"Sarah, I thought we discussed this." Shiro said, exasperated. He didn't know how to convince her that killing Haggar wasn't going to solve anything.
"You talked, I just kind of….nodded, sorta." Sarah said lightly as he landed the pod.
"In many cultures, that's viewed as a sign of agreement." Shiro said, sharply sarcastic. He realised it wasn't exactly the right time to have this discussion, but it had come up on the way to the planet and he just couldn't let it go. "I had hoped we had resolved this by now."
"You and me both." Sarah said stiffly, unbuckling her restraints and sliding her helmet on. Shiro sighed, exasperated, and followed suit.
The castle had received several distress beacons at once, causing the team to split up and aid the different planets in teams. Shiro thought it'd be nice to have alone time with with his girlfriend of almost eight months; he did not imagine they'd spend the time arguing. It was really quite odd for them to disagree to such an extent; both were very good at compromising. But there wasn't really a way to compromise over the issue at hand.
Once on the ground, Shiro led the way through the alien forest. He was relying on a tracking device focused on the distress ping, as it was night and there were no celestial bodies to provide any kind of light. "Stay close." he said firmly. The lack of visibility made him uneasy.
For a while, the only sound was the crunching of foliage beneath their feet. Shiro was focused on the mission at hand, but a part of his mind was trying to form a persuasive argument that would convince Sarah to not kill Haggar. He acknowledged thaat her heart was in the right place, but killing someone was not a simple task and especially not something to take lightly. He was determined to have her see that.
"What kind of aliens do you think live here?" Sarah asked, pulling him from his thoughts. According to the tracker they were getting close, but all he saw around them was darkness.
"Uh, I don't know. Would depend on the air and….how much light it gets from the nearest star…." he said absentmindedly. Something definitely didn't feel right, but he couldn't put his finger on it.
"Yea…can't really get readings on those right now…" she murmured mostly to herself. "I wonder-what is it?" Sarah asked as Shiro stopped abruptly.
"Something's not right. Tracker says its just about here, but there's nothing." He banged the tracker against his palm a few times, but nothing changed.
"Well maybe it's just-SHIRO LOOK OUT!" she screamed, pushing him forwards.
A large hand flew at them, catching Sarah and hurling her against a tree. "SARAH!" he yelled, running over to where she had fallen. The hand was gone; it wasn't until he had reached her and checking her pulse that he registered who it belonged to. "Sendak!" he hissed. Sarah was unresponsive but still breathing. He wished they hadn't split into such small teams; he needed to get her to safety and distract Sendak, but he couldn't do both. Looking around, he spotted the glow of the Galra's prosthetic arm through the trees; it was getting closer.
"Where are you, Paladin?" he called. It sounded as though he was alone but surely that wasn't so. Shiro set his jaw; he'd have to face Sendak and hope Sarah would wake up and go get help.
Standing up, he activated his arm and approached carefully, not wanting to get caught off guard.
"There you are." Sendak said, grinning maliciously as Shiro edged around a tree and laid eyes on the Galra soldier. "Looks like I got your little pet instead of you. Tell me, did I break her?"
Shiro roared and flung himself at Sendak. Both had activated their Galra prosthetics and were aiming for vitals; missing their target led to the trees around them becoming shredded. The Black Paladin was trying to guide the fight away from where Sarah was, with moderate success. They were inadvertently carving a wide path through the forest, cutting through foliage left and right. He was careful with his footing, but the sudden cliff still caught him by surprise. He only fell for a second, but it felt like a lifetime before he managed to grab a thick tree root.
Sendak looked down at him, laughing. "You're getting clumsy, Paladin!" he gloated. He turned away and began yelling orders; just as he had thought, Sendak was not alone. "Grab the girl, we'll take her with us."
"No! Sendak, don't you touch her!" Shiro yelled. He started climbing, losing his footing occasionally in his haste. As he pulled himself over the edge, he saw a Galra craft rise up out of the forest and shoot off into space. "No!" he yelled frantically, running back to the pod they had come in. Jumping into the craft, he got everything fired up and connected to the closest team. "Keith, you copy?"
"Yea, I copy, what's wrong?" Keith's voice crackled.
"Sendak has Sarah." Shiro said angrily as he took off.
"Sendak?! But-what are you gonna do?" the Red Paladin asked, sounding worried.
"I'm gonna kill him."