The Black Lion was empty. Shiro was gone. The only thing left behind was his black bayard.

For a moment it felt like nobody moved. Like nobody dared to even move, not to make that moment a reality. All the sounds seemed so distant, like your ears were covered. You couldn't even focus your eyes on anything as everything seemed like a blur, your mind going blank. It felt like time had stopped.

"What...what is this? Where is he?" Keith's hoarse voice broke the silence, his words probably sounding more louder than they were because of the pressuring silence around you.

"Something happened to him...when we...the last time we hit Zarkon..." Pidge tried to come up with an explanation with a stuttering voice, not really succeeding in it. "But where is he!?" Keith still asked, raising his voice, sounding really anxious. "Shiro..." Allura then let out a sad sigh behind you. And that's when the silence fell upon you once more. Nobody knew what to do, or how to even react.

Your heart was beating so hard, the sound echoing in the emptiness within you. Like the beating of your heart was the only thing reminding you that you were still alive, as everything else seemed to fade away.

What happened to Shiro? He hadn't come back to the castle with you? He couldn't have just vanished like that, could he? All those questions ran through your mind, even though you couldn't quite grasp a single one of them. Your mind was a muddy mess, making you feel like you could crumble down at any point.

"I'm going to go look for him." Keith then said with a slightly shivering voice as he turned around, planning to get out of the Black Lion. And that finally snapped you out of your thoughts as you immediately got up and took a hold of his arm. "You can't." You said strictly.

Keith stopped surprised, quickly turning around and glaring at you with a sharp stare that froze you to your place. But behind that sharp stare, you noticed how his eyes were wavering with sadness as he looked at you.

"Let go of me. I'm going." Keith then said, trying to yank his arm away from you quite forcefully, making you flinch as you didn't expect that kind of a reaction. And that made you raise your voice. "And where would you go!? Zarkon's ship is probably still out there! You'll just put yourself in danger! Don't be stupid!" You yelled at Keith, clearly anxious of his sudden impulses to make reckless decisions again.

"We can't just leave him there!" Keith also raised his voice, getting more agitated by your yelling. But you wouldn't budge, still holding his arm and squeezing it hard as your anxiety tried to take over. "Where Keith!? Where is he!? You don't know!" You still yelled, starting to feel your eyes getting teary the more you spoke.

For a moment you just glared at Keith straight in the eyes, waiting for him to talk back. But to your surprise, he stayed quiet, letting your words sink in. And then he averted his gaze, looking at the ground. He knew you were right. He was just having a hard time trying to understand what was happening. Like all of you.

"Paladins. Please calm down." Coran then said, trying to calm the situation down. "There's nothing you can do right now. I'll try to scan for signs of him. You should go and rest for now...we all should just try to rest. There's really nothing you can do at the moment." Coran still spoke, trying to reason with all of you, even though he too was clearly faltering.

"Yeah...maybe he'll be back when we wake up..." Hunk said silently, almost to himself while trying to smile, even though he just ended up with a sad look on his face. He was trying to keep a hold of some hope, even the tiniest crumble. But everyone just ended up ignoring it for now and started to head out of the Black Lion.

Nobody said a thing as you walked towards your rooms. You didn't even know what to say as you just kept thinking of Shiro. He had been like a role model to you. He had been the one to give you courage and help through the journey so far. You had fought Sendak together, enduring his kidnapping. He had also been the one who had urged you to seek help from Keith, eventually breaking the wall between you two. He had always been someone who you looked up to. So why did this have to happen to him?

Then you just stopped. Your mind went totally blank and you were feeling so empty. And as you looked around, you realised that almost everyone else had already parted ways, heading back to their rooms. If someone had said anything on your way back, you wouldn't have even heard it, as you had been walking like a zombie. And that's when you noticed that your cheeks were wet. You had started to cry without even realising.

Just then you startled as you felt a slightly shivering hand on your cheek, trying to wipe the tears away. And as you looked up, your eyes locked with Keith's and suddenly you felt like you couldn't breathe anymore. His eyes were so full of confusion, like he didn't know what he was supposed to feel at the moment. Anger, frustration, sadness, emptiness, anxiety. All of those were reflected in his eyes.

That's when Keith suddenly wrapped his arms around you, pulling you closer and hugging you so tight that it almost hurt. It was like he was trying to hold on to something. Like he needed something real to touch, to believe it was actually there. Like you could have just disappeared in an instant if he would let go. And it was so warm and so desperate at the same time, that you couldn't hold back your tears. You didn't know how to comfort him at the moment since you couldn't even comfort yourself.

Some moments passed, without neither of you moving. And slowly the stream of tears started to dry out. And all that time Keith hadn't loosened his grip on you. And even though you were slightly numb and aching at the same time from his tight hold, you didn't want him to let go.

But when you slightly moved, Keith still let go of you. And as his warmth suddenly left, you felt the coldness trying to wrap around you once more. Immediately you missed the warmth, like it was the last thing assuring that you were alive.

You wanted to ask Keith to stay, but as you turned to look at him, he just turned around and interrupted you before you could say anything. "I have to go." Keith said, his voice almost a silent whisper. "Why...?" You asked, looking at him curiously. "I just need to be alone for now." He just replied while starting to walk away. And to that you couldn't say anything more. You just watched his slouched back as it disappeared into the distance. And before long, he was gone. All you felt was the coldness trying to take over.

Then you went back to your room. And as you instantly fell down on the bed, you squeezed the pillow in your hands, like you were trying to grasp the last warmth the room had before it too turned cold.

But when you were finally lying down, you suddenly realised how tired your body actually was. You had been fighting for a long time without even noticing how tired you were. All the pain and tension was starting to get released. Your body was so broken, and so was your mind.

Maybe you should have gone to the healing pod to get rid of all the pain you had endured while fighting Zarkon, but when your eyes started to involuntarily close, you decided to let sleep heal you. And soon you drifted off to dreamworld.

----------

You gasped as you opened your eyes. It was dark and you were alone in the Black Lion.

You were sitting on the chair, keeping a tight hold of the handles. Your whole body ached, and you felt nauseous as you tried focusing your eyes ahead, looking at what you had to confront. And that's when you saw Zarkon in front of you. He was in his suit, staring straight at you.

Zarkon started to charge at you, his sword pointed at the Black Lion. And as your eyes widened in shock, you tried moving the handles of the Lion. But nothing moved. Not the handles. Not the Lion. And even though you tried to yell, no voice came out. Was this your end? Was this the moment you would finally cease to exist?

Although time seemed to slow down, Zarkon soon caught up with you. And as his sword cut straight through the Black Lion, you screamed inaudibly, feeling something cold hit you.

When Zarkon stopped, you looked down and saw that the sword had pierced straight through you. And as you lifted your shaking hands, you touched the sword. It felt so real even though you didn't feel any pain.

But as you lifted your gaze back up, you didn't see Zarkon, but instead you saw him in Zarkon's suit. "(Y/N)?" A familiar voice called out to you. He had found you again.

As he pulled the sword out of you, your consciousness started to fade away. You were transferred out of the Lion, and then you felt a familiar scent around you. He was looking at you, and you were his again. He just looked at you, and you were gone.

----------

You woke up gasping for air, sweating.

As you sat up, you tried steadying your breath. Your heart was banging so horribly loud in your chest, that it felt like it wanted to run away. And as you swiped sweat off your forehead with shivering hands, you realised that you were still in your armour. You had fallen asleep while wearing it.

That's when you let out an audible sigh. Your eyes felt puffy and so dry, like you had cried out all the tears you had, drying you gradually from the inside.

You had already hoped that you would have overcome those nightmares, since you hadn't seen them after starting to sleep next to Keith. Maybe you had felt secure, keeping the nightmares away? Some kind of a peace of mind that had now been stirred, making you feel anxious again?

You felt so tired and so numb, that you would have burst out to tears if you hadn't ran out of them already. But instead of breaking down, you quickly changed out of your armour and sat down on the floor. You realised you hadn't meditated for awhile, and now you had to. You knew you had to calm down before your anxiety levels would rise more.

So you crossed your legs and tried to take a deep breath. You closed your eyes to get rid of the outside world as you concentrated only on steadying your breath. And soon, time and space started to fade around you. The only thing you could feel was your own heartbeat starting to finally calm down.

For a moment you just tried to let go of everything, the anxiety and the fear. You tried collecting your thoughts, trying to organize them again, to be able to think more clearly. And after you had calmed down, you opened your eyes, feeling somewhat lighter.

And when you actually felt a bit better, you got up from the floor. You knew you couldn't go back to sleep anymore, so you decided to go for a walk to help ease the tension in your body.

You didn't know where you would go, so you just aimlessly wandered around. You hoped that the others were sleeping so you wouldn't have to face anyone at the moment. Everyone was probably so exhausted, both physically and mentally, that you really hoped that they could sleep.

The sounds of your steps echoed louder than usual as you walked through the hallways. Everything seemed so quiet, but at the same time the empty hallways seemed somehow comforting. It felt like the castle wanted to keep you all secure under its roof, like it knew what you were feeling. And you just walked under its protection, not really knowing what else to do.

Just then some sounds woke you up from your thoughts. And when you stopped, you realised that you were in front of the training deck. You could clearly hear sounds of fighting coming from inside, and you knew it was Keith. The clashing sounds were fast, erratic and harsh, like he was relieving his anxiety on the gladiator.

You pressed your forehead against the door, listening to the sounds for a moment. But the more you listened, the more sad you became. You could clearly hear the sorrow in his anger, and that made your heart ache.

So you pushed yourself back and forced your legs to move forward. It was hard to leave, but you had to. You knew he wanted to be alone. And you wanted to let him mourn in peace. You wanted to let him deal with his emotions the way that fit him.

So you just continued to wander around aimlessly. And before you even realised, you ended up in the control room. You just walked to the end of the room and looked outside from the large window. From there, you saw a view that somehow resembled a night sky on Earth, like there were thousands of glimmering stars all around you, shining some light into the darkness.

"(Y/N)?" You suddenly heard someone asking behind you, making you slightly flinch. And when you turned around, you saw Allura sitting in Shiro's chair. "Sorry, I did not mean to startle you." She said as she got up, walking next to you almost silently.

"You can't sleep either?" You asked Allura, slightly sneering while saying that. But for a moment Allura just looked at you, trying to interpret your mood before turning towards the window. "I haven't even tried." She then answered you before both of you fell silent.

For a moment you just watched the view. And then Allura cleared her throat, like she wanted to get your attention. "Coran tried to locate signs of Shiro...but to no avail." She said, trying to keep her voice from shivering. And even though you had anticipated that already, it was still hard to hear.

"Do you have any idea what could have happened to him?" You then asked while letting out a disappointed sigh. But Allura just shook her head. "Some kind of a teleportation maybe..." She said, but trailed off before she could finish her sentence. "Do..." You then started before swallowing your words. Would you dare to ask it aloud? Would you even want to know?

But then you took a deep breath as you gathered your courage. You needed to know. "Do you think we will find him?" You asked. And that just made Allura let out a sad sigh. "I really do not know." She then answered you honestly, which you appreciated. It was better than giving you false hope.

As you looked outside, you saw some debris floating in the space. And it kind of looked like it didn't belong there, like it was trying to create a crack to the calm and peaceful view you were looking at. Like it wanted to make you see how lost it was. And so were you. Ever since the fight with Zarkon, you had mostly felt yourself lost.

Then you remembered something. When you were fighting with Zarkon, Coran had said something about picking Allura and Kolivan up from somewhere. At that point you had no idea what he was talking about. You had been so concentrated on the fight, that the outside world had faded away. "What happened with you while we were fighting Zarkon?" You decided to ask, turning to Allura.

Allura was still for a moment before she turned to look back at you, her gaze wavering as she recalled about what had happened. "That witch, who works for Zarkon..." She then started before pausing. And then she took a deep breath before continuing. "She is Altean..." Allura then said, her voice fading to a mere sigh as she turned to look out of the window again.

"Altean?" You asked, your eyes widening up. "You mean, you're not the last ones? But why would an Altean work for the one that destroyed your home?" You then asked, just blurting out questions without even thinking.

But Allura just shrugged her shoulders. "I do not know." She again replied with sadness in her voice. And from the way she looked outside, you could see that it weighted on her mind heavily. It must have been devastating to realise that they were not the last Alteans after all, and that the other one besides them was fighting against you. You knew she must have had a lot on her mind.

You wanted to still ask so many questions, but when Allura turned to look at you again, you saw that her eyes were a bit teary. "I'll try to get some rest now..." She then said in a soft tone as she started to head out of the room, not even waiting for a reply. Which was fine, because you didn't know what to say to her anymore. No words came out of you.

After Allura was gone, you were alone again. And you were actually relieved of it, feeling more at ease as you turned to look at the view in front of you once more. You couldn't help but feel a surge of melancholy running through you as you looked at all those glimmering lights in the distance. Everything had really changed in a mere moment.

----------

From that day onward, it felt like the time in the castle went by so slowly. On some days, everyone seemed to be quite dazed. On the other days, everyone just seemed to be feeling low. Everyone tried to cope with Shiro's missing in their own ways, but mostly alone. You didn't quite know how to express your grief to the others, so everyone kind of kept to themselves for awhile.

Keith took out the Red Lion and went searching for Shiro every day. It was his way of coping with the situation. He just searched and searched, even though it seemed like he was just scouring the same places over and over again, keeping a tight hold of his hope in finding Shiro. But every time he came back from his search, he was as miserable as before. He hadn't been coming to sleep next to you for days either, and you were starting to wonder if he was sleeping at all.

Pidge hadn't been like her cheerful self either. You knew Shiro was like a big brother to her, almost like a substitute for her real one, Matt. And it seemed that she slightly crawled into her shell, trying to come to terms with both of them being missing now. It took her a while to even start functioning properly again, and when she finally did, she focused all her energy into finding Matt. Every day she went through the video files she got from Beta Traz, trying to find some new clues from them.

Lance and Hunk seemed to be handling the situation best. They tried to act as carefree and cheerful as they could, even though you knew that they were just putting up masks. They were trying to keep everyone floating on the surface, instead of sinking down. They were probably the bravest of you all, trying to hold the fort while everyone else were too focused on their grief. And even though their cheerful act mostly ended up with Keith yelling something at Lance, they still tried their best to keep the spirits up. And you admired them. You knew they were faltering too when they were alone.

Allura and Coran were trying to keep the castle working somehow. It took some days, but soon they started to look ahead. Even though they were broken too, they still kept their eyes on the mission, somehow being able to look at the big picture which most of you had already lost. They started to contact and get contacts from different planets reporting activities in the Galra ranks. Some were leaving, some were reorganizing themselves, but one thing was in common with them all. They were in disarray.