Chapter Text
The Brigg is eerily silent as they made their approach. Lips set in firm lines with brow furrowed focus scanning every inch of its surface for movement. Waiting, tense and on edge for the wormhole to open, for the shape of the thing that brought them there to snap into sight and barrel towards them with all the speed and fury of the rabid beast it was, tearing metal jaws through recently repaired exteriors and to come at them with guns and eyes blazing.
Shiro's eyes are sharp in those moments. He could see the subtle inklings of stress pulled at the corner of Coran's mouth and as for what remained of Team Voltron… well, they were as good as can be expected all things considered as far as they would let anyone tell.
Shiro rested two stiff arms on the console before him and leaned forward in dreadful anticipation. His right one settling after a moment or two to bear his weight.
All at once their screens lit up, and the crew tried their hardest to hide a flinch.
"Galra Lion in visual range,"
"Set arms to lock onto its coordinates, make sure to keep a tracker on its signal. Coran any updates?"
"Main canon at 74%, Just need them to buy some time,"
"On it,"
"Open the hanger doors to let the lions through, pilots are to stay on standby and wait for the order. Keith?"
"Flying free, engaging now. Hunk, you flank Allura, Pidge you're with me,"
"Ten four,"
Shiro was aching to close his eyes for the moment, maybe to think more clearly and give himself time to actually think or pretend this wasn't happening, maybe even because of the lack of sleep. Instead he set his jaw and tried to keep his focus on the threat at hand, as pandemonium rained from skies below.
"Shit, it's moving too fast,"
"Any word on Red?"
"Their connection's not as strong, and even then we know it's faster,"
"So not luck on that-" Pidge's lion was hit "Fuck!"
"Atlas, we've got a lock on its energy signal thanks to Allura, she'll be sending through the scans soon,"
He steeled himself.
"Thank you Keith," he set himself up, "Sam?"
"Scans received," he'd braced himself on the back of Coran's chair, leaning over and staring with laser intensity at the status display, "Canon charged at 80%,"
"Everyone remember the plan?"
"Crystal clear, Shiro," Pidge this time, "Let's just get this over with,"
He could see their faces on the main screen. Even obscured by helmets and resolve as they were he knew them well enough by now despite his absence to see the distress they kept hidden beneath the surface. It came through in little ways, the fury in Pidge's eyes he hadn't seen since her brother; the hard stone in hunk's face, set in neutrality and focus and trying hard not to crack through in silence and clipped responses; the way Allura kept swallowing down the second hand pain they all knew she could feel thrumming along her bond with blue.
And in Keith… no matter the time or the distance he knew for a fact that beneath that firm resolve that had grown with him there was something ready to burst. And every part of him knew and feared for him.
The Robeast itself was steel grey, segmented in a manner that let it be more agile than the others despite its size. Six slitted and unnerving eyes glowing purple and marred with the sharp edges of black and silver that marked every robeast thus far with the Empire's insignia. Weapons, cheap Galran imitations of their own and infuriating in their own right for more reasons than one, and more than that the way it moved, the way it seemed to rush them each with an animalistic fury befitting something that went beyond and far deeper the Empire made it clear this wasn't anything close to the joke it was making of them.
Keith, could feel himself trying not to shake.
Whether it was by rage or by fear he could not say, just that the horrible energy of it all was getting to him and he couldn't let it. He grit his teeth and plunged black forwards. Again and again. Feeling himself slam into the sides of his chair and bearing through the pressure and the pain while the Galran lion struck him away like a metal ragdoll and threw them back as he bit through his fury.
It got a hold of him the third time he tried. Long claws pinning him down before opening its mouth again to fire at point blank range before hunk slammed into it with Allura and all the force of a freight train before she and Pidge tied and froze it down.
Keith was trying hard not to shake.
As expected it didn't hold for long, but they weren't counting on defeat. He got black up and attacked again, making another attempt at close range, this time with his jaw blade. Sending out a message as he did.
"Atlas, what's the update on our trump card?"
"98%," Sam's voice then, "Just need you to keep it a little longer,"
"Can we get an ETA?"
"Right now we're charging at a rate of 0.5% per minute, so-"
"Yep, 4 minutes, got it,"
"Approximately," Pidge grumbled, "And we still have no guarantee,"
"It's the best shot we have, so we'll go with it," he gave it a thought, "Hunk I'm gonna need your help with something,"
"On it, just tell me what to do,"
Keith felt his hands tighten on the controls, and dodged another attack.
It was no secret, at this point they were frayed and falling apart at the edges. Too much of themselves sacrificed and given away in this ceaseless hunt. They wanted it to be over, one way or another no matter the consequence, and he could feel it in every one of them as they fought. Not as Voltron, not as a symbol of hope, but as 4 tired and reckless Paladins of a broken team who really, really wanted their friend back.
Coran's voice rang out over the coms.
"99%"
He steeled himself.
"On my signal, follow my lead."
All at once they set upon him, Pidge and Allura Catching on and keeping it distracted as Hunk hung back and got ready. Keith, on his part, let himself be cast off one more time, catching himself on the fourth roll and speeding away from the fight as he engaged the black bayard and let loose their wings in a display of power he'd only ever let himself use once before.
In a blink, they were upon it.
He could feel black shudder violently as their metal jaws extended and clamped tightly onto its neck. Groaning and shuddering as it squirmed violent and desperate in his hold, trying to keep its grip just so for long enough, as it clawed and kicked off more of Pidges vines as she tried to hold it. Hunk sprung in a second later, holding the other side with more force and strength than even the black lion could accomplish on its own, as Coran started counting down over the coms.
"Five,"
"Four,"
"Three,"
"Two,"
They sprung off.
"One,"
The blast itself was spectacular, lighting up their worlds in a bright blue they'd come to know as home after so long and engulfing the lion in its entirety and pushing it with all the force of the fleet into the planet below them. They were all thrown back, not nearly with the same force as before but just enough from the radius that they weren't in range. He let out a breath, all of them heaving and panting after pushing so much, the crew of the Atlas giving out something like a cheer while Pidge grimaced and Hunk kept his lips a thin line. More than that he could see Allura's silent tears despite the visor and her own uncharacteristically cold expression, had become so much more striking reflecting the blinding light before it ceased.
When it was done, the steel colored lion lay motionless in a crater of its own making. And the shaking anticipation wouldn't leave him.
Slowly, he brought the black lion closer.
"Coran, run a scan on that thing, I'd like to make sure it's down before we make any hard decisions," Shiro, he could almost see him now. Standing at the helm of the atlas, trying to make sure he could let himself actually relax.
"On it,"
The other lions were close behind him, and he thought of red.
"Keith, buddy, what are you doing?" Hunk sounded nervous.
He thought of Allura's screams when they'd first faced it. How she'd told them who she could feel screaming inside.
"There's a hole, under its plating closest to me, I want to see if I can get him out,"
"Keith, it'll only be a second you should wait for the scan," Shiro sounded tired.
He set black down on top of it, mouth opening just above the hole free for him to enter.
His gaze hardened and he stayed silent.
"Keith, wait for the go ahead, that's an order,"
He didn't listen.
On his way in he could see the other lions around them. Gargantuan in their forms, towering over all of them and the beast they'd fell as the darkness of the interior hull overtook him. Tubes and wires and parts intertwining and tangling over walls as he dove in deeper, using his pack to swerve through sharp corners of ramshackle hallways and the machine powered veins of this colossus before finally setting himself down on top of a final reinforced door that blocked his way.
He drew his sword.
"Oh shit,"
"It's still active?!"
And he cut it open.
Once Inside he could hardly make out any of what Shiro or the others were saying to him beyond the rushing of waves in his ears.
It looked like something out of a horror movie.
Amongst the writhing, slow pumping of glowing tubes and mechanical veins was its heart, their heart. Set into the far wall in a cryopod tube light up by that disgusting purple hue that never stopped chasing them through dreams; Screaming and writhing, drowned out by the groans and pumping and mechanical sounds of a generator and swallowed by whatever liquid kept him suspended, was Lance.
His eyes were scrunched closed, and even with the fullness of light he looked horrifying. Gouged out and strung up with too long white hair that just didn't fit floating around his face and his neck as he writhed in place. Arms secured to the walls of the tube, a look on his face past the mask that kept his friend breathing and made him hurt in ways he never, ever wanted to feel again.
"Keith! Whatever you're doing you better hurry the hell up!"
"Keith, you've got to answer us!"
The worst part was the tubes. What coated the walls and interior was linked up to some kind of machine that rumbled and moved and was linked up to Lance. Thick tubes set into his back like tentacles that he could almost feel burrowing inside of him. Pulsing, pumping something that glowed fiercely and defiantly and whole and bright and so blue it made him feel sick. Pulling something out of him, something he knew was vital and painful and needed and short if he didn’t do something now, rising unnaturally with fervor up the machinery that was harvesting him and hanging there tangled and plugged into sockets that led to more machines that put it all to use. Each new lurch and hoarse yet silent scream that he could hear echoing in his mind from long moments of pain and suffering and fear that easily toppled what he'd convinced himself was the true extent of the Empire's cruelty. Torture, agony, in every sense of each word.
"Keith! Get of there now!!"
"Keith!!"
He felt the monster shift and groan around them as he marched forward, sword in hand with a purpose and fury that went beyond a war. First down onto the tubes that wound around him like snakes, each flying free like a tight string had snapped and hanging in place or laying to rest on the ground with a sputter of glow that dripped and sizzled by his feet; then in a blind fury upon the controls that held the door and restraints fast, and then finally with a snarl through the glass.
Bright purple burst out all at once and he was only just fast enough to catch Lance under his arms before he fell on broken glass, wrapping his arms around him to wrench and pull him free from the wreckage, tearing the mask from its place over his nose and mouth and behind his back slashing and severing the final of the rubbery veins that jutted out of him through gritty liquid. Stumbling back as the monster fell around them, holding him tighter and closer than he'd ever held anyone as the hoarse scream he could finally hear petered off with the rapid rising and falling of his chest in his arms that made his heart wrench and chest heave before he finally lost his strength and fell to his knees.
He could hear himself crying, ugly crying and letting out thick shuddering breaths and sobs that shook them both as he buried his face into his now white hair. Clutching him tighter still, holding him firm and begging the universe to just let him have this, just let him have this moment of not daring to let him go and the sheer relief and hurt of everything that had been building higher and higher in the month he had been gone, and in the days they'd known with awful heart wrenching certainty where he was.
And alongside him he could feel the shaking and wet breaths of sobs that assaulted Lance, hanging completely limp in his arms and trying to find the words as Keith pulled him tighter still and shook his head and tried to convince himself this was real. Tried to convince them both that this was the end of the nightmare.
"You're gonna be okay Lance, you hear me? It's going to be okay, you're- you're gonna be okay Lance, I promise. I promise Lance, I swear you're going to be okay-" and over and over like that for all at once eternity and no time at all. Words tumbling out intermittent and breaking with watery sobs he had not the shame nor the care to keep inside for a moment longer, until he could bring them both to believe it.
He felt a weak hand brush against his back.
He could feel more than hear the quiet, croaking whisper that followed.
"Keith…God I thought-" another sob, "fuck, it- it-,"
He gave another quiet shhhh, and brought a hand up to stroke the back of his head.
"I've got you Lance, I promise. You won't… I promise I won't ever let it happen again, you're going to be okay,"
The silence that wasn't silence stretched between them, as the hand on his back fell.
"…okay."