Pidge hadn't even known that she had been unconscious until she woke, feeling like a walking bruise, lying on the floor of the Castleship's lounge. Or at least, it was what she assumed to be the Castleship's lounge with its vaulting ceiling and aesthetically clean furniture; because it was a little bit hard to discern under all of the Olkari greenery and Garrison technology draped around the place. There was, of course, the long U-shaped couch that sat at one end of the room and the foliage-covered view screen (which was as dark and empty as it always was) that took up the other end.

A selection of beloved cushions taken from their bedrooms were scattered across the couches and a shabby blanket that she had tried to knit (after her mother had insisted on finding her hobby to occupy her time instead of breaking into the Garrison. Again), sat draped over the back. There was even that little cubby hole (hidden behind weary foliage) where the food synthesiser lived; the one that Hunk had spent a few days trying to recalibrate so that it spat out more than just Food Goo. A rather homey feel emanated from the place and the only thing that was really missing, was the collection of older boys (and two alteans) sprawled about and bickering-slash-joking with each other over something nonsensical.

Scrambling up to her feet with a low groan, Pidge blinked rapidly at the sudden head rush—hands splayed wide in order to catch herself if needs be—before she moved to further inspect this new space. It couldn't be the Castleship because—aside from the oddly placed greenery and outdated tech—the Castleship had been destroyed during the war; sacrificed to close up those wayward and hungry wormholes. It had been sad to see her home-away-from-home—the one where she had lived for the better half of two deca-phoebs—disappear at the drop of a hat; sucked away into that swirling vortex of nothing like it was, well, nothing. But it had been necessary, no matter how hard it had been to say goodbye.

"What…what is this?" Pidge wondered aloud as she fiddled with the tassels of her blanket that sat nearby. There was no one there to answer her, but she still felt like she had to ask. "Green? Green? Are you there? Guys? Hello…? Is anybody here?"

Why, it's the lounge on the Castleship, young cub! Pidge could practically hear the Green Lion in the back of her head, even though, logically, she knew that she was still back on New Altea; even though she knew that it was just her own thoughts filtering back to her a way of comfort to ease her growing nerves. Nerves that were well-founded, given their track record with strange places such as this. Don't you remember?

"Of course, I quiznacking remember, Green!" Pidge retorted, slightly glad that she was alone so that she didn't look half as crazy as she felt. "But this? This is impossible! And the last time I checked, the lounge on the Castleship wasn't covered in Olkari greenery or Garrison tech!"

There's no need to get so huffy, cub!

"I…I couldn't have gone back in time…right?" Pidge hedged (she tried her best to ignore the hopeful note that pinged in her tone; a note that hurt just as much as it hoped) as she dredged up another memory of the past that had just been strewn about.

It was a green lion plushie that as almost as big as her torso. It was something that tugged a fond smile onto her lips as she was reminded time & time again of the comments that insisted she would grow into it, but never did. It had been something that Hunk had won her during their trials & tribulations as impromptu gameshow contestants on Garfle Warfle Snick (as hosted by Bob & Norlox). But it wasn't until later, during some sort of game (if you could call it that), that Pidge had even found out that it had once been a memento of Trigel's craftsmanship.

Supposedly, it had been some sort of a five-part baby gift for Zarkon's children (with the other Paladins contributing something similar). Pidge only knew that though, because of the altean stitching which had been imprinted across the green lion's belly, what she had asked Green about it later and the tag wrapped around its neck which listed itself to the (unborn) baby Lotor. She wasn't sure why he hadn't gotten it, but it was hers now and she would be damned if she was going to give this physical link to her predecessor, back. (It was really the only one she had, aside from the few blueprints that she'd discovered in some backward cubbyhole of the Green Lion).

"I—I mean, that's just quiznacking impossible…right?" Pidge murmured as she spun on her heel, eyes roving over every inch of the place. "I—I mean, for something like that to happen again, so soon? Right…right? Am I going crazy? I feel crazy…But then crazy people don't know that they're crazy, that's what makes them crazy—"

—Cub! Enough! Green's voice interjected before Pidge could spiral further into nonsensical thoughts. Remember your training. What do you need to do?

"…Okay" Pidge swallowed a breath, "Okay"

Tell me, cub, WHAT do you need to do?

"Find a viable exit. If none can be found or accessed, find food, water and wait to be rescued" Pidge reported, listing off the facts as if she were responding to a question from one of her professors. "And if possible, send out a distress beacon so that you may be located quicker"

Good. Green purred, Do that.

"Right, right, I can do that, I can do that" Pidge nodded as she moved to try the closed doors at the front of the room. On the Castleship, she knew that these two doors would have of led the way into twisting hallways that dove deeper into the ship, but here? In this strange familiar-but-not place? She no clue.

BEEP…BEEP…BEEP-BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…

Fingers danced resolutely across the keypad of the first door as Pidge input the code, a four digit password that she knew by heart. But when she stepped back, expecting the door to automatically open; it didn't. A few more adamant and almost forceful taps at the keypad in order to get it to work; as if doing so would provide a different outcome than the one before. It didn't. "It's…sealed?" She puzzled, trying again and again to open the door; even going so far as to kick and elbow-check the thing. It was like hitting your head against the wall and expecting a different outcome other than a concussion.

Don't forget the other door, my cub. Green nudged, reminding her of the opposing door that mirrored this one.

"Right, right" Pidge nodded to herself as she shuffled over to the opposing door on the other side of the view screen. "More than one door, means more than one exit"

BEEP…BEEP…BEEP-BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…

Thankfully, this door opened, but when it did it revealed not the twisting hallways of the Castleship, as she had expected. Instead, beyond the door lay the mismatched clutter of her bedroom. It was still the one she had lived in on the Castleship, but much like the living room, it appeared to be an amalgamation of all the places she had ever called home. There was the cubbyhole beds from the Castleship, the clutter of tech sprawled about the room like starry freckles, Olkari greenery crawled up the walls, several quilts of her mother's handiwork were draped across the mattress and a stash of blueprints—complete with her own translations & anecdotes—that she had found inside the Green Lion, were tacked up to the one of the walls.

"…Huh? That's not right" Pidge blinked dumbfoundedly, eyes roving everything that she knew to be hers and yet, still sent a deep piercing feeling of wrong running through her; like an arrow to the heart. Everything was so perfectly wrong that it confused her to no end. Backing up from the doorway, Pidge then moved onto try the view screen, tapping at the keypad in an effort to turn it on and at least see where the hell she really was. But just like the doors, the view screen would not work as it usually would; it did not turn on and it did not show a view of the outside stars.

"C'me on!" Pidge huffed, growing frustrated at the lack of action. Stomping back across the living room floor and over towards the fire lily that stood proudly in the centre of the obsidian coffee table. Shoving her hand down the open bloom until she was buried up to her elbow, she gripped tight to the pistil and with a flash of blue, the fire lily was transformed into a mid-sized blaster that wrapped itself tightly around her forearm. Ripping the blaster from its base, she spun tightly on her heel and Pidge trained the blaster on the view screen. She fired without abandon, uncaring if she blasted off into space but once again, it did nothing. Well, not nothing—nothing; the view screen did flicker and ripple like a stone had been dropped into a pond. Another flash of blue and the blaster had changed shape once more; this time using her quintessence to form it into something a little more heavy duty which she used to beat down upon the view screen.

PEW-PEW! PEW-PEW! PEW-PEW!

Again and again, she relentlessly fired, but still the view screen held dark and true; flickering in place, but never once breaking from its plain grey desktop. "Ugh!" She groaned as her blaster-encased arm fell back to her side. Nothing she did seemed to be working and though she had not tested the closed doors in much the same manner, she suspected that they would result in the same outcome as the view screen. Spinning back on her heel again, Pidge's eyes landed squarely on the lion plushie that sat ever-so-innocently perched on the back of the couch and though a fond smile quirked at the corners of her lips, a bitter thought pinged in the back of her mind. "This better not be Bob again…! Interdimensional being of judgement and worthiness, my ass…!"

Later that evening (or so ticked the watch embedded in her Planetary Union-issued jacket of her sleeve), Pidge found herself draped across one of the couches with a bowl of jiggly Food Goo at her side whilst the spoon dangled from poised lips. Garbed in only her green bra (the one that criss-crossed at her neck like a halter and dipped low enough in the back that her cybernetics could breath freely), her engineering jacket and a pair of green checkered pyjama pants that drooped around her feet, she was the most comfortable that she had been in a while.

Her hands, meanwhile, found themselves occupied by the PADD she had dug up from the recesses of her bedroom. Blaring the familiar theme tune to Killbot Phantasm 1, the device tilted this way & that as the teenager eagerly tried to beat each level; it was a sound that brought her both comfort and helped to fill up the empty space with anything else other than her quiet breaths. The spacious room itself, now lay in various stages of disarray from where Pidge had gone to town, trying to both blast and punch her way out, to very little success. She'd try again tomorrow, of course, but for now she needed to rest. If experience had taught her anything it was that exhaustion would only harm herself, and as far as cages went, this one? This one was by far the most comfortable; at the very least, it had air conditioning and, y'know, food.

"Hey, Green…?" Pidge asked out of the blue, seeking even a trace of a shred of her old friend, however much of a lie it might have of been.

Yes, my cub? Green hummed.

"D'you…d'you think that the Calvin even knows I'm alive? I mean, do you think that they're even looking for me?"

You can only hope.

"Yeah right…" Pidge sighed resignedly as she paused her game, letting it fall idle in her lap. "Because Cap's not exactly one to be slap-happy about playing 'bus driver' or 'clean-up crew' God…! I just hope Malvazar was sober enough to explain some of what happened. Or that they even believed him…"

I know, my cub.

"…I'd ask if you want the bed or the couch, Green" Pidge heaved a put-upon sigh as she crawled out of her own mind as she stared at her four-walled foliage-painted prison, "But I'm the only one here. Quiznack…I'm gonna lose my mind, aren't I?"