This was actually a story I'd been working on since before season 2. Originally, it was supposed to have a very Escape from Cluster Prime feel, which was actually one of the problems I was having with it. It also was only supposed to reference the song, but this story just wasn't working so I decided to put this together instead.
Keith ducked his head as Quirn dragged him around a corner and shoved him into a closet.
"Ujryz, Kayiv! Why couldn't you have stayed calm for once, instead of flying off the handle?" the taller Galra growled, their tail swishing agitatedly. "A movement, that's all I asked of you, but no! You had to pick a fight with a commander's son and now you've gotten the attention of central command!" Keith snarled so Quirn added, "I hope you're happy! I hope you're happy now! I hope you're happy how you've hurt your cause forever! I hope you think you're clever!"
At the same time, Keith shouted, "I hope you're happy! I hope you're happy too! I hope you're proud how you would grovel in submission to feed your own ambition! But I can't! I was born and raised to fight for what I believe in."
Together, the Galra teens barked, "So though I can't imagine how, I hope you're happy right now!"
The two glared each other down before Quirn sighed. "Kayiv, listen to me. Just say you're sorry and keep your head down. You can still meet with my uncle. What you've worked and waited for. You can have all you ever wanted-"
"I know," Keith cut them off. "But I don't want it- No. I can't want it anymore. Something has changed within me. Something is not the same." He looked down at the dagger in his hand and his fist clenched around it. He looked up and met Quirn's eyes. "I'm through with playing by the rules of someone else's game." He pushed past the taller Galra and stepped back into the hallway.
"Where are you going?"
Keith smirked and he felt a tug in his mind. "It's too late for second-guessing. Too late to go back to sleep. It's time to trust my instincts, close my eyes, and leap!"
"Kayiv!"
Keith rushed past other students and sentinels, gaining looks and he flew through the hallway. "It's time to try defying gravity! I think I'll try defying gravity and you can't pull me down!"
"Can't I make you understand? You're having delusions of grandeur!" Quirn hissed, rushing to his side and grabbing his arm once they were out of sight again.
Keith sent them an apologetic, but determined look. The runt pulled away and returned to his flight down the hallway. He burst into the cafeteria and jumped onto a table. "I'm through accepting limits 'cause someone says they're so. Some things I cannot change, but till I try, I'll never know! Too long we've been afraid of losing a fight I guess we've lost. Well, if that's life, it comes at much too high a cost!" He pointed his blade at a group of soldiers that were headed his way. "I'd sooner buy defying gravity than ever bow to Zarkon! Kiss me goodbye, I'm defying gravity! And you can't pull me down!"
He jumped down and slid out a door opposite the soldiers. He spotted Quirn in the empty hall and said, "Quirn, come with me. Think of what we could do, together. You know so much about how the army works and their stations. Together we'd be unlimited! Together we'd be the greatest team there's ever been, Quirn. Dreams, the way we planned 'em."
"If we work in tandem," Quirn added with a wistful smile.
"There's no fight we cannot win," they said together. "You and I defying gravity. With you and I defying gravity."
"They'll never bring us down!" Keith confirmed. "Well? Are you coming?" he asked, holding out his hand.
Quirn stared at it then grabbed his forearm. "I hope you're happy, now that you're choosing this."
"You too." Keith wilted, but smiled. "I hope it brings you bliss."
"I really hope you get it, and you don't live to regret it," the two said, placing their foreheads together. "I hope you're happy in the end. I hope you're happy, my friend."
Footsteps sounded from where Keith had come from and he took off. The hall he had ran down ended in a T with hallways going right and left and a pair of sentinels guarded a door in front of him. Before anyone could realize what he was about to do, he cut down both sentinels and ran through the doors.
He jumped down the steps and into the courtyard, then looked back up at the school, calling, "So if you care to find me, look to the star-filled sky! As someone told me lately, Everyone deserves the chance to fly! And if I'm flying solo, at least I'm flying free! To those who'd ground me, take a message back from me!"
The soldiers began to rush down the stairs, and Keith could see students pressed up against the windows of the school to see, but everyone jumped back when a red metallic lion fell through the clouds to land behind Keith with an impact that shook the ground.
Keith laughed and jumped into the lion's mouth when she leaned down and opened up. He grabbed his bayard from where it had been tucked carefully in Red's jaw and held it up, letting it form into a sword so no one would be able to doubt who he was. "Tell them how I am defying gravity! I'm flying high, defying gravity! And soon I'll match them in renown!
"And nobody in all of the universe, no emperor that there is or was, is ever gonna bring me down!"
Quirn stared up at the boy with a sad smile, their tail slowly flicking back and forth. I hope you're happy!
"Look at him, he's a paladin!" their fellow students muttered around them.
"Get him!" the soldiers shouted, taking fire.
"Bring me down!" Keith laughed, as Red raised her shield.
"I want the paladin!" Haggar screamed.
"So we've got to bring him down!"
Red's mouth snapped shut and Keith felt her take off as he ran to the cockpit. As he took the controls, he took one last look at his friend before Red disappeared into the clouds.