That afternoon, Hunk found his crystal on a beautiful, mountainous planet that had hills and valleys that he would have loved to explore farther. He did not end up digging it out of a mountain, as he had feared, but he told Shiro once he got back to the Lion that it had been quite an ordeal to make sure it didn't crack when he'd finally pulled it free.
"But isn't it beautiful?!" Hunk said, showing the glowing golden crystal to his friend with a huge smile on his face. Shiro grinned back at him, nodding.
"It is really beautiful," he agreed. "Almost reminds of - uh - amber - I think." He intentionally kept his tone light, but inwardly, Shiro winced at the few seconds it had taken him to remember such an easy word.
It was hard to remember things from Earth, sometimes, as if most of the memories before Kerberos were…well…not gone - not exactly - but on a very high shelf in his mind, covered in dust. It frustrated Shiro more than he let on, especially when it put something so simple as a word out of easy recollection.
But Hunk was nodding his head in delighted agreement as they went back up the ramp, and even as he took up a seat in the passenger section of the Black Lion, and Shiro went up to the pilot's section, he could hear Hunk's happy chattering.
"I mean, I was getting kinda nervous, you know?" Hunk was saying as they left the atmosphere of the planet behind them. Hunk kept talking as Shiro began heading back towards the shuttle where Allura, Coran, and the other Paladins were waiting to meet up and head back towards Rayzor's ship. "I mean, I was thinking - man, I hope I'm not the only one to end up without a crystal for his Lion - not that Yellow would hate me or anything - but I'd still feel pretty ba-"
Suddenly Rayzor's voice sounded, and Shiro heard the words he'd been dreading all this time.
"Galra ship incoming - Shuttle, Paladin, do you copy?! Galra ship inbound to your location! GET OUT OF THERE NOW!"
That was all Hunk heard before Shiro pulled the Black Lion into a sudden, corkscrewing nose dive, diving straight into the asteroid field they'd been so cautious about avoiding on their way in. There was juddering, and shaking, and Hunk's words were cut off suddenly, but he kept close hold of his crystal and didn't throw up because he knew he couldn't right now, he knew he couldn't, and Shiro was shouting back at him to seal his helmet, so Hunk did.
Okay, he definitely couldn't throw up right now - thank god his stomach was mostly empty - and that he'd buckled into his seat out of habit - oh, oh, oh, no, no - Hunk - keep it together, man, he thought to himself, but then Shiro was shouting something else back at him, and Hunk forced himself to listen.
"Hunk - use your jetpack - get back to the shuttle with the others!" Shiro shouted as they careened between two asteroids that just barely missed them.
Hunk was scared now, he was really scared, he thought that maybe Shiro was going to just space him without any further explanation, but Shiro glanced back at him then, and Hunk saw. Hunk saw what Shiro intended to do.
The Black Lion had been Zarkon's Lion…and Zarkon wanted it back.
He wanted it even more than he wanted any of the other Lions.
Hunk understood all that in a flash, and he also understood that Shiro was telling him to go, to get to the others, to get out of danger while he still could...because Shiro didn't think he would be make it out himself.
Hunk shook his head, gripping the crystal tight in his hands, trying to deny what was happening, and then he saw Shiro's hand reaching for the lever that would release Hunk's safety harness.
"Hunk - I'm sorry!" he shouted, and then suddenly Hunk was floating, and then falling, falling away from Black, towards the shuttle where Lance was telling him he was coming to get him, that all Hunk had to do was to stay calm and use his jetpack to keep himself steady, and then the Black Lion's front paws were out on either side of Hunk, protecting him from the smaller asteroids, and then - finally - Lance was there.
The Blue Paladin was was secured to a safely harness, and he reached out with both arms and had grabbed Hunk around the waist.
"I gotcha, buddy," he was saying. "I gotcha - just hold onto me - we're fine - Allura's pulling us in to the shuttle now - just relax, buddy, we're okay - "
Once they were safe inside the shuttle, Hunk looked around at the rest of his team. Coran was at the comms, and Pidge had opened up a panel in the floor and was checking wires and typing frantically into some kind of device. Keith was in the pilot's seat - he'd come along because he'd wanted to try flying one of these shuttles - and Allura was helping get the safety harness off of Lance, and everyone seemed to be talking at once.
Coran was speaking into the comms that linked directly to the main bridge on Rayzor's ship, his hand white-knuckled with tension, but his voice clear and sharp.
"Rendezvous at beta coordinates," Coran said, and Hunk heard the tension in his voice, but could tell it was tightly controlled. "Bridge, come in, go to beta - go to beta now - do not wait for us, I repeat - do not wait - get out, get out now-"
Rayzor's voice replied then, and it was almost just as tense as Coran's voice. "Bring the shuttle back first - we can wait for you - we can - "
Then Shiro's voice rose over Rayzor's, and everyone went quiet really fast, because Shiro was saying something that none of them had wanted to hear.
"They - they found me," he said, and Hunk could tell his friend's voice was shaking although he was trying not to let it show. "Listen - I'm going - I'm going to lead them away from you-"
In the pilot's seat, Keith shook his head from side to side in denial, but Shiro's voice continued.
"Rayzor, get your ship out. They haven't seen you yet. You've got to run. Keith, take the shuttle into the asteroid field - I can buy you enough time to do that - "
"But it's only one ship!" Hunk cried out, confused and panicked and terrified. "Black can take a single ship, right? Blue did that - she did it, and she was fine!"
Shiro's voice broke off for a second, but then he continued. "It's - it's not just a ship," he said. "It's - hers. It's the Druid's."
At the mention of the witch Haggar, Keith immediately grabbed the comms from Coran and shouted at Rayzor, his voice almost a roar, "Get out of here! Whatever you do, get out! Get your crew out now!"
Rayzor cursed then, gave the order to his crew to run. But then he said, his voice steel and hard, " - Shuttle - Paladin - we will wait for you at beta - I repeat - we will wait for you at beta - we will get you back home -"
"Roger that," Keith said. "Shuttle out." He flicked the shuttle's main comms off and they were back to their usual comms. All anyone could hear on the shuttle was Shiro or each other.
And then Shiro said something that made the blood run cold in Keith's veins.
