Chapter Text
"I trust that you had a safe journey, bounty hunter?"
Lockdown smirked as he walked down the boarding ramp of his ship, the Death's Head. Taking not of the heavily-armed guards surrounding him, he regarded the tentacled alien before him with mild disdain.
"Indeed, Inquirata," he muttered. "At least as safe as my job allows."
Inquirata smiled knowingly... or at least, Lockdown assumed it was a smile. The alien's bulbous head had bizarre curves, making its face barely distinguishable.
"Glad to hear it. Now then, did you succeed in acquiring your target?"
"Yes, he's in the cargo hold," Lockdown said, gesturing at his ship with his hook hand. "But first, I would like to receive my payment first."
Inquirata's smile vanished. "Not until we make sure you did indeed complete the job."
"If you trusted my abilities enough to hire me, why do you now doubt me being able to finish a job?"
The guards on either side of the alien tensed at the challenging tone in Lockdown's voice, but the bounty hunter remained defiant in his stance. Inquirata stared coldly at him, no doubt attempting the stare him down. After a moment, the alien smiled again, albeit less mirthful.
"Very well. Jaxis?"
One of the guards stepped forward and handed Lockdown a handful of credits. The bounty hunter eagerly accepted them before turning back to his ship and remotely opening the ramp to the cargo hold. Placed there, held withing a stasis pod, was Optimus Prime.
* * *
Axer had only been a Star Seeker for a few days and he was already hating it.
Everywhere he went on the Tidal Wave, he was given looks of disdain and even beaten up by other crew members. No doubt this was because of his vehicular alt mode while pretty much everyone else had a bestial one.
He was half-tempted to eject himself out the airlock. It was only the knowledge that Thundertron, the Star Seeker's leader, was after something valuable that kept him on board. Whatever it was, Axer intended to have a piece of it.
Making his way to the bridge (Thundertron only tolerated his presence there as long as he shut up and worked), Axer found the crew working hard to bring the ship out of hyperspace. The navigational computer was beeping wildly.
Walking up to Cannonball, the only other Cybertronian on board, Axer said, "What's going on?"
"We've struck gold, apparently," Cannonball gruffly replied. "Looks like Thundertron's finally found what he's after."
"And that would be...?"
Cannonball said nothing, instead nodding to the viewport. The hyperspace tunnel vanished and a blue-green world came into view, consisting of mostly water and land.
Axer snorted. "Nothing special."
Cannonball grinned. "Oh, it's not the planet itself we're after, but rather, what's on it." The grin broadened. "Or should I say, 'who?'"
* * *
"Okay, Perceptor, repeat that again, except with one hundred percent seriousness."
Seated near the viewport on the Ark's bridge, Perceptor frowned. "Gigantion isn't there."
"Maybe we miscalculated the jump," Jazz murmured, sitting in the command chair.
"I never miscalculate jumps," muttered the pilot Sideswipe.
"I'm afraid he's right," Perceptor said. "We're in the system, going by the Caminus asteroid belt floating nearby and its star Gigalonia being present, but Gigantion is nowhere to be found."
Jazz groaned, slumping in his seat. As if their quest for the AllSpark couldn't get any worse: first, their leader, Optimus Prime, got captured by a bounty hunter, and now their destination for the third AllSpark shard was missing.
"Are there any other colony worlds we can visit?" he then asked Perceptor.
"There is Animatron, the Jungle Planet," the scientist replied. "Aquatron, the Water Planet; Combatron, the Iron Planet...."
"Well, we'll have to visit all of those eventually. Let's start with Aquatron- do we have any water-based Autobots on board?"
"Just ol' Barnacle Butt, Seaspray," Ironhide grunted. "I guess I should apologize to him for callin' him useless."
Jazz nodded. "Right. Aquatron then. And let's hope it's actually there this time."
* * *
"The Autobots have altered their course."
Still mending his wounds from the battle on Junkion, Megatron lifted his baleful gaze to Soundwave. "Where to?"
"Uncertain at this point. They have just left the Gigantion system, presumably in an attempt to throw us off."
"I did not ask for presumptions, Soundwave," Megatron snapped. "Keep working until you figure out their course."
As the emotionless comm officer went to work, Megatron sat back and mused over past events. How many more times would he be robbed of the opportunity to kill the mech whom he had once called brother and now called his arch-enemy? The list of encounters were endless:
The first encounter on Cybertron; Trypticon turned on him and detracted him from his goal.
The Raid on Tesarus; the Aerialbots bombed the camp and rescued Prime.
The Battle of Vextor XI; the native razor-slugs were disturbed by the fighting on the surface and intervened.
The Siege of Massunstrad, the Vorsk Offensive, the Rorsha Campaign... the list went on. And now Junkion, with Lockdown capturing Optimus Prime and leaving for parts unknown. How could nearly a thousand years-worth of opportunities pass while denying him the chance to satisfy his lust for vengeance?
He was interrupted from his thoughts when Soundwave spoke again. "I have them, my lord."
"Well?" Megatron said impatiently.
"They are headed for the colony world Aquatron."
"Why would they head for one colony only to go to another instead before they even reach the first one?" Barricade asked, to no one in particular.
"Stop asking stupid questions and make way for Aquatron!" Megatron barked. As the Nemesis began to change course, the Decepticon leader made a mental note to not let Prime's fellow Autobots elude him again as well.
* * *
Optimus Prime awoke to find himself on Cybertron.
This was not possible for two reasons: the first being that he had purposely left Cybertron to find the AllSpark. Second of all, it was certainly no longer as beautiful as it was now.
Rising up from the recharge slab he had been on, he looked down at himself and saw that he was in the body he had had long before he became a Prime. When he was Orion Pax....
"Well, look who's finally up."
Optimus looked towards the door to his quarters and saw his old friend Roller standing there, practically filling the door frame.
"R-Roller?" he murmured. "What are you doing here? I thought-"
"What, that I'd take up Dion's dare to skip work?" Roller laughed. "I'm not that brave and stupid, pal."
"Dion?" Optimus shook his head. "No... Dion is dead."
"No, he's not. At least, last I checked, he wasn't." Roller tilted his head, looking concerned. "You feeling okay, big guy?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," Optimus lied, jumping off the recharge slab. "I just... had a bizarre stasis dream. I'll tell you about it on the way to work."
"Sure thing," Roller said as he converted into a large armored van. "I told you to go easy on those energized energon cubes."
"Um, right," Optimus said as he transformed as well. "I'll... keep that in mind next time."
* * *
"Status."
"The subject is ninety-eight-point-nine percent within the virtual reality. One-point-one percent of him is mildly aware that he is no longer in the true reality."
Inquirata grimaced. "We'll have to do better than that, Xeros. We need him one-hundred-percent within the virtual reality in order to commence the experiment."
"Understood," Xeros muttered. "However, I'm not sure if this 'setting' is the best. Too much has happened to him for him to simply disregard it as a dream."
"It will work," Inquirata said sternly. "I have calculated the probabilities again and again, and I am without a doubt certain that this will succeed."
"I'll take your word for it," Xeros murmured, returning to his work. "I have no other say in the matter."