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

Chapter 6

When Keith came to, he was happy to find that his head hurt much less, along with the rest of him.

He was, however, incredibly peeved at the fact that he found himself chained up, now wearing rags, and also in what appeared to be a prison cell. Oh, and they'd even gone as far as taken his shoes as well.

There was a cold metal anklet clamped to his leg, with a chain attaching him to the wall behind him. On both sides of the cell were walls similar to the one he was chained to, all three were made of the same ugly purple rock as the rest of this goddamned planet. One fierce tug on the chain told Keith the walls were sturdy, and wouldn't easily break away. The ground was cold and slightly sandy beneath his bare feet, and he brought his legs closer to himself in an effort to stay warm. He was still wearing his undergarments he usually wore under his paladin armor, thank god, but with an addition of a ratty green tunic-like shirt. The fabric was rough under his fingers, and it smelled awful, but it was keeping his torso warm, so he kept it on.

Ahead of him, he had no wall, just thick, rusted, floor-to-ceiling iron bars. He could see into the other cells through them, and there was a small commotion as the other prisoners saw that he was awake. They kept their voices soft, and though he didn't speak any of the languages he was hearing, it was apparent their intentions weren't malicious. If anything, it almost seemed like they pitied him, apologizing to him, but for what, Keith didn't know.

He swallowed, and moved to retrieve his knife to break the ankle cuff with, only to find he no longer had it. Frustrated, he slammed his fist on the ground. He was still tired and hungry, thirsty and in pain. All he wanted was to be able to leave this planet and find someplace decently safe to sleep. But of course, it was just his luck he'd managed to get kidnapped so easily, and now he had to get himself out of this mess.

With his heart in the pit of his stomach, he shuddered from the cold and tried to work his fingers around the metal to try and pry it off another way.

*

Pidge had shown the rest of the team what she'd discovered, explaining the map and the wormhole situation. At first, the entire team wasn't equally convinced the search was worth it.

"Keith's fully capable of getting himself out of situations like this. He's a member of the Blade now, I'm sure he's fine." Replied Shiro as Pidge wrapped up her explanation. Her face fell.

"But Shiro-" She started, only to be cut off by their sympathetic leader.

"I know, I wanna find him, but we need our heads in the game. He's not a paladin."

There was a stony silence, broken only by Lance as the teen glared daggers at Shiro.

"How can you say that? How can you- we talked about this! We had a, a meeting! First of all, we all agreed we wanted to ask him to come back, second- I- it's Keith! You're Shiro, you guys do that stupid thing where you guys- you care about one another and stuff- if anyone should be worrying about him it's you!" Shiro was taken aback, opening his mouth to reply, but he snapped it shut as Lance stalked over to him and shoved a finger in his chest.

"It doesn't matter if he's a paladin or not. Just like how it doesn't matter if he's Galra or Human. He's Keith and he's our friend and I'm going to find him."

He turned on his heel, swallowing over the lump in his throat as he walked out. "Send me the coordinates to the first planet to check, Pidge. Please." He said, not even waiting for her response before he left the room in the direction of the hangers.

*

Shiro stopped him before he even got halfway to his lion.

"Lance." He put a hand on his shoulder, maneuvering them so Lance was looking at him.