Hey yo, here's chapter three! In which Matt and Pidge reunite, Matt marvels in how powerful his baby sister is, they pick up something very important, and Keith finally gets to wreck things, just like he's always wanted. Also, Te-Osh is there. Oh Te-Osh, you left us too soon.

cosmic dust

chapter three

sleeping beauty

If someone told him two years ago that he was soon going to find himself mixed up in an intergalactic war, he wouldn't have believed them.

He'd have also thought that the idea sounded really cool. Fighting aliens? Sign him up!

Turns out, it would have neither been a lie, nor have been all that cool. Okay, sure, it wasn't like, terrible- there was so much amazing tech out here in space, that he couldn't deny he was having a field day with it all. And he was doing good, and doing good felt good, even on the days when it didn't feel good, because things hadn't gone well, and people had gotten hurt, or killed, sometimes even worse than that-

-and reality would set in.

He was fighting a war, on the losing side.

Damned if he'd go join the other one though. Not when they'd taken his father from him. Not when they'd taken Shiro from him.

Not when they'd taken him.

Besides, Matt Holt did not just give up.

He should be home, on Earth right now, with his mother and his father, his little sister, and their dog, and they would all be eating dinner together, and things would be just fantastic. Instead, he was here, infiltrating a ship that belonged to a massive empire that he hadn't even been able to fathom before all of this.

He wasn't alone- Te-Osh had taken on the mission with him. He'd wanted to go, hoping that the ship might have information about his father, or about Shiro, and she had decided to go with him. She'd rescued him, trained him, and was going to take responsibility for whatever happened with him.

Te-Osh was great. She was! He loved Te-Osh, he'd bring her home to dinner- not like, in a time to meet the parents way, but more like a hey pal, wanna come over to dinner way. He just wished they could have met under better circumstances.

There was another two person team beyond them, somewhere on this big rig of a ship. The rebels had hired a pair of pirates for the job- not just any pirates, but space pirates- actual space pirates! The operation had come together so quickly, that he hadn't been able to go over the mission briefing in relations to them, so he'd no idea what to expect.

Odds were, on a ship this big, they might not even run into each other.

It was his idea to pull the information that they needed from the ship's systems. Te-Osh had agreed, saying it would be the fastest and safest way of finding what they were looking for- whatever the hell that was. Matt didn't know, and he suspected that nobody else involved did either.

Just that it was somehow important to Zarkon, which in turn, made it important to them.

So. Get in, get out, hopefully don't die.

Basically like, every other mission he'd run since he'd gotten caught up with the rebellion. Only this time there were space pirates involved.

Which man... totally cool. Cause was great and all, loved that dismantling of an ancient behemoth of an empire, but man. If he had his options of choosing what to do in space, then honestly? Being a space pirate was like, way cooler.

"Matt, here." Te-Osh's whisper was low, and he quickly followed her signal. She pointed to a room just across the way from them, and they exchanged a glance, both nodding their heads.

"No guards." He whispered, narrowing his eyes. "Why are there no guards?"

"Do you think it could be a trap?" Te-Osh asked.

He considered it but- no, that didn't seem right. "I don't think so. If they knew we were here, they would have had plenty of chances to take us out already. I say we should take the chance while we have it."

"Right." With a curt nod of her head, her grip tightened on the sentry arm that they had, ah, borrowed. Had to get around those pesky Galra specific sensors somehow.

(Man, what he would give for a chance to take one of those sensors apart. He'd love to see how they ticked.)

When the door slides open, for the span of a moment, all Matt can see are the glowing golden eyes. His breath hitches in his throat, grip on his staff tightening as he prepares for a confrontation- but then his own eyes adjust, and he notices that the glowing ones are set in a face that looks far less like a Galra's, and more like a...

...like a human's.

If humans had purple, pointy ears.

And- holy shit, those teeth. Those were some- those were some goddamn teeth.

Okay, so maybe the guy, whoever the hell he was, was at least a little Galra.

...heh. A little Galra. Get it? Because they were (probably) Galra, but also small. A small Galra.

Smallra.

"The pirates." He hears Te-Osh mutter under her breath, and he finds himself relaxing at her words. He watches as the golden eyed pirate slips his knife back into his sheath, realizing that they aren't enemies at the same time they do. The smaller of the pair- and for some faint reason, Matt can't shake the idea that he knows the sight of that hunched over back from somewhere- is busy breaking into the ship's systems, one step ahead of them.

They'd had the same idea. What were the odds?

"If you'll just give me a tick," the smaller of the pirates speaks, and all at once, he realizes why he knows that back, "...I'm close to extracting the information we need."

For the span of a moment, his brain grinds to a halt.

Because while he's a clever guy, smart as a whip and not afraid to admit it, there's something about his little sister being in space, on a Galra ship, that is just a little too much for him to process right away.

"...Katie?"

Her name slips out- not the fond nickname that he always called her, the one she only decided she didn't hate just before he'd left- but her name.

And she stirred.

Oh god, she stirred.

If there was any doubt in his mind, it was gone now, now that she was turning around to face him. Her hair was much shorter than when he'd left her, and she was wearing his old glasses, but he'd know his sister anywhere.

"...Matt?"

Holy shit, he couldn't help but think to himself, she really did come up to find him.

That's his sister, alright.

"Katie!" And for a moment, he completely forgets where he is, completely forgets the urgency of their mission, completely forgets that sentries could come and kill them all at any moment. Dropping his staff, he closes the distance between them in one fell swoop, scooping up his sister in his arms and holding her close.

Oh god, she was real. She was really real! Katie was here, and-!

...wait.

Wait.

Katie was here. Katie was here, and the pirates were also here? The two person pirate team made up of two people, which, coincidentally, was the same number of people in the room just before he and Te-Osh arrived? There was a crackle of static in his brain before all of his thoughts came out in a rush, because holy shit, his little sister was a space pirate.

God. Leave it to Katie to be like. Ten times cooler than him. As if he ever doubted it for a second.

"It's really you." She seemed to breathe the words, clutching him all the tighter. "I can't believe it."

"You can't believe it?" Matt asked, unable to keep himself from sounding a little amused. That was his line! "I can't believe you're in space. How did you even get here?"

Drawing away from him just enough so that he could see the impish grin on her face, Katie's gaze flickered to her companion. "Keith abducted me."

"Abduct-!" The not quite Galra- whose name was Keith, apparently, what kind of alien was named Keith- seemed to sputter. "You forced me to take you with me!"

"Hey, you agreed to it." She pointed out, drawing slowly away from Matt, though she seemed almost hesitant to do so- perhaps fearful that if she did, he would vanish like a mirage. "You could have just slipped away in the night and left me."

"...you have a point there, and I hate it." Keith told her, folding his arms in front of his chest.

"Oh, I know." Adjusting his glasses- her glasses now, Matt supposed, as she'd apparently taken ownership of them in his absence, and man, did she rock that look- Katie gave his hand a squeeze, before she turned back to the computer terminal. "Looks like I got something."

Oh right. They were on a mission right now. Matt had totally forgotten. Scrambling back for his dropped staff, he exchanged a brief glance with Te-Osh. She merely rested a hand on his shoulder, giving it a light squeeze- he'd told her about the sister that he had left back on Earth, and while he guessed she was probably just as surprised about this turn of events as he was, she nevertheless seemed pleased for him.

At least, he thought so. It was kind of hard to tell under the mask.

"What do ya got, Pidge?" Keith asked, leaning in to look, before letting out a low whistle. "That is a lot of guards."

"Wait, you let him call you Pidge?" Matt piped up, glancing between the two of them.

"I wasn't about to give the alien that crash landed in our backyard my real name, Matt." Katie- Pidge- so helpfully supplied.

"Wait," squinting, Matt's nose scrunched up, "...an alien crash landed in our backyard?"

"More like the forest near our house, but yeah." Pidge said, barely sparing him a glance. "It's a long story."

"Long story." Keith seemed to echo. "So? What's the best route down?"

"Here. There's a path through the ventilation system that will take us right above the entrance." Tapping her fingers against the holoscreen, she trailed a path down to one of the lower decks. "With that many guards out in front, whatever they're transporting to Central Command has to be here."

"That is quite a number of guards," Te-Osh observed, "...perhaps we could find another route?"

"No, it doesn't look like there is any other route. There's no way to get into that room without having to deal with the guards. Probably why the chose it." Pidge told her, glancing back towards her with a slight frown, before glancing back towards Matt.

"Oh, right." Matt blinked. "This is Te-Osh. She helped break me out of Galra jail."

Te-Osh gave them an incline of her head. "A pleasure. Matt has spoken to me of his sister before."

"Only good things, I hope." Pidge said. "But as for the guards... well, I don't think they'll be too much of a problem. Keith?"

Matt didn't miss the way that Keith's hand drifted down towards the hilt of his knife, a dangerous glint in those golden eyes of his. "Definitely not a problem." He echoed.

"Wait, wait." Holding up his hand, Matt glanced between the two of them. "Are you suggesting that, Keith here," he paused, glancing towards the aforementioned alien, "...it's Keith, right?"

"It's Keith." He confirmed with a shrug.

"Okay. Are you saying that Keith here is just going to fight them all on his own?" Matt asked.

"Yup." Letting the p pop, Pidge grinned back towards him. "Operation Drop Keith Right Into the Middle of the Enemy and Make Them Cry. A classic."

"We have got to come up with a shorter name for that." Keith seemed to mutter, and Matt honestly couldn't figure out if he'd meant to say that out loud.

"And from there, depending on what we find..." Pidge leaned in closer to the screen, before pulling away, casting another glance towards Keith. "Escape plan R?"

"Escape plan R."

Keith, Matt decided, was certifiably insane.

What his sister, his dearest sister, had neglected to mention about the drop from the ventilation shaft was that it was straight down, landing them quite literally in the middle of a cluster of sentries. Sure, sure, there was the element of surprise and all that but what good would that do you once you were deep inside their circle?

Keith didn't even blink.

No hesitation, just kicked the vent shaft right open and dropped. He'd taken the first drone out before any of the others even had the chance to register the vent's grate clattering on the floor, and by the time they'd done that, he'd already taken out the second one.

By the time they'd registered that they had lost two of their number, there went the third.

Did he mention Keith was only armed with a knife? Because he was only armed with a knife.

"See?" Pidge beamed. "I told you it would be fine."

Matt could only slowly nod, wondering what exactly it was that his little sister had found herself tangled up in- and with.

Because man. Oh man.

A sharp whistle sounded down below, and Pidge only grinned all the wider, grabbing one of the many objects that hung off of her belt. Hooking one part to the edge of the shaft, she jumped out of it without a second thought, guided down by a rope that slowed her fall. Once on the ground, she waved up to the pair of them, tugging on the rope.

"C'mon, let's go!" She called up. "We don't have all day!"

"Your sister is... quite interesting." Te-Osh observed, and he could feel her gaze flickering towards him.

"I know." Matt whispered, almost sounding reverent. "She's the best."

Drawing in a long breath, he grabbed the rope, using it to slide down from the shaft. Te-Osh followed soon behind, and once she was down, Pidge gave it a firm tug, sending it retracting back into the device on her belt.

"You build that?" Matt asked.

"Had to." Pidge told him. "Had to figure out how to keep up with Keith somehow."

Arching his brows, Matt let his gaze trail over towards the aforementioned alien. He had to make a slight amendment to his earlier statement- Keith was in fact, not armed with just a knife.

He was armed with many. Many knives. One of which he was retrieving from the head of a fallen sentry, and neatly tucking back into one of the sleeves of his jacket. Weaving his way through his own handiwork towards the now thoroughly unguarded door, he pressed his hand up against the scanner, the door sliding open at his beck and call.

Okay so, definitely Galra, then.

His sister had apparently joined forces with a Galra space pirate. A Galra space pirate who raided Galra ships. A Galra space pirate who raided Galra ships, whose name was Keith.

And he thought that joining a rebellion against a ten thousand year old intergalactic empire after being abducted by them and then subsequently freed by the aforementioned rebels was an interesting back story. Clearly he was just amateur hour here.

Still, Galra or no Galra, he knew his sister was a pretty decent judge of character. It was clear she trusted the guy with her life, and if she did, why shouldn't he? He'd done nothing thus far to prove otherwise.

"C'mon, Matt!" Grabbing his hand, Pidge grinned from ear to ear as she dragged him through the ruins of the sentries. Te-Osh trailed behind them, watching them with what he was pretty sure at this point was amused interest. "Let's get what we came for and then blow this joint."

"Keith!" She called out. "What's behind door number one?"

Oh come on, he wasn't going to understand-

"Pretty sure it's something you gotta come see for yourself." Keith called back.

Okay, apparently he did understand that reference. Wow Keith, way to be like, the most disappointing alien ever.

(Yet somehow simultaneously the most interesting Galra ever? It was a weird mix.)

And also, wow, yeah- this... this definitely was something one had to see for themselves.

"...is that a person?" Came his sister's faint whisper, her grip slipping away from his hands as she went to study the sight in front of her. He could hardly blame her- he'd never seen anything like this himself either, and he'd been in space for quite awhile.

It was a pod, of some kind- and Pidge was right, there did appear to be a person inside. He could just barely make out their silhouette, but whoever it was, they appeared to be as still as death.

"Te-Osh?" Matt glanced back towards her. "Any ideas?"

"I..." Resting a hand on the strange pod, Te-Osh's voice took on a note of confusion. "I'm not sure, but it seems to be Altean in nature."

"Altean?" Keith perked up at that, ears almost seeming to twitch. "You sure?"

"Fairly." Te-Osh told him.

"Weren't the Alteans like, wiped out ten thousand years ago?" Pidge asked.

"Yes, they were." Te-Osh told them. "Altea was the first planet that Zarkon destroyed."

"Well, whatever the case, this has to be what Zarkon wants." Keith said, his lips set in a tight frown. "Or who, I guess."

"Oh man, my bounty is going to go way up after this." Pidge whispered.

"Wait- you have a bounty?" Okay, sure, maybe that wasn't the most important thing right now, but come on!

"Matt, you have a bounty." Te-Osh lightly reminded him.

"Oh." Pausing for a moment, Matt frowned. "Oh yeah."

"It will not be easy to get out of here with this." Te-Osh noted, her gaze dropping down towards Keith. "I do not suppose you are strong enough to carry it?"

"Pretty sure no." Keith told her, tight frown giving away to a toothy grin. "But don't worry. Help's on the way."

"Oh man," Pidge whispered, barely able to contain her excitement, "...you're going to love Red, Matt."

"Red?" Matt asked, glancing between the two of them, wondering if he was missing out on some kind of private joke. Was she at the stage with this guy where she had private jokes with him now? Man, how much had he been missing out on?

It's not long before the sound of an alarm echoed through the ship, and for a moment, Matt thinks they've been discovered. But no, the sound of it isn't quite right- he's been on enough Galra ships to know the sound they use to alert the crew and sentries alike of intruders. This one... this one is an incoming vessel alarm.

Pidge and Keith just grin at each other. He's pretty sure they fist bump. Who taught the alien to fist bump. Was it his sister. God bless you if so, Pidge.

The ship rocks as something collides into it, nearly throwing Matt off of his feet. Te-Osh maintains her balance, and Pidge actually does nearly fall over- but Keith steadies her with one hand, an almost absent-minded action. He barely has the chance to question it, before probably the strangest thing that's happened the entire day plays out before him.

It's... it's a lion. Or like, the head of a lion. A really big, lion, made entirely of metal. What the what.

It fills the gap it created upon ramming into the ship with it's aforementioned head, and not a second later, opens it mouth, lowering a ramp from it.

Faintly, he thinks he hears Te-Osh whisper something about Voltron next to him, her tone almost reverent.

"Close your mouth, Matt," Pidge chirped, grinning from ear to ear, "...and help Keith get the pod on board. Time to go."

Never since he had been first captured by the Galra, had Matt come so close to death that many times in one day.

Don't get him wrong- Keith was an amazing pilot. Like, really, probably one of the best that Matt had ever known- and he had the privilege of knowing Garrison legend Takashi Shirogane, so that was saying something. It was just...

Keith was just as crazy a pilot as he was a fighter.

Which, in this case, was probably a good thing, because he was pretty sure that no sane pilot could have gotten them away from the Galra fleet like Keith had. Once they realized just where the red lion- and that was what they were in, something called a red lion- had crashed into their ship, it didn't take them long to realize that they'd been robbed.

Or well- maybe not robbed, considering there was an actual (hopefully) real, live person involved.

(Was this a kidnapping? Was he now involved in a kidnapping? Just when he thought his life couldn't get any wilder, things just continued to happen.)

Either way, whatever the case, the fact of the matter was that no sooner than had they realized that, were they all hands on deck. Shoot the flying red lion out of the sky seemed to be the goal of the game, and considering that they were all inside of the flying red lion, he very much hoped that they did not win said game.

Keith took it as a challenge.

Pidge, somehow, looked entirely unaffected by this all.

Either way, it left Matt gripping onto the edge of his seat the entire time, right up until Keith pulled them screaming hot into the hangar of a larger ship. He barely even registered it when his sister pried his hands off of said seat, leading him down the ramp into the aforementioned hangar.

"And this," holding his hand in a vice grip with one, dramatically spreading out the other to show off the interior of the hangar bay, "...is our ship! We stole it from the Galra."

"I stole it from the Galra." Keith supplied, rather unceremoniously sliding the strange pod down the ramp of the red lion with his foot. Turning his head, he jerked it up to face the robot in question, brows knitting together. "What? It's heavy!"

"Uh, who is he talking to?" Matt whispered, leaning down to his sister's ear level. Man, he'd forgotten how tiny she was- or maybe he'd just grown?

"Red." Pidge merely supplied, giving him a shrug of his shoulders like being able to communicate with some kind of strange robotic beast ship was no big deal at all. "So, other than this thing probably being Altean, any idea what we got here?"

"Red's trying to tell me something, but she's not making a whole lot of sense." Keith told them, a tight frown on his lips as he tried to upright the pod. "Something about a princess? I don't know guys, she seems just as confused as I am."

"A princess?" It was Te-Osh that spoke- and who assisted with the uprighting of the pod, helping Keith to lean it up against one of the walls of the hangar. "Altea did have a princess, ten thousand years ago, according to the legends."

"Okay, so what we have here is possibly a ten thousand year old Altean princess?" Pidge questioned. "Okay, great. That definitely clears things up. Do you think the other rebels knew about this?"

"If they did, they didn't share it with us." Matt told her, shaking his head. "Kind of like Sleeping Beauty."

"What, you gonna try to kiss her to wake her up?" Keith quipped.

Jerking his head up at that, Matt stared at the strange not-quite Galra with an open mouth. "Wha- how do you know that reference?"

"Don't bother." Pidge told him, as Keith merely spread out his shoulders, giving them a helpless shrug. "Keith's entire character is based around him being an elusive asshole."

"Pidge!" Matt gasped, drawing back from his sister in shock. "Who taught you how to swear!?"

She simply arched a brow, her expression as dry as her tone. "I've always known how to swear, Matt."

"Boy does she." Keith muttered, half under his breath.

"I don't want to hear that from someone whose first word to me was fuck." Pidge reminded him, peeking her head around her brother's body so that she could lock eyes with him.

"Wow. Wow." Matt said, stumbling back. "I've been in space for like, two years, and now my sister is here, she's a space pirate, and she knows how to swear. What other important events have I missed?"

"Two birthdays which I fully expect to be made up for." Pidge told him- before she cracked a smile, soft and genuine, wrapping him in a tight embrace. "I'm so glad I found you, Matt."

Allowing his shoulders to slump, Matt returned her embrace, leaning down so that he could bury his head in her hair. "Me too, Katie. Me too."

"What about dad?" She asked, looking up at him- and oh, how the hope in her eyes stung. It vanished the moment they met his own, and he could feel her clutch him all the tighter for it. "He's not... he's not with you, is he."

"I am sorry." Te-Osh spoke up. "There were no other humans present when we freed Matt."

"We'll find him, Katie." Matt reassured her, lightly stroking her hair. "I promise."

"What about the pilot?" The question, sudden as it was, was one that neither of them had expected from Keith- who merely met their dual gazes with a shrug of his shoulders. "I mean, there was one, right? Find him, you might find your dad."

"Shiro-" Matt began, before he closed his mouth, knowing from the way that she flinched that his grip on Pidge's shoulder had drawn tighter without meaning to. "The last I saw of Shiro was when they took us to the gladiator pits."

Keith flinched, ever so slightly, at his words- and then grew completely unreadable.

"He took my place." Matt told them, gaze dropping downwards. "We were separated after that. I only know that he won his first match. Nothing since."

"And dad?" Pidge asked.

"Dad and I were separated before that." Matt reassured her, sensing her fear. "He was never brought there."

She exhaled at that, her shoulders slumping. "Right." Drawing in and letting out a breath, she forced herself to pry herself away from him. "We've got to get in contact with the rest of the rebels. Let them know we've got their Sleeping Beauty. See what they want us to do next."

There were so many things between them still unsaid- but they would have all the time in the world to discuss it later. Right now, they still had a mission to finish.

"Guess I better move the ship before the Galra come looking for us." Keith seemed to muse aloud, his expression becoming decipherable once more, falling on Te-Osh. "You need to contact that ship of yours?"

"Yes, that would be wise." Te-Osh said with a nod. "I must inform them of these developments. Hopefully we will be able to rendezvous."

"So... we're just going to leave the Sleeping Beauty alone here?" Matt asked, glancing back towards the pod with uncertain eyes.

"Why not?" Keith asked. "If your friend here," and his gaze flickered back towards Te-Osh at that, "...is right, then she's been sleeping for ten thousand years. Don't see why she'd suddenly wake up now."

"Well..." Tilting his head, Matt frowned. "Hm. Good point, actually."

"Besides," Keith said, crinkling his nose, "...pod's a pain the ass to move."

"That," Matt said, nodding his head, "...is also a very good point."

"So," Te-Osh leaned down, so that he could better hear her, "...who exactly is this Sleeping Beauty, and why does she require a kiss to awaken her?"

Ah, there, see? That was exactly the kind of lack of understanding he had been expecting. Thank you Te-Osh, for bringing him the authentic alien experience. Knew he could always count on you.