The Protector
This story is set during the events of Across the Universe and focuses on Shiro and Keith. Voltron Legendary Defender does not belong to me, just taking the characters out for a spin. Please, Review
Shiro did his best to focus on where his black lion was falling through the bleak gray sky, but the pain in his side from the wound Haggar gave him caused another spasm of pain to course through his side. All he could effectively do was hang on to the control stick while pressing his other hand to his side, and still try to keep an eye on Keith's red lion, but the pair separated in the fall to the barren earth.
Warning buzzers blared in his ears, as his lion gained velocity and then crashed into the ground. Blackness overcame him.
A flash of light in the sky drew the young woman's attention. Was it the Galrans searching for her or something else, she thought as she stared at the two objects that fell. They separated, and she saw a flash of black as the nearer object fell and impacted with the ground with a massive ground shaking thud. Whatever it was she knew the lizards would come to investigate.
Her hands trembled as her stomach churned and she broke out into a cold sweat and moved towards the edge of the cliff and eyed the crashed vehicle warily. A slight breeze blew her silvery white hair into her face, and she pushed a stray strand out of her face and continued to watch to see who or what came out of the vehicle.
A white and black armored figure climbed out of the top of the machine. Her eyes narrowed, no this wasn't a Galran. However, his movements indicated he was hurt, but the way he moved reminded her of someone.
She saw the lizard creatures approach the crashed vehicle that looked like some giant feline. One lifted its head sniffing the air, and a deep growl came from it. They'd scented him, and another lizard-like creature approached from behind. Her eyes grew as the armored figures right hand began to glow and recognition was instant. During her captivity, she'd seen the vids of the arena matches and knew who this was. "Champion," she whispered.
Without another thought about her safety, she slid down the jagged rocks that bit into her unprotected blue skin. A sigh of relief escaped from her as he found a cave and the mouth closed as the beasts crashed into it.
Dropping onto the ground of a slightly higher rise that kept her out of reach of the lizards she still feared for the 'Champion.' If they started to dig, he'd be in danger. The young woman knew from experience as her fingers touched a scar on her arm. The beasts though not very intelligent could and did do startling things especially when hungry.
She couldn't take on all four by herself, but she had to do something. Their sounds of frustration over not being able to reach their pray grew in intensity at being so close to a meal. They started to dig, and one of the beasts widened the hole and stuck its head inside. In a moment the man she called Champion came flying out and landed hard on the ground rolling down the hill to a dry gulley.
He landed hard but his will to live kicked in as he rose from the ground and ran as fast as his injuries would allow. The four beasts gave chase and herded him down to where the gulley ended into a steep wall with no place to hide. He knelt on the ground with sweat dripping off his face. His hand began to glow again as he prepared to put up a fight but was knocked off his feet as one of the creatures slapped him with a tail.
With a feral cry of anger ripped from her lungs. The young woman jumped down and landed in front of him. Her body was enveloped in a glow as she crouched, and her hands and feet changed from humanoid to clawed feet. Her skin took on the leathery form of the lizard's skin, and her face changed as tusks grew out of the sides of her cheeks.
Her body grew until she was as large as the predators and roared a challenge. They stopped a moment, but that was enough for her to swipe out and knock one of the beasts over. The others approached cautiously with one preparing to leap. To her surprise, the black lion landed on one of the creatures crushing it into the dirt.
As the surviving creatures fled, she took a couple of steps back as the black lion advanced on her. Shiro moved in front of this other lizard and threw his arms out. "No, don't," he yelled trying to be heard. "She saved me."
Keith glared out of the cockpit of the black lion and leaned forward as he saw the creature glow and shrink down changing back into her humanoid form. She was slightly taller than Shiro with long straight silver-white hair. The blue-skinned young woman wore tattered rags and skins of the lizard beasts over her body. Her blue skin informed him she was alien.
She reached out to Shiro and allowed him to lean against her as she led him toward the black lion which lowered down and opened its mouth for the pair to enter the cockpit. Not saying a word Keith flew the black lion back to where his red lion rested.
The blue-skinned female sucked in a breath, "It's true," she whispered, "the lions have returned."
"You know of the lions?" Shiro asked as he leaned on her.
"As a child on Zenox I heard the stories of the lions of Voltron," she said. "That would make you a paladin of Voltron."
For the first time, Shiro finally got a good look at her. She was thin as a rail, no, he shook his head, rail wasn't a good description of her. Skeletal would be a better description.
Keith expertly set the black lion down near the red lion. He helped the young woman ease Shiro out of the lion and helped to sit him next to several boulders that would allow him to lean back and rest.
He gasped as another spasm of pain shot through his body. He mentally fought to control the pain. He turned his head toward her, "Thank you for what you did back there."
"It was my duty to save you, Champion."
Keith stood as he turned to her. "Who are you?"
She sat down next to Shiro and gazed up at the red paladin who stared back at her warily. "My name is Maya. I grew up on the planet Zenox," she drew her legs up to her and wrapped her arms around her knees. "My people were happy that is until the Galra came. Those of us who were not killed outright were captured." Her eyes damp with moisture, she wiped at a stray tear that trickled down her cheek.
"I was destined for the arena, but Haggar came and took me and gave me to her druids for experimentation." She shuddered as a shiver ran up her spine, and she fought to close off that painful memory. Her cheeks turned a darker blue as her humiliation rose to the surface. She closed her eyes, and again she blamed herself. Why hadn't I fought harder?
"They studied me because I was still a child." She glanced over at Shiro and Keith as she continued her tale. "My people are born as shapeshifters, but once we reach the age where we change from child to adult, we lose that ability. Haggar knew this, and she had her druids remove the part of me that controlled that aspect." She ran her hands up and down her arms, ignoring the scars she had gained from hunting the lizard beasts to survive.
Keith swallowed hard. He glanced at Shiro's arm and now Maya and gripped his hands hard to control himself. This Haggar person he kept hearing about needed a swift death for all the wrongs she'd committed, and if he could, he would gladly take her out along with Zarkon. "I'll look for something to start a fire with," he said needing to calm down before he did or said something wrong.
Shiro struggled with his own emotions at that moment trying to find the right words to say, "You were a child," he said.
Maya shrugged as she struggled to fight back the tears. "Haggar wanted me to transform myself, but I refused. She continued for two deca-phebs. Then you became a prisoner of the Galra. The day you escaped, and an explosion ripped through the ship I transformed into a mouse and escaped my cell and found what I thought was an undamaged escape pod. I was wrong and crash-landed here, and I've been stuck here ever since."
She stretched her legs out and slowly rose, "I should tend to your wounds," she moved over to Shiro's right side scrutinizing the injury. "There's nothing I can do for this," she murmured. Her eyes lowered knowing who had given him the wound, Haggar.
"You've been through a lot," Shiro said as he reached out and gripped her hand. "As soon as our friends find us we'll take you with us, I promise."
She lowered her eyes as she moved near his side and took up her spot by his left side, "Thank you, Champion."
"Please, call me Shiro, all my friends do."
She nodded as Keith returned with his arms loaded with burnable scraps from the lions. He quickly piled them up and pulled out his knife. He picked up what looked like a suitable rock and smacked the blade against the stone causing several sparks to flash. One landed on the pile of rags, and soon a cheery blaze roared to life.
Maya tried to stay awake but the heat from the fire felt so warm, and her eyelids began to droop. Her eyes closed as she leaned back against the rock.
Glancing over at the frail girl next to him, Shiro turned his head to Keith and thanked him for his part of the rescue.
Keith shrugged, "You'd have done the same for me."
Shiro leaned back against the rock. "If anything happens to me, I want you to lead Voltron."
Keith shook his head, "Stop talking like that. Nothing's going to happen to you." Not while I'm alive, he added silently. He motioned toward the young woman next to Shiro, "What about her?"
"No question about that, we're taking her with us."
"Are you sure we can trust her?" Keith asked.
"Anyone who's been through the hell both she and I have…" Shiro swallowed hard, "I don't ever want to go through that again, and I know she doesn't."
"I wonder what Allura will say," Keith muttered to himself as he turned his head away.
A bright blue light formed in the sky as the green lion popped through the wormhole. Keith grabbed his helmet and pulled it down over his head. "Pidge contact the castle, Shiro's hurt."
Shiro reached out and nudged Maya with his hand, "Our friends have come."
Maya rubbed her tired eyes but rose, and with Keith's help, they got Shiro to his feet. "Pidge says Allura's readying a medical pod for you."
Shiro nodded as he ground his teeth together fighting off another spasm of pain.
"Can you pilot the black lion?" Keith asked as his eyebrows drew together.
"As long as I don't have to fight, I should be fine," Shiro replied with a cheery smile.
Both the black lion and red lion lowered themselves to the ground allowing their pilots inside the huge cat shaped crafts. Shiro climbed into his seat as the systems activated and then the cockpit glowed for a moment. He chuckled slightly to himself as Maya stood behind him. He reached for a switch and flipped it open, "My lion says it will do the work for me."
Keith laughed, "Good, at least he's protecting you from hurting yourself further."
Both the black lion and the red lions' thrusters engaged, and the two lions rose into the air and gained altitude leaving the desolate planet behind. "I'm glad to leave here," Maya's voice rasped from behind Shiro as she gripped onto the back of his chair.
"Who's that?" Pidge asked as her green lion joined the other two and the three flew through the wormhole making the jump to the castle of lions.
"I'll explain once we get to the castle," Keith replied.
The trip to the ship didn't take long, and the Lions settled into their respective bays. Keith raced from his lion just as Maya appeared with Shiro in tow.
Shiro ground his teeth together and groaned as he tried to focus glassy eyes on the red paladin. His legs felt heavy as his vision clouded and blackness overtook him, and his body collapsed in on itself. He vaguely heard Keith and Pidge voices calling out his name before he succumbed to the nothingness.
The sudden shift of his weight pulled Maya down onto the cold metal deck with him. In her emaciated state, she didn't have the strength to carry him without help.
Princess Allura and Coran entered the lion's hanger just as the paladin leader collapsed. "Shiro!" Allura cried out as both she and her majordomo raced across the metal deck plating. She couldn't help but remember the fight between Zarkon's witch Haggar and Shiro, but she hadn't realized he was as severely wounded as he was when she came to a sudden stop at his side.
Her eyes lowered to the wound in his right side, "We need to get him to the infirmary, now!" she roared out the command. She barely even noticed Maya in her urgency to help the black paladin.
Coran with Keith's help picked Shiro off the ground, and the group raced to the elevator that whisked them up to the infirmary. Coran quickly removed Shiro's armor and then placed him into the med suit with sensors that allowed someone to monitor his progress in healing. Coran and Keith put him into the pod which closed.
Allura glanced down at her control monitor, "Good, now all we have to do is wait." Her eyes moved over to Pidge. "Any signal from Lance or Hunk?"
Pidge looked up from her virtual computer screen. "I was running a scan, and there's a signal coming from an ice planet in the next system near here. It could be them."
"Coran plot us a course and get us to that system." She glanced over at the blue-skinned woman standing by Shiro's medical pod. "Keith, who did you bring back with you?" she asked. The young woman wasn't a Galra, but she couldn't place her finger on where'd she seen this type of person before.
Keith opened his mouth to speak, but before he said anything, Maya took a step away from the pod, "Please princess don't send me back," she pleaded.
Allura took a second look at her as she visually assessed Maya's physical condition. The blue-skinned woman's body shook, her lips were dry and cracked, and her skin was appeared to be dried but lacked the elasticity of someone hydrated.
The Altean Princess turned to Pidge, "She's dehydrated, and probably hasn't eaten anything in a long time. Would you get her some water and one of the packets of emergency rations?"
She turned to Keith, "Please help her to the table over there," she pointed to it across the room.
Maya's eyes followed in the direction where Allura pointed. Memories came to the forefront of her mind. Her chest hurt as her heart raced and she broke out in a cold sweat. Her head swam, and the room began to spin. She sucked in air in ragged gasps when the red paladin's hand touched her elbow to guide her across the room to the table. "No, please, no," she begged. "I will tell you anything you wish to know, but please don't torture me."
Allura gasped and held her hands up. "We do not torture people." She shot a hot stare at Keith wondering what happened on the planet's surface.
As in explanation, Keith mouthed the word Galra at Allura.
Pidge turned as her eyes grew surprised at Maya's words.
Keith got her to sit down on a step that led up to the table. "It's okay. No one is going to harm you."
Pidge rushed over with the water and emergency rations.
As Maya began to calm down, Allura sat down next to her. In between sips of water and small bites of the food, Maya told her story.
After listening to Maya's words for the last couple of vargas Allura took the nearer of the young woman's hands in hers as she blinked back the moisture that formed in her eyes. "Do not worry. You are now safe with us." Releasing Maya's hand, she rose from her seat. "I think it would be a good idea for you to spend a quintant in one of the rejuvenation pods."
Maya looked over at Shiro's still form in the pod, "Like that?"
"Similar," Allura nodded. "The rejuvenation pod will help to reverse the dehydration that you've suffered."
Maya glanced around her at the friendly faces, "I don't know how to thank you."
A gentle smile tugged at Allura's mouth, "Recovering your health will be thanks enough." Allura stood and moved over to the control panel and activated another pod.
Maya got to her feet slowly and stepped into the waiting pod and closed her eyes as it closed. Within moments she was asleep.
As the vargas passed occasionally, she thought she heard voices from somewhere. They weren't unpleasant. She distinctly heard voices now, in her foggy brain as the remaining dobashes passed. One she identified as that of Shiro's, and another was Allura's.
The outer shell of the pod dematerialized releasing her from the regeneration pod. She opened her silver eyes and gazed at the seven people still talking.
"I don't know if that's a good idea," she heard the man with the mustache saying. Coran was his name.
Allura glared at her majordomo. "I say it is." Her expression softened as she took his hand in hers. "Coran, you do so much for me as it is, but you cannot be everywhere at once. At least this will take one worry off your mind."
"If you say so, Princess," Coran replied as he looked at her with a pained expression on his face, but he broke the eye contact.
Shiro glanced over at the pod and saw it was open. A smile crossed his face. He stepped up the steps and held out his hand. Maya took it and took a tentative step out of the pod. "How do you feel?"
"Better," she smiled back timidly. But when everyone turned towards her, she hid behind Shiro.
Allura raised her hands and approached the paladin and Zenoxian, "You are among friends, Maya. And I believe I have figured out something you may be able to do while you're here with us."
Maya stood up and stepped from behind Shiro. "What do you need of me, princess?"
"With your shapeshifting abilities, I would like you to be my bodyguard."
Maya's voice quaked as she brought a trembling hand up to her forehead. "But princess, I know nothing of fighting." She turned as a hand gripped her shoulder, not hard but supportive.
"The other paladins and I will train you, don't worry," Shiro responded as she turned to him.
"Splendid idea," Allura replied. "And I have something to add to that. This was the armor that belonged to my father, King Alfor's, captain of the guard. I would like you to have it."
Maya gazed at the gleaming bronze armor. "This is too fine for someone lowly like me."
"You are not lowly, but I believe everyone has a purpose and you were sent to us for especially this reason," Shiro replied.
"Yeah," Lance the blue paladin stepped up. "Don't you want to get some back from Zarkon and his witch after what they did to you?"
Maya's face hardened, and her eyes seem to blaze in anger at the mention of Zarkon and his right hand Haggar. "Yes, yes I do."
Allura's face brightened, "From this day forward you shall be known as Maya the Protector."