In retrospect, Hunk thought fuzzily as the room spun violently around him, a year of training with Allura really should have clued him in to the fact that the Altean definition of 'light sparring' and the Human one were really not even in the same galaxy when it came to interpretation.

"Great...Ennan, what did you do?!"

"Alti, we were just…."

"...concussed him right through...sturdy as Alteans, you...contact the medical bay, ask for…"

The unfamiliar voices faded in and out, drowned out by the obnoxious ringing noise that wouldn't seem to go away. The spinning was making him feel sick and he groaned, closing his eyes.

"Hey, don't...okay?" A gentle touch to his face startled him and he blinked his eyes open, trying to focus on the face in front of him and not quite succeeding. The person was still talking, he realized muddily as he watched their mouth open and closed, and with an effort he managed to concentrate enough to catch the end of their sentence. "...knows the most about Human medical needs. He'll be here soon."

Hunk frowned hazily. Why did he feel like that sentence shouldn't make sense? Before he could chase it down he lost track of the thought.

A commotion at the door caught his attention and he tried to turn to look, but a wave of dizziness met the motion and he doubled over, retching, and quickly shut his eyes again. Faintly he heard several sets of footsteps approaching.

"...happened?"

"Ennan happened. Again."

"Who…"

"...paladins, the yellow one. He's concussed, I…"

Someone was kneeling in front of him again, not the same person. Careful hands were pulling his helmet off, which oddly didn't seem to do anything to alleviate the pressure. There was a loud crack of something being dropped that made him wince, and a startled exclamation.

"That's a Human!"

"Yes? That's why…"

"...no one think...Vrekt. Later. Someone find...medical. Need to do some scans,...Ennan?"

"On it."

Other hands, slightly less gentle, were carefully slotted under his knees and shoulders and Hunk felt himself being lifted. His stomach protested, but he managed not to throw up again, resting his head against the shoulder of the person carrying him. He wasn't sure how long it lasted before he was being set down again, this time on something soft and comfortable.

The ringing seemed to be subsiding finally, allowing him to hear complete sentences.

"Go find combat instructor Hellfin, Ennan, and get him to make up a list of people you're allowed to spar with until you can remember to control your strength. I need to make sure you haven't done this guy any permanent damage." Someone, presumably the speaker, was arranging a device beside his head.

The other person-Ennan?-sounded chagrined. "Yeah. Okay. Tell him sorry for me?"

There was a grunt of acknowledgement and the sound of footsteps, then a touch to Hunk's shoulder. "If you can understand me, can you open your eyes for me? Need to check your pupils." The teen opened them obediently and made a sound of discomfort at the bright lights in the room. His vision was clearer, and he caught a flash of orange hair as the doctor shone a light in his eyes. "Good pupillary response...no skull trauma...How are you feeling? Pain? Nausea? Any ringing or dizziness?"

It took the yellow paladin several seconds to process the words. "Head hurts...less dizzy now. Ringing stopped." He squinted against the lingering blurriness. The man in front of him looked familiar, but his brain was still not cooperating fully enough to tell him why.

"Hmm...still a bit out of it, I see. I'll give you something for the pain." Hunk watched the other turn away to get something from a storage cabinet, trying to marshal his jumbled thoughts. Ginger hair, pale skin. When he turned back to administer a shot of something, Hunk could see one white eye and one amber in a freckled face. That was important, he thought, but the reason was dancing tantalizingly out of reach.

A knock at the door startled them. "It's Alti," the person on the other side called. "I brought the black paladin like you asked."

"Door's open!" The medic called back, prodding the control panel for the scanner again.

There was a faint whooshing noise as the door opened and Shiro entered. "Hunk, are you-" He stopped dead, staring at the man who'd been looking after Hunk, eyes wide and mouth dropped. The man turned and staggered in shock, the device he'd been holding dropping to the floor with a clatter.

There was a long pause, both Shiro and the other man staring at each other. Hunk looked between them in confusion. Dammit, he was sure he should know who that was, the stupid fogginess of the concussion wasn't clearing fast enough-

"Matt?"

Oh. That's who.

00000000000

"Black Paladin!" Shiro's head snapped up in response to the shout, eyes landing on the pink-haired Altean woman trotting across the hangar toward him with an anxious expression on her face. "Black Paladin, come with me, please, there's been a slight accident with one of your paladins."

Shiro felt a thrill of fear run through him, and he was on his feet in an instant, gesturing for her to lead the way. "What happened? Who's hurt?" He asked, unable to stop him from imagining all the trouble those kids could have gotten into here. Had Keith got into a fight with someone? Lance accidentally offended someone and paid the price for it? Pidge gotten into somewhere she shouldn't?

"A sparring accident, the Yellow Paladin." The Altean pursed her lips in remembered irritation at something as they jogged through the corridors of the ship. "He accepted a sparring invitation from Ennan, and we didn't notice until he'd accidentally concussed the poor boy. We called a doctor and he's been taken to medical."

Shiro stumbled in surprise. Hunk was the one hurt? To be honest, Hunk was probably the last person he would've expected to have a mishap, but the circumstances made sense. "Does this sort of thing happen often?" He asked cautiously, making a mental note to warn the others about being careful who they sparred with.

"Only when Ennan is involved." She scowled. "He can never remember to watch his strength when he's sparring with non-Alteans. This isn't the first time he's injured someone by mistake. Through here." She took a sharp left turn past another water wall and entered an area of the ship that was obviously medical, with labelled examination rooms on either side of the wide corridor. Stopping in front of one of them, she knocked loudly. "It's Alti. I brought the Black Paladin like you asked." she called.

There was a muffled response that Alti's ears obviously heard better than his did, because she palmed the scanner and the door whooshed open. Shiro quickly pushed his way inside, worried for the teen. "Hunk, are you-" he stopped short, jaw going slack, as he caught sight of the occupants of the room. Hunk was laying on a medical cot, looking a little dazed and confused, but with no other obvious signs of injury. And standing next to him, staring back at Shiro like he'd just seen a ghost…

Pale, freckled skin. A mop of ginger hair, the exact shade of Pidge's. One eye that was a startling shade of amber, and one that was white where four parallel scars sliced diagonally across it from temple to chin. That so-familiar face, looking older and wearier than when he'd last seen it over two years ago, and currently white as a sheet as the other stared back at him.

"Matt?" He whispered hoarsely, taking a hesitant step forward and reaching for the other man uncertainly.

Matt was looking at him as though he'd seen a ghost. "T...Takashi?" His voice was soft and almost scared, as though afraid of breaking some fragile illusion, and god, Shiro's chest ached at the sound of his voice. "Takashi, is...is it really you?"

Shiro swallowed thickly and nodded, his heart pounding in his chest. "Yeah. It's me, Matt. I'm here."

There was a sharp intake of breath and then suddenly the black paladin found himself with his arms full of one Matthew Holt, thin arms winding tightly around his midsection and face pressed to his chest. Shiro was quick to wrap his arms around the trembling form of his friend, burying his face in the ginger hair with a ragged breath of his own and holding him as though he would never let go. He could feel tears on his cheeks, blurring his vision, and could hear Matt sobbing into his chest plate, hands clutching at Shiro's undersuit.

"I thought...god, I thought you were dead, Takashi." The words came out in a harsh sob, muffled by Shiro's armor, and it broke his heart. Of course he would have thought that, given the way they'd last seen each other, Matt being dragged out of the arena with his leg sliced open and Shiro staring down Myzax with Matt's blood on an unfamiliar blade in his hand. "I thought you died and I was never going to see you again."

"No, Matt, I made it. I survived. I lived. I'm here." The older man tearfully murmured a litany of reassurances into the other's hair, one hand coming up to cradle the back of Matt's head while the other rubbed gentle circles on his back as he tried to comfort him. "I'm okay, I'm here, I've got you."

They stayed like that for a while, holding each other close, until Matt's ragged cries subsided and Shiro's tears had tapered off to sniffles and red-rimmed eyes. The younger Human pulled back slightly, gazing up at Shiro with a smile of relief and desperate joy that set Shiro's heart pounding all over again. "God, I...I can't believe it. You're here. You're really here."

"I am." Shiro smiled back, giddy with happiness. "We've been looking all over for you, Matt. Have you been here the whole time?"

The freckled male shook his head. "Not the whole time," he explained. "I've been on the Long Wind for about…" He thought for a moment, calculating. "...a third of a cycle. Before that, I spent about three-quarters of a cycle on a ship called the Boiling Rock after they captured the prisoner transport ship I was on. I don't know what that works out to in months. Or how long it's been." His eyes flickered away uncomfortably. "I...lost track of time in the prison, and I don't know how cycles and years compare."

Shiro nodded understandingly, doing the math in his head. "Don't worry, I had the same problem. A cycle is something like fourteen and a half months, if I remember right. Kerberos was a bit over two years ago." He regarded Matt thoughtfully, giving him a gentle smile. "If my math is right, you got out before I did. I'm glad. It means you've been safe all this time."

Matt snorted, smiling back. "As safe as one can be on a resistance ship, anyway. What about you? How did you escape? When did you get here? Who's that other Human with you? How did they get out here?"

"Whoah, one question at a time, Matt. You haven't changed a bit." There was deep relief in Shiro's tone when he said it. Though he'd never admitted it, he'd been deeply afraid of what they might find when they located the Holts, that they might be broken beyond repair and changed beyond recognition. But Matt's rapid-fire questions were so familiar that for a moment, it was as if they were back at the Garrison with his friend interrogating him about some meeting or new simulation. "I was freed by a Galra from a resistance group called the Blade of Marmora, about a year after Kerberos. I was sent back to Earth, but ended up going back into space with four other Humans and becoming the paladins of Voltron." He laughed sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. "It's a really long story. And how we found the Long Wind is even longer."

"There are five of you? Five Humans, I mean." There was a longing ache in Matt's voice that made Shiro pause in surprise before he realized that it would have been years since Matt saw another Human being.

"Yes. Well, seven now. Like I said, very long story, it'd probably take an hour or two. There's me, Alejandro, Kurogane, Hunk-the one with the concussion," he nodded to the yellow paladin, who was sitting up now and watching them both with a happy smile and looking much less dazed, Alti sitting beside him with a curious expression, "Lance, Keith-you remember him from the Garrison-and Pidge." He smiled mischievously. "Although her you might know better as Katie."

Matt let out a strangled noise, eyes wide in shock. "Katie? As in my little sister Katie? Is here? In space?" He sounded as though he might burst into tears again.

"She is." Shiro nodded, hugging Matt tightly again. "She never believed the Garrison for a second when they claimed we were dead. Nearly got arrested for breaking in and hacking their computers, so she enrolled under a fake name to keep looking for proof. She happened to be there when I landed, ended up coming with us, and she's been putting the fear of Holt into the Galra ever since."

His friend let out a wet-sounding laugh against his chest. "Yeah, that sounds like her. Where is she? I want to see her."

"She should still be in the hangar, I think. If Hunk's doing okay, we can head down there."

"Right, right. Doctoring first, tearful reunions after. Sorry, Hunk. I got sidetracked there, didn't I?" Matt gave the yellow paladin an apologetic smile as he reluctantly stepped back from Shiro.

Hunk waved off the apology cheerfully. "Dude, you have nothing to apologize for, like, at all. If I just found my friend that I thought was dead for two years I'd be putting everything else on hold for a few minutes too. And I'm feeling fine, now, anyway. No more dizziness, and no pain." He grimaced. "Remind me not to spar with that guy again, though."

Matt rolled his eyes. "You're not the first person to end up in medical because of him. I told him to get the combat instructor to make a list of acceptable sparring partners for him." He helped Hunk down off the medical bed, Alti hopping down as well once he was on his feet. "Thank you for your help, Alti." The Human said warmly.

"My pleasure, Matt." She gave him a knowing smile, eyes flicking to Shiro for a moment and then back to Matt. "I need to be getting back to work. Good hunting." With that, she was out the door, leaving the three Humans alone.

"Come on, let's go find Pidge. She's gonna freak when she sees you." Hunk seemed just as excited for the impending reunion as Shiro was, and the black paladin was pleased to see the way Matt's face lit up at the reminder that his beloved sister was here as well. The yellow paladin led the way out of the room and down the hall, obviously feeling much better judging by the brisk pace he set.

"Sorry, can you slow down a bit?" Matt's voice was strained, and Shiro realized with alarm that the shorter male had lagged behind almost immediately. His heart sank as he looked closer and realized the reason: a pronounced limp, the ginger visibly favouring his left knee. The one Shiro had sliced open that day in the arena.

"Matt, your leg…" He faltered, feeling sick. He hadn't meant to injure Matt that badly, to permanently impair him like this.

Mat must have read his emotions in his face, because he shook his head firmly. "It wasn't your fault, Takashi. The original injury would have healed fine, but working in the mine made it worse. It wasn't anything you did."

"Still, I...if I hadn't hurt you in the first place…"

"Stop that." Suddenly Matt had his Shiro's face in his hands, staring him right in the eyes with a confidence that caught the taller man completely off guard. "When you cut my leg, you saved my life by keeping me out of the arena. Don't ever forget that. I certainly haven't." The Japanese male felt as though the wind had been knocked out of him by Matt's calm understanding and acceptance. All he could do was nod, tears pricking at the corner of his eyes in response to an unspoken forgiveness he wasn't sure he deserved. The other regarded him steadily for a moment longer before letting him go with a soft smile and linking his arm with Shiro's. "Now come on. Let's go find my sister."

000000000

Green's mental nudge brought Pidge out of her meditative trance to the sound of voices in the hallway outside the hangar. First Shiro, saying something too muffled to make out (when had he left, she wondered), and then Hunk asking a question that she only caught the end of as footsteps came closer, echoing in the corridor.

"...didn't know about us?"

"I knew Voltron was on board, and I'd seen you from a distance a few times, but with the armor and helmets I only knew you were a humanoid species. Given that the Lions were supposed to have been built by the Alteans, I assumed that's what you were, and nobody thought to tell me otherwise. Guess they all assumed I already knew."

The air seemed to catch in her throat. That third voice didn't belong to any of her teammates, but she'd know it anywhere, under any circumstances. Praying desperately that she wasn't wrong, that she hadn't misheard, she scrambled to her feet just as three figures turned the corner into the hangar. For half a second she had a perfect, crystal-clear view. Hunk on one side, Shiro on the other, and between them, limping and scarred but smiling easily as his head swivelled to scan the hangar, Matt.

Then his eyes landed on her and the lopsided smile became a blinding grin, arms instantly spreading to welcome her. "Katie!"

Her vision blurred instantly with what she distantly realized were tears, and then she was moving, sprinting headlong across the open length of the hangar with her brother's name tumbling from her lips like a shouted prayer, echoed by Green's jubilant roar. "MattMattMattOhmygodMatt!"

She hit him full speed with enough force to knock the wind out of them both, and only Hunk's quick reflexes kept the pair of them from hitting the ground as she buried her face in Matt's shirt, clutching him tightly and still chanting his name through tears of desperate relief. She could feel his arms around her, hear his teary, joyful whisper of "yes, Katie, I'm here, I'm right here, you found me", feel his heart pounding in his chest against her cheek. He was here, he was really here, he was safe, she found him, she had her brother back after two long, lonely years.

She cried herself out in his arms with his hand stroking her hair and his voice humming softly in her ear, just like she used to do when she was younger and had a nightmare or got too stressed, and it was just so familiar and safe it almost made her start crying all over again. Eventually, though, she was reduced to hiccupping sniffles and lifted her head to stare up at Matt's equally tear-streaked face. "It's you. You're really here." She breathed.

"It is, and I am." Matt responded with an affectionate grin that was achingly familiar as he stared back at her. "God, I missed you so much. You've gotten so big! Love the hair." He commented.

"Missed you too, loser." She grinned back wetly, scrubbing at her running nose with the back of her wrist. "You better love it, seeing as I cut it as part of my plan to avenge your sorry butt. Disguised myself as a boy, Pidge Gunderson, and enrolled at the Garrison as a cadet in order to have better access to their computers for hacking."

Matt gave her a disbelieving look. "And they bought that, despite you looking exactly like a shorter version of me?"

Pidge shrugged, grinning. "Well, they were also dumb enough to think people would buy 'pilot error' as the reason for the Kerberos mission going silent, so it's really not that surprising."

"Pilot error?!" Matt exclaimed, looking outraged. He glanced up at an embarrassed Shiro with a thunderous expression. "Un-fucking-believable. Remind me to kick so much ass when we get back to Earth. Bunch of jackasses."

Off to the side, Hunk burst out laughing. "I see Pidge's mouth runs in the family." He teased, elbowing Shiro whose expression had gone from slightly mortified to a resigned eyeroll at the yellow paladin's comment.

Pidge sniggered, sticking her tongue out at Shiro. "Sort of? We get it from our mom. Dad's the kinda guy who excuses himself for saying 'heck'." Her eyes lit up and she turned back to Matt quickly, hope flaring in her chest. "Speaking of Dad, is he here too? Do you know where to find him?" Maybe, just maybe, she'd have her family back together again soon.

Matt froze. His smile vanished in an instant, replaced by something guilty and pained that made something inside her twist sickeningly.

"Matt?" She whispered, a desperate note in her voice. Why wasn't he answering? Where was their dad? Why was he looking at her like his heart was breaking? Shiro's smile had turned into something alarmed and anxious, and Hunk looked confused and scared.

"Katie...I...I'm sorry." Matt whispered, pulling her close again, hiding his face in her shoulder as he hugged her tightly. His voice was raw with guilt and grief, and she could feel him shaking against her. "I'm so sorry, Katie. I tried to protect him. I really did. I'm so sorry."

Her heart seemed to drop out of the bottom of her chest. No. Nonono. This wasn't supposed to happen. She was supposed to find them, both of them, take them home, be a family again. She wasn't supposed to lose them, either of them. This wasn't how it was supposed to go.

A harsh sob ripped itself from her throat, an agonized cry of denial and despair. There were tears on her face, her breath coming in ragged gasps between her cries. She was faintly aware of Shiro's arms around them both, his tears falling on her hair, Hunk trying to hug all three of them to offer whatever comfort he could. But all she could concentrate on was the brutal knowledge that her father was gone, forever. That she would never see him again no matter how far across the universe she travelled, no matter how many worlds she liberated or prisoners she freed or Galra Empire soldiers she killed.

The thought made Pidge still for a moment, and she fought to find her voice. She needed to know. "How did it happen?" She asked, voice cracking painfully. "Please, Matt, tell me what happened."

She felt her brother shift against her as he swallowed harshly, pulling back slightly so he could see her face. His eyes were red-rimmed and swollen from crying, and he seemed to struggle to find the words.

"He...he got sick." Matt said finally, slowly. "The world we were on was cold and wet and it rained all the time, and we were always exhausted from working in the mines. A lot of prisoners got sick, all the time. Dad was...older. More vulnerable. It was pneumonia, I think. Hard to be sure with no way to do tests." He gave a ragged laugh that had no humor in it at all. "Not like it mattered. The guards didn't care what you were sick with. They only cared whether or not you could work."

He paused, licking dry lips with a painfully faraway look on his face, and the hangar was so silent you could hear a pin drop as Pidge stared up at her brother, who looked decades older than he should in that moment. "Eventually….eventually Dad got too sick to work. He couldn't get up when they came to take us to the mine in the morning. I only understood a few words of Galran at that point, enough to follow basic commands. But 'get up or I'll shoot you' is pretty universal."

"I tried to protect him." He continued, expression distant. "Tried to get between him and the guard. Just pissed them off. One of them," His hand came up to trace along the four scars that slashed across his face, faint white lines against pale skin, and Pidge felt sick with the realization a moment before he said it, "clawed my face open, for disrespect, I think. And then…" Matt inhaled, a sharp, shaky breath. "They made me watch as they shot him, then sent me to the mines without even a chance to say goodbye."

"God, Matt…" It was Shiro's voice that broke the agonized silence that followed the older ginger's story. The black paladin looked devastated in a way that Pidge couldn't recall ever having seen on his face before, an expression out of place on the face of a man who usually faced any crisis or disaster with outward confidence and calm acceptance.

Then again, she was sure the barely contained fury she felt probably looked equally unnerving on her own face.

"They'll pay for that." She declared, voice tight with the anger burning in her gut. She could feel three pairs of eyes on her, shock and concern in all their faces, could feel the pressure of Green's anxious touch in the back of her head. "What they did to you, Matt, and what they did to dad. We'll make them pay, I swear it."

"Pidge…" Shiro's voice was heavy with sadness and concern, one hand landing on her shoulder as if to restrain her.

"Don't, Shiro." The green paladin snapped, all but smacking his hand away to the other's visible shock and Hunk's startled exclamation, Green backing her with a snarl from the far side of the hangar. "They tortured Matt, doing that. They killed Dad. I know it won't change anything," she added quickly, forestalling another interruption from the older man. She took a deep breath. "I know he's g-gone." She forced the words out, even though the fact had only just barely begun to sink in, a deep, aching hole in her heart that she could already sense would never heal. "I'm never going to see him again, and the only thing I can do for him is make sure that the bastards who took him from me and hurt my brother pay. So either help me or get out of my way."

There was a long silence, no one speaking. Then, finally, Shiro stepped back, dark eyes staring at her with a sharp nod that made Pidge sag with relief.

"Fine." The black paladin said softly, a sorrowful understanding crossing his face, and she knew that he understood, that need for closure, to do the only thing left that she could do for her lost family. "We'll avenge your father when we can. I promise. I don't know how we'll find the world they were on, but-"

"Chalthus."

Both Pidge and Shiro's heads snapped around to look at Matt, who was regarding them both with an intense expression that looked even more jarring on him than Shiro's devastated grief had seemed. A mix of gratitude, determination, cold eagerness. She'd never even imagined her brother could look like that, but she could hardly blame him after everything he'd told them. The Galra had changed Shiro, of course they'd changed her brother too. "It was called Chalthus." He repeated. "A mining moon around a gas giant. I asked, once, after I finally learned enough Galran to communicate properly. I planned to go back there someday. Find that fucking guard and…" he trailed off, fists clenching at his sides. "Chalthus." He said again, voice rough.

Hunk frowned, narrowing his eyes uncertainly. "Chalthus? Why do I feel like I've heard that name before?" He questioned, looking between Matt and his two teammates.

Pidge's eyes widened. "Because you have." She breathed, fury boiling up in her gut all over again. "Kurogane and Alejandro. They asked if we'd been to Chalthus yet, when we were figuring out how long we had to prepare. They knew. They fucking knew." She was yelling now, hands shaking, words tumbling out of her mouth practically on top of each other. "They knew Dad was dead, that he'd died on Chalthus, 'memorable mission' my fucking ass, that was when they found out, they said they lived on the Long Wind for a while, they had to have known Matt was here and they never fucking said anything, about any of it, about Dad or Matt, goddamn them, why the fuck didn't they say anything-"

"Breathe, Katie." Suddenly there were gentle arms around her and she gasped, realizing that she was almost hyperventilating from her frantic tirade. She forced herself to pull air into her lungs, an almost automatic response to her brother's gentle coaching. Only once her breathing had steadied did Matt relax his grip on her, moving to gently grasp her shoulders instead and looking her in the eye. "Now, I'm still missing most of the story on how you all got here, so I'm not sure what exactly you're talking about. But if you say these two should have known I was here and didn't tell you, then dammit, I want some answers too."

Pidge took a deep breath and nodded, reining in her anger and letting it simmer for now. "Call a team meeting, Shiro." She demanded sharply, looking up at the black paladin. To the side, Hunk nodded in grim agreement. All her worries over the last few days about how much the two time-travellers were sharing, what they knew and what they didn't and what they thought they knew but might be entirely wrong about, were back at the forefront of her mind, screaming to be addressed. "Whatever their reasons, those two have been hiding too much for long enough. It's time for them to start talking."