Chapter two: Puzzled
Shiro was leaning against the wall hunched over with his hands braced on his knees, when the team came out to find him.
"Shiro?" Keith laid a hand in his shoulder. "Are you ok?" Shiro's breaths were abrupt and noticeably stressed.
"Ok, you're right." Shiro breathed between gasps. "Something's definitely wrong here." Keith's puzzled gaze suddenly turned to alarm in hearing this.
Shiro stared up at the ceiling, his eyes focused on the dull white ceiling. The lights up there blinded him a little, as a small red laser scanned slowly over his body. As the laser passed over his eyes, he blinked with the sudden red light shining into them. Keith and the rest of the Paladins watched in silence, hoping to get an answer from this. The laser stopped above Shiro's head and powered off.
"Nothing." Sam gasped under his breath, frustrated with the outcome.
"So what does that mean?" Lance wondered unfortunately.
"It means we're still at square one." Pidge explained, holding her computer in her hand. Sam tapped at the tablet in his hand.
"Nothing is coming up here." He said. "Maybe the issue is psychological, at least enough to not be detected by normal medical procedure."
"Yeah cause since when has anything with my body been easy. Why would my mind be any different." Shiro commented dryly. The team's eyes widened by this response.
"Shiro, you don't actually believe that... do you?" Keith was afraid of what Shiro was going to say next. The former Black Paladin looked blankly up at him.
"My overall health has been the one thing that I've struggled with for most of my life. My time in space has changed my situation, but my challenges haven't." Shiro's eyes were glazed over, they felt hallow except for Keith's reflection staring back at him. A sudden glint of light blue light spiraled around his pupils, this got their attention immediately.
"Ok, let's get you up for a second, Shiro." Sam decided, bracing his arm against Shiro's and pulled him upright. He then hit a couple of buttons on his table and a device craned slowly down from the ceiling. Sam pulled a seat up to the bed in front of Shiro and adjusted the device into place. "Relax your chin on the rest there and look straight into the lenses." Sam instructed. When Shiro did so the light from inside the machine made him squint a little.
"I'm sorry Sam." Shiro blinked. "But what am I looking at?"
"Well- it should be a hot-air balloon." Sam was taken aback by this. "Can't you see it?"
"No, not really, the light's too bright."
"Hmm." Sam scratched his chin. "Maybe I should try a different light ray wavelength." He guessed and began adjusting and re-adjusting things on his tablet and then to the device. Each type of light bothered him in different ways, so Sam changed it yet again. And this time it was way too bright for him, his head shot back and he covered his eyes with his right hand.
"This isn't working." Keith decided defensively.
"You're right." Sam sighed. "Let's try one more wavelength." He tapped away and then peered around at Shiro. "Try that." Shiro trusted Sam and peered back into the lenses, and was amazed by what he saw.
"I can see the hot-air balloon." He breathed in surprise. Keith smiled softly, but noticed that Sam wasn't smiling.
"Everything ok?" He asked, softly. Sam was silent.
"Dad?" Pidge was beginning to worry.
"I don't understand it." Sam responded finally. "This wavelength of light doesn't exist on earth."
"So?" Lance commented, not following his thought process.
"I've seen this wavelength before. And for some reason this is the only light that Shiro hasn't responded negatively to." Shiro peeked around at Sam.
"What do you think this means?" Allura wondered.
"I'm not sure," Sam shook his head with a sigh. "Let's take a closer look at your eyes, Shiro." Sam flipped a switch. And when Shiro looked into the lenses again , the picture was gone... only a light remained.
"Wow!" Sam gasped in wonder.
"What?" Keith asked quickly. "What is it?"
"See for yourself." Sam slid back to allow Keith to peer into the magnified lenses.
"Woah." He breathed, Keith couldn't believe it. Sam pressed a button, and the big screen next to them lit up and showed what Keith and Sam had seen. The magnification of Shiro's eyes show tiny veins of blue light moving around his pupils.
"What is that?" Pidge was cocked her head at this. Allura touched the screen for a moment.
"It's quintessence." She said finally. "Excess quintessence building up within him."
"From what?" Hunk asked as the device retracted back into the ceiling.
"I don't know." She sighed. She turned to Shiro. "What exactly has been going on?"
"Believe me, I wish I knew... but it's hard to explain." Shiro shrugged then faced straight ahead and lowered his gaze to the floor. Keith thought for a moment, pondering this thought in the back of his mind.
"Where have you experience it the most?" He asked after a long pause.
"Well the places where's it's happened the worst was in the Atlas, near the lions and in that game simulator." Shiro recalled, carefully.
"Then let's go there and see if we can figure out what's going on." Sam decided, determination painted boldly in his words. Shiro stood up and they all headed for the hangers. The simulation room was dark and empty, Sam snapped a watch like device onto Shiro's left hand.
"This will hopefully help us when and... if it happens again. The information it gathers may help us determine the cause."
"Ok," Pidge shrugged. "How do we do that?"
"By playing the game." Sam responded simply.
After playing the game for about five minutes, Shiro felt that vibrating sensation return. His character fluctuated in and out, and he stopped in his tracks. He felt a little dizzy, grabbing his head and closing his eyes. The sound of their voices and the other sounds around him faded away. It was as if he existed in another realm, one that existed at the same place in space-time as they were. Sam looked down at his screen, and the monitors pulsing on it. He looked back at Shiro.
"Shiro?" He said ending the game's illusion. As the world of Monsters Mana dissipated, Shiro was pulled slowly back into reality.
"I'm good." He breathed finally.
In the Atlas, the team spoke about the battle they'd won with the giant ship's help.
"We couldn't have won that battle without the Atlas." Lance recalled.
"And how you managed to make it transform like that." Keith commented thoughtfully, still amazed by this fact.
"Did you know the Atlas could do that, Dad?" Pidge questioned innocently.
"I hadn't the slightest clue." Sam admitted. "And I think the transforming part was all the crystal. The one of the Castle of Lions, it has so much power for such a small mass. And to think that thing powers a ship this big." He gestured around the room of the ship's bridge. "This ship as secrets nownot even I know, all thanks to that little crystal." Allura smiled thoughtfully. She was glad that, even in its destruction, the Castle of Lions was still being useful. But then, a blue light in the floor caught her eye, the light boldly outlined a panel in the floor.
"What's that?" The princess asked.
"It's the Atlas's power core." Sam was half alarmed by this. Pressing a button on the panel to his right, the panel popped open and began to rise out of the floor. The crystal shone brighter than it ever had before. It was so bright that the team had to shield their eyes. But, strangely enough, the pulsing light didn't bother Shiro at all. But then he suddenly felt the same vibrations and the crystal slowly stopped glowing. And seemingly on its own the crystal lowered back into the floor.
"Ok." Lance lowered his arms with a puzzled expression on his face. "That was creepy."
"More like strange." Allura corrected. She glanced over at Shiro, and her pupils shrunk a little. "Shiro?" The former Black Paladin stood stalk still as if in a daze. His eyes glowed a light blue, and beads of this light emanated from it and faded away as slowly as they showed up. Shiro's eyes closed tightly and when he opened them again they were back to normal.
"Uh- wha-.." he trailed off coming out of the trance. He scanned around at the confused faces of his friends. Til his gaze landed on Pidge. The Green Paladin had on a focused painter face, with her phone up in front of her on the end of her outstretched arm.
"Are you- filming me?" Shiro was completely confused by this.
"Well I was." Pidge shurgged. "Becasue of this." She tapped the screen and turned the screen toward him. His gaze went blank in confusion, as he watched what she recorded.
The group of friends and colleagues stood gazing up at the lions of Voltron.
"I was just standing here looking at the lions and talking to Keith when it happened here." Shiro explained to the team. "I was thinking about.. what- went on out there." He sighed heavily, looking at the ground. He then glanced back at his friends with a slight, thoughtful smile. "I may not be a Paladin anymore..." he said. "But I'll never stop feeling like one."
"Come on Shiro." Keith encouraged him, shrugging and closing his eyes for a moment. "You'll never stop being a Paladin... Even if you're not piloting a lion anymore... You don't have to pilot a Voltron lion to be a Paladin. At least.. not in your case." Shiro's smile widened.
"That may be." He agreed. His smile then faded as he turned back to the Black lion, which sat quietly behind him. A glint of light shining off it's eye. "I guess I'll miss the feeling of flying the Black lion." He placed a hand on the lion's silvery leg. He was glancing up at the lion's face when he looked at his hand. The blue light was glowing around where his hand touched the lion. As he stared at it, his eyes developed a ring of blue around his pupils. The Black lion then stood up and roared loudly. The team couldn't believe it. Shiro turned around to face them, his eyes still glowing. As the lion came to life behind him, almost as though it were a real lion.
"Shiro?" Keith wasn't sure if Shiro could actually hear him. But Shiro just stood there, his blank stared validating his guess.
"Uhh, what's going on." Hunk asked wearily, half suspicious and half scared, as he often was.
"Yeah, this is really starting to creep me out." Lance agreed. The Black lion leaned down as if to sniff each person. And, crazy enough, Shiro's eyes and head seemed to follow. It looked at Allura and then lifted its head the glance up past them. They all peeked over the shoulders to follow its gaze. Only to see Matt coming over to them. At that moment the lion's eyes stopped glowing, and Shiro snapped out of his daze.
"Hey guys whatcha doing?" Matt asked cheerfully. He seemed to look passed everyone and right at Shiro. "Hey what's up with Shiro?" He asked innocently.
"That's what we've been trying to figure out." Sam told him. As Shiro came forward slowly.
"Any luck?" Wondered Matt.
"No so far." Sam sighed unfortunately.
"Guys." Shiro's voice made everyone look in his direction. "I think I was just seeing through the Black lion's eyes." The team looked around at each other. This situation was getting weirder and weirder. They couldn't help thinking.
