Chapter 50
A/N: hey y'all. Good to see y'all again. Anyways, yes, I decided to leave Shiro's clone alive cause well…I felt bad for the guy. He was being controlled by Haggar and didn't even know what was happening to him. I thought he deserves a second chance.
So anyways, remember, if just own the story and my OCs, nothing else is mine.
/comms/
"Bold is videochat"
Telepathy/flashbacks
Now that's outta the way! Onto the story!
"I've gotta special guest along with me today, I'm sure you all recognize him. He's the youngest pilot to ever lead a mission into space: Takashi Shirogane!"
The Garrison officer smiled as the class applauded, "Thanks for having me."
Around him, Keith could hear his classmates whispering as he looked out the window. They all seemed so excited, so what? It was space. Wasn't like he'd seen it a thousand times already.
"What'cha think of this guy?" Yorak inquired.
Keith shrugged. He didn't particularly care. He was probably just another Garrison official who went back on their promises and dumped their problems. Keith had been flying probably since before this guy was in a training simulator, and this guy was acting like he was a hot shot.
"Shiro just broke the record for the fastest orbital velocity," his teacher continued, "beating the old heliocentric speed by about fifty kilometers per second!"
The class applauded again and the young Titan refrained from rolling his eyes. He knew better than to make himself stand out on Earth. Right now, all he needed to do was wait till he stopped aging, and then he'd be all set to go back home, away from this place. The boy sighed, looking up at the sky. He used to love coming to Earth, back when he was with his father. But that was before he learned how cruel its people could be.
"The Galaxy Garrison has sent me to schools in the area to find the next generation of astroexplorers," Shirogane spoke. "Who's ready to find out if they've got what it takes?"
All of Keith's classmates' hands shot up, all of them clamoring for their chance.
"All right, all right," he heard the officer chuckle. "Well, in order do that, we're going to give you a test."
"Aw."
"A test?"
"Really?"
"By playing, a video game," the man finished.
Getting up excitedly, the class went outside and Keith sat down away from the others letting everyone else go have their fun as the Garrison official explained the purpose of the cube attached to his car. Looking away from the presentation, he looked out towards the desert, in the direction of the house he and his father had out there. He wished he could go and just live out there, away from all this. At least there he'd be happier.
But he wasn't about to reveal his only haven from his current foster family to his useless social worker.
Hearing something hiss open, violet eyes glanced back to see the cube open up and students scramble to get inside. He could hear the game playing, and he could hear Griffin cheering everyone on as they all took their turns. Even though it wasn't long before he heard the crash.
"Maybe you should try it Keith, might be fun?"
"Not compared to the real thing," he murmured. "Maybe we can sneak out later and go for a ride on the sparrow."
"You sure?" Yorak questioned, "They don't like you sneaking out."
"They don't care about me Yorak," he growled. "As long as they get their paychecks they don't care what I do." His ghost remained silent, indicating Keith had a point.
"We've had some great tried but no one's made it past the third level," the officer praised. "Looks like you're the only one who's left." Feeling eyes on him, Keith turned to see the man giving him a smile. "Think you got what it takes?"
Reluctantly getting to his feet, he went into the simulator and started it. Overall, it was fairly easy, even as he felt his classmates gather around him. It almost brought a smile to his face as he remembered flying in the Tangled Shore and through the migrating ampithere.
"NO WAY! Keith made it past level five?! Thing's gotta be broken," James exclaimed tossing him a glare.
Keith refrained from electrocuting him as the next level started. Filtering out the excess noise, he could hear his teacher talking in the back. "I've compiled a list of students I think would make the best candidates for the Garrison."
"Is this guy on there? Looks like he's just about ready to fly the real thing."
"Keith?" the woman scoffed. "He's a bit of a discipline case. I don't think he'd necessarily fit in with the rigid Garrison culture."
Keith clenched the control tighter. Who were these people to say what he could and couldn't do? They didn't know him, they didn't know his past. The people of Earth were cruel. All they saw was what fit their standards and tossed anything that didn't fit the norms aside like garbage. Like how every foster home on this planet did. Like how all his teachers praised bullies and belitted those who fought back and defended themselves. He never started the fights, yet he was always labeled the troublemaker.
How his father came from this world was beyond him.
"This is James Griffin. He has the highest grades in school."
"That's it!" he hissed. Releasing the controls he leapt out of the chair and shoved past his classmates. Quickly unhitching the trailer he swung in the driver's seat and took off before they even knew what was happening. He would've rather used his sparrow, but hey, no sense in not getting some payback against someone who was going to toss him aside as usual.
-.-
"I don't get it," Keith said crossing his arms as Shirogane stopped as they walked out of juvie. "I steal your car and you respond by bailing me out?"
"Yeah," Shiro said getting in his car, "so you owe me one."
Keith's eyes flashed dangerously and a few small sparks traveled over him. He did not like what that meant. "What do you mean?"
Almost confused, Shiro raised a brow pulling out a card. "Be at this address tomorrow at 0800 hours."
Keith snatched the card from his hand, looking at it warily. He blinked in confusion when he saw the address to the Garrison hangars.
"You're getting a second chance," the man smiled as the windows slid up. Back out, the vehicle drove away leaving Keith confused.
A second chance? He never got those, at least not on Earth.
"I like him," Yorak spoke. "You should go."
Summoning his sparrow, Keith swung on. "We'll see. I'm not sure I trust people from Earth, least of all Garrison."
"Are…are they gonna be ok?" Hunk asked dragging the Guardian out of his memories.
"Only time will tell if these bodies accept Shiro's consciousness," Allura spoke.
"Which Shiro?"
"Original. The Clone is stable, just recovering," Kol spoke.
"We really need to come up with a new name for him," Lance sighed. "Is there anything we can do to help?"
"I've tried contacting the Voltron Coalition, but I can't get through to anyone. It doesn't make sense," Pidge replied. "There might be some distortion I'm not picking up on."
"If there is, it's not from the natural area," Wren spoke. "According to my ghost, signals are fine, but we're out of range from the Guardian lines. It might be likely that the result of repairing reality somehow damaged or altered our means of communication."
"Even then, the lions aren'y going anywhere without recharging their power cores."
"The battle with Lotor severely depleted them," Allura confirmed. "If we had the Castle of Lions we could recharge them, but…" she trailed off.
"Is there another way to recharge them?" Jaz asked.
"Maybe we could try funnelling some of our own quintessence into them," Skylar suggested. "We do produce unlimited amounts."
"Sky, ours is mostly weaponized, remember," Silyna reminded. "And I don't know how it'd react with the magic obviously used to make them."
"They're right, the result of that could be an explosion," Coran confirmed tugging on his mustache. "They can recharge given enough time and ambient energy, but that might take pheobs."
"There has to be something we can do."
"Well, we are on the Dalterian Belt, home to element faunatonium," Coran supplied. "We could use it as a temporary solution."
"Faunatonium? How will that charge the power cores?" Lance questioned.
"Well, it involves gluon field fluctuations—"
"You know what? Never mind. It's magic or something," Lance cut him off.
"Not far off. We're going to use the element to expand the energy particles within the cores. But first, we're gonna need a yalmor."
The new Guardians looked at each other, "What's a yalmor?"
"Wait, there are yalmors on this planet?" Hunk asked.
"How do you think we find the faunatonium? Yalmors have a nose for the stuff."
"Alright," Keith nodded. "You guys find a yalmor and get this faunatonium stuff. I'll stay with Shiro and…Shiro Two."
"Allura and I will stay too," Jaz said. "Healing magic isn't my specialty, but I can do what I can."
"I may've exhausted the limits of what I learned on Oriande, but I still might be able to help in some way," Allura agreed.
"Wren and I can keep the systems running," Kol nodded.
"Then we'll get started," Tarin nodded. They turned on their heels, starting to walk out of the Black Lion when Romelle spoke up.
"Wait…you just fought Lotor, defeated him, stopped an explosion that could've destroyed reality, took your friends consciousness from the Black Lion and put it in a clone body while putting the clone's consciousness in another clone body, and now we're simply moving on?"
"Sums it up," Silyna smiled.
"Trust me, I'm always saying that, but these guys like to move on," Hunk sighed.
"Come on Romelle! It'll be fun!" the Fae girl grinned grabbing her arm and flying out the door.
"He's going to be all right Keith," Jaz reassured putting her hand on her friend's shoulder. "I know it."
"I hope so, you can't imagine all he's done for me."
"I think I can."
Keith stood looking at one of the shuttles, waiting for Officer Shirogane to arrive like he said he would. Crossing his arms, the boy sighed. Why did he even come? Just because the man said he owed him? Keith's owed lots of people who didn't deserve it. Yet for some reason, he still came.
"That's the Calypso, the first ship to carry astronauts to the moons of Jupiter," a familiar voice spoke.
Glancing to his side, Keith was almost surprised to Shiro standing there. "It took them three years to get there. Longest voyage of its kind."
The man gave a soft chuckle, "That's right. Reading about that mission is what made me wanna be a pilot. Those astronauts braved the unknown. People can accomplish incredible things if they put in the time and effort. I wanna help you Keith, I think you've got a lot of potential."
Keith turned to look at him in surprise. That was the first time in a while anyone had said that to him.
"But what you decide to do with that potential is up to you," Shiro continued, almost quoting his father verbatum.
"Hey Shiro I was just…" the voice trailed off and both turned to see an Awoken woman standing there. "Keith?"
"Jaz?"
"You two know each other?" Shiro asked looking between them.
-.-
"Whoa…"
"Wow."
"It's beautiful."
"Hey Sky? Doesn't this remind you of Hevno?"
"It kinda does," the Titan woman replied, grunting as Coran bumped into her rubbing his nose.
"This looks like a yalmor patch," he grimaced. Stepping back to the red flowers, he licked one of them. "Yep, yelmors definitely sprayed here."
Everyone groaned at that. "I think I'm gonna puke," Tarin gagged.
"I think we all are if he keeps doing that," Lance nodded. That caused the Galra woman to gag again and Lance pulled her long hair back as she looked like she was about to vomit.
"Thanks," she groaned.
"No prob, I used to do it for my sisters all the time," Lance smiled sympathetically. After all, cleaning long hair wasn't easy. No way was he about to let that happen to his sisters again, he'd heard the horror stories.
Coran began screeching, causing most of them to cover their ears. He stopped, much to everyone's relief, and through the brush they could hear some quitter grunts nearby. The redheaded Altean grinned, darting in its direction, causing the rest of them to follow. "There's a yalmor!" Coran whispered as they all peered over some rocks and a brush to look at…a yellow and purple anteater-looking thing with antennae.
"Wow, they're a lot uglier than I thought they'd be," Lance commented.
"I think it's cute," Pidge said. "You know, in a creepy, hideous sort of way. Kind of like you Lance."
"So how're we gonna wrangle it?" Sky questioned pulling out a lasso.
"Shh! Yalmors are extremely aggressive," Coran chided. "Any sign of weakness and they'll attack. You've got to conrner it, and make it think you're the bigger, meaner yalmor. Alfor and I used the Squelzian Technique to wrangle up some yalmors." Stepping out of the brush, Coran began…dancing in a way as he approached the odd little animal as he began releasing more screeches.
"Are all ancient Alteans like this?" Romelle asked.
"Not that I know of," Skylar muttered.
"Well we only know two," Pidge added.
They all winced in sympathy as the yalmor smacked Coran, causing the man to jump in surprise into Hunk's arms. In response, Hunk stumbled under the new weight and ran into Lance. The Blue Paladin lost his balance, falling into a branch covered in sharp thorns. Yelping, he leapt away, landing face-first on the ground in front of a small elephant-turtle thing.
"OW!" Lance exclaimed rubbing his behind as he sat up. Seeing something move, he spotted the little creature. "Oh, hi there little fella!"
The small animal gave a squeak before suddenly it sprayed multicolored smoke everywhere around them.
When the smoke cleared, they were standing in a forest of grass, the trees towering even higher than they had been before.
"What the quizacker just happened?"
"It's pronounced quiznack, and I have no idea."
"I think we shrunk," Tarin replied.
"Uh, what's that sound?" Hunk asked as they all felt and heard massive thuds coming towards them. "Lance, what did you do?!"
"Nothing! I just bumped into—"
"What's that?" Coran cut him off as massive shadow covered all of them. A roar came from above and they all paled as the yalmor towered above them. "It's the yalmor!"
"Shit!"
-.-
"His levels are getting dangerously low," Allura frowned.
"Think there might be a way to stabilize him?" Jaz inquired.
"Not that I know of. But there has to be a way."
While they talked, Keith leaned over Shiro's pod, biting the inside of his cheek. He just got his brother back, he couldn't lose him again. "Come on Shiro. Fight. I'm not giving up on you."
/Bank right and maintain heading at 0.27 degrees/ Shiro's voice ordered over the intercoms. /Increase throttle by thirty-five percent and bank left/
Adjusting the controls Keith yawned. Traveler this was soo boring. What'd he give for a little excitement. At least training back home was interesting, it seemed like the people of Earth made it their mission to make everything involving learning as boring as possible.
/Increase elevation fifteen degrees/
/Oh I'm getting dizzy/ a boy from one of the other simulators moaned. /I knew I shouldn't have eaten so much. Ugh, make it stop/
Keith grimaced as he felt the craft of the likely sick cadet bump into his. Seriously, did he just let go of the controls? He could kill somebody if this was real. Hitting the thrusters, he pulled his ship forwards before decelerating and rounding back to his spot.
/Fall in line cadet!/ Iverson snarled.
"Sorry, just testing my controls. Stick's loose," he replied.
/Keep this up and you'll be stuck as a cargo pilot!/
/Yeah Keith! You're gonna get us in trouble!/ James snapped.
Keith bristled. Seriously? They all just almost crashed because someone couldn't hold their lunch and he kept that from happening by breaking flank. And now they were blaming him?
/Decrease elevation by twenty-two degrees/
Screw it. If they wanted something to blame him for, he'd give them something. Keith thrust the engines and shot down away from the others.
/KEITH!/
-.-
"Hope you all like it in the simulator," Iverson spoke as he stomped in front of them, "You can thank pilot fancypants over there for the privilege of spending the next three weekends in here running drills!" The man spat the last part in his face, and Keith allowed his eyes to glow in warning. Flinching, Iverson backed off the angry Guardian. Good, he needed to be reminded who really was the highest ranking here.
"Thanks a lot," Griffin growled.
"My pleasure."
The other boy scoffed, "We all know the only reason you're here is because of Shiro."
Keith rolled his eyes, "I can outfly anyone in this building. Not my fault you aren't as good as I am. What did you get on the entrance exam again? Level three?"
"You cheated!" James snarled whirling on him.
"We both know I didn't. Not my fault I'm better than you," he scoffed. "Some people can't take losing."
"You are an arrogant ass! You know that! Bet that's why your mommy and daddy left you!"
There was a sickening crack as Keith's fist slammed into Griffin's jaw. Spittle and blood flew out of the boy's mouth as he collapsed to the ground, and he grunted as Keith landed on top of him. Glaring up at his attacker, he paled. The other boy's eyes were glowing almost bright violet as he glared down at him.
"HEY BREAK IT UP!" Iverson exclaimed as he tackled Keith off him. The man grunted and stumbled back from the boy, covering his eye as blood trickled between his fingers.
"Keith!" a voice called and the boy froze as Jaz ran over.
-.-
"Skoros sia ao otāpagon [What were you thinking]?" Jaz scolded sitting next to Keith ignoring the odd look the other cadet gave her.
"Ziry ossylfad Möna [He insulted Pop]," Keith answered clenching his fists. "Ziry sepār kostagon daor gūrogon se fact bona syt istin isse zȳhon ābrar, issa daor se sȳrje [He just can't take the fact that for once in his life, he isn't the best]!"
Jaz sighed, resting her elbows on her knees. "Skoros gōntan ziry ivestragon nūmāzma aōha kepa [What did he say about your father]?
"Vestas ziry abasdesad nyke [He said he abandoned me]."
Keith sagged a bit in relief when Jaz clenched her fist at that. "Ao gīmigon ziry gōntan daor [You know he didn't]."
"Nyke sepār jaelagon īlen arlī lenton [I know. I just wish I was back home]."
"Nyke moss ziry tolī [I miss it too]."
"Understood. I'll handle it," he heard Shiro's muffled voice come through the office causing their conversation to end. The door slid open and Griffin got up, storming past Shiro as he stepped out of the office. "Hey."
"Look, I know I messed up," Keith ground out, looking down. "You should just send me back to the home already. This place isn't for me."
"Keith!" Jaz scolded.
Shiro sighed kneeling next to him, "You can do this. Jaz and I will never give up on you. But more importantly, you can't give up on yourself."
The teen looked up at him, "You don't even know me."
"You're right, I don't," Shiro said standing up. "But sometimes we all need a hand."
-.-
"ADVENTURES ARE NOT FUN!" Romelle screamed as they all ran from the yalmor.
"THANK YOU! THAT'S WHAT I'M ALWAYS SAYING!"
"WATER!" Sil called flying up into the air, out of reach as the droplets crashed down around those on the ground.
The yalmor gave a grunt, swinging it's trunk and swiping through the fauna, tearing it up. "WATCH OUT FOR THAT GRASS!" Coran screeched.
"WE'RE NOT RUNNING FAST ENOUGH!"
"I got ya!" Silyna called flying under the falling blade and tacking the two paladins out of the way.
"Thanks."
"No problem."
"We're trapped!" Romelle exclaimed.
Skylar pulled a grenade launcher off her back, loading it as Silyna grabbed a pulse rifle, "Get behind us!"
The yalmor began approaching, and the girls opened fired on it. The beast gave a surprised lurch of pain, before it started its approach again. Tarin ran forwards, thowing lightning from her hand. However, instead of harming the creature, it looked merely more fluffy and angrier.
"Oops."
Looking around, Lance's gaze landed on something above them. Pulling out his gun, he fired up at the nut. The blade hit the stem connecting it to the tree and it fell to the ground, landed on the yalmor's head.
With a pained yelp, the yalmor turned on its heels, splashing in a puddle of water as it made its retreat. The resulting wave covered the group with water and nearly drowned them.
"Nice shooting Lance," Sil said wringing her cloak.
"Thanks," he groaned.
"Who's not dead? Sound off," Tarin moaned as she sat up.
"Ugh."
"Here."
"I'm soaked."
"Keith? Do you copy?" Pidge asked activating her commlink. "Allura? Krolia? Anyone?"
"Not getting responses from Kol or Wren either," Skylar spoke up.
Pidge nodded, "The miniaturization must've caused our communications range to drop exponentially. Nothing's getting through."
"We're so small, it'll take us forever to get back to the rest of the crew," Coran whined.
"What're we going to do?" Romelle began to panic.
"Simple," Skylar said crossing her arms. "Come up with a plan. If something on this planet could shrink us, then there has to be something that can unshrink us."
-.-
"COME ON! CATCH UP!" Shiro called as his racer flew ahead of Keith's own.
Gritting his teeth, the young guardian pushed the throttle forwards, shooting past the older man. Smirking, he wove around a boulder before gaping as he was passed up again. With a laugh, he followed the older man over the jump across the ravine, landing on another path.
"KEITH! CLIFF!" Yorak screeched.
Startled, he slammed on the breaks watching in horror as Shiro went over. Only, he didn't crash. As the man fell, he pulled on the controls, allowing the thrusters to gain lift and allow him to speed off into the desert.
Lifting up his goggles, Keith gaped. "Wow. Really Yorak?"
"Sorry."
"Come on, let's catch up," he rolled his eyes turning his bike around to find a path down.
It was almost sunset when he finally caught up to Shiro and he couldn't help but laugh. "All right, you win this round, but I'll get you in the next race old timer."
Shiro gave his own chuckle, crossing his arms. "I don't doubt it."
"How'd you do that dive anyways?"
"You like that one huh? It's all about timing," he began to explain, "Pull up too soon and you won't have the momentum you need to create lift. Too late, and there won't be enough light to avoid the crash."
"You think I'm ready to try that?"
Shiro smirked, "What do you think?"
Keith pondered. He knew he could do it. Sure he'd probably mess up the first few times, but he'd eventually get it. Glancing to the man on his left, he kept himself from giving his immediate response. Yes, he would mess up, but he was immortal, death didn't mean much to him. But to Shiro…that would hurt him, no, it might wreck him if he thought he died trying to pull one of his tricks. "Maybe I should be patient and keep focusing on the basics first," he answered.
Shiro gave an amost proud smile. "Ah you're learning. So, you grew up out here?" he inquired.
"Yep," Keith nodded leaning back, "just me and my pop."
"He was…he was a fireman right?"
"Yeah," Keith nodded a small smile crossing his face, "He's a real hero. Everyone told him not to go back into the building. But you can't ever tell him what to do."
p"Sounds like someone I know," Shiro chuckled.
Keith heard a fait beeping and he turned as Shiro fiddled with something on his wrist. "What're those?"
Shiro looked almost nervous as he looked at him, "Oh…theses are just some electrostimulators to keep my muscles loose."
That made him stand up, "What's wrong with your muscles?"
"Ah nothing," Shiro reassured climbing back onto his bike. "Just what happens when you get to be an old-timer. Come on, we should get back to base."
As the engine started, Keith walked back towards his own bike. Glancing back at Shiro, he looked down. Why did it feel like Shiro was lying?
-.-
"What of we're this quizacking small forever?" Romelle groaned.
"It's quiznaking, "Hunk corrected draining his boots, "And yes Romelle, what if?"
"There has to be a way," Skylar stated pacing.
"Coran, you said the faunatonium works with gluon field fluctuations?" Pidge inquired.
"Correct, it expands atomic distance."
"You didn't think to tell us that earlier?" the Titan woman deadpanned. "That could make us bigger."
"That's what I was thinking," Pidge smirked.
"You might be onto something."
"How're we going to find this stuff?" Lance asked.
"With a yalmor!" Coran exclaimed pulling on his mustache. "We'll lure one back here!"
"Lure a yalmor? To us? Like this?" Romelle motioned.
"If you're expecting me to do magic, that's not gonna work right now," Tarin grimaced.
"Don't worry. It'll be incredibly dangerous, and Hunk's our only hope!"
"Huh?"
-.-
"Absolutely not!" Sanda's voice snapped from the other side of the door.
"Why not? He's cleared all his physicals."
"I don't care what the doctor says! This man is sick and he shouldn't be sent on another mission. Especially one as far away as Kerberos. I have to report this to Flight Command."
"Are you kidding me? Shiro's the best pilot there is!" Jaz snapped.
"Jaz is right," Commander Holt agreed. "He's saved my bacon in deep space more times than I can count. If he doesn't go on this mission, then neither do I."
"And you could consider yourself having to find a new copilot from the Reef to continue our people's cooperation! Which I guarantee will be much harder than it was recruiting me."
"Are you threatening me?" Sanda snarled.
"Was I not being clear?" Jaz deadpanned.
"Outside, Keith narrowed his eyes, putting the pieces together. So his hunch was right, Shiro was lying about being sick. Retreating back into the hall he waited till the Admiral passed. "Keith?"
"Darvah," he said grabbing his friend's arm and pulling him back.
"Uh, what are we doing nukruu?"
"Sanda's trying to get rid of Shiro and you're going to help me stop her."
"Sounds fun."
They heard footsteps walking towards them and the woman turned the corner, her grey eyes widened as she spotted them.
"Remember me?" Keith scowled crossing his arms. "You know, the Guardian Kiin you promised to take care of for my father, Captain Kogane? Your superior?"
"Listen here you little brat—"
"No! I'm going to talk, and you are going to shut up and listen. Otherwise Pop will hear all about how you broke your promise," he reminded and the woman's mouth snapped shut. Her gaze snapped to Darvah and he shrugged.
"What? You think I'm gonna go against one of my best friends? Not likely. Especially since I don't like you."
-.-
"That was a pain," Jaz groaned as she and Shiro walked into the lounge.
"No kidding," Shiro huffed flopping on the couch.
"Is everything ok?" Adam asked looking between the Awoken woman and his fiancé.
"Does it sound like it?" Jaz drawled pouring a cup of coffee before scrounging from creamer.
"No?"
"Iverson thinks I shouldn't be part of the mission," Shiro supplied rubbing his wrists. "Called in the big guns, Admiral Sanda showed up and tried to convince Sam to remove me from the crew."
"Well maybe he's right. Maybe you shouldn't go on the mission," Adam said. "You'll only be putting yourself at risk."
"You know how important this is to me. It's worth the risk!" Shiro argued.
Adam slammed his mug down on its coaster. "Takashi, how important am I to you? Every mission, every drill, I've been right there with you."
"Adam!" Jaz scolded.
"This is more than a mission Jaz! His life is at stake!"
"Ugh, don't start that again Adam, you don't need to protect me!" Shiro scoffed. "This is something I need to do for myself."
"There's nothing left for you to prove. You've broken every record there is to break," Adam continued. "I know I can't stop you, but I won't go through this again. So if you decide to go, don't expect me to be here when you get back. I have a class to teach."
Adam reached for his bag only to have it snatched away by Jaz. "Excuse me, but I think you owe your boyfriend an apology."
"Jaz!" he growled.
"No, Adam! Shiro's supported you through all your dreams, why can't you do the same for him? Why can't you let him have this last mission?"
"You know why!"
"We gave you the option to come with! You two lovebirds would've had plenty of alone time," she smirked as they blushed. "And yet, here you are, not going."
"Jaz," Shiro spoke up.
With a huff, the Awoken woman tossed Adam his bag. "Fine. For your sake Shiro, I will not rip your boy-toy a new one."
"Jaz!"
-.-
"I can't believe we're doing this!" Romelle exclaimed as they lowered the rope with Hunk tied to it.
"YOU CAN'T BELIEVE IT? I'M LITERAL BAIT!"
"Hey, you aren't alone down here," Silyna said.
"You have wings! You can fly!" he replied. "HOW COULD I POSSIBLY LET THIS HAPPEN?!"
"I told you Hunk, you're the biggest meal and you scream the loudest!" Coran answered.
"I DON'T CARE—" Hunk squeaked, covering his mouth a roar came from the brush. Looking forwards, the Yellow Paladin paled as he saw a yalmor approaching.
"Now keep up that panicked yelling! That's what we need to attract the yalmor."
"SERIOUSLY GUYS!"
The yalmor got in front of them, opening its maw widely. Silyna grinned, swopping down and grabbing Hunk as the others ran over the other side of the branch, leaping down on the yalmor. The others released the rope, and suddenly the duo went crashing into the yalmor's back.
"This is going well," Romelle said.
"At least you had something to break your landing," Sil muttered.
"EVERYONE HOLD ON!" Tarin shouted as the yalmor sniffed the air. Grabbing onto strands of hair, they all screamed as it started running.
-.-
"When were you going to tell me?!" Keith demanded as he approached Shiro.
The man stood straight from where he was working on his bike, looking surprised to see him there. "Oh, hey Keith?"
"So what is it? Are you sick or something?" he pressed shoving his hands in his pockets.
"I'm not sure I follow."
"I was outside your office," he stated, "I overheard you, Jaz, and Commander Holt talking with Admiral Sand-for-brains. Tell me the truth. What's going on? I'm not a little kid, I can handle it."
Shiro looked away, before giving a deep sigh, "I…have a disease and it's getting worse. I'll only be able to maintain my peak condition for a couple more years. After that…" Shiro turned resting his hands on the side of the bike. "The Garrison doesn't want me up there. Neither does Adam."
"Oh," Keith relaxed crossing his arms. "Is there a cure?"
"No."
"Not even with the Awoken or Fallen?" he inquired.
Shiro turned to look at him, a sad smile crossing his face. "Trust me, there isn't."
"That…must be hard," Keith said, "knowing you'll die."
"I've always known. It's just I wish people would stop treating me like I'm made of glass!" Shiro growled slamming his fist on the side of the vehicle. "It's my life. I should live it how I want to before…"
"I get it," Keith said. "My…family, always felt the same way. We know death is always there, but we kind of always…I dunno, guessed we believed that it wasn't the end?"
"So you believe in an afterlife?"
"I guess?" Keith shrugged.
Shiro chuckled quietly, "Sounds better than nothing at least."
"Yeah…" Keith sighed. "So, what are you going to do?"
"I'm going on the mission."
-.-
"THIS IS WORSE THAN BEING BAIT!" Hunk screamed.
"YES! AT LEAST THEN YOU AND SIL WERE THE ONLY ONES IN DANGER!"
"HEY! ROMELLE!"
The yalmor skid to a stop, nearly flinging all of them off as it began clawing at the ground. Pinkish droplets began to rise up and the yalmor lifted its head, releasing a cry.
All around them the bushes rumbled and more yalmors began approaching.
"What's going on?" Pidge questioned.
"More yalmors! If they link at the ears then we're sitting on a faunatonium wizplute!" Coran exclaimed standing up. The other yalmors pawed at the ground, their ears moving closer to one another. Raising their trunks, the pack gave a cry as their ears linked. "Whoo hoo! Yalmor time! Pay attention! This is how you work together!"
"Who cares? Let's go!" Tarin exclaimed rushing forwards.
"Wait?"
"What?"
"She's right," Pidge said. "If we wanna get back to our regular size we have to jump in there!"
"Don't need to tell me twice," Silyna grinned flying past them as Coran, Skylar, Pidge, and Lance started sliding down the yalmor's trunk.
"Are we actually going to do this?" Romelle inquired.
"Unless you want to spend the rest of your tiny life on the back of a yalmor," Hunk reminded running past her.
At the thought, the blonde panicked. "Wait for me!"
Sliding down the truck, the group flew off into the air. Individually, they all started landed in faunatonium droplets. And before they knew it, they were all back to normal size.
"Ugh, quiznak."
"My back."
"Let's never do that again."
-.-
"He's up!" Wren called.
All heads turned and they saw the clone sitting up in his pod, rubbing his white hair. "Ugh, what happened…Keith?!" the clone turned, looking panicked before his gaze landed on him. Visibly relaxing, Shiro's clone smiled. "You're alive, I thought…I thought I…" he trailed off, looking at the other pod. "So it wasn't a dream?"
"What wasn't?" Jaz asked.
"I…I had a dream. Like I was being disconnected from my body. And I—I kept hearing voices. Haggar, my own…and the facility…" he looked at his attached arm. "I'm…I'm a clone, aren't I? I was never the real Shiro."
"That may be," Allura spoke, "but you're still our friend. We fought side by side."
"How are you taking this so easily? After everything that happened? I—I'm not Shiro! I'm just a copy! A fake! Made by the witch to destroy all of you! It was my fault Lotor had the drop on us, if it was—"
"HEY!" Keith snapped silencing him. "Lotor tricked all of us. And we had no reason to suspect you were a clone. Yes, you may not be Takashi, but you still are our friend."
"Though we really need to find you a name," Kol muttered.
"I know Iverson used to purposely mess up Shiro's name and call him Takeshi," Jaz offered.
"Isn't that the same?" Keith asked.
"Takashi basically means noble or honorable," the clone spoke. "Takeshi means warrior."
"See, there's a difference," Wren smiled. "I like Takeshi. And once we get OG Shiro a new arm, with some make up, you two could totally pull the twin thing. Be even better cause your names are so close. And this way you won't have to learn a new name!"
"He's got a point," Jaz tapped her chin. "That do you think?"
The clone bit the inside of his cheek "Uh…I guess it works?"
"Awesome!"
"We have a problem," Allura spoke up regaining all of their attentions, "I'm afraid the clone body's rejecting Shiro's consciousness."
"What?"
"There must be some way you can help!" Keith demanded.
"Keith…" Jaz said resting a hand on his shoulder. "We've done all we can."
Growling, Keith slammed his fist on the outside of the pod. "Shiro! Please! Fight! You can't do this to me again."
"If he knows what's good for him he better not," Takeshi muttered.
The pod beeped and opened. Inside, Shiro coughed, "Keith? I was dreaming, Keith…you saved me."
Keith bent down, hugging his older brother, "We saved each other." Helping him, sit up, the white-haired man blinked at his almost mirror image sitting across from him.
"Uh…am I—"
"Uh…I'm your clone?" the other smiled sheepishly. "It's a long story."
"Hey! Shiro and his clone are looking better!" Lance exclaimed as everyone else ran in. "All right!"
"Where were you guys? We couldn't get ahold of you," Kol said crossing his arms.
"Well, we were shrunk by a magic skunk, but we ended up using that sparkly dust that makes electricity bigger or whatever and used it to unshrink ourselves. So, ready to charge up the lion?"
Shiro chuckled, "It's good to be back."
"It's good to have you back," Lance grinned. "Oh! You!" he pointed to the clone. "We need a name for you! Remember how in Monsters in Mana you had this back up character—what was his name—oh yeah! Jiro! That could be it!"
The clone bit his lip, glancing nervously at the original. "Well…we kinda already chose Takeshi," he murmured wincing as he saw the other one gave him a glare. "But I can go by Jiro if that's easier."
A/N: hey y'all! Hope y'all enjoyed the chapter! Now, I know I made young Keith seem kinda like an ass, and I had my reasons for it: mostly I figured since he came from an advanced society where Guardians are almost looked to as gods…yeah, he'd have some arrogance issues. Anyways, let me know what y'all think of my decision to keep the clone alive. See y'all next chapter!
