Hearing Keith scream - actually scream in pure agony - was the worst thing Pidge had ever heard.
Immediately afterward she retracted her first statement, because seeing Keith impaled on a large Galran sword while a firefight raged around them was infinitely worse.
Keith choked on blood, slumping forward. The Galran Commander smirked, triumph in his gaze as he pulled his weapon out. Keith fell forwards, falling onto the ground with his wound pressed against the rocks. Any other person would have at least cried out at the impact. Keith did not move.
Ice flooded Pidge's veins. The image of Keith, so close and yet so far, lying with blood pooling underneath him, was imprinted in her mind. Too much blood, not enough time.
The Galran commander lifted his blood-soaked blade to finish the job. Keith craned his neck weakly to watch, one eye shut and his expression pained. Something in his expression was wrong. It was off.
Acceptance.
The Galran's sword came down. Pidge saw red.
Her katar materialized in her hand without her consciously willing her bayard into existence. She leapt forwards, driving her weapon into a chink in the Galran's armor. He paused, inches from the back of Keith's blood-soaked armor, to look at her in vague surprise and annoyance. Pidge knew the initial blow with her tiny weapon would not hurt.
It was what would come after that would.
Pidge snarled and twisted her bayard. It sank into Galra flesh with an awful squish, one that made her stomach rebel. She ignored it, tightening her grip around the katar and turning it ever so slightly to the left. It clicked and a stream of electricity raced from the bottom of the bayard to the tip, entering the Galra's bloodstream.
The Galra screamed at once, his sword dropping harmlessly to the ground by Keith's head. He writhed as Pidge forced her small body closer, pushing both hands into the handle of her katar. She hoped venomously that the electric current was turning everything in the commander's body to ash. He let out a pained roar and twitched, losing his footing and falling to the ground. Pidge released the electricity, standing over her downed foe with purple blood smearing the tip of her katar. She held her breath, waiting for a tick. Silently daring the commander to move again.
He didn't.
Pidge released her grip on her bayard, allowing it to melt into light. She rushed to Keith's side and he let out a low groan underneath her. His fist was balled up to his stomach, trying in vain to stem the blood flow.
"P-Pidge," he whispered, voice cracking.
"Shh," Pidge said, trying to keep herself from full-blown panicking. Freaking out would only lead to Keith bleeding out on her. She could not let that happen. "Can you stand? We need to get you to cover."
Keith let out a quiet whimper, shifting his other arm. He placed his hand on the dirt and pushed, letting out a pained cry and falling back with an awful splash into the blood. Pidge swallowed back another wave of nausea, and with it the increasing panic.
She was too small to lift Keith on her own. He had to help her in order for her to get him to a safe spot to call for backup. Or at least someone who had some sort of medical knowledge. Like Hunk.
God, Pidge wished it were Hunk here instead of her. He'd be able to help Keith, get him behind cover in no time. Pidge could not. She was the smallest Paladin, useful for her brains and hacking. She wasn't cut out for fighting, much less dragging an injured teammate across a raging battlefield. Pidge had never felt weaker than at this very moment, watching Keith writhe in a pool of his own blood.
An explosion from the air made Pidge look up. Blue spun into view neatly, pouncing on a Galra drone and ripping it to shreds with her claws. Shrapnel rained down upon them and Pidge raised her shield above her to protect them. Around them, the remains of a hard-fought battle with a few remaining straggling sentries littered the desert. Pidge had to think fast, before anything worse could happen.
Think fast, Pidge.
"Fuck," she said.
Keith pushed himself into a sitting position. Pidge envied his strength for a moment, but ignored it in favor of grabbing his arm and pulling it over her shoulder. He let out a whimper as she helped him to his feet. Blood pooled from Keith's wound, through his fingers and dripped sickeningly over his legs and onto the ground. Pidge tore her gaze away from it and looked forwards, setting her gaze towards an outcropping of rocks. It was stacked high and would have to do for cover while she radioed Hunk for some kind of medical backup.
"Okay, Keith," she said. Keith's tired eyes tried to find hers, but he ended up hanging his head with a tired moan. "Work with me here, okay? We're going to get you to shelter. I'll call Hunk. He's got the medical know-how to fix you. Okay?"
"Mkay…" Keith could only say. He dragged his feet, kicking up dirt with every unsteady step towards the outcropping. Pidge pulled him behind it, letting Keith slump to the ground with a quiet gasp of pain.
"Hunk?" Pidge spoke into the comms. "Hunk, please are you there?" There was terrifying static for a moment too long. Pidge glanced back at Keith, who had rolled his head backward and had his eyes squeezed shut.
"I'm here," Hunk said. Pidge almost sobbed from relief at the sound of his voice. "Good timing, Pidge, we were just about to ask for a status update. Things are pretty much under control up here-"
"Keith is hurt," Pidge cut across him, glancing down the Red Paladin before her. She knelt at his side, watching his hands curl and uncurl around his wound. Pidge didn't want to look into the injury, afraid of what she would see. Ripped organs perhaps? Maybe the mangled remains of his intestines.
"How badly?" Hunk's voice had gone hard.
"Very," Pidge almost whispered. "We took out the Galra Commander like we were supposed to but...not before he got the jump on Keith."
"He got the jump on Keith?" Shiro's voice was scared in a way Pidge had never heard before. Not even when she was internally bleeding in his arms, although she had to admit her memories from that time were hazy.
"He stabbed him," Pidge whispered. Shiro's sharp intake of air was heart-wrenching and Pidge reached out instinctively to take Keith's hand, squeezing it tightly. He blinked his tired eyes open, fixing his gaze on her with difficulty. "Stay awake," she urged. "Please…"
"I'm on my way," Hunk said. "Give me two minutes."
"Two minutes," Pidge said. She started ticking down the seconds, hoping they would pass by like a blur. "Got it." She switched off her comms then, giving Keith her undivided attention.
His hand had now fallen to his side, limp and almost lifeless, save for the slight twitch of his fingers. His chin rested against his chest plate, his hair hanging limply in his eyes. He looked so small, so unlike the Keith that Pidge was used to. It was scary. She glanced down at the gaping hole in his stomach. She leaned forwards, counting the seconds still in her head, reaching out.
"Hunk will be here soon," she whispered. One minute forty two seconds, if she was being exact. "I…" She glanced down at the wound. The edges of his skin had been marred and Pidge was going to be very surprised if the injury didn't end up scarring over. "I'm going to try and stop the bleeding, okay?" she said, hating the words as they came out of her mouth. She didn't have anything to cover the wound so she'd have to rely on her hands. "This will hurt." She warned.
Keith didn't give any indication that he had heard. Pidge leaned forwards, swallowing down the bile clawing its way up her throat and pressed both hands down on top of the wound. Keith's eyes flew open and he screamed, blood gurgling in his throat. Pidge winced, but didn't move her hand. She'd much rather have Keith awake and in pain then unconscious and dead.
One minute, fifteen seconds.
Tears prickled at Pidge's eyes. Keith was now breathing shallowly, his fingers grasping at the rocks and squeezing them in his fist. He was clearly in gut-wrenching pain, but there was nothing else Pidge could do.
It wasn't fair.
None of this was. Pidge hadn't asked to be a soldier in a war that wasn't her doing. She hadn't asked to be thrown into space in the head of an alien warship. She hadn't askedto be sitting on a distant planet, trying to keep her teammate - her brother - from bleeding out from a stab wound.
All she had ever wanted was to live happily with Matt and her father. To explore the stars with them and a team of her own, never straying too far beyond the Milky Way. It was her dream, of course, to discover and understand the unknown, but she never wanted this. So far away from home, she couldn't make out the stars. In one unfamiliar planet after another.
Sometimes, Pidge lay awake at night, wishing she were at home. Wishing she had never gone up to the roof that night and had gone along with Lance and Hunk to save Shiro. She should have stayed in her dorm, typing the night away. But her curiosity was insatiable. The need to know just exactly what this Voltron was and what had fallen from the sky unable to keep her from exploring.
She supposed she was paying the price for her curiosity now.
Fifty-eight seconds.
"Come on Hunk," she whispered, applying more pressure to the wound. Her voice broke as Keith let out another sharp cry. He gave her a look, half desperate, half agonized, and Pidge bit her lip. She hoped Keith would forgive her for putting him through more pain than he already was in.
Keith's wound wasn't fair either. Keith, of anyone, deserved to live his life away from the pain of reality. Somewhere with someone he trusted by his side, in a quiet secluded cabin on Earth. He didn't deserve to die out here, without ever finding his mother or discovering his true origins.
This wasn't fucking fair.
Pidge choked out a sob. Her fingers curled at the edges, dipping into the worst of Keith's wound. She was almost pulling the broken skin together at this point. Keith let out a scream again and Pidge immediately stopped. She didn't want to put him through any more pain than she had already.
"I'm sorry," she whispered. "Hang in there, Keith."
Thirty-two seconds.
What had Pidge done to deserve this? What had she done that had warranted watching someone she cared about die in front of her? Was she really that terrible of a person that the world wanted to punish her for it?
"Keith," Pidge raised her gaze. Keith looked at her, tears that before this, Pidge would have sworn she'd never see in his eyes. He was in so much pain. Pidge could sympathize. She thought she was going to die from the sheer agony of bleeding out internally if the dizziness didn't get to her first. "Stay awake."
"...nna…" Keith's whine came out. Pidge could only guess at what he had attempted to say and she cast around for something to Keith to grip onto. Something to keep his consciousness from slipping too far out of his grasp.
"Pidge," Shiro said. "How's Keith?"
Pidge didn't answer, feeling like she had been slapped. The answer she was looking for was right there, in the form of their leader who had been there for Keith his entire life. Keith needed Shiro just as much as Shiro needed him.
Pidge raised her gaze to Keith's again. "Shiro needs you, Keith. Okay? He needs you."
"...iro…" Keith whispered.
"Yeah," Pidge bit her lip harshly. Blood peppered her tongue and she winced at the coppery taste. "Yeah, Shiro. He needs you to stay awake, okay? You need him, he needs you. Don't you dare die on me, okay?!"
Ten seconds.
Keith coughed in response. Blood flowed anew between Pidge's gloves and she pitied Coran for a moment, who would have to wash the blood out of her flight suit.
Pidge was counting down the last of the seconds in her head when Yellow flew overhead. She landed with a heavy thud on the ground, resting her jaw on the ground and opening wide. A moment later, Hunk practically flew out, a first-aid kit in hand. He dropped to his knees on the other side of Keith, fumbling for the clasps of the box in his hand.
Pidge watched him, her hands still pressed firmly to Keith's stab wound. Keith had dull amethyst eyes fixed on Hunk as he worked, pulling out a hefty bottle of Altean disinfectant and a roll of bandages.
"Move your hands, Pidge," Hunk said, withdrawing a pair of medical scissors from within the first aid kit. Pidge did as she was told, watching helplessly as Hunk cut away at Keith's flight suit, pulling it away and throwing it aside. He applied disinfectant as fast and cleanly as he dared (Pidge tried to ignore Keith's pained whimpers as Hunk worked) and wrapped the wound messily.
"Coran would have done better," Hunk watched as red seeped through the bandages. His fingers were covered in blood, staining his own flight suit a grisly scarlet. "We'll have to wait until we get back to the castle until we can bandage it properly."
Pidge nodded. "Thanks, Hunk…" Her shoulders slumped in relief. Hunk scooped Keith into his arms (the Red Paladin tried protesting tiredly, but ended up crying out in pain every time he moved more than two inches) and hurried back into Yellow.
Pidge followed as Hunk tucked Keith into his blanket fort, wrapping yellow blankets around Keith and glancing up as Pidge entered the bay area.
"I'm going to pilot Yellow back to the castle," he said. "Watch over Keith for me, okay? Don't let him fall asleep."
"I won't," Pidge said firmly. She glanced at Keith, nestled quite adorably in a layer of blankets, and set her resolve. She was not going to fail him a second time. She had let him get stabbed.
But she sure as hell wasn't going to let him die.
She took a seat next to Hunk's blanket fort as the Yellow Paladin vanished into the cockpit. She reached out for Keith's hand and squeezed. He blinked at her, his free hand clearly grasping at his wound under his blanket.
"Stay awake," she urged.
"...For...iro…" He whispered hoarsely.
"For Shiro," Pidge agreed.
True to his word, Keith kept his eyes open the entire ride back to the castle. He even managed to the medbay, where Coran started setting up his things to perform stitches, as the pods were out of commision for the time being, due to a power fluctuation in the Castle's core a few weeks back.
It wasn't until Keith laid eyes upon his best friend - his brother - that he slipped away into the realm of unconsciousness.
Pidge stood outside of the room while Coran and Hunk set to work. Hunk's hand were too shaky to perform the actual stitches, so he was only there to remind Coran of human anatomy and what to avoid while he worked.
Shiro's face was stormy. Pidge couldn't read his expression as he stared at the door, his shoulders tense. Lance glanced at her from around their leader and they shared a single concerned look.
Shiro didn't move from his spot in front of the door until Coran gave them the okay to come in.
Keith hissed in pain.
Dropping the tablet he had been using was by far the most painful thing he'd been through since he had been stabbed. Pidge watched as he fumbled for it across the lounge, his fingers barely not long enough to pick it up. He was about to get up when Pidge crossed the room and picked it up for him, extending it towards him.
Keith blinked up at her. "Thanks."
"No problem," Pidge's gaze shot to his stomach. "How are you feeling."
"Better," Keith said. He winced as he rested his head against the pillows. "Shiro's been doting on me since I woke up and it's getting a bit annoying, but other than that-"
"No," Pidge said. "Mentally. How are you doing?" Keith paused. Something flickered in his amethyst gaze and he smiled a bit ruefully.
"Tired," he said. "I...don't even really know what I'm supposed to feel. I thought I was going to die, Pidge. I was ready to die. A year ago, I couldn't even say that I would even think about dying without getting scared out of my mind. And now…" he paused, teasing his bottom lip with his teeth. Pidge sighed, hunching her shoulders. She understood him, more than he probably knew.
"This whole thing…" She whispered. "The war, us being Paladins... sucks."
Keith laughed, instantly making a face like he regretted it. "Well said," he said sarcastically. Pidge gave him a look.
"You know what I mean," she said. "I don't hate it. I love being a Paladin, it's one of the best things that's ever happened to me. But it's just not...fair. We always put our lives on the line and nearly die because of it."
"Yeah," Keith leaned his head back, his hair a messy halo around his head. "It's not fair at all. But...we're the only ones who will do it. The only ones that can do it."
Pidge sighed, knowing Keith had a point. "Yeah. Yeah, I know. Just...next time, don't almost die on me." Keith frowned at her, pinching his eyebrows together. He opened his mouth to say something and then closed it again, deciding to say something else. A teasing grin was now pulling at the edges of his lips.
"No promises."
Okay, honestly? I love Keith. I adore him. And whumping him like this gives me life, even though it probably shouldn't lol
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the chapter! I rarely write from Pidge's point of view, and I hope I got her character down okay. I also hope that beginning part wasn't too rough for some of you, I know it was a bit graphic. :p I'm sorry it's so short too - I meant for it to be longer but that didn't end up working out, sadly.
Next chapter, Hunk faces peril while Keith watches helplessly.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I'll see you all next Friday!
phantommist13: :OOOO ! Thank you so much! I'm glad that you're enjoying me, stuff like this really keeps me going :D