Voltron Legendary Defender - Shining Like the Stars [60] [Shklance]

[scriveyner]

Title: shining like the stars [60]
Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender
AU: slts
Characters/Pairing: Shiro/Keith/Lance, Team Voltron
Rating: M
Length: 1390
Summary: When Pidge hovered her hand over the soft writing, it lit up in a faint green light, skating over the curve of the wall and twisting away, much like the branches and roots of the massive tree that housed the temple of Anaximenes.



When Pidge hovered her hand over the soft writing, it lit up in a faint green light, skating over the curve of the wall and twisting away, much like the branches and roots of the massive tree that housed the temple of Anaximenes. "It lights up for me," Pidge said, delighted despite herself, watching as the color faded to white before extinguishing completely. "I wonder why that is, how can it possibly be coded for me when it was created thousands of years before I was even born?"

Allura had her hand on the wall itself, tracing her fingers over old runes. "This is different from how it used to be," she said. "The memory cores are new — well, newer, they may have been here for those thousands of years. So long as they were installed after I was last here." She looked back along the roof of the temple, which had been long ago reclaimed by the tree, branches crossing over and above their heads. "The other paladins came here many times," she said. "I only accompanied father once." Pidge watched Allura close her eyes for a moment, reliving something only she could see; a fragment of a memory that made her face soften.

When she looked over at Pidge again, that expression was gone. "It recognizes you because it recognizes that you are a paladin," she said. "If I had to wager, I bet that the cores are somehow attuned to their respective Lions. It has nothing to do with your physical being, and everything to do with who you are."

Pidge shook her head and blew out a breath, almost laughing. "Magic is just science that hasn't been explained yet," she said. She nodded at Allura, and then put both of her hands on the memory core, a column that was extended from the wall itself. All of the writing lit green at once, the entire wall pulsed with it, and when the light faded Allura was left alone in the chamber. She took a deep breath, and looked at the pulsing runes, touching the memory core where Pidge had been mere moments before. The color of the light flared briefly, white — then resumed pulsing in green.

She could hear the wind whispering through the leaves, whistling as it echoed down the corridor from the entrance-way. Allura tilted her head, brow furrowed, and then closed her eyes as she heard the snap of a twig. She inhaled, and smoothed her hands over her skirt before she turned to face the figure in black that now stood in the corridor, pistol pointed directly at her. "Leave now," Allura said in a level tone, "and you will leave unharmed."


#

The Blue Lion crouched comfortably in the underbrush. Lance sat in the cockpit, watching the wilderness around him. Here was forest, jungle, life — the trees swayed in a breeze he couldn't feel, as Blue sat in low power mode, all but invisible to the closest scanners. "How was I supposed to know that I would get a totem if I passed the trial?" he muttered to himself, elbow propped on a dormant control, his chin resting on his fist.

The two other galra ships had all but disappeared. He hadn't picked up any residual traces on Blue's scanners; and aside from the profile they were able to scan at the Fire Temple he had no idea what he was looking for, anyway. There wasn't a lot of high-atmosphere enable craft scuttling around the surface of the moon anyway, most seemed to be concentrated right around that huge town where they had landed, hell — how many days ago was that, now?

Lance shift uncomfortably in the pilot's chair and tried not to think about what had occurred after they'd arrived. He rubbed a hand over the back of his neck and felt the half-healed wound, raised and rough, scarring over. Then, idly, he ran his thumb down over the other bite mark, a little more raw but not scarring cleanly. Lance smiled without realizing it, and then leaned back in his pilot's chair, stretching his arms over his head. "Man, I'm bored," he said. "Maybe we'll do another loop, eh, Blue? Let's go check on Pidge and the Princess."

Abruptly Blue moved of her own volition, the head of the lion raising and looking in another direction. The movement jostled Lance in his seat, and he flailed his arms until he was seated upright again. "What was that?" he said defensively, and then looked at his sensors. Blue had oriented herself in the direction of the abandoned temple of Empedocles. "So you're saying Hunk needs help, huh?" he said, hands settling on the controls. "Well, what are we waiting for?"


#

Keith had nightmares that started like this; long stretches of dark corridor lit by faint violet, the stink of too many in close quarters, of fur and sweat and bad hygiene, the far-off clamor of voices raised in argument, of weapons clashing, of conflict. He stood transfixed, staring down the corridor, caught up in a memory that had become a nightmare and unable to move. Was this his trial, then? If so, he had already failed it.

He looked down at his hands and was surprised they were steady and not shaking. He was in his paladin armor; this wasn't a memory, then — he curled his hands into fists and focused on his composure.

When the hand caught his wrist he jerked away reflexively, half-turned and bayard in hand before he even recognized what was happening. Shiro was standing there, also in his paladin armor — his expression for Keith concerned, skin around his eyes tight. "Shiro," Keith said, and dropped the hand with his bayard in it. He stared at Shiro without comprehension, what was he doing here? Maybe he too, was part of the trial? "What are you doing here?"

"Where are we?" Shiro asked, looking around. "This looks like a Galra prison ship." That would explain his expression; he wasn't concerned for Keith, he was worried about their location. Keith pulled his hand away and switched his bayard to his dominant hand.

"I don't know," he said. The lie came quick and easy, so much that he almost believed it himself.

Shiro's hand on his arm, again, although this time Keith did not jerk away. "I don't know what it is about memory cores and Galra ships, but it's getting old," Shiro said, and when Keith's head snapped around to stare at him, eyes wide and horrified, he seemed to ignore the expression on Keith's face, indicating with his head the direction to go. "Come on, if this is laid out like the other ones, I know how to get out of here." There was a long moment where Keith did nothing, where he stood there in that corridor with Shiro and stared at him, and Shiro's expression changed, grew more concerned. "Keith?"

This was really Shiro in here with him. Keith looked down the corridor, which would take him in the opposite direction of the launch bay. "This isn't a trial," he said suddenly, realizing. "When you and Lance were in the memory core before, it was actually a memory, wasn't it?"

"Yes, but this isn't my memory," Shiro said. "I mean, this is definitely a Galra prison ship, but I don't recognize..." Shiro's words trailed off; and Keith looked away and wouldn't meet his eyes. "Keith," Shiro said his name again slowly, and the amount of questions that single syllable held hung heavy in the air. "Is this your memory?"

He was saved, perhaps ironically, by the clatter of heavy boots echoing down the hall. Shiro's head snapped up quickly, his right hand releasing Keith's arm and without hesitation putting himself between Keith and the end of the corridor.

"We'll talk about this later," Shiro said sharply, focused on the end of the hallway and not Keith behind him. "Right now we've just got to get out of here, we'll figure out the rest later."

"I'm sorry, Shiro," Keith said softly as he took off his helmet. "We're not. Please..." he closed his eyes despite himself, not strong enough to bear whatever expression Shiro would be wearing when he saw. "Please don't hate me."