Samuel Holt's time in the data labs had not been wasted.
He'd made it a priority to learn as much as he could from the files he'd been able to see, and one discovery in particular was of great interest to the team.
Allura's jaw dropped open in bewildered surprise, and Coran had to sit down. Matt looked over at Shiro, and saw that his old friend was blinking in complete astonishment and confusion.
"Really?" he asked, looking between Sam and Allura with what could only be described a dazed expression. "Haggar is…Altean…?"
"Part-Altean," Sam corrected him. "It's confusing to me as well - to be honest, I'm not entirely certain how - "
Coran shook his head, and when he spoke, he sounded as if he were remembering something he'd long since put to the back of his mind.
"There…there was a great friendship between our races, once," he said. "It wasn't uncommon for…well, for Alteans and Galrans to have children together - "
Hunk was holding his hands up in front of his face, seemingly to try and calculate something on his fingers.
"Oh, yeah, I mean, humans do that too," he said, almost distractedly, and Coran and Allura looked over at him as he went on, obviously intent on explaining himself.
"I mean, on our planet, we're all the same species, but it's not like we don't have different nations or stuff like that," he said. By his side, Lance nodded and joined in enthusiastically.
"Like Hunk said, we've encountered mixed bloodlines before," he said. "It's actually pretty cool, sometimes, to see where your different ancestors came from - but geez, Haggar being Altean?!"
He scratched his neck and looked between Allura and Keith, half-shrugging as he continued. "I have to admit, I did not see that one coming…like, at all…."
Coran was nodding, his eyes slightly distant, as if he were remembering something from a long time ago.
"Sometimes, those of Altean blood would permanently take on the characteristics of their - well - other heritage, either out of preference or pride…so…I suppose…it's entirely possible that Haggar did so at one time…but…"
Allura shuddered, and Pidge put a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"Well, I guess it could be worse…" Pidge said, looking over at Coran. "I mean, it's not like her being Altean changes who she is, right? That'd just be stupid-"
Coran couldn't hold back a small laugh at that. "Well, I would have used the word foolish - but yes, Pidge, you're right - but it's still - just - very unsettling, to realize…"
Allura finished her old friend's thought. "…to realize her magic is - in a way - similar to my own."
Everyone on the main deck looked at her then. Shiro was the first to speak.
"Allura, your magic is nothing like hers. Trust me. I'd be the first to tell you if it was."
Allura looked over at him and saw that he was half-smiling at her. Something inside her chest seemed to ease, some awful, sick tension that had settled there the instant Sam Holt had told them what he'd learned in the data labs.
"But - " she began, but then Keith spoke up, and she turned to listen to him.
"Haggar being Altean - it doesn't change anything important," he said, and he was looking directly at her and Coran. "It really, really doesn't-"
Pidge's jaw suddenly dropped open, and she began waving her hands around her head wildly.
"HOLY CROW!" she hollered, and Matt jumped in surprise because that shout was right by his ear.
Going deaf at a young age because my sister is screaming in my ear, he thought, and he felt a genuine smirk cross his face as he watched her dive towards her pilot's station for paper and a pencil.
If it means she's here with me, I'll take it.
"-ohmygosh-ohmygosh-OHMYGOSH-" Katie was still saying under her breath as she started to feverishly scribble on the notepad. She muttered to herself for a few more seconds, and then made an excited squealing sound of delight and waved her pencil with such enthusiasm, it flew out of her fingers and sailed across the room, nearly hitting Rayzor in the nose. He reached up and caught it, mid-air, between two of his fingers just in time, and Aurelis had to stifle a snort of laughter at the Council Member's expression of confusion at the Green Paladin's excitement.
"…um….Pidge?" Lance asked, looking at her as if she'd sprouted two heads. "…what's with you…?"
The Green Paladin raced over to Keith, and started jabbering excitedly, pointing to the notepad with such enthusiasm, Shiro thought she might possibly get bruises on her fingertips. Keith's eyes suddenly went as wide as saucers, and he looked at Pidge with a completely flabbergasted expression on his face.
It took the rest of the Paladins all a second to realize what Pidge was telling Keith, but when they did, their reactions were priceless, if also somewhat mysterious to both Sam and Matt Holt.
Shiro's eyebrows shot up so high that they disappeared into his hair, Lance let out a squawk of mixed confusion and delight, and Hunk looked between Keith and the two Alteans as if Christmas had come early.
"…uh…" Matt said, when it became clear Pidge was going to keep chattering away to Keith for the foreseeable future, thereby depriving him and his father of their immediate source of explanation. "…can someone tell us what's going on…?"
From where she lay on the floor, coloring in her drawing of Shiro and Allura holding hands, Beyris looked up and said brightly, "It means Keith is part-Altean, too!"
Rayzor slammed a hand against his forehead almost at the same moment Aurelis did, and Sam and Matt looked askance at each other.
"…you're going to have to back up for a minute," Sam said, and Matt nodded, adding, "You totally lost me."
Shiro looked over at Keith, who returned his look for a moment before nodding slowly.
"….might as well…" the Red Paladin said. He'd leaned against the wall and seemed to be slightly dazed at whatever Pidge was chattering on about. "It's not like it can be any more confusing than it already is…"
Shiro nodded and turned his attention back to Matt and Sam.
"You might want to sit down," he said. "This could take awhile."
All things considered, the news that Keith was part-alien went rather well.
Both Sam and Matt had many, many questions, and it took some time for the entire story to be told, but with some help from everyone in the room, it was finished soon enough.
Mid-way through the explanation, Keith found himself sitting cross-legged on the ground, in a sort of make-shift giant circle. Shiro sat across from him, next to Sam and Matt, with Coran and Allura on Keith's left side, with Rayzor and Aurelis on his right. Beyris sat a little ways off from Rayzor, with the mice perched on her shoulers. Lance and Hunk sat close to her. All told, the circle was tight, but it didn't feel crowded.
With an effort, Keith drew his attention back to the chart Pidge had drawn and had just placed in the middle of the circle. To one degree or another, everyone was leaning over it to see what she was gesturing at as she spoke.
"Okay," she said, her eyes gleaming with both delight and pride in her work, "I think I've got it down now -"
"…gotten…what down, exactly?" Rayzor asked, and she beamed back at him with good humor as she answered.
"A chart, of course! I mean, it's not going to be entirely accurate, but it should be good enough for a basic understanding of - "
"-Keith's alien bloodline," Matt finished, nodding. Pidge and Keith both looked at him, and he raised his head and blinked at their expressions. "What?" he asked, and he was smirking now. "When you've been in deep space for over a year, you start to just roll with the punches-"
By him, Sam was nodding. "Please, Katie, go on, this is fascinating - "
Pidge grinned at them all and started pointing to the various parts of the chart as she spoke.
"Okay, so we know that Haggar is at least part-Altean, thanks to my dad's awesome undercover spy work - nice job, Dad - but we also know that she's been part of the Galra Empire for years -"
"Millennia," Shiro interjected. Lance scratched his head as he murmured to himself. "It's so weird, how a thousand years gets called a millennium but it's sounds like it's actually a million years - geez, no wonder I got so confused in school - "
Pidge flicked her pencil at the Blue Paladin, and he broke off, grinning, as she continued. " - anyway - so at some point, she must have had a kid with some Galra - oh, Dad, do you know if there was ever any record of that happening - you know, like a marriage or birth certificate or anything -"
Suddenly, Keith looked very uneasy. "Oh, God," he said, and he seemed genuinely nervous when he looked over at Sam. "-tell me I'm not related to Zarkon - Haggar's bad enough - "
Sam shook his head, chuckling, and Keith visibly relaxed as Sam went on to explain.
"No - although there is an heir to the Galra Empire - but I don't know much about him. His name is Prince Lotor - and I assure you, Keith, you're definitely not him. To my knowledge, Haggar and Zarkon were never - uh - an 'item.'"
Keith visibly relaxed. "Okay, so at least my entire extended family on my dad's side doesn't completely suck-" he said, mostly to himself, and then Shiro reached across the circle and whacked him affectionately upside the head.
"Ow!" Keith growled, recoiling and rubbing the side of his head, half-glaring back at Shiro. "Gods damn it, Takashi - what was that for?!"
Beyris perked her head up then, the mice chirping cheerfully on her shoulders.
"Oooooh!" she said, interested. "What do those words mean?"
Hunk groaned and slammed the heel of his hand into his forehead as Lance shot Keith a horrified expression, mouthing "You swore in front the five year old again?!"
"-fuck-" Keith said in frustration, and then he realized his mistake and covered his face with one hand in delayed regret as Shiro let out a stifled snort of mixed laughter and sympathy.
"ANYWAY -" Pidge bellowed again, in an effort to regain everyone's attention, because it was quickly devolving into absolute chaos once more, "-we're just going to assume that at some point, Haggar and some Galra guy - "
"-I would not want to be that man-" Lance said, and Coran nodded emphatically. Rayzor looked very uncomfortable at the idea, and Keith muttered under his breath, with his hand still over his face, "-yeah - Haggar strikes me as a 'praying mantis' kind of date - ugh -"
Aurelis had done enough reading about Earth animals to get the reference, and he went slightly green as Pidge continued, intent on finishing her hypothesis as quickly as possible before everyone's attention span spiraled completely out of control.
"-had a kid, and that kid was Keith's dad, and then Keith's dad pulled an awesome fuck-this-shit-I'm-out move and - "
Sam snorted in what had to be laughter, and Matt started shaking with suppressed chuckles as Pidge went on, obviously animated and interested in the conclusion, but glad to be almost done with laying it out.
"-and came to Earth, met Keith's mom, and there! You have Keith's ancestry in a nutshell."
Keith lowered his hand from his face and looked at Pidge's enthusiastically-made-but-still-pretty-hard-to-decipher chart.
"…don't you mean spaceship?" he asked, and she grinned at him, her good humor returning now that she'd managed to explain her theory to everyone.
"Yeah, Keith, spaceship works too. Ahaha, oh, I just thought of something - technically - it would have to be two spaceships - because you've got two different alien bloodlines - and you're human, too, which really makes you unique - I mean, you should play the lottery with these odds, Pyro - "
Keith rolled his eyes, but he was smiling all the same as he answered her. "Oh, yeah, me playing the lottery is such a good idea - did you forget who's the designated red shirt on this team - "
Matt blinked at that and looked over at Shiro, who shook his head and replied in a stubborn tone of voice. "No, Keith, you are not the designated red shirt - I absolutely won't stand for it - I already have white hair, and I'm not even thirty - so don't you fucking dare take that role on- "
Beyris tilted her head up at Shiro quizzically. "Oh! You use that word too?" she asked, and Matt completely lost his ability to contain his laughter at the look on Shiro's face.
"…shit…" Shiro said, and then it was Keith's turn to fall over laughing as Shiro turned to scowl at him.
"What?" he growled, but Keith could barely manage a coherent reply.
"-ahaha-oh gods- Takashi - your face - ahaha - what I wouldn't - give for a camera - right now -ahaha-"
Sam smiled at the sight, and although he still had more questions, he decided they could wait until later.
Any way you looked at it, family was complicated.
But this one seemed the stronger for it.