His Rival

Metamorphosis

Hello everyone, Jess here!

As I'm entering the epilogue phase, these chapters will be growing shorter (20.4 pages/7,476 words). Still, be sure to take breaks as needed.

If you have any questions or comments about this chapter, let me know; I'd like to hear from you!

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy this chapter!

*Trigger Warning: Continuing Themes of Sexual Assault, although much slighter

"(Y/n)!" I screamed again, a hoarse wail from the deepest depths of my being. "No, please!" I had been impaled straight through my side with a spear and an acid blade had torn through my neck. But watching her drift in and out of consciousness in my arms was a whole different sort of torture. Hearing how her breathing would slow, the raspy noise quaking through every fiber of me as her dull (e/c) eyes would flutter closed, as if for the last time. Only for the process to repeat again and again. Each of her breaths were sharper than the last, like glass shards piercing my veins.

"Keith, what happened?!" Lance shouted, boosters flaring as he and the rest of my team charged near.

"She... She.." I stammered, unable to speak over the lump that had formed in my throat, the swollen node throbbing with red-hot pain at just the thought of what happened here.

"She used her own quintessence to finish off Sendak!" Pidge exclaimed, the piercing agony in her yell amplifying my own. "(Y/n) overextended her powers!"

"Oh, uh that's a lot of blood!" Hunk blubbered, face turning green as he covered his mouth with his hands. "I think I'm gonna be sick..." I had seen—done much worse, but even I swallowed hard, forcing down the rancid bile that scorched up my throat at the crimson that bubbled from her chest, dripping from the corner of her mouth.

"That attack reopened her wound!" Lance interjected, hands failing all over the place. "We have to do something, fast!"

"Well, we can't use her pod, her lion's gone out of commission!" Allura fretted in kind. Even her face had gone pale at the sight, mouth hanging ajar.

"What do we do?" Pidge keened, hazel rises darting in every possible direction. Even she, one of the brightest cadets of our generation, was at a loss. Well, there was only one thing we could do.

"I'll take her back to the Garrison" I muttered under my breath, legs flying like the wind towards my lion.

"Keith.." I heard (Y/n) mumble, my heart stopping at the next three syllables that left her mouth. "I lubb oo." I bit my tongue, fighting my tears as I clung her tighter to my chest. I couldn't let her sense my panic, not in this state.

"I love you too" I managed in reply, voice just barely over a whisper. "Just hang on a little longer, okay?" Within a blink of an eye, we were in my hull, a first aid kit strewn about as she lay on my bed. Stuffing gauze in her wound, I winced as she cried out from the pressure, tears trickling down that beautiful face of hers, knowing I was the reason why she was in pain.

But it had to be done, or else I may never spend a waking moment with her again! Even so, each whimper and hiss pierced my eardrums as I secured the bandages with diagonal wraps from her shoulder blades to the opposite hip, forming an X around her torso.

Just as I was about to lower her back down upon the mattress, lead singed through the muscles in my arms, freezing them in place. Somewhere along the lines, it had become physically impossible for me to let her go, as if we were two magnets fused together. Swearing under my breath, I hulled her to my cockpit, armored thighs bracing her weight as I kept one arm under her knees and the other behind her back.