Taking A Chance

The Castle Breached

When Lance's growling stomach forced him out of bed, he muttered a curse under his breath. Dressing, he decided to make a quick trip to the kitchen and be back before Keith woke up.
Stepping into the corridor, he was immediately accosted by Pidge.
‘Lance?' she said.
He glanced over his shoulder at her but kept walking without saying anything. Pidge was his friend, but he didn't have the energy to talk to her at the moment.
'Lance, please talk to me,' she said. ‘I'm so sorry I said anything.’
‘Whatever, Pidge,‘ he said, as he walked into the kitchen.
‘You have to believe me,' she said.
Lance sighed and turned to her. ‘I know you didn't mean it, really I do, but I don't want to talk about it right now. I just want to get some food and go back before he wakes up.’
‘I just want to know you forgive me,' she said.
‘I'm not the one you need to be asking that,’ he said. He raided the cookies Hunk had made and took a handful. They were green, but didn't tasted of goo, which he was getting sick of. He would give anything for a home cooked meal from his mother.
Sighing, he bit into a biscuit as he left the kitchen.
‘Please, Lance,' Pidge sobbed.
Lance stopped and turned to her, and studied her tear stained cheeks and red eyes. He moved to her and hugged her to him and she ching to him like a life raft.
‘It's okay,' Lance murmured.
Lance looked up when Keith's door opened and he stepped out.
‘Keith, what are you doing up?’ asked Lance, stepping past Pidge.
‘Going to train,' Keith said. He glanced at Pidge before heading to the training room.
‘You need to rest,' Lance said.
‘I can't,’ he muttered, ‘I need to do something, I need to move.’
Lance stepped in front of Keith. ‘Baby, promise me you won't go too hard to start with,’ he said.
‘I won't,’ Keith said.
Keith stepped around him and continued on to the training room with Lance and Pidge following. If he was annoyed about that, he didn't say anything. Lance and Pidge sat near the wall and watched. Keith started on level 50 and with every level increase, Lance became restless.
‘PALADINS TO THE CONTROL ROOM,’ Allura said over the loud speaker. The Castle lurched sideways throwing them to the floor with a thud.
‘THE CASTLE HAS BEEN BREACHED,’ Allura said.
Lance and Pidge followed Keith to the training room door, but he was the only one with his bayard.
'Wait,’ Pidge said, before Keith could open the door.
She pulled out her orange data pad that doubled as a phone and tapped into the ships computer.
'This level is compromised,’ she said.
‘What do we do?’ asked Lance.
'We need another way out,’ she said. She looked around the training room for any other way, then she looked up at the air conditioning went, and points. ‘Bingo.’
‘Are you crazy?’ asked Lance, 'we can't get up there.’
'We can with Keith's help,’ she said. ‘You said yourself he's stronger in Galra form.’
‘Yeh, but...’ Lance looked at Keith, ‘he's exhausted.’
‘And we need to get out of here,’ said Pidge, ‘we need to help the others. If we can get to the control room we can make a stand from there. I'm not saying it will be easy, but it's either try that, or go out that door into a fire fight. On the floor above us we can get to our amour, and then work our way to the control room. It will take time for the Galra to up there.’
Keith moved away from them as he studied the ceiling. In the far right corner of the training room, a air conditioning vent sat one metre from the corner of the wall. The vent was about two foot square and would be big enough for them to get into.
‘That would be the easiest one to try and reach,’ he said, pointing.
They hurried over to stand underneath it.
‘How are you going to get up there?’ asked Lance.
‘Hold my bayard,' muttered Keith handing to Lance.
They watched as he turned Galra and moved further back into the room.
‘Move to the side,’ Keith said.
Pidge and Lance did as they were told, both wondering what Keith was going to do.
Keith ran at the wall, jumped and pushed of one wall with his right foot, propelling him further into the air, then pushed off the other wall with his left foot. He flew towards the ceiling, as he got to the lent he balled his fist and punched upwards knocking the cover flying up and into the ceiling. He land on his feet back on the floor.
‘Holy shit,' said Pidge, ‘that was amazing.'
‘You're bleeding,’ Lance said, pointing at Keith's hand.
Keith looked down at his cut knuckles, and shrugged. ‘We don't have time to worry about it,’ he said. He ignored the stinging of his hand and the tiredness of his body as the walked back to stand under the vent.
‘Lance, you go first,’ Keith said.
Keith bent forward and laced his fingers together, and Lance instantly knew what he wanted. He gave Keith bayard to Pidge then placed his right foot in Keith's hands and placed a steadying hand on his shoulder.
As Lance jumped, Keith heaved upwards sending Lance high into the air. The fingers of Lance's right hand caught the edge of the opening, and he swung for a moment before bringing his left hand up to the opposite side and pulling himself up and disappearing into the hole.
Moments later, laying on this stomach he Ient back down with both his arms.
Keith took his bayard from Pidge and tossed it up to Lance who caught it deftly and put it aside.
Lacing his fingers together again, Keith Ient forward. Mirroring what Lance did, Pidge was sent flying towards the hole. Because she was so much shorter she would not have made it if Lance didn't catch her wrists and pull her up.
Keith went back to his mark and ran and jumped at the walls like before. He was so tired he missed the edge of the opening by an inch and felt himself falling. He came to a jerking halt when Lance grabbed his arm. Keith looked up at him and gave him a weak smile as Lance pulled him up.
Once they were all safely inside the duct, Pidge slipped the cover back in place.
Keith turned back into his human form and the severity of the mess he'd made of his right hand became apparent.
‘Shit,' Lance muttered. He reached around Keith and opened one of the pouches on his belt and removed a bandage Lance knew he carried in there.
‘I always wondered what you carried in those,' Pidge said.
Lance wrapped the bandage around Keith's hand and secured it in place.
‘Which way, Pidge?' asked Lance.
‘Follow me,’ she said.
Shiro, Adam and Hunk were trapped in the kitchen as the Galra swarmed down the corridor as they made their way to the control room.
‘What are we going to do?' asked Hunk.
‘Without weapons not a lot,’ said Shiro. ‘I don't understand why a ship this advanced doesn't have weapons stashed tthrough it, or an alternate way to get to the control room.’
Adam knew Shiro was getting angrier by the minute. There was nothing worse for a fighter like Shiro than to feel helpless and trapped.
‘I wonder where Pidge, Lance and Keith are?' asked Hunk.
‘Considering there weren't meant to be Galra in this area, I would suggest, no where helpful,’ Shiro said.
Shiro paced back and forth trying to think of a way out of the situation. His mechanical arm was useless, what he wouldn't give for a blaster.
‘We have no choice but to get a weapon from on of them,’ said Shiro. ‘I want you two to hide out of the way.’
‘You can't go rushing out there with no armour and no weapon,' said Adam. ‘It's not going to help anyone of you get yourself killed.‘
‘And we can't sit here waiting to be found, and not trying,’ retorted Shiro. ‘We have no idea where the others are, they may have already been caught.‘ Shiro's voice rose in anger until he was yelling the last few words.
They turned to the door as the sounds of battle reached them.
‘What the hell's going on out there?’ muttered Shiro, as he moved closer to the
The crash of metal, blaster shots and cried of pain forced their way through the door as the other three men waited nervously.
The sounds stopped and they felt the Castle surge forward.
The door hissed open and Shiro raise his fist only to drop it to his side at the sight of Pidge.
‘Pidge?' he said.
The three men stepped out into the corridor to find it littered with Galra bodies, and Keith and Lance standing in the middle of them.
‘How?’ asked Shiro.
‘Long story,’ Lance said.