Chapter Text
From the castle, explosions are visible all over Zarkon’s ship as Voltron sets to destroying the important systems.
“We did it. Zarkon’s reign is finally over.” Allura says in awe.
“Yes princess.” Coran agrees. Lee turns to them, smiling, but then her persistent bad feeling erupts, and she is forced to her hands and knees. It feels like her ears are ringing, and she gasps trying to catch her breath. She feels a hand on her shoulder, turns to see Allura there. The princess’s mouth is moving, and Lee focuses on trying to hear what she’s saying.
“-ee! Lee! Are you alright? What’s wrong?” Allura cries out, and Lee shakes her head.
“Something is happening, this is bad.” Lee says, her mind racing as she tries to figure out what is causing this feeling.
“What is it?” Allura asks, but Lee shrugs helplessly.
“Guys, you’ve gotta get out of there, something’s wrong!” Lee cries out over the coms, and Voltron pause on its way to the bridge.
“What? Lee, what do you mean?” Shiro asks. Before she can answer, they all see purple energy forming below them. Lee’s eyes widen, heart stopping in her chest. The purple energy races towards Voltron, and the second it hits Lee begins screaming. Through her connection with Keith, and the lions, she can feel the touch of the dark magic, and the absolute horror and wrongness of it makes her feel sick. The pain of the attack is so great that she can sense it through the connection. Lee’s horror turns to a white hot anger, her scream becoming a cry of rage, and white energy crackles along her arms.
Her energy finds the connections she has with the lions, pouring down them, and into the lions. Her white energy burns out the purple-ish black, freeing Voltron from the attack, and then it shoots straight upwards, exploding with a brilliant white flash once it reaches Zarkon’s ship. Lee pants, energy settling down, and she pries open her eyes. She looks up, seeing that everyone in the control room is staring at her in shock. She stands up, lightheaded for a second, but then she steadies herself, immediately looking out the screens for Voltron.
It floats, motionless, and the paladins don’t respond when Coran calls out to them over the coms.
‘Keith? Keith! Come on, please, please, be okay! You have to, I can’t lose you! I can’t lose any of you!’ Lee cries out over their connection, but gets no response.
Allura tries calling out to them again, and this time finally Shiro answers. The paladins all say that they can’t move their lions, and Coran begins to explain to them what went wrong, when suddenly something begins appearing from Zarkon’s ship. It looks like a Ro-beast, but one that resembles Zarkon, and Voltron is still helplessly floating in space.
Allura says they have to do something in order to buy the paladins more time, so she orders Coran to move all power to their weapons system. He says that will leave them defenseless, but everyone there knows that what’s important is saving Voltron. The castle flies forwards, firing on Zarkon’s suit, and Allura gives the paladins a motivating speech.
The blast begins to be reflected back towards the castle, and Lee turns to Allura, the two sharing a small smile. As the beam is almost on top of them, Lee closes her eyes.
‘Keith, I love you.’ Lee says, a peaceful smile on her face. There is a flash of light as the beam hits the castle, visible through her eyelids, and then everything goes black.
Her eyes open and she sees she is floating inside the castle’s control room. She looks over to see Allura waking up as well, then looks around, making sure that everyone is alright. The castle is extremely low on energy, and Allura instructs Coran and Slav to work on getting it back into working condition. She asks if Kolivan can get them to the Komar, and he says it will be dangerous, but that he knows a way.
“Lee, if we are going to be fighting the Druids, I’m going to need your help.” Allura says, and Lee grins.
“Of course. I can’t wait to knock that witch Haggar down a peg.” Lee says, her grin turning vicious, and her, Allura, and the two Blade members head out. The four of them fly over to Zarkon’s ship, seeing flashes of light coming from the battle between Zarkon and Voltron. They land on one of the platforms, Allura knocking off one of the Druids.
“Attack!” Haggar screams, and Lee takes a deep breath, eyes narrowing at the witch. The four of them split up, Lee and Allura each going with a Blade member against a Druid. Lee and Antok are holding their own against their Druid, when Lee feels a surge of her bad feeling, shoving Antok to the side, and both of them just barely avoiding a blast sent by Haggar.
She looks up at Haggar, but then feels her instincts screaming at her. She turns, seeing the other Druid preparing to fire at her. Her eyes wide, there is nothing she can do as she watches the purple energy leave the Druid’s hand as if in slow motion. Then, she feels a body slam into hers. She is pushed out of the way, the energy hitting Antok. He falls to his knees, then to the floor, and Lee drops down beside him.
“Antok? Antok!” She cries, but she gets no response. She feels rage rise in her, her power rising alongside. She screams, leaping for the Druid, and exploding into her lion form with a flash of light. She stays as a normal, Earth-sized lion so that she will be able to maneuver better. She pounces on the Druid, claws digging into it, biting down on its shoulder, and tearing at it. The Druid cries out, its other hand lighting up with purple energy, and Lee leaps away over its head. She looks over her shoulder, and seeing Kolivan and Allura flying up, she moves her attention to Haggar.
She races towards Haggar, opening her mouth and letting out a blast of energy, which the witch blocks. She shoots back at Lee, and Lee dodges to the side. She fires again at the Druid, using the distraction to get in closer. She quits firing once she’s close enough, jumping at the witch. Haggar moves to the side, avoiding her attack, but then Allura appears on the platform.
The two girls work together, taking turns attacking Haggar, and are able to get multiple hits in. Lee fires on Haggar once more, giving Allura the opportunity to move into place for a strike. Once Lee stops, Allura moves in, swinging her staff hard, and sending the witch flying back. She rolls after hitting the ground, her hood falling off. She stands quickly, extending one hand and firing at Allura, knocking the princess’s staff from her hands.
Lee races forward, leaping at the witch, but her other hand snaps out, grabbing her by the neck. Her dark magic races through Lee, a freezing feeling so cold it feels like its burning her. She cries out, her yowl turning into a scream as halfway through she snaps back to her human body.
“Lee!” Allura cries out, and suddenly she seems to absorb the energy being fired at her. Haggar’s grip weakens in shock, and Lee concentrates, her energy rising, and pushing Haggar’s out of her body. Haggar cries out, releasing Lee as the white energy lashes out at her, and Lee moves to Allura’s side. Both girls are glowing with energy, Allura purple, and Lee white. They grasp hands, and Haggar fires on them again.
They raise their clasped hands, blocking the witch’s attack. They slowly move forwards, getting closer and closer, until with a final blast, the witch is knocked to the floor.
“You will never destroy another innocent world!” Allura cries, and she and Lee both summon their power, letting it out simultaneously. Blasts of white and purple energy explode out from them, destroying the Komar. Haggar disappears, and Kolivan appears behind them on a platform.
“Come on!” He yells, and they quickly jump over to him. Coran picks them up in the castle, and as they move into the control room they look out over the screens and see Zarkon’s destroyed suit. Once the paladins are all on board, the castle wormholes away. Once they are safely away, everyone races to the Black Lion. Lee and Keith meet eyes, both conveying that they are okay, and they are running for the downed Black Lion.
The cockpit opens, all of them crowding inside. The Black Bayard is in its place, but the pilot seat is empty.
“Shiro?” Keith calls his name, but he is nowhere in sight.
“He’s gone.” Lance says, and they all just stare at the empty chair. Keith reaches out, his hand grasping tightly onto Lee’s, and she squeezes back hard.
‘We’ll find him Keith. I swear, we’ll find Shiro.’