(WARNING: There's a very sensitive topic/occurrence that happens in this chapter! Read with caution if you're sensitive to topics like miscarriage.)
Three Days Later
Keith kept letting the head guard punch him in the face, keeping them distracted from hitting his stomach. He had already begged them to believe him three times that morning, but the guards wouldn't have it.
Head Guard: Alright, I will ask this. One. Last. Time. Tell the truth! Otherwise you'll regret even being born in the first place!
Keith had blood coming out of his mouth as he sputtered out.
Keith: B—But I already regret being born...
Head Guard: Good for you! You actually have some self awareness. Nice to know that at least one of you filthy things knows what they are. I'm talking about a, different kind, of pain. I know why you're "sick", you're not really sick, we did a scan of your body and saw something in your middle area. It looked a little like a developing body.
Keith's eyes widened and his ears went down, the guard smirked. The condescending tone of the guard's voice just made him more wary.
Head Guard: Yeah, exactly. So just tell the truth, or else you can forget about bearing that thing any longer than today!
Keith saw the violence in the guard's eyes and began to panic.
Keith: If I said I was a soldier I'd be lying, it was just a disguise to avoid the Galra catching me! I didn't kill him! But you'll never believe me will you?! You won't even give me a chance to prove that I'm innocent!—
Head Guard: You are on very thin ice, Galra!
Keith: No no no! Please! This cub is all I have! You can kill me as soon as they're born, I don't care! At least let me prove that I'm innocent! At least give the cub a chance to live!—
Suddenly Keith was slammed against the wall in a choke hold.
Head Guard: I know, you are innocent, I get it. You had no blood on your hands, or on your weapon when they found you. The dead body turned out to be someone completely different while you look identical besides the different species. But you know what? The team needs someone to blame for what happened, if this all blows over the way it should, they'll recover faster, and they can go back to wiping your disgusting species off the face of this universe!
A tear slid down Keith's cheek.
Head Guard: So just cooperate, give us the information we want to hear, and let's all move on with our lives, without you of course.
If Keith was in his human body he would have gone pale. They knew, and they were still going to do this to him, to his cub!
Head Guard: C'mon, we're too far in this process now, if they found out the truth they would be disgusted, and you want them to think well of you in death. Correct, Red Paladin?
Keith looked down and nodded. He couldn't argue with that, he was right after all. If they were willing to treat him this way when they had no real evidence of him being the perpetrator, why would they act differently if they knew, that he was this? No, it was better they never found out.
Keith: I—I remember a screen with some information on it during the mission, I'll tell you what was on it... just let my cub live... kill me if you want, but, they won't be able to know the truth... you can give them to someone else to take care of if you don't want them around, but, let them live...
Keith saw a glint of pity flash through the guards eyes, and then it was gone.
Head Guard: If you have information, provide it.
Keith shot him a glare.
Keith: Not until you promise to let them live!
Head Guard: Thin. Ice. Galra! Tell us what you know!
Keith shook his head on impulse, and the next thing he knew there came a long, painful series of vicious kicks and punches directly to the stomach, his loud screaming didn't seem to affect the guard in the slightest.
Four Hours Later
Keith was lying on the cold, blood covered floor, completely helpless. And not daring to take his eyes away from the tiny corpse in front of him. The fur on his face was completely soaked by his own tears, after all, the one thing he'd tried to protect this whole time was dead. They never even got to open their eyes and see the world— the universe, for the first time.
Keith suddenly scoffed, some universe they'd grow up in though. In the middle of a war. Imprisoned in a dark cell with two parents, one likely dead, and the other pushing them away or even killing them, unaware that he was even related to them.
Keith: "Even if I wasn't a prisoner... let's face it, we're still Galra. We're still the bad guys. We would have wound up like this anyway, just at a different time, and at the hands of different people... but maybe it wouldn't have hurt as much if it wasn't people I knew who did it... at least you avoided a worse fate..."
Keith never stopped looking at the dead body, after the series of kicks and punches, they left him alone in the cell. As the miscarriage was happening, he was whimpering in pain and lost a lot of blood, more than usual, he couldn't scream anymore, he'd lost most of his voice.
But the guards just let him be, to deal with the death of his little kitten all alone, with nothing left to live for...
Keith initially thought that Galra refer to their offspring as cubs, but his specific branch of the species called them kittens. He was fine using both terms.
This is what they wanted, wasn't it...? To cause so much pain that he completely lost the will to live?
Well, yeah. They never wanted the team to find out, but of course they wanted to have some fun with this whole imprisonment thing.
Keith's ears suddenly went down and a low growl left him as anger began pooling within him.
He had a question to ask them now.
Cautiously, he sat up and looked at a guard. Then he spoke up.
Keith: Hey, I don't get it.
The two guards turned their heads to look at him. Keith realized that the one on his left was the rookie. Who he had grown to like immensely.
That didn't stop him from asking his question though.
Keith: What's so fun about doing this? About hurting me, and breaking me until there's nothing left, even though you know...? How do you get so much enjoyment from it...?
Keith looked up at them again, with both an angered, and confused look on his face.
Keith: Is there some sort of inside joke I'm missing? I'm not, entirely, hating you for it, I just want to know what the fun is about.
The rookie seemed noticeably uncomfortable. And Keith felt bad for asking this in front of him, since he obviously meant no harm. The guard on his right spoke up, with a tone suggesting that nobody had asked him that before.
Guard: We're... just doing our jobs, we may not like what we're doing, but we're in a stand-still under Commander Madvos's orders... and the paladins orders...
Madvos, now he had a name to put on his abuser and likely killer.
Keith: So... I'm guessing that even if you wanted to tell them the truth, he's forcing you not to?
The guard and rookie slowly nodded their heads. Then finally the rookie spoke up.
Rookie: So, why pick now to ask? Did something happen...?
Keith lowered his head and nodded. He heard the cell door open and the two guards walked in. The right guard stood in the cell door—to make sure he didn't didn't try to run—and the rookie sat next to him.
Rookie: Would, you mind letting me know what happened?
Keith shook his head and reached behind him, trying to locate the dead body. Once his fingers touched the cold, wet fur of the kitten he felt like he wanted to vomit. But he took a deep breath, and gently picked up the cub, knowing he was staining his fur more with his own blood, and realizing that this was the first time he had ever actually held his cub since the miscarriage. When the rookie saw the kitten Keith could see the horror in his eyes.
Guard: Remos? What is it?
The rookie—Remos—didn't answer and instead asked Keith a question. Hesitantly reaching out to touch the little face that held no life.
Remos: How... d—did you know about this...?
Keith nodded, his ears down.
Keith: Your commander did too...
Remos looked completely petrified, unable to take his eyes off the body. He eventually took his hand away from his mouth, and muttered three words that Keith had been longing to hear since this whole thing started.
Remos: I'm so sorry...