Chapter Text
Shiro carries Lacey slumped over her shoulder, leaving her robot hand free just in case. Staying in the bridge isn’t an option, not if Shiro wants to keep the Castle and Lacey safe, so she moves. Out to the hallway, back down the stairs, and to the entryway of the castle where the party with the Aruisians had been taking place. Lacey groans as Shiro runs down the stairs, the quick movements probably hurting her.
“It’s okay,” Shiro mutters, not sure if she’s saying for Lacey’s benefit or her own. “You’ll be okay, I promise.”
She only stops them once she’s already down the stairs, the two Galra and four sentries walking slowly towards the Castle like they’d already claimed it. “Sendak,” she says through gritted teeth, eyes narrowed. This about more than just the Castle. Shiro has to protect Lacey too, the girl who still lays unconscious and in pain on her shoulder. She lays Lacey down on on one of the bench things that break up the pillars lining the walls and turns back towards Sendak, his fake eye glowing bright and his fanged smile menacing.
Shiro runs to meet him at the castle entrance, prosthetic held ready to strike.
“Stand aside,” Sendak says.
Shiro’s arm begins to glow, ready for a fight. “No. You’re not getting in.”
“Yes,” he says, his own monstrous prosthetic opening its claws, “I am.”
Sendak’s arm flies towards Shiro, only connected to his shoulder by a thin line of lightning. Shiro tries to block it with a punch of her own arm, letting it glow that sickly purple light. The claws of the monster arm close around her arm like jaws. Like the gladiator ring, she thinks. Just like the gladiator ring. The arm drags her towards Sendak, turning this into a close up fight. It releases her momentarily, leaving her smacked against the ground. Sendak raises the arm into the air and brings it down in a swift motion, barely giving Shiro the chance to move out of the way.
Shiro tumbles back and gets back on her feet, glaring daggers at Sendak who only smiles menacingly in return. Shiro readies herself for battle once more, arm ready to strike. Just like the gladiator ring. Let the instinct take over. Fight. Protect. Survive.
She runs towards Sendak, a battle cry escaping her throat as their arms connect. She runs her glowing right arm across the body of Sendak’s, barely leaving a dent on the metal of it. She continues to strike at the arm, a streak of violet following behind her arm at every move. Sendak goes on the defensive, dodging her hits with relative ease. When they finally exchange blows, it comes in the form of a punch, their fists meet in the air, neither giving way to the other as purple sparks fly from metal trying to crush metal.
“I see you’ve spent some time with the druids,” Sendak says almost casually, but there’s a strain in his voice that tells Shiro her attacks have been more successful than she thought. “They do love to experiment. Too bad you didn’t get the latest model.”
Like she wants a monster arm in the first place. Shiro flinches a bit, the memory of her torn of flesh arm being cut off flashing to the forefront of her mind for a split second. Sendak notices and used it to his advantage, his arm pushes Shiro back like a jet and sends her flying back into the Castle, tumbling on the ground and grappling at the smooth floors to try and stop herself. She ends up right next to Lacey. Shiro turns her attention to her for a moment, sees her eyes just barely open, her mouth moving slowly: “Shi… ro…”
But Shiro doesn’t have the time to listen to her, Sendak’s arm coming back with a vengeance to try and crush her. She rolls out of the way as the arm crashes against the floors and leaves a crater in its wake. Sendak follows shortly behind his arm, jumping towards Shiro like he was using his arm as a pole vault. As he comes close to her, she grabs him and uses all her strength to throw him over her shoulder and sending careening back to the floor, using the force of his jump against him.
She runs after him, arm ready to slice, maim, kill, something, anything to try and keep Lacey safe. They end up with their arms crossed, Shiro’s held against Sendak’s neck and Sendak’s claws just barely grazing her chin and neck. They’re both breathing hard and Shiro can feel beads of sweat dripping down her face. It’s like Matt all over again. I can’t fail this again.
“Let him go, or your friend won’t make it,” says a voice behind her. She turns her head to see the other Galra holding Lacey up by the hair, her braid clutched in his purple fingers, and a blaster held up against her temple. Any sign that she’d been waking up earlier was gone, her body handing limply.
And of course, Sendak takes her momentary distraction as an opportunity to strike, punching her with his arm and sending her flying towards the other Galra’s feet, right next to Lacey. She bangs her head against the ground as she tumbles, her vision becoming blurry around the edges. See sees double as the other Galra drops Lacey and she tries to reach out, but there’s no strength left in her body. “La…cey…”
The last thing she hears before her vision goes dark is Sendak’s voice: “Voltron is ours.”
* * *
Hunk bites at her thumbnail, slowly chipping off the glittery yellow polish with her teeth. It’s a nasty habit, she knows that. Her fingernails could have all kinds of gunk underneath them, weird space bacteria that could make her sick. But she just can’t help it. She chews at her thumb while her right leg bounces up and down and up and down, her nerves needing something, anything to distract her from what’s going on. A piece of polish breaks off inside her mouth and Hunk finally stops biting the nail, scrunching up her face in disgust as she tries to get the polish out of her mouth.
As soon as its gone, Hunk wants to put her nail in her mouth again. She feels guilty for it. Lacey did her nails for her back on Earth, same as she’s always done every week or so since they first became friends. And now here Hunk is, ruining her best friends hard work while on a mission to get a giant, ship-powering crystal to try and save said best friend. There really isn’t any escaping the thought of Lacey being in danger for Hunk. Lacey’s the type of friend that leaves her mark, not just in your mind, but on your body. Hunk’s nails were done by Lacey, Hunk’s hair was done by Lacey, Hunk’s makeup was done by Lacey. Everything, everywhere, it’s all just Lacey now. It’s been years since she’s been without her. The thought of losing her now is… it isn’t something Hunk wants to think about.
She’d paid attention to when Pidge was explaining the upgrades he’d made to the escape pod, even if the booster fuel upgrade was more a certain death button than anything else. She tries to pay the same kind of attention now to Coran as he explains what Balmera’s are and how the crystals on them form and how they’re harvested, but half of what he says doesn’t really register, worry keeping Hunk from being able to focus. She keeps thinking about how smoothly Coran’s flying. It’s not something she’s used to, flying so easily and not being nauseous. Lacey’s flying always makes her feel queasy and after a year, it just started to become something familiar. Lacey crashes, Hunk throws up, life goes on. It is still going to go on now? Is life going to keep moving forward if Hunk fails to save her?
Hunk doesn’t realize her thumbnail is back in her mouth until another piece of polish chips off. She takes it as a sign to focus, to actually, really try to focus. Slipping back on the glove of her armor, she takes in a shuddering breath, letting the tension in her shoulders ease as she breathes out. It’s no use thinking about the worst possible outcome. She just needs to help Coran get this crystal. Once they have the crystal everything will work itself out. They’ll get Lacey all healed up and then head back to Earth. They’ll be safe and far away from this war soon. Just a few more hours. A few more hours ‘til their lives can go back to normal and they can pretend none of this happened.
As their destination comes into sight, Hunk forces her leg to stop bouncing as she turns to Coran. “Is is the Balmera planet with the crystals?”
“Actually, it’s not a planet?”
Hunk Furrows her brows. “What?”
“Balmera are ancient animals,” Coran explains. “Petrified, but still alive. Their bodies naturally create the crystals that help power many Altean ships. I often accompanied my grandfather to visit these majestic creatures when he was building the Castle of Lions. I’ll never forget the first time I saw the sparkling surface of a Balmera. You’re in for quite a treat.”
Hunk takes his words with a grain of salt, after all, Coran was also the same person that said the planet hiding the Yellow Lion was peaceful and well… A lot can change in 10,000 years.
As soon as the surface of the Balmera comes into view, Hunk realizes she was a little too right about a lot changing. There is no sparkling surface to admire, only barren ground infested with Galra structures and skies so yellow they were almost brown.
“Oh, no… this is horrifying!” Coran takes the words right out her mouth. “They’ve turned it into a mining colony! Oh… they’re completely destroying it it! They’ve no regard for the poor creature…”
Hunk doesn’t like being right about this. The sparkling surface of a living planet sounds nice. It sounds peaceful. This? This is giving more… dystopian hellscape. There are thousands of Galra fighter ships zooming around in the air, so many of them that they look like insects escaping a hive. It looks a little too similar to when she and Lacey sought out the Yellow Lion.
An alarm goes off in the escape pod as the sphere like screen sitting between Hunk and Coran shows a Galra fighter ship flying above them. “Uh-oh,”Hunk says, looking between Coran and the screen. “We’ve been spotted.”
The communication line between the pod and the Galra ship opens, letting whoever was flying over them speak: “Hailing unidentified craft. State your ship ID, entry code, and landing destination.”
“Oh no,” Hunk says, just barely holding herself back from chewing at her nail again. “No, no, no. What do we do?”
“Just stay calm,” Coran says, pressing the button to respond to the Galra officer. Hunk watches as he responds: “We don’t really need to land. We’re, uh, just looking around, if that’s okay.”
The Galra doesn’t seem satisfied with this. “Unidentified craft, land immediately and prepare to be boarded.”
“O-okay. Uh, thank you. See you down below.” Coran cuts of the transmission line, his left hand tightening its grip on the controls as the right grabs a switch below. Hunk feels her stomach flip as she realizes exactly what’s going to happen next. Coran pulls at the switch and the pod careens backwards as Hunk shouts and flails her arms, trying to find something to grab onto and brace herself. there are no hand holds, so she hinds herself grabbing onto the back of Coran’s chair, still screaming, eyes darting back and forth between him and the pod window.
He pulls at the switch again and the shift forward as Galra lasers fire down on them, hands with a tight hold on the controls, forcing the pod to go as fast as it can possibly go. Hunk watches as his eyes narrow and he flies them straight towards one of the large mining holes on the surface of the Balmera.
“What are you doing!?” Hunk asks, eyes blown wide and heart beating a mile a minute.
“Hang on!” Is all he shouts back as they nosedive into the mine.
The mine is a straight shot down, carved in a perfect cylinder with the alien equivalent of steel pipes serving as support hold for it to not collapse. Each pipe is lines with purple lights, like eyes that stare at them as the descent continues. And it goes on for a while. To the point where Hunk feels she’s let out the last of her screams. It’s like getting on the scary roller coaster with the mile long drop only for it to become endless halfway through.
“How deep is this thing!?” Hunk shouts.
Coran eyes dart towards her and the momentary distraction is all that needed to happen for him to hit one of the Galra-steel pipes the line the mine. All Hunk can do is start screaming again as they careen downwards, spinning wildly as they do so. Coran joins in the screaming, still trying to regain control of the pod and failing miserably. As the ground comes into view, Hunk feels a twinge of thankfulness for the fact she’s wearing a helmet.
The pod lands front first, making both Hunk and Coran groan as it skitters across the dirt and crashes into the side of the mine wall. Hunk’s head sways back and forth, the shock of the crash making her head slam back against the chair and almost slam forward into the dashboard, except that it seems even alien space crafts are equipped with air bags, cushioning the impact just enough to only knock the air out of Hunk’s lungs instead.
She groans as she turns to look at Coran. She expects to see him in worse shape, but even though he’s not wearing a helmet or armor, he looks pretty much fine. She lets herself sit up and pulls the helmet of her head, inspecting it and her head for any damage. Once she’s sure everything’s fine, she lets out a heavy sigh and turns to Coran.
“You okay?” she asks.
Corn nods as he massages his neck. Hunk assumed he must’ve injured it somewhat in the crash. She lets herself look away from him for a moment, taking in their surroundings. The bottom of the hole is a lot like the rest of the hole, pipes and lights all the way across. Only difference is that there are cave-like entrances deeper into the underground, Hunk sees two of them, one far off to their left and the other only a little to their right. She squints her eyes trying to see if there’s anything in there and feels her blood run cold when she actually does spot something. Two pairs of golden eyes.
“Coran,” she says shakily, tapping him on the arm, “what lives at the bottom of these mines?”
* * *
Pidge can feel her heart race as the Castle powers back up and the lights go from their usual soothing blue to deep Galra purple. She’d been meaning to help defend the castle alongside Shiro, but there was no way for her to get into that fight. Pidge isn’t made for combat, she’s made for stealth, for gathering information, for being the tech genius when no one else is. Which is exactly how she ended up watching as Sendak and the other Galra used Lacey to defeat Shiro. She saw how they both got dragged back towards the Bridge.
She knows she needs to get them out, but with Sendak in total control of the castle, his his limited number of sentries spread out, Pidge knows it’s not going to be an easy task. Crouched behind one of the alcoves that line the halls of the castleship, she looks at the two sentries guarding the torn down door to the bridge. Good thing I’m still in armor, she thinks. This little mission to to recover the Castle would be next to impossible without the armor and her bayard. Pidge puts a finger against the comms button on the helmet and hears Allura and Keira’s voices clearly on the other side.
Keira’s voice echoes in the comms. “Can we break through the barrier?”
“No. And whoever has taken over the Castle has a Crystal,” Allura’s voice answers, “which means they’ll be able to fly the ship. We have to stop them.”
“And how are supposed to do that?”
“Keira,” Pidge whispers, cutting into their convo before Keira has the chance to freak out, “can you hear me?”
“Pidge!” Keira exclaims. “Is that you? Where are you?”
“Inside the castle,” Pidge whispers back. “Sendak has taken over the ship and he’s preparing for launch. He’s got Lacey and Shiro.”
Allura speaks next. “Pidge, listen. If he’s started the launch sequence, we don’t have much time before liftoff to stop it.
“Tell me what to do.”
“You have to get down to the main engine control panel and disconnect the primary turbine from the Central Energy Chamber. If you can do that, Sendak will have to reset the whole system. That might give us enough time to find a way to stop them.”
“Where’s the control panel?”
“You should be able to find a map of the castle on the holo-screen of your armor.”
Pidge taps at her left wrist, letting the holo-screen pop out and show her the way. “On it.”
“Be careful and stay in contact,” Allura says.
“Don’t get caught,” Keira says, likely the closest thing Pidge is every going to get to a ‘good luck.’
“I won’t,” Pidge responds. “be ready to move as soon as the power goes down.”
Following the map, Pidge runs down the corridors, making sure to be on the lookout for any sentries. She knows that Sendak only has four sentries, that two are by the bridge, but she doesn’t know where the other two are. Patrolling, she assumes, but patrolling where? She wishes she knew.
The map tells her that the main control panel is several floors below and taking the Castle’s scattered stairs wastes too much time, so she does what anyone else would do: she runs to the elevators, forces the door open, and jumps down with the help of the paladin armor’s jetpack. All the way at the bottom, she forces the door open and runs to reach her destination.
After a few precious minutes running and another door forced open, she makes it to the turbine room. The turbine itself is unlike anything Pidge has ever seen, glowing ball of blue electricity that spirals around itself like a condensed star, little wisps of light escaping it and fizzling into nothing. The walking platform wraps around it, more an observation deck than anything else.
“Okay, Allura, I’m near the turbine,” Pidge says, still watching as the star-like sphere grows larger until it’s barely brushing against the walkway. “I think it’s started.”
“Then you’ll have to hurry,” Allura answers. “Cross the catwalk to the main column in the center.”
Pidge does as she says, racing along the unnecessarily long catwalk to reach the column. When she reaches it, her eyes dart across the red holo-screen, alien letters glaring back at her, “Okay, now what?”
“Open the hatch,” Allura says. Pidge knees down and pulls at the metal plate that blockers off from the internal wiring of the control panel. “Find the central computer control hub and enter the following sequence…”
The metal plate gives way and Pidge scans at the interior of the control panel. The interior consists mostly wires connected to strange looking vials of a glowing blue something, with little Altean symbols on the bottom of each vial. “Wait, wait, wait! Which one is it? The labels are all in Altean!”
“It’s— the one that….. and then—”
“Allura? I can’t hear you?” Pidge says.
The sound of the turbine powering itself further is almost deafening, blue lighting stretching out across the room and flailing itself wildly in all directions. Pidge tries to speak to Allura again. “I can’t tell which one it is! Allura? Allura!?”
Pidge gets on her feet and looks at the turbine, light flying in little specks in every direction, lightning moving in strange patters. It was definitely about to reach full power, any second now the turbine would allow Sendak to take off and deliver the Lions to Zarkon, condemning everyone in the universe. Pidge kneels back down and looks inside the control panel, pulling out her bayard. With a glance at it and then back at the control panel, Pidge makes a choice.
“Whatever,” she says, even though what she’s relly think is ‘this better not kill me’, before jabbing her bayard into the mess of wires and vials, eyes clenched shut and expecting a boom.
A jolt of lighting throws Pidge back, sending her and her bayard flying across the catwalk. The turbine seems to glow angrily, growing and growing. Pidge stares at it wide eyed, half expecting it to blow her and the rest of the Castle to kingdom come. Except it doesn’t. The lightning ball of the turbine shrinks down to almost an eighth of its size, glowing faintly at the center of the round viewing walkway. Pidge groans as she sits herself, flashing a smile at Rover as the drone beeps happily.
“We did it,” she says, letting the drone fly down to her and give the closest thing a pyramid shaped robot can to a fist bump as it knocks against Pidge’s fist. “Let’s get outta here.”
* * *
Hunk rushes to get herself out of the escape pod and pull out her bayard. She stumbles as the weight of the machine gun manifests itself in her hands and she aims it directly towards the cave entrance. Coran lowers himself from the escape pod and plants himself next to her, only a partially concerned look on his face.
“D-don’t come any closer!” Hunk shouts, trying to keep her hands from shaking. “I don’t know how to use this thing very well!
Hunk expects Galra, she expects angry purple aliens with their glowing yellow eyes and scowling faces. Instead what she gets is two completeley non-Galra aliens, both of them vaguely humanoid with rough looking skin, one slightly gray and the other more of a teal.
“Wait a minute,” Hunk says, letting her bayard drop. “You’re… not Galra.”
“Nor are you!” The teal one says. Hunk thinks she’s a girl from the tone of her voice. It’s pretty, melodic, out of place so deep in a Galra mine. Hunk stares at her for a moment and the alien girl stares back.
The sound of a ship flying above them snaps both of their attentions upwards. “A patrol!” The gray alien says, a boy, judging from his voice. He grabs the arm of the girl. “Shay, we must make leave from these ones now.”
“Wait, please!” Coran exclaims, taking a few steps forward. “We need your help. If the Galra find us they’ll kill us!”
“Or torture us!” Hunk adds.
“Or keep us as some sort of creepy pet to play with as they please!”
Hunk turns to Coran, concerned expression on her face. Coran smiles nervously. “Too much?”
“Too much.”
“Not our problem,” the gray alien says. “The Galra see us near you and they kill both you and us. Shay, exeunt!
“No!” Shay interjects. “These many years, only Galra have been seen here. I will not turn my back on the skylings.”
The gray alien makes a pained expression as Shay looks at him pleadingly. He looks upward at the patrol ship and back towards the escape pod “…Vex!” he and Shay rush over. “Grab a side,” he says to Hunk and Coran. Hunk lets her bayard dematerialize and stores it back in her armor before doing as the gray alien says.
“In here!” He points to the other cave opening Hunk had seen earlier. Between the four of them, they drag the ship into the cave before the patrol catches sight of them.
Hunk stands closest to the mouth of the cave, bayard once again held at the ready.The Galra ship circles the bottom of the mine shaft twice, red light flashing into Hunk’s eyes as her breath becomes trapped in her lungs. Once the patrol finally ascends, Hunk releases the breath with a heavy sigh and lets her bayard vanish. She turns to the two aliens.
“Thanks for saving us,” she says, taking a few steps forward and holding out her hand. “I’m Hunk.”
Both aliens look down at her outstretched hand before choosing to ignore it. Right, hunk thinks, aliens don’t shake hands. She puts it down and pretends it wasn’t immensely awkward.
“I’m Shay,” the teal alien says, although Hunk’s already familiar with her name from how many times gray said it. “And this is my brother Rax.” She gestures at the gray alien and as Hunk meets his gaze, he glares and crosses his arms over his chest. Shay continues speaking as if she can’t see him. “How did you fall to us?”
“Well, we came looking for something,” Hunk says. “And I think you guys might be the right people to help us find it.”
* * *
With the turbine down, all Pidge needs to do is take down the particle barrier. She follows Allura’s directions flawlessly, checking with the map at every tun to make sure she’s heading the right direction. They might not be working under the threat of a take off anymore, but Pidge still needs to work fast. Taking down the engine will be for nothing she gets caught.
“Pidge,” Allura calls through the comms, “have you made it to the generator room?”
Jabbing her bayard in between the gap, Pidge forces the door to the Generator Room open, eyes drawn to the purple lightning running on either side of the wall. “I’m in,” she reports. The lightning runs in strings all the way down the hall, spaced out evenly like columns. Pidge isn’t sure what these lines of lightning are for and she doesn’t have time to sit and figure it out. She sees that there are large gaps in the floor leading deeper into the room, each one about as long as she is tall.
She walks deeper into the room as she speaks to Allura. “This technology is so advanced, I don’t know if I can figure it out.”
“Yes, you can,” Allura reassures. “The lives of your fellow paladins are at stake. You can’t give up.”
“You’re a genius, aren’t you?” Keira says, speaking up for the first time in a while. “If anyone can figure out how to work the tech, it’s you. So have at it.”
Pidge scoffs at the way she says it. She and Keira had practically been at each others throats only a few hours ago and now Keira was giving Pidge words of encouragement. Thinking back on the argument from earlier makes Pidge think of her family, of what they’d say if they could see her now. She remembers sitting at the dinner table the night before the Kerberos mission, telling her dad and brother she wished she could join them. She remembers her dad’s words:
“Just you wait, kiddo. Something tells me that you’re going to have your own crew someday. And you’re going to fly with them to worlds so far away, we can’t even imagine. I bet my bottom dollar you’re going to be part of something that makes the whole universe sit up and take notice.”
It’s bittersweet thought. Her father many not know just how right he’d been back then, but Pidge knows she’s going to make damn sure he knows soon. Although, would he still be right if Pidge turns her back on the team? Can she even do that now, after everything?
Pidge shakes her head, snapping herself away from those thoughts. She needs to focus, be the genius. “Okay. Talk me through it, Allura.”
“Shutting down the barrier from this room can be dangerous,” Allura says. “Remember, the barrier is also a weapon, so stay away from the energy arcs.”
Pidge glances at the lightning stripes again. “Don’t touch the giant lightning bots. Got it.”
“Now,” Allura contines, “what I’m going to need you to do—” The rest of what Allura is trying to relay is cut off as Pidge is shoved to the side by Rover, the sound of blaster fire zipping right past her ear.”
Pidge gasps, turning her head and catching a glimpse of the sentries that had opened fire on her. She runs deeper into the room as Allura’s panicked voice calls through the comms. “Pidge! Hello? Are you there?”
Ducking behind a protruding section of the wall as the sentries continue to fire at her, Pidge continues to hear Allura’svoice. “Pidge, what’s going on!?”
“The sentries found me,” Pidge whisper-yells into the coms, pulling open the map of the castle on the armor’s holo-screenas she tries to pinpoint an exit. “Talk once I take care of it.” Pidge cuts the transmission as Allura beings to say something about the mice. Pidge shoves the information to the back of her head, directing all her attention to escaping the sentries. The map shows her an exit point, a vent several feet above her head.
“My only way out is two floors up? Seriously?” She mutters. She looks back at the sentries, poking her head out from her hiding spot only to duck back in as another laser is shot straight at her. She looks down at the holo-screen and searches for one of the functions she’d discovered recently while messing around with the armor: a holographic clone of herself. She looks to Rover for a moment. “Stay close behind me, yeah?” The drone beeps in response.
“Let’s give this a try,” she says, pressing the button and watching another her blink to life and run in front of the sentries, diverting their fire. The sentries shoot at the clone, one of their shots striking the lighting, frying one of them and taking it down. As she runs out, she see’s that all four of the sentries are after her, meaning the two by the door also got sent patrolling. Sendak knows I’m here, she thinks. She can’t dwell on it, not when she’s in danger, so she follows through with the rest of her escape plan.
With one of the four sentries down, she runs past the others in a zigzag motion, dodging their fire. Once she’s closer to where she needs to be, she aims her bayard up towards the vent, letting the blade of it embed itself in the metal. She presses the button on the inside of her bayard's handle, causing the line that stretches out between her and the blade to pull her up and into the vent as laser fire continues to rain down on her. She army crawls deeper into the vent as quickly as she can, only slowing down once she’s turned a corner, safely away from the lasers.
The army crawling lasts for a while, dragging herself across the dimly lit vent and following the map to a more familiar area. When Pidge finally slices her bayard against the exit of the vent, she feels a sense of relief. She and Rover emerged in the training room, far enough away that the sentries shouldn’t be able to catch up. Shouldn’t, but of course, Pidge’s luck makes it so two of them shatter the glass of the training operation deck and jump down in front of her, guns blazing.
“You’ve gotta be kidding me!” She grunts, pulling up her shield and blocking the laser fire. Pidge pulls op the holo-screen of her suit again, thankful to be in more familiar turf. She’d spent the last few days going in and out of the training room with the other paladins, so she’s more familiar with this room than any other inside the Castle. She smirks as she finds exactly what she wants: the start button for the invisible maze. Objectively her favorite training exercise after getting to watch Lacey slam against the walls so many times.
The sentries are blocking the exit she needs, standing in the way between her and another vent that leads deeper into the Castle, so Pidge runs the risk, running straight towards the sentries, dodging their attemps to bring her down. As soon as she’s past, she presses the button on the screen and the maze comes to life, cutting down the unlucky sentry that stood right in between two of the walls. The other sentry slams itself uselessly against the walls of the maze, shocking itself and being no closer to finding the exit.
Pidge pries up the tile covering the vent and jumps in, Rover following after her, no time left to waste. She continues her through the vents across the vents. She knows there’s only one sentry left, one more threat following close behind her, even with the help of the maze, but she doesn’t realize how close until the lasers start coming down from behind her. There’s no graceful way to escape being shot at in such a confined space, so she flails around, rushing her way through corners to try and buy herself some cover. It’s not a lucky shot when the sentry’s hit connects with the left thruster of her jet pack, in fact, it’s an expected shot. The unexpected part is how the vent opens up beneath Pidge, dropping her down a vertical section she hadn’t been aware existed.
A scream escapes from her throat as she falls and she aims her bayard upwards. It catches on the roof over the opening of the vertical vent, letting Pidge find ground to stand on in the form of one of the protruding bits of metal on each section of the vent (alien architecture sure does love bits that stand out, not that it bothers Pidge, it’s been working out in her favor). The sentry is balanced on one these same bits at the top of the vent, firing down and only barely missing each shot. Pidge yanks down her bayard and the sentry comes flying down with it. She positions herself flush against the wall, making sure it won’t try and drag her down with it. The sentry falls past Pidge and after a few seconds, the satisfying sounds of an explosion echo upwards. It sends a shudder running up the walls, making Pidge unsteady on her feet, she falls forward, flailing her arms to try and steady herself, but instead of following in the sentry’s footsteps, Rover positions itself beneath her, letting her steady herself and stand straight again.
“Nice save, buddy,” she sighs, standing properly on the metal bit once more. All sentries taken care off. Pidge checks her map again, rerouting the path she needs to follow. Turns out it’s a few floors down. She jumps down the vertical vent, a sense of ease washing over her now that there’s no robots trying to kill her.
* * *
Shay and Rax lead them deeper into the caverns of the mine, Rax keeping a dissatisfied look on his face and Shay turning her head every few seconds to catch a glimpse of Hunk and Coran. Coran doesn’t seem to notice it, but Hunk does. She thinks its cute. She lets herself smile when Shay looks back again and find her eyes grow wide when Shay smiles back, a dark teal flush on her face. Rax bumps against Shay’s shoulder, forcing her to turn forward.
Seeing the Balmeran’s act so similarly to humans eases Hunk’s worries, making her feel safer as they continue to lead them deeper. Shay acts a lot like a sheltered girl close to Hunk’s age. Plus she’s nice, and brave, seeing how she stood up for Hunk and Coran against her brother. She’ll definitely be able to help them out. And they’ll definitely return the favor.
They’re led into a settlement, a collection of pathways within the cave, each one leading to a different family’s home. Raxrushes them into the pathway to the home, as if she’s worried the other Balmeran’s will catch sight of them and report their pressence to the Galra. The inside of the house is warm compared to the coolness of the rest of the cave, a burning fire in the center of what seems to be a living room with a bloiling cauldron suspended over it, an elderly Balmeranstirring at what seems to be a stew.
Shay sits Hunk and Coran near the fire as Rax explains the situation in a hushed voice at the other Balmeran. He runs off deeper into the house as more Balmeran’s come out, rushing his explanation to keep them at ease.
“So,” Hunk says, turning to Shay, who stands near her, “is this your home?”
“My family’s house, yes but our home is all of Balmera.”
“All of it?”
“Yes,” Say says with a smile. “All Balmerans are connected to it. We can feel when it feels joy or excitement, although I cannot remember the last time it has felt something other than pain.”
Her smile falls, and Hunk feels a pang of sympathy echo through her. “Is it because of the mining?”
Shay nods solemnly. “Yes, but let us put that aside for now. Would you and your orange haired friend like to dine with us?”
Hunk pauses for a moment, unsure of how to respond. They’re under a bit of a time crunch to get the crystal and get Lacey healed. Is stopping to get a bite to eat really something they can afford to do? Can Hunk even enjoy the meal properly knowing that her best friend is in danger. She glances back at the stew and she had to admit, it looks about a million times better than the food-goo she’s been subjecting herself to for the past few days. She decides to let Coran have the final say, turning to look at him. He simply offers her a nod of encouragement.
“If you don’t mind…” Hunk starts, feeling a bit guilty as the words escape her throat.
“Please, I insist you join us.”
The joy in her smile is enough for Hunk to fold, smiling back.“Okay then, we’d love to eat with you!”
The rest of Shay and Rax’s family, which ended up being just their parents, welcome them and bowls and spoons for the stew are placed in Hunk and Coran’s hands. The elderly Balmeran motions for them to bring their plates close as she serves them food. It smells good, like one of the many stew’s Hunk’s dad used to make back home. Although he’s the type to only make stew on rainy days, claiming it’s the only thing that helps him keep warm. Hunk smiles fondly at the bowl in her hands and waits for the others plates to be full before taking a bite.
It tastes just as good as it smells, a mix of oddly familiar and completely unknown flavors mixing together. “Oh my gosh, thank you so much for the food! This is really good!” Hunk exclaims, bringing another spoonful into her mouth and swallowing it down before continuing. “Are these potatoes in here?”
“Grandma’s special dish for special visitors,” Shay says brightly. “Cave-root for the skin, cave-bugs for the soul.”
Cave what?
Hunk has to pause just as she’s about to take another mouthful, exchanging looks with an equally concerned Coran. Shay’s Grandmother pours more stew in his bowl as he laughs awkwardly, trying to get her to stop. It’s not weird, she forces herself to think. People on Earth eat bugs sometimes too, right? It’s just protein, just protein… The next bite is much more hesitant than the ones before, but she has to admit, even the knowledge that she’s eating alien bugs doesn’t deter her from the stew. It really is just that much better than the food-goo.
“So…” she starts, turning the conversation towards something a little more important,” how many of you are down here?”
Hunk expects Shay to answer, but her father does so instead. “There are thousands of us here on Balmera. We live and work in these mines.”
“We harvest crystals for Zarkon,” Shay adds.
“Zarkon,” Hunk spits out, a venamous tone in her voice. She thinks back to the large blue crystal in the Castle’s bridge, thinks of Coran’s description, ‘the sparkling surface of a Balmera’, even though now it’s completely barren, a shell of what it was 10,000 years ago. She thinks of Shay’s words: ‘I cannot remember the last time it has felt something other than pain’. Hunk finds her lips twisting into a frown. “That’s so…” there’s a million words for it, a million heart wrenching words that can describe the situation happening on this living planet, and yet, they all condense into once, choked out word: “sad. He’s enslaved an entire planet. He’s hurting an entire planet.”
Shay’s father shakes his head, tired smile on his face. “Zarkon may rule, but we still have family. That is where true happiness comes from.”
Rax sets his bowl down loudly, standing up, anger clear in his features. “The Galra would tear our family asunder if they found these ones! Everyone comes to Balmera and takes, but gives nothing in return.”
Hunk furrows her brows and turns to look at Shay, who’s already begin explaining what her brother means. “In the past, those who took the Balmera’s crystals would replenish her with energy. It was an equal exchange. But the Galra only take. It is no wonder we can feel her suffering.”
Shay brings her hand to the ground and Hunk’s eyes grow wide as the dirt beneath it glows the same way the crystal in the Bridge does, a beautiful pale blue. The touch seems to awaken something in a planet, the soft sounds of an animal in pain echoing across the home.
“I’m sorry that we’ve put everyone in this situation,” Hunk says, picking her words carefully, “but we need a crystal. The faster we get it and get out, the faster everyone is out of danger.”
Rax scoffs, but that doesn’t stop Coran from following up Hunk’s words with his own. “We’re looking for a battleship-class crystal.”
“Battleship-class crystal?” Shay’s father says. “Those are most rare. Galra soldiers guard them ceaselessly until their harvest. Your quest is in vain.”
“There is one,” Shay says, “found only a few movements ago. It is almost excavated.”
“Quiet!” Rax hisses. “Even if they could steal the Crystal from the Galra, battle patrols wait to take down their ship. These ones have no change of getting out pf here alive. With the crystal or without.”
The frown that had been forming on Hunk’s face deepens, half considering yanking her glove off and putting her thumbnail back in her mouth. “Okay, so the crystal we need is basically the hardest thing in the universe to get.”
“Well, I don’t know about the hardest,” Coran says, jumping into one of his beloved info dumps. “There is the scaultrite mineral found only in the stomachs of giant weblums. Collecting that stuff’s no picnic. Uh, but, yes, th-this seems very difficult”
“You may stay here until Balmera gives another crystal,” Shay says. “One that is hidden from Galra eyes.”
Hunk twists her fingers together, feeling her leg bounce up and down, betraying her worries. “We don’t have that kind of time. My best friend is injured pretty badly and needs to get into a magic healing machine stat.”
“Hunk,” Coran says, placing a hand on her shoulder as he stands, “you go fix the pod. I’m going to do some reconnaissance and see if I can come up with another plan. We’re getting that crystal, one way or another.”
Hunk offers him a nod and Coran makes his way out of the cave. Hunk decides to stand as well, the pod isn’t exactly close and since she isn’t sure of the extent of the damages, she has no idea how long it’ll take to fix. Or if it can even be fixed in the first place. She really hopes the latter isn’t true. She waves goodbye to Shay and her family, a crooked smile on her face, and runs out of the cave. She’s got a pod to fix and a friend to save. No time to sit around and be scared.
* * *
The day Katie’s life took a turn for the worst started off like very other day since her father and brother went up into space. It was around the middle fall and Katie got herself enrolled in an after-school coding class the Garrison was hosting. During that semester that the class was supposed to run, Katie used to grab some takeout for her and her mom after school for them to eat at the mess hall at her mom’s job before the class. Either that or eat some of the genetically modified food her mom and her colleagues were testing out in the kitchens.
Katie’s mom works at the Garrison too, that’s how she met her dad, so even though the camp didn’t start until 6 P.M, Katie always waited the extra time by eating with her mom and then sitting in some corner of her mom’s work room with her computer open, working on her own personal projects. Except that on that day, Katie never made it into the astro-biologist unit. The guard at the entrance took one look at her and ordered another guard to escort her to Iverson’s office. Katie didn’t bring dinner that day. They were supposed to eat some pizza the mess hall was rolling out with sauce made of tomatoes modified to survive being grown on a space ship. They never got around to eating it that day.
Katie remembers her mom putting on a brave face as her daughter was walked through the door, even though she must’ve known that something was wrong. Pidge’s mom was just that kind of person, always making sure to keep her kids at ease. So even if Katie could see the trembling of her hands she pulled her into a hug, she didn’t say it. She let herself think that her mom was in the right mindset, that everything was fine and that this had nothing to do with the mission to Kerberos.
The trip to Iverson’s office turned to a short walk into a meeting room. They weren’t alone in there. Katie recognized Shiro’s fianceé, Ada, but not the brooding girl who sat next to her. Her and her mom sat across from those two and Katie came to the conclusion that this was the ‘protegee’ that Shiro had talked about. It seemed her mom had realized the same, her lips pursed into a thin line as she clasped Katie’s hand in her own.
What’s going on? Her mom asked Iverson as he stood at the head of the meeting table.
Iverson sighed heavily, looking away from her mom’s desperate gaze. I have… I have some news. Regarding the team of the Kerberos mission.
Everyone in the room froze, even the angry looking girl’s eyes grew wide, attention shifting completely towards Iverson. The words spilled out of the man slowly, like they were torturous to say, scratching at his throat as they manifested into the air. For all the show he put on, the words were far more painful to hear. Though there were only five people in the room, both Katie and the brooding girl made enough noise for a thousand. The girl banged her first against the table and Katie did the same, slipping her hand out of her mother’s. Katie yelled and so did the girl. Katie said how there must be some mistake, how there has to be a reasonable explanation for what’s going on. How they— her father, her brother, can’t just be gone. It has to be a—a communication error, something blocking the transmission. Kerberos is one of the only moons in the system to have a magnetic field, that must be cutting off comms, making it look like something happened when in reality they’re fine. They can’t have crashed. The other girl agreed.
Shiro wouldn’t crash! The girl said. She’s the best pilot this shithole’s ever produced! If she crashed that what does that mean for everyone else, huh!? What the fuck does that mean for your program!?
The situation went from bad to worse when her mom let out a sob. Katie knelt down to try and calm her mother down, reassure her with the same words that Katie was telling herself, but it didn’t work. Her mom ended up pulling her into her embrace, stroking her hair and crying, for her husband, for her son, somewhere within those sobs, the words my baby… my baby… escaped alongside the sobs and sometime around then Katie started crying too.
Over her mother’s shoulder and through the tears, Katie watched as the other girl continued to fight, to yell and bang her fist against the table even as tears welted in the corners of her eyes. Ada, who’d been starring blankly at the table before her, silent tears streaming from her eyes, since Iverson broke the news, seemed to snap out of it, trying to talk some sense into the girl. Keira, please, she croaked. Please calm down. We’ll figure something out. She can’t really be… she can’t be…
The moment Katie saw Keira grab Iverson by the collar and shake him down, shouting obscenities in a mix of English and Japanese, Katie wished she could do the same. Even as security rushed into the room and almost failed at pulling a sobbing teenage girl away from Iverson, she wished she’d done the same. Laid it into him, blame him for sending half her family to space and failing to bring him back.
YOU PROMISED THEY’D COME BACK! She shouted at him, even if her mom’s hold on her grew tighter, threatening to push all the air out of her lungs. YOU SAID THEY’D COME BACK!
And among the screams and the sobbing and the sounds of fists connecting with flesh, Iverson simply said: I’m sorry. We failed them.
The Garrison held a funeral a week after the news went public. Katie was forced to go by her mom and it seemed like Keira was also forced to go by Ada. Holding a funeral with no bodies made it more of a mourning party. In the gala hall of the Garrison, anyone who had ever known Shiro and her family was gathered, making small talk over glasses of champagne and dropping roses in front of large pictures of Shiro and Katie’s brother and father. Katie refused to drop flowers. Keira was the same. In the large room of people who believed the members of the Kerberos mission were dead, Katie and Keira had a silent, but mutual agreement: they can’t mourn people who never died. They were out there somewhere and Katie was determined to find them, no matter what.
Breaking into the Garrison was the easy part. Still fall, almost rolling into winter, the coding class was still a little less than a month away from wrapping up for the holidays. Iverson’s office was never actually guarded properly and the good old excuse of ‘I need the bathroom! My you-know-what started!’ bought Katie more than enough time to sneak her way over there and take a look in his computer files. And she found exactly what she was looking for. Proof that there was some kind of foul play.
First are a series of photographs from the probe orbiting the moon, photographs that don't show any kind of major damage from a crash. The site is clear, and even though the picture isn't the best quality, the ship seemed to be fully intact. Then there's the close up shots. There are a few active rovers on Kerberos, of a similar kind to the ones they used to send to Mars. With a new set of orders, they were sent over to the landing site of the mission and what had they found? Absolutely no evidence of a crash. A perfectly landed space craft, a series of sample taking supplies left abandoned, and three missing people. It made no sense. The only life on Kerberos was theorized to be bacteria and other micro-organisms living deep inside the underground salt-water ocean of the moon, buried by layers of ice and silicate rock. The whole reason they sent people out there was to gather samples of the water, since no automated machine could be fully trusted to recover it without human intervention. So what could’ve possibly happened to them. They have to be alive, Pidge thought. The only dangers of the moon were the cold and the lack of breathable air, neither of which should’ve been a problem with the spacesuits, so what could’ve possibly—
You! The voice of Iverson shouted. Get off my computer! How did you get past the guards?
You said the space craft went down to to pilot error, Katie said to him, anger clear in her face. I saw the video feeds and pictures from the probe and the rovers. There’s no evidence of a crash anywhere on Kerberos!
Those files are classified! I could charge you with treason for hacking into them! Iverson said, grabbing her by the arm and dragging her out of the office.
All information the Garrison gathers is supposed to be on public records! Katie shouted at him, trying to pull her arm out of his grasp. You’re a government agency! You can’t hide this forever, Iverson! Where is my family!?
Outside of the office, Iverson tosses her into the hands of the officer who was supposed to be guarding the door. Escort Miss Holt off the premises, Iverson said in place of answering her, and make sure every guard knows she’s never allowed on Garrison property ever again.
You can’t keep me out! Katie yelled. I’ll find the truth! I’ll find my family with or without your help, you bastard!!
She never got to finish the class, but that didn’t matter. That next semester was spent preparing for something else, creating a persona that could get her back into the Garrison and closer to the rest of the information regarding the Kerberos mission. As the summer comes to an end, Katie’s method back into the Garrison proves itself successful. It’s not a method her mom approves of, not one she wanted to agree to, but one she failed to talk Katie out of. If you do this, her mom said, holding the scissors in her grasp, there’s no going back, Katie. If they catch you, I won’t be able to help you. You’re banned from the Garrison. You could go to jail, sweetie.
I need to do this, Katie said. I need to find out what really happened. The Garrison is hiding the truth and I’m going to find it. Her mom cut her hair. Her mom let her forge her documentation. Her mom sent the uniform to get tailored and got the lenses of Matt’s old glasses switched from prescription to blue-light. Her mom got her new phone with a different number got an old friend of hers to pretend to be this new persona’s guardian. Her mom turned her daughter into her son, just for now, just until Katie gets what she needs.
Pidge Gunderson couldn’t be seen with Colleen Holt, so Pidge made her own way to the Garrison on public transport, carrying nothing but a suitcase and a backpack. She dumped both off at her room assignment and made her way to the board where all the team assignments for the year were posted.
That’s where she first met Hunk and Lacey, the latter having Hunk wrapped in a hug as she cheered being promoted to a fighter class pilot. And Pidge heard her tone shift and Keira’s name escape her lips alongside a declaration of Lacey being glad that the other girl is gone. In the time since they’d met at the meeting room, at the funeral, Pidge sometimes wondered what became of the girl that had once been under Shiro’s mentorship. Looks like nothing good came of it. Not that it mattered to Pidge.
The two girls on her team tried to bond with her, offered to bring her on their outings to the nearby town, to give her advice on how to get girls, to play video games in the commons and eat at the student mess hall with her. Pidge refused them each time. She couldn’t afford to get close. She needed to focus, to find what she’s looking for and get out. But the sheer impossibility of finding the intel she needed in the Garrisons servers made her turn to other methods. She searched the night sky for a signal, a transmission, any sign that someone was still out there. Pidge tried to keep a low profile, but Lacey’s dirt poor pilot skills always shone a particularly negative spotlight on their team. It made no sense for the girl to be a fighter pilot and fail so miserably at every flight, almost like she was being bad on purpose. Almost. Pidge might've refused to be friends with the girl, but she isn't blind. She knows something's up, that something is making Lacey suck at every simulation. She just doesn't know what it is.
So after enduring far too many crashes, Pidge finally agreed to connect with the girls. She knew that Hunk and Lacey were familiar with each other. She knew that outside of the simulator, they worked pretty well together, so Pidge figured that maybe, maybe she could find a way to bring that energy back into the simulator. Knock Lacey down a peg on the ego, make her snap out of whatever weird trance she's in that makes her crash almost every flight and give Hunk a handful of motion sickness pills. That way Pidge could focus on what really mattered. Still, things never work out exactly how you plan them.
Pidge knows now that she should’ve tried to bond with them sooner. Not to forward her mission of finding her family, but just because they were important. She, Hunk and Lacey have been a team long before Voltron. She should’ve recognized that, done her best to pull on her team’s strength and bolster their weaknesses. Instead here they were, adding even more people to the mess of their Garrison Trio and doing things no one ever thought possible. Hunk is off getting the crystal to heal Lacey and Pidge has to get the barrier down and get Lacey away from Sendak. Be the team they never got to be on Earth. Save the universe, save Pidge’s family, but save each other first. It's ridiculous, a cosmic kind of joke. Pidge can feel a dry laugh escape her lips as she continues to make her way through the vents of the Castleship. Maybe she should've just told them from the start, told them the truth when they asked what she was doing that night on the roof when Shiro landed back on Earth. Maybe she should've told them that day she and Shiro talked on the crumbling bridge. Maybe she should've accepted Allura's help when she offered it only a few hours earlier. Maybe she should've never tried to leave.
There are a lot of things Pidge regrets and right now, she doesn't want her team to be one of them. She'll held them and they'll help her. That's how it was always meant to be.