Hey. I skipped out on Keithy in the last chap and now I feel neglectful so here's some feisty emo paladin for y'all.

Keith POV

Bent over, hands on his knees and gasping on the icy air, he had made it.

Up close the tower was a washed-out gray cement, the twisted cylinder shape growing more spindly the further into the sky it reached. A single door hung on it's top hinges alone, rotting wood cracking and crooked, one bottom corner sticking firmly into a cut of ashy ground.

Keith hesitated before the threshold.

The cold mud that cropped up in different slashes throughout the dead forest's floor had reached its end. A couple feet back from the tower, Keith lingered in the last puddle. The grime soaked through his shoes. Just as freezing as the air that grazed his bare arms.

Behind him the howls continued-needy and brittle each yelp crawled through his veins and squeezed. Inside, his nerves screamed. AwayAwayGetAWAY.

But his legs stayed rooted to the spot. His eyes peered into the dark maw of the tower entrance. Something innate, welded to his bones, told him inside would protect him-at least, from his pursuers. At the same time a different inner voice, one clinging firmly to his flesh, screamed to turn back. The two primal ideas warred inside, his head aching under the strain.

His moment of indecision was just that-a moment. But to Keith, it felt like an eternity until he managed to step forward and trudge up to the twisted door.

The bottom edge had sunk into the ground with time, and the wood splintered under his hand as he tugged it back and widened the gap into the tower just enough to slip through. He did so.

Then, once inside, he resisted the urge to turn right around.

To run.

The small amount of gray light that slid in from the doorway didn't spread far. He held his knife out in front of him as he cautiously crept inside, a faint purple glow crawling out in front of him, illuminating a couple feet of dusty concrete floor.

Great.

Keith sidestepped, keeping his free hand lightly brushing the wall. He narrowed his eyes at the shadows and gradually the murk took shapes in some places and lack of form in others.

A few feet ahead, he could just make out the start of a staircase, one that hugged the curved wall of the tower. He hefted his knife and the gleam from the symbol brightened, drawing out to illuminate a few more steps.

Keith hesitated. He could no longer hear the howling, and the bristling of his nerves had calmed, no longer screaming at him to escape quite as loudly. Still...something about those steps...

He squeezed his hands, the free one aching as splinters from the door embedded themselves further into his flesh. Then, with one deliberate stride, he began to ascend.

The staircase had no railing, and each step was narrow-no wider than a yard. The rest of the tower's inside was seemingly empty as far out as he could see.

Keith folded himself closer to the wall as he crept up. The fingertips he trailed across the stone ached against the cold, rough texture-he was sure they were painted dark with dust. Until-

He paused, his hand was plastered against something flat and metallic-raised against the gritty sprawl of rock. Keith drew his knife closer to the wall and-yep. A shining square plate was lodged in the wall. By squinting he could make out a scrawl of symbols etched in the middle. He traced his finger over the markings with a frown.

"What...?"

Keith examined the symbols closer. Lines and swirls and dots and dashes and more all crisscrossed across the gleaming surface, forming exactly no image he could recognize. They were obviously deliberately made though...must be alien. Allura might be able to figure out which race.

But Allura wasn't here.

So Keith took in the sprawl of coded information-he focused and searched for patterns or familiarity, all the while unconsciously edging closer. The moment stretched and a tight ball of pain formed above his left eye as he focused-it wasn't the only thing that formed.

Something told him if someone asked about it he wouldn't have been able to explain it. It was a sensation unlike anything he had experienced-something separate from a human's exposure. Starting from the base of his spine rippled out a chilled wave that shifted unpredictably and lurked under his skin. It sulked through his systems and crawled unpredictably with a touch that reminded him of the crackling of static.

Keith tasted iron and his ears popped and twitched. The base of his spine started to burn with numbness and his eyes watered while the feeling spread and forced its way further like a virus-clinging to him with it's toxicity.

His heart beat faster and the next time his ears twitched he could hear it pumping desperately.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

The sound of pulsing lengthened and pulled until each pulse beat with the noise of a ticking clock nearing the end of a deadline.

Tick. Tick. Tick.

Faster. And faster.

The pressure in his head mounted, his legs and arms ached, the cold sweat trailing down his back sent his nerves into a jumbled mess that twisted and snaked up and down and left and right and just like that he knew the ticking would stop and with it would his heart and something would happen-something would happen but Keith didn't know what-

He withdrew his finger.

Just like that, the sensation vanished.

Keith swallowed thickly and the taste of metal faded.

He felt primed-like a bomb that had counted down to zero and still hadn't detonated. Each second passed with bated breath and the expectation of the something. But there was no ending to the sensation's build up. No sudden explosion.

The plate stayed lit under his knife stationary and innocent.

So he moved on, only rising a few steps before his line of sight changed.

Where before the glow from his knife faded into the all-encompassing darkness, now the sheen cut out oddly in front of him. He reached out and tentatively found another wall. More concrete that reached out the entirety of the narrow staircase.

Keith bit his lip. His fingers trembled where they brushed against the concrete, the tips (as numbingly cold as they were) suddenly twitched with feeling. A warmth bloomed across the digits and spread further up the limb with something like static-

He staggered back-one of his feet finding open air and his balance shifting dangerously as he leaned uncontrollably-

His hand swung out and scraped against stone and solid and then something cold and hard that banged against his knuckles. Keith grabbed at it desperately.

For one terrifying moment his fingers slipped and he thought he was going to tumble back down the stairs, the living revival of the age old 'I've fallen and I can't get up' commercial, but then his flailing hand found purchase against the corner of the metallic plate.

Keith tightened his grip as his feet scrabbled for solid ground, his other hand braced against the wall, knife still clutched in its grip. For one brief irreplaceable moment his balance returned and the burning in his hands faded.

It didn't last.

Golden light bloomed to life along the etchings in the plate. The metal flamed white-hot and he retracted his hand, jaw agape as he unsteadily backed down a couple steps.

Only, the light grew brighter, and hotter. It unfurled across the stairs and threw the gray stone of the walls into sharp relief...Keith even noticed the vivid red scrapes that bloomed across his arms and hands-

But it burned too hot. Too bright.

It engulfed him in a pool of stars and sharp needles. Keith trashed and turned until the solidity of the steps underfoot faded away and he was lost to gold.

He fell.

And then fell some more.

Tumbling through the shining abyss was a breathless experience-literally. The surrounding warm glow plunged through his open mouth and stole his oxygen, squeezed through his closed eyes and lit his vision on fire. His skin flushed with the pain of heavy sunburns. It even had a taste. Like ice and melted sun swirled and meshed and scalding on his tongue.

The whole thing stretched and squeezed and lasted for both a second and an eternity.

Thunk.

...what.

Keith ended up aching and sprawled across something flat and smooth-seemingly endless until he opened his eyes.

After the minute it took for the multi-colored stars to fade away and for his vision to recuperate, he blinked again just to be sure, because around him, the world had shifted. Gray skies and crooked trees were gone. Replaced by shine and open clear space. A blue infinite overhead. A glaring sun. When he stood, grass began growing beneath his feet-lush and so so green.

And surrounding him stood a ring of mirrors-tilted just so in a way that made it impossible for one to catch his reflection. There was space between so slivers of the endless grass and sky could be seen beyond.

Keith paused and waited, clutching his knife in one hand and a handful of splinters in another-not even noticing when a bead of blood worked its way free from one small gouge.

It dropped to the bed of green.

And the reflections changed.

Well-one did. Keith dropped his knife and his hands swung loose by his sides as his posture straightened with surprise. Because-that...wasn't possible. And Keith knew it was an alien trick-he knew it was something messing with him and he knew something was wrong, something that tasted like ice and melted sun-But all of that didn't matter and was quickly shoved away behind the tight pain behind his eye because that was-

"...Dad?"

Static crawled across his skin.

And hey. That took longer to make than you'd expect for something that is such a quick read but-

I like the idea of a short spot of Keith here. Idk...this is just me but it feels like this spot is the end of the beginning for this fic. Like, everything's set up to kind of play out now from my pov writing this thing...maybe one more chap with the rest of the crew to tie up their end...but this is the end before the next level for Keithy so a splash of him just kinda rolling with chaotic nothing worked for me here. I get that this might not be exactly what people wanted in a chapter...but it's what I got in me.

Y'all can expect some Lance and crew in the next chap. That's a thing.

I know it was short but puh-leeeease leave a review 'cause I love them so so much and it feeds the me. Other than that have a good day and happy belated Thanksgiving y'all.