Taking A Chance

Given The Slip

Keith was pulled out of sleep by the sound of a crying baby next door. He climbed over carefully over Lance and found his shorts and pulled them on and left the room. He knocked in Shiso's and Adam's door and it was promptly open by Adam.
‘Sorry, Keith. We can't seem to get him to settle,’ Adam said.
Keith went in and saw Molly alseep in the cot, with Kosmo underneath, and took Jaya from Shiro. Holding him against his shoulder he turn Jaya's face towards his neck, and Jaya settled almost immediately.
‘What?’ Shiro said, stunned.
‘Galran sent gland in my neck,' Keith mumbled before leaving.
Lance woke when Keith came back, and seeing Jaya in Keith's arms he moved over to the other side of the bed and Keith slipped between the covers. Keith lay on his back with Jaya's face still against his neck and fell asleep again.
Three hours later Jaya stirred and made small high pitched whining sounds waking Keith and Lance.
Lance sat up and picked up Jaya. ‘Hey little guy,' he said, ‘you getting hungy?’
Their heads whipped up at a thumping sound in the ceiling.
Keith jumped out of bed and was pulling on his trousers when Shiro burst through the door.
‘How have they stayed undetected all this time?’ asked Shiro.
‘Training,’ Keith said, as he finished getting dressed.
After he clipped his belt on, he jumped up on the bed and looked up at the air conditioning vent above the bed.
‘Boost me up,’ Keith said to Shiro.
‘But...’ began Shiro.
‘He’ll get away,’ said Keith, ‘we don’t have time to argue about this.’
‘Wait,’ Lance said. He put Jaya on the bed, and putting his embarrassment of being naked in front of Shiro, pulled on his clothes. He didn't have his bayard so he retrieved Keith's other knife from the draw and shoved it in the back of his jeans.
Shiro boosted Keith up and he knocked the vent open and pulled himself up. Lance quickly followed him.
‘Be careful,’ Shiro hissed as Lance replaced the vent.
Lance looked up into Keith’s yellow eyes and tried to ignored his thumping heart as memories of last night with Keith filled his mind. A night of the most incredible love making he'd ever experienced.
Keith signed. ‘Keep you mind on the job, Lance,’ he said.
‘Sorry,’ Lance said, his cheeks heating up, and he saw a shy smile pull at Keith's Iips. ‘So, which way?’
Keith looked around and listenend.
‘This way,' Keith said.
Bent over, they hurried through the duct as quietly as they could. They twisted and turned in every direction, but never getting closer to whoever was hiding up there.
Below in the room, Shiro picked up Jaya and ran to find the others in the control room.
‘Keith and Lance have gone after someone in the air conditioning ducts’ he said.
‘But we didn't detect anyone in the Castle,’ Allura protested, 'are you sure...’
The sound of fighting reached them throught the vents in the roof.
‘Yep, pretty sure,' Shiro said.
Hunk, Pidge and Adam, who carried Molly, hurried in.
‘What is that?' asked Hunk.
‘Keith and Lance went after the intruder,’ Shiro said. He handed Jaya to Adam who retreated to one side of the control room and sat on the floor with them. Kosmo appeared at Shiro's side.
‘Kosmo, stay with the babies,' Shiro said.
Kosmo looked from the ceiling to the babies as if considering what he was going to do. In the end he trotted over to where Adam was and lay down.
The sounds became louder as the fighting moved in their direction, towards the larger vent in the middle of the control room's ceiling.
Metal hitting metal filtered down into the room as the others looked up trying to see in their minds what was happening above them. Blood dripped through the vent to the floor below. But who's was it? They had no way of knowing what was happening or who was hurt. All they could do was wait.
Allura let out a cry of shock when Keith and Lance crashed through the vent and hit the floor. Lance groaned as Keith sprang to his feet, sword in hand and ignoring the blood flowing from his injuried. He grabbed his other knife from Lance's hand.
Kosmo was on his feet. Keith made a gesture with his hand, and Kosmo sat down.
From the noise above, the intruder was making a run for it. Keith ran out of the control room, following the sounds. Shiro and Pidge ran after him, leaving the others to look after Lance.
Keith ran down the corridor and the other two had trouble keeping up with him. The door at the end of the corridor they were in was closed and Keith was in front of the intruder. He threw the knife he'd taken from Lance and it's blade sunk into the wall up to its hilt. Keith leapt into the air, sprang off the knifes hilt and crashed through the vent in the ceiling.
‘Holy shit,' Pidge gasped.
Shiro was too shocked to correct her language. They stood below where the fight continued to rage above them. Anguish on their faces because they couldn't help.
They spun around, trying to keep up with what was going on. The sound of swords clashing together, or hitting the inside of the duct was loud, and continued to rise to to a crescendo. Then silence.
Shiro and Pidge jumped as a body fell out of the vent. It was dressed in a Blade uniform. Moments later Keith dropped to the floor. He turned the body onto its back and removed the mask.
'Balik,' Keith said, surprised.
‘He was one of the names on Krolia's list,’ Shiro said.
‘Yes, but not the one I expected to find,’ Keith admitted.
'You expected me.’
They turned to find Alkarah and Kolivan standing in the corridor behind them.
‘Kolivan,' Keith said, 'what's going on?'
‘I found Balik sending a message to start the attack,' said Kolivan. ‘Before I could do anything he disappeared. I had to pretend I was dead, but got to Alkarah before he left the ship.’
‘We have been waiting for him to make his move,' Alkarah said, ‘you and your mate acted so fast we didn't have time to intervienne.’
‘Lance,’ Keith gasped, and ran back to the control room, and found Lance on his feet and trying to get past Hunk.
'Oh my god, Keith,’ Lance cried when he saw him. ‘What happened? Are you all right? Did you get him?’ Now that Hunk let him go Lance ran to Keith and hugged him.
‘I'm fine,' Keith assured him, ‘it was Balik, and he's dead.’
Shiro burst into the control room. ‘Balik's gone,’ he said.