Hello everyone, here's the next chapter! And also, happy new year! Hopefully it will be a good one for all of you. That said, thanks for sticking with my fics, especially those of you who have taken the extra time to comment or review during this past year! You're the best!

Until next time!

flicker

chapter four

down into the dark

"Wait, so let me get this straight," Adam began, "-you fought off a pair of Galra sentries with just a knife?"

Keith just shrugged. "Pretty much."

Adam stared at him. He didn't know what else to do. He didn't see any reason why Keith would lie to him, and he'd come back with proof. The Galran blaster was pretty hard to deny.

He knew Keith carried a knife with him, but he didn't think much of it. He lived in the middle of the desert, where there could be dangerous wildlife, so a knife gave him something to defend himself with. It wasn't that unexpected.

What was unexpected was that said knife was capable of taking out sentries. He'd never dealt with them himself before, only heard about them from Sam, but they had to have been built tough. He was willing to believe that the Garrison might have some heavy equipment capable of taking them out, but a knife?

A knife being wielded by a nineteen year old kid, no less.

Heaving a long sigh, Adam ran a hand through his hair. You know what? Fine. As long as it had enabled Keith to protect himself, he wouldn't question it. Circumstance might have thrown them together, but at the end of the day, it didn't change the fact that they were complete strangers. He couldn't just expect Keith to volunteer information about himself at the drop of a hat.

Besides, he'd already come to understand that Keith was a little weird. It was pretty hard to miss the glowing eyes. The week they had spent together had proved that they were anything but his imagination.

Dropping his hand, Adam gave Keith a worried look. "So you're sure you're not hurt?"

Keith shook his head. "I'm fine."

Okay. He doubted Keith would let him check, and he hoped he wasn't so stupid that he'd try to hide any potential major injuries. He'd just have to believe that.

"Okay, good to know." Adam said. "Now what's this about the blue lion?"

He swore Keith looked grateful for the change of topic. "It was hidden on Earth, right?"

Adam nodded. "That's what I heard from Sam."

"I think I found where." Keith told him.

"But so did the Galra." Adam observed, leaning back into the couch, mulling it over. "You don't think they could use this... magic circle to track it, do you?"

It probably wasn't actually a magic circle. Sam acted like the Alteans had magic- or alchemy, as he'd called it, but he found that hard to believe. Aliens, sure, but magic? He wasn't willing to suspend his disbelief that far.

Keith shook his head. "I don't think so. I think they wanted to, but..."

"But they couldn't." Adam finished, heaving a sigh. "That's good. But I'm also guessing that the underground spring is probably off limits now."

Keith nodded, chewing on his lip. "Yeah. Sorry."

"Don't apologize." Adam told him. "You couldn't have predicted this. Unless you want to tell me that you're actually psychic."

Keith cracked a faint smile. "If I were, don't you think I would have known they were coming ahead of time? That was the scariest moment of my life, no contest."

Adam just snorted. "Good point. I'm just glad you managed to get out of there."

Keith's smile faded, his gaze dropping to the floor. For a moment, he wondered if he'd maybe said the wrong thing. Being able to take out two Galra sentries was impressive, no doubt about it, but it had to have also been terrifying. He couldn't let himself forget that Keith was just barely an adult.

Nineteen. Still a kid in his eyes, basically.

"I might be able to find another water source," Keith finally began, "-but I don't know how long that'll take, or if it'll even be half as pure as that spring. I think the blue lion was probably what was keeping the water so clear."

"Could be." Adam said. "I don't exactly know that much about the lions, but that sounds plausible enough considering we're talking about supposedly magical space robots."

He didn't know if it actually did, but again- it wouldn't be the weirdest thing he'd dealt with this week. Not even close.

Keith glanced up at him, and he swore that he'd snorted underneath his breath. "So... you said you had found a way to contact the Garrison?"

Oh. Right. Keith's story had almost caused him to forget.

"Maybe," Adam stressed, fumbling for the book he had found earlier, "-maybe I've found a way. Just don't get your hopes up."

Keith just nodded, silently watching as Adam produced the book he had been looking for. It wasn't the book he was interested in, so much as it was the paper inside of it. Pulling it out, he paused for a moment, staring at the blaster still on the table. Seeming to realize that it was in the way, Keith hurriedly moved it aside, leaning it against the wall instead.

He wasn't sure that was proper weapons handling, but they could figure out what to do with the thing later. Keith was right, it was probably better to have it than to not.

"I was going through some of your dad's old books when I found this." Adam began, carefully unfolding the paper and spreading it over the table. "It's a map of the area."

Keith frowned, crouching in front of the map, staring at it with interest. With a pang, it reminded him of the time he had spent after class at the Garrison, giving those students that needed it a bit of extra help- and that those days were now long over. Even if they could chase out the Galra, the process of rebuilding would take years, if not decades.

He brushed the thought aside, instead tapping a location on the map, marked helpfully in red. "This is us."

Moving his finger, he tapped another location, a short distance away, also marked, this time in orange pen. Clearly, Keith's father had believed in color coding. "And this is one of the Garrison's old supply depots."

Keith looked up. "Do they still use it?"

"It's mostly used for overflow." Adam told him. He left out the part where the Garrison actually had a lot of that. "What's important is the fact that underneath the depot are tracks leftover from the third world war. Tracks that lead straight to the Garrison."

Keith's brow furrowed, staring back at the map. "That's a pretty big distance between us and the depot, though. It might just be faster to go straight to the Garrison."

Adam just grinned. "Thankfully, your old man was pretty thorough. There's an entrance to the underground tunnel system just a quarter mile out from where we are. If you use that, you should be able to approach the Garrison undetected by the Galra."

He didn't know why Keith's father had this map, or why he had so much of the tunnel system mapped out on it, but right now, he didn't care. He was just grateful.

It wasn't like it was impossible for the general public to get this information. They weren't exactly encouraged to go into the tunnels, seeing how easy it was to get lost, but it was there, and it was accessible. Having such a specific map of them was a bit weird, though.

"So... we could use these tunnels to get to the Garrison." Keith said.

"Exactly." Adam told him. "The only downside is that we'd have to walk there. I know the access points to the tunnels pretty well, and I'm pretty sure this one is basically just a narrow staircase."

"In other words, we can't get the hoverbike through." Keith frowned.

"Not unless it can shrink." Adam joked.

Keith just stared up at him blankly. "I don't... think so?"

Meeting his eyes, Adam cleared his throat. Right. Keith could be a bit literal at times. Still, nothing stung more than your joke falling so flat that the person you were telling it to didn't even recognize it as a joke. Now he knew how Takashi felt.

"So... I guess we wait for your leg to heal." Keith said.

"We might not have to." Adam told him. "How good are you at reading maps?"

Keith frowned, considering it. "Not terrible?"

"Good." Adam told him. "Because I think I should be able to draw you a map of the tunnels using this. All you would have to do is follow it."

Keith studied the map again. "Yeah, I think can manage that."

"Then it's settled." Adam said. "Once you get to the Garrison, there should be an access point you can use to get into the base. I can give you my code, so you'll be able to get in."

At least, he hoped. With all the chaos of the past week, he was pretty much counting on them having not purged his access code from the system yet. He was pretty confident that the Garrison thought he was dead- not that he could blame them.

Internally, he snorted. Guess he had something else in common with Takashi now.

Keith just arched his brows. "Won't they think that's kind of suspicious? I'm obviously not you."

"I can write a note for Sam, if you like." Adam told him. "Uh, Commander Holt, that is."

"The one from the Kerberos mission?" Keith asked. "You've mentioned him a few times."

"We get along pretty well." Adam nodded, leaving out the part where he had been furious with Sam for weeks after he had stood up in defense of Shiro piloting the Kerberos mission. After he'd been declared dead, he didn't have the heart to keep it up- and once he came back... well, he still didn't. It was obvious he'd been through a lot.

Tilting his head, Adam glanced down at Keith. "Do you know him? I noticed you have his daughter's missing persons poster up on the corkboard."

Shaking his head, Keith kept his gaze fixed on the map. "No. But his wife used to tutor kids at the orphanage I used to live in. She stopped coming after her daughter ran away."

Lifting his head, he glanced over at the corkboard, at the slightly faded poster still pinned there. "I put that up there in case I saw her. I just never remembered to take it down, I guess."

Huh. So not only did he work for Hunk's father, he had also formerly been tutored by Katie's mother. Tack on his near miss with Takashi, and it was almost like this kid had been skirting on the edge of the paladins' lives for awhile now. Glancing down at the map himself, he studied it with a slight frown.

"So... any idea why your dad might have had this map?" Adam ventured.

Keith glanced up, shaking his head. "No idea. It's the first time I've seen it."

Adam frowned. He guessed it shouldn't surprise him- the man had built a bunker underneath his shack, and he was willing to bet a lot of the survival techniques Keith knew had been taught to him by his father. Maybe it was just a hobby.

"You know, there is one place that's marked on this map that I can't identify," Adam said, tapping the blue circle on the map, "-this place here. Any idea what it is?"

Keith studied the map, his brow furrowing as he tried to place the location. "Not sure. It's pretty close to the underground spring, though."

Indicating where he meant with his finger, Keith's frown deepened. "Weird. I thought it would have been marked."

"Maybe he just forgot about it?" Adam suggested.

"Yeah, maybe." Keith agreed, though he couldn't help but notice that he didn't look convinced. "So... should I try this underground passage today?"

Adam shook his head. "Tomorrow. Somehow I don't think the Galra are going to take the destruction of two of their sentries lying down. It's best you lay low for today."

Keith nodded. "That's... probably a good idea, yeah. You haven't heard anything?"

"No transmissions yet." Adam told him. "But I think they might have other channels they're broadcasting on, ones that we aren't picking up. We may only be picking up on transmissions from a single cruiser."

Tilting his head, Keith considered it. "I could try to see if I could get others?"

"Too risky. We don't want to lose our only channel." Adam told him. "Besides, once we get into contact with the Garrison, it won't matter."

Keith gave him a curt nod. "Right. Makes sense."

"It sure does." Adam agreed, giving him a small smile. "Besides, you need to rest. You've had one hell of a day, from the sound of it."

Keith snorted. "That's one way of putting it, yeah."

Keith dismissed himself, heading down into the bunker to clean up a bit. Turning back to the map, Adam traced the distance between the underground spring and the unknown location marked in blue. Eyes darting towards the supply depot, he noted that both it and the Garrison base itself were marked in orange- Garrison colors. Looking back towards the blue mark, he tapped it, his brows furrowing in thought.

Keith's father couldn't have possibly found the blue lion, could he? He obviously knew about the underground spring, and that was apparently connected to the cavern where the blue lion had been hidden. And this map... it almost looked like it was part of some kind of emergency contingency plan, just one that he never got to use.

Exactly what kind of person was Keith's father? Keith had said he was a firefighter, but other than that, he knew practically nothing about the man.

Or about Keith, for that matter.

Biting on his lip, he thought about the weird eye shine again. Maybe...

Adam just snorted, hanging his head. Just because aliens were real didn't mean he needed to see their shadows in everything. He didn't want to start acting like some kind of conspiracy theorist. That sort of thing was better left to Commander Holt's son.

Besides, it wasn't like it even mattered. Keith was a good kid. He'd saved his life. He was pretty sure he could overlook a few oddities.

That night, he dreamed of distant galaxies- planets and stars that he had never seen before, but somehow felt like he knew.

He dreamed too, of lions.

"Report."

"Sir." Hand over his heart, the technician saluted him. "I finished examining the damaged sentries we recovered."

Sendak's eyes narrowed. Though advanced in some respects, these Earthlings seemed to be largely primitive. It was hard to believe that the paladins who had given the Galra Empire so much trouble had come from such a backwater planet. With the exception of the one base, their planet had offered little in the form of resistance, so he had been surprised to hear that the two sentries that sub-lieutenant Hahn had left behind to guard the cavern where the blue lion had once been located had been destroyed.

And so quickly after he had ordered the sub-lieutenant to post them there. He would have to have a word with him later, about how he could have possibly missed the fact that they were not alone in that cavern. Perhaps a reminder that careless mistakes were not tolerated would serve him well.

The damaged sentries had since been retrieved and replaced. No further incidents had been reported, so whoever it was in the cavern must have already left. They had likely destroyed the sentries in order to cover their escape.

"And?" Sendak asked. "What did you find?"

The technician frowned, and if he didn't know any better, he would say that he was almost puzzled. "I was able to determine what it was that damaged them, however..."

"However?" Sendak repeated.

"However... sir, whatever damaged these sentries seems to have left behind traces of luxite." The technician informed him.

Sendak frowned. "You are certain?"

"I ran the tests several times." The technician said. "I'm quite certain."

Luxite. The metal was exceedingly rare, to the point where it was almost impossible to obtain. Even for the Galra Empire, doing so was no easy task.

But he did know of one group that possessed no small amount of it.

"Contact the high priestess," Sendak instructed, narrowing his eyes, "-inform her that there is a member of the Blade of Marmora here."

"You're sure you have everything?"

Keith fought the urge to roll his eyes. This was the second time Adam had asked him that question, and he was already tired of it. "Like I told you before, yes."

Adam just gave him a weak smile. "Just making sure."

Keith just heaved a sigh. He hadn't exactly slept well last night- he'd been kept up by weird dreams. He couldn't describe them, exactly. It was almost like he was seeing through someone else's eyes, but whoever that someone else was, he didn't think they were human. He didn't know why he was so sure of that, he just was.

He got the feeling that it had to do something with that weird vision he'd received when he'd touched that weird circle in the blue lion's cavern. He still didn't know what that was about, and frankly, he was trying not to think about it. He didn't have the luxury to let himself get distracted. Surviving the occupation was his first and foremost concern.

And right now, that meant getting into contact with the Garrison.

Which he'd never get to do, if Adam didn't let him leave. He got the feeling that if his leg wasn't in the state it was in, he would be the one going instead. He liked Adam, but sometimes this part of him grated at his nerves. He was nineteen. He wasn't a child anymore, and he didn't appreciate being treated like one.

He had been surviving out here in the desert for two years now. He wasn't about to screw up just because there were aliens running around now.

"Look, I promise, I'll be fine." Keith reassured him.

"I'd just feel better if you brought the blaster." Adam told him.

Keith huffed, folding his arms in front of his chest. "Then what will you defend yourself with?"

Adam opened his mouth to respond to that, only to snap it shut. "You couldn't have grabbed two?"

"Like I said," Keith began, "-I have my knife. It worked fine the last time, so if I come across any more sentries, it'll probably work just as fine. I know how to protect myself."

His monster strength had to come in handy at some point, he thought. It might as well be when he was fighting evil alien robots. Or the evil aliens themselves- but somehow, he was pretty sure that fighting a Galran sentry and fighting an actual Galra were two completely different levels of difficulty.

"Okay, okay." Adam said. "I'm just making sure. They might be looking for you."

"It's a big desert." Keith pointed out. "They're not going to find me that easily. I'll be fine."

Adam just heaved a sigh, defeated. He wanted to point out that he was the one who had come up with this idea, but fought the urge. Besides, he didn't even think the Galra knew what he looked like. Not unless those sentries had been recording, in which case... yeah, he was probably a little screwed.

But since he didn't even know if that was a feature they had, there was no point in worrying about it.

"I wrote this for Commander Holt," Adam told him, handing over a folded piece of paper, "-but if you see Commander Iverson or Admiral Sanda, they'll work too."

Giving him a curt nod of his head, Keith took the paper, tucking it into his jacket. In spite of Adam's reassurances, he knew full well that he was a suspicious individual, so he wasn't exactly counting on them trusting him out of hand.

He'd written the access code Adam had given him on his hand, just in case he forgot it. He didn't exactly want to walk all the way there just to get stuck because he'd remembered it wrong. Or worse, have the guards called on him.

"Anything else?" Keith asked, hoping that there wasn't.

"Did you remember to bring a flashlight?" Adam asked.

Keith fought the urge to wince. Right. He hadn't packed one. Mostly because he didn't need it, but...

"I'll get one now." Keith relented, ignoring Adam's pointed look of see, I knew you forgot something. He was just going to pretend he didn't see it. He wasn't going to give him that victory, especially when it wasn't even a victory.

Clipping the flashlight onto his belt, he locked eyes with Adam, challenging him to try and stall him again. "Anything else?"

"No, that should be it." Adam told him. "Good luck out there, Keith. Hopefully all the tunnels are still intact."

Keith nodded. "Hopefully I should be back by sundown."

"I'll save you some dinner." Adam told him.

"You'd better." Keith said. "It's my food."

Adam snorted. "Right. Of course it is."

Saying a quick goodbye, Keith departed. Adam had uploaded a copy of the map onto his phone- it was a good thing he'd had it turned off all this time, so it still had plenty of charge left. Just in case, the actual physical copy was tucked away in one of his belt pouches, but the one on his phone was a little easier to use, so he'd stick with that for the time being.

It wasn't that hard to find the access point that Adam had indicated. It was just a small, dusty brown building, sticking out of the ground- barely bigger than a phone booth, and easily missed by anyone just flying over the place. He wondered if it had been built before or after the third world war, but either way, he guessed it didn't really matter.

It was locked, but the hinges on the door were so old, all he had to do was kick it in. It lead directly into the aforementioned stairs, so deep that even with his freakish night and distance vision combined, he could only see so far.

Hm. Looked fun.

Slowly descending the stairs, Keith kept an ear out. This was probably the last place he wanted to be ambushed- the staircase was so narrow, he'd have almost no room to defend himself. Hopefully, the Galra didn't know about these tunnels yet.

By the time he got to the bottom, almost half an hour had passed. He had to be pretty deep underground. Pausing to orient himself, he checked the map Adam had drawn for him. He'd asked him why he knew so much about these tunnels, and he'd just shrugged, told him that he'd done a school project on them once.

"So... I go right." Keith muttered to himself.

Pocketing his phone, he proceeded in that direction. The tunnels didn't look like they had been maintained much since the end of the war- the tracks that were laid out looked as if they were starting to rust. He kept to the platform. He doubted there was any risk of being run over, but he'd have quicker access to any potential exit points from up here.

Ugh. Adam was right. He was a survivalist.

Fine. Maybe he was. But if it let him get through an alien invasion, then as far as he was concerned, being a survivalist was a good thing. He... probably had a point in so far as cooking went- maybe if they got through this, he'd pick himself up an actual cookbook or something. If there were even any cookbooks left after a full scale alien invasion.

The further into the tunnels he got, the more grateful he was for the map Adam had drawn. He definitely would have gotten hopelessly lost without it. He still took the time to mark his way at every turn, just in case. It never hurt to be prepared.

That had almost been his dad's motto. He smiled a bit recalling it. He had been thinking about his dad a lot, lately. It was kind of impossible not to, when just about everything in the shack reminded him of his father.

He wished he could talk to him. He wanted to ask him if he'd done the right thing, making the choices that he had. He probably wouldn't have been wild about him getting expelled, but he felt like his dad would have understood his reasons for later dropping out. He really couldn't imagine his dad would fault him for living out in the desert, seeing as he had chosen to do the same thing- although granted, back then, they'd had an actual house.

He'd tried looking up what happened to it. Something about a lightning strike, but he couldn't get any other information beyond that.

He also wanted to ask him about the blue lion.

Frowning, Keith stared down at his feet. Had his dad known about it? He kept thinking back to that spot he'd marked on the map in blue, the one Adam had asked about. What if that was the blue lion's cavern?

But why would his dad have known about the blue lion? Had he maybe found it while exploring? It was possible. What was stranger was the fact that he hadn't told anyone- maybe he'd only seen the lions in the footage that the Holts had broadcast across the globe, but everything about them looked alien in origin.

Why wouldn't he tell the Garrison?

Stopping to check the map again, Keith turned left, as instructed. He paused as he put away his phone, glancing down at where the hilt of his knife stuck out behind his back. Narrowing his eyes, he tucked away his phone, drawing his knife.

It used to belong to his dad.

The way it had reacted when the Galra ships arrived... what was that? It was almost like it had been warning him.

Heaving a sigh, Keith closed his eyes. Thinking about it wouldn't do him any good. He had a task to focus on. That was all he needed to be thinking about. Sheathing his knife, he squared his shoulders, resolving to put the issue behind him.

It didn't matter if his dad had found the blue lion. That was in the past. It didn't even matter if maybe, just maybe, his dad had some kind of connection to aliens- that was in the past too. It didn't matter now.

Except... did it? Coming to a halt, Keith bit his lip. He had always tried not to question himself, why he could do the things he could, why he was always so different, but...

Shaking his head, he drew in a deep breath. He didn't want to go there. He'd thrown out being an alien as a joke, he didn't want to have to seriously mean it.

So much for not thinking about it.

Keith shoved such thoughts aside, for real this time. Just concentrate on the mission. Getting Adam back to the Garrison was priority.

He was about to make another turn when he heard the sound of footsteps. Pressing himself against the wall, he watched as a pair of sentries crossed on the other side of the platform, heading in the direction he was supposed to be heading in. He waited, frozen, until he could no longer hear them, and only then did he dare to exhale.

That was too close. Guess the Galra knew about these tunnels after all.

At least those sentries just looked like regular patrol drones. Taking in a deep breath, he peeked around the corner, no longer able to see them. Chewing on his lip, he weighed his options- should he give up, head back to the shack, maybe try again later?

No. He'd been down here for awhile now, and those were the only sentries he'd seen. For all he knew, they might be the initial scouts. If that was the case, then that was just more reason to finish his mission, and get to the Garrison now, while he still had the chance. Relying on maybes was not a sound survival strategy.

He would just have to be cautious. Wait a few minutes before heading on.

Advancing slowly, Keith checked the map. According to this, he shouldn't be that far from the supply depot. Once he reached it, he would almost be all the way to the Garrison. Then all he had to do was use the access code Adam had given him, give someone in charge his letter, and wait.

Right. He could do this.

He stopped to check for the sentries at every turn. He hadn't seen any sign of them yet, but he couldn't let his guard down. He kept one hand on the hilt of his knife, just in case, but he'd rather avoid fighting them if he could.

He knew what he'd said to Adam, but just because things had gone well the first time didn't mean they would go well the second time. He had to be prepared for that possibility.

Coming to a halt, Keith frowned, his ears picking up on a strange sound. He couldn't quite place it at first, but the longer he listened, the more the sound began to take shape.

Was that... was that laser fire?

Gritting his teeth, Keith let instinct take him over. He knew what he said, but if the sentries were shooting at someone, he couldn't just idly stand by and do nothing. Racing ahead, he relied on the sound to guide him. As it became more distinct, he realized that it wasn't just one sound- it was subtle, but there were at least two different types of laser fire.

A fight?

Keith halted, drawing his knife. Who could be fighting the sentries?

Wait. These tracks lead to the Garrison's supply depot. But what were the odds that Garrison forces were making a supply run at the exact same time he was trying to get to their base?

Probably just as good as one of their fighters crashing in front of his shack, so... pretty good, in other words. Fate seemed to have a knack for putting him in the wrong place at the right time. Or was it the right place at the wrong time?

Well, whatever. Didn't matter.

Slowing his pace, Keith drew closer to the sounds of the firefight. There was a brief break, before it quickly started up again. Reinforcements?

Just as he was about to round the next corner, he was thrown off his feet, blasted backwards by some kind of an explosion. Coughing a bit at the dust in the air, he quickly grabbed his knife, trying to get his bearings. Turning the corner, he came to what should have been a series of four tunnels, only to find that one of them had been sealed off.

It was hard to see with all the dust still in the air. Once it settled some, he managed to make out a lone figure. For a brief second, he tensed, fearing that it was another sentry, before he quickly realized that they were human. They must have been the person exchanging laser fire with the Galra, but from the look of it, the cannon they had been using had been damaged by the blast.

And then the dust cleared more, and he saw the sentries. He saw them, but the person from the Garrison didn't, too busy coughing.

There wasn't enough time. There was no way he would get to them before the sentries did.

He didn't think. He just moved. He threw his knife, not even waiting to see if it struck its intended target before he was already chasing after it. It did, sinking into the sentry's chest, distracting the other one long enough for him to actually get to the person. He didn't stop to take stock, just kept moving, grabbing his knife from the downed sentry and ducking, switching hands as he cut through the remaining sentry's legs.

Once it fell, he jammed the knife into its head, only then actually letting himself breathe. Blinking back dust, he turned to see who it was that he had just saved, only to freeze. It felt almost like deja vu, because he knew this person.

"Veronica?"