Chapter 24

A/N: Whoo, last chapter was a doozy. God, that was hard to write. Anyways, I seriously debated on keeping Thace alive, and I was going to. Then, I was like: hey what if this was the reason Keith kept going in to help other blades in later seasons both story and cannon-wise. After watching Thace sacrifice himself even though it was possible for them both to escape in time?

I know I'm evil. What can I say?

Once again, I just own this crossover.

/comms/

"Bold is in-ship intercom"

Flashbacks/telepathy/dreams

/We've gotta act fast/ Shiro said as Voltron floated in front of the offline Galra Command. /The power's only going to be offline for twenty minutes. The Blade of Marmora's schematics showed four targets we need to hit: the weapons systems, engines, bridge, and the shield generators. Now let's put an end to Zarkon, once and for all/

/Yeah!/

/Form sword!/

Slamming his bayard into its slot, Keith formed the sword of Voltron. Flying towards the command ship, they dug the blade it, dragging it up and around one of the lower legs growing out from the bottom of Zarkon's Cantral Command.

/We need to hit the engine systems/

"Target sighted," Yorak informed and Keith quickly maneuvered the sword as Voltron slammed down onto the ship again. Red stabbed the blade it and fire raged around them.

-.-

"We've done it," Allura sighed, as slight smile forming on her lips as she regained consciousness.

"Yes Princess," Coran agreed.

"Don't jump to conlusions," Jaz reminded adjusting a few parts to her battle suit, "this battle isn't over yet."

-.-

/Stay focused/ Shiro said as they began to fall into a pattern of firing and slashing at the massive warship, /we've neutralized the engines, now we need to target the bridge/

Keith furrowed his brow, where exactly in this beheamoth of a ship was that?

He didn't have long to contemplate as a familiar surge made him freeze. Darkness, a lot, close by.

Looking down he paled seeing the massive blight forming below them. There was no way the druids could be this powerful. It took the Hive's Ascendant Wizards and Taken Wizards to perform this kind of magic.

A dark bolt shot out and Keith heard screams. He wasn't sure if it was his own or a mix of the others' as well. Energy arched over his body, adding to the pain as whatever attacked them proceeded to wreak havoc on Red and he was sure the other lions as well. Keith reached out through the bond, trying to determine how bad they were.

He didn't like what he found.

They all were being drained of energy, and unlike him, they didn't share the same reserves. That was all it took for Keith to release his built-up supercharge along with any extra quintessence he could spare. If he could overload the blight with unstable quintessence, then he could save the others.

It wasn't even a moment later darkness took over his vision.

-.-

Hagger strained against Voltron's quintessence, the white energy moving wildly as it was drained into the Komar. With this attack, she could weaken the Paladins and ensure her sire's victory over them. Allowing the Empire to finally gain control of Voltron and eradicate the last of the Alteans once and for all.

Strengthening her magic, she began reading the quintessence, looking for weaknesses in their enemies.

The Yellow one, afraid and weak, but extremely loyal and protective, he could be difficult to break. Difficult, but not impossible.

The Green was stubborn and smart, no doubt a potential asset to the Empire, but was too afraid of losing those closest. A weakness Haggar would gladly exploit given the chance.

The Blue, fragile and insecure. He would no doubt be the easiest to destroy. His weaknesses were obvious, all she needed to do was to crush his hopes and emphasize every fear he had in order to break him beyond repair like her beloved Champion.

Oh, Champion, his quintessnce felt familiar and easy to manipulate in her grasp. She nearly cackled as she felt his despair, the worry that they would never defeat them, the fear that he'd failed his pathetic crew and his fellow paladins. He tried to hard to be anything other than what she designed him to be. Surely, he had to see that his efforts were futile, he could never undo what she'd done to break him, mold him into what she wanted. Champion would always be hers to use as she pleased, and there was nothing he could do to stop her.

But that didn't mean it wasn't entertaining to watch him try.

An energy arch lashed out and she could only grit her teeth as a familiar fire surged past. The Red Paladin, just as temperamental as his lion so it would seem. Just like Alfor. His quintessence was volatile, unstable, pulsing and weaving sparodically through the others, making him hard to read. What she found the most endearing was his stubbornness and fire. It would be fun to watch it crumble to dust and for that fire to die. How long would he last seeing her use Champion? Probably not long considering how fast Champion crumbled when she broke him showing him visions of his loved ones being tortured.

She could almost hear her favorite experiment's cries as his "mate" screamed for him to help and his little brother died before his eyes, by his hand, and numerous other ways. How perfect that her Champion brought the latter weakness right to her in the form of the Red Paladin. She couldn't help but wonder how long Champion would last this time with so many weaknesses for her to torture right in front of him.

The thought made her cackle in glee.

Only for a sudden surge of unstable quintessence to come from Voltron. Energy arched out of the Komar's path wildly, as if the quintessence itself was attacking the ship, leaving explosive marks and tracks in its wake.

"Pure quintessence," she hissed teleporting away as it grew out of her control, effectively obliterating the container.

-.-

"Keith! Shiro!" Jaz called biting her lip when she got static in reply. "Aanwo fahraal zey [Someone answer me]!"

"I thought the virus shut down all of Zarkon's power!" Coran exclaimed glaring at a horrified Kolivan as the Awoken woman attempted to get in contact with Voltron.

"That blast was not from the ship's weapons."

"Duh it was magic," Jaz remarked back to Allura. "Only magic I've seen remotely like that though is Hive."

"It must've been the Komar," Kolivan informed. "Zarkon's druids have been attempting to replicate Hivian methods of extracting quintessnce from planets, this device was the latest attempt. It appears he's succeeded."

"Ruth!" Jaz cursed slamming her fist on the dash.

Coran gulped, speaking up in concern, "If that weapon destroys planets, what did it do the the Paladins?"

-.-

Keith gasped, shooting up in his chair as his lungs began seizing, trying to figure out how to breathe again. Coughing, he blinked looking around at his surroundings. He was in Red, but…why was everything dark?

The glow of the violet light flashed through his memory and Keith grabbed at the controls, trying to move Red. She remained unresponsive. Seems the weapon took all the quintessence both lion and paladin possessed. He just hoped the surge he sent kept the others from dying as he did, surely the Galra didn't have a device capable of controlling that much weaponized quintessence.

/KENDAAR! ZEMQULEK VOK! [Paladins! Pick up!]/ Jaz shrieked sounding more panicked than he'd ever heard her before. Biting his lip, he listened anxiously for the others' responses, with their lions down, he couldn't tell if they were alive through their Voltron bonds.

/Jaz/ Shiro whispered and everyone immediately felt a wave of relief rush through them, /We're alive/

/Thank the ancients/

/Is Voltron operational?/

/Nothing's working/ Hunk mumbled.

"I can't move Red."

"What happened?" Yorak questioned floating next to him. For once, Keith couldn't find it in him to scold his ghost. The little light literally just brought him back from the dead. He was just relieved his chosen plan didn't end up killing them both.

/You were hit with a magic attack that drains the quintessence out of you/ Coran stated.

/Like Hive magic, but not as powerful/ Jaz added, probably more for Keith's sake than anyone else since he was the only one who'd know their magic.

Needless to say, that information had him worried. Who in the universe could possibly be insane enough to try emulating Hive? He would need to inform the Vangard if he ever made it back to Terra that there was another threat they'd need to handle.

That is if Keith didn't personally eradicate them first for attacking his team.

/You need to get out of there!/ Coran implored, /One more attack like that and you may not survive/

Keith looked to Yorak, "Chea tugo ummkediquuhopch wiwhoon quinahoj zoweko chea'ko kouxch he ajo cheak jamokytukvo uvuin [You have approximately fifteen minutes before you're ready to use your supercharge again]," the ghost answered in Wuldian.

The Guardian nodded, that was a slower rate than usual, but considering he just used more quintessence in a single day than he had for the past several years it was expected. He just had to hope whatever would happen next wouldn't occur during that timeframe or they'd be able to hold it off until then. Maybe figure out how to channel it into the sword for an extra attack boost.

/What is that?/ Lance whimpered and Keith looked out, frowning as he watched a hangar door open. Eyes widened as they all watched a Voltron-like winged giant-Zarkon emerge from the hangar.

/Remember your training, remember all the battles you've gone through/ Allura encouraged.

/Voltron's still not responding/ Shiro reminded.

"Quiznak," Keith hissed through his teeth. Traveler, please let there be a way to produce quintessence faster, Voltron really needed it if they were going to fight that.

-.-

"Get us in closer, divert all power to our weapons system," Allura ordered.

"What?" Coran blanched. "Princess, we'll be defenseless!"

"It's the only way."

"I'll provide cover as needed."

"No Jaz, focus all your magic on attack."

The Awoken woman cracked her knuckles with a sadistic smile, "All right."

The Castle flew towards the battle, ready to cover Voltron.

-.-

/Listen to me/ Allura said, /You are true paladins now connect with your lions, reach out to each other! Fight! This cannot end now!/

As if for emphisis a blue beam fired from the ship, blasting into Zarktron whom raised his shield, sending the evil version back into the hull of Central Command. The beam was deflected off the shield, cutting through one of the lower spire before slamming into the shield Jaz generated in front of the Castle to protect them.

Before their eyes, cracks formed in the shield, and they heard Allura's and Jaz's screams as an explosion rocked the Castle.

/JAZ!/

/ALLURA!/

Shiro spoke up, sounding furious, /Everybody, listen. We have to fight. We have to channel all our energy, visualize five becoming one. We have to focus everything we have into moving Voltron. We are the last thing standing in the way of Zarkon's total universal domination. I'm not giving up that fight! Are you Hunk!/

/No/

/Pidge?/

/Never!/

/Lance?/

/Let's go down swinging/

Keith closed his eyes, clenching his hands around Red's controls. He could feel the others, their determination, strength, resolve to win this. he could feel their energies, Pidge: strong and clever, Hunk: courageous and kind, Lance: charismatic and determined, and Shiro as strong and kind and willful as he remembered.

/Keith?/

He smirked, opening his eyes as Yorak vanished once Red powered back to life with an angry growl, "I'm all in."

/Then let's get Voltron back in this battle/ Shiro said.

Slamming his bayard into its slot, the sword reformed, just in time for them to prepare for Zarktron to fly at them with a blade of his own. "Now. I will take back what is mine!"

The first collision was explosive, sending Voltron spriraling back. Rightening, they managed to parry Zarkon's second attacks, flying back to try and gain the upper hand. They fired a blast at Zarkon, simultaneously griting their teeth as he wove through their fire.

/Alright. Let's hit him with the big guns!/ Shiro ordered and Keith yanked his bayard out of the slot. /Hunk, shoulder cannon!/ The yellow weapon materialized on Voltron's shoulder. /Fire!/

The almost white blast shot through space at their target. It seemed like it was going to hit, till Zarktron's quiznaking wings moved to the front, acting like a shield.

"Fhos os sef gessa ba aasu [This is not gonna be easy]."

"Since when was it ever easy?"

The Komar fired again and Voltron flew out of the way this time, avoiding the same result as the first attack.

Zarkon ended up blindsiding them.

-.-

"Princess? Are you alright Princess?" Coran's questioning being the first thing Jaz heard as she regained consciousness.

"I'm fine. How badly is the Castle damaged?"

Her azure hair billowed around her as she looked up, realizing they were floating in zero-g. Glancing down at her controls, she winced. "Power's pretty much toast," feeling confused looks she sighed, "We have no power and communications are dead."

"We can't reach the paladins," Coran realized. "I'm afraid we can't fight anymore."

"Hold on, just because we can't reach the guys doesn't mean we can't fight!" the Awoken mage protested.

Hearing grunting, they all turned to see Slav prying the doors open. "Did we win yet?"

"No."

"Coran, you work with Slav and do what you can to get the Castle functioning again," Allura ordered before smirking and looking at Jaz. "How would you feel about a raid?"

"I'm in!" Jaz grinned. "Kolivan! You up for attacking the Komar?!"

The Galra male frowned and narrowed his eyes. "It will be dangerous, but I know a way to reach it."

"Awesome! Antok! Allura! Let's go!" she said flying towards the door.

"Coran the bridge is yours, we're going to have to attack the witch directly," Allura stated.

"What?! You two can't go up against her! You're still weak after the last attack!" he protested.

"I am not passing up an opportunity to get payback for what she did to Shiro, me, and now the rest of the Paladins," Jaz snarled, her eyes glowing with fury. "Besides, if we want to win this battle, we don't have a choice."

-.-

Zarktron's sword pressed harder against Voltron's, shoving them back before they pulled back, moving to attack only for Zarktron to parry. The impact sending them spinning backwards.

The legs stabilized Voltron, allowing Keith to pull Red back as Pidge maneuvered Green forwards, firing a laser at their opponent. Behind him, the infuriating glowing wings protected their enemy from the attack, allowing him to still continue his charge towards them unimpeded. He slashed down, and Voltron barely managed to avoid getting sliced in half. Flying back, they wove through the debris, looking for an opening.

/We've never faced anything this powerful before/ Pidge growled.

/One way or another, this may be our last battle/ Shiro gritted.

"Way to be positive everyone."

"Yorak!" Keith scolded quietly.

The Black Paladin continued, unaware of the minor squabble in the Red Lion, /We've got to give everything we have. Dig deep and fight!/

Keith felt a surge of energy that wasn't from the paladin bond, his supercharge was ready. Now the question was: how to use it to hit Zarkon?

He was jostled out of his thoughts as Red parried another attack from Zarktron's sword. Shoving their attacker back, they gained distance, letting Green fire again before they collided in sword combat once again.

They heard Shiro start grunting in pain and Keith felt his brother's distress, something was wrong. /He's trying to control my lion. I can feel him in my mind/

"Fight it Shiro!" he called shoving the sword back giving them distance for their leader to regain control. Feeling Shiro's distress calm down, they charged again, managing to stab the sword into the chest of their opponent. Unfortunately, Keith knew that he missed. The feeling of Darkness the other pilot gave off didn't dissappate, if anything, it writhed in anger.

His suspiscions were confirmed as the sword changed into the bladed-whip Zarkon used against him when they first fought, jamming it into Voltron's gut before shoving them back as electricity arched over it.

Keith grit his teeth, his muscles spasming in pain as the unwelcome energy hit him, practically burning against his own.

"You should've fled like your predicessors," Zarkon sneered. "Now, the time of the Voltron Paladins is finished."

Voltron split apart, and Keith spat out a mouthful of blood, wincing every now and then as the dark quintessence of Zarkon's last attack negatively reacted with his own. Looking towards the Black Lion, he paled as he saw it wasn't moving. "Shiro?"

No response.

"Shiro!" he called again, his concern growing as his older brother still didn't answer. "Something's wrong with Shiro." Glaring at Zarktron, he and Red got between him and Black. "Guys, we need to stop Zarkon from getting the Black Lion."

-.-

Jaz grasped her flyer tightly as she prepared to get jettisoned out of the Castle like a missile. Hearing the beep and seeing the lights switch from blue to red, she grinned as the doors opened and she was sucked out into space.

Activating her trusters, she and Allura raced at the lead towards Central Command, the Blade members following right behind.

Looking over her battlefield she observed four platforms, each being levitated by a corrupted Balmeran crystal. On each platfrom stood a druid charging the Komar as Kolivan called it. The Komar itself appeared to be one of the biggest Balmera crystals she'd ever seen, possibly even bigger than the one she and Allura grabbed getting ready for this attack.

Out of the corner of her eye, she watched Kolivan release his speeder, letting it fly straight into one of the druid-supporting platforms.

"I like his style," she smirked following his lead and releasing hers. The fireworks as it hit and killed her druid were beautiful to watch in her own opinion. Landing on a piece of debris with the others, they got into fighting stances as Haggar and two more druids stood in their way.

"Attack!"

They paired off, one blade, one magic-weilder so neither team would be at a disadvantage.

Antok vaulted Jaz up towards their target, leaping after as she fired a blast of energy, meeting the druid's halfway. Running up the blade attempted to slice the druid in half only to growl as it teleported away.

Fortunately for Antok, Jaz was very perceptive and managed to cover his back before the lightning could hit him. She seamlessly leapt towards it, landing a solid punch to the gut that sent it stumbling back before jumping and giving a roundhouse kick hard enough to knock the mask clean off the druid's face.

Seeing his chance, Antok raised his sword and charged towards the druid. Jaz ducked, allowing the druid to be caught off guard as a massive tank of a Galra replaced the much smaller Awoken.

The last thing their enemy ever saw was a sword coming down on his head.

On the original spot, Kolivan and Allura narrowly avoided incloming blasts quickly trying to find an opening in order to gain the upper hand. Hurling his blade, Kolivan forced the druid to teleport to avoid getting skewered. This allowed Allura to leap to the platfrom it teleported to, swinging her staff down towards its head. She proceeded to jab at it, becoming more and more frustraited as it proceeded to glide and teleport away from her attacks. Fortunately, her swift speed did not give it the opening it needed to attack her.

Spotting a shadow out of the corner of her eye, she ducked, allowing Kolvan's blade to hit its mark and slice through the druid's mask before going back to its owner. With the opportunity he provided, she slammed her staff upwards, knocking the druid back off the platform and into the void of space.

"BEHIND YOU!" Jaz shrieked as she placed herself between Antok and Haggar.

-.-

Zarkon was kicking their reyms.

With each attack they tried to pull off, no matter how it was coordinated, he managed to dodge and/or delfect them. Following that with a strike of his own. The main reason for this advantage was the wing sheilds. They deflected all of their long-range attacks, making the lions have to go in closer to do damage. The problem was it brought them in range of the stupid bladed whip, Zarktron was using to thrash them.

The worst part is that Shiro hadn't responded yet and Black had just been floating uselessly.

Fenp Zarkon and his cursed bond with the Black Lion.

Spotting what he prayed was an opening, Keith dove Red towards their opponent's unexposed back. Her jaw opened, firing a blast towards the unprotected backside, and Keith could almost swear his prayers were answered.

Turns out, the universe was screwing him over again.

The wings shielded Zarkon from the attack, forcing the Red Lion to loop out of the way as the blast was deflected back towards them. Flying around looking for a different opening, Keith didn't have any time to dodge as the whip hurled Blue at him and Red. The resulting impact sending him flying into the dash where he was certain a couple ribs cracked.

Seriously, where were the quiznaking seatbelts in these things?

Fortunately, despite the new list of injuries Keith could add to the ever-growing amount from this battle alone, he felt like things were turning around as a familiar roar echoed over the battlefield. The Black Lion was back in the game.

Looking towards Keith last saw Shiro, he barely was able to comprehend the massive, glowing wings emerging from the lion's back before it essentially turned into a violet blur, flashing by quickly before it rematerialized behind Zarktron.

"The Black Lion can teleport," he muttered nodding to himself, "awesome."

/Wha…What did you do?/ Lance gasped.

Shiro panted, /I've got Zarkon's bayard/

"You mean you got your bayard," Keith corrected. It wasn't like Zarkon was the Black Paladin anymore, not that they'd accept him as their leader even if Black was still cool with him.

/We've only got a few minutes before power returns to Zarkon's ship/ Shiro reminded, /Now, everyone, form Voltron!/

-.-

Jaz's heels slid along the ground as she held up the shield protecting her and Antok from Haggar's attack. She'd forgotten how powerful this aspo was. How she'd force the young Awoken woman to press her limits day-after-day trough torture to see just how powerful her people could become. How she forced her and Shiro to mercilessly slaughter innocent people in an arena to test her improvements upon them. How she said that they would become the greatest weapons the Empire had ever seen.

She remembered watching as Haggar broke one of her closest friends down, destroying him likely beyond repair just to make him the perfect killer. Haggar was going to pay for what she'd done to them, dearly.

Allura and Kolivan used the platform they were on to fly up to the large balcony on which the witch now stood. The Princess jumped off first, swinging her staff at her, forcing the sorceress to cease her attacks on the group below. As she turned to fight the Princess, Kolivan leapt behind her and swung his sowrd forcing her to teleport to the far side as Jaz and Antok jumped up.

The Awoken woman didn't even have time for her eyes to widen as she saw Haggar's back turned to them, preparing to fire at her friends. Without hesitiation, Jaz released a Warlock-like beam of energy straight at the wizard's back.

Haggar screamed. The attack sent her flying across the balcony, slamming her into one of the pillars rising up from the sides.

She groaned, slowly getting up, white hair spilling down her back as her hood fell. A blue-skinned woman with distinctive red marks bleeding down her face turned to glare at them with rage-filled golden eyes.

Jaz froze, there was only three races that looked that distinctive. And last she checked, Haggar didn't have the translucent wings of a Fae under her robes and she was too old to be an Eddesa.

"You—You're Altean," Allura stuttered confirming Jaz's suspiscions.

The Altean wizard shrieked, firing a dark blast right at Allura.

Only, Allura didn't react the same way others did when Haggar used magic on them, she didn't scream like Shiro had. No. She reacted the same way Jaz remembered when it was her turns as the subject of Haggar's experiments.

Allura absorbed it.

Finally running out of power, Haggar fell to her knees as Allura stood before her glowing with power. "Auy borr pikih fitwhua epuwlih oppudipw buhrf [You will never destroy another innocent world]!" Allura exclaimed in Altean.

Grabbing Antok and Kolivan the trio leapt off the large summoning circle as Allura's fists made contact with the ground. Landing on one of the platforms, they ducked as quintessence arched around the room, destroying much of the chamber.

"ALLURA!" Jaz called. "LET'S GO! THIS PLACE IS COMING DOWN ON US!"

-.-

/Hello Paladins!/ Coran called as Voltron's sword collided with Zarktron's own.

/You're alive!/ Hunk cheered voicing all of their relief.

/Is everyone ok?/

/Yeah, I'm fine! Don't worry guys!/ a voice Keith didn't recognize came over the comms.

/Oh, great, Slav made it/ Lance grumbled.

"Keith! The fighters!"

Glancing out of Red, Keith scowled. The fighters were coming back online, meaning the timelimit for the virus was up. Things were about to get twenty times harder than they were before.

/The power on Zarkon's ship is returning!/ Coran exclaimed. /We need to get out of here! I'm going to get Allura and Jaz!/

Keith nearly blanched; what did he mean get them? Traveler, if they did something stupid he was going to kill them. Voltron ducked a swing from Zarkon's weapon. But he could focus on that later, adjusting Red, Keith braced her for impact as they separated and flew back at each other, the swords clashing violently enough to leave sparks.

Breaking off again, Voltron didn't waste any time flipping around and flying full speed towards their opponent. /This is our last chance! Let's finish this!/ Shiro encouraged.

Gripping the controls tighter, Keith released his supercharge. As he shoved the controls forwards, the sword sparked with extra energy and stabbed right into Zarktron's gut.

Only he wasn't quite dead. Shiro screamed as it grabbed the head of Voltron, sending agonizing energy they all could feel through their mutual bond.

Black roared and Keith could feel the power she and Shiro sent down to the sword, making it glow and burst with electric-white fire. They didn't hesitate, as one, the Paladins of Voltron used their combined power to rip the flaming blade up and through Zarktron.

The amount of quintessence in their opponent's system's grew like a pulse grenade before exploding with a bang.

Voltron was forced to separate, but Keith barely noticed it. He was more focused on the feeling of a weight in his chest he didn't even know was there being lifted. Zarkon's darkness, it was gone. They'd done it.

/What happened?/ Lance moaned.

/Did we win?/ Hunk questioned as the other lions began moving.

Jaz interrupted them, /Guys! We need to go!/

Keith nodded, they could handle their questions later. Flying towards, the Castle, Keith did a headcount: Yellow and Blue were in front, Green was to his left, Black…where was Black? Checking the scanners, he caught them below them, not moving. Shiro must've been knocked unconscious from the explosion, he did take a direct hit beforehand.

"Shiro!" he called turning Red and flying down towards him.

/We need to tow him back onto the ship!/ Pidge said flying after.

With Green's help, they were able to fly into the hangar before the Castle wormholed away. Keith scrambled out of Red, leaping out of her mouth, tucking and rolling as he landed. Racing towards Black, he barely heard the footsteps of the others behind him calling out for him to wait.

The lion's jaw refused to open, without even stopping to consider the implications, Keith turned on his jetpack, flying to the top and grabbing his knife. Stabbing it into the panel he wedged an opening big enough for him to squeeze his hand in and thus force the escape hatch open with a screech. Allura could scold him later, right now, Shiro was all that mattered.

Jumping in, he ran to the head, ready to force the cockpit doors open, but this time they opened on their own. Keith's heart sunk, "Shiro?"

He walked up to the chair, praying he would just find his brother unconscious. Instead, he was greeted by an empty chair and a bayard locked into its hold. The Red Paladin took a step back shaking his head in denial.

No, no, Shiro couldn't be gone. There was no way, not after everything. He promised, he promised he wouldn't leave again. He just wandered to a different area of Black, that was it.

"Keith…"

"Shiro!" he called praying for his brother to answer from somewhere in the lion. Yorak could look at the lion's scanners through him, he probably sensed Shiro somewhere. He just needed to look harder.

"Keith…"

Hearing footsteps, Keith's breath hitched and his head snapped up as he expected Shiro to walk in with a familiar smile as he embarrassingly rubbed the back of his head for freaking everyone out so much before apologizing with a warm hug.

Instead he was met with the confused and frightened looks the other Castle occupants as they finally caught up.

"I'm sorry Keith. Shiro's gone."