Disclaimer: If you recognize the characters, they aren't mine. Just playing in Dreamworks' sandbox.

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Happy Season 3 Eve, everyone!

Shiro sat at the window and watched as his father and Keith walked together in the garden, enjoying the morning sun. They had developed the habit back when Keith was first fostered with them, to spend a little time each day walking and talking about anything that crossed their minds. As he watched, Daichi reached over and put an arm across Keith's shoulders. Instead of stiffening the way Shiro was used to seeing Keith do when other people invaded his personal space, Keith leaned into it. It brought a smile to Shiro's face.

He heard footsteps behind him and Sayuri ran her fingers in his hair. "How can you still maintain this outlandish cut of yours up there in space?" She had never really liked his undercut.

"They have clippers. Plenty of aliens with hair like ours."

She laughed a little at that, then took his hand as she sat beside him.

"Takashi, please. Tell me some of it. What is going on up there? How can they expect you to lead a war at your age? With… with children? How can they ask you to kill?"

Shiro pressed his lips together before answering, considering exactly how much to share. "It's on a different scale than what we think of as war. A lot of what we do is take out giant weaponized robots. Or drones that are commanded by a single central computer that might or might not have a living person running it. I think you could count the number of actual beings we've killed on two hands." That didn't include the arena, of course, but that was a different conversation for another time.

Sayuri looked a little reassured, but persisted with a mother's instincts. "And what about the first time?"

"First time?"

"When you and the Holts were taken from Kerberos. What happened to you?"

Apparently they were going to have the other conversation now as well.

She was looking down, focused on his cybernetic hand. Shiro realized that she was imagining experiments and torture, straight out of SF horror films.

Shiro reached over with his human hand and clasped hers. "It wasn't…it wasn't vivisection, kaa-chan. Nothing like that. The Galra are a conquering race, not scientists. They send most of their prisoners of war to work camps…or to gladiator arenas."

Her eyes flew up to his face, zeroing in on the scar that crossed it. "Takashi?"

He swallowed hard. "I had to fight for my life, kaa-chan. Over and over. There wasn't any way out other than to keep winning." He ran his tongue around his teeth, trying to work some saliva into a suddenly dry mouth. "I had blocked out a lot of my memories from my imprisonment, but bits and pieces have been coming back. I remember that I tried, every time, to get the others to yield before I hurt them too much. The Galra hated that, but they never stopped me."

"Did they…did they release them? Or kill them after for surrendering?"

Shiro looked up at her and the concern in her face deepened. He could feel how haunted his eyes must be.

"I don't know, kaa-chan."

She put her free hand to his face, drawing him close to press her cheek to his. Shiro managed to bite back the sobs that wanted to break free, but couldn't stop the tears from spilling over. Sayuri stood and wrapped her arms around him, pulling him close.

He closed his arms around her and let himself cry it out. For the first time since Kerberos, he felt no shame over the tears. No guilt for showing weakness. Just the release of knowing he had survived, his family was still here, and he was loved.

Lance hit on an excellent strategy of avoiding his father in the throng by hovering near his grandmother and great-aunts, all of whom insisted he was too thin and plied him with ropa vieja, tostones, and buñuelos. The younger cousins were also a good line of defense, swarming him with questions about space, aliens, and the alive-again Kerberos crew.

Late in the evening, Sara dragged him upstairs to her room and gave him her tablet so he could catch up a little on his social media sites. As he skimmed posts from friends, she leaned over and asked, "You okay?"

He glanced up at that. "Yeah, why?"

"I overheard papá telling mamá that you were going back. Did he try to talk you out of it?"

Lance nodded, the pain of the conversation returning. Blue purred in his mind.

Sara leaned in, resting her head on his shoulder. "I'm sorry. They just want you to be safe."

"Well, no one on the planet will be safe if I don't go back."

She put her arm around him. "You're serious, aren't you? It's just you and four other kids up there fighting an evil empire?"

"And a princess and her adviser. And some space mice. And we've got some aliens on our side so far. The Arusians are short people with horns and the Balmerans are rock people, but they support us. And the Metreans." Lance shivered a little, remembering long, spidery arms. "We'll find more."

The tablet pinged with a message: Incoming.

"What the quiznak?" Lance frowned at the message.

"What the what?" Sara laughed and he realized what he had said.

"Sorry, it's a rude word in Altean."

"Uh-huh. What's the message mean?"

A voice sounded from midair. "It means I gave you a bit of warning before freaking you out."

Sara shrieked and Lance grabbed her to keep her from falling off the bed.

"Pidge!"

She shimmered into view and grinned that gremlin grin that never failed to irritate him. "Yes?"

"What are you doing here?"

She held out a pocket-sized device. Lance recognized it as one of the latest smartphones and took it.

"Giving your family their communicator. It'll definitely reach the Castle across the solar system and I'm pretty sure that they'll match the castle's range. There's a message option in case we do find a maximum distance on them." She woke the device and pointed to the lion icon. "They hit this and then blue for you or orange for the Castle. I added the rest of us just in case." She handed the phone to Sara, who was staring open-mouthed. "Hi, I'm Pidge. Which sister are you?"

Lance jumped in. "This is Sara. Mina's still downstairs. How did you get in here?"

"Cloaking device, duh."

"But how'd you know where to come?"

"Tracking option on your cloaking device, duh."

Lance's expression turned offended. "You put tracking on these things?"

"So you want to get knocked unconscious while invisible and not be found? I can arrange that."

Lance felt his face burn red and Sara had recovered enough to laugh. "I like you. How did you get to Cuba?"

"My Lion. I got all the comm devices done and figured I'd deliver them myself. How's it going here?"

Sara squeezed his arm in support.

"Well, I've had the chance to talk to almost everyone who could get here, if I eat any more I'm gonna hurl, my dad tried to tell me I wasn't going back, and my favorite band broke up."

"That sounds—wait, what?"

Sara nodded. "They're scared for him."

"I get that. I mean, look what happened to my dad and brother and Shiro. Space isn't the safest place. But if we don't try and stop the Galra, Earth will get invaded."

"Maybe you should tell our dad that," Sara observed. "If he hears it from enough people, maybe he'll realize that you all really do have to go."

Pidge shrugged. "Is he really going to listen to a girl half his size?"

Sara snorted. "Appear out of thin air in front of him like you did us. That might impress him."

"No," Lance interrupted. "It's a fifty-fifty chance whether that impresses him or pisses him off."

Pidge leaned down, looking Lance in the face. "You need us, you call us. Okay? Otherwise we'll see you back at the Castle. Allura said to be back by 1800 hours tomorrow your time."

"Wait, that late? That's over twenty-four hours here. Shiro said we had eighteen hours."

"Let's just say Allura didn't remember that vargas are longer than hours."

This time her gremlin grin didn't bother Lance at all.

Iolana watched as Hunk deftly arranged a plate and handed it to Mr. Araullo, the neighbor who had contributed his boat trailer to the barricade keeping the media crews at a distance. The older man pulled a paper packet out of his pocket and handed it to Hunk, who beamed at him.

More seeds. The neighborhood had jumped on the idea of seeds and starter plants with enthusiasm, taking up a collection and sending a few volunteers to town to purchase some things while others checked their homes and gardens for possibilities. Hunk added the packet to the table that was already filling up with contributions and moved back to prepare another meal for the next person.

Noni stepped up to take over—the three of them had been rotating serving duty during the afternoon's impromptu party—and pushed Hunk with a plate of cookies toward the group of children who were waiting patiently for him to be free again.

Hunk sat down and started sharing out the cookies. Most of the kids began scarfing them down immediately, which meant only a few were fighting to get their question in first.

"Come on, you know the rule. Take turns by height, shortest one first."

"I like that rule!"

Hunk's head snapped up at the familiar voice. "Pidge?"

A small teenage girl appeared out of midair and looked a little abashed at the sea of open mouths around her. "Sorry, I would have tried to be more discreet about it but I thought you should have this." She handed a camera to Hunk, who took it in bafflement.

"I tripped a guy who was trying to sneak close enough for pictures. He had a press badge on. I don't know if he already took any. He…might have hit his head a little on a tree, but he'll probably be fine."

Hunk frowned and pulled up the digital display to start flipping through the photos. He growled at the first ones showing zoom views into their windows and started deleting them. Iolana and Noni traded looks and Noni slipped out to alert the neighbors currently on guard duty at the barricade and collect some help in checking on the man.

Iolana came forward and Hunk made introductions before offering, "You hungry? We've got plenty."

"Sure, but just a little. I stopped by to give your mom her communicator." She handed the converted phone to him. "Lion icon to open the program, yellow to contact you, orange to contact the castle. Other colors for the rest of us just in case."

"Sweet!" Hunk looked up at her and Iolana nodded to indicate she had heard it all.

"That's very kind of you." If nothing else, these children were looking out for one another and that was some comfort to a mother's heart.

As they passed the table that held Hunk's future garden, he brightened. "Hey, did you fly Green down here?"

"Yeah, came in stealthed to the beach down the cliff."

"Can we get you to take this stuff back? That way I'll have more room in the pod for the rest."

"Sure, what is it?" Pidge asked, looking it all over.

"Everyone's sharing seeds and stuff so we can grow our own Earth food in the castle!"

The girl's eyes lit up. "Hunk, you are quiznaking brilliant! Have you got a list of what you've collected? We can do the same with the rest of the team!"

Iolana stepped up. "I'll have Mrs. Lim do it. She loves organizing things."

"Thanks, Tinā." Hunk rubbed his hands together. "I can't wait to make Coran try everything!"

Pidge laughed at that. "We should start with things like oatmeal, mashed potatoes. Stuff that's like their food goo. And then blow their minds."

Iolana was amused and just a little bit frightened at the maniacal glow in her eyes.

Keith was doing his best not to simply inhale the food before him.

He had forgotten just how good Sayuri's cooking was. In the States she had experimented with a variety of ethnic cuisines, teaching Keith to be more adventurous in his tastes.

But the simple early lunch of miso, rice, grilled fish, cucumbers and konnyaku was perfect. He savored the flavors and textures, already regretting the return to the ship and its unending supply of food goo when Hunk didn't have the ingredients to experiment.

The idea of a grocery run before returning to the Castle occurred to him and he filed it away for after the meal.

Shiro caught his eye and gave him a rueful expression as he took another mouthful of rice, knowing exactly what Keith was thinking.

"I would like to hear more about this princess," Sayuri commented, helping them to pace themselves with conversation.

Keith shrugged. "What do you want to know? She's a princess. I think she's my age or older but not as old as Shiro. She's a pretty good diplomat but better at leading, if that makes sense."

Shiro added, "And she can handle herself on an infiltration mission."

Sayuri nodded and suddenly focused on Keith. She reached out with a napkin to dab at his face. "You've got something—"

Keith shot back from her, knocking his chair over as he jumped to his feet.

Shiro rose as well. "Keith?"

Keith balled his fists as he struggled to shove away the flashback. You're safe, you're safe, it's not him, you can breathe… He tried to force more air into his lungs to prove it.

He could hear their voices, as if from a distance, and a wave of dizziness washed over him.

Shiro's voice broke through the haze. "Keith, you're hyperventilating! Slow down!" Hands on his shoulders steadied him, guiding him back to a chair.

He felt arms around him. Sayuri was trying to speak to him. "Keith, what is it?"

He still didn't feel like he had enough air to breathe, much less speak. Red rumbled in his mind, It is all right, my cub. It is safe, you are safe.

Her presence steadied him and he managed slower, shuddering breaths. "Sorry," he gasped, leaning forward and putting his head in his hands. "I'm sorry."

As Shiro's parents made concerned noises and Shiro knelt in front of him, Keith heard a tapping nearby. He looked up and saw Pidge in the doorway.

Shiro followed his gaze and rose. "Pidge? Is anything wrong?"

"No! At least…I was just bringing your parents their communicator." She stepped forward, bowed uncertainly, and held out the modified smartphone to Shiro's father. "Open the lion icon. Black is Shiro, red is Keith, orange is the castle, the other colors are the rest of us. It allows messages if we don't answer."

Daichi took the communicator and returned the bow. "Thank you."

Pidge turned to Keith. "Are you okay?"

Keith hesitated, but nodded. "I will be."

Sayuri ran her hand through his hair. "What did I do that frightened you?"

Shiro noticed Pidge's expression shift to an "a-ha" realization. "Pidge?"

"I thought the lions told you all."

"Told us what?"

"Darzi," Keith interrupted. The last thing he wanted was Pidge giving the details to Shiro and his parents like he was helpless. "Darzi came close to suffocating me. I'm still a bit…jumpy…about hands near my face."

Shiro knelt once more and moved very slowly and deliberately to lay his hands on either side of Keith's face. Keith inhaled sharply but didn't jerk away. Shiro spoke in a low voice. "The lions did tell us. I didn't realize you were having flashbacks about it."

Keith shrugged, starting to feel crowded by everyone hovering over him. "I'll get over it."

Shiro looked ready to argue. Daichi gently tugged him back but circled to face Keith. "Should we find someone for you to talk to, ask the princess to let you stay here a few weeks?"

"No! We have to go back now! Every day we delay in fighting Zarkon, the stronger he gets!" Keith drew in breath to continue his argument, but paused at a sudden squeal from a bouncing Pidge.

Shiro looked at her in bewilderment. "Pidge? What's going on?"

"That's it! That's how we convince my mom to come with us!"

"Okaaaay… How?"

"Her other major in college was psychology! She can be our ship's counselor!"

Pidge walked into the family room to find her parents sitting together with a tablet as her mom caught her dad up on the news. Matt was sprawled across the loveseat, working his way through a bowl of popcorn and watching the sequel to a favorite movie that had been released while he was on his way to Kerberos.

She crossed over to Matt and shoved his legs out of the way so she could sit. He stuck his tongue at her and she buried her hand in his bowl to scoop out some popcorn.

"Hey!"

Colleen looked up. "If you're hungry, Katie, there's—"

"I'm not. Just wanted the salt. I've had food in Cuba, Samoa, and Japan and I'm full."

"All the comm units delivered?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, everyone's set."

Colleen asked, "Where's ours?"

The other three traded looks and Pidge licked her lips. Now or never…

"Well, what if I told you I had a great idea, Mom?"

Colleen's eyes narrowed, but she put the tablet down. "I'm listening."

"I know Dad and Matt want a few weeks here to sort of catch up on things. But I know we can use Matt as another comms specialist to support Coran and Dad would have all kinds of opportunity to study xenobiology."

Colleen's expression hardened just a little, hearing it said out loud that her family was ready to leave the planet again.

Pidge drew a deep breath. "You could dust off your second degree and be our Deanna Troi."

Matt let out one startled yelp of laughter at the reference before clapping a hand over his mouth. His eyes danced in glee at the idea.

Sam's expression brightened at the thought. "That's got potential. I know you kids are incredibly capable—I saw it myself when you all rescued Keith from the Garrison—but you're all still kids fighting the front lines of a war." He turned to Colleen. "You wouldn't be just tagging along and feeling useless. You'd be filling a role that is genuinely needed."

Colleen looked stunned. "But…I'm not qualified. I've been working in chemistry all this time. I'm not licensed."

Matt broke in with enthusiasm. "You're trained, Mom! You just need to brush up on the latest advances! And I don't think they're going to require a license on the Castle-ship."

"And we'd all be together, Mom," Pidge added softly. "Please say you'll think about it?"

Her mother looked at all of them, expressions full of hope that she would say yes. "I… yes, I'll think about it."

As the time grew near for the paladins to return, Allura went down to the hangar for the pods and waited. Hunk was the first one to arrive, bursting with excitement and throwing dozens of questions at her about greenhouses and gardens within the castle. She finally managed to break in and suggest he consult with Coran later, just as Lance arrived.

A few minutes later, a screen appeared, showing Pidge on the command deck. "Where is everyone?"

"We're at the pods. Shiro and Keith haven't returned yet and we're waiting on them. When they get here, could you meet us in the chamber that housed my father's A.I.?"

"Sure thing, Princess. Coran said you might need my help?"

"Possibly. Did your father and brother return as well?"

"Not yet. I need to talk to you about that when we have a chance."

Allura was about to reply but spotted the last pod entering the hangar. "They're here!"

As Shiro and Keith exited the pod, Allura spied a pile of bags in the space behind their seats that looked to hold foodstuffs. Lance had a similar stash, and of course Hunk was already off and running with the notion of growing Earth foods here. Allura bit her lip, trying to stamp down a sudden stab of jealousy that the paladins still had access to their home planet, their families. She would never hug her father again, smell a juniberry flower, or taste a cup of hot kavisia.

Then she noticed that Shiro was hovering a little over Keith, who looked like he hadn't slept well. And her mission took first place in her thoughts again.

"Paladins, would you follow me?"

She led the group to the A.I. chamber and through its door. Pidge was already there and looking around curiously. When Allura turned to face them, they were all wearing expressions of confusion. Shiro looked concerned. "What's going on, Princess? I thought your father's holoprogram was corrupted beyond repair."

Allura straightened her posture and stamped down her grief. "Yes, it was, but the hardware itself was undamaged. It's still functional. Coran?"

"Ready, princess!" The adviser's voice echoed from somewhere.

And suddenly they were all in the cryo-room of the Castle, looking out from inside a pod as its shell dissolved. Allura heard Lance let out a startled squeak and suddenly remembered his experience with the rogue healing pod. Perhaps she should have shown this to just Keith after all…

As they watched, they realized they were seeing through Coran's eyes. He spotted them and shouted, "Enemy combatants!" He charged toward Lance, the one closest to him, only to lose his balance. "Quiznak! You're lucky I have a case of the old 'sleep chamber knees'."

As they watched, the scene got more and more ridiculous and even Lance was both giggling and covering his rapidly-reddening face. "Oh my god, why did I do that?"

The scene ended abruptly at Allura's horrified cry of "It can't be!" They could see the walls of the chamber once more. Coran stepped out from a recessed area with a control panel of some sort.

Pidge tilted her head. "So, you didn't need me after all?"

Coran shook his head. "No, it's all working perfectly, just as we needed."

Lance was leaning on Hunk, hiding his blushes and laughing into his friend's shoulder. Shiro patted Lance's back and stepped forward. "Amusing as that was, may I ask why?"

Allura drew in a breath. "I want to ask Keith to record his memory of that man's assault and enter it as evidence for his trial."

She had been focusing on Shiro, but her eyes snapped to Keith as he staggered back slightly. Allura's heart jumped—she had never seen any of the paladins' faces turn that pale! She darted toward him, even as Shiro turned and steadied him.

"Keith! I'm sorry! I thought—I was trying to help!"

He raised a hand, visibly collecting himself. Pidge moved to his side and wrapped her arms around his waist.

"No, I'm sorry. I should have a handle on this. I just…don't want to remember it."

"I think that's kind of her point, buddy," Hunk offered. "Which would be better, going through it once here, where you know it's safe and we've all got your back, or having to testify at a court-martial?"

Allura couldn't believe it, but Keith's face now rivaled her hair for whiteness. His indigo eyes were huge. But he showed his mettle as a paladin immediately. "Will…will they accept it? Can they accept it as evidence? They don't have the technology to access Altean files."

"Oh, I can help with that," Pidge volunteered.

"Actually, my intention was to insist that the proceedings be held here, as the wronged sovereign nation."

Shiro frowned, his doubt showing in his tone. "That might not work. Usually we look for a neutral venue when it's needed."

"Well, if your planet wishes to be seen as equal to others in the greater universe, they'll need to accept the Interstellar Charter of Cooperation. I'm citing one of its rules when it comes to disputes concerning attacks on a royal personage or their representatives."

She didn't dare look at Coran. The Paladins didn't need to know that the charter had been drafted, but never fully ratified before Zarkon began attacking on an interplanetary scale. Neither did Earth.

Making this Darzi pay for what he did to Keith was all that mattered.

Thanks as always for reading/comments!

PS: If you're a fan of Shiro and Keith as a couple, I wrote 5 short stories as part of Tumblr's recent Sheith Week. You can read four of them here - check my profile for "Sheith Summer Week - Sheith Positivity Week 2017" - and the fifth one is over on AO3 (same username) because it's potentially too sexy for this site.