Keith POV
It happened too quickly. One second he was on my left ready for battle and the next he was crashing, falling through the sky in a trail of smoke and flames. His Lion was dead in the air, comms breaking, crackling, allowing only the briefest sound of his screaming voice to patch through before he broke atmosphere and disappeared beyond the dark clouds of the planet below.
"Lance!"
"Oh my God is he okay?!"
"Where did that thing come from?!"
"Lance! Lance, do you copy?!"
"Guys I'm not picking up on his heat signature-"
"Multiple incoming objects to our right- Urghh-!"
About twenty crafts swooped through our broken line. Blasts of purple and stark white exploded around them. Although they were small in size they packed a hell of a punch. Heavy fire rained down onto us, scattering us.
I heard Shiro yelling for evasive manoeuvres and complying, but everything seemed far away and disconnected. It was so sudden… I had to concentrate. Pull myself together. Or soon I'd be down there too in a flaming heap no use to the team and no use to Lance. Gritting my teeth I gripped the controls and my lion roared with renewed vigour.
"Pidge, what are we dealing with here?"
"Unmanned droids with a swarming technique. On their own they're easily destroyed, if we can catch them separately."
"And what's the betting that whoever's in the ship that hit Lance is controlling the droids," Shiro stated. I could hear anger tinging his words.
The droids backed away and regrouped into a wall-like semblance. One by one blue coloured their sides as if they were powering up together.
"Any idea where it went?" Hunk asked, exactly what we were all thinking.
A cold feeling of dread coursed through me. It wouldn't have gone down after Lance… could it?
"Let's get rid of these droids. The sooner we destroy them, the sooner we can get down to Lance," Shiro ordered calmly. "Concentrate our fire – let's wipe them out in one go!"
"Urghh…" Lance raised his aching head slowly as the world came back in full blinding technicolour. "What the-" The control panel crackled and sparked as it came back online, triggered by his consciousness.
The mini drones. A ship suddenly appearing before them. The sudden blast of white and blue. The electric snap. Falling- The jigsaw pieces fixed into place.
He watched from his monitor as the paladins struggled to stay in line as the drones broke into small groups, raining fire on them to keep them apart. I need to get back up there! As if reading his mind, his screen switched to his lion's blueprint and highlighted the damaged parts in pulsing red circles. Ripping himself from his seat, Lance dashed down and out of his Lion.
The steaming front panel was wrestled off and clanged on the ground in seconds. Lance looked at the jumble of wires and blinking, broken green lights and a black liquid leaking from a crack along the back of the compartment. I can totally fix this- The liquid halted for a split second causing Lance to beam – perhaps it wasn't a bad as it looked? With a blubbing sound, the oil like substance started streaming from the crack like a struck artery. Just quiznacking fabulous.
Through the darkening clouds he could vaguely hear the battle above. Think, Lance, think! Plan B. What is Plan B…?
"I've got it!" He grinned up at Blue. "If I can't join them up there, I'll fight from here." He rested a hand on his Lion gently. "How many power blasts have you got in you, girl? Think we could give them an advantage-?"
Cri-
Lance turned, bayard raised, too late and caught the blast off his arm, spinning him to a heap on the floor. Using the momentum to his advantage he twisted himself into a kneeling position, morphed energy rifle steadied on his knee. His body shook slightly as pain ran down his right arm.
A dark figure, if you could describe it as that, stood not ten feet away, an intricate gun targeted at the centre of Lance's chest.
Lance grit his teeth. What the hell is this?
"Who are you and what do you want?"
The figure stood there. Its face dark and eyes shifting, glowing slightly.
"Not the talking type, eh?" Lance gripped his rifle tighter, trying to ignore the pain. "Well you came to the right paladin to balance-"
"You'll do."
"Wha-?"
Swiughh-
The blast hit Lance square in the chest, sending him tumbling backwards from the proximity of the figure. He rolled once, twice, skidding to a halt in a cloud of orange dust.
The figure waited a moment, observing its handiwork. Lance lay in a heap, damaged arm twisted loosely round his damaged armour, fractured. It watched the small wave of smoke dance from the paladin's chest, the pristine white armour now blackened, damaged, before approaching.
As the dust settled and the world stopped moving, Lance tried to raise his head- Agony penetrated every fibre of his being. Lance moaned; his chest heavy and stiff, the air suddenly hard to breath.
"Sta- Stay- back-" Lance coughed, flecks of blood sticking to his chin. With his left arm, he pulled his bayard round, transforming it back into a rifle, ready to defend himself.
It was like the Blue Paladin was moving in slow motion. The figure easily kicked the rifle out of his hand and knelt next to the broken boy before he'd even registered what was happening. The figure in black pulled the helmet from the paladin's head and watched the boy grit his teeth in defiance, his pupils dancing as they tried and failed to truly focus.
"Thank you for making this so easy."
Lance made a last ditch attempt to desperately squirm away from the figure, his chest, his arm, his head- everything screaming raw with effort-
He felt the back of his head slam back into something stone hard.
The world danced in twain, colours swirling and quickly merging into grey…
"Yes," said the figure, standing up to survey the deathly still boy. "You will do nicely."