I own nothing, but started writing this before SDCC, so the ages in this fic are:

Pidge: 15

Keith, Lance and Hunk: 17

Shiro: 19

Chapter One:

"Where's Hunk?" Keith asked as he got himself settled onto the couch.

"Yeah, it's movie night." Lance said, putting his arm around Keith's shoulder. "He usually beats us all in here, setting up snacks and stuff."

"He's spent most of the afternoon working on a project of some sorts." Allura said as she took a seat, smoothing out her skirt. "I imagine, like Pidge, he has lost track of the time while being so wrapped up in it."

"Yeah, but Pidge doesn't forget about movie nights." Lance argued.

"That would be because I either remember, or I get dragged in here and told to set up like five different movies at the same time because no one can make up their minds on what to watch." Pidge said, tying away on their laptop, in the process of pulling up a movie and connecting it to the holographic projector.

Movie nights had become another 'team bonding' exercise that they tried to make happen at least once a week. Everyone looked forward to it because it was a time to decompress and relax, but also helped alleviate homesickness for the human Paladins, and allowed Allura and Coran to understand more about earth culture (and understand a lot of the pop culture references the younger teens made).

Shiro uncrossed his arms and prepared to push himself up off the couch.

"I'll go get him." He said. But before he could get up, they heard yelling from the hallway.

"GUYS GUYS GUYS GUYS GUYS!"

Hunk skidded to a stop inside the lounge, out of breath with his hands on his knees.

"Hunk?" Lance said, turning around on the couch to get on his knees, frowning at his friend. "Everything alright, man?"

Hunk looked up and grinned widely at the other four Paladins, the Princess and Coran.

"You're not gonna believe what I just did!" He said excitedly.

"Did you finally find a way to make space chocolate?" Pidge asked, looking up from the computer, secretly hopeful.

"Not as good, but just about!" Hunk said. "I got connected to the internet! The earth internet!"

"What?" Shiro said, instantly on his feet.

"No way!" Lance said excitedly, bouncing himself off the couch onto his feet. "That's amazing!"

"Do you think we can contact people?" Pidge asked, thinking instantly of their mom.

"Haven't tried yet, but, guys…" Hunk took a deep breath before saying, "The internet knows about Voltron!"

"What?" Came the surprised voice. Everyone followed Hunk to where he had set up his computer in his room. They all gathered around the holographic computer screen and control panel.

The webpage was black with bright blue letters, called Voltron Watch. The banner at the top offered a few page options: the Home page, one marked Kerberos, another marked Voltron, yet another marked News, and the last one marked The Missing.

The home page that Hunk was on had a video that was labeled 'Welcome'.

"Have you watched it?" Lance asked.

"Not yet, hang on." Hunk said, starting the video.

After a few seconds, the video started. The screen was divided in half, each side showing a different place and a different girl.

On the right was a dark-skinned girl with numerous dreadlocks, a few dyed red, and pulled back into a ponytail. Wherever she was, an apartment from the looks of it, it was dark out, but numerous lights seemed to indicate she was in a city. The girl on the left had a warm tan coloring, with long, wavy dark brown hair with a pink flower tucked behind an ear. Behind her was a large open window with bright blue sky and a palm tree waving lazily in the breeze.

Pidge instantly reached out and paused the video, pointing to the girl on the right.

"That's Tali!" Pidge exclaimed excitedly, turning to Shiro to see his reaction. But, to their surprise, it was a lack of reaction. More confusion than anything else.

"She looks familiar…" Shiro said, his voice a bit strained as he struggled desperately to remember.

"Is the other young woman familiar?" Allura asked.

"Yes." Hunk answered instantly with a huge grin. "That's my best friend, Lani."

Lance made an indignant noise.

"My non-Garrison best friend," Hunk amended, looking over at Lance, who then nodded approvingly, looking a little smug. "Lani and I have been buds since we were in diapers. But I'm really confused now… How do she and Tali know each other?"

"Let's get some answers, then." Keith said, reaching past to hit the play button again.

"Aloha!" Said Lani with a wave. "My name is Hokulani Kahele."

"And my name is Tali Wright." Said Tali. "Welcome to Voltron Watch."

"You're probably wondering, what is Voltron?" Lani said. "Well, the answer is, we have no idea!"

"But we do know it is something important, and it is something that the Galaxy Garrison does not want the world to know about." Tali said. "Which is why we are making this video and website, to spread the word about Voltron. This all began nearly two years ago, when I was a student at Galaxy Garrison. I was the engineer assigned to a three-man flight crew alongside Matthew Holt and Takashi 'Shiro' Shirogane."

Everyone turned to look at Shiro at this point, who stared at the screen, stunned.

"Matt's father, Commander Samuel Holt, requested for our team to fly the Kerberos mission. I declined for personal reasons, but Matt and Shiro accepted the offer. Five months after the crew left earth's atmosphere, the Galaxy Garrison announced that the entire crew was dead due to pilot error." Tali's face screwed up at this. "However, nearly a year later, new evidence arrived that this was not only a lie, but a potential cover-up."

The screen cut to shaky footage from a phone-camera of what looked like a meteor crashing towards the earth. Pidge turned and looked around at Keith, Lance and Hunk. The meteor that wasn't a meteor. A ship. Shiro, returning to earth.

Pidge felt like a hand was gripping their heart, closing their eyes at hearing Shiro's voice. It was painful to hear the first time, him struggling against the Garrison officials who were clearly not listening to him as he warned them about Voltron, him begging for them not to put him under, and Pidge remembering how glad they had been to learn she wasn't alone as Lance declared their need to rescue Shiro.

But suddenly, Pidge's eyes snapped open.

I hacked that camera feed, Pidge thought. But someone spliced my hack for this video.

Pidge didn't get time to further think about that, because the girls reappeared on the screen. In between them was a still from further footage, of Lance and Keith glaring at each other while supporting an unconscious Shiro between them.

"This," Lani said as a small blue line circled Lance's head. "Is Lance Sanchez-Garcia, a student of the Galaxy Garrison, and this," A red line for Keith. "Is Keith Kwan, a former student of the Garrison. Shirogane, Sanchez-Garcia and Kwan, alongside Pika 'Hunk' Kekoa and Pidge Gunderson, AKA Katelyn Holt, have not been seen since this night."

"But what has been seen?" Tali said, smiling slightly. "This."

And there it was: the Blue Lion, soaring around in the sky as Lance test-piloted.

"As it turns out, there has been local lore in the dessert area around Galaxy Garrison about a Blue Lion, a noble warrior, for centuries." Tali said. "All that is really known is that this Lion showed up, but then disappeared out of sight, out of earth's atmosphere. Right as the International Space Station began to pick up signs of an approaching transport: one that is not from earth."

There is then grainy footage of Blue fighting the Galra ship above earth, then flying towards the outer reaches of the Solar System, the Galra following.

"No one is really sure what happened to the Lion, or this other ship." Lani said. "Debris that crashed to earth was immediately seized by Galaxy Garrison, who have yet to answer the numerous questions surrounding these objects and the crash sites."

"If this Lion is Voltron, then we can only hope that it is in friendly hands." Tali said. "Shiro, Katie, Hunk, Lance, Keith… if you're out there, if you somehow find this video, just know that we all miss you."

"But if you've got Voltron, and it's doing good out there, then," Lani hesitated, seeming to blink back tears. "Then we understand. We all do. But come home soon."

The video went dark.

Everyone was quiet.

Pidge couldn't sit still and grabbed hold of the controls, navigating through the pages. They started with 'The Missing'. That page brought up each Paladin's picture as well of that of Commander Holt and Matt, displaying their official Galaxy Garrison identification photos, with their hyperlinked name underneath.

"Geez, Keith, you look like the 'bad boy' member of just about every boy band there is." Lance said with a small smile, causing Keith to replicate the annoyed frown that was on his face in the picture taken three years before.

"At least I'm not actually glaring down the camera like Pidge is." Keith said defensively.

Pidge ignored the two and instead clicked on the link beneath their picture, which read PIDGE GUNDERSON/KATELYN 'KATIE' HOLT. It led to a page that painfully reminded them of the tribute pages that had been created all over social-media after the Kerberos mission, put together by family and friends and even a few fans. The pages full of pictures and stories of her father, Matt and Shiro. This page had very few photos of how Pidge looked now, most of them taken while Pidge was still only Katie.

Katie with her long hair and school uniform, a golden ribbon holding up her ponytail and her plaid skirt neatly pressed on the first day of a new school year; Katie as the captain of her school's robotics team, clutching a first place ribbon and posing beside the winning robot; a younger Katie and Matt playing on the floor with their new puppy; four year old Katie riding a carousel horse with her father right beside her; her tired mom holding a newborn Katie in her arms with a huge grin and four-year-old Matt staring wide-eyed at the baby; a family Christmas photo; right before the Kerberos lift off, Katie's arms around Matt, both with huge smiles on their faces.

But what surprised Pidge the most was that this had a mixture of Pidge's story and some of Katie's story there, about their father and brother and Kerberos, but also some information about how they had infiltrated the Garrison as Pidge Gunderson.

Pidge went back and started clicking on the other names, picking at random.

Hunk's photos mostly took place on the beach or in a small house. A small, chubby four year old wearing bright orange water wings and sitting on a surfboard, a man who looked like an older version of Hunk waist-deep in the water beside him, wearing Hunk's trademark headband. Hunk cooking beside a different man. Hunk at his middle school graduation with Lani—also in her own robes—and two other girls, one older and one younger, all smiling for the camera. All four just a bit younger, building a sandcastle. Toddler Hunk in the arms of a smiling woman sitting in a rocking chair. Hunk holding up a toy racecar with a wide grin. A family picture, the woman and the man sitting, the woman holding a small baby in her arms, the man holding Hunk on his lap, and the older girl standing on a stool behind them, arms draped around the man's neck.

Hunk smiled sadly. He pointed at the two unidentified girls in the graduation picture.

"That's my older sister, Kalea. She's studying marine biology at the University of Hawaii. And that's my younger sister, Luana. She's going to be starting high school soon…" He said. He pointed to the woman in the rocking chair. "My mom…" And then, he pointed to the man he was with in the ocean. "And that's my dad. He died when I was five. Boating accident. He was a fisherman. There was a freak storm. Didn't get back to shore in time…"

Before anyone could say anything, Hunk took the controls from Pidge, going back to the previous page, clicking on Lance's before anyone could say anything else.

There were tons of photos, but very few pictures of Lance alone. Sitting in a kiddie pool with lots of smaller kids in one, playing with water guns with some older kids in another. Lance playing soccer with a mixture of big and little kids, or dancing. At about the age ten and holding a tiny, pink-blanket-wrapped baby while grinning at the one holding the camera. One of Lance in his Garrison uniform with a small girl on his back. Quite a few on a beach. The ones that were of him alone were a little more formal, yearbook photos taken at school. There was also one of him in a soccer uniform and coated in mud and grass, and another of him at about seven in a suit with a blue tie and a wooden rosary around his neck.

Lance grinned at a lot of these photos.

"We took that a week before I started the new year at Garrison," He said, pointing to one of him with all eight of his siblings, sitting the porch steps, the same small girl in Lance's lap. "It's Mom's tradition to take one on the first day of school. Garrison started before the local schools, and my older siblings' semesters started a few days after, so we took it early this year. So, that's my oldest brother, Roberto, he's a senior at University of Florida. He's on the soccer team, and a history major. That's the twins, Luisa and Maria, they're both sophomores at Florida State; Luisa's an art history major with a focus in restoration while Maria's studying sociology and anthropology. Luisa's the one with her hair up. And that's Miguel, he's a freshman at University of Florida, but last I heard he's still not quite sure what he wants to do. Then that's Carlos, he started high school this year and plays baseball and is about as big a space nerd as I am, but he wants to be an astronomer rather than actually go to space. Then that's Alicia, she's twelve and loves to dance. And that's Raymon, he's nine and a total pest but my mom says that's because he just copies everything I do."

He then pointed to the little girl he was holding.

"That's my little sister, Bella. She's the baby of the family, and the youngest girl of the entire extended family." He explained. He grinned. "She's spoiled rotten for it, but the sweetest thing in the entire universe… And I'm her favorite."

He said this last part with his usual prideful gusto, but then suddenly he seemed sad and almost guilty. Lance suddenly tore his eyes away from the picture of his little sister and instead seemed to be hyper-focusing on the one of him in the suit for a moment and mumbled,

"T a Lucia's wedding or First Communion? Nope, definitely Communion." He mumbled.

"Hey, Lance?" Pidge said. "Weird question, but… You're Cuban, and your siblings all have Hispanic names, but you don't. Why is that?"

"Not a weird question. I get it a lot, actually. But, basically, my parents decided to name me after a family friend who died a few weeks before I was born." Lance explained, eyes focused on the photos that he scrolled through. "He was my dad's best friend growing up. Best man at his wedding, pretty much another uncle to my older siblings. Great guy all around, from what I've heard. He died in a car accident, and it really shook up my dad. So my mom suggested naming me in honor of him. He was a pilot, too, but flew airplanes, so my namesake was part of my inspiration to become a pilot myself."

"Wow." Hunk said, unable to think of anything else to say. "So, you going to introduce us to the rest of the family?"

"Nah, we'd be here forever. My parents have about as many siblings as I do, so I have, like, a gazillion cousins." Lance said with a small smile, his eyes sad. They could all see how quickly he was getting homesick. "Come on, let's look at the others."

Pidge decided to do Keith's next. It had the least amount of photos, and the bio there was much shorter. Most of the photos were yearbook-type photos, each with Keith looking just as irritable as he did in his official Galaxy Garrison one.

"What are you, camera-shy?" Lance teased Keith, poking him in the ribs, causing Keith to swat at him. Keith said nothing, but frowned slightly at the one photo of him smiling.

He was about seven years old in that photo, his smile huge and missing a few baby teeth, with a woman with long, braided black hair leaning over him, her arms wrapped around him. She had a bright, beautiful smile and kind violet eyes.

"Is that your mother, Keith?" Allura asked in a soft voice.

"Yeah." Keith said. "She died shortly after this photo was taken. And… You all know why I never knew my father."

Two months previously, after a particularly rough battle that ended with Keith in a healing pod, Allura and Coran had detected—to everyone's surprise—Galra DNA mixed with human. Keith had not taken the news well when he woke up, resulting in him shunning away everyone and locking himself in his room, despite repeated assurances that no one thought less of him or trusted him less. They didn't blame him for who his parents were. It took two days and everyone sitting in shifts outside his door—either sitting in silence but making Keith aware of their presence or having a one-sided conversation with Keith on the other-side—for him to finally emerge, though he insisted it was only because he was starving and wanted food. His interactions with others were more limited than before, but slowly—and surprisingly—Lance was the one who kept pulling him out of his shell more and more over the weeks. Now, he was a little more sociable than before, which everyone credited to the closeness between Keith and Lance. "Closeness" that involved a great deal of cuddling next to each other on the lounge couches on movie nights…

Coran had deduced that—aside from the few purplish blotches on his legs and torso that Keith had always assumed were just birthmarks—Keith's Galra parentage was making itself more present due to entering the last stages of adolescence (which made Keith grumble irritably that he thought he was done with puberty) as well as now being in space and the occasional close contact to other Galra. Keith's skin would break out into more purple blotches and fuzz, and the occasional transformation of his ears, when his emotions were running particularly high; once he was calm and relaxed again, the purple would fade and his ears would change back (to Lance's utter disappointment).

No one said anything in response to Keith's statement, but Allura put her hand on Keith's shoulder comfortingly, as did Hunk, while Lance slipped his fingers into Keith's hand. Keith nodded appreciatively, then nodded at Pidge when they looked over their shoulder, silently asking if he wanted to leave this page.

Which left them only with Shiro's page.

Like the others, they were a mixture of old and more recent. The older ones showed of an eight year old Shiro triumphantly holding up a plastic bag with a goldfish in it, of being on the back of his father, of sitting in his mother's arms as she read a book to him, practicing karate in a white gi. Of him playing in the snow with two smaller kids, of all three kids sitting along the porch of a Japanese style house in shorts and t-shirts. Pidge immediately decided that their favorite was of Shiro at about age three, wearing a kimono and a huge smile as he held his parents' hands where he stood between them. The more recent photos included a picture of Shiro, Matt and Tali in their Garrison uniforms, arms around each other and grinning at the camera. A picture of him playing a card game with a younger girl who looked a lot like him. A picture of him and a boy who was almost identical but shorter standing together; Shiro in his green formal Garrison uniform and the younger boy in a suit. Pidge remembered that picture being taken, having been present, at a gala event that served as a send-off party for the Kerberos mission.

They were all before photos, Pidge realized, glancing at Shiro.

These photos all showed Shiro unscathed. His skin tan and healthy. His hair entirely black. Two flesh and blood hands. His smile much easier.

And, looking at Shiro now, Pidge saw that Shiro realized this too.

"Shiro?" Lance said, frowning as he studied the head of Voltron. "Are you okay?"

"I don't remember these people." Shiro mumbled. "I don't… I don't remember their names. Their birthdays. What their voices sound like. How I am supposed to know them."

He looked at the photo of him, Matt and Tali.

"I remember Tali a little. Now I do, at least. But I didn't before. I didn't… I don't…"

Shiro pressed the palm of his left hand against his forehead.

"Shiro, it's okay," Pidge said, turning around and reaching for his right hand. "It's not your fault you can't remember…"

"I know…" Shiro said, pulling his hand behind his back so that Pidge couldn't grab it. "I just…"

He shook his head and turned, walking out of the room.

"Oh, Shiro…" Allura said as he disappeared.

"Give him time," Coran said. "That is all he needs. Time. He will remember in time."

"Yeah, except he wants to remember now." Lance said.

"Should we go after him?" Hunk asked.

"Let him have his space." Keith advised. "I think the last thing he wants right now is to be smothered by us."

Pidge sadly turned back to the website, searching the News page instead. What caught their eye instantly made them grin.

"Mom, please tell me this means what I think it means…" Pidge mumbled, clicking on a link. Then they laughed. "Go Mom!"

"What?" Hunk said. "Your mom? What's she doing?"

"She's leading a case against the Garrison for the cover-up of the Kerberos mission!" Pidge said excitedly. "Look! There's a Holt/Shirogane versus Galaxy Garrison trial going on in both America and Japan… And my mom's the prosecuting attorney for the American case!"

"Is that legal?" Keith asked.

"Who cares?" Pidge said, doing a small victory dance in the chair. "You guys don't understand… They call my Mom 'The Lioness of the courtroom'. She makes grown men cry on a regular occasion! I'd love to see her reduce Commander Iverson to tears… That'll show him…"

"Won't lie, I would very much love to see that." Lance said with a smirk.

"Alright," Pidge said, backing out but still feeling elated. "Now, I'm going to find out who spliced my hack of that camera."

"Can you do that?" Hunk asked.

"Watch me!" Pidge said with a grin. "I can have this answer in five minutes, tops!"

However, not five minutes later, Pidge's fingers began to curl in frustration over the keys, eyes hard and whole body shaking in anger.

This hacker had signed their work. A little piece of code that didn't change any of the data, but claimed their work nonetheless.

SS55

Pidge knew that signature.

"Uh, Pidge?" Lance said hesitantly. "Having trouble?"

"No." Pidge said through gritted teeth. "I'm going to murder him."

"Oh dear, don't you think murder is a bit, er, extreme?" Coran said.

"Oh, no, not for him." Pidge said, fingers now curling into fists.

"So you know the hacker? Like, personally or professionally or what?" Keith asked.

"Do I know the hacker?" Pidge repeated, grinning madly now as they spun around in the chair to look at the Blue, Red and Yellow Paladins, the Princess and Coran. "Yes, I know the hacker.

"You could say that this hacker killed Katie Holt and brought Pidge Gunderson to life."

"Who exactly is he?" Lance asked hesitantly.

Pidge sighed.

"He's a second year student at Galaxy Garrison. A communications officer, like me, though he started out as a pilot. He switched to cargo class when he made the switch to communications, too. His name is Shinji Shirogane."

"Wait, Shirogane?" Hunk said, eyes widening. "You mean, like Shiro?"

"Wait a second," Keith said, standing straighter. "Are you talking about Shiro's brother? That Shinji Shirogane?"

Pidge nodded.

"What, how exactly did he piss you off?" Lance asked.

Pidge sighed.

"Get comfortable. It's a very long story."