Title: Trinity

Chapter: Epilogue

Summary: Pidge, Hunk, and Lance set out on a routine mission…who thinks that is going to end well?

Rated: T

A few phoebs later…

"In here," Pidge motioned for Lance. He spun around and moved over to stand guard at the door. She started hacking into the computer. Lance kneeled with his bayard in rifle form at his shoulder. He could hear the others over the com.

"Hunk, to your left." Shiro's voice commanded and a sound echoed over the com indicating the firing of Hunk's cannon. "Good work guys."

The rest of the team was moving slaves and prisoners out of cells a level down from where Pidge and he were accessing the computer system to gather intel.

"How's it going, Pidge?" He whispered back at her, not turning.

"Good, eighty percent already." She was watching the computer and didn't hear the door on the other side of the room open. Lance was focused in the hall.

"I've got droids incoming." She heard the sound of his rifle firing. "I can handle it, but this is going to attract attention.

Pidge jumped as she was grabbed from behind. Two strong green arms wrapped around her, one covering her mouth and a harsh voice hissed in her ear, "What are you doing here?"

Pidge threw an elbow back and stomped down hard on the foot behind her with her boot. The voice hissed and the grip loosened enough for her to spin around and pull her bayard out. She was turning and preparing to use it when the face came into focus. Green, turtle-like, with a cracked beak and a scar above her right eye.

"Malla?" Pidge asked hesitating to use her bayard. The green girl also paused at the sound of the name.

"What did you say?" She held a shank in her hand and had been prepared to use it on Pidge.

"Is your name Malla?" Pidge asked.

"How would you know that name?" She narrowed her eyes and backed away, knife still held at the ready.

"I am friends with a person from your planet named Oman, he is looking for his daughter Malla. I am helping him." Pidge explained.

"Oman was taken by the Galra over ten Deco-Phoebs ago. He is dead." She hissed.

"No, he isn't. He escaped the Galra with me and my friends and he is looking for his daughter. Are you Malla, are you his daughter?" Pidge asked again.

"I…I was Malla." Her hard eyes softened for a moment and then hardened again.

"Okay, well we are getting people out of here, do you want to come with us?" Pidge offered.

"I…"

"Pidge we need to hurry, there is something wrong here, I feel something bad, really." Lance sounded strangely nervous. His rifle continuing to fire.

Pidge glanced at her data stick as it beeped. One hundred percent download complete. "Come with us. Whoever you are now, your father will want to see you."

"How can you know that?" She looked at the ground. "I am not who I was, I have done things, things to survive." She sounded bitter and angry.

"A lot of people have. Your father was a prisoner for a long time, you don't think he will understand? Either way come with us, get out of here." Pidge grabbed the stick and made toward the door and Lance. Malla followed.

"Look out!" Hunk's voice yelled over the com.

"Keith!" Shiro's voice echoed in pain.

"Shiro? What's going on?" Lance called.

"We are caught in the cross fire at the intersection south of the entry point. We can't hold for long. You need to hurry. The prisoners are on board. Keith is down." Shiro answered through panted breaths, probably fighting.

"On our way." Lance turned to Pidge and Malla, "you heard him Pidge. Malla we need to double time." He took off running at a pace he hoped they could keep.

As they rounded the hall he could see Shiro fighting in hand to hand with way too many droids and Hunk trying to cover two halls. Keith was propped up against the wall, unconscious. Pidge waded into the fight with Malla beside her. There were an effective pair. Lance slid to one side and nodded to Hunk as he took one hall and Hunk took the others. They had soon cleared the filled halls of incoming droids and Shiro, Pidge, and Malla had taken out the ones that had already gotten through.

"We need to get out of here." the words were out of his mouth before he even thought about them. A coldness filled his heart and he knew what was coming. "Shiro we need to go."

Shiro didn't question, he grabbed Keith and was making to go through the hall when a ball of purple lighting hit the wall where Keith had been.

"Druids!" Hunk yelled firing down the hall at the two cloaked hissing figures. Lance shoved Malla back through the door where Shiro had gone and slammed his hand on the panel shutting the door. He wished he could have gotten Pidge and Hunk through as well, but he needed to give Shiro time to get Keith and the prisoners to safety.

Pidge looked back shocked, but nodded her resolve. She readied her bayard. Lance fired but the druids seemed to shift from place to place and he kept missing them.

A blast hit Hunk and he fell, his bayard returning to his side in it's neutral form. Pidge nailed one of the druids with her bayard and while she held it Lance lit it up with shot after shot from his rifle, until it fell dead. The second druid was kneeling over Hunk and threw a blast winging Pidge hard enough that she couldn't hold her bayard. It turned back to Hunk and Lance fired at it again. It blinked and the shot missed. It reached it's clawed hand out for Hunk.

"Oh, I see, you don't want to challenge my mind. Already heard what I did to that other one of your kind. How it couldn't even get anything out of me and how I broke it's poor little brain?" Lance mocked firing again hoping to hit it.

"Lance?" Pidge gave him the you are crazy look.

The druid hissed and moved toward Lance casually blinking out of each shot he fired at it. Pidge slipped over to Hunk behind it's back. The druid slapped the bayard out of Lance's hands and grabbed him by the throat throwing him back against the wall.

"Do you think to challenge me?" It hissed.

"Nah, I mean it's not a challenge when I know I'm going to win." Lance shot back with as cocky a smile as he could muster when he was struggling to breath.

"Insolent brat. I will destroy you." It raised it's other hand and stuck lightning down into Lance. He screamed and tried to twist away. "I will break your mind." It's clawed hand moved from his neck and he fell to the ground. It kneeled over him and jabbed the claws into the side of his head. He screamed, but the so did the druid.

Pidge's bayard drove into the druid, her arm shaking with the effort of just holding it. Hunk barely conscious pointed his cannon and blasted the druid into oblivion.

"Pidge, Lance, Hunk!" Shiro yelled over the com.

"Sorry, Shiro, we had to deal with the druids. I'm going to get that door back open." Pidge limped over. Her whole right side felt weak and there was definitely blood running down her shoulder from the druids strike. Hunk sat blinking against the wall, not really registering but trying to cover the halls in case anyone else came. Lance was just out.

Shiro managed to get each of them to the shuttle. Malla helped Hunk, Pidge limped, and Shiro carried Lance cringing again at the repeat.

A week later Oman's shuttle docked at the castle. Pidge was down in the hanger, waiting to meet him.

"Where is she?!"

"Oman, please, she wanted me to talk to you first, to prepare you." Pidge hooked an arm around Oman and led him to a quiet room. She explained to him that Malla had been at many work camps, that in order to survive she had been forced to kill one of the leaders at the last work camp, and as such had been given the choice to take his role or die. She had chosen to live, but the choice meant she had become the new taskmaster to the slaves at the workcamp. She was hated. She had done things to keep them working that were distasteful, but she had felt she had no choice.

"Oman, she is depressed. She is ashamed. She is hurting. She was afraid to see you." Pidge patted his arm trying to offer him comfort.

"It does not matter to me. I just want to see her, to hold her." Oman had tears in his eyes.

Pidge looked toward a door in the room and smiled, "See I told you." she yelled through the door.

Malla stepped in, her own tears falling freely, "Truly father, you are not ashamed of me?"

He grabbed her in his arms and wept with joy. "My daughter, you live, you are brave and strong. Whatever you had to do to live, I know it was because you had no choice. I know your heart, little one" He kissed the top of her head. He looked up and gave Pidge a heartfelt smile as she slipped out of the door. "Thank you."

Pidge headed to the kitchen where Lance and Hunk were cooking. Keith and Shiro were sitting at the in the stools chatting.

"So, did it go as planned?" Shiro asked with a smile. The grin on Pidge's face as she entered the room had been answer enough.

"Of course, I'm a genius" Pidge pushed the glasses back on her face and joined them by pulling up another stool. "What's cooking?"

"Well it's not Paladin surprise," Lance offered with a smirk. He had been quiet for a while after getting out of the pods this time and had a flashback the next day, but he was quickly coming back to himself.

"I'm trying a new recipe. We need to find a food for all of us. The seven of us. We have the food for our friendship Pidge, now we need to expand and like a Castle Food, something for all of us and since Allura and Coran are vegetarians, we settled on a vegetable soup."

"Yeah, a Cuban, Italian, Samoan, Japanese, Texan, Altean vegetable soup," Lance added with a laugh. "I am making garlic knots."

As it turns out the soup wasn't bad at all.

Author's notes:

So loves, I have a question for you and hopefully you'll feel like answering in the comments :) -

The question is an opinion one, I've been kicking around a few story ideas and wanted some feedback on which to jump into first:

Hunk centric story - inspired by the song "Brother Let me be your shelter" - Hunk saving the day in a variety of clips

Lance centric story - we all know Kuron wasn't always the greatest to Lance, but what if the off screen interaction was a lot worse than on screen - how would Lance handle seeing Shiro again - possibly told in a series of flashbacks

Drug Additiction related - what if there was a drug to make you a better paladin, what if one of the rebels brought it on the castle with them and offered it to someone - someone who struggles to think they are good enough - someone who never really considers that their are drug dealers and illegal substances in space too - Matt is not the dealer, but he knows who is and he will play a role in this story

I also have an AU I'm working on from a suggestion from Shiranai Atsune