"...Red Lion. Blue Lion. Report."

Keith groaned, unable to hear anything from the blast except ringing noises. His eyes slowly opened and he noticed Lance standing beside him, saying something he couldn't hear. He felt his body shaken. As the ringing dispersed, Lance's voice became clearer.

"Amigo!" He shouted. "Yo, amigo! You okay?"

"Y-Yeah." Keith replied, still dazed.

Lance grabbed Keith, lifting him up while holding him. The whole lobby was covered in dust and smoke, making vision hard to see. The two coughed out dust as they struggle to find their way out, stepping on cracked glass and tiles. Their clothes were dusty and grazed from shards of glass and splattered with blood. Keith looked around and turned to the empty bar.

"Where's Mohammed?" Keith asked.

"Gone." Lance responded.

They barely heard the call from outside due to the alarm. As the voice became louder, a silhouette formed from the smoke before someone ran through it. She was almost about to open fire as if they were the surviving terrorists. Eventually, her face changed from fear to relief.

"RED, BLUE!" Pidge called.

"Yo Green! We're good!" Lance replied.

Pidge lowered her rifle and went up to the boys.

"You two alright?" Pidge asked.

"Yeah," Keith replied. "We're good. Where's Hunk?"

"Outside, getting the van ready. We need to go. Cops will be coming over here soon."

Lance handed Keith to Pidge and turned away as she carried Keith. He glanced directly at the bar where their targets were before silently cursing. Lance ran out of the destroyed hotel and got to the van. Hunk, who was in the driver seat, started the engine and drove the team away from the hotel.

"Green Lion to Zero," Pidge said. "Red and Blue Lion are alive and active and all Lions are returning to safe house, over."

"Copy, Green Lion," Allura replied from the radio. "Status on Mohammed?"

"Blue Lion to Zero, target got away when the bombing started." Lance answered.

There was a pause before Allura came back.

"Understood. Return to the safe house. We'll try to figure out what to do, over."

"Copy Zero. Green Lion out." Pidge replied.

The van sped to the streets, passing a convoy of squad cars, blaring sirens.

0300 Hours

Safe House

Shiro walked into a bathroom and turned the water on. He splashed some cold water at his face. Shortly, he turned off the water and looked up at his reflection. He still wondered why he agreed to go back to Voltron. The deaths of those close to him still traumatised him. He almost lost two operators, which could've ended up like his brother and his team.

After wiping his face with a towel, he heard a knock from the door. Takashi left the bathroom and went up to the front door, pulling out his pistol just in case. He looked through the peephole. It was Allura, standing in front of the door, waiting for an answer. Shiro put his pistol away and opened the door.

"Hey." He greeted.

"Hey." Allura replied.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah, you?"

Allura sighed and went in. As Shiro closed the door, he noticed Allura's glum expression, like she was chewed out.

"Not exactly," Allura answered. "The tops are pissed off with me right now."

Shiro had a clue on who her superiors are and felt a bit bad for her.

"This isn't on you." Shiro said. "What happened back in the hotel went sideways when we tracked down that ISI operative."

"But Takashi-"

"Don't," he cut her off, grabbing her arm. "This wasn't your fault. Things went sideways before we could get information from that guy. That person Mohammed met was definitely a Galra member and the hotel meeting was just a front for a planned terrorist attack. All you need to do now is to find them and make them pay."

Allura began to ease up a little but Shiro's feelings still concerned her. He was still traumatised from the loss but who knows what would've happened to him if the operators didn't make it. She understood his pain but there's a point where he needs to get over the pain.

"They're alive, Takashi,"Allura said. "Speak to them. They need you."

Takashi didn't say anything, other than giving a nod before leaving the room. Allura watched him leave before closing the door of his room.

Elsewhere, Keith sat against wall, tossing a tennis ball which bounced back towards him before repeating. His face was covered in blood-stained bandages from the fragments that grazed him along with bandages wrapped on his hand. He still felt the sting whenever he caught the ball.

"You okay?"

Keith got distracted that the ball he was supposed to catch almost hit his face. He caught the ball and turned around to notice Pidge standing near him.

"Yeah," Keith answered, putting his ball down. "You?"

"I'm fine. Sucks huh?"

"I know right? There's no way we could get set up like that."

"Yeah. Concerns me that they're this good."

Pidge noticed his disappointed expression on his face. She was certain all of them could do better than this. She sat next to Keith.

"So," Pidge asked. "How's things with Santos? You two getting along pretty well?"

Keith wasn't really fond of answering her question but he answered anyway. "Eh, he's an annoying little shit but...he's kind of cool, I guess."

"What was that? Do I sense a little bromance coming up?" She leaned over towards him, smirking.

"Oh shut up," Keith snapped, almost embarrassed of what he said. "I didn't mean it that way. Dude's got some death wish, trying to get us killed with his crazy antics."

"Come on, Keith. I see you two watching each other's back, even though you both have a grudge against each other. Besides, you two make a good duo."

Shortly, as soon as Pidge finished speaking, Shiro appeared with a phone on his hand. The two stood up and faced him.

"You two alright?" Shiro asked.

"We're fine, sir." Keith nodded. Pidge did the same.

"Please, just call me Shiro," He glanced at Keith. "I'd like to say, I'm sorry I wasn't there for you all. I thought I was going to lose you and Lance. Same for Pidge and Hunk."

Keith and Pidge briefly glanced at each other, confused.

"With all due respect," Pidge said. "We knew the risk."

"We're soldiers. It's what we do." Keith added.

The words were familiar to Shiro. Thinking about it still hurts.

"Well, Allura's waiting for us. Hunk's already picking up Lance."

"Actually," Keith said. "Where is he exactly?"

Hunk made his way upstairs and to the rooftop. He opened the door and found Lance, sitting on a beach chair with earphones on him. In front of him was the wideview of Dubai's sunset. Hunk couldn't hear what he was listening but it was muffled through his ears. He approached Lance who was unaware of his presence. Shortly, Lance turned to him and took one of his earphones out. Bobby McFerrin's voice blared softly from it.

"Seriously?" Hunk said, raising his arms.

"What? It's Dubai. Can't a soldier ease up for a while? I got a gun at least."

"You and Keith almost got blown up together and you're somehow relaxed?"

Lance put his earphones back on and stared at the sky, completely unfazed of what happens earlier.

"I move on, that's all."

"That's not what I asked," Hunk said. "I mean, how are you this calm during dire shit like this, especially when you almost ended up like those basketball guys?"

Even with the earphones on, Lance was able to share what Hunk said. He was kind of expecting Hunk to ask him something like this. He stopped the song, took his earphones out and raised his legs to a sitting position.

"Okay, here's a trick," Lance said, this time serious. "Don't ever think about how'll you survive...don't even think about your family. You'll just get yourself and your teammates killed. Just think about the mission and don't think about anything that has happened once its over. What's done is done."

Hunk was quite surprised to hear his advice. Never had he thought about being relaxed while defusing a bomb short of time.

"Well," he muttered. "We got a meeting with the Major and the Commander. We might have a chance to get back at them again."

Lance got up from the chair, putting the phone in his jacket.

"Sweet."

Hunk turned and headed back down with Lance following. The team gathered in a dark blue room with an operation center set up. Allura and Coran waited as the team settled in, awaiting instructions.

"Everybody here? Good, let's get started," She stated. "We managed to track down Mohammed's location. After the bomb set off, one of the drones caught a sight of a car driving off with Mohammed inside. We've traced the plate number and found the vehicle dumped at an abandoned sweatshop 13 miles from here. Locate Mohammed and bring him back so we can find out what he knows. He's our only key to locate the Galra forces before they plan further attacks."

"Alright," Shiro said. "Blue Lion will be on Overwatch while me and the rest of the team breach the warehouse and snatch Mohammed off them. We better make sure nobody escapes alive except Mohammed."

"If that's what you guys plan to do, then you better get there fast before they disappear and set you up again." Coran reminded.

Shiro nodded and stood up.

"Then we better start moving."

0650 Hours

Warehouse

The team arrived at an old sweatshop just outside the city. The building had a rusted sign above which looked like a Nike symbol and torn posters hastily pasted on the wall. Hunk parked the van at an empty lot beside it and the team got out with their weapons. Ironically, a car was parked near them. They carried the same rifles with a suppressor each and their own custom attachments and liveries.

Lance separated himself from the team and disappeared out of sight. The team stopped at the entrance and Shiro pressed the earpiece on him.

"Black Lion to Zero, we're in position, over."

Shortly, a drone hovered above them and scanned the warehouse.

"Zero to Black Lion," Allura said. "We're picking up five heat signatures in the building, seemingly waiting for you guys."

Five tanned-skinned men, carrying AK47s surrounded inside a room with benches across it. One gunman stared outside the window, searching for a sight of intruders. So far, nobody appeared. Suddenly, one of them slumped onto the ground. The other gunman who was near him, ran up to the body and found a hole to the side of his head.

"من أين يأتي الجحيم؟ (Where the hell is it coming from?!)" one of the gunman shouted.

As soon as he finished his sentence, the rest ended up getting shot in the face without hesitation, including the one checking on the body.

Every single gunman dropped to the ground except one masked gunman. His breathing paced quickly his veins was pounding. He backed away, aiming down his sights, passing on every body in the room. His shirt began to soak of dark sweat.

"أظهروا أنفسكم! (Show yourselves!)" He demanded, nervously while trembling.

As he scanned the room, he felt a hard object press against the back of his head.

"Drop it." Shiro said.

The man dropped the rifle without turning to glance. The rest of the team approached him from behind.

"Where's the Pakistani agent?" Shiro asked. He didn't respond. "WHERE IS HE?"

The man pointed above him.

"Third level down hall."

Shiro turned to Pidge and nodded to her. She forcibly held his hands behind his back and cuffed him. Shiro yanked him by the arm, took his mask off and held the pistol to his back.

"Take us there."

The team made their way upstairs to the third floor and went down the hallway. He stopped at a very end of the hall where a door faced them.

"That one?" Shiro asked the man. He responded with a nod.

Pidge opened the door and they face a person with a bag over his head, tied to a chair at the middle of the room. His shirt was bloodied and soaked. Shiro turned on his mike.

"Black Lion to Zero," he said. "We may have found the target but...he looks like he was interrogated."

Shiro approached the person while Pidge held the cuffed man. He swiftly removed the bag off him and backed away. The person's face was trickled with blood along with a hole on the side of his head. His eyes rolled away from his sockets and his wide mouth was still gurgling.

"Is that him?" Pidge asked.

"I'm afraid so. They must've tortured him good," Shiro said, staring at the wounds all over his body. He tapped on the mike and turned away. "Black Lion to Zero. Mohammed's dead. They got him first. But we managed to capture one of the terrorists, over."

As everyone else lowered their weapons, Hunk examined the body. There was something strange about him. Hunk noticed his shirt was flashing red, gradually becoming faster. His eyes widened and he dropped his rifle.

"BOMB!" Hunk yelled.

Hunk shoved Shiro aside and with incredible strength, he picked up the chair with Mohammed on it and threw him out of the window. Before it even hit the ground, it suddenly exploded, shattering glass and rubble with blood splattering on the windows. Hunk painted before turning around with every eye focused on him. Shiro got up as Hunk stared in confusion.

"What? I work out," Hunk said. Everybody continued staring at him. "There was a bomb on him."

Nobody said anything shortly. However, Keith was stunned.

"Zero to Black Lion, report." Allura called.

Shiro noticed his mike and got back to her.

"Black Lion to Zero, target was rigged. They knew we were coming and tried to ambush us, over."

As Lance scoped out from a building across the warehouse with a high powered AR-15 sniper rifle, he caught a glimpse of several cars making their way to the building. Shortly, the cars stopped and men came out with rifles. Lance got onto his mike.

"Hey guys, you got a lotta unhappy people with guns coming your way. I count 20 carrying AKs and a few packing RPGs. They must be really desperate."

Shiro hardly believed what he said that he went up to a window to check. He was proven wrong when he noticed several parked cars in front of the warehouse. Shiro swore and got back to his mike.

"Black Lion to Zero, we have armed hostiles approaching the premises, over."

There was a brief pause before Allura came back.

"Zero to Black Lion, get out of there with the prisoner so we can find what he knows."

"Copy Zero, out." Shiro replied and turned to his team. "Alright people, get ready. In formation now. Protect the prisoner at all cost."

Lance scanned the area as men at the bottom prepare themselves with some getting on truck beds with RPGs, some hiding behind the cars and the rest about to enter the building.

"Hey Black. I can draw their attention. Just give me the word."

"Copy, execute." Shiro said.

As soon as he finished, Lance aimed down his sights and shot one of the warheads of an RPG-wielding man, blowing up several terrorists near him and destroying some of the cars. Several terrorists turned to the explosion, pacing around like crazy. Lance fired another shot, taking out two terrorists with one bullet. The rest of them took cover.

The team shortly came out with Shiro and Keith in front and Hunk and Pidge behind them while holding the prisoner. Keith managed to eliminate the last terrorist, carrying an RPG. The RPG discharged itself as he fell off the truck.

They both ducked down and hid behind the cars as bullets ricochet back and forth. Lance shot one of the terrorists approaching Shiro and Keith's position while they took out the remaining terrorists.

Keith lined up his weapon at the last terrorist standing. The terrorist threw his rifle away and took out his pistol. Just as Keith was about to shoot him, he dropped to the ground with blood squirting from the side of his head.

"Too slow, Red." Lance said.

"Asshole." Keith cursed.

"CLEAR! LET'S MOVE!" Shiro ordered and headed to their van.

Hunk and Pidge caught up with Shiro and Keith, arriving at their van.

"Black Lion to Zero," Shiro said. "Exfiltrating out of the area right now."

"Copy, Black Lion." Allura replied.

Lance arrived shortly, running up to their van. Hunk got to the driver seat, Shiro sat next him and the rest take the back with their prisoner. Pidge took out a black bag and placed it over his head.

"Get us outta here, Hunk." Shiro ordered.

"Roger."

Hunk started the van and reversed out of the parking lot. He shifted the gear and drove away from the sweatshop, away from the scene.