Lance paced back and forth across the control room as Coran monitored the castle's defenses. The blue paladin hadn't taken the news of no one finding a cure for Keith very well. He had stormed out of the kitchen with Keith in his arms and spent most of the day in his room.
"Lance, you'll start creating a trench with all the pacing that you're doing. We're working to the bone to find a cure." Coran glanced up from his control panel.
"That's not the point, Coran! It's been weeks and weeks since this happened to Keith and nothing has worked. I know I should be looking on the bright side of things but I just can't. Keith being like this has been difficult on him and everyone else. I can't take it much longer!" The blue paladin threw his hands up in frustration and stormed out of the room.
Keith didn't run after Lance or even make any noise to show his own emotions. The tiny paladin remained seated on the floor staring at his feet. His ears and eyes dropped as he moved his small paws. The normally rambunctious paladin sat quietly staring at his feet and paws.
Shiro strode through the door, "I'm guessing that Lance is still in one of his moods?" Coran simply nodded. "Everyone feels the same way that he does. All of us want Keith to be turned back to normal so that we don't have to watch him anymore like a little kid. But, getting upset won't change what happened to him or find a way to fix him any sooner."
The red paladin looked towards the oldest paladin teary eyed. "You know, there's a possibility that Keith will be stuck like that forever. What will you and the other paladins do then?" Keith, now standing, wrapped his paws around the bottom of a chair as he listened to the older paladin and Coran.
"We'll have to find another pilot for the red lion. We can't go on much..." Shiro's voice began fading away in Keith's ears. The person Keith trusted most had lost hope in finding a cure. Not only that, he was talking about finding a replacement. Tears began streaming down the tiny paladin's face while he fled the room.
Keith had made his way into Pidge's research area as she went over her current findings with Allura, "As you can see, I stumbled across this ancient civilization mentioned several times in some of those old Altean medical books. It says that they had a cure for nearly anything but that they were extremely selective about who they helped."
"What do you mean?" The princess scanned a few translated documents.
"Well, they would pick and choose who they helped but it says nothing about any criteria they specifically looked for. This was a very secretive civilization and they could all be gone since it's been over 10,000 years since anyone has mentioned them."
Allura placed a hand on the green paladin's shoulder and smiled, "You've done well, Pidge. At this rate we would be better off finding a new paladin than getting Keith back to normal. We need a solution and we need it fast."
Keith's paws clenched into fists upon hearing their conversation. After Allura and Pidge left to relay their findings, the tiny paladin crawled onto Pidge's desk to look at the documents. Everything was written in Altean but Keith noticed a set of numbers resembling coordinates and tried to write them down, horribly at that, with his paws. With the piece of paper stashed in his onesie, Keith made his way to the flight deck.
Hunk was preparing a pod for a trip with Coran back to the space mall for supplies. Keith waddled across the deck trying not to be seen by the yellow paladin. The doors opened behind him and he scuttled under the nearest pod seconds before a familiar voice filled the air.
"I can't believe this! Why does Keith have to be stuck like that?" Lance began kicking a nearby pod.
"Lance, I don't think that pod did anything to upset you." Hunk walked over to his best friend and rested his hand on the blue paladin's shoulder. "It's going to be alright. I mean, we can't exactly form Voltron and at some point we may need another paladin but that's only a small thing, right?"
The blue paladin glared at Hunk and grabbed his shirt, "I don't want to find another paladin! We're fine with who we have now. We are not replacing Keith! I...I'm not replacing Keith like that..."
Keith whimpered softly at the hurt in Lance's voice. He wanted to run to the taller paladin and make him smile. Instead, he sneaked into the pod Hunk was preparing while Hunk tried to comfort Lance. Keith turned back and sadly waved his tiny paw at a distracted Lance before climbing inside the pod and hiding out of sight.
Some time had passed before Hunk and Coran made their way into the pod. After checking the controls, and almost finding a hidden Keith, the pair set off towards the space mall.
"Hey, Coran, do you think we'll find a cure for Keith?"
"That does seem to be the big question hanging in the air, doesn't it? I honest can't be sure that we will ever find a cure for him."
Keith's eyes dropped, "I hope we do. If not for him, then for Lance. He cares so much about Keith that it'll destroy him if we can't find a way to change him back," Hunk's voice saddened.
The pod landed at the space mall and while Coran went inside and Hunk refueled the pod, Keith climbed out to look up at the massive building. Tiny paws clenched, the tiny paladin waddled inside set on his mission.