Chapter 12

A/N: Alright! New chapter! Sorry for the wait. Anyways, I just own the story and my OCs Jaz, Darvah, and others who we'll meet later!

/comms/

Flashbacks/telepathy

"Bold is ship intercoms because I don't think they really count as comlinks"

Everyone stood around Pidge as she typed on a monitor as they looked through Sendak's memories for intel they could use to their advantage. "Surely somewhere in Sendak's memories we should be able to find the inside information that gives us the key to take down Zarkon," Allura smirked.

"I don't think your father would approve of searching through an enemy's memories," Coran chided.

"My mother would," Jaz smiled.

"I believe we should do everything we can to defeat Zarkon."

"Once we learn all his weaknesses, we can drive up to his front door and challenge him to a fight," Lance said punching his fist into his palm. "Winner gets the universe!"

"Nunon fod Zu'u lor hi vistni ofaal naan hinzaaliik [Just when I thought you couldn't get any dumber]," Jaz sighed as Lance made a sound mixing between protest and betrayed.

"Anything good yet Pidge?"

"We were only able to salvage bits and pieces."

Keith sighed, running a hand through his hair. "We need something to work with. Right now, we don't even have a decent map of the empire."

"Who needs a map?" Lance questioned raising an eyebrow. "After ten thousand years of conquering, I'm pretty sure I could fire my bayard into any random point in space and hit a Galra ship."

"But we have to keep in mind that the Galra aren't the only bad guys we could be up against," Jaz stated. "The universe is a big place. I guarantee there are worse things out there than the Galra."

"Like the Hive!" Coran commented. "Those things were real nasty. Known for—"

"Now's not the time for one of your crazy stories Coran," Lance interrupted.

"If we could just find troop locations or supply routes, small targets we could hit-and-run, then we could start to free planets one by one," Shiro suggested.

"That might take awhile."

"Boring! I want the big kaboom!"

"Zarkon's been building his empire for ten thousand years, we're not going to tear it down overnight with five intexperienced pilots, one support ship, and Jaz's magic."

Jaz flipped a piece of azure hair off her shoulder, "I wasn't saying we were. But we should hit some major points too, otherwise any planets we free will be susceptible to being reconquered."

"Ok, I've cross-referenced Sendak's memories with the info I got from the downloaded ship on Arus," Pidge announced. "Most of it was a garbled mess, but one thing kept repeating, something called a 'Universal Station.'"

"Universal Station? Like the kind of station that controls the whole universe?" Hunk questioned.

"Well we are translating it from Galra so it could also mean 'Galactic Hub'," Katie corrected.

"Or 'Space Base,'" Lance smirked.

"Hilarious."

"I know right?"

"I mean the fact that you think you're funny," Jaz snickered as Shiro tossed her an annoyed glance.

"I'm pulling up the location of your Universal Hub Station Base," Coran stated walking over to the controls and pulling up a feed of the location.

On the screen, three celestial bodies appeared, but none appeared big enough to house a Galra base.

"So…where is it?"

"Don't know," Coran replied as he typed, "our long ranage sensors are unable to find anything at those coordinates."

"Maybe he remembered it wrong," Keith sighed.

"Or maybe we just stumbled across a top-secret base in Sendak's memories," Pidge grinned evilly.

"They could be using cloaking technology," Jaz offered crossing her arms, "that's what we did during the war with the House of Wolves."

"There's only one way to find out, we need to take a look," Allura declared.

-.-

"We should be close enough to scan, but far enough away to avoid being noticed," Allura said as they flew closer to the area. Somewhere in the back they heard Hunk fall off the chair he'd been sleeping on with a cry.

Flying close behind the gas planet, they came around and saw a base floating a large asteroid.

"There it is."

"Appears that the gravitation from the two planets, warps the electron emission spectrum enough to keep the base off the deep soace scanners," Coran informed.

"So you can only see it if you really know where to look," Pidge muttered.

"Smart," Jaz murmured watching the flow of ships.

"This place must handle shipments from all over the Galra empire," Shiro murmured.

"If this is just a big airport where shipments come and go, why is it hidden?"

"Because this is where they most-likely ship the classified stuff," Jaz stated, "fuel, weapons, things like that. Those are just what you'd want to keep hidden from your enemies."

"We should go down there and confirm," Allura stated and a small part of the base flashed, "this is where we'll need to enter. The central control building."

Keith nodded, the central controls would have all the information on what was being—wait… "I'm sorry Princess. Did you say 'we'?" he asked.

"I'm going with you," Allura said calmly.

"You didn't just expect us to sit around now did you?" Jaz teased slinging an arm over her friend's shoulder.

"You? No. Her? Yes."

Allura's eyebrow twitched for a moment, "I've traveled through the Galra transportation hubs many times with my father before the war began. I know more about them than any of you."

"Did you know the difference between civilian and military?"

"They were military hubs."

"Were they top-secret though? Functions change depending on classification," he stated.

"Princess, I'd rather you stay here," Coran said coming to Keith's aid.

"I'm apart of this fight against Zarkon as much as anyone. I'm going. Does anyone have a problem with that?"

"Uh…"

"Ye—" Keith started before Jaz slapped her palm over his mouth before yelping and quickling yanking it back.

"Did you just lick my hand?!"

"Don't put it over my mouth!"

"Fine. Suit up," Shiro answered and Coran muffled a frustraited scream. "We'll go in low and fast, and hopefully undetected, coming around the darkside of the nearest planet should keep them from getting a visual on us. Thanks to Pidge's modifications to the Green Lion, we'll have thirty seconds of cloaking."

"I can flood their sensors with a radiation burst," Coran offered. "That should buy you a minute or so while they assume it's cosmic interference. But after that it's up to you to be out of sight."

-.-

"Interference clear in three. Two. One," a sentry said as the commander on deck gave a loud yawn.

"Psst. Hey," Shiro called quietly.

The Galra man turned around and was greeted by the Black Paladin's fist meetng his face slamming him back to the ground between the two sentries.

The bots turned and were swiftly shot down by Lance and Hunk before they got all set up.

"How's it look out there?" Shiro asked.

"All clear," Keith said.

"No one's heading down the hall," Jaz said removing the hood of the black cloak she found and removing the tint from the helmet. "How's the hacking going?"

"Shouldn't take too long," Hunk answered attaching the final cords to the console.

"We'll have all the information we need in a few minutes," Katie stated. "Hunk and I made some improvements since the last time I tried to download Galra info. We should get a nice, clean translation immediately. Hunk had a great idea about how to do it."

"Yeah! Do you guys remember when we studied algorithms at the Garrison," he asked sitting down on one of the fallen sentries, "and Mr. York told us that horrible joke about the ghost learning symbolic logic and innumerably infinite sets?"

"Boring!"

"Right, yeah, it was totally boring. Anyways, the joke goes," Hunk started as Lance groaned.

Keith looked out the window, and silently thanked God. "Hate to interrupt, but we've got company."

Looking up to see what he meant, they all looked up and saw the landing crusier.

"Should we get outta here?" Jaz asked agjusting her grip on the rifle Keith loaned her.

"We just need a few more seconds," Pidge replied.

"Everyone stay low, we need this intel," Shiro ordered.

"Well there goes my plans of prancing around her like a newborn Vixin," Jaz remarked, before the computer beeped. "Down!"

Pressing themselves against the floor and the console, they watched as the transmission screen appeared, with a very confused officer looking around.

"Zu'u lorot saran fah siintul [I think he's waiting for a signal]," Jaz hissed.

"Ofaal nii [Got it]," Hunk replied grabbing the downed sentry and its armbefore propping it up into the viewscreen's visibility. Making a fe points and a thumbs-up, the officer waved and shut down the transmission. "Whew."

"Nice job Hunk," Lance praised.

"Thanks," Hunk smiled as they highfived.

"Download complete," Pidge stated.

"What's it say?"

"Nothing! There's no useful information here! Just a schedule of ships coming in and out."

"Well, I guess this place was a bust," Lance grumbled.

"Maybe not," Jaz smirked.

Shiro raised an eyebrow looking at his friend, "What do you mean?"

"Well, think about it like this: If I was shipping something of high-value, would you want me putting the intel of what I'm transporting on the manifest or would you just keep the schedule?"

"I'd keep the schedule," Shiro realized. "That means the real intel is on the ship."

"Bingo."

"Pidge, do you know where that ship is headed?" Allura inquired.

"Um, let's see, it's scheduled to be here for about half an hour, then it's heading for Central Command."

"I'll sneak onboard and get the intel for us," Allura stated stabding up.

Jaz walked over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Maybe I should do it, I'm actually trained as a spy. Besides. How would you even get in? I can cast an illusion to make myself appear like a Galra soldier."

"I'll walk through the front door," Allura smiled taking off her helmet. Closing her eyes, they all watched as she grew about a foot and turned purple.

Keith had to blink, it'd been a while since he'd seen an Altean look like this. Last time he saw one was back on Terra, most Alteans on his home planet had long ago given up on blending into the Fae people like they had in the past to protect themselves from whoever was hunting them. However, he saw one when he was playing fetch with his drake as a child, he'd also had long white hair and had been purple, but he was mimicking wrong. Most Alteans changed a different color than their marks because the Fae had marks similar to their own, he was all purple, his marks weren't visible.

"How the heck did you do that?" Hunk asked.

"The Alteans are a chameleon-like people who can blend in with the local populations. It's an ability that made us great explorers and diplomats throughout our history," Allura explained to the others.

"So, can you turn into, like, a balloon?!" Lance asked.

"How many colors can you be at once?" Pidge inquired.

"Aren't you afraid you'll rip your pants?" Hunk questioned.

"No. Just one at a time. And I will need a change in costume," Allura answered looking to the guard. "I can use his armor as a disguise."

"Guess that means I better change too," Jaz smirked before closing her eyes and pressing her hands together. Smoke crept up her frame, and as it travelled, they could see clothes being replaced with Galra armor, she got taller, turned purple with white marks and cat ears, and solid yellow eyes. "How do I look?"

"Galra," Lance replied.

"I'm not letting you to go in alone," Shiro stated stepping forwards.

"Who said we were asking for permission?" Allura scoffed.

Jaz growled and her new ears flattened to her head. "Shiro, I swear to God if this is because we're girls I will kick your reym into the next dimension!"

"It's too dangerous!"

"We can handle whoever gets in our way!"

Allura nodded in assent. "You will stick out like a Choferiak's nose."

"You're going to need that nose," Pidge stated grabbing Shiro's arm, "Shiro's hand is made from Galra tech. It's the only thing we have that will allow us to interface with their systems and gather intel. I can monitor the download remotely from down here."

"Hmm," Jaz mused, "you don't mind lending us a hand for a little while do you?"

"You're not taking my arm!"

Allura gave an exasperated sound, "Fine Shiro, you can come."

"Killjoy."

"You guys might want to hurry up before the ship leaves for Zarkon central," Hunk pointed out.

"How are you going to get Shiro on board?" Keith asked.

The boarding party looked at each other before Jaz jumped in the air. "I've got it!"

-.-

Jaz and Allura walked side by side pushing crates filled with random parts they grabbed and Shiro in one of the boxes.

Walking up to the guards, one raised his hand, "Hault."

The two women shared a glance, sharing a silent agreement to protect Shiro if a fight broke out.

Sentries walked down the bridge pushing large cylinders filled with a yellow liquid. As they walked passed them and off the ramp, the guards stepped aside, waving them along.

"Whew," Allura breathed.

"Save it for when we're done," Jaz hissed was they walked inside.

Pulling off into a deserted storeroom, they pulled Shiro out of the box.

"Let's go," he said as they crept to the door and peered out into the halls, where dozens of Galra sentries stood or walked by.

One walked closer and they pressed themselves against the wall, holding their breath as it passed, it's footsteps clicking against the metal floors.

Flashback

Shiro stood by the door of the cell he shared with Jaz, he was tapping the wall as it passed timing the patrol.

A pattern that didn't match came around and he perked up as he saw bloody, chained, but alive Awoken woman struggling against her guards through the slit in the door. Stepping back, the door opened, and they tossed Jaz in, slamming the door behind her.

"Hi p'vahzah [You alright]?" Shiro questioned kneeling next to her.

"Yuvon [Fine]," she grunted getting to her knees and spitting out some blood before giving him a dark smile, "hi rul koraav faal tolie vach [you should see the other guy]."

"Shiro?" Allura asked snapping the Black Paladin back to reality. "Are you alright?"

"I just remembered how we escaped from the Galra prison ship—or at least how we might've done it," he corrected looking at Jaz as her currently solid yellow eyes widened.

"Do tell, cause I don't think I remembered correctly."

Shiro nodded, "Most of the ship's personnel are sentries, when I was a prisoner, I'd time their pattern to keep myself occupied."

"Do you remember it?" Allura asked.

"Let's find out," Shiro said grabbing Allura's hand and leading her back into another hall as Jaz followed.

A moment later, sentries passed.

Going around the corner again, Shiro tapped the wall, before they moved, racing quietly behind another sentry patrol.

-.-

"They're in," Lance said as they watched the boarding party disappear inside the Galra crusier.

"Let's hope they don't get caught," Hunk winced.

"Don't jinx it!" Lance scolded as Hunk quickly apologized.

Keith, however, wasn't too worried. Shiro's fighting abilities had improved tremendously since he'd last sparred against him on Earth and Allura could hold her own. And if neither of them were capable, then he had full confidence his childhood friend would completely obliterate any Galra in her way.

Jaz did not like it when people got in her way.

Looking down at the glowing contaners, he felt the corners of his mouth pinch down into a frown. They resembled the bombs he'd seen be deconstructed during videos of assault missions against the Hive. But, these tubes lacked the dark sickly-looking green color and were a vibrant yellow, and Keith wasn't getting a bad vibe from them like he would with a Hive bomb.

"What do you think's in those containers?" Keith muttered more to himself and Yorak than anyone else.

Though, that didn't stop them from answering. "I'm guessing sporks," Hunk replied causing them to look at the Yellow Paladin. Was he serious?

"What? This is an advanced race we're talking about here," he stated firmly looking at them like they were crazy, "sure they've learned it's foolish to have forks and spoons when one tool will efficiently do the job."

"Maybe this guy will tell us," Pidge said as she typed on her computer, before looking up at the drone connected to it, "What's coming in and out of this station?"

"Interrogation detected. Initiating lockdown," it answered before powering down.

"Not talkin' eh?" she growled before she began frantically typing again at a speed Keith was sure only computers could achieve.

Though he couldn't spend too much time trying to figure out if Katie Holt was really a cyborg, because it was then the dark arua that Keith had sensed upon his arrival and grown. He initially brushed it off as aphrension before a mission or just frayed nerves from the past few days, however it seemed his assumptions had been sorely mistaken as he watched the dark robed figure glide onto the walkway.

"Check out this guy," he said and the others looked out the window to see what he was talking about. "Whatever's happening here that requires the base to be kept secret must have something to do with that wizard."

"Oh, cause he's wearing wizard robes!" Hunk laughed. "Good one Keith."

Keith ignored him, he wasn't joking, he was just stating what he knew this guy was. While he didn't look like a Hive wizard, it was easy to tell, for him at least, that he participated in similar practices. Practices that would normally have the Guardians up in arms.

"I'm gonna go check it out," he stated getting into a crouch and letting their protests be cut off by the door closing behind him. "Yorak is the tracker set?"

A scanner appeared in the corner of his visor, showing the white dot that was his target. "All set."

Nodding, Keith got outside and started following the wizard-thing and observing it through the scope of one of his distanced rifles. Where was it going? And what was it doing with the glowing liquid?

A set of doors opened on the other side of the walkway, and Keith stored his gun away, racing closer on the upper platforms. This was going to be a challenge. He couldn't get too close because whatever that thing was would sense him there, but if he let it have too far of a lead then it would get away.

"Are there any vents?"

"Um…oh! Upper level! I can deactivate the security!"

"Good," Keith said watching the doors close. Activating his jetpack, he flew up and swung his hand, letting his closest friend materialize.

Flying over to the device, he scanned it for a moment, before disappearing again. "Got it. You're clear."

"This'll be fun," he muttered removing the vent cover and crawling in. Thank God he wasn't in his normal armor, he'd get stuck if he was.

Following his ghost's directions through the ventilation system. Keith removed the cover and pulled out his bayard. Peering around the corner, he saw the two sentries that had brought in the containers walking towards him.

His bayard shifted into the familiar form of a semi-automatic rifle and he looked down the scope. Hopefully it would be quieter than a normal gun.

Pulling the trigger, Keith was relieved to find that his bayard rifle was much quieter than normal guns, in fact, he'd almost say there was a silencer on the end of it. Shifting it back into sword form, Keith crouched down and snuck closer to the room where all the light was coming from, making sure to avoid the path-like cervice going through the middle of the hall.

"What is this?" he whispered looking in.

There were dozens of shelves holding the containers of the mysterious yellow liquid all around the room of which Keith seemed to be standing at the bottom level of. He saw a massive platform extending out over the open pit above on which the wizard stood silently. One of the tubes was brought out and lowered above a massive spherical object that the platform led to. The yellow liquid began to flow out into the orb in a spiral pattern.

"I've never seen liquid move like that before," Yorak said.

"Neither have I," Keith agreed, watching as it began to fill up.

On the platform, the mysterious cloacked being stretched out their hands, and violet electricity shot off its fingertips and the change in the energy of the room was palpable as the fluid turned dark violet.

Keith froze as he watched the dark fluid get collected into smaller containers. Who in their right minds, would even think of practicing Hive rituals?

He needed to get the others out of here, fast. If this thing was capable of performing Hive magic—though crude—it was a testament to how dangerous they were.

-.-

Peering into a room, the boarding party almost gave a sigh of relief as they finally found a console. Activating his Galra arm, Shiro shot towards the two sentries on duty quickly taking them down before they could react.

"We only have a few minutes before the next patrol walks by, watch the door," Shiro ordered Jaz placing hs hand on the pad as Allura tossed the sentries to the other side of the room. "Ok Pidge, start the download."

/Generating access code/ Katie replied and Shiro raised an eyebrow as he saw the little Pidge face going across the screen. Was that just a Holt trait or a hacker trait in general because he'd seen Matt and Sam's screens do the same thing whenever they were hacking or repairing something. /We're in/

A red symbol began flashing on the screen. "I think there's a problem Pidge."

/Sit tight, I'm trying to work around it/

"Scanning for information," the computer said.

"Pidge."

/I'm on it!/

"What are you looking at?!" Jaz hissed, her ears flattening as an officer approached and Allura jumped, making sure they both were blocking the door.

"What's going on here? Who are you?"

"It's about time you got here," Allura said leaning against the wall, "where's the rest of your squad?"

"Uh, what squad?"

"The squad that's supposed me and my associates to our ship," Allura scolded. "Didn't you get the message?"

"Who's back there? What's going on?" he asked trying to look past the two women when Jaz grabbed him, pushing him back.

"We are from Zarkon's high command, our work is out of your pay grade and must not be disturbed or viewed by outside eyes," she snarled before developing a wicked smirk. "Unless you want to lose them that is."

The officer looked up at her and visibly gulped. "W-where's Chief Information Officer Plytox?" he stuttered.

"He's in there," Allura said. "Say hello Plyrox."

Shiro cleared his throat and deeped his voice, "It's Plytox!"

"Sorry sir," Allura apologized. "See."

"Oh. Vrepit sa sir!" the man saluted before smiling nervously. "I get his name wrong all the time too."

Jaz snorted. "Easy mistake to make, you should've seen me in my first week."

The officer winced, "That bad?"

"I was scrubbing the deck for three pheobs."

"Yikes," he said backing away. "Carry on."

"Bye," they both sang as he walked away before sighing in relief.

-.-

Keith activated the communication downlink, giving the Castle a live feed on what he saw. "Coran, you need to see this."

He instantly heard a gasp on the other end of the line. /I've never seen anything like it?/

/What is that?/ Pidge asked and Keith winced, he must've accidently activated it to all of them.

/The material is quintessence, the substance with the highest known energy per volume unit in the universe/ an automated voice replied.

"Who was that?"

/Pidge's robot, she got it to work for us/ Lance replied, /Nice job!/

/What? Impossible/ Coran gasped.

/Raw quintessence material is transported here from throughout the galaxy and refined into standardized Galra fuel requirements/ the robot continued.

/Did you guys hear that?/ Pidge asked.

/I can't believe it/ Coran breathed, /they actually found a new way to acquire quintessence!/

Keith made a mental note to ask Coran further about that later, sounded like it could be important to know for their mission. Especially since he'd never seen liquid quintessence like this before, the Speaker only mentioned liquid quintessence in the forms of the green that resulted from Hive magic; black which resided in the holds of Hive Gods, feeding them a constant flow of dark energy; and white of the Vex blood.

Any other type of quintessence he'd seen was in the form of Light.

"Guy's, I'm gonna steal some of this quint-whatever," he stated deactivating the link before anyone could argue.

Turning around, he crept away from the door, the next vial would pass soon, and he wanted to be out of sight when he stole it.

-.-

"Um…"

"Huh?" both girls said leaning out of the doorway to find the soldier they were talking to earlier walk back over.

"Do you think I could get assigned to Zarkon's unit? Nothing happens on this ship."

"You sure?" Jaz asked with a playful smile. "Zarkon mostly just sits on his throne, manages the empire, and looks pretty for the promotional stuff."

He shrugged, "Has to beat being stuck here."

"Well, what's your bloodthirstiness level on a scale of one to five?" Allura asked. "One being: No thanks I'm full and—"

"Five is Hive," Jaz interrupted.

"Hmm…"

"Don't hurt yourself thinking," Jaz said before Allura elbowed her.

"I apologize for her rudeness," Allura said tossing her a glare.

"Get the Commander's name wrong again?" he winced.

"You know it."

"Scrubbing the floors?"

"Not yet."

"Anyways, back to the question," Allura pressed.

"Well…if I'm honest, I'd say about a three."

"We can work on that," Allura said.

The alarm went off in the room.

"Huh?"

"Is there a drill today?" Jaz asked.

"I don't know?" Allura shrugged.

"Fugitive prisoner 117-9875 detected. Remain where you are. Security alerted."

The offier whipped out his gun and aimed it at them not seeming to sure on what to do. "Uh…help! Intruders!" he called as they slammed the door shut, several dents appearing where he had fired.

"I think we're in trouble," Shiro said.

"You think," Allura snapped.

"I don't know," Jaz grinned cracking her knuckles, "I think I like our odds."

"Of course you would," Shiro deadpanned.

"I can clear the way for us," Allura said backing up, and shoulder-ramming the door, knocking it out of the wall and slamming into the guard. Standing straight up, the door fell away and the guard collapsed, allowing her to take his gun.

"Volzahreym," Jaz grinned high-fiving the Altean as Shiro stared in shock. "What, are you shocked that a Princess can take care of herself?"

"Uh…" Shiro trailed off but was saved from answering by gunfire.

Using the magic she was funneling into her disguise, Jaz shot a beam of energy down towards the sentries, melting them. "That's new," she muttered.

"Let's go!" Shiro scolded grabbing her arm and yanking her down the hall.

-.-

Keith watched as he saw the platform holding the canister moving towards him, getting a running start he jumped over, grabbed the vial and landing quietly on the other side of the hall, holding the dark thing to his chest.

Peering back into the room, he gave a quiet sigh, it didn't see him. Keith leaned against the wall and examined his loot: it was certainly dark energy, stroung enough for him to feel it, but nowhere near as powerful as Hive was, probably because the ceremonies weren't performed properly.

The air got lighter.

Looking back into the room, Keith's eyes widened, where'd the wizard go? It was just on the platform?!

The air in front of him seemed to condense and thicken before it materialized in front of him like a quiznacking Fallen Captain or Vex Minotaur. Shoving him back, Keith slammed on the ground before using his hand to slow himself down and rolling to his knees, summoning his bayard.

"Ok, plan B!" he snarled charging forwards.

It set the tube he stole on the next platform passing as Keith slashed, and it teleported a few feet to the right. Swinging again, it vanished and appeared behind him on the left. Leaping at him, Keith watched as his blade barely missed it as it teleported away in a mess of dark gas, reminiscent to the poison gas of Hive wizards.

He'd never seen anything besides Taken teleport like that.

The crackle of electricity filled the air, and Keith looked up towards where he felt the strongest surge of energy, spotting the wizard shoot lightling at him, making him jump and roll out of the way. Sprinting to a platform as the lightning follow, there was another crackle in the air and Keith stopped as the next blast hit where he would've been standing.

Fortunately, that blast, gave him cover. Racing through the smoke, he ran under it before activating his jetpack and leaping up. Swinging his sword down, he gasped as it impacted a shield, before a blast shot out of its hand and shot him across them room into the vats of quintessence.

He clutched his hand close to his chest. Traveler, it burned. Looking at his hand, he grimaced as he saw the burnt and mottled flesh and saw the armor had been fried away. The wound would heal, but he couldn't fight as well with a damaged gauntlet, it would hinder his movements weither he believed it or not.

He really hated Wizards.

"Mask," he growled.

"Copy," Yorak replied as he changed the armor.

The wizard seemed to balk as Keith stood up in his Guardian armor, holding a rifle in hand. "You wanted to play with fire, let's see how you'll like getting burned."

-.-

"Pidge, fire up the Green Lion! We're coming in hot!" Shiro ordered.

/We're on our way/ Pidge replied.

/We need to get Keith first!/ Hunk reminded.

"Where's Keith?!" Jaz demanded.

/He went to investigate something!/ Lance whined.

"Damn it," Shiro grunted, sliding to a stop as two sentries blocked their path.

Allura activated her weapon, pulling the trigger; and Jaz cried out, jumping back as it barely missed her, taking out a sentry behind them.

"YOU ALMOST KILLED ME!" Jaz screamed before erecting a shield as the sentries fired at them.

Shiro chared forwards and used his arm to slice through the robots with relative ease, stepping aside as Allura picked one up and hurled it through the shield, slamming down the sentries beyond it.

"You said you traveled around the galaxy! I mean, you fly a spaceship, how do you not know how to hold this thing correctly?!" Shiro demanded flipping Allura's gun around.

"Less talking more running!" Jaz ordered shoving them forwards.

"I'm tense, this is a tense situation!" Allura replied.

"This is exactly what I wanted to avoid," Jaz grumbled.

"Secure all hatches. All personnel take positions for departure."

-.-

Keith slammed his fist down on where the wizard had been before it teleported away, creating a crater where he landed. Sensing it appear across the room, he summoned a low shield as lightning hit. Crouching down behind it, he pulled out his rifle, took aim and fired, making his opponent generate a shield to defend itself from the onslaught of bullets. Running out of ammo in his current magazine, Keith focused his light into his hand for a grenade; he couldn't afford to waste bullets.

Hurling it across the room, the wizard froze before vanishing quickly as it exploded, spilling dozens of the quinetessence vats. Keith raced over to where it was, holding his next gun ready for the spot it would appear next.

Sensing it behind him, he turned around and was slammed back by lightning. Landing on the conveyer belt, he slid down, getting to his feet.

/Keith! Brace yourself! We're coming for extraction!/

That was all the warning Keith had before a falling piece of debris made the vat of quintessence explode behind him as Keith quickly changed back into his Paladin armor.

The Green Lion slammed through the roof, landing behind him, jaws open. "Get in! We need to get Shiro, Jaz, and Allura!"

Looking back where his enemy was, Keith grit his teeth, the wizard was gone and he had no answers. Hopping into the lion he looked at his hand, watching as the yellow liquid was slowly absorbed into his systems and his body seemed to burn with the excess energy.

Leaning against the walls comprising the lion's mouth, he held back a groan as light archs danced over him. Traveler, it hurt, it hurt so quiznaking much. It was a miracle he hadn't caused his body to shatter with the sheer amount of energy he was containing. Guardians frequently released their power for a reason.

-.-

"The escape pods are up here!" Shiro called leading the way as Allura and Jaz fired back at the sentries using the guns they swiped.

"Formulating navigation. All crew secure hyper-speed positions."

"Hurry!" Allura called ripping off he helmet, "We can't leave the ship once it goes into hyper-speed!"

"There it is!" Shiro said charging forwards as they ran in.

Jaz stopped in front of the door firing back. "Close it!"

Nodding, Shiro placed his hand on the panel, starting the doors to close, before Jaz screamed and fell, clutching her side. "Jaz!" Shiro called yanking her through the closing doors as Allura ran up and started to shove them closed as the sentries tried forcing themselves through.

"It's taking off!" Allura called looking at the pod.

"We're not leaving without you!" Shiro said helping Jaz to her feet.

Allura looked back at the pod, the doors were closing, and Jaz was injured. "You have to," she said abandoning her spot at the door, picking them up, and hurling them in.

"NO!" Shiro shouted, scrambling to his feet and slamming his fists on the pod doors as he watched the Sentries break through and grab Allura as they were shot out of the ship, just before it shot into hyperspace.

"Shiro…did 'Lura?" Jaz grunted sitting up, seeing his face, she closed her eyes and looked down. If only she didn't get hurt…

Then maybe Allura could've made it on the escape pod.