(A/N) Wow, guys, I am so sorry I wasn't able to post last weekend. Colorado Anime Fest was going down and, as I'm sure a lot of you know, con time gets pretty crazy. Good times were had, though, and now here we are with a nice new chapter. To this, all I can say is...I surely hope you have enjoyed your warm fluffy feels. Now the real angst begins.
And I'd Give Up Forever to Touch You
Chapter 4: Far Away in Starlight
Though he had gotten off to a rough start, the young merman proved to be just as steadfast a Guardsman as everyone had expected. He was soon rising through the ranks, ultimately becoming second in command. And as the war with the Galra continued to drag on, even the captain of the Guard was called into battle, and upon his departure from Arus, the young merman became the acting captain of the Guardsmen remaining within the city.
As they grew, the members of his little pod also grew from being under his constant care into the beginning stages of their own paths within their city. The young princess began training with the chief physician as a healer, while her twin moved toward infrastructure, learning exactly how the city of Arus was built and how it might be improved in the future. The chief engineer's son began his studies with his mother, learning the science and alchemy behind the systems that controlled the city's currents and filtration. And of course, the young part-mermyd had his ever intense training as a rising candidate for the Guard.
The youngest prince was the only one among them who had not properly chosen a discipline. He'd never found something he truly loved like the others. Sometimes he would train in statecraft with the oldest princess, sometimes in healing with the youngest. Some days he would study city maps with his older brother and others he would study music with their oldest brother, the rising leader of the court musicians. Other times it would be the underworkings of the city with his best friend and middle sister, and on days when he was woefully unconfident in his own abilities, he would even take etiquette and comportment lessons from his second oldest sister. Really, the only two disciplines he hadn't properly tried his hand at were arms training and sorcery.
Training as a sorcerer had always held a certain amount of fear for the young prince. After all, he knew the fate of the previous chief sorceress and he had seen how her meddling had affected the lives of the people he loved most. Though it was plain he had the gift and was capable of developing talents greater than simple far sight, the notion of actually reaching out and touching that power was frightening to him. Arms training he stayed away from because...well...he was also afraid of admitting to himself just how much he wanted to spend time with his part-mermyd friend.
Little did he know, however, that the young half-blood was often thinking of him, too.
XxX
Keith grunted in pain as another tail impacted with his body. The physical hurt of a beating he was used to by this point. The sting that never quite went away, though, was the barb of their insults.
"Fin face!"
"Half-breed!"
"They don't really want you."
"You should go back outside."
"Better yet, go drown in the filtration tunnels."
"I bet the only reason they keep you is so the princes can use you as a net slave."
"Heheh, yeah. The youngest one, they say he's starting to get around almost as much as the oldest prince," one of them said, holding the trainee's arms wide so the others could pummel his gut.
"Think maybe they do him together?" a girl's voice suggested.
"That's disgusting. Wouldn't shock me, though. A son of the old king's is bound to be fucked in the head. The little one can't be much better."
"Heh, little netling."
That one grabbed Keith's attention like none of the other insults had. Lashing free, his clawed hand shot forward to seize the fist moving toward him, sharp points digging into his tormentor's helpless flesh. The half-mermyd growled in anger as the fist's owner cried out in pain.
"Slander my name all you like," he snarled, his fangs displaying prominently as he pulled his tormentor in close to him, "but of the prince, don't you say a word!"
Then, with a single snap of his powerful body, the sixteen-year-old was free, lashing out at his captors with several powerful blows from his tail. The pathetic creatures all fled from him with squeals of fright, disappearing clumsily back into the kelp forest. The sounds of their cowardly departure were soon overtaken by Shiro's quiet laughter. Keith glanced over his shoulder to see the older mermyd swimming toward him through the kelp strands.
"I wonder if they know how easily they got off?" Shiro mused as he approached. "Those claws could have torn every last one of them to ribbons."
"Sir," Keith began with a deferential dip of his head, his long black hair swirling briefly about. Most trainees wore their hair short, but Keith had always been permitted to keep his longer so his Galra headfins wouldn't be quite so prominent.
"Enough, Keith. You know you don't have to do that," Shiro said as he began to inspect his bruises.
"Can't help it," the teen said with a small sigh and a shake of his head. "It's too deeply ingrained. You'd do it, too."
Again, Shiro chuckled, this time a bit more self-deprecatingly. "You're probably right."
"What are you doing here?"
"I might ask you the same, trainee," Shiro returned, raising an eyebrow as he looked up at Keith.
"A little tooth and claw work on my own," he answered. It was always good to keep his full arsenal of weapons in top form, but it sometimes bothered his fellow trainees to see him work with his claws, so he tended to do the work away from prying eyes. "Your turn."
"City patrol reported a disturbance in the forest. I came to investigate. You know, you have every right to report these incidents, Keith," Shiro told him, his expression softening into something sorrowing and worried. "Disrespect to any member of the Guard is punishable under the law. You shouldn't let them get away with these things."
"I would report them if I thought it would stop them from happening," Keith lied, rubbing at his arms to get the feeling back in them. "But we both know it wouldn't change anything. There will always be people angered by the idea of one of the enemy in the Guard. Others...well...some others just need someone to beat."
"You're not the enemy," Shiro insisted vehemently as he forced him to look up at him, both to look him in the eye and to examine the black eye blossoming on his face. "I would lay into anyone who said otherwise to my face."
"I know you would," Keith returned with a sigh. He'd seen him do it, too. It hadn't been pretty. "But how many people will say it to your face? My face, on the other hand...that's just not of much consequence."
Shiro's expression slanted at this, silently scolding Keith for the old habit of talking down on himself. Instead of commenting on it, though, he asked, "What was it that made you fight back? I've known you to just lie back and take a beating for an hour. What was different tonight?"
At this, Keith blushed lightly, glancing down at the sand as he flicked his tail nervously. "They insulted Lance."
"Oh," Shiro started. "I see."
"They called him a- a netling," Keith broke off, barely able to make himself repeat the foul slur. "They can say what they want about me; I don't care, but that...I- I just- I won't have it," he snarled, feeling his fangs bare reflexively in his anger. That anyone was cruel enough to say such disgusting things about kind, caring, funny, annoying, adorable, infuriating Lance – just the idea of it made him ill.
"You know, I would say that's what will make you the most faithful of the Guardsmen, but somehow I don't think it has much to do with that," Shiro said as he began to lead the way back toward the lights of Arus.
"I don't- know what you mean," Keith stuttered out, continuing to look down at the sand as he fell in line with his captain.
"Oh, I think you do," Shiro continued in an almost scolding tone, but then that tone softened into something more pitying. "Keith...don't you think I see the way you look at him?"
"What does it matter?" Keith bit out, never truly having given voice or a name to his exact feelings toward the prince. "He's a prince. I'm just-"
"Training to enter one of the most prestigious guilds in this city. It won't be much longer before you come of age, Keith...before you ascend as a full member of the Guard. It's not as if Lance is very near the throne. You'll be of equal rank. I know you, little one. That isn't what bothers you," he said, reverting to one of the old childhood names to signify the informality of this conversation. "So what is?"
Keith swallowed as he looked up at the distant lights of the royal palace, pulling in several gulps of water as he tried to phrase exactly what it was he was feeling.
"I grew up out in the open water. Staying alive out there means holding onto everything that comes your way like it's your last breath. I'm still like that...sometimes. I hold onto the things that keep me alive. You...and the pod...Lance...that friendship- it's just...Lance has never been like me. He gives without any thought of keeping for himself. When you all- found me, he didn't see the fins on my head...just that my ribs were sticking out. I remember...he offered me some of his own food. That was madness in my mind...still is sometimes. Now I feel like- maybe it's the same with his friendship...that it's madness for him to just give it to me, without thought to what I am or whether he'll get anything back. I don't know how to be like that, so I hold onto his friendship...and think probably it's wrong of me to want anything more. I don't know what would happen if I gave up friendship for...something else," he finished, not wanting to give this feeling its proper name. If he did that, it would be real, and he didn't know if he could deal with it if he went that far. "I'm not making any sense, am I."
"No. You make perfect sense to me," Shiro said, slowly coming to a stop. "But I would ask you...who you think you hurt by not giving him the choice of giving you more than friendship. Just yourself?"
"Well...no," Keith admitted. He'd never thought of this in that light before – that maybe by not letting Lance see how he felt, it wasn't just himself he was punishing.
"If that alone doesn't convince you to go to him, the only advice I can offer you is this. Try to be better."
"What- what do you mean?" Keith pressed when Shiro didn't continue.
"I mean if you don't feel like you have anything worth giving him, you should try to be someone who does," Shiro explained, his gaze distant as he spoke. "If you strive to be better than you are, then maybe someday you'll feel you have a version of yourself that's worthy to give to someone else. If you still feel selfish asking for his love, ask yourself this. Would you still want to make him happy, even if you weren't happy?" his surrogate brother finished with a small, sad smile. As Keith looked at him, he was struck by a flash of realization.
"You're not- just talking about me and Lance...are you."
Shiro said nothing, just continued to smile that same helpless smile.
"Allura?" he asked. Had he really not seen it before now?
Still Shiro didn't respond, only shrugged before heading off in the direction of the palace once again. And if Keith hadn't felt selfish before, he certainly did now for failing to see what his brother had as good as told him. How had he not noticed that Shiro was in love? He would have to ask Hunk or Shay about it.
XxX
"Y'know, it really is too bad Shay and Rax couldn't come," Matt said as he rolled over on the sand, staring up at the dimming twilit sky. "Shay really wanted to be here."
"I know. It's not their fault, though," Hunk defended, lifting his tail up out of the surf to dribble some water over his head and shoulders. "We've still got a lot of wounded coming in from the last battle. They needed everybody."
"I'm a little surprised they didn't want me to stick around," Lance added. "I may not be a full medic, but I've at least got the patch training they need."
"Oh, you know, the other healers just couldn't take another day of your bad jokes," Keith ribbed good-naturedly, shifting his body further out of the water and closer to the small bonfire burning on the beach.
"Right. They'd probably lose more myds than they'd save. Those puns could kill a grown man," Pidge joined in, putting the finishing touches on her roasting stick, a piece of driftwood which she'd somehow pierced with no less than twelve marshmallows.
They all knew how fascinated Hunk was with human cooking, so the three of them always gave him some new treat for his birthday. This year it was these amazing new puff confections that were being sold in the street markets of Altea. They were typically sold in bags or in hot drinks, but Matt had also accidentally discovered how much fun it was to roast them. So Hunk's small birthday celebration this year had been a roasting party. Most of them had already eaten their fill of the gooey treat, but Pidge and Hunk were still going strong. Shiro was also roasting a final pair of marshmallows for himself and Allura. Hunk, Keith, and Lance were all still positioned fairly close to the water side of the fire, but Shiro had pulled himself completely up out of the water and was sitting beside the princess. No one commented on it, of course, but by this point, they couldn't fail to see the way Shiro leaned nearer to Allura, or the way her splayed fingers rested on the sand just beside his tail, as if itching to cross that final distance.
"Come on, you guys. You all know Shay just wanted Hunk to be able to spend his birthday with his best friend," Shiro eased the teasing as he pulled the marshmallows back to have a look at them. Still not satisfied with the outer layers, he stuck them back in the flames.
"Yeah, but what about spending it with the girl he loooves," Matt chimed back in, throwing a knowing smirk Hunk's way as he rolled onto his side.
"Hey, come on. Don't do that," Hunk tried to stave him off, blushing violently as he pulled his own crop of roasted sugar back from the fire. "Shay- Shay's a princess."
"And what are you? Chopped barnacle? Your parents aren't exactly unimportant in Arus," Shiro reminded him. "Someday you'll be chief engineer yourself."
"But...she's your sister," Hunk whined quietly to Lance, who just shook his head and grinned.
"And I keep telling you I don't mind. Rax might, but everyone else thinks it's sweet. Besides, it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks, does it. So long as it's what you and Shay want, it's nobody else's business. If you don't ask her to share a meal soon, she's going to beat you to it. Just saying," Lance finished with a shrug.
"On that subject, I've actually got one more present for you," Shiro said, keeping hold of his roasting stick with one hand while using the other to reach into the pouch at his belt. "Shay wasn't sure she'd be able to get away to see you today, so she gave me your gift when I was in with the last division. Happy birthday from Shay, Hunk. She made this herself," he said as he pulled the gift from the pouch. It was a length of orange ribbon meant to be worn as a headband. Right where the band would rest on the left temple were sewn three small trinkets. The first was a chip of whale tooth carved in the shape of a blue whale, the symbol of the healers' guild. The second was a tiny carved nautilus shell, the symbol of the mer engineers' guild. The last was a simple infinity braid, seeming to have been woven from Shay's own silvery-gray hair. Hunk inhaled a slow, reverent breath as he took the gift from Shiro, eyes going impossibly wide.
"Oh, that- that did it," Hunk sniffled, taking a moment to wipe the clear signs of tears from his face before tying the band around his head. "I- I'm gonna do it. I'll bring her her next meal when she gets some rest time."
"There's the spirit," Shiro encouraged with a smile, but that smile was soon going pensive and distant. "And take that time for what it's worth. Who knows when we'll all be together again."
The group gave a collective sigh at this, knowing only too well how right he was. It had been many months since they'd all been able to come together like this, and it would likely be many months more before they could manage it again. Life and the war were pulling them all in their own directions.
"Be careful there, Shiro. You're gonna wilt those marshmallows with all your serious talk," Pidge teased lightly as she withdrew her own stick from the fire, immediately chomping down on a perfectly toasted marshmallow of her own.
"Heh, right. Of course," the acting captain conceded, withdrawing the two blackened treats from the fire and giving them a moment to cool before offering one to Allura, who ate it directly off the stick, moaning quietly in pleasure as she allowed the warm, practically liquid sugar to melt and dribble all over her tongue. Shiro visibly gulped at the intensity of the sound and everyone else had to struggle not to giggle at the display.
"I don't know how you do it, Shiro, but everything you roast comes out perfectly," Allura exhaled, licking a small dribble of white from the corner of her mouth. Rather than respond, Shiro awkwardly shoved his own marshmallow in his mouth, hardly seeming to taste it before swallowing again.
"Well...you're welcome. Unfortunately, I- I think it's time we were all heading back," he choked out, tone shifting from awkward to saddened in the space of a few heartbeats as he shifted on the sand to take Allura's hand in his. "The raids have been getting worse and I wouldn't want to be caught out too long after dark," he finished as the last vestiges of sunlight left the sky.
"I- we- understand," Allura said semi-formally, but then she pulled the mer captain into a hug. "I will miss you...desperately. All of you."
Shiro returned her embrace just as fiercely, burying his face in her silvery hair for the briefest of moments. "I will come to you as soon as I can, my friend...and I will think of you every moment...Allura...vi ma prinscia," he whispered to her before pulling back. Waving to Matt and Pidge, Shiro quickly flipped himself back into the water before Allura could glimpse just how red his face was.
"That...language..." Allura started slowly as the others exchanged their goodbyes. "I've heard him say that before. What is that he calls me?" she asked her friends.
"It's Old Mermysh," Lance explained as he exchanged a firm hand clasp with Matt. "It was the language of our mer ancestors, the side that was purely aquatic. It became the language of the old poets and the philosophers. I guess your father wouldn't have it in his libraries because it's never had a written form. Shiro knows it from his mother, and from his studies with the Guard."
"Yeah, but what was he saying?" Pidge pressed as she went around hugging each of them, always eager for new information.
"My only princess," Keith finally answered, glancing sideways at Lance. "That's what he calls you." Then he was gone, too, slipped beneath the waves as completely as his guardian.
Allura's cheeks flushed pink as she reached a hand up to touch the place where Shiro's lips had touched her ear, her eyes glimmering. She shivered briefly before snapping awake from her near-trance, hugging herself as she climbed to her feet. "That's- lovely. This has been fun. Please be sure to give the twins a hug for us," she finished with a smile.
"Can do," Lance said with a grin of his own. "Though Hunk might do more," he finished before flipping back into the water.
"Lance!" Hunk shouted indignantly before following after him. The three humans chuckled faintly.
"Y'know, I don't think twelve marshmallows is enough," Pidge decided as she hopped up from the sand, clearly buzzing on sugar. "I need to be able to fit more on a stick."
"Heh, you go work on that then, little pigeon," Allura encouraged, slowly beginning to follow after the thirteen-year-old.
"Allura?" Matt called after her when his sister was just out of earshot. When Allura looked back, she saw that he still hadn't risen from the sand. His eyes appeared glazed and distant as he gazed into the dying embers of the fire.
"Yes?"
"You know...for all we tease Hunk and Shay...even Keith and Lance...we never seem to talk about you and Shiro. Why is that?" he asked, finally looking up at her across the fire.
"What is there to talk about?"
"Anything? Everything? Or do you think we're all idiots? Don't you think we see the way you two look at each other?" he asked her.
"Matthew...please...don't do this," she pleaded quietly as she sat down beside him. "There's no- no point. It's just- not possible."
"Why isn't it? It's like he was telling Hunk. He's not unimportant in Arus. He has rank. And it's not like humans and myds can't-"
"I know," she snapped at him, having no wish to go down that road with someone who was like a brother to her. "Believe me, I'm aware. I know the tales; I've seen the anatomical studies. If you think for one instant that I haven't dreamed of-" here she cut herself off, forcefully pushing back the unbidden fantasy of Shiro lying on the sand, hair damp with sweat instead of sea water, panting, his manhood on full display- stop that! "What matter?" she made herself ask. "Humans and mermyds can- mate- all they like. They can come together in the space between, but they cannot live together. Not really. Why would you ask me to torture him with a dream of something that can never be? I cannot do that to him. I won't! I...I love him too much...to be so cruel. Takashi Shirogane deserves better than that."
"Then you do love him," Matt pressed victoriously, leaving Allura to realize that it was the first time she'd ever given voice to it.
"Of course I do. How could I not?"
He's perfect.
"Then tell him! Can't you see how it's killing him? Not being able to share his feelings with you? You two are my second home. You've always been there, before everyone else was. I can't watch you two beat yourselves up over this anymore."
At this, Allura sighed heavily. "You are very young, Matt."
"I'm only four years younger than you," he protested.
"I'm sure it still seems very simple to you. If we love each other, what should stand between us? The fact is we both have our own obligations to keep. My father has no other children. There is no one else who could take the crown when- when he is gone. I cannot leave my people behind for Shiro, much as I might wish otherwise. And I could hardly ask him to leave behind the life he knows for my sake. He is a pillar of the Guard. His duty is to Honerva and the royal family. Even if it were possible, how could I ask him to give all of that up...just for me?"
"Just?" Matt repeated with disdain. "What just? You really don't see the way he looks at you, do you?"
"What- what way is that?" she asked, her shoulders slumping in misery.
"The same way you look at him. Like he's your world. You are the world to him, Allura. I don't get why you can't see that."
"Even if that were true...there's still no way for us to truly be together. Have you figured that one out yet, oh brilliant one?" she snapped at him.
"I didn't say I had an answer to the problem yet. I just...it seems to me like we need to take these things as they come at us. More of the merpeople are dying every day. How long's it going to be before Keith comes to us to lay Shiro's spear at your feet? To tell us how bravely he fought against impossible odds? To carry his last words to you? Just to you. Do you want Takashi to die not knowing how much you love him?" Matt demanded of her as he leapt to his feet, towering over her, his sudden movement casting flecks of sand onto the dying embers and calling up an insidious crackle.
"No! Stop it!" Allura cried out, jerking her head down and covering her ears with her hands. She had seen Shiro near death once already, and even that had been too much. She didn't doubt that it would happen someday. Shiro was too giving, too self-sacrificing for it to be otherwise. But the thought of seeing him lying dead, never to smile up at her again, never to see those lovely eyes shine with joy, or hear that warm wonderful voice call her name...to never hold him again? That was too much to bear.
"I...Allura, I'm sorry," he mumbled, and she could hear the wince in his voice. "I didn't mean to...you just...I didn't know how else to get through to you," he said. She could barely keep herself from flinching when he laid a hand on her shoulder.
"No...I know why you did," she said quietly, not quite looking up at him. "It's just...you were only a baby that night. You didn't see him- after what Haggar did to him. I remember. I remember every injury, every scar. I remember how close to dying he was. And what did he do? He tried to soothe your crying. He healed a cut on my foot. None of you have seen him at his true lowest, but I have. I know how easily he would give up his life for something he believed in. It's pain to me...how little he values his own life," she tried to explain, only then feeling the hot tracks of tears on her face. She'd never really spoken these fears aloud to anyone before now.
"Well..." Matt started, briefly gripping her shoulder a little tighter, "maybe you could knock some sense into him."
"Maybe," she conceded with a small smile. Then she patted his hand before climbing back to her feet. "I'll think about what you've said."
Her younger friend offered her a relieved smile at this. "Well, it's not nothing. I'll take what I can get with the pair of you."
"Shall we be heading back?"
"Nah. You need some rest. You go on ahead. I'll wait for the tide. It won't be long now," he said, referring to the time it would take for the tide to rise high enough to smother what was left of their little fire. Already a few of the embers had begun to smoke and hiss upon being kissed by the rising lip of the surf.
"All right. Just don't stay out all night," she warned him, knowing that tended to happen whenever he got in one of his nature walk moods. He could stay up to all hours studying bats and salamanders and moon seals.
"Promise."
XxX
Keith couldn't say what it was, but something had his nerves on edge as the four young mermen swam through the darkening waters. Lance and Hunk chatted amiably away, completely unaware, but Keith could tell that Shiro was aware of something, too. Just when the trainee thought he might go mad with worry, Shiro threw an arm across Hunk's chest, stopping him dead. Keith quickly grabbed Lance's arm, yanking him out of his forward motion.
"Hey! What was that for?" Lance started to snap at him.
"Shh!" Shiro shushed all of them urgently. "Something's not right here."
"W- what's going on?" Hunk started up in mild panic, glancing all around.
Shiro didn't respond. He only moved out in front of the prince and his friend, keeping a sharp eye on the waters above and below them while Keith moved to guard the rear of the group, dagger in hand.
The attack they were waiting for came when Shiro was suddenly pierced in the side by a barb from a harpoon gun. Crying out sharply in pain, the Guardsman reflexively veered away from his charges to keep them from being harmed by the fishing line the barb was attached to. Keith followed the line to its source, eyes beholding something he'd never expected to see.
He'd expected Galra, of course, and he got that – a squad of five or so. But they were backed by a group of four beings Keith immediately recognized as being half-bloods like himself. There were three young women, two he didn't know and one he did. The first was broad-shouldered with a deep blue eel tail scattered with flecks of lighter blue. A cloud of short pink hair framed her snarling features and threw her dark headfins into sharp relief. The second was much lighter-skinned than her compatriot, lighter-scaled as well, with a patterning nearly inverse of the first's. Her headfins were less prominent amongst the swirls of her long dark hair, but it was harder to ignore the blindfold wrapped around her eyes. The last...well...Keith knew her. Ezor. A golden-skinned girl with pale coral-colored hair that accented her delicate headfins, her nearly black tale was patterned with sprinklings of yellow, green, and purple. One could hardly keep from staring at her. She'd once been part of the urchin band he'd lived with – before he'd found his way into Arus.
The last of them, who appeared to be the leader, had the lavender skin, the headfins, and the claws. Keith might've thought he was full Galra were it not for the white hair and the eerie multi-hued eyes. His black eel's tail seemed to be all of one color at first, but Keith noticed the flash of dark blue scales amongst the black. And while Keith's brain catalogued all of these details for later study, none of them were important in the current moment. The important detail was that this leading half-blood was the one holding the harpoon gun. He was the one who'd shot Shiro!
"You have your orders. Keep to them," the leader ordered in a much more distinguished voice than Keith expected to hear from a raider. "The rest of you bring me that guppy with the nerve to call himself a prince."
"Lance!" Shiro shouted, struggling fiercely as the raiding leader began to reel him in, still run through with the wicked-looking harpoon. Already, blood was trailing through the water.
"You'll take him over my dead body!" Keith snarled at the advancing raiders as he moved in to defend his prince. Over his shoulder, he snapped "Lance, you and Hunk need to get out of here. Now!"
"And leave the two of you behind? Forget that!" Lance fired right back.
"Lance, I- I think we might just be a liability at this point," Hunk pointed out nervously. Keith caught sight of him trying to pull Lance away out of the corner of his eye.
"You want me to leave Keith to face five Galra alone? What about Shiro?" the fifteen-year-old prince demanded, pushing Keith's gaze back past their encroaching attackers to the other half-blood, who had nearly finished reeling Shiro in.
"What are you going to do?" Keith demanded sharply. "Throw rocks at them? You have no combat training, my prince. You need to go! Now!" he snapped, attempting to move back to formalities to prove to Lance how serious he was. He'd lost sight of the other three half-bloods, but the Galra were almost upon them.
"If I have to throw rocks, then that's what I'm gonna do, dammit!" Lance shouted.
"GO! NOW!" Keith shrieked, fangs baring as he plunged his dagger into the first Galra's throat.
Shiro was only partly aware of all this. The hooked tip of the harpoon had lodged in his ribs and he knew it wasn't coming out. Not without intensive surgery or some broken bones. With every wrenching attempt he made to break the line that held him, the pain of the metal in his side just burned even worse. He'd lost track of his dagger and it was starting to look like the only way he'd get out of this was to break his ribs. When he heard Keith tear into the enemy, he suddenly found himself face to face with their leader, who fixed him with a patronizing sneer.
"What do we have here?" the half-blood mocked as he pulled Shiro in close, reaching up with his free hand to touch the long white stripe in Shiro's hair. "An empty vessel."
"Y- you...let them...go!" Shiro snarled against the pain in his ribs, not wanting to ask how this creature knew what he was.
"Ah," the half-blood continued, still sneering condescendingly. "So noble. I suppose it's no wonder the witch chose you. Then I hope you know that as long as you live, their world is in danger."
"How- how do you-"
"Know? I do not believe there is a man, woman, or child in the Galra camps who does not know who you are...Takashi Shirogane. The mer queen and her lackies may have kept your secret, but we know the truth of you, Shirogane. You are creator and destroyer, treasure and terror, redeemer and annihilator. Savior...and executioner!" the halfblood finished with a flourish as he reached for the harpoon, twisting it deeper in.
Shiro screamed in agony as the barb penetrated deeper. He could feel things inside of him breaking and bursting. The taste of his own blood was coating his tongue in foul copper. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he was aware they would only have minutes before sharks caught the scent.
"Shiro!" he heard Lance cry out in terror.
Lance...Keith...Hunk...no...
"Don't worry. You won't die. She won't let you die. After all, if you die, it means the witch has won," his attacker assured him, drifting down to suck a fresh bloom of blood from the water. As he licked his lips, he exalted, "Ah. The sweet taste of power. What I wouldn't give to simply devour you...Shiro. That is what they call you, isn't it," the half-blood said, shivering as he looked back up at him. His uncanny eyes filled with a sudden and intense hunger as he traced a single clawed finger across the slit that concealed Shiro.
The Guardsman didn't give himself time to react in disgust because he'd already seen what he needed to. While the half-blood was distracted, Shiro reached over his shoulder and seized the dagger he'd seen strapped to his back. Moving past the agony in his body, he severed the fishing line that tethered him to the half-Galra before making a clumsy swipe across his enemy's face.
The half-blood snarled in pain as he jerked back from Shiro, giving the Guardsman the opportunity to head back to his charges, trailing blood through the water.
Keith didn't see how Shiro was faring. He'd managed to take out two of the Galra and Lance and Hunk had actually knocked one out with a rock. But when he'd tried to go for a fourth, another seized him from behind and he was suddenly facing down Ezor, with the Galra holding his arms immobile.
"Hey, Keith. Nice to see you again. Good to know you survived all this time," she said with a cheeky grin as she drew a spear on him, tracing the point over his heart. "It really is too bad, though. I did like you," she told him as she drew the spear back for a proper strike. But just as she was about to plunge it through his heart, the angry, pained snarl of her leader reached them.
"Ezor, no! I already told you! Keep to the plan."
His fellow half-blood's moment of distraction allowed Keith the opportunity to throw off his captor, reaching with the only weapon he still had to claw out the creature's eyes. The Galra's pain gave him enough time to dispatch it, but what exactly happened next, well...he would never really be sure he could say.
"Lance!" he heard Shiro cry out in warning, though his voice was weak with pain.
Keith spun quickly in the water, but it was like everything around him was moving slower, like he was stuck at a separate rate from everything else and could do nothing but watch as events played out.
Lance looked up from his and Hunk's kill to see the last Galra bearing down on him. Keith could see the sudden fear in the young prince's eyes, but he was clearly too shocked to do anything. Keith tried to cry out, but he couldn't make his mouth work.
Then the Galra spear pierced flesh and it was all over.
Keith would never be able to say he had seen Shiro throw himself in front of Lance. All he knew was that Shiro was suddenly there – with a spear embedded a little further down from the harpoon already lodged in his ribs, his eyes impossibly wide with shock and pain. For several moments, all Keith could hear was the sound of the acting captain raggedly drawing water into his gills. But then –
"SHIRO!" Keith cried out in an anguished voice he barely recognized as his own, but the sound of his voice seemed to give the other mermyd enough presence of mind to press forward and slash his attacker through the heart. Lance reached out to catch their guardian as he drifted back into his outstretched arms, but the look of shock in his eyes said he was barely registering what was happening. Keith quickly moved in to help him, despite his own injuries.
It seemed they weren't done, though, as the half-blood was suddenly swimming toward them – and Lance was out in front of them all, just as Shiro had been.
"Lance, no! What are you doing?" Keith hissed up at him, still trying to support Shiro.
"Stop!" Lance shouted, throwing his arms wide. The half-blood stopped short before him with a look of interest on his face. "I'm not going to let you hurt them anymore!"
"Let me?" their attacker repeated, quirking an eyebrow in amusement. "What is it you think you can do to stop me?"
When Keith saw Lance's shoulders slump, he could just about picture the lost look in his eyes, but when the half-blood attempted to make a move past him, Lance shoved him away with a shout. When he flung his arms out this time, a violent swirl of water burst from them, surrounding Hunk, Keith, and Shiro.
"W- wha-" Hunk started, unable to finish the question as he reached out to touch the swirl, only to find that it was solid. They were enclosed in a barrier.
The half-blood laughed when he saw what the prince had done. Reaching out to lay a hand on the barrier, he came in uncomfortably close to Lance. Barely a hairsbreadth separated them.
"There it is. So you do have the gift. I knew it."
"W- what do you want with me?" Lance tried to demand, though it would've been plain to anyone with eyes that he was afraid.
"To see you. To test your power. To know what sort of fool thinks he can ignore the singing in his blood. You have more power than you know, little prince," their attacker said, reaching up his free hand to caress the side of Lance's face. Sneering, he ran his thumb along the prince's bottom lip.
"Get away from him!" Keith snarled as he made a run at the barrier, only to find himself held back. There was no way through.
Lance squeezed his eyes shut as he turned his face away from their enemy. "Why would- that matter?" he asked, not looking back at the half-blood.
"Heh, you'll learn soon enough. I shall teach you."
"Lance, if you don't let me out of here in two seconds-" Keith started threatening, pounding against the barrier with his fists.
"Lance..." Shiro groaned from where he'd drifted to the seabed, barely conscious. The still water inside the barrier was already starting to affect him. It was also turning red with his blood.
"Who...who are you?" Lance finally made himself ask, looking up at the half-Galra.
Their attacker gave a quiet, hideous laugh as he leaned in closer, pressing his lips to Lance's ear. "I am the uncrowned prince. My name is Lotor Malain, and I will not have you forget it...brother," Lotor hissed in his ear before leaning down and pressing a kiss that was half bite into the hollow of his neck. When Lotor released him, Lance slumped against the barrier, nearly in shock. Then the half-blood called through the barrier as if Lance weren't even there. "Shirogane, I know I told you she wouldn't let you die, but that doesn't mean you can go around pushing your luck like this. A warrior of your caliber should not die for a pathetic princeling like this."
"You...monster," Shiro hissed before falling completely unconscious.
"Shiro!" Hunk started in worry, moving down to check his pulse while Keith kept trying to break Lance's barrier.
"Well, I certainly hope you find a way out of this. After all, I cannot have you die yet...and it won't be long at all before the sharks arrive," Lotor reminded them as he swam away. Once he was gone, Lance actually fell back through the barrier, drifting into Keith's arms.
"You idiot!" Keith growled at him while cradling him none too gently in his arms. "Why would you do that? He could've killed you!"
"Malain," Lance whispered, staring distantly through the barrier.
"What?"
"Didn't you hear? He said his name- was Malain...that he's my brother," Lance said, eyes briefly widening in shock.
"Not for nothing, you guys, but I think we're gonna have to worry about that later. Shiro's in really bad shape," Hunk reminded them, drawing their attention back to the downed captain, who was still bleeding steadily into the water despite the weapons imbedded in his body.
"We need to get him back to Arus," Keith said, grunting with effort as he snapped the spear haft in two, leaving just a small portion of it extending from their guardian's chest.
"And I can't drop this barrier," Lance said, already noticing a reef shark swimming into the area. More would follow. "This place'll be bristling with sharks in another few minutes."
"How long do you think you can maintain it?" Keith asked, glancing up at him in worry.
"Long enough...I hope," he said, gulping nervously when he saw a group of blue sharks swimming in.
"You're going to need to keep the water in here circulating," Hunk pointed out. "The oxygen in the water should last long enough, but that's not going to matter if we can't pull it in. We'll be unconscious before we even make it to the flats."
"Heh, gotta do everything around here," Lance tried to joke, turning his focus to moving their small bubble through the water, occasionally sparing a burst of power to circulate the rapidly stagnating water.
As they made their slow, steady way through the water, more and more sharks swam to the battle site. They'd all observed sharks at a distance, of course, but it was a little different to have two bull sharks swim hardly half a meter above your head and know it was your own blood they were tracking. Lance thought he'd managed to gain some distance on the feeding frenzy waiting to happen when he suddenly felt the barrier slip from his grasp. For the brief moment their only protection was free, the bloody water contained within it was allowed to bloom out into the open water, giving the predators a fresh scent.
Lance barely had time to draw the barrier back in before the growing mass of sharks was on them again, now with an idea of the source of the blood. The animals were swarming so thick around them now that Lance could hardly see through the water. Some were even beginning to chomp at the invisible barrier. There was one point where they all got an unimpeded view straight down the gullet of a massive tiger shark.
Even Lance, who usually had a bad joke on hand to ease the tension, couldn't bring himself to say anything at this point. If he lost focus, even for a moment, they would all be dead in seconds. Shiro might be dead already. When two hammerheads made particularly nasty rams against the shield, the prince felt tears gathering behind his eyes. How long could he keep this up?
Keith mostly kept his attention on Shiro, doing what he could to stem the flow of blood from his body. The water was getting redder and redder all the time and there was only so much Lance could do to keep the tainted liquid circulating while still maintaining the shield. Hunk was already fighting passing out. Keith didn't have much presence of mind to react one way or the other when Lance grabbed him by the hand. All he could manage was to look up at the prince, seeing the telltale redness that was the sign of tears. Fighting to pull in his next breath, he gripped his friend's hand tighter.
You can do this, Lance. I know you can.
"Don't...worry about me," Hunk mumbled, drifting to rest against the bottom of the shield beside Shiro. "If I pass out, I can probably last another ten minutes."
"The- hell are you passing out for?" Keith tried to demand. Something – anything – to keep the other myd awake, though he was starting to feel the effects himself. "How many Galra did you kill today? Half of one?"
"Hey...I...jus' because...I'm not..."
With that, Hunk fell silent, eyes slipping shut.
"Hunk?" Keith called out. "Hunk!"
It was no use. The larger myd had gone completely under. Lance tried to give the foul-tasting water another pulse, but he couldn't manage it.
"It's okay," Keith said softly, still squeezing his hand. "Don't worry about us. Just circulate for yourself if you need to. Do what you have to do. We'll be home soon."
He wasn't wrong. A few of the sharks had peeled away in search of easier prey and Lance could see at least enough to know that they were making their descent onto the flats. They just had to make it across to the city. The gate patrol would be able to discourage the sharks from their present course. If they could just get there...
Keith tried to keep his hold on Lance's hand, but it was getting harder with every drag of water through his gills. He was pulling in so little oxygen that black spots were beginning to tear across his field of vision. The taste of Shiro's blood was heavy on his tongue as he fought to stay conscious.
"Keith?" Lance called out hesitantly, then louder. "Keith? Keith?"
"'m still here," he finally managed to mumble, listlessly turning his head to look up at the prince.
"Don't go," Lance pleaded with him desperately, gripping his hand to the point that it was almost painful. "Don't leave me here. Don't leave me here by myself."
"I'm not going anywhere," Keith returned as firmly as he could. Though he wasn't really able to return his grip anymore, he could at least respond with the gentle pressure of his finger pads. "I'm here. I'm right here."
They were so close now. Just a little further.
"Don't go. Don't go," Lance continued to sob.
"It's all right. I'm here. I'm right here. I'm right here," he kept repeating the words over and over and over again, like a mantra – like a prayer.
"Don't go."
"I'm right here."
He kept repeating until his vision went dark, until he couldn't draw breath. He kept saying the words right up until the moment he no longer could.
XxX
"Three broken ribs, partially punctured liver, punctured intestine, nicked spinal column, not to mention the near exsanguination and the beginnings of hypoxia," Gyrgan reported grimly. Honerva listened to her chief physician's report with a grim look of her own. "At this point, I would say it's sheer stubbornness keeping him with us. There's no reason this boy should be alive right now."
She understood what he was telling her. Of course she did. Shiro's survival up to this point was a near miracle. He wasn't dead yet, but he could be any moment now, and as always, it seemed she owed the name Shirogane more than a death like this.
"I see," she said quietly, the image of her youngest son collapsing into her arms after being pulled from the flats haunting the space behind her eyes. "Leave us. I want you to clear this corner of the ward."
"Honerva-" the doctor started in a worried tone, "If you're thinking of-"
"I have no choice. After all, I- I cannot...will not let him die," she said, swimming closer to the hammock her acting captain was lashed into.
"As you wish...my queen," Gyrgan acquiesced, sparing one more concerned look for Shiro before heading out of the isolation ward.
"Well, Takashi...it seems I owe you my child's life twice over now," she said, reaching forward to stroke the hated white streak in his hair. "What sort of queen would I be if I couldn't give at least a little of that back?"
With that, Honerva leaned down to press her forehead to Shiro's, cupping his face firmly between both hands as she reconnected the old links of power between them. They'd been designed as one way streams, but she'd managed to force them to work in reverse on the night they'd been created. She was going to attempt it again.
The queen felt a kind of jolt within the astral essence of her power as she linked with the young merman. Almost immediately, she felt his life begin to flow into hers. It took several preciously needed seconds for her to force the flow of energy backward, attempting to return even a tiny portion of the life that had been stolen from him on her behalf. Shiro jerked several times, crying out in his sleep, but she managed to hold onto him.
"I know you don't believe you deserve to be saved, Takashi, but I'm not letting go of you that easily. They still need you. We all still need you. You can't leave us yet."
Honerva could feel how resistant the connection still was but, little by little, she forced her own power back against it, gradually siphoning healing energy back to the young merman. She couldn't heal him completely. That would take more time with the active connection than either of them could bear, but she could at least heal him enough to keep him from dying. That would have to suffice for now. And when she finally released the connection between them, she very nearly gave up her own hold on consciousness, drifting lightly to the floor, though she managed to keep one hand gently gripping the Guardsman's shoulder. Shiro was finally resting, breathing easily with a look of peace on his face.
"I can never- repay you- for everything you've done...but that doesn't mean I won't try. You just rest, Captain Shirogane. Get that strength back for the next time you try to get yourself killed," she finished with a small, sorrowing laugh.
XxX
"KEITH!" Lance shouted as he jolted awake from his nightmares, finding himself tangled in an unfamiliar hammock. Lotor...Shiro...the sharks...the shield...Hunk...Keith! What had happened?
"Lance?" Keith's worried voice drifted into the room from down a corridor. Within moments, the trainee was bursting into the ward, eyes wide with fear and hope. When Keith saw him attempting to struggle his way out of the hammock, he quickly swam to his side, laying a restraining hand on his shoulder. "Easy, Lance. Calm down. You're all right."
"I'm all right?" he repeated incredulously. "Yeah, that wasn't really what I was worried about. What about you? What about Hunk? Shiro? What happened out there?"
"If you'll just calm down for half a moment, I'll tell you," Keith said, the relief in his expression immediately shifting to annoyance. "I don't know how much of it you remember, but they told me about it when I regained consciousness. The gate patrol spotted the frenzy when it descended to the flats. We were just about at the entrance when they acted. Apparently they were able to drive the sharks off just as your shield was going. It only took Hunk half an hour to wake up. It took me a little longer, but Shay got me patched up," he explained, showing off the patches that covered his arms and chest, preventing more blood from seeping into the water.
"And...Shiro? Is he all right?" Lance pressed, feeling his heart plummet when Keith's expression fell.
"He hasn't regained consciousness yet. Your mother...the queen...she did something. Nobody will tell me what. She says he'll be all right...but he hasn't woken up yet."
"Yet?" Lance started in confusion. "How- how long has it been? How long have I been out?"
"Lance, it- it's been two days since it happened," Keith said, like he was trying to break it to him easily and didn't really know how.
"Two- two days?" the prince repeated in shock. "I've been unconscious for two days?"
"You just about killed yourself getting us back here. Is it that much of a shock you needed more time to recover?"
"That isn't...it's not...forget it. It doesn't matter. Where's Shiro? I want to see him," Lance insisted, disentangling himself from the hammock while Keith tried to puzzle out his words.
"Just down the corridor. They have him in an isolation ward. There was...he lost a lot of blood," Keith mumbled, the expression on his face going disquiet as he thought back.
"Show me," Lance said, swimming out ahead of Keith, who followed indignantly behind him just a moment later.
"Hold on! You've been conscious for all of five minutes. You can't just go swimming off wherever you want. What if you pass out again?"
"No better place to do it than a med ward," Lance fired back, beginning to swim down the lefthand side of the corridor. "This way."
Keith rolled his eyes in exasperation, grabbing Lance by the wrist and pulling him the other way. "This way, actually. What was that you were saying?"
"That I'm kind of in a hurry," Lance bit back. Much as Keith seemed to want to argue with him, Lance could tell he was also still worried about Shiro, so they made the rest of the swim in silence.
Isolation wards were one of the few types of sealed rooms in Arus. After a surgery, blood was much easier to filter from a sealed room than it was from a larger, open space. Lance was only marginally comforted by the fact that the ward Keith led him to wasn't actually in lockdown. When they entered, it was to find Honerva and Gyrgan observing while Shay performed a checkup on the ward's single occupant, who hung comatose in a hammock, drifting with the artificial current.
Shiro was pale, but he was at least breathing easily, gills fluttering with each pull of water. With the myriad patches covering his torso, none of his injuries were visible, but Lance had been there. He knew exactly how bad they were.
"How is he?" he made himself ask after several minutes, drawing the attention of everyone present in the ward.
"Lance," his mother started, swimming toward him and gathering him in her arms.
"I'm all right, Mama. I'm fine," Lance told her, trying to shrug her off. "How's he?"
"Stable," Shay answered as she finished her examination. "I would say I don't know why he hasn't regained consciousness yet, but...well...it seems something of an understatement to say he's been through a lot."
"He'll be all right," their mother said firmly. "He's survived worse. Only...Lance, Hunk and Keith told me it wasn't just Galra that attacked you."
"It wasn't," Lance confirmed. "The...part-Galra who was leading them...he called himself Lotor. Lotor Malain."
"What?" his mother whispered in shock.
"Lotor Malain. He said- he was my brother," he told her, looking up at his mother with a kind of helplessness in his eyes. Was this their fault? Had his family been the cause of Shiro's pain yet again?
"Impossible," the queen insisted, shaking her head. "I would certainly know if I'd given birth to any such child and your father has no other children."
"More likely this Lotor is a child of Zarkon's," Gyrgan bit out, eyes remaining fixed on Shiro. The physician was one of the few who dared to speak the former king's name. "His get by some Galra bitch. Having Zarkon's blood would certainly give any myd delusions of grandeur, but he has no right to the name Malain. This Lotor has no true royal blood. It's impossible."
"He's no brother to you, Lance. I'll promise you that," his mother reassured him. "To your older siblings, maybe, but not to you, Shay, or Rax."
"Right," Lance said with a small shake of his head. Maybe it made him feel a little better, but not by much. As the others quietly moved back to the work of tending Shiro, Lance slowly moved back to Keith's side. When he was close enough, it almost seemed like he would reach out for the trainee's hand again, but instead he whispered to him, "Keith...I want you to teach me how to fight."
"What?" Keith demanded, glaring at him in surprise out of the corner of his eye.
"You and Shiro...you were helpless out there...when you had to protect me and Hunk. I don't want to ever be that helpless again, not when you need me," Lance insisted in a hiss, feeling something in his heart clench painfully when he looked to Shiro once again. "I'm a prince. I can't go on letting other people fight my battles for me. I'm just not going to do that anymore."
Keith sized him up for several moments, an expression Lance couldn't make sense of moving across his face. When he finally spoke again, it was with resolve.
"I've never thought of you that way, but much as I hate the idea of you needing to fight, I can see the sense in learning."
"So you'll teach me, then?" Lance pressed.
"Yes," he conceded.
"Good," Lance said, unable to keep his gaze from sliding back to their comatose guardian yet again. That was when something occurred to him. "Has anybody told Allura what's been happening?"
"Huh?" Keith mumbled in confusion, raising an eyebrow at him.
"Allura. She and Shiro talk almost every day. If she's tried to reach him at all these last couple days and not gotten a response, she's going to start worrying."
"Oh, hell," Keith groaned, running a hand through his hair. "I didn't even think about that."
"There's kind of been a lot going on. She'll understand. I'll go get the mirror."
"Sure. You- wait! Lance!" Keith started, but the prince had already slipped out of the ward, finning his way from the med center and back to the palace. Lance wasn't completely certain what to expect when he swam up the Guard tower and in through Shiro's window, but it definitely wasn't the sound of Allura's pleading voice.
"Shiro, are you there? Please talk to me. Please! If I've done something to upset you, just tell me. Shiro! I- I need you," she near-sobbed. "Tell me you're there. Shiro..."
"Allura?" Lance called out in worry as he rushed to Shiro's trunk, hastily pushing the lid open.
"L- Lance?" the princess returned in confusion, clearly not having expected to show such vulnerability to one of the younger myds.
"It's me," he said as he pulled the mirror out.
"But...where- where's Shiro? I've been trying to contact him," she said, the look in her eyes nearing panic as she looked up at him.
"It's...Allura, we- we were attacked. On the way home from our last visit."
At this, Allura's eyes went wide in horror, her face blanching to the roots of her already white hair. "Oh, gods. Lance, where's Shiro? Please tell me he's all right!" she demanded in desperation.
"Shiro...he took a spear for me," Lance answered as he squeezed his eyes shut, unable to make himself look at the expression that might be on the princess' face. "And he was shot with a harpoon gun."
"But...where would the Galra even get something like that?"
"Shipwreck, maybe. Dealings with other humans. I don't know. I just know no descent mermyd would use a weapon like that on a fellow mer," he bit out.
"Lance...is...is he-"
"He's alive. My mother saved him. She says he'll recover, but he hasn't woken up yet."
"Oh, thank goodness," Allura whispered, relief blossoming over her face as a little color returned to it. For a moment, she just sat still with her eyes closed, but when she finally opened them again, it was with a desperate need in them. "Can you take me to him?"
"Sure," Lance said with a nod, shifting the mirror to lie flat against his chest so she could see out as they swam, almost as if they were sharing vision again. For some reason, he found himself in not as much of a hurry to get back to the med center as he had been to get away from it.
When he arrived back in the isolation ward, Keith was the first to notice him, eyes widening in surprise and sudden pity as he entered the ward. Honerva and Gyrgan were next to notice him, with only a little visible pity in their eyes. When Shay saw the mirror she gave a quiet gasp.
"Allura."
The princess of Altea saw none of this, though. Her attention was only for Shiro, lying so devastatingly still in the hammock.
"Oh...Takashi...Shiro...dear Shiro," she whispered with quiet pain, the utter desolation in her voice tearing at something in each of their hearts. "I- I know why...but why? Please...wake up. You woke up all those years ago when- when Matt was crying. Why won't you wake up now?" she asked, and even though he couldn't see her, Lance could hear how she was crying. But then, suddenly-
"Allura?" Shiro called out faintly, eyes still closed in sleep.
"Shiro?"
"Is he-"
"I don't think so," Gyrgan interrupted Shay's question with a pitying shake of his head. "Only dreaming."
"I'm here, Takashi. I'm right here," she soothed as best she could as Lance swam the mirror closer.
"'lura...oh...Allura," he called out again, fingers briefly twisting within the weavings of the hammock. "No...you cannot- be her. She is...far away. She is so far above me. She is a goddess in another world...a vision in starlight," he mumbled deliriously, eyes briefly fluttering open. "Vi ma prinscia." Then he was gone again, pulled down into the coma.
To this, Allura said nothing, just gave a quiet, strangled gasp, stifling her tears. After a few minutes of this, she started up again with, "Lance?"
"Yes?"
"What was that...you were saying before? About Galra having contact with other humans?" she asked, clearly trying to distract herself from the crisis at hand.
"Well...you know about that, don't you?" he returned, shifting the mirror so that the princess faced him again. "Not all the seafaring land kingdoms are as friendly with us as Altea is. Some of them see us as animals."
"Yes, I- I'm aware. But why would those kingdoms give weapons to Galra if they think of them no better than they do of you?"
"They are only too happy to provide weaponry for this war...to watch us destroy one another," Honerva explained solemnly. "But my people would never- use such a weapon as this. A harpoon gun – it's just so distasteful."
"It's a bit more than distasteful," Keith snarled quietly. "It's an insult."
"Why?" Allura asked, looking over Lance's shoulder at the others in the ward.
"A harpoon is a fisherman's weapon...a whaler's. To use one on another mermyd, it...it says 'I think of you as less...less than intelligent, less than myd...as an animal...only good to be hunted and killed," Keith explained, the words hurled from his mouth like foul curses. "That that- monster would do something like this to Shiro-"
"That's enough, Keith," the queen said in a commanding voice. "I understand that you are angry, but your anger will not change what happened. It will only distract you when you must be alert."
"Does my father know of this?" Allura asked the queen.
"Yes," Honerva replied, suddenly looking old and tired. "He intervenes where he can, but it's difficult to halt commerce when both parties profit, war or no."
"Allura?" Lance suddenly started in, something occurring to him.
"Hmm?"
"Before...when I came to get the mirror...you were trying to get in touch with Shiro. You said you needed him. What's wrong?"
"I...oh, gods, I just hate to put this on all of you now, but...Matt's gone missing."
"What?" Lance, Keith, and Shay all demanded fiercely with one voice.
"The night of our bonfire...he didn't come home. He stayed out alone to wait for the tide. He shouldn't have been long...but he wasn't in his bed the next morning. We've had no sign of him since then. Samuel and Colleen are frantic. Pidge has been running search grids over the beaches nonstop. I'd- been trying to get hold of Shiro for help in searching the shallows, but since...well...my father's about to formally ask Arus for help in searching...in case...in case he is somewhere we cannot reach him," the princess said sadly, her eyebrows knitting together in misery. None of them could bring themselves to actually say it, but this was far from the first time the citizens of Arus had been asked for help in searching for...a body.
"Oh...this is awful," Shay bemoaned. "Poor Pidge. Of course we'll help."
"Matt's our friend. We'll do whatever it takes to find him," Keith promised.
XxX