Summary: Blue eyes landed on the form of her brother. To her, the rest of the room seemed to fade away into nothing. Tears welled up in her eyes as she darted over to him and threw her arms around his shoulders in a trembling hug. "I'm here, Kagome," Shiro murmured against the crown of her head as he held her to him, "please… don't cry anymore."
Pairing: Keith x Kagome
Disclaimer: I do not own either series. Each belongs to their rightful owners.
Chapter Two
Waiting around didn't exactly please her, but she had opted to follow Keith's request. She glanced over her shoulder at the sheet-covered cork board with a nervous expression. The hammering of her heart had yet to calm down any since she had first spotted the escape pod inbound for Earth. She sat on the couch as she counted the minutes that ticked by on the tips of her fingers.
After what felt like hours she had stood to pace around the relatively small living room. Back and forth from wall to wall she walked. Her feet were still dirty from the dirt outside, and as was the hem of her long skirt. Her mussed hair, even more messy than usual due to the wind and the rush of running all the way back, had yet to get fixed by her. She lifted a hand to comb slender fingers through the inky strands, only to hiss and yank her hand free when she was met with a series of tangles. With a small sigh, she walked over to the table in the corner and sorted through the things resting on its surface until she found a brush. It was the one shared between the two of them, but it had once been her's solely. Over the year, Keith had started to use it instead of his own, and the other brush had gotten lost in that time.
She tugged it through her messy hair a few times in order to alleviate a few of the tangles and snags within it. As she stood there, absentmindedly moving the bristles through her shiny locks, a familiar, long unfelt aura brushed along her senses. Her grip loosened on the brush, and it slipped free from her fingers and clattered noisily to the floor as she turned around to face the door. Not long after, the door creaked open, and two familiar figures entered her line of sight- as well as three others she wasn't familiar with.
Though supported by Keith and someone she hadn't a name for, the figure of her brother was easy to make out. Before she could stop it, she felt tears welling up in her eyes.
"Ta…" A tear slipped free and raced down her cheek, only to fall to the wooden floor of the room. She blinked the rest away to keep them from falling, but they were still there. Right below the surface, just waiting to rise back up and spill free like a faucet.
She had been heard, and suddenly all eyes were on her. Her eyes met Keith's, and he offered her a smile that caused her heart to thump harder.
There was no mistake in it… her brother was back…
He was back!
"Uhh… who is she?" the other one supporting her brother asked out loud, but he went unanswered. Though not much, Shiro moved a bit and looked up. At once, he attempted to take a step forward, and it caused the other two to let go of him.
He stood on his own and looked directly at her, and she glanced back at him. Her eyes took in nothing other than him, and she took another step forward. At that moment, the rest of the room seemed to fade and slip away completely, and it left just the two of them there. Her senses could still feel the others there, but she wasn't paying them any attention.
"Kagome…!"
At hearing his voice she felt her tears resurfacing fast.
It had been so long since she had heard him speak. It was like a key that unlocked the door that held her tears at bay. Without her control, the built up tears began to slip free and cascade down her cheeks in wet streaks. She ran forward then, darting over towards him and jumping so she could curl her arms over his shoulders in a trembling hug. "Takashi!"
He caught her without any issue and he pressed her to his chest as he returned her clinging hug. Her shoulders shook and his shoulder muffled the sound of her weeping.
"I'm here, Kagome," he mumbled against the crown of her head. He held her tight, his grip strong and protective. He was unwilling to let her go now that he had seen her again and in such a state. "Please… just don't cry anymore," he pressed his lips to her hair and gave a dry laugh, "you know how it kills me when you cry."
He felt her nod against him, and her cries steadily died down until they were nothing more than occasional sniffles. When she finally had let him go, she turned to face Keith. She then threw her arms around his shoulders in a hug that was just as strong as the one she had given Shiro.
Though a bit stunned, he returned it with a light embrace.
"You're okay, too," she mumbled against his chest, her voice muffled by his shirt. "I'm glad you both are here… You're lucky I humored your request and stayed here when you asked."
"I told you that I'd be fine," Keith responded as she pulled away and stepped back. She smiled up at him and hid a laugh behind her palm.
"Of course you think that."
"Uhhh so who is this?"
Kagome blinked at hearing the repeated question, and she finally leveled her attention on the one who had asked it. She recognized him to be the one who had been helping Keith support her brother, and she offered him a smile similar to the one she had given Keith.
"Are you hard of hearing?" she asked him, her tone taking on a slight bit of teasing humor. She stepped closer to him and glanced up at him with warmth shining in her eyes. "Takashi has said my name twice, you know."
A dark stain of a blush took to his cheeks due to the combination of her words and stare.
"Oh, yeah, I know-"
"She's Kagome," Keith cut in, looking towards Lance with a glare. "Shiro is her brother." He approached her and stood at her side, only to take her by her wrist and pull her elsewhere in the room.
Though she laughed under her breath at his actions, Kagome gently lifted her other hand and placed it atop his own as she allowed him to tug her away from the others.
"Keith and I are roommates, I guess you could say," Kagome said. "He takes some time to get used to, but he's not a bad person."
"So you really live out here in the desert with mullet?"
Kagome blinked and looked up from the notebook she held, only to have her eyes meet those of Lance. She had learned their names not long after everything settled down. She patted the couch next to her, inviting him to sit down there. He took the offer and sat down as he kept his eyes on her.
"Of course I do," she responded. "Between you and me- that's how he's still alive," she muttered with a giggle. "He's always been so impetuous since I met him- even before I met him. Someone has to look out for him."
"But out here?" Pidge asked, looking at her with a small smile. "That is some strong dedication you've got there… What about family?"
"Oh…" Kagome looked at her lap and shrugged her shoulders. "Outside of Takashi and Keith, I don't really have anyone else. When the supposed error of the Kerberos Mission was announced I didn't have anywhere to go. I knew nobody, and no one knew me. Well… outside of Keith," she added on with a quiet sigh. "I was scared of the idea that I had lost my only family, and I was scared I'd lose the only other person who knew me- who knew so much about me, so I decided to go with Keith- to protect him."
"You protect him?"
The disbelief Lance spoke with caused her to sigh. "Of course I do. If it were not for me, who knows what trouble he'd have gotten himself into out here on his own."
"You're an odd match." Hunk finally spoke, and she laughed at that comment. She saw him lift something from the table and give it a curious shake. "Hey, by the way, what's in this?"
"Well, it's a canteen, so water," Kagome said with a smirk curling her lips upwards. "It's mine. You may have some if you want."
She saw him untwist the cap, and she turned her attention back to the other two. Keith and Shiro had gone outside, leaving her inside with the three people she didn't know, and she was attempting to make conversation with them. All three of them were very different from Keith, and she was trying to get used to interacting with them. She glanced out the window on the other side of the room, and she could see the two standing not far from the building.
She frowned and bit her lip.
What were they talking about out there?
The sun rising in the distance casted a warm glow that spread over the mounds at their feet. A night without any rest had gone by, but no one felt exhausted. It had been busy, but things were finally a bit calmer.
"It's good to have you back," Keith said as he stepped up behind Shiro. A muted laugh came from him as he nodded in agreement.
"I'm glad to be back," he responded. It was silent for a second as he turned to face Keith. They watched one another for a moment or two before Shiro glanced back to the building they stood not far off from. "And… thank you. For taking care of Kagome like you did. If it wasn't for you, then who knows what would have happened to her."
"It was no problem. We've been sorta looking out for each other, actually," Keith said, a smile lifting his lips as he looked at Shiro. "Anyway… it's not like she let me leave without her. She can be pretty stubborn when she wants to be."
"You're telling me," Shiro laughed louder at hearing that. "This may surprise you, but she matured a lot before meeting you, although... her stubborn streak seemed to stick around. She changed a lot after- well, we don't have time to get into that." He looked at Keith and his expression turned into one of confusion. "What are we doing out here?"
"There's something you should see," Keith responded as he backed away and started on his way back to the building the other four currently occupied. "Kagome and I have been out here for a while, but you need to see this to understand."
Together, she and Keith yanked the sheet down and let it flutter to the ground. The cork board underneath was exposed for the room to see, and their work was now out on display.
"What… is all this?"
Kagome picked the sheet back up and folded it over her arm as her brother asked them both that question. She dropped the sheet onto the couch and made her way back over to stand next to Keith. "Explaining won't be so easy," she said and folded her arms over her chest.
"Well, I don't really know how to explain it," Keith said then. He turned to face Shiro and glanced back at the cork board before shrugging. "After getting booted from the Garrison, I was lost. Kagome wouldn't let me leave on my own, so she came along. Together we got drawn out here. While out here, Kagome picked up on some strange energy, and we went along with one another to look for it."
"Wait, what?" Lance cut in.
"What were you two searching for?" Shiro asked, successfully ignoring the outburst.
"We didn't really know until we ended up stumbling upon this… weird place," Keith said, and he pointed to a portion of the board.
"What is it?"
"An outcropping of huge boulders and caves. The walls are covered in a bunch of ancient markings and paintings. Though each one is different, they all tell a story about a blue lion."
"They all shared clues to this one event," Kagome cut in where he had stopped. "Of an arrival meant to happen last night." She looked up at Shiro. "Keith and I were outside when we saw the escape pod you were in falling in the distance, and he went to check it out while I hung back. Out of everything, neither of us were expecting you to show up, Takashi."
"I see…" Shiro nodded his head before turning to face the other three, and he took a step towards them. Kagome saw him reach an arm out, and she noticed that it was not one made of flesh and bone, but robotic. She clenched her hands together behind her back. "I should thank you three for helping me get out of there like you did," Shiro said.
"The name's Lance!" Lance said as he reached to shake Shiro's hand. "Great to meet you!"
"The big nervous guy is Hunk," Pidge said when he looked towards the man dressed in the yellow shirt. "I'm Pidge." After a brief shake, Pidge lowered her hand. "So… did anyone else on your crew make it out?" she asked.
"I'm not sure," Shiro said as he looked away from Pidge. He looked down as he tried to remember what all had happened, and he ended up letting out a sigh. "I can remember the mission, and I can remember us getting captured, but after that… there's nothing. It's a blur of bits and pieces I can't focus on."
"Given time, I am certain your memory will come back, Takashi," Kagome said, walking forward and gently taking hold of his non-flesh arm to take a look at it. It gave off an odd aura- one she didn't like. "Right now we should hope for the best with them. We may not know for sure what happened, but let's believe and hope they are as safe as they can be." She looked at Pidge and offered her a smile. "I find believing your feelings to be a far better choice than deciding to listen to the doubt other people can spew. After all, we have these feelings for a reason."
Her words brought a smile to Pidge's face, and she nodded her head in an agreement. "You're right."
"I- I um, hate to cut into the little motivational speech you're giving right now, but what about the aliens he mentioned?" Hunk cut in with a hand lifted slightly. "Do you know where they are? Are they close? Are they coming for all of us or- Like, where are they now?"
"I can't exactly put it all together," Shiro said. "I can recall the word Voltron. I think it's some kind of weapon they're searching for. I don't know why they're looking for it, though. Whatever it may be, I think that we need to locate and find it before they manage to do so."
"Oh, well, last night, I was rummaging through Pidge's stuff, and I found a picture of his girlfriend- look!" He said as he held up a photo with two people in the center of it- much to Pidge's unamusement. She snatched the photo back from him and glared.
"What do you think you're doing going through my stuff?!"
"I was hungry and looking for something to eat," he responded with a shrug, "anyway I started to read his diary and-"
"Give me that!" Pidge snatched it from his hands, too, and glared over her shoulder one last time. "Don't go through my stuff, Hunk!"
"Ah… the point of this, Hunk, please?" Kagome cut in with a frown on her lips. "I don't think we have a lot of time to stand around and embarrass our friends by pulling out private photos and journals. At the very least, the timing seems to be a little inappropriate. Aliens- remember?"
"Oh, yeah!" Hunk said, rubbing the back of his head.
"Thank you!" Pidge exclaimed.
"Well, I noticed that the repeating numbers the aliens are searching for looks a lot like a Fraunhofer Line."
"What's that?" Kagome and Keith asked in unison, both of them turning their attention back towards Hunk.
"It's a number describing the emission spectrum of an element," Hunk said. "Only, weirdly enough, this element doesn't exist on Earth. So, I thought it might be this Voltron-thing everyone is looking for." He paused a bit before continuing. "I think I might be able to build a machine that can look for it."
"Do you really think you can build something like that?" Kagome asked, lifting a hand and pressing it to her lower lip as she thought. "It'd be so amazing if you could, Hunk!" she said as she looked at him with a bright gleam in her eyes.
He nodded with a smile on his face. "It's pretty fascinating, honestly," he said as he reached into his back pocket to pull out a sheet of paper. He unfolded it and held it up for the room to see. "This is what the wavelength looks like."
At once, Kagome was struck by the strikingly familiar looking line. She glanced over her shoulder to look at something on the cork board, Keith doing the same before reaching out and snatching the sheet of paper.
"Let me see that for a second," he said, and he turned so he was fully facing the cork board. Kagome came up beside him.
"It looks the same…" she said, tilting her head to the side.
"What do you mean?" Shiro asked.
"Look here," she said, waving them all forward. They stepped a bit closer to where she stood with Keith, and she pointed towards a photo of a series of cliffs and peaks. Keith held the line up to the photo, and there was a collective hum through the group. "We should head back there, first things. At the very least, it is the best place we have to start our search," she said as she turned to face Hunk. "We'll go once you build that machine of yours, Hunk."
"It'll take no time at all!"
True to his word, Hunk had managed to create a device that would track the energy of what they all searched for. Once he had finished it, they made their way to the specific part of the land in the photo stuck up on the board.
"It's been a little while since we've been out here," Kagome admitted as she took to leading them down a safe downward path. "I still remember a good path down, so follow behind Keith and myself. It wouldn't be good if someone tripped and hurt themselves by falling down the slant of the cliff." She looked at Hunk and paused for a moment. "Which direction should we go?"
"Oh, right!" Hunk nodded and looked at the device in his hand. "Uhh once down off this, it's saying we should head right."
"Gotcha!" Kagome nodded with a bright smile, and she took to skipping ahead.
As she walked, she looked around her and observed the area. She remembered this specific spot fairly well. "Huh… this place again."
"What about it?" Lance asked.
"This is one of the earlier places Keith and myself were led to observe." She turned and tapped at her chin as she thought. "I felt some weird energy coming from over here, but I was never able to find where exactly it sourced from, so we decided to stop searching here for the time being and focus on somewhere else."
"You keep mentioning being able to feel energy… what do you mean by that?" Pidge chimed in and looked towards the raven-haired girl.
"Oh, right!" Kagome snapped her fingers and glanced over her shoulder. "No one ever told you that about me, did they?"
"Well, it's none of their business," Keith said. "If you want them to know, then tell them."
"Hey! If mullet knows, then I wanna know too!" Lance stated with a glare directed towards Keith.
"I already said it is none of your business!"
"Keith, it's quite alright," Kagome responded with a light laugh. "If I decide they can't be trusted in the end, then we can just get rid of them. You know, there are lots of places to hide bodies out here."
"What?!" Pidge exclaimed.
"Oh, I'm only joking," Kagome giggled, "lighten up!"
"..."
"She's joking," Shiro said then. "She'd never warn you ahead of time if she meant it," he said as he shrugged, a smile appearing on his face.
"Anyway," Kagome cut in then, "it's not all that important, anyway, so I'll just give you a tiny explanation. It's just this neat little thing I can do- nothing more."
"So, what is it?" Lance asked.
"Being able to sense auras and read energies. Where one might see with their eyes, I am able to see them before then. I can feel the aura people and individual things secrete. Usually, it is colored, and, even if people have the same color, that doesn't mean they are the same. It is still individual to just them."
"What color is mine, then?" Lanced asked.
"A very lovely color of blue," she responded. "Like a soothing ocean resting peacefully against the sandy beach. However, just like an ocean, you are easy to change moods very quickly." She motioned towards Keith next, "while Keith's aura is a very hot red. Much like a lit fire, his temperamental personality is rather easy to flame over."
"How can you see things like that?" Pidge asked. "It's fascinating, actually."
"That's a good question," Kagome said with a quiet hum following her words.
"You're not gonna tell us that, are you?"
"Not yet," Kagome responded. "After all, I just met you all. I would like to have more time to interact with you before I tell you something so private about me." She looked at Pidge and smiled. "However, I'm happy to answer other questions- if I can, of course, at a later time. We are quite busy right now to do so."
They continued walking for another moment before coming to a halt on a small cliff that overlooked a cave. Once again, she was able to recognize it. It was a place where she and Keith came a few times. It was also where she felt the strongest source of energy.
"Something really is in there, then…" she said, glancing towards Hunk, who nodded.
"That's where this thing is leading us."
"Let's go," Shiro said.
They carefully made their way down the cliff, moving one after the other to make sure no one slipped and lost their footing. Once they all had gotten down, they walked in a group over to the cave entrance.
As they walked, the carvings on the walls were noticed.
"What are these things?" Shiro asked before anyone else could.
"These are the markings we were talking about earlier," Keith said. "You can see them everywhere around here."
Lance went over to one of the walls and brushed his hand along one of the carvings to wipe away some dirt that hid it. Not long after he touched it, it took on a blue glow and caused them all to stop in their tracks. The glow spread out all across the walls and lit up the carvings.
"That's new," Kagome said.
"Yeah," Keith nodded in agreement. "They've never done that before."
Not long after those words were uttered, the ground underneath them took on the same blue glow and it began to crumble underneath them. Kagome took a step closer to Shiro, but, before anything else could be said or done, the ground broke apart and they all fell through. A surprised cry came from her, as well as the others, as they fell.
Shiro pulled her against him and held her to his side while they fell. Kagome threw her arms over his shoulders and clung on tight to him on the way down. When they hit the lower layer of the cave, they landed in a small pond of water. Kagome landed sprawled out on top of Shiro. She sat up and moved off of him, pressing her hand against his chest to maneuver herself.
"Sorry I landed on you," she muttered, blinking away the stars that had formed due to the impact from her vision.
"Don't be," he responded. "You're okay, right?"
"I'm fine," she said with a smile lifting her lips. "And you?"
"I'm fine, too, don't worry."
They all stood up and moved out of the water. Seconds after standing, they all became aware of the large, blue lion standing before them all. A light blue force field surrounded it, and Kagome let out a gasp.
"This is the energy I've been feeling!" she blurted out, her voice echoing off the cave walls. "We couldn't get to it because it was all the way down here."
They approached it, and Kagome ran ahead to get closer to the barrier encasing it. Once in front of it, she pressed her hand to it. Though muffled slightly, she could feel the aura of the lion from the other side. It produced a calm thrum underneath the tips of her fingers.
"How do we remove this?" Keith asked as he came up beside her. He mimicked her position, but he could not feel what she felt. Kagome closed her eyes and pressed her other hand to it.
"I am unable to make it disappear," she said then, "nor am I able to get through to the other side."
There was something about this aura that felt familiar. A frown appeared on her face as she tried to think about why that would be. During her thinking, Lance had stepped closer to the lion, as well, and lifted a hand.
"Wanna try knocking?" he said, and he gently rapped his knuckles on the barrier.
Kagome snapped her eyes open and turned towards Lance. With them so close to one another, it was much harder to miss than before. She stepped towards Lance, and she took hold of his wrist in a gentle, yet firm hold.
"Incredible!" she said, watching as the barrier reacted to Lance's touch. "You and the blue lion have such similar auras- it's amazing, Lance!"
Her excitement was short-lived, because, not long after the barrier fell, she was greeted with a vision that amazed her even more. Several other lions, merging together to form a huge, mecha robot. When the vision faded, she found herself looking towards the others, who had also seen what she saw.
"W-oah! Voltron is a robot! An awesome, super-cool gigantic robot!" Hunk exclaimed from where he sat on the ground. "That's so cool!"
"This isn't even all of it, either," Pidge said, "there are more parts to it."
"Looks like there is still more to this that needs to be found, then," Kagome said as she crossed her arms over her chest once more. "One must wonder how we are to do that, though. We need to before the aliens come for those parts, then."
The blue lion moved and knelt forward so its face was not far away from them. Kagome found herself getting pulled back behind Keith before anything could be said. Not long after the lion stilled its movement, it opened its mouth and revealed an entrance to the machine.
Lance was the first to walk inside, and he was quickly followed by the others. Kagome stuck between Keith and Shiro as they walked, and she silently observed the insides of the large lion.
This was honestly the most impressive thing she had seen to date so far, and she had transcended time before she was sixteen years old. To be able to observe alien technology was one thing, but to walk around in something built by aliens was a whole nother thing altogether.
She wasn't sure what it was, but she was getting a sinking feeling in her chest.
Another adventure was about to come, but she wasn't sure what it was. She could only hope she was prepared for this one. After all, she hadn't been the most prepared for her last one.
She reached out and took Keith by his hand so she could stick close to him as they wandered through the lion's head. Before long they found the cockpit, and they saw Lance sitting in the pilot's seat. They all filed inside it, and, despite the limited room, they all managed to fit inside. She felt Shiro place his hand on her shoulder and pull her into his side once everyone had stopped moving.
The aura of the lion was stronger than before, and it was tying well with Lance's. She felt something brush along her senses, and she realized very quickly that it was the lion attempting to communicate with the boy. No one else could hear it, but he could, and she could feel the connection happening. Lance looked over his shoulder and eyed the others.
"Did you guys hear that, too?"
"Hear what?" Keith asked, but Kagome slowly nodded her head.
"I didn't hear it, not exactly, but I could feel it," she told him. "It is tying itself to you, I believe. What is it trying to say?"
"Huh…" Lance looked forward and began to press a few of the buttons on the screen without taking time to think about what he was doing. Before anyone could tell him to stop, the lion moved and everyone's balance became tilted. They scrambled to find purchase, and Kagome curled her arms around Shiro's chest to steady herself.
"Wait… Lance, wait," Kagome picked her head up and looked at Lance. "Whatever you are thinking, let's not-"
"Ooh… let's try this!" Lance exclaimed and took hold of the controls. Without any proper warning, the lion lifted itself from the ground and began to move with all of them stuck inside it.
"I was not encouraging this!" Kagome cried out, gripping tighter to Shiro as the lion burst through the mountains rock. "This is a terrible idea!"
C.R: Ready to post
Anyway, thank you for reading, and I hope you all enjoyed! Hopefully, I managed to catch all the errors before posting, but, if not, apologies!
Please remember to Review&Favorite&Follow, thank you!
Bye for now~
