Burnt Out {A Hero!AU Sheith Fanfiction}

Suspicions Arising

"This isn't some casual discussion, boy! I'm asking you a single question, and you must answer! Why wasn't there a body?"

Zarkon's voice boomed about his office, loud and threatening. He was standing over his desk, both hands slammed into the wooden surface, each curled into tight fists. So tight, it almost looked as though he could split the skin of his palms with those sharp nails of his. His face was twisted into a look of dangerous anger as he glared down at Keith, eyes like the fire Keith liked to use to kill his victims -- blazing and crackling behind those enraged irises.

"I told you I wanted to see it! I gave you direct orders!" he continued to shout, leaning forwards a bit. "You said the mission was a success, so why wasn't there a body?"

"I didn't get the chance to burn the body," he said, his voice full of a bitter hatred as he glared at Zarkon. "The flamethrower Sendak gave me ran out of fuel and I couldn't burn the body so I left it and told Sendak to come get it. Obviously I just missed his fucking pulse or something, alright?"

He was getting really sick of this. He'd known this was coming when he left Shiro alive and he'd known it was coming the second his phone had started ringing that morning. He knew that Shiro would have been his downfall whether he'd killed him or not. If he had killed him, the guilt would have driven him insane. Instead, he was left at Zarkon's mercy unless he could convince him that it was just some kind of a mistake.

He pulled up the picture on his phone that he'd sent to Sendak the night before and dropped it onto the table in front of Zarkon.

"See? I thought that I'd done the job and evidently something went wrong. Let's leave it at that. When I've got a full canister and I can get ahold of him again then fine, I'll make sure that he's burnt to a crisp." What else was there to say? It wasn't like he wanted to tell Zarkon that he'd willingly decided not to kill Shiro. He didn't want to say that he'd been too much of a coward and backed down. Not when his only reason was that he knew who Black was and he couldn't do that to someone so important to him. Zarkon would definitely kill him if he even hinted at having an emotional weakness like that.

Zarkon didn't even dignify the photo with even a glance. Instead, he simply gave a huff of an angry scoff, and shook his head. "I know you're a idiot, but no one is that Goddamn stupid," he growled, lifting his hand and pointing a finger at him. "You're telling me that the Black Paladin is still alive because you slipped up on basic procedure? You check the pulse! Always! At the very least you should have unmasked him and told us his identity! You're lucky I don't kill you now for your incompetence."

He leaned back a little, noting the slight relief that flickered about Keith's features at his last little phrase. "One more slip up like that, and I'll gut you like a fish and then send your entrails to everyone you've ever loved," Zarkon threatened, voice deep and dark with promise. "However it is obvious you cannot take such large tasks anymore. I'll send someone else to deal with our Paladin. You can stick to your normal missions -- but your pay will be cut in half for your mistakes."

"You can't fucking do that!" Keith snapped without even thinking, glaring at Zarkon. "You told me that I'd get full pay if I killed ten people as per your command. We had a verbal agreement! You can't just change your mind because I made one mistake that you could fix if you just got one of your hundreds of people to take over that job! It wouldn't cost you anything!"

He moved away from the desk, just a step or two back, and kept his glare fixed on Zarkon, unwavering. He wasn't going to back down or change his stance on this. Zarkon had promised to pay him $100,000 for every ten people that he'd killed. He'd never mentioned being able to change or dock pay over what, a 'mistake'? Keith wasn't going to be killing people for $5,000 each. He wasn't going to be putting himself and his life at stake every time he went out for a mission for that measly pay. He'd only agreed to taking this job for a price as low as 10k per person because he was desperate and the money he was earning was meaning less and less as the years went by. He'd have pushed it to at least 20k if he'd known what he was doing back then.