T Í̴ ͟M ́̀E̸͝ ̶ F̷̢ ̡O͏ ̕R̀̕ ̕͢͠ ͟͢ P͞͏ ̷̴̡L͠ ͘͜O ̸̀͢T́
"Are we close yet?" Matt was leaning on the back of the pilot's seat with his arms crossed. Thace could see his hair in his peripheral vision.
"Yes, we're close." he confirmed.
"Is that it?"
"Yes."
"It's very green."
"It's a forest Matthew."
"Are all forests green?"
"No, but it is a common color for them to be."
"What other colors are there?"
"Purple, almost black."
"And they photosynthesize?"
"They what?"
"Make plant food with energy from the sun." Thace looked back at him.
"I'm a soldier kid, not a scientist."
"Well technically I'm both and I Demand Answers." Thace sighed in the tired way only a parent can and turned his attention back to flying. Matt was quiet for a second. "So everything there is toxic?"
"Pretty much, yes."
"And you're sure we're gonna be able to get into this place?"
"Yes Matthew, I am Sure."
"So why are we hiding on Norn's moon instead of Norn itself?"
"Because it's a barren wasteland full of ice and we didn't want to deal with it." Thace snapped.
"Ooo Hoth," Matt said quietly, unfazed.
They entered the moon's atmosphere and Thace flew above the treeline, looking for the roofline of the former base.
"What if it's completely overgrown and we can't stay there?" Matt asked.
"Will you please stop suggesting things that make my life difficult?"
"So you don't have a plan B?"
"Matthew I swear to-"
"-Fine I'll shut up whatever!" he exclaimed, pushing off the seat and going to the bunk room. If he could slam the door he probably would have. Thace rolled his eyes and went back to searching for the building. He found it and cursed. There was no way to get into the hangar. They would have to get in, break in, on foot. He landed in a clearing a short walk away and went to get Matt.
"Okay so we're going to have to-" the door opened and he saw the boy, standing on his hands, not facing him. "-Are you sulking?"
"No," Matt answered crossly, sulking. Thace just stared at him a moment before shaking his head.
"Alright well we have a little bit of walking to do, then I'll have to figure out how to override whatever security might still be active if there's power." Matt spun around on his palms to look at him, his hair every which way around his face in an almost comical display.
"If there's power?"
"I'll be firing up the backup generators when we get in."
"You mean if we get in?"
"No, I mean when, stop being so negative."
"Oh yeah because that's so easy," Matthew muttered, gracefully transitioning back to his feet. They left the ship. Matt stared up at the trees. Thace grabbed his shoulder and steered him away from tripping over a rock.
"Be careful."
"Yep."
"The base isn't too far from here. Be quiet and look out for anything threatening."
"Hypervigilance, my favorite symptom," Matt muttered, following.
"What?"
"Nothing."
They walked quietly for a couple of minutes. The sound almost made Matt uncomfortable. Too close to the noises of the woods on Earth but alien enough to make it just feel off. Then the calls in the trees and buzzes from what on Earth would be bugs stopped. The only sound was them.
"Something's wrong," Matt warned. Thace hushed him, listening, and they stopped walking.
A branch to their left cracked. Something lunged.
Matt, in one fluid movement, kicked Thace forward and launched himself back, his prosthetic leg crackling to life when he landed. Thace rolled to avoid just landing on his face, turning to see what was attacking them. It was big, green, and furry, with snarling teeth and sharp claws. Of all the things he had read about on the file for this base, it just had to be that. It lunged at Matt but Matt was faster and launched himself into a tree, leaving a scorched dent where the prosthetic made a foothold up to the branches. Thace yelled for him to be careful. Matt yelled for Thace to do something other than stand there and kicked the predator in the face when it tried to swipe at him. Thace shot at it with the blaster Matt had stolen from Central Command, drawing its attention. He wasn't so sure that that was the desired effect. While it was turned, and still effectively under him, Matt dropped onto its neck and latched on like a vine. Before it could do anything he plunged his fingers into its eye sockets, blinding it. It's bellowing cry echoed, and with a violent twist, Matt was thrown to the ground beneath. It swiped at him despite Thace's near frantic attempts to draw it's attention, picking him up and throwing him into a tree. Thace didn't see if he got up or not before the creature turned towards him. Blood the green of new wood ran like rivers from its wounds. Thace was sure that, with the damage Matt had dealt, the fight wouldn't be lasting much longer. He shot out its knees so it couldn't move, and then left it for dead. They needed to get out of there quickly before something bigger came to investigate the blood.
Matt was trying to stand, holding his side with one arm and bracing himself on the tree with the other. Thace caught him before he could keel over, swearing under his breath at the sight of the eight puncture wounds to the lower right of the human's spine.
"Is it that bad?" Matt asked, knowing full well from the fact that he felt like shit run over that it was absolutely that bad.
"You're poisoned now so yes it is that bad."
"How?"
"Barbs that spring out underneath the claws when something catches. You caught, now we really need to get you to the base's medical bay they would an antidote on file."
"Why the hell is a bear that can throw me into a tree at 25 miles an hour also venomous that's just overkill," Matt stated as Thace carefully picked him up.
"Can you take this a little more seriously Matthew, you're dying."
"About fucking time."
Thace decided not to comment on that one, instead focusing on getting them to the base. When he got to an entrance he put Matt down against the wall and hotwired the card lock to get the door to unlatch. He pulled it open, and then carried Matt and ran through corridors until he found the medbay. By then the human had already passed out. He took the dusty sheet off of one of the cots and lay Matt down on his side before tearing through the cabinets like a disorganized cyclone looking for what he needed. He had the antidote ( a syringe filled with a thick rosy liquid from a box labeled with a drawing of the creature the antidote corresponded with,) a roll of bandages, disinfectant, a pair of medical gloves, and swab cloths. Thace cleans the blood off of Matt's hands from the human's startling but he had to admit, also effective, method of blinding the creature. Now that that was done he undid the jumpsuit down to Matt's waist, wondering if it would be worth it to try to find something in storage to replace it. He filed the thought away as something to bring up later when Matt was well enough to be out of bed. First he turned him onto his stomach. His back was discolored with dark bruises. Thace hoped nothing underneath was broken. He cleaned the area, injected the antidote, and cleaned out each puncture before wrapping it. Then he rezipped the jumpsuit, unsure if leaving it undone to make bandage changing easier would make Matt uncomfortable when he woke up. He didn't want to risk it.
Deciding that was all he could do he discarded what was left of the used medical supplies and left to check up on the base itself. He kicked on the old backup generators, even though he could see in the dark just fine, found the kitchen, and found a laundry room. To his surprise, there was still detergents and other things almost fully stocked. They hadn't taken the time to fully clear the place out before abandoning it. They must have wanted out especially quickly. Thace really couldn't blame them. He decided to do some laundry. Dust and grime couldn't be very healthy, and he was sure they would both feel better if the place was clean.
He turned on the water purifier and about half an hour later was sitting in front of about three washing machines, watching them spin. He had set up security, he had checked all of the entrances, made sure even the door they had come through locked properly. He got up with a sigh and wandered back in the direction of the medbay.
There was a thud and a swear.
He found a bewildered looking Matt sitting on the floor next to the cot, one arm on the mattress grabbing at the sheet.
"You alright?"
"Perfect," the human grunted, trying to stand. "I'm fine," he said when Thace tried to help him. "Just peachy."
"I don't know what that last thing means but it's a blatant lie and I demand that you lay down and rest."
"You're not the boss of me," Matt replied, leaning on the headboard.
"As an adult, I am absolutely the boss of you young man." He'd never seen the human look so offended. Matt dramatically put his other hand to his chest.
"I am my own fucking adult thank you very much." Thace needed a moment to process that information.
"Lies. Now lay back down you need to rest." Matt sat on the bed with a huff, pretending that doing so didn't aggravate his injuries. Thace went through the cabinets again and found what he needed. He held up a small packet of powder. "So this is pain medication," he started, "But it's also supposed to make you sleep so that people just, well, sleep through the rest time they're supposed to have for whatever their injury is. So if you want to take it…."
"Sure," Matt said with a shrug. Thace got a small cup from a cabinet and filled it with water.
"How much do you weigh?"
"At this point, I have no idea." Thace decided to improvise by only putting half the powder in the glass. He handed it to Matt before leaving to check on the laundry again.
That was not good. It wasn't exactly terrible, but as far as Thace was concerned it wasn't good either. He had really hoped he would be able to avoid this whole thing and wait for his Mother to weigh the pros and cons and figure out the necessary diplomatic conduct. But no.
The Alteans were outside and investigating a way in.
He sat in front of the panel of security feed, hoping that they would just decide to go back to wherever they had landed the castle before dark.
The universe decided that things weren't going to happen like that.
The universe, in fact, decided to send one of the locals. Thace could hear the roar even from inside and quickly opened the door to avoid either of them getting hurt. Coran, the one he remembered had replaced his grandfather after Zarkon's betrayal, shouted something about it possibly being a trap. The Princess pulled him in by the arm after her anyway. Thace quickly shut the door behind them.
He sighed. Time to greet some unexpected guests.
He turned on the intercom and hoped that it wouldn't wake up Matthew.
"Good morning, I have no intention of hurting either of you, I think we may actually be of some help."
"How so?" Allura asked, suspicious.
"Well Princess, I don't know where you and the Blue Paladin have been all this time, but I believe the Clan name Zakaii will sound familiar." The two Alteans looked at each other in shock.
"Sahlrin?" Coran gasped.
"Or Phirra," Allura suggested, eyes wide.
"Phirra is my mother, yes. Now are either of you injured?"
"No, we're fine. Where are you?" Coran asked.
"Control room. I'll be with you in a minute, don't go anywhere."
"You're wearing the Empire's armor," Allura commented with a look as cold as steel when Thace came into view.
"Deep cover," he stated, "How else did you think the shield that kept you locked into Central Command went down?"
"We weren't sure. Who are you hiding here with?"
"One of the prisoners. He took advantage of the chaos the Red Paladin caused, we ran into each other. I took him with me."
"Must be an important prisoner to be held at Central Command," Coran commented.
"The Druids were studying him after their last human escaped." The Alteans looked at each other.
"Is… he human?"
"Yes?"
"What's his name?" Allura asked urgently.
"Matthew, why?" He was slightly bewildered by the fact that they knew of him.
"His sister Katie is looking for him."
"What?"
"Where is he is he alright?"
"He's sleeping off an injury right now but he'll be fine, how is his sister in space?"
"It's a long story, she's the Green Paladin. The Black Paladin is Shiro, the human who escaped. According to her, they had been quite close."
It occurred to Thace that Matthew may think Shiro to be dead.
"Oh."
"Now," Coran began, "If he's injured it may be best to bring him to the castle. Our healing pods should fix him up in a jiffy!" Thace considered it. It couldn't hurt to try. He doubted the Alteans would let him leave without them as well, and with Matt's connections to their crewmembers….
"I'm sure that would be fine," he said. "The medbay is this way."
"What is his injury?"
"We had an encounter with some local wildlife that ended with him bleeding and poisoned."
"That's awful!" Allura exclaimed.
"I'm almost positive the boy's had worse." They entered the room and the Alteans looked at the mop of hair poking out from a pile of pillows. Two cots were pushed together to more adequately accommodate them all.
"You nested him?" Coran asked, eyebrows raised.
"He's practically a child," Thace stated defensively.
"Are you sure there's a human under all of that?" Allura asked, smiling behind her hand.
"He isn't much younger than Shiro, and I know for certain that Shiro is an adult," Coran replied.
"He's Practically A Child," Thace repeated. Coran and Allura just looked at one another.
"Someone was on care-duty before going undercover," he whispered. Allura had to muffle a snort.
"There are several cubs in my extended family," Thace huffed, picking Matt up. "Now how far away is that ship of yours?"
It took three chapters but here we are, the plot train has left the station, hurtling into the abyss, toot toot motherfuckers time to find some Teens.