The Forgotten Paladin

Chapter 5: Visions

Ever since I woke up in Aerus, my memory of my life has been all a blur. Every night My dreams are crowded by lost memories of my past. Usually I can overcome the thoughts but this time, my feelings drowned out all light in me. My throat aches with tears, my eyes burned for relief from sadness. Life weighed me down, regret filled the thoughts of my empty head. Sweat rolled over my trembling face as my eyes pierced the darkness with light. Death infiltrated the peace I had found to live in. Any way it could.

My room suffocating me as I wade through the thick, heavy air. My door slides open with a magical sound, I amble past the other paladins rooms, creaks sounding with every step. The castle settles in the new found surroundings. Thoughts of the endless space around us fill me but no longer fill me with fear. The door of the training deck welcomes me as I listen to the magical sounds once more, the air breathes into the empty room, my spear lights the path in my hand as the gladiator whirrs from the ground. Time passes and the memories still flood open into my head, the frustration shrouds me, eyes burning red, I continue to thrust my spear at the gladiator. Something clicks in me as I get thrown down to the floor, a memory, this one my own, lightning. Thunder. Clouds of black and red envelop my vision. A shocking sensation awakens a familiar feeling in my veins, but no memory of this feeling comes, just unknown.

Time passes by slowly, after what felt like days, I slumped to the floor, clutching my spear loosely. I let my gaze drift down to my weapon, it's... charred? I'm so tired and dazed that I can't even recognise how weird it is. I amble to the door, it whirrs open and a window gleams with sun. 

It's morning? 

I make my way to the voices echoing through the halls, another door whirrs open and I quickly stash my spear behind a pillar at the entrance. 

HUNK: "I can't tell if he's healthy... or not." 

PIDGE: "I think he's breathing weird." 

KEITH: "Oh come on!" He tried tapping the pod but is stopped by Allura.

ALLURA: "Not yet! Just a few more ticks."

KEITH: "How much better do you think he's going to get in a few more ticks?" 

PIDGE: "And what exactly is a tick?"

ALLURA: "You know, a time-slice."

SHIRO: "Like a second?"

ALLURA: "What is a sec-ond?" 

I can't help but laugh at their conversation, I'm still in the entrance of the door. I quickly flatten my crazy H/C hair and dust off my clothes before entering the room properly. 

They seem to be having a time contest by the time I get closer. I watch from the side, chuckling to myself, they're too competitive to notice that Lance is awake. I give him a hug, he smiles and wobbles over to the others.

LANCE: "You guys having a clock party?" 

HUNK: "Aw, Lance, you just ruined it. Uh- Hey Lance!" 

He grabs Lance and he groans in 'i just slept in a cryo pod for way too long' kind of pain. 

LANCE: "What happened?" 

ALLURA: "We can tell you all about it while you get something to eat. Are you able to walk?"

LANCE: "Talking, eating? Are you asking me out on a date?"

Allura is unimpressed and starts walking out of the room, I give Lance a whack on the head and help him walk out. 

PIDGE: "Yep. There he is."

SHIRO: "Yep, he's okay.

KEITH: "Classic." 

Hearing him speak making a fluttering feeling make it's way to my heart, my throat until I feel my face turns a shade of red, unlike any I've ever seen. I shake my head in hopes it would shake this odd feeling away.

LANCE: "You okay Y/N? You look a little red, maybe you need a turn in the cryo pod." We both laugh as we make our way to the kitchen. 

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ALLURA: "He'd be Sendak's prisoner, if not for Pidge." 

PIDGE: "Well, you wouldn't have survived the explosion if Hunk and Coran hadn't gotten a new crystal." 

LANCE: "Wow. Thanks everybody. Sounds like the mice did more than you, though."

KEITH: "I punched Sendak!"

LANCE: "Yeah, apparently after I emerged from a coma and shot his arm off."

KEITH: "We had a bonding moment! I cradled you in my arms!" 

LANCE: "Nope, don't remember it, didn't happen. So what happened to Sendak?"

ALLURA: "He's frozen in a cryo-pod. We're keeping him here in the castle." 

LANCE: "Are you sure that's a good idea?"

The rest of their conversation suddenly becomes inaudible, a wavering ring explodes in my ears. I want to plummet to the ground but my body is frozen. I feel a warmth crystalize over my weary eyes. 

My head pounds with thoughts racing through it, visions of people I once knew cloud over reality, after a while of memories of my own and other people's come and go, it finally stops on a woman. A gulran. I used to know her. But her name escapes my head. It's almost like my own memories are merged with another. I don't know who's it is, but  they seem familiar. Like I've met them before but know nothing about them. My vision clears and reality swims back, the ringing eases; my eyes finally see through the crystals that covered them. 

 PIDGE: "Wait, I have something to say first. I need to come clean and... I'm afraid this may change the way you all think about me. Just so there are no secrets between us anymore, I can't "man up"... I'm a girl."

The ringing continues to echo in and out, I can only hear part of what she's saying, I got the jist of it though. My head pounds a little, my eyes close, darkness overcomes my mind for a second. Once I fully come back to reality, I notice Shiro is looking directly at me. I look into his eyes and see he is annoyed? 

I don't understand...

Everyone else is laughing, Lance looks confused and Keith is...that's weird. He's not here. Well, everyone else seems to be normal, except Shiro. I look back at him and I see what he's thinking. I don't understand how but he's trying to get me to tell them about my background and where I grew up. I feel my thoughts become tangled, not in my own, in something else. I hear these voices, echoing with questions and answers. Pounding returns to my head as I clench my teeth and my fists, my eyes close and I feel my forehead tense. Once my mind is calm, I look back once more, I see the concerned look written on not only on Shiro's face, but on the figure who stares from his hiding place. Much like my own. Keith was there. 

Is anyone else getting Deja vu?  

I decide to follow after the others as they leave. 

PIDGE: "It's good to get that off my chest. Now let's launch this castle ship!"

LANCE: "Wait, what? Pidge is a girl and the castle is a ship? How long have I been out?" 

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I know that a lot of the same things repeat in this chapter but I'm trying to build a story, let you think about what could be happening. I hope you liked it anyway!