Shiro knew that going on the Kerberos mission would be long and possibly dangerous. She had anticipated since day one, but never could she have anticipated being imprisoned by aliens.
It’s not to say she hadn’t thought of it. In fact she would often joke about it with Matt during the mission. The universe was a wide and vast place where anything was possible and the concept of aliens was nothing new.
However the reality of it was different from what any of the movies or cartoons on earth had ever portrayed.
Soon after being taken onto their ship, Shiro was separated from the Holts to be brought into what she assumed was the women’s prison, although seeing all the variations of the different alien species, she couldn’t be sure.
Somehow she was able to talk with the other alien species, and they explained to her what was going on.
Hearing the story of the Galra and their terrifying Emperor Zarkon, Shiro felt sick in her stomach, becoming worried for Earth. Shortly after being brought to the prison cell, maybe a day at most, Shiro and some other prisoners were taken to what the Galra soldiers called the arena. She didn’t like the sound of that at all.
She was briefly reunited with Matt who explained that his father had been sent to a labour camp somewhere. This is when they both realised that the arena the Galra soldiers had taken them to was where they were expected to fight to the death, gladiator style.
Despite her soft curves and elegant posture, Shiro was athletic and fit, able to put up a fight with men twice her strength thanks to her intense training at the Garrison. She wasn’t worried about herself, but for Matt, who had very little fighting experience. Knowing that he wouldn’t last against the monstrous being that was Myzax, Shiro wounded him, faking a bloodthirsty act so that she would be chosen to fight Myzax instead of him. Not only that, but she hoped that the injury would send him to a labour camp where he would have a better chance of survival than here.
The fight with Myzax was gruelling, not to mention that the noises the audience made rang in her skull painfully as she tried to concentrate on the battle. She could tell that the Galra audience expected her to lose but after finding out the pattern of Myzax’s weapon, she was able to use it to her advantage to knock him out.
Silence had fallen on the arena as Myzax collapsed and didn’t get back up.
Then the Galra cheered loudly at their new Champion, who was barely standing on her legs, breathing heavily.
She was brought out of the arena and hosed down with freezing water before being brought back to her cell.
For the next few weeks, the pattern continued.
Fight, hosed down, food, sleep, fight, hosed down, food, sleep and so on.
Every fight brought a new enemy as different and monstrous as the last. Some fights lasted minutes while some felt like hours. Still, she fell into a pattern.
Time was difficult to calculate. The Galra soldiers used foreign language like ‘ticks’ and ‘vargas’ to tell the time. Shiro could only guess what they meant. However after what she assumed was a month after being taken into captivity, she was taken to a different part of the ship. There she met the Druids and their high priestess Haggar.
They spoke of Shiro as if she was only an object to be observed and experimented on, making the woman nervous as to what they were planning on doing to her. Haggar became particularly interested in her right arm, prodding at it continuously, hard enough for it to hurt.
“You have been sluggish in your most recent battles.” Haggar spoke to her directly in her whispery voice, startling her. It was true that she hadn’t been feeling in top form, most likely due to her muscular disease she had been dealing with back on Earth. “Explain.” Shiro hesitated for a second before starting to talk.