This story is 3rd in Quintessential series, and the end part directly references the previous work, Of Broken Bonds and Corrupted Core. List of the stories in the series can be found in my profile.

When they landed in a planet for a mission, the last thing Keith expected Lance to do was for him to lean in close, squint, and exclaim, "Keith, you're hot."

Keith backed up immediately, staring at Lance as though he had grown a second head. "Excuse me?"

Hunk, on the other hand, choked on the air that he was breathing. "Lance, what in the world?!" he asked aloud. "Just earlier today you told me that Keith's mullet is a crime of fashion and now you're saying he's hot?"

"Wait a minute, how is my hair a crime?" Keith demanded immediately.

"Hunk, I don't mean he's hot hot, I mean he's… hot," Lance elaborated.

"Oh, as in temperature?"

"Lance, what do you mean my hair is a crime? My hair has never killed anyone," Keith insisted.

"Hold on, how do you even know he's hot? The whole planet is hot," Hunk frowned at Lance.

"Guys, can we decide on a topic, please?" Pidge interjected. "I vote we talk about how Lance finds Keith hot. Do you picture him wearing a speedo, Lance?"

"Now that's a mental image," Shiro muttered. "Not that it matters. I've seen him wearing a penguin onesie, nothing can top that."

"Oh my god," Lance buried his face in his hands. "All I did was say that he's hot. As in warm. As in he's like a giant living furnace." He looked up at Shiro seriously. "And Shiro, I need a photographic evidence of Keith in that onesie."

"No, no, he doesn't," Keith pushed Lance away when Shiro's eyes sparkled dangerously. "Why do you think I'm a giant living furnace again?"

"I said already, you're hot," Lance explained.

"Yeah but the whole planet is hot," Hunk argued.

"I don't know if it's my quintessence messing up, but I'm pretty sure the air around Keith is warmer somehow," Lance insisted. He laid a hand on Keith's forehead and frowned. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure he's hot. Burning up. Come here, Hunk, your body temperature is more stable than mine. Can you check?"

"Wait, I feel fine," Keith protested, but Hunk already caught him and pressed the back of his hand to his forehead.

"Oh," Hunk said with a frown after a moment. "Okay, that's definitely above normal human temperature."

Shiro swooped in and swatted away Hunk's hand to press his own forehead to Keith's. He pulled back with a frown matching Hunk's. "Yes, that's really hot. Keith, are you sure you feel fine?"

"Yes," Keith insisted. "Seriously. I don't feel sick at all."

"That's interesting," Pidge piped up. She turned to Allura, who walked ahead of them and had stayed quiet during the exchange. "Princess, do Galrans have higher body temperature than the average human?"

Allura hummed thoughtfully. "I'm not sure, but even if they do I don't think the difference would be extreme."

"That's definitely extreme," Hunk piped up instantly.

"Are you really sure you're okay?" Shiro asked Keith again.

"Yes," Keith answered exasperatedly. "I'm fine. No headache, no dizziness, definitely no fever. This is the best I've felt in a while. Can we focus on the mission?"

Shiro hummed in displeasure. "Alright. But if you feel unwell later, you have to tell me, and we'll get you back to the castle-ship to rest. Is that clear?"

Keith grumbled but agreed. That seemed to satisfy Shiro. Still, the leader sent a look to Lance, who was most sensitive to heat out of them all due to his own affinity with water and ice, and Lance immediately nodded and matched his pace with Keith's. Keith sighed.

They had come down to the surface of Fotia, a planet in Bul galaxy, for a mission. Apparently, Fotia was one of the most technologically advanced planets during Altea's time, along with Altea itself and Galra. Its societies had long since fallen, unfortunately, and what was once a proud planet was deserted and forgotten but by a few.

"Fotia was a strong planet and one of Altea's strongest allies," Allura had said. "I hear it's fallen a long time ago, but there might still be something. We can go down and find something useful there."

"But if it's fallen, we wouldn't get allies," Pidge objected.

"I know," Allura's voice cracked with barely concealed grief, "but they should have kept some kind of log. Maybe there is something we can still use somehow."

Coran put his hand on Allura's shoulder to share his support despite his own grief. A moment of silence passed before he took away his hand and took over the conversation. "Fotia is a strong nation, and they are known to have created nearly indestructible architectures. While their people may have perished, their buildings and anything they store within should still be standing. If you go to the capital city, Spitha, you should be able to salvage something."

And so they did. The Castle of Lions landed on the empty patch of land just outside the city limits and the Paladins, plus Allura, continued on foot while Coran waited on the ship. The whole planet was hot, so hot. It was practically a wasteland, in more ways than one. The air was warm and dry, whenever wind came it was hot instead of cool, and the rocks they walked on was hot, with orange-white winking from its cracks, literal lava sneaking peeks from underneath. Plants managed to sprout from the boiling rocks anyway, blazing red leafy plants growing like bushes in patches here and there.

They soon reached the city, which amazingly was even hotter. The buildings were shaped like domes and arcs, literal caves as tall as Red's legs shooting up to the sky like some kind of weird hills. They were all the rocky black with lava underneath, just like the rocks they were walking on. Little windows appeared in rows, creating something akin of a pattern that Keith couldn't recognize.

"How are these buildings shaped like this?" Hunk asked in awe. "They're incredible."

"Certain Fotians were able to manipulate fire and lava," Allura answered with a smile. "It's their technique of building the whole city. They were people of fire, and the planet is rich of fire quintessence."

"Does that mean their technology was very durable?" Pidge asked excitedly.

"Yes," Allura nodded. "That is why Coran and I believe we can still salvage something."

Both Hunk and Pidge gave a synchronized awed whoa. Shiro's eyes twinkled with barely concealed amazement, and Allura smiled at them with pride mixed with sadness. Keith, too, had to suppress himself from whistling. He had heard manipulate fire and lava and immediately thought –admittedly somewhat childishly – I want those!

Only Lance had been silent the whole time. Now that Keith thought about it, Lance had been strangely silent since he was given the task to watch over Keith. Curious, Keith turned to check on him.

Lance was sweating profusely, fanning himself with his hand. He seemed uncomfortable and tired, which was weird. Normally, Lance would find checking new planets exciting. It was rare for him to be subdued during such 'expeditions', as he called it.

"Lance, are you okay?" Keith asked quietly.

"Huh?" Lance turned to him, as though surprised he was there. "Oh! I'm fine, don't worry about it. Just a bit hot."

Keith's brows furrowed. "Aren't you from Cuba? Isn't Cuba hot?"

"Not like this," Lance shrugged. "Don't worry, I'll get used to this."

Keith hummed uneasily, but complied. He noted that Lance seemed a little pale. Well, maybe Shiro tasked Lance to keep an eye on Keith, but Keith would definitely keep an eye on Lance. He'd just got out of the healing pod a few days ago. It wouldn't be funny if he ended up there again.

Allura lead them to a grand building ahead of an open area that seemed like an open hall of some kind. The building seemed to be the city's equivalent of city hall, looking more polished and fancy than the rest of the buildings around it. It had the least peeking glow of lava compared to the rest of the buildings, and somehow more stable. They entered the building after Allura poked the wall with her staff to see if it was safe for them to go in.

The inside of the building seemed to be just as abandoned as the outside was, aside from being a bit darker because of lack of lava glinting and somehow a bit hotter anyway. There were clues that people were there – upturned chairs, broken tables, fallen… cutlery, cups, and plates? It was pretty obvious that things were abandoned, though.

They maneuvered through the building, walking up the sloping walkway that spiraled up the wall to access the upper levels of the building. It was littered with something that looked like pieces of broken furniture of sorts.

"I wonder if there's some kind of log telling about how Fotia fell," Allura muttered, almost to herself.

"Perhaps there is," Shiro assured her. "We can see later."

They reached the topmost floor, and were greeted with the sight of a room that looked similar to a control room. Perhaps it was. As soon as they stepped foot there, Pidge groaned aloud and complained, "How the hell is this place so hot? This has to be a lot hotter than outside, and outside is hot!"

"Pidge, language," Shiro admonished automatically.

"She's right, though," Hunk said as he fanned himself, "this heat is nothing to laugh about."

"Fotians find heat comfortable and tries to make their homes as hot as they can without bringing damage to their own health," Allura explained. "This should be the hottest it gets, however."

"Oh thank God," Lance mumbled in response.

Allura laughed softly. "Yes, I understand that it is uncomfortable, but hold on for just a little while. Pidge, do you think you can access their drive? It's old, but there's a chance it might still start."

"I can try," Pidge rolled her neck and got herself comfortable, plugging in, typing away. "Alright, seems like the system still works even if it's painfully slow. I can't read the alphabet, though, and translating it seems like it'll take forever given how slow the system is."

"I'll help you," Allura immediately sat next to Pidge. "Is there anything that looks like daily logs or something?"

"Let's see… what does this line mean?"

"Well…"

The boys let the two girls work, looking around the room curiously. Shiro mainly hung back, simply casting his gaze around, making sure that as many of the team members were within his eyesight as possible. Hunk poked at several buttons on the table near Pidge and Allura, earning a glare. Keith creeped closer to Lance, who looked paler somehow even in the low lighting of the building.

"Are you sure you're fine?" Keith asked quietly.

"Quiznak!" Lance jumped in surprise. "Keith! You don't sneak around someone like that!"

"Sorry," Keith apologized quickly, "but my question stands."

Lance shrugged noncommittally. "I'm fine. I told you, I'm just hot. Can you move back a little, by the way? I still feel like you're really hot. This room is sweltering already but being near you makes me feel like I'm being cooked."

Keith stepped back with a frown. "Is it really that hot? I don't feel like it's that bad."

Lance stared at him, eyes blown so wide it must had hurt. "Dude, how can you…? It's so freaking hot, Keith. It's downright unbearable."

Keith took another step back. If it was really as hot as Lance made it seem and he exuded heat, it was probably better if he kept away from Lance. "I don't know. It's hot, sure, it feels like a particularly hot day in the desert, but nothing too extreme."

Lance kept staring at him as though he was a piece of puzzle he needed to figure out. It was starting to make Keith uncomfortable. He had just opened his mouth to tell Lance to stop when Allura cheered and Pidge yelled something crude that obviously was meant to be some sort of victory cry.

"Did you find anything?" Hunk curiously peered over.

"We got the daily logs!" Pidge cheered. "I understand zero percent of this though, cause it's written in Fotian alphabet."

"I'll read it aloud for everyone later," Allura said with a satisfied smile. "Now let's see what we've got here… hmmm." She stopped and frowned. "Well that's interesting…"

"What? What does it say?" Lance asked, bouncing on his heels.

"Let me read this up," Allura instructed. Her brows were furrowed in concentration.

"Oh, Lance, can you maybe try lowering the temperature?" Pidge requested. "I feel like I'm going to melt if this continues on."

"I can try," Lance shrugged. Ethereal blue glow immediately shone from his eyes and fingertips, and light snowfall immediately descended in the room, and the temperature slowly fell to more comfortable degrees. When the glow ceased, Lance wobbled and stumbled forward.

"Whoa, Lance," Shiro, who was closest to Lance's position, caught him and pulled him upright immediately. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine," Lance laughed shrilly, trying too hard to convince that he was okay that it ended up looking suspicious instead. "Just a bit hot. I guess it affects me more than I thought."

"You sure?"

"Yeah! Keith's the one who's hotter than furnace, for heaven's sake."

"Uh, yeah, that might be something we want to put aside for a moment," Hunk spoke up. "Cause, guys?" His voice dropped to a whispered hiss, "I don't think we're alone here."

On cue, a clatter from the back of the room drew their attention. Keith reacted to it the fastest, turning around with bayard summoned and activated. Pidge jumped to her feet, also activating her bayard, keeping her position to guard Allura. Shiro assumed a stance while his arm buzzed to life, and both Hunk and Lance took a step back, knowing their strength lie in distance. Allura threw an alarmed glance before diving back to the logs, looking more disturbed by the minute.

More clatters, and something that looked like some kind of chair fell. From behind it, a creature climbed over, crawling on four limbs. It looked like some kind of ape, with charcoal black skin and blazing white eyes. It didn't seem to have nose or ears. It panted through its mouth, from which smoke and orange-red glow radiated. A soft growl escaped its parted lips, constant, like an ominous purr.

"What is that?" Lance asked aloud, horror in his voice.

More of the creature crawled out. They looked around, shifting and groaning.

A crackle of ice thundered through the room, and Keith turned to look at Lance. He looked even paler than before, and his left hand was completely encased in ice. He threw them a sheepish look and babbled, "I, uh, sorry? I thought I've got good control over it but apparently being overly nervous and the teeniest bit scared makes it go haywire – holy quiznak!"

Keith turned back around when he heard scraping sound from the creatures' crawling. They seemed to have zeroed in on Lance, staring at the ice with those seemingly soulless eyes. They crawled to him with purpose, slow but menacing.

Lance scrambled backwards, almost falling over Pidge who stumbled when Lance hit her. She immediately recovered and put herself between the creatures and Lance.

"What are these creatures?" Shiro asked aloud. "Are these Fotians?"

"No, no, no, that can't be right!" Hunk cried immediately. "Aren't they supposed to be as advanced as Alteans and Galrans? They can't be Fotians!"

"Princess?" Lance inquired quietly. He glared at the ice in his hand, which vanished without trace. The creatures kept crawling at him as though he was a beacon.

"They're…" Allura said, but faltered. She bit her lip and stayed silent.

"What do we do? They keep crawling," Keith asked urgently. "Do we just kill them?"

"No!" Allura yelled. "We can't!"

"Then what do you suggest we do?" Keith shouted back, panic and nervousness overcoming his attempt to stay cool. He could feel the temperature of the room rising the moment he yelled, which… was odd.

Immediately, the creature stopped dead in their tracks. In unnerving unison, they turned to Keith like predators finding prey.

"Uh…"

As though triggered by Keith's voice, the creatures let out a collective groan that sounded eerily like a roar and a sob mixed into one and started scrambling for him instead. Keith didn't scream like a terrified little six-year old. He didn't.

"Run!" Allura cried, and all Paladins complied without question. They immediately turned and dashed down the sloping walkway and ran for their lives. Behind them, the creatures roared and crawled after them, so fast compared to the way they moved before. From each floor they passed, more creatures emerged and tried to grab them. Dozens of them crawled on the streets and reached for them as they ran.

"What are these things why are they so creepy omigosh get them away from me – " Hunk babbled rapidly as he dashed away. It was the fastest Keith had seen him run.

"Who even cares about that? Run!" Lance screamed back. Even though he was pale as death he still managed to run the fastest of them all. Keith found himself envying those long, toned legs – even though Red was the fastest lion, Lance was the fastest runner because of how long his legs were. At times like these, Keith couldn't help but wish his legs were a bit longer.

When they passed the city limits, their mad dash slowed, their own energy starting to deplete. Fortunately, the creatures didn't follow. They stared at them from the edge of the city before slowly slinking back into the depths of the buildings.

"What even are those?" Pidge wheezed. "How are they… like that?"

They all turned to Allura for answers. She wore a look of contemplation, and after a moment spoke up, "Pidge, did you download the logs?"

"Yeah, I always download anything that seems useful," Pidge answered. "That's one of the reasons why the system was so slow earlier. Why?"

"Perhaps it will be best if we all look at the logs at the ship," Allura said. "We'll have to make some kind of plan later. Besides… Lance looks awful."

They turned to Lance, who looked ready to collapse but wasn't sure the rocks was safe to do it. He scoffed. "Please, Princess, I always look fabulous. In fact, I feel fabulous!" He contradicted it by stumbling into Hunk, who caught him with a frown. Lance licked his lips as he tried to stand upright and failing. "Uh, going back to the ship looks like a good idea though."

"Alright, let's get back then," Hunk nodded seriously and hoisted Lance on his shoulder, eliciting a yelp. "You're going to rest once we get there."

"Hunk, I can walk on my own!" Lance protested.

"Nope, let me have this," Hunk refused immediately.

"You'd get tired. I'm heavy!"

Hunk threw him a look. "Seriously? You're really light, Lance. Like a stick!"

"… I don't know if I'm supposed to be offended or not."

The walk back to the ship was quick and relatively uneventful compared to the mess they ran away from. Lance seemed to get better the moment they went inside the ship, immediately regaining color when they were swallowed within the white halls and teal lights. Soon, he slid off Hunk's shoulder and walked on his own, though he kept himself on Hunk's reach because Hunk sent a protesting glare when he wobbled a little. Once they reached the control room, Allura ordered Pidge to show the logs on the big holo-screen. She complied immediately.

"What happened to Lance?" Coran asked when he saw Lance's still pale face.

"He got pale and wobbly down there, probably because he was overheating," Keith answered. "Seems like it somehow got worse because he used his quintessence to lower a room's temperature."

"I'm fine now!" Lance assured. "The castle's cool and nice."

"We should still be cautious," Coran said with a frown as he forced packs of water, seemingly out of nowhere, to Lance's hands. "Drink, my boy."

Lance took the packs obediently and frowned. "Where'd these come from…?"

"Everyone, please look at these logs." Allura's voice prompted them to turn and look at the screen, where the logs had been displayed in Altean alphabet. "It seems that the situation is far worse than I previously suspected."

"How so?" Shiro asked.

Allura stood straighter and began reading, "Log entry #47. Altea has fallen. Galra has finally revealed their true colors and are now trying to attack Fotia. They told us to either surrender ourselves in five planetary cycles or they will kill everyone in the planet. Attempts to negotiate have not been successful. Many Fotians have abandoned hope. I don't know what to do anymore."

"Whose logs are these again?" Keith asked.

"I believe it's the planet's queen at the time," Allura answered. "Fotia is a queendom planet. Log entry #48. The scientists believe that they may have found something to help us fend off Galra. I do not wish for our people to suffer under Zarkon's thumb. This may be our last hope to survive against them. I gave the scientists my permission to develop whatever serum they were developing. I wish them the best of luck."

"Isn't that a good thing that they found something to fend off the Galra?" Hunk asked, though he sounded more nervous than not. "I mean, it's good, right? And you said Fotians are advanced, maybe they fended off the Galra but found the planet too unsafe for some reason and abandoned it!"

"Hunk, the log says serum in it," Lance protested as he sipped on his water. "Please remember any sci-fi movie with any kind of serum in it. This could either be the best or the worst thing ever."

Hunk's face fell. "Oh, right."

Allura's face went grave. "Log entry #52. The serum works. It's incredible – it strengthens Fotians' natural affinity with fire and their ability to mold lava. We could use this to our advantage! Any Galran that set foot to Fotia will have to retreat. Spitha especially have been equipped with as much as this serum as we could produce, as its effect is not permanent. Spitha is our last stronghold, and we will defend it however we can."

Coran shifted by Lance's side. "I have a bad feeling about this," he muttered softly, but loud enough that everyone in the room could hear.

Allura went on resolutely. "Log entry #57. There are some previously unseen side effects of the serum. It's true that it makes us Fotians strong, but then our power withers away. Taking more serum seemed to be able to solve this problem, but only for a short while. I'm afraid… I'll have to ask for outside interference to solve this problem."

"Outside interference? What?" Lance mumbled to himself.

"Pidge, there's a video log meant to be broadcasted to many planets but was never successfully uploaded," Allura told Pidge. "Do you see it?"

"Yes," Pidge answered with a nod. "I'm playing it on screen."

The lines of words were soon replaced by a video. It looked corrupted, somehow, the image disturbed by sudden jarring lines of red and green every now and then. It showed an empty room, with a table and a chair. The lights were dim. A constant hum filled the air, and it took Keith a moment to realize that it was the sound of people screaming, roaring, groaning. He shuddered.

Someone entered the frame and sat on the chair. Her skin was a rocky shade of grey, eyes a surprising shade of flame orange. Her hair was yellowy brown, like dried grass, and a crown of silver adorned her head. She had small tufted ears, but no nose. She levelled a gaze to the camera.

"Greetings," she spoke calmly, though her stare spoke of a pain and fatigue unimaginable for Keith. "I am Elda, daughter of the flames, Queen of Fotia. I am here to ask you – no, to beg you – for help." There was a pound at her door, and she closed her eyes, took a deep breath. When she opened them again, she spoke, "A calamity has befallen Fotia. We were too arrogant, and we have to pay our price. We thought we could strengthen ourselves, but we only spelled our own doom. We thought we created a serum which could give us the power to fight against our enemies. It did, for a while… but it eats us from the inside out, and now we long for something we lost when we took in that serum." More pounding, and she looked more pained. "We turned to each other hoping we could regain what we lost. It could never be recovered." She blinked a few times and took a deep breath. "Please, if any of you, anyone at all, would be willing to help… I send you my thanks from the bottom of my soul. However, if you are someone of fire and heat, run away. Get as far away from Fotians as you can. Our priests have created a barrier around our city to keep these… creatures… in, but once you get in your safety is not guaranteed. Fallen Fotians will yearn for your quintessence, and perhaps… perhaps you will end up like them."

For the first time in a long while, Keith felt cold.

"Water hurts the fallen ones, and they fear it, so much they would strike," she continued. "The hatred seems worse the longer they remain corrupted, though I do not know why. I know not of how exactly to stop them, and I do not know what else to do. Please, if anyone could send – " Her words were cut short when a crash sounded. She jolted and turned, eyes filled with horror. Before she could do anything, one of the creatures she spoke of, like ones the Paladins and Allura had seen, shot to her with a loud screech. She screamed as the creature smashed into her, and both fell down, out of frame, though their screams still sounded. The queen's hand reached up desperately, trying to find something to defend herself with. As her screams turned into gurgles, her arm went rigid in midair, color turning dark as cracks of lava appeared before the glow died and the skin was nothing but charred black.

The video entry was cut off there. Static filled the control room.

"Oh my," Coran breathed, clearly shaken. "I'd known Fotia fell but I wouldn't have thought…"

Shiro gulped. "Yes, that was rather… graphic."

"Wait, let me get something straight," Lance began, gesturing wildly with one hand while the other held the water packs he hadn't drunk, "so basically Fotia fell because of some sort of zombie apocalypse like in those dystopian movies?"

"It seems that way," Pidge answered. "That video certainly confirms it."

"So how do they manage to still be around even after thousands of years?" Lance asked. "Cause they didn't seem like they're in the state to be able to reproduce, if you ask me."

"It looks like their quintessence was corrupted," Allura said softly. "There are many risks of it, and most of them are not yet known nor are they well-documented. If someone deliberately corrupts one's quintessence to their core, they could potentially control the corrupted one, though even then there would still be risks for both parties. However, given that the Fotians' corruption seem to be accidental and there was no control in how it spread… it's very likely that they received one of these unknown risks."

"Are you saying that they became this sort of creepy undead?" Hunk questioned, shuddering. "That's… that's worse than death."

Allura closed her eyes and sighed. "Yes, one might argue that it is."

"Wait, so they became zombies, and instead of eating brains they eat quintessence?" Lance asked. What color he had gained before had drained from his face again.

"Wait, what is zombies?" Allura asked in confusion.

"Uh. Human version of the living dead?"

"Human version of the living dead eats living humans' brains? Is there where humans keep their quintessence?"

Pidge raised a hand. "We'd like to discuss about this with you, Princess, but maybe at a more appropriate time? Also, Keith looks like he's going to be sick."

Once Pidge mentioned it, Keith was suddenly aware at how his legs felt weak and how his stomach felt like a giant cauldron being stirred. He brought up a hand to his mouth and swallowed a bile. His face was probably paler than Lance's, and not just because his skin tone was paler to begin with.

A hand clasped his shoulder, and he jolted. He turned to meet Shiro's eyes.

"Are you alright, Keith?" he asked, tone dripping with worry.

"Yeah… yeah, I'm fine," Keith nodded. "It's just that… they were all chasing me, and it just occurred to me that…" He swallowed.

Shiro gripped his shoulder tighter. "We won't let them get to you, Keith."

Keith managed a weak smile. "I know. Thanks."

Silence hung for a moment before Hunk broke it. "So what do we do now?" he asked. "We wanted some data, right? We got it. Do we just leave now?"

"Well, we got what we came from," Pidge shrugged, typing away as she browsed through the data they had collected. "Besides, we don't even know what this serum is and how exactly it works. Trying to figure it out to help the Fotians would probably take too much time… hmmm?"

"Did you find something?" Coran piped up.

"Maybe? I don't know…" Pidge frowned, pulling up some files and studying them. She read through the lines quickly, humming all the while. After a moment, her brows shot up. "Well that changes things."

"What is it, Pidge?" Allura asked.

"It looks like there's a way to help the Fotians after all," Pidge answered. She displayed the documents she had read to the big screen. "See there? A scientist managed to find a method which could potentially reverse and cure the effects of the serum, but they didn't have time to distribute it. Probably got turned into a quintessence zombie, too."

"Wait, really?" Lance perked up. "That's great! We gotta help, then!"

"Can I ask how exactly we can help before we jump into anything here?" Hunk questioned.

Pidge typed something, and soon the city's blueprint plan was showed on the screen. She pointed at the largest building on the map, located at the very center of the city. "See that? That's the city hall, where we were earlier. See that circular building just above it, on the map? The one that's large, but just a tad smaller than the city hall? That's the research center where they developed the serum. Apparently, a scientist had just discovered a way to potentially reverse the serum's effects and had just put it in the building's logs, but the building was taken over by fallen Fotians before they could report it or do something with it."

"How can they do it?" Allura asked.

"There's this thing at the top floor of the building," Pidge pulled the building's blueprints and pointed at the top floor, where a device stood inside the biggest room. "It's designed to spread the cure to the whole city at once, so that most if not all of the fallen Fotians could be cured at once. Stragglers would be dealt with by injecting the cure straight into their bloodstream. Although, the scientist wrote that the cure will only be activated when mixed with equal parts fire quintessence and water quintessence."

"Why fire and water?" Shiro asked with a small frown.

"Water to suppress the corrupted quintessence and cleanse it of the corruption, fire to burn off the corruption and purify it to the level of purity it has. It's basically a huge cleaning job too big for one element to handle so they use two."

Lance hummed and turned to Keith. "Sounds like a job for us, right, buddy?"

Keith blinked and looked at him. "Wait, what?"

"Fire and water quintessence?" Lance lifted a brow. "You have fire quintessence, I have water…?"

"Oh, right." Keith frowned. "I'm not sure I can do it. I still haven't awakened the elemental manipulation abilities."

"What? You totally have!" Hunk protested at once. "Lance noted that you were hot and everything."

"Are you saying that you didn't realize that you were like a fireplace without the actual fire back then?" Pidge asked incredulously.

"Wait, really? I was?" Keith asked in surprise. "Wasn't that because of the fallen Fotians?"

"No, that was you," Shiro insisted. "The Fotians didn't actually contribute to the temperature. It was all you."

"It's alright if you didn't realize," Coran assured. "Records have found that the Red Paladins of old tend to not realize that their powers have grown. It looks like that's just a Red Paladin thing!"

"I don't think I did anything, though?" Keith said. "And even if I did, I have no idea how to control it, so…"

"Oh, for God's sake. Here, let me try," Lance scrunched up his face in thought for a moment before glaring at Keith hotly and yelling, "Keith, you lame little shit! Your sword is lame, your dagger is lame, your entire existence is lame; who the heck even uses blades anymore, you outdated warrior wannabe?"

"You say that again to my face!" Keith demanded angrily, stomping to Lance. He stopped moving when he felt the temperature in the room rising dramatically and saw sparks flying from where he stomped the floor. He stepped back with a gape, marveling how the temperature had spiked from the comfortable degrees to right-next-to-a-bonfire hot.

"See? I guess you just need to feel something a bit more intensely," Lance grinned smugly as he twirled his fingers and cooled the room once more. The light snowfall he normally summoned had turned into light drizzle the moment his eyes glowed blue.

"Where'd you get that idea?" Keith asked, genuinely curious.

Lance shrugged. "I have a feeling."

Hunk sent him an accusatory look. "You totally got that from all that shitty anime you watched."

Lance's shoulders sagged. "…I totally got that from all the shitty anime I watched," he admitted.

"Anyway, we now know that we may be able to help the Fotians," Shiro said, pulling the topic back to Fotia. "Do we go through with it?"

"Oh, I should make it clear that this cure is a prototype," Pidge said. "It's untested, so it's possible that it won't work."

"It's possible that it works, though, right?" asked Hunk. "I say we go with it."

"The objective of Voltron is to defend the universe," Allura spoke up. "We are here to help, to fight against anyone who disrupts the peace and to aid people of planets that need it. There's no option to contemplate on. We go back and help, as soon as possible."

"I suggest we all take time to rest and regain our strength, Princess," Coran spoke up. "Let's not be hasty. Lance particularly needs a bit more rest."

"What? But I feel fine already," Lance protested.

"The planet's overwhelming fire quintessence in the air squeezed you, Lance," Coran explained. "I don't know why, but the quintessence on the planet is abnormally high. You're fine right now because the castle automatically balances your quintessence, like it does everyone else. If you go out there right now you might end up in a worse situation."

"But the others are fine," Lance complained some more, taking a whining tone. "I can totally go in another mission."

"I don't encourage you to take your chances," Coran firmly replied. "Water goes against fire, and if your quintessence level is depleted even more, it warrants a trip down the healing pod. You might die! Besides, you're not the only one at risk. Pidge's quintessence is of forest, and she might get squeezed too even if her powers hasn't awakened. Not to mention Keith."

"I thought mine is fire too?" Keith asked in confusion.

"Precisely," Coran pointed. "You unknowingly absorb the quintessence in the air, so your quintessence level is very high. You won't notice it, but if you take more it might burn you from the inside out."

"Like spontaneous combustion?" Hunk squeaked in horror.

"Got it," Keith nodded, his own face paling. "Let's stay here a bit more."

"In the meantime, we should try coming up with a plan," Allura gestured for them to come closer. "Let's study the city plan and determine the best route to go in and out."

It took a while before Coran finally let them go out into the open again, during which they made their plan. To make sure they only spent as little time as possible out in the open, Allura had Coran move the ship closer to the city limits – as close as they could get. If it was possible they'd have the ship land in the middle of the city, but unfortunately for them there was not enough open space for it.

Their plan was to take a path as straight as possible to the research center with the Paladins and Allura surrounding Keith and Lance to protect them from attacks from fallen Fotians, since they were essential to the plan. Not to mention that the Fotians apparently felt threatened by water and might attack Lance, and they were attracted to fire and might jump Keith. Everyone could tell that Keith didn't like the plan because he preferred being at the front slashing enemies, but that was out of their options.

The six of them maneuvered through the city as quickly as they were able to, glancing warily to each corners to find signs of the Fotians. To their relief, they saw none. It seemed that they wouldn't come out unless disturbed.

"Here!" Pidge directed, leading them in front with a holo-map programmed into her suit. "We take a left here and… yeah, we're here."

The building was the same dome-like structure that made up the buildings in the city, but it had a more clinical look in it, somehow. The color could be a factor, given how it looked like it was once white. The group approached to enter the building, but found that it was closed. A mechanism was put at the door, looking like the water or ice dispenser on a fridge but made to suck things in instead of cough things out. Hunk poked at it curiously, but nothing happened.

"According to the data I have, the door scans workers' quintessence," Pidge informed. "I can probably trick it to open for us, but it still need to read something. Quintessentially produced fire would probably do."

Keith turned to Lance. "How do you do that thing, when you summon water and ice?"

Lance tilted his head in thought. "It's kind of like turning a faucet for me. Concentrate on what you want to make, tug and turn, and it's there."

Keith frowned and tried. He glared at Lance when nothing happened. "You make it sound so easy."

"Hey, I practiced on my own without anyone noticing for months. Don't you dare say I make it sound easy."

Keith huffed and tried again. Heat began to build and roll out in waves. He willed himself to make fire, but only sparks appeared, and only when he tapped his feet in frustration. Figuring that it was better than nothing, he threw the sparks at the scanner.

The scanner beeped, and the door whirred. As it began to groan and creak open, the sound of sob-slash-moan of the fallen Fotians reached their ears. They turned and saw them crawling on the streets, clearly attracted by the heat Keith produced. They began approaching the Paladins.

"Get in," Shiro hissed urgently, pushing them to get through the barely-open door. "Get in, now."

They quickly did, one by one – Pidge first, then Allura, then Lance, and Keith, Hunk next, Shiro last after pushing Hunk through the narrow opening. They were just about to force the door closed when the Fotians pushed in, too powerful and too fast for them to react. They fell like a castle of cards on the floor, Fotians reaching for them.

Hunk got up first, and immediately slammed himself to the door to push it close. The strength of dozens of Fotians trying to get in outmatched a single human's, however, and soon the Fotians began to spill in.

"Run!" Allura yelled, pulling Pidge to her feet and pushing her ahead. "We can't let ourselves be overpowered here. Go!"

"Keith, Lance, go on ahead!" Shiro yelled as he helped Hunk to his feet. "We'll catch up later."

"We'll leave a track!" Lance promised as he dashed ahead, matching paces with Pidge, his eyes glowing blue. Keith followed. He noticed how Lance ran his fingers on the wall of the corridors they passed, and from his fingertips appeared a trail of frost that didn't melt even though the temperature of the planet was above what would be comfortable for them.

Pidge lead them through the labyrinthine building all the way to the topmost floor. Unlike the city hall, the sloping walkway didn't create a single path, but rather several broken up ones. They managed to navigate through to reach the door of the uppermost level somehow, where they were stumped on another quintessence-reading locking mechanism. Pidge began working on it to trick it like the lock on the front door earlier, but it proved to be more difficult this time.

As Pidge struggled with the door, Keith and Lance held their bayard at the ready, in case something came. Not too long after they reached the door, the sound of footsteps began to catch up to them, and soon the other three of their group came closer. Lance let out a breath of relief, and the glow in his eyes that never really left since they began running was finally gone. The trail of frost he had left vanished.

Behind them, hordes of Fotians followed.

"Lance!" Shiro shouted as he kicked off a Fotian that latched onto his leg when he caught sight of them. "Try spraying them with water, it might hold them back!"

"Will that be okay though?" Lance asked hesitantly.

"Just try it, dude! I don't think we can hold them off!" Hunk desperately yelled.

Lance let out a soft, hesitant 'ok' under his breath and let the blue glow of his quintessence gather at his fingertips, his eyes glowing softly. Then, with a decisive thrust, he sent a torrent of water to the line of fallen Fotians.

Keith expected to see them being washed away and falling back like dominos. He didn't expect them to shriek in agony and melted.

Lance gave off his own horrified shriek, and the gentle glow of his power vanished abruptly, jarringly. He took a few steps back and bumped into Keith, muttering intelligible lines that sounded suspiciously like 'oh my god' and 'I killed them'.

"Oh my god they melted please don't do that again," Hunk squeaked. He turned, saw his best friend's distress, and immediately took his hands in an attempt to calm him. "Lance, Lance. I'm sorry I asked you to do that. It's okay, you didn't know."

Lance sniffed and nodded. "I'm going to hold back and not do that again."

"Yeah, good plan." Hunk turned to stare at the rest of the Fotians, who at least had enough self-preservation instincts to hold back from crawling at them at the sight of the ones sprayed with water.

Allura gulped. "Perhaps you should get farther back, Lance. I feel that they are glaring especially hotly at you."

"I'm sorry," Lance whispered to the Fotians as he took a few steps back.

"Keith!" Pidge's call made him whirl around, and she waved to him urgently. "I need you to make fire for this, come on."

Keith strode to her and concentrated, trying to make a lick of flames, but couldn't. All he could do is let heat roll off his skin in waves. He growled in frustration and shook his head. "I don't think I can do that yet, Pidge."

"Well we need fire either way," Pidge said with a thoughtful frown. She raised her voice, "Do anyone has anything flammable?"

"Oh, here, take my headband," Hunk pulled his helmet off with a pop and took off his headband, letting his hair stray to his eyes. He combed it with his fingers as he handed Keith the band. "I have another back at the ship, so I can spare this one."

"Okay, thanks Hunk." Keith took the headband and concentrated. Heat radiated from him, but no spark. He thought for a moment before snapping his fingers to create the needed sparks, which landed on the headband. The sparks died before the band caught fire, so Keith snapped his fingers again. It created better-controlled sparks than tapping his feet, so he resorted himself to snap his way through the door.

"Oh my god," Lance muttered, "he's doing the snapping thing from that fire guy in Fullmetal Alchemist."

"He totally is," Hunk agreed.

"I thought we settled for Space Zuko, how come we get Space Roy Mustang instead?" Pidge added in a hush.

"Guys, please," Shiro sighed. "We don't know how his powers will manifest yet. Besides, given Keith's temperament, we might actually end up with Space Kimblee."

"Who are all these people you're talking about?" Allura asked in confusion.

"Why are you guys talking about a walking pink ball? Watch the Fotians!" Keith grumbled in annoyance.

Lance gasped dramatically. "You did not just equate Kirby to Kimblee!"

"Who the heck is Kirby?" Keith asked, genuinely confused.

"That walking pink ball, you uncultured swine!"

Oh, yeah. The pink ball's name was Kirby. To cover his embarrassment, Keith gave a yell. "…shut up, Lance!" He gave a particularly sharp finger snap, and more sparks flew. The headband finally caught flames. He flung it to the quintessence scanner. Soon, the door opened with a click.

It was a good thing that it did, too, because the Fotians had held back in fear of being melted by water, but they'd began to surge to them again when they saw fire. The Paladins and Allura quickly slipped into the room and slammed it shut behind them, managing to do so before being overrun like at the entrance door. The lab door's excellent locking mechanism immediately took over, and they slumped in relief. The urgency of the situation didn't escape them, though, given how the Fotians pounded relentlessly at the door.

"Okay," Keith blew a breath. "What next?"

"Well here comes that whole mixed quintessence thing," Pidge said with a shrug. She studied her data on the building and the room, looking around.

Keith glanced at the others. Shiro was looking around the room cautiously, as though trying to prepare if a fallen Fotian suddenly jumped them. Hunk, Lance, and Allura huddled together, Hunk rubbing Lance's back and Lance apologizing to Allura about him melting the Fotians and Allura assuring him that it was okay. Keith diverted his eyes back to Pidge.

"Okay, I got it," Pidge announced. "Keith and Lance, please get here."

Keith stepped forward immediately. He heard Lance shuffling to match his pace behind him.

"Now," Pidge adjusted her glasses, "you see this little thing here?"

Keith stared blankly. "That is not small."

The little thing Pidge was gesturing at was huge. It took up most of the space in the room, metal and glass hulking and demanding attention. It reminded Keith of machines in science fiction movies, with buttons and knobs and gauges everywhere. Two of the reverse-water-dispenser-for-quintessence things were there, built into the machine side by side, one colored in deep blue and the other in glaring red. At the center of the machine was a tall glass tube that shot up like a pillar, branching into nearly countless little tubes at the end and connected to tubes that dangled from the ceiling.

"This little thing here," Pidge insisted, "is the thing that supposedly mixes pure quintessence into some kind of gas that will be dispensed through air vents throughout the city, letting the fallen Fotians inhale it. Hopefully, that'll be enough to cure them and turn them back."

"Uh, how do we get quintessence in there?" Lance asked hesitantly. "Cause I don't think drawing quintessence out of us directly is a good thing."

"It's not, it could kill you," Allura piped up from behind.

Lance winced. "Uh. Yeah. So."

"Yeah, I was thinking maybe you could make water and heat," Pidge shrugged. "Then you could make steam to be dispersed through. Is that possible?"

"Let's find out," Keith said with a shrug, putting a hand under the quintessence sucker. He winced internally; that was a bad name if he knew of one.

"If this quint-taker is going to kill me because it apparently actually sucks the life out of me instead of just my water, tell my family I love them," Lance groaned dramatically. Keith blinked at the name Lance made up for the machine, because that… was actually pretty good.

Both of them concentrated, their fingers glowing with their respective colors. Keith hadn't realized that he had been glowing before. It was faint, sure, much fainter white-red than Lance's bright soothing blue, but it was there. As he concentrated, heat rolled off his skin and traveled up the tubes of the machine, entering the huge glass tube in the middle just a tick after water sloshed lazily in it. Cool water and extreme heat filled the tube, but didn't mingle, didn't merge, didn't react to one another. Keith gritted his teeth and willed the heat to make steam out of the water. It didn't do anything.

"It's not working," Keith finally snapped.

Lance hummed. "I have an idea. Here, hold my hand."

Keith turned so fast he nearly gave himself a whiplash. "Hold your what?"

"My hand, dummy," Lance rolled his eyes. "I just think that this might be easier if we're touching each other, okay?"

"Touching?" Keith repeated. This time his face burned red.

Lance's face mirrored the blush immediately. "Keith, come on! This will only be weird if you make it weird, and you're making it weird!"

"It is weird! It has the potential to become very weird, very quickly!"

Lance made a noise that sounded like an exasperated dying horse. "Our minds are linked because we're pilots of giant robot cats which make up a giant robot person in space which is simultaneously the universe's most deadly weapon! Holding hands is not weird!"

"Argh, fine!" Keith grasped Lance's hand. "Happy now?!"

"Yes, thank you." Lance's answer was annoyingly calm for Keith, but he'd take whatever he could take.

They both directed their attention to the giant tube. It was right then that the pounding ceased completely, abruptly, and it sent shivers down Keith's spine. It felt like a moment in a horror movie when everything was quiet before shit hit the fan. Apparently Lance felt the same, because he gripped Keith's hand tighter, keeping their fingers interlaced as his eyes' glow intensified. The glow in their hands merged together, blue mixing with red and creating gentle, calm purple. The water in the tube began steaming, water leaping up and down and heat pressing at it. Before long, steam was rising up to the branching tubes and disappearing up the ceiling.

It was a good thing it did, too, considering how the door suddenly opened and a horde of fallen Fotians barged in.

Hunk screamed in surprise as Allura jumped to a stance and Shiro activated his arm. Pidge stared at the Fotians in barely concealed worry, taking a step back. The Fotians ignored them all and made a beeline to Keith and Lance.

"Isn't the door supposed to hold them off?!" Keith yelled, panic beginning to fill his stomach.

"I modified the door to open up to fire!" Pidge said, an offering of some sort of an explanation. "If they found out and somehow managed to make fire…"

Keith gritted his teeth and turned, meeting Lance's eyes. Their eyes were still glowing, their hands still held. Lance gulped and shifted.

"Lance, let's try hitting them with steam," Keith suggested.

"Alright," Lance said with a nod. He extended his free hand to the Fotians and spread his fingers open, and burst of steam appeared in the air and enveloped the Fotians. Lance's eyes grew wide as he drew his hand back. "I didn't mean to do that," he whispered. "How'd that happen?"

"I kind of thought of it," Keith admitted, staring at the cloud of steam that was beginning to dissipate. "But how'd you do it when I was the one thinking it?"

Their eyes fell to their interlaced hands, which still glowed purple amidst it all.

"Oh," Lance muttered softly.

"Boys, focus on the situation at hand," Shiro's voice rang loudly, somehow managing to keep calm despite the chaos around them.

The steam had dissipated completely, and it revealed the sight of obviously annoyed Fotians. Keith was grateful that steam didn't kill them like a blast of water did, though he was a bit annoyed that it didn't seem to do anything. Their coming here turned out to be useless after all. And… wait. Was it just him, or did the Fotians look different?"

"Uhhh," Hunk spoke up, "I think that steam burst did something to the Fotians."

"They look more… vibrant," Shiro noted.

"Keith, Lance, hit them with steam again," Allura directed.

The two shared a glance. There were many things they were doing at once, and a deep part of Keith knew they needed to be at the same page in order to keep the mixed-power thing happening. At their back, the water and heat was still doing their own dance, turning to steam that rose up. They also needed to keep the steam in there from dispersing and cooling off again. Now, making more steam to deal with the Fotians in the room themselves was added to their to-do list.

Lance nodded slightly, showing his readiness to do it. Keith returned the nod.

It surprised Keith how easy it became to control his powers when he worked in tandem with Lance. It was like somehow, through merging their quintessence in order to create something to help the Fotians, Lance's understanding of how to control his own powers had trickled down into Keith, giving him easier control when previously he had to bumble and guess what to do. He knew he was still unable to create fire, but producing heat became easier. It was like what Lance said, opening a faucet and letting his powers flow.

He liked it. It held the same feeling as using Red's heat ray. It was like having her fight alongside him even on the ground. No wonder Lance loved creating light snowfalls whenever he could.

He turned the faucet. His powers flowed, red meeting blue and blending into purple, merging into one and flowing through Lance's veins before being released into the air as unforgiving burst of steam. It covered the whole room this time, even though both Keith and Lance tried to keep it within the radius of the Fotians. In just a blink of an eye, the room had become too foggy to see through.

"Do you think that's enough?" Lance whispered softly.

"Probably, yeah," Keith whispered back. The surging power receded, though still active, still buzzing at the back of his mind, still minding the ongoing process in the machine behind them. They let the steam in the room disperse.

To their surprise and immense relief, the Fotians had changed. No longer were their skin charcoal black, but instead the rocky grey they'd seen on Queen Elda's footage. Their eye colors varied, from fiery orange, to deep red, to the lightest tint of yellow, though all their hair had colorings similar to dried leaves. Their tufted ears twitched as they stared at one another in apparent surprise. Their gaze fell to Keith and Lance.

One of them, the frontmost Fotian, lifted a hand and pressed it across her chest before extending it to the two Paladins. She looked almost familiar, somehow, with her flame orange eyes and yellowy brown hair. Before she even stopped moving, her fingers had started to crumble, and without warning, she turned into dust. The Fotians behind her followed almost immediately, as though they all had pressed the self-destruct button simultaneously.

Lance jumped back on reflex, drawing into himself and breaking contact with Keith. Keith, himself, had frozen on is spot, eyes wide with shock.

"… what just happened?" Hunk shattered the silence that rang loudly in the room as soon as the Fotians began crumbling.

"They just…" Pidge gulped. "Was that supposed to happen?"

Keith turned to Allura, who was most likely to have an explanation. His hopes were dashed when he saw Allura staring at the pile of dust with a look of confusion. She was clearly upset and shaken that they didn't manage to help the Fotians after all. Then her gaze hardened and she bit her lip.

"Maybe we should go back to the ship for now," Shiro suggested softly to Allura. "I'm sure we can find some answers in the logs Pidge downloaded."

Allura snapped to attention at once, back straightening. "I suppose we should," she agreed, though she sounded much more distant than Keith had expected. "Let's go back, then. It doesn't seem like there is anything more we can do to the Fotians, and I suppose we could use the rest. For Keith and Lance, especially."

"What? I feel fine." Keith blinked and shrugged.

"Yeah, I'm gonna disagree there," Lance chuckled softly, wobbling a little on his feet before regaining his balance. "Rest sounds really great."

Hunk snapped into focus at that and immediately ushered them all back to the castle-ship, carrying Lance on his shoulder like before. Coran fussed over Lance again once they got back, raining him with packs of water and some weird alien equivalent of ice compress. Lance clearly wasn't complaining, though, especially considering that he immediately looked much healthier with the ice compress pressed against the nape of his neck.

Allura and Pidge, meanwhile, dove into the logs once more, but found no possible explanation to why the Fotians… self-destructed… as soon as they were turned back. As the Paladins discussed this, Coran stroked his mustache in thought and finally spoke up.

"Perhaps their time has long since passed, and the purifying of their quintessence finally enabled them to pass."

Pidge stared. "What sort of supernatural bullsh – "

"Pidge," Shiro cut her off, tone clearly saying watch it. "What do you mean, Coran?"

"Well, quintessence corruption could end in multitude of ways," Coran explained, straightening his pose as his eyes sharpened with focus on concentration. Keith could see him mentally sorting through his knowledge as he answered them. "It wouldn't surprise me if the corruption affected the Fotians so that it keeps them living while not being truly alive, and once purified their body finally catches up to their lost time and just…" he shrugged. "Crumbled."

"That… kind of sucks," Hunk whispered.

"Not necessarily." Coran turned to Keith and Lance. "You said one of them gestured something to you? What kind of gesture?"

"Oh, she moved like this – " Lance mimicked the Fotian's movement, dropping his hand at the part where she began crumbling. "Maybe there's something else, but she didn't have time to show it?"

Coran nodded. "Its full movement is like this," he said, demonstrating it; putting a hand across his chest and bringing it forward, palm ahead, fingers up, before turning it so the palm faced up. "It is considered a sacred gesture, meant to show extreme gratitude. The person who makes that gesture offers their life in exchange of something that has been done to them. Some people think of it as the most powerful Fotian gesture, to the point that there were laws regarding who someone can use it at and what for. Even then, the law was thought as mere… guidelines, at best. The weight of the meaning was heavier for the Fotians than even their own law."

"Is… is it really that powerful?" Keith asked softly.

"Yes, really," Coran answered. "In fact, it's so powerful that if the head of a clan, or something along the line, made it, the whole clan would be bound by the same obligation to the person the head of a clan owed their life to. Consequently, the queens of Fotia were never allowed to make this gesture to anyone, as it will bind the whole planet to certain individuals."

"Wow, that's… simultaneously awesome and really frightening," Pidge breathed. She shuddered. "I'm not sure how it makes me feel, considering who made that gesture…"

"What do you mean, Pidge?" Allura asked in confusion.

Pidge blinked at her. "Didn't you realize that it was Queen Elda earlier?"

Realization slammed at Keith with the force of a freight train. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, suddenly finding himself unable to speak. Beside him, Lance dropped the armful of water packets Coran had shoved at him.

"So if they didn't… if they were still around now…" Shiro whispered.

Silence draped down on them, and Allura broke it. "They're gone now, either way," she sighed. "I wonder what's happened to the rest of the planet. We may have… saved the capital city, but we don't know about other regions."

"I looked it up while you were gone," Coran answered. "They've all gone. The Galra ended up wiping them out, in the end. They left Spitha because they found out about the infection and weren't sure if taking it out would be the best option. The planet ended up becoming a ghost planet because the Galra didn't find anything of use and abandoned it."

Allura bit her lip. "How awful," she muttered at long last.

"We've done everything we could do about it," Shiro told her quietly, staring at her intently.

She sighed and nodded. "I know," she said, just as quietly. "Let's all rest up for a bit. We'll get off the planet in a bit."

Keith turned to Lance, who had just sighed and plopped down on the couch, sipping more water and pressing the ice compress to his forehead. Keith sat opposite of him and watched the others walking out of the room to do their own things.

"We made a pretty solid team," Lance mused after a moment of silence.

Keith smiled. "We did," he agreed. "I was wondering about that thing we did though. It felt like we were actually connected to one another."

Lance hummed thoughtfully. "Yeah, that was pretty interesting. I could feel your quintessence through me, man. It was scalding. That was both freaky and awesome."

"I wonder if we'd be able to do it again," Keith thought aloud. "I wonder if we could just combine powers like that with the others."

"Well, I guess we'll have to wait to find out," Lance shrugged.

Keith nodded in agreement and fell silent again. He stared at his hands. While on the way back to the castle, he had tried a few times to light fire, but he was still unable to do it, not even when armed with the secondhand knowledge of how to access his powers better. He frowned. He wished he could make flames now. Fighting would be so much easier with it, even though he had to hold back from using it too much. Lance had mentioned that it tired him easily, to keep using water and ice as his main weapons of choice.

"Dude, whatever you're thinking right now, stop thinking it," Lance's voice jolted Keith out of his musings. "You're heating up the room again."

"Ah, sorry." He took a deep breath and focused. "I guess this isn't easily controlled. How'd you do it so easily?"

"A lot of practice," Lance shrugged. "You're probably wondering about making fire, right? Don't worry about it, Keith. I'm sure you'll be able to do it eventually. Maybe you just need to feel even more intensely, given how your powers look like it responds to your feelings a lot!"

Keith hummed in response. While Lance managed to calm him, he still wondered just what exactly would trigger him to spark flames. His train of thoughts were stopped, however, when Shiro popped back into the room with the biggest shit-eating grin Keith had even seen him wear, Pidge and Hunk trailing behind him, clearly trying to contain their laughter.

"So, Lance," Shiro began, "about that penguin onesie photo."

Lance perked up, straightening up like a meerkat. Keith shot to his feet and rushed to Shiro, but he knew he was doomed the moment Pidge and Hunk stepped in to rein him.

Despite the warmth that was by now a constant around him, Keith felt cold. His eyes widened in terror as he watched Lance falling to his knees, Druids swarming him. Even then, Lance still stared at the other Paladins through the escape pod's glass, still smiled as if nothing was wrong.

Keith pounded at the glass, screaming Lance's name, Hunk trembling by his side. The pod flew away. Lance was gone.

"Keith…" Shiro called him, his voice pained but wary. "Keith, I need you to calm down."

"Calm down?!" Keith repeated, turning furiously to meet Shiro's eyes. "Lance is back there!"

"I know," Shiro held out his hands, trying to placate him, "but you need to calm down, or you'll burn us up in flames."

"What are you…" Keith faltered, finally noticing the heat around him. He looked down at his arm and drew in a sharp breath when he saw flames dancing on it. Slowly, the fire died.

"We have to go back to the castle-ship for now," Shiro said, laying a hand on his shoulder. "Calm down. Okay?"

Keith nodded numbly. His mind flashed back to that time when he first discovered his powers, when he wondered what would trigger him to create a burning blaze instead of mere dancing sparks. To think that this was the answer…

Keith clenched his fists and brought them down. He wished he'd never find out.

A/N: Guess whose inner shipper came out and took over while I was writing this even though I never planned any klance moment save for the holding hands part
Like seriously even the "keith you're hot" one came out of nowhere

Also so sorry this took up such a long time, I hit a writer's block and had to stop and take a breather (that was way too long bcs I went out of town to help my sister move in and then inspiration struck there and I didn't have my laptop with me sob)

Next part will be about Hunk. I'm still mulling about it though, because I know what I want to happen in it but I don't have a solid plot just yet. Might take a long while for this one, so I hope you can be patient with me.

On a side note, I finally watched S3 just this evening! It's so great! I love Lotor as a villain but if I ever met him in person I'd stab the fucker's eyes, tbh. His only redeeming quality is his ability to round up such competent beauties as his commanders, imo. And I'm screaming internally about S3 because it was so short, but I'm also screaming internally because S4 is practically looming before us, basically I'm screaming internally a lot right now.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed this one! Sorry about the length, both of the fic and of this note. Have a great day!