Allura watched happily as the Paladins sat down in a circle. Keith was shying away from the group, but he had yet to leave the room. The timing was perfect.

"Paladins, today our bonding exercise will consist of a memory game. This game I used to play with my friends as a young girl-" memories of young Altean children flooded her mind. The beauty of her once standing kingdom.

"So, I will not explain the rules. I thought it would be a puzzle game, as you call it. Place the headgear on your head, and focus. A random person of the group will be selected, and the game will start." Coran took the introduction from her. His chipper mood evident in his smile and twinkling eyes.

The group hesitantly agreed and soon dove in. No one was prepared for what they'd have to go through.

They met at a bar. The air reeked of alcohol, glass shards were littering the floors, bright neon signs glowed on the walls. Music vibrated the floors with every clash of notes. Shiro looked around, eyeing the bar with distaste.

"What's the puzzle? Are we suppose to find something?" Lance questioned, his voice soon being drowned out by the music. Pidge shrugged, analyzing the room. Her eyes narrowed as she spotted Hunk to her left.

"Guys... where's Keith?"

Hunk visibly paled at the realization that they'd already lost a group member. His heart caught in his throat. Anxiety flooded his system and chilled his chest.

"Oh god. Oh my god we lost Keith!" He shouted, clearly heard by everyone within a 10 foot radius.

Shiro shook his head. He appeared pissed off at something in the distance. The music was slowing down and softening. A stage was the the right hand corner of the bar. The curtains opened and the lights dimmed.

The music had completely stopped now.

"He's here. He's serving drinks." Shiro's voice was deathly calm. He signaled to a young boy, barely 7 years old. His small frame was easily dominated by the grown men of the bar.

His shaggy black hair was pulled back with a hair elastic, and he wore a stained apron. Pidge gasped and swallowed the saliva thickly covering the roof of her mouth.

"He's younger? Which... Allura said this was a game. Maybe it's the Altean version of where's Waldo? We just have to find the mini Keith?" Pidge theorized as Lance nodded in agreement.

"It's a crowded bar, maybe that's why he's here."

Shiro shook his head. The group was in the same spot they had been when placed in the game. None had the courage to move.

"He had a job from when he was 6. H worked as a bartender and host at this bar down the street from his house." Shiro briefly explained before taking a step to the child version of his adopted brother.

A drink spilled from the filled tray Keith was serving. The child trembled as a man he was serving it to hollered at him.

"You whore! You good for nothing bitch!" He screamed at Keith. Going as far as the slap the kid and make his body collide with t he ground.

"What the hell?!" Lance exclaimed, jumping to the opportunity to beat the man up. His hand, however, passed through the drunk's body like butter. His actions being ineffective to the 34-year old.

Keith scrambled to get up. Shiro winced as he spotted glass embedded in his cheek. Blood tricking down a cut on the boy's arm.

"Why're we here? Why can't we make things happen? Why're we like ghosts?!" Hunk asked a million questions a minute. A hostess passing through him as he sprouted worries to Pidge.

The woman was tall, around Lance's height. She wore stilettos, a short skirt, and a long sleeved denim jacket. Her hair was pulled back as she looked distastefully at Keith.

"Get back to work, freak. You're papa ain't paying bills for no shit."

Her voice was cold, distant. Her eyes pierced into Keith's body. The underage worker shivering as he quickly began serving drinks again. His shaky hands clutching each tray and booze bottle with an extreme grip.

"Why're we here? Why can't we help him?" Pidge murmured to herself. Her eyes tracing Keith was he went back behind the counter. Shiro started to move.

"Come one, there's more."

The group left the bar lobby and into the door Keith had just gone though. Then, another landscape formed.

And with this new landscape, a new Keith.