AN: Part Three of the Refugee Rescue Mission - from the Paladins' side.

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As soon as Kosmo delivered the paladins to their spots they were in motion.

Allura and Lance brought out their blue shields and dug them into the soft earth. Lance crouched down behind the protection while Allura ran out to meet the first sentry head on. Lance took a breath and then quickly aimed, fired at a drone and then lowered down when a sentry shot at him.

"Stay down a tick!"

He watched as Allura's blue whip sliced at two sentries' arms.

"Alright Allura!"

He saw his opening, quickly lifting his sniper gun up to take out another drone. Lasers came again. He huffed as he was forced to duck down behind the shields again. He took a glance at the ticker on his forearm.

On Keith's side of the canyon his black blade scratched the chest plate of a sentry before he was forced to jump back. Their armors were stronger but it did not take away from their speed. Kosmo growled as his teeth caught onto one of the sentry's wrists, keeping it in place. Keith saw the opportunity.

His bayard went halfway through the shoulder.

Sparks of wires and electricity shot out. Kosmo yelped at the shock as he was forced to release his prey. Keith gritted his teeth, stubbornly pushing through the rest of the way. The sentry's arm fell with a loud thud.

"You ok?"

Kosmo shook his head and then snorted, giving his human a sharp bark.

"Right." Keith grinned at him. "Stupid to ask."

"We got eleven doboshes left!" Lance's voice boomed on the comms.

"Pidge," Keith grunted out as he engaged with the wounded sentry, "are you out of the canyon?"

"Yeah but it's slow going. The rebels' flashlights went out so everyone other than me is stumbling around. Plus, you know, ducking the stray lasers from the sentries Allura and Lance are supposed to take out."

Lance pouted. "They can be from Keith's side you know."

"It's not me." Keith threw his sword and watched with satisfaction as it hit the sentry straight in the chest. "The first thing I did was slice their guns."

"Hey, there's only one drone left and Allura's dancing with the last two sentries. We'll be done in a dobosh."

"Sorry to disappoint," came Allura's heavy breathing on the comms, "But these last two are much larger than the others."

Lance's eyes widened as he saw his chance. "Down!"

The Princess dropped down immediately. Lance shot through the last drone, simultaneously hitting the gun hand of a sentry.

"Very good Lance!"

"Just doing what the Sharpshooter does best."

"Pidge," Keith voiced out, "I'm sending the wolf to you. I'll cover the rear once I'm done with this last sentry."

"Roger that."

Keith turned to Kosmo. "Go to Pidge and stay with her."

The wolf's eyes glowed before disappearing completely.

"Hunk, you're going to need to meet Pidge halfway. Shiro can guard the hole."

"...About that," came Hunk's half whisper. "We're really not in the position to be moving."

"I hope those guns are pointed at the enemy," Keith could hear Shiro's serious voice over the comms but he knew it wasn't directed towards the paladins, "and not the women and children coming in."

"Hunk," Keith glanced back without thinking, "what's Shiro talking abo -"

The hair along the back of Keith's neck raised up. He rotated himself at the time of trying to back away but the sand slowed his motion. The sentry clocked him straight in the face. For a couple of ticks his vision was blurry. Even then, he could still see the glowing purple of the sentry's cold, dead eyes as it readied to attack...

He felt his entire body bristle.

He rolled away and then clenched his hands. With a half snarl he called his bayard back to him in the middle of his swing, his black blade appearing just a tick before he made contact with the sentry. The blade glowed as energy burst from it. He swung down to complete the motion.

The sentry splintered into pieces.

He fell to a knee as his face throbbed. His helmet's visor was completely shattered and gone. He licked his lips as liquid dribbled down and then spat out the blood. He brought a hand up to his nose, feeling the beginning of swelling but nothing broken.

If it wasn't for the visor he was sure it would have been much worse.

"-eith. Keith!

"I'm fine Lance. How much time we do we have left?"

"Six doboshes and twenty ticks."

"You hear that Shiro?" Keith used the side of his glove to wipe the blood from under his nose. "Hunk?"

Neither one answered. He sighed and then got up.

"I'm coming to you Pidge."


Hunk noticed the guards so had approached first.

Almost immediately the laser rifles had pointed at them. He quickly called out to them so they wouldn't think he was Galra. The guns stayed up. Ok, so they're not here to help. But he wasn't really clear what their presence here meant and why they were still set on potentially shooting him.

Is it because we made a hole? We'll totally fix it guys. Promise. I'm pretty sure our Space Princess can reseal it. And if not, our crazy Space Uncle knows all about Altean tech. But he only thought these words. His mouth was sealed shut as he stayed frozen on the spot.

"Hunk."

The Yellow Paladin felt his shoulders relax as Shiro murmured his name in a comforting manner. He was so glad Shiro was with him. When the man addressed the guards he felt like he could breathe better. Allura was always saying that Shiro would make a great Altean diplomat.

Shiro got Kolivan to trust him and he's pretty hardcore.

The reminder of the Blades made Hunk lower his head a little. Kolivan didn't blame them for what happened to him and his agents but that didn't take the heaviness away from his heart. We failed all of them.

Rynner. Nyma. Rolo. Matt.

...Shay...

"There's kids?" James voiced out from the front.

Hunk snapped back to the present. Shiro started cracking some joke - good ol' Space Dad - but Hunk didn't really hear it. He kept looking at the four MFEs amongst the crowd and then the crowd themselves. It was hard to tell the guards' expressions with half of their faces covered. The MFEs had their visors but their faces were mostly visible.

Why do they look like they were sucking on limes?

That wasn't a good face to have. He looked at Shiro's profile, seeing the calm face but the alert eyes. Ever since Shiro was put into the clone's body he seemed a little dazed as if waking up from a catnap in the middle of the day. Except it was a nap that lasted several months - practically a year, if Hunk thought about it. It was getting better of course but it was taking a while.

So if Shiro's eyes were sharp that was saying a lot about the situation.

Shiro's presence started calming people down. Some rifles started lowering. Hunk could feel his shoulders relax and saw Griffin's form ease.

Then came the metallic shriek.


Allura grunted as she lassoed the sentry's arm.

Lance yelled out as he swung his red broadsword two handed. The crack in the shoulder made for an easy target. The remaining arm fell down with a satisfying clunk. Allura then used her bayard to punch into the sentry's chest and then kicked it down.

"We're Team Kickass," Lance half panted, half laughed.

"Indeed." Allura let out a small smile and then raised her visor so she could wipe her forehead. "Keith, we're done on our end."

"Ok. I'm making my way over to Pidge. You and Lance follow behind. Take out any other drones or sentries that come."

Lance looked down at the counter. "We've got four doboshes and fifty two ticks before any Galra signals or feeds turn back on."

"Well if we've taken out the drones and sentries then we should be fine," Pidge voiced out.

"That's true."

"We're not taking any chances," Keith's voice sounded breathy as he talked while running. "Let's get moving before anything else happens."

"Roger that jefe."

Lance switched his bayard to the sniper rifle. Allura put her visor back down and lifted her whip up. They started running into the dark night, keeping their eyes peeled and ears open. The Garrison's orange particle barrier glowed in the distance. They could just make out the shadowed forms of the refugees.

"I see Keith's suit. We're close to the group," Lance murmured as he took a moment to look through his scope. He laughed a little as he caught the cosmic wolf's glowing markings. "Kosmo's herding them. Of course the Texan gets a sheep dog."

"I hear something."

Allura whirled around, not seeing Lance follow her lead. He looked through his scope to see better. He felt his jaw unhinge as he saw parts of the sentries coming together. Wires reached out and connected, metal plates shifted into place. It had four arms, two thick legs, two heads, and one massively armored chest.

"Quiznak," he breathed out. "The sentries-"

There was a metallic screech as the mega sentry stood up. Allura's form stiffened as she saw it squat down as if to jump.

"The refugees!"

They ran as the sentry took to the air. Allura felt slightly relieved to see that it would need to take several leaps to cover the distance but they were still too far away.

"Lance, I need to go."

"Do what you need to," Lance puffed out as he ran. "I'll warn Pidge."

She closed her eyes, shifting her body. As much as she was reluctant to shift into the enemy she knew that the Galra were a race that could adapt to the harshest of environments due to their physiology. Her Altean legs and feet were not enough to run in this sand. She felt her toes shift, severely testing the boundaries of her footwear.

She opened her eyes and then booked it, leaving Lance behind in ticks.


"We're almost there," Pidge called out to the group.

The rebel leader of the mission gave her a nod. The burly, dark haired man had been skeptical when Pidge came over. She could clearly see his hesitance in having a small teen take point but he really didn't have any other options. She had to flash her green bayard to prove she could help defend them if need be.

"The Garrison's close enough for us to see." The rebel eyed the circling wolf with a frown. "You can call off the wolf."

"Kosmo's pretty tame but ok."

She called him to her. The rebel let out a sound of surprise as the wolf suddenly appeared by her side. She put her hand along the wolf's upper back instead of the head due to his massive height.

He'd put a great dane to shame.

She could probably ride him like a pony. A huge part of her was really tempted to and she was perfectly unashamed to admit that to Keith's face five times already.

"I'm coming up behind you guys."

Speak of the devil. "Ok. We're almost to the hole and with a dobosh - "

"Pidge!" Lance called out. "Watch out there's one more!"

Something chilling sounded out into the night. It gave her goosebumps like the sound of metal plates grinding against one another. Pidge whipped her head around as well as the others. A large shadow with glowing purple eyes was in the sky to land right where they were standing -

A blue whip went around the neck of the thing's two heads.

Allura was in the air above it, pulling as hard as she could to move the thing towards her rather than the group. There were cries throughout the group as Allura and the metal thing crashed off to the side just outside the particle barrier. The rebels lifted up their guns as they all moved towards the hole.

"Get the refugees onto the Garrison grounds!" Keith yelled out. "I'm going to help Allura. Hunk, come over and help Pid-"

"Don't come in," Hunk immediately interrupted. "We're in the middle of a stand off."

"Stop! There's a problem at the entrance!" Pidge addressed the leader rebel before replying to her team. "With who? The guards?"

The rebels circled around their group in the meantime.

"We can't stay here," the leader grumbled.

"Let's go to the side where those boulders are," Pidge directed.

"Let's stay focused," Shiro's voice sounded out. "We're all on the same side."

"Guys! We have ten ticks left!"

"Keith," Pidge tightly got out, "what do we do?"

"Shiro, Hunk. I need you to clear the hole."

"It's not safe Keith," Hunk voiced out in frustration. "The MFEs are pointing guns at the guards. I don't know what -"

The sound of something launching drew eyes to the Garrison.

Then it exploded into light.


Shiro and Hunk yelled out as the flash exploded near them.

"Paladins, what was that?"

Shiro heard nothing from the comms but he could distinctly hear the sound of guns and electricity thrumming in the air. He shook his head in an attempt to shake it off.

"Hunk!"

"Shiro, the flash - " The Yellow Paladin groaned near him. "I heard some kind of thrumming sound. I think it took down our comms."

Shiro blinked hard as he tried his comm again. "You're right."

Hopefully it took down that monster's feeds. If he was really wishing, it would hopefully take out the Galra monster as well.

There was a groaning of metal.

Or not.

He blinked again. The MFEs were fighting some of the guards. He turned to assess Allura's situation. The robeast sentry tossed Allura towards them, bringing Shiro's attention back to the fight on the other side of the hole. One of the MFEs was hit in the stomach by a Garrison guard.

The guard took aim at Allura.

Shiro's suspicions were immediately proven correct.


The comms were down, but Pidge could hear Shiro's voice.

"Shield Allura!" he yelled out as he ran.

What?

Hunk's shield came out, blocking the first shot. Shiro turned his shield to take the second shot but the motion had been awkward, making him land hard on the ground. The guard took aim a third time. Allura was shaking her head, barely getting up on her knees.

"No!"


The sentry had gotten a double hit along Allura's head before tossing her.

Her vision swarmed. She could hear muffled yelling. She blinked, seeing her cracked helmet in the dirt. She slowly shook her head. Get up. She was in the middle of a fight. I need to protect these people. That's what being a Paladin was about.

Save Earth...before it becomes Altea.

The metallic groaning of the robeast sentry had her rolling to the side. Keith was on it instantly, buying her time. Now's my chance. With a grunt she pushed herself onto her knees.

"Shield Allura!"

Her head shot up. A laser hit Hunk's shield. Then Shiro's. She raised her left arm for her shield only to wince in pain. Gods above. She brought her right hand to help lift the left but she knew she wasn't going to get the shield in time.

Pidge and Kosmo suddenly appeared in front of her. Instinctively the Green Paladin's shield was up for Kosmo, leaving her armor as Allura's barrier. Everything happened in two ticks.

"Ah!"

"Pidge, no!"

Allura caught her before she fell to the ground.

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AN: I honestly was going to have Allura take the shot...but then Pidge decided to care...and then I remembered she has a dog so as a pet owner she would most likely want to protect Kosmo and Allura. I felt like Pidge would also feel guilty if Kosmo got hurt for a risky move she decided to do.

This chapter was tricky with all the people fighting...and it's not even one of the major battles in the season (or even a real battle that occurred! XD).

I know we didn't see Shiro use his Paladin shield in the season but I figured it's not connected to a bayard so why not?

The next chapter will be more divided in POV of MFEs/Paladins.