Chapter 54: The Truth (Pidge's POV)

Pidge walks with the Olkarian scientist. She has so many questions to ask him, but how will he take it. She looks back at Lance who seems to be eying the Olkarian suspicious. And she doesn't blame him, after the way Snivus talked about using them to free the comet.

"So….Why do you hate the Dragons of Altea?" Pidge asks.

Because from what she saw from Akira and Prince Shiran they seemed to be a fine group of Alteans. But it's strange that they hadn't learned of the group beforehand. Or that the Blades didn't mention them.

"Sadly that part of our history is shrouded in darkness. The truth clouded in mystery as we continue to war with the Dragons, fighting over nothing."

Pidge looks up at him in curiosity, "What do you mean?"

"I mean youngling is that part of our history is forbidden to study, even by powerful scientists like myself. As the King of the Olkarians, Lubos, claims to know how that happened, and we should only need his words on the matter. But it is hard, just listening to the words of the King who makes the Dragons the bad guys in every tale, while the Dragons claim the opposite."

Lance rolls his eyes, "Your Commander forced us to go with you and so did you. So don't claim that it's hard having the Dragon's call you the bad guys."

Snivus glares at Lance. "We are not the bad guy's. I simply want to study the knowledge of how the Galra destroyed our planet and why they did it. As their records were destroyed once King Lubos decimated their planet."

Pidge nods, but not fully trusting the Olakrian's words. Hopefully they could find Akira and Shiran and have them explain everything. As Lance is right they did force them to go to the comet.

And that Commander Kithren did seem to hate humans. By the way she sneered at them when mentioning their race.

Snvius leads them to a place in the ship that has a glass wall. Inside of it is the comet. It is black but has blue gems glowing from it. It looks magnificent. Even though it was fairly large in size, Pidge wonders how such a comet can create five lions. It seems impossible.

And how could the comet give life to the ships someone creates out of it? Make the ships have a consciousness of their own?

"Remarkable isn't it. Although the first comet was bigger, if King Lubos's memory serves with your lions you could help me get it out."

"No way! We have no idea about this war you've been going through with the Dragons of Altea!" Lance shouts, furious.

And Pidge can't blame him. She doesn't trust Snvius and that Commander anymore than the Galra of her…Wait did he just say a few seconds ago that the Galra were destroyed and that the Olkarians were responsible?! Slav must be right. There are Alternate Realities. But the ship…The rift, the rift must've created a gateway to another reality that isn't our own!

Which means here that the Alteans weren't destroyed and that's why they picked up life signals after entering the rift!

And somehow the Olkarians are the bad guys. Because they destroyed the Galra.

"What's wrong human girl?" Snvius asks.

Pidge suddenly becomes more frightened of Snivus. As he is basically holding them hostage while Marinette and Allura are alone with that Commander. An Alternate reality explains why King Lubos is still mentioned(how had she not noticed that little detail earlier when Snvius was talking?) and why Akira and Shiran look so much like Keith and Shiro.

"Are you afraid that the Olkari are going to use the Comet for evil purposes? Well that's simply not true human girl. The Dragon's of Altea are the bad guys, not us. We took justice by destroying the Galran race along with their home. The only thing we regret is not finding those blasted Dragon ships."

Pidge looks at Snvius as he tries to calm down through breathing. As if he's trying to not let his rage get the best of him. Or trying not to reveal his true colors to them.

"Prince Shiran!" the echoed yell comes before the Prince falls out of the vent and onto Snvius.

"Akira.." seethes Shiran, "Why didn't you tell me that there was a vent hole here!"

She looks at the Prince more closely. He wears a black furred cape, with the inside being white. The cape is attached to Shiran's clothes through gold buttons. The shirt is gray and has a white dragon in the center of it. His pants are dark grey with white wavy lines along the cuffs. His boots are pure black.

Akira's head dangles outside the vent upside down.

"Sorry Shiran. I tried to warn you, but you were too caught up in the legacy of Queen Allura."

"I was not!" Shiran retorts, now off the floor and standing.

"You were too! And you say I'm the one with relative issues."

Hunk says, "This isn't the time to be fighting. Marinette and Allura have been taken by this Olkari Commandr girl who we think is evil.." He trails off looking at us to support his comment. Pidge nods and so does Lance.

"Olkarians are on this ship!" Shiran exclaims, turning to look at us in shock.

"Akira you said that the Olkari weren't aware of the comet!"

Akira drops down from the vent, and puts his hand on his hips. "I said there was a fifty percent chance they knew of the second comet being aboard this Altean ship."

Bewildered at the twos banter with each other, because honestly they act like brothers. Except it seems that Akira is the smart one. Odd considering Keith in their team wasn't very smart, and was more ragy like Shiran. Anyways she says, "Can you tell us how exactly the Olkari lost their planet and destroyed the Galra as a whole?"

Shiran grumbles, but Akira raises his eyes wide, "You mean you don't know the story? Every planet known knows about the war. Regardless of which tale. And humans are often on either side of the conflict. So I'm surprised you aren't involved at all, as you know nothing about how the conflict started. "

Pidge replies, "We're from an Alternate Reality where the Galra have taken over the Galaxy and where they wiped out the Alteans. Although Allura never told us how that exactly happened. And instead of Dragon ships, Lion ships are what the universe's only hope is."

Akira smiles, "Interesting. Which must mean that Allura girl is a version of Queen Allura."

Lance glares at her, "Why did you tell them that! I mean we all felt comfortable about them because they look like Keith and Shiro. But they could be the enemy!"

"Because I believe we can trust them. Besides Shiran is related to a version of Allura. And I know Allura would try to do what's right in every reality she's in."

Shiran sighs. "Fine, I'll tell you how it happened."

Akira raises his eyebrows, "You sure. You've never talked to anyone about Allura's legacy, especially since you feel you have to live up to her legacy and be like her. Which makes you hate her for how she has lived on as the greatest queen in Altean history."

The Prince glares at Akira and grumbles, "That was supposed to be our secret.."

"Because if got out that Prince Shiran, the seventh prince since this war started with Queen Allura, who was a princess at the time and her father King Alfor, hated the Great Queen of old, you would never feel safe in the Palace or on Altea. And everyone would resent you for hating the Queen because her legacy is like a burden to you. I get it."

"That sums it up," Shiran mutters. Looking a little dejected that Akira shared with her, Lance and Hunk how he felt about his relative.

"Anyways go on and tell them." Akira says, unbothered by Shiran's sad mood.

"Fine. It started when the Galra and the Olkari were having a peace meeting. Talking about how Princess Ryner and Prince Lotor would unite the two races in marriage. But it got interrupted by the arrival of a comet which crash landed. The Galra took the comet as they weren't interested in studying the rift, but one woman was. Her name was Falla, and she was interested in science and building. Whereas most Galrans preferred practicing different kinds of combat in order to gain an advantage in battle as they could easily adapt to their opponents battle style. As the years passed the rift grew in power and unleashed rift monsters. Emperor Zarkon beforehand tried to reason with King Lubos and Falla, his most valued scientist, that the rift was making the Olkari weak. As even Emperor Zarkon realized what the rift was doing to the planet the Olkarians inhabited as the planet's trees began to wither away."

"The Dragons that Emperor Zarkon completed were ready to help against the Rift Monsters. They battled them, and defeated them. But the rift stayed open, against Emperor Zarkon's protests. Eventually he told Alfor of the situation. And Alfor came to the same conclusion as Zarkon, the rift must be closed.."

"And then Lubos's new wife, Falla, as his old wife died when Princess Ryner was young, she became pregnant. But during the pregnancy she became terminally ill and Lubos decided the best way to get Emperor Zarkon to help with his dragons was to pretend to close the rift. Leading him to go into the rift with the Rift Monsters. They attacked Lubos and his wife and they went into a comatose state. The whole planet thought they were dead and mourned for them. But the Rift was making Olkari unstable and the only way to save it's people was to put them on spaceships and the planet Olakri was destroyed."

Shiran glares at Akira who had interrupted him and continues, "A few days later Lubos came back to life, corrupted and he had a new right hand. Some hooded figure called Megar. They thought the Galra had destroyed the planet and took revenge. Instead of using the dragons to fight or call Altea for help, Emperor Zarkon hid them and there are rumors he hid Prince Lotor as well. As the Galra took the idea of the cryopods from us to better their ships' healing systems. Outraged by the attak King Alfor waged war with the Olkari, but because both races are excellent builders the war is at a standstill everytime. Queen Allura though, managed to in her lifetime when she ascended to the throne, she, she managed to make the Olkari lose most of their supporters and allies. Every ruler after that hasn't been able to push the Olkari back further. And she also established the military called the Dragons of Altea, an elite fighting force, who in memory of the Galra practice every fighting style the Altean people and their allies know."

Akra pipes up, "Which is why Shiran hates Queen Allura, as she managed to get us this far in the war, yet none of her successors have been able to end it or make anything that compares to the Dragons of Altea. Which is why we're searching for the dragon ships Zarkon hid. It's amazing they haven't been found yet."

Pidge absorbs the huge amount of information. It's so bizarre that the Galra would be more interested in the comet than the rift and the Olkari more interested in the rift then the comet. Didn't they think that the comet would make excellent ship building material? So many things that seem out of place. But this is an alternate reality Pidge reminds herself.

So some things are going to be different than how their universe works.

"That'a lot."

Akira smirks, "Tell me about it! We have to learn the history of the war in school and it takes much longer than this to go through everything that's happened in the beginning stages and what happened during Queen Allura's reign."

Lance shakes his head, "This doesn't matter, talking about the differences, what matters is saving Marinette and Allura!"

Shiran nods, "I agree, but Akira loves war history, especially since war is when the Alteans build the most inventions at a time. Which is why he interrupted me, even though I was supposed to tell the story."

The red haired Altean just smiles and isn't bothered by Shiran's comment and his glare.

"You guys should pretend that you captured us when that Olkarian wakes up and take us as prisoners to the Commander and then we can turn on them."

Pidge nods, "I like that idea Akira."

Lance sighs, "Fine I'll trust you two. As that plan seems like it could really work if the Olkari aren't smart enough to figure it out."

This time Shiran smiles, making him lose his serious attitude he was going for earlier, "Trust me, the Olkari are only smart at building things, not war strategy. As we win almost every fight expect when a new toy they make comes into play."

Lance puts his hands up in surrender, "I'll take your word for it."

"Now get some rope and tie us up, that Olkari won't be out for much longer."

Marinette's POV

Marinette looks out of the window. Still not believing Commander Kithren's attempts to get them on her side and help her out. It bugs her not being able to do anything, but Olkarins are master builders and they could have anything for two people thinking of taking them on.

The door to the bridge opens and to her surprise Akira and Shiran are in ropes. Lance, Hunk and Pidge walk the prisoners forward with blank expressions, Snivus is grinning. His smile is wide and dopey, like he accomplished something great by capturing those two.

"Commander, we found these two Dragons aboard the ship. One of them is the Prince of Altea while the other is some tech person." Snivus tells Kithren.

Akira protests, "Just some tech person! I'm with the Prince, so I'll have you know I'm more than just some random tech person!"

Snivus kicks Akira in the ribs, "You're our prisoner now, dragon. So only speak when spoken to."

Commander Kithren looks at Snvius and nods approvingly.

And then Pidge gets her bayard out and Shiran and Akira break free from their bands. Akira grabs a white knife from his belt and it turns into a sword. The hilt has some kind of light blue Altean marking she notices as Akira goes into a fighting stance.

Shiran just throws his cape off and gets ready to fight with his hands. Lance and Hunk also get their bayards out. Coming to the conclusion that her team wants to fight these Olkarians, Marinette yells, "Tikki Spot's On!"

Transforming her into Ladybug, but she forgets to put her armor overtop, so now she's just in her spandex suit.

She swings her yo-yo for defense as the Alteans use their guns to blast lasers at the team of seven. She binds two Alteans with her yo-yo and slams them into the floor by yanking the yo-yo down. She grabs blasters and breaks them by snapping it with a knee kick and defends herself with her yo-yo. Not paying attention to the others, except on the Olkarian in front of her, Marinette swings her yo-yo and grabs ahold of the blaster.

"Look Out!" cries Akira, which makes her stunned. Why would Akira yell for her to look out?

And then someone pushes her, "Argh!" That person who pushed her cries out. It takes her a few moments to realize what happened. And when she does, it's too late. Akira lay on the floor, his white clothes stained with blood from where he was shot.

Marinette crumples to the floor in shock, tears fall from her eyes as she bends her face closer to the ground. It was her fault, not paying attention to the battle. Then again akumas don't cause this type of damage. And that battle style experience caused Akira to be wounded, because Marinette wasn't alert of all the enemies around her. Because in this war, enemies in battles can actually hurt you.

The rest of the fighting goes on, but Marinette doesn't hear that, instead she hears buzzing.

Akira breaks her thoughts, "It was..n't your…fault..I chose…to…take..the..blast."

Marinette looks at him, her vision blurry because tears are still coming out of her eyes. Akira grunts in pain, closing his eyes. Frantically she looks at the battle that is still commencing. No one seems to notice that Akira is wounded.

She stands up. "Lucky Charm!" She hopes it can help. Dropping from the sky are ladybug colored bandages. Quickly she tries to wrap them around the wound where Akira is shot, right near the heart. But Akira's moans and grunts of pain make her stop for a little while.

The buzzing in ears become louder as she desperately tried to tie the bandages without hurting Akira.

But it doesn't work. She's too late. His chest stops moving and Marinette knows he's dead. He died because of her, just like Thace. Tears begin to fall from her face again, and it turns into sobbing quickly.

Author's Note: I did promise a long chapter. The part where the comet is stolen will be the next chapter as I think this chapter is long enough as it is. Also Akira dies! Which is sad, but I think it adds that in war there is death. And yes there will be some trauma after this(as a Keith look-a-like died. The Team is definitely going to feel some angst and sadness after that). Although I hoped you enjoyed this chapter:)