For The Stars

Chapter 6: Haunted Castle

The hangar was dead silent save for the steady clicking of Pidge's keyboard and the rhythmic percussion of Keith's feet. He sat on the edge of the Green Lion's paw and kicked his feet as they dangled below him, a deep clanging sound resonating in the hangar each time they made contact.

"Will. You. Knock. It. OFF!" Pidge seethed through tightly clenched teeth. "Some of us are trying to focus!"

"Oh, sorry."

"What are you doing here anyways?"

"Bored." He answered with a groan and let himself fall backwards against the lion's leg.

"Don't you have a project for Ms. Possum you can do or something?" the little gremlin waved their arm dismissively at him.

"Ms. Proxa." He snickered "and ya, but I don't feel like doing it. That's why I'm helping you."

"Oh, is that what you call this? 'Helping' must have a very different meaning in Galran." They chastised and he couldn't help but laugh.

"Touché, Gremlin."

"Don't call me that." The swivel chair abruptly spun around, allowing the two paladins to face one another. "I'm still a ways away from being able to access the programming of this Galra Crystal. But I wont need your help till I'm in. Until then, get out of my lab." Keith rolled his eyes and let out a groan, sitting up straighter on Green's paw.

"You know, as the arms of Voltron, we really should be spending more time together hanging out, bonding, and what not." He teased.

"Right you are, Number 4!" Coran's sudden appearance had both of them jumping and Keith let out a rather undignified hiss, the hairs on the back of his neck bristling in alarm. He mentally kicked himself for letting his guard down and not continually monitoring his surroundings like he was trained to do. "It seems our legs are quite the team already, you have a lot of work to do to catch up!" Pidge huffed and spun back around to finish working on the crystal and as much he hated to admit it, the challenge was something he had a hard time letting slide.

Pidge hunched back over their keyboard, not bother to look at either of them as they spoke. "I think we're close enough. Besides, we each know secrets about the other that no one else knows." He gave the Green paladin a quizzical look at their comment, and with a groan, the other took pity on him and elaborated. "Me know you Galra. You know me Holt. Secrets."

Keith rolled his eyes again. "Gee, thanks Tarzan. That clears it right up."

Pidge shrugged. "Just get out of my lab already, Number 4." He winced at the smirk on their face. They knew his height was a sore spot, Galra were taller than Humans and he was short for his age even by Human standards. But he wasn't the only one touchy about their size.

"Sure thing, Number 5." The Green paladin scowled back at him in response and he grinned wickedly, lithely jumping down from the lion's paw to land gracefully on the hangar floor.

"I knew these names would catch on!" Coran exclaimed with glee. "Come along then Number 4, I could use some help activating that Galra Commander's pod."

"OH, I wanna come too!" Pidge shouted as they lunged from their desk and bounded after them.

On the way they had picked up Lance and Hunk from the kitchens, and eventually Shiro who had been meditating in the lounge. Everyone was now gathered outside Sendak's pod, with the exception of Allura; the Altean princess, having been deemed too weak from healing the Balmera, still required significantly more rest to replenish her energy levels.

Coran set to work immediately, connecting three round electronics to the pod and pulling up a command screen on the accompanying tank. "Ok, guys, Sendak's almost all hooked up. But look, I have to warn you; this technology was used to keep Altean memories alive, not to interrogate prisoners." Keith could tell the man was uncomfortable with the process, but it was the princess' orders and he followed them diligently.