They were coming quickly.

Quickly, quickly, and they wouldn't stop.

It had been an important mission. There was intel on her family that had left Pidge hopeful.

Nothing bad had supposed to happen; Zarkon had been out of commission for a long while now.

So the five paladins rushed the ship and taken out the drones.

The oh-so important files had just been fully downloaded when all hell had broke loose.

Flesh-and-blood soldiers, along with the metal drones, had flooded the area, effectively trapping them all.

But, Pidge swore to both herself and her missing brother and father, she wouldn't let anything stop her from getting out. This was the largest lead they'd found since first joining the war. Like hell she'd get this far, this close, to only quit now.

"Pidge," Shiro's voice cut through her thoughts. She drew out her bayard and formed her grappling hook as their leader continued, "You got the records?"

Pidge spared a glance in his direction. Of course she had the files. But she managed to swallow any sarcastic reply when footsteps- oh gosh, too many footsteps- sounded in the distance.

"Yeah. Backed up and ready to take to the castle."

Lance spoke up then, but Pidge allowed herself to tune it out. Battle was approaching quickly; she couldn't let herself get distracted.

Gripping her grappling hook, she, along with the four other paladins rushed forward into the fight.

At one point, she found herself back-to-back with Keith, the red paladin savagely fighting with any enemy in his sight. She, for her part, did well to watch his back. Distantly, she heard a never-ending stream of shots sound. She wasn't even able to distinguish the drones' from Lance's shots.

The sharpshooter, Pidge noticed, had distanced himself from the mass crowd. And, while that worked in his favor, it also made him stand out more. Already, she could see multiple places where laser shots had hit his armor. She pressed her lips together, becoming distracted for a small moment, when-

"Pidge!" Keith shouted, rushing forward to swipe at a Galran soldier who had closed in to strike the girl. She gave a start, then rushed forward to help Keith dispatch their foe.

Each paladin carved a way through the enemies. And watching each other's backs, it didn't take them much longer to reach the final stretch to their lions.

They jumped into their relative cockpits and wasted no time in distancing themselves from the Galra ship.

In no way had the Voltron pilots taken down the spacecraft, but they had gotten what they had come for. And although the prior fight had taken them by surprise, they had all gotten out relatively unscathed.

Through each paladin's pants, Shiro's voice sounded, "You guys all good?"

"I'm good."

"Yup."

A pant, then Pidge's own, "Yeah."

"... Y- Yes."

A few more breaths passed, Pidge allowing herself to slowly relax, when Hunk spoke up again, "Lance? You alright?"

It wasn't until total silence fell that Pidge felt herself begin to worry.

"Lance, you didn't get hit did you? I'm pulling up a video chat."

"... N-no, I-I'm fine. Didn't mean to..."

Just a tick of silence too long before, "-to scare you."

Believable.

It seemed that Shiro took Lance's statement as seriously as she did, for he proceeded to say, "You sure?"

Silence reared its ugly head until-

"Lance!"

Keith's sudden shout caused Pidge to jump slightly in her seat. Nervously biting her lip, she looked towards the blue lion, flying out in space right ahead of Green.

"Yeah!" Lance's voice chirped up again, but this time Pidge refused to buy it as easily. "I'm fine, guys! Stop acting so concerned; the battle just took a toll on me."

Pidge hoped s-

"I think."

Well, crap. That wasn't reassuring in the slightest.

"Well if you don't want us to worry then stop acting so weird!" Keith spoke up now harshly. But Pidge knew that he was probably just trying to get a rise- get anything, really- out of Lance.

Nothing.

"Lance!" Keith shouted over the comms, sounding more angry than anything. It didn't fool anyone. They knew that that the red paladin was just as worried as they all were.

Suddenly, the blue lion stopped and Pidge could only sound out a "CRAP!" before Green crashed into Blue. Pidge was thrown forward by the sudden force and winced when her head hit the control panel.

Whatever pain she felt was suddenly forgotten when Lance's sudden cry of pain sounded just as the two lions had collided.

No, something was definitely wrong, Pidge concluded as she backed up slightly from the blue lion then stilled her own flight.

"Pidge, Lance, what happened?!"

Pidge felt panic rise, "Sorry, Shiro! Lance and Blue suddenly stopped and I was right behind them so I didn't have time to stop and I ran right into them and Lance are you okay?" She was rambling; she needed to stop, "You don't sound okay so-"

"Pidge," Shiro gently cut her off, and she fell silent.

"Lance," Hunk's voice sounded again, clearly worried.

Shiro spoke urgently now, "Lance!"

When no one answered- oh gosh, Pidge was worried- Shiro pulled up a comm connection to the castle.

"Allura, Coran, Lance and Blue seem unresponsive. When we get to the castle, will you have a pod ready? We need to check out Lance. Hunk, can you carry the blue lion back?"

Coran's distant voice was heard, saying that, yes, there'd be a pod ready. Then questions were asked.

No, they didn't know the extent of the damage; nor the wound nor the location of said wound. No, no one else was fatally injured. Yes, only one pod. Yes, they were hurrying.

Coran withdrew and Allura appeared once again. Shiro gave her a quick report on the mission itself- oh, the conversations were so much better than the heavy silence.

Without delay, the lions docked in their hangars and each paladin, sans Lance, rushed to the blue lion, which had landed in Yellow's station. When Pidge arrived- Green was the closest to Yellow- she saw Hunk standing outside Blue's open maw, looking sick.

Pidge's face went ashen and she broke out into a run, entering through the lion's mouth to see...

Pidge stilled, going even whiter as she sucked in a shaky breath, "That's... a lot of blood."

Lance sat, completely limp, against his chair. His head hung back, eyes closed. While his left hand was draped down the side of the seat, the right was laying across his stomach and over his side, covering up a large hole in his armor.

There was... a lot of blood.

Blood decorated Lance's armor, splattered against the dashboard and had pooled at the ground underneath Lance.

Lance, who was completely motionless.

Oh god...

But... but no.

A silent thank you to whoever could hear as Lance's eyes opened slightly, then widen somewhat more at the sight of the blood.

But no... Lance's breath quickened and Pidge could see it. She could see the shock kicking in, see the eyes unfocus and Pidge hated it.

"Lance!" Keith growled angrily, and with a start, Pidge turned to see everyone except Hunk in the cockpit behind her.

Coran's voice sounded distantly, but Pidge hardly heard, "Don't let him fall asleep."

Keith, Shiro, and Coran stepped towards Lance without wasting any time. Allura stood back, hand to her mouth and eyes impossibly wide with horror.

Keith, though, slapped Lance. And although Pidge winced, she saw a bit of clarity enter through Lance's eyes.

But only for a second.

Shiro then bent down and carefully, oh-so carefully, lifted Lance up.

Then Shiro, as fast as he was willing to risk without causing the blue paladin pain, practically rushed to the infirmary.

Coran only took the outside armor off, but kept the black under-suit on before putting Lance in the pod. Coran didn't want any more time to pass before putting the boy in a pod. It was too risky, he had said.

And 'too risky' was right. Later that day, after it had been confirmed that, yes, Lance was healing and would be alright, Coran had informed the paladins and princess that the shot which had wounded Lance had, in fact, been fatal.

He informed them that, had they waited a bit longer, or not realized the wound soon enough, Lance wouldn't have made it.

After that somber realization, a heavy mood had settled over the castle for four days as Lance healed.

Pidge locked herself away, feverishly working with the data from the mission. A few times, she almost, almost, asked herself if it had been worth it. She never let herself finish the thought.

Too close. It had been much, much too close.

So four days later, four paladins and two Alteans crowded around the pod and, when it released its hold on Lance, Shiro was the one to catch him.

Silence- how strange it was, coming from Lance- reigned, until Pidge hesitantly spoke up, "You've been in there twice now, Sharpshooter. What gives?"

Only a breath of a moment passed before...

"Sharpshooter, huh?" No one mentioned the waver in Lance's voice. It was gone immediately after, "So you finally admit that I'm better than you, right, Pigeon?"

"As if."

And suddenly, the spell was broken. First, it was Hunk. Then Keith, Allura, and Coran. Not too long before all seven of them were bantering back and forth in a friendly matter. Then Lance was whisked away- quite literally, compliments to Hunk- to the kitchen for some food.

Afterwards, everyone was able to just... hang out in the lounge. They talked about nothings, then talked about somethings- eventually able to fill Lance on his condition four days prior and the progress made in that time.

Slowly, slowly, late in to what was considered night- it was impossible to tell in space- they retired to their rooms, one-by-one.

Only Shiro and Lance were left now and hesitantly, Shiro took this time to speak, "Hey, Lance?"

Lance looked Shiro's way, blinking sleep from his eyes, "Hmm?"

"Are you... okay?"

The blue paladin shot Shiro one of his 'winning' smiles, "Tired, but after some beauty rest, I'll feel fine."

Shiro hesitated, "...That's not what I meant."

"Yeah... I know." Lance's smile dropped and turned into something more... exhausted, is how Shiro would describe it. Lance rubbed the back on his neck and looked off at the far wall. Once again, Shiro was reminded that the other paladins were just kids. Children.

But before Shiro could continue to think, Lance continued, "It's just, uh, weird, I guess. Knowing you've been shot. Knowing that you could've died." Lance hesitated, but then continued in a smaller voice, "Knowing... knowing that under any other circumstances, I would have died."

Shiro's throat constricted. Children. Fighting a war on the front lines. Literally staring Death straight in the face.

"But it's okay, really," Lance continued, pulling Shiro out of his thoughts. Then, Lance looked his way and shot Shiro a smile- a genuine one.

"It's all okay- no, really, Shiro. I'm alright. Only a bit shaken up, is all."

Shiro believed him.

Then, without warning, the spell was broken and a joking smile was back in place, "But I am tired, Shiro. Night, Space Dad!"

Shiro snapped out of his daze and gave Lance a strange look at the outlandish title. But Shiro only smiled softly and replied with, "Night, Sharpshooter."

I'm kind of shocked by how much support I received last chapter. And it was only supposed to be a one-shot, too. But yesterday I was rereading the story along with reviews and, inspiration struck. And, well. voila.

I don't think there will be a third chapter to this. But I hoped that you all enjoyed this continuation.

Reviews are much appreciated. :3