Voltron Rewind

Prologue – A Rude Awakening

There was a moment of white light and a sudden jolt like you get from an unexpectedly rough plane landing. Shiro swallowed to relieve the pressure in his ears. He felt dizzy, but the sensations of his body were returning, like he was awakening after a deep sleep. More likely he'd been unconscious.

He was alive. He was in his Lion.

The Black Lion's screens showed Keith and Pidge's Lions supporting and guiding him back to the Castle. He tried to hail them on the comm link but only got static. If that was the worst damage from their battle with Zarkon, they'd got off lucky.

They'd won. Against Zarkon.

They had won, hadn't they?

Some link to his Lion told him their enemy was still out there. No matter, they'd dealt him quite a blow, and they'd strike him again, and again – as many times as necessary, until he, and his empire, were no more.

For now, they were safe. If there had been any remaining Galra, Keith would have been off dogfighting them. A wave of tiredness flooded over him and he closed his eyes, just for a moment.

Shiro was jolted awake. Black was in the hangar. He felt the Castle's artificial gravity kick in and, fighting a slight unsteadiness, he got to his feet as his Lion's jaw opened.

The Paladins stood outside in their yellow, red, blue and green armor. Coran was there too, but … When had he had time to get a haircut, and what had happened to his sleeves? Something was wrong, and Coran was just the start.

The Blue Paladin sported Altean ears. The Yellow Paladin was a woman. And the Green Paladin was literally green, with yellow hair and tattoos. Desperately Shiro turned to the Red Paladin, to Keith, who was just removing his helmet.

Silver hair with a gottee, tan skin, ice blue eyes. Shiro knew that face, although they'd never met in the flesh. Was he still dreaming?

King Alfor, Coran, and the other strange Paladins looked back at him. He wasn't what they were expecting either. He had once joked that after being abducted by aliens, he was immune to the bizarre. But this …

"Who are you?" asked Alfor, his voice unchanged from the hologram.

"I'm the Black Paladin," the others stared at him with obvious disbelief, "um… from the future?"

Author's notes: Thanks for reading. This is more of a teaser. The first chapter will be posted later today. I was desperate to get this out before Season 3 just in case they pulled something like this (highly unlikely, but still). Shiro is such a great character to write and I've only gotten to write from his perspective once before, so I'm really looking forward to this story. Let me know what you think.