The Missing Pilot

Chapter Eight

"Paladins~!"

Allura's voice was jovial as she came over the castle's speaker system.

"We have a big day today! It's time to get up!"

Within minutes, Matt, Pidge, Hunk, and Shiro were in the command center, decked in their armor and at least partially awake. The four of them were chatting idly and waiting for Lance to appear in the room, armor half on and yawning, possibly complaining about his beauty sleep.

After ten minutes passed, Lance still wasn't in the command center.

"Where's Lance?" Pidge asked. "He's still not up yet?"

"Give it a couple of doboshes. You know how Lance is," Allura said flippantly, waving her hand. "He's probably finishing up one of his odd beauty routines or something. He'll be here!"

They did exactly that: wait. And after another ten minutes, Shiro reluctantly pried himself away from Matt. "I'll go get him. He might have not heard the all-call."

"Okay, Shiro. Hurry back!" Matt said, a dopey grin on his face that was quickly interrupted by Pidge punching him in the arm.

Shiro smiled and walked down the hallways of the castle, humming to himself as he approached Lance's room. He kind of expected to hear Lance listening to music or something with headphones on; therefore, when he knocked and didn't hear an answer, he didn't seem concerned. He simply waited a minute and then hit the button to open the door.

A perfectly made bed and almost spotlessly clean room met him.

"Lance? Are you in here?" He walked in. "You in the shower, or something?"

Nothing. Shiro felt a sense of dread as he walked through the room and went into the bathroom. There was no steam or water running, and the only things in there were a few tubes of some sort of face cream, and a tub of the face mask gel that Lance used at night.

Shiro's eyes widened and he looked around one more time, hoping Lance was just playing a practical joke on him. Maybe Lance would pop out of his closet and give Shiro a spook or something.

When nothing happened, the black paladin panicked and rushed out of the room. He made his way straight to the command center, slightly out of breath when he reached it.

"Lance isn't in his room," Shiro said, eyes wide.

There was a collective gasp and the room went silent.

Allura laughed awkwardly, a slightly concerned look on her face. "I'm sure he's somewhere, Shiro! Come on, we'll split up and search the castle."

They did just that. Pidge and Matt went off, and Allura and Coran went another direction, leaving Shiro and Hunk. Hunk looked visibly worried for his friend.

"I really hope he's okay. Normally he sleeps in, so it's odd that he's not in his room." Hunk was chattering a bit, and Shiro placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Hunk, I-I'm sure whatever Lance is doing, he's safe and okay."

Even he didn't believe his words, though. Where could Lance be?

After nearly an hour, everyone met back up in the command center, all of them reporting a negative.

"We did note something odd," Pidge started, "because I thought you had twelve pod ships, Allura?"

"Well, yes, there are normally twelve. Why do you say?"

"We only counted eleven. One of the ships parked on the ends was gone."