"-EITH!"

Keith's head snapped up at the sound of the voice. It was such a sudden sound that Keith almost thought he had imagined it. He listened closely to the comm, but nothing but static greeted his ear.

"LANCE?" He shouted it as though it would somehow make a difference.

No voice came.

Keith was sure he had heard Lance though. Lance was either alive or Keith was hearing things. Either way Keith needed to figure out where it could be coming from.

Keith took a breath before looking at Lance's ship again. It was so torn up that there was almost no way a body could be in there.

So if Lance wasn't in the wreckage, where could he…

Keith quickly spun red around looking upward above where the initial crash had been.

"Idiot." Keith wasn't sure whether he was saying it more to Lance or to himself.

Sure enough Lance was frantically waving one arm at Red, floating out in open space where he had ejected himself from his ship just before the crash. One of his hands was pressed against his side tightly, the other waving in the air at him. Keith shot towards Lance carefully, making sure to stop just short of him so that Red could scoop Lance up in her mouth.

The bay doors opened and a wobbly Lance fell through them right into Keith.

"That was so reckless and stupid! What kind of idiot are you?!" Keith yelled, as he pushed Lance off of him.

"I didn't do anything you wouldn't have done, and I'm the idiot?" Lance winced as he stood up from the floor. He pulled off his helmet, being careful to keep his right hand still pressed to his side. "You should have been paying attention!"

Keith wanted to respond, but for once Lance was actually right. Keith should have been paying attention. It wouldn't have been dangerous at all if Keith had just scanned the area instead of freaking out about a smashed ship. It was obvious Lance would have a backup plan. He was Lance.

Instead of responding Keith just swallowed and said quietly. "You could have died."

Lance looked down at the floor. His expression softened a bit before he caught Keith's eyes again. "Hey...I just...I just knew I could trust you to get me and all. Jumping out of a ship like that is only dangerous if you can't trust your teammates to catch you. And I'll always trust you. Besides it would have worked perfectly if not for faulty comms." Lance laughed at his own joke and winced again.

"What's wrong?" Keith looked down at Lance's side, he could see red liquid beginning to drip through his fingertips.

"It's nothing, just hurry up and get us out of here."

"But-"

"Go!" Lance almost yelled. "Before Lotor fires his cannon at us again."

Keith jumped into the cockpit, knowing that it was the right decision to make, but all he could think was that Lance's trust for him went deeper than he deserved.

Keith's hands moved at the controls like they were extensions of himself. In a way they were. Red and him had a connection, she listened to his commands almost before he thought them.

Red spun around again, racing away from Lotor and whatever guns he was aiming at them. At some point they'd have to fight him. A lion robot in Lotor's hands couldn't be ignored, but they'd need to form Voltron to even have a chance.

Maybe if Keith was alone he would do something reckless to try to take down Lotor, but all of Keith's thoughts were consumed by the other pilot in the cockpit. He could hear Lance's loud breathing and didn't want to think how much of that may have been caused by the pain from the wound at his side. For now their only choice was to run.

In safety Keith could make sure Lance was okay.

Keith dodged the blast that he saw coming. Red swerved under it, barely missing the white light. Keith spun her around again, changing directions and hoping to confuse Lotor for long enough to get further away.

Without two ships to worry about all of Lotor's attention was on Red. But Keith could say the same. With Lance safely next to him instead of in a wreck of a ship, Keith had no reason to break his concentration. He could fly with the full extent of his skills.

Lotor sent a series of blasts after Red. His Lion was bigger than Red by a lot. More powerful as well. Red was still faster though. Keith could dodge the blasts as they came. It wasn't easy. A blast knicked Red's leg and sent the ship spinning.

"Crap." Keith mumbled under his breath as he spun the controls the other way to get Red back on the right course.

"We need help, there's no way we can survive this thing for long."

"What do you suggest?" Keith yelled through gritted teeth as he pulled Red around again, dodging yet another series of blasts.

"Red's comm systems are up right?"

"Yeah, but we're way too far to contact Voltron."

"We might not be able to contact Voltron, but the rebels should be able to, they're all over the galaxy!"

"Hurry! We don't have much time!"

Lance immediately got to work setting up communications with the rebel fleet.

"Kolivan! This is Lance, paladin of Voltron, currently copiloting the Red lion. We need backup! Lotor has created a massive lion ship that he's using to chase us down. We can't hold him off by ourselves. We need you to contact Voltron and send them an urgent message from us."

A new voice filtered out of the speaker in Keith's ear. "What?! Keith I thought I told you to stay away from the Galra fleet!"

Keith grimaced.

Lance responded before Keith could. "Yes, we understand. Right now we don't need need a lecture, though. We need help! It's a ship with unknown capabilities and we have no idea just how much damage it could cause to the rebels, Voltron, or countless innocent lives."

Kolivan was silent for a moment on the other end of the line. Maybe out of shock or calculating what to do. "I will figure out how to contact them. You'll have to stay alive until they can get there!"

The communication cut off.

"Hopefully that will work. We need them here soon." Keith said, making Red duck around another blast.

Lance's breathing beside him seemed to get a bit heavier, more labored. Keith spent a moment of his focus worrying about him, before yet another blast set his mind back to the task at hand.

Keith dodged more blasts as they came and shot forward once again. Lotor was keeping him on his toes. It didn't matter how fast Red was or how good Keith was at piloting her. He couldn't seem to gain any ground.

"Lance!" Keith said, with sudden inspiration, "I'm not able to outrun him. I need you to come up with a temporary exit plan."

If Lance was talking that would mean Keith could focus just on flying and wouldn't have to worry about his...friend slowly bleeding out.

"Okay, let me think for a minute." Lance wracked his brain, gritting his teeth through pain.

"No time, you only have a few seconds."

"Oh come on, Keith, you're the best pilot out of all of us, surely you can keep Lotor off your tail for longer than that."

Lance said it so casually, Keith wasn't sure if he'd realized what he said. It fueled Keith with pride, he didn't even want to ruin the moment by rubbing it in. He couldn't resist though. "I'm the what?"

Lance let out a sigh. "Don't rub it in. I didn't mean to say it."

"Oh, but I've been waiting for you to admit it since we met."

Another sigh, "Keith…" and then, "KEITH! Watch out!"

This time Keith had seen the blast coming. He swerved to avoid it, but couldn't quite get Red fully out of the way. It struck her hind legs and sent them spinning again.

"LANCE. PLAN. NOW!" He yelled.

"Aauurggh-" Lance let out a noise of frustration. "Okay!"

"Okay you have a plan or okay you're coming up with one?"

"Not really a plan, but if we can't get away from Lotor by running we've got to try to hide."

"Brilliant," Keith said sarcastically, "and just where do you suggest we do that."

"No, I think...I think there's a way. There's an asteroid field near the planet Nikopei, it's got a gravitational field that messes with sensors, if we can get there I bet we can lose him."

"How do you know that?"

"I flew around here a lot when I was looking for the resistance base. Trust me, I know what I'm talking about."

Keith nodded. "Alright. Where am I going?"

"Just a moment."

Keith watched in his peripheral vision as Lance stood up and started keying in coordinates to Red's computer. He did it one handed, his other hand still pressed to his side. His teeth were gritted, whether in concentration or from pain Keith didn't know.

Keith watched as Lance's arm moved to a different monitor. His neck muscles tightened briefly as he concentrated. A small bead of sweat dripped down from his hairline. Had his arm arm muscles always been so prominent?

It had been a few weeks since Keith had last seen Lance. His hair had gotten slightly longer, he needed a haircut. The cowlick on the back stuck up as usual though. Lance's eyes had hints of circles underneath them. He clearly hadn't been getting as much sleep as usual. Keith felt concern wash over himself briefly. But Lance's skin was as smooth as ever, in Red's lighting his brown skin glowed slightly. Keith wanted to reach out and touch his cheek. He was so close.

Keith cleared his throat as he felt his face turning red. He focused back on dodging while Lance worked. If they were going to get out of this alive Keith couldn't risk getting distracted.

Lance didn't seem to notice. "Okay, got the coordinates up. Time to fly." Lance lightly slapped Keith's shoulder, making him jump.

"Uh…" Keith cleared his throat again hoping Lance hadn't noticed. "Great. Thanks."

Lance shot him a puzzled look. "Wha-"

"Let's go." Keith made Red shoot forward.

The sudden lurch forced Lance to take a step backward to steady himself. He grabbed the back of Keith's chair for balance. Keith pretended not to feel Lance's fingers lightly touching his shoulder.

The coordinates sent them back in the direction they came from. Keith turned Red around sharply to face Lotor's lion.

"What are you doing?" Lance asked.

"What's it look like?"

"It looks like you're about to run us straight into Lotor."

"That's where the field is." Keith had a determined look in his eyes.

"But isn't there an easier, less direct route?"

"Nope!"

Keith rammed the controls forward. Red spurred into life, flying directly towards Lotor's ship.

Lotor's guns fired on them, once, twice. The third one blasted just past Red's tail. Keith aimed Red right towards the glass paneling in the lion's head. He told himself it was because there were no guns there, but in truth Keith just wanted to get close enough to see Lotor's stupid face alive with fear.

Red careened towards Lotor at high velocity. Within feet of Lotor, Keith all of a sudden spun the controls, changing direction at the last possible moment. Red curved around the other lion, nearly skimming it.

Lance whooped. "Woah! Yes!"

Keith allowed himself to have a stupid grin on his face, even as he said, "Don't celebrate just yet."

It took Lotor several seconds to gain enough composure to turn his lion around. By that time Red had gotten a solid lead.

Several blasts rang out from Lotor's ship. Keith dodged easily.

"Lance!"

"One step ahead of ya, buddy!" Lance was at the controls this time firing Red's guns back whenever he could get a shot in.

If they could maintain this distance, they had a real chance to lose Lotor in the asteroid field.

Keith focused on gaining more speed. With Lance's blasts forcing Lotor to dodge, it meant Lotor couldn't fire as many of his own. Keith didn't have to put his full attention on dodging anymore.

"Almost there!" Keith could see planet Nikopei to their left as they sped past.

As promised the asteroid field was nearby. The moment Keith spotted it the sensors immediately started going haywire.

"Woah." Keith said, slowing down for a second.

"Don't worry, I told you this would happen. It's just like when we had to fly through that red energy field searching for Lotor. This time's the same, except we're using it to our advantage! Keep going!"

"Right!" Keith ignored as the sensors started beeping one by one and continued forward.

"I'll keep visual on Lotor and let you know when we're in the clear. Just focus on piloting."

Keith nodded. He gritted his teeth and pushed Red forward faster still. He was thankful to have Lance watching their backs. It would have been a suicide mission with just him. He tried to avoid thinking it almost was.

The asteroid field loomed in Keith's vision. It was larger than he originally thought. Some of the asteroids were the size of small planets. Lance had been spot on. There wasn't a better place to hide from Lotor.

Keith put his piloting skills to the test. He dodged around aesteriods, turning Red sharply every few seconds. He tried to fly as unpredictable as possible to lose Lotor.

He whipped around again. Keith heard Lance send a few blasts out at first, but then he stopped, suddenly growing still.

"Find a place to land. I think we're clear." He said.

Keith obliged. They landed on one of the larger asteroids. It was easily the size of the Earth's moon.

Lance sighed with relief and allowed himself to collapse on the floor.

"Finally."

Keith allowed himself to look at Lance before shutting off the lights. Sweat mingled with the hair on his brow. He looked slightly paler than before. Maybe it was just the lighting, but Keith swore his brown skin was tinted slightly green. One of his hands was still pressed to his side. The area around his hand was clearly stained with blood now, a much larger spot than before.

"Right. Time to tell me how bad it really is." Keith said, frowning.

"It's not important I think it's just bleeding a lot."

"Really?" Keith knelt down and gently pressed on Lance's hand.

Lance yelped in pain. "Okay, and it hurts pretty bad too."

"I'll go get the first aid kit." Keith went to stand up, but Lance grabbed his wrist suddenly.

"Keith...I...I wanted to say thanks."

It shocked Keith to hear Lance be so sincere. "It was nothing…"

"No, I mean it. A part of me wasn't sure if I'd ever...make it back to Voltron."

His voice got slightly choked up on the last words. Keith could tell he was trying to keep his voice steady, not wanting to let it show just how important his words were to him. Keith could just make out the outline of Lance in the dark.

It was better that way, easier to be honest without needing to look into each other's eyes.

"I will always come and find you." Keith said simply.

Keith paused for a second, allowing himself some solace in Lance's touch on his wrist, before breaking contact and standing up all the way. He moved to the back of the ship, where he knew the first aid supplies were located.

He found himself glad, for a second time, that it was too dark on the ship for them to clearly see each other. Keith wasn't sure what expression he had on his face, but he was positive it would reveal too much.

Grabbing the box of supplies, he took a breath. He steeled himself, making himself calmer. It was all of his combat training being put to the test. He just hadn't expected it to be used in something other than combat. He pulled out a glow cube to help him light the way back to Lance.

The soft orange light just illuminated to the front of the ship, where Keith could make out Lance struggling to remove his shirt.

"What are you-?!" The question died in Keith's throat. He realized the answer almost immediately.

"What?" Lance looked back at the light. "You were planning on bandaging me through the shirt?"

"No...sorry...I was just being stupid for a second." Keith kneeled down once again and helped pull Lance free.

Without the shirt and with the glowing cube nearby Keith could see Lance's wound more clearly. It was deep, a piece of the antenna or whatever it was that had made the wound was still sticking out of it. Keith knew better than to remove it. There was a possibility of more damage rather than if he just trimmed it down and covered it as best he could.

It didn't seem like it had hit anything important. Lance was still able to stand and the blood seemed to be slowing. Lance would definitely need a healing pod for a while, and sooner was better than later. But it wouldn't kill him as long as it was treated within the next day. Keith breathed a sigh of relief.

He barely allowed himself to touch Lance's chest as he worked. It was unavoidable of course, but he tried his best to not allow any physical touches to linger.

Keith wrapped the bandage around Lance's torso several times, and with a last bit of tape he finished. He went to pull his hands away, regretting not lingering on the muscles longer, but allowing a final appreciation of them.

Lance's hand grabbed one of Keith's before he could pull it away entirely.

"Keith." He breathed.

Keith met his eyes, questioning, unsure of what Lance wanted.

Lance opened his mouth to say something. Before a sound could come out a loud rumble came from below them.

Red was still turned off, so it had to be…

"Lance!" Keith yelled. He grabbed hold of him before the explosion hit.

A crack appeared on the asteroid below Red's torso. It grew, suddenly, becoming a fissure, before the entire rock was blasted apart. Bright light appeared and sent pieces of the asteroid flying. The force sent Red careening back through space, bumping into other pieces of debris as she went.

Keith held on tightly to Lance as they were sent flying within Red. He felt his back slam against Red's ceiling, completely winding him. Almost immediately a different impact made Red spin in a different direction entirely. Keith and Lance were pitched into the controls, Keith's side slamming into the chair. He could feel the bruise already forming.

Finally Red seemed to still enough for Keith to scramble to his feet. He helped pull Lance up too and they stared at the empty space where the moon sized asteroid had been only moments before.

"No way." Lance said.

Keith couldn't say anything, but he agreed with Lance's sentiment. What kind of canon could blast apart an asteroid that big? It wasn't the sort of weapon that existed in this universe.

Beyond the asteroid the white lion hovered. They could almost feel the energy radiating out of the pilot's seat, as though Lotor was smirking and saying, "Found you."

"What do we do!?" Keith scrambled towards the controls as quickly as he could, turning Red back on and getting his footing once again.

"What can we do?!" Lance yelled back. There was an edge of panic in his voice.

Keith stopped what he was doing to turn around and grab Lance's shoulders, spinning him around to face each other. He emphasized each word as he said them. "You can figure this out. There's got to be something. You're way better at plans than I am."

Lance seemed to calm down a bit.

"I'll pilot. You think." Keith spun back around to the controls, scrambling to get everything set before sitting down and grabbing the joysticks. "Ready?"

"Go!"

They took off, away from Lotor, dodging around the asteroids as quickly as they could.

Lance was at the guns again, keeping Lotor as far away as he could manage so that Keith's sole focus could be on piloting. "There's no chance for a plan, Keith! This is it unless Voltron gets here soon."

Keith didn't want this to be the end. He was so close to rescuing Lance. "No, there's gotta be something!"

"What's there gotta be?" A new voice spoke up through the comms.

"Hunk!" Lance yelled.

"Lance!" Hunk yelled back. "I am so glad to hear your voice again!"

"No time for a reuinion now! We need a wormhole! It's the only way!" Keith yelled.

Allura's voice spoke through the comm this time. "We cannot let Lotor wormhole with us. I can create one, but we have to keep Lotor far enough at bay or it won't work!"

"Understood!" Lance yelled. "Allura, focus on making the wormhole. Pidge! You follow Allura closely and make sure she knows the moment everyone gets through so she can close it."

"Understood!" Pidge and Allura's voices chimed together.

"Hunk, you've got the most powerful cannon. Send some blasts directed at his left side to keep him off balance and from flying straight. Then hurry up and follow the others! Me and Keith will pull up the rear since Red is the fastest."

"Got it!" Hunk yelled.

Keith and Lance watched as Yellow dove down below them and set off his canon.

"And how exactly are we going to keep Lotor at bay long enough to escape through the wormhole?" Keith asked.

"Exactly how we've already been doing it. You focus on piloting, and I'll use the guns." Lance nudged Keith's shoulder. "Or don't you trust me, I thought you said I was the plan guy?"

Keith let out a laugh despite himself.

"Alright, lets do this!"

Hunk set off several blasts before speeding back towards the others.

Keith kept close to Hunk, still making sure Yellow was in front of him, but that he was far enough away that no blasts would get near Hunk. Lance busied himself with the guns again.

Keith watched as the wormhole appeared, and Pidge and Allura quickly disappeared into it. He sped up, using as much power as he could to ensure he caught up with Hunk at the last minute.

They both watched as one of Lotor's claws tried to grab at Red at the last moment. Lance sent several blasts. They connected knocking the hand away at the last moment as they tumbled through the wormhole.

It closed at the very moment Red's tail passed through.


A/N: Keith rescued ya boi! Finally! So sorry about all the angst in the last chapter. But hey! Everything worked out in the end! :D

So I really really wanted to finish this story before Season 5 came out, but that obviously didn't happen. To be fair I also wanted to finish this story before I went traveling (got too busy packing and saying goodbye to people and with holiday stuff). I also really wanted to finish this before the end of November (wanted to complete NaNo, holidays threw me off track once again).

So I'm not particularly good with getting things done on time, but no worries because I'm really excellent on getting things done! There are approximately 6 chapters left. I say approximately because half the time my outlined chapters end up turning into two or even three chapters once written, or on occasion I smoosh two together because they didn't quite need as much.

I tell you this to let you know I'm not going to change anything regardless of what happened in this season. Nothing from season 5 will get taken into account.

I am going to try really hard to start posting weekly or more since I desperately want to get the rest of this out before season 6 airs. That being said, things might happen. I'm still in the middle of traveling, and I have many good excuses besides.