Y/N followed Pidge who waved to her. She soon found herself in one of the Altean suits, the orange highlights shining bright. "Orange huh?" Pidge smirked. "I like it."

Pidge and Y/N came out of the changing area at the same time as the boys, stopping in the middle of the hall. For a moment, everyone seemed to stare at Y/N, each for a different reason. Lance couldn't believe she was finally part of the team. Hunk was glad Pidge finally had someone that maybe she could relate to a little more. Shiro was proud to see her looking so strong and brave despite all she'd been through. Keith, well, had no clue how he felt. And Matt, he also wasn't entirely sure as to how he was feeling. But was thing was for certain, and that was he was going to force himself to get to know her better. Maybe even tonight, after this mission, he'd pull her aside and talk. 

It was strange for everyone having someone new on the team, but it certainly wasn't a bad thing.

"Y/N's with me." Keith spoke up quickly, shifting his weight awkwardly.

"What?! No!" Lance complained. "She's with me!"

"How about I just take one of your lions and you two can go together?" Y/N looked between the boys with a mischievous smile. 

"Okay--" Keith began but was cut off by Lance.

"What? No!" Lance spluttered. "I'm not--I am not sharing with Keith!"

"Right! No!" Keith agreed awkwardly quickly backtracking on what he'd first said.

"Laaance!" Shiro warned. "She and can go with Matt and Pidge, we could use the extra pair of eyes in the green lion."

There was no negotiating with Shiro. Matt and Pidge were both ecstatic to have her on their team. Plus, the amount of tech they had tossed inside of the green lion was becoming overwhelming for just two people to operate. A third was exactly what they needed.

"Alright?" He looked to the pouty faced boys. "Now lets go!" He said strongly, marching off towards the hangars.

Before she knew it, Y/N was in the green lion once again with Matt and Pidge, racing straight for the small planet that was being destroyed. "It's horrible to watch." Y/N muttered, clinging onto the back of Pidge's chair.

"Yeah." Matt sighed, carefully sweeping through the sky. The group located the survivors and the sentries before flying back up into the atmosphere to meet the rest of their friends.

"Y/N, I need you to promise me something." Matt said suddenly, pulling Y/N down into the chair beside him, causing Y/N to mumble a yes in response, not really paying attention.

He wait for her to finally pay attention to him. "No risks." He said.

"What do you mean?" She questioned with a raised brow. She very well knew what he meant, but wasn't sure if she could promise something like that.

"No sacrificing yourself like you used to. We're a team here and won't use you to do our dirty work. Got that?"

Y/N nodded her head. She could say she wouldn't take any risks, but what happened when her adrenaline took over? An adrenaline that was used to train her to take risks in order to protect others.

"What do you have for for us, guys?" Shiro asked over the comms. 

"All of the survivors are gathered in the same location, five sentry bases all around. We can take them out easy, but someone is going to need to go in to get the survivors out." Pidge said grimly.

"I can try to hack it." Matt started scrambling with his keys.

"Can't be hacked. Just like Y/N's planet, they've used the vegetation to make a prison. We need to blast it." Pidge muttered.

"I've got it. Just drop me down there." Y/N tapped Pidge's shoulder hopefully.

"We are not doing that." Lance shouted through the coms.

"It's our best option." Shiro had to agree. If they waited to get the survivors out, the damage caused to the sentry bases around could cause some serious problems. "Drop her, Pidge."

"Gently!" Lance yet again shouted.

"Got it." Pidge said before shooting towards the surface, followed by his friends. Matt pulled out his staff from beneath his seat, seeing as it was the most suitable weapon for their current circumstances. He pressed it into Y/N's palms, and she sent him a quick, thankful smile.

As Pidge landed, Matt looked to the girl now shuffling uncomfortably at the mouth of the Lion.

"Come back safe." He said, wishing it was him going down to the surface. If nothing else, he wished he was going with her. But his job was here, in the lion, with Pidge.

"Yeah." She replied half heartedly, racing off towards the prison.

A dome of vegetation formed around the survivors, twisting and turning, keeping them in place. It seemed to be getting smaller by the second.

"Hey!" Y/N called out, and suddenly frantic faces appears through the vegetation. "I'm going to get you all out, alright? Just stand back!" She ordered.

All around her, the ground shook as her friends began to take down the sentry bases. Bravely, she took Matt's staff and held it eye level. All it'd take was one strike. And so, she did it. The staff collided with the vegetation, a loud crackling like a bolt of lightning shot out all around, breaking up the rooted prison.

Y/N sighed in relief when she opened her eyes to find the prison blasted open, aliens filtering out one by one. "Go, go, go!" She cried, waving for the survivors to head towards a pile of rocks just a little ways away. In the very least, it'd offer shelter since they had a strange curvature, acting almost like a cave.

"They're out and heading for the rocks." Y/N hollered into her coms, looking to the sky to see Lance and Keith circling above. Then something whizzed past her face.

She looked forwards to find a half destroyed sentry stumbling toward her, gun held up by one hand. "Woah!"

The robot was relentless in its quest. It kept moving forwards, but Y/N knew she had to stand her ground. Some of the aliens hadn't made it to the rocks yet, and if she didn't protect them, they'd get shot down. The girl put up her shield and held her staff out, ready to fight once the robot got close enough.

"C'MON TWITCHY!" She screamed at the possessed looking robot.

"Y/N GET OUT OF THERE!" Shiro called out. They were all too far away to help, still taking out the last few sentries.

"I can't!" She replied back in frustration.

"Y/N!" Lance screamed as he watched the girl jump up and bolt for the robot. She took it down with one strike of her staff, but the things gun was still flailing around. A beam of light broke free from the weapon the same moment Y/N plunged her staff into the chest of the sentry. Her leg flew backwards and she collapsed to the ground, screaming in agony.

Through the coms in their headsets, everyone's hearts stopped. Her hollow wails of agony sent a very clear message—that the pain Y/N was feeling was beyond her threshold, despite having been trained nearly half her life to withstand it. Even from up above, the paladins could see the blood painting the ground all around her in a sickly crimson colour. The wound was deep. Too deep. An eery silence fell over the coms, even with Y/N's wails.

A voice finally came. "Y-Y/N?" Allura asked. Y/N seemed to mumble briefly in response before yelping in agony as she tried to move. "Stop moving! Lance and Keith are on their way!"

Matt sat in his chair completely frozen. Heart broken. "Pidge, turn them off." He pleaded. 

"What?" She snapped back, trying to focus on her brother and taking out the remaining sentries.

"The coms! I can't listen!" He cried. There was no way he was going to be able to focus on what he needed to if he was listening to that. It sounded too much like the Glara prison, that gladiator fights. He just couldn't do it. And if they were stuck up here, ensuring all the sentries were gone, Matt couldn't stand listen to Y/N's cries if he wasn't able to help. Each of her screams sent chills down his spine, making him sick to his stomach. Pidge eventually agreed, removing Matt from the com systems. He took in a deep breath and turned away from the large screens at the front of the lion, displaying Y/N laying out lifelessly on the ground. Shudders racked his body and he reached his shaky hands to his head, running his hands through his hair. There was no knowing if she'd make it out of this alive, and he didn't want to have to hear the others discuss her chances of surviving.

"Get the survivors out first! Then me!" She demanded, looking to the sky where she knew her friends were.

"Y/N, sit still, shut up, and let us save you!" Lance fought back just before he and Keith dove downwards toward the girl and the ever-growing patch of life leaving her body. No one wanted to admit to their fear in this very moment. They were the defenders of the universe and they had to maintain a stoic figure, even with one of their friends bleeding out on the ground. Crashing into the dirt around her, the pair of boys darted out of their lions, scrambling to keep their balance as they forced their legs faster and faster. When they reached her body, she was cold to the touch, pulse frightfully weak.

Lance went to hold Y/N's head in his lap as Keith moved to her leg to examine the wound. A sharp sigh left his lungs as he crinkled his nose up in disgust. Then a solemn look fell over his already dark features. Lance questioned his friends sudden change in demeanour.

"Keith...?" He asked. The boys eyes lifted to meet Lance's and then his attention turned back to her leg.

"Okay, I uh--I need--" He muttered looking all around him frantically. The very look in his eyes told Lance he was trying to disconnect himself from reality, from Y/N, from what he was about to do. "Something hot. Really hot."

"KEITH!" Lance shout, unable to leave Y/N and holding her up, she had to use his voice to try and snap Keith out of it. "NO!"

"Look at her Lance! She's dying!" Keith struggled to find something in near proximity to him that wold work to cauterize the wound.

"WE ARE NOT DOING THAT TO HER!" He said firmly, with a kind of confidence Keith wasn't sure Lance even really had. "Hold her and I'll pack the wound instead. It's the best option right now."

Something inside of Keith instinctively knew to listen to Lance in this situation. He trade places with him, holding Y/N up as Lance began to use whatever he could to try and stop the bleeding, which wasn't doing much. But maybe, it was better than his plan.

 Lance could feel the wind picking up behind him. He looked, and to his relief, it was Coran in a small ship, an emergency pod attached to the side.

"Lets get her up." Lance urged Keith to help him. 

Keith obeyed and the boys helped pick Y/N up off on the ground, mangled leg and all. Coran didn't waste any time in starting up the pod with some Altean coding. He cracked no jokes or made any witty remarks. Nothing but a stern, yet panicked, almost sickened look smothering his normally jovial self. If Coran seemed hopeless, there truly wasn't much hope left. 

Coran made a quiet departure and the boys found their way back to the lions and flew to their hangars. The airwaves were now completely silent.