Chapter 50: The Black Paladins(Lotor's POV)
Lotor groans, the pain in his stomach still hurting. Blinking his eyes open, he sees he's in a Galra Cruiser control room. Which doesn't make any sense as he was in the Castle of Lions bridge…Memories come rushing back to him. The Altean from the colony, his shock, Shiro's screams…..
"You may go now. Lead the Black Paladin away from here…."
He stiffens, recognizing that voice. It's the bloody witch! The one that tormented the Alteans, the people he saved, for her own experiments.
"Lotor…." the witch says, hood covering her face. But her voice, it has concern for him in it. Which can't be possible. That witch has done nothing but make his life hell. Always snitching on him, making him pay by watching her cruel experiments on things he loved, like the planet he was assigned too. No he must have misheard her, being dizzy from the pain and all.
"I'm so sorry. But I couldn't think of a better way to bring you to me….."
"So you could what? Kill me?" He growls, interrupting her.
"No of course not!" She then intakes a huge breath, and pulls off her hood.
His eyes widen in astonishment, her face, instead of dark purple, is tan, making her red marks that slice across her cheeks more noticeable. More Altean than Galra looking. Her hair is still stark white, but her eyes aren't plain yellow anymore. Instead she has yellow irises surrounded by white.
"You see… Lotor.. I'm Honerva…."
"No! You can't be! My mother died in childbirth, my father told me so, along with the whole Empire. Just no….By the ancients no…." He shouts, unable to believe what the witch just said.
"But it's true, I'm afraid." The witch says.
"It's not. It can't be. All you've ever done is harm me, punished me, pushed me into my father's wrath…."
"And for that I'm sorry," pleads the witch, her eyes brimming with emotion. That he needs to believe her, believe her words. But it can't be true. It's impossible. No mother would ever do the things she did…
"And I know there's no way to make up for what I did, but I want to start over….."
"Are you serious?! After all the things you did, all the harsh punishments. Do you really think I would start over with you even if you were my mother? A mother would never do the things you did!" He screeches.
He notices her wince, genuine pain flashes in her eyes and he shakes his head. No, it's not true. This is just another one of her tricks, one of her games, one of her punishments. It simply can't be true.
"I was without my memories, I had no recollection of who I was, I'm sorry for causing you so much pain…. I just wasn't myself. Lotor, son, please. I'll try to make it up to you, just give me a chance, please."
His breath hitches, the genuine emotion he sees coming from the witch, her pleading eyes, her outstretched hand, the tears brimming in her eyes….. Lotor shakes his head.
Firmly he says, "No. I can't trust you, this has to be another trick. You want to punish me for killing my father and taking his place by pretending to be her…"
"No, that's not true! You've done wonderfully. You brought peace to this broken Empire, you made Voltron our allies, and all this you've done in spite of me not being there for you. I couldn't be more proud of you, son."
"No," he restates, "I cannot trust you. I do not want anything to do with you."
Tears fall down the witch's face, but she straightens, and wipes the tears away.
"Fine. Let him go…."
"Honerva, are you crazy?! Let him go, but isn't this what you wanted, isn't this what you've been working towards ever since you regained your memories?" shouts a familiar voice. He turns to look at the people standing beside him, stunned, he sees Zethrid, Ezor and Acxa. His ex-generals. The people who betrayed him, locked him up in a cell.
"It doesn't matter. He's made his choice. Let him go." She then disappears in a puff of purple smoke, leaving him with ex-generals.
Leaving Lotor stunned. Along with his ex-generals.
Marinette's POV
She descends down through the secret base on the elevator. Shiro whats gotten into you? Kidnapping Lotor, leaving through a wormhole, going to a ship and then leading me away from said ship. Just what are you planning?
When the elevator door opens, she sees Shiro. And it brings a sense of Deja-vu. Like she's seen this place before. But she suppresses the thought. Shiro is more important.
"Shiro, are you okay?"
"I'm more than okay, Marinette. I've never felt better," he says, his voice laced with venom, which makes her flinch. It's so different from how Shiro normally speaks….But before she can linger on that thought, she notices his arm start to glow, and he takes charge heading straight for her.
Quickly she dodges and yells, "Tikki, Spots On!"
Then she twists her yo-yo and aims it for Shiro's arm as he turns to face her. With all her might she throws him, making him land farther on the little plank they're on. His body bounces a little, and he stays still for a moment, making her wonder if she hurt him too badly.
But he gets up, growling, blood dripping from his mouth.
"And here I thought you'd be easy to take out, little bug. Guess I was wrong, but it's more fun this way."
"I don't want to fight you Shiro! Snap out of it!"
But he doesn't listen and continues to run towards her. This time she isn't able to dodge and he lands a punch, which sends her flying backwards.
She groans from the harsh landing, but quickly rolls to the side as Shiro attempts to punch her while she's down. His robotic arm instead hits the metal, making a dent. Relieved that she dodged it in time, she backs away from him, swinging her yo-yo for defense.
He smiles as he moves closer.
Desperate, she starts looking for anything that can help her, but all she sees is white pods that hang over them and the vast expanse of space below them.
Her heart pounds, and she sighs, thinking of one thing that can help her now.
"Lucky Charm!"
A ladybug theme sword drops into her hands.
"A sword isn't going to help you little bug," Shiro cackles as he moves in closer.
Quickly she looks for anything. She then sees Shiro's robotic arm go into a ladybug pattern and she looks at her sword. Breathing heavily, she knows what she needs to know. This time she charges, taking the slowly advancing Shiro by surprise. She swings towards his robotic arm, but he's swifter and manages to deflect the blade with the arm instead.
The force of blade hitting Shiro's arm makes her stumble back a bit, which Shiro takes advantage of. He uses an uppercut punch to hit her again, sending her flying. She hits a platform hard and groans.
She tries to get up, with her sword in her hand, but she falls due to the pain she sustained from hitting the platform. Her jaw also flares in pain from the punch Shiro gave her. Marinette lays on her back and she hears a metallic sound. She groans, she has to get up, has to fight.
Suddenly Shiro is overtop of her and swings his arm towards her head, saying, "Bye bye little bug,"
But she stops his arm from hitting herself by deflecting it with her blade.
"Please Shiro stop this. You're my friend, I don't want to hurt you…." She says, struggling to keep his arm from going anywhere nearer to her face. She feels heat on her right cheek and she groans from the pain it elicits from her skin.
Suddenly she feels a burst of strength overcome her and with all her might pushes his arm away with the sword and quickly jumps on her feet and slices the robotic arm off. Heaving from exhaustion, and pain, she looks toward Shiro and smiles faintly.
His eyes are back to normal, that's good.
"Marinette," He gasps.
Suddenly the base shifts and an explosion can be heard. It rocks the platform they're standing on and debris starts to fall everywhere. One of the debris hits Shiro, knocking him unconscious. He slumps to the ground and starts to fall.
She dashes to his side and tries to keep him from falling off the platform. But another explosion rocks the building, tipping the platform, making them slide faster to falling into space.
And then everything turns white.