#Rubble Removal Cape Town | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

scattered-winter · 1 year ago

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part 2 :]

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“They’re going to be okay,” Hunk said from behind Keith.

Keith felt his shoulders bunch. “You don’t know that.”

Hunk didn’t reply, and the only sound for the next hour was their scuffing footsteps and Shiro’s ragged breathing.

Ahead, Keith caught sight of old structures; a half-crumbled city wall, old buildings leaning haphazardly against each other like friends leaving a bar, a few scattered watchtowers around the town’s edge jutting toward the sky like grave markers.

He glanced back, met Hunk’s wary gaze. The boy gave a half-shrug, glancing down at Shiro.

They pressed on, as the dirt path gave way to a cracked cobbled road weaving between two crumbling watchtowers and into the town proper.

“Does anything look like a pharmacy to you?” Hunk’s voice was somber as they passed through what had once been the main road; buildings lined their path on either side, broken down and rotting like old corpses.

“It’s…hard to tell,” Keith admitted. There were no visible signs, and even if there had been, they were probably too faded to read.

The scent of Grimm hung in the air, cloying and foul, but it was old, faded. This town was long abandoned even by the monsters that had destroyed it.

Unlike the other villages they’d seen, there were no rotting bodies in the streets, no bright splashes of blood, no fresh tang of smoke from recent fires. This town had been ashes for a very, very long time.

But Keith caught glimpses of white bone among the piles of rubble, and he swallowed thickly and turned back to the road ahead.

“Lance really didn’t want to come here, did he?” Hunk asked quietly.

Keith sighed, remembering the way Lance’s entire body had stiffened at the sight of the town’s name. “No. He didn’t.”

“Do you…know why?”

“…I have a few ideas.”

They kept walking in silence, their boots stirring up clouds of dust and clumps of Grimm residue that had been gathering undisturbed on the cobblestone path probably since the town’s destruction. They were likely the first people to walk that road in at least ten years, maybe more.

A good sign. If there was a pharmacy somewhere, it was less likely to have already been raided by previous travelers. It wasn’t much, but it was something—a tiny glimmer of hope when Keith had absolutely nothing else to hang onto.

Before long, they reached what must have once been the town’s center; the roads all met at a single point in the center—a wide courtyard with a massive, gnarled tree growing in the very middle.

“We should split up to search the buildings,” Keith suggested. “We’ll go through them faster that way.” The town was small enough that they would be nearby if the other ran into trouble; and though Keith didn’t want to leave Shiro alone, he knew there wasn’t much choice in the matter.

Hunk didn’t argue. He just helped prop Shiro up against the tree trunk, even removing his cape to wrap around Shiro like a blanket and tucking it in around his body. Shiro barely responded to the movement or the tender touch; his eyelids fluttered, and his expression was pulled into a tight, pained frown.

“Don’t go, Adam,” he whispered, voice tremulous, and Keith’s heart twisted painfully.

He reached out, gave Shiro’s hand a squeeze. “I’ll be right back. Promise.”

Keith stepped back, gave Hunk a grim nod. “Stay close, and yell if you need help.”

“You, too.” Hunk hesitated before taking off down the street at a light jog.

Keith turned and started heading in the opposite direction, scanning the buildings as he went by. He poked his head into any building that looked promising, but found nothing but dilapidated rubble and the foul slime of Grimm residue, clumped with dust and age.

Before long he’d searched every building on his side of the town, and Keith turned to head back toward the center with a frustrated sigh. Hopefully Hunk had had more luck.

He met up with Hunk as the other boy had been turning to head toward the center, too.

“Anything?” Hunk’s eyes lit up with hope, looking Keith up and down like he’d somehow stuffed an entire pharmacy’s worth of supplies inside his cloak.

Keith shook his head, swallowing down his frustration. “No. The entire place is empty. You?”

“Nothing,” Hunk sighed. For a moment he looked like he wanted to sit down in the middle of the road and burst into tears.

Then he forced a grim smile and nodded to Keith. “We should get back to Shiro.”

They found Shiro in much of the same state as they’d left him—leaning against the tree, breathing shallow and ragged, expression creased with pain and exhaustion.

He mumbled something under his breath as Keith and Hunk approached; Keith could just make out Adam and Matt’s names, and even his own once or twice.

Keith knelt and began fussing over him, adjusting his blanket and checking his smoking bandages again. The infection was spreading, streaking his pale skin with curdling black tendrils, and Keith sighed and replaced the bandaging.

He’d never seen a Grimm infection progress this far before. Of course, usually when a huntsman was wounded by Grimm, medical attention was quickly and easily accessible. But when they were trekking through the wilderness outside the kingdoms…

They’d been fools to come out here. For all of Keith’s pragmatism, he’d been a naive fool for believing this was possible. Shiro must have thought so, too—why else would he have followed them, tried to keep them safe? And now he was paying the price for Keith’s impulsive foolishness.

In the distance, something roared—long and low, echoing through the mountains like a wolf’s call. Grimm.

Hunk snapped into a defensive position, his exoskeleton armor lighting up gold in preparation to slide into place.

“It’s far off,” Keith said quietly, not moving from Shiro’s side.

Hunk didn’t relax. “I know,” he said grimly. “But Lance and Allura are still out there.”

Keith squeezed his eyes shut. He knew Lance and Allura were both perfectly capable of handling themselves, but that didn’t stop the worry from curdling in his gut. They’d never faced a challenge like this before, and Keith couldn’t handle losing one more person.

He didn’t bother saying they would be okay out there by themselves, and Hunk didn’t say it, either. They were both too smart for empty promises.

________________________________________

The mountain path took them up and up and up, over rocky ridges and narrow passes that Lance had to turn sideways and shimmy through to traverse. Allura probably could have used her glyphs to leap above the piles of rock, but she chose to walk beside Lance, clambering over boulders and accepting his hand to pull herself up on occasion.

Whether she was too tired to exert her aura for glyphs or didn’t want to leave Lance behind was unclear, but Lance was grateful regardless. It was hard to keep morale up when his travel companion was leaping around like a gazelle.

Lance’s legs burned by the time they reached the top of the first mountain, and he was grateful when Allura stopped to look over the landscape below. She’s tied her silver hair up into a bun to keep the wind from blowing it into her face, but her cape fluttered behind her as she swept her gaze over the trees below.

He stepped up beside her, taking the chance to rest his legs and get a visual on their surroundings.

There was nothing but the tops of trees for as far as he could see. Lance strained his eyes, looking for campfire smoke or the roofs of buildings—anything indicative of life—but found none.

“Are you all right?”

Lance jumped at the sound of Allura’s voice—neither of them had spoken nearly the entire way up the mountain. She was looking at him, brows furrowed in concern, blue eyes reflecting the gray of the overcast sky.

He sighed, crossed his arms. “I’m fine.”

Allura said nothing, but arched a single, perfect brow.

Lance sighed, crossed his arms behind his head. “Really, ‘Llura. I’m fine.” As long as he never had to step foot in that town again, he’d be just peachy.

But then there was the knowledge that Keith and Hunk were there, probably right this second.

Lance pushed the thought away like it had burned him. They would be okay. Hunk was a veritable badass, and Keith was—well, Keith was Keith. He’d make it through whatever Grimm or bandit or other obstacle threw itself at him, because he always did.

Allura seemed to track every expression that crossed his face, and her own expression dimmed by a fraction. “You’re worried about them.”

Lance sighed again, stepped away from the edge to continue down the road—there was nothing for them there, anyway. “Yeah. I am. I mean, I know Keith and Hunk can handle themselves, but Shiro…”

Allura sighed, falling into step beside him. “He’ll be all right,” she said quietly, though she seemed to be trying to convince herself just as much as Lance. “He isn’t called one of the greatest huntsmen of our generation for nothing; he’s likely faced worse than this before.”

“Yeah.” Lance tried to smile at her—if his attempt looked as strained as it felt, Allura didn’t point it out, for which he was grateful.

They fell into a comfortable—if tense—silence as they continued. The path opened up in front of them; a yawning cave mouth sat to one side, leading into the depths of the mountain.

Allura jogged forward, stopping to peer into the cave. “Lance, I can feel wind.”

“What?” Lance frowned and stepped up beside her.

Sure enough, a cold, bitter wind was blowing from the cave. Lance’s muscles tensed instinctively at the foul stench of decay and death, and Allura’s hand moved to rest on the hilt of her sword.

“Do you think this leads to the peak?” Lance’s voice was low, one hand twitching toward his bow slung over one shoulder.

Allura just shrugged. “Impossible to tell unless we—” She cut off as an object fluttered out of the darkness of the cave and plastered across her face.

Lance burst out laughing while Allura wrestled the piece of fluttering fabric—a flag or banner—off her face, scowling at him. Some hair had shaken loose from her bun, framing her face like long, silver spider legs.

“Yes, very funny,” she grumbled, gripping the old, tattered flag to prevent it from blowing away. Her eyes widened, a crease appearing between her brow.

“What is it?” Lance stepped closer to peer at the banner—a logo of a crystal or gem, surrounded by a starburst.

Wait. He recognized that symbol.

“This is the symbol of Balmera,” Allura said lowly, voice touched with confusion.

Balmera. The town they’d found the dead huntsman in. The town that had been destroyed by Grimm.

“It’s days away from here,” Lance said slowly, a cold feeling of dread coiling in his stomach.

No. It couldn’t be—there was no way it was the same one, right? Anything could have made those tracks he’d seen. Anything could have dragged the flag from a destroyed town to this remote cave in the mountains.

But Lance already knew he was just grasping at straws. He knew what this meant.

“Lance!” Allura cried as Lance pushed past her and into the cave. He heard her hurried footsteps behind him as she scrambled to follow.

Lance ran over the uneven ground; the mouth of the cave was large enough to light his path, and he didn’t slow down even as Allura cried for him to wait.

He rounded a corner and stopped short.

The tunnel opened up into a larger chamber. The stench of Grimm was so thick it choked Lance’s nostrils, foul and overwhelming. The ground was covered in Grimm residue, thick pools of black sludge that let off tendrils of dark smoke. And the floor was scattered with broken weapons. Swords, arrowheads, old broken shields.

Lance’s mouth felt dry. He could barely breathe; from the horrible smell, from the feeling of ice cold fear slithering through his veins. No. Anything but this.

“Lance, what’s going—” Allura cut off as she, too, stepped into the chamber; she turned in a slow circle, eyes widening with horror as she took in the shattered weapons, the residue. “Oh my gods.”

Lance took a trembling step forward, fighting through the horror and remembered fear. There were tracks—places where something had stepped through the black sludge and left footprints behind. A long, clawed foot, a semicircle that Lance knew was a hoof.

He was trembling now, he realized, breathing fast and shallow. His mind was filled with static; nothing but the word no, no, no, no, no, no, over and over again.

Lance found himself running toward the other end of the cave—where the wind had been coming from. He felt barely in control of his body, barely able to see or hear from how terrified he was.

He skidded to a stop outside the cave overlooking the other side of the mountain, and Allura joined him a moment later, eyes blown wide with fear.

In the distance, he could just see the blackened, burnt-out rooftops poking above the trees. A familiar sight, even after all this time. He knew those rooftops like he knew his sisters’ faces—they were both heavily featured in his nightmares.

Below them, the treetops shook and shuddered as something large passed between them. Birds took flight in droves, fleeing the forest like it was on fire. They could sense something wrong just as surely as Lance could.

With a horrible, sinking feeling, Lance realized it was heading right toward the destroyed town. Right toward Hunk, Shiro, and Keith.

Allura’s fingers tangled with his, and she squeezed his hand hard. After a moment, he squeezed back.

“We need to get down there.” Lance almost didn’t realize he’d spoken until the words were out.

Allura drew her sword and closed her eyes. A glowing pink glyph appeared at their feet, followed by another and another, forming a staircase to the forest floor below. A crease of concentration appeared between her brows, but she opened her eyes and nodded to Lance.

“Let’s go.”

The glyphs glowed brighter beneath their feet as they sprinted across them. Lance kept his eyes on the distant ruins up ahead, heart climbing into his throat.

Please be okay. Please be okay.

He reached the end of the glyph trail and leapt to the ground, boots sinking into soft dirt. Allura dropped down a split second later, and the glyphs shimmered and disappeared.

At that moment, a roar split the air—a horrible, shrieking wail that made the hair on the back of Lance’s neck stand on end and every instinct in his body scream at him to run.

Allura blanched, eyes going impossibly wider. “What is that?”

Lance just started running toward the crumbling town. Allura fell into step beside him, half-bound bun bouncing with every step. She didn’t put her sword away.

Lance didn’t remember reaching the town’s edge, or clambering over the crumbling wall. The next thing he knew, he and Allura were sprinting into the town’s center and skidding to a stop in front of the large, dead tree.

Keith and Hunk stood on either side of Shiro, weapons drawn and faces pale. They whirled as Lance and Allura entered.

“Allura! Lance!” Hunk stepped toward them, his exoskeleton fully expanded over his arms and legs like gauntlets. “What are you doing here?”

“What was that noise?” Keith didn’t lower his swords, but there was visible relief in his eyes as he scanned first Lance, then Allura for injuries.

Lance didn’t answer. His gaze was locked on something over Keith’s shoulder. Everything inside him turned to ice, rooting him to the spot.

No.

Everyone whirled as the Grimm took another step closer, and Lance could see shoulders snapping to attention, grips tightening on weapons. Keith stepped in front of Shiro, expression slack with a look of terror that Lance wasn’t used to seeing on his face.

The Grimm was a horse—its front legs were gnarled claws, its back legs hooves—but it had a figure protruding from its back. It created the illusion of having a rider, but the horse’s back was seamlessly grafted to the rider’s torso. Long arms trailed from the rider to drag across the ground on either side of the horse; both arms ended in two long, thick fingers tipped with a bonelike claw.

The horse head bared its teeth and exhaled a plume of black smoke, and the humanoid figure on its back twitched once, twice. Its back was riddled with the sharp, bonelike spines like any other Grimm, but there were weapons there, too—the hilts of swords, broken spear shafts, arrows—all sticking out of its back like porcupine quills.

The Nuckelavee twitched again, and straightened, fixing red coal eyes on Lance and his friends. Its horns arced outward from its forehead like antlers. Its mouth stretched, yawned open, and then it screamed.

The sound was even more horrible than Lance remembered. Everyone cried out and clamped their hands over their ears, but it did nothing to dampen the sound. It pierced through Lance’s body like lightning, freezing him in place with a wave of raw terror.

The Nuckelavee shifted its gaze to Shiro, helpless against the tree, and Lance’s heart leapt into overdrive.

In front of Shiro, Keith dropped into a fighting stance, tension snapping through him like a bowstring.

Hunk raced toward Shiro, armor flickering gold in the corners of Lance’s vision, and the Nuckelavee shrieked again.

One of its long arms twitched upward and then moved, shooting toward Keith like a bolt of pure darkness. It stretched impossibly long, the clawed hand slamming into the cobblestones as Keith rolled out of the way.

Behind him, Hunk slung one of Shiro’s arms over his shoulder and began to shuffle toward the row of buildings as fast as he could move.

The Nuckelavee charged toward them, clearly singling out the weakest member of their group, and that was when the spell of horror holding Lance in place snapped.

He darted forward, nocking an arrow to the string and letting it fly. The arrow ricocheted off the bonelike plating covering the horse’s shoulders, but Keith’s blades slashing across its flank turned the Nuckelavee away from Hunk and Shiro, allowing them to slip between the buildings and disappear.

Silver flashed in the corner of Lance’s vision; Allura’s chain whip swept through the air, the bladed end lodging between two of the bone plates on the horse’s shoulder.

The Nuckelavee twitched and shrieked again. Its other arm shot toward Allura, and she was forced to retract her whip so she could dodge.

Lance fired off another arrow, and another. Though these were more successful in actually landing a hit, the Nuckelavee seemed barely bothered by them.

Keith ran forward to attack again, swords gleaming red in the dim gray light, but the Nuckelavee was faster. One hand snapped around Keith and slammed him into a building with enough force to crack the plaster; Keith dropped to the ground with a cry, and Lance nocked two arrows to the string at once.

“Allura!” At the sound of her name, Allura’s head snapped up. Lance met her eyes, and Allura nodded in confirmation.

She raised her hand, and a glyph appeared around the arrowheads, thrumming with energy. Lance pulled the string back to his cheek, sighting down the shafts.

The Nuckelavee screamed as its arms swept outward, catching both Lance and Allura and sending them flying. The glyphs shimmered and disappeared as Allura’s focus was broken, and Lance’s arrows went wide as he rolled and tumbled over the ground.

A small explosion erupted across the Nuckelavee’s back, and it turned with an enraged scream.

Hunk lowered his smoking cannon; it disassembled and reformed into his exoskeleton seconds before both the Nuckelavee’s arms slammed into him, sending him flying.

“Keep moving!” Keith shouted, pushing himself to his feet. “We have to wear it down!”

Lance rolled to his feet, shaking off the dull pain. He broke into a run, moving in a circle around the Nuckelavee and firing off potshots. He didn’t dare use any of his trick arrows with his friends so close, but his normal arrows didn’t seem to be doing anything other than making it mad.

Allura’s chain whip glinted in the light as she, too, started running around the Nuckelavee in a circle. She lashed her whip across its flank, its back, its legs, and Lance was encouraged to see drops of Grimm gore spatter the cobblestones.

Maybe they had a chance.

Hunk and Keith were running in a circle, too; Hunk’s cannon was reformed and firing off massive bolts of energy that made the Nuckelavee stumble, and Keith was darting in to slash his blades across its flank before moving away, too fast to hit.

But they were all exhausted from travel, from constant fights to defend against smaller Grimm. And it was slowing them down.

Keith slashed his sword through the Nuckelavee’s horse legs, and it shrieked, turning its back to him.

Lance opened his mouth to shout a warning, but too late—the Nuckelavee reared up and planted its hooves in Keith’s chest.

Keith tumbled across the ground and came to a painful stop in front of the tree; Lance didn’t have time to see if he was okay, because the Nuckelavee’s arms shot out again and he was forced to duck and roll to avoid them.

Allura stopped beside Keith and hauled him to his feet; her bun had come completely undone, tangled hair tumbling down her back and matted with dirt and sweat.

At the same time, Hunk charged forward with a roar, exoskeleton forming gauntlets around his forearms. His fist slammed into the Nuckelavee’s side with enough force to send it stumbling back a few steps, and the Grimm screeched in pain.

Lance reached for an arrow, slid a Dust cartridge into place. “Everyone, down!”

Allura, Hunk, and Keith dropped to the ground immediately, and Lance let the arrow fly. Flames flickered around the shaft moments before it made impact in a wave of fire that rolled over the Nuckelavee’s body; above the sound of the explosion was the high, angry scream of the Grimm.

For a second, Lance felt hopeful.

Then the Nuckelavee’s arms began to spin like a pinwheel, so fast they blurred. Screams rose up from his friends as they were batted aside like gnats. Lance tried to dodge, but a clawed hand caught him in the back and sent him flying.

He split his bow in midair and slammed one of the scimitar blades into the ground, carving a trench through the old road as he ground to a stop.

His friends were on the other side of the courtyard, painfully picking themselves up. Everyone was scraped and bruised, but had escaped major injury. So far.

The Nuckelavee reared back and shrieked, so loudly that the nearest buildings crumbled to ash; if there had been any unbroken windows in the town, they would have shattered.

Lance ground his teeth and raced forward, scimitars flashing in the dull gray light. He slashed his blades across the Nuckelavee’s front, leaving deep cuts in the bonelike plating covering the horse’s face.

A hand snapped around him, trapping his arms to his sides. Lance’s scimitars clattered to the ground as he flew backward, slamming painfully into the side of one of the only buildings still standing.

The Nuckelavee’s grip tightened around him, squeezing so tightly he could feel his ribs creaking. It stared down at him, red coal eyes glowing with malice, and for a dazed moment Lance wondered if it remembered him.

“Allura!” Keith shouted, sprinting forward.

A glyph shimmered into existence, and Keith landed on it in a crouch. Allura shouted, and Keith leapt—he exploded across the courtyard from the glyph’s gravity anchor, blurring red in the corner of Lance’s vision.

The Nuckelavee’s other arm twitched up and shot toward Lance’s head with enough force to split concrete and shatter bone. Fear closed up around Lance’s throat like a vise; he couldn’t move to block the strike even if his hands had been free.

Red blurred in front of Lance’s vision, and there was a thunderous crack as the Nuckelavee’s other hand made impact.

Lance pried his eyes open, squinting through the dust. The Nuckelavee stood in front of him, both arms outstretched—one leading to him, and the other leading above and to the side of him.

Lance looked up, and his eyes widened.

Keith was trapped between the Nuckelavee’s hand and the building, pushing weakly at the claws trapping him. His aura flickered red—not broken yet, but close. It was a miracle it was still active, a miracle every bone in his body hadn’t shattered on impact.

He’d taken the hit for Lance.

Allura’s chain whip flashed behind the Nuckelavee, and there was a burst of gold light—Hunk and Allura keeping up their attack, trying to draw the Nuckelavee away from Keith and Lance.

The Nuckelavee shrieked and pulled back one of its arms—the hand still locked around Keith.

Lance watched, heart in his throat, as the Nuckelavee cocked back its arm and threw Keith like a rag doll. He slammed into the ground hard enough to crack the cobblestones. His aura burst apart in shards of red light, and Keith tumbled across the ground and skidded to a stop between two crumbled buildings. He didn’t move to get up.

Something inside Lance snapped. He wriggled and fought in the Nuckelavee’s grip, a wild scream of rage and fear tearing from him. He sounded like a wild animal, feral and desperate and inhuman.

He reached for his own aura, for that cool blaze of blue. It took effort to physically manifest his aura as always, but with the amount of rage and adrenaline pouring through his body, it was easy. A shimmering shield of blue light flickered between Lance and the Nuckelavee, forcing the hand away enough that Lance dropped between the fingers and landed on the ground in a crouch.

The Nuckelavee screamed with rage and retracted its hand, and Lance let his aura shield flicker and disappear—his scimitars lay off to one side, and he sprinted toward them.

Allura’s chain whip slid across the ground, knocking his scimitars closer, and Lance dropped into a slide and scooped them up.

Hunk and Allura were tag-teaming the Nuckelavee, diving between its legs and weaving around each other like a well-oiled machine. Allura’s glyphs shimmered into existence long enough for one of them to push off of them, then they disappeared again; only for another to reappear a split second later on the other side of the courtyard.

Lance sprinted toward Keith and dropped beside him, heart in his throat. He gripped Keith’s shoulder just as he began to stir, a soft, pained sound rising strangled and ragged as he moved to shakily sit up.

His ears were pulled back against his head in pain, and Keith’s hazy eyes found Lance’s.

“Are you okay?” Keith’s voice was tight with pain and exhaustion, but Lance was surprised to hear him speak at all.

“What? Y—yeah, I’m okay.” Lance’s hand wrapped around one of Keith’s to steady him. “What were you thinking? You—you could have gotten killed!”

“Well, I didn’t.” Keith shakily rose to his feet with Lance’s help, unsheathing his other katar—the other one lay somewhere in the courtyard, but Lance had no idea where it had fallen.

He was in no condition to fight, but Lance knew he’d have to tie Keith down to keep him from doing just that.

Across the courtyard, Allura cried out as her legs were swept out from under her by the Nuckelavee’s sweeping arm. Lance’s heart leapt into his throat as the horse charged forward, hooves lashing toward Allura’s unprotected chest.

Hunk arced his arms out and yelled. A shimmering gold shield materialized over Allura bare seconds before the hooves slammed down on it; the shield flickered, and Hunk’s expression contorted with concentration as he poured more energy into keeping it intact.

“Allura, go!”

She didn’t need telling twice; she scrambled out from beneath the shield, running toward where her weapon had skittered from her grasp.

The Nuckelavee shrieked in frustration, and one of its hands slammed into Hunk. He skidded across the courtyard and came to a stop beside Lance and Keith.

Allura’s whip lashed across the Nuckelavee’s legs, crackling with blue light—she’d broken into her Dust supply.

Thick crystals of ice formed over the Nuckelavee’s feet, trapping it in place. Allura darted away, running to join the rest of the group as Hunk painfully pushed himself up to his feet.

Keith still stood with one arm slung over Lance’s shoulder, their hands still locked together. He could probably feel Lance trembling.

“What do we do?” Hunk’s voice shook as he eyed the screaming Grimm trying to escape the chunks of ice. It wouldn’t hold for much longer.

Lance hesitated, looking around the group. Hunk and Allura’s auras were both flickering, yellow and pink light fracturing over their skin like stained glass—they could take two more hits, maybe three. Keith’s aura had broken completely; even one strike from the Nuckelavee’s hooves or arms could kill him without the protection of his aura. Lance’s own aura was weakened, close to breaking.

They had to end this. One way or another.

“If we can somehow pin the arms, perhaps we can get close enough to kill it.” Allura’s voice was tight with pain and fear, but even and calm. Her eyes blazed with determination despite the blood and grime smearing her cheeks.

Hunk’s eyes sparked. “If Allura and Keith can pin down the arms with their swords, I can take care of the horse.” His exoskeleton armor slid into place over his arms and back, thrumming with power.

Lance set his jaw. “Then I can take care of the rest.”

Keith pushed away from Lance to brandish his katar; he wobbled where he stood, and Lance felt fear prickle at his spine at the thought of Keith going out there again, but he knew as well as the rest of them that they were fresh out of options.

“Let’s go,” Keith said, tense and short.

Lance nocked two arrows to the string and let loose; they arced through the air, trailing long cords that tangled around the Nuckelavee like a net just as it broke free from the ice. It slashed through the cords easily, but Lance wasn’t expecting it to trap the thing—he just needed to distract it.

As one of the arms slammed into the ground to sever a cord, Keith silently leapt forward, katar glinting red as he slammed the blade down. It pierced through the Grimm’s clawed hand and into the cobblestones below, trapping the arm in place.

The Nuckelavee screamed and shot its other arm toward Keith.

Lance jolted, fear rising to a fever pitch. He was too far away to help. Helpless, just like he was ten years ago.

Silver and pink flickered in Lance’s vision. Allura yelled as she shot through the air, propelled by one of her glyphs. Her sword lanced through the Grimm’s clawed hand, her momentum driving the arm away from Keith and into the ground beside him.

The Nuckelavee screamed and bucked, but its arms were impaled to the ground. As Lance watched, Allura spread her hands; glyphs shimmered into existence around the hilts of their swords, pressing the blades deeper into the ground and holding them in place for good measure. She swayed on her feet, expression creasing with exhaustion, but the glyphs held.

Hunk roared, armor flaring yellow and trailing tongues of flame—he was using Dust now, too. His feet dug into the ground, and then he leapt, high above the Nuckelavee’s head, easily clearing even the tallest building.

And then he fell, arms outstretched. He slammed into the horse’s back with enough force to shatter the cobblestones below it. The Nuckelavee’s horse body crumpled, bone plates crumbling from the sheer force of the strike.

The Grimm’s wail was more pained than angry now.

Lance stalked forward, scimitars trailing on the ground and throwing sparks. He kept walking, right up until he stood face to face with the Nuckelavee’s upper body. It writhed in agony, shrieking in Lance’s face loud enough to part his hair.

Lance didn’t flinch. He slashed his blades across its shoulders, severing both arms; the limbs dissolved into smoke, and the Nuckelavee screamed, twisting and writhing like a snake.

He’d been so small he’d had to crane his neck to look at it, last time. The Nuckelavee had towered over him and Veronica like a giant; it would have easily crushed them beneath its hooves had it not been for his father pushing them out of the way, for his mother rushing it with nothing but a kitchen knife clutched in her hands.

It had slain them both, along with everyone else in his village. Along with everyone in the other towns they’d found—the dead huntsman, the civilians. Children.

Lance’s blades crossed, both resting against the Nuckelavee’s neck. He locked eyes with it, brown staring into glowing red.

His blades rang against each other, and the Nuckelavee’s body fell limp.

Lance stepped away, flicking black goop from the blades as the monster began to dissolve, black smoke rising toward the gray sky.

Hurried footsteps announced the arrival of his friends; all battered, beaten, and bleeding. But alive. They were all alive.

Hunk swept all three of them into a massive hug, a tangle of arms and torsos. Lance’s face was pressed into Allura’s hair, someone’s arm—Keith’s—was locked around his waist, and he could feel Hunk trembling against him, shoulders shaking with sobs.

Lance released one or two of his own, into Allura’s hair with Keith and Hunk’s arms wrapped around him like a vise.

They all split apart reluctantly, wincing at aches that would become nasty bruises soon.

Then Keith’s eyes widened. “Shiro.”

He sprinted off in the opposite direction, and Lance and the others were quick on his heels.

They found Shiro where Hunk had left him, leaning against one of the buildings a few streets over from the courtyard. He was still breathing, ragged and slow, and as the four kids skidded to a stop beside him, he raised his head.

“It’s quiet,” he said, voice soft and hoarse. “Good job.”

Keith huffed a quiet laugh of relief, dropping to his knees beside his brother. “Oh, now you’re feeling good enough to be talking to us.” Despite the teasing tone, his hands were gentle as he carefully looped an arm over his shoulders and pulled Shiro to his feet.

Lance darted to Shiro’s other side to help, giving Keith a firm nod.

Shiro just rolled his eyes and grunted; clearly his energy had been spent and surpassed. But his head lolled against Keith’s shoulder, and Keith tilted his head to knock affectionately against Shiro’s.

“Guys, look!” Hunk pointed above their heads, a wide grin spreading across his face.

An airship was approaching, sunsails fluttering in the wind. It landed in a clear spot in front of them, graceful and light.

A grin spread across Lance’s face, an expression that was mirrored by Hunk and Allura as they raced forward to greet the rescue team piling out of the ship. Even Keith was smiling, small and hopeful like beams of sunlight peeking through the clouds.

The rescuers had seen smoke and heard the battle from their outpost, and mobilized as soon as they could. They loaded Shiro onto a stretcher to carry him to the ship, and as Lance and the others situated themselves, the ship lifted off and began the flight to safety.

“There’s a damn good doctor in Taujeer,” one of the rescuers said, pointing in the direction the ship was heading. “We’ll take you there; looks like you could all use one.”

“That’s a correct assumption to make,” Allura said, giving a wan smile; she was leaning on Hunk’s shoulder, one hand gripping Lance’s.

On Lance’s other side, Keith knelt beside Shiro, gripping both of his hands. “He—he won’t make it that long,” he said, voice tinged with panic, gaze flitting over Shiro’s injuries.

“Keith.” Lance wrapped his fingers around Keith’s wrists, prompting him to look up.

Keith’s head snapped up, first looking at Lance, then toward the bow of the ship. His eyes widened, a gasp shuddering into his lungs. His hand squeezed Shiro’s, and tears clustered in his eyes.

Ahead of them, the lights of a city spread out along the horizon; an actual city, thrumming with life and activity. Enormous walls separated the forest from the city—kingdom walls. They’d made it. They’d actually made it.

Lance’s hand slid from Keith’s wrist to slot their fingers together. He gave Keith a squeeze, and after a moment, Keith squeezed back.

And ahead, the clouds parted, and the sun shone through like a beacon guiding them home.

rwby au but after things have gone entirely To Shit </3

The sky was gloomy and overcast, perfectly matching their mood as they marched onward over the uneven dirt path. The destroyed village they'd just passed through weighed heavily on everyone's minds; the rank stench of death and decay still hung in Keith's nostrils—the smell of Grimm.

He couldn't stop thinking about the huntsman they'd found there. Keith had barely been able to see the color of his armor through the blood and spattered Grimm gore; the huntsman’s team had been nowhere to be found. But it wasn’t hard to figure out what had happened to them; the amount of bodies scattering the small village, the amount of destruction…whatever had happened there had claimed the lives of an entire team of huntsmen.

Needless to say, nobody had spoken much since then.

Behind Keith, Shiro tossed and turned on the makeshift stretcher they’d laid him out on, eyes squeezed shut and one arm wrapped around his stomach. Black smoke rose from between the bandages, and Keith tightened his grip on the handles and turned back to face the road ahead.

Hunk was carrying the other end of the stretcher, walking side by side with Lance; Allura was walking beside Keith, eyes flicking over the rocky terrain lining the road and hand on the hilt of her weapon. Lance was keeping a similar watch behind her; with Shiro completely out of commission, and Keith and Hunk with their hands full carrying him, they were more vulnerable than Keith liked. Especially since the Grimm that had destroyed the town were probably still out there somewhere.

Not for the first time, Keith wondered if they’d all been fools for embarking on such a pointless, impossible mission. They’d been fools for believing they could have made the long, dangerous journey to Haven. Keith was exhausted, they all were—tired of heartache, tired of fear, tired of seeing nothing but death and Grimm. And Shiro…

He was only getting worse, cheeks flushed red with fever and breath coming short and fast. If Keith listened, he could hear Shiro mutter things under his breath, voice cracking with exhaustion and fever and pain.

“Matt…Matt—” Shiro cut off with a small groan, brows tugging together in pain. “He—he’s not coming back, Matt.” His voice cracked, and Shiro fell silent again save for his labored, ragged breathing.

Keith glanced at Allura. She was looking at him, silver brows drawn together and expression pensive. She was thinking the same thing—Shiro wouldn’t make it to Haven. His condition was only getting worse, and they were nowhere near equipped enough to treat his injuries.

But Keith just gripped the handles tighter and kept walking.

He couldn’t lose Shiro, too.

“Keith.” Hunk’s voice was quiet, subdued in a way that Keith had only heard from the boy in the last few months. Like the light had been sucked out of him, as surely as it had been from the rest of them.

Keith stopped, looked up. The road split into a fork; a weathered wooden sign sat at where the paths split, labeling the roads in either direction.

Keith and Hunk carefully set Shiro down; he groaned with the movement, but didn’t seem to have the strength to move anymore.

Trying to ignore the knot of fear and worry that sat in his gut like a rock, Keith stepped closer to the sign to read.

The path to the right led through the mountains looming beside them, and the left led to a town. The town name was crossed out, but Keith could just make out the word Varadero.

“Which way do we need to…” Lance trailed off as his gaze dropped to the sign. He fell very, very still.

Keith brushed his fingers over the name on the sign. “We should go to the town. They might have a doctor there.”

Lance’s jaw set. “That village was destroyed a long time ago.”

Hunk sighed, looking grimly at Shiro. “Well, there’s no way he’ll make it through the mountains.”

“Besides,” Allura said quietly, glancing between Keith, Lance, and Hunk, “there may be some medicine or supplies we can find in the village, even if it has been destroyed. If there was a doctor’s clinic, the medicine might still be there.”

Lance just tightened his arms around himself, and Keith knew he wouldn’t back down. “There’s nothing for us there.” His voice was hard as steel, but Keith could see his fingers trembling where they clenched around his biceps.

The rock of fear, of worry, only grew heavier in Keith’s gut. “Then we’ll split up.”

Hunk shook his head at once, reaching out to clasp Allura’s hand and wrap an arm around Lance’s shoulder. “No. No. We have to stick together. We keep each other safe.”

“We don’t have time for safe!” Keith couldn’t hide the desperation in his voice. He flung a hand toward Shiro. “He’s not going to make it to Haven. Honestly, I—I don’t think he’s going to make it another day.”

His voice cracked, but Keith pressed on, breath shaking in and out as he tried to control the churning emotions in his gut. “If some of us take Shiro to the town, we can find medicine, or try to signal for help. We’re close enough to Haven that they might see a smoke signal, or something.”

It was beyond desperate, and they all knew it. But they all also knew that there wasn’t anything better.

“Lance and I can take the mountain pass,” Allura said, clasping Lance’s hand with one of her own. “We can move faster than you two with Shiro; we can try to find help. At—at the very least, we’ll get a better view of the terrain from up there.”

Lance gave Allura a grateful look and squeezed her hand. “Yeah. We can see if there’s a town with people nearby, and try to head there to bring people back to help.”

Hunk looked ready to cry, but he exhaled shakily. “Okay. Keith and I will head to Varadero, then.” He wrapped his arms around Lance in a crushing hug, and Lance returned the embrace just as strongly.

Keith could feel tears threatening to form, but he accepted Allura’s hug. Her hair tickled his nose, but he didn’t care; he just held her tighter.

They separated as Lance pulled away from Hunk, and then Allura was stepping forward to hug Hunk and Lance was in front of Keith.

Lance moved first, pulling Keith into a hug and tucking his head into the space between Keith’s shoulder and neck. Keith wrapped his arms around Lance, shakily exhaling into Lance’s shoulder.

They reluctantly split apart, Lance’s hands lingering on Keith’s waist just a fraction longer than necessary before pulling back.

“Just…take care of each other, okay?” Keith’s voice was dry, threatening to crack again.

“We will,” Lance promised quietly, resting a hand on Allura’s shoulder and squeezing. “Be careful.”

Keith nodded to him, and Lance and Allura turned to run up the mountain trail. He watched them go, silver and pink and blue flickering between the rocks like afterimages until they rounded the bend and disappeared.

Hunk rested a hand on Keith’s shoulder. “Come on.”

They picked the stretcher up again; Shiro barely reacted save for a hitch in his breathing, and Keith swallowed down a sob and started walking.

And with every step, the feeling that they had made a terrible mistake only grew more and more. If the slight hesitance to Hunk’s steps was any indication, he could feel it, too.

But they didn’t have a choice but to press forward and hope.

#unedited because im LAZY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!#but regardless. woe rwby au be upon ye.#winter writes #voltron #keith #lance #allura #hunk #shiro #klance #<- crumbs but its there #kphl #again. nobody is having a good time :]

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