Lance shot across the water, gunshots still echoing from the cliffs. He zoomed past the barracuda, and towards the bleeding creature. Keith. Splashing around and making himself a big, fat target. Lance heard gunshot followed by a shout of pain, and then Keith went under. Lance grabbed his shirt collar and lifted him to the surface. Shouts came from the top of the cliff.
"It's the mermaid! Don't hit it!"
Lance propelled himself back away from the cliff, still hanging onto Keith. He spared a glance at his friend, and his heart jumped to his throat. Keith was pale, and there was a hole right through his stomach, another one in his shoulder. Lance did a flip in the water, heading back towards shore.
It took him a long time with Keith's weight, far too long for Lance's tastes, but he pushed Keith up on the shore. Keith's sword was glowing brightly, as Hunk had told him it had when Keith had been badly injured by Zarkon.
"Hey! We're down here!"
The guards came running towards them, and Lance swam back, out of their reach. "Get him a doctor, and I'll come with you!"
One of the guards shone a lantern on Keith. "We can try, but he's not going to make it."
"What?!" Lance swam closer. Keith's breathing was rough and ragged, and Lance gulped. "Keith?" There was no answer, only that rough breathing. "Keith?!"
"They're... right..."
Lance swam closer to shore. "What?!"
"Not... going... to make it..."
"No, nope, not an option, you're going to make it, you just have to hold on, and you'll be okay—"
"Lance... shut up. Get out of here. Find Hunk—" Keith broke off, his eyes glassy. "Go." He let out a sigh, and his chest didn't rise again. The glowing of the sword stopped abruptly, leaving the night dark and cold. Lance's heart stopped with it.
"Keith?! Keith, no, talk to me, Keith!"
One of the guards reached down to feel for a pulse, and shook his head. "He's gone."
"NO!" Lance stared in shock. It hadn't seemed real, the idea that Allura was gone. The idea that Pidge and Shiro were gone. But this was horribly, painfully real, undeniable proof in front of him that Keith was dead. He wasn't breathing. He didn't have a pulse. His body was lying there, in front of Lance, still leaking blood into the water.
Go.
Lance turned tail and swam away, making a break for the open ocean.
He didn't make it.
Xxx
Hunk crept onto the moonlit beach, his eyes wide in horror and scenes of violence flashing across his mind. He ran across to Keith's body, tears filling his eyes and dripping down his face.
"No... no, not you too, not Keith, you were supposed to be the tough one! You were supposed to survive!" Hunk closed his eyes. "You weren't- you weren't supposed to- supposed to—" He couldn't finish. He closed Keith's eyes and picked him up, not even minding the blood. He took him away, bringing him to the spot where he and Allura had buried Shiro and Pidge. And where Allura herself was now buried. He worked tirelessly, digging a new grave while tears streamed down his cheeks.
"You'll be together, at least," he choked, as he laid Keith's body in the grave.
When he came up, a gun pressed itself to his head, Sandas cold and hard behind it. "You've broken your banishment, islander."
Hunk closed his eyes. "We'll all be together," he whispered.
A gunshot echoed through the air, destroying the silent night.
Xxx
"Ma'am?"
Sandas looked up at her head caretaker. "What?"
"Your mermaid is- it's not doing so well. It won't eat. It just sits in the water, not even swimming. It's wasting away."
Sandas' eyebrows shot up in surprise. "I suppose that it has human feelings after all."
Another caretaker ran up, whispering to the head caretaker. He bit his lip nervously. "Ma'am?"
"What?"
"Your mermaid- it's dissolving into sea foam!"
Xxx
Lance watched his fingers slowly dissolve in front of him, turning to sea foam as he looked on. It didn't hurt, as he thought it would. It was simply his body dissolving, from his fingertips and his tail, moving closer towards his chest and head. He was a mermaid, and therefore didn't have a soul. He wouldn't go wherever his friends had gone. But that didn't matter. He'd rather be consigned to the void than live life without them. He grinned a haunted, hungry smile as Governor Sandas came across the lawn towards him.
"Looks like you can't keep me," he whispered as the last of him dissolved, "You lose." Lance felt himself rising up. "What?! What's going on?!"
"You have become a spirit of the air," the wind whispered to him, and its voice was eerily familiar, "Like Coran. Like me. Mermaids do not have souls, and neither do spirits of the air. But we can gain one if we do good for three-hundred years. Coran has gained one, and he has gone to the beyond, with your other friends."
"I can see them again?"
"Yes, Coralance."
Lance's blood chilled. "Veronica?!"
His sister, who had fallen in love with a human and dissolved into sea foam after her end of a bargain with a witch failed, whispered happily. "It's me, Lance."
"You- you're here!"
"I'm here, Lance. I won't leave again."
Xxx
Lotor closed the image of Lance turning to sea foam. "The race is nearly finished. There is only one runner left." He glanced at the four amulets in his bare hand. He had retrieved the other three from Haggar's cave after she had died.
His four guardians stood behind him, waiting. He turned to face them.
"Acxa. Take care of the island. Lead them in my absence."
"Are you sure that you have to do this?"
Lotor nodded. "There is no other way. If I were to survive, someone could recreate the amulet. That is why they had to die. This is why I must do this. Farewell, my friends."
His guardians nodded and exited the cave, standing guard outside for one last time. Lotor turned to the amulets, and all four rose into the air, supported by the power of air. The other elements bloomed into being, and Lotor drove them into the gems of each amulet. The gems shattered, and raging spirits burst out of the gems.
We will find a host and return to our home.
Lotor nodded. "Spirits, you have spoken me from your prisons. You have given me prophecies to find you. I will be your host."
A blue one looked at him. A child of water, a mermaid once. You will be my host. It zoomed into his chest, and Lotor coughed, trying to hold its energy.
One that was a swirling white also turned its attention on him. You who now live upon the air, you will be my host. It entered Lotor's mouth, and he staggered back with a gasp.
One that flickered like flames looked at him as well. Creature of heat, of fiery passion, you are mine. It hit him, and Lotor fell to his knees, gasping.
The last one, a dark brown and grey, regarded him. You shall not be my host. You are not of the earth. The ground itself shall be mine.
Lotor's eyes widened, even as he attempted to hold the energy that threatened to consume and destroy his body. "No! You can't! You'll destroy the whole island!"
Nevertheless, I shall make this land my host.
The spirit sank into the ground.
"NO!"
The whole island started to rumble, and Lotor heard screams outside coming from the village. "NO! It wasn't supposed to go like this! I was supposed to be the only one!"
Be at peace. You have three of us. Is that not enough for you?"
"It doesn't matter if I have three of you, if he is left free! He'll destroy the whole island!"
Did you not sacrifice a whole group of righteous people for this mission of yours, simply for the small possibility that they might be used to re-ensnare us? What is one small island to you if it sends us home?
The energy burst through Lotor, and he screamed as it consumed his whole body. It wasn't- supposed- to go like this... I was supposed to be different from my mother... She wanted power... I only wanted to free you...
And you have,the spirits whispered, you have returned balance. We will return to our home. And for that, we thank you. Thank you, Lotor. We will not forget your sacrifice.
Xxx
Lotor's island of refugees was collapsing. If there had been any ships nearby, they would have seen the whole island shaking and breaking apart. They would have seen the whole island begin to sink.
But there were no ships. There were no ships to see the whole island crumple into the sea. There was nothing nearby to watch it collapse, the whole thing falling into the waves. The island and the people on it were lost to salty brine without anyone's knowledge, leaving nothing behind for future sailors to find.
Nothing but Ocean Blue.