A Cloned Heart is still a Heart

Chapter 1

Holy crap this took FOREVER to write, and it definitely ended up MUCH longer than I wanted, but, here it is!

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The entirety of the ship was flashing red in warning as Coran ran around the front frantically, checking all the vital parts of the engine and yelling out a checklist of everything currently going wrong, making sure everybody in the ship was aware of exactly how screwed they were. All around them were the neon colors of the wormhole, which also seemed to be collapsing in on itself as the ship neared its destination.

"Princess, I'm afraid we're headed for a crash landing!" Coran shouted in distress. Allura gritted her teeth and kept her cool, even as she stumbled from the rough shaking of the ship. Everyone else was holding onto something as they braced themselves for impact with looks of nervousness and shock at what had just happened. Only Shiro's face was neutral as the ship exited the wormhole, plummeting straight towards the rocky surface of the planet below.

Shouts of panic rose throughout the ship as they crashed, sending everybody flying despite holding onto stuff. Shiro's prosthetic arm grabbed onto a nearby railing, holding him in place as he watched the disaster unfold within the ship. Pidge was sent tumbling after her equipment, but a crash into Hunk's stomach broke her fall and sent him rolling straight into a wall. Keith cried out in alarm, but his arm was grabbed by Lance, who pulled him close to him, resulting in Keith looking away. Shiro took note of all of this as they fell. He needed all the new information he could get, after all, in order to do his job.

Things slowly began calming down as they all regained their composure from the rough impact, except for Hunk, who screamed for a good half-a-dobosh after the fall had already finished. Pidge nudged him, getting him to calm down as Allura shakily stood from where she was on the ground with Coran's help.

"What happened back there? How did Lotor know where to shoot at us?!" She exclaimed, a look of disbelief on her face. Hunk gulped as he rose his hand.

"Uh, yeah, that planet should've been completely hidden from his radar! Shiro, you said so yourself that there was no way the Galra detectors would be able to find us there!" Pidge stood up to pitch in.

"Hunk and I even did a test scan, we should've been completely invisible!" Shiro put a hand on his chin and looked into the distance to look like he was thinking it over. Obviously, this was just an act. He knew exactly how it'd happened.

"I don't know. There's a lot that Lotor does that doesn't make sense." Except to me. "For now, we need to focus on getting the castle of lions up and working again. Coran, how long do you think that'll take?" Shiro asked. Coran typed some stuff into the front of the ship.

"I don't know. I'll have to take a look at the engine, but I'd say it's gonna be at least a quintant even if Pidge and Hunk both help me fix the damage we took from Lotor's surprise attack." Shiro nodded.

"Then you'd better get started on it now. The rest of the team should focus on resting up. Objections?" His gaze rested on Keith, who just seemed to melt under Shiro's gaze and nod. The so-called leader was being surprisingly quiet as everybody went their separate ways on the castle to do their jobs. Keith wriggled out of Lance's arms, which still held him, and walked off to his room. Shiro's gaze followed him for a while. The fact that he wasn't objecting was making it a lot easier for Shiro to manipulate the team's actions, but it did spike his interest as to why Keith was acting this way. A quick search through Takashi Shirogane's memories told him that he was most likely being angsty and doubting himself and thus just wanted to isolate himself to mope, and that the most Shiro-like option was for him to seek him out and comfort him.