Pidge was in her room, tinkering by feel with a small winch. Hunk had found it in the hold, and it was somehow stuck. Pidge had begged it off of him, finally getting her wish as there wasn't any potentially electrical parts to stick a screwdriver into and electrocute herself.

Feeling around on of the gears, Pidge's fingers encountered something poking out that she was pretty sure wasn't supposed to be there. Further investigation found her guess to be right, so she picked the object out.

Pidge felt around beside her until she found a bit of rope. She wound it into place, then gave a tug. To her delight, there was no resistance as she pulled the rope through the winch.

Pidge grinned as she stood. Wait until the others saw this!

A crackling from above gave Pidge pause. She cocked her head in that direction. It sounded like it had come from the intercom, but there was no follow-up. Shrugging, Pidge started for the door again, when there was a crash and following scream from the hall.

"Coran!?" came Lance's voice.

Pidge opened the door and switched on her EVOR. A quick check of the hall found the blurry form of Lance standing up.

"Lance, did you seriously just run into a wall?" Pidge asked in disbelief.

Lance spluttered for a bit, arms gesturing wildly for a moment before he answered, "Isn't it obvious?!"

"I'm gonna take that as a yes?"

"Pidge," Lance wailed. "The lights are all out! I can't see a thing."

"What a shame," Pidge dead-panned.

Pidge was able to pin-point the exact moment Lance remembered her blindness. He abruptly stopped moving long enough for his shape to take proper form.

Pidge expected him to start spouting apologies like the others always did when they forgot, but instead, he stumbled over in her direction. Arms out, he hit the wall a couple feet to Pidge's left.

"I'm over here," Pidge offered.

Lance felt his way to Pidge, found her shoulders, then pulled her into the hall so he stood behind her with his hands still on her shoulders.

"Onward," Lance proclaimed.

"What?"

"You know the way to the bridge from here, right? Of course, you do. I need to get there to properly complain to Coran. I think the coms are down."

Pidge snickered, feeling indulgent. "Okay, Lance, just hang on."

"Then, mush!"

"Don't tempt your seeing-eye 'dog' to bite you," Pidge said with a little growl.

"Um… please?" Lance amended.

Pacified, Pidge led the blue paladin through the halls. As they passed near the kitchen, there was a scrambling sound inside. Pidge paused, making Lance bump into her.

"We're in a dark, scary place," Lance whispered. "We don't investigate strange noises."

"Hey!"

Despite the voice from the kitchen being Hunk's, Lance must have jumped a foot in the air. He released Pidge's shoulders and tried to dart away.

Predictably, he hit another wall. He managed to stay upright this time, though he was wobbling around quite a bit.

"Lance, how many dents do you plan on leaving in the Castle walls before this is done?" Pidge asked.

"Lance, Pidge, is that you?" Hunk appeared in the doorway, keeping a hand on either side of the frame. "I lost power in the kitchen."
"It's the same all the way to our rooms as well," Pidge said. "I'm taking Lance to the bridge."

"You could have worded it differently," Lance muttered nasally.

"You okay, Lance?" Hunk asked.

"He keeps getting spooked and running into walls," Pidge supplied before Lance could come up with some sort of tale of bravado.

"That could have been worded better as well," Lance complained.

"Hey, don't make me leave you here," Pidge threatened.

"That sounds like a good idea," Hunk said, before realizing how that sounded when Lance gave a protesting exclamation. "I mean, going to the bridge. I'm not sure if we have anything like flashlights around here, besides on our armor."

There was the sound of a face-palm, then Lance said, "I should've grabbed mine from my room before we left."

"Maybe Coran has something we can use," Hunk said. "Mind if I tag along with you guys?"

"Sure, take my shoulders," Lance said.

"Your shoulders?"

Pidge walked over to Lance and guided his hands to their former position as she answered, "It works pretty well."

Pidge led Lance over to Hunk, then Hunk took his shoulders. Then, the march resumed.

The trio reached the bridge without incident or encountering any other paladins. As they entered the bridge, Pidge could make out Allura, Coran, and Shiro turning to them.

"Yes, you have light!" Lance exclaimed.

Lance let go of Pidge and started to run past her, only to jerk to a stop with a startled yelp.

"Hunk, you can let go now," Lance said.

"Oh, sorry."

Lance resumed dashing past and up to Coran.

"Pidge, did you bring Lance and Hunk here?" Shiro asked, amusement in his voice.

"Yeah, well, not all of us can see in the dark," Pidge said.

"Coran, what's up with the lights," Lance's loud complaint cut in.

"Just a minor malfunction," Coran assured the teen. "I just have to head down to the engine room, and I'll have it fixed in two shakes of a Baku tail."

"We were just getting ready to search for the rest of you as well," Allura said. "Turning the power back on could have some… unintended consequences. When Altaen technology loses power abruptly, they can go out of control briefly while the systems reset."

"How out of control?" Pidge asked.

"Remember when the Castle was infected?" Allura asked. "Like that, but all at once, all over the Castle."

"Unless we want to go floating about, we'll have to be hanging on until our artificial gravity is back on," Coran said cheerfully.

"Do any of you know where Keith is?" Shiro asked.

"Training deck, probably," Hunk said.

"No, I just came from there," Shiro said.

Lance gave dramatic gasp. "You mean to tell me that Keith uses his free time for other things besides training?"

"Some other time, Lance," Shiro said. "Does anyone else know where he is?"

There was a round of "no"s from the others.

"We'd better find him before I fix the power," Coran said. "Wouldn't want him to be caught behind one of our electrical locking doors, or in one of the labs."

"Or the kitchen," Hunk said, drawing odd looks. "What? Do you know how traumatizing that experience was? Being attacked by food."

"I do have to agree," Pidge said.

"Try almost being sucked out of an airlock," Lance said, unimpressed.

"This isn't a competition," Shiro said. "Coran, how many flashlights do you have? And do you have some sort of communicator that doesn't depend on the Castle."

"Plenty of flashlights, and we do have Miniature Mobile Communicators - MM coms," Coran said.

Coran ducked behind his console and, after a moment of shuffling, reappeared with his arms full of tools he had pulled from who knew where.

Lance said, "Those look like walkie-talkies."

"And that sounds like made up words. I mean, really, what sort of name is walkie-talkies?"

"You can walk and talk with them," Lance said. "Besides, your name sounds like candy."

"It's still rather silly," Coran muttered as he handed out the lights and MM coms.

"Let's split up to search for Keith," Shiro said as he accepted the tools. "I doubt he went far. Coran and I can check the engine rooms."

"The mice and I will check the Crystal chamber," Allura said.

"I'll search the rooms," Lance said.

"I'll do check the lounge, then Lance and I can check the hold, if no one has found Keith yet," Hunk said.

"I search the hangers," Pidge said.

"Are you sure?" Shiro asked.

"Shiro," Pidge said dramatically. "I have an advantage over you all in this situation."

"Oh… right. Just-"

"Be careful, I know," Pidge said. She held a hand out to Coran. "Hand over a candy communicator."

Coran sputtered in offense, but gave her a com.

"Everyone ready?" Shiro asked. "Okay, let's go find him."

Pidge headed from the bridge, listening to the calls of the others fade away. She was glad when the only sounds she could hear were from herself. Given her disadvantage, the only way she would be able to discover Keith was by ear.

Pidge headed quietly down the the halls, alert for any sound, but didn't notice anything out of the ordinary.

Red was laying in her hanger, forelegs crossed in front of her. There was no sign of Keith, but there was a table knocked over, tools scattered across the floor.

Pidge cocked her head. Red's position was a somewhat familiar one to her, as the lions usually laid like that when penning in their paladins. And if the mess was any further indication…

"Keith?" Pidge tried.

"Pidge, is that you?" Keith's voice responded.

Pidge laughed. "Yeah. Everyone's looking for you."

"Does it have to do with the lights going out?"

"Yes. Coran going to fix it, but the systems are going to go haywire briefly. We're all going to wait on the bridge until it calms down."

"Great, sounds like a plan. You know, if my lion wasn't holding me captive!"

Pidge barely managed to hold back a laugh. "What happened?"

"Red and I were just getting back from a flight when the lights went out. I don't have my armor with me, so I didn't have any light. I thought I could get back to the bridge but Red won't let me out," Keith explained.

"How many things did you knock over?"

"Not that much," Keith muttered. "Just a table… and I ran into a crate."

Now Pidge did laugh. "Well, I don't blame Red."

"Stop laughing, and just get me out already!"

"Did you try climbing over her paw?"

"Don't you think that would be the first thing I would try? Watch."

There was a bit of scuffling, then Red rumbled and tipped her head down between her paws. Keith gave a yelp, followed by a thud. Red rumbled again and separated her paws, revealing Keith sprawled on the ground. Red then stretched out a paw and laid it beside Pidge.

"I think she is entrusting me to your care," Keith said drily, staring up at Red's jaw. Abruptly, he sat up and exclaimed, "You could have done that sooner!"

"What?" Pidge asked as she got closer.

"Her eyes are glowing enough for me to see now," Keith grumped, standing.

"Well, it's still dark in the rest of the Castle," Pidge pointed out.

"Yeah, yeah." Keith looked Pidge up and down. "So… did you bring a flashlight or something for me?"

Pidge smacked a palm to her face. "Oh, I knew I had forgotten something!"

"Brilliant." Red started to move her paw, so Keith ran out of reach. "Any other ideas?"

"It's not rocket science," Pidge said with a laugh. She walked over to Keith and held out her hand. "I can lead you there."

Keith reached out and gripped Pidge's hand. "Not too fast, right?"

"Says the pilot of the fastest lion," Pidge kidded. But Keith had sounded genuinely uncertain, so Pidge nodded. "Okay, we'll go slow." She turned her head to Red, who was slowly returning to her normal position. "Don't worry. I'll take care of your paladin."

Pidge and Keith left the hanger, Red's purr echoing after them.