Keith felt another wave of satisfaction as Red destroyed another ship. So far, everything was going to plan for once. They had taken down a fair number of ships, and most of the rebels had been able to flee the planet.
There were a couple of close calls after Lance and Blue's attack on the ship that slipped through, but it seemed to be under control now. His fingers stroked the hilt of the dagger that sat next to him.
"Thace should be gone by now," he muttered.
"Kid! Keith, do you read me!?" Ford's voice shouted over the headset.
Keith jumped and tapped the communication button on the panel to respond.
"Ford?" Keith asked in shock. "I thought you left with Thace?"
The paladins had granted the rebels the ability to contact the lions directly in case of an emergency. The fact that Ford was using it left a queasy feeling in Keith's stomach.
"In the process to, Kid," Ford sharply replied. "But Thace isn't with me!"
Keith's eyes widened in alarm. "What?! But he's-"
"Droids had gotten into one of the tunnels and Thace went to deal with it," Ford explained. "He said he took them out, but then he got cut off and he won't respond. I'm certain something's happened."
Keith cursed. "And you can't get to him?"
"We've already taken off, there was no time to go back," Ford replied, and Keith could hear the static in the radio. "I'm hoping you can reach him. I'm sending you his last known coordinates."
Keith saw a message appeared on the screen and he instantly clicked on it. His eyes narrowed. It wasn't far from where he was.
"I'll find him," Keith vowed. "Leave it to me."
Ford gave a sigh as more static was heard over the link. "Thanks, Kid and…good luck."
Keith could hear nothing else as static took over. He let out a curse as he turned Red around.
"Shiro," Keith spoke into this helmet. "Thace is in trouble, I have to go and help him."
"What do you mean?" Pidge asked. "What happened?"
"I'll explain later," Keith said. "But I need to go now."
"Alright, but be careful," Shiro replied. "Call us if you need backup. Everyone else, stay focus and alert. Once we get the signal from the last rebel ship we're getting out of here!"
Keith would have replied to confirm, but his mind was too focussed on flying. Red gave a roar as they flew at top speed.
Thace, you better be alive or I'm never going to forgive you!" Keith swore, silently.
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Thace was finding it difficult to keep his stamina the longer the fight dragged on. His wound was throbbing and there was no opening for him to escape. Even if he did, the droids were ready to fire on him. Prorok was secured this fight would have one winner and the odds weren't in Thace's favor.
He grunted as he ducked another blow and attempted to block with his dagger. Prorok snarled as he drew his face closer.
"I can't help, but notice you're not using your regular dagger," Prorok sneered. "Did you lose it when you after you betrayed us and fled!"
"None. Of. Your. Concern!" Thace roared as he used all of his strength to push Prorok back.
The commander staggered slightly and lost his footing as he feel to one knee. Thace raised his dagger, but Prorok tripped him with his leg and knocked Thace to the ground. In an eyeblink, Prorok pounced on Thace and pinned him to the ground. Thace growled and dug his fingers into the ground as Prorok held the dagger to his throat.
"You going to kill me?" Thace spat.
"Hardly, you're more useful to Zarkon alive," Prorok taunted and as he gave a nod to his droids. "However, having you be shot at a few times will insure you are unable to fight before I drag you to my ship."
The droids raised their blasters to aim. Thace took a deep breath and braced himself for a wave of immense pain.
A thundering roar caused the droids to raise their heads and for Prorok turn his head in shock. Thace blinked stunned as the Red Lion flew straight towards them. Before either Galran could say a word, the Red Lion shot a blast of fire at them.
Prorok gave a yelp of surprise as he rolled out of the way. Thace remained where he was as the fire shot over him and hit the droids. Thace braced himself from the heat of the blast and saw Prorok ducked behind a boulder to do the same.
Another shot blast at the other droids as the lion landed and then gave another roar. Thace scrambled at his feet and wasn't certain if he was angry or relieved to see Keith run out of the cockpit towards him.
"What are you doing here?!" he snapped at him as he limped.
"Saving your hide," Keith said as he reached for Thace's arm. "Or did you want to get killed?"
"You took a big risk coming here-" Thace began, but his lecture evaporated as Prorok emerged from behind the bolder while swinging his sword straight to Keith.
"Behind you!" Thace said.
Keith summoned the sword from his bayard and spun around. He blocked Prorok's dagger from cutting his nose off. Prorok laughed as Keith struggled under the commander's weight.
"I find myself a traitor, and a paladin of Voltron," he sneered as he pushsed Keith back a few steps. "Zarkon will be pleased with me."
"Fat chance of that happening!" Keith growled back.
Thace seized the dagger he had dropped on the ground.
"You are a boy!" Prorok laughed. "You believe you can fight me off by yourself?!"
"He's hardly by himself!" Thace cried as he lunged and stabbed the dagger into Prorok's leg.
The Galran commander cried out in pain as Thace kept his grip and dug in the blade. Keith used the chance to kick Prorok back with his left leg. Thace yanked his dagger out as Prorok tumbled backwards and hit his head against the boulder.
Thace panted as he and Keith watched Prorok slump against the rock and fell face first into the dirt.
"Dare I ask who he is?" Keith asked as he kneeled to lend Thace a shoulder.
"Later," Thace said as he leaned against Keith. "We need to leave before he wakes up."
Thace had a brief thought of taking his dagger and finishing off Prorok for good, but he was too injured.
Besides, Thace thought. Having the Red Lion here will lure in the other ships. We don't have long before they arrive.
Keith wrapped Thace's arm around him and led him inside the Red Lion. The door shut behind him as they entered the cockpit and Keith set him near the pilot chair. He bumped against it slightly, which aggravated the wound and he grunted in pain.
Keith kneeled as he checked Thace over. "That looks bad."
"I've been in worse," Thace replied, which wasn't a lie. "Nevermind me, get flying."
Keith's eyes hardened like he was tempted to argue, but the boy sighed as moved into the pilot seat. "Hang on, things could get a bit bumpy," he warned.
Thace nodded as he leaned back. With adrenaline leaving his body, the agony of his injuries were increasing. "How did you know I was in trouble?" he asked.
"Ford sent me a message," Keith said as the Red Lion took to the air.
"Ah," Thace said as he shut his eyes. "Should have known."
"Coran, listen," he heard Keith speak into his helmet. "I'm going to need a healing pod ready when I get there…No, no, it's not me, it's Thace." He heard a sigh. "Yes, I have Thace, Shiro. It's a long story."
Thace went to shift his weight to make himself more comfortable and suddenly realized he was still clutching Keith's dagger in his hands and sighed.
I guess this means we'll be exchanging daggers sooner than expected.
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By the time Keith and Red Lion rejoined the group, the other rebels had fled and it was time for team Voltron to do the same. The rest had happened so fast.
Thace didn't talk much as Keith flew Red Lion back to the castle. Keith was getting more concerned with each passing second it was a sign the Galran was getting worse. As soon as the lion flew into the Castle of Lions, they fled the planet and went through a wormhole before the remaining Galra ships tried to follow.
Coran had a healing pod set and ready to go. Keith noticed both him and Allura exchanged awkward glances as Keith let Thace lean on him to walk. He sincerely doubt Thace would let anyone actually carry him, but at the rate they walked, with Thace limping, it was going to take forever to get there.
Keith had never been so grateful when Hunk appeared and took Thace's other arm to speed up the process. He wasn't able to see Shiro's expression, but Keith had a feeling seeing a Galran on their homebase did not make their leader comfortable.
Before long, Thace was set in the healing pod and Keith went to shut it, but not before Thace slipped his dagger back to him.
"I will…say," Thace whispered, "I did not expect to give it back to you this soon."
Keith opened, but then shut his mouth as he gave a nod before shutting the healing pod. He sighed and rubbed his eyes as Thace went into a deep sleep before turning to Coran.
This had not be the outcome he'd been expecting.
"Is he going to be okay?" Keith asked as he saw the other paladins and Allura enter.
"It will take a day or so," Coran said as he tapped the monitor. "But he should be restored to full health with no problems."
"Uh, great," Hunk said as he rubbed his neck. "So…what do we do when he wakes up? Help him get back to the rebels?"
Pidge winced. "That will be a little tricky since the resistance didn't exactly leave us a contact number."
"Yeah," Lance said as he looked to Keith. "How did you know Thace was in trouble anyway?"
"Ford contacted me and I went to investigate," Keith said as he folded his arms. "But he didn't tell me how to contact them afterwards."
"Best we can do now is just wait and see what happens," Shiro stated and looked to Allura. "Leah did mention she was interested in forming an alliance with us, so I imagine they will try to get in touch with us."
Allura smiled and nodded. "In that case, we'll simply treat Thace like we would any other guest. We know for certain he means us no harm, so him staying with us until the resistance comes for him shouldn't be a problem."
Keith chewed his bottom lip. He had wanted to ask Thace questions, but that had been on the belief he could escape back to the castle if he became overwhelmed by the answers. It was harder to do so with him on the ship.
And what about Shiro? Keith thought as he glanced to him. Is he going to be okay with a Galran on the ship?
Shiro's face was unreadable, but he did seem to not trying to be looking directly at Thace.
There was a squeeze at Keith's hand and he glanced to see Pidge was the culprit.
"It's going to be okay," she whispered. "At least you don't have to worry about him running off on you, right?"
Keith gave a small smile and nodded. "Yeah, there's that at least," he whispered.
"In the meantime," Coran said as he cleared his throat. "That was quite the battle and I believe some recuperation is in order."
"Sounds good," Hunk said as he rotated his shoulder. "I'm in desperate need of a shower and food."
"Excellent!" Coran said as he began to lead a way. "I got a proper feast set out for you all-"
"He meant a normal meal, Coran," Lance exclaimed as they trailed after him.
"It is very 'normal'," Coran continued, "especially if you're from the planet Amerath."
A series of groans was heard. Pidge gave Keith a small wave before chasing after the others. Keith remained where he was as he turned to look back at Thace, but then heard footsteps and realized Shiro had stayed too.
"Hey, you okay, Buddy?" Shiro asked as he placed a hand over his shoulder.
"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" Keith asked with a look. "Can't imagine having Thace here on your home turf is..easy for you."
Shiro gave a forced smile, but his eyes looked exhausted. "I'll adjust," he said. "I know logically he doesn't want to hurt us but…takes awhile to actually know that, you know?"
Keith nodded and leaned against his foster brother. Shiro could say that with a regular Galran…but…if Keith was what he thought he was, would Shiro still accept him?
"What's wrong, Keith?" Shiro asked as he wrapped an arm around his shoulder. "That worried about Thace?"
"No, it's.." Keith started and shook his head. "No, it's nothing..at least nothing I can talk about right now."
Shiro raised an eyebrow, but kept his mouth shut as he steered the two of them towards the door. "Let's go get cleaned up." He gave a laugh. "Don't know about you, but I'm starving."
Keith nodded as he stole one more glance at Thace before returning his gaze back ahead. He would get his answers soon enough, but until then, there was no point dwelling about the unknown.
Keith wrapped his fingers around the hilt of his own dagger. When Thace woke up, there was no turning back for either of them.
End of Part 2
Author's Note:
And that's the end of part 2. I know it didn't have all the reveals people have been waiting for, but I promise you all everything is going to come to a head in part 3.
The reason for that is because this story had enough going on, and once we get to the actual connection between Thace and Keith I just felt it would overtake the whole story, and part 2 had enough going on with everyone else. Thus, I felt that plot point needed it's own separate story. This story was mainly for letting a chance for all the characters to have a moment. Part 3 will mostly be focussed on Keith and Thace again.
As for part 3, I'm not posting it yet since I'm not finish it, and I rather have the whole story complete so I can give you guys the regular updates you're use to for this. With that said, I am more than halfway done part 3 so hopefully you all won't have to wait too long for it.
In the meantime, while you wait, if you wish to send me questions about this AU to my tumblr feel free.
I won't answer anything too spoilery, but if you want to poke me questions about the rebels, what my headcanons for the world is or even that Thace was like as a young rebel, etc go right ahead.
Thank you all for sticking with this series! It pleases me so much that you guys are enjoying it as much as I am writing it. ^_^