Prompt: ( theeffar ) Can I request some Keith and Pidge gen fic? About anything really. They're just never the main characters for anything! I NEED BONDING
A/N: It's been forever since you requested this, my dear, but it's only because you know me well and know what a blast I would have writing this particular team up! I hope you enjoy it and hope you don't mind that I stole your well crafted joke from the fanart you drew a while back ; )
Voltron: Legendary Defender and related properties © Dreamworks
story © RenaRoo
Brothers in Ams
"Voltron's breaking apart!"
"How're they able to make that happen–"
"Hold steady! Even if they take us apart, stay in alignment!"
"Guys, my lion's shutting off–"
"Hunk, drift toward Lance–"
"Shiro, bring Voltron toward the castle!"
"Everyone hold on–"
"The momentum's too strong, too–"
"Keith?"
The voice was static-filled, but definable enough. By the time Keith opened his eyes, he was already aware that the voice over the communicator in his helmet was Pidge.
"If you can hear me, I need you to wake up and tell me what you see, because you're the only frequency that I can get a hold of right now and I'm kind of tired of talking to myself." She hesitated before continuing. "I mean, it's entirely possible for me to do it. I can keep it up if need be. I have a lot of thoughts and all. Wouldn't be the first time I talked myself through a few problems. I'd just rather have someone to talk to rather than myself. And if you're alive that'd be assuring, too, and all."
Aching all over, Keith rolled his head slowly and realized he had been unconscious in his seat in his lion. The power was off, but his head was throbbing enough that it was probably a good thing that he didn't have a thousand dashboard lights flashing in his face.
"Maybe if I somehow amplify my own frequency and set up the lion at a different point with a known frequency line, I can use the three to triangulate Keith's location–"
"I think you want someone to talk at more than to," Keith groaned as he pulled himself out of his seat.
"Keith! You're alive! Great, that's one less thing to worry about," Pidge said, relief filling her every word.
"You don't disagree," Keith mused, walking his way out of the lion's cockpit.
"I'm grasping onto the positives for dear life," Pidge confirmed.
"You heard from anyone else?" Keith asked, stepping out of the lion and immediately sinking to his knees in mushy swamp. Reflexively, he reached up and set his helmet to a full mask, filtering the air.
"We're the only ones who landed in this direction, and considering the thickness of the atmosphere, there's a possibility that our communications are limited," Pidge explained.
Looking up, Keith scratched at his helmet. "I'm seeing a lot of canopy. How do you know that the atmosphere's thick?"
"I observed it while we were tumbling through it," Pidge said casually. "When I think we're all about to die, I've found it's easier to make observations of our surroundings rather than focus on approaching death."
"Neat trick," Keith mused, continuing to walk forward. "Listen, Pidge, the Red Lion is completely powered off, so I'm going to have to meet you on foot."
"Same with the Green Lion," Pidge replied. "Of course, if something was able to pull Voltron apart… Well I hope it's better than it looks."
Keith shook his head slightly. "Is it ever better than it looks for us?" he asked as he started pressing forward through the sludge and slime. "I'm still waiting on that description of your surroundings, Pidge."
"Right," Pidge answered. "Well. There's a lot of swamp and–" there was the sound of a splash. "Ew. It's, like, up to my waist."
Unable to help the smirk, Keith produced the sword from his bayard and began slashing through the thicker undergrowth. "Fortunately, for me, that's only to my knees."
"Hardy har har," Pidge replied, sloshing forward. "I must be somewhere deeper in the marshes than you are."
"Sure," Keith joked before grunting as he slashed through more plants. "How thick are the thickets where you are?"
"Um, there aren't any," Pidge replied. "See, I'm in a different place than you are. I'm approaching some trees so I think I'm going to climb and try to get a vantage point. We might be in different areas, but if I'm right about our trajectories, we're within a reasonable distance of each other–"
As he hacked and slashed forward, Keith saw the glow of eyes in the distance – artificial, like flashlights. And behind them were the makings of facemask that matched the designs and colors of the beast that had taken apart Voltron.
"You do that, Pidge," Keith ordered before the creature turned and raced off. "I've just caught sight of someone who has something to do with that monster we were fighting. I'm going after them."
Trying to run, Keith jerked forward, only to find his pace set to below a crawl, the marshy waters of the swamp working against him.
"What? Wait! Keith, don't you think we should find each other and the others first–"
Letting out a yell, Keith turned on his suit's boosters and leaped out of the sludge, using the trees to kick off of as he continued the pursuit and worked to avoid losing the trail of the creature completely.
"Wait! Keith! Keith! I need you to stay where you are if I'm going to find you!" Pidge tried yelling into the radio only to receive nothing on the other end. With aggravation, she hung her head and shook it. "Ugh. Great. Now we have to deal with Keith being Keith, too. Just what I need in the middle of a disaster."
She glanced down to her legs and shifted a few times, raising her legs up out of the goopy swamp water as much as she could before getting aggravated with the friction.
"Ew, this place is just rank," she declared before looking over to the Green Lion.
Without being powered on, the Lion stared forward, not so different from the way Pidge had first found the robot what seemed like ages ago.
"You go ahead and rest up, girl," Pidge offered, as if they had a choice. "I'll try and figure out what's up with Keith in the meantime." She then glanced back to the mucky swamp and struggled to free her legs. "If… only… I… could… get… moving first…. Agh!"
Pulling to much against the swamp, Pidge sent herself flying back, landing on her back in the swamp. She stared up at the canopy above dully in aggravation just before noticing that, however slowly, she was beginning to sink into the yucky, gummy swamps.
"Oh no," she muttered just as the viscous liquid began to cover over her helmet's visor. She struggled, making herself sink faster just before dipping under the surface and hitting the muddy ground beneath.
Even with her helmet on, Pidge could only see a few feet in any direction thanks to the murkiness of the swamp.
Annoyed, she kicked off from the bottom and broke free to the surface again, covered in sticky swamp goop but free from the knees up at least.
"I'm really not a fan of this place," she said, raising her arms and shoulders up in a vain attempt to let some of the sludge drip off of her. "I think it might be out to get me."
With a deep breath, Pidge shook herself from head to toe – or at least as she could manage with half her legs still submerged.
"Okay, Pidge, think," she said to herself, putting a finger to her chin and tapping steadily. "You have to move fast to catch up with whatever Keith's doing. And you're in a swamp that doesn't know the meaning of the word fast. So what's the solution here?"
About at that moment, Pidge noticed a creature – brightly colored in stark contrast to the surrounding swamps. She blinked at the lizard-like thing with its multiple legs and watched as it climbed around on the tree nearest Pidge. Using some of its multiple legs, the creature began pulling twigs from the low hanging branches and tossing them into the swamp where they landed with a plop and stayed in place.
"Huh?" Pidge wondered out loud, watching the creature more curiously.
The lizard-like creature seemed to watch the line made by the sticks floating in the goopy swamp, measuring them up before finally leaping from the tree to the sticks and running across them to the next tree.
Pidge watched for a moment before feeling an epiphany take over. "Ah, I get it!" she said before pulling out her bayard and taking aim for the nearest tree. She lined up her shot, squinting just slightly, before firing it off for the nearest tree branch.
The angular katar flew across the distance before wrapping snuggly around the limb. Pidge tugged a few times before feeling confident in the line.
"Alright," she said, securing her grip and adjusting her own angle despite the sludge of the swamp tugging against the motion. "Looks good, and," she said before pulling with all her might.
The first yank got her nothing but resistance. She glared at the limb then tried another time, pulling with all her might, gritting her teeth. After a few increasingly more erratic tugs, Pidge took a break to lower head and breathe deep.
Then she took notice of the lizard staring at her from the other tree.
"Hey, don't judge me! It's your idea," she told the creature before yanking the branch a last time and pulling it free of the tree with a resounding crack. The blackened bark splintered and fell with a resounding SPLOOSH into the swamp before ultimately floating.
Excited, Pidge threw up her arms as the bayard recoiled to its handle. "Whoo!" she called out.
With the branch close enough, Pidge scuttled her way to it then grabbed onto the wood in order to hoist herself up. While the sludgy waters resisted her leaving, they weren't given much choice in the matter and Pidge sat atop the branch with a sigh of relief for a moment.
"You know, as hard as that was, I probably still shouldn't have been able to pull such a big branch loose," she said, looking toward the source of the break. "It's almost like the wood is weak here. Unhealthy."
The lizard stuck its tongue out.
Standing up, Pidge tried to swipe the sludge clinging to her waist and legs off. "Yeah, yeah, I hear ya. Gotta find Keith first. Hopefully." She turned on her boosters and leaped from the branch to the next log. "Good thing I spent all that time in Hunk's room playing Frogger!"
Keith leaped to each launching point with his teeth gritted and his bayard at the ready. The creature was moving fast, but Keith had no intention of letting it out of his sight.
"Come on," he gritted out, swiping with his bayard the closer he got. The creature narrowly avoided the swipe. "I know you're linked to that thing that attacked us! Stay still because I'm not going to let you run!"
The more he gritted out, the more the creature seemed determined to bob and weave out of his grasp. It was making Keith's swiping more erratic and taking his concentration more and more off of the firmness of his landing.
"Come on!" he growled out with another swipe just before landing on a moss covered log that was not secure.
Keith's eyes widened as he felt the lack of traction beneath his feet. "Oh no," he managed to get out, but not before he instinctively tried to stomp down his other foot for leverage on the same unfirm point of contact.
Both feet slipping, Keith tumbled forward toward the ground with a loud help, the entire thing only made faster by the fact that he had his boosters still on.
One moment he was falling, the next he was face first sinking into the swamp, unable to see more than a foot in front of his face.
After taking a moment to gather his bearings, Keith thrust himself out of the sludgy water head first and shook off what slime remained on him.
With an exaggerated sweeping motion, Keith thrust his bayard around him in the meaningless hope that his pursuit was still close enough to be affected by the swings. Though, of course, it was far from the case, and instead Keith was left panting and looking around with nothing to show for his efforts.
"Wow, that was something."
Keith spun around as much as he could in the swamp to look for the origin of the voice, but when he did he didn't see anything at eye level.
"Up here," the voice beckoned.
Looking up into the trees, Keith could see that the armored creature he had been chasing was balanced on the limb of a tree, looking down at him through a mask with three glowing red optics where assumedly eyes should be.
"What's your connection with that thing that took down Voltron!?" Keith demanded, struggling to pull the rest of himself out of the swamp and fumbling the entire time. "Tell me!"
"My connection," the creature said cryptically, "is everything."
Then, the creature leaped down from the branch, falling in a way that somehow seemed to slow as their extended leg reached toward the surface of the swamp. The waters stirred as the tip of the foot's claws touched the water, but as soon as it touched, the creature took off, running on top of the swamp water with exceptional speed, never sinking beneath the depths.
Still stuck in the muck himself, Keith slammed his fist down against the surface of the murky waters. "How the hell's that fair?" he demanded in a growl.
"Keith!"
Surprised, Keith turned and saw none other than Pidge leaping from one bit of foliage to another and the occasional use of floating debris, intermediately utilizing her bayard as a grappling hook whenever need be.
She finally landed nearby, breathless but excited seemingly to be reunited. "There you are! I've been trailing you since we broke communication. Which, for the record, is not smart given the situation."
Rising out of the swamp, Keith wavered unevenly on his feet. "Pidge," he said plainly.
"Keith," she replied in turn.
"That thing I was chasing – it had something to do with the monster that tore apart Voltron," he explained to her, using his own bayard to tear through the plant life in the direction the creature had disappeared in.
"What? Seriously?" Pidge asked, leaping to the next tree. "You're sure?"
"Pretty sure," Keith answered. "It said its connection was everything. How do you take that?"
"Sounds profound," Pidge responded. "Guess we'll have to get clarification."
"Sounds like a plan to me," Keith smirked just before watching Pidge leap to another bit of debris. "What… What are you doing?"
"Staying out of the sludge, taking a note from the locals," Pidge explained. "Helps sometimes to take a hint from your surroundings."
"Yeah," Keith said, jumping to grab a hanging limb of the nearest tree. He then turned on his boosters. "Pidge, follow my lead, I think I have a quicker way of getting around here."
"You do?" she asked just before he released his grip on the limb.
Without waiting for his feet to meet the top of the thick swamp, Keith started running mid-air. With the aid of his booster jetpack, and maintaining a high speed, there was just enough surface tension for him to maintain a solid run.
Just like the creature, Keith was running on water.
"Yeah, no thanks! I'll catch up with you when you lose traction," Pidge called after him.
"I'm starting to remember why I always didn't bother with jocks before," Pidge grunted to herself, slinging herself from landing spot to landing spot.
Keith was completely out of her line of sight, but the path he was making hacking and slashing through the environment was simple enough to follow. It didn't take a considerable amount of genius to follow through with his hotheadedness, after all.
Though his words did leave some intrigue for her to ponder along the way.
"Connection is… everything…" she repeated thoughtfully.
Jumping to a solid stump, Pidge stopped and got to her feet, putting a hand to her chin as she balanced back and forth on her feet. "That's a very particular phrase to just be throwing around for no reason. Really makes me think that there's something… larger at play there… just what could it be, though? I doubt Keith came up with something so cryptic… I mean. It's Keith. Which means he heard it… and what would that have to do with the thing that took us on as Voltron… man that fight wasn't– Wait. Connection is everything." Pidge's eyes widened as she snapped her fingers. "Voltron. That can't be a coincidence. And it can't be a coincidence that Keith and I are so close where we can't find everyone else– that means I need to catch up with him. Ugh."
She hit her palms against the sides of her helmet and shook her head. "I need to get Keith to cooperate with a theory. Which is like an unstoppable force meeting and unmovable object. Ugh. Guide me, Einstein, Tesla, and Curie. I need perseverance. Like badly."
There was a rustle of leaves around her that drew Pidge's attention from her queries.
Alarmed, she lifted her bayard and got into a defensive position before looking around worriedly. She glared at all the area around her, the foliage rustled and moved like there was a breeze – but there wasn't one.
Suddenly, glowing eyes peered out at her from the swampy darkness.
"A connection takes more than one moving part," a curiously amused voice said when suddenly, designs began joining the glowing eyes, showing off the very unique designs that had been on the attacker they encountered as Voltron.
Pidge straightened up in alarm. "Is this what Keith was talking about!? Uh… That means you're probably not friendly. Wait, then why didn't you attack – how're you standing in this swamp? Uh–"
The creature held up a weapon that looked remarkably like Keith's blade.
"Nevermind. I guess there's always time to attack people if you really work for it," Pidge laughed nervously, holding up her hands. "But… I mean, come on, this isn't really a way to get whatever your point is across to us."
"It is," the creature assured her.
"Again with being cryptic…" Pidge began to mutter just before the creature dove forward toward her. She released a yelp of surprise before leaping out of the way and readying her bayard, shooting the grappling hook out and toward the attacker.
The green bayard was deflected by the creature's sword but in doing so, the creature allowed Pidge to wrap her bayard around the blade.
Smirking, Pidge let out a growl and yanked as tightly as possible on the bayard to pull the creature forward.
It worked… at first. But soon the creature regained control and yanked back.
"Uh oh," Pidge managed to get out just before being pulled forward into the sludge of the swamps. She could feel the viscous waters around her and knew she was going to be even more stuck than before.
A problem that only got worse when her feet touched the ground and she realized only the top of her helmet grazed the surface of the waters.
"Oh, no," Pidge muttered to herself, waving around her arms sluggishly in the waters, reaching out for anything. Which, unfortunately, ended with her hand wrapping around an ankle right above her. "Crap."
The creatures clawed hands wrapped around Pidge's wrist and yanked her out of the swamp with ease. Its blade was right at Pidge's neck before she could even think to act in retaliation.
"A grip is only as strong as its hand," the creature said hauntingly before beginning to hold back the blade for a jab. "The hold of the hilt is best in both hands."
Pidge gasped, eyes wide. This was not how she expected her adventures with Voltron to come to an end.
Keith couldn't believe that the creature had lost him. And not only had it lost him, but it had lost him again despite his best efforts. With a roar, he ripped through more of the vegetation of the swamps, allowing his balance to waver and send him from his high speed racing across the swamplands to stumbling face forward into the murky lagoon.
At least his helmet was keeping him from getting any of the disgusting waters against his skin.
Annoyed with life, he allowed himself to sink slightly into the swamps before pushing back up and emerging with a long growl.
"I'm getting really tired of this!" he shouted into the nothing around him.
There was a flutter of noise from the swamp around him, but there was little response outside of it. As was his go to, Keith took it as fate's mockery.
"Damn it," he groaned, sinking back some into the swamp's waters, beginning to lose his steam. But he didn't sink far before there was a hideous and familiar scream – absolute terror encapsulated in voice alone.
Keith knew that voice and it sent a tremor throughout him. His eyes widened and he straightened up. "Pidge!?" he cried out, only to get more of the scream. "Hold on! Pidge! Hold on! I'm coming!"
Swirling back and forth, Keith concentrated on where the screams were originating from and then kicked up with his boosters on again.
Like a madman, he raced toward his teammate's cries for help. He hacked and slashed at all that was in his way, raging forward with the heat and anger of the Red Lion itself.
By the time he reached the clearing, he knew what was causing Pidge to cry out as she was. The creature – bizarre and inhuman as it were, held her up, its own blade dripping with blood, mixing it with the brown, sludgy swamp water as Pidge's left should bled, cut deep.
"Let go of her!" Keith snarled as he dove forward, blade first.
The creature did not seem surprised, nor did it let go of Pidge, holding her higher up by her collar – holding her away from Keith like a plaything – while blocking Keith's strike with its own blade.
"A helping hand goes a long way," the creature said, defending itself from strike after strike Keith threw at it with little to no pause.
"Shut up!" Keith growled, continuing to hack and slash, losing form faster and faster with each strike.
"Strength is found in cooperation with the left," the creature continued before changing its footing and slashing Keith's unguarded right shoulder, "and the right."
Searing pain ripped through his shoulder nearly as quickly as the blade itself, and Keith went tumbling into a nearby tree. His free hand immediately reached up for his arm and he could help but shake at the surprise of the attack.
"I get it," Pidge mumbled just loud enough of Keith to hear before she grabbed the wrist of the hand holding her and then swung out with her own bayard – wrapping it around the sword of their attacker. "Keith! Keith snap out of it and hurry! We have to work together!"
Keith looked up, confused, and saw the opening Pidge was referring to.
"We're both the hands!" she shouted out.
"Stronger together, all of it's connected," Keith repeated before blasting forward with a kick off from the tree. He let out a resounding yell, ignoring the pain of his arm as he swung out viciously and struck the creature that had been tormenting them.
When the creature was properly struck, the marking which had lit up its body and mask flickered out. There was a strangely respectful gaze it turned on them instead before letting Pidge down into the swamp with a slight thud.
Warily, Keith removed his bayard and watched as the creature bowed low and slowly backed away from them both.
"The lesson has been learned," it said lowly before disappearing.
Keith and Pidge stood together for a moment before Pidge slung slime off her shoulders. "Well, on the list of things we could have learned easier from a greeting card," she mumbled sourly.
"Pidge," Keith sighed, "I'm sorry I didn't listen to you in… any of that. I should have."
"Duh," Pidge countered. When she looked back to him, though, there was a soft smile on her lips. "But I guess I can forgive it. Thanks for saving me."
Keith rubbed at his neck. "So, about that plan – triangulating us and the lions to find the others."
Pidge grinned back and pulled out a communicator. "Sounds like quite the plan to me, Red Lion!"