Title: Trinity
Chapter: 14
Summary: Pidge, Hunk, and Lance set out on a routine mission…who thinks that is going to end well?
Rated: T
Author's note: Set during season one - between Crystal Venom and Collection and Extraction
Pidge doctored Hunk's calf and the grazes on his body. He was cradling his arm against his chest and Pidge had realized that she hadn't seen him use it since he had been back.
"Can you move your fingers?" she asked carefully. He managed to move his fingers slowly and with a great deal of pain on his face. "Okay, sorry, just wanted to be sure it wasn't broken."
"Yeah, one of the droids got me with a blaster." Pidge patted his shoulder to encourage him to talk. "I threw rocks at them Pidge. They stuck me in there with droids with blasters and no weapon. I had to throw rocks at them." He started to shake as the terror he had ignored made itself known. "Pidge, what are we going to do? You have a fever, I have to fight in the arena and I'm afraid they'll make me kill someone again, Lance isn't even back. What if he doesn't make it back, what if they killed him this time - how are we going to make it? I want to be strong, but this is horrible and I just, I'm sorry." He sniffled and Pidge reached up to wipe tears from his cheek.
"I'm afraid too Hunk. But you know what? You ask what we are going to do, but every time we need you and ever time something happens you just do it. You beat droids with rocks. You have tended to my wound which would be way worse if you hadn't. You have taken care of me and Lance and helped keep us going. You are so strong and you don't even realize it. You are amazing." She wrapped him up in a blanket and pulled a blanket around herself and snuggled into his side.
"Pidge, are you sure you're just fourteen, cause you are too awesome to be so young."
She smiled sadly into his arm, "Actually I'm almost fifteen, Hunk, tomorrow is my birthday."
He looked down shocked at the top of her head as she snuggled in and drifted to sleep. She had pulled him out of his anxiety attack before it even got going. Sometimes he forgot how young she was, she was just so much more than he expected for someone her age. He laid his head against hers and closed his eyes. Tomorrow maybe he'd get a look and see if that door really did lead to a hanger.
Pidge woke and found Lance had not been returned. She shivered remembering Hunk's words. She wouldn't believe it. He was coming back. She was nearly certain that if the Galra had killed him someone would have been by to rub it in their faces. Lance was not going to die on her birthday.
She woke Hunk gently. He looked around and she could see the tears held back in his eyes. He gripped her hand and she gave him a slight smile. She stashed her spare parts under the blanket in the corner with the spare bucket. They debated and decided to eat the rest of the food. They didn't think the guards would let them save it for Lance.
They checked their wounds and were presently surprised by the impact of the salve. Her leg wound had shrunk in size and his arm had a thin pink layer of skin growing. The grazes and the cut were nearly gone. Hunk frowned when he checked her leg though because it was still hot and swollen.
By the time they finished the guards had shown up for Pidge. She gave Hunk a little salute and hobbled out of the room. He could see the flush on her checks and knew her fever was still burning. He nearly cried when he realized he had forgotten to wish her a happy birthday.
The guards came for Hunk next. He was locked into the irons again and marched past the Hasran cells. The people looked so beaten when he walked by. It reminded him of Shay.
"Don't give up." He told them as he walked by. "Be strong," he told another cell. "You are strong enough!" he told a crying woman. Every word of encouragement he passed to them bolstered him.
"Shut up!" One of the guards hit him in the gut with his weapon.
"You can't shut everyone up," Hunk grinned as some of the Hasrans' voices echoed his earlier statements. Yelling encouragement to him and to those around them.
The guard growled and shoved him forward. For the first time since he'd had to kill Gib he really felt like he was going to make it.
As they neared the large doors he suspected led to a hanger he slowed. He tried to stall, hoping the door might open with no luck. He pretended to stumble and managed to lean against the door hoping to hear something that would give it away, but all he heard were mechanical noises, nothing definitive. The guards dragged him to his feet yelling and pulled him down the opposite hall. He was put back into one of the cell near the arena to await his next fight.
Lance woke still hanging from the chains. He couldn't feel his hands, he had to look to make sure they were still there. He managed to get to his feet and take the pressure off of them. The stiffness in his body was excruciating and his arm, back, and shoulders kept cramping. Then feeling began to return to his hands and he almost wished they had stayed numb. Pins and needles felt more like knives and daggers. He couldn't do anything to relieve his pain. His thigh wound had been wrapped, so he guessed they weren't ready for him to die yet. His back felt like there were strips missing from it. His wrists were bleeding sluggishly. He couldn't stop the tears that trailed down his face. He heard a noise in the room and a Hasran woman walked into his view.
"I wrapped your leg. I was told I could let you down from the shackles when you woke up." She walked up to him with the keys and unclasped his hands.
He feel to his knees and then onto his face. She gasped, unable to do anything but slow his descent. She folded a blanket and laid it under his head and took another and draped it over his back.
"I'm sorry there isn't more I can do, Paladin." She whispered to him running her hand through his hair. He closed his eyes and savored the gentle touch. He was too tired and in too much pain to talk. "Please be strong. The universe needs you. My people were wrong to work with the Galra and we have learned it with such pain. Do not let our mistake stop the best hope the universe has."
She rolled him to his side and dribbled water into his mouth slowly from a cup. At first he sputtered and choked, but eventually he was able to swallow a little.
"What's your name?" he asked.
"Lira."
"Hi, Lira. I'm Lance."
She smiled at him, well aware of his name. She had lavender hair and was older, like his mother's age he guessed.
"Rest, gather your strength. You will need it." Two droids entered and escorted her from the room. He heard the door close behind them and he closed his eyes.
Pidge finished the first shield in two varga. They were getting easier with practice, even with the sweat running down her nose she was making progress. She could feel the fever burning and a pain deep in her leg. The leg felt stronger and had been easier to walk on, but all was not right. Kay kept shooting her concerned looks when she would wipe her face to keep the sweat out of her eyes.
"Are you well?" she whispered.
"No." Pidge answered shortly, there was no getting around it. She wasn't.
Kay hummed in her throat and continued piecing together the shield she was working on. Pidge could see from a glance that it wouldn't work, but she was getting a lot better and putting the right parts together at least. She started a second device. The guards were basically ignoring them all. No one wasn't trying today and there were only two deaths yesterday.
Pidge slipped the first device under her belt. After the water break she finished the second device and swapped it with Kay. She had her device done before the end of the shift and took the last varga to rest her head on the table. Kay hummed softly next to her. She had been talking to the Hasran on the other side of her as well. Whispers were spreading down the table, but Pidge was too tired to try to figure out what was going on.
When the guards took her back to the cell she was alone again. She curled herself into the blankets shivering. She had a full shield and enough parts to assemble a second, though her vision was blurring and she didn't think she could get it together just now. When No came with her food, he shocked her by bringing one of the bowls all the way over to her and setting the rest within her reach.
"You must eat little one." She looked up into his sad eyes.
"I'm going to get you out of here," she promised. The fever glazing across her eyes, but her mouth set in a firm line.
"I'm sure you will little one." He patted her in a condescending kind of way.
"I am!" she said fiercely. "I am getting out of here. My friends and I are getting out of here!"
"Okay, okay," he backed away and headed out the door.
"I am." she called after him. She was going to rescue him and Kay and Hunk and Lance and they were all going home. One way or the other. It was her birthday wish.