Water

by jalpari

Everyone is still recovering from the events that unfolded on Sepi. They try to put all the pieces together.

A/N:

We're one third of the way into the story! Needed a few days before posting the next chapter because I was revising the next few chapters and making sure I have everything in place several chapters ahead.

With every chapter, I am going to let more pieces fall into place. As I promised before, I will justify the cross over and explain as logically as possible how the two worlds meet.

Lastly, I have not received any new comments in a while so am just hoping that people are enjoying and are able to follow what's going on! * crosses fingers and smiles nervously *

"I...I did?"

"Yes", Hunk stepped up and held the visibly weakened girl. "You saved us...ohh..."

Hunk stopped and looked at her face bewildered.

"What?" Noor grew scared and looked around at everyone.

Their faces were a mix of concern, confusion, caution, and something else that made her feel uncomfortable under their gaze.

"Ohh...umm...your eyes…", Hunk mumbled. "I...I thought they were brown."

Noor felt her face and looked around. She ran over to the ice prison that held the creature and tried to catch her reflection in its surface. She couldn't see anything.

"They are...they've always been brown...why...what…", she was beginning to panic again.

She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned around to see Keith. She saw him flinch ever so slightly although he tried to maintain a calm face.

"Keith...what is it...what happened to my eyes?" she implored.

"They're...they're grey."

Noor was too shocked to say anything. She looked into his eyes hoping he was lying.

"Are you...sure?"

Pidge walked over and looked at her.

"Yeah", she nodded. "They're grey alright."

"But...how? When...", she frowned and then with sudden rage she turned around once again and slammed her hands on the ice box. "YOU! You monster! What have you done to me!?"

She kept banging on the block, her voice growing louder with every word.

"Noor...it's okay", Hunk turned her around and pulled her into an embrace.

"Yeah", Pidge added trying to sound cheerful, "It looks good on you!"

"We have bigger things to worry about", Noor pulled back and straightened herself. She looked at Luten who held up an unconscious Shiro.

"We need to regroup and make sense of everything we know so far", Keith spoke finally. "Let's head back to the ship so…"

"You mean to Olkaship?" Hunk corrected him.

"Fine", Keith grunted, "to the….Olkaship so Bani can help Shiro."

Hunk smiled in satisfaction and Noor looked at Pidge in confusion.

"Oh yeah", Pidge grinned, "that's the name of our ship...Olkarion ship...Olkaship!"

Noor blinked in disbelief.

They came up with a name for the ship while all this was happening!?

"We should take the creature with us", Keith added.

"You're right", Luten nodded, "before he...thaws."

Keith noticed Noor's pained expression. She placed one hand on the icebox and stared at the creature. She tried feeling the strange energy within her. She tried accessing it the way she had somehow managed to when Pidge was in danger. But she felt nothing.

"Can we keep it in a controlled environment?"

"Yeah, we have a room for that", Pidge stood beside her and peered through the ice.

"And what about the rest of them?" Luten gestured towards the frozen mannequins.

"We can leave them here", Noor replied. "They're useless now."

Noor sat at the window, looking at the planet below. It had been a brown desert planet when she was descending in the pod with the creature. And now, it was a white sphere covered with the water that she had raised from below the surface and frozen over everyone.

She pulled her knees in closer as she remembered every single moment. Something in her had been triggered during the attack and all her memories since the day she had been abducted from Earth had come rushing back. She was feeling more overwhelmed than ever before.

"You okay?"

She turned and saw Shiro standing the doorway.

"Shiro!" she smiled in relief. "You're alright."

"Of course", he gave her a tired smile, "it takes more than a silly punch to get me."

"Good to know", she managed a grin and made space for him on the window ledge.

Shiro sat beside her and looked at the planet too. For a while, they sat in silence. He turned to face Noor and saw the lost expression on her face.

"Noor...it's all going to be…."

"Fine? How is it going to be fine?" Noor's voice had a touch of bitterness.

"We're all here…"

"No one...none of us can figure this out. We don't know anything. Who that creature is. Where it came from. Why it did this. HOW it did this to me. What this even is", she stared at her hands.

"Whatever it is, it saved us."

"I don't feel human anymore!" Noor blurted out. She looked at Shiro, her lips trembling. "I feel like all my humanity is being replaced by something else. I can feel it...inside me. It's fighting me. Trying to take over."

"Noor", Shiro held her hand. "Believe me….I understand." Shiro sighed and turned to show his right arm to the confused girl.

"You see this arm? It's an advanced prosthetic that the Garrison made. But before I had this, I had another robotic arm. It was a weaponized Galra prosthetic."

Noor looked at him in surprise.

"I was a prisoner of the Galra. They messed with my mind and body. I don't think I still entirely remember what they did to me but they had more control over me than I ever realized. I caused a lot of harm and destruction. I had unimaginable power and strength. I always felt like a part of me wasn't human anymore."

Shiro didn't turn his gaze away from Noor as he spoke. He wanted to show her that he truly understood. He wanted to show her that she wasn't alone. Noor could feel her tears roll down freely. She hunched over and covered her face and began sobbing. She leaned forward and rested her head on his chest. Shiro moved his hand to her back and rubbed it gently.

"It's okay", he whispered. "Trust me when I say, we are all here for you. And we will figure this out."

Noor nodded and gradually her sobs subsided. She took in a deep breath and sat back up. She wiped her face and gave him a grateful smile.

"Are you ready to see the others?"

"I need a few more minutes."

"Alright", he stood up and smiled, "we'll wait. Join us in the lounge when you're ready."

"So what do we know?" Shiro began.

"Well for starters", Bani spoke, "I was of no use."

"Yeah, what happened?" Pidge asked.

"It was like the cube", Bani frowned, "it jammed my entire system. The weapon system, the comm, everything was down! I only regained control when Noor..."

Her voice trailed off as Noor entered the lounge, followed by Kosmo. Everyone turned and looked at the girl. Noor bit her lips and hesitated.

"Noor!" Hunk rushed over.

Hunk lifted the girl up in a warm embrace. Noor's eyes widened in alarm but then she smiled and wrapped her arms around him. When he finally put her back down, Pidge and Shiro had joined them and she was encompassed in a group hug.

"Oh, come on Keith", Pidge groaned and pulled him into the embrace.

Keith rolled his eyes and let Shiro and Pidge wrap their arms around him.

"Bani, Luten...you too", Hunk called out, "being part of the team also means being part of the group hugs!"

"Umm...guys...you're kinda suffocating me", Noor managed to mumble from the center.

"Alright", Shiro interrupted the chuckles and sighs.

"It's good to have you back, Noor. That was some good work with the daggers!" Luten whispered to her as everyone headed back to their seats.

"Let's get back to more serious matters now", Shiro continued. "Bani, go on…"

"Well", she eyed Noor hesitantly, "as I was saying, the ship...Olkaship...was completely jammed and I was helpless until Noor...took them out. Their ship was damaged by the water spouts."

Noor shrunk into her seat and fixed her gaze on Kosmo.

"What happened in the base?" Keith led the conversation forward so as to not dwell on that incident just yet.

Luten briefed them on everything that had happened which wasn't much. Shiro and he had managed to get to Noor without any issues. There had been only five guards as per Bani's scans and they were caught off guard when a swarm of more mercenaries had descended on them.

"What happened to you guys? Weren't you on their ship? How did you guys get captured?" Luten asked.

"We managed to sneak in easily", Pidge adjusted her glasses, "but the same thing happened."

"More guards?"

"Yeah", Keith frowned. "But there was something strange. When we got to the ship, we found a room which had a lot of bodies."

"Dead bodies? Prisoners?"

"No", Pidge responded, "it didn't make any sense. My scans didn't pick up any heat signatures or biomarkers. We didn't know they were there until we saw them. They seemed sedated. There must have been at least thirty of them."

"And then all of a sudden", she continued, "shadows surrounded us and they sprung to life!"

"They attacked us and there were just too many", Keith sighed. "They dragged us down here and some of them went inside and the next thing we saw, was you three being dragged out as well."

"Did you find anything else that could be useful on the ship?"

"I noticed that the ship itself was unlike the others we have encountered in the past. It didn't belong to any one planet. The tech, the parts, the weapons...all seemed to be from various planets and races. Almost as if they were sourced separately and the ship was put together part by part."

"And can we track the parts?"

"I recognized a bunch of them. We can trace them back to the black markets on some of the swap moons."

"Anything else?" Shiro looked around the lounge expectantly.

"Nope", Hunk muttered. "That's all we have for now."

"There's one more thing", Noor finally spoke as she reached into her pocket and pulled out two vials.

"I snatched this from its robes when it fell on me", Noor whispered as she opened her palm out for everyone to see.

Pidge adjusted her glasses and stepped forward. She eyed the small bottles. The substance inside had a faint glow to it. She wasn't able to determine its nature.

"Is that a liquid or gas?"

"I'm not sure", Noor finally shifted her gaze to the vials. "It looks like it's somewhere in between."

Noor took in a deep breath.

"When I was in the room with the creature before Luten and Shiro broke in, something strange happened."

"It wanted me to meditate. It was weird, but I decided to comply. It wanted to guide me. It said I needed to connect to my spirit. That my dreams are actually some sort of...visions."

"It said I held a power that was apparently snatched away from the human race thousands of years ago. A power that the Alteans and Galra knew but didn't fully understand."

"It said It needed to complete my fusion with it, whatever that means. It wants to use me as a weapon to destroy all the threats to humanity."

"So it's a human?" Luten asked. "What happened?"

"I don't know. All I know is it couldn't hold this power. It...it made me see all my deepest darkest fears and wanted me to get past them to be able to connect to...myself...to something inside me."

"What kind of dreams...visions are you seeing?"

"Trees surrounded by glowing water", Noor whispered, "A path in a cosmic void. Shadowy creatures."

"Shadowy creatures?" Pidge jumped up, "Like the ones that seem to escape every time we kill a soldier? Like what we saw rush into the room of sedated creatures moments before they sprung to life?"

"Perhaps", Noor looked at her, "Just before we were ambushed by more guards, I saw the creature do something strange. It closed its eyes and it looked like it was chanting and doing magic."

"Maybe it did something to...wake those guards up?"

"Maybe."

"Do you think the vial is the power, or connected to the power?" Bani asked.

"When I…", Noor tried to control her quivering voice. "When I saw the guard pointing his gun at Pidge, something in me snapped. I stopped fighting the thing inside. I felt an enormous power rushing through my body and...in a flash I remembered everything."

"When they abducted me from Earth and took me to the first base, they tied me up in the lab, I felt a shadowy thing surround me and I think...I think it went into me. After what seemed like an eternity, I felt it leave me and when I looked around, I saw the creature and the other smaller one look at me with satisfaction."

"The smaller one that we captured in Naxzela?" Shiro asked.

Noor nodded and continued, "He was the one who did all the experiments on me. The creature would just watch. I think the others didn't survive the same experiment and the few of us that did, were separated and taken to Naxzela."

"What did they do there?" Luten crossed his arms in front of his chest and frowned.

"I remember", Noor looked at the shining vials. "...they injected me with something from similar vials. I passed out and had these visions. The next thing I remember was waking up...or maybe it was just part of the visions...and I was underwater."

"You did remember being put in a water tank when you saw the tub in Ures", Luten reminded her.

"Yeah, that was probably real then. I was underwater and the water began to glow."

"I think", Pidge interrupted softly, "...the same thing happened when I was in the tub with you when we were trying to get your fever down."

"What?" Keith looked at Pidge in disbelief. "You never told us that."

"I didn't know what it was or if it was even real", Pidge shuffled nervously. "But now, maybe it was. The water probably did glow and maybe...maybe it helped her get better."

"It's possible", Noor said as she thought back to the water tank, "...when I was submerged I felt myself at the brink of something...death...I could feel my life force leaving me, I could barely hold on to it. But when the water glowed, I felt myself being bound to my own life force but in a stronger, more...extreme way."

"When they pulled me out, I felt alive once again. I think they strapped me back and I had more visions...falling into a never-ending blue abyss. But just as I was about to come out from the other side, I felt myself being pulled back. I felt myself traveling further away from the abyss and back into the real world. I think that was when you guys found me."

"Ever since then, I can feel something inside. And I feel it trying to overpower me. I keep fighting it. The creature kept telling me to let go, accept things, go with the flow. And that's what I think I did when I stopped then outside the base...I think surrendering to the thing inside me, allowed me to do all that, in a way."

"It looked like", Pidge fumbled for words, "...like you were controlling the water."

"I think we need to contact Queen Ryner", Bani stood up, "I have a feeling she can help us."

"Why...how would she know anything about this?" Luten looked confused.

"I can't be sure but the Olkari have always believed that we share a deep bond with everything around us, that if we tap into this connection...we can do anything."

"I remember", Pidge gasped as she began to follow, "Ryner told me once that at the deepest level, trees, metal, us...we're all made up of the same cosmic dust. That everything is...connected."