Title: It wasn't you

Rating: T

Chapter 11


The jaws snapped inches from Coran's face as Cosmo flipped the predator off of him. Coran brought his rifle back into the fight and got in two more hits before one of them grabbed his arm. He screamed when the teeth bit down through his flesh and dropped the gun. Cosmo pushed against his other side and blinked them back further up the ramp into Black. The didn't seem to be an end to the number of predators surrounding and attacking them. They had come at them in force about 10 dobashes ago. There were just too many. Coran and Cosmo had dropped several, but they were simply being overwhelmed. Coran was about to call out to Krolia for help when two things happened at once. Red's eyes lit up and she roared. Krolia screamed.

Now Coran hadn't known Krolia very long, but in his general opinion the Blades weren't a particularly emotionally overt kind of people, so her screaming was not good. Red on the other hand could be overt, at least when it came to one particular emotion. Coran saw the flames burst from her mouth and down into camp. Cosmo yelped and blinked them away just as it began to get a little too warm. From the cockpit of Black he could see the predators being burned and chased back into the forest by Red. She was demolishing everything in her path and had was basically burning the forest down in a swath of destruction as long as Voltron was tall.

Coran blinked. His blood was dripping down his arm. Cosmo whined. His fur was smoking a little. The ends of Coran's mustache were also smoldering and it had been shortened significantly.

"Coran!" Krolia called sounding out of breath.

"Here. I'm here." He went running into the back of Red. His feet refused to move from the doorway when the scene in front of him registered. Krolia was doing CPR on Lance. CPR which he had learned about from Lance. CPR which he had told Lance sounded barbaric and painful. CPR which Lance said didn't matter if it was those things because the person was essentially dead and you couldn't hurt them. Lance was essentially dead. Coran's chest felt leaden. Tears sprung to his eyes. He couldn't breath or think.

"Coran?" Krolia managed to look up at him during compressions. "Is there anything else we can do? I learned this from Keith, but I don't know what else…" She nodded taking in the look on Coran's face. There wasn't anything else. "Okay. Then I will just have to keep him going until they can help him where they are."


"Shiro." Koran had to hurry he didn't have long. Lance had didn't have much longer than that. Kuron could feel himself drifting away from this body. Something else was calling him forward, but he had one more thing he had to do before he left. He had to be sure his team would be okay.

When Kuron reached Shiro, he was starting to get up. He needed to try to heal Lance. He didn't have the energy Kuron knew it. If he tried to heal Lance like that they would both die. Shiro probably knew it too, but he would try anyway.

Kuron reached and to grab him, but his hand passed through his arm. Shiro stopped stunned and turned to face him. Kuron leaned forward until his forehead touched Shiro's. His head seemed to pass into Shiro's overlapping slightly.

"I'm sorry. I don't have time. You don't have enough quintessence left to heal him. If you try to do it, they will lose both of you." Kuron's voice echoed in Shiro's head.

"I have to. I can't not try. I can't just let him go." Shiro cried out.

"You need help. All of you might not even be enough, but you stand a chance then." Kuron explained. "I'm almost gone, but I wanted to leave you with a gift." And with that Kuron faded away. He was gone.


Hunk made a strangled sound that should never come out of a human body. He scrambled over to Lance. He wasn't breathing. He held out a shaking hand and felt for a pulse. There wasn't one. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"He's not breathing and he doesn't have a pulse." His voice sounded cold and detached to himself.

"NO!" Pidge screamed and slammed her fists into the ground. "You're wrong. You have to be wrong! He can't be…just NO!" Pidge had tears streaming down her face.

"Move." Keith slid over next to Lance. He pinched his nose, tilted his head back and gave two quick hard breaths. He could see Lance's chest rise with each one. He then moved further to the side and began chest compressions. Lance was fading, literally seemed to be fading away right in front of him. Before they had each given off a bit of a glow, but now, he wasn't glowing, he seemed blurry - or that could be the tears in his eyes.

"Keep going Keith." Shiro said as he knelt on the other side of Lance. "I'm going to need all of you to help if we have a chance to save him." Shiro placed his hands on Lance's arm. "Okay, Pidge, Hunk, both of you need to put your hands on him as well." Pidge laid her hands on his leg and Hunk on his head. Keith was still doing CPR. He wasn't sure if it mattered on the astral plane or not, but he felt like he was breathing and his heart was beating, so it seemed like something Lance should be doing too. "Okay, we have to concentrate on healing him. Concentrate on him being alive."

Shiro's hands began to glow, followed by the bright red of Keith's and Pidge's deep green and Hunk's warm yellow.


"Quiznack!" Alarms began to blare as the quintessence levels dropped in all of the other Paladins. They were nearing critical levels. Coran hurriedly scribbled on his hand. "Krolia, keep going. I have to try to help them."

He pressed his hand onto Allura's shoulder. He needed to reach her.

Krolia watched as Coran's orange quintessence glowed around him and spread over to Allura and Romelle. Her arms were starting to shake, but she was not going to stop. She listened to the blaring of the alarms, the roar of the red lion and for a brief moment wondered what she would do if she was the only one left when this was all over.

"Allura?" Coran saw her and Allura sitting ahead of him. It looked like a field of flowers that used to bloom just outside of the castle.

"Coran?" She looked up at him. "What's wrong?"

"They need more quintessence. They need to heal Lance." Coran kept his voice controlled, but it was impossible to hide his grief.

"Is he?" Romelle asked eyes wide.

"Not breathing and his heart stopped. We must hurry. Please, Princess, send them my quintessence. You and Romelle are using all that you have to keep them all together, you don't have any to give." Coran asked.

"Coran, if it doesn't heal him, it will kill you. It could kill all of them." Allura frowned. She did not want to lose Lance either, he meant a lot to her, but she would not sacrifice everyone for even him.

"They have already committed to it Allura, we will lose them all." Coran walked over and put both of his hands in hers. "Please."

Allura nodded. She looked to Romelle, the girl had already closed her eyes and was concentrating. Coran's orange quintessence surrounded the two of them and then seemed to be flowing up into the clouds.


Pidge had fallen onto Lance's legs, she was trembling with effort but she would not quit. Keith had sweat pouring down his face, his arms burned and his vision had narrowed down to only his hands. He couldn't see or hear anything but his hands and the rhythm of the movement in his mind. Hunk had closed his eyes and was swaying gently like there was a breeze about to blow him over.

Shiro saw himself fading, almost as quickly as Lance. There just wasn't enough. He wondered if they would all be trapped in Black if they were to die here or if the others would simply be gone like Kuron. Lance was growing harder and harder to see, like a ghost that you could see right through. They were losing him.


Krolia's heart was pounding against her chest. She felt like her arms weren't even hers anymore, just sources of pain. She paused for two rescue breaths and continued. What else could she do?


Coran collapsed next to Allura and Romelle. His body fading until he was barely visible.


"Don't you dare leave us." Shiro whispered as his hand started to pass through Lance's arm, just as he had with Kuran earlier. "No. Please."


Shiro felt it before he saw it. Warmth, comfort, security, wrapping around him and through him and wrapping around Lance a glow of soft orange. They all glowed for a few moments. Then Lance coughed. Shiro had to push Keith back to alert him to the change. He blinked slowly like someone waking from a nightmare. Hunk checked for a pulse.

"He's alive." Hunk touched his forehead to Lance's. "Lance, thank you for not leaving me, hermano."

Lance's eyes blinked open. He looked up into Hunk's and then over to Keith and Shiro. He could feel Pidge laying across his legs.

"Hey guys, what happened?" He felt awful. He wondered if he looked as bad as they did.

"You died." Keith whispered.

"Oh." Lance shuddered. That hadn't been a memory he'd been in a hurry to relive. "You brought me back?" Lance looked over to Shiro.

"We all did." He reached over and brushed Lance's bangs out of his eyes.

"Thanks. So did we win? Is the big bad gone?" Lance closed his eyes and leaned into Shiro's hand.

"Yeah, we won." Keith answered suppressing the shudder and the echo of the parasite's parting jab. "He lost."

"Kuron?" Lance questioned quietly.

"Free." Shiro answered. Kuron was free, no longer weighted down by the evil of the parasite. His spirit was free.

"I'm all for this bonding and stuff, but the parasite's gone, Lance is back, Shiro is good…can we get out of here?" Pidge asked barely lifting her head.

"Does anyone know how to do that?" Hunk asked looking around at the blank looks and each of their faces.

"Click your heals, Pidge. Say there's no place like home." Lance offered with a grin.

Pidge's response was cut short as all of them found themselves propelled back into their bodies.


Shiro blinked his eyes open. He was lying in the pod. He grabbed the side and pulled himself up slowly. Pidge and Hunk were starting to stir, moving a little and moaning. Coran was sitting on the floor next to the head of his pod. He looked dazed and exhausted, there was blood on his arm and his moustache was half burnt off. Allura had her head lying in Romelle's lap and the girl was gently wiping her face with a cloth.

He turned to the other side and found Krolia leaning against Keith. She was breathing heavily and seemed to be sweating, though he wasn't sure with the fur. Keith had leaned his head against her shoulder and wrapped an arm around her. Lance was laying flat on the ground, his face scrunched up in pain.

"Lance?" Shiro asked.

"Ow." He answered. "I feel like Red was dancing on my chest." From outside Red roared her protest. "I'm not blaming you." he murmured.

"That was my doing." Krolia offered. "Your heart stopped."

"CPR?" Lance asked and she nodded. "Galra know CPR?"

"No, Keith taught me." She smiled down at Keith and kissed the top of his head.

"Moooommm." Keith complained.

Shiro leaned back and breathed a sigh of relief. It was going to be okay.

"Why does it smell like burnt dog in here?" Hunk asked.

Cosmo whined.