At Dawn - Klance

1 - Separation

This broken city sky like butane on my skin
stolen from my eyes
Hello Angel, tell me where are you
Tell me where we go from here  

~

There were too many. Keith knew that instantly. More Galra appeared right when others were taken down. They seemed to have an inexhaustible source of Galran soldiers. He weaved Red through the Galra ships. Keith used the jaw blade to cut down any in his way. 

"What do we do, Shiro?" Keith asked," There are too many to fight. If they're fighting us here, they are probably attacking the castle as well."

"I will contact Allura, just... Just keep fighting," Shiro pressed and then his line went silent. 

A large laser blasted against Red's side, causing the lion to sustain considerable damage. Keith groaned as Red was sent flying sideways. He quickly corrected and dove to avoid further damage. He took in the surroundings. Keith just managed to catch a glimpse of Blue malfunctioning and beginning to drop.

"Lance!" Keith shouted. Lance did not reply," What did you do?" He would've at least said something snarky by then. The intercom wasn't working. Thankfully, Blue seemed to hover up again with yellow eyes flickering back on. Keith pulled Red back up to continue the fight. In the corner of his eye, he thought he saw something fly from Blue's mouth, but shrugged it off as a trick of the light.

He flown up in time to see a large weapon being prepped to fire directly towards the Yellow lion," Hunk! Pull up now!" 

The warning gave Hunk enough to move out of the way, well, mostly anyway. The beam clipped the back paws of the lion. Keith winced, the paws were steaming. "Thanks, Keith," Hunk groaned, probably on the verge of throwing up. 

"No problem." Keith continued to avoid getting blasted. Shiro's line remained silent though he still fought efficiently. The black paladin was quite talented. It was no wonder why every other paladin seemed to look up to him. The battle was exhausting and it felt like it lasted years before Shiro replied with new orders. It was probably just a minute until he came back onto the comms.

"We are going to retreat. According to Allura, the civilization that was here appears to have gone extinct. Which means-" Shiro was cut off by swerving Black to miss a large blast.

"This was just a trap," Pidge finished just as she blasted an aircraft causing a spontaneous growth of plants to wrap around it. 

"Yes. That and the Castle is under attack, too." Shiro sounded exasperated, " Let's start to head back."

The lions began to fight their way back to the Castle. Something seemed off. Besides the loud explosions, it was oddly quiet. Not that it was bad, but Keith found it uncomfortable. Something was missing. He realized he wasn't as irritated at the moment as he usually always was. No one else said anything or appeared bothered like he was. What's missing? Keith thought for a couple dobashes. He looked around. Yellow. Black. Green...

"Um, guys? Where's Lance?" Keith pointed out. Everyone was silent. "Lance?" Keith called out. He didn't answer.

"Well, shit."

"Pidge!" Shiro said in his dad voice.

"We need to look for Lance. Now isn't a time to bicker," Hunk stated, worry was evident in his voice. They had finally lost the Galra and were flying in the direction of the Castle.  

"I am not sorry, but I will do a quick scan for Blue and we should be set." Pidge went quiet and then Keith heard a groan.

"What's wrong?" Shiro asked.

"Blue isn't popping up which means the lion is either asleep, but I doubt it, or it sustained heavy damage and isn't working," Pidge quickly explained.As they passed another mountain, Keith spotted something.

"Hey, guys look." It was a large cave. They all agreed to land and figure something out. Keith landed Red gently. The engine's humming came to a stop. They all walked out of their lions and met in the center of the cave. 

"We should get to the Castle and help. They are being bombarded as we speak," Shiro reasoned as he took off his helmet.

"I'm sorry, but I don't think Lance could handle himself out there. We wouldn't be able to form Voltron help anyway," Keith exclaimed. 

"Maybe we could separate," Hunk suggested while gesturing with his hands.

"We will need all the help we can get at the Castle," Shiro pointed out. "We could only leave one other person here."

"I could do it. He's my best friend," Hunk insists raising his hand. 

"I don't think so, your lion is way to big to hide. It is also the lion that can take the most damage, we'll need that to protect the castle," Shiro explains and Hunk slowly lowers his hand. 

"Keith should do it," Pidge said with a smug grin. Keith didn't understand what she was implying. 

"Why? I am literally the worst person you could choose to be left alone with him," Keith argued, crossing his arms.

"Actually, I think Pidge is right," Shiro said. Pidge grin widened and crossed her arms as well. Keith furrowed his eyebrows and opened his mouth to speak, but Shiro cut him off. "The Red and Green lions are the smallest and Pidge can't stay because... Um." Shiro looked to Pidge for help and they shared nonverbal conversation. Keith got the idea they were planning something. 

"I am needed to help sneak back to the Castle without leading the Galra down here back up there," Pidge explained with a strange glint in her eyes. 

"Okay," Keith said drawing out the "O" sound," So, I will stay and look for him and Blue."

"Alright, it's settled, then." Shiro clapped his hands. "Keep your comm on and we will tell you when we can come back." Keith simply nodded. The other three paladins got back in there lions and flew off. Keith sighed and clambered back into Red.

"Why me?" Keith asked aloud. Red replied with a purr. Keith's face flushed." Really? You, too?" He sat in the chair and grabbed the handles. They took off and flew close to the tree level. The rain seemed to finally lighten up a bit. He used a heat scanner built into his lion to search for Lance. Thankfully, he hadn't encountered any Galra, yet. He started to see the wreckage from the battle. A lot of things were hot enough to make the heat scanner useless, so Keith turned it off and instead went to the place he last remembered seeing Lance.  Blue was nowhere to be seen. So, he landed Red by the large crevice and decided to search for Lance by foot. 

Fortunately, it didn't take long. Keith noticed a large chunk that had been taken out of the side of the crevice and a tree that was barely hanging on.  He searching the damaged area, but found nothing. Keith ran back to Red and flew to the other edge of the abyss. He landed and quickly ran out to scour the area. He looked along the edge and...

It felt like his heart stopped and his breath was stolen from his lungs.

There he was. 

Lance slumped in front of a tree and was sitting in a puddle of what Keith hoped to be mostly rain and not blood. His left ankle was bent in a painful angle. Bloody gashes littered body. Parts of his armor were torn up and others were completely ripped off. Keith sprinted up to him and gently took off Lance's helmet to delicately cradled Lance's face in his hands. Lance felt cold and took shallow breaths. He examined the large gash across his right cheek. It was now crusty with dried blood that went down to his neck.

"Oh, Lance," Keith whispered, looking at his unconscious friend. He carefully picked up Lance. Despite his lanky looks, Keith was struggling to carry Lance, but somehow made it back to Red anyway. He placed Lance in the chair. He had no clue to as what to do then. So, he sat on the floor and decided to wait. After a while, he started to watch Lance's chest rise and fall with each breath he took. Keith wasn't sure why he was, but he did find it comforting.

A/N

I hoped you liked the length of this chapter better and that it was enjoyable. I am not sure if I should continue this, so if you enjoy this, leave a comment if you want. I really enjoy writing this anyway and it'd be good to know if others did, too. Let me know of any typos and thanks so much for reading!