Keith's throat was raw from the force of his screams as the tunnel collapsed, encasing Lance in a stone tomb made of rubble and dirt. Shiro wrapped his arms around his waist as he tried to run towards the wreckage, and he fought as well as he could with his tears blinding him.

Shiro watched the tunnel collapse with a heavy heart, wishing he could have taken the brave young paladins place. But he couldn't lose Keith too, so he held him back despite the way it hurt to do nothing to help their friend.

Once the flames were choked by the settling dust, and the rubble stopped moving, the team made their way over to assess the damage. The galra were all gone, and the paladins called their lions back as Pidge called Allura and Coran for help.

Keith started pulling at the wreckage, his voice broken and thick as his hands shook.

"We have to find him. We have to get him out."

Shiro put a hand on his shoulder, trying to sound reassuring as Keith paused to wipe his eyes.

"We will. But we need to make sure it's safe first, we don't want to pull anything out and make it worse." He turned to the other two.

"Pidge can you scan the wreck and find out where Lance is? We need to know if the remaining structure is stable enough to dig him out."

The green paladin hummed, unsure. She shrugged as she looked to Hunk for confirmation.

"It seems to be safe enough but there's too much compacted rock and debris for any sensors to accurately locate Lance and the fires prevent us from using heat tracking. His coms and suit's telemetry went offline when the tunnel blew, probably for the same reasons."

Hunk nodded and brought up his own holo screen. "We could set up a sensor to pick up sound although it'll be tricky since there's a lot for the sound waves to bounce off from but if I calibrate it properly we should be able to pick up any heartbeats under there and we can locate Lance using that."

If he's alive.

No one said it but everyone felt it.

Pidge took a scan of the rubble and deemed it stable enough, while Hunk worked on the new sensor.

Keith dove back to the task of digging as Shiro helped. The smell of burnt metal filled the air and his throat was dry from breathing in the dust but he was determined to find his boyfriend.

The lions came quickly, landing as gently as they could so as not to disturb the wreckage, but Blue was losing it. Her paladin was hurt and she couldn't see him. Her tail flicked back and forth with anxiety as she pawed at the ground, wanting to help dig Lance out. Shiro raised a hand towards her, stretching to place a comforting hand against her.

"We'll find him Blue, maybe you could put out those fires in the meantime."

She eagerly went to work, and Shiro went back to Keith.

Hunk and Pidge finished the sensor and turned it on, faint beeps filling the still air as their holo screen glowed with dots. There were three heartbeats but no way to tell who they belonged to.

Hunk and Pidge shared a look before pointing towards the closest dot and instructing Shiro and Keith to dig.

Keith could barely breathe, he felt as if he were trapped under the rubble himself. Lance was somewhere under all the heavy stone and choking layers of dust, and he would get him out. He just couldn't help but wonder what condition he would be in when they found him. The only thing that kept him from completely losing it was the heartbeat coming from Hunks sensor.

The red paladin ignored the sting in his hands at the prick of sharp rocks and debris and focused on that heartbeat.

"I'll get you out Lance. I promise."

…..

Lance was encased in darkness. The air felt hot but he was so cold, and growing colder. He felt like his body probably hurt but his mind was separated from it, enough to know it hurt without drowning in the pain.

Sounds drifted to his ears, echoing in the dark and bouncing off every shape around him until he lost where the voices were coming from. That's what they were, voices. His mind was slow but he knew those voices. He loved them and it made him ache to hear how sad they sounded.

Once voice was more important than the others. It was someone special to him but his mind was too fuzzy to provide the name that matched it. He could picture who the voice belonged to though. Black hair and dark blue eye's that sometimes looked more like indigo at night. A soft smile that made him melt every time those lips formed his name with an 'I love you' for the chaser.

Those hands, so quick and deadly and yet strong and gentle when pressed against him. The warmth of his body against his under the sheet's, in those early mornings when he woke up next to the person that he loved more than anything.

Keith. His name was Keith.

Lance didn't want him to be sad. If only he could find him.

…

Three hours went by as the team dug. Allura and Coran joined, patting Keith's shoulder as they arrived. They all loved Lance, but it was different for Keith and their hearts broke a little each time he paused to wipe his eyes.

Keith just kept concentrating on those beeps, those heartbeats and their steady patterns, because each beat meant that Lance could be alive. It meant they could save him.

But after six hours, one of them began to slow.

….

Lance was tired. He was alone in the darkness and while he could hear Keith and the rest of his team, he couldn't find them. He was still feeling distant from his body and he couldn't make it go anywhere. He wanted to find Keith. He wanted to take him in his arms and tell him he was okay.

He could hear Keith calling for him, his voice endlessly sad as his words cracked and broke with the weight of his grief. And Lance was so tired that it was getting hard not to slip into the endless blackness that awaited him.

But he couldn't go yet, he needed to make sure his boyfriend was okay.

It's okay, Keith. I'll find you.

….

Hunk looked worriedly down at the monitor, watching the pulse trip and fade. Keith looked over from where he was pulling boulders away.

"What's happening?"

Hunk tapped at the monitor, panicked. The pulse beat sluggishly before stopping completely. Whoever it was had just died.

Keith's chest seized in fear and his breaths came in laboured pants. His hand came up to clutch his chest as he ran over to the holo screen, grabbing Hunk's arm to hold it still to have a look. The three dots had just become two. The heartbeat was gone.

There were only two people alive under the rubble now but they had no way to tell if Lance was one of them.

"Lance? Did he? Oh, god."

Hunk frantically tried to calm him but the whole team felt the same. Pidge started crying as he dug faster through the debris.

"We don't know if it was him! There are still two heartbeats, Keith!"

Keith was quickly slipping into a panic attack, anguished sobs tearing through his strangled breath.

Did I just lose Lance?

He fell to his knees, and pressed his hands to the dirt as Shiro came over, wanting to help but not knowing how.

"Hey, just try to breathe. I know it's hard but Lance could still be alive and we need to save him. There's still two heartbeats and-"

Keith interrupted, heart beating so quickly it felt as if it would leap right from his throat.

"And we don't even know if Lance had ever been one of those heart beats. He could have died as soon as the bomb went off, or he could have just died three seconds ago. We don't know and I can't dig him out, there's too much and it hurts not knowing. It hurts so bad."

Shiro put a hand on his shoulder as his own grief choked him. Keith was dragging air in, much too fast and labored as tears left tracks in the dirt on his face. Hunk's face was much the same as he knelt beside his team mate and took one of his hands from the dust.

"Keith, we all love Lance, he's my best friend. And I know he's more to you, but I feel the pain too. It's like my whole chest is caved in and I can't dig my heart out till I find Lance. And I know that… I know we might not find him alive-" His voice broke and Keith looked up at him.

"-But we still have to find him. Keith, a little after we first left earth, after Lance almost died in that explosion, protecting Coran, he told me something. He said that if something ever happened to him, that the healing pods couldn't fix, he wanted us to send his body back to Cuba, to his family. I know he probably told you the same thing. So, whatever happens we need to get him out."

Keith's shoulders shook. Lance had told him that, and Keith had hated it at the time but he understood and he'd promised. Hunk lent down to catch his eyes as he continued.

"But I really don't think that Lance is gone. There are still two heartbeats registering and if Lance was gone Blue would feel it. She's still waiting for him to come back so we have to keep digging okay? Take a deep breath."

Keith looked over to where Blue was pacing beside the rubble. Hunk was right. Keith sniffed his tears away and wiped his face.

"Okay. Thank you, Hunk."

The yellow paladin nodded and they both returned to work.

Hunk had been right about something else too. Keith felt as if he was crumbling just as the tunnel had and he knew that the only thing that could save him was if they saved Lance. He also knew that he could not live without Lance. It was agony not knowing whether he was alive or not, and even the thought of him being dead threatened to paralyze Keith completely. They would not stop until they found Lance.

In the end, it took two days to dig him out. They finally uncovered him, buried under pieces of the tunnel wall and Keith yelled out for help when he spotted him under the wreckage.

"I found him! Help me lift this off him." The team came over to shift the stone as Keith called out to his boyfriend, tears coming afresh at the glint of dirty, white and blue armor under the grey rubble.

"We're coming babe, we got you. Just hang in there. Lance?"

The blue paladin didn't seem to be conscious and as the stone was removed it became evident why. Blood smeared across the visor of his helmet and his skin was pale beneath the red. Most alarming however was the slab of rock that was crushing his lower half.

Keith rushed to his side once the debris was moved, and although he had been waiting to hold him for two days, he didn't know where to touch. His hands fluttered around his body, chest heaving as he saw how badly Lance was hurt.

"Lance, baby, I'm right here. We got you out, everything's okay now, I won't leave you."

Shiro came over and quickly assessed the damage, knowing Keith wouldn't be able to concentrate right now.

"He's got a head wound but it seems to have stopped bleeding, his pulse is weak and his breathing is shallow and…oh god. Coran, I need your help."

The altean came over while Keith found one of Lance's hands in the dust and held it between both of his gloved hands. Coran came over to inspect the damage. He took one look at the rock on Lance's legs and started barking out orders.

"I need bandages and a saw, and something to clean this out with. Hunk, we're gonna need a stretcher. Allura prepare the med bay for surgery, I'm going to have to take this out myself."

Keith looked up, mind racing at the somber tone in Coran's voice.

"A saw? Why do you need that?"

The man didn't look up as he was passed bandages, pressing them under the stone.

"There's a piece of metal pipe pinning Lance to the ground, it's gone straight through his leg. Not only that but this rock is pressing down on his spine, compressing the nerves. If we don't get him out soon he may lose this leg and that's if we don't lose him first."

Everything went quiet after that. Everyone was still rushing around, getting what Coran needed, but Keith could only look down at Lance's pale face and hope he would be okay.

….

Lance didn't know how long he was in the dark for but when the voices finally came closer he was glad not to be alone anymore. He could hear Keith talking to him and he did his best to concentrate on the words being said. All that really mattered was that he had found Keith. Or maybe Keith had found him?

His body came back to him very quickly when Keith took his hand, as if a circuit had been completed and he was a live wire once again. Keith's hand was warm and those strong fingers wrapped around his palm. Lance couldn't squeeze back but he wanted to tell Keith something.

I missed you. Thanks for finding me.

Other voices came closer and Lance quickly realized that as much as he loved holding Keith's hand, he did not like being in his body because that meant feeling pain. And there was a lot of it.

….

Coran had studied human medicine extensively since meeting the paladins and was doing everything he could to save the young pilot but the odds weren't looking good.

Lance's legs were soaked with blood under the rock, the pipe acting as a plug for most of the blood so that Lance wouldn't bleed out immediately, but that meant they couldn't take it out without risking hemorrhaging. But Lance was already fading and they needed to move him. Which meant cutting the pipe and taking it with them.

Coran wrapped bandages around the pipe and Lance's thigh, pressing on the wound to try and stop the bleeding, while Hunk and Pidge cut the pipe as carefully as they could. The metal rod was attached the rock and once separated they could lift it. But Coran was also worried about lifting the rock too fast.

There was just so much that could go wrong and Lance was already so weak. Keith had to step back when they began lifting the rock and he knelt as close as he could when it was done. Coran needed room and Keith couldn't help while so upset. His hands pressed into the ground as he focused on the quick, shallow pants, making Lance's chest rise and fall. He did his best to ignore the blood soaking every surface around the blue paladin, and just prayed that Lance wouldn't die.

Coran was yelling things at the other paladins, asking for oxygen and more bandages. It was all a blur to Keith until they finally got Lance on a stretcher to bring him to the castle ship. He followed close behind but was told he couldn't follow into the infirmary as Coran and the others worked. He lent down as they ran Lance inside, pressing a quick kiss to his pale forehead before releasing his tear soaked words, pressing Lance's knuckles to his mouth in a desperate kiss.

"Come back to me, okay? You don't get to quit now. We have a universe to save. I love you so much Lance."

They took Lance away and it took all of Keith's strength not to fall to the ground.

….

Lance could feel Keith by his side, that warm flame always. He was still in the dark but it wasn't the same darkness as before. He was in a lot of pain now and he wanted it to stop. He wanted to leave.

But Keith's voice came close to him, pressing against him in the cold, and he couldn't leave.

He felt warm lips on his skin, blooming flowers of light where Keith's lips touched him. Lance loved his sun, so he promised to stay.

I love you too, Keith. I'll come back, just wait for me.

…

Pidge was the only other who stayed with Keith, unable to watch them operate on someone who was so much like an older brother to her.

She took his hand as he sat outside in the hall.

"They're going to fix him. It'll be okay."

Keith nodded and dragged his other hand through his hair in anxiety. He shuddered when he saw the blood stains smeared on his armor.

"Why can't they just put him in the healing pod?"

Pidge looked at the floor, seeming as young as when Keith first met her more than five years ago.

"Coran said his vitals were too weak and they had to get the pipe out first. After that… he said we'd have a choice to make. But he's going to do everything he can to save Lance, we all will. I promise."

Keith nodded and squeezed her hand, grateful. But after two hours of surgery Coran came out looking grim.

"Keith, we got the pipe out but he's barely breathing on his own and I need to ask you… I know this is a lot but we need you to make the choice, you're who he loves most and he'd want you to decide."

Keith felt sick. He didn't like where this was going at all. "Decide what?"

"The pipe left a lot of damage to Lance's leg muscles and tendons, I almost wasn't sure he'd be able to keep it, and the rock was pressing down on his nerves and it caused a lot of internal bleeding."

Keith shook his head slightly, wishing he would just get to the point. "What are you saying?"

Coran sat beside the paladin, eyebrows creased in apology. "I can put him in the healing pod and it will save his leg but his vitals are so weak I'm not sure if his heart could take the cryogenic process. He could die."

Keith felt as if all the air had been sucked from the room, he tried to breathe as Coran continued.

"Or I could put him on life support along with a ray-like version of the healing pods. They'll heal him but it will be slower and it wouldn't heal his leg completely. He may still lose it and even if he does keep it, it will never be the same as before. But he'll live."

Keith swallowed his nausea. He was being given the choice to either save his boyfriends life and leave him with irreparable damage to his leg, or risk his life but save his leg. Lance was already insecure about his abilities on the team, he never thought he was good enough and losing his leg would not make this better.

But on the other hand, Keith could not live without Lance. And they needed him to form Voltron to defeat Zarkon. They all loved Lance and they would love him no matter what condition he was in, as long as he was alive he was perfect. But Lance might not think so. If Lance couldn't walk he couldn't fight and that would be on Keith. Lance could leave Voltron. He could blame Keith for the choice he made and hate him forever. He might lose Lance anyway.

He was nauseous again as his mind raced with questions and possibilities. Coran's voice cut through the noise of his thoughts like a hot knife through butter.

"I'm sorry you have to be the one to decide, Keith. But it's what Lance would want."

Keith hated how much that sounded like Lance was already dead. And he immediately made up his mind. He put his head in his hands as he forced out the words from his already worn out throat.

"Save him."