by Kaie Darkstar
Go-Lion is copyright Toei Animation; Lion Force Voltron is copyright World Events Productions, and the characters belong to them. This is a piece of fan fiction produced by a little kid's overheated imagination. Please don't sue!
You can't take them! Isn't my life-blood enough? They don't need to die!
"How little you know. For one so skilled at killing as you, Death has no wish to claim you for himself. You cannot throw your life away so easily. To serve Him, you must live to end others' lives."
No! I will not let you kill them! I will not!
A pause. A few seconds, at most, but it seemed like an eternity.
Then a deep, growling boom answered him with a laugh. "Your stubbornness earns you victory for this round. But it will not be long before the bloodlust overcomes you, too. And there will be no turning back."
Lance felt cold metal and smooth glass pressing up against his cheek, and jerked fully awake at the unfamiliarity of those surroundings. Much to his dismay, he found that he'd been lying face-down on the red lion's console. "What happened?" he asked, startling himself with how hoarse his voice sounded.
"Are you hurt, Lance?" Keith fired back at him, concern and urgency carrying over the static on the radio.
"I'm fine, skipper. What'd I miss?"
He heard a wheezing sigh, and then Keith said, "I'm glad everyone's safe."
"Keith?"
There was no reply.
"We all lost consciousness, except for Keith," Pidge said, when the silence was about to get just too long. "I'm not sure how it happened, but the imitation robot is now that heap of scrap metal over there."
The lions had already disengaged, so Lance scanned the area quickly. Sure enough, a motley pile of jagged metal pieces lay not too far from their circle of lions. "Jeez, skipper, don't you think you overdid it a little?"
"Keith?" he heard Allura query, when there was still no response.
"I'm going in after him," Lance muttered, an uneasy feeling settling over his stomach. "Something's wrong." He jumped up from his seat and fairly bolted out of his cockpit.
When he reached the black lion's cockpit, the queasiness in his guts almost overpowered him. He'd never had a particularly delicate stomach, but the sight of dark red liquid smeared all over the console and liberally splashed around the cockpit sent shivers down his spine. He raced to Keith's side, hand going to his captain's wrist, hoping there would still be a pulse.
There was one, irregular and weak. But it was there.
"He's alive, but losing a lot of blood," he said. It was still oozing out of numerous cuts laced around Keith's body. Desperately, Lance tried to stop the bleeding. "We have to get him to a doctor, fast!"
"We've lost all communication with the castle," Hunk said.
He bit back a sharp oath. It wouldn't do to sully the princess's ears, however panicked he might be. Keith, what the hell did you do to yourself?
"Lance, can you fly the black lion back to the castle?" Allura asked, sounding remarkably calm, given the situation. "We can come back for the red lion later."
"All right, Princess. I'll do that."
He reached a bloody glove for the controls and prayed to whatever gods might be listening that this would be enough, that they'd make it in time.
"Hang in there, buddy," he muttered. "If you die on me, I swear I'll never forgive you."
Hunk shook his head, gazing at the still-warm key lying in his palm. He'd cleaned the blood off easily enough, but the black lion had been extremely reluctant to release the key.
"I don't like it," he muttered aloud, leaning over to place the key on the low table in front of him.
"You don't like what?" Allura asked.
He waved his hand vaguely. "This whole situation. We were very close, back there. I still don't know what Keith did, but he saved our lives."
The princess sighed. "I don't know what to think. I'm grateful for what he did, yes. But ..."
"Yeah, I know." Hunk sat back in his chair. "I'm glad he saved us. But if he doesn't live through this himself ..."
" ... I'm going to kill him!" Allura finished for him, in an uncharacteristic burst of anger.
Hunk nodded, almost absently. It sounded pretty absurd, but he felt the same way, too. The two of them had been waiting for some time now, with no word from the infirmary about Keith's condition, and Pidge and Lance had yet to return from flying the red lion back to the castle. "I trust Keith to not endanger anyone, even himself, without cause."
Allura sighed. "I guess we can't do anything now but wait, and hope."
On the table, the black lion's key seemed to pulse, the air around it shimmering faintly.
"What the ... " Hunk looked from it to the princess. "Did that just do what I thought it did?"
She stretched her hand out to the key, not quite touching it. "Mine never ... glows ... like this."
"Neither does mine." He shifted uncomfortably. "Voltron -- isn't Voltron partly magical?" There was no other explanation he could think of for the key's odd antics.
"Yes," the princess answered, not looking in his direction. "I don't know all of the details, but I believe that Father bound a guardian spirit to the robot he constructed. That's Voltron."
Hunk swallowed. "This's not my area of expertise, but is there a spell that would explain what happened to Keith? The key's been unnaturally warm ever since the fight, and it was definitely at the center of the mess in the cockpit."
Allura turned to him. "Magic doesn't just happen, Hunk. Keith would have had to know how to tap into Voltron's magic."
"He has been reading the records an awful lot lately. Maybe he discovered something?"
"But you still have to inherit the genetic trait for controlling sorcery!" she said. "That's why Voltron isn't fully magical, because Father wasn't a full-blooded sorceror. How could Keith just walk in and do something like that?"
Hunk sagged, feeling utterly out of his depth. "I don't know, Princess. I just don't know."