~~~~Saoirse~~~~
We flew through space in Voltron, following the rouge pod Shiro was using with Lotor inside. This Shiro was not my brother, and I was an idiot for not seeing it clearly. I knew he was different, his energy was warped and growing darker ever since we met Lotor.
And now, I was losing my brother again, for the third time.
The three ships piloted by Lotor's generals fired at us with a single highly charged shot. We summoned our shield and I pushed enough energy into it so we wouldn't be hurt too badly. However, the blast was powerful enough to push us backwards into a large asteroid floating behind us.
"I'm heading your way!" Coran shouted.
"Coran, No!" Keith shouted back, "The Castle of Lions barely survived the first time we fought one of those ships. You'll only--"
Keith was cut off by another shot fired st us. I clenched my teeth to keep from shouting in pain as we were fired upon.
"Keith is right, Coran, the ship's defenses will never hold!" Allura added.
"Guys, we can't take this much longer!" Pidge exclaimed.
"Do you guys have any ideas?" Lance asked.
I looked around at our surroundings and got an idea.
"Coran, fire just below our position." I said.
"What?" Coram replied shocked by my order.
"No time for shock and questions, just destroy the rock we're pinned against!" I said as quickly as his reply.
Coran didn't hesitate to follow my order and fired a laser at the rock underneath us. The rock was quickly destroyed and we were able to fly away admist the crumbling chaos.
"Lance! Pidge! I need you to get us some cover. Saoirse, add an extra boost to the Red and Green Lions" Keith said.
We all did as told. I pushed as much energy as I could spare and the two lions fired at the surrounding rocks to create cover while the generals were still following us.
"Who's got eyes on Shiro?" Keith asked, but we were stopped by something tugging on Voltron's waist.
The three Galra shot out multiple strings of energy and wrapped them around Voltron's waist then pulled us back away from Shiro's ship, flinging us into a large rock behind them.
We all groaned from the impact and the Galra ships flew away.
"What just happened?" Pidge asked.
All of a sudden, I felt a massive amount of energy erupt in front of us. In an instant, a purple wormhole appeared in front of Shiro's pod.
"Guys, are you seeing this?" I said, shocked by the sudden appearance of the wormhole and the strange dark evergy that was emitted from it.
"Is that...?" Pidge gasped as everyone looked foraard to see the massive purple wormhole.
"A wormhole?" Lance asked.
"They're trying to escape." Keith pointed out.
"Haggar. It has to be Haggar." Allura growled out angrily, "She must've gained the ability. But how?"
"I don't know, but that wormhole is emitting dark energy." I answered, trying to keep my voice from shaking.
"We can't worry about that now." Keith said, "We have to make sure we get Shiro back."
"But Shiro's not Shiro anymore." Hunk said.
"I know, but something is wrong with him. The Galra or Lotor have to be behind it." Keith said, "You all know he would never give up on us. We can't give up on him."
We all knew what Keith said was true. Shiro would never let us go without a fight. So it was time to return the favor.
We struggled to get Voltron back up to its feet and push off the rock to fly to the wormhole.
I looked at my screens and noticed several different energy connections cut off between my lion and Voltron. I couldn't get any energy to important systems in Voltron.
"Guys, one of my thrusters is down. Can you compensate?" Keith asked.
"Those beams torched our power core. I've never seen anything like it." Pidge informed us.
"Most energy connections to my lion and Voltron have been severed." I announced.
"We've got maybe 30 seconds of over-clocked burn time." Hunk said.
"Hit it!" Keith shouted, and the thrusters kicked in at full blast. I even transformed into my true form just to help with the energy output to the thrusters, but even with my abilities we didn't get as far as we wanted.
"We're halfway through our burn." Hunk said, "25%..."
Shiro's pod went through the wormhole...
"15%!"
The generals ships entered the wormhole...
"8%!"
"We're not going to make it!" Lance yelled.
"We're too heavy!" Pidge shouted.
The wormhole was closing and Voltron wouldn't make it, so we had no choice.
"Disband!" Keith ordered.
"What?" Everyone but me said.
"The energy from disconnecting might create enough thrust to propel me through the wormhole."
"You'll be the only one on the other side." Allura said.
"No, he won't. I'll be right there with him." I said, surprising everyone.
"Saoirse, are you sure-"
"This is my brother we're facing. I need to be there to figure things out for myself!" I shouted. We didn't have any more time to waste on this conversation, so Keith agreed to let me follow him through the wormhole.
A second later, Voltron disbanded and Keith and I were sent propelling fast enough to make it through the wormhole just in time for it close behind us.
Once we made it through to the other side, we saw what battle we would facing.
Several battle cruisers and Galra fighters were stationed right where we were set to exit the wormhole. And they were prepared.
Upon seeing us, they immediately started shooting at us. I looked over on my screens and saw that the Black Lion's wing was damaged, but not enough to keep Keith out of the fight.
"All right, gotta play this smart. Follow my lead, Saoirse." Keith said.
"I'm right behind ya." I replied and we flew off into battle. We dodged all shots and flew closer to the three enemy ships Lotor's former generals were flying.
Just as we got closer, my screens pulled up a visual of one of the three ships flying towards us. I could tell from the energy inside that the pilot was Acxa, the leader of Lotor's generals.
We pulled back and took on evasive maneuvers. We flew down and led Acxa along towards one of the cruisers as she continued to fire at us.
Once we had passed the cruiser, Keith quickly pulled up, flipped over Acxa's ship and landed on it before firing his laser at point blank range.
"Good work, Keith." I said, typing a few keys on my screens to assess any damages. Just then, I felt Shiro's emergy coming from one of the closer cruisers.
"Shiro went into that one." I said flying over to the ship I mentioned and Keith followed closely behind.
We couldn't just land our Lions and grab Shiro, so we slammed into the side of the cruiser. Smoke and dust covered our sight quickly before it cleared up and showed us our targets.
Our long-range cameras showed Shiro, Lotor, Zethrid and Ezor standing by one of the exits. All of them were shocked by our sudden entrance.
However, we couldn't get to Shiro as Acxa's ship was firing at us again. Reluctantly, we had to pull back and finish her off first before we could get to my brother.
We flew away from the ship and lured Acxa away as we thought hard on how to get Shiro back.
"Think. How are we gonna get in there?" Keith muttered.
I looked to my right and saw the Altean pod Shiro used to escape.
"We won't have to. Shiro just flew out." I said, sensing his energy inside the pod.
The pod flew away and we followed it.
"Shiro, come on. I know you're there!" I heard Keith shout, "I don't know what's wrong, but I know we can fix this. Let me and Saoirse help you."
I saw my brother on the screen, but he was completely different. My brother's kind, warm eyes were cold and lifeless, his pupils glowing a purple shade as he stared past us. He only looked forward and kept flying away from us.
We kept following Shiro, not knowing where he was leading us, nor what was going to happen to us when we finally caught him.
I knew he wasn't my brother. This man, whoever he was, has fooled me and the rest of the team for months. And yet, he acted so much like Shiro. One side of me said to not hurt him, while the other said to destroy him.
But how could I? When the time comes, will I be able to destroy my own brother?
Will I really have to lose him for a third time?
~~~~Pidge~~~~
After Saoirse and Keith vanished through the wormhole, we all gathered on the bridge to figure out our next plan of action.
"Okay, all the lions are in their hangars and their power cores appear to be recharging." I informed the group from my seat.
"Structurally speaking, the Lions are at about 60%. Whatever those ships hit them with, really did some damage." Hunk said.
"Any luck yet, Princess?" Lance asked.
Allura's eyebrows furrowed in deep thought and concentration, "No. I'm afraid not." She said, "I fear that the wormhole may have deposited them beyind my ability's reach."
"I'll try to contact some coalition forces to provide assistance. Hmm?" Coran stopped the lights became dim. We were all on high alert.
"Whoa." Lance said.
"Coran, what's happening?" Allura asked.
Coran ran to the command console and pressed a few buttons before pulling up the Castle's damage reports.
"It appears the Castle's systems are shutting down one by one. As though someone has hacked into the ship and let a "kill" protocol of some sort." Coran stated.
"How you tried an override?" I asked, trying to find the problem at my station.
"Or maybe counteracting with a "live" protocol? Is that a thing?" Hunk added, not lightening the mood one bit.
I furiously typed away at my Holo-keys to hunt down the virus, but nothing I did seemed to find it quickly enough.
"The virus is moving too fast." Coran said.
"Okay, I'm in the system." I said, "Subroutines eight through nineteen have me completely locked out. But if I can just skip ahead to-- Come on, come on, come on."
"Spectra generator down. Stabilizers are down. Main turbine also down. Crystal matrix offline!"
The lights began flickering over Allura's head as the crystal went dark.
"Particle barrier generator down!" The pedestals under Allura's hands disappeared into the floor.
"There!" I shouted, "I've got it isolated. Now it just have to lock it down with a multi-layered tri-tetragonal quarantine. And... Almost..."
Alerts gave one last time before halting. All of the lights came back on at once.
"Ha! Yes!" I cheered.
Coran breathed a sigh of relief, "Good work, Pidge."
However, not even a minute later, the ship began powering down again, the alarms pulsing and blaring.
"What? How?" I said in terror as the alarms blared and all systems were being attacked.
"The virus has countermeasures that specifically targeted my quarantine! It's like... it knew."
I stared at the fading screen in front of me, slowly piecing together what the virus was just as my screen disappeared. I looked up and saw all the screens shut down.
"If this shuts down the teludav's mass regulator, the ship, along with everything in the neighboring subsystem, would be destroyed." Coran said solemnly.
I sprung from my seat, turned on my flashlight and began running out the room.
"Uh, where are you going?" Hunk asked.
"No time!" I panted running as fast as I could to the teludav.
~~~~Saoirse~~~~
We flew through space for what felt like hours, the entire time we tried to communicate to Shiro, but he didn't say a word to either of us which only made my pain grow inside of me.
Finally, we found Shiro's location. A large asteroid that floated over a white abandoned planet.
We flew closer and spotted the pod, along with a trail of footsteps leading somewhere on the asteroid.
We landed and followed the footsteps to a large cave that led deep into the asteroid. Keith went in first, but stayed close to me, as if he was terrified more for me than himself.
I stayed quiet as we walked through the cave's tunnels.
"Saoirse, are you okay?" Keith suddenly asked.
"Why are you asking, Keith?" I replied back with my own question.
"It's just.... we're going to be fighting Shiro. This is your brother--" He said.
"That thing is not my brother." I said immediately cut Keith off.
Keith stared at me, confused and shocked since I don't cut people off often.
"What are you talking about?" He asked.
I sighed and clenched my fist over my chest, as if I was clutching the pain I felt deep inside.
"I should've known he wasn't my brother the moment he returned." I said, "When he came back I knew he wasn't the same, but I figured that was because of trauma. His energy was different and after Lotor came along it became cold little by little. This thing, whatever it is, is not the brother I know."
Suddenly, I felt a hand grab mine. I looked up at Keith who frowned worryingly at me.
"Whatever happens, we're going to find out what's going on. I won't let you lose someone else, okay?" He said.
I felt my cheeks heat up furiously. I knew that he was going to make sure that everything would be fine. But my scar was burning, and at that moment I knew that something bad was going to happen to all of us.
We continued to walk along the footsteps left by Shiro, Keith still holding on to my hand. He kept a tight grip on me, as we walked through the darkness.
We walked down the long and twisting tunnels decorated with stalagmites and scalactites. Soon, the cavern got dark and darker until it was pitch black.
After a while longer of walking in the darkness, the cavern finally began to light up. We followed the light to a large carved out room with Galra technology, a ramp leading to a large elevator door. The footsteps lead straight to the door.
We went up to the elevator door and Keith opened it. We stepped inside and the door immediately closed and the elevator started descending.
My nerves were a wreck. The dark lights. The strange Galra surroundings. The burning scar, and the fact that I have to fight my brother all built up inside.
"Saoirse." Keith said snapping me out of my thoughts.
"Yeah?" I replied.
"If something goes wrong, I want you to get out of here, okay? Find the others and bring them back to help. Got it?" He said..
I was surprised by his request, but I nodded, knowing that this could go badly for us.
The elevator stopped and the doors opened, revealing a frightening and confusing sight.
It was a large room, the Galra purple lights keeping it lit in the darkness of underground. There was a large machine connected to the ceiling and a ramp that lead down to the lower floor.
We walked slowly and cautiously down the ramp and onto the lower floor. All around us were large canisters, but they were dark so we didn't know what was inside them.
As we continued walking, I felt strange energy surrounding us. It was almost, fake, but alive.
There were several other containers at the end of the ramp we walked over. We walked to the strange containers, Keith placing his hand on the glass, which activated the internal lights. And we were horrified by the sight of what they were holding.
It was tall with a strong build. A head covered in black hair and closed eyes as if it was sleeping.
This was Shiro, cloned perfectly.
I felt as if I was going to throw up at the horrifying sight. They cloned my brother. And not just once.
The other containers began to light up, scaring us even more as they revealed to have Shiro clones as well.
We stood in shock for a minute, staring at the clones, when we were shocked back into reality by a voice that drove shivers up our spines.
"Hello, Keith, little sister." We quickly turned around and saw Shiro standing behind us, his eyes narrow and glowing a terrifying purple color and his lips sealed tight in a fine line.
I kept a hand at my side, ready to summon my bayard if need be. Shiro began walking towards us, the feel of his dark energy wrapping around me like a cold grip.
"Shiro, it's gonna be okay." Keith said, his voice shaking in fear and worry.
"Yes, I know." Shiro replied.
"We just have to get back to the Castle."
"We... are not going anywhere!!" Shiro shouted, his arm glowing purple as he charged at us. We activated our shields and blocked his attack.
Shiro didn't take time to rest, he punched again, forcing up back against the clone containers and breaking our shields. We rolled away before he could hit us again, instead, he hit the control panel for the clones leaving them in the darkness.
We summoned our bayards and readied for the continued battle. Keith held out his sword blocking Shiro's approach. Shiro swung his arm around and tried to hit me with the back of his fist, but I blocked it with my lance .
Suddenly, Shiro punched Keith hard which threw Keith off the edge and down towards one of the lower levels.
"Keith!" I shouted, letting my guard down for only a second, but that was enough time for Shiro to hit me too, knocking me off the edge.
I summoned my wings and landed next to Keith, gripping my lance even tighter than before.
"Saoirse, above you!" Keith shouted. I looked up and saw Shiro jumping down to strike. We got up quickly and ran to dodge, rolling down the steps and landing on our feet at the bottom.
Keith reached behind his back and pulled out his knife from the Blades of Marmora. His blade shone brightly and grew longer, activating as Shiro stepped from the cloud of dust and stared at us with malice and anger.
He lifted his hand and created a transparent blade to fight with.
"Keith, remember, this man is not Shiro. He's a puppet." I said.
"But he has a bit of Shiro inside. He could still come back." He defended.
Shiro charged with a new blade connected to his gauntlet and attacked us again. He swung his sword at us, Keith's blade connecting with Shiro's and throwing him back.
I jumped behind Shiro with my lance and tried to make a hit, but Shiro anticipated my attack and backhand slapped me hard enough for me to see stars.
I landed hard on my head, my helmet knocked off and my vision was becoming spotty, but I didn't have time to lie there.
I shook off my dizziness and forced myself to my feet. I quickly ran off the edge and saw Keith and Shiro fighting. Shiro landed an uppercut punch under Keith's chin, causing his helmet to come off and fly.
"Keith!" I shouted. I ran over to the fight, swinging my arms and trying to hit Shiro with my lance. Shiro swung his arm behind him and hit me on the neck before returning to his fight with Keith.
Keith dodged the swings of Shiro's blade, he jumped in into the air and activated his jetpack to escape, but Shiro was too fast and grabbed onto Keith as he tried to fly away.
I ran off the ledge to follow, Keith and Shiro cut some of the hanging wires to swing down and lessen the pain of their fall.
Shiro swung down to the ground, tumbling from his unbalanced landing. Keith and I swung around and kicked out feet out, kicking down a now standing Shiro with full force.
We let go of the wires on impact, falling with Shiro farther down into the underground base.. We acted fast, landing on the large crates and then to the stable ground, swinging our weapons to land a hit.
All of our weapons collided again, us pushing Shuro against the railing behind him. But something was different, Keith's flame gained a new sense of ferocity and anger. Something similar to a fighting Galra. I glanced over at Keith and for a moment, I thought I saw his eyes change color to match Galra eyes.
His eye whites were now yellow and his pupils and irises were now smaller, almost like an animal's eyes.
I turned back to Shiro, his proud smile giving off an evil glint to it.
"That's the Keith I remember." He said, almost sounding proud at the fact that Keith was about to end him.
Keith hesitated for a moment, blinking at Shiro's words and pulling back only a little bit, However, it was enough for Shiro to swing his blade and make us lose our grip on our weapons.
Keith's blade and my lance were flung through the air, landing close by. We turned and made a run for our weapons while Shiro continued swinging his blade.
We reached down, grabbed our weapons and turned around to continue the fight. Our weapons met again, sending Keith and I into a large metal structure holding more canisters. We grunted by the force and from the pain.
When we opened our eyes, Shiro was standing right there with his blade in the air ready to take to us down.
Shiro swung his sword in an attempt to decapitate us, but we ducked quickly, and the blade cut the structure we hit. The metal creaked as it fell from its imbalance, separating us from Shiro as it fell of him.
Keith and I panted heavily as we stood covered in bruises and scratches.
"Shiro, I know you're in there." Keith said trying to get through to Shiro, "You made a promise once. You told me you'd never give up on me. You said that you would even protect Saoirse when I'm not there."
Shiro stood up, his arm crackling with electricity colored purple, staring at us menacingly.
"And I should have abandoned you just like your parents did." Shiro yelled, "They saw that you were broken. Worthless. I should have seen it, too." He turned towards me. "And I should've left you like the little freak you were."
I glared at this man. My brother's imposter and was ready to fight again.
"We're not leaving here without you." Keith said.
Shiro looked down and sighed, then looked back up at us with a deathly creepy smile on his face.
"Actually, none of us are leaving." He said. All of a sudden, the purple lights in the room began to turned red, the machine in the center of the facility charging up with power.
Along with the red lights, Shiro's arm began to change color, adopting the same red hue as the rest of the facility. He groaned in pain, screaming as his arm turned white. I looed at his arm, it was filled with too much energy, causing it to overload.
He gasped as he fell to the floor in pain.
"Shiro!" Keith shouted. I watched as his arm began to morph, changing shape and power level. The crackles of electricity from the arm shook me to my core, a sense of dread and terror filling me.
Just then, underneath his arm, a pool of light formed and created a laser that shot through the floor with a devastating blast.
It led up to the ceiling, Keith and I rolling away to dodge the deadly blast. The laser cut through the entire facility, some of it falling apart and the part we stood on hanging by a thread.
We leaned against the metal railing, watching as the facility fall to pieces, then we looked at Shiro and my heart stopped.
Shiro was hunched over on his feet, his arm crackling violently and changed to have light traveling up his arm like the veins in his body. He stared at us with the intent to kill, not a single sense or feeling of mercy in his eyes.
We turned around and ran off the ledge, just as another blast was coming to us. We rolled onto the next platform, then stood up on our feet and turned around and looked up.
Shiro was standing on the ledge above us, his arm aiming straight for us before firing.
Keith activated his jetpack and I summoned my wings. We jumped away and dodged the attack, running and running as fast as we could on the platform to get away from the destructive blast.
But luck was not on our side. Shiro saw our move of escape and cut the part of the asteroid that was holding the platform in place.
We slid down the platform, landing on a small hook shape of the broken platform then running and jumping away before we were crushed by the falling containers.
We fell fast towards the last remaining platform in the hidden facility. I grabbed Keith by the hand and flew us down to the platform. The two of us landed safely, but we were becoming exhausted.
I sat on my hands and knees, catching my breath while Keith lay on his back doing the same.
I looked up and saw Keith's blade stuck in the metal platform. Keith rolled over on his hands and elbows, crawling towards his blade, before exhaustion and pain took over and he fell to floor.
Just then, Shiro landed on the platform in front of Keith and his blade. He looked down at the exhaustion boy in front of him and activated his blade.
He lifted it into the air and yelled as he prepared to strike Keith down right there.
With all the strength I had left, I ran to Shiro and pushed him away from Keith.
"Don't touch him!" I shouted as Shiro stumbled back and growled at me from stopping him.
"What are you doing, Saoirse!?" He yelled at me.
I summoned my lance and stood in an offense stance.
"Saving my boyfriend!" I yelled and then pushed myself forward.
He blocked me again with his sword and pushed me back towards Keith. I ran back and tried to hit him on the side of his head, one hit there with enough force and he'd be down for a while.
However, my plan was thwarted when Shiro blocked my lance with his free arm and then tried to stab my stomach. Thankfully he only nicked my side closer to my back.
I didn't let up on my attacks and tried to hit him again. I reeled back my fist and hit him as hard as I could in the stomach, sending him back a little but he didn't seem winded.
Then, I blinked only once and all of a sudden Shiro was right in front of me with his sword held high.
I didn't have time to dodge.
It must have been the adrenaline, because I didn't feel any pain from the strike of his sword.
I felt my skin burn on my chest and abdomen....
I looked down at what he had done.....
My brother...... the one I trusted the most.....
Cut me me deeply across the stomach and chest.
I bled through my armor and stared up at my brother in shock.
"Why..... big brother...?"