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Chapter Text

Pidge loitered against a wall just outside Puig Shuttleport-Gamma, watching the crowds jostling each other through the entrance from beneath her breathing mask. The air here on Puig, particularly near the shuttleports, stank of pollution and exhaust and disagreed with her lungs, accustomed as she was to the pure, sweet air of Olkarion.

She spied Rover trailing a Galra sentry out of the largest dome, looking very much like the docile Galra drone it once was. Standing up, she retreated away from the shuttleport and back into the less secure parts of Puig's capital.

The Galra controlled trade on and off their colonies with an iron fist, but they didn't care so much about how the people lived. Which was fine with Pidge; her few friends were all criminals anyway.

Pidge took shelter inside a bar, where a band played raucous music that had her foot tapping a beat. The table she sought sat in a shaded corner of the room, and she felt reasonably certain that no one would bother her. She lowered her mask, unable to help her grimace at the acrid tang of tobacco smoke and vomit , and waited, an untouched drink at her elbow.

Rover drifted in a few doboshes later, right behind another patron opening the door. It meandered over to her, its light fading from Galra violet to blue as its disguise slipped away.

Pidge smiled as it joined her, hovering over her shoulder. She woke the display on her wrist computer and downloaded the information Rover collected from the shuttleport.

A young man - Altean, if Pidge had to guess from the blue wedge-shaped marks on his cheeks and the shape of his ears - sat nearby with a friend, and looked up at the sight of Pidge's blueish wrist display. "Nice tech," he commented, raising an eyebrow at her. "Is that Altean?"

Pidge frowned at him, suspicious, partly because he seemed too curious, and partly because he looked familiar. "Modified Galra," she lied. To her, it sounded plausible, if only because Rover itself was technically a 'modified' Galra drone.

"Stolen?" he said, flashing her a smirk.

Pidge sighed, annoyed that he disturbed her work. "That's none of your business," she told him. After turning her back towards him to drive the point home that she wished to end the conversation, she returned her attention to her computer's display.

In a moment of inspiration, she muttered to Rover, "Scan him."

Rover did, the results of the quick scan - too quick and subtle for biometrics but just quick enough that Pidge should be able to identify him - filling her wrist computer's display. Guessing that because he spent time in this skeevy joint he must be a criminal or fugitive, she used her temporary access to Galra databases and searched for any wanted Alteans.

She only found two, rare species that Alteans were, and neither of them was the man that tried speaking to her.

Pidge canceled the search; curiosity wasn't enough to figure out the man, not when she had something more urgent on her mind.

She rifled through the data Rover collected at the shuttleport:  everything from recent flight logs to trade goods being shipped to and from Puig. She ran a program checking for discrepancies in the masses of spacecraft, searching for any ship that might be hiding smuggled items in plain sight.

No ships currently at the port held a license for a cloaking device, but that didn't mean anything since Pidge's own ship bore an illegal one.

"Haxus swore he was on Puig," Pidge told Rover, growing frustrated. She'd done all the obvious tasks, which meant she now had to perform the less obvious ones. "All reports indicate he's not clever enough to evade the scanners, which means he must have help from someone who is." She glanced around the poorly lit room, making eye contact with the Altean man, at least until he winked at her. The broad man - not Altean - sitting with him smiled at her.

Pidge scowled and tore her gaze away; this was a waste of time. She brought up the criminal profile that Haxus provided her, hoping to gain some new insights simply from rereading it.

Name: Lance (surname unknown; possible pseudonym)
Species: Human
Homeworld: Unknown
Approximate age: 23
Ship: Azure Lion
Wanted for: smuggling trade goods and evading Empire tariffs and authorities
Miscellaneous: trained as a cargo pilot and known to be a skilled shot; may have ties to the Rebellion (unconfirmed); associated with the human mechanic known as Hunk (see Hunk's profile ); possible weakness is 'beautiful' women (see Nyma's report )

Attached was a slightly blurry headshot, one Pidge hadn't bothered examining too closely yet since she'd hoped to narrow down his location first. But now that she looked...

Pidge stood, almost knocking her chair over in her hurry, and turned to the table where the Altean man sat with his human friend. Or had sat, since they were gone.

"Quiznak," Pidge hissed, pushing past bar patrons in her hurry to get back through the door. She ignored the glares and growls and curses sent her way, not even caring that almost everyone around towered over her.

Once she stood outside, she pushed her breathing mask up so it filtered air for her again. Rover hovered overhead, high enough that it could scan the milling crowds for her target.

Quiznaking Alteans, Pidge cursed, stalking back towards the shuttleport. Quiznaking shapeshifters. And what sort of hubris must this man - Lance - boast, that he only altered his features enough to pass as human without changing his face in more subtle and less obvious ways?

Pidge could've smacked herself, as foolish as she felt. He'd been right in front of her, and she let him get away! Out of ignorance . What would her father say?

Move on, he would say. Try again, in a different way.

"Rover," she said, just loud enough for the drone to detect, "go scan the shuttleport and the surrounding area for the Azure Lion ."

Rover blinked in acknowledgement and zipped away, moving faster over the city traffic than Pidge could through it.

Pidge clenched her hands into fists, struggling to rein in her impatience. She had this under control now, she told herself. She could be one step ahead of her target if Rover found his ship before he returned to it.

She continued on her way, to where the foot traffic was lighter in favor of ground cars and other land vehicles closer to the shuttleport. She rounded the first dome, dodging around the outside security, past sentries and drones, until she reached the dome with passenger ships. She slipped inside, hoping she looked like someone awaiting the arrival of a loved one, and sent a query to Rover from her wrist computer.

Only to remember she had another problem.

Haxus never mentioned anything about the target's friend, which meant Pidge had to deal with the mechanic - Hunk - in some way. What if she successfully captured Lance, only to be chased down by his comrade?

A taste of my own quiznaking medicine, Pidge considered wryly.

She could always just kill him, of course.

(Pidge hated taking jobs for the Empire; it left a bad taste in her mouth, and almost made her wish she lived in some unknown corner of the universe that had yet to invent space travel.)

Rover responded to her query with a message of its own:  coordinates of a warehouse outside Puig's capital. Pidge checked the warehouse's records by hacking past its meager security and frowned at what she found; supposedly the warehouse was abandoned, the building's foundation too unstable after several ground tremors struck the area. And it wasn't so far from the city that the Empire's scanners wouldn't pick up on a ship docking there, even if it did have a cloaking device.

Lance must be bribing a Galra official here on Puig.

Pidge shoved the irrelevant thought aside. She left the dome and, despite her dwindling funds, rented a speeder - that she was unlikely to return, she thought guiltily - from a Puigian vendor outside. After thanking him, she started the engine and traveled out of the city and towards the coordinates Rover sent.

The speeder's motion stirred up a cloud of dust surrounding her like a sandy honor guard, one that would give away her approach to anyone that happened to be watching from outside the warehouse. As the squat building entered her field of view, she slowed the speeder. She reached up and pressed a button on her breathing mask, venting it of the dirt that clogged it as she rode.

The warehouse's surroundings were open and bare of anything but dirt and sand, perhaps the remains of a field now gone fallow. The warehouse itself visibly crumbled, but a figure stood just outside it.

The figure turned and disappeared into the warehouse. So much for a sneaky approach.

Pidge sighed and halted the speeder about fifty yards from the warehouse's entrance. Her wrist computer's display lit up green with an incoming message from Rover, and she opened it to see a scan of the premises, specifically of Lance's Azure Lion , which lay just behind the warehouse.

She skirted the building, careful to stay out of sight; better that those inside doing quiznak knew what scratch their heads at the mystery of an unaccompanied speeder. And when she finally caught sight of her target's ship, she grinned.

It was beautiful and sleek and blue (of course), with design motifs that marked it as obviously Altean. In fact, it looked to be of a similar model age as her own vessel, Emerald Comet , though larger and possibly faster.

An upgrade for a cargo pilot, Pidge thought. But now she had a plan to enact.

"Capture man and ship both," Haxus told her, "and you will have what I promised you."

Pidge reached for the stunner at her hip, and, after meeting up with Rover again, she snuck aboard the open gangway. Inside, the layout reminded her of Emerald Comet , and she found a hiding place in a cupboard easily, for once grateful for her small size. There was even enough space for Rover to shove its way into the space over her head.

The air inside the ship was much cleaner than outside, so Pidge slipped her breathing mask off, sighing in relief at the feeling of cool air on her sweaty face. She sat inside in silence for a while, just waiting and thinking, though occasional snatches of conversation from outside filtered in.

She didn't recognize any of the voices immediately, but what little she heard still intrigued her.

"...army marches on its stomach, after all," a woman said.

"Armies don't march anymore, Gretta!" a man retorted.

"You know what I mean, Dirk."

"You all finished unloading everything?"

Pidge sat up, hissing an apology as she bumped her head against Rover, when she heard Lance's voice.

"Yes, sir," said the woman, Gretta. Pidge imagined her offering Lance - a smuggler - a snappy salute and rolled her eyes.

"Oh, I'm no 'sir'," Lance said dismissively. "I'm just a philanthropist."

Pidge covered her face, muffling an involuntary snort.

"Still, the Rebellion thanks you," said the man, Dirk.

Pidge gasped; so the unconfirmed rumors were true ?

"Honestly, it's nothing," Lance said. "You guys gotta eat, right? And the Empire's tariffs are absurd. You shouldn't have to starve because you can't afford to pay them."

Pidge's heart pounded, so loudly she thought Lance and the others - those rebels - must surely hear it even outside the ship. Wrong, it was all wrong ; she'd thought Lance was, perhaps, a weapons smuggler at the very least, but food ? Had she read him and the situation all wrong?

Pidge clutched her hair and tugged, halting her doubting thoughts. She still had a mission, and she needed to fulfill it.

Matt and Dad, she reminded herself. This is what I need to do to find Matt and Dad.

Footsteps climbed up the gangway, heavy boots ringing on metal; Pidge held her breath, waiting...

"Did you miss me, Blue?" Lance asked.

Talking to the ship? Pidge shook that thought away; she had no room to judge since she spoke to Emerald Comet all the time too.

"Ready to fly away?" Lance continued, as if carrying a conversation. "Me too. Too many Empire sentries here for my liking. How about next time we visit somewhere like Olkarion?"

Pidge's breath caught, and she opened the cupboard door a crack, just enough that she could see a sliver of the ship's interior.

Lance stood in the ship's back quarters, behind the cockpit, hands on his hips as he impatiently tapped his foot and stared down the gangway, waiting for someone - most likely Hunk. Unlike when she saw him in the bar, the blue marks on his cheeks were gone, his ears rounder like a human's.

Pidge felt uncomfortably like a voyeur, seeing him like this, looking almost troubled. He wasn't quite frowning, but his eyes were downcast as he waited. Even at the bar, on some level she'd found him attractive, but here, seeing him like this - contemplative rather than teasing - was different.

She buried that observation deep, since it did her no good. Now was the time to act, before Hunk arrived and she had to deal with two men larger than her rather than just one.

She pulled her mask up so that it covered her face again and pushed the cupboard door open on silent hinges. She approached Lance on quiet feet and raised her stunner and pressed its tip to the back of his head.

Lance stiffened and started to turn his head, until Pidge said, "Don't move. We're going for a joyride."

"I thought I recognized you on that speeder," he said, tone calm. "The name's Lance. What's yours?"

Oh no, this would not backfire on her. She frowned but admitted, "Pidge."

"Odd name," Lance observed. She could imagine him straining to try to look at her over his shoulder. "You a bounty hunter?"

"Yes," Pidge replied stiffly.

"Who sent you after me?" he wondered almost nonchalantly. "Or do they want my ship?"

She saw no harm in telling him this much of the truth. "The Empire wants you and the ship."

"I'm flattered," said Lance.

Pidge didn't know how much of his ambivalence was real and how much an act, but she also didn't really want to find out. "Do you have any weapons on you?" she asked.

"Just the blaster at my belt," Lance told her without hesitation.

"Any others?"

"Nope," he said, popping the 'p'.

"Should I search you anyway?" Pidge said, skeptical.

"Ah, I'm honored that you want to," Lance said, teasingly , "but I prefer women."

Pidge raised an eyebrow at him, though he wouldn't be able to see it. "I am a woman."

For some reason, this was the first thing she'd said that actually startled him. No, it wasn't that she pressed a gun to his head and told him she was capturing him and his ship, nor was it that the Empire had a bounty on his head. It was that she was a woman .

Pidge found that insulting and had to resist the urge to give him a light shock with her stunner.

"Look," Pidge said, fighting a sigh, "we can do this in one of two ways:  either you fly your own ship off of Puig, or I knock you unconscious and tie you up and I fly your ship off of Puig. And if you're anything like any of the pilots I know, you're possessive of your own ship's controls and won't want that."

"And what if I fight you?" Lance suggested, sounding not as calm as he did before.

(Perhaps Pidge should've mentioned her gender earlier.)

"I have the stunner," Pidge said, pressing it a little more sharply into his head and making him flinch. She reached forward and took the blaster from his belt, frowning at its weight. "Now, the sooner we leave, the better."

"What about your ship?"

"At home," she said. At least she'd had the foresight to pay for legal passage to Puig rather than fly Emerald Comet .

"My copilot--"

"Is safer stranded here on Puig," Pidge interrupted. "Now which option are you taking?"

"I've already unloaded my cargo."

"I honestly don't care," Pidge said, rolling her eyes, "so hurry up and make your quiznaking choice."

Lance said nothing, instead turning his head to peer over his shoulder at her. Then he smirked. "Want me all to yourself, do you?"

Tempting as it was to stun him and have done with it, Pidge contented herself with a light whack on the crown of his head.

"Ow!" he said, a hand reaching up to rub where she hit him.

"Consider that a warning shot," Pidge said.

"Fine!" Lance said, exasperated. "I pick option one."

"Good," Pidge said. She nodded towards the cockpit. "As soon as we're off Puig, I'll navigate."

Lance scowled at her but did as she instructed, settling into the pilot's chair as she continued to train the stunner on him. Likely as not he was thinking how to take control of the situation, perhaps how to wrestle his blaster away from her, or to fly in a completely different direction than her objective.

The Azure Lion shifted underneath her feet, and Rover finally emerged from its hiding place to hover at her shoulder. She glanced at it and smiled. "We're halfway there, Rover," she said.

"Modified Galra tech," Lance muttered under his breath as the ship took off. "I should've known."

Pidge ignored him.

The ship had almost breached Puig's atmosphere when a frantic voice came over the comms. "Lance? Where did you go? What happened?"

Lance glared resentfully at Pidge, who nodded at him. He rolled his eyes and said, "Hunk buddy, something came up and I have to leave you on Puig for now."

" What happened, Lance? " Hunk demanded.

Lance sighed. "I've been hijacked by a bounty hunter," he admitted.

Pidge would've preferred him lie, but she let it pass, guessing it was unlikely Hunk, stranded on Puig, could do anything about it at the moment.

" Hijacked by a--? Lance, what the quiznak ?"

"So remember that small man with the modified Galra drone at the bar?" Lance said in a rush. "Turns out he was a bounty hunter. Oh, and a woman! The drone's here too by the way."

Rover blinked, and Pidge couldn't help a fond smile at it.

After a long pause, long enough that Pidge thought he might've disconnected, Hunk asked, "Where are you going?"

By now the Azure Lion orbited Puig while Lance waited for navigational instructions from her. He glanced at her, an eyebrow raised in question, and she said, "Disconnect."

Lance stared at her for a long moment. Without breaking eye contact, he said, "Hunk, I have to go; I'll figure a way out of this. Just remember I've been in tighter spots."

"Lance--"

"Give the princess a kiss from me," he said.

Pidge narrowed her eyes at him. Who?

"And apologize to her and Shiro."

Who?

"Lance, why do you sound like you think you're gonna die?" Hunk asked.

Lance laughed, though it sounded humorless to Pidge's ears. "Oh, I always think I'm gonna die." With that, he touched something on the pilot's display, ending the call. He slumped in the chair. "There," he said to Pidge without looking at her. "Happy?"

Pidge kept her eyes fixed on his dour face and decided she even preferred him smirking. "No," she said, disappointment twisting in her belly.

But what did she expect? She'd promised to do whatever it took to find her father and brother, and this was but a first step.

Helping the Empire, a reproachful voice that sounded just like Matt's told her.

Pidge shook her head to clear it, in time for Lance to ask, "So where are we going?"

She blinked at him. "I need to disable any tracking devices and communication equipment you have first."

"Ah, yes, of course," Lance said snidely, relaxing his hold on the ship's controls as he rested his chin on the palm of his hand. "Total blackout; how could I be so foolish?"

"Move," Pidge said.

He stood and stepped away to the back of the cockpit without arguing, and Pidge sat in the uncomfortably large seat. The layout of the Azure Lion might've been similar to the Emerald Comet , but it wasn't... home to her.

She and Rover spent some ten doboshes disabling the relevant equipment, technology she was familiar with thanks to her study of Altean tech. As she worked, she reassured Lance, "I can enable everything again if we have any emergencies."

"What kind of emergency?" Lance asked. When Pidge glanced skeptically his way, he shrugged, shoving his hands into his pockets as he smiled sheepishly. "Just gotta know what all my options are."

"I already told you what they are," Pidge reminded him. She stood, tugging on the collar of her shirt; her chest constricted painfully, throat sore, and she worried she was on the verge of an attack. "And it's not too late to choose the second one."

Lance snorted and took back his seat. "No, thank you," he said. "Your grimy little hands have touched my precious Blue enough."

"Fine," Pidge said, and crossed her arms. "Do you know how to get to Arus?"

"That little backwater?" Lance frowned at her, looking worried. "Yes..."

"That's where we're going."

He blinked. "Really? Are you sure?"

Lance's hesitation piqued her curiosity - and her suspicions - but she insisted, "Positive."

"Great," Lance said with false cheer. He took back his ship's controls, entered the coordinates Pidge gave him into the database, and steered them out of Puig's orbit. "The projected travel time is five quintants."

Pidge settled in the copilot's chair, stunner still gripped in one hand; it was going to be a long ride, and she'd have to be on her guard the entire time.

Chapter Text

Lance put the ship in autopilot about two vargas into their journey. He stood from the chair and, without a glance at Pidge, went into the back room where she'd hidden before ambushing him.

Pidge watched him go, tightening her grip on both her stunner and his blaster, but before she could consider following him, Rover did just that.

At least she wasn't alone in this, though Rover wouldn't be able to defend itself - or her - should Lance take back his ship violently.

When Lance came back, Rover on his tail, he approached her, but before Pidge could raise her stunner in warning, he held something out to her. "Consider this a peace offering," Lance said.

Pidge examined what he held:  a tube of green goo. She took it and commented, "I forgot how terrible Altean cuisine is."

Lance laughed and sat on the armrest of her chair, his arm brushing her shoulder and making her flinch away. "Yeah, why does everyone say that?"

"Maybe because it's true," Pidge said, but food was food, and she knew Altean goo to at least be packed with nutrients, so she tore the tube open and started slurping it down.

"Everyone's welcome to have an opinion," Lance conceded, "though personally, I prefer Altean food to Olkari."

Pidge sputtered, brandishing the tube at him. "You take that back!"

Lance smirked. "Ah, no can do, Pidge." He tore open his own tube and leaned back, sipping at it contentedly while Pidge watched with disgust.

Rover's light washed into green before flickering back to blue, and Pidge giggled, her eyes fixed on Lance's nose.

"What's so funny?" Lance asked with a frown. He went cross-eyed trying to see where Pidge looked.

Pidge pointed to her own nose. "You got a little something there," she said.

"Oh." Lance wiped at the tip of his nose with his sleeve. "Did I get it?" he asked her.

Pidge nodded, and when he smiled triumphantly, her chest filled with a pleasant warmth. But at a rising alarm within her, she stood and excused herself, claiming that she needed to use the bathroom.

"Oh, the bathroom is--"

"I know where to find it," Pidge cut him off, doing her best not to look at him. "My ship has the same layout."

"It does? Is that how you knew how to disable all my comms equipment?" He sounded intrigued rather than indignant, but she left before he could ask anymore questions.

Pidge locked herself in the tiny bathroom - barely two feet by two feet, with enough space for a vacuum toilet, a sink and a few connected pipes, and a cupboard. She washed her face, scrubbing dirt away, and took the chance to rinse out the filter in her breathing mask.

Don't get friendly with your target, she reminded herself, just because he's attractive. Especially because he's attractive.

"I'm here for Matt and Dad," she told her reflection. Water dripped from her bangs and down her face, and she wiped them away, as furiously as if they were tears.

She made it a point to attempt to avoid Lance - or at least avoid talking to him - for the rest of that first quintant. But he didn't cooperate, instead trying several times to drag her into conversation, likely out of boredom.

"I've never had Olkari food, actually," he admitted when she returned to the cockpit from the bathroom. "What's it like?"

"A lot of vegetables," she said. She finished her goo and twisted the tube around her fingers for something to do. "A lot of soup."

"Vegetarian liquid diet," Lance said, nodding. "Yeah, I wouldn't like it anyway."

"Like Altean food is any better." Pidge crossed her arms.

"Hey, we just have a bad reputation because goo is the stuff that we travel with!" Lance argued.

Pidge snorted skeptically, and she continued to argue and shake her head as Lance tried to convince her of the virtues of Altean cuisine.

"I miss Hunk," Lance said, slumping sideways in the pilot's chair, his legs hanging over the arm. "He doesn't shut me out when I try to talk to him."

"Two vargas ago," Pidge said testily, "you hated me for hijacking your ship."

"I don't hate you personally," Lance said, waving a hand dismissively. "I just hate what you did."

Pidge, not following his logic, only shrugged. She found the tiny screwdriver she kept in her belt pouch and started taking apart her stunner, wondering if Lance had enough scrapped materials lying around to allow her to modify it.

Pidge didn't sleep that entire first quintant, but once their travel time reduced to three-and-a-half, her eyes drooped, her attention drifted, and her chest ached, constricted. Throat scratchy, she tried drinking water to soothe it, only for her to fall into a coughing fit.

"Maybe you should sleep," Lance suggested.

As far as Pidge could tell, Lance didn't sleep so much as he napped , at least while in space. He'd already slept for a couple vargas at a time at several points throughout the quintant, once only waking up to use the bathroom and check on their progress before going back to sleep in his bunk.

"What if someone attacks us?" Pidge said, pointing out the cockpit's window. "What if you take us off-course?"

"I solemnly swear I won't do that while you're sleeping," he said, resting his right hand against his heart.

He sounded sincere, but Pidge had the distinct impression he teased her. Again.

"I'm pretty sure you're waiting for the opportunity to"--she broke off, coughing--" unhijack your ship."

"All right, guilty as charged," Lance admitted, crossing his arms, "but how are you gonna stop me if you can't even hold yourself upright?"

Pidge stared at him, and he raised his eyebrows at her, a smug smile on his face. Quiznak, she hated that he was right...and knew it.

She stood. "Fine," she said with a scowl and pointed at him threateningly, "but just because I can't keep my eyes open, doesn't mean Rover has to."

Lance smiled towards Rover. "I'm sure it'll wake you up the tic a devious plan enters my mind," he agreed. "So...can I have my blaster back?"

Pidge cradled the blaster to her chest. "No," she snapped.

"Fine, fine. So do you want to sleep in my bunk?" Lance asked, directing her into the back room where he'd pulled a bunk from where it was usually stored in the wall. "There's also Hunk's, if--"

"Yours is fine," Pidge said. She sat on it, bouncing a bit, and when she felt satisfied with the quality of the mattress - thin but decent - she took off her belt and pulled her mask over her face, setting them both on the floor underneath the bunk.

Lance watched her, and heat creeped up Pidge's neck at his scrutiny. "What?" she asked.

"Your clothes are going to stink up my sheets," he complained.

"I'm not undressing," she said. She pointedly laid down and crossed her arms, both her stunner and his blaster trapped against her chest.

Lance sighed audibly and returned to the cockpit. She overheard him say to Rover, "Well, what do you want me to do? She looked dead on her feet!"

Pidge smirked, rolled onto her side, and promptly slipped into a deep, exhausted sleep.

"So...what's the breathing mask for?" Lance asked, pointing at where her mask currently hung unused around her neck.

Pidge slept for over half a quintant, waking up and, alarmed at how long she'd been unconscious, running into the cockpit to confirm that Lance hadn't changed their course during that time.

(Shockingly, he hadn't; she wasn't sure what to think of that.)

"Puig had poor air quality," Pidge said in reply, the simple, short answer, and truthful enough under scrutiny.

"You weren't wearing it when I met you at the bar," Lance pointed out.

Pidge crossed her arms. "I felt well enough that I didn't need it at the bar."

Lance raised an eyebrow at her, smiling smugly, and she realized she'd let slip exactly what she didn't want to.

She pulled her bare feet onto the copilot's chair, clutching her ankles and trying to get comfortable; they had three quintants left until Arus, so she might as well.

Tugging on the mask, she admitted quietly, "I have asthma."

Lance nodded, as if he suspected as much. "Odd job you have for someone with asthma," he observed.

Pidge narrowed her eyes at him. "Hmm, first you're surprised by a female bounty hunter, and now you're surprised by an asthmatic one? Please, do explain."

Lance laughed, sounding sheepish as he rubbed the back of his neck. "I wasn't surprised by a female bounty hunter; maybe sometime I'll tell you about Nyma."

Pidge blinked, remembering that name from the file Haxus gave her, but before she could ask - never mind his promise of sometime - he continued, "I'm just surprised since your job requires some running and, I don't know, physically strenuous activities."

She rolled her eyes at him, leaning back in her seat. "Not as much as you would think," she said. "I rely more on tech, like Rover, and on predicting my target's next moves."

"Ah, I see," Lance said, nodding. "That's how you found me; someone tipped you off we were heading to Puig, and your drone found me at a supposedly abandoned warehouse. Simple, but brilliant."

Pidge crossed her arms. "How did you get past the Galra scanners on Puig?"

"Hmm." Lance tapped his chin thoughtfully, then smirked at her. "How about I not tell you that?"

"An eye for an eye," Pidge said, returning his smirk. "I told you one personal and one professional thing. Now it's your turn."

"Fine," Lance said, shrugging, "but not that."

"Sensitive information related to the Rebellion?" Pidge guessed. She leaned towards him, and felt a pleasant thrill when he mimicked her.

"Something like that."

His words presented a puzzle, a challenge, and she liked that, loved it even.

She'd always found the Rebellion fascinating, curious about how it managed to so successfully escape eradication by the Empire, as easily as it undermined Galra operations. Perhaps it had something to do with the Alteans reportedly spearheading it, hiding it in plain sight, a wider, more abstract application of their shapeshifting abilities.

It would explain how Princess Allura - who had a steep bounty on her own head - remained so elusive .

"So what do you want to know, Pidge?" he asked, leaning away from her, comfortably lounging in his own seat as he messed with something on the display in front of him.

Pidge released a breath. "Where did you get this ship?"

"Is that the personal or the professional question?" Lance wondered.

"That depends on the answer."

He laughed and said, "Well, it's Altean."

"I knew that."

"And it awoke under my touch."

"Wait, what?" Pidge sat up, shocked. "What does that mean?"

"Exactly what it sounds like?" Lance suggested. "I don't know too much about it, to be honest." He gripped one of the controls and smiled at the console. "I'm sure the Princess could explain it better, since she was actually alive when it was built."

Pidge set her feet on the floor as she slumped further into her chair. Her mind buzzed with thoughts, considering... How long had Emerald Comet lain in wait on Olkarion before Ryner allowed her to see it? (Not that she hadn't snuck into the hollow tree for a peek before that though.) How long had it waited for a pilot to fly?

"I'm sure she could," Pidge said, gazing about the Azure Lion 's cockpit with new eyes. She decided that she should meet Princess Allura herself one day.

After a few moments of contemplative, distracted silence, Lance said, "What about your 'professional' question?"

Pidge hummed, thinking. "So what about that other female bounty hunter? What did she do?"

Lance blushed and shifted in his chair, and to Pidge he seemed uncomfortable. "That's a story for another time."

Pidge shrugged, though she still felt a flash of annoyance. She could be patient, she told herself; they had almost three more quintants together, after all.

Shame washed over her, and she shoved it aside. Matt, she thought, and Dad. Matt and Dad, Matt and Dad, Matt and Dad... She repeated it like a mantra, insisting that she could not allow Lance to soften her heart towards him.

"Fine," Pidge said instead, trying to keep her tone detached despite her interest. "Why do you smuggle food instead of something more lucrative?"

Lance grinned. "Oh, that's easy." And then he frowned, the change so rapid that Pidge stiffened, attentive. "Food is lucrative to the Empire; they jack up their tariffs wherever they think the Rebellion has a strong presence, and try to starve us out."

" Us ," she said. "You consider yourself part of the Rebellion?"

Lance shrugged. "Of course," he said. "Just because I get paid doesn't make it any less important to me." He rolled his eyes, cast them down. "I have a family, so I have to make some kind of living."

Absurdly, Pidge had to bite back the question, Are you married? What did it matter if he was? Just because he has a reputation for flirting...

It did matter though, in the face of her own loss. Surely someone would mourn Lance if she turned him over to Haxus, might even seek to free or avenge him.

When, she reminded herself. Not if. Quiznak, what is wrong with you?

Pidge learned the answer to that question all too soon, when Lance let out a cry of triumph a few tics later. "What?" she said, glancing at him.

Lance smirked at her. "I've located a Balmera nearby," he said, "one I'm quite familiar with."

Pidge sat up, hand twitching, and asked, "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Oh, you know..." Lance waved a hand dismissively, but he stuffed his other into his pocket and pulled out a pair of cuffs.

Before Pidge could reach for her stunner, or even grab his arm, Lance had both of her wrists cuffed, the chain connecting the two cuffs looped around the arm of the copilot's chair.

"Lance!" Pidge shouted, indignant as she tugged on the cuffs hard enough that they marked her wrists in red. "What the quiznak are you doing?"

Lance reached for the Azure Lion 's controls, still smirking as he took them off autopilot. "Taking us off-course," he said.

"You promised, you asshole!" Pidge shrieked. Rover zigzagged its way around the cockpit, frantically blinking red.

"Hey," Lance said much too calmly as he steered them towards a planet - a Balmera , "I promised I wouldn't take us off-course while you were sleeping . And guess what?" He narrowed his eyes at her. "You're now awake."

Pidge struggled against the cuffs, mind short-circuiting in her panic over how quickly she'd lost control of their situation. "And what're you going to do on the Balmera?" she demanded. "Every single one I know of has a heavy Galra presence mining the crystals!"

"Yeah, that's a bit of a problem," Lance conceded with a nod. "But I figure I can evade them, at least until I touch down inside a crater."

As he spoke, the ship's scanners picked up on the threat of the Empire's ships. Fighters emerged from a satellite orbiting the Balmera, using them for target practice.

"Hold on, Pidge," Lance said, angling the ship down and taking a nose dive as they breached the Balmera's atmosphere.

Pidge didn't scream at the harsh motion of the ship, though she didn't care much for the jostling. She coughed, and wished she wore her mask.

"And what the quiznak do you hope to do on a Galra-occupied planet anyway?" Pidge asked.

"That's for me to know," Lance said, "and you to find out."

"The Rebellion has a foothold here, doesn't it?" Pidge guessed, eyes widening.

He winked at her. "You bet."

Pidge flushed, furious.

"Don't worry," Lance said, rolling his eyes. "It's not like I'm abandoning you." He successfully evaded the last of the Empire's fighters on their tail - though not without taking a single hit to the ship's shields - and entered a deep crater on the Balmera's surface, the light outside disappearing the deeper they traveled.

Lance touched the ship down at the bottom of the crater, so far down that the only source of light was the Azure Lion itself. "Good girl," he told it, relaxing.

Pidge couldn't relate. "So when should I expect you back?" she asked, mockingly batting her eyelids at him.

He blinked, and shook his head. "I'm just going to find someone that I think can help me fix the damage that you did to my ship." He crossed his arms, smirking at her. "Really, you have no one to blame for this but yourself."

"You don't have to remind me," she said, stomach sinking and filling with dread at the realization that he could undo all her progress towards finding her family in just under a varga. "But what's stopping me from freeing myself and stealing your ship?"

Lance tapped his chin thoughtfully. "This is just a shot in the dark here - and wow, look how dark it is in this crater! - but I think you won't be able to fly my ship, even if it is like yours." He leaned towards her and his smirk disappeared, and for the first time since she hijacked him, she felt a shiver of fear towards him . "But you'd already guessed that, right?"

Pidge narrowed her eyes at him. "Then what makes you think that you can find someone that can even repair your equipment?"

He snorted. "That's easy," he said, crossing his arms. "Hunk trained her."

Quiznak.

"Lucky for you," he continued, "I don't hate you and I don't want you to die, so"--he gently tugged her breathing mask over her face--" you're welcome ."

Lance turned to leave, but before he stepped out of the cockpit, he glanced back over his shoulder at her. "Now you be a good little bounty hunter," he said, smirking again, "and when everything is as it should be, I'll take you back home to Olkarion. All right?"

"Eat shit," Pidge said, trying her luck with the cuffs again and imagining her fist splitting his smug, perfect lips.

"I'm not hungry," Lance retorted, rolling his eyes. He left.

Pidge counted to ten, and when she heard the gangway opening to let Lance out, she whistled. Rover understood immediately, dimmed its light, and followed him.

Pidge slumped in her seat, trying to calm her heartbeat. She took deep breaths to regulate that, at least, and assessed her situation:

Lance landed on a planet heavily occupied by Galra despite being a wanted man.

She was now the hostage, and he didn't need her to repair the damage she did to his ship.

There was a mild Rebellion presence here.

"At least he won't kill me," she said to no one - though maybe the Azure Lion heard her. "But I'm sure the Empire would love to."

Pidge wished she'd thought to ask Haxus for identification that would claim she was on Empire business, but that lack of foresight was what she got when emotions were involved, even grief for her missing family.

Her wrist computer's display lit up from information gleaned by Rover, and she glanced at it, but they were only visuals of Lance's current location. Useless to her, in her current state.

"Scan the planet for Galra lifeforms," she said, the display flickering in acknowledgement of the command and Rover's receipt of it. It would take Rover a few doboshes, so in the meantime Pidge needed to figure out a way to escape.

She immediately dismissed breaking her hand to slip from the cuffs as unideal, but if she twisted her arms just right - gritting her teeth against the discomfort - she could reach her belt pouch for a screwdriver.

She sighed in relief when she managed to grip it between the heels of her hands and turned it - carefully so she wouldn't accidentally drop it. It inserted into the screw connecting the chain to one of the cuffs, and though it was a little too small, Pidge managed to turn it.

Pidge made quick work from then, her hands falling into her lap as the chain detached from the right cuff, the sound of metal rattling filling her ears. And right in time for Rover to transmit the results of its scan of the Balmera's surface, including a map that had a single blue dot indicating Lance's location.

Reprogramming Rover still proved to be the single smartest thing Pidge had ever done. Trusting Lance's sincerity, on the other hand--

Well, even computers only did as much or as little as you commanded; why should people be any different?

Pidge shook her head and sighed. She could scold herself for her stupidity later, but now she needed to find him before he found his Rebellion mechanic - or before a Galra soldier found him .

For all the trouble he'd caused her, an image of him injured, unconscious and bleeding, once she considered it, refused to flee her mind. Dread filled her, and she stood, grabbing her stunner on her way down the open gangway.

The air down in the crater stank of dust and the pollution of the Empire's manufacturing plants and mining facilities, and Pidge was grateful for the mask on her face that freed her to concentrate on more important things, though the fumes that hung heavy and close to the ground stung her eyes. She took the small flashlight from her belt pouch and flicked it on, using it and the display on her wrist computer to guide her towards her target.

The crater here was empty, but the map Rover provided led her to a tunnel in the rock. "I guess Lance isn't claustrophobic," Pidge muttered, shining the light and noting how narrow the entrance was. She stepped in, wary of possible Galra sentries, which Rover couldn't detect while scanning for lifeforms.

Small crystals glowed as she passed them, faintly reflecting the light she held in her hand. The chain still attached to one of her cuffs rattled, heightening her wariness towards her surroundings, especially when she passed entrances to other tunnels that branched away from the main one.

What was it like, she wondered, living so deep under your planet's crust that you never breathed fresh air or saw the sky?

As Pidge moved deeper into the tunnel, other sources of light appeared, approaching her. They were lanterns, encased with crystals to intensify the light of a candle flame, carried by Balmerans.

For the most part, the Balmerans - downtrodden and world-weary, even at just a glance - ignored her, but she got a few curious looks, and one or two hostile ones. Pidge did her best to ignore them in return, and checked Lance's dot on her computer's display to make sure he hadn't moved or was on his way back to the ship.

Finally she turned into a tunnel indicated on the map. The further she ventured, the more it widened, and Pidge spied alcoves in the tunnel's walls with barred steel doors covering them. Sentries and security drones, she guessed, as she approached what must be the Balmerans' capital.

The cavern she entered spread wide, its walls disappearing with distance, and its ceiling above so high it was swallowed in the dark. Well-lit by crystals and candlelight, Pidge walked into it, passing squat stone houses and Balmerans and the Empire's soldiers alike - making her nervous - going about their business.

The soldiers obviously patrolled, and while Pidge watched one of them forced a small group of loitering Balmeran youths to disperse, even going so far to hit one upside the head with his blaster, knocking him down.

She clenched her hands into fists and forced herself to keep walking to her destination.

Pidge turned a corner and spotted Rover, who blinked in greeting when it spotted her. She smirked, glad to see it, and approached the house Rover indicated. Like most of the rest of the buildings, it had no door or windows, with only tattered curtains concealing any entrances. She stood outside the single curtained doorway and held her breath, straining to hear voices inside.

"...need Shay ?" a plaintive masculine voice asked.

"Because she's the best mechanic I know," another voice - Lance 's - said. "Aside from Hunk, of course."

"Yes... Hunk ," said the other man, distastefully.

"Peace, Rax," said a woman. "I will come with you to see what I can do, Lance."

"Shay," said the first man - Rax - in warning. "The soldiers are about, and it is after curfew."

Pidge glanced around, confused; she saw plenty of Balmerans out, so what curfew?

Unless he meant they were forbidden from leaving the tunnels after curfew.

She decided she'd heard enough, knowing she needed to act fast if she wanted Lance's ship to remain as it was. She grabbed her stunner from her belt and threw the curtain aside, marching into the tiny house.

Three figures turned to regard her:  Lance, his eyes widening in shock and, unless she was mistaken, shame ; and two tall Balmerans, both blinking owlishly at the light she shone in their faces.

"Sorry," she said, stuffing the flashlight back into her belt pouch, but she trained her stunner on Lance

He feigned nonchalance by stuffing his hands in his pockets and slouching. "I...should've expected this." He glanced at her wrists and raised an eyebrow. "Need help with those?"

"Not from you I don't," she retorted.

Lance rolled his eyes and raised his hands. "Don't shoot them," he said, positioning himself between her and the two Balmerans. "They--"

"You're the only one I want to shoot," Pidge interrupted, scowling at him.

"Kinky," Lance said, smirking.

Face flaming, she started, "Would you shut --"

"Is this the bounty hunter of whom you spoke, Lance?" asked Rax.

"She is."

"Leave," said Rax, crossing his arms and looking very imposing thanks to his height and bulk. "Leave us, now, before you bring the Empire down on us."

"Rax--"

"No, Shay," Rax said, turning furiously towards her. "It is the fault of the Rebels that our mother was beaten, all because the Galra soldiers caught her feeding and sheltering their operatives. What will happen to you if you fix one of their ships?"

Pidge's grip on her stunner faltered, and she looked from Lance...to Shay, who frowned uncertainly at her brother. She waited with baited breath, wondering how the quiznak a seemingly meek young woman met a Rebel mechanic for long enough for him to train her.

"I will not stand back while the Empire oppresses us anymore," said Shay.

Despite this being the exact opposite of what Pidge needed, her blood still thrilled triumphantly with her declaration.

"Great," said Lance, grinning at her. “I’ll tell the Princess.”

"Oh no you don't," Pidge said, rattling her stunner and attracting his attention again. "You have one option."

"Oh, this again?"

" Yes, " she said testily. "I shoot you, and Shay helps me drag you back to your ship. I tie you to your seat, and when you wake up you take us out of here and we never talk about this again."

"Or," Lance said, smiling charmingly at her, "we all go back together, you or Shay fixes my ship - I'm not too picky at this point - and you don't turn me over to the Empire." He clapped his hands together, as if that decided it.

Pidge took a step towards him, scowling. "Listen here, you--"

Rover shot in through a window curtain, flashing in alarm. Pidge's wrist computer pinged, and the display lit up red as it detected a lifeform that wasn't a Balmeran or her or Lance.

"We have the house surrounded!" a voice called from outside, causing everyone inside to freeze. "Turn over all Rebels you're sheltering and you will not be harmed!"

"Rax," Shay said, voice soft and dangerous, "you called them, did you not?"

Pidge looked at him, her anger finding a new target. "Are you an idiot ?"

Rax stared from her to Shay. "They will expect only one," he said, eyes swiveling to Lance.

"You've got to be quiznaking kidding me," Pidge muttered, lowering her stunner.

"Well this plan was a bust," Lance said, slumping.

"We can still salvage our survival," Pidge reassured him, sincere. He met her eyes and nodded, smiling.

It felt like a truce, of sorts.

"Do you trust me?" Lance asked, coming up to stand beside her.

"No," Pidge admitted, "but I kind of have to, don't I?"

"Unfortunately," he agreed. "I screwed up, didn't I?"

Pidge shrugged and said, "We can argue blame later, but now--"

"Send them out, or we enter!" a soldier shouted in.

"Ideas?" Lance said.

Pidge sighed. "Take Rax hostage," she muttered to him under her breath. At Lance's indignation, she said, "We won't hurt him, but it might give him a taste of his own medicine."

"These are Galra soldiers, Pidge," Lance pointed out. "They won't care."

"Fine," Pidge said, stepping towards the window and twitching the curtain aside to peer out. In front of the house stood no less than five living soldiers in black and purple armor, flanked by over fifteen sentries. "I've heard that you're a good shot."

"A certifiable sharpshooter," Lance agreed, smirking.

"Then see if you can take out those soldiers," she said, pointing outside. "I've got the sentries."

"How?"

Pidge brought up the display on her wrist computer. "If I find the right frequency, I can jam their signal and deactivate them from a distance."

Lance blinked at her. "Nice," he said, impressed.

She smirked at him. "Now take them out."

Lance reached for his blaster and positioned himself at the window, shifting the curtain so he could see out. One shot rang out, and Pidge heard cries of shock outside.

She tuned out the shouts, more threats from the soldiers - likely the dregs of the Empire's ranks, stuck on the polluted Balmera because they weren't good enough to serve at more valuable bases. Rover scanned the sentries, and when it detected the signal, Pidge accessed it and ran interference.

Another shot from Lance, and more shouts from outside.

"The sentries are down," she announced, grabbing Lance's arm. "We can take the rest outside if we need to." To Shay and Rax, she said, "We're leaving. For your safety, don't come after us."

Rax nodded, gripping Shay's shoulder to prevent her from following them. Pidge turned her back, unable to help the disgust at Rax she felt, and led Lance out of the house.

Three live soldiers still stood outside, and at a cry from one of them, at least seven more appeared from other parts of the house's perimeter. Lance made quick work shooting at two of them from close range, giving them nonfatal injuries.

Her stunner in hand and Rover just ahead, Pidge ran, Lance keeping pace.

"How're your lungs?" he asked.

"Fantastic," Pidge said, breathing heavily as they sprinted.

Their flight alerted other soldiers lurking, coming to attention and giving chase. Pidge ducked behind a building and dragged Lance after her, trying to lose a few of those pursuing them...and to catch her breath.

She bent over, panting.

"You all right?" Lance asked, his hand resting on her back.

Pidge gasped, pretending she didn't enjoy the heat that seemed to spread from that point on her back. "Well enough to kill you once we get back to your ship."

"I like your attitude, Pidge," Lance said, turning back towards the path they'd just ducked away from, "but let's save it for later."

"Why wait?" she demanded, furious.

Lance didn't answer. He simply grabbed her arm and started leading them in a completely different direction, away from where Rover directed.

"Where the quiznak are we going now?" Pidge asked. She cursed as she almost tripped over a loose crystal.

"We need to lose them." He looked over his shoulder even as they ran, eyes widening. "Quiznak we still have company."

"No kidding."

"Tunnel!" Lance called.

"What?"

Before she could react, he dragged her into a narrow tunnel, and they barely moved a few yards from the settlement before the darkness grew absolute.

"My flashlight--"

"Don't," Lance hissed. "They'll spot us if we use a light source."

"Rover--"

"--will meet us at the ship." His hand slipped down her arm to grasp her wrist, and he guided her towards the wall. "Don't look, just feel."

Easier said than done. But she did as Lance suggested, her hands feeling along the wall as she followed the sound of his footsteps. His hand still rested on her wrist, tying them - and their fates - together.

"Ah!" Lance cried out, falling forward and landing on his hands and knees. They'd reached the end of the tunnel, emerging into the very crater they wanted.

"What?" Pidge asked, alarmed. She raised her stunner, scanning their dim surroundings warily.

"Nothing," Lance said. He stood and dusted his pants off. "I just got startled."

Pidge socked him in the arm, annoyed. "Don't scare me like that," she scolded him.

"Aw, you do care, Pidge!"

She smacked a hand to her forehead. "I swear, your mood changes give me whiplash ."

Lance smirked at her, one hand on his hip while the other loosely held his blaster. "Well, how about I--"

Pidge's wrist computer emitted an alarm, and she pulled up the display to view the alert right as Rover arrived, his light blinking red. "Lance," she said, gut filling with dread, "we're about to be surrounded."

Lance sighed heavily, tilting his head back. "You've got to be kidding me."

"I wish." Pidge grabbed his wrist and started dragging him towards the waiting Azure Lion , only for a blast to ring out and strike Lance in the shoulder.

"Quiznak!" Lance jerked back, his hand going to his shoulder as he gritted his teeth.

"What happened?"

"What do you think ?" Lance said. He softened his face and tone though and reassured her, "I'm fine. Let's go."

"But--"

Other soldiers, out of sight, fired at them, and Lance grabbed her, still holding onto his injured shoulder, and sprinted towards the ship.

Blaster fire rained down on them from all direction, but they managed to evade most of the shots, though some singed their clothes, leaving behind the tang of burning fabric.

They reached the ship, dashing up the gangway, and Lance immediately raced into the cockpit and started firing up the engines. "Come on, come on," he said as heavier fire struck the Azure Lion 's shields.

After making sure Rover was inside, Pidge closed the gangway and joined him in the cockpit. "Why haven't we moved yet?" she demanded.

Lance frowned and pointed upwards, and Pidge followed his gaze to see that their exit was cut off by a wide steel gate sealing them inside the crater.

" Quiznak ," they hissed together.

They exchanged a glance, and Lance said, "I'm going to try to bull my way through it."

"What?" Pidge said, eyes widening. "But the ship's shields--"

Suddenly, the gate creaked, metal scraping against metal in an unpleasant cacophony, Pidge's hands reflexively covering her ears. But it started pulling apart, a gap forming in the center.

"What the quiznak?" Pidge muttered, suspicious.

Lance didn't question their luck and just took off, but he cried out at something he saw outside in the crater.

"What?" Pidge followed his gaze to see three Galra soldiers wrestling a large figure to the ground. "Is that--"

" Shay ?" Lance exclaimed. "What the quiznak is she doing here? We need to--"

"We need to keep going," Pidge told him.

Lance glared at her. "But--"

"Lance." Pidge sat in the very chair he'd cuffed her to barely two vargas ago and fixed her gaze on him, forcing him to meet her eyes. She ignored her own shame and guilt at leaving Shay behind. "If we go back, we're going to die ."

Lance held her gaze, frowning, until he nodded stiffly. “This was a waste of time,” he admitted.

“Yeah,” Pidge said, “it kind of was.”

They emerged from the crater into the light of a Balmeran evening, but they weren't clear of danger yet. Three Galra fighters gave chase, firing at the Azure Lion .

"Oh, you want some?" Lance said, his hands tightening on the controls as he spun the ship in a way that made Pidge's stomach roil.

She gripped the armrests of the copilot's chair, and the Azure Lion fired at the fighters, destroying one. Another chancy maneuver saw the other two fighters collide explosively with each other, freeing them to escape the Balmera's atmosphere.

Pidge slumped, bringing her breathing back under control. She sighed and watched Lance's hands on the controls, steering them into a different course. He looked calm, face flat, but when he caught her looking he flashed her a smile.

"I'm sorry about Shay," Pidge said quietly.

"Me too," he said just as quietly.

When the Balmera was far out of sight, Lance set a course for Arus.

"What are you doing?" Pidge asked, unable to believe her luck.

"I think I'm going to...trust you," he said hesitantly, looking at her.

"Why?"

"I don't know," he said. "It just seems like the smartest thing to do now."

Pidge stared at him, wide-eyed, then said, "Take off your shirt."

"What?" Lance said, smirking as he set the ship in autopilot. "You already want to see me naked?"

Pidge hated how the question made her blush, but she stood her ground and said, "I'm going to look at your shoulder."

"Oh." Lance's face fell, but he stood up and retreated into the back room. He tugged off his shirt, dropping it on the ground, and obediently sat on his open bunk.

Pidge sat down beside him, obstinately refusing to look at his chest or abdomen, or even at his face, worried that she'd find him smirking at her, or worse:   smiling . But the injury proved to require her attention as she examined it.

"It...doesn't look too bad," she observed. It was a shallow burn, any bleeding already done, and it looked like the shot had skimmed him without doing any damage to anything besides his skin. “It might scar though.”

"Great," Lance said cheerfully. “More to add to my collection. And I think I have some burn ointment in my first-aid kit."

Pidge stood, following Lance's instructions to a cupboard near the bathroom door. She opened it, looking at a variety of basic medical supplies, and took out a tube of burn ointment, a roll of bandages, and surgical tape. When she rejoined Lance, she squeezed some ointment onto her fingertips and rubbed it into the too-hot skin around the injury.

Lance remained silent while she worked, barely flinching as his skin absorbed the ointment. But then he said, "It's really not that bad. If I was at home, I wouldn't even bother with a healing pod."

Pidge grunted and tore off a strip of the cloth bandage with her teeth. She pressed it to his shoulder and said, "Hold that there."

Lance sighed and did as she asked. "So earlier you said you wanted to kill me," he commented mildly.

She taped the bandage to his shoulder, taking the moment to think on a retort, and when he dropped his hand, she stared at her lap and said, "I was angry." Her eyes drifted to his face. "I still am."

"Oh, good."

Pidge rolled her eyes and smiled, then raised her wrists, shaking one to rattle the chain still attached to the cuff. "I'll consider forgiving you if you take these off."

"You mean you didn't like my gift of jewelry?" Lance said with mock offense.

Pidge shook her head and laughed.

Chapter Text

Towards the end of the third quintant, the Azure Lion experienced the misfortune of flying across the path of a Galra destroyer.

"Oh, quiznak!" Lance said, waking Pidge from a doze. He buckled himself into the pilot's seat and reached for the controls, taking the ship off autopilot. "Buckle in, Pidge. The ride might get bumpy."

Pidge did as he asked, but not before he jerked the ship forward with enough force that she almost fell out of her chair.

"What're you doing, Pidge?" he said, with a wide-eyed glance in her direction. "Strap yourself in."

"I was about to," she retorted, finally securing the seat belt. Rover flashed red in alarm, and Pidge called it over, deactivating it and holding it in her lap so it wouldn't bounce around the cockpit if Lance performed any crazy maneuvers.

Which were plentiful, Pidge realized. The destroyer disgorged at least thirty small fighters to pursue them.

"They want to shoot us down," she guessed, holding onto her armrests.

"Of course they do!" Lance grumbled. “And there are too many of them for me to aim properly to shoot them down!” He spun the ship around, avoiding fire from the fighters, but a few blasts hit them, weakening the shields. Lance cursed under his breath, and Pidge mentally ran through her options, wanting some way to help and get them out of this alive - and preferably without being captured.

"Do you have a cloaking device?" Pidge asked.

Lance, distracted as he was trying to keep twenty Galra fighters off his tail, didn't reply immediately. "No," he said, "but I think Hunk has one he was working on in--"

"Perfect!" said Pidge. She unbuckled herself and stood.

"Pidge!" Lance said, alarmed. He turned his head to look at her as she left, but at a shudder from the ship taking another shot, he returned his attention forward. "Pidge, I don't think--"

"We disappear," Pidge said. "I'm finishing the cloaking device."

"Pidge, you--"

She didn't hear the rest of his sentence as the door to the cockpit slid shut behind her. She opened the second bunk, hoping that Hunk stored the unfinished device in there, and grinned in triumph when she saw it.

Pidge picked it up, grunting at its weight; of course it would be heavier than the one she installed on the smaller Emerald Comet . She set it on the floor and sat down, pulling it towards her so it sat between her legs, and examined it, heedless of the shaking of the ship.

Hunk's theory was sound, Pidge saw, but some wires were crossed in ways that would interfere with the artificial gravity generator if they were placed onto the same circuit. She wondered if that was the problem he'd encountered. She reached into her belt pouch for her pliers and worked on twisting wires around, rearranging them. After leaving a few exposed so she would have a way to install it directly into the ship, she found a spare space suit in one of the cupboards and worked on putting it on.

She was about to slip the helmet onto her head when Lance turned on the interior comms. "Pidge, whatever the quiznak you're doing isn't worth going out , so get your ass back--"

Pidge put on the helmet, shutting out his voice. The life support activated, and Pidge breathed recycled air that somehow tasted as clean as Olkarion's. She hefted the finished cloaking device, balancing it against her hip, and walked into the room at the very back of the ship:  the airlock.

After making sure she'd strapped herself securely to the ship, she opened the door, immediately getting sucked out into the vacuum of space. Her own anxious breathing echoed in the helmet, her heart pounding enough that she thought she'd consume all of the suit's oxygen before she could finish.

She took a deep breath and tried to calm herself and jetted back towards the ship, until she gripped a handle on its bottom - relatively speaking. She traveled grip by grip until she reached the sheltered exterior mechanisms, and set to attaching the cloaking device, only pausing to hold tightly to the ship itself when Lance dodged their pursuants.

Pidge did her best to ignore the familiar tightness in her chest, fighting to not wheeze. She muted the comms in her helmet so Lance wouldn't hear, and wished she had the time to figure out how to mute the speakers too, hating how his worried voice made her heart squeeze.

And he'd been almost calm when they first fell under fire.

The cloaking device set in, and Pidge breathed a sigh of relief. She started to make her way back to the airlock, until a heavy volley of blasts rattled the ship. Her grip slipped, and she went flying away from the ship into space.

Pidge screamed, gasping when the cord still attaching her to the ship jerked at her, taut. She wheezed, out of breath, and jetted back towards the ship, hoping she was too small of a target for the Galra fighters still chasing them.

"Come on, come on, come on ," she urged her jetpack.

She stumbled in, and reached for the button that would close the airlock. The doors slid shut behind her and she fell to her knees, winded and wheezing, gravity dragging her back down as the chamber filled again with compressed air.

She activated the comms in her helmet and, through the harshness of her own breathing, said, "Lance, activate the cloaking device!"

"Pidge! How?"

She explained, assuming it would be the same as in her own ship, and was glad he didn't scold or demand to know what the quiznak she was doing. She stood and left the airlock on unsteady legs, taking off the helmet.

Her lungs burned, and she couldn't get enough air. Quiznak, she was going to die before she could find Matt and her father.

"Pidge!" Lance called from the cockpit, not bothering to use the intercom. "It worked! And they seem confused now, but what if they have scanners?"

Pidge couldn't answer, difficult as it was to catch her breath. She wheezed, head light, the blue light inside the ship blurring. She needed her mask.

"Pidge?" Lance said. "Are you all right? We're out of the destroyer's sights thanks to you and my fancy flying, but I can't put Blue on autopilot yet."

Darkness threatened to drag her under, and Pidge beat it back by sheer strength of will. She groped through the cupboard where she'd taken to storing her meager belongings until she found her mask. Hazily, she put it on, careless of the way it tugged at her hair, and changed the settings so that she breathed her medication along with the filtered air.

"Pidge? I'm starting to-- quiznak , I'm coming in!"

Pidge's breathing settled, finally, her head clearing and the ache fading from her lungs. She was still peeling off the space suit, mourning the lack of a proper shower, when Lance appeared in the doorway to the cockpit.

His eyes widened when they fell on her, and he reached down and tugged her up by the arm.

"Lance," she said through the mask, "I'm fine now--"

Lance wrapped his arms around her shoulders, trapping her against him. "I'm going to pretend you didn't do that," he muttered, his voice vibrating his chest.

Pidge's breath caught, and this time it wasn't her asthma. "I saved our lives," she pointed out.

"Yeah, and almost died doing it. And then what good would it have done?" He stepped away from her, but kept his hands on her shoulders, forcing her to meet his eyes.

She sighed and tugged her mask down, uncovering her sweaty face. "You would've gone back to the Rebellion and your family, like the fiasco on the Balmera never happened.”

Lance frowned, as if that wasn't the answer he'd expected. "Huh, I guess so. Just don't..." He let go, and Pidge relaxed. "You had an asthma attack, didn't you?"

"Yes," she admitted, walking around him and into the cockpit.

She found Rover buckled into the copilot's chair and reactivated it. It flew into the air immediately, its light blinking red and green, scolding her.

"Oh, not you too," she said, rubbing her face. Now that the danger was past and she could breathe normally, she felt exhausted, her mind sluggish to process what just happened between her and Lance, why he would worry about her , a bounty hunter that kidnapped him and hijacked his ship and had already waved a stunner at his head multiple times and threatened to kill him.

She considered telling him why, but shook her head, dismissing the notion as foolish. What did it matter? It wouldn't change anything.

Pidge trudged back into the backroom, Rover following, where Lance still stood with his arms crossed. "I'm taking a nap," she told him.

Lance stared at her for a few tics, then rolled his eyes. "That's the best idea you've had since we met."

'Met' seemed a very light way to explain the beginning of their acquaintance, but Pidge was too tired to argue.

He returned to the cockpit, and Pidge used the rare moment of privacy to change out of her sweaty clothes and into the spare set she'd brought with her. As she did, she found the holodisk in her belt pouch and pressed the button to play the recording.

It showed a happy family of four, with two women, one older and the other still a child, seeing off two men climbing into a ship. There was no audio, but Pidge imagined she could still hear their voices.

"The Rebellion needs every body it can get," Sam Holt told Katie, his hand resting on her shoulder.

"What about me?" asked Katie.

"Your day will come," her father promised, "and the whole universe will sit up and take notice."

Despite the poor image quality, Pidge thought she could see the smile on Katie's face.

"Take care, Katie," said Matt, as he hugged his sister tightly for the last time.

"If you don't come back, I'm coming to get you."

"You bet" --Matt tugged on her ponytail, a fond smile on his face-- "Pidge."

Pidge rubbed her eyes, surprised when her fingers came away damp. The recording reached the end, the holo display vanishing. She lay back on Lance's bunk, but despite her exhaustion sleep refused to come.

"Lance," she called out.

"Yeah?"

Pidge glanced towards him, surprised he'd come so quickly. "Tell me something."

He approached her bedside and knelt beside her, resting his arms on the bunk. "What do you want to know?"

"Why did you join the Rebellion?"

Lance blinked at her, but then his lips curled into a slow smirk. "You thinking of enlisting too?"

"No," she snapped, harsher than she intended, but Lance didn't flinch. She softened her voice and said, "My father and brother were-- are in the Rebellion, and I wanted to know if your reasons were similar."

"Oh." Lance relaxed, sitting down, though he was still at eye level with her if she turned her head. "Would you believe if I said I joined for the ladies?"

Two quintants ago, she might have, but now she knew him well enough to detect the joke. That didn't stop her from snorting. "No," she said.

"That's what I thought." Lance shifted so that his back was to her, leaning against the bunk with his legs stretched out. She could easily see the back of his head in an eerie echo of when she first took him hostage.

Where's my stunner now? she thought wryly. Somewhere he can reach it before I can and we can have a repeat of our excursion to the Balmera.

Strange to be this vulnerable in front of someone; she hadn't let her guard down in front of anyone - not even her own mother - in over a deca-phoeb. (And no, Rover didn't count.)

"It's a pretty boring story actually," Lance admitted. He half-turned his body back towards her, resting one arm on the bunk beside her, close enough she could take his hand in hers, if she wanted to. "I actually grew up on Arus, not Altea." He scratched his cheek, and Pidge saw he'd shapeshifted enough that his blue markings showed, glowing faintly in the dim room. "My paternal grandfather is Arusian, so that technically makes me a citizen of Arus, not Altea." He shrugged, smiling at her. "Obviously I favor the rest of my family in looks. And it meant my family was spared when the Galra wiped out Altea."

Pidge, no longer so exhausted, sat up. "I'm sorry," she said.

"Why?" he said, shrugging, seemingly unbothered. "You weren't there."

She rested a hand on his arm, and when he stared at it, her face heated self-consciously. But she didn't pull back. "I know, but..." She rolled her eyes. "Look, where I'm from, you say sorry to offer condolences, not just to apologize for something you did wrong."

"Huh," Lance said, eyes drifting up to her face. "Good to know."

"Anyway, your story?" Pidge prompted before the silence could grow too long - and before she could think too much on their physical contact.

Lance shrugged, averting his gaze. "Well, the genocide happened before I was born," he said. "I think it wasn't long after my parents got married, actually." He sighed. "It was probably a stroke of luck that Princess Allura was off-world with her mother when it happened."

"You joined the Rebellion for revenge?" Her chest ached again, but for a different reason than earlier. It was one thing to mourn her family, but another thing entirely to mourn her whole culture.

He looked directly at her and, to her surprise, smiled. "Nah, not really. I just want to make sure it never happens to anyone else, you know? And to have a good time; you can't have fun working for the Empire."

Pidge snorted, but smiled in response. "Like you would know."

"Hey," Lance said, grin widening, "you'd be surprised how many deserters we get, and not just conscripts."

"You mean you get Galra enlisting into the Rebellion?" Pidge said, tilting her head skeptically.

"Yeah," said Lance, smirking. "Even met a few."

"Huh," said Pidge.

"So why did your father and brother join?"

"The Empire invaded Olkarion," she explained. She pulled her knees up and wrapped her arms around her legs. "They conscripted a lot of our people, and forced us to develop tech for them. Including my brother."

"I'm sorry," said Lance. When Pidge raised an eyebrow at him, he held his hands up defensively and said, "Hey, I'm just saying what you said to me."

She smiled at him and continued, "Well, my brother got conscripted, and he and my father decided to avoid it by going around it. They fled Olkarion and joined Princess Allura's Rebellion."

"Why didn't you go with them?" Lance asked, quirking an eyebrow. "Skilled woman like you."

Pidge didn't blush under his praise, no, she did not. "I was too young when they left," she said. "Only fifteen."

Lance blinked. "Wait, how old are you now?"

"Nineteen."

"Then what's stopping you from joining now?" Lance asked. "Why take contracts from the Galra? Someone like you is... wasted on them."

Someone like her ? Annoyed and suddenly exhausted again by the reminder, she decided she was done with their candidness. "I'm not...ready to talk about that," she said carefully, moderating her unwelcome rise in temper.

Lance scowled and stood in one graceful motion. "Fine," he said, cold. "Rest up, Pidge." He returned to the cockpit, and Rover, used to watching him while Pidge slept, trailed after him.

Pidge slumped heavily onto her back, covering her face with an arm. She bit back a frustrated scream, wondering why she cared so much, why it hurt .

She'd never accepted a contract from the Empire before this, though she'd had several offers; only this one teased her with information on her missing family's whereabouts, and now she hesitated.

I'm a quiznaking fool, she realized, falling for my own captive.

But who was really in power though? Lance could take control back - again - any time, between his instinctive familiarity with his own bonded ship - a curiosity in and of itself - and simply through superior strength if it came down to a wrestling match for a weapon.

A weapon that she hadn't bothered carrying since they fled the Balmera.

How much longer until they arrived at Arus? She'd lost track of time during the attack, but they had less than two quintants left, surely.

Arus. Quiznak, Lance's family lived on Arus; no wonder he'd been worried when she first instructed him to fly there! His family, the Galra, maybe her family...

Somehow, Pidge drifted into a restless sleep, while her mind sought a solution just out of reach.

The sound of a voice drifting from the cockpit woke Pidge, tugging her out of dreams already lost.

"...kind of trouble, Blue, right?" Lance was saying. "Why else would she work for the Empire?" He sighed, and Pidge imagined him leaning forward in the pilot's seat, running his fingers through his hair.

Pidge rolled onto her side so that she faced the wall and closed her eyes, her eyelids still sticky enough with sleep that she thought she could slumber longer. Except Lance's conversation with himself - with the Azure Lion , really - trapped her attention, kept her conscious.

"Sadly, I kind of like her," Lance told the ship. "What does that say about me, huh? Hunk would laugh his quiznaking ass off. Oh, he'd say, Only you, Lance, would make nice with a bounty hunter. And I would say, Hey, it's my best chance at getting out of it alive after my first plan backfired. "

Pidge lay on her back, hands on her stomach. Is that what he'd been doing, making nice in the hopes that she'd let him go?

"I could try seducing her, I guess," Lance mused.

She bolted upright, so fast her head spun with dizziness. What.

"I doubt it would work, though," Lance continued as if his last words hadn't halted Pidge's thought process. "She's smart; she'd see right through me. Besides..."

Pidge held her breath as his voice grew softer.

"...her heart isn't in this mission of hers."

Pidge exhaled in a huff, slumping. Was it that obvious? She glanced at the cupboard storing her belongings, including her stunner and Lance's blaster.

Yes, it was obvious.

"I think I'd have better luck trying to figure out why she's doing it," Lance said. "And then we figure a way out of it together. I could help her, if she let me."

He left the if she bothered to ask unsaid.

Pidge decided she'd pretended to be asleep for long enough and swung her legs over the bunk and stood. She trudged towards the cockpit, stopping at the door, worried that if she walked in right then, Lance would guess she'd overheard a mostly private conversation.

(She wished, not for the first time, that Rover could record audio as well as visuals.)

The cockpit door slid open, and Lance turned around in his chair to see her. He didn't smile and instead greeted her, "You look like shit."

Pidge sat heavily in the copilot's chair while Rover joined her, blinking a greeting. "Thanks," she said, twisting a strand of hair away from her face. "I'd probably look better if I had access to a shower."

Lance lifted his arm and sniffed at his armpit, then shrugged. "Should've thought of that before you kidnapped me, don't you think?" He balanced one ankle on the opposite knee, for all intents and purposes appearing relaxed, but the fact that he wasn't smiling - or looking at her - gave him away.

He was still angry about her refusal to talk before she slept.

"How long until we arrive?" Pidge asked.

"About a quintant-and-a-half," he said. "If you want to sleep the rest of the way, that's fine; I won't shoot you while you're asleep."

Pidge scowled at him, but she forced her face into a softer expression, reminding herself that he had a right to be angry with her. "Maybe you should sleep some."

"I'm too wired to sleep," he said.

She supposed it made sense:  he seemed too alert, eyes not drooping like they usually did when he was tired, his voice still sharp, his leg shaking enough to vibrate the floor and rattle Pidge's chair.

"Try anyway," Pidge suggested. "You've probably been awake for too long. How’s your shoulder doing anyway?"

Lance finally glanced at her, and this time there was something soft in his gaze, something she didn't expect. It made her breath catch.

He sighed, pinching his eyes shut. "It’s fine," he said, "and I even changed the bandage while you were sleeping.” He stood and added, “And I guess you’re right. Wake me up if something happens."

"All right," she agreed easily, relieved he was taking her advice. But without him keeping her company, even if they didn't speak, even if they were at odds, she quickly grew bored.

"Hmm." She looked at Rover, who blinked questioningly at her. "I wonder if Hunk has any other unfinished projects laying around."

Pidge snuck into the backroom on light feet, careful not to alert Lance. She contemplated the folded bunk on the opposite wall, then glanced at Lance. He lay on his back, eyes hidden underneath a blue sleeping mask, so she couldn't tell if he was asleep. She crept closer to find out, perhaps by his breathing, but when she stood a foot away, he reached up and lifted the mask, startling her.

"Pidge, what're you doing?" he asked suspiciously.

Pidge relaxed her stiff posture. "Looking for something to tinker with," she admitted. "Your friend Hunk is a mechanic?"

Lance rolled his eyes but obligingly pointed to a wide cupboard in the back, closer to the bathroom. "I think he keeps most of his stuff in there," he said, "but some might be hidden in his bunk."

"Thanks," she said, bright.

Lance flashed her a smile, warming her, and lowered his sleeping mask. "Just...keep it quiet." He rolled onto his side, his back to her.

Pidge followed his instructions, opening the cupboard and peering at Hunk's tools and scraps. She hummed thoughtfully, hoping Hunk wouldn't mind - if he ever even found out - that she was picking through his belongings.

It wasn't much, but she thought she could build another stunner from the available parts, something she could give to Lance as a gift.

Which was absurd, she told herself. Why would she give him a gift when she planned on giving him to the Galra Empire?

Pidge decided to do it anyway.

She grabbed what she needed and returned to the cockpit, sitting on the floor and leaning against the wall rather than occupying the chair.

The task kept her mind and hands busy for a good few vargas, a curved blade - shaped like a katar - fitting comfortably in her hand, shaped by the careful welding of scrap metal and sharpened on a stone. The electrical component came next, but her stomach growled furiously, distracting her from her work.

Pidge sighed and stood to go find a tube of unappealing goo, and saw that Lance was up too. He emerged from the bathroom, hair damp and face shining, looking refreshed enough that she felt jealous. And... fond .

"You look...rested," she said. Not the first word that came to mind, but still accurate.

"And you look...content," he said.

They faced each other, words neither of them said to the other filling the silence. But they started together:

"Pidge, I--"

"Lance--"

"You first," Lance said, flashing her a smile that she dared to think of as fond.

"Oh, uh, sure." Pidge cleared her throat, bracing herself. "I'm sorry for...all this." She waved her hand around, indicating their whole situation. "I know that isn't much, since it doesn't change anything, but..." She gripped one wrist tightly, digging her fingernails into her skin, and lowered her eyes. "Maybe if we'd met under different circumstances, we'd be friends." She glanced up at him, to see a more neutral expression. "I want to tell you why," she added carefully, "but I'm not sure I can."

As she watched, Lance nodded, but he sighed. "We don't have much time left."

"Barely more than a quintant," Pidge agreed.

"Just know that for whatever reason someone like you would take a job for the Empire, I'm sure the Rebellion could help. I could help."

"I know you think so," Pidge said, "but I also know the Rebellion has other things to worry about, and I don't blame them."

She'd approached a colleague of her father's once - his name was Iverson - and he'd dismissed her out of hand, insisting her father and brother were dead and that the Rebellion had more important things to worry about than two dead - missing , she'd corrected him - operatives.

"But what do you mean, 'someone like me '?"

Lance sighed and sat on the edge of his bunk. "Pidge, you're--" He cut himself off, sighing. "You're too good for this, and you've obviously suffered at the Empire's hands. They invaded your home-world--"

"I know." She crossed her arms.

"Then why ?" he said, obviously frustrated. "I can't wrap my head around it."

She considered. "I...I don't know my father's and brother's whereabouts."

Lance looked directly at her as she spoke, rapt with attention, his blue facial markings fading into view.

She sighed and continued, "They went missing-in-action two deca-phoebs ago. When I spoke with my father's commanding officer, he said they had to be dead, even though the official report said missing ." She sat heavily beside Lance, holding his eyes. "I didn't believe him; I still don't."

"So you blame the Rebellion ?"

Pidge shook her head. "No, of course not!" She stood again and paced the length of the small room. "They knew what they were getting into when they enlisted; they knew the risks, and made sure my mother and I knew them too." She shuddered, her throat tight and eyes burning. Now isn't the time! "A few movements ago, a...Galra soldier approached me when I was chasing a bounty on Taujeer. His name is Haxus, and he serves under General Sendak."

She saw Lance stiffen out of the corner of her eye, something like fear crossing his face. Yes, Sendak had a nasty reputation, even by Galra standards.

"He claimed he had information about my father's and brother's whereabouts," she said, "and even told me more about their capture by Sendak's troops." She blinked, angry tears leaking from the corners of her eyes, stomach twisting as she remembered Haxus' story and the recording he showed her. Voice trembling, she added, "He hired me to capture your ship and you, alive if I could, in exchange for more information." She reached up to wipe her eyes.

"Why?" Lance asked faintly. "I'm just a smuggler delivering food ." He stood and paced a bit himself. " Quiznak. "

"Your ship," Pidge realized, her tears drying up as her mind engaged with new conclusions. "It has something to do with the Azure Lion ."

Lance halted in front of her. "What? Why do you think so?" The marks on his cheeks gleamed, captivating her for a tic.

She shook her head to clear it. "Lance," Pidge said, placing her hands on his shoulders, "this ship is a piece of brilliant engineering and art . And you said it only 'awoke' at your touch. There's something special about it - and maybe you too - and the Empire wants it."

Did that mean they knew about her Emerald Comet ? A fear she never expected struck her, but she did her best to worry about this moment first.

"Aw, you think I'm special?"

Pidge scowled at him. "That's not the point." She dropped her hands, rubbing her eyes. "I never should've accepted this job."

"No kidding," said Lance. "And I thought you were smart! I can't believe you would trust a Galra soldier."

"I was desperate," Pidge confessed. "It was the only lead I had. It's still the only lead I have."

Before she could break down and have a nice long cry, Lance grabbed her arm and tugged her into an embrace, his hold on her tight. And though it surprised her, it was far from unwelcome.

Pidge gripped the back of his shirt, her face buried in his chest. Now laid bare, she sobbed like she hadn't since she was a child, when she sought comfort from her mother.

But this was much different. Now she took comfort from a man, a man she'd developed feelings for in only a few quintants, a man she was delivering to the Empire in only one.

Lance stroked her hair, rocking her soothingly. "Quiznak, what a mess," he said.

"That's a bit of an understatement," Pidge pointed out, relieved at how much her voice steadied. She sniffed and held Lance as tightly as she dared.

"Are you wiping your snot on my shirt?" Lance asked.

"No," Pidge lied. Not that she did it on purpose, anyway.

"I don't believe you," Lance teased. He held her face in both hands, tilting her head back so they could look each other in the eye. Voice soft, he said, "Pidge."

She couldn't help shivering at the way he said her name. "Hmm?" Dazed with his proximity, she reached up, tracing a mark on his cheek with her fingertip.

"Why did we meet like this?" he asked.

"It's just the way the universe works," she said, feigning nonchalance. But quiznak, her heart sank heavily, despite the thrill under her skin from Lance's touch.

"It doesn't seem fair." He rested his forehead against hers, eyes closed.

Pidge's breathing grew labored. Her head spun, dizzy, but for an entirely different reason than usual. "Sometimes I wish I'd just...enlisted in the Rebellion like my father and brother did," she admitted. "My ship is a lot like yours. We could've--"

The ship jerked suddenly and harshly, emitting an alarm and startling them into springing apart, away from their private bubble and back into the present.

"Quiznak!" Lance all but sprinted into the cockpit, cursing louder and more harshly before she followed.

He sat in his chair, hands on the controls, and when Pidge looked at the display her jaw dropped in alarm.

They'd been so distracted neither had noticed the great Galra destroyer before them.

"We're caught in its beam!" Lance said. "It's going to take Blue in." He inhaled sharply, a calm washing over him. "Pidge, is this your... employer ?" he asked, tone heavy with distaste.

Pidge recognized the name of the ship on the hull. "Yes," she admitted, pushing her hair away from her face, frustrated. "They left Arus before we could arrive."

"Now what?" Lance looked towards her, frowning.

Pidge stared around the cockpit, searching for some inspiration, but she dismissed her ideas almost as soon as they entered her mind. Except--

"Sabotage," she said, meeting Lance's eyes.

"I don't follow."

"We sabotage your ship."

"What?" Lance stood, indignant. "You are not touching Blue! Again. "

"Listen," she said. She gripped his shoulder, lightly so as not to aggravate his unhealed injury, as if to convince him through touch. "It will be something easily reparable, at least by one of us since we're more familiar with something like the Azure Lion than they are. That way, they'll at least be prevented from moving it, whether they manage to fly it themselves or ship it somewhere else."

He blinked at her, but a delighted smirk curled his lips. "That's actually brilliant, Pidge." He hugged her. "I shouldn't have doubted you."

Pidge's heart sank into her stomach. "Thats doesn't change that they want to capture you too, idiot."

"I know, but I'm sure we can handle that, right?"

Pidge couldn't help her fond smile. "You're assuming I won't hand you over then?"

"Pidge, my dear, my darling," Lance said, grinning and making her roll her eyes through her blush, "I know you won't hand me over to them, not now that you've fallen for me."

She snorted, covering her face to muffle a giddy laugh. Quiznak, they were both idiots.

But something still sobered her, and she sighed. "My family."

Lance took her hands. "Listen, Pidge, when we get out of this, I will do whatever it takes to help you find them."

Pidge looked at a man she'd known for less than a single movement and wondered when, exactly, she'd decided to trust him with her life and with the lives of her father and brother, and with something as precious as her heart.

I let him smuggle my quiznaking heart straight out of my quiznaking body.

"All right," she agreed, smiling. "We'll fight our way out of this together, but first, I have something for you."

Chapter Text

"I'm not gonna lie, Pidge," Lance said, staring at the stunner he held in his hand, "but I was hoping you had a kiss for me."

Pidge laughed. "That comes later," she promised. She hefted her own stunner - the new one she'd made earlier out of Hunk's scraps - in her left hand, pleased with the way it sat comfortably in her palm. It was more like an electrified blade than a proper stunner, but she preferred close combat to long range anyway.

In the little time they had while the Galra destroyer beamed them in, Pidge had also sabotaged some of the internal workings of the Azure Lion while Lance anxiously hovered over her even though she explained to him every single thing she did and that she would be more than happy to repair it once they escaped.

Now they stood in the backroom, prepared to lower the gangway once the ship touched down inside the destroyer's shuttle bay.

"So how are we going to do this?" Lance asked, looking between the new stunner in her hand and the gangway.

"Do you mind if I tie you up?" she wondered, thinking quickly.

Lance's eyebrows shot up so high they almost disappeared into his hairline, and he held up his hands. "Whoa, Pidge, you won't even kiss me yet--"

"Quiznak, Lance," Pidge interrupted, glowering at him as her face heated up. "You know that is not at all what I meant, right?"

Lance laughed, looking sheepish. "Just trying to lighten the mood. But yeah, sure, as long as you promise to untie me later."

"Not if you keep saying stuff like that," Pidge said. She pulled a spare tie from her belt pouch, and after Lance obediently held his hands behind his back, she tightened it around his wrists, apologizing when he winced. She even quipped, “Just think of this as payback for when you cuffed me to the chair.”

"Ha ha,” he said, probably rolling his eyes. “What about my weapons?"

"I'll keep the blaster on me," she decided, "but I'm stuffing the stunner down your shirt." She did just that, checking that it wouldn't fall out when he was walking and that there was no obvious lump in the fabric.

"Great."

"Anything else?" Pidge said, securing his blaster at her belt.

"Oh, yeah." Lance closed his eyes briefly, his blue markings fading into his skin so that he could once more pass as human. Then he glanced at her and smiled, eyes soft.

"What?" she said, suspicious.

"Oh, I was just thinking that if I wasn't about to be captured by the Empire I would be pretty happy right now."

Pidge opened her mouth, then closed it, then opened it again. All she could think to say was a lame, "Me too."

Lance snorted, but his smile didn't falter.

Their rather pathetic plan ran through Pidge's head. She tugged her mask up to cover her mouth and nose as the gangway lowered, landing on the floor of the shuttle bay with a metallic clang. She grabbed Lance by the arm and, in a moment of inspiration, took the too-heavy blaster from her belt and pressed the tip into his shoulder.

"Seriously?" he hissed. “Haven’t we done this enough?”

"I have to make it look convincing," she retorted. After looking back once to make sure Rover followed, she led them down the gangway into the wide open shuttle bay.

Haxus stood waiting for them at the bottom, accompanied by two other Galra soldiers and a few drones and sentries. One of the Galra drones seemed to take an interest in Rover, drifting towards it and blinking rapidly a few times.

Curiously, Rover blinked back as if they communicated with each other, though its light stayed steadfastly blue.

"You succeeded then?" Haxus asked her, his eyes scanning from Pidge to Lance.

She felt him stiffen in her grip, and she squeezed his arm, reminding him - and herself - to stay calm...though hers was the heart that pounded loudly enough that she thought even Haxus must hear it. "Obviously," Pidge said. "You have the information you promised?"

"We can discuss the contract in my office," he said. He looked at the soldiers with him and pointed to Lance. "Take him to the holding cell and inform General Sendak that he's here. Make sure no one touches him until the General's had the chance to see him."

Pidge's skin crawled and she held her breath, keeping herself from betraying their plan, and though it made her heart squeeze, her chest constrict to do it, she let the soldiers take Lance away from her. She at least hoped that Haxus' order would prevent them from finding the stunner in his shirt.

Lance glanced over his shoulder at her, mouth twisted into a resentful scowl that softened as soon as Haxus wasn't looking at him. He nodded slightly, and Pidge, careful to only look at him from the corner of her eye, reached up to touch her forehead in a subtle two-finger salute in acknowledgement - the salute of the Rebellion.

They both knew what to do to escape, and quiznak help anyone that got between them.

Rover observed everything they passed with the rapt attention that only robots seemed to manage, feeding everything it viewed - all the side passages and hallways and chanced upon open doorways - into her wrist computer, mapping out the destroyer, or at least the little of it they walked.

But Haxus' office was at the opposite end of the ship, and Pidge worried about how far she was from both Lance and the Azure Lion , and how soon Galra engineers would swarm over his ship to inspect it.

"The speed at which you completed your contract surprises me, bounty hunter," Haxus observed, breaking the tense silence.

"You left Arus early," Pidge pointed out.

"There's nothing there for the Empire," said Haxus without any inflection. "They're a primitive people, without air travel, let alone the ability to travel through space faster than the speed of light. We would expend more resources colonizing it than we would reap from its surface."

Pidge scowled and resisted the urge to retort that Alteans - some of the most sophisticated and advanced people that ever lived - hid there on Arus, right under the nose of the glorious Empire.

Finally, they reached his office door, which slid open with a whisper of air. Haxus waved her inside before following and closing the door.

As it shut, Pidge glanced back and smiled slightly at the sight of Rover still in the hall. It drifted away to search out where Lance was held.

Last time they met it was in a more relaxed setting, without a regulated military atmosphere. There didn't seem to be a single personal touch inside the room, which was furnished with the basics. A desk at one end, with a high-backed chair for Haxus and two chairs on the opposite side for guests; violet lighting that followed the standard Galra motifs; and in one corner, a charging station for drones.

The desk itself was remarkably neat, not a single device out of place, as if Haxus took a ruler to it every morning, making sure every object aligned perfectly to the edge of the desk.

"Sit," Haxus said, gesturing to one of the chairs in front of the desk.

Pidge did, but she couldn't relax, not even when he sat across from her. "You have the man and the ship, both intact like you asked," she said. "Do you have what you promised me ?"

"Straight to the point?" Haxus said. "You have some nerve for an Olkari Rebel whelp."

Pidge's cheeks flushed with anger, and she was glad for the mask that covered half of her face.

"I have a few questions for you first," Haxus continued as if he hadn't just insulted her, "and I hoped you would be able to answer them."

"I will do my very best," Pidge said, unable - and unwilling - to keep a trace of sarcasm from her voice.

"Good." Either the sarcasm flew over Haxus' head, or he didn't care to comment on it. "Can you give me the exact coordinates where you found the smuggler on Puig?"

So it was like that? Pidge said, "No, I'm afraid not. I happened on him by chance and didn't bother recording them."

"Of course," Haxus said, and she wondered if she imagined the trace of doubt in his voice. "How did you get to Puig?"

"Passenger ship from Olkarion," she admitted easily.

"Don't you have a ship of your own?"

"Yes," Pidge said. Careful. "But I knew that, since I had to capture Lance and his ship, why should I fly mine to Puig and worry about paying to park it?"

"You could've sent the Empire an invoice," Haxus said dryly.

Pidge snorted. "Right," she said. "All you promised me in exchange for a Rebel smuggler and his Altean ship is information, which you still haven't given me." Annoyed, she stood and rested her hands on his desk despite it being almost too high for her to do that comfortably. Curse the Galra and their height! "There was nothing in my contract about an interrogation."

"Don't worry," Haxus said, folding his hands on his desk. "We'll be asking the smuggler similar questions, and unlike with you, who, despite your unsavory connections, is not a Rebel, we can torture him for the answers."

Pidge's hands curled into fists, and she steadied herself, trying to keep from trembling. "Will you give me what I came for or not?" she said, hoping he would interpret her obvious fear for Lance as anger at him for withholding information.

Haxus smirked, though on him, with fangs poking out from between his lips, it looked more like a snarl. "I'm afraid you see me empty-handed," he said, spreading his arms. "Everything I knew of your father and brother, I showed you when we first met."

Pidge's eyes widened, disappointment and anger and grief fighting each other to be her dominant emotion. All of this, in vain? All of this, for nothing ?

Pidge wouldn't cry in front of a Galra soldier, but she would punch him if she could. She reached for her stunning blade, but before she could take it out, a knock came from the door.

"Enter," Haxus called.

A Galra soldier did as told, saluting his commander. "The engineers report that the ship flown by the smuggler is...unflyable."

Haxus leaned forward. "What do you mean?"

"It's a very... sophisticated piece of technology," the soldier said, squinting as if straining to recall exact words. "And it will take some time to figure out why, but they say there's something damaged in its engines. And they haven't finished inspected the whole vessel, but they won't be able to fly it until they figure out a way to repair it."

An eerie calm fell over Pidge at the news; she'd successfully bought herself and Lance time, and little did the Galra engineers know that she could repair the ship in mere doboshes.

"Fine," Haxus said, dismissing the shoulder. "They can have all the time they need; I'll explain what you've told me to General Sendak."

The soldier saluted, turned on his heel, and left.

"Say, bounty hunter," Haxus said, standing up so that he towered over her, "where is your modified drone?"

Pidge met his glowing yellow eyes, and they reached an understanding simultaneously. She whipped out her stunner, and Haxus summoned a blade as if from thin air.

Pidge grunted at the impact from the blade on hers, fighting against his height and superior strength. With a gasp, she stepped away from under him, but rather than unbalancing him or at least toppling him over her desk, he walked around it and attacked her again.

She dodged around the strike and jabbed her sharp, electrified blade into his side.

He yelped, crumbling at the impact, the blade penetrating his armor and breaking skin enough that he bled.

Pidge backed away from Haxus, panting. Thinking quickly, she pulled a tie from her belt pouch and bound his wrists behind him as he clutched his side, and followed it with another to tie his ankles together. After gagging him with a strip of cloth cut off a spare shirt stored in one of his desk drawers, she stepped back to admire her handiwork.

"This isn't what we planned," she admitted, "but it might even be better." She bent down so she could look him in the eye. "I'm sure you were the top of your class at the academy, sir, but that gives me hope for the Rebellion. Imagine how your Emperor will react when he finds out that you - a brave Galra soldier - were brought down by me - an Olkari Rebel whelp ."

Haxus scowled at her, but he couldn't do much more than grunt and writhe.

She grabbed his blade where he'd dropped it and strapped it to her belt, thinking it might prove useful later, either for fighting or for scrap metal. Then she left her employer's office without another word.

Pidge stalked down the hall as calmly as she could so she wouldn't arouse suspicion from any watching security personnel. She ducked into adjacent hallways to dodge sentries on patrol, and she broadcast a signal from her wrist computer that made her all but invisible to the drones.

Smirking, she followed the map Rover devised towards the shuttle bay, until it sent her the information she'd been waiting for.

Lance's location.

"Quiznak," she exhaled in relief. She turned, following Rover's instructions. Her hand maintained a tight grip on her stunner, wary of any passing living soldiers, though she managed to avoid them by hiding behind corners.

Finally, she reached a poorly lit hall lined with doors with small windows overlaid with a steel grate. She peeked into each one, and despite being gratified to find that most were empty - except for a few pathetic souls that the sight of whom nearly tempted her to free them - she felt panic claw up into her throat with each cell she didn't find Lance. What if he'd been moved already? What if they already started torturing him?

A blue light down the hall blinked rapidly at her, and Pidge smiled as she recognized Rover. She sped up until she all but ran, stopping outside Lance's door.

In dismay, she saw that Lance's holding cell had more security and required the handprint of General Sendak himself.

" Quiznak, " she hissed, angry again.

"Pidge?" Lance said, sounding faint - but alert and awake - from behind the door. "Oh, thank quiznak! Love, you have no idea how happy I am to hear your voice."

Love? Pidge's face chose this most inopportune of moments to heat up with a blush. "Stop that, Lance," she retorted, approaching the security console to examine it more closely.

"Stop what?" he asked. "Talking? Breathing? Feeling? "

Pidge rolled her eyes at Rover, who blinked as if with sympathy. With a sigh, she knelt in front of the panel and reached for the tools in her belt pouch, deciding to attempt hacking into it and hoping they had the time. "Did they do anything to you?" she asked Lance.

"Not yet," he said cheerfully. "They just cuffed my arms to the wall, which did hurt my shoulder a bit. Didn't even search me for weapons, which is pretty stupid of them considering what you stuck down my shirt."

"Haxus told them not to touch you until Sendak could see you," she reminded him. "They must've taken that order to the logical extreme."

"Makes sense," said Lance. "So what happened to Haxus?"

"I tied him up and gagged him in his own office." Pidge frowned at the interior of the security console, pulling apart wires and trying to figure out what each one connected to.

"Not that I doubt you, Pidge," Lance said with a huffing laugh, "but how the quiznak did you manage that?"

Pidge rolled her eyes. "I have my ways."

"Fine, be mysterious," Lance retorted. "I'm happy as long as he doesn't come after us."

She only grunted in response and clipped a single thin wire.

"Hey!" Lance said.

"What?" Pidge said, sitting up in alarm. "What happened?"

She heard footsteps from behind his door, and then saw his forehead from the window. "My cuffs came off," he said, louder this time. He raised his hands over his head and waved.

Pidge grinned. "Well, that's convenient."

"Ha, thought you did something," Lance said. "Oh, did he end up having information on your family?"

Pidge's hands froze. "No," she admitted. "Please don't say, 'I told you so.'"

"Wouldn't dream of it. That's more Hunk's thing than mine."

"I'm looking forward to meeting him," Pidge said, trying to distract herself from her fresh grief.

"Yeah, I'll introduce you to him," said Lance, "as soon as you get me out of this cell."

"I'm working on it." She thought she identified the purpose of another wire, but as she reached inside to clip it, her hand slipped and she cut the wrong one.

Red lights flashed and a noisy alarm blared. Barred doors slid from the ceiling and embedded into the floor at intervals along the hallway. Rover's light blinked red with its own alarm, and Pidge cursed.

"Pidge!" Lance called, shouting to be heard over the alarm. "What happened?"

"I screwed up!" she admitted, finally managing to clip the wire she wanted.

Lance's door opened and he stumbled out, looking none the worse for wear, his eyes finding her.

He fell beside her and grabbed her into a hug. "Pidge," he said.

"Lance, we don't have time," Pidge said, reluctantly tearing herself away.

"I know," he said. He stood up and offered her his hand. She accepted, and after he tugged her to her feet, he asked, "So how the quiznak do we get past this?"

Pidge stared at the console interior and, deciding it couldn't get any worse, cut all the wires.

Sure enough, every single door along the hall slid open, including the ones Pidge activated by accident, and even the alarms cut off, though the damage was surely already done. Half-dead inmates shuffled to their cell doorways, staring into the hallway with vacant eyes.

Lance grabbed Pidge by the hand, his own blaster - when the quiznak had he taken that? - in his other hand. "Come on!" he called out to everyone as he dragged her down the hall. "We're taking everyone home!"

Rover led the way, and to Pidge's relief the prisoners got over their confusion quickly enough that they followed Lance's lead. She identified the strongest, steadiest-looking one - though they still looked weak and shaky compared to Lance, the freshest inmate - and passed them the stunner she'd given Lance.

"Use it if you think you're being attacked," she told them.

"Yes," he said, giving her the Rebellion two-fingered salute.

The sight warmed her, and Pidge wished she knew when she'd joined the Rebellion in heart, if not in body.

The day Dad and Matt left, she realized. I was always meant to join with them.

Tears pricked at her eyes, and she wiped them away with the heel of her hand. There was no time to cry now.

Sentries, drones, and soldiers swarmed them as soon as they emerged from the prisoners' hallway, but despite their weakness and inferior numbers, the narrow hallways of the ship proved a boon for them, and a weakness for the Galra. Pidge lost track of the number of sentries she punched through, the number of soldiers that she left groaning at her feet. And it became obvious that, in their hubris, the Empire didn't train most of its soldiers in close combat, let alone against an opponent so much smaller than them.

One inmate fell, but two of her fellows grabbed her arms and helped her down. By unspoken agreement, no one would be left behind.

They finally reached the entrance to the wider, open shuttle bay, but before Pidge could break in a sprint towards his ship, Lance pulled her back, eyes wide with realization.

"Pidge," he said, "we screwed up."

"What?" she demanded. "How?"

"They're going to chase us with their fighters again," Lance pointed out.

"The cloaking device--"

"The destroyer could demolish us the minute it pinpoints our position."

Pidge stared at him, heart sinking. "We need to destroy its ion cannon before we escape," she said.

Lance flapped his jaws. "How the quiznak do you plan on doing that?"

"I know where its core is," she said, thinking quickly. "I showed you how to repair the Azure Lion , right?"

"Yeah," Lance said, "but--"

Pidge lowered her mask and reached up to grab his face. She kissed him without a second thought and prayed to any deity - any force - out there that it wasn't a goodbye. She pulled away before he could kiss her back though, and hardened her heart against the look in his eyes. "Lance, when you meet my brother--"

"Pidge--"

"Tell him I want him to have Emerald Comet ."

He gripped her wrist tightly enough to bruise. "Pidge, don't --"

"Lance, we don't have time ," she insisted, sniffing. Quiznak, how many more times would she cry before this ended?

"You'll find him before I do, Pidge," Lance told her. "But please, let me--"

"Rover's coming with me," she said. "And you need to stay here to repair Blue."

Pidge let go of him, though it broke her heart to do so, and stepped away. She turned and walked out of the shuttle bay, feeling his eyes on her back until she was out of his sight.

"All right, Rover," Pidge said once they stood in a quiet hall. She closed her eyes, brow furrowed in concentration as the calm of a challenge at hand washed over her; she tugged her mask back up to cover her face. "You lead the way."

Rover led Pidge down halls lined with violet lights and doors. There were far fewer sentries and soldiers patrolling than before, likely driven to the prisoners' hallway or the shuttle bay to prevent their escape, which was a load off Pidge's mind.

A wide door led into an engine room that was practically a cavern. As she stepped onto the catwalk, her footsteps echoed through the chamber, giving her the impression that someone followed her.

"Watch my back," she told Rover.

As she walked along, she glanced on either side of the path, nothing that the light faded, absorbed into darkness, a mere few yards beneath. She swallowed, reminding herself she'd seen greater heights than this.

Seen, a snide voice told her. And what do you see down there?

Pidge ignored it in favor of the task at hand, finally coming upon the destroyer's central processing unit and fuel cells and nuclear reactors and quiznak knew what else in the center. She sucked in a breath at the view ahead of her, momentarily overwhelmed; she'd never seen a mechanism so huge before!

But she had seen a machine more advanced, recalling every time she'd worked on Emerald Comet or Azure Lion . This wouldn't be a problem for her.

An idea struck her, and she found the control panel corresponding to the central processing unit. From there, all the information stored on the destroyer was at her fingertips if she knew the correct passwords, and she could even contact any Rebel ships in nearby space.

She plugged in her wrist computer and set to work, running the usual program she used to break into Galra computers, translating the words into something she could more readily read, only to come across something she never expected.

"The Red Knife ?" she read, pulling up an image of a ship that looked very much like Lance's Azure Lion , but almost as small as her Emerald Comet . And from the record, it was aboard the ship, tucked into a corner of the shuttle bay while Galra engineers poked at it, trying to figure out why none of them could fly it.

"Quiznak." The Rebellion's Princess Allura needed to know about this.

Pidge input a command to scan for the frequencies that the Rebels used, swallowing her guilt; if all went according to plan, there would be no danger when this Galra destroyer found them.

When she connected with one, Pidge transmitted a short message in the form of a distress signal:

Red Knife. Smart ship will only fly for one pilot. Rebels aboard destroyer in danger. Send help.

She cut the connection, hoping it passed quickly enough that no one aboard the destroyer would see it.

Pidge then returned her attention to the ion cannon's core reactor, a large hulking thing that glowed violet. She examined it, searching for something she could clip rather than simply cutting into it with a blade.

Footsteps echoed throughout the cavern, and Pidge jumped up right as Rover zipped into view with none other than a bleeding, limping, sneering Haxus stalking towards her.

He looked like an enraged animal, yellow eyes narrowed and lips twisted, a drop of blood at the corner of his mouth. He pressed a hand to his side, though blood still oozed from the wound Pidge inflicted.

She gripped her stunner tightly and faced him. "Come back for more?" she demanded, more confidently than she felt. In fact, her heart beat violently, her chest tightened, and she worried she'd start wheezing.

"You've caused more than enough trouble, little girl!" Haxus snarled, lunging at her with a new blade.

Pidge tried to dodge around him, but this time he caught her by the collar and lifted her up.

"I'm going to show you what happens when a Rebel whelp crosses a soldier of the Empire!" he said, shaking her.

Pidge, growing dizzy from how her collar pressed into her neck, tried to shake her head. She flailed her arms, but the lack of air to her brain meant her processing power faltered. Her grip on her weapon slackened and it slipped from her fingers to the ground.

"And unlike with your smuggler ," Haxus raged, "I won't have to wait for General Sen--"

Rover butted into Haxus' abdomen, right onto his bleeding wound. He grunted and stumbled but didn't drop Pidge.

Pidge kicked out at him, but her toes barely brushed his waist.

Then Rover tried again, and this time, Pidge slipped from his grip, falling to the catwalk and struggling to catch her breath even though she still wore her mask. Her hands and knees hurt from the impact, and she lifted her head to see what else she had to fight, only to be met with a heart-stopping sight.

Rover hovered over the yawning void below, Haxus hanging from it by one hand.

"Rover!" Pidge tried to shout, but her voice came out as a rasp. She cleared her throat and reached out, as if she could grab it back. As she watched, Rover blinked a single time, its light turned downwards and then flickering out as it shut off.

"No!" Pidge cried. She fell to her knees at the edge of the catwalk, Haxus' own screams echoing throughout the chamber. She allowed herself a single sob, then inhaled bracingly and stood, determined to take advantage of the opportunity Rover's sacrifice gave her.

She smashed her electrified blade into the ion cannon's reactor core, heedless of any danger to herself now, and she paid for that lapse in judgment.

The core shocked her and shot her backwards, but she landed on the center of the catwalk a few yards away. The reactor started dispelling wisps of steam, and Pidge stood, ignoring the soreness in her limbs, the unpleasant tingling in her body, and fled.

The entire way back to the shuttle bay, she cursed herself for deactivating all the comms in Lance's ship.

The destroyer seemed to be on lockdown, for she found no sentries or soldiers. She dashed into the shuttle bay, her spirits soaring when saw that the Azure Lion was fully functional again.

Pidge waved her arms at the window, and the gangway lowered. Lance ran down to greet her, but before he could embrace her, she said, "I sent a message to a nearby Rebel ship. Also, there's something in here we need to take with us."

Lance, startled, blinked at her. But then he shrugged. "Sounds good. Now let's go." He waved her into the ship, and she walked past the freed inmates huddling on Lance's and Hunk's bunks. But they came to attention when she entered, and one of them grabbed her hand as she passed them for the cockpit.

"Thank you," they said with a tremulous smile.

"It was, uh, it was nothing," Pidge said, smiling uncomfortably. "Anyone would've done the same."

"No, they wouldn't," Lance said. "Anyway, we really have to go now."

"Yeah," Pidge agreed.

She took the copilot's chair, accustomed to it as she'd become. And as Lance started up the ship and prepared it for takeoff, she worked on returning the comms and the rest of his equipment - everything she'd deactivated - into full functionality.

As she performed that task, Pidge was unable to resist quipping, "Look at you. We'll make an engineer of you yet."

"Yeah, I can't wait to tell Hunk," Lance retorted, flashing her a smirk. "He won't believe me though, so I'll need you to vouch for me."

Pidge snorted, and once the ship hovered, alarming the surrounding soldiers that tried to prevent it, she directed him to the corner where they'd find the Red Knife .

"So...how are we getting that out of here?"

Pidge blinked and activated the comms, grinning when she found a signal from a nearby Rebel ship. "Hello?" she said.

" Azure Lion ?" said a voice. "Is that your signal, Lance? Why the quiznak haven't we heard from you in almost a whole movement?"

"Did you miss me, Keith?" Lance retorted.

"Like a rash."

Pidge raised her eyebrow at Lance, who shrugged and continued, "Listen, this destroyer's got something and we need to get it off before we leave and it starts trying to shoot us into space junk. You think you or someone else can come in here to check it out?"

"You said it's called the Red Knife ?"

Lance glanced at Pidge, who decided to interject, "Yes, and it's a ship like Lance's so it won't fly for anyone."

"Oh," said Keith. "Well, Shiro says get out of there and we'll go check it out."

"You don't have to ask me twice," Lance muttered, charging into the shuttle bay wall and tearing through steel with his ship.

"Can't you blast the quiznaking walls open instead?" Pidge demanded, clapping her hands over her ears.

Lance grinned manically. "Please, love, I've always wanted to try this."

They emerged into space, the vacuum sucking the Azure Lion out. Lance directed his ship away from the destroyer, and a few fighters gave chase.

"This again," he muttered. He activated the intercom and spoke, "Everyone hold on!" To Pidge, he said, "Activate the cloaking device."

"Got it," she said, pressing the right button on the console.

The fighters dispersed, confused, at the change, but the destroyer slowly turned around, towards them.

"Ion cannon," Lance hissed, slumping.

"It will go wrong for them," Pidge reassured him with a hand on the arm.

He glanced at her and smiled. "You know, it makes absolutely no sense that I should trust you as much as I do. But quiznak , I'm so happy to see you here."

Pidge blushed, but she crossed her arms and averted her eyes away from him. "Just focus on getting us out of here."

Lance turned the ship to face the Galra destroyer, and they watched its ion cannon fail to activate, the whole ship getting blown to space junk with an implosion that rocked the Azure Lion even from their distance. Pidge felt a fresh pang of grief for Rover and leaned across the narrow space between her and Lance's seats to press her forehead into his shoulder.

He idly reached up to run his fingers through her hair, but then he nudged her. "Look at that, Pidge," he said, and she followed the direction he pointed with her eyes.

Out of the wreckage of what was once a Galra destroyer flew a sleek ship the vivid color of a sunset on Olkarion. A visual flicked into view on their ship's display, and the face of a young man - human, by the looks of him, but she thought she saw fangs poking out of his mouth - peered up at them.

"So, uh, this is..." He trailed off and frowned, then his eyes fixed on Pidge. "Lance, who's that?"

"This is Pidge," Lance introduced them. "Pidge, that's Keith." He lowered his voice. "He's my rival."

Pidge blinked as Keith protested, "I am not--!" He cut himself off with a growl, scowling, at the sound of another indistinct voice coming from his own cockpit.

"Is that Shiro with you?" Lance asked.

"Shiro?" Pidge said hopefully.

Lance turned to look at her. "You know him?"

"I...no," she admitted, "but I think my father and brother did."

Lance's eyes widened in understanding. "Pidge, I think you found your lead."

"Yeah, I think I did," she agreed, her eyes meeting his.

"Anyway," Keith said, and their attention flicked back to him in time to see him rolling his eyes. "We'll see you on Arus?"

"Sure thing," Lance said with a nod. "I think the Princess would want to meet Pidge."

"Well, if it means you'll stop flirting with her..."

"I stopped deca-phoebs ago!"

"You've only known her for one," Keith scoffed.

Pidge snorted and looked at Lance. "Should I be jealous?"

"Absolutely not," he reassured her.

"You really shouldn't," Keith agreed.

"Who asked you?"

" Stop! " a voice snapped from off-screen, and Keith cut the connection with a huff.

Lance slumped in his seat, but not before putting the ship in autopilot.

Pidge stood and sat sideways in his lap, her legs dangling off the arm of the chair and her arms hanging loosely around his neck. His own came up to encircle her waist, and he perched his chin on her shoulder.

"Rover?" he asked quietly.

Pidge shook her head, and Lance grimaced. "It was a good drone," he said.

"It was a very good drone." She rested her head on his shoulder, but then something else occurred to her and she sat upright again.

"So you're telling me," Pidge said, eyes wide, "that the Rebellion's center of operations has been on Arus this whole quiznaking time?"

"Yep," Lance said cheerfully.

"Unbelievable," she said. "And you're the one that told me it was a backwater ."

Lance laughed. "Like you believed me, Pidge."

"Fine," she said, crossing her arms. "Are you going to tell me now that the reason you got onto Puig undetected because there are Rebels in the Empire's ranks?"

Lance smiled at her, eyes sparking in a way that made her want to kiss him and slap him simultaneously.

"You're quiznaking kidding me." Pidge smacked a hand to her forehead, and Lance laughed again.

He touched his forehead to hers, his warm breath caressing her skin, and his cheek markings appeared.

"Why does that happen?" she asked, touching his cheek. "Are you doing it consciously?"

"Well, pretending to be human is my disguise."

"Right," Pidge said, nodding.

"So when I don't feel like I need to be in disguise, they slip out, sometimes without me noticing."

"Hmm." Pidge traced the shell of an ear, smiling when he shivered. "Then why are your ears round?"

Lance laughed. "Because I was born with round ears," he said. "The pointy ones are the fake ones."

Pidge laughed. "Quiznak, you're an idiot."

"Then why are you sitting in my lap?"

"Because you're cute, at least."

Lance grinned, but he pretended to be indignant and said, "Wow, thanks, Pidge! I love you too!"

Pidge smiled. "You do?"

"Yeah." His arms around her tightened. "Quiznak, I fell hard and fast."

"Me too," Pidge agreed. She pressed her lips to his, pulling his head closer by tangling her fingers in his hair. He made a funny, eager sound against her mouth, something that had her stomach fill with a pleasant warmth, and his hands rested on her hips. She pulled back a little. "How old are you really?" she asked, narrowing her eyes at him.

Lance quirked a confused eyebrow at her. "Twenty-one."

"That file was wrong about so much ," she said.

He blinked at her. "What file?"

"Doesn't matter."

Before he could insist she explain, she kissed him again, and this time they didn't stop for a long time, except to catch their breath.