~~~~Saoirse~~~~
I felt nothing but the air around me, wrapping itself around my body in a gentle embrace. I heard nothing but the sweet winds blowing through rustling leaves.
"Sweet child." A voice whispered to me. I didn't know who was speaking to me, but they called me that over and over again. It was a kind voice. It was sweet. It was..... familiar.
Suddenly, I heard something crash and my eyes shot open. My vision was filled with red blinking lights, and my ears could hear the alarms blaring all around me.
Just then, my mind clicked, and I remembered what had happened. The wormhole had gone out of control and I was flung through the wall and sent with the Silver Lion to who knows where.
"Saoirse, child, are you all right?" A voice asked. I recognized the voice as the Silver Lion. It didn't sound like the voice I heard before I woke up. The Silver Lion's voice was strong and filled with a sense of healing tones.
"Silver? What's going on?" I asked, sitting up straight in my seat and reaching over to turn off my alarms and lights.
"We are approaching a planet at dangerous speeds. I won't have much power after we land. Please hold on tightly to something. It will be a bad landing."
I looked out the front window and saw a small blue and green planet. A wave of deja vu hit me and I remembered that this planet was the same one I found the Silver Lion on.
My Lion went head first towards the planet, the outside of her turning to fire as we entered the atmosphere.
I held on to my chair as we broke through the atmosphere keeping still until we finally crashed into the ground.
I opened my eyes after we crashed onto the planet. Dust covered the front window not letting me see anything. I let go of the chair and leaned back against the back of the chair.
"We made it, Silver." I breathed put in relief. I grabbed the controls and tried to turn Silver back on, but then remember what she said before we crashed.
I pressed my fingers against the side of my helmet and tried to reach the others.
"Can anyone hear me?" I asked, "Keith? Shiro? Allura? Anyone?" All I was met with was static. Without Silver's connection, and the fact that I didn't know where anyone was, I couldn't contact any of my teammates.
"All right, Silver. Rest up. I'll go take a look around. Might as well walk and stretch my legs while you rest up." I said. I grabbed my helmet and made my way out of my Lion.
I stepped outside and breathed in the fresh air. I smiled at its warm and fresh scent. I have never seen such clear skies and smelled fresh air like this. I jumped off my Lion and began to look around, wondering what the clear sky would look like at night with hundreds of thousands of stars in the sky.
Suddenly, a scene flashed through my head.
~~~
The sky was filled with stars that shone brighter than jewels. You could see the beautiful swirling colors of the nebula above your head a beautiful lake that reflected the starry sky. And in the distance, you could hear soft laughs echoing through the warm night air.
"Listen momma! The stars are singing tonight!" A child's voice said happily to their mother.
A woman laughed, "Are they? What are they singing about?" The woman asked.
I heard the child laugh again and the steps they took crunching the grass under their feet. The child sang as well as a child could about an angel who flew through the sky on light.
The woman laughed and the child laughed, just then, a man came into my scene, laughing along with the child and woman.
"What is it my little angel?" He asked the child.
"I heard the stars singing to me again! They sound so beautiful." The child said, "How come you and momma can't hear them, Papa?"
The man and woman looked at each other then back at the child.
"You are special, my little angel. You are not like anyone in the universe. You have abilities that we couldn't even imagine having. The stars speak to you, beacuse they know that you can move them."
The child stared in wonder at the stars that shone over the small family.
~~~
I gasped for breath as the scene finally ended. I fell ot my knees in shock from the sudden scene shown to me, and I didn't even feel the pain thumping in my temples.
"What the heck was that?" I asked myself. I shook it off and stood back up to look around. I went through the nearby forest, admiring the sunlight streaming through the breaks in the trees. It felt like I was aalking through an enchanted forest you'd find in fairy tails. Only I wouldn't find a handsome prince waiting for me. Instead, I found something completely different.
I walked through the last of the trees and saw the most beautiful lake I had ever seen. But then my mind went back to the scene I saw a little while ago. I gasped when I realized that this was the same lake as I saw.
"Why would I have seen this lake before?" I wondered. I looked left and right then back forward, not seeing anything at first. But when I looked back ahead of me, I saw something on the other side of the lake. It was brown and tall. Curiosity taking over me, I walked around the lake and went to investigate what was on the other side.
I walked around the lake for fifteen minutes until I finally came close to whatever I saw on the other side.
I summoned my bayard as a precaution as I came closer and closer. My eyes widened when I saw what it was.
It was a house. A simple little house, big enough to hold a small family. It was completely made of dark wood, but it seemed to be uncared for as the wooden walls were beginning to rot.
I walked closer and closer, seeing the damage of the house even more. I began to feel uneasy and worried. The door was falling off the wall and the windows seemed to be broke as well. Something had happened.
"Hello?" I called out to the house, slowly edging closer and closer to the house.
"Is anyone there?" I asked.
I got no answer to my calls. I took a breath in and walked right up to the hanging door. I reached out my hand and grabbed the small wooden handle, pushing the door open before it fell off the hinges and collapsed to the floor.
I coughed as dust and dirt kicked up from the door. I waved the dust away and opened my eyes to see the inside of the house.
It was broken and beaten. I walked inside and saw the living room. The chairs were broken and leaves scattered all over the floor. Torn cloth and ripped pieces of paper all over the floor.
I was shocked and couldn't move for several seconds. I shook my head to clear it and went further inside to my left was a dining table, plates broken on the surface and dust remained from whatever food was being served.
Dead flowers lay strewn on the table as well, dry and shriveled, losing all their color for however long they've been there untaken care of. And from the looks of this house, I'd say whoever lived here was gone for years.
I looked to my right and saw a small flight of stairs. Still curious, I walked over to the steps and ascended to the second floor.
Once I got to the top of the stairs, there was a small hallway with only two doors, one of the left and one on the right.
I opened the door to the right first. Once the door was open, I saw a large bed, a small vanity placed against the all and a nightstand in the corner. I walked inside and saw that the bed was torn, stuffing thrown all over the room from the blanket that lay abandoned on the broken bed.
The mirror on vanity was shattered to pieces, the sharp glass covering the floor with reflective silver.
I stood in room looking around from my frozen spot. What could've happened here? Did it have something to that scene I saw earlier.
Just then, my head began to hurt badly. I fell to my knees and clutched my head in pain as another scene flashed through my mind.
~~~
The child walked into their parents room, holding a small blanket in their hands.
The night was cold, I could feel the chills on my arms as I watched the scene play out, the moon shining through the window above the door and letting me see the child more clearly
It was a little girl no older than four or five. She had long blue hair and brightest sapphire eyes filled with fear and worry. She wore a white nightgown that fell past her knees.
The girl knocked in the door, which slowly woke up her parents.
"What is it, my dear?" The mother asked.
"I heard something nearby. I'm afraid that they'll be coming for us." The girl said frightfully.
The father sat up and smiled, holding out his arms. The girl smiled and ran up to the bed, struggling to climb up on the bed until her father scooped her up and held her in his arms.
"Don't worry, my little angel. No one will ever come to hurt you or us. We'll stay together safe and sound." The father said with confidence and love in his voice.
The mother smiled at her husband and daughter. She reached her hand out and gently stroked her child's long blue hair.
"Why don't you sing us the song the stars are singing now? That should chase away any nightmares." She suggested. The daughter smiled and nodded before singing the song from the last scene.
The song lasted until the girl finally fell to sleep, curled up in her parent's arms. All smiling peacefully. But I felt uneasy and afraid. My scar burned.
~~~
I gasped for air after the scene ended. I was so full of fear and anxiety that it was unbearable as I struggled to stand up.
I ran out of the room and closed the door behind me. I leaned against the door and regained my breath. My scar continued to burn for several minutes before it finally faded away.
I steadied my breathing and looked up at the door across the hall, afraid of what I may find behind it. But, I couldn't stop myself from standing up and walking to the door.
With shaky hands, I grabbed the doorknob and opened the door. When I saw the inside of the room, I couldn't help feeling so sad and helpless.
It was a child's room. A small bed, a closet built into the wall, and a small table in the corner with a small doll sitting on the table, ready to be played with by any who came in.
I walked inside, the strange feeling of nostalgia filling me. The bed was covered in white blankets and sheets, small pillows set perfectly at the head of the bed. A large mirror on the wall near the head of the bed.
The room was clean and untouched. Whatever destroyed this house, didn't even bother with this room.
I walked towards the closet, opening the door and seeing many blue, purple, white and gold clothes. I took one of the purple outfits and admired the gold stitch work and embroidery.
It was small enough to fit the girl I saw in those scenes. And what a beautiful dress she wore before this tragedy took hold of those happy lives.
I put the dress back and went over to the bed and noticed something on pillow. I reached out and grabbed it, holding it close to see what it was.
It was beautiful necklace that glowed with the beautiful colors of space and stars. I had never seen a more beautiful pendant.
I ran my fingers over the pendant, when all of sudden, the pendant began to shine brightly.
I didn't know what to do when something appeared above it. A hologram of the sweet family I saw.
The man was handsome and tall, his silver hair pulled back into a ponytail as he smiled at his young daughter. The woman was beautiful with her deep blue hair running down her back like cascading waves. Her eyes were a shining blue and looking down at her daughter.
The daughter.... well, she was perfect. Small, adorable and with the brightest smile as her small hand grabbed onto her father's finger. Her celestial blue hair was like her mother's, but lighter in color. Her dark skin seemed to be from her father and her eyes came from her mother. But there was one thing about the father and daughter...
They had Altean markings on their cheeks. The father having blue markings while the daughter had a rainbow on her cheeks.
Alteans lived here? But how could that be? Allura and Coran said that Altea was destroyed along with the rest of their race.
So how....
I couldn't finish my thought as the pendant began to play music. It sounded like a lullaby was playing in the background, and a beautiful voice was singing.
An angel, an angel, flies through the night sky
I hear, I hear, the song of the stars
With a voice wielding love and heavens do hear
Believe, believe, the angel shall come
She brings end to evil, and shows us the light
The angel, the angel, shining bright as the stars.
For when she comes to us, the stars shall sing
Our angel of hope, light and beauty
The angel, the angel, with warm loving hands
She'll come to heal and to bring peace to all
And all will be freed from darkness and fear
Believe, believe, the angel will come
She stands tall with eyes that shine brighter than jewels
With wings that glow in the star's blinding light
The angel shall come to break our chains
Believe, believe, the angel shall come.
~~~Sung to to tune of Erutan, dragon born~~~
The melody was beautiful, and familiar. That's when it hit me. It was the song the girl was singing. The one she heard from the stars.
All of a sudden, my head hurt worse than before. It felt like my was about crack open and explode. I screamed as I fell to the floor, the pendant held tightly in my hands as I saw everything.
~~~~
It was bright day on this small planet. The little girl was playing outside laughing with the small doll and running around the front of the house.
Her mother and father smiled as they came out of the house and watched their daughter play happily.
"Dear! Come inside please! We have something to give you!" The mother said.
The girl nodded and ran back inside. The father picked her up and tickled her as they went upstairs.
The parents smiled as they sat her on her bed in her room. The mother went to their room and came back a minute later with a small box wrapped in beautiful white ribbon.
"This is for you, little angel." The father said.
The little girl smiled and took the box from her mother. She carefully undid the ribbon and opened the box, to reveal the same pendant I had in my hand.
"Happy birthday my little angel." The mother said. The little girl smiled and gently took the pendant, rubbing her finger gently over the stone. Immediately the pendant began to glow and play the same song while projecting the same picture as I saw.
"Wow! This is so pretty! And it plays the lullaby I've been hearing." The little girl said smiling at the picture.
"This can only be worn by you and you alone, angel." The father said. "This way, even if we're far away, you'll be without us."
The little girl nodded and thanked her parents for the necklace. But... before she could put on the necklace, there was a loud crash from downstairs. The mother and father looked terrified. They scooped up their daughter, the necklace falling out of her hands and landing on the pillow where I found it. They ran across the hall to their room and placed their daughter in the corner.
"Stay here and be quiet, all right, angel?" The mother said. The little girl nodded, too terrified to speak. She curled into a ball and the parents left to see what was going on.
I heard so much fighting and yelling. Screaming and thrashing.
"How dare you, you traitorous daughter! You dare to challenge me when you were young. And now... you dare to marry someone not of our race!" An older voice shouted furiously at someone.
"I don't care! You tried to kill me all those years ago! Leave me and my family alone! You're no father of mine!" The mother shouted.
"I will not allow you to speak back that way. You and whomever is in this house will come with me! You and your family will be punished for your crimes!"
I heard fighting and screaming from downstairs. Glass shattering, furniture breaking under pressure in the fight. The little girl cried in the corner, holding her hands over her ears as to not listen to the fight below.
Suddenly, the door burst open. Two men in gold clothes and armor ran into the room and grabbed the little girl.
She kicked and screamed, reaching out for her parents as they were dragged into a ship and away from their small home.
The scene changed to a large hall. Groups of people dressed in different colors staring at the floor in front of an older man with a long blue beard and angry look in his eyes as he stared down at the little girl he and his men took.
To his right was the mother. To his right was the father. Both crying and screaming for their child to be released.
"Pathetic child! I will never acknowledge you as blood!" He screamed at the girl. She looked up with tear filled eyes and stared at the old man.
"I'm sorry. I don't understand why you hate me!" She cried. The man slapped her so hard she fell to the floor with a large bruise on her cheek.
"Father! Leave her be, she's just a child!" The mother cried even harder.
"She is the child of a traitor! The root of a fictitious dream of peace. All that matters in this universe is power. I taught you better than this. This... this thing is not my grandchild. She the daughter of a traitor! I WILL PURGE THIS WORLD OF YOUR KIND!!!"
He took a sword from his side sheath, held into the air and swung down.
I expected the sword to hit the girl.....
But when it did.... it never killed her.
She rolled out of the way. Leaving behind a cut that would scar over around her neck, shoulder and back.....
A bright light filled the hall. The people in the hall gasped in shock as the light slowly faded. When the light faded completley, there stood a new person.
It was not the same little girl.
Her long blue hair shone brighter than before. Shining marks littered her skin and traveled up her arms like ivy on a tree.
Finally, she had something protruding out of her back. Large wings that shone as bright as all the stars combined. The soft white feathers reflected the light of the sunbeams shining through the windows of the hall.
Her eyes were shining a bright gold as she stared af her grandfather who cowered in fear but still held his sword tightly in his hand.
The girl stood tall, her eyes glaring at her grandfather.
"My dear. Please... live happily somewhere out of his reach." The mother said.
"You must leave!" The father shouted.
The little girl looked at both her mother and father, smiling at them sweetly before facing back towards her grandfather.
"I will obey my parent's wishes and leave this place." She said, her voice strong and mature for her young age, "But know this. One day I will be back, and when I return, you will step down from your seat and make you suffer the same hardships our people have had for these past centuries ten fold! I will free the Teshirians from the iron hand you crush them with! I promise and I never break my promises!"
The girl said those finally words and flew away through the roof, leaving the people inside the hall astonished and shocked.
The scene changed. The girl was flying through space faster than the speed of light, searching for a planet to call home until she was ready to return.
When finally, she came upon a planet that looked similar to the planet she grew up. The green land, the blue waters, the white clouds.
I recognized the planet right away.
It was Earth.
She flew down and crashed into a cave. She stood up and held her head in pain.
Then she looked at her hand and sighed.
"I won't be able to return so soon. I'll have to use this to forget until I'm ready. Momma and papa wanted me to love happily, so I will until the magic runs out." She whispered to herself.
Suddenly, her hands began to glow. She placed her hands on her head. She closed her eyes and let the magic make its way to her mind.
Her hair changed to black.
Her Altean marks disappeared.
Her wings vanished.
She stayed like that for a moment more before taking her hands off her head and looking around terrified.
"Hello? Is anyone there?" A voice shouted from the cave entrance.
I looked towards the entrance and saw Keith and his father.
~~~
The pain faded, I didn't know when it did. I was too stunned. I didn't notice that I had changed until I stood up and blue strands of hair fall in my face.
I grabbed a handful of the hair and raised to my face.
I was stunned. Too shocked to say a word.
I walked over to the wall near the bed and saw in the mirror who I was.
My eyes were brighter, shining in a similar look as Allura's eyes.
Rainbow Altean markings were on my cheekbones.
And my hair was celestial blue, gently curling in soft waves that cascaded down my back from my ponytail.
I reached out to touch the mirror, using my other hand to touch my face.
I couldn't believe it. This was me. There was no doubt that this girl was me.
I heard a roar outside the house. I walked out of the house slowly with the pendant clutched in my hand.
I walked outside and saw the Silver Lion standing in front of the house.
I looked up at her and stared at her glowing eyes.
"What does this mean?" I asked the Lion.
She crouched down and let me touch her metal head.
"It means that you are more than you realize." She said, "I've wanted to tell you the truth for so long, but it was not my place. You needed to remember on your own. That's why I took you back home."
I was surprised. This lion knew about my past and she kept it a secret.
"You knew about my past?" I asked. The Lion purred.
"I was under a bond. My previous Paladin told me to protect you. When you came in that human form, I could sense that you didn't remember what we promised all those years ago."
I stared at the Lion confused. A promise?
"What promise did I make? Who was your previous Paladin?"
"You promised to fly me across the universe and take us farther than anyone has traveled. As for my previous paladin. Her name was Siofra..... she was your mother."
I took a step back, replaying the words the Lion told me. I didn't move for what felt like hours. Until finally I looked back up at the Silver Lion.
"What does this mean for me? I'm not who I thought I was. Who am I? What am I?" I asked.
"You are Saoirse. Daughter of Siofra and Cires. Sister of Takashi Shirogane. Silver Paladin of Voltron. You are an amazing girl and I couldn't be more proud to be piloted by you."
I sat there with the Silver lion for hours. I sat and listened to her stories from ten thousand years ago when my mother would pilot her and fight for the good of the universe. During her stories, I remembered so much of my past.
I saw Allura hold me when I was a newborn, promising to take care of me like I was her little sister
King Alfor and his wife Melenor smiling at my parent's wedding.
The happy moments from my younger years before I lost my memory. I even remembered how to change my form. I watched as my hair turned back to black, my eyes changed back to normal and my Altean marks disappeared as well.
I went inside the Silver Lion as the light faded and the stars shone brightly in the sky.
Suddenly, there was a call from Pidge. She had found the others and was on her way to me.
"Let's go. Time to go back home." I said. The Silver Lion roared and flew off into the sky, flying to find the Green Lion before they found this planet.
As we flew, I sat in the pilot seat with my knees pulled up to my chin as I stared at the necklace I put around my neck.
I rubbed the stone and stared at the holographic picture of my family, listening to the melody it played.
I had to find them. I wanted to find them.
And that's a promise I would never break.