It didn't take long for Keith to hop into the Red lion, or to make a jump into the Plagar system at the coordinates Kolivan had sent. In next to no time he was exactly where he needed to be to search for Lance's ship. Keith's impatience made even the short time to the Plagar system feel like an eternity though.
Keith knew where the secret base was, and had to be careful not to get too close to them or to the Galra fleet that Kolivan had warned about. Now that he was here, he slightly regretted not listening to the full rundown Kolivan had tried to give him. He would just have to do his best with the information he had.
Pressing some buttons, he took a moment to open up Red's communication to other ships and frequencies. It had to be enough. Lance had to be here somewhere. Keith could almost feel it.
"Red, do you sense anything?" He touched the lion's control panel gently. "Please look for him."
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to connect himself to her as much as possible. Come on...come on…
There!
Red's senses pulled at a point just beyond the comm system's reach. Keith took no time gunning the engines and speeding toward the point she had sensed.
Red was the fastest. Keith was glad for a moment that she was his lion out of anyone else on their team. She could be frustrating and stubborn, but when she or her paladin were determined there was nothing that could stand in their way.
Keith left the communication with Red as open as possible, to listen to her directions as he steered. He felt her call to him to stop, and without hesitation pulled at the breaks.
He looked out into the empty blackness of space, expecting to see a ship, but saw nothing instead. Looking down at the monitor he saw the distress beacon lighting up right in the area he was in..
Suddenly a voice filtered through his open comm system.
"Keith?"
It was Lance. Lance had said those words. Lance was alive! He had said Keith's name!
"Lance? You're alive!" Keith shouted. A ship appeared in front of him, each panel appearing one at a time, whirring to life as it dropped its cloaking device.
"You found me." Lance sounded relieved.
"Yes. Of course." Keith wished he could see Lance's face, but for now his voice would have to do. He drank it in.
"Where are the others? Actually first I need to tell you about Shiro. He-"
"I know. That's actually where they are, they're looking for the real Shiro. They'll join us soon."
"Not soon enough. Keith, look at your screen!"
Keith looked down at it shocked to see several dots of Galra ships flying towards them. "Uh oh."
"Did you call a whole fleet here? Weren't you careful at all?"
"No...I kind of just rushed into it." Keith immediately regretted not being a bit more careful.
"The hot-head as always." Lance sighed. "How long before the others will get here?"
"It'll be a few hours at least."
"No chance to outrun them then. We'll have to fight."
"Are you crazy? There's at least 50 ships." Keith shook his head even though he knew Lance couldn't see.
"What? Are you scared or something? I bet I can shoot down twice as many as you." Lance pressed the button to cloak his ship once more. It disappeared before Keith's eyes.
Keith sighed, knowing he'd lost. Lance was right, they wouldn't be able to outrun them long enough for Allura to show up. He also wasn't sure what condition Lance's ship was in. It was better to fight now than risk running out of fuel later. It was just like Lance to challenge Keith to a duel when they were about to get gunned down by enemies too.
"Fine. So what's the plan sharpshooter?"
Lance laughed. "The plan's Galaga. Shoot or get shot!" Keith saw a blast go off from the empty space where the ship had disappeared. "That's one, Keith! Better hurry up or get left in the dust!"
"That's cheating! You started early!" Keith turned to face the enemies coming in.
"All's fair in love and war." Another shot basted from empty space. "That's two."
"Fine!" Keith yelled over the comm. He pretended to be mad, but really Keith was just happy to hear Lance's voice again. It made him happy to be working together as a team, even if he really wanted something more than just bantering back and forth. For now though it was time to get serious. He focused his energy on the enemies coming towards them.
He shot the tail laser at two ships coming directly towards Red. A beam of light shot out and the ships tried to dodge, but ultimately did have enough space. He clipped one's wing ultimately sending it crashing into two others.
"That's three!" Keith yelled over the comm. "You're going to regret challenging me."
"Hardly," Lance laughed. "I just got two more!"
"Oh it's on!"
The feeling was almost surreal as Keith and Lance battled it out on something they were both good at. Keith could tell that Lance's piloting skills were getting better, and of course it didn't help that Keith's aim was suffering from a lack of sleep. Still, though, Keith found himself incredibly happy, even while facing down a ton of enemy combatants.
They were working together as easily as if they were of one mind. Lance's invisible ship would dart around taking out enemies while they were focused on Red. Keith would take whatever enemies approached head on, never having to worry about getting shot from behind. His teammate always had his back.
Some of the smaller ships made way for a much larger Galra ship approaching. It had massive cannons on each side poised at a spot above Red. The Galra flying it were intelligent, trying to pinpoint Lance's ship by where the lasers were coming from.
"Lance! Watch out!" Keith yelled.
He couldn't see whether Lance's ship dodged the blast that came, and had to wait for the voice over the comms to yell, "Thanks Keith!"
Before the cannon could warm up a second time Keith was already flying fast toward the ship with Red's jaw blade ready. He sliced through one canon all the way up to the ship, damaging it severely.
It flew away from him, trying to aim the still intact canon. Keith shot at it with his laser, aiming for the already weakened part of the ship he had damaged.
An explosion wracked the ship, setting off a chain reaction. Keith smiled, successful.
"That still only counts as one!" Lance shouted in his ear.
"Oh come on!" Keith's gruff voice didn't match his emotion. A smile beamed across his face as he turned to face more Galra flying at him.
This was actually fun.
He was working together with Lance, competing over something stupid. It was as though he never left. Strong friendships were like that.
The two boys dove around each other in complicated patterns. There wasn't a galra ship in existence that could stand a chance against them.
As though they could read minds the Galra suddenly scattered. They flew away in every direction. Keith continued to shoot towards a couple before they got too far.
"Where are they going?" Lance asked the question that was on both of their minds.
"Don't know. Maybe they realized it was hopeless?" A knot in Keith's stomach tightened. He knew how the Galra fought, they weren't the type to run away, even if they were losing.
"I think we should run. Something doesn't feel right."
Before Keith could agree a field of energy blossomed around them. The electricity knocked Keith to the back of his seat. Blasted back he heaved for a moment from the shock.
What was that? If it could make it through the lion's defenses he hated to think what would have happened if he was in just a normal ship.
"Lance!? Lance!? Are you alright?" Keith blinked his eyes to stare through the window at where he had last seen the other ship's guns fire. To his surprise the ship blinked in and out of sight before becoming completely entire area around both of them was covered in a purple energy field.
"Keith, can you-me. My comm-are acting up. I think it took-cloaking down."
"Lance, you're breaking up! We've got to get out of here!" He shouted into the comms as though that would help Lance understand easier.
"Keith! Behind-ou!"
Keith understood a moment too late. As he pulled at Red's controls to whip her around a beam of light shot out and crashed into him.
The shockwave blasted Red another fifty meters from Lance's ship, sending them spiraling. Keith pulled at the controls to try to get Red back under control.
"Kei-th!" Lance's voice yelled over the comms.
"I'm okay!" Keith watched as Lance's ship shot towards him. A couple more blasts shot out, this time directed at Lance. Keith breathed a sigh of relief as he watched Lance dance around them.
He swung Red around to face whatever adversary had shot at them. Keith was expecting a large ship, but instead what he saw made his stomach drop.
It was the size of Voltron. A giant white robot with wings the size of one of their lions loomed in front of them. It had the head of a lion, and one large visor that glowed bright purple where the eyes would have been. It was larger than Voltron. It looked more deadly than Voltron too.
"What-that!?" Lance's voice came over the comm. It sounded worried.
Keith looked at the purple that came glowing from the visor. He wasn't sure exactly when or how this ship came to be, but he knew who had to be responsible.
"Lotor." Keith's voice came out as more of a growl.
This must have been what he was doing with the rest of the comet. Only that comet could have formed something so massive and dangerous.
Keith didn't want to think about how much time building it must have taken. It was time they had spent trusting Lotor. If they had just focused on taking down the Galra without involving him maybe they would have had a chance. Instead they had given him everything he needed to build a bigger more powerful replica.
Lotor had been able to walk aboard their lions. He'd been able to take whatever schematics he needed and send them into his colleagues hands. In front of them now was the result of their own foolishness.
They had handed Voltron over into Galra hands, just not in the way they expected to.
"-eith! We need-come up with a-lan" Lance's voice was still breaking through the comm systems.
"Yeah! Any ideas on how to get away from that monster?" Keith was drawing a blank and he couldn't be sure what Lance's ship could do.
"Mayb-I don't like-but if I-ch the ship-take Red and-"
"I didn't understand any of that! Lance!" Keith whipped around again to try to watch Lance's ship, see if he could get some indication of what Lance was saying."
"Keith!-out!"
He watched as Lance's ship darted forward toward him. Lance's words had been meant to help Keith, but had distracted him once again Keith was late in responding as the blast of purple light shot out at Red.
Keith turned and watched, as though in slow motion, as the blast of light flew towards him. He steeled himself for impact, knowing there was no way to avoid it.
Just before the blast hit, a hard impact came from Keith's left, pushing Red out of the way.
Keith was shocked. He wondered for a moment what it had been before realizing. Lance had been flying toward him in that direction. He had purposefully collided with Red to save them.
Keith turned towards Lance's ship, watched as the purple light enveloped its already severely damaged hull.
"LANCE! LAAAANNNCE!" Keith screamed it into his helmet, but he already knew it was no use.
The ship was blasted backwards from the force. The side that had smashed into Red was completely indented, entire panels torn off. The wires underneath were visible, tangled, some torn by the impact and floating as debris in space.
That alone would have killed the pilot. But the blast of light from Lotor's ship had torn a hole right through the middle of it as well. It sliced through the metal as easy as if it were butter.
When the light dissipated Keith watched the ship spin away from him. There were now two distinct halves, mangled, burnt, and melted, careening away at high speed.
"NOOOO!" Keith yelled, watching. He looked for its pilot, swallowing the bile that was rising in his throat.
He felt dizzy and as though he was going to throw up. He tried to calm himself by yelling. "LANCE! YOU DON'T GET TO LEAVE ME LIKE THAT! YOU DON-ON'T GET TO d-die-" He said it quieter, nearly choking on the word. "not on your own rescue mission…"
Keith trailed off. He could barely see. He felt himself blacking out from his panic, had to force himself to fight through it as the edges of his vision blurred into a tunnel. He needed to stay aware, or he wasn't going to make it out of this fight with Lotor either.
He yelled again. "I DIDN'T GET TO TELL YOU ANYTHING! IDIOT! I DIDN'T GET TO TELL YOU HOW I-how I feel…" He choked on his words again.
His body was wracked with sobs. He doubled over, feeling severe pain somewhere in his body that his brain couldn't quite place.
Keith had lost fights before, but he had never lost as much as in this one.
A/N: Happy Valentines Day...?
I'm so sorry for leaving this story for so long. I'm so sorry for this cliffhanger. And I'm even more sorry that I have no idea when I'll get the next chapter.
In other news the story is taking so long between chapters because I'm having an excellent time travelling the world and not because I want to stop writing it. Currently in Italy! Ciao!
