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Characters:Rodimus, Botanica Location: The roof of the Autobot Base Content Warnings: none Plot Summary: After escaping capture at the hands of the Decepticons, Rodimus finally has a moment to relax. The roof has been a place where he's always found solace and calm. This time, he seeks to make a new friend.
Finally, a second to breathe! It had been honestly too long since he'd been able to just freely stretch his legs and move around. Ascending the stairs to the roof, he's surprised to find someone else already there. That won't stop him, however. In fact, they're someone he's never seen around before. An interesting Cybertronian, by the looks of it. One of a kind, if he had anything to say about it.
"Hey there!" he called to her, waving a servo kindly. "How's it going? Has it been this sunny all day?"
On this day, on this planet, in this particular time, to her of all people.
Botanica hadn't really come up to the roof of Omega-1 for any important or substantial reason, she just had another personal journal entry that needed writing, and the setting sun provided the perfect view to start jotting it down to. She had always hoped to have a chance to meet him, but never in her life did she ever think she'd get it. The Progenitor stood just behind her. Her audials twitching nervously, Botanica spun around to greet him.
My, that is a liberal application of the color red.
Judging by his greeting, Rodimus fragging Prime had no idea who he was talking to. In some odd reincarnation aspect, he was actually talking to himself. A past life had just said hello to her. It was a literal out of body experience.
Botanica quickly blinked herself out of her starstruck trance, trying to frantically compile the billions of thoughts running through her head.
"Rodimus..." she half mouthed and half spoke, taking delicate care not to add in 'Prime' at the end out of habit. She couldn't really call him Progenitor, either, although it was a fitting title given the circumstances.
He asked her a question.
"It is going very good, now," the Maximal replied, her tone and disposition akin to somebody seeing a ghost.
Rodimus was surprised to hear that she already knew his name, although the surprise wore off quickly. He had been a Prime. Beyond that, he was a prominent member of the Autobot forces. It really wasn't that surprising when he really put thought to it. "Well, I guess I don't have to introduce myself, huh?" he joked, trying to ignore the strange way this bot greeted him.
"The sunsets on Earth are beautiful, aren't they?" he asked, moving forward to lean against the edge of the roof. "Do we know each other? You seem to be really familiar with me."
She wanted to tell him everything. She wanted to be able to tell him everything! She wanted to do the necessary research to build a device that would allow her to show him everything!
The device would have to wait.
Botanica's mind reflexively brushed passed his superfluous comments, and honed in on what really mattered. By Rodimus, this was going to be simultaneously the greatest and most difficult moment in her entire life. The commonalities, focus on the commonalities and then work your way down. There, good to go.
"Rodimus, you've time traveled before, haven't you? On the Lost Light? You wouldn't consider such a notion to be nonsense, would you...?"
The question just birthed more and more questions. There seemed to be no answers being brought about, and that only confused him further. Optic ridge furrowed, and he let out a sigh. "Well, yeah. Once or twice. We did it on accident mostly, though. So no. I wouldn't consider time travel to be too crazy. I guess technically I time traveled to this point too. At least that's what Toolbox told me when I first made it to Earth."
Optics watched her closely, scrutinizing every detail about her. "Oh, and before we go any further, I should probably make it a point to know. What's your name?" This certainly was not what he'd been expecting when he'd come to the roof.
Botanica was genuinely surprised to discover that she wasn't the only temporally displaced traveler of this time period, and that by being so out of place, Rodimus might've just made everything easier on her. She began to step closer, taking in every detail just as he did the same towards her. There was no easy way to describe just what she was, to him at any rate. Botanica hadn't had this problem with Ratchet, or Esmeral.
She might as well come out and say it.
"To answer your question, with a question, do you also believe in reincarnation? And, to actually answer your question," she started, locking optics with Rodimus, "I'm you."
Rodimus nearly launched himself back over the ledge and off the roof. Optic ridges furrowed indignantly, and he shook his head. "I uh... I don't know what I think about... uh.." he couldn't even process the words he wanted to say. Stepping away from her for a moment, his face took the guise of pondering heavily.
"I.. So your name is Rodimus?" the question sounds stupid leaving his mouth, but part of him is actually genuinely afraid of the implications of this femme being him. Insecurity makes itself a home in his mind, and he finds himself picking at a part of his paint that is flaking. A subconscious nervous habit. "I don't think I understand."
Botanica metaphorically cracked her servos, having found the need to explain the circumstances for being on Earth quite a lot these days. Rodimus's reaction had been the worst by far, but it wasn't something she hadn't anticipated. Just a few short cycles ago, she wouldn't have even considered the possibility herself. "I believe the same temporal phenomenon that wrenched you out of your own timeline has in turn brought me here, as well."
Her audials twitching back and forth nervously, Botanica clasped her hands together to continue her explanation. "I've been stranded on Earth for just over fifty years, but I come from a Cybertron several hundred million years in the future. In my timeline, you're somewhat... responsible for the salvation of Cybertron, and the creation of a new race of Cybertronians on top of that."
"Oh!" she remarked, her audials fluttering. "I am Botanica of Apex, a city that won't be founded for a very long time." She was unloading onto Rodimus more than any one person should know, although Botanica hadn't even divulged the half of it, yet.
Rodimus nodded along to what she was saying, an inquisitive look taking hold of his features as he processed the information and tried to fully understand what he was being told. "So.. You're not really a reincarnation as much as you are...my kid?" he questioned, trying to make sense of what he was being told. He had been able to give life to another, similar planetoid, so it wasn't unheard of to him.
"Apex is a pretty cool city name, and thank Primus you aren't Rodimus 2.0 or something. I think that'd be just...too much for me," he laughed, shaking his head. "I don't know where in the timeline I'm from, but I think it's the future from this timeline. It'd explain why things aren't quite adding up, honestly."
Huh. Maybe being a time traveler just sort of prepared you for these kinds of things to happen. Botanica had been here fifty or sixty years and she still wasn't over it. Rodimus's analysis of their relationship took her aback for a moment, pressing a hand to her chest in surprise. She'd never had cause to think of Rodimus as a literal parent, although he certainly was, not just to her but all of Cybertron. "I know that the humans have a trope that involves a child time traveling to meet their parents but, I'd never really put much stock into it." Botanica said, living the trope in real-time.
She didn't mind calling Rodimus her parent, or at least forefather. A less lofty title might suit the time period more appropriately. "So if I were red and yellow and could shoot fireballs, I would be too much to handle?" she quipped back, giving off a light chuckle. Botanica switched gears rapidly, wanting to investigate one particular line of questioning. "So you're not the least bit curious as to how you become a legend? Not interested in knowing what terrible evil, or awesome challenge you conquer in order to seal yourself in such a position of reverence?"
"Well, Earth stories have always been my favorite. There's this one called Back to the Future. We'll have to watch it together sometime, it's like...super relevant, actually!" a grin came over his face as he nodded to himself. "I never really thought of myself as the parent type, but I'm not opposed to it, I guess."
That garnered a laugh, "Honestly, I don't think the universe could handle another me. Let alone the rest of the Autobots? They'd lose their minds." The next question stirred up a cavalcade of emotions in his processor. On one hand, he did really want to know. On the other hand, Toolbox's words still stuck with him. It'd be a breach of laws of time and space. He wasn't supposed to know that information. "Isn't telling me about the future against the rules? What if I purposefully try to avoid whatever it is that created you? Aren't you the least bit worried I might try to consciously bring you out of existence?"
Botanica took a moment to analyze Rodimus's question thoroughly. Logically speaking, it was a fair assumption that if he put himself to it, he could simply will her out of existence if she revealed the future. If that were really true, then it would be theoretically possible for him to will her back into existence as well. She wasn't really worried about it however, given that she trusted Rodimus not to screw up somewhere along the line. "Even if I gave you the specifics, I doubt it would matter. I've done all the research into causality and probability during my stay here, but history has proven that you're not the scientific type, so I'll spare you the details."
He'd have to take her word for it, for her own sake, really. "You do defeat many a worthy foe, of course, but it isn't the enemies you defeat that make you a legend," she teased.
"You'd be right about that, honestly. Science was never really my thing. I mean, like, I get the basics but it's just so boring to listen to," he stepped away from the ledge, beginning to pace on the roof's surface. "So I really brought life back to Cybertron? Did I find the Knights?" That question was probably far too specific. It probably was also canceled out by his being on Earth now instead of on the Lost Light. That brought up an entire well of other problems in his processor.
"Botanica, in being on Earth during this time, am I going to cause problems with my home timeline? I mean, obviously I'm going to. I'm not there," he pondered it for a moment. "The last thing I remember before being on Earth, was that I was on the Lost Light in the year 3810. Or at least close to that year. Now I'm here on Earth. And it's...what... 2018 now? It's been an entire year on my end that my universe has been without me. Won't that cause problems?"
Luckily, he was speaking her language, now. Botanica hadn't just been sitting on an island doing nothing for fifty years, after all. Meticulous decades of research had gone into finding a way for her to return home, although progress hadn't been nearly as quick as she'd liked. But now, she wasn't just doing it for herself. Botanica began to simply float several inches off the ground, wrapped in thought as she gently twirled around in the air. "If by problem, you mean a divergent timeline, then yes."
If quantum interactions were constant and predictable across two separate universes, it would be possible to map out the precise changes in time. "If you had a time machine, you could simply travel to the moment at which you were pulled back in time to begin with, effectively closing the loop right as it begins. I've been working on one, all I've been missing is a power source of sufficient output."