Keith followed Lance through the wormhole. They left the others behind to deal with Lotor. Fifteen minutes. That was what they all agreed upon. If they couldn't rescue Shiro in fifteen minutes Allura would send a wormhole their way and they'd take it, leaving Shiro behind.
It was a small window, but any window was better than ditching their friend, mentor, and former leader. Keith didn't want to think about how much more Shiro meant to him. He was the only family Keith had, and Keith couldn't afford to be emotionally compromised going into a battle.
He took a deep breath to calm his thoughts. "So, Sharpshooter, what's the plan?"
"Uh…" Lance replied. "I don't exactly have one…"
"You what?!"
"Yeah, I just knew I had to do something. I'll think of a plan when we get there."
"It doesn't take that much time between entering a wormhole and getting to your destination. That's kind of the point!" Keith glared at the Black lion through Red's glass. "Why did you pick me to go along then? Wouldn't it have been more useful to have Pidge or someone else with a big brain who could hack through cell doors and stuff?"
"Well…" Lance trailed off, decidedly not finishing his sentence.
"Well what?"
Lance said it slowly. "It's just...I know you care about Shiro. I didn't want to leave you off this mission…" He paused, before speeding up his words. "And I knew we couldn't afford three lions for Shiro's rescue. Kolivan needs all the help he can get."
"I guess...that makes sense…" It made about as much sense as anything Keith could have come up with.
"So...go in guns blazing, okay?"
They slid through the wormhole. Time and space warped around them and they were suddenly face to face with the Galra prison ship. In Keith's estimation at least forty smaller ships surrounded it. Small and fast ships, but easy enough to destroy.
Immediately Keith began shooting. Three ships began rapidly firing back. Keith dodged their attacks separating from Lance, to trail them further away from the prison ship.
Lance jumped into action as well. Sending the powerful black lion lasers vibrating through space on target. One ship was caught in his blast, and two others were nearby enough to gain some damage as well.
"I'm going to try to circle the prison ship to look for an opening while I take some of these smaller ships out. You do the same!" Lance yelled over the comm system.
"Roger!" Keith yelled back, gritting his teeth in concentration.
He turned Red in a large arc, allowing a few of the enemy ships to catch up to his momentum, before promptly firing a long laser blast into their wings. The closest ship's wing was blown off completely, causing it to smash into the one behind it and destroy them both.
He spun around, extending the arc to move him closer to the prison ship. Four more Galra ships came from below trying to cut him off. Keith was forced to do a tight spin, and bash three of them with Red's tail, to prevent them from stopping Red in her tracks.
The last ship sent lasers firing, preventing Keith from getting any closer to the prison ship. He turned around again, this time diving downward, around the belly of the prison ship, right where it had just come from.
He hoped that there wouldn't be more where those had been.
Another three ships closed in on either side of Red. Keith fired off a few blasts before suspending Red from moving forward. The ships whizzed past, giving Keith an opening to fire Red's mouth lasers targeting their gas tanks.
The explosions blocked Keith's view. By the time they had cleared another two ships were pressing in on Red.
"Lance! I'm not finding any openings!"
Lance yelled in frustration. "I'm not either!"
The team watched the wormhole close. Without a word, Allura busied herself in making a second portal. Whatever anxieties they had, they couldn't wait around when their allies needed their help.
She pulled at the power within herself. Light flashed in the sky, a second wormhole created.
"It's time to go! Everybody ready?"
Hunk and Pidge yelled their affirmatives while Matt and Coran focused on steering the castle into the light.
Allura rushed to Blue. She would be behind the others, but would have to catch up quickly. They really didn't know what was facing them on the other side, except that it was large and dangerous.
The wormhole pulled at their senses as they went through.
Immediate blasts rammed into the castle as they appeared at the rebel base. It was sent flying backward. If the wormhole had still been in place they would have been sent back to where they had just come from.
Allura was rammed into the steering of the Blue lion, not yet ready in her ship for such sudden blasts.
"Kolivan! Kolivan!" She yelled, tightening the straps on her chair.
"Thank the stars you're here! The smaller pilot ships are getting wiped out. I need Voltron to protect them so they can get out of there!" Kolivan yelled.
Allura flung Blue's controls forward, sending them shooting out into the blackness of space. Hunk and Pidge were already ready, speeding towards Lotor's lion as fast as they could.
Lance and Keith had told them it was huge, but nothing had actually prepared them for this. The white lion loomed in the distance, bigger than even Voltron.
"Oh no." Hunk said.
No one answered him. They didn't have to. They were all in agreement.
"Where are the Red and Black lions? I need you to form Voltron immediately!" Kolivan asked.
Nobody answered.
"We don't have enough time to take down all these ships! We need to get inside NOW!" Keith yelled. Their time was dwindling with each ship they wrecked. If there was an chance of getting to Shiro they'd have to find a way through this herd.
"What can we do! They're small but there are too many to get close."
"We've got to do something!" Keith yelled, taking out another ship but two more appeared where the downed ship exploded.
"We need to...I don't know...take them all down at once."
"They're too split up to be able to take them all down at once! How is that going to work?!" Keith yelled, frustrated.
"I don't know...we have to herd them somehow. You know, like a couple of border collies."
"What are you even talking about?!" Keith dodged as another ship appeared firing its lasers.
"Don't lie to me Keith! I know you grew up in the country in Texas! You probably had cows at some point!"
"I never owned cows, we only ever had chickens!"
"Close enough!" Lance yelled.
"AAARRGHHH-fine! We have to draw them all out away from the prison ship first."
"Yeaah! That's my mullet head!"
"Don't-call me that…" Keith focused on circling the Prison ship to try and get as many ships following him as possible.
Keith slowed down, dodging around one, shooting at it to ge its attention. It began following him, sending shots after him that he could lazily dodge.
He swung red right next to the prison ship. Another four ships came out of nowhere to try and block his path. He fired at them, damaging three of them and making one explode right away. It blasted apart sending pieces flying.
A piece of the smashed hull came flying off at high speed. It was too large for Keith to dodge in time. The hull cracked against Red, smashing them hard between the metal and the prison ship and sending them sliding. Red's claws dug into the ship's side to stop them.
Keith gritted his teeth in frustration.
The hull had slowed him down more than he wanted it to. Several ships that were following now converged, trying to surround him. He threw Red's controls forward, ramming her into one of the ships and sending it flying.
It was enough. Keith tore through the break among the Galra ships, sending several of them to scatter briefly before they fell into line behind him again.
Keith glanced back at the ships following him. He'd managed to gather a group of at least 12 ships. Hopefully Lance was getting the rest.
"Lance, how are you doing?" Keith asked, flying tightly to the side of the prison ship.
"I've got a good sized group following me. Let's take them to the front of the prison ship and get rid of them!"
Keith tore off at a higher speed. He was still flying slower than usual, just fast enough to maintain a lead on the galra ships while making sure they were still able to keep up. He began to turn in an arc, trying to make his movements obvious so the galra would think they could get a good shot in.
Many of them tried and Keith dodged lazily again. He saw Lance ahead of him with his own tail of galra ships. The arc Keith had led his own on would keep them hidden from view up until the last possible second. He moved Red forward slightly faster.
Right as Red was going to slam into one of Lance's ships he pulled tightly on the controls, swinging them upward. Red shot up like a cannon, out of the way. It was a move only she could do.
Several of the galra ships rammed together, causing fiery explosions throughout.
"Keith! Your rail gun!" Lance yelled. They had to act fast or all of the work would be a wash.
Keith turned on a dime, slamming his bayard into place. The gun sprung out of Red's back. He sent a pulse so strong it even washed Black backward a few paces. The ships he had sent it toward blasted apart. It rang forward through the sky into the prison ship, tearing the front wide open to the abyss of space.
"Nice one!" Lance yelled.
"Let's get Shiro!"
"Coran, Matt, I need you to focus on rescuing as many rebels as you can from the base!" Allura yelled into the comms.
"Understood!" Matt yelled back. The castle shuddered to a halt and they went to work on connecting it to the base to start being able to shuttle allies into the quarters.
The three lions charged at Lotor. A giant paw came barreling down at them, separating them from each other as they were forced to scatter.
Beams of light shot from its tail, aimed at the rebel pilots flying smaller ships. The white lion roared, sending a wave of force crashing over the ships. It tossed even the voltron lions about, sending them a hundred yards further away.
Lotor focused his beams on one of the rebel ships. Sending a blast of dark purple energy out, larger than the previous beams.
"No!" Hunk yelled. He forced Yellow forward.
He was just close enough to the ship to slam into it, forcing it out of the way, before the beam could hit. It left him vulnerable in the line of fire.
The purple energy hit, surrounding Yellow. The bright light in its eyes shut off.
"Hunk!" Pidge and Allura yelled together.
There was no answer. They watched as Yellow tumbled through space.
Pidge raced Green towards him at the same time as Allura yelled. "Kolivan! We need backup!"
They flew forward into the damaged frame of the prison ship. Ship parts and galra bodies rammed into the mangled metal before they were flung into space. The hole was large enough for even their lions to fit through.
They found space to land inside. Keith watched as Black dug her claws into the floor near a gate leading inside. He had Red do the same.
"How much time do we have left?" Keith asked.
"Not long. We never had much time to begin with though. Only about 10 minutes remaining."
Keith swore. It was going to be impossible to search this entire ship in that amount of time. They'd have to be either very lucky or very smart, and probably both, if they were going to have any chance of finding Shiro.
"Black should still have a connection with Shiro right?" Keith asked.
Lance paused before he answered, Keith wasn't sure why. "Yes, that was my thought. Give me a moment, I'm going to try to find him."
The silence was deafening. Keith waited with bated breath as he let seconds tick by, untamed. He wanted to do more than just be silent, but this part was up to Lance.
Keith breathed deeply. He stretched for a moment. He was ready.
"I'm not sure." Lance said softly over the comm.
"Lance?" Keith asked.
"I'm having trouble. Keith, you...you have a connection to Shiro, right?"
"What do you mean?"
"I...well...I know Red doesn't have the same connection to Shiro as Black does, but maybe she can use your connection to find him."
"I don't think that's how it works."
"We're running out of time to find him. You have to try. You-" Lance's voice broke. "You love him...you have to try…"
Keith breathed for a moment. Lance was right, he did love Shiro. Shiro was a brother to him, the only one he'd ever had. Sometimes people back on Earth could feel it when something bad happened to a family member they loved. There was a connection there that couldn't be explained easily by science. Lance was right. It was worth a shot.
"Okay." Keith said simply.
Lance remained quiet, allowing him to focus.
He focused. Keith tried to pull all the emotions he felt toward Shiro in the forethought of his brain. He pulled on the memories and on the bond they shared as kin. "Red...help me find him."
She strengthened that bond. Keith had been Shiro's right hand just as surely as he was now Lance's. Red pulled at the connection between them, making it more focused, separating it from his other emotions and forming it into a string. Keith helped her pull it tight before they could followed it.
It took them down, down, down, quickly through the various dark corridors of the ship. It wound through the halls, switching quickly. Left and right and then right again.
And then as clear as any picture he had, Shiro was in front of him. Irritated, pacing his cell.
"I found him." Keith groaned, coming out of his trance. "He's somewhere on the lower levels of the ship."
"No time to explain where. Let's go." Lance said, already popping his head out of Black.
Kolivan answered Allura's call as quickly as he could. "I'm trying to get some of our larger ships ready. Lotor shouldn't be able to blast them out of the sky as easily, but they'll be slower."
As he spoke, five larger ships flew from the base, directed at the white lion.
"We'll make due!" Allura said, thanking Kolivan silently. "We need a distraction!"
The rebel ships flew towards Lotor, buzzing like flies around his lion's head. He had the white lion swat at them with her paws and tail. They dodged as best they could, but it sent one of the ships flying.
Pidge took it as enough. They flew to Yellow, screaming. "Hunk! Hunk! Are you okay?!"
Green clasped onto Yellow, gripping tightly giant paw to giant paw. Pidge flung themself out into space, toward Yellow's mouth, not taking a moment to show any fear.
What kind of monstrous beam of energy could shut down Yellow with only one blast? Of all the ships Yellow was the strongest, and had the most armor.
Allura flew forward, trying to relieve some of the attacks the rest of the rebels were taking. Another of their ships was blasted out of the sky by the white lion's powerful tail blasts.
"Allura, you're out of time! We need Voltron!" Coran yelled from the castle as he watched everything unfold.
Allura gritted her teeth, grinding them in her frustration.
They ran through the halls, weapons blazing. It was quick work. It had to be.
With Lance it was easy to take care of any galra they found. Working together felt seamless to Keith. They had trained together enough to know each other's moves as well as they knew their own.
Keith charged at a galra who appeared, slicing into his blaster before he had a chance to aim it at Lance. Lance responded by shooting the galra square in the jaw.
But it was more than just the training. Keith could have been with anyone else on the team and it wouldn't have been the same, not even with Shiro. They had a bond.
Lance sent shots flying through the air, blasting a few galra to the ground. Keith glanced at him, sending him a smile of approval, but Lance didn't look his way.
Although, this fight felt a bit strange. When they had fought together against Lotor it had felt different somehow. Keith couldn't place it, but it almost felt as though Lance was pulling away from him.
Keith ducked under a galra's sword, before throwing his weight into his opponent, sending him sprawling. Lance shot him in the chest before they continued.
He blocked it from his mind. For now they had to concentrate at the task on hand. He could figure out what was wrong later. As long as they worked together well, and Lance wasn't too distracted they wouldn't have a problem with this fight.
Keith led the way down the corridors. They ran past prisoners both galra and other species. Some of the prisoners jeered at them, some of them cheered them on as they ran past. Keith knew they wouldn't be able to leave this ship without freeing them. They just had to get to Shiro first.
Down another corridor, a shot rang out. It hit lance in the side. He was blasted backwards. Keith ran to wipe out the offending galra before running to Lance's side.
"Are you okay?!" Keith asked, offering Lance his hand.
"I'm fine." Lance said quickly. He ignored the hand that Keith offered him and stood up, pressing against a wall to help himself up. He didn't even make eye contact with Keith.
Keith shook his head. It was weird behavior. He looked down at where the blaster had hit, and was glad to see it hadn't gone through Lance's armor, it had only knocked him backwards.
Lance pushed past Keith, being careful not to bump into him as he did so. Keith frowned as they continued their way down the corridor.
He took a deep breath, focusing back on the task of finding Shiro.
Keith could see the map of the prison ship in his mind. They only had one more corridor to go.
"Lance, it's just around here."
Lance nodded. They dove around the corridor and were met with a few blasts. Quick work. Even with something off, the galra didn't stand a chance against Keith and Lance. They were a pair.
"Lance!" They heard Shiro yell, and then slightly more softly, "Keith!"
"Shiro!" Keith disarmed his bayard before hugging his friend through the bars. "I can't believe we found you."
"We've got to go. We don't have much time." Lance said.
His voice was strange. Keith looked at him and noticed he was looking pointedly away.
"Of course. Lance can you blast the door open?" Keith asked, releasing Shiro.
He obliged. The cell swung outward and Shiro lept outside.
"What's happening? Where is everyone else? And we need to free the prisoners." Shiro said, already taking command of the situation.
"It's just us who came to rescue you. The others are in a fight with Lotor and we need to get to them so we can form Voltron. They won't stand a chance without us. Allura's making a wormhole, which should be showing up in minutes." Keith said, trying to recount all the events in as little time as possible.
"We brought Red…" Lance paused. "A-and Black."
Lance's voice was strange again. Keith couldn't place why.
Shiro looked at Keith, a smile breaking out on his face. "Alright, Keith, we don't have much time. I take it the explosions I felt destroyed the main command centers of the ship. If that's the case we'll need to free the prisoners on the smaller cargo ships that are inside the main hangar."
Keith nodded. Continuing to listen.
"I've been working with some of the older prisoners aboard, they'll know which prisoners we can trust. Take Black and try to open the hangar doors using the jaw blade, we probably won't be able to open them otherwise." Shiro turned to Lance. "Lance help Keith however you can in Red."
Lance looked at the floor, silent and unsure of himself.
Shiro didn't notice. He turned away, grabbing one of the blasters off a galra. He tested it with his arm. Shooting a couple blasts.
"Umm.." Keith said, realizing one of the reasons Lance may have been acting strange. "Actually...I'm in Red."
A/N: Never thought I'd be googling how to herd livestock for a Voltron fic, but eeehh, you gotta do what you gotta do.
These fight scenes are the hardest for me to write. It's so much about balancing fighting and emotion, and then also coming up with strategy and making sure the entire fight has ups and downs. They take so much time and so much energy.
And also Lance...you poor poor, stupid boy. Keith doesn't love Shiro like that...at least not in this fic.
Also best out of context line so far..."Lance and Keith had told them it was huge, but nothing had actually prepared them for this."
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
I'm so close to the end. And I'm so excited to write this next chapter!
*cackles about what's gonna happen in the next chapter and cracks knuckles over her keyboard*
Two more chapters lovelies!
