τHΣ ϢΔRRIΟR ϢIτH ϢIͶGς

blackout

entering the castle, rhys was quick to make her way to the control room, where the others were waiting for her. she had flown through the halls to make it easier not to deal with the rumbling of going through the wormhole, though she had almost been thrown into the wall at a couple instances before making it through.

once she'd arrived in the control room, she looks around to quickly check on the others, before glancing out the window into space to see the paladins forming voltron. she lets out a small sigh of relief, then hurries over to coran to help him with allura, who was nearly knocked out from the exhaustion of the wormhole jump.

"we've gotta act fast," shiro's voice cuts through her thoughts, the man already getting the paladins into gear. "the power will only be down for 20 minutes. the blade of marmora's schematics showed four targets we need to hit. the weapons systems, the engines, the bridge, and the shield generators. now, let's put an end to zarkon, once and for all."

hearing them all cheer with determination causes a small smile to break the stern line of her lips, but she quickly forced it away when she noticed allura's eyes open and a slightly relieved look form on her face.

"we've done it. this is the end of zarkon's reign," the princess says, voice tinged with exhaustion, and rhys gently takes her hand. the two exchange smiles, coran agreeing with his princess before the two of them begin to help her to a more comfortable resting position.

rhys hated not being out there fighting, instead having to watch agonizingly as the paladins took down zarkon's ship on their own. they were still green in this war, and here she was, sitting holed up in a castle while others attempted to finalize this millennia lasting war for them. them, who had either been born into it or been there for the start of it.

her centuries of leadership and battle prowess were useless being in this castle, but it was all she could do.

unfortunately, something had to go wrong. she'd had a feeling something would, but the large mass of black magic that suddenly appeared under zarkon's main ship was enough to make even herself and kolivan panic.

in a flash of light along with a scream from the allura, quintessence was being sapped from voltron, and rhys had to hold herself back from rushing to the window at the sight.

"paladins!" coran cries out to the monitors, desperation in his tone. "can you hear me?"

a closeup of voltron showed up on the center screen, rhys clenching her fist at the sight of the dark magic flickering all over its form faintly.

her mate was in there. keith had just been hurt.

a dark growl came out of the depths of her chest, drawing the attention of kolivan and antok, but before either could try to comfort her, coran turned accusing eyes to the blades.

"i thought the virus shut down all of zarkon's power!"

thankfully, allura cut in, "that blast was not from the ship's weapons. it was magic."

"it must have been the komar. zarkon has been trying to develop a device to extract quintessence from planets. it appears he succeeded," kolivan states, eyes flickering between the screen and the commander as she continues to glare and growl at it.

"who knows how much quintessence it took from the paladins, considering it was made to destroy planets instead? they could be comatose in there," she grounds out.

"paladins! shiro! can you hear me?"

there was static for a few moments after she called out to them, but relief fell over the five of them when shiro's voice cut through the communication link.