What do you do when you want to read a novel-length story for your OTP with everyone IC and can't find one? You write one, of course! I am using the prompts from Day 19 of whumptober to Day 31 to start off this multi-chapter. The prompts used in this first chapter are "I'll take one final step, all you have to do is make me.", 'Psychological' and "I'm not as stupid as you think I am." This story is how I would write season 8 of Voltron.

1. Retrace

Keith did not want to be here. He did not want to be here fighting his brother again – but messing with the darkness had consequences as they had come to learn and while he didn't blame Allura because Honerva's offer had been so strong, he had lost them both now. Whilst he had never told the princess this, she meant more to him than words could define. But standing in front of his brother who was glaring at him as if he did not recognise the person he was hurt more than he could let on right now.

But he couldn't show weakness. He was the leader of Voltron. Earth had been invaded a second time and this time, by a more powerful force than Sendak. Honerva – someone who had taken off from Lotor using the Alteans for her own personal gain and her Robeasts could mind control from what it seemed because Allura was smarter than this. Shiro was smarter than this and he remembered what happened as if it had only happened yesterday.

"You're all exhausted, fighting a war that was never meant to be yours if we had come to an agreement," Honerva spoke, gazing upon the people of Earth before her gaze stopped on the Blue Paladin who was glaring at her, her fists clenching as her entire body tensed. "And you, princess. Aren't you tired of fighting this war for a family you've already lost? What if I told you surrendering to me means getting them all back? That you won't have to live without them anymore?"

Allura scowled. "Like I would believe anything you said to me, witch. You're a monster who turned your back on your own people. On our people."

"I am doing this for our people," Honerva retorted. "Alfor wanted to keep his knowledge, his powers to himself, when we could use this power to rule. Zarkon was more intelligent. But I'm willing to forgive Alfor. I'm willing to give him a second chance. I can't do it alone though; I need your quintessence for it too. Will you help me bring your family back?"

"Don't lie to her," Coran cut in. "Princess, you know she isn't telling the truth."

"But what if I am?" Honerva retorted. "Are you going to hold her back?"

Honerva had not been telling the truth. The moment Allura had accepted her offer, why she wouldn't know, Shiro had collapsed, and the princess had disappeared. Keith still was not sure where the princess was currently, but she was alive – whether that was a lie he was telling to convince himself or the truth, he was going to believe it. Besides, it was not like they didn't have bigger problems to worry about.

"Shiro, please," Keith's voice cracked. Heat radiated off the ground but surprisingly, they weren't on a volcano. They were on Earth still, the ground cracked and lava coming out of the ground. Their Paladin suits protected them somewhat, but many residents of Earth had been burnt alive by the lava already. He stepped closer and Shiro raised his sword, but he wasn't afraid.

"You need to give up, kid," Shiro's voice was gruff, almost robotic as he spoke. "The brother you loved is dead."

Keith shook his head. "I'll never give up on you. I'll take one final step towards you, Shiro. You just have to make me. You just have to ask me, and I'll save you from her. She's doing this, she's the one turning you against us."

Shiro blinked but there was no recognition in his eyes and Keith flinched. His brother, the brother he loved didn't know who he was. The girl that meant the world to him had disappeared and he had no concrete evidence on whether she was dead or alive. He was failing as a leader – he knew this role was not meant for him, it never had been. He had been kidding himself to even try it in the first place.

Hunk placed a hand on Keith's shoulder. "I don't think this is going to work. And we don't want him to burn us down like he did to Earth, right?"

Shiro laughed and the chilling laugh sent chills down Keith's spine, but he didn't move until his brother spoke.

"He's right, you know," Shiro said calmly. "I know you're stupid about your belief in your brother but are you going to get them all killed? You've already lost Allura and failed as the leader of Voltron. How much more do you want to fail?"

If anyone else said these things, Keith would have ignored them. But hearing the one person who always believed him say that – an odd sort of fire burned in him. No, no, he wouldn't allow this to happen. He had saved his brother once from this witch and he would save her again. Patience yields focus. He didn't want to leave his brother here and just give up. He knew that would just make her more satisfied that they were not able to bring Shiro back.

But if there was one thing he had learnt from all their fights and from his brother as a leader was that stepping back did not mean that you had lost. It simply meant that you wanted to fight the battle on your own terms. He stepped back and glanced over at the lions.

"I'm not as stupid as you think I am," Keith said simply. "You can have this victory, Honerva." He stepped back and Black flew towards him, opening her mouth and letting him in. He sunk into the seat and while his heart was racing as he saw his team pull back next to him, he knew this was the right decision to make.

If it was him alone, he would have stayed there until he took Shiro back with him, but he had already lost one friend and team member, he would not put them all at risk due to what he wanted.

"Let's go," he said to the others. "We can continue this fight another day."

Lance could tell this was not an easy decision for Keith – given how close he and Shiro were but this was not a good position for them to be in either way. They didn't know where Allura was, Honerva had taken over practically everywhere and Shiro was under her control. In their time as Paladins, the situation had never been worse so really, it was the only decision that could be made. How had they ended up in this mess again?

One minute, they had been fighting the battle with Sendak and managed to defeat him, the next they were fighting a crazy powerful Robeast which even with the Atlas backing them up, they lost. Why hadn't Honerva just ended their lives? It certainly would have gotten them out of their way. But Shiro had always said this. She liked to mess with people – so she had preyed on Allura, using her to get to Shiro. Shiro…he wasn't even their friend anymore due to whatever Haggar did and he knew that was getting to Keith more than he was letting on.

"Mullet, are you ok?" Lance asked once the group had gotten a little further away from the volcanic area, which was most of Earth right now. Sure, he didn't mind it while he was in the Red Lion, but he knew it wasn't as easy for the other lions, especially when it came to fighting.

The group was lounging around Keith's shack as there was plenty of space to move around in the dessert and because the invasion had not affected it as much. If they wanted more space, they still had the Atlas, even though without Shiro, they could not get it off the ground. But small blessings did count – at least they had a proper place to sleep.

"I'm fine," Keith said, a little stiffly. "Besides, this isn't about me. Without the princess, we can't form Voltron." His voice broke off a little at the end, but Lance could not blame him for that.

It wasn't the same without Allura anyway even if they could form Voltron. Coran hardly spoke anymore and there was a quiet aura in the group that no one seemed to be able to get rid of. Pidge was always working and from the dark circles under her eyes, he knew that she was blaming herself not being smart enough to stop Honerva somehow. Hunk, who would have usually have a joke to lighten the mood was silent, staring out of his lion as they arrived back at the shack. As they all came out of their lions, Pidge spoke before anyone could go inside either the Atlas or the shack.

"I'm sorry," Pidge said causing everyone to stop. That didn't even make any sense, why was she sorry? She hadn't done anything wrong. He was about to speak but Keith beat him to it.

"What are you talking about, Pidge?" Keith asked. "You didn't do anything wrong."

Pidge shook her head. "All of you rely on me to have the logical solutions, to have the answer but Honerva outsmarted me. I failed. I couldn't help anyone in the end."

"It's not the end," Lance cut in before Keith could respond. "Come on guys, what's gotten into you? Look, there's no way to sugar-coat it. We're screwed. We can't form Voltron and Shiro's not on our side right now to encourage everyone. But we're still alive, aren't we? Mullet, you're our leader, do you think we've lost? That there's not much more we can do?"

Keith was quiet for a moment – and while Lance had come to know in the time they had been friends that the other had self-esteem issues, he didn't think they would be bad enough that he couldn't encourage them now. He had encouraged them all in the fight with the Robeast, after all. This was no different, right? Yeah, the odds were stacked against them, but they could still find a way to turn things around.

"Lance is right," Keith said softly. "There's a first time for everything."

"Oi," Lance retorted instantly although the relief was apparent on his face. If his friend was okay enough to be messing with him, then maybe things were not as bad as he thought they were.

Keith rolled his eyes before turning back to the team. "Back there, we could have stayed and tried to fight and force Honerva to release her hold on Shiro. I wanted to more than anything. But if there's one thing I've learnt from all of you and from Shiro is sometimes we have to pick our battles. We can afford to lose a battle. But we can't afford to lose the war. Pidge, you did nothing wrong. She just outsmarted us in one major fight and yeah, it costed us a lot, I won't lie. But we still have the war and I need you to win it. To bring Allura and Shiro back to us. I know we can do it if we're together."

Lance was glad that Keith had said this much because team morale was low with all that had happened and while it was understandable, it would not help anyone. Pidge's expression eased a little and she nodded.

"We will," Pidge said firmly. "I won't give up until we find a solution."

"That's the spirit," Lance added cheerfully, unable to help but grin. "Now, I don't know about you guys, but I'm pretty beat, so can we like go to the Atlas, go grab a shower and get something to eat first? I need to be at full strength if we're planning on winning this war."

Hunk chuckled. "Well, I can't argue with that. I'll cook once we all have a shower, since we could all use a break after all that. So, let's get going ok?"

Lance beamed, glad to hear everyone a little cheered up from before because they wouldn't be able to win a war if they believed they had lost already. Allura was counting on them to win, after all.