Chapter Text
Pidge would never say that he was any good at making friends, but he could say that Katie wasn't any better. And they both had managed to make at least 5 friends, and Coran too. Pidge had been flung from the Castle really suddenly, and had had just enough time to get his bearings in Green before he noticed the red lion barreling toward the same planet just as fast as they had a few seconds ago. With no sign of slowing down. It takes a second to decide on the course of action, but bumping into Red and trying to hold the (slightly, barely noticeably) smaller lion on their back makes them both slow down to a safer crashing speed. And as soon as they're on the ground Pidge scrambles out of Green to go check on Keith. He hadn't really gotten a chance to watch out for the other paladin, had only vaguely known what Keith had been doing from Coran's shouting- that he'd taken on Zarkon 1 on 1 and nearly won, from the sounds of it- but it didn't surprise either of them if Keith had passed out sometime between getting to the Castle of Lions and getting thrown back out of it. Or even after being thrown out, really. Getting Keith out of the cockpit took a bit of ingenuity, but a bit of tugging and then awkwardly dragging him out of Red and across the little field back to Green, for a try at the medpod Katie had found while looking into ways to modify her lion. Pidge had made the cloaking mechanism, but Katie was the one who figured out how to interface it with the lion. Once Keith is safely inside the pod, he sits down and waits. Having Lance locked in one for a few days had been bad enough with the rest of the team there to talk to. With only Keith here, it'll probably be even worse. At least Pidge can tinker with Green and Red while he waits.
They'd long since translated all the Altean to English, it was a joint effort, really. Now though, as they pore over Keith's injuries, they feel a bit bad for knocking into him. He's got a concussion and dislocated shoulder, a good 20 minutes older than the sprained wrist and whiplash he must've gotten from having Green slam into Red. Pidge has to wonder how the other paladin could get such bad injuries from a fight he'd had while sitting inside his lion. Though... he supposed if Zarkon knocked the younger male around enough that he'd have problems, and Pidge is sure he saw Keith and Red get knocked hard into the station that Zarkon had come from. A few times at least. The other paladin must've ignored his injuries and kept fighting, to protect Shiro's lion. While a good move strategically, it clearly cost him a good chunk of health. And if Pidge was reading these reports right, the medpod didn't have enough juice to heal him fully. It'd have to eject him once he was mostly healed, and by that point Pidge was just going to have to hope the red lion would have enough juice in general that its own medpod will be activateable and usable.
Katie got bored the second hour of watching Keith, and ran across the field to clamber into Red's mouth and check him out. She knew immediately that Keith's lion was a male, while hers was female. They were cubs, to Shiro's mother lioness, if Green's mental pictures were anything to go by. She thought it was hilarious, really. She pokes around him a bit, and gets a growl for her trouble. She huffs and orders him to let her tweak his systems to be translated into a language she and Keith can read. After a bit of grumbling, Red complies. Katie not-so-subtly asks the red lion if he'd object to being given some new abilities. Immediately she got the feeling that if she tried to give him stealth capability he'd spit her out and refuse to give her entry until Keith was there to grant it.
"Fine! Be a grumpy puss!" She huffed at the ceiling of his cockpit, as she finishes translating him into English. He rumbles a purr, and she rolls her eyes.
"Boys." She huffs, and heads back across the field (again) to check on Keith (again).
She asks Green for ideas on ways to improve Red, while she checks to see how long Keith will be in stasis. Readings say a day or so. Green answers invisible shields and flame throwers. Maybe a booster or two, just to *really* make Red the fastest.
"I like the way you think, Kitty." She tells the ceiling, and gets a rumbling purr for an answer. She sets to work on drawing up some blueprints for the shields, using the cloaking she'd reverse-engineered from the... she could use the invisible walls from the Castle as a better starting point, actually, since they were already technically forcefields, and even shocked things that came into contact with them. Did she still have the schematics for them she'd drawn up? Ohhh, she hoped she did, where was her computer? She'd had everything saved onto Rover too, but Rover was destroyed in the Castle's generator, and... there was her computer! Alright, the schematics are here and... well, need to make plans for the flame throwers too. Wait... would flame throwers work in space? She... she'd need to test that before implementing them. Better wait until Keith is awake and capable of defending himself from the locals before going into space to shoot fire.
Boosters can use the same theory she'd use to make flame throwers, so she might as well note those. The super fast booster she'd made for the one shuttle wouldn't work with Red. For one, as far as she could tell the Lions ran on determination and something she couldn't get a translation for. For another, she was pretty sure if that weren't a problem Red would spit her out because he didn't trust her with that sort of dangerous manouver. He didn't seem to like her much at all, but he seemed to dislike anybody who wasn't Keith, so maybe that's just normal for him. Whatever, she'd come up with a better booster. Maybe something on his sides, that could be retracted when in arm-mode, that'd have enough power to give him some propulsion to go faster that way? She wasn't sure what she was planning. She'd put the flame thrower (or at least one of them, if she makes more than one) on the tip of his tail. Maybe even make a retractable sword of some sort for when he wasn't part of Voltron. She's sure Keith'd like that, at least.
The shields are implementable by the time Keith has half a day left in the medpod, so she scrambles over to Red to tell the lion and give him his first upgrade. Red is grumpy until Katie points out extra shields will help keep Keith from being in the situation he's in. She also makes sure to tell Red that he'd better have his medpod ready for Keith to use, because Green's wasn't made to heal the extent of Keith's injuries. She gets a grumble, but she also knows he's preparing it for his paladin. He's loyal, that much she can tell. Keith's loyal too, otherwise he wouldn't have been so quick to yell at her- Pidge, so maybe 'them' would be a better word- for trying to abandon the team the one time. Family... meant a lot to her, and to him. And his family, it seemed, was Team Voltron. Allura and Coran weren't part of it, from what she could tell. At least not for Keith. Katie though... she'd admit Team Voltron and the Alteans were part of her family now. They were all part of her family, just as important as her father or Matt. She closes her eyes at the thought of her brother, and finishes setting up Red's new shield.
Pidge rolled his shoulder from where it'd gotten stiff. He'd had to hold it still in order to weld the shield pack into place, but now with the press of a button, Keith and Red would have an invisible version of the forcefield that protected the lions from intruders wrapped around them. And they'd be able to fly with it and not lose any speed. The only drawback would be that they could still be knocked around, but it'll be a much less direct hit. The shield can also be weakened, with enough hits, but he's sure Keith's good enough at evading that it won't be much of a problem. He stands up and thanks Red for his time. There's a rumble, and Pidge can't help but snort.
"Sure, keep pretending to be grumpy. I'll bring Keith over as soon as Green's medpod releases him." He promises the ceiling. He gets another rumble, but this one's more a purr than a growl. He laughs.
"See you in a bit, Kitty." He grins, and then jogs back across the field to Green. The lion purrs a greeting, and Pidge greets her back affectionately.
6 more hours of waiting. Pidge takes a nap.
He wakes up when Keith has 2 more hours in the pod, and goes into Green's living space to find some food goo to prepare for Keith. He knows the medpods always make you hungry when you come out, and he's sure Keith will appreciate the food when he wakes up. He sits down in front of the pod, a large bowl of food goo in his lap and the schematic for Red's new booster. He'll make a version for Green, too, just to give his lion a boost in speed. She deserves it too, after all.
There's a hiss, as the pod blossoms open. Keith almost falls out. Pidge has to move the bowl to a console so he can catch the taller boy before Keith hits the ground. Keith groans at him, and Pidge can't help but laugh.
"Good morning, Sleeping Beauty. Have a nice nap?" Keith almost feels like he has a fever, maybe he'll need that other medpod more than Pidge thought.
"Are you coming down with the flu or something? You're burning up." He means to ask Keith's face, but the taller teen just buries his face (warm, almost uncomfortably so) against Pidge's neck and whines softly. His arm is dangling uselessly, which doesn't surprise Pidge. His knees seem to be fine, and his neck is clearly not bothering him. Pidge hasn't gotten a good enough look at his eyes to judge Keith's state of concussion.