"What is that?"
Lance glanced out of Red's windshield, following what he assumed was Keith's line of sight.
"Uh, what're we lookin' at-" He started, eyebrows raised as all he saw was empty space. But, his question was interrupted by frantic cries from Coran.
"-Another ship! Un--r cloaki--! Wormhole vorte-- is powe---- up! Get Voltron out of there! F-rst -touch it is telepor-ed-!"
There was a barrage of confused responses from the paladins, and it was difficult to make out anyone in particular for a moment. But, just at the end of their little commotion, Lance heard another, much quieter voice.
"C'mon you stupid thing, go faster!"
He would have missed it if he hadn't still been watching Keith's fighter jet, which was now zooming ahead of Voltron.
A great ball of light was forming across from them, and Lance's hands tightened on his controls. He felt Red growl out a warning, and Lance's heart thudded against his ribcage.
"What's he doing?" He yelled, eyes widening as the ball of light channeled into a beam- a beam aimed directly at Voltron. A beam Keith seemed to be aiming for.
His thoughts were interrupted as Shiro barked at them to fly to the left, and they complied, but Lance's eyes never left Keith's jet.
"He's gonna get hit!" He yelled, disengaging from Voltron and speeding off towards Keith.
A sonic boom threw Red off course, and Lance yelled as he spun out of control. For a moment, there was a flash of bright, white light, then it was gone, but only for a moment. It was immediately replaced with a small explosion of light every color of the rainbow, and then nothing.
"Keith!"
Red was surging forward without Lance needing to pilot her, and she slowed to a stop in the area Keith should have ended up. He opened his mouth to call out on comms, but his mouth was dry and by the time he felt he could utter a word he was being interrupted.
"Ha! They missed us! How'd they miss us?" Cheered Hunk, followed by a whoop from Pidge and an announcement that the ship was retreating.
They hadn't heard Lance, too distracted by the commotion of the explosion and battle.
"Let's regroup at the castle." Shiro said, and, catching a glimpse of Lance so far away, added, "Lance, Keith, fight's over."
"Keith?" It had come out short, and Lance's chest was tightening but he tried again. "Keith!"
The celebrations faded away in the background, and Lance swallowed, frantically checking and double-checking the stretch of space in front of him for the small fighter jet.
An eerie stillness began to settle, and it wasn't broken much by Coran, who had gotten back in touch with the lions.
"Paladins? Paladins do you copy? Can you hear me?"
"Yes, Coran. We copy." Replied Shiro, voice even and yet pinched with wariness.
"I- I don't understand what happened. There was a wormhole vortex I believe. It fired- I swear it did, but it never reached you. It had to have made contact with something..."
The conversation was like background noise to Lance, and he found his voice once more, continuing to stare out ahead of him. "Keith. Do you copy?" He demanded.
Nothing.
"Keith? Where'd he go?" Pidge joined in, gently steering Green towards Red.
The rest of the team fell silent.
"He's gone."
*
"Okay, Coran, why don't we start with what exactly hit him. Give us a briefing of a wormhole vortex." Shiro said. The team had returned to the castle and regrouped in the common room, where the blankets still laid from the sleepover days ago. Lance was pacing in the back, alternating between staring intently at the floor and flicking his gaze up to Shiro.
The Altean nodded. "Yes, of course. Well, for starters it's an incredible piece of machinery. Takes a while to power up and it's very difficult to aim. The ship that shot with it was under a cloaking device and managed to evade our sensors until moments before the blast." He looked at them apologetically. "The blast, its essentially a concentrated wormhole. Has the properties of a wormhole- teleportation- but fires like a laser beam."
"Unlike a wormhole, this specific variation is designed to only transport singular objects." He looked to the ground, "It disappeared before it even reached you, I watched. It most likely hit something before you all."
Pidge looked up, eyes steely. "How do we find out where it took him?"
*
The blast from the Galra ship made Keith's head throb. As he stared through the jet's windshield, the only thing running through his mind was that Voltron was fully formed and in the weapon's direct line of fire.
He was throwing his entire body into accelerating before he even registered that he wanted to. Hunched over the controls, his grip tightened as he realized he might not make it.
"C'mon you stupid thing, faster!" He yelled, throwing everything he had into the thrusters as he sped on towards the incoming ray.
He barely heard the crackling voices of his former team as his ship spiraled out of control. He barely registered the impact. All he saw was white.
*
When Keith came to, it was to red flashing lights and the most ear-splittingly annoying beeping he'd ever heard.
Crumpled up in the back of the jet, (because apparently, Galra seatbelts don't do shit) he groaned and opened his eyes, regretting his decision almost immediately and snapping them shut with a hiss. The dim, red lighting made his head spin, and it took a minute for the pain to die down enough where Keith could think straight. The screeching alarm didn't help, and he resolved to shut that off first. He groaned at the idea of moving, grimacing as the small action made his head throb angrily. Being mindful of his apparent head injury, he tried moving the rest of his body, deciding to determine how screwed he was.
His arms felt fine, he could wiggle all his fingers and move them around. Same with his legs more or less. Sure, they were banged up, and he'd wake up with bruises, but they seemed alright to walk on. He brought his hands to his chest, feeling around for any wounds he might not feel yet due to shock. Thankfully, he was in the clear despite some minor bruising.
His head was a different story. He winced as he brought a hand up to it, hissing in pain as his fingertips brushed an apparent wound. Bringing his hand back, he tugged off the glove of his paladin armor, reaching back once more to try and get a better feel on his injury.
He screwed his eyes shut tighter as his fingers brushed the injury, feeling around to see how large it was. The wound was small, but not big enough to lose sleep over. The area around the actual cut was bruised or beginning to bruise, and the entire area was tender and slick with blood. Groaning in disgust, Keith wiped his hand on his leg and deemed the injury 'not bad enough to worry about right now'.
Reassured that he was able to get up and probably wouldn't make anything worse, Keith pushed himself onto his knees, preparing to stand. As he rose up, his head spun dangerously, and he sank down to the ground once more, opting to crawl blindly instead. Keeping his eyes closed to avoid making his headache worse, Keith made his way slowly across the small cockpit. He carefully pulled himself to his feet so he could better reach the controls. As he did so, there was a steady rushing in his ears that began to drown out the alarms, and Keith relished in the absence of the beeping until he recognized that probably wasn't a good thing. As steadily as it had appeared, the rushing noise receded and was replaced by the awful beeping, much to Keith's frustration.
Now standing fully upright at the control panel, Keith pried his eyes open and grit his teeth as the lights seemed to burn his eyes. Slamming his hand down on the alarm button, he let himself sag down to the floor in relief as the screeching stopped. The lights still hurt, but the pain in his head would at least get a bit more bearable.
Sucking in a breath, he climbed into the pilot's seat and situated himself, analyzing what exactly set off the alarms.
His throat tightened as he learned.
The thrusters were severely damaged, apparently thanks to the strain he'd put them under. The crystal powering the ship had been knocked loose during the tumble but hadn't fallen out or broken, thank god. He was at seriously reduced power, and would most likely only be able to travel a small distance before the ship's power failed completely.
Recognizing he was under a time crunch, Keith shut off the blinking red lights and made sure only necessary elements were running. Then, he raised his head and looked out the window at his surroundings for the first time.
In front of him was a huge stretch of empty space. The stars twinkled at him mockingly from afar. He tapped the acceleration, just enough to turn him slightly, letting the small momentum do its work to spin the jet around so that he could see fully around himself. The hammering of his heart calmed a little as a single planet came into view.
He couldn't see much, besides the fact that its landscape consisted of multiple shades of purple, with what looked like dark blue bodies of water scattered about. Small clumps of lilac clouds dotted its surface, and from what he could see from space, the planet was mostly rock and very devoid of plantlife. Another quick tap on the thrusters told Keith this planet was his only option, so he angled the jet accordingly and prepared to enter the atmosphere.
*
His touchdown was far from graceful. The planet's rocky surface proved difficult to maneuver a dying ship through. Keith barely dodged giant rock formations, finally clipping his wing on the side of one as his thrusters sputtered. Spinning wildly, he yelled as he steadied the jet.
With one smoking wing and being down a thruster, Keith panted and pulled around, trying to slow down enough to land, keep upright, and not pass out as his head continued to throb.
The ground came at him fast, and his landing gear didn't do much to smooth the touchdown. He used the rest of the ship's power supply to have the thrusters assist in the landing, slowing him down enough so that he didn't completely crash, but the 'landing' practically totaled the fighter.
Black smoke billowed from the wreckage, and Keith struggled to pull himself from the ship. Though he had tried for the flattest ground he could find, he had still collided with a pile of the purple rock, and the nose of the jet had been crushed. Keith was pinned to his chair, the impact having pushed his control panel up against him. Thankfully, he hadn't been pinned there, and was able to wiggle out, but his midriff was sore, and he'd cut his legs up on twisted metal in the process.
Once again upright, Keith spat out blood, noting he'd bit down on his tongue at some point during the flight. The action made his head spin again, and he cursed as he grabbed onto the wall for support as his legs buckled.
After a moment, he straightened up once more and slowly gathered his things. His knife, helmet, a half-empty med kit, and the emergency food and water provisions stored on the jet were all he carried from the wreck.
After a moment of struggle, he pulled open one of the doors and peered out at the alien landscape. He was greeted with purple. Purple sand swirled at his feet as a gust of hot, dry wind passed by. Behind him huge rocks towered, and ahead of him were more rocks, these with caves scattered about.
The sand stung his skin, and he carefully situated his helmet atop his head, being mindful of his cut. As he did so, static filled his ears, and he fuzzily remembered that his helmet was also his comm.
"Hello? Hello? This is Keith. I uh, crash-landed here, does anyone copy?"
The static continued. He took a deep breath, deciding his best plan of action would be to try and get a signal. With that, he set out, walking until his legs burned and he finally sat down to rest. He fell asleep without meaning to, and dreamt of floating along, alone, in space.
*
Keith woke up coated in sand. He grimaced as the throbbing pain in his head returned with gusto. Taking the time to tend to his injuries, Keith wrapped some of the larger abrasions on his legs and used a quarter of his water to clean his cuts before covering them. He drank a quarter of his water, relishing in it. The heat was worse than before, and despite his desire to bask in the shade of the rocks, he pushed himself to his feet once more, determined to survive and find anything on this stupid planet that wasn't purple.
*
Keith was pissed. He was hungry and tired and still had no new knowledge of the alien planet. He had been walking on and off for hours and was still no closer to finding anything of importance. He'd continued using his comm, repeating his little SOS every so often.
"I have crash-landed on this planet. I mean no harm, I just want to get back home."
Each time he repeated it was the same. He would finish, strain for any kind of response, then get upset at the fact it hadn't worked yet.
So far, all he had seen was purple sand, the dumb rocks, and his ship. He had discovered that the planet was much smaller than Earth, in fact, it was closer in size to the moon and he had wrapped around it once already. Discouraged, the teen sank down into the sand. His body begged for rest, he was exhausted, dehydrated, and utterly frustrated. He trudged up to the entrance of one of the caves close by his ship, finding them cooler than the rocks that had been baking in the sun all day.
As his eyes slipped shut, two figures emerged from the mouth of the cave nearest the one Keith had fallen asleep in. They spotted the sleeping figure and shared a glance, excitedly advancing.
*
Back on the castle ship, few paladins were sleeping. Earlier that day, the team had split up after Coran's explanation. Hunk had retreated to the kitchens to 'stress bake', Shiro had disappeared to his room, Allura to the front of the ship with Coran, Pidge to her lab, and Lance to his own room.
An hour or so later found Hunk and Lance in the lab with Pidge. Hunk had finished baking, and said he came up to share his muffins, but really he wanted to be in the company of his friends. Lance had walked in twenty minutes after Hunk, with slightly puffy eyes and a runny nose. No one commented on it.
Pidge had thrown herself into trying to determine how the wormhole worked so that they could move forward in the unofficial plan to go get Keith.
She shared her knowledge with the boys, unprompted, as they settled behind her.
"Okay, so I've gotten the video feed from Red, and I enhanced it so we could actually see what happened." She pulled up the visual, letting it play as she continued. "I've slowed down the feed, and not only can I confirm Keith got hit by the beam, but, Red was also in a good enough position so that we could see the flash of color after the initial impact."
She was rambling now, but neither of her friends stopped her. Lance's eyes were glued to the screen as the event played over and over on a slowed loop.
"I talked to Coran about the colors. He said he's not certain, but that the last colors we see in the flash, which is actually the wormhole activating, will show us a glimpse of where Keith ended up." She clicked around on her laptop until a new visual appeared, this time showing the last flash before the wormhole disappeared.
Within the circle of the explosion was what appeared to be the actual wormhole, just as Pidge said. But, instead of the blue and black swirl they were all used to, this wormhole looked more like a portal. A window into the destination.
Before them was a large expanse of space, but, in the corner, they could see a bright, purple planet.
"Where is that?" Hunk asked, looking from the screen to Pidge. She looked at them apologetically.
"I did the best I could, but with only a sliver of the planet, I don't have much to narrow the search down with, besides, well, color... So, this is what we're looking at."
She pushed back from the computer, powering up something across the room and stepping back with a grim face as it sputtered to life. A large, 3-D map appeared, much like the one in the castle's control room. Thousands of purple highlighted planets, stars, and galaxies twinkled mockingly back at them, and Lance's jaw tightened.
"When do we start?"
Rewritten November 2021. This went from like maybe two ish pages on google docs to ten. I'm trying to write this more realistically and make it flow better. happy late thanksgiving y'all