'You should be aware of the gravitational pull on Erodian. It is stronger than on most planets and reaches further into the atmosphere so it might affect your Lions,' Coran's voice echoes through my helmet.

'What is our mission again?' Lance asks.

'Thousands of years ago the Erodians lived on this planet harvesting several valuable metals that are needed to repair the ship,' Allura answers.

'Are you positive they still live there?' I respond.

'There hasn't been a single report from the Erodians for years,' Coran replies, 'nonetheless it's still worth our while to check it out and see if we can harvest the metals ourselves.'

'Copy that,' I reply and focus my attention back to my lion.

'Hey Keith, look what my Lion can do!'

I glance to my left and see the Blue Lion gearing up and then pulling back, creating a perfect loop and then hovering next to me again.

'Did you see that? Did you? Did you? Did you?'

I lower my head and grind my teeth. 'Yes, I did.'

'I'm awesome, admit it.'

'Never.'

'Awh. You're so mean.'

I grind my teeth even more. 'Can we just focus on the mission please!' Right at that moment the eyes of my Lion turn red and several emergency errors start flashing.

'What's happening?' Lance asks.

I tap on the keyboard. 'It's what Coran warned us for. The gravitational pull of this planet is too much for our Lions to handle.' My Lion starts heading into an uncontrollable nosedive as I pull hard on the sticks to bring it back in my reign, but nothing seems to work.

'Coran, copy me! We're crashing into Erodian at alarming speed. We request immediate back-up!' Radio silence. 'Coran? Coran!'

I look over at the Blue Lion who is also diving at the planet. 'Lance?' No response. 'Tsk. Seems like all connection is cut off.' I turn my full attention back on the control panels. I tap in codes as fast as I can and keep pulling on the throttles but still to no avail. 'Come on, girl. I need you right now!' As the ground is coming closer and closer I decide to accept the fact that my Lion won't respond anymore so I huddle close and brace for impact. The seconds until impact are agonizing as I wait for the inevitable crash.

As soon as she hits the ground I get launched forward as she tumbles over and over until she finally comes to a stop. My head is throbbing and I hold it in my hands as I try to get to my feet before tumbling forward an blacking out.

'Keith….Keith….Keith! Are you okay?'

I grunt as I slowly push myself upright.

Lance is kneeling in front of me with a worried look on his face.

'Ugh. Yeah, I'm fine. How about you?'

'I'm fine too,' he says as he gets to his feet. 'Have you seen this planet? It's an absolute wasteland.'

I get to my feet as well. 'What do you mean?'

'Just look out there,' he says, pointing past me.

I look through the eyes of my Lion and see nothing but barren land filled with holes and craters, harvested down till its very last resource. I hit myself in the head, which I immediately regret as it reverberates and makes my headache worse. 'So we came here for nothing?'

He shrugs. 'I guess so.'

'I… need to go outside,' I say as I move forward and slip past him. The hatch opens as I stumble onto the dry sand and hurl. I wipe away the spit from my face as Lance joins me.

'Are you sure you're okay?'

'I'm fine.'

'You don't look fine.'

'I'm fine,' I repeat as I push him aside. I snatch my helmet out of his hands and put it on my head.

'Connections are still broken.'

'Then we have to find higher grounds,' I respond.

'I don't think that will make a lot of difference…'

'We have to try. We can't stay on this planet.' I make my way forward without having a set goal when a hand on my shoulder stops me.

'Keith, calm down. You're not feeling well..'

I shove his hand away. 'I'm fine, I told you three times before.'

'I will not let you go find higher grounds.'

'Excuse me?'

'You are going to sit down and rest while I go look for a way to contact the castle.'

'I really don't think that's a good…'

He looks at me with a stern look. It takes me by surprise. I roll my eyes and sit down. '

Good. Now wait here, I have an idea.' With that he walks away.

'Lance having an idea?' I mumble to myself, 'that's something new.' I simply sit there and look around. The Erodians must have left decades ago when they harvested their last resources, looking for a new place to live. The sound of one of the craters crumbling startles me and I slowly get to my feet as the dizziness tries to take me down again. I decide it's a good idea to go find Lance, considering how he always messes up. He might've gotten himself stuck in a hole or something. 'Lance!' I shout as I move towards the last place I saw him. A thick mist is pulling up as I keep shouting his name with no response. 'Lance, where are you?' I carefully place one foot after the other when I lose my balance and tumble down into one of the craters, losing consciousness yet again.

The next feeling I have is of being carried by someone. Two hands tightly hold onto my body as the person struggles to carry my weight.

'Lance?' I ask sleepily.

He looks back at me. 'You're finally awake.'

I groggily look around. 'Where are we?'

'We almost made it back to our Lions.'

The position is making me uncomfortable and he notices. He carefully puts me on the ground.

'What happened?'

'I don't know, man. One second I'm looking for a way to contact the castle, the next I find you taking a nap in one of the craters.'

I rub my forehead. 'I must've fallen down.'

'Yeah, pretty stupid of you.'

I look up at him. At the person that's usually the most stupid of our group, the most care-free, the one who ends up in those kinds of situations. I grin. 'Yeah, pretty stupid of me.'

'Aaanyways, I did find the reason we can't contact the castle.'

'You did?'

'Who's the stupid one know, huh.'

I chuckle. 'Definitely not you.' I slowly get to my feet. I stumble as Lance catches me and I gladly lean on him as we move towards our Lions again.

'So in the center of this planet there is still one huge metal left. It's like a huge magnet. It disrupts all signals.'

'How did you find it?' I ask.

'I, uh… I… fell into a hole.'

I laugh so loud that Lance's grip on me tightens so I don't topple over as he wears a sheepish expression. I wipe away the tears as I try to catch my breath. 'Okay, okay. I'll stop laughing. So, now that we figured that out, how are we going to restore communication?'

'I was thinking about using my Lion's roar. It seems to disrupt signals as well and has enough power to push the disruption back.'

I nod. 'Seems like a good plan.'

The outlines of our Lions become visible. Lance guides me all the way back to my seat.

'Thanks,' I say as I smile at him.

He smiles back as he makes his way back to his Lion. All communication between the two of us is still disrupted so this operation has to be done on full trust and reliance upon each other.

My Lion gets to her feet as she carefully, step by step, follows after Lance's. Once we've reached the core of the planet the Blue Lion lets out a roar so loud that I can feel it in my head. The communication system inside my helmets buzzes and rustles.

'Keith? Lance?' a panicked Allura echoes throughout my head.

'We're alright. A huge metal in the core of the planet cut off all communications and the increased gravity made us unable to leave. Could you send out a distress signal for us?'

'Right on it,' Coran copies. The rustling reoccurs and communication is cut off again.

I leave my Lion again since it will be a little while until they can find someone to take us off this planet.

Lance walks up to me as he stretches. 'Feels pretty good now that we know we're going to be rescued, right?'

I nod. I feel a bit nauseous.

'Keith?'

I hold up my hand. 'I'm fi-,' I start when he shoves my hand away.

'No, you're not. Stop saying that,' he says as he stands in front of me with a worried expression crossing his face.

I sigh. He saw right through me. He sits down and crosses his legs as he pats the ground behind him. I cock my head to the side. That hurts…. Slowly I crouch down and lie down with my head on Lance's lap. It feels weird, unnatural… but also good. The pain in my head instantly gets relieved.

'It will be a little while, just rest some more,' he says.

I look up at him. His face is full of worry. 'Okay,' is my only reply as I close my eyes.

His hand gently rests on the top of my head as he strokes my hair, calming me down, as I slowly fall asleep.