Shiro didn't know what he had been expecting when he met the Captain. It definitely wasn't brown-haired human wearing round glasses with thick lenses that hid his brown eyes. Shiro certainly wasn't expecting the Captain to be someone familiar, much less someone he knew. There was absolutely no way in hell that Shiro expected the Captain to be Matthew Holt.

Shiro actually didn't recognise him at first. Work at the labour camps had filled out his muscles and transformed him from the skinny boy Shiro knew before to the strong man that now stood before him. Then again, Shiro knew he wasn't the same as he had been the last time Matt had seen him, so why should he expect Matt to stay the same?

"Captain," the blue-skinned alien addressed Matt, "There were no Galra on the escape pod, only these three."

Matt waved a dismissive hand and threw a glance in their direction, "I'll deal with them later. Just keep an eye on them until -" he cut himself off, this time turning to look at them directly. His eyes focused on Shiro's face.

Matt's eyes went wide. "Shiro?" he asked, disbelief colouring his tone.

"Matt?" Shiro said, echoing Matt's tone. He still hadn't gotten over the shock of seeing Matt here. In the middle of a bridge on a rebel space ship. Apparently leading an army of rebels. He really hadn't been expecting any of this at all.

"Hey," the blue alien barked at Shiro, "That's Captain Holt to you!"

"Woah, Drozan, calm down." Matt said as he stepped off the raised platform he had been standing on in the middle of the room, "Shiro and I go way back!"

Before Shiro really knew what was happening, Matt had thrown his arms around Shiro and enveloped him in a firm hug. Shiro stiffened for a moment before relaxing and throwing his arms around Matt, reciprocating the hug.

"Man, I thought I'd never see you again." Matt muttered in Shiro's ear, still holding on to him.

Shiro squeezed him tighter, "Me too." he admitted.

They stayed like that, just holding on to each other, as over a year's worth of worry for one another leaked into the embrace. Until someone cleared their throat.

"Sir," a feminine voice sounded from the other side of the bridge, "The pilots are ready to deploy."

Matt jerked away from Shiro, as if only just remembering that he was supposed to be leading these rebels. Shio cast a look around and noticed that quite a few of the rebels were gawking at him and Matt.

"Right," Matt said, straightening up and stepping back up on the raised platform in the middle of the bridge. He slipped on a headset and said into the microphone by his mouth: "Gold Captain to Red Leader, you are a go. Let's blast some Galra tail. Axo," he addressed a green-skinned alien with four arms and long, red hair pulled back in a ponytail, "Ready the canon and standby in case they call for back-up."

"Yessir!" Axo said, and busied himself with carrying out Matt's orders on the terminal in front of him.

"Commander Drozan," Matt addressed the blue-skinned alien, "Please have Shiro's friends escorted to the dining room and keep an eye on them there. Shiro, you're welcome to either go with them or stay here."

Shiro turned to Rolo and Nyma, "Can I trust you two not to blow anything up?" he asked them.

Rolo rolled his eyes, "Yeah, yeah. You hang out with your boyfriend. We'll go to the dining room like good little soldiers."

Shiro rolled his eyes and opted to ignore Rolo's boyfriend remark. "Thank you for bringing us up to meet the Captain, Commander." He addressed Drozan, "I'd like to remain here."

Drozan nodded, obviously pleased that Shiro had picked up on and used his rank. He dipped his head in Matt's direction and then indicated for Rolo and Nyma to follow him. Once they had left the bridge, Matt beckoned Shiro over to him.

Shiro stepped up onto the raised platform and took his first proper look around. The bridge's setup was eerily similar to that of the Starship Enterprise, with the only difference being that Matt stood in front of a semicircle of monitors on a raised platform, instead of sitting on a captain's chair, and there was less than half the amount of crew members. The crew also wore all black, instead of the colourful Starfleet uniforms. Shiro shook his head and told himself to stop being silly. The similarities were probably purely coincidental.

Then Matt, after issuing a few more commands, gave Shiro a mischievous look and said: "Shiro, welcome to the Rebel Alliance."

Shiro froze, allowed that to sink in, and then shot Matt an 'Are you kidding me?' look. Matt replied with an 'I am totally serious.' look and Shiro could not hold back a short burst of laughter.

Matt grinned at him before turning back to the screens in front of him. He explained that the Alliance had intercepted some Galra intel a few quintents ago. Prisoner supply ships were the easiest to hit for supplies and to get more intel. Matt honestly didn't understand what the Galra didn't protect these supply lines better, but he wasn't complaining. They didn't usually hit prisoner supply ships, though, because Matt knew how little food prisoners already had. They hadn't really planned on hitting any of the prisoner supply ships, but a few vargas ago the intel had been updated to reveal that this particular ship had been carrying precious cargo.

"Precious cargo?" Shiro asked.

Matt nodded, bringing up visuals of his fighter ships that were now headed for the prisoner supply ship that Shiro and the others had just escaped from. "No idea what it's supposed to be."

Shiro sighed, "Probably me."

Matt raised an eyebrow at him and then shrugged, "It's possible, I guess they really want their Champion back."

Shiro raised an eyebrow and wondered if Matt somehow didn't know about Voltron yet. He supposed it wasn't impossible. He shrugged in reply to Matt's musing and said: "I guess."

He'd see what Matt knew about Voltron once the mission was completed.

"Weird that they didn't send extra backup, though." Matt said, "If they knew you were the precious cargo, you'd think they'd want to make sure you couldn't escape again."

Shiro shrugged again, "Could be for a number a reasons. Maybe they didn't want to tip anyone off that they had anything different from usual on the ship. More likely, things are slipping through the cracks now that Zarkon's out of the picture."

Matt whipped his head to look at Shiro so quickly, it was a wonder he didn't give himself whiplash. "What do you mean, 'Zarkon's out of the picture.'? How can you possibly know that he is?"

Shiro winced, well, so much for waiting until the mission's over. "It's a long story." he said, "You've heard of Voltron?"

Matt's eyebrows creased, "I've heard rumours of some legendary warrior called Voltron. From what I can piece together, the Power Rangers are apparently the universe's greatest hope." he answered, scoffing.

Shiro couldn't help throwing his head back and laughing at that. "Actually," he said once he had calmed again, "We're much cooler than the Power Rangers."

Matt gaped at him. "Wait, what?"

Shiro grinned, "Like I said, it's a long story, but yeah. We fought Zarkon and I'm pretty sure we beat him. I really don't see how he could have survived that attack. Even if he did, he'll be out of action for a long while."

Matt regarded him for a moment, "Evidently we have a lot to talk about."

Shiro nodded, "You can say that again."

Shiro turned his gaze to the windows that allowed the bridge to see what was happening outside, and watched at two of Matt's ship's docked with the supply ship that he had just escaped from.

He frowned.

"Have they not called for backup yet?" he wondered out loud, "Things can't be so disorganised in the Empire that no one is available to respond to a ship in distress, can it?"

Matt shrugged, "Who knows. But, what I can tell you is that even if they try to call for backup it won't work. We're jamming the signal."

Impressed, Shiro stood back and watched and listened as Matt communicated with his team. Of course, Shiro always knew that Matt was a good leader, he'd lead his own research team back at the Garrison, after all. But watching him lead a bunch of rebels was something altogether different. And Shiro couldn't help but feel pride rise up in his chest. And then it suddenly hit him. He was really standing next to Matt. He had his best friend back. The wave of happiness he felt right then temporarily overwhelmed all the guilt he felt about how he had treated Matt back at the arena, and he couldn't quite keep a pleased smile off his face.

Matt seemed to have the same problem, though, so Shiro didn't feel to bad about smiling in the middle of an operation.

Matt's rebel team on the supply ship finished gathering their intel quickly. When Matt asked how Shiro had managed to blow up an escape pod, Shiro replied only with a smirk and a shrug. Matt rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to his team.

Less than an hour later, all the rebels had returned to the ship and Matt was readying the ship to jump into hyperspace.

As soon as they were safely on their way, Matt stepped off his platform and motioned for Shiro to follow him. He lead Shiro down a short corridor and into the Captain's quarters. Shiro was unsurprised to find the walls covered with various blueprints, all full of notes written in Matt's untidy scrawl.

Shiro raised an eyebrow, "Side projects?"

Matt smirked as he cleared some space on the small table right at the back of the room, "You could say that." he said.

He settled in one of the two chairs at the table.

"Alright," he said, gesturing for Shiro to take the second chair, "Spill."