Thirty-Seven: A Want To Be Wrong

All of the aliens are finally awake. And the team are finally prepared to ask their questions.

System: Iitharra
Location: Space

Allura knocked lightly on the door, pushing it open with one hand whilst the warm broth remained balanced in the other. It was Hunk's peace offering; unneeded now that the aliens understood Voltron was on their side, but Allura suspected there was more to it than just continuing to curry favour with the Solnha survivors. Perhaps there was comfort folded into his meals too.

Uilt'xen didn't say anything to Allura's arrival, so the princess let herself enter entirely, approaching the side of the walkway where the Daratrine sat. She had pulled her arms up around her body, allowing her legs swinging over the central energy core. It hissed and crackled beneath her, her eyes transfixed on the light and raw power of the pure energy core that made up the fuel of the Castle of Lion's main engine.
The power source may be the Balmeran Crystal, but this was where it was transmuted into usable energy to power the engines. Beautiful in its own right.

Uilt'xen must've found comfort here, because once the poor girl had stumbled upon the Central Energy Chamber, she hadn't moved. Not for her family, not even for her lover. Kenmare, however, was a servant to his stomach, and although Uilt'xen ignored the desire to eat, he did not.
And so, instead of letting the Daratrine wallow alone, Allura had offered herself for company, taking with her food. Despite Uilt'xen's stubbornness, she couldn't stop herself from growing hungry.

"Dinner," Allura said, making a show of lifting the bowl. Uilt'xen barely turned her head, but she didn't ask for solitude. Her silence remained as the Princess crossed the remaining distance, settling spoon and bowl beside the other, and settling herself down too.

She didn't let her feet hang the distance above the central energy core. Instead, she curled them around her body, crossing her legs, her arms hugging around her midriff much like the other, if only to fight the chill of the room. It wasn't heated for the purpose of saving energy that needn't be wasted.
Uilt'xen didn't feel the cold. That was her luck with her amphibian nature.

"Thank you, but no thank you," Uilt'xen said after a moment, realising that Allura planned to accompany her.

"I can get you something else if you like. If there's anything that you fancy, just say and Hunk will cook it up like that." She snapped her fingers to emphasis her point, but the smile and warmth fell cold upon Uilt'xen's dead eyes. "Thank you, but no thank you. I'm not hungry."

"Well, if you ever change your mind,"
Allura offered, knowing not to push. She herself had lost her appetite when ten thousand years passed in the blink of an eye and she was left alone with only Coran as her family. But for the sake of the team, for Voltron and the entire universe, Allura had forced herself to eat and remain strong.
Uilt'xen simply needed to find the strength to stand. She'd get there.
But first, perhaps a little nudge in the right direction.

"You don't have to sit here by yourself. Even if you don't want to eat, it can't be comforting to be here alone."
"The one I want to see won't be there." Her words were soft, a simple pass of air between lips. Anything more and the poor girl might just pass out from exhaustion.
Uilt'xen had only been sitting here, but it was the regret in her mind that had her tired ever since waking. At first, perhaps it had been just the disbelief that this wasn't her own escape; a dream woven around her breaking, shattered mind for the sake of trying to preserve something. To not allow Orvis to fully break her.
But as the day stretched longer and longer, the Daratrine still in her dream, her world changing with every new moment; Orvis's death, the truth of Valion, the pain of losing Valion…

Maybe this wasn't a dream.
Maybe this was reality and they had escaped.
Been saved.
Are safe.

But not Valion.

And it was for him she grieved and wrapped herself in the torment of self-blame. She hadn't been strong enough. She had fallen, and relied on him, and gotten him killed.
She hadn't been strong enough.

The grief at the news of Valion's death wasn't something Uilt'xen could run from. Even when she turned from her own hope-filled words, she had tried to run from the lies she spoke herself; limbs moving automatically, brain shut off from functioning anything but the ability to walk. Away from the sadness, the pain of loss, the truth that another Brother had fallen to the Galra Empire.
Uilt'xen couldn't walk away from it though, shown in the cape of depression that stained her skin a murky brown; unsightly compared to the usual hue of setting sun she was usually blessed with.

"If it's any consolation, I know what you're going through," Allura told the silence, shifting to find comfort before he body stiffened. She let her legs swing over the walk way, listening to the resounding echo of her words. Listened to them, and understood they were false.
"No. It is no consolation," she amended, the smile she wore removed. There was no need for masks now.
"But I have been where you are, for my planet, my people and my family. And all I can offer is that; it gets easier."

Not easy.

Easier.

Uilt'xen's eyes are on the Princess, but whatever she feels, she's not expressing it. Or maybe she is, and all she feels is nothing. Sad, lonely, empty nothing because she doesn't know what is to happen now Valion is gone. And now, she doesn't even have the energy to care. The universe be damned. It had taken her Brother from her. What was the point in fighting, if even the strong died? What hope was there for the rest of them, if even Valion…

Allura meets the young girl's eyes, a question in her gaze. Uilt'xen hears the unspoken words and turns face. No questions, her silence says.
She'll accept the company, if that is what Allura wants to give but talking is not for her yet.
She's not ready to speak yet.

"I lost my Father not too long ago." Because the silence is too heavy, and Allura feels the need to do something. "For me, it wasn't too long ago, but in truth, it was ten-thousand years ago. We were fighting Zarkon when the war was young and the Galra still felt the pain of losing Daibazaal.
"By my father's word, he forced me from his side, I order to save me. I never got to say goodbye."

Allura stares at the energy core, watching light arc across its surface. She's not sure if her words offer anything to the Daratrine, but all she can recall is the day she lost the battle with Zarkon. The day they lost Altea and its King.

She stares and stares, staring past the dancing light to the war that she remembers as if it was only yesterday. She remembered more than the battle, more than his death and the passing of the flame, extinguished far too soon.

Allura remembered more than the sadness.
She remembered her father's smile in the sunshine, the call of his voice that would ride the wind to her as she danced in the meadows of a thousand flowers. She remembered the smile that would bless her father's gentle, weathered face when she called his name, ran to his legs and grabbed hold of the soft cloak that smelt of June-berries.
Allura remembered holding his hand when she took her first steps, remembered his laughter when she spoke to him. She remembered the first time she could use her Altean Chameleon abilities and grew a moustache just like Coran's, just to hear her Father laugh.

"I remember him as I knew him. I remember the happiness we shared; moments now precious to me. You say Valion was a dear friend. Then hold tight to the happiness you shared. It will help in the days to come."

Tears came then. Hot and endless, they poured over Uilt'xen's brown skin, down the point of her chin into hands that she buried her face in. Silently, she released the pain that had taken hold of her heart, and in those moments, she let it all go.

Still no words.
Still not ready to speak.

Allura doesn't press. Because she understands the need for privacy and the pride that comes when you can't hold the tears in anymore.
To Shiro she has cried, to Coran too. But now, she doesn't, knowing that she has to be strong for a moment longer. There are no more words given, but the two of them, so alike in their pain and the moment of memories, take comfort from one another.

It is there, where she sits, wearing his Blue on her chest, that she lets her mind return to Lance and the memories that she holds of him.

A hand on the Blue, and she can remember his smile pulled over caramel skin, the light and warmth that filled her when he laughed and spread joy around the ship with his silly childish antics that she always found endearing. She never told him. She never thought to, nor did she think she had to.

Allura remembers the lilt of Lance's voice that sung sweet music she has never heard, with words that didn't make sense but filled with such joy and excitement that she knows those songs will be in her memories always. Without Lance, the castle has been disconcertingly quiet, even if Hunk and Pidge have done their hardest to remain upbeat for their missing comrade. But two can't be three without Lance, and the notion of his absence it ingrained in her memory as well.

Allura remembers the words Lance would speak in greeting, the nicknames to his Space Family, the jokes and the flirting which she pretended to hate, and hates that she pretended…

Allura remembers Lance and she holds onto the happiness these memories bring her.

.

Orvis was disposed of quickly and without fuss. They weren't disrespectful to her anymore than she didn't deserve, letting her body be burned by the Castle's engines as they released her from the airlock with no more than silence between them. It was Keith and Pidge who took the responsibility upon themselves, making no fuss as the others hurried the four aliens away, where warmth and soft lights would ease them back into comfort.

Pidge didn't say anything about Keith's final actions against the Arroyo, but he could see the Green Paladin hoped to say something. With the arrival of Coran, the moment was lost.

"They've agreed to speak with us," he says, instead of words the Pidge wishes to speak as well. "Allura has calmed Uilt'xen, and now that the four of them are awake, they have agreed to tell us how to find the Solnha." Keith straightened at the news, but before questions are asked, Coran continues.

"And this time, we're going to ask after Lance."

"Do you think they really know if Lance is with them or not?" Pidge asks, their steps falling in time to Keith's rushed ones. He doesn't provide an answer to the question, but they're already on their second, third, so it's not like Pidge is looking for an actual answer. "—Because I could understand if they haven't met him. The fleet is easily over a thousand strong, maybe even stronger, so it's not like they've had a chance to meet every single person who fights alongside them. And Lance couldn't have been with them for longer than six months, give or take. Okay, so maybe there is a chance they've met him but—"

"Pidge."
Keith's voice isn't loud, nor is angry. But he speaks with a tone that asks for quiet.

Quiet is given, in ode to their hurrying footsteps, with Coran the only one of the three that doesn't look like he's rushing. But it is only in his outward appearance, Keith notes, knowing the man not to be so stiff, or tight-lipped for that matter.

The aliens are waiting for them in the lounge.

The others are waiting too, all having taken their respective places on the sofa. Keith looks to the place left for him, but he's too tense, his nerves too wired to allow him to do something as simple as sitting. He votes to stand, remaining by the edge of the circular sofa, folding his arms if only to give them something to do. It doesn't come off calming, if Leonel and Rayon's flickering eyes have anything to tell him, but there is no movement from the Red Paladin to stand down. Not here. Not now.
Not when they're this close to Lance.

Pidge slides in next to Hunk and Allura, crossing their legs and trying not to look as tense as they feel.
The presence of all the Paladins and the older Altean announced that they were ready to begin talking.

It is Allura who takes the floor first. Practised in the arts of diplomacy, and with many alliance meetings behind her, it makes sense for the Princess to lead. She sticks to the formalities, beginning with the introduction of the team, even though the aliens are sure to know them all by now.
Yet formalities are the proper etiquette, and they are upheld on the Solnha's side too, as Rayon takes command and introduces his family by name, followed by a secondary thanks for their recent rescue.

"You have questions for us, we know that. We will answer what we can, in respect to your initiation of peace," he said, turning back to his family, who shared their response of solemn eyes, all nodding to Rayon's words. "But if there is anything you ask of us, about our family, that will put risk to the Solnha, then know that we will not give it."
His words carried such authority that the others were sure that he was the Leader of their group, and not the fallen warrior; Valion.
But it is not so, and with his passing, it is Rayon who takes the mantle that was left behind.

"We cannot ask for more," Allura began, but the other was yet to finish speaking.
"I know you have spoken to my Brother about a truce between the Solnha Alliance and Voltron. If that is truly what you seek, then know now that I have no authority of the matter, nor can I speak on behalf of my Prime, now that Valion…" His voice faltered on his friend's name, but with a slight shake of his head and a moment to collect his thoughts, the Draora continued.
"I am only here, speaking to you as Rayon, first-born, Son of Jastra."

Allura nodded again, as did the other Paladins. They sat themselves straighter, eager for Allura to turn from formalities, to focus on Lance.
But it wasn't a "head-first" approach that began their talks. Instead, the Princess refers to her and Shiro's conversation with Kenmare back when Rayon had just woken, and the other two were still healing.
She explained her proposition from the start, not only for the sake of Uilt'xen and Leonel who weren't awake, but for the other Paladins who had been fighting with their emotions and everything else.

"We all have the same enemy," she says, the words one she adopts for many a treaty. "It only makes sense to join forces and fight alongside one another."
"A matter for the Solnha Leaders to discuss. But they too have adopted these thoughts since Valion's arrival."
Uilt'xen's voice holds a note of melancholy, her smile shared with Kenmare. But it's pale, like moonlight upon a calm and serene sea. She loved him, it's clear to see, and his death is something that will pain them for a long time. But they're trying. Perhaps for his sake.
If they say it was he, who unified the pirates to turn against the Galra, then they're warming peace with Voltron to honour him. Hopefully the remaining Solnha feel the same.

As discussions continue, Keith grows increasingly irritated. It's not just that the aliens are awake and yet to tell him of Lance, but it's Allura's blatant disregard for him. She may be playing the part of diplomat, but the giant, blue turtle has already stated, very clearly, that no such arrangement would be made in this meeting, or any conversation that isn't held between her and the Leaders of the Pirates.

But questions of Lance can be answered.

Questions about their missing Blue Paladin won't be considered as a threat to them or the Solnha. They probably wouldn't even consider the importance of him, seeing him as just another in the ranks of the rogue alliance.

Keith had thought that it was Lance who united the pirates, but in this vast universe, his blue-idiot isn't the only selfless, altruistic, benevolent fool that would lay down his life for the sake of others. Perhaps Lance even knew Valion. Perhaps he respected and loved him, just like these Solnha that gather before them.

The boy steps forward.

Eyes turn to him instantly, Shiro's words fading into nothing as he turns too, reading the way Keith unwinds his arms, fists still clenched. Eyes, hard-set, breath quick in his throat.
"We're looking for someone," he says to the silence, eyes flickering between the faces of the Solnha that watch him. Their own expressions are masks, much like his own, hiding more than just confusion. Pity. Fear. Sorrow.

"His name is—"
"Don't ask."

Uilt'xen's words carried, silencing Keith's before he could fully form the question that was poised on all of their tongues. Even if the others were not willingly to plough ahead and demand the truth, they wanted to know, just as much as Keith. They'd let him demand all he wanted, knowing he wouldn't beat around the bush. Politics be damned, Keith wanted answers. And he'd get them.

But Uilt'xen remained to bar his way. "Please," she said softly, not at all the strong warrior that they had seen stand against her torturer. She wasn't meeting the Paladin's gaze, instead finding focus upon the floor; too ashamed to meet their eyes.

"Don't ask. You don't want to hear it."

But Keith doesn't take heed to her warning, but instead the implications of her words.
"You know," he breathes, barely able to think more than she knows, they all know.

Lance. They know where he is.

Behind Uilt'xen, Rayon and Leonel look to one another, their lips tight, faces cold in the pale light of fear. Kenmare closes his eyes from pain, but none of them are seen as all eyes remain solely on the Daratrine who has spoken words of gold for the Paladins that have been searching, for far too long.
They can't hide their smiles, their bodies releasing tension that wound them up tight before they'd even realised what it was that

"We want to know," he says, forging ahead. Pain ripples from crescent marks in his palms where he clenches his fists too tightly, but he doesn't care, he couldn't care less, not when Lance is so close. He's actually there this time, with the pirates on their ships, like Hunk said he'd be, like he hoped for so damn long.

"We want to know," the boy repeats, taking a step forward. Kenmare shifts his own feet, his stance reminiscent of defence, but Keith can't see that. He only focused on the Daratrine and her bowed head. She's the one who has the answer. She's the one that will tell him where Lance is, so that Keith can find him, apologise to him, bring him home—

"Why do you want to know so badly," Kenmare growls where he stands, his own three fingers curled into heavy-hitting fists, standing between Uilt'xen and the half-Galra's intent stare. The question is a surprise, but with much the same energy, Keith answers "because he's my family. I'm worried about him."

Apparently what Keith said was funny, because the Draora snorts. Rayon and Leonel share glowers, but not to the younger, but to Keith and those that have stood as well. Shiro anchors Keith with a grip on his shoulder, Hunk closing in on the boy's personal space as a barrier to him and a deterrent to Kenmare and his brothers that have stood too.

It is a show of power, with tension rising with every second. It is not that Keith doesn't want peace with the pirates. He just wants Lance more.

"He's family—" Keith repeated, but the word is thrown back in his face.
"Family? You don't even know the meaning of the word," Kenmare bites, his beak pulled back into a snarl. His eyes flicker to Allura, to the Paladin armour she wears, his glower hardening. "If how you treat Lance is the way you treat family, then no wonder he came to us."

There is a split-second of happiness, in the one moment that Kenmare speaks Lance's name, without the team having to speak it themselves.

But it is only a moment, as the Draora continues. "He never told us about you, never said what you did and why you cast him out, but it wasn't hard to guess why. He used to throw himself into training with everything he had, always saying he needed to be stronger, that he couldn't lose a fight and risk our lives for his.

"Even when we didn't know him, not then when he first came to us and we were still unsure about him, he was always loyal, always on our side. Because that is Lance. He gives himself one-hundred percent, but wouldn't take anything in return, like he's grown used to the idea of being used by everyone."
Kenmare had steadily grown more and more vehement as he spoken, though the calm in his voice, the truth in his heart, stayed. He was panting, a little, by the time he finished.

Keith looked angry and cowed and murderous, all at once. Allura had a hand over her mouth, trying desperately not to cry. Hunk and Pidge seemed ambivalent. Shiro, for his part, was trying to anchor himself alongside Keith as the thought that it was his words that drove Lance tothe can't recall how many times he has been thrown back in the hangar, listening to Lance's words when all he had sought to do was see if the boy was well and offer him advice, like Lance did for him whenever they had their midnight meetings in the kitchen.
But he had failed the boy, and it was here in this moment that he was beginning to fully understand just what he had done.

"I'm sorry," the Black Paladin apologises in place of Keith, in place of all of them, as Hunk pulls him back a step, to stunt his reach should he try and physically fight.
"Keith is headstrong, but he has a good heart. We all miss Lance." Because what can he say, really? The apologies are for Lance, not for the pirates that are his new family. And Shiro knows, that nothing he or the others say will change the pirates mind about the way Voltron treated Lance. It's obvious. Otherwise, Lance would've returned to them, long ago.

"We just want him to come home."
"And you think that this here is his home?"

The Draora's voice is bitter as he snaps out words. Tears prickle in his eyes. "You think he'd want to come back here? You think that Lance would willingly come back here, and leave his family again? Didn't you stop to think why he left in the first place?"

"We… we miss him. He's family," Pidge says softly, tears in their voice, yet their cheeks remain dry.
"You pushed him away. How can you call yourself family?" Leonel tells them, with less poison on his tongue. But still, it cracks like a whip, and Pidge flinches under his glare.

"You're not his family. You might be kin, some of you," he says, eyes passing over Allura and Coran with the same bridled anger, "but he was never really your family. The time spent apart can attest to that, without him having telling us as such."

The words are a slap to the face.
The Humans and Alteans alike stare with jaws slack, eyes wide.

Leonel continues. "When Eldar first began to court Lance, he said he wasn't worthy. That he didn't deserve love. And that's not the real Lance—"
"You don't know the real Lance," Keith snarled, but anything else wanting to be spoken was silenced by Rayon, who stood beside his brother and defended Lance against these culm that pretended they were Lance's family.

"We knew him more than you!" he shouted, anger in his words.

"We knew that he was a strong fighter, we knew he was smart and clever and funny, and loyal and selfless and… That. That is Lance.

"We all knew that he was stronger than he thought he was. We knew that there had to be someone out there, that had made Lance feel otherwise. It took him a long time to stop listening to Anadón telling him he was weak and worthless. It took him a long time to listen to all of us instead, but he did it. Because Valion is strong.

"He was strong enough to unite all of us together. He stopped the infighting and unified us against the Galra, and all of a sudden, we were all stronger together. Because Valion believed in us. Because Valion was leading us."

Keith stared. Mouth agape.

Thoughts churned inside his head, twisting and turning until they were too tangled to tell apart from one another; a giant storm of serpents that coiled in his mind, the pain of their poison spreading like ice in his veins.

"Valion…"

Keith scanned the faces of the pirates before him, ignoring the way Leonel and Rayon have come to stand by Kenmare, bodyguards to him as much as Shiro and Hunk are guarding Keith. But they're protecting him from himself, his own twisted, out-of-control, hell-bent anger that…. Isn't.
He's not angry. He's confused. His mind won't stop catching on the name that Rayon had spoken and Kenmare had spoken and Leonel had…

What?

"No. No way," he says, ignoring what the lies that they're trying to tell him.
Because that's it. They are just lies.

Lance is not…

He can't…

"You're lying," Keith spits. He tries to take a step closer, but Shiro still holds firm. "He's with you. You're just lying. He's not Valion. He can't be."
"Can't be? Why? Because you don't believe us when we say he's strong?" Leonel shot back, his mandibles clicking, the barbs on his back restless. But the poison hadn't hurt Keith before, so he didn't fear the bastard now. Didn't mean he was going to avoid a fight either. He'd beat them all black and blue for daring to suggest that Lance was de—

"Valion is the name he was given when he beat Gereen in the duel, because he was strong. Valion was the name we all gave him, because we respected him. We loved him and respected him and followed him. Because he. Was. Strong."
Leonel's voice is loud and he's so close to shouting. None of his family try to step in and stop him; their own instincts still wired from the time as prisoners. Keith poses a threat, and they are ready to meet him with fists and fangs a like.

"No."

Denial.
Just as the pirates had expressed themselves on hearing that Valion was no longer with them; that he hadn't been saved, that he had been lost—

"Lance may not be dead—" Hunk begins, but it is fruitless.
"He wasn't there. How can you say Valion is still alive when it was the Galra who were our captors? They've wanted Valion longer than they've wanted any of us. He knew that, he knew the risks of travelling to Genwar—"
"We all did."
The younger lets his voice rise up, the anger and despair he felt to his brethren's death once more released. "It was risky for all of us, and still we went, to save the Hycis because they asked for our help. Valion made us into those that would help others— No. That is who Valion is, and because we respected him, we followed his lead. We vowed we would fight for him, that we would protect him just like he protected us."

Impatience crawls its way up Keith's throat in a feral snarl and he closes the gap to grab the front of Rayon's shell and pull him down so that their noses are almost touching. "You're is Lance?"

"Don't touch—"
"Where is he?"

"HE'S DEAD!"
Rayon's words are as painful as his punch, connecting with Keith's body and forcing him back where Hunk holds him tighter, his feet already dragging the Red Paladin back. Rayon doesn't follow him though, already shouting at the top of his lungs, demands Keith see reason. To understand the truth.

Lance is dead.

"He died. We couldn't save him. He was there, with us, on Genwar and we were trapped. And now we're here and he's not, because when the base fell apart around us, he was lost to Genwar's fires. I didn't want it to be true. I didn't even think it could be true. Because Valion is strong, stronger than us. He's… he's… he's Valion. He fought Gereen and won. He made Matriarch see reason, he wasn't even intimidated by her. He was blessed by a star-child. Zaos even leant her own strength, but it wasn't enough, and now he's gone."

"He can't be just 'gone.'"

Keith's denial changes then. His anger returns, furious, unrelenting and Keith can't control it, doesn't even try, as he curls his hand into a tight fist of rage and curses, breaking free from Hunk's grip, slamming his entire body into Rayon's. The sheer impact causes the two of them to tumble to the ground. Hunk and Shiro are too far to stop the fight. None of the pirates step in either.

Anger boils under the pair's skin, pulsing through their veins as rage fuels their motions into fists and a dealt punch. Pidge screamed as the sound of knuckle met flesh, and the two pulled back from one another. Their anger, wet anger; that saw tears in their eyes and poison on their tongues, took their grief and warped it. Denial and anger became guilt, blame, sorrow, pain, unadulterated rage—

"He's not dead."
"HE IS AND YOU CAN'T CHANGE THAT!"Rayon yells. He pushes back, squaring off against the puny runt of a Human, nothing like Valion whom he respected and loved. And now he's gone and this Dahast can't seem to understand the grief that has plagued him since he woke up.

For Keith, there no grief. Because he's not mourning a brother lost, because Lance isn't lost, he's just waiting, with the rest of the Solnha, and all the team has to do is find them and find Lance and bring him home.

Anger. That is all there is.
Grief is masked by the anger, the truth that Keith knew deep, deep down inside is being forced into the light by this bastard who claims to be Lance's family.
But Keith won't have it. It's not true. It can't be true.

"HE'S NOT DEAD! You're lying, all of you are lying," the boy shout, fists flying at the solid hands that hold him. He doesn't care who it is, doesn't care about anything other than telling Rayon he was wrong.

Because he was wrong.
Lance wasn't dead. There was no way—

Keith broke free from the chains of pain and he's swinging a fist at the blue turtle before him. Rayon meets it with a block, leaving him to follow through with a punch to the center of Keith's chest. He didn't block it, didn't try, didn't even see it coming at him.
He can't see well. There's something in his eyes. Something on his face. It's hot, it's wet.

Keith can't see properly, but he doesn't care as he falls back with the moment of the blow, pain in his arms, his hands, his heart. His chest is heavy, the world is tilting and he's falling into the arms of a man who has known the truth all along. "He can't be," Keith tells his brother, trying to find the escape from this nightmare. "He can't be."

Shiro shares his tears. Hunk too. They wrap their arms around Keith, leaning into one another's space, feeling the press of more bodies as Pidge, Allura, Coran, join them.

"No, no, no! That can't be… it can't be."
But it is, and the truth cannot be changed, no matter how much they wish it all so.

Lance is…

Lance is…

Lance is…

They are broken now.
Broken by the truth that they lost Lance.

They were too late to save him.

Because Lance is dead.