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If Sendak thinks Shiro is demoralized by the all “sacrifice things” or that he will accept his fate without a fight, well, he’s incredible wrong. Just, Shiro doesn’t do pointless fights. And fight a pirate ship in the middle of unknown space doesn’t seem the best course of action for Shiro in order to survive.
Patience yields focus has always been Shiro’s motto, and that his way to survive during the travel. His only chance for saving himself is to act once they reach a planet.
From his cabin, definitely more comfortable than a cell, he can’t see outside because the window has been closed with iron boards. Still, Shiro has enough knowledge of spaceships to realizes just by the way it moves if they enter in one planet’s atmosphere.
When Haxus comes for him in his cabin, Shiro already knows it’s the time.
Unfortunately, Sendak is a prudent man, and he sent Haxus to take Shiro even before the ship moors on the planet, which makes Shiro’s plan of escaping a lot more difficult.
“Put this on your eyes,” Haxus orders, throwing him a piece of clothes from the door, that Shiro catches with his left hand, “and then put your hands on your back.”
Before obeying, Shiro scrutinizes Haxus: he has two guns at his belt, alongside a sword and a knife. Not enough to defeat an entire army of pirates, but something Shiro may need to defend himself. Then, he blindfolds himself and focuses his attention of his earing.
Steps of Haxus that approaches him, and then stops behind him. Shiro waits until Haxus is about to close the handcuff around Shiro’s wrists, then he stomps one of his feet into Haxus and, even before he has a chance of screaming, he put his head back and hit him in the face, then he let himself falls backwards to crush Haxus on the ground.
It doesn’t have much time considering they are immortal, so Shiro takes off his blindfold and gags Haxus with it, then he handcuffs him to the bed. He steals all his weapons and goes out of the cabin, closing the door behind him.
Reaching the main deck may be too dangerous, since mostly pirates will be there, preparing for the landing. And Sendak doesn’t appear like a patient man, so he doesn’t have much time before someone else is sending to check on Haxus. So, contrary of every reasonable decision, Shiro takes the stairs that bring on the upper quartier of the ship.
He doesn’t need to escape at the moment, just to understand where they are. So his main mission is to find a window to look around, and he’s luckily enough to find one main hall, probably the crew dinner room. There is a nice window there.
There is dark outside, but it’s the dark of the night, not of the space. Shiro already knows they’ve entered the atmosphere, but now he can realize how much they’re near to the surface of it. There aren’t any lights on the planet, but from the light of the stairs, Shiro notices below him there is just dark water. An island stands in front of the ship, far enough so the ship will land directly in front of them, or at least Shiro guesses by the height the ship is in that moment.
He doesn’t have any choice. He takes the tablecloth and uses the knife to cut them into smaller straps. He ties them together to create a long rope, the ties one of the end to the leg of the metal table, that is stuck on the floor. He grits his teeth and curls his right metal hand into a fist before smashing it into the windows. He doesn’t break it, but it cracks the glass enough so he can crash it throwing a chair on it.
The cold air swooshes inside and almost sucks Shiro outside as he throws the rope outside it. The sound lures the pirates inside the dining room, but it’s too late. When they try to shot at Shiro, he already pushes himself outside the windows, his hands on the rope as he lets himself sliding down.
The pirates can’t kill him, so he’s sure they wouldn’t have cut the rope. But they grab it and tries to collect him back to force Shiro back on board. Shiro swings in the air, looking between the ship and the dark water below him. He hurries to reach the end of the rope, but he’s still too high.
With a last look at the pirates, that laughs and insults him from below, Shiro stops his breath and lets the rope goes. He hears the screams of the pirates as his body fall fast towards the water. In the air, Shiro tries to put himself in the most comfortable position to the impact, still the pain as he smashes on the water. Unable to recollect himself immediately, he sinks down.
Water penetrates in his lungs and Shiro’s brain awakes despite the pain. He waggles the arms and the legs and he manages to put his head back outside the water, coughs heavy, throat burring for the sea water. The ship is still upon him and it seems to have stop his movement: every lights are now turned on.
Sendak will sent the hoverbike to look for him soon enough. Shiro looks around to find back the island in the dark and starts swimming in that direction.
When he reaches the beach of the island, every fiber of his body aches except for the metal arm, because it’s made of metal, of course. It’s stupid, but his black humor makes Shiro smiles. He sees the hoverbikes hovering on the dark water, so he crumbles outside the beach and inside the forest.
He needs to find a place to hide to recover himself; he would need any piece of his strength to fight the pirates. The situation isn’t ideal since the island is probably Sendak’s lair, but Shiro hopes to have enough time to set up some traps that will let him have a little advantage.
He walks outside the signed paths, but his mind is still lured by the gigantic tree at the middle of the island; dawn is arriving fast so Shiro, despite the protest of his body, accelerates his steps. The tree seems far like it was on the beach, which makes Shiro stumbles. Yet, he doesn’t stop because he sees something behind the forest.
And then he finds a clearing in front of a mountain, and lent against the mountain there was an unmistakably human building made of stone. Shiro observes him with open mouth: it’s a pyramidal building, at least for the three face that aren’t against the mountain, with a big, stone stair that goes from the ground to the small alcove at the top of the pyramids. At each side of every steps of the stair there are jaguar stone statues, with sides of the pyramids are decorated with scene of killings: in those, the jaguars are hung up, burned or sliced up.
As stupid as it is, Shiro feels the eyes of the jaguars on himself. And it may be true: Shiro guesses this may be the place where the pirates’ curse started, which meant that the people that created that building were probably so technological advanced that create both nanomachines and living jaguar robot machine.
He has a desire to enter the pyramid and explore the inside, because it’s clear there is much more there than a pirates’ lair, but in the end it is the pirates’ lair so the worst place for Shiro to hide. With a last look, he steps behind not letting the jaguar statues looks at his back, and then returns back in the forest.
During his Garrison day, people told Keith he has a sort of sixty sense, the one that made him so good during fight. He doesn’t really believe it, but he has a gut feeling that Shiro is still alive, and it’s the only thing that make him stay sane during the journey. When he pilots Red, he has enough distractions, but when Acxa takes his place to let him rest, Keith is left alone with his thoughts about how many things can go wrong with Shiro’s rescue plan.
For this reason, he’s happy Romelle joins him on the main deck. She’s a little too much exuberant, but a good distraction nevertheless. And at least she’s better than Ezor, who only want to mock him, for whatever reasons.
“For you,” she smiles, offering him a bow of maize soup.
He groans. “Why haven’t we load something more than maize?”
Romelle sits down in front of him and takes a spoon of the soup. “Maize is a very important element of the nature. All humans born from it, or so Allura says.”
At the mention of Allura, Keith turns around to look at her. She’s on the front part of the deck, near the figurehead of the ship. Lotor is there with her, and they both stands there, in silence. They both wore a jaguar band at their right arms.
So much for someone that warned Keith about Lotor’s danger attitude.
“What are you looking to?” Romelle asks. She’s licking her spoon.
“Nothing,” he says, but she hasn’t missed her stare.
“Nice couple, aren’t they?”
“Are they together?”
“Dunno? They have known each other for a long time, even before Lotor is kicking out the Black Lion and went around searching for us all.”
Keith blinks. “Wait. Lotor was on the Black Lion’s crew?”
Romelle’s turn to blink. “Yes. The first captain of the Black Lion was his father. I though you knew, since you asked him help to track down it.”
“He was the only pirate around,” Keith shrugs.
“Lotor will be so offended if he found out,” Romelle giggles.
But at this point, Keith is curious. “Why Lotor has been kicked out?”
“It’s kinda of a long story.”
“We have time,” Keith replies, and finally takes a spoon of his soup.
Romelle takes a look to Allura and Lotor, but they’re not paying attention to other than the horizon. “Okay, but keep in mind mostly of it sounds a lot like a legend.”
“The Black Lion’s pirates are immortal,” Keith points out.
“Fair enough.” Romelle sits down better on the floor. “You see, Allura and I descend from the people of one of the older planets of the galaxies. Now that planet doesn’t exist anymore, it’s been destroyed when the Earth started colonized around.”
Keith chokes on his soup.
“The only surviving were the people that had already starting exploring the universe. For quite some time, they were a closed group that married inside themselves to make our culture and race surviving despite the destruction of our planets.”
“I fail to understand how it connects with Lotor’s story.”
“I’m getting there!” Romelle complains. “Sit up and shut up. What I was telling… Okay, so, Lotor’s mother was one of us, and she had an incredible knowledge of our legends. Only Allura’s father surpassed her on that. And then went away and married Zarkon. Lotor’s father,” Romelle clarifies.
“I guess it was a disappointment.”
“A little, but nobody could stop her. We were a group, not a cult. And none of us realized back then what tragic results it would bring. And we didn’t know about it until Lotor came to us.”
“What did his mother do?”
“She was following an old legend of our tradition to find a way to save his husband from dead,” Romelle says. “She reached Oriande, a sacred a secret place for all of us, a knowledge that only the descendant of the royal family should have known. Between us, only Allura knows where it is, after his father passed away. But Honerva found it anyway.”
“Oriande is the place we’re going right now,” Keith states. “What’s there?”
“To explain it, I have to tell you the story of Hun Hunhapu, the maize god.”
“Again with the maize…” Keith isn’t going to shit on someone’s else belief, but it’s getting ridiculous.
“Told you it was important. But anyway, Hun Hunhapu wasn’t a god at first. He was a man, and for helping humanity he challenged at duel the god of thunder and lightning and won. He did it to convince the god to help humanity against the force of evil, that they’re usually represented in jaguar forms. At least, they seem like the Terran jaguars in our pictures.”
Keith throws a look at the jaguar skin both Lotor and Allura wear.
“The god of Thunder accepted to help humanity, and did a pact with Hun Hunhanpu: he conceded him one of his lighting and he forged with it a group of swords which were delivered to a group of worthy men. With them, they managed to defeat evil and sealed him away in Oriande. That’s how Hun Hunhanpu became a god among men. For generations, though, my ancestor still haunted jaguars to avoid the evil to returns.”
“I guess they’re extinct now…” Keith murmurs. “It really sound like a legend more than an actually story.”
“But it isn’t. Or at least, Lotor was sure it wasn’t. He feared his mother finding Oriande and messing with the last traces of Hun Hunhanpu on Earth would destroy the balance.” Romelle’s expression softness and sadness as he speaks, “Lotor knows how to persuade people. He convinced us we’re the ancestors of that worthy men and, like once, we had to go to Oriande and take the sword to fight evil. We believed him. Allura believed him, and she revealed him the location of Oriande.”
“And you followed him to Oriande?”
“I didn’t personally, but mostly did. Including my all family.” Romelle nods. “But when we reached Oriande, the blades weren’t there. The pirates had already taken them.”
“And was the evil free now?”
“The pirates are immortal,” Romelle states, like a matter of fact, and Keith can’t reply anything to that. She sighs deeply. “Without the blades, and without any military training, they were all wiped out by the pirates.”
“That’s why you beat Lotor,” Keith understood.
“He convinced my family to fight for his battle, a battle we couldn’t win.”
“So why do you still work for him?”
“He pays well.” Romelle comments. “Also… Allura told me we’re going to save a friend of you. It seems something good to do.”
Shiro. He’s always present in his mind, but Romelle’s story has distracted him a little. “Yeah,” he smiles, hardening his gaze. Then, he realized, “you haven’t told me about why Lotor was kicked out the Black Lion.”
“Oh, that. I didn’t know the details to that. But for what Lotor said-” she doesn’t manage to finish, because Lotor steps in his direction.
“If you’re done having lunch,” he says, and he sounds a little crueler than usual, “get ready. We’re almost there.”
Without adding anything, he goes in the below decks. Romelle shrugs and follows him. When Keith stands up, picking up her bowl of soup too, he finds Allura staring at him.
“Once we land, only you and Lotor will get to the island. It’s safer. We’ll be waiting for you, ready to run once you’re back with your friend.”
Keith is about to ask if he can trust her to wait for them, but then he realizes he probably can’t trust even Lotor, and he’s going to be alone with him in his way to save Shiro.
“Keith,” Allura murmurs. “I’ve been in Oriande before. It won’t be the same for you probably-”
“Because I’m not a descendend of an ancient maize god, I guess.”
“But the magic there is overwhelming.” She bits her bottom lip, ignoring his sentence. “But the maize god has always been a god of creation. Do not believe people that consider blood sacrifice a viable way. It’s not how we make things, and it only bring chaos.”
Allura always speaks as she’s declaring prophecy. Keith has enough of Romelle’s stories, which, by the way, are more gruesome since they talk about
“I’ll keep in mind.”
Another thing Shiro reflected about when he was prisoner of the Black Lion is how to kill an immortal man. Sendak showed him what nanomachine can do into repairing the human tissue, so Shiro decides to try for a more direct approaches.
He’s hiding in the forest, a place that gives him wide space of maneuver. Two pirates come in his direction, but Shiro waits. They split up, a very bad choice usually, but not for immortal people apparently. Shiro is about to find out just how much immortals they are.
He takes a sword in his hand, and then he hides his arm behind his back. In the other hand, he has a gun. He jumps off his hideout, just behind the pirate, and shots at his hand so he lets his gun fall on the ground. The pirate turns around, a satisfied smile on his lips, and takes a step in Shiro’s direction.
Shiro’s gun touches his chest, and Shiro shots again. The pirate doesn’t even falter, still smiling. That moment of distraction is what Shiro was waiting for: in a swift, he moves the other hand and uses the sword to decapitate the pirate. The head rolls two time before stopping and the body crumbles on himself.
There hasn’t been any yell, so Shiro has still a couple of minutes to check the situation. He observes as the nanomachines erupt from the neck and create a bridge towards the head to collect it back. With a horrified fascination, he watches as the nanomachines drag the head near the body.
So there isn’t a way to kill them? Not even the decapitation… and then Shiro stops. He remembers the pictures he saw at the strange building back then, where the jaguars were burned after being tied up to a rock.
The other pirate isn’t around yet. Swiftly, Shiro takes off the pirate’s belt and, after taking the weapons for him, he uses it to tied up the pirate to one rock nearby, with the feet that don’t touch the ground. The nanomachine doesn’t disturb him, just continuing their work to reattaching the head. Shiro creates fast a small flame from two branches and, as soon as the pirate regains consciousness with his head on his neck again, Shiro presses the flame on his chest.
The body burns immediately, faster than human should do. There hasn’t been any scream yet, just a long, desperate whistle that hurt Shiro’s ears. The body crumbles and becomes ashes in front of Shiro.
He can’t wait anymore, so he disappears again in the forest with his new knowledge.
The thing Lotor is most worried about isn’t facing Sendak and his men, but keeping Keith under control. For the little time they spend together, Lotor has one thing clear: Keith is ready to do everything for saving his Shiro, which means doing the most reckless things. Lotor, instead, needs him to stay under control.
“Stop here,” he says, after looking at Keith for understanding what he’s thinking.
“Why?” Keith asks, but obeys.
They landed Red not far from the island and, once they spotted the Black Lion, they circumnavigated on the water in order to park on the other side of the island, so they wouldn’t see them. Them, Lotor and Keith left with the hoverbike, following the line of the beaches.
“There is a small tunnel here, under the rock. I’ve made him myself.”
After the first, disastrous time on Oriande, Lotor has spent quite some time there, trying to find new ways to defeat Sendak inside his own lair. That’s the reason he digs the tunnel that brings from the beach to the secret cave inside the mountain, just behind the sacred tree, so he can access to the cave without passing from the temple’s entrance.
The tunnel is big enough for Keith, able as he was, to drive inside with the hoverbike. At the end of the tunnel, it’s possible to see at the cave below without being spotted because two rocks blocked the entrance. Keith doesn’t hide his surprise at watching the cave.
The ground of it is completely full of treasures, everything Sendak has collected in the past twenty years, and they flick grim at the light of a couple of lamps. Sendak sits down in what seemed a golden throne, alone.
In the opposite wall from the entrance there is a big mural depicting a jaguar; the mural is ruined by countless blades stuck inside the rock, as to figuratively kill it. They are a lot more than last time, so Lotor feared they almost collect all of them. Keith is looking at the blades and Lotor hopes that, from that distance and with the low light, it’s impossible to recognize which kind of blades they are. Then, Keith turns to him.
“Where’s Shiro?” he whispers, and Lotor takes a relieved breath.
“Maybe they’re keeping him prisoner somewhere else,” Lotor guesses. “That’s how we act. I’m going done to speak with Sendak, hoping to make him reveal where he’s keeping your Shiro. You’ll stay here,” he underlines the word because Keith is ready to protest, “to be out escaping route. Take the hoverbike ready to run away if we need to.”
Keith doesn’t look happy, but he nods. So Lotor slides down the rock of the wall and then walks steady towards Sendak, trying to give the impression he arrives from the main entrance of the temple.
When Sendak sees him, he smirks. “I didn’t expect to see you again here. One defeat wasn’t enough for you? Or I should say, two?”
“You’ve been lucky,” Lotor replies. He stops few meters from him.
“Lucky,” Sendak growls. “I should have killed you when I had the chance, for what you’ve done.”
“I did nothing. You lied to everyone about it.”
“It wasn’t a lie. The reason Zarkon died was you.”
“My father killed himself.”
“You forced him to do.” Sendak snaps and stands out, his sword already in his hand. “All because your stupid belief that a suicide is somewhat honorable, that you have a hung goddess that bring suicide to a promised paradise. Suicide is the way out of cowards, and Zarkon wasn’t one.”
“He was dying of an illness, and it helped him to have a nice, fast dead. A mercy one. Don’t blame my religion when you used it to become captain instead of me.”
“He should have been saved. The witch was trying to find a way for immortality…”
“And it worked perfectly for you.”
“I’m still a better captain than you.”
Just before Sendak is about to attack him, Lotor stops him. “Parley.”
“Pardon?”
“Parley,” Lotor repeats. “I’m not here to fight, not to steal you the Black Lion. This time, I have information you may interested in, and I wat to discuss it with you.” And with a smile, he adds, “you still have some pirate pride, don’t you? Don’t dishonor the parley.”
“I won’t,” Sendak mutters low. “But speak fast.”
Lotor nods. He has prepared the speech long before this moment, in a way to not rise suspect on Keith. He doesn’t get the chance to speak, because a confusion comes from outside and then Haxus enters the cave dragging a wounded and battered Captain Shirogane.
Lotor swears under his breath. The timing is terrible.
“Glad you finally join us, Champion,” Sendak mocks him, a triumphant grin on his face. Shirogane throws a terrible, not defeated at all gaze, as Sendak adds, “you only slowed us down a little, as time matter for us. Haxus, proceed.”
“I was about to speak,” Lotor tries to stop Haxus. “You can do this later.”
“No. First my interest, later, if I’m still in the mood, yours,” Sendak says, excitation in his voice. Haxus pushes Shiro against the wall, against the jaguar picture.
“Don’t do this. You’re making a mistake.”
“Shut up.” And he lifts the blade, the same Shirogane fought Lotor with.
And disaster happens: a hoverbike fells from the sky and literally runs over Haxus and Sendak: Haxus is thrown in the air, while Sendak fall on the ground, face afainst his own treasure.
“Get up!” Keith yells. Lotor observes, like the unwilling watcher of a movie, as Shiro’s eyes widen looking at Keith, then he bends down to take back the blade in his tied up hands, before jumping in the hoverbike Keith has already moved towards the exit.
The hoverbike passes just next to Lotor, but he’s too stunned to move for hopping on it. The sound of the engine disappears on the far as Keith drives towards the exit of the temple. Sendak sputters as he stands up again.
“What the hell was that.”
“I would have explained you, if you gave me the chance,” Lotor mutters. “You had the wrong person. Shirogane isn’t Krolia’s son.”
“He had the blade, he told me…”
“And you believed him? A Garrison boy?”
“And you know who he is?” Sarcasm is in Sendak’s voice, but Lotor knows he has his attention.
“I know where he is. We can talk about it.”
“Later.” Sendak growls. “The Champion took back the blade. I need it. You’re coming with us.”
Lotor sighs and nods. Thatìs not the ideal solution, but if Keith doesn’t do any reckless thing, not more than he already does, maybe they’ll get out of it.
The moment Sendak lifted the blade, Shiro thought it was the end. For sure he doesn’t expect Keith to appear out of thin air, and take him away with his hoverbike. Keith is focused on his driving, his ability to swift the hoverbike inside the forest without being slowing down, and Shiro is still too bummer for asking him something.
But the sight of Red wakes Shiro up from his surprise. “The Garrison is here? You brought him here?”
“Er… not really,” Keith murmurs, embarrassed, as he flies the hoverbike on the dek of the ship.
Shiro frowns. “This has something to do with Lotor, right?”
There’s no need of answers: the sight of the six girls on the ship is enough. Red may be a Garrison ship, but the crew definitely isn’t. Pirates. Lotor’s, Shiro guesses.
“Where’s Lotor?” asks one of the girls.
Keith swallows, but his voice is hard. “You told me that I should be careful about him. I had to leave him behind.”
The girl’s expression seems sad for a second, before her eyes move on Shiro and nods. She turns to the rest of the crew. “We’re leaving!”
And everyone, despite their perplex expressions, hurried to prepare Red to departure. Keith, at his side, sighs, a long one of relief.
“Keith… you… you saved me.”
“You’re hurt,” Keith states. “Come, I’ll patch you up
He takes Shiro’s hand, and he frowns, seeing the handcuff and the knife. He doesn’t add anything, though, just guiding Shiro in the medical room in the below desk. Shiro looks with sweetness as Keith bandages his wounds, that luckily aren’t so deep. The pirates took him more because of tiredness than strength.
“Keith,” he murmurs softer, while Keith takes his hand for the cut on the palm. “Did you really go and join a bunch of pirates just to save me?”
He scoffs. “Did I have another choice? Garrison was too slow and I needed someone to bring me to the Black Lion.”
“Try to not risk so much next time?”
“Try not to get capture next time?” Then, Keith expressions softening. “Are you okay? I was so worried… when I saw that pirate with the blade…”
“I’m fine,” Shiro assures him. His eyes swifts on the blade placed on the near table, and Keith follows his gaze. He stands up and takes the blade in his hands, swiping his thumb on the hilt.
“What happened?” he asks.
With a small sigh, Shiro recollects what Sendak has told him about the course. He summaries it to Keith, about how the pirates are immortal and how Shiro managed to let them go away from their town, until the fact that the blood and the return of the blade will make the pirates turn back to normal.
“So this is one of the blade of Romelle’s story,” Keith mutters under his breath. “But Allura told me the blood is wrong, isn’t something their ancestor would use.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know. But I feel there is something wrong in Sendak’s plan. I understand them being immortal is bad because of the nanomachines influence… what about the nanomachines are influenced them more than just feelings?”
Shiro’s eyes widen. “You’re saying returning the blade with their blood may have a different result than they expect? Something… worse?”
“I don’t know. It’s just a feeling.” Finally, he turns his head at Shiro. “But this is my blade.”
“You remember it?” Shiro exhales.
Keith nods. “I thought I lost it time ago. It was the only memory of my mother…”
“I’m sorry.”
“Why did you have it?”
“You had with you when the ship found you… the day we met,” Shiro explains. “I saw it and I thought it was a pirate symbol, so I took it. I didn’t want them to become suspicious of you.”
“I see,” Keith murmurs. “So my mother was a pirate.” Disappointed was in his tone. And then, he realizes, “but she’s supposed to be immortal too. She stole the blade after all.”
“She was, but Sendak told me they threw her on the outside space,” Shiro says. “Even if she’s still alive, finding her it’s almost impossible at this point. I’m truly sorry.”
“It’s fine, it’s not like I remember much about her.” But despite his words, it’s clear that he’s hurt by it, so Shiro grips Keith’s arm to comfort it.
“We may try to look at her.”
“Maybe,” Keith concedes. “I wonder if, years ago, my ship was attacked because of this blade.”
“Unfortunately, you’re probably correct.”
And Keith swears under his breath.
“It’s not your fault.”
“I… I know, but…” Keith takes a deep breath. “They almost killed you because of me, right? It’s my blood they wanted, since they can’t have my mother.” A deep, bitter laugh. “The sins of the parents…”
Shiro didn’t explain much about the blood sacrifice, but apparently telling Keith about the connection between that and the thieving of the blades was enough for him to understand. “It’s not your fault,” Shiro repeats, thigens his grip. “I’m the one who kept the blade.”
Keith looks at him. “Why haven’t you tell me?”
“You never said anything about it, so I guessed you didn’t remember it, or it wasn’t yours.”
“But you kept it.”
“I did.” Shiro smiles. “The day of the ceremony… it was the first time I brought it with me. It was usually hidden in my drawer. I guess now it was the reason the pirates found it.”
“Why?”
“Maybe… I wanted you with me during the ceremony, somehow.”
They look at each other. “Shiro,” Keith whispers, and he leans a little towards him, his hand places on Shiro’s knee.
Their face are so near they look they’re about to kiss.
And in that moment, the ship trembles and the rumor of an explosion arrives at their ears. They break the eyes contact and looks at the door. They run on the desk.
“Allura,” Keith calls. “What’s happening?”
“They’re following us,” the woman with the white hair answers. “And they may reach us very soon.”
Shiro watches over the parapet: the Black Lion is on sight, the canons already out and shooting in their direction; even if they’re still too far to be hit, the shockwave of the explosions are enough to disturb the ship’s movement.
“Red should be faster!” Keith exclaims.
“It should,” Allura murmurs. “But unfortunately in this area of space the Black Lion, with his three sails, has an advantage on us.”
Keith grits his teeth. “Then we should stop and fight. They’ll never let us go.”
“They’re immortal,” Allura reminds him.
“They can be killed,” Shiro intervenes, and the two of them turn to look surprised at him. “I’ve killed some of them back at the Island. I took the idea from the pictures on the temple there, the ones where jaguars are killed.”
“Jaguars are a symbol of evil in my culture, but I never associated it with the pirates.” Allura sounds truly impressed. “How did you do?”
“Fire is their weakness,” he says. “But to be honest, I didn’t know if it’s just the fire or the entire process. On the island, the pictures show the jaguars tied up on rocks as they are burned, so I did the same. I guess you don’t have rocks on the ship, do you?”
“Unfortunately no,” Allura nods. “We may try to prepare as much as we can so weapons that use fire, but to be honest I think the best way for us is to escape. Using fire on this kind of ship may be too much dangerous and it could backfire.”
“But-” Keith tries to protest. “This may be our chance! They know Shiro knows, but they probably haven’t the time to prepare some countermeasures.”
They turn their head at Shiro, asking him to tip the balance. He sighs and places a hand on Keith. “You’re right about it, but if the right way to kill them is with the rocks, we won’t have any chances. And we’re weaker than them, since we’re few people here. At this point, it’s better if we escape and bring this information to the Garrison. They’ll have the means to use this knowledge to prepare an attack to wipe out those pirates once and for all.”
Keith turns his head away. “Fine.”
“It’s decided, then.” Allura nods. “Keith, you’re the best pilot out of us, go take Acxa’s place. You may be able to make Red go faster and take routes the Black Lion can’t follow us. In the meantime…” she turns towards the main deck, where the other girl are waiting for orders, “everybody, take your weapons and get ready to fight back!”
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