I think it could be such an interesting discussion to think of autobots in TFA who were talked into reformats/reframes at the end of the war because their altmode and frametype was considered "too decepticon" (examples I like especially for this are Pharma and Whirl, tbh)
One can see how the overwhelming autobot propaganda in TFA is a direct product of the war, and it's interesting to think about all the characters who fall between the binary and how they integrate into cybertronian society (both for those of the past and the newer earthborn bots we see like the dinobots or the constructicons)
We should make Grimlock and the dinobots ex-decepticon current autobots more often, can you Imagine Shockwave hyping up his new creations to the decepticons as "perfect autobot killers" based on Earth's history only for the dinobots to defect by tomorrow?
Fascinating interactions you can accomplish there in when Grimlock's working off of a hardwired in decepticon framework through more autobot goals and morals later on, and of the dinobots sometimes functioning like their own mini faction despite wearing the autobot badge
Arcee is from a relatively high class family originating in Kalis. Born the middle of three sisters - older sister Flamewar and younger sister Joyride - Arcee was the tomboy with a girly streak amongst them. Joyride was much more girly, while Flamewar's intelligence made her distant, though her natural behavior was very tomboyish. So tomboyish that she outdid rough-and-tumble yet compassionate Arcee.
Although Flamewar was set to inherit their father's architectural firm, Arcee often found her sister's ingenuity a source of both grief and pride. Flamewar held herself and her sisters to high standards, which, coupled with her and Arcee's bitter rivalry, motivated Arcee to take university classes in engineering and geology.
To undertake this, however, Arcee joined the Iacon military branch to get the funds necessary...and promptly became so enamored with the lifestyle, especially the ranger position out on the frontier, that she almost forgot her reasons for joining.
Arcee still took classes in between her ranger duties and training, but eventually she abandoned the science division when she realized how fulfilled she felt as a ranger. Although her parents were accepting of this, Flamewar made it no small secret that she perceived herself the victor in their competition.
Despite this change in set up, Arcee's freedom from their competition ended when she heard that Flamewar had completed her studies early and had now not only moved into the Science Division, but was taking Special Operations courses and drills - some of which were oddly classified.
Joyride eventually came to inherit their father's business, her natural business mind becoming noticeable as she managed it well. Arcee was proud of her little sister, while Flamewar became colder, more snappish, and eventually disappeared from their lives. Arcee chalked this up to their older sister's pride, but even she knew deep down that Joyride was probably right to worry that their sister was changing for the worse.
When the War broke out, Arcee was devastated to learn that Flamewar had joined the Decepticons. Both sisters made it a goal to attack each other on the battlefield when they happened to cross paths. Although they succeeded in nothing but giving each other damage, Arcee frequently became haunted by Flamewar's growing sadism and science experiments. Despite herself, she could only feel pity for Blitzwing and his shattered processor after discovering how her sister cracked the case for engineering Triple Changers as opposed to letting them be born.
Although Joyride had found a mech for herself years before and Flamewar had rebuffed romance from a young age, Arcee found herself gaining and losing two loves. The first was Chromedome, a simple genius in the Autobot Science Team who was not combative at all. While they had a good time together as she was acting as his bodyguard, tragedy struck when a Decepticon ambush wiped out half their numbers, including Chromedome. Arcee eventually found another romantic partner in Tailgate, but a botched mission killed him. While assigned to the Wreckers, she and Springer were nurturing a flirtatious tie until he suffered serious injuries after an operation.
Feeling like a walking magnet for death, Arcee put in a transfer request for Optimus' ground crew on the Ark, joining them as an assistant mechanic and security. Thus she was on his vessel when they made the jump for Earth's solar system...
Grimlock is a native of Earth, born on the planet after Terratrona, carrying what would become the Earth Cyber Planet Key, quietly colonized the world. Because of this, the T-Rex Dinobot was born with a primarily green color in order to blend in more easily with his surroundings.
He is the oldest of five: brothers Slug, Sludge, Snarl, Swoop, and youngest sister Slash - and they, too, sport "camouflage" colors. Together they've had many adventures over the past few million years, both engaging with select few humans and battling territorial "Terran" Cybertronians. Because of this, their fame has spread enough that when the Terrans refer to "the Dinobots," they are speaking specifically about Grimlock and his siblings.
A cheerful, playful, and intelligent fellow, Grimlock loves a good fight as much as he enjoys making historical records about the humans and their accomplishments. He keeps these volumes in his own library inside his quarters on Terratrona's city form, and has perpetuated a habit of scrolling through the archives on Cybertron's history. Although his siblings feel that the records are outdated, Grimlock makes sure they're clean and ready for use on account of the knowledge they possess.
While the Ark had crashed on Earth four million years ago, Grimlock and the others had gone into stasis for a period of time, and thus none of them were aware of the ship's crash landing. However, when the Autobots were re-awoken in the present, Grimlock and the others became immediately aware of strange Cybertronians "sticking out" among the human populations. For this, the Terrans began helping cover their tracks as well as watching them from a distance over the next eight years.
He meets Arcee when she's cornered by Decepticons, and his beat down of them is just as impressive as his gentle questioning of how she's doing from the battle. Although the contrast between her sharp wit and his casual geniality is staggering, they manage to not only have a civil conversation, but he offers to let her stay with him and his siblings until Swoop's checked her for injuries.
Not only is this how the Dinobots join forces with the Autobots, but Arcee finds herself truly falling in love for a change. And whether it's his personality, his toughness that ensures he won't go down easily, or both, Arcee feels she doesn't have as much to worry about with him becoming her third loss. Likewise, Grimlock is rather head over heels for such a petite powerhouse who is still capable of being a compassionate femme.
Yeah, this is how they're going to be in my head/AU now. I love this ship that I never knew I needed!
Thinking of the whole Wheeljack and Ratchet thing with the Dinobots. I don't ship Ratchjack, but I do agree that they're the parents of the Dinobots. It's right there in canon. They created them in G1. But in my OptiRatch loving head all I think about is that Wheeljack and Ratchet are the parents and Optimus is basically the Dinobots' step-dad on Ratchet's side of things.
It's funny and cute in my head and I wish I could write what I'm thinking but Idk how to put it into words rn LMAO
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
Chapter "118" Summary: As Charlie starts to feel guilt over keeping her secret from people outside her immediate friends and family, Bee starts to realize why the dinosaurs should probably stay extinct.
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An unspoken Autobot rule: when there was a visit to Dinobot Island, Wheeljack always had to come along.
When reports came in of human visitors witnessing Grimlock rampaging across the island, the team had to send Autobots to investigate—so Prowl was outfitted with Ratchet’s EMP generator, and he selected Wheeljack to accompany him.
Bulkhead would have also been a choice to came along due to his having rapport with the Dinobots as well as something Wheeljack lacked: a readiness to fight them, just in case the situation turned ugly. However, Prowl feared that he might startle the Dinobots while Wheeljack was best at keeping them calm—and he wanted to avoid an altercation if he could.
So, Bulkhead stayed with Ratchet and Optimus while they remained at the Plant to remotely monitor the situation, and… Bumblebee and Sari were off at “Five Banners Roller Coaster Kingdom”, for a “scouting mission”.
Wheeljack had laughed far too much at that description.
Thankfully, upon encountering Grimlock, Prowl subdued him quickly with the EMP and soon located the source of the problem: a large thorn wedged in the Dinobot’s foot. Using the EMP again, Prowl numbed the pain before Wheeljack carefully removed the object.
Then, Wheeljack sat down and began tending to the Dinobot’s injury—his optics narrowed in focus as he retrieved supplies he had packed into his storage compartment before leaving the Plant and got to work.
Prowl remembered Wheeljack noting that he wanted to prepared just in case there was something wrong with the Dinobot leader. The cyber-ninja had thought that it was a lingering concern from the Meltdown incident, but he suddenly had to wonder if Wheeljack was able to make an educated guess.
And that was not the only thing that he was wondering about.
“You have medic training,” Prowl noted as he watched the Wrecker, surprised.
Wheeljack shrugged. “All Wreckers know a little bit. Battles got hairy, and we’d be sittin’ around forever if we had to wait for proper medics to find us and get around to everyone.” He glanced at Prowl. “None of us were surgeons, but we could handle each other’s basic patch-jobs out in the field.”
“A jack of all trades, then,” Prowl mused, giving a small smile—then he blinked as Wheeljack snorted. “… That wasn’t-“
“I know,” Wheeljack teased, finishing his work and closing his chest-compartment before standing to face the cyber-ninja. “Just keepin’ you on your toes, ninja-‘bot.” He noticed something behind Prowl, and he grinned and waved. “Swoop, Snarl! Grimlock’s gonna be just fine, alright?!”
The pterodactyl screeched as the triceratops wagged his tail, and Prowl glanced back at them and smiled.
Grimlock was on the mend.
A nest of bird eggs remained intact.
All was well on Dinobot Island, thanks to the EMP generator Prowl hadn’t even been sure he had wanted to bring with him.
…
When Wheeljack and Prowl reported in, they also overheard a message transmitted from Ultra Magnus:
Starscream had escaped.
Prowl noticed Wheeljack’s change in behavior when he heard that, how the Wrecker’s body immediately tensed.
There was something there—some sort of lingering wariness or fear that Wheeljack tended to carry when it came to certain situations, certain names.
Prowl wondered about the Starscream from Wheeljack’s reality, and what sort of bad blood existed between that version of the Seeker and this Wrecker.
“Starscream may return to Earth,” Prowl noted as he and Wheeljack walked along a path. “We should try to track him.”
Wheeljack frowned. “… The ‘Cons have masked their signatures—but he has that Allspark fragment lodged in his head, keepin’ him alive. If we find a way to track that energy, we could locate him easy.”
Prowl hadn’t expected much of a fight.
It seemed that he had guessed correctly about the Wrecker’s sensitivity towards the situation.
“The more-sensitive scanners on Teletran-I could do it,” he proposed as they came up over the crest of a hill and the large crater came into view—with the Autobot ship still wedged into the side. “Could you make the necessary calibrations?”
Despite the tension in his body and his behavior, Wheeljack smirked and raised an optic-brow. “Do scraplets have bottomless stomachs?”
“What’s a scraplet?” Prowl asked, confused.
Wheeljack blinked. “… Your reality doesn’t have scraplets?” He shook his head, at a loss. “Frag, why am I even tryin’ to get back to mine?” He then rolled his optics. “If it weren’t for your lousy government, we could all move here.”
Prowl just went with it and figured that if these “scraplets” were so important, they would come up again.
…
…
…
Just as Wheeljack had theorized, they were able to locate the Allspark fragment as it approached Earth through space.
Prowl figured that he was pushing his luck when he suggested that they take the Emergency Shuttle to investigate, but all he got from the wide-opticed Wrecker was:
“Wait, you guys have a fraggin’ shuttle and you didn’t tell me?!”
It was then that Prowl remembered the day Ratchet and Optimus set down a very specific and well-articulated rule: never tell Wheeljack about the Emergency Shuttle, ever.
Evidently, that was a day to break rules.
Desperate times called for desperate measures, after all—and if Prowl wanted to do this as painlessly as possible, he needed to have the Wrecker on his side.
Anyway, the promise of flight was enough to get Wheeljack onboard for a scouting mission.
They had an EMP generator and stasis cuffs, so Prowl felt confident in their ability to handle whatever they found.
Wheeljack insisted on piloting the shuttle, and Prowl had to admit that the Wrecker was a master at the helm.
The takeoff was smooth, the flight was easy, and Prowl barely felt the landing.
“You’re quite the pilot,” he admitted, looking at Wheeljack as the ramp lowered.
Wheeljack gave a small smirk. “Best in the Wreckers. Spent a good chunk of my life in a ship just a little bigger than this one.”
The alone went unspoken.
“Watch over the ship,” Prowl decided, then he quickly raised a servo as Wheeljack went to protest. “If it’s destroyed, we’re stranded. I’ll call if I find anything.” He held up the EMP generator. “And shoot first, just in case it happens to be Starscream.”
It was a gamble, name-dropping the Decepticon while he was trying to convince Wheeljack to stay behind.
Prowl figured that it would either convince the Wrecker to stay or make him all the more determined to go so that he could have the cyber-ninja’s back in battle.
The day they met, it had been because Wheeljack had leapt in to fight Starscream alongside Optimus—but the Wrecker’s mind had been overwhelmed by his sudden drop into another dimension, the city and the Allspark had been at stake, and Starscream was not yet immortal as he was now.
Prowl was counting on just enough being different in this situation for there to be a different outcome.
He wanted to do this alone.
He did not know why, but he did.
Wheeljack just looked at Prowl, then he huffed quietly. “… Don’t do anythin’ I wouldn’t do, and especially don’t do anythin’ I would do.” He waved the cyber-ninja off, visibly irked. “Just… don’t die.”
Prowl smiled. “Understood.”
So, Wheeljack was wary of Starscream.
That was something to note for the future.
…
Wheeljack sat back in the pilot’s chair, just listening to Optimus and Ratchet’s ranting from a safe distance of… 246,817.5 miles, give or take a couple hundred.
:Wheeljack, what are you thinking—encouraging this?!: Optimus demanded.
Wheeljack shrugged. “Ship.”
He didn’t try to explain that he hadn’t exactly encouraged this, that he’d really just gone along with it and lent his tech know-how and piloting skills so that Prowl didn’t end up alone on the fraggin’ moon.
That explanation wouldn’t have helped the situation much, and really would’ve just fallen on deaf audial-sensors.
… Especially since Wheeljack had agreed to stay on the ship for reasons that he… didn’t want to unpack, at the moment.
:Have you lost your fraggin’ mind?!: Ratchet added, frustrated.
Wheeljack folded his arms behind his head. “Ship.”
So, instead of explaining himself, Wheeljack figured that it might be fun to be as annoying about this as possible while he was too far away to deal with any immediate consequences.
It wasn’t as if he wouldn’t be in a lot of trouble anyway, once they returned to Earth. Might as well have some fun with it while he could, right?
:I am ordering you to bring Prowl back here!: Optimus shouted.
Wheeljack closed his optics. “I will, Prime—after I’m done seein’ what modifications I can make to this thing. Never settle for standard issue with a ship.”
:… We could’ve avoided all of this if we just told you about the shuttle,: Ratchet said with a sigh of defeat.
Wheeljack smirked. “Probably.” He opened his optics and checked the scanners. “Look, Prowl’s gonna be just fine. He just needs to work whatever this is outta his system, and I’ll keep an eye on him ‘til then.” He then blinked as he noticed something on the scanners. “Now, that’s weird…”
There wasn’t just one Allspark reading anymore, there were three.
And one was just a little too close for comfort…
…
…
…
After subduing Starscream, Prowl found himself face-to-face with Lockdown—who was apparently pursuing a bounty on the Decepticon’s head.
During their altercation, Starscream somehow escaped—and when Prowl exited the ship to pursue him, he was surprised to find they the Emergency Shuttle was missing.
Starscream was flying off towards the Earth, and Lockdown made his way towards his ship to go after him.
With the shuttle gone, its pilot along with it, Prowl had only one course of action.
And so, he partnered-up with Lockdown—and consequently found himself playing the part of a bounty-hunter, with all of the modifications that came with the job.
He could only hope that, wherever Wheeljack was, he hadn’t gone and gotten himself killed.
Together, Lockdown and Prowl managed to capture a rather skittish Starscream—but when Lockdown contacted Megatron rather than the Elite Guard, the “partners” turned on each other and Prowl ended up bound in the middle of the road while Lockdown drove away to deliver their catch to the Decepticons.
However, the bounty-hunter had been impressed by the cyber-ninja—and he promised to return for a “spark-to-spark”.
Prowl didn’t like the sound of that.
Thankfully, Prowl was discovered and freed by Optimus, Ratchet, and Bulkhead.
Worryingly, Wheeljack was not with them.
“You lost the shuttle and Wheeljack?!” Optimus demanded as they drove down the road, the others chasing after Prowl as he tried to track Lockdown. “Do you even know if he’s still online?!”
“There was no debris,” Prowl explained. “I don’t know why Wheeljack left, but I can only imagine that he had a good reason.”
They saw Lockdown drive past, still dragging Starscream—but just then, another Starscream fell out of the sky and crashed down onto the road before them.
The Autobots transformed and stared down at the dazed Seeker, their optics wide, then they looked up as the battered and scorched Emergency Shuttle set down on the road behind the fallen Decepticon and the ramp lowered.
“Ack!” Wheeljack staggered down the steps as smoke billowed from the inside of the skip, coughing into his fist, then he looked down at Starscream and smirked as he pointed. “Ha! That’s what you get, you fraggin’-!” He noticed the other Autobots and blinked, then he waved awkwardly. “Hey.”
“Wheeljack?” Prowl stared at his friend. “What happened to you?”
Wheeljack raised an optic-brow. “What happened to you? You went in there, then I picked up two additional Allspark readings just before this guy-“ He sharply kicked Starscream’s head. “Flew out of that ship alone, and he took aim at the shuttle. I took off and evaded ‘cause -y’know- I’m not an idiot, and the fragger chased me back into Earth’s atmosphere.” He crossed his arms. “One firefight and MANY in-flight repairs later, he learns that it is—in fact—possible to be out-flown by an Autobot.” He blinked again as the ramp suddenly fell off of the ship behind him, then he cleared his throat. “Uh, Prime? Fire extinguisher?”
“On it.” Optimus sighed, walking over and taking aim at the inside of the ship.
As Optimus snuffed the flames, Bulkhead grew confused. “But wait, we just saw Lockdown drive by with Starscream—and Prowl said they caught him. How can you have been fighting him this whole time?”
Wheeljack blinked, then his optics narrowed as he looked down at the battered mech at their feet. “Scrap.”
“What is it?” Prowl asked warily.
“Something my partner told me once, about our Starscream,” he said, frowning. “He said that he killed Starscream—but then, he saw him again alive. And after that, Starscream used a shell that looked just like him with a blast through its chest as a decoy.” He crossed his arms. “We were able to put it together after we found his base of operations from when he was rogue, a crashed ‘Con ship with an empty protoform bay. Starscream had gone and cloned himself to build an army, but… all didn’t go according to plan.”
Ratchet’s expression filled with understanding. “So, you’re saying that there are multiple Starscreams flying around right now.”
“Yeah,” Wheeljack agreed, walking over to the one he had downed. “And by the look of this guy, he’s just another stunt-double. Paint-job’s all wrong.”
“The Starscream that Lockdown and I caught looked different as well,” Prowl realized. “Starscream must have used his Allspark fragment to grant these clones life, and to throw us off his trail.”
“It’s clever,” Wheeljack admitted. “But it also means that the real deal is still out there.”
“All the same, we can’t let any Starscream be left to their own devices,” Optimus said, having finished snuffing the flames and drawn a pair of stasis cuffs as he approached the fallen Seeker. “We’re bringing all of them in.”
“Certainly!” The Starscream remarked, then he suddenly leapt to his feet, spun around, and opened fire with both of his arm-cannons.
The Autobots swiftly dodged, and the Starscream immediately took off to try and make his escape.
However, Prowl gave chase with his recently-acquired boosters and used the stun-prod he had also taken from Lockdown to deliver a devastating blow to the Decepticon’s back.
The Starscream again dropped from the sky, this time crashing through a tree and into the pavement before Prowl used his new plasma-blade to slice the cannons from the downed Seeker’s arms.
“Consider yourself grounded,” the cyber-ninja announced, striding over and securing the mech with stasis cuffs.
“Nice work, Mr. Happy Mods!” Ratchet remarked sarcastically. The field-tech had been against the mission from the very beginning, insisting that the mods had made Prowl arrogant and not seeing that he could actually do this! “Why didn’t you just use the EMP?!”
“Where’s the fun in that?” Prowl asked, raising an optic-brow.
He genuinely did not see what the problem was. Bumblebee, Bulkhead, and even Optimus had their days where they were allowed to be unconventional if it meant securing a victory.
Why couldn’t Prowl do the same?
“Well, for starters: you might’ve done a little less damage to everything around you!” The field-tech retorted, pointing to the fallen tree.
There was a bird’s nest among the debris.
The eggs were all broken.
And that was why Prowl couldn’t do the same, because it wasn’t the same.
Bumblebee, Bulkhead, and Optimus had never taken an innocent life—not with their unconventional choices, not even with their most shortsighted mistakes.
They stopped. They knew where to stop, they let themselves be stopped by others—somehow, they were always stopped.
But with his carelessness, Prowl had not heeded the warnings. He didn’t stop.
A servo rested on Prowl’s shoulder, and he looked up in surprise as Wheeljack looked at him with a frown.
And damn it all, Prowl hadn’t even stopped to consider how bringing his friend into his reckless hunt almost got him killed as well.
He had promised himself that he would protect the Wrecker after the other mech had nearly died to protect him and Bumblebee, and—once he had been emboldened by the EMP—he hadn’t even hesitated to bring Wheeljack along despite knowing that there was history between him and his Starscream.
He even used that inferred history between the two to his advantage!
And this clone of Starscream had chased the Wrecker, hunted him—and the fight had been intense, by the state of the shuttle.
Wheeljack could have been killed.
The eggs were all broken.
And Prowl’s servos started shaking.
“That sneak-attack was perfect,” the Starscream commented, smirking. “Much more effective than all that ‘fighting with honor’ nonsense.” Neither the Starscream nor Prowl noticed Wheeljack looking down at the Seeker with a glare and swinging his foot back. “Are you sure you don’t have some Decepticon oil in your tubes?”
CLANG!
Wheeljack deadpanned as the Starscream slumped over again, dazed, then he put his foot down and huffed.
“I swear, he’s just as annoyin’ in this reality as he is in mine,” he noted, his optics narrowed. “Fraggin’ head-games.”
Prowl looked at Wheeljack, his optics wide. “He-… He had a point.”
Wheeljack met Prowl’s optics, then he shook his head. “No, he didn’t.” He gave a the cyber-ninja small smirk. “We need to talk about your recklessness, ‘cause it’s breached into Wrecker territory with this stunt… but take it from me: you’re far from a ‘Con.”
“But-…” Prowl stared at his friend as the Wrecker patted his shoulder twice. “How do you know?”
Wheeljack glanced at the nest, then he looked back at Prowl. “Call it a hunch.”
“Think maybe it’s time to ditch those mods?” Ratchet cut in, a little gentler that time than he’d been before.
Prowl stepped back, looking down at all of those modifications that suddenly made his armor crawl. “… I will, just as soon as I catch that other Starscream.”
Because it had to mean something.
So, Prowl transformed and drove off—leaving the other Autobots behind.
At least he knew that Wheeljack wouldn’t be left alone to fend for himself.
The rest of the team was far more reliable than Prowl was proving himself to be.
…
In fact, the rest of the team was very reliable.
When Prowl found himself caught and cornered by Megatron, Blitzwing, and Lugnut while Lockdown did nothing more than warn him against doing “anything stupid” and hold onto his bounty, his fellow Autobots crashed through a wall and put themselves between Prowl and those Decepticons as they displayed the second Starscream clone for Megatron to see.
Megatron didn’t want anyone to leave until he learned which was the “real Starscream”, which was an opportune time for the hidden trap to be sprung.
:Did you really think I would offer so little a challenge?: Starscream’s voice echoed through the abandoned building, emanating from the blank-faced clones after their chests opened to reveal ticking bombs. :I allowed you to capture these clones to fulfill my plan to eliminate you all—particularly you, Mega-FOOL!:
“Yeah, sounds about right,” Wheeljack remarked dryly as Starscream’s cackling rang out. “Typical Starscream.”
Optimus glanced back at the Wrecker, his optics wide. “Typical?!”
“Ridiculously convoluted plan, bad wordplay, and Megatron’s supposed to die at some point,” Wheeljack elaborated. “Yeah, it’s all very typical.”
:In moments, you will be blow to bits—and I will become THE SUPREME LEADER OF ALL DECEPTICONS!:
‘Very typical,’ Wheeljack mouthed the words again, gesturing in a very get on with it sort of way—and the rest of the Autobots shook their heads or shot annoyed looks at him.
Really?!
Was it the time for that?!
“I think not, traitor!” Megatron disagreed, then he pointed straight up and fired his cannon to blast a hole in the skylight. “Transform and rise up!”
With that, the Decepticons transformed and flew away—leaving the Autobots to deal with the bombs.
Prowl wasn’t sure when Lockdown had gotten away, but he had disappeared and left the job to the Autobots as well.
“Uh, shouldn’t we be going too?!” Bulkhead asked warily.
Optimus shook his head once he got a closer look at one of the two clones. “These bombs could destroy half of the city. We have to stop them.” He glanced at Wheeljack. “Can you defuse them?”
“Let me have a look,” the Wrecker advised the Prime, and the younger ‘bot stepped aside so that Wheeljack could get down on one knee and take a look. “Hm. By the look of it, we’ve got about a minute.” He shook his head as he began trying to find a way to open the bomb’s casing. “If I can figure out one, the other will hopefully be the same. Your Starscream ain’t any kind of demolitions expert, is he?”
“He rigged this,” Ratchet argued.
Wheeljack cringed. “Fair.” He shook his head again, trying to focus. “… Sari and Bee, they’re outside of the city?”
“They are,” Optimus said, nodding as his expression turned grim.
Wheeljack nodded. “Good.”
“… We can’t run. We can’t contain the explosion,” Prowl noted, deep in thought even as Wheeljack managed to open up the casing and immediately started cursing, then the cyber-ninja’s optics glinted as he began stripping away his mods. “But perhaps we can remove it! Wheeljack, back away! Bulkhead, bring the Starscream’s closer together and stand them back-to-back!”
Prowl’s teammates obeyed, and the cyber-ninja quickly went to work.
He used his laser-blade and the extra plates of armor to fuse the boosters to the Starscream clones—then he raised the stun-prod, charged to full capacity.
“Take cover!”
The others backed away and shielded their faces, and Prowl stabbed the prod between the Starscreams in order to charge the thrusters before crouching and activating his shield as the clones rocketed into the sky.
High above Detroit, the bombs detonated—and while car alarms went off, the city was spared.
When it was all over, Optimus sighed in relief. “Good thinking, Prowl.”
“I still have my shield mod,” the cyber-ninja noted bitterly, holding it up as though it was an admission of guilt.
“Good,” Wheeljack said, and Prowl looked at him in surprise. The Wrecker gave him a small smile. “Fella like you’s probably gonna need it.”
Before Prowl could argue, Ratchet had input: “That slime-bucket Lockdown got away again.”
Again.
Prowl hadn’t even been thinking about how his decision to work with Lockdown might hurt Ratchet.
After everything the bounty-hunter had put the field-tech through, after he had hunted Optimus—Prowl had actually worked with him!
That day just became worse and worse by the second…
And then, his comm went off.
“What do you want now, Lockdown?!” Prowl demanded when he answered, his optics narrowed.
He just wanted that day to be over, for it all to be over…
:How about that spark-to-spark now, partner?: The other mech asked. :I’ve been thinking, you and I are kinda kindred spirits. Like I said, you’ve got a gift—so how about you ditching those losers and going into business with me?:
“That’s very flattering, Lockdown.” Prowl made no effort to keep the malice from his voice as he glared at the shield mod. “But I’ve decided that all this over-modification is strictly for weak processors.” As soon as he had said that though, Prowl felt something inside of him twist—and he shrank in on himself, feeling nothing but guilt and shame. “… Playing with your toys might’ve been fun for a while, but in the end… it just wasn’t me.”
:Oh, now—don’t take it like that.: The bounty-hunter actually sounded disappointed.
“Do not contact me again,” Prowl ordered him, his resolve returning. “Unless you have a strong urge to be captured and turned-over to the Elite Guard.” Prowl hung up, then he retrieved the EMP and offered it back to its owner. “Thank you for lending me this. However, I don’t think I’ll be needing it again.”
Ratchet smiled, and he gave a single nod of approval.
Prowl didn’t feel like he deserved it.
…
…
…
The next day, Prowl found Wheeljack in the Plant’s rear loading dock.
The team had managed to move the Emergency Shuttle there, and the Wrecker was working on making repairs—as well as what appeared to be upgrades.
Prowl just stood back for a while and watched, unsure of what he thought of the modifications after all he had been through and learned, then he finally approached the other mech.
“Wheeljack?” He asked, and the Wrecker rolled out from underneath the ship on a dolly he seemed to have repurposed.
Wheeljack set his tools aside and sat up, giving the cyber-ninja his full attention. “Hey, Prowl. What’s up?”
“I was wondering if you had some use for this,” Prowl admitted, holding up the shield mod. “If you could repurpose it or even just dismantle it.”
Wheeljack raised an optic-brow. “Uh… Why would I do that?”
“Because it was Lockdown’s. Because we don’t know where it came from,” Prowl said, but he could tell that the Wrecker was unconvinced. “… Because of what happened yesterday. Because I can’t be trusted with mods, and I don’t want to be tempted by it.”
“… You’re a weird one,” Wheeljack decided, and Prowl blinked. “Yeah, you went a little off-the-rails—which was admittedly strange to see from you—but you’ve got your head on straight now. You had your reality check, your priorities are back in order—so as far as I’m concerned, it’s no harm.” He laid down again and rolled back under the ship. “Besides: it’s not like it’s a bunch of extra armor, rocket-boosters, a stun-prod, or a fraggin’ lightsaber. It’s a shield—it could save your life, or you could use it to help save someone else’s.”
Prowl blinked again, then his optics narrowed and he grabbed one of Wheeljack’s legs so that he could drag the other mech back out from underneath the ship. The affronted look on the Wrecker’s face would have been comical had Prowl not been so frustrated.
“Will you get rid of it or not?!” Prowl demanded, glaring at his teammate. “I want it gone, Wheeljack! I don’t want to be anywhere near a mod ever again! Mods make me into a killer!”
Wheeljack frowned. “Prowl-“
“I could’ve gotten you killed, and those-!” Prowl’s servos started shaking again, and he quickly set the mod down on a cabinet and looked down at them as he tried to will the trembling away. “Those poor-…”
“… You’ve never been responsible before, have you?” Wheeljack asked quietly, his skeptical look dropping. “You’ve seen it happen, but… you’ve never been responsible.” Prowl looked up as Wheeljack stood, looking at him with new understanding. “… That nest, huh?”
“They were innocent,” Prowl insisted, clenching his fists. “A-And in the fight, I wasn’t even thinking about it. I was just showing off, and I didn’t even think to look for them there—and now-… Now-…”
“… I’m sorry, Prowl,” the Wrecker said after a moment. “I’m sorry that happened, and… I’m sorry that’s always gonna be how it first happened. There’s never a good way to go about it, but… that’s a fraggin’ awful one.”
Prowl blinked, then he became confused. “To… go about it?”
“Takin’ life,” Wheeljack elaborated, then he braced himself. “… One of my last big ops was blowing a Predacon clonin’ facility.” Prowl looked at him in surprise as the Wrecker sat down on the Emergency Shuttle’s repaired ramp. “They were made to hunt Autobots, so… we didn’t let the makin’ get all-the-way finished, didn’t give ‘em the chance to hunt us down and then turn on the humans. It was a setup by the ‘Cons—they realized the Predacons would be stronger than them, and they wanted an excuse to get rid of ‘em that the one they had would buy and turn into rage against us. All the same, we didn’t know that at the time—and my commander gave me the go-ahead to blow the joint while they were still in their tubes.” He took his grenade from his side and looked at it. “One well-placed grenade, one shot to sent the whole place up. My signature.”
Prowl blinked, then he frowned. “That-… That’s not the same.”
“No, it’s not,” Wheeljack agreed, looking up at Prowl. “Because those were fraggin’ Predacons, and yours were only eggs. Because mine were made to be ‘bot-hunters, and yours were just gonna be birds. Because I don’t regret what I did, and you do.”
That surprised Prowl. “You don’t regret it?”
“Can’t,” Wheeljack admitted. “In their tubes, they were already screechin’ at us and tryin’ to claw their way out. They were gonna do what they were made for, and they were made to kill my family.” He shook his head. “Those clones were innocent, Prowl, because I didn’t let them get the chance not to be—a chance they would’ve unfortunately taken had I waited just thirty more seconds to do what I did, while it was just me and my commander in that room and they had their purpose locked into their heads by ‘Con conditionin’.” He shrugged his shoulders. “But that’s just how I’m able to see things now—‘cause I’ve been fightin’… and killin’… for a long, long time.”
“How long?” Prowl asked, a little cowed.
Wheeljack sighed. “Let me put it this way... How old are you?”
“… Two and a half million, give or take a few millennia,” Prowl replied.
Wheeljack’s face flashed with surprise. “Wait, what?”
“I know, it’s surprising to most ‘bots.” Prowl glanced away awkwardly. “But yes, I’m older than-“
“You’re just a kid,” Wheeljack said, stunned.
Prowl blinked, then he glanced back at the Wrecker in confusion. “What? No, I’m-“ His Energon ran cold. “… How old are you?”
“Well, uh…” Wheeljack suddenly seemed very awkward. “Maybe we should stay on-topic. Let’s just say I’ve been around for a long, long time—alright?” He shifted uncomfortably. “And that my war went on for more than half of that long, long time.”
“… And you killed,” Prowl noted.
The Wrecker had mentioned it before and Prowl knew that this was the reality of his friend’s life, but… this was different.
Actually discussing what it was to be responsible for death, it was different.
“I did,” Wheeljack told him. “And to tell ya the honest-to-Primus truth, I couldn’t tell ya how many sparks I sent to the Well. You count at first, but then… as the war keeps goin’… you realize you have to stop, or you won’t make it.” He sighed. “But that’s somethin’ I learned. If I had your age and experience that day with the Predacons, then… I think I would’ve just seen innocent creatures in tubes, and figured that I couldn’t do anything to them unless they attacked me first. I really don’t know if I could’ve done it, the way I was when my war started.” He looked at his grenade. “And if I did do it, I doubt I would’ve ever touched one of these again, but… that would’ve been a mistake, because—as destructive as this thing can be, when it’s not used right—it’s saved the lives of a lot of ‘bots I care about over the eons.” He glanced back at Prowl, returning the grenade to his side before raising his shoulders again. “And it’s a lot harder to do that with a fraggin’ grenade than it is with a shield.”
Prowl just looked at Wheeljack, trying to take all of that in, then he sighed and looked away. “I understand, but… it’s still not the same.”
“It’s not supposed to be,” Wheeljack said. “I’m tryin’ to tell ya-“
“Those birds were innocent, and you are my friend,” Prowl pressed. “And until it truly hit me that what I was doing wasn’t who I am, I-… I didn’t-…” He closed his optics. “It was me, for a moment—and… I don’t like who that ‘bot was. I don’t want any mods anywhere near me ever again, Wheeljack.”
“… It’s not the mod, ninja-‘bot,” Wheeljack said quietly. “It’s how it’s used.” Prowl’s optics opened and widened as the Wrecker took the shield mod and looked down at it, then he sighed. “I’ll take this, Prowl, but I’m not gonna destroy it. I’m just gonna hold onto it for you, alright?”
“That’s not what I asked,” Prowl pressed. “I shouldn’t have it.”
“Until you’re ready for it? I agree,” the Wrecker told him, and Prowl was suddenly reminded of Master Yoketron—only Wheeljack was… gentler, and always had been. “If you’re shakin’ at the sight of it, it’d be pretty twisted of me to make you hold onto it right now.” He looked away from the shield, meeting Prowl’s optics. “But… when and if you realize that mods don’t make a ‘bot, and you manage to forgive yourself for what happened yesterday… because it was an honest-to-Primus mistake… come and find me, and I’ll give it back to ya.” He gave a small smirk. “‘Cause I meant what I said, all of it. You’re reckless, almost Wrecker-level reckless—and a ‘bot like that will find that a shield comes in handy.” He gently tapped the mod against Prowl’s chest. “Especially since his priority is and always will be protectin’ life, from helpless bird nests to somethin’ with as little regard for its own self-preservation as me… and that’s just one of the reasons why he’s as far from a Decepticon as it gets. You hearin’ me?”
Prowl just looked at the Wrecker, his optics wide in disbelief, then his servos dropped to his sides as his shoulders raised… and he swallowed his pride…
And Wheeljack blinked, surprised, as the cyber-ninja rested his head on his chest.
Then, the Wrecker frowned as he set the shield mod back onto the cabinet, and he reached up to carefully rest just one servo on the cyber-ninja’s back.
“I’m sorry,” Prowl whispered.
Wheeljack nodded. “I know, kid.”
Prowl’s shoulders shook, and he closed his optics. “It was all my fault… I-I never should have done any of it…”
“… I disagree,” Wheeljack said. “If you hadn’t gotten us involved, we wouldn’t have been there when Starscream set off those bombs and we definitely wouldn’t have had the tech you used to launch them away from Detroit. What you did saved the city, in the end.” He shook his head. “I’m so sorry, Prowl. In war, even the smartest ‘bots get in over their heads and make reckless decisions that lead to dumb and painful mistakes—mistakes that can even cost lives, from time to time. But what separates us from the ‘Cons is that we don’t forget those mistakes—we take accountability, and we do everythin’ we can to avoid repeatin’ ‘em as we move on.” He gave a small, sad smile. “There are Predacons livin’ on my Cybertron, again—with rights and protections, and a voice. Predaking, understandably, still holds us accountable even if it was all a ‘Con setup—but he says ‘hi’ at all the meetings, and his two little snots- I mean, friends-“
Prowl laughed weakly against Wheeljack’s chest. “You are absolutely and completely terrible…”
“Yeah, I know,” Wheeljack agreed. “But what can I say? What you can see here, it’s mostly mods.” Prowl opened his optics and blinked, then he pulled away and looked up at Wheeljack in surprise. “I did tell you that I was a scientist, before my war broke out.” The Wrecker gave a small smirk, shrugging. “You think I looked like this, walkin’ around a campus or lab? I made a lot of adjustments before I went out into the thick of it.”
The cyber-ninja blinked. “But-“
“Like I said, it’s not the mod.” Wheeljack tapped Prowl’s chest. “It’s how it’s used… And whether or not you believe it at the moment, you know that now.”
Prowl watched as Wheeljack picked-up the shield mod again and started walking towards the door, then he braced himself. “How long will it take, for me to forgive myself?”
“I don’t know,” Wheeljack confessed, not looking back. “It might be that you can’t, and that you’ll just have to learn to accept it in order to move on.”
Prowl stepped into the doorway so that he could watch Wheeljack walk down the hallway. “What if I can’t do that?”
Wheeljack paused, then he sighed and looked back at Prowl with a frown as he gripped the shield mod in his servo.
“… We’re at war, Prowl,” he told the other mech, still being strangely gentle. “Somethin’ I learned early on in mine… somethin’ I’m real sorry you have to learn now… is that you either do, or you die. And if you die…” He gestured with the shield mod. “You’re not around for the ones who need you… so as much as I hate to say it, I know you’re gonna accept it. You’re not gonna accept anythin’ less.” He gave a single nod. “And if you need to talk about it as you find your way through, I’m here. Alright?”
Prowl hesitated, then he slowly walked over to stand beside Wheeljack. “… How did you cope, the first time you took life?”
“Oh, I didn’t,” Wheeljack replied as the two of them walked down the hall together. “I realized what I’d done and screamed my fraggin’ head off, then I buried myself in work because any more screamin’ would have brought in more ‘Cons.” He used the shield mod to gesture to himself. “Did all of this to myself. That was fun.”
“No one stopped you or tried to help you?” Prowl asked, concerned.
“…. No one was around,” Wheeljack told him, and he looked forward as their walk and their conversation went on.
However, the more they spoke, the more Prowl realized that there was a certain privilege to what was happening.
Having Wheeljack there with him, talking him through this after everything that had happened and what he had done—Prowl knew many wouldn’t have that luck.
In fact, it was clear that Wheeljack hadn’t had that luck.
The Wrecker was doing for Prowl what no one did for him.
Again, Prowl was reminded of his training—how he had bitterly told his teacher that he wouldn’t risk his life for others, as no one had done the same for him.
Wheeljack didn’t think that way.
He took what no one had given him or what he had never been allowed to keep in his life, and he made sure that the ones who he cared about always had it.
Prowl wondered if Wheeljack ever had a mentor, or if he’d known his caregivers.
Did he have siblings, friends, or a family before those he found with his Wreckers or the team he’d joined at his war’s end?
Did someone ever hold him after a harrowing experience and talk to him gently, sharing sorrows or cracking jokes until the shaking finally stopped?
Where had Wheeljack learned how to do all of this?
What had he learned from others?
What had he learned for others?
…
They walked all around the Plant that day, inside and outside—just talking.
The others did not interrupt them, as their concerned glances would be met by Wheeljack flashing a brief smile and waving his servo to dispel their concerns—no matter what subject matter he and Prowl were discussing.
The Wrecker would skirt around personal details as he always tended to, avoiding names or anything too “intense”—as he might have viewed his experience.
However, Wheeljack was very candid with Prowl as he talked about how—throughout the war—he had learned to cope with how he would be responsible for death.
And even the vague details gave Prowl a clearer picture of Wheeljack’s reality.
The Autobots were outnumbered, outgunned. The Decepticons had the technological and aerial advantage, they were the only side with access to space-bridge technology and Energon mines, and their leader was a ruthless warmonger who was willing to stoop to planetary subjugation and even genocide.
There were nearly-endless armies, weapons of mass destruction, engineered plagues, devices which would turn an organic world into solid metal, cloned creatures conditioned to hunt Autobots by the scent of their Energon, captures and horrendous interrogations, science experiments and dissections, citadels with enough firepower to wipe out cities, some things which he only briefly referred to such as a “smelting pit” and “Tox-En”…
And that was just what Prowl was able to pick up from Wheeljack’s little gestures and vague explanations of his war.
It was clearly so much worse than the Wrecker would ever willingly admit.
So, Wheeljack had learned to accept the fact that he had to kill—and Prowl came to understand that his friend had to accept that, or he would be long dead.
All of the Autobots in Wheeljack’s reality would be long dead if they hadn’t come to accept the fact that they would be directly responsible for the loss of life.
And Prowl, he was starting to understand that while what he had done had killed… he hadn’t meant it. It wasn’t a choice that he had made, it was a terrible accident caused by his own recklessness that he would forever regret and take strides to ensure was never repeated. He would hold himself accountable.
And he was also starting to understand that Wheeljack knew he would come to that conclusion, that the death Prowl caused and the death Wheeljack was discussing were very different… but the Wrecker was helping him come to understand it anyway.
Because they were at war—and the next time Prowl caused death, it wouldn’t be an mistake with a nest full of eggs.
It could be a choice, and a Decepticon life that Prowl would willingly end.
It could be an accident, and Prowl could find that a choice he made would turn into a grisly horror and he would find himself responsible for the death of a friend or even a civilian caught in their crossfire.
And Wheeljack wanted him to be ready, and to know he would always have a friend.
“… Were you ever responsible for a civilian’s death?” Prowl asked quietly.
Wheeljack sighed. “I was a scientist.”
“I mean, after you became a soldier,” Prowl pressed, frowning.
Wheeljack shook his head. “Nothing I did after I became a fighter killed a civilian, as far as I know.” He looked at Prowl. “… But some of the things I designed before the war started? Things that I thought would make life on Cybertron better? They were on both sides when the fightin’ started, and… I figure that means that, on both sides, they played a part in lots of choices and lots of mistakes.” He looked down. “My science killed more Cybertronians than my servos ever could have.”
Prowl’s face fell, then he nodded. “I see. And… how do you live with that?”
“… It’s how you use it, Prowl,” Wheeljack said quietly. “Like I said, I made those things to help ‘bots. They were never supposed to be used to kill anyone, and… way I see it… it’s pretty much that one little thought between me and tryin’ to take responsibility for all of it, so I kinda figure it needs to stick.”
Again, Wheeljack surprised Prowl with how candid he was being.
But… somehow, despite the darkness of those words… it helped.
“… It’s how you use it,” Prowl repeated softly, and Wheeljack looked at him as the cyber-ninja nodded. “And… when we are given something which empowers us… we must handle it with great care, rather than allowing that power to go to our heads.”
“I think there’s an Earth sayin’,” Wheeljack noted. “With great power comes great responsibility.”
Prowl blinked, then he nodded as they arrived at his door. “Indeed.” He hesitated for a moment, then he stood up straight. “… Hold onto that shield for me. I’ll… let you know, when I believe I’m ready.”
Wheeljack gave a small grin and nodded. “You got it.”
Prowl smiled, then… he did something he honestly couldn’t even remember doing in all of his life, and he stepped forward and gave Wheeljack a quick hug before stepping away and into his room.
It was a moment before he heard Wheeljack’s steps receding, making their way towards their owner’s own room and taking the shield mod with them.
Prowl sighed, crossing his arms, then he looked up at the tree in the center of his room and all of the little birds peacefully nesting there.
The cyber-ninja fidgeted uncomfortably, then he sat down before the tree and closed his optics as he tried to meditate.
He knew that Ratchet must have been responsible for death; even if he hadn’t directly killed anyone, he blamed himself for every life he hadn’t saved… like that “Wreck-Gar”, who only just perished…
Prowl believed he’d heard Optimus mention something about ‘giant spiders’ to the field-tech and Wheeljack at one point, not long after they first encountered that “Blackarachnia” on Halloween. Spiders, even just their images, still scared the Prime.
To save Prowl’s life, Bumblebee had killed that massive creature that had been altered with nanotechnology during their first interaction with Earth. The young ‘bot hadn’t seemed to reflect on it much, and… Prowl decided then and there that he hoped that he never did.
In fact, if anyone ever tried to broach the topic with the youngest Autobot, they would have Prowl to deal with. Bumblebee could be reckless and careless at times, but he had a good spark and he only ever meant well—and this-… Bumblebee was among the last ‘bots in the universe who deserved to feel like this.
Had Bulkhead taken life? If Professor Sumdac’s robots could be counted, perhaps—and maybe that “art piece”, the drone Sari had brought to life with her Key when they needed to stop the overloaded solar-fusion core and they did not want to risk the lives of anyone on the team.
But again… Bulkhead didn’t seem to consider that… and he only ever meant well, and he was good and kind, and he didn’t deserve this—he could never deserve this, any of it. If anyone tried to make him feel like this, to make any member of the team feel like this-
Prowl’s shoulders were shaking, and he raised a servo to his mouth as he opened his optics and gazed at the floor.
It was an accident. He hadn’t meant it.
He hadn’t meant it…
“You didn’t say anything.” He looked up at the Wrecker as they walked through the open lot. “When you saw-…” His optics went to his servos. “You didn’t say anything.”
“No, I didn’t,” his companion agreed. “Because I shook too, way back when—and I didn’t stop for a good, long while.” He gave a sad smile. “Honestly, if you hadn’t been shakin’, I’d have been worried.”
“Why?”
“‘Cause it would’ve meant you didn’t care.”
Prowl blinked, then he closed his optics again as his shoulders sagged.
Then, he heard a soft rustling—and he opened his optics again to find that a little bird with bluish-green and white feathers had perched itself on his shoulder, and it was looking down at him intently.
He knew all of his birds—and he had never seen that bird in his room, before.
It was an adult, but it was new—and it had gotten dark outside, the stars were out.
It must have needed a new home.
“… I’m sorry,” he whispered, feeling a little bit silly about it but still deciding that it was the right thing to do.
The bird just looked at him, tilting its head, then it flew up and perched on one of his tree’s branches.
Prowl watched it for a moment, then he closed his optics again.
It was an accident, but it was still his fault—and Prowl was never going to repeat his mistake.
No more carelessness, not with bird nests… and not with a reckless Wrecker, who he would be lost without.
currently contemplating whether the Dinobots actually engage in asymmetrical warfare or if they’re more like the A-Team, doing the impossible missions and striking like a scalpel at tactically advantageous areas, terrorizing the Decepticons they face so hard that their very name invites fear and wields terror like a sledgehammer, even though they statistically aren’t that destructive or violent in terms of the overall scope of the war
(in order words, do the Dinobots do HORRIFIC things in the name of the greater good because it is what is necessary to survive, or do they just win while convincing the Decepticons that they do and entrusting in their reputation and perception as big scary monsters to keep that belief going)
