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It was at the fault of the Quintessence, Keith was so sure of that now.
Now that everything had blown up in his face. Almost literally, in fact.
Team Voltron once again resided in Allura’s castle after their awful time apart. Keith had thought that, since he’d spent a lot of his time alone before the team had formed, he’d be fine on his own when they became separated. As he thought, Keith was just as capable surviving alone as he had done for the years he was cast out of the Garrison, and the years before that.
What Keith didn’t expect to feel on that tiny, desert planet was loneliness from the solitude. He missed the family that he had made and trained with. He was grateful that his time alone was pretty short, considering that Allura and Coran could have been months or years away from where he was.
They got Red back online, found the other Paladins in record time, and were recovering from not only the battle that had taken place weeks prior, but from their individual survival wherever they had landed. Some more in tact than others. Keith still worried about Pidge and Shiro, though he’d never say it out loud.
However, they were all together again, recovering at their own rate. Hunk was huddled next to Pidge working on tech that Coran had suggested (an alarm of some sort? A clock? It was round and ticked), Lance was asleep on one of the long couches, and Shiro was training.
Again.
Keith considered heading down to talk to Shiro, or at the very least, to spar with him and keep him company. That honestly sounded so much better. He'd be able to keep an eye on his brother figure, as anxious as it made him to butt into someone’s life
But something kept Keith from advancing with his protective plan, something that made him much more anxious than being a nuisance.
Keith’s right hand was blotched purple as it was when he fought the Galra Druid. At least, that’s how it started. Now his entire right arm was a rainbow of purple hues; It looked like someone had taken a bat to it, and frequently.
The purple blotches had spread down his arm as soon as Keith had become more active in the training room, which was extremely irritating. He was a natural athlete and had been physically active all his life. Keith had often flipped a 180 as soon as he realized his legs were taking him to the training room. It was creating an itch worse than the anxiety clawing at his heart.
The healing pods didn’t give any indication that this was abnormal. There was technically nothing wrong with him and it was driving him up the wall. Any time Keith had thought about bringing it up to anyone, Allura, Shiro, even Pidge, his brain flipped an off switch and that idea became the worst he could think of.
Until he figured out what this was, on his own, he wouldn’t tell anyone about it. Keith swore, if he got his hands on the Galra Druid that did this, he’d-
“-yo. Earth to Keith. Uh, space to Keith? I guess I can’t really say Earth now.”
Keith blinked twice. In front of his face was the gangly blue paladin waving a hand in Keith’s face. Apparently he’d woken up at some point to annoy Keith, which he actually liked secretly, but he was to worried right now to appreciate it.
“What?” Keith scrunched his nose in annoyance and moved to smack Lance’s waving arm, only to miss by a hair.
“Dude. You were staring out into space- okay that word is overused now.” Lance gave his own bemused expression but snapped his attention to Keith immediately after. “But seriously, are you okay? I mean, I know we’re all getting back to normal in our own way but you’ve just been standing there. And then you looked really angry. It was pret-ty spooky.”
Oh.
Keith looked over toward the middle of the room and even Pidge and Hunk were looking at him with mild concern. He turned back to Lance and shrugged.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just...you know. Resting.”
Lance’s eyes were half lidded and he raised a single brow. Keith stood straight as a board; he seriously hoped Lance would just drop it.
Thankfully, Lance spun around with his arms out in an exaggerated shrug. “Whatever, bro, you do you.” he called out as he made his way back to his nap site. Hunk and Pidge looked at each other.
“Hey, man,” Hunk called out. “Just let us know if you need anything. We all have your back.”
Pidge threw a thumbs up and a smile to mirror Hunk’s message. Keith smiled, despite himself.
“Thanks guys… I will.” Once he figured out what was going on with his god damn arm.
___________________________
It was getting worse.
Keith glared at his reflection in the bathroom mirror. Parts of his right arm were solid purple, and now his chest, left shoulder, and back were getting splotches.
He didn’t get it, he’d been staying away from any kind of activity for days . He’d even been lying about visiting the training room to keep up appearances. This seriously pissed him off-
Suddenly, out of nowhere, the purple marks were spreading from his back and straight for his face. Keith gasped and grabbed for his neck as if afraid it would choke him. He scratched at his skin, panicking, but it kept growing, growing, growing.
Keith forced himself to put his arms at his side and jumped into a sloppy meditation. He needed to calm down. Keith breathed in. And out.
In.
Out .
As soon as Keith could tell that his heart rate was slowing down, he opened his eyes. The purple color had stopped just before it could reach the underneath of his jaw. Unfortunately it had covered a large portion of his chest and both arms just before his wrists.
Thinking calmly, Keith deduced that it wasn’t really physical activity that encouraged growth of the pigment, it was emotion . High volumes of emotion. Great.
Okay. Keith could work with this. He blinked slowly and gave another large breath. As long as he could hold off on doing anything labor intensive that might set him off everything could be fine.
A crackle could be heard overhead, coming from the speakers in every room.
“Hey everyone,” Shiro’s voice rang clear and true. “It's been a great couple of weeks to get back in the groove of things, but we can’t become too relaxed. We’re still the paladins of Voltron and need to pick up training again so we get better prepared for things to come.”
Oh no.
“We’ll start off really easy,”
No. No, no, no, no.
“Please meet me in the training deck so we can do some light sparring and drills. Thanks everyone.”
The speakers clicked off. Keith was rubbing his face, trying to keep all his emotions in a very tight corall. Maybe...Maybe he should talk to Shiro after all?
His anxiety flared again, violently. Keith quelled it enough to think maybe not.
As long as he could keep his emotions under control, and not over exert himself, he’d be fine.
Keith was in a daze as he picked out his clothing, making sure to select long sleeves to wear under his uniform just in case, and something to cover his neck well enough. He was grateful that his paladin suit covered most of him.
Taking one last glance to make sure all his purple, mauve, and lavender spots were covered, Keith left the safe haven of his room thinking he looked ridiculous.
___________________________
“Are you really…” Shiro scratched the back of his neck, in the awkward position of not wanting to offend but trying to show concern. “Are you too cold, or, I mean, do you want us to boost the airflow?”
Keith stood in front of his peers and fellow Paladins looking ready for winter in Canada in his thick scarf. It was dumb, but it was all he had with him. Lance snorted as soon as he saw Keith, only to be stopped by an elbow to the ribs from Pidge. A stray cough came from Hunk’s direction.
“No, I’m fine.”
Shiro gave Keith a once over and shrugged. “Alright! That being said, here’s what we’re going to do.”
The five indeed started light with small jogging sessions, into stretching, into more cardio. It was the exercise afterward that really worried Keith.
“Um. What is that?” Lance pointed to an object put in front of them, voicing what Keith was also wondering.
“While I was fighting with Zarcon’s witch I was very unprepared for some tactics that she used.”
Shiro stood next to the new device, which looked like one of their practice androids. At least, it did from head to waist. Instead of legs, the bot was now attached to a round dome that had small jets underneath not unlike their own packs.
“Pidge and Hunk were kind enough to program something that could help us learn and be prepared for such fights in the future.” Shiro flashed Pidge and Hunk a 1,000 watt smile who became red with the praise.
Shiro went on to explain that the thing that Pidge and Hunk had been working on was inspired by a suggestion from Coran. He had suggested to Shiro that, now that they’ve had personal fights with their actual enemies, they could model practice bots after them. While they already had a session type saved for dodging and protecting your fellow paladin from lasers, this one was made to help you better dodge and protect your fellow paladin’s from a physical threat.
A physical threat with the ability to create holograms and shock you .
Keith controlled his breathing and kept himself leveled. He wondered if this would be like fighting his druid.
As Shiro talked with Pidge and Hunk about settings on their new “training buddy” as Hunk called it, a whisper met Keith's right ear.
“Hey…are you sure you're okay?”
Glancing right, it was Lance. Keith was surprised to find a legitimate look of concern on Lance's face. It wasn't that he didn't think Lance wasn't capable, Keith knew that Lance's heart was as large as Hunk’s. It was just… different. Keith didn't know why.
Keith returned his focus to Lance. “Yeah, I'm fine.” It was such a giant lie, but he wasn't about to say he was worried he'd lose control of his emotions and let a giant purple blob encase his body.
Lance was so close to Keith that he could see the deep sapphire in Lance’s eyes. The color looked so, so dark from afar that they almost looked black. But up close they were holding the secret, vibrant color that the ocean would envy.
Keith tried to keep his heart from beating faster as those dark eyes observed him even more this time.
Finally, before Keith could tell him to take a picture, Lance put his hand to his chin and remarked, “You know you'd probably feel better if you removed some layers.”
This time, Keith wasn't able to contain the blush that spread on his face. Lance looked perplexed at his reaction and caught on, sputtering. “Wh- No! Oh my god not like- that's not what I meant!-”
“Are we interrupting anything?” Pidge’s smooth drawl carried over and Keith didn't have to look at her face to see her smirk. He looked anyway, and yup, there it was.
Keith, still trying very hard to stay calm, addressed Shiro. “So, how are we starting this?
___________________________
They had started the machine with Shiro in front and the rest of the team in an arrow formation behind him. The bot was programmed to read a fragment memory and mimic the look and attack pattern of an enemy you’ve fought. Obviously since this machine was built for a specific type of enemy, it was very limited.
As it was, all Shiro had to do was touch the upper half of the bot and focus on Haggar. It took a lot from everyone not to jump when her image replaced the new android. Thankfully, the hologram wasn't the most defined and had a purple tone to it, so that definitely helped ease everyone’s initial surprise. To end the session and beat the simulation, all they had to do was touch it in the same area to wipe the implanted memory clean.
The new practice mode was actually going very well, Keith thought. It wasn't very hard to keep his thoughts and emotions out of this training session, in fact it helped him tremendously.
At first.
Had Keith been alone in this training session, or at least just Shiro accompanying him, he wouldn’t have had a problem. Unfortunately, Keith and everyone else was having a hard time not knocking into each other.
“Lance.” Keith ground his teeth as he turned to the blue paladin. “Could you please keep an eye on where you’re going ?”
“Um, excuse me?” Lance’s eyes bugged out. This wasn’t the first time they’d specifically ran into each other. “ You ran into me ! How about you keep your eye on where you’re going?”
“Guys! Focus!” Shiro shouted from the far left.
Keith ignored Lance and tried to keep a grip on the zen he came in with. It was becoming more and more slippery as the day went by. Hitting a hologram instead of the intended target as well as getting zapped wasn’t helping at all.
Okay, Keith. Its fine. Just….calm down. Keith breathed deeply, focusing on dodging the electric arcs and zoned in on the multiple holograms in the room. God there were so many, there had to be over 20. It didn’t help that they created lightning too, even though it wasn’t real.
There has to be a difference in one of them...There!
One of the many clones was floating in a formation unlike the others. The difference was extremely subtle, but it became more obvious to Keith as he singled it out.
In his excitement, Keith did not shout out to his friends about the apparent difference. Besides, he was the closest of them to the robot, and this would be handled quickly.
Dodge left, dodge under, jump. He was almost there, not even 2 meters away. Keith boosted his speed to his max, brought up his arm-
“Oof!”
Suddenly, Keith was pushed forward by Pidge who had smacked into him for the first time. She might have been dodging lightning arcs, or someone else, who knows.
Regardless, Keith slammed into the the robot with Haggar’s hologram face, balance completely off kilter. He landed on his back after tumbling with the machinery for a few seconds. He felt a little winded from the fall and closed his eyes to stop the room from spinning.
“Keith, oh my gosh I am so sorry! I should have- ...what?” Pidge’s worried tone was replaced with confusion.
Groaning, Keith rubbed his eyes. He was sure he at least touched some part of the simulation robot. He sat up and opened his eyes.
Only to be greeted with the image of the druid that he had fought in the quintessence chamber standing over him. The long, eldritch mask loomed over Keith, lightning sparking at their hands.
Keith lost all sense.It’s eyes burned into his, and he was dragged back to that day. Something in him flared and he saw red, red, red.
Keith, unknowingly, had summoned his bayard at will and released the sword within it. He sprang up, ready to take out the source of his current misery, even if he could not recall what that was at the moment.
He was aware of shouting but it was so far away to him. Keith beared it no mind as he drove his bayard’s sword into the mask of the robed figure, a sick sense of satisfaction rearing from his chest and shooting up to roots of the hair on his head. The feeling spread to his fingertips, to his toes, and along his spine. It was like a calming water had washed over him. It was invigorating and he wanted more of it .
He was so swallowed up in his bloodlust that he didn’t even realize that the machine had been spitting electricity at him, smoke starting to become evident.
Keith was about to twist his blade when he was tackled from the side. It was like a train hit him, the force was incredible. The force happened to be Hunk, who pushed him out of range of the explosion that occured in place of the training robot. They landed on the ground so hard that Keith’s helmet actually flew off of his head from impact.
As the smoke started to die off and the holograms zipped out of sight Keith’s brain caught up to him. He was so stupid , how could he get worked up over a hologram, a really bad hologram nonetheless! Keith felt immediate regret and needed to apologize to Pidge, Hunk, everyone . He was, however, interrupted.
“Dude, you seriously- WHOA! ” Hunk had turned to Keith to probably tell him what he did wasn’t cool, but stopped short and sprang away from the red paladin. He stopped a couple feet away and looked at Keith perplexed, pointing and making strange gestures.
“Wha-how- What?? Who-...” Hunk was at a loss, and wasn’t able to correctly say what he meant. Keith took a second to look at the rest of his group, only to find similar reactions to his person. What the hell?...
“...Keith?” Shiro started Keith out of his stunned thoughts. But what he saw wasn’t helping his confusion. Shiro’s body was turned to the side, face forward, mech arm stretched in front of him. But its palm was facing Keith, as if...he was afraid Keith was going to jump him? What was going on?
Keith voiced his thoughts. “Is….Shiro, what’s wrong…?” Something was wrong with his vision. No, wait...The room seemed even brighter, shining. Did the explosion do something to the lights? Keith raised a hand to rub at his eyes and froze when he saw it.
His hand. It took Keith a second to convince himself that it was his hand. It was wearing tatters of what was left of his suit’s gloves and poking out of the sleeve was a purple hand. What disturbed Keith more is that they were all tipped with claws . What was going on?!
Keith was unaware that he had started to hyperventilate, scratching at his arms, touching his face. His eyes sought out Shiro’s forcefully calm expression, to Hunk’s bewildered stare, Pidge’s confusion, and Lance…. What was that. He looked uncertain, god Keith hoped it wasn’t fear.
Realization slammed into Keith so quickly he jumped up from shock. He now understood why his subconscious didn’t want him to share his pigment problem with this team. He should have recognized the shade of purple, being that it belonged to their enemy, the sole reason that Voltron had to be formed again 10,000 years later.
Keith had Galra shade all over him.
“Sh-Shiro what-I-” Keith looked at Shiro again, who, thankfully, looked more sad than anything. As long as he wasn’t afraid, god, Keith was worried what the rest of him looked like. “I don’t know what’s going on, this isn’t-I don’t-!”
“Stay calm, everythin- No wait, wait!” Shiro’s attention was stolen by something behind Keith. Before he could even think about turning to see what it was, Keith felt a sharp pain on his cranium and then nothing.
___________________________
The first thing that Keith registered was that, somehow, he knew that he was in his room by the smells that assaulted his nose. The second thing registered was that there were other smells in his room didn’t typically belong there, though they were welcome.
Keith blinked his eyes open slowly to find that, yes, literally everyone in the castle was in his bedroom. The mice included.
They were all taking various sitting positions in the somewhat small room, Shiro was the closest to him, his side leaning against the bed base.
Keith scrunched his face and blinked some more. “What are you all doing in my room?”
Everyone jumped at the sound of Keith’s voice, Allura actually jumping up to stand near his bed looking very apologetic, her hands clasped together.
Shiro raised his eyebrows and turned his head to regard Keith’s laying form.
“Hey, how are you feeling?”
Keith pushed himself up on his elbows and yawned. He thought he heard Pidge squeak somewhere on the left side of the room. Keith regarded Shiro, though he shot a glance over to the rest of the team.
“I’m ...okay? My head kind of hurts, and my mouth feels sort of numb...What happened? Weren’t we in the training room?” Keith rubbed at his aching jaw and halted. Were his nails always this long?
His last memories before he had fallen unconscious slammed into his head. His claws and purple hands. Keith frantically looked at his arms, now free of his paladin armor, to find they were just as purple as his hands. He also had fine fur along his shoulders to his elbows. Even his feet were clawed.
Keith ran his tongue over his teeth to find that his canines were also very long and very sharp.
He was full of sharp, unwanted things.
Overwhelmed, frustrated, and confused, Keith laid back down and covered his face with his too sharp hands. He had tried, tried, tried to stop this, whatever this was. What was he? An alien? A Galran? Keith didn’t want to look at a mirror to confirm anything, he wanted this to go away.
He wasn’t going to cry, damn it, he wasn’t going to cry. Keith ground his palms into his eyes and released a shaky breath. “What’s happening to me?” His voice wobbled slightly.
A sigh came from his right side. Shiro pressed a hand on the top of Keith’s head, his thumb stroking Keith’s hair. That gesture both comforted and dismayed Keith even more.
“We….Well. After you were...made unconscious,” Unknown to Keith, Shiro’s eyes flickered to Allura who gave a heavy sigh and a quiet I’m so sorry. “We ran some tests in the examination room; We wanted to make some things certain. That you were physically okay, that what was happening to you wasn’t some sort of trick or backfire, that...you were still you.”
That last part stung, but Keith understood. If anyone had turned purple and fuzzy he’d want to know if they weren’t an imposter too. He sighed and lowered his arms from his face to push himself up. Keith sat cross legged, rubbed his face free of any tears that might have been trying to escape and grabbed his own arms.
“So...What am I?”
Coran spoke up this time. “I had already known from your time in the healing pod when we picked you up off of the desert planet that you didn’t obtain any sort of virus. A second run through some equipment confirmed that, so we took a look at what your DNA said about your heritage and well…”
“You’re Galran, Keith.” Allura’s melodious voice cemented what Keith knew since the training room. It was one thing to think it, but it was entirely something else to hear it as a fact. “I’m not sure how you got to Earth or were perceived as human for so long...It could have been a Galran disguise with their magic. But the results show that this is not a new development.”
Keith nodded to himself, thinking. This was it. He was going to be alone again, just after he got everyone back. His twisted and he tried not to think about how alone he felt a month ago.
“When do you want me to leave?” Keith’s voice was not strong enough to raise higher than a whisper.
“What- Keith, what makes you say that?” Allura’s shocked tone made Keith raise his eyes to meet hers. She looked at him as she always had, since the day they met. The same respect never left her gaze.
“I’m...I’m Galran, I can’t pilot the Red Lion anymore. We’ve been fighting the Galra so they don’t get the lions.” Keith said it like it was also fact. It added up, right?
“Yeah, WE, dude.” Hunk stood up and brushed non-existent dust off his pants. “You’re part of our team, which means you’re part of the fight. The Red Lion chose you . If she wanted to kick you out, then she would have done it a long time ago.”
“Yeah, what Hunk said!” Lance shot up himself from his position near the foot of the bed. Keith would have laughed if he wasn’t so shocked.
“Friendship aside, I don’t know what we’d do without you, honestly.” Pidge stood up herself. “Besides Shiro, you’re our best fighter. Anyway, I don’t know what Lance would personally do if you left.”
“Yeah, what Pidge- OH no, you little gremlin, don’t you smirk at me you villain!” Lance turned on Pidge quickly, pointing a finger at her smug face. Keith didn’t know what that was about, but it brought a small smile to his face.
“It doesn’t matter what you look like, or what you are Keith,” Shiro continued the line of reassurance. “We want you here with us.”
Keith looked at Shiro, after staring at every individual room and his expression broke. He had been trying so hard not to tear up before but a sob escaped him. Keith immediately covered his eyes with his right arm and bit his lip.
“Awe Keith, come here bud!” Hunk walked over to Keith and nearly picked him up in a bear hug. Everyone followed suit and soon they were a giant hug pile on Keith’s bed. Keith’s face was burning from both crying in front of his friends and peers, and from all the central attention he was receiving.
“Dude,” Lance’s voice was lined with laughter. “Your tail is hitting me.”
Wait, what? His what?
“ WHAT?” Keith broke the hug pile to investigate what the hell Lance was talking about.
“Oh, right,” Coran spoke up and played with the end of his moustache. “I suppose you wouldn’t know from looking at the Galra we’ve encountered, but they are or were typically born with tails. Then again, a lot of Galra 10,000 years ago did dock them as a sign of class, or if you were in the military. But, because you’ve been in a disguise for who knows how long you didn’t get to receive that treatment.”
No way. No way.
But there it was, Keith was staring at it. Now that he was aware of it’s presence, he felt it as if it had been a part of him his whole life.
The tail in question was just as purple as he now was, laying innocently on the bed. This thing had to be at least three feet long, Keith thought numbly. It was thin, the fur on it was coarse and short. The end, however, was tufted much like a-
“Lion.” Keith mumbled. “It looks like a lion’s.”
Allura smiled at Keith. “Would you like to see yourself?”
No. Was Keith’s immediate thought. Instead he mumbled “Okay.”
___________________________
Purple was a color that Keith could give or take. He didn't hate the color, but it definitely wasn't his first choice either.
Now, however, he didn't have a choice of having it on him forever.
Keith looked into the full length mirror that Allura had summoned on his back wall, a function be never knew about. But, it was her castle after all.
As Keith noticed before his arms and legs were purple and lightly furred, a visible contrast from the black tank top someone had put on him. He had assumed his face was the same, and it was. The shock of having a new appendage still hadn't worn off, and the tail swung behind him as if to mock his thoughts. His face was technically the same, but…
But his ears… and his eyes …
Keith's left ear flicked and twitched as he examined his eyes. They had no pupil or iris to speak of. He had never thought it strange when he saw it on Shay or the Galra he'd fought, but to see it on his own face… it was very strange to Keith then.
“It'll probably take some getting used to…” Pidge piped up somewhere behind him. Actually, Keith could pinpoint exactly where she was. Had his hearing always been this good? “Like a new hair cut. When I chopped off all my hair before applying to Garrison I looked at a stranger in the mirror for weeks. Then, after a few weeks, I just saw me.”
“This is a little more permanent than a hair cut, Pidge,” Shiro smiled at a bashful Pidge. “But she's right, you'll eventually see you as you in the mirror.”
“I hope so.” Keith tugged his lower lid down with his index finger, messing with his face further. He then pulled his lips back in a faux snarl to see his teeth and immediately grimaced, his ears lowering to follow suit. Someone squeaked again.
“Okay, seriously, who is doing that?” Keith turned to Pidge, thinking it might be her due to the pitch, but she was pointing at someone else. Who?
Lance was covering his mouth and his eyes were squinted.
“ You? Why??”
“I’M SORRY!” Lance threw his hands in front of him, and he was blushing . “They’re just- They’re so cute!”
Keith’s tail swayed behind him with annoyance and his ears were flat now. “What is cute?”
Without any warning Lance pushed forward and grabbed Keith’s ears.
Keith was about to rip Lance a new one (verbally, mind you) but a sudden feeling rushed through his body. Keith’s eyes fluttered closed as Lance rubbed the base of his very fluffy ears, his will to fight suddenly vanishing into thin air. Seconds later a sound was introduced to the environment, a low rumble. Keith’s eyes snapped open when realized that the sound was coming from his chest and throat.
Oh god he was purring , oh no, what the hell . This couldn’t get any worse.
Keith ripped his head from Lance’s soft, unfortunately very comfortable, hands and looked up mortified. Everyone was basically having a ball, in Keith’s opinion. Coran and Allura were trying to cover up smiles, Hunk and Pidge looked like they wanted a turn to pet Keith’s head, and Shiro looked stuck in between the two but trying to remain somewhat dignified.
Keith looked at the various individuals in the very small room, his very unfortunate purr was still rolling with no indication of stopping.
“You all suck.” Keith’s words were garbled by the purr, completely ruining the serious tone he’d been going for.
Hunk snorted and Allura was the first to break the dam, unstoppable laughter bubbling out of her. The rest of the team followed her lead and Keith couldn’t even pretend to be mad.
It was really stupid that this entire thing had to happen, but he was incredibly grateful that his team mates were so accepting. That his family accepted him. Keith would need time to adjust to his new self, but the fact that he had everyone there to support him meant the universe.
Keith smiled softly, his eyes crinkled in the corners as his purr grew even louder.