The fight with Jenick didn't take long.
It was over in less than ten minutes.
Each combatant was given a sword, but Shiro knocked Jenick's weapon from his grip half-way through the fight.
Jenick scrabbled in the dust for his weapon, but Shiro kicked it away, reached out with his cybernetic arm, and grasped Jenick by the front of his shirt, lifting Jenick to his feet with very little effort.
Jenick tried to get free, but Shiro told him, in a very flat, calm voice, to stop moving.
Jenick froze then, staring into Shiro's eyes in absolute terror.
The Black Paladin's eyes were hard, and his voice was quiet.
"If I chose to," Shiro said, "I could crush your throat and leave you here to die. Or, I could throw you against the wall, and let you live with a broken spine."
Jenick tried to get free then, but Shiro shook him, just once, and Jenick froze again, his breaths coming faster and faster in rising panic.
"Listen, Jenick," Shiro said. "I want you. to listen. to. me."
Jenick nodded, almost frantically, and Shiro continued speaking in that same flat, even tone.
"I could kill you in any number of ways. Hell, it's taking every ounce of self-control I have not to snap your neck or crush your skull, right here, right now."
Shiro drew in a breath then, and his fingers tightened on the front of Jenick's shirt as he let the breath out again, and he shook Jenick again, just once, but hard enough to make Jenick's teeth rattle in his head.
"But - despite all that - I'm going to let you live. Do you know why I'm going to let you live, Jenick?"
Jenick shook his head.
"I am going to let you live because I refuse to be like you. I refuse to let my rage control me. And that - that and that alone - is why I'll even consider allowing you to leave this room breathing."
Shiro's eyes were still flat and hard, and he brought Jenick closer, so they were nose to nose. "Do I make myself clear, Jenick?"
Jenick nodded, still speechless with fear, and Shiro growled at him then. His voice was hard, almost guttural, and it was terrifying to hear up close.
"I want to hear you say it."
"I - I understand - " Jenick babbled.
Just as Shiro released him, Jenick unsheathed the knife he'd hidden up his sleeve and slashed out at the Black Paladin's throat.
Shiro had been prepared for a sneak attack. The knife caught on the cybernetic palm as Shiro grabbed hold of the blade and tossed it away, and then Shiro had grabbed hold of Jenick's throat with his cybernetic hand and lifted the Proselyt completely off the ground.
Even as Jenick screamed in enraged frustration, Shiro looked at him and bared his teeth.
"Fine," he said, and Jenick braced himself for death, because Jenick wanted to die, he wanted to prove that the Red Paladin's champion was just as bloodthirsty as the Galra themselves.
But Shiro didn't kill him.
Shiro struck him with his left hand, his human hand. He struck Jenick in the face, once, twice. The blows were hard, and hurt just enough to make Jenick's ears ring.
More to the point, it was humiliating, which for Jenick was worse than death.
"Have you got any other tricks up your sleeve, Jenick?" Shiro snarled, and Jenick heard barely contained rage bleed through Shiro's voice then.
For Jenick - who had hoped to show the Council that the witch's Champion was at least as bloodthirsty as she was - to be defeated without bloodshed was a defeat worse than death. So he tried a final, desperate measure, just to try and prove that when it came down to it, the witch's Champion was someone to be feared rather than admired or trusted.
"You - you should have heard your friend scream," Jenick said, trying to laugh in Champion's face. "He was crying from the pain by the time I finished with h-"
Shiro felt his vision blur for an instant, rage and anger and blinding fury boiling inside his chest. He slammed Jenick straight down into the ground then, with a force so final, he heard the breath leave the bastard's lungs, and a few bones definitely snapped as well.
Control. Shiro told himself. He had to control this rage, harness it, use it instead of allowing it to use him.
So, despite the rage, despite the anger at the thought of how badly this bastard had hurt his friend, Shiro did not activate the weapons setting in his arm. Instead, he brought Jenick back up to face him, his own dark grey eyes mere millimeters from the red ones that were now filmy and hazy with pain.
"Jenick." Shiro said, and Jenick's eyes focused on his face, and if it were possible for a blue-skinned alien to go pale, Jenick did.
The Black Paladin's eyes had gone completely, utterly flat, his face almost eerily still. When he spoke again, his voice sounded like a lion's snarl, harsh and sharp and grating.
"Last warning. Shut up - and walk away. Now."
Then Shiro released his grip, and Jenick tumbled to the ground, angry and furious and humiliated. As he got back to his feet, he saw that the Black Paladin had turned deliberately away from him and was walking towards the edge of the room, where the others waited for him.
Suddenly, Jenick knew how he could make the Black Paladin's control snap.
Jenick grabbed the knife from where it had fallen and lunged wildly towards the nearest person he could see - the Blue Paladin, the one who had fought him in the tunnels, the one who had befriended Beyris.
He threw it, knowing it had to hit its mark, it had to - but - the knife passed straight through its target and clattered against a far wall, even as Jenick watched the form blur and flicker.
It was a hologram.
They'd tricked him. The Blue Paladin wasn't there.
There was a sudden blur of movement, a snarl of rage, and then an impact to Jenick's chest.
Without meaning to, Jenick suddenly stumbled back a few steps, and then found himself on his knees, coughing and feeling suddenly, strangely dizzy.
He looked up to see Shiro standing directly front of him. The Black Paladin was looking down at him, and his eyes were fire when he spoke, his voice harsh and sharp as steel.
"I tried to warn you-"
Jenick looked down to see that a sword was sticking out of his chest, and he almost smiled at the realization that he'd proven that the witch's Champion had wanted blood all along, that in the end -
"-but you didn't listen," Shiro said, his voice still hard and cold. "I'm - sorry it had to end this way."
"You're - not - s-sorry -" Jenick coughed, hoping to hit a nerve. "You're a - a - "
Shiro raised an eyebrow, waiting for Jenick to continue.
I'm what, Jenick? Better hurry - you're running out of time.
"-monster-"
That was the last thing Jenick ever said.
Shiro reached down and felt for a pulse in the man's neck. There was nothing there. He was gone.
"No, Jenick," Shiro said, even though he knew Jenick was far beyond hearing him now. "I'm not the monster."
Then Shiro turned away from the man he'd killed and walked back towards where Coran, Allura, and the Council waited for him. Allura's hands were clasped tightly in front of her, but she did not look scared.
Shiro was glad of that. He wasn't sure what he would have done if she'd looked at him in fear or repulsion.
"I'm sorry," Coran said, as Shiro drew near. "I'm - I'm so sorry, Shiro-"
"It's - okay, Coran," Shiro said. "I'm just - I'm just glad the others weren't here to see it."
Rayzor reached out and flicked off the projection that Pidge had set up before the duel took place. As the lifeless holograms of the Green, Blue, and Yellow Paladins of Voltron flickered out of sight, Shiro turned to face the Council.
It had been agreed that only the Council members and the Alteans should witness the duel. The projections of the others had been Rayzor's idea - a way for the Council to observe what Jenick did when he grew desperate, to see if he would truly do anything within his power to harm the Paladins.
Coran and Allura - and even Rayzor, begrudgingly - agreed that life was not something to take away lightly, even when it became neccessary.
Shiro hadn't wanted to kill Jenick. But in the end, it was clear he'd have to, if he was going to keep Jenick from attacking his team again.
So he had.
They all left the dueling chamber then, and Rayzor went down one tunnel, with the Council members, saying that he would join them and the other Paladins shortly.
As Coran, Allura, and Shiro headed back towards the infirmary where the others waited for them, Coran saw the Princess reach out behind her, her hand outstretched towards Shiro. Shiro reached out for her hand automatically, but he seemed to hesitate at the last instant. Allura looked back at him, saw his hesitation, smiled reassuringly at him, and gently took his hand in hers.
Coran saw how Allura and Shiro exchanged looks then, and Coran was very glad that the Princess seemed to understand how Shiro felt, and that she was not afraid of what she'd seen.
Coran and Allura both knew that Shiro hadn't wanted to kill anyone like that - ever again.
But there was a time for regret, and there was a time for action, and it was part of a leader's responsibilities to take action when it was needed.
And Coran knew that there was no better leader than Takashi Shirogane.