It Ends with Us

Chapter 8

I broke the surface of the water gasping for fresh air. Thrashing around I managed to get a hold of myself before swimming to shore. I had been falling then nothing. No light no feeling, I was just gone. Then the cold water shocked my nerves and then I was scrambling for the surface. 

Water pooled around me as I dragged myself from the pool. Coughing  I looked above me seeing the hole I feel through about twenty feet above. Several faces surrounded the hole looking down at me.

"Are you alright?!" I heard Samantha yell.

"Yeah!" I reply rising to my feet, glancing around. The limited amount of light I was receiving from the hole was being being overpowered slightly by a pinkish glow from farther back in the cave. It was as if it was calling me and listen I did. I made it a few feet away from the hole before Samantha called me back.

"Don't go anywhere! Hannah just went to get the Paladins!"

I stopped where I was, but it only made the pull of energy around me stronger and I began moving again.

Above Samantha pulled back from the edge of the hole. "Hannah Please Hurry!!" She whispered. 

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I could see no one moving within the camp. Everything was dark except for the occasional fire pit. For a crew flying a ship so advanced you would think that they would have a camper aboard or something.

I entered the camp and immediately began looking for the Paladins tent. It wasn't long before I came across it. The fire pit in front was still lit with a few guards sitting around it. The tent itself was glowing from the electric lights within. 

I heard the guards talking to me but I was too focused on my mission to even listen. The second I had the flap pulled back I was jerked back and restrained. This action did not go unnoticed by the few inside and they quickly exited to see what it was all about.

"Let her go," Shiro said to the guards. Then he turned to me, "Are you okay?"

"Yes I'm fine, but we need your help!"

"We?"

"Yes! Kiera has fallen down a hole and we have no way to reach her!" I yelled. I didn't notice I was shaking until Hunk draped a thin blanket around my shoulders.

"Here come with me. The others will take care of it." Hunk said softly. He led me to my cot where I was supposed to be for the past several hours and yet I had found myself in a cave that led to an intern possibly injured.

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"Shiro we need to get out there as quickly as possible!" I shouted. My intern was out there and I needed to get to her. 

Shiro waved me off as he began relaying orders. Having the medical team ready when we get back. To have a couple hover-bikes ready as well as jeeps to help transport people back.

It wasn't long before everything was in place and we were on our way to the cave Hannah had indicated to by pointing with her finger.

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I stepped around a wall of the cave and gasped at what I saw. Sitting in front of me was a huge mechanical lion. Its red and silver coloring being over powered by its glowing yellow eyes. I hadn't noticed the particle barrier until I ran into it. 

So Peyton had been right. He had been able to pick up on the lions energy signature. I raised my hand and tapped the barrier. The small sound being magnified as it traveled through the whole cave. 

That's when the lion moved. The barrier didn't fall but the lion stood up and roared. It shook the entire cave. Tentatively I looked up as I heard the ever increasing sound of rocks cracking from their hold above me. 

"Um, Hey, aren't you supposed to be protecting people or something?" I asked waving my hand at the beast.

The lion didn't respond and instead stood still as it once did before. Just then there was a loud crack. I looked up to see several rocks plummeting towards me. I managed to dive out of the way, but when the rocks landed they sent another vibration through the cave, knocking more rocks loose.

"Come on you stupid beast!" I yelled pounding at the barrier. I stopped when I heard an unsettling shift in the rocks above me. 

A huge slab of the cave wall was fixing to come crashing down on me. It shifted once and I closed my eyes this was it, I was never going to see home again. My mom would have no one left.

All at once I heard a roar just as the slab gave way. Then I was lying flat on my back as a strong force kept me pinned against the wall. I opened my eyes gasping as I saw that I was inside the metallic beast.

Oh my god please don't eat me! I screamed in  my thoughts.

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We were just coming up on the cave when an explosion vibrated through the planet and drew our attention to the top of the mountain. A red streak was flying high in the sky almost to the point of disappearing before turning around and heading back towards us.

A gentle purr resounded through my mind and I was suddenly back on the Castle of Lions. I was in red's hanger just sitting there with her as I talked, her eyes glowing as she listened to every word.

"Red?" I whispered up to the red streak in the sky. A purr responded in my ear. That was enough for me to break protocol and run out onto the open desert. Several people tried to stop me but I quickly evaded them. 

It was really her, the red lion! It had been so long since I had last seen her and the others fly off going who knows where. 

"Red!" I cried out not caring about who heard. The red lion touched the sand with grace as I approached, her comforting purr wrapping itself around my mind before going cold and ripping itself from my body. I gasped as I dropped to my knees, hands in my hair.

Shiro and Lance came running up followed by Pidge and Hunk. "Keith what's wrong?" Shiro asked his arm wrapped protectively around me. 

"I-I don't know!" I looked up at the now still lion. The eyes were dull and showed no signs of future movement. "It's like she completely closed off our bond!"

Everyone looked to the red lion with either fear or awe. For me it was both as I stared at the lion I had come close with no longer respond to me.

Red, what has gotten into you?