~~~~Saoirse~~~~
I groaned as my vision returned to normal and the faces of my friends became clear, finally waking up after who knows how long. I felt warm, but I was somehow comfortable.
"Saoirse, are you okay?" Keith asked. I looked around slightly confused by where I was, when all the previous events came flooding back into my mind.
I nodded and sat back up, seeing that I was actually sleeping on Keith's lap. I smiled, almost forgetting how comfortable his lap was for a taking a nap. As I sat up, I noticed that my wrists were cuffed, and to my annoyance, my long hair was down.
I looked around to see where we were, and from the dark atmosphere I could tell we were in a Galra cruiser prison hold. I knew I shouldn't have done it, but I used my powers to sense the energies of our lions.
After a few minutes, I felt them inside the cruiser nearby.
"The Lions are here in the cruiser. But they're weak." I said.
"Wait, Saoirse, you didn't just use your powers did you?" Pidge asked worried, "You're still recovering."
I sighed as everyone looked at me with worry.
"I'm fine. Since the Lions aren't too far away, I didn't have to stretch my powers too thin. I'll be alright so you don't have to worry." I tried to reassure, but it didn't seem to work very well.
We sat in silence for a while, but nothing really happened, the only amusing thing thay happened was when Lance began sliding along the walls.
"What are you doing?" Hunk asked.
"I'm feeling for a secret passage." He answered.
"You've watched too many movies, Lance. There's no secret passage." Keith said.
"Oh, really? Then how do you explain this?"
Lance kicked the wall near the door, which resulted in an audible crack and him wimpering in pain.
"I meant, uh, this!" He kicked the opposite wall and ended up with the same results as before.
"Will someone shut him up?" Krolia asked from the front of the room, looking through the slot in the door.
"There's only one guard patrolling out there." She said, "If we can get this door open, we can overpower him."
Hunk looked around and noticed one person missing from our group.
"What happened to Coran?" He asked.
The rest of us looked around as well, seeing no sign of Coran being in the room with us.
"He must have managed to hide when we were captured." Krolia said.
"At least we have one ally out there still able to fight for us." Allura said with hope and relief.
"Are you saying our fate rests in Coran's hands?" Pidge asked.
Everyone went silent and slumped down with expressions that said 'we're doomed.'
"I will help you look for that passage." Pidge said to Lance.
I sighed and leaned back against the wall, but then, I felt a hand on mine. I opened my eyes again and saw Keith smiling at me.
"Get some more sleep." He said softly so the others couldn't hear him. I smiled back and leaned against his shoulder, relaxing as I fell back to sleep.
~~~~
There was nothing but white. A few unfamiliar faces. I felt warm tears run down my cheeks as I turned to my friends.
"Is there really no other way to do this, Saoirse?" Keith asked, tears falling down his cheeks as well.
I smiled sadly and shook my head, "No, I have to be a part of this, Keith. If we do this, we'll have a chance...."
I couldn't hear what else I had said. I simply melted into Keith's arms as he hugged me tighter than ever before.
"Promise me that you'll be okay." He said, not as a request, but more like a command. I couldn't do much more than hug him as he did me.
"I promise. I'll be okay." I answered. We stayed like for a few minutes until he let me go.
I turned towards the other faces. The faces of my friends, the ones I considered my family.
Pidge was balling, tears running down her cheeks and staining her puffed cheeks.
Hunk had turned around, not able to handle looking at me before it was time.
Lance was with Allura, both of them crying as they held each other.
And my brother, Shiro, he tried to stay firm, but not even he could keep his emotions contained.
I felt a hand grab mine. I looked away from my friends and saw it. I took a deep breath and took a few steps forward. It was for the future of the universe. It would secure the future and safety of all those I loved.
If this was the only way, I'd it in a heartbeat.
I turned around and saw all of my friends as they watched me leave. I would see them again. It would just be a while.
~~~~
~~~~Keith~~~~
A couple hours passed, and Saoirse was sleeping well on my shoulder. Until, I saw a single tear fall from her eye.
I got concerned when she cried. What was she dreaming about.
All of a sudden, Saoirse's eyes snapped open. She looked towards the door and narrowed her gaze.
"We have company." She said.
Our attention turned towards the door when we heard it unlock. Two pirates came in with blasters in their hands, standing guard to watch us as their leaders walked in.
To our surprise, we saw Ezor and Zethrid, two of Lotor's former generals. But they looked different. They seemed bigger and not just from their armored uniforms.
"Look who's hear. It's Voltron and the Angel." Ezor said amusingly.
Zethrid smirked, punching her own fist to try and intimidate us, "We're going to have a little talk."
Lance squinted his eyes then widened them again when recognized them.
"Hey, you're the guys that Lotor shot into space." He said.
"And the ones who were trying to kill us." Pidge added.
"Yeah, sure, but we're all friends now, right?" Hunk asked with a hopeful smile, "I, for one, am glad you survived."
"I'm glad you survived, too." Ezor said smiling with an evil glint in her eyes, "It's no fun torturing a dead person."
"Oh. So maybe not?" Hunk said nervously.
"Where have you been all this time? And what happened to Lotor?" Zethrid demanded answers, but we stared at in confusion. All this time? What did she mean by that?
"What are you talking about?" Shiro asked.
"We're talking about your little disappearing act." Ezor said.
"Answer the question!" Zethrid demanded, "How did you survive that explosion?"
"Dont you know? You were there." Hunk said.
"I think there's a little confusion about how the... "we ask questions, you give us answers" scenario works." Ezor said.
Saoirse sighed, "Look, we don't know what you're talking about guys. So take that answer and swallow it." She said, surprising all of uf from the bite to her words. She hardly ever had this kind of attitude towards anyone unless she was really annoyed or angry.
Zethrid growled at Saoirse in anger, "I don't like your attitude or the games your playing. Where is Lotor?"
"Lotor's dead." I answered them, "We let him in the quintessence field."
"Yeah, that doesn't really add up. Why aren't you dead?" Ezor asked, not convinced with our answer.
"Because of the power of teamwork?" Hunk said more as a question and not a comment.
"I'm going to ask you one more time, and then we're going to have to take a more extreme approach." Zethrid threatened.
"The fun part." Ezor added, almost excited to hurt us.
"What happened to Lotor and where have you been all this time?"
"Keith just told you. He's dead in the quintesdence field. That's the only answer we can give."
Zethrid got even more angry, stomping past us and reaching out to grab Saoirse, but suddenly, she just stopped, her face contorted into slight pain.
She pulled back her arm and backed away. The rest of us looked over at Saoirse and saw her blue eyes glow a little. Her face was completely calm, but I could see a little bit of sweat dripping down the side of her head.
"Lay a hand on me or any of my friends, and I'll do more than just push you back." Saoirse threatened. Her eyes went back to normal and Zethrid regained control over her body, collapsing to her knees ajd breathing heavily as Ezor knelt down to help her.
"What did you do to me?" Zethrid asked. Saoirse didn't answer, she simply stared at the two former generals.
"If you insist on maintaining this charade of ignorance, you leave us no choice but to apply pressure." Zethrid said as she stood up, although a little shaky.
"Finally." Ezor sighed happily, "Who's our first victim?"
Zethrid looked around and smiled evilly at Saoirse and Pidge.
"Well, I definitely want to do something to that little Angel, maybe pluck her wings." She said, "And I'd bet half my fleet this group of heroes has a soft spot for the small one."
Ezor began taking steps towards Pidge, who subconsciously scooted closer to Saoirse, while Saoirse scooted closer to me.
"Don't you touch them!" Lance shouted, trying to tackle Ezor, but her flexibility let her dodge and kick Lance across the room. The two guards aimed their weapons at Lance and he made no move to retaliate.
"Your defiance is adorable and so very misguided." Zethrid scoffed.
"Leave us alone." Pidge said, but was quickly grabbed by Ezor's tentacle-like hair, then held in Ezor's strong grip.
Zethrid forced herself through our group and grabbed Saoirse by the neck, then slamming her against the wall next to Pidge.
"Let her go!" I shouted, trying to get to her,, but I stopped by another guard.
Saoirse glared at Ezor and Zethrid.
"Do what you want with me, but let Pidge go. Or you're gonna regret it." She squeezed out through her constricted throat.
"Seriously? What are you gonna do?" Ezor asked, "From the looks of those red cheeks of yours, you're not feeling too well. And you seem a little week from using those powers of yours."
~~~~Saoirse~~~~
I listened to Ezor belittle me. I might be sick and a little bit injured, but I wouldn't let that stop me from saving my friend.
My body became warmer as I closed my eyes asn let out a soft breath. But when I opened my eyes again, it was completely different than before.
No longer was I staring bodies and faces, instead, I saw outlines of everyone and a single light where everyone's hearts were. It was almost like I was seeing their hearts. From those lights in their hearts, the light seemed to travel through their body, almost like the veins in their bodies.
I looked directly at Ezor and saw the lights in her head-appendage. I felt her energy and slightly twisted it. I heard her scream in shock and pain. I blinked and my vision went bsck to normal just in time to see Ezor drop Pidge.
Ezor fell to her knees and held her appendage and began to cry.
"Ezor, what's wrong?" Zethrid asked, dropping me in the process of her rushing to her friend's side.
I coughed harshly and taking deep breaths in as Pidge rushed to my side.
"Saoirse, you all right?" Pidge asked. I nodded and looked at her with a smile on my face.
"You okay, Pidge?" I asked. She nodded and pushed me towards the others.
"What did you just do to Ezor?" Zethrid demanded. Ezor glared at me while still holding her appendage.
"That hurt you little Quiznak!" She yelled at me.
They made a move towards me and Pidge, but the alarms blared loudly, making them forget about us for the moment.
"What now?" Zethrid asked angrily.
"Hull breach in hangar one. Lockdown sequence initiated.." A computerized voice announced.
The guards, Ezor and Zethrid ran out of the room, locking us back in. I sighed in relief and leaned back against the wall, still trying to get my breathing back to normal.
Once I was all right again, we stood up and got near the door.
"This is it." Krolia said, "The next time that doors opens, overwhelm the guard."
We took our places on the sides of the cell, but something went differently in our plans. We heard the guard groan and several thuds against the metal floors and door.
Confused, we all waited for the outside to become silent.
Then, the door opened and we hesitantly looked outside the cell. Nothing could be seen but the Altean mice squeaking on top of the unconscious guard.
"Hello, little friends." Allura said happily as she knelt down on the floor.
The mice squeaked, speaking to Allura, who's happy face turned confused and nervous.
"What? Where?" She asked frantically.
"What? What are they saying?" Hunk asked.
"Coran is trying to rescue us. And he's got help. Acxa." Allura answered, shocking us. Acxa was part of Lotor's generals, why would she have a change of heart and help Coran?
"What?" Keith asked in surprise.
"There's no time to waste." I said, spreading our my senses to find Coran. A few seconds later, I found his energy. He was a little unbalanced, but he was all right.
"I found him. He's in the east side of the ship, first floor below us." I said.
We rummaged through the guard and found the keys to our cuffs, freeing ourselves and everyone following me to Coran's location.
As we searched for our friend, a large robot blocked our way through the halls, Allura came up in front of us and punched it hard with all her strength, putting it out of commission.
When it fell, it revealed a purple skinned, slightly battered Coran in a Galra pirate uniform.
Keith and Lance quickly ran to Coran's side as he groaned and slid to the floor.
"See? You got lucky." Coran said towards the robot, disoriented from the beating he most likely got from the bot.
"Coran, where's Acxa?" Keith asked.
"I don't know. Where am I?" Coran asked.
"Are you okay?" Shiro asked.
"Never better." Coran slurred out his words, jumbling them up slightly, "Now let's get our 'belmards' and 'hayards'."
"Don't worry. We got you." Lance said.
"Oh, thank you, Princess Allura." Coran said.
The ship rumbled and the alarms blared even louder as we ran through the ship. But while we ram through the ship, I wondered more about what Ezor and Zethrid asked about.
We couldn't have been gone too long. only a few weeks right? How long did they think we were gone? What happened to them? What happened while we're fighting with Lotor? And why did I see what I saw?
"I cannot wait until that thing turns on and cuts your head off." A pirate said from one of the open rooms.
We slid against the wall, Keith and I jumped to the other side of the door and watching as the pirates examined our weapons for fun.
"Our bayards." Keith whispered.
"They have weapons and we don't. Any suggestions?" Lance asked.
"Unhand those bayards, you scallywags!" Coran shouted, Lance and Pidge pulling him back but it was too late. The pirates grabbed their weapons and aimed them for the door slowly closing the distance.
"So much for the element of surprise." Pidge said. I gasped softly when I felt a hand over mine. I looked down at my hand and back up at Keith. He nodded and I understood what he was planning to do.
We closed our eyes and concentrated on our bayards In almost an instant, our bayards were in our hands and my pendant around my neck. We sprung into action, swiping at the pirates and quickly knocking them out.
We grabbed our helmets and turned back towards the group.
"Lance, lead the way. Keep the team together." Keith said, he and I walking away towards the door.
"Wait, where are you two going?" Lance asked.
"Acxa saved our skin. I'm not gonna leave her behind." Keith said.
"Ill lead everyone to the Lions. I can barely feel their energy floating in open space. I'll get in contact with the Silver Lion and see if she has enough energy to transport me to her cockpit and see what I can do before you show up. We'll meet up with you guys soon." Then we turned away and ran down the halls.
But before I could leave, Keith pulled me close and hugged me for a brief moment.
"Be careful out there." He said before letting me go and running off. I smiled and closed my eyes to try and connect to my lion.
"Silver, are you there?" I asked in my mind.
"I hear you, Saoirse. I understand you want to come to me quickly."
"Yes. I need to get out there before the others. Can you bring me to your cockpit?"
"Of course, young angel. Give me one moment."
I waited for a second before I felt the familiar sensation of me being transported to the Silver Lion. I opened my eyes and saw myself sitting in the cockpit of my lion.
I immediately looked around and saw the other lions floating in space, and from the cruiser, I saw everyone coming out. For a moment I was relieved, but then, other pirates and guards came out after them. They began to fight.
I looked around my cockpit and saw that barely anything was working, but my liom had enough energy to fly and give protection.
I flew over to Romelle, who was the odd one out floating in space. She turned around as I opened my Lion's mouth and pulled her inside.
She ran into my cockpit and took off her spacesuit.
"Thank you, Saoirse." She said gratefully.
"Don't say that just yet. We're not out of the woods." I said.
"Guys! Zero in on my location and fire on the ship." Keith shouted through the comms.
"Are you sure?" Allura asked.
"Just do it!"
We did as told, locking on to Keith's location and firing our lasers at the exact spot. A large explosion erupted from the ship and the Black Lion flew in to take Keith and Acxa inside.
We quickly turned around and flew away as quickly as we could.
After a few hours of flying, we eventually came across a deserted dusty planet where we could rest and let the lions recharge.
There we found a cave and made camp for the time being. I sat near Keith, taking my long hair and pulling it into a high ponytail. It was actually strange. My hair never felt this heavy before. Did it grow?
"Saoirse, has your hair always been that long?" Pidge asked.
Everyone turned to me as I draped my long hair over my shoulder. I stared at the long black, blue and silver strands and saw that my hair indeed grew.
"I guess so." I said, "We were on so many missions, I guess I forget to give myself a haircut."
"Don't do that." Allura said, "I think you look nice with long hair. You should leave it down more often."
I chuckled and played with my long tresses. I liked my hair long, but this was a little too long. Anything going past my waist was a little too much for me to be comfortable with. When we get back to Earth, I'll have to cut some of it off.
"Still, it's kind of strange." Shiro said, "Her hair grows fast sure, but it shouldn't have grown that long in that short amount of time we were gone."
Lance's eyes widened, "Yeah. I remember her hair being to her waist. Now it's passed her butt. No way it grew that fast on its own."
What Lance said was right. My hair did grow fast, but we were gone for a few weeks, and I had trimmed my hair a couple of months before our battle with Lotor.
"Uh, I just looked at the Lions and they're I'm worse shape than ever." Hunk said as he entered cave through the drape over the cave opening with firewood in his arms.
"We should probably give them some time to recharge before we head back on our way." Shiro suggested.
"Wow." Lance sighed, "A lot of things have really changed over the past few weeks."
""Weeks?" Acxa repeated, her expression turning from relieved to surprised and comfused, "What are you talking about?"
"The last time we saw you. You were fighting us alongside Lotor." Allura explained.
"That was three deca-phoebs ago. No one has seen you since your fight with Lotor." Acxa said, confusing and surprising us with our different timelines.
"That's impossible." Keith said in disbelief.
"It's true. After Lotor jettisoned us, we managed to make it to cover on a meteoroid. There we saw both Voltron and Lotor disappear. Eventually Voltron re-emerged... alone. But then there was an explosion, and after that... nothing. That was three deca-phoebs ago."
"Whoa." Lance gasped.
"So, as far as everyone else in the universe is concerned, Voltron has been gone for three deca-phoebs?" Allura asked.
Everyone went silent. The only sounds heard were the winds outside, the crackling of the fire, and the thudding wood dropped from Hunk's arms in his shock.
I was so shocked. Three years. We had been gone for three years! Well, that would explain a few things. Why Ezor and Zethrid asked us those questions. Why the fighters attacked differently. And why we couldn't contact anyone. Too much time had passed for any of us.
"That explains the discrepancies in the star charts in our Lions." Pidge said sadly pulling up a hologram of the charts, "I thought they were off because of our inter-dimensional jumping, which I guess they were, in a way. Because when you think about it, that must have been the cause of the time slippage between our experience and that of the rest of the universe."
"But, none of us really aged. Maybe except Saoirse. But why?" Allura wondered.
"Perhaps it's because of her Teshirian lineage." Krolia suggested, "Teshirians are connected to the universe right? Maybe her body was reacting to the years that had passed, which explains her hair growth in a way. From the way you explained the battle, she seemed to be absorbing and expelling large amounts of energy. It must've affected her more than the rest of you."
Her logic was understandable. My mother's people were very much connected to the universe and quintessence, and only a more powerful spell could keep us from aging. So I guess I'm the only one affected by this time change. Wait... does that make me 21 now?
"So how did you end up here, helping us?" Keith asked Acxa, taking a different turn in conversation topic.
Acxa stared down at the fire as she explained, "Zethrid, Ezor and I were marooned on the meteoroid for days. Finally, a Galra ship came to investigate Lotor's last known whereabouts. We took it over. With Lotor gone, it was clear that there was a power vacuum in the Galra Empire. Zethrid and Ezor wanted to exploit that for their own gain... but I knew I had to find my own path. And it led me to you."
"Thank you... for saving us." Keith said smiling softly. Acxa smiled back, but then looked away.
"I hope that this makes up, in some way, for the wrong I've done." She said, "I realize now that Lotor wasn't the man I though he was. He preached unity, but in the end, he sought only power."
"I understand how you feel." Allura said, knowing ex as carly what Acxa went through, "I fell for Lotor's lies as well. And in the end, it almost cost the lives of not only my friends, but all realities."
"I'll do everything I can out here to help the Voltron Coalition." Acxa swore and I could tell that she meant every word she said.
"Wow, so everyone that was helping us thinks we're dead." Hunk said.
"Wait." Pidge said, "I haven't been able to get ahold of my dad on Earth or Matt and the Rebels. What's happened to them in the last three years?"
"And if Ezor and Zethrid became warlords in that time... what else has changed?" Allura asked.
I kept thinking about the universe, the Rebellion, and then my mind wandered to my family. My little brothers and sister, my parents. They already lost me once, and now, for the past three years, they thought that they had lost me again.
I leaned against Keith, my eyes wide and my mind spinning from the new information. I barely felt Keith wrap his arm around my shoulders and pull me closer to him.
We had to get home. We needed to make up for the three years we had been gone.