I am a horrible person, and if I said I was sorry I would be lying.

(Shameless advertising: Check out my Voltron/Invader Zim Crossover, Intergalactic Genocide!)

I do not own these beautiful characters.

**TAKES PLACE ABOUT 3 YEARS AFTER END OF SEASON 2**

Keith was the one who saw it happen. It took him a minute to even realize what he was really seeing. It was the final battle, the very last one, before the universe would be free from Zarkon's empire once and for all. They had already killed Zarkon, now it was just the final resistance, the Galra who were desperate to not become prisoners. And one of them had just flown directly into the face of the Blue Lion, like a Kamakazi plane hitting an Allied war ship during WW2 back on Earth. It had happened so fast, Keith doubted Lance would've even noticed it in time to move out of the way.

"Lance!" He heard Shiro call over the radio, but the only answer was static and Blue was still going down. Keith turned and went after it, watching as the giant metal beast struck the hard ground of the moon they were fighting around, and it burst into flames.

Galra ships cut him off, and Keith snarled as he tried to fight them off. He had to get to Lance. Even if the other guy drove him up a wall and made him want to bash his head against a table, that was his teammate. It took Keith 30 minutes to finally fight through the Galra ships and get down to the surface of the moon. He launched himself out of Red as fast as he could, racing over to the flaming wreck that was once the blue lion. The smoke and the dust was thick, but somehow, he made it to the cockpit and spotted Lance's limp body crammed up under the dashboard. He was bent wrong, there was no way a human should be in that position. There were burns on his skin and gashes. More than one broken bone. What gave Keith a little bit of hope was the fact that some of the cuts were still having a steady flow of blood leaking out of them. That meant his heart was still beating. Lance was still alive. Alive, that meant there was a chance.

Keith knew there were certain injuries where it was best to not move to victim until a professional came, otherwise you could risk further damage. But there was too much smoke and no official 'professional' here. So he grabbed Lance's shoulders and pulled him out. Lance groaned, but he was unconicious. Once he got Lance's body out from under the dashboard, he bent down to pick him up. He didn't lay properly in his arms though. His back was kind of arched, not relaxing down like a limp body was expected to do. Keith didn't have time to think about that though, because he needed to get out of here.

By the time he climbed out of the rubble and got through the thickest of the smoke and dust, he saw that Shiro, Pidge, and Hunk had landed. Shiro was checking that the Garla who had crashed into Blue was dead. Keith hadn't even noticde that the ship was still there. Hunk and Pidge had been calling for Lance and Keith, but stopped as soon as they spotted Keith stumbling over the broken glass and shards of metal with Lance in his arms. Pidge moved first, Hunk seeming to be to shocked by the sight. This was his best friend he was seeing being carried out of the rubble.

"Is he alive?" Pidge asked as she got closer. Keith put him down on the closest thing to a flat surface he could find, away from the smoke.

"Yes." He said, before coughing some of the smoke from his lungs. Lance's breathing was shallow and ragged, strained. Hunk and Shiro finally made their ways over.

"What happened? All I saw was Blue going down." Shiro asked, already bending down beside Lance to see what he could do.

"That Galra ship dive bombed him. Lance didn't have any time to move out of the way or shoot at it." Keith bent down beside Shiro to try help. There wasn't much they could do. Pidge was already calling Allura and Coran to bring the castle closer and to get a healing pod ready.

The response that came over the speakers in their helmets made Keith's blood run cold.

"We aren't sure how long the healing pods are going to work, the crystal was damaged pretty bad!" Coran said. "The ship is running on the reserve!"

Hunk looked like he was about to have a full-blown panic attack. Shiro was working faster, trying everything he could think of to at least stop the bleeding.

"We need to get him into the ship, at least. He can barely breath." Keith said, and Shiro helped him pick him back up and move him into Red. Red lowered it's head and opened it's mouth so they could enter, and they strapped Lance down in a little room made for long trips and emergencies. Keith had only realized it was there a year after finding Red. There was a tiny toilet, a little single bed, and a tiny area to store clothes. It was quite convenient for longer flights. After they made sure Lance was strapped down securely, Keith got into the pilot's chair and Shiro left to get back in the black lion. He would be carrying Blue back to the castle.

Keith flew fast and hard to get back to the castle, being the first one to land. Coran and Allura were already there, and met him on the ground as he carried Lance out of the lion. The blue paladin's breathing was getting fainter, and he had stopped making noise.

"Quickly. We'll get him into one of the pods and that should at least have enough power left in them to stop the bleeding and easy his breathing. Hopefully to fix any broken bones too." Allura said, and lead the way back through the halls. Since the pods required someone to stand in them, it was a little hard. Lance's back was still arched. Keith was beginning to suspect that it wasn't pain making it arched. He was pretty sure Lance's back was broken. If he made it through, the chance of him standing, let alone walking, would be slim.

The strapped him into the pod and closed it, having nothing else they could possibly do. Coran set it to work on the injuries that could be fatal first. If they could keep him alive, they could find another crystal and have a better chance at healing the rest of him.

*three Earth-days later*

The castle was slow. It could not move very quickly on these reserve crystals unless everything else was shut down. They would need to shut down anything that wasn't the engine. They couldn't jump through a wormhole because the machine was broken again. They didn't have enough people to hold the Hunk's make-shift disks either, nor any conveniently timed case of the Slipperies to shine them with. Their best hope was to call for help from allies and other planets. They were looking for healers as well as Balmeras.

And always, someone sat outside the healing pod, watching Lance's charts, making sure he was still alive. The pod was barely working. It had stopped the bleeding and some of the bigger gashes were now reduced to scars, while the smaller cuts had already healed on their own. Some of the bruises on his body were still angry looking, but they were not fatal injuries. According to the charts, he had had a punctured lung which was now healed along with 2 of 4 broken ribs. The two that were not yet healed were the less damaged of them. But perhaps the most alarming injury was his back. It was still broken. When Hunk had asked why the pod hadn't fixed it yet, Coran had shrugged sadly and said that wasn't considered a mortal wound. It was broken, but in this case, wouldn't kill him.

Hunk was the one sitting outside the pod now, watching Lance's body with a sad look. He didn't think this was fair. Lance had the biggest family out of all them, and he used to always talk about wrestling with his brothers or playing tag with his younger siblings. He was the most active out of all them, had been on the track team for a while too before going to the garrison. While his pilot skills had not been too great, he had passed all his physical tests with flying colors, top of the class in that area. But broken backs normally resulted in paralysis.

He wondered now if they would be heading back to earth. No one had talked about where they would go after the final battle. He assumed Pidge would go and try to find her brother and dad again. That was something they hadn't managed to do yet but now with the Galra defeated, she had the chance. Keith and Shiro would probably go with her, Shiro because he felt responsible and Keith because he had nothing better to do and no one to go home to on Earth. But Hunk's parents were still on Earth, and he missed them and he missed the food, the people, and everything about it. And now he had so many stories to tell, and he couldn't wait to share them. But he had also made so many friends out here in space, and had grown to like it out here too. Maybe there was a way to live in both? Would he get to keep his lion? Because maybe then, he would be able to come out to space and visit whenever he wanted.

Hunk was so lost in thought, he didn't realize the beeping of the pod or the hiss as it began to open. It was only when he saw the shadow did he realize it was open and he had just enough time to reach his arms out and catch Lance before he could hit the ground. The light of the pod faded. And Lance was lying unconscious in his arms, pale and a little sweaty, but alive.