This is an idea that hit me out of the blue after reading another fic (which I will name in later notes so as not to spoil). It will consist of four chapters and three short interludes and I will post updates every few days.
"Lance, pull up! Goddammit, pull up!"
"Leave me alone, Mullet! I got this!"
"No, you don't! Break off!"
Keith watched in dread as Lance continued straight toward the Galra warship, tail-gun firing. The warship's fire began concentrating on the approaching target and Lance's laughter sounded over the channel.
"Told you I—"
Two energy beams clipped the Blue Lion at the same time, sending it spinning out of control.
"Lance!" Hunk and Pidge's frantic voices echoed through Keith's helmet.
"I knew it! Come on, we've gotta finish this! Pidge, you take the three! I'll take the nine! Use your tree cannon on my mark! Hunk, armor up and come from below!"
Keith flew opposite of Pidge and deployed Red's cannon. "Hunk, now!"
The Yellow Lion glowed as its armor appeared and zoomed up, crashing into the warship and sending it up and sideways.
"Pidge, now!"
From either side, the Red and Green Lions fired. Vines erupted all along the rear of the ship, taking out its propulsion. The front broke off as the middle of the ship disintegrated in the wake of the Red Lion's energy beam.
With the immediate threat neutralized, Keith tried to pull them together. The Blue Lion drifted some distance away. "Lance, Lance? Do you copy?"
There was a groan and then a more coherent "yeah".
"Hunk, can you tow Blue back to the Castle?"
"On it!"
"Princess, are there any other Galra in the area?"
"Negative. The area is clear for the moment."
"Okay, let's get back."
Allura was in the conference room they used for debriefings, slumped forward with her head in her hands. Pidge arrived before Keith and sat, pulling up her vambrace display to record her observations of the Galra ship and its weaknesses for future use. Keith entered the room and yanked off his helmet, resisting the urge to fling it into a corner.
Hunk and Lance arrived together, Hunk keeping one arm around his friend. Allura sat up at that. "Lance, are you injured?"
"I think he's okay, just got stunned from those lasers. But we can check him out after this." Hunk helped Lance sit.
Lance grinned loopily at the princess. "Just taking one for the team!"
That is it. Keith slammed one fist on the table. "What the hell were you thinking? You could have gotten yourself killed if they'd concentrated their fire better!"
Lance stiffened at that. "I was just doing what you do! You draw fire all the time!"
"Because I know I'm not likely to get hit!"
"Yeah, we know! We know! You're the genius pilot and I'm just a seventh-wheel guy who should never have gotten past cargo class!"
"What? Lance, no! The Red Lion is smaller and faster. It's not about piloting skills, it's about using the best tool for the job. If you had stayed back, we could have used your sonic cannon as our first attack and disabled the ship immediately."
Is this how Shiro felt? The headache forming behind his eyes as he tried to present things logically to an illogical group? Of course not; we didn't argue with him like this.
Lance's face turned mulish. "Whatever. If you hadn't been shouting at me and breaking my focus, it would have worked! Who made you leader anyway?"
The air around the table seemed to disappear as everyone froze. Keith swallowed hard, remembering the conversations with Shiro and willing himself not to cry, not here.
"Shiro did. He said two different times that he wanted me to lead the group if something happened to him."
"When? I don't remember that vote happening!"
"Voting's not part of a monarchy…" Pidge joked in a stage whisper, tilting her head at Allura.
Lance whirled on the princess. "Did you okay this? Did you decide that Keith should be the leader? 'Cause I don't see him piloting Black!"
Pidge put her head on the table and groaned as her words had the opposite effect from her intentions.
Allura's eyes widened at Lance's accusation, then narrowed. "Calm yourself, Blue Paladin. You know as well as I do that the Lions choose their pilots."
"Then we can ask Black! Let's all go down and see what Black says!" Hunk's hands were out, fingers fluttering anxiously as he tried to defuse the argument.
"Yes, we should probably do that. But, Keith," Allura turned to him, "when did Shiro say this?"
"The first time was when we were stranded on that unstable rock of a planet after the corrupted wormhole. He was pretty sure he was going to die before anyone got to us. The second time was when he and I were on our way to the Blade of Marmora headquarters."
"There's only your word that those conversations happened!" Lance accused.
"So now I'm a liar, too?"
"Well, you kept being half-Galra a secret for ages, so yeah?"
"I DIDN'T KNOW!" Keith shouted at the top of his lungs, powered by the old fears and pain of suspecting his origins, learning the truth and yet nothing at the same time, with only Shiro by his side as it happened…
He turned away, pinching the bridge of his nose to hold the tears in. Allura cleared her throat.
"All right, we are all clearly on edge over the situation. Quickly, is there any new information to be added to our knowledge from this battle?"
Pidge shook her head. "No, princess. Just another mid-size warship. But bringing out our big guns sooner when we run into small groups of them is probably the way to go until we can form Voltron again."
"Agreed," Keith managed to get the word out without his voice breaking.
At that, Allura nodded. "Dismissed. We will gather in the Black Lion's bay in one varga."
Keith got out of his armor and took a shower before getting dressed. When he picked up his belt, he paused and pulled out his dagger, the sigil on the hilt long since left uncovered. As he watched, it shimmered and grew into his blade.
The unanswered questions weighed on him. Kolivan had returned to the Blade of Marmora headquarters and Slav had gone with him, claiming the resources there would allow him a much higher chance of determining Shiro's whereabouts and at the same time let him improve his gravity generators and replace the one that had hidden Ulaz's outpost.
Keith still didn't know how much of his ancestry was Galra. He still didn't know what the connection was between him and the Blades. All he knew was Galra blood runs in your veins.
One answer leading to a hundred more questions. And he didn't have a clue where to start looking.
Just like he had no clue where to find Shiro.
Again.
He thought back to that moment before they had gone off on their separate missions. The hand-clasp that had turned into a hug that had lingered, neither one of them wanting to let go of the other. And that moment, the night before the Kerberos mission, where he thought Shiro was about to ask Keith to wait for him…
The sword glowed and shrank back to its dagger form as Keith covered his eyes with his free hand and finally let the tears fall.
They gathered in the hangar, looking at the inert form of the Black Lion. For a long moment, nobody moved or spoke. Then Lance broke the silence.
"So what happens now? Is it like when we found the Blue Lion? We knock?" He strode forward to the muzzle and rapped on it.
Keith winced.
Nothing happened. Lance scowled, but retreated, ignoring the disapproving glares from Allura and Coran.
"Pidge, you try." Hunk pushed her forward gently.
She snorted at the idea that Black would choose her, but stepped forward and laid one hand on Black's paw. "Um, hi there. We kind of need your help to find Shiro. What do we have to do?"
Nothing. Pidge bit her lip and moved back.
Taking a deep breath, Hunk advanced and put his hand in the same place as Pidge before closing his eyes and bowing his head. Keith could see the reluctance on his face as he waited.
With a deep sigh and a slump of his shoulders, Hunk looked up into the Lion's face and returned to the group.
Lance's brow furrowed. He spat, "Okay, then, Keith. Looks like she's all yours."
Keith shook his head. "What about Allura? Or Coran?"
Coran gave one short, barking laugh. "I highly doubt it would be me. The Red Lion made it very clear on Taujeer that I was not paladin material."
Keith looked at Allura, who met his eyes and nodded. She approached the Lion and laid one hand on the muzzle.
Her hand began to glow a pale pink and for a brief second the Lion's eyes seemed to spark. Keith felt a surge of hope that this would somehow be the answer, in spite of the difficulties it would cause.
But the spark and the glow faded and Allura let out a soft groan of disappointment. She turned to Keith with a stricken look.
"It has to be you, Keith."
He shook his head, feeling his eyes sting. Hunk put a hand to his shoulder. Allura, still touching the Lion, held her other hand out to him.
"Oh, come on, you emo jerk! Stop making a production out of it!" Lance threw up his hands and stormed out. Allura glanced at Coran, who nodded and followed him.
Pidge stepped up to Keith's other side and took his arm. "It's okay, Keith. We need to know."
Keith swallowed hard but let them lead him over to Allura and Black. He stepped forward and put one hand to the Lion's muzzle. He bowed his head, remembering, and repeated the words he had used once before.
"I know I'm not Shiro, but he's in trouble. We need to help him."
Black's eyes flashed. She lifted her head and roared.
Red would not respond to him. The space where she had filled his mind was aching and empty.
But she would not respond to anyone else. Her particle barrier was up and no amount of entreaty would budge it.
The situation was worse than ever. They had lost the tactical advantage of Red's speed and they still couldn't form Voltron. Keith was torn to shreds: the severed link with Red was a constant throb in his head but the link with Black was shaky. Black seemed hugely offended that Keith wanted Red's presence and indifferent to his desperate need to find Shiro. Keith had yet to duplicate whatever power it was that Shiro had used to retrieve the black bayard from Zarkon.
The team was falling into factions. Coran seemed to make it his mission to support Lance through his turmoil and while Hunk obviously wanted Lance and Keith to make amends, he physically stayed with Lance more.
Pidge rarely left Keith's side other than sleeping, showering, or when they were in the Lions. She would join him on the training deck or bring her laptop with her current project to wherever he was. When the entire group was together, Allura had Keith stand next to her and made it pointedly clear with her tone and expressions that she considered him the leader of Voltron.
But nothing helped. Lance continued to either avoid Keith altogether or snipe at him verbally when the princess wasn't in the room. The only time they could keep it together was in battle.
They continued to pick off single warships and small groups. As of yet there had been no news spreading through the Empire that Zarkon was dead, but there had been rumors of heirs being summoned. The possibility that it had all been for nothing, that Zarkon had survived while Shiro had not, haunted Keith's thoughts and chased him into his dreams.
Keith was in the large dining room, three different display tablets set in front of him. He was trying to coordinate the latest intel from the Blades with the castle's archives to create an up-to-date database of the areas they had been through so far. For once, he was alone.
Black poked at him sulkily.
You know what I mean. No Lance holding his grudge. No Hunk fretting because we can't get past the situation. No Pidge trying to distract me into feeling better. No Allura overcompensating for how she closed me out before.
He could see that they were coming apart at the seams without Shiro and no matter what he tried, he couldn't stop it.
God, Shiro, where are you?
He leaned forward on his elbows, putting his head in his hands.
The sound of laser fire in the distance jerked him to his feet, drawing his dagger out and expanding it. When the sound faded, he moved over to the controls that would bring up communication within the castle. "Allura? Coran? What's going on?"
"What do you mean?" Allura's face appeared on the comm screen.
"I thought I heard gunfire from my location."
Coran's voice echoed behind her. "I think Hunk and Lance were going to train. They must be using their bayards."
Keith drew a deep breath, trying to get his heart rate to settle. "That must be it. Sorry to worry you."
He moved back to the table, but before he could sit, Pidge charged into the room with her laptop. "Keith! Keith!"
Her voice echoed oddly, warring between excitement and fear.
"Pidge?"
"I think I've found a way to locate my dad! I got enough data from the various prisoner records we've gathered to predict the number ID system they use and going by Shiro's number, I have a set of possibilities to try! If we can get on board a Galra ship long enough to access one of their records hubs, I can search for these specific numbers! I mean, I might find Matt's records too, but since he's been busted out of prison I don't know what I can do with that information if I find it."
Lance poked his head in, hearing her enthusiasm.
Wasn't he supposed to be on the training deck?
Keith put his hands on her shoulders. "Whoa, wait a minute. The last time we tried getting access to Galra data we lost Allura. That's too much of a risk."
Pidge waved him off. "This will be different! You can access the controls without tipping them off—they only caught Shiro because he was a former prisoner. And we can try that strategy you mentioned, having Lance knock out all their systems with his sonic cannon long enough for you and me to sneak on board in Green!"
"I don't know, Pidge. There's still so many things that could go wrong."
Lance glared at him. "If she had a lead on Shiro, you'd do it."
Keith's head jerked up at that. "What?"
"Don't play dumb. If Pidge was proposing this in order to find Shiro, you'd be halfway to the control room by now."
"No, I wouldn't! We'd need to go over the situation carefully first, make a plan—"
"Okay then, leader. What's the plan?"
Keith glanced at Pidge, who was staring at him with wide eyes. She already looked hurt at the possibility that he would act on Shiro's behalf, but not her father's.
He grabbed her laptop in one hand and her arm in the other. "Come on, let's go talk to Allura, since Lance here has nothing to offer." Pidge's expression brightened immediately. As he led her out, he made a point of brushing past Lance, who hissed some insult at him in Spanish.
Keith ignored him. He had more important things to worry about.
Best laid plans…
Keith kept his focus on the sentries in front of him, trusting Pidge to let him know if she needed him. Everything had worked smoothly for the first part of the plan: they had found a single Galra battleship, Lance had temporarily disabled it, they had snuck on board with Green, Pidge had located a terminal, Keith had unlocked it. Lance and Hunk had started leading the ship on a merry chase around an asteroid patch while they worked.
And then they were spotted by a single guard out of place because he had stopped to adjust some bit of armor.
Keith had brought the guard down, but not before he had opened his comm to alert the ship. This was the third wave of sentries but so far they were in small groups and falling to the sweeps of his bayard and blade. He had taken a few minor hits and thought he could keep this up a little longer, but Pidge had sworn she only had a handful of numbers to search… "Pidge! How many more?"
"Two more!" The despair in her voice was gut-wrenching.
Keith gulped in air and lunged, sending the red-and-white sword through one of the two remaining sentries while slashing the other with the Galra blade. And then he spotted the guard at the end of the hall, taking aim with a rifle—
"Pidge! Move!" He tried to bring his shield up but his blade was in the way, slowing him down.
She looked up, startled, just as the bolt hit her. Keith screamed a denial, barely aware of Lance and Hunk shouted their confusion at him. He flung his blade and it hummed as it spun through the air, getting the guard in the neck before sailing back to his hand. He stowed both weapons and scooped Pidge up in his arms.
"Hunk! Lance! Heading back to the Green Lion! Attack the ship!"
He ran for Green, holding Pidge close. At least she was breathing. At least the blast had hit her arm and shoulder, not her chest. At least she had been able to work from the tech in her vambrace instead of bringing a laptop. At least the way back to Green was clear.
He made it to the Lion, carrying Pidge up to the cockpit. He took the pilot's chair, keeping her on his lap, and laid one hand on a steering column.
"Green, please! Can you get us back to the castle?"
For one agonizing moment Green didn't move. Then Pidge groaned and laid her hand on the other steering column. "Please, girl…"
Green roared and blasted a hole in the hull of the ship, leaping out into starry space.
Once Pidge was safely in a cryo-pod, Keith followed Allura to the debriefing room. Lance and Hunk were already seated, both looking tired but unhurt.
Allura sat and looked at them. "Status?"
Hunk replied first. "Yellow and Blue have some minimal damage, but I can have them back up to speed in a couple of days. Faster if Pidge gets out of the pod and helps me."
Allura shook her head. "I wouldn't count on it."
Keith sat up at that. "What? But it was a shoulder injury!"
"It was a shoulder injury that fractured bones and pierced a lung. She might have died if you hadn't got her back here so quickly."
Keith felt his face drain of color at that. He hadn't felt any broken bones when he carried her. Had he made a bad situation worse by moving her?
"Okay, that's a bit not good. Do you know if she found her dad?" Lance glared at Keith.
He swallowed. "No, I don't think she did. She was almost at the end of her list of numbers when that guard shot her."
"So it was all for nothing. We've got damaged Lions and a teammate out of commission for days because you went with her plan!"
"Wait, you were the one that said we should try it! Why are you blaming me now?"
"No, I just pointed out that if it were Shiro you wouldn't have even taken the time to lay out a plan. You'd've just gone for it. Because you won't let go of the idea that he's still alive!"
"Lance! That is enough!" Allura snapped at him and he turned his glare onto her.
"Is it? Do you think Shiro's still alive?"
Allura looked like he had slapped her. "I…I don't know. I don't understand why the Lions are reacting the way they are. Black accepted Keith but the bond doesn't feel solid."
Keith added, "It feels like when she let me in to help Shiro before—"
"Whoa, whoa, wait just a quiznaking minute! You piloted Black before?"
"I said so at the time! When we got tossed from the wormhole onto that stupid rock of a planet, Shiro was being attacked by a group of monsters! I asked Black to let me in so we could help him and she did!"
"And I remember you asking Coran all kinds of questions about Blue! And now you've flown Green! You won't be satisfied until you've got access to all five Lions!"
They all stared at Lance. Keith simply could not formulate a response to Lance's unfathomable leaps. He hadn't really flown Green – she only responded after Pidge touched the controls. He didn't have access to Red – she had disconnected from him the minute Black responded to him. Why didn't Lance realize these things?
Unfortunately, Lance took his silence for assent. "Yeah, thought so. Princess, I think we need to visit some of our allies and see if we can find a couple new paladins. You're going to have to replace Shiro no matter what. And you have to replace either me or Keith, because I'm not working with him anymore." He stood and looked over at Hunk, who had a stunned look on his face. "You coming?"
Hunk stood but waited until Lance had stalked out of the room. "It's got to be his temper talking. I'll try to get him to calm down." He gave Keith a glance filled with uncertainty and left as well.
Allura looked at Keith, her expression stricken.
He shook his head. "I don't know what to do anymore. Shiro should never have chosen me to lead." He turned and left the room.
Keith retreated to his room and cleaned up, changing into his jeans and T-shirt and slinging his belt around his waist. It was late enough to go to sleep, but he knew there would be no rest for him tonight. He made his way back to the cryo-pods and found Coran there, looking over the readouts for Pidge as she stood inside a pod, frozen and mending.
"Ah, hello there, Number Four."
Keith smiled a little at that. Coran had not re-numbered them in his ordered-by-height nicknames.
"How is she?"
"It was a pretty nasty injury, but she'll recover." Coran shifted the display back to its normal screen. "I'm sorry to hear she didn't find any information."
Keith's memory raced to the moment she had been shot and he pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to force it away. "Me, too. I'm not sure when we're going to be able to try that again."
Coran raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Try again? Have you gotten into the Nunvill?"
Keith frowned at him. "It's the best lead on Pidge's family we've got, using numbers that correlate to Shiro's—" Keith broke off, realizing.
"Keith?"
"Shiro's number…when we try again we have to include Shiro's number! If the Galra have him Pidge can get his location!"
"Oh, Keith, they don't have him. We would have heard if the Galra had reclaimed the escaped Champion."
Keith's stomach clenched at the thought of Shiro being forced back into the gladiator ring. "We won't know that until we try! And if they're still trying to heal Zarkon or decide who's in charge if he's dead, publicizing Shiro's recapture would be the last thing they're worried about!"
Coran shook his head and didn't reply as he headed out of the room. But under his breath, Keith heard him mutter, "Lance was right. He's obsessed."
It took every ounce of self-control Keith had to go to the training deck and beat up bots instead of attacking his fellow paladin.
After working the worst of his frustrations out by training, he went down to Red's hangar first, hoping that one of the other Lions might have communicated the growing rift between the paladins. Perhaps that would be enough to convince her to open up to him again. But the particle barrier remained when he touched it.
He left his hand in place and leaned against the red grid. "Please, girl. I need you. Please let me in."
A sudden bolt of pain lanced through the place in his head where Red usually resided, driving him to his knees.
She had rejected him. Again.
He staggered to his feet and left, barely aware of the tears running down his face.
I can't do this anymore. I have to find Shiro or die trying.
He went to Black's hangar and climbed up into her cockpit. He sat in the pilot's seat and watched as the console sprang into life. Black rumbled uneasily in his head, as if she already knew what he wanted.
"Look, I know you know what happened to Shiro. There has got to be some way for you to track him. Show me. I'll do whatever it takes to save him."
Black's rumbles grew to a warning growl.
"I don't care if it's dangerous. I don't care if it kills me, as long as we get him back."
Black snarled at that.
"You heard me! I can't lead Voltron, I've tried and failed! This is the only thing I can do to make it right! Now help me!"
Without warning, Black jettisoned him into inky space.
Thank you as always for reading!
