Author's Note:

You guys were probably expecting something different, a little longer. That's still in the works, but seeing as I'm not sure when I'll get it done, I'm giving you this! Enjoy! Or don't enjoy, that's your prerogative. ;)

When one of his teammates finally come into view, Hunk feels like one of the strings in his Physics homework from high school. The mass he's been holding up is taken away, and the tension has gone to zero, just like the energy he's been drawing from to keep Pidge going.

But it isn't over yet. Pidge still needs medical attention, fast.

That thought alone gives him the determination to push himself to his feet, no matter how light headed he feels once he's standing. The panic is back, threatening to pull him under, but he can't pass out, not now. He has to finish this.

Shiro has to pull Pidge from his grip, and he's stumbling over what to tell them.

"She needs… She got hit with a tranq… I… I tried, Shiro, but there wasn't any charcoal, and... I'm sorry…."

Shiro doesn't respond. He doesn't even look up at Hunk, too busy checking her pulse. The Yellow Paladin had never been more certain that his leader was pissed at him. Probably hated him, he realized, and Shiro has every right to hate him. He failed his teammate.

Allura is there in his face or... maybe he's in her face with the way he's swaying.

"It's okay, we've got you both. Pidge is going to be all right. You did well, Hunk."

He keeps talking for some reason. It's like he doesn't have access to the half of his brain that controls his mouth, because he knows he doesn't have the right to say anything, but he can't stop it.

"She was scared, she thought she was gonna die. And I thought she was gonna die…" He can't see Pidge anymore, maybe Shiro's running to get her into one of the healing pods or whatever.

"And I didn't have any charcoal, and she'd stop talking every few minutes, and each time I wasn't sure if it was gonna be the last, and I'm so sorry, and…"

Holy crow, he's rambling off on a tangent that nobody asked for, what is wrong with him, and… Wait, is that daylight?

Hunk doesn't remember walking down the rocky corridors, but they must have, and he can see Shiro running ahead of them, almost to the CastleShip, with Pidge limp in his arms. Even from this distance he knows that Shiro's on the edge of panicking. Or maybe that's anger, he can't tell...

His vision blurs as his heart rate picks up, and only now does he understand that Pidge wasn't the only one adversely affected by those tranq darts.

He can't see Lance or Keith, but maybe that's because…

Oh, wait… Lance and Keith are half carrying him, one on each side. No wonder he didn't see them before…

Someone's talking, saying the same thing over and over, and it takes him a long, long series of ticks to realize that it's him talking, apologizing time and again.

Nobody responds to him, though, they just let him babble away, or maybe he can't hear them.

The wave of relative clarity passes, and he doesn't know anymore if he's floating or being dragged, apologizing or just mumbling like a fool.

All that matters is Pidge getting to the freeze-healing-pod-whatever-it-is, but he can't see her…

Come on, Pidge. If you die, I'll kill you if Shiro doesn't kill me first.

He doesn't recognize the nonsense in that statement, but he does recognize that the scenery has changed. Instead of the dusty surface of the planet they were scouting, he's surrounded by metal, and then…

Then it gets cold and warm at the same time. And black. Everything gets black, too...