The New Paladin

72: Beyond the Darkness

Keith growled lowly to himself as he ran after Lance. Curse Lance's long limbs.

"Lance, answer me right now!" He demanded his frown deepening.

"Lance isn't here right now, please leave a message after the beeeep!" Lance replied and Keith wanted to punch him.

"What does that- would you stop running?"

"No, nope, if I stop now then I'll never do anything ever again in my entire life." Lance stated.

"What do you mean?"

"I'm conquering my fears." Lance snapped.

"Not like this Lance, please." Hunk's voice chipped in.

"You can't stop-" Lance's voice cut off followed by sudden static.

"Lance, answer us." Pidge said sharply. "Lance?"

"Come on buddy." Hunk said quietly.

Keith slowed his running and then came to a stop, he had lost sight of Lance quite early on but he had hoped that when the trees thinned he would be able to see him.

But no.

Lance was nowhere in sight.

"Guys, I can't see him." Keith said turning trying to spot Lance anywhere.

"I haven't got him on my scanners either." Pidge stated.

"How? How could he just disappear?" Lotor growled.

"With Lance, anythings possible." Hunk sighed. "Now we have to find him."

Keith nodded to himself and turned to return to their group when a blue glow appeared from the air around him.

"Nope!" He shouted jumping out of the way.

A bright glowing object appeared where he was once standing.

"Keith, you okay?" Pidge asked.

Keith blinked at it. It was a wolf, they used to live at the farthest reaches of the universe.

How had Haggar caught one?

"Watch your backs, Haggar might be here." Keith warned as he pulled his knife out. "One of her experiments is here."

"Did it get Lance?"

"I don't know." Keith said shaking his head. "But right now I've got my own problems."

The wolf growled at him, glowing blue eyes that threatened to kill him. Keith wasn't going to let this creature tear him apart.

But as he watched, waiting for the creature to make its move, he noticed all the machinery strapped to it.

It looked painful.

"You guys work on finding Lance." Keith ordered as he twisted his knife in his hand. "Let me handle this."

"Not on your own." Kolivan said firmly, the type of voice that a few months ago he would have followed.

But as the black paladin now...

"Protect the others." Keith growled back. "I can handle this."

The wolf let out a growl and then launched.

Keith twisted his body and slashed at the strange machine on its side.

The creature howled in pain and rolled before laying still.

Keith, slightly panicked that he had actually killed it, rushed towards the dangerous creature.

He made quick work of the harness which held the machinery in place.

The wolf was mostly unharmed which was a relief. Perhaps this was one thing he could rescue from the war that surrounded them.

A small whimper made Keith's gaze lift. Then his helmet was being knocked off and he was pinned to the floor.

He was greeted with a soft growl before the wolf was moving off him and standing by his side.

"Okay, so that happened." Keith grumbled as he got up.

"Hold, I've found another paladin."

Several Galran's lifted their blasters to aim for him.

Keith summoned his blade and let it grow into a sword. "I've been spotted." He informed but then remembered that his helmet lay a few feet behind him. "Oh great."

The wolf next to him gave a high howl before blue danced around it. With a flash Keith was stumbling and tripping over his own feet.

He turned to find they are back with with blades and the other paladins.

"Whoa, whoa." He said holding his hands up at the others who had clearly jumped with his arrival.

"Keith... Where did you find him?" Pidge breathed in pure awe as she knelt in front of the wolf.

He seemed quite happy about it.

"This is the thing that attacked us." Keith explained. "I released him from Haggar's machinery."

"He's so cool." Hunk smiled. "Did you find Lance? Where's your helmet?"

"I ran into some Galran's, I think they have Lance."

"Great so now this is also a rescue mission." Pidge sighed. "Do I need to call Allura in?"

"Perhaps." Keith nodded. "Ask Coran to try and pinpoint Lance too."

"Alright." Kolivan said as he patted the wolf's head. "What is your plan?"

Keith gave a small smirk. "Time to use their own base against them."

~~~

Lance groaned as a bright light opened in front of him. Wow he had a headache.

He was pushed forwards into a tight cell with lots of people packed in.

Several hands caught him and helped him to find his feet. The stun blast was slowly wearing off and now Lance realised his hands were cuffed.

And he was in a cell.

Perfect.

"You're a paladin. He's a paladin." Several Puigians said as they all stared at him.

Lance winced as he glanced around. "Okay, so this is new."

Around the top of the cell was open and guards were stationed along the top watching the prisoners below.

"Paladin, are you here to rescue us?" A small Puigian asked as they grabbed ahold of his arm.

Lance slowly knelt down. "Let go of my arm for a second."

The Puigian let go and Lance brought his cuffed hands down on his knee and the metal shattered.

"Whoa." The kid breathed.

"Yeah it helps when you have a metal knee cap." Lance admitted. "Where are we?"

"In a holding cell."

"Yeah got that, how many guards?"

"4 usually, they patrol almost constantly."

Lance nodded as he stood back up. "This is going to be a lot harder with the armour on."

"What are you going to do?" An older Puigian asked with a groan as Lance started pulling his armour off.

"I'm gonna make some noise." Lance grinned.