Disclaimer: I don't own Voltron!

A/N: After this chapter, we should be getting into some action, woo!


Chapter 9

Pidge huddled against the back of Green's pilot chair, her forehead resting on her knees, arms wrapped around her legs. She was out of tears, exhausted from sobbing, and her head was being ripped apart by a headache.

Her dad had looked so frail. Sam Holt wasn't a tough kind of guy, but she had never thought of him as frail. No, he was goofy and kind and smarter than every other commanding officer at the Garrison. He could run a 5K with the recruits and leave them in the dust.

But up on that screen, he had looked half-dead. She had a screenshot up on the display right now so she could look over at it whenever the situation felt less than real. Wrinkles that hadn't been there before lined his face and there was a scar down his right cheek. His hair had gone from grey to mostly white, and he seemed gaunt. Then there were the eyes. Nothing could have prepared her for those faintly glowing purple eyes, unmistakably Galra tech.

They had replaced her father's eyes. Had they done it while he was awake? Had he lost his own somehow or had they just decided to gouge them—

She stifled a scream by burying her mouth into the crook of her arm. Deep breaths, deep breaths, stop panicking, stop it.

There was a ping against Green's hull, and she sat up straight. Did someone just throw something at her lion? She didn't want to talk. Steadying herself, she patched herself into the team's communication units. "Shiro, leave me alone."

"Whatever it is, it's not me," he answered, "But Matt should be in Green's hangar."

Matt. Pidge scrambled for the controls, lowering Green's head to the floor of the hangar bay. A moment later, she launched herself down of Green's ramp and into her brother's arms, burying her face in his shirt. He held her tight, and she felt his tears landing on her neck. She had thought that she couldn't cry anymore, but seeing Matt and knowing he felt the same way she did caused her to start sobbing all over again.

"Dad—" she started to say.

"I know," Matt said, pulling back, "I watched the video after we talked, and then Shiro asked me to come over."

Of course he did, Shiro thought of everything. Pidge wiped her hand across her eyes. "What're we going to do? We have to get Dad back." And apparently they were only going to be given three prisoners. The thought of arguing with Lance and Hunk over who got which family members back was excruciating, like driving a hot poker into her already aching head. Just because she would do practically anything to get her dad back didn't mean she wanted anything to happen to Josie, Theo, or Isaia.

"We can't do anything on our own this time," Matt said, "We can't act alone."

"But it's Dad," she said, a plaintive note in her voice, "We have to bring him back." She couldn't imagine going home without him after all this time, after all of the searching and hunting and scouring she had done to get to this point. He was just out of reach, and if she could just stretch far enough…

Matt chewed on his lip, an old anxious habit. "I didn't say anything about leaving him behind. Look." He bent down slightly so they were eye level, and again she realized that he had grown a few more inches while he had been in space. "We're not alone out here, Katie. It's not just us against the Galra Empire, it's us and our teams."

"My team's in shreds," Pidge said, her face growing hot as she realized it was true. She, Lance, and Hunk were being pitted against each other and Shiro and Keith would be forced to choose sides. If they had to pick between their family members, if it came to a vote or something, she wasn't sure if they could come back from that. How would they ever trust each other again?

"Don't think like that," Matt said. He pulled her over toward her work station and sat her down in her chair while he leaned against her desk. "That's how Lotor controls people. He grabs as many cards as he can, lays a careful plan, and then sends his opponent into a panic so they can't see any other option than to play the game the way he wants."

Right, Matt and his team had more experience dealing with Lotor. The Outcast crew had been freedom fighting for years, and Matt had been with them since he had been rescued. Guerilla tactics were sort of their expertise.

Pidge grabbed a tool off her work table and started playing with it, spinning one of the pieces around rapidly. "He's basically holding Earth for ransom, Matt. Mom's there." Another stab of pain racked her headache up toward migraine levels. The mother thought they were all dead, there was no other way around it. Most of the time, she tried to not think of her mom. It just hurt too much.

"Right, so we're going to have to cheat."

"What're you talk about?"

"Iwari thinks that Lotor expects Voltron to either go along with his plan or attempt to fight him on some level," Matt said, "In either case, he'll expect Voltron to be alone except for maybe the Outcast." Matt plucked the tool from her hands and spun it around its axis. "But Voltron has allies, and so do we."

"We can't ask people to help us with this," Pidge protested, "It's not their fight."

"Isn't it?" Matt said, handing the tool back to her, "The whole empire is under Galra rule, and Lotor is currently in charge. Honestly, I think they'll be more than willing to take a chance on hitting Lotor where it hurts."

"You…really think so?"

"Yeah," he said, nodding. He held out a hand to her. "Come on, let's go talk to the rest of your team."

Before they reached the hangar door, it whooshed open, showing a sweaty, breathless Keith. For a moment, Pidge felt her stomach drop. Had something happened? Had Lotor contacted them?

The Keith pointed a finger at her and Matt. "We—We're going to get your dad back, okay? All of us. We're going to get your dad back and the kids and just— No one's losing anyone again, got it?"

Pidge nodded, not sure how else to respond. He looked so determined to drive that point home. "O-okay," she said, "Keith, are you—"

"Gotta go tell Lance and Hunk," he said before stalking down the hallway, heading for the paladin quarters. She watched him and decided to tell Shiro about how he was acting. He was definitely in one of those moods where he would make a bad decision and try to go fight the whole Galra Empire on his own.

By the time Pidge and Matt reached the bridge, it looked like it had been converted into a war room. There were maps and star charts on various displays, and in the middle of the room, Shiro, Allura and Coran were talking to Iwari and, to Pidge's surprise, Kolivan. Other alien leaders and captains were shown on some of the hoverscreens, and all of them seemed to be intent on the plan that the five people on the bridge were devising. Even Slav was there, though his screen seemed to be currently muted since his mouth was twitching but no sounds were coming out.

Shiro nodded to her when she walked in, and she returned the gesture before walking over to her seat and plopping down. Matt pushed her to one side of the seat and sat down as well, looping an arm around her shoulders. Sighing, she leaned against him.

After a little while, Lance, Keith, and Hunk walked in, trailed by Matt's girlfriend Era and another one of his crewmates, a large grey-skinned man named Nevan. While Nevan and Era went over to join Iwari, the others headed toward Pidge.

"Hey, Pidge," Hunk said, his voice almost cracking over her name.

"Hi," she said softly, reaching up to adjust her glasses.

"Look, we shouldn't fight about who…about Lotor's terms," Lance said, taking a deep breath, "I like Keith's idea best, for once. Get everyone back and save Earth, no exceptions."

"That's not a plan, that's an end result," Pidge pointed out.

"Shiro's coming up with the details," Keith said, crossing his arms over his chest. He looked a little calmer now, less likely to charge off and challenge Lotor to a duel for the universe.

"We all just want our families back," Hunk said, "So let's go get them." He snagged Pidge up by the arm and pulled her into a hug before grabbing Lance and hugging him too. Smushed against Hunk's chest and pinned together with Lance, Pidge couldn't imagine fighting against them.

She only wanted to fight with them against the bastard who had made the worst mistake of his life.