oh my God…”
They needed to pull back, there was no way Lance could go on like that. Keith fought his rising panic, taking a deep breath. He couldn’t let Lance see how scared he was for him, that would send him into shock. How the hell was he not in shock already?
“Keith…I…”
“Shh, it’s ok, we’ll get you out, don’t worry,” Keith whispered, just loud enough for both of them to hear. Shit…shit shit shit…
He looked over his shoulder at the battle raging behind him. Pidge and Shiro were hanging on, barely managing to keep the drones back. Lance whimpered, his trembling increasing. They couldn’t wait any longer.
“Shiro! We need to retreat! Lance is hurt!”
The black paladin looked back at them and saw the condition of Lance. He nodded and gave the signal to Hunk to unleash hell on the drones as he and Pidge pulled back.
A grip on his elbow brought Keith’s attention back to Lance.
"Keith…I…" His voice was so quiet, Keith had to lean in to hear him. "…I can't see anything…"
And Keith’s world stopped.
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