He knew he shouldn't have allowed her to come on missions. This hadn't been her first, but still. Sarah was small and, she'd kill him for thinking this, fragile. "I shouldn't have let her….if I had…" he murmured, repeating the same sentiment he had been muttering for thirty minutes. When Pidge had told him, voice trembling and avoiding his gaze, it felt like his heart stopped. Sarah had been captured by Galra soldiers. And worse still, they were taking her directly to Zarkon himself. Pidge had overheard them saying they had seen "this human" with the Black Paladin on multiple occasions, and were eager to get what could be a important hostage to Zarkon. "I should've….I Could have…If I hadn't…." Shiro murmured. Allura laid a gentle hand on his shoulder, stopping him; he didn't realise he had been pacing this whole time. The others were elsewhere, with the exception of Pidge; he vaguely recalled Allura sending them off to do maintenance on the lions. But Pidge hadn't budged.

"Pidge, tell us exactly what happened." Allura said, turning to the Green Paladin. Her voice was mostly steady, but there was a slight nervous waver in it. She had to remain calm for the team, as Shiro was currently unfit to do so. He stared at his hands, which were shaking terribly. How long had they been shaking?

Pidge sniffled, wiping away tears. "W-well we were going in to plant the bugs, and we were on our way back when a guard spotted us. We were running through the bushes, staying low….she….Sarah lost her footing…" Pidge trailed off, staring at the floor. Shiro could fill in the blanks: the Galra caught up to her and restrained her, it wouldn't be that hard, Sarah was so small….

He sank to the floor, his face in his hands as he tried not to think of terrible things. "She's so small….they're going to hurt her…." he said between sobs.

Allura knelt beside him, placing a comforting hand on his back. "Shiro, this is Sarah, remember? She has contingency plans for her contingency plans. If anyone can escape Zarkon's clutches on their own, it'd be her." Shiro looked up at the princess. "And besides," she continued. "She won't be on her own."

"What do you mean?" he asked, his brow furrowing in confusion.

"We're going to go rescue her. Just you and me."/p