What they don't know

Part 15

"Aerin, how far along are you with the wiring?"

"About half-way."

"Good," Lance felt lighter for the first time in a while, they were making leaps of progress recently, "Cerow? What about the welding process? Have you-"

"All finished with the reports, sir!" He mock-saluted, a gesture Matt had taught them, but he was holding in a giggle as well.

"Right..." Lance glanced at his notebook, fumbling for a second, "And what about the-"

Aerin snorted suddenly, causing Lance to jump and glance around. Matt grinned widely at him, holding his hands out to either side in a 'you got me' gesture.

"Oh," Lance smiled, "Fancy meeting you here."

"Fancy indeed." Matt laid out their lunches on the desk nearby.

"I don't think that makes sense."

"Sure it does." Matt shrugged, taking a small fruit from Lance's plate in retaliation.

Lance rolled his eyes, pulling his own tray closer, "I swear you spend more time being our errand boy than doing your actual job." He teased.

"Well, we do have the most working hours." Aerin drawled out.

"And I really envy you for it." Matt nodded sagely, all mock seriousness. He broke out into a grin, ruffling Lance's hair, "Anyway, Imma head out. Have fun!" 

Cerow cheered, though it came out muffled around his straw. Lance waved as he left, "See you." He turned back to the scientists, "Now, Aerin, I need you to finish your report and the wiring and, Cerow, I need you to carry on with the welding, I want the main assembly done by the end of the phoeb and then testing to begin immediately after that."

"Got it." The other two signed off for their lunch breaks, leaving Lance alone in the lab.

He finished his lunch alone aside from the murmurings in his head. The God alone had usually been quiet but, once they had split them into their aspects, the noise had multiplied. The God was still there in each of them, but it was as if new entities had been born from it as well. 

Lance joined them in their hangar, looking over their work. They hadn't administered a paint job yet, that would be the final touch, but Lance could still feel their quintessence swirling around them. It was a perfect giveaway for their true identity. 

They felt so similar to the lions, but it was almost as if they were new-born versions of them. The bases of their personalities were there, everything their quintessence embodied, but there were clear differences. 

Red was focused and protective, worrying over every task that could potentially put them in harm's way. Where Lance's Red was quiet and fierce, a temper constantly close to boiling over, this one was softer, always so full of love and care. She was so much more open with her emotions in a way Red always avoided expressing.

Similarly, this Blue was different too. Lance's Blue was motherly and tender with a playfully undercurrent. This one was colder and distant. She didn't trust any of them truly yet. Lance wondered what his Blue had been like in the beginning. Was her personality originally so influenced by her first Paladin that the one Lance met in the end was completely different?

The shells that they had already made were about three quarters done. You could even make out the exact shape by now through the mechanical skeletons held up in intricate layers of scaffolding. Five skeletal wolves all rubbed up against his mind in greeting. The others couldn't hear them, and Lance saw the way they took his alterations mid-work as he took in the changes the wolves wanted.