(A/N Ok so this fic was written between seasons 3 and 4, is set during the end of season 2, was the second voltron fic I ever wrote, and is also extremely self indulgent and slightly cringey. You have been warned.)

The cell the five paladins were being held in was small, only one part of a much larger room. Long, green tinted windows provided them a look out, but there wasn't much to see. The room was mostly empty, made of the same black metal and purple lights as the rest of the Galra ship.

Shiro was understandably nervous. They hadn't seen any drones or guards since they were initially captured, and he couldn't help but wonder what they had planned for them.

The other paladins were restless. Pidge and Lance paced circles around the tiny room, searching for any slight weakness or opening. Hunk was quiet, probably trying not to panic. And Keith was-

"Shiro." Keith was talking to him.

"Yeah?" He was wearing his leader mask, but he wasn't sure Keith was convinced.

"We know what Zarkon wants." he was speaking quietly, but he caught the attention of the others anyway, and they all stepped a little closer.

"Yeah, he wants the Black Lion."

"Which means he's probably going to try and kill you." said Pidge, looking up at Shiro with a depressed face.

"Not necessarily." Keith said, drawing the gaze of the other paladins back to him. "He doesn't just want to own the black lion, he wants to control it. He lost his connection to it and wants to know how to get it back."

Shiro's look turned grave. "I think I know what you're saying."

"No, you don't." snapped the Red Paladin. "They know you, Shiro. They know you won't break. But they know your weak spots, too."

"Keith, what-"

"Listen to me." he took a step closer, an intense look on his face. "No matter what happens, no matter which one of us they take out of here, you can't tell them anything."

"Keith, chill out." Lance said anxiously. "Nothing's gonna happen to any of us." Keith didn't even acknowledge he had spoke.

"This isn't a request. You can't break. No. Matter. What."

A stunned Shiro opened his mouth to answer, but at that moment, there was a hiss as the door to their prison slid open. There stood Zarkons witch, Haggar, flanked by three drones. Shiro's side began to ache dully, remembering their last encounter.

The paladins were all silent and still, waiting for Haggar to do something. She surveyed the room, taking her own sweet time, letting the tension build. Finally, she spoke in her old, creaky voice.

"That one." She raised a hand, and pointed a gnarled finger at Keith. The drones immediately moved forward to do her bidding while Shiro stepped protectively in front of him, his cybernetic hand lighting up in preparation for battle.

Haggar's yellow eyes narrowed, and with a mere flick of her wrist, sent him sailing painfully into a wall. Over the ringing in his ears he heard one of the other paladins call his name, but before he could get to his feet the drones had already dragged Keith from the cell, the door hissing shut behind them. He scrambled upright, ignoring the hands trying to assist him, and raced to the window.

Surprisingly, Keith wasn't fighting them. He was still as a statue as they pulled his armor off of him, watching Haggar with a wary eye. He knew trying to get away now would just end badly.

Once he had been reduced to his black workout shirt and cargo pants, they bound his wrists together and looped them over a hook attached to the wall, hanging him so that his toes barely brushed the floor. Keith kept his chin high, refusing to be intimidated.

Shiro watched tensely from the cell window, all muscles rigid as the drones took up position near the doors. Hunk and Lance stood beside him, just as scared as Shiro but worse at hiding it.

Behind them, Pidge was on her hands and knees, feeling along the walls, looking for any kind of opening. Her heart pounded in her chest, her palms were sweaty. She had to figure out some way of escaping this cell, and soon.

Haggar's voice was slightly muffled through the glass, but still understandable.

"I am going to ask you some questions." she said as she stood in front of Keith. "I will know if you lie."

"Good luck with that." Keith responded defiantly. "I'm not going to tell you anything."

Haggar didn't respond to the bait. Her voice remained just as even and unreadable as ever while she asked her first question.

"How many planets have joined the Voltron Coalition?"

True to his word, Keith said nothing. Haggar didn't press or persuade, she simply held up her hand. In her palm was a small black orb, sparking with golden lightning. In the next moment, she pressed it to Keith's shoulder.

Immediately his back arched and his muscles tensed at the electrocution, and he cried out at the pain. Shiro jolted, his hands coiling into tight fists. He was dimly aware of Hunk and Lance reacting, but his vision had tunneled, focusing purely on Haggar and Keith.

Just as Pidge was flinching at the sound, her fingers found a slim seam in the metal. She pried at it with her short fingernails, but it wouldn't give, so in a frustrated flurry, she slashed at the panel with her bayard. To her relief, the metal broke, falling away to reveal a tangle of wires. Hopefully, one of them would connect to the lock mechanism on the door.

"Where is the Princess Allura?" Haggar asked, not bothering to repeat her last question. Once again, Keith was silent. Haggar touched the orb to the side of his ribs this time, and held it there for several seconds longer, leaving the paladin breathing hard once the pain finally stopped.

Shiro wanted to clamp his hands over his ears. He wanted to rip Haggar apart. He wanted to drive this whole ship directly into the sun. But all he could do was stand there, and watch.

"How did Voltron escape from the force field?"

Keith's only response was a glare. The witch answered him by imbedding the orb into his stomach, and not moving it for almost a solid minute. All of his muscles shrieked, and despite his best efforts, he wasn't much better. When Haggar finally backed off, he went limp against the wall, panting and coated in sweat. Shiro couldn't hold his tongue anymore.

"Stop it!" he yelled through the glass. "Let him go!"

Haggar staunchly ignored him and wandered towards the table Keith's gear was laid out on. Slowly, almost idly, she picked up his knife.

Pidge was starting to freak out now. She couldn't seem to figure out these wires. None of them were doing what she wanted them to.

"Hunk!" she cried, making him jump about ten feet into the air. "Come help me!"

In the other room, Keith finally looked up to see Haggar clutching his dagger, and his eyes narrowed.

"Strange." she said. "How did such a unique blade like this end up in the possession of a human boy from Earth? You needn't answer this one, I already know."

He watched her warily. Where was she going with this?

"I know all about your family, Red Paladin. And I could tell you. Information, for information."

Keith's eyes widened, and for a moment he almost looked like he was considering it. But then his jaw set.

"I made my choice." he growled at Haggar. "You can't tempt me with that."

"You are trying my patience, boy." she hissed back. "Tell me what I want to know."

"I have a better idea. Why don't you go shove it up your-"

With a snarl, Haggar slashed, leaving a thin slice across Keith's cheekbone. He grimaced and ground his teeth, trying to ignore the searing and the warm drip of blood down his face.

"How would you like it," Haggar said with undisguised anger, "If I made you into one of my beasts? Trapped you in a metal coffin and sent you after your friends until one of you killed the other?"

Keith scowled, his eyes flashing. "If that's your plan, get on with it. I don't have all day."

"Enough of this game!" the witch spun around, unexpectedly facing Shiro and meeting his eyes dead on. "You know what we want from you, paladin. Surrender the black lion, or your friend's blood will be on your hands."

Suddenly, there was a hand on Shiro's shoulder. It was Lance, not even looking at him, staring straight at Haggar.

"Don't." he said with unnatural seriousness. "He doesn't want you to. He said no matter what."

Shiro, stunned by Lance's words, kept his jaw firmly shut. Haggar's face twisted in fury, and with a howl, she whirled, plunging the dagger into Keith's side clear to the hilt.

Several things happened in that moment. Keith lurched forward with a gasp, too surprised to even make a sound. Shiro screamed and slammed his fist against the glass, which ever so slightly cracked under his knuckles. Pidge and Hunk jumped, but when Hunk started to stand up to see what was going on, Pidge yanked him back down.

"Don't get distracted." she snapped. "We have to get the door open."

"Give up the lion." Hagger insisted, still gripping tightly the hilt of the knife. Keith lifted his head to glare at Shiro. He was wearing his determined face, teeth gritted and brow furrowed, the one he made when he was concentrating particularly hard in training or in battle.

"Shiro, don't you dare-" he began, but his sentence was cut off as Haggar violently twisted the blade. He tried to bite back his cries of pain, but he wasn't succeeding.

Shiro couldn't take it anymore. He couldn't let her keep hurting Keith, no matter what he said before. He couldn't let her kill him.

At that moment, a loud mechanical roar echoed through the entire Galra ship. Everyone froze, including Haggar, as a series of metallic clangs and smaller growls reached their ears. Somewhere above them, one of the lions had awakened.

The main door to the room hissed open, and one of the brown robed druids entered. A face wasn't visible behind the white mask, but the voice was urgent.

"Haggar, one of the lions has broken containment. We need you in the hangar."

Haggar narrowed her eyes and glanced furtively around the room.

"Fine. You three," she said, gesturing to the drones, "Stay here."

With a flourish of her purple robes, she and the druid left the room.

"Got it!" Pidge cried triumphantly. She and Hunk had finally figured out the wires. Hunk touched two of them together, and with a shower of sparks, the door to the cell flew open.

Shiro hadn't been aware of what they were doing, but he didn't let the opportunity go to waste. Reaching out through the door, he grabbed the shoulders of the drones on either side of the opening and slammed them together. One of the drones heads fell off (the Galra have never been known for their sturdy craftsmanship) and the machine collapsed. Whipping the other one around as a shield against the third drones laser shots, he let it get filled with holes before unceremoniously discarding the metal husk. In the next moment he was running at the last drone, hand glowing, and within seconds it was a smashed mess on the floor. But still he didn't pause, immediately turning on his heel and rushing across the room to where Keith still hung against the wall.

Feet clattered behind him, the other paladins gathering around as he tried to let him down gently.

"Shiro?"

"It's alright, I've got you." Shiro sank to his knees, guiding Keith down, trying not to jostle him too much. With a grim face, he surveyed the wound.

"You can't take the knife out." Hunk said from somewhere behind him. "He'll bleed to death." He was already bleeding pretty heavily as it was, smearing red across Shiro's armor. They had to get back to the Castle, ASAP.

"Hunk!" he barked, "Grab Keith's gear. Lance and Pidge, flank us, bayard's out. We have to get to the lions." His voice softened considerably when he looked down at Keith.

"I'm going to lift you, ok?"

"Just do it." he grimaced, bracing himself.

He was lighter than Lance, but lifting him without putting too much pressure on his wound was difficult. Shiro had to hold him rather awkwardly, and he dug his fingers into Shiro's shoulder to keep from crying out.

"Alright team, let's move." Recognizing the need to keep the injured paladin conscious, he tacked on, "Keith, where's the red lion?"

"Two decks above us." Keith reported. "She's trying to break through the floor."

Carefully, the unit moved out into the corridor. It seemed luck was on their side, as the drones who normally would be on patrol had been called to help in the fight against the red lion, allowing the paladins to move freely. Roars and other sounds of combat were still echoing through the ship, giving Shiro a good idea of which direction to go. Even so, it took them several minutes to find their way to the correct hangar.

By then, Keith was looking deathly pale, and Shiro was getting more and more anxious. The noise of the battle was loud behind the hangar entrance, a good portion of the ship's forces were duking it out within. They had to somehow cut through the drones and the soldiers, and Haggar, and get out of here. And they didn't have much time to do it.

As gently as he could, he set Keith down, leaning him up against the wall. His eyelids were fluttering, his hair stuck to the back of his neck by sweat, not to mention the blood. Things weren't incredibly clear to him at the moment, but he could make out the shapes of Pidge, Hunk, and Lance watching anxiously behind Shiro, and he tried to put on a brave face.

"Hey, look at me." Shiro said softly, and he obeyed. "Don't fall asleep, alright?"

Keith cracked the tiniest smirk. "Yes, sir."

"Hunk, Lance, with me. We're going to clear a path to the lions. Pidge, you stay here with Keith, keep him awake."

Pidge nodded solemnly while Hunk dropped Keith's armor, and then the three boys rushed into the fray. Left alone with her injured teammate, Pidge found herself at a complete loss. She and Keith had never become very close, in fact the most meaningful conversation they'd ever had was probably when he yelled at her for wanting to leave the team. Still, she sat down on the cold metal floor next to him and tried to think of something to say.

"So. In all of my snooping around at the Garrison, I never did find out why you left."

It was complete and utter chaos within the hangar. The other four lions were still sitting peacefully with their barriers up, but Red was on a rampage. There were the signs of laser blasts all over the room, and the floor was practically carpeted with the metal bits of dead drones. The lion had backed several Galra soldiers into a corner. Shiro made a note that Haggar and the druids were nowhere to be seen, but at this point that was a blessing.

"Wait, Shiro." said Lance. "How are we gonna get Red out of here?"

"Yeah, Keith can't fly like that." Hunk chimed in, sounding nervous.

"I'll take him with me, and Red will follow us." Shiro responded, sounding far more confident than he felt. In truth he had no idea if Red would follow them back to the Castle or not, but he didn't really have any other solutions. "I'll take out these soldiers. You two get in your lions and guard the entrances, don't let any reinforcements in. We don't have time for a lengthy battle."

The other two quickly rushed off to carry out their orders, while Shiro powered up his arm and headed for the soldiers Red had trapped.

It didn't take that long to take them down, but if anything that just made Shiro even more paranoid. Where were the druids?

"Stop them!" Oh, there they were. There were two druids each on the blue and yellow lions, keeping their paladins occupied while Haggar advanced on Shiro and Red.

No, no, no! We don't have time for this

Shiro got into his battle stance, but before either he or Haggar could make a move, the Red lion had stepped between them with a deep growl. Opening her jaws wide, Red launched a burst of lava directly at Zarkon's witch.

Eyes wide, Haggar was barely able to conjure a barrier before the blast hit her. Shiro recognized his chance. With Red distracting her, he could run back to Keith and Pidge and get everyone in a lion. So he did, sprinting across the hangar as fast as he could.

He came sliding around the corner, making Pidge jump and clutch at her bayard.

"Pidge, grab the armor and get in your lion." he ordered shortly, kneeling down to pick up Keith. To his alarm, he felt slightly cold to the touch. They were running out of time.

He hoisted the red paladin quickly, and not as gently as he could have. Keith whimpered slightly, but bit his tongue and managed not to scream.

Red was still holding off Haggar, bounding around her unpredictably and lobbing lava at her from all sides. Shiro made his way to the black lion as quickly as he dared, the machine roaring to life as soon as he got near. Keith wouldn't exactly be comfortable behind the pilot's seat, but it was the best option.

"Team!" he called through comms. "I've got Keith, let's get out of here!"

"Uh, how?" asked Hunk. At that moment, the Red lion turned her attention from Haggar. With yet another solid stream of lava, she melted clear through the hull of the Galra ship. The vacuum of space immediately began sucking the various debris out through the hole, widening it further.

"There, move!" One by one, the lions squeezed out through the gap and launched into open space.

The moment they cleared the hull Shiro was pulling up a communication panel with the Castle. Allura's concerned face appeared to his left, strands of white hair falling from her bun.

"Shiro! What's happened?!"

"There's no time." Shiro barked in response. "We need a wormhole out right now. Get a healing pod ready too." With a quick swipe of his fingers, the panel closed. A few tense seconds later, the signature vortex appeared before the lions, and they all flew through. Including Red, Shiro noticed with relief.

"Hey, are you still with me?" he called behind him. There wasn't a response.

"Keith?" Nothing. Shiro's heart leapt into his throat. They were only in the wormhole for a few moments, but to him it felt like decades. When they set down in the Castle, he barely bothered to stop the lion before he was out of his seat.

As he feared, Keith had finally lost consciousness. When Shiro lifted him, he left behind a small pool of blood.

Allura met him on the bridge, her eyes widening in alarm when she saw the red smeared all over him.

"Allura! We need the pod, now." he exclaimed, sprinting up to her. Allura looked down at who he was carrying, and her brow furrowed. She didn't move.

"Allura!" He didn't know if it was the crack in his voice or the desperate look on his face that moved her, but something did, and her back straightened.

"Of course." she said, back in her regal princess voice. To his surprise, she took Keith from him.

Being much stronger than Shiro, she lifted the paladin easily and trotted off towards the infirmary, calling for Coran. Shiro followed her like a lost puppy, recognizing somewhere in the back of his mind that he should check in with the other paladins. However, he didn't need to, as the other three rushed into the infirmary just moments after he and Allura did.

Coran was surprisingly calm about the situation.

"We have to get the knife out before we can put him in the pod." he said evenly. "Princess, on three, put pressure on the wound." Allura laid him on the floor, and on three, Coran yanked the blade from him, and Allura slammed her hand over the wound. Feeling sick, Shiro noticed that Keith hadn't even reacted to either of their actions.

"Alright," Coran said, rushing back to the console, "Put him in."

Allura, being surprisingly gentle, lifted Keith into the pod and closed it. All eyes turned anxiously to Coran as he typed away at the console.

"Well?" Pidge asked after several tense moments. "Is he gonna be ok?"

Coran narrowed his eyes at the screen for a second… and then ever so slightly relaxed.

"He'll be fine." he reported, prompting deep sighs of relief from all of the paladins. "He'll need to stay in there for about 36 hours, but he'll be alright."

Shiro sank to the floor, letting himself sit on the step that looped around the room. He had been so scared, and now the adrenaline had left him shaky and exhausted.

"What happened out there?"

He looked up to see Allura in front of him in her pink armor, hands on her hips and giving him an accusatory look. He found himself pinching the bridge of his nose in exasperation. Keith had just barely survived, all of them had just barely survived, and he was still completely covered in blood. The last thing he wanted to do was give a progress report to the Princess.

"Please, Allura." he said quietly. "We're tired and we just got back. Can't we have a minute?"

The Princess's eyes softened, and she loosened her stance. Shiro took that as a yes and forced himself to his feet.

"We should all go get cleaned up." he said to the other paladins, who had spread themselves out on the floor in varying positions. "And get some rest. We've had a long, long, long day."

It was maybe an hour later when he encountered Allura again in the hallway. They had both changed out of their armor, and Shiro was on his way back from cleaning up black. He was anxious to get back to Keith, but as they passed each other, something struck him.

"Princess?"

"Yes Shiro?" Allura turned and gave him a soft smile, but Shiro didn't return it.

"I've been meaning to talk to you about something. Privately."

Her expression immediately sobered. "Of course. Come with me."

Allura led him back down the hallway to her private chamber, where she had just emerged from, and closed the door behind them.

"So, what was it you wanted to talk about?" The look in his eyes was unnaturally stern, as though he were angry with her.

"Look, I-" Shiro stopped himself, taking a deep breath. He had to find some way to say this without being disrespectful. "I think all of us have noticed your… attitude change towards Keith."

Ever so subtly, she tensed up, holding her chin a tad higher.

"What of it?"

"I know you've lost a lot to the Galra." he started, and her eyes immediately froze. "I know none of us can ever understand how that feels. But Keith-"

"I didn't just lose 'a lot', Shiro." Allura snapped, unable to hold her tongue any longer. "I lost everything. The Galra destroyed my home, my family, my people-"

"But Keith didn't." said Shiro, and Allura looked away, her hands clasped so tightly her knuckles turned white. "It's not like he lied or hid anything from us. He didn't know any more than we did. Besides, we don't even know how much of him is Galra. For all we know it could've been some distant relation from generations ago."

"You don't understand." spat Allura bitterly. Shiro didn't know the Galra like she did. They were all heartless, blood thirsty beasts. No wonder Keith was such a hothead, she should have seen this coming miles away.

"I might not understand how you feel, but you know what I do understand?" Shiro was beginning to lose his patience with the Princess. Didn't she get that it wasn't just about her? Keith was a paladin of Voltron, he was a necessary and valuable part of their plan to defeat Zarkon, no matter his heritage.

"I understand that Keith goes out there and risks his life for you and your cause every single day. I understand that your hatred of the Galra is blinding you to the bigger picture."

"Excuse me?"

"If you had hesitated any longer today, Keith could have died." Shiro's hands curled into fists. "Even if you don't care about him as a person, even if you can't appreciate everything he's sacrificed for you, you should at least be able to recognize that he's important. If he died, we wouldn't have a red paladin, and we wouldn't be able to form Voltron."

Allura was pointedly avoiding his eyes, knowing in her mind that he was right, but unable to stop thinking about Zarkon and his betrayal, and the death of her father.

"You can't keep treating him like this."

"Who are you to tell me to do anything?" Both of them starting to lose their cool.

"You're breaking the team apart. You're hurting your own cause, you're making bad decisions."

"How dare you-"

"He doesn't deserve your hate!"

The two stood there for a moment, their anger smoldering between them. Shiro let out a breath and took a step back from the Princess.

"I'll have a full report for you in the morning." he said quietly, before turning on his heel and leaving the room.

When he stepped into the infirmary, he was surprised to see the other paladins there, all also in their normal clothes.

"What are all of you doing in here?" he asked, having expected them to scatter throughout the castle as they normally did.

Pidge looked up from her laptop screen and gave him a look that seemed to be questioning his intelligence.

"We're his friends too." she said.

"Yeah." Hunk put in, "We may not be as close as you are, but he's still part of the team."

Shiro smiled softly. If only Keith were awake to see this.

The four paladins sat together in comfortable silence for a long time. Eventually exhaustion got to them, and Pidge and Hunk nodded off, leaving Lance and Shiro sitting next to one another. Coran and Allura had yet to be seen, though Shiro wasn't exactly surprised by that.

They had turned out the lights in the infirmary for the sleeping members of the group, so now the only illumination was the slight blue glow from the healing pod. It was almost like being back on Earth, watching TV at 3am when everyone else was asleep.

"Hey, Shiro?"

"Yeah?"

"How did you and Keith meet?" Shiro raised an eyebrow at the question, but Lance was looking at the ground, not him.

"My family adopted him when he was 14." He couldn't help the chuckle that rose in his throat at the memories. "You think he's hotheaded and reckless now, you should've seen some of the stunts he pulled back then."

"Hm. So you actually are brothers."

"Yep." There was silence for a moment, and then Lance spoke again.

"What happened to his family?"

"His dad disappeared when he was five," Shiro answered, growing serious once again. "No one knows what happened to him."

"What about his mom?"

Shiro just shrugged. "Honestly, Keith doesn't like to talk about his past that much. He keeps it to himself."

There was another pause, Lance scruffing his shoes against the floor intently.

"What… what do you think about this whole Galra thing?"

"It doesn't matter." was the easy, honest answer. "I know him, and I trust him. And that's enough for me."

Lance didn't respond.

"What do you think about it?" Shiro pressed, sensing there was something else going on.

"I don't know what to think." he said, tucking his hands into his jacket pockets. "He doesn't really tell anybody anything. He's got walls up, ya know? Makes you wonder why."

"He isn't a deceitful person. He's honest, and he's protective of you guys. He seems closed off, but that's just because he's scared."

Lance scoffed. "Scared? Of us? Yeah, right."

"Look, I don't know everything about his past, but what I do know is that he's had a lot of people leave him. He thinks he's protecting himself by pushing people away before they can do it to him. He'll warm up to you guys eventually."

Lance descended into thoughtful silence, and Shiro let the conversation die.

Even more hours passed, until Lance and even Shiro had given into the pull of sleep. It was then that Allura entered the room, picking her way gingerly around the sleeping paladins until she reached the healing pod. She stood there for some time, closely scrutinizing Keith's face with narrowed eyes. The cut on his cheek was already fully healed, not even leaving a scar.

He didn't look Galra, not in the least. No yellow eyes or purple skin or sharp teeth. Would it be possible to forget? Could she possibly forgive him?

Forgive him for what? She thought, and suddenly heavy shame was settling into her stomach. Forgive him for what, indeed. He hadn't done anything wrong. One can't choose to be born, nor can they choose their parents. Why was she acting this way, when all Keith had ever done was help her? He had never hesitated, never shown doubt in his mission. He had never shown anything but unbending loyalty to Voltron and everything it stood for. So why did she want to hate him so badly?

Maybe I can learn to adapt. She thought. After all, he's also human.

(A/N Like I said, self indulgent and cringey. *insert shrug emoji here* Also, like with the Max Ride oneshots, these oneshots are barely beta'd or not beta'd at all so if you see typos and stuff that's why.

UNF-

Silence)