So, Season 2 reminded me of a truth I already knew when I started writing this story: that I really don't like writing for "incomplete" series (Star Wars being apparently the only exception; well, I say that but then last year we got a new Harry Potter book and a movie so…) and knew I was going to have a couple of banging-my-head-against-the-wall moments once season 2 was released.

That being said… I'm largely going to continue this story based off of pre-Season 2 headcanons/this particular fanfic-canon. So this is going to be an Alternate Season 2, as you can see in the tags on AO3, and thus spoiler free for the Real-Deal Season 2 (which is fantastically amazingly awesome, by the way). This probably won't get finished by the time Season 3 airs (if my guess-timation of Netflix Original Season Airings is correct) due to the fact that I'll spend most of May and June focusing on writing my Senior thesis in order to get my Bachelors' degree in August.

So, thanks everyone for still reading this story and I know for sure I'm not going to be able to top the show, but I hope you like what I've got anyways!

Chapter Twenty-Two:

Shinji slipped out of the dining room as quickly as he could, storming down the hall.

He got his explanation, and he didn't like it.

He retreated to the library, which he was starting to consider to be his sanctuary from all things crazy. After all, if it was in books, he could just pretend it was all pretend. That these alien worlds didn't exist, evil emperors existed only to be beaten by the good guys, and magic flying lions were exactly where they belonged: books.

"I see you're particularly eager to get in some food for the brain this morning."

Shinji jumped and dropped a book on his foot as he turned to see Coran standing at the end of a row.

"Did you follow me here?" Shinji asked, frowning as he bent down to pick up the book.

"Well, I figured it shouldn't be just Pidge who goes after you when leave a room without a word and decidedly more irritated than usual." Coran said. "This is roughly your fifth time in less than two weeks by my count. Twice in one morning, on top of that. And, besides that, it is Pidge you are angry with this time, am I correct?"

"I'm always angry with Pidge." Shinji said with a frown, starting to read the spines again to pull more books. "Nothing new."

"This morning in particular." Coran said. "If you are still upset about Shiro's incident yesterday, then—"

"Stop calling him that." Shinji growled as he snatched a book off the shelf with a little more force than necessary. "Shiro, Shiro, Shiro. That's not his name! His name is Takashi! Why can't anyone on this ship call him by his actual name?"

"We call him Shiro because that is how he introduced himself to the Princess and myself, and evidentially how he was known on Earth." Coran said, voice calm and collected in the face of Shinji's anger. "It is his choice to let us call him by that name. But I see now that I was mistaken. It is not Pidge whom you are angered with right now. It is Shi—Takashi."

Shinji's shoulders slumped as he paused in reaching for another book, shifting the ones he already had in his arms.

"Frustrated." Shinji corrected. "I'm not mad at Takashi. I'm frustrated with him."

"Because he got hurt?" Coran enquired, taking some of the books from Shinji.

"What, of course that's not the reason! That's stupid!"

"Then what is the reason?"

Shinji let out a small bitter laugh as he turned to walk down the aisle of books, heading for his favorite table.

"Maybe because all it took was looking at a dumb Disney princess to remember a very specific event that happened years ago whereas he looked me straight in the eye and had absolutely no clue who I was. Or maybe it's because as soon as we got him back he was heading back to space—which has happened twice now. Or, I don't know, maybe it's because when he realized he couldn't sleep last night or any other night previously and he wanted company, he went to Pidge instead of me!"

In a final emotional outburst, Shinji slammed the books on the table.

"That's not fair, you know." Coran said as he set the books down on the tabletop and put a hand on Shinji's shoulder. "Takashi cannot control what he remembers and when, nor what triggers the memories coming back. This is one of the rare, lucky times where he remembers something good, not anything traumatic. With your second complaint, my understanding is that it was a sort of accident the first time and a really hard decision to make the second time.

"As for that third thing, well, Pidge is known for staying up late into the night cycles. But I also know that Takashi wouldn't have gone to Pidge if he thought they were asleep. No, he would have continued to suffer in stoic silence and perhaps never admitted he had a problem, let alone ask for help. But now let me ask you something: why should Takashi have gone to you?"

"Why should he have—Because I'm his brother!" Shinji snapped, annoyed, eyes burning as he glared up at Coran.

"Yes, but does Takashi know he can come to you?" Coran asked patiently.

Shinji opened his mouth to reply, hesitated, then said,

"I'm his family. That's what family's for."

"Yes, and he knows that. But the problem is he doesn't know he can go to you." Coran pointed out. "And the reason is not his amnesia. The reason is you."

"What does that mean?" Shinji asked, brow furrowing.

"What I mean is, one of the very first things you did upon seeing Takashi again was to push him away. You have done so again and again in various little gestures since." Coran said. "Your reunion… It didn't quite meet your expectations, now did it?"

"He's like a stranger now." Shinji said, looking off to the side, swallowing. "I've spent my whole life following in his footsteps, wanting to be just like Takashi. Doing everything he did. I thought I knew him so well. And then I lost him. And when he finally got back, he didn't even know who I was. And I realized I didn't know who he was. He's not… He's not the same anymore. So I got him back, but it's only bits and pieces of him. Literally. He doesn't have an arm anymore! My whole life, I always knew what we could talk about, what we could do together. Now… Now he's a whole other person. And I don't know if I necessarily like this person. They took my brother Takashi and what we got back was Shiro, Black Paladin of Voltron. And I just want Takashi—the real Takashi—back."

Coran was quiet, then he came and put his hand on Shinji's shoulder.

"As I told you yesterday, I never knew Takashi as you did. When he was younger, before Kerberos and the Galra, before the scars and arm." Coran said. "But I know Shiro now. He is kind and protective of the ones he cares for. He regrets that he can't remember who he was before, and all of the people he knew before. He detests that arm, the scars, his hair… They're all reminders of what he can't remember, both the good and the bad. He can never go back to being the person he was, have the relationships he once did. But he can move forward. You can move forward. You are going to need to rebuild and redefine the relationship you desire with your brother, Shinji. I can tell you this much, he loves you very much, and it hurts him that there is now distance between you. I can promise you, he wants to be your brother again just as much as you do."

Coran clapped Shinji's shoulder, then said,

"Right, now, take a book—one, now, mind you, and only one—and scurry off. I am officially banning you from the library for the day. First step to minimizing the distance between you and Takashi is decreasing the physical distance. He'll be in the lounge with the others; morning off from training so that Pidge and Hunk can repair that arm."

Shinji nodded and snatched up a book. He turned to leave, then hesitated, turning back to Coran.

"Um…" Shinji said. "Thanks."

Coran nodded and made a shooing gesture, and Shinji left the library.

Coran relaxed his shoulders as he watched Shinji leave.

Most of the time, humans seemed very complicated.

But it was times like these where Coran marveled at how similar humans and Alteans really were.

And, not for the first time, wondered if that was why the Blue Lion chose to make Earth her home for ten thousand years.

"Keith, cover your ears." Lance instructed from where he stood behind the couch in the lounge. Keith looked up from the tablet Lani was showing him, arching an eyebrow.

"What? Why?" Keith said, but moving his hands to his ears anyway.

"So I can do this." Lance said, then he laced his fingers together and cracked his knuckles.

"Dude, that's so bad for your fingers, you know." Hunk said from where he sat at the low table across from Pidge, searching through a tool kit.

"Whatever." Lance said. "Ready, Shiro?"

"Yes." Shiro answered, eyes closing as Lance gently put his hands on Shiro's shoulders.

"Man, Shiro, your knots have knots. We totally need to do this more often." Lance said as he gently kneaded the muscles.

"No, seriously, Lance, you're going to get arthritis if you keep cracking your knuckles." Tali said, glancing back and forth between the displayed pictures Pidge and Hunk had up on Pidge's tablet and the mess of wires and metal in front of her, the casing on Shiro's arm taken off for the repairs.

"Actually, there's been studies and there's no correlation between knuckle cracking and arthritis." Pidge said, the tip of their tongue sticking out as they tried to arrange the wires perfectly.

"Thank you, Pidge." Lance said with an appreciative nod.

"Providing accurate facts is just one of many parts of my job description." Pidge said.

"Remind me to have you on my team for Trivia night." Shiro said.

"How are your videos coming along, Lani?" Allura asked as she came in and put three water pouches on the table in front of the two engineers and Pidge. Hunk quickly stuck a straw in one, then put it close to Pidge's mouth, Pidge sipping through the straw as they continued to work.

"Well, I've got three out of the five introductory 'Meet the Lions and their Paladins' videos edited and ready to go. Keith and I are working on his now." Lani said with a huge smile. "And the inbox is absolutely flooded with questions for a Q and A session. Actually, there's enough for quite a few Q and A sessions."

"Individually or for the whole group?" Hunk asked.

"Both," Lani responded. She laughed some and said, "Here's a good one: space alcohol. Do you guys adhere to the legal drinking ages back on Earth, don't drink at all, or does it vary from planet to planet?"

"Oh, yeah, it definitely differs." Lance said with a huge grin.

"We've had a couple of times we didn't even realize that it was alcoholic beverages." Shiro explained. "Since we're technically on duty, we try to avoid the alcohol unless it's ceremonial or we need to accept one to not seem rude."

"Plus, sometimes it just tastes nasty." Keith said, making a face. "Avoid the nunvill, by the way."

"Unless you want to use it as a hair tonic, in which case, go ahead." Lance said. "That's really the only good thing you can get out of it."

"It's an acquired taste." Allura said as she took a seat on the couch next to Keith. She smiled playfully. "Not that you would know about that, Lance."

"Hey, watch it Princess, or you won't get a turn." Lance said, smirking back at her, pausing briefly in massaging Shiro's shoulders to hop onto the couch beside him, gently taking what remained of Shiro's right arm into his hands. "Shiro, tell her how good this feels and let her know exactly what she'll be missing."

"Lance, I don't think I'll ever have enough words to describe this. Allura, I cannot tell you how much you'll regret it if you miss this." Shiro said, starting to relax even more as Lance continued his ministrations.

Allura chuckled.

"Alright, I concede. My apologies, Lance." She said.

"Apology accepted." Lance said with a smug expression.

"I think our worst experiences with space booze is when we found out the hard way that one planet's non-alcoholic beverages are hard booze to humans." Hunk said.

"Oh, that was a nightmare." Allura said with a sigh. "But also incredibly amusing."

"Lance got so drunk he spent half an hour flirting with a potted plant." Pidge said. "And then started to make out with the plant until Coran dragged him back to the Castle."

"Yeah, well, at least I didn't cry about how fluffy and soft the Prime Minister's ears were." Lance retorted, sticking out his tongue as if to say 'so there'.

"Though, I think the best time we had a misunderstanding about alcohol was the stuff from that one planet with the troll like people." Pidge continued, ignoring Lance. "And that's mostly because of the very unconventional way Lance and Hunk got them to ally with us."

"What happened?" Tali asked.

"Well, see, at the beginning of the banquet, we were all given these huge glass tankards, you know, like the ones they serve beer in back home? But like, twice that size." Hunk said, holding his hands apart for emphasis. "What we didn't know was that tankard was supposed to last us the whole party. Lance took one sip and got really excited, because the stuff tasted exactly like orange soda."

"So the tankards that were supposed to last three hours were empty in less than ten minutes." Allura said. "Bearing in mind, at the time, none of us were aware that it was alcohol, not even Coran and I."

"So we got some pretty horrified looks when we asked for refills." Lance said with a grin. "Apparently, these people were lightweights."

"Then Lance somehow managed to convince Hunk to do a soda-chugging contest with him." Pidge said. "Three times."

"Why three times?" Shinji asked from the corner of the couch he had wedged himself into with a book, though his eyes weren't really on the pages in front of him, rather looking over to where Pidge and Hunk were at work.

"Because the first time it was too close to call it, and so we needed to do a best two out of three." Lance said.

"Yeah, so by the time we got our fourth refill, Lance is almost bouncing off the walls from all the sugar, but we're both really coherent and upright and all that good stuff." Hunk explained. "And their leader basically came up to Allura all serious-like—"

"And he announced that he was ready to sign the treaty, because he and his people were both awed and horrified by the obvious strength the Paladins had to be able to drink so much without dying of alcohol poisoning." Allura said, shaking her head. "Easiest negotiations ever."

"This sort of thing is actually kind of frequent." Shiro said. "I think my favorite was that time we were given this warmed up wine but it tasted more like tea, just sweeter and fruity."

"Sounds kind of like hot sake." Shinji commented.

"Yeah," Shiro said with a nod. "It was even served in similar flasks and cups. I kept looking around to see if they were going to bring out chopsticks."

However, before anyone got a chance to say anything else, alarms started blaring.

"What's going on?" Lani asked over the sirens.

"Are we being attacked?" Tali asked.

"No, that's a new distress signal, one nearby." Allura said, already heading for the door, everyone following behind.

They got to the bridge at the same time as Coran—at least, they were all pretty sure it was Coran under all the weird not-leather-but-space-leather coverings and a welding helmet and goggles, which he flipped up to reveal his mustachioed face.

Allura's fingers were instantly on the controls, and she bit her lower lip some.

"Anunnaki." She said after a moment.

"Anunnaki?" Keith and Pidge repeated, the former with gleaming eyes and a huge grin and the latter a bit confused.

"Oh, you've heard of this planet and people?" Coran asked, taking off his welding gloves.

"They built the pyramids!" Keith exclaimed.

"No, Keith, they didn't." Shiro said. "Aliens didn't build the pyramids. Humans did."

"Yeah, but is anyone else starting to wonder if Blue being on Earth had impacts we weren't even aware of before now?" Hunk said.

"Such as?" Shinji asked.

"Magical girl anime transformation sequences." Hunk said with a nod, folding his arms over his chest.

"Yeah, can't argue there." Lance said with a nod. "So, anyways, what's wrong with the Anuwaki."

"Anunnaki!" Keith corrected.

"Well, it appears that despite their close proximity to the Galra Empire and this particular base, the Anunnaki have managed to avoid the Galra seizing their planet and enslaving their people." Allura explained. "Until now."

"But that's good, isn't it?" Lani asked. "Because Voltron can come in and take down the Galra before they enslave the people?"

"No one is going to enslave the Anunnaki." Keith said patiently. "They're too smart to get enslaved by the Galra! If nothing else, they will enslave the Galra!"

"Keith, just… for one moment pretend all your conspiracy theories don't exist." Shiro said. "Pretend the government hasn't lied to you and isn't been keeping a secret vampire spy organization or whatever. Please?"

"But that's boring." Keith said, pouting some.

"To answer your question, Lani, in theory, yes, this is good and we can do exactly that." Allura said with a smile. "But we'll have get there soon. Which means we need to leave in a few maxiticks. Pidge, Hunk, what is the status of Shiro's arm?"

"I think we can get it so that Shiro can pilot, but it'll take a little longer and a little more work to get it to light up again." Pidge said.

"So, functional enough to do the important 'Form Voltron!' stuff." Hunk said.

"We'll have to make do." Shiro said with a nod. "Keith, Lance, go get ready to destroy this base so we can leave A-Sap."

"Got it!" Lance said, he and Keith rushing to their respective hanger entryways to get into their armor.

"Coran, please go with them to make sure they don't blow themselves up in the process." Allura said.

"Right ho, Princess!" Coran said, snapping down his welding mask before heading out.

"Tali, did Pidge and I give you enough info so that I can help Keith and Lance and you can help Pidge?" Hunk asked.

"Yeah, I think I can handle it." Tali said with a nod, a small smile on her face.

"Thanks!" Hunk said, already running to his own entryway. "Hopefully this won't take too long!"

With that, everyone began to fully divide and conquer their own tasks.

A few hours later, Pidge and Tali had just finished their repairs when they were called to the main deck for lift-off. Before they left the atmosphere, however, they lingered a few ticks to make sure that the domino effect that Keith, Lance and Hunk had set up actually worked, all three looking rather pleased with themselves as the base exploded from the bottom, sending large chunks of stone flying through the air. More importantly, they stuck around just long enough to make sure they didn't accidentally start a forest fire.

"Entering coordinates." Allura said once given the all clear.

"Shiro, are you ready?" Pidge asked hesitantly. They watched as Shiro's mouth twitched briefly into a grimace before saying with a lot more gusto than is normal for him,

"As I'll ever be."

"Lounge?" Pidge asked, which got a reluctant nod.

For the first time, Pidge felt a little bit of guilt for removing Shiro's arm the day before. Getting it back on was a literal pain, as the connectors in the arm became joined to the nerve endings in Shiro's arm.

The first time they did a reconnection, the sudden pain had startled Shiro so bad that he accidentally swung out with his arm and hit Hunk in the stomach, sending him to the floor. Several apologies and making sure no ribs were broken later, Hunk had remarked,

"Well, I guess that's one way to know we got it right. But, uh, can we find a better way to do that next time?"

Lance suddenly dashed out of the deck, calling over his shoulder that he'd meet them in the lounge. He showed up just moments after the others did into the lounge, grinning and holding up what looked to be a small toy cow.

"What the heck is that?" Pidge asked, arching an eyebrow.

"It's a cow, Pidge." Lance said as he hopped over the couch onto the lowered area.

"I got that part." Pidge said. "But why did you bring it for this?"

Lance's grin grew and he squeezed the toy in his fist.

A low "Mooooo" came from the toy.

"I found it on Earth," Lance said. "It's a stress toy."

"And it moos." Shiro said as Lance put the toy into his hand.

"Who can be stressed when cute farm animals serenade you?" Lance said.

"A person with zoophobia." Shinji pointed out.

"Point taken…" Lance said. "Anyways, just squeeze the cow, okay, Shiro? It's better than you nearly busting the veins in your hand like last time."

Shiro obligingly squeezed the cow, which mooed.

"What exactly is a cow?" Allura asked conversationally as Pidge and Hunk began to align the Galra arm into place. "Is it a type of dog? You said that there were a lot of different types of dogs."

"Uh, no. A cow is not a dog, but both are mammals so I guess they're kind of similar." Hunk said. "To some extent."

"In the same way a bear and a bunny are." Tali said.

"Do you keep cows as animal companions?" Coran asked.

"Well, they're kind of working animals." Lance explained. "See, on Earth, farmers keep them and we use their milk to make stuff like cheese and yogurt, or we'll just drink the milk."

"Their… Milk?" Allura repeated, brows furrowing and head tilted.

"Yeah, the farmers milk the cows." Lani said with a nod.

"Let's… Make sure we're not having another one of those cultural miscommunications…" Coran said. "Milk is a fluid produced by a female, primarily to feed her infant young?"

"Yes, that's exactly it!" Lance said with a grin. "Nice to know we've got—"

"Why do humans drink that from animals?" Allura asked, she and Coran looking a bit disgusted. "And… Why exactly did a human try to discover if this milk wasn't poisonous to humans?"

"Uh, you know, when she puts it that way…" Hunk said, looking up. "Like, who exactly was the guy who decided to reach under a cow and drink the liquid that came out of the udder? Did he lose a bet or something? I don't know…"

"For that matter, how did the first hug go?" Lance said. "Someone just threw their arms around another person and neither of them knew why or what was going on… It was probably really creepy. Creepier than the Voldemort-Draco hug from the last Harry Potter movie."

"The first kiss must have also been pretty awkward." Lani said. "Maybe that's why first kisses are always awkward."

There was another low "moooo" coming from Shiro's left hand as Pidge and Hunk finished getting the right arm aligned, the latter putting a large hand on Shiro's shoulder to keep him steady.

"Ready, Shiro?" Pidge asked, already knowing that the answer wouldn't be exactly truthful, but it was what they and Hunk were going to have to go on.

Shiro didn't look at either of them, but stared straight ahead.

"Yeah." He said.

"Alright," Pidge said, bringing up the programming. "Three… two… one."

As soon as they said 'one', Shiro jolted with the pain, but didn't swing out with either of his arms, though there was another long, drawn out "mooooooooo".

"You good, buddy?" Hunk asked calmly. "Deep breaths, remember?"

"Yeah, good." Shiro got out. "Pain's already mostly gone."

"Was it better or worse or about the same this time?" Pidge asked as they started packing up tools.

"A bit better." Shiro admitted, clenching and flexing the metal fingers and arm, making little whirring noises. He then used both hands to push himself up off the couch. "Alright, let's get suited up and in our Lions."

"Race you to the hangers!" Lance said.

"Oh, you're on!" Hunk said.

"Hey, that's cheating!" Keith yelled as Pidge shoved him back onto the couch before taking off after Hunk and Lance.

"Oh, that's cute, they each think they're going to win." Shiro said, running after them.

"Defenders of the Universe, everyone." Shinji grumbled as he got up.