Gonna power through the rest of this nonsense! I’d like to get Part 3 done tonight as well! Whoohoo! I randomly have a Handel’s Messiah gig next weekend! I also have baked potatoes that turned out quite tasty! Also Joe Hisaishi is amazing! Also why did Disney pass up on the chance to do a movie with Eric Whitacre, that would have been spectacular! Why am I using so many exclamation points!
Part 2: I Made a Promise
“Shiro! You’re all right!” Allura was first to reach him as he disembarked from his Lion, back at the Castle. “We were so worried about you, what happened?”
“I was worried about you guys too,” he said. “I crashed onto a planet called Teler and it took a while to convince the doctor there to let me go.” It was close enough to the truth. “I’m glad you all made it back to base safely.”
“Welcome back!” Pidge chirped. “We were having trouble locating the Black Lion using the castle’s power, so I’ve been working on a personal tracking device that should let us locate each other in case of emergencies like this.” She waved a little metal device at him. “It’s dormant until we call each other so it won’t interfere with normal operating… things.”
“Um.” He blinked at it. “That’s great, Pidge, but my first thought is that Zarkon might find a way to use that against us, even with the dormant feature. Maybe we can use it on something else, not the Lions?”
“Hmm. I suppose you’re right. I’ll keep working on it.”
“So any cute girls on this planet?” Lance asked, leaning casually on Hunk’s shoulder.
Shiro hesitated. The answer was ‘yes’ but that was not the answer to give Lance… yet. “What’s important is that they’re still fighting Zarkon, and have been for the past fifty years. I think we should make it a priority to help them, gain some allies who still have some autonomy in this fight.”
Lance’s eyes narrowed, and he circled Shiro, stroking his chin. “You didn’t answer the question, and you immediately started campaigning to help them. I think there are cute girls on the planet, and you want to keep them all to yourself!”
“Lance,” Allura tried to break in.
“I’m more interested in what kind of local food there is, if they haven’t all been taken over by green goo and Galra cooking,” Hunk said.
“Vegetarian,” Shiro said. “Guys-”
“C’mon, Shiro! Own up!”
Shiro closed his eyes, pinched the bridge of his nose, and sighed. “Yes, Lance, there are female Telerans you might find attractive.”
Lance pumped both fists in the air. “Whoo! Okay, let’s go!” That was easy.
If Lance ever met Elslince, she’d… actually, he didn’t know what she’d do. When he’d told her about the team, she’d laughed delightedly at every one of his descriptions – including Lance.
It wasn’t important. “But let’s look at the big picture, here. Coran, can you show us Teler’s location?”
“Sure thing, Shiro! It’s right over………………….. here.”
“That’s not so far,” Keith said softly. “But you still haven’t come up with your plan for saving the galaxy, why start here?”
“They haven’t been conquered yet, in territory or in spirit. They’ve been fighting Zarkon for fifty years, they’d be a good starting point to learning more about his forces, his strategies, what the state of the galaxy is like. And they can help us liberate other planets, since it will take less time for them to recover.”
The team almost universally crossed their arms, unconvinced.
Shiro sighed heavily and looked at the floor. “…and I made a promise to the doctor with the pretty blue eyes and I’d come help her people soon.”
“A-ha!” Lance said, pointing dramatically at him. “I knew it!”
“Heehee, I knew there was another reason,” Pidge said. “You’re cute when you blush!”
“Hmm, you’ve got it worse than I did for Shae,” Hunk noted.
“I’m also less in denial about it,” Shiro muttered, and Hunk pouted.
“Well, isn’t that grand?” Coran declared.
“Shiro, that’s lovely,” Allura said. “Of course we must help you keep your promise.”
“Yeah, whatever,” Keith said. “What kind of defenses do they have?”
Thank goodness for Keith. “I was only able to get second-hand information, mostly, but here’s what I learned…”
They were sidetracked with other adventures for a while, other missions just too important not to take, weathering attacks from Zarkon and recovering from them. So it was almost three months before they made it to Teler.
They dropped into orbit, Lions deployed against the fighters. Allura broadcast on a wide signal. “Attention, people of Teler. This is Princess Allura and Voltron. We have come to defend you against Zarkon.”
“We’ve also come to see a chick named Elslince, anyone know where she is?” Lance put in.
“Lance!” half the team yelled at him. Lance snickered.
“People of Teler, please let us know how best to help you.”
The Galra fighters were closing in, suicidally fast. These fighters hadn’t ever succeeded in permanently taking down a Lion before, and for all the robots’ programming, they couldn’t seem to figure out how to coordinate against Voltron. No, the real battle was going to take place on the ground. And he was nervous. He was finally here, after months of swallowing his impatience and doing what was necessary, he was finally back. Would she remember him? Of course she would. Was she still alive? What if she wasn’t? If she wasn’t, he’d liberate the planet in her memory. But he prayed that she was. And that she didn’t mind too much he was going to cause a lot of collateral damage with all the weapons at his disposal.
“Princess Allura… Voltron…” A quavery old voice came on the radio. “I am Elder Hamza. We have heard much about you. If you could assist the Resistance in retaking the city of Neemo, we would be most grateful. We can speak there afterwards about a further alliance.”
“Thank you, Elder Hamza,” Allura said. “Coran?”
“I’ve found the city of Neemo; pinpointing it on your radar,” Coran said, and a light pinged on Shiro’s map screen.
“Thanks. Hold position here; we’re going in. Lions, with me!”
Shiro took Pidge and Lance with him to meet with the leader of the local Resistance, leaving Keith and Hunk in the air to defend against the remaining Galra fighters. The leader was very helpful. “We’re facing heavy Galra fire from here, here, and here. We’re down to our last reserves of fuel and power cells. If we don’t take this city today, it’s going to be months before we can return and try again, and by then…” By then the Galra would be even more firmly entrenched.
“Got it,” Shiro said.
“And what about Doctor Elslince?” Pidge asked.
“It’s fine, we have enough to worry about-” Shiro began.
“Doctor Elslince… She’s been captured,” the Teleran said with a heavy face.
Shiro felt ice congeal in his gut. “Captured? You’re sure?” Then there was a chance he – they could rescue her.
“Yes, she’s working in the Galra headquarters, put to work healing their soldiers. Our scouts caught glimpses of her and our other prisoners over the last two weeks.”
Shiro studied the map, thinking. It would be important to capture the enemy headquarters among other things, but they needed to get the pressure off the Telerans at the bridge, at the marketplace…
“Hey, so I have an idea,” Lance said. “Do you guys have, like, fifty gallons of orange paint?”
“Lance…” Pidge began warningly.
“No, no, hear me out. So I’ve got my Lion’s ice powers, right? So here’s what we do…”
Lance’s plan was insane. And clever. Shiro wouldn’t have come up with something like that, and he wasn’t sure if that was a bad thing or a good thing.
“Did you catch all of that, Keith, Hunk?”
“Roger,” Keith said.
“Already getting ready,” Hunk said.
“Then Shiro can go be the hero he’s always dreamed of being-” Lance clasped his hands, making smirky lovey eyes.
“Okay, all right,” Shiro said, annoyed. “Let’s just do it.”
The Teleran looked at all three of them. “O-okay. We’ll get in position.”
“Cool!” Lance said, made fingerguns, and fired them off as he jogged out of the command centre after Shiro and Pidge.
The plan kept the others in the air and in their Lions, and for that, Shiro was glad. He’d caught glimpses of what it looked like on the ground… and it was ugly. Not that he’d been any more experienced than they were, back when he was still serving Earth. The nations of Earth had stopped warring a few decades back, and their generation had actually grown up in a climate of peace and hope for maybe the first time in human history. So no, he knew no more about war from personal experience than the other Paladins under his command. He was just older, a little bit, had more training – besides his mostly-blank stint as a prisoner and a slave. If he could reasonably protect them from this reality for a little longer… that wasn’t a bad thing, was it?
He sent the Black Lion into a tight turn and a dive, landing heavily in front of Galra HQ. With Lance’s distraction, it should hopefully be under-defended about now. Because he was going to take on whatever was left single-handed. With his right hand. Heh. But they couldn’t risk destroying the building, not with prisoners inside. He’d get reinforcements after a while, when they’d defeated the Galra at the main battle.
He dropped out of the cockpit, landing in a crouch. “Elslince!” The rattle of Galra fire was his only answer, pinging off his energy shield.
He charged.
HQ was easily two dozen stories tall with three levels below-ground. It was a Teleran office building, it looked like, even from the inside, although the Galra had fortified the front entrance. Fortifying didn’t really matter when his right hand was basically a mini-lightsaber. Galra robots fell in pieces, he vaulted the barrier, one jump ahead of rifle fire, rolling behind their line and slicing.
Always thrumming in the back of his mind was an undercurrent of fear – not specifically for his mission, or his friends, or even for Elslince’s current status. No, it was wondering when the next moment would be that his unremembered past would rise up and swallow him, halt him in his tracks, freeze the breath in his lungs…
Up until this point, when he’d really needed it, his reflexes had saved him when his mind failed, honed, it seemed, from months in the Galra arena. He had to trust that.
Elevator or stairs? Probably stairs. It wasn’t like the Galra would label which floor they kept their prisoners or field hospital on – even if he could read more than a couple words of Galra without a translator.
But climbing all those stairs, fighting the whole way… He was a pilot, not a space marine.
They wouldn’t put the hospital far away from the front door. He kicked in the door to the second floor. “Elslince!” Galra robots spun away from the elevator, but he was already plowing through them, knocking them into each other. “Elslince!?”
Over the crashing of metal parts, he thought he heard an answering call. “Sh-Shiro?” Yep, he’d recognize that stammer anywhere. There was a door in the partition and he opened it cautiously, alert to new threats.
Nothing shot at him, nothing popped out at him – so far, so good. “Elslince, you in here?”
“Y-yes- Ah!” Her voice cut off in a shrill cry.
He threw caution to the wind and sprinted across the hall filled with Galra soldiers lying semi-conscious on rough cots. The floor was slick with purple blood and he tried to avoid the worst spots. It reminded him of old war movies… No time to think about that now! He burst through the next doorway and saw Elslince, in a blood-stained grey jumpsuit, in the grip of a Galra officer; he had a pistol pointed at Shiro, who stopped short.
“Good, good – surrender, Black Paladin, or your little friend gets it!”
“You leave her alone!” Shiro shouted.
“You have until the count of five to get on the floor with your hands behind your-”
“Will you both stop it!?” Elslince screamed, breaking free from the Galra officer. “Unless I treat this man right now, he’s going to die, so both of you sit down and shut up, unless you want to help!”
He wanted to rush to her now that he was free from the officer’s hold, drag her away to safety, but she had a compelling argument, except… “Elslince, that’s a Galra soldier.”
“Shiro, sit! Shut! Major, pass me the tefradoxymalin and then hold him still.” She was tying a tourniquet around the soldier’s leg. Shiro did as she said, and the Galra major did as well, cowed by her flashing blue eyes.
“The Paladin, or the-”
“The patient, Major! Hurry!” She injected the groaning soldier with the syringe, then picked up a nasty-looking saw. Long strips of bandages were wound through her writhing hair, at the ready.
Shiro’s eyes widened. He’d never seen an amputation before – that he could remember. He braced himself. So did the Galra major, it seemed. Elslince was concentrating, every last bit of her attention on her current task, her hair barely twitching now under the pressure. How long did they have until reinforcements showed up, Galra or Teleran?
When the bloody work was done and the leg bandaged, Elslince looked back towards the other door behind her, as if expecting more, but the Major drew his gun again. In a flash, Shiro darted forward and chopped at the gun, and it fell to the floor in pieces. Undeterred, the Major swung at Shiro. Shiro dodged, kicked him into the wall, jumped forward, grabbed Elslince around the waist, and hauled her towards the door when her startled, stumbling feet couldn’t keep up.
“H-hey! Stop! Wait! There are more wounded back there!”
“I’m here to rescue you,” Shiro said. “We have to go before Galra reinforcements show up. Are there any other Telerans here-?”
“They need me, Shiro!”
“So do your people! Elslince, are the Galra more important than the Telerans to you?” Unfair question, he knew, but he needed her to get moving now. The Major was recovering, swinging around, snarling at them.
“Injured people are important to me!” she protested, still struggling against him. “And there are still some here! I swore an oath, Shiro!”
He didn’t want to just say ‘too bad’ and drag her out. But…
“You will both die here!” growled the Major.
Yeah, or that sort of thing was bound to happen. Shiro turned his back on the Major, shielding Elslince from his charge with his body, grunting with the impact that sent him stumbling and crashing through into the recovery room. His boots slipped on the bloodstained floor and they fell together, and he cradled her as they hit the floor.
Pounding boots shook the floor and Shiro braced himself before looking up. Would it be Galra reinforcements, or…?
It was a squad of Telerans. “Captain Shiro!” Field promotion, cool.
“Paladin Shiro,” he corrected them, standing, Elslince still held protectively in his arms. “Sorry, I didn’t get very far into the building.”
“You took down the main defenses, and that’s all we needed. And you found Elslince! Good to see you, kid!”
“Breeska, there’s wounded men back there-”
“Let us secure the area first, then you can do your thing, all right?” Some of the squad were emerging from the operating room with the Major in a position of surrender.
For the first time, Elslince relaxed. He could feel it in her shoulders, see it in her hair. She glanced up at him, her old shyness returning. “Before I do anything else… Th-thanks for coming to save me, Shiro. I… wasn’t expecting to see you again, and you… came for me, just like you said.”
He hadn’t actually managed to save her from anything. The Telerans had saved both of them. So much for Lance’s idea that he play hero. But he’d done what he could, right? “You’re welcome. I should rejoin my team.” He flicked his radio on.
“Nah, we got things covered here,” Lance said, catching that last bit.
“Is that so?” Shiro asked his radio.
“It does appear that way,” Allura said. “There do not appear to be any more Galra reinforcements moving in from other cities. I think the day is ours.”
“That’s good to hear.” Shiro turned to the Teleran squad. “In that case, I’ll help you clear the rest of the building.”
“Thanks, Paladin. Appreciate it.”
“Want to ride with me?” Shiro asked Elslince at the close of the day, once he’d received confirmation that the last Galra opposition in the city was being mopped up.
He wasn’t expecting an affirmative answer, but tired blue eyes perked up, green hair twitched in curiosity, and she said “I’d like that. I never got to see the inside, last time.”
He decided not to bring up the fact that the Black Lion was basically a weapon of mass destruction… and he still didn’t even know how to use its full capabilities. She probably hadn’t forgotten, was just trying to meet him halfway. “Sure. Where to?”
“Where are you going to go?”
“Once I drop you off, I’m heading back to the Castle of Lions with the rest of the team. I think we’re going to land the Castle just outside the city, though, so we’re not going to far.” He hesitated. “Uh… you want to meet the team? They’ve all been teasing me about you and you know about them, you may as well meet each other. If you want to head back to the Resistance afterwards, I can take you.”
She hesitated too, then straightened her shoulders. “I was hoping you’d ask me over. That’s what I really wanted, I just… wasn’t sure… how to say it.”
He grinned, oddly relieved. “I’ll try and be more direct in the future.”
She stood just behind his seat in the Black Lion, distractingly close. Her clothes smelled of Galra blood. He wondered what had happened to her pink outfit and if it was possible to get another one for her. Grey just made her seem subdued, not at all like the cheerful girl he’d gotten to know.
He was just happy she was safe. And despite his stoic facade, he was excited to introduce her to his friends. He just hoped Lance kept his mouth relatively shut. The rest would probably be all right.
The Black Lion touched down in its landing bay and he stood, removing his helmet. “Shall we?”
She grinned on seeing his hair – she really liked it, didn’t she? – and nodded without speaking. She took up a position slightly behind him, and after a moment, he realized that tendrils of green hair were wrapping around his left arm. She was nervous?
“It’s okay,” he assured her. “They’re all really nice. Just don’t let Lance bother you.”
“I remember,” she said, with a nervous giggle. “He was the one who started flirting with the Princess about a second after he met her.”
“Heh, that’s right. Here’s the elevator.”
“This place is so strange,” she murmured, looking around. “I guess a spaceship doesn’t need plants, but it’s so… bare.”
He hadn’t really thought about it. “I guess so.” The elevator doors opened to the command room. “C’mon.”
“Ah, Shiro, here you are!” Coran cried. “And this must be Miss Elslince. A pleasure to make your acquaintance.”
“Yes, a pleasure indeed,” Allura said, stepping forward with an outstretched hand. “We’ve heard much about you…”
“Though Shiro’s a pretty tough nut to crack,” Hunk said.
“Shiro’s a… nut?” Elslince asked, glancing up at him. “I thought he was a human…”
“Figure of speech,” Pidge explained. “Hi, I’m Pidge. Nice to meet you.”
“Hi, Pidge,” Elslince said. “And you must be Keith, and you must be-”
“Hunk,” said Hunk, a friendly smile on.
She smiled back. “I-it’s really nice to meet all of you finally. Even Lance.”
Lance pouted ferociously while the others laughed. “What!? What were you telling her about me, Shiro?”
“Oh, nothing,” Shiro said.
“I don’t believe you for a second.” Lance paused, then swooped in on Elslince, charm on at full blast. “But hey, babe, how’s it going?”
She shrank back under Shiro’s arm. “I’m well, I suppose. No one was hurt in that fight?”
“No,” Keith said.
“Ah, we don’t need you to trouble yourself,” Coran said. “We have a full Altean infirmary with the latest in cryogenic healing technology! No doctors required. Rather an obsolete concept, aren’t they?”
Even Shiro thought his attitude was a bit patronizing, but Elslince tensed and stepped out from behind him. “Well, I’m so happy for you with your amazing super-technology that we definitely have access to on Teler while fighting Zarkon. That’s wonderful. Some of us have to study for years to learn what your computers or whatever can do in seconds, but hey, obsolescence is a pretty broad term, isn’t it?”
Coran took a step back, looking chagrined.
“Yeah, that was kinda harsh, Coran,” Lance said loudly.
Coran bowed his head to her. “I apologize, Miss Elslince. I spoke without thinking.”
Elslince slumped a little. “I’m sorry too. I’ve… just had a very long day, and… it’s been very exciting, getting rescued and coming here to meet all of you, and…” Tears were welling up in her big blue eyes. “I’d be really grateful if I could rest for a bit.”
“Absolutely,” Allura said kindly, moving forward to put an arm around Elslince’s shoulders. “I can’t imagine what you’ve been through in the last little while. Come, I’ll find you a room. You’re welcome to stay as long as you want.”
“Th-thank you,” Elslince mumbled, wiping her eyes with her hair and following Allura.
Pidge glared at Coran. “You knew she was a doctor! Why would you say that!”
“Hey, I said I was sorry!” Coran protested.
“Okay, just settle down, everyone,” Shiro said firmly. “We’ve all been on edge today. Everything will look better tomorrow. We should rest too so we’re ready to go. No doubt the Telerans will have new missions for us.” He didn’t doubt Coran had just stuck his foot in his mouth and truly regretted it. Elslince would probably forgive him, she was pretty mature. He hoped they’d be able to get along.
“I mean, at least we rescued this city, and your girlfriend,” Hunk said optimistically. “That’s something.”
Shiro didn’t blush. For once. “She’s not my girlfriend, just a plant I met whom I happen to respect very much.”
“Oh, come on!” Hunk cried, and Lance snickered.
“Maybe she’s into younger men, then-” he began, waggling his eyebrows.
“No.” Shiro glared at him sternly, restraining an exasperated sigh. Just leave the poor girl alone until she’s found her footing again.
“Well, I’m going to bed,” Keith said. “Good night.”
“Good night,” the others called.
Months of work, of fighting, of knocking out Galra installations so the Resistance could come in and capture key points, and going Voltron on reinforcing Galra fleets later, Teler was finally more or less an independent planet again.
Elder Hamza met with Allura in the entrance to the Castle of Lions, with a crowd of representative Telerans all wearing flower crowns and carrying green branches. They gave flower crowns to Team Voltron, too. Keith looked uncomfortable in his. “We can never thank you enough for your help,” the elder said.
“No thanks are necessary,” Allura said graciously. “Although if you wish to thank anybody, it should be Shiro. He was the one who led us here to your aid.”
“Thank you, Shiro, for everything you have done for us,” Elder Hamza said, taking his hand with both of his, and some hair, and shaking it enthusiastically with as much strength as the wizened old Teleran could manage. “It will take us some time to consolidate our victory and begin restoring our world, but should you ever be in need, please let us know and we will do everything we can.”
“Thanks,” Shiro managed to say, a little awkwardly. It was what he had wished for, the reason why he’d wanted to come to Teler in the first place, to begin building their base of support, but he still wasn’t sure how to publicly receive such support. “And we know where to go next from here, who to help next.”
“I did have a request from one of my people, if you’d be so kind as to indulge us in one more thing,” the elder said, and looked back towards the crowd of Telerans. There was a shuffle, and Elslince stepped out of the crowd, her cheeks blushing yellow. “My great-granddaughter wants to go with you, to see the universe, help you as she can against Zarkon. And it seems she’s very fond of all of you, especially you, young man,” he said to Shiro, and Shiro could feel a pink blush of his own spreading across his face.
“How lovely!” Allura gushed. “Of course, she’s welcome to come along. We’d be happy to have her and her skills with us! Thank you, Elslince!”
“Thank you for having me,” Elslince said shyly. She kissed Elder Hamza on the cheek and trotted to stand over by Pidge. “I’ll contact you when I can!”
“Be safe,” Elder Hamza said. “Go save the universe.”
“I wasn’t expecting you to actually come,” Shiro said to her alone later, in the break room. “I was bothered by the idea of saying goodbye to you, though. I’m glad I didn’t have to.”
“I want to repay you as best I can,” she said, hair threading through her fingers in intricate patterns. She was… feeling shy, still? Was that what that meant? “For coming to help me and my planet.”
“I made a promise,” he said. “I can’t always keep them. But I wanted to keep this one.”
“Well, I’m grateful,” she said, and brushed his left sleeve with her hair in a shyly affectionate gesture, and he smiled fondly at her.