Keith wasn't sure he had any hope left inside of him, punching the wall closest to him. He under room arrest again for lashing out at the teachers, and Keith refused to stop. Not as long as they kept using Shiro as an example; a cautionary tale of how even the greats could die from a simple mistake. But they were wrong, all of them were wrong.

Shiro was alive, he just knew it, he could feel it… he was just too dumb to figure out how to prove it. Keith let out a frustrated growl and punched the wall again, swearing he was creating a dent in it from hitting the same spot too many times.

He could feel that Shiro was still alive, he could feel that their bond as soulmates was still there and tried to tell the garrison, force them to go up there and look for him, but they didn't listen. Telling him it was just phantom pains from the bond being severed like when someone lost a limb and swore they could still feel it there. And the only Commander that gave him the time of day, the only one that would even consider believe him...was lost in space with Shiro.

Keith felt like he was blinded and in a free fall, having no control and having an idea which way to go, where to look, what to do, how to find Shiro.

Keith rounds up to punch the wall again, pausing as his phone made a beeping noise. The sound so rare it startled him for a split second. Glancing over at the device on his desk, he mostly just used the thing as an alarm.

Keith cautiously approached his phone, only Shiro ever messaged him on it… who even had his contact information outside of Shiro and the garrison? His suspicion growing when he saw the message came from an unknown number, he took the risk and opened the message. Keith didn't have much on his phone so even if it was a virus it wouldn't affect him much.

Keith nearly dropped his phone reading the message, sitting down on his desk chair as he re-read the message.

The Garrison is lying about Shiro and my family,

There's no way the ship went down like they said it did, they're hiding the truth.

Are you willing to help me find the truth?

-Katie (Matt's sister)

His mind scrambled for a moment trying to recall Matt's sister; she had long hair and was pretty short, otherwise, he couldn't recall much about her appearance wise. Shiro talked about her, but his soulmate seemed to admire the whole holt family.

What did Shiro say about the sister...was learning Japanese from him, super smart, wanted to become a space pilot, and wasn't very social. Matt talked about his sister a lot, but he had long since tuned out Matt's pride rants over the latest thing his sister did.

Shiro had explained to him that she had some social anxieties so he wouldn't take it personally when she didn't go out of her way to talk to him; unlike her brother. The sister always seems to be working on something instead, in her own little corner, not looking up from her laptop when she was in her father's office. Keith sitting off to the side while Commander Holt and Shiro talked. Keith had been more than happy not to be forced into some awkward small talk, and just let her be.

If she was half as smart as Commander Holt, Katie could be his only hope to find out what really happened, where Shiro could possibly be...

What do you need me to do?

He typed back, and didn't have to wait long for a reply…From a different unknown number...

First, accept this file and download it onto your phone.

The message said, coming with an attachment.

Keith opened the attachment that easily downloaded onto his phone as an app.

It's downloaded

He answered.

A moment later his phone started buzzing with a call from the third string of unknown numbers.

"How many phones did this girl have?" Keith wondered for a moment before answering. "Hello?"

"Good it is you"

Keith heard from the other end after a short pause.

"Sorry needed to make sure it was really you, and the program I had you download should destroy any bugs or malware on your phone that the garrison might be using to track your calls and messages"

Keith hadn't even thought about that, but he wouldn't put it past the garrison "Do you know what happened to their ship, do you know what happened to Shiro?" he asked wondering how much she had figured out.

"Not yet, but I know Shiro would never make a mistake like their claiming, he was an amazing pilot" She replied, Keith, feeling relieved, finally hearing someone echo his own thoughts. "As for what happened to the ship… I need to get into the garrison computer, I need a direct link so I can get into their servers, they have a system with nearly no delay transmission from the Kerberos ship, it was set in place to keep the Garrison updated on all the progress during the mission"

"How do you know that?" Keith asked having heard nothing about this system, though if it was a secret Shiro wouldn't have told him about it, he would never do anything to risk a mission.

"This won't be the first time I've hacked into the Garrison's computers" she replied, in a calm matter of fact tone. It wasn't a brag it was a simple fact to her.

"And you need me to get into the Garrison without someone seeing" Keith concluded.

"Yep, the more time I have, the more I can extract from the computers"

"Okay... I have a way in" Keith told her, having snuck out of the Garrison a few times without getting caught, he was familiar with a handful of blind spots. "will any computer work?"

"It has to be one directly linked to the servers, they're always red cords that connect to the back of the computers" she explained

"Got it, give me a day to double check a few things and I'll get back to you"

"Sounds good, use the same number I just called you on to reply back to me," Katie told him, Keith, glad she did, otherwise he would have been wondering that later.

"Alright" Keith grunted in confirmation.

"...Good luck and stay safe…" she told him before hanging up.

Keith hanging up on his side as well, his heart was beating. Katie didn't have answers…yet… but she had a direction, she knew what would have the info they needed and where to look. She had a plan to get it, and that was a tone more than he had. Keith had no doubt she could do everything she claimed, she didn't brag about her skills like someone trying to boost their skills with words instead of actions, she admitted what she needed, and why she needed his help. She knew her limits and knew how to get the best results despite those limits… that probably broadcasted her intelligence to him more than watching her work.

Keith felt like he wasn't falling anymore, he could fly again, even though he still felt blind, he didn't mind letting Katie lead him.

He didn't let his mind fill with delusional thoughts that this was going to be easy or that he would find Shiro after finding a few clues. As much as he hated to admit it, this was going to take time, but at least he was doing something now.

Keith could actually feel himself growing tired, his mind and emotions had been a rollercoaster since the news about Shiro came in. His mind never seemed to be able to sleep… he couldn't sleep when he knew Shiro could be out there and he had no way to find or help him. He slowly moved from his desk chair to lay down on his bed.

Finally able to fall asleep, thanks to Katie he wasn't lost any more, he had a mission now.