Chapter 14:

Disconnecting

"Hold on, hold on, what?" Pidge exclaims, giving him the most incredulous look as she puts up a hand, as if to gesture for him to stop.

"That's what Coran said," Keith told her, again, "That he's Feyulja's man."

Pidge sputters, turning her head as her jaw opens and closes wordlessly. She raises her arms in a questioning motion and lowers them just as fast. Then, finally, it seems like her words find her and she shouts, "What the hell? How can he know that? This guy literally – and Keith, you believe him?"

"Well, yeah," Keith admits, even if he knows he can't really totally explain why. "Coran seemed pretty sure."

"I'm not talking about Coran," Pidge fires back. "And how do we know this guy isn't taking advantage of him? Coran and Allura lost everything, you know?"

Hunk watches the exchange in silent concern, half-perched on the workbench.

Lance, still in his pajamas and face mask, is slumped in the chair. He yawns and blinks blearily, desperately trying not to nod off. In his hands, his mug of Not-Earl-Grey tea teeters dangerously close to spilling all over the floor.

"He isn't," Keith tries to explain, rolling his eyes in frustration. "Kline's not like that, I know it."

"Oh my god, Keith," Pidge says, staring at him in pure and complete incomprehension. She throws out an arm, pointing at the door. "We have no idea who this – this Kline guy is! How can you just- what is wrong with you?"

"There's nothing wrong with me!" Keith snaps, defensively.

There's nothing wrong with him. There isn't. It's not his fault they don't get it. Even he doesn't get it, not totally anyway, but he knows he's not wrong: Kline is not a threat – at least, not to them.

"Look, you don't get it. You weren't there," Keith adds, turning away with a huff.

He pauses and, before he can even stop himself, he's saying exactly what he's thinking: "You know, maybe we don't know what's really going on here. I don't know, maybe we're just missing something? Something in the translation, something cultural - I don't know, whatever it is, but… What do we know – I mean, really know, about this war?"

Pidge sighs heavily, her head swaying with her as she rolls her eyes.

"Am I wrong?" Keith asks, with an exaggerated shrug.

"You do have a point," Hunk agrees. "We don't even know what set it off."

"Exactly," Keith says, emphatically, throwing up his hands. "That's what I'm saying! Coran said something about a blockade. Maybe we should have another crack at the Archives before we go running off and pointing any fingers."

"It's not pointing fingers if it's common sense, Keith," Pidge counters acidly.

"Do we really have to have this discussion?" Lance manages wearily, leaning forward.

"Apparently, yes," Pidge says, her lip curling in a sneer, "Since I'm the only one who thinks it's really suspicious that this guy's creeping around the Castle in the middle of the night and just happens to convince Coran he's a rebel spy. Nah, there's nothing suspicious about that at all. And, if he's really a rebel, why didn't any of the elders tell us before?"

Keith huffs, rolling his eyes. "I don't know, maybe they didn't know if they could trust us?"

Pidge drops her arms down in a single swooping gesture as she shouts, "We're the good guys, Keith!"

"You know, that's really kind of subjective," Hunk observes, immediately earning a glare from Pidge. He puts up his arms defensively, wincing apologetically. "What I mean is, maybe they didn't know we were for real, you know? They could have thought it was a Galran trick."

"We're not the Galra, though," Pidge says emphatically. "We wouldn't do that. We're nothing like them."

"Yeah, well, these survivors are part Galran, so…" Keith points out to both of them, deliberately trailing off and leaving where does that leave them unsaid.

Pidge makes a frustrated noise, rolling her eyes at him, and clarifies, "That's not what we meant and you know it. Our enemy is the Galran Empire."

Lance frowns, his eyes narrowing.

Hunk goes incredibly still, his eyes locking on the Blue Paladin, and that's all the warning they get before Lance is on his feet and shouting, with the thunder of surf in his voice and the light of Blue in his eyes: "No, Pidge, our enemy is Zarkon! And this? This war? Newsflash, it's called genocide! And, guess what, those people on that station? They were his people! He did this to his own damn people! Where have you been?"

Pidge stares at him, slack-jawed, and she's not alone – they're all staring at him in shock because Lance never goes off like this. Everything he'd said is like a stab to the gut, one that leaves Keith reeling and off-center.

"Am I really the only one who noticed? Really?" Lance demands, glaring at them each in turn.

No one says anything, far too stunned to respond.

Lance's lip trembles, his jaw working silently as if he wants to say something else but can't find the words, and then he suddenly turns away, stomping out of the hanger.

Keith watches him go, uncertain of what to do or even what to say. Helplessly, he looks back to Hunk and Pidge.

Pidge trembles, almost folding in on herself, and then she, too, runs off, in the opposite direction of the doors.

"What just happened?" Keith asks, at last, approaching Hunk.

Hunk opens his mouth and then closes it with a heavy sigh. "I don't know. I mean… it's not like we didn't know, you know? Just…"

Keith looks down, frowning a little. He suddenly feels queasy.

"No one wanted to say it," Hunk admits, running a shaky hand through his bangs. "Saying it makes it… more real somehow."

Keith raises his head, glancing at him, and he wants to tell him that it was real enough for the Alteans and the people of Gunfwe Praexhli, but the words die on his tongue as Hunk speaks again.

"And it's not like we could talk about it anyway, not with Allura and Coran hanging around, you know?" he adds. "I mean, we couldn't take away that hope from them."

Keith swallows hard, glancing away. The unsaid words still taste ashen and bitter on the back of his tongue, but Hunk's right: Keith has suspected, at least for a while, that this must have been what happened to the Altean people. But, with both Allura and Coran always near, it's been impossible to really voice that suspicion for fear of reopening an obviously painful wound for the both of them. Clearly, everyone else has also been struggling with that and, if Keith's being honest with himself, it's a pretty messed up position for them to be in. No wonder Lance went off like he did.

Worse, it is not like Keith isn't aware that he has on some level been trying to convince himself that maybe, maybe, the Alteans had been sent into hiding, like the Lions and the Castle, and were just scattered across the universe, waiting for Voltron to return. It's the sort of thing that always happens in the movies, after all.

If only, he thinks, if only that were the case. The reality is far harsher.

"I'll talk to Lance," Keith manages, finally.

Hunk nods, giving him a wan, grateful smile.

Keith turns away, heading for the doors, and palms the controls. They open, silently, and he steps into the hallway.

Lance hasn't gone far: he's sitting just outside and to the left of the doors, his back to the wall and his head in his hands.

Keith quietly sits down next to him.

After a moment, Lance mumbles in a creaky, scratchy voice, "Sorry. I just…" He pauses, sniffling loudly, and adds, "I don't know if I can keep doing this. I… I miss my family. I want to go home, Keith. I want to go home."

What do you even say to that, Keith wonders silently. Shiro would probably know. Shiro was always really good at this kind of stuff, whereas Keith just plain sucked at this crap.

"There's not going to be a home to go back to if we can't stop Zarkon," he settles on, at last. It's something he's always known, really, from the moment they found out what Blue had brought them into and it's no less true than it was then. If anything, the stakes are higher than ever.

Lance tilts his head, still cradling it in his hands, and shoots him a glance out of the corner of his eye. "You absolutely suck at this, mullet-brain."

"Well, bless your heart, Captain Obvious," Keith fires back.

Lance doesn't reply. He just sits there, next to Keith, still cradling his head in his hands. Then, after a while, slowly, he raises his head and pulls his knees up to his chest, resting his head on his knees. Finally, he asks, "Keith, what month is it? On Earth, I mean."

Keith draws in a deep breath, leaning back and looking up towards the ceiling as he struggles to remember. Time has a way of slipping away from you in the black. "I don't know, April, maybe?"

Lance croaks out a weak chuckle and sags backwards, staring up at the ceiling. "April. April. It's been that long?" he mutters, more to himself than anything. He draws himself back in tight and, after a moment, he quietly says, "They probably think we're dead, don't they?"

That's when Lance finally breaks down and cries.

Keith stares at him, lips parting in both surprise and horror. Where the hell is Shiro when he needs him, he wonders in a blind panic.

After a moment, Lance's sobs finally peter off into heaving breaths and he pulls his head up. His face mask is hopelessly smeared and no amount of the goop can hide how puffy and red his eyes are. He sniffles as he rubs his face, composing himself, and then looks Keith dead in the eyes. "This never happened," he says with absolute seriousness.

"Works for me," Keith says in relief.

In fact, if they never mention this again, it'll be too soon.

Notes:

Not-Earl-Grey tea is better than Not-Coffee by leaps and bounds. Also, it fights back a lot less.

Lance continues to be upset and everyone fails their perception check as to why - except Hunk.

This fic has no ships, except unless they are of the spacefaring kind. Pew pew pew.