Keith turned back to normal, but he then dropped like a puppet who got their strings cut.
I was barely able to scramble in time to at least catch his head. His breathing was harsh and fast and he was shaking violently. I moved a strand of his hair out of his eyes that were squeezed shut, and I noticed his fists were clenched shut as well.
"Shiro!" I heard Allura shout as she entered the med-bay with the team who was following behind her with a few bruises. Hunk seemed to be the last person to come in and he seemed to be carrying an unconcius Coran in his arms.
"What happened to Keith? His quintessence levels are really high. What did Haggar do to him?" Allura asked as she kneeled by us, and touched his forehead.
I took a deep breath before I recited what happened only a couple of minutes ago. Allura just stared at him in surprise.
"Allura, what's happening to him?" I asked the princess.
"His quintessence is powerful right now, and it seemed that he over works himself. Pidge, set up a scanner,"
I picked him up as he continued to quiver in my arms and placed him on the examination table, but he winced terribly, a tear rolling down his cheek. Pidge came over with a scanner, scanned him, and as she read over the scan, her face paled fast.
"What is it Katie?" I asked as Keith winced again.
"All of his ribs are broken, getting close to at least one of them getting fractured, a dislocated left shoulder, a minor concussion, sprang wrist, and ankle, but for some reason it seems to be getting worse by the minute," Pidge tears her glasses off and rubs her eyes hard before she looks over Keith again.
I looked down at Keith and saw him clench his teeth and fist tighter as some blood dripped from his hand to the table.
(^_^)
The blurriness in my vision finally cleared and I felt like I was falling for a few minutes before I landed hard on my side, luckily the less injured side.
"Ow," I groaned to myself as I shakily raised myself to my feet.
My ribs hurt with every breathe, no matter how deep I inhale, it felt like a pile of rocks were crushing my chest. My left should was burning, and my wrist didn't feel right, but it wasn't the most concerning injury. I looked around my surroundings to find...
Blackness. A midnight black color was all I could see. There didn't seem to be a light source anywhere, but I could still see fine, but the color of my surroundings was just a midnight black color that seemed to be engulfing me. I tried to think on how I got here, but I just keep seeing Shiro's body moving a little as Haggar was aiming a lightning bolt to his head, then everything was blur.
I walk foreword, or was it my left, my right? Whatever direction I was walking, I walked into nothingness. I look around the landscape and saw a cloaked figure lying there. I take a deep breathe despite my aching ribs, and walk closer to the figure. Once I'm a good foot away, I recognize that the cloaked figure is Hagar, and she starts to move.
I limp away from here, trying to get as far as possible away from the witch. Once she gets up, and gets a good look of the place where we're at, she gasps, then turns around to face me with a look that says this whole situation is my fault.
I just stared at her as I inched to my fighting stance, finding that I don't have my blade with me, and made sure my ribs were being protected with arm. She then raised her arm and release a black attack at me. It almost felt like everything was in slow motion as I dodged the attack, but landing painfully on my side with the burns. I gasped in pain, but that just made it worse as everything was silent.
I got up from my position on the floor and glared at the witch as I put a protective arm around my ribs.
"What did you do!?" she shouted her question as she readied her attack with her hand crackling with electricity near her sides, "Where are we!?" she then aimed at me, and I brought my arm up in time to-
"Ahhh-!" I shouted as she hit me in the chest, making me gasp in pain, which resulted in me flying above the ground and landing hard on my back.
Then there was no more crackling sounds, but instead, all I could hear were my choked off screams, and groans in pain. I couldn't breathe. There wasn't enough air, and I felt like I was dying. My ribs ached, and my heartbeat felt like it was beating too fast against my broken ribs and it felt like it wasn't letting me suck in air. I heard her cloak move closer until her croaked voice rang through my choked off breaths.
"How did you bring us here you vermin?" after a few seconds of silence between us, she readied another attack and struck.
"Ahhh!" it wasn't as strong as the last one, but it hit my sides hard enough for me to have been pushed further away from her.
I finally was able to get enough air to manage to answer her question, "I d-don't kn'w," and I just clenched my teeth and fist hard as I heard cracklings come closer and closer...
(^_^)
"Can we put him in a pod?" I asked Allura as she paced up and down the infirmary.
"Sadly no. His quintessence levels are all out of whack, but we can put Coran in thanks to Hunk getting power to the pods," Allura said with a hopeful attitude as she smiled toward Hunk who was in the corner of the room with the other paladins.
The blades left once the fight was over, Kolivan telling us to keep him updated on Keith. He was going to make sure that the castle wouldn't have to fight while they were looking over Keith.
"Yeah, cup half full," I look down at Keith as he clenched his eyes and fists tighter shut. He was looking worse by the minute. His skin was a few shades paler than his usual skin tone, he was panting harsh, and I could see his canines sharpen. His ribs were getting worse, and it resulted in him breathing harsher.
"This is weird, I mean this didn't happen last time he had to blast something," I heard hunk say, which caught my attention.
"What? Last time?" I asked, knowing that if something like this happened, I definitely would have remembered.
"Oh right, this was when Keith was leader," Lance said with a nod of his head, but he didn't seem to be his normal self though.
"Okay so apparently the witch sent out this huge snake like monster creature to capture Keith since he is part Galra, Altean, and Human, and most hybrids wouldn't have lived, so while Hunk and Keith were on a mission, the creature came out and tried to capture Keith and kill the rest of us-" Pidge started to explain before Hunk cut her off.
"But after about five minutes of talking to the creature to stall for the others to come save us, he started to attack, and you should have seen him. Keith was like really fast with his attacks, but precise, until he got hit with the tail," he murmured under his breath before he went back talking about what happened. "And then the snake creature thing was about to roast me, but then Keith was like 'Leave. Him. Alone.' and he was pulling an Allura-" I made a face at this.
"He means when Allura healed the Balmera, and she had the light blue aura with quintessence surrounding her," Pidge explained as she adjusted her glasses.
"Yeah, except he was glowing red and black with no sparkles, just light, but anyway. The creature attacked him with fireballs that came from his mouth, but then Keith caught the fire, then start to shoot them back, but he only seemed winded after he did that though. He didn't..." he trailed off.
"Go into a coma that seems to be doing harm to him," Pidge finished as she quickly wiped her eyes.
Lance walked over to Pidge, and brought her in for a hug as we heard a sniffle from her. After a couple of minutes of silence, Hunk led both Lance and Pidge out of the infirmary to the kitchen, if I heard the excuse correctly.
"I just don't understand how he's unconsciousness, and yet he's getting worse. How?" I questioned after Keith let out a painful whimper.
Then Allura stopped mid-stride as she half turned and looked at Keith.
"Wait, when Keith blasted Haggar, you said she disappeared?" she asked as she came closer to Keith.
I nodded my head, "Yeah, but it was weird though, it didn't have the usual smoke effect like it usual does, and she definitely got hit," I concluded as I looked down at Keith, and then back up to Allura.
"Maybe he's conscious, but he's in an astral plane he must have created, and accidently brought Haggar with him, and now their..." she trailed off.
I just shook my head in confusion, "Princess, I have no idea what you are talking about,"
"Haggar said that she wanted to take some tests on Keith, right?" I nodded my head, "Okay, so she might have been testing his quintessence, and depending on which species, their levels could either drop significantly, or raise beyond what should be normal," she then continued pacing.
"Which one happened to Keith?" I asked as I looked down to my younger brother after another pained whimper.
"I think his levels rose beyond what should be normal. I think when he attacked the witch, he sent her into an astral plane, and there he is as well since he doesn't have that type of training to be able to avoid something like that to happen, especially the state he was in when we got him back," she walked back over to Keith and reached out to his hand to squeeze it.
"Okay, so how do we get him out of there?" I asked.
"Well, I will have to go in and free his mind from wherever he is, because if he dies there, he will die here. The body cannot live without the mind, so I will enter, and when I pass out, catch me," she says, and before I could react, she put her fingers on Keith's temples and pink sparkle things float around her before they disappear and she collapses.
I caught her before she hit the ground, and I placed her on a bed that was near Keith's and saw she looked peaceful unlike Keith.
"I hope you know what you are doing princess," and with that I watch over both of them, and waited.