Escape (Keith X OC)

Chapter 6

Hunk, Pidge and Lance finally made it to the room all at once.

Coran yelled, "Alright, ya Lilly lubbers, today's mission is to search for the next jewel-" Everyone sighed.

"There's another jewel? How many ARE THERE?" said Lance.

Allura answered him, "Well, too many to actually say for certain, BUT this jewel is very close by and so it is another target for the Galra. This jewel will summon the Guardian named Grein and is found in deep, glowing caves of planet Able." They all retrieved the coordinates and went to their lions.

Keith looked towards Tera on their way, "Hold on, you're coming, too?"

She glanced warily, "Yeah, Allura said I could help out on missions...is there a problem?" He didn't mind her coming. He liked her company, but he didn't want her to get hurt.

Keith told her, "You don't have a ship-"

"Allura has provided me with one. If not, I could just go with you or someone else," she replied, making a fair point.

Keith simply gave up, "Alright, you can go, I guess."

She laughed and poked his chest, "Sorry to tell you this but, uh, it was never your call to decide whether I go or not." He didn't know how to reply. Keith only wanted to keep Tera safe. He saved her from the Galra once and he did not want to do it again with greater risk.

She ran off to her ship and yelled back, "You're going to need my help anyway if you want this jewel quick." Flustered, he hurried after towards his lion and plugged in the coordinates.

They reached the planet and it was beautiful. The planet had dark skies of purple with glowing stars sprinkled across. Mushrooms and other Fungus grew in elaborate designs with a vibrant glow of neon blues, greens, and pinks. The grass was a dark purple, darker than the sky, like purple-black licorice. The water had a clear glow and there was blue, glowing sap flowing slowly out of trees. Everyone was amazed of the environment.

Hunk walked next to Tera, both of them in awe, "This place is amazing. It looks so...cool."

Shiro was next to speak out, "Well, an entrance underground is right over there behind the water fall and, since there's six of us instead of five, we can split us up into 3 groups." Everyone agreed. Pidge walked over to Shiro to begin searching. Keith and Lance shot each other death glares and decided to not pair up with one another, leaving Hunk with Lance. Naturally, Tera was left with Keith, despite Lance hoping to pair with her.

Tera could not help but feel weird when she was around Keith. She couldn't help herself but feel sick with him. Keith felt awkward with her too, but he did not feel as bad as she did. Maybe it was because he was used to hiding his emotions away?

"We should get to searching, now", said Keith.

Tera nodded and led them through the tunnel, "Here, follow me. I can sense the stone's path." They walked for a few minutes in the tunnel that was lit up with a few glowing blue crystals and mushrooms here and there. As they walked deeper, giant clumps of soil from the ceiling of the cave would fall every now and then.

Suddenly, a huge chunk of rock came falling down near Keith and Tera. Almost like a natural reflex, Keith immediately grabbed Tera and pulled her close, even though she was a foot away from the collapsing rock.

"That was close. Are you alright?" asked Keith. He waited for an answer while still holding onto Tera, looking at her facial features.

She turned, "Uhh, yeah, I'm alright." Tera then took a gulp and moved away from Keith. She hoped he would not be as protective. She could tell his behavior was out of the ordinary, even with the short time she has known him.They kept walking, making a few turns here and there.

Tera then spoke, "The jewel should be in there behind these roots." Keith warned her to get back as he used his sword to make an opening through the roots. He told her to wait as he took a moment to look around to make sure it was safe. Tera ended up moving him out of the way to pass through.

She mumbled to herself, "I can take care of myself, you know. I'm not that helpless."

He wanted to snap back, "I know you aren't, but that doesn't mean I can't, you know."

Tera gave a look for him to continue, " You know what?"

Keith sighed, "It's doesn't mean I can't worry and take precautions..." He scrunched his nose and walked to another opening in the cave.

Tera rolled her eyes, "It's that way, not over there." She pointed to a smaller opening on the other side.

Embarassed, Keith turned quickly, "Alright, then let's keep moving." Tera led the way once more.

She suddenly stopped to look at Keith, "We have company." Fungus looking creature busted through some of the crystals, which weren't crystals at all, but eggs. Tera then lunged at a creature with her bare hands that were radiating with energy. Keith used his sword again to fight the monsters off. They all died off one at a time and soon were all gone. It was a mess around them, greenish slime everywhere.

Once they had entered into a not her tunnel, deepening their journey through the the cave, there were inscriptions on the wall. Tera took notice, "Hey, check thus out." Keith walked up from behind her, hunched, looking over her shoulder while placing one hand on the wall to dust off the writing. "Woah, what do you think it says?", said Keith. Tera could barely decipher what was being said on the ancient walls, it now looked like jibberish. She attempted to read anyway, "It's seems to me to be a warning of some kind?"

"A warning? For what exactly, I mean, we just fought off some things back there but, that was then? So, what's this talking about now?" explained Keith.

Tera furrowed, "I'm not entirely sure, but is says, 'save' something, something, 'no time remains...,' something, something, 'return gems'..." Keith moved to look at Tera, "Well, whatever it says, it isn't good. We better get that jewel before someone else does." She nodded and looked down. Keith could tell something was wrong, "Hey, what's going on? Are you okay?" He placed a hand on Tera's shoulder and moved her chin up with his other free hand to look her in the eyes. "If something's wrong you have to tell me," he said with such an urgent expression. She took a moment to realize his concern.

She answered, "It's nothing, jeez. You worry a lot, you know? But, I guess it's nice to see you care so much. It really makes me feel special." She smirked at him, causing him choke. Tera snickered at his reaction, "Now, are you okay?" With Keith hunched over with his hands on his knees, he responded, "No, no, I'm alright, really. Oh, gosh, ahem. We shouldn't be hanging around here this long, come on." He couldn't help but feel a little anxious being around Tera, or as he called her, Hope.

The more he was with Tera in the dark tunnels, the more he thought about what Lance told him a few days back about it being the, "perfect situation". Keith knew Tera wasn't afraid of much, but a part of him wished she was at least scared of the dark just a tiny bit. Then maybe she'd be closer to him if she was paranoid, it did seem like the perfect situation. But, Tera was focused on the objective at hand unlike Keith, which was highly unusual. He kept trying to snap himself out of it, but he could help but have Tera in the back of his mind.

Keith couldn't tell if he was alright about gaining feelings or attraction to someone, especially when they were now one of his team mates. It seemed to make things more difficult to get through. He noticed how cautious he's being, which was fine, but he would unfocus on the main mission every now and then. He needed to get over Tera. Keith barely even knew her, yet he couldn't help but want to know more and spend every moment with her. She was like an infinite puzzle that kept adding on pieces to solve and finish the whole picture, and he loved that.