Pidge had never felt this lonely. Sure, there had been times when she had wanted companionship, alone in her room, wishing she had more friends. But the yearning had never been this deep before. She felt it almost physically, an ache in her stomach that couldn't be lessened, even when Lance told a joke, or when Hunk made a batch of space cookies, or when Allura's mice hid in Keith's mullet and made a nest out of his hair and he didn't notice for a week.

She wanted her family. She wanted Matt to call her his stupid rhyming nickname (My Lady Katie, and then she had told him that it was stupid and their dog could have come up with a better rhyme, like no one had ever thought of that before, but he still said it anyway and laughed and that made her laugh and then they were both laughing), and she wanted her dad to pick her up ("you're getting too big for this," he'd say, but she'd jump on him anyway and he'd stagger, and then Matt would run into him and he'd barely manage to stay standing, and then her mom would come into the room and she'd look at them and laugh and then she'd jump at her husband and they'd all fall in a heap on the floor and then do it again the next day). She wanted that. She wanted it, and nothing, not even her new family in space, could take its place.

So Pidge was lonely, and there was nothing she could do to fix it.


Pidge had never felt this elated. She was running, and it felt like her feet were flying, and she was running with only one goal in mind.

To find her family.

The data on the Galra ship they had found had listed them as cargo on this base, and the information they had gotten from the mainframe using a modified droid had confirmed it. Sector B-7, the holding area for prisoners newly transported to the base. She sped down the hall, not slowing as she slashed a droid in her way, not stopping as its fellows shot after her, their lasers burning holes in the sheet metal walls.

Sector B-46. Sector B-45. They were counting down, and she was getting closer.

Sector B-42. She slashed a few more droids as she rounded a corner and kept going.

B-39. She ran past Shiro, who was fighting a horde of robots, who yelled, "Don't stop!" and she didn't, because she was getting closer and closer and she would get there soon.

B-24. She went faster now, spurred on by what was ahead of and behind her, and she felt like she was leaving her body, she was going so fast.

B-19. B-16. B-12. The signs were flashing by, and she couldn't read all of what they said but what she could read was enough.

B-9. B-8. B-7. And then she was there and she swung her bayard and she slashed open the door and they were there, and then she was there, and then they were hugging and crying as the alarms sounded and footsteps hammered in the distance, but the three of them were all that existed, and the rest of the world didn't matter, because she had found her world and they were right there in her arms.

So Pidge was elated, and there was never any reason she could ever have to fix it.