I just wanted to establish a few things right now that I'm getting the story started. First of all, even though the books only had one main POV character, I'm going have things be a little different. Each chapter is going to be split between the points of view of two Paladins, and it will rotate each chapter. For example, the first half of this chapter is from Lance's POV, and the second half is from Hunk's. Next chapter will be Pidge and Keith, and then so on and so forth. Second is that, excluding the prologue, this story will have approximately ten chapter, and will focus specifically on the pilot episode.

There will be a sequel, but I'm going to wait until season 3 comes out before I start it, because I'm undecided at this point whether the sequel will be a full story adapting the first season based on everything that happens in this fic, or a series of one-shots set over the course of the first two seasons. It will all depend on whether or not they go back to Earth in Season 3 or not.

Ephemera

From the personal journal of Obscurist Keith Kogane (Interdicted to Black Archives)

"The obituary they printed for Shiro in the Alexandria times was complete garbage. I know Shiro and the Holts made it to the moon. Shiro's Codex message confirms it. But the Artifex Magnus has always hated the whole Lunar Exploration Project, so as soon as the instruments monitoring the translation capsule went offline, he declared Shiro and the others dead without a second thought. And when I tried to show him the codex message from Shiro saying that they were alive, he brushed me off."

"I suppose I brought some of this on myself, though. The entire time I've been in the Iron Tower, I've fought with my fellow Obscurists, cooked up acidic compounds in the alchemy labs, and just generally been an uncooperative jerk to everyone around me. The only reason I behaved myself for this project was because Shiro had insisted that I be a part of it. Maybe they might have listened to me if I had been better behaved before.

Oh, who am I kidding. They still wouldn't listen to me, and I'd never have been able to behave myself in here. The Iron Tower is nothing more than a gilded cage. The Library clings to the Obscurists like a bear trap clamped around an animal's limb. I've seen some of the inventions that get sent to the Black Archives. If only the Library would just build a press printer or whatever those machines people keep inventing are called, then maybe they could stop relying on Obscurist labor to maintain their grip on power, and I could finally leave this place.

With Shiro gone, they don't trust me. I have an armed escort every time I leave my room, and they took away my private codex. I already know that everything I write in my journal is monitored and sent to the Black Archives. The only tasks I'm allowed to do are transcribing official messages into the Codex, and even then, I'm watched constantly, to make sure I don't try to contact anyone outside the tower."

"The only upside is that I'm being held back from the breeding program until I demonstrate that I can "behave like a proper Obscurist." Yeah, right. As if there was anything noble about having sex with a woman I barely know against both of our wills, just so that the Library can delay the inevitable for one more generation. But as much as I hate the library's stubborn reliance on a dwindling Obsucrist population when better ways of maintaining their infrastructure exist, I'd bite my tongue, swallow my pride, and play my part if it meant that I could find a way to bring Shiro home."

"I know you'll never be able to read this, Shiro, but please, wherever you are, just come home. I'd willingly spend the rest of my life in this place if it meant knowing you're safe. Because right now, nothing could be worse than not knowing."

Chapter 1

Lance sulked as he and his classmates rode in the steam carriage back to Ptolemy House. Today had not been a good day. Their assignment for today's class had been to participate in an actual High Garda raid on a local book smuggler. It wasn't any of the big names. The administration wasn't stupid. They weren't going to throw partially trained Postulants into the shark infested waters before their training was even complete. No. It had just been a small-time thief who traded volumes simply for the illegal thrill of having a book to themselves. Lance didn't have anything against trading copies of common volumes, but the rare ones were where he drew the line. Rare books only had a handful of copies left in existence, and if they were stolen or destroyed, the knowledge within was lost forever.

Those were the cases where Lance agreed with the Library's mantra "when you steal a book, you steal from the world." But in any case, it was irrelevant. The man had been a lowlife smuggler, his stockpile of contraband consisting only of poorly transcribed copies of books already accessible in the Core Collection from any Codex. It should have been easy. But between Hunk getting self so worked up that he vomited all over the books, and Pidge constantly commenting on everything he was doing wrong, it had been a disaster. It was only thanks to their instructor, Scholar Iverson, that the smuggler had even been caught at all. Hunk's just lucky he didn't vomit on any of the Originals, Lance thought to himself. Otherwise Iverson would have really been angry. As the steam carriage arrived back at the students' dormitories, Lance climbed out of the carriage and looked up at the sky.

Night had fallen on the city of Alexandria and the great pyramid of the Library loomed in the distance, jutting up into the night sky like an arrow piercing the heavens. Lance grinned as his eyes leaped from the imposing pyramid to the constellations glittering in the night sky. Whenever he felt overwhelmed by the rigorous competition for a place in the ranks of the Library, he'd discovered early on that stargazing calmed him. At moments like this, he found the looking at the stars and contemplating the universe beyond Earth to be a calming experience for him. He just hoped that when humanity finally reached out for the stars, he'd be alive to see it. But in the meantime, he was happy training to join the High Garda. Just like his hero.

Lance had been devastated when he saw the obituary for Takashi Shirogane in the newspaper a year ago. As the youngest High Garda captain in history, Shiro had been Lance's idol. Intelligent, confident, and popular with the ladies, Shiro was everything Lance wanted to be. Despite his bravado and his apparent ego, deep down he was afraid of the possibility that he wasn't good enough. In all of his studies, Lance had never really found any particular subject that interested him. He didn't have the mechanical inclinations required to be an Artifex, nor did he have the patience for Medica. Seeing Takashi Shirogane become a High Garda Captain at been the inspiration Lance had needed, and given him a goal to work towards. Learning that his childhood hero was dead had been a huge blow for him.

Lance sighed as he tore his gaze away from the stars and headed back inside the confines of Ptolemy House. Most of the Postulants had retired to their own rooms, but a few students remained out in the common room sipping coffee as the smell of something baking wafted in from the dormitory's kitchen. Lance smiled. Of course, Hunk would be cooking after a day like this. Lance had known the big guy for years, and knew him well enough to know that cooking always calmed him down after a stressful day. He sampled the recipe like he always did, with Hunk only partially teasing him as he told him not to touch the food while he was cooking. As Hunk put the dish in the oven, Lance took a seat in one of the recliner chairs in the common area and closed his eyes, listening to the chatter of conversation going on around him.

The next thing he knew, Hunk was tapping him on the shoulder. Lance groggily opened his eyes and saw that everyone else had gone to bed, and he could see through the window that the sky was darker than it had been when he'd gotten back to the dormitory. I must have really been tired, he thought to himself as Hunk asked for some help with the dishes. Lance agreed, knowing that Hunk would be up for hours otherwise. He rubbed his eyes and told Hunk that he needed to use the washroom in their shared room before they started cleaning.

Lance turned into the hallway leading to the bedrooms and stopped in his tracks when he saw Pidge climb out the window at the other end of the hall with a bag on his back. Where is he going? Lance wondered as his fellow Postulant dropped down from the windowsill and vanished into the night. Without thinking, Lance raced down the hall to the window and peered out. He caught a flash of the other boy's green undershirt before Pidge took off in the direction of the Iron Tower. Lance's eyes widened in confusion and concern. Postulants weren't supposed to be out of their dorm after dark. And if Pidge was about to do something illegal, it could damage everyone else's chance of getting a commission at the Library.

Thinking quickly, Lance raced back into the common area to find Hunk putting away the leftover food and cleaning off the dirty dishes. Worried for his classmate's safety and concerned for his class ranking, Lance grabbed Hunk by the collar of his shirt and dragged him towards the door.

"Lance!" Hunk protested. "What are you doing?"

"Pidge just snuck out the back window and took off," he explained. "We need to find out what he's up to." With that, the two teens took off at a run into the night.

"We shouldn't be doing this," Hunk commented nervously as they crept through the streets of Alexandria, scurrying like mice in the direction of the Iron Tower and hoping to stumble across their classmate. Hunk honestly liked Pidge, even if the guy was a bit closed off and didn't really talk to any of the other Postulants much. He could tell that there was something weighing the other boy down, even if they were too stubborn to open up to anyone and admit it.

"We're gonna grab Pidge, get him back to Ptolemy House so he doesn't get himself in trouble, and be back before anyone even realizes that any of us were gone," Lance replied, trying to be reassuring. In Hunk's opinion, he was failing miserably at that. He and Lance had been friends long before they took the Library's entrance exams, but sometimes Lance tried to push the envelope too far when it came to being adventurous. Unfortunately, that left Hunk with the job of trying to reign in his friend's more impulsive moments. Like right now, for instance. Sadly, he was having as much success with that as Lance was with trying to reassure him.

"I'm just saying this here, right now, on the record," he said anxiously as they ducked behind a building to a void a trio of drunk merchants walking down the street. "This is a bad idea." Once the coast was clear, they emerged from their hiding spot and ran down the street. Hunk didn't like the way this night was going, and he'd much rather be back at Ptolemy House snacking on some of his own recipes, but he couldn't bring himself to let Lance go charging off alone.

"You know," Lance commented as they sprinted down an alleyway. "For someone studying at the Great Library of Alexandria, you don't have much of a sense of adventure."

"All of your ideas of adventure would get us all expelled if I let you go through with them," Hunk retorted nervously as they ducked under the open window of a store that stayed open at night. The two friends managed to avoid being spotted by a High Garda patrol by turning at the nearest intersection in the sandy streets of Alexandria when they finally arrived at the Iron Tower. Despite his fear of being dismissed from the class, Hunk couldn't help but marvel at the sight. As an aspiring Artifex, he loved studying all kinds of engineering, from the smallest machines to the largest buildings. And despite its misleading name, Hunk was nevertheless awed at how the architects of the Tower had managed to either discover or invent a type of metal that had not suffered a single incident of rust, wear, and tear in its entire history. Hunk dreamed of being able to learn the ancient building's secrets one day.

But, he reminded himself. I can kiss those dreams goodbye if we get caught. As he and Lance circled the plaza that surrounded the tower, his fear of being caught increased tenfold. He was about to suggest going back to Ptolemy House and hoping that Pidge came back before morning when Lance tapped his shoulder. He looked up in the direction Lance was pointing in and saw Pidge running across the rooftops surrounding the plaza. Lance gestured for Hunk to lift him up to the roof of the nearest building. Getting Lance to the top had been easy, but it took another five minutes before he reached the top himself. He and Lance both looked ahead to see Pidge crouched behind a pile of boxes two buldings over, on the roof of the nearest building to the Iron Tower. Lance was about to wave to their classmate when an explosion rocked the city.

Hunk whirled around to see a massive plume of green flames climbing into the air a few blocks away from the Iron Tower. No! Hunk thought as he panicked at the sight of Greek Fire. Pidge was too friendly. He couldn't be a Burner! He was about to say more when he saw High Garda troops streaming away from the Iron Tower in the direction of the toxic blaze. Suddenly it occurred to Hunk that while everyone was up in arms worrying about the blaze, the Iron Tower would be almost totally vulnerable. But why would Pidge want to break into the Iron Tower? Hunk speculated, thinking back and realizing that he didn't really know anything about his classmate beyond what Pidge had shared about his family history.

At the sight of the deadly flames, Hunk knew that it was time to head back to Ptolemy House and pretend they never saw anything. Lance, however, had other ideas.

"Hunk," he said, the slight edge to his voice betraying the fact that he was just as nervous as Hunk was. "Think about this for a second. If Pidge gets caught, they're going to question the whole class. And if they figure out that we knew about Pidge breaking into the Tower and did nothing, we'll be shipped back home faster than you can say "Go". If we follow Pidge, we can stop him from making such a huge mistake and save ourselves at the same time." Hunk didn't like the situation, but he reluctantly had to agree with Lance's logic. So Hunk begrudgingly followed Lance as they raced off after Pidge, reaching the roof they'd just seen him in in time to see him climbing the walls of the Tower.

Lance and Hunk refer to Pidge as he because they don't know the truth yet. Once they find out, they'll switch to the correct pronouns. And because everyone has their own opinions on whether Pidge is transgender or agender, or whatever head-canon they have, I just want to clarify that I will be sticking to canon according to the creators' comments, which are that regardless of whether she is any of the above, Pidge still choses to identify as female. Just warning everyone now so they know in advance that I'm not going to be throwing support for anyone's head-canons.

Terminology:

Postulants:Students training to become full-time staff members of the Library's central staff.