#lizposts

Inej: Kaz caught a bad cold once and he was so worried he’d sleep in that he asked me to keep him from sleeping at all

Jesper: What the fuck

The short and sweet: Pidge becomes a badass and I’m Seasalt trash

The long version: The team is aboard a Galra ship for a mission, Pidge is doing her usual thing of hacking the main computer and pulling the strings when she’s discovered, she manages to secure the room again but in the process gets shot, like mortally wounded if the team doesn’t get to her soon she’s dead kind of shot. Cue her four big bros freaking the heck out and trying to get to her. She can see the odds are against them, she knows that they’ll either escape without her or get captured with her so she does what she needs to do, leads them away from her and to safety before, with what’s left of her strength, rigging the ship to short out and trigger an explosion that’ll knock out the systems and get the team out. In that final moment before in all goes to hell Lance murmurs “We’re going to need a miracle to get out of this” and Pidge manages to choke out “Then say hallelujah cuz here it is.” Things blow up, hangar doors are flung open and everyone is sucked out into space. Cut to Shiro’s visor and all you see is a reading on Pidge’s armour showing she’s flatlined. No time to get her though, Allura swings in, picks them up and off they go. Once inside the ship it starts to settle in: Pidge just blew herself up to save them. Shiro practically roars amd punches a hole through the wall before sinking to the floor, face in his hands. Keith sits next to him, staring blankly ahead as his eyes grow glassy. Poor Hunk doesn’t have the chance to give way to his own grief as he tries to calm down Lance, who’s having a full blown grief driven panic attack. Allura and Coran arrive and try to console them but it’s no use. The final shot of is of the inside the Green Lion’s cockpit, the lights are all off, everything is dimmer than usual. As the screen fades out we hear a small sniffle and see Lance’s leg poke out from behind the empty pilot’s chair where he’s sitting.

Weeks later, the team has gone numb, Pidge’s loss still heavy in the air. But they have a mission to complete aboard another Galra ship. It’s going well, until they’re attacked by something. It’s cloaked in black, small and moving freakishly fast, darting in and striking before retreating back into the shadows. Shiro manages to grab the robe and pull it off, revealing Pidge. Only it’s not her.

Haggar’s handiwork is instantly recognizable.

Every part of her has some kind of Galra tech now. Her left leg from the knee down, her right from the thigh down, the right arm from the elbow and most of her left hand are all prosthetic as. There are power nodes and panels across her body and her left arm has some kind of control band built in. Even the base of her skull, under what’s left of her hair, is Galra tech now, all of it glowing eerily purple. She stares at them, expression blank and eyes vacant. Her right eye glows purple in the second before she launches forward to attack with enough force to leave dents in the floor. Her attack is mechanically precise, each move carefully calculated and executed, her size and speed used as an advantage as she lands blow after blow. Hunk is the one to save the day here, while the other three fight just to keep her at bay he rips open a wall panel and uses the wiring to short-circuit her. The glow of the tech fades as she falls heavy and limp to the floor, surrounded by her teammates nursing the wounds she gave them.

- Marya and Inej’s parents don’t speak each others’ only languages but they do not need to for their few days of companionable silence. Who else understands grieving your child just to find out they are a rich criminal traumatised and grown beyond recognition? Where did it all go? They get each other.

- Kaz says goodbyes in Suli. Inej is unable to stop her parents from hugging him before they go. He is frozen and it’s not all trauma discomfort. It is also shock.

- Jesper half-jokingly asks Marya to paint him when he notices she’s just sort of rehashing the same old things. She does. He cannot get her to stop coming up with slightly different portrait ideas after that. There will be a thousand Jesper portraits. And if he has to stay somewhat still? she cannot get him to shut up. So it’s also his questionable excuse for therapy.

- When Inej sails out, Kaz stops visiting the mansion altogether. Buries himself in work and amassing the empire and whatever. Cannot bear to go where Inej was yesterday and the day before and the day before and now she might never be again. Terrifying. What’s the point.

- ^ Wylan is concerned, but Jesper is offended. Starts showing up at the slat and the club constantly to say as much. Checking up on him through the guise of being mad or bored. Inviting him to dinner again. Inviting him to go out with them.

- Eventually this results in a miserable Kaz third wheeling Wesper because they’re all aware he needs to remember he has friends. Wesper basically parenting him is so funny though. You know Wylan will go like “uh, when Kaz let you on that job last week, how was he…?” and Jesper like “oh yeah it was all but a suicide mission. But I think the air did him good.” “We should take him to a park or something.”

Matthias: 10 minutes early

Kaz: 1-5 minutes early

Inej: Exactly on time

Wylan: 1-5 minutes late (unless arriving with Jesper)

Jesper: 15-45 minutes late