"So I have a question about this sole-merging thing," said Lance as they walked along the path to the astral plane.

"Or we can pretend it's not a thing like I'm doing," said Keith, wishing it could never be brought up again.

Bored looked back at them... or rather she looked at the space between them again. "You sound like you're arguing with yourself. Do you actually have a question?"

"Yes."

"No."

"I just want to know how it was possible!" Lance blurted out before Keith could protest again.

"Well, when two paladins love each other very much..." began Hunk.

"I just meant," continued Lance, "How do the they like...fit together...?"

Hunk and Pidge started giggling. Keith didn't get what was funny.

"Like can any two ol' souls merge together or are their different shapes and sizes and you have to fit the right ones together? Like metaphysical Tetris? Like if one's too big will it not fit in the other and who goes inside of whose and...?"

Hunk and Pidge were snorting with laughter now.

"What's so funny?" asked Keith.

"Aw Keefy, if you don't know...," said Pidge.

"What?" said Lance, defensively. "I just wanted to know if Keith and I were special... Like have-our-own-stars special?"

Keith was blushing. Lance really was romantic and now he was being romantic in front of other people. It was too much!"

"You're the first soul-merge I've ever seen," said Bored. "I guess that makes you special."

"Yes," said Lance giving a fist pump.

"First off," continued Bored, "the circumstance of someone about to experience soul-death is pretty rare, but then the quintessence occupying the souls needs to be very similar."

"So our quintessence is similar?" questioned Keith.

"Well, that kinda makes sense since our quintessence is mirrored in our Lions," said Hunk, "And you've both piloted Red."

"Yeah, and Allura can fly Blue," said Keith.

"And Shiro can fly Black," Lance shot back. Wait... were they fighting? "But," said Lance, his voice softening, "you were the one who sensed Blue's energy. And that's kinda like..." Lance got that flirty look on his face. "You were feelin' me."

Keith was bright red.

"Ugh," said Bored, "I hate not being able to see your soul's physical expressions. I miss faces. Anyway, sorry you got tortured in the Memory realm to the point of soul-death."

"Weren't you also trying to kill our souls?" asked Hunk.

"Yeah, but in a fun way. Not a 'torture you with your painful past' way. One of the Guardians down there is a real twisted old bastard... Don't tell him I said that."

"Never actually met him," said Lance.

"I like this new soul though," said Bored, looking between Keith and Lance again. "Frankly your old souls were kinda garbage, but this one has a nice energy. It's a candidate for sure. Now I don't know who I'm going to nominate," Bored lamented.

"For what?" asked Pidge. "Is this the prize you keep mentioning?"

"I can't say," said Bored and Pidge at the exact same time.

"One, two, three jinx!" cried Pidge.

So that shouldn't have worked, but then suddenly Bored's mouth sealed shut. She stomped her foot in frustration.

"I will say your name and release you only if you promise to tell us what the prize is. Do you agree?" asked Pidge.

Bored nodded her agreement.

"Bored," said Pidge.

Bored's mouth reappeared. With a gasp Bored said, "Impressive, Knowledge Seeker. You understand how this works now."

"Yeah, all childish games are real," said Pidge with an eyeroll. "I get it. Now talk. Nominate our souls for what?"

"We're choosing a new Ancient One from the Paladins," said Bored.

"Oh...," said Hunk. "That's not a prize I want."

"Why not?" whined Bored. "It's so cool! You get powers like me."

"Wait, you're an Ancient One?" asked Hunk. "I thought you were a Realm Guardian."

"Yeah, that's what that means," said Bored. "We like our titles in the non-physical planes. I have like five."

"But you kept saying stuff like, 'thank the ancient ones.' Were you referring to yourself?"

"Self-love is important. You'd know that if you were all knowing and you would be if I nominated you and you passed the vote and became an Ancient One."

"Wouldn't we have to die?" asked Hunk.

"No! Your quintessence goes back to your body and your soul stays here and becomes powerful. Scary powerful."

"Literally none of us want that," said Keith.

"Hmmm," said Pidge.

"Really?" gasped Keith.

"What? I wanna be all-knowing..."

"Alright, Knowledge Seeker," said Bored. "I think I've got my nominee."

"What's all this?" asked Lance, they had reached a triangle shaped doorway with rainbow light shining out of it.

"This is the gateway to the astral plane," said Bored.

"Finally!" exclaimed Lance. The five of them passed through the doorway.

"Oh, good!" cheered Bored when she saw what was waiting on the other side. "You're manifesting it as an escalator. A couple generations before yours, all humans would manifest it as a literal 'stairway to heaven' and it was exhausting."

"How?" asked Pidge. "You can both float and teleport. It's not like you'd have to walk up the steps."

"No, but I'd have to wait for the souls to walk up and it would be boring for me."

"Please step forward in an orderly fashion," said a calm, disembodied voice.

Keith stepped onto the escalator.

"Arms and legs do not need to be kept inside as you are not really here."

Lance took the step behind Keith and wrapped his arms around him from behind. He leaned himself against Keith's back. Keith blushed for the millionth time today.

"Aw," said Hunk as Pidge made a gagging sound.

"This is a reminder that what you are experiencing is a manifestation of your mortal expectations of physical distance needing to be passed in order to travel."

"I hate this station," said Bored. Keith turned to look to where she was standing on the elevator behind Hunk and Pidge. Bored mimed taking out a remote from an invisible pocket, pointed it at the sky, and mimed pushing a button and you know what? The voice actually stopped...

"Manifestations may vary and your –"

... and changed to what sounded like monks chanting in an alien language.

"Ugh," sighed Bored. "This one always gets stuck in my head." Then she continued pressing the imaginary remote button as the audio flipped through a country song, an operatic ballad, the sounds of human screaming (which she paused on to consider,) an NPR podcast, the sound of fingers scratching across a chalkboard (which grated Keith's nerves worse than the human screaming,) and finally landed on yodeling.

"Someone else pick the music," said Bored, "It all sounds the same to me." She then mimed tossing the remote in the air and Hunk mimed catching it except first he mimed fumbling it before catching it and Keith really felt like he was missing something.

Hunk quickly flipped through all sorts of strange sound effects until he landed on your typical elevator music. "Fitting," he said, then mimed handing the remote back to Bored. Keith made a mental note to get his eyes checked when he got back to his... body... Never mind.

"What's that?" asked Pidge, pointing upwards. Keith looked and saw what looked like a lightning storm that they were heading straight into because of course they were!

"Oh, right that," said Bored. "That's a worthiness test."

"Another test?" snapped Pidge. "I thought we were already tested."

"I forgot about this one," said Bored. "Let's see, to survive it there's a trick to it."

"To survive?!"

"Let me think," said Bored then she popped out of existence.

"And we've been abandoned," said Pidge.

"Let's make a break for it!" said Hunk.

The all turned around and started running down the escalator steps, which made it so they were staying in one spot rather than traveling upwards.

"This isn't working!" yelled Pidge, turning frontwards again.

"We're gonna die," cried Hunk, grabbing Pidge and pulling her into a hug. "This was all just a trick to finish us off once and for all."

Lance pulled Keith into a proper frontwards hug and Keith wrapped his arms around his boyfriend (soulmate? Whatever...)

"If I die and one of you make it, tell Matt," said Pidge, "not to touch any of my stuff. I leave everything to science."

"Aw," said Lance. "I like Matt. He can have my stuff."

"Excuse me. You like Matt?" questioned Keith, leaning back so he could look Lance in the face. "You like him?"

"Are you jealous of Matt?" asked Lance.

"Yeah, because of I'm seen him recently. With my eyes."

"Kinda sounds like you like Matt," accused Lance.

"Guys!" said Hunk. "These might be our last moments of existence. Can we not argue about Pidge's hot beefcake brother?"

"I hate all of you," hissed Pidge.

"I remembered something!" cried Bored, popping back into existence and startling all of them. "The test, it uses reverse psychology."

"How?" asked Pidge, annoyed because this offered no help with the lightning crackling mere feet above their heads.

"Do the opposite of the instructions."

"What instructions?" growled Pidge.

"Oh right," said Bored, miming taking out the remote and flipping from the elevator music back to the calm, disembodied voice.

"Existence is a lie. Life is meaningless. Abandon all hope."

"So we're supposed to hope?" asked Pidge, but Bored had already left. "I hope you choke on that invisible remote!" she yelled into the empty spot Bored had once occupied.

"I hope Matt falls face first into a woodchipper," said Keith, bitterly. Had he said that out loud? He was dizzy, he wasn't thinking straight. Not that he was every really 'straight.'

"Wouldn't affect his body," countered Lance.

"Then I hope he dives in!" snapped Keith. He felt weak all of sudden and found himself slumping down onto Lance's shoulder. "I thought I was the grizzled one."

"You are, baby," said Lance, now resting his head against Keith's shoulder. "The grizzledest."

"Can I just say," said Hunk, his arms finding themselves around Keith and Lance. "It has been an honour watching your love blossom." Keith was about to thank him then Hunk added, "then shrivel, but then blossom again then shrivel... then blossom..."

"Yeah, that was annoying," mumbled Pidge, she'd maneuvered herself so she was nestled in Keith's armpit.

Keith closed his eyes as the pink and purple bolts of lightning were too bright to look at. The crackling was loud. The air smelled like electricity. Keith could feel it in his brain. "I love you guys," said Keith, the sentiment bursting out of him. "I'm sorry I'm an awkward mess."

"Aw Keef." Surprisingly it was Pidge that responded with a choked up voice.

"I love you all!" boomed Hunk's voice.

"It's been an honour," sniffed Lance. Naturally he was crying the most. Keith hugged his love close and in turn felt three other sets of arms tighten around him. He braced himself for death.

"I know what to do!" yelled Bored, suddenly beside Keith. He was shocked into opening his eyes and watched her lift her invisible remote and point it out at the lightning head straight for them. She mimed a button click and, no joke, the lightning paused! It paused just inches from Keith's face!

"Why didn't you do that before?" snapped Pidge. The escalator continued to carry them up between frozen bolts of lightning.

"Because I forgot I could!" yelled Bored, matching her tone. "Aw, look at your souls as nuzzled together. You got so scared."

Pidge gave Bored her famous 'imma murder you' stare. Arms started to loosen out of the group hug. Keith caught Lance's hand and muttered, "Sorry" to him.

"No need," said Lance with a smile. Ugh that smile! That smile was Keith's now. Everything felt okay again as they stepped safely off the escalator and into (onto?) the astral plane. That is until Lance looked up ahead and gasped, "Allura!"

"Mel!" cried Bored.

********

NOTE: Hey guys, I'm going to take a couple days off from updating as I have some personal stuff to attend to, but I'll be back to daily updates on Friday! Please remember to follow me and add this story to your currently reading list so that you get notified when a new chapter comes. Thanks so much for reading along!!

Much love,
Chilly xoxoxox