This is a headcanon/oneshot of what if Lotor hadn't saved them. I wrote it for a friend by texting, so the grammar is shit. I didn't wanna rewrite it so I just copied and pasted it. It's really not my best. But anygays, here it is.

Lance didn't know of the accident until after it happened. Apparently, that last minute when they were all sure they were going to die, Keith had saved them. He had hit the barrier, breaking it and his ship exploding, allowing the rebellion to take down the weapon. Of course, nothing came without consequences. When the rebels found Keith's body floating in space, seemingly broken, Ye excited chatter that had arisen amongst the Paladins and the rebels halted. The Paladins, not being in the area kept saying things like, "What? What is it? Are you okay?" Eventually, Matt responded, saying, "It's Keith...." At first, the Blade of Malmora wanted to take him, but with a lot of convincing and screaming from Lance and Pidge, the Blade agreed that the Castle had better healing capabilities. So the rebels collected Keith's body and brought him to the castle, the Paladins anxiously awaiting their arrival. As soon as they laid eyes on Keith, they all felt their stomachs drop. Lance approached Matt, who was carrying their fallen friend, and relieved Matt of his duty of carrying Keith's broken body. At first, Matt protested, but Lance fixed him with a look that could have froze hell. He gently cradled his friend, smiling grimly and thinking, "Oh how the tables have turned." It took a month and a half for Keith to fully heal, during which, Lance never left his pod. Hunk had to bring him food and then argue with him to make him eat. There was a week after the first two where no one was sure Keith was going to make it. When Allura had gently broken this news to Lance, he'd screamed at her and sobbed, seemingly as broken inside as Keith was. After that, they stopped arguing for Lance to leave. Lance was asleep when Keith tumbled out of the pod, he sat down next to Lance, not at all smoothly. Lance woke up immediately. He looked at Keith, Keith barely awake and just staring up at him. Lance let out a broken noise and held Keith. In the months that followed, Keith returned to his full health, stronger and faster than before. Lance was there for him through all of it. All of the Voltron team was. Eventually, Keith returned to the Blade, much to protest, but he promised to visit when he could, so they eventually let him go. The accident may have been tragic, but it had brought Keith and Lance closer, and Keith supposed that was okay. As did Lance.