Fractured: Voltron

The meeting

Vrall was near now; about twenty doboshes away. The black paladin was glancing back at the two in the back who had shifted around slightly, but it seemed the smaller figure never took their masked face off him. It made him tremor slightly and feel that icy feeling again.
They had to round a large gaseous planet that was in the solar system of Vrall, called Daelibu. It had a mostly calming blue exterior, with large gaping holes down deep into the planets surface.
"Ah, I wouldn't mind taking a detour on that planet some day. I bet some cute mermaids are on their again..." Lance said in his casual flirt voice. Keith rolled his eyes and said simply
"Didn't you and Hunk nearly get mind controlled there? And almost die?"
Hunk responded over the com loudly, oblivious to lances face of anger at Keith's implication.
"Hehe oh yeah! It was pretty terrifying. A giant work thing nearly killed us and a whole garden cane to life, oh man yeah that was bad."
Keith looked down at Lance with waist appeared to be a smile at Lances upset face.
"Shut up I bet their is someone on that planet that's better than trapped with all of you downers."
Pidge spoke up finally, telling them all straight.
"It may look like a gem Lance but I promise it's not. It's not ocean it's pressurized gas that would crush our bodies to bits!"
They all stayed silent in contemplation.
As the rounded the planets massive exterior, the lions didn't get pulled by the force of gravity, something that garnered the attention of the first kidnappers.
"Incredible... bearing a planet that large and the lion doesn't even feel a tug."
Shiro turned around to see the figure had finally tore their gaze from him and was staring out the window. It reminded me of how Pidge always looked oogling technology.
It was almost strange how similar.
"You a fan of the lions I suppose? I mean, you did take one..." Shiro said, wondering if the first or second prisoner would speak at all to this statement.
It was the second.
"Eh, I says they could be overrated." The first prisoner snorted slightly, a bitterness to their tone.
"I'd say so too..."
Shiro scowled at them but knew arguing with them wouldn't be a very civil thing to do, so he continued.
The group went silent again until Allura perked from her chair and said into the com,
"All of you, check your screens I am picking up a large object coming near."
"Galra?"
"How did they get near here? We have Coran and rebels watching over the planet for hundreds of kilometers back..."
"It's something on par with Galra but not coming up as one. It looks...spiky?"
At that drop of words, the two passengers sat up completely, one of them saying rapidly,
"Spikes you said?!"
"What do the spikes look like." Said the first passenger, a furious tone to their voice they didn't attempt to control.
"A Galra cruiser with eight spikes coming off the sides. What did you... bring them here?"
Shiro said the sentence as calmly and evenly as possible, but he was a thousand times more afraid of what this thing could be he didn't care if they knew what he thought of them.
"No no no we've been chased by them, we must go now, to the safest planet far far far away from here and then discuss this all. With them on our tail we will never escape here Alive!" The person who was usually remarkably composed for a criminal in cuffs but now seemed very open about how afraid this ship made them.
"It's just a strange Galra ship we can deal with it!" Lance yelled over the com.
"No you two take their ship a safe distance away. The rest of us will deal with the ship. Shiro said back in the com.
"Shiro are you sure? This ship is massive we need all the help we can get-" Allura tried to finish her sentence but Shiro cut her off.
"Not now Allura."
The ship stopped and hovered by the planet. The spikes along its sides began to hum and glow that dim purple lightning that was spread across galaxies. They shifted and pointed at the lions.
"Ready yourselves..."
As that was said, they all braced themselves for cannons or projectiles to be shot at them. Instead, an object about 1/5 the size of the spikes ship shot around from view. It was nearly invisible by the speed it was going at, and flew along the side of the blue lion.
"Did you see that?? Something flew past me-"
The Altean princess shrieked into the com as it crackled and went dead.
The monitor lost the signal of the blue lion.
"Allura!!" Lances voice cut through the air as he dropped his section of the ship he was holding to see what happened to the blue lion. Shiro turned black's head and saw the blue lions eyes no longer shining, and half of its upper body was encased in ice.
"WHAT THE F-"
Pidge and Matt shouted into the com when the green lion went out.
Shiro panicked and spun his lion around completely, seeing the lions still upright were thrashing around, straining to see their attacker.
The green lion was wiggling, attempting to untangle itself from....vines?
The green lions vines.
"Avoid the smaller ships! I think they're getting the lions defensive s to attack themselves!" Shiro shouted into the com.
He flew black over to the blue lion; grasping it with the massive paws of his ship and taking the frozen lion as far away from the battle as he could.
"Shiro! Where are you going w-we need you!"
Lance shouted from the red lion as it weaves away from the barrage of ships that were now surrounding it.
Shiro hated leaving them but he knew he needed to get the princess as far from this battle as possible.
She could be hurt.. he thought.
But what about Pidge and Matt? Are they worth less to you than Allura?
He chided himself, but knew he couldn't go back. He couldn't bring blue back into the middle of canon fire but he also couldn't leave a defenseless frozen lion floating through space. It would become a misshapen comet.
He looked back to see hunk push the ship away from his claws, watching it spiral away and hit an asteroid with a sickening crunch. It then began to drift by a planet in the distance. Most likely going to crash there.
Hunk grasped the green lion in his claws and began to pull it away.
"Lance, Keith- you two have to deal with this for a bit alone I need to get Pidge away from here!"
"We're not exactly a one-man voltron as much as I'd like that since your all just going to leav-" Lance didn't get to finish his sentence as the spikes on the largest ship were engulfed in bright light; as the light grew lines of purple began cross-crossing and consuming the space around them. It was making multiple white swirling planes. It made two, which became a more violent and massive.
One of them pulled the yellow and green lion in along with the destroyed ship which didn't get far enough from the rest of them to escape capture.
The red lion was swiftly pulled away as an explosion went off near it.
The screams from the paladins in the yellow and red lions were swiftly cut off from the coms.
Shiro watched in horror, his team who he protected and leaded were gone. The white planes that absorbed his friends also winked from existence.
The usually composed black paladin was fuming; he knew he wanted to avenge his friends, and went through all the scenarios:
The jaw blade or wings or something; I have to take them out they could have just killed all of them.
Then he heard the blue paladin come back on the com system and heard the faint and distressed breaths of Allura who was both freezing and hurt.
He knew he had to save her, at least.
They can't be gone and I know it...
But you can't let them take anymore.
He frantically pulled the blue lion farther and farther from the larger ship which seemed to have lost power from the spikes making those portals.
He tried to contact the castle of lions and Coran. It was interfered by the larger ship; explaining why Coran couldn't find them or come to their aid.
He finally got far enough from them and close enough to Vrall to get out a message. It would be terrible quality but Coran didn't need a nice message to know they were in trouble.
"Coran, the paladins and I were ambushed on our way back by what appeared to be Galra... they...took the other Paladins and lions away into these portals. I have Allura and the two kidnappers but she's hurt, and blue is damaged. Evacuate Vrall before they reach us.
I'm so sorry..."
The black paladin felt a pain in his heart he hadn't felt so strongly. Seeing the other Paladins in trouble or pain was always agonizing; but he always saw them turn out fine and overcome it all on their own or with each other's help. They have been hurt and taken into portals but always got back.
But this time...
Their screams of terror just taken away once they went through the portal, the way the lions own defenses was used against it, and how the affected lions were so...lifeless...
It made Shiro feel a sadness he hadn't felt in over a year. The feeling of seeing people you care about taken away and your forced to watch. This time though he couldn't bravely step in, couldn't take anyone's place; couldn't use his bigger lion to protect those smaller.
He was alone.
"Shiro...the..the others..." Allura said weakly on the other com.
"They're gone... but we'll get them back. Don't lose hope."
Despite saying it in his authoritative tone, he knew he was lying to himself. He felt a tear well up in his eye and kept his eyes focused ahead. He knew he had to be brave for Allura and all of the universe; say the other Paladins aren't found.
They will be.
They have to be.
They saved you... you have to find them. They have each other. If Allura can't lose hope don't you lose it too.
The black paladin closed his eyes for a long minute while trying to will himself to take his own advice, and to grasp onto the hope he had that was rapidly slipping away.
He was snapped from this state when he heard a faint crying behind him.
He spun around to look back at the prisoners; so caught up in his thoughts he forgot they were there with him.
They were cradling each other, one whimpering slightly while the other held them tighter. They were awkwardly place, the restraints in their hand restricting movements so they had to hold each other while still being pulled apart but the restraints.
It was a pitiful sight.
Shiro may have shared pain from the experience with them, but wasn't sure why they would feel it.
"You two... what happened here? How do you know that that ship was particularly dangerous?"
The smaller figure looked up. Their mask had sharp green lines painted on it, almost looking as if they were crying.
"We've been near it before, and we've seen this all before. Seen voltron pulled apart, the paladins scattered, captured or... otherwise. We wanted to stop this all, and we must move quickly, or they could be dea-"
Shiro cut them off with a question.
"What do you mean 'seen this all before?' What are you not telling me?"
The figure sat up as tall as they could with the restraints on.
"Don't you get it Shiro?"
They then used the base of their hand to push off their mask slightly.
It fell away and displayed his taken friend. His taken friend looking progressively more hardened.
"I came here because the same thing happened where I'm from. Now we must get to the castle, or the whole universe or many others will live under the Galra for the rest of time."