Hello all, it's chapter fourteen time! Just four teens, hanging out in a shack in the desert, what could possibly go wrong? Soon it will be six teens! What a mix! Definitely not one that will cause any problems for anyone and I am sure everyone will have a very good time all the way through.

cosmic dust

chapter fourteen

no place like home

"Wait, hold on- you did what now?"

Jerking his head up at the sound of Katie's voice, Matt frowned. Setting down his work, he made his way into the living room, to find his sister in the middle of a chat with Keith. Weird- he'd already sent them the coordinates, so he'd kind of figured he wouldn't touch base with them again until they all met up that night.

"Talked to some cadets." Came Keith's reply, and now he understood why his sister sounded so frustrated, because that statement was way too nonchalant.

"You talked," Pidge began, stressing every word, as if she hoped Keith would get the point, "-to some cadets."

"Yeah?" He didn't, not at all. "They had information about the blue lion."

Now that stopped his sister short- during which, she became aware of his presence, looming over her. Giving him a quick smile, she turned back to the com link. "Why would cadets know about the blue lion? I was under the impression the Garrison was keeping it a secret."

"They are." Keith told him. "It's just that these cadets were the ones to find it in the first place. Tell Allura I might have found the blue paladin."

"You found what now?" Matt exclaimed, half not realizing he'd spoken until he had.

Aw man. There went his hopes of being a leg.

"The blue paladin." Keith repeated, and he could almost hear his frown. "Is that Matt?"

"It's Matt." Pidge told him. "Say hi, Matt."

"Hi, Matt." Matt dutifully repeated, ignoring the look his sister sent towards him. Worth it.

"...hi, Keith?" Keith repeated, but with his own name, in that clueless fashion that told him he'd totally missed the joke. When he'd first met, all Matt had been able to see was the alien who picked up on Earth references, but by now, he was starting to understand that Keith could be pretty clueless in his own right.

"Please ignore my brother, Keith." Pidge told him, to which Matt let out an offended gasp. "What's this about finding the blue paladin?"

"I think it's one of the cadets." Keith told her. "He said it called to him in a dream."

"That does sound pretty paladin-like." Pidge admitted. "But Allura would know best."

"Where is Allura?" Keith asked.

"Taking the chance to explore the lake." Matt told him. "She said that they had lakes back on Altea, so she wanted to see how ours is different."

"No lake monsters, for one thing." Pidge added, half to herself. Yeah, those apparently had been a thing on Altea, who knew?

"What does she think we're here for, sightseeing?" Keith grumbled, half to himself.

"I mean, it has been a pretty wild couple of days." Pidge told him. "It's not a bad idea to relax while we have the chance."

Heaving a sigh, the sound of it coming across distorted over the com link, Keith seemed to accept that. "Yeah, fair enough. I told the cadets to come back tomorrow."

"You're sure they're not going to say anything?" Pidge asked. "We can't afford to have the Garrison know that we're coming."

"I'm not stupid, Pidge." Keith said. "Anyways, try to see if you can't get the cadet files on Lance McClain and Hunk Garrett. Might be a good idea to see who it is that we're dealing with here."

"Can do." Pidge told him, already reaching for her data pad. "Just hold on a second, it should only take me a moment."

"I can wait." Keith told her. "Not a whole lot to do out in the desert."

Watching with one eye as his sister broke through the Galaxy Garrison's security, Matt couldn't help but smile. She had come a long way since he'd seen her last, and even though their separation hadn't been by choice, he couldn't help but be proud of how much she had grown in his absence.

If only he could show their father.

(They'd find him. They would.)

Not just him, but Shiro too. He wouldn't rest until every member of the Kerberos expedition was safely home- and then he'd really let the Galaxy Garrison have it.

"Not a fan?" Matt asked, making small talk while his sister worked.

"The opposite." Pidge spoke up, already having gotten through the Garrison's firewall, and into their main network. "Keith loves the desert."

"I grew up in the desert." Keith supplied- and he didn't miss the way that tidbit of information caused Pidge to pause. "So yeah, I'm pretty fond of it."

"Well that makes one of us." Matt said. "No offense Keith, but when I was with the Garrison, I could never get used to it. The sunsets were nice, though."

"None taken." Keith told him. "It's not for everyone. But I like it. It's peaceful."

"You said that about the forest too." Pidge remarked. "Are you sure you're not the one meant to pilot the green lion? You're a total nature boy."

"If the green lion chose you, it probably has a reason." Keith remarked. "But... yeah, that is kind of an odd fit. You didn't even like the woods by your house."

"Too many bugs." Pidge told him. "And poison oak. Don't see the appeal."

"I like forests." Matt supplied. "Dad used to take me camping before... you know. Pidge hated it though. She only ever went with us once, and called mom halfway through to come pick her up."

"Wow Matt, expose more of my dark history, why don't you." Pidge remarked, her tone dry- and it was faint, but he was pretty sure he could make out Keith letting out a chuckle on the other end of the com link.

"Hey, Keith's like family," Matt said, a faint grin on his face, "-that means I gotta share the embarrassing stories with him."

It wasn't an untrue statement- Keith being family, that is. Just from the way Pidge interacted with him, he could tell that much. And his mom? Pidge was right, she pretty much had adopted Keith as a second son.

And you know? He liked the guy too. Sure yeah, there was plenty he wasn't being up front about, like a ton- but near as he could tell? Keith had been through the wringer, possibly even before being held captive by the Galra. So really... it kind of wasn't like he blamed him for that.

He knew what it was like, being a prisoner of the Galra. Maybe that was a bit presumptuous of him- he'd only been there for a short while, and he'd never been taken to Central Command. But he'd been there long enough to understand what it was like- and being half-Galra?

Yeah, that really couldn't have done Keith any favors.

Plus, being held captive by his own mother's people? Even if he'd never known her, that had to be like, some kind of betrayal. If the Galaxy Garrison abandoning him to his fate and declaring him dead was bad, then that must have been like... ten times worse.

Or twenty. He was good at math math, not theoretical feelings math.

"And I'm in." Pidge said, breaking him out of his train of thoughts- though he couldn't help but notice that Keith had never responded to him. The little light on the com link was still green, so he must have still been on the other end of the line, at least.

Then his voice came through, proving that.

"What's it look like?" Keith asked.

"Well, it looks like what you've got here are two parts of a three man team." Pidge told him. "Hunk Garrett is an engineer, pretty good scores too, outside of the simulator where he's been flagged for vomiting in the equipment-"

Okay, gross, not that Matt could blame him. Those things could get jerky.

"-and Lance McClain is a fighter class pilot, but his scores are... which one did you say was the blue paladin again?" Pidge ventured, sounding hesitant- and one look at the guy's track record, he could sort of understand why.

"Lance." Keith supplied. "Why? How bad is it?"

"Bad." Pidge admitted. "He tests good on paper, but all of his sim scores are terrible."

The sound of Keith clicking his tongue came out strange, and Matt had to wonder if it was because of the com link, or because of his teeth. "Maybe the blue lion made a mistake."

"I don't know, Keith, from the way Allura puts it, I don't think the lions make mistakes." Matt told him.

"I mean, Zarkon was a paladin." Keith pointed out.

"Yeah, but that was like, before he went nuts." Pidge said. "If he is the blue paladin, then maybe he could help us get the blue lion out of there. I might be able to manage it with the green lion, but even knowing where it is, it'll be tough going."

"The princess would probably be able to tell." Matt said, glancing down towards his sister. "I mean, she could with you, right?"

"It's possible." Pidge said. "We'll talk to her about this when she returns. Do you really think the cadets will come back?"

"Lance seemed pretty excited about the prospect of meeting an alien princess." Keith said. "And they were willing to talk to me."

There was a note of something self-loathing to that, that caused Matt to frown. It wasn't that strange- he'd only met maybe one or two other half-Galra working for the rebellion, but both of them seemed to carry similar feelings towards the Galra half of their heritage. But Keith's...

Keith's seemed more intense.

"Well, that's something." Pidge admitted. "Guess we'll find out tomorrow."

"Guess so." Keith said. "Let me know if anything comes up on your end."

"Will do." Pidge promised. "You take care Keith. Don't cause trouble."

The faint snort on the other end nearly escaped notice. "I never cause trouble."

"I have about like, ten different stories off the top of my head that say otherwise, but sure, you never cause trouble." Pidge retorted.

"What, and you don't?" Keith challenged. "Stay safe, Pidge. You too, Matt."

With that, the light on the com link switched to red, indicating that Keith had cut the line. Watching as his sister let out a breath, tucking the com link back into her pocket, he gave her a small grin. "Any chance you're gonna share some of those stories with me?"

Flashing him a grin, his sister set down her data pad. "A space pirate never reveals her secrets. Besides, you're my brother, I'm not telling you any embarrassing stories you don't already know."

Placing his hands over his heart, Matt let out a wounded cry. "As your brother, it pains me to hear you say that."

"Too bad." She told him, sticking out her tongue. "No amount of faux heartbreak will get me to give you ammo."

"Oh, I assure you, my heartbreak is very real." Matt said. "To think that you grew up so much without me... or well, not so much the height part."

Yeah, he probably deserved that elbow to his gut.

"Perfect size for doing that."

"Yep," he admitted, giving her a thumbs up, "-yep, that's very true. Good blow."

"So did that just like, actually happen?"

It wasn't until they reached the (relative) safety of their dorm room that Hunk even dared breech the question. The first thing Lance had done was sprawl back on his bed, because even if the start of this week had involved finding a giant blue lion, it still wasn't enough to prepare him for making actual alien contact.

"I don't know." He admitted after a moment. "Do you still have that paper?"

Turning his head so that he could watch Hunk fish into the pocket of his uniform, he watched him produce a slip of yellowed paper. "...so, real then?"

"Yeah, yeah, I guess so." Hunk said. "What do you think I should do with this?"

"I don't know, hide it somewhere?" Lance told him. "You heard what he said, we can't let the Garrison know about this."

Whatever this was.

"I mean yeah, I agree with that much, we totally shouldn't let the Garrison know about this, but-" Hunk frowned, twiddling his thumbs, "-it's just... do you really think this is such a good idea?"

"What, going back?" Lance asked, propping himself up with his elbows. "You heard him. That princess of his is the one with all the answers."

"Yeah but like... what if it's a trap?" Hunk asked.

"Hunk, I'm pretty sure that guy could have kicked our asses right there and then if he'd wanted to." Lance pointed out. "Why would he need to trap us?"

"Hm, good point." Hunk admitted. "So you think this Keith guy is telling the truth?"

"I don't know." Lance admitted, feeling like a broken record. But what was he supposed to say? He really didn't know!

Pushing himself up into a sitting position, he twined his fingers together. "What do you think? You've got pretty good instincts about this stuff. He seem like he was on the level to you?"

At that, Hunk could only frown. "I don't know. Maybe?"

"Fair enough." Lance said. "I mean, he is an alien. Although man, what kind of alien is named Keith?"

"It could be like, one of those names." Hunk suggested. "You know, like you can find a Maria like, everywhere."

"Yeah, but that's like, on Earth." Lance pointed out.

"Hm, fair." Hunk told him. "Maybe it's like, an assumed name? Maybe his real name is something that's too hard for humans to pronounce, so he picked a human name?"

"Who would name themselves Keith?" Lance asked.

Then again, the guy was sporting a mullet. Though hey, maybe he shouldn't be so quick to judge- maybe mullets were like, fashionable from whatever planet he was from.

Not to mention ugly cropped jackets. Where the hell did he pull that thing from anyways? And the fingerless gloves? Who even taught this guy to dress himself?

(Hunk also wore cropped jackets and fingerless gloves, but that was different, because Hunk was his friend and he supported him in all things, even bad fashion choices.)

"I don't think it's such a bad name." Hunk told him. "I mean, a little bit of a poor choice given the whole, you know, but there's worse names. Like Eugene."

"God yeah, Eugene is like the worst." Lance admitted. "What do you mean by poor choice, though?"

"Uh," Hunk blinked, "-I mean, you know."

"No, I don't know?" Lance questioned. "That's why I asked?"

Hunk, for his part, looked at him with disbelief. "You've been chasing his record all this time and you mean to tell me that you don't know?"

"Don't know what?" Lance asked, brows furrowing. "And wait- what record? The only record I've been chasing is-"

Oh. Oh. The realization hits him like a pile of bricks.

Snapping his fingers, he sprung to his feet. "You're talking about that missing prodigy."

"Technically he was declared dead, so not missing, not so much." Hunk pointed out. "But yeah, I'm talking about Keith. I mean, not alien Keith, obviously, but prodigy Keith. Garrison Keith? Desert Keith."

Lance winced at the last one. "Bad taste, dude."

To his credit, Hunk returned the wince. "...oof, yeah, you're right. Strike Desert Keith from the record."

"Consider it struck." Lance said, before frowning. "Stricken."

Because yeah, he knew who Hunk was talking about now. How could he not? The guy was like, the Galaxy Garrison's biggest cautionary tale.

Promising young cadet going missing in the desert? Honestly, he kind of thought they had made the guy up, until he ran into his records on the simulator. That damned Kogane, K. had become the bane of his very existence.

Beating a dead man's record seriously should not be that hard. Yet his scores still remained at the top, five years later. No one could even manage to come close- and believe him, he'd tried.

That said, there was only so much of a grudge that he could hold against a dead kid. It was annoying he still couldn't beat the guy when he wasn't even around to defend his record, but Christ, he wasn't that spiteful.

"Yeah, you're right though." Lance admitted, sinking back onto his bed. "Totally poor choice."

Probably a coincidence, though. Then again, the alien had seemed pretty knowledgeable about the Garrison, so maybe he'd seen it while he was doing his research, and liked it? Who knew- it wasn't even like it was the most important question.

"So, just to clarify, we are going back, right?" Hunk asked.

"I mean... you don't have to if you don't feel right about this." Lance told him. "I'm not gonna force you to do anything you don't want to, Hunk."

"Oh no, there is no way I'm letting you go off to meet some shady alien all by yourself." Hunk told him. "No sir. That's not how we do things here."

Unable to help himself, Lance grinned. "Aw, thanks, Hunk! I knew I could count on you."

"Of course, that's what friends are for." Hunk told him. "But you're not like, seriously thinking of getting involved with this, are you? Because I'm pretty sure he said his plan was to steal from the Garrison."

"I mean... if what he says is true, then isn't this blue lion better off not being on our planet like, at all?" Lance ventured. "I don't know about you, but I'm pretty attached to this planet."

"Yeah, it's a good one." Hunk agreed. "Kind of where I live and stuff."

"So I don't know about helping him, but we can at least give him like, information, and stuff." Lance told him. "Besides, I'm kind of curious about what it is this princess wants from me."

"Yeah, what was up with that?" Hunk asked. "He wasn't real clear on that part."

Letting out a snort, Lance rolled his eyes. "Yeah, he wasn't real clear on like, anything."

"Yeah, true." Hunk agreed. "So what's the plan?"

"Sneak out after class, get some answers?" Lance said with a shrug. "I don't know, I don't have much of a working plan so much at this point. Any suggestions?"

"Uh, try not to die?" Hunk ventured.

"Oh, that's a good one. Let's go with that."

"Is it true?"

She barely allowed herself time to leave the green lion before she was on Keith, pressing him with questions. "Have you truly located the blue lion's paladin?"

Which, perhaps she should have. Keith seemed awfully fond of his personal space, so her intruding upon it so quickly seemed to put him ill at ease. Taking a step back, Allura allowed him room to breathe, for which he appeared grateful.

"Might." Keith told her. "Might have found the blue paladin."

Heaving a sigh, Keith cast a glance towards all three of them, running a hand through his head fur- or at least, what she suspected was such. She had to admit, she did not know much about human physiology, especially not when it had been crossbreed with a Galra. "Look, why don't we discuss this inside?"

"Yeah, I vote for that." Matt said, holding up a hand. "I don't know about you two, but I for one, am freezing."

"Ditto." Pidge quickly agreed.

Oh yes, it was a bit chilly out here she supposed. How strange- she had heard that deserts were supposed to be warm, but perhaps it was different on Earth. Either way, they were right- it would be best if they sought shelter. The cold was starting to seep into her bones.

Keith simply looked unaffected.

"I dug out some blankets." Keith told them. "Water still works, after I cleared the lines from rust, but there's no electricity, so you'll either have to deal with that, or sleep in the green lion tonight."

"Ugh." Pidge crinkled her nose. "You see, this is why I hate the outdoors."

Giving the green paladin a soft smile, Allura followed them into what could only be described as a meager shack. Not to sound as if she were some kind of elitist, but if she had to be honest, she was used to accommodations that were well... cleaner than this.

The lake house, on the other hand, was positively lovely. The green paladin's mother was a skilled homemaker, she never would have guessed that the lakeside abode was not their day to day home.

Keith closed the door behind them, only providing them with some small relief from the chill of the night air. She watched as Pidge all but dove for one of the blankets, wrapping herself in it until only her head could be seen, sinking into the rickety couch. Matt dove for a blanket next, all but mimicking his sister.

"Geez Keith, did you even clean?" Pidge asked. "I feel like I got sand in my shoes just walking through the front door."

"Was kind of busy. There's an old hoverbike out back I was trying to fix up. Might come in handy." Keith told her. "We're not going to be here long anyways."

There was an almost rueful note to his tone, but it was gone so quickly that she couldn't help but wonder if she had imagined it.

"Fair enough." Pidge admitted. "Come join the blanket party, princess."

Curling up in a blanket during an important discussion did not exactly seem as if it would be proper decorum, but nobody else seemed to mind, and it was awfully chilly. Accepting the blanket that Pidge offered her, she threw it around her shoulders, not quite bundling up in it the same way either of the Holt siblings had.

Keith was fine, it seemed, and remained standing. It was almost as if he were trying to physically distance himself from them.

Strange- normally he was so close to Pidge. Had they had some kind of spat?

"Now then, about this blue paladin you believe you have found," Allura began, "-Pidge told me that he had a vision of the blue lion."

"Said it came to him in a dream, or something." Keith told her. "They're coming back tomorrow, so you can ask him yourself then."

"You're sure they're coming back?" Pidge asked. "And that they haven't totally exposed this location to the Galaxy Garrison, right?"

"I'm pretty sure the Galaxy Garrison would be busting the door down right now if they had." Keith told her. "So yeah, I'm sure. About the not talking part, I don't know about the coming back part. He seemed pretty interested, at least."

"Let us hope that your instincts prove correct." Allura said.

"At least we know for sure that the Garrison has the blue lion now." Matt said.

"Not to mention that they might know whose computer I should be looking at to gain access to those files." Pidge added.

"Let us hope so." Allura said. "I do not know for how long I can mask your absence."

He tried to mask it, but she didn't miss the faint way Keith's eyes narrowed. He'd worn the same expression when she had displayed her ability to change form, and she suspected that perhaps it was rooted out of jealousy. Not that she could not understand- Keith must have had very little socialization with his father's people, had he been raised on Earth.

So to see her blend in so easily... yes, she could understand how that might bother him.

It must be awful, some part of her thought- to have two people, and fit in with neither of them. While granted, she had no idea as to why anyone would want to fit in with the Galra, she supposed it wasn't that simple when it came down to it.

No wonder he held his human friends so close, then.

"Right!" Springing to his feet, Matt let his blanket drop. "Mom packed some dinner. Since it sounds like we're done with the serious topics for now, why don't I go get it?"

"Need a hand?" Keith asked.

"I think I can handle two baskets." Matt told- and she watched in amusement as he bent his arms, almost seeming to preen. "These puppies aren't just for show."

Oh, a human colloquialism, she realized. She was learning so much about Earth culture!

"Says the guy who started dragging them the moment nobody could see him anymore." Pidge chimed in.

"Pidge!" Matt gasped. "Way to expose me like that! And wait, how do you know that?"

"The green lion told me." Pidge told him.

"Wow," Matt squinted, "-can't believe the green lion's a snitch."

...she did not know what a snitch was, but she was not so sure that it was a befitting title for a lion of Voltron.

"So," taking a seat next to Keith, Pidge pulled the blanket up tighter around herself, "-you knew a place."

Under the night sky, Keith's eyes glowed almost as bright as the stars did. Sleeping in the green lion was a restless activity, though both Allura and Matt seemed like they were out like a light. Keith alone had opted to spend the night in the shack, which didn't surprise her in the least.

She had found him perched on the roof of the old shack, staring up at the stars. That wasn't a surprise either- back when he had lived with her, he would often sneak away to do the same thing. At the time, she had thought that perhaps he was yearning to go back home, but now she realized that he had been home, the entire time.

Maybe Keith just liked the stars.

"Shouldn't you be asleep?" Keith's voice was quiet, thoughtful.

"Shouldn't you?" Pidge countered.

Keith turned his gaze away, falling back into silence, before indicating with his head that she was allowed to come closer. Scooting so that she was shoulder to shoulder with him, she drew her blanket tight around her, wondering if it was the Galra blood that made Keith so impervious to the chill of the night air.

At least he was warm.

"How'd you even get up here?" Keith asked.

"Trust me, it wasn't easy." Pidge admitted. "But I'm sure you heard me banging around."

Keith cracked a smile at that. "Yeah. Kind of hard to miss."

Grinning, she turned her attention skyward. "I missed this."

"Yeah." Shifting his gaze towards the sky, the edges of Keith's eyes crinkled. "Me too."

There was a depth to Keith's comment that hadn't been in hers. Drawing in a long breath, she simply sat in silence for a long while, marveling at constellations that she hadn't been able to see since she left Earth. She didn't realize how much she would miss them until she was already gone- like so much about Earth, really.

How did Keith feel, being away from it for four years?

How did Matt? Her father? Shiro?

They all shared one common thread- they hadn't chose this.

"Do you think it's really possible?" Pidge asked. "Defeating Zarkon?"

"Don't know." Keith admitted. "He's a monster."

Frowning, she peered over at him. "Have you ever seen him before?"

Keith's gaze didn't shift from the stars, but she didn't miss the way his brows furrowed. "Just once."

Letting out a low, contemplative hum, Pidge pulled her blanket closer to herself. "What did they want from you?"

For a long moment, she thought maybe she'd overstepped her bounds- before Keith finally replied. "At first they just wanted to know how it was that a Galra came to be on Earth. I told them I didn't know."

It felt as if he had chosen his words carefully- she couldn't tell if he was talking about his mother, or himself. Frowning, she glanced over at him, his gaze fixed ever skyward.

"You should get some sleep." He said finally. "Things are going to get busy, starting tomorrow."

Pidge slowly got to her feet, hiking the blanket up so that it didn't trip her up. "Only if you get some."

Keith didn't look at her, just gave her a rueful smile. "I'll try."

Lingering for a moment longer, she eventually let out a sigh, making her way back the way she had come. She paused for a bit outside of the green lion, gaze fixed on Keith, still perched on the little, rundown shack's roof.

It looked like it had been lived in, once.

She wondered if it had been his home.

Catching her eye, Keith jerked with his head towards the green lion. Rolling her eyes, she made a show of going back up the ramp. Geez, who did he think he was, her mom?

Creeping back into the cockpit, she found her patch of floor, where even more old blankets had been dredged up, and an old, beaten up pillow to match. Resting her head on it, she closed her eyes, willing sleep to come to her.

Keith was right about one thing- they were going to be awfully busy starting tomorrow.