Chapter thirteen: Change Of Plans

"You're back!! Thank goodness!!" Slav cried, upon seeing them enter the cockpit. "Wve don't have a lot of powver left for the cloaking; wvhich means wve need to leave like right now! Or wve are doomed in this reality!!"

"We can't just leave Shiro here!" Pidge decided, turning to her brother.

"So what are you thinking?" Matt wondered, attempting to follow her train of thought. And Pidge thought for a moment, searching for a solution.

XXXX

Lance grunted as his lion took a blast to the head, he gripped the handles tighter to avoid spinning out.

"Hurry up, Pidge." He mumbled to himself. And as if on cue, she responded.

"Green Lion, checking in!" She called.

"Yes!! Finally!" The Blue Paladin cried excitedly, as the Green Lion came into view; jetting up from the base in plain site. "Now let's get out of here!"

"No, we can't, Shiro's in there!" Pidge exclaimed in distress.

"What?!" The team gasped together; all having avoid attacks left and right.

"We can't." Pidge repeated, after leveling off her lion. "Shiro's inside the base. We can't leave him here."

"Are you sure?" Allura asked, making her disbelief and doubt quite clear.

"Yes." The Green Paladin confirmed intensely. "He's the reason we got out safely. He.. sacrificed himself for us so we could escape."

"How is that possible?!" Keith breathed, almost talking to himself.

"I don't know, but we've gotta do something!" Pidge cried. She grimaced as a shower of enemy fire rained down on her. Forcing herself to look up at her attackers, she managed to thrust her lion's head up to blast them with her lasers.

"Paladins, we're seeing movement from all four lions. Has the target been acquired?!" Kolivan called over the com, a rigidity to his tone.

"Yes, Matt has been rescued. But there's been a change of plans..." Allura called back, barrel rolling her lion through the wreckage of Galra fighters destroyed by her lasers. "It appears Shiro's alive and trapped inside the base. We must get to him, as soon as possible."

"We may not be able to right now." Kolivan returned worriedly. "We've already lost half our fleet. We may not be able to hold out long enough to retrieve him. Do you know his location?"

"Augh! Working on that now!" Pidge called, tapping at the screen to her right. This, however, was halted by a blast to her lion's side; throwing her off balance. "-I just need a few more minutes." She said recovering herself and resumed typing.

"We got you covered, Pidge!" Lance called. "Do what you can."

"The cloaking power has been restored." Slav mentioned. "Wvould that help?"

"That's perfect!" Matt said. "Pidge!"

"On it!" Pidge cried, reading her brother's mind and thrusting her lion forward. With this action, the lion blasted forward and disappeared with the cloaking.

"We need to land again." Matt thought aloud, searching the screen. "There! Land on the edge of the planet's spike overlooking the base." The Green Lion lowered down to the ground, and Pidge began typing again.

"Are you sure he was wearing his Paladin armor?" Matt asked, peering over her shoulder at what she was doing.

"Yes. He had to be. He was still wearing it when we lost him." Pidge replied, half distracted by her work.

"Wait.. Lost him?" Matt echoed. "How could you lose Shiro?"

"It's a long story." Pidge replied simply. "I'll explain later." Now fully focused on what she was doing, she typed faster. "Come on, come on!" She mumbled to herself.

XXXX

Knees painfully hit the floor, as Shiro was pushed down before another cloaked figure.

"Welcome Champion." Haggar greeted, with a sickening, and presumably sarcastic, amount of warmth. "You have finally returned, after a considerable amount of time.. But it matters not... your absence has only delayed my plans." She lifted her hand toward him. "And now it is time to begin.. again." A ball of yellowish energy grew in her hand to the size of a golf ball. Shiro could almost feel that energy reach out to him, as he tried to resist. Putting up an immense fight, he could feel the energy burning his eyes; drawing him in as they began to take on that same yellowish glow...

XXXX

"There!" Pidge squeaked, as a blipping dot on her map popped up onto the screen. "I've locked on to his suit's unique signature! Allura! Fire just next to his location."

"Affirmative!" Allura responded. Suddenly the dot began to move at a rapid pace away from its original position.

"Wait! Do not fire!" Pidge cried, and the dot stopped again a short time later. "Now!!" Allura hit the laser immediately, upon hearing the command; blasting a hole into the base. At that moment, more cruisers and fighters arrived to assist.

"Uh.. If you're gonna get Shiro, now would be the time!" Lance cried, beginning an assault on the incoming ships. Pidge thrust her lion forward, diving its head into the newly created hole.

Shiro had just severely damaged another sentry when the Green Lion's Head poked through the hole.

"Shiro, let's go!" Pidge called over a speaker. Shiro looked up and began to head that way. A damaged sentry grabbed his ankle, knocking him off balance and he hit his head on the wall; hitting the floor afterwards. Matt leapt out of the Green Lion's open jaws and grabbed Shiro draping his arm over his shoulder.

"We're clear, Pidge!" Matt called after dragging Shiro into Green's mouth. "Let's get out of here!" The lion retracted out of the hole and took off for the skies once more. And as the Lions retreated, they pounded their way through the Galra barricade attempting to block them in; but let nothing deter them from escaping to the waiting Castle of Lions; who provided covering fire to aid in their escape. They finished the mission with one final shower of lasers and cannons and, then leaving via wormhole and hyperdrive.

XXXX

The Green Lion's jaws parted, as it lowered its head. Pidge and Matt stood at the exit with Shiro's arms draped over their shoulders; both exhausted from all the excitement. They descended the ramp as soon as it went down, and laid Shiro on the floor, as the team arrived to join them. Now able to get a better look, they could see his features had been dulled by lack of sleep and, likely, unhealthy conditions.

"We need to get him to the medical bay." Keith said, standing over him with concern written all over his face.

XXXX

His breaths pierced his lungs, a heavy throb drumming on his head to a steady beat; which he realized was his own heartbeat. Shiro began to force his eyes open, the gentle light above him stung his pupils harshly; as he remembered how much he hurt. And in case he had forgotten, any attempt to move nipped and screamed for him to stop. He shifted his upper body ever so slightly and felt a delicate tension on his chest; likely due to the sensors they'd placed on him.

"Dim the lights." The muffled voice of Keith said, as he looked toward someone to his left. Shiro's blurred vision watched, as the person in which the Red Paladin spoke turned away from him where they were. The lights faded a bit more, as Keith leaned in closer to where he could clearly see him; his vision finally clearing completely.

"Shiro?" His voice was calm and tender; but Shiro knew he was panicking inside.

"You found me." The Black Paladin breathed, with a weak smile surfacing across his face. Keith couldn't hide a slight smile of his own, even despite the panic in his heart; which was somewhat put at ease by this reaction.

"We just got you to the infirmary." Keith told him gently. "We're gonna take care of you now. Okay."

"Okay." Shiro croaked, after clearing his throat dryly. They had begun to remove Shiro's cloak, when Pidge suddenly stopped to stare at something.

"What is it, Pidge." Keith asked as he and the rest of the team drew closer;... but what they saw was both shocking and heartbreaking! Underneath the plain ragged clothing, was, in fact, wearing his armor, though the left side of it was completely torched in a fan-like shape extending from Shiro's hip to his chest. The wounded was clearly festering and had been bleeding quite profusely; and they could even see bits of hand prints from where it had been touched.

"What happened to you?" Lance breathed. The painful sight nearly brought them all to tears. Pidge cut off the cloak from a single point along his clavicle, up toward his face; and spread it down out of their way. Then, with assistance from Keith, turned him onto his side. In doing so, she noticed that the burn extended down his back as well. Like some kind of explosion occurred, leaving its mark across his body from the left side; taking with it the flesh on his body. The burns appeared to be at different stages of healing in some parts, and evidence of swelling and irritation displayed itself quite clearly. As you could imagine the act of movement brought a considerable amount of pain, and remained so; as they laid him flat again.

"There's so much infection here." Pidge stated, looking up at Keith.

"What do we do about it?" He asked.

"We take it one step at a time." Matt's voice suddenly stole their attention, and they all looked to see him leaning against the door post behind them.

"Matt, you should be resting." Pidge told him flatly, as she continued to assess Shiro. "We got this."

"I'm not gonna rest until I know Shiro's ok." Matt insisted, walking, hunched over toward, them. "He's more than just a Legend, you know." He followed up simply. "He's... like family."

"I know what you mean." Keith agreed, turning from him to Shiro as he spoke.

"Well you won't be much help to him, if you don't rest yourself." Pidge replied dryly still focused more on Shiro, than her brother.

Hey guys here's the next chapter! Can't wait to hear your thoughts on it and I'll see you next time! Thx!!!