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johaerys-writes · 2 years ago

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Shiro/Keith | Voltron: Legendary Defender | E | Ch. 1/3

Summary: During a fight with the Galra, Shiro and Keith are sucked into a wormhole and flung to the far edge of the universe. They land on an empty and unfamiliar planet, with no way of contacting the castle, but Keith isn't too worried. Things could be worse— at least they have each other.

Until Shiro collapses.

My contribution for the Sheith Secret Santa 2022 event on twitter! Sickfic, hurt/comfort, angst and Shiro whump :)

Read on Ao3!

Keith’s fingers tighten around the control stick in a death grip. There is sweat running down his spine and his hair is plastered to his forehead beneath his helmet. Coran’s and Allura’s voices in his ears have long turned into steady background droning.

“Fighter, three o’clock!” Hunk yells at him through the comms, but there isn’t much Keith can do about it. He is surrounded, and no matter how many he takes down there’s still more. The damage they do isn’t enough to disturb the lions much; all they do is stand in the way between them and the Galra cruiser that has been terrorising the Alpha Orithyia quarter for weeks. Their laser beams and rockets glide harmlessly off of the lions’ surface, but the pushback is enough to considerably reduce their flying speed.

What started as a lucky break after days of fruitless searching has now turned into a wild goose chase. It was the sensors that Pidge had installed on the ship that managed to track the cruiser, passing through the TA-235 asteroid field, and Voltron didn’t waste a moment before following them. They’ve been going around in circles for hours, with hardly any progress to show for it.

And the cruiser keeps slipping further and further away from their reach.

“The way this is going, we’ll be left behind before we’ve even had a chance to find out where their base is!” Lance huffs in his ear.

Keith winces when the shockwave from a nearby ship exploding knocks Red aside. “Do you have any better ideas, Lance?”

“You need a new plan of attack,” Coran tells them all. “This isn’t working. Perhaps if you form Voltron—”

“No,” Shiro says. “We need the advantage that attacking them from multiple angles will give us. But you’re right that we need a new plan of attack, Coran. The cruiser is our top priority. Keith, you and I will go after it while Pidge, Hunk and Lance deal with the fighters here. With some luck, we might be able to slow it down a bit until the others come to back us up.”

Keith nods, steering Red close to Shiro. He doesn’t even need to give an answer, because it is known. He will always follow Shiro, without a second thought.

“Lay down some covering fire so we can make a break for it,” Keith tells Lance. “Follow us as soon as you’re able.”

“Got it,” Lance says, and proceeds to pulverise the fighters that crowd around him like buzzing flies with a swoop of Blue’s tail laser.

Shiro and Keith fly side by side, fighters and stars blurring past them. The cruiser has put a good deal of distance between them, the fire of its thrusters leaving a flame-pink trail behind. It is nothing for their lions, though; without the fighters hampering their advance it isn’t long before they gain ground, following the Cruiser as it tries to lose them behind a pulsing red giant.

“The Galra will put up a fight,” Shiro warns him. “We’ll need to give it our all, leave them no wiggle room. Are you with me, Keith?”

“Always,” Keith says. The answer comes to him naturally, like his breath.

It is a tough fight, and in such close quarters it’s easy to take a hit that will debilitate them. The cruiser’s cannon is deadly, nothing like the fighters’ lasers that were little more than a nuisance; if it gets them it might take seconds, even minutes for their lions’ systems to reboot.

But this has never been a problem for either of them. Red weaves effortlessly through their attacks, taking advantage of the time it takes the Galra to change the direction of the cannon and charge, while Black’s lasers are steadily wearing down the cruiser’s defences. They soon have the cruiser exactly where they want it, backed into a corner amidst the ruins of a destroyed planet. There is nowhere for it to go, no space to manoeuvre without endangering the integrity of the ship.

“This is it, Keith." Shiro's voice in his ear is a steady and comforting presence as always. “Ready?”

“You got it,” Keith says, and he smiles. He can’t wait to give those fuckers what they’ve had coming for days.

They’re both about to launch a final attack, when a flash of blinding light stops them. The space before them ripples as a wormhole shifts into existence and starts expanding— and then the cruiser starts drifting towards it.

Keith clicks his tongue in frustration. Of course they’d try to make a run for it. He kicks Red forward, pushing through the cruiser’s renewed shield.

“Keith, stop,” Shiro says. “It’s too dangerous. We can’t get too close, or we’ll get sucked into the wormhole as well. We have no idea where it leads.”

“And we’re just going to let them get away?” Keith says. He pulls back reluctantly, his eyes never leaving the cruiser. “I’m not going to let them blast their way through another galaxy, Shiro, that’s not happening. We have to stop them.”

Shiro stays quiet for a moment too long. Keith’s pulse pounds in his throat as the cruiser escapes right before them and they just stand there watching. Every second counts— they don’t have time for this.

“Shiro,” Keith pleads, caught between the urge to kick Red into action and lay waste to that cruiser, and his loyalty to his friend. He will back down if Shiro asks him to, no matter how little he wants that. But if they lose the cruiser now, after all the effort they put into finding it, after all the destruction it’s wrought—

“Alright.” Shiro’s voice is quiet, but determined. “Let’s get closer. Carefully.”

He doesn’t need to say it twice. Keith takes off, guns blazing; it takes him a few seconds to find a break through the shield and penetrate the cruiser’s defences. He has one goal in mind: the front of the ship that’s heading towards the wormhole, where the ion cannon is placed. If he manages to damage one of the bases holding it in place, the pushback and change of weight distribution will reduce the cruiser’s speed, buying them precious time.

It is risky, a tough fight. He’s flying too close to the wormhole now and its pull is strong; one wrong move and he’ll be sucked into it and shot wherever the cruiser is headed, possibly into a well-armed Galra base. The danger and thrill of the fight sings through Keith’s blood; he can feel Red’s anticipation, the high of her bloodlust.

A carefully calculated laser beam sends the cannon erupting in flames. A huge chunk breaks off from the main body of the ship, debris exploding all around it as it tilts to the side. Shiro takes advantage of the cruiser’s change of pace to load Black’s laser for the killing blow; it is sure to cut straight through the ship like butter now that the shield is down.

And it does just that. Black flies away at a safe distance as the cruiser is engulfed in flames, small explosions that keep blossoming along its surface until they all meet into a large, violent one.

“About fucking time,” Keith murmurs under his breath, smiling at their triumph. The Galra never stood a chance against them— Keith and Shiro are unbeatable when they’re together.

The only thing left is the wormhole.

Keith's dangerously close to it now. It folds in on itself as it collapses, warping the space around it. Keith presses the control stick forward to fly away, but the lion stays in place. Even as he boosts her rear thrusters, Red barely moves an inch before she’s pulled right back.

“Keith!” Shiro’s voice is rushed, panicked in his ears. “Get out of there, now!”

“I’m trying,” Keith grunts, pushing the thrusters to their limit. “This thing is— too strong—” Red's claws scramble for purchase, but there’s nothing to hold on to. It’s all debris and fire and broken parts of the cruiser and the wrecked planets floating around him, all of it caught into the inexorable pull of the wormhole, twisted and bent out of shape under the crushing weight of its gravity.

“Shiro, stay back,” Keith says when he sees Black flying close to help him. “Don’t come any closer, or it'll pull you too.”

“Keith—”

“Stay away!” he says again, gripping the control stick tighter. “Do you hear me, Shiro?” The sweat that drips into his eyes stings; he can barely breathe he’s pushing so hard. Alarms of all kinds are blaring in his ears, Red’s monitors blur and crackle with the force of the wormhole’s immense pressure, and the comms system seems to be turning any incoming sound into warbled noise. Keith can’t see what’s happening outside, if Shiro’s still there. It’s like time has stopped, like he’s suspended in the void. Like he’s dying.

“Shiro?” Keith whispers.

Next thing he knows, he’s spinning out of control.

The flashing lights blind him. It’s not unlike other times he’s travelled through a wormhole, but this time it’s stronger, more violent. The quintessence in this place is too potent; it ripples through him, makes his skin itch. Keeping control of Red now is impossible. Keith focuses on his breathing, tries his best not to give in to panic. Patience yields focus.

“Patience yields focus,” he says out loud to himself. There is nowhere to go now but down.

At least Shiro managed to stay out of this shitshow, he thinks, as he lets the wormhole swallow him whole.

Read the rest on AO3!

#sheith #voltron #voltron legendary defender #shiro x keith #shiro/keith #takashi shirogane #keith kogane #at the edge of the universe #johaerys writes

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johaerys-writes · 2 years ago

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Shiro/Keith | Voltron: Legendary Defender | E | Ch. 3/3

Summary: During a fight with the Galra, Shiro and Keith are sucked into a wormhole and flung to the far edge of the universe. They land on an empty and unfamiliar planet, with no way of contacting the castle, but Keith isn’t too worried. Things could be worse— at least they have each other.

Until Shiro collapses.

Read on AO3 | Read from the beginning

“Blood sugar levels are normal, heart rate a bit elevated but nothing out of the ordinary, liver enzymes intact. Overall, I’d say he’s as healthy as a flimhog in its prime!” Coran says cheerfully as he reads Shiro’s vitals off the chart displayed on the pod’s monitor. “It’s like he was never sick at all.”

“But he was.” Keith frowns, arms crossed before his chest. After making it back to the castle, Coran has kept Shiro in the medbay, running every test on him that there is. Shiro’s looking better now, much better, but Keith can’t shake the worry that still lingers. Shiro was very sick. There was something seriously wrong with him, and it could still be there, ready to come back at any moment.

“What caused those symptoms in the first place?” Keith insists. “Can’t the pod just figure that out?”

Coran purses his lips in thought as he goes over the data again. “Usually, foreign bodies like viruses or bacteria leave some sort of trace after they’re gone, even if it’s just the antibodies the body produces. But there’s nothing here that I can see. Only the imbalances caused by the high fever.”

“I might be able to help,” Pidge says beside Keith. “I got some samples from the planet you were on. Perhaps if I run a quick comparison with similar strains on Earth and the places we’ve visited so far, the results could point us in the right direction. Hopefully it will tell us more about what happened to Shiro.”

Coran ticks some numbers in his data pad, then transfers the information to the main computer. Pidge cracks her knuckles and gets to work, the numbers on the screen reflecting on her glasses as her fingers swiftly tap the keyboard.

Keith waits anxiously while the computer processes the information. Shiro is still in the healing pod. The contact fluid is surrounding him, drifting through his hair like underwater currents. Coran had to give him an anaesthetic to prepare him for the examination, and his features are now soft as if with sleep. It makes Keith’s heart ache.

Just a little bit longer, he thinks. We’re getting you out of there soon.

“Right! That should tell us something.” Pidges presses a button when the computer starts beeping, and a list of numbers a mile long comes up on the screen. Keith can’t make heads or tails of it. “Hmm… that’s interesting.”

“Well?” Keith says, his foot tapping on the floor. “What does it say?”

“It looks like he had some sort of allergic reaction.” Pidge frowns at the screen, her brows pinching together in concentration. “This planet you were on: did you notice anything unusual about it?”

“No… not off the top of my head. It seemed fine to me. The suits didn’t detect anything wrong. The air was clear, just a tad too highly oxygenated.” When Pidge doesn’t respond, only continues to squint at the screen, Keith stomach tightens. “Why? Did you find something?”

“So, the planet’s atmosphere is composed of oxygen, nitrogen, argon, carbon dioxide, traces of neon and methane and—”

“Yes, just like Earth,” Keith interrupts impatiently. “What else?”

“And,” Pidge says pointedly, “an extensive web of microscopic symbiotic creatures. Now, most planets with some sort of lifeform have those, right? But these are different. They are necessary for the native life to thrive, and impossible to filter from the air. But if they are inhaled by non-native life, they can cause severe anaphylactic shock. Not only that, they seem to be highly aggressive towards alien life-forms, inhabiting the body for a while after until they are successfully dealt with by the immune system, like a bacterial infection. A few seconds of exposure is enough.” She turns back to the screen, staring down the list of strange numbers and symbols. “This is fascinating. I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

Keith’s blood runs cold. He stares at Pidge as if he doesn’t understand. “So that’s what made Shiro sick? The air of this planet?”

“That’s what it looks like.”

Keith’s pulse thrums in his ears, making him dizzy. It can’t be— how can that be? It was Keith that told Shiro that the air in that place was okay. It was Keith that told him it was safe to take off their helmets. It was Keith. If he’d noticed earlier… if he’d somehow known—

“It’s all my fault,” he mutters. “I told Shiro— I just looked at the readings on my suit. Everything seemed normal. How were we supposed to know—” He snaps his mouth shut when the lump in his throat makes it difficult to speak. It was all his fault. He was the one that insisted they go after that cruiser in the first place, that dragged them into the wormhole, that put Shiro’s life in danger. He is the one that’s responsible for all this mess.

If it wasn’t for him, Shiro would have been fine. He would have been safe and sound and healthy in the castleship, and none of this would have ever happened.

Keith rakes a hand through his hair and looks away, tries to control his breathing. He can’t lose his cool, not now, not like this. Not in front of everyone. That’s a sure fire way to make everything worse, and that’s the least Keith wants.

“What about me?” he asks, jaw clenched tight.

Coran blinks. “What about you, my boy?”

“I took off my helmet too. I breathed the same air Shiro did. Why didn’t I go into anaphylactic shock too?”

Coran and Pidge exchange a curious look, then go back to staring at the numbers. “You didn’t have any symptoms?” he asks, leaning over Pidge’s shoulder.

“Nope.”

“No fever, no shortness of breath, no lesions?”

“Nothing, I was fine.” Keith shakes his head. “How is it possible that I was fine, and this happened to Shiro?”

“Now that is the million groggery question, Number Two!” Coran says, way too happily given the subject at hand. “One that we shall have to have a look into. But for the time being, let’s get you some anti-allergy medication, shall we? Just to be on the safe side. You never know when those pesky symbiotic creatures might hit!”

Though it is the last thing that Keith wants, he still endures stoically as Coran pricks his finger to take a drop of blood to examine it, then checks his pupils and his mouth with a flashlight that makes his tongue itch. After some careful deliberation and an extensive look through his manual, he hands him a pill, which Keith chases down with some water, and gives him a strict warning not to eat any zogglion fruit or Uggirlon moss juice.

“Though delicious, they are absolutely the worst when in combination with the medicine I just gave you. The reaction could be deadly! I’d stay far away from them right now, if I were you.”

“Yeah, I wasn’t planning on having any, don’t worry,” Keith replies, wrinkling his nose in disgust when he remembers the slimy quality of the zogglion fruit —or whatever it’s called— when Coran presented it to them the week before. Keith isn’t particularly picky with food, but he’d rather starve than eat another bite of that thing.

He waits outside the medbay while Coran runs some last few tests on Shiro. Allura, Hunk and Lance all arrive to keep him company, and though Keith isn’t particularly in the mood to talk, he still appreciates the distraction. He doesn’t really want to be left alone with his thoughts right now. His worry for Shiro, although duller now that he knows he’s okay and can be treated properly if something happens, still feels like a vice, gripping his stomach. He won’t relax until Shiro is there with them, until Keith can talk to him.

As soon as Coran’s tests are done, he drains the healing pod of contact fluid and they all help him carry Shiro to a medical table until the anaesthetic wears off. Keith sits by him on a stool, his knee bouncing restlessly. He wants to be there when Shiro opens his eyes.

Read the rest on AO3!

#sheith #shiro x keith #shiro/keith #vld #voltron #voltron legendary defender #takashi shirogane #keith kogane #at the edge of the universe #johaerys writes

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