Love is Weak

Chapter 11 - Blackout

Keith

"We've gotta act fast. The power will only be down for twenty minutes. The Blade of Marmora's schematics showed four targets we need to hit. The weapons systems, the engines, the bridge, and the shield generators. Now, let's put an end to Zarkon once and for all," Shiro said.

With a rush of adrenaline we all shouted, "Yeah!"

"Form sword!" Shiro instructed, and that was my cue to insert my weapon into the bayard-port which would, in turn, form the sword.

Once it was summoned, we went for the weapons systems first and cut a nice clean line through Zarkon's ship. The section exploded, and we made our way to the engine systems. We sliced through that region of the ship and it exploded too.

"All right, stay focused. We've neutralised the engines. Let's target the bridge," Shiro said, and I fell into the false hope that we were about to win.

Suddenly, a purplish area appeared underneath Zarkon's ship.

"What is that?" Lance asked.

"Oh, no," I heard Kolivan say in slight alarm.

Lillian screamed, "No!" just as a blast hit us. I could feel the life being pulled out of me, and I screamed along with the other Paladins and Lillian, who had fallen to the floor of my Lion.

Then, everything went black.

Lillian

"Paladins! Can you hear me?" Coran asked. I saw his face pop up on a screen in the Red Lion, and realised I had been passed out on the floor. I tried to stand, to see what happened, but then I remembered. I looked at Keith, and immediately got nervous. He was unconscious in his seat, his head slammed backwards into the chair and turned upwards.

"Paladins! Shiro! Can you hear me?" Allura shouted through the communications link.

There was static and then Shiro responded, "Yes, Princess. We're alive."

"Oh, thank the ancients!" Coran said with relief.

"Is Voltron operational?" Allura asked.

"It's not working," Hunk said weakly.

"And Keith's down," I reported with a cough.

"What?" Shiro asked with a start, his face popping up on the screen in front of the Red Lion.

"It looks like he's had a concussion. He could be out for a while." I examined his face, and pulled up a screen to measure his biorhythms. "He looks fine otherwise."

"You've been hit with some kind of witchcraft that draws the quintessence out of you. You need to get out of there! Another blast like that and you may not survive!" Coran said.

"Komar," I agreed. "It does that sometimes."

"Wait. What's that?" Lance asked.

I turned my head and looked through the Red Lion's windows. A bay door was opening on Zarkon's ship and something was flying out of it. It looked very big and very evil.

Shiro gasped. "It's Zarkon."

"We must buy them more time," Allura said, and that was all I caught before I turned back to Keith and took his helmet off. I attempted to lightly slap the side of his cheek to wake him, but then I realised that even with a concussion, he wouldn't be able to successfully pilot his lion. I would have to take it.