Chapter 10: Belly of the Beast

A/N: I do not own Voltron: Legendary Defender.

I just own Ziera, Colran, Sephiras, Janze and any other OCs mentioned in this fic that isn't canon.

WARNING: Contains violence, death, racism, implications of sexual acts, Lance's flirting, and other things that may cause some readers discomfort.

Hey guys, thanks to an ear infection, I had to wait an extra week to get this chapter out to you. I hope the contents of it will make up for the lateness though!

I'm actually really proud of this one!

Enjoy!

In the silence of space, the only sound she could hear was her thumping heart as she prepared to depart on her first real mission since joining the coalition.

"You guys ready?" Keith asked, glancing from Ziera to Hunk who stood at both his sides.

"Um..." Hunk glanced at the feline, who looked a little nervous, before he shrugged. "Not really."

"Well, get ready..." The Red Paladin said sternly, bending his legs a little before he jumped off the open jaws of the impressive ship, stopping short of landing on the Weblum beneath their feet by using his jetpack to slow his already snail-like descent.

The Yellow Paladin, who was less than happy to be stuck entering the internal structure of a giant worm for Scaultrite, let out a heavy, defeated sigh as his head dropped forward in defeat. "Why do I always get the worst missions?" He complained, mirroring his previous statement aboard the Yellow Lion; before he too bent his knees and jumped, attempting to imitate Keith's action. But unlike the talented co-pilot he lost control and ended up doing a few flips after starting up his jetpack.

Thankfully, he managed to regain control and soon followed behind their less patient friend.

Ziera watched them for a minute, until they paused and turned to wait for her. She took a deep, trembling breath, before she jumped up and used the wrist controls wired into her suit to turn on her Skate-Overs. She then kicked out and flew down to their location, effectively catching up in no time at all, thanks to Pidge's curious tinkering and ideas regarding her lack of speed control.

"Are you alright, Era?" Keith asked. "You're pretty quiet."

"It's nothing." She said, waving off their concerns as they looked out towards the pulsing gills they would soon pass through. "I'm just a little nervous, that's all...I've never extracted Scaultrite from a Weblum before."

"That's okay." Hunk shrugged. "Neither have I!"

"I guess that makes three of us." The human-Galra hybrid added, turning to follow Ziera's eyes.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" The aspiring chef asked, twiddling his thumbs as he sheepishly stared at their movement. "The video was pretty choppy and I didn't get a whole lot of what Coran was saying...Maybe we should go back inside so I can-"

"No." Keith turned from his staring and locked eyes with the two behind him, determination burning behind his irises. "We've come this far, so we're gonna see it through. We're not just doing this for the Scaultrite..."

Those words hit Ziera hard as she thought of her eradicated home planet, her extinct people, her deceased twin brother and the friends she had made on Olkari who were thankfully still alive and thriving. Keith was right, they were not just there for the Scaultrite. They were there to collect the one thing they needed to bring their dreams of a peaceful universe to fruition.

With that thought firmly burned in her mind, she nodded and her ears lifted from their slightly downward position, she was no longer nervous, instead a fire lit inside her heart, and she knew better than to ignore the flames. "You're right. There's more at stake here than some material."

The Yellow Paladin let out another sigh, but immediately took a deep breath, straightening his back as he pressed his elbows to his sides, fists clenched tightly. He too let his nervousness shift to the back burner for the time being, they had bigger fish to fry than fear. "Alright, we're doing this for the Balmera too...I'm ready!"

"Good." The Red Paladin turned and flew towards the gills with Ziera and Hunk following behind, of course, they paused again when their lovable foodie friend stammered as he tottered about, struggling to get control of his jetpack.

After another wasted second, he was upright again and flying towards them. "Got it...Got it!" He affirmed with a dorky smile, and finally, the three of them entered the Weblum as the gills opened up again. They followed the tube down from the opening, and soon the darkness of the pink pulsing tunnel surrounded them as they finally entered the depths of the worm's internal structure.

"Is it me, or did it get really dark in here?" Hunk asked as their visors automatically changed to allow them visibility, even in the never-ending darkness of space. An advanced night-vision mode, to put it simply. Only instead of everything being a tint of green, the colours remained relatively the same, but slightly de-saturated compared to before.

"We're inside a worm," Ziera told him, her own goggles losing their darkened tint to give her the ability to see in the low-visibility environments. Even though her species had excellent eyesight, her visor stopped her from seeing through pitch-black surroundings. Thankfully, she worked around that by making them clear whenever she was in a darkened space, much like some pairs of human sunglasses, the only difference being that the action was inverted. "If only the Weblum possessed bioluminescent cells, then you'd be able to see just fine!" She smiled a little. "Sadly it's impossible, but it would be an amazing experience."

The larger teen laughed awkwardly. "Yeah, but I'd rather find something like that from outside its body, in the safety of my ship, a few hundred metres away."

This made the feline giggle, he had a point, after all.

"We should be approaching the first stomach," Keith interjected, a faint glow of yellow slowly creeping upon them. "Be careful."

The two behind him nodded as their expressions hardened and they flipped in the air, now descending into the stomach feet first. They carefully lowered the strength of their jets until they landed softly on the tissue surrounding them. However, much like his flight, Hunk's landing was just as messy as he fell foot-first into a glowing hole beneath him. "Oh yuck!" He cried out, pulling his foot out of the hole to see some green slime dripping from the sole of his boot.

"What am I standing on, a mucus pocket?! I do not like mucus!" Sweat slid down his forehead as he surveyed his surroundings, now officially freaking out.

While he complained, Ziera realized she was actually sinking into the flesh, like it was quicksand. In a panic, she started her Skate-Overs again and pushed herself out of the trap. Perhaps she would stay in the air for the extent of their internal exploration, as her shoes were obviously too heavy for the terrain.

Of course, Hunk continued his ranting as Ziera sweatdropped, turning her head to arch a brow at his display. "And is that steaming stomach acid over there? Oh man, I hope I don't see any blood-"

"Hunk!" Keith shouted, watching as the Yellow Paladin took heavy breaths as he finally snapped his attention away from their disgusting environment. "Knock it off, you're freaking yourself out!"

"No!" Hunk continued, glaring at Keith for a split second while Ziera took in the 'sights.' "Standing inches away from a-" He stomped on a nearby lump, causing a glowing green goop to splatter everywhere. "-Puss bubble, is freaking me out!"

The feline engineer, who had not been phased by Coran's Slipperies, started to feel her throat tighten in disgust. She had many diseases on her home planet, some of which she still didn't remember, but even they didn't gross her out as much as being inside a worm was.

If she had a sense of smell, she knew she would be vomiting in her suit. It probably smelled like her species' hairball disease tasted.

Blegh.

Suddenly the bubble's contents, which were all around Hunk's feet began to steam up, which made the larger teen recoil in horror. "Look..." Keith pressed, stepping into the other male's view to get his attention. "We're inside a disgusting worm, there's no way to sugar coat it." He then looked at Ziera, who took her own attention off the area around them to meet his gaze. "But we're gonna need your big brains if we want to make it through."

Ziera stared for a second, before a small smirk tugged at her lips and she nodded. He was right, she didn't have time to feel icky. "Okay." She affirmed, floating closer to them to discuss their plan going forward.

Keith nodded then put his hand on Hunk's shoulder. "Will you be alright?" He asked, brows knitting together when the larger male ignored him in his panic. "I said," he pressed, "will you be alright?"

This time the Yellow Paladin heard his words and his gaze slowly slid over to his red armor-clad friend. "O-okay!" He started, straightening up again as he took a deep breath to steady his nerves. "I'll be okay."

"Good." Keith patted his shoulder once, before he turned and walked away, in the very vague direction of the other stomachs. "I've gotta be able to count on you...Besides!" He glanced back with a smirk. "No one knows an explosive digestive tract like you!"

"Ppfft!" Ziera snickered, covering her already concealed mouth as she tried to hold back her laughter. She slowly floated along behind the Red Paladin while Hunk tilted his head to the side. As if what the other teen had said was some complicated riddle he had to decipher.

After a second, he jogged to catch up. "Wait, did you just make a joke?!" He laughed awkwardly while Keith looked around, before using his jetpack to check out some of the gaping holes against the wall of the stomach. "Seriously, that was a joke, wasn't it?" Hunk started his own jetpack and followed after his friends. "You're sayin' I throw up a lot! I get it, it's funny!" He giggled as the two men landed on a nearby 'platform.' "I do!"

The larger male took a second to appreciate the humor, smirking as Keith continued on ahead, he was searching for some kind of indicator that they were heading in the right direction. "Wow..." Hunk said softly, putting his hand against the front of his helmet, as if covering his mouth playfully. "Galra Keith is way funnier than regular Keith!"

"C'mon Hunk, how many times are you going to make the same joke?" The feline female asked, gently steering backwards as she turned to face him, glancing behind her to ensure she did not fly into their human hybrid co-pilot. "We've got to find a way around this stomach acid. Like Keith said, let's use our intelligence to secure a path to the Scaultrite!"

"Okay, okay!" Hunk said, raising his hands, he then looked around the large internal organ, helping them in their search. "So we're in the first stomach, right?" He asked.

"Yes, by the sounds of it, either the first or the second. I assume the first, since the respiratory system usually connects to the digestive system within a lifeform's throat." Ziera paused. "Unless you're a Glymek..." She shuddered. "Those things are terrifying."

"O...kay?" He shook off the questions her words had prompted and continued. "So if we wanna find the next stomach, we need to find the biggest hole, 'cause digesting planets has gotta be pretty 'rocky,' right?" Silence. "Get it?" He grinned and Ziera groaned, pressing her palm to her helmet, where her forehead would be. "Oh come on! That was a good one!" He pouted. "Anyway, the digestion process would have to take the food through each of the stomachs-."

"Yes!" Ziera blurted out, interrupting the young man as she realized where the yellow pilot was going with his description. "And since the planetary chunks would be rather sharp, and large, the tubes leading to each stomach would be significantly bigger and sturdier than the others!" She pointed up at a tunnel that fit her exact description, the skin around the tract rather callous to allow stony remains to pass through with ease. "Like that one right there!"

Before the two paladins could follow her gaze, the large, pustulent bulbs littering the walls began to glow and small, jellyfish-like creatures slowly slithered out into the space around them.

"Whoa..." Hunk started, as both Keith and Ziera readied themselves for battle.

"What are these things?!" He asked, watching them slowly float down towards them.

At that moment, Ziera kept still completely still, eyes wide, as one of the creatures stopped right in front of her. It had no eyes, but she swore it was staring at her. "I don't know..." She said, edging backwards as it got closer. She could feel the hairs on the back of her neck rise, and she knew to trust her instincts. "But it's not respecting my personal space, that's for sure! Hunk, any ideas?!"

"I dunno!" Hunk started, stammering as the creatures got closer and closer to him. "Maybe they're bacteria?!"

"Maybe, but they seem so familiar." She wracked her brain to figure out where she had seen them before. "I know I've seen them somewhere!"

Hunk stumbled back away from them as they approached, but when they started to squeak, he paused. "Wait...Wait, they seem friendly!" He said, smiling as they sat atop his helmet. "Maybe they're good bacteria!" The lovable giant relaxed completely and held out his hand as one of the little creatures got comfortable in his palm. "They like me!"

Ziera watched them approach Hunk but her eyes widened as the man laughed, unaware of the smoke coming from his armor. "Hunk-!"

"Heh, they're tickling me!"

"HUNK, YOUR SUIT!"

This forced the Yellow Paladin to take a second gander at the little creatures tickling his palm and head, and he immediately froze at the sight of hot vapor spilling from his gloved hand. "Wait, that's not tickling...THAT'S HOT ACID!" Without wasting a second, he flung the bacteria off him and staggered away from them. "Oh they wanna kill us, they wanna kill us!"

With the little beasts circling them, Ziera, Hunk and Keith stood back to back from each other, all unsheathing their weapons, ready for a fight. "I knew I recognized them!" The feline hissed, ears tucked back as she aimed her gun at the germs. "They're part of the Weblum's digestive system, Coran talked about them in the video!"

"Why can't I remember that part?" Hunk whined.

"Because it was so corroded I only saw them for a frame or two!"

"So if they're part of the digestive system..." Hunk looked absolutely mortified as realization hit him hard. "They're trying to break down food, and we're the food!"

"Exactly, we've got to get out of here!"

With that, the three were swarmed, and with as much strength as they could muster, they fought back against the germy hoard of enzymes threatening their lives. Keith slashed through any that floated towards him while Hunk and Ziera used their two different tier guns to take out any that kept their distance, as if looking for any sort of opening to swoop in and digest them.

However, in their attempts to stop the hoard, Hunk's vision was compromised by the remains of their little 'friends.' He tottered about in his blindness, unaware that he was approaching the wall of the stomach. "Aah, I can't see anything!"

"Hunk!" Both Keith and Ziera cried out, as the alien engineer flew towards him just as he touched the living barrier. She reached out, almost able to grasp his hand, when the muscles pressed against his back opened up and sucked him inside, separating them. "No!"

She turned to Keith, who pressed a button on his helmet, all while the feline returned to shooting the creatures around them, someone had to keep them at bay while the other tried to contact their lost friend. "Hunk?" The Red Paladin questioned, slashing a small cell as it got too close.

"I'm here!" The yellow pilot's voice crackled, causing the two to sigh with relief. "Surrounded by blood...! I hate blood!"

Ziera yelped as one of the creatures got to close and landed on her back, causing her to flail until it came loose. Due to her lack of awareness in her panic, the germs managed to surround them once again and even after she calmed down and turned back to the fight, they were made to move backwards to keep avoiding their acidic demise. Without Hunk's faster and stronger gun, they were done for.

Keith took another step back and let out a shocked sound as he almost fell over the edge of the pound of flesh he stood on. Looking down at the acid lake below, he came up with a plan, and glanced at Ziera, who's ears pricked in realization. "Hunk, we're outnumbered here!" The Red Paladin yelled, gritting his teeth as his feline friend nodded in agreement. "Meet us in the third stomach!"

With that, the hot-headed teenager turned and dove headfirst into the large pool of stomach acid behind them. Ziera swallowed her discomfort and nodded, using her Skate-Overs to fly higher into the air before she tilted backwards until she too dove headfirst into the simmering liquid.

The two took a second to get their bearings before they looked up at the surface. To their relief, the creatures were unable to follow them. However, that did not mean they were out of danger, as both their suits began to warn them about the acidic environment. "We've gotta get out of this acid," Keith told her, and she nodded, both of them swimming down towards a hole they could see beneath them.

Immediately after breaching the small film of flesh covering their escape, the two let out loud cries in surprise as they were sent plummeting down a long, endless tube while acid sprayed in the air around them, almost floating due to their downwards trajectory. How did the inside of a worm in deep space have gravity?! If Ziera made it out of this situation alive, she was going to ask Coranso many questions!

Thankfully, her young comrade happened to spot something in his peripheral, and forced his jetpack to halt his descent, grabbing her wrist to stop her own in the meantime. With her panic averted, she regained her ability to think and immediately powered up her Skate-Overs so he did not have to keep her in the air.

The two flew towards the object wedged in the digestive wall, but as their sudden landing was very last-minute, neither could control their descent and came to a halt only when they collided with the metal obstruction. The two laid upon their saving surface for a second, taking some much needed breaths before Ziera lifted herself up onto her knees, quickly using her wrist controls to bring up her suit's systems through the screens in her goggles.

While she did so, Keith turned his head to look at what they had landed on, and his eyes widened in surprise. "What the...?" He muttered softly, as both he and Ziera got to their feet, the feline too invested in her inspection to really hear him. "Impossible...!"

"Well, my suit is fine, thankfully, but remind me to install armor-" She started, turning to see what Keith had saw, only to stop dead in her tracks at the sight of a person sat in the cockpit of a ship. The same ship they had landed on in their panic.

The strange space-explorer sat there, staring at them through a one-sided visor, their armor a colour Ziera recognized all too well. Suddenly a throb distracted her, before she cried out, grabbing her head as a wave of familiar pain washed through her mind.

~FbnL~

Ziera stepped towards the edge of a large platform, looking out at her people, the Tylyrions as she was awarded a new role. The promoted fighter looked to her side as Galra soldiers straightened up and saluted with the utmost respect. She turned her gaze forward and with careful consideration, she lifted the helmet tucked under her arm into her line of sight, taking a closer look at the prize of her hard work.

It sported a strange colour scheme compared to the other Galra fleets she had seen, instead of the usual purples, reds and silvers she had seen many times before, this one was blue, orange, grey and black. Smiling at the sight, she took a deep breath and slipped the helmet on, hearing a hiss as it locked into place.

She earned this, and she was going to wear it with pride.

~FbnL~

"Era!" Keith called out as the woman staggered back in her pain-addled state, unaware of how close she was to the edge. He dove after her and caught her wrist just in time to stop her from falling off the damaged ship, and yanked her back until she was a safe distance from the deadly abyss that threatened their lives. "Hey! Era?!" He watched as her pain began to subside and she took deep, heavy breaths, slowly returning to the world of consciousness. "Era, are you alright?" He pressed as she looked around as if verifying where she was.

"Wh-what happened?" She asked, looking back at the ship, at the person inside the ship who sported the same colours she had worn in her memories.

"Looks like you had another episode..." He let her go, but kept his hands hovering in the air around her, worried she would collapse on him, though she had not so far whenever these sudden flashbacks occurred. "You nearly walked off the edge, what happened?"

Ziera's eyes cleared in realization and she looked back at where she had been before returning to her senses. "I-it's nothing..." She lied, shaking away the concern she felt. Now was not the time for her to question her already ropey past. "We've got to help them first!" She stated, pointing at the trapped pilot.

"Right." Keith agreed, turning to the cockpit as he made his sword re-appear from it's energy sheath. Without hesitation, he cut the veins surrounding the glass casing keeping their guest imprisoned, before he drew the blade back. "Don't move!" He warned the stranger. "We're here to help!" He then thrust his sword into the glass, while Ziera admired the person's lack of response, they did not even flinch as the blade disturbed the air only inches from their helmet.

Shaking away her shock, the feline stepped closer and put her fingers in the gap as Keith cut away the glass. Once he finished carving out a hole, she tugged on the large crystal-clear material, which easily came away from the ship, before she grunted and tossed the heavy latch over the edge, watching as it fell into the void below. "I'm so glad I have my Skate-Overs." She said, shuffling away from the edge as she listened for the object's landing.

Even with her hyper-sensitive hearing, no crash was heard and she swallowed hard at the idea of falling alongside that very same window. Thank the Divine Beings that Keith had been there, or she would have found out just how deep that chasm was for herself.

Keith leaned forward, planting his foot on the remains of the cockpit as he reached out for the pilot to take his hand. Once they did so, he yanked them out of the seat and before either the stranger, or Ziera, could react, he gasped and tugged the person so they staggered forward. He then snatched their weapon and aimed it at them as they turned around in surprise.

The engineer was startled by his sudden hostility and stepped forward. "K-Keith, what're you-"

"You're Galra." The Paladin stated, and Ziera's jaw snapped shut as she froze in place, now visibly tense.

With close inspection, she could see the Galra insignia on the arm of their strange 'friend.' Her heart sank into her stomach and she gripped her pendant tightly. That meant at one point, she worked for the Galra. All her hopes of being part of some kind of rebellion were dashed and she felt the world crumbling around her.

Seeing Galra wearing that armor in her memories had been one thing, as anything could have happened before or after the memory fragment. But seeing it then and there, sporting the same colours and loyalties as the normal Galra armor, was a completely gut-wrenching realization.

Now she was back to square one, her memories had confused her from the first day she began to recall her shattered past, and now all the hopes she had gained from their many experiences threatened to be wiped away like water against a cloth.

Who was she before her crash? Would she ever truly know?

However, before she could reach any sort of conclusion, a sound above them forced all three of the foreign bodies to look up in time for the anti-bodies to squeeze out of the fleshy walls around them. "Oh, not again!" She whined, ears drooping as they began to form a large ball-like shape above them. "If this keeps going, my suit's going to fall apart!"

Keith hissed, preparing to fight them when the two noticed the strange pilot playing with a monitor that appeared from their own wrist controls. "What're you doing?!" The hot-headed teen demanded, but instead of getting an answer directly from the other pilot, the alarm blaring from the surprisingly functional ship responded for them.

That alarm...Ziera's eyes widened and she grabbed Keith's arm. "They've activated the self-destruct sequence!"

The three averted their attention to the cluster of germs above them just as they lunged down towards the three space travelers. Without a moment to lose, the group kicked off from the nose of the ship and used their jets to fly as far away as possible just as the antibodies hit the metallic structure left in their dust, which immediately exploded upon impact.

Keith turned in time to see a cloud of debris and fire approaching them and snatched the stranger's arm, Ziera still latched onto his other one as he made his shield appear. Within a second, the debris clouded them from sight and pained cries were heard in the cloud which pushed them further down the abyss they had tried to avoid falling into before.

Thankfully, their trajectory was at an angle and the three burst through the walls and into a different part of the Weblum's internal structure, where they hit the ground, rolling to a stop a few feet away from one another.

"Keith...Era...there?" Hunk's voice echoed through their helmets, static interrupting almost every word he spoke. However, even with what little was heard, neither of them answered, the impact of their landing had knocked out for a moment. "...answer...!"

With that, the connection between them and Hunk severed and their coms shut down for the time being. They were now left without their tank for backup, in a strange place, with a strange person.

What a terrible turn of events.

Ziera felt her dizziness fade and her blackened vision returned. "Nngh...!" She grunted, gritting her fanged jaws as she pushed herself up so she was resting on her knees, looking around at their surroundings, before she spotted Keith a few feet away from her. "Keith!" She quickly got to her feet and despite her shaky footing, she ran over and dropped down at his side, shaking him. "Keith, are you alright?"

The Red Paladin groaned as his eyelids fluttered open and Ziera sighed with relief.

However, the feeling was short-lived as the two heard running footsteps to their right and quickly looked over as Keith got to his knees. The two were unable to stop the stranger they had saved, as said stranger ran straight at them and tackled Keith to the ground just as he aimed the small pistol in an attempt at defending himself. Ziera was knocked back in the collision and hissed as she hit her head off the ground, rendering her dizzy once again.

The paladin's shot missed completely and in the struggle, the stranger managed to snatch their gun back, rolling to a stop a few meters away before they turned and aimed the weapon at the hot-headed teenager just as Ziera got her bearings and drew her own pistol, rendering them trapped in a cross-fire that had two possible outcomes.

Either the pilot shoots, and Keith dies, or Ziera shoots and the enemy dies.

The only question was, who would be the first to pull the trigger?

That question was soon answered though as the stranger fired three times and Keith raised his shield. Forgetting the stranger, Ziera's attention turned to her friend as she prepared to dive for him and save his life, only for the pair to look behind the red pilot in shock as three anti-bodies were destroyed in the blast.

They gave each other a look, then turned their attention back to the Galra soldier. "I guess...You can keep your weapon?" Keith said, his shield dissolving into his suit.

The feline relaxed and let out a sigh, her own gun vanishing as her ears flattened against the sides of her head. "I should've stayed at the castle." She whined.

"Hey."

She hummed and looked up to see Keith smiling down at her, holding out his hand to help her to her feet. "You're doing fine. Remember, this is what a real war looks like, and you wanted to fight. Don't go quitting on me now, okay?"

Ziera stared at him for a moment before she smiled, revealing one of her fangs as she nodded and took his hand, using the momentum of his pull to get to her feet, before she dusted herself off and looked back at the Galra that had helped them. "Thanks..." She said, stepping closer, only to pause when the other person stepped back cautiously. "Sorry, I'll keep my distance." She said, raising her hands to show she meant no harm. "I just wanted to say, you saved us back there and I really appreciate it."

The stranger stared at her for a moment, before they straightened up and slipped their weapon back into their physical holster. Not everyone used the Quintessence ones, it seemed. They then nodded respectfully and gestured for the two to follow.

Ziera and Keith glanced at one another, nodded and followed their new friend as they started their jets and flew towards a large, red tract in the distance that opened and closed like the gills they had entered through. They needed to find some way to get back to the stomaches, and they were not going to get anywhere if they stayed still for too long.

Not only that, the feline engineer could not reach Hunk through her com, all she heard was static. "Hey, Keith, can you contact Hunk?" She asked, causing the leader of their mission to pause and look back as he reached up to touch the side of his helmet.

"I dunno, lemme take a look..." He pressed the small button and static came through. "Hey Hunk, you there?" Static. "Hunk...?" With a heavy sigh, he took his hand away and shook his head. "I can't get a signal, can you?"

She shook her head in return, pouting as her large brows ruffled with frustration. "No, I think that explosion scrambled our intercoms...I'll have to fix them when we get back to the others."

"Alright, looks like we'll have to get to the third stomach to see if he made it in one piece." When the female friend's frown deepened his eyes widened and he raised his hands, backtracking with a hint of mild panic in his tone. "I-I mean, of course he'd make it, but if he's not there yet, we'll have to wait for him, th-that's what I meant." Awkwardly, he spun around to face the red gateway. "C'mon, we're wasting time, we need to hurry, or Hunk'll get there before us."

Ziera giggled at his sheepish response. Despite his hot-headed nature, he was such a shy, introverted young man on the inside, and she empathized with that greatly, while she was more extroverted, she had a tendency to rush into things and though she had the best intentions, sometimes those rash decisions would lead to grave mistakes, either with her words or her actions.

She knew he meant well, and that alone was enough of a comfort for her to move forward without fear.

Not only that, Hunk was far more resilient than he acted, she trusted that he would make it to the third stomach without issue and they would be reunited without difficulty.

And of course, the moment the three flew through the opening of the tract, they came face to face with Hunk, who was trying his very best not to throw up. At that moment, their coms crackled and the short-range communication kicked in, allowing them to talk much like Keith and Ziera were, despite their heavy landing.

It seemed the only component that had been damaged in the fall was the one that allowed for long-range conversations.

"Keith, Era!" Hunk exclaimed, flying over to them as the group landed, all except the Tylyrion, who remained in the air. "You made it, you all made it." The Yellow Paladin paused and locked eyes with their strange friend, who turned and flew off to inspect the Scaultrite gland, while the others conversed. "Wait, who is this?"

"Someone we found," Keith explained. "They don't talk much..." He was about to call the person a 'he' however, he knew better than to assume their gender, given the armor does not give away any details on their figure, nor did the stranger give any hints towards their preferred pronouns. "But they're...Galra."

The three turned to their guest who continued to fly away, using jets on their legs in the meantime. Ziera had a feeling she had seen those same jets before, which was understandable, considering the armor closely matched the one she was found wearing during the crash.

Maybe she designed them? Without more information, she was not sure, but right at that moment, nothing was sparking a flashback in her mind. She hoped her answers would come soon enough.

Of course, Hunk chose then to make a joke. "What, do you guys all know each other?" He asked, insinuating all Galra were friends.

Ziera made a shocked sound and elbowed Hunk hard enough for him to jump a little. "Hunk!" She scolded sharply, crossing her arms as she shot him a dissapproving glare.

"What? I was kidding!" The paladin stated, rubbing the elbowed rib as he laughed awkwardly. "Keith, tell her I was kidding!" He turned, only to shrink back when the same disapproving glare was plastered across Keith's face as well. "Uh..." He changed the subject. "Anyway...Are you sure we should be rescuing a Galra soldier right now?"

"We're the heroes, right?" The feline asked, tilting her head to the side as she raised a finger. "And you're Paladins?"

"Exactly!" The Red Paladin in question said in agreement. "We can't just leave people to die, even if they are Galra!" He took a deep breath, pushing past the strange introduction to continue their mission. "Now, c'mon...Let's get what we came for and get out!"

Hunk nodded and stroked the chin of his helmet. "Okay, well that...that might be a problem too." He said, glancing from his left to his right, from one friend to the other. "The Scaultrite gland somehow secretes mucus, or saliva, or something gross, which becomes crystalized..." He dropped his hands and crossed them at his chest. "The only problem is, I think we have to trigger the Weblum's defense mechanism."

"Hm..." Ziera stroked her chin, her ears lifting slightly at the change of expression. "Well, that shouldn't be too hard." She said, extending her hand to the side, palm up in a slight shrug.

"What do you mean?"

"Well-"

Suddenly their conversation was interrupted when the stomach they stood in began to vibrate, which caused both Hunk and Keith to stagger where they stood, while her and the Galra soldier remained in the air. "Whoa, what's going on?!" Hunk exclaimed, looking around as the others did the same.

They heard a noise above them and lifted their heads in time to see millions of the little antibodies that plagued their mission slithering out from between the fleshy walls of the stomach muscles. "Not again!" Keith growled.

Ziera hissed like an angry cat as she made her gun appear, ready to fight if she needed to. They were too close to let some germs stop them now!

However, she knew she and her friends were outmatched as her ears dropped. Before them, the antibodies met near the Scaultrite gland, halting the stranger's approach as they bunched together to form a ball almost the same size as the hole itself. "Brace yourselves!" She called out, watching as the others got their weapons ready just in time for the antibodies to shoot out towards them in laser-like formations.

The four ducked and weaved around the onslaught of acidic enemies, fighting their way through hordes of jellyfish bacteria to avoid being devoured by the Weblum's immune system. Ziera shot at several balls of the creatures from around the largest orb, while Keith sliced away lines of the many that rushed at them. Hunk charged his blaster and took a huge chunk from the main cluster, and the Galra soldier aided Ziera in her smaller task, since they too held only a small pistol in comparison.

Sadly, their efforts were in vein and they watched in horror as the antibodies reformed and doubled their efforts, chasing the paladins and their allies as they continued to duck and weave to avoid the faster barrage. "They're everywhere!" Hunk called out as he skidded to a stop on the hem of the Scaultrite gland.

Then, the stomach vibrated again, and Ziera's ears pinned against her helmet. "Oh, what now?!" She asked, looking around for whatever new enemy would attack them.

Though that was not the case, instead a gland opened beneath the large orb of germs and a column of air began to suck everything from the area into its unknown depths, including the four space-travelers themselves. In their defenseless state, the four could only grasp onto as much flesh as they could fit within their palms as the suction continued to empty the area of enemies.

"I think this thing is getting rid of the excess gas produced from its multiple stomachs!" Hunk called out over the deafening sound of air rushing past their ears.

"What?!" Keith shouted back, unsure what he meant.

"He means it's farting!" Ziera clarified, side-eyeing Hunk with a sheepish giggle as the larger teen laughed at her use of the word. "M-may the Divine Beings excuse my vulgarity."

The air column finally dissipated, and the four got their footing, while Ziera quickly flew into the air to avoid trapping herself. Keith looked back at the ventalation area to see the antibodies rebuilding. "Guys, what do we gotta do to get that Scaultrite gland to goop?!"

"Uhhh, oh...!" Hunk's mind went blank. "Wait a second, wait a second...Era, weren't you saying something about that before the bacteria showed up?"

"Yes!" Ziera snapped her fingers as her frazzled mind remembered their previous conversation. "To get the Weblum to use its defense mechanism, one of us has to fly in front of its face and get it to fire its laser, like it did before!"

"Ah, I know what to do!" Hunk yelled gleefully, before he flew away from the gland, towards the antibodies floating above it.

"What?" Keith asked, sick of being the only one without a clue.

The Yellow Paladin paused mid-flight and turned back to face them. "If we want to get that third stomach gland to secrete the ooze, I need to get farted out of the Weblum's butt and attack the face, getting it to fire its laser puke!" With that, he continued towards the column of air both above and below the antibody ball, which was sealed for the time being. "For the sake of the universe, I'll provoke the beast! You three stay here and get that Scaultrite!"

The three left near the gland looked at one another in disbelief for a moment before the antibodies began their vicious assault once again. Hunk ducked and weaved away from the swarms while Ziera, Keith, and their new friend fought back against the troves of enemies. "Hurry!" The red pilot commanded. "I don't know how long we can hold these things off!"

"Be careful, Hunk!" Ziera shouted as she did a flip to avoid a lazer-like group of germs, causing them to scatter as they hit the wall of the stomach. While upside down, she closed one of her eyes and shot several of the individual creatures with her flower pistol.

At that moment, the air column that expelled the gasses opened up again, causing the bacteria to scatter to avoid being sucked inside. The three remaining inside the stomach grabbed onto a pound of flesh to keep themselves from being 'farted out' so to speak, while Hunk readily flew into the current, forcefully pulled from the Weblum's systems out into the cold depths of space.

Sadly the static continued, so despite hearing Hunk attempt to communicate with them, they could not quite make out what he was saying. They just trusted that if they heard his voice, then he made it out safely.

"Hunk!" Keith called out, knowing his friend could not hear him. "Whatever you're gonna do, do it now!"

The group was pushed back until they were pressed up against one another, each facing outwards in a defensive formation as they were surrounded by the dangerous acidic monstrosities. Ziera darted her eyes back and forth as she tried to come up with some kind of temporary measure to save their skin, and her eyes widened when a metaphorical lightbulb lit up above her head. "I have an idea!"

"What is it?"

"If I amplify the long-range com connecting us to Hunk, the static should create a high-enough reverberation to render the antibodies into nothing but cells, since in essence, their forms are far weaker than our own!" She swallowed hard. "But it'll render us hearing impaired for a short-ish period of time, a-and I can't do the same with our friend's com, so they'd be the only one left who'd hear if the gland starts its natural processes."

Keith and the Galra soldier looked at one another before the stranger nodded, and Keith mirrored the action. "I trust you, Era!" He said, slicing away more of the monsters. "Do what you have to do!"

"Yes, sir!" She said strongly, flying up into the air, towards the large ball of bacteria. She had to be at the heart of their assault to do the most damage. "Prepare yourselves, we'll have to look for Hunk's signal since we can't hear it!"

"You've got this, Era!" Keith turned up his communicator as high as he could, ignoring the uncomfortable static in his ear as Ziera did the same.

"I know I do! Make sure you keep an eye on that gland!"

The stranger nodded.

Then, Ziera vanished into the sizzling ball of death. She hissed and grimaced as she felt the hot acid touch her suit as if she had dove into the pool within the first stomach all over again. Her suit warned her about prolonged exposure again, but she ignored it as she stopped in the center, shooting any antibodies that tried to latch onto her.

"Try recovering from this one!" She snapped, before she gritted her teeth, squeezed her eyes shut, and slammed her hand down onto her control bracelet.

Within a microsecond, the entirety of the third stomach, including both Ziera and Keith's ears, were filled with nothing more than the most painful and high pitched screech that either had ever experienced. The stranger covered their ears, though it made no difference, since they were wearing a helmet, and both the Red Paladin and alien engineer cried out in agony as the antibodies trembled and broke down from the intense vibrations the sound caused.

Soon, the enemies were no more and Ziera focused as much as she could under the circumstances to turn off the semi-lethal sound she had created. Thankfully it immediately stopped, though both she and her hot-headed friend could still hear a loud ringing deafening them to everything else. The feline covered her large ear with one hand, since her's protruded from the armor of her helmet into their own air-tight fabric compartments, and flew back towards her friends.

The other two looked back at the gland and though only their silent ally could hear anything, they knew it was being activated when it began to glow. "It's working!" Keith almost screamed, his voice nothing more than a buzzing in his skull, as he watched the slime cover the gland in a thin film. "I think it's about to get hot in here!"

The antibodies that remained flew out of the stomach in an act of self-preservation as Ziera amped up the speed of her Skate-Overs and reached out for Keith just in time for him to grab her hand and yank her into a small chasm both he and their Galra friend had used to hide from the oncoming blast. He hugged her close, and she, despite not knowing the other pilot's, did the same, while the Red Paladin activated his shield, to protect them from the blast.

Before they knew it, they were enveloped in bright light.

What felt like a millennia seemed to pass before the light piercing her eyelids faded into black, and Ziera opened her eyes to see they had made it out of the whole ordeal alive. Keith opened his eyes as well and lowered his shield, while their silent comrade tugged themselves out of the feline's grip, surprising her, before they flew off towards their hard-earned reward.

The two friends looked at one another, then out of the chasm at the large crystals that filled the Weblum's third stomach. They had the Scaultrite they needed for the next part of their plan, though they had to sacrifice their hearing to do so. They shared a smile and flew out to collect their spoils, while Ziera sent Hunk a message, explaining their deafened state, the damaged coms, and why they hadn't been answering.

After a second, she got one back.

-Glad you're okay. Tell me you got the Scaultrite?-

Ziera's fang poked out from her top lip as her smile curled into a grin and she watched Keith bagging up what they could carry.

-We got the Scaultrite!- She sent back.

-Once you're ready, I'll meet you at the Weblum's butt, the Yellow Lion can carry it back no problem.-

-Okay, but remember, we can't hear very well...Actually, Keith can probably hear if you shout, but I'm going to be completely deaf for a few hours, if not days.-

-Get Coran to take a look when you get back, maybe a cryo healing will fix it?-

-I hope so, I won't be much use if I can't hear anything.-

She closed the messages and flew down to aid Keith in his collection. With her help, the two gathered as much of the debris as they could. However, when Ziera turned to collect the final sack, she was met with the barrel of a blaster. In surprise she sat back and stiffened up, locking eyes with their Galra friend who was carrying the last container of spoils.

Keith noticed she did not hand him the last bag and turned, freezing in a similar fashion when he saw the gun pointed at his feline friend's nose. He locked eyes with the hidden face aiming a weapon at them, and despite not hearing his own words, he growled. "So you're just like the rest of them?"

The soldier stared back for a solid few seconds before they lowered their gun. Ziera let out a deep sigh of relief, and the two watched as the stranger took off towards the gaseous column of air to escape their once grim fate.

She turned to Keith who met her gaze as concern crossed their features before the tech-loving Tylyrion pulled up her messages again.

-We've succeeded in collecting the Scaultrite, you can pick us up now.-

-On my way, good work in there!- Came the reply from the Yellow Lion.

They nodded at one another and proceeded to drag the large bags of Scaultrite towards the Weblum's butthole. It had been a gross and confusing journey, but thankfully it was finally reaching its end.

Not only had their mission been a success, but Ziera's memories had also made a return, even just a small fragment, and what she saw and experienced within the Weblum gave her pause.

Unlike a majority of the Galra forces they had met, the one they saved had shown them mercy, a basic kindness in the face of an indescribable war, perhaps to settle the score, or to prove they were grateful. If that was the case, and the two once shared the same armor, maybe Ziera had not fought for the bad guys after all, maybe the group that person belonged to were working towards the same goal they had set their sights on.

Maybe, just maybe...there was still hope she had been fighting on the right side this whole time.

Despite her many insecurities and doubts, there was one thing she was certain of...she swore to never let her communicator make that unholy noise again. Lest the Divine Beings she wholeheartedly worshiped strike her down for her sin.

~FbnL~

With Hunk's help, they managed to load and secure all the Scaultrite sacks inside the Yellow Lion's stomach, which was a far less...fleshy sight. Now the three were in the bridge of the ship, looking out at the stars as they flew away from the Welbum, back towards the edge of the Galaxy, where the Castle of Lions was waiting.

Ziera sat against the same containers she had leaned on during their journey prior to finding the Welbum, watching Hunk and Keith's mouths move, to no avail. All she could hear was that awful ringing, even though she could tell Hunk was yelling so Keith could hear.

Lip-reading was not a skill she had acquired during her ten thousand years of life.

"Where's your buddy?!" Hunk asked with as much vocal projection as he could muster.

"They're long gone by now," Keith said back since Hunk could hear him just fine, he did not need to shout himself, though he still couldn't hear his own words. "And they got a bag of Scaultrite..."

"What?!" Hunk's eyes widened. "Should we go after them?!"

"No..." Keith's eyes spoke volumes, his negative was firm and unmoving. "Whatever the Galra are planning won't matter after we defeat Zarkon."

"Copy that!"

The teenage pilot turned his attention back onto their course as his hot-headed companion walked up behind him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "By the way, Hunk..." Keith spoke, his lips curling upwards. "You really came through in the clutch back there. Without you, the mission would've been a failure."

"Yeah, Ziera's plan to use the coms as a weapon was pretty cool too, huh?!" Hunk continued to shout. "Luckily I was too far away to hear it, otherwise It'd be a quiet ride home, right?"

"Yeah." Keith smiled and walked over to Ziera, placing a hand on her shoulder, getting her attention. He gave her a similarly warm expression he had given Hunk and nodded, a silent form of praise.

Ziera's curious frown turned into a bright smile as she giggled and hugged him tightly, before she walked over to Hunk and did the same from her place behind his chair, causing the Yellow Paladin a lot of laughs and confusion in the process. The mission leader watched them silently in the background, his smile fading when he realized he would be returning to the Castle of Lions, where Allura would proceed to ignore he existed.

He hoped, just like his two close friends, she would see that he was more than his Galra blood and that just like their strange temporary ally had shown them, the Galra were indeed capable of showing kindness and mercy.

He knew their friend would make an appearance again, one day, he just hoped it was on the right side of the war.

A/N: Thank you so much for reading! Please leave a review if you have anything you want to say to me, any and all criticism is also welcome, as it lets me improve as a writer!

See you next time!