Chapter 50: Black & White
In Outer Space, the battle between the Voltron Force and the Sincline ships broke out while Shiro was making his getaway with Lotor and Jenny to which Keith, Belle, and Ayame took notice of before they beefed away from the Sincline ships, only for them to fuse their lasers into one giant one and force Voltron to block with the shield before it collided against the meteor as the space wolf, Babak, Xarnas, Coran, Cilia, Romelle, Krolia, and Sapphire watched in horror before the bodyguard spoke up.
"I'm headed your way!"
Ayame didn't think Babak's impulse to be wise as she spoke.
"Babak, no! The Castle of Lions barely survived the first time we fought one of those ships. You'll only—"
At that moment, the main Voltron became struck by their laser as he grunted before Lapis spoke up.
"Ayame! Hang in there!"
As the Violet and the White Lions joined with the main one who was bracing fire, Allura spoke to Babak next.
"Ayame is right, Babak! The ship's defenses will never hold!"
As Pidge and Lance struggled under the pressure, Lapis and Alphus gave them an idea.
"Guys, we can't take this much longer!"
"Do you guys have any ideas?"
"I think so. But Violet's ion cannon only has one charge left."
"So let's make what we have count."
With that, the Violet Voltron got its ion cannon out while the White Voltron opened it chest to reveal a blue light inside before Alphus spoke.
"On my mark! One... two... now!"
With that, the Violet and White Voltrons fired their own blasts of Quintessence, pushing the Sinclines' blast away before Keith spoke to them.
"Thanks, guys. Lance! Pidge! I need you guys to help push it back!"
"Right!"
"On it!"
With that, Voltron joined in the clash, firing a white laser from both Green and Red Lions as it formed a swirl of blue, dark purple, and white Quintessence, pushing against their own blast before it resulted in an explosion that sent both sides back as they were sent farther away from each other. Not long after, they had to recover for a moment before Pidge spoke up.
"What just happened?"
Considering that the blasts from weaponized Quintessence was in the middle when it exploded, Alphus made a valid guess to the situation.
"I'm guessing the Quintessence's clash reached its equilibrium. We couldn't push it any further than they could."
At that moment, Alphus realized that Jenny was still being captured as she spoke up.
"Wait. Who's got eyes on Jenny?!"
At that moment, they heard a sound far away before they turned to notice a purple portal opening in front of the Sincline ships before Pidge and Lance spoke up.
"Is that—?"
"A wormhole?"
Seeing this, Allura had a hunch about who's behind this.
"Haggar. It has to be Haggar. She must've gained the ability, but how?"
Keith was more worried about the pod leaving as he spoke up before Hunk reminded him.
"We can't worry about that. We have to make sure we get Shiro and Jenny back."
"But Shiro's not Shiro anymore."
This obviously discontented Belle as she spoke.
"Just like I wasn't me anymore when Kaecilius corrupted me. Maybe the same thing's happening to him. If Lotor isn't behind it, then the Galra or Kaecilius have to be behind it."
Keith was in support of Belle's theory as he spoke up.
"You all know he would never give up on us. We can't give up on him."
With that, the three Voltrons managed to boost toward the ships escaping before Lapis noticed a problem with the main Voltron's thrusters.
"Uh, Keith? One of your thrusters is down."
As he took notice of this, he spoke to his group before Pidge and Hunk responded.
"Can you compensate?"
"Those beams torched our power core. I've never seen anything like it."
"We've got maybe 30 seconds of over-clocked burn time."
Ayame didn't feel that time was enough as she spoke up.
"Hit your thrusters if you have to! We're not letting them take Takashi or Jenny!"
In panic mode, the Voltron Force sped up in a sonic burst as Hunk spoke of the bad news.
"We're halfway through our burn. 25%."
As the pod went through the portal, Keith only growled before the Sincline ships went in as Hunk, Lance, and Pidge spoke.
"15%. 8%!"
"We're not gonna make it!"
"We're too heavy!"
Keith, not willing to lose his best friend, sparked an idea from desperation.
"Disband."
This made the Paladins, save for Belle and Ayame, surprised as they spoke.
"What?"
"The energy from disconnecting might create enough thrust to propel me, Belle, and Ayame through the wormhole."
Hearing the potential stress in her voice, Allura spoke as if it wasn't the best option as he spoke.
"But you'll be the only ones on the other side!"
As the wormhole shrunk, Keith snapped back with a vengeance.
"Do it!"
With that, the Paladins disbanded Voltron while the Black Lion was sent propelling through the wormhole before it successfully entered at the last second as it finally closed, leaving only six Voltron Lions as Adea spoke up an inquiry.
"So... what do we do now?"
On the other side of the wormhole, the Black Lion found itself under siege by countless Galra cruisers above the same planet where they previously fought Kaecilius in a deal that backfired on him. As it came under fire, Keith spoke up.
"Alright, gotta play this smart."
With that, the Black Lion evaded the ships firing at him while the Sincline ships cruiser normally with the pod before Ezor took notice of the Black Lion as she, Zethrid, and Acxa spoke up.
"Wow. I can't believe he made it."
"I'll take him out."
"No. You two escort the package back to Haggar. I'll take care of this one."
With that, the Black Lion was met with a Sincline ship piloted by Acxa before Ayame noticed her face inside the window.
"Acxa? She's in on this?"
"Hold on, guys!"
With that, Keith thrusted it away as the Black Lion went under a Galra cruiser before swerving back up and landing on it before firing a laser at point blank range, making her grunt as she sent back before they went for the main cruiser.
Inside the cruiser, Shiro brought Jenny and Lotor to Ezor, Kurziam, and Zethrid who were waiting inside the entrance before Lotor spoke up as Jenny looked at the scene in spite of her situation.
"Zethrid. Ezor. Kurziam."
As Jenny looked left and right at the two, she became confused at the exchange in glances before she raised an inquiry that Kurziam answered.
"Wait. I thought you guys were on his side?"
"Not anymore. We're working for Haggar, now."
This made Jenny widen her eyes before she growled upon realizing what happened back on the ship.
"So that's why Shiro's acting this way... it wasn't Kaecilius or Lotor. It was her... I can't believe I forgot about her."
Before she could shout any word in retaliation, they heard a thud as it tumbled before Jenny noticed the Black Lion clawing its way in as she looked at its face glancing at them, only to get an alarm before the Black Lion had to continue its bout with Acxa as it took off before it resulted in the air getting sucked up before Ezor punched a lock, causing the door to close before the group fell back to the ground while Zethrid got Jenny and Lotor up on their feet again.
"We'll take it from here."
As she walked them forward, Ezor grew curious about the currently still Shiro before she leaned closer to him.
"Um... is it broken?"
Zethrid called out to her as she shouted far away.
"Just leave it. We've got orders."
Orders which Ezor disregarded as she poked at his face, making Zethrid shout again.
"Ezor!"
"Coming."
With that, Ezor took off with the group before Haggar spoke with Shiro in a psychic link.
"You are to lead the Black Lion away from the fleet. Is that understood?"
"Yes. But how am I to lure it away?"
"The Red and White Paladins' connection to you runs deep. Deeper than the others. They still believe there is good left inside you, which leaves them vulnerable to persuasion. You will exploit this weakness."
"I understand. And... what about Kaecilius?"
"He shall be done away with. His radical idea of justice will threaten to expunge what I have planned. He is a risk we cannot take."
As Keith flew away from Acxa as she gave chase, he spoke to himself about how to get in the cruiser.
"Think. Think. How are we gonna get in there?"
As Belle noticed the pod leaving, she pointed to it as she spoke.
"I don't think we'll have to. Look!"
As the pod took off, Keith put the pedal to the metal as he and Ayame tried to reach out to him.
"Shiro, come in. I know you're there!"
"Please, listen, Takashi. I don't know what's wrong, but I know we can fix this."
As they tried to convince him, Acxa tried to aim at them in the back before the ship spoke to her.
"All ships, dock immediately. Prepare for hyper-jump."
As the ship was about to fire, though, Acxa hesitated for a moment before she sighed and turned away before Belle took her turn to speak.
"We know you're hurting, Black. We just need to keep it together for a little longer. But that means..."
With that, the ships took off in hyper jump before she came to a frightening realization.
"What if... what if I left Jenny behind?"
As tears came to her eyes, Keith remembered when Jenny had to make that sacrifice, too and how well it turned out since then as he spoke to her.
"You know, Jenny had to make that choice before, too. But she still got you. And I know she can pull it together for you."
This made Belle smile at him before she nodded and spoke.
"You're right, Keith. Let's do this."
Meanwhile, at the Castle, Pidge and Hunk did a perimeter check on the lions and the Castle's overall condition while Allura was using the Castle to identify Keith, Ayame, and Belle's Quintessence. At the same time, Sandra noticed a sense of unease from Alphus as she leaned on the wall before she spoke.
"Alphus... are you okay?"
"I don't know. First, I've been getting these visions in my head that I can't even begin to make sense of, and now Jenny's gone."
"Hey, Keith, Ayame, and Belle are on their trail. I know they'll find them and bring them back."
"I hope you're right..."
With the diagnostics covered, Pidge and Hunk spoke to the others.
"Okay, all lions are in their hangars and their power cores appear to be recharging."
"Structurally speaking, the lions are at about 60%. Well, except Violet and White, which are still A-Okay. Whatever those ships hit our Lions with, really did some damage."
As Allura use of the Teludav proved to be in vain, Lance inquired of her chances.
"Any luck yet, Princess?"
"No. I-I'm afraid not. I fear that the wormhole may have deposited them beyond my ability's reach."
As Alphus heard this, she became disheartened while Babak walked up as he spoke of another idea that could hopefully locate them.
"I'll try to contact some of the coalition forces to provide assistance, assuming they'll even bother listen to us."
At that moment, the lights in he Castle, save for the Balmera shut down, making Lance and Allura alarmed.
"Whoa."
"Coran, what's happening?"
As Coran checked the diagnostics again, he made a very troubling discovery.
"It appears the Castle's systems are shutting down one by one. It looks as though someone's hacked into the ship and let loose a 'kill' protocol of some sort."
This made Pidge frightened as she and Hunk spoke to Coran.
"Have you tried an override?"
"Or maybe counteracting it with a 'live' protocol? Is that a thing?"
As Pidge got down to work, Coran have her the bad news of it.
"The virus is moving too fast."
"Okay. I'm in the system. Subroutines 8 through 19 have me completely locked out. But if I can just skip ahead to— come on, come on, come on."
As Pidge tried to find the solution, Coran began to give out warning signs as they came.
"Spectra generator down. Stabilizers are down. Main turbine also down."
Suddenly, the light from the Balmera began to shut down before it collapsed and was about to fall on Allura before Sandra pushed her aside before either of them would get impaled or crushed by it as Coran sand Pidge poke.
"Crystal matrix offline! Particle barrier generator down!"
"There! I've got it isolated. Now I just have to lock it down with a multi-layered tri-tetragonal quarantine. And... almost..."
With that, the alert came online for a moment before all of the systems have been revitalized while Pidge spoke in celebration.
"Yes!"
As Coran exhaled and Hunk and Pidge leaned don in the chair in relief, he paid her a compliment.
"Well done, Pidge."
At that moment, however, the Castle shut down again before the alerts came on rapidly before Pidge tried to sort them all out.
"The virus has countermeasures that specifically targeted my quarantine! It's like... it knew!"
And it was at that moment when all of the Castle's shut down again, this time with the monitor and the computer as Coran spoke.
"If this shuts down the teludav's mass regulator, this ship, along with everything in the neighboring subsystem, would be destroyed."
Then, seemingly, in a moment of panic, Pidge ran out of the hub as Sandra and Hunk grew worried.
"Uh, where are you going, Pidge?"
"No time!"
Meanwhile, at the Galra Cruiser, Lotor and Jenny were taken to Haggar by Kurziam, Ezor, Acxa, and Zethrid with the latter of the prisoners giving a glare towards her way as she spoke.
"You... what did you do to Shiro?! When my sis finds out about this—"
"That is none of your concern. Nor is it your sister's. You have more pressing matters to deal with."
"Oh, yeah? Like what?"
At that moment, Haggar took off her good and turned to face Jenny and Lotor, revealing her brown face and long red marks on it as she spoke.
"A teaching moment."
As Jenny saw her face, she grew acutely shocked, as if she'd been stabbed in the heart with a dagger while Ezor, Acxa, Kurziam, and Zethrid were overcome with that same shock as Lotor just gave a glare before she turned to him while Jenny felt overwhelmed as tears came down her cheeks like a waterfall giving red sclera to her eyes.
"Prince Lotor. My son."
"Honerva...?! You... you were Haggar all along? WHY?! WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS?!"
As Jenny's voice echoed in the ship while the owner of which wept at the terrible things she'd done to her friends, and for apparently letting herself be used by the time she spent with her, Honerva proceeded to try to soothe her with the truth while also explaining to her only son, Lotor.
"The anger you feel toward me is... to be expected. But understand that the events that transformed me into the witch Haggar also shrouded any glimmer of maternal instinct I may have had for you and my one and only child. However, the both of you have continued the work I started all that time ago and have indeed seen it through to heights I could have only imagined. And... thanks to you, I did get to see Oriande, Jennifer. You weren't lying. It was beautiful."
As Honerva showed compassion towards Jenny as she placed her hand on her teary face, she showed hesitation, though a part of her wanted to believe her word.
"You... you used us..."
"And I'm greatly sorry for what I've done to you and your friends in the past. And for what happened to your ownership of the White Lion. But with your resolve, I knew I wasn't needed. Your never-ending pursuit of knowledge is truly the greatest force to be reckoned with, and there is much more for us to learn, together. Please, listen, Jenny. Everything I did, I did for you. You and my family mean more to me than anything in this universe."
When she said this, however, Jenny remembered all the evidence to the contrary as she listed them in her mind and glared at her.
"Exactly what good is your word?"
This took Honerva aback as she gasped and staggered back as the two stood up with Jenny unleashing her hate on her verbally.
"Where were you when we were in trouble with Kaecilius? Where were you when I lost the White Lion? And where were you when Lance was about to die?! All those times, you could've arrived to help, but you didn't! You left me alone! But you wouldn't care about that, would you?!"
As Jenny shouted at Honerva, this made Lotor's former generals appalled by how much Jenny has been hurt as Zethrid whispered in intrigue.
"Woof. Talk about rage."
"How can you say that you cared about me when none of what you did backs any of that up?!"
"Jennifer, please understand—"
"I don't know who I'm really talking to, but I do know one thing: you don't care who you hurt, because they don't mean anything to you. And guess what? You don't mean anything to me anymore."
When Honerva herself got struck by those words that came from Jenny, Lotor, whose hands were trembling at these words, interrupted her, making Honerva and the shaken Jenny look to him as he spoke onwards.
"There's no point speaking any further. She knows the truth now, just as much as I do. My mother ceased to exist when Honerva drew her last breath. Do not believe for a moment that I would ever accept you as kin. You are an abomination, a twisted perversion or what was once so pure and beautiful. The end is near, witch. I know you can sense it. If you beg for your life now, maybe I will take pity on you when the time comes."
Taking in Lotor's harsh words to heart, she closed her eyes in silence before she put on a scowl at the both of them as she spoke to Acxa.
"Take them away."
As Acxa walked up, she instead pointed her gun at Honerva, confusing Jenny and the other generals before she made the shot. Just before she could, she teleported in a dark haze before the bullet hit the wall as Kurziam, Acxa, and Zethrid spoke up in alarm.
"A-Acxa!"
"Did you just kill her?!"
"Are you working with Lotor?!"
Seeing the opening, Jenny saw an opportunity to run as the generals were distracted before she bolted from them, making Ezor look toward her as she and Zethrid spoke.
"Hey! Where are you going?!"
"Let's get her!"
However, Lotor spoke otherwise as he got released from his cuffs by Acxa.
"You will leave her be. I can explain everything, but I assure you, the witch is not dead. If you're with me, we need to get to the Sincline ships and leave now."
As Ezor and Zethrid heard this, they gave their own replies.
"Um, sure?"
"We're good."
"Right, then. We're headed for the Castle of Lions' last known location. No doubt Jennifer is headed there, too."
Acxa then spoke up about a matter of transportation.
"Sir, the wormhole deposited us on the far side of the Thizonian system. We'll need to make multiple hyperspace jumps and even then, it will take some time."
"Then what are we waiting for?"
Meanwhile, Jenny went in the hangar and looked to notice a lone Galra fighter amidst it with a surprising lack of Galra drones as she ran to it and hopped in before she turned it on and spoke to herself.
"Okay. Let's get out of here."
With that, Jenny piloted the fighter to exit the cruiser before diverting from the cornucopia of cruisers before she realized her situation as she also noticed the Sincline ships using hyperspace to take off quickly before she spoke.
"Oh, Quiznak. Right. If I just go the same path as them, I'll find my way back."
With that, Jenny used the fighter's boosters to go as fast as she could to catch up to Lotor and the Sincline ships, hoping to see her friends again.
In the meantime, Keith, Ayame, and Belle noticed a moon where the pod took off to as they noticed it and a set of footprints leading somewhere before they landed and walked its path into a cave while Belle had a look of concern over her before Keith and Ayame noticed this as well as a door leading to an elevator, which took them to a secret base as they noticed a giant laser suspended at the top and a whole section of tanks around them as Ayame, Belle, and Keith spoke.
"What is this place?"
"I wish I knew. When I was corrupted, I wasn't taken to a place like this."
"Keep your eyes open. Shiro has to be somewhere."
When they got to the center of the room, Keith placed his hand on one of the tanks before the lights came on, revealing Shiro within the tank wearing garment from the time he was a gladiator, making the group widen their eyes in absolute terror and shock as more tanks came on, showing more Shiros in each one, before Ayame turned to Belle.
"What's going on?"
"I don't know! But... you don't think Shiro's—"
At that moment, Kaecilius spoke behind them before they turned to him as he had a metal mask over the scarred part of his face as well as a purple quintessential arm.
"Yes, Kren. Not one of a kind anymore. Just as you and your friends are about to be slain. Because, after all, there is no Black Paladin to save you."
Seeing the prime suspect in front of them, Belle grew curious quickly as she spoke.
"What did you do to Shiro?! Are you controlling him?!"
"Controlling him? I don't know what you could possibly be talking about."
"Don't lie to me! I know you brainwashed him, the way you brainwashed me!"
"Oh, that. No, I abandoned that tactic in favor of this one. I'm sure you've noticed by now that Shiro is not one of a kind anymore. They're genetically bred to do my bidding. Imagine an army of Kuron policing the space of the galaxy. The universe. Upholding the law of Kaecilius."
At that moment, it was his turn to turn around as they heard a familiar voice.
"This universe has no place for you."
As they did, they noticed Shiro glaring at them while Kaecilius grew displeased momentarily.
"Clearly some fine tuning is required of this place. On the bright side, I get to kill the Black Paladin after all!"
As Kaecilius fired a blast from his quintessential arm, Ayame shouted in fear.
"No!"
However, Shiro prepared for that as he got his robot arm to block it, tearing the fiber of his uniform there to shreds before it ceased as he maintained his glare, making Kaecilius question the reality of the situation.
"Oh, Quiznak."
Meanwhile, at the Castle, Coran spoke to Pidge about the reason why he took off.
"Pidge, what have you discovered?"
"Protocol's countermeasure. I recognized it."
This made Lance curious as he spoke.
"Recognized it? How?"
"From the code I scanned from Shiro's arm while we were looking for Galra installations."
This made Allura nervous about the meaning of it before Pidge confirmed it with a heavy heart.
"Wait. Are you saying Shiro is responsible for this?"
"Yes."
This made the whole group gasp before Adea panicked about it and Babak had another take on it.
"Say it ain't so!"
"It's possible. He did say he was getting headaches. Perhaps Kaecilius was trying to brainwash him as he did to Belle before?"
"Maybe. But right now, I need to figure out a way to deactivate this virus before it blows us all up. Lapis, Luzria, can you help me out?"
"You can count on us, Pidge."
At Base: Xanthium, Shiro walked toward Keith, Ayame, Belle, and Kaecilius while Keith and Belle tried to reach out to him.
"Shiro, it's gonna be okay."
"Yes, I know."
"We just have to get back to the Castle."
"We... are not going anywhere!"
With that, Shiro immediately ran towards Keith, overlapping the stunted Kaecilius before Keith got his shield out and blocked the attack as Ayame looked on in horror.
"Keith!"
As Ayame went towards Keith and Shiro, Kaecilius raised his arm to fire another blast before a blue light knocked it away, urging him to turn to Belle, who was shown to have used her own synthetic arm that glowed blue to do so before forging a sword from the top of the wrist as she set it by her head.
"You leave them out of this! If you want my friends, you'll have to go through me!"
"How dare you try ordering around a god?"
With that, Kaecilius turned his synthetic arm into a scimitar before he spoke.
"But fight you, I will."
As Belle and Kaecilius began clashing their blades, Shiro had just knocked Keith and Ayame off of the platform beforrvlabdung in another as he jumped straight for them, only to miss as they rolled away before they got their luxite blades out while Shiro got out a purple aura blade from his synthetic arm before he leaped at them.
At the Castle, the teludav began hearing up as Allura spoke of the incoming situation.
"The teludav, it's reaching critical mass. Pidge!"
As Allura turned to them, she, Lapis, and Luzria were booking it on the hacking before Pidge responded.
"I know, I know."
"We're going as fast as we can on this."
"It's getting difficult to crack this with you guys putting this pressure on us."
While they worked, the teludav began to glow brightly as Lance spoke up.
"This thing's about to blow any second."
With the pressure put onto them, Pidge, Lapis, and Luzria worked rapidly before they were able to enter the code, this cooling down the teludav at the last second before the Lapis and Luzria sighed at the outcome before Hunk spoke.
"Uh, guys? How did you do that?"
This made Lapis and Luzria look at Pidge before they spoke up.
"Yeah. That code we just entered wasn't like anything we've seen."
"What kind of code was that?"
"When I was scanning Belle and Shiro's arms, I also made a copy of their programming. I created a virus that could terminate all their command prompts, in case something like this ever happened. Even after we know what Kaecilius is capable of... I never thought I'd have to use it."
As Pidge held her head down, Adea and Lapis placed their hands on her shoulders before the former spoke in comfort before Lapis spoke to Adea about the bad side of it.
"It's okay. At least we're all still alive."
"Yeah. But for what? The Castle's still down, Adea. How do you expect to get anywhere?"
As Adea raised her finger to answer, she found that she had none as she held her head down before she sighed.
At Base: Xanthium, Belle clashed her blue blade with Kaecilius repeatedly before she jumped away while firing blue blasts from her synthetic palm before Kaecilius leaped at her through the dust that resulted before she fired a blast to propel her upward and used the momentum to go behind him and slash through his chest, knocking him to the platform as she leaped and attempted to stab him, only for Kaecilius to teleport, making her miss before she looked around and noticed Shiro knocking Keith and Ayame away before he leaped at them and missed while cutting through the rails of the walkway they stood on before he proceeded to give chase and ensue in combat before, later, he punched Keith in the chin, knocking his helmet off while the two of them were forced to jump off, only for Shiro to jump on them and propel themselves further down, making Belle worried as she shouted.
"Shiro, stop! This isn't—!"
Before she could finish herself, Belle found herself blasted in the back by Kaecilius as she began to fall towards another section of the base while Shiro cut off a rope and used it to safely land before he looked up to see Keith swinging at him, knocking him back before he went in and swung his luxite blade, clashing it with Shiro's before he commented on his now purple, snarling face with yellow sclerae.
"That's the Keith I remember."
As Keith was off-guard for a moment, Shiro seized the opportunity as he swung his blade away from him and swung at his face, nearly missing his hair as he got a pointing end of it off before Ayame stepped in and blocked his blade with her switchblade before she and Keith were forced to back up before they rolled away as he swung at the scaffolding behind them, causing it to tip over before it fell in between Keith and Ayame on one side with Shiro on the other as Keith and Ayame spoke.
"Shiro, we know you're in there."
"You made a promise once. You told us you'd never give up on us."
"And I should've abandoned you, just like your parents did. And Ms. Nakamura. They saw that you were broken, worthless. I should have seen it, too."
Despite his words, Ayame and Keith were still adamant in their efforts as the former spoke.
"We're not leaving without you, Takashi!"
Shiro only gave a smirk before he spoke.
"Actually... neither of us are leaving."
At that moment, the base's purple color began to turn pink as the coloring changed before Belle looked around and saw Kaecilius smirking menacingly with his hand on a switch as he spoke.
"I did not count on Kuron being willing to assist in my divine work. But, oh well. Better late than never..."
At that same moment, Kaecilius triggered a change to Shiro's synthetic arm as it turned bright pink on the whole arm before he began to groan in agony before Keith spoke up out of fear.
"Shiro!"
However, not long after, Shiro's arm upgraded itself with claws and a spike on the shoulder, the same as Belle's arm when she went berserk last time before it shot a laser that decimated most of Base: Xanthium in the process before they faced the smirking Shiro who aimed his arm at them, forcing them to take off of the platform as they looked at Shiro again before he resumed his target practice, destroying the bridge and the tanks contains them in the process before they fell. As they did, Belle angrily glared at Kaecilius before her skin turned purple and her sclerae turned yellow as she yelled out and ran at him as she slashed swiftly at him while he used his Quintessence arm to extend itself when she tried to strike from behind and catch her before chucking her off like a whip before he leaped at her himself with his arm turned to that of a claw and he gripped her in the chest before pushing he down to the remaining platform, making dust ensue as Keith and Ayame rolled back up and noticed their luxite blades and tried to reach them before their strength gave out as Shiro landed in front of them, making Ayame's eyes tear up in fear before Shiro summoned his aura blade as he spoke to her.
"Just let go, Ayame. You don't have to fight anymore. By now, the team's already gone."
Hearing this, Ayame became fearfully frightened as she gasped.
"No..."
"I saw to it myself!"
"Please..."
Ignoring her pleas, Shiro prepared to strike them down and made Ayame close her eyes as she braved for the worst, only for Keith to block it with his luxite blade as he spoke.
"Shiro, please. You're my brother. I love you."
As he heard this, Belle spoke up with tears from far away, catching more of his attention.
"We all do, Shiro. We love you so much..."
At that moment, Kaecilius presses his quintessential claw on her head, making her gasp before he spoke.
"You will remain silent, mortal. Better yet, you will stay silent... forever!"
As Kaecilius crushed her head, Belle began to scream in intense agony before Shiro began to remember Honerva's words to him as his muscles trembled before he ceased his blade and pointed his hand at Kaecilius with an open palm as he spoke, making him cease his crushing as Belle looked on in surprise.
"You are a menace to this universe, Kaecilius. You won't be missed!"
With that, Shiro fired a full-powered laser from his hand, forcing Kaecilius to hold it back with his Quintessential arm before he began to grunt in difficulty before Belle took her cue to roll away. As she did, Kaecilius found he was quickly losing his grip as his arm began to dissolve into the light, making him frightened before the whole blast overtook him as he screamed in sheer pain while he disintegrated. With Kaecilius gone, Shiro took a deep breath as he looked at Belle and shed tears before his synthetic arm darkened in the lights until it was black as he spoke to the group.
"Keith, Ayame, Belle... I'm sorry..."
With that, the rest of the base began to collapse as it exploded, making the structure they stood on collapse, making all four of them fall before Keith caught Ayame while Belle caught Shiro with the group's of two hanging on as best they could before they noticed that Shiro had gone unconscious as Belle spoke.
"Shiro? Shiro! Can you hear me?!"
Unfortunately, Belle got her answer with the slips from her claw and Keith's luxite blade before they struggled to hang on as they looked at Shiro and remembered their memories of him as he, Belle, and Ayame were presented in class with Keith looking out the window before it showed Keith and Ayame with Shiro out in the desert before the whole base finally crumbled and they all fell off to their potential doom.
In a flashback, Keith was shown to be sitting out on a chair, bruised and battered along with a teenager in the same condition adjacent to him returning a glare as a teacher spoke of his misconducts to Shiro.
"The only reason this kid is here is because you vouched for him. You need to make sure this doesn't happen again."
"Understood. I'll handle it."
With that, Shiro walked out before the other kid went in as he spoke to Keith, who was beginning to have no faith in himself.
"Hey."
"Look, I know I messed up. You should send me ack to the home already. This place isn't for me."
"Keith, you can do this. I will never give up on you. But more importantly, you can never give up on yourself."
This made Keith look up at him in wonder, as if his words entered his heart and touched it.
In reality, as they fell, Keith opened his eyes with fierce determination, as did Ayame and Belle.