꒦ꄲ꒒꓄ꋪꄲꋊ ꄲꋊꏂ ꇙꁝꄲ꓄ꇙ

[ The fallen Paladin. ]

Summary: Keith is told to go on a solo mission and suddenly he stops responding. After an hour of trying to reach him, Shiro and Lance start to go to the planet they know nothing about. Surely Keith will be fine and dandy, right?

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Lance had never seen Princess Allura so panicked, of course, he had seen her infuriated, mad, and all kinds of inclined to brush Lance off. "It's been almost a vaga Princess!" Coran exclaimed, hands twisting his mustache with a nervous demeanor. "Maybe.. he's napping?" Hunk suggested

Hunk's statement caused Lance to look at him with a raised eyebrow "Really? Keith? Mullet-Man is either training or fighting with us to save the universe. I swear the word sleep isn't even in his vocabulary."

Shiro's eyebrows would pinch together, his posture was rigid and his eyes were lost in deep thought his glabellar lines visible. Lance probably guessed it meant he was trying to depict all the possible outcomes of any practical and safe decisions.

Princess Allura chewed on her bottom lip for a tic "He isn't replying on his comms and I can't seem to connect or track the Red lion either!" She cried, voice laced with apprehension.

Soon, everyone was talking over each other about possible reasons for Keith's sudden solemn silence over the comms and or reports.

"Everybody calm down!" Shiro's tone broke in, quietening everyone in the room to a thin waver of silence. "I know everyone is worried about Keith but panicking won't help us figure out what's going on. We will have to go look ourselves." He said squaring his shoulders eyes fixated on the holographic planet (which was the planet Keith was currently either trapped or investigating).

Pidge suddenly piped up "Er ..Shiro? I don't think that's the best idea..well at least all of us going. The ship has taken some pretty bad damage from our last fight with Zarkon, if we get ambushed the only ones here will be Allura and Coran and that's simply not enough defense right now.." She would state, lifting herself up on the balls of her feet and then back down.

That seemed to get through to Shiro, his lips slowly crumbled into a frown. It was quiet for a moment as he began to though but spoke up "Then I and Lance can go and you and Hunk stay here to make sure nothing happens while we're gone." He offered.

Lance looked up suddenly "Huh?" He said Lance had been busy worrying about whether Keith was even still alive. He knew that now they were a war it was a dangerous place and to be fair he now realized how stupid it was to send Keith off to a planet they knew nothing about.

Sure, Keith was a skilled fighter Lance would give him that at least but if a huge strange monster-thing (As Lance described it) appeared surely Keith wouldn't be able to fight it off on his own.

Lance suddenly felt a surge of guilt. He was the one to suggest Keith should go on his own after Keith had been chosen to go. The original plan was for Keith to go with one other person so it would be safer at least in numbers-wise.

But of course, Lance had suggested he go on his own which he knew was partly out of spite but he had reasoned with the rest of the team they couldn't afford to be down too many paladins after the strong blow the gut they took from Zarkon recently.

"-nce..LANCE!" A loud voice suddenly snapped Lance back into the present. "did you hear a word I just said?" Shiro asked him. Lance in reply, offered an awkward smile "Er.. something.. about Keith..?" He guessed. Shiro sighed "Yes but I said let's go to our lions. The sooner we find Keith the better. Coran also said he left a first aid kit in the lion so remember to take that out when we get there"

Lance quickly nodded, after casting two (awesome) finger guns in Princess Allura's direction he ran to Blue in which he was greeted with a rumbling purr. "Hey there beautiful, let's go find Mullet-head." He said before he made his way to the cockpit of Blue and slid down in his chair, Settling his helmet on comfortably before he took off flying out of the Blue lion's hanger to only see Shiro, already waiting for him.

"Pidge sent us the coordinates so we shouldn't have any problems," Shiro said already flying off and Lance made sure to tail close behind certainly not wanting to get lost. "Until we get there," Lance added. Shiro didn't seem to remember what Pidge had said earlier on "Mm?" He hummed questioning. "Remember when Pidge said something about a doo-hickey thing mah bob that's dangerous for us to walk on?"

Shiro was silent for a moment, Lance could practically vision his what the hell Lance? face from inside Blue. "You mean the unstable ground? Pidge warned Keith to be careful of that and I have no doubt that he was and is." Shiro answered "No, no not that. the weird water thing..?" Lance tried again

When Lance was given a confused 'eh?' he tried to explain it, struggling for the correct words "Y'know- like the strange water that's sorta dangerous to drink?" He said, "Pidge said there's a chance it could be dangerous but it's the same with every planet Lance." Shiro said blandly.

"Come on, the less time we spend talking the sooner we can find Keith," Shiro said dismissively clearly indicating he would rather fly in silence. Lance took that as Shiro secretly trying to say 'Lance, stop goofing off and be serious.' So Lance put on his most serious face "Yes sirrr," He said doing a salute after drawing out the word mockingly.

This was going to be a great flight. Perfect even. What could possibly go wrong? Keith was probably just sleeping on the job. Yup. totally