Pidge POV

I had my hand through the barrier, not watching them disappear, knowing their expressions would break my heart.

Being so fixated on getting through the barrier, I didn't notice Imp walking into my vision until too late.

My eyes widened, and I tried to yank my arm back into the cell. Before I could get it in all the way, she grabbed my hand, yanking me all the way out of my prison, a smug expression on her face. Not thinking too much about it, I tried to take a step, and then suddenly I was back in control of my body.

I looked down at my arms and legs and smiled. I looked around and remembered the Galra ship I had caught a glance of before she had let me out.

My joy was gone and I looked in horror at the ship in orbit with a smaller ship heading towards me.

I turned and ran, heading for the tall grass off to my left.

The grasses whipped along my face, but I didn't care. As long as I was getting away from that Galran ship.

I stumbled into a space free of grass and leaned my hands onto my knees, gasping for breath. Looking around, I couldn't see the ship anymore, but that didn't mean it was gone.

My gaze circled around to my hands, slowly turning them over and over again. Why had she let me go? Nothing here made any sense.

I knelt to the ground and ran my fingers through the amber colored dirt. It felt like sand and was amazingly soft. I hadn't known I could miss something that back home I had hated so much.

My gaze was still on the ground examining the dirt when I heard a low growl on my right. Blood freezing, I slowly turned, and had to stop myself from screaming.

My hand grasped at the dirt, trying to grab a handful in shaking hands. Once I had the handful, I took a closer look at the creature.

It looked like someone had tried to take the eyes and ears of a cat, rear end of a dog, the front legs of a horse and crammed them all together into one shape.

The creature and I met eyes, and then I threw my handful of dirt at it. It yowled like a cat, pawing at its eyes, and I scrambled to get a grip on the ground in order to run. I was still in my paladin armor, and I could thank my lucky stars for it later.

I fell just as it cleared the dirt from its eyes and pounced. I screamed and threw up my arms, expecting the hit.

It never came. The next I saw of it, it was laying on the ground with a smoking hole in its side. Two aliens stood in front of me, one with a small, handheld blaster. The one without the blaster turned and looked at me, giving me a small smile and a giggle. "Good thing we were here."

I tried to turn and run again, but I was frozen to the spot. The only thing I could move was my eyes, and soon, I couldn't move those either. The alien without a boater was looking at me, expecting me to answer. When I didn't, she looked at the one with the blaster and said with another small smile, "look, Acxa. She's scared."

"Of course she's scared, Ezor, we just saved her from a Bolmotenth. Anyone without a weapon or training would freeze."

They continued their banter, back and forth, but I didn't hear any of the rest of it. My brain was connecting thoughts, and if I could have, my face would have whitened.

Imp had taken me out of my prison, had given me a sliver of hope, let me run, and then taken it all away. I could see what she was doing with my body, but couldn't move, or talk.

A low chuckle echoed through my head. "I thought I would give you a taste of freedom before ripping it away." I couldn't even see her, yet I could almost hear her smirk. I shifted my gaze to the two aliens, still caught up in their banter, neither looking at me.

Something was different about them. They didn't really look Galran, but they had a Galran ship. Both were in a uniform that definitely wasn't like the style of the normal army Galra. It was mostly black and blue, with some red accents.

Neither had a helmet on, but the one without the blaster-Ezor, I think her name was-was some kind of pink alien, with pink, yellow, and blue stripes on her hair....appendage....thing. She was slender and talked a lot.

The one with the blaster had blue skin with blue hair and yellow eyes. She was also slender and carried the blaster with ease.

They looked towards me in their conversation that I still wasn't paying much attention to, and my every instinct was to run.

"Oh, does one of the paladins of Voltron want to run away?" Her teasing voice hit my heart like a battering ram. Yes. Yes I did. My heart filled with shame, and I lowered my head, not in real life, but in my head. "Well, then I shall oblige." She made me struggle to my feet, turn, and run, but it was more of a teasing jog. She wanted to be captured by these people.

I heard a 'hey!' from behind me, and assumed the fighters were giving chase.

My heart thudded as my body was tackled from behind, and my wrists secured. Imp didn't even let me struggle, just going along with it without a fight.

"Why aren't you fighting?" I shouted, but only Imp could hear me.

She didn't respond, just letting my body go limp when the two aliens picked me up

"Now why'd you do that? We saved you and you had to go and--" Ezor's voice faded away, and the only voice I could hear was Imp's. Before I knew it, I was back in my cage.

"Now that was fun," she said, appearing in front of me. My head was lowered, and I refused to look at her.

"You gave me hope and then tore it away." I muttered into the ground, feeling like a kid complaining about things not being fair.

"That's how this works, Cub. Don't you know how unfair life is, especially in space?" She gave a smug grin, and raised an eyebrow.

I still refused to look at her. "You got caught by Galra. You've doomed us both."

Her voice turned to steel and I assumed she sneered. "You're just like the rest of the universe. Thinking of the Galra as mindless animals when, what did those two do for you? They saved, you, that's what. Not all of them are void of compassion."

My head shot up, and I looked at her angry glare, flinching a bit.

Shaking her head, she turned and walked away, letting me see what was happening outside, but not giving me any freedom like last time.

I was being carried in a piggyback style by the pink alien. The two of them, which I assumed were either part Galra, or mercenaries for the Galra, carried me to their smaller ship, and piloted that ship into the bigger cruiser.

They carried me through corridors until we walked through the door that brought us into the cockpit.

Sitting in the pilot's chair was a man glancing boredly at the holographic logs. He looked up when we came in, and I groaned internally, not that anyone but Imp could hear me. This one actually looked Galran. His purple skin and catlike eyes gave him away, but where most Galrans had fur, he had bleached white hair.

Ezor dropped me on the metal ground, walking away as soon as she'd done it.
I winced, expecting to feel pain, and then let my eyes go wide when it didn't come. Instead, Imp felt the pain.

I smirked. Served her right, for taking over my body. She could feel all the pain that I felt.

Returning my attention to the Galran man in the pilot's chair, I felt Imp freeze my body when she saw the same thing I did. There were more of them. The not-Galrans. These looked nothing like the other two, and one of them didn't even have eyes.

The man in the chair began to speak, a grin finding its way onto his face. "So, you're a paladin of Voltron."

Imp tried to stand, and then was shoved down by one of the other Galrans. She shot a brief Galra at the one who'd done it, tried to stand up again, and gave up. She shook our head. "Not anymore."

His grin got even bigger. "What if I made you a proposal?"

Imp leaned us forward, suddenly interested. "What kind of proposal?"

"You say that you aren't a paladin of Voltron any more. Do you want to help me take the rest of them down?"

Horror pulsed through my veins, and I faintly heard Imp say yes before I was up on my feet, banging against the wall.
"Stop! No, stop!"

The man stood from his chair and approached us, holding out a hand with a knife in it. He cut our bonds, and then offered a hand to get help us off the floor. He grinned, and offered his hand again.

"Welcome to the crew."
•••••••••
Hey, all! Sorry I haven't updated in a while, I've just been pretty busy, and then my phone stopped working, so I had to get another one.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter, even though it took a while. Hopefully the next chapters won't take as long.

How'd you like this one? It's a little confusing, but I hope you guys understood all of the times when Imp was in charge and when she wasn't. Imp's speech in Pidge's head will continue to remain bolded, but when she is speaking out loud, it is normal text.

Thanks for reading!
~Ash Cardley