"I'm on my way," Lance said over the comm as he ran through corridor after corridor to get to Blue.
"Lance!" Allura yelled, in part relief, part criticism. "What happened? Where have you been?"
"Lance! Can you get out here quickly? We need back up!" Hunk sounded urgent.
"Ah!" Pidge screamed.
"Pidge?!" Lance sped up his run.
"It's alright, they didn't get me but it was close!"
"Lance, did something happen? Do you know where Keith is?" Allura asked again.
There was a lot of misplaced anger in Lance's heart about Keith, so he really didn't want to talk about it. Not that Keith would want him sharing anyway.
"I was just with him. There was a problem but we handled it. He should be on his way soon," he replied in a clipped tone.
"Just get here as fast as you can! Ah! Coran, there's another battleship now!" Pidge yelled. He could hear over her mic the sound of something impacting the green lion.
"I see it! I would highly recommend retreat now, Princess!"
"I can't make a portal if we can't get enough distance between us and them! We need to push them back!"
Lance slowed down a bit. "Do you still want me out there if we're retreating?"
"Yes!" both Pidge and Hunk urged.
"We need you and Keith to help drive the Galra back!" Allura answered.
Speeding back up, Lance rounded the last corner to Blue's hanger. He hadn't seen her since he'd passed out in her cockpit and had to be towed home by Pidge and Hunk. Understandably, he hesitated a moment before shaking off his doubts and climbing into her.
Keith got up slowly with his knife in one hand and his other hand clenched as blood dripped down to the floor. He felt very unsteady, though his feet were standing firm below him. He felt in a daze. He walked back to his room and removed his outer garments before sliding on each piece of his armor. He couldn't tell if what he was experiencing right now was real. He moved slower than he should have and with less purpose.
Lance had told him there was a battle outside the Castle, that he needed to help the others, but it was difficult to find the urgency when everything was surreal. He dragged his feet along as he walked on autopilot toward the red lion, not hearing any of what was going on over their comm system.
Halfway down the hall, he stumbled against the wall as his mind was taken elsewhere.
Shiro was afraid. In fact, he was terrified. All around him were aliens in robes and masks, hiding what they looked like from him, keeping him in the dark. None of them would say anything to him or even to each other.
"Hey!" he shouted as one of them came near him with an unrecognizable tool. "Stay back! Don't touch me!"
The alien ignored him as he struggled with all his might against the restraints holding him to a table made of unknown material. Whatever it was, no matter how long he was forced to lie on it, it would never get warm.
"Stop it!"
He was forced to open his mouth as the alien inserted the tool and quickly used it to pull out one of his back molars. He screamed in agony but could do nothing else as the robed figure turned and took his tooth away. His eyes prickled with tears as his jaw throbbed and blood kept gushing down the back of his throat.
After a moment where Shiro just tried to focus on breathing so that he wouldn't cry in front of his tormentors, another alien turned to him and started waving its hands above him.
"What are you doing?" Shiro choked out.
But it didn't answer him. Instead, a glowing purple circle with an intricate design appeared above his face. Shiro's eyes widened as he couldn't understand what was happening. It looked like Earth's fictitious depictions of magic.
"Stop it!" he shouted again. But then he started to feel a change in his mouth. From the bone of his jaw sprouted a new tooth, growing rapidly until it pushed through the walls of the empty gum socket to fill the place of the one he'd just lost. The unnaturalness of this was made apparent to him when it hurt far worse than pulling out the other tooth had. His voice echoed out of the room and down the connecting hall as he was left alone to suffer without witness.
Now by himself, he couldn't help but let a tear or two streak down the side of his face. He continued to struggle in vain against his bindings, but eventually, he went lax.
He looked up at the ceiling above him and whispered to the sky, "Please, get me out of here."
Keith suddenly jolted back to himself only to find that he was on his hands and knees shaking from head to toe. He was still in the same hallway he had never made it out of before.
Shiro still needed his help. Keith jumped to his feet and started sprinting for Red. He wasn't going to let Shiro be tortured, he wasn't going to let the druids keep him.
When Blue's lights failed to turn on at Lance's entrance and her controls didn't respond to his touch, he made sure his mic was muted for the others.
"Blue? I'm here girl." He didn't even feel her presence stir.
No, no, no, no, no! This was not happening now! Especially not right now!
"Blue, what's wrong? We need to get out there and help the others."
Still, he felt nothing.
"Blue, come on!" he yelled. "I— I can't—" Lance sighed to try and calm himself. "Don't do this to me. Please," he begged in a fragile voice. "I already don't know what I'm doing anymore. I need you," he admitted honestly.
Lance waited, hoping she'd respond to him. Not a thing.
"Aghh!" Lance banged his fists against the control panel in front of him out of a hatred for his situation, a hatred for their leader being gone, a hatred for his inability to do anything!
He suddenly remembered that the panel in front of him was a part of Blue and that he had just hit her. He quickly smoothed over her panel with gentle hands.
"I'm sorry," he apologized. He didn't hate her, he could never. But he couldn't help being upset with her for this rejection. He didn't understand why this was happening.
More yelling was going on over the comms again and Lance decided then that despite everything, he wouldn't leave his friends alone in the fight. If he could do nothing else, he could at least be there.
He stood, left Blue and headed straight for the only other way he knew he could help.
Keith made it to Red's hanger but as soon as he looked up at her, he collapsed on the floor.
Shiro was pulled roughly to the side by his handler as he exited the arena. Above them could be heard thousands of Galra chanting, "Cham-pi-on, cham-pi-on, cham-pi-on!"
His handler cuffed him. "We're going to see a special guest that came to the arena today," he purred in excitement.
Shiro wanted to spit in the guy's face but he restrained himself and allowed himself to be dragged along. He was already bloodied and tired, he really didn't need to be beaten while he wasn't allowed to fight back.
"Behave when we get there. You might be killed otherwise," he was told by the snake he was charged to.
Death? Shiro had considered it. It was as they said; it would be easier. But death he was still more afraid of than life. Death was unknown, death was letting them win, death would make all his struggle and defiance in vain. But life! From life there was hope, with life he could endure, with life there was the chance for escape.
And oh how he missed many things he had taken for granted. The small comforts of not being in pain, having a bed and a blanket, being able to see the sun. He missed Earth, but he missed the people there more than the place itself.
So he was determined not to die before getting out of here. It wouldn't matter what they did to him, he would live and he would leave to prove to these invaders that humankind is not to be messed with.
"In here!" his handler threw him into a space lift that would take them to the top seats that were sectioned off for important guests. Special indeed. Those seats were apparently extremely hard to get even if you had connections.
The doors opened and Shiro saw the space for the first time. There was a large chair, carved out of some type of stone, in the middle with the best view over the balcony. A smaller chair, carved from the same stone, was on either side of the center throne. As the handler brought him around to the side of the center chair, he could see a low, ornate table laden with alien fruit and drink.
He was kicked to the ground and harshly told to bow in respect.
"My Emperor," his handler kneeled and bowed deeply.
Shiro looked up to make sure. It was him. He hadn't seen him since he was first captured and brought before him.
The Emperor's only acknowledgement of them was to turn his head and look down upon them.
"Did you enjoy the show, my Liege?"
"It amused me," was the reply.
"If it pleased you, perhaps you would like to meet the Champion," he presented Shiro with a grand movement of his arm.
"He has done well," the Emperor acknowledged.
"He is by far our greatest drawer of crowds," he said conversationally but still with the greatest respect. "As I'm sure you remember, fifty percent of our humble arena's profits go to fund your great conquest. Yet, the druids take our Champion away and preform experiments that more often than not, lead to him not being fit to fight. Despite being our fan-favorite, he is in the least amount of fights out of our regular performers. He's always—"
"State what you want," the Emperor commanded.
His handler flinched and Shiro felt some mild gratification.
"My apologies, my Lord. I would like for the druids to leave the Champion here with me. Our profits would increase if he fights more often," he bowed his head again as if his kneel was not enough.
Zarkon contemplated his request. "Haggar!" he shouted.
Suddenly a witch appeared by his side from out of no where. More magic, Shiro realized.
"Yes, Sire," the witch knelt and bowed as well.
"Have your druids been keeping this creature from here?" he didn't even gesture; he expected to be understood.
Haggar looked over her shoulder and then back at the Emperor. "Yes, my Lord. His species is weak but intriguing."
"I hear your druids make him unable to fight."
The witch stood and approached his arm at that. "If you wish for him to fight, we can enhance what he already has," she spoke in a twisted type of seduction, the type that was slimy and heathenesse.
Zarkon smiled, like the temptation to torture Shiro further was seduction enough for him.
"Modify him."
Keith woke back up still on the floor, more confused than before. That wasn't right. Surely Zarkon was at least unwell after their battle. And Shiro's arm, it was flesh and blood not metal and magic. He didn't understand. Was he making all of this up? It still felt real.
Deciding that he'd figure it out as he went, he jogged a little less confidently up the ramp into Red. When he sat in the pilot's seat it happened again.
"Zarkon! This isn't the answer! Let me help you and we'll figure this out together!" a voice came over the comm.
"I don't need your help, I've just figured out that I don't need you at all," Zarkon replied as he piloted the black lion in pursuit of the green lion.
"That's not true! We're a team! We all need each other and I can help you if you just give me a chance! All I need is to know what happened to Daibazaal." The voice sounded like a woman. The black lion knew who this was, they had had a connection before. But now that his paladin had closed him off from the rest of the lions, he couldn't remember her name. His consciousness felt fuzzy and he couldn't see as well.
"All you ever want to do is analyze our problems, but I've already solved this one! All of you have been preventing me from reaching my full potential as a leader. You know everyone would benefit if they followed me."
"That's not true and you didn't used to believe that! You knew that people need autonomy!"
"I know what people need, and I know what I need." Black's targeting scanner was getting close to locking on. "And what I need is to be free from you." Black had locked on to Green.
No! The black lion's emotional response made his paladin hesitate. He loved his paladin, he knew he couldn't disobey him, so he pleaded for Green and her paladin. They were supposed to take care of their pride, they were supposed to trust them and lead them with honor. It wasn't that long ago that things were as they should be. Black's heart was breaking at the hatred in his paladin's heart. But still, he could not resist him.
Zarkon growled at Black and pulled the trigger. The fight was over with a single shot. The lions were never meant to fight each other, and the other lions could not fight their leader. No matter what they wanted, they always had to submit to him.
The green lion hurdled down through the atmosphere of a planet, preparing to crash land. Black let out a roar of anguish as he was forced to pursue her decent. He loved his paladin and he hoped that would be enough to stop him.
The green lion fell in a jungle, leveling a dense line of foliage. As Black and his paladin neared, they could see the green paladin climbing out and running for the cover of the jungle. Zarkon gave Black an order but Black pleaded with him again. He revealed all that he was feeling to his paladin, his intense love and loyalty to him, his affection for Green and her paladin, his desire to protect them, not to harm them and his longing to feel his paladin's affection for him again.
Zarkon squeezed at his controls too tightly. "You will submit to me," he ordered in a low and dangerous tone.
He could not resist. Black teleported Zarkon to where the green paladin was running. He watched as Zarkon shot at her with his bayard. She dodged shot after shot as he pursued her. He watched as Zarkon had had enough and his bayard changed into a long whip that caught the green paladin around the ankle. He watched as she begged for her life, begged that he would let her help. She told him she knew this wasn't who he was, she told him she believed he could fight what was happening to him. But once he was close enough, his whip changed into a sword and Black watched him execute her with one swift cut.
How would Green ever forgive him?
Keith awoke with his hands gripped tightly on Red's controls. His hands recoiled thinking that it felt too similar to what he'd just witnessed. He sat in her cockpit just trying to take that in. Processing anything right now was difficult at best, but that was surely impossible.
He needed answers and when he looked around Red's cockpit, he knew he wouldn't get answers from her. For some reason, she wasn't talking to him. So he went to get answers, directly from the source.
"Allura, get ready to open the shuttle bay door," Lance ordered as he turned on the engine of the less familiar vehicle.
"What? Why? What's going on?" she asked hurriedly.
"Blue wasn't responding to me so I'm taking a shuttle out."
"What?" Allura sounded worried. "Being out there in a shuttle is too dangerous!" she tried to reason.
"You said that you'd need both me and Keith so that we could escape. Has that changed?" he asked.
"Well, no but—"
"Then whether I'm in a lion or a shuttle, it's better than not being out there at all."
Allura made a sound like she still wanted to argue but then Lance heard speaking from further away.
"You have to trust your team, not in all things but when their hearts are in the right place," he barely made out. That comment was probably only meant for Allura but Lance was glad he had heard it. It was nice to know that Coran trusted him even when he was in a really bad mood.
"Fine," Allura conceded. "Hunk, Pidge, can you help me get the Galra all facing one side of the Castle? I'll lift the particle barrier from all sides but one to let Lance out."
"We can try," Pidge sounded unsure if this would work.
"Hey Lance, are you sure about this, buddy?" Hunk went out of his way to ask him even with the chaos outside. If this were a normal day full of normal problems, Hunk would have melted Lance's heart.
"I'm sure," he said resolutely.
"Then we'll get it done," Hunk assured him.
"Keith?" they all heard Allura ask.
There was silence while they all focused on their own tasks.
Allura huffed. "Still no Keith." Lance could tell she was really tense. "Have you released your shuttle's tether?"
"Tether?"
"You can release the magnetic tether by pressing the bottom right button on your far right panel," she instructed.
Lance did as he was told. "I'm ready."
"I'll open the bay door. Wait until I tell you to exit."
The door lifted as Lance kept his engine spooled. Once he saw what was going on outside, he understood why they were trying to retreat. In his view alone, there were at least thirty fighter ships that all went after the yellow lion as Hunk flew by shooting at the ones he could. He attracted all but the huge battleship that paid him no mind and kept recharging its ion canon and firing it at the Castle. He saw it taking hits from the Castle, no doubt courtesy of Coran.
The Castleship suddenly turned sharply as if facing the battleship from the front and the space revealed to Lance only had stars. The particle barrier vanished from his view and he knew it was time.
"Now Lance!" Allura called.
He was already on it, his shuttle craft blasting out the door and clearing the ship's perimeter at top speed.
"Ah!"
"Princess?!" Pidge called.
"It's alright! We took damage but the particle barrier is back up, Lance got clear!"
"Thank quiznak!" Hunk said at the same time that Pidge sighed in relief. "Lance, can you come to the port side of the Castle? Yellow and I can cover you while we try to push them back."
"I'm coming."
As Lance circled the underside of the Castle, he saw what they were really facing. It was like seeing an entire invasion force. There were enough Galra fighters to conquer a small planet all chasing and circling, overwhelming Hunk and Pidge. They ignored the Castle and it's particle barrier and focused solely on the lions, pursuing them, cutting off their every exit and escape route, keeping the pressure on and never letting them catch a break. Pidge and Hunk were destroying ships nearly every few seconds but their shear numbers were too much. As Lance came far enough out from under the Castle he saw above him what was keeping Coran and Allura so busy. There were three, no, four battleships all focused on the Castle. Where the Altean ship moved, they followed.
"Four is an unlucky number," Lance mumbled to himself.
Several of the fighters spotted him and broke off from the others to fire at him. He began performing evasive maneuvers knowing that this ship wasn't as well armored as the lions. He couldn't afford to just take hits to get an extra shot in. His ship did acrobatics through space, turning and looping all in the general direction of the yellow lion so that he could get to relative safety. Keith may be the best pilot among them, but Lance was proving right now that he had learned a lot since they had left Earth. He fired at the ones in front of him while dodging the ones behind him but he quickly realized there was a big difference in the fire power of this ship compared to what he was used to. He was hitting them ten to fifteen times before they were destroyed, but Lance wasn't just better at piloting. Watching carefully for exactly where he hit that caused the most damage, he started taking them down with fewer and fewer shots. Whether on the ground with a gun or flying at mach speeds in an unfamiliar spacecraft, he was still a sniper.
He felt a jolt and his ship started spiraling as warnings written in Altean flashed up on his screen. It looked like the end of his right wing had been clipped.
"Hunk, I could really use your help right about now!" Lance said as he tried to right his ship.
"I can come to you but I'll be bringing more ships with me," Hunk warned.
"Just get over here and we'll fight back to back!" Lance steadied his shuttle just in time to dodge a Galra fighter who seemed intent on crashing straight into him to take him out.
"Where's Pidge?" Lance asked.
"I'm above the Castle! We've been trying to thin their numbers because there's no way we can get all of them away from the Castle, but they seem endless! There was only one battleship when we got out here!"
When Hunk and Lance reached each other they needed no words to know what to do. Lance shot at the Galra following Hunk and Hunk shot at the Galra following Lance. Instantly, Lance felt safer. He focused back on taking the fighters out with as few shots as possible.
"Lance, do you know if Keith is okay?" Hunk asked. There was no time for them to use the video feed or for them to split their attention, so Lance only answered when he got to a gap in the waves of enemies.
"I don't think he is, but he said he'd be here."
"Why are you doing this to me?! What are you trying to tell me?! I don't understand!" Keith faced the black lion from the floor. He really was much bigger than the other lions. It was like being an insect in front of a beast.
The lion's eyes lit up and it felt like Black was looking straight at Keith. Without knowing why, Keith felt afraid and his hand reflexively covered his heart where it was being squeezed. He looked down at the hand on his chest like it had betrayed him.
Keith was startled even more when the black lion opened its mouth and acted like it was going to scoop him up but stopped short and let down its ramp at Keith's feet. Now his heart was truly racing.
"What do you want from me?" he asked quietly now knowing that he would be heard.
He felt insistence from the lion and dread pooled in his belly.
"Where is Shiro?" he all but whispered.
The lion was urging him forward, compelling him to come.
"No," Keith shook his head.
With each passing moment Keith could feel the emotions of the black lion more clearly. Black was telling him that he was needed.
"Shiro," Keith insisted.
The urging got stronger and then he felt a deep love and affection that he knew to be Black's love for his paladin. It was slightly different then his love for Zarkon was, so Keith assumed it was his love for Shiro. It was followed by a great sense of sorrow and of longing. It was so powerful that Keith felt his own chest attacking him.
"No," Keith pleaded. "Please, no."
Underneath the other emotions, there was anger and a guilty kind of bloodlust that Keith had never felt himself. To Keith, bloodlust was bloodlust. He thought he understood now.
Very reluctantly, he walked up the ramp and into the mouth of the beast.
Allura's attention split when one of her indicators went off. She glanced over to see what it was and was shocked.
"The black lion is active. It's opening its hanger door," she told Coran.
"The black lion?" Coran was shocked as well. "We are close to Durra, it could be going to get that Captain."
"Yes, but perhaps..." she didn't need to finish. Both of them were thinking the same thing but to say it aloud would be to let hope in.
Allura switched to speaking over the comms. "Everyone, the black lion is coming out! We don't have time to clear one side of the Castle, the particle barrier will be on the port side! Please provide as much cover as you can!"
"You're not in the black lion?" Lance asked.
"No, I'm on the bridge," she confirmed as she watched the paladins moving into position.
"Then..."
"It could be going after Worsh," Pidge suggested.
"Or it could have found Shiro," Hunk said the quiet part out loud.
Allura lifted the particle barrier from the starboard side and the black lion bolted out. The Castle shook as it was targeted by all the little fighter ships that noticed the change and before she could close the barrier back, one ray from an ion canon hit the top of a thruster. The explosion knocked Coran over his station and to the floor and the side of Allura's head banged the corner of her console. Coran righted himself after quickly checking if his ribs were all in place and he saw Allura on the ground.
"Princess Allura!" he rushed over, but not forgetting they were in battle, pressed the buttons to close the particle barrier before turning her over. She was bleeding profusely but her eyes fluttered open. Blood made one of her eyes red as it leaked over the white. "Allura?"
"NO!" Lance shouted when he saw the explosion on the Castle. He turned his ship and started speeding as fast as the shuttle could go directly at the battleship that had fired. He didn't care about anything else in that moment, he needed that ship to be gone. There was too much going on for Lance to handle. Nothing could go right, there was too much change, too much danger, too much too much! His entire body was tensed, his muscles all fighting better judgement in order to say clenched. If this is what it took, so be it! He would ram it!
Before his eyes, the black lion shot past him to sink its claws into the haul of the battleship and its teeth into the ion canon that had just fired. It ripped the canon from the rest of the ship, tearing a gaping hole in its haul. Its mouth opened again, it's laser cutting all the way through to the other side. The fuel in the ship ignited and a series of explosions followed while the black lion backed off and started charging for another one.
In the brief moment Lance had to awe at the power of the black lion, one of the other battleships had fired at him. Lance only had time to wonder if he'd sealed his helmet properly before the emptiness where half of his shuttle once was, sucked him from his seat. He floated out further and further from his shuttle while he tried not to panic. The only thing he could hear was his own erratic breathing as he fogged up the glass in front of him. He could make out the purple lights of the Galra ships around him. Could they see him? Did they know he was still alive? It would be so easy to finish him off. Why had he left Hunk when he'd gotten angry? What was this? He didn't know what he was doing anymore. He felt so alone.
Lance suddenly saw black. The lights from the stars and the fight were gone. Something had closed around him, it looked like he'd been swallowed by darkness.
Lance started to panic for real but then he found gravity by hitting something and red lights began to glow around him as the condensation on his helmet evaporated again.
Red!
Lance ran down the lion's throat to get to the cockpit.
"Keith!" he yelled with some sort of excitement from the adrenaline he'd just received. He'd just been saved! It no longer mattered to him if this gave Keith ammunition to tease him for the next century, he was going to slather Keith in praise for this.
When he got to Keith's chair he realized the cockpit was empty. Lance stopped as his negative emotions came crashing back down on him.
"What's going on?" he asked aloud. The red lion wasn't moving, it was just waiting. "You saved me by yourself?"
"Guys! Now that the Galra have seen the black lion, they're doubting that we can't form Voltron! Some of them are asking if they should retreat!" Lance heard Pidge say in his helmet.
"Then give them a reason to retreat," Allura order in a cold and dangerous voice.
It was so unlike how Lance thought of her that he took a seat and grabbed the controls without thinking. When everything lit up in red instead of blue, he let go and drew his hands back as if he had been burned.
"What?" he asked.
"Wait! Has anyone seen Lance?!" Hunk asked in a panicky way.
"I'm still here," Lance said distantly. He didn't want to take this away from Keith, he'd already lost so much. Lance knew the black lion wasn't acting like he had found Shiro, but like he was out for revenge.
"They've spotted the red lion! Two of the battleships have given out retreat orders!" Pidge updated.
"Keith! Finally!" Hunk cheered in relief.
"This is our chance! To the starboard side of the Castle! Follow me through the portal!" Allura commanded.
The Castleship turned to its right and put as much space as it could between where it was and where it was going while the Galra ships scattered, some still trying to pursue and some breaking off. A portal started to open in front of the ship. Lance couldn't miss this portal. He grabbed the controls and punched it toward the brightest light. The red lion sliced through space like fire licks up the walls of a room. He was surprised when he made it through the portal before any of the other lions.
Lance didn't have time to think now about what they'd just escaped or what they would do next. If Keith wasn't with Red, something terrible awaited them all.
He parked Red in her hanger and didn't do anything to properly turn her off before he sprinted out to the center hanger.
"Keith, my boy!" he heard Coran call like he was out of breath and worried. "Lance? Where did—"
He ran straight past Coran without stopping. He reached the black lion's home and found him having just landed. He climbed up when Black lowered his ramp and stumbled into the cockpit.
As he feared, Keith was there sitting with his hands in his face, shoulders shaking.
Lance couldn't approach him all the way. Not yet.
"I'm sorry I left you," he spoke with honest pain.
Keith lifted his head up and turned to him. The sight before him was heartbreaking because, for once today, he understood exactly what something meant. Keith had endlessly flowing rivers down his cheeks and he looked completely defeated. His breath was shuttering and he looked at Lance like he was broken.
Lance stepped close to him and crouched down. "You didn't put on your suit right," he pointed out, trying to smile like he was poking fun, like it was any normal day. But nothing about this was fun. Keith's wrist joint on his suit was leaking blood. Keith hadn't done anything to his cuts after Lance had left.
Lance lifted said wrist and took off the hand and forearm piece of Keith's suit. Blood poured out from the glove as it was removed and Keith's whole hand was painted red. Lance squeezed Keith's hand between his to keep him from bleeding out further.
They both looked over when someone else came running in, panting. Lance started to get up in concern when he saw Allura with blood dripping all down the side of her face and getting in her eye but Allura held up a hand to stop him.
She panted and caught her breath, staring at Keith sitting in the pilot seat all the while. When she was calm, "So it's true?" she asked.
Keith nodded his head and scrunched his eyes up as more tears flowed and he finally started to let out sobbing sounds. He clearly could control himself no longer.
Allura sniffled and before Lance knew it, her face was wet with something other than blood. She came to them and sat on the armrest next to Keith. She reached over and held his head to her chest in an embrace. They both starting shaking.
Lance was surprised Keith would let her hug him. If he had known, he would have hugged Keith first. But this was not the way things were.
Allura steadied her voice before speaking and she quoted, "All will be accounted for. Every last deed. Until there is never a deed that wasn't done."
A/N: I would especially love feedback on this chapter. It was exhausting to write since I had to go back and forth so much but I'm most proud of it so far.