"—re not going back. Not yet. N-not without… the ingredients."
"Are you kidding? Shiro, you can barely breathe. Your heart could give out any minute!"
"Thousands more will die... without the flowers."
"The flowers can wait!"
"No. They c-can't."
Allura blinks her heavy eyelids open. A spectrum of pinks and blues dances in her vision, sharpening into crystals. There's a furnace pressed against her, restricting her movement—Keith. And the two bickering, Shiro and Lance.
Disentangling herself from Keith's arms, she pushes herself up into a seated position.
"Morning, Princess. How're you feeling?" Lance asks.
"Much more rested, thank you," she says. Her limbs are still heavy and she's a touch lightheaded, but she should have enough energy to carry Shiro. "We can get going now."
"Great!" Lance says. "Back to the city it is, then."
"No," Shiro says, firmly.
"We can go back and get the ingredients later," Lance says. "You're more important. Besides, they're the ones who did this to you in the first place!"
"Lance."
"I know, I know, we should still help them," Lance says. "I'm just… I'm just worried. Not just for you, but Keith too. His fever's getting worse. …Are you really gonna put his life in jeopardy too?"
It's a fair point, and an unfair question.
Shiro grits his teeth, a pained expression falling over his face as he's crushed by the weight of the decision. The shake in his exhale has nothing to do with the state of his lungs. Still, he doesn't back down. "Thousands of people's lives… are at stake. We put our own lives… on the line every day… to help others. This is no different. K-Keith wouldn't want his life… put first."
Lance scoffs. "He'd risk his own life, maybe. But not yours. Never yours."
"For that many," Shiro says, "he'd know what… the right choice is."
"Yeah, he would. And it wouldn't be what you're suggesting," Lance says. "We can ask him. We should wake him up and get going anyway." He reaches over and gently shakes Keith's shoulder, eliciting a little mumble. Bleary eyes flutter open.
"Hey, man," Lance says, softly. "I wish we didn't have to wake you up, but we gotta get moving. Shiro's in trouble. He's not doing too good. We should go back to the city and get him help right away, don't you think?"
"Of course," Keith says, struggling to push himself up. Allura gives him a hand.
"Keith," Shiro says, "I'm okay. We need to—to get the atraxeth first. Remember? Thousands of Ferexians… are counting on us."
"Oh," Keith says. "Right."
"But we can go back and get that later," Lance says. "We should get Shiro to safety first, right?"
"No," Shiro says, "Don't… worry about me, Keith. I'm… f-fine."
Lance scoffs. "Does he sound fine to you?"
"Thousands of lives… are at risk," Shiro says. "Other people are dying… as we s-speak. We can't just… leave them to die."
"But don't you want to save Shiro?"
Keith's glassy eyes are wide, torn.
"That's enough. Both of you," Allura chastises.
Keith tugs on her arm, looking away. "I—I can't—"
"It's alright," Allura says, as gently as possible. She pulls him in against her and gives Lance and Shiro a stern look from over his shoulder. "We will search for the ingredients for another half varga. If we do not find them within that time, we will cease our search and return to the city. Is that clear?"
"Fine," Shiro says.
"Yes ma'am," Lance says. "Alright. Let's get you guys back into your armour." He grabs Keith's white and red cuirass, bringing it over.
"Can do it myself," Keith mutters, trying to put his boots on but fumbling with the clasps.
"Sure, but it'll be faster with two of us," Lance says, patiently. Keith doesn't protest further.
Releasing Keith, Allura heads over to help Shiro. It's a bit tricky getting the armour back on when he can't stand, having to lift him to get the pieces underneath. Before bringing him to a seated position, she presses her ear to his scarred chest, the top of his undersuit now in strips around his arm. His heartbeat is still erratic, fainter than it should be.
"See? St-still beating," Shiro says. "Don't know what you guys… are so worried about."
She shoots him an unamused look before hauling him up from under his arms to lean him against her knees. She armours his left side, and then grabs the rerebrace that will go over his right upper arm. "I'm sorry," she says in advance. "This may hurt."
He gives her a wry smile. "I can assure you… I've felt worse."
She's as gentle as she can be, but he's still unable to suppress a sharp hiss when she puts pressure on his burnt flesh. She'll have to be careful when she carries him.
"Ready to go?" Lance asks, after she's finished putting together Shiro's armour. Lance has Keith's arm draped across his shoulders.
"I think so." She scoops Shiro up into her arms, one arm beneath his knees and the other sliding under his back. "Is this alright?" she asks Shiro.
"It's fine," he says, resigned. The frustration lacing his voice is understandable—she would hate to have to be carried like this, too.
"We'll have you back on your feet soon enough," she assures him.
"Alright. Let's go this way," Lance says, taking the lead. He gestures in the direction of where he went to retrieve the water. "There's a fork in the path by the pool. We can search the route you guys didn't take."
They set out at a snail's pace, Keith sluggish and stumbling. At this rate, it could be half a quintant before they reach the city. The notion hollows a deep pit in Allura's stomach, but she makes sure not to give it a voice.
"Sorry," Keith slurs as they travel, well aware he's holding them back.
"Hey, none of that," Lance says. "Honestly, I'm surprised you're moving this fast, all things considered. Don't push yourself too hard, alright? I know that's, like, a crazy concept for you, but we've got a long walk ahead of us. We gotta pace ourselves."
Allura smiles to herself: Lance has matured so much. Gentle, encouraging, supportive; she's grown quite fond of this version.
Many doboshes later, they reach the little pool. The shallow water sparkles, blush pink crystals lying just beneath the surface. True to Lance's word, there are two routes they can take. Shiro directs them to the unexplored path on their right.
They venture deeper into the cave. The sounds of ragged, heavy breathing and footsteps in slow motion echo through the pink-lined tunnel. It reminds her of their ticking clock, and needs something—anything—to distract her from it. She has to lessen the weight of the anxiousness smothering them.
She dives back into her earlier conversation with Lance. "So, in your Earth 'bowling'," she starts, her vocal chords at their normal volume but her voice still too loud. The words feel awkward and wrong, abrupt and incongruous with the circumstances, but she continues anyway. "The aim is to throw the ball past your opponent to destroy all of their 'pins'?"
Lance blinks, caught off guard by the strange question, but then he casts her a grateful smile. "Not quite. You don't really throw bowling balls, at least not hard; you just roll them. You're just trying to knock the pins over, not destroy them. And you're not really trying to get it past anyone, either. You just kind of take turns in a line."
A genuine laugh bubbles up and out of her. Humans are adorable.
"Why're you guys talking about bowling?" Keith slurs.
"Uh, why wouldn't we be talking about bowling?" Lance retorts. "It's awesome."
Keith scoffs.
"Okay, yeah, not really," Lance admits. "But cosmic bowling was super cool. Best birthday party ever."
"What's that?" Keith asks. "Cosmic bowling. I know what a birthday party is."
"It was like regular bowling, except some things glowed in the dark, and…" he pauses. "Okay, yeah, that was about it. Stop judging, Princess."
She tries and fails to wipe the light amusement from her face.
"Glow in the dark is kind of a big thing on Earth when you're a kid. Like these crystals?" Lance gestures at their surroundings with his free hand. "I would've lost my mind if I'd seen this when I was younger."
She follows his indication, looking around them, and—the crystals are different here. While the cave they've explored so far has been covered in glowing blues and purples and pinks, the walls and ceiling and floor here have shifted to a vivid tangerine.
It feels different here, too. There's something humming in the air, reverberating in her marrow. When she focuses, she can sense the faint murmur of… quintessence.
"I think they're close," she says. They reach a junction, and she nods leftward. "This way."
She chases the dim, pulsing sensation. Their half varga is almost up, but they're almost there; she can feel it under her skin. The crystals graduate from orange to goldenrod as they get closer.
Just when their deadline is about to run out, they reach a grotto. It dazzles in bright yellow. A massive crystal rests at the centre, radiating quintessence. And around it, sprouting between crags of crystal, are delicate sprigs of shimmering flowers. Atraxeth.
"You found it," Lance says, eyes wide as he drinks in the beauty around them.
"We did," she says. "Rest for a moment while Lance and I gather these," she says to Shiro and Keith, setting Shiro down.
Lance guides Keith to take a seat. "Yeah. Take a quick breather," he says, with a clap to Keith's shoulder.
"'Kay." Keith immediately crawls closer to Shiro, curling up at his knees like a kitten and closing his eyes. He's asleep in an instant.
Allura and Lance approach the centre of the chamber. The atraxeth is even more beautiful up close, its petals opalescent and sparkling, its stem and leaves like sea glass.
"They're lovely," Allura says, reaching between the crystals and plucking one.
"Yeah," Lance agrees, doing the same and holding it up where he can inspect it like a gemstone. "Almost a shame they'll be pulverized into powder. They're gonna be all squished, too, carrying them back—we'll want our hands free, so I guess we'll just have to shove 'em into our armour? …Unless…"
He places his hands on the sides of Allura's helmet. "May I?" She gives a short nod, and he lifts her helmet off. Carefully, he tucks the sprig of atraxeth into her hair. "There," he says, beaming. "Perfect."
The two work quickly to gather the remaining flowers. There aren't all that many of them, though supposedly they're highly potent, and the powder from a few can be diluted enough to treat thousands.
Lance deftly weaves the rest of the flowers into Allura's hair. It only takes a moment; he must have practice with this sort of thing. He takes a half tick to admire his handiwork, pleased with himself, before placing the helmet back over his head. "Alright. Let's—"
"Guys?" Shiro's voice is quiet but frantic.
There's a large snake slithering full speed toward Shiro and Keith. No—two. They're different from the ones they've seen before, glittering chartreuse with glowing eyes a few shades brighter. They have more teeth, too: one of them flashes its mouth open to reveal several rows of wicked sharp fangs.
Allura sprints toward them as fast as she can, and Lance materializes his gun, opening fire. Lance manages to hit one, stunning it, but the other slips past and lunges for Keith and Shiro, jaws wide open.
Shiro lurches forward to protect Keith. His shield won't come up—the electricity from his arm destroyed his armour's functionality—so he uses his left hand to thrust his right arm forward, blocking its jaws with that. The armour from his elbow down shatters as the fangs pierce through, the dull clang of metal reverberating through the grotto as they strike Shiro's arm and hand beneath.
It holds the creature off for a few moments, long enough for Lance to get a hit in. Allura finally gets within range, diving forward to reach the other with her whip.
These snakes are much stronger than the others they've encountered, and Shiro has to block three more bites before Allura and Lance are finally able to take them out.
By the end of it, Shiro's breathing is brutally laborious. "Don't be—don't be alarmed," he gasps. "But I think I'm gonna… pass out." And with that, his eyes roll back, and he collapses.
Keith jolts awake as Shiro hits the ground beside him with a thud. "Shiro? …Shiro!" He looks around, eyes saucer-wide as he pieces together what happened. "I—I wasn't—I should've—I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry—"
"Hey," Lance says, trying to keep his voice level despite his eyes screaming panic. "It's okay, it's okay."
"He's still breathing," Allura says—it's impossible not to hear. She lifts Shiro's limp body into her arms. "Let's get going. The sooner we get out of here, the sooner we can get him help."
Keith shoves himself to his feet, stumbling as he lurches forward.
"Whoa, easy, man," Lance says, catching him before he faceplants. "We gotta pace ourselves, remember? We can't tire ourselves out too fast."
"Fine," Keith mutters, though he still pushes himself as he sets their pace, heading back the way they came.
By the time they reach the pink pool again and start retracing Keith and Shiro's steps, Keith is flagging.
By the time they reach a three-way junction, Lance is bearing most of Keith's weight.
"Which way did you come from, Keith?" Allura asks.
"Um… Righ—no. Left? …Not… not the middle, but…" His face scrunches up as he tries to think. "I—I can't remember which. I-I'm sorry—"
"Hey, hey, don't worry about it," Lance says. "We'll wake Shiro up and ask him."
Allura shifts Shiro in her arms. "Shiro? Please wake up," she says. She shakes him a little. "Shiro?" she tries again, but he doesn't stir. She tries to push down her panic.
Lance reaches over and pats at Shiro's colourless cheek a couple times. "Hey. Shiro."
Shiro's still breathing, but there's no response.
Allura sets him on the ground. She tries shaking his shoulder one more time, this time more vigorously, before undoing the armour that remains covering his right arm. "I'm sorry," she whispers, as she wraps her fingers around the bandage covering his wound and presses down.
It elicits a noise between a groan and a gasp, pain twisting Shiro's features. His eyes crack open.
"I'm so sorry, Shiro," she says, "But we had to wake you. We've reached a fork in the path, and we need to know which way you came from."
"'m sorry," Keith says. "Sorry I couldn't remember—"
"It's… okay," Shiro manages, through clenched teeth. "We—we stuck to the… right wall. So just… k-keep taking lefts."
Lance smacks his hand to his helmeted forehead. "Why didn't I think of that? Of course you guys would've chosen a smart way of doing that. I should've known."
Allura should have figured as well. If they'd thought about it strategically, they'd have arrived so much earlier, and Shiro and Keith wouldn't be—
"I-I knew that. How did I forget that?" Keith says, his voice shaky. "Why can't I think straight?"
"It's alright," Shiro says. "We were hit with a—a virus, but Allura and Lance'll… get us back soon. Get you feeling better."
"Yeah," Lance says. "The Ferexians will have that cure ready for you by the time we get back to the main hospital. Allura made sure of it."
Her method of ensuring that hadn't exactly been her most diplomatic moment—it may have involved a threat or two—but it had been effective.
"We'll get Shiro fixed up, too," Allura promises. "We'll get him into a healing pod as soon as we're out of this cave."
"After we've… delivered the ingredients," Shiro says.
"Wrong," Lance says, "Castle first."
"No," Shiro insists.
"Yes."
"Lance," Shiro says, warningly, attempting to put on his leader voice.
"Shiro," Lance mimics, not budging an inch.
"This again? Are you quiznaking kidding me," Allura mutters. "Listen, you two. Here is what we are going to do. We are going to split up once we exit the cave. I will take Shiro back to the Castle, and Lance will bring Keith to the hospital and deliver the atraxeth. There will be no more arguing. Is that clear?"
"Yes," Shiro says, a touch petulant.
"Right. Yeah," Lance says.
With a quiet huff, she picks Shiro back up and starts down the left path.
They make it about another half varga before a faint serpentine hiss hits her ears, coming from somewhere ahead of them. She halts. "Something's ahead," she says, voice hushed. It sounds like a snake, though the ones they've seen so far haven't made a sound.
The intermittent hissing gets louder. She materializes her bayard. "Whatever it is, it's coming our way."
She scans the walls around them, finding a slight recess, and sets Shiro down there. Lance brings Keith over, leaving Keith beside Shiro and pulling out his bayard. He stands guard in front of the two, sniper rifle at the ready.
Keith unsheathes his blade and activates its sword form, staggering forward.
"Whoa, hey, you should hang back too," Lance says, holding onto his shoulder. "Just take it easy. Let me and Allura handle this."
Keith shakes his head, defiant. "I can help."
"Keith, you're barely standing," Allura points out. "Don't put yourself in unnecessary danger. You need to rest."
"I'll be fine," Keith says, the little pucker in his brow unfading.
Allura tries a more tactical approach. "You're unwell. You'll be putting us all at risk if we have to keep our eyes on you instead of focusing on the fight."
Keith glares at her. "I can—"
"Keith," Shiro interrupts. "If something comes, I'm not gonna be able to… do much like this. I'm gonna need… s-some protection. Can you stay back… here with me?"
Keith nods. "I'll protect you, Shiro," he says, stepping back. "Not gonna let anything happen to you."
Lance flashes Shiro a grin. "Good thinking."
Shiro gives the slightest of nods.
Allura advances, ready to be the first line of attack. The hissing is loud, now, yet still there are no footsteps.
It finally approaches, and sure enough, it's a snake. The thing slithers toward them alarmingly fast, deep purple and glittering. What looks tiny in the distance grows and grows… and grows. It's huge. Its beady eyes flash with dangerous intent.
Allura runs forward to greet it. She pulls out her whip and, as soon as it's within striking distance, lashes at it with all her might.
The hit doesn't even leave a mark.
She tries again, this time striking its neck, but her whip can't get past its hard scales. The creature is completely unfazed, barely noticing her.
She goes for the neck again—maybe if she hits it in the same spot repeatedly…
The thing slithers straight past her, heading toward the others. No. She turns on her heel and races after it. She can't let it get to them.
Lance shoots at the creature, but his shots don't seem to do a thing. It continues on course, straight for the three of them.
"No!" Allura cries. Desperately, she leaps and throws herself at the snake, wrapping her arms and legs around it as tightly as she can. She can barely reach around its thick body. She can't do a thing to hurt it, but her presence does get its attention.
The thing twists itself into a knot, trapping her in a tight bind, and squeezes. She can't help but scream as the pressure forces the air from her lungs and fractures her armour piece by piece.
"Allura!"
She can hear footsteps as Lance runs forward. A dull clang resounds over and over. He must be striking at it with his broadsword, and from the sound of it, it's not doing a thing.
It constricts tighter, bruising every inch of her. Tighter, and tighter.
But before it shatters her bones, a sickening squelch interrupts the rhythmic thuds of Lance's sword striking hard scales, and the pressure relents. The snake's body goes slack.
Allura gasps for air, taking several greedy gulps before slowly climbing out of its tangled grip.
Dark, sludge-like blood pools under the snake's head. It slowly oozes from where Keith's blade is driven through the creature's eye and into its brain, buried to the hilt.
"…See?" Keith says, bent over as he pants for breath. "Told you… I could help."
And then he drops to all fours and heaves.
Startled out of his shock, Lance dashes to Keith's side, holding him steady and sitting him back when he's finished throwing up what little there is in his stomach. He curses. "You okay, man?"
Feebly, Keith nods. "'m fine."
"Allura?" Shiro asks. "How're you?"
"I'm alright," she says. Sore as quiznak, but nothing's broken as far as she can tell. "My armour is ruined, though." Most of it is on the ground in pieces.
"Can—can take mine," Keith says, still panting.
Allura shakes her head. "No. What if something else attacks?"
"Then you're gonna need it," Keith slurs.
"So will you!"
"You're doing most of the fighting," Keith says. "I'll stay back. You two'll keep us safe."
"But we just—"
"You can do it," Shiro says, his voice faint but steady with conviction. "We know you can."
"Armour's heavy, too," Keith adds. "Will be easier to walk without it."
"…Alright," she concedes. "If you're sure."
Shiro nods, giving her a weak smile.
Keith and Shiro have faith in them. They won't let them down. "We'll get you home," she vows. "Just hang in there a little longer."