#nerok vargas

[drabbles-mc]

📸 credit: Michael Irby's Instagram

I just love and miss them sm 🥺

[this-book-has-been-loved]

Singularity: Chapter 6

AU where instead of landing in the trash nebula, Pidge finds herself on the same planet as a certain Galra prison camp.

(Holt family reunion fic; no romantic relationships)

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5

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Chapter 6: Home

As promised, the rest of the team was waiting for her. When Pidge exited her healing pod, it was into the waiting arms of Shiro.

“It’s good to see you, Pidge,” he said, hugging her tight. “How are you feeling?”

She clung to him. “Better.” She pulled away, searching his face. “What about you? When did you wake up?”

“Not too long ago,” he replied, his voice a bit strained.

“Well, now that you’re both awake,” Lance interjected, coming in between them and throwing an arm around each of their shoulders, “we can get this party started.”

Allura smiled gently. “I wouldn’t say party is quite the right word for it.”

Lance rolled his eyes. “Whatever.”

Shiro carefully extracted himself from Lance’s grasp. “Sounds great, Lance.”

The Blue Paladin cheered, pulling Pidge in closer. “Come on, we can fill you and Shiro in on all our fabulous adventures.”

“But first,” Allura insisted. “I think getting something to eat is in order.”

“Yeah, I’ll go take care of that,” Hunk told them. “I’ll be in the kitchen, whipping up some dinner. Meet me in the dining room in, like, an hour or something.” He reached over and ruffled Pidge’s hair on his way out.

“You’re the best, Hunk,” Lance called after him.

“So,” Pidge began, and all the focus suddenly snapped back to her. “How long was I out?”

Keith shrugged. “Three, four hours? Not too long.”

Pidge nodded, readjusting her internal clock. It’d been nearly twenty hours––vargas––since she’d left Serva. “Miss anything exciting since then?”

She saw Shiro and Keith exchange a quick glance. “We can discuss all that later,” Shiro assured her, turning to meet her gaze.

“Good news is,” Coran burst in excitedly, “repairs on your lion are coming along swimmingly! You did a good job repairing her in the field; there’s really not too much more for me to do. She should be fully healed within the next quintant.”

Another day or two, then. Not too long, but longer than she would’ve liked.

Just wait it out, she reminded herself. Once she’s up and running again, you’ll be able to go help Matt.

“That’s great,” she said, smiling. “Thanks, Coran.”

The conversation drifted, and Pidge started to tune it out. Despite her not being the focus of the conversation, she didn’t miss the glances they kept shooting her: cautious, gentle, full of concern. She squirmed, anxious to get away from their worrying looks.

“I’m gonna go take a shower and get dressed,” she told them, accidentally interrupting Coran in his rambles about repairing the lions. She pulled away from Lance’s half-hug. “It’s been a long week.”

Allura smiled at her. “Yes, of course. We’ll see you at dinner, then.”

“Yeah. See you in a bit.”

She took off.

Back in her room, she took off the white bodysuit. Looking down at herself, she saw that all the bruising had disappeared. There wasn’t a single mark left to show of the ordeal she’d been through.

Like it never happened.

She showered, letting the warm water wash away the days of dirt and painful memories that plagued her.

She changed into her clothes solemnly. After a few days in her suit, it felt odd to be back in her loose-fitting comfy earth clothes. She glanced at her desk where her glasses––no, Matt’s glasses––rested. After a short internal debate, she picked them up. She carried them in her hands as she exited her room.

“Hey, Pidge.”

She turned down the hall to see Keith just coming out of his own room. “Hi, Keith.”

They walked towards the dining room together in companionable silence. If he noticed that she wasn’t wearing her glasses, that she was acting a bit differently than usual, he didn’t let on.

“Shiro woke up only about an hour before you,” Keith told her after a minute. “He had a dream or something while he was in the pod––some memories on how he escaped. Anyways, he apparently has some coordinates encoded in his arm. We were hoping you’d be able to figure that out.”

“Yeah,” she answered mechanically. “I can take a look at that.”

He paused, looking at her curiously. “Are you okay?”

She didn’t answer.

His brow furrowed. “Pidge?”

“I’m fine,” she replied. “Just…tired.”

He put a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Hey, it’s okay. Whatever happened, whatever you went through when we were separated––it’s over now.”

She clenched her fists. Not if I can help it. “I know.”

“Coran and I were stuck in some sort of time loop,” the princess was saying. Coran had decided to pass on dinner and instead head back down to the lions’ bays to continue repairs. “But Hunk and Lance were able to broadcast a strong enough signal to us to get us out.”

Hunk nodded sagely. “It was easy. The mermaid queen had a giant clam that acted as a communications device,” he explained

Shiro held up a hand. “I’m sorry, did you say mermaid queen?”

“Aw, man, you guys should have seen it!” Lance blurted. “An underwater planet!”

“It was pretty freaking cool,” Hunk agreed. “Who would’ve thought. Mermaids are real and they live in space.”

“We totally saved the whole planet. We had to overthrow a crazy powerful mind-controlling dictator. But it turned out she was being mind-controlled by this giant serpent thing,” Lance regaled. “So then we took on the serpent––”

“Which was terrifying.”

“Dude, I think you mean awesome!” Lance exclaimed. “And there was this group of rebels who were able to, like, counteract the crazy mind-control––”

“Lance wore a jellyfish on his head.”

“Hell yeah, I did. I named him Tentacool.”

Allura sighed, shaking her head. “I’m not even going to ask.”

Lance rolled his eyes. “Anyways, they were so thankful to us for saving them, that they threw a huge celebration in our honor––”

“I wouldn’t say it was huge,” Hunk tried.

“And,” Lance preened, “I got kissed by a mermaid.”

“I’m having a hard time believing that.”

“Shut up, Keith! It totally happened.”

“Yep. I was there.”

“See? Hunk vouches for me!”

Keith rolled his eyes. “Whatever.”

Pidge sat there listlessly, absently poking at the food goo with her spoon. She still wasn’t wearing her glasses––Matt’s glasses. Instead, they rested on the table by her plate.

She barely listened to the conversation, as Keith went on about giant space lizard things, and something about piloting the Black Lion. All of it just faded away to background noise as she sat there and stared at nothing.

“What about you, Pidge?” Hunk asked, startling her out of her reverie as he turned towards her. “What did you get up to?”

“Yeah!” Lance agreed. “You’ve been weirdly quiet. Tell us of the adventures of the Great and Almighty Pidge!”

Her spoon stilled. For a moment, the only sound was the low hum of the engines; then she took a shuddering breath, and in a shaky voice, murmured, “I saw my brother.”

A hush fell over the room.

After a long moment, she heard Shiro’s voice. “Matt?”

Pidge nodded.

She didn’t look at any of them, refused to meet their questioning gazes, their sympathetic looks. Instead, her eyes stayed locked on the glasses.

Eventually, Allura spoke. “What happened?”

Pidge’s breath caught. “I––”

An arm wrapped around her––Hunk––and she stiffened instinctively before relaxing into his embrace. “It’s okay,” he whispered. “Let it out.”

And with that, her resolve crumbled.

“I was so close,” she gasped, tears falling freely. “He was right there, but I couldn’t save him.”

Hunk tightened his hold on her, rocking her gently. Someone else––Lance?––had come around to her other side and was gently rubbing circles on her back, whispering words of comfort.

She hiccupped and sobbed into Hunk’s shirt, harder than she’d cried in a long while.

She pulled away as the tears dried up, leaving her still gasping for air. “I––he––” Her breathing was shallow, erratic, and she couldn’t get her heartbeat to slow.

Shiro had come around the table to face her. He put his hands on her shoulders, crouching down so they were at eye-level. “Pidge,” he said gently. “Katie.”

A sharp intake of breath, and she looked up to meet his eyes.

“Deep breaths,” he reminded her. “Take it easy. In…then out…. That’s it….”

She breathed in time with his words, until she’d calmed herself down enough to talk. “Okay. I’m okay.”

A small smile tugged at his face. “Keep telling yourself that.”

She let out a dry laugh, rubbing at her eyes.

It was Keith who finally stated what they’d all been thinking. “Why didn’t you tell us earlier?”

She shrugged. “I…don’t know. Didn’t know how to bring it up, I guess.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” Hunk asked.

She froze. “I––” Her voice broke.

“Please? Let us help.”

And just like that, the story came spilling out. The crash-landing on Serva, finding the prison camp, finding Matt, all culminating in the escape attempt and her having to leave her brother behind. On and on, she rambled through her tears. “Eventually, I made it to that…wherever the hell that was where you picked me up,” she finished. “I just…I was so close….”

When she finished, there was silence.

Hunk hadn’t let go of her throughout her rambling explanation, and now he only held her tighter.

“Oh, Pigeon,” Lance murmured, leaning in to hug her from the other side. “I’m so sorry.”

“We’ll find him,” Hunk added. “Promise.”

Sandwiched between the two of them, she started to feel a bit better. She sniffled. “Thanks, guys.”

Keith’s arms were crossed as he sat glaring at the table. “Well, we know now what our next course of action is.”

“Absolutely,” Shiro agreed. “We go to Serva, and we find Matt.”

“What? The Green Paladin was there?”

“Yes, sir.”

“And?! What happened?!”

Nerok, the warden of Serva prison base Theta-twelve, swallowed nervously before stating hesitantly, “Unfortunately…they managed to escape. But,” he was quick to interject, “we did manage to capture their accomplice!”

Commander Reggar paused. “Accomplice?”

“Yes, sir. The Green Paladin was attempting to escape alongside one of the prisoners here. We’ve yet to determine their connection––”

“That’s no matter. Which prisoner?”

“Ah, number one-one-seven-dash-nine-eight-seven-six, sir,” Nerok reported, consulting his notes.

The Commander frowned, glancing to a screen on his left as an image of the prisoner in question appeared on it. What would a paladin of Voltron have wanted with this specific prisoner?

When Reggar didn’t say anything, Nerok continued. “As of yet, we do not know what the exact relationship is between the two. But they certainly seem to know each other, based on what they said. We, ah, also have a video from our security feed.”

Reggar’s eyes flickered back to the comm screen. “Show me.”

“Yes, sir.”

The feed of Nerok was replaced by a grainy video recording.

Two figures—the paladin and the prisoner—were running from the edge of the compound towards a small podship.

The paladin turned, shouting something, possibly a name: “Matt!”

The prisoner struggled against the bond of his captors. “Go!” he yelled to the paladin. “I’ll be fine!”

The paladin seemed conflicted, drawing their bayard, settling into a fighting stance.

“Just GO!” the prisoner repeated.

The paladin took a hesitant step, then climbed inside the podship. “I’ll come back for you!” they said. “I promise!”

With that, the podship took off, and the video ended.

Reggar sneered as the feed returned to show Nerok. “The paladin said they’d be back,” Reggar noted. “Make sure you’re ready for their return.”

“Yes, sir. Vrepit sa!”

And with that, the comm ended.

The Commander directed his attention back to the other screen, where the information on Prisoner 117-9876 flickered steadily.

“Lieutenant Blazak!” he shouted, turning towards the other officer in the room. “Bring me all the information you can find on this prisoner. Where he’s from, how he was captured, who he was captured with, how long he’s been here. No matter how inconsequential. I want everything.”