Chapter thirty-two: Begin Again
Grey eyes followed a light, barely tensing at the slight increase in it from coming slightly any closer.
"Well, I've gotta say it." Coran decided, straightening up when lowering his light again. "You look far better than you did just Movements ago."
"Agreed these last few weeks of recuperation have done you a world of good." Allura agreed.
"Then I think it's time to start again." Shiro decided, rising with the aid of one hand.
"Uhhm.. on what?" Lance wondered, lost by his tone, and blank look.
"Time to re-acclimate as a team." The Black Paladin replied simply, then turned back to Coran a short distance to his right. "Any chance we could run the same training drills we ran, when we first started working together as team Voltron?"
"Why, of course!" The Altean man replied brightly, as if surprised to even be asked. "We can run them any time, Alfor and the Paladins of old made a game of it.. that's why they were so close.. they trained alongside one another for decapheobs. The Voltron training sessions were 'the highlight of their time together', King Alfor used to say."
"My father always said the closer you are to those you work amongst, the deeper the bonds may grow. And the stronger the team may become." Allura started, in remembrance of her race's former king.
"I'd have to agree.." Shiro agreed, then turned to smile at the two Holt men beyond Coran. "I can't imagine how things would've gone, having not been so close with the ones I was working with."
"Us too, Shiro." Matt beamed, catching onto his meaning.
"'Wouldn't have it any other way." Sam agreed, cocking a smile.
"But Shiro,.. are you sure you're ready to start training again?" Keith wondered, pushing off the wall he was leaning on to approach his friend. "I mean you've just been recovering from wounds that nearly killed you,.. and now you're wanting to dive back in already?"
"Keith, I've felt weak and helpless for far too long." Shiro asserted in his normally gentle tone. "And now that my strength has returned its only natural that I begin working towards fighting the Galra.. as we all should be. Countless lives depend on us to succeed.. but the longer we let Zarkon plan against us the harder it's going to be for us to defeat him.." his eyes softened.
"We need to get back in this fight as soon as we possibly can.." He finished purposefully, eyebrows furrowing lightly. "No matter what it takes."
"I know but-"
"I..would have to agree." Said the voice of Sam, earning him their glance along with Keith's, who turned around to face him from once being behind him; still a fair distance away.
"But tell me,.." the commander continued. "Is your body truly prepared for the wear and tear of battle, as much as your mind thinks it is?"
"That's what we're about to find out." Shiro answered, a look of softened determination across his face.
XXXX
The lights went up, and the two figures that stood within it were at attention. The single laser eye sparked to life and lunged forward into a headlong sprint, while the Paladin standing opposite it waited for the right moment to act.
Moments before it reached him, Shiro's eyes opened. And seconds later his hands came up with the materializing of his bayard weapons to catch the opposer's attack with a block. Shiro's arms trembled against the pressure held down on him; the Altean drone's single-handed weight with a sword against his plated forearms, holding him in place with little to go on for an escape.
The bot kicked their foot forward, delivering it to his chest and he tumbled away from it. And as he recovered himself, he could sense the metal Altean stalking toward him. And as the thumping grew louder and faster, he dove away from the blow and rolled up onto his feet in one smooth motion, even though the feeling of it wasn't quite as smooth as he'd remembered.
Bayard re-assembled, he threw the right-handed blade at the bot, who caught it with the side of its own. Barely touching fingers to the midnight and purple accented metal, the second one appeared to his hand, and he stabbed it at the Altean, who wrenched his blade down to block the attack. And feeling the twist, Shiro winced with a light grimace, but had to thrust his head back to avoid a clean swipe of the blade at his face.
Blocking the second swing their blades collided, Shiro's right weapon lengthened in blade and shortened in protective plating to become a sword of a kind.. And releasing the original weapon style in his left hand, he took on a different stance to face the drone with the right shoulder leading the entirety of his posture; bluish-grey eyes flashing when seeing this change and watching for what would come next.
The tightening of his expression extended the top half of the handle down his forearm, locking it with bands around it to stabilize the armored blade for Shiro to plunge forward toward the surging bot.
Leaping up into the air and leading the attack with his knee, it struck the bot's head and it stumbled back. Shiro landed passed its right side as it had staggered aside from where it had once stood facing him. And when he'd landed, he swung his arm back with his body's momentum to be caught in a hard grasp at the forearm near the wrist. A blow to his back sprawled him to the floor, and he almost didn't feel like getting back up; but upon instinct, he rolled himself away as a stab pierced the ground where he'd been.
Rising to his feet again swiftly, his blade raised to await the next move; his mind desperating trying to ignore the fatigue nipping at him, with beads of crystal at his brow and a heavy thumping in his chest.
Another series of slicing and blocking between the two and Shiro ducked back again at the swing cutting for his head. Shiro's knee sent the bot sliding backwards, and when it stopped itself, it looked up with a flashing glance. Then Shiro plunged forth with one blade in hand and lowered his left shoulder to contact the drone's mid-section, the sword wielding hand stabbing into them, as he threw the whole fighter bot over his shoulder. Landing it on its back behind him, the blade stuck out of its torso, and moments later it dematerialized with a burst as the blade became a bayard once again when dropping to the floor.
Shiro rose from the kneel he'd dropped himself in, and lifted a hand to his opposite shoulder, which ended up being his right shoulder, they observed, as they finally approached.
"That was incredible, Shiro." Matt commented, his amazement too obvious to hide. "Looks like you really do know your stuff."
"And you haven't seen him fight without a fancy bayard yet." Pidge smirked.
"I have to say I'm quite impressed, myself." Coran spoke up. "We haven't really ever seen you use your bayard, since we didn't have it in your possession until...oh.." the Altean man's statement dropped at the realization which he immediately regretted implying.
"Yeah,.. Keith sighed, just soft enough for people to hear as the Paladins eyes lowered with the two Alteans.
"Until what?" Sam wondered, both he and Matt becoming concerned.
"Shiro?" Matt asked, turning his glance over to him.
"Let's just say our second full on encounter with Zarkon didn't go any better than our first." The Black Paladin sighed, his eyes opening and lifting to meet Matt's. "Both times, I guess you could say, we've gone into battle to finally finish him,.. and I've come out with more wounds than I had going in."
"War is a tough thing, Shiro." Sam reasoned, turning his shoulder to face him squarely. "I can't imagine all you've gone through has been easy. And I'm sure taking on the very same aliens that imprisoned us and took your arm, was far from it as well."
"Well, the Galra soldiers really aren't exactly the biggest issue here." Shiro responded with a light shrug. He closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them with a firmer level of purpose.
"Their leader, Emperor Zarkon, still has a strong bond with the Black Lion,.. and that means I've had to fight him for control of it every single time we get near his ship. His mental bond with the Black Lion is stronger than mine.. and I think once we figure out how to sever his connection,.. we can begin to grow our bond so he won't be able to take control of it again. That's what he's been after since day one."
"Well if this, Zarkon, wants it so badly,.." Sam wondered. "And has such a strong bond with it,.. Why hasn't he been able to just steal it away from you when you least expect it?"
"Well we've learned that there's a limit in range as to how far away he has to be to call it to him.. and as long as we're not within that range, he can't connect with it strong enough to pull it from my control."
"The first time we fought Zarkon head on head, we were rescuing Allura from being captured by them,.." Hunk explained, thinking back on it grimly. "And Shiro ended up stranded on his ship, because Zarkon stole the Black Lion from him."
"He ended up facing Zarkon's witch and received a blow from her dark magic that burned his right side." Pidge informed them. "Unfortunately, before we were able to treat it, we were all caught in a broken down wormhole that scattered us all across the universe and separated us from the castle."
"But then this genius came up with a way to find everyone." Hunk put in, placing a hand on her shoulder as she stood there with a proud superhero stance; which was composed of holding elbows out from her body to press fisted hands to her hips over her wide middle stance.
"Heh, I don't doubt it." Matt smirked. "Just get the two of us together, and then you're really in for it." Pointing a thumb to himself summed up his point, but the looks they exchanged reinforced it.
"Something bothers me still though,.." Sam went on again, turning to Shiro and the others. "If your battle ended that badly with Zarkon before.. how much worse was the second?" And the other Paladins looked to their leader, as he stared at Sam with a soft gaze.
"Everything was going according to plan.." Shiro began. "Until our man on the inside failed to contact us for our rendezvous with the Galra central command ship, the same one we attacked only once before. At the last minute we snuck Keith on board the ship and found that man. Suspicions had arisen within the Galra empire of a traitor among them. And they figured out who.. at that point we'd already set the trap and had to follow through with it. And it worked.. if it weren't for the Komarr."
"-What's a Komarr?" Sam asked.
"Ideally, it's a magical device used to drain the quintessence.. the lifeblood of all living things, from entire planets,.. in a matter of moments." Allura explained a dire intrigue dying in her tone,.. and the reflections in her blue eyes.
"So this is a bad thing, correct?" Matt concluded.
"Extremely,.." Shiro confirmed, and he turned to face him directly. "When we were fighting Zarkon that second time,.. they must have just perfected the Komarr shortly before.. cause one shot from that thing and all of Voltron's pure quintessence was drained from it,.. and us with it.."
"Yes,.. And it's a miracle you all survived it." Coran added. "Allura and I thought for sure you'd all perished. Nothing like that had ever been achieved until now, and even then we were dumbfounded to learn it had become more than just an alchemist's dream."
"Somehow though,.. we generated enough power within us to get back in the fight,.. after Zarkon emerged with a mech of his own for armor." Shiro went on, a softer purpose to his tone. "And after our fight, we ended up defeating Zarkon's mech,.. but.. I suppose it was.. at a cost."
His gaze lowered in failing to recall in greater detail, but as the void started to close in on him he suddenly pushed it away to lift his gaze for it to find his friends. And Sam's understanding came to him in a nod.
Hey guys, I'm finally back! This chapter took sooo long to finish. But hey, here it is!
Also since this chapter was kinda low key I just wanna mention some fun twists and turns'll likely be happening here soon! And some fun as well. XD
Hope don't get too bored with this chapter and instead enjoy this more laid back entry. And I'll see you guys next time, with blessings to all! Thx!
