Keith was happily drinking from his bottle in her arms and struggling to keep his little eyes open as drifted off to sleep, safe and warm in his mother's arms. Kolt was sitting behind her on the bed gently rubbing her back, a loving smile plastered on his face as he stared down at his son. Nothing could ruin this moment, at least she that was her thought before the sigil on her blade began to glow.
"What was that?" Kolt was pulling away, moving across the bed to look out the window as three bright magenta streaks appeared in the sky.
"Trouble." She moved, deliberate actions taking the place of loving touches, and placed a sleeping Keith into his crib. Her kit was now 2 years old and she was not going to let the Empire get their claws into Earth, not this planet, not if she could help it.
She moved to join Kolt by the window, getting a better look at their visitor's arrival. "They're scouts. They must have picked up on the Blue Lion's signal. We need to stop them before they report back to their command."
"What's the plan?" He was all business. She had done her due diligence and told him what the Empire was capable of; he knew the danger these scouts posed.
Fetching her bag from under the bed, Krolia dumped out the small explosives. "I have explosives. They aren't powerful enough to stop a fighter but if we detonate them in the intake valves, they can stop them from taking off." He nodded his agreement and they changed; Kolt putting on dark clothes to blend in with the night while she donned her Empire armour.
With her Blade of Marmora knife securely in place at her hip, she passed him the satchel. "You'll need to be the one to place the bombs. You don't have the technical skill to take on a fully trained Galra Soldier, but I do. Place the bombs and once they're set, -" she passed him the detonator switch, "- use this to detonate the bombs and take out the ships."
"What will you be doin'?"
"I'm going to find out what the scouts know, and get rid of them." She said her words with finality. It didn't matter what they knew, they couldn't be allowed to live, not when her son was in danger. She had made a new oath; one to protect the Blue Lion at all costs, and now she was a mother. These scouts were not welcome.
The ensuing fight took all of her strength, testing her resolve in all aspects but she was a fully trained Blade, an agent of the Blade of Marmora and not one to be blinded by her emotions. It was with a cool head that she took the news of her mate's death and filed it away to be dealt with at a later time. She would mourn him, but she could not afford to be distracted, not if she wanted to protect the Blue Lion and her son.
With great prejudice she target the third scout, the one who had delivered the killing shot to Kolt and referred to him as a 'primitive'. She sliced at him with the level of ferocity only a Galra can manage and turned her ire on the other, slamming his body to the ground. She rose to find Kolt's killer running for his life like a coward, fleeing the cave instead of standing to fight.
A deep rage boiled in her blood and Krolia turned heel, chasing after him into the night. Faintly she heard the groan of the not-quite dead scout on the ground of the cave but her feet were already carrying her after Kolt's assassin.
Exiting the cave her heart plummeted as she watched the fighter pod take off. She had failed. She had sworn to protect the Blue Lion, Earth, and her family but she had failed. The sudden explosion caught her off guard and it was all she could do to stare in shock at the debris as it fell back to Earth. Her eyes flickered down and watched as Kolt passed out, ignition switch in hand. Her heart leapt into her throat, he was alive. But there was no time to rejoice, the sound of heavy boot falls was echoing in the cave and she knew the surviving scout had managed to get back on his feet.
Krolia turned back for the cave, pulling her knife once again and drawing it to its full form. She waited just outside the entrance for him to emerge, swiftly lodging her sword in his chest plate. The armour cracked ominously but it was no match for her luxite blade and she cut through it like butter. If her arrival hadn't drawn the attention of the Garrison, this certainly would. Dragging the body back into the cave, she grabbed the other scout and placed them together at the entrance before heading back for the sole remaining pod. Kolt had managed to place explosives on two of the three fighters and when he hit that trigger they had both blown up. She thanked the stars the coward had chosen one of those to escape in.
The exploded pod was scattered across the landscape and there was no way to clean the debris, but the intact pod needed to be moved. She climbed inside and activated the lowest power engines, flying the pod ever so carefully into the cave and stopping just in front of the Blue Lion. Before exiting the pod she activated the shields and hoped they would be sufficient to protect it. Krolia dragged the portable console the scouts had brought with them back to the entrance and set the last of her explosives. The resulting blast would hopefully be enough to bury the bodies and conceal the mouth of the cave. Its particle barrier would protect the Blue Lion and she prayed this would be enough to conceal its location from the Garrison when they came to investigate.
She didn't pay much attention to her footings as she descended into the canyon; her haste made her careless and she inevitably placed her weight on a few loose rocks. The footing gave way and she tumbled down the remainder of the canyon's walls coming to a hard landing at the base. Heaving herself to her feet she groaned and shuffled over to Kolt's unconscious form dragging her badly sprained ankle in the dust behind her.
There was no blood, but that was to be expected with an Empire blaster; they cauterized wounds instantly. It was the only reason he was still alive. Had they been Garrison issue weapons, or any other Earth based weapons for that matter, he would have bled to death from his injury before she could reach him. As it were, the sniper had missed their target, hitting him in the right shoulder blade instead of the head as they were trained to do. Once again she thanked the stars for Kolt's luck, for her luck, and lifted him in a fireman's carry back to the hover bike.
For a moment she hesitated, unsure of what to do next. The options were either bring him back to their isolated desert home in the hopes that she would be able to dress and mend his wounds, or bring him to an Earth hospital for professional medical attention. The latter guaranteed his survival and gave the least opportunity for infection to set in, but it meant exposing herself to the Humans and leaving Keith alone with no one to know he was there. She couldn't risk it. If they took her then no one would be there to protect Keith. Anything could happen; a coyote could get in, he could be left alone for too long leaving him to starve or dehydrate, or he could injure himself trying to climb out of his crib. Or worse, the Garrison to go after him.
No, the Earth hospital wasn't an option, she couldn't risk the danger it put Keith in and she couldn't take him with her; the hover bike barely fit her and Kolt not to mention how incredibly dangerous it was for a 2 year old. She pulled her mate into her lap and flew the hover bike back to the house.
The moment the engine cut she could hear the sounds of Keith crying and her heart clenched tightly in her chest. Gently carrying him inside she lay Kolt on the old couch before rushing up the stairs to their son. His tear-streaked face greeted her when she opened the door to the nursery. He was standing in his crib, one hand on the rails and one clutching his purple kitty as he cried but the moment he saw her, little hands reached out for his mother. Scooping him up she nuzzled his head and purred to him, calming his panicked breathing and lulling him back into contentment. She stood there with him for a while, perhaps almost an hour, rocking him in her arms as she purred softly and stared out the window.
There were lights in the distance now. It was too far away for even her eyes to pickup any details, but she guessed the Garrison had arrived and were setting up shop. With both herself and the intact pod safely hidden away, there were no traces of Galra in the area, nothing that couldn't be explained by Earth tech at least. The two exploded pods were nothing but scrap metal and the bodies of the three very dead scouts would never be found. The Blue Lion was safe, her family was safe, Earth was safe. The relief she felt was incredible but there was still something weighing heavily in her chest. A single tear slipped down her cheek as Keith began to purr in his sleep and, rubbing his back gently, she realized that she really had gone soft on this planet. Which was going to make leaving it so much harder.
She hugged his little body tightly before putting him back in his crib. Keith let out a soft sound in protest but ultimately didn't wake so Krolia bent down, laying a kiss to his pale skin and walked quietly from the room.
The weight in her chest was getting heavier and heaver with each step and she made her way to the small downstairs bathroom where they kept their emergency medical supplies. Pulling out the kit, she stopped in the kitchen for a bowl of clean soap water and a washcloth before finally settling herself on the coffee table beside Kolt. She had laid him down with his right side out, making this next part substantially easier since she did not need to lean over him.
After the wounds were cleaned of blood, dust, and sand; the metal bowl of soap water having turned a putrid brown, she began to treat them with a disinfectant. Humans used isopropyl alcohol to clean wounds in an emergency but she had managed to salvage her medkit from the wreckage of her pod and therefore she had access to much more advanced treatments. It wasn't a substitute for an actual hospital but it would do in a pinch. She stitched his wound shut and spread the antiseptic gel over it before applying a bandage wrap, setting his arm in a sling to restrict movement.
She cleaned up the medical supplies, planted a loving kiss to Kolt's temple, and went back upstairs to check on Keith. He was still sound asleep, none the wiser to the incredible danger that had almost befallen them. She stood by the window again and watched the lights in the distance. The sun was rising and the response team had managed to setup an entire observation tent at the crash site. She didn't know how long she stood there watching when she heard him enter the room.
"I must go." Was all she managed to say. The weight in her chest made the words taste sour but couldn't change anything.
"I thought you'd seen enough war." It wasn't a question, his words here laced with something dark but she couldn't let go of her resolve, not now, not when it was so important to keep them safe.
"If they found the Blue Lion once they'll find it again. I need to report back to the Blades and stop the Galra from the inside." She moved to stand closer to him, but he continued to stare down at their sleeping son. Her hand found its way to his and she said the hardest words imaginable; their truth doing little to help. "I'm sorry. But this is the best way for me to keep you both safe."
"Bullshit."
"Excuse me?" His tone took her by surprise.
"I said 'bullshit' Krolia." She merely blinked in response, unable to process his words but he stared her down with a stubborn resolve that would make any Galra jealous. "You can't just leave. It can't be the best way. I don't know how to raise a child, let alone a half alien one, and what are we supposed to do without you?" He gestured towards Keith and though his words were coming faster now he kept his voice low to avoid disturbing the sleeping kit.
"Kolton, This is for the best. Keith looks passably Human, he can have a normal life here, one that doesn't involve war and death and the Empire. I don't want to do this Kolt, but it's the only way. The Empire WON'T stop. They will never stop. Not until they find the Lions and the best chance we have, the best chance Earth has, is for me to return and report back that this quadrant came up empty. I – I don't want to leave you, either of you, but I don't have a choice here. I need you to understand that."
"I hate this. Yer leavin' us is the worst possible out come I could've imagined. Why can't you just radio yer people from here? Contact 'em saying ya'll crashed but there's nothin' here?"
"No. The Empire would send an extraction team to come get me, and they would come and discover how resource rich this planet is. The Empire cannot be allowed to find Earth."
"Radio yer Blade of Marmora then, get them to pass along the message."
"Kolton, that's not how this works. I need to go. End of story."
"I hate this." He protested but the fight had left his voice, replaced by resigned understanding. He knew she was right, he knew it was the only way but that didn't mean either of them had to like it. "But there ain't no way yer leaving Earth with them Garrison folks setup out there."
"My ankle is injured and will require time to heal. I will stay until it is safe for me to depart, but I cannot delay longer than a few months." She looked over at Keith, still peacefully asleep in his crib. "I'm going to miss so much."