A/N: Hey, back again with a new chapter. Prepare for fluff and angst! :D But mostly angst.
Pidge stared down at Lance's bayard in her hands. She had insisted on holding it. Worry burned through her being. Lance and Keith were important to her. Pidge may have not said it, but she felt that the other paladins were a part of her family. Her brother and father were still lost somewhere in space. And now Lance and Keith were missing.
With only the bayard and the blood to go on by, it was obvious that either Lance or Keith was running out of time. However, whilst Pidge had her concerns, she hid them better than Hunk; he couldn't stand still for more than a second. It was good that he was keeping his hands busy with Shiro's helmet, trying to fix his communicator.
The three paladins began scouting around the outskirts of the village and there were no clues as to where the creature had gone.
"Surely there should be something out here." Pidge said, impatient at their results.
"I know," Hunk agreed, suddenly smelling something in the air. He quickly realised the source, "Is that me? I think that's me. I'm sorry if you can smell it. I sweat when I'm really worried. I don't know why, but it happens-"
Shiro decided to step in to stop his babbling. No doubt it was another sign of nervousness and worry.
"Hunk, it's alright."
"He's right, Hunk," Pidge piped in.
Hunk only frowned. In the great scheme of things, words of comfort could not compare to his amount of uneasiness.
"Well, Shiro, your communicator should be back online." Hunk passed the helmet back to Shiro. Pidge immediately passed her helmet to Hunk, wanting hers rebooted by Hunk next.
"Testing. 1. 2. 3. Is the communicator working?" Shiro tested.
All Shiro heard was static before a sudden voice crackled over the communicator.
"Shiro? Oh good! You've got your communicator working! Any leads yet?"
"None yet." Shiro replied. "How are you and Coran holding up?"
There was a brief silence before Allura replied.
"Great. Coran and I are dealing with it perfectly fine."
Over the communicator, Shiro vaguely heard the sounds of lasers being shot and Coran shouting something in the background along with the sounds of explosions. It was ambiguously distressing.
"Allura-" Shiro didn't get to finish.
"Like I said, we're handling it. Find Lance and Keith! I'll check back later!" Allura then cut off the connection.
"How are they going?" Hunk asked.
"Allura didn't ask for help, she said she could handle it, they'll be fine." Shiro assured. He had faith in Allura and Coran. They would come through.
Pidge frowned.
"They're still fighting them? Maybe one us should- Agh." Pidge was suddenly flat on her face in the dirt below from tripping over what looked to be a rock. Pidge immediately got up, picking Lance's bayard back up. The only thing wounded was her pride.
"Woah, holy crow! Pidge, are you okay!?" Hunk immediately asked.
"I'm fine, why?" She confusedly asked. Pidge felt something on her face instinctively brushed a hand over it. Whatever it was, it got on her hands. Pidge looked down and gasped, it was blood.
Shiro gently tilted Pidge's head side to side trying to look for the source.
"You don't have any cuts." Shiro informed.
"That's because it's not mine." Pidge pointed to the ground. It had barely been noticeable in the dark dirt, but there was a trail of blood. There weren't any large amounts, but there would not be a day when blood wouldn't be a distressing sign.
No one knew whether to be glad or alarmed that they had found their own trail of breadcrumbs to find their missing Hansel and Gretel.
Keith had remembered feeling himself slipping away from reality just moments before. Recalling exactly what happened was hard to explain. He remembered feeling drawn away. It was all going dark but he heard words, now thinking about he realised it had been Lance pleading and yelling. But none of it felt real. At least, that was until Keith felt a stinging pain from something other than his shoulder. His face hurt, a lot.
Lance felt the sound of the slap ringing through his ears and his hand began to sting.
"Wake up!" Lance screamed into Keith's ear, but he was still unresponsive. Keith's eyes were still darkened and void.
There had been nothing but pure silence for an agonizing few seconds. Lance felt like the last of his hope died. This was his fault.
"Ow."
It had been the smallest sound, but it was there. It had to have been a miracle.
Whilst Lance wanted it desperately to work, he had never thought that it would. Lance watched as a small slither of light returned in Keith's eyes. Keith slowly picked up his head and blinked at Lance, looking dazed as if he were just waking up from a nap.
Before Keith had time to even realise it, Lance had thrown his arms around him.
The numbing disappeared and Keith let out the smallest gasp. It was in that moment when Lance's arms were wrapped around him, shaking, that Keith knew it was real. There could be no faking the fear and relief that pulsed off of him. It drew Keith back.
Whatever confusion Keith had left quickly subsided. He wasn't alone, he hadLance was with him, but most importantly, Lance was real. And that fact alone was enough to ground him back, regaining his senses.
"Lance?" Keith croaked. It's not that he needed any further affirmation, but it was more informing Lance that he knew it was him.
Wordlessly, Lance tightened his grip around him for only a moment more before he let go. Lance's relief morphed into anger and punched Keith's uninjured shoulder.
"You scared me half to death! Do you have a mullet for a brain too!? Don't do that again!"
Keith blinked at him. Normally Lance would use the same tone if he was trying to insult him, but there had been an unmistakeable layer of concern.
"You almost sound worried." Keith said, trying to take a small jab at Lance. Of course, the reply was such a forced response, but Keith craved a small piece of normalcy after the ordeal and poking fun of Lance was the only thing he could think of.
"Well of course I'm-" Lance stopped midsentence, shaking his head, "Nevermind. What exactly just happened?"
"I," Keith was silent for a moment. "I was gone. I can't explain it."
It was one of those instances that had to be experienced to know how it felt. Keith briefly felt better at the thought that Lance wouldn't have to.
"Well," Lance gave Keith a tired smile, "You're still here."
Am I? Keith thought. The numbness had gone, but everything else came back at once. His shoulder hurt so much that it made him nauseas and that was on top of the nausea he had already. Keith felt grateful that he nothing left in his stomach to puke back up.
"You look really sweaty." Lance pressed his hand against Keith's forehead, on instinct he flinched, but Lance didn't seem to mind.
"Woah," Lance gasped, but never retracting his hand. "It literally feels like you're burning."
"It doesn't matter," Keith said, battering Lance's hand away from his forehead. "Help me up."
Lance extended his hand and helped pull Keith to his feet. His body ached and he wanted to just drop back down and not get up, but he fought against the urge.
"Can you walk?"
Keith nodded. "Yeah, I'm okay for now."
Lance looked at him with the look of hesitance.
"We are walking side by side and we will be talking the whole time. We can't have that happening again, okay?"
Had Keith just condemned himself to Lance's mindless chatter?
Yes, yes he did.
Okay, so maybe, just maybe, Allura had underestimated the defence of the galran ships. The ships themselves didn't have a large attacking battle system, but it's agility was greater than the Castle of Lions. And it also didn't help that it was spitting out tinier attack drones.
The ships were moving around too quickly to get a good lock-on them. The castle had entered flying around in evasive maneuverers. The two alteans knew that they couldn't run forever.
"Raise the shields!" Allura commanded.
The blue shield protected the castle.
"The particle shield is at 50% power. It won't hold out forever, Princess," Coran stated. "And if we don't get rid of them soon, they'll get back up."
Coran was right. Allura had to think and she had to do it fast. One of the lions could have handled the ships with easy due to their agility, but it wasn't an option. Allura said she could handle it and she was going to keep her word. The obvious fact was that they were smaller and faster, but the castle was larger and more powerful.
Wait, she thought, maybe we can use that!
"Coran, go at them at full speed."
"What?"
"Do it!" Allura ordered.
Coran caught on to her plan and transferred all power to the thrusters. The Castle of Lions may have been 10,000 years old, but it was still more powerful than the enemies expected.
Using the mass and speed of the castle, the ships got thrown back against the gravity pull around the castle.
The drones were stunned long enough for the castle to get a lock-on them. Allura instantaneously transferred all power to the laser torrents and fired. The drones were destroyed in a matter of ticks.
It only left the main scouting ships left. Even in the midst of battle, Allura couldn't help but feel a dread dwell over her, not for her, but for the paladins.
After getting a dead end, Lance and Keith retraced their steps to go back. And to add to the feeling of time taking forever, Lance kept his word and he just kept talking.
Lance had just finished explaining the entire plot of a soap opera-esque show about how two people finally got together after having to deal with an evil ex and long-lost child, only to find out on their wedding day that they were fraternal twins separated at birth. Lance had paused multiple times to make sure Keith was listening. Keith made the occasional comment and 'yeah' to make sure Lance knew he was still conscious. Lance just kept talking as he marked walls and chose which way to go.
The intricate details that Lance knew about the show and the actors in it was frightening Keith.
"How do you know so much about this?" Keith finally asked.
"My older brother is obsessed with this show. I always watched it with him when he managed to claim the TV remote so I learned a thing or two. Even if I did grab it before him, he'd still wrestle it out of my hands." Lance fondly smiled at the thought of his family. It was such a genuine smile. It was nothing like Keith had seen from Lance before.
"So you're the youngest?" Keith honestly didn't know why he wanted to keep the conversation of Lance's family alive, but it may have had to do with the sincerity of Lance's smile. It made him curious.
Lance shook his head, "No, no. I have two younger sisters as well and an older sister. I'm the third child."
"You have a big family." Keith stated.
"Tell me about it. My mom is one out of six and my dad is one out of four, so I have so many cousins," Lance's smile only continued to grow. "Every Christmas, we'd have the whole family over and its absolute chaos. There are so many kids running around the yard." Lance laughed.
As Lance was telling him the story, all Keith imagined was about twenty tiny Lances running around. It was both amusing yet horrifying.
"But the food is amazing," Lance continued, "My mom, she'd make her famous arroz con pollo . I always helped her make it for our big Christmas dinner. We've done it every year since I was little."
Lance's smile turned melancholy.
"I wonder how they're all doing right now. Back on Earth, I mean."
Keith was no fool, he and the others knew that Lance missed Earth the most. Keith finally understood as to why he did now. Back on Earth, Lance had so many people that he missed and that probably missed him as well. Keith on the other hand, well, he had no one.
"You miss them a lot, don't you?" Keith could have blamed the venom and his injury for such a foolish question, but he really just let curiosity get the best of him because he didn't know how it felt. He missed his shack in the desert, but that was different and he knew that.
"Of course I do," Lance replied with the obvious, but what he asked next made Keith's mind go blank. "Well, what about you? Don't you miss your family?"
If Keith wasn't infected with venom and hurt, he would have kept up a cover to mask what he had been feeling, but in that moment he didn't have the energy to hide it in time. Lance saw his hurt expression. Lance knew in that moment that he maybe should not have asked.
"I-I'm sorry if it sounds I'm prying, you don't have to answer if-"
"No," Keith interjected. "No, it's okay. It's just that I…"
Keith didn't like talking about it and he didn't like it when people brought it up, and the situation of being hunted by a creature probably wasn't appropriate, but he said it anyway.
"I don't have a family."
Lance at first thought that Keith was joking, but it was by looking at Keith's face that he knew that he was being completely honest. Lance had never seen Keith so….vulnerable.
Lance opened his mouth to say something, but he quickly shut it. Keith expected to hear the typical speech starters he had heard from so many adults back at the garrison that had read his file.
I'm sorry to hear that or So you're an orphan? That's so sad. The list of what he heard was endless. It had become a large reason as to why he didn't like talking about it. Keith felt like he made a mistake. He didn't want Lance of all people to only know by the label of 'orphan'.
"Don't you have questions?" Keith attempted to bait it out.
Lance stared at him, but to Keith's surprise he shook his head.
"No. Well, I'm not going to ask unless you want to talk about it."
Keith was surprised. He didn't expect Lance to be so respectful about it. You learn something new every day, Keith thought.
"You know, only one other person said something like that when I told them." Keith said.
"Who was it?" Lance asked, genuinely curious.
"Shiro." Keith answered. It was true. Shiro had to be the first person Keith ever really trusted enough to say anything to.
Lance absentmindedly nodded. A sudden grin spread across his face.
"Well, I was only tossing up the decision before, but now I've made up my mind. When we go back to Earth, the first thing you're doing is coming with me to meet my family."
Keith was so startled that his immediate response was a small,
"What?"
"It's happening, just accept it," Lance suddenly laughed, "But fair warning, my sisters are probably going to try and braid that mullet of yours."
Keith had not been the reply he was expecting. He knew that the tone wasn't pity, it was more in affirmation.
What Keith was used to hearing was 'so you're alone? That's so sad', but Lance's response had been different. Keith didn't understand, but what Lance's reply meant was 'so you're alone? Well, not anymore'. Shiro was the only other person to say something like that. And it was the fact that it was Lance that Keith couldn't bring himself to believe it.
"But why?" Keith asked.
"Because," Lance said it so matter-of-factly. "You're my friend."
Friend. The word was so simple, but it repeated constantly in his mind. Keith never had many friends growing up, in fact, Shiro was probably his only true friend. However, now he felt that the other paladins were his friends, and to larger extent, family. He may have not known was it was like to have one, but he imagined it was how he felt about the other paladins. Though he had never been sure about Lance, but the confirmation of it had come from the man himself, and it made a small part of him happy.
"Friend, huh?" Doubt flooded Keith's mind, maybe this was just pity, he thought. "Well, that helps explains why you say how you hate me so much." Keith a small smirk, but it looked more like a grimace.
Lance stopped in his tracks. Keith was about to ask why they had stopped, but Lance suddenly spoke.
"I don't."
Confused at the sudden drop in his voice, Keith turned his head toward Lance.
"I don't hate you," Lance clarified, looking at Keith. Lance's eyes had softness behind its gaze, but also a stern seriousness. It was so unlike Lance.
"You literally said that you hated me this morning." Keith's eyebrow cocked up at Lance. Keith would never normally leave himself so open to emotional vulnerability, but he was really too tired to care.
"I know what I've said, but I never meant it. I mean, we don't always get along and sometimes you drive me nuts, but," Lance continued, "I never have hated you, not really. I was just…" Instead of finishing the sentence, he grunted and continued to walk, but Keith wasn't going to let it go so easily.
"You were just…?" Lance still did not say anything, so Keith grabbed his arm. "Lance."
Lance frowned and sighed, giving in to Keith's pestering. The confession came out so quietly that Keith had barely heard it.
"I was jealous."
Keith's face dropped.
"Why?"
That one worded question set something off within Lance. He looked at Keith like he had grown an extra head.
"Why wouldn't I be? You were the prodigy of the garrison, the best pilot in our class. You were perfect in just about everything," Lance's honesty just kept pouring out. "Becoming a pilot had always been my dream since I was a kid. I worked hard my whole life to make that dream come true, but no matter how hard I worked, I wasn't nearly as good as you. You were everything that I wasn't, but wanted to be."
It took Lance a moment to realise what he had said during his outburst. His expression turned to shame and embarrassment. He half expected Keith to laugh, but he didn't. Keith's face was blank and he was quiet.
"I never thought about it like that," Keith confessed. His own pride told him not to continue, but he did anyway. "But if this means anything, I've never actually thought that you're a horrible pilot. Your flying methods sometimes may not be….safe, but regardless I have always seen you as an equal, and well, I do get competitive at times, I'll admit to that much."
Lance didn't know what to say, he just blinked at Keith. So Keith actually felt threatened by Lance's piloting skills? The conversation had first started on about a strange show, and now it had become a share and care fest. If he had told himself that morning that this is where his day was going to go, he would have laughed and thrown food goo at his own face.
"Thank you." Lance had uttered the tiniest mumble, but Keith heard it.
A silence lingered over the two. It wasn't awkward, but it wasn't exactly comfortable either. As if fearing that the silence would somehow make Keith fall back into his coma-like state, Lance suddenly smirked.
"But hey, don't get me wrong, I've never been jealous of that mullet. Not in a million years."
Keith actually laughed, it was a real laugh. It made Lance smile. It may have only been a short chuckle, but it was so honest that Lance could only describe it as pure.
"Why do you always bag on my hair?" Keith rolled his eyes, but there was no annoyance behind it, only amusement. "There's nothing wrong with it."
"Have you looked in the mirror?" Lance teased.
"I thought you just said that we were friends." If Keith had enough strength, he would have punched Lance in the arm.
"We are," Lance confirmed, "And as your friend, I am entitled to make fun of you."
"You don't make fun of Hunk." Keith complained because it was the truth. He never made fun of Hunk, and if he did it was so light-hearted.
"Hunk's the goodiest person I know." Lance put a hand over his chest plate dramatically. "Why would I make fun of Hunk?"
"That's not a word."
"What?"
"Goodiest," Keith explained. "That's not a real word."
"Well it is now." Lance claimed. The cocky confidence in his voice had returned with a vengeance.
"No it's not." The slight smile could have been heard in Keith's voice.
"Yes it is. I am the dictionary now, Keith."
"Lance-"
"We're making it a word." Lance interrupted.
"Lance."
"It's a cool word, I'm a genius."
"Lance!" Keith yelled, finally grabbing Lance's attention. Keith's legs had been wobbling, and he collapsed to his knees panting.
"What's wrong?" It was amazing how quickly Lance could go from joking around to serious again.
"I'm losing strength in my legs." Keith tried to stand back up, but his legs immediately shook underneath him, forcing him back to the ground.
"Don't strain yourself." Lance commanded. His eyebrows furrowed and he suddenly asked, "Why did you even save me?" The question had been so spontaneous, that Lance even surprised himself.
"What?"
"Forget what I just said." Lance grumbled.
Keith felt his anger boil in annoyance and he glared at Lance. Why was he asking this now? What did saying that prove?
"Remember training this morning?" Keith snapped, "I charged at the gladiator and it almost overpowered me. It was going to knock me down and you saved me. Why?"
"That's different." Lance insisted.
"How is that any different?"
Before Lance could reply or Keith could keep arguing, Keith let out a short scream of pain, grabbing on to his shoulder. Lance took one look at the injury and gasped. Through the blood soaked web, some of the blood around the wound was beginning to clot. No doubt the venom was doing that.
Keith kept trying to breathe slowly, but it didn't work so well. He pressed his face into the ground below them, slightly rocking. Lance didn't know if it was tears or sweat streaming down Keith's face, but either way, it wasn't good news.
We need a way out of this death maze now!
"We're going to stand up, alright?" Lance gave Keith a second to nod. He grabbed Keith's arm and slung it over him.
Keith wordlessly understood and he tried to stand. Using Lance for support, they started to walk. It was quite slow, but at least it was working.
"You're going to be okay. We're going to be okay." Lance kept repeating, practically dragging with him.
Lance hastily marked the walls they passed and kept mindlessly repeating to Keith that they were going to get out of there. It had to been pure chance that they were seemingly going the right way. And for a moment, Lance thought the two of them could finally escape the tunnels. But that was only for a moment.
"Wait, wait, wait. Lance, stop for a second, I can't breathe."
Lance immediately stopped and Keith stumbled over his own feet trying to catch his own breath. They had barely been walking at an average speed, but Keith already had to catch his breath.
Keith was fading. His consciousness started slipping away in small pieces by the second, but more importantly, Keith knew what it meant.
He was dying.
There was no other way of explaining how he felt and Lance could see it happening. Keith was sickeningly pale. His skin almost looked transparent and it looked slightly grey.
Suddenly, Lance felt a pit in his stomach drop as he and Keith heard a familiar screech echoing through the tunnels. It was the Baluke.
"Quiznak." Lance cursed. The Baluke, it had finally caught their trail and it sounded like it was coming after them fast.
Keith looked up and saw a large mass to rocks all closely wedged together. It definitely looked unstable. It looked like if one rock were to be moved than the whole roof of the tunnel would come down in that small section.
The thought hit him. Lance could still run and think coherently. Keith had barely said two sentences to the zilatian, Xi'lek, but he had promised that they would help save the zilatian people.
Keith believed that the unstable rocks above him were a sign. He knew what he needed to do. As a paladin of Voltron the sake of others came before him. He had known it before, but now he was ready to take that responsibility.
"C'mon! We need to go!" Lance attempted to drag Keith with him, but Keith fought at his grip. It only caused Lance to get a tighter hold on him.
"Go on without me." Keith said.
Lance ignored him, thinking that Keith's mind was being fried by his fever or it was just that Lance didn't hear him. Keith assumed it was the latter. But he was going to do it—not because he wanted to, but because he had to. It was a matter of survival, and Keith knew that he needed to be the sacrifice.
"Lance, Listen to me!" Pushing himself away from Lance, his face softened in acceptance. "You have to go on without me."
Lance's face paled and he vigorously shook his head.
"No, that's not happening. It's not an option. I'm not leaving you behind!"
Keith leant against the wall for support, taking in a deep breath. His vision was getting worse. He felt like his core was dipped in ice water.
"I can barely walk and I can feel myself slipping again. She's right on our trail." He pulled out his bayard. "I can buy you enough time to get out of here. Find the others."
Lance attempted to tug the sword out of the other's hand.
"Keith, no! She'll kill you!"
With what strength he had left, Keith pulled back away from Lance. Keith had to take in another deep breath; the nausea helped him calm any anger that may have been welling inside of him.
"Listen. It won't kill me, not right away," Keith's voice was more quiet and calm than Lance had ever heard it previously. "So hurry up and go."
Lance didn't have to know Keith as well as Shiro to know that Keith was lying. He didn't know what would happen. Keith was relying on chance.
"How do you know that it won't?" I know that you're lying.
"This isn't about me. We made a promise to Xi'lek, we need to save them." Keith never begged, but it was the closest to desperation that Lance had ever heard.
They both heard the distant sound of the creature approaching. Activating his bayard, Keith determinedly looked forward.
"Just go."
Lance attempted to grab him by the arm again.
"Keith-"
He pushed Lance away. It had barely knocked him back. Keith was growing weaker by the moment. Before Lance had time to notice, he felt a pulse of energy flow back into him and he gave another shove with all his might to knock Lance down.
"GO!" Keith yelled, his voice was loud and stern. The screeches of the creature were heard getting even closer. The Baluke was coming for them.
Without a second thought or hesitation, Keith thrust his sword upwards. The rocks collapsed onto the ground beginning to block the path. Lance didn't have enough time to react before the path was completely blocked off.
Keith could vaguely hear Lance shouting through the rocks. Keith weakly pulled up his sword, ready to fight. The creature turned the corner. If she could grin she would have been. With her four eyes it looked down then back up at Keith, examining her prey.
Keith felt his eye lids drooping against his will. He vigorously blinked and dug his heels into the dirt below him.
No.
He wouldn't make his sacrifice in vain. Lance had people waiting for him back on Earth. Keith wasn't going to let the Baluke harm Lance. If Keith was going to anything with his last breath it was going to be to protect Lance.
A/N: Am I evil enough to leave it here? Yes, yes I am.
Like it? Hate it? Comment below, let me know!
Thank you guys who read this! You guys rock! See you next update ;)
