A/N Glad readers like this story, so here's the next chapter.
So without further ado, Let the chaos ensue
Migration
How long has it been since she's seen another human? She thinks of her classmate, taken from her in the first few days of captivity, but for the life of her she can't remember. The moments of escape are fleeing her mind, and she can no longer recall how she did it, but returning home, she thought it would end in a reunion with her mother and brother, or old cadet mates. Well she is meeting old cadet mates, just not the way she envisioned.
She must have blacked out in the escape pod, for when she wakes up, it's strapped down to a table within a dome customary to the Garrison, she should know, she helped design them. Those from the lab department, move around the area.
"Who are you? what are your names?" She shouts out to the crew. the familiar feel of the collar a comfort in the situation, letting her know she still has a voice, metallic though it may be.
"You need to calm down Miss Holt, we just need to run some test." One orders from behind the hazmat suit, clipboard in hand. The voice is masculine, but at the moment, unrecognizable.
"No, you don't understand! I need to leave, I just want to see my family, and then I need to leave before they find me! I need to Save them!" She tries to reason as her struggles increase. The three in the room ignore her in favor of their equipment, the voice from before, Iverson if her memory is correct, continues the questions, "Do you know how long you've been gone?"
"That's not important! What is, is me getting out of here and seeing my mother! I need to warn her!" She once again tries to reason, but is ignored in favor of the collar around her neck, and the prosthetic that replaces her left leg. "Sir, take a look at these."
Iverson looks back at her and Katie feels her skin crawl. "Put her under until we know what they truly are."
"NO! I just want to see my mother, I need to warn her! Please! You're making a mistake!" Her struggles increase as it takes two to hold her in place as the third approaches with sedatives in hand. She feels the gun press against her neck just above the collar, and the serum enters her bloodstream.
As a fog enters her mind, and clouds her vision, she can barely make out the sensation of the only comfort being removed.
When next she comes to, she's able to move. She feels something wrapping around her neck, and moves a hand to feel for the collar, only to feel it missing, and bandages covering her scar. Katie takes deep breath to fight the oncoming panic attack, and focuses on the room instead.
It's bare of all necessities save for a bed bolted to the ground, with only a pillow and sheets, as well as a toilet and sink set in the opposite corner. A window is set high up in the wall allowing light to filter through, but she can't look out. A mirror is set into the opposite wall, and with a quick test she determines that it's a one way mirror. If she were to guess, there are people on the other side studying her. Used to the feeling of eyes, seen and unseen, on her she lays back in the bed, and enjoys the feel of the long forgotten sun. Fingers tapping the bed listlessly, counting the seconds since her awakening to being able to see her captors.
Lance McClain was beyond curious about what he just witnessed, with his roommate Hunk and friends Shiro and Matt.
At the beginning, Lance had just wanted to go into town to escape the garrison for a bit, with Hunk and Shiro tagging along. Finding Matt surrounded by unfamiliar tech on a garrison wall, bulky headphones masking their approach.
Lance removes the left headphone and whispers, "You rocking out?"
Matt all but jumps out of his skin and flashes an innocent look at the three, "No, I just want to believe."
He then notices Hunk reaching out a tentative hand to touch the set-up. "Don't touch that!" Matt yells, slapping the large males hand away and covering the tech with his body. At the questioning look the three send his way, Matt inches away. "How else are they supposed to contact me."
Shiro thinking about what the older student is saying turns towards the sky and spots what could be a shooting star. Pointing it out to the other he asks. "Is that a meteor?" The rest turn as one towards where the youngest in the group is pointing and see a burning object in the sky. "A very, very big meteor?" Hunk asks with a slight tremor in his voice.
Shiro, the fourteen year old prodigy, makes a grab for the binoculars from around Matt's neck, but just misses them to the one who wears them. "No, it's a ship, and it's not one of ours."
"Wait so you're saying it's an alien ship?" Lance inquires as he takes the binoculars from the older male. Only to get the tail end of the crash. "Hey guys, look." Shiro observed and points to the lower garage as it opens to allow the Garrison jeeps out to move out towards the crash site.
The four head out in the direction with Hunk complaining about the trouble they'll be in if they're caught. The other three ignore him in favor of getting a good view of what's going on.
At first all they can see is the ship and Garrison personal moving around. Some going in and out of the quarantine setup in the center of it all. It takes hours, and just as they're about to leave, three people in hazmat suits leave the dome carrying a body between them, well two drag them, and the third carries a clipboard along with a heavy duty case. Matt lifts the binoculars to his face and zooms in on the group that just left quarantine. At the sight of the one being dragged, he drops the binoculars with a gasped, "No way, it can't be."
Lance grabs the binoculars, and doesn't bother removing them from around Shiro's neck, just managing to get a glimpse of the female. "Is that Katie Holt from the Kerberos Mission? I thought they all died?" Lance flinches at what he just said and turns to the younger Holt to see if they affected him, but only sees a determined glare
"Apparently not, What should we do about this?" Shiro inquires, more to himself than the others. Matt crosses his arms across his chest, if only to hide the tremor in them from his friends. "I don't know, but we should get back before we're found out."
The other three nod, and somehow manage to sneak back into the academy.
The next few nights are spent trying to figure out where they took Miss Holt. Shiro ends up finding her after using his size to his advantage and crawling through the vents, and getting into the restricted areas. Matt is frustrated, but can do nothing as of yet.
She is pacing the room she was placed in, Appearing listless, and agitated. Shiro pulls out the walkie-talkie they got for themselves and calls whoever has the other one. "Alpha to Omega, come in Omega, do you copy? over."
"Bzzt- This is handsome Omega, To Small Alpha. Over" Shiro is about to face palm at the obvious response of Lance. "It's just Alpha and Omega, and I got visual on Space Bound. Over."
"Seriously, That's great! Head back to base, and we'll discuss the best course of action." Lance says over the Walkie, and Shiro spares one final glance at Katie, before shimming back out of the vent. Glad to be able to deliver relatively good news to the worried Holt.
The days began to run into one another, multiple times the mirror would vanish to reveal a room on the other side, just like she predicted. On those days, the people would ask her question after question. Where was she? What was the collar around her neck for? Who did she have to warn her mother about? And so on. All of these she couldn't answer if she wanted to, but she ignored them anyway. Instead counting each session with the tapping of her fingers.
No one acknowledged her requests before, so why should she acknowledge their questions?
This time was different however, a crash was heard from the other side of the mirror, followed by the familiar opening of the door. When the other room was revealed it was to show four teens. Three of which appeared the same age, with one fiddling around with the hazmat suit they wear.
"Are you Katie Holt from the Kerberos mission?" The youngest, appearing to be fourteen asks. Katie merely nods her head. He goes to unlock the door, while the others try to get her to talk, only receiving nods, shakes, or shrugs. At some point the one in the suit had to leave, but is quick to return with a key-card.
The door opens, and Katie is quick to burst out of the opening, breathing a sigh of relief at the slightly bigger area. She ignores the teens and moves to the table, opening the briefcase, and pulling out the collar and placing it around her neck. "Thanks for the bust, but I'm not done here yet." Her voice is the metallic version of her usual tone. She points to the cadets. "I need one of you to go and commandeer a vehicle for a quick escape, one in the North garage will do, and another should go with him to sabotage the rest to avoid any unnecessary followers." The largest and the tall lean one volunteer to go.
"Now I need to go and get my stuff from storage, knowing the idiots here, they probably "forgot" to give it to my family after the mission, So I need to get it back before I leave." And with that she leaves the room, not bothering to wait for the two still in the room, ignoring their attempts to reach out to her. The skintight black under suit with scrap of a shirt is a dead giveaway in the brightly lit lab section, but in the darkened hallway past the lab the under suit makes for perfect cover, and the padding and clanking of feet is easily heard. To remedy this, she ducks into a supply closet, and pulls the two left with her along.
She removes the shirt and starts tearing it into strips, tying those around her feet, to create silent footfalls. The two seem to get the idea and the youngest removes their shoes, while the older one works on removing the suit. In the darkness of the closet she fails to get a good look at the two, but the whole escape scenario is beginning to become ever familiar to her, and instead sees a large armored figure looking out into the darkened hallway seeing if the coast is clear.
With the clothe on her feet, she doesn't make a sound. She leads the way to the female dorms, where her things are most likely stored. A static goes off halfway through, and She is quick to pull them into another closet. "Alpha, this is Omega, are you, and Space Bound close? We have the ride ready and are sabotaging the others, What's your ETA? Over."
Katie realizes that it's only a walkie-talkie in the eldest's possession and grabs it from his belt. "I'm going out on a limb here in guessing that the two with me are Alpha, and I'm Space Bound? Over."
"That is correct Space Bound, and I'm the guy of your dreams." It sounds like the tall lean one is the one that speaks, and if the grunt is anything to go off of, the large one hit him. "Our ETA is 15-20 minutes at best Omega, and don't contact us again, we might get caught if you do, Over."
"Copy that Space Bound, Over." The large one answers back, the youngest checks the hallway once again, and the three begin moving. And just as they reach the junction between the gendered dorm areas the oldest grabs her wrist and pulls her towards the male hallway. Pulling her into a room and turning on the light within. Once her eyes adjust she comes face to face with her brother packing away her tech into a duffle bag.
Katie's throat tightens at the sight of him, and even with the voice module around her neck, finds herself unable to speak. Matt addresses their younger companion who is looking out into the hallway at the moment. "Come on Shiro, time to free a Pidgeon."
With her duffle over her shoulder, and the teens by her side they sneak their way to the north garage. She allows them to lead the way, and in the estimated time they make it to their destination.
The large male peeks out from behind one of the jeeps, and open the back. "Come on guys, we are going to be in so much trouble when they find us, so let's go before they do." Katie ignores him in favor of sitting in the back, and pulling out her laptop. "Uh miss Holt, didn't you hear me? We need to go."
She levels a glare at him, "What? And leave video graphic evidence of you aiding in my escape? I don't think so if you want to return, so just let me work for a bit. All you need to do is get the jeep started and the doors open for a quick escape." She explains as she makes quick work out of the firewalls of the Garrison security. Shiro is about to make a comment, but is stopped by Matt, "Don't bother the Pidgeon Shiro, you'll startle it."
She just manages to delete the last footage of their escape by the time alarms sound throughout the building and Iverson's voice sounds out over the intercom with the same message as the other night. "Attention all students. This is not a drill. We are on Lockdown! Security situation Zulu Niner. Repeat all students are to remain in barracks until further notice."
"We're good to go." Katie says as she closes the back entrance and the lean one brings them out into the open. Katie watches the high walls go over them and can't help but smile at the sensation of freedom finally washing over her after so long.
As they go on, no road ahead of them, Katie leans over the back, "So you all obviously know my name, and I recognize my brother, and he knows you, isn't it fair that I get to know the rest of you?"
"Oh right, I'm Lance the handsome one." The driver says, as she studies his oversized hoodie, with a white shirt with blue sleeves and Jeans. "Oh, so you're the flirty one?" Katie points out. and the others laugh. "I'm Shiro, and the oversized teddy-bear is Hunk." the youngest says, Shiro is dressed in a white collared shirt with the sleeves rolled up with red and grey shirt underneath. With black jeans and boots to complete the outfit.
Hunk on the other hand is wearing a yellow shirt with green vest and brown cargo pants. Attached to his belt are bags for something small. Katie smiles, finally learning the names of her saviors. "Well I thank you for saving me, but what's your plan now?" she asks leaning over her brother's shoulder to assure herself that he and everything else is real.
"I don't know, I just feel as though we're supposed to go this way." Lance explains going at a steady speed off road. "Fair enough, now I'm going to quick change so none of you look got it?" and before she gets a reply she ducks down behind the seats. She sheds the clothe on her feet, as well as the suit, before rummaging through her pack for her comfort clothes.
She puts underwear on first, seeing how she wasn't really wearing any at this point, then goes a pale grey long sleeved. Afterwards she slips on a pair of black leggings with tears in the knees, she ends up cutting off the left leg, finding it weird and worrisome not being able to see the prosthetic. Just as she's about to slip on her shoes the vehicle jerks, and she is tossed right into the seats. "What's going on up there?" She demands, and sees Lance leaving the jeep. The others are stunned, but Katie finishes slipping on her shoes, and grabs her hooded vest and duffle before going over the middle seat and crawling through Shiro's open window, going after the driver gone AWOL.
She registers the others following behind her, but her attention is on Lance. "Are you OK kid?" She calmly asks. And Lance looks down at the hidden cavern he brought them to. "Yeah, but I think we should go down there." and without waiting for a reply slips down the slope to reach the cavern.
"Let's get this over with." she breaths as she and the rest slide down after the tanned teen. The cavern they enter is covered in markings, all in one shape or another, a lion. A memory seems to trickle into the back of her mind along with a headache. She fights it back, and studies the markings, briefly hearing someone mention them out loud. A few moments later they all start to glow a brilliant blue.
Jumping back from the walls, she looks back and finds, Lance with his hand raised as though burned, but that is all she gets as the cavern floor crumbles away beneath them. She hears herself scream as they all go down a slope leading to a small underwater spring.
"Who told you to touch that?" Katie demands as she glares at Lance. But he is not looking at her, none of them are. Instead they look at something that is towering above her if their glances mean anything. She slowly turns and finds what has their attention. At the sight of the large Blue Lion with spherical shield her headache gets worse, but she ignores it in favor of following the others to investigate.
"Does anyone else feel like the thing's eyes are following them? Cause I swear they are following me." Lance says as he moves side to side. Katie studies the lion, but nothing gives away if the Lion's gaze shifts.
Matt makes it to the lion first, and the shield stops him from getting any closer. "How do you suppose we get in? Knock" He inquires as Lance comes up beside him. "Let's find out." he answers as he lightly raps his knuckles against the shielding.
The shield goes out in a burst, and an image goes through all their minds. One of five Mechanical Lions much like the one in front of them, flying together, and forming a large humanoid robot.
When the flashes of thoughts end, Hunk is on the ground, and freaking out. "Voltron's a robot! Voltron's a huge, huge awesome robot!"
"We need to get them out of here." she says, brown eyes wide in absolute terror.
"What do you mean?" Shiro inquires catching her fear. Her eyes are dilated and glancing around uncontrollably. Her breath comes in short pants, and it doesn't seem as though she's getting enough oxygen. "Katie you need to sit down, and slow your breaths."
Matt hears the advice and turns to see his sister all but hyperventilating. He dashes over and pulls Katie down with him and has her lean against his back, surprised to feel ribs when he places a hand on her chest. "Katie, I need you to breath with me, please Katie, I need you to focus on me not on anyone else. Breath in for four, hold for four, out for four." And he repeats the instructions over and over to get his words through the fog no doubt clouding her mind.
Katie does as requested and breaths in through her nose for four, holds for four, and out through her mouth for four. Over and over until she calms down. A hand rest on her shoulders and she looks up to see the Lion's head has lowered, and mouth opened to allow them in. "Miss Holt, what happened?" Hunk questions as the grip on her shoulder grounds her.
"I'll explain later, but for now we have to get the Lion out of here. Lance, lead the way." And with that she follows Lance into the lion, the other close behind her. Lance sits in the pilots chair, the controls lighting up when his hands rest on the console. Everyone piles in, and the Lion begins moving. The whole thing shakes as it burst free of the cavern, and pounces, and flies as through stretching its legs. "Lance, we don't have time for you to be playing around." Katie grunts holding on for dear life
"I'm not doing it!" he defends, and judging by how his hands barely move, his not.
"Well, figure it out. They'll come for it, that I'm sure of." Katie states looking out the window towards the sky.
"Ok, what do you mean, they? Who are you talking about? Does it have something to do with the ship you came in?" Hunk jabbers senselessly. Katie holds up a hand. "OK first off, its an escape pod, not a ship. Secondly they are nothing like this world has ever seen and they are after Voltron. Now I'll explain the rest later, for now we need to get to safety."
The lion seems to understand her need, and takes off towards the sky. Katie clutches the strap of her backpack tighter, glad she did that one last thing before leaving Earth Once again.
Colleen receives a notice for an E-Mail on her phone. She opens the inbox and tears flow uncontrollable at the familiar E-Mail address with the short message, with a picture
"I'll be home soon."
The image included is one taken from the laptop camera, and shows her daughter sitting in the back of a jeep with her brother and his friends seated properly, seeming to be deep in conversation, unaware of the image being captured.
A/N I used the word Migration for this chapter seeing how Pidge flies back to Earth, only to go back into Space. Sorta like the migration patterns of birds and other animals.