Kiera heard Pidge and Shiro walk inside but their footsteps abruptly stopped. Pidge sank to her knees, crying.

Commander Holt's fearful voice said "Who are you?"

Shiro spoke first, taking off his helmet "Hi, Sam. It's me. Shiro."

"Shiro." The Commander gasped and stood up. The two men hugged tightly and the Commander said "I thought they'd killed you."

"We don't have time for explanations right now." Shiro said and nudged Pidge, who was still crying and on her knees.

The Commander peered at her, not recognizing her because of the helmet "Who is this?"

"Dad, it's me." Pidge's voice was weighed down with sadness and she took off her helmet. She stood carefully in front of her father.

"Katie?" The Commander's voice was breathless "Why are you in space?"

Pidge didn't answer and dashed forward, engulfing him in a hug and crying into his chest "I missed you, Dad."

The Commander buried his face in her hair "I miss you too. Kiera told you all those things I wanted you to know, right?"

"Of course I did." Kiera poked her head in "And, um, hate to break up the loving family reunion, but I got a bit of a problem out here." She brought her head back out and shot at the robots that were encircling her.

Shiro climbed out of the hole and said "I think Sam is injured. Can you call Ace? Might be faster."

"Sure." She spoke into the intercom "Keith, tell Ace to get to me now. He will probably answer with some clicks but you can ignore that."

"On it." Keith said "He's on his way. What's going on?"

"Oh, you know just some guards pinning us down in the cell, nothing big." Kiera said and shot more bots down. More kept coming.

Lance yelled through the intercom "Keith, behind you!" A shot rang out through her headset.

"Keith?" She yelled "Keith are you okay?!"

Lance said "He's fine. His helmet got shot but he's fine."

Shiro spoke calmly "We are on our way there." His hand glowed purple and he slashed through more robots. The alarms were blaring through the ship now and prisoners were starting to gather at their cell doors.

Half a dozen robots came at them but they were all abruptly cut down with a huge metal fist.

Ace said Need help?

"Yes, we need help, Ace!" Kiera growled.

So, any humans that need carrying? Ace asked.

"Ace, I don't have time for sarcasm right now." She shot a robot down that was running up behind Ace. Then she dashed back into the cell and gently pulled the two Holt's apart.

"Commander, I have a robot here that will carry you to the lions." She said and without giving him any time to respond, she hoisted him over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes and ran from the cell room. Climbing trough the cell door hole was tough but she made it. Pidge was right behind her.

Kiera carefully placed the Commander in the seat of Ace's driving compartment "Sit tight, sir. You'll be safe in a minute or two."

Pidge squeezed her fathers hand "You can trust Kiera, dad. She saved my life."

Ace closed the door and said Yum, humans. Let's go.

"We need to run." Kiera grabbed Pidge's hand "Shiro, let's go!"

Shiro stopped slashing through robots and the three humans and one massive war robot dashed off down the hallway. Pidge was still distracted so Kiera pulled her along by her hand with a blaster in the other.

Every once in a while, a robot or soldier would pop up in their path and Kiera or Shiro would knock it down. Pidge was constantly looking back at Ace, checking to make sure he was still behind them.

Kiera squeezed Pidge's hand "Don't worry, Pigeon. Your father is fine. Ace is super well armoured and if he gets shot once or twice, everything will be fine." She kept running.

They were nearing a T in the hallway. Kiera made the mistake of thinking they were safe.

Boy, was she wrong.

Haggar the witch teleported in front of them out of nowhere, sending a blast of wind out in all directions. The group stopped cold in their tracks, Kiera still clinging to Pidge's hand.

She felt herself whimper. Then she growled at herself for showing weakness.

"Haggar, get out of the way." She said "We are leaving."

"No you're not." Haggar laughed maniacally "You were our Champion, Shiro. You could've been our greatest weapon!"

He wavered, fear in his eyes "I never would've bowed to Zarkon."

Haggar looked at Kiera "And, Kiera, I have someone who wanted to see you again." A large shadowy figure lumbered out of the shadows.

Kiera recognized it and her blood went cold. Her blaster slipped out of her hand and crashed to the floor. She staggered back a step.

"Kiera? What's wrong?" Pidge asked.

"Th-th-that's him." She pointed a shaking hand to the shadow.

"Him who?" Realization dawned on Pidge's face and her face went red with anger "The one who assaulted you?"

Kiera couldn't tear her eyes away from the shadow and she nodded weakly. Her heart was beating too fast and she was certain it was loud enough that Haggar could hear it.

"Well, as amusing as this is, I need to lock you all up." Haggar said "I have more tests I need to run on you, Kiera."

Kiera felt her blood boil. Her face darkened and she picked up her blaster, clipping it back into her holster. With a war cry, she unsheathed her knives and charged the witch.

Haggar raised her hands and shot twin bolts of lightning at Kiera who jumped out of the way and sliced at the witch. She teleported away and stood a few feet from where she'd been.

"Fool!" She yelled "You've only worsened your punishment!"

"Do you think I give a shit?!?" Kiera screamed and charged her again. She was livid "I've already been through so much torture! What more were you planning to do to me?!?"

She launched herself at the witch and tackled her to the ground, holding her knives against Haggars neck. Haggar teleported away and Kiera fell to the floor.

Cursing, she stood up and turned to see Haggar with her hands around Pidge's throat. The witch snarled "Do anything, and your girlfriend won't survive."

Kiera stood, knives in hand, dropping with sweat and breathing heavily. Shiro met her eyes from behind the witch. In her insanity, Haggar had forgotten about him.

"Well, you win, Haggar." Kiera said and dropped her knives and raised her palms "Take me."

Haggar wavered "What?"

Pidge violently thrashed and screamed "Kiera, no!"

"I've given up. I have no reason to live." Kiera sounded positively miserable, just like she was trying to "I don't deserve to be safe on the Castle of Lions." She looked at Shiro, who was quietly creeping up behind the witch.

"What?!? Of course you deserve to be safe! You have things to live for!" Pidge yelled.

She looked Pidge in the eye "Like what?"

Pidge looked heartbroken and said "Your friends, your brother. And... me."

Kiera slowly walked forward "I know." She gave a pointed look at Shiro "But do I really deserve all that?"

At that moment, Shiro lunged and yanked Haggar off of Pidge. Pidge fell forward and Kiera leaped forward and caught her. Shiro's glowing purple hand was pressed to Haggars throat.

"Don't move." He growled.

"You fools!" Haggar said and disappeared. She didn't appear in the hallway again. Shiro dropped his hands.

Kiera squeezed Pidge to her and yelped "Oh, thank god you're safe."

"Are you actually happy?" Pidge sounded angry "Or do I not matter?"

"What?" Kiera yanked her head back to look at her "Of course you matter."

Pidge stepped out of Kiera's grasp and crossed her arms "Then why did you say you have nothing to live for."

Kiera hung her head "I used to believe I had nothing to live for. But then I met you and the Paladins. I had friends for the first time in five years." She looked up at Pidge "I was pretending to give myself over to Haggar so Shiro could grab her and you could be safe. I care about you Pidge." Pidge smiled sadly at her.

A moment of tense silence filled the hallway.

Then Shiro shouted "I knew it!" and threw a fist in the air "I was right!"

Kiera turned pink "What?"

"Remember when I came to talk to you after you killed Zavesti?" He asked "And I asked about you and Pidge? I was right!" Pidge went pink. Kiera groaned, turned red, and put her face in her hands.

"Space daaaaaaaaaaaad." She whined pitifully and felt her face burn more.

Shiro just laughed.

"Let's just get back to the lions." Kiera said and turned to walk down the hallway.

The shadowy figure stood in front of her. Her blood went cold, once again. Then, a shot rang out and the shadowy figure slumped to the floor, dead.

Ace put his cannon down and said You really needed to kill him earlier, Kiera. I'm surprised you're able to take care of yourself at all.

"Ace!" She walked up and slapped him "I was handling myself perfectly fine."

You forget that I can read your heart rate. He mused Your heart sped up and not in a good way.

Kiera crossed her arms "Whatever. Let's go."

The little crew walked and ran back through the ship.