Author's Note: BONDING TIME! Since Shiro and Kathy don't have the same backstory that Shiro and Keith have I thought maybe I would do something about that. I own nothing.
Stranded
Kathy screamed as the castle shook and she felt Red's feet leave the ground without either of their input. She could hear Shiro crying out too as both the Red and Black lions were swept out of the castle into the corrupted wormhole. She heard Lance cry out their names before they passed into the wall of the wormhole. Kathy screamed barely aware of Shiro doing the same as blue and red electricity coursed through her lion and into her. She blacked out as she made out the blurry outline of a grey planet. She didn't feel them crash miles apart.
She had no idea how long it took her to wake up. But when she did she groaned. Her head hurt, like all the blood had rushed to it. Then she realized she was upside down, still strapped in to her chair. She swore slightly as she tried to unbuckle herself but couldn't get it unjammed so she let herself shift into her full Galra form and sliced through the strap with her claws, she didn't want to risk cutting herself on her sword. She dropped down to the space where her console normally appeared. She rubbed her head as her ears twitched under her helmet.
"Red? You ok?" She could still feel the presence of the Red lion at the back of her mind but she felt exhausted, almost as tired as her paladin. But Kathy didn't have time to be tired. Her suit was damaged, from her fight with the druid, luckily by some miracle she'd made it out alive. She was so sure they were done for when the shield had gone up around the entire station. But it had gone down almost as quickly. She had an idea about that but she needed to know where she was first. She reached out again with her mind to the Red Lion.
"Is it ok for me to be outside with my suit damaged?" When she got the go ahead from the lion, in the form of the exit at the top of the lions head opening, she scrambled out of the lion and patted her on the nose.
"Alright girl, you rest. I need to see if I can't figure out where we are, see if anyone else is here." The lion almost seemed to nod before she felt the presence in her mind fade, not entirely but it was as if the lion had fallen asleep. She sighed and spoke.
"Hello? Shiro? Lance? Hunk? Pidge? Anybody?" Echoing silence came back to her. She knew how to handle being on her own. She was good at it but the silence ate at her as she began to scout the area, trying to see if anyone else was nearby, and gather supplies as she did. The most important at the moment was water, drinkable water. She had wandered about fifty feet away from the lion when her helmet started picking up a staticy call. She set off at top speed in the direction of the call. As she got closer the call got less staticy. She heard a voice she was elated to hear.
"This is Shiro, calling anyone… Anybody there?" Kathy didn't stop running but she spoke.
"Shiro!" A sigh of relief sounded over the com system.
"Oh thank god. For a second there I thought I was alone. Good to hear a friendly voice Kat." Kat smiled to herself as her com system finally synced with the targeting system in her helmet, some of the wires must have come loose when she and Red crashed.
"Likewise Shiro. You alright?" There was a dry chuckle.
"Yeah. Takes more than a drop from the upper atmosphere into a hard pan surface at what I'm guessing was about twenty five meters per second squared and a glowing alien wound to keep me down. How are you?" Kathy's steps faltered then she was running faster.
"Did you say glowing?" Shiro hummed an affirmative, Kathy swore in Galran.
"Why is that worse than it seems?" Shiro sounded almost resigned, and very, very tired.
"It's pretty bad. Do not fall asleep! Red's busted, I think she'll be ok but I'm headed your way. If you're not in Black try to get back to her. But you need to keep talking. You need to stay awake." Shiro sounded like he was smiling slightly even if it sounded like it hurt to talk.
"Careful, you might start to scare me talking like that." Kathy scoffed slightly as she reached a cliff and paused to take stock.
"I'm not trying to scare you, I'm trying to keep you alive. A wound like that needs to be treated as quickly as possible." Shiro grunted and Kathy pulled her Bayard.
"Yeah, I kinda figured. Um, could you maybe step on it?" Kathy frowned, she was getting better at earth sayings but this one wasn't familiar.
"Step on?" But she didn't get any farther as Shiro cried out.
"Shiro!" Kathy shouted. Shiro groaned.
"I've got company. I think I'm safe for the moment but I can't get back to the Black Lion." Kathy swore. She thought for a second before kicking the ground in frustration the rocks cracked and a geyser of water poured forth, steaming with heat and smelling of salt. Kathy smiled and summoned her Bayard.
"I'll be there in a few minutes, if this works." Shiro sounded like he was frowning.
"If it doesn't?" Kathy peeked over the edge of the ravine.
"I plummet maybe two hundred feet with nearly no fuel in my jet pack." Before Shiro could do more than groan out a slight protest Kathy stepped up to the edge of the cliff and slashed into the rock around her. The water poured forth and blasted the piece of rock she was standing on out over the ravine. She screamed as the rock crumbled under her feet and her pack tried to shoot her forwards. She just managed to drive her sword into the rocks before she would have plummeted to her death. Red made a noise of protest at the back of her mind but she shook it off letting her claws slip out again and digging them into the soft rock of the wall.
"Kathy, please tell me you didn't just die. Lance would kill me if you died." Kathy let out a breathless laugh as she let her Bayard shrink back into its inert form and then slipped it back into its holster holding onto the rockface with nothing but her claws on one hand for a moment before beginning to climb.
"Nope, still kicking, haven't climbed like this in a while. What about you? How big is this company you mentioned?" Shiro groaned and Kathy thought she heard rocks shifting.
"Shiro?" No answer. Kathy swore in Galran again as she scaled the cliff as panic grabbed her heart. She raced across the cliff and down into a crater where in rested the Black Lion. She looked around, she didn't see any sign of Shiro. He still wasn't responding to his coms. She turned to the Black Lion. Unlike Red, Black was sitting up much like the lions did in their bays at the castle. Shiro's voice crackled over the coms again, he was screaming.
"I know I'm not your paladin but Shiro needs our help! Please!" It took a moment but the eyes of the Black Lion lit up and it bowed to her letting her board it. They flew directly to Shiro landing over him as the Black Lion roared and the creatures scattered. Kathy raced out of the Black Lion pulling Shiro up.
"We need to get you out of here now!" She picked Shiro up and carried him into the Black Lion before flying over to where the Red Lion was still laying. Shiro was staring at Kathy from his spot in her lap. She picked him up and took him out of the lion when they landed.
"Wait here." She slipped into the Red lion and grabbed the med kit from behind her chair. She hopped back out and patted Red on the nose. Then she stepped over to Shiro. Kneeling down next to him she pulled out some bandages and dug around looking for a scalpel but couldn't find one. She swore to herself as she pulled her Blade, leaving it in its dagger form for now.
"Not gonna lie, this is gonna hurt a lot." Shiro nodded and raised an eyebrow at her when she held out a strip of bandage to him. It was folded over several times making it quite thick.
"Bite down on this." Shiro opened his mouth and bit down on the bandage. Kathy whispered an apology and sliced into Shiro's wound pressing hard. He grunted in pain around the bandage but she wasn't paying attention. She was watching the glow drain out of the cut she'd sliced into. She did the same thing to the second cut before bandaging his wounds and apologizing profusely as she helped him take the bandage out of his mouth.
"Why was that necessary?" Kathy sat down with a sigh.
"The wound was contaminated, something about the druids is wrong. My uncle used to tell me how bad wounds they inflict could get. How sometimes if their poison stayed in the body it could infect the mind. Better safe than sorry." Shiro nodded shuddering at the thought of Haggar poking around in his brain. He smiled at her.
"You really are the most street smart out of all of us." He groaned in pain again, before he kept talking. He was feeling very lightheaded.
"That's why if anything happens to me I want you to lead Voltron." Kathy stared at him for a second before bursting out laughing.
"And they say Lance is the funny one." Shiro shook his head and pulled himself up into more of a sitting position.
"I'm serious. If something happens to me, you should lead Voltron. You know the most about what we're fighting. Allura and Coran know basics but you've been out there fighting for years. You know what it's like on the ground. You know how to teach fighting skills. We just gotta work on those diplomatic skills." Kathy sighed and pulled off her helmet letting her ears out to twitch in the salt filled breeze.
"Yeah, cause the universe wants a Galra in charge of Voltron." Shiro frowned.
"You're more than just a Galra, you're my friend. You're a Paladin of Voltron. You are an amazing fighter. You'd make a fantastic leader." Kathy set down her helmet and shook her head.
"I don't know why we're even talking about this. You're not gonna die. I'm not gonna let you die here Shiro." She stood before Shiro could speak Her ears were twitching and her tail was swishing in the way that meant she was upset.
"I'm gonna see if I can't find something to burn for a fire. We need to keep you warm. The lions will let me know if you're in trouble." Without another word she stalked off. Shiro frowned, he couldn't help but feel like he'd pushed a button he shouldn't have.