Marked For Death | klangst

Seventeen.

Once the Paladin's had zeroed in on Lance's location, they zipped through the atmosphere and flew parallel to the ground. They had to wait for Coran to clear some of the mist in their way, but other than that, it was a rather quick mission. Keith looked at the radar in his lion. It showed that they were very close to Lance, his blue dot blinking slowly in comparison to the other's bright flashing ones.

"Paladins, you're almost there," Allura told them nervously yet delightedly. Even she was pleased to be so close to finding Lance, despite the blatant worry she was trying to suppress.

"I think we should go the rest of the way on foot," Shiro announced, willing his lion to halt. The others followed suit.

"Why?" Keith asked, intrigued yet a bit anxious to find Lance.

"Our lions can't get through the mist without shutting down, and if we clear it, we could risk hitting Lance. Just going off on a limb here, but I don't think he needs a blinding bolt of light being shot at him," the Black Paladin explained, already unfastening himself from his seat. "The castle can still monitor our locations, and assuming our communications aren't on the fritz, Allura can tell us if we're heading in the right direction."

"Well, if we're going that route, I may have something that can help," Pidge pitched in, climbing out of her lion with a coiled up rope in her hands. She waited until everyone was out of their own lions to explain. "This way, if our coms do cut out and we can't find our way back to the lions, we can just follow the rope back."

"Way to think ahead, Pidge," Shiro told her, clapping a hand on her shoulder in praise.

She smiled in return and tied one end of the rope to her lion's leg. "We'll be back soon, girl," Pidge promised it before turning to the others. "Let's go."

***

"Allura, are we heading the right way?" Hunk asked, dragging his feet across the dusty landscape.

"The radar shows that Lance should be directly in front of you," Allura replied, looking at the monitor in the castle. "Do you not see him yet?"

As he was about to deny it, Shiro held up his arm. "Hold up," he told them, signaling for the others to stop.

But Keith moved forward until he was beside Shiro. "What is it?"

The Black Paladin squinted through the fog. "Look there," he told Keith, trying to point at a speck of dull white in the distance. "You see it?"

Keith narrowed his eyes, trying to find what Shiro had seen. Then, his eyes landed on the same white speck. His heart skipping a beat, he whispered, "That's gotta be him! That has to be Lance!" Without another word, he raced to what hopefully was their lost friend.

"Lance?" Hunk asked in confusion, just seeing Keith run off. Drawing the connection in his mind, he started to run after the Red Paladin. Pidge and Shiro, left with no other choice, sprinted after them, nervousness welling in their bodies.

With his breath coming in panicked heaves, Keith stumbled to a stop, his knees threatening to falter beneath him from the sight in front of him. Before they could, though, he slowly crouched down, biting his lip hard to fight back anguished tears. Laying at his feet was a marred form of Lance, his legs curled up to his chest and his arms laying limply next to him. His eyes were heavily closed, his mouth twisted into a frown, and his eyebrows were scrunched up in worry. A semi-thick layer of dust coated his dirty armor, making it seem like he had been there for ages.

Keith let out an involuntary whimper, his breath getting caught in his throat. "I'm so sorry, Lance," he whispered. "I wasn't quick enough." He reached for Lance's gloved hands, wanting to hold them at least once before the tragic truth was exposed to him.

The others lurched to a stop a few feet from him, seeing Lance's... unconscious form and Keith on the verge of tears in front of him. Hunk buried his head in his hands, and Pidge was trying to blink away her emotions. She had already lost one brother, and she had just lost another. Shiro, his face hard with suppressed sadness, walked up to Keith and set a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Keith, is he..?" Shiro asked, his voice fading into the drone of the swirling dust around them.

"I don't know..." Keith answered, his own voice constrained. "I -- I didn't check..."

Shiro crouched down next to the Red Paladin and reached a trembling hand to Lance's neck to check for any sign of a pulse -- whether it be faint and almost nonexistent or strong, despite the grim odds. His hand lingered on Lance's skin for about twenty or so seconds, occasionally moving to a different position, before his eyes lit up ever so slightly. "Keith, I think he still has a pulse!"

Keith's head shot up, his eyes wild with cautious hope. "He's still... He's alive?" he breathed, a smile of unbelief growing on his face.

Hunk and Pidge looked to Shiro, hope welling in their own eyes. "We need to get him to a healing pod, then!" Pidge exclaimed, her previous expression of joy morphing into one of sudden alarm.

Shiro and Keith instantly stood straight and snaked one of their arms underneath Lance's. "Lance, buddy, I don't know if you can hear us, but if you can, try to open your eyes or groan or something. Just let us know that you're alright." Lance remained silent and comatose. Shiro pursed his lips in frustration. "Okay, well, we're going to lift you now, okay? We're gonna bring you back to the castle so you can be fixed up. Doesn't that sound good? Yeah?"

Shiro looked at Keith and nodded in response to Keith's unvoiced question. On the count of three, they simultaneously lifted Lance, his weight being shifted from the ground to both of their shoulders. Together, they half carried and half dragged Lance to the lions, retracing the rope that Pidge had left in their wake.

They had hardly walked a few steps before Keith spoke to Shiro. "He's so light..." he trailed off, gazing first at Lance's facial features -- his sunken and paler skin, his parched lips, his hooded eyes -- and then at Shiro, a look of deep concern ghosting his face.

"Right now, he just needs to get into a healing pod, to get some energy back in him. Then, once he's well enough, he'll be able to eat all the space goop he wants to regain the nutrients he lost during his time here," Shiro responded, determination shining in his deep brown eyes. He then shifted them to Keith. "He's going to be alright, Keith. I promise."

Keith knew he should be able to trust his longest friend in a heartbeat -- in the blink of eye -- the snap of a finger -- but he had trouble believing his words. He was unsure if it was because of the slight quaver in the Black Paladin's voice when he spoke or if it was his own abysmal fear of losing Lance. Just to push the thought from his mind and concentrate on getting back to the lions, he chose the second.