Chapter Text
Keith may not have considered himself a good leader, but there was one thing he was really good at - getting himself into bad situations. He’d done it before and he’d do it again, that wasn’t the problem. The problem was that since he’d taken the position of team leader, his team tended to follow him into those situations (which honestly, was their fault. He’d been upfront about the fact that he’d be shit at this). Currently the paladins were hiding in a closed off storage room on a Galra ship, attempting to get back to the red lion that had brought all of them aboard. Infiltrating a Galra ship was nothing new (although it was still pretty new for Allura). The team had gotten the information they came for, but getting out was proving to be an issue.
“Hunk, keep trying to get that message through to Coran.” Keith hated being in charge. If Shiro were here, he would know what to do.
Hunk frowned at the tablet in his hands. “I’m trying, but something’s interfering with the signal. It’s like the ship itself is scrambling our communications.”
“Great,” Keith growled, “Pidge, have you found anything in the ship’s records to explain why there are so many guards here?”
“I’m still looking, but I think it’s just a routine inspection. I just can’t figure out how we missed it while we were planning the raid.”
Lance stood by the door, keeping it cracked open just enough to be able to steal occasional glimpses into the hallway.
“Look, whatever the reason is it doesn’t really matter now. We just gotta figure out a way to get past them.”
Allura leaned over Pidge’s shoulder to look at the map of the ship displayed on her screen.
“The red lion is hidden outside the North shuttle bay. We’re not that far away.”
Pidge nodded. “The only big obstacle is this guard station.” She pointed at the map. “From what our sensors can tell, there are way more guards there than we planned for. There’s no way we can fight our way out without setting off some major alarms.”
“So we can’t do it the Keith way.” Lance sent Keith a pointed look toward the former red paladin.
“I get it, Lance.” Keith sighed. Part of him wanted to be insulted, but he couldn’t pretend Lance was wrong. Time to try to think like Shiro.
“What if we split into groups?” He suggested. “Send half of the team around one side and half around the other. It’s easier to be stealthy if we have less people.”
“It also puts us at a disadvantage if this does turn into a fight.” Allura pointed out.
Keith frowned.
“The goal is to get out without that, though. Shouldn’t we focus on that part of the plan?” Hunk asked.
“I mean, yeah buddy, but we’ve gotta be prepared for the worst.” Lance took a few steps away from the door, joining the discussion.
Hunk seemed to deflate. “Can’t we go one mission without expecting the WORST?”
“Not one as high stakes as this, big guy.” Keith smiled wryly. Trying to lead the team was nerve-wracking to no end, but the fact that the team wasn’t acting any differently than they did with Shiro helped.
“I think splitting the team is pretty risky,” Pidge input,”unless we take out some of the guards from that station. I have an idea. The way the power system on this ship is routed, I think my bayard can send a pulse through to overload some of the systems on the lower levels.”
Hunk pressed into Allura’s side to check out the diagram on the screen.
“If we open up one of the panels in the walls we can break into the system and shut down the power for the entire ship. Wait, but that would also keep us from opening the bay door and getting to the red lion.”
“Exactly,” Pidge agreed, “ so what I’m thinking is instead of letting the pulse disperse through the entire system, we trap it in one sector.”
“But Pidge, that’ll - that’ll blow it up. You want to blow it up?”
Pidge shot Hunk a look that could only say ‘heck yeah I want to blow it up’. Hunk got the message.
“It’s actually a good idea, Hunk.” Allura said.
“Blowing up part of a ship that we’re on?”
“Yes. We need a distraction to get the guards away from the shuttle bay.”
“Well, an explosion is one way to get people to look the other way.” Keith shrugged.
Lance crossed his arms. “I kind of agree with Hunk though - how do we make sure we don’t blow up a part of the ship we need to get through? I’m not as sciency as you, Pidge, but this doesn’t sound like the most controlled blast scenario.”
“It’s not,” Pidge agreed, “but I think at this point any way we get off this ship is going to be risky. This is the best I’ve got.”
This was the point in the plan where everyone would have looked to Shiro for a verdict, but Shiro wasn’t there. It took a moment for Keith to realize that instead, the team had turned to him. It caught him off guard.
“Uh - Pidge, how long would you need to do… what you need to do?” (dear god, he was not a leader. Could the team tell how much he was floundering?) Keith felt a flush begin to creep into his cheeks. Thankfully Pidge seemed to understand, and graciously brought the team’s attention back to her screen.
“Depends on a few things.The most important thing is that we manually block off the circuits in the area that we want to explode. We’ll have to time it though. Obviously we can’t put more power into something that’s completely closed off, so we’ll have to leave one open and then close it right after the pulse enters. After we do that, we’ll open up a panel and I can send the pulse through, we close the open circuit, and let the power build up. That’s where some guess work comes in. Depending on how powerful the pulse is, it could take anywhere from 10 or 20 dobaches.”
Keith frowned.
“Guess we should start then.”
“Where are exploding?” Lance asked.
“If we blow up the entrance to the guard’s barracks, that will keep more of them from coming through.” Allura pointed out.
“It also means there’ll be more guards to avoid while we set up. Is that gonna be an issue?” Keith directed the question to Pidge, who took a moment to think.
“I don’t think so. There’s no particular order that we need to close things off. We can be adapt to the situation.”
“Ok. Let’s go.”
-
It didn’t take long for the team to get down to the level the guard’s barracks were on. It did, however, take a good deal of sneaking, which made the journey feel much longer. By the time Pidge was ready to initiate the plan, Keith was ready to be Off This Ship.
“Once I set this one, we’re gonna have to get out of here fast.” Pidge told the team quietly.
After receiving a few nods of acknowledgement, Pidge went to work. While Pidge worked, the rest of the team kept guard - which was good, because otherwise they may not have noticed the sudden wrongness of the situation.
Pidge was tucked into an alcove near the entrance to the barracks, with Lance standing in front of her protectively and the others hiding along the hallway. The end of that hall connected to another going across, and that’s where Keith, who was closest to the other hall, started to notice something different.
“Guys. I think I know why there are so many guards here.” He said softly, trying to peek out from his hiding spot but remain unseen.
“What?” Lance asked, alarmed, “Why? Is something -”
He cut off suddenly, and Keith knew it was because Lance was now feeling it too - the way the air hummed with power, making their skin crawl, the feeling washing over them of wanting to hide, wanting to run, wanting out Out OUT.
“Druids. There are druids here.” Keith answered.
“At an outpost as far from the hub as this?” Allura asked, incredulous.
“Apparently.” Keith shrugged, trying to portray calmness to the team even though it felt like unease was taking over his body. He felt nauseous and too hot and scared. He hated the druids.
“Pidge. How much longer do you need?”
He heard a pop as Pidge slid the panel she’d removed back into the wall.
“Done.” She said.
“Then can we please get out of here?” Hunk urged.
Keith gave a nod and the team started to creep back down the hall the way they’d come. The shuttle bay was only one level up, and hopefully Pidge’s explosion would get enough guards out the way for them to make it into the bay, crack open the door, and get to the red lion unnoticed.
As they made their way toward the hangar, Allura frowned.
“Pidge, you said there wasn’t anything scheduled in the ship’s records except for a routine inspection. So what are druids doing here?” She wondered aloud.
As the team came to a stop a few corridors away from the main door into the shuttle bay, they found out.
“-have received news from a nearby planet that Voltron may be in this quadrant.” The low, raspy voice of a druid.
Keith felt himself gritting his teeth. This was bad, and by the way the rest of the team shared a concerned glance, they all knew it.
“We assure that if Voltron had been sighted, it would have been captured for the glory of the Galra empire.” A different voice. Galra. Angry.
“Commander, as much faith as you have in your little outpost, it is not shared by the Emperor. Or by Haggar. You have been ordered to allow the druids take over this station until we can be sure of this claim.” The druid’s voice betrayed little emotion.
The Galra commander was clearly displeased, yet yielded.
“As the Emperor sees fit, and may he recover quickly. Vrepit Sa.”
The druid only hummed in response. Suddenly the ship was shaken, and with a loud bang, it became clear to the paladins that Pidge’s explosion had gone off. Keith spared her a glance and saw that she was grinning smugly. Of course she was - it was Pidge.
“What was that?” The Galra commander cried out in alarm. “Guards, with me!”
A loud rumble of running footsteps passed by the hall. When they sounded far enough away, Keith peeked into the corridor and, finding it empty, motioned for the paladins to move. One by one, they slipped into the shuttle bay.
There was only one guard still stationed in the bay, standing by the controls. When he saw the paladins, he reached for his gun only to have it slapped out of hands by Hunk, who made quick work of hitting him hard over the head. The guard fell unconscious quickly.
While disabled the guard, Keith went straight to the control board, pressing his hand on the controls to open the bay door just enough for them to escape through. The team had already turned and started heading to their escape when the entrance to the shuttle bay slammed open.
Startled, the paladins whirled around to see the druid from earlier standing in the doorway.
“Shit.” Keith said under his breath, activating his bayard and hearing the others do the same. Before the druid could do anything, Lance fired a shot. The druid held its hands up and redirected the energy back at him, and Lance had to dive out of the way.
“Did we know they can do that?” He yelled in alarm.
“No!” Allura shouted back, also alarmed.
Keith, the closest one to the druid, raised his sword and began to charge toward it. Before he reached the druid, Pidge’s bayard did, knocking the druid’s hands apart and forcing the electricity the druid had been gathering to disperse. Keith took the opening and slashed down, only for the druid to reach up and GRAB HIS SWORD WITH ITS HAND (WHAT THE FUCK). The druid then yanked down on the sword, hard, causing Keith to stumble. As he fell, the druid reached its other, non-sword holding hand out and pressed it against his chest. Keith tried to pull away, feeling the crackling of some sort of energy building up in the druid’s hand. The druid followed easily as he moved and then, bringing his hand back slightly, released the energy directly into Keith’s chest.
And fuck did it hurt.
For a moment Keith lost function of all of his senses, only registering the pain. It felt like being hit by a fucking bus. Fuck. His vision went dark and fuzzy, his ears rang like they would after being too close to an explosion. He didn’t feel himself falling to the ground, but suddenly there he was, in a helpless puddle on the floor. His brain felt fried, and the the only conscious thought he managed to grab hold of was “that sucked”. Little pieces of the world returned - Lance and Hunk yelling, guns firing. A hand shaking his arm and, sounding like he was trying to hear through a wall of cotton, Allura’s voice.
“Keith? Keith please, can you hear me?”
Her face appeared in his line of sight, fuzzy and hard to hold onto. He was far too tired to answer.
“Get him up!” Pidge? Maybe. “Get him out of here!”
More shots firing, a yell of pain. Keith vaguely hopes that it wasn’t from one of the paladins before the thought slips away. He wants to sleep. He should sleep.
He feels someone, probably Allura, pulling him in the direction of the cracked shuttle bay door. He hears yelling. He sees stars, and then, as blackness blots out the light, he sees nothing at all.