Chapter Text
The sun slowly descended upon the horizon, bathing the desert sand in a warm red glow. It was quiet for the moment, but soon the ground would come alive with sounds of life as the native creatures woke up to go about their business.
A light flashes just as warm dusk turns to deep midnight blue night and a portal sparks to life, hovering in midair. A lithe figure and a small dagger glints as they fly through, swiftly followed by several large tapered arms dwarfing the figure thoroughly. They all crash into the dunes, sand exploding in every direction. The figure rolls aside and grabs the dagger, barely avoiding being skewered by the barbs lining the length of the frankly disgusting arms.
While dodging the blind flailing of the tentacles, the blade glows in deft hands for a moment and turns into a sword as it slices at the offending attacker. The monstrous arm barely seems hampered by the puny weapon cutting into its thick hide at all. The other arms converge on the cut area and continue the assault.
Meanwhile the figure has jumped onto one of the arms, running up the length of it and heading for the portal with a sense of urgency. Electricity crackles around the portal, sparks flying everywhere, and it suddenly flashes out of existence just as fast as it appeared. The gigantic jerk violently and falls lifelessly to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut. The small figure tumbles to the ground with them.
They slowly pull themselves up, knees planted heavily in the sand as they stare wide eyed at the place where the portal used to be just moments before. They don't give themselves any more time to freak out and checks their suit's system instead. It tells them that the atmosphere of the place they've landed in is compatible with their respiratory system, so they pull off their helmet with a hiss, shaking their head to straighten out their hair a bit.
Keith takes a long breath to calm himself down before turning his attention to his immediate surroundings, trying to identify it. Nothing stands out in this area at all. Only tall sand dunes cast in the silvery light from the single white moon hanging low in the sky.
Helmet in hand, he picks a direction at random and walks, leaving the severed tentacles behind.
The coms were down. He had tried getting trough the last few minutes, but all he got was was silence in return. Where the hell was this? Was he even on the same planet still? The same galaxy? No. Wild speculations wouldn't help his situation.
Judging by what he could see at the moment, could it be a desert planet? In that case he certainly wasn't on the same planet he landed with his team earlier. Or maybe he'd just landed in a desert area. He would still not be on the same planet. Last he checked he'd been on a water and forest planet that really reminded him of Olkarion, except that rather than having the warm and golden glow permeating the atmosphere, this planet had had the feel of Galran military vessels.
This new place however felt somehow eerily familiar. As if he should know exactly where he was, if only he looked closely enough...
He started to climb a huge sand dune, figuring if he could get to higher ground, maybe he'd find the clue he needed. As he neared the top, he sat down and took a short break. According to his suit, about a varga had passed since he'd lost contact with his teammate. He sighed, glancing up at the sky as he often did when his mind was troubled, seeking out the tranquility of the universe in display above him to soothe his worries.
Wait... Was that...?
Keith scrambled to his feet and wobbled as he ran the rest of the way up to the top of the dune to get a better vantage point. Catching his breath as he reached the top, he scanned the sky with growing trepidation.
He knew this sky.
He knew this sky all too well.
It was a sky under which he'd lived some of his fondest memories. The sky that had seen him in his loneliest hour, the sky he had screamed his lungs out at; his frustrations, his loss, his grief. The sky that had been his salvation in the desert. The desert that, judging by the placement of the familiar constellations, had to be impossibly close too...
Keith squeezed his eyes shut, taking measured breaths as he slowly counted down from 10.
There was no doubt about it. He was on Earth. Earth! Of all the places in the universe to be teleported to, it had to be Earth. Earth that was almost uncountable light-years away from where he wanted to be at the moment.
Fuck.
Earth didn't exactly posess tech advanced enough for him to just jump on a ship and be able to get to where he needed to be within a reasonable time space. Maybe getting in touch with the Castleship was a more realistic course of action. Not that he could think of anywhere where they might have the hardware capable of doing it. Unless...Pidge and Matt's father, Sam Holt had brought something capable of long distance communication spanning the galaxy and beyond. Maybe he could even borrow the ship Mr. Holt arrived with. It should have a warp engine, knowing Pidge wouldn't send off her own father with anything less than the best tech available.
Either way, he had to get out of this desert, and the Galaxy Garrison would be a good way to start. If only he had an inkling of where in the desert he was...
The ground slowly turned a warm orange as something large burned through the sky overhead. The thing collided with the ground, creating a blast wave strong enough to ruffle Keith's hair, despite the considerable distance.
Keith frowned. He wanted a closer look, but getting to the crash site would take too long on foot, especially while stuck in a desert with no supplies. His suit's propulsion system only had a finite amount of fuel as well. He had to be very frugal with the use so that he'd have the mobility in an emergency.
With all other options unfavourable, he sighed and concentrated, eyes fixing on the bottom of the plume of smoke on the horizon. A pale yellow tint slowly took over his scleras as his pupils elongated into cat-like slits. It was a trick he'd learnt from Krolia just recently. He hoped he'd be able to get back out there soon, and spend some more time with her if possible. He still didn't feel comfortable calling her his mother. Certain things had to be worked through before that time.
With the change he could clearly see the familiar tan vehicles that he remembered from the Garrison swarm the site, people wearing white hazmat suits jumping out in frankly impressive numbers. There were a couple of Garrison fire trucks busy with taking out the fire. A door on the space ship is kicked out from the inside, and Keith recoils. His legs give out, and his eyes returns to normal.
It was Shiro. That hair was unmistakeable; the white bangs, the undercut. The Galran prisoner garb.
Keith really did not like the implications.
Drawing a deep breath for what felt like the n'th time the last few hours, he muttered "patience yields focus" as he forcibly tried to calm down his frantic heartbeat. He needed a clear head.
Any semblance of calm shattered when his sharp eyes caught the dust trail of a nostalgic red hoverbike, and an intimately familiar red jacket fluttering in the wind.
Keith, after three full years in outer space essentially waging guerilla warfare against a vast intergalactic empire and a youth full of hardships, had thought that he couldn't possibly experience his world shattering for a fifth time after all that he'd been through.
He was wrong.
In this moment, despair was all his heart was capable of feeling.