When Stars Align (Shiro x Reader)[Voltron - Legendary Defender]

VI.

Time seems to slow down after Shiro leaves. You wait anxiously for something to happen, hoping that somehow Shiro is injured badly enough that he needs to come to you after the next battle and wait to escape. But each time the thought passes through your mind, you hate yourself for wishing something so awful on him. In Ellythrian culture, wishing on stars holds real weight, so you push down your selfish desires and instead imagine the millions of stars Zarkon's ship is flying past and whisper, "Please, please let him get out alive."

Four days go by this way. No one enters your room; droids deliver your food. You spend hours thinking, hoping, worrying. You imagine everything that could wrong with Shiro's plan, all the ways he could be hurt or killed. One night you wake up from a nightmare crying and think to yourself that maybe Shiro already tried to escape, maybe he was shot or stabbed or had his limbs ripped off and he died without ever saying goodbye and you'll never see him again, you'll never escape, you'll be stuck here forever and no one as kind and brave and determined will ever be sent your way again and then you can't breathe and you can't turn off your thoughts and you sit crying and shaking and shaking and shaking until you're so exhausted that you pass out on the floor of your cell. You wish on the stars for a sign that he's okay.

On the fourth day, your door finally slides open. Your eyes are bloodshot and framed by dark circles as you stare up at a single Galran guard, petrified, not sure what's going on but praying that whatever it is, Shiro is okay. The guard cuffs you, and you comply without hesitation or complaint. As he takes you out of your cell for the first time in months, you feel like you're floating--like you left yourself behind and now you're watching your body walk down the hall but the hall isn't real, nothing is real and your stomach is a balloon that floats along behind you on a string. The guard pushes you along in front of him, shoving the butt of his gun between your shoulder blades to make you stumble ahead more quickly. It feels like you're walking forever.

As you go further into the ship, you stop recognizing where you are. Granted, you've only been allowed on limited, isolated excursions to places other than your cell, but something about the place you are now feels more foreign, more secret than it should. Even the guard pushing you forward seems a bit nervous.

Finally, you turn down a large, unfamiliar hallway. Doors line the walls, thicker and larger than your cell door. Eerie noise drift into your ears as you shuffle down the hall, moans and screams and sobs like icy fingers stroking your face, rustling the hair hanging over your ears, sending chills down your spine. You shudder involuntarily. It isn't hard to guess what this part of the ship is for.

The guard halts you at the very end of the hall. He places his hand against a scanner, and the door slides open.

You recoil instantly from the smell. Blood and burning flesh assault your senses, and you gag involuntarily. When you register the scene in front of you, your nausea intensifies, and you find yourself hunching over, clutching your stomach as you dry heave. The thought crosses your mind that it's a good thing you haven't eaten yet, today.

You had guessed from your walk down the hall that the doors you passed led to torture chambers. But, despite the amount of time you've been Zarkon's prisoner, you had never actually seen a person tortured. Maybe, if asked, you would have said that there are certainly creatures tortured on the ship--in a way, even being held prisoner here could be considered a form of torture. But this room contains the most graphic cruelty, the most disgusting violence that you've seen in your life. You want to break into pieces. You don't want to be here. You don't want to see this.

A Galran soldier is setting down a white-hot metal bar. The guard standing behind you says, "You're old-fashioned, Synda." His words are joking, but you're surprised to detect a hint of anxiety in his tone. Even he isn't completely comfortable in this place.