Chapter 2

oOo Five Months Ago oOo

Keith pulled his hood up as he pushed open the swinging doors of the bar. He'd managed to track the single passenger ship to some backwater moon that orbited an abandoned planet. There wasn't much living in the system other than this small outpost for folks who were just passing through, or the other type of folk who are up to no good.

His Marmora face mask filtered the polluted air of the bar, but he could still smell the smoke and filth. The room was dimly lit, and only a few patrons populated the scattered tables. Keith slid up on a stool by the counter and watched as the bar tender did some fancy bottle flips while mixing an equally fancy drink for a pretty space girl who giggled at his easy smile. The bar tender himself had dark, almost black skin and the top half of his face was hidden behind a swirling blue mask.

He kept smiling at the space girl who twiddled her fingers at him, as he came over to help Keith, only to pause when he noticed Keith's mask. "You know that's not the best uniform to be wearing if you're trying to go unnoticed," he commented and started twirling his bottles again. He began making something for Keith without asking for his order.

Keith furrowed his eyebrows at the sound of the bar tenders voice. So the guy was familiar with the Blade of Marmora . . . Then maybe he could be of some help. "I'm looking for someone," Keith spoke up a little louder than he usually would. The full-faced mask and rebreather tended to muffle his voice. "He would have passed through here a couple of quintants ago. Was flying a Model X8-20."

The barkeep paused in his theatrics, face going carefully blank before answering. "Get a lot of people passing through here and lots of people looking for folks. What's so special about this guy? He do something worthy of being chased by the likes of you?"

The likes of you? Keith bristled at the bartender's words and narrowed his eyes at him. If he looked past the fancy blue mask, he could make out familiar blue eyes. "He ran away when his team needed him," Keith watched and saw when the man flinched ever so slightly. Oh.

"Sounds like a real dick." The barkeep slid the drink over to Keith. It was something dark red and smoky looking. Keith eyed the glass for a moment and sighed as he took it, fingers curling around the glass a little tighter than they should. He normally wouldn't accept drinks from strangers, even if they were behind the counter. Then again, wasn't exactly a stranger now was it?

Keith retracted his mask. "No, just an idiot." His voice rang out unmuffled by the mask's filtration and the barkeep's eyes snapped up to meet his own. He stared open-mouthed at Keith, who only looked back with an impassive stare, seeing through the black face paint and the swirling blue mask.

Keith lifted the glass up to his lips and raised his eyebrows. "It's been a while, Lance."

…

oOo Present oOo

Keith jerked out of the memory and back into reality. He cursed as he sat up on the table and rubbed at his temple where a headache was forming. Delving into the astral plane will do that to you. He'd gotten better at it these last few months, but it was still hard to navigate, especially when you're going through someone else's mind. Especially when said person doesn't want you in there. And especially when said person wasn't even technically alive.

Keith stared solemnly at where Lance's body lay on the alter opposite of the table where he sat. Lance was bathed in the blue light of rejuvenation, eyes closed and chest still. His face was slack and emotionless. This wasn't how Lance was supposed to look. Lance was supposed to be bright and smiling and getting on his nerves and never. . .

Lance wasn't supposed to be this still and quiet.

But, after what Lance had pulled, Keith couldn't help but wonder if that easy smile was real or just a mask to hide a greater darkness eating away inside him. He didn't know. He hadn't had a chance to ask. Couldn't convince him to come back to the Castle with him. Couldn't be there for him. Because . . . because Keith thought that if he left the team and joined the Blades then Lance wouldn't keep feeling like an extra.

One Paladin too many.

Leave the math to Pidge.

Keith left. And for the last five months, he's been regretting it.

In that time, the stranger he made the devil's deal with had taught him about many things, most important of all was bringing the dead back to life. It wasn't as easy or dark as Keith had originally assumed. There was no demons or blood sacrifices, no mass gore and half rotting corpses. Just a soul and quintessence. That's all that was needed.

The soul is what Keith had spent the last few months obtaining. When a person dies, their soul breaks into pieces, then those pieces scatter throughout the universe before returning to the flow quintessence. It's a process that can take many deca-pheobes to complete. Before that can happen, if one could piece the soul back together then it is possible to transmute the soul back into its original body and bring the person back to life.

Umbra taught him how to hone in on any one person's soul and track the fragments through the universe. The things that Keith learned, honestly he couldn't compare it to anything other than magic. With concentration, he could open his eyes and see the colours of people's souls and the lines of universal energy that Allura and other Altean's called quintessence. He learned how to take that energy and create a barrier to contain soul fragments and prevent them from returning the universes flow. Even that was just scratching the surface of what Umbra could teach him, but Keith was hesitant.

He shuddered as he remembered the Galran magicians he had fought against before. The Druids had been powerful and the magic that Keith could now perform was very much like theirs. It felt wrong and Keith could feel it eating away at his own soul each time he used it. Slowly corrupting him, turning his heart black . . . But it was all for Lance, so he'd do it again and again until there was nothing left of himself.

The sheer number of pieces that Lance's soul had broken into had been overwhelming. There were so many. It took so much time, too long. And now he was close. So close.

All the fragments of Lance's soul that he'd collected hovered above Lance's body in a small spherical barrier meant to contain them and prevent their decay, just as the alter was keeping Lance's lifeless body from doing the same.

"Any progress in navigating his memories?" Umbra's soft voice asked. Keith raised his head from where it hung to greet Umbra who had literally appeared out of no where. Keith was no longer startled by his teacher's sudden visits and appearances.

"Just the same flashbacks," Keith hung his head again and rested his elbows on his knees.

"It is to be expected," Umbra came to stand by Lance's alter and Keith watched him from behind his bangs. "His soul is still incomplete. Any thoughts will be sporadic and splintered. But though it is admirable of you to keep trying, your time would be better spent retrieving the last pieces sooner rather then later."

"I know that," Keith snapped and looked away. Truth is, he knows exactly where the last few fragments of Lance's soul are. But . . . he's not ready to face that just yet.

"Peace," Umbra raised his hand in a placating gesture, his dark robes flowing like rippling waters, and Keith felt his shoulders slump. "In any case, I have not come to berate you on your choice of hobbies."

"Then what is it?"

"I have located the first Relic."

That had Keith's attention. The Five Relics were the second thing needed to bring Lance back to life. The representations of the five pure elements in quintessential form; fire, water, earth, forest and sky. "Where?"

"On a small planet, mostly covered by ocean with a few scattered islands," Umbra waved his hand in the air and a hologram of an island dominated by a giant mountain appeared. The most striking feature was the giant tree growing at the top of the mountain. "The Relic of Fire is somewhere on this island. It's your job to find it and secure it before Lux can seal it."

"Lux?" Keith asked. "But I thought she couldn't interfere directly with the universe? The same way you can't."

"She can't," Umbra replied. "But like myself, she has found agents to do her bidding for her. The powers of light and darkness would wreak havoc on the universe without the proper balance, but that problem doesn't exist if you get someone else to do it."

Keith hummed and stood, "So I'll have some competition. Good to know."

Umbra reached out for Keith's hand. "I'll program the coordinates into your portal generator." Keith held out his arm and Umbra's hand glowed with energy as he infused the information into his gauntlet. "You are to leave immediately."

"Right," Keith gripped the gauntlet, adjusting it and feeling the small warmth it emitted after the programing. It was one of the gadgets Umbra had given him. It allowed him to open a portal to the coordinates programed into it, much like how Allura's worm holes worked. It was also the only way to return to the base—the only way to return to Lance.

He pulled up his hood and activated his mask, an off-white plate that looked eerily like a skull. "Are you sure I'm ready?" His voice muffled.

"You are more than ready," Umbra comforted with his soft voice. "You have been for some time. It is your own hesitation that has held you back. You fear for what will happen when this is all over but refuse to consider the possibilities."

"I get it," Keith snapped. "I don't need you in my head. I know what I have to do. And I'll do it, no matter the consequences."

"I know you will," Umbra said with a creepy smile. "That is why I chose you."

"Just make sure you keep up your end of the deal," Keith growled and activated the portal generator. A dark swirling portal opened beneath his feet and Keith fell through.

Oo-oO

Dry leaves crunched under his feet as Keith fell into a crouch on the other side of the portal. The sound of rushing water filled his ears as Keith stepped into the sunlight. He took stock of his surroundings and the late autumn forest that surrounded him. Almost all the trees had lost their leaves and a chilly wind kicked them up as it whisked around the trees.

Off to the side, a large river ran off the side of a cliff and spilled into a great, expansive ocean. Keith scanned the horizon but couldn't make out any other land masses in sight. Turning back around his eyes trailed along the river that led all the way to the base of the mountain.

He took a moment to close his eyes and focus. He felt the magic, the quintessence, rise to respond to him. He felt it tug at his soul, tainting it ever so slightly with each use. Then he opened his eyes to a world of vibrant colours. The green of the trees, the yellow heughs of the rocks, the blue waters splashing behind him, and there at the top of the mountain was the bright, fiery red light that outshone them all. The Fire Relic was before him.

"Alright," Keith told himself, taking a deep breath. "Go time."