The last thing Keith remembered was light.
Pure, unfiltered white light. It completely filled his vision and was so bright that it seemed to sear his eyes. It encapsulated everything, demanding that there be no distractions to its presence.
Then, darkness.
He was then aware of two new things - the hiss of a pod and the feeling of sudden free fall. He wasn't fully back to reality yet, and his sluggish reflexes combined with his dazed mind certainly would have condemned him to slam into the floor.
However, strong arms caught him carefully. It was somewhat different in a way his disoriented mind couldn't place, but they were there nonetheless. They supported his body - still limp, as any function of his mind hadn't quite caught up - and moved him carefully.
There were sounds too. Voices. They streamed into his ears chaotically, and he was unable to make any sense out of them. It was as if he was trying to communicate underwater, and the sound waves had been scrambled in their journey to reach him.
He was detachedly aware of being lain down. The strong arms left, no longer needed as a firm surface supported his back.
It was a bit longer until proper consciousness was able to return. Slowly yet surely, his thoughts reorganized themselves and his brain got itself into working order.
He became less of someone simply listing stimuli, and more of a proper being. More of Keith.
He blinked his eyes open as memories returned, sitting up recklessly fast as the white light played back in his mind.
His head instantly protested, roaring that it wasn't completely finished through dull throbs. He winced in pain, and squinted his eyes, only able to catch a glimpse of familiar figures around him.
Sounds became words once more, and he was now able to not only hear them, but interpret them.
"He's awake." He heard an authoritative feminine voice report as he put a hand to his head in vain effort to stop the world from spinning. He distantly recognized the voice, but was temporarily was unable to connect a name to it.
"What...happened?" He found himself asking, his voice hoarse and low. He let out a few dry coughs, flaring the pain his his head.
"We were hoping you could tell us," A masculine voice said, not unkindly or demandingly.
"Shiro?" He blinked firmly, before his vision finally cleared. Shiro and Allura were standing there providing familiar faces.
But at the same time, they weren't familiar.
Concern was matched with guarded, wary expressions. Shiro looked little like the one he had seen last, and more like Shiro before his second disappearance. Allura was dressed in her dress clothes, something he rarely saw her in since she became the Blue Paladin, barring diplomatic meetings.
It was them, but at the same time, it wasn't.
Recognizing this instinctively, Keith unconsciously mimicked their guardedness. He shifted his position so he was sitting properly, with his back straight and his head held high. Ideally he would also be standing, but he didn't trust his body to be able to fully support him yet.
"Shiro?" He found himself asking cautiously, looking over him and Allura carefully. "Allura?" He asked after a pregnant pause. Annoyance nipped at him as he still received no answer. "What happened?" He demanded. "Where are the others?"
Paranoia had creeped in quietly, stalking his mind like a hungry predator would. Now that it had struck, he couldn't stop the stream of worrying thoughts. He had seen a third of the rebel forces destroyed. That had been devastating enough to the coalition…but had there been more? More fighting after he lost consciousness?
Shiro and Allura shared a quick look with one another, before Allura, the designated diplomat, took a step forward to face him properly.
"Keith…" She started out slowly, seemingly testing the waters. She gave him a quick moment of observation, as if she was seeing how he would react to the name. "What is the last thing you remember?" She prompted.
Keith's eyebrows scrunched in confusion. How long had he been out? Had he received a blow to the head - which would explain all the disorientation - and they were worried about amnesia?
"The battle," he said simply, not one to beat around the bush. "At Naxela. Why are you asking?"
Another look. Another secret message shared.
Keith was reaching the end of his patience. "Why are you guys tiptoeing around me? What happened while I was out? Where are the others?" He firmly asked, standing up unthinkingly. He stumbled a bit, and Shiro instinctively extended an arm to steady him. Keith batted it away.
"No." He protested, "Why are you guys being so weird?"
"We can answer your questions after you answer a few more." Shiro said decisively, and Keith shot him a look of confusion and annoyance.
"Fine," he snapped, impatient and fed up with the games. "What do you want to know?"
"Simple things. Just…tell us about Voltron. Or Earth. Easy answers." Allura suggested, and Keith frowned.
"If you're worried about a concussion or amnesia, I'm fine." Keith told them evenly. "Shiro flies Black. Allura flies Blue. Earth is in the Milky Way Galaxy. The other Paladins are Lance, Pidge, and Hunk. Now, give me some damn answers."
Allura stepped back in surprise, and Shiro looked at Keith with wide eyes. "Wait, who flies Blue?"
Keith suddenly became very, very wary. "What do you mean?" He asked, his voice icy. He reached for his knife, but found it gone. He clenched his jaw and slowly began moving away from the pair. "Where are the others?" He asked again, his voice completely and deadly serious.
"Guys, wait!" A thankfully familiar voice called, and all three pairs of eyes turned to see an out of breath Pidge in the doorway, obviously having run there. "I finished my calculations. We were wrong- oh." She halted, seeing the tense situation in front of her. Her eyes quickly pinpointed in on Keith. "You're awake." She stated.
"Pidge," He murmured quietly, relieved to see her. She was okay, which was one less thing that could have gone wrong. One less tragedy to be avoided.
"What is it?" Allura asked, taking a half step closer to Pidge, before warily looking at Keith out of the corner of her eye. A fresh wave of impatience flowed through him. He was tired of his questions being ignored. Of Shiro and Allura being so weird. And why did Shiro look like that?!
Pidge tore her gaze away from him, looking to Allura and Shiro again. She suddenly seemed very hesitant to share her findings. "Um, I can - do you want me to…?" She gestured vaguely, making it clear that she wanted to discuss it privately.
Shiro gave Allura a quick glance, and she moved towards Pidge. Shiro didn't move, and Keith knew easily why.
He stepped forward, directly into the path of Allura, causing the Princess to stop. "Someone is going to tell me what's going on. Right now. I'm done with being questioned and ignored. If something happened, just say it. I'm done with all this beating around the bush." He stated, loud and clear, meeting everyone's eyes.
Silence reigned for a few moments as his words bounced around the room, needing time to be absorbed. When they did, Shiro spoke first, "Keith, maybe-"
"No," Pidge, thankfully, stood up in his defense. She pushed up her glasses, the only outward sign that she was feeling some sort of misgivings or anxiety. That nervous tick of her's had disappeared when they found Matt. It was another thing out of place. "He has a right to know. Afterall, we don't know how long until we can fix the...situation."
Before Allura or Shiro could protest, Pidge properly turned to Keith, "You're not our Keith." She said simply.
"Pidge-" Shiro started, but Keith quickly cut him off.
"What do you-" He halted, realization sinking in. The inconsistencies finally making some sort of sense. The contradictions and chaos finally assembling into some sort of order. He looked around the room, at the people he thought he knew, with new eyes. "Am I in another reality?" He found himself asking.
"Another reality?" Allura repeated, looking surprised at his reaction.
Pidge shook her head, "It was initially thought that you were from another dimension or alternate reality, but…" She shifted her weight uncertainly, "I ran the numbers again. Coran and I agreed that, well, the most plausible answer is that you're from the future. Our future. Your past." Rambling. Over-explanation. Another thing that was so Pidge.
"What?" He breathed. The ground felt a bit less stable. The world seemed tinted slightly different colors. Alternate realities he could handle. They had dealt with those before. His te- Voltron knew about those. Those in his reality would be able to help, and despite his limited scientific and mathematical knowledge, he knew enough to be of some assistance.
Time travel? He knew enough to know that it was theoretically possible. That travelling backwards was the hardest part.
He just accidentally time travelled and was effectively stranded because of it, and if that didn't summarize his life recently he didn't know what did. "So you guys…" The words escaped him too quickly, and his head spun. He stumbled backwards slightly as he moved to sit down once more.
He looked up at them after a few moments. "Where is…?"
"You?" Shiro guessed correctly. He was standing close by, as if he wanted to comfort Keith but didn't quite know how. He couldn't blame him - he was Keith, but at the same time a complete stranger to them. He was wearing weird clothing and was from a different time and he was just wrong but at the same time right.
He knew how Shiro was feeling, because he was currently feeling the same way towards Shiro.
Keith nodded wordlessly. "We made sure he wasn't here when you awoke," Allura explained. "We didn't know who you were for sure, and did not want to risk anything."
It made sense. It was one of the few things right now that made any semblance of sense. He rubbed his face tiredly, distantly thankful that they were giving him time to digest all of this new information.
What was he supposed to do now? His head still ached slightly, but with enough persistence that he doubted it would go away anytime soon. He was trapped, locked away far away those he truly knew. No Voltron, no Blade, no rebels, no coalition.
He was a soldier, stuck in foreign territory. He had no back up. No supplies.
The mission. His mind suggested. Follow the mission. Complete the mission. It was repeated what had been drilled into his mind for the last few months - ever since he started working closely with the Blade of Marmora. The mantra was now a default. Something his mind would fall back to when nothing was making sense or going right.
That's what got me into this mess. He growled back, the scene replaying in his mind once more. He had been going towards the shield. He was going to break it with his ship. He had been about to die.
He froze, become rigid.
"They're going to think I'm dead." The realization slipped out from between his lips before his mind could fully process it. He looked up at the three in the room, but didn't really see any of them. Naxela was still playing in his mind, over and over. Matt yelling. The coalition crumbling. The planet about to explode. "We were in a battle and there was an explosion and…" His voice trailed away.
And they're going to presume I'm dead.
That's right. He was trapped in unknown lands. No backup. No options.
Nothing.
So... he thought humorlessly, directing his thoughts to the part of his mind that had been conditioned by the Blade of Marmora. What exactly were you saying about completing the mission?