Chapter Text
-
The Pieces Come Together
Keith had never been someone who had believed in soulmates. The concept sounded a little bizarre if he was honest with himself but ever since the night Shiro disappeared, he had been seeing her in his dreams. As he grew older, so did she in the dreams.
But tonight – the dream was weird. The beautiful silver haired woman was not smiling, her mouth was tilted downward into a frown, and it felt like something was wrong with the world.
“What’s wrong?” Keith asked her, walking through the white space with her. “You don’t seem yourself.”
“Your planet is in danger,” she said softly. “And I don’t know if I will be able to wake up in time. The universe probably thinks I’m dead.”
“But you’re not dead,” Keith said softly. “Right?” Granted, he only met her in dreams so the possibility of her being a spirit was not off the table. But it did make his stomach clench inwards at the fact that the only friend he made besides his brother might be dead.
“I’m not sure,” she admitted. “I mean, I’m breathing and we can talk. It’s hard to say at this stage but you need to prepare, Tiger. War is coming. I can feel it.”
Keith chuckled at the nickname. It was something she called him and while he had offered to tell her his real name, she said the nickname felt more special. Still, he focused on her words instead.
“I can feel something too, Hime,” Keith admitted, using his own nickname for her. “I just hope Earth is prepared.”
“They won’t have a choice but to be prepared,” she said softly. “Good luck, Tiger. I have to go now.”
Keith sat up, sweat beading down the side of his face. Whatever was going to happen – it was going to happen tonight, he could feel it. The readings indicated that it would happen – he wasn’t sure what but if Hime thought war was coming, maybe whatever happened tonight would be what led up to it in the first place.
He would have to go back to the Garrison although he knew he would never be allowed on the property. A sigh left the dark-haired teenager. They were honestly such a hinderance to deal with sometimes. It would be easy enough to mix a bomb from these elements to get in to find out what was going down because all the signs leaned towards the Garrison – a place he thought he would never have to see again. He hadn’t even visited Adam’s adoptive sister, Sila, someone he considered like his own sister because she was there. Because she hadn’t stood up for him back then. Shaking these thoughts off, Keith knew he couldn’t afford to lose focus. Maybe…just maybe all of this would lead to him finding Shiro. Oh well, here goes nothing. For Shiro and Hime, I have to try. He didn’t know when the girl in his dreams had become so important to him – as much as Shiro but she had.
When Lance said he, Hunk and Pidge needed to bond as a team, admittedly this was not what he had in mind. Pidge was talking crazy – ok he had always been a little nutty, never really fully interacting with them outside of the simulations, but Voltron? This was crazy talk!
“Pidge, I really think you might have hit your head somewhere,” Lance said seriously. “I mean, aliens? That’s crazy talk.”
Pidge rolled his eyes but before he could reply, something crashed on the surface causing all three of them to jump. Lance’s eyes widened.
“What the heck was that?!?” Lance asked but before either Hunk or Pidge could answer him, a Garrison announcement sounded through the building.
“All students, return to their dorm rooms, we are on lockdown until further notice. This is not a drill.”
Lockdown? That was weird. The Garrison rarely went into lockdown unless there was a fire or some kind of natural disaster but Pidge saying all this stuff about aliens, something crashing and then the lockdown? Suddenly, what Pidge was saying didn’t look so crazy after all.
“Oh, that doesn’t sound good,” Hunk said as he looked back inside. “Guys, we should get back inside.”
“You really should,” A smaller voice said, and Lance turned, scowling as he saw Sila Watson, her golden blonde hair tied up into a bun as she put her hands on her hips. For being a pilot like the rest of them, she had more of an attitude than Mullet at times. He did feel a draw to her though – one he wished he could ignore because she made him feel like crap with how darn perfect her scores in everything all the time were.
Pidge shook his head. “We can’t. An alien ship just crashed, which proves my theories were right all along.” He was looking through his binoculars and Lance turned, grabbing them from him, moving to look.
“Holy…holy crow, is that really an alien ship?” Lance gasped out. Pidge was typing furiously onto his electronic devices as Hunk moved a little closer.
“We should really get inside, Sila’s right,” Hunk said sighing. “We’re going to be in so much trouble for not following orders. They might even suspend us.”
“Please,” Lance rolled his eyes. “They’d never suspend goody two shoes Sila even if she was caught after hours because she’s their favourite. Still, if you’re so worried, why are you still here anyway? Shouldn’t you be hiding out in your dorm like everyone else?”
Sila scowled, her sharp features forming into a glare. “Excuse me for being worried about you, McLain. You are my classmate, after all.”
Lance rolled his eyes. Yeah, right. Like she could worry about anything other than her grades or being Iverson’s favourite like her adoptive brother. He ignored her and realised Pidge had gone really quiet, exchanging a look with Hunk as he saw that their third team member had put their headphones back in. Did he know more than he was telling them? Pidge had always been kind of withdrawn.
Pidge could not focus with how much Lance was talking and even though Hunk and Sila were only speaking intermittently in between, it was still distracting, and she was so close. This alien crash could be the answer she had been searching for all along.
“Pidge, are you ok?” Hunk placed a hand on her shoulder, and she jumped a little. For some reason, whenever her and Hunk made physical contact, her stomach jolted but not in a bad way. It was odd to explain.
“I’m fine,” Pidge said, shrugging. “I found a live feed. Look!” She opened it up to see some Garrison officers tying Takashi Shirogane to a slab as he struggled. She had to force herself not to flinch seeing that – this was her brother’s best friend. Her father would tell stories of what a legend Shiro was. How could they so cruelly dismiss him? Ok, she understood that they were trying to protect Earth but at least they could show him some humanity. She saw Sila move over to join them, but Lance spoke first.
“That’s Shiro,” Lance said. “Pilot of the Kerberos mission – that guy’s my hero; they’re not even going to listen to him?”
[“Please!” Shiro begged. “They’re coming to Earth! You need to listen to me before they attack. We need to find Voltron.”]
“What is he talking about?” Sila asked softly. “Shiro doesn’t seem like himself. He was always really composed.”
“They didn’t even ask him about the rest of the crew,” Pidge said frowning. Granted, she hadn’t expected them to with the way they were treating Shiro, but she had hoped they’d have some concern. Granted, why am I even expecting concern from them? With the way they kicked Shiro’s brother out and banned me from Garrison property?
“We need to do something,” Lance said urgently. “He looks really hurt!”
“This is a bad idea,” Hunk pointed out. “Not to be the voice of reason here, always but the reason we’re watching from here is because we can’t get up close, right? Sila, back me up here.”
“Hunk’s right,” Sila said quietly. “Shiro can handle himself.”
“Isn’t he your brother?” Lance asked. “Do you really think Adam or Keith would be ok with that?”
Sila frowned, crossing her arms. “I’m not Keith.”
“You two, stop,” Pidge said firmly. “We need to do something. We can’t leave Shiro like this. Besides, he said there’s a war coming. Are you willing to risk our lives for fear of getting into a little trouble?” She looked to Hunk and Sila as she said this.
“But what can we even do?” Hunk asked frowning. “I mean, saving Shiro won’t make sure a war doesn’t happen.”
“No, but maybe we could get the information to the Garrison later to help them prepare?” Sila put in softly. “I mean, they’re not listening right now because they’re scared, that’s all. But how are we even going to get to Shiro?”
“We need some kind of distraction,” Lance mused thoughtfully but once again the group’s attention was diverted as bombs went on behind the facility.
Hunk jumped back in alarm. “What the heck was that?!? Are the aliens here already?”
Pidge looked through her binoculars, seeing the Garrison move towards the direction of the blast. “No, that explosion was a distraction…for him!” There was someone who had appeared on a hoverbike and burst into the facility – it was hard for her to tell who it was from this distance though.
“Oh…oh no, he is not beating me in there, that guy’s always trying to one-up me, just like his sister,” Lance said scowling and ran forward.
“Are you sure it’s him?” Hunk asked Lance, running after his friend immediately causing Pidge to blink as Lance answered.
“Oh please, I’d recognise that Mullet anywhere!” Lance said not stopping.
“Wait, Hunk, who is it?” Pidge asked.
Hunk did stop when Pidge called out to him. For some reason, he could never ignore his friend – like something physically pulled him back from doing so. It was weird because he never felt like that about Lance and he was his best friend.
“Keith,” was all Hunk said before chasing after Lance and Sila, who had quickly followed, clearly recognising who it was as well.
“Whose Keith?!?” Pidge cried but he didn’t have time to answer that because they were all going so fast right now.
This was the worst team bonding exercise ever but at the same time, he saw Pidge’s point and especially Sila’s. If they could get the Garrison on their side, then maybe they would actually be able to do something about this war.
“No, no, I’m saving Shiro,” Lance said, moving to help Keith support Shiro. “You are not taking all the credit for this.”
Keith frowned. “Who are you?” His frown deepened and he glanced at Sila. “Sila, what are you doing here?”
“The name’s Lance, we used to be rivals back at the Garrison,” Lance said, before Sila could reply.
Keith blinked, turning to look back at Lance. “Oh…wait I think I remember you. You’re a cargo pilot.”
Lance scowled now but Hunk interrupted before his best friend could say anymore.
“Look, we need to go,” Hunk said quickly. “The Garrison won’t be distracted by the explosion for long. Lance, worry about this later. Keith, what’s your plan to get out of here?”
He knew his friend didn’t like Keith due to all the competition the Garrison tried to create between the two of them but now was not the time. One, the Garrison could catch them any second and they might all get expelled because they had broken so many rules already. Secondly, Shiro did not look so good. He was out cold but even before that, he seemed panicked. They should probably focus on getting him away from all this chaos. Well, at least it had worked because Lance and Keith both went silent at that, focusing on helping Shiro.