Not a Participation Game

Save Our Shiro

Lance stared at Shiro. He was strapped to some kind of medical bed and was hooked up to all kinds of machines. His hair was long, as if it hadn't been cut for months. Maybe years. Lance thought he was dead until he saw Shiro's chest rise and fall. Then he saw Shiro's face twitch, as if he was having a nightmare.

Lotor placed his hand on Lance's shoulder and spoke. "We've been using him for a long time." 

"What... is he?" Lance asked.

"This is your friend," Lotor explained. "We found him soon after Voltron attacked Zarkon's main base. He was unconscious, but was otherwise fine. We knew we could use him, and eventually we found a way to use his DNA to infiltrate Voltron."

"So..." Lance didn't know what to make of this. "The Shiro back with the Paladins is some sort of clone?"

Lotor smiled at Lance. "That's exactly right, but there's more." He reached over to a tablet and turned it on. On the tablet was a view of the inside of the Black Lion's cockpit. Lotor tapped a button and Lance could hear his friends. Lotor explained, "For the most part, we've been using him for surveillance, and then we realized that with the real Shiro here, we could destroy Voltron from the inside out."

Lance's face drained of all its blood. They had been watching us. For more than a year they'd had all of the Voltron Coalition's plans right in front of them. "What do you mean, destroy Voltron?"

"You've explained how Shiro has been acting strangely, yes?" Lotor asked. Lance nodded. "This is the reason for it. We're using his mind to slowly change the clone's behavior and disrupt Voltron."

Lance wished he didn't believe it, but it made too much sense. Just then, he heard Shiro's voice come out of the screen. Lance jumped. Shiro was yelling at Pidge for getting distracted. After that, silence.

"Do you see how this works?" Lotor asked.

"Yeah," Lance said, watching Shiro wince. He's in pain. "Yeah, I do. What do you need me here for?"

Lotor sighed and said "Well, when our clone goes to sleep, this one tends to thrash out. Lately he's had an awful habit of waking, and he hasn't been too pleased about the situation. We've given him a substance that puts him back to sleep, but we don't want to rely on that. I ask you to do your best to calm him when he wakes. Can you do that for me?"

Lance looked to Shiro again, then looked at Lotor and nodded.

*

After showing Lance the real Shiro, Lotor took him back to his room.

"You must be starving after such a long day. Should I get you something to eat?" Lotor asked Lance. Lance shook his head. "No appetite, oh well. If you change your mind, come find me and I'll help you." Lotor left the room.

Lance didn't know what to do. Keith hadn't come yet, and by the conversation Shiro's clone picked up, they weren't close. Getting off the ship was hard enough, but now Lance also needed to get the real Shiro back to the castle.

Lance walked to the curtains, signaled until he couldn't move his arms, then left to talk to Shiro.

*

Keith checked up on Pidge for the third time. He knew that he promised to give her space to relax, but he needed to know how she was doing. She hadn't answered his other two calls, and Keith was getting more and more worried by the minute. Luckily, she answered this time.

Pidge's eyes were red and her cheeks were wet, but she was breathing normally again. She wiped the tears off her face and sighed. Giving Keith a weak smile, she said, "Thanks, Keith. I'm fine now." Keith offered her a smile of his own and Pidge opened her comms again. Nobody said anything in response to her doing so, but Keith had the sneaking suspicion that Hunk called her privately.

Another half hour of silence followed. Everyone was just driving their lions in the same direction as fast as they could.

Suddenly, Pidge exclaimed, "I knew I didn't just imagine it!" Pidge sent a video feed on everyone's screens. "Everyone, check this out: Green found this one super faint blinking light coming from some kind of ship. Anyone notice anything weird?"

Keith squinted his eyes. Stars twinkled, but this light was... regular. It was blinking a pattern. Keith's eyes shot open as he realized what they were.

"S.O.S.?" Hunk asked. "Why would an alien ship call for help with an Earth signal? Unless-"

"Lance," Keith choked. "It's him. He's calling us." Keith was holding back tears. Lance is alive.

"Alright team, let's go get him!" Shiro exclaimed, following Pidge's lion in the direction of the signal.

"S.O.S.?" Allura asked. "Sauce? I don't understand."

Pidge explained "Well, on Earth, we developed this kind of language where we use a system of dots and dashes, or short and long sounds, or short and long bursts of light. Different combinations of 'dits' and 'dahs' correspond with the different letters. A long time ago, we came up with a universal distress code that anyone could use if they were in trouble. It happened to be the same signal as the letters 'S,' 'O,' and 'S,' so we just remember S.O.S. if we're in trouble."

Allura took a moment to think about the information and said "I'm impressed. Altea never even thought about doing that, we just used programmed distress signals. Although, that would be helpful if one lost power or was without a ship."

The conversation continued, and Keith was grateful for the lack of silence for once. Not only that, but he was so close to finding Lance. Keith smiled. He was going to save his boyfriend.