Chapter 1: The Prisoner

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The wreckage of the Galra's ship was vast and unforgiving. It was a dark scene for Shiro. Here lay the place that had held him captive for over a year in ruin. Bits of memories resurfaced in his mind as he tried to submerge them back under is consciousness. He inhaled deeply. Now was not the time to go into another episode.

Pidge, not having the same experiences with the ship, was eyeing the wreckage with an analyzing eye. Her goal was to search for the master control board to gather information from its database. She spotted it in ruins at the front of the ship. The Green Paladin grimaced. Hopefully, she would be able to get some information about her brother and father from that. Pidge hastily hovered to the front and began assessing the condition of the machine.

"This looks like the master control board, but there's no power," Pidge said disgruntledly.

"All you need is power?" Shiro asked.

"Yeah, but one that's compatible with Galra tech." the Green Paladin replied.

Turning to stare at his right hand, Shiro willed for the prosthetic weapon he awoke with one day to draw the necessary power. His fist glowed with a neon pinkish-purple hue similar to that of the Galran empire. The Black Paladin shoved the disgust that was rising up. He put his palm on the dashboard and infused the master control board with his energy.

"This should keep it running long enough for you to get the prisoner logs," Shiro said definitively.

The machine booted up and gave a series of whining beeps, as if annoyed that its slumber was disturbed. Indeed, this machine still had some fight left in it. Pidge's hope surge; she was this much closer to finding her long lost family.

Standing behind Pidge, Shiro crossed his arms and watched as she quickly got through the firewalls and hacked into the Galra's ruined battleship. He smiled wistfully. It was like having Matt back at his side at Kerberos. The warrior or "Champion," according to the rescued prisoners had called him, thought back to the memories he had of his time in the ship. Did he really turn into a bloodthirsty warrior who had hurt his own friend? Before he could get lost in his thoughts, he heard a slight groan of metal behind him.

"Hey Pidge, did you hear that?" Shiro inquired. Not looking away from the screen, Pidge gave a slight hum of acknowledgment but did not add anything further than that. As Shiro had nothing to do other than look blankly over Pidge's shoulder, he decided that he could be more useful searching for the source of that sound.

"Pidge, I'm going to check out that noise in the back," Shiro said more to the air than to Pidge. She gave a dismissive "mmhmm" and went on with her work. Pidge had probably forgotten to eat meals or even sleep when she was absorbed in her work like this.

Hovering above the wreckage of the ship, memories of his imprisonment resurfaced. Of his begging for the Galra to let him and Pidge's family go. Of his screaming at Galra warriors who dragged him away to his prison cell. Would these flashbacks ever stop?

Shiro shifted his focus to pinpointing the location of the sound he heard earlier and found a hallway. The corridor was slanted to the right but otherwise intact with rooms on the one side of it. Just then, he heard the same sound of metal groaning in a room three doors down from where he was. He rushed to the room and put his hands on the double doors, ready to pry them open, when he remembered that this was an enemy ship that they had only destroyed a couple of days ago. There was a chance that there lay one of Zarkon's soldiers in the room, weak, but potentially lethal. But what if it had been a prisoner like him who hadn't managed to escape when the ship went down? He willed himself into action. As the Black Paladin leading the fight to save the universe from the clutches of Zarkon, he knew he could not take the chance of leaving an innocent behind if there was a chance of rescue.

The black-and-white haired warrior grabbed the two sides of the door and pushed it in opposite directions to pry it apart. Cautiously, he positioned his body in a battle stance as he did not have a weapon on him. His eyes glanced around the room searching for any signs of life.

It was a small room, relatively the same size as his room in the castle. The ceiling looked like it had caved in as a large part of it was on the floor, leaning against the back wall. As he moved closer, the metal piece slowly slid down the wall, making the familiar noise that he had heard earlier. Their arrival had probably disturbed the already falling apart ship. Nothing more to it. Relaxing, Shiro put his guard down and was about to turn around and head back to Pidge when his peripheral vision caught sight of something.

It was a foot. There was a small bare foot sticking out from under the piece of the caved in ceiling. Shocked, the Black Paladin was on high guard yet again. Shiro stepped a few paces forward, kneeled down, and summoned the energy to his prosthetic right hand. Using his left hand, he pushed the ceiling piece off the wall carefully, to not disturb whatever lay beneath.

What he discovered startled him so much that he lost his concentration and the energy in his hand dissipated. It was a girl! A human girl at that! Or at least, what looked like a human girl. She had all the extremities in all the right places. She looked smaller than Shiro, but her size was similar to most human females. Examining her for other human-like features, he saw that the girl didn't have pointy ears like Princess Allura. What was unusual, Shiro noted, was the two buns of hair sitting parallel on her head. Trailing from those buns were two long ponytails that most probably reached her knees. Her hair, strewn across the floor, was like golden strands meant to have been woven into a royal tapestry.

She wasn't wearing much, even less than what the Galran prisoners the Paladins had rescued had on. There was only a light brown, thin and long T-shirt dress that reached halfway down her thighs. The piece of clothing had probably seen better days. The bottom of the dress was torn and frayed at the hem and there were dark stains on it, some of which suspiciously resembled dried up blood. The tan color of the cloth contrasted immensely with the girl's cream colored skin.

How could a human other than the Paladins appear on a Galran ship so many light years away from Earth? But there she was, lying on her side with her hands underneath her head. She was either unconscious or dead, but upon detecting the slight rise and fall of her chest, Shiro let out a breath of relief that he didn't know he was holding.

Upon further examination, he noticed that her hands and feet were chained to the wall. With the sudden realization that this was a prisoner and definitely not one of Zarkon's loyal soldier, he hastily pushed ceiling fragment away, cursing himself for pulling a "Lance" and practically ogling an unconscious girl.

The sudden slam of the caved in a piece of ceiling against the floor made the blonde stir. Slowly, she used her arms to push off the floor and rub the sleep away from her eyes. Her eyelids unhurriedly opened and she blinked a few times before turning her head to determine what kind of situation she was in.

Shiro, at this time, was frozen on the spot for some unfathomable reason. He, whose job was to lead the Defenders of the Universe with his words, could not conjure any in his idle brain. Some leader he was. When her eyes finally locked on his own, he saw that her eyes were a clear crystalline blue. Its hue reminded him of the oceans of Earth as he had seen them from space. Before he could react, the blonde swiftly drew her knees and her hands to her body, shielding herself from him.

The only sound in the tense room was the clinking of the chains. Her crystal blue eyes darkened with fear and her breathing rate increased to the point where she was almost hyperventilating. Shiro clenched his hands in anger as his hatred surged for the Galran empire. What did they do to her? She was like an injured wild animal who had been taken from a home that was far away from these metal walls. He unclenched his fists and rose them gently above his shoulders in what he hoped to be a disarming gesture. Remembering that he still had his helmet on, he moved to take off the headgear and held it at his side.

"I'm sorry for surprising you," the head warrior said softly, "My name is Shiro and I am here to save you."

A look of recognition and something he could not distinguish flashed across her face. "S-sir Champion?" the girl wearing the tattered dress croaked. She inadvertently flinched at the sound of her own voice. It seemed like it had been a while since she used it.

Shiro's eyes widened in shock. "Champion?" he repeated the title in his head. That's what the other prisoners had called him. Were they both imprisoned in enemy hands at the same time? If so, how long had she been in here?

"Are you not the Champion who fought in this ship's underground battle arena?" she hesitantly inquired with a look of confusion on her face.

"Well, yes I am, but it's a bit complicated. I'm sorry but I don't have many memories of the time before my escape from this place," he said truthfully. Her eyes widened in shocked and her countenance shifted to an inscrutable expression that revealed some of the tumult that seemed to be swirling inside her head.

"My name is Serenity," she paused, a pained expression painting her features, "and I am a Lunarian who was captured by the Galran empire before you had come onto the ship." It seemed like she had put almost of all of her energy in delivering the one sentence. Before Shiro could ask her why she was kept separate from the other prisoners, the communicator beeped and Pidge's voice pierced the silent air.

"Shiro, there's a ship fast approaching. I don't know whether or not it's an enemy ship, but considering that it's us, it's most likely an enemy ship," Pidge said exasperatedly. By Pidge's tone of irritation, the data retrieval was probably not yet finished.

"Copy that. Pidge, I found a prisoner that had survived the wreckage but is still badly injured. I'm going to bring her back to the castle."

Shiro turned his gaze back to Serenity and hurriedly said, "it looks like we have to save this conversation for another time. We've got to go now." The blonde girl gave a hesitant nod and Shiro summoned the energy to his Galran prosthetic once again to surgically slice the shackles from Serenity's wrists and ankles. She stared at his right hand with a widened and slightly fearful gaze before pushing herself off the wall to stand up. This was, however, very difficult as she had not moved in a very long time. Her muscles strained in the last effort to keep her up but eventually gave out on her. As she lost her balance, strong arms steadied her before she could hit the ground.

Just as he was about to ask her if she was alright, her body went limp and Shiro shifted to hold both of their weights. The sudden motion of standing up after lying supine for so long probably gave a great shock to the blood circulation in her body which caused her to faint. Not wasting any time, Shiro put his arms under the back of her knees and shoulders and shot straight out of the prison cell to where Pidge was.

Carefully landing next to Pidge, Shiro saw that she was still hastily typing away at the control board and trying to gather the remaining intel on the prisoners. Hearing a whizzing noise above him, he shifted his gaze to a meteor-like object falling from the sky that was heading directly towards their location. This was the enemy ship that Pidge had warned him about.

"Pidge! What are you doing? We have to get out of here!" Shiro shouted.

Not taking her eyes off the screen, Pidge yelled back, "No! I'm not leaving! I'm staying here until I get all the information about my dad and my brother!"

Shiro stood there for a few seconds, assessing the rate at which the ship was speeding down at them, and decided that fuck it, there was no way they were going to survive if they were here like sitting ducks. The head of Voltron called the other Paladins and Princess Allura for backup and hastily made his next decision, knowing that Pidge might not forgive him for this.

"I'm sorry!" Shiro shouted sincerely and with the rescued prisoner still in his arms, he grabbed Pidge forcefully and sped out the wreckage as fast as he could manage.

Outside, he saw that the Galran ship was going to hit their location within a few moments. "Run!" Shiro roared above the sound of the plummeting enemy ship. Both Paladins used their jet packs and propelled themselves across the field. Just when they thought they were done for as the ship hit the ground and its shock wave was about to hit them, their lions came to their rescue and protected them. Moments later, the Black and Green Lions slowly rose their heads to reveal Pidge and Shiro who were kneeling on the ground. Shiro, who was still clutching the unconscious Serenity in his arms and shielding her with his body, slowly rose up.

"Our lions protected us," Shiro said.

"I didn't know they could do that," Pidge replied bewildered. When she finally took a good look at Shiro, she noticed the blonde girl in his arms and gingerly inquired, "Umm, who's that?", completely forgetting what Shiro had reported to her earlier. Right when he was about to reply, the ship that had just landed opened and a humongous mechanical monster stood in their wake. Recognizing that this was neither the time nor place to have a conversation, Shiro commanded Pidge to get in her lion as he hurried to his.

Setting Serenity down on the floor of his command room, the Voltron leader sincerely hoped that the gravity system would keep her from flying around as the Black Lion went into battle. As he controlled his lion to leap across to attack the opposing enemy, he saw that the blonde girl in the tattered dress had not slid across the floor due to the momentum of the attack. Knowing that she was now stable, he, along with the other Paladins, worked to defeat the Galran monster looming before them.

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Pidge's name turned into "Fridge" at one point in the podfic and that had to be edited out LOLOL