Warning for violence and sexual abuse (no smut). This list is non-exhaustive for spoilers sake. If you have concerns about triggers, pm me (I don't bite!) and I will give you chapters/scenes to be wary of or let you know if you shouldn't read the story at all (for example, if you are triggered by swearing, you should not read this story).

Chapter 1

At the sound of the hangar door, Pidge cast aside her laptop and unraveled from her nestling spot between Green's eyes to lean over the lion's nose. Lance and Hunk had just stepped into the hangar, Lance with a plastic bag hanging off his elbow, Hunk bearing a plate of cookies. Her perch high on her lion was the only way to spot her in the room crowded with artificial environment chambers and other scattered tech viscera. "We were gone for five vargas," Lance said, not daring to enter the disaster zone, "and it doesn't look like you moved once."

"That's because I haven't. But I have great news!"

"You found the planet Matt is on?"

She snatched up the laptop and held it high, as if they could see the screen at the distance. "Not quite, but I found a seller of nanothermite titanium-boron in the Velurian quadrant who should be able to point me to the freedom fighters!"

"Awesome, Pidge! We're already in that quadrant, right? Need a partner to go chase him down with you?"

At this, she slumped back down, laptop going to her legs. She already had a meeting scheduled with the vendor, but—she eyed Hunk as he shimmied between an impaled Galra sentry she intended to reprogram and an aquarium holding a tiny ecosystem from the planet of mermaids. She had already said too much that might get back to Shiro. Lance could hear later. "I think that's it for today. What are you doing, Hunk?"

He had stopped in front of another tank to eye the rose-like plant inside, a light pink even under the artificial blue light. "Trying to bring you chocolate chip cookies—with chocolate from the Earth store, mind you—but, does this flower have teeth?"

With a few taps on her keyboard, an adjoining chamber to the tank opened, releasing three small, winged insects inside. "It's a Herrastian Virtros plant," she explained as the bugs flew at random, disoriented, but soon set their sights on the bright flower. With the exception of the planet Jefini, which had too many sacred laws surrounding its gardens, she had some form of plant life from every planet in the Voltron Alliance. All in tanks where they could not make her skin break out, but all connected. "They're carnivorous. But since it's in there, and you're out here, you'll be fine."

The bugs flew too close. The stem sprung out; the petals unwound to snatch them, impaling the insects on its teeth before closing around them. A dot of purple guts struck the glass. Hunk jumped and scooted on. "Staying far, far away."

"It's no different than a meat-eating animal. Like, you know, us."

"Nope, not messing with it."

Lance watched, still by the door and on his toes to see over the maze. "Aaanyway, creepy plants aside, does the Pidgeon mind coming down from her nest? We have cookies and something very important to the team I just acquired."

Pidge cocked an eyebrow. "What is it?"

The hangar door whished open for the rest of the crew to file in, Keith in front. "You wanted us, Lance?"

Lance lifted a fist of victory. "I am the god of great timing! Yes, Keith, I did!" With a grand gesture, he turned to everyone that had just come in. "While we were at the space mall, Hunk and I went back to that cool earth store and, unbeknownst to him, I found the ultimate team bonding game." He pulled the bag off his elbow, grabbed whatever was inside, but waited to pull it out, keeping it concealed. "To open all doors, shatter all barriers, and reveal the true, filthy nature of us all, I give you—!" He yanked the box out of the bag. "Cards Against Humanity!"

Pidge nearly fell off Green's nose laughing. She found her balance, but her laughter only worsened at everyone else's faces: Hunk had almost dropped the cookies as he stared in horror, Shiro twitched uncomfortably, Keith was unmoved, and Allura and Coran were equal parts confused and concerned. "This game sounds… violent," Allura finally tried.

"Only violent against your soul," Lance declared with a sultry grin. "You coming now, Pidge?"

She pat Green. "Guess I'm getting down. We should do this again sometime."

As Pidge climbed down to the lower jaw, Green bent over until Pidge was low enough to jump, laptop tucked under her arm. After a final affectionate pat, "Thanks, girl!" she jogged through the narrow path in the clutter to her teammates. Hunk had already returned when Lance plopped on the ground and started to wrestle the wrap around the game box. Hesitantly, everyone else sat near him, forming a circle. Pidge took place beside him, though reached around him to liberate a cookie from Hunk's plate.

"Got it!" Lance declared. He threw the static-filled wrapper to the side, right into Pidge's face. She spluttered and swiped at it. "Alright, kiddies, prepare to lose what's left of your childhood."

He explained the rules as he dealt, which spurred a Coran story of a similar sanity-ending Altean game that he and his companions used to play (he refused to dispel the details of any rounds with King Alfor, to Allura's simultaneous dismay and relief). Pidge listened, because dirt should never be ignored, until Lance leaned close to her ear. "First one to blush loses?"

She turned to him, to make sure he got the full glory of her smug smile. "I have a mind of steel, McClain."

They never learned who won.

"We're under attack! Everyone to your lions!"

"Particle barrier down! It's the comet ship!"

Pidge yelped and snapped up, sending the tablet tumbling off of her legs. She wasn't sure what had woken her until the next strike, this one closer, that rattled the entire facility and made the wall to her left groan.

She cradled the tablet in one arm as she leapt over her bed and landed at the panel by the door, assaulting the necessary commands. "Ezor! What the quiznak's going on?"

Moments passed, another explosion from somewhere else on the base, and then the familiar voice came through. "I'm on my way, Pidgey! Stay there!"

Pidge removed her finger from the mic. "Because clearly there are other options." And Ezor didn't answer her question, which she should have expected, but she would at least like to know who was going to kill her before it happened. Bad enough that Voltron never came for her, could they be stupid enough to now kill her too?

The shrill sound of metal tearing preceded the impact that threw her to the floor. One hand held her tablet close, the other shielded her head from falling debris. The shaking stopped. Pidge opened her eyes. A red light strobed, making her flinch, and she was sure if her ears were not ringing she would have heard an alarm to match.

She pushed herself to sit up and in a sweep of her eyes assessed the situation. Aside from a jagged panel that had stuck in her calf, the large chunks of debris had missed her, though the fact she couldn't feel her wound even with the blood that oozed out between skin and metal was reason for concern. Not ten feet above her head was the nose of a Galra fighter, the hatch busted and sentry inside sparking. Any more momentum in its fall and she would have been a shish kebab. The fighter had only dented the wall she had just been by, but the thin door had been crunched and partially dislodged, leaving a gap in one corner she could crawl through. For once, leaving actually was an option.

Something sparked in the corner of her eye, and she noticed the steadily growing fire on the Galra fighter above her. Make that the only option. "Bae Bae, time for us to go. Bring the blanket." Her own voice sounded distant, muffled as if through water, but her friend must have heard because he leapt off of her bed and dove through the gap in the door, a thin purple blanket trailing after him.

Pidge rolled onto her stomach, ignoring the pain of tiny pieces of metal digging into her bare arms and legs and poking through her clothes. First, she slid the tablet through. It stopped in front of Ro-Bae's front paws. The metal dog leaned over them, tail wiggling high in the air.

She crawled through on her arms, arrested the blanket, ripped off a long strip, and used that to tie up her leg, careful to not push the shrapnel deeper. The meager wrap only slowed instead of stopped the blood. She had enough sense to not pull it out—it did not seem deep, but she wasn't an expert in leg anatomy and if it could be in something vital.

By the time she finished, enough of her hearing had returned for her to hear the alarm instead of just see the blinding crimson flashes. The air seal had broken, though the base's defenses had sealed the breach before she could feel the effects. Good, asphyxiation was not in her top ten ways to kick the bucket.

Ezor still had not arrived. But as Pidge's hearing strengthened, she noticed the walls behind her creaking under the ship's weight, soon to collapse. Her room was at the end of a hall, so there was only one direction for Pidge to run—except she fell as soon as she put weight on her right leg. Her arms and tablet took the worst of the fall, but the possible sprain in them was overshadowed by the flaring in her leg. She curled into a ball, hands hovering over the wound. "Come on, adrenaline, do your thing," she hissed through gritted teeth.

Ro-Bae nudged her shoulder with his cold, dry nose. "Right, going," she murmured, and held onto him, then the wall, as she shakily stood. "Get my tablet." With a yip, he obeyed and held it firmly in his mouth. Arms on the wall to support herself, she hobbled down the hall, careful to keep her weight on her left leg.

A few times she came to offshoots in the barren narrow halls, always taking the one that lead away from the continued impacts, until she came to the main channel through the facility: the corridor was a few meters taller, and much wider, than any of the side halls. Black smoke billowed from the left, noxious and ash strewn. To the right, then, with the hope that Ezor wasn't somewhere in the debris.

She continued to hold onto the wall to move, but the blood had soaked through the blanket, run down her leg and wrapped around her bare foot before ultimately dripping to the floor, leaving a dotted trail behind her. Ro-Bae trotted at her side, bumping her good leg whenever she slowed down, urging her on. The smoke tried to cling to the ceiling, but grew too thick, lowering to dry Pidge's eyes and burn her lungs until she began to hack. Ro-Bae had to rise on his hind legs and press on her side to keep her standing when the violent coughs dizzied her or an explosion knocked her balance.

Ahead, she saw the smoke curl upward toward the high ceiling of a hangar. Pidge stumbled faster, until she was in the hangar and out of the smoke. She slumped against the wall, and though she could hear the crashes and tears of a near battle, she rewarded her burning eyes to close and took desperate breaths of clean air.

"Pidge!"

Ice skittered up her back. That voice, the same voice that had yelled, "Hold off the Galra while everyone else gets to their lions!" as she was shoved into the Green Lion. Pidge twisted her head, opened her eyes. Shiro stared at her from the center of the hangar, sparking sentries mutilated at his feet. Her eyes met his, and his surprise wore off. He ran toward her.

Pidge clambered against the wall, back to the smoke clogged corridor, but her run died before it started when she tried to step on her right leg. Pain tore from her foot up through her side, then into her shoulder when she hit the ground. Seething, she rolled onto her back and pulled her knee to her chest to grab her calf. The bandage squished under her fingers. Dammit stupid hurting leg.

"…have the prisoner," Shiro said, too close. Pidge snapped her eyes open, tried to scramble away, but Shiro's human hand firmly took her shoulder. "Hey, hey, it's just me."

"Hands off!"

Pidge shoved at his shoulders, unable to force him away, but he retreated at her demand. He kneeled a few feet away, still too close, but Pidge's leg seared and she couldn't get away, just watch as he held up his hands. "You know me. Shiro. We just want to get you out of here. You'll be safe."

Her breaths came short and heavy as she narrowed a glare at him. For months, she had in her head rehearsed exactly what to say if she ever saw him again, but her dry tongue had tied. She looked to Ro-Bae, but he had been programmed to not respond to her distress in others' presence, so only wagged his tail.

Shiro looked over his shoulder, and Pidge followed his gaze to an alien woman running into the hangar from the exit on the far side. "She's over here!" Then his focus was back on Pidge. Shiro hesitated, then held up his hands, inched closer, like she were a frightened animal. What did he expect her to do, run? "Pidge. Katie. It's Shiro, your friend. Your brother's friend. Matt's with us, too. Do you want to see him?"

The glare melted off her face. Her tongue was no closer to working, but she could nod. Shiro came closer, though he was starting to feel far away, the air between them light and foggy. "I'm going to help you up now, okay?" She did not fight when he put her arm around his shoulders and his own around her waist. The world spun when he hoisted her up, blurring a painful white against the Galra purple. "Stay with me, Pidge, no passing out now. Yestra! She's losing blood fast, help me get her—"

Shiro was ripped from under her. Pidge was thrown forward with the impact, catching herself on an arm and taking the rest of the force with her chin, jarring her teeth. She propped herself up on her other arm, but could push herself up no further. There were noises, and flashes of color, but all Pidge could process was that her leg was throbbing and she was spitting blood and Matt was nearby. She even turned her head, expecting to see her brother, clad in a Garrison uniform and eager to skip the formalities and just get into space already.

But he wasn't there, just that alien woman, Yestra, who took Pidge's arms and hauled her up so fast Pidge blacked out for a few ticks. When her vision came back, she saw Shiro again, locked in a fight against the one who had knocked him down. Ezor, her vibrant skin plagued with ash, and her movements lacking their usual acrobatic finesse. She was hurt. And there was someone else who might be hurt too. . .

"No, stop." The adrenaline came back. She was uncoordinated, blind, but stronger as she lashed at her captor. "I said stop! Let me go, dammit!" Slapping, punching, swiping, clawing. "I can't leave! I have to—"

She must have landed the lucky strike. Yestra dropped her. Pidge collapsed on her right leg. The shrapnel dug through her flesh until it struck bone, scraped across it. Pidge grabbed her leg, lacerating her hands on the shrapnel as she screamed. Her vision was white. She felt someone grab for her shoulder. Pidge thrashed, tried to sit up, but a damp hand on the side of her head pressed her into the floor. Something pinched her neck, and then she was just cold.

A/N I started this in August, right after season three, as an exercise on what makes a character them and how to utterly destroy that (sorry Pidge). I wrote six chapters, then season four came out and I realized I had an opportunity to explore Lotor and Zarkon sharing the Empire while canon no longer could, so then I wrote twelve more, and realized I should probably start posting this out before it's two seasons behind instead of just one. I have updated it with some knowledge from season four, but please remember that this was written before we knew all we do now about Matt and the resistance (and that Matt/Shiro will never be canon, RIP my ship...), so some truths are different. For instance, Matt is not the one who gave her the nickname Pidge. Anywho, thanks to my lovely zucchini for beta-reading, and thanks to you lovely reader for reading!