#parallel reverse

A lot of hands go up, but surprisingly, not everyone's does. One version of himself, a Galra with red and purple markings wearing Blade armor just looks confused.

"Wait," he says, "-you guys are only half Galra?"

"See, I'm just completely human," one version of himself with gray eyes says, "-but I guess I was raised by Galra? So technically I'm still an alien."

"Wait," a puzzled version of himself wearing a more fantasy version of Blade armor tilts his head, "-what's an alien? I mean, I'm half Galra, but-"

"-actually yeah, same question," a version of himself with golden eyes wearing a cloak asks, "-what's an alien? also what's a Galra? I'm human also. By the way. Definitely human."

"That feels like a really obvious denial," another version of himself that's purple but is wearing more Altean style clothing says, "-also I'm half-Galra, half-Altean."

"I am also half-Galra, half-Altean," a version of himself that definitely looks a little too much like Lotor raises his hand.

"Half-human, Half-Altean," another version of himself wearing even fancier Altean clothing says.

"Full Altean," says another version of himself, "-it's a recent and complicated development. Don't ask."

"Y'all are aliens?" A version of himself that looks mostly human asks, arching a brow. "Huh. Guess that... might explain some stuff about me."

"You guys aren't Shifters?" A deeply confused version of himself asks. "Like? You can't change your shape? That's so weird."

"I can," one version of himself says, and demonstrates by turning themselves Galra in the blink of an eye, "-you mean y'all can't do this?"

"I wish I could do that," says an extremely tall, very Galra version of himself wearing Lotor's armor, "-but no."

"I'm... a lot of things," says a version of himself who does, in fact, look like a lot of things, "-but originally I was just half-human, half-Galra."

"...why do so many of you guys have aliens in your universe?" one version of himself asks, "-because I don't. I mean, I may be a genetically modified superhuman, but-"

"Actually being part-Galra would explain some stuff," a version of himself with visible Galra features says, "-I just thought the changes were because I'm infected with a zombie virus."

Good question!

I think we all know that who you are in the dark Keith would be the front runner for looking most Galra. He's followed shortly after by abyss of memory Keith, galra prince Keith, burgundy Keith, and runaway paladin Keith. Then you've got desert born and MFE paladin AU Keith, and they're followed all of the 'mostly human but still visibly a little more Galra Keiths like anomalous point and flicker. Then lastly you've got your canon appearance Keiths, like the supernatural AU and the amnesiac blade AU.

(space human Keith, parallel reverse Keith and reality scramble Keith are outliers that will not be counted.)

it is, of course based very strongly on the alternate universe arc from who you are in the dark. I kept worldbuilding for it and this is the result.

the main plot focuses on Akira Kogane, our Keith parallel, who unbeknownst to him is half-Altean on his long absent mother's side. He's still raised in foster care, and still wound up under the mentorship of Sven (and still stole his car. some things never change). They have the same close bond that Shiro and Keith do, because of course they do.

They end up in a rebellion against the Altean Empire together, alongside the parallel versions of the other paladins- Tsuyoshi Garret, an engineering teacher from the Galactic Garrison, Isamu McClain, a cargo pilot instructor and Katie "Cat" Holt, whose entire family went on a 'diplomatic' meeting to Altea and never came back.

She stayed with Sven while they were gone (and then never came back), so she ends up knowing Akira quite well.

Akira always possessed an odd ability to temporarily disrupt the hoktrils upon making physical contact with them. This is wildly useful to the rebellion- but also caught the eye of the Altean Empire... and it's current Empress.

Eventually, Akira, Cat, and Tsuyoshi are captured during an ambush and taken back to Altea, where Akira is separated from the other two- and ends up learning more about his mother than he ever wanted to.

It turns out his mother, Lia, was one of the few Alteans who still possessed alchemical abilities, and that she disappeared on a quest to find Oriande. It means he's half-Altean, a fact which he can't deny after the Empress breaks the illusion his mom cast over him before he left Earth, that kept him looking so human.

Since Akira himself also clearly possess her same talents, the Alteans are very eager to convince him to join them. Akira wants nothing to do with the Empire, but he also sees the groundwork of a way to protect both Cat and Tsuyoshi from the hoktril. So he cuts a deal- he'll join them, if they spare them both from it.

(Turns out, the Alteans aren't wildly enthusiastic about applying the hoktril to a race that looks so eerily similar to themselves.)

This saves Cat and Tsuyoshi, although they do both get slapped with a much more old-fashioned pre-hoktril version of the Empire's 'rehabilitation'- effectively, shock collars. Akira can at least pull strings so that they're basically put into his service since apparently all Altean alchemists are brought into the royal family. Which means he's a prince now. what the fuck.

oh yeah. he guesses he's also betrayed the rebellion now too- he did kind of have to sell out one of their bases to really get the Alteans to trust him. Good thing he knows Slav has absolutely cleared the place out by now... but that doesn't stop him from being thrust back into the conflict on the Empire's side now.

he hates everything about it. but if wants to keep Tsuyoshi and Cat safe, he doesn't have much of a choice.

(he's also way too good at selling it for his own comfort. Sven hates him now, he's sure.)

He also learns that not all Alteans have fallen in line with the ways of the Empire. There's a resistance effort within the Empire itself, and they very quickly smoke each other out. This gives him a chance to pass intelligence to them, which they can in turn, pass onto the rebellion.

He also realizes that if he's able to master this alchemy stuff, he might have an actual opportunity to kill the Altean Empress himself and he's not going to pass that up.

In the process of trying to learn more about his talent, he stumbles upon an AI created from the memories of an Altean named Coran, who was killed shortly after Altea became an Empire...

Akira could only stare in confusion at the brightly colored confetti now pooled around his feet.

"Did I... miss something?" He asked. "What are we celebrating?"

"Your birthday, of course!" Sven said, already getting a broom to clean up the confetti. "It's October 23rd, right?"

Akira frowned. "Well... yeah. But I don't remember telling you that."

"Oh, you didn't." Sven said, tossing the confetti away in the trash. "I got it from your admission paperwork. Figured you'd never tell me on your own."

Okay. That was fair. He definitely wouldn't have done that- mostly because he didn't see the point. It had been awhile since anyone had celebrated his birthday. At most he'd have foster parents that gave him generic presents while he was still on good terms with them, but it wasn't quite the same as a celebration. And if the spread of food laid out on the table was anything to go off of, Sven planned to celebrate.

(It was also definitely takeout, no matter how much Sven was clearly trying to pass it off as his own cooking. He couldn't fool him. He knew he couldn't cook for shit.)

"Come on, sit down!" Sven said, pulling out a chair at the table. "We've got cake after this!"

Akira's frown just deepened, hesitating at the door. He didn't know what to make of Sven. He was... weird. He'd actually bailed him out after he stole his car. Didn't even press charges. Meanwhile everyone else just started looking at him like he'd grown a second head. They'd all heard he had a history of acting out, but he guessed he must have had them pretty fooled with his 'good kid' act.

...at least, until he couldn't take it anymore and fucked everything up for himself. Just because he could pretend to be someone he wasn't, didn't mean he liked it.

"You didn't have to do this for me." Akira said.

"I didn't," Sven agreed, "-but I did."

Shifting on his feet, Akira finally heaved a sigh. He grabbed the other chair, taking a seat- only for Sven to get up and quickly retrieve something from his bedroom.

It was a present.

Akira stared at him for a long moment, before slowly taking it from him. He glanced at him again, almost looking for permission before he began to unwrap it. Inside was a small box, which upon opening, revealed a pendent that almost looked like...

"Neat, huh?" Sven said. "It's moon rock. Took a little sample of it the last trip up. Thought you'd like it. Made it into a pendent so it could be like a little good luck charm!"

"I thought you weren't allowed to do that." Akira said, arching a brow.

"What the Garrison doesn't know, won't hurt them." Sven smiled.

Akira huffed, taking the pendent in hand. It was just a simple piece of rock, really- maybe it wouldn't mean much to other people, but he'd always had this weird pull towards space ever since he was young. Like he belonged out there- not here, stuck on Earth.

Also, what are Cat and Tuoyochi up to? They may be technically prisoners to ensure Akira's good behavior but surely they're smart enough to work around that somehow.

See, there's a lot of stuff about Coran's AI that I can't go into depth to because it would be a spoiler- and the kind I want to hang onto. But let's just say that he definitely knows a lot of hidden truths about the Altean Empire, stuff that even most of the general populace don't know about. There's a reason he backed up his memories and hid them in hopes that the right person from a future generation would find them.

Good question!

I suppose the answer depends entirely on whether or not they know that Keith is acting as a double agent. Like, either way, Akira's position and the way it mirrors Keith's in some ways would be a clear indicator that the Altean Empire is not a group to be trusted. Hira can't trick Allura into moving the ship in this reality, that's for sure.

The Altean Empire has a new prince. They don't connect it with the recent capture of three of their own- why would they? Akira, Cat, and Tsuyoshi are all human. They've probably been hoktril'd by now.

They almost definitely have, given that the base they all operated out of was attacked shortly after their capture. Thankfully, they'd already largely abandoned it, and were able to pull everyone out without any further captures. Any data they left behind in the base was destroyed. They should be safe for now.

Still, the news of another Altean royal is troubling. The current Altean Empress, Empress Fala, is too old to have another child of her own- her only biological child, Princess Merla was born late in her life, and she had no other children. This new royal heir must have been adopted into the royal family- which can only mean one thing.

There's another Altean with alchemical talent.

The attribute has become vanishingly rare amongst the Altean populace. It's a great relief to the rebellion- they've heard tales of the feats that Altean alchemists are capable of. So for there to be another one is deeply troubling. They will have to keep their guard up, see what this new prince is capable of.

They get their answer much sooner than they expect.

It was supposed to be a simple mission- targeting one of the Altean Empire's supply ships. In and out. No one expects the new prince to be on board.