Chapter three: Where To Go From Here
The team jumped as the door suddenly opened. Everyone half shocked that Keith was now standing there, despite knowing that he would likely be the only one to emerge from that room for a while.
"Keith!" Allura addressed him suddenly, upon seeing him. She then calmed her shocked voice, instantly dropping the surprised look on her face. "The Galra Empire may be without a leader, as are we... but we must do something beside wait around here like this. We must start attacking as many Galra bases as we can to start to free planets. Kolivan and the Blade Of Marmora are ready to start as soon as possible."
"Why? We can't do anything... Not without Shiro. He's our leader... not Kolivan. Shiro's the one who should be making these decisions; not him." Keith's defensiveness was no surprise, but it still hurt nonetheless.
"Keith, if we lose even a little ground in this war." Allura pointed out. "We could undo everything we've already done. With or without Shiro we must continue this war, so that if..or-.. when he wakes up we will still have something left for him to help us fight for." Keith tensed his shoulders and looked at the floor; feeling the urge to cry once more, but gritted his teeth to avoid it.
"I know that you're right." He said, slight tension clearly in his tone. "We'll start tomorrow." He said, pushing past her, refusing to break his downcast glance. "We need to get some rest." Everyone watched him go and stood there a moment longer before following suit; quietly heading to their rooms without another word.
Lance strode alone to his room, deeply lost in his own thoughts; hands in his pockets. His troubled downcast expression lifted to find an equally troubled Princess Allura. She was leaning against the wall, with her arms crossed loosely over her body; leaning more on her right shoulder. As Lance approached she turned to leave.
"Hey- Allura; hold up." The alien Princess stopped and turned around to look at him. Lance's eyes softened and he slowly dropped them to the floor.
"Do you think- Shiro's..ever gonna wake up?" He asked, half wondering if he wanted to know.
"I don't know." The Princess admitted lowering her gaze with him. "He's in very bad shape. What ever Zarkon did to him, it seems to have left him in this..vegetative state. One I fear he may never wake from. And-.. I can't help but feel that it was my fault. I should have seen this coming. I should've known that the Galra are always one step ahead of us. Zarkon's robot was just one thing we had to foresee; but we didn't. We didn't; and now Shiro is paying the price." Allura's voice became increasingly upset as she spoke; tears slowly beginning to well up as the rambling continued. "Shiro.. is now laying.. in a chamber.. that is keeping him alive.. And we don't.. even know if he'll wake up again!..-"
"Shh, shh; hey,.. hey, Allura." Lance hushed, pulling her into a tight embrace, the Princess sobbing to his shoulder.
"Allura, this is not your fault." He whispered into her ear. "Bad things happen. And we can't always know everything before it happens. That robot.. it was a surprise for all of us. There's no reason we should've known about it. The Galra are always full of surprises, but we always get through it. What happened to Shiro was not your fault. We all did our best to stop Zarkon; and we did that. Shiro just got the worst end of it,.. and we all feel terrible about that; but we can't lose sight of what's most important."
"But- h..how can there be- anything good-.. to come from this." She questioned, her blue eyes being two glazed over pools of shattered hope.
"I... I don't know yet. But I'm sure something will come out of this. Shiro will get better..." he pulled her in once more, her crying resuming with her right cheek plopping against his shoulder. "He has to." He half-said this to reassure, even, himself; trying to give himself the reassurance that he desperately yearned for.
after Lotor's introduction in the Galra arena*
The generals saluted their leader, as he returned from the battle arena.
"What your orders, now, my lord." Axca asked, peering up at him.
"Throk has fought a battle and lost, have him tranferred to the Ulypus system..." His icy stare making him look quite heartless. "Let him rot with the ice-worms." He finished and walked away into the darkened halls; followed by the generals respectfully. Walking passed another pitch black hallway... a misshapen figure was practically invisible... until they passed. Two yellow eyes tightened into mere slits, radiating unrecognizable emotion amongst the darkness. As Lotor and his comrades turned a corner, Haggar emerged from the shadows to stand watching in the direction they'd gone; a look of suspicion on her face despite the stone-faced glare upon it.
"Sire, Lotor is up to something." She said, gazing down into the Galra emperor's still face. "We must keep an eye on him... as he doesn't not seem to quite understand his duties fully as of late." The purplish glow of the liquid life support was the only light in the room; still, Haggar held her stare on Zarkon; the shadows obscuring his features in the dim light. Though she'd seen his face enough to know it quite clearly; so much so that she'd practically memorized it.
"Shiro?" Keith walked in circles, the dark void in which he resided seemed familiar yet unfamiliar at the same time. "Shiro? Anyone?!" The Red Paladin couldn't find anything there with him, other than the little balls of light acting as stars. It looked like open space, but yet he could stand and/or walk through it. He turned in a circle as he walked straight; not sure where he was going, or where he would end up. As he walked, there was a growing sense of urgency that increased the speed of his step. Pretty soon he was running as fast as he could; so fast, in fact, that he nearly stumbled as he was now sprinting headlong through this void.
"Shiro?! Guys,.. where are you?!" Keith cried between breathes. "SHIRO!!!" He screamed his name so loud, he had to clench his eyes closed; and when he did the lighting changed. He saw this change through his eyelids, and suddenly realized he wasn't running anymore and quickly opened his eyes again.
He was standing on a ledge, the trail that led to it behind him. And below him was the whole world lowered into an enormous valley that went on forever, showing everything bit of it. The colors of spring blurring together in many shades; more than he could count. The sun was half-set on the opposite horizon directly across from him, the skies painted with many more fiery colors. Keith's classic stare of blank confusion peered around at this. Was this a place he'd once been? Or was one from his own mind? Or perhaps maybe it was one he was meant go to. He could not recall, at this time.
"Beautiful place isn't it." Keith was startled and then shocked to see Shiro to his left. He was leaning against his hovering speeder, looking out at the display before them. Keith, while surprised that he was there, was more surprised that his hair was fully black and the scar on his face was missing. He looked just how he did before he left for Kerberos. Keith stood there staring in dismay; totally blindsided by this sight, that the amazing beauty of the world around them didn't matter anymore.
"I know what you're thinking." Shiro smiled his arms remaining crossed across his chest casually. "Where did I come from... truth is... I've been here the whole time. Waiting for you to remember I was sitting here."
"Wha- bu- Shiro?!" Keith stammered; still overwhelmed by what he was seeing. "I- how did you-..."
"He's not real..." a raspy female voice answered from behind him; making him whip around to look at her. She was clothed in a fancy red gown, the lighter red, white and silver lines giving her attire character. Her bright reddish orange hair glowing like the sun itself. Her green eyes tenderly stared into his own, reading his soul like an open book. "He is a figment if your own imagination. A recreation of the purest form of which you know him most." The woman told him. Her voice calm and gentle, she made no movement... and showed no hostility toward him.
"Who are you?" Keith questioned, also able to keep calm.
"I am your guide." The woman said. "I am your guardian, your protector; and in some cases... your rescuer." Keith's eyes widened at the last one.
"Red?" A slight smile bent her lips up, as a shot of golden light traveled around her pupils; her irises becoming a split-second ring of gold.
Hey guys, finally got the next chapter!! I'm still trying to figure out how this story will got but I now kinda have a main storyline now. And the main focus, now, is on the events that happen along the way. I right now figuring out has to piece it together. As you may have seen I will be using some events from the show in this story. But because this is an alternate version it'll be tweaked a bit.
Also I want to warn you that there is a big change that happens in the show that is unavoidable for this story concept to work. But, I promise it'll be fixed towards the end of my story, I think, so take heart! For this I believe is a better way in which there could have done it. But til then enjoy!! Thx!!!