Chapter eleven: Connecting The Dots?

"What... is this place?" Keith breathed in starstruck confusion.

"According to my calculations... this is the exact spot where we fought Lotor... Where we lost.. the Castle of Lions." Pidge breathed.

"Ok, but what is that doing there?" Lance questioned. "Cause, correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't remember a giant space picture of Allura being there when we left this place!" Even as his friends continued to discuss this, Shiro could somehow feel something; hear something. A light presence behind him, and the faintest of whispers saying:

"Go." Without even thinking Shiro suddenly obeyed, thrusting the handles forward, jetting the Black Lion toward it.

"Shiro?! What are you doing?!" Lance called, as the Lions all darted after him. Suddenly the Black Lion turned its head to growl at them, and the other lions halted. "*grunt* What's- going on?!" Lance cried struggling against the handles. "My lion won't move!"

"Neither will mine!" Pidge gasped over the com.

"Yeah same!" Hunk called.

"The Red Lion won't budge either." Keith groaned, hunching over the handles. "There must be some interference; but how is the Black Lion still going?!" Keith said this while glancing up, and found the Black Lion still heading towards the nebula. "Shiro what's going on?!" He called.

"I..I'm not sure." Was Shiro's reply over the com link. "But something's drawing us in! I can't stop it!"

"The lions still won't move. Scramble the MFE's!!" Keith called.

"Affirmative!" Coran responded.

Shiro tried to pull the lion down, but it persisted; growling gently in his ear.

"What are you trying to tell me?!" Shiro breathed, in a constricted, almost tiresome, voice. Suddenly the lion growled a little louder, and the next thing he knew... he was ejected from the Lion's cockpit!

Shiro's vision whirled around, as did he; almost like performing several back hand springs effortlessly. The Paladins saw this and were surprised.

"Shiro?!" Keith called trying to ease his lion forward; but to no avail.

Shiro fired his jet pack to stabilize himself, and with one last flip, he reached the nubula's surface. But hitting it ignited a storm of lightning-like pulses, all pulling into him. The surge of energy all rushed toward him at once, the bolt-like strands of electrical light sucking in every ounce of the nebula's color. Shiro was overwhelmed by this energy as it was being forced upon him. The color drained from the skies; all five lions roaring at this. And this whole display ended with a bright burst of light!!

As soon as the light died away the Black Lion jetted off and retrieved an unconscious Shiro floating limp in space. Catching him in its mouth, it headed back toward them.

"Woah!" James breathed, having seen the whole thing from his jet.

"What just-.. happened?!" Lance asked, questioning the group; as the Black Lion flew by them toward the Atlas.

"I..I don't know?! But that nebula is gone?!" Pidge gasped, tapping at her screen in an attempt to figure out the answer. "It's almost like something pulled the energy right out of it?! But how?!" She looked up to where the picture of Allura once was; her eyes completely shocked and confused.

"Come on, let's go check on Shiro." Keith decided, turning his lion toward the Atlas. Everyone else following.

The Paladins, MFE's, Coran, Sam, and Kimberly charged into the Black Lion's hanger; all of the stopping short, then continuing forward.

The Black Lion had spit Shiro out, and stood there with its mouth open next to him. The Black Paladin lay on his back, completely out; but he had a strange glow about him. Beads of this energy slowly rising off him; as he remained there, still unconscious. Sam shook himself out of his shocked daze to look at his tablet screen in his hands. He then held it up to Shiro and was even more shocked.

"The energy come off him is incredible?!" He gasped seeing the fully shaded body glowing brightly across his screen. Pidge cautiously knelt down and touched his shoulder gently. The glow lightened slightly, then all of it seemed to be infused into his Garrison-tech arm leaving it as the only thing glowing now.

"He's still emitting a high amount of... something." Sam said, staring at his screen; still in surprise of what had just occurred. Shiro's eyes clenched and he grunted, finally coming around again. The long floof of his hair was laid directly back away from his face, and when he turned his head toward them, to his right, it waterfalled down over his forehead.

"What- what happened?" He asked, his eyes looking a dazed as he felt.

"That's what we're trying to find out, Shiro." Sam admitted calmly. "For now though let's get you checked out again." He said nodding at Keith. The Red Paladin nodded back and strode to Shiro's side. Taking his hand, he pulled Shiro up and slung his arm over his own shoulder. The Black Lion retracted itself to a sitting position, it's solid yellow eyes flashing for only a second as they all left the room. Kimberly slid herself under Shiro's other arm for extra support, her hand holding his left arm over her shoulder.

Shiro had been set up on a bed, and was being examined by Sam.

"This is incredible!" The older man gasped. "It's seems that the energy from that nebula has all been absorbed into your body, and the crystal in your arm is containing it... keeping everything in your body on track."

"Unbelievable!" Pidge breathed, bracing her hands on the chair as she sat on the edge of it. "We've never seen anything like this in a human being before."

"But we have to realize that Shiro is no ordinary human being anymore." Sam corrected, peering at his daughter from the corner of his eye. "After the experimentation on him during our Galra imprisonment, whatever they'd done to him has made a huge difference."

"And don't forget that his original body was destroyed." Keith recalled. "When Allura transferred his consciousness from the Black Lion, we had to use the clone that I fought in that facility, to save him. We don't exactly know how that clone was made, or what it was like."

"That's right." Sam concurred. "The Galra are capable of many things, and we don't fully understand these things.. yet."

"Good thing we have someone here who can help us." Veronica smiled, as she looked to the door as it slowly, and dramatically, parted ways. Everyone gasped when they saw who stood behind it.

"Ryner?!" Pidge gasped, hopping up off her seat to hug the alien thankfully.

"Pidge! It's great to see you again." The Olkari leader smiled, returning the girl's embrace. She lifted her eyes the others around her. "All of you."

"Same for us." Keith said, a smile crossing his face as well. "But how are you here? Last we knew, you and your people had disappeared off of Olkarion after one of Honerva's Altean mechs destroyed it. And then a Weblum plowed right through it, destroying the entire planet."

"Yes, that." The alien sighed dropping her gaze painfully. "Well once we heard that the former witch of the Galra Empire was defeated we went back to our home... only to find it had been fully restored. No one knew how this had occurred, but naturally we were thrilled that our home was alright again. We heard about the fortuitous return of Altea and Diabazaal, and... the loss of Princess Allura." The atmosphere shifted again at the mention of the late Princess of Altea. "News has spread throughout the universe of Voltron's victory and the changes that resulted in the last year thereafter." Ryner continued. "And all of us couldn't be happier now that the Galra are no longer an unruly, detrimental force over the universe."

"So..then..what brought you here?" Lance asked, still not seeing the answer to their question.

"Well Coran reached out to me many pheobs ago after Honerva's defeat. But we couldn't get a signal until we rebuilt our communications hub on Olkarion. We received messages instantly after coming back online. The most recent one being a few vargas before your journey back to the stars began, and since our planet was finally back in order, I took a leave and came as soon as I could."

"For what?" Keith asked innocently, sitting half on and half off Shiro's bed with his back to him; arms crossed. He only uncrossed them long enough to gesture with one hand, palm up, as he spoke.

"To inspect the clone body that was brought to you by the lions." Ryner replied simply. "And to help decipher this mystery." She strode toward the bed, Keith moving aside as she approached. The alien placed her hand to Shiro's prosthetic forearm, and as she focused herself, it was only mere seconds before the surface of the arm below her hand took on a bluish glow. That glow grew in the form of uneven computer-like veins; even extending from his shoulder, and across his chest from there.

"I've been studying that clone for a while now." Ryner continued. "Since my arrival even. And I've learned that they clearly come from a single source; all being grown from the same genetic seed that was once yours, and yours alone."

"My body." Shiro guessed aloud, dropping his gaze thoughtfully. "But how did this happen?" His curious grey eyes met hers.

"When you were trapped in the Black Lion you said that 'your physical form was gone', right?" Keith put in, recalling these words like he'd heard them just yesterday.

"Yes,...but that could mean anything." Shiro responded, brushing off the statement. "We never really figured out what happened."

"Well, I believe we just found our answer." Ryner decided, her hand still holding the glow. "This work can only be the witch's doing." A gasp escaped all of them.

"Haggar? But how did she get her hands on Shiro's original body?" Pidge asked, almost unable to believe it.

"When he disappeared." Keith gasped in realization. He was teleported! He thought to himself. "Zarkon must have forced the Black lion to teleport Shiro out of the Black lion during our final battle against him." He explained, glancing at Shiro for a brief moment. "The Black lion must have saved him before his body was teleported away into Zarkon's ship. Zarkon must have done it, that's how Haggar got a hold of Shiro's body. And used it to create clones to infiltrate team Voltron to gather intell and take us out."

"It all makes sense now." Coran breathed, thoughtfully. Shiro's gaze, however, dropped into his lap; his eyes not focused on anything in particular. Keith, having such keen senses, caught on to this quickly.

"Shiro, you ok?" He asked, setting a hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah..." Shiro sighed, his gaze unchanging. "It's just-..." His eyebrows furrowed. "Disappointing to hear." Kimberly stepped closer to his other side to placed both her hands on his shoulder.

"Wait so.." Hunk ventured once more. "The Shiro we rescued from the Galra fighter... was the clone Shiro?"

"I would imagine so." Ryner hypothesized. "That is the next time you saw him since the battle. And since we all know that the Galra work fast, they could most definitely have set you up at that time."

"And now everything makes sense." Keith realized. "The personality change, the unusual firmness..."

"The angry outbursts, the sudden defiance." Lance added, following Keith's train of thought. "It all makes sense. All of that wasn't real. At least not the real we've come to know."

"Exactly." Keith agreed straightening his neck to stare at his feet. "And none of us caught it."

"Hey. It's not your fault." Shiro told him, his warm hand bringing Keith's blue eyes back up to his. "That clone was similar enough to me, that it was easy to play off any suspicions you may have had because of the circumstances. I know times were rough at the time. You all wanted something good to happen for once. There's no shame in that."

"Except for when it almost cost us the mission." Keith returned dryly, dropping his gaze once more.

"But if not for that one, out-of-control moment, you might not have found me. And been able to help me without that clone. I'm alive now because of that, you should be proud of yourself for that." Shiro smiled tenderly into Keith's troubled blue eyes, warming the younger man from the inside out. And they pulled each other into a hug; Kimberly and the Paladins unable to keep themselves from joining in the embrace.

What is up everybody!! So quick thing, if there's ever an inconsistency I apologize but I hope you're still enjoying this story!! Thx!!!