Vibrant Lights [o.h]

-ˋˏ22ˎˊ-

Ember crossed her arms, leaning against the platform that Allura sat on as the group gathered in the alien princess. Her eyes were heavy but she pushed through the tiredness to keep up with the small meeting they were having. 

   "There's no point in debating this further," Allura stated. "Zarkon is clearly tracking up through me."

    "Aww, space baloney!" Lance exclaimed. 

   "That's not possible."

   "Oh, come on!"

   "Why would that be so hard to believe?" Allura asked, eyebrows furrowed in frustration. "Zarkon's forces showed up on Arus only after I awoke."

   "She's got a point," Lance admitted with a frown, pulling Ember slightly to make sure she didn't lean over too far and fall. 

   "We did also bring the Blue Lion onto Arus with a swarm of Galra's on our tail," Ember pointed out, yawning at the end. 

   "I would absolutely travel across the galaxy to find you." Lance bowed down, a flirtatious smile on his face. 

   "It's not you, Princess Allura. It's me." Keith sighed from his spot away from the group. Ember frowned. 

   "Because?" Hunk trailed. 

   "I just think Zarkon must've imprinted on me during our fight or something." Keith shifted, eyes darting to the left. 

  He's hiding something, Ember thought with her eyes drifting close. 

   "Look, the fact is, we don't know how Zarkon is tracking us." Pidge said factually. "It could be through the Black Lion. Every time Zarkon gets close to it, Shiro has to fight him for control."

   "That's only when Zarkon is nearby," Coran interrupted. "No Paladin has ever been able to connect with a lion over a vast distance."

   "Well," Ember started, rubbing her eyes. "Knowing that you have to bond with your lion, what if Zarkon had a strong bond with the Black Lion that was so powerful he could. . .summon it. . ." Ember trailed off, falling forwards and resting her head on Allura's shoulder. Soft snores were emitting from her mouth. 

   "What is she even doing out of bed?" Shiro sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. 

   "She was hungry," Lance crossed his arms. "But then heard we were discussion something and wanted to join in."

   "Of course she woke up because she was hungry," Pidge scoffed with a shake of her head. 

   "So what are we going to do?" Hunk asked, trying to steer the conversation back to the main point. He also made a mental note to put some food on Embers' nightstand. 

   "Look, it doesn't matter how he's tracking us because we're gonna take the fight to the Galra soon enough." Shiro said firmly. "They've been chasing us from galaxy to galaxy. The last thing they expect is for us to come after them."

   "The hunter becomes the hunted, huh? Awesome!" Lance cheered. "That's the tag line from like six of my favorite movies."

   "As if happens, I took our list of recent Galra attacks and analyzed it for both commonalities and anomalies among the attack sites." Pidge started to explain, somehow going over to her chair while everyone was talking. "I was hoping to create an algorithm that would, within a statistically acceptable margin of error, provide a list of target-rich Galra environments - color-coded, of course, because what are we, animals?"

   "Pidge," Ember grumbled, lifting her head up so Allura could stand. She flopped back down onto the platform. "Your brainy talk is keeping me up."