Lance Alone

Part 4 (Pidge)

Pidge sat in the Blue Lion's hangar, with her computer hooked up to the Castle's mainframe. The Blue Lion sat behind her, safe from intruders behind its particle barrier. She didn't have any sort of connection with the Blue Lion, not like with Green--Lance always talked about how he could feel his lion's emotions as if they were his own, understand what it was thinking. But even though Pidge didn't have that connection, she could tell that something was off. Blue seemed... more closed off than normal. Its eyes didn't glow with the characteristic life she and her paladin shared; they sat dark and vacant. There was no purring, no sound at all. Like a metal statue.

She was having difficulty trying to track the pod. Lance couldn't have gotten far since he coudn't make a wormhole jump without the Castle, but he left deep into the night and took the fastest pod. She dove as deep as she could into the system, trying to extract some sort of signature from the Castle's scanners, but there was nothing. Lance was a good pilot; he knew how to fly under the radar, go radio silent when he needed to. Keith's theory about this being a stunt for attention couldn't have been more wrong. Lance really didn't want to be found. She was still going to look for him, though; he was her friend, and that's what friends did for each other. They looked out for each other. Lance had helped her out plenty of times. She only wished he would help her out now, instead of running away.

"Come on, Lance. Just give me a sign," she searched the radar. All silent. Suddenly, she heard a growl. She looked up to the Blue Lion--the only place the sound could have come--but it was still stone cold and silent. At first, she thought she imagined it, but when she went back to her computer, she heard it again. The Blue Lion was trying to say something.

"What is it, girl?" Pidge asked, like Lance used to, "Do you know where Lance is?"

Silence. How could the lion tell her? They weren't connected. Pidge started imagining a plan where she brought in Green, and maybe the lions could communicate between each other and translate the message. But she had never seen anything about the lions communicating between each other. They really only worked together when they formed Voltron, and any other time seemed to operate as separate beings.

So she thought of a different plan. "You want to find Lance too, right?"

A purr. Maybe asking yes or no questions would work better. She tried again.

"Do you know where he is?"

A pause, and then another, louder purr. Pidge closed her computer and sat up.

"So you think... you could help me find him?"

The particle barrier dissolved, and the lion sat up. She almost fell backwards in her chair in surprise. Immediately, she grabbed her laptop and unplugged it. "Guys! Guys! Come look--something's happening!"

She wasn't sure if anyone could hear her, but she didn't dare leave the room. The magnificent lion rose up to its full height and let out a roar that surely echoed through the entire Castle. A few ticks later, Hunk and Allura came running, still wearing a blue-smudged apron. "What is it? What's going on?"

"I think Blue knows where Lance is. I think the bond they have is strong enough that she can find him!" Pidge explained. "Woo hoo!"

"Well, let's change course right away. Let the Lion out of her hangar. We can follow her in the Castle to wherever Lance is!" Allura said.

For once, Pidge could see exactly why Lance loved his lion so much. No one had such a strong connection--not even Shiro. If the Blue Lion could find Lance over any distance, then they could find him, to. The others ran out of the bay, but she stopped for a moment to look up at the lion. "Thank you. It means everything to us. Lance... he's family."

The lion let out another purr and Pidge smiled.