There Are Such Things as Coincidences…
CHAPTER 1
The bay doors opened to reveal a 24-year-old Pidge in her lab coat and blue research glasses as she walked into the main air base, followed closely by a group of cadets in single file. She led them past jets, fighters, and other forms of aircraft until they reached the largest and most advanced of all known aircraft in their solar system. The cadets, ever the enthusiasts, gaped and stared in awe as they stood in the presence of the IGF-Atlas, which seemed to bask in its own magnificence beneath the luminescence of the lights above it.
One cadet with brown skin and frizzy, dark hair seemed to shake with pure admiration and excitement as tears began to brim from her blue eyes.
"It's even better than when it was on the news," she couldn't help but raise a finger to flick her tears away. The cadet next to her just scoffed to his brother beside him.
"Nerd," they snickered and the girl just blushed and stood there, embarrassed.
Pidge, having heard the exchange (after all, what kind of sane adult like her wouldn't be a tad nosey with kids' conversations?), pulled her hands behind her back, discreetly tapping a button on her watch. Upon activation, a small hatch in the base opened up, allowing Rover 2.0 to exit the small hole. He scanned his surroundings for Pidge, and once he detected her by the Atlas, awaited her command. She made a gesture with her head at the two boys snickering at the girl. Thanks to the situational adaptor Pidge installed in Rover, he got the gist of what she was asking him to do. He flew over to the group of cadets.
As he neared the snickering duo, many of the cadets noticed his presence, including the girl. Her eyes widened as she glanced towards her instructor. Pidge just winked at her.
Soon enough Rover was right behind the boys who were too busy snickering to notice. That is, until they heard the sound of an air horn blaring in their ears. Only it had a special modification.
TALK LOUDER DOUCHEBAGS!
-came Nadia's voice screaming through Rover 2.0's speaker and the boys screamed, "MOM?!"
"Oh, are you surprised to hear me? Well guess what, you'll be hearing more from me and your father after your last period! Do you realize who that girl beside you is? YOUR COUSIN, MALLORY KINKADE. So, it looks like you're gonna be having a good time handcuffed to a chair while your ears fall off of your heads!"
"They already are," squeaked Harry.
"Shut up and listen because I wanna know if YOU HEAR ME HARRY AND JERRY GRIFFIN?! CAUSE I HOPE YOU DO CAUSE YOU'RE BOTH DEAD! YOU HEAR ME?! D! E! A! D! DEAD!"
And then came Rover 2.0's programmed voice.
'End of recording'
"Recording?!" they squawked in disbelief.
"Oh, yeah," Pidge butted in, "She made tons."
"Tons?!"
"Yeah, wanna hear the rest?" they shook their heads violently in response. Pidge just put on her 'smug face'.
But the moment was interrupted by the arrival of an unexpected visitor. He walked into the base with two cups of coffee in hand, smiling brightly as he approached the group. His brown hair was a bit longer and a bit more tousled than in his teenage days, but his face was unmistakable with his combination of Altean markings beneath his eyes and rounded ears. Oh, and who could forget his signature jacket? Not Pidge. She'd seen him wear it practically all the time back in the day.
"Hey!" he greeted, before noticing the twins shuddering on the floor looking pretty… uh, well, you get the picture…
"Am I… interrupting something?" Pidge chuckled.
"No, no, we were just finished… reprimanding the twins," he hummed in understanding.
"I see… "
"So what brings you to the Garrison?" she asked, taking her cup of coffee and waving a hand to the kids to come follow her into the IGF-Atlas.
"Nothing much, just wanted to see how you're doing"
"Just fine, thanks"
"Gee, harsh much?"
She scoffed jokingly.
"You're a dork. How did I ever become besties with a dork of all people?"
"Okay, one, I think you mean dorks. Never forget the 's'. And two, 'You come here to rock out?'"
"I'm startled, stumble back, and say how I was 'just looking at the stars'"
"Nice to know you still remember your lines"
"How can I forget? That was the day we found each other and Voltron"
"Remember when the ship crashed and we saw Shiro?"
"Then wished for a diversion and 'literal BOOM', wish granted. Keith on a cycle, does himself a pick-me-up, we all hop on and drive over a cliff. Now I know we all hate cliffhangers, but let's just leave it at that."
"Aww," the cadets whined.
"Sorry, kids," Lance chuckled, "There's a time and place for these stories, awesome as they are, and now's no—Hey, are you taking notes?"
"Were we not supposed to?"
Pidge snapped her gaze behind her where almost all the cadets were either taking notes or recording on their Garrison Educational Tablets (GET). She slouched and sighed for a brief moment before regaining her posture.
"You can keep your notes and recordings as long as you don't let those get in the hands of any journalists, reporters, pretty much anything related to the news. Oh, and the Voltron series producers."
"Yeah, we've had enough stalkers for a lifetime," Lance agreed as the cadets put away their GETs.
Pidge clasped her hands together, gaining the cadets' attention.
"Now then, we've had enough disruptions for this activity, so let's get a move on."
The cadets and Lance followed her through the halls, as she gave a tour of the whole ship. Passing through the bio lab, the hangar, and others, they finally reached the control room, where Pidge introduced things like the main interface, turret controls, and the quintessence-infused diamond crystal that was once a part of the Castle of Lions and now powered the IGF-Atlas. At the end of the tour, she set down her finished cup on one of the consoles.
"And that concludes our tour of the IGF-Atlas. Thank you all for being here for this experience, I hope you all enjoyed. You may all go ahead and explore the ship for fifteen minutes if you'd like. Make sure you didn't forget anything later on our way out."
The cadets saluted and went to roam around, erupting in boisterous and excited chatter, while Lance set his own empty cup beside Pidge's , and decided it was the perfect time to ask her about something that had been bugging him for years. He turned around… to see Pidge right behind him with a deadpan expression on her face.
"AAHH! I mean—how'd you do it?—I mean—wait, no—I mean, yes—no—I mean—" his stammering stopped abruptly when she held his chin, squishing his cheeks and lips in the process, and pulled him over to one of the stationed chairs in the room.
With her head now level with his (how she hated her small stature, not even puberty did much to help), she let go of his chin and crossed her arms over her small chest (again, thanks puberty), while Lance caressed his face. She rolled her eyes.
"You can stop that now, your face is fine. I didn't even hold it that hard!" he glared at her.
"You underestimate your own power" she just scoffed.
"Whatever. So what was the actual reason for you coming here?"
"Nothing much" he grumbled.
"I don't consider the fact that you decided to 'see me' during class hours as 'nothing much'"
He casted his eyes to the floor, curling in his lips with a slouch. Pidge bent down and pointed her face up at his, locking into his gaze with determination.
"I'll ask you again, what is your actual reason for coming here?"
If looks could kill, Lance would have been on the verge of death by now with how intense Pidge was staring into his eyes. For a brief moment, he considered hiding away in a corner and cowering in the shadows with what he was about to reveal, but instead dismissed the thought and stared back with equal intensity. He took a deep breath…
"When your dad and Matt… were presumed… dead…"
"Yeah?... "
"Did you ever doubt yourself… ever believed that it was true?" Pidge froze.
"I mean-," he realized that he shouldn't have asked her that, "Never mind, you—you don't have to answer that! Th—that was a stupid question!" he stood up, panicking, and turned to leave the room.
Pidge didn't stop him.
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
He knew he shouldn't have asked her that question. He knew.
"Ugh," he groaned, banging his head multiple times on the side of the IGF-Atlas' hull.
Respected aircraft or not, the Atlas could knock some sense into him anytime.
BZZZZ BZZZZ BZZZZ
Lance yelped in shock as he heard the buzz of the alarm system, the red lights blaring from inside. He saw the cadets scrambling out of the entrance as the ramp lifted itself up. The IGF-Atlas was on lockdown. A breach. There were at least 20 cadets all in all. There were only 16 that got out. And Pidge. Pidge, Pidge, Pidge! Katie! She was still in there! Agh, and he didn't have his bayard! Of all the—nevermind. He shouldn't be panicking right now. He had to get in there.
"You!" he pointed at one of the alien cadets.
"Me?!"
"Yeah, you! There's still four more of you in there! Do you have any idea where they are?"
"Um, last I remember there were three in the bio lab and one heading towards the main contr—"
"Yeah, thanks!" Lance wasted no time in running to the ship.
The ramp was nearly shut closed. He had to think fast. Ummm, maybe something he could use to propel himself in. The crates! Yes, the crates! He ran towards the nearest stack of crates and did a frontflip, using his foot and the momentum to propel himself against them, backflipping into the gap right before it closed shut.
Pidge was… shocked. Like, really shocked.
She could tell he was having problems with moving on from Allura's death, even if it seemed like he didn't. She knew he'd ask for advice from her (to which she would have responded with an 'Ask Keith'), because it was quite obvious that he hadn't. Or maybe he'd ask for a favor he couldn't ask Hunk because he was too busy. But she never would've expected he'd start with the one question she hadn't asked herself in years. The one she was once too afraid to answer, or at least she thought. When she snapped out of her daze, Lance had already left. Dang it. She should probably go and apologize.
She was about to press the button and open the door, when someone had already opened it. It was Cadet Harry Griffin.
"Griffin? What are you doing he—" smack.
Pidge was suddenly sent flying across the room, landing on her side. Her glasses skidding across the floor, fortunately unharmed. Then Harry screamed, a creature flying out from his mouth. The same creature Honerva had once used to manipulate the Alteans into her control. Then he crumpled to the floor, unconscious. The last thing that Pidge saw was the creature trying to breach the casing that held the crystal, before everything tuned black.
Thanks to the emergency toolkits which were strategically placed throughout the ship, Lance was able to get the cadets out by using a wrench to smash the glass. Two of which were Mallory Kinkade and Jerry Griffin.
"M-m-m-m-my brother… w-w-we have to help him"
"No. I know you want to help him, but you have to escape with the others"
"But—"
"No! Now listen to me; This is a schematic of the Atlas," he held up a small holographic device, "Even on lockdown, the ship has secret escape routes to the emergency exits and escape pods. Use this to find the nearest ones, and if whatever was able to bypass security and put this place on lockdown takes it over, use the pods. Now go!"
"NO! You don't understand! I know about the dark creature that that Honer-something used to control the Alteans! There was one in the bio lab and it possessed Harry! It made him lock us in here and it's probably what caused the lockdown!"
"WHAT?! Alright, you're coming with me, kid! I'm gonna need an extra couple of hands or two if we're gonna get outta here! Anyone else?"
Mallory stepped forward.
"I can help stabilize the crystal if the creature affects it in some way"
Then the Olkarion cadet stepped forward.
"Miss Holt may be in danger since she had been in the control room this whole time. I may be able to wake both her and Harry as they are most likely unconscious at the moment. I'd rather not wait as there is the possibility of the dark creature possessing one of them. It will take time and a large portion of my energy will be depleted, but not enough to knock me unconscious"
"Alright then, let's go!"
A loud bang reverberated from the opposite side of the doors and alerted the creature. It was having a difficult time with getting through the crystal's casing. It had to get in now before the others did.
BANG
Almost there…
BANG
Almost…
BANG
It was in.
One final bang came from the door as it was bashed open.
Lance and the cadets spotted the crystal as it began to turn a dark red and purple.
They were too late.
They could only watch in pure horror as the IGF-Atlas was being taken over.
A rumble sounded throughout the base as a black and white hole appeared above the IGF-Atlas, sucking it in, and just before it was wholly sucked up, a pod zipped through the hole. Then the portal was gone.
Admiral Iverson went to check the pod and found four cadets, one asleep and three shaking very heavily.
No Pidge. No Lance. No IGF-Atlas. All three disappeared into thin air.