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allzelemonz · 3 years

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Don’t Go: Crosshair X Gender Neutral Reader Part 3

Last one for a bit. Because, you know, content is limited.

Your duties kept you away for a while. Clone cadets needed a lot of supervision. The younger ones weren’t usually your division, but today you had to teach a squadron of them proper drill. That took hours. Being clones you’d think they’d all have a relatively similar sense of balance, but this one kid kept swaying during movements. Your frustrations would be quelled once you got to the batch’s barracks. Crosshair always kept a blanket in the drawer under his bunk. That blanket happened to smell like him, and you really needed the comfort. He’d intended it to be a substitution for when he didn’t want to be touched, but you only really used it when he was on mission. When you opened the door it slid open to reveal Omega and TZ.

“What’re you two doing in here?”

Omega was holding one of the tablets as TZ came across the droid head that Wrecker lost a few months ago.

“Oh, we were just on a, uh, a research assignment.” Omega explained.

“Uh-huh.” You stepped inside, letting the door slide closed behind you. “Research?”

“Yeah, wait. What’re you doing here?” She asked as TZ hovered behind her, peaking over her shoulder at you.

“I’m checking on the state of my former trainees and current friends.” You answered smoothly. “You know, my job.”

The sound of footsteps caused you to look away from the girl. She made for the door, only to run directly into a clone trooper.

“You’re not authorized to be in here.” The trooper accused.

“She’s with me.” You brought the clone’s attention to you. “I needed her help to return a few items to Clone Force 99 after their last mission check in.”

“I’m afraid I’ll have to report this, Commander. She’s still not authorized.” The clone grabbed Omega’s arm and TZ objected to the action.

The clone stunned the droid and pulled Omega away. You stood in place, keeping your demeanor. As the troopers began to gather the batch’s gear you snuck over to Crosshair’s bunk and slipped the blanket into a blaster case. You made your way to the door, trying not to arouse suspicion.

“Where are you going with that, Commander?” A trooper intercepted you.

“It’s a training blaster.” You lied. “Wrecker took it accidentally from their last training simulation, I needed to get it back for the cadet’s upcoming training.”

The trooper nodded and let you pass. You made your way to your own barracks, putting the case aside and hiding the blanket in one of your clothing drawers. You couldn’t let them take it. Now you had Omega to worry about. As you were about to leave your barracks the door slid open and Tarkin stood before you.

“Commander, or should I say Lieutenant Colonel.”

“Excuse me, what did you say, sir?” You asked in utter confusion.

“You’ve been promoted.” Tarkin explained. “I reported your capabilities to the Emperor and was impressed as well.”

“Thank you, sir.” You said, still mildly confused.

“You are to be appointed as second-in-command of our new training program.” Tarkin gave a small smile. “I’m sure you’ll do well.”

“Of course, sir.”

You mind boggled around as you tried to make sense of the situation.

“Come now, Colonel. We have treacherous clones to deal with.”

“Treacherous clones, sir?”

“Clone Force 99 failed their mission and have committed a gratuitous act of treason.”

Tarkin turned on his heel and beckoned you to follow him. You were joined by a squadron of clones and made your way to the hanger. The sick feeling in your stomach refused to subside. Best case scenario Hunter did something stupid and it was easy to fix.

As you neared, Tarkin took a blaster from one of the clones and handed it to you with a curt nod. You took it, trying not to think about who you’d be pointing it at. You took position and watched as the Bad Batch approached. As Hunter commanded them to stop and wait the other troopers moved in, blasters poised. You emerged with Tarkin, blaster fixed more downward than it should be.

“The Empire does not tolerate failure, Sergeant.” Tarkin noted.

“There were complications.” Hunter explained, his eyes looking to you for a moment.

“Yes, the probe droid’s report was quite detailed.” The storm’s lightning flashed, lighting up Tarkin’s face for a moment. “Conspiring with Saw Gerrera.”

You furrowed your brows. Gerrera fought for the Republic. Why wouldn’t he fight for the Empire? You looked past Hunter to try and get a read from the others. They looked as confused as you.

“I assume you know the punishment for treason?” Tarkin continued.

“Treason?” Hunter questioned.

“Throw them in the brig.” Tarkin ordered.

At that you saw Crosshair grit his teeth in annoyance and you couldn’t help but think what might happen if you just shot Tarkin and fought your way out. It’s what you should’ve done, but you didn’t. You moved aside as the clone escorted their brothers to the holding cells. Tarkin nodded for you to oversee and you followed them out.

There was an uneasy feeling in the air as you walked behind the troopers. You held your blaster passively now. When you reached the holding facility the batch was stripped of their weapons and armor. You tried to keep a commanding face as you instructed the troopers what to do with your friends. None of them would meet your eyes. Aside from Crosshair. He wouldn’t look away from you. You couldn’t tell if he was upset or angry or whatever, he just never let his eyes leave you.

When they were in the cell you noticed the discourse amongst them. Crosshair was at a disagreement with everyone else. Nothing new, but it seemed like more than usual. Their voices were muffled by the barrier, so the conversation was lost to you. You focused on the incoming message from Tarkin. He wanted Crosshair.

The clones approached the cell. Crosshair looked in pain now that you had a chance to look at him, not crowded by the others.

“CT-9904, you’re coming with us.” Crosshair looked up at the sound of his designation.

“Oh, no, no, no. We stay together.” Hunter defended.

The troopers acted rashly, weapons engaged. Crosshair stood and walked out with no further quarrels. You led the escort out of the holding area. It would be so easy to escape now. But, Crosshair was unlikely to want to escape. Given his attitude up until now, this might be what he wants. You hated this. Having to pick sides. Tarkin had ordered Crosshair to the med bay. There was no telling what he had planned, but it couldn’t be good.

You stood by the Admiral in observation as they put Crosshair under a scanner. You were too far away to stop anything, and too far deep into this new ploy. Whatever Tarkin had planned was going to happen, and you couldn't do anything to stop it. They spoke about an inhibitor chip. That’s why Crosshair was acting weird. The programming Tech was talking about was the chip.

“Could you intensify the programming?” Tarkin asked.

You listened intently. If this happened, Crosshair wouldn’t be himself. He’d be as obedient as the regs after the order.

“Yes.”

“Then proceed.” Tarkin ordered.

You watched with a tight grip on your blaster, your knuckles turning white, as the machine bore into Crosshair’s head and he began to shake. The urge to shoot your way out of there was greater than ever, but you knew it’d never work.

When the operation was over Tarkin ordered you to oversee Crosshair’s transition. He was to be outfitted with new armor. You were left alone with him in the medbay as he stirred awake.

“Crosshair?” You called timidly, hoping whatever that thing did didn’t harm his memory.

“(Y/n)?” He put a hand to his head. “What’s going on?”

“They enhanced your inhibitor chip, they want you to serve the Empire.”

“And what do you want, Lieutenant Colonel?” Crosshair asked as he got on his feet.

“What?” You wondered how he knew about your promotion.

“Do you have orders for me, sir?”

“Crosshair do you not remember me?”

“I do.” He nodded. “But the mission comes first.”

“Right, follow me.” You nodded.

You led Crosshair to where instructed. He was provided new armor and a new rifle. As he got dressed you waited by the door, ready to report back to Tarkin when he was done.

“(Y/n)?” He called.

“Something wrong, Cross?” You peaked around the corner, relief filling you that he’d not used your rank.

“What do you think?” He gestured to his new uniform.

Your breath caught for a moment. He looked good. The armor fit him nicely and it was very complimenting.

“I, uh, I like it.” You nodded.

Crosshair walked to you and rested his hand on your cheek. You were just happy the reprogramming had done anything overly dramatic to him. He leaned in and kissed you. His hand traveled to the back of your head and his other arm wrapped around your waist. You couldn’t remember the last time he’d kissed you like this. You wrapped your arms around him as well and deepened the kiss.

A beeping alert from your comm caused you both to pull away. You listened intently as Crosshair grabbed his rifle and helmet.

“It’s the others, they’ve escaped to the hanger.” You informed. “Tarkin wants you there.”

“Then let’s go.”

“Are you sure?”

Crosshair gave you an odd look.

“They’re our friends.”

“They were.” Crosshair countered. “Now they’re traitors.”

You gave him a nod and led the way out, but your mind was racing again. Crosshair wouldn’t do this. Nevertheless, you reported to the new troops and Crosshair took command. He went to the hanger while you made your way to Tarkin’s office as instructed. Whatever was going to happen, you weren’t leaving Crosshair alone.

#star wars #star wars clone wars #star wars x reader #star wars clone wars x reader #the bad batch #the bad batch x reader #the bad batch x male reader #bad batch #crosshair #crosshair x reader #crosshair x male reader #crosshair x female reader #crosshair x gender neutral reader #x reader #x gender neutral reader #x male reader #x female reader

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flyingblackhawk · 5 years

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The Meeting

Avengers/Clintasha fic

1,240 words

for @liz-a-bell <3

Read Part 1

“Woah.”

Natasha has to agree. The view of the facility from the window of the quinjet is pretty spectacular. She prefers this to the tower, without a doubt. It’s nice to be close to the ground. Besides, fewer people gather to watch them land when they’re upstate instead of the centre of Manhattan. Clint pilots the jet down to the landing pad, and then they taxi off into one of the hangars. Nina is glued to the window, staring out at the flashy facility. A few hours ago, she was in weapons class. Natasha summoned her, handed her a duffel bag, and then they were on their way here.

“Nat!”

Sam is waving to them from a balcony above, in a building Tony has dubbed ‘the barracks’. The barracks is not, however, army-standard accommodation, but a collection of brand-new apartments, fully fitted with all the tech and creature comforts Tony could fit in for each of them. Natasha leads the way over to the building, and Sam emerges from a stairwell when they enter the foyer. He jogs over and wraps Natasha in a hug, claps Clint on the shoulder, and then pauses on Nina.

“Sam,” he says, holding out his hand.

“Nina,” she answers. She’s keeping her cool, and Natasha is impressed.

“This the trainee?” Sam asks. Natasha inclines her head. “Okay,” he nods. “Cool. Welcome. Tony’s over in the lounge, and a couple others are coming in for the meeting tonight.”

“Meeting?” Nina asks Natasha, as they leave the barracks and head for the central building of the complex.

“Kind of,” Natasha says. “We get together once every few months, formally to have a meeting, but really just to see each other.”

“Plus, I get lonely,” Sam calls over his shoulder. Natasha laughs, and Nina tries to relax a little.

In the main building, Sam leads them into a sleek, modern lounge, where Tony Stark is sitting with a coffee, reading something off a tablet.

“Stark,” Sam calls. Tony looks up.

“Who’s that?” he asks. He walks over, and dodges Natasha’s attempt to block him. He looks down at Nina. “She doesn’t have clearance. Who are you?” Nina gapes. “Speak,” he snaps.

“Nina,” she says. “I’m Nina.”

“That means nothing to me. What are you, their secret kid?”

“I’m a trainee,” she says, recovering herself. Natasha has warned her about Tony Stark. “Agent Romanoff took me on from the cadet program.”

“I don’t remember inviting you to my house,” Tony says.

“I didn’t see your name on it,” she retorts. Clint snorts, and Nina maintains eye contact.

“Okay,” Tony nods. “Small but strong. You’ll get on well with Lang.” He turns back to the bench. “She’s not security cleared, so I don’t want to see her down in the labs. Romanoff, you want a coffee?”

“Please,” Natasha says. “Black for me, Nina takes milk and sugar.”

“I take it black too,” Clint says, waving a hand. “Hello?”

Tony makes coffee, and they sit around the end of the bench. Clint and Natasha are talking to Tony about weapons upgrades, so Sam turns to Nina.

“So, did they get you through the Army?” he asks. She smiles. He’s good.

“Airforce cadets,” she says. “Straight out of high school. They offered me the college scholarship, but I wanted to get in the thick of it.”

“No family?”

“A grandma in Canada,” she says. “I email her sometimes. She’s not big on the defence forces so she doesn’t ask too many questions.”

“And Romanoff isn’t pushing you too hard?”

She smiles, and shakes her head. “I can take it. She’s taught me how to flatten the douchebags in cadets. That’s worth any amount of pain.”

Sam laughs. “I can see why she likes you.”

Nina looks over at Natasha, who looks away but can’t hide her smile. Watching Nina’s ability to charm and befriend people with no ulterior motive, just as herself, it’s like the girl has her own superpower.

The ‘meeting’ lasts for around fifteen minutes, and mostly consists of catching each other up on where they’ve been, what they’ve been doing, and making sure no one’s violated any federal or international laws recently. It then becomes what is very obviously a party, albeit a laid back one. There is beer - not for Nina, that seems to be the one law they don’t want to break - and snacks, and the atmosphere is far less formal than Nina was expecting for an Avengers meeting.

“Are you from New York?”

Steve has appeared by the couch Nina is sitting on. Clint has brought her a soda with a curly straw, but seeing as no one’s mocking her for it, it’s actually kind of nice. The soldier sits, waiting for her answer.

“My mom’s family was from Ontario,” she says. “My grandma still lives in Ottawa. I’m pretty sure I was born in Missouri, not really sure what happened after that. I grew up in a home in Flatbush.”

“Brooklyn,” he says, and his voice is warm. She knows what it’s like to love that place. It wasn’t an easy childhood, but she loved living there.

“We used to walk past your apartment building on the way to school,” she says. “There’s a plaque on the wall with your name and an engraving. Looks nothing like you.”

“I’ve seen it,” he smiles.

“I was about ten when they found you,” she says. “I thought, if he can survive that, then I can survive this. It’s cheesy, but it kind of helped.”

He looks touched, and looks at his beer, embarrassed. She smiles. “Sorry. You take what you can get in the way of heroes, and you’re a pretty good one.”

He clears his throat, and nods. “It’s weird, sometimes. I never did any of this to be a hero. I just wanted to help.”

“I get that. I joined up to help too.”

They chat about Brooklyn and the war and other things, and from across the room Natasha watches. Clint is drinking beside her.

“Told you he’d like her,” she says, like he ever doubted it.

“Shared experience,” he says. “They both wanted to serve, they both got a chance to do something more. And she’s like you.” Natasha raises her eyebrows. “Recruited into a specialised program, trained…”

He stops, because Natasha is looking at him in a pained way, and he suddenly understands that it’s because she’s thinking of the Red Room, and about how she had no choice in her upbringing.

“Hey,” he murmurs. He takes hold of her arm. “That’s not what this is. You know that.” He gestures over to where Nina is animatedly recounting to Steve a tale of a sparring match from the SHIELD gym. “Look at her. This is what she loves. She wants to fight, and she wants to help. Steve doesn’t regret the sacrifices he made, and Nina will be the same. Only she won’t have to lose anything. We won’t let that happen.”

She looks at him, her mouth half open. “Of course I’m going to help you,” he says, brushing off her unasked question. “Don’t be a dumbass.”

She punches him lightly in the shoulder, and then leans against him.

“You really think we won’t screw her up?” she asks. Nina is laughing now, completely at ease surrounded by heroes and gods.

“I’m sure we will,” Clint says. “But she’ll love us anyway.”

Natasha sighs, and squeezes his hand.

#AC19 #day 23 #fic #avengersfic #clintashafic #clintashashield

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legendaryroar · 6 years

Text

Problem Solving

Pairing: Matt/Shiro Rating: Teen Word Count: 1,397 Notes: Re-posting to a new account from an old one. Series connection is loose and reading the other is not necessary. Summary: A previously unknown cadet beats Shiro's long-standing simulator record. When Shiro goes to check out who this kid is, he doesn't like the way people are treating him for beating his record.

Read on AO3

Excerpt:

Matt appears at Shiro’s side without a sound. Shiro is unsurprised. Matt has an extraordinary knack for finding him at all times. Or at least, that’s what he claims it is, but Shiro knows he hacks the security feeds on his tablet. He gave up on trying to derail that habit of his years ago. Matt’s only been caught a few times, and he usually avoids punishment by showing the tech deparment the gaps in their security.

Still, the way he hovers next to him without a word puts Shiro on edge.

“I’m not upset,” he says quickly.

People have been assuming that since it happened. He really hadn’t thought much of it until he was confronted by the consequences of such words.

Matt hums and bumps their sides together, the back of one of his hands brushing against Shiro’s as they look down into the flight simulator room. The windows of the observation room are on their one-way setting so no one can see Shiro there. This is perhaps for the best.

If this Keith sees him then he will likely feel even worse than those assholes are making him feel.

“So, you’ve been watching him because you’re not bothered that he beat your record?” Matt asks sceptically. “Because it’s okay, you know. If you are upset. He’s just a kid. That’s gotta sting a bit.”

Shiro balls his hands into fists as he watches the instructor say something to Keith and sees the teen’s hackles rise in response.

By all accounts, Keith is a prodigy. But no one, not even his own instructors, are happy that he broke Shiro’s long-standing solo combat flight simulation record. Shiro has been their poster boy for years. Disciplined, polite, not a single stain on his record. The cadets call him a legend, and as uncomfortable as it makes him feel, he understands the need for it. A goal, something for the young cadets to aspire to. Something to push them forward.

In any case, it keeps him on base when he isn’t on mission, which means he gets to stay with Matt, who is permanently assigned to the base in the science compound.

From a cursory investigation, Keith is no such poster boy. But he now holds the solo combat flight simulator record. And as far as Shiro has seen from watching him for days and engaging the intercom to listen in on the room below the observation deck, no one is even praising him for it.

“Exactly,” he says tersely. “He’s a kid. They should be encouraging him. They’re not.”

#shatt #miro #shiro x matt #matt x shiro #voltron #vld #shiro #matt #keith #my fanfic #one more fic today and i'll leave off reposting more until tomorrow because it's such a pain #*

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avidbeader · 7 years

Text

Voltron fanfic: “Scattered” Chapter 10

Season 2 AU. No ships, K+ to T rating. Begin at the beginning here.

<> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <>

As they waited for the Metreans to prepare for departure, the Paladins and Alteans gathered in the kitchens. Hunk brought a selection of fresh fruits and greens that he had discovered while exploring the riverbanks and worked with Coran to supplement the space goo into a more appetizing meal.

Lance was arguing with Shiro and Allura. “I don’t understand! If we think there’s a real chance of Keith being held by Earth’s military, why aren’t we going straight there? It’s not like we need Voltron to bust him out!”

Allura shook her head. “My hope is to do this through diplomacy, but if it comes to a firefight, I want all our resources to hand. The Green Lion is still the only one outfitted with the cloaking device and we may need that capability.”

“And Lance, think about it. You’re the one who remembered how they treated me when I returned. What happened next? Four kids and a presumed-dead pilot vanished in an alien ship. What do you think the reaction will be if there are only three kids accounted for? We need Pidge’s presence if we’re going to present a unified front to them.” Shiro restlessly drummed the fingers of his Galra hand on the table next to him, producing a steady clinking noise.

Lance opened his mouth to argue some more, but couldn’t think of anything to add to his side. He glared at Shiro. “You’re worried, though.”

“Yes, I am. I’m a lot worried.”

<> <> <> <> <>

Lieutenant General Darzi stood to attention in front of General Benítez’ desk. Perkins was off to the side. The general stacked the recollected papers that held the results of Kogane’s blood tests and pushed them through a slit in the wall to the incinerator. She then turned and planted her hands on her hips. “Explain yourself.”

Darzi wanted to swallow hard, but resisted. Calm was necessary. “As Perkins was preparing the new round of amotrazephine combined with adrenaline, Kogane began struggling and shouting. I only wanted to prevent him from hurting himself.”

The general turned steely eyes to Perkins, who shifted his feet as he debated with himself. He looked up. “What I witnessed suggests that Darzi wanted to justify it by claiming he was preventing the boy from crying out or hurting himself, but he intended to incapacitate at the very least. He came damn close to killing him.”

“And your evidence?”

“Only my word, ma’am. As I said in the meeting, the signs of suffocation were gone within a few hours. A normal person would have had bloodshot eyes and bruises for days after.”

Benítez turned back to Darzi. “I am giving you one more chance to explain.”

At that point, he knew he had lost. He might as well lay everything out. He picked up his tablet from where he had laid it on the desk and pulled up the relevant files. “This is Kogane from when he was a cadet, from a vid of a workout session made for training purposes. Do you see the knife in his hand?”

Benítez and Perkins looked closely. Benítez picked up her own tablet and searched briefly. “The inventory of his belongings included a knife. It was assumed to be part of that armor, because the lab techies can’t identify the materials in the blade or the stone on the hilt.” She looked up, worry lines creasing her forehead.

Perkins shook his head. “Anyone could have given it to him at any time.”

“Maybe,” Darzi replied. “But look at this.” He pulled up another photo, showing the upper half of a humanoid robot. “This was in the ship that brought Takashi Shironage back from wherever he was for a year. Look at the symbol on its chest. Now, look at the symbol on that knife.” He handed the tablet to Perkins so the other two could compare the photos side by side.

Perkins shook his head again. “Now you’re reaching. Yes, they could be the same alphabet, but they could just as easily be unrelated. You’re determined to make that boy into some kind of alien threat and you don’t have enough reason to.”

“He won’t answer our questions!”

“Maybe that’s because you took him prisoner first!”

“Gentlemen, enough!” Benítez dropped both tablets on her desk. “Darzi, I will grant that Kogane having a knife of theoretically alien origin for years is an issue, but your reaction was still far over the line and made the situation much worse. I am removing you. You have forty-eight hours to clear out and report to Fort Bragg. You will stay there until a hearing is formed to investigate charges of wrongful imprisonment and assault.”

“General!”

“Want me to add attempted murder? No? Then dismissed!”

Darzi’s face darkened, but he grabbed his tablet, saluted, and backed out of the room.

Benítez turned to Perkins. “This fact about the knife is bad, Sam. I’m trusting you an awful lot.”

He nodded. “I know you are, Mari. But we can’t get answers from a dead body.”

<> <> <> <> <>

It was getting close to the midday meal in the village. Pidge continued to scan the prisoner files, knowing Sofee would come fetch her when it was actually time to eat. She paused for one moment to scrub her eyes, which were beginning to tire, and resumed.

Ears, gills, snout, ears again, scales… She zipped through photo files in rapid succession. Horns, four eyes, ears AGAIN, how many times did they go after those people, jeez, mane, Shiro—

Shiro!

“Omigosh, omigosh…” Pidge stared at the picture of Shiro, his dark hair falling over his forehead and his terror-filled eyes staring out of an unmarked face.

With trembling fingers, she copied all the text from Shiro’s file and set it as a search pattern. Her hope was to find cross-references in the Galra text that included either the date of Shiro’s capture, the location, or the ship involved.

Please, please, please…

A dozen files popped up. The top two showed her exactly what she had hoped for.

Pidge stared at the pictures of her father and Matt in disbelief for a moment, then squealed and hugged herself. “I found them! I found them!” She saved the two files to her gauntlet interface, then pulled Shiro’s file up next to them and began studying them intently.

Green nudged her mind in a way that felt almost like an impatient poke.

“What, girl? What is it?”

My navigation database.

“Oh? Oh! Yes!” Pidge scrambled out of the hut and ran for her Lion. Once in the pilot’s seat, she shared the files to Green’s databank. A star map, a miniature of the one from the Castle-ship. appeared and showed three locations.

The first location was the farthest away.

Your planet. Where they were found.

The second location was deep within Galra territory.

Where they were all taken first.

Pidge thought a moment. That must be near the Galra’s central command, possibly close to the gladiator rings where Shiro spent far too many months fighting for his life.

The last location was still deep in Galra territory, but not near any major population centers.

The last known location of your father and brother.

The slave camp. She had coordinates to the slave camp where Dad and Matt likely were.

Not yet. Wait for reinforcements.

Pidge dropped her shoulders, feeling the powerful pull to just take off and start flying there on her own. But Green was right; she was alone and she had no way to make wormholes or access a Galra hyperdrive to cross the distance (but there’s a thought, having a second option for super-speed travel).

“So in the meantime, we keep busy. I’ll work on that wrist communicator idea.”

She felt pride running through the purr that Green sent.

<> <> <> <> <>

Keith swam up from true sleep to awareness of himself, in the now-familiar red-gold aura of his Lion. Before he could try to wake up fully, he heard her voice.

Wait.

He obeyed, taking the opportunity to bask in her reassuring presence. Her warmth surrounded and soothed him. He sent back his affection and trust and was rewarded with a thunderous purr.

Now.

Keith opened his eyes to see the back of a medtech as he left the room. A noise drew his attention and he looked to see Perkins there. The man was doing something with his armor…

Keith bit back a gasp when he realized that Perkins was hiding his knife inside one of his gauntlets. He knew that Earthforce had no access to his bayard – Pidge had once tried to describe her theory on the tiny dimensional pockets that the armor seemed to possess, but he had been lost very quickly.

But his knife…it was one of the few things that had been passed down to him from his parents and he would be damned if they tried to take it from him.

Perkins turned and saw Keith’s gaze on him. “I tried my best, son. Darzi’s been reassigned, but if I’m going to be a witness against him I have to stay away. But you should be safe. General Benítez is in charge and she won’t let anyone hurt you. But you should be honest with them when they start asking you questions again.”

Keith’s expression hardened at that. Perkins looked unsurprised. He laid one hand on Keith’s shoulder. “Good luck, son.” He went to the door, paused and checked the hallway, then left.

Keith tried yet again to get loose, attempting to slide up or down far enough to get one of his arms free enough to undo a strap. Just as he began to make headway, a new medtech entered the room. Without speaking, she set a syringe in her hand down and moved to roll up the sleeve of the arm they hadn’t used yet.

“No, come on! Just stop it already! I’m not going to hurt anyone! Stop it!”

Without speaking, the woman picked up the syringe and clinically administered whatever was in it.

They were clearly learning. The sedative was strong enough to hit him immediately and he fell into blackness once more.

<> <> <> <> <>

After eating, Pidge sat down with the sentry head and finished isolating its communicator. She set it out and began tinkering. She found the tech simple enough and reassembled the thing, mounting it on a clunky bracelet she fashioned from a piece of another sentry’s wrist. She put on her helmet and tried speaking into the comm. “Pidge to Pidge, can you read me?”

Nothing. But she wasn’t deterred. Pidge had figured that she might need the castle’s resources to finish this invention. Now she wondered if the modification still worked on its original frequency.

“I need another head…” She looked around at the sorted salvage. “Oh, quiznak.” She popped off the helmet and went outside.

She spotted Sofee playing with a few other Arusian children in the village square, looking much more normal than even a day ago thanks to the repurposed sentries.

“Hey, Sofee, if anyone asks, I ran back out to the Galra crash site. I need to find a couple of specific things. I should be back in less than a bleer.”

Sofee nodded and Pidge jogged to her speeder.

<> <> <> <> <>

Hunk’s face popped up on the comm screen. “And we are set, Princess! The transports are loaded and we just need to get the rest of the Metreans aboard. We’ll be ready to take off on your command in about fifteen derbyshires.”

“Doboshes,” Coran corrected.

“Finally!” Allura’s patience was at an end. She pulled up another screen. “Lance, is everyone ready for takeoff? The Metreans are almost ready.”

Lance’s face appeared on his screen. “We are all set, my lady.” He gave an exaggerated bow and Allura tried to stamp down her now-reflexive impatience with her Blue Paladin’s attitude.

Shiro took his seat and brought up his own controls. “Shiro to Pidge, do you read me?”

There was no answer.

“She’s off without her helmet again.”

Allura nodded. “At least she’s in safe territory. And we should be there in less than a varga.”

<> <> <> <> <>

Pidge was cresting the ridge of the crash impact site when she realized that she had left both her helmet and the metal detector back in the village in her haste. She wondered if she would have left the rest of her armor if she hadn’t put it on this morning out of habit.

“Oh, for crying out loud…”

But she remembered leaving a pile of sentry parts in the northwest quadrant after going through them for hands intact enough for the Galra-glove experiment. She drove the speeder over and hopped off, going to the pile of metal. Hopefully there was a head in good enough condition there.

She had tossed aside two heads that were too damaged to be of use and was digging for a third when she noticed a strange shadow zipping across the ground. She looked up and felt her heart jump into her mouth.

A Galra drone was zeroing in on her location.

She dove into the edges of the wreckage pile. If there were the slightest chance that they were only investigating the crash site, she might get lucky and remain undisco—

The speeder.

Quiznak.

Grabbing the element of surprise while she had it, she brought up her gauntlet and quickly turned on one of her most useful distractions. At the touch of a screen, a hologram Green Paladin raced from the salvage pile toward the speeder.

The drone reacted and fired on the running figure. The image showed static and winked out of existence.

Pidge stood and fired her bayard at the drone, sending crackling green energy through it. Its red lights went out and it fell to the surface as she retracted her blade.

Score!

She started for the fallen drone, eager to investigate it, when a purple bolt hit the dirt not two feet from her. She ducked back behind the salvage, bringing her shield up as more bolts flew. She peeked carefully through a gap between a couple of legs and saw two more drones coming in. She worked her way to the other side of her barrier and watched the shadows.

As they honed in on her location, they swooped close together. She tumbled out and sent her bayard forth again, wrapping her grappling rope around one and swinging with all her might. The trapped drone collided with the second one and they exploded in a fireball.

There were no other drones in sight. Pidge knelt to catch her breath and sent assurance to her Lion, who was suddenly flooding her awareness with concern.

I’m fine, girl. I took care of them.

<> <> <> <> <>

“Commander Prorok! Two more drones are offline!”

Prorok nodded at the shouted report from the soldier monitoring the scouts. “I think that’s confirmation, don’t you, Thace?”

Lieutenant Thace looked impassive. “It would seem so, sir.”

Prorok opened a communication channel. “Commander Gelor, you are ordered to investigate the planet Arus and track down whoever is using Galra technology and taking out our drones. Deadly force is authorized, I repeat, deadly force is authorized.”

Next chapter

#scattered by avidbeader #voltron #voltron legendary defender #voltron fanfic #fanfic: voltron

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