She pulled off her helmet.

"Katie?" her dad asked in disbelief, and tears started to well up in her eyes. She sprung up from the floor and ran to him, flinging her arms around his shoulders. "How are you here?" he asked holding her tight, like if he didn't she'd disappear.

"It's a long story," she whispered, burying her face in his neck to hide the fact that she was crying. Other alien members of the crew gathered in a curious circle around the reunion, whispering to each other.

"Well, we have time and an audience," he joked. Then she looked up. She almost didn't want to ask.

"Where's Matt?"

The room went dead silent.

"The witch needed a new plaything," Hunter growled. The aliens closest to him stepped away. "They took him back to the gladiator ring before our revolt." Katie let go of her dad and turned to look at him, horrified.

"But he doesn't know how to fight like Shiro does!"

Hunter began to laugh.

"Your brother is the cleverest, most determined, brutal creature I've ever had the blessings to train, Sister. He'll survive her tests sass and all, I assure you."

Katie looked at her dad. He nodded, a grim look on his face.

"What… what happened?" she asked.

"Well, you know your brother. Only following orders when the outcome suits him," her dad sighed, running a hand up his face and through his thinning snow white hair. "He has too much of your mother in him, both of you do really. Now what are you doing here?!"

The aliens in the circle, roughly thirty of them, pulled up crates to sit on, ready for storytime.

"It's a lot to explain…"

"Explain away, Sister," the rodent-like alien that was at the airlock, about a foot and a half shorter than her, prompted. She handed Katie her bayard. "Tell us of your journey."

She took a deep breath. "The Garrison's explanation was that you had all died in a crash. Pilot's error. They never told us, not mom, not Shiro's family, no one. We found out when the story aired on the news." She began, recounting the events from the night the news broke out to the collapsed wormhole. She explained everything, Voltron, Altea, the friends she had made, how Shiro didn't remember all that had happened to him. "Well, he might have started remembering more," she grimaced, "He might have only shared that because it had to do with Matt."

The aliens nodded when her story ended, moving into a circle of their own off to the side. They whispered in hushed voices as Katie looked at her father, hands clasped under his chin.

"Seems to me like you've been up to quite a bit, Kat," he said quietly. She went to hug him again.

"What do you think mom's doing?"

"Raising hell on Iverson with your aunt Christina I suppose," he mused, almost chuckling.

"Wonder what other kind of scandals she's found out."

"Probably all kinds of things. I'm surprised she didn't go with you when you snuck in the first time."

"She doesn't know I did that." He pulled away from her and gave her a serious look.

"You know Kat, that's probably why you got caught to begin with."

"Yes I'm aware," she groaned. "I didn't want to worry her when she had so much other stuff on her mind." Her father nodded, and she looked behind her at the semicircle of others. "What are they doing?"

"I believe they are deciding a name for you."

"I have a name though."

"A different one, one to be called by the group based off of what role you play or what trait they all see you to have. A community name was traditional in our camp. If you lived through the first couple weeks you got one. It also seems to distinguish people's relationships with a person too. Calling someone by their birth name instead of their given name shows a more personal connection. Don't call someone by their birth name, or don't call me Dad, when talking about me to someone else who doesn't use that name for them also, though. It's… Impolite from what I understand at least."

"Hunter called you Scholar?"

"Yes. Based off of the fact that I'm a scientist."

"Hunter called me Matt, though, and then… called him fearless when he realized I wasn't im?" Katie asked, frowning. Her father sighed.

"Yes, Matt has an… interesting relationship with Hunter," he said with the slightly disapproving look only a parent can make. "They named your brother Fearless for repeatedly sneaking around the camp and getting everyone food and supplies, even after getting caught several times. Hunter's planet was only recently taken over, and he's the only one of his race with us. He came from a family of warriors and was able to train Matt in an adapted version of his people's traditional style of fighting during the nights. That's why he has faith he'll survive the gladiator rings."

"Do you think he will too?"

"I'm not sure. Until you came I thought they had taken Matt away because Shirogane hadn't, and that's why they needed to replace him. But if he can get out, Matt may have already escaped by now. Who knows."

She looked back at Hunter and frowned, wondering if he had seemed bigger than he really was when he had first grabbed her.

"Did he get smaller?" She asked, just to be sure.

"Who, Hunter? Minor shapeshifting, he makes himself bigger to scare off possible threats and then smaller to… well to fit through the doorways for one thing but also so he doesn't run into anyone. The Mathyseis are quite little in comparison to even us, I'd hate to see Star get stepped on."

"Which one's Star?"

"The one who gave you the…?" He pointed to her bayard and she nodded in understanding.

By then the group was done discussing, and Katie turned to face them the same as her dad. Hunter stepped in front of her and placed his hands half on her shoulders. She heard the tips of sharp claws click against her armor.

"It has been decided. Your name amongst us will be Sister Courage, for your journey to this place in your life and how you have faced the challenges of the past. We welcome you to our rebellion." He smiled at her with gray, toothless gums. Now that he was close, Katie could see more detail in what he really looked like. His face was covered in small iridescent black scales that got thicker and formed three ridges across his head, each larger scale ending at a sharp point. Two started above his temple curving around his finely scaled ears, with one in the center. Three of his five eyes were closed, leaving the bottom two, positioned the same way they would be on a human, the only ones open. They were wide and blue, like a kitten's with slitted pupils and no visible whites. She wondered why the others were closed, and why he had no teeth with such a wide mouth. She smiled back.

The room buzzed with excitement. If her being Matt's sister wasn't proof enough, they knew from her stories that she would be a valuable member of the crew, even if it was only to be for a short time.