There, nestled against my pulse

Chapter 12

"—eith, come in. Come in, Keith. Lance. If either of you can hear this, speak up."

Silence.

"Fuck." Shiro pushes on the controls, urging Black faster. He hears her roar in his mind. "Ryner, do you have a visual on them?"

"N-no," she says. "The dust is—I can't see anything except for the robeast. It's retreated farther back, but it's still. Waiting."

"Fuck that thing," Pidge says lowly. "Those two better be alive or I'll dye their hair orange for a month."

Nobody says anything. They all heard the tail end of Keith and Lance's argument over comms, just as the lions exited the castle. It had cut off before any of them could get over the shock of what they were hearing, let alone call out.

Ryner speaks up again. "Before the—before. Lance suggested throwing the robeast into space and overloading the cannon in its chest."

"Shiro, can I make a suggestion?" Hunk asks, uncharacteristically grave. "I'll take care of that thing. You and Pidge should look for—for Lance and Keith. Ryner has those portable stasis pods, right? Pidge should grab two and meet you at the site; it'll be faster than Olkari rescue forces—no offense, Ryner. We find them, stuff them in there to keep them from—keep them in stasis. It'll increase their chances."

"Only if you're sure you can take on the beast by yourself," Shiro replies.

"I'm sure," says Hunk. "Yellow's near impenetrable, and I'll have that thing blown up before it even think of trying that cannon on me."

Shiro nods. "Good. We'll do that, then. Pidge, stop by the tower. I'll see you in five."

"Got it," she says, angling Green towards the tower. "Good luck, Hunk."

"Oh," says Hunk, "I won't need it."

Shiro and Hunk reach the site not a minute later. Without a word, Hunk dives down, scoops the robeast up in Yellow's paws and shoots straight up into the sky. The robeast's shrieks fade out half a second later, and Shiro can't summon any sympathy for the thing. The speed with which Hunk had piloted Yellow practically screamed murderous.

Shiro lands next to the half-collapsed building. He takes one look at it and wrestles with the part of him that sounds a lot like Black, telling him to go with Hunk and tear that robeast down to its molecular structure.

The building is sliced roughly in half, top to bottom, so part of it still miraculously stands while the other part is a pile of rubble.

Shiro swallows. Keith and Lance are under that.

He shakes his head, exhaling. "Okay, let's do a scan, Black, and make it quick."

Keith wishes he knew how to make this better.

But there's hard concrete bearing down on his back, there's broken shards of metal threatening to cut the two of them, there's pressure and darkness and no air. He's lying on Lance, their heads turned towards each other, their legs slotted together—they're completely pinned. His faceplate is cracked; they must've hit heads when Keith buckled under the weight. Their chestplates are pressed so tight and Keith's ribs won't stop throbbing. Lance is wheezing; he's stuck at the bottom, he probably can't breathe any better than Keith.