Once the dart was removed the paladins were able to breathe a bit easier but Keith clearly wasn't out of the woods yet. Shiro had to stay behind as he was still hooked up to Keith, keeping him alive, but Allura recommended that the others step outside while Coran worked on their friend. He still needed to do an invasive check to see what was damaged and it was something none of them needed to sit and watch, less they be further traumatized. With some reluctance they left to wash up, returning as soon as possible to pace worriedly outside of the room. The tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife but no words were spoken between them. What could they possibly say?
In the room, Shiro kept his eyes on Keith's face, choosing that over watching Coran operate on his brother's insides. One hand clenched Keith's tightly while the other stroked gently through the soft black hair. Keith had lost consciousness during the painful procedure though he still let out soft moans and whimpers which cut deeply into Shiro. Coran looked up, having just finished stitching his incision closed and couldn't help but frown at the worried expression on his face.
"Is everything alright?" The man asked, taking in Shiro's slumped form and tired expression.
"His breathing is weak and shallow." Shiro replied.
"I was referring to you, actually." Shiro looked up at him as Coran removed his gloves and rounded the table towards him. Coran lifted Shiro's chin and looked him over carefully. "You've been giving Keith blood this whole time. Do you feel weak or dizzy?"
"He needs it, Coran. I don't think it-"
"It matters. Believe me, it does. If you harm yourself on his account you'd better believe you'd hear about it." Shiro was clearly at his limit so Coran removed the iv from his arm and patched him up. Shiro looked back down at Keith.
"He's still so pale and weak… is he really going to be alright?"
"Now that the dart is taken care of I can run a scanning program to assess his condition but that will take some time. In the meantime, I recommend you get cleaned up and eat something to keep your strength up."
"But-"
"No buts. Now go on."
He wanted to protest, fearing what may happen should he leave Keith's side but he couldn't argue. There was no doubt that he needed a break, even if only a small one. Allura helped him to his feet and led him out into the hall where the others rushed over.
"Shiro! Is Keith okay?!"
"He's alive… Coran is scanning him now." Shiro said softly. "We'll know more once the scan is done." He didn't sound terribly comforting but the others trusted Coran and more than that they trusted Keith's strength and will to live.
"Hunk, can you help Shiro to his room and make sure he eats something?"
"Yeah, of course!" Hunk moved to Shiro's side, swinging one of the man's arms over his shoulder for support before leading him away.
"Is there anything we can do?" Pidge asked, trying to remain calm.
"He still needs blood, but I'm afraid we can't risk taking too much more from Shiro."
"I can help with that." Lance turned to Allura and touched his arm. "I'm what you call a universal donor."
"That would be helpful, thank you. Go on in." Lance nodded and slipped past Allura who nodded in thanks before her eyes fell to the floor, following the trail of blood that stretched down the length of the hall and around the corner. Seeing her concern, Pidge touched her arm gently.
"Are you alright?"
"I'm frightened." Allura admitted, dropping her head. "I'm afraid I don't know much about human anatomy or what damage they can sustain. I want to be strong and say with confidence that he'll make it but I…"
"He'll make it." Pidge assured her. "Humans are nothing if not stubborn and Keith's no exception. You'd be amazed what we can do. Just wait and see…"
Her words warmed Allura's heart and she knelt down to hug the small Paladin, thanking her. She could allow herself to doubt and instead needed to be a pillar of hope in this dark time.
It didn't take long for Hunk to reach Shiro's room, the door sliding open for them.
"Do you need any help getting to the shower, Shiro?" But the older man shook his head and stepped away.
"I'll be fine."
"Okay… I'll go get you some chow and come back then. Okay?" Shiro gave him a wave before closing the door and moving across the room to the bathroom. He started to remove his clothes, starting with his glove, then his over shirt but frowned in dismay when he found his undershirt to have been soaked through with blood as well. The smell of it was permeating the air and it was suffocating. Feeling dizzy from the blood loss and the sheer gravity of the situation he gripped the edge of the counter and took a few deep breaths to steady himself. Slowly he lifted his head to finally look at himself in the mirror, seeing dark circles under his eyes and speckles of red on his face. Blood… Keith's blood. Keith…
Unable to hold it in anymore, Shiro let out a dispirited yell as he swiped his arms across the counter, knocking everything on it to the floor before sinking down to sit on the tile. His shoulders shook as he held his head, unable to restrain the shuddering sobs and the heavy tears. He just couldn't believe such a thing had happened. Keith was hurt, badly, and despite their efforts he may still die at any time. Shiro couldn't help but blame himself for it. After all, he had a bad feeling from the start and yet he did nothing!
Feeling guilt well up inside him he lashed out, slamming his artificial hand against the wall over and over, more pained sobs slipping past his lips until he simply didn't have the strength to continue. Eventually he pulled himself up off the floor and to the shower to finally wash off Keith's blood. What he didn't realize was that Hunk never left. Instead, he waited just outside Shiro's room to make sure he was alright but even though he heard the yells and banging he didn't enter. He knew this was something Shiro needed to let out, for his own good. Hunk also wanted to cry but for the time being he knew it was important for him to stay calm and hopeful for the sake of the team.
He stayed until he heard the shower turn on, confident that Shiro wouldn't do anything drastic and made his way to the kitchen. By the time he returned, Shiro was redressed and sitting on his bed, hair still dripping while a towel lay next to him. Hunk sighed and set the tray of food next to him before grabbing the towel to dry his friend's hair.
"As soon as you eat, we'll head back and see how Coran's scan is going." He said, receiving a silent nod in response. This was so unlike Shiro… Stopping in his movements, Hunk spoke again, softer. "I'm sorry."
The sudden apology caught Shiro off guard and he lifted his head. Hunk was wearing an expression of guilt.
"Why are you apologizing?"
"Because I'm partly responsible for this. If Lance and I hadn't gotten ourselves kidnapped then Keith wouldn't have been injured trying to rescue us."
So, he wasn't the only one who felt responsible. Somehow that made Shiro feel slightly better as bad as it sounded. Shiro's expression softened and he set a hand on Hunk's shoulder, giving him a reassuring smile.
"It's not your fault, Hunk. None of us could have predicted this… and ultimately, throwing blame around isn't going to help Keith recover. He's here now and he'll be safe inside the castle."
Hunk smiled in return, happy that Shiro was coming out of his funk- and that the older man didn't blame him for the unfortunate outcome. With renewed hope, Hunk sat down as Shiro ate, sharing with him the interesting parts of the trip down to the planet.
Back in the medical bay, Keith was still laying on the examination table, now wrapped securely with warm blankets with a breathing mask over his face. The rest of the castle's occupants were not far away, examining one of their healing pods which was not functioning as it should. Try as they might, they couldn't get it to stay working for more than a minute or so. Coran and Pidge were tinkering with the internal mechanism while Allura and Lance stood nearby.
"I just don't get it… why doesn't this confounded machine work when we need it to?" Coran scratched his head, occasionally glancing back to Keith to ensure he was still alright.
"You're sure it was working earlier, Coran?" Pidge asked, sitting atop the pod with his floating robot companion.
"Yes of course! It's never acted up like this before."
"Maybe the universe just hates us." Lance said, pouting. He wasn't the type to believe in fate but with all the bad luck they were running into there had to be some kind of explanation.
"I doubt it's something that dramatic, Lance." Pidge crossed her arms and closed her eyes to think before something occurred to her. "Hey wait… we've been having problems with an electrical interference, right?"
"Well, yes. I'm afraid the planet we're currently nearby was letting off some strange wave patterns that was disrupting our communications."
"Right. And Lance, you and Hunk had trouble firing up the away ship, didn't you?"
"Yeah we did, but we kinda chalked that up to the furry creatures. We thought they had messed with things."
"What if they didn't? What if all of these problems- the ship, the coms and the healing pod- are all being disrupted by this planet?"
"That's a solid theory!" Coran was impressed by such a deduction, but there was a problem with it. "However, once we had the ship on board Allura had already started moving the ship away from the planet. I doubt we're still in range of the signal."
"Hmm… that would leave one explanation… The energy waves must have affected the castle's internal systems already, like a virus infecting a computer."
"Ugh, if that's the case then what are we supposed to do? We can't debug the whole castle just like that!"
"No, I'm afraid not. It will take time but I will have to go through the castle's individual systems with a fine tooth comb to completely correct the issue." That would mean a lot of work for Coran, not that he wasn't up to the task.
"In the meantime, maybe we can debug just the pod so we can get Keith inside to heal."
"It's worth a shot!" Pidge plugged a small computer into the control panel for the pod and with Coran's help the two were able to reboot it, the machine coming to life soon after. The lights came on and the pod door slid open, ready for use. However, before they could get too excited, Lance stepped up.
"Guys, call me paranoid but I really think we should test this out before shoving Keith in there. You know, make sure it's actually working?"
"Right. A test run would be a good idea! But who…"
"I'll do it." Lance volunteered, already taking off his jacket. "I've been in it once before, after all. If something feels off then I'll be able to let you know."
"You sure, Lance?" Pidge slid off the machine, adjusting her glasses. Suddenly she wasn't feeling confident. If the universe was indeed working against them then this could be disastrous. But they did need to check it, les they cause more harm.
"Yeah, no sweat!" Lance rolled his shoulders and flashed a confident smile. "So enough chit chat. Lets get this puppy running!"
Lance confidently stepped inside the pod and let Coran hook up a few monitoring probes up to his body before the door slid closed. They punched in the activation code and the pod lit up on the inside. A laser scanner flashed over Lance, registering that a subject was in place before he pod started to fill with greenish liquid. The sight of it freaked Lance out just a little bit but Coran was standing in sight for comfort.
"Uh, is it supposed to do this? To be honest, I was kinda unconscious in the beginning."
"Don't worry, Lance. This is supposed to happen. Just remain calm."
"Right. Calm. Gotcha." Lance took a deep breath, the liquid passing knee level. "I can do this. Heh, it's no big deal. It's cool, I'm cool!" The liquid rose up to his hips now and Lance could feel it getting colder. Supposedly the pod relied on cryogenic freezing so in theory once the liquid fills the pod then it'll freeze up and he'll be put into a nice gentle state of hibernation. Though if he'd thought this through, he would have kept his jacket on.
The liquid was up to his chest now and it was so cold it caused Lance to shiver. He wrapped his arms around himself as the level got higher and higher. He tried to remain calm but when he looked out at the others, they suddenly didn't look so confident. They were talking to each other and Pidge was again on the computer. It was hard to hear.
"Guys? Guys, what's going on? Hello?" Lance tapped on the glassy surface. That's when he saw it, a small flash on the outer panel of the pod. That's when he knew he'd made a mistake. He knocked more insistently on the glass, the liquid rising to his collar.
"Guys? I-I suddenly don't feel okay with this. Turn it off, okay? Guys, hello?" At this point, everyone on the outside was beginning to panic and so was Lance. He was now banging on the glass, willing it to open and release him but it wouldn't budge. The group had quickly abandoned their efforts to turn it off normally and were now attempting to pry it open, with little success.
Lance was quickly losing feeling in his extremities as the liquid rose up to his neck. The cold was biting his skin like pinpricks, a million at once all over his body. Lance let out a raspy gasp, the pod so cold he could see his breath. If he was lucky he would only have a couple more seconds to breathe and so he lifted his head high and took in a deep breath just before the pod filled completely.
Holding his breath in the cold was exceedingly difficult but he knew if he opened his mouth that he'd die so he put his hands over his face in an effort to hold it in and give the team more time to get the pod open. He kept one eye on them as they struggled but so far, none of their efforts were working. They'd begun to scramble, searching for anything they could to knock against the glass.
The longest Lance had ever tried to hold his breath was 90 seconds and as he watched the others, he counted in his head. His body tensed from the cold his vision was blurring, barely able to remain focused as he neared the two minute mark. Lance willed them to hurry, his head beginning to hurt and his lungs burning. He tried so hard to hold it but the pressure was too much and soon the need for air was just too intense. He was past his limit and suddenly his mouth opened, air bubbles escaping from his mouth as his body attempted to breathe through the thick fluid. It hurt, burning his throat like acid which caused him to choke, writhing in the pod helplessly.
It was at this moment that the door to the infirmary opened and Shiro stepped inside with Hunk. Their attention went immediately to the group who were yelling at the pod and banging on the surface of it. In a panic, they rushed over.
"What happened?!" Shiro yelled, seeing Lance struggling inside.
"We were testing it and it malfunctioned! We can't stop it!"
"Someone do something! He's going to drown!" Allura cried out, tears in her eyes as Lance's body started to go limp, his eyes rolling back.
Without hesitation, Shiro powered up his robotic arm. His hand glowed brightly as he pulled it back and thrust it into the center of the pod. He was able to puncture through it with ease. It splintered around his hand before the whole surface shattered, releasing cold fluid all over the floor. Lance's body fell unceremoniously to the floor, his lungs suddenly assaulted by the rush of air. The group gathered around him, rubbing his back as he coughed up copious volumes of the liquid, his body trembling hard. Allura was quick to fetch him a blanket and wrapped it around him before Shiro pulled him close to warm him.
"Holy hell… what were you thinking, Lance?"
"Just…" Lance replied between hoarse coughs. "Just wanted to check…"
"Yeah well that check was a bust! You almost died!"
"Ugh…! Hunk groaned, sinking backwards onto the floor, not even caring that he'd have to change his clothes again. "My poor heart can't take this!"
"Yeah no kidding…" The group was relieved that Lance was alright but dismayed at the same time, looking up at the definitely out of commission pod.
"There's no way we can use that thing now." That meant there was only one option left: Keith would have to heal on his own, the long way. On top of that, the rest had to make sure they didn't injure themselves before the pod, and potentially the whole ship, could be properly repaired.
