Without Me

Keith (Ch.8)

There he stood, practically inches away from my face. Has this guy ever heard of personal space? He took off his mask, showing me his whole face. At first I didn't recognize who he was. He looked like a stranger, but a stranger that I've sworn I have seen before. It wasn't until I saw the hair, the dead giveaway, that I realized who he was.
"K-k- KEITH?" I backed away and stumbled onto my butt in surprise. Keith had Galra features. Purple fur, ears, glowing yellow eyes. And his height! He was a towering foot taller than me! The only thing that hasn't changed was his stupid mullet!!! "You're... a furry!"
"How did you know my name!?" He demanded, pulling his knife on me again.
"Lance is from an alternate reality!!!" Hunk interrupted.
Keith grew confused, and with more confusion came more anger. "How dare you try to trick me with you're outrageous lies!" He growled.
"It's true ok!!!" I spoke on my behalf. "Look I know all of this doesn't make sense but come on!!! Do flying robot lions make sense? Does it make even more sense to combine those flying robot lions into a mega robot?!?! NOTHING ABOUT THIS MAKES SENSE OK! Just hear me out. I accidentally entered your reality by going through a wormhole. In my reality Voltron does exist, and you, me, and Hunk are all paladins!"
Keith lowered his knife, looking baffled. "Me? A paladin?"
"Yes! You were the red lion's paladin, but soon after Shiro disappeared you became the black lion's paladin."
"Shiro!?... you mean he's... he's still alive in your reality?" Keith asked, his voice unsteady.
"Shiro Takashi is... dead?" Hunk asked, stunned.
"The Galra..." Keith said, lowering his head in shame. "They... they destroyed a rebel base... Shiro was..." he had to take a seat on the floor, he couldn't bare standing. "He was... killed in the attack."
Me and Hunk took a seat next to him on the floor.
"What happened in your reality? What made everything turn out so different?" He asked.
"We all got Shiro out of there successfully. But in this reality..."
"I... I was captured by THE DAMN GALRA!!" Keith rose and threw his blade in anger at a dead Galra body near by.
"What happened to you Keith?" Hunk asked him. "You were the top of your class. How'd you end up joining forces with them?"
Keith took a deep breath and sighed. He then settled back down on the floor again with us. "The day they captured us... Shiro found Matt and they both made it out at the time... but as for me I was left in their captivity. They knew that I had knowledge on the whereabouts of the blue lion. They made me lead them back to my home and collected everything I had on the blue lion. When they found the blue lion they kept it locked away. It's not on Earth anymore."
"So where is it?"
"It's at one of the Galra bases on the moon."
"Wait this doesn't make sense. You got captured by them and suddenly you just become one of them??" Hunk questioned.
Keith gave him a cold glare. "I am not one of them." He repeated. "Ever since Shiro left, they made me his replacement gladiator in the arena. And I became more than just their champion. Unlike Shiro, I had no mercy on my enemies. I saw it as a life or death situation for me. I killed every single one of those aliens I faced against. And to be honest... it felt... it felt great. The adrenaline rush made me always come back for more for some reason. It's like all my pent up rage, everything I had inside me could just let loose."

"The Galra were very curious as to why I was so different from Shiro." He continued. "They wondered why I behaved the way I did, why I wasn't like all the other humans that entered the arena before. Why I had no mercy. When they tested me they found out that I was part Galra. And at first I couldn't believe it but... I did feel it in my blood. It gave me an explanation as to why I was the way I was. Why I had the shortest temper. Why I just couldn't fit in like the rest of the people at the Garrison. They took me to their evil witch, Haggar. Haggar did terrible things to me. She tortured me to test my strengths and put me through hell mentally. It wasn't until the moment she injected me with quintessence that I stopped resisting the Galra and started to become like them. I became a weapon they could use to their advantage." He looked down at himself and his Galra features despairingly. "And it wasn't until Shiro's death that I realized what I've become. That I forgot I was also part human, and that I lost the only person in the world who made me feel that way. That's why I secretly set out to find all the paladins of Voltron, and that's how I found you guys."
All three of us sat there in silence. He's been through so much. Who knew all this would've happened if me, Hunk, and Pidge didn't show up that day in my reality. Me and Hunk didn't know how to respond, or how to make him feel any better. After awhile Hunk finally spoke up.
"I'm sorry I called you a monster back there." He said. "But um... try not to kill as many people next time."
Keith laughed. It was the first time I ever heard that laughter in awhile. "I'm gonna work on it." He replied.