WHO: Keith and Shiro WHAT: Shiro goes to make sure Keith hasn't torn down the government facility and conversations are had. WHEN: October 18, 2017 WHERE: quarantine rooms at the government facility WARNINGS: angsty teen? spoilers for season 3 of Voltron?
Keith and Lance were both here.
After weeks of being here on his own, it was startling to find someone from Voltron in Tumbleweed. For some reason, Shiro had never really expected anyone else to come. He had kept waiting for himself to leave, if he was being entirely honest. He had settled here, yes, but that had done little to move him on from the point in which he had left. He still was focused on the lions and Zarkon and the battle he had left behind.
So, he, admittedly, was caught off guard to hear that Keith and Lance were here.
He headed over to quarantine not knowing what he should feel. A little worried, if he was being honest, because he knew that Keith didn’t do overly well with authority, and he had no idea of what sort of trouble Keith and Lance could get into together.
He checked in on Lance first and then headed toward the door that Keith was supposedly behind.
“Keith?” he asked.
…
This room was quickly climbing the list of Keith’s least favorite places. Not that the room was at fault for that. Everything in it was nice and he should know as he’d combed over all the furniture, walls, and accessories to find some weak point. Because no matter how nice the room was and how many disclaimers the guards gave, it was still a prison. A prison with no way out, no conventional weapons available, and the only contact with the outside was through devices that his captors had provided. Oh yeah, that inspired trust. Especially considering their last trip into an alternate reality. Who knew what was really going on? And if this other world was part of some unknown plan…
He sat with his back against the wall and watched the corridor through the window. Trying to take note of any routines. Any area that might be a guaranteed way out now. He flexed his hand to try and summon his bayard again, but froze at the familiar figure that appeared on the other side of the glass.
“Shiro?” he breathed out. He quickly rose to his feet and strode across the room. His head tilted close to the glass, angling to try and see as far down the hallway as he could. “How’d you get here?”
...
Keith felt half imagined, as he had when Shiro had woken up after crash landing back on Earth. It had just seemed so improbable then that out of all of the humans on Earth, and after all of his time away, that he could ever been in the same room as Keith again. But there had he had been all the same. And here he was now.
When Lance had posted, Alice had asked him if it was good that he was. It had slowed Shiro. He didn’t know. He had been overjoyed at the sight of a familiar face, and he was glad to have Keith and Lance near, but it was something else to worry over now too. Having people here meant having something worth protecting.
And he knew well enough that Keith was probably struggling to be in such a confined space.
“I’ve been here awhile,” Shiro confessed. …
The relief at seeing Shiro dimmed down a notch at that confession. Because, well, it was a confession and didn’t sound like the ‘sorry it took so long to find your cell’ sort of ‘awhile’. Which was just all sorts of confusing considering Keith had been preparing himself for some daring rescue and not…
His focus turned completely onto Shiro, taking note of each familiar detail. This didn’t seem like a Sven situation. There was nothing glaring that said this wasn’t their Shiro. Keith felt ridiculous even considering the option. He blew out a sigh as he crossed his arms over his chest.
“Shiro, what you do mean awhile?” He frowned. “And here in this facility or here in this world?” …
That was a more difficult question to answer than Keith probably even suspected, and Shiro faltered for a minute, because he didn’t know if he should get into the fact that this group sometimes traveled to different worlds. And while Shiro had been part of the Tumbleweed group for months now, he hadn’t arrived in Tumbleweed at all. It was hard for him not to tell Keith the whole truth when it came to anything, but he didn’t want to overwhelm him at the moment. He figured his partial answer was going to be overwhelming enough.
“About six months,” Shiro said, “in this world.”
From his talk with Lance, he’d gleaned that he was either from different timelines or different times. He suspected the latter, but, of course, he didn’t really have anyway of knowing for sure. He wondered how the hell he was going to explain that and could only hope that their strange space adventures had prepared Keith mentally for this oddity.
“What’s the last thing you remember?” Shiro asked. “Before you arrived here?”
...
Keith’s eyes went wide. “Six… six months?!” That couldn’t be right. That really couldn’t be right. They’d just found him again. Shiro had been right by his side. There’s no way… “Six… How? I just saw you before I ended up here. That doesn’t make sense…” Six months… And then it hit him.
Six months here. Here in this alternate reality. He didn’t know the why or how of Shiro being here, but that he’d been stuck here for such a long time was easy enough to grasp.
“Shiro…” His voice softened, his tone apologetic. “If we’d known… if I’d known…” Again, the how and why was nebulous, but he knew if they’d had any idea that Shiro was here, they’d have found a way to find him sooner.
He puffed out a breath. Ok, easier topic. Simple answers to simple questions. At least that’s how it seemed, but with the whole six months thing, who knew. “Lotor. Coran told us the history of Voltron to help us figure out what his plan is after he tried to steal the Teludav from his own base.” …
“No,” Shiro said, shaking his head as soon as Keith started to apologize. “There’s nothing you could have done. It’s not your fault I’m here.” Arguably, it was nobody’s fault, which was a different type of frustrating. Shiro had pondered over who could have been bringing them all here and for what purposes, particularly when there were so many people here who were so intensely powerful. But nobody really seemed to have a working theory on that count.
And, to be entirely fair, while this place was its own kind of stressful, Shiro would take the oddity and occasional danger over the continual pain of being a Galra captive. He was put in risky situations, but he wasn’t constantly asked to sacrifice his humanity here. The most frustrating thing about being here, honestly, had always been that he didn’t know what was happening with the world and team he had left behind.
“Lotor?” Shiro repeated. The word seemed vaguely familiar, but he wasn’t entirely sure why. It seemed to also confirm that Keith wasn’t from the same world at the same time as he was. He wondered if Keith and Lance had been pulled out from the same moment together.
…
Except that if they’d known, maybe they could have done something. They knew Voltron could travel between dimensions. Keith didn’t know how they could pinpoint another universe without a giant ship stuck between worlds leading there, but it sounded like something Pidge could figure out. Which she might actually have to do now considering how many more of them were here instead of there.
If she got any sort of clue about this place that is. Shiro said he was here six months. That still didn’t make sense or fit into any scenario Keith could think of. Especially with that question.
“Yeah…” he said uncertainly. “Lotor. Prince Lotor. He’s taken over command of the Galra Empire after we defeated Zarkon. You… You know this… Right?”
…
He wished that he had an easier way to reassure Keith. He knew that all of this was probably making him nervous on top of the fact that he was being locked up in an unfamiliar place. Shiro wished he could have just been a reassuring friend. But he kept just coming back to the fact that Keith probably wouldn’t want him to lie about any of this.
“No,” Shiro admitted. “When I’m from,” and this felt so strange, because this very much seemed like the Keith he had left behind, “We were just fighting Zarkon. I had just unlocked my bayard.” And that still seemed a bit clumsy to say as well, but that was the major moment he had come from all the same.
…
Those words felt like a punch to the stomach. Shiro’s memory being spotty wasn’t anything new. There were still plenty of gaps from that year he was captured by the Galra without adding the new gaps from however he’d gotten back into their hands. But this sounded different. Just a full stop. Before fully defeating Zarkon. Before having to drag the Black Lion back to the Castle. Before opening Black up to find that Shiro was gone.
“Shiro…” he breathed out as he shook his head. He wasn’t sure what to say. It was like scooping Shiro up in space all over again, except there wasn’t the entire team or Lions here to help bridge the gaps. Not to mention he felt like he had more to catch up on than Shiro did… “Can we talk about this more somewhere else?”
…
“Yes,” Shiro said. He hesitated, but then added, “Lance told me some about when he’s from. I think he’s from a point that’s still in the future for me.” He really hoped that wasn’t going to overwhelm Keith, but it seemed odd not to mention that at some point during this conversation.
“But we can talk more when you’re out of quarantine,” he said again. “Are you okay?” He looked Keith over again. “Lance said they had tranquilized you.”
...
His shoulders slumped as Keith huffed out a sigh. The hope that Shiro would just open the cell and escort him out has been small, but it was worth a try. Even if he didn’t like the outcome, which was far too obvious by the scowl settling onto his face.
“So that quarantine thing is the truth?” he asked before rolling his eyes. “He would bring that up. They wanted me to stay, I wanted to go.” He shrugged. “Guess they won the argument, which I’m not okay with, but…” He glanced around. “I don’t have much of a choice, do I?” He paused just a moment before raising an eyebrow. “Lance told you some? What some?”
…
Shiro wished that he could just walk Keith out of quarantine, but he knew it wasn’t going to happen. Plenty of people tried to get out of here early. He didn’t know any who had succeeded. He did know that everyone who had arrived and posted on the net did safely get out within the allotted timeframe.
“Yes,” Shiro answered. “This place can be really odd, but you should be safe while you’re in quarantine. They’ll let you out when they say will. I don’t know of anyway of getting you out faster.” He would try to talk to someone, but he didn’t think that was likely to work.
“Lance told me that he was piloting Red now,” Shiro answered. “And that Allura was with Blue?” He looked expectantly back at Keith.
…
That answer was still not satisfying at all, but even so, Keith eased just that bit into the room. If Shiro trusted them to follow their promises, then he could wait out the few days here. Plus, if they decided to go back on their word, well, he knew Shiro would have his back in dealing with them then.
Which just left…
He pressed his lips together in a tight line as he nodded slowly. For the first time since he woke up in the room, he was actually relieved that the bayard wasn’t with him. “That’s right. Lance in Red, Allura in Blue. Things got a bit tense there for awhile.”
….
Shiro paused. He was fairly certain that Lance had left out why Keith wasn’t piloting Red so that Keith himself could tell him. But now that Keith was avoiding giving him an answer, it made Shiro worried. Had Keith been injured? Had something happened to him to break his bond with his lion?
He felt bad to keep pushing at these tender topics, but all these big things loomed too large for them to just be forgotten. So, he pushed, and trusted Keith to tell him if he needed him to back off.
“Why aren’t you piloting Red?” Shiro asked.
…
Keith knew that some form of that question was coming. With two people shifting lions and one of those had been his, Shiro would have to be really generous or really out of it to not ask about it. Part of him had just been hoping that maybe the older man would make the leap to the possible open lion without him having to say anything because then maybe he wouldn’t have to explain why Black needed a new pilot.
Which was only the tip of the iceberg on that topic really.
He ran his thumb over his knuckles as he thought over his words, trying to find out the right angle for this and prepare for the explanations that may need to come immediately after.
“You know when we got thrown out of the wormhole and split up? The whole talk we had waiting for them to find us?” he said softly. “Black thought you had the right idea.”
…
Keith was piloting Black.
His first instinct was to be proud of Keith, because he was proud of Keith. Keith had never fit in at the Garrison with the same sort of ease Shiro had. Up until everything had happened with the Galra, Shiro had been more comfortable with the blind sort of faith that made being in the military the most comfortable.
But Shiro had always seen the raw potential and drive that Keith had, and he knew that Keith had the potential for greatness if he so wanted it. He knew that given the right chances and with the right people putting faith in him, Keith would be a far better leader than he had ever been.
“I knew you had it in you,” Shiro said before he fully processed the other obvious half of that statement. Lance had said he had gone missing after the battle with Zarkon. If Keith had bonded and was flying Black, that meant that he had been missing for some time, likely to have been recaptured by the Galra, or that he was dead. Some part of him even hoped for that, because he really didn’t want to be retaken by the Galra.
He didn’t know how to ask if he was dead. It seemed somewhat unlikely based on Lance’s and Keith’s reactions, but whatever had happened had been serious enough for the alteration in Voltron.
…
Keith really wished he could muster up some of that confidence on the matter. Or at least get clued into whatever it was that Shiro and Black saw that made them think he was actually up for the job. He was trying to take Lance’s words to heart. To trust Black’s decision. But with each battle, it felt to him like more reasons were being added to the list of why him being leader was a huge mistake than to the good idea list.
“Black was pretty stubborn about it,” he offered with a slight smile. Because this is what Shiro had wanted after all. That whole never giving up on him thing. Plus on the surface, it sounded like a good deal, didn’t it? He could leave it at just that for now. Especially since just the surface left out the reasons for the switch up. “So, there’s you and Lance here. What about the others?”
....
“It’s a good thing you’re even more stubborn,” Shiro responded. It was going well if Keith could make a semblance of a joke about it, Shiro decided. He could sense some uncertainty still, but overall, this seemed to be just a new part of life that Keith and Lance had accepted. Which meant that Voltron was doing fine without him. He felt that fissure of feeling again: pride, because he knew they were all so capable of carrying on and being strong and fighting what needed to be fought. But his mixed emotions here were echoed in that knowledge: What was he now? His role had been so defined for such a long time, and being Black’s pilot had given him an easy way to focus and an immediate retaliation against those who had hurt him.
“I’d still be with Red if that was true,” Keith admitted with a shake of his head. If the need for Voltron hadn’t been so great, maybe that might’ve been better. Black would’ve picked up on Shiro eventually, right? Maybe even sooner if they hadn’t been distracted with chasing after Lotor and trying to figure out how the new team make up would work. Just another one of those long strings of what ifs. And that’s assuming that Red would still have him. That he wouldn’t have forced the situation and blocked Keith out the way Blue had shut out Lance. Which was a thought spiral he really shouldn’t get into.
So he changed his focus. Looked over Shiro again and… to be honest, the other man looked good. Possibly better than he’d looked since the whole Voltron thing happened. “I’m glad you’re here,” Keith admitted. “You’re ok, right?”
...
Shiro didn’t doubt how difficult it had been for Keith to take over in Black, but he also had an absolute faith in Keith. He was proud of him. But he knew Keith likely still needed some time to process, so Shiro didn’t press for the time being.
“I’m okay,” Shiro confirmed with a nod. “This place is definitely weird and it can occasionally be dangerous but there are long moments of calm too.” He paused. “But I’m really glad that both and Lance are here. I’ve missed you.”
He hadn’t known what had happened either, so he had been worried. At least one reassuring thing was that the rest of them was safe after their encounter with Zarkon.
…
Weird and danger were nothing new to Keith. Especially over the past few months. But calm? Calm, especially long moments of it, felt like such a foreign concept. Yeah, there might’ve been a few moments of downtime, but there was always that sense of preparing for the next fight. Planning. Training. Research. Something. Not just… calm… The thought twisted a familiar ball of anxiety in his stomach. What was he supposed to do when the fighting stopped? Most of the others seemed to have set plans. Places to go back to. Homes. Back in their world, he’d had possibilities, uncertain as they were, but here…
“Me too.” Which on one hand felt weird to say considering Shiro had been right beside him before he got brought here, but on the other hand it still rang true. Shiro hadn’t been back with them very long and that absence felt still lingered. Especially when it felt like they were all still trying to figure out the balance on the team.
He still didn’t like this situation, locked up alone in a room. Even with Shiro there, it didn’t feel quite right without being able to touch the other man. But it was what it was. Guess he had to make the best of it. “Hey, so, I heard they do have food here, yeah? You hungry? Maybe you could grab some for me and tell me ‘bout these weird and dangerous things?”