Chapter Text
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life's too short to even care at all oh
i'm coming up now coming up now
out of the blue oh
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Directly approaching Pidge was a definite no-go now, because of how this Hunk had acted so coldly towards him, who knew how this Pidge, who held a vendetta against a Shiro who didn’t go on the Kerberos mission, would react to him. The encounter with this Hunk had been bad enough, and Shiro loathed the thought about having to start acting like this Shiro, but he’d seen the trope of people being contained for coming off as different than they normally are far too many times. All that would do was lead to total universal domination by the Galra.
So Shiro decided to wait until much later, eventually going through the schedule his version had in this reality (which mainly consisted of working as a teacher’s assistant or making sure the ships they had were in top shape), working out a new plan to gather the information he needed on the future Green Paladin.
His brain kept running in circles as he planned, and eventually he resorted to writing down his thought process (probably not the best idea to leave evidence but he’d deal with that later) because maybe seeing it in words would help more than trying to think it through.
It was weird to write with pen and paper and his words were sloppy but Shiro could make do.
directly approaching Pidge-out of character for this version of me, and would only cause problems that can’t be fixed
observe from distance- risk of being seen, may be in character for this Shiro? Gives more for Pidge to be upset about, harder to help in long run
break into locked diary entry- could damage pad, encript encryption also makes it harder to read. Would only understand the pov of this Shiro and not this Pidge
find file on Pidge- will not reveal needed info, likely a fake identity created like my Pidge had done
Shiro groaned as he sat back in his chair, running both hands (skin and what should’ve been cold alien metal) over his face, sitting for nearly a half hour puzzling over this was wearing down on his overworked brain. There was no way to talk to or learn more about this Pidge that wouldn’t involve letting his cover go or have him doing something he would rather not do.
He couldn’t stand the thought of just sitting and doing nothing either now. He hadn’t taken a chance to really read over the entries on his holopad, having only scanned through them for necessary information, maybe the best plan was to not confront and try to gather intel in a safer way?
It felt like the tiniest defeat, to accept that this Pidge was likely going to try and toss him over her shoulder and loathe Shiro no matter what he said or did and knew it wasn’t because they were sparring but because he really was in a different reality and if he gave it anymore thought he was going to panic like this morning and that was not a productive use of time.
Shiro took a deep breath, looking back over at the holopad he’d chucked onto his bed, glinting at him in the late afternoon sun, almost mocking him.
So new plan: search the holopad for information, use whatever eother means of resources he had afterwards to fill in the holes, and start developing a strategy to fixing his team.
Apparently Shiro used up the last of his luck escaping the prison, and even then that was because he happened to be picked by Ulaz.
He’d pored over the access screen for another half an hour, trying everything he thought that the password could be. Kerberos, his birthdate, his parents names or birthdates, his first dog and his first toy, but by the end he had nothing to show for his struggle.
Shiro pushed himself away from the holopad, standing up to pace back and forth as he ran hands through his hair. He felt like one of the androids featured in funny gif compilations, poised and ready to spring into action, but all that happened was failure to launch and a sad drop to the ground. The walls were too close, they were reminding him of the prisons, and it didn’t help that he was having the same feeling of hopelessness grow in his chest.
“Come on come on come on, you need to stay calm, wherever you are, you’re not there.” He hadn’t done this since he was in the prison, but maybe he could ‘talk’ to somebody? Pretending someone he knew was in the cell with him and having a conversation, even one-sided, always managed to bring down his anxiety and panic. The first person he thought of was Pidge, and while that idea stung Shiro took it anyway.
He shut his eyes, focusing on imagining his Pidge in his mind’s eye even though it made his heart hurt and yearn for familiar people, his imaginary Pidge gave him a sigh as she pushed her glasses back up her face,
“This is why I do all the tech work Shiro, which includes hacking into other systems. Granted it is alien tech, which is a bit more niche than human technological advances. As advanced as we are, there's no topping Galran, Altean, and especially Olkari tech."
He could feel it working, his shoulders relaxing just slightly and the furrow of his forehead melting away. He focused more on his Pidge, thought about the glint of her glasses, her ruffled shirt, her messy hair that she still cut short even while fighting in space. She continued on, now pacing back and forth as she started to launch into a rant that she seemed to be familiar with, a finger pointed for emphasis, "I can’t tell you how long it took me to perfect video feed bypassing, and it’s a good thing I mastered it in time for Beta Traz so I could find Matt-“
Shiro blinked his eyes open as the distraction made him realize the solution to his problem. This Shiro’s Garrison ID allowed him access to the current security camera feed.
And the entire backlog.
It was ridiculous how much his fingers were shaking as he went through the holopad’s apps, grinning ear to ear as he was accepted into the security system, but this was probably the most successful he’d been in his endeavors since he woke up this morning. His smile softened as his Pidge flashed into his mind’s eye again, giving him that wide grin she wore when they shared a secret.
“Thanks Pidge, even when you’re not here, you still find a way to be great.”
With that he dove into the archives, sitting on the floor and switching the holopad to project a larger display so he could scroll through it faster. He started with the date of the Kerberos mission launch, he could always come back later to do more searching, for now he needed a better understanding of this universe’s Pidge. He carefully combed through all the video logs, stopping once or twice as he saw this version of him caught in the feeds. The difference was. . . unnerving. True to the whispers he heard earlier, this Shiro never went near much of the other halls, or anywhere really. He kept to himself, never stopped unless it was to talk with a teacher or higher-ups, and the only one he seemed to let into his bubble was this universe’s Keith. Even then it looked awkward, like Keith was trailing after him in the hopes for something. Maybe reciprocation? Acknowledgement? Whether those were the case or not, it still rubbed Shiro wrong. Shiro was a leader, but he never would make himself isolated, or isolate others.
Soon he finally found what he wanted, and it wasn’t pretty. The video was dated a year, three months, and one week after the mission failed. The videos from the week were littered with the pop of hair fluff that Shiro knew as Pidge hair through the many crowds of students, and now he watched as the fluff bee-lined after where this Shiro and Keith disappeared into, the hallway that lead to the building where the students roomed at.
He quickly switched to the camera from that hallway, cursing under his breath as he realized the audio there was completely off, a flashing red mark in the corner indicating that the audio input was damaged. So Shiro sat back and waited, stomach churning as the image of this Pidge finally showed up at the opening of the hallway, a tight, angry look on her face.
Her mouth opened in a yell that caught this Shiro and Keith’s attention, pausing where they were in the middle of the hallway to glance back at her. He couldn’t tell if they were saying anything to her, but it was very clear Pidge still wasn't happy as she began to stalk down the hall, mouth still open wide and talking, maybe still yelling, but now he could see that this Shiro had tensed up pretty badly at the approach. Keith moved in front of him to try and block Pidge, his hand moving to grip onto something attached to the back of his pants, under his uniform. Pidge eventually came to a stop, right where Keith held a hand out to keep her back, their unheard conversation abruptly ending as a door slide open and one of the professors ran out, clearly demanding what was going on. Keith or this Shiro must’ve said something since the professor began to walk over, Shiro wincing as they gripped Pidge tightly at the bicep and said something before pulling her down the hallway, definitely towards Iverson’s office.
Shiro had to pause the feed, hands gripping the carpet he sat on so tight that if he had his robotic arm, he would’ve torn up the threads. He couldn’t stop looking at the frozen face of this Pidge, looking over her shoulder at this Shiro with a look of pure rage that he had only seen on his own Pidge when Keith had claimed she didn’t care about the universe, when she had tried to leave Voltron. This anger she had, and to direct it towards this Shiro. . . he was almost glad there was no audio feed. He may not be able to handle whatever it was this version of him had done to spawn this rage.
He pressed play, simply to make sure that nothing else happened in the feed, but as Pidge and the professor finally left the hallway, he saw movement from this Shiro.
He turned his head to the side, likely to say something to Keith, but he looked down and tensed up again, a hand snapping out to grab the one Keith had holding the thing under his uniform, Shiro gasping as the item was pulled out, just enough for him to see.
Keith’s Blade of Marmora.
Keith flinched as attention was drawn to it, eyes flicking down as it looked like he got verbally chewed out. Eventually he nodded, lips moving as he responded and Shiro could make out ‘sorry’ and ‘hide it’.
They separated then, this Shiro turning and continuing his path down the hallway with a look of unease on his face, Keith staring after him before he looked down at the knife in his hand, sheathing it back in the hidden holster before he followed after him again.
This was a lot of information, and left Shiro with more questions in place of the answers he needed. It was better than where he was before though, and gave him a second resource to look through.
Keith had sent a message earlier asking if he could stop by to go over some coursework later in the day, and it was nearing the time Shiro had said he could come by. He could maybe gather some more information on what was said in that interaction with Pidge, and maybe ask about the blade too. He allowed himself to smile as he quickly tidied up, making sure to keep it organized like he had found it this morning.
Shiro finally felt hopeful and confident in what he was finding. He was that bit closer to getting back home. Back to his family.