Hunk cursed as the wrench slipped and clattered to the ground. His hand slammed into the metal plating and hardware. He grabbed his wrist and hissed through his teeth. Muttering a few choice words, Hunk bent to pick up the wrench. The simple machine he'd been making to heat their water more efficiently let out a low whine in complaint as something broke loose. Fine. He was tired of working on it anyway.

Emerging from the utility room, he rubbed his face, smearing grease up his cheeks and into his hair. He was so tired, but he really needed a shower, though he knew better than to hope for a hot one. The boilers weren't meant to keep up with the demands of so many people. He weaved down the hall toward the locker rooms. Almost everyone was asleep this late. Passing rooms, he heard the gentle snoring of children or the hushed conversations of their parents and the other adults. Hunk caught the glassy fear in a man's eyes as he looked over at the approaching footsteps.

Hunk wanted to muster some kind of response. Vengeance. Retribution. He didn't get anything clear like that. Anger. Only anger. Anger at the aliens. Anger at the painfully slow progress they were making toward learning about the foreign technology. Anger at himself for struggling so much to be of any help.

He grabbed a worn towel from the pile stacked near the showers and walked into the dark stall. Blindly groping the wall, he found the knobs and turned on the water, not even flinching when the cool water hit the back of his neck. He closed his eyes and let the water run down his back for a half a minute, but he could already feel the slight warmth start to chill. Pushing the soap dispenser, he shut off the water and rubbed the minuscule amount of cleanser between his hands. Within a minute, he'd done all he could to clean up and reached to turn on the water. Another minute and he turned it back off, grabbing his towel and wrapping it around his waist while he wrung his hair.

Hunk sniffed his clothes and grimaced. He knew it was petty to complain, but he wished that he could deep clean his clothes. No. That wouldn't be enough. Burning them would be a better way of getting rid of the foul odor that bothered even him now. Sighing, he went to the bench of the locker room and sat. He waited there thinking. What could they do? What could he do? Morale had shifted negatively since the day the aliens nearly took him. Not only was their resistance crawling uphill, they were now fighting a rising tide of panic that threatened to swallow them whole.

He put his head in his hands. Were his friends all asleep now? He didn't want to disturb them, but he didn't want to confront them either. He knew they knew he was upset about what had happened... but he didn't want to face Pidge. He couldn't. He wasn't brave enough. So he waited.

"You missed drills again."

Hunk fixed his towel before he recognized Ina in the shadows of the doorway. He leaned back and folded his arms over his chest. "This is the men's locker room, Leif."

She shrugged and entered without a single care given. "We've all seen each other naked more often than me and my siblings. When are you going to stop hiding?"

Hunk lifted his shoulders toward his ears and said, "If I were hiding, you wouldn't find me."

"Hunk... I know you better than most." Ina sat beside him and crossed her ankles. Linking her elbow in his, she waited a moment before insisting, "So why are you hiding?"

Hunk scrunched up his face and looked away. Ina seemed content to sit here... and it wasn't like he could leave with his dignity. Groaning, he noticed she sat on the edge of his towel and kicked his clothes under the far bench. She wasn't going to let him hide much longer. Without turning, he asked, "Is James mad at me? Is that why you're here?"

She shook her head. "He's worried, not mad. We all are... Though Nadia will lose her patience soon."

Hunk put his face in a hand and moped, "It's... this is just... so hard. Nothing has changed. Are we really making a difference?"

"Yes."

Hunk finally looked at her. There wasn't a breath of doubt in her words or the stare in her eyes. She stood and straightened her shirt. "You know Katie is much better at this than I am." She nudged his clothes back to him with the side of her foot and said on her way out the door, "Don't make her wait any longer. And if she cries, you won't live long enough to regret it."

The door shut, blocking out the thin light from the red emergency lights on the ceiling in the hall. Despite the fact that the temperature didn't change, Hunk felt a shiver run down his back. Oh no... He hadn't actually made Pidge cry, had he? Forgetting about the stench of his clothes, he quickly dressed and went to the back staircase and climbed two at a time.

He kept his pace slow enough not to stomp and wake everyone up on his way to the third floor music room. He barely made it in the door before someone grabbed the back of his shirt collar. "Whoa! Hey, wha-"

Whoever had hold of him steered him toward the closet where Ryan unfolded his arms and opened the door. "Guys, what's going-"

Ryan glared and said as Hunk was jerked to a halt, "She hasn't come out all afternoon. Help her."

Then he was shoved into the closet. He caught his balance against the back and turned to see his team mates in varying stages of anxiety before he was closed in darkness. Something shifted by his feet and he heard Pidge ask sleepily, "Mmm, is someone there?"

Hunk sighed and slowly bent his knees running his hand down the wall. He landed on hair, his hand covering half of Pidge's face, and she let out a muffled, "Oof!"

"Sorry, Pidge," Hunk hissed.

Pidge's hands found his. He scooted next to her and slid down the wall. She gripped his hand tighter. Her head fell sideways into the hollow of his shoulder. He swallowed a lump in his throat and wrapped an arm behind her in the dark. He'd been too nervous to sleep with his friends, choosing to stay down in the bunker sleeping when he could. But this was comfortable. This was comforting.

Still, that didn't make this any easier. There was a giant purple elephant in the room... and he didn't really know how to approach the topic. They hadn't spoken about what had happened in the school yard three days ago and Pidge didn't really seem like she wanted to. He finally asked, "You okay?"

Katie shrugged and made a noncommittal noise. They sat in utter silence. After a couple minutes, she whispered, "You smell like motor oil."

"Sorry," Hunk instantly apologized. Immediately self conscious, he explained, "The showers-"

"It's okay," Katie murmured, leaning more of her weight into him. She was so small. So vulnerable. She shivered and mumbled, "It doesn't bother me. It's familiar. It's you."

Hunk rested the back of his head against the wall and bit his lip hard. Shrugging out of his jacket, he cuddled up with her and covered them both. "How have things been up here?"

Katie's breathing started to deepen and she answered sleepily, "Like flavorless white bread. I haven't been able to think about anything long enough to make progress... not since that. What have you been doing?"

"Not enough."

Katie shifted, somehow getting even closer. Her heart beat against his chest and her hair tickled his chin. She asked, "Can I help you in the morning?"

Hunk blinked slowly. She was warm and what little sleep he'd been getting was finally catching up to him. He yawned and rubbed his eyes. "Yeah." She didn't respond. Hunk heard faint snoring and closed his eyes. They could talk more when they woke up.

Shiro leaned into the wall and shuddered. His right arm was almost constantly in pain now. The spasms and random attacks had left his arm deadened. He could move it with difficulty, but the sensations were gone. It may as well be rotting away. He couldn't feel anything except the dull ache burning through his arm. Like ants beneath his skin, he could imagine the disease slowly crawling into the rest of his body. It was some minuscule parasite, waiting, sucking the life out of him before moving into the rest of him.

"Mr. Shirogane, take a break."

He shook his head and tried to refocus, struggling to ignore the pain. "I can keep going."

The doctor, Erin Levas, put a hand on his forehead. She looked at his eyes and then checked his pulse. "It's not a suggestion, Takashi. I am your physician and you must rest." She punctuated her statement with a glare.

Shiro rolled his eyes and slipped the med-pack off his good shoulder. She took it and knelt beside the man they were here to help. He coughed, a thick phlegmy sound. Shiro knew that cough. He'd been following the doctor long enough to recognize the sounds made by a dying man. The doctor had been calling it miner's hack. That wasn't inaccurate. It was caused by their environment and the cruel living conditions. But the true name was pneumonia. Bacterial pneumonia leading to sepsis.

Blood toxicity. The man's skin was already starting to discolor in patches and the veins were an unhealthy shade on his hands. In a hospital, the odds were low that someone could recover from this level of septic shock. Imprisoned and enslaved... none of them had a prayer. The doctor knew all of this and more.

Shiro took an oppressed breath through the makeshift face mask the doctor had insisted on. He hated the aliens. They had forced this... this leper colony. This small chamber in the mine was the only sickroom the slaves of the empire would ever see. Even if they could make it back to the cell blocks, they'd only be removed and... and... Shiro clenched his good fist and held his breath. Pushing off the wall, he returned to the doctor's side.

Erin spared him a glance before giving her attention to the patient in front of her. She helped prop him up on his side so he wouldn't aspirate anything he coughed up as he slept and moved on to the next patient. A handful of healthy adults worked here as well. In their past lives, two had been nurses, one a dentist, another a veterinarian and yet another a combat medic. Shiro averted his gaze as two of them approached the side where a particular elderly woman had been struggling. They tried to wake her up. There was no point.

Erin tugged on Shiro's arm and they moved to the opposite side. He knew she was trying to spare him as the corpse was covered and then carried to the entrance and out of sight. Even though they'd been the first to arrive, the doctor hadn't taken them near that corner. It wasn't like he had no experience seeing dead bodies. He was a soldier, for crying out loud.

"Takashi, hand me the antibacterial spray."

Shiro was forced from his thoughts. Digging through the satchel, he found what the doctor had asked for and held it out. He felt momentary bitter relief when he saw they were treating the less severe cases. The ones more likely to recover. Injuries from the mine and sinus infections. That sort of sickness.

When they finally left the mine, a weary depression sank in. How many of the sick wouldn't make it through the night? How many new faces would be waiting, scared and hysterical in their cell block?

"Takashi, I need you to look at me."

Shiro blinked several times and noticed that Erin was holding his face in her hands, rough fingers cradling his jaw. He was on the ground. Sitting up, he put a hand to his head. There was a numbing buzz on the side of his skull and a weird fog in his mind. The people around him had backed up to give him space, but there was concern from few of them.

Erin reached out and forced him to lie down. She turned his head to look at her and explained, "You're going to be alright. Just focus on breathing for me."

Shiro swallowed as his emotions rose unbidden and he started trembling. Erin reached into her bag and then shook out a thin blanket. Tucking it around Shiro's chest and wrapping his arms to him, she went on, "You blacked out from traumatic shock, Takashi. It's completely normal. 'Shell shock' happens to most of us in the ER. I knew it was just a matter of time. Deep breaths."

Shiro couldn't stop shaking. Damn it! How fucking useless was he?! Shoes squeaked and a warm hand brushed his hair back. He turned to look at Adam, but he couldn't move more from the trembling. Shiro closed his eyes, hot tears leaking from the corner. Useless.

"Make sure he eats and stays hydrated. Keep him warm. It'll pass in time."

"Thank you, doctor." Adam sucked a breath through his teeth and asked, "Can you stand, Takashi?"

"I think so," Shiro answered through chattering teeth. He felt Adam's hand behind his shoulders and caught the blanket before it could fall. Adam's jacket was hot around him. It made the shivers less severe.

Adam walked him to the wall and they sat. Adam fussed about him for several minutes, but Shiro didn't care. There was only one thing on his mind. He mumbled deliriously.

"Shhhh, Takashi." Adam embraced Shiro, smothering him in warmth. "It won't come to that. I promise. I promise, you won't die alone. I swear it."

"What's going on?!"

Coleen shot Lance 'the look' and turned back to speak to Krolia. Lance pulled at his hair and screamed in frustration. Stomping away, he grit his teeth. Two days had passed and he didn't know if anyone had found Keith or the red lion. Fine. He and Blue could handle this.

Blue stood when he started towards her. A hand on his shoulder didn't stop him. It tightened and talons dug into his shirt. Turning, he glared at Thace and demanded, "What?!"

Thace kept a firm grip on Lance's shirt and used his other hand to clumsily sign, "Stop."

Lance shrugged violently out of his hold and challenged with wide arms, "Why? It's not like I have a reason. Keith. Is. Missing! Why won't anyone tell me anything? Oh wait, I'm dead fucking weight!"

Thace started signing again. Lance caught what looked like the start of 'calm down' before he turned away. Blue echoed his indignation. He jogged two steps when arms hooked beneath his. His arms were then pulled back, bending him to a forty five degree angle. Thace put his hands on the back of Lance's head, effectively pinning him where he stood. Lance struggled and protested, "Let me go!"

His feet slipped and he fell, but Thace didn't let him hit the ground with force. Lance's movements slowed as he realized Thace wasn't going to release him while he was antagonized. Though it didn't help that Thace's even breaths hit the back of his ear. Closing his eyes, he huffed and forced himself to relax. After a minute, Thace still hadn't let go. Then Blue roared.

Lance looked up to see the lion pacing before them. Her jaws were parted in threat, nose scrunched and eyes narrowed. She hissed and extended her claws. Lance couldn't feel anything except the ground vibrating from her. Thace's breaths hit his ear, the pattern matching that of speech he couldn't hear.

Suddenly Coleen was there. She knelt and put a hand on his cheek, then looked at the lion with wide eyed fear. Her hand shook as she signed, "Call her off."

Lance swallowed and said, "I'm alright, beautiful. They aren't hurting me." Blue crouched, her hindquarters preparing to pounce. Lance said over his shoulder, "Let me go. She's only trying to protect me." Coleen paled and looked between the lion and Thace. Then the hands on the back of his head slowly let go. Lance relaxed his shoulders and reached out. "Come on, Blue. It's okay. They're just as scared as you are."

The lion growled a final time, eyes flitting between them, before she lowered her hackles and crawled forward. Her warm nose touched Lance's hand and she tilted her chin to nuzzle him. Lance braced and hugged her. "Okay, we're okay." Surprisingly, his anger from before had evaporated. Turning back to Thace, he sighed and walked away. Blue paced beside him until they faced the lake. She laid on her side facing the sunset. Lance sat between her front feet and asked, "Is Red with him?"

Blue lowered her head and nudged against him with a comforting purr. Lance took calming breaths and folded his legs into the lotus yoga pose. The tension that had been building started to release as he worked through the routine. He went from a supported shoulderstand to a supported headstand when he noticed someone stood just beyond Blue's shadow.

He flicked his hair out of his eyes and blinked at Coleen and Brad. Brad signed something, but upside down, Lance wasn't quite sure what it was. He controlled his descent and sat cross legged. Shrugging, he asked, "What is it?"

Coleen looked at the lion and signed, "Is she still angry?"

Lance shook his head. "She was only upset because I was." He looked away sheepishly. "We're chill now."

Coleen's quick footsteps made him look back and he barely braced before she hugged him. Lance saw Brad sign, "Don't scare us like that."

Lance looked at the ground and admitted, "I just want to help."

Coleen sat back on her heels and signed, "We know, Lance, but right now, taking care of yourself is just as important."

"But-"

Brad shook his head with a half smirk and crouched by him. Ruffling Lance's hair, he signed, "You aren't immortal, kiddo. Trust your teachers. We're close. The assassins are forming a plan to rescue Keith. Me and Chad are going with them in the morning."

Lance sat up straighter and looked from Coleen to Brad. "Wait, can I-"

"You're staying here with me and the other refugees," Coleen signed.

"But-" Lance tried again. He cut himself off and looked at the ground. That was why Thace had stopped him. "Where's Ulaz?"

Coleen tilted her head in confusion. Brad signed, "He got back from recon a little while ago."

Lance nodded and stood. "I'm gonna talk to him. Coleen, can you help translate?"

Coleen smiled and wrapped an arm around him. "Of course, sweetheart."

Blue watched him leave before closing her eyes. Lance smiled. They were starting to synchronize like Red and Keith had while he was comatose. It was such a weird feeling. Like he suddenly had a twin who was also a ridiculously overprotective aunt he also felt compelled to take care of.

The walk back to camp gave Lance barely enough time to steel his resolve. Keith had said they were just kids to the assassins, but he wouldn't let them push him around. He'd get a straight answer.

Ulaz took a drink from his canteen formed from some animal they'd hunted and turned to Chad and Krolia. He used a stick to draw in the ashes of a long dead fire. Krolia frowned and pointed to something. Ulaz tipped his head. Chad looked at Lance and hit Ulaz's arm with the back of his hand. Ulaz used a foot to erase the drawing and leaned back.

The calm from minutes before threatened to crack. Keith. This was about him. This was for him. Lance took a deep breath like he'd seen Keith do countless times when he trained with Thace and stood tall. He stopped before the three of them and announced, "I want to join the mission."

Chad pursed his lips and stood. Patting Ulaz on the shoulder, he went to see how supper was coming along. Lance felt a twinge of annoyance bloom in his chest. Chad knew how capable he was. The fact he wouldn't defend him now stung more than any bad scores he might have given on the shooting range. Lance bit back a snide comment. Snark wouldn't help his case here.

Instead, he stood patiently, but he struggled not to clench his fists. Krolia sat up. Her scrutiny sent cold sweat down his back. He suppressed a shudder and stood at attention as if the admiral herself were inspecting his unit. Krolia blinked slowly and faced Ulaz, a curtain of hair hiding her expression.

After a moment, Ulaz raised an eyebrow, his gaze flicking to Lance and back. Ulaz waved a hand and dipped his head. The respect he had toward Keith's mother was akin to royalty. Krolia stood with perfect grace and reached for her belt. Removing her pistol, she looked to Coleen, then Lance, and spoke. When she finished, Lance watched Coleen sign, "She wants to see how far you can shoot. Pick a target."

Lance exhaled and reached out. Krolia let him take the gun with a curious half smile. Grinding his jaw, he looked the pistol over. It had no safety that he could see. He'd fired one like it twice before. From memory, he tried to recall the accuracy. The only weapon that compared was the long range rifles he'd trained with at the garrison, but this gun had no scope.

Looking into the distance, he considered the options. A tree ten meters out was too easy. A small bird hopped twenty five meters past that. He blinked and lifted the pistol. "Past the bird, the rock at the top of the hill. The center where it narrows." His finger rested against the trigger and he aimed down the sight. He exhaled and pulled back. The bird took flight. He lowered the pistol and fought against disappointment. The boulder smoked, but not where he'd aimed. He'd nearly missed it entirely.

Turning back, he kept his chin high. Ulaz's was unreadable, but Krolia was an enigma. Lance had absolutely no idea what she was thinking. He tried to keep his emotions out of his eyes and held out the pistol, barrel down. Krolia looked from the rock to the gun. Her gaze lifted to his and she spoke. She waited for Coleen to translate.

Lance looked over as Coleen hesitated in shock. Krolia nodded toward Lance and seemed to insist. Coleen bit her lip, clearly upset, and signed, "Don't let her take the gun."

Lance startled, but before he could ask, Krolia rushed him. He dodged and blocked a kick he only recognized because Keith favored it when they'd spar. She made a grab to disarm him. He blocked again and threw an elbow. She lithely moved out of range with a smirk and returned the blow ten fold. Lance couldn't keep up with her movements and she caught his dominant arm. Extending his arm, she braced against his shoulders and flipped them. She rolled to her feet, spun the pistol, and slid it back into her holster. Lance groaned flat on his back.

Coleen knelt by him and helped him sit up. He coughed and saw her yelling at Krolia. Krolia's smirk didn't fall as she lifted her chin and answered with a look of pride at Lance. Coleen's jaw dropped and she whipped around to stare at the boulder. Krolia's smirk softened and she knelt beside Lance. She rested her hand on his head and lightly ruffled his hair. Holding eye contact, she slowly signed, "You are very brave and strong, but you must stay behind."

Lance felt the confidence he'd built up shatter in his chest. He shut his eyes to fight the sting of tears. Soft lips kissed his forehead and the comfort of Krolia's warm hand vanished. He swallowed his tears and watched her stand up. She turned, the grace once again evident in every movement, and walked past Ulaz. He fell in behind her and lifted his hood.

Coleen let him gather himself for a few minutes before pulling him to his feet. He leaned into her side and asked, "Am I really not good enough?"

Like Krolia before, Coleen kissed his temple and squeezed him to her side. "You heard her. You shouldn't doubt yourself." Her words brought little comfort.

*Sugarcoated voice* Remember when I said this was a dark story? Yeah... we're back to that, baby! Review please!