OTB

[nitroland]

So for those wondering why I'm here, who knows. I just like writing fics for no reason. The mind is strange. Give me time to fix the links.

Here's some fics I've made.

[TFONE AU, Oneshot] And It Burns It All Down: Optimus travels back and kills D in his own past body before leaving, everything goes wrong. (AO3) Rewrite pending.

[TFP] Watching Your World Turned In Reverse. [SWAP CUBE]: Miko Nakadai finds a cube in a cave and it's a theater. Ratchet wishes he was elsewhere. (AO3)

[split-and-deviate]

hey guys ^-^ !! so from today i won't be using this blog or my main blog anymore, but i wanted to let ygs know that this fandom is literally the best part of tumblr and i am so glad i got to find it 💖💖💖 i'm gonna miss ygs a lot <333

[nitroland]

Something really interesting about Kris is that when you actually read into them, it feels like Kris just … isn't functional. Like they're not functional as a person at all.

With Noelle, you have in present time her being weirded out by Kris being nice. Like Kris actually complementing her is what makes her think something is wrong, which is funny. In the past? Kris sounds more like a bully to Noelle than anything else, like the shit they pull sounds like actual bullying.

And then when it comes to institutions and authority, they disregard it, and everyone is … fine with it. Adults react to it as if it was expected, Kris just in general seems to regard authority with contempt even when the authority, as far as we know, isn't malicious. And then there's the bath-bombs and battery glue. That's just straight up destroying property.

Everyone just seems to treat Kris the same way you'd treat a "lost cause", the kid you just give up on. Hell, Susie seems to be their only high-end positive friendship and they basically let Kris do whatever. And with Ralsei they did not like him at first despite him just … being helpful.

Kris is just straight up a lost cause. They're weird in a bad, destructive way. Not a villain since Kris can be a positive person but they gravitate towards negative choices more so. They want to force their choices onto others, but don't like it being a two-way street.

Like you can bring up Carol being clearly manipulative and how Kris is probably being fed justifications about Dess but I'm more focused on how the Player, who if you go even neutral, is clearly a positive impact on their lives when normal.

And I think Kris fucking hates that.

Kris only becomes close friends with Susie because we controlled them towards that path. Noelle? We help her, with Kris acting mostly as a vessel. A lot of the good things people around Kris think is their actions and intent is ours.

It's one thing to have your autonomy stripped, but I think it fucking kills them when we go on to be a better person then them. To be shown how people prefer a "you" that isn't "you" must be agonizing. To be shown that people will not truly be close to you unless you essentially rip away your autonomy and give it to someone else.

And that's why I think a part of them is truly relieved when we do the Weird Route, but it's the small assurance that their autonomy, in their eyes, isn't worthless.

Hell, I'd believe Kris already internalized this, and is going along with it because it might the best good thing they'll ever do.

[sevenofreds]

It was SO cathartic watching Sorta Stupid binge RWBY and repeatedly discuss how people in their comments were constantly telling them RWBY is terrible and they'd hate it and they'd just affirm that the show is great (at one point one of them even wonders if the hatedom has even SEEN the show at all).

They even acknowledge what a shame it is that some people won't bother to watch the show because of how rough it was at the start.

With how much rwde refuses to shut the fuck up about how awful they think the show is, watching people organically watch it and say "wow this is actually really good!" is a MAGNIFICENT dose of vindication.

[darth-khal]

funny how the antis are always like "oh i don't like bmblb because of the writing, the VAs, the execution, they're reduced to romantic partners with no development" and yet still manage to sneak in sun somehow to the argument. it's okay, you don't have to hide behind false justifications why you're angry. just admit that you're butthurt blake was ultimately not interested in sun & you don't want good F/M friendships.

[ammy246]

The Rwde are taking the biggest L right now. I wonder how they feel knowing the show they despise came back from the grave not once, but twice, no matter what they did to try and kill it? I'll be watching their whining with some popcorn over here. There's nothing they can do to kill my joy over my favorite show returning.

[onesheeptwosheepandachicken]

Sorry to hear you can't grow your list of people who only fellate the show and its creators. The truth is that RWBY is far from flawless, and the fact that you can't add more people to your list is proof that the show doesn't heed any criticism levied at it.

Let's look at your "criticism"

...Shall we?...I'm calling out Mansplaining fanfic writers like Couer Al'Alaran here....who cannot have a woman as a protag in his fanfic unless said fanfic is dominated by men. And his fanfics focus on making jaune hypercompetent while removing prominence of four female protagonists so one cis white male can be a CRWBY Basher's self insert.

Next up on the subject of female characters....I've YET to see actual criticism...maybe its buried beneath all that hatred you defend by calling that hatred "Valid criticism."

Then again...considering you people have unrealistic beliefs of what female characters are...aka , your fantasy fanfics.

Shall we go into LGBT Characters?

Or how about POC Characters?

How about....things that happen in a fantasy world?

Or we could go over how people call yang a **** or something or insult her appearance while those same people have no problem with the lunacy of Kingdom Hearts clothing or personality or anime like...Naruto...

We can go over that last part....it's the issue of what you call protagonist-centered morality?

aka Anime in general? Where you critics try anything to paint team rwby as villains, and the villains as heroes?

How would you do it? My guess, is your idea is something like this.

That, or something far worse.

But by all means...harass RWBY Fans, make up lies and slander about us...that is the RWDE Community after all...

and its why I'm tagging you, a RWDE Member

[but-a-humble-goon]

Someone by the name 'doomalade' just accused me of being Lilith Fairen and blocked me because I insulted Fixing RWBY. You cannot make this stuff up.

[but-a-humble-goon]

Oh and he seems to have deleted that reply and unblocked me immediately. Presumably because he realised he looked psychotic.

[doomalade]

I have to admit it was a knee jerk reaction and I’m sorry.

You also have to understand that it gets so tiring dealing with people coming into my posts or asks and saying stuff with little to no evidence or things to back it up.

There are valid criticisms against FRWBY.

Repeating the sentiment of racist harasser isn’t one of them.

If you want to have a conversation and critique media properly, then go ahead.

If you want to throw around buzz words because something is critical of a flawed show made by a horrible company, then please feel free to never interact with me again.

Thank you.

[but-a-humble-goon]

Could someone who cares more respond to this please?

[lilithfairen-deactivated2025012]

"Be more critical of the stuff you enjo—WHAT THE EFF HOW DARE YOU BE CRITICAL ABOUT THE STUFF I ENJOY"

(Congratulations though, Doomalade, because due to not really focusing as much on the episode when it became obvious that it was just a blatant ripoff of the original Lost Fable, I didn't notice Celtic Phoenix shoving in his cultural-appropriation daughteru OC, to the point where Weiss apparently cares more about Vernal than her own family.)

[doomalade]

1) Bring up valid points instead of saying “oh misogyny” and running away

2) Uh yeah? It’s a retelling of canon what were you expecting?

3) She’s Welsh Lilith, you’re being racist by screaming the G word which is a slur btw

4) You mean the abusive father and emotionally distant family she never felt like she belonged in?

This is the only time I’m gonna interact with you because I know the person you are. You like Canon Seeker need to seek out a therapist for being chronically online. You need help Lilith, please get it.

[lilithfairen-deactivated2025012]

Wait, who's Welsh now? Vernal? I thought she was supposed to be based on Ainu culture like the rest of the Branwen tribe? You know, the Ainu, known for not wearing underwear (apparently)?

[iamafanofcartoons]

Doomalade, hello. Let’s cover your four points.

1. We’ve discussed the misogyny, the racism, the plot holes, and even the lesbophobia.

2. No, its not a retelling of canon. Its literally a “I don’t like canon, so I’m going to rewrite the entire show in my image”. If it was a retelling of canon, we’d expect them to be more respectful.

3. We want to talk racism? Retconning Oscar and Gretchen? Is whitewashing Ozpin’s host, while also giving a really dumb portrayal for Hazel. Don’t get me started on the whole “Nora wasn’t allowed to beat up Hazel, but Sun can somehow go toe to toe with him as a COP?” And putting Ilia, the POC LGBT, in prison while making her constantly hate herself? Making Arlan Altan, who in the books and the show was a good and helpful person, into a jerk who mocked the dead, and Lionhart into a sociopath when he was trying to save his hide because he was scared of Salem? “Fixing RWBY” is literally a white savior fanfic.

4. Weiss associating with killers and thieves when it was killers and thieves that gave the White Fang a bad name, while Sienna Khan was actually trying to violence in moderation because violence was not her end goal, aka what made her more of a “Wasted potential” than everyone’s 2nd favorite self-insert Adam Taurus. Raven and her gang of raiders wipe out villages. And somehow we’re supposed to romanticize that? Don’t get me wrong, Raven is pretty cool, and she’s complicated. Her tribe is not. Its like the Legion from fallout new vegas...without their leader, they’re worthless.

5. Every type a member of RWBY Critics tells RWBY Fans that they “need help, get help”, I can’t help but notice that they proudly defend people who take a dump on Monty’s friends and RWBY Co-creators Miles Luna and Kerry Shawcross.

I do hope you weren’t one of the people who sent Kiersi Burkhart threatening emails or who harassed Eddie Rivas during the “freezerburn Divorce”

Here is my take.

If you think RWBY is flawed, that’s your opinion, but don’t go spamming that opinion onto others.

If you feel a show is bad? Stop watching it, and go watch something else.

By that logic, if somebody doesn’t like the show you like? That’s their opinion.

You may not like RWBY, that’s up to you.

We don’t like your fanfic show, that’s up to us.

But the RWBY Fandom doesn’t go onto youtube spamming videos hating on RWBY in the name of criticism.

The people behind FRWBY’s writing team? However?

Let me state that yes, RWBY is flawed. It wasn’t built by a professional scriptwriter like M. Night shymalayan who made the ATLA Live action movie.

Nor was it made by Stephanie Meyers who made Twilight.

It was made by 3 guys in a I-Hop who wanted to try making a female protagonist lgbt-coded show because they studied anime and cartoons, and wanted to create something new...for fun.

“But fixing rwby is for fun!” Um...the moment you say you’re fixing something and your main writer claims to be a better writer than the writers of the show you claim to be fixing? Automatic red flags.

Don’t get me wrong, I admire the amount of passion that is put into the fanfic...but at the end of the day, it was made with ill-intent, and that is reflected in the writing where 4 woman aren’t allowed to fight a male antagonist, because the fanfic writer would rather men defeat other men, aka the White Knight trope.

Besides that stale trope, the whole sexualizing teenagers with bathhouses and heat cycles thing is pretty stale too!

[nitroland]

SC: Chapter 2

Within the shadows, Blades began slicing through the Vehicons, disrupting their mining duties as the disaster and wreckage. With each slice, the mayhem lurching into becoming a massive mess. Then, within a single second, Blades and Bludgeon both clashed blades in a blur with multiple hits before the two stood against the other within a distance. Blades gave him a glare as he threw his knives away. “Damn. Who are you my ugly friend?”

“This version of Raf reminds me of Rodimus.” Bulkhead chuckled.

Jack raised his eyebrow. “Who?”

“An old friend during the war, Bee knew him.” The bot chirped happily at that.

“Bludgeon of Tyrest.” The samurai replied, drawing his sword. “And you?”

“Blades of Kaon.”

That drew a reaction. “Kaon!? Megatron and the Decepticon birthplace forged him? No wonder he’s a violent brute.” Ratchet snorted. If it had just been that, Miko would’ve ignored it for something later but then it popped into her head. She paused.

“How’d that happen?” How does a man make himself such an army? What was Kaon?

At that, Ratchet began pondering, twitching awkwardly. “It was the industrial heart of Cybertron. It wasn’t the place of perfection, but Megatron rose from the gladiatorial arena in the city, herding the caste of workers into his goals of conquest-”

June jumped at those words. “Living conditions.” She interjected. Fowler raised an eyebrow.

“What?”

“Living conditions.” She reiterated. “You said “caste” and I don’t even want you to color this in some purple prose. What was living there like?”

For a moment, Optimus fidgeted under June's questioning look as she turned to him in Ratchet’s stilted silence, the medic frozen and awkwardly trying to avoid making Cybertron look bad. Arcee then took the sword from the stone. “Well … the smoking mess from the factories made it that you were blind unless you used the Communication Grid.” Arcee replied. 

Jack flinched, it was going there.

“So I’m assuming being a worker there wasn’t exactly comforting. Or livable.” June snarked. “So I’m also assuming your ruling class wasn’t in the mood to care for anything?” Ratchet flinched, avoiding her gaze. Miko chuckled. “Megatron led a revolt, why?”

“Cybertron was rotting, people were suffering. But when he was turned from the council, Megatron lost his way. Now is nothing like what he once was.” Optimus.

“I got enough.” June chuckled. “Let’s just continue.”

“Good to know.” Bludgeon’s forearms expanded slightly, pushing out swords that dropped onto his grip. Blades drew out his swords.

The two instantly began meeting blades, sparks of metal against metal ringing as both pairs of hands moved. Blades’s right sword hit against Bludgeon's left sword trying for his right knee, while he barely dodged the thrust to the right side of his neck from his other blade. A left swing pushed the sword away and Blades pushed in a swing onto the arm, only for Bludgeon to block it, pushing his right sword against Blades. 

“Such fluid movements!” Ratchet looked over to Raf, wondering for a moment if such… He shook himself from such thoughts. Raf was a child, nothing like this.

“Damn.” Bulkhead exclaimed. “Didn’t think he was this good.”

Blades jumped back and began quickly swinging his blades one by one, hitting against Bludgeon’s repeatedly and making the bot step back, only for him to spin, jumping slightly and making a giant swing down on him. 

“Fascinating.” Bludgeon whispered. The sword cracked the ground, with Blades barely managing to jump back. Grunting, he summoned his shoulder cannons, firing them. Bludgeon simply deflected them with his swords.

The bot hummed in disappointment as he continued deflecting. “I was hoping for a challenge.”

“He’s putting more pressure than you’d think.” Fowler grumbled. “Wonder if Blades can touch him.”

“He should be able to.” Bulkhead replied. “The kid can do something. There’s always something you can do.”

“Please shut the fuck up and eat shit.” Blades snarled. Suddenly, the cannons stopped, to his visible displeasure. With a sigh, he grunted. “C’mon!” 

The bot rushed against him again, though this time Blades simply took one moment to hold him down before using his cannons to blast Bludgeon’s chest. The blast instantly stung the bot, with the sound of metal cracking filling Blades’s hearing. Without wasting time or letting Bludgeon realize the trick, Blades began hitting the bot’s chest repeatedly, marking the bot with cuts as Bludgeon tried his best to avoid them.

Miko giggled. “Should’ve bet there.”

“I’m not losing more money.” Fowler grumbled.

With one more swing at him, Blades instantly saw the coming sword from Bludgeson and jumped back, the rockets in his legs lighting up to fly him back.

“Decapitation?” Bludgeon spoke. “Commendable.”

“Really?”

“A trickster is not an invalid form of a warrior, nor is it a shameful form of fighting. Victory defines strength, with certain exceptions but such things are an expected concept when living."

Blades rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, nuances and all.”

Bulkhead grinned. “A lot like Rodimus.”

“Good.” The bot said too happily. Then he threw his swords at Blades, who barely managed to sidestep them as Bludgeon drew out his larger sword, before stabbing into the gap of his cheek, going from one side to the other. Then he pulled it out swiftly to the point of throwing it, letting his haggard, beastly breath scorch the blade into a glowing sword, with the sharp end thinly white, the brightness becoming more orange as it consumed the blade. Bludgeon then grabbed it, and pointed it to the helicopter bot. 

“That’s not how-” Ratchet found himself at a loss of words trying to understand how Bludgeon even pulled off such a thing. Bulkhead and Arcee were the same, actively amazed by the feat of the bot.

Miko looked over to Raf, wincing. “You’re fucked.”

“I’m not one for mercy, and you are the same.” 

Blades held his two blades tightly, Bludgeon bent his knees forwards and blurred right onto his general direction. Blades instantly crouched, feeling the heat brush over him before pushing his legs in a snap and leaping away from the attack as the sword made contact with the machine behind him.

The heat instantly cut through the metal and left a glowing wound, hitting the cave wall and even melting a small amount of the earth near it. 

“What trick now!?” Bludgeon cheered.

“How the hell is supposed to-” June groaned, already deciding to just hope.

Blades blacked out for a blink and then ran off. The swordsman replied by chasing him through the mine, cleaving against anything that Blades went over. A drill, an elevator, and whatever he could was chopped up, leaving their bits to lay about on the ground with droppings of melted steel falling onto the ground. As Blades leapt over a drill, it would be sliced in one direct swing. 

By the time he had dodged another hit, Blades threw a knife at him. Bludgeon merely deflected it with the blade, a slow-mo scene showing the blade melting it into bright molten metal like it was nothing. “Anything else?” 

Bumblebee flinched. “Can you even fight a bot that melts you when you try to fight?” Raf sighed.

“Things can happen.”

Jack rolled his eyes. “Hopefully.” Then the thrown knife melted. “Hopefully.” He repeated, more concerned.

Blades grinned. Then threw another as he clicked on a trigger attached to his hand. The button was under his thumb around the knuckle. “Could’ve remembered we use bombs too.” Bludgeon’s eyes widened as Blades swiftly jumped, the rockets accelerating him into the top before the sound of an explosion briefly entered his awareness.

“That’s a Wrecker alright.” Bulkhead chuckled. “That’s a genuine Wrecker.”

Optimus sighed in relief. It was insane of a gamble, but that was how it was done from their hand.

Flames and a shockwave ensnared his very being, but the bot was not affected as Blades hoped, standing with a few twitches of pain.

Then a growl came, one not from Bludgeon. 

A recoil came from virtually everyone when the noise came. “The hell was that!?” Fowler questioned instantly, already turning to Optimus for answers. The bot didn’t answer.

Blades didn’t even hesitate as he jumped away from the noise. Only to see the source. Bludgeon himself also saw it. The bot instantly raised his blade against the creature while Blades simply ran right from the cave. “Run dumbass!”

“And miss what is clearly in front of us!?”

Blades looked incredulous.

“God. He’s like Miko.” Jack groaned.

June nodded. “She’d be friends with him in some other world.” Ratchet crunched his face at that.

Outside, Nitro dodged another bullet as it ricochet from the tossed coin, moving faster and hitting stronger as it did so. The battlefield was littered with craters and Torque looked like he was going to snap. “I swear if there’s another-”

Another shot tried to hit him.

“Come on!” Fowler groaned.

The Prime huffed. “Take his attention for a bit.” Torque’s face contorted into indignation, but Nitro simply kept moving closer, and with 3 steps of her dash, and Wildwheel predictably began tossing his coins again, shooting at the to deter her. As the three bullets bounced off and nearly hit her, Nitro simply took another cover with the box as the bot fired directly at her. 

Fowler looked at Miko, incredulous. “Why me!?”

“It’s a plan!”

“I’m not liking it!”

Wildwheel grunted. “I’d thought the one that murdered fucking Overlord would be tougher!” He then fired a few more rounds before tossing out his coins. 

Only for Nitro to fire a shot directly at his face.

It didn’t hit exactly as she would hope, but she wasn’t relenting. Firing a few more shots at him, the Autobot turned her feet into wheels. The bot screamed as the shot ran right into his left shoulder, a burn stabbing as smoke and sizzling came forth. Nitro rolled her eyes.

June narrowed her eyes. “Anyone got an idea for that?”

Optimus shook his head. “Nothing comes to mind.” As he watched the moment Miko began missing her shots, he bit the metallic lower lip. “Are you good at aiming?”

“Nope.” She answered curtly 

“Die.”

Quick as sound, both shot at the same time, the projectiles hitting each other and exploding. Wildwheel grunted. “Where’d you learn that trick? The old Underground?” Nitro guessed.

“How’d you figure that?”

As the two prepared for another shootout, something came against that. 

“RUN!” 

‘Blades?’ Nitro snapped out of her insult against Wildwheel as she saw both a flaming mech (the samurai?) and Blades running towards her. The bot bathed in flames looked like a phantom made to hunt any unfortunate bot crossing its path.

Jack placed a finger pointing up. “Nope. We’re not making that Miko.” The girl huffed at that.

It was then, of course, when the cave exploded.

The sound snapped like a blink, echoing across the land and rupturing the ground in a single sweep. The winds and shockwave roared, running past them like a downpour with the pace of a bullet as the world gravitated around the rising flames. Nitro huffed. “Seriously? I’d expect that mining this place was-”

Then something crawled from the fire of the cave entrance. Torque could feel fear drowning him when he bore witness to the horror. 

“The fuck!?”

The flames of the cave’s entrance roared, crumbling stone chipping away as the vestigial lights of yellow, orange and red mingled together. And out of the fire the beast emerged. The bot was strange, his entire rusted and discolored form unlike the more simplistic shapes of theirs, but something far more complex, more so than Bludgeon’s armoring. Each part curved onto an ornate once-bright green armor that spoke of a style older than anyone around the place. Pristine it was not though, for the whole frame was littered with holes and scars. Tendrils crawled out of it, lurching and leering at them like snakes with claws sharpened like blades.

Raf jumped in actual horror as he witnessed the beast fully revealed itself and he was not alone in that sentiment.

Optimus instinctively placed his arms in front of Bumblebee and Arcee, while Ratchet pulled out a blaster with Bulkhead outright threatening to smash the projector. Fowler outright pulled his gun shakily against the screen as Miko, June and Jack hugged Raf. 

It was not many days a Prime could be shivering, but the visage of the beast itself made him question if Primus was truly kind. Thoughts like that rarely entered his mind, only half-made musings that were only sculpted in passings of things with more pressing matters. But even across worlds he had to wonder how kind his god was.

Ratchet couldn’t help but wonder if Dark Energon could do this. The corpse’s appendages were not natural, cleanly so. The rust was all consuming with nothing clean or even darkened silver. It was littered with leakings and tearings like the bot had fought, died and was stolen back into the world. 

The beast leapt right into them, only for Nitro to pull out a shotgun and shoot it right into their face. The beast was pushed back mid-air, thrusted backwards onto the wall of burning rubble, but it wasn’t deterred. The beast was simply growling, the scarred, disfigured face looking at her as it got up. 

“Fuck are you?”

The beast simply attacked again, this time the tendrils slammed onto the ground, causing it to shake with cracks spreading wildly. She didn’t even feel it. Another shot of the double barrel shotgun blasted the chest, but the beast managed to stand ground against it. Barely. Nitro shot again.

Miko grinned, pushing fear down as she shook her fist in delight at the sight. June sighed.

The beast just hurled itself against her and Nitro rolled back, making another shot against it. Bludgeon huffed. “A sparkeater. I thought it was a myth, and yet I see one with my own eyes.” The bot summoned a blaster from his arm and began shooting, only for it to dodge the shots. “I remember the old poem.”

“Nickel, iron, cobalt, chrome,

He'll eat your soul,

Turn your spark to stone,

Nickel, iron, cobalt, chrome,

Run, little robot, run away home.”

Bludgeon sang curtly as continued shooting.

“Sparkeater!? You’re fucking with me!”

At Torque’s retort, the bot laughed. “The beast itself is right in front of you and yet you doubt the truth? It can stare at you and yet you’ll deny it.”

“We don’t have such a myth for that kind of … thing.” Ratchet explained. As Bludgeon spoke, Ratchet had to push down the idea that he might’ve just never seen his version of Cybertron identify it correctly. “And what culture would make such a cruel poem?”

Miko chuckled. “You need to read the Brothers’ Grimm sometime after this.”

“It wants me!” Nitro rolled back again as a roar filled the air. “Torque! Take your chance and fire on it!” A shot instead suddenly pierced her shoulder. 

Wildwheel laughed. “Sorry for taking my chance! Let’s scram!” Before he could even turn, Blades manifested behind him against his awareness and chopped his arm in response. “Hey!” The bot screamed in pain at his right arm missing, the energon spilling down onto the ground and drawing the beast’s attention for a moment.

“Thought I wouldn’t be prepared for you?” He growled.

“Are you serious!?” June turned to a sweating Miko, furious. “You can’t just-” Then the shoulder shot happened. “...My point exactly. Thanks Raf.” Raf smiled at both that and his alternate. 

Fowler groaned.  “Damnit Silas.”

Bulkhead growled, before chucking at the bot’s karma.

Taking the moment, Bludgeon instead rushed and tried to cut into the beast, swinging his burning sword right onto the shoulder. The armor cracked, the blade’s heated edge dipping into the form, but the beast just roared and hurled the tendrils against his chest, the claws piercing right through the samurai bot and instantly sent pain to destroy the firm stance he had. “Damnit!” 

Optimus almost dropped his jaw at the resilience. “That strike barely did anything.”

Ratchet rolled his eyes at the stupidity, but his nerves jolted at the instant of the tendrils’s gruesome reply. Nowhere near his spark, but the leaking Energon enough to make him shiver. 

Torque then shot it right into the head. The beast flinched, head shaking painfully and Blades rushed, swiftly taking the fire sword and hitting it right onto the neck. It didn’t cut through past a dip. Jumping away, the beast simply went mad and pulled out the tendrils, spilling out energon and trying for another attack.

Nitro shot it again, this time on the tendrils, forcing it to flinch in pain as the appendages distorted under the force. The beast instead went back to her, rushing for the Prime. “Chop the tentacles and we get something!” She ordered as her shots continued to deter and slow the thing.

“Aim for the tendrils!” Miko growled. 

Fowler raised an eyebrow. “How is screaming that gonna help?” Then the decapitation attempt failed. “Halfway sure that nothing that really hurt it, even the fire sword from Bludgeon ha-” And before he could finish, Nitro shot the tendrils, silencing him. Miko chuckled.

“How about that?”

Optimus chuckled. “Good.”

With a grunt, Blades made one rushed swing, his entire body blurring to hurl the swing at just the right direction. The flame streak turned into a bright light for a moment, the edge moving downwards and taking the tendrils off. The metal screamed, shaking as the beast felt the limbs taken from its senses. The green energon leaked, almost acidic with its steam and the rancid smell.

“Damn.” Blades’s face scrunched up as some sizzling droplets landed on him. 

“Holy shit.” Fowler gleefully indulged in the feat. “Finally doing something!” 

Arcee and the rest were happily alongside him, until the spill came. Then the air turned worried. “He’s not going to have problems right?” She turned to a suspicious Ratchet.

“I don’t exactly know.”

Nitro growled. “Fucking die already.” Another shot rang, hitting it right into the face and knocking it out, energon leaking from its facial holes. The beast twitched, feeling itself rattled and Nitro didn’t hesitate to continue, hitting the head as she walked closer to it. She summoned a thin knife and jab it right into the eye socket with a shot from her forearm when she towered over the thing. 

The brain was instantly hit, letting it finally die.

Optimus flinched as he watched the violence ensued. The bot being slayed was, regardless of his bestial form, a person once. Whatever tales he lived was not the matter he should focus on, but it bothered him to witness Miko slaughter him.

As the thin knife slid through the eye, June didn’t miss how Miko didn’t comment on it past a chuckle, not even a jab as the girl focused on the discomforted Prime.

A spacebridge suddenly manifested behind her, with Firecycle dragging Nitro from the field. “Come the fuck in!”

=

Firecycle sighed as she looked over the gaping wound on Nitro’s shoulder. “The bullet is still inside you.” She began holding her down as the metal pincher was jabbed into the hole, making her squirm. “You have to stay still.” She hissed. The pincher twitched around the insides of the shoulder, hitting the inner metals and rigs with the leaking energon spilling about onto her fingertips. With a grunt, she found the bullet and clawed onto it, grabbing and began pulling it out. 

“I’ll be fine. The Matrix will help.” She claimed, only for Optimus to sigh. The medic was more vocal.

“Nope.” Ratchet sniped. “The Matrix is not some magical solution to everything that plagues you otherwise we would not be here.” With the sight of the bullet inside her body, the bot shivered. “I’m more thankful that you’re not a member of us. You’d be killing yourself at every attempt at a fight.”

June twitched.

“A Sparkeater.” Highbrow spoke, completely limp to Torque’s explanation. “A Cybervore, Soulsnatcher, the Nightmare with a Thousand Names?”

“Yes.” He groaned.

“Kinda tacky.” Bulkhead admitted.

Ratchet raised his eyebrow, before rolling his eyes. “Doesn’t make it any less frightening.”

Highbrow was clearly losing his mind in a silent form. Ash raised her eyebrow. “What is that? A vampire myth?”

Firecycle huffed. “More of a fusion of zombie, vampire and werewolf, but mostly on the first.” The pink blood spilling more as the bullet slowly left the wound. She instantly placed a metal seal as the bullet was taken from the chasm of the wound. “Myth mostly but things haven’t been sane lately so why not?”

“You are way too calm about that.”

She smirked. “You were not with us when this started losing its sanity.”

“We have but few myths like how you compare it, so it must be a quirk of this world.” No one commented on Ratchet’s less than firm voice. 

Optimus sighed. At the comment about the world, he wondered if this was his loss of sanity. Not for himself but for the world around him.

Suddenly a ring echoed from Anna, who sighed as she picked up her phone. Reading the texts, her eyes widened. “Shit! Gotta go home!” She turned around, only to realize her lack of a ride. She gulped “...Can you guys buy me a new bike?”

Megs shrugged. “Not hard. Already did! It’s outside and here are the keys.” She placed the keys down on the table.

“He will not.” Jack instantly spoke before Miko could put a word in.

“Jack’s right.” Fowler added. 

June gave her a pat on the shoulder.

As the pair left the room, Ash remained as Highbrow took the weird sample off Blades’s body, the bot leaving to clean himself as the brainy blue began looking over the bizarre energon variant. Highbrow sighed as he placed it into a container. No one really noticed her aside from Firecycle, who gave one look before simply letting her be.

“So what do you see?” She asked.

“Nothing that I could understand.” He twitched, before taking another gear in his rush to analyze it. “We’re possibly seeing things that defy rational logic.” Firecycle looked to Nitro, who also shot her a look. “The Ark had lost technology, not fucking legends. How can you even deal with this?”

“The bot was old looking.” Torque added. “He looked like he was some kind of old explorer. If it was from the Ark, then we would’ve seen it earlier. Maybe others came here before?”

Firecycle sighed. “We’ll make ideas later, let’s rest.”

“For you.” Highbrow bit back in a whisper.

“Something bad will happen.” Arcee was twitching, the side of her upper lip jolting with each word. “She’s a Silas.”

While part of the man was chuckling at Silas becoming a verb, Fowler was raising his eyebrow at that suspicion. “Maybe she’s a Miko? And you’re just paranoid.” The bike bot glared at the agent for that, who in turn looked completely flabbergasted by the rage directed.

Ratchet narrowed his eyes when the statement of logic came up. It had been established with how the world here didn’t experience Primus in their lifetime, but it still baffled him. An era of Primus, then it all slipping into myth was even beyond him.

Jack rolled his eyes at Highbrow’s bite. “All-nighters.” He groaned.

As Ash left the place for her new bike, Nitro suddenly ran up to her with the loud footsteps nearly making her fall. The bot realized how the ground felt, stopping with an apologetic face. “Where do you live?” She asked.

“Crappy apartment. Why?”

Nitro looked at her. “You’re lying.”

Miko raised an eyebrow at Arcee, but Fowler was less merciful. “Hah! Told ya!” The bike simply huffed. Then Fowler realized something. “Wait, she’s homeless.” Optimus placed his arm against Arcee’s front, telling her enough. “She’s living with them now?”

Optimus smiled. “Nitro’s invitation is blatant. I hope she takes it.”

Ash huffed, but didn’t look at her eyes. “So?”

“We have living quarters.” Nitro began. “You don’t have to be like this.”

Silently, the girl got onto her bike and began turning on the car, only for Nitro to pick her up. The girl was screaming, but the bot didn’t care, taking her into the base with the bike in her other hand. “I know that look, I know it just as much.” Nitro began. “And we’ve got space.”

“What makes you think I’ll just roll over?”

“We’re not defeating you.”

She huffed.

Optimus’s smile faltered, looking rather concerned. Rarely did he not come across people bitter like her. But she was in good hands.

He hated how a small part of him doubted that.

“Bad life.” Fowler summed up. “Guess that’s life.”

=

A buzzsaw’s noise against metal screeched as Soundblaster looked over the corpse with an almost bored look, barely caring to actually examine it past watching lazily Brainstorm and Trailblazer, but her mask was gone. It wasn’t hidden that she was absolutely interested in the mythical creature’s body. The biology, the chemistry and just general existence.

A sigh echoes out from Trailblazer as he tried to cut through the skin. The buzzsaw that was grinding endlessly and yet nothing dug deep enough to punch through the armor. Brainstorm then began screaming as he threw away the saw into the wall. The bot’s voice became a bomb in the blink of an eye. The bot calmed down just as quickly.

Wildwheel chuckled a bit. “Problem doctor?”

“Silence.” Brainstorm then turned his head to Soundblaster. “I can’t even pierce the skin in a way that preserves the internals! I need to develop a tool to peel this!” 

Soundblaster simply shrugged. And turned to leave. Brainstorm simply growled before grabbing Trailblazer’s arm. “The Energon leaking from this thing is like a sludge so it won’t move, but if you don’t clean yourself up it’ll be around 3 hours until joy ends.” The bot promptly left the room, leaving a shaken partner scrambling to the cleaning booth. 

Optimus narrowed his eyes as he watched the research’s end. In spite of the comedic antics, it wasn’t something to witness lightly. “So Megatron has the Dark Energon, Soundblaster has Sparkeaters. If she could mobilize it into a plague, an army of such scale would be catastrophic." Ratchet shrugged.

“The creature was clearly more dependent on the host body. A Sparkeater of an average would not be that big of a threat.” The medic chuckled as he watched Brainstorm scream at the other medic. “And it seems like it can’t be truly harvested.”

Then the leaking spill scene happened. “What was that?” Jack sarcastically asked the medic bot. At his silence, the boy sighed. “Great.”

Hours later, Soundblaster was seen looking at the corpse, her weapons already peeling into the beast’s internals with an observation of the strange Energon inside the vial, the green essence looking like a plague. With a sigh, she began looking through the new readings.

The screens were assorted in a half circle, five screens and two rows. The strange keyboards all clicked on their own, an antenna now protruding from the back of Soundblaster, giving her a strange look as she dug deep in the dark with the screens and keyboards and interfaces as the only forms of light within the room.

Symbols manifested with each passing moment on the screens, readings going wild. Soundblaster then suddenly retracted her mask, revealing a scarred face. A long blot of rough darkened silver was on the side of her face, around her lip and under her eye with the width of a few fingers. She opened her coms. “Brainstorm!” 

Jack raised an eyebrow. “The hell did she find? And if she’s doing this under their notice, she must’ve found something crazy for Vince to be called.”

“I don’t think it’s safe, that’s for sure.” Arcee then began a bet. “Whatever wagered, betting it’s Prima.”

“You’re on.” Bulkhead replied.

Brainstorm groaned as he looked through the body himself, glaring at Soundblaster after his quick inspection. “You drag me from sleeping for this? Why?”

“You see the ancient sigils from Primon herself.” 

Miko paused. “So she dragged him out for that? And who’s Primon?”

“Prima, Primus. Kinda obvious that she’s connected to them.” Arcee summed up. “Though how she fits with the first Matrix bearer and the god of Cybertronians is something that makes me curious. And also-” She turned to Bulkhead with a grin. “Month long servitude.”

“Damn it.” Ratchet laughed in response.

Optimus couldn’t help but be suspicious of that concept. Were things different a hard idea? Yes, but this made something inside him burn for a moment.

Then Miko unpaused.

“I do, and I also know we have more time to do this after rest.” Brainstorm grumbled. “So shut up and slumber awaits me and I will not leave-” A gun was pointed. “...Asshole.”

“Shit boss.” Miko chuckled.

Time passed, revealing Brainstorm putting together a makeshift computer the size of his chest. “The wires are off?” At the nod, he huffed. “This is the only way we can glean his message.”

“You think ritual?” The Imperator asked.

Brainstorm shook his head. “Nope. The markings are rough, but it’s not uniform in that as well, the way it’s done looks nothing less than a hurried final word before death or this.”

A weird appendage was connected to the machine he made, and he slowly inserted each of the three needle drills into the corpse, right into the scalped head of the creature, each one fitting into a hole he made. 

“What the hell?!” Ratchet almost puked at that. The wet noise of the organ’s violation almost made him explode in equal rage and revulsion. “How is this even an idea!? Much less one that anyone thinks should work!?” Behind him, Bulkhead was actually holding it back worse.

Miko paused and gave him the go while looking queasy herself.

Arcee groaned, with Bumblebee looking queasy at such weirdness. Jack reeled back with Raf, while June and Fowler shrugged. “How do you-”

“Raf, I’m a nurse and Fowler’s a soldier, we’ve seen worse.” As Bulkhead returned, the group took deep breaths. “Go for it Miko.”

A wet-like noise whispered as the needles dug deep. “Usually, Mnemosurgery is a class of mental invasion that one can use for many things, mostly coroners really. Bodies need to be fresh and this is most certainly not.” He spun a few, stopping when he heard a ping for each.

“This is taught!?” Ratchet could barely comprehend that.

Arcee shivered. “Fucking hell.”

“So how will this help? You haven’t explained it.”

He raised an eyebrow. “You allowed me to do this.”

“Your list was efficient and all things considered not heavy in any way.” She explained. “So how does this work?”

“Rossum’s Trinity is a functional ideal of how a Cybertronian’s three cores existed.” A few pieces were inserted into the machine, with wires jolting up energy kicking things into gear. “The Spark, Brain Module and Transformation Cog System. There is a theory that there’s a way to recover a mind despite the doctor’s claim against such things. While Mnemosurgery is delicate, this could infect anyone else and so I’m using this computer to access his dormant mind safely.”

Ratchet raised a brow at that statement. “Never heard of such a bot in my time. I’d chalk it up to it being a different world.”

“Will it be more risky?”

“Would you trust a machine over a living person to do Mnemosurgery?” At the silence, he nodded. “Good. I can tell you that the shift between energy to mass is something that requires all three, but the memory of both forms is deeply important.”

“So that’s his plan?” Optimus asked. “He’s gambling on the scarce chance that the mind isn’t truly all they have.”

“It sounds insane. Cheap tech doesn’t make him impressive.” Ratchet retorted.

Miko laughed. “It’s gonna work. Let’s-”

“I will not bet Miko.” Fowler cut in.

“He has a hole in his brain.”

“Memories of such things are not reserved for the mind.” Suddenly the body twitched madly, making Soundblaster point her arm cannon at the corpse. “Don’t worry!” Brainstorm assured as he began running codes against the invasive and broken psyche being prodded. Suddenly the body went limp, like it never even moved.

“Holy shit!” Arcee also found herself holding a loudly scared Bee as Optimus manifested the gun from his hands. Ratchet and Bulkhead were also making the weapons out. “What the fuck!?”

June and Miko held the other tightly as Raf hugged Jack firmly. Fowler felt honestly naked without the gun.

The Autobot groaned. “There’s an idea that the TCS is capable of acting like a memory holder for these things just as much a mind does, and it was proven true.” A new data card was ejected from the computer and into his hand.

“I hate Vince.” Fowler commented. 

Jack huffed. “Not him.”

As the bot logged it in. Words began manifesting. “I gained everything.” As the info was plugged in, both began going through the information. “Let’s see-” Suddenly the words came up. And both froze.

“This looks fun.” Miko rolled her eyes at the lack of any showings of what was on the dead bot’s brain. “Wish the cube wasn’t a fucking tease.” June chuckled at the girl’s snippy comment. “Any snacks?”

“Sandwich.” June passed to her.

Optimus could feel something was encroaching on the sense of stability. Whatever secret the bot held, it was already blatantly mind-numbing and horrifying. Arcee beside him was looking to see what kind of horror would be within it. Frankly, there wasn’t a list that didn’t exist to chart what happened during the war.

=

“What was Cybertron like?”

Nitro hummed. “Hell.” She revealed. “We were born within the hot spots to own bodies that were essentially put to work. Mines, sanitations, factories and whatever you could name. Creativity became a dead idea in the face of Authority Systems that essentially pumped your brains full of bullshit, nothing was owned and shanix was still taken from us.” There was a hint of something unnatural in her eyes as Ash watched. “I gave up feeling content, fell in with the Autobots to feel something inside the gaping hole in my soul.”

“You found it by being a soldier.” The lack of a question filled the air.

Nitro chuckled. “Being fulfilled by reality instead of hell covered in lies has its perks.”

Ash’s gaze went to the hallway. “So my room is there? With you?”

“Guarding you.”

Miko didn’t speak, but rather shrunk in the most subtle way one could, surpassing her own limitations for the moment. June noticed instantly but kept herself silent. But then the guarding statement came.

“Paranoia much?” Bulkhead laughed.

“Nitro?” Firecycle walked in with a grin, almost cleanly tired from her voice. “You’re still up? Our charger is ready and you need it. Now.” Ash chuckled as Nitro flinched, her body suddenly feeling lethargy run up.

“I guess I’ll be having privacy now.”

“Sure kid.”

The bot followed her girlfriend with a sigh. Firecycle spoke before she could put a word in. “You should let her have her own space, Nitro. It helps her deal with this more.” Ash slumbered into her sleep as both bots walked into the charging pod.

Fowler hissed awkwardly into his fist when the word “our” was placed with “charger”. “So I guess June and Miko sleep in the same-”

“Shut. Up.” Jack spoke before rubbing his head in pain. “We don’t need to comment on that. At. All.”

“Do you remember when we became Conjuxes?” Firecycle spoke as the two stepped into the pod hugging the other. “You said something about … my shift-lever being dirty?”

Nitro chuckled. “I spilled some soft-served cold-cream on you, I wanted to wipe you clean!” She then gave her a look. One that screamed nothing but love. One that Firecycle gave back as she grabbed Nitro’s thigh, with Nitro grabbing her waist in return. The pair giggled face to face.

As every felt a breath of air robbed within the instant the looks came, one agent had too much air to use. “Wait-can Cybertronians fuck!?” Fowler spoke up in shock as the pair conversed. Jack gave him a demonic glare as he asked the lurid question. Miko paused around the same time.

“Can you!?” Miko then asked as well.

Optimus, for once in his time on earth, looked very manic. “OF COURSE NOT!?”

“We don’t have that ability. I hope.” Arcee replied, already feeling deeply uncomfortable from the scene. Her mind also hated her. “I mean theoretically, we could modify-”

Ratchet turned to her with the speed that would impress a Velocitronian. “Arcee, I will bring the wrath of Primus if you go deeper into that.”

June and Miko on their end wanted to burn spontaneously and become ashes.

The scene went back to Highbrow on the table, examining the samples as the noise of rapidly clanking metal began ringing. “Fucking hell.” He clicked a button to make noise into his head, specifically some music.

Jack growled, turning to both Miko and June as the two shrank. Raf looked like he wanted to jump into a void alongside Fowler. Ratchet felt so ill he wanted to die and Bulkhead was ready to jump in and protect Miko. Optimus found the air so nightmarish he barely managed to will his voice open.

“I understand that this is a very debilitating scene, but please wait. Be patient." He emphasized it hard enough that it almost came off like a threat. Jack sighed, grunting as he tried to understand the air’s demand for calm. Miko and June both looked deeply uncomfortable at the ongoings, but silence came.

With the song blocking out the robotic intercourse, Highbrow began looking over the scans of the acid that he took from Blades. Schematics pulled up, each detailing a strange property to the strand it picked out to analyze. Highbrow raised an eyebrow when he saw something. Each new strand showed him something as he tried to compare the signatures to other materials. He made a call on his wrist.

Ratchet looked closer as the signatures came up, each form being something that bridged between being something he could narrow down a counterpart and being completely foreign to him. It didn’t matter much to him long term, but he was too curious to not look.

“Torque?”

“Yeah, what is it ‘Brow?” The orange bot groaned.

“Do you recall any research by Exarchon about a mutation on SMB? I vaguely recall it.”

“Yeah, some guy named Shockblast?”

“Shockblast? As in Shockwave?” Bulkhead asked, only for Ratchet to snort.

“Possible, but it might just be a name similarity.”

A file came up. “Shockblast believed in reconstructing a Cybertronian’s transformation ability, to make a multi-changer without a limit.” Highbrow began matching up the data between the subject and the archives. “But he failed. Limits are something that isn’t predictable in how sturdy they are. And yet I wonder if that thing you killed may be a result of something worse.”

“Shockblast was involved?”

“Potentially.”

For a moment, Optimus almost grinned somberly. It was routine to see such things ensue without any rest to the mind. 

Ratchet narrowed his eyes. “If he’s right, then wouldn’t that imply that the Ark was already raided?”

“Yeah.” Miko snorted. “It's just a zombie or others had been doing what Shocky wanted for years.”

The scene cuts to a gun being fired from the hillside and destroying another hill. Blades sighed, turning to Megs. “I wish things to not be slow, ya know?”

“Why?”

“Because we did nothing when it happened. I did nothing when Exarchon took everything.”

Within an instant, the scene went to Anna meeting with her parents. Her mother was a slightly tanned and gaunt woman with black hair and glasses where one lens was red, indicating a missing eye. Her father was a gruff looking caucasian man with a scowl on his face. He also had a mustache, short red hair and a sharp boxy face. “Pray tell, why were you missing for hours Anna?” Optimus’s voice rumbled. Her mother stood beside him with a police uniform.

Anna was trying her best. “...Work?”

“You got a job?”

“Yeah!”

Ratchet froze when he saw the woman beside him. 

“Damn.” Arcee smirked. “Having the Optimus as a father? I scored.”

One part of Optimus was pleasantly surprised by the revelation of his parenthood in the other world, almost giving him a chuckle if the other part of him didn’t narrow down onto the woman beside him in the police uniform. But Miko narrowed her eyes at his tone, and so did Jack and June. 

June looked to Fowler. “Should we…?”

He shook his head. “Nope.” 

Her father didn’t take that kindly, and her mother less so. “If that is your prerogative, then I'd like to know if you’re working in an actual work environment or something else.”

“It’s just a gig with some truckers, the lady we work with is nice.”

“And you trust her because…?”

Anna groaned. “She’s not a criminal, for crying out loud she shot some assholes trying to hurt me.”

That made both jump, with Anna realizing her mistake and closing her mouth with her hand in shock. Both parents instantly zeroed onto that. “Your bike was ruined and you got a new one from this lady, who somehow attracted danger!?” 

“She didn’t bring them, they attacked us!”

“Orion.” The mother suddenly added, then turned back to her daughter. “Anna, who is this woman?”

“Her name’s Dion.”

“No last name?”

Anna scrambles for a lie, before landing on one quickly. “...Shit, I forgot it.”

“Illogical. Was the nametag not visible?” She pressed further.

She shook her head. “No, I just realized that I never committed it to memory. It feels awkward.”

The woman gave it thought. “For now, you can go.” She then raised her finger to silence any quick reply. “Not finished. You will let us meet this Dion tomorrow. Clear?”

Anna groaned. 

Optimus visibly froze when he heard that voice. 

It wasn’t hers. 

Elita’s voice was something marked into his mind, something he could recall even when he desired the opposite. And to hear what was essentially him of another world not with her was … strange. “Ratchet, who is that?” The medical officer couldn’t answer, giving Optimus a head shake.

June perked up with Miko pausing. “That’s not Elita?”

“No, I remember her voice and this isn’t that.” Optimus eyed the woman, almost accusingly so. “This is someone else.”

Arcee herself wondered who it could be. The blond hair did make her think of someone, but the voice reminded her of another. With a gesture to Miko, the girl nodded, coughing up a bit. “So who’s her counterpart in this world?” Text came onto the screen.

[Shockwave] 

A small photo of the cycloptic Decepticon bot himself was shown to hammer it home.

“Well.” Miko huffed in fear, preparing for the bomb. “That’s fun.”

She knew enough from Ratchet’s tales of the one-eyed bot that he was something vile. She knew enough of how much everyone, even Optimus to an extent, loathed the bot. Optimus could take the high road but others would not. That was assured. Of course seeing him as a woman, as Optimus’s wife of all things was such a gut punch that it almost made her queasy to see the reactions.

Optimus froze, trying his best to gather himself as he questioned his own sanity at the mere sight of the idea of Shockwave taking her spot. Then of course beside him was madness.

“What in the fuck!?” Arcee growled as the whole room descended into a blur of grotesque screams and howls. Fowler groaned, with June looking to Miko for answers. The Autobots were incensed, but Optimus looked utterly baffled, on a certain level completely startled by the revelation.

When Optimus finally managed to pierce through the shock, he looked disturbed. The logical bot was someone he rarely knew enough about from a personal point of view, only from battle. The very features she had here was nothing like he envisioned a Shockwave would be.

Could all of them have been better? A part of him whispers. It’s tempting to think that way.

“I worry for her.” She admitted.

“That isn’t illogical Sophia.” Orion replied

The woman huffs. “I wish the world was nicer.” Orion simply chuckles bitterly at that. “She might be involved with some bad people and I hope she doesn’t do this again after Slip.”

“Her death did a number to the town.”

“I’d argue that her lack of a body made it worse.”

There’s a groan at that.

Miko raises an eyebrow to the idea of it, before simply shrugging. “Alternate universe.” She loudly rationalized. The Autobots on the other hand barely managed to cling to that reasoning at the sight of Shockwave being kind.

Within her room, Anna opened her computer and began researching the idea of the Autobots. 

Moments later she found herself glaring into the screen as more info poured in. While there had been rumors and videos, they were in poor quality.

Fowler chuckled. “What’s she tryin’? Conspiracy boards? No one has actual info on this shit.” 

June shrugged. “It doesn’t hurt to check something out.”

Finally did she stumble up onto something comparably more useful when she read an article by a handle called “Robowarrior” about a sighting in Shanghai.

‘Somehow a cybertronian slipped past a few security systems, but not every one of them. Radiation huh?’ She then rubbed her chin thoughtfully. ‘So they have something they emit that can be scanned, but the question is, if they can be traced with it?’ She then took a look at the analysis of the radiation, with the words “unknown radiogenic isotope(?) signature” on it. ‘And could it hurt us?’

Jack looked over to Optimus. “Are we-?”

“Nonesense!” Ratchet retorted. “I can assure you, that we are not radioactive in the harmful sense.”

“Oh, thank-wait.” Jack did a double take. Fowler was looking at his hands in worry. “You guys are radioactive?”

“The same way your phones are. Most electromagnetic technology is.” The medic snorted.

Within a few minutes, Orion and Sophia were lying down in bed, embracing each other as Orion giggled. “She’s gonna hear it ya know.”

“I’m sure she wouldn’t.”

Anna was completely awake as the noises pierced her world. She laid on the bed with a bored, tired and annoyed look.

Raf giggled. “Oh my god.” Miko beside him was laughing out loud.

Fowler wondered how to actually comprehend the sight before him. Optimus having sex was a bizarre sight, concept and idea. He thought about Elita, but that barely worked. Optimus himself looked rather uncomfortable, though that was more likely because of Shockwave.

“You don’t think things might get even weirder?” June whispered.

Miko snorted. “That’s not a problem for me.”

=

Here's to finally releasing this baby!

[PROLOGUE]

[NEXT PART]

[raileurta]

Thinking about Miko with the apex armor in IDW again because there are just so many interesting places where you could put her!

For instance the Lost light ship, a place known for its chaos. Her interactions with Whirl, Megatron, Ultra Magnus, Rodimus, or anyone else really would be so rich. Her meeting Whirl alone is a story within itself. Especially since Miko has the protection and fire power to be involved in the more dangerous stuff.

Or have her be with this universe’s Wreckers and the potential relationship with Verity. They share a lot in common and can bond over their respective power armor, being the token human, and green solidarity. It would be quite a blast.

Maybe in the middle of Megatron's trial for the ultimate shit show that would cause.

For something darker perhaps meeting Tarn and the rest of the D.J.D. The apex armor would protect her from most of what they could do and maybe even Tarn’s voice. If we assume they can't just press the button on the armor’s chest and deactivate it anyways. It definitely wouldn't protect her from the severe psychological damage Miko would experience there.

Then again maybe Tarn might be softer on her since she is a sparkling and acts really similar to Megatron. Can't say for sure.

In either scenario you deal with the conflict of people trying to obtain the armor. (Once again let's assume only Miko can take it off) The Apex armor is an incredibly powerful relic and almost everyone is going to be scrambling after it. Miko wouldn't just wingingly give it up either! Not only is it really important to her own world, it also keeps her safe from harm. She's not an idiot, Miko does idiotic things every so often but she's not an idiot. The girl could recognize the serious danger she is in. The armor being the only true advantage she has in this world.

Doing some basic research Miko is also going to be about waist height for most bots in this world which sucks for her. Miko is only a few feet taller than Tailgate. (12.5 feet) Though since tfp has pretty big transformers too Miko is probably used to it.

[kevinformers-ibw]

Really fun idea, but I'm very unsure about the DJD part since Nickel had her whole colony genocided by organics, so I doubt she would be organic hater #1, and it would be on sight for Miko 😭

Even during MTMTE Megatron was very much against the idea of helping organics even though he's supposed to be an Autobot now, and the DJD are basically extremists, and Tarn is Megatron's most zealous follower.

Pray to primus above she never meets them.

[raileurta]

I haven't read the comics so I'm working off guess work here, random tibits, and fanfiction heh. 😅 I know enough to think about the interesting stuff that could happen though.

[kevinformers-ibw]

It's fine! I'm just trying to be informative. Me describing the DJD as "extremists" feels a bit too nice compared to the stuff they're willing to do in the name of the Decepticon cause. They pray to statues of Megatron, they treat Towards Peace like a whole ass bible they've done a lot of horrific things to both 'bots and 'cons a like. I don't want to go too much into detail in case you're uncomfortable, but they're labeled as MTMTE's Antagonist for a reason. (Even though arguably, they should've had more screen time, but oh well.)

[nitroland]

The DJD are straight up nightmare and so is MTMTE from a view. Miko might be the last person to remember Rung who dies, which will fucking scar her.

Really, the Lost Light is a nightmare for her. Miko's going to deal with Whirl's backstory at some point and just have a hard time not being overtly pitiful when the guy comes up. She finds a guy that gets her love of the thrill and then it's also revealed that he got mutilated by the government for wanting to make clocks instead of following the caste system.

Megatron's a whole different mess since I don't think Miko will be the same like some of the others. She's not going be affected by the Nudge Gun and most certainly it's going to get complicated when Getaway when even Thunderclash joined up with him at the time. Megatron is a fucking nightmare because the more she learns, the less she's willing to give a shit.

People she'd bond with like Rung, Rodimus, Minimus, Tailgate, Drift, Ratchet and Brainstorm would get friction when she's more on the other scale about him. His little show of self-hatred would never move her.

Then Skids die. And it's going all the way to hell. Grindcore sounds like hell, and just having her there and hearing Nickel's past would fuck her up and make it harder to get her on their side.

And then Tarn just goes in. He's going to constantly torment her and try to genuinely kill her. Like Miko is going to brush against death and it's gonna scar her just fighting and seeing him exist. Megatron and her definitely have a harder time bonding.

[fishyswimswim]

Fanart of @lets-try-some-writing fic: Sometimes Apolagizing Is Enough

YET AGAIN they have created PEAK PEAK PEAK!!!!!

This fic is so sad and angsty and I LOVED seeing oppy spiralling and finally crack! I got so scared for D! PEAK FIC🎉🎉❤️💙

[lets-try-some-writing]

AHHHHHHHHH FISHY YOU HAVE STRUCK AGAIN

I WANT TO SCREAM YOUR ART IS SO GOOD!!! 💖💖💖

Orion/Optimus looks so dang haunted and i LOVE what you've done with him. Your style is delightful ✨

[nitroland]

Got to plug in my fic where he does kill D.

[nitroland]

And It Burns It All Down.

Optimus knew enough to travel across time, to prepare a message even. He doesn't know how far the effects come through.

The first thing Orion Pax wakes to is the smell of Energon.

Now he’s not opposed to Energon as the first thing in the morning. Orion loved it as anyone else would, even stole it when he would cause a ruckus. But for the moment, the bristling winds passing through the growth and the darkness of the sky tell him something else. Then the rancidity hits him. Instantly the first thing to hit his programing is that they were not in Iacon anymore. And why.

That was a given. They’ve been trekking across the entirety of Cybertron’s surface. Now it’s bouncing together in his mind. Sentinel, Quintessons, Alpha Trion. There’s the sluggish feel in his protoform, like molten metal was poured into his joints while he used them. Parts of his stung, a searing hiss running through his senses. They had Transformation Cogs now, but they weren’t invulnerable despite how incredible it was. He can’t even feel his right hand. The smell though, was the worst. It was unusually rancid, forcing the flexible metal plate that made up Orion’s face to scrunch up in revulsion. As his optics flickered, giving light to the sight in front of him, Orion’s mind kicks him, giving him the front row seat to the intensity in D’s optics as he heard the magnetic click of their evidence latching onto his arm. But the optics are the core to the rippling sea of everything else around them. All there was inside is D’s glare and the caged, binding fear that Orion felt and his voice.

They’re on the trek to take down Sentinel and free them from the Quintessons. They left Alpha Trion at his behest, with his evidence and now they’re here. Alone, against it all in a sense. 

It’s still D, and he knows that. But part of him whispers to be careful. To tread lightly on the shaky ground. Orion can’t help the fear that speaks to him. D was like them, losing everything. Sentinel had taken everything from them before they were even allowed to know they even had it. But D had taken it harder than he thought. Orion had always felt like something was off, but D loved Sentinel, revered him, even beyond what was rational at times. 

And Orion knew why. A war hero that saved them. The last of the firstborn of Primus. And now? It was a lie. They never had hope. There is no Prime to lead them, no Matrix, nothing. They were alone.

And then B screams.

B-127. A friend, a strange ally to join him in this mad show. His scream isn’t like the usual. There isn’t a single moment that makes it feel like he’s hearing the yellow guy make himself a clown. It’s fear. It’s the scream that sends a jolt running through his system like the sting of electricity during an average malfunction of the jetpacks.

“Ughh-B!” 

“STAY BACK!” And suddenly there’s two new lights going wild, blue, thin manic blurs moving around, the rev humming in the air instantly making Orion step back as the hiss ran through the air. The lights were now posed, facing him as finally, reality settled.

Colors that blurred meshed together into solid shapes, and Orion finally sees the shining form laid on the ground. 

Footsteps echo with a concerned voice. Out of the shadows was his former captain Elita, her breath tiredly making mists of transparent white. Barely had she maintained her rests with B, Orion and whatever was going on with D-16. She could understand, years of hard work was a lie but part of her didn’t miss the change in tune from it all. Orion wanted to have a private talk with the guy, and frankly she could see something coming from it. They had been close for years to the point that if one wasn’t with the other, it felt wrong in general.

Her body felt like hell for the moment. “B! What is-PRIMUS!” Elita instantly sprung into action and pulled the yellow former miner back, her eyes drawn to the front of her.

Orion was brutalized. His entire body was covered in slight burns that colored the red on him with the shredded wounds marking him and scars that left shining gaps on his frame like shattered glass shard gaps, and yet he wasn’t the concern.

Beneath him and between them was D-16.

Or what was left of him. The grey bot was a mess. His body was covered in gaping, horrid wounds that went through his frame. Segments and chunks were just … not attached. His eyes didn’t exist. D’s face was mauled, a disfigured mess where the innards spilled about with the face torn and barely even a face anymore. His arm, with the cannon chopped in half, was away from him.

Orion’s hand was now a metal axe, the kind similar to Zeta Prime’s. Orion’s optics were hypnotized by the gruesome sight before Elita punched him right in the face. 

“YOU!”

“Elita, wai-!”

“You set us up to be separated so you could kill your best friend!?” Elita accuses him. “Primus, what is wrong with you!?”

Orion could only feel confusion. Separated them? He could only recall-

A strike crushed Orion mentally, giving him a painful thrum into his head in ways he didn't think was possible. He could only recall D’s glare as the last thing before awakening. As he tried to feel his right hand, the mechanical motions flowed onto each other and loudly formed back into his hand. As he raised them in defense, the sound of mechanical workings came to his hearing, but only for a moment as they closed while Elita simply stepped back with her hand now a blaster.

Then she shot, missing him by inches and dropping him to his knees.

For a moment Orion’s mind sings just the right rhythm and he screams it. “Look! This isn’t what it looks like!” His optics land on what was an axe, D’s head and his mind connects itself again. “I-I-”

Elita raises the gun and points it right to his head.

“I … I didn’t kill him Elita.” Orion pleads. And for a moment, Elita falters under the misery that radiates around Pax. There’s the tears dropping and it hits her spark deep enough to make her lower her hand. 

A moment passes and when Elita suddenly expects an attack she instead sees a scared man, trying to understand the situation just like her. She’s unharmed, and Orion looks so pathetic as he tries to get on his feet. Beside her, B is still anxious but Elita gives him a motion to put the Energon knives down.

B only slightly lowers them.

There’s the uneasy silence that lingers between the trio. It’s all they have. As Orion tried to approach them, the two took a step back and he stops. It’s maddening. Elita’s barely can patch together a thought that allows her to keep the peace. Grunting, the former captain grabbed Orion by the arm and pulled him in. “Did you kill him?”

Faces were inches apart, Elita’s grunting and harshness met Orion’s horror and fear. As the former miner tried to explain himself, Elita sighed and patted him on the shoulder. “You’re … not-?”

“Right now? No.” Elita then took a few deep breaths. “We need all the hands we can get.”

As she turns, still deeply finicky on safety, Orion falls to his knees again with a loud thud of metal hitting earth. “I-I-I killed him.” 

Elita-1 is silent. An unholy sigh rips from her. What could she do for this? Looking at the surroundings, Elita found the burn marks of sizzling heat, the smoke still trailing from the cannon on D’s arm and all the wounds on Orion, it was clear that there was a fight. But Orion’s entire demeanor was completely against that. Elita tried to comprehend everything as it all began crashing down on her like a mine collapsing on her, where the rocks that rushed to bury her into scrap were carved from rationale to whispers to delusions. 

But all she can do is just stare. 

It's a nightmare, it's devolved into a nightmare. Inevitably so. Everything they planned for, which wasn’t much since they basically got shoved T-Cogs into their bodies right after learning that their lives and world were a lie, just blew up right in their faces and will never figure out how. She doesn't know what to believe in because despite all the evidence standing right in front of her, deep in her spark she knows that Orion would never kill his best friend and what's going on has more to it than meets the eye. 

And fuck, she’s out of her depth here.

They were all obviously out of it from the start but the meager illusion that they held from Alpha Trion was now gone. And the bitter taste of acknowledging that it was probably for the better hits painfully.

“Wh-Wh-W-AARGH!” Elita screams a wholly gnarl from her struggle, scaring both back as she forces the words out. “Who knows what did this, but-” She then glares at Orion. “-you’re not the guy. Mind-control? Spore that made you violent? Who fucking knows but it’s done. We are.”

It finally comes so surely. It was something she knew would come. The surety of knowing that they never had a chance fighting back. It comes naturally. Was it hope? Cowardice? Or was it because she lost it all? She can’t even bother to figure it out.

It didn’t take a second to understand her words. As the two try to refute her, Elita simply cuts before a voice tries. “No. I’m not going to hear anyone out.”

Orion’s words die in his mouth as Elita begins to plan out how they would leave. B, on the other hand, was the opposite.

“You can’t just leave the miners to die!” The red glare that blazes for a moment isn’t unnoticed, but Elita’s optics only roll.

The former captain almost wonders about that. The miners would be worked to death and it only enters her mind that she’s going to not fight against that. Her team was going to die, either from exhaustion or the cave-ins. It enters her sense of self, the border of self-perception to condemn them like that despite what she built with them. And she can’t care. Not anymore.

The sensation of amusement, a bleakly gallowed sense of humor comes next, that sentiment looks at the fact that the fourth member of their group was dead. They weren’t ending a task given to destroy the false Prime that condemned them to slavery to their greatest enemies. 

“Be realistic. How can we convince them with magic dust?” For a moment, she’s wondering why she’s exploding, but it comes to her like the crack of electricity. It baffled her when Alpha Trion made his idiotic sacrifice. “How can we prove that Sentinel is fake? Alpha Trion is probably dead so we don’t have the one guy that could help us.” She pinches the bridge of her nose, sighing. “And people think you’re dead, and D is dead.” She then harshly shoves her finger, pointing to his chest and where his cog was. “Our Cogs? Sentinel says a few things and we’re never gonna win.”

Orion’s body coalesces into a glooming rage and he launches himself right onto Elita’s form.  Elita side-steps it, with Orion crashing into the tree. Orion's shaking form is ringing loud enough that it’s the first thing she hears from the dirt.

“People depend on us, if Cybertron is gon-”

“I DON’T KNOW!” Elita screams, already drained of a lot of herself. She’s shaking from the rage. Why can’t he understand!? “I JUST WANTED TO NOT DIE!” She’s not really sure of why anything resembling this would happen, much less this, but Elita is fucking tired and her face is tearful mess of rage and fear. 

“…Please.”

“I can’t, and I can’t leave you behind.” She begs in return. “Come, and maybe we’ll stumble on another victory.” Does she believe that? Nope, but it’s something to put inside Orion’s mind. Orion stumbles. Suddenly he's gazing into the lights piercing through the holes and coverings above them, into the rising of their sun.

As the two uneasily followed his steps towards the light, B gave Elita a pointed look, expecting something of a plan for Orion. As the three stopped alongside Orion, they witnessed it. The last time they saw the sun, it was ruined by the train wrecking itself thanks to the large spikes, but here?

A golden heavenly mirth bloomed brightly onto the horizon, splintering its lights across the growth of Cybertron’s surface world. Orion sighs and places a hand on his head as he felt the soft touch of the star. The finicky, finicky crack of lights from the waves of them drilling down into the skulls, the annoying tic of the machines making noises as they come to the thoughts of the moment, eating the beauty. Each crack in his frame sound sends nothing but jitters to the serves of his followers. Glints becomes spinning valves rooting into place, the stars were working with the dwelling.

It's a beautiful night and Orion Pax is drowning in the melancholia, a cornucopia of tears slipping, his face frozen by the weight. D's ghost lingers in the air. A piece of Orion understands his hand in killing D. But it’s all madness to still understand it. “What happened?”

It’s a general question, but there’s something about it that makes her realize. Elita doesn’t want to be alone like Orion is now.

It hits her too harshly that some part of her is gleeful. She will never be close to a spark like they were, but that’s just a concept around her built on jealousy. The glee is from Orion ruining everything of her life. Could she have been okay with dying pointlessly?

She doesn’t know if it’s a need to feel strong or just simple fear that holds her from entertaining that thought further. “You asked to talk to D privately. That’s all that happened before you killed him.”

He doesn’t even bite back at that. “I don’t remember that. I just blacked out while standing and then … this.”

“Yeah, of cour-” Elita freezes. And blinks.

He doesn’t remember. Nothing in his mind recalled that. It hits her like a train when she remembers Orion asking to talk to D alone.

“May I speak with M-” There’s a flinch. “...D-16 for a moment.” Everything within the air around Orion is screaming something into Elita. The eyes, they spoke of something wrong. Like the incomprehensible ways everything’s ready to turn bad was awaiting them.

Then again, she felt the same.

Elita looks for a moment. It’s nothing, not even this world. It was beyond what was present. “You sounded too posh. Like you were old, like Alpha Trion.” Elita realized. “Mind control is definitely what happened.”

“What?” B looks like he’s losing his mind, and Elita was certainly doing that visibly.

“Mind control. You just carried yourself with a different vibe. Like you were someone else.”

It sits in the air, suffocated by the proposed reason for everything right now and it feels like the world beneath their feet was taken from them. Was it something comforting while truth stood silently, even at her? Elita doesn’t know. And all she knows is that something wrong was in the air.

“Any ideas?”

Orion sighed. “We need to find help, actual help.” As he felt the brim of energy in his chest, it snaps. “Or the T-Cogs!” The cogs. Why wasn’t that on his mind at first? “If we get the stash that Sentinel could have, then we can prove he’s lying!” Oh the desperation, it’s almost comical.

It’s actually comical.

In a bout of nausea and exhaustion, Elita nods tiredly with no sincerity for him. Now that's bullshit. The Cogs are probably destroyed and the upper-class probably sided with Sentinel and knew just as much about the tearing, but she’s not sure if she even has a life to go back to. Who knows. The thrilling steps beneath her no longer vex her long enough—

Before she could throw an insult, it plays into their heads. A strange buzz of noise rumbling in their heads as the trio snapped against motion. Fear gripped them as the noise clawed against distortions to reveal itself. Then it snaps into clarity. Elita hisses as the pull of the signal comes in, with B already on his knees as it came through.

An old voice rumbles with experience that feels beyond them. “This code is directly connected to your brain modules, a design of Perceptor. My name is Optimus Prime. I was born Orion Pax, a miner of Iacon. I was blessed with the Matrix when my friend D-16 shot me in his rage. As I was made Prime, D-16 became Megatron and forged the Decepticons through the remnants of the High Guard, and our world was gripped with a civil war for years. This message must reach you. I’ve travelled back in time to give you a second chance. The Matrix is at the center of Cybertron itself, the large chasm is the path to it and it rests all on you three. B, Elita, Orion. I understand this feels beyond you. I understand it must be cruel, but there’s not much, the horrors are too great for this to be clean. The Quintessons attacked and now-”

Before anyone can even comment on everything that just shot itself at them with frightening speed, a cacophony of noises suddenly emerged to cut through the voice, like a mix of signals. Explosions and broken metal. The throb of tentacles suddenly pouncing as a new voice became desperate. 

“We don’t have time!” He suddenly groans in horrible pain, like it drowned his insides like a violent molten torture. He’s puking something. “It’s insid-” A grotesque noise suddenly silences him, the intermingling of mechanical brutality and organic spilling comes with the high screech of something. The noise creates a truly mindbending image before it cuts out instantly.

Another noise plays. And again. And again. And another nightmare plays right around them in the increasingly barren world, life being extinguished by the sound.

“Oh god.” B’s voice was barely there anymore. She couldn’t blame him there.

The dead silence from the cut is madness itself.

SNAP

Elita’s eyes barely managed to make us as she feels what could be a swirling tornado she’s inside of. The colors mingled only in the form of laying, the colors lived separately, and a mass of them had taken them and Elita fucking ran against her will. The entire blot of sensations is maddening for her as her processors may be adept at the concept of flying into the complex, constantly glitching in every attempt to see, hear or just trying to feel the world without it breaking down like a cave crushing her.

⚞>*<⚟

The whole damn world was finally returning to her after who knows how long, Elita drops from the rock holding her and falls onto the cave.

She slams onto the ground feeling the bruises hit every point of her frame. As the echoes of her metal crashing still rings, Elita grabs what’s left of her up and instantly, the feel of her left arm surges like a burning fire and a void. As the discomforting absence and pain dragged her out of the darkness mentally, Elita looks and-

“Elita!” Orion arrives, bruised, and carrying her left arm with him. The former miner is hysterical, completely lost in his horror while Elita is just tired. “Oh god! Oh-oh-okay, okay! I can-” Orion heaves as he tries to force her arm back onto her frame. “I can-I can-hah!-I can fix this!” Frankly, it’s amusing that he thinks he could do it. Elita turns into a barrel of laughter as Orion attempts to appeal to shred the very strings of tune and harmonious mind crushing decadence that consumes her for the moment.

He looks bewildered. Just thrown off. She laughs harder. 

Explosion ring out, though more deeply pathetic than the mines make. Orion’s haggard breaths pours into her senses as she field the fact that he's basically taken over as the ride from what even is on here.

Cracks came, their loud births running a noise piercing through the entire cave. Orion screams something but it's so far that Elita stopped a moment. And she sees the gorge fracture on both sides, the sound from the places beyond her sight becoming more lunatic. Her body twitched. But she's sinking, sinking, into fire and fury. It’s all Elita sees.

“ELITA!” Orion roars, almost finally becoming a bit more of a maniac. “I can’t lose you too!” She giggles.

With a tight grip, she pushes it back in herself. And then ‘clink’ echoes, Elita wonders what was the surge of sensation she just felt before her arm returns. It punches her in the gut and floods her mind, like she was drowning. As her arm returns to her, she weakly drags her body upwards, lifting weight into the air. 

“So what’s going on?”

“An energy earthquake, like the mine.” Orion looks around for the trace of B, but frankly she can’t even bother to comment. “B’s around her, but I think he’s still trapped under some of the rocks.” He heaves as he tries to find the trace of yellow shining anywhere. It’s both hilariously maddening and kinda sad. Elita feels the suffocating air of the cave, the scarce forms of light peering through gaps that almost felt like fantasy and it’s utterly whimsical.

Orion then screams out his name. “B!” He looks tired from just the first. “B!” 

Then it echoes. A scream returning.

“GUYS!?” B’s voice returns to them and Elita groans. Orion transforms and dashes to the voice. 

Elita simply walked to the lights trying to find the one where she would be completely under. Her steps felt like a heavy weight pulling her down, the lightness simply hiding in her feet as the rest of her pulled. Maybe it’ll be less painful. She can barely figure out what’s bouncing in her mind but she stares up to the light. With a sigh, she makes her hand a gun again and began shooting upwards.

As the rocks began falling around her, the light grew to a massive level and Orion arrives with B. Elita groaned. 

“So what now Optimus?” She jeers, her grin growing when the discomfort shows. “What are we doing now?”

“I don’t know.” Elita’s laugh makes him flinch. It bled in his mind that none of them asked for this. Even when he felt there was something wrong with the world they were born into, this was beyond them. “I get that-”

“We should be doing something!” B suddenly interjects. “We can’t just be moping around now!”

Orion groans. “I need rest, and so do Elita and you.” He didn’t exactly hide his displeasure at B when he emphasized the yellow bot’s exhaustion. 

“It must be wild for this huh?”

“Time travel, being a Prime.” He groans.

“So what now? You’re the boss right? What do we do?”

“Elita, I barely know what’s happened. I didn’t ask for any of this.”

She chuckles darkly. “Your best friend deserved to die by the admission of your future self, so call me a bastard. But that makes you head honcho now. You had some code.”

It digs deep into Orion to realize that the message isn’t fake. It beamed into their heads. It was like divinity was now showing them a light in the dark and the light was crueler than anything he’d anticipated. His hands did it. Not mind control, but a version of him older and wiser than he was now by miles.

“So what’s the plan, Optimus Prime?”

The memory comes back. It’s recent, but it holds more weight than even the revelation for Sentinel’s true nature. There’s a creeping feeling that Orion doesn’t even want to feel anything about. It crawls to him that it’s the Quintessons. A disgusting revelation with the noise echoing in his mind, the lurid image from his own imagination being mere phantasms, sensations of an idea. But it guts him when he feels what it is. And Elita probably knew that already. 

Whatever part of the world that his other self comes from, Orion frankly wants nothing from it.

“Maybe they'll give you the Matrix.” Orion sneers. “I don’t want it.”

“Cybertron is dying right now.” Elita sneers, almost treading the line between disappointment and cowardly glee. “And you’d condemn it to this? Primus is loathing his butchering by the hand of his mutilated children, and you’d rather continue it?”

“You don’t want to be a Prime?”

She laughs. “What makes you think it'll choose me?”

“I can make that happen.” Orion looks determined, far too focused. “I will make it happen.”

“Because you don’t want to.” Elita’s assured that it’s disgust, and really, wasn’t that the shiny truth? “I’d thought of you as scared, but now? This is beautiful.”

Orion growls. “You can stop."

“Is part of your mind saying “D deserved it.” Orion?” Elita finally jabs with a small chuckle, taking it to the core of the air between them. “Is it despairing to think it’s true?”

Be finally speaks again, his annoying voice for once, not a grating bothersome noise. “Stop it! We’re trying to stop Sentinel, not fight each other!”

“Ask your Pr-” Orion lands a punch right onto her face. It happens before she can even bother to see and she’s flying. Her entire body levitates away from them and she feels the ground hit her, the grainy rough surface scratching against her frame. She chuckles as Orion’s anger grows, the growl becoming louder. 

“Do you think I’d be a good Prime?” She asks, already tired. “Me? I was going to leave Jazz to die.”

A first happens. Orion’s bitterness slips out of his grin as he chuckles. “You threw the bar.”

“That matters because…?”

A struggle on what to say shows up, and then Orion sighed in defeat. “I’m not doing this. We need to stop Sentinel before he kills us.”

“Not to mention that the Quintessons will kill us when Cybertron becomes un-mineable.” B spoke up, already putting it into the air more explicitly. “Or worse. With what that sounded like? I don’t think that’s the end of it.” An even quiet horror comes in.

It’s not hard, B supposes. After all, with everything coming to end them. The Matrix isn’t enough. It’s the revelation everyone already gets from the recording with everything else. The Primes are dead and the planet had went through essentially a drought and disarming simultaneously. Sentinel was dooming them.

And it was permanent. No matter the victory against Sentinel, they were doomed. A Prime was no longer enough. Even if the High Guard, would it be enough? Preventing the war would help, but it hangs there like a bothersome wound. They might lose either way. They were still too defanged from Sentinel.

A noise not unlike a jet suddenly whispered, like a silent slither interrupting the silence between them. “Who’s there!?” A voice calls out.

Elita sighed. “Give him the message Orion, and we’ll go from there.” She parses the sensations of weapons within her, and her ability to pull power into them.

“Sure.”

“Hay flyboy!” She screamed. “Shoot the hole!” The blasts came, raining rubble down as the light grew. The blue jet looked at them suspiciously.

Orion then showed him the message, the mystic dust and the visual of Sentinel. “Alpha Trion sent us.” B clarifies. The bot is simply unconvinced even with his eyes obscured, shoulder-mounted triple-barrel chainguns readied at them.

“You must be suspicious, and frankly can’t blame you there.” Elita chuckles dryly. “Funny world we live in. Where are you from? High Guard?”

“Do you want to die?” He emphasized the guns. 

Elita laughed. “Sure, let’s go with that.”

“I’m happy to oblige.” He snarled.

B then gave him a glare, glowing blue blades coming from his hands. “Look, we don’t want to fight! Why do you!?” Elita was parsing her aim for a moment, looking to her left hand for the sensation of a weapon awaiting feeling. She finds it quickly.

“Look-” Elita instantly spots the rant incoming. And she’s happy to take her chances. “-I don’t think you understan-!” The bot’s voice is cut off by the fact that Elita shoots him right in the face.

Orion gapes. She gives him a scoff. “Let’s use him. Cut off his weapons B.” The yellow bot does so without any real issue. And Elita almost wants to laugh when she sees the bot lose his weapons.

For a moment, Orion relents. And it becomes longer than a blink. 

The bot wakes up with his glasses broken, seeing Elita sitting on a rock with a smirk as she views the weapons he has in the lit underground cave. The bot feels fear creep into his shaking frame when his nerves jump at the sensation of an absence. He screams, only for Elita to kick his lower jaw up.

The bot looks to B, who was jubilant at his pain, while Orion looked guilty. “Name? And believe me, you’ll need it.”

“And why should I!?” He retorts at Elita, ready to transform. And Elita simply shoots him again. As he landed into the ground after being sent flying against his control from the shot, the bot relented. “Th-Thundercracker!”

“Good!” Elita began. “Let’s cut to the chase. You might be dead if I wasn’t being merciful. And while I could just murder you, I’m being generous when I say that you don’t deserve it. You can just try to attack us again, and you might win! But I can tell you’re not really feeling it right?” She stepped closer with a grin as she drew a sharp rock and pointed it at his exposed eyes. “So let’s cut a deal, you can just go on, try to get your guys to kill us, and even then if you succeed, you can’t really just speak up about the message. And from what I can tell, you guys haven’t done anything of note. So come on, wanna do something?”

For a moment, Thundercracker understands the deal being given to him. And he wishes he could see his way out of this. But B gives him a strangely exuberant smile, and he realizes that he has no choice.

“Wake up.” Elita chirps. “Death is-” She trips. Elita groans. “Orion!” Elita is lifted upwards, with the bot chuckling a bit. Orion shrugs. 

“He’s not completely filled with fear anymore.” Elita grins at that.

“Good.”

She still feels the spilling colors and the mesmeric flow that feels like a living extension of herself. She's got a new world to concern herself with.

====================

For those wondering, I kinda thought, what would happen if Optimus killed D by travelling through time? And it just spiraled from there with mostly a personal preference for things. Also Eugenesis call out.

[flarunie]

What if Optimus not only seen his other version in from visions given by Matrix but they could also interact through it. Although it felt more like a lucid dream and such interaction happen erratically.

Cuz imagine BayverseOp in Tfa Op body even just for a moment.

Or maybe tfp Op in EarthSpark

[nitroland]

And I can just imagine everyone reacting to Optimus just fucking butchering Starscream, like he just cuts off a limb and doesn't hesitate to only use his axe since it comes easily to him and he just starts cutting up Screamer until he plows the head into scrap.

Everyone is just fucking horrified at him completely killing the dude like he's some serial killer.

[nitroland]

SC: Chapter 1

It had been a normal day at the base. The same old day of hanging out within the mountain, with no one to see or know of the fact that aliens, of the giant robot variety, were inhabiting them in a war that ruined their planet. Mind you the humans sitting with them was more akin to seeing them like family members. That was a strange sentiment to have, but it was the one they lived with. 

Sure, it was a bunch of soldiers from another planet with a lifespan that made them hundreds (or hell thousands) of years older than them and they lived inside a flat mountain that used to be a Cold War missile silo, but it wasn’t that crazy after a while.

But then there were moments when Jack hated the relationship. And right now it was one of them.

“Again!” Fowler howled happily as June and Miko found another Energon crystal in the cave. Two pickaxes clawed through rock, chipping away the earth to unveil a pink glow that almost felt it was screaming light itself. Even with the lights around them, the glow proved to be greater. Raf simply took it with a pull, revealing it to be the size of something around two pillows, yet the crystal was surprisingly light. 

Currently they were trapped inside a cave system bathed in multiple colors of stone, with the black, almost ink-like markings like a plague swarming the entire vicinity but not enough to give the very place a feeling of pathosis, like the cave was afflicted with a plague. It hid the Energon in a way that seemed to either be a byproduct of the pink energy ores itself or something within the earth that attracted the energy to it. It wasn’t even a rock type as Jack learned about, being that it was something of a fourth factor to the sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic stones that bathed and filled the earth.

Was it made from the Energon? That wasn’t as impossible as it would sound.

The computers found through a strange faint signal, one that was never caught again and Bee was sent mostly to see if it was worth looking into past what Bee was doing because it was something, and with what Jack could accuse of being a horror meter. It was outright beneath the current tunnels of Jasper. Some old mining ruins that fell apart and was abandoned but thankfully no longer toxic. And now Jack was in a uniform mining Energon with Optimus and the rest, with his mother happily joining in due to boredom.

Currently, the Energon was consistent, almost insanely so.

“What is this thing anyway?”

At Raf’s question, Ratchet simply turned from his datapad for a mere blink, before going back to it. “A strange thing to behold. Usually, Energon is something that exists with a limit to the energy within its mass.” Then the bot pulled the crystal he was examining, another one the size of Raf himself. “But this? Rarified. Borderline myth back on Cybertron.” The hushed tone and almost worship of it made Jake roll his eyes, and then the lack of an actual answer made him groan.

“Anyone else can actually explain?” He looked around. Bee was simply pumping a drill right into the stone upwards, cracking the ceiling to make a glow bleed through. Bulkhead was in vehicle mode with Arcee helping. "Optimus?"

“Of course.” Optimus jumped in. The bot was, strangely, very jubilant ever since he found the stash directly. “It’s not something that is easily created. Rarified Energon is Energon more or less akin to sparks. Acting as a mass-shifting storage of the Energon itself like how we Cybertronians use our sparks to shift and contain mass to transform. The size is truly deceptive as you can see.” As the leader waved to the screen, showing the numbers between two crystals.

One that was the size of Raf, had about 2 tons of Energon. The one that he recently pulled and was significantly smaller had about 12 tons of it.

“Magnificent.” Optimus whispered. It was weird to hear him like this.

With a chuckle, Miko simply shrugged. “Cool.” She simply grunted with a slight frown before going back to the cave wall with June going to the other side. Fowler walked to Arcee as she loaded more of the Rarified Energon onto Bulkhead’s back, the pink glow almost making him blind before a sheet covered it. Barely. 

“How long are we going to be here exactly?” Miko asked.

Jack slammed his pickaxe again. "Days at this point."

With a few more hits, Miko found herself hitting metal, the distinct sound ringing against the edge of her pickaxe. Looking closer, she found a dead-like blue reflecting her face. “Wh-” 

Before even managing to get a full word out, Miko was suddenly launched upwards, landing her back onto the rough dirt with the sound of a loud shockwave echoing across the cave system, the air feeling like a violent tsunami crashing through, with a strange blue glow erupting from the spot. Miko barely felt it past the strange light nearly blinding her as her world became weightless. 

As the power of the blue light rippled right through the cave to the attention of everyone, Miko’s rough landing onto the dense soil drew June’s attention. “Fuck.” The girl groaned.

Optimus, Arcee and Bee both dropped their equipment and went to the source as Ratchet began using his scanners.

“Miko!” Bulkhead screamed as he formed up, R.E dropping like flies as he rushed to her. Miko herself grumbled as she picked herself back up with June’s hand dragging her upwards. As the dirt covered her body, slight tears in her suit and some layer of her senses messed with, Fowler was the first to look into the source as the light enshrouding it slowly receded.

A cube.

A strange metal cube with its pointy edges being flat triangle faces, the sharp edge lines being slightly smooth. It had a plethora of symbols foreign to him with a single blue circle atop it. The small circle shuttered into a dead light. 

“What the fuck?” Fowler asked as Optimus took his eyes from Miko to the cube. As his steps grew closer the agent, Fowler stepped back and allowed Optimus to slowly grab the thing he easily assumed was a relic. “So what is it?”

At his question, Optimus narrowed his optics. “A relic, but the sigils are not something I am familiar with.”

"Let's wrap this up." Fowler groaned, only to see both Miko and Ratchet rise against him.

Optimus cut them both off. "You are hurt Miko, you must not be here."

"But at least pick up the ones we already have!"

=

As the group left the cave, Bulkhead and Ratchet both dumped the R.E down. The former chuckled for a bit, before going back to his charge.

Optimus continued looking at the cube with curious tinkering. As she prepared to give Miko some ointment and bandages, June looked over to Optimus, who simply nodded before putting the cube onto the Autobot table.

“The fuck was that!?” Miko bemoaned as she tiredly glared at Optimus.

“Language Miko.” June fussed lightly.

The cube quietly brimmed with energy, the circle simmering its light. “Your thoughts are mine as well, Miko. Whatever it is, the cube must be kept at an arm’s length until then.”

Miko groaned, barely managing to stand despite June’s help. “Don’t move.” June spoke as she wrapped bandages over Miko's bleeding forearm.

Raf sighed, slumping onto the sofa before taking a look at his laptop. “Regardless, we should make sure the Decepticons don’t ever find that place.” June forcibly sat Miko down from moving, while Jack drained another bottle.

As the bots around her began going through the motions, with Bulkhead in particular being very concerned for her, Miko surprisingly paid no heed to the worry, having taken her gaze and focus to the thing that nearly killed her, feeling … kinship?

Whatever it was, she wanted to feel it again. Despite logic that her friends would tell her. “Give me the cube.”

Ratchet, who was in the middle of dragging his tools into the table, nearly dropped them in bafflement. “Why!?”

Miko tried to find a reason, to put to words the feeling she had. She shrugged in her spot. “Dunno, just wanna.”

A snort came from the motorcycle bot as she looked over the humans on their spot. “Nope!” Acree instantly replied, grabbing the cube and putting it a bit farther from the edge of the table and near the monitors.

Miko simply looked offended at the worry. “C’mon! I wanna see it more! I found it!” She looked to the leader of the Autobots.

Ratchet groaned, picking his tools up to closely examine the cube, while Optimus simply sighed. The bot turned to face Miko, not giving her the favor.  “While I am appreciative of your eagerness to know the relic you found, you are far too fragile to handle Cybertronian relics. Much less those with such volatile reactions.” 

In the slump of wounds, and stinging pain, hearing of her own fragility struck something inside her. “I wish I was a bot.” Miko bemoaned. 

On the table, the cube shuttered.

Jack snorted. “Yeah. You would be-”

Before he could even finish the word the cube glowed again, this time the erupting light forming something into a hologram projector as everyone backed from it. Optimus readied his weapons, his hands retracting to reveal his Ion Blasters, to meet whatever the cube gave him.

As everyone stood apprehensive at the glowing screen, weapons drawn, Fowler was the first to realize that maybe he and the rest should not be in the vicinity of a coming shitshow with an unknown relic that even Optimus had zero understanding of. “Maybe we should leave.”

“And miss the show?” Miko retorted, to the bewilderment of Ratchet and Jack. Suddenly the screen began making a typing noise.

[PROGRAM KEYWORD FOUND. UNIVERSAL STREAM UNIEND 87634.45. PROCEED?]

At the sight of the words, Optimus could only respond confused. “...What?” He didn’t lower his blasters, keeping them aimed at the cube with narrowing eyes. “…Proceed?”

The cube … did not respond to the demand. As his bafflement increased, Optimus looked around the cube cautiously to see for any operation system on it. It was smooth, no visible buttons.

Then Miko jumped in despite Jack and June’s attempts to close her mouth. 

“Proceed!” Pain ruptured through her, but it was worth it.

“Miko!” Jack and Ratchet yelled back as she smirked at the screen, the new iridescent lights becoming something stranger with each swirl passing. Most of the team began glaring at Miko, even Bulkhead’s disappointed sigh joined in. Optimus firmly kept his eyes upon the machine. A projector? For what though was the bigger question. Universal stream? Uniend? It was clearly something of a classification, but even he had trouble figuring how and what they meant.

“It’s listening to me.” Miko pointed out, the group turning to image and seeing the colors looping and forming into an image. “So I think only I can control it.”

Ratchet was about to slam the girl’s arrogance, his fist closely near the edge, but then the screen already went about, cutting him off.

“Alright.” Miko’s voice rang as the noise of a large metal door slowly opening came.

Everyone instantly froze at the sound from the screen. The very familiar sound. Everyone stared at Miko, questioning her very form for a moment. Miko herself was completely frozen at the screen’s showing. Fowler was the first to ask the golden question.

“What the fuck?”

The sounds of steps came, twisting heads and showing them to be coming from a Cybertronian with a rather strange look. They were rather sleek but still somewhat bulky, possessing parts of a muscle car. Two pairs of the wheels were like heels. There was little to no silver machinery, only colored metal of the red and orange variety on the top, all flat and sleek like an armor with techno-flame pattern, with the waist to below being black. The Autobot symbol was on the waist, like a glowing purple belt crest. The head was black and purple, a helm that looked like it was made to race, with a purple face and yellow glowing eyes. There was a strange mark around the eyes, like it was burned. The marking was like the color of steel under heat, the shade of blue, pink, purple, red and orange almost like a place emitting from the eyes.

“What we got Firecycle? Any lost signals?” The Autobot spoke with Miko’s voice.

Everyone’s eyes were on the screen, basking in the sight of the Autobot. That was when Raf came to an epiphany as to where the voice came from. “Is that Miko!?”

“Pause!” At that, the screen froze. Miko smirked to herself for a bit, before looking to Raf. “What!?”

Ratchet himself joined in the confusion. “Yes, what!?”

As he tried to assemble an explanation from what he could gather, the words before the presentation came back. Optimus’s eyes went wide as he recalled the word. Then his thoughts snapped together the truth. “So that’s what it meant by “universal stream”. It must be how the cube categorized them." As the memory of the term swept through the team, everyone began, to their dismay, understanding what exactly was being shown.

Jack laughed nervously. “No way.” He looked to the rest, only to realize that Fowler was currently contemplating the realization, June was sighing while Arcee and Bulkhead were bewildered at the idea. Ratchet looked dead inside at the idea of Miko with a Cybertronian body. Bee looked like he was fearing the end times for that reason.

Miko on the other end became ecstatic. “I have to know! Optimu-!”

“Yes Miko.” The bot surprisingly agreed, baffling virtually everyone.

Ratchet pinched the bridge of his nose. “Optimus, are you sure we should just let this be some kind of-”

Optimus held his hand up. “Ratchet, we must figure this relic’s intentions, and it seems that Miko’s discovery of it makes it serve her or at the very least listens to her.”

A strange silence conquered the very air of everyone’s breaths as they tried to comprehend the very idea of it all. Multiple timelines, alternate selves and a monitor for it all. It felt like the world had crashed on them again. For some, thoughts lurched towards the fantasies that would be foolish to even think of entertaining, for others it was the endless sea of potential. 

June was the first to comment on the situation. “So we’re watching alternate worlds? How can you guys even do that? Unless…”

“It’s not Cybertronian?” Bulkhead finished, baffled by the idea. “It was found with Energon!”

An old memory came to the Prime, already allowing him to understand the potential answers. “There was a Prime with dominion over time named Vector Prime.” Optimus revealed, recalling the tale from Alpha Trion. “His involvement is not exactly out of the question. The original location is something that could find a reason to. Until then we must investigate the cube.”

“Can we watch it then!?” Miko looked positively manic. To which Jack groaned. Before looking to the big red and blue for his answer and already predicting it. At his nod. Miko tried to rush. “Snacks!”

Then promptly fell. June sighed and picked her up. 

Ratchet groaned. “You’re too lenient.”

Optimus gave his medic a look Miko was a friend and now the key to understanding the new relic.

Bulkhead sighed as he and Arcee began wondering what it was like on the other side, or sides? They might be humans or something else entirely. It was kinda exciting but neither would admit that near Miko.

=

Within a few minutes, Miko sat down and poured down the chips onto the bowl. While June simply settled for a sandwich with Fowler. The bots haggled near their spot with Bulkhead and Ratchet near the monitors, while Arcee, Bee and Optimus near the stairs. With a few things stacked to hold the cube. 

“Resume!” Miko commanded, to which the screen hummed positively.

Walking over to the base, the bot looked around with a smile as she touched her chest, feeling the small ridges and markings as a certain energy washed over her.

The base itself was far more advanced, possessing some more seats, equipment and screens. It was simply more accommodating to the bots. The monitors were large, the wires and computers, while slightly scattered, were still more advanced.

“How do they have better technology?” Ratchet bemoaned, looking at the monitors behind him. Fowler felt somewhat insulted.

"I gave the best I could!"

"Evidently not enough even without this!"

“Nothing.” June's voice came up. The bot was a bulky, blocky hot-rod truck, with the smokestacks behind her bent upwards like wings. Black with blue flames. Her chest was adorned with the grill of the truck, while her legs had two wheels as heels and the last two on the back. Firecycle cracked her neck, the sound of gears and metal creaking with a snap.

“So far? Nothing bad.” The bot wore June’s voice, surprised by the results. “Whatever you got Highbrow to make Nitro, it’s working well. Surprisingly."

“I didn't think it'd work too!”

“Has things gone weir-?”

Nitro cut her off. “Nothing weird here, except, ya know, sometimes I think we should-”

"We're not doing stunts Nitro."

"C'mon! It'd b-"

"Doesn't matter because we have a secret t-"

"Don't you wanna have fu-"

"I want to, but right we don't even have the time for-"

"Firecycle, Seriously-"

Firecycle groaned.

Jack and June both coughed on their snacks in their throats. As both tried to breathe, Raf was the first to comment on the names, looking to the medic. “Do you guys know anyone with these names?”

“Hmm… How many Johns are in your world?” Ratchet replied. “I know of an inventor named Highbrow, and I met a fembot that was a medic named Firecycle, but I never even got a face on the former, and the latter is very different from what you’re seeing. So I can see those are just names they have in the same sense of common names.”

Truth be told, it wounded the medic to realize that he barely remembered the medics he worked with during the war. It wasn’t something he didn’t predict, but it still felt bitter to know.

“So is Nitro a name you've ever heard of?”

“On a bot? No. But as a name? I can see it.” Then he narrowed his optics. “Though the optic colors here are weird. Usually Decepticons have red eyes, whereas here it might not be the case? There have been multi-colored optics.” It was strange to now notice how the sides of the war had coded the colors of their eyes, but it was probably a forgotten memory.

Jack then heaved in the air. “Maybe it’s just a rarity? Also what the fuck?”

“At least I look good?” June tiredly smiled. Before taking a bite of a chip.

Arcee herself was baffled by June’s lack of awareness. “That’s an awesome form!”

Miko fidgeted in the scene of her and June's argument. It wasn't them, but it was reminiscent of how they'd meet occasionally.

Nitro then sighed, before laying down on some dirt as a makeshift seat near the stairs. She then grunted. “It feels weird.” She tapped her chest. “I don’t really know what to do now.”

“You call me my full name when you’re not feeling well.” Firecycle instantly intercepted. “Is it all the new things your life brings onto your ass?”

Nitro simply sighed, trying to understand the energy flowing within her as her smile dropped. “That’s life I guess."

"You sound insane sometimes.”

”If everything was sane, we wouldn't be fighting.”

She walked over to her. "Right on." Firecycle began feeling up the chest of Nitro.

"Where’s Torque?”

“He’s out and about. Enjoying the sights.”

“Anyone?” Raf asked, putting it in his notes. Ratchet shrugged.

“I think he was an Autobot foot soldier back during the war on Cybertron.”

“Blades?”

“Talking with Dion.”

Now that drew in a few eyes. Raf raised an eyebrow at the human name. “The world’s version of Fowler?”

“Or one of us?” Bee asked while raising five fingers beside them. Raf nodded.

“Yeah, you’re right. Nitro, Firecycle, Highbrow, Torque and Blades. Five names, so it has to be human versions of you guys. Sounds weird.”

Nitro sighed, looking around for a moment before giving an annoyed look at Firecycle. “Did you send them all out?”

“Wasn’t hiding it.” Firecycle sighed, grunting as she placed a hand on her shoulder. “Nitro?”

“Yeah?”

“How’s your chest?”

“Nothing bad so far.”

The lie was so obvious that Firecycle’s brow twitched. 

“I’m fine!” The glare invited an argument, and for a moment Nitro actually wanted to comply, but instead began opening the chest-plate. The pieces hissed, forming around and folding onto each other, opening the chest to reveal the Matrix of Leadership. Or at least something of it. The green energy glowing came from an orb, a mechanical orb made of gold with no handles. 

“How’s the power, Prime?” She whispered as the cackles of energy stung her fingers, skittering at the tips.

“Great.” She sarcastically grunted.

“Pause.” Miko whispered, and the screen did so, leaving everyone to watch a still frame of the reveal.

An unearthly silence dominated the air. Every single person trying their best to process the very scene and the reveal that came right in front of them. Optimus turned to Miko before going to the screen, repeating the action as he slowly understood the very open details of it all. Did fate really see her for that? 

There was a slight understanding of the tone between the bots for Miko. Then she jumped in pure, unadulterated joy.

She wasn’t just a cool looking bot, she was a fucking Prime! The boss of the damn show!

Beside her, every single memory of her recklessness flashed back onto his eyes, and Ratchet almost sobbed at the two bountiful pieces of information flashing before his eyes. “Why Primus? Why her of all people?” 

Bulkhead, himself twitchy at the whole predicament, simply patted the medic’s back. He found some of it overdramatic (and insulting) but at the same time he could relate. He liked Miko, but she was difficult. Arcee groaned, leaning onto Bee’s shoulder, feeling her very world burn as she looked at the girl with a slight revulsion. Not to her, but to the idea of her with Primacy. Bee himself was groaning in a radio buzz, already thinking of the horrors of Miko as a Prime.

As the tune of the air crashed down onto the girl, the joy was suddenly tempered by the collective disappointment. “C’mon!” Miko retorted, glaring at her friends. She looked to June who sat near Raf on a different chair, only to see that even she found the idea of her being a Prime … unattractive, to say the least, going by her face. That hurt. “Guys!?”

Jack simply asked Raf a simple question tipped with sarcasm despite Miko between them. “How long before she burns the earth?”

“A few days.”

June rolled her eyes. “You guys can stop.”

Miko glared. “Hey!” She looked to Optimus for support.

The big bot was quite literally trying his best not to comment on the air with the wrong words. It dawned on him that he sadly had little faith in the idea of Miko being a leader despite liking her. It wasn’t anything against her or any personal negative sentiment really, he was being realistic about her abilities. Unlike Orion Pax, who gained the Matrix for his strength of character in the eyes of the council, Miko was like a fire. Sighing, the bot simply tried to control the tension, to cut it down. “Miko’s potential is something that needs tempering, and I can believe that anyone, even her, can reach such heights.” He didn’t doubt growth, but it did make him almost flinch that he didn’t see her as a Prime.

“Please don’t enable her.” Ratchet groaned. The medic easily saw the flinch, and he didn’t like the attempt of comfort. 

“I am merely making an observation.” He defended.

Ratchet groaned, pushing Bulkhead away. “Of course.”

Miko snorted, puffing her chest quickly to meet his eyes looking down on her. “Jealous?”

Ratchet gave her an annoyed look. “Horrified actually.” The medic had more or less little faith in her and seeing the mere idea of her holding such a holy position was borderline nauseating. In his lifetime, bots with little control lived short and unremarkable lives, and Miko easily ticked every trait on the list to spot them. “You would get us all killed.”

"Really?"

"Of course! You constantly leave the base to go "adventures" in dangerous missions and we have to save you from trouble!" He vented.

"Sorry for wanting to have fun! None of you have to save me."

June could feel energy leaving him after predicting that comment. "Okay, let's keep things calm and not-!" She instantly turned to Ratchet. "-Comment on that."

Fowler huffed, sweating. 'This ain't going to end well.'

She scoffed. Her fingers slightly twisted at his stare, his look. But her own rage held back the rest of the flinching. It kinda hurt every time hearing someone tell her that, but Miko wasn’t going to just back down and take the idea of it. Like she was going to obey the down-talking. "At least I'd kill Megs by now."

Ratchet snorted. Optimus raised an eyebrow. “That isn’t everything to being a Prime. Violence cannot be the only tool at hand.” Much like most of the people he met, Miko’s idea of a Prime was still too narrow and childish.

Miko made a snarling grin at Optimus, almost hateful. “Yeah, I forget.” It doesn’t sit on a bit tongue. And there was that high that was begging to explode. It wasn’t even past a blink when Miko gives in, no thought but the sensation as the venom in her voice dripped. June's eyes widened.

“I would not let Elita die for moral superiority, just saying.”

Elita’s existence was something that came up after Ratchet’s drug-high. Optimus’s girlfriend in all but name. It would an understatement if not downright criminal, to call the moment when that was explained to be somewhat uncomfortable.

There’s a slight heave in her breath from letting that insult out, and it comes and goes within a silence sculpted from horror and disgust. It’s a suffocating air, akin to a creature with everyone consumed and in it's maw and sea of teeth, painfully slow with each metaphorical gnaw within an endless abyss of feeling like a fire was about to devour them. Like every bite, every stage was happening all at once. Both Optimus, the gargantuan bot who was chosen by his god to lead the fight against the enemy, was the reincarnation of the thirteenth demi-god child directly from him and Miko, a girl who simply stumbled upon the conflict, were at the center of the room.

Part of Miko saw the struggle over Megatron that ate at Optimus, and that part loathed him. It despised him for letting so many to die over one bot. Part of Miko wondered how she would deal with that. She didn’t like that thought.

Ratchet’s face was pure disgust, nothing but a pure offended disgust. She was revolting to him. A blight upon his world. Bee looked genuinely horrified, a conflict so evident that it was almost comedic. Bulkhead was trying to pull Ratchet away from a crime. Arcee was cowering behind the yellow bot, hoping for his existence to act as a shield. June looked angry. Sure Fowler, Jack and Raf looked angry and she didn’t care as much, but June’s face stung deeper than she thought it would. After Ratchet had mentioned the name during his time under drugs, the group had learned more about the lady, enough to understand the pain that came with the insult.

Optimus looked … strange. He didn’t flinch and simply looked at her, unblinking within the stare-off between the two. As the moments passed, Miko grunted, clearly displeased.

“Let us discuss this later.” Virtually every other person looked indignant at the result, especially Ratchet, but Miko had the show resumed.

“Nitro Prime sounds like ass.” The Prime groaned. “I don’t want this.”

Firecycle hummed, ignoring some of her. “You have a status to uphold. A title that must be seen as what it is; a symbol of strength.”

Nitro snarled. “Like Nova?” The bot got up, her face inches away from the medic. “You want me to valorize him and everything he made the title from?” 

“Regardless of his actions-” 

At his gesture, Miko halted the showing. Optimus hummed. “Nova Prime? Not a name I’ve heard of.”

Miko paused, and raised an eyebrow. “Do you know any bad Primes?”

“My predecessor was the one who allowed Cybertron to decay. Sentinel Zeta Prime.” Optimus recalled, ignoring the air that was made moments prior. “There was the war in the Thirteen. But even then, I fail to recall anyone with such a name.”

“So exclusive to this world?”

“Likely.”

Ratchet was the first to comment. “Are you seriously going to simply just let her off on that!?”

“I’m not exactly proud of it.” Miko snarked.

“Silent!” Ratchet howled. “You can’t just let people walk over you, Optimus! You have to put a foot down when-!”

“Like when you did before?” He replied courtly. There's a filth in his mind from that, but it had to be done.

Ratchet balked at the retort, struggling to form words for a blink. “When I was under the effects of Syn-En!? She isn’t on drugs!”

“Can we settle this later?” June groaned. “I really feel like we have to move with this first.” Optimus nodded, before giving a glare that silenced the shocked medic.

Before Nitro could begin the retort, a beep went out. “Fire?”

Firecyle walked over to the computer. “Signals showing something from the north-end.” She clicked onto the communications tab. “Anyone nearby the Vehicons on the north-end of Jasper, report!” The map showed two pings. HB and TR. And they were outright face to face with the sighting.

“Damn it!”

The scene went to the familiar bridge, this time with two bots fighting Vehicons, who strangely lacked the Decepticon symbol, being new faces.

“It was when we met!” Raf called out, seeing the name of the bridge the bots fought under, and to them the first time they met a Cybertronian. Jack simply sighed, before realizing something.

“So wait, are we going to meet human Arcee and Bee?” Some eyebrows were raised. “I mean, how different is this world? No one here is an inventor.” 

The first was a blue white bot. The bot had a visor with a more glasses shape. His blue chest had a white square with the Autobot symbol on the center. The blue boots that reached to the knees had small jet tail wings on the back out corners of the legs. The thighs, waist and arms to the shoulders were white, with small wings and two helicopter blades on them attached to the side of the bot, but not on any corner. The shoulders had some mountings, just a square. The bot’s head was a grey helm with two squares at the bottom, a thinner square and a larger and longer onto the side of the scalp, with a bowl helm between and a square short mohawk-esque top with the height to the sides on the center. A blue face grunted as he threw the bot into the wall, breaking it and scattering the rubble as the cackle of electricity echoed out of the limping and dying bot.

Another jumped him. As he endured punches, an orange bot pulled out a cannon to the face of another Vehicon. The second one cleanly showed his bulky pick-up truck in his robot form, specifically through his chest being the front of the truck, the lights red. He was pretty simple. Orange fore-legs that held the wheels on the back, white hands, forearms and shoulders in orange while the rest were mechanical silver, boxy, with a crownlike helm and a yellow face with red eyes glaring at the Decepticons.

“Two civilians here!” Fowler’s voice called out. The bot shot one, throwing it across the ground before glaring to the blue one as he shot one off him. The bot endured a few shots before faltering, letting a blaster to be finally pulled out and blowing a hole onto the chest. “Highbrow! The hell were you doing!?”

“So that’s me?” The agent looked surprised. “I look good?” He asked the bots.

Arcee shrugged. “Basic, but that’s not bad. The name’s normal too.” Bee gave him a thumbs up. 

“You’re normal! That’s a good thing!” Bulkhead jumped in. While Jack simply patted his back.

The boy chuckled. "And he does look like what you'd be as a bot, so..."

June giggled. “It’s fine, you’re probably not the worst.”

Optimus narrowed his eyes, sensing something not right with the scene. The lack of a symbol could be explained, but whatever it was that came to him, just didn’t feel right at all.

“How would you even possess the computing structure to understand a single iota of my original procedure!?” Jack, or rather Highbrow spoke gratingly with an accent that was borderline aristocratic. “Your limited cognitive capabilities would leave nothing understood!”

The bot then shot the Vehicon again. Dodging the attacks returning, Highbrow continued firing, trying his best to avoid another physical fight.

Jack groaned as he felt the air around him shift.

June snickered, eating her sandwich with laughter making it harder. Fowler just whistled. Everyone gave Jack a small look, before some even began cackling at it. The boy groaned. “So I’m Ratchet? Miko got to be a Prime and I’m some asshole intellectualist? What the hell man.”

"I am nothing like that!" The medic huffed.

“But even worse than him somehow.” Miko chuckled out, ignoring him. To say that hearing him being such a fucking uptight was hilarious. “You sound like a dick.” 

Arcee was laughing, but it had now cooled down. “You sound like a fancy nitwit version of Raf. No offense.”

"None taken."

“Like that string of words is beautiful.” Bulkhead chipped in.

“What the hell!?” A girl spoke, completely horrified by the sight. The girl was dark-skinned with a black haired flat mohawk, with another one that was light-skinned and blue short hair dragging her away. The pair both had simple black leather jackets with blue jeans. Beside them, was the smoking wreckage of motorcycles and rubble.

“Ash!” The other girl called out with Arcee’s voice. “We need to leave!” The bots continued fighting, causing rubble and dust to spray.

Arcee was the first to clock in who that was. “Airachnid!? Why am I with her!? Why is she with me!?”

Miko paused the show. “The hell? The spider bot?” She had only known of the Decepticon but meeting her was not something that happened yet. Maybe the universe had different set-ups, but even her being a Prime wasn’t such a big outlier compared to this.

June shrugged. “Must just be the way the world spins.”

“Not with her!”

At Arcee’s rage, Optimus placed a hand on her shoulder. “You must not judge this world’s version of her for what she is in our world. The fact that the other you is risking her life hers, should be enough.” Arcee glared. “I must ask of you to look at her merely as her own person. Even moreso, your other self seems to trust her.” As she pulled herself tight, Miko continued. 

"You think Megs...?"

At Bulk's question, Ratchet huffed. "I'd rather not."

“Good point!” Ash replied. As the pair both attempted to flee the scene, another group of Vehicons tried to attack the group. The pitch black machine jumped right at them, pointing a blaster right at the pair with the energy rising. Only for a pair of blades to slip through the drone, slicing it into three. The new bot revealed himself with a mad grin, only for it to turn into a disgusted snarl.

Raf shivered, already not enjoying his alternate self’s weirdly sadistic aura. Even Optimus narrowed his eyes.

The falling pieces revealed a red white bot. Clearly a helicopter. The landing feet of the alt-mode were beside his upper arms, mounted. Red legs, white thighs, red waist and two blasters beside the legs, under the knees. His chest was two red bars and a white bar between. Pieces of a helicopter laid like wings, with the blades behind from the cent of his back. The bot’s helm was more of a pilot’s, but with no visor and a few spikes and markings like scars.

“By the spark of Primus.” Raf’s voice out of Blades spoke, clearly angry. “Lifeless drones. I want real blood spilling damnit! Real blood-pumping action and skinning!"

Another bot tried to jump him, only for Blades to hit the throat in a single spin to his back, slitting the throat and spraying the fuel right onto his metal skin. "That's the sweet spot." He purred, clearly aroused by the murder.

June, Optimus and Miko winced as they realized too late that this was Raf’s alternate. “I’ll buy you some burgers.” June promised.

"Discount!" Jack added.

Ratchet made a disgusted expression. “Raf’s alternate is nothing like him!”

“Like the rest of them?” Bulkhead replied. “It’s not out of the question to have this if Arcee is friends with the spider con.” Said bot shivered with a huff at that.

“If you could, for a moment, leave the deranged bloodlust and walk into the realm of lucidity, I’d appreciate a slight help!” Highbrow barely managed to say the words as three Vehicons tried to gang up on him and Torque. The helicopter bot threw out a few of his knives and hit all three bots. “You almost hit me!”

“So?”

“Wow Raf’s a dick here.” Miko laughed. "Then again..."

Torque simply slammed one onto the group, breaking both it and the head. He then took his blaster to the head of the second one and shot it right off.

With another shot to the bot, Highbrow bushed himself up. “Now you two!” He snapped to the young girls. “I asked for you to simply set the boxes there! Why would you decide to open them!?”

June raised an eyebrow. “What did you do Jack?”

“Alternate version.” He snarked.

“Aren’t you the smart guy?” The second girl asked. “I thought you were like-” The girl cut herself off, too overwhelmed by the current events.

“Please Anna, don’t allow your comparably plebeian cerebral encumbrance to strain itself beyond endurance, it would be a futile attempt at grasping the intrinsic universal magnitude of my innate mental acuity, and will bear no arboreal reproductive spheres.” The bot snobbishly retorted. “The ultrascopic trans-infinite sublimity of my diurnal ponderances transcend the circumference of most sentient species' entire thought-spheres.”

A silence reigned at everyone, even those on the screen, found themselves completely baffled by the sheer bizarreness of words that formed from the bot. Miko then laughed like a fucking psychopath as Jack simply groaned, his entire soul already bleeding into the void as everyone’s eyes went onto his form. Even the alternate self defense was cleanly no longer working for them. June herself was quite literally chuckling as she ate another sandwich. Arcee was the first to comment. 

“So that’s … something.”

“I sound like a maniac with a thesaurus in the place of communication skills.” Jack wondered if death was possible at the moment from raw thought. Miko and Fowler patted his back.

Ratchet rolled his eyes. “Some things are just magnificently bizarre.” Bulkhead and Bumblebee simply chuckled at the sight.

The two girls, and even his own allies, looked at him with befuddlement and disgust. “You sound stupid as shit and I’m gonna punch you in the face.” Blades finally stated with a few steps.

“Relatable.” Miko commented. Raf nodded.

Optimus felt awkward, while some of them like Bulkhead and Bumblebee ragged upon the boy, Optimus was willing to not allow himself to blur the lines between the showing of another world and theirs. But it still absolutely broke his mind to see such arrogance.

Highbrow backed up instantly. “I was trying to create signal systems to create a far easier spatial lockpoint for us!” The bot explained. At the confusion, the bot groaned. “To be trapped without anyone on my level is a curse. I was trying to make using the Groundbridge around Jasper easier.”

“Saved by the ability to not be a prick.” Jack sarcastically cheered. “God I hate other me.”

Torque clicked in. “Should we-?“ 

“BACK TO BASE!” Firecycle’s voice howled into their ears, making all three bots flinch as the radio sound fizzled.

The bots flinched at the idea of such a sensation, recalling Ratchet’s occasional screams.

“Jeez June.” 

“Fowler, they got people in danger.”

“Good point.” Ratchet agreed. 

The scene then transitioned into the girls inside Torque, with both Highbrow and Blades flying to the base. As the three went through the secret door through the rocks, two bot were awaiting them, but also another human with them. 

“To the couch.” Firecycle commanded. Ash and Anna did so, meeting a broad, fit woman with white hair in a pseudo-bowl cut brushed back, wrinkles, black pants and a grey shirt. The shirt had two patterns on the chest, a weird string looping up and down like wings. The woman also had a peach-brown jacket with shoulder pads, and a belt with a skull buckle. Her cane was black, having a clear trigger. Her red eyes looked over to them.

“Hello, I assume you must be a bit unnerved by this.” The lady spoke.

Optimus narrowed his eyes. Something about her rang in his skull.

“This world’s counterpart to Fowler, Dion.” Raf realized. “Wonder if they’re like Optimus or something.”

“A female Optimus?” Fowler thought over it. “Possible.”

“Regardless, she’s cool.” Miko randomly commented.

“And why am I? Chopped liver?” 

At Fowler’s joke, June sighed. “No, but she is nice-looking regardless.”

The pair looked around. Anna snorted. “Yeah!?”

“Blades left a small talk for this, and I see it was reasonable.” She sat down and gave a hand. “Officer Dion Margaret. But my friends call me “Megaton” as a joke.”

Ash raised an eyebrow. “Why?”

“Dropped a bomb on some poor schmuck during a gunfight in Idaho.” The lady then chuckled at that memory. “Called in a helicopter to drop a few grenades down on a guy to draw him out. Fires were handled quickly.”

“Pause!” Miko spoke, trying to gather herself as everyone handled the bomb dropped onto them. June herself was the first to comment on it, with everyone completely suffering shock holding them by the throat. And how would it not? Optimus was visibly disoriented, heaving as he tried to see it, the still frame with all of his mental processing, which was becoming harder as emotion overwhelmed him.

“M-Megatron!?” June looked to the bots, trying to figure out the sight before them. “The bad guy!? The one trying to kill you all!? The leader!?”

Ratchet was trying not to simply explode as the scene was frozen, giving him her face like time was shoving it into his eyes. “How?” Was the only thing he could muster up.

“A different world, with differing logic upon its history.” Optimus barely managed to rationalize. “Why it is the way it is, that is beyond our control.”

It stung to see it. No matter the reality and logical point of his mantra about it being a different universe, Optimus found for a moment seeing Megatronus's face through the woman's face. In spite of the separation of gender, species and general visage and even facial anatomy, it didn't allude him that the face staring at the girls was a face he thought about. When nights grew into a slow lurch of silence, he would dream. There was a gladiator with a penchant for poetry, a certain edge of civility in him and a fire for himself and his caste. There was a memory that he would find himself stepping into, an abyss of joy so acidic that it burnt him, the blues of the skies and seas intermingled when he stepped into a time before the tragedy.

He hated himself, and he felt that hatred just looking at her.

As the air simmered slightly. “…So we’re acknowledging the hotness here right?” Miko finally said, quickly whipping everyone necks to her direction, even Optimus’s, in pure bafflement. “What!?”

Jack actually made a strangled noise. “Really!?”

“Miko!” Bulkhead pleaded.

“Look, I’m a very straight woman-”

“Currently doubting that.” June retorted. 

“-and I’d plow that gal!” Miko defended. Before turning to Optimus, who was equally gaping. “No offense.” The bot looked like he wanted to say “none taken” but it was blocked by the shock of a human Megatron, one that was a woman, and was also on the side of good. It stacked onto his thoughts like a planet crashing on another.

“...Why would you say that?”

“I’d like to be honest, Jack.”

“Please continue the show.” Bee chirped in, and even without any translation everyone understood him.

“So…?”

At Anna’s question, Nitro popped in. “We’re not robots in the way you think.”

“How?”

“We are autonomous mechanical organisms from a planet called Cybertron, and even the fauna there is partially mechanical.” Firecycle explained. “We’re a section of soldiers, a makeshift group from the greater army of the Autobot resistance against the current ruling forces of Cybertron, the Exarchon Empire, and their attempts to conquer … well, everything, really.”

Miko paused the show again.

“Ruling forces!? Exarchon!?” Ratchet balked, absolutely stumped by the discovery. “So there are no Decepticons?”

“So that’s why there were no symbols on them.” Optimus realized. “The fight here is against Cybertron. So the planet must be alive in this world. Alive.” Miko gave him a strange look at the bizarre jubilance he showed. 

“It’s being ruled by fascists.”

“But alive.” Optimus insisted. Miko sighed. “It’s thriving.”

Jack gave Bulkhead a look. “You don’t think that there’s a chance that … I don’t know, something bad here?” Jack shrugged. “Bad vibes are just running in the waves for me.”

“So we’re rebels against Cybertron?” Arcee found that to be insane regardless of realities. “Wonder how the leadership goes there.” The only reason Optimus was the boss was because he was a Prime, a position given by Primus. “She didn’t call herself the leader of the Autobots, just soldiers.” 

“Makeshift, even.” Ratchet spoke. “They have a leader, clearly, but whom? Magnus?”

“He’s probably human if Megatron is, doc.” Bulkhead replied. “Someone like him? I could see it.”

June sighed. Taking a sip of her drink, the woman looked to Miko, who was still bothered by Optimus’s joy. “Optimus’s home is alive, Miko. Let him have it.” Miko shot her a look. The nurse understood it and shot back another one.

“Are you serious?”

Jack sighed. “Look, they have a dead world, let them have this.”

“What makes you think I like this?” Arcee responded. “It doesn’t sound fun if they got Vehicons. It’s still like the ‘cons regardless.” Bee simply sulked at that, with her patting his head. It seemed even when it was alive, it wasn’t a good place.

“We’re here mostly because of the search party that was sent here. Both sides-us and them-have zero communications for the wider galaxy. We’ve been tossed into this world after a malfunction with the Quantum-Generator. An engine that allowed us to jump lightyears across the galaxy. The bridge-tech that Highbrow had you help him with was a … let’s say different version of instantaneous transportation tech.” Firecycle then smacked the bot’s head up.

“Forcing kids to do your work?” She snarled.

“I got the portals to improve!” The bot defended.

“This other you sucks bro.” Miko giggled.

“You can literally stop thinking he’s reflective of me by any margin.” Jack groaned.

“Nah.” Fowler replied. “It’s too funny to hear you like this.”

‘Quantum Generator?’ Optimus had never heard of such a thing, but the use of a human term already piqued his interest.

Nitro sighed, laying down. “You dipshits got anything else?” 

“Dunno.” Ash replied. “You guys got here because of a ship crash, and there’s other guys here that kill and hurt others.” 

“That and our world has relics from theirs.” Dion, or rather Megaton, added to the shock of the girls. “It’s something called the “Ark”, a ship that has some history as an ancient vessel, like their version of the Odyssey mixed with the space race.” A graph was shown, illustrating the Ark and the number of things within it.

“What!?” Bulkhead balked, eyes wide. “The Ark was our escape from Cybertron!”

“Really?” June raised an eyebrow. "Why did you guys need to leave again?"

At June’s question, Ratchet took over. “Yes. When the war began consuming Cybertron's resources to the point of madness, Megatron had used the Plasma Energy Chamber to poison Cybertron with Dark Energon as a gambit to end the war in his favor, but Optimus removed it. The damage, regrettably, was done regardless and the core of our world told Optimus we had to leave, to let Cybertron heal when it could not bear the numbers at the time.”

Bulkhead then chuckled a bit. “It was called Project Generation One, but Jazz thought the Ark sounded cooler.” The green sighed as he recalled his old friend. “Guess he was right.”

“But that kind of description? That’s kinda wild right?” Fowler asked.

Optimus nodded. “I’ve read about both. The Ark as something of a historical event must imply that the Exarchon Empire was not the ruler of Cybertron from the beginning.”

A sigh escaped Blades. “Hey, who’s the guy actually stalking us-you guys really-anyway?” Anna asked.

“A Liege Imperator. A commander of an army. We ran against a large ship and now they’re trapped on the moon.”

“Liege?” Optimus questioned. That was a name long unspoken, or half of one.

“Roman based?” June questioned.

Optimus shook his head. “Simple coincidence like some names.”

“That’s a rank?”

Torque stepped in. “There’s three rare ranks in the high military command of Exarchon unlike how you’d see them from humans. While there’s tons of similarities, there’s Liege Imperator, Liege Preatus and Liege Centuro. Three unique positions. The three ranks have less and less members as you go up by wide margins, with there only being like a handful at Centuro.”

“So who’s the Emperor? This all sounds Roman to me.” Ashe asked.

“The Liege Maximo.” Highbrow began. “A great three-headed beast from the far reaches of the cosmos. It is an ancient aberration from the Age of Expansion. His mere existence is a nightmare for existence.”

The pin drop within Optimus snapped him. “Of course it was him.” Optimus positively snarled, actually snarled, his fingers loudly digging into his palms, and shook the room with with the emotion, forcing a jittering Miko to pause the show for a moment as everyone gathered themselves from the newfound reaction.

The part boiling with fury was old, older than most Cybertronians. And he had that part simmering for a long time. “How is he the one commanding them? And he isn’t Cybertronian?”

“Optimus! Who is the guy?” June asked.

The bot barely managed to ease his rage, to make himself more still. With a sigh, the bot began speaking. “One of the original thirteen primes.” He revealed. “The Prime of Lies and the great manipulator, Liege Maximo. The way they speak of him baffles me as well. In our world, he’s one of the first Cybertronians, born from Primus himself. But here, they speak of him as something from outside of Cybertron’s world.” 

“So he’s not like, a human?” Jack realized. “How though? Is a member of the Thirteen different from a normal Cybertronian?”

Arcee snorted. “Like gods, Jack. nearly capital-g gods.”

“But that sounds like a title.” Raf noticed. “I mean, Liege Imperator, Preatus and Centuro? Then maybe he’s not the Liege Maximo as you know him but some monster just using the name as a rank. And he's also the Prime of Lies.”

Ratchet sighed. “Then Optimus might not be a human here then.” The medic predicted. Or at least attempted to. It was mad, all of it. Cybertron under the rule of tyrants but alive. It hurt to know that as the first reality beyond his own. First impressions despite logic, one could suppose. 

“So he’s some Lovecraftian monster?”

"What?"

"A term for monster of eldritch nature, named after the man who essentially codified it." Optimus explained to Bulkhead, then sighed. "He was also deeply bigoted, unfortunately."

A small silence came and went. “Yeah, whatever that is.” Nitro replied within her slump. “Blending that together, you guys got us to protect you. A foot-soldier, washed-up psycho Protectobot, an excommunicated and violent wash-up of a medic, a borderline delusional egoist for an inventor and me!” Nitro exclaimed. “Even I don’t know who I am.”

Firecycle sighed. “Roll call for the kids here. I’m Firecycle, the medic of the group.” She then pointed to the rest of the team. “Torque, the orange bot there is our soldier. Highbrow, who hired you to set up signal systems that he didn’t prepare against natural curiosity is our dipshit inventor. Blades over there is our psychotic rescue chopper. And Nitro-” She pointed towards the laid bot. “-is our leader.”

At her stare, Ash stood up straight. “Ash Willems. And this is Anna Gaillard. We’re bikers that took the job for a quick buck.”

“That’s where you took the fund to, Highbrow?” Megaton remarked. “No problem for me.”

Anna raised an eyebrow when it finally dawned on her. "Why are you telling us about this?"

"You're part of the team thanks to the brains here." Firecycle explained.

She blinked. "Makes sense"

“Such a wild bunch.” Ratchet sighed, already wondering how salvation was even possible with them. 

"Potectobot? How?"

"Who're they?" Miko asked Bulkhead.

“Rescue group during the war. Big question is how did Blades become one of them in the first place? He’d fit right in with the wreckers, but how was he part of the rescue teams? His alt-mode?” Bulkhead asked, baffled by the reality of such a role being given to someone of such violence. When one could think of a person on the rescue teams, the closest Bulkhead got to something close to Blades was Ratchet.

Arcee simply groaned. “Ragtag group of misfits, great chances they are.” Beside her, Fowler laughed with Raf, those storytelling conventions are old for them. Even June chuckled a bit.

Optimus stared at Miko, concerned. He wasn’t blind to the emptiness that plagued her, that ate at her. Though the world cleanly showed itself different, similarities may have already been shown. Part of him wanted to also comment on the closeness between the two, but decided against that.

Highbrow snorted. “I was making the best of our tools at the time.”

“For what?” Ash asked.

The bot sighed. “To make the portal system we are currently using a bit more efficient. The Spacebridge technology requires a massive amount of power to even twitch a spark of energy.” The bot pulled out a projector from his forearm. “Usually, the Spacebridges are considered myth, with Quantum Generators as our normal transportation system when traveling long distances. But with our new access from the Ark we raided, we gained something to work with.”

"How?"

"I downgraded virtually everything within it. I took extremely precise measures for such." A holographic blueprint was shown, revealing just how complex it was, running from the fact that it looked like fifty maps stitched together, for one.

“Wait, what!?” Ratchet exclaimed, baffled. “Spacebridge technology is a myth!? How!?”

“The rules of this world is nothing like ours if the Liege Maximo is what he is.” Optimus replied.

"They got the whole thing and can't even use it? Damn." Bulkhead sulked.

Firecycle then laid atop Nitro, the two snuggling as the medic tried to comfort the newly made Prime. 

“Grand.” Highbrow snarked with a drawl. “If you could halt yourself from dwelling inside your individualized despondency, we could now circumvent the bindings of the banality of this primitive planet.”

"Maybe if you enjoyed life, people would like you."

"Great." Highbrow rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, yeah.” Nitro groaned. “Regardless, you guys can keep a secret, right?” 

“Sure.” Anna replied, already feeling the air becoming a bit too sad for her. “Can we leave?” 

“Not yet.” Megaton stopped. “Highbrow’s tech is volatile, and we need to make sure nothing happened to you.” Ash twitched. “I get your concern, above all else I get it. But Firecycle is someone that can help you.” The officer glared at the inventor. “Unlike someone here, Firecycle is more than capable of being … human-compatible?” She struggled to fully articulate how things weren’t a threat to the girls, but it just dawned on Megaton that it wasn’t really easy to do at the worst time.

June raised an eyebrow. “Wouldn’t the Ark interest him?” At the raised eyebrows, June explained. “Think about it, whatever the Ark is, shouldn’t it be a massive thing? I’d assume this ship was large right? No way they raided it completely already unless they've been here that long.” She also didn't want to comment on the snuggling, but Jack's eyes were already narrowing.

Ratchet nodded. “Held hundreds of us. It would be the size of Jasper itself statistically.”

Fowler almost felt a headache. “Thankfully it’s not near us right?”

“We lost it in deep space.” Arcee replied.

As Megaton made her attempt to comfort the duo, Bulkhead rubbed his head. “It’s so weird to see Megatron being nice. Even if she’s got nothing of the voice or the face.”

“Agreed.” Ratchet groaned.

Ash rolled her eyes. “Right.” She dragged, looking towards the pair snuggled atop each other. “Megs. They’re a couple?”

“Nitro and Firecycle? Yeah.” Megs replied.

Miko paused.

A mild silence came about. Not a true silence with Arcee gaping with some attempt at words failing, Fowler hissing in fear, Raf praying to god for salvation and Bulkhead trying his best to not say some insanely stupid shit while Bee simply became a statue. Ratchet on the other hand lacked any sense of why virtually everything that was shown in the moment was such a striking scene and was not exactly enjoying the pause. Optimus, to his credit, simply looked away, playing ignorance or respect.

Now Bulkhead almost managed to halt his medic’s complaint. Almost. “Miko! What’s the hold up on the scene? Just because you and the Darby nurse are dating in this world-”

”Ratchet.” Bulkhead hissed, his hand on the doctor’s shoulder so uncomfortably tight it sounded like a dent was coming. “Maybe this isn’t the time.”

Miko tried to muster some words, any of them to diffuse the tension, from Jack’s look that drew too many valleys for her to understand to June’s nervousness, she wondered how she should-“I wouldn’t mind it.”

FUCK.

Jack’s eyes went mad. “What, Miko?” His grin and joylessly coy tone was not helping. “Repeat that?”

It was stupid, but Miko genuinely liked June enough to entertain it now that it was shoved into her face. The nurse did something to her. Something that Miko couldn’t really deny even if she tried. June was a lovely woman and Miko didn’t like to think about how, for a short moment, the emptiness that gnawed at her was lesser. June was just … June. A kind hand. And for a moment that feeling that the real her was beyond her, that the inner self that she felt like was hidden from her, was there. It was within reach. Because of June. It hurt to actually think that far.

She had spent time with June, actually felt herself liking time with her.

“Miko.” June began the talk she predicted, her hand already gripping Jack’s shoulder. “I’m not sure the ages would allow that.” Miko nodded.

"So you're saying ther-"

"Miko." The pity in her eyes made her ache.

“Got that.” She sighed. A look no one could even try to misinterpret. “Would’ve been nice.”

Jack looked like he was about to combust. But June held him back. “Probably.”

“So we’re done there, yes?” Jack spoke, almost far too venomous for comfort. For all the things to happen, Miko professing a romantic interest for his mother was the last thing he needed to experience. Ever. Through fire or winter he was going to cut this shit down.

Optimus wondered, for a moment, if Miko’s criticism of him came from June.

If she had seen her dead, Miko would most certainly massacre them. To feel a piece of your heart taken would be a painful, crushing experience. One he knew too well. Is this Miko’s hatred of him? He could somewhat understand it now. Part of him whispered Megatronus's visage, phantasms of times long gone, another simply whispered “them”. He silenced both.

That part of him growled.

“Robo-lesbianism. Damn.” Ash then looked to Highbrow with a smirk. “You got anyone waiting?”

The bot simply left the base in response to the sarcastic taunt. Torque sighed. “He had a conjunx out there, and thinks he’s still alive.”

“A bit harsh, don’t you think?” Anna replied.

“Feel like shit.” Ash admitted. Then she realized something. "Wait, what's "conjunx"?"

At the question, the bot clarified. “Conjunx is our term for marriage.”

“And!" She raised her finger in opposition. "Brainstorm’s not dead.” She had been somewhat cognizant of the talk around her, but interest didn’t come until now. “He’s a deranged fucker of an inventor, probably made a bomb that warped Space-Time.”

"Shocker." Arcee snarked. Hearing an apology from her was too golden for her.

At the name of the term, she looked to her teammates. To say that such a differing term, for a type of relationship she barely ever saw on Cybertron was bizarre. Even she learned a bit of Latin to understand the word’s translation, and weirdly accurate meaning in English. Optimus narrowed his eyes. Endless possibilities, after all. But it would not erase the strangeness of it.

Meanwhile, Miko happily side-eyed Jack with a raised eyebrow, already enjoying the show again. “So who’s the lucky guy?”

“Shut up Miko.” Jack quickly replied.

“Jack. Miko. don’t fight right now, I'm a bit tired here.” June sighed, already a bit done with the pair. “Also full acceptance Jack.”

The boy groaned. "Are you serious?"

Ratchet on the other end, winced as the name came. He recalled such a person with that name. “That disaster has a husband with someone that uptight?”

Jack spun to face the medic. “Is he a problem?” Who the hell was he married to?

“The madman of an engineer was quite literally breaking the rules consistently, ruining people’s lives and labs with his ideas.” Ratchet blanched, recalling such a maniac. “It might just be a name similarity, but this is honestly weirder for me with the similarities. Either the universe was in a funny mood or something’s off.”

"Damn." Fowler wondered how that happened.

A sound echoed out, a beep on the monitor. Firecycle jumped to the screen. “It’s a new signal. Not just a Vehicon pack. Around the Sierra Nevada, near Mount Whitney.”

Nitro sighed. “Time to fight some pricks.” 

“Finally.” Miko took a breath. “We got something new to watch again.”

“We got enough bombs and you think we need more fights?” June asked. Then she looked closer. The tense hand and twitching edge of the eye and lip. June sighed. “Fine.”

The scene changed to a ship on the moon, a gargantuan ship with a strange design. It was shaped like a scorpion, vaguely. The ship’s head was like a shuttle’s head and tip but angular and sharper. It was asymmetrical, the left side putting on its extension, another hull with sharp fangs jutting forwards while the right side was thicker, having only a single longer spike. There was a weird scorpion tail on the back of the ship. The whole thing was insect-like.

“That’s the ship?” Bulkhead laughed. “It looks stupid.”

“The Nemesis is better, just saying.” Arcee added. It was strange to add such a detail, but praising their world suddenly superseded said praise being directed to the Decepticons.

Ratchet on the other hand, hummed at the locale. The moon? He wondered why they never bothered to hide there. Maybe it was just unnecessary? Inefficient? Who knows.

The screen went inside the ship, revealing the bot heralding the ship to be a bot with a grimace. The bot was a jet. His base body being white with the lower chest and waist holding the cockpit, black glass with yellow parts, with the chest being a yellow with white center pad more tiled down that flat, making a converging jut between the cockpit and chest pad. The forearms were yellow and so were the fore-legs with some white calves. The wings on his back and at the front of his legs facing down were green. The two thrusters on his back were red with green inside. The face was ushered from the shadows, revealing a yellow face with a red helm, a small mohawk akin to a spartan helm, a large chin piece with tubes connecting to the lower end of the vents beside the face. Green eyes glared at the bot behind him.

“I’d ask why our attempts to secure the Ark has been in a slump, but that would be redundant now, would it?” A fizzle in his form revealed him to be a hologram.

“It had been difficult to even narrow down the travel lines.” Sierra’s voice spoke, already balancing anger and survival. “The ship is barely capable-”

The second bot was a strange one. She didn’t have a normally seen alt-mode, only the form of long shapes, spread out on the waist from the back to give the look of a coat was there and it gave nothing. It was even stranger to note her face looking like the Decepticon symbol. The triangles came from the side, bent forwards as if holding the mask, lapping over them a bit, the silver mask held a solid line red visor, the mask creating a nose impression with a spike between them. The black headpiece above the eyes was the upper half of the symbol, encompassing even the sides of the helm that held the triangles. The bot also had tube forearms and fore-legs, with kneepads in diamond shape, a chest that was given a flat pad with a few gold markings like a vest and a short silver collar.

“Liege Imperator Soundblaster.” The first bot hissed.

“THE FUCK!?” Jack exclaimed. “Sierra!? She’s the Imperator!?” It was baffling to even hear her as a Cybertronian, but one with that face? It was insane. “She even has the Decepticon symbol as her face!?”

Miko paused in agreement, already baffled by the revelation. “Yeah, what!? Silas is right there!”

“Multiverse.” Raf justified.

“It’s still crazy though.”

Jack sighed. “Fucking multiverse.”

It was strange, for the kids, they knew her as nothing more than a friend, a distant human in their lives, but one that existed nicely within the realm of normalcy. This, despite all misgiving of a world not theirs, was still maddening to witness.

Optimus gave them a pitying look. “I understand it must be shocking, but the worlds beyond ours are not ours to control. If Megatron is an ally, and Airachnid is a civilian, and both are humans, then things could be darker for our friends. Fate is not thinking of morality, it merely is.” It wasn’t something he didn’t anticipate, but it still did make him paranoid to the idea of something like him or the rest, but if Arcee was like this, then it would not be for them. But that would be foolish to hold onto.

“I met her once, but then again what Ops said.” Arcee spoke, agreeing with him. “A bit on the nose for the face though.”

“Yeah, that’s kinda cool looking if you ignore the whole ‘Con part.” Bulkhead sighed. “She’s no Megatron though, so you guys have an easier time here.”

“But what is her alt-mode?” Ratchet grumbled. Bee buzzed up a few guesses. “Nothing like that. It must be something because the coat thing is making it weird for me.”

Fowler shrugged. “Betting you it’s some jet.”

June calmly raised an eyebrow. “Miko?”

The girl narrowed her eyes at the frame, picking out the color from the inside of the shapes. Her mind went to the tube limbs, and later the weird folding of gold. “Satellite.” She bet. “That’s a satellite.” She sighed.

“Megatron flies, Starscream and Soundwave flies.” The agent replied. “And her name is Soundblaster. Winning something good from this.”

“Fifty.”

“Deal.”

“You were marooned here by your mistakes, and the Twilight is a ship beyond instant repair. Pray tell, do you think I would sit idly by while the greatest treasure lies within my reach, Imperator?”

“...No, Liege Centuro Jhiaxus.”

“Correct. You have something here. A makeshift group of nothings as enemies. A planet with no weapon to even scratch your weakest soldiers. And yet, you are failing.” The man then gave her a strange look. “We have little in the way of concern for this, mostly due to the fact that the current state of supplies are directed towards more pressing matters.” 

The bot then showed her a series of five symbols. “Do you see these symbols?”

“Those were on the cube!” Optimus exclaimed, recognizing some of them.

“These symbols are clues now. Now not just the figment of old mythologies, but actual clues to the Guiding Hand and the Knights of Cybertron. If that is not enough, the very key to the now potentially real Cyberutopia!” He suddenly screamed, shaking her. “Do not fail me!”

“I … do not know these names.” Optimus realized. “I must admit, this world is stranger than I thought.”

As the hologram fizzled out, Soundblaster walked from the bridge, taking her time walking through the hallways with her steps ominous echoing out. A murderous aura crept through as she slowly made her way onto the prisoner’s space. She stopped at a jail door, revealing a bot. One with the Autobot crest on his face-mask. 

The bot’s body was somewhat bulky, with blue jet body parts armoring him. A small flat black cockpit was on the front of his upper waist. Wings two on the side of his shoulders, two folded on the front of them like the one on the side and two more at the back of the legs, around the boots facing down. With forearms, black thighs, and a backpack with two shoulder cannons. The bot’s head was a white square-like helm with a three part segmentation, two sides and a top. Two vents beside the orange face mask, and a third vent on his forehead. A yellow face and eyes looked at Soundblaster.

“Ah!” Vince’s voice came. “To what do I owe the pleasure, dear Imperator?”

The woman merely sighed. “A small bit of assistance.”

“Strange.”

“That’s Vince!?” Miko exclaimed. “Dude your bully!” She chuckled a bit at that.

“Thanks Miko.” Jack gave a glare to everyone else. “He’s just some guy alright! He’s not-”

“You are something I need Brainstorm.”

A silence came through. A very un-fun silence came through.

Miko paused. Before wincing. "At least you're-I mean the other you!-isn't a widow? Small mercies?"

Optimus looked confused of course. Then his mind realized the issue. He recalled talks of the boy. Virtually every single soul began looking like they wanted to die. Bulkhead only had heard of Vince, but this was a wild thing to witness. The fact laid bare, they barely could separate the world they viewed and their own. It was strange, but emotions usually went past logic casually.

Arcee looked over to Jack, giving him a small thumbs up. “Hey, something’s nicer.”

“He’s nicer in this world.” June snarked, screaming a look saying "shut up" to the bot.

For Jack, it was already hell for him when Miko admitted her … preference for June, but fucking this? This was a special kind of hell for him right now. He groaned. Bee buzzed in something nice, but Jack barely gave a shit to know. Ratchet looked confused, a bit twitchy and felt way too awkward. Fowler was playing “nothing is happening” and Raf wanted to move past it.

“...So who’s the t-”

“Miko.” June silenced.

Jack also desperately wanted to avoid thinking about Vince’s beauty. He had slipped from his mind purely because of the war. He became irrelevant and Jack wasn't sure how any of this felt for him.

Another bot suddenly came into view. He was just a jet, basic ideas but also completely strange was his mannerisms. He tripped, brushing himself and rushing sycophantically to the head. The purple head shook. “Imperator Soundblaster! Brainstorm is one of the smarter Autobots! By all accounts you should be-”

“Logos.” She cut off, calm as still water.

“Another Starscream?” Ratchet laughed. “How pitiful. Even across realities, there's a backstabbing sycophant of his ilk.”

“Some things never change.” Miko smiled.

The black jet shivered, his wings quaking.

“Why would you want to sacrifice yourself in my place?”

The jet shivered. “I-I-I m-merely wante-”

Soundblaster instantly slammed her arm over the bot’s head, snapping Logos from his unharmed form into a crushed bot, his head chest down to his waist literally torn by the force and speed into a floral mess of mechanical guts, spilling out the pink Energon into a spraying boom. The raw spill of blood and metal flesh from brutal viscera bloom carved from wiring, tubing, cogs and bars stood there before falling over, scattering them. Soundblaster was covered in pink blood, unbothered by it.

“HOLY SHIT!” Fowler cursed, uncaring of the room as the scene played itself out. His entire body flew almost out of the couch in horror from the quickness of the murder. He didn’t even see the arm move. One moment, the faint sight of a blur and there. The Jet was dead. That wasn’t just ruthlessness, that was just straight up psychopathy.

Something about the scene made the trio queasy. The bizarre detail from the Vehicons never bothered them, especially since they were clones, lifeless even. Logos? He had a name, a personality evocative of Starscream’s who easily was just a pathetic person to them. It was everything within the bloom. The machinery looked far too organized, easily evoking anatomy with its intricate formations, and the blood spilling through. 

“It's so ... structural.” June groaned. “It feels like organs, like blood. It's not but also it is?” Jack, Miko and Raf all quietly tried to wonder if Sierra was ever violent as the scene pierced their minds. June moved her seat and sat near the kids closer. “I’m not trusting you near her anymore.”

“Understandable.” Raf replied, eyes glued to the visual.

Optimus flinched. He genuinely flinched. “She just killed him.” No playing, no real banter or even a kind of history. While Bee and Bulkhead were completely frozen with Arcee looking queasy. Ratchet was shivering slightly, trying and failing to suppress his horror. It seems like the girl’s counterpart was more monstrous than previously thought.

Brainstorm’s entire body rattled, metal hitting metal gently and repeatedly. Soundblaster spun with a tilted head. “Mercy for the enemy? Typical. Moving on.” The bot casually replied. “I need you to make me a Spacebridge.” She raised her stained finger. “And before you ask, I already know how to procure something of it. Again, something. I will have a merciful deadline, and a reward.”

"How?" Miko didn't exactly see her knowing the arc alongside the Autobots.

June sighed. "Who knows?"

Brainstorm nervously chuckled. “What would you give me that would even make me accept?” The bot then pointed to the jet’s corpse. “He was the guy that sabotaged the navigation system, which leaves even your empire unable to find you despite the transmissions. So I’m sure you know enough about Quantum Generators?”

“I do not.”

“Good, because I’m not so sure you know anyone to fix it. Not on this ship at least.” The bot looked around. “So you’re trapped with no means of even leaving the place, correct?” At the nod, he continued. “I know the idiom “without hope, without fear” and so do you? Well, think of it like this. I can just refuse, activate my kill-switch and ride out your death with luck.” Brainstorm chuckled. 

“Damn.” Fowler whistled. “He’s like this in our world?”

Jack shook his head. “No, he’s just a normal guy.” He then gave Fowler a glare. “Don’t try to drag him into this Fowler.”

“Or you hear my proposal and see if it’s up to your standards.” Soundblaster didn’t waste time. “The Ark is on earth.”

“THE ARK!?” Brainstorm exclaimed. “That Ark!?”

“Yes. You are a man who’s put himself through trial and error on both sides for the sake of knowledge. And now? I give you something greater than most discoveries, perhaps the greatest.” Soundblaster gave him a hand. “Let’s actually see where this goes. Hm?”

As the statements went into everyone’s minds, Jack was the first to try and rationalize what came. “No. Even at his worst, Vince wouldn’t join-” Jack groaned, putting it together. “No, but he sounds like he’s going to try to find the ship alone.”

“An intellectual getting carried away and forgetting ethics. How typical.” Ratchet grumbled, still shaken by the murder. “Is he trying to die?”

“Don’t worry!” Miko assured. “He’s Jack’s hubby. He’ll pull something out of his ass. I hope.” She hissed out that last part in worry.

The scene went back to the Autobots. Ash raised an eyebrow, looking at Blades cautiously. “Who’s Primus? Some god of yours?”

Blades chuckled. “Yes, he’s part of a maddening mythology. Multiple really. I couldn’t simply give you a quick rundown now. Later?”

Ash smiled shakily, her apprehension lowering. “Sure man!” 

“Disregarding Airachnid-” Arcee shivered. “That’s interesting. Is the Matrix something they got differently?”

“Everything here is different.” Bulkhead summed up. “That’s just the way it goes.”

Optimus sighed. The cruel visage of Logos's corpse came to mind.

The portal then opened, taking everyone to the battleground.

As the groundbridge transported the Autobots across the Nevada, Blades pulled his helicopter spinner and began cutting away at the trees, with Nitro looking to the mountains. 

The scene went back to the ship. Soundblaster groaned as she looked over the current crewmates amongst her. “I must ask that you realize that your actual leader, Logos, was willing to happily kill you for power, and while I will not hide my own unsavory qualities, I pragmatically believe that teamwork between us is crucial for survival.”

The few bots under her now was a pretty set. “Bludgeon, Wildwheel. Only you two?”

The first was a bot with a clear tank alt-mode. Except for some fucking reason he was a Samurai. His shoulders were red padding that went to the side, the front holding a tiny turret with a circle core and two tiny barrels pointed to the upper corner, with the first two tank wheels and threads within the shoulder and protruding upwards with the larger wheels rising higher than the head peering front. His other tank wheels were his feet, with some simple armory of green, red on the sides and orange knee pads. He had two cannons on his back pointing up. A green loincloth like armor and above it was an orange demon face armor. The bot’s head was akin to a samurai, red with a white skull face and pitch black eyes. And true to his look, a sword was behind him, around his waist.

The second one was a bot who had a simple brown body, except most of it wasn’t seen thanks to his poncho, and his helm was partially covered by his cowboy hat, with only his face showing something of facial hair, a mustache.

“Holy fucking shit!” Miko beamed. “Samurais and cowboys!? You guys had that in Cybertron!?”

“What? No!” Ratchet replied. “I’ve never seen these two in my life!”

“We only managed to survive the crash. No one else here is a mechanic aside from the Autobot you’ve recruited.”

“Poor Vince.” Bulkhead couldn't imagine handling a repair on a bot like the way Ratchet did, and he was going to deal with a whole ship? “Kid’s gonna die from exhaustion or just straight up commit suicide.”

“No worries Jack!” Miko cheered. “We’ll save your husband from the samurai and cowboy guy!”

“...Thanks.”

“He said no.”

Bludgeon raised an “eyebrow”. “And you let him live? He’s one of the most notorious madmen to have ever walked the surface of Cybertron. There are even whispers of the Liege Maximo desires his presence.”

“You do understand that alone does not cover the very fact that we. Are. Stranded?” Soundblaster retorted. “We have only one other medic, and he’s not up to the task.” 

The scene snapped to another bot, one who had wheels on the side of his arms and legs, the hood of a car on his chest, front doors on the front of his shoulders, back doors like wings akin to Bumblebee and other car parts littered. Said bot was on fire with his boxy head shaking madly. 

“Trailblazer can barely handle himself right now.” 

“Wow.” Ratchet could barely contain the disappointment and pity he felt. There was sad things for the enemy, then there was this. “I wonder if they’re better off treating themselves.”

“Barely any of the Vehicon body makers are working, and this is experimental technology.” 

Silas’s voice manifested from Wildwheel. “I heard the rumors of this in the wind, but hearin’ it and seein’ it is making me wonder if my optics got fucked with.”

“Silas!?” Fowler needed a minute for that. “Not gonna lie, I’m not surprised.” He snorted.

“Really?” June asked.

“Yep.”

“This is experimental due to their lack of ability. Decent foot soldiers for ground swarms but you’d need fifty of them to overwhelm five trained soldiers.”

She turned to the computer and began putting orders. “Another jet for us, here. We simply need to secure the spot right here. You will tend to the generator with some leeway into the Vehicons here. But I have orders to secure any attempt from you and I will know.”

“Understood.”

“Good.” The bot then opened the door, showing the scenery of the moon’s white plains and night sky. Embracing it for a moment, the silence swimming between her, around her. Soundblaster then jumped with the gravity easily letting her rise up, and began transforming. Her boxy parts and four gold streams forming into the back with tubes for the thrusters, while the coat parts became the bars into a five-pronged satellite.

June chuckled as Fowler groaned, his body like a corpse as he gave Miko 50 bucks. “C’mon.”

“Don’t bet against a master.” She joked.

Ratchet raised an eyebrow. “Shouldn't we be more worried over the fact that Soundblaster is a satellite?”

As the bleak end of the night settled in, The trio of Autobots began slowly inching near the settlement, wandering through the darkened forest. “Remind me why we didn’t just drop on them closer?” Blades groaned as he brushed away another tree.

“They have numbers, but stealth can even those odds.” Nitro replied. “Torque!”

The current settlement was a gaggle of Decepticons Vehicons with the pair commanding things. Bludgeon looked over to the boxes of Energon. He put his finger to the com-link. “The planet’s affinity for Energon is a byproduct of the Ark, correct?”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

“Nah.” Wildwheel glared at the mountains. “Call me a crazy tin, but ain’t no goddamn way some ship makes a planet a giver.”

Bludgeon snorted. “You don’t know the secret of the Ark. Nova Prime is borderline myth under most studies and yet the ship was here once!” 

“So the Ark is Nova’s? That’s kinda strange to think about.” Arcee felt it to be strange for what it basically revealed. “The Matrix was lost before the war even took place.”

“The Matrix should’ve been taken then, why would Primus even allow such?”

Miko snorted at Ratchet’s comment. “You god sucks, more at eleven.” The medic grunted.

Wildwheel smirked. “You a religious weirdo?”

“To an extent, yes.”

“What kind of god you followin’?”

Bludgeon simply shrugged. “The Guiding Hard as a whole. To many, they were the first Cybertronians. To others Primus and their siblings were divine arbiters turned to ash by inner conflict with us as the legacy.” 

“Brothers?” Ratchet’s optics went wide, sighing as he tried to comprehend the new idea given to him. “In myth, Unicron is his brother, but plural?”

“This means that the history of this Cybertron might be darker than we realized.”

The samurai bot then hummed at him. “I do think if there is a god, it would be in a way that makes all things true and false. Religion is a joke in most of my life experiences.”

“Damn.” Giving his revolver-like gun a spin. “Kinda deep.”

“Not really.” Bludgeon made a few slashes into the air. “The God War was probably some war between old leaders bitter at each other for things that they held onto for petty feelings. To me, the God War must be myth, but evidence of Nova had been deeply scarce and yet!” Bludgeon made another slash, his blade shining in the moon’s light. “It was there. There was once a leader of our entire world, one that preceded a longer line of warriors.”

“The man who carved modern Cybertron into the planet. Crystal City, the idea of Functionism, the core foundations that get leaders that in turn spun the changes to Cybertron. All of the world’s very pillars were sculpted by him. Do I believe in god? In divinity beyond us and by right, rules us? That's a complicated question! It depends on what you mean by "god". You see, I can't say there is a definitive yes or no, even for myself since it helps no one to be reductive of such a unique idea on how we exist and why. I believe that we are here implies to some degree that there are forces larger than us. By the way of history or mythology. Now, we can get into the sementicalities, though the very notion of belief itself can be rhetorically whittled to the bare nub of its meaning.” 

The sword-wielder was cleanly parlaying something to the heavens, and Wildwheel simply growled at Bludgeon’s bizarre tirade. “Fucking hell, you’re somethin’. Get your words but fuck.” 

“Wise words.” Optimus ruminated on such a perception, except Miko was on Wildwheel’s side.

“Can this guy sound anymore weirder?”

“I’m more concerned about the “God War” thing.” Bulkhead looked to the chest of Optimus. “Anything close to that in your mind?”

“The fall of the Thirteen?”

“That works.” The Wrecker shrugged.

“Will ya’ gut the dirt there?” Wildwheel pointed to a cave. “And leave me alone for an hour?”

“Of course!” The jovial bot then turned from him and went into the cave, only for a bomb to completely ensnare him in fire. “Great.”

“His lack of reaction is concerning.” Optimus noted, already worried.

Despite the lack of any reaction to being set on fire, Torque didn’t really seem to give that much care. “You got something up there making you crazy?”

“I’d ask the same of your leader.” Wildwheel spoke curtly, before drawing and shooting his blaster around while Torque dodged them. “Your boss is a survivor of Garrus 9.” 

Nitro went still.

“The old prison on Cybertron? What happened here?” Ratchet barely remembered the building and zone, only really just recalling during a job.

“I’m more concerned with how still Miko is.” June placed her hand on the girl, who chuckled.

“June, I’m-”

Wildwheel then gave out a chuckle. “To kill the last Wrecker, man. What. An. Honor.” He then began shooting at the pair, releasing a hail of bullets with frightening speeds. With a pull from Torque, Nitro snapped out and dodged it by a hair’s breadth. Nitro returned the fire as she moved, the trio in an uneven duel.

Miko instantly paused, blinking mildly and limply as she tried to understand the statement.

“Last Wrecker!? Last!?” Bulkhead nearly screamed. “How did we suffer that many losses!?”

“And wouldn’t there just be a roll-call?” Arcee rationalized, already baffled by the implications. “How did one incident do that?” Optimus, to her side, looked grave. Bee beeped fearfully. To hear the one group who’d done impossible odds on the regular be destroyed, whittled down to a single survivor, was positively madness.

Jack looked at Ratchet. “Does she show any PTSD signs? Like your equivalent?” June gripped Miko’s shoulder tightly.

“...Something terrible happened.” Was all he said.

As the three engaged in a gunfight, Bludgeon wandered off, instantly alerting her of his intent. “Fuck.” With a click, she alerted Blades. 

“Fire!” The gunslinger screamed. Both Autobots instantly bolted as a hail of gunfire thick as a tsunami hurled onto their spot. The fight continued, with both sides constantly moving and firing, each blast and step doing nothing for the other. 

Nitro looked absolutely furious. “Stop holding back, shithead!”

The bot responded by throwing a bunch of coins into the air. “You better do the same!”

=

So for those wondering the lore here. I'll put that out later. Special thanks to @nonsscrapheap for inspiring this, check them and their fics out! Especially Universal Observations! And you and I will both be surprised by the next chapter, hopefully!

[CHAPTER 2]