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“Do you think we should tell the team about this?” Lance asks nervously.
Keith hums and thinks for a moment,” Naah, I think we should check the bright tunnel, the light might be coming from the jewel itself right? I mean the warm tunnel seems like a trap, it’s giving this weird vibe.”
“If you say so man, but let’s not get too far okay? We might even freeze if it gets too cold” Lance warns, still hesitant about the whole thing.
“Anyway, let's stay close in case anything happens”
“Yeah you’re right”
Lance steps closer to Keith and they both enter the cold tunnel with slow steps. As they move further, they have to basically hug each other to stay warm, no other choice it seems.
“ughhh why is it so fucking cold!!”
“I know r-right?” Lance replies with his teeth chattering.
The light from the cave is so bright that it’s really hard to even open their eyes, soon they find a dead end but also the source of the strong light.
It was an hourglass-like object that was emitting very strong purple light. And there was a protective translucent energy field around it, just like the one around the Blue lion when they found it in the cave on earth.
“uhh…what should we do?” Lance asks.
“I don’t know?” Keith shrugs, even though his arms were around Lance.
“you think we should knock? Just like before?”
Keith giggles at that, which makes Lance smile in return.
“go ahead sharpshooter”
And that’s what Lance does, he knocks on the barrier, and just like before, it gives, and the weird-looking hourglass is free to touch.
They both look at each other in amusement, then Keith breaks the silence,
“Wow, can’t believe that actually worked, twice”
Lance laughs, then just shrugs and reaches for the hourglass when Keith stops him,
“Wait!”, he grabs his arm,” do you think it’s safe?” he asks worriedly.
“Keith, my man, is anything we ever do, safe?”
Keith sighs,” yeah, ok, ok I guess we should take this thing and show it to the team, maybe it’s something needed to extract energy from the jewel or something.”
Lance nods and finally grabs the hourglass, they both look around.
Nothing happens.
But after a few seconds, the walls start shaking violently.
“I knew it!!!” Keith says
“we’ll talk about this ‘I told you so’ later buddy, right now we need to get out of here! Fast!” Lance exclaims as they start running towards the entrance hand in hand.
As they make their way out of the cave system, barely managing to get out before the walls collapse, they find the rest of the team already outside.
“Where were you guys!??? we have been waiting for half an hour, I tried contacting you several times but no response!!” Shiro bursts as soon as he sees them.
“uhh..”Lance starts but is interrupted by Allura,” look, team, we don’t have time, let’s just deliver the jewel to the queen, then we’ll discuss this in the castle.”
“so you guys found the jewel? No one is injured right?” Keith asks.
“yes we found it, we’ll explain everything and everyone is fine, but right now we need to go because the queen is furious.”
Now that’s weird? Why is she furious? they didn’t even take 2 hours to find the jewel?
What’s going on? Both of them are confused but follow the rest of the team anyway.
Soon they’re back inside the castle and in front of the queen.
The jewel is huge and she does look pleased that they found it but there’s a deep frown on her face
“what took you so long?!!” she roars
“your majesty, with all due respect we only took 2 hours but if that is still too long for you, we apologize,” Allura replies calmly.
“2 hours? You guys took 2 days!!!!! what is wrong with you??”
All of the paladins look super confused by that statement and looking at their confusion, the queen pauses too, thinking a bit,
“OH! Of course! It must have been the time jewel!! ughhhh”
“May I ask what a time jewel is?” Allura inquires for everyone.
“Ah yes, sorry about that, you see there is a jewel that can control time, because of its presence, time can flow differently, and since that cave system has that jewel, anyone who enters the caves experiences time differently from those outside the caves. So for you, it must have been two hours but for us, it was two days, sorry about yelling at you all, I’ll gladly join the coalition.”
The team exhales a sigh of relief, finally, they can go back to the castle and out of this cold fucking planet!
While Shiro and Allura go with the queen to complete the formalities of the coalition, Pidge and Hunk run towards the castle of lions, leaving Keith and Lance frozen in their spot.
Why?
Because even though they would love to run back to the warm castle too, they have more pressing matters in their hands, literally.
“Are you thinking what I am thinking?” Lance smirks.
“Oh definitely!!!” Keith snickers, matching the mischievous smirk on Lance’s face.