Don't Forget About Me (Previously, Keith Isn't Dead)

Chapter 3

Keith's eyes snapped open as the screech of the castle's alarm system rang out, shaking the paladins out of their sleep. 

He was the first on his feet, helping pull Pidge up before snatching his dagger from underneath his pillow. Eased only slightly by the weapon in his hand, Keith started for the only exit (hadn't there always been two? Maybe he was gone longer than he thought.) only to freeze at the sound of heavy footfalls coming down the hall. 

A sharp tug on his arm sent Keith stumbling away from the entrance moments before a small fleet of Galra druids came barreling through with Matt, Coran, Allura, and Shiro in tow. 

The kids put up a fight, but these soldiers were much harder to kill quickly, and soon all Keith could see were their armored bodies. They were grabbing at him from all sides. Swiftly, he spun around to bury his knife into the druid closest to him, but found that only his empty fist made contact- when had he dropped his dagger? Any hope for hand-to-hand combat disappeared as Keith's hands were wrestled behind his back, and he was brought out of the fight. 

Oddly, despite the scuffle having occurred in the common room, Keith and his druid exited the fray and entered a large hanger, very reminiscent of the one Keith had stolen from just hours ago. 

He wasn't given any time to question the logic of his current environment, however, as the doors to the hanger opened with a deafening screech. Keith didn't have time to scream as the vacuum of space took over, violently pulling them all into the void. 

Confused and distressed, Keith tumbled through space, barely even registering that he had no helmet on nor had oxygen. He whirled about fruitlessly trying to float over to his friends, who had somehow gotten their suits on and had used their jetpacks to meet up. 

"Little help here?" He grumbled, unable to hide his frustration from being left out of the loop. 

No one replied. In fact, if it weren't for Lance sending him an apologetic look, Keith would have assumed they hadn't heard him. 

"Hey! Guys-" He grunted as a blur of metal passed by him, sending Keith spiraling once more. When he righted himself once more, his gaze met the lions', and Keith watched as Coran was picked up by Allura in Blue, and Matt by Pidge in Green. 

No one else was floating helplessly in space but him. 

Sending a sour look up at Red, the closest lion, Keith waved his arms. "C'mon Lance, it's not funny." He growled, still unable to propel himself in any direction. 

Red roared, and Keith's shoulders sank in relief, taking the earsplitting response as a sign that Lance was done messing around. But, when Red shot forward, it was towards the hanger- not Keith, and the stranded ex-paladin could do nothing to stop himself from being thrown to the side by the force of the lion. 

With all the paladins (and Coran and Matt) safely in their lions, the battle resumed tenfold. Fighter jets swarmed them only to be blasted to smithereens. The fight was efficient. Each paladin had someone else's back, and they moved fluidly as one. 

Despite being as far on the sidelines as the universe seemingly wanted, Keith's heart was racing faster and faster as the seconds ticked by. 

Why had they ignored him? Why had no-one, no-one, taken him into their lion? The sounds of battle faded as Haggar ordered her troops to retreat. Keith was left alone in the crushing silence. Surely now, now they would pick him up. The danger was gone, there was no other reason to leave him- 

Except one. He could see it, and even as he thought about it his heart ached, just a little. 

They got along just fine without him. He had seen it in their closeness just last night. How they acted with one another- their conversations, their little touches, side smiles, knowing looks, inside jokes- they, well they moved on. Without him. Just like he knew they would, just how he had anticipated.