re_alignment | [video] [Locked to Brave Police and Kagerou]

Entry tags:

tf: idw | drift

[video] [Locked to Brave Police and Kagerou]

[Drift can't imagine the mechs he saw give their all to help fight the sharkticons as dangerous or threatening. They were good mechs, sparks in the right place, brave and honorable. Gunmax had nearly died, fighting to protect a world that wasn't even his. ]

[But at the same time, he doesn't disbelieve Kagerou. He can recognize that tone of borderline fear and desperation. And if what Kagerou is saying is true...?]

[This is all a mistake. A misunderstanding. It needs to be straightened out one way or the other. If he needs to protect Kagerou, he will.]

[He pings the Brave Police, then Kagerou. The new arrival can listen in, even if he doesn't say anything, so he can hear for himself.]

Brave Police. There's something I need to talk to you about.

[Ouch. Rough start. He sighs, thinks, starts again.]

Whatever was on your world, your Japan, it's not here. Old grudges, old missions. They don't apply here.

[He frowns.] You're honorable mechs; can I have your word on that?

[There's clearly something behind why he's asking.]

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Did you want to be different?

[It's a reasonable question. But no. He can't let himself get distracted.]

[Softly.]What if the person's only crime was in existing?

No. [The answer is simple, and not angry or sad.] Getting this operation was necessary, but I wish we didn't have to. It's something we couldn't do for ourselves.

[And that's a little bit of a sting. This was a problem they couldn't solve, and had needed outside assistance for. He's grateful to Ratchet, but he regrets not being able to surmount something so seemingly simple.]

...

[Okay, no, wait, you just get a stare.]

We never arrested any human, or robot, or creature, who did not pose a threat or commit a crime.

[He just can't imagine.]

We wouldn't, Drift. If someone is saying otherwise, they may be misrepresenting us.

...is that what's bothering you? That you needed someone's help?

[He can relate, in a way. It's something he still struggles with.]

We needed you, too, though, fighting off those creatures. It works both ways.

[Drift frowns.] I don't think anyone's misrepresenting anything. I know things look different on the other side of the law, though.

And I'm trying to clear that up.

Yes. [He bows his head.] Which is pride, and I should be careful of that, but yes. If we cannot solve this on our own, now, it makes me worry for what we won't be able to solve in the future.

...

[Even if you have a point. He knows they were needed, too, and he's enjoying making friends here, he's just...so used to only factoring in his team.] But maybe we do all need each other, now. [This wasn't anybody's home.]

[He looks up, sharply.]

Yes, of course. A criminal might not even be aware he is committing a crime. A criminal may even be programmed for crime...! [Chieftains, it's always about Chieftains.] But ignorance does not excuse a crime.

We arrest men so that they may atone for what they've done by our laws. You are working on your own atonement, Drift...by yours. Not everyone is that motivated.

But you're on a team, right? You do this all the time: one mech's strengths supporting the others. It's not about pride or trying to do it all yourself. It's about...belonging.

[He hopes. He could be biased.]

[And then his hopeful smile flattens.] Who defines what a crime is, here? Do things change because this isn't your Japan?

_{What if the mech's only 'crime' is wanting to live?}

About...belonging. Yes. [He smiles, just a little, in response to yours.] Perhaps that is something we could both use lessons in.

[Especially when he doesn't know what to do with questions like this. Drift obviously has something heavy on his mind, and McCrane cannot understand what it is or who he has been talking to. The only 'grudges' he could see being carried over from Earth would be against criminals, and any such criminals had been given a very particular fate by the justice system. McCrane had not had anything to do with that.]

Drift, I do not consider trying to live a crime. As someone who would wish to be given the chance, myself...

[He shivers, thinking on the few orders they have had to limit them, otherwise.]

I would not pursue if that were all they had committed.

This place is a fresh start, McCrane. For all of us.

[He thinks of Wing, the second chance he never would have dared to ask for. ]

And even so, McCrane, mechs can change.

I...yes.

[Drift is right.]

There will always be actions that we have made that we regret, and that we'd do over if we had the chance. [Being in better control of his desires, for one.]

But I cannot learn, if I don't know what I've done. Can you trust me enough to tell me?

You haven't done anything. Here. I just want to, you know, make sure.

[He sighs. Trust, after all this time, still not easy for him.]

It's Kagerou. He says you Brave Police were sent to capture him. To kill him.

[Kagerou?]

[That was...]

...

[That was true.]

Kagerou is not lying.

...

[This is hard, and McCrane wasn't expecting to be faced with a ghost of the Brave Police's Past.]

We were ordered to kill him, after he went crazy and began attacking the populace. Not... [He shakes his head.] Not before that. By the time we were given that order, it was not Kagero anymore.

I had to ask. And if he was lying, or wrong, you'd tell me.

[Drift respects your honesty, McCrane.]

Attacking...? [Kagerou hadn't mentioned that.] But...he must have had some reason to fear. He's not violent, McCrane. He's scared. And sometimes...sometimes when you're scared you lash out.

[There's a hitch in his voice. When Gasket had gotten shot, that's what had happened--fear, anger, grief, loss, all spinning together. And before he knew it, three security mechs were dead.]

Give him a chance.

I would do no less as an officer of the law. Especially for a friend. [He appreciates that you trust him.]

[Slowly, however, he shakes his head again.] He was destructive. With good reason, from what we were told, but that...

That was not the issue.

The issue happened after that.

After--

[He pauses, wondering how much of this was going to be conveyed to Kagerou, and how this information might impact him if he's from the time it sounds like he's from.]

After he was reprogrammed.

...reprogrammed.

[His optics close for a long moment. What else can he say? It's...from what Kagerou's told him, horrifying. His memories wiped, dead for all intents and purposes.]

IT wasn't him then. That...afterward. It's...[It's beyond words. He'd felt D-Void try to rewrite his code, take control of his systems. He'd fought it--and only won because he'd stabbed himself to helplessness.]

You can't hold that against him. [More of a plea than a demand.]

We did not have a choice, Drift.

Whatever he'd become...it was trying to kill us.

[McCrane looks away.] That was when we were given the order.

But...he's not 'it' here. Now. [A little hesitation, asking for reassurance. Had Drift been a little too easy to trust?]

Well, that order doesn't hold now! You're not in Japan, and he's not trying to kill anyone.

If he's coherent enough to talk to you, then you are right. He must have never been captured by Excellent company. [Another shudder. Seriously, that was bad news.]

He's like us. I'd like to meet him.

He is. McCrane. I just want him to have a chance. It sounds like he's earned it.

[More like he get a chance here that seemed to have been stolen from him back where he was from.]

...I'll tell him.

Thank you, Drift.

Do you...

Do you feel better about this, now?

Yes. Thank you. And I'm sorry for being cautious. I didn't mean to imply..well, anything.

I can understand.

From Kagerou's point of view we must seem...not like the bots you know. For most of us, it is a situation we regret.

I am glad you spoke with me about it.

I saw you all fight to protect this world which isn't yours. I didn't see what he was saying but, [he gives a soft laugh, ] I've been wrong before.

We've all been there. [They'd been wrong about Kagerou to begin with, after all.] It's why it is important that we all watch out for each other.

[And you watched out for him, and you've watched out for them. It's all even, in the end.]

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[video] [Locked to Brave Police and Kagerou]

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