Keith waited almost an entire varga.
Finally he moved. He snuck back out of the mid section and wound his way out of the building they had been hiding in.
It went against everything he felt was right, but if he screwed up and they both were caught, then Lance would never forgive him.
He found his way back to the building to grab the recorder. The guide wasn't there. Seems they had been found out.
Keith left and tried to make his way back to the top on his own.
"STAY!" Keith jumped a little and hoped the look on his face was innocent as he turned to see a Jermite guard, "What are you doing here?"
"I got a little lost," Keith said sheepishly, "I was told I could look around while the meeting was going on, but I lost the guide. Could you show me the way back?"
()
Ryner shook her head but didn't say anything. Allura let her think. The Horgro watched carefully.
"then I would like access to their entire history," Ryner said, "all of it. With corresponding notes and side materials."
"What will that give you?" The Horgro asked.
"It will give us something to learn by," Ryner said with a sigh, "My people would like the stories from another people as well, and maybe, in time, we may learn how to correspond with the Jermites without causing insult."
"And in exchange you would be willing to give what?"
"We will teach what we know about the technology of plants and materials."
()
Keith spent the rest of the time in his lion. He sent out scan of the area to make sure nothing strange entered or left the building they had been looking into. The Black lions scanner wasn't as good as the Blues, or even the Greens, but it could detect ships and movement and that's all he needed.
He almost called it quits and left to go after Lance after all when a small blip appeared on the radar. It was tiny, but moving fast out of range.
"Black Lion to ground control."
"Go head," the Jermite on duty replied.
"I'm a little bored waiting for the meeting to end, I'm going to fly around the planet a little, is that alright?"
There was a long pause. Longer than Keith had patience for.
"Go head," the answer came again, and Ketih took off quickly.
()
He had to search again for the small blip. When he found it, it was already on its way out of the designated space ruled by the council.
Keith booked it.
When he had eyes on the craft he bet he could fit the whole thing in the mouth of his lion.
So that's what he did. He opened the mouth and had Black eat the ship. There was a crunching sound as the wings of the other ship didn't quite make it into the mouth, and another shrieking and crashing sound as Keith decelerated and the other ship did not.
Keith waited for a moment for all the crashing noises to stop before he got up and went to see his new visitors.
Getting his bayard out he opened the door only to find one Jermite.
"This is a breach of protocol!" he shouted, "and it's a breach of treaty and it's a breach of-"
"My apologies," Keith said, still not putting his bayard away as he walked up the alien, "you see, something happened, and I'm only making sure everything is accounted for."
Holy crap, he sounded just like Lance…
"That makes no sen-"
There was a banging from inside the small ship.
"Who else is here?" Keith asked, "is it not rude to just show one of you when there are more?"
The Jermites glittery eyes narrowed, Keith braced himself just as the kick came.
The fight was short. The Jermite was not used to Keiths style of fighting while Keith had been trained in its style for months.
Keith winced a little as the alien fell dead to the floor. He'd have to explain this one and he was not looking forward to it.
The banging had stopped during the fight and had not continued even afterwards. Keith looked under the hatch and sighed with relief.
Lance was there. Gagged, heavily restrained, but looked otherwise unhurt.
"I thought you said you could get out of these situations yourself," Keith said with a grin as he reached over and pulled the gag out.
Lance said nothing, he just scowled.
Keith undid the restraints and stepped back and Lance crawled out of the other ship. The red paladin swayed a little and when he walked he moved as if not sure where to put his feet.
"Lance, are you ok?" Keith asked, suddenly worried. Just because there were no visible signs of injury didn't mean there weren't any to speak of.
"Che," Lance shook his head and looked down at himself. He was wearing his blue armor. He slowly picked up his feet, and examined his torso. Then he looked at his hands and arms, flexing his fingers.
"Lance?" Keith gripped his bayard again. Was this Lance? Or something that just looked like him?
Finally looking over at keith. Lances eyes wandered to Keith collar.
"Where is your trainer, Dash?" Lance asked.
Keiths jaw dropped a little and Lance rolled his eyes.
"That's not a hard question, is it?" he sighed, "I'm not asking you to convert time into distance and back, I'm asking you to point out where your trainer is."
Keith, still not sure how to suddenly handle this situation (there wasn't a failsafe measure for spontaneous amnesia), pointed at Lance.
Lance looked behind him, "Anyone back there?!"
Silence.
"Lance-"
"That's B1A5 to you, Dash," Lance said sternly, "I'm not even sure how you know my real name, but you will-"
"Lance," Ketih snapped, "If this is a joke, so help me I'm going to-"
Smack!
"I told you my name, Dash," Lance snapped as Keith held onto his face, "B1A5, use it or I will make sure you're never an actual agent. Now, where is your trainer? Did he or she run off after they killed the Jermite?"
Keith was now done. He hit Lance back.
They brawled, evenly matched until Keith got the upperhand due to his Blade training.
"YOU'RE MY TAINER YOU IDIOT!" Keith roared, "I'M ALSO A FRIEND, REMEMBER?!"
Lance snorted and spat out a little blood, "friends are for suckers and I wouldn't train a dog, let alone a human."
Ketih hit him again, thinking maybe that would jar something back into place.
"Fine," Keith snapped, "Let's get something straight, I killed that Jermite and I'm you're trainee. I'm also your leader. It's a complicated relationship. Right now you were captured by the Jermites because you were sneaking into their closed off building networks. What do you remember?"
Lance rolled his eyes and pushed Keith off. Ketih backed off, but kept his guard up.
"I admit you have skill, but for you to kill a trained Jermite Guard? There's something wrong with that picture. I'm not authorized to tell you anything about what I remember and even if I was, I wouldn't tell you…even IF you were my dash, which I'm sure you're not."
Keith wanted to scream. Instead he rubbed his face and winced when he added pressure to the new cuts and bruises.
"This isn't good," Ketih muttered. What could he do? Should he call in help? Should he contact Allura and Hunk?
What would Lance do…
"Ok," Keith sighed, gaining a little control over his emotions, "Let's say that you're memories were tampered with-"
"Of course they've been tampered with," Lance sighed and shook his head, "I'm a whole foot and then some taller than I should be! I'm only supposed to be 12 years old and I'm as tall as my brother! Of course-"
"Then why are you fighting me?!"
"Because you sound like a whiny idiot," Lance sneered, "And I wouldn't train anyone like that."
"Gads I just remembered why we hated each other…."
"glad I could refresh your memory, now, about mine, where is your real trainer and what is the situation?"
()
Allura was ready to scream.
She smiled calmly at the Jermite leader, "why is that unacceptable?"
"They wish to undermine us!"
"They live halfway across the galaxy," Allura reminded her, "how could they possibly undermine you with your own historical records?"
Telliksha scoffed, "You under developed and unenlightened races shouldn't even be mediating if you can't see how they could do such a thing."
Hunk put a hand on Alluras shoulder even though the Altean had shown no signs of needing it.
"We ask and point these things out because we trust both you and Ryner to know better," Hunk replied, "Both of your races are so advanced, what makes you think either of you will start a war or undermine the other for something silly?"
It was a valid point, and Telliksha relaxed a little.
"They just want the historical records and corresponding notes?"
"Yes."
"…then we have a deal."
Allura beamed, Hunk smiled, but less so. It seemed to him that the Olkaries were giving up way more than the Jermites.
()
Alllura and Hunk were walking back to their rooms when their communicators dinged.
RedLeader: Remind me to go shopping for babywipes when we get back.
They looked at eachother and Hunk shrugged. The message could mean 'we're getting out soon' or 'I've forgotten something remind me'.
"Let's play it safe," Allura replied and turned the corner, away from their rooms and towards the platforms where their lions were.
()
"What are you doing?"
"I'm going to land and-"
"No you're not," Lance tried to push Keith out of the pilots seat, "Move."
"I told you, only I can fly this lion!"
"Calling your ship a lion is stupid."
"Its because its in the shape of a lion! I told you-"
"And I'm telling you that if you fly in the Jermites air space, you will lose. You need to stay out of their atmosphere. Let's get back to Iverson."
"I can't leave my team down there!"
Lance sighed and shook his head, "You will be doing them no favors if you get caught with them. Let me fly so I can land this thing. I know where we can land."
"You'll have to tell me because ' . !"
Lance gave Keith a disgusted look, "Fine, have it your way. Bank left."
()
Allura and Hunk were stopped outside the platform.
"We want to fly a little while we wait for the next meeting," Allura replied with a smile.
"There's a no fly order in affect right now," the Jermite said, and actually sounded apologetic, "Not until the Olkaries leave."
"Even if we stay in the atmosphere?" Hunk asked. The guard shrugged.
"No fly orders are absolute and from the top."
"I see," Allura licked her lips and saw past them. The black lion was gone.
"We'll just rest in our rooms, then," Hunk smiled, "Unless you have a kitchen I can borrow?"
()
Keith followed Lances instructions until they landed on a broken slab of concrete.
"This is the first landing sight earth made to this planet," Lance said, "the Jermites have since progressed and made better ones, but they wont let us use these old pads anymore because they can't be monitored the way they want.
He said the last bit with a sneer. Keith grimaced.
"Ok," Keith brought out a map and flicked through it. He had no idea where he was because modern lance had neglected to tell them about this historic sight. He found familiar terrain and followed it back to where he was.
"Quiznak," Keith hissed.
"wash your mouth," Lance smacked the back of Keiths head, "anyway, we better get going if we're going to get your dead weight out."
"My WHAT?!"
Lance rolled his eyes, "Did I stutter?"
"They're my team! My friends! And yours too!"
Lance looked bored, "Yeah, sure, whatever. I'm doing this because you're a dash and the last time I let a Dash get injured I was suspended for a month. Iverson can't complain if I help you guys out, but don't expect me to stick my neck out for any of you. If you die, its your fault."
Keith couldn't believe it. Lance had told them he'd been a brat, everyone acted like he was the worst…but now that he was experiencing it first hand…
"We gotta get you back to normal," Keith sighed.
"Hate to break it to you, but this is as normal as I'll ever be."
"Oooo, the future may surprise you."
Keith pushed past him and left the lion. Lance shrugged and followed.
()
Keith tried to make his way on his own. He knew the general direction he wanted to go in, but the map seemed to be wrong in several places. Lance had said it was their most recent map!
"Jermites like to change things up almost hourly," Lance said. He'd been following Keith around, letting him take wrong turns and double back.
"Then YOU lead!"
"Now, now," Lance smirked, "Yell like that and you'll draw unwanted attention. We're being sneaky, remember?"
"We need to get to the others and then to our lions," Keith said showing lance the map and the pink and yellow dots indicating Allura and Hunk. He also showed him the triangles that indicated where the lions were.
"Uh-huh," Lance looked bored, "and how are you going to get back to your own lion without being caught?"
"That's-" Keith swallowed hard. They couldn't sacrifice the black lion…
Lance watched the other boy think and sighed. He was going to die if he softened any more than this.
"Look," Lance rolled his eyes, "we get your friends, we all go back to the black lion, then we can figure out what to do from there."