Chapter eighteen
"Shiro, it's great to see you again kiddo." Micheal smiled, clasping Shiro's hand in his, as they pulled it into a hug.
"I can't believe that you're here!" Shiro breathed. "And how can you talk?"
"My body was merely a prison of silence, but I always had a voice... even if you never heard it." Micheal shrugged, releasing his nephew.
"I heard it once." Shiro responded. "But then you left me." Micheal's face flashed with pain and loss as he dropped his gaze to the floor.
"I know." His uncle murmured. "And I'm sorry about that. I know how torn up you'd be if I died. Wish I'd have had a choice." Shiro's eyebrows furrowed together, seeing the genuine apologetic expression across the older man's face.
"But what are you doing here, son?" Micheal soon looked up again, a grin crossing his face. "You don't look to be that old to be dead yet?"
"I..I'm not.. dead." Shiro responded, half fearing to utter this word, but didn't fully understand why. Perhaps he was afraid of being wrong.
"Then how are you here?" Micheal questioned innocently. "You can't tell me you're just here for the fun of it."
"I didn't come here..uh- I-... something.. brought me here." Shiro stuttered trying to make sense of it.
"The only thing I can think of, is that you're getting too close to the edge." Micheal guessed, his fingers finding his chin thoughtfully. "And if you don't fight now... it's over." Shiro's eyebrows furrowed in confusion, but then it hit him and his eyes widened.
"You mean...-"
"You'll be stuck here." His uncle cut him off. "For good."
"No!" Shiro gasped.
"You've got it fight your way back. You have too much life to live, before you should join me here." Micheal placed a hand on Shiro's shoulder. "Fight. There's someone who needs you..." Suddenly Shiro heard Keith's voice yelling and grunting, as a small memory-like bubble showed the Red Lion blazing through the sky in his blinding, vengeful rampage.
"Keith." Shiro breathed, in seeing this.
"He needs you, Shiro." Micheal told him stand a foot or two behind him. "Go to him... save your friends..." Shiro hadn't noticed Micheal slowly fade away behind him, but when he looked back to where he once was; he discovered that his uncle no longer stood there. Turning toward the picture again it burst into light and then darkness followed.
Light blue energy began to slowly flow from the Black lion and into the beams of purple light; all flowing into the main ship.
"It's sucking the energy out of the Black Lion!!" Keith called from his lion, plunging into another ship and bursting out the other side.
"Don't worry guys! We've got a plan!!" Coran shouted over the com.
"We're in position Coran." Allura told him, hunching over the teludav; determination plastered onto her face. "FIRE!!" Coran bashed the button; acting on the command. The castle emitted sound waves that enveloped the sphere-shaped cluster of Galra fleets. A single beam of icy blue energy blasting directly through the blockade of ships, and sliced down the forcefield shattering it.
"What's this!!!" Zarkon thundered angrily. As the ship shook under their feet, throwing them all off balance.
"We've disrupted their extraction sequence." Allura called finally. "Paladins, get in there and take out those tractor beams, now!!"
"You heard the Princess." Keith remarked to the others. "Let's get those tractor beams." He thrust his lion forward, and the other Paladins soon followed. Using their jaw blades and lasers the five lions disabled on beam after another. While the Castle worked to neutralize the other ships still around them. With one final blow, Keith had finally freed the Black Lion; but the lion remained motionless. It's eyes were dark and its lights out, it showed no signs of life at all.
"Shiro, are you ok?! Shiro?!.. Shiro!!" Kieth addressed him several times, no response.
"He won't be able to hear you, Keith!" Pidge reminded him.
"Guys" Keith called to them. "We need to get Shiro and the Black Lion out of here. Now!"
"Copy that!" Pidge called. "Lance, Hunk, let's clear a path. For Keith and Shiro."
Shiro ears rang, but that ring descended into total silence once more. The motion on the screen showing a picture very different from what he'd last remembered. His head ached and the scratch across his chest throbbed severely; almost to the point he couldn't breathe without a stabbing pain cutting each breath short. He was almost positive he had aggravated his cracked ribs, because of the stabbing knife-like pain in his left side. Shiro grunted painfully as he sat himself up, the piercing pain predictably there. He slowly reached for the handles tightly gripping them.
The Black lion's light came on and it gave a growling roar.
"Shiro's back on line!" Keith stated. He showed up on Shiro's screen.
"Shiro, you ok?" Keith signed quickly. Shiro gave a dazed groan, then responded with a thumbs up. Keith sighed with relief. "Thank goodness." He said, closing his eyes for a moment. "Now let's get out of here!" Shiro watched the screen, as the red lion turned and jetted off toward the castle; after the other lions. Shiro wasted no time in following them. Red turned around one last time to deliver a blast to the Galra central command ship; before continuing on, diving into the wormhole with the rest of the team.
When they were several galaxies away again, the Paladins returned to the bridge. Shiro staggered into the room, he reached for the back of his chair and guided himself around it to sit down. Taking a seat he laid back with his head pressed against the back of the chair, closing his eyes firmly; his whole body finally relaxing.
"So what happened out there?" Keith asked, mostly directing the question to Shiro, but keeping it open to everyone.
"It appeared to be some type of energy-sucking device built into the tractor beam." Coran explained, bringing up a video of the incident on the screen.
"So if that's the case what did it do to Shiro?" Pidge asked, looking at Shiro, who remained motionless. The room fell silent, each person in their own mind of thought.
"I saw my uncle again." Shiro's signing earned him the glance of everyone else. "We were in this...void-type place." Shiro's eyes were almost half closed now. "Then I saw you guys and knew I had to fight my way back, but then... something brought me back." Keith was translating this whole time for the rest of the team to understand.
"I bet that was the blast from the ship that did it." Allura guessed.
"Maybe." Shiro gave a slight nod, rising slowly from his chair.
"So.. you saw him again?..." Hunk recapped, hesitantly looking up. "Your uncle?"
"Yes." Shiro motioned after reading Keith's fingers. "He also encouraged me to fight way my back. I honestly wasn't sure I could there for a second."
"So... you were... gonna... give up?" Pidge thought she'd cry. Shiro laid a hand on her shoulder gaining her moistening eyes' attention.
"I've had many near-death experiences..." Shiro told her. "But this time felt different... and I wasn't sure I had a choice." Pidge's wide eyes teared up more... her expression softened, and she thrust herself forward to hug him. He grunted at the pain from his injury, but then returned the hug. A tear escaped the Green Paladin's eyes and meandered down her cheek; the warmth of Shiro's body and the sound of his pounding heart helping to calm her. His unspoken words hinted at something; which she realized fairly quickly; the realization felt like a kick to the chest. One she desired to never feel again. She finally drew away and wiped away her tears, a smile showing through her sadness. Shiro returned a tender smile, his hand finding its way to her shoulder again.
"You appear to be breathing a bit strangely." Allura observed, peering out from behind Pidge. "Are you alright?" Shiro studied Keith's message then began his reply.
"Nah, I'm fine. Just need to take a break. After all that has happened, it's just been a long few days." Pidge stepped forward and gently pressed her ear to Shiro's chest once more, and heard exactly what Allura meant.
"Your lungs do sound a little stressed." She said quite decisively. "I think we should get you into a healing pod for a little while." Shiro was silent, and the team wondered if he'd understood them.
"Shiro? You with us?" Lance spoke up. Shiro nodded, as though he'd heard him; but kept his blank expression. Pidge, then, took Shiro's hand, which had been on her shoulder this whole time, and led him away. Keith and the rest of the team following. Arriving at the infirmary, Pidge shoved Shiro into a separate room to get changed into the white suit for the cryopod. The Green Paladin's body language told the silent Black Paladin she wasn't giving him a choice in the matter. So Shiro followed the indicated instruction, soon returning. When he emerged from the other room, Pidge took his hand and guided him into the pod; putting up the cryogenic shield. Shiro was soon in a deep cryogenic sleep, as the team stood watching... for a little while anyway.
Hey guys, happy New Year's Eve! So I think know now what to do and happily chapters nineteen and twenty will be easy to fet done, but we'll see. Thank you soooo much for reading it and I'm glad you enjoyed it!
More stories are planned, as always, and will be started at some point the future. How far into the future I don't know yet.
Also, I am pretty busy with the stories I have going currently, so I'm not sure how many requests I can take, but you can always share them with me anyway.
The next story I have planned to write is a crossover with Voltron: Legendary Defender and Voltron Force. I will try to share more details soon, still have a lot to do before it's ready to start.
Anyway thanks again for taking the time to read this story, I am super proud of this one and the comments have been fantastic!!! So stay tuned for the next chapters and I hope you enjoy them as well. Thx!!!!! ;D :)