Characters: The paladins minus Shiro, Allura, Ryo, and a mean OC.
Summary: Keith gets caught, and rescued by Ryo.
Pairing: None
Theories: Keith and Shiro are siblings, and Ryo exists as his twin. Keith doesn't think family is family because he thinks he might be adopted, or his mom stole Shiro's dad.
Warnings: Keith gets hurt.
Notes: I don't know what I like best. Ryo as a cousin, Ryo as Shiro's twin, or Ryo as Keith's twin. How mean is Ryo?

11. Independence – Emancipation

Coming back to Earth was a mistake.

Upon landing, Keith found himself separated from the others, with the hot breath of an enlisted soldier breathing down his neck. "You're an emancipated minor, so I can do what I want with your ass."

They'd gone back to Earth.

They'd gone back to Earth, and it was also his first decision as the new leader of Voltron.

Thus, his current predicament was his own fault.

He sat in some interrogation room, attached to a chair, pretending that his decision was okay if it meant that the others got to see their family, only to remember the negative reaction of the other paladin. Lance accused him of being cold regarding what happened to Shiro. Pidge wanted to still find her family. As for Hunk, there was a look of pity on his face. Then there was Allura.

"From what I can tell, you're not very excited about going home either."

"Earth's not my home Allura." He'd not said this aloud.

"If Earth's not your home, then where is it?"

"How?" He didn't get an answer to how she knew what he was thinking, as the princess clammed up.

She simple said. "Look, there's something I need to talk to Kolivan first, but when I do figure it out, you'll be the first to know. I promise."

It didn't seem like she'd be able to keep said promise, as he sat there, his small body beaten far worse than it had been during the Marmora trial. He almost asked why the red lion hadn't reacted to the beating he'd received due to being an emancipated minor. However, he knew. His becoming leader was, it seemed, a betrayal to the red lion, his lion. He'd broken the lion's trust.

That's why they'd taken the shuttlecraft down, that and he didn't trust the governments of Earth in regards to the lions. He couldn't pilot either the red or black lion, feeling as if he'd broken the trust for one, and the other making his stomach churn. He hurt, but as long as the others were okay. The army, however, had taken them down. He'd made a mistake. He now sported a busted lip and broken lips.

The person titled up his chin. "Are you going to answer me or not?"

"I told you. Talk to Commander Shirogane. If Iverson can't vouch for me, then…"

"You little ass wipe. You seriously want me to believe that the Shirogane would give a shit about a brat who has nothing to do with their family."

"Nothing…" Keith's eyes closed.

"Tell me what rebel force you're working for, dipshit."

~V~

Lance woke with a groan, turning his head to look around the room. He saw Hunk and Pidge in the room as he came to, but not Keith. "Hey, guys, do you know where Keith is?"

"I don't know." Pidge piped up, her fingers tapping away at the computer sitting on her lap. "For some reason, Keith's military records have some kind of red flag to them, but I have figured out where they're keeping our ship."

"That wouldn't have something to do with the fact he's a minor, and so his disciplinary records are sealed." Lance let out a sigh. "Kind of serves him right, being cold like he was in regards to Shiro."

"Yeah, well, the people who took Keith referred to him as an emancipated minor. Why?"

"How could…" Something clicked with the blue paladin. "Wait, how did you get that computer?"

"They're stupid and think I'm only a kid." Pidge stood up with the computer. "Get me to the ship, and I can use that computer to hopefully find out where Keith is."

"Gotcha." Lance went to the door. "First, we have to get past the guards."

"What did I tell you about them being stupid adults. I know it's like, one of those weird clichés, but I think them taking Keith was them being stupid adults as well."

"Yeah, how come they think he's an emancipated minor?"

"Well, he was kind of living on his own." Hunk piped up. "You know, it kind of bothered me that Keith didn't have, you know, somebody looking out for him, then he finds out he's part Galra."

Lance took a deep breath. "Look, I'm kind of miffed at him right now for the fact he's not bothered by the fact Shiro's gone, and was just like, go home to your families! What about Shiro. Is he dead? Is he alive?"

The blue paladin pushed at the door, noting there were no adults there. "Okay, so where are the guards?"

"I told you. These adults are stupid."

"That, or they're laying a trap for us." Hunk piped up.

"Yeah, well, we get to talk about that once we get to the ship."

The three left the room and headed to the place where their shuttle was located. Lance frowned. "Nobody's here near the alien teck."

"No." Pidge pushed her glasses up. "Someone knocked everyone out."

"So, maybe the reason the adults were stupid and didn't notice your hack was because something happened?" Hunk's lips pushed together.

The engines of the ship roared to life, making the others blink. Lance took a deep breath. "Wait, is the ship's taking off without us?"

The blue paladin dashed forward, climbing in to the back, barely making it onto the ship. Lance pushed his way forward through the door which separated the cockpit from the cargo area to see who was piloting the ship. His eyes narrowed. "Keith! What the hell! Were you just going to leave us here?"

A pair of dark-blue eyes looked up, accompanied by a classic Keith glare, and suddenly the teen in front of him gunned the thrusters, pushing the ship forward, and out of the military hanger. Lance could hear the other two yelp from the back, and his hand reached out only for the other teen to twist his arm painfully, before bringing the shuttle up high, suddenly sending it into a roll to the side making Lance grab onto the other seat.

"What the hell are you doing Keith!"

The intercom came on, and Allura's voice came over the sound system, and the other teen steadied the ship. "About time. I talked to Kolivan…" The Altean princess paused, just as Hunk and Pidge opened up the door between them and the cockpit. Allura's crystal eyes narrowed. "You're not Keith."

Lance felt his voice catch in his throat, before completely loosing. "Allura! What are you talking about? This is Keith! I mean, he looks like Keith."

"No, it's not." The princess continued to scowl. "Who are you, and where's Keith?"

The person finally spoke up, their tone dark. "You know, that's what I want to know."

Suddenly the ship went into another swooping motion, making everyone grab on. Lance felt the color drain from his face. The person was wearing a different outfit than Keith had been wearing, but Lance still couldn't believe that the person in front of him wasn't the red paladin. "Come on Keith, old buddy, this isn't funny."

"Funny, I don't know who you are. And she's right."

Allura startled, taking a deep breath as she turned her head to look at another screen. "That's not good."

"What now…" Lance let out a sigh.

"The red lion just took off, meaning Keith's in trouble. If Keith was with you, you might be able to intercept it, and figure out where it is going."

"Can any of you a pilot?" The unknown teen suddenly thrust the shuttlecraft forward. "Because I'm going to be abandoning ship."

Lance honestly hated this guy. "Dude! We've got to go and rescue Keith, and you're…"

"No. I'm going to go and rescue him. I'm going to intercept this red lion thing that knows where he supposedly is. If my calculations are right, I need to get out of the shuttle right now."

"Are you crazy?"

"Yes. I am." The teen backed up. "I'd hang onto something if I were you."

He then hit the button for the cockpit before diving out the back.

~V~

A blip showed up on his device, indicating someone had accessed the file for one Keith Kogane, only to be blocked. He excused himself from class, with everyone staring, before having someone pilot him to that military establishment. The one known as Keith Kogane wasn't though there, but an alien shuttlecraft was there. An alien shuttlecraft was found when the person known as Keith Kogane had disappeared.

Then he met the others and learned something of where his target was. He jumped out the back, watching those strange people his target had come to somehow associate with. His wing suit activated, allowing him to dive down. The red lion came hurtling through, a real flying lion. He managed to land on the strange ship, only to nearly slide off. The hatch at the top of the lion head opened, and he slid down, finding himself in a cockpit.

A communications screen popped up, and he saw the same alien princess. "Get out of Keith's lion, now."

"So it's his."

"You nearly got the other paladins killed."

"I don't care about them, but you already know that, don't you." He narrowed his eyes. "My question though is, how did you know I wasn't who the others thought."

His hands reached for the controls, only to find they didn't respond, and instead, the lion began to rebel. A smirk appeared on her face. "That's between Keith and me."

"Stop acting all snooty, and unlock the controls bitch."

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me." He was angry, to say the least. "Stop acting like you know him, bitch."

"Excuse me! I don't need some complete stranger…"

"If you were actually his friend, then how come you don't know his real name." He felt the fire boil in the pit of his stomach. "So don't you dare act like you know him."

She turned off screen, her fingers pushing buttons. "Coran, Kolivan, could you step off the bridge for a second."

"Unlock the damn controls already!"

She remained silent, as the lion continued to spin, but then she spoke up. "Keith never told me his real name, but I know it's Akira."

"Who told you?"

"I can't unlock the controls for you. The lions work by building bonds with them."

"Bitch."

"Look, I don't know what that word means, but I do have the feeling it's not very nice. The red lion is very temperamental, and it's not happy that you're interfering with its attempt to rescue Keith."

"Why the hell do you talk about it as if it is some kind of living thing."

"Because strangely enough, it is. Try focusing on your bond with Keith."

"That's…"

"Maybe it seems stupid, but your stubbornness is preventing Keith from being rescued."

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

~V~

He didn't feel good, and his ears buzzed.

Keith's eyes snapped open, feeling someone press into his connection with the red lion, and he heard a voice in his head. "Ryo."

"Akira."

"That's not my name."

"That strange alien chick would actually disagree with that, though how she knows what your real name is, I don't know."

"Shiro…" Keith's eyes closed. "Except he wouldn't betray me like that, would he?"

"Shiro's dead, remember? Oh, wait, you didn't come to the funeral. You think he's still alive."

"Ryo, I don't want to talk about that."

"Yeah, well I don't want to discuss your mental issues either."

"Please…"

"Where are you?"

He was in an interrogation room being tortured, a very unwelcome experience. "As if you care. You probably enjoy taking the red lion away. Not that I blame Red for being fickle."

"I don't get a shit about this stupid lion. What I care about is getting you home in one piece, but it doesn't look like you're unharmed."

Keith's eyes snapped open, and he looked up at Ryo, confused. "I don't…"

"Whose hurting you?"

"They refused to get Iverson or … that man." Someone was definitely hurting him.

"You mean grandfather?"

"I'm not a Shirogane."

"Stop that already."

"Mom… my mom, she's an alien."

"I told you, I don't want to hear your mental issues."

"I'm not mental!" Keith flinched, realizing he'd said that out loud, and had drawn the man's attention.

"I can see what you can."

"Go away. Go away."

"Don't you remember. Name, rank, number"

"I can't."

"You can't what?"

"You can, and you should have used it sooner."

Keith's mouth opened, stating his rank, then something he'd not said in a long time. "Akira Shirogane."

As he rattled off the number, the man started. "What?"

He repeated his rank, name, and number again for him to hear.

"That's not your name, rank, and number." The man kicked him hard in the leg.

"It didn't work. It didn't…" He felt tears in his eyes.

"Tell him who your grandfather is and that there's going to be shit to pay."

"Tell him who your grandfather is and that there's going to be shit to pay."

"No! I meant."

"What are…"

"I told you. Commander Shirogane. Contact him. Contact him." His eyes closed. "Nobody was supposed to know. Nobody."

"Are you crying?"

"Can't help it. I'm…"

"Did you just crap yourself, and are you passing out?"

He, of course, couldn't answer.

~V~

Ryo wanted to kill the man, but he could feel the red lion wanted to as well. He didn't like connecting to the machine, having pushed away certain ideas his entire life. However, Commander Shirogane wouldn't be pleased one bit with him leaving death in his wake. There was a price to being a member of that family, one he'd learned to deal with a long time ago.

The lion landed though, taking out some of the walls, collapsing the building down so that the interrogation room lay bare, and he could see the shocked look on the man's face. He exited the cockpit, going out through the mouth. The man shook. "Who are you?"

"Ryo Shirogane. I thought those in the military knew better than to mess with our family, yet here you are beating he living daylights out of one of Commander Shirogane's grandsons? Did he not tell you to contact Shirogane or Iverson?"

His hand went to the device he kept on him, typing in the fact he'd retrieved Akira. The man, however, had the stupidity to point a gun, making him move with a flash, breaking the man's arm. His soilders piled in. "Arrest him."

"You're the one who needs to be arrested. You couldn't be bothered to follow proper protocol." A groan came from Keith's mouth. He stepped forward, grabbing the blade sticking out of the table knowing it was Keith's, before cutting the bindings. "Contact Commander Shirogane, letting them know this fool tried to torture his grandson for information, let alone harmed a minor."

"He's an emancipated minor! There's no way…"

"Emancipated?" Ryo wanted to smash the man's face in. "Akira may be allowed to do as he pleases, but he's in no way emancipated. So just fuck off. Where's the infirmary?" One of the men pointed, and he started forward, only for his eyes to widen as the red lion took them, and rubble in. "Hey! What are you doing!"

The next thing he knew, the beast was taking off, and he was knocked off his feet. Keith landed in his lap, and he held on. The next thing he knew, the mouth opened, and he saw the ragtag group of Keith's friend. The obnoxious teen who mistook him for Keith glared at him, his arms crossed. "Now there's two of them?"

The alien chick stepped forward, meaning to help. "Don't you dare touch him!"

"Hold on!" The big bulky teen held up his hands. "We just want to help get Keith to a cryo healing pod."

"I can manage on my own!"

"You're worse than Keith. At least he's able to accept help at times." The smallest male spoke up. A male, who strangely enough looked like Shiro's best friend Matt.

Another alien who looked like the princess stepped forward. "Please." The man's hands darted up. "Let me show you the way to the cryo healing pods. It will be just me."

Ryo continued to glare at them as Keith didn't stir. The female who he didn't like glared at the person, obviously not liking that particular compromise. "Fine."

He stood up, lifting the unconscious Keith with him, hearing the strange wierdo who said there were two of them now complain about how they couldn't trust him when he honestly felt the same about them.

~V~

Lance hovered just outside of the room where the cryo statis pods were contained. He peeked in to see the stranger who looked like Keith hovering. If anyone stepped inside the room except for Coran, the person would go nuts. He wasn't at all sure who the person was either. Allura brushed past him, making the blue paladin flinch. "Um, Allura."

She stepped in, glaring at the person, only for them to look up, glaring at her. "Go away."

"This is my ship. You do not have the right to order me around."

"When he's finished healing, we're both leaving."

"You can't do that!" Lance's voice strained."

"I can. I've every right to."

"What…" The blue paladin found himself confused.

"Neither one of you have a say either."

"Yes, but Keith does have a say."

The person flinched, continuing to glare at her. He muttered something about having orders, fiddling with his communications device. The conversation was interrupted by Keith starting to mumble while in the cryostasis pod. Shiro's name came up, but everything else Lance couldn't understand. The other person, however, turned to look, whatever Keith said upsetting him.

"I'm staying. He'll be coming out in half-an-hour anyways."

~V~

Keith couldn't remember the dreams as he woke up, but he also didn't think he wanted to remember. He wasn't expecting for himself to fall into a complete nightmare, his body loosing it's balance as he crashed physically towards the mirror that was himself, but not. He flinched away, at first not sure why that person was there. Their hands gripped the suit tightly, not letting him pull away.

"Keith…"

Allura's voice made him turn his head, his mind spinning as he attempted to pull away. He took a deep breath. "Let go. Leave me alone."

Again, he tried pulling away. The person grabbed his arm. "No. I'm taking you back."

Keith felt his insides freeze, knowing what that meant, but what the nightmare he had while in the cryo stasis was. He yanked hard, before tearing away. "I don't want anything to do with you." Somehow, he managed to get away from that person and leaned up against the wall, his knees threatening to buckle under him. His finger pounded a rhythm against the wall, taking a deep breath as he did so, closing his eyes. "Why now. Why now of all times."

"What's wrong with you."

The red paladin froze, realizing that Lance had found him. He slowly lifted up his head. "What do you mean?"

"I may not be that bright, but from the fact you two look like each other, I'm going to assume he's either your clone or family." Lance came over and leaned against the wall. "What's really messed up is the fact you wanted us to see our families, but you weren't going to see yours."

"It's really none of your business."

Lance's mouth twisted into a pout, his eyes widening as if Keith had slapped him in the face when he hadn't.

"There you are."

Keith swallowed, keeping his eyes closed, not wanting to look that person in the eye. "I'm not leaving."

"Yes, you are." Ryo reached out, grabbing his arm and pulling him away. The red paladin stumbled, the terror in his chest growing. "We're leaving now."

"No, you're not." Keith's eyes blinked open, noticing Lance standing in front of Ryo, his arms outstretched. It looked like Lance was scared, but also ready to crap his pants. "You have to go through me."

Ryo lunged forward, quicker than Keith could react, his chest pounding. He could hear Lance's bones breaking echoing through his head, his eyes snapping shut. Instead, he heard Ryo let out a yelp. His eyes opened, and he saw Allura, her knee pressed into the other person's back, his arm twisted painfully behind him. She didn't look up at Keith but simply said. "Keith, you and I need to talk."

~V~

Keith sat in the lounge, his knee and foot twitching. Allura told him to meet her there, while she dealt with Ryo. He couldn't help but feel a nasty feeling, his mind not at all sure what he wanted to happen to Ryo. The sound of someone sitting down drew his head up. Allura folded her arms and looked at him calmly. "We need to talk.

"Yes. We do." The red paladin took a deep breath. "Do you remember how I said Earth isn't my home?"

"Wait…" Allura took a deep breath. "I think we have a different train of thought regarding where this conversation is going."

Keith's mouth opened his entire heart pounding when Lance's voice came from the doorway. "So, what exactly are we supposed to do with this jerk?"

The princess's face twisted up in irritation as Lance shoved Ryo into the room so he was forced to sit. Keith felt the color drain from his face but also knew Ryo was looking at him. Allura cleared her through. "Lance, what are you doing?"

"We need to talk to Keith, remember?" Lance pointed his thumb at Ryo. "He's the reason this jerks on the ship in the first place. Oh, and it was his bright idea for everybody to go and see their families on Earth."

"Oh, that's rich coming from you Akira."

Keith felt his blood run cold. "Stop."

"Lance, do you mind gagging the prisoner." Allura piped up. Keith felt his stomach lurch, and his hands start to sweat.

"It's my pleasure."

The red paladin looked at the ground, only to look up in time to see Lance reaching to remove his shoe. "Lance!"

"Fine. I'll be back."

That meant Ryo could still talk. He knew he could still talk. Keith didn't like the look on his face at all. "So, you got the bright idea for that ragtag group of yours to see their families, but I know for a fact you weren't planning on seeing yours. You want nothing to do with us, do you Akira?"

"Shut up!" Keith felt like throwing up, hating the fact he lost control despite Shiro's conversation about keeping his head. "You're the ones that don't want anything to do with me! And don't call me that!"

"She called you that." The hate in Ryo's eyes surged forth.

"Wh…" The red paladin heard Allura breath in deep.

"I said, that witch there called you Akira. She knew what your real name was."

Keith's mind flickered to what Ryo said, that Allura knew. He felt his throat tighten up, his fingers tightening around his knees. "How? Did Shiro…"

"Seriously! Why do you have to be so messed up in the head! He's dead! When will you realize that? It's almost as bad as you thinking our mom is an alien."

"Shiro didn't tell me. That's actually what I wanted to talk to you about, once you got back."

"I really don't like you, bitch."

"Your using that word again."

"I'll stop using it if you stop putting delusions into my brother's head."

"Brother…" Lance walked over, quickly fixing the gag around Ryo's mouth, effectively shutting him up. Hunk and Pidge were with them, adding undue tension to the situation. "I was right. You two are family. I knew you were cold Keith, but to not want anything to do with your own family."

Lance, of course, knew exactly how to make him feel bad. "You don't know…"

The blue paladin walked to the other side, standing right in front of Keith. "First, you wanted to leave Allura behind instead of rescuing her."

"We were taking the black lion right into Zarkon's hands Lance."

"And then you act like Shiro never existed, that he was never a part of our team."

Lance went down, receiving a kick in the back of the knee from a certain someone. Keith stood up, panic on his face, his stomach continuing to hurt. "Ryo!"

The blue paladin sat up with a groan, moving away. "That seriously…" The color drained from Lance's face. His voice broke, panic setting in. "Wait. Did he just call you Ryo?"

"Significance?" Allura narrowed her eyes.

Lance instead pointed his finger at Keith. "That can't be! Shiro would have said something. And your last name is Kogane! Your name is Keith Kogane! You…" The blue paladin pulled away Ryo's gag. "Explain!"

It was an honest betrayal, that Lance would turn to Ryo and instead of him for an answer. "You mean the fact that's not his actual name?"

"You! You traitor!" Lance walked over, poking his finger into Keith's shoulder, hard.

Even Allura's voice strained. "What's going on?"

"The fact Keith and Shiro are siblings." Pidge piped up, letting out a sigh, her fingers fiddling with the device in her hands.

"I'm not."

The sound of exasperation slipped from Ryo's mouth as he slid down. "Seriously. You are. You're Akira Shirogane."

Lance folded his arms across his chest. "You are by far the biggest jerk. Did you actually tell Shiro to his face that you're not his brother? Maybe that's why he disappeared. Did you ever think that?"

"Shiro…"

Hunk thankfully puts the gag back on, his facial features twisted in worry.

"You've no right Lance to judge me. You don't know…"

The blue paladin held up his hands. "Seriously? He's your brother."

"He's not!" The sweaty feeling on his hands was now in the middle of his back, and right below his throat.

"And you're still not thinking about how Shiro feels! You're the reason…"

"Being some random brat with Galra blood that Shiro's dad picked up and dumped on him is far better than having a Galra mom who stole Shiro's dad away from Shiro's mom!" Everyone simply stared. "And Shiro's always been fine with me saying he's like a brother and isn't actually my brother! Particularly since it's so much easier than explaining the fact he's not just like a brother, but he's also like a mom and dad too! He's the only one in that crappy family who ever treated me like family."

A silence fell over the room.

Lance finally turned to Ryo. "And what about him?"

"Him? He always told me, our mom isn't an alien. If I kept insisting that she was, then he wasn't my brother. I'm the family member they want to lock away unless there's some purpose they can actually use me for where I'm not visible to the general public. They want to forget I exist."

"Why?" Lance's tone of voice.

"My mom stole Shiro's dad away? My mom didn't belong?" Keith's hands clenched together, despite the fact he was unable to say anything. "The fact the heads precious heir kept me a secret for the first eight years of my life? The fact I couldn't speak and acted like a three-year-old once he disappeared, and didn't stop until I was ten to eleven! That I'm seriously messed up?"

"Never mind. I'm sorry I assumed."

Keith opened his mouth, trying to speak. Allura walked over, sitting down next to him despite the fact he felt like he betrayed her. She placed a hand on his shoulder. "You're wanting to say that he doesn't have to apologize because there's no way he could have known about your family issues, but that you also don't want to talk about them."

"How?"

"We'll talk about that later, when it's just the two of us, and things have calmed down."

Keith felt his cheeks flush up, his hands tightening.

Lance took a deep breath. "Well, there's that, but there's also the fact I need to apologize for thinking that you were being a complete jerk regarding Shiro… you know… disappearing. You're not Shiro."

That was the thing everyone said to him, comparing him to Shiro and telling him how much of a mess he was.

"Sorry. That didn't come out right. I mean…" The blue paladin placed a hand behind his head. "Truth be told, I always thought of you as this perfect genius who was the next Shiro, but who was cold to others because you were stuck up. I was wrong, and for that I'm sorry."

"What about the fact you were mad at Keith for being cold?"

Lance frowned at Hunk's statement. "That, I'm still miffed at." His head moved in thought. "However, I don't get why you getting kicked out of the garrison coincides with Shiro's first disappearance, but you're not reacting right now."

"Because he's trying to put our needs before his own." Hunk piped up. "And yes, I knew he was Shiro's brother as well."

Lance took a deep breath, looking at the princess. "Allura?"

"I was kind of jealous." Her words made Keith flinch. "I mean, you've only ever let Shiro get close to…" Allura glanced over at Ryo. "Look. We can be mushy friendly all we want, so stop glaring at me."

Keith felt his blood run cold, wondering what the look on Ryo's face was for.

The princess, however, continued. "Anyways. I knew there was a connection. I'd hoped that you would have shared what that was, but instead, you told me you'd found out you were part Galra first."

"Sorry." The red paladin looked at the ground. "And it's kind of getting uncomfortable."

"You don't need to be sorry." Allura's hand reached out to pat his leg gently. "What are we going to do about his orders?"

"He doesn't have any." Pidge piped up. "I've looked through all of his communications."

Keith glared at Ryo before removing the gag. It was time to face the "elephant in the room", though he didn't know why people used that phrase. "What's going on? You never act on your own. You always act on the heads orders."

Ryo gritted his teeth. "I know it may seem that way, what with you never taking orders from anybody but nii-chan, making you the liability that you are, but I do at time act on my own accord at times."

"To what end? To humiliate me? To tell me how delusional I am for thinking even now that Shiro's alive, that my mom is an alien?"

"Our mom isn't an alien. Stop with this delusional crap of yours."

"I'm not delusional."

"You're my twin brother, but apparently you hate me so much that's never once in your entire life mattered to you, Keith. We share the same birthday, have the same parents, yet there you are babbling about being some foundling baby, or that our mom stole Shiro's dad when we all have the same mom. You made up all of these delusions just to cope with your insecurities, which in turn is a major pain in the ass."

"Except Shiro's not dead, and I know for a fact mom is an alien."

"Seriously! That's just like how you know I hate you when I'm effing losing it watching you go insane. Our mom isn't an alien! Our brother is dead!"

"Nope. Shiro is alive." Lance piped up. "And your mom has purple skin."

The blue paladin was honestly way to amused by the situation, a smile having cracked across his face. Ryo's eye twitched. "Now you're thinking she has purple skin?"

"She's Galra, so yes."

"Akira…" Ryo took in a deep breath. "I get the fact you don't remember mom because she wasn't in your life, but I do. She died two years before mom, and most definitely did not have purple skin."

"That…"

"Don't you dare tell me we've got a different mom than Takashi-nii, and don't you dare tell me I'm not your twin! You act like you're the only one who got hurt all these years, and yet you act like I'm not your brother!"

"Everyone in the family…"

"Takashi told you not to listen to what they said! He told you not to listen to the fact you're not dad's real kid, or that you're his illegitimate child! Yet you never listened! Do you know how much shit he put up with you? And yeah, that Lance person is right. You did hurt Takashi by denying the fact we're related."

"Shiro understood."

"Understood what!"

"When I found out I was Galra…" Keith watched Ryo place his hands over his head, letting out a frustrated sound. "… he told me it didn't matter whether we were blood related or not. That I even if I wasn't blood related, that I wasn't just like a brother to him. That I am his brother."

"How can you be so dense?"

The red paladin could see out of the corner of his eye, that everyone else was looking on, unsure of what to say. "Wh…"

"Don't. It does matter."

"I've already got the fact you don't think of me as a brother Ryo. You're the only one whose got a problem with me being blood related or not."

"No. What I have a problem with is the fact you've bought into the lies everyone's been telling you, that you aren't blood related to us when you are. I have a problem that you are unable to grieve for Takashi because you refuse to believe he's dead because, for you, it hurts to much. I have a problem that you think our mom's an alien because it is a convenient way to explain away all of your issues that everyone in the family rags you on."

A silence fell over the room.

Only to be broken by Lance. "So, I'm confused. It seems like you actually care about Keith. But it also seems like you're the one in denial. See, we all know Shiro's alive. He was with us until a few days ago. And before you get all mad…" The blue paladin pulled out his phone. "We took a picture together. A few actually."

Lance showed Ryo the picture, and Keith watched the color drain from his face. "And mom is an alien. The blade she left me…"

"Akira! Our mom doesn't have purple skin."

"Yeah…" Lance narrowed his eyes. "Galra have purple skin. And Keith told us that you can only activate that if you've got Galra blood running through you."

"Actually…" Allura piped up, her voice sounding sheepish. "Remember how I said there was something I needed to confir with Kolivan on? I did, and that's what I wanted to talk to you about. Privately I might add. But since it's come to this…" Allura took a deep breath. "You're actually not part Galra."

Keith heard Ryo breath a sigh of relief, and yet he felt his world was once again falling apart. "Wait. Kolivan said…"

"Cool. Anybody can activate a blade of Mamora."

His heart continued to sink. He was losing himself, yet again.

"Actually, no. I never said that."

"Allura…" Keith's throat tightened.

"Then what? I mean, it's not as if…" Lance's eyes narrowed. "Oh quiznack."

"What?" He still didn't know.

Hunk's eyes widened. "Yeah, but how did you figure out that Keith was Altean and not Galra before Ryo said something about their mom's skin not being purple?"

"That…" Allura's voice froze. "That's kind of private."

Ryo glared at her. "What's an Altean?"

"Allura's Altean." Pidge piped up

"Fuck." Another bad word came from Ryo's mouth.

"You know, I'm still not following."

"Kolivan's determined both Altean's and Garla can activate the blade. It's kind of, information that got lost over ten-thousand years or so."

Keith watched Ryo continue to curse under his breath. "Yeah, but…"

"Our mom actually is an alien."

"But I'm part Galra."

"I think their minds explouded." Pidge piped up.