ARC III: Holts and Hopes

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Divided In Action

Shiro was waiting for her on the bridge when Allura got back. Her head was still spinning, thoughts wound up too tightly to speak, and the only one who would understand the gravity of her suspicion was Coran, perhaps, who she didn't want to unload onto his shoulders with the state he was in. And right now, as her eyes took in Shiro, she was just happy her Black Paladin was alive. Merla could wait.

"I knew you could do it," she said, walking briskly to meet him. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," he said, and uncurled his arm from around his side. There was no blood she could detect, however. "Thanks to Black."

"So, she's—"

"Free." Shiro's eyes glimmered. "We're free."

Her lungs eased, and Allura gripped his shoulder. "Good."

His eyebrows rose slightly. "I would have thought you would've been on the bridge," he said. "Where were you?"

"Coran and I went out on a mission," she explained, "since Lira explained all communications with the Blades have been blocked for the quintant. We secured scaultrite from a weblum, as they'll need it for a new base. Hopefully it will be a good bargaining chip in our favour once communications are opened once more."

"And you were safe?"

"Safe as can be, in the belly of the beast. And your duel with Zarkon?"

He turned to the stars. "We can talk more about it later. For now, we should talk to Lira about getting a communications channel open. If Zarkon is weakened by the loss of the Black Lion, and the Blades can become true allies, we have a new opening to do some lasting damage to the Galra."

She frowned, but didn't push it. "It seems like she and the paladins are getting along well."

He cracked a grin. "I hope Lance hasn't tried to flirt with her?"

Allura snorted softly. "Not yet. Although I fear Coran is... taking the revelation of Keith's Galra heritage rather hard."

Shiro's eyes were steady. "And you?"

"I'm managing."

Shiro pursed his lips. "I know he's my brother, but that doesn't mean you can't talk to me about your feelings over it."

Allura slowly turned to look at him. "I would have thought it would bother you?"

"I've known him basically since the day he was born. You and Coran haven't. And the paladins haven't lost anything to the Galra, really." Shiro swallowed. His metal hand flexed. "At least not the way you and I have. But I guess... I know him. And Ulaz freed me for a reason, and... Humans, back on Earth, have done some really terrible things to each other. My people have done bad things. We've had bad things happen to us. And sometimes it isn't grey. Sometimes it really is black and white. But I know where Keith stands. And he's as much Galra as I am."

She pressed her lips together in a thin line, and bowed her head, even as her hand reached to cup the elbow of his flesh arm, and gave it a slight squeeze. "Leave me," she requested quietly. "I need time to prepare for our negotiations with the Blades. The team will be pleased to see you."

Shiro swallowed, and stepped away. "As you wish, Princess."

She called the rest of the team and Lira onto the bridge a varga later. Coran wouldn't look at Keith, but filed in anyway, and Shiro wasn't sure if he should stand beside Allura or not, as they got the communication channel connected with some of Lira's help, when the princess gave him an expectant look and he stepped forward to stand by her side. This time, she grasped at his prosthetic.

"I could never hate you," she murmured. "I could never doubt you. I will trust Keith. And I will trust in time, he will prove he is as much like Zarkon as you are."

Shiro's heart burst, her fingers warm even on the cool metal, and he realized that he really wanted to kiss her—and he might've been stupid enough to, if the rest of the team hadn't been there, and Kolivan's picture hadn't snapped onto screen a moment later. Allura directed her gaze to the screen, and heart pounding, Shiro did his best to collect himself, as Kolivan surveyed the scene, his eyes landing on Lira.

His eyes widened by a fraction. "You're alive." But then his stony mask smoothed back over, and her shoulders went rim-rod straight.

"Commander. My status report is—"

"No need," Kolivan said, and she shut her mouth. "You're alive, and therefore able. What is your location?"

"I—"

"We would prefer to keep that classified," Allura cut in, "until more negotiations have been settled. Commander Kolivan, we have procured the scaultrite necessary for the beginnings of another base for the Blade of Marmora, with guidance from Lira. We are still interested in being allies. Please accept our peace offering so we can proceed forward in the fight against Zarkon."

"Lira will deliver the scaultrite to my location," Kolivan said. Allura could vaguely see the hint of bandages on his shoulder, from Hunk's blast to his back, and Antok's masked face blurry beyond his shoulder. "Which I will disclose to her, and her alone. She will leave as soon as possible, in a pod equipped properly for the coordinates I will transmit to her Blade."

"There must be at least one mission you have to complete that Voltron would be useful for," said Shiro.

"Voltron is a horrible Altean invention that used my people's blood for its founding," Kolivan said coldly. "And Zarkon tore the universe apart for it, once planets got rid of their armies because they didn't think they would need any, so long as Voltron was around, and look at what happened."

"So you cracked a few eggs while making an omelette," Lance argued. "That doesn't mean the whole brunch is ruined, y'know? You've lost a lot of eggs. Let us take the risk so you can save a few more. That doesn't sound so bad."

Kolivan's face went blank and stern, utterly done, on the holoscreen. "Perhaps Voltron is not a threat after all, then, with Paladins like this."

"Commander," Lira said. "Ulaz died believing in the Champion, in the Blue Lion. The Paladins are allied with the Balmerans, Hootowlings, and Olkari. If Thace was here, you know he would be in favour of—"

"Well Thace is not here," said Kolivan, his voice rising. His eyes landed on Shiro. "And we know whose fault that is."

Antok's voice emerged from under his mask. "Kolivan. The prisoner."

The commander turned to him and raised his furry brows. "Slav?"

"Sriv died in the extraction process. They've amped Slav's security." His tone was monotone. "If the paladins are willing to risk their lives for our cause, why not let them?"

Kolivan levelled his eyes to Allura, and then to Lance, who did his best not to squirm. "Perhaps what the boy said is right. We will let you risk your lives for our cause, if you choose to, and then we can talk of being allies. The details of the mission will be faxed over. We expect an answer within the varga."

The commlink shut with a wave of quick static before the holoscreen vanished point blank, and Allura turned back to her team. Hunk was patting Lance on the back.

"Good idea Lance," he said.

Lance grinned sheepishly. "You don't survive growing up with four siblings without learning how to bargain."

"I'll call you back to the bridge once I receive the mission details," Allura said. "You should take this time to get some rest. We might be in the fight of our lives."

"The prison Slav is at, Alpha-Traz, is dangerous," Lira said, "and heavily guarded."

"We pulled off a rescue mission at Zarkon's central command," Lance said, and caught Shiro's eye and his bravado deflated. "Sort of, anyway. I'm sure we can do this."

"I'll see what I can do about rigging makeshift cloaking devices for all our Lions," Pidge said. "Hunk, can you help? All hands on deck would be appreciated."

Hunk smiled. "Sure—Lance, coming?"

"Nah, I'm good. I don't need to see you two blabbing tech mumbo-jumbo than I already do. But that talk of food made me hungry." He turned to Lira. "Have you eaten?"

She blinked. "N-no?"

"Great. Keith, c'mon. Let's figure out how to use the kitchen and get something made for all three of us." Lance gave Coran a small smile. "D'you want to come?"

Coran frowned, and pointedly did not look at Keith. "I'm alright, but thank you, Lance," he said with a curt smile.

Shiro clapped Keith on the shoulder. "I'll come along. Defeating Zarkon in the Astral Plane works up quite an appetite," he revealed, and all the paladins' faces lit up.

"We'll eat next to my tech stuff," Pidge declared, dragging all of them out of the room. "I gotta hear about this!" Talking and traces of laughter fell silent once the doors closed behind the paladins and Lira, and Allura pursed her lips as she approached Coran from behind.

"Princess," he sighed, "I don't want to hear—"

"It's not about that," she said. "At least, not directly. I want to go on the mission to Alpha-Traz myself. And I want Keith to come with me."

Coran's eyebrows shot up. "Princess, why—"

She turned away from him, and back to where the castle's largest holoscreens had loomed. "We'll need something Galra to access their technology. Perhaps on another time Pidge can create something so suit hands have Galra tech like Shiro's palm embedded in them, but for now, we need a living being to guide us through the prisons. Shiro came with me last time. I want Keith, Pidge, and Lance to come with me this time."

She could tell Coran was struggling to hold in his initial response, and all he gritted out was, "Why?"

"Pidge is our hacker. Lance can bring up the rear with his guns. Keith and I can lead the charge into the prison. I can shapeshift and he can actually access the tech. Shiro and Hunk will stay here in the castle and rest, and will be a formidable rescue team if we need them to be."

Coran sighed and scowled heavily. "Keeping him here won't keep him any safer, princess."

"What do you mean?"

"Shiro."

"Coran, I am not bringing him along because he just went through a very strenuous ordeal of battling and beating Zarkon for the Black Lion," she said sharply. "Yes, I want to keep him safe, as much as I want to keep any of the paladins safe, but—"

"You wanted to go to the Blades with him."

"I owed him."

"Did you? You sacrificed yourself for him in the cargo cruiser—"

"He is our Black Paladin. It was a practical choice."

"Like how trusting Ulaz based on Shiro's gut feeling was?"

Allura's eyes burned. "Coran, if you have a point, spit it out."

Coran loosed a sigh. "My point is if you care for him, tell him. War steals all the time we have far quicker than we think it will." His eyes softened, before he stepped away. "Don't make my mistakes."

Allura turned around to face him. "Coran—"

"I will go look at the Lions and make sure they're fully powered. And—"

"Coran."

He stopped, resigned. "Yes, princess?"

She pressed her mouth into a thin line. "Before he leaves, talk to Keith, please. I think both of you would find it very beneficial."

"I think that highly unlikely," Coran said tersely, and Allura made her eyes pleading. "But I may... try."

This time, Allura let him go, only softly saying, "Thank you," when he was by the door. He didn't look back.

::::

"I don't like it."

"You don't like anything," Antok said. The makeshift hideout they'd gone to, one they'd been stationed at as young soldiers, still had the creaking equipment and dense walls to keep out the cold of the ice moon it was built on. Other Marmora were resting or healing, but Kolivan never slept. Antok could just begrudge him for it, but he still approached his Commander, coming up to his side so their shoulders nearly touched. "Thace still reported in. It may have been pre-recorded instead of a typical holoscreen, but it's safer that way. What you told him to do in the past."

"And he only listens to me when things get very bad," Kolivan grunted. "If the witch knows of a spy, we—" His temper burst. Antok didn't flinch. "Dammit, Ulaz was supposed to stay stationed at central command, and then he blew it to free that blasted boy, and then we had to scramble, and now Thace—"

"—will be fine," Antok said. "He has enough of you to survive."

Kolivan turned towards him, and Antok's mask shimmered away. He let their brows touch. "He has too much of her. And what if he's tried to look for her? What if that is what set the witch off—"

"Your brother will come home, arlan. I swear it. You will not lose another sibling to this war."

Kolivan softened, but the deep crease in his forehead didn't fade. "I worry that Ulaz's death has made him reckless, less caring of himself."

"Or it could make him fight harder."

Kolivan shook his head. Their noses nearly bumped. "No. I know if I lost the one I care for, I would—" His eyes flickered to Antok's, and then he pulled away and cleared his throat. "We should double check Thace's commlink was properly encrypted, once the call's signal was terminated. And prepare for new channels to be opened up. If Voltron decides to go to Alpha-Traz, we can put the next phase of our plan in place."

A little sigh escaped Antok's lips. Kolivan almost wanted to look at him. He was only ever unmasked when they were alone, not that Kolivan could fault him for it. "And Lira?"

"She's a talented fighter. She will make the right choices when the time comes."

"She's young. She may grow attached."

Kolivan gazed at one of the broken computers, cracked open on its side. The wires splayed out, frizzled and frayed. Searching for connection, only to never find it. "She'll be strong," he said. Ulaz had always been strong-willed, if nothing else, and not often self-destructive. Hopefully Lira had inherited the best of him.

There was a loud beep from a nearby monitor, and Antok reached over Kolivan's shoulder and turned it off with a twist of a knob. "I'll go check the medbays," he said, moving closer to him again. Antok brushed his lips over the scar that ran down the left side of his face. "Try and get some sleep, my Commander."

Finally, the corner of Kolivan's lips twitched upwards. "No promises," he mumbled, but he let himself watch Antok leave, his mask going back up, before Kolivan turned back to the screens and data running across them, as more and more refugee Blades reported in with their locations and statuses, their Blade signals red dots against blue.

He just hoped they wouldn't become targets.

::::

"But Zarkon still has the Black Bayard?" Keith pressed, standing near Pidge's shoulder, and Shiro nodded. The Green Lion towered silently over the five paladins and Lira.

"Now that you're the sole paladin of your Lion," Pidge said, "there must be a way to regain it." He could practically see the gears turning in her head, alongside the code that shone over her glasses.

"I'm not sure," Shiro said, "or I think the princess would have mentioned it. The next time we meet Zarkon in battle, I'll have to find a way to take it from him."

"It feels like you'd be bringing a knife to a gun fight," Lance said.

Lira shot him a look. "What's wrong with a knife in a gun fight? It's much more efficient."

"It's an Earthling phrase," Lance said. "It means Shiro would be going in mostly empty handed."

Hunk's brow furrowed, and then his eyes lit up as he turned to Shiro. "Maybe you wouldn't have to be. Maybe I could construct a new bayard for you. We could use my own as a model, and see what we can do?"

"That's genius Hunk!" Pidge beamed and Hunk sheepishly smiled back.

"And you can make it all cool, and glowy," Lance gushed, waving his arms around to imitate guns, and then a sword. This time no one provided sound effects.

"What weapon form would you want it to take?" Keith asked Shiro, who smiled.

Given what little he knew of Altean alchemy, he didn't think the recreation of a bayard was exactly possible—and furthermore, if it had been, Allura would have attempted or told him of it before—but he wasn't about to shoot the idea down. It was practical, if not applicable, and it was the first time in days Shiro had seen all his paladins smile.

"I just thought it'd be nice if Shiro didn't have to go into battle empty handed," Hunk said, blushing slightly at all the praise.

Shiro clapped him on the back. "It's a good idea," he said. "I'll ask Allura and Coran if there's anything you'd need their help for, with Altean technology. And I bet the Olkari could help us out with it too." He glanced at Pidge. "How're the cloaking devices going?"

"Good." The green paladin pushed up their glasses and didn't pause in her rapid typing. "I can't find a way to stretch the algorithm to go over anything too big, though. I don't think I'll be able to make something that can cloak Yellow and Black, or at least not on short notice. Blue and Red are small enough but the cloaking won't last as long for them as it does for Green, either."

"That's alright," came a voice from the door, and they swivelled around to see Allura walking towards them. Shiro stood up. "Black and Yellow will be staying here. I've outline those needed for the mission. Keith, Lance, Pidge, you're coming with me."

Shiro started, and then stopped, and then started again. "Princess, are you sure—"

She raised her eyebrows and gave him a polite smile. "What? I'm not going alone." The paladins slowly looked between them, and Lira's brow furrowed. Finally, though, Shiro gave her a tight smile. "Team, you heard the princess. Be ready to head out in a few vargas, I'm guessing?"

Allura nodded. "We'll be wormholing to Alpha-Traz shortly."

"Count me in," Lira said.

The princess shook her head. "You're supposed to be delivering the scaultrite to Kolivan."

"We won't need the scaultrite for at least twenty quintants. I know Galra prisons, and I'm able to fit through small spaces." It was true that Lira wasn't much taller than Pidge. "And if I don't come back, Kolivan will simply have to give one of you the proper coordinates to drop the scaultrite off at."

Pidge pushed up her glasses. "It would be smart to have more than one person who can access Galra tech while we're there. If the prison is big, and we need to split up—"

"Fine," Allura said, raising her eyes back to Lira. "We'll let you—"

"Just don't tell Kolivan," Lira said quickly.

Something akin to irritation but not quite twinged in Allura's chest; she felt rather like a young nanny, bartering with her ward of what could and could not be told to the family and parents she worked for. And already, it was surprisingly hard to be too stern with Lira. Perhaps it was because she looked a bit like Merla, the last time Allura had seen her. Before the war, before the weblum, that is.

"Very well," Allura said with a stiff nod. "But Shiro and Hunk will be holding down the ship while we're gone." She thought of Coran. If you care for him, tell him. Ancients, she hoped Coran wouldn't try to speak to Shiro on her behalf while she was gone. She turned to him and Hunk, shaking the thought from her mind. "I trust that you'll be hard at work constructing a new bayard?"

"Yes ma'am," said Hunk, and she smiled.

"Then I'll leave you to it. Paladins, do whatever you need to, to be ready in a varga. We're aiming to be in and out of Alpha-Traz within the quintant."

::::

Alpha-Traz is a heavily fortified moon, Shiro had explained. The entire thing is one massive prison. There's guards and sentries, and only a few docking bays. You'll have to be fast and maintain the element of surprise for this to work. Once inside, the mainframe will have to be shut down, and then you'll have to find Slav.

Pidge, you should go to the mainframe on your own. The vents will be able to take you there. Lira and Lance, you're in charge of bringing up rear and managing damage control, making sure no guards sound the alarm while Pidge is working. Once the system's shut down, anyone will be able to access the tech. In the meantime, Allura and Keith will be in charge of finding Slav if we can't get the mainframe down fast enough.

The castleship will be hiding behind a nearby meteor and the cloaked Lions will be hidden in moon caves near Alpha-Traz. If cannot find Slav within five vargas, I'll give the order to pull back unless you give me good reason not to.

Good luck, team. Be safe.

::::

Allura was glad that the paladin-in-the-trash ploy had worked a second time once she'd stolen command clothes from some of the docking bay guards, even if Keith didn't seem happy about it as he climbed out of the hovering trash bin once they were in a command uniform room, dimly lit and dusty.

"It smelled horrible in there," he complained, shaking off a soggy fruit peel from his ankle.

Allura ignored him and strode forward, shucking more armour off the wall and passing it to him. He'd need a smaller size than she did. "Get dressed. We don't have much time. You can wash the stench off later."

Keith frowned, his eyes cloudy, but he pulled on the armour anyway, first the breastplate and then the greaves. It was a heavy fit over his paladin armour. "It feels wrong, to be wearing this."

"Why?" She was already garbed in it, after all.

He held the purple Galra helmet in his hands. "It makes me look like one of them."

Allura took a small step forward. "You are one of them," she said, almost gently. "But that doesn't mean you're like them." She took his helmet and placed it over his head; it slipped a bit too much over his eyes. Like a kid playing at being soldier. "Now come on, Shiro will get worried if we're gone too long."

It coaxed a small smile out of him. "Okay. Let's go find Slav."

::::

The mainframe room only had one main guard, and Lira took him down easily once they'd dropped from the vents. The grate hit his head and then her Blade cut down his legs, and the sentry fizzled out in a shower of sparks and sliced metal. Lance dropped down next to her as she straightened up and they both caught Pidge once she fell through the vents. She made her way to the mainframe database, all purple and with holopads and too many keys to count, and started typing rapidly.

"Ooh, level fifteen encryption, not bad," the Green Paladin remarked, smirking, before typing away.

Lira grabbed Lance by the arm. "We shouldn't wait down here. We want the advantage of height and being hidden. The adjacent hallway is tall. We can hide up in the beams and gun down anyone who poses a threat."

She let go of his arm, and Lance nodded. He'd killed Galra before—it was inevitable before, in battle, both in and out of a Lion—but the thought of sitting up in the rafters and gunning down people who just walked down the wrong hallway made his stomach squelch. Hopefully they wouldn't have to.

Lira ducked her head out the door and checked to make sure the hallway was clear before beckoning him forwards, and she cupped her hands together as a foothold for him, and helped hoist him up to the nearest rafter. Lance struggled and then got himself settled, and watched as she took a running start at the far wall, jumped, and then kicked herself up in the arm, a rafter beam slamming into her stomach as her arms hefted herself up the rest of the way.

Lira kept her legs closer to her chest, her borrowed blaster in one hand with her finger over the trigger. Lance tried not to think of the few seconds advantage she'd have if they were found, in the moments it would take for his bayard to take its gun form, yet he couldn't will himself to have his gun now as a pre-emptive measure.

"You're not a soldier, are you?" Lira said quietly, and he looked up to see a hint of a smile on her face.

"No." He shook his head, and offered up a small smile of his own. "I'm just a boy from Cuba—a country on Earth. It has beaches, and amazing music, and my…" His family.

What, you don't think the Blades are just like the rest of the Galra, Coran had shouted. That they wouldn't kill your family, or at the very least let them die, for the greater good? Would you be so accepting, so trusting, then? How do you know they haven't already done so right this very tick?

"Your family is fine, Lance," she said. "You'd know if they weren't."

He looked at her with wide eyes. "How?"

"You feel it, even before you know. An ache. Like you're walking up stairs in the dark and constantly missing the step. You'd know."

His gaze softened. "Because you did?"

Lira swallowed and turned away. "My parents were farmers. We lived in a Galra colony, on a planet called Triyx. There were the warmest summers, and so much wheat. When I was eight, my father gave me a sickle, and I used to help him cut down the fields." Lira drew her knees up to her chest. "They died a couple months later—Galra resistance fighters, not Blades, were found, and multiple villages got massacred for it. And now I help cut down the vermin of the Empire, those who look at my parents' deaths and see something good about it. So that no one will lose their family that way again."

"I'm sorry that happened to you," Lance said softly, even as he wrestled with himself. Was it bad he was grateful she was sitting too far away for him to have to figure out if he should pat her on the shoulder or not? Lira didn't seem like a physical type.

"And it won't happen to you. I've looked at Galra charts, as recently as ten quintants ago. They're not interested in your planet yet." She gestured to his bayard. "Besides, you make a much better paladin than a soldier."

His shoulders eased. "So you don't think Voltron is terrible anymore?"

A smile toyed at her lips. "Only mostly terrible, and you're the worst," she teased.

"Well at least I beat Keith in something."

Lira glanced down. The hallway remained silent. "We're going to be here for a while," she said. "So—" She spread out her leg and her foot poked his. "Your family. Do they all wear your strange 'jackets' too?"

Lance smiled. "They do." He'd gotten his from his oldest brother, Luis, when Lance had been ten and it'd been far too small, when Luis had gone away for university.

Lira leaned forwards. "Tell me about them."

So he did.

::::

To Keith's credit, it wasn't his fault that things started to go poorly. A patrol came through they couldn't dodge, and the Lieutenant with them wouldn't be deterred with excuses as to why they were going the wrong way, so they marched along sullenly with the five other Galra with him in the opposite direction as to where Slav was supposed to be.

Allura did her best not to be nervous. If push came to shove, Pidge, Lance, and Lira could find Slav. It'd work out. If only she had some way to let them know they needed to start working. And Slav was supposed to be found before the mainframe was shut down, and Pidge wouldn't take long.

Allura knew she and Keith were running out of time.

She glanced at Keith and caught his eye, and gave a meaningful jerk of her head, hoping he would understand. His eyes widened under the slits of his mask, and she could picture the look of puzzlement on his face. Quiznak.

The Lieutenant led them to a hangar full of cargo, and stepped aside to let them in as the few ships parked there finished unloading. "I expect all this supplies to be carried to the S.C.I.-bay in record time," he ordered, and then turned and left.

Allura loosed a breath once his footsteps had faded. Maybe now she and Keith could get out of here and go find Slav. They just needed a reason to leave first, so the other Galra around them wouldn't be more suspicious than they likely already were.

"Watch it Threk," one of the Galra snapped at the one helping them lift up a box. It had nearly landed on their foot. Threk had been craning his neck like Allura too, to make sure the Lieutenant was gone.

"Sorry," Threk winced. "Lu wouldn't like hearing this—have you heard the news?"

"What news?"

"Rebel activity, and so soon after the traitor base got blown up. It looks like we won't be getting any reprieve in new prisoners."

Rebels? Allura inhaled sharply and shuffled closer, causing Keith to follow her lead, as they picked up a crate closer to the two Galra. She supposed if there were rebel Galra forces within the Empire, it made sense there had to be actual rebel, non-Galra forces too, but she'd never seen or heard any signs of them.

The first Galra rolled their eyes as they and Threk hefted the box up. "Anyone interesting?" they asked flatly.

"Heard there might be an Annic, but that's it," Threk said, and they carried on in their cargo lifting.

Allura not too subtlety dropped her end of her and Keith's crate, and it banged onto his foot. He hissed and stepped backwards, and Allura feigned surprise. "That looks like a very poor dent," she said. "Come—" Ancients, why had she paused and decided to use a name? "Kryxen," she managed finally, bolstering her volume, "we should get that looked at—"

Keith bit back a scowl and tried to play along. "Yes, of course, thank you—"

They hurried out of the hangar and back into the thankfully empty hallway as quick they could.

"Enough of this," Allura hissed, and pulled him aside closer to the wall. She linked up her earrings to Pidge. "Pidge?"

"Princess?" It sounded as though she'd interrupted the paladin in a very deep thought.

"I know you're in the middle of shutting down the mainframe," Allura said quickly and quietly, "but I need you to do a scan and give us directions to at least where Slav might be. Open up a separate channel and start examining the prison's database—"

There was the sound of typing, and then Pidge said, "Alright, I have it open and am tracking your location on my armour's techpad. You're on the southern slope on the second floor. You need to travel north and bypass the prison cells on the third floor—it's just for political ones—and move to the fourth floor and find where they keep their scientists—"

Pidge abruptly broke off, and Allura paused. "Pidge?"

There was a ragged edge to the Green Paladin's voice, after a quick clearing of her throat. "Nothing. Keep going. I'll keep the scan channel open so I can give you more directions if you need them, and keep working on shutting down the mainframe. You should get moving, there's another patrol headed your way that's showing up on the security feed."

"We're on our way to get Slav," Allura affirmed, and went to turn off her earrings (or set them at low volume) when Pidge's voice pitched upwards.

"Slav isn't what you think it—" There was a loud crash from the other end of the commlink, and Allura's heart skyrocketed when she heard blaster fire.

There was a scuffling nose and then Lance's voice. "Pidge, we gotta move—"

"There's a way out through this exit," said Lira.

"Princess, we've been compromised," Pidge said hastily. "Keep—"

The connection snapped off, and Allura turned her earrings off the rest of the way as she and Keith plowed forwards, away from the upcoming patrol and towards the northern part of the second floor. They'd have to get to the elevators and go up level by level to the next elevator—a precaution against escape—and she could feel her muscles straining to hold her shapeshifting for much longer, but she kept moving.

She had to.

::::

"There's too many of them," Lance said, trying not to sound panicked. It wasn't lost on him that he and Lira were being backed dangerously close into the corner of the room, where Pidge had torn panels off the holopads and database and was rigging them up and still tying madly, trying to finish what Allura had asked of her.

Nor he had he missed, the same as his marksmanship, as he gunned down one approaching, firing soldier, and then another, that the exit Lira had spoken of was painfully tiny. It seemed like was a sort of small fire escape, and even for Pidge it would be a tight fit. What would happen to the rest of them? There was no way he could get his lanky limbs to fit in there.

"Time to get creative," Lira said, firing off her blaster, before she took out her Blade, let it grow, and hurled it behind her without looking.

It embedded itself halfway through the metal panel above the exit, and she turned to press her foot down on the hilt. Lance only managed to cover her with blaster fire just in time, drawing up his paladin shield to deflect as Lira wrenched the blade farther through the wall, forcing the exit open wider and prying the panels apart, before she was winding back around him, shooting down a Galra and snatching something round and small from their belt. She tossed it down the exit, and Lance and Pidge flinched when it exploded.

"It'll be big enough now," Lira said helpfully. "For you."

"Wait, what about—"

"Knowledge or death," she said, and she kicked him down the shoot.

Lance heard Pidge follow a few seconds later, panels bumping against the sleek metal walls as they both shot down and careened to a stop when it evened out from a steeper slide to something big enough they could probably stand up in, if Lance ducked down enough. Maybe these were vents made for the guards to be able to move around without the prisoners even being aware? Or a safety protocol of some kind.

Both those options were vague, unimportant thoughts in his mind, as Lance looked back up the shoot and could hear distant gunfire. Lira was holding her own, but she wouldn't be able to last forever. The light of the top of the shoot was dim and clouded with purple, and then there was a hissing sound—the exit was somehow being resealed—and then he heard gruff voices speaking before the sound broke off completely.

Lira had sealed the exit so they couldn't be followed. Lance's chest constricted, before he looked away to Pidge, who was curled up with her knee to her chest. She sniffled. She must've hit it hard in the fall. One of her panels that fallen down with her was bent and broken with splayed wires sticking out on one side.

Lance went and pulled Pidge up to her feet. "Can you walk?" he asked.

Pidge nodded. "Not fast, maybe, but…"

"Good. We should move to another vent, and then you can plug back into the mainframe, and tell me where the Galra keep their immediate prisoners on this ship. Then you can go find Keith and Allura and get out of here with Slav if you can."

Pidge regarded him for a moment, wary, and then nodded and tucked her panel under her arm as she trudged forwards, down the flat right turn of the ventilation system. "This way."

::::

"Wait, there it is—" Keith grabbed Allura's arm before she could jog past the hallway, and made her stop and turn to see the Galra letters carved above the doorway. They looked close enough to the English spelling of Slav, funnily enough, even if there were extra characters he couldn't even place with the Galran they'd learned over the past six months in space.

Allura tilted her head to the side. "S.L.A.V.," she read aloud. "That can't be right. We're looking for a person, not a department heading?"

"You got any better ideas?" Keith said a tad tersely.

Allura shot him an annoyed glance. "Well considering I'm the one who can read Galra—"

Footsteps sounded down the hall, and Keith slammed his palm on the access screen, and Allura didn't have any more time to argue before they dove inside the SLAV department once the doors opened.

They had stumbled into a rather small lab, massive bulky generators plugged into the walls and plugs pouring out of them, and hooked up to other things. Screens bathed the whole lab in a strange green light, as though they were underwater, and there was a screen more manuel than the ones back at the castle, with holographic corks, somehow, holding up real photographs and slim holopads full of calculations. And standing in front of the screen was Slav, who whirled around to face Allura and Keith with a jump.

Three eyes underneath a mop of dark hair that curled in clumps at the end were wide in surprise. There was a thick chain around their neck, and they had two of their four hands anxiously clasped together, their arms bent over their sweatered prison uniform to allow it. Large, fin like ears fanned out on either side of their head, a thick chain with small holes around their neck. It seemed to move in time with their breathing.

Keith strode forward. "Are you Slav?"

"Slav?" there was a slight wheeze to the scientist's voice. As though they weren't used to speaking out loud. "Slav isn't a person."

"We were told to come here seeking the scientist named Slav," Allura said. "Are you not who we seek?"

The scientist teetered slightly on their remaining legs, which were stubby and covered in large, tight boots up to the knees. They looked rather full. "I'm the only person in Slav. My name is Brizo—Briz for short."

"Well, what is Slav, then?" said Keith impatiently.

Brizo looked between them, blinking in confusion. "Self Ligating Artificial Voltron. What else would it mean?"