Lance cheers. "Yes! Finally! What's your plan, boss man?" He asked with a smile. Keith laid out a plan, similar to the one earlier, but making sure they had enough maneuvering room if they fired another electric blast. They continue fighting till the Galra fleet was destroyed enough that they fled. Keith smiled as the others cheered but his face and body burned. "Good job, Team. Head back to the castle." He ordered, turning the com off and taking his helmet back off. His muscles still spazzed now and then, his face aching with any twitch of a facial muscle. He flies off to the castle and gets off and Red purred some comfort but all he wanted was to go to the pod. Each paladin had watched him walk off in obvious pain and Lance sucked in a breath "Dude, you don't look good. Thanks for saving my behind"

Keith gave Lance a small tired smile. "Yeah, no problem. But next time you're Shiro's problem." He said, half jokingly. Lance rolled his eyes "Gee where is the team spirit huh? I say Vol- you say..." he said happily trying to stimulate life. Keith raised an eyebrow as he gave Lance a deadpan look. "Vol..tron?"

"Ugh!! You /still/ don't get it!" Lance stomped off and everyone laughs at them. Finally they leave him to walk to the healing pod and he gets in slowly. He sighed softly as the pod closed. 'Please come back.' Was his last thought before freezing in sleep. The burns didn't take too long to heal, so the pod time was only an hour. He tumbled out, quite literally as he fell to his knees, no one there to help him. He sighed, it seemed Shiro was the only one who really cared for him on this ship. He stood up, muscles spazzing lightly, apparently unhealed by the pod. 'That should have been fixed' he said grimacing as he eventually stopped. He had a slight headache and got up to head to his bunk. 'Why am I hurt so much recently?'

Keith saw Pidge in the hallway, automatically straightening his posture as he saw her. "Hey Keith. All done in the pod already huh?" She smiles and walks over. Keith nodded. "Yeah. I guess burns heal pretty easily." He stated. "I have really good news Keith. We have narrowed the number of planets Shiro could be on and Hunk finished his invention. Keith smiled. "That's great, Pidge! Have you told Allura about it yet?" Pidge shakes her head "No, thought you should know first since.... you know... you are really depressed over it. We can go tell Allura right now and set a day to go out the three paladins" Pidge says cheerily but something didn't add up to Keith. Three paladins? There were five with Shiro and four on board. Keith titled his head, raising an eyebrow at her. "Three paladins?" He asked, hoping he just misheard her. "Yeah, Lance, Hunk, and I. We can go search the planets'" Pidge said pushing her glasses up on her nose.

"What about me?" Keith asked, scowling. "I'm the one supposed to lead you guys while Shiro's gone." Pidge stopped fiddling with her glasses and looks at Keith, "But Keith, we don't want you hurt a third time if something happens on the mission." She says worriedly, "It is okay if we go I guess." She shrugs. "You are the leader but if we lose another leader what will we do then?"

Keith rubbed his temple, 'How did Shiro ever deal with this?' "Don't you think you should have discussed it with me first, Pidge? I know I'm not Shiro but I am in charge."

"I realize that Keith. And I am sorry. We are all just worried, Allura and Caron included" She says finally and straightens.

Keith sighed. "I know that." 'Do I?' "But that doesn't mean you make my decisions for me. We are /all/ going to look for Shiro, got it?" Keith and leaned forward and narrowed his eyes emphasizing the last two words and Pidge's eyes doubled in size. "Yes Sir" she saluted and smiles "Want to come and tell Allura that? It was partly her idea that only us three should go after all."

Keith pulled back, shaking his head. "Of course it was her idea." He said sarcastically, walking with Pidge to the command center. Everyone was gathered looking at the star map and choosing a route when Keith bursts in with Pidge behind him. Keith doesn't waste anytime, looking at the blue orbs floating around them. "Okay, which planet do we search first?"

"We? No, they are checking first Keith" Allura says not bothering to look at him and pays attention to the star map. Keith grit his teeth. "Allura, you don't have a say in this. Shiro made me the leader of Voltron in his absence, not you. Two coincidental hits that knocked me out don't make any difference." He said firmly, fire raging behind his eyes. Allura stops scrolling and glowered at Keith "At least Shiro gave me a say!"

"Yeah? Well you never tried to stop Shiro from going on a mission, now did you?!" Keith said, practically fuming. There was no one who stepped up to stop them, Shiro always did so it was fair game. "No but-" yet she was cut off by Keith, "I will never be Shiro alright!! I am fine and I want to find Shiro with everyone else. I am going!" Allura opened her mouth, but she knew a losing battle when she saw one. "Fine. But if this ends in another disaster I sincerely hope for your sake that Shiro gets back by then!"

Keith's face was red and everyone saw the temper he could have. For the next hour they talked cautiously so he didn't go off again. They set the mission for the next day, to leave early that morning, hoping to search one planet at least, maybe two. Keith leaves and goes to get food needing to refuel since he was in the pod but never did. He stared glumly at his goo as he ate quietly, dropping the spoon once as his hand spasmed. 'Why is it happening?' He thinks in disgust still hot from the fight. He used to fight at the Garrison quite often so he was a skilled physical fighter but also never backed down. He shook his head, 'Guess the pods aren't a heal-all after all.' He finished eating and stood up to put the bowl and spoon away. Keith goes to his room tries to calm down, he fell into a fitful sleep, still falling prey to those aftershock tremors as he slept.

The next morning all woke up to hit a planet: Keith and Pidge one and Hunk with lance the other. Each had Hunk's invention and zoomed off in their lions. Keith's foot tapped as they flew towards the planet. "I don't know how this invention works." He muttered to Pidge over the com.

"It is very simple...." Pidge explained how the invention worked and they set their lions in a sandy biome. Keith half listened to Pidge, not really understanding any of it. They got out and looked around. "Okay, Pidge. Start'er up." Pidge begins the machine and they walk around making sure to watch their surroundings. Keith took his helmet off to wipe his brow after they'd been walking for a while. "Still nothing. This is ridiculous."

"I wonder where he went. It still makes no sense" Pidge said looking at the invention's screen and detecting nothing. 'Nothing seems to make sense anymore.' Keith thought, putting his helmet back on. "I hope Hunk and Lance are having better luck than we are."

On the other planet Lance and Hunk are running for their lives to their lions from a alien "I don't think Shiro is here guys!!!!!" Lance yelled. Hunk screamed as he ducked a blast from a gun. "Lance!? I'm the only one here!!!!" He said, near panicking, but correcting Lance all the same. "Oh." Lance says But they run and launch before the shots pierce them. "Okay. Okay. That was definitely not a friendly village!" Hunk shouted as they took off. "What do we do now?"

"Head back?" Lance says and they call into the castle. "Yeah, maybe it's best. We barely got out of there with our lives, man."

"Allura, we are on our way back" he reports and the team heads back.

Keith and Pidge meanwhile have started on their way back home as well, both dearly disappointed that they didn't find Shiro. "Sorry Keith. We can try again later" Pidge tries to comfort Keith but Keith's hopes are diminishing quickly, "Yeah, sure." Keith said unenthusiastically. "Let's hurry up, maybe Shiro's back at the castle with Lance and Hunk."

They land and head to the control room "Any luck?" Pidge asks Hunk and Lance. Lance shakes his head. "Sorry. We didn't find him. We barely got out of there with our lives." Keith nods and begins to get used to the idea that Shiro may not come back "Thanks for trying guys. We can try later" Pidge tries to sound optimistic but all look equally disappointed.

Keith headed back to his room, breaking down in tears as soon as the door behind him shut. 'Why did he leave me? Why?' "He promised... to always be there... *sob* and what does he do?! Break it!" Keith cried, he threw himself down on his bed, burying his face in the pillow and cried himself to sleep.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shiro sighed as he settled down in the bed of soft moss he had made for himself, actually feeling very relaxed for once, despite worrying slightly about Keith. As he slept the Black Lion transported him back to his cockpit, Shiro waking the next morning with his head slumped down to his chest in the pilot's seat. "Where?" He asked himself looking around and sees the cockpit and the lion in the hanger "Oh Black, thank you" He rubbed the dashboard.

Keith woke up, feeling sore and tired. He decided to go straight to the training room. Keith racks up the difficulty and begins to train. Shiro passes by on the way to the kitchen but hears Keith inside. Keith is training on the highest level Allura had deemed safe, which wasn't actually safe. Shiro watches from the door but doesn't like what Keith is doing because it is dangerous. He pulls the plug again. Keith froze completely as Shiro shouted to end the sequence. He turned, smiling with tears in his eyes as he ran up to Shiro and hugged him. "You're back!"

Shiro hugged him tight "I always come back Kogane"