Chapter 34: Goodbye Commander Holt (Pidge's POV)
Pidge tries to compose herself. She knew this day was coming. The day her father left for Earth. She knows why it has to be done, but a selfish part of her wants him to stay to help Voltron here instead of getting Earth up to date on Space and getting their defences ready just in case Voltron fails.
Which wouldn't happen, but then it never hurts to be prepared for the possibilities.
Her father turns around and says, "Thanks for everything, I will truly miss all of you when I get to Earth."
"Us as well, Commander Holt, but Earth must be warned of the dangers the Galra Empire possesses." Allura speaks.
"I agree."
"By the way…." Hunk begins, holding an Altean usb drive, "Here are the recordings we made for our families." He puts it into her father's hands.
"I will make sure these get to your families."
"Oh and don't forget to contact Keith and tell him that we're alright. He must be so worried not knowing what's going on up here."
Her father smiles, "I'll make sure to contact him. He might be useful as well to train Garrison pilots on how to fight the Galra since he's the only one who's ever faced them before and convincing the Garrison that the Galra are a real threat."
"Speaking of contacting Keith, when you do can you also contact my parents and let them know I'm alright."
"They are in Paris right? Where Keith was transported to due to, ah, how did you put it. An akuma?"
Marinette nods, "Yeah. I mean I also recorded a video message for them and all, but I just thought….you know….."
"I understand Marinette."
Marinette sighs in relief.
"Well if that's everything I best be going. It was fun, goodbye everyone."
Pidge rushes up to her father and hugs him tightly. I don't want to let go. I finally found him and now he's leaving again.
"Don't worry Pidgeon, we'll meet again soon."
"Promise."
"I promise. I'll see you back on Earth."
She looks into her father's amber eyes, and sighs. "Ok."
Reluctant, she lets go and watches as her father climbs into the Altean pod. The engines spark as it turns on, everyone goes to the bridge except her. The pod leaves through the open bay doors and she collapses on the ground. Even though he promised she would see him again back on Earth once this was all over, a part of her fears that something will separate them again, that her father won't be easy to find or worse not even be on Earth.
The bay doors close shut, and she picks herself up off the ground. It's for the best, she chides herself, Earth needs better defences if, if Voltron fails to bring an end to the Empire before they reach Earth.
It will not come to that, though. It can not come to that. Earth will be safe and be untouched from this war. It has to remain this way. It has to.
And that means she has to do everything in her power to make it stay that way.
Marinette's POV
The wormhole dissipates. She shouldn't feel so worried, yet she is. Hawkmoth might not have been defeated yet, and if the Empire comes while he's still in play. Disastrous the consequences may be.
Though she can't think about that right now. Focusing on the Galra Empire and how to bring them down however should be her priority.
"So do we have any idea about how to move forward? We haven't exactly come to a conclusion…."
"I have that covered Marinette." Shiro announces with Lotor behind him.
She raises an eyebrow, "Oh really and how is that?"
"I went through with Lotor's plan and he was made Emperor of the Galra Empire. We should head to their H.Q and….."
"You went behind our backs and missed saying goodbye to my father to make Lotor Emperor!" Pidge shouts.
'
"Yes. It needed to be done. And I'm sorry about missing your father's send off. But this was important."
"Shiro, we're a team…."
"If we were you would have thought of my idea more instead of outright dismissing it."
"I didn't dismiss your idea, I asked good questions and you yelled at me for them. Besides, didn't the rest of the team also decide your idea wasn't a risk they wanted to take?"
"Lance, Shiro stop. What's done is done. Shiro, I don't like that you went behind our backs, but…."
"But what?" Shiro asks, confusion visible.
"But you gave us something when we didn't know how to move forward. We should follow through on this. Besides Lotor is a trustworthy ally, he provided us with valuable information and now that he's Emperor, well, removing the Galra's influence across the Universe will be easier then using brute force…."
"Thank you Marinette."
Lotor's POV
And he truly meant what he said. He thought Marinette would be more angrier than her teammates, she is the leader and Shiro undermined her authority. But instead she saw it as a positive way to end this war faster.
Though he isn't so sure that the other Paladins are so quick to spin a positive outlook on this. Especially Lance, Marinette's right hand and Pidge who looks disappointed in the former Black Paladin. Understandable, he did miss Commander Holt's sendoff by choosing to go to the Ceremony with him.
We did almost get killed though and if it wasn't for the Archivist leading them to the escape pods in time, well things might have ended differently.
But now he is Emperor, he can finally make the Galra Empire have peace after having bloodshed for so long. It might be difficult though the Galra have been at war for so long it's all they know. Maybe it's because of his Altean blood, but fighting, even though he was good at it, was never his strong suit. It took years of practice to get to where he is now in skill. And also why maybe he was more compassionate despite being taught the same lies his subjects were told.
"Does everyone else agree?"
Quiznack, he completely zoned out.
"I trust you Marinette and so do the rest of us. Besides, like you said, what's done is done. There's no point in arguing about it."
The rest of the Paladins nod, agreeing with Lance.
"Then next stop Galra Empire H.Q."
Author's Note: Sorry for not posting in while, working at Wendy's has taken a lot out of me and then I took a week off to go to Ontario to visit my Nanna who is in the hospital, went back to work, got a sore throat a couple of days ago that got worse so now I have a stuffy nose with a bit of cough and a mild headache and am off work . So that's been fun. I also have had Pathways(My Online University I'm attending) stuff to do. Also next chapter is Kwamibuster! I've been wanting to write my version of that episode for a while now so I'm super excited. I also have an Instagram Account where I post designs for story ideas and random drawings/doodles called leafbranchthewarriorcat for any of you who are interested. Anyways hope you guys enjoyed this chapter:)