Fractured: Voltron

Dopleganger

Keith was taken aback.
The figure stared with a wild hatred in his eyes; but it looked like a hatred that was always there.
He knew it was me all along...
Keith thought.
The other Keith's sword was plunged into the ground, as he swiped a drop of blood from his face.
The real Keith grabbed his own blade and stood, taking a few steps back and holding it out in front of him.
Keith also took notice of the two marks on each side of his opponents face.
That's what Keith decided to call them-
They are like any other Galra- they aren't me.
This is a trick.
There's no way it's real.

The Galra stood and stared emotionlessly at Keith. With one smooth motion he yanked his sword from out of the rocky soil, twirled it in his hand and matched Keith's stance.

The two stood face to face, like a broken mirrors distorted reflection and original image projected into reality.
Let's finish this Keith thought, finally rushing forward.
The Galra crouched down, taking a step back and swinging violently at Keith with his sword once he got close enough.
Keith anticipated this and crouched lower and kicked at one of the Galras legs.
It was a forceful enough hit for Keith's opponent to fall and also slide a bit, but it took a mere second from when the Galra hit the ground to him standing upright again; and Keith was caught slightly off guard, just barely lifting his sword to block a blow that would have embedded itself into Keith's chest cavity.
For some time they traded blows, which seemed to Keith like it wouldn't be as bad as when the Galra was just violently thrashing his sword at him. But Keith felt the force behind each strike, knowing each one was intended to kill him.
One moment of hesitation drew the line between continuing to fight or a violent, bloody death.
Where is Lance when you need him
The thought popped into Keith's mind.
He almost took no notice of the small cluster of words as his mind was currently possessed by a less pleasant thought-
You are about to die if you don't get your shit together in time and block his next move
And
You're fighting you're weird evil self but don't get hung up on that because there is no way he's real
But then a realization came to him;
Where is the current Red Paladin?
What if when he was here and began fighting one solider he should have beaten already, Lance was being catapulted into space and torn to pieces by a whole arsenal.
Don't do it.
He willed himself to keep focused.
To keep looking at his opponent.
To keep remembering how he needs to stop him.
But he also knew that Lance could be in worse trouble.
How would you help him?
You hav who lion or ship.
You're not a paladin anymore.
But that doesn't matter.

He took his sword and swung harshly at his opponents own blade.
The blow was an odd and ferocious one that swung the Galra back, for once seeming to knock his dead set determination from him, even if only for a second.
Seizing the moment, Keith than stepped back, gaining slight momentum so he could kick the Galra. His boot connected to the upper chest plate, on the bottom portion of the frayed symbol on the galras chest.

The Galra didn't just fall, he flew backwards.
His sword went clanging off to his side, himself falling a few feet and tumbling. A raspy breathing sound came from him.
I knocked the wind out of him
Keith's mind only registered the thought. He would have taken immense satisfaction in knowing he got a leg up on his unbeatable doppelgänger, but he couldn't waste a second.
All this work,
So he could do two things.
One, grab his opponents sword, which he did by rushing forward and snatching it from the ground and then sprinting to put a fair distance away from them.
And two, look up.
It sounds simple enough but before Keith could only afford one thing to have his gaze locked onto.
He bought himself a window of time to see Lance, even if just for a second, to either put his mind at ease of devise some crazy scheme to get himself into space and help.
It may have been a terrible idea, Keith thought.
One glance couldn't be worth all this. He could easily kill his opponent right now as he recuperates on the ground and catches his breath, with the weaponry of two swords and the fury of wanting to destroy his hideous mirror-illusion self.
Besides, the Galra would know now not to be caught off guard. But these things slipped from Keith's mind. They barely even registered.
His fierce determination to see the red paladin was all that held stock in his mind.
And that was when he saw it.
Five ships, each the size of the smaller one that had brought this horrid Galra before Keith into his world, now hurtled towards the planet.
But where is Lance
Where is Red?
Keith refused to think of what their absence meant.