There has to be an After for Us ~ (shadam / klance)

Chapter 5 - The Paladins go marching two by two...

"The Paladins went marching six by six hurrah hurrah," sang Lance. This had been going on for a few minutes now and even his backup singers had grown bored and dropped out.

"Will someone shut him up already?" asked Keith.

"The Paladins went marching six by six. Keith wants me to quit, doesn't appreciate my wit and they all go marching down...underground...looking for... astral plane bumbumbum..."

"Did you know that if you die in this realm, your body dies too?" threatened Keith.

"I do now," said Lance. "But my song's done anyway. There's only six of us soooo"

"So maybe I make it five if you start –"

"If I start what?" asked Lance as Keith had cut himself off mid-thought. Then Lance noticed the freaked out look on Keith's face as he looked out into the mob of gray figures swarming near them. "Dude, don't leave me hanging."

Keith still was looking out into the figures and his pace was slowing, causing Lance to slow too as he was behind him. Instinctively, Lance reached out to grab Keith's arm. "Snap out of it, man," he said.

On contact Keith flinched so hard, Lance immediately withdrew his hand, blushing for a reason he couldn't figure out. "You okay?" asked Lance.

"Fine," said Keith who started moving quicker to catch up to Pidge and Hunk. The string tied to his wrist had started to tug as he'd let out all possible slack when he'd drifted back from Shiro. Now he was catching up, with Lance following.

Lance was confused enough by Keith's odd behaviour that he'd actually stopped talking. That wasn't good for Lance. He didn't like the strange feeling of dread he was getting from whatever this in-between realm was. And wasn't the astral plane supposed to be the realm in-between the physical world and the afterlife? So what is in-between the in-between?

"Anyone else feel cold to their very core?" asked Hunk, managing to describe exactly what Lance was feeling. "Also that joy is an illusion and love is a lie?"

"You've been listening to too much emo music," said Keith.

"Well, you would know...," said Hunk. "Kinda your genre."

"You're still making jokes so you're fine. Let's keep pressing on. Allura, how's it looking up ahead?"

"I can't tell what kind of progress we're making," said Allura. "This must lead to the astral plane. The Goddess wouldn't send us on a hopeless journey."

"I mean, why would a God mess with mortals?" asked Pidge. "It's not like its happened in literature repeatedly or even the bible?"

"Oh phew," said Lance.

"I was being sarcastic," said Pidge. "It's actually a really common trope."

"Well, in my defense, your sarcastic voice sounds the same as your normal voice."

"Because I'm never not sarcastic."

"How are you doing, Shiro?" asked Allura, putting a hand on her friend's shoulder.

"I guess as good as I can be," said Shiro, "walking through the underworld, trying to reach the astral plane so I can hear a message from my dead ex-fiancé."

"This isn't the underworld," said Lance, "It's the in-between the in-between."

"You called it the underworld," said Keith.

"No, I didn't..."

"And we all go marching down, underground," sang Keith. "... remember?"

"You have a beautiful singing voice, Keith. However, we went up into space, not down. That was just a song."