Devil's Advocate (Voltron: Legendary Defender Fanfic/ONC Entry)

What is Corruption?

An electric feeling coursed through his body. Lance found himself not breathing as he looked down at the blade resting in his hand. The excitement began welling in his chest yet his mind rushed with many thoughts. One of the first thoughts crossing Lance's mind was how the blade looked like Keith's, almost as if everything was on some kind of repeat, and yet he also found himself wondering how Keith was, in fact, able to become a member of the blades.

"How does this work? Lance held the blade in front of his eyes admiring the blade.

"You'll know when the time comes."

Lance lowered the blade, but his eyes no longer saw the dark Slav in front of him. He pushed the nagging feeling something was wrong into the back of his head and instead shrugged his shoulders. He tucked the blade into his jacket and started walking without knowing where he was headed. His blue eyes drifted towards the ground while his mouth twisted into a frown. With his head down he didn't see the other person coming around the corner.

Crashing into the person knocked Lance backward and he found himself falling onto the floor. The blade remained in his jacket, yet he almost felt a humming sound in the back of his head, yet he knew he'd not hit his head. Mentally his mind registered the fact the person he bumped into was female which in turn was enough to turn on the urge to flirt with the female in question. Lance let his mouth twist into a smirk and looked up. "So.."

Any thought of flirting slipped his mind upon seeing who the female was. She leaned forward letting her dark fingers reach down in hopes of helping him up. "How are you, Lance?"

"Veronica?" Lance took her hand and let her help him up but watched her facial features twist in worry.

"You don't have to put on a brave face and pretend like everything is okay, particularly in front of me. I'm your big sister, so you can talk to me about anything if you want to. You do know that, right?"

"You can't possibly understand how I'm feeling." Lance shoved his hands into his pockets.

"No, I can't." Veronica took a deep breath. "That said..."

"Don't tell me you understand how it feels to see someone you care about hurting, because..."

Lance watched his sister's eyes widen. "Why would anyone say something like that?"

"What?" Lance swallowed slightly. "What do you mean by that?"

"What do I mean?" The corners of Veronica's mouth twisted slightly. "That's putting my feelings before yours, but all it achieves is guilt tripping a person into apologizing for the way they feel when they shouldn't have to."

"I see." A thought crossed Lance's mind. "Hey, you have a degree in psychobabble. What does corruption mean to you?"

"Corruption?" Veronica folded her arms across her chest and let her dark fingers dig into the fabric of her white Atlas uniform. "That has a strong implication of morals doesn't it, so I guess a good way to define the word is when one's morals aren't in the right and someone's done something wrong. Why do you ask?"

"No reason." Lance shrugged his shoulders and walked away.

His inner voice spoke up. "If she wasn't your sister you would have flirted with her, wouldn't you have?"

"What are you talking about? As my mother said I am not a ladies' man."

"Isn't that a lie? And didn't you react to Veronica the way you did because you pretty much said what you didn't want to be said to you to Allura."

"Shut up. I wasn't in the moral wrong, so I'm not corrupt."

"Then who is?"

"Keith." Lance let his eyes roll into the back of his head. "I mean, he's trying to steal Allura away from me. He's like one of those stalkerish guys who think they can wear a girl down until she dumps the guy, she's supposed to be with but is possessive and won't let go of her. Like Lotor if you think about it."

"Sounds like..."

"And then there is the fact he thinks he's so special! He's got to be the best at everything and stills all the thunder and glory! It's so completely irritating! He doesn't have to worry about anything whereas I'm constantly worrying about how I'm supposed to fit into the team!"

Whatever the voice wanted to say Lance didn't hear or even give a chance to.

"He's also a major jerk. I mean, he's the one who said he'd let me go free from Bob's gameshow simply because he doesn't want to be stuck with me for eternity. I was at least nice enough to acknowledge the fact he is important to the team as the leader. I mean, he waltzed right in and said Shiro wanted him to be leader and..."

Lance's train of thought drifted slightly.

"... and Shiro always, always favors him, so of course the black lion would choose him over me. At least I got him when I said he could never ever have the blue lion and that he was jealous of the fact I have blue." Lance stopped speaking. He now stood in front of the door of Keith's quarters much, in the same manner, Keith was in front of the door to Lance's quarters when Keith asked about who the previous paladin of the blue lion was.

Unlike the time before Keith didn't come to the door like Lance had when Keith was outside the door.

"Are you ignoring me, Keith?" Lance raised his fist and banged on the door a few times before the electronic door slid open with a whooshing sound revealing Keith. The former leader opened and closed his eyes slowly almost as if the slight bags under his eyes hurt.

"What?"

Lance poked Keith in the chest and forced his fellow paladin back into the room. Lance heard the door whoosh behind him. "You! I'm tired of you!"

Keith looked at Lance without saying a word, but his eyes didn't blink.

"What business did you have bringing Allura back? Huh?"

"I..."

"Don't! It should have been me, Keith!"

Keith's eyes closed and a breath of air escaped his lungs indicating he was in fact quite tired. "I don't have an answer for you, Lance."

"You don't have an answer? She was my girlfriend! My girlfriend Keith."

Keith's entire body stiffened slightly while his arms folded across his chest. "I got that! Everyone's got that, so why do you have to keep rubbing it in!"

"Because apparently, you don't get it!" Lance lifted his hands into the air in frustration. "You're always hogging the glory and stealing everyone else's thunder!"

"I don't."

"You do." One of Lance's hands reached into his denim jacket but felt the knife waiting. He heard a humming sound, begging him to let it take in the corruption. "You hog all the attention. From Shiro. From everybody for that matter."

"Hold on!" Keith's hands fell to his side in protest, but he swallowed deeply.

Lance felt the corners of his mouth twist. The next thing he saw was Keith looking down with his eyes wide and the blade now protruding from his chest.