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Extra Special Thanks to: SecretEnigma, ChthonicUnraveling, bookmaniac849, SilverStorm5, TeenTitansFanForever02, EmmyCat, Gravtron1, Eiwahz, BrokenKestral, AlecGateway, and thatoneguest, for your encouragement and support. I have decided to give both Kimberly and Josh a copy of 'Switched'. Thank you again, and I will be sure to tell you all how it went! (Comic Con is at the end of this month, so you have a bit more of waiting. Sorry.)
Special Announcement: This fic has reached 1,000 reviews and 600 followers! Holy shenanigans, you guys! Thank you! Extra, extra special thanks to TooEasilyDistracted for being the 1,000th review and to Magruder98 for being the 600th follower! *throws confetti* *toots a kazoo* Thank you both a dozen times over!
Welcome to all new readers, favouriters and followers since I last updated! It's a pleasure to have you here.
Thank you to all new reviewers.
Dedication: For Kayla05w (your prompt on Chapter 3) and Eeveecat1248 (your prompt on Chapter 7).
Chapter 35: A Promise Broken; A Promise Made
"We're not going to leave you, Pidge," Lance told her.
"This is war, Lance. We're in a war. You can't make promises like that."
"I can make whatever promises I want!" - Chapter 1: The Maze
Pidge took a deep breath to steel herself. Courage, Pidge, she told herself. Courage for Green. You can do this. Closing her eyes, she pressed her hand to her Lion's nose. Come on, come on.
The Olkari gem hidden in the headband she wore heated against the base of her skull, and she sank into Green's metal structure. Not the bond. The bond was too painful to delve into right now – would be until they managed to get Green all fixed up. The damage to her was extensive: plasma and ion burns all along her sides, plus the hole in the right side of her head.
It had been almost a week since she, Lance and Hunk had been shot down. Hunk was fine – of course – after his stint in a cryo pod, and she was doing much better for having flirted with hypothermia and a concussion. But Green was still offline, a self-inflicted status that the Lions supported. Apparently, it was difficult for a Lion to remain offline, even with substantial injuries, so the rest of Pride Voltron assisted their Sister by doing something within the Pride bond. None of the Paladins knew what it was because it was painful to try to fully enter the bond to find out and the Lions weren't talking about it. Whatever the Lions were doing, it was working. That was all that mattered, but Pidge was growing desperate to hear Green's voice again, to feel her purr and nuzzle at her. It was lonely in her brain and soul, and she was afraid of it.
So here she stood, wearing the Olkari headband and praying that she could better understand the atomic structure of the metals the Lions were made of. There was none left onboard (Coran had used the last of it after the bird incident) and, because the planet the meteorite containing the metal had struck no longer existed, Pidge was hoping to find an appropriate substitute.
Hopefully.
But the Lions were unlike anything she'd ever seen and were thus made of materials that were rarer than rare. Nothing existing on Earth came close to these incredible metals. Deep as she was in the Olkari gem's power, she knew she had never encountered anything remotely similar in any of the space malls or markets they'd come across, either.
What would they do if they couldn't fix Green?
The gem whispered to her when someone neared her hangar's open door, and she pulled herself carefully out of the deep well she'd sunk into just in time to hear Coran's gentle call.
"Number Five?"
"Come in, Coran," Pidge said, turning and slipping the headband from her hair. She set it on her desk as he approached, her fingers teasing the gem hidden in the cloth. "What's up?"
"I've been going through our archives and I found something interesting that I think might help us."
"Oh?" Pidge stepped closer when Coran pulled out his holo-tablet and tapped a few times. He handed it to her.
"Take a look."
Pidge looked, her eyes scanning the text rapidly. "Ornlitium?" she asked. "I've never heard of it."
"Nor did I, until I read this." Coran bent closer to read upside-down. "It's an amazing metal. Given enough exposure to any solid material, ornlitium can take on the properties of
that material."
"Amazing," Pidge breathed, her eyes wide. She continued to read. "It says that it's rare. Most of the found mines have already been bled dry – and this is from ten thousand years ago, so we can assume that all of the found mines are now dry. How do we find it?"
"I already did." Coran twirled his moustache as he smiled at her. "I found the text five quintants ago. It's taken that long for me to find a tiny mine. It's still operational, but it's in Galra territory."
"Fantastic." She glanced at Green whose eyes were dark and who lay slumped on her side. "When can we go?"
"All we have to de is brief the team and you can be on your way."
"Excellent!" Pidge made to race out the door, but Coran stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. "What? What's wrong?" she asked, seeing the concern on his face.
Coran exhaled slowly, as if bracing himself. "Pidge, I know it's dangerous, but I want you to take your headband with you on this mission. Being able to use the Olkari gem will help you excavate the ornlitium faster and easier, and you will need to be fast for this. Ornlitium is priceless, so it will be heavily guarded."
Pidge cast the headband a wary look. As useful as it was…was she ready? Her heart pounded, her mind recoiled, and she had no answer.
Coran squeezed her shoulder gently. "I believe you can act with care and caution in its regard. You've been doing well in your sessions with me and Allura. You've come a long way since…" He didn't say it, and Pidge was grateful.
She inhaled shakily and turned for her desk. Her fingers trembled as she picked up the headband – the misleading weapon of mass destruction, but she didn't put it in her hair. Not yet.
But soon.
-:-:-:-
Pidge rode in Blue with Lance, sitting in the passenger seat on Blue's starboard wall. They followed Black and Red, with Yellow bringing up the rear. "I have a bad feeling about this," she said quietly.
"Yeah," Lance replied, just as quiet, his eyes darting from the viewing screens to the long-range scanners and back again. "I mean, Coran would never set us up, but I find it odd that barely two weeks after the Galra decimated one of the Lions, we somehow manage to find out that there's a super-rare super metal that exists, and that there's a mine of it conveniently a few systems over."
Pidge nodded silently. Yes. That was exactly why she had the bad feeling. "You think it's bad intel?"
"Maybe? I don't know. I mean, how would the Galra be able to plant a 10,000-year-old text into our archives? The metal probably does exist, it's just…"
"Odd timing." She nodded again. "Yeah. And usually Galra don't tend to let super-secret mining locations get stumbled across so easily. Coran said he found the mine after only a few days searching."
"Super odd timing. Hey, guys, you hearing this?" he added over the open comms.
"Loud and clear, Lance. Good work, you two," said Shiro. "Something definitely felt off about this mission. Now we know why."
"Mhm. Trap. Gotta love those," said Keith.
Hunk groaned. "Ah, man. And here I'd hoped we'd have a nice, uneventful jaunt through occupied enemy territory."
"All right, guys," Shiro warned. "We know it's a trap, but we're down a Lion which means no Voltron, so we've got to be extra cautious here."
From her seat, Pidge noticed Lance's hands clench over the gear sticks. "Right," he exhaled while Hunk and Keith said, "Copy that."
"You doing okay, Pidge?" Keith added.
She couldn't lie, especially about what was on her head (which was what Keith was asking about). "As okay as I can be," she answered. "I can't help thinking that this is the first time I've worn it in the field since…" She didn't say it, skipping over it. "I…honestly didn't think I'd be this nervous."
"You'll do great, Pidgeykins!" Lance called over his shoulder. "Besides, you took down those thieves easily enough when they broke into our castle."
"True," Hunk said, and Pidge could hear his smile through his vote of confidence.
"Thanks, guys," she said. In her heart, though, worry reared high, and she wished desperately for Green to help ease that worry.
"Coran did say that the ornlitium should be heavily guarded," Keith said. "Most of those guards will undoubtedly be sentries."
Sentries. Right. Not actual lifeforms, they were purely robotic and programmed to kill. Pidge had no qualms about accidentally tearing apart androids if she lost control. She did, however, have an issue or two with accidentally tearing apart the mine with her friends inside if she lost control.
"Thanks, Keith," she said, though the gratitude was barely more than a whisper of barely-held-back terror.
"Pidge, if you feel you can't handle this…" Shiro began gently, but she shook her head fiercely, despite him not being able to see it.
"I'll be okay," she said firmly – forcing herself to be firm. "I have to be okay with this, Shiro. I can't… I don't want to be afraid of this anymore."
"Okay. Okay. As long as you're sure."
She wasn't, not in the least, but she refused to not use an asset. She had created the headband so that she could help her team when she couldn't use her bayard. She had helped her team, on Vyrk and Oi'ip and even on Zyru. But Zyru and its tyr'kai had shaken her trust in herself to wield the gem confidently, and she hated that. She hated how afraid she was, and she knew that this mission would either solidify the precarious trust she'd been building in her exercises with Coran and Allura, or it would shatter it completely.
If she failed to control the gem while on this mission, she knew she would never use it again.
It was on the heels of that conclusion that Shiro spoke again. "Just remember, Pidge: you're doing this for Green."
Green. Her Lion. One of her best friends. The only one who knew her, mind and soul, inside and out.
If she failed to control the gem while on this mission, she knew she would never use it again. But she would not fail the mission. She would not fail Green.
-:-:-:-
The infiltration went as well as it possibly could have. (Thank goodness for Lance who had taken out the sentry before it could sound an alarm.) They wove their way through the intricate tunnel systems, Pidge leading the way with Coran's map on her computer gauntlet. Thin veins of ornlitium snaked amongst crags and cracks in the walls, faintly reflecting the Paladins' turquoise armour lights and the reddish-white lanterns hanging from the ceiling. "We need to get to the main deposit," said Pidge when Keith paused at the sight.
"Coran said these veins won't be enough for what we need."
"Lead on," Shiro encouraged with a smile. "Stay close," he added to the others.
As they made their way deeper and deeper into the moon's bowels, Pidge couldn't help the trepidation and wariness plucking at the hairs on the back of her neck. "We've only come across one sentry," she whispered.
"I know," Shiro answered just as quietly. "We're almost there, right?"
"Yeah. Just around this corner..."
Shiro stopped her with a hand on her shoulder and jerked his chin to Lance and Hunk. Both nodded grimly and tiptoed to the corner with their ready blasters. Pidge stayed absolutely still, her heart beating a staccato in her chest, as they peeked around the rock.
"Clear," Hunk said at last while Lance whistled low.
"Would you look at that!" he said.
Forcing her legs to not give out with relief, Pidge darted forward, only to slam to a halt in awe. When Coran had said 'main deposit' for the ornlitium, she would never have thought it would have looked this incredible. Massive ores from fist- to Hunk-sized jutted out of the rock walls and practically glowed beneath the gentle lighting. The ore was nearly translucent, and the lights gave it all an opalescent gleam.
"Oh. Wow," whispered Keith, his eyes huge.
"All right, guys. Let's get to work," Shiro said, shaking off his own awe. "Pidge, how much do we need?"
"Coran said to fill as many canisters as possible," she replied, kneeling to unbuckle the carry-rack of canisters from off her back. "Don't worry about the ore transforming. It's dormant in its raw form."
"All right. Let's move fast."
Empty containers soon sat in piles, ready and waiting. There was no way to use tools like hammers or chisels to get the ornlitium out without bringing Galran security down on them. Pidge inhaled shakily. This was why Coran had urged her to take the headband.
Pressing her palms to the nearest and biggest ore, she closed her eyes. Please, please, please don't let me mess this up, she begged whoever would listen. Exhaling slowly, she felt that tiny twinge in her brain that was the Olkari gem, felt it heat at the base of her skull. Green light flashed against her closed eyelids. There was a soft crack and then a series of quiet clinks, and then Shiro's hand was on her shoulder.
"Good work, Pidge. Keep at it and we'll get it packed up."
She didn't open her eyes, merely followed the gem's power to another giant piece of the precious mineral and continued to work.
Two-thirds of the canisters were full when the gem whispered in Pidge's mind: heavy feet, large bodies, metal, not flesh.
With one hand still on the ornlitium, she snapped her eyes open and looked down the tunnel. She had no way to know that her eyes glowed a pale green, sclera, iris and pupil obscured, and that Hunk visibly faltered at the sight.
"Uh, Pidge?" he asked, garnering the others' attention.
In answer, she raised her hand, pointing down the tunnel. "Here they come," she said, her voice holding a double timbre that echoed strangely in her bones.
The ornlitium she was mining fell in sizable pieces around her feet. In a distant corner of her brain, she heard Shiro call for Keith to continue filling the canisters. Lance and Hunk, armed with long-range weapons, would defend them.
Pidge stepped to the next jutting rock of ornlitium, but still kept half of her senses trained on the tunnel. "Twenty-six approach," she announced. "All are armed and are sentries."
"Good to know, Pidgeykins," Lance said with a slight tremor in his voice. He made to step in front of her, but she flicked her fingers and he jerked to a halt not of his own accord.
"Don't step in front of me," she told him. "Hunk, take two steps to your right."
"Uh...okay."
Racing metal feet echoed off the walls, drowning out all other sound, and Pidge was distantly surprised that she wasn't afraid. Her heart beat its normal rhythm and her thoughts weren't in overdrive to devise a plan. She was utterly calm, which was a little frightening. Behind her, Shiro and Keith hurried to load the last of the ornlitium and then load the canisters onto the carry-racks.
A blaster shot glowing purple-white seared through the air and struck the rock wall where Hunk's head had been three seconds before. Pidge caught a glimpse of a silver domed head, and then the gem heated uncomfortably.
Danger, danger, danger. Protect, protect, protect.
Wait, no! Pidge fell to her knees and clenched her hands into fists against the floor. Tendrils of power still escaped, aiming directly for the approaching enemy. Lance and Hunk both gasped when the four sentries in front burst into ash, and retreated a couple steps.
Pidge laboured to breathe, clamping down as hard as she could on the gem's will with her own. "Not. This. Time," she bit out through her teeth.
The sentries behind those that were now dust barely hesitated and open-fired.
"Shields!" Shiro shouted.
Protect! shouted the gem.
"NO!" Pidge screamed.
Everything froze in place for half a second. Pidge blinked, feeling her lashes slowly press together in the now-infinite time span. She exhaled and in a detached way marvelled at the feeling of oxygen moving through her body, regulated by the suit.
And then time resumed and everything - the walls, the ground, the ceiling, the sentries in front and her friends around her, even time itself - spun. It all coalesced into a swirl of colour and feeling, no longer tangible or separate. Pieces were now the whole.
Pidge rose to her feet and lifted her hands - were they glowing?
"Pidge!" The terror came from everywhere and everything, stabbing at her. The gem took it into itself because terror was feeling and feeling was chemicals and chemicals were cosmic dust, the same cosmic dust that made up the gem and Pidge and guns and rock. They took the terror, took that precious bit of cosmic dust, and They smiled.
Green and purple-white lit the mine and They swept their left arm to the right. The tunnel's left wall collapsed outward as if in an explosion, but the rock and freed ornlitium stayed suspended in midair, condensing into a solid wall: a shield. Blaster shots echoed harmlessly off it, and They nodded when the muffled sounds of shouting reached Them. The enemy was held back. They had protected what needed to be protected. Good.
"Pidge?"
Confusion, wariness, terror, love. These prodded at Them, but that was all right because They were not needed anymore.
"Pidge?"
Pidge blinked, watched the eerie green light fade, and sank to her knees, breathing hard. Hands caught her, lifting her up.
"Pidge? Pidge, can you hear me? We gotta get out of here!"
"Okay," she managed. The gem was cold through its enveloping cloth and she shivered as she got her feet under her and stood.
Lance's worried face blurred out of focus for a second, then cleared. "Are you okay? Can you run?"
She didn't want to, but she would. "Yes."
He didn't look convinced. "Stay close to me," he said as his hands left her shoulders and went to the discarded bayard on the rocky floor.
"I can take a carrier..." she began.
"You are not taking anything!" Keith snapped. "Shiro's got it. Come on! That wall won't hold if they have explosives."
Lance nudged her forward, he and Hunk falling in behind to defend their backs. They moved as swiftly as they could. Keith, who was in front, checked side-tunnels before advancing while Shiro hovered barely a foot off his shoulder, hand not yet glowing but at the ready.
Pidge kept up only because Hunk and Lance were behind her. She stumbled along, her vision doubling and blurring randomly, and she wondered if Coran knew about these side-effects of using the gem. Or was it the gem using her? It certainly hadn't been her brain telling her what to do. She had felt like a bystander in her own body, and that frightened her. As soon as this was over, she'd talk to Coran.
A muffled boom heralded stomping metal feet a few minutes later. "We got company!" Hunk announced, whirling midstride and shooting back down the tunnel.
"Run!" Shiro commanded. "Keith, go! Pidge, move it!"
Pidge moved, blinking back the hedging darkness gathering in her eyes.
"Hunk, do you think you can call your Lion?" asked Shiro. "We need to get out of here yesterday."
"I can try. Gimme a minute." Hunk blasted six more sentries off their tails and then fell silent. He still ran, but his eyes were half-closed and even his breathing eased.
For herself, Pidge focussed on putting one foot in front of the other, desperately wishing they were already on their way back to the Castle.
Not half a minute later, another blaster shot ripped through the air, but the direction was all wrong. It wasn't behind them, but in front, and Keith spun to the floor with a barely-heard gasp of pain. He didn't get back up.
"No!" Shiro roared, and despite carrying two cannister racks, his hand ignited and he leaped over Keith's prone body for the three sentries blocking their way.
"Keith!" Pidge fell to her knees beside him, her fingers dancing across her left gauntlet to bring up her bio-scanner.
"Yellow's coming!" yelled Hunk. "She's bringing the others. They're three minutes out."
Three minutes. So much could happen in three minutes.
The bio-scanner onlined and beeped in brilliant red. Pidge rolled Keith over, his head lolling limply on his neck, and found the entry wound on his right side, just below his ribcage. The wound was cauterised with the shot's heat, but the internal damage would kill him.
Pod. They needed a cryo-pod. They needed one now. The bio-scanner didn't lie. Keith was dying.
Protect.
The Olkari gem, stone-cold a moment ago, heated once more. But it wasn't the blazing inferno from before, searing and controlling. No, this was the gentle warmth of spring sunshine on dewed grass, and it enlightened and encouraged.
Pidge stretched out her left hand, her right holding tight to her activated bayard (just in case), and laid her splayed fingers across the hole in Keith's armour.
We are all made up of the same cosmic dust.
Pidge's vision blurred completely as green power sparkled beneath her hand. The gem drew her along carefully, guiding her will and mind to what needed to be done. She wasn't making weapons out of branches or turning the floor into goop. She was healing. Healing was careful and precise, a wrong move meaning death. Blackness washed over her, the shouts and whizzes of fighting and blasterfire dulled, but the gem kept her upright and conscious - barely - and she kept working.
Blind and deaf as she was to the world, and with the gem focussing its power on Keith, she didn't notice when someone dodged past Shiro's defense. She did, however, notice when a thick, armoured arm wrapped around her neck, a forearm pressing against her throat, and yanked her onto her feet and backwards. A muffled clink had her imagining a gun being placed at her helmet, and her heart stuttered in her chest; she had no idea if the helmet would protect her from point-blank range.
"Keith!" she squeaked, still unable to see. The gem kept her standing, though she swayed with exhaustion.
"Pidge! Let her go! Let her go right now!" Lance shouted, his voice sounding like it came from underwater.
"You are in no position to make demands." The voice of the enemy that held her was distinctly not mechanical. She'd been wondering when the flesh-and-blood Galra would show up. Sentries were terribly inefficient in hostage opportunities. "Lay down your weapons and surrender."
"Like hell!" snarled Shiro.
The arm around her neck tightened and Pidge wheezed as her air cut off. Her weak hands - where was her bayard? Did she drop it? - scrabbled at the arm uselessly.
"No, no! Look, man, look. We're putting them down! See?" Hunk said desperately. "Now let her go."
"That was not our agreement," was the nasty retort. "I think Emperor Zarkon will be keenly interested in this one's powers. I wonder," he added in a hiss by her ear, "if you were born with them, or you learned."
"It's a bit of both, to be honest," she snapped, though it came out in a squeak.
"Don't say anything, Pidge!" Shiro commanded her.
"Not that it will make a difference," the Galran said with a sneer. "Now, you're all going to come with me. Black Paladin, you can carry the Red Paladin."
Don't! Pidge wanted to scream. She wasn't at all sure that the internal damage had been healed, but jostling Keith was not ideal if he was to live, so she took a deep breath and bowed her head. "Don't bother," she said, trying to make her tone as mournful as possible. "He's dead."
"He's what?" Shiro rasped. She could only imagine the look on his face and tears burned in her eyes. "No. No, that's not true."
"Shiro," she began, but that accursed arm squeezed once more and she choked.
"Stop, stop!" Lance begged.
"I grow tired of this," the Galran said. "You will do as I say, or I will kill the Green Paladin!"
As if his threat was a summons, the ground trembled. Loose rock tumbled from the ceiling, striking the floor with a clatter, as a dull roar shook the mine.
"What-?" the Galran demanded, and then Yellow arrived.
Blasting her way from above, she landed in the now-widened tunnel and hummed. Pidge new there were words in the hum, but without Green and her bond with the Pride, she was cut off. Still, she smiled and knew that Black, Red and Blue hovered overhead, though she could still see nothing.
"You're dead meat," she rasped weakly through her abused throat.
"Then you will be, too," he hissed and he dragged her backwards.
"No, no! Pidge!"
"Yellow, don't! You'll hurt Pidge!"
"Lance, take the shot!"
"I can't!"
The Lions roared, hatred and rage in their voices, but no one dared to do anything for fear of hurting her.
Her captor chuckled. "All five Paladins, but only four Lions. Hm. Well, I'm sure the Emperor will reward me anyway."
"We're not going anywhere with you," snapped Lance.
"I don't think you have much of a choice," he began, but Pidge cut him off.
"Then just take me."
Silence fell in the ruined mine. Even the Lions were stunned.
"Please, let them go," she continued.
"And why would I do that? All five Paladins versus just one? I think not."
Pidge snorted and promptly winced, but she still said, "Do you honestly think some sentries will be enough to guard us all? Or the handful of Galra you have here? Better to take one and at least have a sporting chance of not dying while en route to Zarkon."
"You have a point," was the interested reply. "Very well, then. Your life for theirs."
Her conscious friends immediately protested. "No! No, Pidge, no!"
And over the din, came Lance's frightened voice: "No, Pidge! We're not leaving you! I'm not going to break my promise!"
Pidge's heart hammered in her throat and she swallowed hard. "Lance… I think…you don't have a choice."
There was no choice. Not for them and not for her. Keith was down and they needed to get him to the Castle. Once he and Green were all healed up, then they could come after her. She'd do her best to stay alive until then.
No. There was no choice.
The tears welling in her eyes fell down her cheeks as the Galran hauled her away. Hunk whimpered, but it was quickly lost in the Lions' roars.
It was in that moment, when she accepted her defeat and her doom, that the gem, quiet and cold against her skin, heated once again.
Protect.
But there's no one to protect anymore, she mused.
Protect, the gem affirmed, and it was then that she realised there was someone needing protection: her. The gem would protect her.
I'm too tired, she said. She was already blind and halfway deaf. There was no way her body would be able to handle channelling anymore of the gem's power.
Fear not. Cosmic dust is cosmic dust. All is connected. All is a part of everything, and everything is a part of all.
With that, the gem released its power, and Pidge felt more than saw it lance out in all directions, snaking up the walls and winding around them.
"What are you doing?" her captor snarled.
The answer was not hers. "Protect," she said in that frightening double timbre. The ground bucked beneath their feet and the ceiling cracked and came down with a roar.
-:-:-:-
Lance stared at the collapsed tunnel and couldn't feel the bayard-rifle in his hands. He couldn't feel his heart beat wildly in his chest. He couldn't feel himself breathe. He couldn't feel anything at all.
"No. No."
It was a whisper through the mine, and he couldn't tell who it was. Perhaps it was himself?
More whispers. More horror. "No. Pidge, no."
And then a shout, a bellow, a roar of denial and rage and hopelessness: "NO!"
"Lance!"
But Lance didn't hear as he surged forward, dropping his bayard, fell to his knees, and scrabbled at the rock, shifting, prying, yanking. Please, no, not Pidge. Never Pidge. Not our Paladin-Pidge. Not Green's Pidge. With Green offline, it was borderline impossible to find out through the Pride bond if Pidge lived.
"Pidge! Pidge!" he shouted, and his face was wet with streaming tears.
There was movement behind him, but he didn't turn to look.
Red's Keith needs medical attention, Blue told him gently. Black's Takashi has him now. He will contact the Princess and Support Commander for an extraction.
Lance nodded through his tears, unable to say or think anything.
"Lance?" Hunk knelt beside him and rested a hand on his shoulder. "Lance, you need to come away."
"Pidge is under there!" he shouted, rounding on his best friend. "Don't you care?"
Visibly stung by the hurtful accusation, Hunk nevertheless spoke calmly. "Yeah, man, I do. I care a lot. But the Lions will do a faster job than we can, so let's come away and let them work to get Pidge out. Okay?"
Lance shook his head, but didn't protest, and Hunk heaved him to his feet. As soon as they had retreated, Yellow and Blue moved in while Black hung back, safeguarding Shiro and Keith, with Red on her flank and alert for anymore enemies.
The two carefully and cautiously used their claws to pull at the rockfall, and Lance knew Blue's scanners were at maximum; her scrutiny was a sharp knife in his mind as she dug through the rubble.
It wasn't Blue, though, that sensed the movement beneath the rock. Perhaps it was because Hunk was the Guardian Spirit of Earth and she was the Yellow Lion. Perhaps it wasn't the scanners, but their own intrinsic and innate instincts in matters of earth, soil and rock. Whatever it was, something tugged at them. And because Lance was so focussed, he felt it, too.
/Hunk? Yellow Sister?/ Lance and Blue dared to venture.
/Something is moving beneath the rock,/ was the reply, and there was rising hope in the words.
Black Sister was suddenly above them, her thrusters holding steady as she hovered. /Feel that, my brothers and sisters? Can you feel the energy swirling?/
They were all silent for several ticks, feeling and wondering, and hope rose higher when they recognised the sensation.
/Pidge was wearing her headband,/ whispered Shiro just as Lance said, /Pidge has the Olkari gem!/
An explosion rocked the destroyed tunnel, but instead of collapsing inward, the debris blasted upwards, like some absurd volcano of rock and metal rather than lava and searing ash. It was their Pidge, and as the last of the dust slowly dissipated, they all saw the tiny white and green figure climbing out of the ruins – conscious and alive and moving and alive.
Lance's heart skittered against his ribs, and his breaths were laboured with relief and the sobs that choked him. Or was that all him? Because it certainly didn't feel like just him as he felt a hand that was too big braced against the wall, and as he eased back his right hand's grip so he wouldn't crush Keith's unresponsive fingers.
/All is well, precious Hearts,/ Black purred. /Be at peace. Our Paladin-Pidge is alive. Sisters, gather our Paladins. The Castle has arrived./
Lance launched himself forward, using Blue's paw to scramble up the rocks, and Hunk was right beside him. "Pidge!" he shouted, joy a rising surge in his chest.
Pidge looked up at him, then, and her eyes were that freaky glowing green again. "Safe now," she said, her voice not her own, and it was when Lance was right in front of her that the green glow vanished, her eyes rolled back, and she slumped into his arms.
/Green's Pidge is safe for now,/ Red said quietly, /but she is exhausted. She has channelled too much of the Olkari gem's power. Come, little ones. Let us leave this awful place./
Lance gathered Pidge up and carried her to Blue while Hunk rapidly fetched all of the cannister racks that had been discarded in the chaos. He settled her on the pull-out cot in the cockpit and removed her helmet for her comfort. He took in the wan paleness of her face and a few more tears fell.
Take heart, my Paladin-Lance, Blue soothed. Green's Pidge will be all right.
"I know," he whispered, and his fingers reached out to tuck her hair out of her face. "It's just...I broke my promise."
Ah, said his Lion, and her tone was solemn. That should be a discussion with her.
Lance nodded absently and turned away.
-:-:-:-
It was a relief to all when Red, upon her arrival at the mine, told them that Pidge had lied about Keith being dead. Not only had she lied, but she had healed more than half of the damage done. Keith spent only five hours in a cryo-pod: a new record that everyone was grateful for.
Pidge slept for two days which was the same amount of time the ornlitium took to perfectly mimic Green's metallic compositions. When she awoke, she had no recollection past healing Keith and threw herself into repairing her Lion. Pidge, Coran and Hunk worked ceaselessly, Shiro, Lance, Keith and even Allura assisting them regularly through the next six days. All were present when Green's eyes onlined, once again glowing gold, and she brought her massive muzzle to Pidge's chest. The hangar rumbled with her purr.
Green was worried about my Paladin-Pidge, she said. Green is glad my Heart is all right and safe.
Pidge huffed a laugh and clutched what she could reach harder. You do so much for me, Green. It was past time to return the favour. How do you feel?
Green pulled away carefully and shook her head several times. Good as new, she replied and resumed her nuzzling.
-:-:-:-
Later that night, Pidge delved into the Pride bond, seeking the missing details in her memory. She sat through the Lions' emotional replay of that moment, and Green added her own. Almost cut off though she had been, she had nevertheless been privy to her Paladin's thoughts and emotions that day. Pidge watched the event unfold from every perspective wordlessly and then, extricating herself from the bond, she sat in her hangar for the rest of the night, tucked between Green's front paws. She basked in her Lion's purr and soft mental nuzzling, and thought long and hard.
In the early morning, before even Keith or Allura awoke, she sought out Lance and found him in his bedroom, still asleep. But knowing what she now did, she knew this conversation could wait no longer.
"Hey, Lance?" she asked, easing the slightly-ajar door wider.
In the dim light from the hall, Lance blinked slowly awake and lifted his head to look at her. "What's up, Pidge?" he asked with a yawn. "You're awake early."
She shook her head. "Yeah. I...couldn't sleep. I've…I've been thinking."
"You were up all night?" He wiggled upright and turned on his bedside-table lamp. "Well, come on in. You can tell Big Brother Lance all about it."
Pidge tried to smile at his lightness, but her steps were heavy as she crossed the floor, clambering up onto his bed and winkling her way into the spot between him and the wall.
Lance stiffened in surprise, but wound an arm around her shoulders as she rested her head against him. "What's wrong, Pidgeykins? What are you thinking about?"
She inhaled shakily, steeling herself, and said quietly, "I talked to the Lions...about what happened. They showed me everything and...I've been thinking about what you said back there…at the mine. You thought you were breaking your promise."
"Oh."
"Yeah." She paused and then sat up to look him directly in the eyes. "I know that keeping a promise like that is hard, especially because we're at war and we're just a bunch of kids, and…and it's possible that maybe you might break it in the future." Before Lance could say anything, she continued. "I know you'll kick yourself if you ever really broke that promise, so…so I'm making you a promise in return…if that's okay?"
"Uh, sure. I…I guess. I mean, I don't want to break a promise to you, Pidgey, especially that one, but…yeah, sure. What's your promise?"
What nerves stuttering in her heart smoothed out and her voice was calm and confident as she said, "I promise that if circumstances outside of our control make you break your promise to never leave me behind, I will do my best to come back. Okay? I promise to come back to this Team."
"Oh. Pidge, I…" Lance trailed off, tears gathering in his eyes. He tried again, swallowing hard. "That's…good. That's good. Okay."
"Okay?" she asked, double-checking.
He nodded wordlessly and hugged her hard.
She hugged him back. "I was so scared, Lance. I remember now. For a second, I thought I would never see my family again."
"You'll see them again," Lance said after taking a long moment to collect himself.
She shook her head fervently, sniffing. "No. I mean, yeah, I know I'll find Dad and Matt, but…but I was afraid I wouldn't see this family. You and Keith and Hunk and Shiro and Allura and Coran and the Lions. I was so afraid, Lance. So that's why I'm promising. I won't break my promise and I'll never be afraid like that ever again."
Neither she nor Lance had any idea that her confidence poured through the Pride bond, nor did they have any idea that Shiro, Keith and Hunk smiled in their sleep while the Lions purred.
It was a good promise, after all.
-:-
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