Hidden Messages [Klance AU]

29: Something Happy, Finally

"Keith!"

Lance practically tackled Keith once he put Shiro down to rest against a wall. Keith, in turn, erupted in a fit of giggles.

"Ha- Lance! Get off!" Lance chuckled as he let go, but didn't move away. His smile was wide enough to see the second row of teeth he had, like a shark's. The blue mer moved Keith's hair out of his face with a scaled hand, and let the same hand rest against Keith's cheek.

"I was really worried about you. I'm glad you're okay." Keith smiled lovingly, his gaze moving from Lance's tired eyes to his lips.

"I think I can handle my own— LANCE!"  Keith's luminescent marks flared as he barely caught Lance when he almost fainted. Krolia swam forward, alarmed.

"What happened?!"

"I don't know he just—" Keith sighed in relief when the mer opened his eyes, "What's wrong? You're exhausted!"

Lance shook his head with a forced smile. Only now did Keith notice the dark circles under his beautiful eyes.

"I'm fine, Keith, just tired. It took a lot of energy to save you..." He leaned into Keith's chest, having no more energy to keep himself up. Keith held him tightly. He squeezed Lance's hand to let him know, I'm never letting you go.

"I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we need to decide what to do with her," Krolia said, gesturing to the unconscious Haggar across the room.

"What is there to do?" Keith asked. "We could literally just leave, and never have to see her ever again." The mer in his arms shook his head slowly.

"No. That wouldn't be right."

Keith tilted his head at Lance, "Well, what do you think we could do? She's evil. We can't change that." The mer's eyes met Krolia's, both with the same idea in their minds. The Galran shook her head.

"You can't, Lance. You used enough energy with Keith, it'd be too much for you."

Lance swished his tail and swam up from Keith's grasp. "It isn't the same, though! For Keith I gave him quintessence, so obviously it took up a lot of my energy. This would be the opposite!"

"Lance, what are you talking about?" Keith asked. He had no idea what Lance and his mother were talking about. Damn, that's still weird to say.

"Okay, it's a long story but basically Alfor is a mer, and is like a lot older than any mers today, and he's like the old king or something, but he also told me about a human who gained too much quintessence and it corrupted him. Based on what he told me, I think Haggar might have gotten corrupted. She does work with a lot of quintessence, after all." Lance paused to gesture around the room at all the devices Haggar had.

"Anyways, he also explained to me that although they don't tell us anymore, mers have Altean powers that have to do with quintessence. It's this whole complicated power-y thing, but the gist is that we can transfer quintessence between beings, or something like that. How he explained it was a little confusing, heh. But that's how I saved you, by giving you quintessence which awoke your mer DNA I think, and I can do the same with Haggar but opposite, like taking away her corrupted quintessence." Lance took a deep breath. Even talking seemed to drain him.

Keith blinked a few times, processing the information. He didn't really understand anything about quintessence.

"But... wouldn't you get corrupted then? Or is that... is that not how it works?"

Krolia smiled, "To my knowledge, the quintessence doesn't go into Lance. He would just be the carrier between Haggar and this wonderful machine she has." She tapped a nail against one of the large machines that didn't get destroyed in their fight. Keith supposed they were a storage compartment of a sort for the magical substance.