A Month Of Truth From Pidge And Lance : Narrated Edition

CHAPTER 5

(art by @mclanchez-dictionary on Tumblr)

DAY 18: CONTINUED

"Lance-"

"THIS IS WHY I SAID TO FOLLOW HER. BECAUSE I HAD A FEELING SHE WAS GOING TO RUN, WHETHER SHE WANTED TO OR NOT!"

He collapses wearily on the sofa of the recreation room, the rest of Voltron and Coran concernedly pacing the room, quietly debating, trying to analyse Lance.

He looked kind of broken.

"We'll get her back, Lance. She's our family," Keith says softly. Shiro nods in silent agreement.

"I let her go," Lance breathes out quietly, eyes glassy as if in a daze. "I knew she did going to go, and I let her go." He pauses. "I let..Pidge...go."

"It wasn't your fault," Shiro jumps in, like he can practically see and hear the alarms going off all around him. Lance, still holding on to the tension, looks down at the floor.

"I had the chance to stop her, but I didn't. I couldn't. And now Lotor has her."

Allura blanches, stepping up to Lance and placing a hand on his shoulder, pushing his body up, directing his gaze to her.

Its startling, how dead and tired he looks. And worried. And anxious. All for Pidge.

"Listen, Lance. It's not your fault. Even if you had tried to stop her, the spell wouldn't have let her stay," Allura reminds.

Silence hangs in the air.

"I should have gone with her," Lance finally comes to a conclusion. "I could have stopped her. If I could have changed what she really wanted, she wouldn't have gone."

Allura raises her eyebrows.

"How exactly do you have such good knowledge of the spell?"

Lance sighs, huffing out and slamming his hands on his lap, getting up and rubbing his fingers subconsciously.

"I think you'll want to come with me."

~~~

The air of the Galra prison is cold, unwelcoming, stale, the showpiece of the dark and emptied room being a tied-up, furious Pidge Gunderson.

Hands bound above her head, legs bound in a spreadeagle, Pidge can already feel her whole body aching and hurting from exhaustion. Her Paladin suit does nothing to help, and her Bayard is unreachable from this position.

Luckily, she's good at hiding things.

Unless it's the truth. Then she has a problem.

"Did you really think infiltrating the Galra prison would be so easy, Pidge?"

Lotor paces the room, cape sweeping behind him, regal hair shining bright in the relative darkness of the purple-black room.

"Not easy, but certainly doable," she answers, not even flinching, not even losing his gaze. "And it's Gunderson to you."

"Okay, I'll respect that, Gunderson. But I'd also like you to tell me something."

No, no, no, no, no, Pidge cannot afford to lose everything, answer to him, give up her secrets and Voltron's secrets just because she...she hadn't been able to break a spell. And because she had been irrational, unable to control herself.

And Lance...

She misses Lance.

Who knew what could happen in one month?