Keith woke up, feeling sunlight- well, the ships artificial sunlight- warm his face. Usually he would open his eyes to see the beautiful light dance around the advanced technology of the Castle of Lions, and that was what he fully expected to see now. For a second, he was surprised when he had only opened his eyes to blackness.

Oh. Right. That.

It was still hard to get used to, to remember that everytime he opened his eyes, that's all he could see, all he would ever see. He wished he had at least gotten to see everything in detail before he lost it, because he couldn't remember it all.

That included, he realised with a pang, what his friends looked like. He couldn't remember the exact faces and expressions of his friends. He couldn't remember the color of Pidge's glasses, or how much taller Lance was than him. Couldn't remember the shade of gray that Shiro's eye's were, how what Hunk's smile looked like. He tried so hard to imagine their faces, the shapes and colors, but he couldn't. It was like it was blurry or fuzzy, he couldn't imagine every detail. And that hurt, that really hurt, because he would probably never remember.

Suddenly, he had to do something, anything, to keep his mind off that fact. Usually, he would train, but now…

Okay, this was frustrating.

Keith figured then that this was probably the best time to learn how to get around. That was going to be.. Interesting, to say the least. He stood up, sighing, and made his way to the door, waving his arms around to make sure he didn't hit anything. Finding the wall, he felt it in the direction he thought the doorway was in. Finally, he found it and left the room.

Okay, where should he try to go? Should he just go around the castle and figure out where everything is, or should he think of a place to find? Feeling a pang of hunger, he decided to figure out how to get to the kitchen, then learn how to make himself food because he couldn't always depend of his friends to do it for him.

Finding it was harder than he thought it would be, and he realized he took even that for granted. He never bothered to notice how many rooms there were between his room and the kitchen, or which hallway to turn onto. Finally, he thought he found it. He entered the room and felt around, quickly realizing that he was, in fact, not in the kitchen. He was in...somewhere with a whole lot of tools.

Ah, Hunk's and Pidge's work room, for when they got some sort of genius invention idea. Which was often. The work room was only a few doors down from the kitchen, so he was close.

Only about 2 minutes later, he finally found the kitchen. Now for the hard part.

They had bought some earth cooking food at the space mall, and had lots of earth-like spices and foods. Before this whole thing happened, Keith would come here every morning to make a small breakfast. And by breakfast, he meant toast. Only, he couldn't find the bread. Or the toaster for that matter.

This was so frustrating. He couldn't even find bread, that's how useless he was.

"Aaaarrgghh!" he yelled, frustrated and angry. He grabbed the nearest thing he could to throw, because he needed to throw something. Apparently he couldn't even do that, because as soon as he grabbed it, he felt searing pain.

A knife, he realized suddenly. He had grabbed the blade of a knife of all things.

He dropped it back down, feeling blood pool up in his hand. He fell to the floor, sitting against the wall. He didn't even know what to do, he didn't even know where bandages were, much less how to get out of the room. The cut was deep, but he just couldn't do anything but sit there and cry in pain.

"Keith?" he heard someone call his name- Hunk, he realized. "Keith, buddy, are you okay? I heard a-" Hunk stopped, he must've seen Keith right then because when he continued he said "Oh quiznack, what happened?"

Keith didn't say anything or even make a move of acknowledgement. He could hear Hunk running over and kneeling next to him, grabbing his injured hand. He winced at both the sudden contact and the new wave of pain that ensued.

"Keith, alright buddy, I'm going to get some bandages for this, I will be right back." Hunk sounded worried and seemed to be waiting for some sort of response, so he nodded slowly but said nothing.

It was literally less than a minute before he came back, and Hunk seemed to sense Keith's confusion. "I have a first kit in the kitchen, put it in here after about a week." he gave a short laugh as he started cleaning the wound. "I'm so clumsy, I don't think I've gone a week without accidentally cutting myself."

Keith smiled as Hunk finished cleaning the wound and started wrapping it. Hunk probably had a natural talent of making people feel better, even if the Yellow paladin didn't know it. He could probably calm anyone down just by talking to them.

Hunk cleared his throat. "So, um.." He tied the bandage on Keith's hand but didn't let go. "What happened?"

Keith dropped his head. "I tried to make some food, and I couldn't. I got.. Frustrated, grabbed the closest thing. Which.. Happened to be a knife." He laughed dryly. "Ironic, right?"

He heard Hunk sigh, and shifted to a presumably more comfortable position. "Keith, you might not be able to do the things you could before yet, but man, if anyone can learn to, it's you." Keith moved his head in the direction of Hunk's voice, as if looking at him.

"What?"

Hunk gave a short laugh again. "Seriously, Keith, you're the most determined out of all of us. It might take awhile for you to get used to it, but I'm sure you will. And anything you can't do, we'll all help you figure out. Like, we could put braille all around the castle so you can find things. Pidge and I have actually been tossing around ideas."

"Really?" Keith asked. He was a little surprised. With the blindness, he felt like he couldn't do anything, like he'd never be able to again. But Hunk was saying that they all thought he'd be able to adapt. And they all wanted to help him, too. It actually really helped, knowing they'd had his back. He'd been alone his whole life, it was almost weird to not be.

"Yeah, we're here for you. I hope you know that."

Keith smiled. "I think I might now." then he frowned again, another hidden fear coming up. "Hunk, what if I can never fly again?"

He hadn't wanted to think it. He didn't even want to think of thinking it, but it had been nagging at the back of his brain sense he was told the blindness was permanent. He'd realized that with most things he'd be able to adjust. He'd been planning on learning braille, and everything else he'd just adapt to. But flying? It needed sight. He had to see everything in his peripheral vision, outside and inside the ship.

Flying had been Keith's support. He'd been naturally good at it, it was the only thing he had been naturally good at. When Shiro had tested him and the other kids with the video game simulator, Keith had never done it before. That had been his first time, and he had been the only one to make it that far. When he did it, he felt something. A thrill, an excitement filling through him as he maneuvered the controls. There was something, something just amazing about it, something he just loved.

And it was nothing compared to the first time he had flown an actual ship. He'd thought the simulation was amazing, but the thrill was so much better with the real thing. Flying was millions of problems every minute, needing to be solved in seconds or everything would fail. And just the feeling of speed and excitement gave Keith something he never had before. Passion. It was the only thing that kept him sane when he was told that Shiro had died.

But now? Now he was afraid that he would never feel that again. Feel what made him him. He didn't think he could handle losing that.

He dropped his head again, now sure that his tear ducts were damaged because otherwise he'd be crying. "Oh, quiznack, what if I never fly again?"

He may have never told anyone but Shiro about his love for flying, but Hunk had seemed to understand. "Keith, I-" Hunk stopped talking, probably unsure of what to say. Then he sighed. "Keith, I promise you, we will figure something out."

Keith nodded, but stopped as he felt Hunk's arm's wrap around him. He usually wasn't one for physical touch, but sense everything had happened, touch was one thing he could use to understand his surroundings and connect him to the world around him. Without sight, it was like he couldn't fully… connect. He could hear still, but that was almost not enough. He now realized that with touch he could connect. He wrapped his arms around Hunk tightly, probably surprising the Yellow paladin. "Thank you," He said, and he meant It.

"Hey, Red."

Keith walked into the hangar slowly, feeling the walls. He could 'feel' his lion like he could that first day he and the paladins found the lions. Like when he could feel Blue in the desert. That was probably the only reason he could find the hangar in the first place.

He could feel Red connect with his mind, communicating with him for the first time in almost three weeks. The lion sent him feelings of guilt and regret, and it said all it needed to for him to understand. Keith chuckled lightly.

"Do you blame yourself, too?" he asked aloud, smiling softly. "You shouldn't, because I don't"

The feelings of guilt remained, this time with desperation and mental images of being trapped and in pain. Keith walked closer to Red, and finally finding her, he put his hand on her paw. "Did they hurt you too? When they took me, did they trap you?"

The feeling of conformation and more regret filled him um, and Keith felt a sudden urge of anger. Why did they have to hurt red, too?

Wait.

If the red and blue lions were on the planet were they had no back up, why didn't the Galra take the lion's too? Was it because Shiro was coming, or because they needed to leave quickly?

Or did they have a bigger plan?

Keith's train of thought was stopped when he heard the castle's alarms ringing throughout the castle.

"Paladin's! Get to your lion's quickly, three Galra ships are attacking!"

Allura's voice rang through the comms, and Keith could hear the others running to their lions. He had instinctually moved to Red's entrance, and it seemed Redhat instinctually opened it. He ran to the cockpit, arm feeling the wall, and he sat in the chair ready to join his friends to defend the castle.

Oh, wait, he couldn't see anything.

How was this so easy to forget? He was literally blind and he kept forgetting it.

"Guy's, I don't think I can-" he started to say.

"Keith?" he could hear Shiro's voice through the comms. "We don't expect you to come yet, it's okay."

"Yeah, but-"

"Look, it's only been a day since you got back, you probably shouldn't be jumping right back in yet anyway." Shiro said, and Keith couldn't help but feel frustrated.

Even though Shiro was probably right.

He stayed in Red, though, because he still had to make sure the team was all right.

But by the sounds of it, they weren't. Lance was screaming at Pidge to do something, and Hunk was taking too many hits. The Galra were winning, and they needed Voltron. They needed him. But how?

"Red, please, I need to get out there. I need to help." he begged, even though he didn't know what to do, or what he could do.

He closed his eyes in concentration, shaking. He could now here all of them screaming, he needed to get out there.

Suddenly he felt something. It felt like the feeling when he could feel Red, only stronger. Like Red was connecting with him deeper than ever before, and he remembered yet again that first week being a paladin when Coran had…

….blinded them.

Keith practically launched into position, hope filling him. When Coran had darkened their helmets and they couldn't see, Shiro had connected through the Black lion and could 'see' through it. That meant Keith could too.

Red was connecting with him like Black had connected with Shiro.

And suddenly, he knew what to do. Everything was instinct, but he reached out and grabbed the levers. And suddenly he was flying.

They were screwed. Shiro knew it. Yellow was getting badly damaged, and Pidge and Lance couldn't get through the Galra ships. They were too strong, and the team couldn't win. They needed Voltron, and Shiro knew it.

But that clearly wasn't happening. Shiro didn't want Keith out here yet, not just because he was blind, if anyone could be blind and be a paladin of voltron, it was Keith. No, It was because Shiro was worried about Keith. He had just been subjected to torture for two and a half weeks, that wasn't something he could brush off. He might seem okay, but Shiro didn't think he was.

So when he saw the Red Lion flying towards them, he didn't know what to think. "Keith, what?"

"I can see!" Keith shouted through the comms.

Everyone who wasn't in immediate danger paused. "Wait, what?" Shiro blinked.

"Well, not like see see. More like Red's telling me what to do and everything that's going on, and I'm doing it. It like-"

"You connected with Red like I did with Black." Shiro smiled, proud. A surge of hope filled him. "Guys, get in formation, we need to form Voltron!"

A/N Yay forming Voltron.

Okie so here is Chapter 4, hope you enjoyed. lemme know if you did.. by reviewing. i know im so subtle. Thank you to everyone who liked, followed, and reviewed. have a nice day.