Keith grins when he hears it. He keeps driving; they're not in the clear yet.

Their pursuers seem to have largely given up after the cliff. Once he's sure there's nobody on their tail, Keith heads as directly as he can for his place. 

After driving for a few miles through the desert down barely-there dirt roads, they come to a little shack in the middle of nowhere. There are maybe one or two rooms inside, it's not tall enough to have a second storey, and it doesn't even look like it's connected to the grid—the solar panels on the roof are hooked up to a generator. 

Keith parks out front and turns to help Shiro off the bike. 

Ami straightens up, awkwardly disentangling herself from Shiro - he seems alert enough for now, and Keith obviously wants to take point.  

She slides out of her perch and onto the ground, looking around for Magini. How's her friend holding up?

Magini is - still clinging to the hoverbike's tail, apparently, eyes squeezed shut. 

Oh no.

"Magini?" (No response.)

She carefully approaches the poor girl carefully, and places a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Hey, hey. it's okay. We're safe."

Magini flinches at the touch, but her eyes do open, visibly calming down at least a bit as she takes in their surroundings. 

Wordlessly, she swings off the tail, landing on the ground with a heavy thump.

"Do you want a hug?"

Headshake. 

After a moment, she pulls her phone out and and starts looking something up, walking slowly away from Ami and towards the shack.

...yeah, okay, sure. Keith will just be over here getting Shiro inside. 

"C'mon," he says to Ami over his shoulder. 

Inside, the ground floor of the shack does just seem to be one room. It's furnished enough to be cosy, though: there's a coffee table in the middle, a computer desk in the corner with a chair, and a couch against the far wall that he steers Shiro towards. The entertainment system looks decades old, but at least there is one, along with a couple shelves of books. A ladder leads up to a partial loft; some blankets can be seen hanging over the edge, suggesting that Keith has a bed up there.

Magini's phone can connect to the internet—this is Arizona, not Antarctica—but the signal strength isn't great. 

After about a minute of reading intently from her phone and glancing occasionally in Shiro's direction, Magini looks up and starts talking. 

"I need to ask you some questions about your symptoms. Head injuries can be very dangerous, and the ride here could have made things worse." 

She's avoiding making eye contact with any of them, but her voice is firm. 

"...ugh, yeah, my head does hurt. I don't remember hitting it..." He pauses. "That's not a great sign, huh?" 

Further questioning will reveal that, while he has a nasty headache and doesn't remember the landing, or even how he got into the spacecraft that crashed, Shiro doesn't have many other concussion symptoms. His initial confusion and dazedness on waking seem to be mostly gone and fading fast: he gives coherent responses to Magini's questions, and he can rattle off information like his full name and Garrison rank, his birthday, and Keith's name. He's not nauseous or dizzy, and he reports that his hearing and vision seem normal. He maybe has a mild concussion, but nothing that indicates more serious problems. 

Magini mechanically reads out the recommended recovery instructions: get lots of rest, food, and water, only light physical and mental activity; take acetaminophen for initial pain, add NSAIDs once 24 hours have passed.

Then she slumps down onto to the floor and hugs her knees. 

"What now?", she says the group quietly. 

Ami opens her mouth to speak, but then reconsiders, and turns to look at Shiro.

Shiro seems to notice her properly for the first time.

"Wait—Ami??? What are you doing here?" 

"...I transferred into the Garrison as a senior, this year. I knew they were lying about what happened to you and M-Matty, and - I needed to know." 

She's clenching her fists. "Shiro - is he -" 

He tries to remember, squinting against the pain, but has to stop after a moment. "I know the three of us were all captured together, but everything since then—it's a blur. I'm sorry. I think he was alive when I saw him last, but...I don't even know how long ago that was. Weeks, months? Years?" 

Oh.

"It's been 358 days since the Orfeo reached Kerberos", she murmurs, then looks away, trying not to cry. he promised-

"...thank you. And I'm sorry I don't have better news for you about Matt." 

He starts to say something else, then pauses and looks at Magini. "Hi, I don't think we've been introduced. I'm Shiro." 

He offers a handshake, faltering in surprise a moment later when he realises it's the metal prosthetic. 

Magini is staring at the wall, so it takes her a few seconds to notice that he's probably talking to her and then look up and notice his hand. She uncurls a bit to return the handshake, struggling to keep eye contact.

"Oh, sorry. I'm Magini Zils. I know Ami and Keith from the Garrison, I'm - I was -"

She takes in a shaky breath, fighting back tears.

"I'm technically still a fourth year in the engineering track? But my working assumption is that they're going to expel Ami and I for this, when the dust settles."

it comes out more bitter than she'd intended.

Shiro raises an eyebrow.

"Just the two of you, not Keith?" 

Keith blushes and scowls, not meeting Shiro's eyes. 

"They already kicked me out in January. For fighting." With an instructor. On your behalf. 

At the time, he didn't think he'd ever have to explain himself to Shiro. Which was, in large part, why he did it. 

Keith...

"- they lied to us. Said the Orfeo crashed on Kerberos, and... that it was your piloting at fault. ...Keith thought that was unlikely."