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Watching everyone hug and cry and smile at him as he leaves is bittersweet. Keith wishes his own smile could be more earnest, but with the way things have been these last few months, the best he can do is not much more than a grimace.He lets the fake smile fall away as he turns. The doors to the bridge shut behind him. Without looking back, Keith leaves Team Voltron.The sigh that escapes him is long and heavy. Lonely, if he’s honest. He squares his shoulders as he walks down the halls as though it’ll help him lie to himself. Lonely? No, he’s Keith. Keith is a lone wolf and lone wolves do better in solitude anyway, right?He’s halfway to the hangar where his ship awaits – the ship that’ll take him far away from the Castle of Lions and far away from the people who have been unknowingly pushing him away – when that thought is challenged.“Keith?”Keith forces himself to keep walking. If he lingers, it’ll only make the pain of leaving people he’d thought were family to him worse. He can’t linger, not even for Shiro.But Shiro’s footsteps chase him, and it only takes a few seconds before Shiro’s walking shoulder to shoulder with him. “Let me walk you to the hangar,” Shiro says.Keith’s skin prickles at the tone. It’s flat, laden with a kind of emotion that he’s never heard in Shiro’s voice before. Warning bells go off in Keith’s head, but he’s not sure what kind of a warning it’s supposed to be and that only unnerves him more.“It’s fine,” he mutters. “I’d, uh…I’d rather go by myself, if that’s okay.”Something about the energy Shiro’s giving off sets Keith on edge. “Nah, I’ll walk you there.”Keith stops. “Shiro. Please, can you just let me go to the hangar by myself?”“No.”When Shiro stops, he turns around with measured slowness. There’s a dangerous gleam in his eyes and his gaze is hard. He looks Keith directly in the eye. There’s no kindness in that gaze.Keith’s too paralysed in horror and confusion to react when Shiro starts walking towards him. His feet are stuck to the floor. Shiro grabs his arm with no intention of being gentle and starts pulling him onwards.“Sh-Shiro, what are you –?”Instead of carrying down the hallway to the hangar, Shiro makes a sharp turn down a different hallway. There’s nothing but storage rooms down this way, most of them empty with the Castle’s lack of visitors and residents. Everything’s odd about this situation, and all of a sudden Keith’s unbreakable trust in Shiro is fractured. Keith’s always relied on his gut. It’s saved him many times.Right now his gut says, get out of here now.Shiro doesn’t let him. Keith manages to yank his arm free of Shiro’s grip, and then he’s running – fleeing – for the hangar, but Shiro’s running too. Shiro’s long legs carry him down the hallway at a faster pace than Keith. Keith expects him to run in front and try to bar his path, or stick out a leg and try to trip him.He’s not expecting Shiro to tackle him.Arms wrap around his torso, catching both Keith’s arms, as Shiro’s weight slams into him and then they’re falling. Keith cries out in alarm, but it’s cut short as he’s slammed to the ground. The impact drives the breath out of him. When the pain of head meeting floor subsides, all he can hear is his heart rate beating faster and faster.“Shi’ – Shi..’ro, wha’ –“ he tries to get out, then Shiro’s arms wrap even tighter around him, crushing, constricting, and Keith can’t breathe.He’s hauled off the floor as Shiro himself gets up. Keith feels one of Shiro’s arms loosen a fraction, but it’s not enough to wriggle out of. He struggles for air, panicking. He kicks as best he can, tries to wrestle himself out of Shiro’s grip.Keith’s surprised it actually works. He drops to the ground, catching himself on all fours. It doesn’t occur to him that Shiro let him go on purpose until he gets a leg under him to start running again and a hand lands on the leg extended behind him.The hand closes around his calf, slips down to clamp around his ankle and tightens. Keith tries to pull his leg free but Shiro’s grip is like a vice. He only gets one failed attempt at a kick in before Shiro starts dragging him.This is not Shiro, his mind screams. Keith digs his elbows into the ground, slaps his palms down, tries to find any kind of purchase he can but finds none. His forearms burn. His shoulder hurts. He tries shouting, yelling, shrieking, but his voice is lost to empty halls.No one hears him. No one but Shiro.Keith struggles for his life. Shiro yanks him sideways when he cries out for help, swinging him into walls and corners. It becomes clear then, that this is not Takashi Shirogane. Behind the panic, behind the horror, Keith realises that this Shiro is not the same Shiro who vanished from the Black Lion.He realises all the signs he missed now, too: the length of Shiro’s hair, too long – something Keith had thought must’ve been simply due to time dilation; the lack of PTSD symptoms; the way Shiro kept trying to take over Keith’s leadership instead of standing back and letting Keith make the calls; ordering where he never used to; raising his voice, where he never used to…And not appearing the least bit fazed when Keith said he was leaving Voltron for the Blades just minutes ago.He should’ve seen the signs. Unfortunately, it’s too late for that now.After being dragged for several hundred metres, Shiro slows to a stop in front of an unused storage closet. It opens with a squeak of the handle and hinges. Space dust floats out. Shiro stares into, expressionless, and Keith seizes the opportunity to roll in on himself, latch onto Shiro’s and try to bring Shiro to the ground with him –Shiro’s prosthetic hand descends onto the back of his neck.Keith doesn’t feel himself being picked up and dumped careless into the closet. Even though his lungs protest at the space dust, he doesn’t register it. He doesn’t see when the door is closed, shutting him in darkness.He also doesn’t hear the hum of Shiro’s prosthetic hand heating up, the melting of the metal door handle sealing the door shut, nor the sound of Shiro’s footsteps, nonchalant, retreating down the hallway. Before Shiro returns to the bridge, he makes a detour to the hangar. He flies Keith’s ship out of the pod bay, sets in on autopilot and then jumps out and jetpacks back down to Olkarion ground as the ship heads up into upper atmosphere. Because they’re not in space, nobody’s monitoring the Castle’s radars from presence of ships.It’s not until he’s almost back at the bridge that Haggar relinquishes her control. Shiro blinks, wondering why his head feels like he’s been thinking really hard all of a sudden. He mentally shrugs it off.The rest of the day passes and nobody suspects anything. Everyone thinks that Shiro had gone to see Keith off and that Keith had left in that ship. Shiro thinks that too. Keith groans. Something tickles the back of his throat and he coughs. His throat hurts, like he’s been coughing quite a bit already. He rolls onto his back, hoping to open his airways a little more and get some more air into his lungs. It only makes the coughing worse.The movement causes a sharp stab of pain to flare in the back of his neck. Keith winces. His neck aches, pain shooting through the base of his head when moves. It almost feels bruised, it hurts so bad.He doesn’t understand why his head and chest hurt so bad.Opening his eyes is confusing. He tries to, but it’s dark, and it’s only when his brain registers the stinging that he realises his eyes are already open.Panic seizes him. Adrenaline. He coughs, jolts upright. Everything’s dark. There’s not even a strip of light coming from under the door, and without it, Keith has no idea where the door even is. He has no idea where he even is, but he remembers Shiro, and he remembers Shiro dragging him and he remembers Shiro opening the closet door…
Oh quiznak.
Keith scrambles to his knees, ignoring the nausea. He spreads his arms and the backs of his forearms slap into walls. Getting to his feet, he takes a moment to steady his breathing – as much as the coughing will allow – before feeling around the walls, exploring the room.The room’s smaller than a cell. The air is full of dust and Keith chokes on it with every breath he takes. His shins bang into something in front of him, and that’s when he discovers the back wall. There’s a couple of shelves, one about shoulder-height and the other being what Keith’s legs just hit.It’s getting harder to maintain any sense of calm.Keith turns, keeps his palms in contact with wall and takes a few footsteps forward before coming into contact with the fourth wall – the door. He feels around for the door handle, waiting for the moment relief will wash over him, the moment when his fingers will curl around his way out.The wall has no handle. It’s a storage closet; there is no handle from the inside.“No, no – urk!” Keith’s voice is cut off with coughing. He slams his hands into the door, curls them into fists and pounds it with everything he’s got. “He- uk! Someone, plea’e.”Using his voice makes his already sore throat feel like sandpaper. He stops trying to yell and settles with simply using his fists. He tries to barge the door open with his weight, but it doesn’t budge. When he finally remembers his blade, he realises he doesn’t have it on him.Shiro must’ve taken it, he realises with newfound horror. Shiro would never take his blade. Never.Keith has to get out. He has to warn the team that this Shiro’s not who they think he is. That something’s messing with Shiro’s head, at the very least. He has to get out, or else…No, he won’t die here. He can’t die here, choking on dust until he dies of dehydration or lack of air. He refuses to. If he’s going to die, let it be out on a battlefield or in the middle of a fight, not here.You want to be alone? he can almost hear Shiro’s – not-Shiro’s – voice mocking him. You’re alone now. Is this not what you wanted?Whether it’s from the space dust or a storm of confusion, terror and betrayal, tears stream from Keith’s eyes. His vision would be blurred and blinded if he could see anything at all. He sinks to the floor like that, leans his head against the door in defeat and sobs.The emotion gripping his chest is ugly. The reality of Shiro did to him for no apparent reason at all is even uglier.If death is to come to him here, Keith can only hope it comes to him fast. The day after Keith’s departure for the Blade of Marmora is uneventful. On the second day, Pidge leaves on a mission to track down the whereabouts of her brother. Hunk busies himself with continuing to work on a project of his and Pidge’s. Coran heads down to the storage rooms to continue his arduous cleaning of the Castle. Shiro and Allura discuss Coalition and diplomacy on the bridge.Lance is on his way to say hi to Kalternaker when Red startles him with loud rumble of urgency. He’s prompted with an image of nothing but blackness and then, as though somehow related, an image of Keith in his Blade suit.“What?” Lance exclaims. “Red, what the cheese?”The prodding in his mind is insistent. It tugs him, and before he can find mind to question it, he’s following it. Red sends him a mental image of a part of the Castle he hasn’t been to as of yet – the storage, where Coran was headed to clean earlier.“Why do you want me to find Coran?”An image of Keith is superimposed over Lance’s own mental image of Coran.“What do you mean, Keith? Keith – storage – Coran – a visual of nothingness – Red, this makes no sense!”Red growls at him, urgent, urgent, urgent, Keith, storage, blackness, urgent. Lance grimaces at his lack of comprehension and just decides to go along with it. The urgency makes his heart rate pick up, and soon he’s running. He pauses only to take off his lion slippers, and then he’s speeding for the hangar as fast as he can, trying not to trip over the hems of his Altean pajama pants.“Lance!” Coran greets him down in the storage area as he races past. “Is there a wild beast loose in the Castle?”Lance doesn’t answer. Dread pools in his stomach, tightens in his chest. Something’s wrong, he can feel it. Beyond Red’s communication, he can feel it. Gut instincts are always right, as Keith always says. He doesn’t have time to question if he’s maybe just going crazy, because he rounds a corner and trips.He catches himself before he falls, but when turns to look at what he tripped over his blood runs cold. Keith’s belt, blade still in its sheath. The buckle damaged, as though it were torn from him.“Keith?” he calls. No response. “Keith?”Coran jogs to a halt beside him, brow creased. “Keith left a couple of quintants ago, Lan..”While Coran stares in bewilderment at Keith’s belt lying strewn on the floor, Lance follows Red’s prompting to a closet at the end of the hallway. He doesn’t remember walking there, his attention taken by the mess of melted metal spread across the door and the door frame, the handle having been melted into a seal.Lance already knows what’s been sealed inside.“Coran, can you get us some metal cutters or something?” he calls over his shoulder, voice shaking. “S-something to….” He trails off, eyes catching on Keith’s blade. Nevermind. Luxite will do. “Keith, hang in there. Hold on!”Seeing Lance glance at the blade, Coran hurries over with it in his hands. Lance draws it without hesitation, leaving Coran with the belt and sheath, and swipes the luxite blade through the metal. A few cuts in line with the gap between the door and the door frame is all that is necessary. Lance shoves his hand out, blade hilt pointed towards Coran. Coran takes it.Lance yanks the door open.Dust. He coughs. “Keith!”In the thick shadows of the storage closet, Keith lies on the floor curled up on his side. Lance gets on his hands and knees. He reaches out a hand and presses his fingers under Keith’s chin. Keith’s skin is warm, too warm, and his pulse is too weak. Leaning down, Lance turns his head sideways to listen to Keith’s breathing and is alarmed to hear the hoarseness of it.“Hey, man,” he says, tapping his cheek. “Can you hear me? Keith?”Keith’s eyes stay closed. He doesn’t react to the tapping, but when Lance taps him hard on the collarbone he lets out a weak cough.“We’re going to have to move you, okay? Get you to the medbay. You’re okay.”After feeling for broken bones and finding none, Lance gathers Keith in his arms and drags him out into the hallway. Keith’s head lolls against his shoulder. Coran steps in then, slipping an arm beneath Keith’s knees and an arm around his back, an invitation for Lance to let go.“I’ve got him,” Coran murmurs, face full of shock.Lance lets go reluctantly, heart beating too fast, head spinning with too much horror. Coran straightens up, readjusts his grip on Keith’s body and power walks back down the hallway. Lance watches him go, too stunned to do anything. When he gets to his feet to follow, his legs are shaking.He doesn’t want to think about who could’ve done this to Keith. He thinks of how Shiro walked him down to the hangar and he doesn’t want to think about it. Lance staggers over Keith’s belt that Coran must’ve dropped when picking up Keith, and picks it up himself.Had Shiro really gone to the extent of launching a pilotless ship to cover up what he’d done? Is Shiro…even Shiro?Coran’s busy talking on a communicator when Lance gets to the medbay. Keith’s been placed in a bed as opposed to a pod, an oxygen mask covering the lower half of his face. Aside from the oxygen supply he’s been hooked up to, there’s an Altean from of an IV in his hand delivering fluids and hydration into his system.The person Coran’s talking with turns out to be Kolivan. An hour later, a Blade member slips into the Castle of Lion’s medbay. The Castle of Lions has not been notified, and so no one but Kolivan, Coran and Lance know of the Blade’s presence. Coran made sure to monitor the security systems and Lance is ready to cause a distraction if there needs to be one.Ilun, as the Blade introduces themselves, remains undetected. The Altean oxygen mask is replaced with a transportable Blade one, the IV is removed and then Keith’s being carried out of the medbay. Lance, now dressed in Paladin armour having gone back to his room to change, escorts them to the awaiting Blade shuttle landed casually outside the city.Keith stirs as they enter the shuttle, but he’s too delirious to comprehend what’s going on. His eyes are red and a little bloodshot when he opens them. They flick around the room, gaze falling on the blue ‘V’ of Lance’s paladin armour before his eyes glaze over and slip shut.Lance squeezes Keith’s arm in reassurance and goodbye. He tries to figure out something to say, but the Blades are wanting to leave and Keith needs proper medical attention – and personal security – at Blade headquarters. Lance sets Keith’s blade beside him, tucked safely into its sheath again, beside him and steps out of the shuttle.The shuttle doors close, the engines whir and then within the next minute, they’re gone.Coran and Lance agree to keep it quiet between them. When Kolivan sends updates on how Keith’s doing, Coran’s the one who receives them and he updates Lance quietly afterwards.Shiro seems no different than how he’s been since they pulled him out of the small Galran ship. Not wanting to raise alarm among the others or trigger a very, very bad reaction to them knowing, they don’t mention the incident to anyone. Lance comments that it’s almost like Shiro has no idea he even did anything to Keith – like he has no memory of it. Coran agrees with Lance’s observation.Nothing new happens, and their close watching of Shiro brings no new clues. The last they hear from Kolivan is that Keith’s recovering. They hear nothing from Keith himself. Time passes and things happen: Matt returning with Pidge, Naxzela, Lotor, finding Sam Holt, the death of Zarkon, Sendak coming back and the Kral Zera….Coran and Lance don’t forget, but they get distracted. Kolivan has more important duties and Keith just wants to forget. A year later, after flashes in the Quantum Abyss reveal a not-himself Shiro staring Keith down in the same way he’d done before dragging Keith by the ankle and locking him in a storage closet. Keith doesn’t want to think about it, and the incident is far too perplexing to know how to talk about it.It’s a mistake, they realise, when Shiro wreaks havoc on the Castle after Keith, Krolia, Romelle and Kosmo arrive at the Castle. It’s a bad mistake that no one talked about it, but then, after seeing how easily Haggar took control of not-Shiro’s mind, perhaps not talking about it wasn’t such a bad idea after all.During their long journey back to Earth, it’s something Keith thinks about a lot. During one of their planet stop-overs, he pulls Lance and Coran aside and murmurs a quiet thank you that he hadn’t had the courage to say until now.“Just glad we were able to get you out of there,” Lance says. “You know…before it was too late.”It almost had been. The dust in that room had been toxic. Keith had started coughing up blood in the shuttle on the way to the Blade base. It was almost too late, but it hadn’t been.Lance lays a hand on his shoulder, attempting a smile. Both he and Coran look at Keith, their expressions a mix of emotions Keith doesn’t have the heart to read all of. They pull Keith into a hug, and this time the smile Keith’s able to give them when they part is a whole hearted one. Shiro, as it turns out, remembers nothing. When his nightmares dredge it up and Lance quietly confirms that such incident did, in fact, happen, Shiro is sick to his stomach for days. He blames it on the transfer of his spirit into the clone body. Everyone who doesn’t know about the incident believes him.He can’t face Keith, but Keith can face him. Lance eventually relays the news that Shiro ‘remembers’ to Keith, and the first thing Keith does is march right up to Shiro and hug him.“That wasn’t you,” Keith says. “I know you wouldn’t do anything like that.”Shiro cries his first tears since the transfer of his spirit and Keith lets him cling to him as he processes the horror of it all.For Shiro’s sake, they let the nightmare remain unknown to the others and the matter is never spoken of again.