The castle was much louder then it was the day before. Everyone was excited, well except for Keith who didn't really have any feelings about the news of another palidan. Lance on the other hand had a different opinion as he walked into the living room of the castle, " So your telling me that after finding this big alien lion thing and a hot space princess, now we have to go find this human who has been probable floating around in space for who knows how long? " Lance said as he crossed his arms with a pout while Hunk just smiled and scratched the back of his head at his friends statement.
Hunk looked over at the other teen saying "I mean its worth a shot isn't it? and, I mean its cool too because its another human man! thats crazy! and she's like 10,000 years old or something right, just like the princess." Hunk slummed against the couch as Lance just seemed to sink into the cushions faster with his arms crossed. He gave a small pout as Keith entered the room.
"I bet your just as happy about this news as we are aren't you mullet?" Lance smirked at his own joke while Keith just blinked back saying with crossed arms " I don't really care, now that we have Shiro back we should just start heading back to earth. There's no reason for use to be out here anymore." Hunk blinked a few times confusion as he looked between the two glaring men. Looking at Keith he said "But you heard the princess! The lions choose us as there palidens, they choose use to be apart of Voltron! To save the universe! We can't just walk away from that." Lance's head perked up a bit at the statement. Keith didn't seem that fazed by Hunk's comment and just rolled his eyes and let his arms fall to his sides in what looked like annoyance. Hunk sighed after finding his words did nothing to change Keith's mind about what was happening.
Hunk looked up at Keith who had taken a few steps towards him and Lance and said " Can we just stop thinking about this or at least talking about this? Its not helping at all at this point just sitting around and talking about it and not actually doing anything about it." The two other boys in the room could feel the vibe Hunk's voice was giving off, the sadness of not being back on earth and the irritation of not wanting to be reminded that he wasn't home with his own family. Lance nodded and Keith shrugged before sitting down on the couch. Lance popped a eye open as he felt the couch shift and looked over to find Keith sitting next to him.
His face twisted into a face of disgust before he moved himself to the completely opposite side of the couch, pressing his body up to the side of the couch. Keith just rolled his eyes at Lance before he some what relaxed back into the couch. The room fell into a deep silents as the three sat in the room not making a sound.
"so your telling me that the whole castle has this big locked date base and you completely forgot to tell me anything about it? Pidge squinted looking back at a somewhat defeated Coran who gave a simple nod at her question. Pidge rolled her eyes as she let out a frustrated sigh from her lips and tuned back to the system panel she had been working on. The blue and white flash of the alien screen blurred over her face as she worked over a hand full of paths to get into this new data base. If she had simply known about this data base in the ships support base she would have had no problem hacking into it and starting the progress to get this new information. Unfortunate do to the wait on finding out about this new base, she now had to hacking into the heavily guarded data base that was deeply indeed into the huge system. Now she had a big time crunch to work.
The only sound that filled the deck was the small beeps of Pidge's fingers sliding over the bright screen in front her. eyes glued to the screen in front of her.
She broke the deadly silents saying in a lower less annoyed tone "I take it this Grace person really did mean something more to you then you let off to the others?" she shrugged her shoulders as she still stared at the screen in front of her face, not once looking away to look at the man next to her. Coran's eyes drifted from the smaller girl and to the dark universe outside the deck glass. His eyes following one of the many now dead starts crossing passed the glass. His voice flowed out of his lips slowly, almost hasten to say the words that followed. "Grace was...Is a big part of who I was before our home planet was destroyed. She was so hard to read at times but at the same time she was, how would you say? Stupidly easy to read as well. She could lead anyone on if she really wanted to. Honestly she was a person you ether liked or you didn't. Her moods didn't help much ether, she was always up and down and it was a roller coaster for her and everyone around her." Coran scratched his chin at the end.
Pidge, still not talking her eyes off her screen replied "From the sounds of it she most likely had a form of Bipolar" Coran looked over at the girl, still typing away at the screen. "Bipolar?" Corans voice said almost questionably. Pidge's fingers slowly stopped as she looked over at Coran, her eyes shifting in a slightly sad manner. There was a silents over the room over the room once again. Pidge pushed her glasses up her nose saying " Bipolar Disorder, its a mood disorder on earth. Disorders like that are not uncommon, but they are by any means not to common as well. Genetics and childhood have a big roll as well with the disorder. From the way it sounds, she most likely knew she had the disorder and was trying to cope without medication and therapy. Did she have episodes, of sadness or bouts of anger?" Coran thought for a moment as Pidge went back to work.
"Behind closed door, away from the King, she would slam things...and scream and cry. I know she didn't want people to hear her but I did when passing her quarters at times. It would last days even weeks some times. I would feel so bad some times that I couldn't help her but I knew she wouldn't have wanted my help." Pidge hummed saying " I'm no psychiatrist but it sounds like she might have Bipolar 1, sounds like she had manic episodes." her voice drew to a stop.
Every minute seemed to tick by slower and slower as Pidge's words seemed to settle in. "Was...Was she in pain?" Coran asked as he looked out into the dark abbess again. Pidge gave a short reply "The disorder effects the mind mostly but with some, it can effect the body. Shes not here at the moment so I couldn't tell you how she felt, that's a question you would have to ask her yourself for a real answer. I cant speak on her behalf, I don't even know the women." Pidge snorted.
Suddenly the beeping of chimes filled the deck room making the two look at the giant hologram screen in the middle of the room.
Pidge spoke up " I think we found something."
Everyone quickly gathered onto the deck after being alerted to the news of new information on both the White Lion and Grace.
"So what are we supposed to be looking at?" Hunk said scratching his head as he looked up at the screen in confusion. Shiro piped in " From what I can tell from the looks of its, its a vital states report. And I'm guessing they where from this Grace women's pod correct?" Lance coked his head as he looked at the recorded visual waves on the screen "They look pretty normal? Like shes still alive?" Keith rolled his eyes saying "The date is from decades ago, thousands by the looks of it. Doesn't even look like its been updated since then." Lance sneered before giving a glare at the other teen, "Well how was I suppose to know that?! I'm not a mind reader!" Keith scoffed before uncrossing his arms and turning towards the blue palidan.
"Clearly your just not that observant, but I could have already guessed that from being near you for two seconds." Keith shrugged as he looked back up at the screen. Lance clenched his fists at his sides as he stared at Keith with pure annoyance, his lips pressed tightly together as Hunk placed a hand on his shoulder and shook his head. Hunk knew Lance wanted to say something just as spiteful back but it would do nothing to clear up the clearly visual feud between the two men. But all of that would have to be dealt with at a later time, they had more pressing issues then their childish squabbling to deal with at the moment.
The two looked back up to the screen and did there best to ignore the slightly glaring guy who held a iced gaze on both of them before huffing and looking back at the others.
Pidge glared at the three before scrunching her nose up and looking back at her keyboard. Shiro shook his head as he walked over to stand behind Pidge's seat, his arms resting on the top of it as he stared up at the screen saying "Pidge is there anyway to update the location? Possibly try to reboot the tracking device from the ship and not manually from the pod?" Before Pidge could say anything Coran spoke up saying "The tracker itself is on Grace, it was sawed into her armor. As long as she is wearing her jumper where it's imbedded, it will take us right to her not just the pod itself." Pidge nodded before tapping away at her keyboard, going though a few folders and gates in the date base.
She huffed as she hit a snag in the last gate, a red warning sign appeared out of no where blinking on the screen. Coran sighed before ungloving a hand and placing it onto the screen, with a small big the gate was unlocked opening the last file behind it. Pidge hummed as Coran put his glove back on. Flicking a few keys she came to what she was looking for, with a grin on her face she typed in a few keys.
Spinning around she looked at Shiro saying "It looks like I can manually form the ship boot up the tracker again. Hopefully we will just have to see if it turns on and updates itself, it will send a shook though the device to power it up." Shiro nodded and stood back up and looked to Coran and Allura for a moment.
His eyes fell between the two before looking back to the screen. He had no idea how hard this must be for them. They where about to find out if someone they where connected to before their whole race was whipped out, was dead or alive. He had no idea. He had nothing to say.
The room was silent to the point you could hear a pin drop if you kept your ears open to it. Pidge had swiveled back around and typed on her bored, her finger hovered over a single button as she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She pushed the last key, letting out a breath.
Everyone was still in the room as they all just intensely stared at the large over head screen. The red dot on the screen along with a old set of states held its for.
The red dot started blinking, the states went haywire for a few moments, the numbers going up and down before slowly returning to a normal rate.
Where ever she was, she was alive.
Allura spoke up saying "Set a course to that planet, we are going to find her one way or another, and soon before Zarkon finds her before we do."
—————On a far away Planet————-
Grace only felt a shock go up her body as she screamed, her head fling forward and struck her forward right into the thick glass of the escape pod. Tears pooled in the corners of her eyes as her vision sparked with white and black. Another shook went though her body, this time it was more bearable do to her being actually being awake. She had experience it and gritted her teeth as the pain spiked up her chest. She groaned as it finally stopped. She took a moment with her eyes closed to take in a few deep breaths. Her body felt like jelly, she couldn't believe she was actually standing up at this point because it felt like her legs could give out at any given moment. She slowly opened her eyes as stars danced in her vision.
For a minute or two she could only crack her eyes open as her face pressed against the glass. She was in a pod, a escape pod. She could still feel the push that sent her into the pod, the mumbled words she and Coran had exchanged in those last moments before it went dark and she could only guess the pod was dropped. Her hands felt around as she gripped a piece of metal that lined the inside of the pod.
The King had pushed her out, had taken what freedom she had and forced her to leave before she could even have a chance to fight back against Zarkon's forces. She could have helped them! Tears started to build out of anger. She could have done anything, she could have done something to stop them from killing them all! What if Coran didn't make it or Allura? What if because of her being there it had changed something big in the plot and it was now on her hands?
Her hands slammed against the metal beam, a sob pulled from her chest. Her tears fell as she slid back father into the small pod.
What if Coran was dead?
She would have been the one to have caused his death, it was her fault.
For what felt like hours, she just sat on the small cramped floor of the pod, sobbing. Her heart ached as she felt herself release everything thy had been building since she had stepped on thy ship.
The tears stopped as she let herself slump backwards.
If this was true, she would no longer be needed here. She wouldn't have been alive if that was the case. She had been put in this world for a reason, to be sent here after killing herself in her own world for nothing but to train for a few months then do nothing?
It wasn't meeting the plot points that she be required for her being sent here.
She was still needed for something if she was revived from her pod sleep. If Allura and Coran were dead and gone, Voltron would still have to be formed even without them. Zarkon would still be looking for the lions in hopes of taking over all of the universe no matter of the two of them where dead.
She was still needed and she had to find out for what if the possibility of the two of them where dead.
Taking a few deep breaths she calmed down enough to be able to get up on both feet. Her legs shook as she slowly stood on her full weight. She rubbed her as as she looked around the pod, it was barley able to hold her, she could only take one small step back before she meet the cold metal on the back of the pod. The pod was only lit with a small amount of light that poured out from the glass panels of the pod. Looking around she made out a small red leaver, it was in the other language but she was still able to pick up "Open Pull", she thanked Coran for making her read one of his old romcom novels at one point when she was bored in the castle garden.
Grabbing the small lever she yanked it down as hard as she could. With a loud click the leaver pulled out and the pod door swished open, sending dirt into the pod making Grace cough as she fanned her face and covered her nose and mouth. She could feel the sun from outside shine down on her as she slowly took a few steps outside of the pod. Her boots meet hard ground as she stepped out, her eyes looking down to find normal dirt under her booted feet. Looking up around she took notes on her surroundings.
she was in a winter forest, the world around her covered in white frozen vines. A put formed in her stomach.
Her breathing shallow as she looked around in wonder.
She was in the middle of nowhere.
Before she could fully take everything in, a small crunch of a stick being snapped made her whip around. Before her eyes could catch anything recognizable, something black and hard was throw at her, coming straight at her face. She didn't have time to dodge the object as it collided with the side of her head. Her body fell to the side as her eyes grew tired and weak. The sound of unknown whispers filled her slowly going ears, the corners of her vision fading in and out.
She watch a snowflake hit her nose as she faded completely into darkness once more.
