Loving You to the Stars and Back // Keith x OC //

The Kidnapping

27

We continued to follow the sounds of footsteps that lead us to another room. There was this bright yellow light radiating from that room, making Keith and me cautious as we continued to proceed further.

Just as we were nearing the area, there were two sentry guards in our way. Without warning, Keith activated his Bayard and leaped towards them, taking them down one by one. I pulled out my bow, pressing the button to activate it and readied myself in case more sentries appeared. Luckily, it was just the two that were in the hall.

I laid low as I followed Keith who was a few feet away from me. The contents of the room started to get clearer. There was a gallery of the glowing yellow cartridges that surrounded the place from top to bottom. My jaw dropped as I marvelled at the sight.

"What are all of these?" I spoke with a hushed tone as I stood behind Keith.

There was a conveyor belt of some sort carrying one of the cartridges to the middle where there was a sphere-like glass underneath. Across  the contraption was the hooded figure from earlier. Even from a distance, I still got the creeps. Then, the large round sphere started to glow as substance began to drip into the sphere, circling downwards on the inside and filling it up.

As the sphere was filling up with the yellow light, the hooded figure extended his arms out, releasing purple magic from his hands. My jaw dropped slightly as I continued to watch what was happening before my eyes. The yellow substance went from yellow to purple, dripping down a small funnel on the bottom of the sphere and pouring into a small container.

"What is that?" I murmured under my breath.

"I don't know, but I'll get the others to see this too," Keith said as he activated his helmet's screen. "Hey Coran, you need to see this."

I hear Coran gasp from my communicator as Keith looked over at what was happening in front of us, "I've never seen anything like it." He says.

"What is that?" Pidge's voice was heard on the other end as well.

"The material is quintessence, the substance with the highest known energy per unit volume in the universe," The robot replied to Pidge.

"Hey, nice job, Pidge! You made him work for us," Lance exclaims.

"What? Impossible!" Coran added on.

"Raw quintessence material is transported here from throughout the galaxy and refined into standardized Galra fuel requirements," The robot continued to speak. So whatever was happening right now with the hooded figure, was the process of the raw quintessence turning into the purple fuel that the Galra need.

"Did you guys here that?" Pidge asks.

"I can't believe it!" There was a sense of panic in Coran's voice as we heard him through our communicators, "They've found a new way to acquire quintessence!"

"Guys, I'm going to steal some of this quint-whatever," Keith replied as he turned back into the hallway. "Athena, you stay here and spot for me. I'll find a way to get a sample of whatever they're producing."

I nodded my head, "Got it." I stayed close to the wall while Keith went on his way to grab some of the quintessence. I watched as the purple ooze dripped from the bottom of the sphere and into those glass compartments that sat on another conveyor belt, "I wonder where this leads to."

I looked up at the hooded figure, seeing its face as the wind made his robe waver. My jaw dropped once again, seeing it's hard bird-like mask that made him look even spookier than before. I couldn't also see a neckline.