Chapter Text
Keith woke to the sound of his alarm. It’s not like the alarm was new he just wasn’t used to having to get up this early yet. After he left the garrison he didn’t have to get up early for inspections or classes. He lives on his own and he didn’t have to follow rules. Except he didn’t anymore. He wasn’t in his little shack in the desert, he was in the castle and he was a paladin. It was time to start the day.
Allura looked up as he entered the room. Shiro and Coran were with her. All three of them studying something on the screen. Shiro often got up way before any of the other paladins. He says it’s because he’s used to early mornings from being at the garrison. Lance says that it’s because he can’t sleep because he’s “worrying about them”. Keith thinks it’s both. He knows Shiro can’t sleep at night sometimes because he worries about upcoming missions and how to keep his crew safe but he also knows it’s just something ingrained in him.
“Good morning Keith” Shiro greets as he approaches them. He looked like he hadn’t slept all night. His usually bright eyes were dull as he cracked a smile at Keith.
“Morning” he responded dully. He knows he should probably be a bit more friendly but he really just didn’t have it in him. They had a rough day yesterday liberating some small planet from Galra occupation. It had taken everything out of everyone.
Keith jumped as the door opens and the rest of the crew walks in. Pidge and Hunk were dressed for the day but lance was still in his robe. Keith would rather actually die than admit it to anyone but lance looked kinda adorable in his robe. Wait what.
His thoughts were interrupted by a terrible noise from the castle. Coran yelped and ran to the control pannel.
“It looks like we have a distress signal?”
“You’re not sure?” Asked Pidge. They were suddenly looking a lot more alert than they were twenty seconds ago. “Can I see?”
Coran looked a little confused but stepped aside.
“This isn’t like any signal I’ve ever seen” said Coran.
Pidge looked up from what they were inspecting. “It looks like it’s coming from the planet itself”
A collective chorus of confused sounds erupted from the paladins but Coran jumped into action, pushing Pidge out of the way to get better look at the screen.
“The call seems to be emanating from the core of this planet in the Shinara cluster.”
Allura looked so confused and Keith knew she had reason to.
“Wait” he said, “Isnt that like on the other side of space? How is the signal getting here?”
Allura turned towards him. “I have heard stories of planets calling out before. My mother used to tell me this story of how when she was a girl her grandfather answered a distress call only to find that the planet had sent it out by itself. I never believed her”
“Yea but Keith said that’s super far, so how did it get here” Lance asked.
“I have no idea. But we must assist them at once”
And just like that they sprung into motion. Allura stepped up to begin opening a wormhole and the rest of the crew started their duties. It was Keith’s job to help Shiro form a plan on what to do once they get there.
Shiro was deep in thought when Keith approached.
“Hey what’s the plan” Keith asked. Shiro barely even looked up from the screen.
“This planet is called Gaia and there is only one recorded file about this place on the ship. It just says stay away”
Keith grimaced. He was not in the mood for another hard mission. Yesterday was hard enough and he really just wanted a day of rest.
“That doesn’t sound good Shiro” he said.
“I know and I’m not gonna like I’m not looking forward to finding out why that’s the only note” he looked back down at the screen. He couldn’t help but notice the look of annoyance on Shiros face.
Keith felt the familiar rumble of the ship entering the wormhole and looked up.
A chorus of gasps sounded as everyone took in the planet before them. It was beautiful but it was also grayish and clearly wounded. There was massive crater that wounded its skin.
“What happened here” questioned Allura. She was horrified.
“It doesn’t look like Galra” stated Lance
“We don’t know that Lance they could have wounded the planet and left” said Allura
“I don’t see any signs of Galra technology on the scan the castle did of the planet. They haven’t been here” piped Pidge.
Keith would loathe to admit it but he was intrigued. The planet had jungles and deserts along with a region that must be snowy. But everything just seemed to lack color. Everything seemed dull and there were vast expanses without any plants. That’s what unsettled Keith the planet felt almost barren. There were also giant circles in some of the regions they flew over. They almost looked like weapons and Keith said a silent thank you to the castles cloaking mechanisms.
Everyone sat in silence as they finally hovered over what had clearly once been a very large city. It looked like it was divided into eight segments with a large building in the middle. It was mostly rubble now and it looked like people began to settle on the outskirts.
Keith was amazed by the sheer size of it.
The city was clearly visible in space, it was that huge. Everyone made their way back to the console as Allura announced the plan. The paladins were to take the lions down and land them in the wastes around the city. She would go with Shiro in the black lion and Coran would stay and make repairs to the castle.
“I need to do a check of everything as we haven’t done it in a while. Wouldn’t want to end up like an upside down Yalmor if something preventable goes wrong”
Nobody questioned him but Keith was sure Coran had done this check already this week.
Coran seemed all too eager to sit this one out. It was weird. Keith looked to the other paladins to see if they were thinking the same thing but nobody betrayed any feelings.
“Ok guys let’s go” Shiro started out of the room.
Something told Keith this was going to be a weird one and he was kinda excited.