Nyle POV

After we had left Olkarion, we immediately contacted the Atlas to regroup with them.

"Go ahead, Allura," Shiro said once the crew was on the bridge of the ship.

"Atlas, we've managed to track down an Altean robeast," Allura spoke.

"You found one!" Coran exclaimed.

"Where is it? Did you engage the creature?" Shiro asked.

"Unfortunately, we were too late. It attacked the Olkari and stole the remains of the weaponized cube," Allura continued.

"Is Olkarion ok?" Coran asked.

"No, Olkarion is gone. It was, basically, dead when we got there," I said.

"No," Coran whispered.

"The loss of Olkarion is devastating to us all, but we were able to acquire some vital information," Allura spoke. 

"We learned from Olkarion that the robeasts have been traveling via wormhole, which leaves behind unique energy signatures," Keith spoke. "Pidge and Nyle created a program that can identify those signatures and pinpoint their exact locations."

"We're sending over the readings from their program now," Allura said.

"Are you telling us these are all robeasts?" Coran asked.

"We're not positive, but they could be," Pidge replied.

"There's more. After studying the map, we noticed the signatures all radiate from a single epicenter: Oriande," Allura said.

"Wait, so Honerva could be on Oriande?" Coran questioned. "But I thought only worthy Alteans could get there. Could she have the mark of the chosen?"

"There's a lot we don't know. We need to rendezvous to come up with a plan," Keith spoke.

"The Baltuf Nebula would make a good rendezvous point for both of us," Coran spoke.

"Send us the coordinates, Coran," Keith replied. "See you soon,"

We signed off and headed for the nebula. I leaned back in my seat, taking the time to relax a little. I took off my helmet and fixed my hair because I noticed it was falling from the bun I put it in.

I looked over when I heard my dashboard beep and I looked to see a video call from Hunk. I smiled and laughed softly. "Well hey there, can I help you with something?"

"I'm just asking if you're alright. You seemed a little off for a couple of days," He spoke.

"I'm fine, Hunk. I'm just a little tired is all," I replied.

"Are you sure? You don't feel sick right?" He asked.

I laughed and shake my head. "No, I'm fine Hunk. We've just been out here non-stop for a few days. I'm sure you're tired too."

"Yeah, a little. I just wanted to check on you. I mean we usually don't have these kinds of talks anymore. Because we don't have any time," He said.

"I know, and I hate it. I like talking to you. You're my other half, I need you right?" I said with a smile.

He smiled back at me and let out a little laugh. "Yeah, I guess you do. And I need you."

"Anyway, you think that we'll get back soon now that we have some good information?" I asked.

"I really hope so. I wanna go back home," He replied.

I put my helmet back on as we got back to our mission. We got an incoming call from Shiro and answered.

"Hey, Shiro, is something wrong?" Keith asked.

"We've had some technical problems. We're gonna have to change the rendezvous point," Shiro responded.

"Oh, ok. Where to?" Keith asked.

"It's not far from us. Here are the coordinates. We'll see you soon," Shiro said before logging off.

"Um, alright. Team, let's start heading in that direction," Keith said.

We started heading in the direction of the planet, soon coming up to where it was.

"Coming up on the rendezvous point, straight ahead," Pidge said.

We landed on the planet and looked around.

"Anyone find it odd that Shiro changed the rendezvous point to this?" Hunk questioned.

"I'm reading high CO2 and low oxygen in the atmosphere," Pidge said. "We'll need our suits to breathe if we go out there."

"I'm not going out there," Hunk added.

There was a beeping noise as I turned forward.

"They're here," Keith said as the Atlas came down. "Atlas, we have a visual."

The ship then suddenly uncloaked into a Galra cruiser. "Paladins, get airborne immediately! This is a trap!" Keith shouted as we started flying away.

The tractor beam activated, pushing us down to the ground and not allowing us to get up.

"It's just like when we were caught by those pirates!" Hunk exclaimed.

"We're about to be captured again!" Lance shouted.

"Emergency ejection!" Keith shouted as we all jumped out of the head of our lions. 

We started running as a fighter flew out and shot at us.

"Atlas, come in!" Allura yelled.

"Atlas, we're under heavy fire!" Keith shouted.

"The Atlas isn't receiving our communications!" Pidge exclaimed.

The fighters kept shooting as we made our way into some kind of forest, the fighters flying right over us.

"That beam has the lions pinned," Hunk said.

"We must have been set up. But by whom?" Allura asked.

I scanned the area, trying to find some way out of this before picking up something coming at us. "Hey, we got incoming and it's coming at a fast rate."

It suddenly came at us with a beeping noise before shooting at us. We immediately ran off and tried to shake it. 

"We need to lose it!" Hunk shouted.

"Isn't there anything we can do to throw it off our scent?" Lance questioned.

"Yeah, I've got an idea, but I need a minute," Pidge replied.

"I'll buy you some time," Hunk adds before forming his bayard and shooting some mini-guns on the surrounding trees.

Lance followed suit and started shooting at the drone. I formed my bow and started shooting arrows at it.

"Got it! It shouldn't be able to detect us anymore," Pidge said as we stopped shooting at it.

"Then let's get out of here!" Lance exclaimed as it started flying by us.

It stopped before suddenly shooting at us again. We yelled before starting to run again.

"Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!" Hunk yelled as we all hid behind a couple of ledges.

"I need something to draw its attention!" Keith shouts.

"I've got it!" Allura replied before running and cutting down a tree, causing it to stop firing. Keith threw his bayard at the drone and destroyed it.

We all walked over and stood with him. "Huh, good job, Keith," Lance praised. "I mean, I was just about to do that, too, but it's cool."

"I think I can hack into it," I spoke up before walking over, scanning it before getting into the software of the drone and doing another scan of the inside.

"This is Galra tech, but it looks like it's been infused with Olkari elements," I said after a moment. "The subatomic micro-filament is single modulated before it goes through its attenuator."

"So it's pretty amazing, huh?" Hunk said.

"Yeah," Pidge replied.

"Oh, look at that, it's single modulated, not double modulated. Huh," Hunk said sarcastically from that argument we had about modulating.

"Oh, shut up, Hunk!" Pidge exclaimed, annoyed which caused me to laugh.

"Anyway, this thing has been locking onto our key encryption protocol that's built into our suits and bayards," I continued.

"How did they get that?" Keith asked.

"That, that I have no idea. Only like, a super-genius could do this," I replied.

"Can't we just turn our suits off?" Lance questioned.

"Negative. If the drone had our encryption protocol, then so does that cruiser and anyone on it," Pidge said. "If we want to avoid detection, we need to lose our suits and our bayards."

"Remove our armor? In this place?" Allura questioned.

"Has anyone read the atmosphere?" Hunk questioned. "Oxygen low, CO2 high. We're not gonna last long. A few hours tops. We need our suits to survive."

"Yeah, at this point, we'll survive longer without them," Keith adds.

"So, keep our suits on and risk getting blasted, or take our suits off and live long enough before dying from poisoned air," Lance spoke.

We eventually disposed ourselves of our suits and started making a plan. Keith had left his suit on and went in a different direction while we went to go find our lions.

"Are we sure the lions are this way?" Pidge asked.

"Every direction looks the same," Hunk replied.

"Oh, what I'd give for a GPS right now," Pidge mumbled.

"We cannot allow ourselves to panic," Allura spoke. "Clearly, we've relied on our tech far too much. We need to focus if we're going to get out of here."

We all stopped as Allura stared in front of us and I thought she would do something but she slumped down. "Okay, I'm lost."

"What do we do?" Hunk asked.

"Our lions are that way," Lance said, pointing to his left.

"How do you know?" Pidge asked. "Do you have a scanner you've been hiding?"

"No. I just looked at the volcano," Lance simply replied. "It was on our left when we came in, so I put it to our right side, and that's the way out."

"You're a genius!" Allura exclaimed.

"Oh, snap! Well done, Lance," Hunk said.

"You did good buddy," I added and hit his back.

"Well, let's not get ahead of ourselves," Pidge said. 

"Hey!" Lance shouted.

We suddenly got shot at and ran off, hiding behind some rocks.

"More drones?" Allura questioned.

"No. Look!" Lance exclaimed as a bunch of pirates came from the branches.

We started running again before the ground under us collapsed and we fell. I saw hunk and Pidge fall together while Allura and Lance took another route. And I was all by myself! Could this get any worse?

I landed and winced as I stood up, noticing that something had cut my arm on the way down. It wasn't bleeding too bad but it hurt like hell and it could easily get infected from this atmosphere. I started running when I heard a sound coming from the top. 

I ran towards the outside before falling, coughing. I was running out of air and I already knew my arm was getting infected by how numb it was becoming. I heard a voice and got up, running into a thorn hedge to hide and try to think of a plan. 

When I heard footsteps getting closer, I threw a rock at the pirate before jumping out and kicking him in the face. It caused him to fall over and drop his gun so I quickly wrapped him up in the thorny vines and backed up.

I looked up when I heard a noise and smiled at seeing the Atlas. I laughed some before coughing and bent over, wheezing slightly. I looked at my arm and noticed it was bleeding more and becoming worse. "Fuck...this is bad."

I looked up again when I heard a blast and saw the Galra cruiser crashing into the planet. Eventually, the Atlas landed and we were all taken back to the ship.

I held onto my arm and took a deep breath when I finally got oxygen into my system. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Hunk running towards me.

I looked at him and smiled. "Hey, you're alright."

"Nyle! What happened to your arm?! Are you okay?" Hunk shouted as he took hold of my arm.

I winced and pulled my arm away. "I'm fine, Hunk. I just, scratched it when I fell is all. It just needs to be disinfected."

A medic came to my side and checked over my arm. "It needs stitches towards the top. Whatever cut you got deeper towards the end."

I winced a little more and pursed his lips. "Great, just want I needed."

The medic quickly got done with my arm and I sat down, Hunk still giving me that worried look. I smiled at him and laughed. "I'm fine you big baby. It's only a little scratch anyway. How are you guys?"

"Oh, we're fine. But, that looked really nasty, Ny," Hunk replied as everyone else came over.

"Are you alright, Nyle? We noticed the injury on your arm," Allura added.

I laughed and rolled my eyes, leaning back on the wall. "I'm okay, geez, I'm not gonna die."

"We're still worried about you though," Pidge said, sitting down next to me.

I smiled and ruffled her hair a little bit. "I'm alright, don't worry. Where's Keith? Did he not come with any of you?"

"We thought he was already here. But they went out looking for him," Lance said, worrying me.

"Wait, he's not back yet? Nobody knows where he is?" I asked.

"I'm afraid not, but they should be back soon," Allura said.

And almost right as she said that a group walked back in and I saw Keith with them. And, so was Zethrid. I ignored it for now and went over to him before punching him in the shoulder. "Don't you ever stray off from us again Keith. You got that?"

He laughed some and rubbed his shoulder. "Yeah, sure. Wait, what happened to your arm?"

I sighed and shake my head. "I just had a nasty fall. I'm fine."

He didn't respond for a bit before sighing. "Whatever you say."

A couple of hours went by and we were all settling down, recovering from that mishap. I laid on the bed of Keith and I's room, staring at the photo in my locket of us and Mereida when she was about four months old. 

I missed her a lot and we haven't even been gone that long. But it was the longest time I had been away from my baby.

I heard the door open and I looked over, seeing Keith come in before closing the door. "How's your arm?"

"It feels better, but it's just the throbbing that gets annoying," I responded.

He laid next to me and wrapped his arm around me. "You want me to get some ice for it?"

"Nah, I'm alright. I'll manage," I said.

He noticed the locket and smiled softly. "You're missing her too huh?"

I hum and nod while leaning my head on his shoulder. "Yeah, a lot. This is the longest I've been away from her. And I hate it, not being there with her."

"I know how you feel. But, just think that after this is over, we'll have her whole life to be with her."

I smiled at that and laughed softly. "Yeah, we will." I yawned and put the locket back around my neck.

"If you're tired you can go to sleep. I'll still be here," Keith suggested.

"Promise I'll see you as soon as I wake up?" I questioned.

I heard him laugh as I closed my eyes. "Cross my heart and hope to die."