Becoming Human (A Voltron Fanfic)

Back On Your Feet

*Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Whrrr, hsss, chlnk, whrrr.*

Those noises...what are they?...They sound...so..far...away. Where am I...who am I? Wait...I think I...remember. Everything is fuzzy...I can't...focus...Am I...asleep? No...wait. I think I hear voices...why can I not open my eyes? Hrngh...come on...wake...up!

"Whoah!" exclaimed a mix of voices.

Korrin was sitting bolt upright, and put a hand to her throbbing head, blinking several times to get her eyes and vision to focus. Looking up, she saw familiar group of four people standing back, staring at her with shocked expressions.

"You...guys..." she shook her head lightly trying to remember how she got there. "Where...? How...?"

"Do you remember anything?"

Korrin recognized Pidge's voice. "Not really...the last thing I remember was fighting Molnea and..." she trailed off, everything starting to come back to her; recalling that she had told the paladins to flee so she could destroy the her rampaging opponent.

"You mean you don't remember dying?" Lance asked, eyebrow raised. "Ach--!"Keith elbowed him sharply.

Korrin's eyes went wide as she stared at the paladins. "So I really did...die...But then how...?"

She moved to swing her legs off the side of the table when immediately the paladins cumulatively shouted "No!" and rushed over to stop her.

"The hell are you guys doing?" Korrin asked, annoyed at the sudden crowding. "Let me up."

"Not so fast," said Keith. "You need to know some things first..."

"Like half your body is missing."

"Lance!!" the others shouted at him.

The blue paladin put his hands on his hips and frowned, "What? It's the truth!"

"You don't need to be an insensitive dick about it, though!" Keith snapped.

"Can't you see she's having a hard enough time adjusting?" Pidge added.

"Can everyone just shut up for a moment!" Korrin yelled, placing her fingertips on her temples. The arguing was overstimulating her brain. The four paladins closed their mouths and turned back to her. She took a deep breath and placed her hand on the blanket that covered her from the hips down. Part of her hoped that they were all lying, but when she pulled it back, she found they weren't. Instead of normal, human limbs, Korrin was now outfitted with two prosthetic legs, similar to the make of Shiro's arm. She heard the paladins all hold their breath as she struggled to stand up. Immediately, she began to wobble and nearly collapsed onto the floor had Hunk and Keith not supported her on either of her sides.

"Don't rush it," said the yellow paladin. "It will take time to adjust to these."

Sighing, Korrin sat back down on the table, suddenly wanting them all to leave.. "Can I just be left alone right now, guys?" They all nodded and filed out of the room, all except Pidge. She closed the door and pulled up a chair in front of Korrin. Neither of them said anything for a few minutes. The soft humming of the machines was all they could hear until Pidge spoke.

"You probably have questions..."

Korrin scoffed lightly. "More than you know. But where do I start?"

"The beginning is a good place as any." When Korrin nodded, Pidge explained how Hunk and Keith had come across her body and how she had come across the blueprints they used for making others like Korrin.

"So you found their information on how to build...me...in a prison database?" Korrin asked. She thought it was a slightly odd place to keep secrets.

"In a way it makes sense, they have high security there. But even having your body and the means to...uh, get you to 'wake up'...it wasn't a guaranteed success. We were still trying to figure out how your body survived."

"Half my body," Korrin corrected. "Did you figure it out?"

Pidge half shrugged. "I mean, the only thing that we could come up with was it had to have something to do with your chest piece..."

Korrin instinctively looked down, having completely forgotten about that. It was still in place, the reddening of the surrounding skin from the implantation was less irritated and healing.

"How do you feel?" Pidge asked cautiously.

Korrin didn't respond right away. Her chest felt warm. But yet she was still concerned. To experience human emotion, she still had to rely on a piece of equipment.

"I...don't know..." she answered quietly. "I think I am still trying to figure things out. I want to feel all of these things...without this," she placed a hand over her chest.

Pidge felt sorry for Korrin. Even with the combined knowledge of the Galra blueprints with her own intellect, Pidge couldn't bring Korrin back without her artificial heart, as she called it.

"I wish I could have done more, Korrin."

"It's okay. You guys are busy trying to locate Zarkon, right?" The green paladin tensed, but nodded, seemingly wanting to avoid the topic of conversation.

"Is there anything I can do to help? We can worry about my issues later." The other girl refused to meet her gaze, rubbing the back of her neck. Korrin raised her eyebrows inquiringly. "Is everything okay?"

Pidge laughed nervously, waving her hand, wanting desperately to change the subject. "Yeah, of course! Everything is good, great actually! Zarkon has been defeated."

Korrin smiled, feeling elated. "That's good news. How long has it been since I..."

Pidge counted on her fingers. "Roughly, several weeks? Do you remember the events before you went supernova?"

Korrin nodded. "It's still a little hazy, but for the most part I remember..." She immediately locked eyes with Pidge, searching them. Had there been a reason why the Black Paladin wasn't with them when she woke up? "Where's Shiro?"

The green paladin felt her heart stop and she struggled to hold Korrin's gaze, until she couldn't. She looked away. "We...don't know..."

Korrin felt a pang of different emotions. Fear, anger, confusion. "What do you mean?"

"After we defeated Zarkon, the lions had all split from Voltron. Shiro wasn't inside the Black Lion...we only found his bayard."

Korrin was quiet, trying to keep her breathing steady. She remembered the paladins leaving as just before she had gone supernova...Shiro had called something out to her just before he left. Now she was here, and he wasn't. And she wouldn't get to ask him.

Clenching her hands into fists, Korrin then gripped the sides of the table, and with fierce determination, stood up. Pidge looked up, amazed.

Korrin fixed her fuchsia eyes on the green paladin. "Then let's go find him."