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brave police: j-decker | mccrane

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This is McCrane.

[He is aware that there is some way in which to lock this to only his fellow Brave Police Officers, but he's not familiar enough with the settings yet to do this, so everyone can see it.]

One of the large inhabitants has informed me that we can take up residence with him.

Should we accept this offer?

I have yet to find any gasoline...

[As if now realizing that this might actually be useful if there are a number of viewers, he pauses, and changes tactics.]

Has anyone found anything that looks like this? [He holds up his one, single can of gasoline, hoping that the camera on his communicator can catch it.] It might become necessary.

[Considering they'll. Die. If they don't find a supply of it.]

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I set it up. I betrayed him, and his whole city. I didn't stop him from volunteering to fight.

[Drift shakes his head.] In every way I can be guilty, I am. I'm just upset it took that much to get through to me.

[Drift frowns, considering. He's not really much into science and space travel and all that. That was more Perceptor's area of expertise.]

'Might' be possible. Did he say how we got here? All at once, it seems?

And what the cost to this place would be?

[However much some might want to go home, they had a duty to this place while they were here, not to bring their war, not to harm it.]

[He nods.] I'll find Ratchet. Or...he'll find me. [Prophetic words~!]

You feel badly for it, though.

[He can tell. You're radiating angst. He's seen it before.]

I don't know that there will be a cost. It would be hard to evaluate, even if there was, with my homeworld needing the Brave Police to protect it. Surely, your homeworld needs you, as well...

[Perhaps radiating angst is an understatement: nigh invisible behind a dense fog of guilt and remorse?]

As would anyone, I think. If they'd ever done something that bad to begin with.

[Which, he just can't imagine McCrane doing. The Police bot looks inclined to look guilty for crossing the lane line.]

[Drift shrugs. He is no scientist!] Just seems to me that it would take some effort or energy to reverse what brought us here. Where I'm from, there was an explosion that launched Optimus Prime three weeks into the future.

[Thus, vice-versa. Spatio-temporal change requires energy. Except said a lot less sciency.]

No. [He shakes his head.] Not anyone. Most criminals only seem to feel guilt at the fact that they are caught, not at the crime itself.

If nothing else, it is good to hear.

[And maybe, if you're really about to die, it might be nice for you to know you're not as bad as you could be.]

...

Three weeks.

[Look, are you sure he just didn't go hiding off somewhere? Because that seems unlikely. However, the idea of energy being required is something he's considered.]

If the sort of energy that it is going to take to send us home would put this world in danger, then it may have hurt the worlds we came from.

Either way.

I would want to know.

..._criminal. [Strange, he's never thought of himself that way. It's a bit of a shock. Then again, where he's from, the law is pretty loosely enforced. Even Ultra Magnus had been known to turn his back on, say, Wrecker things.]

I was granted amnesty, though.

[...yay?]

Three weeks. That's what he'd said. [Optimus Prime does not lie, McCrane.] He just showed up one day. And didn't seem to realize how much had changed. [It was a really busy three weeks!]

[He frowns. See? He told you he wasn't a science type.] That's....true. [And depressing.] We may have done damage just being brought here.

We need to know, you're right, before we can do anything.

[Other than worry. Which now he's starting. He'd just thought that he was here and everyone else was back on the ship and everything was fine. Well, as 'fine' as a usual day on the Lost Light.]

I'm not here to pursue your crimes. From what I've heard, you have atoned for them enough.

[That whole 'endless war' thing was the worst punishment he could think of, at any rate.]

That is hard to believe without proof. [Optimus who?]

But I'm inclined to think our worlds are safe. If we're coming through at different times, then it can't have damaged any one time badly. [That's the extent of his science. However, it makes sense to him. You can't arrive next week if last week vanished.]

It's hard to tell if you've atoned enough. Some will never forgive me.

I don't blame them.

[You want proof? Well, you are not going to like Drift's theories about the Knights, then.]

Some things you have to take on faith, McCrane.

[He frowns. This is true. Pharma clearly came in after he did, and he hadn't complained about catastrophic anything. Just losing his hands. Which Drift knew wasn't his fault. ]

It also means we're still there, at least in some reality. Otherwise those coming later would notice us missing.

[This kind of hurts his head. Either that or Pharma's cure has a side effect he didn't remember being warned about.]

Sometimes, working toward atonement can be enough on its own.

[He doesn't know what to tell you about those that won't forgive you. He just knows he isn't one of them. Well, provided you don't go on a killing spree here.]

Faith.

[He feels odd about that word.] Would it be alright if I chose to rely on facts, unless proven otherwise?

Such as what you've brought up. Perhaps the simple act of us arriving from different times is what destroys them to begin with.

[He's so optimistic, can't you tell?]

I hope so. It doesn't always feel like it.

[ Because penance should hurt and sometimes, it doesn't. Sometimes he finds himself....happy.]

There are some things there aren't facts for, though. Things that simple knowledge falls short of explaining.

...but then. We can't go back, because there's no back to go to.

[McCrane is clearly Japanese for 'buzzkill'.]

[He remembers feeling guilt...so much guilt, that he shut himself down from his own inability to cope with it. If he hadn't had others relying on him, and the need to stay alive, and do his duty...he would have stayed shut down.]

I learned it is better to be alive, and have the chance to make a difference. What more do you think you need to do?

[Granted, his situation wasn't the same as Drift's. He'd almost killed innocents on accident, but it hadn't actually happened, and he'd never do it on purpose. He doesn't think he even could.]

I don't understand. What can't be explained?

[McCrane has too much LOGIC for this to make sense.]

..

....

It was only a theory. [He says softly, after a moment, hoping it isn't true.]

Yes, it's better to stay alive and try to do some good. Or if you must die, die protecting someone.

[And not, say, ignominiously rusting out on a medibay berth somewhere.]

I need to fix things. The war, everything.

Lots of things can't be explained by facts. Emotions, for one thing. How you can look at the sunset [Cherry blossoms optional] and feel something, when all you're seeing is planetary rotation.

...It's a theory we need to be concerned about, before going 'home'. [See? Facts get you into all sorts of depressing trouble. You should join Drift on the Bright Side.]

You sound like a good person, Drift. [You get a small smile for it, too.]

I hope you can do all that you want to. It would be nice for your kind to experience peace, once more.

[Especially since he can't deny that you're correct.]

...

Perhaps. But I don't have to take emotions on faith. I feel them. I should not take them for granted, but they exist, whether I believe in them or not.

I will have to keep gathering information, then. Any that you can find and share would be very helpful.

I'm trying.

[Trying so hard it hurts.]

Honestly I'm not sure we know how to do it. When I left Cybertron it didn't seem possible.

[And part of him wonders if he should have stayed, but no. He was a fighter. And there was no place for warriors there.]

But. [How do you explain faith? He's not even sure Wing could do it.] Well, what's the connection between what you see and what you feel? What is that?

....

We all need to share what we know. [Particularly if Knock Out was right about the Primes.]

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