Marked For Death | klangst

Twenty-Eight.

It was now or never, do or die. And they were going to finish this sooner rather than later.

Similar to when they were first entering Grumga's atmosphere, they jumped out of the airlock, Coran giving them all wonderful words of wisdom, and jetted towards the ground. They stuck together, but they didn't have to worry about the fog creeping in and poisoning their minds. They didn't have to worry about technological failures. They just had to worry about Striatha... And making it out of there alive.

No one was able to convince Lance to stay behind, either. He was determined to see Striatha's demise through to the end. He promised everyone that he had a way of combating her power over him, and although they were still wary and hesitant, they saw no point in trying to argue.

Using a map that was linked up to all of their wrist-pieces, they headed straight for the cave that Lance had confirmed as the witch's. No one spoke. They didn't have to. They knew what was at risk if they didn't succeed. They understood the multitude of the chances they were taking, the severity of their gamble.

"There," Lance said out of nowhere, breaking the silence. He was pointing to a massive mound in the distance, matching the outside of Striatha's cave from his memory perfectly.

"Are you ready for this?" Keith asked Lance, looking at him with both worry and pride.

Lance didn't respond. Instead, he just walked straight for the cave, his movements deliberate and dripping with tenacity. There was no one who could stand in his way, no one who could change his mind.

The cave appeared to be deserted, no sign of life anywhere to be seen. Yet, everything was where Lance remembered it to be. There was the rock that he was chained to when he first arrived, the rugged wall that he was forced back onto before he was shot with a blue fire, the smooth slab of stone on which he received his not-so-wonderful tattoo. It was so eerie being back there, everything exactly the way it was, but everything also completely different.

"Do you think she fled?" Hunk asked under his breath, hovering close to the entrance of the cave.

"I sincerely doubt that, Hunk," Lance said flatly, venturing further into the cave.

"Remember what I sad about caution, Lance," Shiro reminded him sternly.

But it was as if Lance was drawn to something... and that something was deeper within the cave. "We need to go further, Shiro," Lance told him in response.

"What makes you say that?"he returned. He would never admit it, but he was getting antsy. Whatever or whoever was in this place... The negative energy was making him restless with unease.

"I... I don't know for sure," Lance confessed. "It's a feeling -- I-I don't know how else to explain it. All I know is that there is something further into this cave, and we need to go check it out."

Just as Lance was about to head down the tunnel into the deeper parts of the cave, Shiro ran up to him and grabbed his arm. "Just wait a moment, Lance. We don't want to rush in on anything. This feeling of your's could just be a trick. Striatha could've planted it there to fool you straight into a trap."

"That... or it's some sort of connection that formed when she hexed me. Her magic is in me, so now, maybe I can sense when that same magic is near. And my senses are telling me she's down there," the Blue Paladin argued, his once warm and light blue eyes now cold and cruel. Keith didn't recognize them at all...

And then it hit him.

"Shiro, that's not Lance," Keith warned him, panic rising in his voice.

"What do you mean?" Shiro asked, confused, but his own panic beginning to formulate.