I Do Not Own Voltron.

One: When He Said Goodbye.

When he said goodbye, she'd been excited. Everyone had been. Had there been a sense of sadness and fear when she let him go? When they watched him touch the stars? Of course. But there had also been pride. Her father and brother had made it. History would always say that her brother and her father were the first to travel to the edge of the solar system.

She remembered the day he left perfectly. She'd worn a blue dress and had her hair down for the occasion. She normally hated dresses and preferred to wear her hair up and out of her eyes, but that had been a special occasion. Her mom had insisted she dressed her best for the send off. She and her mom had gotten into a glaring contest over the whole ordeal, but ultimately, her mom had the upper hand.

Her dad said she looked pretty. Matt teased her relentlessly about it the entire day as she trudged around the Garrison compound in the dress. Her mom said she finally looked like a young woman. She was just desperate to get a change of clothes.

Her dad and Matt had been dressed up in their Garrison uniforms. They looked mature and prepared for the mission ahead. If they were afraid for the mission they planned on going on, they certainly didn't show it. Their excitement had shown in their eyes. Pride seemed to have buzzed off of every Holt that night. They were history makers. They were important. They would one day change the world.

Nothing could take the feeling of utter excitement and pride. Not a thing in the world.

Before the launch, Her mom had her and Matt take a picture just outside the launch site. Her mom talked about how handsome he looked in his Garrison Uniform and how lovely she looked in her dress. Her mom had bragged about how proud of a mother she was, to have two brilliant children, one of which would forever go down in history.

When all the fuss was over, Matt pulled her aside for a last goodbye.

"All right, Katie." Matt said, grinning at her.

"No." She had said, "Call me Pidge." She hated to give in to the silly nickname, but it had grown on her. It was a thing she would share with her brother, even if they were separated by all of space, "I'm going to miss that… and you."

"I'm going to miss you too." Matt said, "But, you know… space! I'm so excited!"

"I know!" She agreed, "But I can't believe I have to go through middle school without you."

"You can talk to me anytime." Matt said with a wink.

"I thought I wasn't allowed to bother you guys on your mission." She said, crossing her arms in a scolding matter. Matt laughed.

"Of course you're not, but you know the code." He cocked his head to the side with a wide mischievous grin, "What the Garrison doesn't know." They laughed before he removed the wide circular glasses from his face and passed it to her.

"Hey, check this out." He said.

"...Don't you need these?" She asked.

"Not anymore, the Garrison fixed my eyes," He struck a pose, "I look way cooler now, yes?" She shook her head.

"No." She told him, putting the glasses on her own face to find he had replaced them with fake lenses so she could use them without hurting her own eyes. He grinned at the sight before getting serious.

"I'll be back soon." He said, crossing his heart. She slugged him in the arm.

"You better be, or I'm coming up to space to get you." She had promised.

"I don't doubt it." Matt said, "You seem to be able to do anything."

"You're the one going to space." She said.

"I am aren't I?" He said, "Don't worry Pidge, I will see you soon." Of course, that had been back then. Back when he had said goodbye. The launch happened, just as everyone had planned, and for months, the world watched the progress of the Kerberos mission. Every day, she had eagerly awaited the updates they would give the world about their mission. She would day dream about all the things Matt was seeing. She would lay awake at night with a book and a homemade computer and talk to the boy in the stars. She would rub the frame of his glasses and some nights miss him. Other nights she would just be proud that he was her brother.

Then, one night, the night they said they would land on Kerberos, everything changed. Her mom had been excited that day. Katie had been excited. They all had been excited. The day had come were everything they had worked for would be accomplished. They didn't know. They didn't know what had happened.

Katie had been getting ready to watch the landing on TV with her mother. Instead, there was a news reporting their ship had crashed due to pilot error. Later that night, there was a knock on their door. Her mom went to answer it, only to find a Garrison man in full uniform on the other side. Tucked under one arm was his hat as he addressed Katie's mother with the most somber of tones.

She remembered being completely numb. She remembered not feeling anything at all. Not even as her mother burst into tears and demanded to the poor Garrison man why her husband and son were not coming home. She just stood there, staring with her mouth open in shock and her eyes completely wide.

Pilot error? The male Holts had died because Takashi Shirogane, one of the greatest pilots in all the world and highest ranking Garrison recruits of his age, had made a pilot error? She didn't believe it. She couldn't believe it. She spun on her heels upon hearing the news and ran to her room, pulling out her computer and opening up the book. She needed to know. She had to know if it was true. It had to be fake. He and her father had to be alive. They just had to be.

She sat there all night.

She waited for any sign he was still there.

She hoped.

She prayed.

She watched.

But nothing happened. The universe was still. The world was silent. Everything was calm.

She denied it. She denied it. Pressing away all feeling that said he was gone. She let herself stay numb. She let herself remain completely stoic as she looked to the stars and begged her brother softly to talk back. To say something. Do anything. To give them a sign that he and her father were alive and okay.

He never replied.

And slowly, no matter how hard she tried, her heart began to hurt and her eyes began to long to see his smile again.

"Matt." She begged quietly, "It's me, Pidge." She trembled, "Your little sister."