~~~~36~~~~
Keith eyed the crash site, the part of him that ran into fire for a living wanted to speed toward it and make sure his teammate - that Lance - was in one piece. Despite his anger, despite knowing the second he saw Lance standing at his full height with that damn usual smug expression on his face he'd be breaking his jaw. Keith cared, he hated it but he cared, but he couldn't go toward the crash site, he had to get Allura to the new camp site they'd set up, to record the ransom demand and get Prince Xan on his rode to to his rightful place as leader of this planet. He gave a quick glance behind him, Allura was still glossy eyed, staring straight ahead, numb - shock if he ever saw it. He'd have to keep her warm, by the fire, find as many blankets as he could in the camp. That was another priority. He turned the vehicle from going straight toward the south, to the east, toward the woods, and it was instantaneous. He'd lit a match.
Allura was all over him, her elbow into his stomach, her hands on the wheel, her entire body trying to take off the front seat of a the two seat vehicle. "I must save Lance," she was muttering over and over.
She meant it.
Her knees joined her elbow, then her feet, then her whole body was his in the front, her own feet joining his, stepping on his feet, as her fingernails pushed through the gloves he had on to get his hands off the wheel. "Get off!" she yelled.
"Allura, stop!" he yelled, fighting for control, finally, out of options he just pulled the key out of the vehicle and made the engine stall out.
A punch to the face made him fall off into the ice and snow, he had a bloody nose, now and Allura jumped down she had her hands up ready to keep hitting him, but that was when her eyes connected to his and she realized who she was dealing with. "Keith?"
He nodded and climbed to his feet, her hands fell down to her sides, he stood up, and whacked snow off of himself. Wiped at his nose, happy to see that it was already starting to clot, at least she hadn't broken it. "Can we get going to Xan's camp?"
"No, we go find Lance," she snapped.
"No, we leave that to Wade."
Allura slapped him.
Keith sighed. "Allura, you have to come to the campsite. We've kidnapped you, I can let you go off on a rescue mission, besides you are not dressed for one."
Allura glared at him, threw off the coat he'd put her in, flicked her right forearm and her voltcom came into view and the her space suit appeared around her. "I'm fine, for a rescue mission," she snapped, then her whip appeared, lashed out at his feet and dropped him on his ass into the snow again. The keys when flying from his hand and she grabbed them.
She climbed into the vehicle, turned it on and was off before Keith was on his feet. Keith swore under his breathe, started to run after her, gave a high long jump into the air and initiated his dual blazing swords as a boost in power and landed on the back of the vehicle. He was going to hate himself for this but he dropped one sword, grabbed her from behind and brought the other sword up to her throat. "Allura, stop."
"Keith, quit it."
"Damn it, Allura."
"I'm going to save Lance, you're not going to cut me."
Keith growled, she was giving him no choice, he had to do something here. He let the other sword vanish, then he grabbed her from behind, cutting off her oxygen with one arm and grabbing at her voltcom with the other arm. Her space suit fizzled out with a snap as he took it off of her arm. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Allura," he muttered, as she fought against him hard enough that she lost consciousness swiftly.
He then jumped in, took over driving, but kept her on his lap and felt like a complete bastard the entire drive toward Xan's campsite. Against his will, he even found himself turning toward where you could still see smoke from the fiery blaze that had been Lance's crash. One question kept nagging at Keith. Why hadn't Lance ejected? He'd heard Lance tell Allura he would? What had happened in that cockpit? Why hadn't he? He'd had time, Keith had been watching, there was time? Why hadn't Lance turned around, gotten closer to the castle and ejected? The crash made no sense.
Keith hated the conflicted feelings in his head and heart. He was used to things being clear, black and white. This is good, that is bad. Allura is beautiful and untouchable. I love her but must stay away. Lance is my best friend, my brother. It wasn't clear at all anymore. Nothing was since Wade. Wade was Alliance he was supposed to be the good guy, he was supposed to be trustworthy, not the enemy.
Allura was supposed to love him. Not be with Lance. Lance was supposed to be loyal, not betray him. He was supposed to hate whoever betrayed him, not still love them or care about their well-being.
Bad guys weren't supposed to be helpful, yet he'd gotten help and intel from them more than once in the past year. Some of them turned out to have more honor than men he'd known for years that he'd trained with in the Alliance. Keith's world view was being tested. By Lance and Allura the most, right now.
He pulled the vehicle behind the large trees they'd agreed on using to hide it, and cut the engine. Allura was coming too, he quickly hid the key in his pockets, along with her voltcom. She woke with a start, calling out Lance's name and she flew off his lap when she saw him. Xan and Kyla walked up.
"What took so long?" Kyla asked.
Xan looked at him, his eyes repeating Kyla's question.
Keith jumped down.
Allura slapped him again the second he hit the ground. "What the hell is wrong with you," she yelled. "Lance is out there and we are here. Lance is one of our own, Keith, I don't give a damn about some kidnapping plot of yours right now. I don't care. Give me the damn key back and my voltcom. I'm going after Lance!"
"No."
"Keith!"
"No."
"Fine. I'll walk, I'll do it without the voltcom," Allura turned and started to walk.
"Allura, you'll never find your way out of the forest," Keith yelled, walking after her. "The sooner we do the ransom video, the sooner you are back at the Castle and can help with the search."
"And what are you going to do, just let him stay out there. Alone. I thought he was your family?"
Keith stared at her. "My family? He betrayed me the second he touched you."
"I didn't belong to you, Keith."
"He knew how I felt."
"I didn't."
"No, but I was wrong..." Keith reached out and grabbed her hand. "Allura, I was wrong. I love you, I want you, I love you."
Allura shook her head. "I know. I mean I can't talk about this now. I need to know Lance is okay, he has to be okay. Please tell me he'll be okay, why didn't he eject, I don't understand, why didn't he eject. That stupid, asshole, that son of a bitch, why didn't he eject!" Allura started punching at Keith's chest and then she was crying into his shoulder.
Keith didn't know what to think. Had he lost his chance was it over? He didn't know, but what he did know was that she needed him. Allura needed him to strong just like he always was on Arus. He was the shoulder she ran to when she was scared about when she felt like things were falling apart. He'd hold her now, even if it was about Lance, he'd hold her out. Even if it ended up being the last time.
"He'll be fine. He always fine. He does something crazy and he comes through without a scratch, you know that, Allura," Keith said, because it was a tested theory, Lance was usually the lucky one.
She sniffled into his shoulder and nodded.
"So, is this why you are late?" Kyla said.
Keith glared at her over Allura's head.
Xan laughed.
"Let's get inside, she must be freezing in that dress."
Allura looked up and met Xan's eyes. "Prince Xan, I'm sorry. I do care about your rightful place as Xios leader. I hope whatever your plan is works. What are you exchanging me for?"
"Raw falling stones," Keith said.
"Oh." Allura nodded.
"That makes sense. The legend, have someone see you burn them. They will question Seth, there are so many important Alliance people here, Wade will have to do what is right. Good plan. Though, I doubted you wanted Lance crashed during it."
Keith shook his head. "I was hoping he'd be the main voice shouting about getting you back."
Allura looked at him, she was pale, her blue eyes were filled with tears that kept spilling over. "He'd be loud. Always. He'll be okay. Keith, tell me he'll be okay!"
Keith had to shake his head, because he wasn't sure. "I don't know, Allura. What I heard you two saying about the ship, it sounded..."
Allura held up her hand. "Don't. I don't want to hear it. Let's get this video over with. I want back in that Castle. So I can demand to be part of the search. Now." She started walking past Xan and Kyla, following the footprints they'd left in the snow, toward the tent. Leaving Keith and the others no choice but to follow her.
Keith watched her go, royal, beautiful, strong, emotional, his Allura. Only she might not be his anymore. He wanted to kill Lance, but first he needed to know Lance was in one piece, and alive. Then he'd kill him.
Gray, it was all too gray. He wanted it to be more simple. Much more simple.
~~~~.~~~~
Black. It was all black. Lance realized it was because he couldn't get his eyes to open. He wasn't quite sure if he was awake, or waking, or dead. It was black. And it was warm. He'd crashed onto a winter planet. It should be cold. He'd gone to Hell.
It made sense in some ways, that'd he'd be in Hell. Sure he fought for the right side of good versus evil, but he was not the good boy. He was the bad boy. Bad boy who tried to steal the princess from the good boy.
Allura. He promised, he promised her he'd come back, in one piece.
He wiggled his fingers. He felt them wiggle. All ten. Wiggled his toes, felt all ten against his boots. He moved, that had been a bad idea, everything went dizzy and it spun.
He was unaware of things for a time. Then it was all black again. Still oddly warm, too warm for such a cold planet. That kept bugging him, kept telling him to open his eyes, he had to open his eyes. He had to not let himself fall too deep into the black. He probably had a concussion. Was he losing blood anywhere? It'd be a miracle if he wasn't, Lance thought.
He promised Allura. He broke one promise, he hadn't ejected. He'd meant to. Why hadn't he? King Alfor? Right, Alfor had pointed him toward the mountain, some damn snow capped mountain.
Why had Alfor made him crash land on a mountain? "What is that about?" Lance tried his voice, said it out loud, his voice was cracked, rough, he licked his lips and tasted copper. Blood, split lip or two then, he thought.
He fought and fought and finally got his lids, so heavy to open. It was bright, almost too bright where he was, he blink, brought up his hand to his face, to cover and shield his eyes. He wasn't outside, he was in a cavern, and it was bright, but it wasn't sunshine on snow.
It was rocks. The stones. Raw falling stones, he realized, they still shined. Not nearly as bright as the processed form but they were bright on their own. They were everywhere around him. On the ground, in the walls, but there was something else too, there was an orangey-red glow. He tried to move, the dizziness wasn't as bad as before, he gritted his teeth through it, undid his the straps around him and climbed carefully out of what remained of his cockpit. It was amazing there was even a cockpit left.
On his feet on the ground, he glanced at the ship. It was more intact than he expected, more than 45% of the ship had remained with him down into this cavern. He looked up and saw that he'd falling through a hold in the top of the mountain down into the core of the mountain - he wasn't putting something together here. He rubbed his temple and then swore at himself. Bad move, that did not help a concussion.
He walked around the ship, slowly, to stay on his legs so he wouldn't fall on his ass and stopped short when he got to the other side. He found the reason for the warmth, a pool of lava was right in front of him. He was in a volcano, not a mountain. It didn't look active, but it was definitely a volcano.
He looked at the walls of the volcano again, the floor of it again, it's entire structure was falling stones, it was wholly fire stones. No other rock, no other crystals, or granite, or mica. Falling Stones were volcanic rock, they were of Xiosians natural fiery core.
He stood there, his head pounding. He looked up, he turned slowly to look at the ship, that was more intact than he expected and sighed. "Yeah, uh, okay Alfor, I crashed where you sent me. Now what?" Lance asked, not expecting an answer.
open the engine panels and push the ship into the lava
Lance startled and then he stared skeptically at the lava for lack of a better place to stare. "Say what?" he asked, thinking that was crazy.
what would Allura say?
Lance had to nod at the lava. Alfor had him there, Allura would tell him to believe, because her father had never led them wrong despite the oddness of his requests, of his riddles, of the knowledge he gave. Lance sighed and went to the ship and opened up what he could of what was left of the engines. Some of it was already wide open from the paneling ripping off during the flight.
He then got on the other side, activated his voltcom and the forcefield - codename hot hands - over his fists for extra strength and started to push. He was dizzy, he ached, he had to take more breaks than he'd ever admit to. He nearly passed out more than once, but he didn't give up. He just thought about Allura, he thought about what a douche Prince Seth was and how he could not remain the Prince of this planet. Lance needed to tell Prince Xan's camp about this volcano, and not let an Alliance rescue party find him here, because if Wade saw this, he'd let Seth horde all the stones.
After hours of work, Lance watched the ship sink into the lava.
As he watched it disappear however, he felt stupid. It wouldn't have flown again but he might have gotten the radio to work and now he had it melting in the lava. Alfor probably had been his imagination from the damn concussion.
What had he just done?