A Rose By Any Other Name... Wouldn't Be A Rose...
Chapter 1. The Different Worlds
It was a bright, beautiful morning on Sanc as the Queen sat in her back yard, her blue eyes reflecting heartbreak and sadness. The garden was large and full of plantlife; Relena used to sit near the cherry blossoms and smell their wonderful aroma as she drank tea, yet she chose to sit nearer to the house that day, in case someone should pay her visit. Her lawn chair was metal but painted white and elegant, to match her garden. She had her tea and sat in her pink dress with the matching straw hat, just sitting with a stony mask of professionalism that she often forced herself to wear with her blonde hair tied back with a pink bow. Despite her normal physical appearance, people could tell by looking that something was wrong.
The birds chirped, blissfuly unaware of the troubles of human life, and the clouds seemed to try and cheer her up by forming the shapes of unicorns and rabbits. Yet she refused to acknowledge them, only focused on her anger and directing her mind elsewhere. Anywhere that didn't involve him.
"My queen?"
Relena turned around and looked at her older friend, Lady Une. She was wearing glasses again and her brown hair was tied neatly up in a bun, yet her clothes were somewhat more relaxed than usual; a blue sundress. Her lips shined red under the bright morning, and her shoes made soft sounds on the concrete as she descended the small stairs from Peacecraft manner and sat down in the chair beside Relena's.
Une glanced down the stairwell beside them over to Relena's favorite trees, an eyebrow raised and a question blatant on her face. That was funny, Relena always though Une was better at hiding things than she.
"What is it, Lady?" Relena asked, holding her voice perfectly monotone.
"We have recieved news that the Federation plans another attack." Une said, her voice proper and educated. "The Gundams are still being repaired because of that energy storm and we have no ground troops that can take down the dolls if they are used."
The strange energy storm had been nothing like they'd ever seen before. The sky had turned purple while the clouds when black, and the thunder and lightning became products of plasmatic energy rather than electrical. It had destroyed many buildings and injured the Gundams greatly, and had first been considered a secret weapon from Oz. As research carried on, it had seemed to be just a simple natural phenomenon possibly brought on the pollution the fighting mecha suits left behind.
It wasn't anything important, yet Relena wondered if anything else had happened during it that the pilots hadn't told them about. It would certainly explain their odd behavior.
"What am I to do about it, Lady?" Relena said, setting her tea down on a glass table. "I can't do everything by myself, and I'm so overwhelmed right now. The damage is being repaired, my people keep demanding an end to this silly war, and my b... and my grades are falling drastically."
"I know, but you must think of something. Nothing else matters if you lose this war."
Relena sighed and rested her elbows against the table. She then placed her head in her hands, and Une caught a glimpse of what might have been lovesickness. Though she wasn't sure, and so didn't ask.
"Is there anyone who can repair the Gundams in time?"
"No. We've been looking, and there is so far no one. The damage is not only from an unidentifiable source but it's too much for mere humans to repair." Lady Une watched Relena as she stared ahead, her eyes focusing on some birds playing in her fountain. Lady cleared her throat, brining Relena back to attention. "However, if somebody could take the place of fighting or create some new quicker way to repair, then all would be settled and you wouldn't have to worry about it."
"True."
Relena sighed again and stood up. She walked down more stairs and went to her fountain, where the birds flew away. Lady Une followed suit. Relena stared at her reflection in the water, watching it distort as the ripples touched it. It replaced her proportions for something that resembled a fun house mirror, and Relena couldn't help but wonder if that's what he saw everytime he looked at her.
"He thinks I'm a twisted version of something that's beautiful," Relena said, speaking her thoughts.
Lady Une seemed taken aback by Relena's sudden openness, but quickly regained her composure and stern, teacher-like manner. Relena wished she would be more of a friend today, but it looked as though that wouldn't happen.
"Yuy said that, I assume." She said, standing beside Relena.
"No, but he thought it."
Lady Une looked at the water, and gave a small smile. Was it intentionally comforting?
"Perhaps what he just saw was a reflection of himself." Relena started to comment, but Une cut her off with an explanation. "Inside of you he sees emotions, he feels emotions, and these things are bad to him; he was trained to feel no such things and to be a perfect soldier, not to care."
Relena nodded, understanding and liking the idea. Maybe it wasn't something wrong with her, but him. Yes, that was it. She could live with that. But the spark in her eyes betrayed her, still showing the deep, dark depression that had been overwhelming her since the previous night. Lady Une took note of this.
"Keep trying, Lady. We must bring the Gundams back, or else Sanc is in trouble."
Une saluted and turned to leave, walking up the steps with soft, scraping sounds. Relena continued to stare at her reflection until she heard the door open and shut. Then she looked away. Her reflection used to be beautiful to her; young and refreshing, resembling her mother with hints of her father. She used to stare at herself and believe that she was the most beautiful thing in the world, though not quite as obsessively as Dorothy Catalonia. Yet now, she saw something hideous and unlovable.
Emotions, who was she trying to fool? Yuy denied her not because of emotions or that she was a mirror of what was inside of him. No, he let her go because he hated her. She was ugly, whiny, and too spoiled. She knew these things, for Quatre's journal was easy to locate and Duo's mouth wasn't as reserved as the others. To Yuy, she was nothing more than a product of a rich family who never withheld anything from her. She wasn't beautiful.
A tear fell from her eye, shattering the stony mask. Relena hid her face behind her hands and let her tears gather, like the fountain water. She wasn't a stern queen with a plan for peace, she was a lonely, sad queen who had a dragon but not a knight. She hated herself, the way she felt, and everything that had happened. If she had died when she was a child, things would have been perfect. She would be in heaven now instead of hell.
Lady Une closed the curtains over the window and frowned.
In another dimension far away from Relena's, it wasn't near as beautiful as a day. The skies were black with nothingness, and the shadows swallowed metal streets devoid of any organic matter whatsoever. There were no large gardens or people, no depressed queens who thought themselves ugly, but rather miles and miles of empty, lifeless drones, all equipped for war. The only change in the scenary was the underground, where some plants grew in secret and their animal masters kept them safe from the war machines, defying the conqueror of the planet's wishes.
They, too, had suffered an energy storm.
A large brown ape stood in the center of a garden of flowers, meshed just slightly with metallica entity. The ape stood tall and had disproportionately huge hands, with metal circuitry and signs every here and there. Along his arms were gold platings with blue wires that went onto his collar bone and across the ribcage, with some across his feet like a Japanese geta. Though he looked like an ape, this creature gave very human emotions, and right now his face was twisted in frustration.
His garden was growing wonderfully, especially with the "goo"--as they called it--that made the trees prosper so, yet not even Botanica could fix the obvious problem with them: they were still underground. He had promised the Matrix he'd save the planet, he had sworn to the Oracle to do so, but it seemed impossible to do so. Everytime he got close to succeeding, something would go wrong. Something would find their base, smash the flowers, or set them back by empowering the evil overlord Megatron.
This time, it was an energy surge that had almost kill the flowers and Botanica.
Optimus Primal--the ape--felt useless, and the near-death experience of his Maximal friend brought back many old feelings and memories; ones of which he had thought had been erased. Yet he brooded on them, feeling them seep into his Spark and blacken his aura.
The soft footprints behind Primal alerted him of another presence, though he could have normally sensed one. He turned, a little unsure of who it might be, and relaxed when saw the yellow fur of his second-in-command.
"Hey, Big Bot." The cat said, his long--too long--legs moving him to beside his friend.
Cheetor looked more organic than Primal in some ways, but less in others--it had always fascinated Primal about how equal the Maximals were balanced. Cheetor's body looked like a toy that was put together, having different sections standing out above others. He had golden plates on his shoulders, stomach, and legs that showed his technological side, and then had the yellow fur with purple spots that displayed his organic matter clearly. If it wasn't for the frictionless layer over him, he might had been more beast than 'bot.
To match his cat-like appearance, Cheetor was a fiesty comrade that was prone to making impulsive decisions and following his instincts. He was over-protective, over-caring, and always managed to pick a fight, but had grown much more mature during these past few days. They all did.
"How's Botanica?" Primal asked, his emotions flowing into his voice.
Cheetor looked down at the plants. One broke off and hit the ground, while another stood erect and fresh. "About as good as these things: sometimes good, sometimes bad."
Primal nodded. "And Rattrap?"
Cheetor gave him a puzzled look, his brain acting slower than his feet that day.
"Rattrap wasn't hurt."
"Not physically, no."
It dawned on Cheetor what he meant, and the cat gave Primal a look of confusion. Primal smiled to himself, remembering that the relationship was still a secret--or so the couple thought. He walked over to another plant and began to play with it. This plant was oddly shaped and felt weird under his touch. It almost felt... real.
"Well, how are you?" Cheetor asked, following his commander. Still confused about the earlier comment.
Primal sighed and closed his eyes, fighting back a surge of emotions. He let the flower go and watched it fall off the techno-organic trees, floating to the ground like a feather.
"Not too good, Cheetor. Not too good."
"Well, we found a piece of debris from the storm. It's charged with electricity and emitting a..." Cheetor looked at Optimus's face, and frowned. He could see his bosses eyes absently staring at the strange green plant and the way his mouth quivered, as though he was fighting back tears. Cheetor had never seen his boss cry, never, and it was odd to find him in this state. Very odd. "Big Bot, it has a spark."
Optimus looked up at Cheetor and wrinkled his brow. The old emotions were wiped off his face so fast, it deepened the worry in Cheetor's mind. Primal wasn't just crying, but hiding it as well.
"It's... a transformer?" He asked.
"Yeah. Rattrap's messing with it now, trying to find out something about it. So far nothing, but he says he's pretty close."
"Good. What is this?"
Optimus picked up the odd flower and handed it to Cheetor, who felt it's silky stem. The cat thought it over a bit, smelling something sweet and familiar entering the air around the flower, like the aura of perfume Botanica often had about her.
"It looks like a flower." He said.
Optimus nodded and took it back, waving Cheetor off. Finding nothing else to say, Cheetor complied, giving a last glance to his boss.
I hope you're okay, Big Bot.