Adrenaline filled all of them. It always did in battle. It was a curse and a blessing. It made it so hard to think sometimes but it made sure they did things they never thought they were capable of when they weren't in battle. It also helped Hunk act without being too anxious and Lance to be more confident on the inside as well as the outside.

Adrenaline was good. The feeling of it leaving was not so much. They had taken down a Galra ship from the inside. The plan was to not be noticed but of course they did but, luckily, everyone was responding when Shiro ordered them to state their injuries when they flew away in their lions, so Keith knew that, even if they lied about their injuries, at least they were alive and coherent.

The last lion arrived in the hangar just seconds before the castle jumped through a wormhole and everyone exited their lions. Lance was holding a bloody hand to his waist and Pidge and Hunk hurried to his side to help him to the medical bay. Pidge and Hunk looked like they would need a bit of medical attention too but it looked like it was nothing urgent.

Shiro lingered in the hangar. Probably to see if Keith really was as okay as he had said. Keith wasn't as fine but he was fine enough to go to the medical bay by himself. The vertigo was almost completely gone and he couldn't see how Shiro would be any help if he had needed it as Shiro looked like he could barely stand upright. It hit Keith that Shiro had ordered the rest to state their injuries but he hadn't stated his own.

Keith sighed. There was no way around it and he took off his helmet as he limped the last few steps out of his lion and towards Shiro. His ankle hurt but it was probably just a sprain and he barely felt it over the lingering adrenaline and pulsing pain in his head. He was probably concussed which was never good. Apparently, Altean technology was much better at big wounds and life-or-dead situations than a shaken up brain. Something about different brains or skulls or something. Keith hadn't really been able to listen too carefully through his first space concussion and envy over being the only one with one the one time Coran lectured the team about it.

Shiro were looking at the wound on his side when Keith walked over to him but quickly looked up. His usual smile disappeared before it had fully formed. Keith looked at Shiro with raised eyebrows and slightly widened eyes, asking nonverbally what was wrong. Shiro didn't answer and instead hardened his eyes.

Keith was so focused on Shiro's face that he didn't notice the lit up arm before Shiro took at a step towards him. This was Shiro's warface, Keith would never be able to forget it after having seen it so many times. He turned 180 degrees to see whatever Shiro was ready to attack before he instinctually jumped to the left when he felt a burning heat move towards him.

Keith dropped the helmet in his hand and looked shocked at the arm that had almost hit him. Shiro's arm that had almost hit him.

"What the hell," he said disbelievingly. The adrenaline increased and clouded his mind and made it hard to find a meaning in all this.

Another arm, the human one, tried to grip Keith but he was a split second faster and jumped out of Shiro's reach before turning towards him again.

What was wrong with Shiro? Was this some kind of PTSD flashback? Shiro had never attacked them before, only stared at the air in horror and been paralyzed in fear.

Something was seriously wrong.

Shiro threw himself at Keith and it was only because of dumb luck that Keith could avoid Shiro once more.

"Shiro, look at me! It's Keith."

"Keith?" Shiro looked at him. He looked almost like himself again and Keith's shoulders sagged a bit before Shiro's eyes hardened at the sight of Keith's helmet on the ground. "Keith," He repeated under his breath.

Shiro lifted his eyes to Keith's. "Where is he!?"

Keith had never been afraid of Shiro. He had been afraid for him many times but never of him. However, he was not ashamed to say that the look and voice was enough to make Keith feel like his heart had just stopped and his lungs refused to breath properly.

Keith took a step back as Shiro took one forward. Keith lifted his hands to stop Shiro? Show he was unarmed? Keith didn't even know but it only enraged Shiro and Keith was about to bolt as fast as he could when his eyes landed on his hands. His hands that had broken the gloves of his paladin suit and showed claws and the tip of purple fingers.

What the-

And then Shiro succeeded in hitting Keith. It was the human arm. Thank god. Not only was the Galra arm turned on and would burn Keith's face off, the weight behind the hit alone would probably be enough to kill Keith.

Keith landed inelegantly on the floor. His concussed mind was making the space ship seem like it was a rowboat in the middle of the sea, the lights were a little too bright and he felt nauseous.

Shiro walked towards him with heavy steps and Keith crawled away as well as he could with his back facing the floor.

"Where is he?" Shiro repeated.

"Who?" Keith asked. He told himself the tears in his eyes was because of the blow. It was partly true.

"You're wearing his armor…" Shiro realized. Keith could almost sigh in relief but Shiro was only getting tenser. Keith had his bayard on him. He could fight. He should be able to fight, but he couldn't. Not against Shiro and especially not when he could see blood flowing from the cut on Shiro's side.

"Shiro, please." Keith never begged. He couldn't remember a single time he had been even close to begging but he was doing it shamelessly at that moment.

"Is he in the lion?"

Keith didn't know how to explain himself. He was confused and scared and blood was running so loudly in his ears that he couldn't hear his own thoughts so he simply shook his head.

Shiro's eyes widened and he took one long step towards Keith and fell to his knees.

Yes, this was good. Shiro was recognizing him. Shiro was-

Shiro was placing his unlit but very strong and very capable of lighting up and burning anyone hand on Keith's throat. Not enough to choke him to death. Just enough to give discomfort and take away Keith's chance of escaping.

"He's dead, isn't he?"

Keith shook his head as well as he could but Shiro wasn't listening.

His heart tried to escape through his chest and he was sure Shiro could feel it even if there was no nerves in the metal arm.

Shiro lifted Keith's head an inch over the floor by his throat and slammed him down again. Keith's head fell to the side and he looked at the lions.

Why wasn't Red helping him?

Shiro laid more weight on his throat and Keith placed his hands on Shiro's forearm and tried to pull it away.

Why was his fingertips purple?

This was a nightmare. It had to be.

"I will make you pay."

Oh no. Not Shiro. Everyone but Shiro.

Shiro lifted him by his throat again and Keith thought he was going to be slammed to the floor again. He almost wished for it. Maybe then, he would pass out and either wake up in a world where he wasn't at least partly purple and Shiro wasn't trying to kill him or he would die and not having to face the cruel reality anymore.

"How did you do it?"

Keith opened his mouth but even if he had enough air to, he still had no answer to give.

"Answer me!"

Shiro looked deranged with his wide bloodshot eyes that filled Keith's entire vision.

"That horrible? I'm going to make you suffer just the same."

Please no. Some of the tears that had blurred Keith's vision for a while overflowed and fell down his face. No, no, no.

Shiro slammed Keith's head down. Keith's vision whitened and then blackened but he couldn't have been gone for too long because he came back to a blurry version of Shiro removing himself from him.

Keith could normally have run away but his head was spinning too badly and he could feel barely feel his arms and legs. Everything and nothing hurt all at once.

He still tried though and got into a crawling position, this time with his stomach towards the floor, and moved a few feet towards the exit before a hand closed itself around his ankle and pulled him away from the door.

Keith was so high on pain, adrenaline and fear that he didn't even register if it was the sprained ankle or not. The hand let go and Keith had a dumb hope that meant Shiro had given up or come to his senses.

A heavy foot landed on his back. It forced most of his air out of him but he regained it quickly again even though the foot stayed.

"It's me, Shiro, it's Keith." Keith didn't know the words left him before he heard them echo back at him, but it didn't matter. They were addressed to Shiro. He could trust Shiro. Shiro would listen.

"You can't fool me, Galra." Shiro put more weight on his back.

Galra?

Keith looked at his claws and fingertips. Galra. But how?

"Tell me where you hid him." Shiro had probably never sounded so angry before. He at least hadn't with Keith in the room before.

"It's me, I'm me," Keith answered as clearly and confidently as he could but wasn't very successful. Air was getting sparse and Keith was terrified.

"Stop lying!" Shiro commanded.

Keith could feel his ribs protesting and he let out a pained voice as Shiro leaned over him.

"Please," Keith gasped.

The foot left his back. Keith had never appreciated air as much as he was at that moment. Sweet, sweet air. He would never have thought it would feel so good to move his chest when his ribs ached so much.

A hand took a firm hold of the backside of his chest armor. He would have to ask Allura why the armor had a place where potential enemies could hold them with relative ease if he survived this.

Shiro pulled him up and spun him around faster than Keith's head could handle. He almost threw up on Shiro but managed to control himself.

The worst of the spinning stopped after Shiro had a firm hold of him again and had slammed him into the wall. Keith couldn't feel his legs at all anymore and had to look down to confirm that Shiro was in fact lifting him. Adrenaline was a scary thing when it ran through someone as strong as Shiro and helped him lift Keith effortlessly.

"Stop playing with my head."

"I-I'm not," Keith said earnestly.

"Stop sounding like him!" Shiro shouted and Keith's ears started to ring louder than the heartbeat that wouldn't leave his ears.

Keith made a choking sound. He didn't even know himself if it was because of the spit collecting in his mouth or because of the ball of misery in his throat.

Shiro shook Keith and accidentally hit Keith's head on the wall and caused Keith to bite his tongue. The teeth sliced through the flesh with too much ease and left only a thin slice to connect the tip of his tongue to the rest. It took a moment for Keith to register it but it bled. It bled a lot.

Shiro threw him on the floor at the sight of the blood. Red blood. So, so red. It fell in a puddle where his hands landed. It colored his fingertips red but Keith was just happy to see that his claws were gone.

"Keith?" Shiro asked in a completely different voice than before. He fell to his knees next to Keith and seemed split between whether or not he should touch him. Shiro touched his helmet and said something. Keith couldn't properly hear anything anymore.

Keith's heart beat even faster and he thought he was having a heart attack. He made a sound between gargling and choking and looked up at Shiro's shocked face. At least Keith would die looking at someone he loved. Shiro had been a greater brother than he had naively wished for as a small kid.

Keith also felt disappointment in a moment of clarity. Being the one of the Universe's only hopes was a dangerous job, the least the job could do was killing him in a cool way. Death by tongue biting was probably one of the ways he least wanted to die. It was probably only beaten by choking on food goo or sitting on the toilet like some wannabe Elvis.

His vision became hazy. Dark clouds appeared and spread until there was only darkness. It was peaceful. Keith took a deep breath. He was so peaceful that he could ignore the drowning feeling of blood from his tongue finding its way to his lungs. His heart was still beating fast but it wasn't loud in his ears anymore and his head stopped hurting. Keith breathed out and didn't even care that the last thing he would ever hear was the wet sound of the blood in his lungs.

He didn't inhale again.