"I know your kind of writing a bit know but after you said, this story would be a bit light-hearted compared to your others, I didn't expected this kind of twist but I should have known better ;)" Always expect tragedy to strike. xP"About the lenght of the story, I'm on your side. Of cause I'll miss this one, if it'll be over, but I do agree with you not to stretch out a story too long only to have a larger chapter count." Yeah I don't care for it when people drag things out just for the sake of making them longer. Quality over quantity.

I'll PM you about the quintessence stuff in a while. After I take a break from typing.

"Acxa has made a decision. She has decided, who she would die for." A very important decision. "And none of them had understood the conversation with Haggar, even the witch herself, until she had smashed the dome with the quintessence within the UV-room." Exactly, if there's one thing Acxa is good at in this fic, it is bullshitting her way through things. :D "It was never about betrayal or about becoming a full Galra. It was about to save them all, to end the plans of the witch, to be the best of herself from both sides." Exactly. I've always seen Acxa as a very moral strong, noble individual. Even if she started out on the wrong side. "She had used the knowlege, Haggar had gained about her wishes against her to deliver a vital blow against the witch and her researches." Essentially Haggar played herself lol. "It'll be interesting to see, if Keith was about to laugh so bitterly, because he was also convinced (which was Acxas plan I think, to cover her plan from Haggar perfectly) or if he had seen her through but had known, that he hasn't got a chance in this situation to stop her from doing this." That will indeed be revealed. "He doesn't hates her for what she was, is and will be. He loves her for this." Yeah, he could never hate her. She kinda snuck into their hearts a little. And thanks once again, I really liked this last chapter a lot.

Pure terror claws at him when he hears two bodies hit the floor. The burst hadn't done his nerves any favors. He really doesn't want to open the door. So he doesn't, he lets Pidge do it. And his world is so quiet. Everything is so, so quiet.

The witch is only a skeleton. He doesn't want to see Acxa's condition. If she had initiated the burst, it was probably worse. But then, Acxa had armor and a helmet, Haggar had only a robe. "I'm sorry Keith." Pidge says and the lump in his throat grows.

Acxa's body is charred, mostly on the left half. The suit has preserved skin, but it is burning at it. Keith ignores the white hot pain that shoots through his hands and tears the uniform off of her before it can burn her any worse.

He had practically told her that he hated her. Is that the last thing she thought of before smashing the quintessence dome. Her body is so hot and so bloodied. He cradles it against himself regardless and a scream tears from his throat. He strokes what is left of her hair.

It must have hurt so horribly.

He can't process it. "You can't leave me, not on that note." He pleads with her.

He sees Pidge wince because he is speaking to a corpse.

"We haven't listened to the rest of my CD's. I never showed you how to use the radio." He mutters as if that would wake her up. He holds her closer and he squeezes her hand with his free one.

And she squeezes it back.

He snaps back to himself. "Pidge, find me those research notes." The girl doesn't hesitate and he doesn't either. He feels terrible leaving her without an explanation, but he doesn't have time to explain. She doesn't have time for him to explain. He tears through the draws with no regard for their former positions. He only stops to scan them for a translation.

"I found them!" Pidge runs up to him after some time. Too much time.

He instructs her to hang on to them and lifts Acxa. She shrikes, a sound that he doesn't think he's ever heard her make. He fights the unease in his belly, right now he can't afford to be gentle with her. He hopes that she knows it.

He can't afford to do anything but rush because he knows that human Acxa won't survive. But half-Galra Acxa would have a chance. His expression grows grimmer. Half-Galra Acxa had a chance, but full-Galra blood will give her a better one. If he has to make her into a full-fledged Galra, so be it.

She is crying now and it shatters his soul to pieces because this is only the second time he has seen her do it. He knows that she is in complete agony and he wants to take that away from her. But he has a feeling that what he is about to do will only make things worse.

At least until the Galra blood is back in her veins.

He knows that she remembers the procedure. At least to some degree.

God, he hoped that she'd be awake by the time they got to the UV room.

God, he hoped that she could help walk him through this.

With every fall of his foot, with every bump he causes, Acxa cries out. And each time she does, a part of him breaks until he is back on floor four.

Floor, only one level above the chaos down on floor three. He doesn't know what he will do if the calamity below branches out to floor four.

He finds an empty UV room and carries Acxa in. She breaks down completely, screaming at him to not turn her human and he knows that she is no longer in the present. He winces because her body doesn't have the energy to fight and thrash but she does it anyways. At this rate she will take herself out.

"I have to do this, Acxa." He whispers. "Look, I'm not even going to strap you in."

Her thrashing slows and he isn't sure if it's because she has worn herself out or because he has said the right thing. "You're in control this time, I promise." He says. "It's probably going to hurt, but that's why I need your help—so it'll go quicker and hurt less."

His heart breaks a little more because she is trembling all over. It breaks further because he can see that her eyes are dimming and she is losing her fight.

"Help me, help you." He squeezes her hand, "please."

She lifts a week hand and points at a rolling cart of supplies. "The third syringe, with the green liquid."

He rolls the cart over and picks out the mentioned syringe. "What do I do with it?" He asks.

Pidge looks at the research notes as Acxa says, "inject it into my neck." She sucks in a labored breath. "If you…can't find the right spot…arm…works too."

Her neck is a bloody fucking mess, even if he could find the right area, it'd be to slick. So he takes her right arm and sticks the needle in. Her fingers wrap around the operating table and her face twists into an expression of pain and something like rage.

"You're going to…have to…" she struggles. "strap me down."

It isn't just a warning, it's an order. He gets a sense that she will either move too much or hurt him. Maybe both if he inflicts enough pain. So he obeys her command. He can see in her eyes that she is even more afraid now, that she regrets allowing him to do so.

"Trust me, Acxa."

"I wouldn't be bound if I didn't."

Pidge speaks, "Okay the medication—we'll call it that for the sake of time—has settled by now. Pick up the syringe with the purple solution. Inject that too."

"What is this stuff for?"

"We don't have time to discuss the details, but basically it's preparation. The green stuff opens the bloodstream to absorb the quintessence. The purple stuff is a small dose of quintessence to get the body warmed up for the full procedure. And the blue stuff is going to help protect the body from dying as it tries to fight off the quintessence. The orange stuff is going to help the transition take place."

He injects all of them in the order Acxa tells him. He hears her mutter something about how it feels like her blood is turning to acid. The sound of her desperate weeping is becoming unbearable and he wonders how she is still able to talk to him at all.

"Okay," Pidge says for her, "now we have to activate the UV lights."

Keith hits the switch.

"You have to leave now." Acxa hisses.

"What?!" It is the last thing he wants to do.

"You can't be in here…you don't have…the protection."

"She's right, if we stay in here, we're probably going to get fried. Or, our DNA will…something'll get fried." Pidge tugs him out as the bulbs heat up and the room grows hotter.

"How long do we leave her in there?"

"Technically we're supposed to do this for ten minutes every five hours until the transformation is complete. But we don't have that kind of time." Pidge flips the page. "Haggar was in the middle of testing longer sessions with no time in between. According to her its also easier to turn a human Galra anyways." Pidge taps her chin. "From the looks of it we can get away with leaving her in there for an hour and the transformation would be nearly complete."

"Nearly. In other words…"

"Unless you really want to push it and shoot for two whole hours…"

He cuts her off, "we'll have our Acxa back."

Pidge nods, "she should make it to the half-blood stage."

He bites his lip. He just hopes that her body will last another hour and then some, as her Galra blood kicks in to save her. He punches the wall, he can't stand waiting on something like this. "I'm going to go crazy."

"She's a fighter." Pidge reminds him. "She pretty much kicked your ass that one time you fought."

Pidge sets a timer. "While we wait we can help stabilize the situation downstairs."

Keith sighs and looks at the closed door. There was no sense dwelling on it, he may as well make himself useful. "I don't hate you." He calls before Pidge can pull him away. What a lame thing to say, he wishes that he had told her he loved her.

.oOo.

She has just woken up and she can barely keep her eyes open. Her stomach is queasy and she feels dizzy. She can hear voices but they are distorted. All sounds have the quality of an echo. An underwater echo. She wants to sit up but her body refuses it is weak and somewhat sore. She wants to speak but her mouth is dry and she can't seem to force the sound out. She is awake, but apparently, only in mind. She fights to wake the rest of her up but the effort only throws her back into darkness. Her head hits the pillow and her body convulses, her back arches stiffly, and she is limp again.

A froth of magenta taints her lips and spatters the pillow.

Her face had been wiped and cleaned by the time she awakened a second time.

This time both of her hands are held. By two different people, she thinks. One hand is smaller and warmer. The other is much larger than her own hand and rather cold. "Zethrid?" She pauses. "Ezor?"

"You're half right." She recognizes Ezor's voice. But it comes from across the room.

She looks to her left and sees Zethrid and to her right is Keith. He smiles and pulls her into a hug. She still feels sapped of all energy and struggles to return the hug, but with some somewhat strenuous effort, she manages.

And to Zethrid she says, "you're safe." She brings a hand to her pounding head. "I thought I lost you."

"You thought you lost us?" Zethrid laughs.

"Did we defeat Haggar?" Acxa asks.

"You did that, remember." Keith says with a smile.

Acxa closes her eyes. "No." It is all so fuzzy in her mind. Try as she may she can seem to recall much of what happened after blasting open the laboratory doors.

Keith strokes her hair. "You killed the witch."

"I did?"

Ezor nods. "After that we started working on fixing the damage she caused."

"We've managed to stabilize the quintessence." Veroinca says, drawing Acxa's attention to her for the first time.

"What was kind of a pain in the ass because of you." Zethrid puts in. "You caused a pretty bad leak of it. I mean, don't get me wrong, I like explosions, but that one was dangerous."

"After we stabilized the quintessence we collected a lot of Haggar's research notes and we're trying to put them to good use." Veronica continues.

"Right now we're working to help Galra turned humans go back to their original species and vice versa." Keith adds. "We've gotten through a lot of them."

"You've had a busy week." Acxa remarks.

For a brief moment, but not one that Acxa misses, Keith's eyes go wide and then his face settles back into something more neutral. Veronica, Ezor, and Zethrid, their expressions are more stern. Perhaps with a touch of pity from Ezor and some concern from Veronica.

"Remember when Zethrid said that we thought we lost you?" Keith asks.

"She said that five minutes ago."

"Acxa, it's been a month."

She feels faint all over again, shock is plain on her face. "What?" She rakes her fingernails through her hairline. "It hasn't been that long…"

"You were in a quintessence coma." Veronica notes. "That's what Pidge was calling it."

Keith resumes, "we—rather the doctors—were getting ready to…uh…"

"To put you out." Zethrid finishes bluntly.

"But you woke up for a moment about a week ago." Keith explains. "So they decided to give you more time."

"A month…" Acxa trails off, her gaze drifts to the ceiling.

"That's probably a good thing." Veronica tries. "You weren't in good condition."

"Yeah, you were pretty fucked up. The whole left side of your face was burned I didn't even recognize you because it was…"

"Zethrid!" Ezor gives her arm a sturdy nudge.

"Thanks, Zethrid." Acxa grumbles. She brings a hand to her left cheek.

"It's mostly healed now, the Galra blood helped." Keith notes.

She moves her hand from her face to her head, combing her fingers through her hair until they find her horns. She had missed them so terribly. "I'm half-Galra again." There is a falter in her voice. It is there because deep down she had been hoping that their side mission would fail.

"Human Acxa would have died." This time Keith is more direct. "I was ready to make you a full Galra but we didn't have that kind of time and I didn't know how much quintessence you could take." He paused. "I know you might have wanted to be fully Galra…"

"Yes, that would have been ideal." She admits.

"But I'm glad I didn't do that." Before she can chide him for the decision he adds, "you'd probably still be in that coma if I used that much quintessence."

She is distraught, perhaps a little angry, but she knows that he is right. Her body wouldn't have taken to that much quintessence exposure—not for such a prolonged period anyhow. Perhaps in intervals. "Can you still do it?" She asks.

"Make you a full blood Galra?" He questions.

She nods.

"Probably." The smile she offers fades quickly. "But I won't."

It is fine, she can probably do it herself after she recovers in full.

"Acxa, you're alive because you're a half-blood." He points out. It is a bold declaration. "Human Acxa would have died and making you a Galra would have killed you or, at least, have put you into a coma for good. Half-Galra was the perfect in between." He doesn't have to say it for her to know where he is going to take the conversation. "The real you, is the perfect in between."

Still she wants to shed frustrated tears. Because she was so close…

So close to being a full blood.

So close to fully belonging…

.oOo.

Epilogue

It is hard for him to gauge what she is thinking. Even with a good two years further into their relationship. He has come to accept that that's just another aspect of her. She is hard to read. But he gives her time, because usually she ends up opening up to him.

She sits at the dinner table, and she is very quiet. It isn't exactly a tense quiet, but it is an awkward quiet. And he knows that it has nothing to do with her being confused about the meal choice. No, she has adjusted rather well to Earth. Granted he still has a lot to teach her, but she is assimilating well.

"What are you thinking about?" He asks, hoping desperately that it isn't about her half-blood heritage again.

Even two years in, she still got stares. The people of Earth were still doing some adjusting themselves, but seeing aliens among them was becoming much more commonplace with each passing day. Even so, it isn't lost on him that the constant ogling makes Acxa at least a hint discomforted.

She sets her fork down and stares out the window.

"Just tell me when you're ready, okay?"

She nods. "I'll let you know when I figure out how to tell you."

"That's fair." He watches her push her chair in.

.oOo.

She makes her way to their bedroom. She pauses to realign the pictures on their wall; there aren't many but somehow, they always end up lopsided. She first adjusts the one of she and Keith on the beach. He had taken her on vacation to a place he called, Cancun. The second is of the day they'd attended Lance's family's 4th of July barbeque. She hadn't known what a barbeque was and she didn't know why the fourth was so important. Lance tried to explain it but apparently there was a lot to unpack. But she had a good time. Next to that is a picture of she and Veronica and then one of she, Ezor, and Zethrid. The one next to those is a picture of Keith and Lance and then one of all of the Paladins.

She only pauses to observe their wedding picture. She had worn a traditional Earth gown and Keith was dressed in Galra attire.

In the picture she is smiling. In the picture he holds her, his forehead pressed against hers. He looks proud. His mother was proud.

She straightens the picture.

She stands before the mirror on the closet door and picks out something to wear to bed. She gets side-tracked as she often does, while standing there. Her skin is a familiar shade of blue. Her hands are clawed again and her eyes glow faintly in the semi-dark of the bedroom. She has her almost intimidatingly tall stature and her hair has grown out, draping over her shoulders some in a graceful cascade of deep blue. Her horns are also longer now, more pronounced—these days they have been growing at a rather rapid rate. She runs her fingers over the length of them, and, so many years later, she is still just as glad to have them again. So many years later and she is, at last, used to seeing the scars on her face. The deep blue that the left side of her face takes on. It is a sort of vitiligo. It had taken a lot of adjusting to. On one occasion Keith had to remind her of something she had told him; that scars were a staple of beauty among her people. And she apricates the mark of bravery. Even so, between her undeniably half-blood appearance and those scars, she draws a lot of looks.

The research notes are hidden within a hole she has carved into the wall along with various syringes. It would only take a quick trip to the lab to stop the stares. She makes her way to that hole in the wall and boxes the supplies up. She supposes that the Garrison research labs wouldn't mind a little extra samples.

She returns to the mirror and dresses herself. The supplies are so very near but she sees her reflection and she can't imagine herself any other way. All those years go, Keith had been right. She is the perfect in between. A comfy in between.

The hard part would be telling Keith that she had kept the syringes hidden at all. The hardest part would be sharing more urgent matters. She doesn't notice him slip into the room, not until she catches sight of him in the mirror as he approaches her. His hands wrap around her middle and his chin rests on her shoulder, she knows that he wants to rest his chin on her head, but her height no longer allows for that. So he settles.

"What's in the box?"

"Open it." She feels his hands slid out from under her arms. She watches him rummage through the box.

"You weren't going to…"

"I've had them for a while, but I don't need them. I was planning on shipping them out to the Garrison facility."

He smiles. "So you've finally accepted that the half-Galra you is the best you?"

"Something like that." She replies.

She wanders up to the radio and picks a CD. She has branched out some and has acquired a collection of her own. Mostly European metal. Therion and the like strike her fancy. Haggard is a good band but their name puts them off limits. But she isn't in a metal mood today and instead plays Celtic Women, which Keith had to build up a tolerance for. Apparently, he isn't a fan of Celtic music, she would get him there though.

On cue, he comments, "man, you're making me wish that you only know classic rock."

Acxa makes herself comfortable on the bed next to him. She rubs a thumb over his ear, "you'll live."

"Don't make me put on the country music station." Keith threatens. "I'll do it."

"And you'll have us both suffer?"

"You're ears are bigger than mine, it will hurt you worse."

"That is exactly how it doesn't work." She rolls her eyes. Granted her sense of hearing has been sharper since reverting back to her old self. But it has nothing to do with the length of her ears.

She lets Keith playfully ruffle her hair.

For a long while they lay there in silence. A much calmer sort of quiet. He strokes at her horns like he had done so long ago. He is the one to interrupt the silence. "They've gotten really long." It is spoken with a soft laugh. It takes Acxa a second to realize that he is referring to her horns.

"Yes." She agrees.

"I didn't realize that they grow so rapidly."

"They usually don't." She replies, much to his confusion.

He speaks now with a hint of concern. "Is this a side effect of the quintessence."

Acxa supposes that now is as good a time as any to share what has been on her mind. "Why is everything always so sinister with you?"

He apologizes. "I'm a bit of a pessimist."

"Still?"

"Hey! I'm working on it." He pauses, "if it's not because of the quintessence, then what?"

She pauses. "I am going to tell you a little bit about Galra mating and physical development."

His mouth falls agape. "You want to talk to me about Galra puberty and sex ed?"

She nods affirmatively and gives a solid, "correct."

"I swear, we've already talked about this."

"We touched on it, yes." She agrees. "There are two times when a Galra woman's horns grow and one time when a Galra man's will. The first time for a Galra woman and the only time for a Galra man, is when they are maturing." He probably could have guessed that. "During which time the horns will grow from small bumps to about ten inches. That is the average. Some Galra end up with smaller horns, like myself. Some end up with bigger horns. The shape and positioning varies. Are you following?"

He nods.

"When reproducing, a Galra woman's horns can grow another few inches. You can usually tell how much a Galra woman has reproduced based on the size of her horns. During the reproduction process Galra women tend to sleep more—the further into the process, the more she will sleep." She is about to explain more when Keith burst out laughing.

"Sorry, sorry." He wipes away a tear. "It's just that…I've never heard anyone break the news like that. You could have just told me you're pregnant."

So, he preferred the direct approach. "Should I be blunt when I tell everyone else?"

"Probably." He rubs her back. "But if you want to give Galra reproduction fun facts, I'm sure Pidge wouldn't mind."

She nestles her head against his chest, taking the care to not jab him with her newly extended horns. "Do you think he will look more Galra or more human?"

"He?"

She motions to her horns again. "If they grow up it usually indicates a boy, if they grow downward, it indicates a girl."

"So what happens if there's a set of male and female twins?"

"The horns will be asymmetrical."

"And what if the second child is a boy and the first is a girl."

"Typically, that is when the horns develop branches, so to speak."

"You're joking!"

"Yes." She admits. "It's actually just a myth. But I feel like we are going to have a boy."

"Your sense of humor is always a trip." He notes. She feels his hands wrap around her middle. "How far along are you anyways?"

She rests her hands atop his. "About two months." She doesn't know if she should be seeing a Galra doctor or a human one. She thinks that she will consult both. "Do you want to be a father?" The way he tentatively rubs circles on her belly tells her that he does, but she wants a vocal confirmation.

"I didn't really think about it to be honest…" He trails off. Kissing the crook of her neck he says. "I'd like to be a father."

It is reassuring to hear.

And even more reassuring is the reaction she gets from everyone else when she finally finds the courage to make the announcement. Coran and Allura in particular seem pleased; it would seem that Alteans have soft spots for offspring, even if the offspring isn't their own.

It is more than a relief to know that no one seems to mind the prospect of another half-blood baby.

For the first time, it dawns on Acxa that she finally feels secure.

Safe, secure, and accepted.

Keith holds her close and caresses her scarred cheek. She had certainly fought to feel that way