Chapter 55: Stolen Comet(Lance's POV)
Lance turns to smile at Marinette, but finds her laying down by Akira's body which is in a pool of blood. He walks towards her hearing her cry. Embracing her, Lance notices the others come towards them.
"Akira.." Shiran whispers. Lance looks at him, while still keeping his arms embraced around Marinette. Akira must have died to save her. But it isn't her fault, so why is she crying? Unless she's also thinking about how Thace sacrificed himself for her. But that wasn't Marinette's fault either.
"You guys take the comet and I'll deal with whoever shot Akira." says Shiran. Allura opens her mouth to protest, "Go. Your ships will be able to get the comet. And I shall bring these prisoners to Altea."
"At least let us help you." Allura says.
Shiran shakes his head, "You've done enough already. Besides, I need to take these prisoners soon before the other Olkarians find out about what happened."
Lance glares at the Altean prince. Shiran thinks they were the ones responsible for Akira's death. When Akira chose to fight the Olkari. It was his plan to fight the Olkari and make sure they never have the comet.
Allura looks a little hurt but gives in, "Fine. We'll take back to our reality to keep the Olkari from ever finding it."
Shiran picks up Akira and turns his back on them. Lance looks at Marinette, her face now peaceful and relaxed. She cried herself to sleep! But why? She hardly knew Akira. Unless….Akira must have saved her, and that's why there were red bandages that had black dots on them tied around Akira's chest.
Picking her up, Lance walks out of the room, not waiting for his teammates to catch up. As he didn't want them to see their leader get so grief torn over someone sacrificing themselves for her. She had acted a little differently after Thace died. Taking this war a little more seriously. But how would she react after waking up, knowing Akira died saving her.
He gets it. It took him a little while to get over Shiro's death. But their leader needs to be strong, otherwise the others might get discouraged. Shiro was great at being calm and cool under pressure. But Marinette isn't Shiro and isn't the leader Shiro is either.
Lance sighs, this isn't the time to be comparing the two in their leadership styles. And they have to bring the comet back to their reality. Which means they have to make sure it doesn't get into Galra hands. Only problem is that the comet is huge, so it'll probably take all of Voltron. Which doesn't sound too entertaining, especially if the Galra notice.
And then Lance notices he got himself completely lost. He couldn't tell which direction he came from with Marinette in his arms. He totally spaced out. And the others would say he was goofing off, and not having his mind on the mission.
He sets down Marinette, because she will likely help him out of this mess and probably has a better sense of direction than him. And begins to gently shove her awake.
Her eyelids flutter open and Marinette looks at him in surprise.
"Lance? Where are the others?"
"Oh I left them behind, taking you with me."
"Oh, and Akira?"
Lance winces, remembering the pool of blood and Akira's expressionless face. It almost looked like Keith had died instead of his Altean counterpart. Except Keith doesn't have red hair or red Altean markings on his cheeks.
"He, uh, He's gone."
Marinette sighs, "I guess I hoped I wasn't too late. He saved me, and I can't help but think if Keith has gone through a similar fate because we switched. I'm not supposed to b…."
Lance grabs her by the shoulders, "Marinette. It wasn't your fault, neither was the switch. Sides Keith is resourceful and knows how to take care of himself. And even though you aren't supposed to be here, you're here. And nothing you can do now can change that. And Black chose you out of all us. You're an amazing leader, not like Shiro, but still amazing. And you created clothes for us and you managed to cheer me up after a few days of Shiro being dead. So don't ever think that you're not supposed to belong. Because you're here now."
Marinette smiles, "Thanks Lance," and then she murmurs, "Really you're just like Chat Noir."
Before he can say anything about her comment, Marinette stands up. With a little sadness in her tone she says, "Alright let's go to the others."
Lance nods, still trying to figure out why she said he's like Chat Noir. After all, she didn't really say much about her home life and life in Paris. Then again Marinette might have said something but he wasn't paying attention. Maybe. Still it would be interesting to know more about Paris and this villain she has mentioned before. Hawkwing? Hawk…
"Hey Lance…"
He looks at Marinette, "Yeah."
"Thanks for those words you said earlier." And Marinette looks like she is blushing. Which makes him a little nervous, because the only girl he really had a crush on was Allura, while the rest he just tried to impress do deal with his insecurities. As living in a big family tends to make a person want some more attention and gratification and more appreciation for just being a part of that said family.
"You're welcome."
Eventually they run into the others, and they are not with Shiran. Makes sense, the guy did not like them after he saw Akira being dead, and lifeless. Lance shudders inwardly, he always saw dead bodies on the T.V from horror films, as those films were the best when trying to make a girl get close to you, but Akira's just made death unsettling. Like how he looked so peaceful even though he must have been in pain before his soul left this body.
So he feels bad that he thought they couldn't trust Akira, because he saved Marinette. Even if Marinette probably didn't need saving, because of her ladybug suit. Which he still doesn't know how that works, because Marinette hardly wears that suit in battle, unless it's under the Black Paladin armor.
"We're getting the comet from this ship and bringing it to our reality. Shiran meanwhile is going to take the Olkarian back to Altea."
Marinette looks at Allura confused, "But don't the Dragons of Altea need it more than us. And if we take it back there's a risk that Galra will steal it."
Lance sighs, "We know that, but Shiran was being stubborn about us having the comet."
Because Shiran probably thinks if we have the comet that he won't ever have to see us again. Because he probably thinks we're responsible for Akira's death. Which no we are not.
It's frustrating to Lance that Shiran can't see that since he is a version of Shiro. But no, he can't. Which means Akira must have been incredibly close to him for Shiran to be blinded by grief.
"Then let's go." Marinette says.
Lotor's POV
Lotor sits in his chair. Soon the mice will fall into his little trap, bringing the comet towards him.
"Sir, are you sure this will work? Voltron managed to escape that Gas Planet." Acxa asks him.
"It will work."
Voltron so easily went into that Gas Planet. So why wouldn't they bring the comet out of the Quintessence field to him? His generals should know better and besides. Black, Red and Blue all have new pilots. So they still will not be ready for him. And by the time they steal the comet, Voltron won't be able to come after them.
Speaking of which coming out of the rift is the trans-versal reality comet.
Lotor smirks, time to put his plan to action.
"Generals fire at that ship whilst I go and steal myself a comet. We'll meet at the base."
Zethrid grins and punches her fists with delight.
And then the stealing commenaces. Careful not to be hit by any of his generals laser blasts, he focuses on grabbing the comet. Hopefully the modifyers he made to the ship will be able to help the ship take off with the comet. And to help things further he makes his ship invisible, and he makes it so that any other object he touches also becomes invisible.
Ah yes, he is totally prepared, whilst his enemy isn't.
Then again Alteans are the superior race. As with their knowledge of tech, they also had alchemy.
Grabbing the rock with the controls that control the arm that picks up samples from planets to know how much quintessence they have. Immediately he flies away with the comet. Lotor grins, his plan was a success and those Voltron fools fell for it. And they can't back down, as someone is fighting them.
Once he arrives at the base, Lotor smirks at how flawlessly his plan worked. Now with this comet he can have a ship that rivals any ship except Voltron. As they will be evenly matched. But he looks forward to it. Especially battling that Red Paladin. But for now that will have to wait. As he has to start building ships out of the comet.