Chapter 1: Blue Thunder

"Does everybody remember the plan?" Shiro's voice rang clear and loud through the helmet comlinks. A green glow filled the cockpit of Pidge's Lion, keeping the darkness of space at bay. The cold calm that had filled her before they left now replaced by burning adrenaline. Her head felt buzzed and ready to make decisions at a moment's notice.

"Yeah, yeah yeah, don't worry Shiro,it's not like we could forget the plan after the several million times you went over it with us." Lance's sarcasm was as strong as ever, helping to loosen the tension that had been sitting, stagnant, since they had left the castle.

"Ugh, Shiro, why did we bring this clown along with us?" Keith muttered, for once, Pidge had to agree with him. This was a stealth mission, and Lance definitely did not do stealth.

"Hey," an indignant Lance retorted, "Talk about calling the kettle black hothead, who was it that almost got us and the Balmera killed by attempting to just slice and dice everything in sight like a freaking Space Gordon Ramsay? Oh right, it was you, luckily someone, that someone being me if you've forgotten, stopped you!"

"Hey guys," Hunks voice joined the conversation, "Cut it out, all Shiro asked is if Lance knew the plan, well? Do you know the plan Lance?"

"Like the back of my hand old buddy!"

"Is that so?" Pidge could practically see Shiro's eyebrow lift up, "Then I guess you don't mind repeating to us what the plan is, right Lance?"

"Sure thing Boss Man. Step one, Pidge directs her lion towards the Galra ship in stealth mode, then, she hacks into the Galra security system all hacker voice like 'I'm in,' and feeds their sensors a continuous loop so they don't see us coming, after that we land on the bottom of the ship, break in, then BAM!" Pidge leapt in her chair at the sudden sound effect, she scowled, "Shiro's all like 'At my signal, unleash hell', then, we take down guards left and right, bein' all 'Terminate with extreme prejudice!' and steal their shipment of whatever that glowy stuff Keith found and win the day, just like we always do!" Pidge rolled her eyes.

"Lance, that was the worst explanation of a battle plan that I have ever heard in my entire life, and my dad made me watch Jupiter Moon with him." Pidge felt the sharp point of sadness pierce her as the icy tang of loss filled her mouth. Memories flooded back, memories of Friday night movies, where Matt and her had fought over who got to pick the movie, a fruitless battle as her father always won (despite not playing rock, paper, scissors with them, darn parental privileges).

Pidge remembered cuddling up beside him, snacking on coconut oil popcorn watching VHS's of a 90's TV show flop. She and Matt usually spent the entire time pointing out flaws, poor acting, and those terribly unscientific Sci-Fi moments.

"Wait, Jupiter Moon? Like, Jupiter Moon The New Frontier, The Pirates of Leda, Ghost in the Machine, and Fires of Io? Dude! Well, Dudette, Mi mamá was obsessed with that show! I didn't know you were a fan-" Pidge growled,

"I'm not a fan."

"Alright, alright, enough you two." Shiro intervened, "Lance, while that wasn't the best explanation of the plan, it's close enough." Pidge rolled her eyes. "Alright, get ready guys, we're approaching the main ship, you ready Pidge?"

"Already on it." Pidge flipped a switch on the dashboard, activating the cloaking device, and effectively blending her Lions' bright green color with the dark surroundings. Quickly, Pidge steered her lion towards the ship. Once close enough, PIdge jettisoned herself out, using her jetpack to propel herself forward.

She reached to entry door and connected her suit to the opening hatch. In just a few moments, Pidge managed to hack the door, and gain entry without setting off any alarms.

Once in, Pidge snuck, carefully avoiding Galra sentries, to the main command center. Darn. Two Galra stood guard of head computer. Using her height difference to her advantage, Pidge crept closer to them, and before the two guards could register it, Pidge had used her bayard to effectively knock the two out. Pidge quickly shut the door, dragged the two unconscious Galra to a corner, and hooked herself up to the mainframe.

"I'm in." She whispered into the comm.

"See!" She heard Lance whisper back, "I knew you would say that! Hacker voice part of the plan is done and done!" Pidge grimaced.

Quickly, she fixed the security so the Paladins could sneak in, undetected. She smiled to herself and placed her hands on her hips, proud of her work, until a certain voice ruined the moment.

"Pidge, is the mission a go? I repeat, is the mission a go?"

"Will you stop doing that?" She fumed.

"Stop doing what?" Lance sounded innocent, clearly unaware that his humor was unwanted at this moment.

"Stop quoting movie lines and start acting like a Paladin is what she's asking you to do brainless." Keith, believe it or not, seemed more agitated by Lance than Pidge at that moment. Lance, meanwhile, stopped talking. Except for the occasional mumble here and there, mostly rude words about Keith and how he and Pidge were "No fun at all".

Pidge watched her own, untampered monitors closely. "Alright guys, take a left at the next intersection, and keep an eye out, I can see some Galra walking the hallways."

The mission was going on without a hitch. The group had reached the storage area were the Quintessence was being stored in no time flat, and not a single Galra was aware of the intruders. Pidge opened the doors for them, then left the control room, sneaking along the hallways as she watched the holographic screen on her suit.

There were doors leading outside in the storage area, and all they needed to do now was have Pidge activate them and they could float their new-found booty out of the Galras' clutches and into their Lions'.

Pidge finally reached the storage area and gazed around in awe at the mass amounts of glowing Quintessence surrounding her and her friends. "That's a lot of Quintessence guys."
Lance let out a low whistle, "No kidding, so Shiro, any ideas on how we're gonna fit this on our lions?"

Shiro looked around, thinking. "We don't have to take all of it," He finally said, "We take what we can carry and the rest we dump into space, got it?" All the Paladins nodded.

Pidge began opening the hangar doors, the Lions bright colors becoming more and more visible as oxygen and gravity began to suck themselves out into the vacuum of space. Of course, that's where everything went wrong. Because at that exact moment, a Galra patrol saw them.

"Intruders!" called out one of them, the horde of Galra began rushing in, firing at the Paladins, all of whom pulled out their bayards.

Dangit all, Pidge thought, we were so close!

More and more Galra flooded the storage room and bright plasma bursts filled the room with a dangerous display of fireworks. "Tell Commander Bendalk to open a wormhole to the main ship! We can bring these Paladins and their lions with us!"

"Guys!" Pidge called into the comm, "We need to go, now. They're opening a wormhole!"

"Alright Pidge, TEAM, GET TO YOUR LIONS, NOW!" Shiro yelled. Pidge looked away from the battle and towards her Lion, she was running as fast as she could, the vacuum helping and hindering her efforts by both speeding up the process of getting to Green and by throwing her off balance.

Soon, however, that became the least of her problems. "PIDGE!" It was Lance. Pidge turned to have her vision blocked by an oncoming blue Paladin.

"Lance?! What are you-" But Pidge was unable to finish her sentence, because at that moment, Lance crashed into her, gripping her tightly as they suddenly found themselves catapulted by some unknown force.

Everything was spinning, Lance still blocked most of her vision, but she could see a wormhole opening up at the corners of her eyes, felt Lance and her being pulled into it with the Galra ship, heard Shiro, Keith, and Hunk calling out their names, safe in their lions, a sudden pull on her gut and Pidge felt her and Lance get flung into the sides of the wormhole, away from the Galra ship into unknown territory.

For the second time in her life, Pidge realized she was going to be flung out and and tossed into unknown territory. The pull grew stronger and Pidge and Lance disappeared into the wormhole. Leaving both their friends, and their Lions behind.

Bright light burned Pidge's eyes, and loud, unnatural noises ravaged her ears, which were already ringing like bells in a clock tower. Slowly, Pidge blinked the gunk away from her eyes, taking her surroundings in.

She was in some kind of forest area. With large neon green trees that reminded her of oaks from back on Earth. Large and elegantly plumaged birds flew from tree to tree, their singing sounding raucous and not quite as beautiful as their outside.

It was beautiful and terrible all at once. Which basically summed up Pidge's life in it's own strange way. Pidge moved to sit up, gasping in pain as she suddenly felt a deep pressure on the right side of her chest. Broken ribs? Pidge tried sitting up again. Nothing seemed to move in her chest, and the pain went away as soon as she stopped moving. Bruised. Her ribs were bruised.

Pidge's face went white. Not only did she have bruised ribs, but based off of the unnatural way her foot was pointing, she also had a broken ankle. She couldn't feel pain in it however, which, although seemed like a blessing, also meant that her nerves had suffered damage as well.

Other than that, the rest of the wounds were just ugly bruises and nasty cuts. A few gashes here and there, but they didn't seem to bleeding that badly. She knew she would have to clean them and bandage them though, if she ever wanted to avoid infection.

That was when another thought hit her like a landmine. Lance. He had gone through with her. Pidge still didn't know exactly what had happened up there, but what she did know was that Lance had obviously screwed up again and left him and Pidge stranded on an alien planet without their Lions or medical attention. Pidges stomach growled. And food. She was going to kill Lance.

Pidge searched around, looking for him, eventually she found his body lying in the...grass? Is that what this was? A few meters ahead of her. "Lance," Pidge said, "Lance!" She cried out again, louder this time. Lance didn't respond. Painfully, Pidge dragged herself over to Lance. "Lance!" He was lying on his side, Pidge shifted him over onto his back and pulled his helmet off. She slapped him lightly on the cheek, "LANCE!"

Pidges breath caught in her lungs. Her mind buzzed and her heart pounded. His chest wasn't moving up and down. Lance wasn't breathing. "Oh no, oh gosh, nononono, Lance? Lance! Get your sorry lungs to start breathing or so help me when we get out of here I'll kill you!" Still no response. She placed her index and middle finger to his neck, the way she had learned in a miniature first aid class her mother had forced her to take years before. Nothing. Then a slight flutter. He was still alive. Barely.

Pidge began ripping Lance's armor off as quickly as her shaking hands would let her. She than began pounding on his chest with her fist, silently singing "Stayin Alive" in her head. After a few seconds of that, Pidge made the random guess that she had done the required amount and, tilting Lance's head up, Pidge attempted to breath life into him. Nothing was happening.

Pidge began her frantic pounding on his chest again. This time, not caring about the right rhythm or timing, just about bringing her friend back from the nearly dead. "Come on, come on." She growled at him, "BREATH!" She pounded her fists against his chest as hard as she could, feeling something snap beneath them. And Lance breathed.

He coughed roughly, and Pidge heard a crackling sound coming from his chest. He opened his eyes, they looked cloudy and confused.

"Hola hermanita, ¿se me olvida algo?"