Chapter 10

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I pick up my white helmet, but stop suddenly before I put it on. I glance back up at myself in the mirror, in full white armor, looking almost heroic. What am I doing? I don't even know who I am. Can I even be the slightest bit heroic? Not too long ago, I was a scared prisoner. Now who am I? A hero...?

My doors slide open and I snap around to see Shiro standing there, "Hey..." he seems to pick up on my faltering expression. "You ok?"

I quickly cover it up, praying he'll just drop it, "Yeah, I'm fine. Are we going now?"

Thankfully he does, but he seems rather reluctant, "Yeah... In a few minutes. Pidge and Hunk asked me to get you."

On the bridge, after we briefly went over the infiltration plan again, Pidge and Hunk present me with a weapon of my own: a staff, which Pidge claims to be working on some advancements to, but for now its a regular collapsible staff.

Lance is perched up high on a hidden landing just outside the communications center with his bayard sniper rifle ready. Hunk immediately busies himself with helping Pidge who stayed behind to do her part in stealing information from the castle with Coran and Allura. That leaves me, Keith, and Shiro.

"That's weird..." Pidge thinks out loud.

"What is it?" Keith draws his attention to the holographic screen Pidge appeared on.

"I'm picking up on a bunch of radiation on the other side of the Galra base... but I can't tell what it might be from," Pidge explains.

"Only one way to find out," I head for the door.

"I don't know if that's a very good idea, Valerie," Shiro warns.

I shrug him off, "I'll be fine... I just wanna check it out."

"Are you sure, Val?" Lance sounds even more unsure over the com.

"Positive," I'm already headed out the door.

Ok, I'll admit it. Maybe I should've thought it through before I ran off to investigate some unknown, mysterious energy on an enemy ship. I guess having a weapon kind of went to my head.

There are no doors into the room Pidge had mentioned. That itself was rather odd, considering even the least important rooms seem to have locked doors. The next odd thing was that it's empty. Completely empty. Giant, glowing Galran emblems flood the room with dim, purple light.

"Valerie... in..." Shiro's voice breaks through the static over the com.

"What? You're cutting out," I glance back into ominously set room, debating whether I should see what it's all about or not. "There's nothing in there... I'm going in..." I ready my weapon and enter, only hearing the cut off static over the com again.

Nothing happens. Although, what did I really expect? The room was empty when I entered.

Suddenly the 'non-existent' doors slam shut behind me. I snap around to face them, raising my staff and getting ready for a potential ambush. "Valerie?" I voice chokes from behind me. Once again, I whip around to face a woman in a white, flowing sundress, tinted purple by the dim lights.

Something in my deep, foggy memories seems to resonate more clearly than others. My head aches again, the way it always does when I remember something.

The pain shot from my head through my body, flooding my veins with a debilitating shock. I hardly even realize that I've fallen to my knees, struggling not to blackout like last time, until the pain starts to lead my mind to that memory. Of this woman. A memory of her beaming face, surrounded by a halo of radiant joy.

I don't know how I come to the conclusion, but I suddenly do. "M-mom?" I look up at her. Everything about her was familiar. From her blonde to her bright eyes to her glowing skin. It spread a feeling of warmth and comfort through my chest. She rushes towards me with her arms open, and it feels so real I can't help but not question it.

Her arms are almost around me when she suddenly freezes. I pull back to assess why she suddenly stopped. Her face contorts to a pained expression. She looks down at her stomach, and I follow her gaze.

I catch sight of the stab wound formed in the center of her stomach, soaking the white fabric of her dress in crimson. I can't even react before a dark figure, seemingly made up of shadows, holds up, ready to slash through my mother. Without any hesitation, it brings the sword down.

All I can manage to do is let out a scream that might have been formed as 'no' and reach out towards the figure, desperately trying to stop the sword.

Electric blue light fills the room, blinding me until it fades. The figure is gone and so is my mom, leaving me alone, sitting on the gorund. Not of the same room, though... Of an entirely new planet, The sky is painted with orange fading into blood red. As soon as I see my surroundings, I'm enveloped with a wave of nausea. Electricity dances across the ground, destroying everything in its path, igniting entire buildings in a matter of a second. The screams in the distance tear through the atmosphere and pierce through my brain, and I look down at my own hands. They're sparking, too.

"See what you can do?" a woman's gravelly voice fills my head, somehow drowning out the screams with a much worse tone.

"N-no... I-I didn't... I can't... This isn't... This isn't real," I gasp for the air escaping my lungs

"Not yet... I have awakened an indescribable gift in you... It is only a matter of time before you give in to what your darkness is capable of."

The world crumbles away until the room is the only thing left. That was all a vision... It wasn't real... I'm not- I don't-

I look at my hands. Even covered by my suit they're sparking, just like they were in that vision. I hear the sound of doors sliding open at the same time as I hear my name being called just down the hall and footsteps running to my location.

I look towards the new set of opened doors. A readied escape pod awaits me. I only look back at the doorway once. Keith appears, panting and panicked, "Valerie, we have to go!"

I look at my sparking hands, drop my staff, and look back up at him, barely registering the rush of tears forming rivers down my face. All I can do is shake my head sorrowfully at him.

"Now!"

He starts towards me, but I scramble to my feet, ignoring the fact that it feels like everything's spinning, "Don't touch me!"

He seems to have acknowledged the electricity coating my hands, but doesn't show any sign that he's bothered by it, "We don't have time for this. They know we're here and we have to leave."

He takes another step forward and I take another step back, "I don't want to hurt you... I... I can't..." I trail off, not bothering to finish my sentence before rushing into the escape pod.

It launches and my dizziness overwhelms me until my vision is enveloped in black. I'm no hero.

Word Count: 1220

Wow... that was... heh...

Really though, I hoped you liked it!

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