For The Stars

Chapter 3: Under Attack

As it turns out, you could program the gladiator to fight in the style of different species, and Keith was excited to set it to Altean and Galra. Galra for the familiarity of his native fight style, and Altean purely out of curiosity. But the coolest feature he discovered was that the droid could be set to 'learn' a style through training. He'd set it to 'learn' when ever the other Paladins signed in, and already it was fairly decent at replicating a Human fight style.

The style it came up with was a mix match of Karate, Taekwondo, and boxing due to the 3 Humans having wildly different skill sets. Keith didn't want to 'taint' the results with his own styles and their Green paladin had yet to make an appearance in the training room aside from forced group sessions.

A few quintants ago Katie had pulled him aside, shoving him in a small dark room, and making him instantly nervous and desperate to get out. She'd smacked him on the arm (though he didn't doubt she'd have gone for the head if she could reach) and told him to 'chill out man' as she locked the door. He immediately slammed his eyes shut. There was a faint light coming off a jar in the corner, casting an eerie blue glow in a small radius around it, and he knew the room was definitely dark enough for his eyes to slightly glow. There was no way Katie could see him, it was far too dark and even the light from the jar wouldn't be enough to illuminate his face, so he kept his eyes screwed tightly shut and 'stared' right back.

"Open your eyes." She commanded and he nearly complied purely out of shock.

"What?"

"Open them."

"They are open."

"Liar. I know they're closed cause I've seen them glow before. Open your eyes, Keith." He sighed and felt his shoulders slump, she may be small but she was terrifying. After a moment he gave in, opening his eyes and watching hers go wide. "Right, what's your other half?"

He nearly choked. "What?"

"Ugh. Keith I pulled you aside cause we need to talk and I know you're hiding something you don't want every one to know. What. Is. Your. Other. Half?" Her eyes had narrowed and were boring directly into his soul. He sighed again.

"What makes you think it's a secret?" He asked incredulously and she smacked his arm again.

"Cause if you were part – I don't know, Altean -" he snorted " – you would have come right out and told us." That was fair, she was definitely right. "So – what is it? If you don't tell me I'll assume 'worst case scenario'."

Keith winced. He watched her closely in the dark room, his superior night vision giving him the ability to see the emotions as they played out on her face. There was a slight wrinkle beside her eyes, a tight press to her lips, and a wild look spread across her expression. She darted her eyes back and forth between his, craning her neck to stare him down. "Galra." He said deadpan, waiting for a reaction, watching closely to catch the change in her façade.

She didn't react though, instead she maintained her composure and continued to hold his gaze. "I suspected as much." He quirked a brow. "I've been spending most of my time in the archive room here in the castle, reading up on Alteans and the Galra. Their characteristics fit you really well."

"How though? You can't read Altean or are their records in Common? ... not that you could read that either." She rolled her eyes at him as if to ask if he were stupid.

"I set the archives to read the content out loud and the castle's translators do the rest. I hear it all in English – wait, what language do you hear everything in?"

He shrugged, no sense denying it now. "I hear you guys speaking English since I'm fluent, and everyone else I hear in Galran since my Altean is garbage and the Arusians don't speak Common."