Chapter 49
A/N: hey y'all, was last chapter a doozy or what? I'll try to get the battle in this chapter to flow a little better than in the last. I think it was mostly cause I wasn't really sticking to one character and I kept hopping around. But hey, battlefield's chaos anyways so…who knows?
Anyways, I just own my OCs, that's it, nothing else is mine.
/comms/
Telepathy/flashbacks
"Bold is videochat"
"Coran, you've got incoming," Keith said as he launched Shiro's pod towards the Castle.
Now that his brother was out of harm's way, the Paladin Guardian turned his attention to the battle.
Lotor fired first, a laser coming right towards them, backing Voltron up, Katie summoned the shield, using it to parry the incoming attack. The blast did push them back, but it gave his Fireteam an opportunity. The four ships split from Voltron's side, flying towards Sincline. The two hunter ships swooped over the beam, releasing large clouds of gas, obscuring Lotor's view of Voltron.
Seeing their chance, Keith pulled Voltron out of the attack, letting the beam fly off into the unknown. "Hunk! Form cannon!" he ordered.
They could see the light of an explosion from behind the gas, and the Sincline ship was tossed out of the smoke. Hunk fired the cannon just as Lotor turned.
He dodged the attack, flying away from the large blast as it tore through numerous asteroids and he set off proximity bombs left by the Guardians at somepoint during the battle.
/He's too fast!/ Lance exclaimed.
Keith glowered at that, "Then we'll have to get in closer," he grabbed his bayard, "form sword!" Slamming his bayard into the port, the blade came to life in Voltron's hands. Across from them, Sincline pulled two swords out. It shot towards them, and Voltron parried as their blades collided, Lotor pushing them back.
/Now we will see how Alfor's legacy stands against the new Altean defender!/ Lotor cackled. Pulling one of his swords, back, he made the move to strike, forcing Voltron to quickly parry before Sincline kicked them away.
Regaining their balance, Keith's eyes widened as he saw the enemy shooting towards them. "MOVE!"
Voltron ducked under the long, violet sword, letting it slash through a rather unfortunate meteor. Turning around, Voltron parried again as the Sincline continued its assault, before spinning around and using its tail to slam them aside.
"Can anyone get a clear line of fire?!" Keith demanded.
/No!/ they all answered.
/Shield!/ Lance exclaimed, and Keith braced himself as Lotor flew at them.
Pridge raised the shield, blocking his attack.
Keith grunted, they were playing too much on defensive. If they were going to win this battle, it had to be on offensive. "ATTACK!"
Acknowledging his ordered, Green used the shield to shove Sincline away before letting the defesne fall back. Pidge fired her cannon, hitting Lotor and giving them time to attack. Voltron closed in on its target, sword clashing against the blades of its enemy.
Firing another blast, Lotor shot away before looping back around and trying to attack again. Parrying the blade, Voltron ducked under a swung from the other, making their own swing in an attempt to wound their opponent.
Seeing his chance, Lotor spun his ship around, and used the tail. The extra appendage slammed into Voltron's neck, knocking Keith around in the cockpit a little as they were pushed back.
/He's too fast!/
/We need to back him into a corner or something!/
Keith nodded, "Hunk's right. We have to eliminate his speed advantage, limit his movements…" He turned Voltron, looking for a suitable positions and smirking when he saw the target, "There! Guys, set up proximity bombs! Trap Lotor in!"
/Sounds like a plan!/ Wren laughed as the four ships shot over towards the asteroid.
Voltron turned to look at Sincline. "Now, we lure him close," Keith smirked. Gunning the engines, they shot off in the same direction, forcing their enemy to chase after them. Diving into the crater, Pidge raised the shield as another laser attacked them, and blocked the attack completely.
Getting frustraited, Lotor began to zip around them, trying to strike from the side. Only to be blocked by the protective spires of rock surrounding them.
/He's going around the back/ Kol informed as soon as Lotor left their line of sight.
/Bombs are set/
Keith nodded, "Wait for it, let him build up speed…now!"
Diving out of the way, they turned as a violet blade protruded from the rock. At that moment, the bombd went off, jostling Lotor's ship and shoving it through. Seeing their chance, Hunk fired his cannon. The beam made impact, knocking their opponent back into the very meteor he just came through. Damaged rock began to give way and a large fissure broke through as the asteroid split in two, allowing Voltron to send Lotor flying through it with their attack.
/Where'd he go?!/
/He's behind us!/ Pidge exclaimed.
"Hunk! Hit him with the shoulder cannon!"
/I've got your back!/ Kol agreed.
Both Paladin and Warlock fired at the same time from different angles. They intersected, creating a flash of light, and when it faded, they couldn't see Lotor.
/Did we get him?/
/I don't know!/
/I think we got him!/
/It's like he just disappeared!/
Keith closed his eyes, rubbing his chest as he felt a warning pulse through him. Yorak must've sensed something. "No, this isn't over."
Suddenly, Lotor was slamming into them from their right. Voltron crashed into a meteor, and they looked up, eyes widening as they saw the Sincline ship glowing.
"He did it," Tarin growled as she and Jaz watched in horror. "He figured out how to travel to the quintessence field at will."
"Any idea on how to stop him?" Jaz asked.
Tarin grimaced, biting her thumb. She knew more about magic than almost all the druids in the empire, she'd even taken the time to carefully study the magic of hundreds of systems while her old mentor had merely rushed through them. There had to be… "The book," she realized, "the book from the gallery at Galra Command. I brought it cause I wanted to know why my seller was so interested…there might be a spell that can work."
"Lead the way," Jaz nodded racing after the druid.
/How is he moving so fast?!/ Pidge groaned.
"We've gotta get up and attack," Keith reminded. Shoving the controls forward, Voltron flew at Lotor and Red threw a punch.
Only for Lotor to disappear right before their eyes.
/Ok, we definitely didn't get him that time/ Lance winced.
And suddenly, Lotor was hitting them left and right. He'd be in one place, then be in the next; delivering his next blow before vanishing and repeating the process, giving the Paladins no time to discern his location.
/How is he doing this?!/ Wren exclaimed.
/I don't know! He's not using Ascendant portals/ Kol growled.
/Well he's definitely travelling between realities!/ Silyna growled.
Allura's eyes widened as she connected the dots, /He's entering the quintessence field at will!/
/Didn't we blow up the gate? How is he entering without it?!/
/…Because I gave his ships the ability/ Allura confessed.
They all grunted as the Sincline mech slammed into them again, nearly sending them crashing into on of the Guardians' ships. /ULTIMATE POWER IS MINE! ALL REALITIES WILL FALL TO THE NEW ALTEAN EMPIRE!/ he cheered. Firing another blast, Voltron raised it shield, before he disappeared back into the field.
Keith grunted, gripping his controls, "We have to go in after him. Getting power from the quintessence field is the only way we can match his strength."
/Can we do that?!/
/If he can do it! So can we!/
/My father did it once before/ Allura spoke up, /but it's extremely dangerous/
/Do we have a choice?/ Lance scoffed.
/Bring us!/ Tarin interrupted. /Jaz and I have been looking at some spells, we may have something/
/What do you mean?/ Allura asked.
/We think we found something, something that may stop Lotor/ Jaz answered. /Just one problem: it's a Hive spell. We don't have the power to pull it off/
/But in the quintessence field you do/ Skylar realized. /Cap?/
Keith grit his teeth. He did not like this, not at all. The Hive were dangerous, their spells even more so. But…if Jaz believed it could work… "Get out here, fast!"
A wave of darkness rushed from behind him and he whipped around as Tarin and Jaz materialized out of black smoke, "Already here."
"Are you sure this will work?" he asked.
Jaz nodded, "It's a powerful spell. Not even Lotor will be able to break it on his own."
/…All right/ Allura reluctantly agreed, /I may be able to guide us in, but I'll need you all to focus your energy/ Nodding, they all began closing their eyes, focusing their energy. Through the darkness, they could see a blinding light appear. /Form sword/
Green and Red clashed together. Pulling apart, a flaming sword formed in Red's grasp. Voltron shot forwards, flying towards the light raising its blade. Thrusting the sword forwards, it cut through the fabric of reality, tearing into the quintessence field and forcing its was inside.
Keith gasped as he opened his eyes, he could feel energy arching over his body. Looking at himself, the Titan could make out glowing veins beneath his skin. Glancing at Tarin and Jaz, he saw them glowing too. Jaz's stardust markings and eyes were brighter than he'd ever seen, and Tarin's eyes and tattoos were glowing bright as they stared across the see of light at their enemy, Lotor.
"We need to get close," Tarin hissed.
Lotor lunged forwards, swinging his blade towards Voltron. And thus, the battle once again begun. Voltron and Sincline clashed violently. Their blades clashed against one another, sending shockwaves through the field of energy. Leveling his sword, Lance fired a blast, blasting Lotor back.
/See if you can dodge this!/ Katie exclaimed. Thrusting her controls forwards, Green's head shot off and zoomed around Lotor, firing several shots before retreating as the sword began to glow again. It fored another shot, blasting their enemy back, allowing them to see lightning arching over him. /LET'S FINISH THIS!/
/LET'S DESTROY THIS GUY!/ Hunk screamed.
Allura's eyes widned in alarm. /Jaz! Tarin! Do the spell! Now! We have to get out fo here!/
"What are you talking about?" Keith asked.
/This is exactly what happened to Zarkon. Exposure to all this quintessence turned him into a monster!/
"We're not in range!" Jaz said.
"We have no choice!" Tarin replied kneeling down and quickly etching the symbols from the book onto the floor of Black's cockpit.
/POOR ALLURA! ALL THE POWER OF THE UNIVERSE AT YOUR FINGERTIPS AND YOU STILL FEAR USING IT!/ Lotoer chared forwards, forcing Voltron to parry the attack.
/He's in range! Do it!/ Hunk exclaimed.
Jaz and Tarin stood across from each other, grimacing as they were jostled again. Sharing a nod, the two mages began the spell. "Asdi dtx Wuyesxzz, asdi dtx kazd, gio ztuqq wabx txuwpayzd. Rxdyuguq nuz ntud gio zioftd di ryasf, rod sin gio naqq qxuys. Gio'qq irxg dtx Duexs Easf. Usw as dtaz wakxszais gio naqq roys!"
In the field of light, all the Paladins shivered as they felt a wave of darkness wash over them, sending chills down to their very core. Around them, they could see the dark clouds in the field moving, almost writhing. The dark shadows came together, and they could almost see the form of what looked like a giant snake.
When it full materialized, they sat looking at a monster larger than Voltron, completely made of darkness and shimmered like stars.
Without warning, the beast lunged for Lotor. He dove around the beast trying to escape, but it seemed like it had no intentions of stopping.
/We need to go!/ Pidge exclaimed.
/We can't just leave him!/ Allura protested.
/We have no choice!/ Tarin exclaimed. /Pull us out now!/
Reluctantly, Allura opened the rift, allowing Voltron to appear on the other side. /If we stayed in the quintessence field, we would fought till we destroyed ourselves, just like Lotor/
/What was that spell you used?/ Hunk inquired. /That thing you summoned was scary/
/Fortunately, it wasn't the real deal/ Jaz sighed. /But, make no mistake, that thing is very dangerous/
/Thank the Traveller! You're back!/ Kol exclaimed. /We have a problem/
/All of Lotor's jumping in and out of the quintessence field has created multiple growing rifts in the fabric of time and space/ Coran explained.
/What does that mean?/
/It means unless we do something fast, thise tears will continue to expand until all of existence as we know has been destroyed/
"There has to be something we can do," Keith growled. Tossing a look over his shoulder, he felt his stomach drop as he saw Jaz and Tarin leaning against the wall looking drained and uncertain. Even if they had the strength, he doubted they had an idea on how to stop this right now.
/Scanning the rifts for any strand refabrication possibilities/
/I'm running a few models now to see if there's any chance it could close on its own/ Hunk chimed in.
/Not that my models have shown me so far/ Kol responded. /We're going to have to find an alternative way. Pidge, do you have anything?/
/Nothing/
"How long do we have?"
/Based on the expansion rate current models project 15 minutes/
/Allura, Tarin, Jaz, one of you has to have a way to close it. Voltron opened it up, maybe we can…I dunno, find a way to close it?!/
"Not that I'm aware of," Tarin sighed.
"I wasn't trained for something like this," Jaz grimaced. "Even with all my knowledge of interreality magic, I don't know how to stop it from tearing itself apart. That's never happened before."
/I'm sorry, I just don't possess that level of alchemic knowledge/ Allura apologized.
/The only way I'm finding that could possibly pull the rift closed would be a mass of gravity stranger than that of a supermassive black hole/ Pidge informed.
/Any chance we can find one and get it over here in 15 minutes?/
/Even if we could move a black hole, we wouldn't get it here in time/ Kol responded.
/Wait a minute! The teludav!/
"What about it?"
/To make wormhole jumps, the teludave creates a brief flash of infinite mass. There might be a way to overload the teludav reactor and seal the rift. If one of the flashes went off on the rift it could do the job/
/But…but that would mean sacrificing the Castle of Lions/ Hunk realized.
/What choice do we have? The Castle will be wiped out with the rest of us/ Pidge pointed out.
/But still, it's been our home/
"Look, saying goodbye to your home isn't easy," Keith spoke up, "trust me. But we don't have any other choice right now."
/Coran, begin preparations/ Allura agreed. /Everyone else, start unloading the Castle. We need to evacuate immediately/
-.-
Coran worked with Pidge and Kol, setting up the preparations needed to repair the teludav.
Meanwhile, Wren and Krolia pulled Shiro and the Shiro clone Kol retrieved onto Sky's ship as the Titan grabbed supplies.
Going to her room, Pidge grabbed Silyna and they began packing. Grabbing what they thought was necessary. Sil hlped the smaller girl pull down some of her decorations and posters, shoving them into a bag as Pidge picked up her things. Nodding to each other, the two ran out of the room to drop the stuff off in the Green Lion with three little puffballs flying behind them.
In her room, Allura put the mice on her shoulder as she rushed over to her dresser, picking up a hologram of her mother and father before rushing out the door.
At Red, Lance and Wren worked together trying to pull Kaltinecker onto the lion. As Hunk began helping Skylar gather supplies to put in the lions and ships.
As the alarms began going off, they departed the Castle of Lions, watching as it flew into the rift and exploded.
-.-
/IT WORKED!/ Hunk cheered.
/You did it Coran/
/Look/ Hunk flew forwards approaching the glowing blue object. /It…it's a diamond. The pressure crushed the Castle of Lions into this little diamond/ Opening her jaws, Yellow ate the small gem, flying back to her pride.
/Well, we saved all realities everywhere/ Lance sighed. /What do you guys wanna do now?/
/We need to find someplace to land/ Keith answered. /See if there's someway we can help Shiro/
-.-
"Why do we have two Shiro's?" Hunk asked as Keith and Kol set the clones down.
"They're clones," Kol responded. "The body I pulled is less stable, and the consciousness in the other body is currently dying. I recommend we move it, see if that may stabilie it."
"Shiro's spirit is alive," Keith retorted, "it's inside the Black Lion. I've spoken to him."
"He…he tried to tell me," Lance whispered tears streaming down his face, "but I didn't realize."
"That's not your fault Lance," Jaz reassured. "None of us knew."
"So are we going to have to choose who lives and who dies?" Hunk asked.
"We could transfer the clone consciousness into the less stable body as I originally said and put Shiro in the more stable one," Kol proposed.
"That seems overly complicated," Pidge pointed out.
"May be, but the clone is already used to transference such as this," Tarin spoke up. "Haggar would've had to download Shiro's memories, his personality, to make the clone believable. Shiro…he'd be less likely to survive in a brand-new clone body fresh from a pod. A body that is already close to his original would be best." Kneeling down between the two clones, Tarin rested her fingers on their foreheads. Taking a breath, they could see her fingers start to glow as she began to transfer the quintessence of the clone's consciousness.
Realizing what she was doing, Allura got up and strode towards the Black Lion. Placing her hands on the hull, she reached out with her own quintessence. Black's own power was immense, but through the wild abyss, she could feel a familiar presence. It washed over her, and she felt the tense muscles in her shoulders relax it really was Shiro. She knelt at the head of the injured clone, and placed her hands on his head. Letting the consciousness transfer back into the body.
And Shiro gasped at the same time as his clone.
