Chapter Text
Pidge woke up with a pounding headache, and she groaned. She reached up to grab her temple and rubbed it, as if it would soothe the pain.
It was only then that she opened her eyes, and was assaulted by a purple that filled her with dread.
"Oh quiznak." She swore softly, closing her eyes again as if to block out the purple light the Galra seemed to love in their ships.
Sitting up, Pidge took inventory of herself and trying to recall how she could have gotten caught. She was wearing her paladin suit, although she didn’t have her helmet - nor Matt's glasses Pidge noticed with a sudden fear seizing her chest. She kept the fear at bay for a moment before she realized she was chained from one of her legs to the center of the room with some sort of strong steel or similar metal.
"No." Pidge groaned again, tugging at the cuff around her ankle. "Get off, get off..."
As she pulled at the chain she started to remember what happened before she woke up here, although her memory still felt a little fuzzy.
Pidge remembered laughing with Hunk at a joke he made as the whole team went exploring a new planet while Allura and Coran looked over the castle. She remembered turning to Lance to ask him something, maybe about how the lake they were walking along looked even more amazing than back home when the blue paladin shouted for her to get down.
She remembered dropping in time to hear something shoot past where her back had been and scrambled up to get her bayard.
Pidge paused her tugging, remembering more. She had been split up from the others, having been surrounded by Galra soldiers, and slipped into the a wooded area - or the planet's equivalent anyway - but knew she was still being pursued. Pidge thought she could take care of them all before she could rejoin the others but it seemed one got the jump on her and knocked her out.
Pidge felt worry worm its way into her gut, wondering if the others had been caught too, but unable to know since she didn’t have her helmet.
"Okay Pidge, don’t freak out." She reminded herself, taking a deep breath. "Just gotta think of a way out of this. Get the cuff off, find a way to open the door and escape or find out where the others are. This isn’t the first time we've been separated."
After her little pep talk to herself, Pidge looked around herself, seeing what she had on her and what she could use, but frowned at how there was nothing. The room was completely barren, and the chain seemed to be melded with the floor.
Pidge huffed in annoyance, tapping her fingers on her leg. "Quiznak..."
She stood up and stretched her legs, taking a walk around the room, hoping she would find something she might have missed the first time looking around, but again found nothing of use. She could reach the door even chained, but she couldn’t figure out how to open it from this side, and even if she could how would that help her? She would still be chained with no way to get out of it without doing something drastic.
"Guess I'll have to be patient and wait for an opportunity..." She muttered, sitting against a wall, prepared to be bored until someone came to get her.
~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~
Lance gulped down air, down on his hands and knees from all the running and fighting, soon falling to lay spread eagle on the floor of the castle ship.
He was pretty sure he was the last to escape from the Galra troops that had ambushed them - and on the planet that actually had a nice view of water no less! - as he heard footsteps approach him quickly.
“Lance, you made it back.” Hunk sounded relieved, and Lance felt his friend’s hands turn him over so they could see each other’s faces. “Did you have much trouble with them?”
“Wha? Wha makes y’think tha?” Lance asked breathlessly.
Hunk laughed. “Well, at least you’re back. Did you see Pidge after we all split up?”
Lance shook his head. “No, why?”
“Pidge hasn’t returned yet.”
Lance felt his lungs even out, no longer out of breath and he slowly got himself up to a sitting position. “Maybe Pidge is still running. She’s smart, we’ll see her any second now.”
Hunk looked uneasy but he nodded.
Lance sighed in resignation. “Have you tried contacting Pidge through our helmets? She was still wearing her helmet right?”
That got Hunk perking up and he stood up quickly, snapping his fingers as if he hadn’t had that thought until now. As he went off to find his helmet, the other paladins appeared from the inner castle to check on Lance.
“Good to see you’re okay, Lance.” Shiro greeted, offering a hand so the teen could stand up.
“Did you lose them? Or did you fight them?” Keith asked.
“I outran them, but I was able to get a few of them with my bayard to keep them at bay.” Lance answered. “Took a bit of time, but man am I glad to see the ship again and not an enemy Galra in sight.”
Keith scoffed, and Shiro turned to see what Hunk was doing. Lance looked over as well, seeing how Hunk was almost hitting himself as if something was wrong with his helmet.
“What’s up, buddy? The communications won’t work?”
“No, they work, but Pidge isn’t answering. Even if she were still running, wouldn’t we be able to hear breathing?” Hunk started to sound worried, looking between the other paladins.
“Pidge isn’t back yet?” Shiro asked, looking out of the castle as if the green paladin would suddenly emerge. “She won’t answer the radios, either? Are you sure?”
Lance would normally find it amusing to hear Shiro’s almost fatherly voice come through, but the situation didn’t make anything really funny so he stowed the thought away. “Pidge’s smart. She, I dunno, maybe she took off her helmet to not get distracted or something?”
“She’s smart, but she wouldn’t take off her helmet, Lance.” Keith deadpanned, putting a hand on his hip. “But we can’t really know if she’s in danger or not, not for another little while. Maybe she got lost and is on her way back.”
Hunk didn’t look convinced. “If she was on her way back, why isn’t she answering? Or telling us where she is!”
“Guys calm down.” Shiro stepped in. “We’ll give this another half hour.”
The teens looked between themselves then back at Shiro and one by one they nodded in agreement.
“I’m gunna stay down to wait for Pidge.” Lance said, heading to sit against a wall while the other three nodded and headed back up, most likely to see Allura or Coran.
Lance stayed where he was for a while before he noticed something in the distance. He stood up quickly and headed to the edge of the castle, squinting at the moving thing. What is that? He wondered to himself as he focused on it before his eyes widened.
It was a Galra ship and it seemed to be leaving the planet for whatever reason, and at a surprising speed. Lance felt something like fear stir in the pit of his stomach, but he continued watching.
“Guys? There’s a Galra ship in the distance, and it seems to be leaving?” He shouted, knowing the ship would connect with the rest of the people onboard. “Pidge is also still not back.”
“Still?” He heard Shiro’s voice ask worriedly.
“What do those two things even have in common, Lance?” Keith asked next, and Lance could imagine the raised eyebrow on the red paladin’s expression.
“I, I don’t know, but I just have a bad feeling.” Lance answered. “I mean, come on, guys. Pidge is smart but we haven’t heard from her or seen her since we all split up. And now a Galra ship is leaving at a fast pace.”
“Oh, no, you can’t honestly think-” Hunk sounded very worried, almost panicked.
“I hope I’m wrong too, Hunk, but look! She’s not back, and we can’t contact her! What if she is on that ship?”
“What’s going on?” Allura’s voice came up, just as Lance turned around as the Galra ship disappeared from sight, heading into the castle for the bridge.
“Lance thinks Pidge has been captured by the Galra because she won’t answer the radios and hasn’t come back yet.” Keith answered, sounding unconvinced to Lance.
“Well, why else wouldn’t she answer Hunk or give us anything to know she was okay?” Lance shot back angrily.
“Pidge is missing?” Allura sounded confused.
“Yes, Princess, apparently.” Shiro answered.
Lance reached the bridge to see the rest of the paladins and the Alteans already there, with Shiro explaining to Allura and Coran how they had gotten split up to Pidge still not being back.
Allura saw Lance enter and quickly made her way to him, standing very close to him, grabbing his shoulders. “Where did you see the ship go off to?”
Chapter done!