Disclaimer: I don't own Voltron.

A/N: Finally, Team Voltron gets their rescue on! Also, this may or may not be the most reckless rescue mission ever launched, so just excuse them as they fly by the seat of their pants. The chapter is extra long this time, I hope that's okay with everyone!

Chapter 10

It was cramped quarters in the back of the stolen Galra vessel with five paladins squeezed together alongside Matt and Era. Lance tapped his fingers anxiously against his thigh, quietly beating out a rhythm to keep his mind from spinning or thinking about what could go wrong. He didn't like this, but there wasn't any other choice. Not one that would work.

In the cockpit, two members of the Blade of Marmora were piloting the long-range scouting ship, guiding it into the docking bay of Lotor's massive battleship.

They were basically a speck in space. If Lotor figured out who exactly was in the ship, a single shot from the battleship would destroy the scouting ship, taking them all out. This was a gamble, but one they had all been willing to take.

The plan was complicated and honestly they were going to be lucky if all the pieces went the way they were supposed to. They couldn't wormhole the castle directly to Lotor's ship since it would definitely be noticed, so they had gone a more subtle route. The castle had wormholed to one location, then a cargo ship from a recently liberated planet had brought them at warpdrive to another spot. The scout ship had been snagged yesterday and they had been flying for the past few hours. They would get onto the ship under the premise of a prisoner drop-off, with Era acting as the prisoner. Her entire species was well-known for causing trouble for the Galra Empire, so another Skirin prisoner wouldn't be very suspicious to the Galra officers.

Once they were on board Lotor's ship and launching their attack, Shiro was going to signal Allura, who would bring the castle and the lions to the fight. The Outcast and five other ships would follow using the same wormhole.

The main fleet, a crazy mix of battle-class and cargo-class and scout ships from all over the universe and led by Kolivan, would take a second wormhole to the Milky Way. There they would fight off the Galra ships that were ready to take out Earth. Slav kept babbling about a fool-proof back-up plan but anytime anyone tried to pin him down, he started fussing about alternate realties and became secretive. No wonder he drove Shiro nuts.

This was insane, it might not work, but it was what they were going to do. It was the only way they could think of to save the kids and Sam, keep Voltron out of Galra hands, and save the Earth. Lance knew people were going to die today. It was inevitable. But he couldn't dwell on that right now, it was something to focus on later.

It really did feel like war now.

The process of getting to this point had taken a day. The timeline had been short anyways, with Lotor only giving them two days before he expected contact. That entire time, Lance had tried to stay busy since the alternative was worrying about Theo and Josie. Now that he was here with nothing to do but stay still, he couldn't stop thinking about them. Did Theo still think he was dead? Did his black eye get better or had more bruises been laid on top of it?

Every time his thoughts went to Josie, he had to stop himself from panicking. The coughing in the vid had been hers, and it sounded so bad, like pneumonia. She needed a doctor, and they were out in space and Earth was about to be caught up in a major battle and what was he supposed to do? Allura and Coran didn't think it was safe to put the kids in the healing pods since they weren't meant to be used on Altean children. Plus, healing pods didn't help illnesses. What if she didn't get better? What if she was already—

Nope, no, no. He shook his head, getting rid of that thought. No, he had to stay positive. He was on a mission right now to go get his brother and sister, and he was going to take them back home and they were going to be fine. Everything was going to be just fine.

On either side of him, Pidge and Hunk seemed to be lost in their own thoughts. No one was talking, mainly because Shiro and Kolivan had both said it was important to stay silent. Well, that's what Shiro had said. Kolivan had threatened them before they left with complete mission failure if they opened their mouths in the scout ship.

He felt someone looking at him, and he glanced up to meet Shiro's grey eyes. The older guy nodded to him, a silent encouragement. It wasn't much, but it did make Lance feel a shred better. At least his team was here. They had been doing impossible things ever since they took off into space in a big blue metal lion, so maybe this wasn't as hopeless as it seemed.

In the cockpit, the Blade of Marmora members gave the landing officers an access code, and they were granted passage. Pidge had rigged the ship so that even if it was scanned, it would look like the only people on board were the two Galra pilots and their prisoner.

The ship eased through the enormous bay entry and passed over a dozen other Galra vessels, setting down toward the back of the massive hangar. Lance tensed up, holding his bayard close. This was it. The ramp of the ship opened, and everyone shifted away from it as Era prepared to go with the two Galra.

Matt grabbed her hand as she started to stand up, stopping her. This was dangerous, and no matter how well-trained she was, there was a very weighty possibility that she was going to die here while creating a distraction. Every Galra soldier was going to shoot at her.

For a moment, he thought Matt wasn't going to let her go, but Lance knew Era had been insistent that she be the one to play the prisoner part. She wanted to. Leaning down, she kissed Matt, quick and silent, and he ran a hand over her cheek. Then she was gone, marching between the two Marmorans.

The ramp remained lowered, and the rest of them stayed perfectly still in the shadows. Three long stressful minutes went by, and Lance was sure they were going to be discovered at any moment. Then there was an explosion as one of the nearby ships blew up.

"Move!" shouted Shiro. The whole group launched out of the ship, heading for the middle of the hangar bay where they could get into the main control hub of the hangar. Out among the ships, Era and the two Marmorans were wreaking absolute havoc. The two Marmorans had been weighed down with weapons and explosives that they were now using, and Era had taken to the air with two laser pistols, picking off drones and laying down fire.

Okay, so the rebels were absolute badasses.

Lance's bayard transformed into a rifle as he ran, and as the others piled into the control hub, he stayed by the door to cover them. He heard the Galra officers yell as Pidge took them both out with her bayard, using it like a taser. As Hunk went by, bringing up the rear, he grabbed Lance and hauled him inside. Pidge and Matt were already at the control panel, digging information out of the computers and breaking Lotor's ship through violent hacking.

"Humans, humans, humans, I'm looking for humans," Pidge mumbled to herself, the screen reflecting in her glasses.

Beside her, Matt was silent. His job was to lock down the hangar, even if it was just temporary, and to find the access codes that would get them to other parts of the ship. "Shiro, put your hand on that," he said, pointing to a plate by the computer. Shiro didn't hesitate. He put his palm on the plate, and his arm lit up, glowing a faint purple. "I'm downloading new codes, this should get you through. We'll need another key besides Shiro's arm."

"I'll be right back," Keith said, and a second later he was gone, heading out into the explosion-ridden hangar bay. A minute later, he stepped back in and tossed a couple Galra drone arms on the counter in front of Matt.

"Nice. Wait, I've got an idea." He yanked off his boot and put his Galra tech foot up on the panel, where it glowed purple as well. "Might as well have a back-up."

"Found them!" Pidge exclaimed then shrunk back from the screen. "Or I found three of them."

Lance's heart leapt into his throat, and he swallowed hard, forcing himself to stay calm.

"Who did you find?" Shiro asked since no one else was going to.

From the way Pidge looked at Lance, he could guess what she was going to say. "Dad is being held on prison level three, room 394. Isaia and Theo are on the training deck right now. I found their prisoner numbers…"

"Whe—" It was hard to talk, his throat was closing off. It was bad enough that Theo was out on the training deck, probably getting beaten, but Josie wasn't even there.

"Where's Josie?" Hunk asked for him.

"I don't know, I can't find her prisoner number," Pidge said, on the verge of becoming frantic. "She's not in the system."

That. That didn't make any sense. "She has to be there," Lance said, "She can't not be there."

"I'm looking—"

"Pidge, she has to be there!"

Suddenly Hunk was in front of him, his hands on Lance's shoulders. It kept Lance from falling over that ledge that seemed to have opened up in front of him. "Lance, that doesn't mean she's not here at all," he said, giving Lance a light shake, "Maybe they took her to the medical part of the ship. Maybe she has a patient number or something instead."

Right. Right, okay, maybe that was true.

"We're going to have to move," Shiro said, pulling his hand away from the panel when it stopped glowing. He and Matt looked at each other, and Matt nodded.

"I'm going to lose lockdown control and Lotor's going to get suspicious any minute," Matt said, "Even if he doesn't know for sure that it's us, he'll take precautions to make sure he gets the kids and Dad out of here. He doesn't leave things to chance."

"So we have to get there before he does," Shiro said.

Keith picked up one of the Galra drone arms and held it in one hand while he held his sword bayard in the other. "Are we splitting up yet?"

"We're going to have to."

"Give me a second, hold on," Pidge said, her fingers flying over the keyboard she had plugged into the Galra system.

Shiro turned toward her, his hand on the back of the chair she had commandeered. "Pidge, we don't have time—"

"Found her, I found her! Or at least I think it's her."

"Where?" Lance demanded, leaning over Pidge's shoulder.

"I…I don't know," she said, gesturing toward the screen, "It's a part of the ship that's attached to the medical section, but it's not actually designated medical. And they gave her a new number when they transferred her there, which is why I couldn't find her."

"What does that mean?" Keith asked.

"It's not like the other prisoner numbers, it's got a 117 in front of it instead of a 214," Pidge relayed quickly, "And that's the number of that weird part of the ship."

Lance saw the color drain from Shiro's face, and he stepped toward him, grabbing his arm. "Shiro?"

Beside Pidge, Matt was pale as well. "That's the number they give to the druid sectors on ships," he said, "It's where they do medical experiments."

Like Shiro's arm. And Matt's leg. That's where his baby sister was? He was going to throw up. Pulling off his helmet, Lance leaned against the console, his hand wrapped around the edge as he tried not to hyperventilate.

"I'll go to the druid section, I can handle them," Shiro said, taking charge of the spiraling situation, "Hunk, I know you're going to want to go to the training deck, so you go there. Matt, Pidge, prisoner cell deck, find your dad. Lance, I need to know where you want to go before I assign Keith."

Lance took a halting breath and looked at Shiro questioningly.

"If you come with me, I'll send him with Hunk," Shiro said, "Otherwise, Keith comes with me and you go with Hunk." His grey eyes were conflicted and sympathetic as he looked at Lance. "They're your siblings."

And how was he supposed to choose? He stared, not knowing what to say or what to do. Theo needed him. So did Josie. He had expected them to be together, why couldn't they be in the same place?

"I'll get Theo," Hunk said, "Lance, you have to go get Josie."

"He might not believe it's you, you heard him," Lance said, "He thinks we're dead." What if Theo wouldn't go with Hunk? He didn't even know Keith, he might think it was training operation and attack him.

"Then I'm going to be the pushiest ghost ever," Hunk said, "I'll get him and Isaia both, I swear."

"And I'll protect him," Keith said, and Lance believed him.

Finally he nodded and held out a hand that Keith grabbed. "Thank you."

"I'll see if I can distract them," Matt said, "I think I've got an idea of how to clear the druids out there. I think there's such thing as a Galra fire alarm… Or more like a chemical release warning in this case."

"Do it, we'll take that chance," Shiro said, "I'll contact the castle once we've got eyes on all the kids and Captain Holt."

Lance stuck his helmet back on and followed Shiro out the door, his bayard raised as they went back into the fray. Era and the two Marmorans had succeeded at keeping the drones away from the command hub, but they were being overpowered by sheer numbers. Any moment Matt's lockdown of the hangar was going to be overridden and they were going to be swamped with new soldiers and drones. They all had to get out of there before then.

Era saw them and dove their way, driving off a new wave of drones with a laser shotgun. With her aerial attacks and the Marmoran ground cover, the hangar bay was being swiftly dismantled. They made it to a maintenance exit and using Shiro's hand, they passed through the lockdown and into the tunnel.

Shiro led the way, guided by a mapping device that Matt had brought with him. The Holt siblings were downright geniuses when it came to computers, and together they were an intimidating force of digital prowess. While busy hacking, Matt had downloaded the blueprints of the ship that he could access and pinpointed Josie's last location on that device.

The map led them through the maze-like inner workings of the ship and allowed them to stay in the service tunnels. They only came across a few guards, all of them drones, and they were quickly taken out. Moving as a team, Shiro on close combat and Lance taking long-to-mid range, they sped through the ship's service system, straight to the druid sector.

When they reached the medical section of the ship, Shiro slowed down, moving more carefully. Lance wanted to press forward, to hurry, but he let Shiro lead. They stopped by a door that led out into the druid sector, and Shiro shoved his right hand against the panel, causing it to release the lock.

"They might not have gone," Shiro said, his hand on the door, "We may have to fight our way through, and they'll use everything they have against us."

"I'm ready for that," Lance said. What he wasn't ready for was whatever they had done to his sister. Maybe she hadn't been there long. Maybe she was okay. God, let her be okay.

There were sirens going off and a fine mist spraying from the ceiling as they burst into the room, weapons at the ready. Lance spun, looking down the barrel of his rifle, but he didn't see any cloaked creepers in the room. There were tables, though, and a lot of medical equipment, some he recognized and others he didn't. Monitoring systems, screens, displays. It looked like a scene out of one of those movies where an insane doctor tortures someone.

"Lance…" Shiro was looking in the other direction, and his voice was quiet and close to breaking. He spun around, blocking Lance's view of the other end of the room. "You need to stay calm, okay?"

"Move." He pushed past Shiro and froze.

There was a large glass tube in the middle of that side of the room, filled with clear liquid and reaching almost to the ceiling. Curled up and floating in the center of the tube, like a specimen in a science classroom, was Josie.

His legs gave out, and he hit his knees, his arms limp by his sides. Lance couldn't move. He couldn't think besides one thought.

His baby sister was dead.

A/N: Before anyone panics, just remember, this is how Lance perceives the situation at the end of the chapter! He doesn't know for sure yet. Just saying, in case people start yelling. Also, I remembered that Shiro refers to Sam Holt as 'commander' in canon, but here he's just going to refer to him as captain. ^_~