Frayed Knots

[Elita-1]

Shox edit: since this seems to follow Drips, I am speccing this as Day 3. If this is incorrect, let me know.Semi-private. Please ask before posting in

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Elita doesn't quite stalk into one of the viewing rooms, but she is moving with purpose. She walks around the couch just to make sure no one is napping there, then whirls on Optimus.

She says nothing, merely stands there with her arms crossed over her chest, gaze piercing.

Time for some explanations.

[Optimus Prime]

Optimus follows behind Elita, practically shriveling at her stare.

Optimus waits for Elita to start talking... and when she doesn't, he explains.

"...Pz-Zazz is a big place. I got some bad directions, and when I realized I wasn't where I needed to be, I'd found my way into an area that had radio frequencies jammed. By the time I'd gotten out of there, it was far too late to be of any help... and I was ashamed that I'd let you down."

[Elita-1]

Elita's stare softens just a touch at Optimus's explanation. But only a touch. It's a perfectly plausible explanation. Pz-Zazz is a big planet, yeah, and the city where the asylum was located is big and confusing. He isn't completely off the hook yet, but at least she's considering his excuses and not dismissing them out of hand.

"All right."

She uncrosses her arms and leans back against the couch, hands resting on the couch back, body posture slightly slumped. She looks... tired. Worn down.

"And the rest?"

[Optimus Prime]

And the rest.

"At the time I said it, I believed with my spark that you were lost to us." Optimus says. "From the sounds of things, Sentinel had met... the version of you... that I had met. Again, there wasn't exactly a good opportunity to tell you about that." He pauses. "...It's not an easy thing to say."

[Elita-1]

"'A good opportunity'," Elita repeats slowly. Because really, not like they don't have radios for that type of sensitive quick communications.

"I take it that's who you went off to chase during the crash clean-up?" she asks at length, "This supposed later version of me that is an evil Decepticon spider?"

[Optimus Prime]

"Yes. She's calling herself 'Blackarachnia' now... and is doing everything she can to pretend you never existed." Optimus leans up on the back of a chair, equally weary of all this.

"There is still... you. are still in there. She just doesn't want you to be. She's angry. And she blames me for what happened." He sighs and slumps. "And she's not wrong to do so."

[Elita-1]

"And you're certain she's me?" Elita-1 asks, "Sentinel seemed so, but well...."

"He isn't exactly a reliable source of information right now."

She brings her left hand up to grasp the forearm of her right arm. "Optimus, look. You need to get over this guilt trip about what happens to me- whatever happens to me- and stop being afraid to talk to me about things. This mess," she shrugs, her shoulders, "a lot of it could have been avoided if two would not only talk to me but to each other."

She won't mention how if Optimus had spoken up sooner, Sentinel might not be a drugged up wreck right now.

[Optimus Prime]

It's just as well Elita doesn't say anything about that, as Optimus learned after Sentinel's encounter with Blackarachnia.

"She sounds like you, she acts like you. She knows enough about our shared past. Not just the facts, but the finer details. If she's not you, then she's someone who has taken a lot of effort to pretend to be you."

Optimus looks upwards with deep introspection. He knows there's truth in what Elita is saying, but it's more complicated than him simply agreeing that he should talk and that will magically fix everything. But right now he cannot bring himself to say anything.

Finally, he says, "One thing I do know. She seems bent on writing off Sentinel and I, as a form of burying her past. If that's what she is doing to us, I don't want to know what she might try to do to you."

[Elita-1]

Sentinel was accosted by Blackarachnia the day after Optimus and Blackarachnia had their altercation. A quick and timely comment could have set someone on the trail of Sentinel more quickly, instead of the next day. Perhaps nothing would have changed, but then again, perhaps it would have.

"How did she... wind up a spider and a Decepticon? I mean, I don't have an organic alternate mode, and can't imagine picking one up."

Elita makes a face. She really isn't too keen on the whole organic thing, herself.

[Optimus Prime]

OOC: No. They didn't. Sentinel met Blackarachnia first.

Optimus' own encounters with Organics have made him less inclined to be as organophobic as others of his kind. "She said something about her download powers working, but with side effects. Her alt-mode resembled the spiders in those caves.." he trails off, anything more would be speculation, and Elita is intelligent enough to work it out for herself.

"As for being a Decepticon, she insisted that the Autobots would not want have a place for her, which is just not true, especially here."

[Elita-1]

Elita frowns, "Her download power, huh?"

It sounds like there was some sort of corruption of her future self's base code through the download power. It's always a risk when she uses the power, that something she pulls could be dangerous to her. It's why her firewalls and virus scrubbers are all top of the line, and her immune system extremely strong.

Elita's interests lie in history and research, but she has an aptitude for science, too. Maybe she should talk to the science crew, see if they can figure out what went wrong. If they can... maybe they'd have something to offer her other self other than death.

Optimus's last assertions, however, make her frown. "Optimus, you know how things were on Cybertron when we cadets. No one was even supposed to visit an organic planet, or traffic with organic species. A great deal of work was put into fostering dislike and fear of organics. Why would you even think she wouldn't be treated like anathema at best and like someone's pet science experiment at worse?"

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OOC: Actually, no. Misfire up the Wrong Tree, Day 0- Blackarachnia taunts Sentinel on the radio. Crashdown, What's Your Deal Day 0- Blackarachnia taunts Optimus via radio. Stilettos and Silks- Day 0, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Day 2- Blackarachnia and Oil Slick accost Sentinel at the Asylum. So, sorry, but yes, had Optimus made one little radio call, instead of playing to the What the Hell, Hero? trope (which is perfectly canon for Optimus, BTW), it is possible that Sentinel may have been found before Blackarachnia got a hold of him. Because had the Autobots known that there was a psychopath on the loose who wanted Sentinel dead, then they probably wouldn't have waited to go looking for him.

[Optimus Prime]

Optimus sighs. "Really? Are we going to argue about politics back home right now, Elita? And even if you're right, does that really justify aligning with the Decepticons?"

[Elita-1]

Elita-1 straightens up, her hands clenching the couch back a little too hard.

"Actually, Optimus, politics are exactly the point that needs arguing if they are what eventually lead me to turn into some raving evil psychopath. I studied our history and archives much more thoroughly than you, and quite frankly, the absolute last place I'd go if I wound up a tehcnorganic hybrid due to an accident like that would be Cybertron!"

"I get enough interest turned my way because of my ability to borrow powers as it is. Getting treated like a freak because my systems were contaminated by them is not something I think I'd enjoy."

She steps up so that she's standing in front of Optimus.

"What I know I don't enjoy is continuing this conversation, Optimus. You keep looking at our world and ideals through rose-colored optics, and keep basking in your own moral superiority. I'm going to go find a way to help both my friend and myself."

Elita stalks past Optimus and out the door.

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Out of thread