I worked really hard son this chappie. It took two days, so I hope some of the scenes feel real.
XxXxXx
Sakura laid on the surface, Keith's Marmora blade is clutched tightly to her chest as all around her were explosion after explosion, her sobs shook her body, and her sobbing is drowned out by everything that crumbled and exploded.
The whole station was crumbling down around her, as the upper stations fell down on the lower stations creating bigger explosions and more explosions. And finally all the crumbling of all the stations hit the station that Sakura is on, and she went propelling off the ledge and tumbled down as she fell, Keith's blade tightly in her hand.
She was tired, battered and broken as she let herself tumble down into the unknown as the wind whistled in her ears, her eyes are closed as she accepts her fate.
A loud and powerful Lion's roar is heard in the distance, but a white light engulfted her.
XxxXxX
Flashbacks
"Keith, this is my sister, Sakura." Shiro introduced the two kids who stood facing each other. "Sakura, Keith is gonna be staying with us."
Sakura looked up at her older brother, then looked back at Keith. She held out her hand. "Hi."
He hesitated, but took her offered hand. "Hi."
XxXxXx
A few months later. Sakura walked over to Keith as he sits on a swing that hung from one of the backyard trees. "You don't have to be so closed off with us." She told him, and he turns to look at her.
"Why are you being so nice to me? We barely know each other."
She had her hands behind her back. "Exactly my point. You expect me to live with a stranger? In my own house? No way! You close yourself off and don't let us get to know you."
He stared at her, blinking. "You want to know me?" He asked, confused.
She nodded. "Yeah! It's Friday, you know what that means!" She smiled. "Pizza night! And I have board games, and other games that I can't play by myself, cause the Galaxy Garrison keeps my brother too busy, then too tired to play."
Keith looked to be in thought. "Pizza and games?" He turns to her fully. "Do we get soda too?"
Sakura smiled. "You bet we do!"
XxXxXx
A year later. Sakura sat on the front porch swing, she sniffed as she wiped her eyes, a big pink gob of gum is stuck in her hair. She had gotten it when she got into a fight with another girl at the Garrison, the other girl took her chewing gum and wadded it into Sakura's hair like you would wad a piece of paper.
The front door opened to reveal Keith walking out. "You ok?" He asked as he walked up and sat next to her, obviously he already knew what happened, and he came to Sakura's rescue, and ended up into trouble with another Cadet named James Griffin.
"Yeah." She tries to whip her tears. "But I can't get this gum out."
Keith moves to look, he gently takes the knot of hair that's stuck. "Maybe we can fix it, a few cuts here and there, and you'll be ok." He offers.
She blinks against her tears. "You think so?"
"Yeah." He pauses. "I'm not a stylest, but I think it'll work."
She looks at him. "Ok. Let's do it!"
After a few minutes, the two are in the upstairs bathroom. Sakura is sitting on the edge of the bathtub, while Keith stands and holding a pair of scissors in his right hand as he works, but soon her pauses.
"What's wrong?" Sakura asks.
"I ... I might have to cut a big chunk of hair in order to get the whole wad out." He said nervously.
"What?" She asks surprised. "You can't just cut around it?"
He shook his head. "I can't."
Suddenly they heard the front door, and both knew Shiro was home. The two kids look at each other with wide-eyes and start to push the scissors back and forth.
"Your idea."
"No, yours."
"Yours."
"Yours."
And that's how Shiro found them, arguing and pushing the scissors back and forth. Sighing with a roll of his eyes, he leans over and knocks on the door. Both kids had been too busy arguing to notice he was there until he knocked, and they froze and turned to him.
"Hi?" The two asked in union as both have a hand on the scissors as the object was between them.
"Sakura." Shiro gestured with his finger, she gulped and letting go of the scissors she walked over to her bother, Shiro gently picked at the wad of gum that's stuck in her hair and the attempted fix. He sighed and looked towards Keith. "Keith, you too."
"Where are we going?" Sakura asked as Shiro led both her and Keith down the stairs.
"I have a friend who can help you with this mess." Shiro answered as the three walked out of the house and he guided them to his car.
"We're not in trouble?" Keith asked as the two kids get into the backseat.
"We'll talk about that when we get back home."
Both Sakura and Keith looked at each other.
XxXxXx
Years later. Sakura races races down a hall inside the Galaxy Garrison with a few books. Tossing her books into her dorm, she turns and runs down the hall, taking a few corners, then runs down the main hall towards the entrance of the Galaxy Garrison where Keith is heading.
"Keith!" She cries as she runs after him, he stops and turns to watch her come up to him. He's holding a box under his right arm. She bends down, putting her hands on her knees as she catches her breath. "Is it true what everyone is saying?" She asks as she straightens up. "You're kicked out?"
"Yeah." He nods. "I don't need this place anyway. We all know I can't hold my temper."
"But, I need you here. I need someone to talk to while at lunch and in the halls, and."-
"This place isn't for me!" He cuts her off with anger, seeing her taken back look, he looks away. "Kura, I'm sorry."
"Who's going to defend me when I get those looks and hearing those whispers of 'Poor girl, now that her brother is dead, what's she going to do now?'"
Keith smirks. "You're as much of a hot head as me." He then sees Commander Iverson walking towards them. "I'll still come around the house." He promises her, and Sakura smiles.
"Please do."
XxXxXx
Sakura stood in the shack, her arms folded as she studies the white billboard of all the energy readings. "You really think this is gonna lead us to Shiro?" She asks as she turns to Keith, who's sitting on the couch and eating out of box of roman noodles.
"I don't know where or if it'll lead us to Shiro." He admits. "But I do know is that whatever this energy is." He stood up and walked up to her side to look at everything that they've collected. "It's big, even bigger then the Garrison."
She drops her arms, turning to him. "Well, when we do find Shiro. You're getting a kiss!"
That shocked him. "What!?" He turned to her, she was nodding looking serious.
"Yes. And it's not gonna be a peck either." She smirks as he blushes.
Present Time
XxXxXx
"Sakura." Keith's voice is heard as she lays in the cargo bay of Black Lion. "Sakura." He's holding her in his arms as he gently rocks her.
"Keith." She whispers, the side of her head resting on his chest. "Keith?" She felt him sigh heavily in relief.
"Thank God you're ok."
She opens her eyes to look up into his face. He kisses her forehead.
"KEITH!" She throws her arms around his neck, hugging him tightly.
"Babe, listen to me." He whispered. "We do not have a lot of time." He warns as she pulls away.
"For what?" She asks.
"The others are in danger." He explained. "And." He pauses. "Sakura, I'm so sorry. You begged me to believe you, you begged me to listen, even after Shiro disappeared." He said, and she lowered her eyes, looking away. "Baby, I'm so sorry I didn't believe you, when you strongly believed that this Shiro was a clone."
"It's not the time." She said with a shrug.
"I'm pushing the time!" Keith took her face gently. "I should've believed you, I should've saw it too." He wipes her tears with his thumbs.
"What's done is done." She whispered, her eyes sliding to the side. "Here, this belongs to you."
He blinks and looks down, it was his blade. "My blade." He removes his hands to lean back as he looks at it.
"I finally understand." She looked at the blade, seeing her reflection through the blade. "For a long time, I was so angry with you. Because I thought that the Blade Of Marmora meant more to you then me." She confessed. "I never said anything, just kept it to myself."
"Why would you think that?" He asks softly. "Why would you do that?"
She looks up at him. "For you. I knew you had to go on the self discovery journey. And very quickly in the beginning, that journey was clashing with Voltron's duties, and when you chose the Blade ... I was hurt, and Shiro was just starting to really act weird."
"Sakura."- Keith trailed off when she shook her head.
"We're suppose to support each other, not break us down." She paused for a long moment and finished with a whisper, her eyes closed. "Or apart."
A thoughtful look crossed Keith's face. "I'll take my bade." He said, before quickly getting up and running out, a second later he returned. "If you take this."
She opened her eyes to see him kneeling on one knee with a beautiful Vintage Moissanite Diamond Cluster ring in a red velvet box. She gasped. "Keith." She whispered, staring at the ring, then looking up at him.
He held a serious and soft look.
More tears slid down her cheeks. "Yes!" She threw herself into his arms, hugging him tightly. "I'll wait forever if I have too."
"Once we return to Earth." He says as he pulls away and slides the ring onto her gloved finger. "That'll be a new mission for us." He leans down, kissing her gently.
The need for air won, and they pulled away, she hugs him tightly, playing with his now longer hair.
"What do we do now?" She asks, her head leaning against his head as she looks towards the Shiro Clone.
"We have get back to the castle." Keith answers as he gently pulls away, and stands, pulling her up too. "The others are in danger, we gotta get to them." He takes her hand, and leads her towards the cockpit.
XxXxXx
Keith sat in his chair, Sakura sat down on the floor next to him as he opened a channel to call the castle. "Hailing the Castle Of Lions. This is Keith."
"Keith! You're ok!" Lance's voice came through.
"Where's Sakura?" Hunk asked.
Sakura stood up, and leaned onto Keith to smile at the image. "Hi guys."
"Where've you been?" Allura asked. "Did you find Shiro?"
Sakura leaned out of camera rang. "We have him. But it's not the Shiro we know." Keith answered. "The Shiro that kidnapped Lotor and Sakura ... was a clone."
"A clone?" Pidge asked. "Where ... where's the real Shiro?"
"It's complicated." Keith answered. "We'll explain everything later, but right now, you need to focus on Lotor. I've picked up the Sincline ships on my scanners. Looks like Lotor is headed back to your posion. Right where you are."
"Why is he being so stupid, and returning?" Sakura seethed, folding her arms with anger.
"He needs to get back into the quintessence field!" Allura gasped with realization.
"We're on our way to you now." Keith stated. "But without a wormhole, it's gonna takes us awhile. You'll have to hold off Lotor without us."
"We'll do what we can." Lance responded before the connection broke.
"Sakura, I need you to go back into the cargo bag, and get Shiro's clone into a pod." Keith turned to look at her. "And brace yourself." He added in a warning.
"Ok." She turns and runs out of the cockpit.
XxXxXxXx
Getting the pod ready was the easy part, getting the Clone's body into the pod was hard. Finally she was able to get the clone inside. Suddenly and without warning, Black Lion turboed like lightning, throwing Sakura off balance and into the pod on top of the clone. "Keith!" She yelled, irritated that he didn't warn her.
"Sorry." His voice came through the com link. "Sakura, can you go to the castle with him?"
Sakura rubbed her head, still annoyed. "Yeah!" She pauses. "Wait just a minute!" She jumps out and runs back into the cockpit.
"Kura, we don't have." Keith trails off when she grabs his sweaty face, turning his face around and kissing him.
After a long moment, she pulls away. "Be safe."
He smiles at her. "You too."
With that Sakura runs out of the cockpit again.
XxXxXxX
After a long few moments, Sakura gasps as she sits up after the pod opens up.
"Oh, Sakura!" Coran cries, as he was suddenly there and hugging her tightly. "I'm so sorry about Shiro!"
"Can't breath!" Sakura chokes out, and he quickly pulls away.
"I'm sorry!"
Sakura turns to look at the clone of Shiro. "We have to get him into a healing chamber." She said with urgently.
Coran nods quickly. "Right!" He takes the pod and starts to push it out of the room.
Krolia turned to look at Sakura. "Are you alright?" She asks in concern.
"I'll live." Sakura nods. "I know there's no time - but I really, really, really want a hot soapy bath." She started to move.
"Wait." Krolia reached out and gently took her left hand, seeing the ring. "Congrats." She smiles, and Sakura returns the smile.
"Thank you."
Krolia turns her around. "Go, have that bath."
XxXxXxX
In her bathroom, Sakura striped as the tub filled up with water, along with lots and lots of soap. Stepping into the hot soapy water, she closed her eyes and sighed heavily as she let the water soak in all her wounds.
"Sakura." Keith's voice had her waking up some time later as he gently shook her shoulder. "Kura."
She jumped startled awake. "What, what?" She quickly looked around to find herself still in her bathroom, her hot and soapy bath is no more, and Keith sitting on his knees next to the tub. "I didn't mean to nap!" She cried, starting to panic. "I just closed my eyes for a second!"
"Hey, hey. Kura, it's ok." Keith reassured. "Babe, we gotta go."
She blinks. "What?" She turns to him. "You are not leaving again!"
"We have to evacuate." He told her as he stood up and grabbed a towel. "We're really beating the clock this time."
Stepping out of the tub, she shivered at the cold air, and he wrapped the blanket around her.
"But to leave the castle?" She asked. "It's been our home for years."
Keith nods. "That's what Hunk said. But it's the only way to stop Lotor."
Sakura had been drying herself off, and got into her Paladin uniform quickly. "Where is he?"
"We had to leave him in the quintessnce field, we had no choice." He answered. "And now we have no choice but to leave the castle." He walked up to her, taking her hands. "We set the teludov for destruction."
"If it's the only way." She said, and he pulls her out.
XxXxXxXx
The Voltron team quickly ran around in order to load their Lions. Once the Lions were all loaded, it took all the Paladins to push Kaltenecker into Lance's Lion, then they all headed for their own Lions.
It was hard to say goodbye to the castle. As the Lions flew away, they watched as the castle, their home away from home - fly into the quintessence field, causing an explosion that wiped out the expanding rips of space.
"Goodbye." Sakura whispered, a few tears sliding down her cheeks.
"It worked!" Hunk cheered.
"You did it, Coran." Allura said, there was a silence that followed.
"Look!" Hunk called.
In the distance, shined something blue. Yellow Lion rushed forward to investigate.
"What is it?" Keith asked.
"It's a diamond." Hunk answered as the object was entered Yellow Lion's mouth. "The pressure crushed the Castle Of Lions into this little diamond."
Sakura smiled through her tears.
"Well, we saved all realities." Lance said. "What do you guys want to do now?"
"We need to find some place to land, and see if there's some way to help Shiro." Keith answered.
XxXxXx
The next planet was not far, and once the team landed on the surface, Keith carried Shiro's body out of Black Lion and placed him down on the ground being careful to not hurt him further.
Sakura sat on her knees, Shiro's head rested in her lap.
"This body is barely living, but Shiro's spirit is alive." Keith told his team. "This is a clone of the real Shiro."
"A clone?" Allura asks with worry, and Keith nods.
"Yes."
"Where - where's Shiro then?" Hunk asked nervously. "I mean our Shiro, the original Shiro?"
"His spirit is inside the Black Lion." Keith answered. "I've heard him talking to me."
"Me too." Sakura whispered, her tears sliding down her cheeks.
Lance fell to his knees. "He ... he tried to tell me, but I didn't realize." Tears ran down his cheeks. "I'm so sorry we didn't believe you Sakura."
Hunk rapidly bobbed his head, while Pidge took off her glasses to wipe her own tears.
"For a long time I was angry and hurt with you guys for not believing me when I tried to tell you that Shiro was acting weird." Sakura looked at each of the Paladins. "I don't care about that anymore. It doesn't matter." She lowered her head. "All I want now is my brother." Tears ran down her cheeks.
She looked up when Allura placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, Team Voltron watched as their Princess walked over to Black Lion, the great beast watched her with it's yellow eyes, before lowering its head down as it crouched to all fours. Allura placed her hands on hands on the Lions chin and bowed. Suddenly a glow surrounder Black Lion, then it went zapping into Princess Allura. When she turned around she was glowing, along with her eyes.
As the Princess walked back over to the team, Sakura scooted on her knees to Keith's side, and Allura knelt down to place her hands on either side of Shiro's head. After a few moments of intense silence as the aura around the Princess seeped into Shiro's body, and turning the rest of his hair completely white, his eyebrows stayed the raven black color. Shiro's eyes snapped open and he quickly sat up, attempting to catch his breath.
Shiro fell to the side, but Sakura quickly caught him.
Black Lion stood up and roared, the other Lions quickly followed. Coran and Hunk laughed and cheered as they hugged.
"Sakura." Shiro whispered. "You were right."
"You really are my own Captain America." She smiled, he returned it as he closed his eyes.
"So, what are gonna do?" Hunk asked. "The castle is destroyed."
"There's only one place that has the plans necessary to build a replacement for the Castle Of Lions." Pidge answered. "Coran gave them to my dad."
Sakura perked up, and she looked up with hope. "So that mean." She trailed off as she, Keith, Lance, and Allura stood up.
"We're going home." Keith said, and everyone smiled.