Hey guys, thank you for your awesome reviews! Sorry it took a little while to get this chapter uploaded, but I had to revise it a little so it wouldn't sound like garbage. I just wanted to let you know that KeithxJude is probably going to be the main pairing in this story. Sorry if the ed gets a little cliffhanger-y but it's one am and I'm very tired. Please enjoy!

-Dinner was a little bit uncomfortable, to say the least. The table was full of indiscernible foods in varying color and...aroma. It was a little overwhelming to try and pick something, especially when Jude couldn't remember the last time she had a meal that wasn't Galra table scraps. When she finally settled on a substance that sort of resembled soup, the team was probing her with questions whenever there wasn't a sporkful of food in Jude's mouth.

"So, how old are you," Pidge asked, playing with the gelatinous mass on her plate.

"Seventeen, I think? Maybe a little closer to eighteen? I sort of lost track of time."

"Did you go to the Garrison," Hunk asked. "I don't think we ever saw you." He swallowed something that looked like shrimp, except it was blue, and he looked expectantly at Jude all the while.

"I just went to regular, public high school. I've never actually seen the Garrison up close, but the students were always hanging around local hot spots."

"Then how did you get mixed up with the Galra," Keith said. He hadn't really touched anything on his plate. The shock of finding another human this far away from Earth curbed his appetite.

"Honestly? I think I got abducted on a fluke. I was hiking when the Galra had touched down on Earth, and I guess they couldn't have anyone running to the Garrison and ratting them out. They kept going on about this blue lion, but they gave up on looking for it after a couple of days." Everyone at the table looked around at each other, then back at their plates.

"Well, we have it now," Allura chimed in. "It's one of the ships that form Voltron, similar to the lion Shiro brought you back in."

"Not for nothing, but why does Zarkon want this thing so badly?" Jude took a bite of something that looked like a vegetable, but the consistency squished down her throat in the most horrifying way.

"It's the only weapon we have that can destroy Zarkon. If he gets it, the universe will ultimately fall to his control," Allura replied. "So we're liberating individual planets until we're strong enough to take the fight to him directly."

"Do you have many allies, or is it just your team fighting the Galra?" Jude looked around the table, hoping the fate of the known free universe wasn't resting on the backs of a handful of teenagers.

"We're in alliance with a few liberated planets, but they are mostly small and non malevolent. We do most of our recon by ourselves," Shiro answered. Jude nodded, not quite sure how to respond to all of the new information that she received. The safety of the universe was banking on five kids and their flying robot warships. The gravity of the situation began to set in. The table went silent as they waited for her to ask another question or break down in hysterics, but she showed no sign of spiraling into any sort of psychotic fit.

"I think I need something alcoholic," she mused.

"Alcohol is more of an Earth thing," Coran said animatedly," Alteans never really discovered the concept of intoxication."

"You mean to tell me that you people made gigantic fighting lions but you never managed to ferment a freaking grape? That's wild." Jude rubbed her temples and thought over her next question carefully. "I need you guys to be one hundred percent honest with me. What are our chances of actually beating Zarkon?"

Everyone glanced at each other with confident little grins.

"We can do it, no doubt about," Lance said confidently. "Try to be optimistic, all that worrying will give you grey hair. Just look at Shiro!"

"Yeah, have a little faith, man." Hunk slurped down a sporkful of noodles, or something that resembled noodles. "You just haven't seen us in action yet; Voltron is like super strong. We've taken down entire fleets of Galra ships without an issue."

"Alright guys, cut her some slack. It's natural for Jude to have some reservations about the situation, especially after everything she's gone through. It's been a long day and we can try to catch her up on all of the details later," Shiro said. "It might be a good idea for everyone to get some rest so we can regroup in the morning and figure out our next course of action."

"Yeah, but I've got one last question?" Lance chimed in.

"Um okay," Jude said cautiously. "Shoot."

"How can you be only seventeen and have that many tattoos?" The table groaned collectively, but not before Keith and Shiro smacked the back of his head. "Hey!" He shouted. "This is a serious question! Do you know how many old school hispanic parents would keel over if their kids got tattoos? I know for a fact that my mother would disown me!"

"Guys, it's cool," Jude reassured. "My uncle actually runs a tattoo shop and I work there with a couple of my cousins. And it's kind of an unspoken rule that you've gotta have some ink if you want to get any clients."

"What kind of logic is that?" Keith said confusedly.

"Well, you don't go to a sick doctor if you need a vaccination. You don't let a colorblind guy mix your paint at the hardware store, and you most certainly do not get a tattoo from an artist that is squeaky clean. People just don't trust them, typically."

"I guess that makes sense," Pidge agreed."And don't let Lance get to you. The real reason he won't get any tattoos is because he's got a really low threshold for pain; the whole mamma's boy spiel is just a cover up." The group chuckled heartily as embarrassment left a trail of red across the blue paladins' cheeks and ears.

"I don't have to take this," he muttered. Lance angrily swiped his plate from the table before marching it to the sink. "Pidge, it's your turn to do dishes tonight." He let a sly smile show, for the universe was about to bite the young cadet on the butt. It served her right. Who did she think she was, embarrassing him in front of this attractive, if not totally uninterested, stranger?

"Aww, what? I thought it was Keith's turn," she whined.

"No, I did it yesterday," Keith huffed.

"I can do them," Jude volunteered.

"Jude, that's very thoughtful, but wouldn't you rather get some rest?" The princess looked concerned. She and the paladins wouldn't be gracious hosts if they put her to work right off the bat, after all.

"No, really," she replied. "I want to. It's the least I can do after you guys saved me and the other prisoners." Before anyone could protest, she went around the table and began picking up plates. A broken bone knocked angrily in her chest with each movement, but she worked through it and tried to appear casual. "And I was wondering; how long will it be until they're well enough to be up and around?"

"They'll come out of cryosleep in a day or two," Coran answered. "In the meantime, you shouldn't push yourself too hard." He raised a bushy eyebrow as she continued to clear the table against his advice. The animated alien cleared his throat. "You wouldn't want to overdo it after the day you've had, what with your injuries and all."

"I appreciate the concern, Coran. But I don't think washing a few plates will kill me," Jude hummed. Her bare feet padded towards the sink as the table began to disassemble.

"I guess I'll head back to the lab, then," Pidge said. "Thanks, Jude." The bespectacled helmet head waved before she disappeared from the dining hall. One by one, everyone else left the table to get ready for bed. Coran, however, wasn't just going to stand by and let the Earthling do the Paladins chores when she was in such a condition.

Although Coran's heart was in the right place, his timing wasn't the best. He only snuck up behind the Earthling when she was contently scrubbing away traces of food from a large platter. She practically jumped out of her skin when he rested a hand on her shoulder, dropping the plate with a heavy CLANK.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to frighten you," he said apologetically.

"Oh, it's fine," Jude reassured him. She smiled nervously, trying to cover up any of her initial fear. Jude refused let on that any of the day's events had gotten to her. "What's up, Coran?"

He whipped out a rag from a nearby cupboard and tried to be stearn. "It wouldn't be right to let you do all of this work by yourself. I thought I'd help you dry everything off."

"Thanks," she said quietly. They scrubbed in silence for a few minutes. Coran wasn't sure about how he could approach the girl in a way that didn't overstep his boundaries. His heart went out to her, it really did. He could only imagine what she was going through. He would die on the spot if Allura had been in the same situation; how was Jude's family coping with her disappearance?

"You alright?" Jude asked. The poor guy looked incredibly tense, he'd been side-eying her for almost five minutes.

"Yep," he said a little too enthusiastically. "I just got a little lost in thought is all."

"I guess that it's been a long day for everyone, I can finish the rest of these if you wanna go to bed."

"Shouldn't I be telling that to you?" Coran looked at the child inquisitively. "There's an extra room two doors down from the princess's quarters; you should go get some rest."

"I'm just not very tired," she said. "It's just taking me a little while de-escalate, is all." Jude scrubbed the last dish and the man with the moustache took it eagerly.

"I've got just the thing for restless sleepers," he said enthusiastically. He wiped off the plate before practically sprinting to a nearby cupboard and rummaging through it's contents. "We found a wonderful herbal tea on a planet populated by nomadic whitefeng herders. They say that it's supposed to calm down busy brains," he said as scanned several jars.

"No kidding," She said, rather impressed. She hopped onto the newly cleaned counter, waiting to see what Coran could possibly be looking for. "I bet that you guys get to see all sorts of planets and cultures."

"We try to learn as much as we can about the people we're protecting. Diplomacy is a big part of team Voltron's job," Coran replied, before snagging a jar off of the shelf he was looking at. "Here's the little sneak! Why don't I get started on that tea?"

In the meantime, the princess had wandered off to the lab in hopes that she might find Pidge. And just like always, the young paladin was sprawled across the floor, busy typing away on her laptop. Needless to say, she was surprised to see the princess standing in the doorway, she almost never came to the lab.

"Hey, Allura. Is something wrong?"

"Not at all, I just wanted to come and check on you," she said warmly.

"Oh, why," Pidge queried. The princess sauntered across the room and plopped down on the ground next to the green paladin.

"Well," Allura started. "I know that it hasn't been easy to free so many prisoners and not find your family; and I thought that finding another human would hit a little too close to home."

It was true. Pidge had been looking tirelessly for her father and brother for what felt like forever. Everyone on the team was understanding of what she was going through and did their best to help, but she knew that defeating Zarkon was the main priority now.

"Thanks. I'm actually doing okay, though. I'm more worried about Jude than anything."

"How do you mean?" The princess was confused; Pidge had already done a perfectly nice thing by making a splint for this girl who was obviously doing fine now. She was safe in the Castle of lions.

"I don't know," the young cadet readjusted her glasses. "It's just that she was in there even longer that Shiro. It doesn't look like they replaced anything with Galra prosthetics, but they had to have done something horrible to her." The memory of the long scar splitting down Jude's chest flashed across Allura's memory, and she quickly shook it out.

"Don't worry, Coran will be able to see if anything is wrong after we get her into the pod. We'll figure out the rest from there."

"Yeah, but still, I wish we could do something nice for her." Allura's face lit up at that comment.

"Maybe we can," she smiled. She reached into the pocket of her gown and pulled out the silver thing that she had been holding for the past two hours. "Jude said that this was the last possession that she could manage to save from Earth."

Pidge took the ipod from her and looked it over carefully before giving the diagnosis.

"It's still in pretty good shape, I think it just ran out of juice," she said. "I've actually got my old charger." The green paladin practically jumped to her desk and began rummaging through drawers until she found a little white cord.

Before long, she had hooked it up to her laptop and the white apple symbol started glowing on the screen.

"So, does that mean it's working?" Allura was hovering unnaturally close to the strange piece of technology, absolutely intrigued. She was even more amused when the screen changed to a picture of three small children holding a calico cat. Pidge slid her finger across the smooth surface and a few apps popped up.

"Wow, she doesn't have much," she said. And then she clicked on the Music icon. "That explains it, she's almost got a thousand songs stored on this thing.

"Oh my, there are a thousand songs stored in this?" the princess had met billions of people across the universe, but none of them had managed to come up with such a novel idea.

Pidge continued to scroll through playlists, just to see if Jude had anything worth listening to. And boy was this girl's taste all over the place!

"She's got some Elton John, Snow Patrol, Bill Withers, All American Rejects, Yo Yo Ma, Black Sabbath, Pearl Jam, Carlos Santana, Stevie Wonder, Led Zeppelin, Selena Y Los Dinos? And the entire Fantasia soundtrack is on here too? At least her taste is… diverse?"

"Pidge, I literally did not understand a word you just said." The princess was thoroughly confused. Who was Bill, and why was he withering? She did even want to know how one extracted jam from a pearl.

"Uh, it's not important," Pidge said. "We should just give it back to her when it's done charging."

"Wow, Coran. This is really...something." Jude stared at the suspicious pink liquid swirling around in the mug.

"Go ahead, give it a try," he said with a twist of the moustache. "

She took a quick swig and the liquid began to warm her stomach. It tasted like cinnamon and peaches and honey, which was an oddly satisfying palette of flavors. Heat began to tickle her nose and cheeks as relaxation set in, but there was no real effect taking place of Jude's lack of exhaustion.

"This tastes great," she said. "Could you top me off before I go to bed?" She held her cup out to the strange man and he eagerly refilled it with his odd little kettle.

"Alright, try to get some sleep now. We want you to be well-rested so you don't have to spend too much time in the pod tomorrow."

"Will do," she hummed in agreement. "I'll see you in the morning."

"Goodnight," he said cheerfully. He watched her walk away from the canteen with a twinge of guilt building up in his stomach. This strange girl was definitely hardened by her time with the galra; scanning her surroundings every so often, and hobbling on her broken leg. But she was still only a child, drowning in a dress that was at least two sizes too big, which dragged across the floor wherever she went. Although she was behaving in a way that wouldn't otherwise indicate it, she must have been terrified. Who wouldn't be at least a little scared after being kidnapped by the most dangerous species in the universe, only to be rescued and find out that she couldn't go home?

Jude wandered to the empty room that Coran had mentioned before, and peered in cautiously. It was a pretty average run-of-the-mill bedroom with a full sized bed bolted to the wall, a bedside table and a decent sized closet. However, there were no windows, just the glow of a few LED lights in the ceiling.

The bed gave a dry squeak when she sat down. She tentatively sipped her tea, hoping that some form of sleepiness would set in.

Before long, the every last drop of tea had been drunk, but to no avail. Jude had no idea how much time had passed, but it was probably a little late now. A shiver passed through her due to the absence of a warm object in her hands. Not a moment after she wrapped a blanket around her shoulders, there was a sharp knock on the door.

"It's open," Jude called out. The door slid open, and a little gremlin proceeded to enter. "Hey, Pidge. What's up?"

"Um, Allura gave me this." She held out the iPod and Jude's eyes widened when she suddenly remembered that the princess had been holding onto it this evening.

"It still works," she gasped. She couldn't control herself, her excitement just exploded. She practically leapt out of bed and gave the green paladin the biggest hug she could muster, completely ignoring the pang in her ribs. "Thank you, thank you, thank you so much! I'm going to return the favor someday; anything you want, I'll do it!"

The green paladin was completely caught off guard by the sudden embrace, nearly falling over. Regardless of the shock, she still hugged back as naturally as she could. It was funny, only Shiro gave her hugs. Even so, there was still a question tugging in the back of her mind.

"Actually, I was wondering if I could talk to you a little? It's kind of important."

"Sure, come sit." Jude took her arm and led her to the edge of the bed. As badly as she wanted to scroll through comforting photos of home, she managed to restrain herself and slip the iPod into the pocket of her dress. (that was the great thing about Allura's clothes, they all seemed to have pockets!)

The chestnut-haired child looked a little apprehensive, but took the invitation anyway.

"I was wondering...did you ever see other humans while you were in the prison?" She looked at Jude with pleading brown eyes, praying that she would say what she was dying to hear. Pidge knew that it was probably too early to drag any information out of this stranger, but every minute she wasted looking for her family was another minute they would spend suffering in the clutches of Zarkon.

"I don't think so, why?" Jude suddenly remembered the conversation he had with Shiro before dinner. Didn't he say something about not being able to save his crew?

"It's just that my dad and brother also got kidnapped, and I've been trying to find them for a long time. I know that the Galra are holding them in a prison, but I just don't know where." Pidge's heart sank to her stomach. Another dead end. Another disappointment. It was starting to feel like she was taking two steps backward for every step she took forward. She began to question whether or not she could ever find her family.

"Pidge, I'm so sorry. I didn't kno-"

"It's okay," she sniffed. "You couldn't have." The young girl took off her glasses and cleaned them with her shirt, holding back tears. They sat there awkwardly for a moment. Jude didn't want to overstep her boundaries by trying to give this girl the pep-talk of the century; they'd only met a couple of hours ago. But when she saw the defeated look in her eyes, she knew that she had to say something.

"I know that it must be hard on you," Jude gave her hand a little squeeze. "But they are going to be okay. I mean, look at me. I don't know anything about space or tactics, hell I barely passed entry level astronomy with a C+, but I'm still alive and well. There's a really good chance that they got sent to a work camp if they haven't already busted out of prison and formed an alliance with some other refugees."

"Has that ever happened before?" Hope glimmered in her watery eyes. Maybe they were fine after all?

"People get sent to do work in the mines every so often, as long as they're somewhat healthy. I can't make any guarantees that they've broken out and started a resistance, because I've only heard rumors about that kind of stuff; but it's not beyond the realm of possibility. Just look at Shiro. He was able to escape, right?"

"I guess you're right." Pidge dabbed her eyes with the sleeve of her shirt, and let Jude continue. Everyone on the team had always been supportive in the search for her family, but they had never brought up the possibility that they might actually be okay.

"I really believe that they're gonna make it. They've still got each other," Jude said reassuringly.

"But what if they got separated?"

"I don't know about that, the Galra had a system to keep track of all of the inmates. Everyone was grouped off by species, gender and location in the galaxy, so they probably had to keep all of the humans in the same place. I never saw them because I got sent to a ship where they kept the overflow inmates, but there's a good chance that they're still together."

Pidge's hands were shaking at all of this new information. She had been translating Galra gibberish for months without any success, and any hope of finding her family became more and more bleak. But now there was a possibility that they were somewhere out there, free from the control of the Galra empire. The tension in her shoulders began to ease, and she felt light as a feather. The bed made a loud squeal as she fell back into Jude's pillow with a laugh.

"There's still a chance," the green paladin sighed with relief. "I can still find them." Her eyelids began to grow heavy as she relished in her newfound comfort. Pidge didn't know if it was due to relief or just the fact that she'd been holed up in the lab for almost two days, but she was exhausted.

"You will find them," Jude smiled. Pidge's eyes slowly closed shut as Jude pulled the blanket off of her shoulders to cover her. When the green paladin's head finally finally settled into the pillows, the girl in white carefully removed her glasses and set them on the table next to the bed.

Jude's splint made a quiet tak tak tak as she tiptoed with care across the floor. There wasn't much point in trying to go to bed now that her room was occupied, so she took her chance to do a little bit of exploring around the castle. She made sure to shut the door as quietly as possible, leaving Pidge to get what was probably a sorely needed night's sleep.

She wandered aimlessly through the dimly-lit halls, not really knowing where to go. Jude assumed that everyone had long since gone to bed, so there was no point in looking to see where they were. Instead she just retraced her steps, hoping to find an area that looked familiar. After a few turns down a wing that may or may not have lead to the common area, she found one section of the castle that she actually remembered. A large pane of glass stretched before her, revealing billions of brilliant shining stars.

The scene was completely mesmerising. Millions of little white lights swarmed around in the infinite sky. Jude huddled close to the window before she slid to the ground with a painful grunt. She really had overworked herself today and an alarming amount of pain began to settle into her bones. It felt like lightning was buzzing around in Jude's ribs and leg, causing her to cover her mouth in order to stifle her whimpering. Her best option was to sit completely still and wait for the stinging in her ribs to subside. This wasn't the worst place to be stuck in, after all.

After what felt like a few minutes, Jude tested her movements and grabbed the trinket in her pocket. When her fingers clasped the cold metal, an excited shiver ran up her spine. Her hand shook when the screen lit up to one of the last pictures she had taken before she wound up in space. Three Jude's cousins were smiling brightly and holding her big calico cat, who was a little less than enthused about the situation.

When she unlocked the screen, her trembling fingers tapped the Music icon. Jude scrolled through seemingly endless playlists until she had found exactly what she was looking for. A playlist named "Sleep Tracks" was a hundred mp3's of piano medleys, calm video game chiptunes, and white noises like thunderstorms and waterfalls. This playlist was better left on shuffle, it was mostly background noise anyway.

Again, agonizing pain pooled in her torso. The device fell to the ground with a clatter when she mindlessly clawed at her side. Her injury hadn't been nearly this tender a few hours ago, but then again, she had kept herself moving almost the entire day. Jude had managed to make everyone believe that she was doing just fine, hell, she convinced herself that she was doing just fine; but it was becoming more and more evident that she wasn't. The throbbing in her chest felt like it was spreading throughout her entire body like venom; hot, and agonizing, and sluggishly so.

This is fine. I just have to wait it out. I'm going to be fine. I'm going to be fine. I'm going to be fine. 'I'm going to be fine', she told herself these words like a mantra. Jude thought she could just will away the waves of affliction, but as time went on it was apparent that she could not. She pressed her forehead against the freezing window and drew in a ragged breath.

Snap out of it, Jude. Just focus on the pretty lights. However, black spots began to cloud her vision as the stars outside began to swarm and disperse. Her head slumped forward as she began to struggle to keep herself upright, clumsily using her arms to prop herself up. Everything felt heavy, and the castle's artificial gravity was slowly dragging Jude down. Even her eyelids were threatening to close shut. No. Don't go to sleep. You know what will happen. Stay awake.

But pretty soon Jude couldn't even hear her own thoughts. The only discernable sound was the blood pumping in her ears and the vague chord progression of a piano somewhere far away. Exhaustion began to set in and her arms promptly collapsed under her, causing her to fall onto the unforgiving floor. When she rested her cheek on the sleek metal surface, it was over. Everything went black, and the room disappeared.

Suddenly Jude was back on the prison ship, strapped to a table in the medical bay. Hands from all directions were either holding her down or breaking her sensitive flesh with needles. She tried to move her head, her arms, her legs, anything; but it felt like she was submerged in a vat of molasses. However, what she could see, were the maniacal yellowed smiles of several druids, hiding behind hooded cloaks.

Jude's voice left her mouth oh so slowly, but she was still able to utter,"Please. Let me go. I want to go home."

They all ignored her or just couldn't hear her, either way, they showed no intent of stopping anytime soon. Instead, one of the hooded figures pulled out a tool from the confines of their robe. A small knife glowed in a familiar purple hue.

"Please," Jude screeched. "Not again!"

But to no avail. The druid scraped the blade down her chest with one agonizingly slow motion, paying no attention to the sound of Jude's screaming or the sizzling of her skin. Her head writhed in throes, giving her the glimpse of something yellow glowing and pulsating behind her bones.

"No!"

The hammering in her chest continued to knock against the broken bones, and a pair of hands were still holding her down. Except, these hands weren't keeping her wriggling shoulders pinned down like the others. In fact, they were shaking Jude feverishly.

"Hey," a far off voice said. "Wake up, it's just a dream."

Jude's eyes fluttered open, barely registering her surroundings. Instead it felt like there was a strobe light going off in her brain, skewing her perspective in the most terrifying way. Although she wasn't aware of it, the girl was hyperventilating and simultaneously trying to squirm away from whomever it was that was trying to wake her up.

The pair of arms were suddenly wrapped around her shaking frame, smothering any of her movements. Slowly she began to give in to the imposing force and stopped struggling, tiring herself out enough to slow down her breathing a little.

"That's, right," he said. "Just breathe."

Her breath came out in ragged little puffs, but it was significantly better than what she had been doing before. Her vision began to stabilize and then she remembered that she wasn't in prison and that the druids couldn't get her here when she looked out the window. She could hear the quiet interlude of a piano coming from the iPod that she had dropped before passing out, but she wasn't really registering where it was coming from. Jude's heartbeat began to slow back down to a normal pace, although she couldn't stop shaking.

"Hey, are you doing okay now?"

She slowly turned her head to see who was holding her, and a recognizable dark head of hair came into view. His arms were still wrapped tightly around her, squeezing the nightmare out of her. If the circumstances had been different, Jude would be beet red right about now, but she was totally unfazed by how close she was to the strange boy. Sure, he was attractive in an 80's renegade Speed Racer reject kind of way, but Jude was too frazzled to give the situation much thought.

"Keith? What happened?" The girl clutched her head and did her best to get a grip.

"It looked like your were having a spasm attack or something, you really freaked me out for a second," he said not too calmly. He slowly helped her sit up and kept speaking softly, but somewhat sternly. "Why were you sleeping in the hall?"

"I was just walking around the castle and I sat here for awhile. I guess I must've fallen asleep,"Jude lied. "What're you doing out here?"

"It's still pretty early, but a few of us are up. Coran and Allura went to go check on you, but Pidge was in your bed?" The events of last night slowly came back to her.

"Oh, we were talking for a little bit and she kind of fell asleep," Jude explained. "I wasn't going to bed any time soon, so I didn't see the point in waking her up."

"Well, I think that's the most sleep she's gotten since she was a toddler," he huffed. "But still, there's probably another ten spare bedrooms in the castle. You could've gone to one of those, or the couch in the common area at least."

"I guess that I'm just used to sleeping on the floor," she shrugged. The red paladin immediately shut his mouth and silently reminded himself not to be too harsh with her. He didn't know what the Galra had done to Jude, and he couldn't begin to imagine what she may have seen.

"Well, the healing pods are going to open up in a couple of hours," he mumbled. "Let's get you something to eat in the meantime."

Jude nodded solemnly, and she let the boy help her off the ground. A familiar, dull pain crept back into her bones but her face showed no sign of it. I'll be damned if I make any of them worry about me, she thought to herself.

"And maybe Coran can make you something warm to drink."

Keith was wrought with concern. The only person in the castle that fell asleep in weird places was Pidge, but she never had spells like Jude. Every now and then Shiro would have an attack, but those were different. He'd be paralyzed by his flashbacks, but Keith knew how to handle those.

He'd never seen anyone look so terrified. Jude was curled up in a ball and convulsing when he found her. It was obvious that she was having a nightmare, but Keith had never seen anyone whimper in their sleep. Even when he managed to calm her down, she couldn't stop shaking. Rings of dark flesh pooled beneath her eyes, which were unwilling to meet his.

Instead, they walked to the kitchen in silence. Jude kept her eyes to the ground, almost ashamed of herself. She was angry that Keith had seen her this. She was supposed to be good as new and ready to kick some Galra ass, but memories of the past year were resurfacing.

The last thing Jude wanted was for the others to find out that she was having issues coping. If Keith announced that she had an episode, they'd probably treat her like a China doll: easy to break. If Jude wanted Keith to keep his mouth shut, now was the time to speak up. She cleared her throat, and the red paladin turned his attention to her.

"Look," she said. "I really appreciate that you snapped me out of that nightmare, but could we keep this between us?"

"Not a chance," he retorted.

"Excuse me?" Jude was flabbergasted.

"What if you have another night terror and wind up hurting yourself? It's probably for the best if we just keep an eye on you for awhile."

"I can handle myself, thanks a lot," she huffed.

"Says the girl that was curled up in the fetal position in the middle of the hall," he said sarcastically.

"Hey!" Jude snapped. "I just dozed off a little; it was a very eventful day." She threw up her hands emphatically, but his hardened expression didn't budge. "Come on, it's not like I was frothing at the mouth or anything. Everyone gets nightmares."

"Yeah, well not everyone has been locked up in prison by aliens." He crossed his arms over his chest, indicating that he wouldn't change his mind on the subject. "I think that it's better for everyone to kno-"

"Know what? You don't know anything about me," she barked. "There's no point in making everyone else worry about this one-time thing because I'll deal with it. If everyone thinks that I'm too shell shocked to handle this, they probably won't let me help get rid of Zarkon; now will they?" A familiar knot began to rise in her chest, and Jude did her best to suppress it; but damn it the boy with the mullet was beginning to make her mad.

Keith was steady as a rock, he wasn't going to change his mind so easily.

"Look, I know that I probably have some sort of information about how the Galra forces operate, but it's still fuzzy. It's going to take either a lot of triggering or a lot of invasive tests to figure out whether or not I know anything useful," she gulped. "But if everyone decides that I can't handle being strapped to a table or shoved inside a sensory deprivation tank for a few hours, then you'll probably be losing a valuable resource."

"Jude, we don't even evaluate Shiro like that. We'll figure out a way to get rid of the galra without frying anyone's brain." Keith wasn't going to lie; he was a little impressed with this girl. She was so willing to help the cause in any way that she could, but she was unstable. He was genuinely concerned that she was willing to be a martyr in order to either save the Earth or die trying.

"Well I'm not gonna sit back with a cocktail and do nothing. I have people back home that I need to protect, and I'll be damned if Zarkon so much as lays a finger on them."

"Don't act like you're the only one concerned about the Earth," Keith snapped. "All of us have families that we're worried about."

"Yeah, and you're going to need all of the help that you can get if you want to keep them safe." In the heat of the moment, the knot in her chest unfurled with some strange side-effects. Jude's feet floated off the ground so she was eye-level with the red paladin. "Quit trying to throw me a pity party and just let me help!"

Keith was taken aback. He had seen plenty of weird things in space, and flying robot lions were just the tip of the iceberg. But this phenomenon was a whole different layer on the hypothetical onion of weirdness. People weren't supposed to do that. People weren't supposed to float in the heat of an argument; but there Jude was. The pads of her feet were glowing like a yellow glow-stick, and she was floating.

Keith took a step back and rubbed his eyes, just to make sure that what he was seeing was real. "How the fuck are you doing that," he practically screeched.

Jude hadn't realized what was happening until she saw the bewilderment in his eyes. In that instant, the light engulfing her toes went out abruptly and sent her toppling to the ground with a thud. She groaned as pain shot through her broken bones, practically paralyzing her.

Keith quickly snapped out of his daze and stooped down to help her up, but Jude smacked his hands away as she propped herself up. He repeated himself. "How… what was that?"

"It happens sometimes," she said through gritted teeth.

"Yeah but how?" She was acting so casual about this, like it was just some sort of mild inconvenience; which unnerved the boy even more.

"I don't know," she scowled. "The druids didn't exactly give me a play-by-play of what they were doing. I could have laser eyes for all I know."