"Nice space garbs." Pidge tugged at her brothers clothes.

"Alright everyone," Shiro began speaking before Matt could passive aggressively dishevel his sisters hair. "We don't have much information on how many Galra there are on Olkarion, nor do we know what kind of reinforcements they have. So, do not engage unless I say so."

Y/N rolled her eyes when Shiro looked right at her. "Y/N, Matt, and Pidge will be the first to head down since the green lion is equipped with cloaking. They'll let us know when it's safe to join them. Once we're on the surface, we do everything to stop Zarkon from getting to that weapon before it's finished. Every second is valuable, everybody got that?"

Everyone nodded.

"Do anything stupid, and I'll kill you." Lance pouted and jabbed Y/N's shoulder.

"Ditto," Keith raised his brows, standing beside Lance. "But, I think Matt would kill her first if she did." He poked the blue paladins shoulder and pointed to the brown haired boy who looked pale and nauseous.

Never before had Matt been so edgy about a mission. Ever since Y/N was taken by Zarkon that day, he'd become high-strung and skittish at the thought of facing the Garla empire. Not just because Y/N could be taken again, or worse, but so could anyone else. Pidge, Shiro, Allura, or any other of his friends. There were so many things that could go wrong, and though he used to ignore them, all he could do was think about them.

"Matt, relax." Shiro placed a firm hand on the rebels shoulder. "Everything is going to be alright, trust me."

The rebel believed that until he, Y/N and Pidge had scanned the planet and found a safe place to land. Pidge seemed uneasy and was scrambling to figure something out. There was an eery silence that made shivers run up Matt's spine, and just outside of the forest they hid within, he could see the large cannon the Olkari were rushing to finish. They all looked completely exhausted, yet terrified at the same time.

"The signal is blocked! I don't understand!" Pidge slammed her fist into her chair.

"Hey, Pidge," Y/N jumped up from her seat beside Matt, sending him a confused glance before latching onto the back of Pidge's chair. Seeing her standing there, gripping the back of the chair was a familiar sight. It reminded him of the day they'd rescued her.

"Slow down, okay?" Y/N tried to calm Pidge but it failed.

"I can't! I've tried everything. Someone or something is intercepting our coms." She pointed to the screen before her eyes which was a jumbled mess of radio waves and numbers that Y/N didn't quite understand.

"So, let's send a manual one." The girl suggested.

"Elaborate." Matt raised a brow, catching Y/N's glance.

"The other rebels would have flares, right? Let me go to them and send one up. Shiro will know what it means."

"Y/N, that's too dangerous." Matt objected quickly.

"How? All of this is dangerous." Y/N walked towards the brown haired boy with her arms crossed. "No Galra in sight, and if there are, they don't know we're here. I'll run through the trees and get to the base without anyone noticing. Then, once the flare is up, meet me there."

Matt was reluctant to agree, but he knew it was the best option. Besides, of all the other options, it seemed the least dangerous. "Alright. Pidge and I will cover you incase anything happens."

"You'd better." She scoffed lightly, a smile breaking on her face which caused the exact same to happen to Matt.

"See you soon." He nodded, tossing her his staff which he had hidden beneath this seat. The moment Y/N caught up, her eyes lit up and she was out the door in the blink of an eye.

Cautiously, Matt and Pidge watched as Y/N sprinted swiftly into the woods, heading in the direction of the rebel base that was lodged between two large mounds of rock. All he hoped was that the others in the base would recognize the hood he'd given her as one of the rebels. If not, things could end very poorly.

"We've got movement at 9 o'clock." One of the rebels from within the base took notice and focused one of the telescopes on the figure running through the woods. "They're human, like Matt." He explained. In sudden curiosity, all of the other rebels in the base fought for a glance of the girl traversing the woods.

"Uhhh guys, sentries just to her left. Take them down." Another rebel commanded, sending everyone to their positions and aiming their cannons.

Y/N skidded to a stop when she heard the creaks and groans of metal shifting. She looked ahead to the base, only to see that the barrels of the cannons were facing her direction. Screaming at them would be futile, so all she could do was keep running forwards, hoping they weren't aiming at her. In a flash of light, the first beam from the cannon broke free and jet past Y/N, blowing her hair in all directions, landing a ways behind her. She looked back to see pieces of sentry blown apart, prompting her to run forwards. At least they were protecting her and not trying to kill her.

"NO!" Matt screamed, running his throat completely raw. The ground around Y/N had exploded and he lost any sight of her. Even when it all settled, she was gone, and the guns stopped firing. From his perspective, there were no sentries in sight or any other threat, so they must've fired on her. Why though? She had the hood and the suit of a paladin of Voltron. Matt got up to leave when Pidge pushed him back down.

"I don't think they fired on her. There might've been sentries. Wait for the flare." She said.

"What if sentries took over the base?!" He squeaked.

"Then you'll be dead too if you go, so don't." Deep down, Pidge knew it had to have been the rebels just protecting her. The blast had landed behind Y/N, she saw it.

When Y/N finally made it to the base, the doors opened before she could knock. A plunder of rebels welcomed her inside, checking her over for injuries and introducing themselves.

"This is the same as Matt's," A rebel mentioned, examining the hood. "Is he dead?"

"No!" Y/N exclaimed. "He's in the woods with the green lion. He sent me to send up a flare because the coms are being blocked somehow."

"It means Zarkon is close. His ships always interfere with our communications." One of the rebels at her computer spoke up. "Olia, show her the flares."

A canine like rebel, obviously the captain, waved for Y/N to follow. She showed her to a box of flares and Y/N took one immediately, heading for the door. "Keep me alive long enough to send this flare, please!"

Y/N was out the door in the blink of an eye and went to climb up one of the large rocks surrounding the base. Inside, the rebels kept a close eye on all of their surroundings, making sure no sentries got close.

"Who is this girl?" Olia asked in disbelief, not having seen Y/N's face anywhere before. She had shown up out of practically nowhere and neither Olia or her fellow rebels had seen Y/N before.

"It must be Matt's girlfriend," One suggested.

Another scoffed. "Girlfriend?!"

"Yeah! He didn't tell you?"

"No!" They shot back.

Olia kicked the back of one of the rebels chairs. "Can we focus on keeping her alive?! She's with Matt, it means she's important."

Once atop the rock, Y/N shot the flare which let out a shrill crackle up into the sky. The bright orange light arced and then dissipated as it fell back down. Almost instantly, the rest of the lions were careening through the atmosphere and towards the surface. They headed straight towards the large canon where the Olkari worked frantically to finish it, shooting down any approaching sentries.

Matt promptly left the green lion and Pidge flew upwards to join her team. The boy ran as fast as he could to the base, meeting Y/N just as she slid down from the rock.

"Told you it'd be ok!" She laughed, running alongside him to the base doors.

"I—thought—they—shot—you down." He said between heavy breaths. "What happened?"

"They were protecting me from the sentries. You've got a good team here." She smiled lightly and then focused forwards, running even quicker.

Inside of the base, Matt received plenty of sly high fives and thumbs up from his fellow rebels, all referring to Y/N. At first, he just smiled and nodded, and then it began to get a little worrisome and embarrassing. What if she saw, or what if one of rebels asked her about him? While Y/N had been missing, he may or may not have let the words 'my girlfriend' pass his lips when talking over the situation with a fellow rebel. Apparently, that news got out to everyone.

"You ok?" Y/N asked, shaking Matt from his thoughts. "You're really red."

Matt knew his face was so red there was no way to play it off. "Sunburn." He randomly blurted without even thinking. Y/N's face scrunched in confusion, trying to think of where he could have possible gotten a sunburn here in space. Luckily for Matt, she forgot about it pretty quick and moved on to help with monitoring Olkarion as Zarkon's ship began to approach.

"You're girlfriend is extremely brave, Matt. And a very valuable asset to the rebellion. I'm glad you were able to get her back." Olia smiled lightly at Matt.

"She's not—" Matt became even more flustered, shifting his weight uncomfortably and blinking more often than he should. "But, yeah, I am too. It wasn't the same without her." He agreed.