(Genesis) Chapter 12

Pride: Genesis

Chapter 12

Boxed In

They'd gone straight from the temple to Sorthal's main spaceport. According to intel, the Sorith were an essentially passive race, content to sell fuel and trade goods and not ask too many questions. It seemed like just the respite they needed after the Temple of What The Fuck.

Keith was asleep, with the team under strict orders not to wake him unless the ship was on fire. Jace had been hovering over him for awhile, but he'd finally reluctantly headed out to replenish his medical kit; Sven had gone with him, probably to keep him from causing an interstellar incident. Flynn was off arranging refueling, which left only Lance and Hunk minding the shop. Or the ship. Whichever.

The big guy was holed up in the bay, and Lance was kicked back on the bridge with his nose buried in novel about a fighter pilot in World War Two. His arm still hurt like hell. At least the poison seemed to have mostly faded, leaving him with a dull headache that only really made itself known if he heard any loud noises.

He was just getting to the good part when a dull echo penetrated his focus. Huh? He looked up, frowning. It was a little hard to tell the difference between soft sounds and the intermittent pounding in his ears. "Hunk, did you call?"

"Wasn't me, bro."

Must have been the headache, then. Lance shrugged and went back to his book. A sharp pounding on the hatch nearly knocked him out of his seat maybe ten seconds later. Okay, not his imagination.

"They can't open a door?" he grumbled. It was probably Jace, if his arm weren't so mangled he'd—as the hatch slid open his thoughts cut off, eyes widening in shock.

What could only be a Sorith stared back at him.

He gave the visitor a quick once-over as he fought to get his bearings. It was distinctly feline, with a wiry build and long fangs; it was covered in slate-blue fur with darker stripes, and a bright orange crest ran along its head and down its back. Its eyes were the same orange as the crest, and remained focused on him intently as he studied it.

"Inspection," it finally declared in a low, gruff voice.

Wait, what? Shit. Letting this thing into their hold was out of the question, considering what they'd just looted. "Uh… we were told there wouldn't be an inspection?"

The Sorith flipped through a set of what looked like metal tags in its three-fingered hands, frowning. "Told by who?"

By the fucking brass. "You know, the higher ups." He grinned, forcing down the urge to punch a monitor. "I'm sure your bosses drive you mad too, huh?" Stupid bad intel.

All that got him was the same unblinking orange stare. "Which higher ups?"

"My bosses. Morons, the lot of them." He snorted derisively, looking over the Sorith again. They were quite pretty, with clever features and soft, shiny fur… he could work with this. "I'm Lance, by the way."

"Under what authority, Lance by the way? You are not listed as exempt."

"Oh, um." Had it just…? Geez, tough crowd. "The Alliance, Earth. They said there wouldn't be any need for an inspection if we refueled here." Let's try this introduction thing again. "What's your name? I mean, you know I'm Lance."

The Sorith's fur bristled. For a few moments he was sure it would ignore that question, but finally it gave in. "I am Kyu. Your Alliance is misinformed. Shielded bays must be inspected."

Shielded bays? Oh. Right. He remembered Flynn warning them of that… damn, it felt like such a long time ago. Well, fuck. Time to redouble the charm offensive. "Wow, more work for you, huh? I bet you'd rather be out relaxing, taking a long walk…"

Clearly that had not been charming; immediately Kyu growled. "Have not insulted you, Earthling," it snapped indignantly. "I am not lazy."

"What?" Lance's eyebrows shot up. "Kyu—Kyu, what a beautiful name—I would never think you're lazy, I mean look at you! You're so…" He didn't know a thing about Sorith cultural values. What's a cat thing, what's a cat thing… "So clean!"

"Yes," Kyu hissed, decidedly not charmed. "Also busy."

Okay then. Lance nodded and smiled a bit nervously. "Right, and you like being busy, I get that…" He was off balance. This never happened to him.

"Not being kept busy babbling. Let me inspect. Timetable is strict."

"Timetables, yeah, those suck." In some desperation he offered his most winning smile. "Are you busy later, Kyu?"

Again it flipped through the metal tags. "You are on the schedule now. Not later."

Of course they were. "I meant, you know, you could show me the sights? The trendy hot spots?" He eyed the Sorith's sleek legs. "Do you dance?"

"There are tourist guides," it answered with an annoyed hiss. "I am an inspector."

It's immune to your charms, McClain. In a long history of successful flirting with anyone and anything that caught his attention, that was a first. What the fuck is wrong with this species? New plan. Think, think, think… "Uh, well, there isn't really anything to see here." Oh yeah, that would work.

"Then inspection will be swift."

Of course it would. "Right… well, I'm not authorized to let you on board."

Kyu stared at him.

Lance stared back, flashing that most charming smile.

"Summon who is authorized."

"Right, uh, yeah. Sure…" He stepped back, closed the hatch in Kyu's face, and exhaled. "Maybe if I ignore them they'll go away?" Looking back around, he checked the small viewport. No, the inspector was not going away. It hadn't even taken a single step back. Sighing, Lance keyed up the comms. Time to call in some backup. "Yo, Hunk, could you come to the hatchway?"

"Uh, comin', bro." The dull bass thump that had been faintly discernible from the bay cut off, and a minute later Hunk appeared around the corner. "What's up?"

"Oh la chat!" Lance muttered, pointing to the hatchway.

Hunk didn't speak French. "Huh?" He turned and peered out the viewport, and immediately brightened. "Aww, look at the cute kitty!"

One of the first things the Alliance drilled into its recruits was that aliens who resembled Earth species should not, in fact, be assumed to be anything like said Earth species. But there was intellectually knowing that, and then there was viscerally convincing yourself not to see a cat person's big ears and fuzzy whiskers as adorable.

"Its looks are deceiving," Lance warned, "it has Jace levels of charm." Hunk snickered. "It wants to inspect the cargo."

That cut off the snicker. "Uh, thought they didn't do inspections here?"

So did I. "Yeah, that intel missed some important points."

Hunk looked out at the Sorith again, and found it quite a bit less cute. "Okay, so uh… whatcha want me to do?"

"Well…" Lance shrugged. If he knew that he wouldn't have needed to call him. "It wouldn't flirt with me, so I ran out of ideas. Your turn."

"Should we wake the boss up?"

"No. No, we shouldn't do that." The ship was not on fire. There had to be some better way out of this.

"Hmm." Hunk frowned, then held up a hand and vanished into the cargo bay. A minute later he returned, hauling one of the largest empty boxes. "Let's try this."

Try what, exactly? Lance poked the stiff carbonweave and shook his head. "I don't think it's gonna fall for that being all we have in here."

"But it's a cat, yeah? If it fits, it sits?"

What?

What?!

Lance stared at him and blinked, dumbfounded. "Why did I call you for help?"

"Because you haven't heard about the last inspection I helped with, I'm guessin'."

That wasn't overly encouraging, but what other ideas did they have? "Well… it is a cat, let's offer it the box." A lot of xenoculture specialists would have been mortified, he knew that. But then maybe they should've tried giving the team a proper briefing.

Hunk opened the hatch; Kyu was still standing right at the top of the ramp. "Yo! Heard you need to do some inspectin'. Here's our cargo."

This isn't going to work. Lance watched with increasing trepidation as the Sorith studied the box and gave Hunk a look of disapproval. "This is only a box."

"Kyu, my cat! It's a great box though, huh?"

He hadn't really expected that to accomplish anything, and it didn't. "I am certain it is a well-constructed box. It is empty."

"Huh? Course it's not empty," Hunk protested. Lance side-eyed him, and the big man mouthed 'trust me' when the inspector wasn't looking. Well, okay… he shrugged and let Hunk do whatever he was doing. "You gotta look closer, bro. It definitely ain't empty."

"It certainly is empty," Kyu grumbled, but nonetheless he leaned over the edge of the box and peered inside.

"Right, give it a right good inspection, Inspector." Even knowing it wasn't doing any good, Lance flashed his most charming smile again. He couldn't help it. How the hell could it not be working?

Hunk had more underhanded ideas. As Kyu leaned further over the box, Hunk gave him a small shove in the back. Just enough to dump him in headfirst and slam the lid shut behind him.

Immediately a series of indignant yowls erupted from what was, in fact, a very well-constructed box.

"…You put the cat in the box," Lance said blankly.

"Yep. Definitely did that."

He managed to recover enough to glare. "That's fucking stupid!" Before he could continue, the box jolted, fell on one side, and started to tumble down the boarding ramp. "Oh, shit." They did not need more curious cats showing up. He ran down the ramp after it, glaring over his shoulder again to make sure Hunk was following. "We've gotta get it inside."

"Inside? What are we gonna do with it inside?"

"Its howling is gonna draw attention!" He reached the box, which was still shaking and yowling, so at least it was a safe bet Kyu wasn't too badly hurt. "Did you have a plan for what to do after it went in the box?"

"Uh, kind of." Hunk frowned. "It might still work."

Lance wasn't too sure he trusted that, considering how this 'plan' had gone so far. But he still didn't have any better ideas. "How?"

"I'll take care of this." Hunk leaned over and lifted the box easily, steadying it as best he could in his arms. "Call the others back, yeah? I'm not sure how much time this'll buy us." He turned away before Lance could really respond, carrying the angry box towards the spaceport proper.

Truthfully, Lance was in favor of calling the others back. Maybe someone else could come up with a plan when this one went to hell… well, even more to hell. "What kind of species doesn't understand good flirting when they see it?" he muttered, shaking his head, and ran for the bridge.

⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑

It was still a bit chilly…

Keith woke slowly, shivering and pulling the blankets a bit tighter around him. Part of him wanted to go back to sleep; part of him was certain he'd been sleeping long enough, especially when he felt the faint vibrations of the engines burning in real space. That couldn't be right, could it? He opened his eyes, and found their medic staring right back at him.

"Oh hey! Nice of you to join us, boss."

No doubt. He blinked a few times, shaking off the veil of sleep. "How long have I been out?"

"Eh, not that long." Jace shrugged. "Twelve hours or so. How're you feeling?"

"Still kind of cold… twelve hours?" He tried to sit up, though between lingering exhaustion and being tangled up in the blankets it was slow going. "I thought we were taking a couple of days to recover on-planet, why are we not on the ground?"

"…Uh-uh, boss. I'm just here to do the medic-ing. Not touching that."

Keith gave him a funny look. Whenever Jace refused to talk about something that was a warning sign. "Send Kleid in here. I need a sitrep."

"I'm here," came the too-quick response from just outside the door. "Let the doctor do his job."

Another warning sign. Keith was pretty sure he hadn't at all interfered with Jace doing his job. What the hell was their engineer doing hanging out in the hallway, anyway?

Flynn was in fact not the only person in the hallway. He had a report to make. What everyone else's excuse was, he wasn't quite so certain about… but since they were here, he glared at Hunk and Lance across from him. Not much of a glare, but enough to get his point across.

"Schrodinger's cat was not my idea," Lance muttered defensively.

Hunk shrugged. "It worked. Cat's fine. We're fine." Lance gave him a look that was obviously attempting to be a glare, but it would've worked better if he weren't visibly trying to hold back laughter.

Flynn managed a better one. "Sure, you're fine, not your ass Kogane's going to take as a trophy."

"Good trophy," Lance commented, eyeing the ass in question, and Flynn choked and turned away as his cheeks flushed bright pink.

"Kleid, get in here," Keith ordered. He waved Jace off, but the medic paused a moment before retreating.

"…Just so we're clear, boss. You are not medically cleared for strenuous activity, which includes throttling, maiming, or murdering your crew." That got him a very unappreciative look from Flynn as he walked in; Keith just blinked.

What in the hell would make him clarify that?

"Feeling better?" Flynn asked in a resigned tone. He knew he wasn't here to get a briefing on his commander's recovery.

"That's debatable. What is going on? I thought we were taking a couple of days on the planet. Why are we airborne?"

"There were complications," he said delicately. Stalling for just a few more seconds, to try to figure out how to explain this mess.

Keith sighed and gave him a look. "What kind of complications?"

"Turns out they do inspections on Sorthal."

…Oh. Yes, that would be a complication. "What?"

"They do hazard scanning. Our bay can't be scanned, so they wanted an inspection."

Of course they did. Why would intel be right about something? "Okay, so… what happened?"

"Lance had the bridge." Flynn raised his voice slightly, glancing over his shoulder. "Lance tried to flirt our way out of it."

"…So, he ended up in the local jail for lewd behavior?"

"I'm not a creepy flirt!" Lance yelled from the hallway, sticking his head in the door to glare when Jace snickered. Flynn motioned for him to elaborate. "I attempted to charm Inspector Kyu, but they were unresponsive. These Sorith cats are uptight."

Sigh. "So what happened, McClain?"

"I called Hunk."

"Oh no." Keith went pale, pressing his palm to his forehead and squeezing his eyes shut. He was going to have a headache here in a minute, he could see it already.

"Not my fault he called me," Hunk protested from the hallway.

"It seemed like a good idea at the time."

"So did the box."

"I thought the box was supposed to get them to sit in it!"

"They did sit in it! I mean, kinda upside down and stuff, but they sat in it!"

"Only because you slammed the lid shut!" Pause. "Though it beats my plan C, which was shooting them."

Keith's eyes snapped open. "What?!"

"Kidding!"

Even Flynn had snickered at that, and Keith shot him a scowl. He was definitely getting that headache. Actually he had two headaches, both of whom were standing in the hallway, but anyway. "Just… what did you two actually do?"

"We uh, we put Inspector Kyu in the box," Hunk answered a bit nervously. "And they didn't like it, and they kinda fell down the ramp, which wasn't our fault…"

Keith pushed the blankets off and swung his legs over the edge of the bed, all cold and exhaustion forgotten. "Tell me we did not kidnap the damn inspector."

"Course not!" He sounded much more indignant than seemed justified.

"And tell me you all did not cause an interstellar incident with that planet."

"Of course not!" Lance said with equal indignation.

"To be determined," Flynn muttered at the same time.

Their pilot shrugged. "I like to be optimistic."

Nothing about this situation seemed to merit optimism. But there was also nothing much to be done for it. "Okay. Continue."

Hunk picked it up again. "I took the inspector to the med station. In the box."

"In the box?" Keith looked at Flynn.

"Don't look at me, I wasn't there."

"In the box," Hunk confirmed, still sounding a little offended. "Told 'em they fell in our bay and hit their head, got real shook up, didn't know what they were talkin' about anymore."

Well that was… not quite as bad as it could have been, probably. "And they bought it?"

"Well…"

Keith's eyes narrowed. "What exactly happened next?"

Flynn, Lance, and Hunk all exchanged wary glances; Jace took another step back. And that was when Sven decided to make his presence known from the hallway. "I told them not to illegally flee the planet!"

"What?!"

"Yes," Flynn agreed, "let's put that on the record. Holgersson told us not to do anything stupid. We didn't listen."

"We didn't flee," Lance protested. "We just left quickly."

"Very quickly," Jace agreed.

"Super quick." Hunk nodded emphatically.

Flynn shook his head and looked back at his commander. It was probably best if they got to the bottom line here eventually. "We're going to have to refuel somewhere else."

So this is what the Doc meant…

Looking around at his team—his loyal, quick-thinking, extremely competent, and completely insane team—Keith took a few deep breaths and let the situation sink in. He couldn't really do anything about it now. They seemed to have gotten away clean, based on the lack of alarms going off and the entire team crowded in his doorway. Slowly he nodded in acceptance. "Where did you have in mind to refuel, Kleid?"

"That's your next question?" Lance asked incredulously. Hunk elbowed him.

Keith would have elbowed him too if he'd been in range; he settled for a glare. "Don't push it, McClain."

"Seriously," Jace agreed with a scowl, "I've already told him he's not medically cleared to murder you. Don't tempt him."

As Lance held up his hands in surrender, Flynn fielded the original question as if the whole conversation hadn't happened. "Holgersson has us on course for an Alliance scouting resupply base."

"Where they won't ask questions." Keith nodded. "Good call."

"Yes," Sven chimed in grumpily, "it was that or head for another planet where these people could cause another interplanetary incident."

"The cat is fine!" Hunk protested.

"They were pretty hot," Lance agreed sullenly; he was still irritated that it had been immune to his charms.

Jace was also immune to his charms. "You didn't even give it an air conditioned box?"

"All right!" Keith rubbed his forehead as they all fell silent. Maybe he could go back to sleep, and when he woke up they'd be on Sorthal like they were supposed to be. No… if this was a dream, his brain freeze had been much worse than he'd thought. "Everyone but Kleid is dismissed."

Flynn looked less than pleased by that, but the other three in the hallway didn't need to be told twice. They scattered. Jace looked between the boss and his second for a moment. "…I'll go make you some hot soup or something. Don't fill up biting the chief's head off."

Shaking his head, Keith watched the medic leave and returned his attention to Flynn. "So we left the planet without authorization?"

"Technically we had authorization." He frowned. "Granted they revoked it before we got to the runway, but we had it."

"Oh, good. I'm surprised we don't have fighters on our tail."

"I don't think they have fighters."

Thank the gods for small favors. "Well they do have subspace communications. I'll be surprised if we don't get arrested at the supply depot."

"Bring on the arrest. The brass sent us out here to loot their temple and told us the planet wouldn't do inspections, JAG will love it." Flynn shook his head. "Honestly, planets that only do hazard scanning aren't going to hunt you down and bring you back so they can see the assumed hazmat you're carrying. We just won't be welcomed back."

"…Good point." If that was all that came of it, that was completely fine with Keith. He never wanted to so much as see Sorthal again. Still… he sighed. "Twelve hours. Twelve hours and you all Explorer Team an illegal escape off a planet."

"It's in the job description." Flynn shrugged. "Nobody's going to win any awards for gallantry, but you've got that covered anyway."

Keith blinked. "What?" If that meant what he thought it meant…

"Nothing." Smirk. "Anyway, you should get some more rest. You know, just in case you do need to explain this when we get to the outpost."

"Yeah. That will be… fun… to explain."

"Yes, it was." Flynn's tone made him doubt he'd have much help with any future explanations. "Anything else?"

He considered that for a minute, then sighed. At least some shred of discipline had to be enforced around here. "Put Lance and Hunk on latrine duty until we get to the depot."

"Latrine duty? But…" Whatever protest he'd been starting to make, he thought better of it. "Roger that. Go to sleep."

Sleep. Keith didn't particularly want to sleep—look how well that had gone for him last time. Besides, Jace was off getting him soup. But he laid back under the blankets and let himself doze.

Explorer Teams…

⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑

"McClain, Garrett, conference room."

Lance and Hunk had retreated to the rec room, instinctively unified by the mess they'd gotten themselves into. They exchanged worried looks as Flynn's clipped order came over the comms.

"Uh oh."

"Crap."

Well, may as well get it over with. Lance sauntered casually into the conference room, doing his best to project confidence; Hunk made some effort to sneak in behind him. As if that would work. Sitting on the table, Flynn shot him a look of mild disbelief, and he gave up on the attempt.

"…I still can't believe you two actually put the inspector in a damn box."

"He," Lance corrected, "he put the inspector in a damn box."

"Dude, what did you expect when you asked for my help?" Hunk protested. "A well-reasoned plan?"

"I don't know! I was all off-balance, they wouldn't fall for my charm."

"Okay, okay." Flynn looked between the two of them and shook his head. He really wanted to ask why they hadn't just called him… though he wasn't too sure what he would've done, either. Something that wasn't putting the inspector in a damn box. "Anyway, Kogane wants you two on latrine duty until we get to the outpost."

Lance made a face; Hunk did too, but his was out of confusion. "Uh, pit boss? They clean themselves, yeah?"

"…We supposed to supervise it?"

Shrug. "I know that. You know that. Kogane apparently doesn't know that." His eyes narrowed slightly as they snickered. "You two owe me."

"Do we now?" Lance asked with a devilish smirk.

Flynn smirked right back. "If you want Kogane to continue not to know that they clean themselves? Yes."

Laughing, Lance nodded as Hunk swatted him lightly. "Seriously, yes, we owe you one."

"Totally. Want some murder pepper tacos?"

There were very few things Flynn could think of that he wanted less than murder pepper tacos. "Get out of here." Grin. "Go do your jobs or something."

Hanging around for him to change his mind didn't seem like a good idea. Lance winked and took off, heading for the bridge, and Hunk saluted before making his way to the galley. More murder pepper tacos for him, then.

That all could've gone so much worse.

⭒⭒⭒⭒⭒

Larmina was in the forest again. Maybe Auntie knew to look for her in the workshop, but nobody would find her here. And the closer they got to the ball, the more her other task weighed on her. The mystery supposedly awaiting her here… where was she supposed to search? Where was she expected to go? The only mysterious thing she'd caught any hint of was the sourceless growl in the forest, and sourceless was the key word there.

So maybe just being out here would help? Yes. Yes, that was definitely the reasoning. She wasn't avoiding anything, of course not.

I hate this.

She was sitting against a large tree and nibbling on some berries; her time exploring the forest back home had taught her a lot about what was edible and what wasn't. There really wasn't much stopping her from disappearing here until after the ball had come and gone. Nothing but her conscience.

Unfortunately, that conscience was pretty well-tuned. She couldn't do that to her mother. For all she complained, for as much as she hated it, Larmina knew what Queen Orla had sacrificed by embracing her bastard daughter rather than disowning her. It wasn't quite in her to just throw that away.

So what could she do? She wasn't ready for this stupid ball. She wasn't ready for courtship, or marriage, or any of that. No amount of training from Nanny or anyone else would make her ready for the prison she was about to be thrown into, the one she was already pretty much stuck in. But there was no way out, was there?

A soft growl echoed on the breeze, as if in response to her thoughts. Larmina raised her head, frowning. There it is again… she tried to ignore it, but it just got louder. A deep, steady rumble that seemed to shake the trees.

Wait, no…

The rumble was something else. Something coming from above? Looking up all she could see was the thick leaves and filtered sunlight streaming down.

Probably just a shuttle or something. She popped another berry into her mouth and scowled at the sky. Probably bringing some supplies for the big stupid debut.

Golden Gods, about that whole getting me out of this ball thing? I'm still waiting.

⭒⭒⭒⭒⭒

Mere weeks until the big ball… if she hadn't known better, Allura would have thought it was happening much sooner. Nanny was going a bit over the moon in the planning of the event; Allura couldn’t quite understand why she was going so far. Granted, the debut ball was a major event in a young royal's life, but she didn't think it was this important. There would be other events, grander ones. The first ball was more of a starting point, a transitional phase: the beginning of a long process of courtship, not the ultimate goal.

Nanny would chastise her for those thoughts, and say she was much too like her father. She already knew of the arguments Nanny would have with King Alfor, complaining about how he gave in too much to his daughter's wishes. It wasn't proper, she said… as if any noble son or daughter of Arus not married off by eighteen was making a grave mistake, or worse, somehow unfit. Which Allura felt was nonsense. Her father was just more forward thinking. He wasn’t giving up on the time-honored traditions of Arus, but making things more flexible for future generations.

Allura would be turning nineteen not too long after Larmina turned sixteen, but she was not yet expected to deal with such things as marriage and courtship… not by High King, anyway. It was irregular, but she felt it was best. As far as she was concerned, she had enough on her hands with her education and other matters unique to her role as the Crown Princess. Perhaps the greatest gift her father had ever given her was the power to choose when she would seek out a husband, her partner in ruling Arus when the time came. In return for having such trust placed in her, she focused hard on her lessons.

Today she was tasked with overseeing Nanny's will for the debut ball, to show how much she'd learned. A small thing, and of course Nanny herself had planned plenty of balls before. She had no need of a supervisor. But today Nanny was in the capital with Tanner, so Allura would be her stand-in. Her father wanted her to see firsthand what went into planning such things, to understand the hard work of those responsible for putting the event together. It was quite fascinating, and Allura was smiling as she went searching for the captain in charge of security.

Captain Randel bowed as she came near. "Princess Allura, how may I help you?"

"I'm just curious what goes into securing an event like this. Maybe you could give me a small primer on it?"

Having the Crown Princess show interest in his tasks made the Captain brighten a bit, and he pulled up a few of the holographic panels which made up the security system. Highlighting the various zones of the castle he showed her the guard posts, the sensors, the checkpoints manned by knights in full ceremonial dress. It was a quite pleasant discussion, and Allura was fully absorbed in it when an alert started to sound on the Captain's personal communication device.

Allura couldn't hear what was coming over the comms, but was taken aback by the look on Randel's face as he listened. He was going steadily more pale, and she startled as he abruptly grabbed her elbow. “Forgive me, Princess, but we must move to a safe area, and now.”

“What is going on?” Allura managed to ask as he half-lead, half-pulled her towards the stairs to the lower levels of the castle.

Before he could answer, a loud explosion rocked the castle. The walls trembled, chunks of stone and plaster falling down around them. Several of the castle staff froze in the hallways, but Captain Randel didn't stop. “That, my Princess… an attack is happening. Please, I must get you to safety.”

An attack?

Allura couldn't find anything to say about that, not that he could have heard her over the roar of another impact. Glass shattered somewhere in the distance. Stunned by the screams and explosions, she didn’t fight as he pulled her deeper into the underground chambers, hidden deep beneath the castle she called home.

⭒⭒⭒⭒⭒

Nanny had taken young Prince Tanner out to Falastol, the capital city of the Crown Province—and thus all of Arus. She was pleased to see her hard work was showing. His manners and movements were the finest examples of the highest royal forms for his age. While this was nothing more than a formal meeting of youths of the various nearby noble houses, Tanner was perfectly presenting himself as the son of the High King. If anything, it made her feel a little bit better… the big day for the hellion girl's debut ball was getting closer. Seeing how Tanner was  behaving gave her hope that her fears of an overall royal revolt were unfounded.

As she waited outside the reception hall, she'd casually eavesdropped, listening to the host noble giving his thanks for everyone's participation. She had beamed as she heard the young prince’s polite return of thanks for being invited. Indeed, it had been a nice gathering of young minds, including a simple debate of Arus’ role in future interplanetary interactions. Of course, she had to hold her own tongue on the matter. There was no need to have interaction with anyone outside of Arus. But she understood youth enough to know curiosity’s lure could be strong. One just needed to provide a better distraction, to guide one’s charge onto their proper course.

“Nanny, when we return home, is it okay if I get a snack? I am hoping that small dish of fruit and crackers will be fine… maybe some cheese as well?”

Slightly startled from her thoughts by the prince's carefully phrased request, Nanny noted the time. “Hungry still after the lunch you just had? I guess a small bowl will be fine, but then you have some reading that you must do. It would be best if you can make some advance progress on your lessons, with the grand ball approaching so quickly."

“Of course, Nanny." Tanner nodded respectfully. "Would it be safe to assume you wish a few pages of a report on the reading done as well?”

“That would make me quite happy, if you could.” Heading towards the carriage waiting, Nanny could not help but smile as she followed the young prince. The day was just so perfect. Perhaps she would give in and spoil her charges, just a bit, with her most delicious treats after dinner. She silently debated which to make, and had nearly made her decision…

There was a flash of light. Something bright crimson in the sky. Then the ground seemed to spring to life, tossing them both into the air.

No…

It wasn’t the ground that had moved. The royal guards had grabbed them with shocking force, more so as she hadn’t even realized they were there. The guards had immediately covered the prince well—praise the Gods and Goddess of Gold—and were rushing him to safety. A young lieutenant had a grip on her hand, following them as best as they could. Nanny wasn’t even sure where they were headed, but she prayed the whole way to make it to wherever it was.

Sound was finally reaching them. Screams and explosions in the distance as searing light rained down. It was the sound of destruction, of life being shredded from its physical form… and fire was roaring in the streets. It seemed like it was everywhere.

“Oh, Honored Mother…" Nanny moaned as her legs protested the exertion, and it became harder to see where the royal guards were rushing through the smoke. Somewhere in the screams of panic, she swore she could hear Tanner calling out for her. "Goddess, I can hear him!" She willed her feet to move faster despite the pain. Her heart leapt as she saw them heading towards a building with an ancient marking, an old shelter system. Long ago the shelters had been built for times of strife, only to be forgotten in centuries of peace. They seemed to be a beacon of hope now.

As they passed the entrance she could feel her legs buckling under her. Forcing herself to keep moving she found that was the last she had, and cried out as she fell. Hardly missing a stride, the lieutenant lifted her up onto his shoulders and continued on in the direction of the others. Deeper down into the tunnels they traveled. Soon, they reached an area so far down the vibrations of the destruction above could barely be heard. They could rest, for now.

Except Nanny could hardly rest…

She immediately asked the lieutenant to seek out where Prince Tanner had gone. Nodding, he gave her a portion of a snack bar he had pocketed for later and headed off. He returned much later, sadness clear on his face. It seemed there was more than one tunnel in the system… the guards had taken a different turn. The tunnels were old and poorly maintained, and the ongoing attack could destabilize some of the upper corridors. It was not safe to explore to try to find them.

Nanny bit her lip. It felt like a failure. Such danger, and her charge was somewhere else. She could only have faith that the guards with him would continue their duty, and keep him safe. For now… she could only pray for deliverance.

Honored Mother, I beg you, bring him home.