time in the palm of my hand
Summary: Time is a circle. Nothing matters. Everything matters.
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Characters: Pidge, Keith, Shiro, Lance, Hunk, Allura, Coran, Green Lion, Red Lion, Black Lion, Yellow Lion, Blue Lion, Slav, Bob
Notes: My entry for the Timeless: A Kidge Zine which you can access here @kidgezine. This is a long one, but hope yall enjoy it anyway! And don't forget to check out all those other works which are awesome, including my friend @s1lverpaladin's own lovely artwork.
Disclaimer: I do not own Voltron: Legendary Defender and make no profit from this work.
Day 1
“Pidge, Keith, where are you guys?” “You two need to hustle!”
“It’s gonna blow soon!”
Pidge screams back into her helmet’s headset. “Don’t you think we know that?!” Her feet are pounding on the metal floors as her legs carry her as fast as possible down the hallways to the giant hole in the Galra fleet ship Green made for her and Keith earlier.
She refuses to use any more of her precious air to yell at the rest of her team, since there’s barely enough getting into her lungs as is. Keith lost his helmet a while back and Pidge almost considers him lucky not having constant voices in his head. But she's mostly pissed that he even left it behind in the first place.
“Pidge, turn this way! It’s a shortcut!” Before she can even give him an answer, Keith grabs her arm and yanks her the opposite way. Through gritted teeth, she keeps a lid on her temper at being manhandled and maintains her speed. He lets go and they keep running, Keith’s bayard in sword mode at the ready.
The shortcut proves to be true and Pidge feels both relief and annoyance at him being right as they approach the breach. Several Sentries are there and Keith leaps forward, slashing the first one’s chest open, then using that momentum to spin and stab the other one behind him in the head. He quickly dispatches two more, while Pidge takes out one with her own taser blade.
They both stop for a moment as Green gets into position and disengages her cloaking. Pidge heaves, trying to get air back into her lungs as she checks over the denotation, which is now in five dobashes.
Shiro’s asking for a status update but she ignores it and instead looks to Keith, who’s about to ask her something. She spots something moving behind him and yells but he yells over her, impatient. Why can't he just listen for once? But she never finishes that thought.
His head explodes into blood and brains, some spattering on her helmet and armor. The bottom half of his jaw remains, including his tongue. Just behind him is a Galra soldier, blaster raised and still smoking.
Pidge watches Keith’s body fall forward through red-tinted vision. She opens her mouth and screams and screams and screams and—
Day 2
—wakes up and falls out of her bed.
“Ohmygod, shit, Keith, Keith where? Shit—” Pidge kicks through the tangle of blankets on her legs until she gets free, then stumbles up and runs through the opening door.
It’s bright in the Castle, but she doesn’t care because she, Keith, she has to find Keith. That scene keeps replaying in her head, it’s so awful, she’s never seen something like it and it was Keith just… he was dead, his head just gone. So much blood!
Before she reaches the kitchen, she can hear voices, and Lance is laughing while Hunk rambles on about being too nervous to whip up a proper breakfast. But how can he laugh when Keith is—
Sitting at the table are Shiro and Lance and Hunk and Allura and ohmygod Keith! Before she even thinks about it, she runs and leaps, nearly tackling Keith off the stool. Somehow, he takes her momentum and wraps his arms around her to keep them both from falling.
“Pidge, what are you…?”
She can’t even answer that; gasping for air is all she can manage. Just great gulps of air, but it’s not enough. Keith’s here, he’s alive and not dead and he’s right here and warm.
It’s quiet now except for her breathing, then there’s a hand on her back and it’s rubbing soothing circles. “Everything’s okay now, Katie. It’s okay, Keith is fine.”
Shiro. She sniffles, and it hits her that she’s been crying this whole time. She slowly lets go of Keith and looks up at him. He’s blinking back down at her, expression mostly confused and a little scared, she thinks. Jeez, yeah, she must have scared him with how she jumped at him. Then his ruined head flashes over him and she shouts, nearly falling out of his lap. Strong arms grab her and it's Shiro again, letting her down gently until she’s standing up.
Pidge finally looks around and everyone is staring at her. And now she remembers she's still in her PJ's and hasn't showered yet. Great.
Hunk’s large brown eyes are watering a bit and he breaks the silence. “Pidge, is everything okay?” Guilt gnaws at her stomach at seeing him so upset for her.
Lance tries to laugh and crack a joke to lighten the mood, but even she can see how badly he’s shaken up, hands and voice trembling. Now she really feels bad.
Allura looks at her too and her cheeks heat up in response. In front of the princess too? But Allura pulls something from her front dress pocket and hands it to her, a light pink handkerchief. “No need to return it. Use it as much as you need.”
She wipes her eyes and cheeks, then blows her nose and folds it before it goes in her pocket for later. “Thanks Allura.”
“Pidge, what was that all about?”
She glances at Keith, still sitting and arms crossed. But his voice is normal, though his expression is still worried. She should really tell him what happened, but she can’t bring herself to. She doesn’t want to voice it, because she knows it’s stupid, but she can’t help feel it'll make it real somehow. “Sorry, it was… it was just a bad dream.”
Shiro comes around and in front of her, eyes crinkled as he smiles at her. “Will you be okay for the mission today?”
Automatically she says “Yeah, I’m fine—” Then her mind catches up, the word mission echoing around. “I, I the mission, right. Yeah I, um.” Blood is pounding in her ears, because her dream was a mission too, and it, it can’t be that mission…
“What was that again, Shiro?”
She expects that to be Lance, but no, it’s Keith. He briefly glances at her, then looks back to Shiro. But wait, why would he do that? For her? Lance throws out a “pay attention Mullet” but it sounds half-hearted and soft and everyone hears it.
Shiro summarizes the mission again, a simple "break into a Galran fleet ship to rescue a person of interest" mission. And to her horror, it’s the same one in her dream.
The one that Keith dies in.
Everything goes the same, and Pidge is barely there. She feels detached from her body like a ghost as she watches the same events play out again. No. No! Keith is going to die if she does nothing. She has to save him!
She tries to grab for Keith’s helmet when it’s knocked off his head, but that fails and of course he doesn't listen to her and refuses to get it before he pulls her out of the room.
Then he yanks her along the same shortcut. She yells at him and he yells that they don't have time to waste.
They reach the same breach with the same enemies and she tries to get to Keith, but that same Sentry gets in her way again and she has to take it out.
Pidge shoots out her hook right after Keith takes down the last foe and, in slow motion, it wraps around his hips. Before she can pull him back fully out the way, that same soldier takes aim and just as he's yanked toward her, he shoots Keith.
This time, he's closer. Her vision becomes completely covered in his brains and blood, and she screams as his body falls on her.
Everything goes black.
Day 3
Pidge violently awakes and narrowly misses falling out of her bed. Was-was that a dream again? She combs a shaking hand through her sweaty hair and thinks.
But this is the second time now that she dreamed of Keith dying. And both times it was… was… and those awful images play and replay in her head. She needs to see Keith again, see that he's okay.
She makes her way to the kitchen again, but she has a hunch, so she keeps her footsteps light enough that even Shiro can’t track her. Handy for the late-night database searches when she knows he’s patrolling the Castle. She peaks around the corner, not letting her presence be known just yet. And just like before, Keith is sitting just like everyone else. Relief washes over her.
Wait.
Listening closely, they’re chatting about something. And Lance is laughing while Hunk rambles on about being too nervous to whip up a proper breakfast.
Hold on. That's the same conversation from… yesterday. And the day before that, when she really thinks about it. But why? Why is this happening? Why are the same events and the mission and everything else replaying over and over?
Okay, breathe Pidge. Just take deep breaths and walk back to your room and figure this out there. There has to be something she can do, something to change things and save him.
Day ???
Through the repeated cycles, the smell of copper surrounds her and she can’t stop seeing red soaking her hands and arms, no matter how much she tries to scrub it away.
It's a tango of anger, arguments, and death.
When it gets bad, the odor and screams are replaced by thick soil, the scent and sound of rain, lush greenery, and sunshine. She doesn’t know where it comes from, but she’s grateful for it.
It makes the heavy smell of death that follows her much more bearable.
Day 10
It's the same mission again. This is the same mission over and over and over. What the hell is going on? Is she going to watch Keith die again? She lets herself sob into her pillow, tears soaking it in moments.
The smells surround her, cloaking her again and again, and it’s what keeps her mind tethered. Sometimes she can even feel plants and vines wrap around her as she slowly falls asleep, soothing her before darkness takes her.
***
The last time, she finally gets him to listen to her and get his helmet, finally gets them to change course on the ship and take her route.
There's only two dobashes on the count and they're on a higher level in the breached area, some kind of wide scaffolding. It occurs to Pidge that this area is some kind of supply station, with tons of supply containers and equipment.
Keith seems to be pissed about having less time and being further away, viciously tearing into the Sentries before them, which there's fewer of here. She doesn't have time to catch her own breath before joining in the fray, but she doesn’t care because he'll finally live.
There’s a weird moment, almost like her vision skipped or snowed out, like a pre-WW3 TV. Her body is frozen and she spots a malfunctioned Sentry; the one she fought and put down but apparently didn’t take care of thoroughly enough. It shoots out the thick wires dangling heavy supply containers, crushing the Galran soldier below it on the ground level instantly. The stray fire from his blaster also takes out the wire connected to a sharp cutter. It comes for her too fast for her to react, then she feels hands pushing her away.
In slow motion, she falls back and watches the cutter bisect Keith, right down the middle. His bottom half falls first, then the top half. But he's still alive for half a minute, looking down at his missing half and screaming so loud and horrible, guttural like a wild animal before finally dying. Her vision waters, bile rising in her throat, and her vision blacks out.
She wakes and turns just in time to throw up on the side of her bed.
***
The only good thing about this is that Keith doesn’t seem to remember any of his deaths the next day. No, the next cycle. Because that’s what this is, some kind of time loop from hell or something. Her mind flashes to that weird visual glitch and the way her body completely locked up.
Wait, if this is some spacetime anomaly, she just needs to run some scans on it. Maybe get Coran to help with it—but if Keith… if he… d-dies again, she can’t get the data, anyway. Because…
She just has to try harder then. She looks to Shiro as they all don their Paladin armor. And maybe get some help too.
“Don’t you get it? Keith is going to die if we can’t save him!”
Shiro crosses his arms, expression severe. She’s been around him long enough to know it’s not aimed at her directly but that he’s seriously upset by what she’s saying. That, and doubtful, too. She knows this is hard to believe, but come on! Why would she just make this up?
“Can’t we move into one group or postpone the mission or something? Until we figure this out?”
“Pidge, I'm sorry, but you know we can’t postpone. This is our only window for rescuing our person of interest and if we miss it, we might never see them again."
And Pidge knows this. She knows that this is the first time in deca-phoebs that they're being transferred to another prison site. Even so, is it worth Keith dying over and over again?
"But I won't dismiss your concerns for Keith either. We still need to split up for the plan to work. Would you feel better if we switched places, with me guarding you as you work while Keith teams up with Lance and Hunk?"
Quiznack! Why didn't she think of that herself? If his placement is different, they won't have to worry about the dangers in that area. But… what if it's the area itself? Or maybe involve her instead? What if Shiro dies instead of Keith? No, she needs to go through as many possibilities to narrow down the underlying cause. Gathering information is the most important goal right now.
Before she can agree to it, footsteps approach and Keith is before them. "What about switching us around?"
Crap! "Uh well, I–"
"Pidge was concerned about our mission, so I offered to guard her instead while you escort Hunk and Lance."
Keith is quiet for a moment, eyes intense. "You don't think I can protect you." It's soft and not asked, but stated.
"No, I… I…" She feels those hands on her armor, pushing her from harm's way before he… "That's not it. You're too good at it, I mean unless you're not liste–," and she cuts herself off because none of that happened yet. And as much as it pisses her off, that's not fair to him.
"Lance and Hunk can watch out for you, unlike me." Is how she finishes instead. And it's the truth. Shame wells up at the fact that she hasn't been able to protect him yet.
"If you're worried about me or whatever, then don't." He thumbs his chest. "That's my job, to watch out for the rest of you. You don’t need to look out for me.”
And now she’s angry again because he's not getting it. “But that’s not what–”
Shiro reaches out and squeezes Keith’s shoulder, and she shuts her mouth with a clack. “But it wouldn’t hurt to be careful either. The goal is to make sure everyone gets back in one piece.” He chuckles, but it sounds fake to even Pidge.
Keith sighs and crosses his arms, looking away. “Fine, if it makes you two feel better.”
It really doesn’t. Despite him agreeing to it, her chest continues to tighten. She needs to gather more data.
***
“Hunk, let me install this program into your gauntlet.”
“Yeah, sure. You’ll tell me what it does, though?”
Pushing aside the warm feeling that he trusts her that much, how much should she tell him? Hunk would be a handy ally, considering his talents. But his anxiousness turns into paranoia pretty fast and stresses him out even more during missions. “I have a feeling and I want to run some scans on both our ends to confirm things.”
She sees Hunk raise his eyebrow while she’s still setting up the scanning program, but Lance is the one who replies. “Really? You? A 'feeling'? Shouldn’t you be saying all those big scientific words that no one else except Hunk gets? You being so vague sounds like me or, god forbid, Mullet."
She just shrugs and keeps working, not really having an answer for that without having to explain everything to them. And, she realizes, she doesn’t really know how Lance would react.
Oh wait. He’s going to be so mad when he finds out he’s not working with Shiro but with Keith now. Despite herself, she chuckles a little.
***
Pidge has to tune out Hunk’s screams and Lance’s sobs. Her hands are shaking violently as she hurries to read over as much data from her program before this cycle ends too. The last thought she has before blacking out is that she would have to repeat this process again to get more data.
Day 14
Pidge slowly sees a pattern, mapping out the data from her and Hunk’s scans that she memorizes from the previous cycle and collects as soon as she wakes up. Thankfully, her memory is as sharp as ever because any notes she tries to leave behind disappear after a reset.
Maybe if she sketches it out now and then shows it to Coran or Hunk, they could help her contextualize this even more. Her hands are still shaking. She tries too hard not to think about the last death.
No, she better not show them. It would take too much time to explain how she's getting data from a place they technically haven't gone to yet.
As she turns the data in her head, there's a scent of… soil? A fresh flower? Something at the edge of her understanding, almost reaching it… Gree–there's a yank away and it's gone. What was she thinking about?
Later she visits the Lion hangar to run a quick diagnostic on Green. Wait, she could ask Green about this! But there’s only confusion through their mental link like tangled vines. And the other Lions stand imposing, silent. Pidge looks to Red, but there’s only a faint trace of warm air coming from her.
Heart heavy, she sits with her laptop and datapad and gets to work. As she runs the scan on Green, the status text starts to repeat itself. No, a single word repeats itself.
Help
Helphelp
HelphelphelpHelpHelpHelpHelpHelpHelpHelpHelpHelpHelpHelpHelpHelpHelpHelpHelpHelpHelpHelpHelpHelpHelpHelpHelp–
There's a pressure in her head; visions of a great forest of black trees rapidly growing. The TV snow glitches in her viewpoint and yanks her back to the present, panting and covered in a cold sweat. Her laptop shuts off. She looks to Green, but the Lion is silent, eyes dimmed.
Shit, the data! But she can't get her laptop to come back online again. Shit. What was that? What was Green trying to tell her?
But now she knows for sure there's someone interfering with all this. The thought of dealing with that, someone who can, someone who is manipulating them and killing Keith over and over and–
There’s a blazing rage in her stomach that builds in her chest and heats her skin. It’s so intense it brings hot tears to her eyes and she can hear her teeth creak and grind. She’s going to find whoever’s behind all this and rip them apart.
Day 15
Pidge should be growing numb to this. She should and a horrible little voice in her head wishes she could. But she doesn’t. Every death is a knife in her heart, each one taking up more space in her heart. She’s going to run out of space, these knives from Keith and Matt and dad still missing and mom waiting back home…
The anger from the last cycle is already gone. All she feels is her nerves shaking and this horrible cold feeling in her gut. She can barely breathe, her chest tightens and she can hear herself wheezing. Not even the comforting scents and sensations from before seem to reach her.
Not good, she’s still in the dorm hallway and anyone could see her, and the mission is in a few hours, too. Another few hours until Keith… bloody images flash in her mind and a sudden wave of nausea makes her dizzy. She tries to control her breathing, but it’s only getting faster and shallower.
A pair of arms wrap around her shoulders, and her face leans into a warm chest. She’s stunned for a moment, but her mind finally recognizes a red jacket and it jitters to a halt. Keith, of all people, comforting her? But his hug is comfortable and she lets herself relax into it until her pulse evens out and her stomach settles.
Once Pidge calms again, she softly pulls back and he lets go. “Thanks, I don’t really…” But she knows exactly what got into her, and doesn’t finish her sentence. “How did you know I was here?”
Keith looks away, crossing his arms. “I was looking over Red in the hanger and Green was, like, being kinda weird. Her eyes suddenly started glowing and she shifted around a bit, then Red got all restless too. So I guess I figured I should check on you or something.”
Green was… now that she thinks about it, Green's been trying to reach out to her, but when she tries to respond, the Lion suddenly pulls back. "I should check up on her then." Pidge scratches the back of her neck, feeling awkward. "You didn't ask me why I was freaking out in the hallway."
"Figured it was none of my business."
She could feel bile rise up her throat at how untrue that was. "I better go check on Green, then. Thanks."
Keith hesitates for a moment, then adds, “And if you need to, ya know, talk or whatever. I can listen to you.” Before she can answer, he gives her a two-finger salute, then walks off.
Pidge stares for a moment, shocked at his offer. She shakes her head, remembering what she needs to be doing, and sprints for the hangar.
On the way, she berates herself for not speaking to her Lion before. But then she remembers that feeling of her pulling, almost yanking back. She recalls the TV snow in her vision from before, and it clicks into place. That something, or someone even, is definitely manipulating things. And it's on a scale larger than what she can imagine if it's even affecting the Lions.
***
As soon as Pidge arrives, Green's speeder levitates down and she boards it immediately. Once she's in the cockpit, Green floods her mind with images. Horrible images of days past, things she wishes she would never see happen. And especially to a comrade.
"You knew?" She whispers, mouth suddenly dry like cotton balls were stuffed into it. So it was true, then. Green sends out a feeling and there's guilt churning in Pidge's gut. "No, it's not your fault. Something was keeping you from telling me, right?"
A warm affirmation spreads in her stomach now, so she's right. Then Pidge recalls other images, and she asks Green, "Do the other Lions know too?" An affirmation again. This is the most straightforward Green has ever been with her. Normally she would have craved the bluntness, but now it just unnerves her. But it makes sense, and oh god, Red. Red must have been tormented by this, seeing her partner die and die again. And if she didn't react, then there was probably nothing that any of them could have done.
But that means, whoever this is, is strong enough to repel the Lions. That's a horrifying thought and a distant cold threatens to swallow her whole, the more she thinks about it. Are they really doomed to be trapped like this? Is Keith really cursed to keep dying and her to witness it all, with no one to confide in?
There's the sensation of heavy vines wrapping around her torso and, despite it not being real, it grounds her again. "Thanks. Yeah, yeah. I have to get a hold of myself." What was she thinking? It's not hopeless in the slightest! The fact that she and the Lions are even aware of this, and she can talk to Green with no interference now, means whoever this is, has to be losing control.
Which means they can win.
There are flashes of others in her mind alongside Green, slightly fainter but still powerful. She sees Red, whose nostrils are flared and breathing out white hot volcanic eruptions. Yellow, whose protective rage causes fissures in the ground beneath her. Blue is a righteous anger that summons a tsunami. And Black is quiet fury, the moment before a star's supernova. In fact, Pidge can feel Black burns nearly as much as Red, which would be odd if she cared to consider it.
But she can only feel her and Green's anger, overgrown and thorny and tangled, thick giant trees that reach the sky with powerful roots tearing the ground. Whoever they are will fix it, or she and the Lions will drag them down with her and Keith.
A thought springs to mind and Pidge hones in on it. She pulls out her laptop and recreates the data she had been collecting this whole time, searching for the spacetime irregularity. She runs into snags, where not even her memory can fill in the blanks.
But the code rapidly appears on screen, repairing those gaps, and it takes a moment for her to realize it's from Green. Is that what she tried to show her in the previous cycle, before the data was corrupted? And she sees why whatever is doing this didn't want her to see it. This data is so thorough, Green must have been compiling it in her mind, but couldn't get it to Pidge before.
Once they both finish, it's a compilation of every time an anomaly spike occurred. Which can help predict when and where the next one will happen. She can show this data to Coran and Hunk like she planned before it was all deleted. They run it and warn her and Keith on the mission.
Wait. If she can speak to the Lions without interference now and share this kind of information, then...that means like she thought before, this entity is losing its control. Which means that the cycle—
Green immediately drops the speeder back down, catching on to her line of thought. Once Pidge jumps out, she sprints back to the bridge to alert Coran of her findings. Hopefully Hunk too once he arrives.
They give her weird looks at first, but she doesn't care and insists they let her know the moment they detect an irregular spike of energy. Hunk stills first, eyes glazed for a moment, then nods, expression grim. "Yellow just… reached out to me somehow. I feel like she's telling me to help. So I'll trust you both on this."
Coran strokes his mustache. "Well, if both Number Five and Two are so adamant about this, then naturally you'll have my support as well. I'll be sure to inform Number Two of any such spikes. You can count on me!" And he beats a fist to his chest, with this over-the-top determined expression that would drive Pidge up the wall coming from anyone else but the sincere to a fault Altean.
The mission itself starts as it first did, as Pidge decides to stay with Keith to better react to when the anomaly happens.
But then the differences pile up. She's able to get him to grab his helmet and she lets him take the shortcut this time. They arrive at the breach where Green is, and she's prepared to alert Pidge to any back attacks, as she's not being blocked anymore.
"Pidge! Coran tracked a spike of energy near you, and they match the readings you gave us." Hunk's voice sounds heavenly. She can't believe all that effort paid off!
The group of Sentries arrive later than the first time, and Pidge and Keith work to fend them off. Green vibrates in her head and she screams at Keith.
Without hesitation, he turns in time to spot the Galran soldier and the blaster shot misses him. But his own sword is true when he dives for them, and their head goes flying.
After all the trouble they caused, Pidge can't bring herself to care about the bloody kill one bit. That and… Keith didn't die. He didn't die! She pulls him to Green and they escape the cruiser with a dobash to spare. Keith checks in with Shiro while she's piloting and they find their person of interest, just dobashes before the switch would have happened.
Pidge looks back at Keith, feeling herself tear up. Red is loud in her head and it seems the Lion is also in Keith's, judging from his odd expression. He looks up at Pidge and gives her a cocky grin in return, most likely at a job well done. She can't believe it, that she got him out of that mission from hell alive. Pidge holds up her fist toward him and he bumps his own against it.
They get back to the Castle; the others waiting for Pidge and Keith to reach the bridge. Pidge is finally ready to tell them everything. They still need to know what's happening, especially since it seems like the day won't reset again. The one responsible for this is still at large, and she refuses to rest until she settles this.
As it turns out, the person of interest is a long grey alien named Slav, who's currently wrapped around Shiro's neck and torso. She's not even going to ask and Keith avoids asking as well, though he's still throwing worried looks at his exhausted brother.
Slav, though, is the embodiment of nervousness and staring a hole in her head. And before she can even mention anything to the others, he yells, "You!" And points at Pidge. "And you!" Then points at Keith. "I sense him around you both. Why is he a r o u n d you?"
"The hell are you talking about?" Keith probably got unnerved being yelled at, so of course, he reverts to his defensive self. But Pidge feels her heart race. Does he know something about this whole thing?
Shiro stares at Slav, who's crawled off him, and continues to stare at Pidge and Keith. "Slav, what do you mean by 'him?' And what does that have to do with them?"
"Wait, is this related to that anomaly you wanted me and Coran to track earlier?"
“Wait, what thing Hunk? No one told me anything!” Pidge is about to argue that she did, but it hits her that was a previous cycle. Something twists in her stomach at the thought.
Allura looks between all of them, arms crossed and brow creased. "What is the meaning of this? Were secrets being kept from me?" Coran wilts a bit and, judging from his hands on his hips, Lance is about to go into tirade mode about being left out.
"Everyone, just stop talking!" Everyone silences and all eyes are on her, but she's laser-focused on Slav. "I'll tell you everything later but Slav, I need to know what you meant by you sensing 'him' around me and Keith."
Slav is suddenly shifty-eyed, sweating as if something is about to happen. "I’m s a y i n g that both of you have the mark of the reality warper! Do you understand what that means? He's… He's using you both as playthings and in 78.934884 percent of realities this occurs in, that means that—"
The world around Pidge suddenly freezes. Her head snaps around, but the others are completely still. Except for Keith and Slav. The former pulls out his knife and holds it in a reverse grip, telling Pidge that he's not fucking around. Slav is hunched over, quivering, a pair of his arms covering his head.
"That's enough out of you, Slav. We cannot get the others involved in this… mess. It will most likely exacerbate things."
Slav responds to the disembodied voice first. "Things are already critical. Keith will most likely be dragged away soon!" He sure is demanding for someone still cowering, Pidge thinks. And—wait!
"Hey! Are you the one who's been doing all this? Making the day repeat and killing Keith?" Her anger returns in full force and she hears the Lions in her head, backing her up.
"Wait what? Killing me?!"
Pidge feels a twinge of guilt but ignores him, focusing on the bastard speaking to them.
"Well, yes and no. But mainly yes."
Someone materializes in front of them, a short bizarre looking alien in a suit. "You can call me, let's say Bob. That should be easy enough for a human to understand."
Pidge marches right up to him, or would have if Keith didn't pull her behind him with the hand not holding his knife up. "Why are you getting close? You don't know what he's capable of!"
Pidge wrenches her arm free but doesn't approach Bob again. "I know exactly what he's capable of. He's been repeating this day over a dozen times and every time you die!"
Keith is silent, completely slack-jawed. And it would be hilarious in any other situation, but not this one. Oh no, Pidge is far too pissed off for that. "And you're fixing this mess right now!"
Bob looks disinterested, and even has the gall to yawn. "Unfortunately, I can't. Not anymore, at least."
Pidge can hear her jaw creaking at how hard it's clenched. That's not what she needs to hear right now.
"Sir, why did you do this? Why did you involve these two?"
"I was experimenting, wanted to test what would happen by causing a self-contained time-loop. It gets boring being able to freely control all space and time after all. But I… goofed."
"Goofed? You call what you did to Keith a goof?"
"Now now, little Paladin. I would have simply reversed the effects and erased your memories of this little… incident. But having the same events occur around the same person causes a spacetime entanglement around them. And I'm afraid that Keith's time is just about up."
The sound of metal clanks against the floor. His knife slipped out of his hands. "M-My what? What did you do to me?" But his voice is a hoarse whisper, face paler than Pidge has ever seen it. And she feels the warmth drain from her own face and body.
"What is going to happen to Keith?"
Slav speaks up, voice quiet. "A spacetime entanglement like he said. Keith will be dragged through it soon."
At that moment, a black hole opens up beneath Keith's feet. He gasps, eyes wide, and knocks Pidge away. White ribbons materialize through the void and wrap around him, dragging him down before he can even scream. The hole closes, as if it never existed.
Pidge hits the floor hard but can't even feel the impact with the adrenaline pumping through her veins. She gets her bearings fast enough to see Keith dragged through the black hole. She runs for him, but grasps empty air and hits the ground again.
There's nothing there where the void was just a moment ago. Pidge screams and bangs her fists against the ground.
"See, like that."
At those words, an inferno burns through her, and she distantly realizes how much it matches what's coming from Red and Black as well. The other Lions, including Green, aren't too pleased with this either. The Castle begins to shake violently and Green alerts her that Red is currently trying to break through the hangar to get to their location.
For the first time since he arrived, Bob has that self-serving expression wiped off his face. And Pidge indulges in the glee that wells up in her. "Guess you better help us, then. Unless you want to see what the Voltron Lions can really do."
Another violent shake and Slav curls up even more. "Please do s o m e t h i n g sir! We can't survive space if it destroys the Castle."
"Fine, just call off the Lion. We can't have you two dying on me."
The shaking immediately stops. It's jarring seeing the others still frozen in time, even through all that commotion.
"Right now, I can't do anything about Keith." He raises his hand when Pidge moves to speak. "I can't, because I'm too powerful. And with how destabilized spacetime is at this moment, if I interfere directly again… we could be looking at a total collapse of all reality. Even freezing time like this is a risk, but anyone else getting involved is even more so one."
Pidge is speechless. Everything Voltron and the Empire survivors accomplished. Everything that could be accomplished in the future. All of their hopes and dreams. It could all be erased in an instant, because some asshole with too much power was fucking bored. She can't even consider how he could have used his power to help all these people in the first place, or she'd really snap.
Instead, she asks, "What can we do?"
"Well, that's the light in the tunnel. Between you, Slav, and the Lions, you possess a unique status of having just enough power to break through the entanglement and save Keith and all of reality. But you're all also just blips in the grand scheme, so you won't destabilize things further. Hopefully."
"And what happens if we do somehow?"
Slav finally speaks up again, nervous sweat still pouring down his forehead. "Then everything will end! All of it, gone!"
Pidge recalls how they found him earlier, through those messages sent between prison facilities she picked up on. "Is that why you were kicking up such a fuss? Because you knew what would happen?"
Slav nods frantically. "Normally, I see all possibilities of all realities at once. But suddenly I saw nothing but you and that boy, Keith. Him entangled. And every reality's future turns to nothing. I knew who caused it, and I knew that only you and Voltron could help."
Bob's expression is grave as he gazes at them. "I'll give you one last piece of advice. You, Slav, and the Lions must focus on what outcome you want to see the most. And that focus must be strong enough to break through quickly. Because we only have until the end of this day before everything ends." With that, Bob disappears and time remains frozen.
Pidge looks to Slav. "What did he mean by we 'must focus?'"
Slav slowly straightens out, looking as freaked out as she feels. "Most likely, that I must help you all focus on the single timeline where this does not turn into a disaster. Which, I will remind you, is nearly impossible! The chances of this even succeeding are so small, it would take me ten deca-phoebs to reach a non-zero number!"
Pidge takes a deep breath, the scents of plants and soil, rain and sunlight surrounding her. "Good thing we're not alone in this, then." She remembers those strange mind-melding devices that Allura had them use before, and how they could see into each other's thoughts and memories. "Also, I have an idea."
They make their way to the hangar in silence, Pidge's anxiety reaching a fever pitch at the overwhelming odds of what they need to accomplish. She forces herself to breathe steadily and calm herself. She needs to get a hold of herself. She has to. Not just for the world, but for Keith too. He's stuck there, all alone, not knowing if anyone is coming for him.
Thinking about him, she feels her spirits bolster. That's right. Keith needs her. He's waiting for her. Her comrade, her friend. Just like how her dad and brother are out there, waiting for her to find them. And she can't save anyone, can't keep protecting everyone, if everything ends.
They arrive and the Lions are already alert, eyes glowing and shields down. Pidge hands a device to Slav, who puts it on when she does. The effects are instant, and she already feels his fear, his thoughts of failure in her head. But there's a determination there too, and she latches onto it.
Once Pidge feels stable enough, she sits down in the center of the Lions’ circle. "Okay Slav, lead the way."
To his credit, Slav's expression is mostly steeled now. "Everyone, focus on my thoughts. Of what I am seeing, of the future we all want. Whether it's even possible or not," he mutters the last part and Pidge sighs. "But. If there is anyone who can do it, it is all of you."
Pidge grins. "Damn right." And she concentrates on what she can see in Slav's mind. The Paladins, laughing and joking in the lounge. Allura giggles at something Hunk says, and Coran looks on with a warm smile. Keith is safe again, more animated than she's seen him in ages.
She senses the Lions' own minds melding as well, and their emotions are intense, overwhelming. But Green wraps her mind around Pidge and Slav's, shielding them from the worst until the other Lions lessen their emotions' intensity. Finally, there's an equilibrium, and everyone's minds and hearts are one, all focused on that single scene of peace.
The Lions roar.
The sound vibrates through her teeth, her muscles, her bones. Visible sound waves lash out from each of their mouths and strike the boundaries of spacetime within the hangar until a weak point is found.
Cracks form in the space just before her, then it shatters like glass. From the breaks in reality, a massive yawning black void peers through the ragged hole.
Pidge only takes a moment before she’s sprinting toward it and jumps through, followed closely by the Lions.
“Good luck, little Paladin.” Slav has never been spiritual in the least, because of the bombardment of awful visions he's received since childhood. But at that moment, he wishes with all his heart he had someone to pray to, for their sake at least.
***
The void suffocates all sound. Their descent is soft and muted, with only the thoughts of the Lions in her head to keep her tethered to reality.
fOrwaRD
keep going
HangInThere
GogogoGOGo
Be careful Katie
She’s grateful to them for protecting her, and Green responds with unfurling green vines, the scent of fresh soil and rain and sunshine coming from the other Lions. It’s both an eternity and nanoseconds as they continue, the sole light emanating from Black in what she calls Gamma bursts. She distantly hopes it's not actual gamma rays.
There’s a pinprick of light in the distance and spacetime warps and ripples like thick water until Pidge is suddenly too far and then immediately at the source. Keith is suspended, eyes closed and arms bound in front of him by glowing blue tendrils of light wrapped around the rest of his body. The tendrils lead down to a bright core, too bright for Pidge to look at directly, so she returns her gaze to Keith.
Pidge tries to call out to him, but in this void she can’t tell if her real voice or just her thoughts echoing in her head. Red and Black bolster her voice and the strength of their cries snap his eyes open.
His eyes dart around, first landing on Pidge, then the Lions, and back to rest on her again. He works his mouth around words until the sound cooperates enough for him to whisper. “Pidge, I remember now. I remember when I… I died, all those times.” His voice hitches around that and Pidge’s heart squeezes too tight. “And you… you tried to save me this whole time.”
She shakes her head, tears at the corners of her eyes. “Of course I did! Why wouldn’t I?” What is there to think about? It was natural for her to try to save him, to protect him. He’s her friend, comrade, her… her…
Her family.
His quiet voice cuts through her thoughts. “But… why? I’m… I was so awful to you. Never listened to you.” He takes a breath. It seems simply talking takes too much of his energy. “And even before, I was… I was willing to leave Allura behind. And… I only thought of Shiro being safe.” Pidge can see tears form in his eyes. He closes them and they fall down his cheeks.
Rage, white hot and burning, bursts in her chest and travels up to heat her face. “Seriously? We were both stubborn and angry and stupid and didn't bother communicating like we should have! And so what if you felt that way at first about Allura? You still went to save her."
God, is this what this whole entanglement is really about? Keith's pity party? Well, she just won't give him the chance to sulk anymore, not after how far they've both come.
"I wasn't much better with my brother and dad, you know. I was gonna abandon you all at first, and you got so pissed at me then. And I didn’t even consider you guys friends until after I found everyone again throughout the universe.”
Keith swallows a lump in his throat. “But I… what if–”
“No!” And the strength of it silences him. Good. “So what if you were selfish? People change. I opened up to all of you, and so did you! You’re not even the same person you were at the start of this whole mess, and even if you were? Newsflash, I’d still kick down spacetime’s door to save your ass every time!” She’s panting, feeling the lightheadedness of her emotional rush rather than hearing it, her fists clenched tight enough to ache.
Tears still flow down Keith’s cheeks, eyes wide and haunted and god she hates that look on his face. As if no one’s told him that he’s still worthy of being rescued, even with his faults. She knows Shiro is finally that person for him and now she’s here for him too.
A moment and forever passes, and then Keith closes his eyes again, taking another deep breath. When they open, there’s a strength behind them, an unshakable will and for a moment Pidge sees Shiro. Black and Red roar and the light tendrils dissipate, letting Keith float upright.
Pidge extends her arm toward him and he reaches out, grasping it in an iron grip. The inky void is cast out as a searing white light envelopes them all.
***
They’re back in the hangar, Pidge and Keith standing before each other and the Lions circling around them. A huge weight lifts from Pidge’s shoulders and she can breathe again without the strain and terror of knowing her friend will die.
Keith is suddenly in her face and she startles a little, not seeing him approach. He has a… very peculiar expression, like he’s angry but not really? More like extremely determined, and it’s kind of freaking her out.
“Pidge I…” He takes a deep breath. “Thank you Pidge, for saving me.”
She doesn’t know why his gratitude takes her by surprise. It’s not like he’s that rude or anything. Well, most of the time at least. But regardless, her chest loosens at his words. It’s the ultimate confirmation that this nightmare is over and she feels tears at the corners of her eyes.
Pidge goes in for a hug and is ecstatic to find that Keith returns it immediately. In the back of her mind is a soft unfurling, the warmth of a humid forest wrapping around them both and she sighs, content. *** Always, always wanted to write a timeloop story and this zine was the perfect opportunity! It was tough to figure out the central theme and how the loop worked, but it was a blast.
