Gemini, Touch the Sky (Voltron: Legendary Defender Fanfic/ONC Entry)

Disappointing Breaths of Air

Ryo took a deep breath.

For two years he avoided any contact with the main garrison in charge of training crew for intergalactic space travel outside of the one visit from the one soldier a year ago giving an update regarding his brothers. He mentally found himself tired of the lies and half-truths coming from the mouths of those in charge, yet Ryo still wanted answers.

His fingers tightened around the strap of the side satchel carrying the bare minimum requirements he needed while his manager took the rest to the hotel. The staff and students of the garrison bustled about preparing for not only the alien threat, but the incoming scientists set on helping Holt develop the technology Earth would need in the fight against the Galra. The atmosphere was certainly different from the few other times he'd visited before Takashi's disappearance.

His assigned escort led Ryo to the garrison classroom where everyone was meeting. His eyes quickly scanned the room and picked out those who were also missing a family member from among the scientists and other professionals gathered. He found himself slipping towards the back unnoticed and leaned up against the back wall taking in everything.

One of his hands unzipped his side satchel and pulled out the ends of his headphones and stuck them in his ears and pressed a button so he might listen to music while he waited, but his eyes watched the others waiting for news regarding their family more so than others. A dull emotional ache started setting in at the back of Ryo's mind; he was after all a unit of one and they a unit of many.

He found himself starting to stare at one person taking in her dark skin and curly hair. She eventually noticed Ryo watching and looked up and glared at him. Instinctively Ryo glanced away yet muttered under his breath. "Seriously. Now is not the time to be falling for a girl."

He let the rhythm of the music draw his attention away from the professionals and family members, but he glanced up whenever someone new entered the room. Eventually Samuel Holt – the commander of the failed Kerberos mission – came in. Ryo pushed the pause button on his music player and put the headphones back into his side satchel.

"Hello everyone." Holt smiled at everyone in the room and a silence fell over the room. "There are a lot of things I need to discuss with everyone in the room but thank you for coming"

Ryo fiddled slightly with his visitor's pass and mentally prepared himself for whatever technical and political discussion which would come next. Instead, Holt took a deep breath.

"I know everyone has a lot of questions including whether aliens are real and the fact some outside of the garrison feel this is a conspiracy to further unify Earth under one space exploration program meant to monopolize space travel, but I guarantee you the Galra are real but also a real threat. We are breaking everyone up into groups but focusing on the families of the missing cadets first. I know their family members have questions, but I think I'll let them answer your questions with the video messages they recorded."

Samuel Holt proceeded into the more technical details yet left certain things out. When someone asked a question, which might lead into a traumatizing answer for the younger family members of the missing cadets the man cleared his throat and tilted his head slightly before proceeding to say someone would answer the question at a later point.

After the brief question and answer session, the garrison staff in the room started taking people out in groups. Ryo watched the family members of the missing cadets who weren't Keith go before him. Eventually, his turn came and he found himself in Samual Holt's office accompanied by the commander and his wife. Sam sat down while the smile on his face faltered into a frown. "I need to apologize."

"Ryo's eyebrow's shot up slightly. "Why? It's not your fault. I mean, what happened to my brothers."

"No. I mean the fact I didn't receive a recorded message for you from either Shiro or Keith."

"I..." Emotionally Ryo felt deflated, yet he told himself he honestly thought something similar might happen. "I get it. I wasn't on good terms with either of them, but Keith... I don't know if Shiro told him or not."

"I'm not so sure that's the reason." Sam leaned back in the chair." Well, there is the fact Keith might not know, but I wasn't able to see him at all before I left either. He was helping some of our allies at the time and as such wouldn't have had the chance to record a video for you. On the other hand, I'm honestly surprised Shiro didn't record a message for you. One of the things we discussed on the Kerberos mission was the fact he wasn't happy with the way things were left between you two."

"Perhaps Shiro simply had too much on his mind?" Coleen volunteered.

"Maybe that's it."

"Can you tell me how they're doing?" Ryo watched Sam's frown deepen, yet he thought perhaps the man's grey hairs somehow became even greyer.

"We weren't left unscarred from our time as prisoners with he Galra Ryo."

"Sorry." Ryo's eyes darted down. "I guess I really don't want to know. I mean, I want to know, but there's also a dread. Of knowing what kind of scars they have."

"I understand where you're coming from." Coleen placed a hand on Ryo's shoulder. "They are alive though."

"Yeah..." For some reason knowing didn't alleviate the emotional distress he felt. Ryo's eyes looked down at his hands and saw his fingers clenching the front of his pants legs.

"How are you?" Sam's voice drew Ryo's attention and the young man looked up at the commander.

"Sir?"

"I mean regarding the conspiracy theories and the fact some in the public are still badmouthing Shiro despite the fact our mission didn't fail because of him like the garrison first reported?"

"Can I get back to you on that one?"

"Sure." Sam scribbled a phone number onto a piece of paper and placed the note in front of Ryo. "Feel free to contact me or Coleen if you need to talk, and if you want more information we'll tell you what we're allowed to."

Ryo folded the piece of paper and placed the object into his pants pocket.