Sleeper agent or clone, the real Shiro is trapped and whether he’s in the astral plane or just buried deep within his own subconscious he needs help to get out but is unable to communicate with anyone. This has been going on for, what, months? Half a year? Longer? He’s been stuck alone all this time so can you image the hope he must’ve felt when he heard everyone calling out to him in a place where he can finally attempt to reach them?
I imagine too, it must have taken a great deal of mental strength to materialize here because, depending on the theory, he either had to fight Haggar’s power for control (thus causing the sleeper Shiro to black out) or he had to extend across planes of existence to reach them all in the space left empty by Kuron (due to him not having a close enough bond with Black to reach the plane). But, before he can say anything at all the team starts disappearing back to the physical world.
Lance is the last one left but when Shiro reaches out he sounds so faded like he’s calling out across multiple planes or perhaps from a very deep place in his own mind. Lance can’t even hear him and gets booted from the scene before he can learn anything about the situation, leaving Shiro again.
It makes me so sad to think Shiro only had that one glimmer of hope in months of darkness. And what makes it worse is that his motivation to communicate with the team is probably fueled more by his need to warn everyone about the situation rather than to save himself.
I had literally no reason to write this I’m just really emotional over Shiro and this scene makes me wanna cry because every time I see it and I just think about Shiro trapped and alone, desperately trying to get out.