shining like the stars

93

There were two healing pods actively in use when Shiro entered the medbay. Matt stood before the pod that Pidge had been placed in, still wearing his black flightsuit and with his arms folded tight as he watched the pod intently. "You convinced her finally?" Shiro asked as he stopped beside Matt.

His oldest friend wouldn't look at him and Shiro felt a quiet pang in his chest. "She didn't want to go under," was all Matt said in a clipped tone.

Shiro nodded his head once and then looked to the other healing pod where Lance's inert form resided. Lance had no visible injuries, and according to the display his vitals were strong ... but he had yet to come out of the deep slumber that the healing pods placed their occupants under. "Matt," Shiro started, but Matt spoke at the same time.

"This is all my fault," Matt said, and hunched his shoulders forward as if he was folding in on himself. "I wanted to tag the prison ship and I let Katie convince me that we could free the prisoners and grab a manifest. It was stupid and reckless and I got people killed."

Shiro's jaw tightened. "It was my call to leave the Yellow Lion," he said. "They're not dead."

"If they're captured, they may as well be."

"If they're captured," Shiro said forcefully. "We'll rescue them."

Matt looked up at Shiro sharply. "Like you rescued me?"

Shiro inhaled, stung. Matt looked away again, at the pod, his own jaw held tight. Before Shiro could respond to that the doors to the medbay opened. Shiro didn't take his eyes off Matt right away, although Matt wouldn't look at him, clearly done with the conversation. Finally he glanced back to the entrance, to see Keith frozen in place on the threshold. "Am I interrupting something?" Keith asked, more careful with his words than usual, and Shiro looked at Matt and then shook his head.

"No," he said, looking at Lance's healing pod a moment before looking back to Keith. "What is it?"

"We need to talk."

"Yeah," Shiro said, and turned away from the healing pods, and Matt. "We do."

#

Allura stood on the central control dais, arms folded, and stared out the viewscreen. Coran was working from his console, scanning for contact from the Yellow Lion as well as keeping an eye on the Castleship's systems. One of the Altean mice sat perched on Allura's shoulder, chattering quietly in an attempt to soothe her roiling emotions. She appreciated the effort, even if it was wasted.

"No bursts from the Eaphus system as of yet," Coran reported. "Seems that the Galra fleet still have a jammer broadcasting as I'm not even getting stray transmissions from the moon or its waystation."

"All that effort," Allura said, "and we weren't even able to take out a battleship." She had seen this team take down Galra vessels before, even without Voltron's formation; although battleships were an entire class above the usual transport and scout vessels.

"Eh, I dunno," Rian said, and she glanced over at him. Rian had seated himself comfortably at the Blue Paladin's console, and had the ship's systems up as well, working to bring the particle barriers back up to one hundred percent. "I'd say two crippled battleships and a frigate falling back into Eaphus's orbit isn't exactly a bad outcome." He shrugged. "There's also a whole host of freed prisoners running loose now. The fleet will be licking their wound for weeks, at the very least."

Coran inclined his head a moment, and then looked back at them. "That is true, Princess. It wasn't just minimal damage inflicted by the Lions. The battleships may remain in the Eaphus system for weeks undergoing repairs."