Chapter two
"How did they find us again?!" Allura spat under her breath. The Galra central command ship loomed over the Castle. Shiro's eyes widened, then suddenly an intense pressure slammed into him like a brick wall.
"Shiro!!" Keith cried seeing this. Shiro clutched his head, feeling Zarkon's presence. Shiro somehow managed to motion something through this.
"What's going on?!" Allura asked, watching helplessly.
"He said that 'Zarkon is trying to take over the Black Lion again.' He's trying to shut him out."
"We need to get down there and stop him from taking the Black lion." Allura decided, emphasis in her tone. She began to walk toward the door, but Shiro put a hand up stopping her. He gestured to Keith and the Red Paladin returned the message.
"We need to get to all the lions and buy us time to get away. And we may need Voltron to do it." He said.
"But what about your hearing?!" Pidge protested. "We can't just let you go out there, alone. What if you get into trouble?" Shiro began a reply, but seeing what he was saying Keith couldn't stop himself.
"What are you talking about, of course we're concerned!" He told him, his body language showing his distress. Shiro laid a hand on his shoulder, and Keith understood immediately.
"He said, 'I understand your concern.'" Keith interpreted, with a heavy sigh. "But there is no other option. We can't form Voltron with only four lions. And Keith can't always be my voice. I have other ways of communication." Keith paused, giving thought to this. "Shiro, are you sure this is a good idea?"
"It's the only idea we have." Shiro signed back. Keith gave a nod, closing his eyes.
"Let's get to the lions." He decided looking up at the rest of the team.
Upon launching the lions, they were instantly met by fighters and cruisers. "We have to protect Shiro and the Black lion!" Keith called from Red, biting down on a fighter and tossing it toward another.
"Copy that!" Pidge responded.
"Ten-four!" Hunk replied.
"You got it!" Lance agreed.
Electric energy flashed around the Galra Emperor.
"Get my close!" Zarkon roared. "Capture the Black lion! Get me Voltron!!" The ship hovered closer. Shiro thrust Black faster through the net of Galra fleets. He looked up towards the ship, he could see Zarkon and the druids and knew he was up to something. He could feel Zarkon's influence ensue upon him more. What can I do?! He thought desperately.
Nothing. He heard Zarkon's voice in his head, like it was a psychic message. The Black lion froze, squirming awkwardly, it presented a pinkish aura around it as before. Keith saw this, then glanced up toward the ship.
"Yeess." Zarkon praised, feeling the lion's obedience. "Come to your true Paladin." Suddenly they were blindsided by laser fire, which caused them to lose their concentration; releasing the Black Lion and it's Paladin. "NOO!!" Zarkon thundered. Shiro jetted away, he appeared on Keith's screen.
"Thank you." Shiro signed quickly.
"No problem." Keith responded just as quickly. As a blue laser blasted between them, taking out a cruiser that was about to shoot them.
"Now's your chance, get out of there!!" Allura called.
"Stay in the game, guys!!" Lance scolded, weaving through enemy fire. Black and Red flew opposite ways to re-join the battle.
Zarkon sneered, rising to his feet again. "I want every fleet after the Black lion immediately!!" He muttered to his witch, Hagger.
"Of course Sire." She bowed her head slightly, then turned to her Druids. "Continue the ritual, I will return shortly."
"Yes Haggar." A Druid gave a nod. And the witch floated away.
"We can't keep this up much longer!! We need to disappear!!" Allura cried, feeling the castle jerk under her feet.
"Allura's right!" Keith agreed, his voice cracking a little under the pressure.
"But how do we do that." Lance asked. The lions were circled up looking from one to another. Everyone looked at Shiro and the Black lion's head suddenly looked up.
"Great idea, Shiro!" Keith smiled, reading his mind. "Form Voltron!!"
Jetting down as the mighty robot, Shiro appeared across Red's screen, and gestured.
"You got it." Keith nodded drawing his bayard. "Form sword!!" Drawing the sword, Shiro popped up in front of Pidge. He held up his right arm in front of him, his fist to him, and pointed at his arm.
"On it!" Pidge slammed her bayard into the lock. Now wielding the sword and the shield, Voltron plunged toward the Galra cruisers blasting through the first one and headed for another. Blocking attacks from all sides with the shield, they used the sword to slice through the Galra ships. Voltron stabbed a cruiser, and pushed it towards the Galra's main ship blowing up of the arches that pointed downwards from the ship. Shiro, finally, signed to Keith.
"Copy that." Keith sighed back. "Allura open up a wormhole! We're getting out of here!" As soon as it opened they dove into it and were soon several galaxies away. The ships floated alone in a harmless green nebula, for cover from the Galra's search. Shiro plopped down into his chair and relaxed back, as did the other Paladins. The fight had drained them, especially Shiro from fighting Zarkon.
Allura slumped at the teludav, the stress of the battle had just now begun to overwhelm her, after the adrenaline of battle.
"Zarkon shouldn't be able to find us again." Allura indicated, breaking the silence. "We should be safe here for now." Shiro stood up and signed to Keith.
"You're right Shiro. We need to take a break." Keith signed, reading his fingers. Shiro continued something that everyone, annoyingly, couldn't understand.
"He says, 'we should still stay sharp in case something happens again,' he's suggesting we do training exercises... together." Shiro signed that last word, as Keith uttered it.
"Ok," Lance began slowly. "What do you have in mind?" Shiro thought for a second.
"Ok I think they're ready." Pidge said finally. Shiro read Keith's fingers before giving a nod and a smile. He then took the five Paladins down to the open training deck, which now had five large machines that faced each other in a pentagon-type formation. Standing next to one of them he began his explanation. And Keith, as usual, prepared to interpret.
"These simulators are much like the ones at the Garrison. But are designed like the Lions' cockpits. We can use these to run battle simulations."
"But why can't we just use the lions." Lance questioned. His crossed arms and raised eyebrow giving away his inability to understand.
"Because we don't want to risk drawing attention to ourselves." Keith passed on Shiro's response. "We're trying to lay low, until we're ready to take the fight to Zarkon again."
"Oh, yeah." Lance realized. Shiro then waved a hand to the simulators and each Paladin got into them, according to their color-scheme. Taking there places at the controls the screens lit up and appeared just how they do in the lions. "Hey you're right?! This does feel like the lions' cockpits." The Blue Paladin was genuinely surprised by this.
"He told you didn't he." Keith popped up on his screen, shooting him a frustrated look.
"Yeah, Yeah. Whatever let's get this thing started already." Lance brushed off Keith's expression and jerked the handles, as if that was going to start things up. Shiro appeared on Pidge's screen and he gestured to her.
"Oh right. So here's the scenario..." The Green Paladin tapped a a few buttons on her gauntlet. And each of their screens morphed into the battle scene. "Ok, take it away Princess."
"You're on a treacherous geyser planet," Allura told them. "And a Galra fleet and a ro-beast is attacking. But there are people down below that need protection. What do you do?" The paladins dodged the enemy fire and firing back at the fleets. Shiro tapped something on his screen, then sent it to Keith. Seeing it pop up, Keith studied it for only a second and knew what to do.
"Got it. Hunk, you and I'll take down that ro-beast. Pidge, Lance cover Shiro. We have to keep the Galra from reaching the city down there."
"Copy that. We're on it." Pidge nodded.
"Woah, woah, woah, who put Keith in charge?" Lance questioned.
"Um, because I ok the only one who knows his plan of attack." The Red Paladin answered, taking in a corrective tone.
The lions split ways and Shiro, Pidge, and Lance were met by the Galra mothership joined by several Galra fleets all around it.
"What the heck?!" Lance cried, half screaming. "We can't stop that thing by ourselves?!" Shiro thrust his lion forward.
"I guess we're gonna try." Pidge stated, following suit. Lance groaned before sending Blue into battle.
Hunk head-butted the ro-beast and Keith shot his lasers at it. Drawing there jaw blades, Keith sliced its arm open. Electrical energy spiked from it and the creature roared at them. Shooting it's lasers, they both dove away in avoidance. From the fingers of the creature came something much like the Komarr, dark energy which reached out to the two lions. The two received an electric shock, and spun out.
"Ok, this isn't working. We need to regroup." Keith grumbled between breaths. "Pidge, Lance how are things on you're end?" Keith jerked his handles maneuvering Red around to see the other Paladins as he said this.
"Ugh, not good." Lance reported. "There's too many of them."
"Keith, watch out!" Hunk knocked the Red lion out of the way, as another blast zapped between them, hitting the main ship. Seeing this Keith had an idea.
"That's it!" His eyes widened. "Hunk, we need to lure that thing to the main fleet. We can use the ro-beast's weapons to take out the Galra, and help the rest of the team."
"You got it!" The Yellow Paladin called back. Blasting the ro-beast with their lasers again they took off toward the Galra fleets. As creature returned fire, the two lions evaded, allowing the blasts to hit the Galra instead. When a blast cut Shiro off, he looked to see what the Yellow and Red lions were doing, and smiled proudly. By blasting the Galra ships and then the ro-beast the team were able to neutralize the Galra. Shiro then plunged the Black lion toward the central command ship, and into the bridge delivering a laser beam that knocked out all the power to the ship.
"Nice going Shiro!" Keith called. "Now we just have to deal with this guy." The lions now all faced the ro-beast. Shiro jetted up and the other lions followed suit, knowing what to do next.
Coming back down as Voltron, Shiro motioned for the sword and, drawing it, used it to slice at the creature.
"The geysers!! We can used them, just like we did the Zanthorium clusters!" Pidge called. Shiro gave her a thumbs up and they jetted to together weaving through the shooting water. Coming out the other side, they whipped around and sliced the creature right down the middle. It split in two and exploded, just like the gladiator ro-beast did. The Paladins cheered together as the screens flashed, confirming their victory. They trained a bit more, before all gathering together in the lounge. Lance plopped down in the long, round couch and sprawled out, laying his head all the way back.
"Ahh, three training simulations, four combat drills, and we still have time to chill." He kicked his legs up onto the coffee table, laying one over the other. And crossed his arms under his head. "We are so good."
"Don't forget the two team-building activities." Pidge reminded him, adjusting her glasses on her nose. Shiro turned to Keith a signed something.
"Hey, good work today." He said, smiling.
"Yeah," Keith signed back, "thanks."
"So..." Pidge's voice made everyone turn her way. "What do you guys want to talk about?" Her awkward posture, revealed her boredom. Shiro gestured his thoughts for Keith to share with the group.
"What if we did one more team-building activity."
"Ugh, more training." Lance dropped his head back again. But Shiro placed his hand up, as if asking him to hear him out.
"My team during the Kerberos mission were very close." Keith continued Shiro's story. "We were like family, which meant there were no secrets between us. I want us all to share one story about ourselves that the rest of us may not know."
"Um ok, I...guess we could try that?" Keith said, after a pause.
"So who's gonna go first?" Hunk asked openly. And the room fell silent once more each person scanning the others.
What is up everybody glad you guys are enjoying this story, as I said it was a very recent idea that I have really found that I like. But like in transformers with bumblebee's voice being all beeps and blips it's hard to vividly describe Shiro's silence. But I'm doing my best. As for transformers I've never written a fanfic for it but I might someday. Who knows. Anyway, as always, thanks so much for taking the time to read this. Thx!!!