What they don't know

Part 16

"You cannot do this. Not now." Estel stood in the centre of the hangar, in front of the wolves, his arms crossed.

"Please move." Matt and Lotor were behind Lance, tense.

"You're putting the entire fleet at risk." The altean warned, glaring at them all sternly although his eyes were strangely softened in understanding.

"Please." Lance held his gaze, "It's our home. It's the last thing we have left."

After a long moment, Estel sighed, bowing away to let them pass, "I will not allow this again."

Lance smiled at him as he followed Lotor to Blu, "Hopefully, I won't need you to. Thank you."

Estel inclined his head, his eyes closing as he turned and briskly left them to their escape.

The embers crackled, the wood fuelling the last licks of flames popping under its heat. Alec stirred it with a spare branch, his eyes stained with the light of the dying fire. 

Hunk snored quietly to one side of him, insisting to stay up for 'old times' sake', Alec smiled at the reminder. Hunk wasn't meant for war, not really. He was too soft and caring. He took on too many responsibilities though that dragged him away from the things he was usually attentive to. The Druid wondered if, had the Paladin had a little more free-time to spend with Lance before he left, would he have noticed. Maybe they would have brought him in on their plan. 

The others had retreated to bed aside from Keith who had left not too long ago to roam with his wolf. Alec would just have to remain awake until he returned.

He drew his knees a little closer to his chest, the stick in his hand leaving an ashy trail on his palm. He closed his eyes, feeling the heat of the embers fading away ahead of him, its quintessence throbbing dully as it bled into the surroundings. He used to have a lot of red quintessence, he was sure of it. Before the stage in his training when his own quintessence had been stripped away, replaced with the experimental, manufactured kind Haggar had been working on.

Red quintessence was temperamental, just like its corresponding lion. It had tendency to cause explosions or alter the age of tissue. It wasn't at all reliable for experiments. 

He supposed, in a sense, the draining of his quintessence had been a good thing. 

The night air stung his cheeks, working its way under Lance's jacket and biting at his skin. The taste of smoke was on his tongue, the familiar scent of morning dew already building around him. Hunk's gentle, rumbling snores joined the chorus of the early birds in the air, their songs nothing at all like the ones he remembered from earth. 

It was all so starkly familiar. So tangibly recognisable a sickly plug began to form in his stomach.

It shouldn't be familiar. Nothing about it should be familiar.  

He had been in the Druids' care since he was five, his memories past and around that point were non-existent. He didn't remember the faces of his family, the sound of their voice, his bedroom.

He certainly shouldn't remember being Hunk's roommate, listening to him fall asleep at night as he messaged his family deep into the hours of the early morning. 

A stick cracked and Alec felt his head snap towards it despite his vision lacking because of his staring at the fire. 

He shoved on a smirk, barely thinking about the action, "Fancy seeing you here, Keith."

Keith's eyes lingered on him a moment as the wolf trotted towards him, "...You're still up?" He finally said. 

Alec's hand found the snout of the wolf, stroking along it until he reached its deep, fluffy mane, "Someone has to keep watch while our fearless leaders away."