Where are you now? (Keith x Reader) [discontinued]

40|| Loss

The five lions landed in front of the Galaxy Garrison, which, naturally, set off all sorts of alarms. Thankfully, Sam Holt helped get things under control, and so we were free to leave the lions.

After getting off the space cats, we approached Iverson, who was accompanied by several other generals, including Holt. Iverson eyed us all distastefully, as if we had been dogs rolling around in the mud.

"If it were up to me, you all would be free to go home," Sam said. "But unfortunately, I don't have a say in this. Commander Iverson, if you will."

"Yes, now, you all have been in space for years now, and we can't afford infecting others with some kind of disease from these aliens," Iverson looked at Krolia, Allura, Romelle, Coran and I with a disgusted look. "We need to run some tests on them, just in case."

I stepped forward, not wanting to deal with any shit right now. I just wanted to see my family. "Actually, I beg to differ. If any of these aliens had some kind of disease, wouldn't they have affected the humans with us?"

"How do we know you're even peaceful?" Iverson growled. "That wolf boy doesn't look so happy right now."

Jared had been growling deep in the back of his throat, as if he wanted to attack Iverson. Which he probably did. Jared snapped. "Maybe I don't like the fact that you want to experiment on us. Maybe the same thing happened to me, and I'm—"

I covered his mouth. "See your student there? Lance McClain? You know how his sister went missing a decade ago? Well, I just so happen to be that sister, and I want to see my family."

Iverson chuckled. "You amuse me. Unfortunately, we will need you to come along willingly or we'll take you by force."

I sighed. I knew we could take them, but we needed to be peaceful. "As long as I get to see my family again. Then I'll come willingly."

Jared started to protest, but at that moment, the Black lion roared. Keith's eyes widened in shock.

"Shiro."

Ditching Iverson, Keith and I ran back to the head of Voltron, where Shiro was in a healing pod. The machine was beeping like crazy, so many things were happening at once. Before, we had asked Kekini if she could heal him, but she said there wasn't anything she could do, so we had no choice but to use the pod. I started panicking. His vital signs were fading, fast.

"No, Shiro, don't die now. Please, don't die," Keith muttered, trembling. I ran back up to the control room and looked out. The Garrison were starting to take the rest of the team into custody. Jared was the only one resisting. I froze, unable to look away. One of the generals slammed him to the ground, putting a muzzle on him. Like he was some sort of dog. I growled.

Running back to Shiro and Keith, I was no longer scared. I was angry.

"Keith! Stay here with Shiro! I need to go sort things out down there!" I yelled. Keith nodded, leaving me to jump out of the lion and run towards Jared.

"Leave him alone!" I yelled at the general, who ignored me, pulling out a taser to knock him out. Jared thrashed underneath the man, his hands now bound as well. You could hear him snarling underneath the muzzle. "Stop it!"

The general looked up at me. He had glasses and brown skin, with hair a slightly darker shade. I growled and started to push him off of Jared. He tried to fight back, but it was impossible to keep Jared pinned down while fighting another. He ended up falling to the ground, and I sat by Jared, whispering soothing words in his ear. I couldn't take the muzzle off, it was locked by something, but even so, I managed to calm the wolf boy down. 

I looked over at the general, who was shocked. I held my hands out.

"You can take me as well. But listen. There is a man severely injured in that Black lion," I gestured to it with my head. "His name is Shiro, he used to work at the Garrison, and he needs medical attention immediately."

The man gasped, then abandoned me and Jared, running to the lion. I ran after him, to which U heard Jared's muffled yells to come free him. 

Inside the lion, Keith had his Marmora blade out, holding it to the general's neck as Keith pinned him to the wall.

"Stop! Please! I'm Adam! S-Shiro's fiancé!" The man gasped. Shiro had a fiancé? And that fiancé.. was him?

Keith snarled at Adam. "Why should I trust you? You were one of the other no good generals who hated me just like Commander Iverson did!"

"Keith! Let him go! He's telling the truth, can't you see?" I said. "He just wants to see Shiro."

Keith hesitantly took the blade away from his neck, and Adam stood still for a second to make sure Keith wouldn't attack him, but then he rushed over to the pod to see Shiro. Adam started tearing up at the sight of him.

"H-How long has he been like this?"

"A few days," I said truthfully. Adam banged his hands on the pod.

"Damn it Shiro! If only you had listened to me... if only..."

Just as he said that, the pod started beeping hysterically. It kept beeping, and each beep was like a stab to my heart. There wasn't anything we could do, we just had to hope Shiro would be okay.

But it never helps to hope. The pod drew out one final beep, which meant one thing. Shiro was dead. 

Both Keith and Adam yelled, but it was Adam who completely broke down. He collapsed on the pod, sobbing weakly. Keith took one last look at Shiro before leaving the lion. I didn't know what to think, or do for that matter. I never hated Shiro, he was actually quite like a father to the team, the glue that kept it from falling apart.

He always made it seem like he would always be there. Now things would feel empty, it wouldn't be replaceable. He wouldn't be there to make terrible puns, wouldn't be there to comfort whoever needed it.

All the anger, the sadness, all the emotion I had felt before... had vanished. I didn't feel anything. I simply stared at Shiro and Adam, and I couldn't help but wonder what would have happened if Shiro had still been alive. He and Adam would've have a happy reunion, then got married. As if someone had turned on a light switch, all my emotion came rushing back to me. Overwhelming sadness, and guilt. I should've realized Shiro was really dead sooner. I should've stopped his fight with Zarkon. I should've stopped this all.

But then again, sacrifice must happen to bring the peace. I looked away from Shiro.

I walked out, and it almost felt like I was walking away from my emotions, because when I breathed in the fresh air on Earth, I knew, this wasn't the end. I had my whole life ahead of me.

Maybe Shiro's loss was a lesson to us all, maybe fate was just being cruel.

Either way, things would only go up from here.

<><><>

He he he... *cries*

I love Shiro more than life, believe me, but when I watched season six, it just didn't feel right for him to live. I know, he's been one of the main protagonists since the show started, but it felt necessary. Almost every single book or show I've read/watched, the protagonist always lives. And while that's great, it's just too cliché. Not to mention that the writers said that they had originally planned to kill Shiro off, but because he was the LGBTQ+ rep, they decided against it.

So... yeah. I felt like this needed to happen, I'm sorry if you don't like it. It physically hurt while writing this, I don't want any of the characters to be hurt, or any of you guys, so yeah.

Thanks for reading, next chap will (hopefully) be out very soon!

-Moon 💙