Chapter thirty-one: Waiting In The Wings
Coran tapped at his screen, but momentarily stopped to look back at Shiro; the only remaining person in the room, other than himself and the space mice.
As he resumed his monitor checking, his thoughts began to wander.. thoughts of the stories they'd just recounted for Matt and Sam Holt brought back memories of Altea, and the beautiful land it once was.. and the thoughts of it never existing for him to see again; still shattered his heart to the point of heartache even now. Coming to terms with the destruction of their entire home planet, along with its people, could never be harder. Knowing the one, whose hand smite them from existence, still lives to this day; which would be the reason for this war which they have found themselves fighting, seemingly alone. Even though now they knew they weren't alone in this seemingly never-ending fight;.. though perhaps the mere silence of the room made it still feel that way…
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Hunk sighed, and leaned forward to brace his elbows to the edge of his knees. He stared at his hands loosely touching each other in a light hold, then lifted his eyes up.
Shiro's still asleep.. good. He thought, softly sighing again as he closed his eyes almost as if relieved or something.
Oh man,.. sitting here is so boring.. His mind groaned. 'Didn't realize it'd be this quiet. But then the voice of his fellow Paladin, Pidge, seemed to ring in his ear..
"What would you expect?"
True.. He thought honestly. I mean he's been through so much.. you'd think he'd barely have the strength to stay alive at this point. Unless..
His eyes lifted to Shiro quickly, watching the man, to appear motionless in sleep.
He's not.. but looking closer his fears were put to rest, as Shiro's chest still noticeably rose and fell in the slow, smooth motion of breath.
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Softly plopping down flat against the cold flooring of the teludav almost suppressed the heavy breathless weight that seemed to weigh on his body. The Blue Paladin, with his Cuban skin tone and dark brown hair, only stared with eyes that only registered the boring shades of blue and shadow that the ceiling gave him to look at. As his dull brown eyes stared listlessly up, a small sigh escaped him.. and thoughts of earth and his family.. and the Garrison floated around his head in the empty air of silence. Eventually he could swear he could see them materializing from nothing and floating down to him like the flakes of the first winter snow..
Each of these so-called flakes flashed a memory as unique as snowflakes, or thumbprints, are to others of the like.. and as his eyes wandered his field of vision, the glimpses he caught brought those moments back even more boldly. It almost seemed to him that the world around him shifted to the brightly colored scene of earth.. A grassy meadow, which rained with flowering plants, like dandelions, dancing upon the breeze that almost seemed to blow at his hair and clothes like he was physically there. The scene was now fully on earth, and the sun now shown into his eyes, but not so directly that he had to divert them away from it, he could almost swear he could feel its warmth and smell the freshness of the air like after a fresh spring rain. But a sound that came through this silence could not have been more of a surprise.
"Lance!"
Suddenly he sat up and everything was gone,.. the grass, the sun, the sky... Just the dim light of the bridge, left barely lit by the monitors and the low setting of lighting, was left behind with the remnants of memories slowly wearing off. And all he could think was..
Was that really Veronica?
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At every sudden sound or movement, no matter how small, Pidge looked up. Only to find that it wasn't Shiro or that he was shifting positions or just releasing a deeper breath or sigh. Then she'd sigh and continue work on the computer program she was working through. At this point she had resorted to playing a game of her own design that probably no one would understand.. well.. except maybe one.. or- two someone's actually. Pidge's lips grew a small smile,..
Dad and Matt are finally safe. Her thoughts sighed. Now I can focus more on taking down the Galra Empire that captured them.. and Shiro too.
She looked again over his shoulder at him and decided to study him just a little bit closer in the dim light. Even though there was a level of darkness in the room to obscure some of her vision,.. her eyes had long adjusted to it to give her little trouble in seeing him at all.
Thus she could see the aged look that seemed to appear upon his face, even despite knowing he was hardly aged at all.. just the amount of time he'd been gone had almost slightly changed his features, though again,.. not by much. His hair still hung in its trademark style, his pale racial pigment of skin still very much the same, and the scar across the bridge of his nose still that darker pink shade with nothing to add to it in its appearance. His right arm still sported the grey and black plating that had almost become normal to see, and the other remaining as normal as it could be. All of it seemed just a bit more grizzled than last they saw of him... before their battle with Zarkon to end Zarkon's reign, once and for all.
At least he didn't lose another one. She thought, as her eyes settled upon his arm again. At this point she noticed that at the joint of his elbow where the more flesh-like material made up the covering of his arms circuitry, she noticed a soft glow along the inside of it almost where his elbow touched the surface of the chair. Shiro's arm suddenly twitched and he adjusted himself slightly, the glow seeming to just barely slid its way down the long crack along his inner forearm to the actual hand that developed a bit of a glow. Though it was a very slow spreading effect of this glow, starting from the point it had come from and seeped its way out from there.
Shaking herself out of a daze, she fiddled with her computer for a second; then took out a cable, jacked it into her pc, and swiftly stuck a sensor on Shiro's arm. Immediately upon doing this a download seemed to occur, but it seemed that the more the bar filled in,.. the brighter Shiro's arm seemed to glow. Pidge could see Shiro almost react as though feeling something, cause his brow tensed and his body seemed to as well.
Fifty percent and Shiro had to just slightly shift his arm. Seventy-five percent, his whole shoulder.. eighty-nine percent and Shiro had pretty much shifted sides.
Hang on.. Pidge silently begged. At ninety-nine percent, Shiro groaned, his chest noticeably coming forward in his discomfort and barely a second after he seemed to relax and a burst zapped the sensor cable; smoking the end that connected to the computer. Shiro's eyes opened for barely a few seconds after the jolt that could've jostled him awake, yet he relaxed back again to resume his deep slumber; despite the disturbance.
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Allura's seat on the teludav's platform gave her a straight shot over to Shiro, straight across from where she'd decided to sit. Her hands held each other in interlocking fingers, so she could press her lips to them and lean her weight on them from the base of support on her knees with her elbows.
Why does this keep happening?! Her thoughts cursed. Any headway we seem to get, there is always something that comes along to knock us down again.. some that may have almost even cost us our very lives!..
Not a moment passed that her mind couldn't wander, as she sat in the silence. And not a moment passed that she didn't feel like the weight of the universe wasn't laying across her shoulders to bring her down; and let her heart lower in her chest further.
How can we be strong, when we are constantly being torn apart?
"But you are not alone, daughter.." her father's voice said, then suddenly his AI hologram appeared before her, and she realized it was because of an Altean styled drone that carried striking features, which led her to conclude it was from the white lion. A growl sounded in her mental ears and she had to smile tenderly.
"I have special friends on my side.." she murmured aloud to herself, acknowledging the fact set before her.
"Oh, how I wish I could take this war away from you.." Alfor told his daughter when putting hands on her shoulders. "Even just to see it through to the end is a blessing enough,.. but to take it from one, whose life has been born into a world of peace turned to war, is only a parent's nightmare to suffer and overcome."
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Relaxing back in a chair seemed to be all he could do in the moment. Insisting to take a turn to sit alone in the silence, Sam Holt's mind thought of all he'd heard and seen, both from his time since being captured and from what little time he'd already spent among his children and friends. He shifted over to brace an elbow on his knee, to crane his neck back to look at Shiro.
"What has life become of you, Shiro." He mumbled sadly, a slightly haunted look crossing his face. Just the thought of all he'd gone through to get here, could make even himself shudder to imagine; just merely by beholding the damage of his body.
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What could possibly have done this.. Matt thought, staring straight ahead of himself, even passed Shiro to the wall far beyond him.
And Te-Osh… poor Te-Osh,.. Hopefully she rests in peace.. Knowing that someone will carry on her mission in her absence. His gaze shifted up as his body did and he stared into the rotunda ceiling, crowned with the Castle crystal as the chandelier.
"What are we fighting that's cost us so much?.."
As his gaze wandered back down again the answer came upon him.
"An evil, obsessed tyrant bent on power and conquering the universe, regardless of the damage and pain they inflict.." he breathed sadly to himself. "Got it.."
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Of all the people in the world.. it had to be Shiro. Keith could recall days and weeks and months in that year of Shiro's complete absence, praying, even in tears some nights, that he was ok. And even wondering..
Could there be some shred of hope that he's still alive out there?" He'd thought many long hours of him and even lost himself to these thoughts to the point of getting into trouble because of it. And it'd be all he could do to shake himself from it and figure out what to do with himself in order not to feel so crushed by the initial weight of the news. Part of him despised himself for ever feeling ok with believing him dead, cause at some points he had. And it disgusted him that he'd believed them when the Garrison told him; which seemed to help him recall something that came not long afterwards…
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"What are you talking about!" The young pilot heard Commander Iverson ask.
"The mission was a failure from the start." Admiral Sanda denounced, holding her hands clasped together loosely over her elbows, braced to the desk in front of her. "I should've never allowed Sam to pull such a stunt.."
"It was no stunt." Iverson asserted. "But I agree that he shouldn't have gone through with it,.. There were too many risks behind it."
"I could have him for less on worse charges.." Sanda went on, her tone calm yet easily disappointed. "He should've been given the ultimatum."
Keith winced as the pound of her fist onto the table echoed from the room.
"Then why didn't you?" Iverson wondered, his tone more curious than questioning.
"I had thought he'd think rationally enough to make the right call." Sanda answered coolly, as though her momentary outburst had not occurred at all. "Joke's on me.. I guess."
"Oh, you know that group.. They're so tightly knit there wasn't much of a battle here." Iverson reasoned, his hand gesturing up in saying this; which Keith just barely caught before shooting back to be sure he wasn't spotted.
"That doesn't mean breaking rank to protest a direct order should be tolerated." Sanda shot back harshly, her posture unchanging as her lowered gaze remained so. "He had no business sending that man into space like that,.. and look where it has brought them.."
"I just hope they rest in peace,.." Iverson reasoned, and a deafening silence returned; as Keith cringed, then turned to creep away again.
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Keith couldn't help but cringe again at remembering this.. The stab to the heart it felt like to hear such words being said,.. and the lack thereof to follow.. But still looking at Shiro now, he couldn't imagine feeling any worse at not ever knowing that he was indeed alive, and the thought of such things made his heart ache further with every beat that thumped in his chest.
What would I do without him? Keith thought to himself, recalling that whole year of his absence. And recalled the hole that had remained in his heart the entire time, wondering if it'd ever have been truly filled.
Hey you guys, whasup! I'm back with another chapter! This one was pretty fast and easy to write(when I had time XD), and fun too. There are some things I'm sure many of you will enjoy seeing here and I can't wait to see where the story goes next(cause I haven't quite gotten there yet. ;D XD). But anyway, can't wait to hear your thoughts and I'll see you next time! Thx!