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It was a calm morning at first, the castle had landed for some repairs on what seemed like a rather desolate planet. Until the alarm started blaring, pulling only one of the three still-sleeping paladins from their dreamless resting.
Surprisingly, it was Lance who first arrived. “Haha! Beat that Keith! I actually responded to the alarm this ti-” The brunette took in the scene before him.
Pidge was handcuffed and surrounded by four Galran guards while Shiro was pinned to the ground, snarling at the soldier on top of him. There was one other occupant in the room. A foreign alien stood in the middle of the room, his skin dry and cracked, hair in dreads and eyes boring straight into the blue paladin.
“Shut that alarm up!” Allura, who the teen hadn’t noticed to be in the room before, begrudgingly obeyed, moving slowly over to the control panel.
The alarm quieted and Allura was led off the large ship by Galra guards. She wouldn’t dare put up a fight with her paladins held hostage.
He pressed the gun into the side of Shiro’s head.
“Listen here paladins, I’m a fair man. I respect this whole saving the universe scam you’re pulling but I am also a man in need of money. And it just so happens each of you have a pretty little price on your head. So being the fair man I am, I’ll only take one of you.” The almost rocky creature gestured towards Shiro with his free hand.
Despite the obvious panic, the older man seemed rather calm. Pidge could tell it was a facade. They had to believe it was because this team would fall apart without Shiro. The green paladin couldn’t let that happen.
“You said you only needed one of us to come with you?” The shortest of the team spoke up in a small voice. What were they doing? This was insane! The green eyed teen visibly memorized the details of Shiro’s face as his expression melted into a look of knowing panic and terror.
“Pidge, don’t you dare-” The gun was shoved up against his temple harder, an obvious command for silence from the black paladin.
“Let the little one speak.” The man’s voice was gravelly yet quiet and serene.
“Take me instead.” The green paladin wouldn’t meet their teammates’ gaze, but Lance could feel the resistance in the air around them.
“And why should I?” The mercenary sneered, causing Pidge to shrink down. Oh god were they scared? Why hadn’t Lance spoken up instead? Why were they displaying their ‘bravery’ now?
The answer was quite obvious. They would save at least one of them. Katie couldn’t save Matt or their father but the least that Pidge could do is man up and save Shiro. With a shaky sigh, the shortest paladin straightened out their spine and pushed up their glasses, or well Matt’s glasses.
“W-well…” A reason. The man wanted a reason for taking a smaller female hostage rather than a big bulky chiseled war veteran. Biology. They would throw exactly that at the man.
“I’m a lot smaller than Shiro and I have less fighting experience, meaning I have a statistically lower chance of trying to fight back. If I do fight back it-it…” The green eyed teen nearly choked on their words, bile rising in their throat. “It wouldn’t be hard to shoot me dead.” Tears were starting to form in their eyes.
“Listen Pidge you don’t have to do this, I’ve dealt with the Galra befo-” Shiro was sloppily thrown from the man’s grasp onto his knees. The grey eyed male was steadied with the help of Pidge. The shortest of the team had both hands on their leader’s shoulders. Confused, panicked grey eyes met green. They looked so scared. They were crying like a child and yet they were saving his life like a soldier. Kids should never be soldiers.
“Please don’t do this.” The green eyed teen wanted nothing more than to agree and disappear and let this all fade away but it wasn’t going to. They had chosen to do this and now they had to go through with it.
With Shiro still bent down to their height, Pidge pressed a chaste kiss to the man’s cheek and let go of his shoulders. They left their leader on his knees and walked over to the mercenary.
“Katie! What about your father? What about Matt?” The black paladin yelled out. Once Pidge was standing next to the follower of Zarkon, they turned around to face their father figure.
“Would they be proud of me?” There was obvious desperation in their eyes, searching for validation in the person they looked up to most these last couple months. A couple seconds passed and Shiro didn’t respond. He didn’t even meet their eye.
The two other paladins watched as their friend’s resolve crumbled and they tried to call out. A swift blow to the back of the neck from the mercenary dropped the green paladin and they fell over the man’s arm.
Lance was the first to crack, kicking at the goon guarding him and fighting against the Galra grade handcuffs.
“Pidge!!!!” He got free but was taken down after getting only a few feet. “You give them back right now!!!!” The pilot of the blue lion screamed himself hoarse.
“Knock’em out.” The mercenary threw the green paladin over his shoulder like a sack of flour and went to exit this castle.
“Shiro! Please! Do something!” The blue paladin practically begged after being silent through the whole ordeal. Their leader only stayed on his knees with his head bowed.
“Pidge made their choice. They’re old enough to take responsibility for their actions. I’m not the kind of man who keeps a solider from their duty.” Lance shot them a look of bitter betrayal before the world around him went dark as the Galra goons struck them down.
No Pidge… they wouldn’t be proud. They’d be heartbroken just like I am.
“Shiro!!” The black paladin awoke to the sound of Keith’s voice.The red paladin sat beside him, eyebrows furrowed. The older paladin groaned and tried for a few seconds to get his wits about him. There were Galrans and Lance was there…
“Pidge!! Where’s Katie?” The dark eyed male sat up whipped his head around, searching for any signs of the green paladin or the man who captured them. Turning back, he tried to meet Keith’s eye. The pilot of the red lion wore an apprehensive expression before bowing their head and moving to the side. Allura came into view first, she looked like she had just taken down an army by herself. Why was she crying? Shiro hadn’t seen her cry this hard since the night her father’s AI got corrupted.
Wait... Lance! The war veteran’s shoulder’s slumped in relief as he saw the teen in his trademark green jacket, sitting next to Allura. His dark eyes were torn from the half investigated scene as a sobbing Hunk, led by Coron came into the room with a white sheet. Shiro was getting more and more confused, as his head cleared up along with his splotchy vision. The yellow paladin gracefully unfolded the sheet and let it fall lightly over something on the floor in front of Allura. Shiro stood up on wobbly legs, letting Keith steady him as he made his way over to the sheet and fell down beside it.
“I fought back thinking they still had you captive… I thought that-that you could’ve fought your way out. I didn’t think that the situation had changed. I never took them for the type to..” Allura’s voice faded as she choked back another sob.
“I only saw the last little part…” Lance sounded so foreign. His voice was seriously and sullen. “Allura burst in and then they shot… Didn’t even warn her beforehand.” Using his prosthetic, Shiro pulled down the top part of the sheet.
“Pidge, I’m so sorry.” The green paladin looked so at peace. A small smile rested on their pale face. “They wouldn’t be proud. They’re going to be so heartbroken you’re gone. Just like I am.” He placed his non prosthetic hand on their cold face and pressed a chaste kiss to their cheek. Pidge wasn’t a soldier. Why had he treated them like one?