Chapter 2

Shiro was restless.

For the past hour, he had been pacing the control room just waiting for Lance, Pidge, and Hunk to come back with Keith, all of them safe and sound. He knew it was highly unlikely for Keith to come back unharmed, he had been in the hands of the Galra for two and a half weeks, completely at their mercy. Shiro knew from first hand experience that mercy was not in their vocabulary. He prayed, though, that nothing permanent had happened to his friend. He was reminded everyday of what the Galra took from him; his entire arm had been cut off, painfully and slowly, and replaced with a replica made to become their 'champion.'

If something like that had happened to Keith….

He squeezed his eyes shut. No, he couldn't think like that. He just had to wait here, for who knows how long, not knowing what half his team was going through or if they were alright. He just-

"Shiro!" Allura shouted, making him snap out of his train of thought. "Hunk just commed in, he said they got Keith, but" she trailed off, making Shiro even more worried than he was before.

"But what?" Shiro all but yelled, his usually calm demeanor frantic and worried.

"Keith is badly injured, and Pidge has been shot." She said, voice etched with worry. "Both are currently stable, but we have yet to hear of any permanent damage."

Shiro gripped had to lean against the nearest wall for support. "But they are all alive?" He asked tightly. Please let them all be alive.

Allura nodded. "Yes, all of the paladins are alive, and will be here in a few doboshes. I am just about to warp them over."

Shiro let out a sigh of relief. They were all alive, they would all be okay. Everything would be okay.

He started walking to Yellow's hangar, not able to wait and stand idly by anymore. When he made it there, he saw that Coran was already there with two stretchers.

"Ah, Number One!" shouted the red haired advisor exclaimed. "I was just waiting for the Paladins to return. The healing pods are already set up, and they should be here any dobosh."

Shiro nodded, unsurprised to see Coran already here. He went back to his pacing, terrified of how bad it must be to need stretchers. It was only half a dobosh later the hangar finally opened and Yellow came speedily through.

Both Coran and Shiro turned to face the Lion as its mouth opened and Hunk and Lance walked out, Hunk carrying Keith and Lance carrying Pidge.

"Shiro!" both conscious paladins shouted, and probably would have ran to their leader if they weren't carrying their injured teammates.

They quickly placed Keith and Pidge on the stretchers and all of them all but ran to the med bay, because they were now finally able to do something to help. Coran scanned Pidge first, and declared her ready to be put in the healing pod, and quickly moved on to Keith.

"Lance," Shiro turned to the blue paladin. "What happened? How bad-"

"Shiro," Lance turned to him, eyes full of sadness. "He's really bad. What they did to him-"

"Quiznack!" Coran shouted before Lance could finish. "This is really, really bad."

"Coran?" Shiro asked. "What's wrong? How bad is he?" Based on both his and Lance's reaction, something was really wrong.

Coran's usually cheerful demeanor was serious. "He has many injuries, what looks like burns and cuts, but all of those have already started healing on their own and will probably be fixed with a few varga in the healing pod. But he has Galactic Jelly in both his ears, a gel like substance used to deafen the subject. It was banned back when Altea was around"

"What?!" Shiro yelled. The had taken away Keith's, his brother's, hearing. "It's not permanent, is it?"

Coran shook his head. "No, we can take it out, but it's extremely painful and he must be conscious. But, Shiro…"

"What else?" please, don't let there be anything else.

Coran hesitated, and Lance looked away. Did Lance know what was going on? Finally the Advisor replied. "There is major scarring…. Across and all around his eyes. Keith was not only deaf, but he was also blinded."

Shiro gripped the stretcher, feeling as if he didn't he would fall over right there. Keith had been blind and deaf for who knows how long. Tears welled up in his eyes, threatening to fall. "Is...Is the blindness permanent?" Please, please no.

Coran hesitated again. "Because of the damage done to the eyes, there is no way to heal it. It's not like the Galactic Jelly, not something we can just take out. His eyes are badly scarred. The blindness is permanent."

Keith was put in the healing pod soon after Coran told Shiro. Lance hadn't known for sure, but he saw the scarring around the eyes, he suspected that the damage was permanent. Yet, when Coran confirmed it, Lance felt like he would fall over at any moment. If he had just gotten there faster, found Keith sooner…

But there was nothing they could do. All they could do was wait and try to figure out what to do next.

Lance sat in the med bay where all the others had gathered. It had become a sort of tradition, every time someone was in the healing pod, all the other's would stay in the med bay. If it was overnight, they even brought in blankets and pillows and slept in there. It had only happened a few times, but it led to some fond memories.

Pidge was only going to be a few varga, and would be completely healed before they all went to bed. Keith, on the other hand, wouldn't be healed until early tomorrow morning. Thus, all the other Paladins, plus Allura and Coran, brought in pillows and blankets from around the castle.

When Pidge came out, she was only a little disoriented. The whole group gathered around the pod, just like every other time someone came out of the pod.

"Hey guys," she said, only Lance could barely hear her as she was quickly smothered by everyone within reaching distance.

"Oh, Pidge, were so glad you're okay!" Hunk grinned as he gripped the green paladin.

A few tick's later, Pidge pulled back from the group. "What happened? Did Keith…"

"You got shot in the back with a laser gun," Lance said, unusually blunt. Then he smiled. "But we all made it alive. Keith's in the other healing pod."

Pidge nodded in understanding. "When will he wake up?" then her eyes widened. "Wait, what about-"

The others shot around a nervous glance before Shiro spoke. "The deafness isn't permanent, but it will be painful to fix, and he has to be conscious. But his hearing will come back."

Pidge sighed in relief . "But.. what about his sight?" everyone glanced to the floor, avoiding her eye contact. She quickly realized what was going on. "The damage was too bad, wasn't it? He's permanently blind."

Lance nodded silently, still not meeting her eyes. Pidge took a deep breath. "Okay, well, what's next then?"

This time Allura spoke. "All we can do. We wait for Keith to wake up."

Keith opened his eyes to darkness. For a second, he thought he dreamed the whole thing, and that his friends hadn't come to rescue him after all. But then, he started falling forward. He moved his arms around to try to catch himself, but someone caught him first. He flinched back, but whoever it was held on tightly, one hand grabbing his arm and another grabbing his wrist. Wait, why did the one on his wrist feel like metal?

He touched the metal with his other hand, and felt it up to a shoulder, and the metal stopped. "Shiro?" He said, hating that he couldn't hear himself talk.

The hand on his arm let go and grabbed his other hand, then moved upward and Keith could feel a head nodding.

Shiro was here. He was with Shiro, and that meant he was safe. He pressed his head to where he thought Shiro's chest was, in the form of a makeshift hug. Only half a tick later, he felt other arms wrap around him too, not just Shiro's. He distantly realised he must have just gotten out of a healing pod, and he wanted to cry with joy that they were all safe.

But then they all started backing away, and Shiro started walking him towards...somewhere, and then he was lightly pushed downward. He felt something underneath him -a chair or table?- and realized Shiro wanted him to sit down.

Then he felt two different hands grip his, tightly, and another pair of hands pressing down on his shoulders. Keith frowned in confusion. What was happening?

Suddenly he was back in the Galra ship, help down so that he couldn't move as they.. As they..

No, you're not there, your back with you're team, back with Shiro, don't be irrational.

But then there was unbearable pain in his head and now he wasn't so sure. He could feel himself scream, and that could only mean one thing. It had all been a trick. He wasn't sure how, but he knew his friends would never purposefully hurt him, and the fact that he was still in the Galra ship hurt him more than anything.

But then he heard something.

"-Hurting him!"

"I know, I'm sorry, but I'm almost done, just a tick"

"Keith, can you hear me?"

He knew those voices. He knew he knew those voices.

"Keith! Please tell me you can hear me!" If he was still in the Glara ship, why was he hearing this voice? It sounded so familiar. The voice sounded really desperate, and something told Keith that that voice should not sound like that. But whose voice was it? He hasn't heard anything in what felt like weeks. Maybe it was weeks, he had no idea. But he couldn't remember..

Wait, no, he knew that voice, he would know it anywhere.

"Shiro?"

He could hear Shiro let out a sigh of relief. "Keith, thank goodness, can you hear me?"

Keith nodded slowly. "Yeah, I can."

Then it hit him. He wasn't in the Galra ship. He was back here, really back here. And, in what felt like the first time in what felt like forever, he could hear. He grinned. "Yeah, yeah, I can hear."

He could hear cheers around him, and remembered that everyone else was probably there too. Then, he remembered that Pidge had been injured. "Wait, Pidge?"

"I'm here, I'm okay Keith." The sound of Pidge's voice make Keith sag in relief. Pidge was all right, they were all alright.

"What happened?" he asked, suddenly realized he knew pretty much nothing. "And what was that...Pain from before?"

A voice he recognized as Coran's spoke. "Well, they put this substance known as Galactic Jelly in your ears. Basically, it's what took away your hearing. The only way to restore it was to take the Jelly out, but it's an extremely painful process, and you have to be fully conscious. We had no way of communicating with you at the time, and we all decided it was best to get it over with. I'm.. sorry about that."

Keith shook his head. "No, it's okay. Thank you." then he realized something else, he was too preoccupied to fully notice before. "What about… the blindness?"

When the only response was silence, he felt a bit of panic rise through him. "..Guys?"

"Keith," he could hear Allura's voice say, "The damage done to your eyes was irreversible. The blindness... is permanent."

A/N yay chapter two

okay so because it's probably gonna be important later this fic takes place in season 2 before the whole shiro thing, but it has mentions of Keith's backstory which we don't find out till season 6. Anyway I'm going to post this basically whenever I feel like it, but at least once a week.