Keith's POV:

Yeah, so as the story goes, I died.

I thought that was it, nothing could possibly get any worse.

Oh how I would found out how I wrong I could be.
—————————————————————————————————————————————
Lance's POV:

Time passed in a blur as I hurriedly climbed into Blue, cradling Keith in my arms.

I set Keith down gently on the floor and quickly drove off into the sky with my lion.

"Lance!", everyone said in unison and relief.

"Did you get Keith?", Shiro asked blasting a huge battleship.

I swallowed trying hard not to make my voice crack, "Yeah, I got him."

I heard Shiro sigh in relief, "Okay team, fall out!", he commanded.

Shiro blasted the ship one more time and it exploded giving us cover for our escape.

Everyone rushed off, abandoning the base and leaving the enemy behind.

I followed and tried hard not to lose my focus.

Out of the corner of my eye, I watched as the red lion appeared from behind a big cruiser.

I saw Red follow us as we left, trailing behind us like a puppy.

"Looks like Red knows we have Keith!", Hunk commented.

I felt a pang in my heart, how was I supposed to tell them?

"What happened back there Lance? Is Keith okay, I mean besides being tortured?", Pidge asked over the communication.

I sighed, " Guys, can the questions wait until we get to the castle? I don't feel like answering them this moment."

I decided I would tell them back at the Castle of Lions, that way maybe everyone would be able to grieve without worrying about crashing into a random asteroid.

I glanced back down at Keith who lay lifeless on the floor.

My heart hurt seeing him like this.

He was unbreakable, infuriating, stubborn, rash, and fearless.

He was the emo mullet that was good at everything, the annoying perfect rival, and a powerful ally.

How could it all have ended for him?

Soon we arrived at the castle and as we docked our lions, I watched as Allura rushed in who was followed by Coran.

Everyone had unboarded there lions and were impatiently waiting for me to come out.

I felt tears brim my eyes as I scooped Keith up gently, carrying him out of the blue lion.

As I walked out everyone's faces fell.

Shiro immediately rushed over and looked at Keith in concern.

"We need to get him to a pod. C'mon Lance let's go!", Shiro said feeling Keith's forehead.

Everyone started following Shiro as he started toward the pods, but I stayed put.

Shiro turned around, "Lance."

I didn't look up at him.

"Lance, we need to hurry and get Keith healed.", Shiro said walking back up to me.

He tried taking Keith from my arms but I refused, holding on him tightly.

Tears flowed down my face as I finally looked up at Shiro.

I felt everyone's eyes on me as I tried to say what needed to be said.

"The pod won't help Shiro. Keith, Keith is dead.", I cried as my whole body started to shake.

There. Everyone knew now. I had said it.

Now that I had said it out loud, realization crashed down on me.

Hard, cold truth that Keith wouldn't come back stabbed into my heart, making me crack down in despair.

Shiro's eyes widened and he immediately started trying to pry Keith from my arms again.

"No Lance, he can't be dead! Just give him to me!", Shiro said frantically, losing all rational thought.

He tugged on Keith's waist trying to dislodge him from me, but I held on and brought Keith closer to my chest.

My knees finally gave out and I sat on the floor with Keith against my chest as tears flowed down my cheeks.

"Shiro, just stop.", I cried, "He's gone and he isn't coming back."

Shiro stood over me as grief and sorrow were written all over his face.

I set down Keith gently and stood up, "He's gone. I'm sorry.", I said heartbrokenly to Shiro.

Suddenly Shiro slammed me into the wall.

My heart accelerated as sweat popped on my forehead.

"This is all your fault!", Shiro yelled in my face.

Hunk and Coran quickly ran over seeing the situation, peeling Shiro off of me while restraining him.

"Keith's dead because of you! I was counting on you Lance!", Shiro fired at me.

"Calm down Shiro! You're not thinking straight.", Hunk said holding him, "You need to calm down."

I knew Hunk was right about Shiro, he wasn't thinking right now.

But his words of blame still hit me in the heart.

I swallowed and walked back over to Keith.

I again picked him up and walked over to Allura and Pidge who were watching the scene in shock.

Allura saw me approaching and winced as she looked at Keith.

"It wasn't your fault Lance, you should know that.", Allura said touching my shoulder.

I nodded, "Hey Allura, could you put Keith in a pod?"

Pidge looked at me surprised, "But you said that Keith is you know..."

"I know.", I said softly, "But Shiro's hurting and won't stop till we try, Also we can still help heal these at least.", I tried looking at Keith's wounds.

"He can Rest In Peace.", I said sadly.

Allura nodded.

I turned and walked over to Shiro carefully.

"You can take Keith to the pod if you want.", I said holding Keith toward Shiro.

Hunk and Coran let go of Shiro as he took Keith into his arms.

Shiro then walked off to the pod room without a word, leaving all of us behind in silence.

Hunk hugged me tightly, "It wasn't your fault Lance, it wasn't.", he said squeezing me.

"I know.", I nodded again as Hunk let me go.

Everyone suddenly embraced me in a big bear hug as tears were shed.

"You got Keith out and you did your job Lance. We'll all have the opportunity to say goodbye now.", Coran sniffled.

"Yeah.", Pidge agreed.

Allura squeezed me a little, "We'll all miss Keith, but I'm sure Keith would want us to be happy."

I swallowed, "Yeah, even though I'm pretty sure happy isn't in his emo vocabulary.", I managed to joke.

Everyone laughed a little, but like me, there heart's were heavy.

"Should we join Shiro?", Pidge asked as everyone broke apart.

Hunk shook his head, "I think Shiro needs some time alone, he's known Keith a lot longer then any of us."

"I agree, it's probably best.", Allura said nodding slowly.

Then the team split up going their separate ways, leaving me behind in the landing dock.

I sighed and made my way to the healing pods.

I knew I should probably take Hunk's advice, but I wanted to see Keith again and I wasn't going to let Shiro stop me.

As I entered the room I watched Shiro as he shut the pod door closed and turned it on with shaking hands.

Shiro then stood in front of the pod as tears finally streamed down his face.

"Hey.", I greeted quietly walking next to him.

He turned away from me ashamed, "Listen Lance, I'm sorry about a few minutes ago. I don't know what I was thinking.", he apologized.

I put a hand on his shoulder, "It's okay, you weren't thinking at that moment. News like that can tend to block out any thought."

Shiro nodded and looked at me, "So we're good?"

Taking his hand and shaking it, I smiled, "We're good."

We both turned to Keith and stared at him in the pod.

"I'm sorry,", I said, "I know you were close to Keith."

Shiro rubbed his arms, "Yeah, I was."

Shiro then turned to me, "That must have been really hard for you."

I looked at him a little confused, "What do you mean?"

"Finding Keith like this.", he said motioning at Keith's body, "Seeing that he was probably gone already."

Shiro wiped away some more tears as I felt more go down my face.

"It was hard, very hard.", I swallowed.

"If I may ask, why are you here?"

"What do you mean?", I asked feeling a little insulted and attacked.

"You were never that close to Keith and of course you knew him maybe a little better through Voltron, but you've never really had a connection. Of course you'd be saddened by umm his condition, but I didn't know this would attack you personally.", Shiro said carefully.

I turned back to the pod as I answered, "I was closer to him then you thought. He was my friend even if we were at each other's throats. I miss him more then anything and I would give anything just to get him back."

Shiro was surprised by my answer, "Those are strong words."

"And I mean every single one of them."

I looked back at Shiro, "He's means a lot to me and seeing one of our strongest fail is heartbreaking. I just didn't think it would end for him like this."

"Neither did I.", Shiro answered sighing.

The two of us were silent and we both stood there for a couple of vargas.

After a while Shiro sighed and headed for the door.

I turned around, "Hey, where are you going?"

Shiro's face was stressed and grief-stricken as he answered, "I need some time to myself Lance. To meditate and reflect."

I nodded and realized he did need the time alone, but it hurt me a little that Shiro wasn't going to stay any longer.

"You staying in here?", Shiro asked standing at the doorway.

"Yep.", I said looking back towards Keith.

I heard the door slide shut as I watched Keith's form.

Most of the wounds had healed, but as expected Keith wasn't in any better shape then death.

I bit my lip.

What was I doing? Maybe I needed to leave like Shiro, I was only hurting myself looking at him.

No, I had to stay. I wanted to stay.

This was the least I could do to honor Keith.

I sat down on the floor as I watched Keith, keeping guard over his healing but deceased body.

As I watched him I imagined Keith as he was alive.

He was secluded and acted tough, but he would laugh and smile at times giving himself away.

His clothes were emo and he always wore his fingerless gloves and cool jacket that smelled of the desert.

But it was his eyes that I thought of the most, the giveaway to life.

His eyes would sparkle in a determined way and his purple irises would help set off his mullet in a annoying way.

Those eyes, those purple eyes, I would never see again.

I sucked in a big breath as I cried my heart out.

I cried for several doboshes until I stopped myself.

I had to be strong, even if everyone else wasn't, because if no one was, no one would be.

Easier said then done, I thought scornfully as tears still came out of my closed eyelids.

I stood up and looked at Keith again, putting my hand against the glass.

"I hope you are happy, wherever you are now.", I said shakily, "I just wish I could see your eyes again."

I don't know if my words had magic in them, but my last sentence changed everything.

Suddenly Keith's eyes popped open as he gasped for air.

I screamed and yelped in surprise, backpedaling and crashing to the floor on my rear end as I stepped away from the pod.

Keith's eyes were wide open as he continued to gasp for air.

I was to scared to move as I watched.

How was this even possible?!? Like, at all?!?

Just as suddenly as it had started, it stopped. Keith closed his eyes again and stopped gasping for air, but instead of his still unmoving chest he breathed slowly and deliberately.

I rubbed my eyes in shock.

Was Keith still alive?

Comment and vote if you like Keith's eyes!👁