τHΣ ϢΔRRIΟR ϢIτH ϢIͶGς

shiro's escape

everyone was waiting outside of shoto's cryopod as he was healing, giving the unconscious man worried looks. he was grunting in his sleep, a look on his face that concerned them all. rhys gave the man one last hesitant glance before mentally saying 'to hell with it' and invading his mind to call his nightmares.

once inside, she let out a gasp at the darkness of his mind, up until fluorescent lighting invaded her eyes. she squints momentarily, then looks to the source of the sounds filtering through her ears. rhys gasps, seeing shiro struggling against a table while a galran male injects him with something.

"you took my hand! what more do you want?" the human yells in distressed anger, and the noxian has to hold herself back from fighting off the galrans. this was a weird nightmare, though. it was a memory of something that his brain was just bringing to light, and though she wanted to stop his internal troubles and soothe him, this memory could be crucial to their external experiences.

so, she watches, clenching her fists at the scene.

"stop! i want him awake enough to feel this," the galran in different armor tells his subordinate, and rhys quirks an eyebrow. even though this was a memory, she could practically feel the softness emanating from the soul of this one.

it seemed that shiro remember it, too, in the back of his mind.

the male attacks the two sentries then removes his mask and moves to shiro's side, making the noxian gasp slightly at his familiar face. she'd never met him, but she'd been informed of his position in the galran ranks.

"so it was you who saved him..." she whispers, smiling softly, then watched the rest of the memory play out.

in the end, she watches it go dark with shiro escaping from his galran prison, and she opens her eyes to see the man waking up with the other paladins surrounding his pod. standing up from the bench, rhys crosses her arms and nods at him when he gets out.

he had finally remembered something good.

——

they were all seated around pidge and shiro, the youngest of them looking over the coding to find whatever message was in shoto's arm. rhys sighs at the look on allura's face, understanding the prejudice the princess held, but she found it utterly unnecessary. did the princess really believe that all people of one race felt the same as their leaders? did she really think that the entirety of the galran race was made up of bloodthirsty, war hardened lapdogs?

apparently, so.

"i'm not finding any coordinates in here. are you sure this wasn't just a dream?"

"i'm positive. someone helped me escape," the black paladin assured, and rhys nods.

"if it's any consolation, and shiro, please don't be angry with me for this, i looked into his head. it was definitely a memory, blocked by trauma most likely."

they all look to her in surprise, shiro giving her a thankful but somewhat concerned look while keith gives a confused glare.

allura quickly turns back to shiro. "and he was galra?"

"yes."

"you know you can't trust them."

"i say this with utmost sensitivity, allura, but please get your head out of your judgemental, prejudiced ass. unlike what you have brought yourself to believe, not all galra are evil, and you need to get that through your head," she hisses at the princess, and they give the commander shocked looks.