There may be some slight gore in this chapter.
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Going on dangerous missions were just a part of being an operative for the Blade of Marmora, everyone knew it and they would throw their lives away if it was for the greater good. Ulaz, Antok and Thace got lucky and survived nearly dying which, in their line of work, was a miracle. Every operative knew that they might die before the universe became a safer place, although sometimes destiny occasionally had other plans. When Regris had to go on another mission with Keith and Kolivan he bid (Y/n) a temporary farewell and she gave him a good-bye hug until they saw each other again, a gesture that made him blush under his mask. The young man sent a glare in Keith's direction when he saw Keith grinning at him, apparently some of the others thought he and (Y/n) were an item considering how close they had become.

When Kolivan, Keith and Regris entered a galra cruiser a few hours later to hopefully get some information about some enriched quintessence they hoped to find what they were looking for. After they'd temporarily split up outside Regris scanned the large ship for sentries, thankfully there didn't seem to be any. He was shocked not to see anyone aboard the cruiser, especially sentries because every cruiser had sentries. Regris ran through the hallways once he entered the large ship until he met up with Keith and Kolivan at their rendezvous point. Kolivan and Keith were confused about the lack of crew, sentries and drones aboard the cruiser; Kolivan wondered if it had been completely abandoned for some reason.

"I completed the sentry scan, there are none on board." Regris told Kolivan before he had time to catch his breath, telling the older man what he'd found out.

"There's no one else here either." Keith added while looking up at the leader of the Blades, a little out of breath after all the running he just did.

"Something's not right here, we should leave." Kolivan spoke firmly; just being in the abandoned cruiser made him feel unnerved, he knew there was something going on.

"We came all this way, we might as well see if we can get any information." Keith pleaded, not wanting to completely waste their mission.

"Very well, but let's make it quick." Kolivan sighed in defeat, agreeing with Keith that they should at least try to recover some data before leaving.

Regris followed Kolivan and Keith to the bridge of the cruiser where most of the information would be stored; there were smaller consoles all around the ship but they didn't have enough time to check on all of them. He could tell that Kolivan was unnerved about something and so was Keith, without any sentries around even he could tell something was off. Cruisers were never completely empty, even if there wasn't a live crew living aboard the ship then there would at least be a crew of sentries. Regris and Keith looked at each other for a moment and even though Regris still wore his mask Keith knew he felt unnerved. Once the three of them arrived on the bridge and opened the door they saw that it was empty, just like the rest of the ship.

"I'll check the logs." Regris said when he ran past Kolivan, ready to quickly hack into the main computer.

"Planting the tracker." Keith spoke as he ran past Kolivan, but in a different direction than Regris.

Kolivan watched as the two younger Blades went to do their tasks, hoping to get the hell out of that cruiser in case it was set to release toxic gas or something. It wasn't the first time the galra empire set up a trap for his men, Zarkon wanted as many Blades dead as possible so he could continue to torment the universe. Kolivan knew exactly how ruthless Zarkon could be when he wanted someone gone, he once had been a part of it until he couldn't take it anymore and founded the Blade of Marmora. Regris ran over to a console and started typing as fast as he could, then the alarm went off and the door to the bridge closed. Kolivan didn't mean to let himself get caught up in his thoughts, luckily the alarm snapped him back to reality.

"I'm locked out of the system!" Regris panicked, trying his best to stop the countdown he accidentally started; if he didn't get it stopped then the whole cruiser would self-destruct with them inside of it.

Keith and Kolivan immediately ran to the door to try and pry it open with their blades; they had to get out of there before they were all killed. Keith was silently panicking as he and Kolivan started to get the door open, the door was incredibly strong but after a few seconds they both finally began to open it. He briefly looked at Regris who was furiously typing at the keyboard in a poor attempt to stop the countdown, unfortunately it was too late and his attempt was in vain. Kolivan had been in near death situations many times during his life, although out of all the things he'd been through never once had he been trapped in a cruiser that was set on self-destruct.

"Attempting to override." Regris called out to his leader and fellow operative, unable to tear himself away from the console.

"It's time to go!" Keith shouted after he and Kolivan finally got the door open.

"Just a few more ticks." Regris said whilst frantically typing at the keyboard; he was the Blade’s best hacker and he refused to let his two teammates die.

Keith didn't want to leave Regris behind, he couldn't because he didn't want to lose his friend, so he tried to run to him so he could grab him and they could leave together. Kolivan already knew that the mission was a failure, he had that inkling feeling since earlier and the countdown was proof of that. Regris continued to type on the keyboard, hoping to stop the cruiser's self-destruct before the whole ship blew up. Honestly, Kolivan didn't necessarily want to leave Regris behind, but he knew better than anyone that sometimes some people couldn't be saved.

"There's no time!" Kolivan spoke as he grabbed Keith, prepared to get out of the cruiser any way possible before all three of them were blown up with it.

"Regris! No!" Keith shouted again when Kolivan began to drag him away; he was his father's son alright, ready to charge into a dangerous situation that could kill him just to save someone's life.

Regris heard Keith yell for him; he wanted to leave, but he just had to stop the self-destruct countdown before it was too late. His heart beat faster in his chest as he tried to stop the countdown with no success, and yet he refused to give up so easily. Kolivan dragged Keith through the long hallways, looking for an exit as quickly as he could after leaving Regris behind to die; if Regris refused to leave the console then it was his choice to die. Suddenly, the cruiser exploded right when Kolivan found an airlock and opened it; the explosion seemed to happen in a split second, then they were floating outside after their masks automatically fizzled into place. At some point during the explosion Regris blacked out and he assumed that he was at the end of his life; no one could survive being inside of a cruiser when it exploded.

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When they initially escaped out of an airlock Kolivan and Keith were separated; Kolivan remained conscious and made it back to their little transport ship, but he decided to wait for Keith to return before leaving because if he didn't then Krolia would kill him for leaving her son behind when she eventually returned from her undercover mission. After Keith woke up a little while later whilst floating around he saw that the cruiser had been completely destroyed, only debris was left behind. A few ticks later he saw the body of Regris floating a few feet away and he used his jetpack to fly over to see if he was alive; technically Regris should have died, and maybe he had, but he refused to leave him behind. To his surprise Regris was still alive, albeit badly injured; the sensory fins on his tail were shredded, he was missing a couple of his fingers and he had a large gash on his left side where he was bleeding really badly. Keith grabbed him and flew to the ship where Kolivan was waiting for him before his oxygen ran out through the hole in his bodysuit; he didn't care if Kolivan got angry again, he wasn't going to leave Regris behind.

"You broke protocol again." Kolivan spoke firmly after Keith entered the small ship with Regris in tow, noticing how much blood was coming from the latter's left side, hands and tail.

"The mission was a bust, there was no point in leaving him here to die." Keith all but snarled whilst glaring up at Kolivan.

"When we get back we need to have a serious talk." Kolivan growled before he went to go sit in the cockpit and start the ship up; he sent a message to Ulaz in the process, asking him to prepare the infirmary.

Keith groaned as he sat on the floor after he carefully sat his teammate nearby; he'd only temporarily gone unconscious during the explosion, at least he wasn't in bad shape. Regris was surprisingly still breathing after what happened, the other young man was lucky to have survived; he was also bleeding all over the place, Keith hoped that he wouldn't bleed to death before they returned to the main headquarters. Keith hoped Kolivan would get back to the base as quickly as possible, otherwise Regris would undoubtedly die from blood loss. The paladin turned Blade remembered how (Y/n) befriended Regris, he knew that she would be worried about him when she heard about what happened to him. Keith smiled slightly when he thought about Regris and (Y/n) getting into a relationship together, even though they didn't seem like a likely match he thought they were kind of good together; until they arrived at the main headquarters, he needed to make sure Regris survived.