Chapter Text
Keith hadn’t been sleeping very well lately. Then again which Paladin could say they ever slept well these days? Zarkon was still a major threat to the universe and it was just harder and harder to push the Galra back. It felt like they were fighting a losing battle.
With a sigh, Keith headed back to that room. In that room it had a nice simulation of his solar system’s stars. It was nice to just lay down on his back and watch the stars. It was kind of comforting. He could have stayed there for hours as he switched between the Northern and Southern hemispheres.
Though his solitude wasn’t there for long. He heard someone laying down next to him and humming happily. “Hey Keith.” Said Lance. “Brooding again?”
“Just thinking.”
“About what?”
“Stuff.”
“What kind of stuff?”
“Fuck, you’re annoying.” Grumbled Keith. “I just want to watch the stars.”
“Okay.”
For the most part Lance was quiet, but just his presence there made Keith hyper aware of him. Over time Keith felt like he had grown close to the noisy blue paladin. He was loud, abrasive, annoying, but he was kind, compassionate, and caring. Over time, Keith had felt like he had a deeper connection with him, and he probably shouldn’t have all things considered.
“Hey, remember that thing I did in the training room?” Asked Lance.
“What? When you went and got a high score?”
“No, the incident.” Said Lance. “It’s been two Deca-Phoeb’s since then.”
“... Yeah, it has.” Keith didn’t like thinking about the incident. It was probably one of the worst things that had happened to the team. It made Keith’s stomach turn with how he handled it.
***
Allura had called all the Paladins in for training. Of course the princess was all bright and chipper as ever. “Glad to see you all made it in time. I know early morning training isn’t your favourite, but it’s time to train.”
Hunk yawned a little as he adjusted his breast plate. “Could we start after breakfast?”
“I agree with Hunk.” Muttered Pidge. “I need my space coffee.”
“You’re too young to be drinking coffee.” Said Shiro. “It stunts your growth.”
Pidge rolled her eyes. “Yeah, Like I can get any shorter.”
“Well actually...” Said Coran.
“Not now Coran.” Said Allura quickly. “We’re going to run some group simulations today. It will be fun. So all of you start warming up while Coran and I make it up to the control booth.” The two Altean’s head up to the control booth and Shiro clapped his hands to get their attention.
“Alright team. We’ll start off doing a little hand to hand combat. Time to pair up...” He looked at the group. “Hunk and Pidge, go over there. Lance and Keith, over there. Now remember, this is just a warm up. Nothing crazy. Got it?” The teens nodded and quickly split off.
Lance yawned a little as he stretched. “And of course Shiro pairs me with you… Man I wish I was paired with Hunk or Pidge. Unlike some people they know how to take it easy.”
Keith rolled his eyes. “Well unlike some people I actually take training seriously. We’re at war you idiot.”
“Who says I don’t take training seriously?” Asked Lance.
“Your complete lack of dedication for starters.”
Lance gasped in dramatic hurt. “Mullet! I am shocked! You think you’re the only one that-”
“Okay, go!” Called Shiro.
Before Lance could blink, Keith grabbed Lance and had him in a choke hold. Keith held him in place until Lance tapped out. Keith let him go and smirked. “Yeah. So dedicated.”
“You caught me off guard.” Grumbled Lance. “You won’t next time.” But Keith did again, and again, and again, and again. Lance was getting more and more frustrated each time he got pinned or put in a hold, having to tap out. Each time Lance kept getting frustrated, which made his moves sloppy. Which just made Keith smirk. Lance made this too easy.
After what felt like twenty minutes Shiro eventually called it off and everyone reconvened in the center of the room. Hunk and Pidge apparently had a relatively even session with Pidge managing to use her size against Hunk. Lance seemed very annoyed by this since he wasn’t able to pin Keith even once. Not Keith’s fault. Lance needed to get better.
Shiro looked like he was giving Lance sympathetic looks. It was dumb. Shiro couldn’t baby them forever. Especially some goofball. Lance needed tough love if he was going to survive in this war.
“Alright, everyone all warmed up?” Asked Shiro. The group begrudgingly agreed and Shiro gave Coran and Allura a thumbs up and Allura’s voice came over the speakers.
“Alright everyone. We’re going to be running a few new group simulations today.” She said. “These will test both your short range and long range attacks. You will need to work together to survive.”
“Right you are princess.” Said Coran happily. “Right let’s see… Ah, here’s one we haven’t done yet. It’s wave based. Just see how long you can all survive kind of thing. Sound good to you all?” Everyone agreed and Coran made a happy sound. “Alright, bayards out and here we go.” There was a few moments of silence before a robotic voice sounded out.
“Running simulation; SKPHL_V-TRON_VERSION1.5.. Running simulation in 3-”
Everyone took a fighting stance, except Lance. He just stood there in shock. “Lance, fighting stance.” Said Shiro quickly.
“2.”
“Did it just say version1.5?” Asked Lance in a quivering voice.
Hunk gave him a strange look. “Yeah? Why?”
“It’s not ba-”
“1.”
In an instant the group was surrounded by the training bots. The usual blue gems in their faces changed to red and they got swarmed. Normally if they got swarmed things would be okay. The robots were programmed to stun not go for the kill. However this training simulation seemed to be set to the highest difficulty.
Within seconds everyone was getting thrown around the room like rag dolls. There was a sick crack as Pidge and Hunk hit the floor. A blur of blue as Lance got launched into the air. Something black, more than likely Shiro, slammed into him and then Keith was thrown into a wall. His head bounced off the wall and the floor.
When Keith opened his eyes he was stepping out of a healing pod. Everyone else was standing around as Pidge was furiously typing through her laptop. Everyone was still banged up and bruised despite how long they were in the healing pods for.
“I can’t believe this happened.” Said Allura. “How could this have happened? Why was it set to the highest difficulty?”
“I don’t know.” Said Coran. “It was in the medium difficulty folder. It shouldn’t have been so high…”
“I’m sure we can figure this out.” Said Shiro. “Do you have anything yet Pidge?”
After a few seconds she sighed. “Okay, so good news, bad news. According to the time stamp this simulation exists in both the hardest and medium difficulties, which is good. It means it’s deliberate. Which is also the bad news.”
“How?” Asked Hunk.
“According to the time stamp the older one is in the hard difficulty, while the medium one is new. It was only saved in the medium difficulty folder yesterday.” Said Pidge. “In other words, someone deliberately moved the file.”
“It could have been an accident?” Suggested Lance. “Maybe it is a tech glitch?”
“Doubtful.” Said Pidge. “I’m going to look at the security feed to see who did it, if it was a person and not a glitch. Just have to look at the time stamp and find the right camera.”
Lance laughed nervously. “I don’t think you need to do-”
“Done!” Said Pidge as she hit play. Keith looked over her shoulder and was enraged by what he saw. He saw Lance walking into the control room, with not a care in the world. He spent a good hour inside the control room before he left. No one else entered the control room until Allura and Coran did earlier that day.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?!” Snapped Keith.
Lance jumped back. He looked like a deer caught in the headlights. “Whoa, slow your roll there Keith. I-”
“What were you thinking?” Asked Allura. “Why would you mess with Altean technology? You put the whole team in danger because of your stupid mistake! What if Zarkon attacked and you were all stuck in healing pods?”
“A-Allura I… I didn’t think that…”
Keith rolled his eyes. “That’s right. You never think! Why are you so fucking stupid? This fucking prank could have killed someone! Stick to your fucking guns and shitty pickup lines!”
Shiro put his hand on Keith’s shoulder. “Keith, that’s enough… Lance, this was really irresponsible of you. I don’t know why you thought this was a good practical joke but this was way over the line.”
“Practical joke?” Lance looked hurt and confused. “But it… I…” He looked defeated. Like a kid that got caught doing something wrong. “I’m sorry guys I… I don’t know what I was thinking… I’ll um… I’ll just go now…” He quickly left the room while everyone was left to question why the hell Lance would try and hurt them in such a stupid practical joke.
***
Lance laughed a little. “I got a concussion and dislocated my shoulder. It sucked balls man… Is that the Southern cross?” He pointed up at the projected stars.
Keith looked up and nodded. “Yeah. That’s the Southern Cross.”
“Yeah…” Lance sighed. “Man, when this is all over I want to lie back and watch the stars on a nice grassy hill.”
“...”
“When we get back to Earth want to do that with me?”
“Sure…” Said Keith quietly. “We’ll do that. Sounds fun.”
Lance grinned. “Awesome. I’ve always loved space. It’s just so… so big. I love it.”
“I know. You always say it.”
“Yeah… Are we almost at that planet Allura said we should get to if we have time?”
“Dotra?” Questioned Keith. “Yeah… We’re a quintant away.”
“Cool… You think they will tell us what the deal was with that nuleum crystal stuff?”
Nuleum. Keith hated that stuff. He wished the Galra never got that crystal. It was so dangerous. He didn’t know what they were thinking. It was so unstable. It was like someone gave a toddler a nuclear reactor, a hammer, and told them to go nuts.
***
A week after the incident Allura called everyone else to the bridge. The Galra were starting to invade a peaceful planet using some kind of new weapon capable of erasing entire cities off the face of the planet’s surface.
“It looks like they are using a nuleum crystal.” Said Coran. “Very fragile, highly unstable, but extremely powerful. It comes from a planet called Dotra over the other side of the universe. It’s extremely rare and highly valuable. It also has some really weird properties that we don’t really know about. Temporal shifts, spontaneous wormholes. Hence why it’s so unstable, but it’s also a very powerful energy resource.”
“What’s the best way to stop them?” Asked Shiro.
Coran thought for a moment. “Well if you destroy the nuleum the after shock should be enough to take out the main forces. It would be risky and you’d need to do this as a stealth mission of course. Get in, get out, blow up the nuleum.”
Shiro nodded as he quickly formulated a plan in his head. “Pidge, you think you can rig up some explosives or a virus to blow up the nuleum?”
“What do you take me for? A chump?”
“Good. Hunk, Lance, you and Pidge will stealth down in Green and take out the nuleum.” Said Shiro. “Keith and I will run a distraction. We’ll scramble their forces and lure them as far away as possible. We’ll try and give you guys as much time as possible. Everyone to your lions.” Everyone nodded and quickly broke away to their lions.
Over the past few days Lance had repaired his friendship with Hunk and Pidge. He was still working on being forgiven by Allura and Shiro, but knowing Shiro he’d probably forgive him completely after another day. Lance had made no effort to try and get Keith to forgive him. Did he just think Keith would roll over and forgive him if Shiro forgave him? That was bullshit. He wanted an apology from the stupid blue paladin too.
When they got to the hanger Pidge quickly ran off to grab a bomb from her workstation. Keith watched her go for a bit before he walked to his own lion. As he walked to Red he passed Lance and couldn’t help but hit him with a quick verbal jab.
“Hope someone doesn’t pull any more practical jokes while we’re doing this.” He didn’t see Lance’s reaction, but he knew the Blue Paladin heard him. Keith just climbed into Red and headed out into space to meet up with Shiro.
“Everything okay Keith?” Asked Shiro over the intercom.
“I’m just tired and frustrated with Lance. He’s always doing shit for no reason… Why can’t he take things more seriously?”
Shiro sighed. “Keith, there is more to the story than you think there is. Lance is-”
“Are we really going to talk about this now?” Asked Keith. “We’re about to swoop in and cause a huge distraction to like, what? Three Galra battleships or something? Let’s just get this done and I’ll talk to Lance later.”
“You promise?”
“Promise.”
Suddenly Pidge called in and Shiro quickly brought them into the call. “Everything set Pidge?”
“Yeah.” She said. “We have a timed bomb. Would have used a detonator, but considering the nature of the mission of getting in and getting out this seemed to be the better option. Plus I didn’t have a detonator on hand... We’re going to drop in on the starboard side of that ship. Since it’s a modified battleship it shouldn’t be too difficult to find the nuleum core.”
“Good work Pidge. Just in and out.” Reminded Shiro. “Nothing fancy, nothing dramatic. You ready?”
“Yes.” Called the three from the Green lion.
“Alright team. We all know what to do. Keith, let’s give them some cover.”
“You got it Shiro.” Keith patted the console. “Let’s give them hell, Red.” There was a slight rumbling deep inside his mind that comforted and encouraged him to move forward. Keith grinned and flew forwards towards the battleships at high speed. He fired his laser across the body of one of the ships and it was game on.
Keith was an adrenaline junkie. He knew that. He always had been. Being in a warzone was probably the best place for him anyway. He had nothing back on earth and wasn’t too fussed about going back there anyway. At least out here his reckless attitude could be used for some good.
He did a barrel roll as he dodged enemy fire and ripped through several enemy ships. It was fun. After a few more shots Keith had effectively taken down the guns on one of the battleships.
“You doing okay there Keith?”
“Yeah.” Keith was immediately hit and thrown off course. “Okay, first hit! You need any help?”
“No, I’m good. You need help taking down that ship?”
“No I’m good.” Keith quickly dodged and weaved around the gunfire. “I’m going to take this one down and then I’ll head over to you.”
“Okay… You have some people on your tail. I’m coming around.”
There was a series of explosions behind him. Shiro was pretty good at watching his back. “Thanks Shiro.”
The two of them managed to take down two of the three battleships before they headed over towards the ship that Hunk, Pidge, and Lance were on. When they got close to the ship it suddenly exploded.
The explosion was huge and the shockwave completely disabled every remaining Galra ship and knocked out the lion’s communications for a few seconds. Pidge quickly got everything back online and their lion’s were functioning again. Keith groaned and hit the control panel a few times to try and get it to work again. After the second hit everything lit up again and communications were back on line.
Shiro was the first one to speak. “Is everyone alright? What happened?”
“We’re fine.” Said Hunk. “We got separated from Lance before things blew up.”
“I should have done a remote detonation instead of a timer.” Muttered Pidge.
Keith frowned a little when he heard that. “Wait, you guys got seperated? Was Lance still on the ship when it blew up?!”
There was an awkward silence before the sound of Pidge and Hunk frantically hitting buttons filled Keith’s ears. “Lance? Are you there?”
“Come in buddy! This isn’t funny Lance! Pick up!”
“I got a signal!” Said Pidge. “Shiro, I’m sending you the coordinates! He’s closest to you! He’s not responding we need to get him back to a healing pod asap!”
“Got it. I’ll meet you guys back at the ship.”
Keith had a sinking feeling in his gut but returned to the castleship with the others. They stood around the hanger and waited for Shiro to come back to the ship with Lance. They waited… And waited… And waited some more. Everyone’s anxiety was quickly building the longer Shiro took.
Keith was starting to pace. That horrible sinking feeling was starting to get worse and worse. What if Lance was dying and Shiro was trying to save him? What if they couldn’t get him to a healing pod in time? What if he was… No. That wasn’t possible. He shouldn’t think about that stuff.
“What’s taking so long?” Asked Hunk. “You don’t think that something…”
“Shiro would have called us if that were the case.” Said Pidge.
“Right.” Said Coran. “Number one knows what he is doing. Besides, I have a healing pod all set and ready to go when they arrive.”
Suddenly the Black lion appeared and landed. But Shiro didn’t come out. Black didn’t lower her head and let Shiro out. She just sat there, still and motionless. Everyone was starting to freak out.
“Shiro!” Called Allura. “Let us in! We need to get Lance to a healing pod! Shiro! I’m ordering you to open up now!”
It took a few minutes before Black lowered her head and Shiro stepped out. He looked visibly shaken and like he had seen something horrific. He was shaking so badly it looked like he was going to fall over.
Allura stepped forward a little and walked over to him. “Shiro? Where is Lance?”
“Lance… He… He’s…”
***
Before Keith could finish that memory his communicator dinged. Allura wanted them all on the bridge now. He sighed a little and got up, straightening out his shirt. “I have to go now… I’ll see you later.”
Lance sighed and waved him off. “Go on, go. The Princess needs you… You know, I kind of find it funny.”
“What?”
“I told you I always wanted my brain downloaded into a giant ship and now that it is… It’s kind of sad.”
“... I know. Pidge did their best to reconstruct your memories and personality from vlogs and security footage.” Muttered Keith. “I-I’m so sorry…”
“Hey none of that.” Said Lance. “Keith, it has been two years. I know I’m just an AI and stuff, but I know that the real Lance would have forgiven you already. You don’t need to feel guilty anymore.”
Keith looked over at Lance again. He was smiling at him like nothing was wrong, and he looked perfect. A sixteen year old kid that hadn’t seen the horrors of the past two years as his AI had been restricted to the castle and more specifically this room.
“See you tomorrow Lance.”
“See you tomorrow Keith.”