The Galra Boy [discontinued?]

Alfa-532: Part II

TRIGGER WARNING: This chapter contains gore.

Lance and Blue flew as fast as they could, but Alfa-532 was at least a varga and a half away from the Castle while flying at top speed. They managed to make it a varga.

Lance landed at the front door of the prison and blasted the door open with his bayard. "KEITH! I'M HERE!" He shouted.

There was no answer.

"Uh... Keith?" A slight breeze passed by, and his voice echoed mockingly. He walked slowly down an empty hallway, trying his best to ignore the flicker of the lights. The hall came to a fork. He looked down one side and saw a dead end and a broom closet. He turned the other way and

"HOLY SHIT!" Lance screamed. There was a galran corpse, lying prone on the ground, eyes wide open. "'Everyone's dead...'" he recalled in horror. He tried not to think about any moral implications as he stepped gingerly over the dead body. He proceeded down the hall, worriedly calling Keith's name every once and a while. He began to fear the worst, when suddenly, he heard footsteps. "Keith!" He said with relief, and ran towards the sound.

He darted around a corner, and froze. A sentry robot marched down the hall, but halted upon seeing Lance. It stood still for a moment, before emitting a faint beeping sound.

"Target sighted." It said in a metallic tone. "Objective: Kill." With that, it aimed its laser gun.

"LANCE!" A shout came from behind it, and the end of a sword came out of its chest immediately after. A fizzling sound came out of it, and it collapsed. Keith pulled his activated blade out of the sentry. Upon seeing Lance, he deactivated and sheathed it as he ran towards him. Lance ran forwards as well, and the two embraced when they met.

"You okay?" Keith asked, holding Lance's face between his hands.

"Yeah, yeah, what about you?"

"I'm fine." Keith grabbed Lance's wrist.

"Let's go," he said. He pulled Lance to an open air vent and climbed up inside it. "Follow me," he ordered. Lance obeyed and climbed in behind him.

"What's going on?" Lance asked as they crawled down the vents.

"It's the robots," Keith began. "They've been reprogrammed to kill anything in sight. Once you deactivate one, though, it sends a signal out to bring others to it. If we hadn't left immediately, we would have been outnumbered in seconds."

"Fuck," said Lance.

"The only safe place I could find," said Keith as he climbed out of a vent, "is here." Lance followed him out to find a room that seemed to have no furniture, until he saw the door, which had a room's worth of furniture piled in front of it.

"Was it like this when you found it?" asked Lance.

"Yeah," replied Keith.

"Weird... What do you think happened to who ever did this?" He gestured to the barricade.

"Dead, probably." Keith leaned against a wall. "By the way, try to keep your voice down. The robots can recognize human voices." Lance nodded.

"Geez, this sucks. Why didn't you bust out of here already?"

"The same reason I came here in the first place. I'm on a mission. The Blades are giving me a test. If I give up, my reputation as a Blade of Marmora will be ruined."

"So... You're putting yourself in this dangerous situation... for your pride?!" Lance felt appalled.

"I'm doing this for my future! Our future! Aren't you doing the same thing?" Keith didn't understand the sudden shift in mood. Why was Lance so mad? 

"With me, it's different! I-"

"You matter just as much as I do, you know!" Keith interjected. Now he was angry, too.

"I know, but with me, I have all the other paladins. We watch each other's backs. You're always alone!"

"I've gotten used to being alone. I don't mind it anymore."

"But you should! You should mind it! Why have you been isolating yourself, Keith?! Why didn't you called me until today?!"

"I was cutting out distractions so I could work on becoming stronger. Haven't do done the same thing before?"

"I-" Lance stopped. He suddenly came to a realization; he had been isolating himself. He had been cutting things out; he'd been neglecting everything that made him truly happy. "I have," he said at last. "And I know now that it's not right. I'm going to reach out to my friends again, and I want you to do the same thing." He could feel his heart beating in his chest. It had been so long since he'd felt this sure of anything. Keith, though, seemed uncertain, leaning against the wall and avoiding eye contact.

Keith took a deep breath and sighed. "It's not that simple," he said softly. "I... I guess that... I thought that... if I couldn't be a good enough Blade, I... didn't deserve to be happy."

Lance felt tears fill his eyes. "Keith..." He came up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. Finally, Keith looked up at him, and Lance could see his eyes were misty, too.

Lance leaned in and kissed Keith, his hands gently holding the sides of his face. Keith kissed back and put his arms around Lance's waist. They fell against the wall and slid to the ground, and Lance pinned Keith down in the process. He slid his tongue into Keith's mouth, causing him to release a slight moan. Taking this as a sign of encouragement, Lance ran a hand down Keith's torso, then traced around his hip and gripped his thigh.

"WAIT!" Keith cried without warning, pushing Lance away. "We.. we can't do this. Not here." His breath was heavy.

Reality hit Lance hard. "Right... those fucking robots..." he said sadly.

"Lance," Keith looked up at him, determination sparking in his eyes. "I need to finish this mission."

Lance though for a moment. "Then let's do this together."