Just Breathe

Surprisingly, Keith wasn't one of the last ones into the control room, he got there just after Hunk. Pidge and Shiro came in together shortly after him, and (of course) Lance waltzed in last.

What had felt like hours to the boys earlier was actually only about five minutes. And since this mission wasn't a direct attack on them, there wasn't too much of a rush to meet up for it.

"Alright, now that we're all here I'll contact number five's elder sibling at his rebel base so that we can get all the information we need to come up with a plan!" Coran exclaimed, typing a few things into the castle's front control panel to bring up a digital screen that was like a huge floating FaceTime of Matt.

"Wait, so what exactly is the mission?" Lance asked from is designated seat, resting his chin on his hand.

"Matt said that it was a rescue mission for some rebellion operatives who have important information with them. They got caught by the Galra on their way back to their base and had just enough time to send out a distress signal. Matt still has the information as to which ship they're on and what percicley the information that they were holding was and possibly more. That's why we're contacting him, to find out more and come up with a plan," Allura explained, finishing up just as Matt's face popped up onto the giant screen in front of all of them.

"Hello there Princess Allura! Paladins and friends!" Matt greeted, he was cheerful yet serious at the same time. Allura blushed when Matt addressed her.

"Hello there Matt," she replied with a smile. Matt blushed right back. Pidge groaned firm her seat.

"Get a room! Also, who died and made you formal? 'Paladins and friends!', really?" She asked, crossing her arms as a playful smirk toyed across her face at the sight of Matt and Allura flushing at her comment. A small growl escaped Lance's lips at the sight of Allura getting so flustered at the hands of Matt when he barely did anything to flirt with her in any sort of way.

"Ahem...sorry Katie but this is a pressing matter. The rebels who were caught, there were three, their names were Sonya, Ronaldo, and Anastasia, had information of different unmarked cargo ships entering and exiting Galra bases. But get this, all of them have been outwardly charted as being empty or only holding some basic materials, but the group snuck aboard a ship and downloaded information form the main control panels where one of these types of cargo ships went and found something interesting and off the grid. They went in without any clearance to do so from our commander and now they're stuck in one of those horrid Galra cells." Matt visibly shivered at the thought of being confined in one of this prisons again. "They weren't able to tell us what they had found out, only that it was big, before sending their distress code. Now they're being held on a Galra destroyer, battleship class, part of the outer fleets of the Galra Empire. I'm sending the exact location to you right now Pidge, and I think just a small team of people will suffice for the rescue, we don't need Voltron to show up and have all the fleets called to fight it when we could just send the fastest lion out to break our colleagues out of that prison before anything happens to them."

"I agree, sending all of Voltron would draw too much attention. We are trying to stay out of Zarkon's grasp and just handing him the most powerful weapon in the universe along with the castle of lions isn't the smartest way to go," Allura replies from where she was standing. She had her thumb and forefinger nursing her chin as she looked to the ground in concentration as she pondered a plan.

"Well it's clear that I have to go," Pidge declared from her seat, looking at the information that was displayed on her mini holoscreen. "I have the information already downloaded to my suit and it looks like we're going to need someone working in the control room if we are to have any chance of locating then quietly busting the prisoners out of that ship. Form what I can tell they're the only prisoners there but their exact cell on the ship would be hard to find without help since there are so many of them. And, I can still take the green lion with me because of the cloaking I added a while ago."

"Pidge is right, and if you need the fastest lion to go then I'll have to go in Red," Keith added form his seat.

"Yes but if things go south you're going to need backup Keith," Shiro pointed out, "I'll go with you two just in case."

"No Shiro, you should stay here. If you go and things don't end well then Zarkon would be notified that there are lions and paladins of Voltron that can be captured. And if he gets you then he can mentally fight you for the black lion, and even though you've strengthened your bond with it, it won't be there to help you fight him off. You could lose and we can't have that," Allura argued, turning to face him.

"She's right, if something happens to both you and Keith then the black lion would be up for grabs by Zarkon. I'll go with Pidge and Keith as backup," Lance spoke up, a determined shine in his eyes.

"Okay that's great, but Matt? Were there any weird encryptions in the information your friends found? Because every time we get more downloads from Galra bases there's always this new code that's for sure hiding important details form the lists," Hunk said, looking down at his own screen and pulling together images of the encryption he was talking about.

"I'm not sure if it's the same one but they did mention a weird anomaly is the code. We can take a look together once we get everyone back safely and see if we can crack it. And I'm sure Pidge won't mind helping out as well," Matt smiled in his sister's direction.

"You betcha!"

"Cool, I guess I can keep running algorithms while I'm here," Hunk finished, focusing back down on his screen.

"Well it's settled then, Keith and Lance will go together in the red lion and Pidge will go in the green lion. Since Keith and Lance will be faster they can scope out the area while they wait for Pidge then retrieve the prisoners and come back here where Matt will meet up with us. Allura, Shiro, and I will keep a watch on what's going on from here while Hunk works on those weird codes. Any questions?" Coran summarized, clapping his hands together. Once everyone silently showed their understanding of the plan things were set into motion.* * *   Lance and Keith were both in Red's piloting station, on their way to the coordinates that Pidge had sent them along with some reassuring words just before they left.

Just listen to me, and do as I say so you don't screw this all up. Wow. Thanks Pidge.

Both of them were silent as Keith flew Red closer and closer to the ship with Pidge trailing a little ways behind them, not yet cloaked. Neither boy knew what to say to each other. Do they talk about everything, then get embarrassed and risk Pidge recording then over the comms? Do they ignore it all and silently drown in the thick atmosphere? Or do either of them grow a pair and at least talk about the mission at hand?

"So...um," Lance started.

"Yeah...so..."

"Are we just gonna sit here in silence? Cause if we are then I might die from this awkwardness."

"I might die from this sexual tension!" Pidge exclaimed over the comms, causing Lance to jump and stumble from where he was standing over Keith's chair.

"Pidge..." Shiro sighed over the comms from the castle, you could hear the pinch on the bridge of his nose from the lions. Pidge just giggled as the boys in the red lion blushed.

"Oh haha Pidge, as if," Lance replied, an irritated look plastered on his face as he talked to the gremlin.

"Can we just focus on the mission?" Keith pleaded, "We're getting close to the ship. Pidge, engage your cloaking, I'm going to go faster so that Lance and I can get a better visual of what we're up against."

Pidge appeared on a screen in the red lion and nodded before visibly typing a few commande into her lion. "Cloaking online, you guys can go ahead now, I'm right behind you."

Keith nodded back before dismissing the screen and speeding up.

"Be careful Lance. Keith," Allura said from the castle.

"Aw, thanks for worrying Allura, but don't worry Lancey Lance will be back in your arms soon~" Lance cooed, leaning forward a bit as he spoke with a smirk on his face.

The team collectively groaned.

"I know it's a lot to ask of you, but could you please not flirt with anything with two legs while we're on a rescue mission?" Keith said.

"Hey! It's not like I'm flirting with you, is it?" Lance retorted.

"And thank god for that."

Lance just grumbled in response, crossing his arms over his chest and looking away.

"You might wanna hold onto something," Keith said before speeding Red up.

Lance gripped onto Keith's chair and his shoulder, holding himself steady as they approached the ship.

"That's weird," he mumbled.

"What? What do you see that's weird?" Pidge asked.

"There's only one ship. Usually the battleship class, even the ones on the outer circle, travel in a while fleet when not at a base," Keith added, narrowing his eyes in suspicion.

"I don't know, sometimes they'll have ships carrying special cargo or prisoners travel by themselves to seem unimportant. To make it seem like it shouldn't be a target so that they can move their things without too much of a problem. Normally it's not much, just scrap pieces of metal and random prisoners which we do try to get, just sparingly enough that the Galra Empire doesn't know that we're onto them," Matt explained, his voice echoing a little since he was talking through the comms over a screen.

"I guess that makes sense. Like the Hope Diamond shipment that happened way long ago in the 1900's," Hunk thought aloud.

"Yeah, kinda."

"Well whatever, Lance and I are approaching from the lower back of the ship where we're least likely to be spotted. Pidge tell us when you're in position so that we can make our way into the hangar," Keith said, circling  around the bottom of the ship a few times before hovering just behind it like he said.

"I'm almost there, just hold on tight. You remember the plan?"

"Wait for you to get in and override the system from from inside then enter the hangar and follow your instructions on how to get to the cells. Then we break the prisoners out and get back to the castle as quickly as we can as quietly as we can. And if we get caught up then I can just pow pow pow and get them all safe. Who knows, they might celebrate me, the one who saved them~," Lance daydreamed.

"Not the sound effects again," Hunk groaned.

"Paladins please, stay focused. You're getting out of the safety range, the Castle of Lions is disconnecting from the comms. Good luck," Allura said before the castle's comms went silent.

"Alright, we're on our own now. Pidge give me your stats," Keith said, taking the lead over their mission.

"I've just pulled over the top of the ship and am getting out of Green as we speak. I'll tell you once I have control of the ship."

"Good."

Then all was silent. All was tense. Keith and Lance could hear shuffling and heavy breathing from Pidge's end as she sneaked into a side control room on the ship. That was all she needed to override the ship without any of the Galra noticing.

"Alright I'm in," Pidge said after a few more moment of silence, "the hangar should be opening in 3, 2, 1..." She trailed off as the hangar opened and Keith landed the red lion.

Red's barrier went up as the two boys hopped out and took off into the Galra ship, dodging soldiers and sentries as they went in the direction that Pidge told them to go in.

So far they made it without any problem, a few close calls here and there but they didn't get caught.

"Okay Pidge, we're here" Keith said over the comms as he and Lance turned their last corner. As Keith was talking to Pidge on busting the prisoners out quietly, Lance went over to them.

"Hey there, my name's Lance, the blue paladin of Voltron. Over there, that's my friend Keith, the red paladin. He's talking to the green paladin Pidge on breaking you guys outta here. You three are safe now, we'll get you back to the rebels in no time after a stop at the Castle of Lions," he whispered as he crept by the dimly lit cell.

"Thank you for coming for us paladin Lance, but there are more than three of us here," an alien said, stepping up from the shadows, beckoning the others to do the same.

At his gesture five other prisoners stepped forward. Two of them looked like the one had spoken up, bluish pale skin and circular green eyes. Each with different colored antennae. The one who spoke up had yellow ones while the other two had red and white. The other three prisoners were a mix of different species who looked less exhausted and traumatized as the three similar ones. All of them in the same signature Galra prisoner outfits.

"Keith!" Lance whisper-shouted to the shorter male. "There are six prisoners, not three!"

"What? I thought there were only three rebels?"

"There are," one of the less tattered prisoners spoke up. She had white skin, four arms, and brown eyes. "I am Sonya and these are my colleagues-" she pointed to the other two prisoners at her left side who were standing straight "-Anastasia and Ronaldo. I believe you came for us and our information," she said.

"Yes but we're not leaving without all of you. Are there more prisoners on this ship?" Keith asked, giving them his attention.

"No, they would've been kept around us if there were," the rebel who must've been Anastasia spoke up. She had midnight blue skin and electric blue eyes, deep yellow hair fell messily at her waist. Her pure white fangs flashed every time she spoke.

"It's true, I mean, they have all of these cells here yet we're all clumped together in this one. Which is a little suspicious, but who knows, from what little I got on the guards is that they're lazy so that might be it," Ronaldo spoke up. He had diluted red colored skin, a dark brown mohawk, and a pastel pink cyclops eye.

Suddenly the cell door opened and Keith came over to rush them out.

"Pidge opened it for us but she's not sure if it could've tripped a silent alarm or not. She's already headed back to her lion so we need to hurry. I have the path downloaded to my suit so we all have to go now," he said jogging in front of everyone while Lance kept up the back.

Since the group was larger than the paladins had anticipated it was much harder for them to move around undetected by any of the Galra in the ship. If Lance and Keith had some close encounters before, they sure did have a lot more now there were eight of them sneaking around.

As they neared the hangar Keith urged them all to go faster, they had already taken more time than predicted and with the comms safety concern for the Castle of Lions making them unable to contact the others, they had no way of telling them not to assume the worst. They all made a break for the red lion who let the barrier down to allow everyone on, but one of the blue-pale aliens tripped and fell. It was the one with the white antennae.

"Cyrena!" the one with red antennas called out, turning around to help her up. Just then Galra sentries open fired at them, they seemed to come out of nowhere. Keith had already pushed the rebels and the alien with the yellow antennas into the red lion and made his way over to the one with red and grabbed him just as he was running away to help his friend. Keith threw him at the others who caught him.

"We'll get her, just get to safety!" He called before rushing over to Lance who had stopped and held his shield out to protect both him and Cyrena from the sentries.

Keith jumped in and started chopping sentries left and right, keeping on his toes so as not to get shot. If alarms weren't blaring before, they were now as Keith pushed back the sentries and fended them off as Lance made his way to Red and the others with Cyrena still behind him as he shielded them both.

"Guys? What's going on? Do you need backup?" Pidge asked from over the comms, already making her way to the hangar of the ship.

"Pidge stay where you are!" Keith ordered, grunting as he slices the hands off of another sentry. "They've already spotted us but they don't know about you. Keep your cloaking engaged and do not, under any circumstances, leave your lion. Start making your way back to the castle and get healing pods ready for the recovered prisoners, three should suffice for now until we get what we need from the rebels."

"But-"

"Just do what I said and get outta here before you get caught! They would have contacted Zarkon's main fleet by now and Red is faster than Green so if you stay you'll have a higher chance of getting caught even with your cloaking!" Keith fought.

"Fine. But if something happens I swear. Just...be safe," Pidge frowned as she started flying away from the ship. She had a feeling in her gut that said something bad was going to happen. But Lance and Keith had out their trust in her, so she put some back in them.

"Will do," Lance smiled, pushing Cyrena into the red lion before turning around to help Keith.

He took a few shots and blasted the closest of sentries, he and Keith went at it until the red paladin came close enough to quickly dash into his lion's open mouth.

But just as he turned around Lance spotted a sniper sentry aimed right at Keith's head.

"Keith-!" Lance called before jumping over him. Lance gasped as a sharp pain dug its way into his neck just shy of his spinal cortex. He could feel himself slump a little over Keith who didn't know what just occurred, that is until he he turned to hug a falling Lance and felt something warm and sticky under his left hand.

Time seemed to stop. Lance had just taken a bullet (more like a charged laser beam) for Keith dangerously close to his head. On the one hand Keith wanted to drop Lance and start blindly crushing those who were after him, but in the other he knew he had to get Lance to a healing pod.

Keith chose his battle and picked Lance up bridal style, carrying him to the cockpit of the red lion where the others were waiting.

"Oh my! We saw what happened but..." Anastasia trailed off.

"Well if you saw what happens them why didn't you try to help? He could be dead! Just look! I can't lose him, our team can't lose him. He means so much, what if he's dead and it's your fault for not helping! It's everyone's fault! It's...it's my fault," Keith mumbled the last part. His anger boiled up inside of him, anger at the notion that he couldn't save Lance, and if it hadn't been for Lance? Then he wouldn't have even been able to save himself or any of the others in the red lion.

"Not dead," the alien with white antennas spoke timidly.

"What?" Keith asked, sitting down in his seat and laying Lance over his legs because he didn't want to leave him alone.

"Not dead. Look. Breathing. Mind, heart, still beating. Blue, Not dead. Blue, safe," she went on, hesitantly placing a hand on Keith's shoulder and the other on Lance's.

Keith took a breather, trying to calm down as he piloted Red out of the hangar just in time as it closed, leaving no fighter able to follow them for a good minute. And a minute was more than enough, for the red lion's speed could have them a galaxy away by then if Keith pushed it. And he did.

"Thank you," Keith said to Cyrena who simply nodded and went back to the other two of her kind and they all shared a long hug.

"We are sorry for not coming out and helping you with the Galra after all that you have done for us red paladin Keith," Sonya apologized for her group of rebels.

"No we said that we would take care of it. I'm sorry for blowing up at you, I just...I need him to breathe. Just breathe. I need him to stay breathing, no matter how shallow it is, I just need him to be alive," Keith replied, not looking up at her.

"-eith! Can you hear me?" Allura's voice came over the comms.

"Yes I can hear you Allura! I need you to set up four pods stat and while Matt is talking with the rebels we can set up another three healing pods for them!" he called back to her.

"Why four? Okay wait, why isn't Lance answering me? I would think he would out of the two of you," she grumbled the last part but her voice still sounded concerned.

"That's because...he got shot Allura, I don't know how bad it is but he he's not responding and there's a fair amount of blood. He's still breathing, but he got shot just right of his spinal cortex," Keith stated, having learned such things in a class he was forced to take at the Garrison. They made him do it instead of art because 'if he gets into a lot of physical fights then he should know about the damage he's doing to the physical body' or whatever Iverson said.

The class wasn't actually that bad.

"Oh no! I'm getting Coran on it right now, Pidge told us what happened, she got back just a few moment ago, but this..."

"It's okay Allura, I'm in Red so it won't take that long. I've already locked onto a visual of the castle. I'll be there within a minute or two," Keith said calmly even though he was freaking out on the inside.

Just as Keith had said, they were all back within a minute and were greeted by the entire team Voltron plus Matt. Hunk and Coran led the aliens with antennas to the pods slowly, asking them questions while Allura, Matt and Shiro stayed to talk with the rebels that were recovered. Pidge and Keith ran to the healing pods with Lance cradled in Keith's arms (Jesus why does this happen so much?) just barely breathing, the blood spillage had become far worse.

Pidge went straight to a pod in the far right of the room and opened it, allowing Keith to gently place him in. The moment it closed up Pidge checked his vitals on the holoscreen that appeared right next to it.

"So?" Keith asked, pacing a bit in front of the healing pod.

"Well there's good news and bad news."

Keith felt his stomach sink at the mention of bad news. "What? What's wrong?" Please, oh please, just keep breathing just breathe. Like I said I don't care how shallow it gets, that means we can still fix this. Just please breathe. It would be my fault if you didn't.

"Well good news is that virtually nothing is wrong, the shot missed anything too important, it is dangerously close to a bundle of nerves though, so it's a good thing you got him here so fast or else the entry wound would've become a lot worse. The bad news is that it's deep, so it's gonna take about a whole day for the wound to seal and even then it might leave a scar. It would be small but noticeable, and though it's not much to you and me it's gonna be hard on Mr. Perfect Complexion over there," Pidge nodded to Lance's pod.

Both paladins sighted and visually slumped with relief.

Just then Allura, Shiro, Matt, and the other rebels walked in, visibly relaxing at seeing everyone else in the room so relieved (Hunk and Coran came in a while ago but were ignored because things were tense and they listened to everything while putting the others in the healing pods).

Shiro walked over to Keith and pat his shoulder. "Hey bud, you did good out there. But you might wanna get cleaned up and change because of..." he simply finished by pointing to Keith's arm which was covered in blood. Lance's blood.

The shorter make shivered and excused himself to take a long, hot shower and put on more comfortable clothes, figuring he would find a way to wash his armor later. He really didn't want to leave Lance, but he knew nothing would change if he stayed. Keith just felt so guilty.

Out of the corner of his eye Keith could see Shiro making his way over to Pidge who was focused over the screen in front of Lance's pod, obsessing over every detail to make sure she didn't miss anything important as the Hunk and Matt talked about something quietly and Allura and Coran put the three rebels in the other three pods.

Keith couldn't help but smile to himself despite everything that just happened. He knew that even though he felt guilty, everyone else would find a way to feel the same way. It was strange to him to be so close to people that he knew these kinds of things, almost a little morbid if he really dwelled on it, but the fact that they would all feel remorse made it feel like a family. Something he never fully had in a stable way as a child.

Team Voltron was his family.

Were they all royally screwed up in their own ways then again as a whole? Yes, yes they were.

But they were still his family.

And every single one of them was breathing.

And that made Keith happy.