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“Come on, only a little bit farther,” Allura whispered. She paused and tried to get a better grip on Hunk’s armour. The sound of sentries seemed to echo through the caves, sending Allura moving again. She carried Hunk over one shoulder, leaving her other arm free to fight, but it was far from optimal.
Hunk’s weight unbalanced her, enough that she would have to drop him if she met anyone, losing valuable time and injuring him further in the process.
“Keith! Lance! Pidge! Come in, we need an immediate extraction!” she hissed into her comms. She was met with silence, the same as she had, every time she tried to contact them previous. She cursed Keith and his reckless leading. Cursed Pidge for finding the information that led them to the mission. Cursed Shiro for disappearing and leaving them in this mess. Cursed this starforsaken planet, and it’s starforsaken caves.
The walls were worn smooth by decaphebes of erosion, to the point where Allura could see her own reflection perfectly. The white colour of the rock only added to it, leaving light reflecting off every surface. Allura’s eyes throbbed, and she flicked the shades down on her visor.
The sentries footsteps got louder, and she ducked into an alcove. She set Hunk down, so he was leaning against the cave's smooth wall and stood protectively in front of him. He was breathing, but barely conscious. Blood dripped from a cut above his eye, landing on his cheek and rolling down. It looked as though he was crying blood.
The only other sign of injury – from his outward appearance – was his leg, twisted at an odd angle. Pidge had assured her, once - back when they were still learning to be a team, when the paladins first formed Voltron - that human’s legs did not just do that unless there was something very, very wrong. She hadn’t been able to get the image of the bone of Keith’s thigh protruding from his armour since.
Hunk wasn’t quite as bad as that, but he couldn’t walk. They were a few levels below the Green Lion, and Allura would need help getting him back to the surface. Even her altean strength was starting to wane. She couldn’t keep this up.
The sentries passed, and she heaved Hunk up again, this time in a “princess carry” as Lance so fondly called it. It meant her hands weren’t free, but she might be able to move a bit quicker with Hunk’s weight more evenly distributed.
She kept walking until she came to a shallow entrance. The entrance opened up to another cave, but it could only pass one person at a time. It meant that if they were found by sentries, she would have a chance to battle them one on one.
She set Hunk down, trying to make him as comfortable as possible, before trying her comms again. She was met with static. She growled and turned her attention back to Hunk.
The wound on his head hadn’t stopped bleeding, and Allura knew she needed to check his leg properly. She didn’t know how long they would be down here, and she couldn’t risk an infection setting in. She needed to bandage some of her own wounds too.
“Hunk? Hunk, are you still with me?” Allura asked, gently patting his cheek. The visor of his helmet had cracked, loose pieces of glass falling to clink off his chest plate. He stirred weakly and groaned. His eyes blinked open, pupils blown wide, but hissed and quickly shut them again. At least she knew he was awake.
“I’m going to start removing the leg plating around your break. I need you to stay still, okay?” she asked gently, deft fingers already moving to unlatch the clasps. He didn’t respond for several seconds, then nodded slowly.
Allura used her bayard to cut the undersuit from Hunk’s leg, hissing as it revealed his skin. It was already a motley of bruises, deep and dark. She could clearly see now where the bone had broken, what looked to be a clean break.
She looked around the cave for anything she could use to help her set the bone but found nothing. She would have to try and use his armour then.
Allura was well used to healing wounds, but setting bones had always unsettled her. During the last few days of the war, she had spent her time using what little alchemy she possessed healing the altean soldiers that were treated at the castle.
Thankfully, human bones were not dissimilar to altean's, and Pidge had run through the process with her several times in case this exact event happened. She steeled herself for the next few minutes.
She quickly pulled her gauntlet off, cut her undersuit around her left arm and pulled the sleeve free to cut into strips. It was all she could use for bandages and for the splint.
“Hunk, I’m going to have to set the bone. You’re doing so well, just a few minutes more,” She said. His slow reaction time was worrying, but she could deal with that later.
She gently manoeuvred his leg to lie straight, grasped his ankle and pulled. He let out an unholy shriek of pain, weakly trying to swat her away. Tears welled up in her eyes, knowing she was the cause of his current pain. She pulled hard, encouraging the muscles to stretch and allow the bone to realign itself.
With a shaking hand, she pulled his leg plating closer to herself, and began to set the bone.
“You’re doing so good, Hunk. So good. I’m so sorry, I’m nearly done,” she cooed frantically. Hunk kept trying to wriggle away from her, only causing himself more pain. She only needed to tie one more knot and then she’d be done. With his leg, anyway.
She checked his head again, pleased to see the blood was already clotting. Just as she was about to cut her other sleeve, her helmet crackled and then screeched.
“..Lura?.. Ca…. ear.. us?”
“Yes! I can hear you!! We’re down here!”
She turned to Hunk, glad to see him watching her with tired and dazed eyes. “Don’t worry Hunk, help is coming.”