Chapter 54: Defender of All Universes(Allura's POV)
"Destroy her!"
"Finish her!"
"Let's end this once and for all!"
Allura's eyes widened. Not once have we ever out loud called for someone's destruction. She can feel it, this desire to end this, to kill Zethrid and make sure she doesn't harm anyone. But Voltron is about saving people, not ending them. But her rage is blinding and overwhelming.
"We have to get out of here."
"What?!"
She repeats herself, "We have to get out of here!"
"This field is corrupting us because we've been in it for too long, just like Zarkon. It turned him into a monster!"
"Poor, sad, pathetic, weak Allura. Too afraid to use all this magnificent power just like your father!"
"Allura…We're out of control!" Lance exclaims.
"Yeah, our systems are overloading!"
"How do we end this?"
Blue roars and Allura smiles, "We give Zethrid all the power she wants."
She closes her eyes and imagines Voltron shooting out all their excess power. She feels the power radiating and feels the burst of power that drives the mech away from them.
"Let's grab Zethrid and get out of here." Shiro says.
"No we can't. We have to get out here now!" Pidge rebuttals.
"We must save her!" It's the Voltron way.
"No Pidge is right, if we stay in here much longer, Voltron is done for."
"But we can't just leave her!"
"We have to get out of here now!" Lance shouts.
"Allura, Zethrid made her choice, it's time to go." Shiro tells her softly.
They head out of the Quintessence field and Allura leans back in the chair. They were right, Voltron could not handle being in there for much longer. But their code is to save everyone and she can't help but feel that there could have been something they could've done to take Zethrid with them.
"Thank you Allura. You saved us." Shiro says.
"I just wish we could've saved her too."
"I know, Allura. But there wasn't anything we could've done for her, despite us wanting to."
"But…"
"Thank goodness you're back!" Coran cheerfully yells.
Shiro responds, "Zethrid is no longer a threat."
"Right. I'm afraid there's a much bigger threat that we are facing now. Rifts have been formed from Zethrid's constant unchecked jumps into the Quintessence field and they're growing."
"What are you saying…That.."
Pidge answers, "That eventually if we don't close those rifts, they'll expand until our whole universe is destroyed."
"Is there anything we can do?"
"I'm scanning the rifts to see about strand refabrication possibilities."
"I'm running a few models to see if the rifts will close on their own."
"Nothing," Pidge responds.
"Nope."
"How long do we have before…" Shiro trails off.
"I'd say about fifteen doboshes before they take up our whole universe with the rate they're growing at."
"Lotor, is there any way to stop them? If Voltron opened them up, maybe it could close them or something?" Lance asks.
"I don't know. I'm afraid the Lion didn't teach me about this…"
"The only thing that could close these rifts would have to have more gravity than a super massive black hole."
"Any chance we could tow one here in fifteen doboshes Pidge?"
"Wait a tick! The teleduav!"
"What about it?" Shiro asks.
"In order to create wormhole jumps the teleduav creates a brief flash of infinite mass. If I could find a way to overload the teleduav I might be able to seal the rift. If one of the flashes went off in the rift it could do the job."
Sadness creeps into Allura's heart at what Coran is proposing.
"But that would mean sacrificing the Castle of Lions." Hunk says, speaking what Allura was thinking, sadness thick in his voice.
"What choice do we have? The Castle will be destroyed with all of us if we don't get this closed."
"Still, it's our home…"
Coran replies, "I'd hate to part with my grandfather's creation and one of the last pieces of old Altea…"
Allura makes the decision, as much as she hates it. It must be done. "Coran begin preparations for the procedure. Everyone else start unloading the Castle, we need to evacuate immediately."
They separate into their separate lions and head to the Castle.
Once inside she looks around. Tears dawn on her face as she remembers all the memories she's made here. But she pushes forward collecting any of her belongings.
Climbing into the Blue Lion, she looks across the Hangar and whispers, "Goodbye."
Outside she turns around to look at the Castle as it heads toward the rifts, now one big one. Tears fall down her cheeks, even as the immense explosion that is the Castle colliding into the rift rocks her lion. A hand touches her shoulder and she looks up to see Coran, also teary eyed at the destruction of their home.
Now all that remains is the vast expanse of space, no rift in sight.
She wipes her tears and smiles at Coran, "You did it."
"And look." Hunk says, and he blasts the yellow lion forward.
"What is it?" asks Shiro.
Hunk responds, "It's a diamond. The pressure pressed the Castle of Lions into this diamond." The yellow lion grabs it with its jaws.
Breaking the silence, Lance asks in a sombre tone, "So we saved all realities everywhere, now what do you guys wanna do?"
"We need to find a place to land to discuss what to do moving forward."
On A Planet:
"So what do we do now? The Castle is destroyed.." Hunk asks.
Pidge responds, "There's only one place that has the plans necessary to rebuild the Castle of Lions. And Coran gave those plans to my dad."
"So that means we're finally going home?" Marinette asks.
Shiro nods, "Yep, we're going to Earth."