**Author's note: So, good news: I am completely done with this story! I finally have the remaining chapters written out (there are 5 more left) and I'll try to post one a day. Then hopefully by the end of the week I'll be able to start the third story featuring Mari and the rest of Team Voltron! Yay! Also, who else is hyped for Season 5? I can't wait to see it, especially since I'll be back home on break when it comes out! xD
**I do not own Voltron: Legendary Defender!
Sitting in the cool shade of a nearby tree, Shiro sipped from his water pouch quietly as he watched Pidge and Hunk's newest mechanism straighten the Arusian's water tower. They were taking a short break for lunch, with Hunk and Coran having returned to the Castle in the Yellow Lion to prepare a picnic of sorts, leaving him, Allura, Lance, and Pidge to wait with the other Arusians. Shiro hadn't seen Keith and Mari for a while, but he was sure that they were fine. The repairs had been going well so far, much to his relief; the village was being cleaned up quite nicely, and they'd probably be done in the next hour or so.
"Do you know if there's any rope around here?"
Shiro raised a quizzical eyebrow as Keith suddenly approached, taking note of his angry gait and sour demeanor.
"Rope?" he asked. "What do you need rope for?"
"Mari needs it," Keith replied through gritted teeth. "Your sister's a piece of work, you know that?"
Sighing, Shiro lowered his drink. "What did she do now?"
"She's just…so stubborn!" Keith huffed exasperatedly.
"Tell me about it."
"And she can be so stupid too, speaking and acting without thinking!"
"Hm…Sounds like someone else I know," the Black Paladin smiled wryly at him and Keith just scowled, averting his gaze in mild embarrassment.
"I'm nothing like her," he mumbled and Shiro chuckled. "And she's nothing like what you told me."
"Yeah, well," Shiro shrugged tiredly. "She's wasn't like this a year ago. She's definitely changed."
And not in a good way, it seems, he added bitterly to himself, and his determination to talk to her immediately flared. They were on break now anyways; it was the perfect time to find her and—
Klaizap's panicked shouts suddenly cut through his thoughts, and the nearby Arusians startled as their bravest warrior stumbled into view before them. Pure fear was written all over the little alien's face as he looked around desperately and he flung himself at the nearest paladin, Lance.
"Whoa! What's wrong, little guy?" Lance asked, taken aback as Klaizap clung onto the human's arm.
"It is Mari-ko!" Klaizap shrilled. "She fell down the cliff! She is not moving!"
Shiro's blood ran cold and his heart nearly stopped. Mari had fallen of the cliffs? How? And she wasn't moving. She was hurt—or worse. Despite the millions of questions that were arising in his head, the sheer terror that began to flood his system propelled Shiro onto his feet and he hurried towards Klaizap.
"Show me!" he couldn't help but shout, unable to mask the fear in his voice. "Quickly!"
With a fretful Klaizap leading the way, the paladins and Allura bolted towards the cliffs. They neared a damaged hut and found an elderly Arusian woman peeking over the edge, murmuring incomprehensibly and nervously wringing her hands. She looked up in surprise upon their approach and began to frantically point down the cliff face.
"She is down there!" she exclaimed, tears beginning to pool in her round and innocent eyes. "She is unmoving!"
Everyone peered down the rocky slope to see Mari laying flat on her back on the ground below. Her eyes were shut and, as the Arusians had said, she was unmoving.
"Oh quiznak…" Lance hissed, cringing at the sight. "Are we gonna have to air lift her out of here?"
"No, there's too much foliage down below to do that," Shiro shook his head, his heart racing as he frantically tried to piece together a plan of action. "We're going to have to go down there and carry her to an open space. Lance, head back to the main village and find as much rope as you can," he ordered. Then pointing a ways off to his right he added, "Pidge, take the Green Lion and wait for us in that field."
"Got it," she nodded in confirmation.
"Yes sir!" Lance saluted before he and Pidge ran off to complete their tasks. Once they were gone, Allura activated her earring comms.
"Coran, are you and Hunk still at the Castle?" she asked.
"Yes, princess," he confirmed. "Hunk and I were just about to head back—"
"Stay there," she ordered. "Mari's been injured and I need you to prepare a healing pod."
"Right away princess!"
"Wait, what?" Hunk's voice piped up over the comms. "Mari's been what?"
"She's hurt, Hunk," Allura replied grimly. "She's fallen off the cliffs."
"What?" Hunk practically squeaked before delving into panic mode. "Oh no! H-Holy crow, uh…uh…how bad does it look? Is there blood? Broken bones? Is she breathing? Please tell me she's breathing!"
"We don't know yet, Hunk," Shiro said, his voice wavering slightly and his eyes never leaving the body that was sprawled out across the cliff floor. "We're going down to check on her right now."
Allura's brow furrowed and she spun on her heel to glare at the two Arusians, causing them to flinch slightly. "How did this happen?" she demanded, struggling to keep the anger from her voice and remain calm.
"Mari-ko was retrieving the elder's relic from the cliff ledge," Klaizap explained. "But she lost her footing and fell."
Keith stiffened, a mixture of anger and guilt etched in his features, and Shiro cast him an incredulous look.
"This is what she was doing?" he asked and the Red Paladin gave him a solemn nod.
"And you did nothing to stop her?" Allura turned on him now, frowning angrily. "You shouldn't have let her—"
"I did try!" Keith snapped, causing the princess to bristle at being so rudely interrupted. "But she was already climbing down before I could stop her. That's why I left, so I could get a rope or something to pull her back up."
"Keith, why didn't you just tell me?" Shiro inquired, obviously distraught. "I could've stopped her or just gone down to get this relic myself."
After a moment of hesitation, Keith said quietly, "She made it very clear that she didn't want help, not from me, not from anyone…especially not from you."
Those words were like a blow to the gut, as if Mari herself had just mercilessly kicked him in the stomach. She didn't want his help? Since when was she too proud to ask anyone, especially her big brother, for help? Sure she usually insisted upon doing things herself, but not when it came to doing such risky tasks. No, this went beyond her simply being too proud to ask for assistance; she was purposefully distancing herself and it was starting to tear her apart. Mari was becoming dangerously reckless and secretive and mean, pushing everyone away and causing her to neglect her own safety.
And for the love of God, Shiro just couldn't figure out why! Why was Mari doing all of this? It was infuriating not knowing, and this accident had crossed the line. Shiro was putting his foot down, once and for all. He was going to have a heart-to-heart chat with his sister whether she liked it or not.
If she made it out of this alive anyways.
When Lance finally returned with a long, thick rope, Shiro instructed Allura and Keith to hold onto one end and be ready to catch him if he somehow slipped. Then he quickly but carefully tied the other end around his waist before beginning his descent.
The cliff face wasn't too steep and it had plenty of ledges to grab, much to Shiro's relief, and he crawled down the rocky slope at an efficient pace. In seemingly no time at all, his feet reconnected with solid ground and he scrambled to untie the rope around him before kneeling next to his sister's still form. His heart thumping rapidly, he fearfully inspected her body, his eyes raking over every inch of her for signs of injury.
Mari's suit was ripped in several places, most likely acquired from her fall down, revealing several thin lines of blood and dark bruises on her pale skin. Her fingers were red and dirty, covered with scratches and dust. Upon closer inspection, Shiro was relieved to find a pulse, thank God, but her breaths were uneven and thin. He had no clue what sort of internal damage had been inflicted upon her body, but with how far she had fallen, it couldn't be good.
"Please don't be bad, please don't be bad," Shiro murmured to himself as he activated his gauntlet scanner. After giving Mari a quick once-over with the device, an x-ray image of her body appeared on the holo-screen being projected by his glove. Several areas of the skeleton were highlighted, bringing Shiro's attention to the cracked ribs and tiny fracture in the back of Mari's skull. Thankfully none of her internal organs had been damaged and her spine looked fine, but she had a concussion and the back of her head was bleeding.
"Shiro! How does she look?" Allura called down to him, and he glanced up to see her, Keith, and Lance at the top of the cliff, waiting anxiously for his response.
How was he supposed to answer her? Mari wasn't in immediate danger of dying but she was far from being all right.
"She's stable!" he shouted grimly in response. "But I don't want to risk moving her like this. Lance, Keith, see if the Arusians have a stretcher in their medical supplies."
As the boys disappeared from view to do what they were told, Shiro knelt down next to his sister, taking her hand in his own flesh one and squeezing it gently.
"You're gonna be okay," he murmured more to himself than her, desperately trying to calm his pounding heart and reassure himself that she really would be all right. "You're gonna be okay. Niisan is here now."
Mari remained limp and unmoving on the ground, showing no indication that she had heard him. She looked so peaceful just laying there, her dark hair having fallen out of its bun and forming a halo of sorts around her head, and her pale skin seemingly glowing in the sunlight. It was almost as if she were simply sleeping, dead even, but the blood-stained grass beneath her head and the bruises and scratches on her skin indicated a much more violent reason for her unconsciousness state.
Shiro couldn't help but smile ruefully as he recalled her fifth grade class production of Snow White: Mari had originally been cast as the fair princess herself (due to her resemblance to the princess and her singing voice), but she lost the role when she beat up Prince Charming for actually trying to kiss her during their first dress rehearsal. Shiro had been visiting home for the weekend and had intended to surprise Mari at play practice, only to enter the theater and find her pouncing on the poor prince. It took Shiro and two teachers a good five minutes to finally pry the fighting duo off of one another, and Mari was promptly demoted to a member of the choir.
She hadn't minded though; she had been glad to be out of that frilly dress, and she was overjoyed by the fact that Shiro was visiting from the Garrison for the weekend. They had stayed up all night together catching up: Mari told him about the bojutsu lessons she had begun taking as well as her new friend, Jia. She rambled on about their class field trip to the observatory, how she had understood everything that was said during the presentation and how she had known all the answers to the presenter's questions. In turn, Shiro told her about life at the Garrison, about all the classes he was taking and what he was learning. He brought up the flight simulator, his friend, Matthew Holt, and he even mentioned the scary Commander Iverson. Then they had just goofed off, pillow fighting, watching scary and silly movies, eating junk food. Shiro was even going to take Mari on a joyride around the neighborhood on his new motorcycle, but their father was quick to shut that idea down.
The memory fading already, Shiro felt his throat close and his jaw clenched furiously. Dammit, what was wrong with them? Why was Mari pushing him away? Why couldn't he just talk to her? Why had everything changed between them? They were questions only Mari had the answers to, and Shiro was going to have to pry them out of her once she had healed and woken up.
After what seemed like an eternity later, Lance finally scampered down the cliff side with the stretcher. He set it on the ground next to Mari and together he and Shiro gently slid her onto it. Given the size of the Arusians, the stretcher was a bit too small for the whole length of her body to fit on it, leaving her legs to dangle over the edge of one side.
"Okay," Shiro muttered, tying the final strap that would keep his sister from falling out of the stretcher once it was lifted. "Lance, on the count of three we're going to—Lance!"
Off to his left the Blue Paladin was crouched down several feet away in front of a small patch of shrubbery. He jumped slightly at Shiro's exclamation and he quickly stood to face his leader. A baseball-sized, crystal ball sat perfectly in the palm of his hand, multiple blue, misty, and glowing sparks swirling lazily underneath the glossy surface.
"What is that?" Shiro asked, frowning at the object, and Lance simply shrugged.
"It was just sitting in that bush over there," he said, jabbing one thumb at the shrub. "Don't think this belongs in the forest though."
"He is correct!" The two paladins looked up to see the elderly Arusian woman waving at them from the top of the cliff. "That is the relic Mari-ko was retrieving for me!"
"We'll bring it back to you once we take care of Mari," Shiro called up to the Arusian and Lance carefully tucked the orb into one of the pouches on his belt. Then gesturing to the stretcher, he said to the Blue Paladin, "Let's go, buddy. Pidge is waiting for us."
After Mari had been safely loaded onto the Green Lion, Shiro and Pidge flew back to the Castle to help Coran place her in one of the healing pods. Hunk returned to the Arusian village in Yellow, leaving him, Lance, Keith, and Allura to wrap up the repairs.
Everyone regrouped in silence just outside the small Arusian town as they took a moment to digest what had just happened. Another one of their teammates had a brush with death, first Lance, and now Mari. It reminded them that anything could go wrong at anytime, and this little fact was even more frightening now that they were battling an entire empire of destructive and merciless purple aliens. If they wanted to get out of this war alive, then they had to stick together, to protect one another. They were a team now and everyone needed to trust one another, especially Mari.
"Why…Why didn't she ask us for help?" Hunk finally broke the silence, his expression full of hurt and worry.
"Cuz she hates all of us," Lance groaned and Hunk looked at him fearfully.
"What?! No she doesn't!" he shrilled, and he looked to Allura and Keith to back him up. "She doesn't, right?"
"She does not hate us, Hunk," Allura said. "…At least I don't think she does. I am sure there must be some good reason she did not come to us for assistance."
"There isn't!" Keith suddenly snapped, his anger resurfacing. "She's just a stubborn idiot that's too proud to ask for help."
"Or…maybe she's just afraid to drag others into her own problems," Hunk suggested quietly and the others shared brief looks of concern.
"Paladins of Voltron, princess."
The group started and turned to see the old Arusian woman from the cliff standing before them, a sorrowful look on her face.
"I am deeply sorry for causing you so much trouble," she said, bowing slightly and sounding like she was on the verge of tears. "I am responsible for Mari-ko's injuries. I should not have asked her to retrieve my relic for me."
Allura tried her best to smile reassuringly. "Do not worry. You are our allies now, it is our sworn duty to help you and your people in any way that we can, especially after all the trouble we've caused your village," she said kindly. "Besides, Mari will be just fine once she spends some time in our castle's healing pods."
The old Arusian displayed a brief smile, but it quickly faded, her guilt having not been assuaged. Next to her, Lance suddenly brightened and he opened his belt pouch before producing the orb to her.
"I believe this belongs to you, ma'am," he said, leaning down slightly to hand it to her. The old woman's eyes widened at the sight of the crystal ball, but she made no move to take it from him.
"It has changed!" she whispered in awe, her eyes following the dancing balls of light contained inside the sphere. "Those were not there before."
"What?" Lance asked, raising a confused eyebrow at her.
"There wasn't anything inside that when Mari and I first found it," Keith explained. "It just looked like a regular glass ball. …Lance, what did you do to it?"
"Nothing! This is exactly how I found it!" he insisted, waving the item back and forth in front of Keith's face and causing the Red Paladin to scowl in annoyance.
"Hold on a tick," Allura said and she easily snatched the object from Lance.
"Hey!" he protested, but the princess ignored him as she inspected the ball closely.
"This looks a lot like…a memory storage unit," she realized, her eyes widening in surprise.
"What? Like the one in the Castle that has your dad's memories in it?" Hunk asked.
"Yes, but this is so much simpler than the technology we use to extract memories," Allura frowned. Then addressing the Arusian woman she said, "If you don't mind my asking, how did you stumble upon this relic?"
"I know not of its origins," the elder admitted sadly. "It was simply handed down to me by my ancestors. It has been in my family for many generations, and it has never once contained those little stars."
"Memories," Allura murmured to herself. "I wonder…could they be Mari's?"
"Whoa!" Lance exclaimed, moving closer to get a better look at the orb in the princess's hand. "So those wispy glowy things are all of Mari's memories?"
"Not all, but they could be some of them, yes," Allura nodded in reply. Then turning to the Arusian woman once more, she inquired gently, "Would you mind if I held onto this for a while? I'd like to examine it further if that is all right with you."
"Certainly princess," the elder nodded. "I do not mind parting with it for a while, especially if it could be of some use to you and Mari-ko."
"Thank you," Allura smiled gratefully. "I promise you, we shall return it before our departure from Arus."
As the old lady hobbled off, Lance looked to the princess unsurely, glancing between her and the orb worriedly. "Are you going to try to look at Mari's memories?" he asked.
"That is my intention, yes," she nodded curtly in reply.
"Isn't that, I don't know…kind of invasive? You know, a breach of privacy?" he said hesitantly.
"You want to get to know her better, don't you?" Allura raised one eyebrow at him and he shrugged.
"Yeah, but I don't wanna go snooping around in her private thoughts!"
"Yeah! Yeah, what if we find something super personal?" Hunk pitched in. "Or something really embarrassing? Like, what if we see a memory of her in the bathroom or getting changed or something like that? Guys, she's gonna kill us if she finds out we pried!"
"I'm trying to help her this way," Allura sighed. "Whatever is going on with Mari seems to go much deeper than any of us could ever understand. If she hasn't been willing to open up to even Shiro, then there is absolutely no way she is going to confide in any of us. But maybe with this,"—she nodded to the crystal ball in her hand—"we can find some answers."
Translations:
niisan=big brother