[They] showed her another possibility. She must have pictured it, at least, for a moment. She might of asked... "What if I was... Accepted like that?"
Tokyo Ghoul, Volume 6
X-X-X
Shiro only had to take one look at the ghouls and aliens that surrounded him, some of them unfamiliar and the others older than he last remembered, to know that things are different now.
He had died, time had passed, and he had missed almost everything, now leaving him too see the consequences of time passing.
There's more to time's presence than the growth of Lance's hair, the pink Paladin armour that Allura wears proudly, the height that Keith had gain, the scratches in Pidge's glasses and the fraying headband that Hunk still wore.
No, it wasn't until much later, when he realised that his hair was fully white from the quintessence, that he noticed the age in Keith's eyes, the guarded look of self-doubt that hides in Allura's, the quietness that now resides in Pidge, the boldness that holds Hunk up and yet weighs him down and the new stress lines and bags that rest underneath Lance's eyes.
Despite having this new body (what a weird universe he lived in, to not only be able to live on after death but to gain a new body and live again), he did not have the memories of the clone, of Kuron, his mind supplies the Japanese word, because, in the end, the clone had been more human than any of the other Paladins could have pretended to be. But, no, only an empty space in his mind from where the memories used to reside, leaving him with this black hole of nothingness after the fight with Zarkon, except with the vagueness of being in the mind space of Voltron for so long.
When he's helped into the Black Lion, Shiro makes sure to let it be known that he's expecting Keith to pilot by sitting on the floor, he asks how long it's been since the fight with Zarkon at Central Command, and he doesn't like Keith's hesitation, the way that he opens his mouth and closes it and opens it again and replies with 'roughly two years?', but it's more a question than a proper answer.
Shiro doesn't like it, he hates it, he keeps in mind to ask Lance when they next land, Lance would know something like this.
He leans against the pilot chair and a box of items that should have been in the Castleship (where is the Castleship?) as he beings to doze off slightly, feeling the calming pressure of not only Black, which is now far too familiar with him, but the other Lions, the heat that rolls off Red and clashes with Blue's ice, the strength of Yellow holding him up and the roots of Green keeping him down, and he wonders, and wonders, and wonders, what this all means for him.
He dozes as the others plan on where to go next, as Pidge mentions Matt and her father and Lance brings up his own his family (do they know yet?) and Hunk talks about Shay and his mums and Allura wonders aloud about other Alteans and Keith mutters to his mother about things that Shiro can't hear and doesn't mind not hearing, and he dozes as his arm feels lighter, as everything feels foreign after so long without the stimulant, and he dozes.
He's missed so much.
He missed them becoming a team.
X-X-X
He wakes up on his own, naturally, and he didn't know how much he's missed the simple action of waking up, of sleeping, of blinking and breathing, and the Galra, Keith's mum he remembers, is sat in front of him, staring at him frowning.
"You smell different from the others." She says plainly, and tilts her head, as if asking for an explanation for it without the words. Keith snorts softly, blowing his hair out of his face as one of his hands stay on the controls and the other goes to smooth the wolf (or something similar) while his eyes are still glued on the star line.
"He's human Krolia, the different species that live on Earth that we…" he trails off for a second, looking down at Shiro, hesitant to word it aloud, and Shiro can only grin brightly at the awkwardness that the younger is giving off.
No matter how long it's been, Keith is still that kid he met training in the dark, away from prying eyes.
"I'm the species that falls prey to ghouls on Earth." He supplies, and she nods and then they move on. That's it. Nothing else needed.
Huh. He forgot that he was the only human in space.
"We're not far from Olkarion now, only about quarter varg- about uh- about twenty minutes or so?" Keith stammers, and Shiro nods in reply and doesn't question Keith's uncertainty, he's still unused to how long time it himself, pulling himself up using the chair and began wondering around the cockpit, his now single hand skimming the boxes, looking at the familiar objects that had been placed in there in a rush, a lone figurine of a male Altean, but looked more like a human prince with a silver crown, a few loftily looking tomes that looked their age, a bunch of wires and tools that would look more in place in either the Yellow or Green Lions.
"So, the Castleship's really gone." Shiro sighs, and Keith can only nod at the words, and the silence that replies to Shiro's statement is the only acceptable answer. It carries all the hurt and pain of the last few hours, the last few years now, and Shiro doesn't know what to do anymore.
Shiro picks up a stray tablet and sat down on the floor again, resting the pad on his lap and opened it up, flicking through the recent apps: a game that required other players and dice, a blueprint of a ship made using quintessence, some code that was locked away. There's some videos saved onto the system, with thumbnails of the other Paladins sitting in a chair staring at the camera, of Lance holding himself on rope in a stylised position, of Voltron flying over a stadium. There are more pictures, some are selfies of Lance and the people he's met, of open robots to act as references for Hunk, screenshots of code for Pidge, official pictures of Allura and leaders of other planets.
"We here." Keith mutters, and it takes Shiro out of his mind and up at Keith, his eyes more purple than he remembers, but the scar seems to be the root of that problem, rather than the fact that his eyes have actually changed, but rather the close range of the both of them has caused a change of perception.
Or, maybe they have, who knows?
(He didn't.)
(He doesn't know how he got the scar either.)
(He feels as of he should have known that one.)
He follows Keith and Krolia off of Black, feeling off balance due to the missing arm, and his eyes widened as he looks around the planet, and the idea of it being two years into the future makes more sense, as gone were the trees that once loomed over everyone, and instead were tall buildings that fit in with the old science fiction moves on Earth.
He's missed so much.
X-X-X
They're led to a conference room, one with a big window of the developing, with some muttered words between Pidge and Ryner, before Ryner nods and smiles and leaves again, giving a small wave to the other Paladins as she does so, but not before side eyeing Shiro's missing prosthetic, and he gets the impression that he's going to be getting a new one before long, whether he likes it or not.
"So…" Lance starts, looking at Shiro with a small smile and red, bloodshot eyes while he leaned back in his chair. "Do you remember anything past the fight with Zarkon at Central Command?" He asks, and Shiro notices how he's able to avoid the word 'death', as if that was the worst thing that happened to him in his life so far.
(It wasn't the worst thing to have happened in his life. It just so happened to be the thing to stop it.)
"Nope. I've been told that it's been a while since then." Shiro replies, leaning his head on his only hand while looking at the other Paladins, taking in how much younger they all seemed like this, how much more relaxed the smiles looked, how much softer the eyes were.
They've done so much without him, and he's so proud of them for it.
"Wait, that means you don't know that…" Hunk cuts himself off, looking from him and Lance, eyes going back and forward, but then Shiro looked at Lance in confusion, Lance too looked confused, not knowing what Hunk was going on about. However, Pidge starts to lick her lips in nervousness, and Keith looks away to look at the wall, which had suddenly gained his interest.
None of them wanted to tell him, but since Lance clearly didn't know what was going on, Shiro stares at Keith instead, his head tilted slightly and his eyes now big and curious, his hair drooping into his face slightly, and then Keith turns to look at him and his eyes widen as he stares, and his jaw tightens; it's working, just a little more to go, maybe if he just pouts his lips just a little…
"Lance is a ghoul but unlike us he has actually eaten humans before like hunted them and stuff and he used his kagune to get us out of a situation and then he took a bite out of a Galra and please stop looking at me like that Shiro, you knew this would happen when you started that god damn pouting!" Keith all but screamed at once, before pointingly looking away from the elder with the grumpiest look on his face that reminded Shiro far too much of the kid who was upset that he could no longer train with his knife by himself.
(He missed that kid.)
Keith's words had stroke a core in everyone in a room, or at least, everyone who knew what it meant to be a ghoul, and the difference between a ghoul and a human, and now the room was filled with an uncomfortable silence, a thick, cuttable tension, as everyone holds their breath, waiting for Shiro to attack Lance, but then he looks over at the Blue Paladin, who is as relaxed as ever, leaning back in his chair and smirking at the Black Paladin with a mirth in his eyes.
Shiro is the first to break, as he tries to muffle a small snigger that comes out, sounding so foreign that, when he hears it, he doesn't recognise it. The muffled snigger however, becomes a snort instead, which then sets Lance off into small giggles. It didn't take too much longer for Shiro and Lance to fall into full on laughter fits, much to the horror to the others in the room.
"Are… Are we missing something?" Hunk asks under his breath, and Pidge just shrugs with a dumbfound look on her face while Allura and Coran talk quietly to Romelle and tries to explain ghouls and humans to her, but it didn't look like it was getting anywhere. Shiro's able to calm down somewhat, Lance still snickering but he tries (and fails) to get it under control.
"I've known for a long time now, not that my sense of time is any good at the moment." Shiro finally admits, and there's a look of confusion on the other's faces, of course there's a look of confusion on the other's faces, no wonder why Lance is still trying to stifle his snorting and Shiro smiles in a way that makes him realise he hasn't done in quite a long time now.
Shiro watches as Lance goes to open his mouth, to explain himself to the others and what happened for him to come out to Shiro but not to anyone else, but just as the words begin to leave his mouth, the doors slide open, with a brown haired man standing at the doorway, out of breath and his hair resembling ore of a rat's next, sweat moving slowly down his face and clothes looking like he had thrown them all on last minute in his rush to meet the other Paladins while his eyes were black and red and a bruise was slowly forming on his cheek, but whether he got that in a fight or just from running into a door, Shiro would never know.
It was Matt after all.
"DUDE WHAT THE FUCK!? I HAVE ONE WEEK OFF AND IT TURNS OUT THAT SHIRO'S A CLONE AND THE UNIVERSE ALMOST IMPLOADED AND THE CASTLESHIP'S GONE AND YOU'RE ALL GOING BACK TO EARTH AND YOU DIDN'T A LEAST THINK TO WARN ME OF THESE SORTS OF THINGS!" Shiro could only smile and blink at the sudden shouting, watching Matt's expressive face go from one person to another, slowly taking in everyone's appearance, frowning at the people he had yet to meet, before his view landed on Keith and his eyes widened in shock.
"Wait, Keith? What the fuck happened man?"
Yeah, Matt never changed.
He was glad someone hadn't.
X-X-X
A.N. And here it is, the final chapter. Wow, it was so much fun to write this, there were just so many fun things to add, and, well, I wouldn't be me if I didn't add my little bit of angst in there would I? As some of you may know, there are going to be more, mainly because some people need proper back stories while others need to have their own side stories that go along with the plot. So, keep an eye out of that :D