A/N: a very special thank you to Black Friar for the lightning-fast beta!

Keith gritted his teeth as he followed Shiro and the two Blades of Marmora down the Red Lion's ramp. He hurt. His face, ribs, stomach, chest, shoulder – everything hurt. And every step he took felt like a fire igniting somewhere in his body, lighting it up with pain.

But he refused to give in to it. They had work to do. Now that they'd finally found the allies they so desperately needed, it was time to start formulating a plan to take Zarkon down. And Keith intended to be there for all of it.

Except…it was kind of hard to focus on what everyone was saying. He was peripherally aware of Shiro's eyes on him and Keith tried to stand up a little straighter, locking his knees, sweat prickling on his brow and sliding down his back with the effort.

Shiro had told him to get checked out as soon as they got to the castle, but Keith had insisted he was alright, that he'd let Coran take a look at him later. While Shiro had been extremely skeptical, he'd also seemed unwilling to give Keith a direct order, so here Keith was, trying hard to ignore the pain and pay attention to what was going on around him.

Unfortunately, even Keith's body had limits.

They'd only just started exchanging information with Kolivan and Antok when the room began to spin and he started seeing double again. Keith knew what was coming and took a step back, intending to leave the room before he embarrassed himself, but it was too late. Darkness was closing in too fast and-

"Keith!"

"Whoa, holy…how'd he…those bruises on his face?!"

"-the hell happened out there?"

"Keith…wake up, buddy."

Keith frowned, voices blurring together and exacerbating the hammering in his head. There were hands in his hair and on his face…wait, wasn't he wearing his helmet a minute ago? He tried to jerk away from the touches, but suddenly there were hands on his arms too. Not good. He had to- had to fight.

"Keith! Keith, it's okay, you're safe."

Shiro?

He dragged his eyes open to see a blur of colors hovering over him. He had to blink several times to get his vision to sharpen enough for him to be able to distinguish the faces of his friends and their brightly colored armors. Shiro was leaning over him and Keith frowned at the worried look on his face. What-?

There was a sudden, blinding stab of pain in his shoulder and he gasped at the intensity of it. It was the trigger that made his memories flood back to him, and with his memories the pain that had spread throughout his body like wildfire returned as well, leaving him nearly breathless.

"Keith? C'mon buddy, talk to me."

"Shiro?" Keith croaked, finally able to gather enough breath to speak. His chest felt tight and heavy, like it wouldn't expand enough for his lungs to work properly. Groaning, he tried to get his hands under him to push himself up. His arms shook, but a sudden solid presence at his back helped him to sit up. A quick glance over his shoulder revealed it was Hunk who was kneeling behind him, letting Keith lean against him.

Moving hurt. He didn't think there was a part of his body that wasn't screaming at him in pain.

"Keith, we're gonna get you to the infirmary, okay?" Shiro was saying. "Coran's setting up a healing pod for you. Can you stand?"

Keith nodded automatically, even though he wasn't at all sure that he could stand. But Shiro was asking something of him so Keith would do it.

Getting his legs under him was a challenge, but with Shiro and Hunk's help he managed to make it to his feet. He bit back another groan and blinked hard to get the world to stop spinning. As Shiro drew an arm across his shoulders, something nagged at the back of Keith's mind and he tried to pull away.

"No. Shiro, you- the mission. Zarkon. There's- no time. I'm fine."

Shiro frowned at him, his hand clamped around Keith's bicep. "Keith, you are not fine. I'm taking you to the infirmary."

"Actually, as much as it pains me to say it, Shiro," Lance piped up, "Keith's right. I mean, not about him being fine, obviously, any idiot can see that, but you do have a plan to hash out. Me and Hunk'll take him to the infirmary."

Keith missed what Shiro said next, the room starting to tilt again, and suddenly Shiro's hands on his arms were the only thing keeping him from face-planting on the floor.

"Keith!"

"Whoa, okay, Shiro, just hand him over," Keith heard Hunk say, and the next thing he knew he was being swept up into a pair of strong arms. The motion made his stomach roll and Keith tensed, not used to the breach of personal space or to being carried like this. But this was Hunk, the gentle giant, and after a moment Keith felt some of the stiffness ease from his body.

"You got him?" Shiro asked.

"Yeah, I've got him," Hunk replied. "Go do your thing. Lance and I'll look after him, right, Lance?"

"Sure thing."

The infirmary was a brisk walk from the control room. All the moving was making him dizzy so Keith closed his eyes and let his head rest against Hunk's shoulder, too exhausted and in too much pain to feel awkward about it.

"You sure you don't need a hand?" he heard Lance ask from somewhere next to Hunk.

"Nah, I'm good," Hunk replied. "Seriously, man, we need to get him to eat more space tacos or something 'cos he weighs, like, nothing."

Keith bristled a little at that, but Lance just snorted. "Hunk, you could be carrying an anvil and it would probably still weigh nothing to you."

Keith drifted, listening to his team mates' easy banter, their voices becoming quiet murmurs in the back of his mind. It was a welcome distraction from the pain and it felt kind of…safe.

…

Something was tugging on his arm and it hurt. He instinctively lashed out with his good hand, but something caught his wrist and pushed it back down. Panic seized him and he bared his teeth in a snarl-

"Whoa, Keith, calm down, buddy. It's just us. Uh…'us' as in me and Lance. Hunk and Lance, I mean."

Hunk and Lance? Oh. Right.

Keith opened his eyes and discovered that they'd made it to the castle's infirmary. He was lying on one of the examination tables and both Lance and Hunk were watching him with guilty expressions.

"Ow," Keith muttered.

"Sorry," Lance said, sounding sincere, "we were trying to get your armor off, but…I guess we hurt you, huh?"

Keith noted they'd only managed to remove his chest plate. Which he was kind of relieved about because the idea of being stripped while he was out cold made his skin crawl. Even if it was his team mates doing it.

"S'okay," Keith said, trying to push himself into a sitting position with only one arm. His injured shoulder was on fire. "I can do it."

"Keith, c'mon, you're hurt," Lance said. "Lie back down, we've got this, okay?"

Keith scowled. "I can do it," he insisted, and he proved it by managing to sit up properly, even though pretty much his whole body was screaming at him to stop moving.

Lance rolled his eyes. "Why do you always have to be such a stubborn mullet-head?"

Between the three of them they managed to remove both Keith's armor and his undergear. It hurt like hell and Keith came close to lashing out again several times, the effort leaving him trembling and sweating as he sat on the edge of the examination table.

"Holy mother of cheese!" Hunk blurted when he finally got a good look at Keith.

"Oh my god! Keith! What the hell happened out there?!" Lance exclaimed, voice pitched high. "Even your bruises have bruises! And, oh man, is that an actual gouge in your shoulder?!"

They were both staring at him with open mouths and when Keith looked down at himself he felt his own eyes widen. Pretty much his entire torso was a black and blue mass of bruises, and his arms and legs didn't look much better. He didn't even want to think about what his back might look like. His injured shoulder was bleeding quite heavily now that his armor wasn't putting pressure on the wound anymore. The cut looked deep.

"Jeez, no wonder Red went berserk!" Lance said, snapping out of his stare. He grabbed the Altean version of a gauze pad and carefully pressed it against Keith's shoulder.

Keith hissed, his good hand involuntarily clenching into a fist.

"Seriously, Keith, you uh…wanna tell us what happened?" Lance asked, his voice quiet and serious. "Did those Blade of Marmora guys do this to you? 'Cos if they did, I'm not sure I want 'em as allies."

Keith looked down at his hands. Should he tell them? He didn't even know what had really happened other than that he'd fought for hours and that he'd had some weird vision of his dad. And the whole thing about his heritage…Keith wasn't even sure how to feel about that and he really wasn't ready to find out what his team mates' reactions were going to be like. He'd rather not be this physically and emotionally vulnerable when he had to deal with the inevitable fallout.

"I don't-"

"Great Snarfunkel!" a new voice exclaimed, and all three of them turned to see Coran standing in the doorway. "Keith, you look terrible!"

Coran rushed over to them, admonishing Keith for sitting up and telling him to lie down. Keith, with Hunk's help, did so while Coran pointed some kind of Altean handheld scanning device at him and tracked it up and down his body. Keith was beginning to feel increasingly self-conscious lying there in just his boxers.

Also, he was freezing.

Coran started spewing all kinds of medical terms, half of which went right over Keith's head.

"-chipped collarbone, cracked ribs, concussion…honestly, it's a wonder you're even still awake!" Coran said. "Hunk, Lance, help him get into a cryo suit, we need to get him into a healing pod as soon as possible!"

Keith, Lance and Hunk exchanged startled looks and groaned. They'd just gotten Keith out of his clothes!

"Meet me in the cryo pod chamber," Coran said, turning to leave. "I'm going to program the pod and make the necessary adjustments."

"Wait, Coran!" Lance called. "Can't we give him some painkillers or something?"

Coran looked sympathetic. "I'm afraid not. Foreign substances in his system might interfere with the healing process."

"Of course they might," Lance said with a sigh.

"Let's just…get this over with," Keith muttered.

By the time they'd managed to get Keith into the cryo suit, he was just barely holding on to consciousness. He was shivering and shaking and there was so much pain everywhere that he was scarcely aware of the hands that were holding him up.

Lance kept asking him how he was doing, but Keith simply couldn't find the strength to reply.

He felt weightless suddenly and he was pressed against something warm. It eased his shivering somewhat, but a moment later the warmth was gone and suddenly he was being forced to stand again. There was a whooshing sound and he managed to open his eyes slightly to see Lance and Hunk watching him from the other side of a glass barrier.

"See you in a couple of hours, dude," Lance told him, his voice barely audible.

There was a hum, a blast of cold, and then darkness.

- End -