who: In order of appearance - Takashi 'Shiro' Shirogane, Alice Quinn, Keith, & Julia Wicker when: Late in the night of September 12th through early morning of September 13th where: Bluebonnet Village; mostly Alice's but briefly Keith's what: Shiro's form begins to reject him. Cue figuring out what the hell is going on and trying to fix it. warnings: References to character deaths and Magicians/Voltron spoilers status: Complete.
He was getting ready for bed when he noticed it. It was just a matter of feeling a little … off. He felt a little dizzy and blinked a few times, looking back at himself in the mirror, as if it would clear his head. It didn’t. If anything, it intensified the feeling.
He was aware of the way that everything felt a little … blunted. He rubbed his fingertips together, trying to put the sensation into words, the way everything felt a little distant. Almost numb. The longer he stood there, the more it felt as if his motions were becoming delayed, as if he had to think of them in a concentrated way before his body was able to carry them out.
Something was wrong. And he couldn’t ignore it. He felt a delayed spike of panic, remembering the conversation he’d had with Matt, the fear that there could be some residue of Kuron and Haggar in this body.
“Alice,” Shiro said, stepping into the doorway of her bedroom. “Something’s--” Before he finished, he collapsed to her floor.
…
Alice had been spending a lot of time demanding Eliot's company. Recently, ever since his drunken post upon the network, she'd captivated his attention to try to keep him focused on something other than alcohol. She'd let him sober up on that specific day and once he had clear enough of a head, she'd thrown a binder of data findings onto his lap for him to pilfer through. Ever since, excluding the weekend, she'd made sure he returned by saying things such as 'see you tomorrow' or 'be here around eight' when he'd go to leave. She was keeping him occupied and she was getting help with the portal. It was a win win situation in her eyes. But she had wanted an early night so she could spend time with Takashi so she had parted ways with Eliot early in the afternoon.
She had just slipped into her pajama shorts (pink with a butterfly pattern) when she heard her name spoken. She turned her head, looking over her shoulder, and had raised an eyebrow when he began to speak again. Only his sentence was clipped off by his body collapsing to the floor. Eyes grew and she instantly was rushing towards him, "Takashi?" She said as she bent down to his side.
A hand brace down on his shoulder and she examined him for a moment. Then there was a forceful shove. When he didn't respond, she was dropping down onto her knees, hands on either side of him now as she gave him a shake. "Takashi, Takashi!" When no response was given to her, she immediately snatched up his wrist, pressing her fingers against his pulse points. She went still, as she pushed down panic and dread the way she always did, and was relieved that there was still blood pumping through him. She leaned in closer for a brief moment, confirmed he was breathing, but then her hand dropped his wrist and she was scrambling to get up.
Her hands ran through her hair for a second, uncertain of what to do. Her hand snatched up her cell phone and she dialed 911, all the while she rushed for the door. "Oh come on," she hissed, when she realized that the phone wasn't connecting. Her signal bar wasn't strong enough. "Shit, shit," she hissed as she bolted from her apartment, leaving the door wide open, as she ran across the parking lot with no shoes, short pajama shorts, and an oversized t shirt.
Her fists slammed on Keith and Lance's door. "Keith! Lance!" She shouted, as she hit redial on the phone. "Fucking connect!"
…
Keith had just been shutting down for the night, Coran’s food checked, lights and stuff turned off, definitely enough time for Lance to have finished his nightly routine in peace without his own impatience getting in the way, when the banging on the door nearly startled him out of his skin. That sounded like…. He shot a glance up the stairs before he pulled the door open, his brow furrowed.
“Alice?” His expression sharpened as soon as he got sight of her, focus narrowing as something was obviously wrong. “What’s going on?”
…
Her gaze had flicked down to her cellphone again, where she was allowing her frustration to be viewed, before casting a glance over her shoulder towards her apartment door. She wouldn't be able to see Shiro from here. She couldn't stay long. When the door opened, she wheeled around to face Keith. Instantly, her hand shot out to take hold of his wrist.
"Come," she said. Where she was good at seeming collected and calm, her finger tips betrayed her, as her hand shook while holding his wrist. "Shiro's collapsed. He's breathing but I don't...he was fine." She looked to her phone again and then Keith. "Do you have better signal?"
She didn't know if 911 was the best option. Shiro's body wasn't originally his own. Would that be noticable from a non Displaced Doctor? She knew hers wouldn't be but she couldn't say for Shiro's. She didn't know what had gone on in the creation of his clones. She surmised it wouldn't be identifiable. But did it matter if they could help him?
--
There was no resistance at the command. In fact, Keith fully embraced it as soon as Shiro was mentioned. Everything else slid to the background at that. His pace quickened for a few steps before he hesitated enough to pull his phone from his pocket and hand it over to Alice.
“0229,” he said, before he gave into instinct and sprinted the short distance into Alice’s place. Training took over as he did quick visual sweeps while still moving until he found the former Black Paladin. He slid down into a kneel beside Shiro, his fingers going to double check vitals.
“C’mon Shiro,” he muttered, panic twisting and chilling his insides at how unresponsive the other man was. Neither of the ‘their world specific’ possibilities were good, but he was liking the look of this less and less. He scrubbed a hand over his face before running up to push his bangs back. “Shit… you better not be doing this again…”
…
When he reached back to hand her his phone, she reached out to take it, though awkwardly gripping it with her less dominant hand. She was keeping pace with him but her typing was slower as she did as instructed on his phone. The moment she was inside of her apartment, her own was thrown across and onto the couch, as she fixated on Keith's.
She came up near the pair but kept at a slight distance. "What do you mean again?" Alice said, gaze flickering to Keith.
--
Keith sighed heavily, his eyes staying latched on Shiro. The image was familiar, the stillness but the body seeming to be perfectly ok, but it was harder to really judge without all the vital displays from the healing pod. Or within the context of this world. Strange things happened. Strange things with nothing to do with home. It could just as easily be one of those as it could be something from their world. And if it was something from their world, what was the cause? Was it just time catching up or something else?
“Back home, we had some trouble with the clone body accepting Shiro,” he said, voice level and calming despite how his insides were twisting. His head drooped a bit in apology. “It’d been so long since he got the new memories and body and everything had been fine, I just thought…” He shook his head before turning to look at Alice. “What happened before he collapsed? Maybe… maybe it’s something else…”
…
While her fingers gripped Keith's phone tight in her hand, her arms crossed over her chest, and her expression shifted into a more steeled glance that was rarely shown to ay of the Paladins. Her brows arched together and her arms tightened. While the news that Shiro's body had rejected him in his natural timeline wasn't good news, there was plenty of cues from the way Keith was speaking that were reassurances to Alice. 'Had some trouble' being the primary one, as that implied that they'd figured out a way to force the acceptance.
But she knew just as well that they didn't have nearly the same type of technology at their hands in Tumbleweed as the Paladins would have had back home. She drew in a breath. "He was getting ready for bed," she informed in regard to the question. "What did you do to make the body accept him?"
Her eyes flickered past both men and in the direction of a trunk at the foot of her bed. It was closed but her minds was already beginning to barrel ahead of her and think of solutions that could be available here in the absence of technological advancements. Her eyes lingered there as she waited for a response, her hand tightening once again around Keith's phone.
…
Keith frowned, his brows pulling together. Ok, so, just something in this world then. As far as they knew, those updates from their world only came when someone was sleeping and taking a nap while getting ready for bed seemed unlikely. Really, really unlikely. The other physical possibility, well, from what Shiro had told him, it wouldn’t happen this quickly, if it was even a possibility anymore. There’d be more warning and signs there… So, that really just left the body rejecting Shiro, unless there was something else going on in the town…
“We waited,” he answered, aggravation clear in his voice. “The body accepting him was all Shiro fighting for it.” He shook his head. “Maybe he can hear us… when he woke up he mentioned dreaming and it… it had gotten bad for a bit and…” He couldn’t help nudging Shiro, hoping maybe this time they’d luck out on timing. “... I yelled at him and he came back after that, but…” He shrugged. “This place… I don’t know why it took longer…”
He pushed the thoughts back as he forced himself to focus on a solution instead of getting lost in the worst case scenario. Shifting Shiro, he wiggled his arm under his shoulders, getting him up to sitting enough so he could get a better hold of the man, his own shoulder bracing under Shiro’s arm. “Sofa or bed?” he asked. “We should get him settled somewhere. Hook him up to something that can monitor his vitals. And Lan-” He started out of his planning to stare around the room. Oh… right… He’d gotten so into the swing of things, he forgot he’d bolted over here without the other boy in tow. His brow furrowed at that realization. “We, uh, should check to make sure this isn’t another weird portal thing like the cartoon thing… and… Allura would know more about the specifics of putting Shiro in this body.”
--
"You waited," she repeated, with her gaze being pulled away from the trunk towards Keith. She was unable to mask her own aggravation and uncertainty in the notion of waiting. Waiting meant they got lucky, that he'd fought and perservered, but there was differing circumstances in that chain of events than now. He didn't have any warning of this coming on. And wouldn't he have been fighting from the beginning back there? He wasn't fighting for that here. It'd seemed as though there was no issue with the new form. Would that cause even further difficulty?
They couldn't wait.
She swallowed and nodded her head. There was no point in trying to understand why it had taken longer. It was the logical assumption. She let her arms unfolded when she watched him shift to pick up Shiro, "Oh." She looked to Keith's phone in her hand and shook her head, before tossing it several feet to land with a thump on her bed. Then her hands were by her chest, moving in swift movements, and Shiro's form was lifted to take some of the weight off of Keith. She nudged her head towards the bed, ready to help him move Shiro there.
"I didn't reject my body but I was forced into it," she told Keith, as nonchalantly as though she was making suggestions for dinner. It was just a fact for her, even if it implied things she'd never told Keith before. "Julia and Quentin were able to do it. And I was going to with Penny," she informed him, meeting his gaze. "If his shade is still here, with him in some manner, we can do it." Allura may have done it before, and may know how to now, but that was a delay Alice didn't like. She could reach Julia in minutes. And they had the battery.
---
His grip on Shiro tightened a moment before Keith connected that the other man being lighter was Alice’s doing. He nodded in thanks. Even if he could probably handle the weight for the short distance, he did appreciate the help. Especially considering that what she said next was, well, that was definitely stumble worthy if not even just something that would cause someone to just drop whatever they were carrying. Not that it came to the latter. He’d hoped he’d seen enough that getting that startled would be out of the question, but then here Alice was, implying that she’d been through what Shiro had, even if he was missing all the details. Her and possibly others? The wording wasn’t clear there on just ceremonies and who was getting stitched into new bodies, but the details weren’t the point. The point was that she has experience with this, even if it was a different world.
Carrying Shiro over to the bed with the magical aid, he carefully laid the other man down, trying to make sure the limp body was in a comfortable enough position. Going over Alice’s words again, he slowly nodded.
“What do you need?”
--
Once Keith had laid Shiro down, she crossed the room and took a seat on the edge of her bed. She reached out, her fingertips brushing across his cheek as a glimpse of tenderness crossed over her expression. She let her hand linger for a moment before she brought her hand down to rest against his chest. "Don't freak out," she said, though it wasn't clear as to which person she was talking to, Keith or Shiro.
With her hand against his chest, she whispered an enchantment, and moments later her hand was slipping inside of Shiro's chest, as though his skin were nothing but an illusion to push through. She shut her eyes and her arm was flexing, as though she was searching, but then she stopped. Illuminating from his chest was a spectre of light and she opened her eyes, swallowing hard as she did so, and glad that from this angle that Keith wouldn't be able to see the way they glistened. "There you are, baby," she whispered, before pulling her hand out from inside of him, the light snuffing out as soon as she did. She laid her hand flat against his chest for another moment, before turning to look at Keith.
"Julia Wicker. I need Julia Wicker."
And, fuck, did she hate having to admit that. She shifted to stand up. She grabbed hold of a pair of Shiro's discarded pants, stepping into them over top of her pajama shorts. "Will you stay with him? I won't be long."
…
The fact that Alice managed to catch Keith at a time when he didn’t have a weapon on him was probably a good thing considering that his bayard or blade would’ve been in his hand out of instinct as soon as her hand disappeared into Shiro’s chest. Instead, his body tensed, ready to spring if something turned foul, but also fighting to respect that warning. Alice cared about Shiro. She wouldn’t hurt him. And Shiro trusted her. If she was actually going to do something horrible, she wouldn’t have warned him about, well, this looking as bad as it did. She wouldn’t have even come to get help in the first place. But man, that just didn’t look good and set his nerves on edge.
At least that was until the light started up. His body relaxed and face softened, awe settling onto his features. He knew that Shiro still had to be in there fighting. Honestly, he’d believe that even if he didn’t have the memories to back that conviction up. But to see a physical confirmation of that knowledge… “Shiro?” he breathed out, just as quiet. He almost wished the light could stay, a soothing reminder in place of the healing pods vitals. But he wasn’t sure what extra would be needed for that and there were other things to focus on.
“I’m not leaving him,” he said firmly with a nod as he sat down on the bed. “I’ll keep an eye on him. Text you if anything changes. Check to make sure there aren’t any other explanations too. Go.”
…
Alice made her way out of the apartment, with her cellphone in hand, eyes cast down to look at the screen as she typed away in the message application. She'd not directly contacted Julia since the incident involving the berries. There was tension between them and strife but Alice was willing to set aside all of that, as well as her own pride, when it came to Takashi and his well being. The message was short and simple.
» I need help.
--
Julia felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. She was surprised to see who the text was from, and had she not had that initial confusion, there would have been nothing to keep a more frustrated expression from making an appearance. But instead concern came next. Julia and Alice were not each other’s favorite people. If Alice was asking her for help…
» Where are you?
--
Alice glanced down at the return message for a moment, as her mind quickly tried to decide her next action, before she tossed away the notion of texting all together. Hitting the dial button, she raised her phone to her ear and waited for the sound of the receiver to be picked up. Without skipping a beat once it had, and with no attempt at pleasantries, she broke into immediate conversation.
"I'm at my apartment. Bluebonnet Village. It's number four." Her voice was level but the tone that had been used with Julia during their last conversation was not present. She pulled in a breath. "I need you to help me anchor someone to their body."
--
Julia answered her phone and listened without saying a word until Alice had finished speaking. There was no argument or snark, Julia simply replied with: “I’ll be right there.” She hung up.
Julia packed a bag. It was likely Alice had an idea or supplies at her place, but just in case, she quickly picked up everything she knew she would need to bring it. It was a crack in the professionalism between them. Julia could have asked Alice was she was lacking or needed, but this was easier, and it only added thirty seconds to pack more than she needed.
However she got to the apartment, either a portal or something else, it wasn’t long before she was knocking on door number four.
--
Once Julia had hung up, Alice had turned and headed inside. She slipped inside of her bedroom, casting a glance towards Takashi and Keith, but she said nothing to the latter of the pair. Instead, she dropped down by the trunk at the foot of her bed. Pushing it open, she pulled out a massive spherical object and set it down on the floor. It'd been in her possession for almost a year now. When she'd first obtained it, she had grand hopes that it would help her regain access to her magic. Later she'd thought perhaps it could help Penny.
Now it might help Takashi.
She had begun pulling out other supplies, wordlessly, and had a book in hand once she heard the door. With quick steps, she went to pull it open. For a moment she looked at Julia, with a level expression, before nodding her head in greeting and pulling the door open further. "I was thinking we could apply some of the metamath you and Quentin used for me." She knew the variables were different but the base seemed similar. They needed to anchor him. She swallowed, moving back for her bedroom, assuming Julia would follow. "Shiro's in a clone of his original body now. Keith said this happened back home. The body rejecting him."
--
Julia met Alice’s gaze and nodded. Her expression remained neutral. The entire set up reminded her of when Kady invited her over to summon a demon. That hadn’t gone so well, and she really didn’t want set the wrong tone.
“Okay,” she said. When she had something helpful to add, she would. But until then it seemed it would be quicker and more efficient to follow Alice’s lead. “I brought over some supplies. You’re probably well stocked here but--”
She had followed Alice into the bedroom when her eyes caught sight of the battery: “Holy shit, that battery is huge.” Julia’s eyebrows climbed her forehead. At least they would comfortably have the amount of power needed to perform the ritual.
--
Alice had glanced over her shoulder, toward Julia, with the comment about the supplies. There was an appreciative nod before she turned her attention back towards her bedroom. She was moving to pick up the chalk she'd fished from her trunk when she heard Julia's statement. She looked to her. "Christmas."
Standing fully now, feeling awkward in the clothing that was not hers, she gripped the chalk in her hand. "He shouldn't be fighting us. I don't think we need to bring anyone else into this. Do you agree?" She was racking her mind to think of who would be the quickest option. Kady was in the same complex but that didn't mean Kady was home.
--
Julia nodded. “We’ve got this.”
And if they didn’t, she didn’t see how adding anyone else would help. If they screwed it up, Julia could continue being the only person Alice hated. She shifted her bag and started to empty out some of the supplies she brought. There were a lot of candles, generally for focus. Julia didn’t slouch when it came to ritual.
“You have the spell you want to cast completed or did you want me to look at that first?” Julia asked.
--
"Look at it." When it came to this situation, and the fact that it was Shiro, Alice was not below asking for help. She didn't want something to go wrong because of arrogance on her part. She untucked the book from the crook of her arm and flipped it to the page she'd been examining while waiting for Julia's arrival. Finding it, she held it out to the other woman. "That, plus the binding spell you used with Mayakovsky and Quentin. Unless you have a better idea."
--
Julia didn’t respond at first. There was a brief, acknowledging glance to the other person in the room before her eyes were glued to the information in the book, looking all of it over. She thought it over carefully, but Alice was smart and had the benefit of a classical education. The information looked sound.
“Unless there’s something we don’t know about the cloning process, this should work. Is it purely scientific?” Julia looked up at Alice and Keith for an answer.
--
“Depends how you define science,” Keith spoke up from his spot where he was watching the two intently, his phone clutched in his hand. His lips pressed in a tight line as he thought over what they knew and how to word it. How much of that information to give away considering most of their dealings with ‘magic’ weren’t necessarily the best. But the help with the blackberry incident had worked well and if it helped Shiro…
“We don’t know much,” he admitted. “We didn’t know that the Shiro we had was a clone until Haggar took control of him. The place they were holding the other clones, it looked scientific. Stasis tubes and hook-ups, but Haggar has added powers she experimented with.” He frowned. “Uh, alchemists is the term they used and her druids had power too. But exact notes on that…” He shook his head. “Allura has her own knowledge of the type of power Haggar has, but there wasn’t anything more she could do past the first transference of Shiro from the Black Lion to the clone’s body.”
…
She flashed her eyes to Keith as he began the explanation but the visual acknowledgement only lasted a moment before she moved to start pulling out other supplies from her trunk, though she was listening to what he had stated. From the way it sounded to Alice, Allura knew about the potential of options but would not have any definitive answer. It would be purely hypotheticals and even if she knew something more concrete, there would be a knowledge gap between the two parties. She might not know what was vital for the two magic users and they might not know what to ask about.
She just nodded in response to Keith. "If we are working on tethering him, I don't think anything on the science side would stop us. If it would have, they wouldn't have been able to transplant his conscious at all," she commented, directed really at no one specific.
--
Julia took a thoughtful, centering breath and nodded. Her eyes purposefully sought out Alice’s. “You ready to do this now?”
On the outside Julia had a cool, calm demeanor. On the inside, she secretly prayed, Don’t let this be like Penny. Don’t let this be like Penny… Her eyes did not betray her eagerness to get the soul binding ritual completed as soon as possible.
--
"Yes." It was spoken with confidence. It would serve no one any good to show the doubt that was being held at bay inside her. It would only potentially spread to Julia and delay their efforts. Or it would just add to the weight Keith might be feeling in this moment. She needed to focus. Shiro needed that from her.
And so they began. Alice did not have many instances of cooperative magic with Julia. What few she did have, however, made her confident that Julia was the best option for this.
Plus...well, Alice was fairly certain Julia still had that potential of God level power inside of her.
The ritual was set up and Alice positioned herself on the opposite side of Julia, with Shiro between them, at one point asking Keith to move away from the other man. Her hand movements went in sync with the other woman and she spoken in a likely indiscernible language to the casual listener. Once they'd actually begun, it hadn't been a lengthy display. It had been the preparation that seemed endless, with Alice speaking quietly to Julia in confident discussion. The large vessel, the battery, shook and burst into a swirl of dust that went up into the air, swirling above Shiro. Alice's steady and calm chants increased in volume but did not waiver, until her voice came to an abrupt end with a jerk of hand motion. The swirl dove down, enveloping Shiro, before the cloud went away.
And they were all left in silence and Alice's eyes finally dropped to the man, showing a flicker of worry, waiting for the answer of whether or not it had worked.
…
Waking up felt like he was being dredged from the bottom of a lake. There was nothing, darkness, and then Shiro was aware of himself again -- not unlike when Allura had pulled him from the Black Lion, but even then, he’d had some sense of himself. This time … there had been nothing.
He blinked blearily up at the faces surrounding him, not entirely sure where he was or how he had gotten there. Alice, of course, was to be expected, and Keith wasn’t exactly a surprise, but Julia was.
“What happened?” he asked weakly.
…
Relief flooded through Keith, washing away the stress of waiting and watching. Although at least it’d been some physical action to watch this time. Stepping closer, he rested a hand on Shiro’s shoulder.
“There was some trouble with the connection between you and your body,” he said softly, his head ducking slightly considering the 20/20 hindsight that he should’ve been more worried and hadn’t just brushed it off as a non-issue. “But Alice and Julia have it under control.” He shot both of them a look. “Yeah?”
…
The tension in Alice's body was starting to release as a swell of emotion rocked through her. Her finger tips pressed against her palms, pushing pressure hard against the surface, in order to keep her typical calmed demeanor. Relief was certainly with her now and she gave a nod of her head, catching sight of Julia already beginning to make her exit. She watched her for a moment, making a note to Express gratitude privately, before looking back to Shiro and the other Paladin. "Yes. We have it under control."
And with that, she scooped up Shiro's hand in her own, clutching it tight.