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Keith was crying. Tears poured endlessly from his eyes. They rolled down his battered and bruised face and landed soundlessly on the cold metal floor. The salty substance mixed with his blood. His body shook with every pitiful sob that fell from his face. Moving only made it worse. He was in pain. So much pain .
He, Shiro, and Lance were all on an important mission to infiltrate the Galra’s main headquarters. They had word that Zarkon was building a new super robot that could rival Voltron. The idea sounded extremely farfetched until they remembered he had worked on their machine himself. And after hearing more accounts of the same strange claim, they were willing to risk going in. Hunk and Pidge had stayed back at the castle for escape, outside assistance, and to monitor the inside. If anyone was able to jam and hack into the high security Galra cameras, it would be them. The entire plan started off successfully; not a single guard had caught them thanks to mission control’s careful guidance. They had even made it inside the hanger without a hitch. No such robot was found. As they talked it over though, they considered that the plans for the contraption may be in the system. Not wanting to leave any stone unturned, they made their way towards the tech room. The halls remained eerily quiet.
Everything went to hell when they entered the room.
The door was locked behind them, and then every device turned off. Every device. The lights, the computers, Keith was sure the air supply must have turned off as well. Worried, but still mostly calm, the three of them tried to contact Hunk and Pidge back at the castle. The two had simply replied that they would work on it. With that, they pondered how they could get out of the room. Before long though, their world was turned upside down. The door had reopened, and the paladins were face to face with Haggar herself along with a small army Galra soldiers. Caught off guard, they were powerless against them all. In a matter of minutes, they were all knocked unconscious and taken captive.
Keith had awoken to the sounds of someone calling his name. The voice was low and threatening. It was breathy and reminded him of the sound of a normal Earth plane taking off. His eyes fluttered open, and he found the owner of the voice to be a Galra elite. He seemed to be one of Zarkon’s associates; he wasn’t in the typical armor of a common soldier. Attempting to pounce on him, he found himself unable to move. He was standing with his back flat against a wall, his wrists, ankles, neck, and waist all clamped tightly to it. His bayard was no longer on his person, and every small move he made was rewarded with a painful shock. The room he was in seemed small, but perhaps that was simply because of the two large columns in the center.
“ Keith Kogane. ” He drawled. The alien paced back and forth across the “You were the last of your small force to taken by our forces. Because of that, we have allowed you live. Your two comrades, however, will not be so lucky.”
In shock, he frantically thrashed against his holds, electricity running through his body. Despite his vocal chords being already fried, he strained himself to speak against him. “N-no!... You’re not going to do that. You’re not going to kill them. I won’t let you.”
The Galra man just sighed and rolled his eyes, “Well… Yes and no. You’re right. We’re not killing them.”
Keith sighed in relief.
“We’re only killing one of them.”
“NO.”
He chuckled darkly, “Yes! And you’re choosing who…” He walked to a control panel on the wall and pressed a few buttons. Behind him, the two columns which previously confused him, were now becoming less opaque and more transparent. It was revealed that they were hollow, and inside was Lance and Shiro, both in their respective tubes. Each of Keith’s teammates were calling out to him. At least, he thought so. Despite being seeing their mouths move, he couldn’t hear them.
As his eyes shifted from Lance to Shiro, both of them pulled a different sort of emotion from his heart.
His gaze first landed on Shiro. His face was red as he desperately banged on the glass. He shouted, and yelled, and screamed. He kept slashing at the glass with his Galra arm, but to no avail. The man seemed hungry for blood, similar to what he must’ve been like in the ring. Keith knew better though. Shiro was always calm to him. He’d never be this outwardly angry. He could see it in his eyes, he was scared. Not just for himself; he was scared for Keith as well. Maybe even more so than for himself. He noticed his eyes were glassy, and there were small streaks of tears in his eyes.
He made Keith feel guilty. If he got hurt, the red paladin could never forgive himself. His death would weigh over his head for years.
Then, he looked over to Lance.
He… He was breaking Keith’s heart. He was on his knees, his forearm resting above his head, leaning on the glass, his forehead lying on that. His other arm seemed tired as it simply tapped the glass. The blue paladin must have been doing that for so long; Keith could see the heavy rise and fall of his chest. That also may have been attributed to him wailing and crying for who knows how long. Lance was trembling, and Keith could see countless tears falling, much like his own.
After staring at the two for so long, he looked back to the Galra. He said nothing. In reply, the wicked man just smiled a toothy grin. He pressed yet another button on the wall.
Now, Keith could hear their calls.
“KEITH. KEITH, WE GOTTA’ GET OUT OF HERE PLEASE, WHAT IS HAPPENING?!”
“Keith… Damnit Mullethead listen to me…”
The red paladin stammered out a weak response, “G-guys!... I-I… GUYS!” Both of them paused. Their eyes went from Keith to each other. Everyone could be heard now. He was trapped in an internal battle against his two selves. There was a part of him back on earth, his only piece of mind being Shiro. Then, there was the rest of him still here in space, with his first love, Lance.
The alien explained the situation. “Well, Gladiator, I’m glad you asked. Keith here is going to have to choose one of you to die ,” he then turned to Keith himself and said, “No funny business. You can’t choose yourself or you all die.”
“ Choose me .”
He locked eyes with Lance. “W-what?...”
The Cuban boy smiled. “I’m going to die for you.”
“Lance… No, you just can’t do that!”
“You were going to choose me anyway...”
“I…” Keith wasn’t going to try and fight against that statement. He knew that the black lion’s bond was incredibly important to the team and a compatible paladin would be heard to come by. The blue lion bonded very easily in comparison, and in the space war’s arms race, time wasn’t on their side. New bonds can’t be formed so easily.
“Keith?”
“What?...”
“Just… Don’t watch. I don’t want… Whatever to be the last thing you see of me.”
“...Okay.”
The Galra just clapped his hands together in delight, as if this was some interesting show for him. “I take it we’ve made our decision?”
Keith gave Lance one last gaze. “I love you,” he whispered. Then, crying more than he was before, he nodded and closed his eyes and counted to one hundred. When he opened them, Lance’s column was dark once again.