"You're a girl!?" Lance screeches, catching Pidge off guard. She adjusts her glasses, and shuts her laptop.

"Yes. I pretended to be a boy to get Iverson off my trail. Though, it seems he may not of even wanted to arrest me…" she admits, and the circle around her solemnly nods.

"So… Iverson wants to kill us all?" Hunk asks wearily, and Pidge replies with a slow nod.

"Perhaps we could sneak out and explore Daibazaal? If that's where they're taking everyone." Romelle suggests. Pidge smirks, and nods.

"Then we should split into teams of two." Keith cuts in, and the rest of thr group agrees.

Keith split them into groups of two, Lance and Hunk, Pidge and Keith, and Romelle and Allura. Everyone was satisfied with their grouping, and they all ordered a coffee before exiting Starbucks. They began their walk back to campus.

"What time should we leave our dorms?" Allura asks, and Pidge thinks it over. She closes her eyes, which signals she is thinking, and stopped walking.

"One am, if it's not too much of a hassle." She answers, continuing to walk. Thr group follows behind her closely. Within minutes of comfortable silence, they had arrived back at campus. They split into their different dorms, and got together bags for their exploration.

Lance, Romelle, Allura, Keith, Hunk, Pidgeon

Lance: We need like, a group name!

Keith: Lance, no.

Lance: It could be like, 'Voltron'

Allura: I second Voltron!

Romelle: And we could be the paladins!

Pidgeon: Sounds good.

Hunk: Are we sure about this? I mean, we could sneak into the kitchen instead and get a nice midnight snack.

"Hunk!" Pidge yells, looking away from her phone. Hunk jumped from his bed and rubbed his head.

"Sorry!" He mumbles with sincerity,

Romelle: Ooh! And we can do codenames!

Lance: I'll be Sharpshooter, Allura can be Princess, Romelle could be Sass, Pidge will be Gremlin, Hunk is the Cinnamon Roll, and Keith is Knife!

Keith: I'm good with stabbing you with my knife.

Pidge: I can't believe I'm saying this, but Lance is right. Ee have no other ideas for code names…

Romelle: This is so thrilling!

|Lance has changed the name to 'Team Voltron!'|

Pidge shut off her phone and put it on her desk, smiling widely. She had friends, not only that, but they were helping her beat Iverson and find her family.

"Okay, it's time for dinner!" Hunk announces, and everyone gets their shoes on. They dash out the door and accross the foliaged campus, crunching on red and orange Autumn leaves. They arrived at the dinning hall, and pushed the door open, cool metal meeting warmed palms.

"Pidge! Lance! Hunk!" Romelle squeals from the back of the line. They meet up with her, catching their breath.

"Hey, Romelle." Hunk smiles sweetly, and Romelle returns the kind smile. They were ushered forward in the line, and grabbed plates. Going forward once again, they collected that night's italian assortment of food, ranging from pizzas to spaghetti.

"Keith!" Allura calls from the table once most of the group had sat down. The raven haired boy looked up from his phone, and Allura patted the seat next to her. "Come join us!" She smiles. The boy picks up his plate and makes his way towards the table, sitting down in the last seat available.

"Does everyone have flashlights?" Pidge asked, and the rest of the group nodded. She took a bite of her spaghetti, and placed her fork down suddenly. "I made an app we can use privately. It's like a walkie talkie." She explains. Pasta slid off of Hunk's fork as his jaw dropped.

"You made an app in two hours? How!" He demands, and Pidge adjusts her glasses, the cool metal adjusting itself upon her freckles.

"Honestly, I made the base when I was ten. I just adjusted the code slightly." She shrugs, and Hunk nods along. "I made it for me and my brother, so we could talk whenever." She explained a bit more thoroughly.

"How are we going to get it?" Allura asks with confusion. Pidge takes out her phone and presses several buttons.

"Easy; I'll text it to you." She answers. Suddenly, each of the Paladins received a text message. They opened up the link and quickly downloaded the app onto their phones. The team finished up their Italian dinner, and set off for their dorms. Pidge opened a Skype chat to keep everyone awake.

"I'm.. nervous for what we may find." Allura admits, hugging a pink and white pillow closer to her chest. There was shuffling in the background, until Romelle appeared on screen. Her hair was pulled into a messy bun, the front bangs she used to form her hair crown hung over her shoulders limply.

"I am as well, but imagine the good we'd be doing." Romelle points out optimistically, and Allura smiles widely.

"Guys, just one more hour. Let's meet where the bonfire was." Pidge cuts in, and Lance mumbled something about the burned grass before shrugging.

"Sure, why not." he whispers, and Keith gives an affirmative mumble from his end. The three dorms that the group had spread across, were Terra, Arus, and Marmora.

Marmora was towards the west end of campus, in between two models of stars and black matter students named the 'Black holes' and the dorm was centered in a circle of white flowers.

Arus was in a fairly grassy area, and was just a walk away from where the bonfire was. It was nestled cozily with surrounding trees and plants, smooth pavement sidewalks, and windows with flower beds.

Terra was what you'd expect in a college dorm. It was large, with two floors. Two hallways stretched on either side of the common room, each with stairwells to the next level of rooms. The dorm was fairly full, and was one of the coziest buildings on campus.

"I'm going to start packing my bag." Keith announces, standing up and dropping random items into a black backpack. Pidge swore she saw Keith drop a knife carelessly into the front pocket. He dropped a flashlight, and his phone as well.

"We have proteins bars, flashlights, a portable hot glue gun, and a jar of glitter, as well as our phones." Romelle lists, rummaging through the bag they had packed.

"Why glitter..?" Keith asks with confusion, zipping up his bag and slinging it over his shoulder. He was wearing a black shirt with black sweatpants, alongside matching sneakers. A dark beanie rested on his head, covering his Raven hair. The group had decided to wear dark colors in order to blend in better.

"Because if it blows in your eyes, it stings. Trust me." Romelle replies with sass, dropping a portable fan into their bag. Team Altea, (Romelle and Allura) had a messenger bag, and both had black leggings. Their tops were more fancy, but nobody cared.

As Hunk and Lance debated upon a group name, Romelle pulled her hair into a tighter bun, looping her bangs into it in a Katara style. Allura's hair was also pulled back, though in a ponytail.

Team Conspiracy, Altea, and Meme were ready. Hunk wasn't exactly mad about their name, though wasn't too proud about it either.

Pidge had ended the Skype call, as Hunk gently lifted their window. Pidge came out first, followed by Lance. Hunk was struggling to get out.

"Guys, I can't get through!" Hunk whispers quickly. Pidge gestures to the front door, and he nods, quietly exiting the building a minute later. They dashed carefully across campus, meeting with Allura, Romelle, and Keith.

"Everyone get into your groups." Pidge instructs, approaching Keith silently. He had slid two pairs of socks over his shoes, enabling him more stealth in the darkness, which was very smart, she had to admit.

"Let's go."

It was dark out. Wind lashed through Allura's hair, it floating out, catching the breeze. Moonlight illuminated her tan face, her eyes shining silver with glints.

"There seems to be nothing out here for miles…" Romelle moans, leaning against a near tree for support. Allura sighs and looks around.

"There's gotta be something.." The tanned girl mumbles, removing a protein bar from her satchel and nibbling gently on it. Allura broke off a piece and handed it to Romelle, who accepted and scarfed it down hungrily.

"Perhaps we should check in with the others?" Romelle suggests, and Allura nods. The blonde opens her phone and launches Pidge's app. There were three things she could select. Team Conspiracy, Meme Team, or Voltron. Romelle taps on Voltron, and it crackles before Pidge talks.

"Knife and I have nothing. Over." Pidge mumbles, and Romelle shares a short glance with Allura before pressing the talk button.

"Neither do Princess and I. Over." She admits, and Allura reaches for the phone, the dot for Lance and Hunk remained red, until it suddenly flashed to green.

"Well, Cinn and I did!" Lance yells, clearly running. Romelle logs off of the app, and opens a tracing app to find Lance and Hunk. They were close to the girls, just a little ways north. Breaking into a run, Allura and Romelle met up with the two boys, panting with exhaustion.

"What did you find?" Pidge asks, out of breath as she jogs up behind them, Keith shortly after. Lance caught his breath and leaned against a large rock.

"A base. Large base. Guard dogs." he answered, taking in a few more breaths. Allura took out a protein bar and smiled.

"Dogs like peanut butter, correct?" she asks gleefully, and Pidge nods vigorously. Romelle took out a few more and unwrapped them, dropping the wrappers back into the bag.

"Show us the way, Lance." She smirks, and Lance gives a hand gesture, signalling for the others to follow him. This time, they avoided running. They'd step on too many twigs and get unwanted attention. The base was large, metal walls sinking into a deep crevice, an unfinished object in the center. Caves outlined with door frames appeared to be hallways, possible cells. Romelle spots the guard dogs and ripped a piece of the protein bar off and tossed it.

"Go fetch." she whispers deviously, tossing more pieces. The dogs' ears perked up at the thudding noise. They sniffed, and the four animals trotted over to investigate. In their confusion, they began fighting each other in order to receive the snack. Romelle and Allura share a high five as they approach the wall.

"I need to find an outer control panel so I can shut off the power, we can't get caught on any security footage." Pidge demands, and Hunk nods, looking over the architecture of the base.

"There." he points towards a bulged rectangle, only noticeable with the shadows of the purple lights, partnered up with the glint of the moon. Pidge dashes towards the panel, twisting her fingernails in the screws until they came loose. She removed the panel, and smiled as she saw all the wires. She extended her hand, and Keith gave her his knife.

"That should do it." she mutters, closing the panel back up and handing Keith back his knife. The eerie purple that glinted against their faces shut off, and Keith stabs his knife into the wall multiple times until it doesn't budge. The rest of the group looks at him confused, until he climbs on top of the box, stepping on his knife, and leaping up, catching hold of the top of the wall. He pulls himself up, and extends his hand for the next person.

Soon, Lance was the last one on the ground. He climbed onto the box, and pulled with all his might on the knife, removing it from the wall. He hands it to Keith, and the people on top pull him up.

The wall was similar to the great wall of China, a path circling around the large crevice. People worked inside of it, either lugging plates of metal, wires, and other technological devices. Others hammered at the contraption in the center.

"There's Slav!" Hunk points out the short boy, his short dyed blue hair sprawled messily with his black hoodie replaced by black and purple rags.

"This place looks horrifying…" Romelle observes, her eyes darting around. People trudged and frowned, unhappy to be there. Of course, nobody could blame them.

"How long of they been taking people…?" Pidge hesitates to ask, and Allur shakes her head with disappointment.

"I don't even want to know." She admits, her hair catching the wind once more. Glints of sunlight peer through the misty clouds, and Pidge checks her phone.

"It's five, we should head back." she announces, and the group begins climbing down the wall, and gently passing through the field, the dogs still distracted by the peanut butter snack Romelle had given them.

"Goodnight guys, thanks for helping." Pidge smiles with melancholy as the group had arrived at the bonfire pit. They split their different ways, and walked back to their dorms, in a peaceful silence.

Bugs chirped, and birds sang for the new morning. It was the song of nature, and you could even hear the small twinkling of streams and brooks if you listened closely.

"I.. I'm not feeling so good." Romelle admitted as they entered the room through the open window. She clenched her stomach and sat down on her bed, breathing in deeply and slowly exhaling.

"Please, rest." Allura smiles, hiding her worry. Romelle nodded and layed down, curled into a ball. She was sick to her stomach. It wasn't her leukemia, no, it was what the Garrison was doing.

"I.. I can't believe this is happening." she sighs, rolling in her bed. Her bun had collapsed, and her blonde hair was now sprawled across her baby blue pillow. She held a stuffed rabbit close to her chest, and clenched her eyes shut.

"I agree…" came Allura's response, who had climbed into her bed. Thankfully, it was the weekend and the girls could sleep in slightly later.

"Hngh…" Pidge mumbles as she lazily rolls out of her bed. Checking her clock, she noted it was around eleven am. She took out an energy drink, chugging the sweet liquid in a matter of seconds. She tossed it into the trash can, hearing it clink with the other cans.

"Lance, Hunk get up." She mumbles as she collects articles of clothing to toss on. They had put Pidge's bed as high as possible, hanging a blanket to cover the front, giving Pidge space to change or anything else. She ducks under the blanket and changes into her jeans and hoodie, sliding on converse.

"Hm?" Hunk had finally mumbled drowsily. Pidge picked up her phone and began blasting a Panic! At the Disco song. Lance jolted awake, banging his head on the ceiling in the process. Pidge snickered, and Hunk slid out from under his covers, pushing his feet into yellow fuzzy slippers.

"There's thirty minutes left of Sunday Brunch." Hunk announces, looking up from his watch. Lance exhaustedly climbed down the ladder, and slipped on his slippers as well. Pidge left the room so they could get changed, and they came back out with jeans and tshirts, paired with sneakers.

"Come on." Pidge ushers, dragging them along the lush campus until they reached the dining hall. She opened the door, and the two boys walked in. They collected their food, Allura and Romelle still at the table.

"Ah, good morning." Allura smiles tiredly. Romelle blinks a few times, and waves to the trio. Lotor approaches the table and sits next to Allura before Pidge could.

"What is it, Lotor?" Allura asked with an annoyed expression set upon her face. Lotor grabbed her hand gently, and kissed it. He smiled and looked up at a shocked Allura. She pulled her hand away, and slapped him.

"Don't mess with her, she doesn't like idiots." Pidge teases, and Lotor grunts. He gets up and speedwalks to a different table, sitting down with four other girls.

"What a Yelmor!" Allura hisses, beginning to angrily eating her food. She stabs the waffle with force, it scratches the plate. She doesn't seem to care, because she continues to stab it.

"He could definitely learn about personal space." Pidge mumbles sassily, taking a bite of her italian breakfast sausage.

"Yeah! What was that about?" Lance whines, sitting down and glaring at Lotor. His group consisted of four girls, Pidge noted the girl with tanned skin and dyed rainbow hair was Ezor Kyomi, yet didn't recognize the other three girls.

"He's definitely a jerk, he's with Ezor." Pidge remarks aloud, and Allura pushes away her plate, resting her elbows on the table.

"Really? Ezor seemed sweet.." Hunk admits, finishing the last bite of his pancake. Pidge shook her head, and chugged her coffee.

"She's hell in high heels." Pidge shrugs, getting up to get more of the deliciously bitter and awakening drink. It was as she got up that Keith arrived, his face extremely pale supporting dark bags beneath his eyes. He held a cup of milk, and as soon as he sat down, he chugged it.

"Let it kill me." He mumbles in a monotone voice. Hunk pats his back gently, and takes in a deep breath.

"Hush, you won't drown." Hunk soothes gently, and Keith's gaze remained pale and frozen, he didn't seem to move.

"He's lactose intolerant." Pidge informs, sitting down with her cup of coffee. Hunk freezes and pushes his water towards the pale boy.

"Don't actually die, man."

"No promises."

The group had decided to go out once more, and see if they could get farther into the base. But, when they had arrived the purple lights were a deep crimson red. The wall was dented, and there were no people in the ditch. Worried, the group had moved around the forest.

"They probably just went to sleep and the red was a night-light." Hunk reasoned, fidgeting with his large hands. Beads of sweat rolled down the boy's face.

"Like hell that's true" Pidge gunts, hitting her flashlight as it flickered. "Ugh dumb batteries." she mumbles, giving it one last hit. It went dark.

There was a rustling in the surrounding forest, and Lance had grabbed onto Hunk, scared. Hunk had clutched Lance for dear life, until they heard a thud.

The flashlight turned back on, and Takashi Shirogane laid unconscious in front of the group. Keith rushed to the man's side, checking his pulse. From there, he and Lance picked him up and carried him back to Keith's room, where he rested peacefully on Keith's bed.

"Good thing you have a single room." Hunk shrugs optimistically, and Keith glared at him, blinking slowly.

"You can thank my old roommate's complaint for that." He shrugs, turning his attention back to the man knocked out on his bed.

"W-well what were they complaining about..?" Hunk asks with slight uncertainty, gazing around the room for anything that may drive somebody in the opposite direction.

"My knife collection." Keith shrugs, sounding like it was no big deal whatsoever. Hunk noticeably paled, and dragged Lance out of the room, soon followed by the last three who needed to go back to their dorm.

"Night, ladies." Lance winked, as he walked backwards with PIdge and Hunk. He turned around as they exited Keith's dorm, and walking back to Terra.

"Well, that was eventful.." Hunk mutters, lightening the heavy burden that they had just found a man that had been missing for almost two years.

"Yeah.." Pidge whispers, silently opening the door to Terra. She slipped inside, and ducked close to the wall, moving agily towards the door to their room. Hunk and Lance followed.

Soon, everyone was asleep.

The next morning nobody mentioned a word about last night's encounter. They simply discussed simple things about school as they ate their food. Pidge had a free block first, while everyone else had other classes.

"I'm going to the library." Pidge announced, getting up. She slung her bag carelessly over her shoulder and silently trudged out of the building, crossing the street and entering the homey library.

She put her bag down next to a table and took out a book, silently reading. She was lost in the world of magic and friendship, entranced by characters and words. She slowly slipped away from reality.

Except, it was sadly more than just a description. Ezor was also in the library, and she had 'accidentally' tripped. Pidge excused the incident as unimportant, and took a sip of water from her cup. Black dots blurred her vision, and her book fell to the table with a thud.

She felt strong arms grip her shoulder, and felt her feet lift off the ground. She remembered feeling strange, until there was nothing else to observe.

Pidge was late to class, which was completely out of character. Allura checked her watch, and noted that it was ten minutes past ten. Pidge was extremely late, and had still yet to show.

"Maybe she got stuck in a book?" Hunk had suggested, which actually was something that was highly likely, but Pidge also had an excellent sense of time. She would have noticed she was late by now.

Coran had started class anyway, marking Pidge off as absent. The group, including Shay, grew worried with every minute that passed. And of course, Lotor could have cared less. He spread his supplies over the table, not caring that his table mate had yet to show.

Nobody really paid any attention that class, and instead of heading to lunch, everyone went to the library. Romelle pushed the Kaltenecker reading room open, to find Pidge's open backpack leaning against the table.

A face up Harry Potter book occupied the open seat, yet Pidge was nowhere in sight. A cup of water spilled, water rolling over the gray table top.

Hunk was nervous at the fact Pidge's laptop was missing, and her phone remained on the table. There was an alert notifying her class was starting, yet it went off an hour and a half ago. The seat was cold, so Pidge hadn't been there for a while.

"She's just.. Gone." Keith muttered, observing the room again. All of her belongings, minus her laptop were in place, which meant Pidge had to be near, right?

"Guys, what are Pidge's grades so far?" Romelle suddenly asked. Hunk opened her phone, knowing her passcode from accidentally seeing her punch it in.

"All hundreds and ninety eights." Hunk stated, scrolling through her progress report. "Why?" he adds with curiosity.

"Aren't they taking the smartest?" she responded.

Pidge grunted, clenching her fist. She slowly pushed herself up to find herself in a square room. Low purple lights illuminating the small space.

"Glad to see your awake!" Ezor chimes from a corner, stepping out so Pidge could view her better. She smirked deviously.

"What do you want…?" She groans drowsily, leaning against the wall for support. She shakily stood up.

"Nothing much.. Just to torture you" Ezor smiled, an eerie grin settling upon her face. Pidge froze, and dug her nails into her palm. Ezor lunged at her, and Pidge felt Ezor's hands holding her throat. PIdge gasped, thrashing for air.

"Now, I know you took Shiro. Where is he?" she asks, dropping Pidge to the ground. The little girl looks up at Ezor's powerful frame and sputters, shaking her head.

"Hard to get, hm? So you wouldn't mind if I.. killed your brother?" She taunts, and Pidge's eyes widen.

"No- please don't" she pleaded. Ezor smirked and checked out her nails, adjusting her pose ever so slightly

"Then you'll go back to the Garrison and be my spy, and if you fail? Wish your brother goodbye. Ezor shrugs, picking Pidge up by her neck. "Or he'll end up like your father and mother."

"What- what did you do to him?!" she demands, flailing her arms in an attempt to hit Ezor. she fails, and Ezor tightens her grip once more, cutting off Pidge's air as a simple threat.

"Have fun." she chimes, and everything goes black.

A/N Hey yall! Are you enjoying this? What do you think is gonna happen? Any suggestions? Smack down a review and lemme know!