Title: Pidge Takes Us Home
Summary: video log of the paladins going home.
HKLPSHKLPS
Video Call One.
'"Video log…" Pidge looked at the board in her hand. "Uh, seventy-four. Attempting to call and computer hack through email."
She rubbed her eyes, and moved away from the video camera. She sat down in between two computers facing one. She tapped on the keyboard in front of her. When the computer behind her beeped, she reached back and pressed a button then quickly turned back to the one she was working on. She typed frantically, with each press of the buttons her eyes lit up. She glanced back at the computer behind her, before moving them side by side.
Her hands worked quickly on one computer, while her eyes kept glancing at the other. When the second computer beeped again, she typed a bit more on the first computer and then paused to hit a button on the second.
She stopped all together and stared at her work.
"I think it worked…" She heard her voice echo back to her from the second computer. "Audio and visual working in the output, what about…"
She tapped a few more buttons on the first computer, watching both computer screens. She sat back and sighed.
"I guess it still needs work… but I can call out!" She got back to typing.'
Video Chat 1: Katie Holt to Colleen Holt.
The laptop beeped. Colleen jumped a bit, confused by the noise, and then even more so by the words "Encrypted Call Incoming" flashing across the screen. Her thoughts flashed to her husband and kids, one of them might be trying to get through. She clicked accept on the call.
The mouse cursor moved quickly on its own, while a video popped up. Suddenly she could see Katie's face, Katie's eyes brightened a bit.
"Holy mother of quiznak. It worked!" Katie said excitedly. "Well, it worked to connect. I know you are there, Mom, but I don't have audio visual working on my end, so think of this as live tv. You can see and hear me, but I can't see you. I just can't believe it worked!"
Colleen's hand went the her heart and she had tears in her eyes. Her daughter was alive after all.
"So, Mom, I know you are probably super worried about me, but I fine. I found Matt and while we aren't together now, we are both looking for Dad. The thing is we are in space. And I am part of a team that is working together to save the universe. I am still excited that it worked!" Katie smiled brightly before yawning.
Colleen laughed a bit. She noticed the dark circles under her daughter's eyes and the messier than usual hair. She looked so much like her brother.
"I'm going to work on the audio visual on my end so that next time I call I can see you too. Oh and I hacked your computer and saved this video for you. You'll see it. Anyhow, I love you, I will call again soon." The call ended.
Colleen clicked to minimize the screen and let out a shrill sound somewhere between a laugh and a scream. Katie had managed to change the background of the computer. It was a close up picture of Matt's face, his eyes were crossed and on the bridge of his nose sat a folder icon titled Video Log.
She clicked the folder and spent the rest of her night watching through the videos.
HKLPSHKLPS
"...Pidge? Pi-idge? Pidge? Hey, wakey wakey." Lance's voice called, rousing Pidge out of her sleep. "If you don't wake up, I am going to jump on you."
"Lance, I wouldn't do that. Unless you want a bayard in your spleen." Keith voiced.
Pidge slowly opened her eyes. Blinking into focus, she adjusted the glasses that had gone askew on her nose, she saw Lance's smiling face immediately in her view. She smiled back briefly, before jumping up and shouting.
"Lance! Oh! You have to see this!" She quickly rushed to her keyboard. "Keith, go get Hunk and Shiro!"
Keith left, and almost immediately after she shoved the second computer in Lance's hands. He sat down next to her.
"Uh, Pidge?" Lance questioned unsure what she was up to.
"Just click the button when it beeps." Pidge said excitedly.
The computer in Lance's hand started beeping. He made a startled noise and pressed the button. "It's you."
Pidge frowned, but nodded. "It still only works that much. Quiznak." Her voice echoed from the computer in Lance's hands. "At least it is better than nothing. Maybe Hunk can help me with it."
She pressed some more buttons on the computer in front of her. "Pidge, you aren't on this computer anymore?" Lance said.
"I meant to do that." Pidge said, still pressing buttons.
The rest of the Paladins came in. "So, what did you need us for, Pidge?"
Pidge turned to them excited. "I transfixed the communicator mods from the transponders and wired them to the cameras here and in the computer. And with an automatic encryption message generated each time, we are able to call wherever we need or want to!"
Lance, Keith, and Shiro looked at her stunned and confused. Hunk seemed to be piecing it together, "Wherever, we can call wherever we need to?"
Pidge started nodding.
"That means we can contact the Blades of Marmora and our other allies without worrying that the Galra forces are going to intercept the transmission." Keith said, Shiro started nodding in agreement.
Pidge held up her hand, "We can already do that. It means we can call Earth. We can call home."
The other Paladins gasped. They stood in silence for a moment, except Lance who was still sitting, a shocked expression on his face.
"We can call home?! We can talk to our families! I can't wait to see everyone, I think I am going to start crying." Hunk said, with a slight crack in his voice.
"Well, right now, I only have it set up as a one way communicator, I am still working on the communication back. But that just means we can at least let our families know we are alive. So who wants to try it?" Pidge exclaimed quickly.
Hunk cheered. "I do! Oh wait, better let Lance do it first. I will just blubber my way through a call home."
Lance snapped out of his shocked state. "We can actually call home?" When Pidge nodded excitedly, Lance smiled. "Does it work? Did you try it already?"
"I called my mom with it. Like I said it's only one way for now, but it's a start at least." Pidge said.
The Paladins all started talking at once. They managed to get setup and soon Lance was in front of the camera.
Video Chat 2: Lance McClain to Melanie McClain.
The McClain house was its usual loudness. The family bustling about preparing dinner, they almost didn't notice the computer beeping for the incoming call. Lexi, Lance's oldest sister, noticed it first.
"Hey mamá, there is a call, estoy respondiendo." She shouted before pressing the button. She screamed a bit when she saw Lance. The room around her quieted down, and everyone gathered around the computer.
Lance was looking off screen. "Is it on yet? Oh ok." He turned his face towards the camera. "Hey Mamá, Papá, everyone. I miss you. I know me disappearing probably was hard on you, but I am ok. I am in space, fighting the good fight and protecting the universe. Oh no," His face screwed up in frustration, and he looked off-screen again. "Pidge, can we do that again, I probably shouldn't have mentioned the fighting."
Off-screen a voice came in, "Lance, I told you this is live. We can't start over."
Lance gulped, looking back into the camera. "Well, I guess since it's live, we'll just keep going. It's only a one way call, so it's like tv. But don't worry, I know exactly what you would say if I could actually hear you Mamá." He smiled.
Lexi looked at her mother, and saw tears in her eyes. Lance started talking in a fake high pitched voice. "Lance Francisco McClain. How dare you disappear? ¿Dónde has estado? Oh, estaba tan preocupado. I missed you. Why didn't you call sooner? You could have been killed! Gracias a Dios que estás bien. Come home soon, or I will come up there after you!" Lance laughed. The room quietly chuckled, worried they would miss anything if they laughed too loudly.
Lance continued talking in his normal voice next. "Disappearing like I did wasn't my intent. It is just one thing led to another and now I am in space. I will be home as soon as I can, but right now that won't be an option for a while."
He paused and frowned. He suddenly smiled again. "Don't worry too much about me being up here. I have friends that are practically my family. They have my back and we protect each other no matter what." He backed up from the camera.
He stayed in the shot, like he knew how important it was that his family could still see him. The camera moved a bit. "This is Katie, but we call her Pidge! She is an expert in computers and computer-based technology. She is the one that set this up so I can talk to you." The camera showed Lance smiling next to a small brown-haired person with glasses in front of a computer.
Lance moved away from Pidge and Hunk was suddenly in the shot. Lance threw an arm around Hunk's shoulders. "I know you have met Hunk from my time at the Garrison."
Hunk waved. "Hi, Lance's familia!" A chuckle spread through the family.
Lance and Hunk parted and Lance shared the camera with a tall man with short black hair with a white poof hanging in front of his forehead. "This is Shiro. He's the leader of our team. He's kind of like our space dad, but way cooler!"
Shiro smiled into the camera. Next Lance shared the camera with a familiar looking male around Lance's age. "And this mullet-head, is Keith, my arch-rival!" Keith rolled his eyes, but still smiled.
Lance's family shared a knowing smile and look, Lance had talked about Keith a lot. It hadn't taken them long to figure out the so-called rivalry was Lance's way of saying he really liked Keith.
Lance focused the camera back on him. "This is my new family, and I can't wait for you to meet them in person."
Off-screen, Pidge's voice was heard again. "Hey, Lance. I am really sorry, but…"
Lance glanced over, the family could see his eyes glistening. He swallowed hard and nodded. He looked back to the camera. "I guess that's my cue. Like I said though, I am fighting the good fight. I will be home as soon as I can. Te volveré a llamar pronto. Te amo mamá y papá."
The call ended. Lance's family started hugging each other and crying.
Lexi exited out of the video call screen and giggled a bit. A couple of little green doodles that looked like an outline of his friend Pidge were circling a folder that was labeled Video Chats. She opened up the folder there was one document and a video. She clicked the document first.
'Pidge here. I took the liberty of hacking your computer to record the video chat from Lance and then to save it. Enjoy!'
Lexi smiled. "Look, Mamá." She then clicked into the video, and smiled when it was the same video they had just seen live. She knew that it would be watched many times until they heard from him again.
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Lance sighed heavily when the call ended. When he looked over to the rest of his teammates, he had tears going down his face.
Hunk definitely looked like he was about to cry. "How did you do that? You couldn't even see them or hear them, but you didn't cry even once."
Lance flinched. "I couldn't let them see that. It's bad enough that they haven't seen me in almost a year, they don't need to see me crying about it too."
Hunk started crying then. He wrapped an arm around Lance's shoulder and pulled him into a hug. Lance's shoulders shook, but his crying couldn't be heard. Pidge, Keith, and Shiro stepped closer and each placed a comforting hand on Lance's shoulders.
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Video chat 10 : Katie Holt to Colleen Holt, McClain Family, Talia Savea.
"Pidge here. The team doesn't know I setup the camera," Pidge said quietly. "I hacked in again. I am trying to get it so that it automatically saves the videos to the files I made. I haven't been able to get the receiving AV to connect on our end yet. Oh, but I did set it up that it is sending to multiple accounts."
Pidge move away from the camera, revealing the room as a lounge area. Shiro and Keith were playing a game that looked like chess, but every so often a game piece would start smoking until it was moved. Pidge sat down on one of the couches as the door opened and Lance and Hunk came in.
"Pidge! You wanna see Hunk and I reenact our last mission?" Lance said excitedly.
Pidge made a quick glance to the camera and nodded. "Sure, that would be great!"
Lance and Hunk laughed. "I'll be you and you be me." Lance said with a smile. He changed his voice a bit. "Oh no! The Q'ilmark is going to bite me! Lance, what do I do?"
Hunk also changed his voice and then struck a pose. "Chillax, my main man Hunk! It's like twenty times smaller than you, you'll be fine!" Hunk changed his pose a bit. "Flair and sass, that's my motto!"
Pidge, Keith, and Shiro laughed. Lance smiled. "But La-ance, chihuahuas are twenty times smaller than me too, and those things can leave quite the bad bite."
"You worry too much! It will be fine-agh!" Hunk suddenly fell to his knees, and mocked fighting off a small animal.
"Lance! Oh no, there are more Q'ilmark than we anticipated." Keith, Shiro, and Pidge laughed. Lance changed his voice back to his normal. "And then we were just covered in these small little creatures that just wanted attention. They were like puppies that just wanted to play."
"It turned out that the Q'ilmark were able to help us find the Kwaaera that we needed." Hunk smiled. "Now we can make cake!"
Everyone laughed. Lance sat down next to Keith and watched them continue their game. The conversation turned to food and their plans for the afternoon.
Pidge got up and went to the camera. "Until next time. We miss you."
HKLPSHKLPS
The call ended.
At the Holt house, Colleen moved the latest video to an external hard drive. If her family had taught her anything about computers, it was to backup everything you wanted to keep. Katie made it easy for her to get it started, even from so far away. The calls had been coming every couple of days and it made her happy to have frequent videos.
HKLPSHKLPS
The call ended.
The McClain house had started a patrol on the computer, so that they would never miss a call. And for when they did get the call, they would make sure to label it so everyone else could see it. They had moved the old videos Lance had sent from his time at the Garrison into the same folder as the newer videos. And each of them had been watched at least a hundred times by each member of the family.
HKLPSHKLPS
The call ended.
The Savea family gathered around and savoured the moments they got to see Hunk. Like the McClain's, they saved the old videos with the new ones. Talia would do the best she could to await her son coming home.
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Video Chat 34 : Lance McClain to Melanie McClain.
"Hey, Mamá. It's me." Lance said. He chuckled, and scratched the back of his neck. "Of course you can see that. I have been helping Pidge a bit with the computer stuff here, so I started this one by myself. I am glad she got all of them set to record."
Melanie was actually on patrol around the computer. It was late and she had almost fallen asleep waiting, but she knew her son would call again.
"Mamá, I have a favor to ask. I need you to open our home to others. I have a feeling that when we get through this it will be easier for us all to go to one place." Lance looked down for a bit.
He picked up a picture. "Mamá, this is Mrs. Colleen Holt. She is Pidge's mom. She is all alone now and probably needs someone to help keep her sane while her family is in space."
He looked at the camera and smiled weakly. "If you haven't already been in contact with Hunk's family, I would like it if you could. Moral support never hurt anybody."
Melanie smiled. Her son was always thinking of others. She hadn't even thought of reaching out to the other parents, but now she wouldn't forget it.
"Now, Mamá, the last two are going to be a bit more difficult." Lance sighed. "Mrs. Holt might be able to help with Shiro's dad, Mr. Takashi. He is military, and a friend of the Holt family."
Lance scratched the back of his neck. He looked away from the camera. When he looked back, Melanie saw tears in his eyes. He looked so sad, she just wanted hold her baby close and never let the world hurt him again.
"The last person I need you to find, Mamá, is Keith's dad. Keith hasn't seen him since he was little. I can only give you a name, Ryan Kagone. I imagine Keith looks a bit like him, but I know that isn't much to go on." Lance's voice shook.
Melanie traced his face on her computer. "You are staying so strong, mi pequeño luchador."
Lance smiled, though his usual cheeriness was gone. "Mamá, I really like this family of mine. I want to make them happy, and this is one of the few ways I know how. So please, Mamá, if you can find them, I just know they will feel stronger."
He glanced off screen, his face was sad, something Melanie never wanted him to be. He looked back at the camera, "I am sorry Mamá, I have to go. I will be fighting the good fight. I promise I will call again soon. Te amo Mamá."
The call ended.
Melanie grabbed a piece of paper and a pen and wrote down the names Lance had given her. She opened up the internet on her computer and looked up the information she could on the others.
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Video Chat 73 : Paladins to Families
"Hey, so here's the deal, we have some good news and some bad news." Lance stood in the middle of the group. Pidge and her brother stood next to him, with Hunk and Keith on the other side. Shiro and the Alteans stood behind the group.
"We'll start with the bad news first." Hunk said.
"Despite having all the genius brains here to help with the communicators, we still haven't been able to get the receiver working." Pidge said, her words sounded a little sad, but her face looked really happy.
Lance had a huge smile on his face as he spoke next. "But we have good news still." He looked at the rest of his group.
Pidge held up her hand and counted down on her fingers, when she reached zero everyone shouted out in unison, "WE ARE COMING HOME!"
Shiro quickly followed it with, "Unfortunately it will only be for a short time."
"But we'll be there in the next few days, like in three or four days." Lance said swinging his arm around Hunk.
Matt spoke then, "We are bringing home a few surprises as well."
The group looked so happy. "We still have details to work over, but we'll be in contact about that soon."
The call ended.
The McClain house started cheering. Melanie had found the parents like Lance had asked. Everyone was now gathered in the living room.
"In three or four days, that is so soon. I will ensure the military is not on the offense when they come, the last thing we want is our children under fire when they come home." Mr. Takashi said. He and Mrs. Holt left the room to discuss details about the military enforcement.
Melanie and Talia hugged, and cried. They would see their children soon.
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Video Chat 74 : Paladins to Families
"Well, if we all take our lions, it will certainly cause more disturbance than we need." Shiro said trying to take command of the conversation.
"We have been at this for hours," Hunk complained.
Lance sat up quickly from lounging on the couch. "I have got it! We leave the castle in orbit, and then send out coordinates that are right outside our towns. We then meet our parents at those locations." Lance paused, the rest of the paladins were nodding along. "I also think we should only take one lion back and I think it should be Blue, because she brought us here, it seems kind of fitting that she would take us home."
The rest of the paladins were quiet for a moment. Until Pidge spoke up, "That's actually a good idea." She was sitting closest to the camera and had been against taking one lion up until now.
"Good ideas, yeah, I have those." Lance said smugly.
The paladins rolled their eyes, and moved on. They started figuring out the locations.
At the McClain house, the families shared a quick look.
"I am not sure what Lance is thinking with that plan, but maybe he has something up his sleeve." Lexi said.
Mrs. Holt nodded "He is the one that asked to bring us together."
"Hey Pidge you are recording this right?" Lance had come closer to the camera.
She nodded. "Yeah, would you be able to shut it down? I want to go work on something with Matt." When Lance nodded, she turned to the camera. "See you soon mom."
The rest of the paladins followed Pidge out of the room to do some packing of their own.
Lance waited until they had all left. He turned to the camera again. "If my plan is going right, all of you are at my parents' ranch, and since I pilot the Blue Lion, I will be able to bring everyone there. It is still a surprise for them, so they are still going to send coordinates and all that. I ask that you ignore these plans and stick to my first one."
Lance looked over his shoulder. "We will be home soon. That is a promise."
The call ended.
Talia smirked, "Well, I guess there is your answer." The rest of the room laughed.
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Video Chat 79 : Paladins to Families
"We are coming in today. If you guys could meet us at the rendezvous points, we would be able to see you that much sooner." Shiro said, a bit overly formal. The camera was focused on him
Lance pushed him out of the way. He winked into the camera. "So we are dropping off Pidge and Matt first, then Shiro and Keith because they want to do something, and then Hunk will get dropped off, and then I will be home."
The camera shook a bit and then refocused on Pidge. "I am going do a video log of us in the lion and I have set the helmets of our suits set to record our return home, and then I can compile them into a video to save for everyone later."
The camera changed hands again. Hunk smiled, "We are going to shut off this one for now. See you in a few hours!" He turned the camera to the rest of the group. They had their hands full with various boxes.
In unison they spoke, "We'll see you soon."
Video Log 2
"So change of plans guys. We are making a quick stop first." Lance voice was heard over a speaker.
The camera panned the people sitting together. Matt and Pidge sat next to the camera, with Shiro and Keith opposite them.
"What?! No, Lance! We have a plan!" Pidge practically screamed.
Lance's laugh was heard over the speaker. "Too late we are already landing. I hope you like the surprise."
A slight bump later and the hatch to the cockpit opened. Lance and Hunk came through. "Before you say anything, one, Mr. Holt hand me the camera, and two, everyone else step outside first. Mr. Holt, if you don't mind, wait for my signal."
When the camera was passed over and everyone had made it outside, Hunk spoke first. "Lance, why are we at your parents' ranch?"
Lance had the camera pointed so that he could get the team and the house. His hand became visible as he pointed to the house. "Because of them."
The door to the house opened and a small, pale woman with short hair stepped out. She was quickly followed by a larger, dark woman with long black hair. Behind her two tall men stepped out, one in a crisp Army service uniform and the other in faded blue jeans, and a faded leather jacket over a flannel shirt.
"I asked for them to come. Surprise!" Lance's voice said. The other Paladins stood a little dumbfounded.
Pidge was the first to move, her mother the second. They closed the gap between each other and soon the rest followed. Then Lance's family came out and waited by the door. Lance waited a few moments for Colleen to gush over her children.
"Pidge?" He called. She turned to him. The camera jerked a bit, when it settled back on the scene, Pidge was talking to her mom.
"Gee," Lance said louder than he needed to for the group. "It's such a shame your father isn't here, Pidge. Oh wait, he is!"
The camera captured the exact moment on Colleen's face when she saw her husband. Her already tear-stained face smiled and she ran towards the camera. The camera turned to catch the couple embracing. When Pidge and Matt joined the hug, Lance set the camera down.
The camera soon saw Lance heading towards the house to embrace his own family.
When everyone had said their greetings, they headed inside the ranch house.
HKLPSHKLPS
By the end of their time with their family, the paladins had managed to hook up the family computers with the transponder mod and Pidge and her brother had finally managed to get the two way call to work.
As they set out back into space, they went with easy hearts, because this time wouldn't be as long without seeing each other.
VHVHVH
(Author's Note
Lance's Spanish translations
¿Dónde has estado? ... Where have you been?
Oh, estaba tan preocupado. ... Oh, I was so worried.
Gracias a Dios que estás bien. ... Thank God you are alright.
Te volveré a llamar pronto. Te amo mamá y papá. ... I'll call you again soon. I love you Mom and Dad.
estoy respondiendo ... I'm answering
mi pequeño luchador ... my little fighter
I hope you enjoyed! Review please-luvs cassy.)