τHΣ ϢΔRRIΟR ϢIτH ϢIͶGς

greening the cube

rhys had decided to spend the morning in her quarters while the paladins were up to doing repairs for coran. she had left ulaz's sword on her nightstand for the time being, thinking about how she'd arrange a funeral for the noble galran.

she'd done it countless times before, but it was still always hard to prepare and think about. especially when she didn't particularly know the one she was arranging the funeral for.

she didn't know if he had family. or friends. she didn't know who all would bother coming to his funeral. kolivan would out of general respect for one of his fallen comrades, no matter how stupid he would claim ulaz was. queen diada might, since she came out of moral obligation like she did every other funeral. tahlee might show up as well, and maybe antok or princess gwyn.

hearing pidge's voice over the pa system, rhys let out a sigh. she attached ulaz's blade to her back, right between her wings—that she'd taken to hiding much less often around the paladins nowadays—and headed off to where pidge was.

once arriving in the hangar of the green lion, she sees the others all already there and standing around pidge at her computer, looking at a glowing spore.

"oh, i remember this experiment! but, question: why do we need to get electricity from a potato?" hunk questions, making the noxian roll her eyes in amusement.

"that's not a potato, hunk."

"what? no, no. i was able to crack the 'sporse code'." pidge jokes, then continues, "i ran the bioluminescent pattern through a variety of code-breaking sequences, including this homemade virtual turing machine. of course, i had to make a few tweaks to the original design..."

rhys tunes out, turning her attention to the red paladin who had his arms crossed and looked lost in thought. he abruptly snapped at the young girl, "pidge. what does it say?"

"oh, yeah. 'under attack. galra. help.' and then, there are coordinates."

"it's a distress signal. good work, pidge. get those coordinates into the castle-ship's navigation system," shiro says to coran, then they all follow him up to the control room. rhys notices the burning stare aimed at the place where the marmoran blade was, but she ignored it. either he would ask about it sooner or later, or he'd find out whatever he was curious about on his own.

they arrive at a familiar planet, one that makes rhys smile sadly. she hadn't visited olkarion in so long, but if she had known about the galra invading, sooner, she would've sent part of the army to help.

coran shows off his olkarion cube, making a happier smile form on her face. "you have a cube, coran?"

"yes! have you ever had one, rhys?"

"not in a long time. i haven't visited in many, many years," she responds, turning back to the glass separating them from space.

——

as they officially arrive on the planet, and she smiles politely once seeing the olkari. rhys leaves the red lion, having hitched another ride with keith, and she carries him down to the ground (against his will).

hearing whispers once some of the natives saw her wings, rhys reluctantly hides them away once again, but bows her head in reverence at the older olkari that approached her.

"you are a noxian, correct?"

"yes. i apologize for not sending aid. olkarion has always been a favored planet of mine, but i haven't visited in a long time and was unaware of its state," she says apologetically, but ryner just smiles and places a hand on her shoulder.