"Is that all you got?" Lance teased while dramatically extending his arms into a taunt, "And I'm even going easy on you!"
"Shut up! You're barely keeping up with me!" Keith yelled at his opponent while changing tactics.
"Oh puh-lease! I'm way too good for you. Why do you think I flock the ladies, hm?" Lance gleamed as he imagined the crowd of beautiful girls that could surround him.
"What Ladies, all I see is Hunk," Keith said matter off factly earning him a glare from both Lance and Hunk
"Hey don't lump me in with him!" Hunk defended, "I'm just sitting her innocently!"
"By the way," Keith continued his discussion with Lance, "You lost."
"What?!" Lance exclaimed as he dropped his remote on the ground with a wide eyed expression, "There's no way I lost! I even had Pidge come up with a game plan for me!"
Lance picked up a stack of papers looking through the various words and numbers that should have given him the perfect answers to beating Keith in this very serious video game match. However, he couldn't seem to make out anything as he tried figuring out the Altean words, "Circle… No, Circus! No…"
Keith took the papers from his hands and read through them, "No wonder you lost. You can't even read the word 'Circuit'"
"Okay, that,' Lance said pointing at Keith, "Was uncalled for."
The doors to the room the boys were in opened and in ran a flustered mess named Pidge. She ran across the room in a flurry, barely long enough for the boys to keep track of her movement.
"Gotta find it. Gotta find it," Pidge mumbled under her breath earning her a few raised eyebrows.
"Uhh," Hunk began, "Whatcha looking for Pidge?"
Pidge turned around to face Hunk with her disheveled appearance. Her shirt was halfway tucked into her shorts and one sleeve was pushed up above her shoulder. Her glasses were barely hanging to her face and her hair was a mess. She was also missing a shoe which just amused everyone.
"I need. To find. My Neural coding sheet. NOW!" Pidge nearly fell over from her yelling.
Keith look down at the papers Lance had just moments before and read the words 'Neural Coding".
"Here it is, Pidge," he said holding the papers out.
Pidge excitedly took the papers before turned a cold glare at Keith, "Why did you steal these?"
"What?!" Keith said startled, "I didn't steal anything!"
"Yeah Mullet, how could you steal poor Pidge's work?" Lance asked with an evil glint in his eyes.
"Don't even try to pin this on me!" Keith shouted.
"If I ever catch you with my stuff again Keith so help me I will destroy you," Pidge's monotoned threat shocked everyone in the room into silence for moment before Lance laughed at Keiths misfortune.
"You've got it all wrong Pi-," Keith tried to say before Lance interrupted him but slinging himself in front of Keiths sitting figure..
"So whatcha making?" Lance inquried.
Pidge immediately lightened up, "I'm trying to make an upgrade to my suit so that we can fight together more in tune. If it's successful, I'll do the same to yours. It'll help us be more in tune with each others minds," Pidge shook with delight, "It's going to be a scientific breakthrough!"
Everyone glanced around at each other people Hunk spoke, "I'm pretty sure being able to worm hole to other galaxies is a bigger scientific breakthrough."
"And robotic fighting lions that tell us what to do," Lance added in.
"And pods that heal us," Keith also joined in.
Pidge sighed in frustration, "Fine!" Before stomping out of the room mumbling to herself.
As Pidge left the room, Shiro entered with confused look, "What happened?"
"Keith stole Pidges stuff!" Lance declared before flopping down on the couch.
"UGH!"
xxx
"Stupid Hunk. Stupid Lance. Making fun of me. Stupid Keith. Stealing my stuff," Pidge complained as she hooked up the many wires to and from her computer and helmet.
"Once I'm done with this and they see how great it is, they'll be sorry," Pidge imagined everyone bowing down at her feet apologizing. Oh how she wished it to be true. It would be amazing to finally be recognized by everyone. Maybe then people would understand how much work and effort she puts into her inventions and upgrades.
Not that she would ever tell anyone, but she was actually very insecure being on this team. Everyone else was so good at what they did. Keith was an amazing fighter and held good morals. Shiro was so skilled and a great leader who was able to connect with his Lion immediately. Lance had perfect sharp shooting skills and always gets the ladies. Hunk is a master chef and really knows how to connect with people. But what about Pidge?
She made a rocket explode. Well she didn't technically make it explode entirely. She didn't actually press the button, Keith did. But she installed it. The booster she upgraded to the pods had malfunctioned and nearly killed Allura and Keith. It could have cost them the battle had Keiths Lion never saved them. It was too close, too risky. All because she didn't do it right. Even Coran didn't want to trust her upgrades. And many of them are flawed. The Green Lion can only be cloaked for 30 seconds. Those are rookie numbers. Everyone else is stronger than her, taller than her, and surely superior. So she had to fight to show she wasn't, to prove her place.
Pidge prayed silently in her head to some scientific odds that her hours of coding and dedication would work as she placed her helmet on her head. She typed some codes on her computer and began the process.
And nothing happened.
"Hm, maybe I just need to fix some coding errors."
After looking over all of her text, she noticed a small typo that she quickly fixed.
"Okay, let's try this again," Pidge once again began the process only to have nothing happen.
She waited a few moments, hoping and praying. She needed this to work. She's not sure why now of all times is affecting her so much, but she needed this. This was too important.
But everything remained still.
Starting to get discouraged, Pidge attempted to fix any physical errors with her design.
"Maybe one of these wires are misplaced."
Pidge readjusted the wires rather quickly only for the same result. Her movements became harsher as she tried different things until the helmet gave her a sharp shock through her body. Pidge yelled out in pain as she jumped out of her chair, throwing her helmet to the ground with a loud thud. The shock wore of moments after, but left her furious and humiliated. She could feel her tears wanting to surface at her failure. The team was right about her.
"Pidge?!"
The green paladin jumped at the sound behind her and turned to face the interrupting party. Keith stood in the door way to the hangar Pidge resided in. He looked worried as he slowed from a run to walk closer to the heavy breathing Pidge, but seemed relieved to see her standing and not at the hands of an enemy.
"Are you okay?" He asked, quickly making a scan of the room for danger.
He halted a few feet from Pidge who was trying to calm down the slight shaking that Keith took notice of. The girl took a glance at her helmet letting shame flow through her body. She messed up, yet again.
"Yeah," She said trying to conceal her frustration, "I'm good."
Keith wasn't a people person, not even a little bit, but he knew from experience when someone was lying. The younger of the two was clearly shaken up. It was hard to ignore after the scream of pain he'd heard as he passed by the room moments before. Images of a Galran Soldier kidnapping Pidge, or even killing her instantly implanted themselves in his head as he feared the worst.
When he entered the room though, he only spotted the girl herself infuriated as he glared at her helmet
"I heard you scream," Keith murmured as he reached out for the helmet with wires hanging from all different sides.
"Don't touch that!" Pidge yelled out and slapped Keith's hand from her Paladin helmet that had just shocked her moments ago, fearing that he would be shocked as well.
Keith took a step back and mentally scolded himself. Of course she wouldn't trust him. She still thought he had stolen her coding papers.
"Look Pidge," He began with slight annoyance lingering in voice at Lance's actions earlier in the day, "I'm sorry about your Neural Coding stuff but I really didn't steal them. That was Lance. I was looking at them because Lance couldn't read them."
He looked at her expecting an answer, whether of understanding or disbelief he didn't care, but something. Yet she made no such attempt of an answer but stared at him with confusion. The longer her gaze stayed planted on him the more self conscious he felt, "Uh, so yeah…" He said moving his gaze to the floor.
"What are you talking about?"
Keith's head shot back at Pidge who looked at him like he was crazy. Was she serious? It literally happened no longer than an hour or so ago! Uncertainty began to cloud Keiths mind.
"Uh you know… you came in looking for, uh…" Keith stepped to Pidge's desk and picked up the scattered pieces of paper with coding on it, "These," Keith calmed slightly at finding the notes that he was beginning to think he imagined, "You said it was really important and flipped out on me when you saw me with it."
PIdge took her sheets of papers from Keiths grasp with a concerned look, "Are you sure you're okay Keith? That never happened," Keith's breath hitched, "Maybe you should talk to Allura about your memory issue thing."
Pidge turned back to her helmet and replaced it on her desk, "Sorry, I really need to figure this out."
Keith, feeling utterly confused, nodded slowly. He left the room trying to process the new information. Was he going crazy? He remembered it so well. There's no way it hadn't happened! He even recognized her notes! So why did Pidge have no recollection?
It's not that he didn't believe his own memories, but he needed to be sure. He needed the second security. He needed someone to tell him he wasn't crazy.
xxx
Pidge continued to work on the helmet that only continued to shock her. It seemed to be getting worse too. The first shock was terrible, but tolerable. By the fifth, it was nearly impossible. She was beginning to form burn marks on her hands and face that she ignored, blinded by her desire to prove herself. Her anger at herself and her invention was exceeding her clear conscious to stop and rest.
xxx
"Yo, Lance!" Keith called out as he entered the main living space with couches.
The dark haired Paladin nearly sprinted in, searching for his comrade, and found him passed out on one of the empty couches with various comic books and food crumbs sprawled around him.
Keith sighed as he attempted to wake Lance, "Dude get up," He said as he shook the blue paladin. However, Lance didn't want to cooperate.
"Mmm, Allura. You're so pretty in that dressss…" Lance muttered with a smile from within his dream land.
Keith was not amused.
"Wake up, Moron!" He shouted as he pushed Lance off the couch with a thud.
"Wha?! Who's there!" Lance jumped up shouting, ready to duel with whoever was attacking him, until he saw Keith standing behind the couch. Actually, he'd duel with Keith. He would love the bragging rights.
Lance broke free from his quick mental analysis to approach the current situation, "What was that for?!" He howled at the offending criminal, "I was having an awesome dream!"
"About Allura in a pretty dress?" Keith said as he crossed his arms in disappointment.
Lance bit his lip as crimson lightly colored the bridge of his nose, "Any who…" He hummed attempting to distract from the slightly embarrassing conversation, "What do you want?"
Keith, slightly paranoid of eavesdroppers, looked behind him to double check that they were alone, "Okay this might seem like a strange question…"
"Go on," Lance nodded along with interest.
Keith paused for a moment, what if he was imaging this? What if he was about to make a fool of himself?
Then he thought back to Pidge and her scream of pain. He needed to make sure. Either something was wrong with him or with Pidge, and he needed to know.
"Do you remember when Pidge barged in here looking for coding papers?"
"The ones you had in your hand that you stole from her?"
"Yeah those!"Happiness enveloped the red paladin at his correct memory, but quickly disappeared, "Wait, you stole them!" Keith shouted.
"Whatever, yeah yeah," Lance said waving off the comment, "What about it?"
"So it did happen," Keith said more to himself than to Lance. That meant something was very wrong.
Lance's eyes narrowed, "Are you going crazy or something?"
"Not me, Pidge," Keith said with worry.
xxx
PIdge threw her sixth set of notes across the room with a grunt of annoyance. Still! She still couldn't manage to figure this out! The hours ticked along and Pidge's patience was thinning. She couldn't keep doing this. She took off her helmet as it shocked her for the eleventh time, barely feeling it. As her anger took over she threw the helmet across the room with a grunt.
The Green Paladin felt useless. Why couldn't she seem do this right? This seemed so much harder than it should be. Pidge leaned against the wall and let her body slump to the floor. She let her mind wander as she stared aimlessly.
"If you leave, we can't form Voltron. And that means we can't defend the universe against Zarkon. You're not the only one with a family," Keith's voice echoed in Pidge's head. It was almost like he was right there with her.
"You're putting the lives of two people over the lives of everyone else in the entire galaxy!" Ah yes, when Pidge had tried to leave Voltron to find Matt and her Dad. She jeopardized the team with Rover. Had she left sooner, Lance and Shiro could be dead, or worse. She nearly killed them.
The tears tried to return, but she tried everything in her power to keep them at bay. She was strong, like them. She wasn't a baby, she was a Paladin of Voltron. She couldn't cry.
"You were so thirsty for blood, you injured your fellow Earthling."
"You attacked my brother? Why?" Pidge felt a sharp pain in her chest as she recalled the moment she heard the new information about Matt. She blamed Shiro, she hurt him. That's all she ever did.
This time she let the tears fall, because she didn't deserve them. She didn't deserve any of them. She hurt them, and that's something she can never forgive herself for.
She didn't belong on Voltron. They'd be much better off without her.
xxx
Keith and Lance walked together to the main control room searching for really anyone. They had no clue what to do and needed someones guidance.
"Do you think maybe she was just playing a prank on you?" Lance questioned. He was thinking about the situation, trying to come up with some type of explanation.
"Does Pidge usually play pranks?" Keith asked, trying to think back.
"Well," Lance cradled his chin with his hand as he thought, "I mean sometimes. If she's mad enough."
"Then that's a possibility," Keith agreed, "But I have a bad feeling about this."
Both Paladins entered the Control room and were lucky to see Shiro and Allura along with Coran and Hunk.
"Hello Paladins!" Allura greeted happily, "I'm glad you're here, I needed to talk to you."
Keith and Lance glanced at each and decided to listen to the news first.
"What going on Princess, and how can I help?" Lance gleamed as he blinked his eyes and a suggestive manner.
Allura ignored him.
"We've been noticed some strange frequency waves in the atmosphere. It's definitely not normal, we suspect Galra," Everyone nodded in understanding as Allura spoke.
"We need to take extra precautions for now until we set up proper defenses," The holographic screen behind her lit up showing many codes and graphs, "I will need Pidge to help Hunk design something suitable for out protection. We aren't sure what this frequency can do, but the ship may be in danger once again.
Everyone shivered as they remembered the time the ship went crazy due to the crystal the Galra had used. People could have lost their lives.
"Speaking of which," Shiro added as he scanned the room, "Where is Pidge?"
Lance took this moment to speak, "Oh yeah, Pidge might have gone a little coo-coo in the brain," he maid a circular motion with his finger around his head to emphasize his point.
"What?" Shiro asked concerned.
Keith quickly began to explain the situation to them before Lance had a chance to, "I don't know what going on with her but her memory seems off. She doesn't remember this morning."
Hunk jumped in, "Maybe she's just really busy and forgot some things. I know I do that when I'm in the groove of things."
"Well she wasn't really 'in the groove'," Lance interjected, "She was more like, outside the groove."
"That doesn't make sense," Keith shot down whatever point Lance was attempted to make, "Anyways, she didn't seem like she was messing around. I have a bad feeling about it."
Shiro nodded as he began to step towards the door Keith and Lance stood by, "Alright, let's go check her out. It wont hurt to be sure."
xxx
Pidge was back again at her helmet. Trying desperately to get the thing to cooperate, but nothing was working. She was on her twenty third shock and she was losing feeling in her hands. Blood was beginning to trickle down her face and arms from the amount of burns she'd sustained. She refused to give up.
"Change this and it should work," Pidge finished her code and began the process for the twenty fourth time, earning her yet another shock. The green paladin barely jumped at the electric current that passed through her body.
She was in her world, only paying attention to the machine in front of her, she didn't notice the door opening behind her, or the people shouting her name when they saw the twenty fifth shock. She barely felt the helmet being ripped off her head, and only began to understand the things going on around her when someone grabbed her by the shoulders and turned her towards them.
"-idge! Pidge are you okay?!"
What? I can't quite hear you.
"Talk to me Pidge."
I can't move my lips.
"Stay with me, keep your eyes open!"
I'm really tired now.
"No!- Stay… please…"
But it's so comfy here.
xxx
The team watched as Pidge's eyes slowly shut and her body went limp in Shiro's arms. Everyone stared in horror at her many burns and the blood that was covering half of her face and hands.
"What the hell happened to her," Lance wondered out loud.
Keith looked up and saw the green helmet laying sideways on the floor, "Her helmet. It has something to do with that."
"We need to find out why and how," Shiro said as he picked up the unconscious Pidge, "She wouldn't do this to herself on purpose."
"Hunk," Allura called out, "Grab her helmet and bring it to the computer for me. We're going to figure this out."
Hunk agreed as he went to retrieve the tossed helmet.
"Shiro," the oldest paladin faced her, "Take care of her."
"Of course," Shiro left with Keith and Lance tailing him.
xxx
Shiro gently placed Pidge in a healing pod, taking another glance at her injuries. He sighed as he allowed the glass to enclose around her body. He felt terrible that he had let this happen. How could he allow his team mate to suffer so much?
Shiro turned around to face Keith and Lance that both stared at different parts of the room.
"Um," Keith asked as he continued to avoid eye contact, "Is she going to be okay?"
Shiro gave a slight smile, "She'll be fine, these healing pods do some real magic."
Keith and Lance let out a sigh of relief. They both felt horrible for waiting so long to bring the issue to everyone's attention. Pidge probably wouldn't be as badly hurt.
"Hey," Shiro interrupted their thoughts, "Don't blame your selves. I'm glad you told us in time. If you didn't who knows what could have happened."
Finally the two younger boys looked at Shiro feeling slightly better about the situation.
"Paladins!" Allura's voice boomed through the ship, "I need you back to the green Lion Hangar immediately!"
xxx
Shiro, Keith, and Lance burst into the hangar a few moments after the call from Allura.
"What's going on?" Shiro demanded.
"Something is wrong with Pidge's helmet," Allura began, "There's some type of virus."
"A virus?" Lance approached the sheets of paper, attempted to read them again, "Woah."
Lance brought the papers closer to his face, trying to make out the words, "I can't read these."
"And that's different how?" Keith scoffed, "You couldn't read the word 'circuit' a few hours ago."
Lance glared at Keith, "Yeah but I could at least kind of read it! I have no clue what this says."
"That because it's in a completely different language," Coran explained," Just like you earthlings have English and we have Altean language, other planets have different languages!"
"So what language is this?" Shiro asked.
"It looks like that language the Glara use," Hunk said fearfully, "You dont think…"
"I don't think Pidge is working with the Galra, "Allura said, "But I do think the Galra have infected her helmet. That would be what the weird frequency we discovered was from."
"Sooo," Lance began, "What did the virus do to Pidge?"
"We don't quite know yet. We need more time to figure it out. But until them, be on guard with your belongings. Whatever it did to Pidge, we can't have it happening to you four as well."
xxx
Time flew by as everyone tried to keep their minds off of Pidge and her mystery helmet virus. Shiro remained by the smallest Paladin, keeping watch over her in the healing pod. He had refused to leave her side given the unknown of her condition or what the helmet did.
Keith had left to train with the various programmed robots. He was so used to taking out his anger on them. Every robot he tore to shreds landed in heaps of trash on the floor.
Lance had left to his room in which he had the video game the he and Pidge had worked so hard to get. He stared at it for a moment, wondering if she'll be okay. He knew Shiro said she would be fine, but that was physically. What about mentally? She had forgotten the entire morning, what else could she have forgotten?
Hunk had made his way to the kitchen, trying to cook up something tasty to cheer everyone up. But he'd be lying if he said he didn't do it to distract himself. Allura had sent him away after he got so frustrated and worried that he couldn't focus.
The team was scared, and that was an understatement.
Shiro was beginning to doze off when he felt a hand on his shoulder. His head shot up instantly as he stood in alert only to meet eye contact with Coran. Shiro relaxed as he realized no one was in danger.
"You should get some rest with the other Paladins," Coran said, "I've already sent them to their quarters."
"I can't leave her," Shiro turned to face Pidge's unconscious body that had barely began to heal.
"You wont be much help to her if you're exhausted."
The black paladin sighed. He was right, but he didn't like it at all. He wished he could stay here all night, he'd definitely feel better about it.
"Don't worry Shiro," Coran placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, "Princess Allura will find out what happened."
Shiro turned around and nodded in agreement before heading off to sleep.
xxx
Where am I?
Why is it so cold?
Why can't I remember?
Count down initiated.
xxx
Lance yawned as he walked through the corridors of the space castle ship they resided in. The brunette couldn't get to sleep no matter how tired he was. He was too worried to empty his mind. Thoughts of Pidge hurting without anyones knowing plagued his thoughts. He was embarrassed to ever admit it, but he had a great sixth sense. People frequently told him that was ridiculous, but he swore it was real. And right now it was telling him that Pidge needed him. And he wasn't about to ignore his gut feeling. As a solution, Lance figured he would just check on Pidge again to make sure she was alright, It couldn't hurt, right?
But as Lance entered the room with the healing pods, he froze. Pidge's pod was wide open and missing the green paladin. Lance ran up to the pod and examined the broken glass along with the blood that coated it. There was so much blood. Why was there so much? He began to lightly shake as fear radiated through his body.
What happened?
Breaking from his momentary trance, Lance began to panic, "Pidge!" He screamed desperately, "Pidge where are you!?"
Lance ran out of the room and down the hallways, yelling for his friend in only his pajamas. He hoped she wasn't in as much danger as he felt she might be in, "Oh quiznak, this is bad."
By the fifth hallway, Lance had yet to find Pidge. His mind was in a frenzy, he was lost and confused. But mostly terrified that something had happened to his dear friend.
Oh god. What if she's already… already gone?'
Lance shook his head at his ridiculous thought. He couldn't jump to conclusions. That wouldn't help him right now. But what could he do? He was at a loss of what to do.
Lance's eyes widened with realization, "Shiro!" Oh why hadn't he thought of this earlier!?
The boy dashed through the hall towards Shiro's room, hoping to figure out what to do. If anyone could have the answer, it would be him. He was their leader after all.
The closer Lance got to Shiro, the more he started to notice growing sounds of destruction. It sounded almost like metal on metal. Terrifying, metal scrapping metal. Someone was fighting, whether that be Pidge or…
Did someone infiltrate the castle?
As Lance approached the next hallway, he paused for a moment. Whoever was fighting, was barely making a noise. The only sounds echoing through the halls was whatever weapon they yielded. The fighter, or possibly fighters, were impeccably silent other than the sound of their weapon. It was rather intimidating to say the least, that meant this fighter, or fighters, were skilled.
Lance had an opportunity in his hands, either fight this intruder head on, or run away and retreat. He knew it was be a better idea to gather the team, but getting the team together would take too much time. Besides, if they heard fighting they'd all come to his aid, right?
Coming to a decision, Lance cautiously peered around the corner, expecting to see a purple furry Galra that made the mistake of barging onto their ship. However, he was surprised to see a Pidge swinging her green Bayard against a door that he guessed led to some controls for the ship. Happiness sparked in Lance as he realized he had found Pidge.
"Pidge!" He called as he ran into open view, "There you are!"
He slowed to a stop in the middle of the hallway, his happiness morphing into worry yet again, "You really shouldn't be out of the cryo-pod."
Pidge turned to Lance with an emotionless expression which caught him off guard. His quick bout of relief switched in to panic. She looked different, but he couldn't place it. Besides her disheveled appearance, lack of glasses, and blood covered body. It was something about how she looked at him. It didn't seem friendly.
The shorter of the two stood straight and stared at Lance without speaking a work. They stood no more than 5 feet apart but something told Lance to remain his distance. His reflexes warned him, begging him to flee. And he was almost willing to listen. There was something terribly wrong here.
There was a near deadly silence, one that made Lance fearful of even breathing. His elementary mindset of 'if I don't move they wont see me' came into play as he remained frozen in the open. But why was he scared? It was only Pidge. They'd known each other for quite some time now. They were close right?
But the empty gaze she was showing, the complete lack of movement, and inability to act human, shook Lance the wrong way. This wasn't normal. Not to mention, she usually made a lot of sound while fighting. It definitely wasn't her strong suit. She spends most of her time on missions at the controls as she was the only person capable of gathering information and aiding them through technology. She rarely needed to fight one on one, therefor had never had enough practice to fight quietly in order to avoid being detected. She had been training with Keith to fix her little issue for future missions but Lance doubted she had made so much progress in just a few days.
Yet here he was, face to face with someone who barely resembled Pidge no matter how much they physically matched. His fear of speaking only heightened at that. Realizing he had no other option, he swallowed the lump in his throat before reluctantly gathering the others attention.
"Pidge?" Lance barely got the name out of his mouth before he was immediately silenced by a flying green blade being shot in his direction.
Lance's reflexes acted on their own as he swept to the side. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the green light pass by the side of his face. The glowing stream of green extending from her blade attempted to rope around him, however he quickly jumped letting the weapon return to the owners hand.
She attacked me with her Bayard?
There was another green flash hurdling towards that he barely managed to dodge. Lance let a small gasp exit his mouth as he tumbled to the floor, letting the blade pass above his head and cut a few strands of hair in the process.
"Whoa, dude!" He didn't have a chance to say anything else when the blade attempted to hit him again which he rolled to the other side of the hall to avoid.
Lance seemed to get the idea that he and Pidge were not on the same page.
"Okay, I'm out of here!" The blue paladin jumped into the air, evading another attack from Pidge's Bayard and rushed down the hall.
Lance hoped her could out run Pidge enough to to get help, but her tiny body was fast, faster than he remembered. She was only a few feet behind him continuously throwing her Bayard in his direction. He managed to avoid most of the attacks beside a few tiny cuts through his clothes. Only one managed to hit skin which created a line red line along his cheek.
His rat chase through the halls wasn't getting him anywhere. Obviously no one was hearing their issue regardless of how loud they were getting. With no weapon of his own, he had no way to defend himself.
But I can't hurt her.
Lance cursed himself, there was not way he was going to hurt her, even if she was trying to hurt him. Something was wrong here, but he couldn't hurt his friend.
Which led him back to his previous idea, outrunning the little devil.
"How do I escape her!?" Lance wondered out loud.
It was then that he noticed Hunks room up ahead. The tiny door turned into a beacon of light, a safety haven, leaving Lance a feeling of survival returning. He just needed to get in there. He needed to get help. But at his rate, he wouldn't get there in time to avoid her attacking him.
He needed to gain some distance. He could distract her with compliments? He groaned to himself, it was one of the only things he was good at so it was worth a try
Lance shot his romantic smirk over his shoulder as he maintained his steady pace, "Hey pretty lady," he began and to his luck Pidge ceased her attacks allowing them both to halt their running, "Are you from Tennessee? Because," He dramatically ran his hand through his hair, "You're the only Ten-I-See."
For a moment, he thought it had worked. He began to feel a sense of accomplishment as the green paladin remained still. Just as he was about to approach her, she began her insistent attacks once again. As they catapulted back into their previous situation, Lance groaned. What else can he do?
After a few moments of dodging and running, Lance spotted another door close to Hunk's which was approaching rather quickly.
"This better work…" He said as he approached another closet
Lance turned around with a superior look, preparing to trick her. But his determination faltered slightly at Pidge's emotionless stare. It terrified him. He quickly shook off his momentary fear before continuing his strategy.
"Hey Pidge!" He shouted as he ran closer to the side of the hall way, "You're not as good of a shot as me!"
Lance had hoped she'd take his bait and luckily she did. She shot her Bayard in his direction, still keeping up a blank canvass. As the blade approached him, he dodged the weapon and grabbed ahold of the green rope attached to it, rendering her weapon useless. As he approached the closet, nearly dragging Pidge with him, her opened the door and threw the blade inside. He swiftly closed the door as she was only a few inches behind him.
He sprinted to Hunks room as Pidge's body was yanked back by her trapped weapon.
Lance quickly pounded on Hunks door, "Hunk!" More pounding and a look back at the struggling Pidge, "Come on buddy!" Pidge yanked open the closet door and retrieved her Bayard sending terror through his mind.
He was out of time. Lance's pounding came louder and quicker as he realizes he didn't much more time, "TIME TO OPEN UP HUNK!"
The door swung open revealing a disoriented Hunk. Lance leaped into the room, knocking Hunk onto the floor, and slammed the door shut just in time for Pidge's lifeless seeming body to ram into the door.
Lance's heavy breathing began to calm as Hunk slowly picked himself off the ground.
"What in the world is going on?!" Hunk asked clearly irritated.
Lance attempted to calm down so he could explain his situation to Hunk, but his incoherent syllables were leaving him even more confused and annoyed.
"Out with it Lance," Hunk said with his displeasure dripping from his words. However, he quickly began to understand the severity of the situation once the pounding on his door began, "Who is that?"
Lance barely began to catch his breath, 'Pidge," Lance choked out, "She went crazy. She just… attacked me."
"She what?" Hunk said slightly amused as he imagined the tiny girl taking on Lance well enough to frighten him.
"This is serious Hunk!" Lance shouted as he stood back up, "She's not herself."
"Pidge?" Keith's voice emerged from the other side of the door causing the pounding and dents that Pidge was making to stop.
"Agh here we go again," Lance said, awaiting for the scene to restart with a new player at the hands of the deadly paladin.
There was a shout from Keith as Pidge most likely threw her Bayard in his direction. Then rapid footstep rang down the hallway. Lance carefully cracked open Hunks door as they both peeked out into the hallways to see a pajama wearing Keith in the same predicament Lance was just in.
"We need to get to Shiro."
xxx
Keith ran down the halls, managing to dodge all of Pidge's attacks. Her dead stare was getting to him. He knew this wasn't her. She'd never do this. After his time time training with her, he began to develop an understanding to how she held herself. This fighting style was much different from what he was used to with her. In this moment, she was much too skilled. And although Keith felt bad for thinking that, he knew it was true.
The person in front of him was clearly taught how to fight, likely for over a long period of time. But Pidge had never had nor needed that in her life until recently. She only started training with Keith about a month ago. Yes, she had improved significantly, but not enough for her to make such swift, silent movements leaving even Keith at a disadvantage. This couldn't be Pidge. But if it's not her, then who is it?
Pidge continued to attack Keith only giving him the will to run faster. He needed to reach his bayard. He loathed the idea of hurting Pidge, even though he knew she wasn't really the one with him, but he was in need of some kind of defensive support. Even if he could just block her, it would be enough to hold her off until they could figure out how to fix her.
Part of him doubted himself because what if this really was her? What if she had joined the enemy forces? He highly doubted it, but after seeing her notes clearly written in Galran letters, he wasn't too sure what to believe.
No. That was ridiculous. She would never do that. Her own family was taken from her by the Galra, she'd never join them.
But Keith had also stopped her from looking for her family. What if she joined them in spite of him? Maybe they worked out a deal. Her families safety in exchange for the other paladins. But did that mean she was hiding her true potential all this time? Her fighting skills were truly impressive if that was the case.
Keith led her to the training room, attempting to use it do his advantage. Either way, whether this was actually Pidge or not, he needed to do anything he could to avoid hurting her.
Just treat it like your normal trainings with Pidge. You never actually hit her before, just be careful.
But in their past trainings she also wasn't trying to kill him.
When he entered the brightly lit room he immediately spotted his red Bayard laying on the ground near some mats, just where he had accidentally left it when he was training earlier.
Pidge approached with another large swing across the room, managing to hit a wide reach of nearly every item in the room. The blade collided with boxes and robots that scattered the floor beneath them. As the blade advanced towards Keith he realized he needed to act fast in this fight. He ducked and slid under the weapon, grabbing his Bayard in the process, and twirled back into a fighting stance.
Both parties were armed, one empty minded, one terrified.
The green blade shot out again, spiraling straight towards Keith's face. Thankful for his quick reflexes, Keith rose his sword in an angled motion, managing wrap the blade around his sword.
With Pidge's Bayard entangled with Keith's, he took the moment to try reasoning with her. Her was shaking with fear, he wasn't sure he could trust his instincts of fight or flight to not accidentally injure his friend.
"Come on Pidge," He said with a shaky tone at Pidge's still cold expression.
Pidge yanked against the weapon pulling it and Keiths sword to the floor. She briskly retracted her blade only to swing it towards Keiths side once again. Keith ducked underneath the blade, grabbing his sword yet again, allowing the blade to swing back around, slicing across her abdomen in the process.
Alarms sounded inside Keith's head. He had been trying so hard to avoid hurt her he hadn't even thought about the possibility of her hurting herself. Yet he wasn't surprised after seeing her burnt hands and face paired with her bloody figure.
But this Pidge didn't even flinch at the pain, which only tightened his fear, "Stop this!" Keith cried after seeing another injury inflicted on his friend.
PIdge swung again and this time Keith let the blade clash with his sword before it retracted once more, "I don't want to hurt you!"
Yet still, it seemed like Pidge couldn't even hear him. Her eyes weren't even moving. It was like she didn't see him. How could she be doing this without seeing? Keiths continued to ponder on his discovery a bit too long as the green blade swung towards Keith again, this time injuring his non-dominant arm with a long red slice down the outside of his skin.
"Damn it," he cursed as he grabbed his injury, already feeling the blood soaking through his clothing.
It hurt like crazy but he couldn't stop, not while his friend was worse off than he was.
xxx
Hunk and Lance dashed through the hallways towards their leaders room. Although they were free from Pidge's Bayard of death, they felt fear for Keith who was at her hands. Lance and Hunk both knew PIdge wasn't much of a threat. She was a great fighter and incredibly smart, but they'd all be able to over power her.
But it's that fact that she was their friend that scared them.
They didn't want to lay a hand on her. They couldn't live with themselves if she'd been hurt because of them. However, they hadn't been able to keep her from attacking.
The boys rounded the last corner, their breathing heavy and eyebrows scrunched in worry.
"Are we… gonna make it in time? …To Keith?" Hunk managed to breath out between steps.
Lance didn't answer, mainly because he didn't want to hope for something that might not happen. The likely hood of both of this friends making out of this situation unscathed was low. He believed in Keith to make the right decision. But he didn't trust Pidge do something she might regret. Not in her current mindset.
The two paladins skidded to a halt in front of their leaders door and immediately started banging with shouts of "Shiro!"
"Shiro open up!" Lance pleaded with hopeful eyes.
It didn't take long for the sleepy eyed paladin to open his door with a yawn, "What's going on?"
"It's Pidge," Lance left no room for chit chat as he jumped straight to the point.
Luckily it didn't take more to convince Shiro to help, "Where to?"
xxx
Keith was regretfully beginning to tire. He had been clashing blades with Pidge for close to thirty minutes, and he was sad to say she was overpowering him. Had he had the will to actually injure her, he may have won already. However, we wasn't willing to consider that, regardless if this was really her.
But given her distant stare that had yet to leave her face, the idea that this was really Pidge was fading from Keiths mind.
Though the questions still remained, how did he stop her?
Another shot of her blade hooked around Keiths arm, further agitating his wound. A soft moan of pain escaped his lips, but he quickly ignored his own pain as he dislodged the ending tip of the blade from under his skin. Yes, he certainly hurt, and his wounds were red and irritated, but Pidge had gained quite a few wounds from her own weapon. Whoever was guiding her mind needed some more practice or they were going to destroy her with them.
Keith felt another wave of pain but this time from his chest as he made a sudden realization. What if they lost her? What if she was never coming back? What if whoever this was killed her before they could save her?
Pidge twirled around the center of the training hall sending her blade in circular motions around the room. Keith quickly jumped over each attack, silently begging for someone to aid him. If he wasn't alone he may be able to disarm her and at least try to reason. So far, his words seemed to fall on deaf ears.
As if the universe heard his prayers he heard foot steps approach the training room.
"Keith?!" Shiro's voice echoed into the room, catching Pidge's attention.
The green paladin turned towards the entrance, where three figures were entering. Keith, confused at first as her attention seemed to divert from his, widened his eyes as he realized. She was only going to attack those that made themselves known.
In an act of sacrificial greed, Keith threw his sword at the same time Pidge raised her arm, hoping to draw her back to him. She prepared to launch her long ranged attack with her unwavering emotions at the new visitors. Just as she was about to attack, Keith's own blade soared through the tiny hole between her blade and handle of her Bayard. The two weapons landed on the opposite side of the room, with Pidge's bayard hanging on Keith's sword embedded in the wall.
Keith, having a moment of victory, stood tall as the three others entered. He couldn't see Pidge as she was facing away from him, staring at her seized weapon, However he could see his friends who looked at her heart broken. She slowly turned around, making Keith sadly happy he had gathered her attention again. Until he noticed the stream of tears falling down her still face. She had no expression, no sense of acknowledgment, she was still seemingly emotionless. Yet she was clearly sad as she was crying.
It was then that Keith noticed, the large slice his sword had made on her hand. It definitely looked painful, but not as bad as her other self inflicted wounds, so why had that one made her cry.
And then it clicked. It made her sad. It was the only thing that seemed to bring her slightly out of the trance she seemed to be in.
And it was because it was Keith that had hurt her.
-XXX-
As my first Voltron fic, I hope people like it. I should finish writing the rest of this soon. If you liked it and want to see more let me know! This story will also be posted on archive of out own! :)