Chapter 33: Day Forty-Seven (Allura's POV)

Allura goes through the motions. The Atlas had managed to find the Altean Pilots rather swiftly. But everyday it was the same. Try to talk about their interests or try to interrogate them, but none of it worked. Each one would sit in stoney silence and refuse to talk to her while she blabbered on and on, whether it were fantastic tales or questions about what Honerva was doing.

And none of it was working. Sighing in frustration at her current integration person, Dilmos. He hasn't spoken once giving her the silent treatment. A true nut to crack, and just to talk at that. His face is stoney as she recalls Altea and the other places she's visited but nothing makes him budge. It's infuriating.

This continues for about another thirty minutes before she proclaims in frustration, "I'm done. I'm done with all of them." Walking out of the room and down the hall a little she notices Kuro walking up to her.

"So…How'd it go?"

"Terrible." She laments, "I couldn't even get this one to talk. They're my people yet they are ignoring me. Protecting someone who could end the world and they don't even care. But I can't make them talk because they view me as some sort of evil person for trying to intervene. Like trying to save them and the word world is wrong somehow. I…I just don't know what to do. They refuse to speak to Romelle and Luca as well. I…I…."

"Hey, we'll get them to open up somehow."

"But I've tried everything. Talking about their interests, asking them questions not related to Honerva, telling them about Altea myths, legends and history, regaling them with tales of planets we've visited and nothing worked."

Kuro puts his hand on her shoulder, "We'll figure something out…."

Pulling away from him, she says, "No it's my responsibility. I am their princess and they are my subjects. They are my problem."

"You can't do everything alone….."

"I have Luca and Romelle to help me in this difficult process. They know more about Colony life than I ever will. Their advice has been great but we are getting no results."

"You, Luca and Romelle will figure something out. While you're at it, why not let Coran help. He might know some interesting stuff about Altea before it was destroyed."

"As much as I want him to help, this is a serious matter not a game."

"Well if you decide you need help, you only have to ask."

She smiles, "I know. It's just this is my problem and mine alone."

"I get it. But again if you need any…"

"Help just ask."

He smiles and they share a passionate embrace. She wants to let him in and help, but these are her subjects not his. They might be one day but not now. When the embrace finishes she smiles, but in the back of her mind her troubles won't completely go away.

Excusing herself she walks down the hallways, her mind a whirlwind of thoughts on how to get these Altean Pilots to speak. Suddenly she is intercepted by whom she believes to be Kinkade and Rivazi, two of her MFE pilots. A little round ball floats between the two.

"Allura, is it okay if you give us an interview?"

"An interview?"

"We're doing this documentary….."

Rivazi cuts him off, "Which is going to be super awesome! Anyway we want an interview with you to know some things and fill in our audience who is going to watch this what is currently going on our mission."

"I guess."

"Perfect!"

They walk through the hallways and find a secluded spot for the two to conduct their interview. Sitting down she stares at the two, trying not to mind the floating camera thing being at an angle from her.

Rizavi asks the first question, "So how are things going with the Altean Pilots."

"Not so well. They refuse to speak to me despite me trying to create a common ground between us by talking about what they're interested in according to Luca and Romelle."

"Would you say it's rather frustrating?"

"Yes! Very frustrating. Kuro is hoping that we can find some sort of solution to the problem but I doubt it. They are as silent as stones."

"So no progress has been made?"

"Correct, which is infuriating because we don't know when Honvera will strike next. Or what she is even planning on doing with Lotor's mech he created. We know none of that. On top of it all our last mission going against her wasn't great."

"Do you think we could uncover something about Honerva before she strikes?" asks Kinkade.

"Perhaps, but that would be very difficult. All the pilots are stoic and silent. They have been tough to crack despite my attempts to make connections with them and have a normal conversation without mentioning Honvera so they could feel at ease have backfired."

"So does that mean there is no hope for the mission to succeed?"

"I don't know."

The interview ends on that somber note and Rivazi and Kinkade take their leave.

Allura sighs, she wasn't planning on ending the interview with such a somber tone, but she honestly has no idea whether or not they will triumph over Honerva when she does suddenly enact whatever she is planning. It does not bode well, but what can you do?"

A Few Hours Later:

Hunk's POV

Hunk carefully takes out the cookies, hoping that Colleen's yeast that he collected will add the zing factor that makes it close to the cookies the Alteans bake. Marinette watches in anticipation as well. When he pulls out of the cookie tray they look amazing. The smell is also quite enjoyable too.

"You guys made these?" Kinkade asks. Both him and Mari give a firm nod to the question.

"Why?"

Mari explains, "Well I realized that Allura hasn't been getting any of the Alteans to budge and Hunk thought of a brilliant idea of trying to make an Altean desert. We went with cookies based on Coran's knowledge. We did have to improvise a bit because his memory wasn't perfect but I think we nailed it."

"And we thought it would be to give the Alteans a reminder of the good times in their life before things got so hectic." he adds.

"That's nice of you."

Mari smiles, "I've always found food brings people closer together. And it's the right thing to do."

He nods. He hopes he did a good job at replicating the recipe with Mari. It was nice working with her as they did the baking of the cookies together. It reminded him of when he cooked desserts with his family. His heart pangs a little at the thought of home.

They head out of the room together and into the room where the Alteans are. A few are standing up and some art sitting on the benches. Holding the tray wide to see he says, "Would you like one?"

Cautiously a boy with dark green glasses, light green eyes, orange hair and dark blue cheek marks, grabs one of the cookies from the tray. He then looks at Hunk, distrust and curiosity in his gaze. Mari then takes one of the cookies herself and takes a bite. "See its delicious."

He then takes a bite and his face immediately lights up.

"You two made this?" he asks.

Mari and him nod.

"This tastes just like the ones made back home. It reminds me of reading books in the Great Library with snacks stashed so I didn't have to move. And the tales of old Altea that would be told to us there too." he says in awe after eating the whole cookie. He then swipes another one from off the tray and takes a bite.

"So good," he murmurs. "How did you make this?"

Hunk tells him, "Me and Mari had some help from people who were originally from Altea."

"You mean Princess Allura and her advisor, Coran, right? Oh the Princess told so many nice stories about our homeland. I would love to hear…."

"Lasam can't you see what they are doing?! They're trying to trick you into talking with that traitorous princess!" yells Cimiru.

"Oh come on Cimiru they have treated us well. And the Princess didn't need to tell me stories about the place our ancestors came from but she did so anyway."

"She only wants information about….."

Dilmos, the recently captured, speaks up, "If she really wanted information so badly she would do more than interrogation. She would torture. But she hasn't."

"Not yet."

"Besides, she didn't really ask me about Honvera today…" Dilmos adds.

"Well good for her! But that doesn't change the fact that she's just trying to get close to us to worm out information about Honvera from us!" Cimiru shot back.

"I'll still like to talk to her more….." Lasam says. Cimiru shoots him a glare as if the thought of one of her own talking to Allura was the last thing she ever wants to happen. Hunk sighs this was supposed to be a happy moment.

"Hunk, I'd like to speak….."

"Don't you dare Lasam," Cimiru growls.

Lasam gives his own glare which makes Cimiru grumble. The others, minus Dilmos, seem to be confused and unsure on how to read the situation.

"I can take you to Princess Allura now if you'd like." He says before the tension in Cimiru rises further.

"Really! That would be awesome. I'd love to know just what our historians got wrong and they got right." Lasam smiles.

They all head out of the room together. He gives Mari a grin. It worked. They got at least one person to talk to Allura. And maybe Lasam will open up to share what he knows about Honvera and her plans.

Author's Note: Sorry for not writing in a few days. I was preouciped by designing fakemon for my fakemon region Allenico as I had inspiration for that. If you want to check that out my Instagram is leafbranchthewarriorcat. Anyways I decided to do a bit of a time-skip as I couldn't figure out how they would find the other Altean pilots and I figured that it would feel a bit repetitive after the first time going through the same process as Cimiru. I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter:)