Chapter Text
Pidge had no idea what the hell was going on. Lance is passing out one minute, and the next, Pidge is face to face with the Galra intruder Corna’s “Coming your way number five,” not nearly enough time to get ready. The Galra blows past Pidge, treating her attacks like nothing and dragging her down the hallway. The Green paladin growls as she tries to dig her heels into the ground to slow the Galra down, but it does nothing to deter the large Galra.
“Careful, he’s faster than an angry Klamuril! But he can jump like a sprightly globinheffer!” Coran shouts over the intercom.
“Coran, you’re not helping,” Pidge says as she tries to slow the Galra down.
“Oh well, somebody’s as mad as a wet chuper. He’s dragging Pidge away.”
“Come back here,” Pidge growled, pulling the bayard closer to her body.
Pidge is surprised when she is suddenly blasted at “HUNK!”
“Huh? Sorry!” The larger boy stops firing, taking off, and running behind the Galra and green paladin. Pidge knows Hunks is worried about Lance, but could he please not try to kill her in the process? ‘Well, it's not like I would be died died. Well, I would finally get to meet the ghost on the ship.’ That thought didn’t help calm Pidge as she heard Coran shout, “Oh, Hunk failed the team, guys,” followed by a sharp “Hey!”
“All right, it's up to Keith now,” Pidge growled; what is she, chopped liver she still technically had the Galra attached to her. Keith’s “copy that, I’m ready” ringing in their coms.
“Oh, this is exciting! He’s got a sword. One young paladin, one seemingly indestructible for.” Pidge is surprised when Keith rounds the corner, sword coming down a bit too close to Pidge’s leg when the Galra dodges, “Swing and a miss!” but Keith, being the ninja that he is, quickly jumps over Pidge’s form and increases his speed to be side to side with the Galra. Pidge watches as Keith takes another swing at the intruder, who again dodges Coran’s. “Oh, another swing and a miss! He can’t touch him! He’s too fast.” Pidge holds on as tight as she can as they round another tight corner, trying her best not to go flying.
Pidge and Keith are side by side, and when Pidge looks at Keith’s face, she knows she has to slow him down to give the red paladin a chance. Keith seems to know what she’s about to do because he increases his speed. With a grunt, Pidge lifts her legs only to slam them into the ground as hard as she can while also doing her best to retract whatever much of her bayard she can. The tug works, and the intruder slows down, turning to look behind himself.
Pidge can see why Lance is jealous of Keith’s combat ability because the impressive jump/jet pack/swing was a very impressive combo. Metal hitting metal clashed in the hallways as, once again, the Galra blocked Keith’s attack and tossed the red paladin's blade out of Keith’s hand. “He knocked his bayard out of his hands! It's on the ground.”
Pidge can tell Keith is angry when the human boy just blindly charges at the intruder with his bare hands. If Pidge hadn’t been flung like a toy across the room towards Keith, she would have felt sorry for Keith’s reckless actions.
Pidge colliding with the red paladin caused her ribs to ach a grunt coming out of her mouth as she struggled to catch her breath, but Keith, in his reckless nature, stood back up and again charged the intruder. ‘Where the hell was Lance and Shiro? ’ Pidge thought, hearing more than seeing Keith getting tossed around and, based on the new grunt, most likely at Hunk this time.
The intruder looked over at the fallen three paladins, standing still before looking up at the ceiling as energy blasts started to fire down on him. Pidge watches with mild satisfaction when one grazes the intruder's shoulder.
Pidge watches as the Galra scales the ceiling, Lance emerging from somewhere up above, blocked by the odd light fixtures in the hallway. Lance jumps from his hiding spot using the jet pack to lessen his fall. The Galra propels himself at the blue paladin, but Lance has his gun pointed straight at him but isn’t shooting.
The two scuffle with each other, but Lance doesn’t fire any unnecessary shots because he doesn’t want to hit his teammates or he doesn’t have a shot; she’s unsure.
Lance had been hearing Coran's commentary as he ran to the hallway. Koma and other ghosts give more detailed information about the intruder and paladins' presence. “Lance Lance, use the service tunnels,” Koma shouts, pointing to a panel in the hallway.
“The what?” Lance asks as he pats down the panel, which sure enough gives way, and a new hallway appears.
“When the ship was built, a lot of the engineers were worried about not being able to reach certain areas of the ship for repairs, so service tunnels were made throughout the ship to make repairs easier,” Koma explains, leading the way which was a good thing because Lance had no idea where he was going.
When Lance emerged from the hallway, he was close to the ceiling, a small ledge perched outside the tunnel most likely to reach the panel for this wing lighting. Lance takes a deep breath, feeling relieved to exit the narrow space. ‘Great, possibly getting claustrophobia awesome, just what I need.’
“Koma,” Lance whispers, watching the commotion from down below as Keith goes toe to toe with the intruder. “When this is over, I will need a map of these tunnels.”
Koma nods. “They should be in the blueprints. Coran should have a copy.” Koma winces when she sees the red paladin thrown into the yellow one.
Lance would have liked to get a little bit more time to calculate his aim, but when the Galra looks in his direction, Lance has no choice but to take the shot. “Keep your distance,” Koma shouts. “he’s excellent at close combat.”
Lance wanted to shout that he could see that with how easily the alien took down Keith, but this Galra was determined to close the distance between the two. Lance pointed his gun at the Galra but couldn’t get an accurate shot off. ‘He’s too fast.’ Lance thought, finally firing a shot that again barely gazed at the intruder's side.
The intruder grabbed its blade, intending to strike the blue paladin. Lance blocked it with his rifle, the shiny symbol on the blade facing Lance. Lance buckled when he saw the symbol. ‘That’s impossible,’ Lance thought, his grip slipping. The mistake was costly as the intruder knocked Lance’s bayard out of his hand and pinned the human to the wall. The intruder had a firm hand on the Cuban boy’s throat, but it was more threatening than actually painful. ‘Where is Shiro?’ Lance hears in his head a slight twinge of worry flooding the human boy.
Lance, annoyed, whispers harshly, “That’s enough, Ulaz,” feeling the Galra’s claws on his neck. The intruder paused for a moment, grip going slack, head titled in slight confusion before jumping away from the boy in a flash. Lance sees only a bright purple light. “Shiro?” Lance shouts.
Shiro has his glowing hand at Ulaz's throat, but Ulaz now has his blade pointed at Shiro’s head. The moment is tense before a calm ‘He’s alive’ rings in Lance’s mind, and Ulaz lowers his weapon. The intruder lowers his hood, and his mask begins to fade a moment later.
Yellow eyes, white hair, and lilac skin are exposed as the Galra seems to stand up even taller. “Ulaz?” Shiro whispers as if in awe that he is actually right.
The moment is ruined when the Altean princess rushes the Galra intruder, slamming the larger form into the wall behind him and beside Lance. “Who are you?” The princess growls, her hand firm on the Galra’s chest.
“Stop!” Shiro shouts, rushing to the princess's side. “It’s him! This is the Galra who set me free.”
Princess doesn’t look at Shiro, staring down at the Galra before her, but Ulaz speaks first. “You’ve come.”
The next few moments are a blur for Lance as he stares at the Galra in front of him, the symbol on his sword still visible even though the weapon is sheathed. Lance is vaguely aware that Allura has handcuffed the intruder, and Shiro is arguing with the princess. Still, the Galra was silent, presenting his wrists to the Altean as his yellow eyes also tracked Lance.
Lance jumps when a hand is placed on his shoulder. The Cuban boy turns quickly only to see Keith standing beside him, his blue bayard in the teen's hand. “Thank you,” Lance says, clearing his throat when he notices its shake.
“No problem,” Keith says, handing the bayard over, noticing the tremor in Lance’s fingers. Lance places his hand at his side, and Keith says nothing as he walks after Shiro and Allura, who are escorting the Galra down the hall. “Lance,” Keith says awkwardly, looking over his shoulder. “Nice shooting.” The red paladin doesn’t wait for a reply as he quickly follows the Voltron leaders.
“Thanks,” Lance says weakly.
Hunk and Pidge walk over to Lance, concerned. “Are you okay?” Hunk asks, placing a hand on Lance’s shoulder.
“Honestly, I have no idea,” Lance answers, feeling as though he had already aged ten years.
“What happened back there?” Pidge asks, rolling her shoulder.
“Something pushed itself against the barrier. Something very, very bad.” Lance begins slowly walking down the hallway, knowing they can’t keep Allura and Shiro waiting.
“The intruder,” Hunk asks, walking beside his best friend.
Lance shakes his head. “It was an older, and ugh, total goosebump monster.”
“Soul eater?” Pidge asks, wondering if she could see those types of beasts.
Lance shakes his head. “It's not dead dead, more like undead.”
“I doubt there are any vampires out here,” Hunk says, tapping his temples. Pidge looked at Hunk as if asking if he was joking but blinked when it appeared not to be a joke.
“Are you telling me I have to worry about alien vampires?” Pidge shrieks.
“Well, they could be similar to vampires, but not vampire’s vampire so that they wouldn’t be alien vampires, just a new species,” Hunk says, still waiting for Lance to answer.
“It wasn’t a vampire,” Lance finally says. “It felt like…” Lance sighs. “Another abyss user.” Hunk pales, and Pidge looks lost. Looking between the two teens before asking, “That’s a bad thing, isn’t it.”
“Yeah, Pidge, that’s a terrible thing,” Hunk says, giving Lance a bit of room ready to stop Pidge from questioning if it seemed too much at the moment. Luckily, Pidge appears to notice the heavy atmosphere, and any questions are put on hold.
“Let's just figure out what’s going on with the intruder, and we can figure out the ward thing later.” Hunk offers, swinging an arm around Lance. Pidge rushed to the Cuban teen's other side, gripping his arm.
“That’s right, and we have a wayward Galra to deal with the wards held so that we can deal with that later.” Pidge wasn’t sure if what she said made any sense, but seeing Lance smile and nod encouraged the young girl that she said something right.