Chapter 4: Pidge
Pidge yawned as she sat cross-legged underneath the Green Lion in its hangar bay. She was typing on her laptop, going over the programming that allowed the Green Lion to go invisible. She had a lab table, filled with equipment and broken tech parts scattered on it, to the side.
Pidge bent her neck backward to look at the Green Lion, which was sitting upright. The force field had been off since she had walked in, a few hours ago, but the Green Lion's glowing eyes showed the lion to be active. "Is watching me entertaining for you?" Pidge asked the lion, receiving no response. "I guess this counts as bonding. What do you think?" This time Pidge heard a purr in her head. Pidge smiled and continued tapping away on her computer.
A notice popped up on Pidge's computer reading: 'Black Lion hangar unlocked'. "I guess Shiro got bored." Pidge stared in silence at the notice. "Do you think Hunk was right to be worried? They have gone through a lot."
Pidge deleted the notice and pulled up the link to the video feed of Keith, who was still standing facing the Red Lion. The lion had shut its mouth and was staring back with its glowing yellow eyes. "He's been in there a long time. Is he waiting for something? Do you lions know something we don't?"
Pidge looked behind her again and saw the energy from the Green Lion's eyes die away. Pidge turned around sideways, staring up at the Green Lion. When the light went out completely in the lion's eyes, so did the power to the hangar bay. "Oh come on!"
Pidge tapped the keypad to her laptop to light up the screen and the room. She muttered under her breath, "Stupid ten-thousand-year-old castle." When the screen didn't turn on, Pidge pressed more furiously on the keys. "Ugh, you old pile of junk." Pidge slammed the top of the laptop down and set the computer to the side.
She could see the glowing green outside rim to the control panel by the hangar door. Pidge got up and walked towards it. She tapped on the panel to activate the controls and the screen popped up. "Hm." Pidge pressed on the light switch and the lights came back on. "Weird nothing's damaged. Did the lights turn off on their own? AH!" Pidge turned around to see the Green Lion's hangar transformed.
The room looked like a construction zone. There were stacks of tech equipment and spare parts covering the hangar, more than what Pidge had on her little work table, which was now buried behind the metal work structures. The lion stood on all four with cords dangling above, attached, and off the sides of the Green Lion. The work structures were up against the arms and legs, but the most alarming part of all was the absent head to the Green Lion. Pidge stared at the headless Green Lion and couldn't speak. She slowly scanned the room and found the detached headset to the side in the right corner, surrounded by more parts and tools. Pidge shuffled over to the head still shaken to see the Green Lion's head, which only moments ago had been towering above her lying on the floor now at eye level with her.
As Pidge got closer to the lion's head, she noticed the head was larger than she had originally thought. When she was standing next to it, she had thought she would at least be as tall as the mouth, her head barely reached the top of the lower jaw. Pidge saw another metal structure attached to the head and climbed up. The structure reached to eye level and Pidge sat down, cross-legged again, staring sideways at the Green Lion's empty eyes.
"If you know what is going on, now would be a good time to tell me." Pidge stared at the Green Lion not receiving a response. "Before I start panicking." She said more forcefully.
"Hey, what are you doing in here?" Pidge jumped at the new voice. She turned around to see a tall male figure, weaving through the equipment towards her. Pidge started to climb down, but by the time she was about to reach the bottom, two hands reached out and threw her over the shoulder of the male.
"Put me down!"
"No, you have been told to stay away from the hangar. Why don't you listen?" The voice didn't belong to any of her crewmates, but being thrown over the shoulder only allowed Pidge to see the back of his pants and floor.
"I said, 'put me down'" Pidge squirmed in the man's grip, but Pidge felt tiny in his hold.
"Will you cut it out, Squirt, before someone hears you. If we get caught, I won't cover for you."
Pidge stopped squirming, collecting her thoughts. She realized this man thought he knew her, but her question was why. Pidge looked back at the Green Lion head but didn't get any response. Her body trembled, fearing that the Green Lion was truly damaged.
"Hey, you don't need to worry. I won't tell anyone you were in here."
They reached the hangar door and the male closed it behind him. Once they were in the hallway, the male put Pidge down. She looked up at him and the first thing she noticed was he was extremely tall, but that seemed wrong. She didn't recognize him, but his pointy ears showed he was Altean. This man seemed to be as tall as a Galra, however, he didn't have any other defining features that would make him seem so. His blond hair and pale skin seemed more human than Galra. Pidge reminded herself that Keith was also Galra, though he looked human and so she assumed this man was half Altean and Galra.
"Feel better now that you're on your own two feet?"
"What happened?"
"Yeah, the Captain really screwed up the lion good." The male rubbed the back of his neck. He looked guilty and nervous.
"Where is he?"
The male was caught off guard. He grabbed what appeared to be a dog tag around his neck and slid it back and forth across the chain. The man didn't say anything and averted his eyes from Pidge.
She finally came to the realization that she should maybe run away from the Altean. He shouldn't be there for one and he seemed off himself. Pidge wanted answers but thought the control deck and data might offer better Intel. She looked behind her, but before Pidge could turn and leave, the Altean kneeled down, placing his hands on her shoulders, preventing her from running. "Listen, Squirt."
"Don't call me that."
The Altean didn't listen. "Squirt, I'm sorry. He went through the transfer, but that's a good thing. You understand that, right? He's with Waverly."
Pidge was confused, she didn't understand if she was supposed to know who that was. "What do you mean?"
"He is bonded to the Red Lion, Squirt."
Pidge looked down at the ground, trying to process the meaning of what the Altean was saying. Pidge glared up at the Altean coming to a conclusion, "What did you do to Keith?"
"What are you two doing here?"
The new voice caused Pidge to jump once again and the Altean stood up, pushing Pidge behind him. Pidge came to waist height alongside the Altean and although he was taller than the newcomer, it wasn't by a large amount. The new Altean had the same pointy ears, but silver hair, a slightly darker shade to Allura's, but matching dark skin like her. He was lengthy and wore a more dressy attire of a dark blue vest and a white-collar shirt that was unbuttoned at the top, with a matching dark blue suit jacket, compared to the white t-shirt with the light blue military jacket the other Altean wore open.
"We went for a walk and just happened to stop here."
"Right here? In front of the Green Lion's bay doors. On a walk down a hallway, you knew led only to the other hangars. Were you headed to a different one?" The Silver Altean was inquisitive, but not judgmental. He had a smile on his face jokingly, but the Blond Altean didn't return it.
"Just went for a walk."
"Well, I don't have to remind you, Lieutenant, that the hangars are off limits until the Green Lion is repaired and the modifications made to the armor of the Yellow Lion. I also don't want the others to be disturbed."
"What did you do to Keith and Shiro?" Pidge pushed passed the Blond Altean.
"Don't worry you will be able to see them again, just not now."
"That doesn't answer my question of what did you do to them in the first place?"
"Also Lieutenant, I thought you would like to know that the modifications won't take longer than three months and you should be prepared for that."
"Thanks for the update. Come on, Squirt. I will take you back to the main quarters." The Blond Altean reached for her arm, but Pidge swatted him away.
"My name's not Squirt and why are you ignoring my question?"
"You can't stay here. You have to go." The Silver Altean came up behind her to push her towards the blond, but Pidge jabbed her elbow back into his stomach.
"Ow, Pidge."
Pidge looked back at the Silver Altean and saw Shiro laying on his back in the Altean's place. She turned to look towards the other Altean, but all she saw was the empty hallway. Pidge turned back to Shiro, moaning on the floor.
"Shiro, I'm glad you're okay."
"Pidge, I think you and I need to work on our understanding of okay. I think you knocked the wind out of me."
"Sorry, what are you doing here?"
"I came to find you."
"Wait, I need to check something." Pidge stood up and ran back into the Green Lion's hangar.
Pidge stared dumbfounded. The hangar had returned to normal. The lab table on the left with her laptop on the floor was otherwise an empty room except for the Green Lion, of course, which was in one piece, head and all.
"What is it?" Shiro asked, leaning against the side of the doorway.
"It's back or all gone. There was all this equipment and parts scattered everywhere and cords and the head. The Green Lion's head was over there. Honest, Shiro. I'm not making this up."
"I believe you. I actually came to ask if you had seen anything strange today, but seems like I don't even have to ask. I think I'm going to head back to the Black Lion's hangar." Shiro stood up, cradling his stomach.
"Sorry, again Shiro."
Shiro raised his hand as he shuffled away back down the corridor he had come.
Pidge looked back at the Green Lion. "Did you do that?" She continued to stare at the yellow eyes of the Green Lion, but like before she didn't receive a response.
Kestle:
Hello, Readers!
Sorry, this chapter took a little longer than I thought it would and it's a bit longer. I am currently writing the chapters daily, but don't know if I'm going to continue to do so or maybe two or three posts a week.
Warning daily posts might be late :P and if you are reading Voltron-Origins please let me know what you think :)
