"Today you will be pairing off! Hunk with Keith, lance with Pidge. Hunk, lance, your objective will be to try and shoot your partner while they will be trying to take you down. During this exercise I will be calling each and everyone of you to the castles bridge in order to go over your lions new found abilities. We want to make sure we have them documented for future purposes. Shiro, as head of Voltron and team leader you will start." Allura's voice was crisp and authoritative. She wasn't messing around today. She seemed agitated, her hands griped the edge of her own training suit, he shoulders were drawn back, and her eyes told nothing, hard as steel as always.

Ever since Allura found out about Keith being Galra, her eyes lost all of their gentleness. They became cold and unforgiving. Keith always felt ashamed when he met her gaze, as if everything that had ever happened to her was his fault. He deserved her hatred. She glanced at Keith and saw a monster. Soon Keith might actually become the monster that lurks in her nightmares.

Lance came to stand next to Keith. "Shouldn't I be partnered with Keith, princesses?" Keith nearly cringed away from Lance's voice as it bounced around the room causing the phantom of his words to slowly fade from the room.

Allura snapped her gaze to meet Lance's, who visibly shrunk away. "No Lance. I want you to work with Pidge, that way you can work on hitting a small target at close range. I want Hunk to work with Keith so he can hit a fast moving target." Allura turned her metallic gaze to Keith, slowly taking over every phisical feature with poorly hidden disgust. "Now if no one has anything else to say, Shiro, let's report to the bridge"

Allura soared on last hateful look at Keith before stalking out of the training room, Shiro right on her heels.

Dreading being alone with Alurra, Keith moved slowly to the armory, trying to look as if every step didn't send spikes of pain shooting through every nerve in his body. His red Paladin armor was hanging on the far right end of the small inlet, the blue armor was suspended to the left.

Lance had already donned the lower half of his armor and was currently working on the straps to secure his chest plate. He noticed Keith's pain immediately. The slight limp in his step and the tightness in his shoulders, the clouded look the normally alert dusty purple orbs. "Keith? You ok dude?"

Keith glanced behind Lance to make sure Hunk and Pidge were out of earshot, evidently they were only meters behind Lance and could easily hear their conversation."I'm fine, Lance" Keith could hear the strain in his own voice, he didn't even believe himself.

Lance looked like he was going to protest, he stayed silent and continued to set his straps. Kieth got his lower armor without to much agony but the top soon became impossible. Something grabbed the edge of his right shoulder pad and pulled them into place extracting a pained Yelp from Keith. "Sorry" Lance's voice was soft, almost a whisper. His hands tracked across the back of Keith's jacket to his left shoulder. He wrestled the padding into palace before tightening it down. Keith bit down on his lip hard, lance didn't know about it spreading yet. There was no reason to worry him so Keith hid his pain behind clenched teeth and bleeding lips.

Hunk was waiting for Keith once his armor was fully attached. Hunk summoned his Bayard from his suit, he moved to the opposite side of the room hefting his gun to hip level. Keith summoned his own Bayard, pressing himself to the wall of the arena with the top of his sword just barely scraping the blue sheen floor.

To the right, Pidge had her green grappling knife hovering inches from her helmet's visor. Lance had his sniper rifle drawn and his eye lined with the sight.

They waited, waited, the room itself vibrates as a loud horn is sounded and all four paladins spring into action. Predictably Hunk had started his barrage by shooting strait at Keith. He doged to the right before rushing forward, only to veer off as more blasts careened at him.

10

Keith dived and weaved between shots examining Hunks movements, looking for a weakness.

15

Keiths adrenaline was pounding, even with the natural pain reliever, each step and movement was slower that it should be and caused pain beyond imaginable to corse through him, white spots danced him his vision.

30

A yellow shot whistles inches by his helmet causing there to be a small singe mark to could his already poor vision.

There!

34. 34 shots until Hunk had to reset his Bayard, that was Keith's opening, he just had to wait it out. Keith evaded until his back was up against the wall.

20

He had to start moving to Hunk if he wanted to knock him down while he was essentially reloading. Keith danced forward, evading every shot that came his way.

32

Keith was mere meters from Hunk. Hunks fingers pressed down on the trigger twice more. To far. Keith was still too far. With a furious yell Keith flipped the last few feet bringing his sword down from behind his back.

Click

Keith's shoulder exploded with excruciating, venomous pain that laced its way from his shoulder down to his fingers and toes, numbing them with pain. He heard a scream. A gut wrenching, agonizing, guttural scream before the floor came up to meet his head, greeting him like a old friend. Keith was Vaguely aware of the shouts of panic that drifted and Aimlessly to his ears, the two sets of hands that hovered over his armor, three of them warm, one was cold to the touch. He was aware of the blinding pale blue light that reflected off the training rooms pristine white floor, where he now lay drowning in his pain.

Darkness engulfed every corner of his mind, plunging him into the empty cavern where the walls closed in and the floor slowly rose. Where two yellow eyes and a malicious laugh slaughtered his friends and watched Keith drown in a never ending loop.

000

It had taken a whole 20 seconds for lance to shoot Pidge.

It started out fine. The buzzer sounded and Pidge sprang into action, shifting and flipping over laser bolts from the other side of the training room. Lance took about three shots before he stopped fireing all together. Pidge took her opportunity, seeing his pause as a chance to get closer and hopefully knock him down.

She should have seen it. Pidge launches herself forward. He just watched her through the scope of his sniper rifle, waiting. What was he waiting for?

She was seconds away from Lance, practically on top of him. Pidge pushes power into her legs so she could strike from above. Just before she brought her Bayard down, Lance snapped his gun so it pressed against her armpit before pulling the trigger, sending her clattering to the ground with a loud "oof"

"Pidge!" Lance raced to her side. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry! I thought I had it on low!" With a quick sharp movement Pidge slammed her fist into his face, he lost his balance and landed next to her.

"You son of a bitch! You shot me!" Pidge leaned over him, glaring.

"That was the exercise!" Lance defender

Pidge pushes herself off the floor and staggered over to the bench that lay against the east wall. She carefully started us trapping her armor. A minuet later she had detached her shoulder pads and chest plate, along with the under suit that lay over her baggy sweater. She gently prodded at the exposed skin once she pulled her hoodie off.

Thankfully it would only bruise. It would bruise, but it could have been a lot worse.

Lance sauntered over and spared a glance at where his bolt had struck "you gonna be ok?"

"I'll live."

Pidge looked up to try and make a joke out of it but stopped when she saw where Lance's gaze lead. He was watching the other two train. Hunk was fireing rapidly just turning the atmosphere into a blazing storm of energy beams all hurtling toward one target. Keith, avoided every single one of them. Flipping and vaulting past all of them. It was stunning to watch him fight. Pidge often found herself watching him train through the cameras she had placed so she could study the others without being in the room.

It was because she studied his fighting style so much that she noticed why lance was frowing so deeply. Keith was holding back. Normally he was almost fluid when he moved. Now he was jerky and hesitant.

"Lance!" Pidge was drawn from her analysis by the black Paladin entering the room. "Allura wants to see you next. I wouldn't keep her waiting, she's in a bad mood today"

Lance sighed dramatically before apologizing to Pidge again and proceeding to detach his own armor. When he emerged from the armory he glanced back at Keith for a split second then turned his attention to Pidge. "Call me of anything happens"

"What do you mean?" Pidge was confused, she had never seen him so... concerned before.

"I don't know. I just have a feeling. It's probably nothing." With that he left the room, heading for the control center where Allura waited.

Shiro sent her a sideways look "what was that about?"

Pidge shook her head " I don't know he's probably just worried Keith will hurt Hunk's feelings or something stupid like that. What about you? It didn't take you long to talk to Allura."

Shiro shifted uncomfortably beside her "that's because I haven't unlocked any new powers for the black lion, there was nothing to record so I was sent back down here to check up on you guys."

"Other than Lance shooting me, everything's-" the scream that cut her off sent terror through her spine. She watched helplessly as Keith was thrown across the room in slow motion. The residual crack from his helmet smashing into the ground has Pidge on her feet in an instant. Pidge could just barely hear Shiro behind her over her own heart beat that thrummed in her ears, reminding her not to panic.

Eventually the world around her speed back up and she was kneeling next to Keith's still form. She hastily checked for any signs of blood, nothing. She flipped through other possible injuries and began searching for the cause of his gut wrenching scream.

God,she had never heard a sound like that. It was broken and pain filled and shook her to her very core, but fot that sound to come out of Keith, one of the strongest, most stubborn people she knew turned a terrifying scream into the stuff of nightmares.

Pidge shook herself out of her thoughts, she had to focus. After about ten minuets of running through her medical history, anything that could make someone scream like that, she found nothing. No broken bones, no blood, no head wound, nothing. Worry bloomed in her chest. "Shiro, help me get him to the infirmary."

Shiro was ghost white, his eyes were unfocused terrified, his breathing wa raged. He was panicking. Made sense, the man he had seen as his younger brother just screamed bloody murder before knocking himself out. Pidge didn't have time for this. "Shiro, listen to me. He could have internal bleeding, his lung could have collapsed, he could be hemorrhaging."

"What does that mean?" Shiro's voice was quiet.

"He could be dying, Shiro. Keith could be dying. We need to get him to the infirmary so I can help him."

Shiro slipped his hands under Keith's shoulders and knees, cradling him to Shiro's chest carefully. Shiro took off to the north section of the castle. Pidge followed telling over her shoulder as she exited the training room. " Hunk, stay there! If lance comes back tell him where Keith is!"

Hunk yelled something after her but she was moving to fast to hear. Pidge skidded through the halls and exploded into the infirmary, Shiro had already lager Keith down on the cold metal table in the center of the room.

Shiro was still pale, he had his eyes glued to Keith's face, silently willing him to open his eyes and be ok. Pidge rushed around the room grabbing scanners, bandages, syringes, anything that might help. though the tech from Altea was different from earth equipment, Pidge gave her best guess as to what each device did. Pidge returned from her scramble and gave Shiro a cold look.

He didn't notice

She needed to keep Shiro out, she couldn't have him breaking done right here. "Shiro, I need you to do me a favor. I need you to go make sure Hunk is ok. Can you do that?"

Shiro's eyes held despair "No. no. I can't leave him like this."

"Shiro, I need you to calm down."

"No. Pidge! I- I can't leave him- I was supposed to protect him. He's- he's my brother."

"I cant help him if I have to help you." It was harsh, Pidge knew it was but she needed to get him focused so she could help Keith before- before it's to late. "Go find Hunk and stay with him." Shiro bucked tword the door refusing to lose sight of Keith for as long as possible. "And if you see lance send him to me please." Pidge called after him.

The room fell into an Awful quiet the seemed to suck the very life out of everything that stood in it's wake.

First thing first, remove his armor. It was a lot harder when the armor was attached to a prone form but she managed to detach all of it with out having to cut the straps. Next step, removing his shirt. She tugged at the red jacket that hung over his shoulders, the skin on his arms was a pale purple that went all the way to his fingers. Curious, Pidge set to removing his gray t shirt. She pulled it up over his abs and to his chest before raising each arm over his hard to pull the sleeve through. With one final tug the shirt came lose, the sight underneath sickening.

"What the hell?"