Alpha Traz

I realized halfway through that Kinkade is similar to Lucius Hunt from The Village. I accidentally based Ryan off of Lucius. So…um…yay?

It was times like this that Keith really hated his Galra genes.

While Galra genes protected him from really hot temperatures (like that volcano he went in last week…or was it last month? Last year? He wasn't sure anymore) it made him especially exposed to cold. It didn't help that his thermal-armor was removed when he was thrown into this refrigerator. (Not an actual refrigerator, but close enough.)

Also, the warden imprisoning him here was a Galra himself, and he bore the knowledge of what Galra could withstand.

And of course the Galra also found out that Keith was half-Galra.

Keith shivered, drawing his arms tighter against his body, rubbing it as fast as he could, letting out a haggard cough as his breath, a tiny bit of warmth, disappeared into the icy room.

He was trapped in a cube-shaped cell with only enough room to stand and pace two steps in any direction. The walls and ceiling were literally made of ice sheets, making Keith believe that the rest of the room surrounding his box-prison was the temperature of a freezer.

His only source of water was the ice, and his only food that he had was the little bit the warden put in his cell every few hours…days? Weeks?

He wasn't sure how long he had sat here, waiting for the warden to return, all he knew was that he shouldn't fall asleep, though he couldn't help nodding off.

Back on Earth, his record was ten days, before he even learned of his heritage.

After he discovered his parentage, on the castle, his record was fifteen days, but here the cold made him drowsy, and he fell asleep often.

Every time sleep over took him, he worried that it was the last time he would be awake…but he was always jolted awake suddenly, gasping for breath as if he had a nightmare.

He really wanted the others to come to save him…

Eventually they did.

James Griffen, the leader of the Griffen Squadron, arrived with Nadia Rizavi, one of his devote companions and commander of the Dragon Squadron, Ryan Kinkade, his best friend and captain of the Phoenix Squadron, and Ina Leifsdottir, his girlfriend and general of the Sphinx Squadron.

The four hurried along the dark corridors, their feet rattling out of place on the metal floor.

The paused at an intersection, all four ducking into side rooms to avoid a group of sentries marching past them.

As soon as the patrol passed, James and his companions walked from the shadows, glancing at Ina.

"Alright, which way?" Nadia asked, pulling her pistol from her holster.

Ina pursed her lips, her hands clutching an Altean pad which generated a holo-screen.

"Hmm. Left."

"Got it." James nodded, leading his group towards the left. "You think he'll still be…um…kicking when he find him?"

"Don't wish ill on him." Ryan said, voice warning as he carefully shifted his grip on his scythe.

"I wasn't, I wasn't." James protested, before remembering to keep his voice down. "Just wondering."

Ina sighed lightly, gesturing to them that she could hear more sentries.

The magnets on their boots helped them stoop on the ceiling, watching the sentries march under them in a rhythmic pattern.

In the next moment, their jetpacks fired and they were on the ground, on the move again, traveling in silence save the ringing echo of their footprints.

"Leifsdottir." James hissed when they arrived at a corridor filled with doors of all sizes.

"Fourth smallest door, seventh to the right. Hacking in will be nearly impossible, needs facial recognition. However, given a few hours, it would work perfectly, and-"

"We don't have hours. What face does it need?"

"Likely the warden's."

"Of course." James sighed, rolling his eyes.

"Then let's do and drag his purple noggin over here." Nadia grinned, letting her gun hum with a pulse of energy as she held it to her chest.

Ryan huffed at her suggestion, clutching his scythe and stabbing it into the door.

"Woah!"

"Dude!"

Ryan just glanced at them, pulling the scythe's hand violently across the door once more.

"He could be right on the other side!" James roared, grabbing the scythe.

Ryan arched an eyebrow at his overreaction, and his smaller friend remembered his ability to be quite gentle when breaking things down.

"Right…" James nodded hesitantly, picking up on Ryan's unspoken words as he slowly released the weapon.

The three other MFEs looked doubtful, Ina fiddling with her gauntlet which should send electric shocks. It had been dubbed "Widow's Sting" by Nadia long ago.

Nadia probably would have adjusted her glasses if her helmet was off.

James still stood close to the door, eyeing Ryan as he destroyed the door.

The blast of cold air was enough to make the four of them stumble back several steps, all of them shivering through their suits.

"Oh my gosh…"

James was the first to get a good look in, staring at the limp body inside.

Keith, who was imprisoned in the ice box, had his head tilted and resting on his chest, his legs stretched out across the floor. His arms were laying on his lap, dark bags under his eyes.

"Dang." Nadia gapped.

"This is an unfortunate turn of events." Ina announced.

There was dead silence for about three seconds and then a loud alarm rang through the halls, echoing off the walls.

Ryan raised his head, tilting his head towards the speakers. He pushed his scythe into James' hands, his leader pushing his rifle into it's container on his back. Ryan reached up and picked Keith up in one fell swoop, his arms under Keith's shoulders and knees.

"Let us go." He said shortly, jerking his head pointedly.

"Right. Leif, you and Kinkade go ahead; Rizavi and I'll stay back and hold of the sentries."

Ryan and Ina both gave a curt nod, pivoting and walking in the other direction, towards the MFEs.

James and Nadia lingered in their position, risking a few looks over their shoulders at the two going ahead.

The two guardians of Keith broke into a run, feet hammering against the ground. Their comrades followed more slowly, keeping their blasters close.

It wasn't long before the first wave of sentries overwhelmed them from both ends, driving them all towards each other again.

Ryan put Keith down, leaning him against a wall, so that he could fight better without having to worry about the unresponsive Paladin.

Nadia, her aim precise, nailed sentries out with practiced ease, at most only needing to hit a sentry ten times before it collapsed.

James's rifle couldn't do much at close distance, so he proceeded to use Ryan's scythe, his movements with it faltering slightly, and he often had to recruit Ina's help so she could zap them.

Ryan turned to more gruesome methods of destroying them, such as ripping off her arms like Chewbacca or colliding their head together until they dented painfully.

It took a bit, but eventually the four cleared a path through the sentries.

"Move it!" Nadia ordered, holding the sentries back with her gun.

The three tore away, arriving with a screeching halt as more sentries bore down on them, their guns charging with electric venom.

James and Ina activated their shields, which had been updated into their suits recently, using them to guard Ryan and Keith.

"We will approximately last two more waves before our bodies give in from overexerting ourselves." Ina deadpanned.

"Not now, Leif." James growled, knocking the legs out from one robot while destroying another.

Ina blinked, slightly offended by his rebuffing manner, but stayed silently, shocking a sentry with her wrist's taser.

Suddenly, a orange laser, that wasn't from their weapons, soared through the air and struck a sentry dead middle.

A smoking hole was now where its power core usually was, and it tumbled over.

In the next moment, ten more shorts were fired, hitting each robot dead on.

As the last one toppled over, it revealed the source of the shots, all three scowling slightly.

"Veronica." James groaned, glaring. "You were supposed to stay with the MFEs."

"I got bored." Veronica sarcastically remarked, packing away the laser gun. "I figured you needed help."

"We had it." James snarled.

"It looked to me like you were being blasted to bits. Besides, the Phoenix Squadron were doing just fine defending our ships without my help." Veronica frowned, a crevice appearing between her eyebrows. "Where's Officer Rizavi?"

"I'm here!" Nadia ran up to them, panting slightly. "I just took care of the last of them, but there's more coming."

"Come, then. We need to get out of here before the other three squads decide to destroy this base without waiting for the all clear."

"You should have stayed with the others." James told her, keeping pace with the older woman.

"What are you talking about?" Veronica growled. "You weren't doing so hot without me."

"I don't want us to rescue Lance just to have lost you!" James snapped back.

"You're just like my brother." Veronica grumbled, glancing at him. "So knock it off."

James bit the inside of his lip, letting her lead. He didn't protest any longer, but he really had to talk to Captain Shirogane about Veronica breaking protocol.

The woman ahead of him kept her quantum destabilizer - an invention partly by Acxa, but mostly by Ina, Krolia, and Pidge before she was captured - close to her side, hair pulled into a low ponytail and her former glasses traded in for contacts. Her lips were pursed with thought, the alarms blaring around them ignored.

"Are your emotions calm, or sketchy?" Ina asked, jogging up to him as she replaced the cartridges on her gauntlet. She was asking if he was okay.

"I dunno. Sketchy." James shrugged, glancing at her. "You?"

"Hmm…" Ina thought for a brief moment. "Frantic to escape."

"Yeah, me too." James checked behind him, Nadia guarding behind them and Ryan cradling Keith. A horrified thought occurred to him, and he gasped. "Kinkade, did we check for a pulse?"

Ryan, who usually thought these things through, looking startled by his query. He didn't speak, but James could tell by the fumbling of his arm around the Black Paladin's shoulders that he was searching for a pulse.

His fingers found the neck, and they bent around the jumpsuit, pulling the collar down and then resumed looking.

Ryan shook his head slightly to himself, stomach clenching at the coldness of Keith's skin. While he doubted that it was due to the hold of death, he worried that Keith had been frozen, like a human Popsicle. Nadia would have laughed at the expression.

Eventually he found the faint, fluttering beat of the man's heart, and he lifted his eyes to look at James, who, despite power-walking, was looking behind him desperately at Ryan.

Ryan bestowed a calm nod upon him, and James' shoulders relaxed slightly, before Veronica interrupted.

"Everyone, it's only a few more turns. Run." She hissed, waving them on.

Ina was close behind, James at her heels. Ryan shuffled along with Keith, and finally Nadia took the rear, eyes searching the shadows.

Three turns later, they skidded into the hanger containing half of Ryan's battalion of soldier/pilots by name of the Phoenix Squadron, and the four MFE ships.

"Keith is riding with Leifsdottir." Veronica ordered. "She has the highest marks for medical procedures, and her ship had the most monitors. Oh, and I'm riding with Kinkade."

Ryan, though he didn't show it, was flattered that she chose him. Then again, she always chose him. She mentioned once, and once was enough, that he knew how to hold his tongue. He was proud of that, and was silently thankful that she didn't speak when they were flying together. It was silence that Kinkade liked and preferred. He loved his friends, but…did Nadia always have to be so loud? And James for that matter? And Ina? Actually, scratch Ina. She didn't talk as much as the other two.

A group of sentries burst through the door, and Veronica immediately opened fire, the quantum destabilizer humming with energy.

"Get Keith into Leif's ship!" She howled, growling with effort as a laser bolt clipped her side.

Ryan obeyed her order, Ina hooking monitors up to Keith which could read his heartbeat. She had to find Keith's heart to plug it in, because, apparently, Galra's hearts were on the right so Keith's ended up somewhere in the middle. How he got into the Garrison with such a strange condition, nobody knew.

Veronica waited until most of the ships had left the hanger, when Ryan's was the last one to leave, to turn away from the sentries milling about.

She didn't get in until his MFE rumbled with life, then she was quick to jump in.

The ship tore from the base, and the four squadrons, the Griffen, Phoenix, Dragon, and Sphynx units opened fire, the fury for taking the beloved Black Paladin roaring in their veins.

"Will he be alright?" Shiro asked, standing at Krolia's right as she squeezed her son's hand. It was withered, so tiny in her grasp.

His face was sickly pale, and his ribs showed.

He was laying on top of about ten orange quilts, and seventeen more were wrapped around him. According to Krolia, this was the only cure for coldness to Galra. That as well as warm food and drinks when he woke up. Also, Krolia was plugged into an IV, giving her blood to her son.

Monitors were plugged into or laid on top of the skin layering every vital organ.

His heart was beating, faintly, out of whack, and his breathing was so shallow, it could hardly be seen.

"Krolia." Shiro's voice held a tone of warning to it, tears pricking his eyes. "Will he be okay?"

"I…" Krolia slammed her hand down on the floor beside her son, snarling slightly. From the pain of the impact or from frustration, Shiro wasn't sure. "I don't know anymore. He would recover quicker if only we got the healing pod operational. But instead he's stuck just laying here. According to Leifsdottir, the security footage reports that he was in below-zero temperatures for the entire two weeks. The shock will effect him harder then the cold did, and…" she turned to face Shiro, eyes ripping into his soul. "How could you let this happen?"

Shiro took a step back, surprised by her outburst.

"He's human, he's weak!" She shouted, standing up to face him head-on. "He may never properly recover, and it's all your fault! The others might be even worse off; they might be dead! And all because you failed them!"

"C-cold…"

Both froze, latching their gazes onto Keith, who shivered slightly underneath the quilts. "P-pl-please…n-no m-more…"

Krolia gasped, collapsing to her knees beside him. The two pairs of purple eyes met, Keith's twitching and shrunk to the side of poppy seeds.

"Keith, it's Krolia. You're safe. Commander Blawnk can't hurt you now."

"Mmm…c-cold…"

Shiro and Krolia were already ladling him with all the excess blankets in the room, Shiro going as far as to leave the room to grab more quilts for him.

Krolia rearranged the blankets around him, noticing immediately when he drifted off again, eyes closing drowsily.

Shiro returned with Kolivan, the two bearing at least twenty more blankets between them.

Krolia carefully picked up Keith, laying him on the Queen-sized bed squished into the corner of the room.

Shiro and Kolivan covered him in the excess quits, Veronica bringing in a heater into the room.

The ice in Keith's mullet was finally beginning to thaw, and Krolia combed the hair from his eyes, sighing slightly. "I'm sorry, Shiro." She said, glancing up at the captain. "I know that you weren't even there during the mission, that it was done behind your back. I just…I don't want to blame my son's pain on my son."

"I understand." Shiro said gently, his floating hand resting against her back. "I would like nothing more to shoulder the blame of this on my back, but I can't." He dipped his head, fighting back tears. "I just want my younger brother to be okay."

Author's Note; This might actually not make people review…I know because when I read a story, I sometimes ignored these headings…but…

Please Read and Review!