Chapter 12:

Masada (Intro)

Keith is running down a dark corridor. He can see the emergency lights flashing and there's a sound, a horrible siren – hull breech, that's a hull breech, he knows somehow.

Ahead of him, an indistinct figure in armor is running towards a bright light, but they're so fast and he can't seem to keep up.

"Wait!" he shouts, reaching out.

The corridor stretches, the gap between them seeming to yawn wider and wider, and the figure turns, holding out a hand. Then the figure is holding his hand and he's being tugged along, half-running, half stumbling as he struggles to keep pace.

The figure is yelling something at him, but it comes out garbled.

All of a sudden, he trips over something and looks down in confusion: a blanket?

His blanket, he realizes.

And that's the ceiling. His ceiling, in the Castle of Lions.

Also, he's on the floor. His boots are literally staring him in the face.

Keith blinks as consciousness reasserts itself and everything sort of slowly clicks back together.

A dream. It was a dream.

He lets out a groan, rolling his head in frustration, and then sits up to untangle his feet from the blankets twisting around them. Idly, he wonders how in the heck he managed to do that and what brought that weird dream on in the first place.

It must have been something about Gunfwe Praexhli.

Yeah, that sounds about right, now that he thinks about it. That's probably where he got the corridor from.

"I hate these dreams," he mumbles aloud and reaches up to touch the control for the on-board chronometer near his bed.

Glowing blue numbers project just over the wall and he groans loudly.

It's not even close to their designated "morning" yet. And there's no way he's going back to sleep now.

With a frustrated huff, Keith rolls over and tugs on his boots. He might as well get some sword practice in or something. Better yet, maybe Shiro is still up.

Keith nods a little to himself, tucking his knife into the holder on his belt. Shiro always knew what to do when he had bad dreams and he could tell Shiro anything.

Or, he used to be able to, anyway.

Keith palms the door controls, frowning a little, and starts down the hallway towards the Command Center.

Kerberos is the worst thing that ever happened to them. He can't believe he was ever excited about that stupid mission or that it might someday be his turn to follow Shiro out there. But then, what did he know? What did either of them know?

Not for the first time, he curses the Galra and Zarkon under his breath.

He hates them.

With a bitter snort, he jabs at the controls for the doors to Command and immediately pauses in the doorway. The star charts are active, scattering pinpricks of holographic stars all over the room, and there's a system actively selected. Someone's also sitting in one of the chairs and it's not Shiro.

It's Lance.

And he looks like hell.

Keith warily approaches him, trying to peer over his shoulder. "Lance? You okay?"

Then, he sees the selected system and stops, his face falling a little: it's the same one they just left. He should have guessed. Lance was really taking it pretty hard.

"They're going to be okay, Lance, you know that, right?" he tries, stopping next to the chair. "I mean, we got the defense grid active and they got all those bombs."

Lance huffs, crossing his arms over his chest and looks away.

"We are going back," Keith reminds him, pointedly.

And soon, too: somehow, Allura and Coran had softened the elders to the idea of allowing a few of the young adults to go with them and help pick up some supplies, although he suspects it actually had less to do with getting supplies than giving the more hot-headed survivors something constructive to do that wasn't handling high explosives. It certainly hadn't been something that sat well with Pidge and Shiro, both of whom had practically vanished when they got back to the castle.

Lance doesn't respond and Keith sighs.

It's one of the more awkward moments they've ever had since this whole mess started.

"Keith, do you remember the Garrison, in tactics class, when they talked about Masada?" Lance asks, suddenly, breaking the silence.

Keith narrows his eyes in bewilderment. "No… why?"

Lance snaps his head up and seriously looks like he's about to scream at him. Then his mouth snaps shut and he deliberately looks away, slumping into his chair.

Keith can practically hear his teeth grinding.

"Forget about it," Lance says, after a moment, and stands.

Keith watches him in confusion as he leaves the room, shoulders slumped, and blinks, looking back at the screen. What was that all about?

Whatever, Lance would obviously tell them when he's ready, Keith decides and shuts down the charts with a gesture.

Now, to find Shiro.