Chapter 14

When they arrived in the green lion's bay the door opened and Hunk and Pidge where both laying on the ground groaning.

"Come on guys! What are you doing taking a nap at a time like this! The Castle is going crazy!" Lance shouted as he walked over to them. They groaned in response. Pidge lifted her head up.

Are they serious? This is an emergency! The castle tried to kill him not five minutes ago and these two were laying on the floor.

"We were trying to fix the computer with all of the blade information on it." She grumbled. Hunk pulled himself into a sitting position.

"We were stuck in zero gravity for like ten minutes!" Hunk whined. So the castle wasn't targeting specific people then. Lance raised an eyebrow, glancing to Keith to gauge his reaction. His eyebrows were furrowed in thought. His skin was changing ever-so-slightly into that dusty, dancing purple.

Pidge stood up and went back over to her computer, which sat on the floor along with most everything else. A table was turned on its side and all sorts of scientific looking devices were scattered around it. Hunk got up as well and Lance and Keith followed him to Pidge's side. There was a sigh of relief from Pidge.

"My computer is fine. Nothing external broke in the fall. Now, if only I could find the internal problem."

"You said that there was a virus? Where could it have come from?" Keith asked as he leaned in slightly closer.

"We've been trying to figure that out." Hunk said as he turned to look at the two of them. "We can't think of anything that could have caused this, Pidge wasn't having any problems with it yesterday."

"What is it doing to her computer?" Keith asked. Pidge answered him this time.

"It's not responding to anything I tell it to do; it won't run a diagnosis, it won't open or close any of my windows, and it won't let me access any of my coding files." She huffed out in one frustrated breath. "I can't even figure out what caused it, let alone how to fix it!"

There was a moment of silence as everyone wordlessly tried to figure out where the virus could have come from.

Lance quickly ran over the past few days. Keith was released from his make-shift prison after he woke up and they got some food. They started the tour and he ran into Shiro, who he knew. He told Shiro about the…

"Could it have been the chip from Shiro's arm?" Lance chimed in. All eyes turned to him, but not in the good way, in the, 'I can't believe that you just said that' kind of way. Especially from Keith, his eyes narrowed at Lance and his mouth slightly open, his ears tilted back in disdain. "I-I mean, you hooked it up to your computer and the castle and now both are kind of…" He trailed off as the eyes around him grew wider and then glanced at each other.

"That's possible, but I ran a diagnostic on the chip, it was clean." Pidge said.

"It's alien tech, you've never had to deal with any alien viruses before." And it was true, none of them had needed to deal with anything of this sort before.

"So it could have been the chip?" Hunk asked.

"No." Said a firm, assertive voice. All eyes turned to Keith. "It's not possible. Ulaz gave Shiro that chip. He would never have put a virus in it, he wants Shiro to help the Blade, not…" Keith trailed off, his hands clenched in tight fists as he glared down to the floor, his ears folded tight against his head, almost blending into his hair. "He wouldn't."

Lance said nothing as he looked to Keith. He wanted to believe him, but all signs pointed to sabotage on Ulaz's part. On the Blade's part.

At this point Lance has stopped trying to keep track of how many times Keith has saved him. All he knew was that Keith could be trusted. Trusted to save him, and to help Voltron survive.

Maybe Ulaz had changed since Keith had last seen him. Maybe he's not the same.

Or maybe Keith is telling the truth.

But how? What could have possibly caused the castle and Pidge's computer to go bonkers like this?

"I know you guys don't believe me, but I'm telling the truth." Keith raised his head and met their eyes. "There has to be another factor. Something else." He took a breath and unclenched his fists. He let his ears fluff out and go back to a more neutral position.

"Okay, but what could it be?" Hunk asked.

"I don't-"

A loud wailing siren took over the rest of Keith's sentence. Everyone jumped up. Keith had his ears pressed firmly against his head. The castle wasn't reporting what the problem was and no one recognized the siren. After a quick glance at everyone else to see if they were thinking the same thing, Lance sprinted to the doors of the Green lion's bay.

Lance, being the one furthest from the door, ended up behind everyone else. They were all heading to the command room, where they could find what the cause of the siren was.

They were almost there, in the middle of passing by the last connecting corridor, when Lance spotted Shiro. He was about to call out to him when he realized something was wrong.

He was crouching down, holding his head in his hands, his face scrunched up in pain and fear. Lance whipped his head back to where the others should have been, but they hadn't noticed and were already sprinting into the command room. He only hesitated for a moment before he turned back to Shiro and ran to him.

"Shiro? Shiro!" Lance crouched down by his side. Shiro didn't respond, mumbling things to himself and trembling.

"Come on, snap out of it!" Lance shouted over the wailing siren. He didn't touch him, knowing that it could have an adverse reaction. Shiro's mumbles grew louder, his eyes still clenched tight together.

"My name is Takashi Shirogane. I was born on February 29th in Osaka Japan…" He continued mumbling, but Lance stopped listening.

"Shiro, come on. Shiro snap out of it! You are in the Castle of Lions." Lance tried a different approach. Shiro's mumbling slowed and quieted a bit. Lance continued. "You are the black paladin of Voltron."

"Voltron…"

"Yes! Yes! You are our leader!" Lance continued. Shiro's eyes cracked open, his breathing began to calm down.

"Come on Shiro, I'm right here."

"Lance?" Shiro's eyes opened further and focused on Lance.

"Yes, that's me." Shiro pulled his hands away from his head. "Shiro, what happened?"

"I… I thought I was…" Shiro looked around. He shook his head. "What is the siren for? What's going on?"

Lance gave him a concerned look. He would never know how Shiro was able to just switch back into Leader mode, especially after just having an attack like that. Lance wanted to push, to help, but he could see in Shiro's eyes that he wanted to move on, to forget the whole thing.

So he let it go and helped Shiro to his feet.

"We don't know what's going on, the sirens just started going crazy. Everyone is heading to the Command room right now." Lance explained. Shiro nodded his head. There was a moment of silence as they started to run to the Command room.

"I… I don't know why… I heard the sirens… My arm just started glowing and then…" He trailed off, but Lance understood.

"It's alright." Lance said confidently. "Everyone is here for you, so no worries." Lance smiled and took the last few steps into the command room.

That was when the extent of the situation hit him.

"Allura!" Shiro shouted, reacting instantly to the scene before him, and sprinting past Lance. Allura was standing in her command area, typing away furiously on her screen. Her hair was loose, surrounding her body like a cloud and her face was calm, almost serene. She had a small smile on her face.

The castle was wailing. Alarms screaming that something was wrong.

Pidge and Hunk were trying to talk to Allura from a few feet away. Keith was a bit further back, looking at a loss for what to do. Coran, who Lance hadn't noticed before, was at his station pressing buttons just as feverously as Allura herself. He turned away for just a moment to shout, "I can't counteract her orders anymore!"

"Princess what are you doing!" Shiro shouted as he ran closer.

"Shiro no!" Pidge shouted. Shiro ran right into a mini particle barrier around the princess. He flew back a few feet, landing on his side. Keith, who was closest, ran to him and pulled him up.

Lance watched in horror as Allura pushed one final button and they were suddenly they were being teleported through space.

"Allura, what are you doing!" Shiro shouted, running to join the others where they stood around her.

"I can go home." Allura answered with a smile, her eyes closed. "Altea."

Lance moved closer, unsure of what to do. It was almost as if Allura had gone mad.

"Princess." Coran moved away from his station. "Altea is gone."

There was a sudden jerk, not enough to knock anyone off their feet, but enough to get their attention.

They had arrived.

A great blue star was shining brilliantly as the last of its light was burning away inside it. It was soon to become a super nova.

"That star is going to explode!" Pidge screamed.

"Altea." Allura smiled a little bit wider. "I'm home."

"Allura, that isn't Altea!" Shiro shouted.

"Altea is gone Princess!" Coran was as close to Allura as he could be without touching the particle barrier. "You know that Allura."

"Look, the juniberry!" As she spoke there was a flicker of something beside her, an image. "Oh I can't wait to land father." The image flickered again, but this time stayed.

It was the image of her father, King Alfor.

"What's happening?!" Lance shouted.

"I don't know! Something must have happened to Alfor's memory core!"

"The Virus! The Virus must have infected the core. Allura snap out of it!" Pidge screamed.

"1 dobash until supernova detonation." The castle's automated voice chimed out.

"Allura please, we need to go now!" Hunk shouted.

Alfor's image turned towards the group. "She can't hear you. She is on Altea now."

"You- you! Let her go!" Pidge cried. Allura began to mumble something, Alfor turned to her.

"Yes, I remember that day." He mumbled back to her. "You'll be back with the juniberries soon."

Lance didn't know what to do. There seemed to be no way to talk to Allura, let alone force her to get the castle out of here. The others seemed to be at a loss as well. Pidge was shouting angrily at Alfor and Hunk was standing behind her, somehow managing to look equally terrified and furious. Shiro was trying to talk to Allura but none of his words seemed to be getting through to her. Coran was standing motionless, mouth open as he gazed at Alfor and Allura.

Keith was standing ears flattened, mouth agape, and eyes wide as he stared at the blue star. One foot was behind him towards the door, almost as if he thought that there was somewhere to run away to. It didn't matter where he went though, if Allura didn't turn around soon, they were all going to burn up in that star.

There was nothing to do. There was no way to fix this. It was hopeless.

Anything that might have been able to help was already being done. And it wasn't working. So what could Lance do?

Say goodbye.

With only a limited time left, goodbyes seemed to be the only thing left to do. With the sirens and the screaming there was no way to be heard without being close to the others and shouting as well, but Lance didn't bother. He looked to Hunk, and began to speak in a normal quiet voice.

"Hunk, thank you for being my best friend since freshman year at the garrison. Thanks for always cheering me up and having my back and knowing what to do when I'd fall into one of my 'funks.' You have such a big heart. Buena suerte. Ten cuidado." Hunk didn't hear him, no one could after all, and he stood stock still in the same place that he had been when Lance had started.

"50 ticks until detonation." The castle said over the sirens.

Might have to move a little faster.

Lance shifted his focus to Pidge who was still screaming ferally at Alfor. "Pidge, Katie, you are so smart and fearless and I don't think anyone has told you that. You remind me so much of my little sister. I'm so thankful that you and I were able to become friends. Buena suerte. Ten cuidado."

Next was Shiro. Lance chuckled. "I bet you never thought that this would be the way you went out. You are our leader, our friend, and the best damn role model any of us have ever known. You have your own demons, but you don't let us in. I understand that it's not easy, but I wish you would have let us help you more." His voice dropped a bit as his breathing stuttered and it broke a little when he said, "Buena suerte. Ten cuidado."

As he was turning his gaze to Allura the castle chimed out once more. "40 ticks until detonation."

"Allura, I can't even imagine how terrible it was to wake up out of your time and alone. Despite this you became our fearless commander, and a great friend. You are one of the strongest people I know. Buena suerte. Ten cuidado."

There were tears falling gently from his eyes now. He wiped them away and smiled as he looked to Coran. "Coran, you were like the crazy uncle no one understands. But you always had a way to make us laugh or cheer up. In the short time I've known you I've come to see you as family, just like everyone else here. Buena suerte. Ten cuidado."

"30 ticks until detonation."

Lance took a shuddery breath and shut his eyes for a moment to try to get the burning sensation of tears to go away.

"And Keith." Lance opened his eyes and turned his head to the right to look at Keith where he stood a few meters away. Keith was looking directly at him, his own eyes glassy. His ears were turned in Lance's direction and were standing up at attention.

Lance felt his heart pound hard once, twice, and then forced himself to breath. Keith had heard everything.

In the background there was shouting, something about what Juniberries smelled like, but it was all white noise to Lance. Keith had heard everything. It wasn't like he wasn't allowed to hear, it's just that everything Lance had said was incredibly personal and he was a bit taken back by the fact that Keith of all people had heard everything.

There was a jerk, one that sent Lance and Keith stumbling and flailing to try and catch their balance. Then it stopped and the sirens that had become a constant finally shut off. There was no more shouting, only the sound of quiet sobbing and silence. The blue light of the soon to be supernova was gone, replaced by a soft red glow coming from a nearby solar system.

Lance turned to the others and saw Allura doubled over her panel as she sobbed. Shiro and Coran were on either side of her and Hunk and Pidge were standing a few feet away, saying nothing.

He didn't know how they did it but they must have found a way to snap Allura out of her spell.

They were alive.

Lance wiped at his eyes. They were damp. No one could know. They would call him weak, make fun of him, lose trust in him.

There was a warm hand on his shoulder. He didn't take his head out of his hands, too ashamed of the red puffy eyes he was sure to be sporting.

"Hey Lance, why don't we go somewhere else for a bit? The others can take care of Allura." Keith's voice said quietly by his ear. He said nothing in response, just nodded his head once and let Keith guide him out. Lance kept his face down cast, he couldn't seem to get his tears to stop following despite how hard or often he rubbed at his eyes.

They went down a few hallways before they were far enough away to have some privacy. It was then that Lance slid down the wall and sat with his knees up to his chest. Keith sat beside him and didn't say a word. Lance let the tears fall, but stayed just as silent as Keith.

Lance waited to calm down. A minute, two, five. All of his thoughts were flying all of them a whirlwind, he was going to explode. Just start babbling.

And he did.

"I-I… They probably think that I'm weak." He started to speak faster, in a frenzied broken voice. "You think that too. I couldn't do anything to help. I just stood there and- and I was useless. I was so scared. We were going to die. There was no hope left, we were going to die, the Castle was going to kill us all. It tried to kill me alone too, and I would have died out in space all by myself in the cold-" Lance was suddenly pulled into a strong set of arms, his face buried in a warm chest and he didn't fight it, just sobbed and gripped onto the back of Keith's shirt like a little kid.

Keith rubbed his fingers through Lance's hair and quietly hummed while Lance cried, loud and powerful.

Lance didn't know what Keith was humming, a nameless tune he had never heard before, but he found it soothing. Like when his mother would sing in the kitchen while they made dinner together.

After a few minutes Lance took a deep breath and pulled himself together. He wiped his eyes, pulling away from Keith. Keith let him go.

"Sorry." He said and refused to meet Keith's gaze. He felt ashamed that he had done that.

Weak.

"You had a long day. Anyone would have felt the same after getting stuck in an airlock and thrown towards a supernova." Keith said with a smile. Lance looked at him and saw that his eyes were sad. Something in the pools of violet gray was off. His ears were droopy and his shoulders were sloping in towards himself.

"How about you? You got chased by a gladiator and were thrown into a supernova too." Lance asked.

Keith nodded his head and after a moment said, "Just remembering someone." Lance, not knowing what else to do pulled him in for another quick hug before standing and offering a hand to Keith. Keith took it.

"I don't think you're weak." Keith said. Lance furrowed his eyebrows and made a questioning noise in the back of his throat. "You said, 'You think that too.' That I thought you weak, but I don't." After a moment he added, "You are strong."

Lance snorted. "Real funny, Keith." He let a smile take over his lips.

"See. Right there!" Keith pointed at Lance's face. "It takes a will and a resolve that most don't have to smile like that after something like- like this happens. Lance, you are strong. You say that everyone on the team always makes you smile, makes you happy. But it's your attitude, though strange and sometimes over exaggerated, that lets the team get comfortable and lets them feel at home. Your optimism lifts the entire team's spirt, even if they moan and groan at your jokes. You are a strong, important part of Voltron." Keith finished.

Lance stood stock still, tears blurring his vison once again. "Dammit Keith," He let out a laugh that was almost a sob, but he wouldn't let it be one. He wiped at his eyes. "I thought that I was done crying. Thanks a lot." Though it was sarcastic, he really did mean it. "If you keep doing things like this I'll never stop owing you." He looked to the floor with a soft smile while Keith looked at him with confusion.

"Owing me? You don't owe me anything Lance."

"Yes I do. I got you captured, but you saved my life, like, a ton of times. And now you're making me feel better. I owe you."

"Lance, I didn't do any of those things because I wanted you to owe me something." Keith said softly. "I just did it because it was something anyone would do."

"Just anyone. A stranger wouldn't risk their lives diving beside an airlock to pull someone out." Lance said stubbornly.

"Am I a stranger to you then?" He said it so quietly that Lance had to strain to hear it. When the words finally registered Lance was taken back. Of course Keith wasn't a stranger to him. He was his hero on more than one occasion after all. Did Keith not realize that they were friends?

Did I not realize that we were friends?

"Keith, you do know that we are friends, right?" Lance asked. Now that he thought about it, Keith didn't seem like someone who was around people often, maybe he really didn't know.

"We are?" Keith's head snapped up, his ears fluffing upwards and his eyes shining prettily. Whatever had been wrong earlier was forgotten now.

Adorable.

"Of course we are. Everyone on this ship is your friend Keith." Lance smiled as Keith's face broke out in a small smile full of surprise and pure joy.

"If you really feel like paying me back you should know that you being my friend is enough."

"Keith, that's lame. You need, like, something spectacular, with explosions and cool stuff like that." Lance said, emphasizing his point by waving his arms around and making a fake explosion with his hands.

Keith laughed and shook his head, saying explosions were the last thing he wanted while on a space ship.

They both began to walk back to the command room, Lance insisting on something big and Keith denying every suggestion or idea until they arrived.

"There you guys are, what were you doing? Taking a piss together?" Pidge said irritably when she saw them. Lance opened his mouth to speak but she cut him off. "No, I don't care. We are having a meeting, hurry up."

Lance watched Pidge's retreating form walk to the back of the Command room before shrugging and gesturing to Keith to follow him.

Hey guys. So this took a little longer than I would have liked. My Grandfather just lost his fight with Cancer and the family has been grieving. Yes, I will be alright, it's just seeing everyone else so distraught has been kind of hard.

On another note this story just hit 4o,000 words! I'm so excited! It actually ended up going over that! I wanted to thank you guys because my heart literally flutters every time I get a review! They are the only reason I keep writing this. Thank you for the love you guys :) I honestly need it!

Oh and if you haven't followed me yet get on over to my tumblr writterwithin