She was not a beautiful thing to look at, the woman who came out of the card.
She didn't just have the look of death. She had the look of everything that had ever died.
She was holding what must have been a dead child.
"Shiro… why did it do that?"
He didn't have an answer to that.
She was tall and still. She watched them all.
"I guess… we should just ask HER," Lance said.
They stared at him.
"Hi. Who are you?" he said.
The woman stared back, unchanging.
"Okayyy, um…"
The eyes of the child stared at them just as much.
"Keith, why did you even HAVE this thing?" Lance asked.
Keith shook his head. His eyes were locked on the monster.
"I don't know. I always have."
"Can we… maybe make it go away?" Hunk asked.
"I mean, probably if we take the card out," said Pidge.
"I think she's trying to tell us something," said Keith.
They all looked at him.
"Like what?"
He sighed.
"I don't know. But it's important."
The wooden child opened its mouth.
It cried.
The sound felt like emptiness.
It reminded Shiro of things he used to love. Things he wasn't sure existed any more.
Its face was blank and its body didn't move but its mouth hung open and it cried.
"Make it stop," he heard Keith say.
He saw that he was shaking.
"Yeah, I second that," Hunk said.
"Just take out the card!" Pidge snapped.
Shiro reached for it.
The woman put a hand over the child's eyes. When they were shut, it turned quiet.
"Or that works too," Lance said, side-eyeing the creature. "So… what IS this thing and why did it come out of that card?"
"Call me stupid for asking but, it's never done this before, right?" Hunk asked Keith.
Keith shook his head.
"Well whatever it is, it's the kind of thing Shiro's prosthetic can read," Pidge said.
"So it really MIGHT just be a weird alien credit card thing," Lance said.
"Lance, I don't know if you're looking at the same thing I am but it is definitely not a credit card."
"Hey, it's aliens, you never know."
"Well what I would ACTUALLY guess," Pidge said, "is that it's some sort of hologram encrypted on the card, and somehow this alien technology is what projects it."
"I mean, that's not THAT different from a credit card," Hunk said. "Just a lot… creepier."
Shiro almost felt like apologizing, but the woman seemed to take no offense.
"Okay, that's great," Lance said. "So you can use your alien card machine to make a blue lady and a freaky baby doll. But what's the point of that?"
They all looked at Shiro.
He hated not having answers for them.
He looked at the card in his hand, and he looked at the woman.
"Why are you here?"
She shifted the baby to one hand and made a motion with the other.
The wall before her disappeared.
It hummed, swirling blue, like a vortex behind a layer of glass. It was edged in luminescent cyan, in what might have been the letters of the star folk.
And Shiro felt himself weakening. Like it was his own energy that brought it forth.
"What the HECK?" he heard Lance say.
They watched it. It was like a living thing.
"It's a portal," Keith said. "She wants us to go somewhere."
"Do we really TRUST this creepy lady?" Hunk asked. "Like, maybe it's just gonna fry us if we go in."
Keith was watching the creature.
"I trust her."
"Well, Shiro," Lance said. "She came out of YOUR arm. Do YOU trust her?"
His arm, yes, but Keith's card too.
It wasn't a light thing that Keith trusted someone.
"I do," Shiro said.
"Where do you think this portal goes?" said Pidge.
Shiro got up from the couch.
"Wherever it is, it's important to her," he said. "And it's the only lead we have on these hostile aliens." He looked back at them. "I'm going."
"I'm going with you," Keith said.
"Yeah, so am I," said Pidge.
"You guys seem awfully sure about this," said Hunk.
"What, you don't want to try something awesome and different?" said Lance. "When else are you going to get a chance like this?"
"Don't tell me you're going, too."
Lance grinned.
"Are you kidding? This is like, the coolest thing that's ever happened to me! Don't tell me you're NOT going?"
"Uhh…"
"No one's going to make you," Shiro said. "You should do whatever feels right."
Hunk sighed.
"Well, I can't let my best friend get into TOO much trouble, now can I?"
Lance threw an arm around his shoulders.
"That's the spirit! This is what makes you the best friend a guy could have!"
So it was decided. They all exchanged a look before stepping to the wall.
He felt an arm link with his as they crossed into the portal.
Behind them, the creature followed.