Chapter Text
“Alright guys, we destroy this base,” Shiro’s calm voice filtered through the Team’s headsets, “and Zarkon’s last line of defense in this quadrant is gone.”
It’s a strange beat, too many emotions flooding through their shared connection just at the back of Voltron’s consciousness. Hope, fear, excitement, nervousness, confusion, all in a whirl. It’s been years since they were first carried off into a distant galaxy by a sentient alien space ship. Since they’d been home, if Earth could be considered home anymore. Each mission they were closer to ending the Galra Empire’s reign, but there was one huge unanswered question hanging overhead: and then what?
At the moment Team Voltron had one clear goal, defeat Zarkon and liberate the known universe from his control. Once they completed that goal, if they completed that goal, where did that leave the Paladins? The Princess who championed the mission with no home planet of her own? The millions who had been under the Galra’s influence for so long they didn’t know what a life without authoritarian rule was like?
Team Voltron was getting so close and it was utterly terrifying.
“You know the deal,” Shiro said. “Keith, Pidge you sneak in grab any valuable intel, release any prisoners, and get out. Lance, Hunk, and I will cover you from out here.”
The command was familiar. Pidge was always tasked with the responsibility of dealing with strange alien devices, the quickest to adapt to foreign technology. This, however, put the green paladin into a precarious position. While Pidge was perfectly capable of taking care of herself, it would be hard for anyone to crack alien encryptions and watch their back at the same time. That’s where Keith came in. The intelligence Pidge collected had been invaluable to the Team’s continued success, making sending an essential piece of Voltron into the middle of enemy territory a necessary risk.
Allura and Shiro took every step possible to ensure that Pidge and the information were protected. There was no one Shiro trusted more than Keith. Keith was skilled, direct, and most importantly dedicated to his team making him the perfect choice in their leader’s eye.
“You got it.” Pidge said.
“On it.” Keith said, directing the Red Lion towards the rendezvous point. Pidge was close behind in the Green Lion.
It’s typical procedure at this point, most of the Galra bases have the same design, making breaking in and out a breeze once you’ve done it a few times. Granted sneaking into enemy territory is always risky and getting cocky can get you killed, but it’s become a well honed skill for Pidge and Keith.
They reach the control room without a problem. Pidge set to work downloading all available information. She briefly scanned for anything about human prisoners as the text flies past and makes sure not to alert the main system of the unauthorized dump. Maybe it’s the dull purple glow of Galra tech, but this download feels particularly slow.
“So, who do you think is gonna get to punch Zarkon first when we bust his empire right open?” Pidge asked, fingers drumming against metal.
“What?” Keith said continuing to watch the doorway for any sign of trouble. It’s an odd question, but Keith has never been able to completely peg Pidge, can never pin down what goes through her mind the way he can with Shiro, Lance, Hunk, or Allura.
“I’m just trying to make some small talk.” The drumming stops for a tick before continuing again and the computer makes a short beep.
Keith thinks about the question for a second. They all have beef with Zarkon, all have a reason for wanting to see him overthrown and long forgotten. “Oh well, I think Allura, Coran, and Shiro get first dibs,” Keith said. The three of them had probably lost the most because of the emperor.
“Fair enough.” Pidge said as she unplugged her equipment from the system. “We’ll make a roster. Take turns.” She moves away coming to stand in the doorway with Keith.
“Bit morbid.” Keith noted bayard lowering the tiniest bit as they head out towards the cells.
“So’s fighting in a war.” Pidge said.
They evade the Galra patrol with little trouble, navigating the hallways quickly. They are only a few yards away from the cells when an alarm sounds. Impossible , Keith thinks, there is no way any guard saw them. Pidge had triple checked that the bases cameras were on an undetectable loop.
They have to move, getting caught would be a disaster. It’s a necessary sacrifice, but they can come back with the rest of the Team to get the prisoners later. The priority is delivering the information and themselves scathe free back to the castle.
Keith grabs on to Pidge’s hand, turning about face and pulling the smaller woman with him. She matches his pace well, their feet pounding in sync on the metal floors and bayards poised and ready to strike, as they wind back through the base.
Something is coming up behind them Keith can hear it over the beating of her heart in his ears. For the slightest second Keith hesitates to glance over his shoulder. The only this he sees is purple before he hits the ground, and hears Pidge fall down next to him.
Pidge wakes up with a start, eyes shooting open to a cream colored ceiling. It doesn’t make sense. If she expected anything, it was grey metal walls of a spaceship, be it the Castle of Lions or a Galra cell. What was also weird was the soft cushioning underneath her. She had never felt anything like it. As her consciousness grew Pidge felt a stream of hot air push across her neck. Pidge shivered, noting the pair of arms wrapped firmly around her middle. . .that was not okay. She turned her head to see a mop of black hair.
Pidge screamed. She pushed the arms off her and rolled off the bed. She straightened up as she cased the room and looked for a weapon. Three doorways, two bedside tables, a dresser, two windows, she could figure something out. In her frenzy she picked up an alarm clock from the bedside table, holding it up ready to smash it down at any second.
The head popped up then, whipping towards the commotion. Pidge instantly knew that stupidly pretty face-- Keith.
Keith looked utterly confused as he sat up, blinking rapidly. He had never seen this place or anything like it before, everything was discomfitingly unfamiliar. The only thing resembling familiarity was-- “Pidge?” he said.
“Keith?!” Pidge exclaimed. Her grip on the alarm clock loosened as she placed it gently back on the bedside table a blush rising on her cheeks, her body still wracked with tension. It was certainly weird to wake up with Keith wrapped around her, but at least she knew she could trust him.
“Where are we?” Keith asked, taking another glance around at, what he assumed, was a typical master bedroom neutral colors and all.
“I don’t- I just woke up,” Pidge said. “Why are you in my bed? Or why was I in your bed? Our bed? I mean why would we even be sharing a bed? It’s not- we’re not- are-”
Keith cut off her worried rambling, “I don’t know either, but I’m gonna find out.”
Determined, Keith threw the plush sheets aside and stepped out of bed. Pidge was struck still as she took the man in. His dark hair was longer then she remembered now brushing past his shoulders as he stood in all his tight t-shirt and boxer-brief clad glory. Sure, she had seen him shirtless before, seen all the Paladins at one point or another, but this was different. This was intimate.
Curious, Pidge looked down at herself taking in the pastel colored striped shorts, oversized t-shirt, and mismatched socks. It was all very domestic and it was seriously weirding her out.
Keith stalked over to the blinds. He pulled them up swiftly letting in a flood of crisp white morning light. Pidge blinked as she came up behind him to peer out. It looked like a normal suburban neighborhood, a lot like the one Pidge remembered growing up in near the Galaxy Garrison headquarters.
“Earth.” Pidge said in astonishment staring out at the contemporary and mediterranean style houses across the street and beyond. A swirl of emotions welled up inside her, nostalgia, grief, longing, comfort, in seeing such familiar structures from what felt like a lifetime ago. Whatever this was, a simulation, a dream, or nightmare, it was messing with Pidge and she did not like it one bit.
“How did we end up on Earth?” Keith asked, pulling the blinds back down. He turned away from the window to face Pidge, her lips pressed tight together and eyes glazed over. Keith was sure he didn’t look much better.
He could hardly believe it. He had been working almost his entire life to get off Earth, to explore the vast universe, to find a home. He had thought he had found one on the Castle of Lions with Shiro and the rest of the Paladins, with Coran and Allura. He had a place where he was needed and cared for, a place he belonged. On Earth he was nothing more than a troubled orphan eventually cast out of the one place he might have fit in.
“How should I know?” Pidge shot back, crossing her arms under her chest. “At least we know where we are, for the most part I guess. I think a better question is when are we?”
“When?” Keith questioned.
Pidge nearly rolled her eyes. “Yeah, when. You’re hair is longer,” she said gesturing to the full black locks, “you have a five o’clock shadow, and you’re also missing like 10 pounds of muscle.”
Keith looked down at himself offended at the notion. He was at the top of his game, the best shape he’d ever been in thank you very much. He felt a tinge of anger spark inside him as he spoke “You’re one to talk, you have old lady bangs-”
“Excuse you, I do not-”
“You do.” Pidge moved from the window to look in the large mirror above the dresser. And- oh god it’s true- she’s got a thick set of blunt full across bangs along with a thick messy ponytail. She looks almost like her teenaged self, with just a slightly more feminine frame and a thinner face. The image is jarring to say the least. The last time Pidge looked in a mirror her hair just brushed the top of her shoulder in a cut practical for wearing a helmet most days and her face was half-hidden behind her brother’s thick rimmed glasses that she didn’t need.
Pidge lets out an annoyed huff, “Well you’re old now too, hotshot.”
Keith comes over to stand next to her and takes in the reflected image. He leans in a moment (staring at what Pidge can’t tell) before pulling away, “This is weird.”
“Agreed,” Pidge said. The vaguely familiar people staring back from the mirror are slightly off putting, but Pidge can’t stop the traitorous thought, we look pretty good together .
Keith stepped away from the mirror. She couldn’t tell exactly how old she was now, somewhere in the range of little less than thirty if she had to guess, but she still felt like her normal twenty year old self. She certainly only had the knowledge and memories of twenty year old Pidge.
An awkward silence overtook the room then. Pidge fidgeted as she felt Keith’s gaze shift from the mirror and onto her. She needed to do something, anything to get her mind off of the endless questions swirling in her mind. She needed answers. If older Pidge was anything like regular Pidge, she had a journal.
Keith could tell Pidge was freaking out and he was too. None of this was supposed to be happening. Right now they were supposed to be participating in an intergalactic war with an evil alien empire. Everything inside Keith shouted at him that he should be fighting, not staring at his teammate in what was possibly their bedroom in a house they may or may not own on Earth.
Keith suddenly felt hot all over, a wave of heavy heat washing over him and leaving him a little dizzy. He needed to sit down and clear his head. Keith carefully put one front in front of the other until he reached the bed and carefully set himself down. Feet firmly pressing into the carpet Keith concentrated on taking even breaths in something almost like meditation, taking the edge off.
Pidge pulled open one of the top dresser drawers and started rifling through. She looked underneath the neat piles of underwear and socks, finding nothing. Pidge continued moving from drawer to drawer of the dresser lifting up the various clothing inside, only finding some jewelry boxes and packages of condoms she dropped quickly back underneath the socks. Slamming the last drawer closed Pidge turned around in search of some place else to look. She saw Keith sitting on the bed hands clasped tight into fists and face like stone.
Their eyes met, amber locking onto steel grey and both felt something like a jolt of electricity pass between them. It wasn’t entirely unusual. Paladin training did include a lot of staring into your team members’ eyes and prying into their minds. During a few sessions Pidge had felt pulled to Keith by a force larger than herself, though she couldn't explain why. Keith remembered feeling the odd urge to move closer surfacing in the past during mind melds.
A sense of comfort flowed between the paladins now. While everything else around them was different, their eyes had remained the same. Keith felt the dizziness clear away, replaced with the steadfast resolve to make sure he and Pidge got back to their team. The uneasiness plaguing Pidge seemed to stop, feet settling firmly beneath her. She could figure this out calmly. It was as if they had both found the steadiness they needed.
Keith’s lips upturned the slightest bit and he tilted his head motioning for her to come sit next to him. The tension that had steadily been building since they woke up completely ebbed away as Pidge came back to bed. She curled her feet underneath her as she sat beside him, a few inches away.
“So what’s the last thing you remember?” Keith said shifting a bit to face Pidge.
“Being on one of the Galra ships. The last in the quadrant. We were supposed to be releasing prisoners,” Pidge said. “But we tripped something, somewhere along the way, narrowly got away when we were blasted with something.”
“Haggar. The druids.” It’s the logical assumption for Keith, what else on a Galra ship would have the ability to send them through time and space.
“Possibly, maybe one of the sentries or it could have been a soldier. Or some weird cosmic ray of light sent by the powers that be.” Pidge added not ready to rule anything out. Between traveling through a wormhole and discovering aliens really do exist, anything was possible.
Keith pushed a hand through his hair and off his face, fingers getting slightly tangled in the ends of the strands. “Look,” he said, “I don’t know how any of this is possible, or if it’s even real, but Pidge, we’re gonna make it back if it’s the last thing I do.”
“Hey,” Pidge said, clasping one of Keith’s hands with her own. Shiny metal glinting on their ring fingers. “We’re in this together all right? Don’t go saying stupid things like that.”
Keith stared down at their hands. It felt good having Pidge here beside him. If anyone would be able to work this thing out it would be them.“Yeah.”
The moment was broken as a click was heard and the bedroom door swung open. Pidge dropped Keith’s hand immediately and both turned to look at what threat might be looming.
Standing not five feet from them is a little girl. “Mommy you didn’t come wake me up,” the girl said sullenly, pink mouth pressed in a little pout.
“Excuse me?” Pidge said eyes widening. She could recognize being on Earth, could understand how somehow she ended up living with and most likely marrying Keith in some alternate reality as strange as it may seem. What she can’t comprehend is the child in front of her.
The little girl had fluffy brown hair similar in color to Pidge’s own, maybe a shade or two darker, tied in pigtails and grey eyes that shone as she stared up at her expectantly. Pidge couldn’t seem to speak. Her mouth open and closed refusing to produce a sound, it was as if her brain had short circuited seeing the child.
“Mommy?” the girl questioned quietly as she came closer reaching a hand out. Pidge recoiled.
The pout quickly turned into a frown. The little girl was dressed in simple purple pj's and her hair bounced as she turned towards Keith hoping to get different reaction. “Daddy why is Mommy acting silly?”
Keith stared at the kid. A look of almost wonder on his face.
When Keith had thought of the future he had never pictured a child. If anyone was unsuited to the needs of children it had to be him. It wasn’t that he hated kids, how could he really? He knew what it was like to be helpless and not have anyone to care for you, to have to grow up too fast. “Who. . .” Keith said slowly, cautious.
“It’s me Daddy,” the little girl said her brows furrowing as recognition failed to show on Keith’s face. “It’s Kara.” she said trying again, hands reaching out to pull on his shirt. Her eyes shining with tears. “Don’t you remember me? Mommy?” She turned towards Pidge again her pleading becoming desperate. “We watch cartoons and play games together and you read to me before bed.”
Keith couldn’t take it. The devastation clearly taking over Kara hurt to watch. “No, no of course we remember you, Kara.” Keith nearly stumbles over the name, “we were just. . . being silly?” It’s not the smoothest recovery but it seems to stop the once imminent tears from falling.
“. . .Well it’s not funny.” Kara said. The tiny pout returns and she pushes her way up onto the bed to sit in between Keith and Pidge.
“You’re right.” Pidge said finally speaking up. “We tried being silly and instead we made you sad. Sorry.” The words are a bit forced, but Kara nods her head in response and leans forward to hug Pidge. Pidge keeps still this time feeling the warm weight of Kara press against her. Time slows for a second, just a second and Pidge let’s her arms come around the girl, giving a reassuring pat. It’s enough to make Kara smile.
“It’s okay,” Kara said pulling away from Pidge.
The three of them sit on the bed at peace. Then Kara fidgets restless, the mattress bouncing slightly, before she stating “I gotta go get dressed now.” She turned towards Keith, “Daddy you gotta come do my braids ‘cause you promised.”
“I did?” Keith raised an eyebrow in response. He could barely manage his own hair, now this kid wanted him to braid hers? Kara grabs his hand with hers and makes to get off the bed pulling Keith with her.
“Yeah, you promised, when I went to bed last night, so you have to.” Kara said as if it was the simplest thing, and heading towards the door.
Keith looked hesitantly at Pidge. “It’s alright,” she said, “ you go get her ready. I’m gonna have a look around. See if I can figure some things out.”
Pidge gives a nod encouraging him as Kara shakes Keith hand. “Come on!” Keith seems to breathe a little easier as he leave the room.
With Kara occupied, now it was time for Pidge to get some answers.