"Oh my gosh Lance, why do you always have to be so annoying?" Keith spoke into the microphone in his helmet with annoyance.

"Why do you always have to be so stubborn?" Lance responded.

"Lance, we need to go get more Balmera crystals for the mission!"

"Ugh, why can't we get the other supplies first? It's on the other planet and it's a lot more fun."

"Because, the crystals are more important right now! Why do you always have to hold everyone up like this? It's not funny, we have important stuff we need to focus on."

"Pshh then you can go get them by yourself Galra, I'm leaving," Lance replied.

"Lance wait! There's a comet!" Keith warned despite that last insult.

"Lalala I can't hear you!""Lance," Keith swore and shoved the Blue Lion out of the way. The Red Lion was hit, the asteroid was bigger than the lion itself, and Keith desperately tried to regain control as the warning lights began flashing. The impact knocked him way off course. Then, he hit one of those exploding crystals, the same ones that killed Ulaz. The explosion shook the lion, bouncing it right back to another crystal. The starry space was lit up like fireworks as the explosions threw Keith and the Red Lion around like a bird in a hurricane. In the chaos, something malfunctioned, and Keith was launched out into the maelstrom. Lance heard the line between the helmets go dead, like what one would hear when a phone line cuts off unexpectedly. Lance's screaming was drowned out by the deafening sounds of the destruction. The Blue Lion shot out an ice ray, slowing the explosions a bit. This area of crystals wasn't as large as the last one they saw, so it was enough to eventually stop the crystals. The Red Lion was down, drifting through space lifelessly, but still intact. It could be revived later, but there was no sign of Keith. No uniform, no helmet, nothing remained but the frozen crystals and the Red Lion.

"Keith! Keith where are you?" Lance frantically checked, behind every crystal, up, down, sideways, he even tried to check the Red Lion, though it wouldn't respond. Then Lance saw it, a massive Galra fleet. Before he knew it they had the Red Lion.

"No!" Lance wasn't thinking clearly, and drove right after the main battleship. He managed to freeze a few ships in the process, but the Blue Lion ended up being captured and Lance started drifting into space before a different Galra ship captured Blue Lion lay next to the lifeless Red Lion in the other Galra ship, and Lance could see that they were headed straight for… more crystals? That would be suicide unless… another space pocket. What was with these crystals and space pockets anyway? They went through, and he saw Keith. The Blue and Red Lions were still frozen in place in the ship, but Keith was there, drifting through space like a ragdoll.

"Keith!" Lance shouted. No response. Then he was blocked from view as a Galra guard grabbed him and dragged him away.

"No! Keith!" Lance yelled. Then the guard started dragging him towards a cell, where they removed his helmet and tossed it out the airlock. Lance sat there for awhile, wondering if there was still a way to call for backup without his helmet, when they tossed Keith's limp body in the same cell. Lance immediately knelt down next to his friend.

"Keith, please wake up," Lance whispered. "Keith, I'm sorry, I'll never do reckless stuff like that again. You were right, I always hold everyone up and now because of that, you're…," he paused, not wanting to say the word, to say for certain that his friend was gone. "Maybe you were right, maybe I'm just… not cut out to be a pilot. It's not like my family would miss me much if I was...gone anyway. Once...I mean, if we get out of here and you really are…then I might… join you in...wherever you'll be." He stopped talking to let a small sob escape.

Suddenly Keith pulled Lance's head down until his ear was next to Keith's mouth. "Listen very carefully," the Red Paladin whispered. "They're going to interrogate you soon, so whatever you do, don't mention me. I need some time to figure out how to escape, so just...buy me some time, alright?"

Lance was so bewildered that he just nodded.

"Good." Keith's arm went limp again as footsteps echoed down the hall. "Good luck," he whispered, barely moving his lips. "Read this when you're ready." Lance felt Keith slip something into his pocket right before he closed his eyes.

A guard entered the cell and Lance lept to his feet. "His Highness will see you now," the guard said in its mechanical voice.

"Wow, I'm important enough for the big guy himself?" Lance said, trying to be nonchalant. In response, the guard slammed handcuffs onto his wrists and dragged him out of the cell. He caught Keith giving him a wink before the door slammed closed.

The guard forced Lance down the hall and into a room with a large table. The handcuffs were removed and his wrists and ankles were tied down onto the table.

"So, where's Zarkon, then?" Lance asked.

"Oh, he won't be joining us today," said a voice from the doorway. A man with long white hair and purple skin stepped into the room. "I'm Prince Lotor. Pleasure to make your acquaintance, paladin." He spat out the word like it was an insult.

"'Prince Lotor'? Who are you, some kind of…" Lance trailed off, unable to think of a suitable insult.

"Ooh, good one. I'm really scared." The prince laughed. "You can't do much here, boy."

"Aren't you supposed to interrogate me or something?"

"Ah, yes, of course!" Lotor exclaimed, gesturing to one of the guards, who placed a helmet of some kind onto Lance's head.

"What's this, some kind of mind reader?" Lance joked.

"Actually, that's exactly what it is."

Lance's grin slipped off his face.

"And it won't do you any good to try and be funny here," Lotor added. "I'm not easily amused."

"Shall we begin, then?" Lotor gestured again to the guard, who flicked a switch on a machine. A screen lit up next to the table and a picture of Lotor appeared of the screen.

"On here, we can view your immediate thoughts," Lotor explained. "No worries about lying here. Now, just focus and tell me where the Castle of Lions is."

Lance scoffed. "As if I'd tell you." As he said the words, an image of the Castle appeared on the screen of the Castle. However, the ship appeared to be floating in a black space.

"I said where is it, not what does it look like, idiot!" Lotor said angrily. "Try harder!"

Lance closed his eyes and pretended to think long and hard. An image of Lance giving Lotor an obscene gesture came onto the screen.

"Now that's just not nice!" Lotor gave Lance a mock pouty face. "What would Queen Allura say if you did that to her?"

A picture of Allura flashed across the screen.

"Now that's more like it."

Suddenly, an image of the cell and Keith showed up on the screen.

"Oh, your little friend." Lotor grinned. "What's going on with him, I wonder?"

Lance frantically tried to clear his mind, but the image of Keith stayed on the screen. He and Lotor watched as Keith stood and paced around the cell.

"Oh ho, the sleeping beauty awakens!" Lotor chuckled. "Guards!"

"No!" Lance shouted. The guards ignored him and marched out of the room.

"You really messed up this time, didn't you, boy?" Lotor leered down at Lance.

"What do you want?" Lance exclaimed angrily.

The guards dragged a seemingly unconscious Keith into the room and Lotor clapped his hands together.

"Wakey wakey, little paladin! Your friend let me know about your little game, so I know you're really awake." The prince snapped his fingers in front of the Red Paladin's face.

When Keith didn't respond, Lance shouted at him from the table. "Keith, just give up. He's got us right where he wants us."

Keith gave Lance a look out of the corner of his eye and Lotor grinned again. "I told you! Welcome back to the living, boy."

"Don't call him 'boy', you're, like, two years older than him!" Lance complained.

While Lotor was distracted, Keith elbowed one of the guards in the face and punched the other one in the stomach. They crumpled to the ground.

"Ah, you're a fun one, aren't you?" Lotor said. In response, Keith walked over and punched him in the gut. The prince doubled over, wheezing. Keith began to undo the restraints that held Lance onto the table.

"Impressive," Lance said, rubbing his wrists. "But I bet I could have done better."

"As if. Now c'mon, let's get out of here." Keith grabbed Lance's hand and together they raced out of the room.

The first few guards were swiftly sliced down by Keith's sword. The guards didn't even have time to react before a flash of red cut across their vision. They were cut up in a fraction of a second. The next wave of guards were blasted with Lance's gun and they fell fast as well.

"Nice job, sharpshooter."

"No problem."

The guards were appearing almost as fast as the two paladins were neutralizing them, they knew they had to get out of there quickly. After fighting their way through a few more guards, they came to the last hallway that led to an escape pod.

"C'mon we're almost there!" Lance said as he and Keith sprinted down the hall, trying to ignore the gunfire. Lance jumped into the escape pod, glancing back to find that Keith had hit the launch button from the outside without jumping in with him.

"Keith what are you doing?!" Lance pressed his hands to the window. Keith staggered and leaned on the window, clutching his chest. He looked up at Lance and a humorless smile crossed his face as he pulled back his hand to reveal a hole shot through his back. A small trickle of blood streamed from one corner of his mouth.

"Lance, remember… the note I gave you," Keith's voice was muffled by the window as he slid down the door, showing Lotor standing behind him with a blaster.

"Keith no!" Lance screeched and flung himself at the door window. "Keith!" Lance cried hopelessly. He looked at Lotor, who was staring back at him. "You! I will come back here, and I'll make you wish you were never born! I'll make you regret every second of your miserable life!" Lance was still screaming and swearing at Lotor and slamming his fists on the window even when the pod shot out into space. He should've been the one hit by the asteroid, he should've been the one nearly torn apart by the explosions, he's the one who should've been shot. Keith was important, part Galra, he could've been the key to defeating Zarkon. The key to saving the universe. Lance was just another person from Earth, nothing special. He was easily replaceable...Keith wasn't. Now Keith was dead, because of Lance. If he hadn't been so reckless… maybe Keith would've made it. How could he come back to the other paladins when it was his fault Keith was dead? It should've been him. Now he had to face the others, but how could he? How could he face Shiro, who saw Keith as a little brother? How could he face Pidge when Keith could've been the one to unlock a Galra cell and get her family back? How could he face Hunk, who always saw the best in him but after this… And, oh quiznack, how could he even look at Allura and Coran, whose homes were destroyed by the Galra empire? Keith could've stopped that, But Lance couldn't. The last words before he was shot, "Nice job, sharpshooter," kept replaying in his mind. Maybe Keith could've been the thing Lance kept living for, but now that he was gone…

A flash of red came from the corner of the pod. A glowing button with the word 'eject' written over it. The button twinkled invitingly. Red, the color of Keith's Lion. If he pressed that without his helmet, he would get sucked out into space and die as he should have done a million times over. He wouldn't have to show his face to any of the others, and he wouldn't be around to mess anything else up. He'd be remembered as a hero, killed by the Galra. Space was too vast, no one would know. No one would need to know. His hand moved toward the button, shaking slightly. No one would even miss him anyway right? He'd never cause any more problems ever again, right? They'd find someone new, someone better, to pilot the Blue Lion. Someone like Keith… They didn't need him. No one needed him.

His hand was over the button now, resting right above it. All it would take was one simple push, the kind one would use to open a door. And he was opening a door in a sense, a door to a better life for the other paladins. He was about to do it, but then Keith's words came back to him. Read this when you're ready. He lowered his hand, still staring at the button. No, no he couldn't, not without reading Keith's note. He pulled out the crumpled piece of paper. It read:

Dear Lance,

After my near death with the exploding crystals, I realized just how dangerous our job is. If you are reading this, I imagine that I would be dead or close to dying. I originally wanted to write this to let the world know what I intended to do to help defeat Zarkon, and what I would've done afterwards. However, I need you to know none of this was your fault. I said some harsh things back when we were getting those crystals that I shouldn't have said. I refuse to die leaving those words as the last we ever spoke to each other. Lance, they need you, we all do. You can't leave leave them just because I'm gone. We signed up for this knowing we might die, well now I have. They still need you. Lance, stay alive. Keep living as long as you can, if not for the universe then do it for me… and Lance, thank you, for everything.

-Keith

Lance gripped the note tightly and moved away from the button. Keith was right after all. He still needed to make Lotor beg for mercy for what he'd done. Whatever it takes, I'll keep living. For you, Keith.