Strange (Keith x Altean!Reader)

-{ [8]

We had returned to the castle. I got the ship out of the atmosphere, where I had set us on a track to an area that had several distress signals in the time we had been gone. It was slow-moving, but that was purposeful. We all needed some time to catch up on rest.

I had brought Allura to her room and sentenced her to bed rest until she was completely rejuvenated from the battle. The paladins also quickly made their way to bed after that. I suggested Coran do the same, but he refused. I told him I would be able to handle flushing Sendak's crystal from the system, but he, again, refused. He insisted that I was injured and was the last one who kept watch over the castle at night. I protested, but he assured me that he would be okay and would alert me if anything happened. Begrudgingly, I went to bed as well.

I woke up bright and early the next day, just as I always did. The paladins were still in their rooms, as was Allura. Coran said a hearty good morning, then quickly returned to what he had been doing. I had removed my wraps, seeing that I was now entirely healed. Two small scars went up either of my sides, but it seemed my hand was alright. It was clear that the wounds on my side were far worse than I wanted to admit.

With Coran handling flushing out Sendak's crystal, the paladins and Allura still asleep, and no current distress signals in our area, I opted to go to the training bay. I spent a notable amount of time doing mediations and stretches. It had been some time since I properly stretched and loosened my body- technically, over 10,000 years.

Once I was feeling back to my normal self, I moved on to training. Endurance was my focus. The computer sent out maximum level guardians in a group of seven, and each time I eliminated one, a new training bot replaced it. While endurance training was always miserable, and I much preferred weapons and combat training, it was necessary.

After a varga or two of continuous battle, Coran's voice came over the loudspeaker. "Pidge, (y/n)- would you please join me and the paladins in the detainment room."

I blocked another few blows, destroyed what seemed like the millionth robot, and rolled away from the immediate circle of robots. "End training sequence."

"Terminating endurance training- level max."

The robots all received an electric shock and fell to the floor, where they dissipated. I grabbed a towel on my way out, panting lightly on my way to the detainment bay. Once I arrived, Coran looked in my direction. I was wiping some sweat from my forehead.

"Ah, endurance training?" He asked, "I never see you break a sweat otherwise."

I nodded, and he put his hands on his hips.

"I always hated when the academy made me do endurance," he sighed, "I was always so sweaty and sore!"

"I've only been going for a varga or two," I shrugged, "At this point, it's only been a moderate workout."

He shouted in surprise, the colour draining from his face. "T-two... vargas?! The most I ever did was thirty doboshes!"

"Thirty doboshes?" I asked, then laughed. "No wonder cadets were always so incompetent. To become a commander under me, lieutenants had to successfully do ten vargas of endurance followed by combat simulation with me."

"Whaaaaaa?!" He shrieked, "You are mad!"

I shrugged, then gestured to the pod in which Sendak was being stored. "I'm assuming the reason you called me has to do with him?"

"Oh, right!" He said quickly, then turned around. He began typing into a screen attached to a small pod, which connected to Sendak's storage. "He's almost hooked up but I do have to warn you, this technology was used to keep Altean memories alive, not to interrogate prisoners."