"He's the only person they'll listen to."
"No, he needs rest. He's still healing."
"Allura said it's fine, he's been out of the pod for two days now."
"He's been sleeping."
"Fortwo days."
"He needs rest, okay!"
Keith.
Shiro started to push himself up and then froze. He couldn't feel his right arm. He pulled himself back against a wall and raised his hand to just below his shoulder, tracing the edges of the cold metal stump with his fingers.
His memories were fragmented. An ice planet. Nearly running out of oxygen. Keith leaving Voltron. Fighting against Lotor.
But he also remembered the feeling of his soul being sucked from his body. He remembered the Black Lion's consciousness, more clearly than he remembered being real. He remembered watching Keith piloting the Black Lion, and the crushing fear that consumed him when he realized there was another Shiro out there with Keith and the other Paladins. He remembered trying to tell them, to warn them, but no one could hear him.
He remembered watching this other Shiro pilot Black, and at the same time he remembered it was him piloting Black.
He put his hand to the bridge of his nose, pinching between his scar. Which memories were real?
"We can't land on Earth without him, Keith. The Garrison trust him."
"Then we don't land until he wakes up. And he wakes up when he's ready."
"Keith..."
With a rush of scraping metal a curtain was pulled open, and a dim blue light filled the room with long hazy shadows. Shiro recognized Keith's silhouette instantly - Keith stood clutching the curtain, pale and wide eyed.
"Shiro," he whispered.
"Shiro, you're awake!" A ball of movement, Matt ran past Keith to Shiro's bed. The motion triggered a light to flicker on around them, flooding the room with fluorescent white.
"Matt," said Shiro warmly into the hug, squinting as his eyes adjusted. "Thank god Pidge found you okay."
"Thanks to you. I'm glad you're finally awake!"
Shiro looked over Matt's shoulder at Keith, who stood back looking painfully uncertain. "me too," he said. A smile tugged at Keith's lips, but Keith still looked worried – and older too. Bags hung under his eyes and he had a new scar that looked familiar but also unfamiliar. Shiro frowned as Keith pulled up a chair and stared at his lap.
Matt extracted himself and perched on the edge of the bed – he was just as Shiro remembered, all goofy smiles and floppy brown hair. But as much as he loved Matt, right now he wanted Matt to leave. He hated for Matt to see him now, disorientated, vulnerable. Keith was the only person he trusted himself to talk to.
"We have so much to talk about," said Matt in a rush. "After you saved me-"
"Shiro, how are you feeling?" Keith interrupted loudly, shooting Matt a dangerous look. "If you need more rest we can leave."
"I'm fine, really," said Shiro lightly, too quickly, waving a hand. "I think I've slept more than enough. I'm stiff! I could go for a run. I still have my legs right? Keith, that was a joke, relax."
Keith had tensed against the chair. "Oh," he said. "Right."
"We actually have a favor to ask you-"
"Matt not yet. Give him a minute. Can you go and tell everyone else he's awake? They'll want to know."
Matt sighed loudly, but pushed himself off the bed. "Yeah yeah. See you in Blue?," he said. "But Shiro, honestly, so good to see you."
"You too, Matt," said Shiro, and he meant it.
Matt left through the curtain, half-shutting it behind him.
"Where are we?" Shiro asked as Keith said "I missed you."
"I missed you too," said Shiro warmly, relieved. He raised his hand as though to touch Keith's arm, but dropped it when Keith moved back.
"We're on Mars."
"...Mars?"
"Yeah. It's a long story, but we have to return to Earth to get some blueprints for a new castle. Sam has them. We parked here while we decided how to approach without, er, freaking the planet out."
"Didn't Sam go back to tell the Garrison about the war?"
Keith started. "You remember that?"
There was something tense about his face that made Shiro uncomfortable.
"Kind of. My memories are... hazy. I know that I know, but I don't remember how I know."
"He did," said Keith slowly, appearing to relax a little. "but the media made him out to be a bit of a nutcase, and it looks like the Garrison refused to stand behind him. Something about not enough evidence."
"I guess we should have seen that one coming."
"Yeah."
They sat in silence as Black whirred and vibrated – lowering itself to let Matt out.
"So, the castle's gone?"
"Destroyed. We've been camping out in the lions for the past couple of weeks." Keith waved a hand around the makeshift bedroom. There was another mattress against the far wall, two suitcases, a desk, and an empty healing pod.
"We have a kind of boardroom set up in Blue, that's where everyone will expect us now they know you're awake. Yellow is the kitchen, obviously. Green's communication – Matt and Pidge have been in contact with Sam and the Garrison, but the Garrison aren't exactly being helpful."
"Red?"
"In charge of supplies, although they usually all go together anyway. Oh, and the, er, livestock."
"And I'm guessing Black is the hospital wing," said Shiro with a hard smile.
"You're not the only one, don't worry," said Keith gently. "We've had some adventures. Last week we got stuck on a warring planet with these tiny blue people – honestly they were so small. Hunk ate poisonous fruit and they wouldn't give us the antidote unless we sunk their enemies' air ships. Long story short we had to swap you out of the pod for a few days while Pidge seduced a smurf. Unfortunately I wasn't there."
Shiro steadied himself with his arm as he chuckled. "Poor Hunk. I'll have to get Pidge to fill me in."
"Yeah, it's a good story," said Keith, and it warmed Shiro to see Keith smile now too.
"I bet."
"Anyway, if you're sure you're feeling up to it, you should get up and get dressed. We packed everything you had on the castle, there wasn't much, but it's all in the suitcase at the end of the bed." Keith stood up and flushed slightly, eyes dropping to his feet. "I couldn't find your pajamas so I gave you a pair of mine. They don't fit very well, sorry."
Shiro lifted the blanket and snorted. The red sweatpants barely reached his shins.
"I'll see you in Blue?" Keith stood awkwardly at the curtain.
"Wait," said Shiro. He stood up slowly. His legs felt weak and off balance – lighter on his right side, like he had to lean into each step to compensate. He stumbled forward – Keith reached out to offer his own arm for support and gasped as Shiro grabbed him and pulled him close.
Disorientated, Shiro clung to Keith as he was flooded with overwhelming memories.
"Shiro," Keith laughed into his chest. "I need to breathe. Shiro?"
Shiro buried his face into Keith's hair as he realized.
"I'm so sorry," he whispered, his voice cracking. This was why Keith couldn't look at him.
"Shiro?" Keith tried to pry him away gently, but Shiro was too strong.
"I nearly killed you," Shiro breathed.
"Oh." Keith pushed harder at Shiro's chest, and Shiro slowly, reluctantly stood back. Keith was determinedly holding his gaze. Forcing himself, Shiro thought.
"That wasn't you," said Keith seriously.
Shiro reached up to touch Keith's cheek, his heart aching. "Was this?" he asked, tracing the scar.
"No."
"Keith-"
"Shiro, I cut off your arm." Keith's voice shook and he threw out his hand, aggressively motioning to where Shiro's right arm used to be. "Do you remember that?"
"No – yes. I think so."
"But that wasn't you," said Keith quietly.
Shiro nodded mutely. Keith needed to pretend Shiro hadn't really been there. But he had, hadn't he? In his memories it was his hand bringing the sword down.
"We should go. Suit up," said Keith, ducking his head. "I'll meet you out there."
"Yeah, okay."
The boardroom was just a massive table covered in an unnecessary amount of sticky notes and mugs full of sparkly gel pens. Shiro barely made it two feet in before being tackled to the ground by familiar shapes, smells and voices. Hunk yanked off Shiro's helmet (full suit was needed for the short walk between lions) and theatrically yelled "He's alive!"
Lance was wiping his eyes and shouting at Keith "I'm not crying, you're crying!"
A galactic wolf that Shiro vaguely remembered from somewhere yapped at all the commotion from under the table.
Allura waited for the paladins to break apart before stepping in and hugging him warmly.
"Thank you for coming back to us," she said, holding his hands in hers. He'd been starved of touch in Black – he didn't want her to let go.
"You brought me back," he said as she let go. "I should be thanking you."
"It was nothing."
The room was cramped for space, but they all squeezed in around the table. Lance and Keith started arguing about who would sit next to Shiro, until Pidge loudly proclaimed that neither of them would and took the empty chair.
As everyone settled down, Shiro took a pen from a mug that read Skadazzle and tried to draw a circle on one of the small sheets of yellow paper.
"Matt and Lance went stationary shopping," Pidge explained with a sigh. She plucked the pen out of Shiro's hand. "Don't bother. The green ones have invisible ink."
"Oh," Shiro laughed, picking a red one.
"That one will literally burn through the paper," said Pidge, handing him an yellow one. "Try that."
"I can barely read it," said Shiro, scribbling his name and squinting.
"That's because your handwriting sucks," said Pidge smiling. "No offense."
"He was right handed," Keith muttered over the table.
The silence that followed was uncomfortable.
"We'll have you a new arm soon, Keith," said Allura gently. "Hunk and Pidge are already working on the design."
"It's not going to be anything like your old one," said Pidge looking embarrassed.
"It has a torch though!" said Hunk proudly.
"And you'll be able to write with it."
"Thank you," said Shiro fondly. "Both of you."
"In the mean time, please pass down the data slats," said Coran, handing Matt a stack of handheld projector displays. "Thanks to Pidge we have the latest intel from your Garrison folks. It sounds like they're not too fond of us. I was expecting more from your fellow Earthlings if I'm being honest."
"Us being Voltron," Pidge explained to Shiro. "The official report is that we went missing. When we left, Blue was explained as a Garrison experiment – to be honest the public never got a clear look at him, just a few blurry videos, so that died down pretty quickly. But the Garrison saw Blue as a threat and have been secretly preparing defenses."
"Nothing on Earth could hurt a lion?" Hunk cocked his head. "Unless we've been gone longer than I thought."
"No," said Keith, "but we don't want to scare everyone, not without explaining first. If we fly in as we are they'll try – and fail – to shoot us out of the sky. But that'll draw media attention and there'll be widespread international panic."
"Giant alien lions attacking, etc etc," said Pidge, pushing her glasses up her nose. "That's why we're taking Green. With Green's cloaking we can sneak down, pick up Dad and arrange a meeting with the Garrison. If all goes well, we can get permission to bring the other lions down too, and develop a less hostile relationship with the Garrison. We've tried hacking them and talking to them from here, but they didn't really appreciate it, or believe us."
"I thought we were here for Blueprints," said Shiro. "What do we want with the Garrison?"
"We are, but the Garrison didn't believe Dad. They're in denial. And we think it's important they know about the war and any potential threats Earth might face in the future."
"Two birds, one stone," said Hunk nodding wisely.
"If we're not around, they're the best defense Earth has."
"It's better than nothing," Shiro agreed. "So when do we leave?"
It took them an hour to prepare Green and decide who would be flying down with Pidge and Shiro.
"I'm going," said Keith firmly.
Shiro wanted to smile, to thank him, but he knew, it made no sense for Keith to go, and the team were relying on him make the right calls. The sensible calls.
"Keith, Lance is right, you don't exactly have the best relationship with the Garrison."
"Shiro, I had to rescue you the last time the Garrison had you. I'm not letting you go in there literally single-handedly."
"Did Keith just make a joke?" asked Hunk. "Is that like, total of two jokes, ever, in his whole life?"
"I think you mean we rescued him," said Lance loudly.
"Matt will come with me," said Shiro finally. "Sorry Matt, I know you want to see your dad, but we'll have plenty of time to visit our families after this. And with any luck the Garrison will let us work on the castle there."
"Is it safe to make Earth the base of operations?" asked Keith. "Voltron draws a lot of inter-galaxy attention. We don't know who or what it might attract."
"The Garrison were working on their own cloaking when I left," said Shiro. "If they can shield us while we work we should be fine."
"Okay, so, here's the plan," said Coran. "Pidge, you take Matt and Shiro -"
"-and Keith," Keith interjected.
"Fine, and Keith," said Coran with a sigh. "You'll drop Matt, Shiro and Keith off at the Garrison headquarters and then go and find Sam. Depending on where the boys are at with negotiations, you'll either send us the blueprints or come and pick us up."
"Or we host a rescue mission because Keith messes up and the Garrison locks them all up."
"ha ha, Lance," said Keith flatly.
"As usual, it's important everyone stays in contact," said Allura swiftly. "I know you say it's a peaceful planet and we're not expecting any threats, but I don't want to take any chances. Coms on at all times. We'll be listening from here."
"Okay, suit up team."
"I'd almost forgotten what it looked like," said Keith honestly, his hand pressed to Green's window as they dropped below cloud. "It's so blue."
Shiro stood next to him, their shoulders brushing in the confined space.
"How long has it been?"
"In earth time?" asked Pidge, turning Green and checking her bearings as they approached land. "Around 19 months for me, longer for you and Matt if you include Kerberos. Around three and a half years for Keith."
"That one will be interesting to tell the Garrison."
"With any luck they won't recognize me," said Keith. "Or remember me."
"The Garrison think you kidnapped Shiro and vanished us all away in your alien spacecraft, so I think you're out of luck," said Matt cheerfully. "We're almost there."
They flew high and fast over forestry and across cities until they approached the desert, and finally swung around to stop above the Galaxy Garrison facility.
"There it is," said Matt in awe, pressing his nose to the glass. "They've expanded!"
"Yeah," said Keith, leaning in. "I don't remember the domes. How are we doing this?"
"I say we just head right on in," said Matt pumping his fist. "What can they do?"
Rolling her eyes, Pidge cleared her throat and spoke into the com.
"Galaxy Garrison, this is Katie Holt, daughter of Samuel Holt and sister of Mathew Holt from the Kerberos mission. I'm here with Matt and Shiro. Requesting permission to land."
A gruff muffled voice barked over the speakers. "How did you get this line? We're not detecting any crafts in Garrison airspace."
"Turning off cloaking," Matt muttered as he leaned over Pidge and fiddled with the controls.
"Holy sh-," said the voice. "What the hell are you?"
"We come in peace," said Pidge grinning. "Get Commander Iverson. We need to talk."
They triggered alarms as soon as they got within 500 feet of the buildings. As they landed, the Garrison descended into expected chaos.
"Good thing we gave them a heads up after all," said Matt.
"Let's go," said Keith, taking his helmet off and grabbing his bayard.
"Do we really need those?"
"This isn't our home any more," said Keith firmly. "We're aliens to them."
A small army of at least a hundred people, including cadets, were spilling out of the buildings. They carried glowing green guns that Shiro didn't recognize and kept their distance.
Clearly nervous, they parted to let Commander Iverson march through. He was shadowed by the buildings and dwarfed by Green, but looked more intimidating than Shiro remembered. He had a new uniform - a much deserved promotion, thought Shiro – and his signature scowl.
"Shirogane, I don't believe it." Iverson stopped a safe distance away. "What's the meaning of this?"
Shiro stepped forward, Green growled and Iverson flinched.
"We have a lot to talk about," said Shiro, holding out a disk. "Send your men back to their posts. We're not here to threaten you, we're here to warn you."
Iverson eyed the disk warily. "What is this?"
"Our video logs from the past nine months. I'm hoping they'll help you gain our trust."
"What!?" said Keith in a startled whisper. "When did he get those?"
"The princess gave them to him before we left," said Matt slyly. "She said not to tell you, that you wouldn't let him have them."
"Keith?" Iverson growled, his single eye twitching. Shiro wondered what happened to the other one.
"This isn't the time, Commander Iverson," said Shiro calmly. "Tell your men to stand down and we'll send the lion away. We're not a threat."
Iverson glared at Keith over Shiro's shoulder but muttered into his com, and the small crowd behind him began to slowly, cautiously retreat.
Shiro sighed. "Pidge, you can go, we'll be fine."
"Copy that!" came Pidge's voice through Shiro's com. "Stay safe."
"Will do. See you soon."
Cadets pressed their faces to windows as they walked through the Garrison hallways. Inside, the Garrison was just like Shiro remembered. He ran his fingers along the coloured navigation lines – red to the hangers – before one of Iverson's men slapped his hand away.
"I hate this place," Keith muttered to Shiro. "You're my only good memory here."
"You didn't have to come," Matt reminded him. Keith shot him a filthy look.
A small, silent guard flanked them. The Garrison weren't taking any chances. They entered a room that looked too much like an interrogation room for Shiro's liking – no windows, blank stone walls, with just an empty table with a holotab and four metal chairs.
"Sit," said Iverson gruffly, "and tell me everything."
"Dad, I'm here. Where are you?"
Pidge had landed on a small farm nestled among mountains. The landing had been tricky – sheep didn't want to move for anything, and were entirely undisturbed by the presence of a giant metal beast in their paddock.
Pidge sighed and switched to the com in her suit. "Come in, Dad? Okay, guess I'll let myself in. I told you to keep it on you at all times."
Outside Green, Pidge took a moment to crouch down and run her fingers through the grass. Earth smelled so familiar, and so unlike any other planet they'd been to. She'd hated coming here before, on the dreaded family trips to her aunt and uncle's farm. It had always felt so technologically primitive to her.
It was a waste of space, she had told her dad. Farms were rare these days – meat was grown in labs, and crops grown in rooftop greenhouses. But right now she felt a sudden desire to protect this little patch of the twentieth century.
"Pidge?" came a distorted voice through the com. "Pidge? Something's wrong. Hurry Pidge!"
"Dad?" Pidge shouted as she stood up. Without thinking she started running towards the farm house. "Dad where are you?"
"The barn, Pidge!"
Pidged turned sharply and headed for the barn. "I'm coming, Dad!"
"So you're telling me that beyond our solar system there are millions of aliens, there was a big alien war, and that if these aliens find out you lot are from Earth, they could come here and destroy the planet?"
"Uh. Pretty much, yeah," said Matt. "But my dad told you all this and you threw him out."
"No one could believe that."
"How do you think he survived in space all these time if aliens don't exist? How do you think we survived?"
"Earth is what we call a baby planet," Shiro explained. "Humans are a relatively new species, so we've flown under the radar and haven't had much alien interaction. But there will always be people who want to exploit baby planets. As Voltron, one of our biggest priorities is protecting planets like Earth from more developed planets that might want to hurt them."
"Aren't you putting a target on our backs just by being here?" Iverson's secretary leaned forward and pushed her classes up her nose. "Surely if you leave now we can just continue to 'fly under the radar'."
"We're cloaked from enemy sight, and at the moment we don't think anyone's looking for us. But we were hoping you could offer us some additional protection and any space we might need-"
"to build this spaceship?" asked Iverson, crossing his arms. "What's wrong with the beasts you already have."
"We need something that can wormhole. One of our biggest advantages over the Galra was our ability to travel anywhere, almost instantly. With the ability to create wormholes, we can answer any distress signal. Even Earth's."
"And where's this Voltron now?"
"The other lions are on Mars."
Iverson stood up abruptly – his secretary caught his chair before it toppled over.
"This is a lot to think about. I'll talk to the board. We'll give you our final decision tomorrow."
"Tomorrow?! But-"
"Keith," said Shiro, resting a hand on Keith's shoulder. "It's fine. Tomorrow is fine, thank you for hearing us out, Commander."
Iverson sniffed. "The public can't know you're here. Keep the green one out of site."
"Pidge knows."
"Good. Sash, take them to area 17, bring a guard."
"Yes sir."
Sash, the secretary, or possibly bodyguard, Shiro wasn't sure, lead them out and back through the winding Garrison corridors and towards the cadet hall. Shiro waved at some nervous cadets as they peeked through an open dorm room door.
"Surely you can at least tell the students there's nothing to worry about," asked Keith frowning.
"The less anyone knows at this stage, the better," said Sash as they entered area 17 of the Academy. "You'll be staying in an empty cadet dorm. There will be armed guards outside and you are not to leave until we collect you tomorrow."
"This was my first dorm," said Shiro absently, reaching out to touch the letter B.
"So we're prisoners now?" Matt asked.
"You came from outer space, Mr Holt. We are being cautious."
"It's fine," said Keith, eyeing Shiro. "Thank you."
The dorm was almost exactly as Shiro remembered. High walls, white everything. He liked it.
"This place feels so sterile," Keith complained. "It's like an asylum."
"You didn't have to – " Matt cowered slightly as Keith took a step towards him.
"Princess," said Shiro into the com with a sigh. "We're here, did you hear everything?"
"Loud and clear," said Allura. "It's fair of them to be cautious."
"It looks like we just have to wait. I'm sure the Garrison board will want to meet Voltron as soon as possible."
"Yes, I suppose you three should get some sleep. Have any of you heard from Pidge? I think her com's down."
Shiro shot Keith a worried look. "We haven't, but we'll try and contact her. If we haven't heard anything by tomorrow we'll ask the Garrison to send someone to the farm."
"Good thinking. I'm sure she's fine. Hopefully we'll see you all tomorrow."
"Yes, see you tomorrow."
"Claiming top bunk!" said Matt, throwing his helmet onto his bed.
"There's three of us and twenty beds, you don't need to claim one. I'm going to have a shower," said Keith. "Matt, try and contact Pidge. Shiro, get some rest."
Keith hadn't had a proper shower in weeks. They'd been bathing on different planets and had cleaning pods on Green, but hadn't had a regular shower with regular soap since the castle. The castle had been like a home to Keith – something he hadn't had in years. Now the castle was gone, he had no home. Earth certainly wasn't home - how would Earth treat him when they find out he's part Galra, the very enemy they were there to warn them about?
Keith had always thought a lot in the shower. The quiet, repetitive sounds were relaxing.
Someone opened the door.
"Keith?" Shiro called from the back of the room.
"Yeah?"
"The Garrison dropped some stuff off. Extra towels, some toothbrushes, a change of clothes. I'll leave them over here."
"Oh. Yeah, thanks."
Keith heard Shiro drop and unzip the bag, then start the adjacent shower. He swallowed hard.
"Shiro," he said after a couple of minutes.
"Mm?"
Keith paused. "Is it okay if your shoulder gets wet?" he said quickly. "I mean, we left the Galra attachment on so Pidge and Hunk could attach the new one, and to be honest we had to idea how to remove it, but we never thought to check it was waterproof and-"
"I'm fine," Shiro laughed. "It's Galra tech. It's waterproof."
Keith focused on the hot water running down his neck, behind his ears, relaxing his muscles. "Do you miss it?"
Shiro went quiet and Keith regretted asking.
"Yes," said Shiro eventually. "It was a part of me for a very long time. I hated it at first, but it became a way to protect – to protect you, and everyone else. And it was convenient, having two arms." Shiro's chuckle echoed through the foggy shower room. "But when it transformed – I don't remember it clearly, but I felt like the transformation was triggered by a kind of blood lust. A desire to kill you. I'm glad it's gone. I would have cut it off myself If you'd let me keep it."
Keith sighed and looked up at the ceiling.
"Keith?"
"Yeah?"
"If anything like that happens again, kill me."
It took less than three seconds for Keith to slap his towel around his waist and yank open Shiro's curtain.
"Are you fucking kidding me?" Keith growled, slamming his free hand against the shower wall. Shiro stood stunned, mouth agape, shrouded in steam and water.
"Do you know how much effort I've put into keeping you alive? Don't you dare talk about dying to me. If you want to fucking die, ask someone else to do it!"
"Keith, I'm not-"
Keith turned to leave, but Shiro grabbed his wrist.
"Keith, you're overreacting. I don't want to die, but I don't want to hurt you. What I mean is, if I ever try to hurt you again, then please -"
"- I'd rather die," Kieth spat out angrily.
Shiro's shock turned to warmth as Keith snatched his arm back.
"I love you too, Keith," said Shiro gently. "Now get out of my shower before your towel gets wet."
Keith flushed and stepped back out of the shower, almost tripping over the lip. He pulled the curtain shut and stood there, dripping, angry.
He knew Shiro was trying to be endearing, to calm him down. He wanted it to work.
"Keith, Shiro! I heard from Pidge!"
The door swung open and Matt stood in the doorway, holding his com above his head. His gaze dropped to the puddle on the floor.
"Keith, you should probably dry yourself before you get out of the shower."
Keith scowled and stormed over to the bag by the sinks, grabbing another towel for his hair. "How is she," he asked, sounding harsher than he intended. He heard Shiro turn off the shower.
"She said she's fine but... something sounded off."
"Off how?"
"Get dressed and I'll try and get a hold of the Princess. It might be nothing, but I think we should send a drone down to scope it out."
"We should talk to the Garrison about it, it'll be quicker than sending a drone from Mars," said Shiro as he stepped out from behind the curtain. He'd wrapped a towel around his waist that read 'CADET'.
Matt giggled and Keith pushed past him. "Let's get onto it then," said Keith stiffly. "The sooner we find out Pidge is okay, the sooner we can go to sleep."
"What's with him?" Keith heard Matt mutter as he stormed back into the dorm.
"Mphm~!"
Pidge struggled against her bonds. There was no way – absolutely no way – she, a paladin of Voltron, a Legendary Defender of the Universe, was going to be defeated by some rope and duct tape.
"Chill, little lion," said a voice entering the barn behind her. "I'm not going to hurt you. I just need you to record a message for me."
Pidge's eyes went wide as the men stepped in front of her. He ducked down and carefully peeled away the tape from her mouth.
"There, isn't that better?"
"Uncle?!"
TO BE CONTINUED
AN: also hi! I'd kill for a beta reader if anyone wants to help out~ and thank you for reading this chapter, please let me know what you think!
