My Heart Will Go On, Celine Dion.
If this chapter feels a little meh, it's cause I'm writing for characters I'm not as comfortable with - I'm much better at the main four lol. But also, I'd die for Colleen Holt.
Altea High. June 10th, 2016. 10:43 am.
Colleen Holt was many things.
A scientist, for one. A mother, for another. A very, very pissed off mother, who was going to beat her children senseless the moment she stopped making sure they weren't dead or injured in a way that could cause death.
Her brakes practically gave out as she swerved into the high school parking lot, clambering out of the car and taking a moment to just glower at the front doors. She hadn't been here since Katie had graduated, and she didn't have fond memories of the place. The staff had been insolent, had tried to get Katie in trouble more than once for standing up to bullies older than her, and Colleen refused to hear it.
"Ma'am, you can't-"
She spun on the poor shmuck who had approached her, pointing her keys violently at their chest. "My children are idiots and they joined a gang, I am going in there whether you fucking like it or not. Move, before I put this key where the sun doesn't shine, buddy."
The man held up his hands very slowly, lips parting in surprise.
Colleen was 5'5 and 180 pounds soaking wet, but she'd had years of practice being intimidating. You had to, when you were a woman in STEM with two kids and a husband who liked to rain all kinds of hell down onto the earth. She knew she wasn't dressed the part – she was wearing mom jeans and a faded Harvard t-shirt. But she'd be damned if she was stopped from going inside.
"I wasn't gonna stop you, ma'am," he assured her, and Colleen finally took a second to look at him.
He was tall, very tall, with dark skin and curly black hair that was falling in his face, hiding wide, practically black eyes. He was also in jeans, a police badge clipped to his hip, and was wearing a deep purple polo shirt. "My name is Curtis," the guy said slowly, lowering his hands when he realized Colleen wasn't going to stab him. "I was just gonna say, you can't park your car out front here. We're putting them in the back in employee parking so that no one comes to investigate."
Colleen practically threw the keys at his chest, watching as Curtis fumbled to catch them. "Then have at it, I'm finding my children and murdering them."
"Ah, you're Pidge's mom then," Curtis snorted, and hearing the nickname leave his lips, Colleen relaxed a little. "She's a lot like you. They're all in the cafeteria."
Colleen nodded her thanks. She supposed she should apologize for threatening the guy at key point, but at the moment she was more concerned about strangling her kids to death. She stormed past the car as Curtis got in, up the front steps, and through the door, where she was promptly stopped by a man and a woman who were ten times more intimidating than Curtis had been (which was not at all, frankly).
The man was towering, a scar over one eye, and his arms – concerningly large arms – crossed over his chest. The woman was smaller, only an inch or two taller than Colleen, but she was scarier than the man. Her hair was cropped short, the undersides died a deep pink color, and there was a massive bandage wrapped around her upper right thigh. As Colleen's eyes adjusted, she spotted the knife strapped to the woman's other leg.
No keys to protect her, Colleen settled for crossing her own arms and glaring down the bridge of her nose over her glasses at the two in front of her. "If you don't move this second and let me see my children, I don't care what kind of training you have, I will drop kick you to the floor and rip your balls off."
A guffawed laugh came from down the hall and Colleen almost protested, spinning to look at the laugher. She froze. "Shiro?" she managed.
Katie had conveniently left that out of her brief explanation.
Shiro's smile was easy, if not a little sad, and Colleen was instantly drawn to the prosthetic arm he had rubbing the back of his neck. "Hi, Mrs. Holt." He looked back at the two people Colleen had just threatened. The man looked almost amused. "Krolia, Kolivan, this is Pidge and Matt's mom. She's okay."
"I like her," Kolivan grunted, before turning on his heel and walking towards what Colleen knew was the gym.
Krolia looked at her in surprise. "He doesn't like anyone," she chuckled, her stance and demeanor instantly more friendly. She suddenly felt like someone Colleen could befriend. "You should take that seriously."
Colleen scoffed. "Why, cause he's buff?"
She didn't wait for an answer, instead pushing past Krolia to wrap Shiro in a tight hug.
Ever since his, Sam's, and Matt's disappearance, Colleen had had a weight on her chest. It lifted a little now, as he folded over her and clutched at her back. She wondered how long it had been since he got a mom hug. Shiro had always been like part of their family, back when he was on the force. He'd come over for dinner more than once, and his disappearance had hurt Colleen almost as much as Sam and Matt's.
Easing off her tiptoes, Colleen pulled back and gave Shiro a critical once over. Cupped a hand against his chin, feeling the stubble, tracked the scar on his nose with a twinge of concern. "What happened?" she whispered, shocked to find her voice choked.
Shiro's eyes glinted sadly. "I don't remember most of it," he said, sounding genuine. "Probably for the best, all things considered."
Colleen took that moment to look over his arm – it glowed, slightly, and it moved naturally when Shiro did. It was made by someone very skilled; she could tell. Her fingers were already itching to examine it, but she refrained, instead looking back up at Shiro. "Where are they?" she demanded, some of her anger bubbling back up.
Shiro's lips quirked and he nodded. "Cafeteria. I sent Curtis out to get you, I figured you'd be least likely to murder him on sight."
A laugh came from behind them, and they turned to find Curtis walking back in. "Gee, thanks a lot. She almost stabbed me, you know."
He tossed Colleen's keys back without warning and she grabbed them from the air, probably surprising him, what with how his jaw fell a little. Shiro chuckled and bumped against Curtis. "Sorry, she's overprotective. She would have killed me for sure."
Colleen lifted an eyebrow at the two and then turned for the cafeteria, leaving them behind in her haste.
Someone fell into step next to her, and she wasn't surprised to find Krolia when she looked over, matching her pace. "Are you part of Voltron, then?" she asked, feeling a little awkward.
What she knew about Voltron and the Galra could fill a bathtub, but she knew it was only a drop in the ocean compared to what was actually going on. She wasn't dumb; she knew Katie had been researching the Galra after Matt and Sam's disappearance. She'd woken up at night and found her gone, only a text saying "At Lance's :)" or "At Hunk's :)", too many times for it to be just sleepovers.
Colleen had seen the slow appearance of mystery scrapes, cuts, and bruises. At first, she'd thought the worst – that Katie was depressed. Coping in a way she could. But then she'd seen the matching cuts and bruises on Lance and Hunk, the new muscle build in all of them, the knives all of them had started carrying out of nowhere.
But what she didn't know scared her more than what she did. She was a programmer, a robotics engineer – she worked with machines and robots more than people. She didn't know how they were getting hurt, why they were carrying knives all of a sudden.
All Katie had said on the phone was, "Matt's alive, with me, and we've joined the Voltron gang. We need your help."
It was all the time she'd been allotted to talk to her with. She'd hung up the phone moments later, and Colleen had received a text from a number she didn't know with the address of the high school. She'd been in the car less than three minutes later.
"No," Krolia said, and Colleen had forgotten for a second that she'd even asked a question. "I mean, technically, I suppose. I was deep undercover in the Galra territory, working for Zarkon and gathering intel on him."
Colleen stiffened ever so slightly, and Krolia definitely must have noticed, because she spoke again even before Colleen could comment. "I and Kolivan and every other person here aside from those working with your children are part of a group called the Blade of Marmora. Marmora, to the less formal."
"Why have I never heard of you?" Colleen asked, because she'd heard about a lot of gangs in the area, especially since Mayor Alfor had died and the Galra had started slowly taking over.
When Colleen looked over, Krolia had a half smile on her face. She looked vaguely familiar, now that Colleen could see her clearly. "We're quiet. Most people don't know we exist, and those who do are either deeply trusted allies or our enemies. We work from both the in and outside to try and remove Zarkon from power."
Colleen scoffed as they reached the cafeteria. "That'll take more than just kicking him off his throne, you know."
"Trust me. We know," Krolia said, her voice dark.
She opened the cafeteria door for Colleen, and for a moment, Colleen just looked at the room. It was fairly empty, chairs and tables wiped down, fluorescent too bright, as they always had been. The window into the kitchen was shuttered, but on the counter outside of it sat a plate of sandwiches – Hunk's doing, Colleen would bet money on it.
"Mom."
She turned, finally locking eyes on the only table without the chairs upturned onto it, and found Matt standing slowly from his seat.
He was taller than she remembered, but she doubted he'd grown. His hair was shaggy, pulled into a loose ponytail that didn't stop the wisps from falling into his face. It had been in a buzz cut the last time she saw him. The length suited him, she thought.
There was a scar on his face, his hands were rougher than she remembered, but as she met his eyes, all she saw was her child, her son, her baby that she hadn't seen in years, and all thoughts of strangling her kids flew out the window.
"Matthew," she managed.
He was shorter than Shiro, but he still towered over her, still folded her into his arms with a soft gasp and a hitch of his breath. She clung to his shirt, pressed her face into his shoulder despite the discomfort of her glasses pushing into her face, and took several shaky breaths, forcing herself not to cry.
When Matt pulled back, his eyes were teary, his lips wobbly. She lifted her hands, cupped his cheeks, and tugged him down to kiss his forehead. "You're in so much fucking trouble, young man," she croaked out.
That startled a laugh out of Matt and he shook his head, pulling away and digging the heel of his hand into his eye. His other hand settled on Colleen's back as she turned and got an armful of Katie, clinging to her like she hadn't seen her less than 72 hours ago. "You too, missy," she grumbled into her daughter's shoulder, running a gentle hand through her hair.
Katie snickered and then pulled back, eyes flickering over Colleen's face. Her gaze was sad, and when Colleen looked up and found Matt giving her the same look, her heart shattered. "Oh," she murmured. It came crashing down, hard – Sam wasn't coming home. "Oh."
Matt flinched, looking guilty. "Mom, I-"
She took in a breath, her throat and chest aching in a way she hadn't felt since the night the police had shown up on her stoop. Colleen lifted a hand, put it on Matt's arm. "It's not your fault, baby," she whispered.
Colleen could feel everyone watching her. Could feel every eye in the room on her, on her incoming breakdown. She could feel the break bubbling up in her chest. Days, months, years, of hoping, of wishing, of praying to a god she didn't even really believe in. For what? For fucking what?
For your son, Colleen reasoned with herself silently, turning a hazy gaze to Matt. A little battered, a little bruised, but here. Alive, standing in front of her, probably traumatized more than she could imagine.
A hand settled on her shoulder, careful, and she looked back to find Krolia there, her eyes soft and her jaw set. "If you need a moment," she said, gentler than Colleen had expected, "we can give it to you. Afterwards, though, we would like to request your assistance. Pidge specifically requested you."
Colleen looked over Krolia's shoulder at her daughter, who was currently sitting between Hunk and Lance, squished into a protective barrier that Colleen had seen the boys do for her more than once. She gave them both a soft smile and then looked back at her son. Squeezed his arms.
"I'll take that moment. I've missed out on too many."
Altea High. June 10th, 2016. 12:18 pm.
Shiro looked up from the map of the city as Curtis walked in, Shay and Rax at his sides. He was talking to them quietly, pointing them in the direction of the cafeteria, and Shiro smiled.
They'd been working on getting them here since the early hours of the morning, sending a few Marmora members out to Ryner's to escort them (and any other civilian survivors, of which there'd been a few) out without alerting the Galra, who, according to one member, had now taken the Bed and Breakfast over entirely.
Ryner's had been one of the last strongholds of the Olkari gang. It had been one of the last safe spaces within the resistance, and it was completely gone. Shiro was certain that the only reason the high-school hadn't been commandeered yet was because the Galra had no idea it was occupied – in their minds, it was summer. No one would be there.
Or maybe they were completely aware that they were all here. Maybe there was a spy on the inside. Shiro had no idea, but he did know that he couldn't let himself wallow in those thoughts, or they'd get dark quickly.
Hunk had been pleading to go with the Marmora members. He'd had his weapon out, ready to leave, and it had taken everything in their group to tell him he needed to stay put and trust the Blade to do their job and protect civilians.
"I don't know half the people here, man," Lance had whispered, his hand on Hunk's shoulder. "I need to know you'll be here when we need you, and that you'll have our backs."
It had been enough, and now Shay caught Shiro's eyes and waved from her hip, a small smile on her face. Her sneakers were flecked with blood, and there were scrapes up and down her legs, but overall, she and her brother looked fine.
Curtis watched as they went to the kitchen and then turned and made his way over to Shiro, lips catching in a smile as they heard Hunk's whoop of delight. "Find anything new?" he asked, leaning up against the table next to Shiro.
Curtis was incredibly smart. He'd worked in forensics back at the ACPD, and though he hadn't been there when Shiro was, he knew the ins and outs of the city pretty damn well. Shiro figured that happened when you got called out to weird nooks and crannies to analyze dead people.
He'd been at Allura's side the moment she cracked the flash drive from her father, finding hundreds of documents incriminating the Galra and Zarkon specifically – some of them were a little old, but they'd hold up in any court, and there was no way in hell he'd be able to buy his way out of it. It was him who'd told Allura to wait on making the news public.
"Right now, this is all we have," Curtis had told her, holding a hand over the drive and staring at her. "People won't make statements, because they're scared. These documents will put him behind bars. But his plans for election day? They'll make sure he stays there. Permanently. And it will be new, incriminating evidence."
"And what if people get hurt?" Allura had demanded, her hands curling into fists.
"They won't," Krolia had assured her, and she'd said it with such fierceness that no one protested further.
"Nothing new, per se," Shiro said, juggling a Monopoly piece in his hand – they'd found the game in the band room and were using it and a checkers set to mark off spaces they planned to be on the map. "The elections are always held in the park South of City Hall, right?"
"Yes."
Shiro leaned over, setting the piece – a car – down on the park. "Zarkon's not running officially, he's taking out the people who are and then killing anyone who tries to protest. No one allowed in or out of the city. It'll basically be an occupied zone."
Curtis hummed, leaning a little closer to follow Shiro's hand as he pointed. His shoulder pressed against him. "Press is usually against the building," he noted. "My sister worked for the Gazette before she moved to Columbus. We need to get them out, because he'll go for the camera crews first."
Shiro frowned. "Everyone has cameras these days. Who's to say he won't go for the whole crowd the moment someone lifts a phone?"
Curtis leaned further against Shiro and scowled at the map. "Good point. I feel like most people will be older, more formal? So less likely. But you're right – he doesn't exactly like to wait and see if people behave."
Shiro caught the glance Curtis flickered towards his arm and he huffed, backing away from the map a little and crossing his arms over his chest. "Allura will go public if she thinks we can't save the people in the crowd, but if she does go public, I have a feeling even more people will get hurt in the aftermath."
Curtis turned to face him, leaning against the table and crossing his arms. His jaw was set in a hard line that Shiro found unfairly attractive, given the circumstances. "So what do we do?" he asked, lifting a shoulder in a shrug.
He didn't know. He literally had no idea. They had less than three days to figure out their game plan, and he had no idea what the fuck to do. Either way, people were going to get hurt – he knew they all knew that. He knew Allura knew that. At this point, it was just a matter of which options made sure the least amount of people got hurt.
Shiro couldn't remember most of his time in the Galra prison he'd been in. He remembered the day after they'd been captured, and some flashes of his time there, and he remembered getting out, but everything else was a blur. He knew for a fact, however, that he'd hurt people.
Had killed them.
That was something he didn't want to do again; even if he wasn't going to be directly responsible for the inevitable deaths of civilians, it would be on him if he didn't save them. He couldn't watch more people die, especially not innocent people this time.
He didn't realize that he was digging his prosthetic fingers into his flesh until Curtis' hand was pulling it away, easing the arm down to his side and looking up at him with just the slightest touch of concern. "You all right, sir?"
Shiro swallowed, easing his arm out of the other man's grip, feeling the sting where the metal had bit into his skin. "Fine," he managed.
Curtis clearly didn't believe him, but he didn't comment, just turned so that they were facing the cafeteria. "Let's go see what Hunk made for lunch. We'll revisit this after eating, with everyone's input this time."
Shiro didn't have it in him to protest, just let Curtis settle a hand lightly on his back and lead him away from the map.
Three days.
They weren't fucking ready.
Don't worry, Colleen will get her deserved breakdown.
(Also not me casually just pushing Shiro and Curtis together)