"Pidge, have you made it to the generator room?" Allura, was anxious, though Pidge couldn't really blame her. Once she took down the castle's defensive barrier, the others would be able to rush in and help. She just had to be careful. No doubt the Galra were now aware of her presence in the castle. But she walked into the room anyways. "Alright, Allura; I'm in."
The room was long – isn't everything in this castle? – and the floor was divided into raised and lowered sections. Purple lightning cackled on each end all the way down, but for all of its weirdness, the room was Galra free – for now. "This technology is so advanced, I don't know if I can figure it all out…"
Allura's voice was back in her comms. "Yes, you can. The lives of your fellow paladins are at stake." Yeah, no pressure! "You can't give up!" Allura sounded like her father… Wait-!
Pidge froze as her mind took her back to the before, to the last moment she had shared with her family while they were still together.
"I hope you enjoy this home-cooked meal, Matt! After our launch to Kerberos tomorrow, we'll be eating nothing but freeze-dried peas for the next two months!" A young Pidge – no, Katie – basked in her father's calming voice. At the time, she didn't know what was about to happen. Pidge wished that she had hugged them more, or told them she loved them just one more time before they left. Katie sighed. "I wish I was going up with you guys…"
Her father flashed her a bright smile. "Just you wait, kiddo. Something tells me that you're going to have your own crew someday, and you're gonna fly with them to worlds so far away we can't even imagine!" His smile turned into a proud and loving gaze, and Katie basked in it. "I bet my bottom dollar that one day, you're going to be a part of something that makes the whole universe sit up and take notice. I just know it."
They left in the early morning the next day, and then they were gone.
Soon, she was watching the news relay that her family's ship was missing. The stoic voice of the news reporter echoed in her ears. "All crew members are believed to be dead… caused by pilot error…" Katie had stood on the stairs and watched as everything she believed in, everything she held dear, disappeared in an instant. But she knew that the Garrison was wrong. There was absolutely no way that their pilot had caused the crash. Her father had told her, "Yeah, Shiro is the best pilot out of anywhere! If there is anyone that I could trust to take us back home to you safely, I know it would be him."
So Katie decided to investigate. Her family may be dead, but their stories would receive their justice.
The Galaxy Garrison had lied. And Katie had seen the proof herself. Yes, breaking into the General's office and hacking his computer was definitely illegal, but so was the government covering up the truth about her family. Unfortunately, she had been caught in the act, and Katie Holt was banned from ever being on Garrison grounds again. So she came up with a new plan. She would cut her hair and change her name. If Katie couldn't get access to the Garrison files, then Pidge Gunderson would. The General would never even think to look for Katie masquerading herself as a boy, and he definitely wouldn't see her face past the short hair and her brother's glasses. Katie and Pidge looked very different from each other, but they both had the same goal: get justice for her family.
Then she was back. Back to the present, and back to being Pidge. "Okay Allura, talk me through it."
"Alright. Shutting down the barrier from this room can be dangerous. And remember: the barrier is also very dangerous, so stay away from the energy arcs."
"Don't touch the giant lightning bolts. Got it."
"Okay. Now, what I'm going to need you to do is-" Pidge's attention was cut off as a blaster fire sounded from behind. She let out a yell in surprise, then took off running with Rover close by her side. "Pidge!" Oh, Allura must have heard her. "Hello, are you there?! Pidge, what's going on?" Pidge wanted to respond, but her focus was on getting away from the firing.
She ducked behind a corner and crouched down with her datapad out. Schematics of the room flashed in front of her. Come on, give me a way out of this! Suddenly, she found one. Wait, "The only way out is two floors up? Seriously?!" Pidge slowly peered around the corner, but drew back immediately as Galra shots nearly blasted her in the face. It was too dangerous to try and look back again, but she needed to see where she was going. Hold up – she had an idea. A couple taps on the screen later, and Hologram Pidge was ready. The image ran out and drew the fire away from the real Pidge. Only for a couple of seconds, though. The soldiers soon saw through her ruse, and she was forced to try and dodge blaster fire as she raced towards her exit. Her bayard lit up in her hand, and suddenly she was flying up towards a ventilation shaft in the wall. She smacked into the wall, but landed on the ledge safely. "Woah, I can't believe that worked!" More gunfire snapped her back to the task at hand though, and Pidge rushed into the vent.
It was probably only minutes but it felt like hours as she crawled through the ventilation. Shen eventually met with a vent cover, but a quick swipe with her bayard was all it took for her to pop the hatch free from the wall. She crawled out cautiously into the large room that they used for their paladin training – not that she would really be doing that after this whole ordeal was over with. But whatever. There are more important things to worry about.
She was running across to the other end of the room, when there was a crash behind her and two Galra soldiers intercepted her path. Come on, you've got to be kidding me! But she had a plan. "Invisible maze; let's see you get through this!" She ran towards them and slid under one of the soldier's legs before flying back. Then, just as they were about to catch her, she put up the maze. Pidge smiled when the first soldier rand straight into the wall and blew to pieces. The other one was stuck, so she left him to it as she dug up a panel in the floor and slid down.
Pidge was halfway to her destination when shots rang out behind her. Okay, I guess he's not so stuck after all… She ducked into a side vent, but the soldier was relentless behind her. Pidge began to speed up. She couldn't really move to avoid the blaster shots, and she wasn't really sure what would happen if she was hit.
Her pursuer was even closer now, but then he stopped and took aim. She continued scrambling through the vents, but a blow to her side sent her tumbling…straight down into a hole. She was paralyzed – maybe with fear or from the shot, she didn't know. Time seemed to slow as she tumbled down, and there he was, right above her. Suddenly, she got her bearings. Her bayard flashed a brilliant green and shot up towards the top. Then she was going back up. The only problem was that she now found herself being drawn even closer to the soldier above her. He began shooting down at her, and Pidge began throwing herself back and forth to mess up his aim.
Finally, she clung to a ledge on the wall and her bayard swung down, bringing the doomed soldier with it. He tumbled past her and Pidge took a moment to catch her breath. She had almost died more times in a day than she had in an entire month!
The Galra soldier eventually landed at the bottom, but the ensuing explosion shook the entire vent, and Pidge lost her grip on the wall. She let out a yelp of surprise but never fell. Rover had her back, both literally and figuratively. "Rover," She gasped. "nice save, buddy."
They continued on a while longer, and eventually broke out and found themselves back in one of the castle halls. Pidge was glad; the incident in the vents had left her with a crushing fear of claustrophobia. She took her helmet off and shook the sweat out of her hair, ignoring the sticky feeling of dried blood at the nape of her neck. How had she even gotten to where she was now? Well, she guessed it all started with the Garrison.