𝙷𝚎𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚃𝚊𝚔𝚎𝚜 𝚃𝚒𝚖𝚎 - 𝙺𝚎𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝙺𝚘𝚐𝚊𝚗𝚎 𝚡 𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚛

Chapter Twelve - Stressful Situations

Your P.O.V

The alarm continued blaring, and I barely registered as Coran collected his cubes, nor did I register Keith's grip on me tightening. Allura held a look of pure shock, and the others in the room seemed tense as well. My mind drifted back to my time on the Galra ship, reminding me of how he could be nearby. I unconsciously closed in on myself, mind racing with unanswered questions.

"Zarkon! How did he find us?", Allura cried out, eyebrows furrowing. Keith shuffled behind me, and I looked upwards, knowing he had something to say.

"His commanders must've radioed him from Olkarion,", he told us. Shiro was the first to react, turning to face the Paladins and me.

"We need to a wormhole, now! Everyone to your stations,", he commanded as everybody scurried off. I followed Keith to his seat, and he pulled me down next to him, holding me close as he pulled up his controls. "We've got to put some distance between us and Zarkon,", he finished, running to his station. "This could be the fight of our lives,".All of a sudden, we were hailed down upon with blasts from Zarkon's fleet, making us groan in discomfort.

"That's sure a lot of fighters,", Hunk commented, although his words were ignored by the majority of the crew.

"Allura, can you evade these fighters? We can't have them following us through the wormhole,", Shiro asked amid all the madness. I glanced back at Allura, seeing her standing at her station and being the tensest I've ever seen her. God, why did Zarkon have to come along now?

"I can try,", is all she says as she speeds the castle up, putting the defensive forcefield up as she does so. The fleet hastily follows us, hot on our trail as we try to escape their grasp. My breath gets caught in my throat, my emotions suddenly spiking upon seeing how close by they... he, could be. The thought itself makes me feel sick to my stomach.

"Keith, Lance, let's lay down some covering fire,", Shiro instructs, and the next second, the three of them are controlling their small shooting robots, firing as much as they could at the Galra fleet. As they got harder to control, Shiro began grunting, struggling to keep it in the place he wanted it to be. He did, however, manage to shoot many ships from the fleet.

"Lance, incoming! Twelve o'clock high!", Pidge warned, referring to some Galra ships being close to his shooting robot.

"got it!", Lance replied, manoeuvring his ship to shoot at the small fleet, but Keith's robot crashed into his own into Lance's and shot at them instead, annoying Lance in the process. "Hey!", he whined. Keith, being Lance's rival, stopped shooting and turned his robot to face Lances.

"Sorry, gotta be quick!", he teased, causing Lance to ram his ship into Keith's.

"How was that for quick?", Lance retorted, making me internally sigh at their bickering.

"You...", Keith growled, both of them then restoring to slamming their bots into each other instead of focusing on the task at hand. 'Boys...', I rolled my eyes, fed up with their childish behaviour. Just as I went to say something, Shiro, the godsend, intervened.

"Knock it off, you two! Stay in your zones!", he told them. Lance looked angry, and I chose to rub Keith's shoulder gently to keep him from snapping.

"Yeah, Keith!", Lance called out, as if they were a pair of siblings that constantly fight.

"Keep calling out those fighters, Pidge,", Shiro said. "Hunk, how are the defences holding?", he asked the tired-looking Samoan boy. Staring at him, I could see the dark circles under his eyes - the result of their previous battle with the Galra, just hours earlier. He rubbed his eyes before looking down at his screen.