voice | un: RocketMan

[vrepit_no]

Hi, Camelot: this is Shiro speaking...

Ah, I'm new in the area, and I understand that I'm going to be here a while. Couple of questions I was hoping someone could help me out with.

I heard a rumor that you can get paid for going to school here: true or false?
Is there a certain process, or form I should be filling out to get housing other than the hotel?

And. [The voice hesitates a moment before carrying on at a slightly different pitch.] Is there anyone here who specializes in prosthetics?

I appreciate you listening, and I'd be grateful for any help given.

Thanks.

Shiro out.

Comments

[patchricide]

Allura remains quiet as he explains what the 'false' Shiro had lived through. Trying to imagine what it feels like, to know that this sort of alternate ego was created and tortured and turned into an unwitting weapon against his friends. But ultimately, she can only imagine. The weight of Haggar's actions is never going to hit her the way it's hitting Shiro, since Allura doesn't have to process and accept a hypothetical situation.

What bothers her more is hearing the full breadth of Haggar's actions, and seeing the traces of Altean abilities behind her witchcraft. And she understands enough, and is so curious about what is possible, that part of her can't help but wonder about the process behind the witch's plan — to the point that she has to consciously stop herself from considering it too deeply. She distances her thoughts from the void.

"How many did she make?" With sufficient quintessence and other resources, it would be theoretically possible to create an entire planet of Shiros. Going that far to stop Team Voltron seems like an insane thought, but that's why she has to ask. Madness and overkill are practically the hallmarks of Haggar's strategy.

cw: PTSD, flashback symptoms

[vrepit_no]

"It's hard to say," Shiro murmurs. "He didn't know how many facilities she had going, or if there were any more clones being programed. But the facility he took Keith to had at least a thousand. It was set to self-destruct, thinking that it would take him and Keith with it. I think... Those memories are hard to think back on." He's not going to go into what he said. The things he ripped through Keith, tearing great ragged holes in the support they'd built together. That's too much. And if Keith hasn't told her, then it's really not his place to say.

"I think," he continues slowly, "that it was an attempt to strike back at the witch. To end the suffering of the others before it began, rid her of her toys, set her back in her research. He had to try to kill Keith, but he had faith that Keith could beat him, or that the Black Lion would save him somehow. Keith would survive and this section of the cloning project would end."

He rubs his hand across his forehead. It's okay. He's not there. The shriek of metal and Keith's labored breathing are just a bad memory. Smooth out the bedspread. Feel the texture of the weave. See? Here. Present. Focus.

"In the end, Keith surprised him. He thought he'd angered Keith and hurt him badly enough that Keith would kill him, or at least leave him to die." His chuckle is odd and rough and devoid of warmth. "Keith is better than that. He severed the prosthetic the witch had upgraded. The backlash and the strain on the clone's body was too much and he lost consciousness, but Keith got him into the Black Lion. Brought him back to the Paladins."

Bleak grey eyes lift to find her vibrant blue. "I'm sorry, Princess, but Lotor isn't the friend he makes us all believe he is. He's using us - using you to try and learn Altean alchemy and finish work on a trio of ships. They'll be able to combine, like the lions, into something new, able to be controlled by a single person, but just as large as Voltron and without the direct hookups that Zarkon's armor needed. He wants to break through the seam between universes and harvest quintessence directly from the between space. Where those little mote creatures are. And the Paladins are going to have to hold out until Keith gets back and can drop off my clone at the Castle. You can do it. I know you can. I've seen it happen. But you're going to have to believe it too."

[patchricide]

There's a long, slow inhale from Allura... and a sharp sigh of an exhale. "I don't see what you have to apologize for. If anything, I can hardly believe that I would fall for Lotor's deception and become allies with him, and it shames me to think that — well, apparently I will."

And what's worse, she can already see exactly why she would. It was in what Keith mentioned about the heir of Zarkon, that Lotor is half-Altean. It bothers her to have that connection with such a horrid enemy, so much that it makes her skin crawl. But she also knows how lonesome she's felt, ever since she lost her world and her people, and how she's longed to reforce those connections wherever she can find them. That's not necessarily a bad thing — it helped her forge her friendships with the human Paladins, after all — but it would be easy for someone like Lotor to take advantage of it. So yes, even despite her better judgment...

She shakes her head, trying to clear that unpleasant line of thought from her mind.

"The rest sounds absurd as well, but it does line up with what Keith mentioned. That apparently, we'll be chasing fairy tales and actually find something. Though it makes more sense that even that would be more part of their machinations..." t's unusually dour for her, but hearing about what Haggar and Lotor get up to? It's reawakened her grudge against Zarkon and his allies.

But... she nods. Shiro's faith is a silver lining to all this. And she does believe it, because isn't that what their team does best? Pulling out a victory in the darkest hour.

[vrepit_no]

"It's not your fault," Shiro says, shaking his head slowly. "Lotor is extremely clever, and I think that he genuinely wanted to be friends. It's just that his goals and yours could never align the way he wanted them to. And when you refuse him, then he uses that as an excuse to bring his power-hungry plot to bear. Besides. You're not the only one he fools. The clone of me is also fooled by him - meaning that I am. I help put him on the throne after the empire breaks. He's the one who kills Zarkon in the end. Like all people, there's good mixed with the bad. He makes the choice to turn away from the right path."

"In the end, Lotor is defeated. But by that point he's ripped so many holes in the fabric of space itself that the tears are expanding and eventually they'll consume the universe unless they can be closed. And that requires... Coran had a term for it. But basically it needs an explosion of enormous magnitude and filled with a certain type of energy. The only source for that is in the Castle's crystal. So the Castle has to be evacuated and set on a course to take it into the rifts on a timed self-destruct sequence.

"The healing pod that they put the clone into got taken with you all, along with as many supplies and keepsakes as could fit on the Lions and still have room for passengers. The lions land on a chunk of planet, I think, and Keith tells you all how, on the way back to the fight, he connected with the Black Lion and could finally see me. Hear me in there. I was able to help him figure out how to assist the Black Lion in going as fast as it had back when I managed to take the Black Bayard from Zarkon."

A little, warm, admiring smile lifts some of the weariness from his face. "Of course hearing that, you thought of something from the Altean alchemical legends. I still don't know how it worked, but you were able to take my... spirit? Essence? Whatever it was, from the Black Lion, and place me into the body of the clone. This body. It, ah, it actually turned my hair bright white all over, as some kind of side effect. It changed back somewhere else entirely."

"But the thing is." He hesitates, running his fingers through his short-shorn hair. "The clone wasn't dead. And his spirit essence was still in here. We fell unconscious and I guess you put us back into the healing pod. The Black Lion was powering it, I think. But he and I, we had to figure out who was staying and who was going. We talked for a long time. I think it might have scared you guys, actually. But I wasn't going to fight him unless he made me. And he really didn't want to. He was upset - understandably. He'd been used and lied to, and made into a weapon even more thoroughly than I had been. All he wanted was to be able to live up to the expectations and to be a true paladin. Like he thought I had been. He wanted to be worthy. Eventually we came to an agreement, and he was able to let go. I tend to think of him as that brother I always wanted, but never had. My mother..." He pauses to bite his lip. He hasn't really talked about his parents. To anyone. Not in a long, long time. But this is important. "She was going to have twins when I was born, but something went wrong. They were able to save me, but not Ryou. My clone never had a name or an identity of his own. The ways in which he differed from me were forced on him. Things he never wanted. So I gave him Ryou's name. It seemed to help."

Clearing his throat, he straightens a bit. "And right about when I woke up is when I was pulled out of my universe. I just didn't come straight here. It gets complicated."