"Daniel! It's me!"
Vince blocked another attack. Daniel had surprised the group during a round in Corite, one of Ebb's biggest cities. He hadn't taken anyone down yet, but he seemed to have unlimited energy. Even without his claws, he was wearing down the Force.
"I don't want to have to hurt you, little buddy," Hunk warned, bringing his hammer into a defensive position.
"That's a shame. Because I want to hurt you!" Daniel shouted, lunging at Larmina. She smacked him aside with her staff, but he didn't visibly flinch at the pain.
"Will you quit it already?" she shouted back. "We're not your enemies!"
"Shouting at him won't help, Larmina," Keith barked at her. "For now we just need to protect him from hurting any of the civilians."
"You would say that, wouldn't you?" Daniel hissed, his voice laced with boredom. "Always making the 'righteous' choice, being a hero… Only weaklings need that."
"This isn't you, Daniel!" Vince thought he felt tears starting to build up in his real eye. "Where did the real you go?"
"But Vince, this is the real me!" Daniel's face contorted into a devilish grin as he charged at Lance.
Lance didn't even react to the oncoming charge, allowing himself to be barreled over. "What's this? Do you not want to fight?"
"It's not him," Lance whispered. "This isn't Daniel."
"Looks like you have a weakling among you," Daniel said, grin growing wider as he paced around his fallen hero. "But don't worry. I would be more than happy to take him off your hands."
"You'll have to get through us, first," Vince shot back, stepping between Daniel and Lance. The others followed suit, creating a barrier between the Red Lion pilot and the former cadet.
"I guess I could use the challenge," Daniel cackled, getting into a fighting stance. "Let's play!" He rushed for Larmina, knocking her off her feet. She quickly recovered and tried to send him flying, but he had already moved on to new prey in the form of Hunk. The teen ran circles around the big guy, eventually jumping at him from behind and toppling him with ease.
Keith was Daniel's next opponent. The Black Lion pilot kept his guard up, parrying back all of Daniel's attacks with his swords. After a number of unsuccessful attempts to take down Voltron's leader, Daniel activated his Voltcom.
But things were different.
The Voltcom itself was glowing purple, and radiating with energy. Activating it made the differences ever clearer. Instead of three small, pale orange claws, there were three large, deep purple curved claws, and a smaller one for his thumb. His eyes began to radiate purple, all sense of mercy and compassion seemingly drained from his being. Soon the teen had gained the upper hand and quickly brought his old role model down.
"Shoot," Vince whispered. He was next, and he still didn't have any real weaponry.
So he ran.
Like a coward.
"You are a coward!" Daniel laughed, giving chase. "Even with that prosthetic eye of yours, you're still the weakest!"
"What?" Vince whispered. There was no way they were still connected after everything that had happened.
"I've heard the stories about you from Mistress Haggar and King Lotor. You're only good at changing Voltron. You can't fight! You can hardly even run!"
"Y-You're wrong!" Vince shouted back, hearing the wavering in his voice. He took another look behind him, and saw that Daniel was gaining on him with with each leap.
"Am I really?" Daniel leapt at Vince, sending them both to the ground. "Because I think you've failed." He grinned again, a pair of developing fangs gleaming in the light of the city.
If it wasn't for the claws, the eyes, and the fangs, Vince might've thought they were just in a simulator. Somehow even though he wasn't on their side anymore, his smile was almost the same.
Almost. But it wasn't the same.
"Yeah right!" Vince groaned, pulling in his legs as much as possible. He quickly pushed up, knocking Daniel off-balance enough to get up and keep running.
"Nothing's changed, you know," Daniel laughed again, going the opposite way. "You've only extended the time until I destroy you all."
Vince froze. Lance! He started bolting back the other way, ignoring Daniel's taunts and laughter.
He somehow made it back before Daniel did, and noticed Larmina and Hunk trying to help Lance up.
"Where were you?" Larmina yelled.
"I-"
"You were running away instead of helping us! Lance is out cold, and it's only by a matter of luck that he's not dead!"
Vince went silent. He did run. It wouldn't be a surprise if they thought he was worthless.
"He still helped, though," Hunk said. "He was able to divert Daniel's attention for long enough that we've had a chance to recover."
"Not by much," Larmina replied. "I wouldn't call Lance someone that's recovered."
"Larmina!"
She winced at Hunk's sudden harshness. "Sorry. It's just…"
"We're all on edge, and tired." Hunk finished for her. "This is the first time we've seen Daniel in months, and we just weren't ready for him."
Vince broke in. "Guys, Daniel's-"
"Already here."
Daniel sat perched on a stone wall nearby, gracefully leaping down. "So, what'll it be? Letting me take down Red over there? Killing all of you, one by one? Or maybe-"
Before Daniel could finish, a discus-like shield hit Daniel in the back of the head, knocking him over, before bouncing back to its owner of…
"Pidge?!"
The Baltan signaled for the ship to be lowered to the team. Once it got close enough to the ground, he jumped off and went after Daniel.
The twisted teen turned to face his new opponent. "That was a cheap trick."
Pidge didn't reply, instead opting for his Smart Stars to keep the enemy at bay while the team got on board.
"The silent treatment, huh? C'mon, Pidge, that's no way to greet an old friend!"
Again, the ninja met his foe with silence.
"Fine. Have it your way." Lotor's agent charged at him, but was met with a shield to the face. Pidge rammed his shield against his attacker, and risked a quick look at how his team was doing. Everyone else had gotten on board, so with one last star to slow down his adversary and a signal for the ship to start ascending, Pidge quickly headed for the escape ship.
With a small leap, he landed safely inside, but stayed as silent as he had during the confrontation.
Pidge went back to the control panel, quickly closing the hatch and having other members of the crew make sure everyone was alright.
It didn't take a genius to see the lack of emotion in Pidge's eyes.
–––––
"What was that back there?"
Pidge didn't look away from the controls as Vince walked into the control room. "What do you mean?"
"All of it, to be honest. What was with the shield?"
"Oh, that? It's part of an ongoing side project I've been working on. When we went to Ariel to get Voltron fixed, one of the trials had us fighting hand-to-hand without our Voltcom weapons. I thought that since we were going up against a different kind of threat, maybe it was time to change the way we fought."
"So why a shield?"
"It's what I'm supposed to have," Pidge quickly explained. It was obvious that was a conversation for another day.
"And… what about the way you were fighting Daniel? When you came back, you…"
"Looked emotionless?" Pidge finished. "Let's just say that there are times when you need to become the enemy you're trying to beat if you want to bring them down."
"In English, please." Larmina had joined them, and was leaning against the doorway.
"You saw what had happened to Daniel. I had to let go of myself like he did if I wanted to bring him down," Pidge explained. "He may have been our friend, and I do believe that we can save him if given the time and materials, but we couldn't do anything down there."
"So you didn't feel bad for throwing a shield at him?"
"Not in the moment. I had a mission to complete, and I would complete it no matter what sacrifices had to be made. The team needed to get out of the situation, and the one who almost caused them to fall had to pay. The easiest way to deal with both situations was to have the crew take care of the team while I went after the adversary."
"He has a name, you know."
"He doesn't," Pidge snapped. "Not anymore at least."
"But-"
"I know it's hard to accept, Vince, but the Daniel we know is gone, and I don't know when he's coming back." Pidge cut Vince off before he could reply. "He kept his pain a secret, and now he's paying for it. If he had told us earlier, maybe we could have saved him, or at least tried to help him. Instead, he hid it and had you and Larmina keep it a secret, out of a fear that we would kick him off of the team."
"Pidge, I-"
"That was uncalled for," Larmina butted in. "You know the reason-"
"I understand the reasons behind Vince's actions, however neither of you know the reason for my actions." Pidge didn't say anything more after that, ignoring any attempts at getting his attention.
Vince and Larmina eventually left the room, leaving Pidge alone in the control room.
Alone in silence only broken by the clicks of the scanner, left alone to memories of the past.
I had meant to do this for a little while now, but I'm just glad I'm actually getting it done in the first place. To be honest, after writing this I guess it could be considered a one-sided Vince/Daniel, but do with it what you wish.
The idea of Pidge having a shield is from ribbonsandstars, but the idea of it not being explicitly a Voltcom weapon is from the review ourdustytrails did on episode 19 of Voltron Force. The last little bit with Pidge's attitude about the situation is kinda from an idea smool-oomloot had that was expanded upon by edorazzi and ribbonsandstars.
If you couldn't tell the people in the Voltron Force fandom are cool people and have really cool ideas.
But yeah, that's all I've got for now!