The Speedster Catches Up

[Rodimus Prime]

Rodimus walks briskly through the hallways, though he knows it's probably not fast enough for Blurr. Well, Blurr can deal - he's used to it, anyway. They take a lift down a few decks, then it's few a couple more turns in the hallway, and they emerge on the observation deck.

This room is really just one of the lounges, but it's a level below the command deck, and dear the front of the ship. One wall is lined with viewscreens designed to mimic windows, showing a panoramic view of onrushing space. Rodimus stands silent for a moment, gazing at the stars. There are seats around, comfortable and of varying sizes, plus a several tables. A few games are set up, and it would seem someone even managed to get a video game system coded and running (though the 'Cons by far have the edge in this piece of entertainment technology). Luckily, no one on board is known to commit suicide over such games.

Rodimus walks past them all, however, and just stands in front of the viewscreen.

"Quite a ship, huh? Hate to say it, but it kind of puts the old Steelhaven to shame."

[Blurr]

It's a bit of a dull walk but Blurr makes the most of it he can, taking in what sights there are to be seen and, at some point, setting Haywire on his shoulder so he has both hands free. He starts circling Rodimus at some point just because it's easier than jogging in place beside him, but Rodimus is used to this sort of thing. Haywire takes it in stride, too, though he occasionally grabs for the top of Blurr's arm to steady himself when his partner makes a too-swift change in direction.

Blurr doesn't immediately canvas the entire lounge, but he gives it a visual scan on the way in. Quite the cosy-looking place.

"Some ship, I have to agree, because it's huge," Blurr declares with one sharp, lightning-fast nod. He certainly didn't expect the stroll here to take half as long as it did. "Must be a lot of Autobots on board if you need all this space for them!"

[Rodimus Prime]

"A fair number," Rodimus admits, shrugging. He automatically speaks a bit louder, loud enough that Blurr should have no trouble hearing him if Blurr were to, say, check out the entire observation deck end-to-end suddenly. Rodimus himself stands looking out at the stars. Blurr might well find him to be quite a bit more restrained - and a good deal more solemn - than the Hot Rod he remembers, the Hot Rod that Blurr had been in the past with something less than an hour before. "Although there's three reasons we had to make it larger than we would have. First is what specific Autobots we have - Skyfire and Omega Supreme are the largest. Second, we have to be prepared for more Autobots arriving on the trip." He nods towards Blurr, whereever Burr might be in the room right now. "Like you did. Third, we've got a biosphere. Plants and animals from the planet we just came from. That's... kind of a long story, why."

He turns towards Blurr and offers a weak little smile. "I suppose it depends on whether you want your future or the story here first."

[Blurr]

"Here first," Blurr decides after a moment to think over the options. He's landed in the middle of a very weird situation, it looks like, and he doesn't really know what's going on. The last time he found himself in this sort of situation, he still had some idea of what was happening. Enough to get the job done, at least. Here, he's clueless. The future will come along soon enough anyway.

…Though he'll definitely want to hear about that shortly, too. The future seems to have changed his friend a lot.

"I'll let you two talk, if you don't mind," murmurs Haywire, patting Blurr's shoulder. The speedster takes his partner's hint and leans over, eyes still on Rodimus, setting Haywire down. Haywire promptly decides to investigate the gaming setup. Oh, it's scaled all wrong, but he can look.

[Rodimus Prime]

Rodimus gives Haywire a nod as the Nebulan heads towards the gaming system, smiling faintly. Nice to see the little guy around, though it does lead him to missing Firebolt more.

"All right. Here," Rodimus states, taking a moment to compose his thoughts. To most people, it would not seem a long moment. Then he shrugs and turns back towards the stars.

"Well, like I said, something keeps pulling Transformers into this reality. We're getting pulled from multiple different realities, and multiple different time points in those realities, although we've noticed certain trends. Like, most are from a hundred years, give or take, of the point where the Ark crew woke back up. There's another clump of outliers from around three hundred years or so further down, all apparently from the same reality, and then a few odd ones from really far off. For example, we have a Je- erm, Skyfire from about four million years ago who looks rather like the Jetfire that we know, and a Long Haul from around nine million years ago." He looks over at Blurr. "Yes, there are realities where Long Haul was alive nine million years ago, rather than just built, and apparently he was an Autobot back then."

"Originally, we arrived at certain points on the planet we just came from, one Kup identifies as Gillanan III. I woke up in a swamp there, activated my radio for answers, and was pretty shocked to have Emirate Xaaron answering." He smirks faintly. "They gave me directions to their base." The smile fades. "On the way there, I encountered Scourge. Not our Scourge, the one created by Unicron." He looks over at Blurr. "In this universe, there is a Decepticon that looks almost exactly like Optimus Prime, only painted black."

[Blurr]

That moment – even the explanation itself – seems to drag on for Blurr. Still, he manages to stay in one place, for the most part, and listens attentively. It isn't exactly easy. Here and there, he nods as a prompt and his expression shifts. It eventually settles into a Spock-like arrangement with one brow tilted upward and one optic narrower than the other.

"Let me make sure I've got all this right. A Jetfire who isn't Jetfire but Skyfire who looks like Jetfire and a Long Haul who's an Autobot and older than me, not that I'm old really." The latter is the real toughie if anyone asks him. "Okay." But Scourge as an Optimus Prime lookalike? That just isn't right. Whatever game Haywire has managed to get going – and he's glad to have found controls he can use – makes an appropriately-timed noise of denial. Haywire grumbles in disbelief at it; Blurr doesn't look. He moves to Rodimus's other side instead, frowning. "Is he more like Scourge," he asks, "or more like Optimus Prime, because if he's like Scourge it shouldn't be a big problem right?" He rubs his chin. "Any old Decepticon can show up any time just like any Autobot could, too, I bet." He leans back and rests his hands on his hips and tries to stay that way for a few seconds; he got used to moving so much more than Hot Rod – or anyone – a long time ago, but next to Rodimus, he feels almost like he's downright flailing.

It's pretty jarring. Rodimus is still his friend, he can tell, but… he isn't at the same time.

"So why are we on a ship now? Planet didn't work out? Natives kick us off?" He tries to sound a little more light-hearted. "Or are we giving up the war again?"

[Rodimus Prime]

"I don't think he's like Scourge or Optimus Prime, really," Rodimus answers. He looks straight ahead at the stars as Blurr darts from one side to the other. It's a habit he's developed when talking to Blurr. You don't try to look at him directly. You'll drive yourself nuts. You either look towards the general area where Blurr is most likely to be, or you find something else to focus on entirely. "As a potential danger, though, I'd say he's more like Optimus."

Prime breaks his rule and glances towards Blurr for a moment, smirking. "And I'm getting to that part. Anyway, you remember the being that transported us to the time machine, sent us back to fetch Galvatron? Unicron?" He looks back towards the stars and shakes his head. "The being we never saw, because he only spoke to us through speakers and walls? Turns out he was those walls. He was that whole damned planet. And he wasn't on our side."

"If you had returned to the future like you did in my history, your memory of that trip would have been wiped, and then, soon, you'd have found out about him, anyway. Unicron's a Transformer the size of a world, a planet-eater... and heading towards Cybertron to destroy it and the Matrix. We stopped him, but I'll get to that later. The problem is, he exists here, too. The planet we landed on was empty of people - we found out they had evacuated out of fear of Unicron, who had destroyed their sister planet. We also found that the area where people were arriving formed a pattern, one that resembled the Matrix, and at the center of the pattern was an enormous crater made from the impact of a metal asteroid." Again, a glance. "A piece of Cybertron."

Back to the stars.

"We're going to try to find what's left of Cybertron and see if we can't get some answers."

[Blurr]

Blurr actually stops cold and stares at Rodimus. Haywire pauses his game, character mid-leap over a deep pit, to peer around the furniture at both Autobots, jaw slack and eyes wide.

"Piece of Cybertron?" The words come out one at a time, slow and clearly forced to that speed with immense effort on Blurr's part. That's about as much as he can manage before going back to normal. "That's – that's a good reason to launch a ship. A great reason to launch a ship." A disturbing reason, at that.

And they took their big save the world mission from an evil, planet-devouring monster. That just leaves a really sour taste in the speedster's mouth and he makes a face, crossing his arms, then uncrossing them and resting his hands on his hips. He sighs and shakes his head; as if the attack on Autobot City wasn't bad enough, now there's Unicron to deal with back home and he isn't there to help. He's here to help instead by some machination. Couldn't be Unicron again, could it?

"Looks like I've hopped right out of the frying pan," he says, raising both hands in a shrug of sorts. "So how long has the ship been travelling?" And how much more recap is there?

[Rodimus Prime]

"Just a few days, actually," Rodimus answers, glancing in Blurr's general direction again without attempting to look directly at him - the way he moves and twitches so much, that's generally a lost cause. "There've been some... delays, and of course, there's the size of the vessel itself." He shakes his head. "It's not just a matter of the biosphere, or of Omega Supreme. We just flat don't know how large our crew is going to be when we get to where we need to go!"

"Anyway, I /think/ Kup is working on updating our in-universe history files, but that covers the basics. The rest you'll be able to pull up on computer later," where Blurr can read at his own rate, if he can sit still long enough. "So I guess that leaves... our... my history. Your future."

The young Prime hesitates, as though reluctant to continue.

[Blurr]

Oh, reading up on things. That's always useful, provided Blurr doesn't break the scroll button.

But Rodimus has more to say and Blurr can't help being curious. Neither can Haywire, who has left the game on pause to keep listening and shares his partner's curious, uncertain expression. Blurr's concerned, too, because since when has his buddy ever shied from sharing info?

"I get the feeling it isn't exactly sunshine and energon goodies even after Prime and the Unicron thing," he ventures, keeping his tone light.

[Rodimus Prime]

"No," Rodimus agrees solemnly, shaking his head and lowering his gaze, looking now towards the bottom of the panoramic window.

"At first it was. After the Matrix... after it remade Hot Rod into me, after I used it to destroy Unicron. The Decepticons were in a disarray after the attack. Galvatron - inside Unicron, I didn't have time to deal with him properly, so I just... threw him out, through Unicron's body, so he was missing. Starscream, dead, and as you know, many of the other Decepticon leader contenders had been taken out in the years prior, while Megatron was consolidating his power. There was Shockwave, but he didn't move fast enough. We organized the Autobots, routed the Decepticons, and took back Cybertron."

Now he looks to the stars again, and his expression is wistful, longing, and pained. "After so long, we had it again. It was ours. But... but I was... I was so naive." He sounds angry, self-condemning, exasperated. "I negotiated with the Decepticons, with Shockwave. I had made sure I'd be negotiating from a position of strength, of course, but, well..." he shakes his head and looks down again. "After we, Autobot and Decepticon, had battled side-by-side against Unicron I honestly believed we could live side-by-side. I wanted an end to the war so badly, I... I trusted where I shouldn't have." This, this tiredness of battle, of the war is new. Despite Hot Rod's choice to accompany Fortress Maximus to Nebulos, Hot Rod enjoyed fighting and saw the war as a game. Rodimus's attitude is dramatically different.

"And with our peace 'secure' I started sending out teams to search for Galvatron, joining one of those teams myself." He smirks faintly, in a self-depreciating manner. "I don't think it was a bad idea to go looking, our kind spends too much time just assuming a defeated enemy won't come back to cause problems, but I did put too much of our resources into it."

[Blurr]

Blurr is still young enough, unchanged enough, to look at the war like it's one grand, violent adventure and Hot Rod sharing that enthusiasm is still fresh in his mind. Seeing Rodimus look so tired genuinely makes him slow down. Only for an instant, just long enough for all the possibilities of what could have gone wrong and all the doubts of how much help he is later on flit through his head. They're gone just as quickly and he reaches out to rest one hand on Rodimus's shoulder.

Maybe he's being too familiar. Maybe he shouldn't get this personal with the Prime.

But this is his friend. He can't not be friendly with his friend.

[Rodimus Prime]

Not all the differences come from time.

Some of them come from this simple truth: Rodimus Prime is not Hot Rod. He is the Prime built from the raw material that was Hot Rod. And Rodimus Prime was born tired of the war.

When Blurr places his hand on his shoulder, Rodimus looks down at his old friend and smiles, both sad and grateful. There's a moment's silence, and then he goes on.

"Anyway, while we were gone, Shockwave organized the Decepticons and... and restarted the war. Showed me what an idiot I was for believing the Decepticons could accept peace. I went home as quickly as I could, but... by then we were already on the defensive. They took back half of Cybertron before we could break their momentum, and then... we held the line, and they held theirs. Advances here, losses there, but neither side able to really upset the other.

"But... I couldn't ignore that Galvatron might still be back there, so I put a bounty on his head. Let the mercenaries do the work for me. And eventually, word got back that someone found him."

Rodimus smirks. "Death's Head did. In our past. Galvatron had reactivated the device he'd used to time jump." He shook his head. "I had no choice, and had to follow."

[Blurr]

Hey, a smile! Better than nothing. Blurr gives Rodimus an easy grin in return, but it doesn't last long as the Prime carries on with the story. Recap, not story. All this has already happened. Will happen. Really, it doesn't sound any better put either way because no matter which way he thinks of it, Blurr still doesn't like the prospects. And if he's learned one thing from his escapades, it's that trying to change the future is generally a Bad Idea, so there wouldn't be anything he could do even if he wasn't here instead.

"Nobody else available to go?" he wonders. "Nobody to send while you handled the homefront? Ultra Magnus? Though come to think of it, he had a strong start but after a while he really wasn't looking so great so maybe he'd need some backup–" Blurr stops there and chuckles anxiously, a bleating sort of sound; embarrassment at high speed just sounds even more embarrassing. "Sorry. You were saying?"

[Rodimus Prime]

Blurr may know that trying to tamper with time is a bad idea. Rodimus, on the other hand, knows it can be done, and what's more, if he's suffered for the changes, by Primus, he'll find a way to make the changes serve him this time. If he can do anything to alter the fate ahead of Blurr, he will.

"That's the thing," Rodimus explains. "I may not be as powerful as Galvatron, but I'm the nearest thing we've got. Besides, it was my mess - I'm the one who took the easy way out in dealing with Galvatron before. I had to clean it up." He smiles at Blurr. "Of course, I didn't go without back-up. You and Kup came with me." He pauses. "And Wreck-Gar hitch-hiked, but he proved useful, too."

He shakes his head. "It was hard, but with Bumblebee - well, Goldbug and Ultra Magnus's help, we were able to get the device Galvatron used to go to the past away from him. Wreck-Gar was able to reprogram the thing to snap all of us who were in the wrong time back to the future, or so we thought."

"Problem was, we got brought back, and Death's Head got brought back, but Galvatron stayed behind. Worse, things in our own time were bad enough that we couldn't make an immediate return trip, not without risking even more damage to the timestream. It wouldn't be until our hand was forced that we were able to return."