Leaves crunched under your boots as you walked noiselessly through the trees. The sun shone through the foliage gently and dappled the ground, providing both warmth and camouflage. You had been following this group of five for hours now, and it was imperative that they didn't see you.

Red, green, blue, yellow, and black. It must be them

They had landed on this planet just that morning, castleship, lions and all. Of course, you didn't need to see all of that to know it was them, you felt it. The feeling had been growing stronger for a while now so you knew they must be coming soon, and these past few days the feeling had only intensified.

They exited the ship as a group and made their way into the wilderness obviously on a mission of high importance, for they barely made any noise aside from the random command from the black one.

You made sure to always stay on the high ground, and stuck to the forested hills while the five stuck to the valley. Better to observe them from and watch out for any potential threats. They were cautious, which was good, and you noted that they worked together pretty well for a team of ragtags.

Guess my job wont be as hard as I thought it was going to be.

You had to protect them after all, it was your job. The illuviar's job.

They stopped. It was sudden. The red one crouched down and was examining something on the ground while the green one bent over directly behind him and was fiddling pretty seriously with some advanced technology. You crouched slowly behind a broad tree, peering out behind the trunk. They must have found something, and your senses were going crazy trying to figure out what they were saying or looking at. Blue and yellow were holding up their weapons, guns of some kind, and were pacing around the group watching for any potential enemies.

Galra enemies, maybe? I haven't been on this planet long enough to scope this area out, but I should have felt their presence by now if it was a Galra base…

Black was facing red and green and reporting back to someone from what you could tell.

Must mean that there's more people back on the castleship. Perhaps the Alteans.

He was speaking, but holding his hand up to his helmet so it must be an earpiece of some kind. Slowly, you got up from your crouching position, deciding to move further down the hill to get a closer view at the group. Just as you were about to reach another tree to crouch behind, you froze. That all too familiar feeling you got right before catastrophe was about to strike left your fingers tingling. It happened quickly.

Shots started being fired at the group of five from two of the surrounding hills and they barely had time to react and summon their shields. Reaching up behind your head you drew your two scimitars and began racing down the slope. The five had pushed themselves together into a tight circle and were making their way quickly to the bottom of your hill to take cover behind some boulders. Black was talking furiously into his earpiece and the others were taking turns poking out behind their rocky cover to fire back at the assailants. Green was sitting down and frantically doing something with her technology.

You were slightly out of breath from your sprint down the hill and slinking along the ground made your way to an outcrop of rocks just ten to fifteen feet above them. Catching your breath, you slid on your stomach to get behind some small shrubs.

Where are the shots coming from? I cant believe I didn't spot anything before.

You chastised yourself. You were supposed to be protecting them and look at how well you were doing. If you had been on your toes like you usually were and not let your guard down you would have seen those sentries coming from miles away. But you were distracted. This was supposed to be the first time you would meet the group since learning about them and how you were meant to aid them in their mission to rid the universe of evil. In all honesty you were slightly terrified since this would be the first human contact you would have had in an embarrasingly long time. And even you were realistic enough to realize that you were lacking rather sadly in the social interaction area.

You tilted your head to listen in on what they were saying to try and get a grip on their situation. Your eyes were darting back and forth between the hills wishing you had an automatic weapon so you could help take out the attackers.

"I can't hold out much longer Shiro! They're getting closer and I think they have reinforcements!"

"Lance, just hold out a little-what? Yes allura, we're trying-"

"Pidge how much longer do you need!?"

"Hunk cover me I'm going to try and-"

The gunfire only intensified and you could tell that the group was having difficulty keeping the sentries at bay and trying to organize themselves so they could retreat and return to the ship. This wasn't how you wanted to meet but you knew you had to intervene or the situation would soon turn south and someone could get hurt.

Just as red was about to go out from behind the outcropping of rocks and attack the advancing sentries, you stood up and readjusted the scimitars in your hands. The sentries had got close enough that you could do something now and were about to be on top of the group. There was no way they would be able to hold them all off. Their shouting had only become more intense and panicked. You took a deep breath and with a running start jumped off the edge of the cliff and flipped onto the ground below you right into the middle of the group.

"WHAT THE-"

"SHIRO!"

"Who the bloody hell…"

They only had a second to jump in surprise and turn around to look at you with wide eyes before the sentries had climbed over the rocks. You stood up from your crouch on the ground and in a blur leapt up onto the rocks and began slicing through the sentries with precision. You could still hear the whiz of laser shots flying past you, some from the two gunholders and some from the sentries. You couldn't really tell what was happening behind you, too distracted by the whirlwind of sentries flying at you but from the sounds of it they had all got over the initial shock and were following your lead by engaging in battle. The sound of metal on metal screeched in the air as you cut through the sentries one at a time barely able to keep your footing when you danced around slicing from different angles so you wouldn't be overwhelmed. A few minutes later, or maybe longer, it was hard to tell in the heat of a battle, the last sentry dropped useless at your feet.

You were breathing heavily, though barely exhausted- this was not your first fight. You turned around and faced the group who were breathing hard as well, just having finished fighting themselves. They stared at you with confused but curious faces. The blue one seemed to be trying to say something but his mouth just kept opening and closing with no sound being produced. Green had stopped typing and was gaping at you while yellow and red, looking friendly enough, were still on the defensive. They did not put their weapons down and stood a little in front of the rest of the group. You supposed you might have looked a tad but intimidating, dressed all in black with two scimitars and a bow on your back. Attempting to appear trustworthy, you placed your scimitars back in their sheaths behind your back and took a few slow steps toward them with hands held out slightly to show you came peacefully.

"Hello. Sorry to startle you." you said in what you hoped was a calm voice.

Black finally took initiative and stepped forward in front of the group. He was about to extend his hand to you and initiate greetings when his eyes opened wide at something just over your shoulder.

"Allura, wait! She's not-" he cried out. The others made panicked noises.

You guessed too late that he was yelling at someone behind you and were in the process of turning around when you felt a sharp stabbing prick in the back of your ribs near your spine. Immediately your vision darkened around the edges and when you tried to reach behind you to your back to figure out what happened your arm wouldn't move. Voices that seemed to be muffled and miles away underwater were yelling again and you were about to ask what was going on when the landscape began to turn in circles and mush together. Delirium took over in a matter of two or three seconds and what you guessed was the ground was suddenly getting closer and closer to your face.