(From Ashes) Chapter 13

Pride: From Ashes
            Chapter 13
            Damages Done

Once again, Pidge found himself following a banewolf through the forest. It seemed much less strange than the last time. And that was strange in itself, given that now he had a robot lion in his head and his eyes were occasionally glowing… perhaps a monster wolf guiding him to a key of some sort just couldn't compete.

"So, are we supposed to be teammates now? Something along those lines?"

The wolf yipped and nuzzled his side.

"I'll take that as a yes." His vision flickered green for a moment. "Jalekya… why is this happening, again?"

"The Bonds are in an unstable state," Green Lion answered matter-of-factly. "It should fade as the Pride becomes whole."

Pidge raised an eyebrow. "Should?"

Now Green paused. "There is much I cannot tell you, Windseeker. Our sleep has been long."

"That's reassuring."

"I do not particularly like it either."

That, he decided, was the most relatable thing the lion had said to him yet—despite or perhaps because of her penchant for sifting through feelings he didn't know he had. "And if I ask why you've been asleep for so long?" He didn't really expect that to get him anywhere either, but it seemed like he ought to try.

"…Something went wrong," the lion said slowly. "We were hidden… I cannot remember."

Something went wrong. Hunk had said that after his bonding, too. The reason the lions needed them, the reason they'd been hidden away to begin with, it all came back to that infuriatingly vague statement. "Okay." He had more questions, many more. As his guide jumped a small stream, he found a fallen log to cross and opted for one of the more general ones. "Tell me about the banewolves?"

To his surprise, he could feel her seriously considering that question. "The Banes of the Forest were not always what they have become. As we slept, suppressed and unbonded, our energies leaked out into our surroundings. The winds are tied inextricably to the powers of life… much within this forest now bears traces of my influence. Little was intentional."

Pidge blinked, another old Baltan mantra returning to him. Tazenya kaidaren… the wind is life. And she'd known the medical term for his condition, and said he wasn't the first ninja she'd ever bonded to… he was starting to have suspicions. Varetya had been fleeing persecution on Balto for much longer than they'd been part of the Alliance, and Arus was in the same general region of space.

"Yes," the lion confirmed. "You are not the first Shinori I have met. But more than that, I cannot be sure of."

"More than I expected," he muttered, and moved on. The ground cover was getting heavier here, forcing him to push large branches and shrubs aside to keep pace with his canine companion. "Anything else you can tell me?"

"A broad question…"

"And not an answer."

He thought she might have sighed. Did magical cat spaceships sigh?

"We do occasionally find cause to."

The banewolf suddenly halted, snuffling softly and pushing its head up against the thick undergrowth. Pidge frowned and refocused. "What's wrong?" Kneeling, he picked up a small rock and tossed it ahead; he heard it crash through some leaves and fall to the ground without apparent incident. "This is where you stop, I guess?"

Yip. Fair enough. He took a deep breath and pushed his way into the bushes, half expecting something to go horribly wrong the moment he stepped through. But it didn't. Everything seemed perfectly normal—his eyes glowed, as if to mock that thought—and somehow that just put him more on edge.

Why in the three hells did you agree to this? Really…

After a few more steps, he abruptly realized the sounds of the forest were nearly gone. The wind still whistled above him, but the chirps and flutters and small footsteps he'd become accustomed to were nowhere to be found.

Not a surprise, right? Even the banewolf didn't want to come in here, what else would?

It wasn't unsettling at all.

And then he pushed one last fern aside, and broke into a clearing that could not be natural.

The first thing he noticed was the structure—that was the only word for it, really. It wasn't a complete building of any sort. Just a skeletal framework covered by thick, creeping vines. The second thing was the wall, a foot-high barrier of dried mud that ran around the clearing and kept the undergrowth at bay.

The third and most unsettling realization was that the structure was not, in fact, the only skeletal thing in the clearing. There were actual skeletons. Some humanoid and some not; he would've bet nearly anything that the quadrupedal ones were banewolves.

"What in all three hells?" he whispered.

"Be wary, Windseeker." Green Lion might actually have sounded nervous. "This place is tainted."

That was a word for it, no doubt. "Thanks for the warning." With a great deal of wariness indeed, he stepped forward.

The clearing was smaller than Green's den, though not by too much. The ground was covered in what first looked like dry, pale soil, but it didn't feel right… he knelt and touched it. Ash. Had a stray shot from the Drule bombardment struck here? But that wouldn't explain the wall, nor Green's agitation. And the overgrowth was too thick for whatever had done this to be so recent.

Picking his way around the skeletons—there were probably half a dozen humanoid, and twice that for the banewolves—he reached the obvious focal point of the clearing. He couldn't tell exactly what the structural framework was made of, but he could see notches that told him there had once been proper walls. Had they been wood? Whatever had burned through this place would surely have taken care of that.

Circling it, he found a smaller opening that he guessed had once been the actual doorway of the structure. Partly that was because of the differences in the framework, and part of it was because of the banewolf skeleton lying in the ash. Wincing slightly, he went in a different way.

The interior was not much different than the exterior: the same spread of ash and crawling vines. Poking around in the ash, he couldn't find any trace of artificial flooring having been here. In fact, the only feature remaining on the inside at all was a stone pedestal in the center.

Some kind of shrine? Between some patches of creeping vines he saw indentations where a statue might once have been secured, but now there were only a few traces of ash. Or was that all? Taking a second look, he thought there were symbols carved into it, and reached down to brush the vines aside.

The instant his fingers touched the stone, a shrieking wind tore through the clearing. He heard shouting in what sounded like Arusian, and the howls and snarls of banewolves, and Green roared as blinding light filled the structure. He had a bizarre sensation of heat—not feeling it himself but knowing it was there, filling the clearing, and being vaguely aware that things were disintegrating around him…

And then, as swiftly as it had begun, it was over.

Pidge stumbled back, trying to catch his breath. "What. The hells. Was that?!"

"…I almost remember it now." Green growled in frustration. "The wolves interfered…"

"Interfered with what?"

"I don't… know."

Pidge did not recall either of the others mentioning cryptic memory fragments being involved in this process—then again, he hadn't really asked Sven, and hadn't Hunk said something about escaping a giant snake? He wondered if that was better or worse. Right now, he wanted nothing more to do with the pedestal; he stood and looked around the small chamber. "Okay. Was it this key I'm looking for that they interfered with? Because if I don't have to be here anymore, I don't want to be."

"The key is there. I can feel it near you. But it is not meant…" Another growl. "Something has gone very wrong."

"Yeah, you've said." Looking around one more time, Pidge felt certain more than something had gone wrong. But right now he just wanted to find the damned key and leave…

The wolves interfered.

Sudden inspiration—or perhaps realization—hit him, and he turned back to the doorway. The skeleton. And as his eyes flashed green, he felt it.

Gently easing the dead banewolf's jaw open, he found a segmented silver-white disc. An arrow-like sigil was etched into it; he recognized the symbol. Green had an identical sigil on her shoulder. This had to be what he'd come for.

"Yes," the lion confirmed. "Now get out of there, Windseeker. I do not like it."

She didn't have to tell him twice.

"Zalet take you," he murmured to the skeleton, though he knew it was silly. Everything in this clearing had been dead for a very long time. Still, it felt like someone ought to acknowledge what the banewolves had done here.

Whatever they had done here.

Casting one last look back at the pedestal, Pidge hurriedly left the clearing.

*****

Keith was still on edge from his talk with Coran and Sarial, and somehow equally on edge with the suspicion that his lion disapproved of how he'd handled it. The Lion of Storms…

"You must walk the path at your own pace."

Oh. Or that was reassuring, he supposed.

"But you know that the time is short."

Less reassuring.

He didn't have time to try to puzzle it out, because his first instinct had been to try to command… no. To lead. To that end, he was heading back to the Falcon, where he'd asked Vince and Romelle to meet him. Because his talk with Daniel had just gone so well, why not try more of them?

He took one last look out at the castle and mountains before entering.

Vince was already waiting in the rec room, more than a little nervous. On one hand, he was very glad to be away from that awkward scene in the tunnels. On the other, being summoned to talk to the Commander just didn't seem to bode well. It felt kind of like being called to the principal's office, and he tried to shake that off, because Keith was at least nicer than any of the principals he'd ever had.

As if on cue, he walked in and smiled. "Hi, Vince."

"Hi…"

The engineer looked tense. "Have a seat," Keith instructed, dropping into one himself. "And relax."

Relax! As if that were ever one of his strong points. "Uh, sure, right on that." He sank onto the couch and swallowed hard.

Somehow Keith had known that wouldn't work. "It's alright, Vince. Nothing is wrong, I just wanted to check in with you. See how you're doing, how you're feeling about…" He shrugged and gestured widely.

"Oh. …Oh." How do you feel? "Well, um, I don't really know." He hadn't really expected that to be enough, and from the encouraging nod it got him, it was clear he needed to continue. How, though? "Was there something specific about the," he waved his hand through the air in a similar manner to what Keith had done, "you were asking about, sir?"

No, there really hadn't been—or at least, he'd been hoping Vince might volunteer something specific. He felt the lion growling softly and once again felt very judged. Nobody had ever forewarned him about the burdens of command including mythical presences giving commentary in his head.

The growl he got in response to that felt slightly more like a protest than a reproach, really.

"Your thoughts on this whole lion thing," he said finally. "Those of us hearing them aren't the only team members that matter. I wanted to hear your take on the situation."

Now the growl sounded approving.

"Oh." Vince frowned. Did he have thoughts on the lion thing? Other than… "Well, I'm relieved I don't have a lion in my head. It seems disconcerting and, well, weird? I just watched Lance feel his way to these tunnels, which by the way had some really interesting shuttles, so maybe there are some perks to being here—" You're babbling. "—but I mean, I'm the sparks guy. And ghosts now. The lion thing is confusing and I'm already confused enough, so I'm just letting you people sort it."

Well. Apparently he had, indeed, had thoughts.

Looking at Keith, who was just staring and trying to process what all had just been launched at him, he shrank back into the couch a little. That was unhelpful, Vince.

Keith wouldn't have gone that far, but it was a lot to unpack. "Okay, let's start with the perks." Positivity, that was important. "Tell me more?"

"Oh, well maybe 'perk' was a bit of an exaggeration." Then again, maybe not. He hadn't had a lot of time to look around. "But those shuttles were intriguing, the tech looked so different. And I guess that's part of the lion thing, since it was in the tunnels Lance was doing the weird lion thing to find…" It occurred to him that weird lion thing was pretty broad but then, it was about where they were at here.

Remembering the shuttles himself, Keith nodded. "Yeah, I—" Immediately he felt a low grumble from the lion, and he grimaced. They knew about the tunnels now! But clearly he was still supposed to pretend that he didn't, so he sighed. Couldn't really object to some minor lying after what he'd told Coran. "—I can imagine. Okay, and weighing against the perks? I know you have reasons to want to go—"

"—GHOSTS," Vince interrupted. "And ghosts, and ghosts!" Then he sighed; that wasn't real helpful either. "I mean, I miss my moms too, I want to get back eventually. But the Arusians seem nice, and I knew I'd be away from home a lot on this mission. Just GHOSTS."

Right. Keith leaned towards him, just a little. His only experience with ghosts was still a handful of bizarre incidents back on the Vesuvius—it felt like so long ago now—which had either been the result of a cursed nameplate made with ash from Pompeii, an unlucky relic from a previous ship with the name, or a few techs who got into the alcohol more than necessary. He'd never known which side he came down on, personally, but that experience had not prepared him for this either way. "What can you tell me about them?"

"Uh, nope." That wasn't a yes or no question. "I mean uh, I don't know much, I haven't stuck around to talk to any." Now that he thought about it, was it weird that he hadn't seen any in the castle? Whatever, he'd take it. "I'll leave that to Romelle, she seems like the expert." He was not in any hurry to test the advice she'd given him on the subject.

Keith nodded slowly. "Must be unsettling, then."

"They're ghosts, isn't unsettling implied?"

"I suppose. Never seen a ghost or horror film," telling Vince that was sure to get him less grief than certain other people, "and the supposed ghost on my old ship never came after me personally, so I'm no expert."

A ghost on his old ship? Explorer Teams aren't the only crews that end up in the middle of weird, good to know. "Well, I don't recommend being personally haunted."

"I will take that under advisement," Keith promised with a grin, and was gratified when Vince visibly relaxed… slightly. But for him, slightly was still pretty good.

The lion in his mind purred.

Romelle chose that moment to enter; she immediately felt she ought to have chosen a different one. "Oh, um. I can… wait?"

"No, it's alright." Keith waved her in. "Come join us." She nodded and walked in, smiling at Vince, who waved back. "I was just asking Vince how he is, and what he thinks about what's going on here. I'd like to hear your thoughts too."

Truthfully, Vince was none too sure he'd answered anything. Then again, under the circumstances he'd probably done as well as could be expected. The last thing he wanted to do was draw attention and have to try to babble some more, so he stayed quiet and watched Romelle.

For her part, being asked the question at all was more surprising than its specifics. She was not particularly used to her opinions mattering to those few who'd held authority over her—not to her father, and certainly not to the Drules. Once again, the thought that she was part of this team was gratifying.

And a little terrifying.

"I suppose I'm alright," she said slowly, feeling her way. "Feeling awkward, given who I am and my people's history, but…" Really the Arusians had mostly been shockingly accepting of her, but she'd still only met a few. Somehow she was pretty sure that was no accident.

"Do you not want us to tell them you're a princess?" Vince asked. "I noticed you didn't tell Coran, but there hasn't been much chance to ask…"

Romelle blinked. Had that just been days ago? It felt like so much had happened. "It's not really a secret, I suppose? The Princess knows, and I told Lady Larmina…" Frown. "Though I'm not even fully sure why I did that."

Whatever she said about it not being a secret, her tone did not exactly say she wanted it getting out further. "Well, I still won't spill it to anyone."

"Thank you." She offered him another small smile. "I'm just not sure how to proceed… it's probably best to be cautious. There are sure to be those who'd react badly."

Nodding, Vince looked back at Keith. The problems Romelle was having seemed to have much more gravity than his own; it felt like they were more of what the commander wanted to hear about. Probably. Maybe?

"Good idea," Keith agreed. He still liked caution, on the rare occasions they got to exercise any of it. "How are you feeling about staying here longer?"

Wincing, Romelle thought back to her talk with Allura. "That I'm not sure of, Keith." Or was she? "I know that I can't go home. Maybe not ever. But I have nowhere else to go either…" Allura had said Arus could be a home for her. But she was realizing, if that happened, it wouldn't be because of Arus itself. "So I'm here with all of you, so long as you'll have me."

Keith and Vince exchanged uncomfortable looks of their own. What she'd said made sense, of course… "Then you're with us," the commander said firmly, and bowed his head. "I'm sorry you had to be in this position, though."

"Don't." She shook her head. "It was my choice, and I have to live with it."

"It still sucks," Vince said, eyeing her. He couldn't imagine not even having the option to go home—well, he supposed, it was more he couldn't imagine not having a home to go back to. Right now the thought of options was pretty academic. But at least the thought was there. He reached over and gave her hand a reassuring pat, then remembered princess! and pulled back. "…And I'm sorry too."

"It does… suck," she agreed, deciding this wasn't the time to ask about Common slang. "Thank you, Vince. You have a good heart."

He blushed furiously, but managed a grin. Keith grinned too; it was good to see them getting along. Then he leaned forward and looked between them. "Thank you both. I'm not sure what the future is going to hold for all of us, but…"

I need everyone's thoughts. We're all we have.

"Thus is the nature of a Pride."

Huh? He felt a slight shiver run up his spine, but the lion did not elaborate. And somehow he felt even less sure of the future, if more sure he was doing what had to be done…

"Seems like situation normal," Vince pointed out with a small shrug.

The commander couldn't help but chuckle, pushing his unease aside. More than you know. "Yeah."

Romelle felt it might be time to mention at least some of what Allura had said. "For what it's worth, the Princess seems to hope the whole team can stay. And she invited me to do so, specifically."

Oh. Vince swallowed hard, feeling a bit of guilt creeping into his tone. "I do want to go home. You know, eventually." What if I'm the only one who wants to leave? That thought made him hedge. "I get that it's not really possible yet, but…"

"As soon as it is, I'll do everything I can to get you there, Vince. You and anyone else who still wants to go home." Keith looked away so they wouldn't see him biting his lip for a moment. He still didn't even know where this was leading those with lions. He hated the thought that taking care of his team might result in some of them leaving. But he did have a responsibility to everyone here, and his own thoughts didn't matter.

"Do they not?"

Oh, not again. My duty has to come first.

"Admirable. But much has yet to be revealed…"

He didn't see what help that was, but decided to take some comfort in it nonetheless. The situation certainly was fluid. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," he decided, sounding more confident than he felt.

To his surprise, Vince seemed perfectly happy with that. "Good plan, sir. Not to have one, I mean, we're not very good at them."

"That's the way this mission started," Keith agreed. "May as well keep with it."

"We are an… Explorer Team?" Romelle offered, drawing looks from the other two. She blushed immediately; a second later, they both burst into laughter.

"Exactly!"

"That we most certainly are."

For now, they still had their team. And as the Lion of Storms purred in his mind, Keith decided that for now it was enough.

*****

Patience had never been Lance's strong point. It was so much worse now. There was a stupid wall of rock between himself and the fucking lion in his head, and just the knowledge that it was there had him antsy and frustrated even as he was working on fixing the problem.

On the plus side, Hunk had been more than happy to help. He'd siphoned a bit of the Falcon's fuel—unlike the Bolt, it carried some that was combustible—and fashioned a crude but workable set of small charges with it. He was a little concerned, truthfully… underground demolition with materials he wasn't very familiar with? Not the best. But he wouldn't write it off until he'd had a look, especially with how agitated Lance seemed.

"Ready?"

He was finishing up his last materials check. It was as good as it was going to get. "Think so."

Lance nodded. "Right, so…" He wanted to run back to the tunnels at top speed, but something was nagging at him. And suddenly it sank in. "Fuck!"

The big engineer's eyebrow shot up. "Uh, that's not why you invited me?"

Snort. "Dude, you're cute, but you're strictly in the bro category."

"I am the cute one, bro." Hunk gave his brightest grin.

True enough, and going any further on that topic would lead to places Lance did not want to be. Not to mention there was one very specific place he did want to be, and he wasn't fucking there, and—"No, it's just that I want to go blow this hole in the rock and all, but we should um… probably not blow up another part of an already blown up castle without running it by someone?"

"…You're just thinkin' of that now?"

"I'm in a hurry, alright, Glowstick? Not all of us have met our lions."

The last thing Hunk had been in to first meet his own lion was a hurry, so he couldn't exactly relate. "I'm totally callin' you Glowtorch if you go through with this." He expected his own eyes to glow right there, just because it would be fitting, but they did not.

Lance snorted again. "Fair. I'm totally going through with it…" He considered that a moment, then sighed. "I'm 90% certain I'm going through with it."

"I was 99% sure I wasn't, so…" Hunk shook his head. "Let's go find someone to get permission from and see how it goes for ya, yeah?"

"Fuck yeah." Sigh. "I just need to find out the truth of all this, you know? Actually meet this fucker in my head."

"Yeah, I know." Now that sounds familiar

"Extremely," Yellow agreed.

"Fucker?" the Lion of Flame questioned, and Lance startled.

Have you not gotten used to that yet?

"We're both getting acquainted."

Oh, sure they were. That only made another rush of impatience run through him, and he turned back to Hunk. "Alright, let's get moving already. Who do we want to find?"

Hunk shrugged. "Someone with glowy cheeks, I ain't particular. Thinkin' the Princess or advisor dude are our best bet, though."

"I'm not picky either," Lance agreed. "Mustache Dude is cool too, but the Princess is probably best."

"Probably. It's her castle, yeah?"

"Yeah." Lance sighed. "I'd really rather be helping her rebuild it than blowing more holes in the place, but…" As they started into the winding corridors, a more immediate problem presented itself. "Any idea where to look?" He didn't think his magical tunnel-finding sense was going to help them find a princess.

Hunk considered that, then shook his head. "You'd think we'd come up with a better way to make contact."

"You'd think."

The many holes in the castle did have one 'helpful' feature at the moment: there were a lot of places the princess could not be. Though after what felt to Lance like surely an hour of wandering, that was no real consolation.

"This is taking too long!"

They'd actually been at it for maybe ten minutes; Hunk side-eyed him and said the first thing that came to mind. "The Earth is patient." Hadn't he said that already today? Wait.

Oh for—now you've got me doin' it!

"…Your lion is creepy."

"Ain't wrong."

"I can hear you, Earthwarder." Though Yellow was also chuckling.

Mine feels like a grief counselor half the time. Though Lance felt like that was probably better than creepy. They didn't need any more creepy in their lives.

Rounding another corner, they heard squeaking, and found what appeared to be Princess Allura talking to a large pinkish mouse.

Hunk blinked. "Um…"

"Is this Disney?" Lance whispered.

"Ain't puttin' anything past it right now, but…"

"Well we do talk to robot lions, if it's fair for anyone to judge…"

"Yeah, could be." The big guy frowned slightly, then elbowed him. "You talk to 'er." He was still a little on edge from earlier.

"Ow!"

Allura hadn't heard any of what was going on on the other end of the hallway. She was entirely focused on negotiations. A few supply caches had gone missing during the second evacuation, and the mice were the best-suited to track them down. But Cheddar was driving an unusually hard bargain about it; something about more mice to tend to.

"How about this," she offered, giving a winning smile that would hopefully mask her frustration. "A bonus proportional to the size of whichever supplies you find?"

Finally, the mouse agreed, and she sighed in relief as he scurried off. It would be worth it if they found even one of the caches—but she never knew when the mice were going to volunteer and when they were going to bargain, and she wasn't especially amused.

The sound of someone at the end of the hallway was welcome. "Princess?"

Turning, she saw Lance and Hunk giving her slightly confused looks. "Yes?"

Lance reflexively put on one of his most charming smiles. "Um, I'm not quite sure how to put this, but I have a huge favor to ask you, and I'm aware it's quite early in our relationship for that," the smile broadened, "but it's where we are."

Now she was the one giving him a questioning eyebrow-raise; Hunk bit back a snicker. Though his eyes glowed a moment later, as if to remind him he had nothing to be snickering about right now.

Neither of them seemed inclined to bail the pilot out, and he tried to elaborate without actually saying the word explosives. "I mean, um, as you know your lions have been talking to us, calling to us? But I've hit a bit of a literal roadblock getting to mine."

Oh. Allura swallowed down a reflexive moment of panic. She knew which of the Great Lions was talking to this Earthling; the one without much in the way of possible alternate routes. "Roadblock?"

Damn it, he wasn't going to avoid the word. Lance sighed. "I need Hunk to do some explosive demolition, is that alright?"

"I'm an expert!" Hunk promised cheerfully.

"…Where?" Now the way Lance had been trying to avoid the question made perfect sense.

"Oh, um. The tunnels under the castle, you know…"

That was exactly what she'd hoped he wouldn't say. "Something happened to Red's tunnel?" she echoed softly.

"Red?" He'd known that, now that she said it like that, he supposed. That metal. "Yeah, there's a pile of rocks, some kind of cave-in blocking the way to the volcano." He did not like the look on her face. It was telling him there was no alternate door.

"How bad is it?" Oh, please don't be a total collapse. They were so close, too close. Even a full collapse of the underground section would take time they didn't have to clear out. If the other part of the passage had been damaged…

"Not really sure. Hunk will be able to tell you more once he sees it." In fact the big guy had already expressed doubt about a full collapse—that was the sort of thing they'd likely have noticed from above—but he couldn't be sure, so they both left it unsaid. "From what I could tell though, it's just in my way."

"We need it to be clear," she said half to herself, then looked up and nodded at both of them. "If you think you can clear it, yes. Whatever it takes to gain access."

"FUCKING GREAT!" Lance yelled, and Hunk nearly jumped out of his skin.

"Bro!"

"What? Sorry, I'm excited, okay? Let's go!" He spun around, then turned back to wink over his shoulder. "I'd apologize for the language, Princess, but I'm gonna do it again—"

"—He will totally do it again, believe 'im—"

"—But you want to come see us bust through some rocks?"

"Okay…" Allura blushed. She was unfamiliar with the word he was apologizing for, but may as well accept it nonetheless. Did she want to see them clear the tunnel, though?

That wasn't even a question. She turned to follow.

Another thought had occurred to Hunk in the meantime. He really did not know what was up with the animals on this planet, but if vultures could teach him to set fires with cactus flowers… "Actually, Princess. Were you uh, talkin' to that mouse earlier?"

"Ah, yes I was." She noted Lance's impatient look at his teammate. "Why do you ask?"

Hunk shrugged. "Is all the local wildlife as helpful as some of it? If we've only gotta start with tiny holes to see what's goin' on with this cave-in, it'll be a lot easier."

Lance, who had in fact opened his mouth to protest talking about mice right now, snapped it shut. Oh.

"Oh!" That did make sense. "I may be able to get a few to help." Looking back down the hallway, she whistled for any mice who might be willing to volunteer.

Emphasis on volunteer.

"Whatever works," Lance muttered, shifting uneasily.

"Patience. I am not going anywhere."

Right. That was for sure. Sighing, he tried to chill out, but he was just not feeling the waiting for even a moment longer. He knew where to go, they had permission to blast their way through, he wanted to move. But maybe mice now would mean less time when they got there…

Motion from the ceiling caught his eye, and a trio of blue and purple mice darted down to Allura.

"…They're cute," he whistled, a little surprised. He hadn't gotten a very good look at the last one. Think I'm partial to the salalizards, though.

"My familiars are quite special."

"They are." Hunk practically squealed it.

"My feathery companions also enjoy mice."

…WHOA, too much info, dude!

"Let's see." Allura grinned and looked over the mice who'd arrived. "We have Sprocket, Cog, and Spork volunteering."

Really? Lance couldn't help but crack a grin. "Spork is a great name."

The purple mouse squeaked happily, Lance winked at it, and Allura giggled. "He says thank you. Shall we?"

"Totally shall," Hunk agreed, then turned back to Lance. He didn't actually know where these tunnels were—the advantages, or otherwise, of his lion being easier to access. "Lead on, bro."

"Fucking finally!" The pilot broke into a sprint, leaving Hunk to bellow after him.

"Bro, I'm NOT RUNNIN' WITH THE BOMBS!"

Lance slowed down. Slightly. But it didn't really last, and he found himself speeding up again as they got closer.

Hunk found himself just following Allura, at a more reasonable pace.

Finally Lance did slow down, walking into the tunnels and feeling a sense of awe all over again. This whole room really was so much. Once he'd finally met this lion, he might want at least a look at those shuttles too… he paced until the others caught up, then headed for the tunnel where he'd felt the warmth. "This one. It's down a ways."

"Good thing I didn't hafta go through here," Hunk muttered as he passed by the shuttles. "I wouldn't have made it through…" He really wanted to stop for an hour or two, but was equally sure Lance wouldn't let him.

He sure as fuck wasn't stopping, but he was amused. "That's what Vince did."

"Kid's got good taste!"

Allura giggled.

It was a pretty long way through the tunnel, and somehow it felt even longer this time. Maybe because earlier he'd been running. Maybe just because his last hints of patience were gone. In any case, when Lance finally reached the cave-in, he glared at the rocks as if he could just scare them into clearing a path. "What do you think, Hunk?"

"I think… it's a lot of rocks," the bomb tech muttered, and moved forward. He was immediately certain it wasn't a full collapse, at least; the tunnel walls were intact. As his eyes adjusted to the dimness he was getting a better sense of things, and the news was at least mostly good. "It's localized. See, the reinforcement up there is cracked." He pointed at the ceiling, where a couple of framing beams had snapped. "But I can't tell how far back it…" He trailed off as his eyes glowed. And didn't stop. "Uh."

Yellow, this ain't helpful!

"Focus."

Focus? Sure, if he said so. "I think my lion wants me to do a lion thing." Taking a shallow breath, Hunk stepped forward, putting his hand on the broken rock and focusing. He was very aware of the tunnel—the dirt and stone all around them—the pile of rocks inviting him to feel, to see, to sense…

Allura took a step forward too, catching her breath as she watched. Even Lance's impatience took a momentary back seat to the awesomeness, if also weirdness, of the moment. "Huh…?"

"…Holy fuzzmuffins!" Hunk sprang back, staring at the rocks as he realized what had just happened. Maybe. His eyes stopped glowing and he looked to the other two, trying to find words for it. "Uh, so the Earth is patient, and also like eight feet thick right here." He heard Yellow purring and decided not to even comment on that; instead he looked at the charges he'd brought. "It's doable, but we're gonna hafta pull a lot out by hand after the bombs loosen it up."

"Whatever it fucking takes, I'll move every fucking rock if I have to." Lance meant it wholeheartedly. "…Also, that was fucking awesome, dude."

"I'd go with 'creepy' again, but…" He grinned slightly. He'd just felt where the rocks were. "It was kinda cool. Okay, you two stand back, yeah? Let's get this party started."

"Just let me know exactly where." Allura did not have a great deal of experience with explosions, and what she had had been decidedly hostile.

"Give it about fifty feet. Blast wave'll bounce around a lot down here. Won't be much, but better safe than shockwaved, yeah?" He checked a few of the smaller rocks, making sure not to pull anything out that was currently holding the pile up, but making a small hole he could fit one of the charges in.

With a nod, Allura backed up a bit further, and whispered a warning to the mice to cover their ears.

"Watching him do his kaboom thing should be fun," Lance commented as he moved back to join her. Immediately he was fidgeting; he needed to take his mind off the waiting. "So do all Arusians have a mice affinity?"

"No… just me, really." Anymore. The princess scratched Cog behind the ears. "The space mice have lived in the castle for a long time. There weren't many others my age about while I was growing up, so I learned to speak to the mice instead." Only Tanner had shared that particular secret skill with her.

"That's impressive," Lance said, and she shifted from the memories to a grin. "Looks like it's a mutually beneficial relationship."

If only he knew how beneficial, at times. Even before the Drules came, the mice had gotten her out of a lot of trouble. "Very much so."

He was fidgeting again, and definitely didn't want her to think it was her. "Sorry if I'm a bit… focused. I just really want to meet this lion."

Now her grin was stirred by memory. Lance really wasn't unlike her brother, as reactions to the Great Lions went. "I can understand. I've always wanted so badly to see them awaken…" That, too, had been true long before any Drule had set foot on Arus.

"Yeah, I think I do too."

The conversation was cut off as Hunk finished his work on the cave-in. "Heads down, blowin' up!" He turned and ran for the others as they ducked, but before he reached them a muffled boom washed through the tunnel. The dust cloud caught up with him; he stumbled out a few seconds later, coughing a couple of times. Then he chuckled. "Welp, that went okay."

"We good?" Lance asked, looking up again.

"So far, so good, bro." Hunk turned to look at the pile of rocks, and blinked. A fair amount of dust was still settling, but he could see hints of a red-orange glow penetrating through the much-reduced cave-in. "Whoa…"

Lance saw it too, and felt the warmth of the lion—the Lion of Flame, the Red Lion—curling around him. Moving closer to the stone, he found a gap just big enough to look through, and what he saw on the other side filled him with a whole new wave of awe. "Holy fucking magma."

"I hope the windows are intact," Allura said worriedly. If they were this close, they weren't in the clear yet.

"Windows?" Hunk echoed.

"I once visited here, long ago." Most of her father's research had centered on the Black Lion, for various reasons, but she had seen them all. "I remember passing the windows and loving the warm glow they gave off."

Windows. Glowing windows. Magma. He looked from her to Lance. "…You're kiddin'."

"Not a bit, dude." Lance was still looking through the small hole, transfixed. "Just… whoa."

Hunk moved closer. It didn't feel any warmer to him, and the convection from exposed magma would damn well be having some effects by now. Which could only mean one thing… they built tunnels through MAGMA!

Suddenly the shuttles weren't the most interesting thing down here anymore.

"So uh, Princess? Can the mice, uh…?"

She nodded, looking down at their volunteers. "Go see if the tunnel beyond is safe and clear." With a few dutiful squeaks, they scurried through the gaps in the stone.

Watching them, Lance was struck by the overwhelming sense of… hugeness. Looking back at Hunk and catching his eyes glowing only intensified it. What he'd already done, what Lance was thinking of doing… it was so big. So much bigger than someone like him should be part of, wasn't it?

"I will judge that, cub."

He gulped and fought down a wave of nervous dizziness. Well that just sounds ominous.

Once the mice were through, Allura approached the cave-in and started moving some of the loose rocks aside. There was still quite a bit to do, may as well get started. And actually being able to give concrete help was exciting. There was no nudging to do here—Lance knew what he needed to know. He just had to get through the barrier.

Blinking, Hunk tore his eyes away from the distant glow to see the princess, the princess, starting to haul rocks around. I am the worst knight. He quickly moved to help, as Yellow growled in amusement. Allura noticed his sheepish look and grinned in return; if it were her first time seeing this, she'd have been frozen in awe for a bit too.

Lance still was, his heart pounding in his ears, but gradually he became aware that the other two were moving rocks around him. Oh. Shit. He joined in, throwing himself into it with all the energy he had. Which was… less than he'd have preferred, by now, but he was this close.

They'd been at it for just a couple of minutes when one of the blue mice popped its head through a hole; it chittered something that sounded somehow businesslike. "Cog says the windows are safe," Allura translated. "The others are inspecting the far end."

"That is awesome." Hunk wasn't quite sure if he meant magma tunnels or mouse communication. Probably both, really. But especially magma tunnels.

"Way awesome," Lance agreed, though his voice was fading a little. He felt sweaty and his muscles were a little twitchy; he didn't think it was just from the rock moving. Maybe it wasn't from the rock moving at all. Because the more they worked, as an actual opening began to appear where the cave-in had been, the more scarily real everything felt.

The lion felt so strong in his mind now, almost close enough to touch. Why was he locking up now?

A few squeaks echoed down the tunnel as the other mice made their return. "The tunnel looks to have had a few good shakes," the princess relayed as they squeaked their reports. "But nothing else gave way."

"Perfect," Hunk said with a nod. "Should mean everything at risk already fell." Even if the bombardment had left any nasty surprises, the charges he'd set off almost certainly would have knocked them loose. He looked up at the large gash in the ceiling, then at the mess they'd made of the floor; the way was clear, but they had a whole lot of rocks stacked along the sides for about twenty feet back down the tunnel.

Next to him, Allura followed his gaze and offered a smile. "After all this time, not bad."

He grinned back, then looked up at the bright, fiery glow that stretched into the distance. "I'll say…" Though his teammate's silence was a little worrying. Turning, he saw Lance just staring blankly ahead. "You okay, bro?"

The pilot barely heard him, but managed to shake his head slightly. "Think I'm stunned."

"I hear that." Hunk stepped up and put a hand on his shoulder.

"You would know, yeah." Lance shook himself a little. Come on, flyboy. The thought made him flinch slightly, but it brought him a little bit back to awareness, too. "Guess from here on out I'm on my own though, huh?"

Allura just nodded. Yet again she was wishing there was more help she could offer, but she had to believe. Like Romelle had said… it was no time to have doubts now.

"Yeah. It's your show now." Hunk hesitated as Lance swallowed hard. It was weird, for it to be like this… knowing for certain where he was going. They'd never seen someone off to their lion before. Everyone else had just kind of wandered their way there. "You've got this, bro," he assured him, squeezing his shoulder a little tighter.

Taking a deep breath, Lance nodded, and tapped into all the reserves of bravado he had. "Fuck yeah I do. Thanks for the assist, man." He winked. "And you, Princess."

Allura smiled. And she very nearly said may the Great Lions guide you, before realizing it would be just a bit superfluous in this situation. She settled for something less formal. "Good luck."

He chuckled nervously and turned away. "I do got this," he murmured to himself, then raised his voice. "I'm gonna go meet a robot lion." With another steadying breath, he started to walk down the tunnel.

Hunk watched him go, then decided it was an excellent time for a distraction. "Princess, while he's doin' that, you know of anything we could use to get these rocks all the way outta this tunnel? I mean, assumin' you want these shuttles to work again any time soon." Most of those rocks they'd stacked up were now very much blocking the tracks.

"I'm not sure," Allura admitted, tapping her chin thoughtfully. "But let's go back and check the main chamber, there may be something."

"Works for me!" Nodding, he took one last look down the tunnel. Lance was disappearing around a gentle curve, with one of the mice scampering behind him. There was nothing more he could do for him now but have faith…

He smiled weakly to himself, and followed Allura back. It wasn't feeling as strange anymore.

*****

Upon returning from the expedition beneath the castle, Daniel had returned his now-sleeping salalizards to the Falcon and gone looking for some other way to occupy his time. Having been promised—with anyone else he'd have used the word threatened—an actual talk, avoiding Lance was once again at the top of his priority list.

Fortunately, Sarial was willing to provide him with a mission objective. So it wasn't that he was wandering aimlessly around the castle grounds; he was patrolling the perimeter. Responsibly. Like a good militia member, which definitely wasn't weird at all.

He hadn't anticipated actually coming across anything while he was at it, but when a glimpse of motion appeared on the horizon he went to check it out nonetheless. It didn't seem like a renewed Drule assault would come from that direction, anyway.

What he found was Pidge, gripping something in his hands and looking wholly unaware of his surroundings, and that was weird. Because ninja.

"Pidge! You okay?"

"Ra vara…" He blinked as he looked up, then seemed to realize he wasn't speaking English. "Um, I think so?"

Daniel did not think that was accurate, somehow. "What's wrong?"

The ninja struggled for words for another moment, and had very nearly found some when his eyes glowed green. Oh. Guess that takes care of it.

"…Oh." It certainly did take care of it. Daniel swallowed hard. "Uh… how's the lion?" He desperately wanted to just run away from this conversation right now, before it started, but that wouldn't be nice.

Pidge, too, really wanted to bolt in the other direction; he was still thrown from the shrine. But just running off did not seem to fit the whole 'being with his Pride' thing, not to mention it would just be rude. So he finally went with, "Confusing."

"Seems like it would be." Not the word he'd have used for all this bullshit. "You seemed really disoriented."

With a small, helpless shrug, Pidge showed him the key. "I had to get this thing…" …from a weird forest shrine that even freaked my lion out? He heard Green's agitated growl and decided he didn't want to go there. "…I'd rather have had to fight angry wildlife like Hunk."

Daniel snorted. "What did you have to do?"

"…Nothing you want to hear about." Nothing I want to talk about, either.

He was right, and the gunner sure as hell wasn't going to push. "Anything I would want to hear about?"

"Probably not." Another weak shrug. "You don't like any of this, kir sa tye?" Even he had, in fact, noticed that.

"I…" Daniel hesitated. No, he didn't. Though it wasn't the weird itself he had an issue with. It was just him being left out of the weird. The weird leaving him behind, taking away his… "…Nothing you want to hear about."

Probably not. Pidge stared at him quietly. He was supposed to say something helpful here, wasn't he? With Daniel he'd even managed that once, a small victory he had no idea how to replicate…

What finally came out of his mouth was, "I don't know why the hells it's like this."

Daniel tilted his head. "Like what?"

"Why I have…" The words wouldn't come. They probably wouldn't help anyway.

"It is still only beginning."

He startled, eyes glowing faintly. Hells is that supposed to mean? But Green said nothing else, and he shook his head in frustration. None of this was any use to his teammate, he was sure. "I should go."

But Daniel was actually curious now, despite himself. So he shook his head too. "What?"

"Well I'm apparently supposed to be the 'Paladin of Loyalty' when I can still barely have a human conversation with my team half the time." That had not been what he was grasping for, but the frustration was out and he rolled with it. "I don't know what I'm doing when I don't have orders to follow. I don't know why I have a lion and you don't, I'm not even a pilot. None of this is… logical."

Was that supposed to help?

It had happened at about the word pilot. Daniel was frozen. His stomach was twisting, his mouth was open but words weren't coming out, and yet he felt eerily calm. He was going to lose his shit. He knew he was going to lose his shit. Losing his shit at the ninja would be, what was the word? Suboptimal.

I don't think that helped. Pidge took a step back, feeling his hand going for his knife, and made a conscious effort to pull it back.

Then Daniel turned and ran for it. And Pidge, who'd been only half a step from doing the same thing, suddenly understood him more than ever.

"Mijtairra."

*****

Sven was trying to be proactive. If he was going to be staying on Arus—and at least in the short term, they were clearly not going anywhere—he should begin to acquire a working knowledge of the Arusian language. The librarian seemed like the place to start.

"Thank you for helping me," he said as he followed Captain Sarial through the tunnels. He was impressed by their intricacy; the last time he'd been here had apparently only been a transportation tunnel. The shelters may have been nearly forgotten before the Drules came, but whoever had originally designed them had done a thorough job of it.

"I'm glad to be of help." That was certainly true. The offworlders remained the most interesting thing to happen to Arus in a long time—and far more agreeable than the interesting thing that had preceded them.

Sven smiled back, taking note as they rounded a particularly craggy bit of the tunnel wall. "Who or what are we looking for again?"

"Books, in theory. Though Lady Hys is currently in possession of the books." He didn't visibly react, so clearly he hadn't met her. "She's the royal governess and castle… chief of staff, I think you would say?"

"Ah. Sounds like quite a woman." Was this going to be that lady Lance couldn't charm?

Sarial was able to mostly keep her expression in check. "She is formidable."

…Oh dear. Wonderful. Sven began mentally prepping his best diplomatic mask. And suddenly he was very aware of Blue Lion's presence, though she didn't actually say anything… he was reminded of Allura's description earlier.

Is that you settling in to watch? Do you need popcorn?

"I don't know what you mean, Icehunter. …And what is popcorn?"

No. No, he would not be explaining popcorn to a giant sentient cat ship. Not today.

Glancing back, Sarial noted his expression and grimaced. Maybe she had been a little uncharitable. "She's very proud, but she does and means well for our people." Proper courtly sensibilities and militia sensibilities simply did not mesh. "We're almost there."

That still sounded like he needed the diplomatic mask. "Good."

Sure enough, a couple of quick turns brought them to a small side chamber. Sarial knocked on a wooden panel, then stepped into the entryway; there wasn't exactly a door. "Lady Hys, we…" She trailed off and blinked as her eyes went from the startled governess to her student.

Since her last lesson—and punishment—had been interrupted, Larmina had the Arusian dictionary on her head again. Nanny had been quizzing her on Common, so the Captain's arrival was helpful in more than one respect; what in the five hells was an irregardless? She shot Sarial her best save me look and hoped the militia had something for her to do.

Nanny wasn't nearly so happy with their visitor. "Ach, Captain, we are busy!"

Sven didn't understand whatever had just been said, but he understood the shrill tone and poked his head around the corner. "I'm sorry, Lady Hys. It's my fault. I was hoping to learn some Arusian." Her eyebrows shot up as a broad grin split Larmina's face, and he retreated into his most formal and endearing smile. "I'm sorry, where are my manners? I'm Sven Holgersson, one of the Earthlings who arrived recently."

As if she couldn't have gathered that much on her own. "A pleasure, Mr. Holgersson." Clearly she had been robbed of introducing herself properly, but it was a recoverable faux pas, she supposed.

Less recoverable was Sarial walking into the room, clearly exasperated. "Lady Hys, I'm sure you know Lady Larmina is an important asset to the militia. We require her to be in good physical condition, and I'm certain the strain you're putting on her neck muscles now has some worthy purpose, but…" She'd had the decency to keep that lecture to Arusian; retrieving the dictionary from Larmina's head, she switched to Common. "Also, we will need this."

Nanny sputtered. Sarial had no authority to overrule her on the matter of Larmina—then again, Nanny had no authority to overrule the Captain regarding the militia. It was a complication. Then she looked back at the Earthling, who had a look of earnest sincerity on his face. "Of… of course." She curtsied. "I would welcome some of our visitors wishing to be educated. In fact, you're welcome to join our lesson right now, if you wish; Lady Larmina is advanced enough for us to hold instruction in Common."

"I would love to." Giving a small bow—maybe more just a little lean in—Sven gestured to the dictionary. "Forgive me, though. Is that some sort of Arusian teaching technique? How does it aid in the learning of language?" He was very careful not to let any of the sarcasm in his head slip into his curious tone. This was something he had experience with… and this woman was a type he'd encountered before. Oh yes she was.

Larmina bit back a snicker; Blue was not hiding her amusement at all. His vision went blue for an instant as well, but it seemed to go unnoticed. Maybe Arusians didn't find that unusual, he mused, thinking about Allura's healing again.

Or maybe they were just focused on other things. Like his very polite questions!

"…The young Lady requires training in her posture," Nanny huffed, "as well as your language. I assure you, you needn't go through similar lessons. Though if you would like to, we have many other heavy books." She, too, managed to keep her voice devoid of sarcasm. Sarcasm was improper. A bit of pity, though, was surely appropriate.

"I'd rather not, but if you think it's necessary I'll gladly do it." Sven didn't like her, and found himself wishing Jace were here… for the obvious reasons, and now also the comedic value. He pushed it aside. "I had to go through similar lessons as a child."

Spoons had not, in fact, been the only thing he'd learned about at finishing school.

"Hmm." Lady Hys walked over and paced around him, sizing him up with a critical eye. His posture was flawless. "Perhaps you do have some hope."

He was very glad when she backed off; he'd felt very much like a piece of meat. Though he was definitely going to rub that you have hope in Lance's face at some point.

For now, he looked up as Sarial approached, still carrying the dictionary. "I should be going." She lowered her voice to a whisper, a small smile tugging at her lips. "I see you'll be able to handle her."

Oh, would he. Sven smiled. "Thank you for escorting me, Captain."

She nodded. "I'll entrust Larmina with escorting you back out when you're finished… with Lady Hys' permission, of course."

Nanny huffed again; that was precisely the sort of thing she couldn't actually overrule. "Very well, LADY Larmina may do so."

As Sarial left, Larmina lost her grip on what sliver of discipline she'd been holding onto. "Nanny, this is Earthling I told you about!"

…What. Jaw working soundlessly, the governess looked from Sven to Larmina and back again.

One of his eyebrows had shot up. "Oh? What have you been telling her about me?" He had a pretty strong suspicion.

Sure enough, she smiled brightly, and decided to take a shot at impressing him. "You're a very good teacher."

Nanny's eyes narrowed. Had Lady Larmina just used the indefinite article correctly? In these of all circumstances? Of course she had. Oh, Honored Mother. And now she'd been roped into teaching this Earthling as well, and the Princess would be very displeased if she failed in her assumed duties…

"Thank you, Miss Lar—I'm sorry, Lady Larmina." Sven's gracious tone had not wavered yet. "I do aim to be at least very good in everything I do." Cursing damn well included.

And there was the disapproving purr, though it was a little less convincing when accompanied by the robot lion equivalent of a snicker.

That was enough of that, Nanny decided. "Well, have a seat, Mr. Holgersson. We are working on vocabulary today."

The seats in the makeshift classroom were simple wooden stools; he sat next to Larmina. "Yes ma'am."

"Our next word will be hooligan."

Really? Somehow even after Lance's report, he hadn't been ready to hear that word, and especially not in Lady Hys' haughty tone. "I haven't heard that term in years," he commented innocently. Just trying to help, like a good offworlder. "It's quite outdated within modern Common English. 'Delinquent' or 'troublemaker' would be more up to date terms."

Nanny's eyes bugged out as Larmina desperately tried—without much success—to stifle her laughter. "All very useful words, Mr. Holgersson, YES."

Should he twist the knife? Of course he should twist the knife. Keith had told him their civilian ruse was done for, so there was no reason not to…

"And you wondered why I named you as I did."

His raised eyebrow at Blue's comment had the side effect of making him look all that much more earnest when he spoke. "Actually, I'm sorry to correct you, Lady Hys. But my proper title is Lieutenant Holgersson."

He wasn't sorry.

Nanny made a noise that was not unlike a mortally wounded roli. "Of course. Lieutenant Holgersson. My apologies." She cleared her throat loudly, trying to drown out Larmina's hysterical giggling. "NOW. Hooligan, delinquent, troublemaker: all acceptable translations for 'hapcyn'." As is Lieutenant Holgersson, clearly. "Perhaps our guest would demonstrate its use in a proper sentence for us?"

"Of course," Sven agreed, clearing his own throat slightly for effect. "The Earthling hoped that his small corrections of his host's Common did not make him seem like too much of a troublemaker."

As Blue purred with laughter in his mind, he glanced over at Larmina—who was doing a very poor job of hiding her own amusement—and flashed her a quick smile. She returned it as best she could without completely bursting into giggles again. No need for them both to end up with books on their heads.

Some of these offworlders really weren't so bad after all.

*****

Daniel ran for a long time with no clear destination. His mind was too preoccupied with Pidge and his stupid—

I don’t know why I have a lion and you don’t. I’m not even a pilot.

The implication being that Daniel should have a lion because he was a pilot. But he wasn’t, not really. It was his dream job, sure. What he'd primarily been trained for, yes. But the Alliance hadn't wanted him as a standard pilot, or needed him to pilot for an Explorer Team. Lance didn’t think he was trained enough. Now even some sentient magical robot cat was telling him he wasn’t good enough.

No, that wasn’t right. Five sentient robot cats were telling him he wasn’t good enough. Though with Keith and Lance he understood, hell, he even kinda got them choosing Sven, but Hunk and Pidge? So not only was he not good enough compared to the teammates who were pilots, he was a worse option than the two who openly admitted that they weren't.

Rage continued to build up inside him, and running wasn’t helping. And if it wasn’t helping why the fuck was he still doing it? He came to a stop and looked around for some sort of distraction to make his brain shut up. There was a small stream, a fairly large tree, and a shit-ton of grass around him; none of it was distraction worthy. Daniel supposed in a different frame of mind, he might have found it serene.

Now it was just infuriating.

He hadn't even wanted a fucking lion! He’d been so focused on how he was going to lose his little make-shift military family that it hadn’t occurred to him that he was being denied something. Something that he had wanted since before he could remember. It wasn’t fair—of course it wasn't, when had his life ever been fair?

But he really didn’t want to be part of this magical bullshit. Did he? His first choice would be that none of them were a part of it, but that obviously wasn’t going to happen. They were all connected to it except him. Even Vince had something. Apparently he was the one team member unworthy of such crap.

Didn’t that just fit?

He wanted to go home. But he couldn't very well do that without an actual home to go back to… and it was becoming more and more clear to him that he didn't have one.

Looking around again, Daniel’s eyes were unconsciously drawn to the traces of smoke from the volcano far in the distance. The fucking volcano. He could imagine lava bubbling beneath the ground, waiting to burst through the surface and burn everything. Burning everything sounded great to him. Rage and adrenaline collided into one another, and Daniel erupted.

Screaming, he lashed out at the closest thing to him, which happened to be the tree. Small pieces of bark began flying as he struck the tree’s trunk over and over with all his strength until his anger slowly began to subside.

Slipping to his knees, breathing hard, he gave a humorless laugh. This was great. Perfect even. That had been by far one of his most spectacular outbursts. He was exhausted, his hands hurt, he was drenched in sweat, he was 70% sure that some of the salty liquid on his face were tears, the tree was bleeding—

—Wait, what?

Narrowing his eyes, he looked up and analyzed the damage. It certainly looked like it was bleeding, but examining it a little closer he realized it was actually his own blood on the trunk. Fuck. His adrenaline and anger fading seemed to back that up, because he was becoming excruciatingly aware that Arusian casts weren’t made to be repeatedly smashed against hard surfaces.

He groaned; he'd almost certainly made his slowly healing fracture worse again, and may or may not have added a few broken fingers to the mix. Both of his hands were bleeding, they probably needed stitches. Snorting, he turned to lean back against the tree. Absolutely fucking perfect. That it had taken a matter of days to fuck up the arm he'd promised to let heal was just insult to literal injury at this point.

Tears started welling up again, and he squeezed his eyes shut to force them back. As he pressed his back against the bloodstained tree bark, he felt a grim chuckle in his throat that turned into a ragged sob. It all just figured, didn't it?

Fuck.

*****

Lance was making progress, but not as quickly as he would have expected. Every step seemed to take twice the effort of the one before. By now he was moving even slower than the little purple mouse that had decided to join him; whenever it got too far ahead, it would turn around and start squeaking. Was it supposed to be encouragement? Lance wasn't sure, but he probably appreciated it. He turned his head away from the windows—he kept staring at them, how could he not?—and looked down at the mouse.

"Spork, right?"

Squeak.

He nodded and looked back at the windows. "That's magma…" He slowed to a stop, just staring again. After a beat he felt a nudge of a tiny rodent head against his leg; he looked down. "I've been running toward this for days. Why am I slowing down now?"

"You know the answer," the lion said in his mind.

Lance took a breath, feeling echoes of the metal beneath his fingertips. "The Princess called you Red."

"Hmm, yes. That is one of my names."

"One? How many names do you have?"

"At least two. Do you not, cub?"

Flyboy flew through his mind again, and he'd been called it a million times by a million different people, but it was only one voice that mattered. One person who had meant something by it, someone that made Lance feel special.

"Names are power, cub."

Cub. He hesitated. "Yet you've never used mine."

"That is so… but perhaps I'm waiting."

What does that mean? Lance looked behind him and startled at just how far he'd walked, much further than he'd realized. He looked ahead. There was no end in sight; his legs and arms felt heavy and his heart felt…

"I'm not doubting this."

"No," Red said.

"I'm just…"

"Your impulsiveness charged you ahead this far. But now is the time to truly face the weight of the questions."

"Questions?"

"When we meet. You will know them as I speak them."

Lance tried to puzzle that out, and found himself fighting a yawn. He couldn't be tired now. He'd driven himself so hard to get here, he couldn't stop now!

Yet he was fading.

"Perhaps your mind and body do need rest first, cub."

He did not need rest. He needed to reach this lion. He needed the answers, or the questions, or… with his next step he nearly stumbled, and growled in frustration.

Warmth curled around him. The tunnels seemed to go forever, and the glow of the magma was strangely comforting. He sank slowly to his knees, breathing it all in.

Just a little further.

Could he really meet the Lion of Flame in this state? Did he dare? His mind was fuzzy, his body was on the edge, and his heart was pounding in his throat. Whatever the hell he was approaching, he had to be ready.

Maybe just a short rest.

He nodded at that and pulled off his jacket, settling it behind him like a pillow as he leaned against the tunnel wall, facing the magma through the windows. Feeling the awe—that what looked like only a thin pane of glass was between him and the magma that flowed beneath the surface of Arus. It was bigger than his brain could compute, all of this was. He'd been too busy racing towards it to really think about it. No wonder he felt so stunned as it began to sink in…

Exhaling slowly, he noticed Spork was still by his feet, and grinned. "Wanna stay with me?" He swore the mouse nodded. "Alright… think I could use the company."

Spork ran up onto his lap with a squeak.

Shaking his head a bit, he patted the mouse's soft fur and told himself he just needed a few minutes. But soon the exhaustion from lifting rocks, from going full bore all this time, and most of all from the shock and the scope of everything wrapped around him.

With the magma's warm glow surrounding him, Lance fell asleep.