Ember felt two hands gently resting on her shoulders, shaking her lightly as a voice called out; "Emberson, wake up. Ember, come on, we've got to find out what happened."

   "Just five more minutes," Ember murmured, her brain pounding against her skull. It was probably when she knocked her head against the console. 

   "You got to stay awake, Em, we don't know if you have a concussion." Shiro grunted in pain as Ember's eyes fluttered open slowly. 

Everything around her was blurry for a good minute before her vision cleared. "Shiro," Ember murmured, eyes going to the side he was holding. "You're injured. . .Let me just-"

   "You need to stay down just for a little bit," Shiro demanded, flinching as he went to stand. "I'll find the mini kit,"

While Shiro went to find the kit - Ember glanced around at where she laid. She wasn't far from the pilot chair. She was actually to the left of it, next to a console where she most likely hit her head. It throbbed at the reminder.

   "Here it is," Shiro handed it to Ember. "Just finish wrapping it up, that's all we can do for the moment," 

Ember grunted in disagreement but nonetheless finished wrapping the wound. When she tied it off, Shiro got to his feet and helped Ember up. The world tilted for a bit before the two of them started to make there way out of the Black Lion.

   "Keith, are you there? Keith?" Shiro asked through coms, Ember wincing at the feedback. "We've got to get to higher ground,"

   "We're not going to make it to higher ground as  easily as you just said," Ember pointed out. "You're still clutching your wound and I'm still a bit. . .dizzy."

   "It's the only chance we have to get in contact with Keith," Shiro countered, starting to make his way down the lion. 

   "Something doesn't feel right," Ember muttered, looking around the area before following her leader. It took them a while to actually get to high ground, Ember kept stumbling and Shiro kept flinching to a stop. 

But what else could they do but walk higher up?

When they were at least even with the Black Lions' wing, Shiro stopped walking and looked up at the top of the cavern. "Keith. I'm here. Keith." Shiro suddenly groaned, crashing into the rocks and sliding down. "Keith. Keith, I'm here. I'm okay."

   "Bullshit," Ember hissed, crouching down next to him. "You are far from okay!"

   "Yeah," Shiro chuckled. "Ember's here too." There was another pause before Shiro looked down at his wound. It glowed purple underneath the white bandages, but Ember really couldn't tell what was wrong. Magic wasn't her strong suite, at all. 

   "It takes more than a glowing alien wound, a fall from the upper atmosphere, crashing into a hard pan surface at what I'm guessing is about twenty-five meters per second squared, and Ember's constant nagging, to get rid of me."

   "My nagging will save your life one day," Ember shot back. "Watch it." She suddenly leaned in close. "Wait, Keith, how are you?! Are you hurt?"

   "He says he's physically fine, but his lion's busted." Shiro communicated before responding to Keith. "It's nothing."

Ember closed her eyes in frustration as Shiro groaned again in pain. "Why can't I do anything?!"

   "Don't beat yourself up," Shiro started, stopping abruptly at the sound of growling. Ember's eyes snapped open. 

   "Did you. . .?"

   "Yeah. . ."

The two paladins turned towards the Black Lion, where the growling was coming from, and paused at the sight. 

There were purple scaly creatures crawling all over the lion on four legs, sharp claws on each paw. They had a long tail with sharp points as well, and two tusk-like teeth growing out of their mouths. 

   "On second thought, you'd better hurry," Shiro responded to Keith as quiet as he could. "There's several creatures," 

Ember pushed herself to stand, wobbling slightly as Shiro also stood up. They backed up from the lion, only for Ember to let out a squeak as something touched her back. It snarled threateningly behind her. 

   "Shiro-!"

The monster roared and stalked closer. Ember didn't even look behind her to know that the other monsters were heading their way. Shiro and her were back to back, making sure to keep an eye on them. 

   "Ember, go!" Shiro commanded, grabbing the girls' arm and shoving her down the rock wall. She let out a yell of surprise, stumbling down the side while Shiro slid down behind her. 

The Black Paladin easily passed Ember, heading towards a hole in the wall that was big enough for the two of them, and not the creatures. 

Shiro let out a grunt as he threw himself into the wall, Ember closely behind as the small cave crumbled around them.

   "Keith, are you okay? What happened?" Shiro asked. There was a pause before Shiro replied, "We're all right, but we're trapped in a cave, and some nasty-looking creatures have us cornered."

Ember let out a yelp as the creature started to head-butt the rocks, causing little pebbles to fall around them. "I want a vacation, just a day to myself without the world trying to kill me," Ember stated, flinching as the creatures moved some rocks. 

   "That really stayed with you, didn't it?" Shiro remarked. Ember glanced over in confusion and realized Shiro was talking to Keith. "Yeah. You wouldn't have crashed a flying lion on an alien planet and be stuck with little hope of rescue. So, you're welcome," He coughed harshly. 

   "Shiro!" Ember hissed, uncurling herself from her ball and stretching herself out to glance at the wound. "You should have at least let me look at the wound before I wrapped it!"

   "That wouldn't have - Keith? Keith?!"

   "I can't take care of the both of you!" Ember cried out, planting her face into her hands. "Don't get hurt as well!"

   "Keith said not to worry," Shiro huffed, watching the creatures in front of him. "You might want to hurry, because these guys just started digging."

   "Just don't look, you'll be fine. Just don't look, everything's alright," Ember murmured to herself, closing her eyes at the sound of claws scratching stone. "Don't- AHH!"

   "Ember!" 

The teams' medic felt the creature's teeth sink into her ankle, pain blooming in her leg. With one great tug, Ember was thrown out of the make-shift cave and into the air. She opened her mouth to scream, but the air seem to have left her lungs before she hit a rocky wall behind her. 

She swore she heard something crack in her body. Whether it was because her head hit the wall again or she cracked a rib, she couldn't tell. What she could tell, was that she most definitely had a concussion now.

   "Shiro," Ember slurred out, hearing Shiro's scream as soon as she managed to get up on all fours. "I think I have a concussion,"

   "Now you think you do?!" Shiro exclaimed, let out a grunt as he slashed at a creature, groaning in pain after the action. 

The two Shiro's that Ember could see was hit off the cliff and started to roll down. She huffed, watching half the creatures run after Shiro and the others stay with her. 

   "I love Shiro, I really do, but why couldn't you just have went with them?" Ember mumbled, plopping herself down on her butt. "I. . .Don't even have my armor."

The creatures roared, as if responding, and slashed a claw towards the young girl. She ducked, covering her head and tried to get up to run. "Shit!" 

Her injured foot gave out from under her, and she turned just in time to see another claw poised to strike. With a grunt, she held her arms up and managed to make her rainbow shield to appear. This gave her a chance to look at her wound, but she sight made her gulp loudly. 

Since she didn't have her armor on, the creatures' teeth sunk right into her leg and probably all the way to her bone. It was also at an awkward angle, leading her to believe that's where the crack came from. 

   "I'm so dead," She muttered, letting out a whimper as more claws struck her shield. "No. . .I just gotta suck it up," She gritted her teeth, trying to ignore the doubles she was seeing, and threw her arms out. 

The shield that she had up flew forwards, and knocked the creatures away from her. The light didn't disappear until the two creatures hit the rock wall on the other side of the canyon. "Take that you shits!" Ember cheered, starting to mumbled to herself in French. 

   "Ember!"

   "Huh?" The said girl rolled her head to look up, seeing two Keith's running at her. "Keith! Oh, you're okay! Shiro really isn't doing great though, and I need help walking!" 

Keith glanced at the Black Lion, towards a cornered Shiro, and an injured and delirious Ember. "Em, can you just sit here for a little bit?"

   "Sure," Ember hummed, eyes getting heavy. "I'm just going to take a quick nap though,"

   "No naps!" Keith retorted quickly, running over to the Black Lion. Ember pouted at the thought of not having a nap, watching Keith as he placed a hand on the lions' nose and started talking to him. Nothing happened at first, but Ember's eyes popped open in shock as the Black Lion willingly let Keith pilot him. 

   "Why do I feel like this is going to be a major change?" Ember whispered to herself. 

▬ ✦✧✦ ▬

Ember sat in between Shiro and Keith, staring into the fire with a dull expression. Her foot was wrapped the best they could, but Ember refused to treat herself until she did a check up on both Keith and Shiro. 

The sun was starting to set in front of them, while the Red and Black Lions were standing behind them. 

   "Thanks for saving me," Shiro said. 

   "You'd have done the same for me," Keith responded, looking down at Ember. "Both of you. How are your guys wounds?"

   "My foot went numb a while back," Ember spoke softly. "It isn't a good thing, but I prefer that to the pain. For once."

   "My wound's great. It's getting bigger all the time." Shiro tried to joke. Seeing the look on the others' face, he added, "Just trying to lighten the mood."

   "Hang in there. When Allura and Coran find us, they'll fix you guys right up." Keith reassured. 

   "Oh, I get to go into a healing pod," Ember hummed. "Wonder what dreams a wait me in there."

   "Keith, if I don't make it out of here. . ."

   "Don't say that!"

   "I want you to lead Voltron."

Keith looked flabbergasted, Ember mirroring his face before he spoke in a rushed tone. "Stop talking like that. You're gonna  make it."

Shiro smiled at the two younger kids, just as a bright blue light lit up the world in front of them. Ember hissed in surprised, clenching her eyes shut as her headache got worse from the bright light. 

   "See?" Keith grinned, standing up. "You're going to be fine. Both of you."

▬ ✦✧✦ ▬

   "Explain to me how you let Voltron escape," Zarkon's cold, calculated voice echoed throughout the throne room. Mjör stood on Zarkon's left, just in front of the stairs that lead up to the throne. Haggar was to his right, watching the two Galra generals with narrowed yellow eyes. 

   "Perhaps it was a mechanical failure, sire," Prorok suggested. "Haggar boosted the solar barrier's power beyond its normal limits."

   "Now, now," Mjör tutted, wiggling his fingers as they started to change into their iridescent hue. "Don't go trying to push the blame on someone else, Prorok, you're suppose to be above those childish actions."

   "This was no mechanical failure." Haggar took over. "The two sentries that were guarding the barrier control were found destroyed. This was clearly sabotage."

   "Lord Zarkon, I will start an investigation immediately," Prorok announced. "I will not rest until the perpetrators are captured."

   "Perhaps I can save months of investigating." Zarkon offered in a low tone. "Who has been trying to chisel Voltron away from me this entire time? Who sent his fleet out without my orders to get Voltron?"

   "Sire, no! I - I would never do that." 

   "Get rid of him."

   "No! I'm innocent!" 

   "And Lord Zarkon is blind," Mjör replied with a grin. 

   "Before we dispose of him, the druids will find out all that he knows." Haggar informed Zarkon. "Then, he will receive a punishment worse than death."

   "After Mjör has his fun with him," Zarkon compromised, eyes narrowing on the other Galra kneeling. "Lieutenant Thace. . .You are now in charge of the investigation, Commander."

   "Vrepit sa."

Mjör watched as the new Galra commander saluted before walking out of the throne room. His fingers stopped their fidgeting as he turned towards Zarkon and saluted. 

   "You wished to talk to me after Commander Thace's new position?"

   "Yes," Zarkon began. "I need you to get your squadron ready. If things go as I plan them to, you will need to get ready for another family reunion." 

   "Of course, sire," Mjör bowed. "Daca vrei."