I miss you James

Where's Shiro?

Time skip- right after the battle with Zarkon, when Thace sacrifices himself.

Pidge POV

"SHIRO? SHIRO!" Keith yelled. "Guys, Shiro's not responding." He said, panic seeping into my voice. "Keith, calm down." Lance said. "Calm down? CALM DOWN? SHIRO'S IN THERE!" "Keith, help me get Black. She's just dead in the water. We'll take her back to the Castle." Hunk said, moving Yellow towards Black. "Paladins, return to the Castle! We're preparing to wormhole!" Allura said into the comms. Keith and Hunk rushed to Black and carried her to the Castle. The second we landed, Keith jumped out of Red and ran to Black. "SHIRO! SHIRO!" He yelled, running into the jaw, me and the others not far behind him. Right before I got in there, he screamed. An inhuman, unholy, horrifying scream. Me and the others exchanged a look, and then ran into the lion with renewed energy. We found Keith standing in the cockpit, frozen, staring at an empty pilot chair. Allura gasped and covered her mouth as the rest of us stared in shock. Lance was the first to talk. "Keith.... I'm so sorry." 

That was all it took for him to break. Keith fell to his knees and sobs started shaking his body, big, fat tears falling down his face. I knelt down and wrapped my arm around his shoulders. He leaned into me silently, still crying. "Shiro's gone..." Hunk muttered. "Who's going to pilot the Black Lion now?" Allura asked, and Keith stood and whirled around to face her. "Really? That's what you're worried about? Not the fact that he's gone? You just lost a real person. he got captured by the Galra and was there for a year. He finally makes it back home, and then he gets sent into space by some magic lion, and gets thrown into a war with the people who tortured him! And you're worried about finding a new pilot? I can't believe you!" And stormed out of the lion.  I sighed. "Give him time Princess. Shiro is the only family he has." "Yes, and without a body, we don't even know if he's dead. He could've been taken prisoner." Coran added. "But this is going to affect number 4 greatly." We all nodded in agreement. And each of us, one by one, left the lion.

A few hours later, I was wandering around the halls, when I heard clanging coming from the training room. Keith was in there, fighting the  bot. He swung wildly with his sword, slashing at the bot who was advancing. He blocked a slash, then stabbed it through the chest. "FUCKING DIE ALREADY! LEAVE! LEAVE ME ALONE JUST LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE!" He screamed, stabbing the bot repeatedly. It disappeared and he backed away, breathing heavily. He wiped at his face a few times, and I realized that he was crying. "Just leave.." He whimpered. Then he shook his head. "ARGH! Begin training sequence 21!" Another bot dropped from the ceiling, and he got in a fighting stance, hefting his bayard.  "Let's go bitch." And they charged at each other. 

I quietly stepped away, descending back down the hall. Keith had his way of coping. Destroy whatever he can and do it privately. Without James he was really... off. Defensive even. But not having James, Adam or Shiro must've really been doing a number on him. He seemed closed off lately, less cheery. But what were we going to do? Without Shiro, we have no Black Paladin. And without a Black Paladin, there's no Voltron. No Voltron, no savage butt-kickery of the bad Galra. We'd have to find another Black Paladin. But that could take deca-phoebs. We didn't have that kind of time. The universe didn't have that time.

Without realizing it, I had ended up in the kitchen, where Hunk was making something. "Oh! Hey Pidge. What's up?" I shrugged and leaned on the counter. "Nothing good. Whatcha doing?" "I'm baking. It calms me. If I'm lucky, I can make some cookies with these ingredients." He said, gesturing to the food placed all over the counters. "Comfort food, you know?" I shrugged. "Yeah. Need any help?" He shook his head. "Nah, I think I got it."

We were silent, Hunk moving around and baking, me sitting at the counter. "Hey, do you remember when we did this with our friends at the Garrison?" I smiled and sighed softly. "Yeah. Those were good times. Why?" "Well, Keith mentioned earlier, when we went to get the scaultrite, how he wondered what they were doing. If time passes differently in space than on Earth. If when we get back, it'll be less time for them than us." He said while mixing something. "Well, theoretically, it's possible. No one has ever traveled outside our solar system before, so therefore they've never had a chance to test the theory. But it could happen." "But what would the difference be? Seconds? Minutes? Days? Years? What if by the time we get back all of our families are gone? Or- or they've announced us a dead like they did with the Kerberos mission? I mean, you saw what they did to Shiro when he came back. What if they do that to us? And we become human science experiments?" Hunk said, increasing the speed of his mixing, causing some to spill. "Well, then they'll have to deal with five magic space lions trying to kill them. And when we make it back to Earth, they'll know we're not dead." I said, picking up the spilled batter with my finger and eating it. "And knowing our families, they're already looking for us. The Garrison will be leading an investigation into our disappearances, and because they've already lost three people, they'll probably make an even bigger deal about us. Plus we're kids, and technically I'm still a minor." Hunk raised an eyebrow. "You're surprisingly calm about this all. Why? I know you must be freaking out too." I shrugged. "It's happened before. We know Shiro, and we know Keith. Keith won't stop looking for him, and Shiro is to stubborn to die. We'll find him, we just need time. ?But Allura's right, we need to focus on Voltron right now. We have a duty to the universe out here." "But what about our duty to our families? Our other friends? Think about your mom, Pidge. She already lost your dad and Matt, now she's lost you too. All she has is Bae Bae. What is she going to do?" I sighed. "Hunk, I know, okay? I know. But that's why we have to stay out here. One, we owe it to the universe, because if Zarkon gets to Earth, we're all as good as dead. Two because we need to find Matt and my dad. Three, we need to find Shiro. We need to do all of those things, not necessarily in that order. But we can't do any of that from Earth. We need to be out ere, in space. With the lions." He sighed and set the bowl down. "Yeah, I know. Its just-" "Hunk." I said softly, placing my hand on his arm. "I get it. You want to be home. But we have to do this, stay out here, to protect our homes. So that when we go back, they're still there." He nodded and smiled softly. "Yeah. Thanks Pidge." I smiled back. "Any time. So, how about we try and make non-lethal cookies this time, alright?" Hunk rolled his eyes. "I'll try not to." And he went back to his baking. I smiled softly to myself. Hunk had a point. We might never make it back to see our families ever again. But if in us staying out here, defending the universe, we saved thousands of other families, it'd be worth it.