Request- Hiding an Illness
Fandom- Voltron
Requested by rcrnkovi05
Fun fact, Pidge's sneeze is modeled after my best friend. She too, sounds like a newborn kitten when she sneezes.
Warnings- Talk about periods? Blood? Does that count?
"All right gang, this is a simple recon mission. We just need to figure out what kind of fire power we're up against. According The Blade, this planet is filled with POWs and some major fire power." Shiro's voice crackled over the coms of the Green Lion. "Once we know what's down there, we can make a plan to destroy the base and get the POWs to the rebels."
"Stay on the perimeter, and stay alert." Keith's voice chimed in. "We don't need a repeat of Zarfir." He said pointedly.
"Hey! Those monkeys came after me first!" Lance whined.
Pidge couldn't help but laugh, hearing Keith and Lance argue back and forth like an old married couple. Getting closer to the planet, Green was able to pick up on the bio metric readings.
"According to Green, this planet has an atmosphere almost identical to earth. So, if anybody loses their helmet again, Lance," Pidge said pointedly, interrupting his and Keith's lovers quarrel, "They shouldn't die. At least, not from the air. However, I'm showing that this planet is mostly jungle, so watch out for weird plants. Don't get eaten."
"Thank you for that helpful advice, Pidge." Keith huffed.
"Any time."
"Okay, we're nearing the planet's gravitational field. Brace for entry. When we land, don't forget to use your cloaking. If we get made, there's no way we'll be able to get back here." Keith commanded.
"When we land, Keith and Lance, you're with me. I don't need you two starting any fights today. We'll go search for the POW camp. Pidge and Hunk, you'll be on weapons recon. Find the base, figure out what tech they're packing, but don't engage. You got this?" Shiro explained.
Pidge could practically hear Keith "I work alone" Kogane, rolling his eyes.
"Yeah! Tech Bros back at it again!" Hunk said enthusiastically over the coms as Lance whined, saying something about how he didn't need a baby sitter.
"Lance, I hate to break it to you, but you and Keith do have a tendency to push eachother's buttons." Hunk pointed out.
"And that's exactly what we don't need today." Shiro said, putting on his best "I'm in charge and definitely not in a constant state of anxiety" voice. "Alright, everybody clear on the plan?"
"Yes." Everyone echoed.
Everything went quiet, Pidge could feel Green pushing against the planet's gravitational field. Even though she didn't need any help, Pidge pushed her thrusters forward just slightly.
I got this Green seemed to reassure in Pidge's mind.
"I know you do, girl." Pidge said aloud, drumming her fingers along the steering column.
Soon enough, Pidge could see the ground approaching. Just as she reached for the break, it pulled away from her hand.
"Alright, alright. Point taken." Pidge laughed and put her hands up in surrender, feeling the lion glaring at her through the mind link.
"Yeah!" Hunk high-fived Pidge as she walked down the ramp of her lion. "Tech Bros!"
"Yeah!" Pidge, being at least a foot and a half shorter than Hunk, still had to jump to reach his hand. She looked over to where Shiro was standing with Keith and Lance. Keith and Lance, in typical fashion were arguing about something. Shiro just looked like a tired dad at Disney Land.
"Do you think that this could count as some type of foreplay?" Pidge asked, looking at the two idiots who were too busy trying not to kill the other to notice that they were kind of in love with each other.
"Normally, no. For them, absolutely." Hunk guffawed.
Pinching the bridge of his nose, Shiro walked over to Pidge and Hunk.
"Okay, are you two good to go?"
"Yep."
"Always."
"Good. Remember, this planet is known to be particularly hostile. Watch out for each other. We'll meet back her at" Shiro checked his suits digital clock. "0400."
"Good luck." Pidge sighed, looking past Shiro to Dumb and Dumber.
"Thanks." Shiro smiled ruefully and went back to Keith and Lance.
"Alright, let's do this." Pidge said, bouncing slightly.
"Tech Bros!" Hunk pumped his fist in the air.
Pidge and Hunk slowly made their way through the foliage. Pidge thought it looked like one of earth's jungles. It certainly had the humidity of a jungle. Pidge and Hunk's helmets kept fogging up. Seeing that this was a losing fight, they just decided to carry them.
After a while of walking, Hunk put a firm hand on her shoulder, stopping her in her tracks.
"Wha-"
Hunk put a finger to his mouth in a shushing motion. He pointed towards something, a truck of some sort was slowly making it's way up the hill along the same path as Pidge and Hunk. They must be on the right track.
After moving about fifty yards to the left to keep from being seen, they silently continued walking, on high alert for any unwelcome company. Pidge may have take care of her helmet fogging up, but that didn't stop her glasses getting misty with perspiration. She had to keep taking them off to clean them.
Finally, Hunk saw a drop off up ahead. He pointed, Pidge nodded.
Together, they slowly made their way towards the cliff, being careful to watch for any drones or cameras.
When they got to the edge of the cliff, Pidge was confused. She'd expected a huge base with big guns and lots of guards. What she saw was, well, the exact opposite.
A small house, no bigger than the one Pidge'd grown up in, sat in the center of a grand canyon sized clearing.
"That doesn't make any sense."
"Hold on," Hunk said, scanning the area with his suit's underground sensor. "Oh. Oh crap." Hunk's face fell as he looked at the digital readout.
"What?"
"It doesn't make any sense because everything is underground. Starting at about sixty feet below, there's a building that reaches almost to the planet's core."
"Oh my God." Pidge said, her mind trying to conceptualize what she was hearing.
"Do we go in closer?" Hunk looked at Pidge.
"Shiro said no contact, but I don't see how we're supposed to effectively gather info if we don't at least get a little closer." Pidge wiped a bead of sweat off of her forehead.
"Tech Bros?" Hunk put his fist out.
"Tech Bros." Pidge confirmed. Fist bumping Hunk.
Upon closer inspection, the house seemed to just be a means of entrance to the compound below. Pidge couldn't detect any active tech on it, it was just a normal house that had somehow been transported to the middle of the universe.
Underground was a different story. Hunk did a close up scan of the ground and found at least four Zyforge Cannons, and something that he'd never seen before, although it didn't look unlike Allura's command center in the Castle of Lion's, not to mention that it was positively crawling with guards.
"There's no way we can stand up to four cannons. Voltron barely made it past just one!" Hunk said, officially freaking out.
"This base is packing way too much power to just be a POW camp." Pidge tugged her ear, a sign that she was thinking hard. "Why would you keep all that fire power on the edge of the galaxy when it could be in the middle of the fight?"
"Beats me. That just seems backwards." Hunk shrugged. "Can we leave now?" He looked over his shoulder. He was getting that "being watched" feeling.
"I-yeah. Let's go and meet the others. None of this makes any sense." Pidge repeated.
She and Hunk started the long trek back to the lions. Going downhill was not as easy as going up. Pidge had to constantly watch her feet to make sure she wasn't going to trip over a root and fall to her death down the steep hill. Plus, she was still trying to work out why the Galra wanted all of that fire power hidden below the surface of a planet. What was their game?
She was so distracted by the bunker and making sure she didn't trip and fall, that she didn't even see the large, as in human sized, pink flower until her nose was buried deep into the bright yellow center.
"Ah!" She yelled in belated surprise.
"Pidge?!" Hunk looked up, nearly falling over a tree root that he hadn't seen.
Pidge took a moment to step back out of the flower. When she'd made impact, a puff of pollen had come off of the flower, coating her in yellow dust.
"I'm fi-ah-ah-chiw" Pidge sneezed violently.
"Was that your sneeze?" Hunk doubled over in laughter, Pidge sounded like a newborn kitten. Pidge was a tiny person, sure, but Hunk had always suspected that her sneeze sounded like a burly man. That's just the energy she gave off.
"Shud upb!" Pidge sniffled. "Chiw! CHiw! Chiw!" Pidge could barely catch her breath for all of the sneezing. She tried to rub away the pollen under her nose, but only succeeded in making it worse.
"Are you okay?" Hunk asked after the seventh sneeze in a row.
"I'b fide." Pidge sniffled. Her eyes were puffy and watery now and her nose was bright red at the tip.
"What was that?" Hunk looked at the weird flower.
Pidge took a moment to steady herself.
"It lookds like a lardge version ob earth faunda. I think itd's fide." Pidge reassured Hunk, still sniffling.
Pidge and Hunk continued back to the lions. They arrived just as Shiro, Keith, and Lance were walking in.
"Nobody's dead, everyone still has all of their limbs." Shiro assessed, looking at his kids-I mean friends. Friends. Definitely friends. Shiro thought to himself. "Good. We can debrief back at the castle." Shiro did a double take when he got to Pidge, her face was puffy and red and she was sniffling, a quiet, high pitched sneeze punctuating the air every once in a while.
"Pidge? Are you okay?" Shiro asked.
"I'b fide. Polled bomd." She coughed.
"If you're sure." Shiro gave her one last sidelong glance before turning his attention back to the team. "Let's go."
The ride back to the castle was miserable for Pidge. Her eyes were now almost completely swollen shut, she couldn't breathe out of her nose, and her stomach hurt. Every time she coughed, her stomach clenched up. This time, she was glad to let Green do all of the work.
Apparently the last one back to the castle, Pidge stumbled out of her lion and into the training area. She just wanted a hot shower and to go to bed. Unable to see for how swollen her face was, Pidge bumped into Keith.
"Ow! Watch wh-oh, Pidge." Keith looked surprised, but then shifted to a look of worry. "Uh, Pidge? You okay?"
"Fide." Pidge huffed. Her voice was hoarse and thick with mucus.
"Uh, Pidge, why don't you skip debrief? Go take off your gear so it can be cleaned and hit the showers." Shiro suggested. He couldn't help but feel worried about the kid.
Pidge, not one to argue given her present condition, gave Shiro a thumbs up and walked out of the room.
Pidge had never been so relieved to be clean. After she took off her armor and washed the pollen out of her hair, she was still sniffling and sneezing from the pollen caught in her nasal passages, but could breathe without her throat burning and itching. There was still that sore feeling in her stomach though. Pidge, figuring it was just cramps, found a hot water bottle that Coran had picked up at a market, he'd thought it was a hat, filled it with warm goo and went to bed.
The next morning, Pidge woke up feeling ten times worse. She felt weird and spacey, her breathing came in wheezes and her nose was completely blocked. She could hear mucus being shifted around in her lungs whenever she took a breath. Allergies from Hell. Awesome. To top it all off, Pidge had been right in thinking it was cramps, she'd started her period. However, this hurt way more than normal. Pidge had never been one to have a heavy period, one of the lucky light, 3-4 day people. The amount of pain she was in didn't feel normal, but she knew her periods had been odd ever since coming to space. Nothing like intergalactic travel to throw off your cycle, she thought. On top of the insane cramping, stuffed nose, and pollen filled lungs, her head ached and she was nauseous. So, all in all a good start to the day.
Hunkering over to try and lessen the pain in her abdomen, Pidge grabbed a pad and a new set of underwear.
Pidge took yet another shower, which helped the budding sorness in her back slightly, and quickly, as quickly as you can go when it feels like someone has your stomach in a vice grip, got dressed.
Putting on her best "I'm fine" face, Pidge walked into the dining room. Food goo was on the menu today, it seemed.
Food goo was on the menu everyday.
The smell made Pidge's stomach turn, but her gut still growled hungrily. She would probably feel at least a little better with some food in her stomach.
"Feeling better?" Hunk asked as she sat down beside him. Pidge looked around and realized that they'd all been taking the same spots at the table since they first came to the castle. What was that about.
"Yeah. A little stuffy, but I'll live." That was at least 3/4 true. She didn't want to tell her friends that she been visited by Aunt Flo, and she was reasonably certain they didn't want to know.
"Hunk told us what you guys saw yesterday. Four Zyforge Cannons? Seriously? I thought the Galra barely had enough materials to make the first one." Shiro looked at Pidge, overly aware of how she picked at her food goo, but didn't really eat it.
"Where they got it is definitely a question of concern, but a better question would be, what are they planning to do with it?" Allura chimed in.
"There really isn't much they can do with those weapons on the edge of the galaxy, right?" Keith asked.
Pidge was vaguely aware of her friends talking, but she was so tired. Her stomach hurt so badly. She just wanted to go back to her bed and hot water bottle.
"Pidge?" Coran looked concerned.
Everyone was staring at Pidge.
"Hmm?"
"Can you think of any reason that the Galra would be preparing such a heavily armed base on the outskirts of the galaxy?" Allura asked.
"I-" Pidge coughed, "I can't think of anything. It just doesn't make sense. I mean, unless the planet could move-" Pidge trailed off. She tried to think around the cloudiness in her brain.
That was it.
"Shiro, we need to go back to that-" Pidge grit her teeth as a particularly bad cramp washed over her. "We need to go back to that planet." She stood up, leaving her uneaten food.
"Woah, Pidge. Calm down. What's going on in that big brain?" Lance asked.
"They're going to move the planet. That's what that platform was that Hunk saw. It's a teleportation device! We need to get down there and destroy it!" Pidge coughed violently, making her cramping all the worse. She saw stars for a moment.
"Maybe you should hang back?" Shiro said gently.
"I'm fine. Let's go." Pidge, not waiting for her friend's, bounded down the hallway as easily as she could. The pain was becoming so intense that she saw shadows around the edge of her vision. Looking behind and seeing none of her friends had caught up yet, Pidge ducked into an empty corridor and doubled over in pain. She felt like someone was ripping her intestines out of her body. Why did it hurt so much?
Not wanting her friends to see her, they were already worried and she hated being worried over, she ran the rest of the way to the bunker to get her suit.
God, everything hurt. Were periods supposed to feel like this? She got into her suit just in time to see her friends to come down the hall.
"Pidge," Shiro asked as he put on his chest plate. "Are you sure you don't want to stay here?" He couldn't help but notice how pale and puffy she still looked.
"Shiro, I'm fine, honestly. That pollen just threw me for a loop. I get the feeling that we'll need Voltron and that can't really happen if I stay here." Pidge said angrily, raising her voice dangerously.
Shiro was taken aback, Pidge hardly ever yelled, especially at him.
"Okay, but if you need to tap out-"
"Can we please just go!" Pidge huffed, climbing into Green and closing the hatch.
Shiro blinked at the closed hatch for a moment.
"Alright, let's go." He said.
Pidge clambered into the seat of her lion and broke into a coughing fit so severe that it had her seeing stars. The she was crying. Hot tears ran down her cheeks and fogged up her helmet.
Everything hurt. Her head felt like it would split open, her nausea had been ramped up to eleven and she couldn't stop salivating, and her insides felt like they were being ripped out.
She just wanted to go home.
But she couldn't.
There was a job to do and she was one of the select few that could do it.
Pidge wasn't even aware of takeoff, her mind too preoccupied with the pain.
"All right team" The coms crackled to life with Shiro's voice. "If Pidge is right, we need to find the engine" Shiro was pretty sure there was an engine of some sort at least, "and destroy it. If the planet is stationary, we'll have an easier time taking out the cannons and Coran and Allura will be able to get the prisoners out." Shiro commanded. Pidge could just barely hear him, he sounded far away. It hurt to breathe now, her lungs feeling like they were full of sand.
"-kay, Pidge?" A voice came over the coms.
"Hmm?" Pidge hoped she sounded like she'd been paying attention.
"We're flying straight to the base. You and Hunk are going to see if you can get to the planet's power source and shut it off. From my readings, I think it's a Balmeran Crystal."
"Yeah." Pidge said weakly. She was going to be sick.
Pidge barely had time to get her helmet off before a mix of bile and food goo was pushing it's way back up her throat. There was something red mixed in with the vomit. Pidge's brain couldn't quite make sense of it. Blood? Her stomach twisted painfully and the world tilted. Then she was on the floor.
Pidge wanted to get up. She needed to get up. She was crying. Someone was screaming. Her? Was she screaming?
God, she just wanted the pain to stop. Why wouldn't it stop?
"Pidge...stay.....landing.....help....promise...."
Pidge wasn't sure if it was her or the coms going in and out at this point.
The world was collapsing in on itself. Pidge's vision was a pinhole. The pinhole closed.
Then there was nothing.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Shiro pressed the button beside the communicator to connect him to the rest of the lions. "All right team, if Pidge is right, we need to find the engine" he was pretty sure there was an engine of some sort at least, he hoped it was that simple, "and destroy it. If the planet is stationary, we'll have an easier time taking out the cannons and Coran and Allura will be able to get the prisoners out." Shiro commanded.
Something kept tugging at his mind. At first, Shiro had chocked it up to anxiety, which was a near constant state for him these days, but this was different. He kept coming back to Pidge. She was acting weird.
"Stay in formation and stay alert." Shiro said, seeing that the planet was approaching. "Pidge, I'll need you and Hunk to shut down the engine once you find it. I'm getting a strong reading, like we did with the Balmeran Crystals. I'm willing to bet that's what's powering this thing."
"Got it." Hunk said.
"Okay, Pidge?" Shiro asked after a beat of silence.
"Hmm?" Pidge's voice comes over the coms finally. She sounded half asleep.
"We're flying straight to the base. You and Hunk are going to see if you can get to the planet's power source and shut it off. From my readings, I think it's a Balmeran Crystal." Shiro explains again.
"Yeah." Pidge replies, Shiro can barely hear her. Something was really wrong.
Shiro pressed another button on his console, starting up a video link between the black and green lions. The link picked up just in time for Shiro to see Pidge projectile vomiting. The video quality was grainy, but Shiro thought he saw something red mixed in with Pidge's vomit. He watched as she slid to the floor.
"Pidge?"
No answer.
"Pidge!" Shiro yelled.
"Shiro? What's going on?" Keith asked over the coms.
Pidge screamed. It was a scream of absolute agony and Shiro wanted to cry.
"Oh my God! Pidge?" Lance yelled.
"Shiro, what's wrong? Do you have eyes on Pidge.?" Hunk sounded scared.
"Something's wrong with Pidge. We need to go back to the castle." Shiro addressed the other three paladins, not wanting to give them a play-by-play of what was happening on his screen right now. Pidge had gone from screaming and writhing on the ground, to completely still. Ice formed in Shiro's stomach.
"Pidge! Listen, stay with me! We're going back to the castle. We'll be landing in a few minutes. Just stay with us, okay?" We're going to get you some help! I promise. You're gonna be fine." Shiro yelled. Hunk, Lance, and Keith had all popped up on his screen, meaning they had started their own video link with the black and green lions.
They were all yelling, but Shiro tuned them out. He was waiting to see if Pidge would move or make a noise.
Silence.
Shiro leapt out of his lion as soon as it hit the ground and sprinted towards the green lion. Green didn't even hesitate to open for Shiro, she was just as scared as he was.
The smell was horrible, but Shiro could barely notice as he took in the sight of Pidge laying on the ground in her own vomit. He scooped her up, pretending he didn't notice that that was definitely blood on the wall, and ran for the healing pods.
For a few minutes, everything was a blur. Shiro putting Pidge down on a table, Coran looking at her in shock and yelling something about getting a healing pod ready, Pidge being put into the healing pod. There was so much blood.
Just like that, there was silence. Everyone was left staring at Pidge, much too pale to be any kind of healthy, in a healing pod.
Eventually, Allura told Shiro to sit down, she didn't tell him to leave though, she knew the man better than that by now. No, no one left. They all eventually took off their armor, the mission forgotten, and found places to sit, but no one wanted to leave Pidge here alone.
At some point, Coran tried to force some food on the paladins, but they couldn't eat.
Shiro looked at Pidge's pod and prayed that he wouldn't be calling Pidge's mom to tell her that space had taken both her husband and children from her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Pidge woke up slowly. She fought against it, she'd been talking to her dad. She'd hugged her brother and her mom. Pidge wasn't ready to admit that wasn't real yet. Nevertheless, she woke up.
She's warm. Pidge's first sensation is of being warm. She opens her eyes and promptly screams, she's in a healing pod, but that's not what made her scream.
Four faces are pressed against the other side of the pod.
The faces: Shiro, Lance, Keith, and Hunk all smile. Then jump back when Pidge screams.
The door to the healing pod wooshed open, letting cool air into the pod.
No one spoke for a moment, and then everyone spoke.
"What happened-why didn't you-you almost-died-what?" The four guys all yelled at once.
Allura came to Pidge's aid first.
"Boys, boys!" Allura puts herself between Pidge and her friends. "Pidge needs time to rest. Go to the training room and she will come talk to you when she's ready." Allura said, shooing everyone away.
Pidge felt bad for not talking to her friends, but this was all a little overwhelming.
"What-what happened?" Pidge asked once everyone else had left.
"When you Voltron was doing the recon mission a few days ago, you were sprayed by a Nerium Emeria."
"A what?" Pidge sits down.
"It's a common plant in humid climates within this solar systyem. It's defense mechanism is to spray a predator with it's pollen." Allura explained.
Okay?" Pidge was still confused.
"The pollen makes it's way into the immune system and acts as a sort of self destruct button. The predator becomes infinitely more susceptible to disease and when a disease is caught, or trauma happens to the predator, it is increased tenfold it's normal strength.
"So what was just allergies, became-"
"An earth disease I'd never heard of before called pneumonia."
"And my period?"
"Your normal menstrual cycle, coupled with the pollen, became serious hemorrhaging of the uterus."
"Am I-"
"Oh yes, I'm sorry Pidge! I should have started with that! Thanks to the healing pod, we were able to repair the hemorrhage of the uterus and correct the severe pneumonia." Allura smiled.
Pidge sighed in relief, she'd never even really thought about kids, she was only fifteen for heaven's sake, but the thought of not having a say in the matter at all was scary.
"Now, are you ready to go see the others? I think they might be quite cross, but it's only because they love you and they were scared." Allura put a hand on Pidge's shoulder.
Pidge got dressed and walked down to the training room.
"Pidge, I-" Shiro said as Pidge walked into the training room.
Before he could finish though, she was wrapping him in a hug.
"I'm sorry I scared you."
"I-it's okay." Shiro stammered, returning the hug.
After a moment, Pidge broke away from Shiro and pulled Hunk into her arms, then Lance, and lastly Keith, who looked shocked for a moment, but then leaned into the embrace.
"I love you guys." Pidge said, muffled by Keith's shirt.
"We love you too, Pidge." Shiro smiled.