"Hey, what are your guys doing here?" Lance called into the large, warehouse-like building. He had convinced Pap'ya and Gha to let him see the quintessence experiment building only to find that Gerein, Hunk, and Pidge had beaten him there.

"Taking a look at what we're working with directly," Pidge said, "Hunk needed a hands on look and I was curious, so here we are."

"We haven't completely started up the experiment again, so it should be safe enough. Its prepped, but unless someone turns it on, nothing should happen."

"I love when they speak in absolutes," Pidge said rolling her eyes.

Hunk had removed the front panel of the main console and had his head completely inside.

"Hunk looks like he's enjoying himself," Shiro said.

"Understatement of the year," Pidge said, "he's been in there for the last thirty minutes-"

"OOOOOOOOO!"

"-And he occasionally does that."

"Is he…pleased with what he is seeing?" Gha asked, not sure what Hunks noises meant.

"Oh yeah," they all assured him, "your good, he's happy."

"you are the leader, yes?" Gerein asked Shiro.

"Yeah, um, yes, yes I am."

"I would like to speak to you if you don't mind."

He beckoned Shiro to the back of the room, out of hearing of the others. Shiro caught Keiths eye and motioned for him to follow as well. He was still shaky in this new leadership position; he'd feel better if Keith were present in whatever needed to be said.

"so are you guys having as much fun as you thought?" Lance asked.

"Oh yes," Pidge glowered, "so much fun we could explode."

"what does that mean," Pap'ya asked, "are you in danger?"

"I hate you," Pidge hissed at Lance who had started to snicker. Hunk took his head out finally and got to his feet.

"This is so simple and yet they've connected everything in a way that I'd never considered before! I mean, we never considered it because it should be impossible; it goes against everything we're taught in basics, but knowing what its being used for and how it will interact, this…this is just…"

"Beautiful?"

"Fantasic?"

"art?"

"mightier than the sword?"

"magnanamuos."

"I'm impressed."

"Thank you."

Hunk sighed and hook his arms around his best friends, "this is gonna be-"

The explosion was so sudden that no one had time to even flinch. One second everything was normal, the next, they were on the ground.

()

Lance stared at the ceiling, positive that we was dead. He felt light headed…in fact, he just felt light in general. He was cool and his skin wasn't tingling.

He had to dead.

Then he heard Hunk scream. Hunks screams were something Lance was familiar with, and it hurt his ears. Pain = not dead.

"Why is my body over there!" Hunk screamed, then he looked down at himself and just stared in horror.

"Are you guys ok?" Shiro was coughing as he made his way over to them. Gerein saw to his own people who were fine and had only been knocked back a ways.

Lance sat up, the same light feeling making him dizzy. Looking down he couldn't quite make sense of what he was seeing. So he reached up and patted his chest.

"DON'T DO THAT!"

He jumped to see Hunk almost in tears.

"What?"

"who are you?"

"I'm Lance," Lance said and frowned. His voice sounded really off. He turned his head and saw his body curled up on the floor.

"Oh, so I am dead…pain can be felt as a spirit, noted."

"No, you idiot!" Hunk snapped, "I'm Pidge! You're in my body, so that means Hunks in yours!"

"Oh boy," Shiro muttered while Keith just gapped. It was the oddest thing. The machine was undamaged, yet there had been an explosion. Where had it come from?

"Hunk?" Lance shook his head, trying to clear it, "Hunk is in my body?"

"I think," Pidge said looking down at herself again, "this is really weird…"

"Can we reverse it? Like now?"

"I don't-"

"Nonononono," Lance crawled over to his body and ripped off the helmet. Hunk was gasping for air and shaking.

"What is…this?" he croaked looking up at Lance (as Pidge), "I thought you said…you just felt…a little warmer than…usual."

"Yea, well," Lance squeeked, "I got used to the pain after a while."

"What pain?" Shiro, Pidge, and Keith asked at the same time. Hunk tried to sit up, but was shaking too badly. Lance held him down.

"If you get up, you'll start heaving."

"B-but," Hunk gasped, "I'm on fire! Everything is…"

"-burning and stabbing," Lance nodded, "but it shouldn't get worse than that."

"…and breaking."

Lance stopped, "breaking?"

Hunk nodded and curled up tighter. Lance felt his head and noted a slight rise in temperature.

"Mother-"

"Lance, what's going on?"

"Pidge, you need to find out how we can get back to our bodies, STAT," Lance snapped standing up and grabbing onto Shiro for support, "holy crow you are so short its throwing me off."

"shut up!"

He walked over to Gerein.

"I knew we should have stayed in the lab…"

"Gerein," Lance said snapping his fingers, "I need you to tell me how much quintessence was inside that machine."

"Not even half a vile," Gerein said after some thought, "we were still working on a proper container and we hadn't taken out the quintessence that we had left over from the last time."

"So the quintessence corroded through the inferior material and reacted to Lances presence," Pidge said, appearing behind Lance in all her Hunky glory, "and you guys are much too big for your own good."

"So this truly is-"

"-not your fault," Lance cut in, "if it was really less than half a vile, then we're good. Everything will be fine."

"What do you mean 'fine'?!" Keith snapped, "Hunk is in a lot of pain!"

"Yeah, but he wont shut down," Lance said trying to make it sound like good news, "when a lot of quintessence is added, my body tends to…ah…shut down and that's a worse alternative, trust me."

()

"I see the 'sight and sound' rule must be adjusted," Farrah said as Lance handed him some water to give to Hunk. GG had gotten there with the sleeping pills and was crushing one up. Normally if he didn't absorb enough quintessence to cause a full blown episode, then he just slept the effects off.

"The universe itself can't stop crap from happening, Farrah," Lance said, "If crap wants to happen, it shall."

"Lance?"

"You'll be fine big guy," Lance said grinning at him, wondering how his face looked with Pidges, "I'm really sorry about this."

"N-no more secrets?"

"…one more…"

How Hunk, in that much pain, was still able to pull of a disgruntled 'I'm disappointed in you' look – and with HIS face to boot! – Lance would never know.

Once Hunk was out, GG had had a hard time getting him to drink it all but down in all went, Lance walked over to Pidge.

"how is everything going over here?"

"Hunk is an effing miracle," Pidge growled, "I've seen him work and build stuff and I can't figure out how he manages to have such a light touch when I feel like I'm breaking everything just by looking at it!"

"Breathe," Lance patter her back, "you got this…"

Pidge whipped around and glared at him, "scram and let me work!"

"Yes sir…ma'am…" Lance just left before he could say anything to piss her off more.