Loving You to the Stars and Back // Keith x OC //

The Hardest Choice Pt.1

 92

~Athena~

We trailed behind Shiro's pod to this giant mass of land floating above an unknown planet for a while before I decided to speak up. Something felt wrong. "Keith, I know you want to go after Shiro and save him, but I feel like this is a trap." I didn't want to admit it, but it felt like Shiro was trying to lure us into trouble.

"Regardless if it is a trap or not, we need to find a way to get Shiro back, " Keith replied. "We just can't give up on him." As stubborn as he was, Keith was right. There was no point in arguing him knowing that he won't give in.

I gently bit my lower lip and remained silent as I followed the Black Lion. Keith continued to call for Shiro as we were trailing behind, but there was no reply. Time was of the essence as our lions' power cores were starting to deplete to deficient levels. If we can't get to Shiro and bring him back before they reach zero, we're in big trouble.

I looked at my scanner to get a closer look at the planet, seeing that Shiro's pod had landed. "There he is, " I pointed out as we continued to fly around the atmosphere.

We approached the giant rock, parking our lions beside the abandoned pod. I was the first to leave my lion, spotting the footprints in the dusty gravel that was still prominent from when we saw it from above while Keith exited his lion.

I followed the tracks with my eyes, seeing that Shiro has walked a long way to the unknown. I turned over to Keith before giving me a nod. Both of us followed the tracks that lead us to Shiro.

Minutes went by, and we were still walking quite the distance from our Lions. It made me question how much longer was it going to take to reach Shiro. It felt like we've been walking for more than half an hour on this rock just to find him.

"Look, over there," Keith spoke up, breaking me away from my thoughts. I looked up to see that the footsteps lead to a cave. A sudden chill went down my spine as I looked at the cave, seeing that it felt familiar. The last time we went into an eerie looking cave was back on earth, and that was how we found the Blue Lion I could only imagine there was something at the end of this path; something that could potentially kill us.

"Come on, let's not waste time," Keith added on as he picked up the pace towards the cave. I wanted to stop him for a moment to tell him that this was bothering me. I didn't want to lose Keith all over again because of this trap that we were being lured into.

"Keith, wait up," I called out as I jogged my way over to him. "Can we at least consider what the plan is? We don't know what Shiro is trying to do and why he's going into that cave. It could be an ambush."

"Athena, please, you have to trust me on this," Keith replied without looking back at me as he continued to look forward. "Deep down, the Shiro that we know is still there. We just need to bring him out from whatever is controlling him." My heart squeezed thinking about Keith wanting to pursue this dangerous task. I didn't want to see him hurt, but at the same time, I had no proof or evidence that Shiro was on our enemy's side.

I kept my lips shut as I continued to follow Keith. We entered the cave that had jagged rocks on the ceiling. It made me slightly paranoid, thinking that a piece could fall down at any second, penetrating through us if we don't move out of the way fast enough.

Not too long upon entering the cave, I saw that Shiro's footprints lead up to an entrance of some sort up ahead. We made our way inside through the door and found ourselves inside a lift that brought us to the lower area of the rock. I couldn't see anything except the light that shone through the holes of the lift, making me even more anxious than before.