Keith walked into the observation deck to see Lance sitting in front of the window, looking out into space.
"I thought you said you had work to do," He said, taking a seat next to him.
"I do, I'm waiting for an email back," Lance sighed, running a hand through his hair.
"Are you ok? You looked pretty stressed when Zeno asked what day it was," Keith asked, awkwardness filling the air.
"I'm fine, and why do you care? I thought you hated me now," Lance's gaze locked onto a distant star. The silence of space always unnerved Keith. While he was used to the silence when living alone, the silence while out in space was completely different. There was no wind, no birds, no cars driving along the dirt road, it was completely and utterly quiet.
"I never hated you, I was just confused. I still am. I don't like being lied to," Keith grumbled.
"You have to understand that I didn't want to lie to you. My job is really important, I have codes that I have to follow otherwise I'll get in a lot of trouble. It's like Zeno said, I trust you guys wholeheartedly, but there was nothing I could do," Lance tried to explain, but he was getting frustrated with trying to put it into words.
"I get it. I don't like it, but I understand. And I trust you too," Keith's voice was soft, clearly uncomfortable. Lance turned to him, a smile on his face that lifted the mood of the room. Keith's face flushed as he cleared his throat.
"Can you tell me more about your time as an agent? You know, without telling me anything confidential?" Keith asked. Lance thought for a minute, his agent personality fading away into regular old Lance.
"Once I became a full agent I was already a Rank 5. I jumped to Rank 9 my first month as an agent, then sat there for 5 years before Director Raven bumped me to Rank 10. People hated that he gave a 16-year-old the General spot, but once I started giving out mission orders people shut up and accepted my rank," Lance smiled.
"What are the different Ranks? You said 7 was for like, research or something," Keith questioned.
"Rank 1 is general officers, the newbies that patrol the universe and call in anything they see. Rank 2 is for the paper pushers, they file the different missions and direct the call center. Rank 3 involves the Containment unit, they're in charge of the multiple jail and prison bases across the universe. Rank 4 is for the Off World acceptance team, they take forms and either accept or deny access to the 4 planets. Rank 5 is for the explorers, but with most of the universe being documented, they act as a check-in for different planets, asking if there's anything wrong. Rank 6 holds base level treaties, or they talk with different planets when there's a problem, 7 is our tech department, they create and ship out different devices for the agents. Rank 8 is for our scientists, they handle the science behind everything, working hand in hand with Rank 7s. Rank 9 is for mission agents. There are 2 levels to Rank 9's, the slower missions, and the dangerous ones that no one wants to do, I was part of the latter group. Then you know about Rank 10s," Lance explained, counting on his fingers. Keith listened along, trying his best to pay attention.
"Zeno said you and the director person were close," Keith started, worried that by talking about Raven Lance might back off.
"Yeah, he acted like the father I never had, though, he was pissed when you punched him," Lance smiled, looking over to Keith who furrowed his eyebrows.
"I punched him?" Keith asked.
"Yeah, Iverson was considering making you an agent, forcing you with me so I could train you. But once you punched him in front of the whole staff, he couldn't shrug it off like he usually would," Lance shrugged as the realization hit Keith.
"Iverson is the director!?" He yelled out, his eyes wide.
"Well, he used to be. I need to find him and get him back to the agency. I have no clue why he left, but Granet cannot be the director," Lance sighed, the stress clawing its way back into his chest.
"I punched the director of a secret agent group?" Keith asked, still stuck on the punching part.
"Yes, Keith," Lance sighed.
"And he wanted to make me an agent? But I thought you started training at age 5!"
"We do, Raven wanted to make an exception because of how skilled you were, but once the other teachers saw you punch him he couldn't allow you to continue to be a student," Lance explained again.
"Wait, did you say you would be the one training me?" Keith asked.
"I wasn't happy about it. I told him I refused to be a trainer, but if you joined then he would have forced me," Lance closed his eyes in frustration like he was remembering that conversation he had with Iverson.
"Why didn't you want to be a trainer?" Keith asked. Lance looked down and played with his fingers, his posture turned guarded and his eyes were dull.
"I have bad experiences with Trainers," Lance said simply.
"Zeno told us not to ask you about your trainer," Keith commented, knowing full well that he was treading a thin line.
"Zeno's always tried to protect me, especially when I graduated to Rank 10. It doesn't surprise me that he gave you a list of things not to bring up," Lance smiled sadly.
"When in the Castle of Lions, you never seemed upset or sad, but hearing some of the shit you've done, how can you hide it?" Keith questioned. Lance shifted himself so he was facing Keith.
"I'm a great actor," He smiled brightly, all the pain wiped clean from his face. "My Trainer taught me how to hide my feelings," Lance's face morphed into a pissed look, his eyebrows slightly drawn together and his eyes glaring, his face made Keith want to draw back at the amount of anger it held. "I've gotten pretty good at it over the years," The anger washed away, his features turning to stone.
"Holy shit," Keith muttered as he watched. "How did you learn that?" Lance's face softened into his normal expression.
"My trainer drilled it into my head. It's helpful on missions, especially when you're captured," Lance's voice was careful, Keith could hear how he was hesitant to share.
"You put your finger down when I was directing a question at Shiro, about being tortured by Galra," Keith didn't ask anything, simply leaving the statement open if Lance wanted to elaborate.
"One of my missions included purposefully being captured by the Galra. Hunk would tell you this was the 2 weeks I went home while my mom was sick, but in reality, I was chained to a table while Haggar herself attempted to get information out of me. I had to wait for the perfect time, and when it came, I broke out of my cell and found the comm room where I planted a chip. I then had a blade of mamora member help me escape the ship in a pod," Lance explained, but his voice was light. It seemed that he had no problem talking about it.
"You were tortured by Haggar?! It broke Shiro when he was captured!" Keith pointed out, his voice ringing around the room.
"He didn't have the training I did. Nothing she could do would be worse than what I had already been through," Lance smiled.
"I don't understand, what do you mean?" Keith watched as a sad smile grew across Lance's face.
"It doesn't matter, it made me a better agent," Lance dropped the topic. A chime rang from his phone and he quickly pulled it out. He read the message before jumping to his feet and racing towards the side panel of the observation deck. he started pulling out wires and connecting them to his phone. His screen turned blue, but Keith had no idea what was going on.
"What are you doing?" Keith asked.
"I was permitted to download the planetary data from this base. This way we'll have a better updated index of what's going on with each planet," Lance explained.
"Where did you learn to do that?" Keith asked next, pointing to the wires and cords running from the wall into Lance's phone.
"I learned the basics of computer science and tech support while I was a Peer, but I would still like to leave all the tech stuff to Rank 7's, or Pidge and Hunk," Lance smiled.
"Jesus, what else can you do that we don't know about?" Keith asked, half expecting him to respond truthfully and half expecting him to laugh off the joke.
"You'll have to figure that one out on your own, bud," Lance smiled. Once the download was complete he unhooked his phone from the wall and reconnected the wires.
Keith followed him through the halls as Lance went about his job. He stopped in one of the offices, an agent sat behind the desk typing away on his computer. Lance didn't even knock, just welcomed himself inside.
"Can I help you?" The agent asked without looking up from his computer.
"Yeah, I need clearance to enter the quad-planet's forcefield considering I'm pretty sure Garnet locked me out," Lance sighed. The agent's head snapped up to Lance, his eyes wide.
"Sir!" The agent cried out.
"Just get it done, Agent Mauve," Lance ordered. The agent paused for a moment before looking back to Lance.
"I have something for you. I wanted to give it to you when you were alone, but I don't think it matters," he said, glancing to Keith for a second.
"What is it?" Lance questioned.
"It's from Director Raven," Mauve said, nervously playing with his fingers. Lance's jaw set as he took in the words.
"What do you have?" Lance asked. Mauve started typing away on his keyboard.
"He sent it to me, saying to hold onto it until you showed up. I think he figured you'd come here first, I don't know," He said before turning the screen for Lance to see. "It makes no sense to me, but I wasn't very good with the language lessons," Lance read through the message, it being a string of numbers and letters that made no sense to Keith either, but Lance looked at it like it was the most important thing on the world. A grin broke across his face, excitement in his eyes that made agent Mauve look like he was about to piss himself.
"Send this to me asap," Lance ordered. He turned on his heel and left immediately, Keith following after.
"What was that?" Keith asked.
"Just what I need to dethrone Garnet," Lance smiled.