Chapter Text
“Nope, no, you, no, no, no, no you don’t. I’m saving Shiro!” He yells, shoving the cot to the side to help the older man.
“Who are you?” This guy already had his arm around Shiro and was working to get him standing. He was wearing an awful cropped jacket that needed to be burned at the stake.
“Who am I? Uh, the names Lance?” Those eyes stared back at him in confusion as Lance supported Shiro’s other half. “We were in the same class together at the Garrison?”
“Really? Were you like an engineer?” He asked, still confused on what Lance was rambling about.
“No! I’m a pilot! We were like rivals! You know, Lance and Keith, neck-and-neck.”
“Oh, I remember now. You’re a cargo pilot.”
“Not anymore, I’m a fighter class now thanks to you dropping out.”
A small laugh fell from Keith’s lips halting Lance from saying anything further. “Dude what are you laughing about?” Lance’s eyes narrowed in suspicion as the other teen continued to quietly laugh. Suddenly, the background began to fade away in to a black mass. Shiro was gone and all lance could see was Keith standing in front of him.
“I didn’t drop out.” He smiled over at Lance. A pool of blood started to form under the hem of his jacket, growing bigger. Lance was frozen in his spot, trying to back up from his current spot. He couldn’t breathe like walls were collapsing in on him.
“I was killed.”
The black void narrowed and Lance’s vision tunneled, a direct shot on Keith whose small smile remained untouched.
“You of all people should know that.”
The room collapsed and all Lance felt was pain.
++
“Lance? Laaannnce?”
The teen grumbled in response.
“Seriously Lance? Get up.”
He felt around his surroundings to the best of his ability, he was laying on something cold and hard. It hurt his joints and his head throbbed a little.
The floor.
He fell on the damned floor.
“I swear Lance, first I have to wake you up and second you are sprawling on the floor like a child. Get up, you’ve got school.”
“Yeah yeah,” He says sitting up from the cold floor. A light kick to his back motivated him to stand on his feet and stretch, feeling his tense muscles slowly relax. In a hurricane of hurry, the brunette threw on his signature outfit, or so he liked to call it, grabbed his uniform and sped down the stairs. Melody sat at the small kitchen table nursing an oversized cup of coffee as Lance scurried around for his bag.
“Your shoes are in the closet.” She mumbled to her frantic brother. He yelled a quick thanks and threw them on, laces undone, and ran outside in time for Pidge to be frantically honking the horn from the passenger side with a sympathetic Hunk in front of the wheel.
“Sorry about that dude!” Hunk apologizes while Lance tied his shoes in the back, “Pidge was getting impatient and we were going to be late.” He kicks the car into gear and heads on route.
As Hunk carefully maneuvered down the road, and Pidge seemed fully invested in his thermos that probably contained a sick combination of coffee and red bull. That guy had weird methods to staying awake after pulling unconventional all-nighters.
“Ok guys, guess what.” Lance started.
“We’re going to be late? Yeah probably.” Hunk responded. Pidge followed with a smirk, “Iverson got so fed up with you breaking shit all the time that you were kicked out of the Garrison?”
“What? No, no, no, Pidge. What the hell!”
The smallest just shrugged and took a drink, “You told me to guess and that was the best I could think of.”
Lance brushed it off with a quick glance in the review mirror at a sympathetic Hunk. “No, what I was trying to say was do you guys remember Keith?”
“Oh! The ghost that we tried tracking down last year? I forgot about that.” Pidge exclaimed looking slightly more engaged in whatever Lance had to say. Whether it was the poisonous concoction waking him up or the mention or paranormal, Lance couldn’t tell.
Hunk nodded in agreement, “Didn’t we come to the conclusion that we were all going crazy? I remember vividly how freaking that was, especially for you Lance. That guy messed you up.”
“Ok I’ll admit, not my greatest moments.”
“You have a lot of ‘not great’ moments.”
“Pidge I’m trying to tell a story here!”
“Then do it!” Lance sighed heavily, Pidge loved toying with the edge of his sanity. How this group managed a year together was a miracle feat.
“So as I was trying to say,” He continued with the newly found attention of his friends, “You guys remember Keith, obviously, but I had a random dream about him last night.”
“I don’t want to know about your weird closeted ghost fetish Lance.” Complained Pidge. Hunk tried to cover up his laughter at the comment but failed in the long run. Exasperated, Lance continued throwing his hands up in disbelief. “Guys no! It was actually really dark!”
“Oh lord I want to know even less now.”
“Pidge oh my god can you not for once- actually never mind. I’m done! That was my story!”
“It was a good story Lance!” Hunk cheered, glancing back at the annoyed teen in the back.
“Thanks buddy.” He mumbled.
……………..
Class started normally for their group. They did a basic re-run of safety procedures, endured lectures and finally were permitted to be in the simulator again. Weary glances were taken at the group as they entered the aircraft.
“Don’t fuck this up again Lance, Iverson already hates us enough as it is.” Pidge warned as he took his respective seat.
“Hey, I’ve gotten a lot better! Just you watch, there will be no casualties this time.”
“Woah, wait, there were casualties before?! Dude what did you do!?” Yelled Hunk.
“Metaphorical casualties my man, this will be a perfect trial run and then Iverson can finally get off my ass. Alright team, you ready?”
The screens glowed, a countdown materializing onto the screens. Five, four, three, two one…
“SIMULATION START”
…
Within 20 minutes the team was stumbling out of the simulation ship, Lance with a wide smile, proud of his accomplishments. For once, he hadn’t crashed the ship, nor had he made any major flaws. The flight was rocky but Iverson had already dubbed that as his flight style. The rest of the crew was just happy they made it out alive witch was demonstrated by Hunk stumbling out and kissing the floor only to real back in disgust. Pidge got a good laugh out of that.
“Good job team!” Lance cheered once they had received their debriefing of the flight and had entered the Garrison halls.
“Yeah, good job Lance. We successfully completed a simulation on stuff we are going to be doing constantly in the future. It only took us- oh let’s see… way too long?” Pidge sassed receiving a small shove from the taller teen that the two laughed at.
“Oh!” Pidge piped again, “Congrats to Hunk for not throwing up this time!”
“Yeah dude, you deserve an award.” Lance agreed, jumping in front of the group and walking backward to get a better look at the pair.
Hunk scoffed with a smile, “Well with your piloting skills I kind of have to adapt.”
Lances face fell causing Pidge to let out a screech of a laugh, “Damn that’s rough buddy.” He laughed. Lance directed his glare at Pidge while Hunk did all he could to keep from laughing. To Lances demise The gremlin continued his onslaught- “I mean, I would feel bad for whoever’s piloting group you end up with in the future, but we’ll probably be the team you end up with because wishing your piloting skills on anyone else is a little too cruel for me.” He laughed.
“Oh come on Pidge!” He wined, “I’ve gotten so much better since the beginning of the year.”
“Well there’s some improvement, not that it would be noticeable on any charts…”
Lance fumed and Hunk just had to laugh before getting between the two, “Hey, hey, clam down you too. Pidge you are being overdramatic, Lance yes you have improved quite a bit. There we go problem solved right?”
“Pidge is mean.” Lance pouted as the team turned a corner.
“Wow and I thought I was the child here!” Pidge gapped.
“Hey!”
“Guys can we not do this again? It just ended not even ten seconds ago-“
Bang! Bang Bang!
The groups heads whipped around at the sudden noise. Screams came from down the hall as they looked around frantically for the source of the noise.
Students started down the halls in a flurry of panic, nearly trampling the stunned group. Quickly the three came to their senses and ran with the crowd towards the exits.
“What was that?” Lanced yelled through all the noise.
“I think they were gun shots!”
“They were gunshots? Is the school under attack? This is bad, this is very bad!” Hunk yelled in to crowd, Lance grabbed onto his sleeve to help drag him through the chaos, Pidge and his small stature running ahead.
Red lights activated and the annoying screech of the school’s alarm went off, someone pulled the fire alarm to warn students to exit the buildings. The lights and the siren just added to the flurry of noise already being emitted from the student’s movements and scared voices. Students shoved though the hallways and Lance could just barely make out Shiro trying to direct traffic in the narrow space. Hunk stalled quickly to help someone up who had been trampled and the group continued to flee with the masses.
Ultimately with all of the chaos and shoving going on students piled up at the doors making it nearly impossible to move. Pidge had been lost in the swarm of students, he’d probably scrambled to the front of the mess at the first chance he got. Hunk was behind Lance by a dozen people, either he was shoved back or Lance was moving faster than he thought. Either way, as long as they all got out it was ok.
More students started to step up try to create order, but only when Shiro’s voice boomed through the hallway did things start moving. Thank god for that man’s natural leader voice, he was truly a life saver.
Finally, the congestion of students dissipated and Lance emerged from the building in one piece. Despite that stoke of good news, everyone was still scrambling for their lives. The teen didn’t even get a chance to look back for Hunk before he was shoved forward, almost knocked over by the terrified students.
He soon found himself running. Running and blocking out all noise while his breathing intensified and the screams faded. His feet stomped through the mud, slipping and sliding around the slick dirt threatening to topple him. The only moment he realized his shoes were untied was when he finally took the moment to breathe again.
Lance looked up and scanned his surroundings, breathing heavily from the previous exertion. He was on the side of the street, a safe distance from the school along with a few other students. Some were calling the police while others were pacing and freaking out. One kid had taken to drop herself onto the floor and cradle her head in her hands near Lance. A few quick steps led Lance by her side and he dropped down into a crouch beside her.
The words halted in his throat as the girl’s body was wracked with soft sobs. His eyes widened and in a fit of weakness he completely slumped to the ground and placed a gentle hand on her back. In less than a second the girl was in his arms and crying openly into his shoulder. Lance did his best to calm the girl down but he knew with something like this it was way easier said than done. He rubbed slow circles into her back and gently shushed her as best as he could. Only when his phone started vibrating did Lance notice his own tears cascading down his face.
“Lance where are you?” Pidge’s voice statically asked through the phone. He seemed exhausted and his voice was laced with fear.
“Lance?? C’mon please respond for the love of fuc-“
“Yeah,” He coughed, “I’m here.” Pidge audibly let out a sigh of relief and possibly even a small laugh. “Are you ok? Where are you?” He interrogated.
“Yeah I’m ok.” Lance sighed, “Just the shock is getting to me” He added, his eyes drifting to the girl leaning into his shoulder. She seemed to have calmed down a whole lot. “I’m alongside the road about a half mile from the school. Not a great location but we’ve got a full view if anyone suspicious comes at us from it.”
“Well at least you can move.” Pidge groaned. “A couple kids and myself went into a shop and now we’re on full lockdown until the police get to the school or something like that. I’m practically immobile right now.”
“Seriously? Do you know how long you’ll be locked in?”
“Nope. Apparently the manager had gotten a call along with a lot of other places in the area that something had happened. At this rate we just have to wait it out.”
“Mhm.” Lance agreed.
“Oh and also, please tell me that you didn’t lose Hunk.”
“Uh, I’m working on it.”
“Jesus fucking Christ Lance.”
Lance hung up the phone and helped the to her feet, she stood wobbly and she looked like a mess. Her eyes were puffy, as per typical of someone who’s been crying, and she overall just looked… scared. Lance kept his hands positioned on her biceps to try and keep her stable as she struggled to stand correctly.
“Are you ok?” He had hesitated to ask at first, but there really wasn’t anything else to ask. He had to go find Hunk but he wasn’t heartless enough to leave this girl in a sobbing mess on the street. She looked up at him with fierce blue eyes that were brimmed with tears. Not even a moment later they were running down her face again. Lance looked at her in shock. Again? He understood that this was a horrible situation and he wanted to take as much time as he could to help the girl, but he also needed to find Hunk!
“Yeah, yeah. I’m ok.” She huffed wiping her face on her sleeve. “Go find your friend, I can get a ride.”
“You sure?”
“Yep.”
“Like, absolutely sure.” She pursed her lips, “How many times do I have to say it?”
“Alright, alright!” Lance conceded, “I didn’t want you to think I was an ass for just leaving you.”
“Well there’s not much you can o about me! So go find your friend. I’ll wait with these other kids for the police to come.”
After a little more fussing, a habit he picked up a long time ago when someone was distressed, he found himself running down the street. Not too far from the main road was the town where most of the students had fled to. Wracking his brain for a moment, he realized he hadn’t heard anymore gun shots. For the moment he really couldn’t tell if that was a good thing or a bad thing. The guy could have been caught and everything would be alright, or he fled and is still on the loose. Or her… you never know now days. The stores nearest to the schools seemed vacant, probably filled with students who had fled initially.
His heart suddenly clenched as his brain finally process what had just happened. He stopped dead in his track as cars kept rolling by as if nothing had ever changed. There had just been a shooting at his school, another one. His brain fed him that last piece making him shudder. Damn it, when did this happen before? Like six years ago? He found a bench on the side walk and threw himself in it and cradled his head in his hands while his brain worked double time to sort out the jumbles mess that was his thoughts.
A shooting had happened six years ago. A shooting had happened today. Was anyone killed today? He wasn’t sure and he didn’t want to find out in fear of a high number. He had only heard three gun shots but maybe more went off. Maybe there was more than one shooter and they were taking on the school together. A morbid thought but it happens. Keith’s name was rolling around in his head at that thought. Was there two shooters six years ago?
No, No, No, there wasn’t. God, why can’t he get Keith out f his head today? The intelligent part of him had reduced the mention of Keith down to a joke. For about the past year Lance and his friends had just played it off as a ploy for attention. A part of him had latched onto the notion that Keith never existed, and that part was the one that was struggling at the moment.
Isn’t your brain supposed to go haywire when tragedy strikes? Because that was the only thing Lance could think about at the moment.
“Lance!”
A sudden voice snapped Lance out of his thoughts. Blinking rapidly, he shifted his eyes from the ground over to where a familiar face was approaching. At the sight of Hunk, he sat up so fast he got minor whiplash. Grimacing in pain, he got up and the two boys embraced like it was the end of the world. It could have been that day, or at least for them.
“Lance where were you? I got shoved behind by the crowd but Professor Shiro helped me and some other kids out. Pidge totally disappeared, is he alright?”
“Yeah Pidge is doing fine.” Lance breathed, unlatching himself from the hug and stuffing his hands into his coat pockets. “I got a call from him not too long ago saying that he was stuck in a store that was put on lockdown. It’s probably the best place to be right now.”
“I’d love to be somewhere with locked doors.” Hunk wined.
Lance looked at his best friend quizzically, “But what if the shooter guy was in there with you?”
Hunk froze, “No! No, Lance how could you put that thought in my head!?”
“Sorry! It just came up!”
“Not cool bro. Not cool.” Hunk mumbled. He looked like he was going to continue to talk, but then he instead looked Lance up and down and quirked his eyebrow in confusion.
“Hey Lance, you ok? What’s up with this stance.”
The other teen looked back at Hunk with equal confusion. “You just, seem different.” Hunk said, assessing his friend, “Like, I know we just went through some rough stuff but did you see anything the rest of us didn’t?”
“Anything else… no not really. I was helping this one girl and she was really distressed so maybe it just transferred to me.” He offered with a fake smile. Hunk wasn’t convinced but he let the topic go. The two texted Pidge and came to the conclusion that they should just head home. The moment that Pidge got out of lockdown he would tell them in order to keep Hunk from worrying too much. Alongside that Melody received word of the shooting and demanded Lance to get back as soon as possible. She was horrified by the call, as many parents were, and only moments after Lance hung up his phone did Hunks family call.
The walk home was quiet.
The second Lance got past the door way he was enveloped by Melody who instantly started fretting about him. He accepted the affection with open arms and answered all of her questions. Apparently her friend who worked near the school had heard first of the issue and called her. She was close to tears after Lance relayed the entire story. His face remained a pained sort of neutral though and Melody could see that. She quickly let him retire to his room where he flopped down on the bed and shoved his head into the pillows.
He flipped over and his eyes wondered over to the Christmas lights sweeping from the bedroom ceiling. How did those get there again? He didn’t remember the struggle of having to put them up… but he did remember unwrapping them from his mattress?
Oh wait.
That was Keith.
Lance sat up carefully and rested his chin in his hands, hunched over and looking at the room. This used to be Keith’s room. Keith was a ghost who was shot in a school shooting and died later after nothing could be done. He lived in this house, used this room, lived here for years of living and five years of death. And then Lance came along and what did he do?
Nothing.
Lance rubbed his eyes. There was no way that Keith didn’t exist. Lance had witnessed the chaos of the mangled room on the second day he was here, he had seen the ghost pop up out of nowhere. He remembered Keith’s soft smile and eye rolls at Lances questions. Lance could almost picture Keith sitting in the window seat reading a book that Lance would never pick up again in a million years. Keith existed in this room. He was here
Where was he now?
School had been cancelled until further notice giving all the students of The Garrison time to calm down. There were apparently some casualties but nothing absolutely major, in that sense, no one died. There was rumor of three students in the hospital due to wounds, but only two were from the actual shooter. The other kid ended up getting trampled in the stampede and was currently being treated for a concussion.
Pidge was let out of the locked down store after the police had taken the shooter into custody. According to the article Lance was getting all his info from there was two shooters. One was arrested while the other had previously shot themselves shortly after the police arrived on campus. Pidge had told him that actions like that weren’t uncommon, but it still made Lance sick.
No one was expected to be cheerful after a stunt like that being pulled, but Lance was admittedly more distressed about a situation that happened years ago. After all this time he was still hung up on Keith.
There were so many questions that needed to be answered and there was no way for Lance to get those answers. It was hard enough to get people to believe him before, but now he had no viable proof. Well, not that it was viable proof before, but at least he knew where Keith was.
Lance’s eyes raked around the room and he investigated every corner. A frown ghosted his face when he took in the clean, pillow throne free, window seat. He had taken it down a couple months after Keith disappeared. He barely even recalled why it was there back then, now those memories were the only thing he could remember.
He was sure if he brought this up to someone else that they’d just call him crazy again. Pidge would probably find some scientific evidence that trauma can lead to uprooting forgotten memories that caused similar terror, and if he did that then Lance would have no chance in winning.
Keith had never brought him to rock bottom, Lance did that himself.
He did it himself…
“Fuck.”
“Holy fuck I am such an idiot.” Lance whined, slowly sinking to the wooden floor of the room. The floor was cold and the walls were warm, a weird anomaly but Lance’s hands were occupied by pulling at his own hair. He didn’t give way to anything else besides the thoughts running through his head.
Keith disappeared after Lance talked to Shiro about him.
That night Lance vaguely recalled falling into a restless and distressed sleep and the next morning Keith was gone.
Through finding that out his former ghost had disappeared, apparently he just snapped.
He had snapped…
He really was a fuck up, wasn’t he?
Maybe this was how things were supposed to be? Lance fought through the barrage of feelings flooding his soul.
Keith wasn’t coming back.
Maybe he was never here to begin with?
Maybe it was time to face the facts, and move on.