Jailbreak, AWOLNATION.

What's up party people, it's NaNo and I've been working on this over the course of the last month. I've got the next three chapters totally done, and the end is in sight. I told you, determined to get this done before the year is over.

This chapter is very chill, just a lot of talking in code and Hunk centric. Enjoy!

Altea High. June 10th, 2016. 2:32 pm.

Hunk's phone ringing in the middle of him, Lance, and Pidge discussing possible ways they could find where Keith was being held in the Galra prison wouldn't have been surprising, if everyone he ever talked to (parents aside) weren't already in the high school with him. He put his pen down and dug into his pocket, shooting his friends an easy smile. "Probably Mom," he chuckled. His smile dimmed a little. "Think they're okay?"

Lance squeezed his shoulder. "Krolia sent Blades to watch out for them. You know they're okay, dude."

Hunk's body relaxed as he pulled his phone out all the way. "Right, right, they…what the fuck?"

Before Pidge or Lance could ask, he set his phone down on the table, revealing the "Varkon's Café and Bakery" caller ID. "What the hell," Hunk whispered, less a question and more a statement. "Why are they calling me?"

"I mean…technically you didn't quit," Pidge pointed out. "You were scheduled today, weren't you?"

"Yeah, but what?" Hunk choked.

Lance reached over and swiped at the green phone icon, hitting the speaker phone option and ignoring Hunk slapping him repeatedly. He gestured at the phone and lifted an eyebrow, and Hunk swallowed, fists clenched on the table. "Hello?"

"Hunk," came Acxa's tinny voice. "You know you were scheduled on like thirty minutes ago, right?"

She sounded positively bored, and the trio looked at one another, brows furrowed in confusion. "Um. Yes?" Hunk managed.

"So are you coming in or what? Do I need to call someone to cover your shift?"

"I…what?" Hunk said, feeling like he was being smacked repeatedly. "You expect me to come in?"

Acxa scoffed. "You are on the roster for today, Garrett," she grumbled. Something on her end shifted, and her voice got much lower. "I need you to come in, there's been some…menu changes. We're changing the layout; I need to show you the blueprints for the base of the restaurant."

Hunk froze and then scooped up the phone, holding it closer. "We're changing the layout," he confirmed slowly, looking up at Lance and Pidge.

Acxa's voice held a low chuckle to it. "Yeah. Keith wanted me to show you the new blueprints. If you could be bothered to come in."

Hunk licked his lips and swallowed, fingers tapping at the table top so fast it hurt. "And how do I know Keith actually approved these new layouts, and you're not just trying to get me to come in to work me to death?"

"Because," Acxa said, and they could hear the faint 'ding' of the cash register being operated. "He really needs your help today. It's been torture here without you."

Hunk swallowed and shut his eyes. "Okay. Be in by 3:30 at the latest."

"See you then."

Hunk hung up the phone and took a shaky breath, looking over at his friends. "We can't trust her," he whispered.

Pidge shook her head. "No. But if she has any intel on Keith and where he's being held, we need to talk to her."

Lance scowled, his scar pulling on his skin. "No way in hell anyone lets us out of here."

"Then we don't tell them," Hunk said with a shrug, standing. Seeing their looks of surprise, Hunk gave them a wry smile. "Oh, come on. She won't try anything in public, and with you guys there as backup? It'll be fine."

"Right, but this is a Galra front, Hunk," Pidge countered. "Not public."

"But the public still eats there," Hunk reminded her. "Come on, guys. We have to do this."

Lance sighed, dragging his hands down his face. "Okay. Okay, everyone right now is either getting sleep, patrolling, or working with Coran and Allura in the computer lab. Our best bet is to probably sneak out the back stairwell fire escape."

"Won't the fire alarm go off if we open that door?" Hunk asked.

Pidge shook her head. "Not if I turn it off. Which I can. Meet up in the English wing in fifteen?"

"Fifteen," Lance said with a nod.

Hunk gave his own affirming nod, and they booked it to their individual changing quarters.

Their outfits were being kept in separate rooms in order to potentially slow down any would be intruders; instead of catching them all at once in one room, where they could easily be taken out if they weren't ready, Galra personnel would have to hunt each of them down individually. Hunk's was in the geology room, and he took his time strapping his suit on and strapping extra arrows for his crossbow across his body. The actual bow itself he slid into his everyday backpack, the one he carried in his car, and then he put his normal work uniform on top of everything. It was a little bulky, but not noticeable, if you weren't looking for it, which Hunk was sure Acxa would be.

As an extra precaution, he tucked a couple of smoke bombs into his apron, strapped a knife and a small lock picking kit under his vest, and shoved a first aid kit into the outer pocket of his bag. He hauled it over his shoulder, shut off his phone entirely, and crept out of the geology room and towards the English wing.

Pidge and Lance met him at the entrance of the stairwell, both of them wearing plain clothes over their Voltron outfits. "Ready?" he murmured.

Pidge was tapping on her wrist computer, and she glanced up at the fire alarm over the door. "Yup. It won't go off when we leave. Your car still on the field?"

Hunk nodded. "Worst case scenario, I can always hotwire someone else's. Let's go, before I lose my nerve."

"And what, exactly, would you be losing the nerve to do?" came a dark voice.

The trio cringed and turned to find Coran and Krolia standing behind them, their arms crossed and eyebrows lifted in mirror looks of disapproval.

"You lot know you can't leave," Coran said, frowning. "Not until we're ready for Zarkon's plan – it's too risky."

"We have a lead on Keith," Pidge said, adjusting her glasses.

Hunk saw the way Krolia's jaw tightened. "How?"

"Hunk's coworker called," Lance said, jutting a thumb at Hunk. "She was definitely talking in code, but we think she knows where Keith is being held."

"And have you not considered that this is definitely a trap?" Coran asked, mustache twitching.

Krolia didn't give them a chance to answer, her brows furrowed in curiosity now rather than disapproval. "Which coworker?" she asked.

"Acxa," Hunk said, and he was relieved when he saw Krolia's shoulders relax.

Krolia turned to Coran. "Acxa is one of the Blade's deepest undercover agents. She's been there since she was a child, and she's been helping the Blade for almost a decade. If she says she has intel, she has intel. And Hunk is the least dangerous way she can get it to us." She looked back at Hunk. "Who else was on the schedule today? I haven't seen it since last schedule."

Hunk frowned, scrambling. "Um. I think just Sal. Friday afternoons are usually pretty dead, so they never staff too many of us."

Krolia nodded. "Sal was never big on Zarkon. He's loyal to him, of course. But I think he always just wanted to own his own business, not get caught up with murder. I don't think he would rat out Hunk being there, or if he's even high enough clearance to know that Hunk is part of Voltron."

"So you're saying…it's somewhat safe," Lance said slowly.

"Nothing is ever safe," Krolia said, her jaw line tight. "But so long as you have backup, I don't believe it would be dangerous for you to go in for a brief time. And Coran and I will be your backup here, of course."

Coran nodded and handed over a couple of earpieces. Realization dawned on Hunk as he took one. "You were going to let us go no matter what."

The wry smile that twisted on Coran's face was all he needed. "Would you lot have let me stop you?"

"No," they chorused, putting the earpieces in.

"Go," Krolia said. "We won't say anything, but I can't promise Allura and your families won't notice your absence and not be livid when you return."

Lance's finger gun was cheeky. "We expect nothing less."

Varkon's Café and Bakery. June 10th, 2016. 3:09 pm.

"Okay. I'm in the café's security system. It's on a loop, so anyone watching from anywhere remote won't see you leave," Pidge said from the backseat of Hunk's car. She had multiple laptops and tablets around her. "Coran is monitoring surrounding traffic cameras, to make sure no one comes in or out that isn't civilian."

Lance held his rifle loosely in his lap. "You say the word, you give any kind of distress signal, I'm coming in after you."

"I promise, there is no way that Acxa is going to try and lure you in. She is on our side," Krolia said over the comms.

Lance huffed. "We know. Doesn't mean that no one else is waiting, though. Be careful, buddy."

Hunk gave his friends a weak smile and slung his bag over his shoulder, shutting the driver's door behind him. He had elected to park all the way across the parking lot, in the hopes that it would hide Lance and Pidge from any prying eyes. Despite the warm summer air, he shivered as he approached the door.

There were customers inside when he walked in, the door chiming in an unfairly pleasant way above him. Civilians, he noted, based on how chill they all looked. Still, he kept an eye on them as he approached Acxa, who was watching him with an unimpressed gaze from the register. "Took you long enough to get here," she drawled. "Punch in."

Hunk lifted an eyebrow. "Punch in?"

Acxa's smile was faint, if not sly. "What, gonna spend time here and not get paid by Mr. Galra Head himself?"

Hunk stiffened a little and Acxa rolled her eyes. "Please. If you're here, it means your friends are outside, and it means our security feeds aren't working. Besides, no one knows I called you here. Not even Sal."

"She's good," Lance crackled over his comms.

Hunk allowed himself a small snort. "Fair enough. So where are these "blueprints" you were talking about?" he asked, making finger quotes around the words.

Acxa glanced at the customers, who were oblivious to the conversation happening right in front of them. "Here," she said, gesturing him away from the register and back to the area behind the pastry case, further from the door. She leaned under the counter and pulled out a folder, setting it on the counter and flipping it open, her eyes glancing furtively to the door every few seconds. "What do you think? Booths over here? Or tables over there?"

The blueprints she unrolled were labelled "Varkon's," but the area they depicted were certainly not the café. Instead, it was the inner jail cells of the Galra prison. Hunk hadn't seen them, but Lance and Matt had described them well enough from their visits that he could recognize them. Acxa traced her finger down the page, outlining a corridor. "So I was thinking right here we could put the booths. They'd fit better, don't you think?"

Hunk frowned, leaning over the page. "Where were you thinking of putting the big one?" he asked, gesturing to the corner booth that so many groups liked to occupy. "It's the most important, after all. We need to keep it."

A wry smile twitched faintly on her face – she understood Hunk's innuendo. She leaned over him, following the path of the cells to the very end, closest to the actual interior of the base. "I'm thinking here. There's not a lot of natural light, but it should be good otherwise. There's a loose floorboard there, though, so we'll have to fix that or else someone could get seriously hurt."

Hunk pursed his lips and swallowed. "Not too hurt though, right?"

Acxa didn't answer, merely pressed her finger against an entrance. "This is the entrance, here, so I'm thinking the other tables on either side would be good. Wouldn't be too much interference that way, virtually no one would get in the way. Sound good?"

Hunk clenched his jaw and forced down his frustration at not being able to just say what he wanted to say – he'd always been a straightforward kind of guy, so having to speak in code didn't sit well with him. "Works for me. When is this all taking place?"

"Three days. So on Monday. Probably best to do it between 1:30 and 2, after the lunch rush is over. You free then?"

Hunk's hands were shaking. "I'm free."

Acxa nodded. "Cool. I'll let you in then, cause it's going to be a little wild in here, but after that I'm going to be needed elsewhere, so you'll have to get it all done and locked up on your own. You're welcome to bring a friend if you need."

"Don't worry," Hunk muttered. "I will. I'm sure I won't have to explain much."

Acxa's smirk became a little more pronounced. "Perfect." She looked up at him for the first time since she'd laid out the blueprints. "You need a picture, just to study it so you know what to do when you come in Monday?"

"I'd love a picture," Hunk said, pulling out his phone and taking several shots of the blueprints, sending them instantly to Pidge so that she could back them up. He pocketed his phone again and shoved his hands together flat. "I think it goes without saying I have a family emergency at home and can't be here, as much as I would really, genuinely, like to be here."

He would have loved it.

Hunk liked working with people. He liked working with food. Aside from the whole "gang front," Varkon's was something he'd genuinely enjoyed doing. It hurt, just a little, knowing that he wouldn't be coming back.

Acxa's gaze softened more than Hunk had ever seen it before. "Hopefully if everything goes well for us on Monday, Sal can make sure that you stay."

Hunk lifted an eyebrow, slow. "Is Sal helping us out with the furniture?"

Acxa's eyes glittered. "He won't be helping us, but he won't be stopping us. He hates the current layout. But he also knows he'd be literally killed if he did anything wrong. By his wife," she added, as if an afterthought, but Hunk got it.

"So he is actually on our side," Pidge whispered in Hunk's ear. "Hell yeah."

"But go take care of your emergency," Acxa said, waving him off and shutting the blueprints. "Let me know if there's anything I can do to help. You have my private number."

Hunk nodded. "Thank you, Acxa."

Acxa's gaze darkened, just a little, and she sighed, pressing a hand to her head. "Don't thank me until this is all over, Hunk."

He reached out and squeezed her shoulder; Hunk had never been close with Acxa like he was Keith, but he had a feeling that being completely alone in the belly of the beast wasn't easy for anyone, let alone someone so young. She didn't punch him for it, rather just relaxed a little and waved him off as a customer approached the counter.

The door jingled above him and Hunk jogged to the car, sliding into the driver's seat and finally, finally letting himself loosen up. "You got it all?" he confirmed with Pidge, key hovering over the start.

Pidge held up her laptop. "Every bit."

"Let's go," Lance said, drawing his seatbelt around him and clicking it shut. "Allura is gonna kill us."