Chapter 1

The Paladins of Voltron had only been fighting for a few minutes, but Keith could already feel the plan coming apart. He clenched his jaw, trying to analyze the situation, trying to see how they could get themselves out of this mess of a plan

"Pidge! Allura! Strafing run! Get those guns out!" He ordered over the comms, pulling Black into a tight turn to get back over to where Lance and Hunk were.

"Hunk! Cover us! Lance, we need to isolate one of those fighters!" The Paladins reported back affirmatively, each lion making a beeline for its task.

Here we go Keith thought grimly, trying to stick to the plan as much as he could and still try to complete the mission. But the mission was the problem! Team Voltron needed some piece of Galra tech, and the only way to get it was to capture a Galra fighter. But could they fly in cloaked and steal one from the hanger? Apparently, that was too risky, so Shiro decided luring the fighters out would be a better plan. At least they were attacking a small transport and its squadron escort as opposed to a battlecruiser, but the transport was putting up one hell of a fight and the fighters just seemed to keep coming.

"Hunk! The cruiser's charging its main batteries, you need to take them out!" Shiro commanded over the comms.

"On it Shiro!" Hunk replied, immediately banking off to take out the ships main guns, and leaving Lance and Keith to chase down a fighter alone.

Keith cursed under his breath. What the hell was Shiro thinking? Without Hunk, Keith was about to have one hell of a time covering Lance while he chased down a fighter. It seemed like ever since his disappearance, Shiro had been different. Slightly off.

"Keith!" Lance's yell and a sharp nudge from Black were the only things that gave him enough warning to narrowly avoid being hit by a flanking fighter. Keith yanked on the controls, flipping his lion in a 360 to get behind the fighter and shoot its left engine and wing clean off.

"I winged him! Go get him Lance!" Keith shouted as he banked to the side, letting Lance and Red rocket by him to retrieve the prize.

If Lance could get the fighter maybe this mission could be a success, despite Shiro's plan and odd strategic choices. Remember, he told himself it's because of Shiro we're getting this opportunity at all.

It was true. Shiro's miraculous return had been in a stolen Galra fighter, and luckily for them, Pidge had wanted to keep it, spouting off something about new intelligence like the rest of them couldn't tell she was itching to have some new Galra tech to play with. It had taken her some time, but 2 days ago Pidge had excitedly called them down to the hanger where they had been keeping the fighter and shoved her laptop, screen covered in numbers, in to their faces.

She had discovered Galra fighters had a sort of black box network, each fighter sending data and codes and orders back and forth with other. The box from Shiro's stolen fighter only had information from before his capture, so it wasn't very helpful. But if they could get another box, it could be a treasure trove of information.

And so here we are. Keith thought a little bitterly as he dodged more fighters. (How many of these things could one transport possibly need?) He pushed the lion into a steep dive, deploying the jaw blade and slashing to ribbons the engine of a fighter going after Lance. The crippled fighter was still putting up a fight, but given Red's speed and maneuverability, Keith knew they didn't have to hold out much longer.

Keith pulled Black out of the dive, noticing almost too late the small group of fighters making to attack Allura and Pidge's unprotected flank.

"Pidge! Allura! Behind you!" He called out, speeding towards their position. He was there before either of them could do much more than get out of the way and took out the most threatening fighter with a well-placed shot.

Pidge and Allura had veered around by that point, and the three we're almost through with the group of fighters, when one more appeared from Keith's blind spot, shooting directly at the black lion.

Black took the hit, tossing Keith to the side so hard that he blacked out for a moment, but in that moment, he could feel Black in his mind, willing him to open his eyes and see what she saw. He did, completely trusting the lion, but when he opened his eyes, he didn't see the black lion's cockpit. He was somewhere completely different.

Through Black's eyes, Keith could see Shiro. He could hear the sound of his breathing and feel his pain as Shiro thrashed against shackles binding his limbs to the chair he was sitting in. In that moment, it was almost like Keith was Shiro, tied to a chair in a strange place with no idea what the hell was going on.

"Whatever this is, don't do it! Let me go!" He could hear his own voice, no, Shiro's voice shout. Keith could feel his confusion and fear as he watched the strange person crouched in front of him. He could hear the words "I'm sorry Shiro" come from her mouth more clearly than he had heard his teammates over the comms during the battle moments ago. Then there was pain again, then nothing.

Keith could feel himself with Black in the between space where her consciousness resided. What he had seen - being Shiro in such a moment of fear and confusion had left his heart pounding and his breathing ragged. Keith had seen it, experienced it, but he couldn't believe it, it was impossible. Shiro was back in the Castle of Lions.

Believe it. Black's voice whispered in his mind.