- 1 Keith + the arm

The three garrison kids had fallen asleep shortly after they arrived. This left Keith as the only conscious one in the cabin. As it seemed like he wouldn't be able to sleep now, what with strangers around him, he pulled a chair over to his bed where Shiro laid and watched him. The man who had been like a brother to him was back. The one Keith had hoped was still alive but a part had always dreaded/believed that Shiro was dead.

It was obvious, however, that Shiro wasn't the same person he left as. For one thing, he had that shock of unnaturally on his forehead, and that scar across his nose was definitely new. But the most eye-catching development was the metal that replaced his right arm. The design was sleek and efficient, mimicking a human arm to an off putting amount. The fingers perfectly mirrored the ones on the flesh arm, and when Shiro moved in his sleep the joints shifted automatically in such a natural way that no man-made prosthetic would be able to give. There were even slight bulges in it like muscles.

Experimentally, Keith reached over and lifted the arm ever-so-slightly and found that it wasn't terribly heavy either. Keith didn't get the chance to think much more on this, however, as the slight movement roused Shiro. The next thing Keith knew he was squished into his mattress, one arm painfully behind his back, and a cold hand rested on his head, forcing it to stay down. It happened so quickly and quietly that it took a moment for Keith to realize that this was Shiro. Shiro, who was making the faintest growling sound above him. Keith lied perfectly still and after a moment the pressure on his eased. He sat up and turned around to see Shiro was now standing a little ways from the bed in an almost defensive position with the metal arm in front of him. Wide, disbelieving eyes stared at Keith.

"Keith?" The arm lowered slightly.

"Hey." Keith attempted a smile. Considering how Shiro wasn't moving, just staring, it looked like it fell to Keith to initiate any sort of true reunion. He took a step forward, then another, and then in a single motion wrapped his arms around the other's torso. Shiro flinched badly and for a moment Keith feared the older man would retaliate against the touch. But eventually Shiro returned the gesture and Keith could feel the cold metal of the arm through his shirt.

"Shiro?"

"Yeah Keith?" Shiro breathed, barely a whisper.

"What happened to you?" Shiro stiffened immediately, his breathing pausing for a moment and arms tightening around Keith.

"Galra."

- 2 Hunk + the Teeth

"Great. Great, great, great." Hunk was attempting to stay calm. It wasn't working out very well.

"Hunk, it's going to be okay." Shiro tried to help from behind Hunk, and Hunk felt a bit of a soothing presence in the back of his head.

"Shiro, I really appreciate you being optimistic, but things really aren't looking good." Hunk shifted in an attempt to get in a more comfortable position. It didn't work.

"Just sit tight. I'll see what I can do." Shiro reassured the yellow paladin, who was not reassured. It wasn't that Hunk didn't trust him, it was just that the situation didn't show any sign of getting better. Both of their lion were somewhere on the ship, though they had no idea where. Their capturers - space pirates - had taken Hunk's bayard and found a way to turn off Shiro's arm with some bracelet thing. Like off-off. The thing was purely dead weight right now. And the cherry on top of the food goo was that they had been tied not only to each other but also to the middle of the room with a thick metal cable. At least energy ropes could be turned off or hacked into.

Hunk sighed and leaned forward, wondering how the others were doing. The link between the paladins was still really weak, so it wasn't like he could send some distress into the head-holes at their current distance. He could still try though, and at least that was doing something. A few minutes into Hunk's attempts to broadcast for help (which Shiro was probably the only one getting) there was a snapping sound. Shiro, who had been fairly still for the past while, made a triumphant noise and started to wiggle around. To Hunk's surprise, as he did so the cable loosened and then fell away.

"What - ? How did you -" Hunk shook off the cable and stood up. Shiro was running his thumb over his teeth, a focused expression on his face. Hunk looked down at the cable. A piece looking like it had been cut out of it.

"I bit through it." Shiro answered, avoiding Hunk's eyes. "My teeth, my entire skeleton really, are reinforced." He hesitated for a moment. "Here, take a look."

And, yeah, those were definitely not normal teeth. Their color was more silver than normal - not too silver that it was overly noticeable, but not human either. They were too sharp, and the molars even reminded Hunk of plier cutters.

"It was the first." Shiro said, still not looking at Hunk. "I… You don't always get a weapon. In the arena. But a Champion gets," He took a shuddering breath, "Gets perks."

"It's definitely useful," Hunk proclaimed and sent a wave of love and caring to Shiro. "Saved our butts today. Shiro, you don't have to be worried about that kind of stuff, you're always you. Now let's go find our lions."

- 3 Pidge + Language Barriers

"Thanks for joining me Shiro." Pidge gave Shiro a smile.

"It was no problem." Shiro waved off the thank you with his human hand. The other one was holding a bag full of medical supplies and food. They'd located a recently-crashed Galra prison ship and had detected a surprising amount of life in the wreckage. While it wasn't a priority, they also hadn't been doing much more than floating through space. In the end Allura had decided to send a couple of the paladins with some helpful items. Pidge had immediately taken the mission and Shiro had joined. While Pidge was undoubtedly a good oul, she did have an ulterior motive that everybody knew of. After all, who's to say that it wasn't Matt or Sam Holt who crashed the ship in a bid for freedom.

The tunnel that not too long ago must've been a hallway was long and dark, but lit enough to walk without hitting anything. After a few ticks they could see the literal light at the end of the tunnel. At the end of it was what could've been a mess hall once, or perhaps multiple rooms with the walls torn down. It was hard to tell with the state it was in. There were aliens of all different species milling about in the ruins, and by the look of it they were already well on their way to creating a stable home (no matter whether or not it was temporary).

And then two beings holding guns came up on either side of the paladins.

Shiro immediately put his arms into surrender position, fell to his knees, and lifted his head upward to expose as much of his neck as possible. These people were past prisoners, they were bound to be jumpy around strangers, so it was important that he make himself look as little of a threat as possible. Pidge followed suit, albeit a bit hesitantly and more tensed than Shiro was with his relaxed muscles and calm face.

One growled something unintelligible at them.

"Shiro," Pidge whispered, eyes wide. "My translator isn't working." Neither was Shiro's apparently. Which they probably should've thought about. They weren't able to send any messages into the wreck, which they thought meant that there was no electricity. What they didn't consider was that it was on purpose - something that shut down electronics. Shiro's arm and their armor ran off their own quintessence, but translators and communicators were typically electric. Shiro locked his lips, focusing on the memories that he ran away from.

"Don't fear. We mean no harm." Shiro made the guttural, throat-ripping sounds of the Galra language. "We… aid? Heal items?" Shiro nodded to the dropped bag as he tried to put together the right words to convey what he was trying to say. One of the armed beings went to the bag and cautiously opened it before calling out in joy to other, who made a happy sound back and ran off deeper into the ship's shell.

"Thank! Gratitude!" The remaining alien shouted and pushed Shiro's arms down, dropping its gun, a way of saying that they were starting to not view him as a threat. Pidge was completely lost at this point but Shiro would explain later. Right now he had to finish ensuring that things were safe. By way of an explanation he sent some reassurance in emotion-form to the green paladin. The alien patted its chest eagerly. "Atimo. Ah-tea-mow."

"Shiro. Sh-ea-row." Shiro copied Atimo, placing his hand to his chest. "From Arena. Champion. Now Black Voltron Paladin." Atimo's eyes grew wide and Shiro pointed to Pidge. "Pidge. Pah-ee-d-ja. No Galran… knowledge? Not know words. Green Voltron Paladin." Shiro was painfully aware of how rusty and broken his sentences. Luckily Atimo didn't seem to mind.

"Come, great food. L-long? Big? Cheering?" Atimo grinned despite struggling himself to put together something comprehensible and waved at them to follow him.

"Shiro, what's going on?" Pidge whispered, watching Atimo with her hand carefully resting on her bayard. Shiro patted her shoulder comfortingly.

"No need to whisper. They've seen we're here to help and they invited to a feast. At least, I'm pretty sure it's a feast." He explained. "They're previous Galra prisoners. After a while, especially if you're the only one of your kind on the ship, most prisoners start to pick up Galran so that they can communicate. Of course, none have ever had any formal teaching but they make it work."

"You'd better be fluent enough to teach me some when we get back on the castle! No way am I going to pass up this chance!"

- 4 Lance + The Eyes

Lance carefully picked his way over the stones and dirt, feeling his way through the dark on his hands and knees. The paladins had been investigating tunnels, Coran claiming that there was a useful fungus that grew in the depths. During the hunt the tunnels had begun collapsing, which really wasn't that much of a surprise seeing as that's how most of their life seemed to be. Lance had managed to not be crushed to death, but his helmet's communicator and light had been broken. So here he was, crawling along the ground and hoping there was nothing deadly around.

Which meant that Lance was bound to hear something else creeping around in the darkness with him. He froze in his position on the ground, listening closely as the sound became the crunching of feet on dirt and pebbles unfalteringly. He pressed himself against the cave wall hoping that whatever it was would either a) notice him and was one of the paladins or b) not notice him and be a monster. As the sound continued to draw closer, Lance got out his bayard and activated it, squinting through the darkness at what little he could see from the lights glowing on his armor. Something turned a corner, coming into Lance's eyesight, and Lance could just barely make out the shape of Shiro.

But Shiro's eyes were a glowing, Galra yellow.

They landed on Lance and Lance promptly screamed and threw his bayard at Galra-eyes-Shiro.

"Shit, Lance, it's okay, it's me," Shiro's voice came from Shiro-Galra and the yellow eyes blinked out… followed by a yelp and the sound of somebody tripping at least eleven times. Something thumped down next to Lance and he poked it. Cold metal. So it really was Shiro. But was it even Shiro or good Shiro?

"You okay Lance?" Shiro asked with an accompanying burst of worry. So good Shiro then. Lance heard more than saw Shiro set himself against the wall next to him.

"Yeah, but are you? After that trip you just went on? Also the eyes. That was weird. Did I just imagine that or…?"

"Oh. That." Shiro blinked and the eyes were glowing again. Lance jumped a bit, but didn't scream this time. They definitely looked like the Galra's: yellow, glowy, and lacking in any separation of pupil, iris, and sclera. "It's not harmful, I promise."

"Then what is it?" Lance asked and leaned a bit closer.

"I mean, I never really got an explanation. From what I've pieced together? It's like the Galran eyes, but more like a second eyelid? That I can open and close. More than anything it lets me see in the dark."

"Oh. That would explain Hunk's ghost story about seeing an evil version of you in the castle in the middle of the night. He made Pidge watch the surveillance videos for months." Shiro chuckled.

"I didn't think he even remembered that."

+ 1 Shiro + Being With Humans

Shiro blinked awake, thoughts muddled and blurry. He was so comfortable and warm. He shifted slightly - and echoed through his body from his chest. Yeah, he was definitely awake now. He tried to move his right arm to inspect the wound, but something was keeping it down. In fact, now that Shiro was lucid, he realized there were large amounts of warm things all over him, pinning him down. The room was dark, an almost complete blackness to the point where Shiro almost couldn't tell if his eyes were open or closed. Shiro's breathing started to pick up. He closed his Galra eyelids, dreading what he would see. Steeling himself and regulating his breathing, Shiro looked at his arm.

Hunk was sprawled on top of the metal arm, very obviously asleep. Shiro blinked at him for a few moments and then turned to his other arm. Lance was wearing his sleep mask and had his headphones on. His arms were wrapped very firmly around Shiro's. Keith was thrown across Shiro's legs and Pidge was snuggled against Shiro's chest. They were all wearing the silk-like sleepwear that'd come with the castle in their respective colors.

"Wha-?" Shiro whispered and Pidge's face crinkled.

"Go back to sleep Shiro." She murmured, gently patting/slapping his face.

"Why are you guys here? What happened?" The pain in his chest thumped with his heartbeat. Pidge yawned.

"You were caught off guard. Remember? We were infiltrating that one ship to get more info on what planets were allied with the Galra?" Yeah, he was beginning to remember now. But he hadn't been caught off guard. The guard had been aiming at one of the paladins - he hadn't been able to tell which, and really it didn't matter - and Shiro had jumped in the way. He'd brought his arm up to block the shot, but it'd gone above his arm and hit decently hard. "You got shot and you fought for a bit and then passed out when we got back to castle. If you keep staying up so late all the time, you'll be giving me a run for my money." Pidge mumbled the last bit into Shiro's stomach as she turned her head. "Now go back to sleep."

"Are the others-"

"We're all fine Shiro. You'll be fine in the morning too." She swatted at his face some more.

Shiro let his head fall back to his pillow, opening his Galra eyelids back up and letting the darkness fill his vision again. He gently reached out to his connection with the paladins and gently poked around. They all seemed content and happy, giving off lazy and relaxed emotions. In the depths of his mind the black lion gave a faint roar, joining Pidge in urging him to go back to sleep.

Shiro closed his eyes.