Chapter 45
Break Me
Everything had become overwhelming, from discovering about my ancestors in the land of Oriande, to working with Lotor and finding out of his betrayal. I had the enemy right in front of my face without ever knowing he had committed genocide with my people. So many innocent lives lost for the sake of unlimited power. What had this universe come to? Young children lost to the clutches of evil; lives extinguished like dying stars. The future of our races was in the hands of monsters. My own future was threatened by an evil hand, turning my lover against me. How had I been so foolish? So naive to believe that everything would turn up alright. I let my guard down, and now, we faced Lotor's cruel generals; in ships manufactured by the comet's ore.
The three ships opened fire as soon as they saw Voltron before them. I moved us up and out of the way and they came after us; lasers flying so close to our hull. I saw Shiro's pod fly by and changed course to track him. Even at the speed we were going, the smaller ships managed to keep up with us. They flew in front, uniting their laser cannons and fired. Pidge formed the shield just as the laser beam made impact. The force pushed us back to a nearby asteroid, denting its surface.
"I'm headed your way." Coran informed.
"Coran, no!" Keith ordered, "The Castle of Lions barely survived the first time we fought one of those ships. You'll only-" Keith grunted as the force of the beam intensified, digging us further into the ground.
"Keith is right, Coran." Allura said, "The ship's defenses will never hold!"
"Guys, we can't take this much longer!" Pidge exclaimed.
"Do you guys have any ideas?" Lance asked.
"If only we can get away from their line of fire." I grunted, "We're blocked on two fronts."
"Maybe we can fix that." Keith stated, "Coran, fire just below our position."
"What?" Coran asked bewildered.
"Destroy the rock we're pinned against." Keith ordered.
"But that's too dangerous!" Coran shot back, "We run the risk of hitting you."
"Just do it Coran!" I yelled, "If we don't get away from the laser, we won't last much longer!"
Coran said nothing more and fired the castle's main cannon destroying the asteroid's bottom surface. We fell down the hole and moved away from the beam.
"Lance! Pidge! I need you to get us some cover." Keith ordered.
"On it!" They said in unison and began to fire at the floating rocks as I moved us forward losing us in the chaos. Dozens of yellow explosions trailed behind us, but my monitors still reported the ships still on our tail.
"They just won't give up." I growled.
"Who's got eyes on Shiro?" Keith asked.
"I don't see him anywhere." I responded with worry.
We exited the floating rock formations, when suddenly the ships fired some type of restraining beams keeping us in place. They began to pull us back crashing us on a giant floating boulder.
"What just happened?" Pidge asked.
I gasped when a bright magenta light appeared in the darkness to reveal a wormhole, "It can't be…"
"A wormhole?" Lance voiced shocked.
"They're trying to escape." Keith said.
"Haggar." Allura said with distaste, "It has to be Haggar. She must have gained the ability. But how?"
"Something tells me, we know the answer." I said, remembering the time I had fought the white lion. Somehow, she had found the lost land of Oriande and figured out a way to take control of Shiro's mind. Everything became clear in an instant; she knew of our plans all along. There was no one else with those abilities. I slammed my foot in anger.
"We can't worry about that." Keith said trying to get me to calm down, "We have to make sure we get Shiro back."
"But Shiro's not Shiro anymore." Hunk reminded.
"I know, but something is wrong with him." Keith responded, "The Galra or Lotor have to be behind it."
"It's the witch, I know it's her." I said with hatred.
"You all know he would never give up on us." Keith continued, "We can't give up on him."
"Your right, we can't." I voiced with determination, beginning to move Voltron, with the help of the others, back to a standing position, "I'm never giving up on him. I am going to get him back, not matter what."
We took off after them, in the direction of the vibrant magenta wormhole, moving us as fast as we could go, but a warning popped up on my screen, "Guys, one of our thrusters has been damaged on impact. Can you compensate?"
"Those beams torched our power core." Pidge answered me, "I've never seen anything like it."
"We've got maybe thirty seconds of over-clocked burnt time." Hunk informed.
"Hit it!" Keith ordered.
Allura and Hunk pushed their thrusters to max capacity sending us flying at sonic speed. I tightened my hold on my lion's handles as my heart began to beat rapidly.
"We're halfway through our burn." Hunk said, "twenty-five percent…"
Shiro's pod reached the wormhole and disappeared inside of it; even with the sonic boom, we were not fast enough. We needed to reach it before it closed.
"Fifteen-percent…"
The other ships made it as well vanishing in bright flashes of light.
"Eight percent."
"We're still too far away!" I exclaimed, my breaths coming up in loud gusts, "We're not going to make it!"
"We're too heavy!" Pidge exclaimed.
My lion could probably make it in time before the wormhole closed, but in Voltron, she was forced to carry all the weight of the other lions on her wings.
"Disband." Keith ordered, thinking the same thing.
"What?" The others protested.
"The energy from disconnecting might create enough thrust to propel me through the wormhole." Keith said.
"You'll be the only one on the other side." Allura stated.
"No, he won't." I added, "I'm coming with, losing the other lion's connections will allow me to fly faster. I need to do this Allura!"
"Do it!" Keith yelled.
"All right." Allura voiced and they disbanded from our lions, shooting away in different directions.
The Black Lion flew in front of me, with one of its wings sparking, but the force of disbanding actually helped it to fly faster. I pulled on my handles as far as they could go and connected to my lion. She immediately responded understanding my urgency and extended her wings out giving off a white intense radiance. I reached Keith and took ahold of the Black Lion's back thrusting us faster; the stars moved by in a blur. We managed to make it inside just as the wormhole closed. I let go of him and exited the wormhole only to be met with a so dozen of Galra cruisers standing by. As soon as they detected us, they began to open fire; a few laser beams managing to grace our lions.
I groaned, "Dam the Galra."
"All right, we gotta play this smart." Keith said, "Take evasive maneuvers."
"You don't have to tell me twice." I stated and began to dodge the incoming fire by backflipping out of the way of one of the cruisers.
"I have eyes on Shiro." Keith informed.
"I'm right behind you." I changed course to follow him through the fleet, an image of the white Altean pod appeared on my screen; the other three comet ships escorted it to the main Galra vessel. One of them broke formation and flew back to engage. My lion alerted me of the incoming fighter with a beeping noise and placed the radar to my left.
"Keith, we got incoming." I warned.
He growled and pressed forward making the ship follow him, giving me the opportunity of a clear shot. I placed the ship in my aim and fired a white laser from Nimawe's jaws momentarily making it spin out of control, but it quickly recovered and circled around me. It began to fire and where ever I moved, it mimicked me.
"I can shake it!" I yelled receiving impact on my lion's back.
"I got you!" Keith exclaimed and backflipped in front of me to land on the ship and fired directly into the cockpit this time destabilizing it for good.
"Thanks." I breathed in relief.
"No, problem. Now we have to head to Shiro's location, stay close."
I nodded my head and flew beside him turning back to the main ship. I summoned my jaw blade and cut a hole into the hangar while Keith just butted the Black Lion's head inside. There stood Shiro along with Lotor and his three generals. The alarms began to beep wildly when the comet ship returned to take us down. I withdrew from the hangar and nose-dived, avoiding the rain of lasers.
"We have to do something about this darn ship." Keith growled, "Think. How are we going to get in there?"
Shiro's pod appeared again in my radar, "We won't have to get in anymore. There he goes!"
Keith opened a frequency to him as we followed him away from the fleet, "Shiro, come in. I know you're there!"
"Come on Shiro." I pleaded, "Please come back with us, I don't understand thoroughly what is going on, but one thing I do know is that we can fix it. Let us help you." The sound that someone had locked on to us beeped in my cabin, "Alright, that's it!"
I fed the fire element to Nimawe who took it without hesitation and turned around to face our attacker. I opened my lion's jaws as a fire orb began to grow rapidly and I fired; opening the pool of my power to my lion, giving it unlimited energy. I kept the fire current on it, watching as the ship's hull began to glow with the heat. The ship still had its aim locked on me, but surprisingly it did not return fire and it suddenly flew back to the main fleet without putting up a fight. I flipped us around to trail after Keith whose lion wasn't looking too good, one of its wings kept sparking.
"Your statues Keith?" I asked.
"I took some heavy damage during our fight with the three comet ships. I won't be able to go any faster than this, I will understand if you decide to go after Shiro on your own. I will try to catch up as soon as I can."
To catch up to Shiro was my number one priority, but it did not seem right to leave Keith behind; I sighed, "I'll fly close to you. We'll get Shiro back together."
"You don't have to do that, Taylin." Keith said softly.
"Believe it or not… I really don't want to face this on my own. You're the only support I have out here, it's really nice to have you back, Keith. I missed you. The team wasn't the same without you."
"I missed you too." Keith said plainly, he hesitated before continuing, "We're going to get him back, I promise."
I closed my eyes for a brief moment somehow finding the courage to believe in his words and a small smile appeared on my face. Nothing more was said between us and we flew close to each other until we spotted Shiro's pod resting on an asteroid, orbiting high above a distant planet. The scanners showed he had left the ship and walked into a cave.
"What would Shiro be doing here?" I asked puzzled.
"I have no idea, but we're about to find out."
We landed our lions close to the pod and disembarked through our lion's jaws to track the foot sprint on the dirt. Our lions sat on their hind legs and powered off already awaiting our return. Keith and I moved swiftly through the terrain and reached the mouth of the cave in a few doboshes. It looked dark and unwelcoming inside, but we had no other choice than to venture inside. I took the first step inside taking in the scenery around us. Jagged stone formations grew on the ceiling like teeth ready to chomp down on us. A pool of water reflected them back by the edge of the cave without any ripples. We walked on in silence until we came upon an elevator with purple glowing engravings; no doubt Galran. Something deep inside of me told me to turn back and run away from this place but my need to find Shiro was immense. An internal battle broke out as I froze in place breathing heavily through my mouth. For the first time in a while, I felt… fear. It slowly creeped from my stomach, like tendrils of a vine, all the way to my heart. Keith began to move forward, but not hearing my footsteps beside him, stopped to turn around and face me. Keith was not very big at providing words of comfort, so he took my wrist in his hand gently to guide me to the waiting elevator. I let him take me, otherwise my legs would have never moved on their own accord.
The elevator took us up rapidly, making a low humming sound; flashes of light passed by illuminating the darkness briefly. It finally stopped, opening its doors with a low hissing sound to reveal a great walkway. It was like anything I had ever seen. The station had no visible ceiling letting the stars peek inside. The whole place was lightened by a soft magenta light. As we walked on, the place grew darker with pods on each side of the aisle. They showed nothing of what was inside, only reflecting darkness.
We reached the end of the path and out of curiosity, I stepped forward to place a hand on the cryo chamber before me, but what I saw shocked me to the core. I felt like my whole world began to crumble and my blood ran cold in my veins. In the pod, was Shiro. He appeared to be asleep with his hands clenched into fists beside him, but as I looked over him, I realized he could not possibly be my Shiro. He did not have the white tuff of hair that I loved to play around with when he rested his head on my lap. The white faded scar on his nose was missing, and he had both his arms made out of flesh and bone.
"This…. what is? … this…" I stuttered.
Keith gasped and turned to his left and the pods on the other side began to turn on revealing more copies of Shiro. Every pod turned on displaying the same thing.
"Hello." Someone said behind us, we quickly turned around.
Shiro stood there, in his Paladin armor, with a grim expression and slightly glowing eyes. I was utterly confused, why were they so many copies of him? Who had created them? And everything we lived through, was it real?
"Shiro, it's gonna be okay." Keith said lowly when I could not find my voice.
"Yes, I know." He answered walking forward with a menacing look in his eye.
"We just have to get back to the Castle." Keith stated.
"We are not going anywhere!" Shiro yelled and began to run in our direction, his prosthetic hand glowed beside him.
Keith placed up his shield just in time, but the force sent us both flying back into the nearest pod. I leaned against it for support but moved out of the way in a flash when Shiro came at me to strike me down. I jumped to my left rolling down to the ground coming up behind him.
"Shiro, this isn't like you!" I exclaimed terrified.
He turned around bearing his teeth, "I have always been like this, you just refused to see it."
I materialized a shield when he threw a punch at me managing to hold me in place, but he kept on punching it creating cracks on the surface, "Typical, Taylin. Always hiding behind her powers."
"I hide from no one." I spit out angrily and sent my shield flying, pushing him back.
Keith materialized his marmoran sword and intercept him when he came after me again. Their weapons clashed loudly blocking each other's attacks until Shiro pushed him toward the edge and powered punched him off the platform.
"Keith!" I went to jump off after him, but I felt how someone grabbed my ankle and pulled me back, crashing me harshly onto the floor. I turned around to defend myself, but Shiro was already on top of me placing his right hand around my throat.
"Shiro… please…" I managed to wheeze out.
"I though you wanted to be with me, Taylin." He mocked with a smirk, "You're not getting away from me that easily." He pressed on my neck with more force cutting my air flow; chocking me. I grabbed on his hand trying to get it off me, but he proved to be too strong, so I did the only thing I could do. I sent an electric current from my hands to his arm shocking him and giving me the opportunity to kick him off me. I immediately got up and jumped off the platform using my jetpack to land on the lower levels besides Keith. We looked up to see Shiro jumping off with his glowing fist ready and moved out of the way. He came crashing down lifting metal particles in the air. He came out of the dust cloud with his hands tightly clenched into fists.
I took a step forward with my hands up in the air, "Let's talk this through, there is no need to fight."
Shiro knitted his eyebrows together and summoned a glowing purple sword with his prosthetic arm and came at me yelling with rage. Keith side stepped me and blocked the attack with his sword placing me behind him. They kept clashing at each other as Shiro tried to take a swipe at me, but Keith persisted in maintaining me away from him. His eyes no longer mirrored the affection we had for each other, only madness. I appeared that all the love he felt had vanished and it dawned on me, Shiro was trying to kill me. The person who I had given my heart and soul wanted to wipe me from existence; I could not bring myself to harm him. But would I really watch my beloved and one of my close friends destroy each other? … No. I need to intervene or one of them was going to end up losing their life.
I watched how Shiro uppercut Keith and his helmet flew off, slashing at him with his sword. Keith managed to evade him and jump to the next platform, with me forgotten for the moment. I manifested my wings and jump after them as Shiro had his sword pointed at his neck pinned against a metal structure. I landed loudly and pulled him out of the way bending the metal in the process to place a barrier between Shiro and us.
"Shiro listen to me, I know you are still in there somewhere." I said urgently, "I know that the man I fell in love with still resides in you. Fight it! Come back to me and continue with the plans we had sought out to pursue together. I said I would never leave your side and I am here now to help you fight the darkness that has befallen over you." My eyes began to water, and a tear silently slid out running over my cheek, "I love you, always have, always will."
Shiro looked at me expressionless and began to chuckle evilly sending shivers down my arms, "You are so pathetic, how could I love someone like you? Someone who is so weak. You should have died alongside your people and become a forgotten history."
"You cannot possibly mean that." I shot back fighting against the tears that threaten to spill out.
"I mean each and every word. I don't love you." He said with venom, "I don't want you anymore."
"But I do!" I stated bearing my teeth, "I cannot simply un-love you. Call me pathetic but my feelings for you are true I would have never agreed to marry you if it was a lie!"
He moved his head side to side with a small smirk, "Oh Taylin, but it was a lie. I led you on and you fell for it and now, I'm here to break you."
Every word that came out of his mouth was a painful stab to the heart, and I refused to believe they were his. It felt like an enormous weight was placed over my chest making it hard to breath, almost like he was chocking me all over again.
Keith placed a hand on my shoulder, "Shiro, I know you don't mean that and like Taylin, I know you're in there. You made a promise once. You told me you'd never give up on me."
"And I should have abandoned you just like your parents did." Shiro spit back, "They saw that you were broken. Worthless. I should have seen it too."
"We're not leaving here without you." Keith said trying to ignore his words, but I knew deep down he felt the same way as me.
Shiro closed his eyes and sighed before looking up, "Actually, neither of us are leaving."
The lights of the station began to glow a red color bathing the scenery in crimson; it appeared that a self-destruction sequence had been initiated. Shiro suddenly screamed in pain as his arm began to glow in the same color and fell to the ground holding it like it had ignited in flames.
"Shiro!" I exclaimed worried for him.
His prosthetic hand began to overload sending a great beam down below destabilizing the station and cutting it in half. Keith and I jumped out of the way before it hit us, missing us by a few inches. We turned our gaze to Shiro who stood doubled over panting with his arms sparking with energy. He lifted his eyes and growled at us lifting his hand up to aim, ready for another shot.
"Run!" I yelled and pushed against Keith to the nearest ledge landing harshly on the platform below ignited with red pods holding the cloned Shiros. I looked up to see the real Shiro gazing down at us with a smirk and fired again. I manifested a shield taking all the impact of his laser beam. I tried to hold it back, but his force was making me lose my footing.
"Taylin! Move!" Keith ordered seeing my shield start to shatter.
I followed his advice and jumped out of the way using my wings for momentum and let the beam hit the wall. We ran as fast as our legs could carry us away from the destruction Shiro was causing, but it seemed, where ever we went, it was impossible to escape his wrath. The piece of the station we were on plummeted down in a vertical position sending us sliding down to the abyss. I grabbed ahold of Keith and jumped off when two pods fell from the side coming to crash on our heads. I extended my wings and carried us down to a round metal plate underneath the station but in midair, a piece of the bridge fell on my wing causing me to crash on the side, hitting my wing on the metallic surface, breaking the humeros bone. I screamed in pain seeing black dots dancing before my eyes. My breath came out in short gasp and my vision blurred. I tried to push my pain aside as I noticed Keith hanging on to the ledge. I reached out my hand for him, but the pain only shot throughout my body, curling me in. Keith managed to get himself on top and laid down on the floor, breathless, looking at me with worry.
"Hang on, Taylin." He said tiredly, "I'm going to get us out of here… somehow."
Keith crawled over to my feet to grab his knife grunting loudly along the way, but something landed by us shaking the ground; it was Shiro who came to finish us off. He walked towards me scrutinizing my form. He lifted up a foot and brought it down on my damaged wing contorting me in agonizing pain. My screams echoed into the vastness surrounding us, resonating off the walls of the station. Shiro manifested his sword again watching me squirm under his boot. I closed my eyes withholding my cry of pain through clenched teeth waiting for his sword to impel me.
Memories of our time together flashed through my mind, from the first time I had set eyes on him after my ten-thousand-year sleep, to him getting on one knee to ask one of the most important questions of my life. Our journey together had not been a long one, but I was glad I got to experience a love so strong that even now I managed to forgive him. Love wasn't a weakness, it was a living thing inside of our being that kept our hearts beating. All of the sacrifices I had made throughout my life had been in the name of love. I regretted failing my people, for not being with them when they most needed me, but worst of all, I had failed my family. The family I was born into and the family that adopted me as we came together to fight for the universe. Shiro was not the one killing me, because I refused to believe he was the one doing this, rather, it was a heartless monster. A shell of what my mate had been.
A stream of tears spilled out staining my face with their salty streaks, but my end never came, a brash clashing noise sounded above me and the pressure on my wing disappeared. I opened my eyes slightly to see Keith holding off Shiro's sword with his knife.
Shiro pressed against him pushing Keith's back to the ground.
"Shiro, please." Keith grunted, "You're my brother… I love you."
"Just let go Keith." Shiro seethed, "You don't have to fight anymore. By now, the team's already gone. I saw to it myself."
Keith screamed summoning his Bayard and cutting Shiro's prosthetic arm off. Shiro grunted and fell down to his knees beside me in pain and a flash of recognition passed through his eyes, "Taylin-"
He was cut off when an explosion happened above us sending a huge chuck of the station barreling down and cutting the support lines of the platform we stood on. We began to slide to the side as we lost altitude and I grabbed on a small opening on the floor holding myself in place with much effort. Keith stabbed his knife on the side holding on to Shiro's unconscious body. I took a deep breath numbing momentarily my pain and reached to place a hand over Keith's providing more support for him.
"Hold on Keith don't let go!"
"I'm trying, but… it's too much! I'm going to pass Shiro to you." He lifted Shiro up with his left arm managing to bring him up about half way when his knife suddenly slid further down, cutting into the metal.
"Keith!" I yelled when I lost his hand from my grasp.
A second explosion went off brining the whole station down causing Keith to lose his grip, falling to a certain death into the white atmosphere below. I watched in horror as they plummeted down, Keith's purple eyes shining up at me with sadness. He mouthed something to me incomprehensible and closed his eyes.
I moved my head to place it on the platform's floor that held on just barely, "Please ancients hear my cry, help me!" With that said, I let go, plummeting into the nothingness below. Praying I would be enough to save them.
Hey Everyone!
Hope you all are having a nice week and thanks for the comments.
I decided to post this today since I'm going to be out for the next couple of days and I did not want to postpone the chapter. I hope you guys enjoyed it, it made me all emotional to write it.
Also this chapter has a song, its Taylin's and Shiro's love song, listen to it, its amazing.
watch?v=wqbisJH4pHs
