"Now, before you leave this prison, let me finish what I started," the voice breaks through my fog of pain, "killing you," she spatted before I heard another lightning bolt about to be released.

I feel a quick adrenaline rush as I quickly get up from the floor, despite the pain in my back, and make an X with my arms in front of me as I make my outer layer quintessence form a shield to block the shot. I feel the lightning hit the shield, making me slide back a few feet before I pushed the attack out back to the witch. I let my arms fall to my sides, but I follow the attack with my eyes, so I see the witch sidestep the attack as she smirks.

"Well, this makes this more fun," she croaks.

The witch's hood has fallen off her head so I can see her ruined Altean marks, and how her eyes shine brighter. She puts her hands in front of her, her palms facing each other, as a purple ball of energy is formed. I copy her movements, making a dark marron energy ball. We just stand like that for a moment, staring each other off. She wears her smirk as her eyes glow, I wear my glare as I fear some of my Galran features start to show, my sclera turning a neon yellow like the witch before me as my iris slits as my vision narrows on the foe before me. It is silent…

Then she lets out a roar that rocks the Astral Plane, and I match her with my own battle cry before there is just blinding light on both ends of the white room. Light gleams off the mirrors, the temperature seems to have dropped as well as heated up. The energy in the room being used as well as being replenished. It's a light show as the two beams of power clash.

I grunt under her power, her beam creeping closer to me. I hear her laugh as her beams grows stronger and get closer to me, showing more of the purple color than the red. With a battle cry I press back, ignoring the burning of my wounds as I feel ice cold sweat drip down my back, I push out more of my quintessence, taking some from my core and push back as I feel the power warp into something else. I see as my beam has turned into a neon blue fire that quickly burns her power, creeping closer and closer to the witch. I hear a grumble on her end as I feel her try to push back, but I start to walk closer to her, pushing back the power toward the witch.

I grunt under the power, feeling my arms tremble, but I know that if I fail stopping her long enough to get to the phone booth, I know that I will never get out of this Astral Plane alive. So, with all the force I can put in, I push forward. Every step I take, she takes one back. I get closer and closer and closer…

A violent scream echoes in the room…

The mirrors all break into shards, cutting the two occupants in the room…

A blast that makes both persons fly backwards…

It is silent. Nothing happens for a very long while. Then something shifts. A harsh cough…

I get to my knees and arms and push up of the ground, leaning on the part of the wall where no mirror shard could cut me too badly. I shakily inhale as I feel my adrenaline start to leave my system. I hear some shuffling on the other side of the room as I see white hair start to move. My eyes widen as I start to quickly limp to the pay phone, seeing as it is the only thing standing.

I hear a growl before a crackling noise that follows my moves…

"You will remember this fight, as the next time we meet, you won't be so lucky," and the pain that follows makes sure I will not forget.

It's a burning pain that hit's my left calf, but I finally reach the phone as I quickly pick it up to my ear as I hear the witch's scream of rage fade.

(O_O)

Keith let out a half scream through his teeth that made me clench my own. He looked horrible. I put my hand on his chest, making sure I didn't aggravate any of the major burns. I looked back at Allura as I caught her biting her nails again with wide eyes as she stared at Keith.

There was a second of silence. Then it was broken by Keith sitting up with a horrible scream that seemed to have brought tears to Allura's eyes. His eyes shot open and I saw his amethyst pupils almost get consumed by the pupil. His arms were around his ribs before he seemed to just have collapsed, almost falling off the cot if I wasn't there to steady him. He was shaking violently as his breathing seemed to have got more frantic, like he was trying to gulp air, but wasn't able to actually get in any oxygen into his system.

"Allura," I spoke to Allura, making her look up at me, "help me get Keith into a suit," I command gently.

She hesitated a second, looking at Keith a final time before she nodded and rushed over to grab a suit as I started to strip him. It was difficult trying to get his slave clothes off of him without hurting him too badly, but it seemed like no matter what I did, I couldn't avoid the wince or groan of pain that came out of my brother's mouth. By the time Allura finally came back with the suit, he was only in his boxers, and the injuries that littered the pale skin of the former paladin almost made me throw up.

It seemed like the skin was a canvas of bruises, blood, gashes, cuts, and burns that speckled along the body, almost hiding any of the pale skin. It was sickening that at such a young age, Keith had to experience this amount of pain in a war that we weren't involved until at most a year ago. It was sickening.

I look over to Allura to see her hands up to her mouth as she seemed to be shaking her head while she silently cried. A sharp gasp from Keith made me put my hand on Allura. She looked over to me as I just nod to Keith. She nodded and we put him into the white cryo-suit, though it turned red the second the fabric was placed on any of the wounds. Keith let out horrible sounds throughout the whole process, making me have to swallow my tears.

Once Keith was in a cryo-suit, we heard Coran's pod beeping, warning everyone that the pod was about to open. Allura ran to the coms to warn everybody about Coran. I quickly lifted up Keith and walked him over to his prepped pod. I heard a groan from him and looked down to see his eyes barely open.

"Hey buddy," I whisper to him.

"H'ro?" he slurred as he blinked a couple of times.

"Yeah, it's me," I tighten my hold on him for a second before I speak again, "You did good buddy, you escaped and now you can rest," and after a second, he does just that.

I put him in the pod, as soon as he is stable, Coran comes out of his own. I see him fall forward in the princess' arms as she place a blanket over his shoulder. I walk over to the pad that did a scan of Keith once I put him in the pod and looked over his injuries.

His ribs seemed to have broken twice and cracked many times, making me think of the pain he had to endure to just breathe. He seemed to have dislocated his right shoulder, his left wrist was broken, and a moderate concussion. He had gashes, bruises, and cuts. He also had different types of burns, some that seemed to have been made from magic, some that looked like he got because of electricity, and some from something hot.

It seems that it will take a movement to heal all his injuries and replenish his quintessence. Seven quintants of waiting. I heard the other paladins come in and heard them gasp, probably at both happiness that Coran was healed, and Keith was finally in a pod, but also some of the visible wounds that littered Keith's face and blood that showed through the cryo-suit.