The wait

by jalpari

Moments before the storm.

A/N:

So excited for the stuff this chapter is leading up to in the next one! Sprinkling some clues in the chapter and its description.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU GUYS?"

Keith stormed into the control room, his voice seething with anger.

"Keith, calm down", Hunk walked towards him.

"No, I will not", Keith growled as he threw his sword down. "How can you give up on her like that!?"

"No one is giving up on her, Keith!" Pidge jumped out of her seat and stormed towards him just as angrily. "You're not the only one worried about her!"

"Keith", Shiro placed a hand on his shoulder, "Let's hear what they have to say. There must be a reason they asked us to fall back."

"Yes, there is", Bani stood up and faced them.

Everyone turned their attention to the Olkari woman. Keith groaned and sat down, running his hand through his sweaty hair.

"When you were caught in the beam, they asked Noor to turn herself over if she wanted to save you. It was Noor's decision..."

As Keith began to protest, she shot him a glare and raised a hand up to silence him.

"Let me finish", she spoke sternly, "...it was Noor's decision to let herself be captured. But we had a plan. I injected her with a bio-tracker."

"Noor knew she had no other option at the time", Pidge continued, "but she went in prepared. We can track her and hunt them down."

"What if they find the tracker?" Keith tried to moderate his tone.

"They most likely won't be able to do that. It's a new protein based biomarker developed by us."

"It's so cool!" Pidge nearly shrieked. "The serum carries a virus based plasmid vector that contains the code for producing extra promoter proteins in her body and is programmed to overexpress predetermined proteins. This leads to the amplification of specific biorhythms in her that only Bani's receiver is calibrated to detect. The effect can be sustained for up to a week and and allows for tracking over longer distances...and THAT is what we are doing right now."

"You inserted a virus inside her!?" Luten jumped up in horror.

"No, you imbecile", Bani's temper flared up, "the serum is carried within a virus shell."

"Oh…", Luten sat back down taken aback by her snarl.

"It's not how we wanted to go about this", Pidge sighed and looked at where the terrorist's craft had been just minutes ago, "but it's all we have to go on right now. She did what she thought was best for the mission."

"She's a smart girl", Shiro exhaled and sat down.

"She's a brave girl", Hunk stated.

Noor rested her forehead on her arms, propping her knees up. She drew in deep breaths in an attempt to calm her thudding heart.

She reminded herself over and over again that they would find her. That she had a tracker inside her. That Bani and Pidge were the smartest people she knew. That Luten and Shiro would fight their way to her. That Hunk would make sure nothing happened to her. That Keith would never give up on her.

She found a strange peace in the fact that she had been the creature's prisoner before. She had been trapped by him before. She had been through all this before. She knew the pain that was about to descend on her. She knew the needles and tubes and straps that would violate her.

Now, she also knew the face of the creature that had captured her. She knew what the ship looked like. She knew what its voice sounded like. She knew more now than she had when she was first abducted.

And somehow, knowing things, made all this a little easier.

Every now and then, Kosmo would whine softly and howl as if calling out to Noor.

"It's alright boy", Keith whispered to the dog slowly massaging his back, "we're going to get her."

"What's our next step?" Shiro turned to Pidge and Bani.

"The tracker...", Bani clasped her hand over a green sphere and a holographic projection of glowing stars and planets and galaxies surrounded them, "...boosts her signature at intervals. Our receiver pings each time it detects the markers and we can see them...", she rotated the sphere causing the holograph to move too, "as they travel through space."

"What if they cloak the ship?" Luten asked.

"I'm not sure", Bani hesitated, "This is new tech...it hasn't been tested in the field..."

"I may be able to help with that", Pidge interrupted, "...I wasn't able to hack into their system but I was able to get a weak signature from the ship's energy source. If we are quick, we can follow it like a trail. Even if it is cloaked."

"We need to get going then", Keith muttered.

Noor looked up when the door swung open. The creature walked in flanked by two guards. Noor braced herself for what happened each time they had come to get her from her prison cell in the past. But this time was different. The guards stayed by the door and the creature knelt in front of her. She didn't flinch or look away. She stared at it defiantly, determined to show no fear.

"It's good to have you back", it leaned in closer and grazed her cheek with the back of its hand.

"Who are you?" Noor pulled her face away.

"You'll know soon enough. We're going to achieve great things together."

"What did you do to me?"

"I gave you a new destiny. Now, you can join me and do something more than just living alone in mourning and misery. You hold something special inside of you now."

"What's inside me?"

"A power that was snatched away from the human race thousands of years ago. A power that the Alteans and Galra could only scratch the surface of and even then, they couldn't understand it, let alone control it. But once we finish the fusion, we can take out all the threats to humanity once and for all."

"So you are human."

"Yes", it sighed and she thought she saw pain in its eyes. She decided to take advantage of this brief moment of vulnerability.

"What happened to you?"

"I failed. I couldn't hold the power. But you...somehow you can. This time, I may just succeed."

"So what's next? What is the rest of the...experiment?"

"You'll see for yourself, tomorrow morning", it stood up and left.

"Tomorrow morning", Noor whispered to herself as the door closed once again.

She placed her hand on the now empty thigh slit. They had searched her and taken away the twin daggers but they didn't take away the two pins that were safely hidden in her hair. During her training sessions with Luten and Shiro, she had learnt how to interact with the daggers.

It had blown her mind the things the Olkari technology was capable of. She could command the daggers to come to her, to move to the desired target, to transform from twin daggers to bagh nakhs to double sided daggers all at the instruction of her mind. Using the weapon had felt natural, almost like they were an extension of her. It felt just like dancing. She hadn't managed to make the connection which would metamorphose the double sided dagger to a double sided sword. Until then, she would just have to make do with them as they were.

She hoped that she would have enough presence of mind to use the combat moves Luten had taught her. She had managed to catch him off guard a few times. She chuckled at the memory. For now, she would have to convince the creature that she sympathised with it and that she was no threat. It wouldn't be that hard. Compared to the others, she probably didn't pose any real threat to these guards. But if it came down to it, she would give it her all.

As everyone turned in for the night, Keith sat in the control room and continued watching the trail. Kosmo sat by his side and nuzzled against him.

"Keith! You scared me", Pidge walked in and startled on seeing him.

"What are you doing up?"

"I couldn't sleep", she sat beside Kosmo and sighed, "Just wanted to see how...she's doing."

They turned around as the door opened once again and Hunk entered the room.

"Guess none of us can sleep, huh?" he sat by Keith and patted his back.

"Why haven't they landed anywhere yet?" Keith frowned at the map.

"My guess is they're going to try and get away to as remote a location as possible", Pidge leaned back, "Far away from Sepi."

"Don't we only have a week before the tracker…", Hunk began but paused.

"They won't wait that long", Pidge said with confidence. "Whatever they want to do to her, they'll want to do it soon."

"Oh…", a surprised voice exclaimed behind them, "...I didn't realize you...", Luten mumbled.

"Come on over", Hunk chuckled. "Welcome to the I-can't-sleep-club."

Luten grinned sheepishly and sat beside Pidge.

"So, we're sure they don't know we're following them?"

"Please", Pidge grinned and adjusted her glasses, "my cloaking mechanism is foolproof. Coupled with Olkarion technology...as far as anyone else is concerned, we don't exist."

"You think she's alright?" Hunk muttered.

"She can take care of herself", Luten added.

"What do you mean?" Keith finally spoke.

"We've been training regularly. She knows only a few moves but she knows them well", Luten chuckled. "She nearly knocked me out."

"She has the twin daggers too", Hunk leaned forward and rested his chin on his hands.

"And I saw her do some damage when she elbowed the mercenary who was going to shoot at us", another voice added.

Everyone jumped as Shiro walked over.

"If it comes to it", he continued, "she'll defend herself...long enough for us to get in there and get her...and the creature."

Noor hadn't slept. She didn't know how much time had passed since they left Ures. She only realized it was morning when the creature returned to her room.

"Come", the creature held out its hand.

Noor resisted the urge to smack the scaly hand away.

Be smart about this. You need to survive.

She pushed back her disgust and took its hand. She followed the creature into a pod along with two guards. As they made their way down, Noor gazed at the vast barren desert planet that lay before them. When they alighted from the pod, she saw the same buildings just like every other base. If there were any other prisoners there, she couldn't see or hear them.

They hadn't tied her up or covered her eyes this time. She was treated with something like respect. It was almost as if they were being cautious around her. She followed the creature into a large room, similar to the training grounds in the other bases, but this room didn't have a tub of water.

"Tell me", the creature spoke finally as the door closed behind them, "how have you been feeling?"

Noor didn't respond. She eyed it warily.

"Have you felt anything different?" It turned to face her.

"No."

"Nothing?" It circled her.

"I don't know what you mean."

"Have you had any visions?"

Noor froze at the words. Her mind went over all the strange dreams she had been having. Lush trees surrounded by glowing water. A shimmering path in a cosmic void. Shadowy creatures that always seemed just out of her reach. She wondered if the creature would be able to tell her what they meant. But she decided to be prudent.

"I have had disturbing dreams but I never remember them in the morning."

"Hmm", it frowned and paused behind her and she could feel its eyes on her.

"Have you felt a surge of power rise in your body at sunrise or moonrise?"

"What does that even mean?" Noor turned around and looked at it in confusion.

"Hmm", its frown grew, "so you haven't unlocked it."

"Unlocked what?!"

"You must connect with your spirit. Reach deep inside and bridge the gap."