Chapter twenty-nine: Full Of Surprises

"Uh… Shiro? You ok?" Lance wondered, awkwardly looking at him, after he'd been staring for seemingly forever now.

"I thought I heard something.." Shiro replied, still staring straight ahead, undeterred. "But, I.. guess I'm the only one." His gaze lowered; but then his ears heard it again and his face lit up with a light gasp, and he pushed himself up with the aid of his crutches to stand. Unable to get his foot forward, his hands shook at trying to compensate and gain a balance to which he found his strength to fail him going forward.

"Woah-.. -hey..easy there.. -Shiro." Sam gasped, straining to catch the man before he could fall. "How did this happen?" The commander wondered. "How did you get so hurt? Have the Galra been that rough on you? You didn't try to fight them head on did you?"

"No,.. Sam." Shiro breathed, regaining himself by straddling his crutches out a little more for a better base of support. "I've been out of the Galra prisons for months now." He straightened up now. "I was released by a Galra secretly working against Zarkon, within his ranks. He was a member of the Blade of Marmora. A group of rebel Galra, who have spent centuries fighting against the Galra Empire secretly, in hopes of ending his reign of terror. Ulaz released me to steal a pod to return to earth.. where we found the Blue Lion; the first piece we discovered of Voltron; Defender of the Universe. Its-"

"Yes.." Sam interjected thoughtfully, his gaze lowering at the remembrance. "I've heard the legend… or at least parts of it." His eyes found Shiro's again as he continued. "I know that there are five mechanical lions that come together as one, and.. I had heard that Voltron had recently been reformed. And then.. they became.. obsolete after rumors of a direct battle between Zarkon and Voltron.. I never imagined that my daughter,.. and former students.. were the ones in the cockpits."

"Well what about Shiro?" Hunk asked, cocking his head toward the man in question. "He was there too you know."

"I know." Sam confirmed, smiling. "Shiro was as much my student as any of you were." The commander informed them. "It just so happened that he shot up in rank fast enough that he didn't stay my student for very long,.. and yet he became something so much better." At this last statement, Sam beamed up at Shiro knowingly finding that same type of look on Shiro's face.

"I'll never forget how you always used to advocate for me when times got tough." Shiro recalled knowingly.

"Advocate? What're you talking about?" Pidge asked.

Shiro suddenly grimaced, recoiling as an onset of weakness drew him to the floor, Sam and Matt catching him at the arms and lowering him to the floor.

"What happened to you?" Hunk wondered in a low tone. "It's like his strength is deteriorating.."

"Give it a second, it'll come back." Pidge decided. "It always has."

Shiro's eyes remained closed, as he steadily breathed in silence; the tremor at his hand returning. After a short few seconds, that felt like a lifetime, the trembling ended and Shiro opened his eyes once again. His gaze lifted slowly to appease the ache of his body, then dropped away in defeat of the effort.

"Ok." The Black Paladin breathed finally, reaching up to grasp the hands offered to him by the two Holt men. A rush of energy came to him as soon as his feet hit the ground again, as the sound returned more heavily defined.

"Shiro?" Keith addressed him, upon noticing the brightening of his face.

Without answering, or even acknowledging the utterance of his name, Shiro heavily turned himself to slowly make his way out of the bridge and down the hallway. Pidge immediately followed, but Keith and the rest of the team took a moment to exchange glances before following.

xxxx

Reaching the hanger before the team caught up to him somehow, Shiro's strength failed him once again and he fell to his knees, catching himself with a hard prosthetic fist and the flattened palm. Pidge came to his side, amongst the crutches that had both clattered away at his sides, when the two looked up at almost the same time. Awe struck their faces and the rest of the team marveled in shock, as they filed in behind them, all gazing up at the black and grey plating, and the golden eyes and Voltron chestplate. Not a sound came from it as the giant alien feline sat erect in it's once vacant place, set in such a way as to fool one into thinking it'd never left at all.

"Are you guys seeing this too?" Lance breathed, unable to break his gaze.

"Are we just that tired that we're seeing things?" Hunk wondered, rubbing his eyes to look again.

"I'm pinching myself,.." Pidge spoke up. looking down at the arm she was pinching, then back up again. "But nothing's changing.. I think it's real." She finished dropping her hand away again.

"It's very real.." Shiro breathed, standing the crutch he'd gotten a hold of and using it to pull himself back up. Using it as his only support for his weakened body, he advanced closer, until his hand could fully touch the surface of its foreleg. And in doing this a rush seemed to occur within him, which caused him to step back and stumble until his knee touched the floor once again.

"Shiro?" The murmur of a voice shot his eyes open from his hung head and he began to wonder if it was just in his head. But again he was distracted by a hand pulling at his arm to stand him up again.

"You ok?" Keith wondered, when bringing his arm over his shoulder.

"For now.. I guess." The Black Paladin sighed, looking him in the eyes.

"This is insane.." Hunk breathed. "The Black Lion literally appeared from nowhere. We didn't even hear it coming.." he then turned his gaze over to the princess. "Did the castle like,.. malfunction? So we didn't hear it?.. or.."

"I.. -I don't know.." Allura answered, filling the silence that followed his trailed sentence.

"Let's just be glad it's back and not worry about how it got here undetected." Sam reasoned finally, earning their attention. "Hopefully now we can all rest easy for a while, some of us still have a lot of healing to do, it seems."

"You're right." Keith agreed. "Starting with Shiro." He finished this statement so that he could then begin leading Shiro away, taking him back toward the bridge while the others filed after them.

xxxx

And the emotionless eyes that saw through another's, perked an interest that one could not see coming across them in their stoic yet inquisitive stare. And in leaving the room, the purplish ora that once stood there faded to nothing in the dimming lights.

XXXX

"-There you go,-.. -Shiro." Sam groaned.

Shiro grunted, as he was set down again,.. His hands gently resting upon the arm rests for a more comfortable look. And even despite the pain they could see in his eyes, a light smile snuck across his face with a chuckle that seemed knowing and memorable.

"This is.. just like old times.. *light grunt*-huh, Sam?" Even despite the irritation of shifting positions, his smile hardly wavered amongst his tired eyes.

"Oh I hear ya,.." Sam smiled knowingly, with his trademark grin.

"Wait what?" Lance wondered, looking from Shiro in front of him, to Sam standing above them.

"Yeah, what are you guys talking about, Dad?" Matt wondered, looking to his father quizzically.

"Wouldn't you like to know." Sam smiled. "Been a long time, but-.. Remember those good old days, Shiro,.. All the way back in Garrison flight school. It was your second year running short-distance missions to the moon and back. Our ship malfunctioned,.. and we had to crash land back on earth, after orbiting it once trying to figure out another alternative."

"Yeah,.." Shiro lightly laughed. "I was so nervous.. ..when we had to try and land,.. But you thank goodness you were there,.. Especially after weeks in recovery."

"Weeks?!" The team gasped.

"Oh, don't sound so surprised." Sam smirked. "You don't think Shiro became such a legendary pilot by always doing things right, do you? That crash was about the worse one we could have survived. Shiro was unconscious for three days and I was out for two. After speaking with the Garrison council and doing some research with the tech team, we definitively decided that the whole ordeal was not Shiro's fault. After many assumed it was, given the fact that he was barely ranked enough to be a pilot at the time. We later learned it was merely a faulty system in the programming of the craft we used for the mission. It was a pretty stiff learning curve all itself,.. But I'd like to think it made him a better pilot because of it."

"Hmm." The two Holt kids thought.

"Maybe I do remember that day." Pidge thought.

"Yeah.. I think I was in class at the time, when we heard the Garrison sirens go off saying to remain in the premises." Matt recalled now. "Dad and Shiro were rushed back to the medical bay from the crash site near the campus and we weren't allowed to see either of them for hours until they were fully assessed." He looked up from his thoughtful gaze with brighter eyes. "I was barely a cadet at the time."

"I remember the long hours we spent talking about it,.." Shiro remarked softly, head relaxed back against the chair; leaning slightly to his right. "I remember thinking it was my fault,.. that I'd nearly killed us both, and robbed your children of their father.. But you continued to tell be otherwise, even if you didn't know for sure it wasn't at any given time."

"And yet you acted like you believed me." Sam returned thoughtfully, almost faking his surprise.

Shiro laughed, but eventually the stab in his chest begged him to stop, and his hand trembled for barely a few seconds before going silent again. Despite the adverse reaction to his injuries, this response even brought smiles to that of the rest of the team, beginning to appease the worry of their hearts.

"Sam,.." Shiro breathed once again. "Your children have both grown up so much in the last year or two since our mission.. you wouldn't believe it."

"Try me.." the commander beamed, glancing at Pidge and Matt to wink at them.

"Well-.. for starters.." Shiro grunted, when shifting his weight forward to hunch over his elbows; braced to his knees..

"Easy Shiro.." Keith reminded him, raising hands in preparation to help catch him from falling, but found he didn't have to when Shiro remained upright as he was.

"Ihn.. your daughter's.. been instrumental.. ..in gathering intel on the galra and their empire.." Shiro continued unimpeded. "And your son?.. well-he's been.. fighting this war alongside other aliens,.. before he was captured yet again. That's where I found him.. In a prison/base shortly after, and got the rest of the team there to rescue him.. so I could finally make it back to them.. after..who knows how long I'd been gone."

"Must have been quite some time." Sam guessed. "Some of these wounds seem a little aged, yet not too old either…" He studied the assorted wrappings and bandages over his body for a brief moment. "Time has passed since these were made, but it seems fairly recent.. within months at least."

"Felt like years." Hunk put in, with a shrug. "I mean, amongst the chaos with Allura,.. and the Black Lion disappearing, and getting the Lions back to their original Paladins.. we didn't really have a lot of time to think on that too much.."

"Don't forget meeting Lotor and almost getting caught by him." Pidge put in with the pointing of her finger to the air.

"Ihn.. Lotor?" Shiro wondered openly, confusion in his weak tone.

"Yes, an-but now that we do, it does feel like a long time, doesn't it?" Hunk finished turning to those of his team.

"However long it was, it's over now." Keith shrugged, with crossed arms. He pushed himself off the wall his shoulder was leaned upon and approached Shiro and the group around him. "Shiro's been back for a couple weeks or more now.. and.. he's slowly started to recover.. but I guess that's to be expected given all he's been through."

"I'm sure.." Sam nodded. "I can only imagine what that was like.. after being separated from him and Matt, I'd always wondered what happened to them. And.. if they'd be alright. But now I see you've both done quite well, given everything that has happened since we last saw each other."

Shiro just stayed still, as he was watching with soft, blinking eyes; finding nothing needing to be said. Only seconds later a sudden breath in, brought on a defined discomfort, and he winced as a tremble rippled down his left arm once again. Soon becoming all of his upper half, as though he'd been dropped in ice water in subzero conditions and drug out again.

"Shiro?" Matt addressed him with all concerned eyes on him.

The Black Paladin stiffened up, as the tremble seemed to work it's way down his body and faded out again. When it had finally subsided, a deep breath brought a full body relax; his eyes finally opening again with an even more glassy look to them.

Sam finally knelt down to him.

"We need to get a handle on this." He announced, peering over his shoulder at them. "And I think I know how to start.."

Hey you guys! Whazup! Been FOREVER long since I added to this story. And I sincerely apologize for that! Been busy and still got lots of projects open over here. ;D

But still.. in that time I've had some things work out and stuff going different ways, that I have finally come up with something to keep this story going again.. and next chapter.. is chapter thirty y'all!

Man! If someone were to tell me I'd start this story, only for it to end up going farther than I could have ever imagined. And surpass anything I've ever written, terms of chapters, I probably wouldn't have believed it… And yet this fic is FAR from over. XD

Thx to those who have stuck with it and I hope you like this new chapter. Thx!