Chapter fourteen: Broken Thing
"Coran keep the Atlas close by, at least until we know what we're up against." Shiro ordered, as he launched in the Black Lion.
"Affirmative." Coran responded.
"Be careful Shiro!" Sam warned. "The energy levels in that thing are extreme! I'm not sure if the lions will be able to handle it for too long."
"Copy that Sam." Shiro replied. "Team, stay as high as you can above the white hole, we don't want to get any closer unless we have to. Follow me!" The other four lions flanked Black on both sides; flying in their Voltron formation, as they neared the white hole.
"I think something's down there." Shiro called from his lion. "You guys see that?" Pidge zeroed in on it with her fingers on the big screen.
"It's that pyramid castle-ship that Honvera took from Oriande!" The Green Paladin gasped.
"What's it doing here like that?" Lance asked.
"Didn't Honvera abandon it when she opened up a wormhole between realities." Hunk recalled.
"Yes, but it wasn't here." Pidge replied.
"I think it returned here on its own. The temple must be connected to Oriande somehow." Shiro thought. "Allura always told us it was a place of mystical Altean power, right. I bet that the castle is too."
"So what are you saying; it floated its way back on its own?" Keith asked, half dubious.
"Over time, yes." Shiro reinforced simply. "The odds of it being a coincidence are unlikely. It had to have been brought here somehow. And how do you think it would be directly above the rift?"
"So what do you want us to do?" Keith asked.
"I think we need to fly the castle back into the rift." Shiro replied determinedly. "If I'm right, and the castle is connected to the island where it came from, all we need to do is get it back where it belongs. Then things should go back to normal."
"It can't be that simple, can it?" Pidge asked.
"Hm, it could work." Sam thought aloud. "But we'll have to move quickly. That energy is powerful. Too much exposure to it could be bad for the lions... and all of you. So if we're gonna do this... we'll have to hurry."
"Sam's right." Shiro agreed. "You guys take the pillars, I've got the main ship. If we push together maybe we can move it."
"Copy that, Shiro. Let's give it a try." Keith decided, as the four lions spilt off their separate ways. The lions clamped their jaws to the pillars, their claws gripping the age-old rock; jets blazing.
"It's not working!" Hunk cried in a strained manner.
"I'm thinking the lions aren't gonna be able do this by themselves." Shiro called. "Everyone... form Voltron!" He then jerked the Black Lion up.
The mighty Defender of the Universe gripped the tip of the pyramid, it thrusters bursting to life.
"We're not- even going anywhere!" Pidge cried.
"Ugh, Voltron isn't even making a difference!!" Lance.
"Not with our regular thrusters." Keith breathed aloud.
"Good thinking, Keith." Shiro put in. "Together!" Keith and Shiro jacked their bayards into the locks in unison. Voltron's wings shifted into the larger ones, the extra thrusters activating.
"Ok it's working, but very slowly." Lance said.
"We need more help." Shiro breathed to himself; then it hit him. "Coran, bring the Atlas in to help, we can use it to help get it inside the rift!" He called over the com.
"I'm on it!" The Altean responded.
"We need to hurry!" Sam cautioned. "The lions power cores are fluctuating. They could burn out soon." Shiro pressed his lion harder, he suddenly began to feel a bit of light-headedness and weakness in his hands.
"Shiro! Are you alright?" Sam asked quickly. "Your heart just spiked. What's going on?"
"*grunt* I'm alright." Shiro breathed.
"You need to take it easy." Sam warned again. "I'm still not entirely sure what that nebula's energy did to you."
"The Atlas is in position." Coran reported. "We're ready to assist."
The gargantuan mech's hand came down and Voltron had to scatter.
"The Atlas can the main ship, the rest of us can handle the pillars..." Shiro decided, still feeling a bit breathless. "Let's do this!" Minutes felt like hours as they pressed on through the white rift, their screens fluctuating the further in they went.
"The lions' levels are getting dangerously low!" Sam called anxiously.
"We need to hurry this up!!" Pidge screamed. Shiro gripped the handles tightly, struggling to stay awake; a pounding in his ears began to lull him in and out of awareness.
"Shiro?!" Sam asked. "Are you alright?! Your heart is racing! Shiro? Shiro?!"
"Shiro?! Come in!" Keith groaned. A bright light finally gave birth to an open abyss of color; though they were very dull and showed signs of death and decay. Keith sat up again, the pressure they'd been battling finally gone; mug to their relief. "Shiro! Come in! Please answer me!!"
"I'm- here." Shiro's voice was low and barely audible but there. Keith breathed a sigh of relief and fully let his guard down.
"What happened there?" He asked. Shiro rubbed the back of his neck with one and held his chest with the other.
"I'm not sure, I-" Shiro laid his hands in his lap simply.
"It might be the mystical energy from the white hole that's affecting you." Sam hypothesized. "Hopefully when we get out of here it'll be easier."
"So now we're here." Lance stated. "Now what?"
"There's still a hole down there from where the castle used to be." Shiro said, gazing down at the giant gap in the small floating island planet to his left. He looked straight ahead at nothing in particular. "That's where we need to put it."
"Got it!" The team responded.
The Altas shifted positions and jetted toward the giant hole. Thankfully, the castle's base and the hole fit like a glove and created a major disturbance as it was replaced in its rightful place.
"Shiro, this isn't gonna stay like this. The low gravity here will allow the castle to float away if we don't secure it somehow." Pidge articulated.
"Then we'll need a way to secure it to the ground." Shiro said.
"Wait, wait, wait, isn't this place suppose to be non-gravitated or whatever you call it?" Lance asked dryly.
"It is," Pidge confirmed closing her eyes briefly. "But because of the battle that took place here, and the damage and destruction that was inflicted upon this place has rendered it severely damaged. The damage was so severe that the atmosphere changed to something uninhabitable. It also caused the lack of gravity and unstable nature of the white hole."
"And without the white lion guardian to protect it Oriande is open to any who sees fit to enter." Shiro sighed. "Even if there isn't anything here anymore."
"Not quite, Shiro." Keith thought aloud. "The lions must have known that Oriande was in trouble. That might be why they brought us here... to put it right again." Shiro thought of this,.. and was about to reply; when a familiar growl stole his attention. Almost like a robot, he thrust the handles forward; jetting Black down to land.
"Shiro?!" Lance called after him. Keith immediately launched himself after him; the others following.
The Black Lion landed softly, letting out its Paladin out immediately. The lions each landed next to Black in a consecutive line around it; the Atlas behind them towering over all the lions. The wind that created by it rushed away from its giant feet; Shiro stopped and turned to look toward them. Keith zoomed it and found a strange glowing in Shiro's eyes; like two bright white optics staring back at him.
"Shiro?" He breathed. But the Black Paladin only turned to jet pack toward the temple once more. "Everyone lest get out and follow him. Coran, stay with the Atlas. In case we need anything."
"Roger that, standing by." Coran responded.
Shiro's feet hit the floor, he stood there staring up at the giant eye over the entrance of the temple. Blankly looking down there were two things which a quickly recognized standing before him.
"This place looks terrible." Lance commented, jetting himself around to look at everything as he followed the others toward Shiro.
"Shiro? What's going on?" Keith asked, as they finally neared the Black Paladin. But what Shiro was hearing and seeing was not what they were hearing and seeing...
Shiro stared at Allura, waiting to see what she was going to do. She still seemed a little faded, and he was still glowing; as before.
"We're here Shiro." Allura told him. "It is time to put this right."
"What are you- talking about?" Shiro asked, lost by her statement.
"The Black lion lead you here because you are the key to fixing this." The Princess responded simply.
"Allura, this would be a job for an Altean." Shiro pointed out. "I'm not the one who should be fixing this... you are."
"I cannot do this..." the princess sighed, coming to stand face to face with him. "Not without you." She took his hands and pressed them to the pillars of her teludav. The handles were facing towards her, and seemed to have just appeared from nowhere. But as she pressed his hands to the teludav; his physical body did the same...
The ground began to shake, as a glow began to emanate from Shiro and the teludav. Shiro turned his head around to them.
"Keith!- where- is the clone?" He groaned through the energy beam.
"It's in the Atlas.-" Keith was interrupted by a roar, and the ground shook some more; as they looked back to see the Black Lion take off toward the Atlas.
"Sam, bring the clone body to the Black Lion's hanger it's coming to get it." Keith instructed.
"Copy that, but- why?" Sam asked on confusion.
"Check out the external scanners." Keith replied simply. Sam tapped at the screen and the video feed came up.
"Woah!" The commander gasped.
Shiro found now that he couldn't remove his hands from the pillars, like they had locked in to them somehow. But the discomfort grew more and more, and he began to see flashes of the past. Things that had transpired here throughout the years. The battle with Honerva, Allura visiting this place, and even Alfor entering the temple; coming out as an even greater Alchemist.
The Black Lion scooped up the pod with the clone Shiro in it and took off once again.
Suddenly the team noticed a change in the atmosphere, as everything started to lighten up. The land around them became full of life once more, the plants perking up, the dead creatures coming back to life. They team gazed in awe of what was happening, as the Black lion arrived and dropped the pod at the bottom of the short staircase before Shiro.
Shiro made his way around the pillars, managing to shift his hands to the other pillar; so that he was now facing his friends. The damage and striations of the land seemed to fill themselves in, and rekindled the former glory of the once majestic land of Oriande. The lions suddenly took on a strange glow; like how they looked when they'd first returned. Just a then a transparent shape leapt out of them and they found that they were lions. Real life lion spirits, which bore colored markings on heir coats similar to that of the Voltron lions. All five lions dashed around the team to all leap at Shiro with a mighty roar. Absorbing themselves into him, and beam of light came out of him when he straightened up. This beam hitting the Atlas and enveloping it. Squinting to see, Keith could tell something was happening. A different beam of light burst from the Atlas's chest and then... ROAR!! A white lion burst from the within the Atlas landing on the ground. The beams died down to a gentler glow around Shiro and he was able to relax a bit. The white lion turns to look at the Paladins, it sniffed the air toward them; when they light behind it began to grow again. Shiro still stood there; the light becoming something in front of him that no one could make out.
Shiro grimaced and look up at Allura.
"*groan* Princess..." Shiro breathed weakly. "Why is this continuing?" He groaned and dropped his head.
"Because there is still one more thing left for you to do." Then suddenly he was pulled away into something new, something beyond the pain's reach...