Sorry for Everything I've Done [Galra!Keith fanfiction]

Chapter Four: Allura

Although halfbreeds may be accepted in army as regular soldiers, the position of an officer, lieutenant, warlord or general can only be taken by pure Galra. Since no halfbreed is allowed to take part in Cral Zera ceremony, the Emperor, as the highest warlord, leader and ruler of the Empire, can only be chosen from the Galra with pure blood of every rank.

The Book of Honour, volume 5, "The Halfbreeds"

Keith woke up, but kept his eyes closed for a while, not willing to see his dark cell, its black ceiling, its black walls, all this darkness watching him, as if waiting for the moment when he will let his guard down to crash his sanity, to swallow him up. His pain has awaken with him, it has become some kind of background for his existence. When he turned on his back and gained enough courage to look at the ceiling, Keith's eyes widened in shock. His room for the next who knows how many days was now full of light, with greenish and blueish white walls and white floor. And Keith's injured body rested not on the floor, but on the bed, under fresh white sheets. Despite that, they were already stained with blood.

Keith lifted the sheet and looked at his body. For some reason, he was wearing sleepwear of the same type every Paladin had: loose trousers and shirt of a color respectively to the color of Lion the Paladin was piloting with yellow-golden stripes sewed somewhere for decoration. Keith wasn't so found of it as Lance and hasn't worn it for ages. In fact, he had only tried it on once. Its intense color used to match perfectly his pale skin and black hair, but now... When the sleeve fell down from his raised left arm, Keith saw band-aids tightly covering his wounds. And the skin was purple. On the background of the red fabric of sleeve it looked blindingly bright. The band-aid on his arm was already soaked with blood, and his clothes had a darker red spots on them, which probably came from another band-aids. Keith touched his ears. He didn't need a mirror to state that he was still a Galra on the outside. He looked at his arm again and chuckled lightly. It was ironic that the only thing that left from his old self was the color of his blood. That cherry red liquid in his veins and sunset red in his arteria was the grim reminder of who he was and who he will never be able to be again.

Keith slowly sat on the bed, but it took him too much effort, so he rested a bit before stepping on the cold floor.

When his feet had barely touched the ground, the wall in front of him went glassy and a dark, tall and straight figure stepped in the circle of light coming from the cell. It was Princess Allura.

- You've heard everything, haven't you?

- Yes... - Keith said, - I have.

The Day Before

Keith walked down the long corridor that lead to the Princess's apartments. King Alfor must have loved his daughter a lot, judging by the comfort he'd surrounded her with. If Allura wanted, she could never leave her rooms and live there happily ever after. The fact that she actually didn't do that filled Keith with hope that he and the other Paladins were not so totally pathetic and pathetic beings.

But recently there was one thing he was really worried about. While everybody (including himself) seemed to had gone through the aggressive-denial phase of accepting him as a part Galra, Allura still acted distant and shot him savage looks when she thought he wouldn't notice. But he did.

Keith was sure that if they'll have a talk and he'll explain himself, she wouldn't treat him like that any longer. He couldn't believe that such a genuine and fiercely brave creature can be intolerant for someone who had never done her wrong.

But anyway he was still nervous, because having serious long talks (talks at all) with other people was more than he could bear.

He finally reached the door and found it open. When Keith entered the hall, Allura's voice came from distance. His first intention was to run away. He didn't want to meet here Lance, or Shiro, or anybody else. Keith planned a confidential conversation with Princess, not a psychological group meeting. But the moment after he realised she was talking to herself. The Red Paladin wanted to go away immediately, but what he heard had completely paralysed him, glued his legs to the floor so he couldn't move even though he strongly wished to.