So, this is the sort-of sequel (I say that because I don't know if I'll continue it) to One Who Fights. It's crossposted from my Tumblr, where I wrote it in response to an ask by lexxicona, who said, "So it seems in the trailer for season 2 that Keith and Shiro wind up on the same planet together, and I just wonder how it Keith would reveal to Shiro in that situation that he's probably half galran"

...And then it got away from me and became a 2K thing all its own. Whoops.

Hope you enjoy! Please feel free to let me know if you have any comments or constructive criticism. ^.^

This isn't good.

Keith stood atop his lion, one hand shading his eyes as he surveyed the area. Dust swirled in choking clouds, the land as harsh and desolate as the desert he'd lived in on Earth. Red had barely managed to fly out of the deep canyon they'd crashed in before collapsing, the bond between them fading to a low hum. Their comms were broken, Keith had no supplies beyond his armor and weapons, and there didn't seem to be any other signs of life within the area.

Wait. There, over that ridge. A hazy cloud of dust that hadn't yet settled, though the wind was slowly blowing it away. That wasn't right. Which meant that something had caused it.

Keith was loathe to leave Red alone, but it wasn't as if he had any other choice. Her protective barrier was up, true, but if Galra ships discovered her while he was gone...

Shaking away doubts, Keith gritted his teeth, checked his weapons, and started walking. The longer he waited around, arguing with himself, the more time he wasted when he could be searching for the others. He and Shiro and gotten thrown out of the wormhole at roughly the same time, so maybe–

...Oh, no.

Black lay in a crater, eyes still and dark. There was no sign of Shiro.

Keith scrambled down the ridge, almost twisting his ankle on loose rocks and half-sliding most of the way. A quick circle around the fallen lion revealed no open hatches of any sort, which meant that he was reduced to poking around Black's mouth in an attempt to figure out how to get in. Shiro didn't respond no matter how much Keith called for him, which didn't help his increasing worry.

"Come on," Keith groaned, almost begging. "Black, please, I need to know if he's hurt!"

Wonder of wonders, Black's eyes flickered once, twice– and her mouth creaked open, just enough for Keith to crawl in. Keith didn't hesitate before quite literally sticking his head in the lion's jaws, pulling the rest of himself in as he all but ran to the cockpit.

When he got there, Shiro was slumped in the pilot's seat, still. Keith bolted over, heart in his throat. No, no, no, Shiro couldn't be–

He was breathing, Keith could tell, and Keith's legs almost buckled from sheer relief.

But Shiro was still unconscious, which probably wasn't good. Shiro needed medical attention, they both did, but with the lions out of commission and their speeders trapped inside the lions, the only transport they had were their legs. Or, well, Keith's legs, since Shiro was still unconscious and didn't seem to be waking up anytime soon.

Keith allowed himself a snarl of frustration. It came out rough and rumbling and surprising even to himself, the sound quite clearly inhuman. Quiznak. His disguise must've been slipping; when he ran his tongue over his teeth, he almost pricked himself on his own fangs.

"This is a disaster," Keith muttered to himself.

The way he saw it, he had two options. One: he could stay with Shiro and the lions and hope that help came before it was too late. On the off chance that Shiro's comms were working, he could try to hail the Castle or the other lions. He didn't want to send out a distress beacon just in case this was a Galra-occupied planet, in which case a distress beacon would've been little more than a giant target on their backs.

Two: he could take Shiro and try and find civilization, find help. That wasn't particularly desirable, really, since he had no idea how far they were from people and there was a risk of running right into a Galra patrol or something. On the other hand, people meant supplies and medical care, which Keith and Shiro currently had none of.

Keith sat down on the floor, pulling off his helmet. He leaned back against a console and closed his eyes, just for a moment, as he tried to marshal scattered thoughts together. He had to pick an option, he knew that, but which one?

After about a minute, however, the decision was made for him.

The roar of an engine sounded from outside. Keith's eyes snapped open. He grabbed his helmet, on the alert, and scrambled to his feet. If he was lucky, it was help. If he wasn't...

He had his bayard at the ready, too. Just in case.

As Keith drew nearer to the lion's mouth, he began making out voices. The tones they spoke in were unexpected, as well: shock, a bit of horror, confusion. And... was that hope?

Who were these people?

Steps silent, Keith crouched just inside the lion's jaws. If they tried to come in and were hostile, he could easily take them out from his position. If not, well... he'd go for non-lethal hits.

Someone rapped metal like they were knocking on a door, and one of the voices called out, "Hello? Is anyone in there?"

Keith didn't reply, unsure if it was a trap. They didn't sound like Zarkon's soldiers, but he couldn't be certain.

Footsteps crunched over dirt. "What do the scanners say?" the first person asked another, a little farther away.

"Two people, one in the head and one right in front of you," the second person reported. "They can probably hear us, you know."

The first person came back. "Really?" They crouched to peer into Black's cracked-open jaws, and all Keith saw was a glimpse of yellow eyes and purple skin before he lashed out.

There was a startled yell and the face fell out of sight, prompting the rest of the strangers to rush over. Keith counted maybe five, if he was hearing things right, and swore under his breath. Maybe if he was fresh he could have defeated them, but they were probably heavily-armed and all he had was his bayard and his dagger.

"Are you okay?" Keith heard someone ask the first person. "Quiznak, you're lucky they missed your eye!"

The first person laughed, a throaty sound that had Keith tensing up. "I'm fine," they said, and there came the sounds of someone hauling themselves back up to their feet. "Well, at least one of them's awake and alive."

Someone with a lighter tread walked up, wondering, "Are they mute or something, though? I mean, they can probably hear us but they aren't saying anything."

A snort, and another person replied, "Or maybe they're just cautious. Like Sekai should have been." Addressing the first person, they scolded, "You stuck your face right up there! That was stupid; what if they'd had better aim? Or worse, stabbed instead of slashed. You could be dead!"

Keith frowned. The way the strangers interacted with each other definitely didn't sound like they were soldiers. But that first one had been Galra. Unless–

Maybe my father wasn't the only Galra rebel.

Which was a bizarre thought, but once he thought about it, rather plausible. Surely not all Galra could be bad.

...Except that meant he'd just attacked a potential ally. Oops.

From outside came the sounds of people moving around. Another person came up to Black's jaws, this time not crouching down. "Whoever's in there," they began, "we're sorry for spooking you. Sekai's kind of an idiot sometimes," an indignant protest from the first person drifted over at that, "but he means well. Don't worry, we're not with Zarkon. We're with the rebellion, and we're here to help."

Keith still didn't reply, but he was seriously considering it.

The person let out an audible sigh. "Look, you can't stay in there forever. These lions are huge and pretty visible, so they need to get hidden fast. Without our help, I don't think you can manage that. Not on your own." A pause, then, "Please?"

Well, at this point, Keith didn't have much left to lose. "Fine. I'm coming out."

"Thank the gods," he heard the person sigh, and saw their legs take hurried steps back. Keith crawled out of Black's mouth, bayard still drawn, and–

"Oh, wow," someone said. "He's short."

Keith looked around the group. They were made up of a mishmash combination of races, the Galra he'd slashed leaning back against their ship with a cloth pressed to his face, lifting it for an alien who looked a bit like Rolo to dab some sort of gel on the edges of the wound. The one who had called Keith short was a vaguely amphibious-looking person with wide eyes and oddly shiny skin. Beside them stood a Balmeran, rock-like and broad-shouldered.

The person who'd spoken to him, though... Keith felt his jaw go slack.

She was Altean. What was more, he recognized her.

Orange-brown hair, eyes yellow and dark amber over sandy markings. Keith's eyes widened as memories flashed by: warmth and laughter, a toy fighter ship, the inside of a cockpit with all the controls too high for him to reach. Shoulder rides and playful roughhousing, Keith's mother exasperated yet fond in the background. The woman was–

Auntie, Keith thought. Oh. Wow.

"Red Paladin," she greeted. "I am Vasiva, a fighter pilot for the rebellion. This is my squad. Sekai," she gestured to the Galra, "Brei," the one healing the Galra, "Yela," the Balmeran, "and Wanal," the amphibious one.

She didn't recognize him, clearly, and why would she? It had been over ten years, and he still wore his helmet. His human disguise was half-gone, though, and it didn't take much to let it fade completely.

There's no going back now.

Keith let his bayard dissolve. "I'm Keith," he replied. Adding, as he took off his helmet, "But... I used to be known as Keithek."

For the first time in over a decade, he let another see his true form. "Hi," he said a bit sheepishly as he took in their gobsmacked expressions.

It's been a long time.

By the time Shiro woke up, they were safely in the rebellion's underground base on this particular planet, the lions hidden from the Empire and the paladins given a chance to recover. Keith had spent hours answering questions about where he'd been for all these years, how he'd ended up with Red, and so on. He'd only just managed to drag himself away, and now he was half-asleep next to Shiro's bed in the rebels' medical ward.

Keith was tired enough, in fact, that he didn't even realize that Shiro was awake until he heard a groggy, "Where am I...?"

"Shiro!" Keith startled back to awareness so fast he almost got whiplash. "You're awake!"

"Keith?" Shiro turned to look at him, and then– "Keith! What happened to you?!"

"Huh?" Keith blinked at him. Keith was pretty sure he wasn't bleeding or anything, so what was it?

Shiro looked as if he was on the verge of a heart attack. "Your eyes! And your hair! And your face!"

"...Oh. That." Keith could have kicked himself. Stupid! He wasn't disguised as a human anymore, and none of the others had known. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Quiznak. Please don't hate me, he thought, scooting back as cold fear dropped over him like a lead weight. Please, please don't hate me. I don't think I could take it if you did.

"Um," Keith said around the lump in his throat, "I'm kind of... not human?"

Shiro blinked at him. "I'm not dreaming, am I?"

Keith shook his head.

"...Okay. You look kind of Galra. Sorry. It's a little weird," Shiro said, but before Keith could shrink in on himself Shiro hastily continued, "but you look kinda Altean, too, so. Um. It's fine. You've really been an alien this whole time?"

Keith nodded. "Half Galra, half Altean," he replied. "And– I'm really sorry for not telling anyone. I didn't–" he stopped swallowed, and forced himself to keep going. "You're not scared? Angry?"

Shiro grimaced. "It's definitely going to take getting used to," he admitted, "but you're still Keith, right?" He shook his head and glanced at the IV that someone had put in his arm. "Sorry. My thoughts are kind of all over the place right now. Maybe it's the alien drugs." His eyes cut back to Keith. "Wait. Half Altean?"

"Zarkon didn't manage to get all of them," Keith replied. "They're scattered. Hiding. A lot joined the rebellion, like my mother. She was a fighter pilot, too."

Shiro laughed. "I guess it runs in the family."

Keith grinned. "I guess so," he laughed, and warmth curled sun-bright in his chest.

That could have gone a lot worse.

Author's Note: ...Honestly, the only reason Shiro took it so well was probably the alien drugs. He's really out of it so he's not even sure this is real, but he'll probably freak out later once he's in his right mind. :P