Among Others

Holy Water // 16

Lance's POV

O O O

Once again I wake up with a gasp but now I am sure I am really awake. I'm in my lion again and considering the heavy breathing from the other's in my intercom, they seem to be surprised by something too.

I hear Pidge curse and Shiro sternly telling her to stop swearing. I can hear Hunk squeak like he's a mouse that just saw a cat and I now he's terrified. I am, too. I think everybody are.

"What the heck was that?" Pidge says and I notice that we are flying over a dry planet, close enough to actually see it's dry and see that this is the planet we "landed" on. We all stop and just look down, everyone quiet for some seconds before Pidge speaks up again. "Don't tell me I'm getting crazy and wad the only one seeing that we landed down there and fought a red monster."

"Nope!" Hunk hurriedly says and his voice is shaky. "Nope, definitely not the only one. I saw that too and I'm scared so why don't we just fly away..."

"I saw more", I say and cut Hunk's sentence in half. "I... Remember that I told you about it in the... our dream?"

"I remember", Shiro confirms and as usual he sounds so calm. It's almost annoying. "So did we really share one dream, all of us? Are we even awake?"

We are all silent because none of us seems to find the right words in this moment. None of us knows what to say to sort things out.

But then I suggest: "We should fly back to the castle. Coran might know about this weird planet and he can maybe help us."

"Yes", Shiro says immediately and it fills me with a kind of joy that someone approves of my suggestion. "Yes, that's a good idea. Let's fly back."

O O O

"A dry planet with a pink sky and red monsters, am I right?" Coran says and tugs at the end of his mustache. We all nod where we stand in the control room. I throw a quick glance at the spot where me and Keith once sat and my chest tightens. It wasn't long ago we sat there and talked about Earth, and coming back, and it wasn't long ago I saw this entirely new side of Keith for the first time. I want to see it more often but will I? Will I even see the everyday side of him anymore? Will I even see his face anymore?

"Tell me more", Coran commands and he palms his forehead like he's trying to squeeze out some ideas of what this planet is named. "It sounds familiar."

"It seems we never landed", Pidge says. "It all happened in our daydreams. We shared one dream and it kept happening things down there but in reality we were still in our lions above the planet." She looks around at us. "Maybe we're still asleep..."

"Oh quiznak! This is not good!" Coran exclaims and we all flinch. He looks over at the princess beside him and she seems as terrified as him. Coran quickly turns to us again and takes four big steps and cups Shiro's face in his hands to turn his head straight. Then he searches in his eyes and Shiro just raise his eyebrows. Coran looks into Shiro's eyes for two more seconds before mumbling a low good, and goes over to Hunk to do the same. 

"W-what are you doing?" Hunk hesitantly asks and leans slightly back. Coran nods and goes over to Pidge instead, and she instinctively takes two steps back, holding up a hand.

"Touch me and I will snap your fingers in half", she growls. "One by one."

"I need to check the color of your eyes. If they are turning slightly pink it means you have fallen in their trance. You could fall asleep whenever and never wake up again", Coran tells us and we all lean closer due to the interest. Fall asleep and never wake up again? Man, that would be good when I went to high school. Just fall asleep knowing I have a test the next day that I didn't study for whatsoever but then never wake up to do it. Just sleep.