This hit me all of a sudden and I simply had to type it up, even if it was rushed. Hope everyone enjoys!

"I love you." The words were so raw, so real, that it struck him in his core. He may not be the real Shiro, just a fake, just a fraud, but in this moment that didn't matter. Even with his sword baring down at Keith's throat the other said those words to him.

For a moment Kuron is able to hesitate.

To go against everything he was, what he was made for, forced to do with little of his own agency.

The decisions made ran through his mind like bolts of lightning hot agony.

He can't fight his programming though and nothing he did could ever be forgiven regardless. It would better for Keith to fall here, than live alone once more.

He pressed his arm blade harder against the small dagger.

"Just let go Keith. You don't have to fight anymore." Memories that weren't his own raced through his mind, bandaged fists, black eyes, shouts. The other man was always fighting, from the moment his dad died, just for a chance to live again.

It was time to stop, to rest.

Neither of them were going to survive anyway, at least if he killed Keith here it would be fast and painless opposed to the agony of falling to the planets surface, without hope.

"By now the team's already gone." His face turned to the side, screwed up in pain and exertion. "I saw to it myself." Keith wouldn't be able to fight much longer now, and he pressed more of his weight into the duel, the heat from his blade burning away the sky of Keith's cheek.

He yelled.

And then he did the unexpected.

Suddenly, with a flash, the galra arm was gone.

With indescribable pain the witch's influence was ripped from him, and he fell to his knees.

Keith stood, with a far-away yet tangible sadness to his gaze, black bayard wielded beside his Marmoran blade.

There was a new, a fresh scar on his cheek.

It was all because of him.

"Keith." No words could describe how sorry he was.

There was a chain of explosions and the supports tenuously holding them up snapped.

Everything titled but he was to tired and beaten to care, to react. With his arm gone so was his strength and energy, even without everything falling apart he wouldn't survive long.

Everything was dark, Shiro, no Kuron, left floating in nothingness.

Was this what death felt like?

It was almost nice, resting. But he was still tired and riddled with guilt with his newly discovered agency.

Then there was a light. Soft and purple, spreading over the blackness and encompassing him.

It felt impossibly comfortable and warm, like it belonged here.

"Shiro." It was the first time he spoke the name, properly addressing someone else. Instinctively, somehow, he knew it was true, that he was right.

A familiar face and body materializes, facing him with snow white hair. "Shiro," He repeated. "I'm sorry."

There's a soft smile on his face, and a hand settles on to his shoulder, right above where the galra tech had been severed.

"Thank you, for caring for them when you could." Instantly he understood Keith's attraction to Shiro then, the hopeless dedication, why he was so unwilling to strike even as Kuron tried to kill him.

"But I-"

"You weren't in control." There was finality to the words and Kuron felt himself grow heavy, as if being pulled down and away. He wasn't ready to go just yet though.

"And everyone? Are they…?" The smile tampers into something beautifully genuine and kind, settling his worries in an instant.

"Everyone's okay." Shiro removed his hand, as Kuron began to sink. "Rest now. I'll take it from here."

With a look at his face, warm, happy, content, he didn't doubt it. They would finally be better off. His eyes shut and finally, Kuron is able to rest.

Thanks for reading! Please leave me some feedback if you liked it (even if you didn't), I'm always looking to improve!

~Fate