Lance was alright with this plan.

This plan was easy. This plan was simple. This plan was bound to work.

Lance just had one teensy-weensey, itty-bitty problem with this plan…

He was partnered with Keith.

Keith! Why Keith of all people!?

Lance honestly thought that Shiro and Allura had completely lost their minds! The maximum amount of time that Lance and Keith had been able to work together without fighting was ten minutes. Or course, Lance wasn't the one who started the fights. Keith started them with his I-am-so-good-at-everything-and-Lance-will-never-be-as-good-as-me attitude. That, and he was completely hostile to any of Lance's attempts to initiate a friendship. Lance would make a small joke to lighten the mood, and then Keith would suddenly explode at him as if the blue paladin had shaved off his mullet! Seriously, would it kill the dude to just chill!? And now the two of them had been partnered to protect Pidge while she hacked a Galran database.

There had been blood, and tears, and screams-many screams-when the red and blue paladins found out that they would have to endure each other's company. Shiro and Allura were both quick to slap them down, and reminded them that Pidge's safety was their shared responsibility. Lance quickly matured (though he still simmered slightly on the inside) because the thought of his hermanita being harmed was devastating!

"Yeah, well, Pidge would be perfectly safe with me. And Hunk too" Lance had argued. Shiro was quick to counter.

"Lance, you weapon isn't good for close range, and neither is Hunk's really; Keith's is. Besides, I need Hunk to help me look around and he understands Galran tech better than I do. "

Lance sighed heavily, but agreed nonetheless. After all, this mission was far more important than this petty feud going on between them.

So now Lance stood outside the door of the room where Pidge was hacking. He faced down one corridor while Keith watched down the other. Lance was tempted to make a witty remark about Keith's mullet, but decided against it. Besides, this was so cool! He felt like James Bond, defeating evil, shooting his enemies and sweeping all the girls off of their feet. He remembered how he and his younger siblings would crowd around the TV in their pyjamas to watch James Bond movies. They would have popcorn and sodas and garlic knots, and the elder siblings would be sat on the sofa while the younger ones were scrawled on the floor with cushions and beanbags. Juliana and Sofia would be curled up asleep by the end of the movie, and Lance and Mariana would carry them both upstairs to their beds. David had once said: "Lance would be the best James Bond out of all of us!"

Lance had to violently shake his head to point his focus back on to the corridor. Now was not the time for him to be reminiscing about the past.

I can go home once I know they'll be safe; it's far too dangerous to leave now.

Lance would keep telling himself this, not matter how much it breaks his heart.

Lance quickly glanced behind him to look at the red paladin. Keith was unaware of Lance observing him. He was focused solely on the end of the corridor, sword held loosely at his side in a tight grip. His legs were spread to give him a balanced stance, one foot behind the other in order to suddenly leap forward at a foe.

As much as Lance hated to admit it, Keith was pretty cool. When he'd first joined the Garrison, he had wanted to be Keith. Keith was an amazing pilot who answered every question correctly. Every guy wanted to be his friend and every girl wanted to be his true love. Keith, however, had no interests in such menial accessories. He only ever hung around Shiro, and never showed any gratitude when a teacher complimented him. Lance never really hated him though. He had tried a few times to approach Keith, but he never really showed any interest in a friendship. He hadn't even noticed Lance that time he'd borrowed his pencil and never given it back. Maybe he was too scared to give it back or had completely forgotten about it? Who cares? So the guy had a few socialising issues. So what?

Then Keith left, and Lance was moved up to his spot in Fighter Class. Lance was still alright with Keith at this point, but then suddenly it was all: "Kogane would have gotten this right by now!" or "Why can't you be more like Keith Kogane?" Being compared to another person everyday can get exceedingly annoying incredibly quickly, and it was these situations that planted the seed of bitterness within Lance. Being in space had sweetened his view of Keith though, but those cruel words from the Garrison still stuck with him. And Keith was absolutely certain that Lance still hated him.

Turning back to his corridor, Lance decided that he should tell Keith the truth as soon as the mission was over. Perhaps the two of them could have a new bonding moment-one that Lance would remember this time-and turn over a new leaf. It was decided then. Now it was time for him to focus less on the future and more on the present.

"How're you doing Pidge?" Lance called to the green paladin.

"83% done." Pidge called back. "I'll be done in a dobash."

The end of the dobash was marked by Pidge's triumphant exclaim.

"I got it!" She grinned. "Now let's get out of here!"

Pidge grabbed her memory stick from the control desk, and that's when everything went downhill.

Alarms immediately began blaring and purple lights flashed in the ceilings.

"Quiznack!" Pidge swore. "I must have triggered an alarm by removing the stick!"

"Never mind that!" Keith yelled. "Let's just focus on getting out of here."

Pidge ran out of the door and made to go down Keith's corridor when a group of sentries herded round the corner, guns blazing.

"Dammit!" Keith cursed. "Shiro, we're being attacked."

"Fend them off paladins!" Shiro replied through the comms. "We'll be with you shortly."

Lance took down as many as he could from the back while Pidge and Keith attacked from close-range. But would that be enough? Who knew how many of these things there were! Lance lowered his gun for a moment to observe the environment. It was then that he noticed the ledge just above him. If he could climb that, then he could see and shoot the sentries at the back!

With a grin, Lance leapt up to the ledge, with a little helpful thrust from his jetpack. He could see the robots at the end of the corridor, and more were joining on from around the corner with every passing tick! But Lance was able to see them. And if he could see them, then he could shoot them. It didn't take long for the army of sentries to reduce in size. There were definitely few enough of them to handle. Lance withdrew for a moment to roll his shoulders. That was when he saw something approach them from behind. Another foe was heading right towards Pidge and Keith from the corridor Lance had been watching earlier. But Pidge and Keith couldn't see them! Lance trained his aim on the adversary, and then hesitated when he saw…

A Galra.

Not a robot, but a real flesh-and-blood, sentient, living Galra. It was huge, massive, colossal! It could easily crush Pidge with one fist! Its purple fur was sleek and smooth, and its one yellow eye was trained firmly on the red and green paladins. Its other eye was purple and robotic, like Sendak's, but neither of his arms were cybernetic; his legs were though. He was quick and light on them as he ran for the exposed paladins.

Lance's finger was on the trigger, ready to send a shot right through the Galra's head. It would be easy; all he had to do was pull the trigger...but he couldn't. No matter how much willpower he had, he just couldn't do it! Lance's eyes began to water from frustration. WHY COULDN'T HE JUST SHOOT THE QUIZNACKING GALRA!? HE WAS RIGHT ON TOP OF PIDGE! Lance squeezed his eyes shut.

Shoot!

Come on!

JUST SHOOT!

Pidge suddenly screamed in agony, making Lance open his eyes faster than a hummingbird's flutter. Pidge was in the Galra's huge, tight grasp, a pain-filled grimace etched on her face. Keith turned to look as well, but had to turn away almost immediately to fend off a foe. Pidge then yelled again as the Galra squeezed her.

"PIDGE!"

Lance barely registered his scream as he pulled the trigger. The plasma bolt when straight through the Galra's head. Everything from that point was slow motion. Lance could see the blood come rushing out of the Galra's head like a fountain. The red splattered on the wall and dripped down it, slow and thick. The Galra had a momentary expression of surprise and pain on its face before it went completely lax...lifeless. Its body fell to one side like a felled tree. Its grasp on Pidge was suddenly unlocked, and she too made her descent to the floor.

Lance couldn't look away. No matter how much he wanted to, he just couldn't tear his eyes away from the scene; your murder scene.

Time resumed when the Galra's body hit the ground with a deafening thump that echoed through the metal tunnel. Pidge hit the ground with a hiss just as Keith finished off the last sentry. His attention was immediately directed to the fallen green paladin. Shiro and Hunk both arrived at this time as well. Shiro bounded gracefully through the field of broken robots while Hunk opted to tip-toe quickly instead.

"Katie!" Shiro exclaimed when he laid eyes on the youngest paladin. "Are you alright?"

Pidge was gently raised into a sitting position, hissing and gasping.

"I think my ribs are bruised." She groaned. "Possibly even fractured or broken."

"Don't worry Pidge." Hunk reassured her gently. "A healing pod can fix that in no time!"

Luckily for his stomach, Hunk didn't notice the dead corpse while his attention was solely focused on Pidge. He knelt down and carefully lifted Pidge to his chest, one hand supporting her knees and another supporting her back.

"Did you get the information?" Shiro asked.

"Yup." Pidge smiled, trying to show as little pain as possible. "I've got it right on this memory stick. I triggered the alarm when I removed it from the console."

"Well, it could have been worse." Shiro sighed in relief. He began to observe Keith for any injuries, and was satisfied when he saw none. It was at this point that he noticed they were missing a paladin. "Where's Lance?"

Keith's eyes widened suddenly, then turned to where he'd seen some shots come from. Lance was knelt on the ledge, his face pale and...was that a smidge of green in his cheeks? Nevertheless, Keith's blood began to boil with rage, fire lighting behind his skin. Lance was in a perfect location to see attacks from all sides. He was supposed to be a perfect sharpshooter. He was supposed to be watching their backs. So why had Pidge gotten hurt?

"Are you kidding me Lance!?" Keith yelled at the blue paladin, his body overflowing with rage. "You're always boasting about being a good sharpshooter and how you can keep Pidge safe on your own, so why did you let her get hurt!?"

Lance couldn't reply. What could he say? Could he really tell them that he couldn't kill a Galra, that he couldn't remove a threat to their team?

Thankfully, Shiro intervened.

"We can discuss this later." He said, placing his human hand on Keith's shoulder. "For now, we need to get back to Green and get Pidge in to a pod."

Keith huffed and unwillingly relented from his furious rant. But the glare he shot at Lance was clearly a message: this isn't over.

The paladins began to make their way back to where they'd left the green lion. As he leapt down, Lance couldn't help but take another look at the Galra he's shot. It-no, he-was laid on his back, his head surrounded by a pool of crimson blood. Something peeked out of a large, gaping hole on the side of his head, but Lance didn't let his gaze linger on the wound for long. Instead, he turned to the eyes, which were infinitely worse. The cybernetic eye was now black, as if all of the light had been sucked right out. The organic eye staring distantly at the ceiling. Lance almost thought that the Galra was looking straight at him, but he reasoned that that was impossible since he was…

Dead.

The Galra was dead.

Lance had killed a living person.

Lance had blood on his hands.

No. Please no. No, no, nonononononononono! What do I do?

Mamá, por favor, ¿qué hago?

(Author's Note:

Hello everyone! This is my very first fanfiction! I do plan to continue this, so don't worry! Feel free to leave a review. I don't think I'll be able to publish new stories very regularly with my current schedule, but I'll try my best.

Thanks for reading!

Translations:

Hermanita- little sister

Mamá, por favor, ¿qué hago?- Mama, please, what do I do?

EDIT: Grammar mistakes have been fixed. Inform me if you find any more.)