Published February 7, 2019

"Wait for Me"


The sun shall no longer be your light by day,
Nor for brightness shall the moon give light to you;
But the Lord will be to you an everlasting light,
And your God your glory.
Your sun shall no longer go down,
Nor shall your moon withdraw itself;
For the Lord will be your everlasting light,
And the days of your mourning shall be ended.

~ Isaiah 60:19-20, New King James Version


After months of cautiously testing the veracity of Lotor's intelligence, it turned out he had been holding back the information that held most personal importance to the paladins: the last known location of Commander Samuel Holt.

Matt and Pidge happened to be together when they learned the news. They did not waste time getting angry about Lotor keeping this information to himself for so long; they were too caught up with acting on it. Any delay would run the risk of missing the opportunity, so rather than wait for the rest of Team Voltron to catch up with them, they accepted Rolo and Nyma's offer to help.

During the journey on the Green Lion, Pidge almost fell into her old habit of worrying out loud about everything that could go wrong. Matt reassured her as best he could. Having someone to support helped him hold himself together despite the suspense and apprehension.

It became clear right away that something funny was going on. The prison seemed to already have been infiltrated, the security system hacked, the sentries disabled or destroyed.

The scientists looked at the newcomers with fear and followed them with trepidation. Matt could not blame them; he knew how they felt. He remembered his own bewilderment when Te-osh and her comrades rescued him. Even when rescue was what you wanted most, it was hard to believe in it when it finally seemed possible.

While Rolo and Nyma guided the others out, Matt went to the cells in the back, calling out and asking passersby for Sam Holt. Even when it seemed everyone had filed past, he checked every cell, opened every door, to see if anyone was asleep, unconscious, or unable to move on their own.

Finally Matt arrived at the last cell in the block. Either his father was in there, or he was no longer in this facility.

He opened the door, and found an empty cell.

His father was not here.

He had to break the news to Pidge.

The escape was rough, but everyone made it alive. The hardest part, Matt found, was not freefalling almost to his death, nor trying to defy the laws of physics with the overburdened shuttle. The hardest part was entering the Green Lion's cockpit alone, facing Pidge's hopeful face, and informing her that their father was not there.

"No," Pidge said, unable to accept it. "No! Dad! Where are you?" She started to push past Matt, but he caught her in his arms and held her as she sank to her knees and broke down crying.

She had been so strong for so long. Her perseverance had enabled her to become a paladin, find her calling, and find her brother. But sometimes strength and perseverance were not rewarded after all, at least not in the desires time or place or way.

"Don't give up, Pidge, We know Dad's alive. We'll find him," Matt promised.

They dropped off the escaped scientists on Olkarion, where social workers could help them contact friends or family and arrange transportation if they wished to leave. Then Matt accompanied Pidge back to the Castle of Lions, not wanting to leave her alone when she was missing her father so much.

It was at that moment, when Pidge was feeling more despondent than ever about her father's absence and unknown fate, that Zarkon sent the paladins an ultimatum.

Neither Matt nor anyone on Team Voltron had ever seen Pidge so irrational, so single-minded, so biased, as in the minutes and hours after they received the transmission. Even Shiro and Matt had a difficult time reasoning with her as they discussed how to approach the situation. It was not necessarily the most dangerous situation any of them had faced, but it had higher personal stakes than any other.

Looking back, Pidge was angry with herself for not foreseeing the hologram trick. She herself had used it to deceive and distract her enemies on multiple occasions. Shiro and Lotor's concerns proved to be justified: Zarkon double-crossed them and wanted them to surrender the lions. But then Lotor pulled a surprise of his own, attacking Zarkon with the black bayard that had once belonged to him.

Sam was pushed back onto the shuttle after barely disembarking it. He barely got a glimpse of his children and Shiro before the part-Galra generals ushered him back inside.

Tied to a chair, trying not to picture the battle now happening on the ground, the only thing Sam could think to do was pray. God, if you're there, don't let us lose each other again.

The answer, if that was what it was, came instantly. Pidge, Matt, and Shiro boarded and started fighting the generals, mostly out of Sam's sight until Pidge cut him free. They hardly had a moment of relief before they saw the ship was going to crash.

It was Sam who took the controls and steered the shuttle away from the ground. He had finally done something to help—had, in fact, saved their lives. But that satisfaction paled next to hugging his children again for the first time in years.

Shiro called their attention back to the battle on the ground, where Lotor and Zarkon were still fighting. The scene was so shocking, when it was over it took Sam and Matt and the paladins several ticks to realize they had just witnessed a historic moment, the fall of a tyrant, the end of a reign. Because the Lions had protected Lotor and drawn Zarkon's attention toward them, Lotor had successfully done what none of them had been able to do. He killed Zarkon.

After a few moments of shocked silence, Shiro took command of the situation. He directed everyone to meet on the ground so they could collect Lotor and the Altean shuttle.

Having to deal with Zarkon's sudden death and Lotor's apparent alliance ruined the kind of welcome Pidge had wanted to give her father when she eventually found him. He needed rest and medical treatment, and she wanted to spend time catching up with him. Now his return was overshadowed by this much larger development.

Fortunately Shiro and Allura understood and let Pidge help Sam get settled in the Castle while they sorted things out. Hunk quickly fixed him a meal and Coran found him a change of clothes. They sat in silence in the dining room while Sam ate.

"This is good food goo," he said to break the silence.

"Are you really okay?" Pidge asked. "You must have questions."

He started with the one that seemed most simple. "Does everyone call you Pidge now?"

She smiled crookedly, revealing the dimples he had missed so much. "Yeah. It was my alias for a while, and then it just kind of stuck."

"Should I call you that?"

She shrugged one shoulder. "It's up to you. I'll answer to either."

His next question did not have such a simple answer. "How in the universe did you end up in space—and a paladin of Voltron?"

"It's a long story. One of the Voltron lions was hidden on Earth—not far from the Garrison, actually—and we found it, and it brought us to the Castle of Lions … and things just kind of took off from there. Literally."

"Have you been in contact with the Galaxy Garrison?"

"No. We haven't had any contact with Earth since we left. There's been too much to do, and it would've taken too much time, and they probably wouldn't have wanted to know about any of it."

"So the war hasn't gotten that far?"

"No."

It was as though a weight Sam had been carrying for the better part of two years was suddenly lifted. Earth was safe, at least as safe as could be, for the time being.

The three Holts debriefed on the most important points in their separation, but there were some parts of their experiences that they were reluctant to share. They agreed to let those stories wait until they were ready to talk about them. Sam was relieved to learn that they had freed the scientists who had been his fellow prisoners.

The day after the rescue, Sam took the longest bath he had had in years, cut his hair, and trimmed his beard. When he joined the others for breakfast, he looked different from both the scientist-commander and the Galra prisoner. He still looked older than he had on Earth, but he looked wise and disciplined too.

"Wow!" Matt remarked. "Looking good, Dad."

Sam stroked the beard, smiling. "I thought about shaving it off, but it's kind of grown on me."

Pidge nodded in approval. "I like it."

They decided to go to Olkarion to regroup and inform the Voltron Coalition of Zarkon's death. Pidge was thrilled to show Sam the planet, her favorite other than Earth, and introduce him to Ryner. Seeing her father wear Olkari garb and work alongside her alien mentor felt both surreal and strangely fitting. As she had expected, Sam was awed by Olkarion's beauty, peace, and technological wonders.

"So much has changed so fast," he said, looking out through the window of the tower that held the ion cannon.

"For the better," Pidge agreed.

Matt's tone was not so optimistic. "Yeah, well, Zarkon might be dead, but the war's not over yet." As their eyes met, a silent moment of realization and mutual understanding passed between the two siblings. They could not return to Earth until their work with the rebels and paladins was done.

Pidge tried to tell him about the legacy of the Voltron paladins so he could better understand her role and responsibility. She was not as good a storyteller as Coran, and she got more pleasure out of showing him all of the Green Lion's special features.

"It's just amazing," Sam said, staring up at the gargantuan robot. All this technology—it used to exist only in my dreams." He turned around to face them, smiling now. "I can't wait to tell your mother all about this. Wait until she sees you two, so grown up!"

Pidge and Matt glanced uneasily at each other, realizing they could not put off this conversation any longer. Pidge could barely meet Sam's eyes as she said, "Well, the thing is, between Voltron and the rebels, Matt and I have a lot of work to do before we can go back to Earth."

"Yeah," Matt agreed, "we can't leave until the Galra are defeated and we can rest assured Earth will be safe."

Sam blinked at them, stunned. "What?"

Pidge looked at him sadly, and said as simply as she could: "We can't go home with you, Dad."

There had been many times when Sam informed his family that he would be away for a long time, working across the country, overseas, or in space. Now the situation was reversed, and his children were the ones who had to explain that there were circumstances beyond their control that were keeping them away from their home and family.

It was a decision Sam understood, and could respect and even admire. When Olkarion was attacked, he got to see Voltron in action, and even he and Matt got to help. The episode showed that their fears of further conflict were justified: even though Zarkon was gone, new threats were going to emerge to fill the power vacuum. And what had happened on Olkarion could happen on Earth.

It was clear that the Holts were needed in outer space. But maybe not all of them. Matt and Pidge had developed ties with their respective communities, helping soldiers, scientists, rebels, and refugees from across the universe. But Sam's strongest ties were with the Galaxy Garrison, which was still largely ignorant about the war. The people of Earth needed to know what was happening so they could prepare themselves before the war reached them.

Sam waited until they had a peaceful moment after the battle. The paladins had set Voltron down by the shore to watch the glorious sunset. Matt and Sam took a small hovercraft to join them, and Pidge got up on it with her dad and brother.

He could see the sadness and disappointment in her eyes when he told her he had to leave, but she did not argue with him. She just hugged him again, knowing their time together was limited.


Music: "Wait for Me" from Hadestown