Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Hide Sam!” Optimus yelled as he carefully rolled Sam out of his palm as safely as he could. Transforming around the human had been Tricky and could have ended up with a lost limb but in the circumstances it was a risk that Optimus had been forced to take.

He threw a punch at megatron's face and was tackled into the dirt. He reached out and grabbed at the nearest item he could and ended up whacking Megatron with two tons of trunk.

“Decepticons.” Megatron yelled as starscream and an unknown Mech came into land. And began chasing Sam through the trees. They were catching up quickly but being so much smaller than them and dodging through the trees gave Sam enough of an advantage to keep himself out of their grasp.

Optimus did his best to keep them off his back and Sam had to leave out of the way to avoid the random shots starscream was firing. Eventually he docked down behind a massive log as he could see no safe way out of the area.

“There is another source of energon hidden on this planet. The boy could lead us to it.” Megatron swung his leg and kicked Optimus across the face. The leader of the Autobots took several blows and shots to the chassis before falling to his knees. Then Megatron fired a blast that sent him flying through the air. “Is the future of our race not worth a single human life?” Megatron said as he advanced on Sam's hiding place and Optimus. Sound screen for Optimus to get up.

“You'll never stop at one.” Optimist said as he unsieved his secondary weapon. I'll take you all on.”

He slashed at Megatron and Sam watched as he decimated the helicopter. Panic filled the humanas he tried to come up with any way to help. Maybe he could cause a distraction or-

Something happened then. It felt like the universe was shaking, and every sentient in the forest rose. The animals scattered, birds and mammals that Sam had no clue were there suddenly rushing from their hiding places. Everyone froze and looked up, and the fear that filled Sam was suddenly in the optics of the Cybertonians.

Above them the sky darkened to purple, and lightning crackled. Engine noises reached Sam and he turned to see Bumblebee, and despite the fear of being struck by the lightning that was flashing he dived into the open door.

He felt Mikeala reach for him, pull him against her and he squeezed her close. Then a deafening roar filled the air and they parted to look out the windows to see…

They had no clue what they were seeing there was a black hole above them, almost pulsing with a thin band of light around it. Stars were visible beyond it, and before they could see anymore they were too far away. And as much as Sam wanted to know what was going on, he knew they had to get away from the area as soon as possible. Whatever distraction there was would only buy them a little time.

As they sped away, Ratchet and Ironhide arrived, weapons drawn and firing. This shocked those waiting into movement and Megetron transformed and took off with Starscream. But as they rose higher they seemed to be pushed back down, and they were forced to land again.

“What the scrap is that?” IronHides yelled, trying to get a shot at Megatron’s retreating back but had to give up as a human helicopter came in to land.

“I have no idea, but tuck in your ES fields until I give the all clear!” Ratchet said and went tot check on Optimus, whose injuries were bad. “I think-oh Primus, there’s a ship!”

Looking up they watched as a ship came through the hole in the sky. A transport frigeet that appeared to have been jury-rigged into a battleship.

"Evacuate the area now! Optimus said, and sent a message across the human radio bands. "Evacuate. Evacuate now."

But it was too late. The large ship cleared the hole and was swiftly followed by darts. Small, fast flying ships that held one mech. They disappeared off into the distance, leaving the friggot behind as the hole began to close.

"Optimus? Speak to me>"Lennox said over the radio."What is happening, Are these guys friendly?"

"I don't know." Optimus said. " Move out. I'll give you what answers I can when I have them."

Just before the hole was about to be seal, another ship came crashing through, a standard transport vessel just as augmented as the frigate. It was not flying off into the sky, but instead began to land.

Or more specifically, crash.

Once the hole sealed Megatron and Starscream were able to escape, which left Optimus worried and Ironhide pissed. But neither could think about the enemy then, because they had a bigger problem. They had a ship rapidly descending from the atmosphere.

Despite the advanced nature of their tech, an individual cybertronian was required to download or learn the ability to triangulate ship trajectories. The three highest in command of the autobots went with the old fashioned method. They followed the flaming ship with their optics.

Luck was the only thing that seemed to be in play as the ship missed buildings and came down in a park. It plowed into the earth, leaving a trench a half mile long as the doors erupted open and several mechs climbed out.

Optimus was shocked to see a mini bot who was near human size, several large mechs and one… One that seemed oddly familiar.

And several humans.

Behind them Lennox and Epps arrived, weapons drawn and ready.

“What do we have?”

“Now clue yet.” Ratchet said as he scanned them. Then he frowned and tried again. “No. This can't be right.”

Epps looked up at Ratchet, “What is it?”

Lennox went to ask what he meant as well, when someone yelled to him.

“Lennox?”

He looked toward the voice and saw a dark haired man in old fatigues walking towards him, a blonde, tired girl next to him.

"Stop and raise your hands now."

"The malt bar ain't got shit on McHickneys." The guy said as he raised his hands over his head. Then he turned his head to the girl, "I really, really hope Lennox wasn't messing with me when he told me that."

"Erm, what the heck?" Epps said, the gun aimed true but confusion on his face.

Lennox paled. "No. Not possible. Where'd you learn that phrase?"

The guy sighed, "You told me.And I know I sound crazy, but you did. So ask me for a follow up."

"McHickneys is only the shit if Downey is shut.."

But it's nothing like Aunt Phillips flapjacks."

IronHide lost his temper then, "What kind of gibberish are you speaking?"

"That's a code. I made it up a couple a years back after getting drunk and ending up in a conversation with the tech guys about all the different things that may be real since, well, you guys are real."

"And what was this a test for?"

"A message to let me know that it was me sending it. Me from-" Lenoox bit his lip and huffed, "If I ever sent a message from the future."

Epps and IronHide gave him the side eye, not believing him.

"Bullshit." Epps said, "There ain't no way that this is-"

"It is Epps."

One of the bots came closer and Optimus started, optics wide and sensores verifying what he was seeing and feeling. "You can't' be him. He's miles from here by now."

"Oh I am Optimus." The bot said, and even though he'd rarely heard the voice, Lennox recognised it. But the bot it came from was rough looking, pain scraped and colors far darker than what he knew.

"Bumblebee?" Ratchet said, and stepped closer to scan the other, "How can this be?"

"This Bumblebee raised his battlemask and spoke, "There's too much to explain here, and we have no time to waste. Nemesis has already come through."

TRID TRID TRID TRID TRID

The darts flew faster than any earth plane could, and nearly all of them left the airspace of the USA in less than a minute.

Nearly all.

Two of them stayed in the US, One heading to New York the other to Florida.

In New York Dylan Gould was in a meeting about funding the building of several new hospitals. The dart struck the building and sent it into lock down, and from that dart several Micro bots emerged, each the size of a labrador and vaguely squid shaped. They dashed about the buildings, avoiding the security and finding their way into the offices where their targets sat.

Dylan was grasped and dragged to the desk, much to the horror of the people watching. Some were in the know, and panicking over the fact their hidden bosses were making a very public move against them. Those out of the know were screaming and fearful of the strange, mechanical squid things that seemed to be after Dylan Gould's watch.

Or the signal the watch was tied to.

Within minutes the signal was hijacked and used to hack the hidden system, which was rerouted out into the worldwide web. Every Government and New agency in the world received the information, and they learned of the betrayal of not just the Gould Family, but other conspirators.

And once that information was out in the open, once everyone knew, the squids followed there secondary programming.

And they ripped Dylan Gould Limb from Limb.

TRID TRID TRID TRID TRID

Harold Attinger was given just 5 minutes warning of the Darts' arrival, and he managed to make it a mile away from his apartment before one of the squid things found him. He'd been expecting the dart, but apparently he warranted special treatment, as the thing held him until a much larger ship could arrive.

The being that descended and approached him stared with eyes so filled with hate and determination that Harold had no doubt that he was about to die.

When the being stopped before him Harold stood, refusing to look away, "I always knew you kind were a danger."

"No. You kind made us one. I am here to stop that from happening."

Harold tilted his head, "Who are you?"

He got no answer. Nearby CCTV would show that a second later a blast struck the body and atomized it.

Chapter Text

The mix that had come with this other bumblebee were guarded and carefully Led away from the park to an empty gymnasium. Lennox had no idea what they were supposed to do from there but at least gave them cover from the countless civilians who were attempting to get a better look at the giant alien robots that had crash landed in the middle of the park.

IronHide recognized three of them.

The huge round one that looked like he had a beard was called Hound. He used to belong to a team known as the Wreckers but he'd gone missing during a skirmish on some planet that Lennox couldn't remember the name of. IronHide had a lot of War stories and it was difficult to keep up.

The green one was called CrossHairs and Lennox had never seen a cybertronian who seemed to be wearing clothing. The strange fabric appeared to be a way of carrying his many, many weapons with him. He was currently chatting with one of the mechs that none of the primes team recognized.

The last recognizable neck was called drift. He looked like an old Amalgamation of every samurai or ninja character Lennox had ever seen in a film. It would have been comical if the robot hadn't been carrying an Incredibly massive and deadly looking set of swords.

The girl that came with them was called Tessa. A young 20 something who should have been messing around at college and instead she was being held on suspicion of. ..god Lennox had no idea what they would be charged with?

She sat beside one of the bots that none of them could recognize. They were different to the other Autobots that Lennox was used to. Their armors were more jagged and seemingly ripped at certain points. Heavy battle lines gouged into the metal and they seemed to be keeping close to each other. They eyed the humans with Distrust and Lennox wondered what they could be. One held a box that kept moving and occasionally a mild puff of smoke would erupt.

Ratchet had scanned them and gone off with Prime, and finally he appeared to be done.

“So, what are we dealing with?”

“Bio formers.”

Epps glanced at Lennox and gave a nervous laugh, “What?“

Ratchet looked towards the group, “There are times when a Cybertronian is forced to take on a form that looks more like an animal than a piece of tech or engineering. Most of the time, it's fine, once they find more suitable alt modes they can switch. But it would seem they were created with no other Cybertronians around, so they had been in those forms for an incredibly long time.”

“That would explain the weird feral vibe they got going on.” Epps said. One of the soldiers came running up to them.

“Sir! You need to switch on the tv sir.”

“TV?” Lennox asked, confused.

“The screen acts as a television, for important events, Sir.” The soldier said, “Corporal Kiives said you were given the remote system?”

“I was ? Oh, yeah that thing. “Lennox reached over the table they had commandeered and grabbed a bulky looking remote. “What am I looking for?”

“Any channel sir. This has-”

“-We can destroy your cities at will. You will-”

Lennox starred in absolute horror. Having the Autobots revealed was bad but this? This was far worse.

And they wanted Sam. His face, that stupid image from ebay and his college ID would now be plastered over every screen on the planet. Everyone would know his face. Everyone would be after him.

“Oh god, Sam.” Ratchet said, voice quiet.

TRID TRID TRID TRID TRID

Leo was not having a good day. Not one bit.

He thought being vindicated would feel better, that it would fill him with pride for figuring out what everyone else refused to see.

Now he wished he was wrong.

Alien robots. Beings of enormous size and power that could apparently pass for humans when needed. Cars that talked and felt and fought and had a roommate who was a savior of the planet but the target of an alien race. An absolutely drop dead gorgeous girlfriend who Leo was not expecting. He was expecting a girl, but more of a cutesy, girl next door type, not a smoke show of a babe.

The radio voiced robot, Bumblebee, had just come back from a perimeter check. He had also given Same a small package that turned out to be an emergency cash bundle. To prepaid credit cards, untraceable, six bundles of 50s that had been worth a few grand each. Several fake IDs that had been made useless by news broadcasts.

He had to get away from them for a little, especially after Sam had destroyed his phone. He was scared and pissed and just wanted to be back in his dorm, which was likely crawling with feds. And as he walked away from the weird he realized he didn't actually know where he was supposed to go. His family was likely already under the government's protection/authority.

And really? He didn't want to walk away. These were aliens. Real and alive and there. Beings that didn't not come from earth, that did not belong but were here anyway. Leo's curiosity was at its peak, outweighing his fear and making him turn around.

He heard them talking, and when Sam showed off the weird symbols he felt a glimmer of recognition. He walked into the light of the fire and ignored the foul language of twins to join them at the fire.

"I think you've got a problem and I think I know someone who can help."

"Who?"

"Robo Warrior."

TRID TRID TRID TRID TRID

Same felt like he would choke on his grief. It hurt like a physical wound as he sat in Bumblees front seat, pretending to drive so people would get the wrong idea. Using the weird hologram Bee had drained energy like a bastard, so he only used it in emergencies. Mikeala and Leo were in the twins, hoping to avoid being caught out by police. The bots had changed their license plates, but found that altmodes would have to wait until things were safer.

And Sam was grateful for the time without the other humans. His head ached like crazy and the soft thrum of Bumblebees engine was soothing.

Bumblebee was on autopilot. He'd lost friends in war before, but nearly losing optimus had been a scare. He hadn't tried to contact them because the risk of a message or ping being intercepted was too high. Until he was sure, he wasn't going to do anything that could put Sam at risk.

Because Bee didn't have a Primus damned clue what was happening to the boy.

He didn't feel right. Humans had an electrical energy that was quite unique, like the cybertronians did. But it was different, due to it being so small and biologically based.

But now it felt....weird. It pulsed differently, and when it didn’t Sam saw things. Things he shouldn't be able to see, things that had been lost to most of their race after their home world had fallen.

The language of the Primes was not meant for non Cybertonians.

And yet here Sam was, spilling what seemed like alien gibberish.

Sam, small human Sam who wanted to build a life and have a family and just be a normal human. Bumblebee had been hurt by Sam's decision to go to college alone, but he understood, Despite his youth compared to other bots, he was still an adult and he understood that life changed, and your decisions changed with it. And with humans being so short lived it was going to happen so much faster. It felt like he had blinked and suddenly Sam wasn't a kid. He was a young man and he was starting his adult life.

Bumblebee had to stop thinking about it. Because in the larger scheme of things, Sam wasn't even a blink. A Cybertronian Vorn was 83 human years. Sam would be at the end of his life and Bee would be just one older. He would see Sam's grandchildren have grandchildren and-

No. Nope. Bee stopped in his tracks and instead thought of the situation at hand. They had enough Money to last several months if they were careful. Avoid hotels and such. Maybe they could buy a cheap camper and head to the wilds. If they set traps and hunted, they could make the money last much longer, but staying still had too many risks.

As they drove, Bumblebee didn't see the stalker that had joined them.

TRID TRID TRID TRID TRID

"Holy shit." Lennox said and felt his legs go weak, "Holllly shit. Tell me I am not seeing things."

"You're not." Epps said and laughed, disbelief in his eyes. "Those are fucking DINOSAURS."

They were. The new bots had disembarked the cramped confines of the planes and immediately transformed, and the men around them were staring in varying degrees of delight and shock.

Because there were giant alien robot dinosaurs on base.

There was a small fast thing that looked like a velociraptor. A Triceratops rubbed against a truck as though itching a scratch and a Spinosaurus just sat his ass down.

And there was a T Rex. A goddamn robot T Rex.

"Oh god. Oh god." Lennox stood and stared. "That is the most badass thing I have ever seen."

"Holy crap."

Lennox turned around and saw Galloway watching, mouth agape. The coolness of the moment evaporated and he stood straighter.

"Galloway?"

The man snapped out of his amazement and looked at Lennox, "We need to speak Now, Prime."

"What has happened?"

"I don't know, maybe we've just learned about a decades old conspiracy to take this planet from us?"

"Galloway, The Autobots-

"Have a mole. Or had one. It's a little up in the air right now."

IronHide joined them, and did not take the accusation well, "All our mechs are loyal to Prime."

"Was Sentinel."

The bots froze and Lennox felt uneasy.

Eventually Prime asked, "How do you know that name?"

TRID TRID TRID TRID TRID TRID

Tessa was tired. She'd eaten her first full meal in days and showered in a real, hot water shower and now all she wanted was to curl up and sleep, but she couldn't.

After months of sleeping in a truck bed or on the move, she had become used to the sound of an engine and the movement of the road. She left her room to head to the main bay where her friends were, and Hound was in truck form.

"Over here girly." He called, popping a door open.

She smiled and climbed in. "Are you doing okay?"

"Good. Weird seeing so many of these guys alive, but hell, can't say it ain't nice."

"Do you think we can stop him?"

"No clue honey. We don't even know his plans." Hound said, "There's a blanket on the back seat kid. Get some shut eye."

"Thanks Hound."

Tessa was out like a light, and Hound was grateful to have her close. Poor thing had been through hell.

Shane was Dead. Killed after being found by what was left of Cemetery wind. They'd found her hiding in an empty hospital, half beaten to death and grieving. Getting her away from the fighting hadn't saved them. It hadn't saved anyone in the end, the fighting never stopped. Even when they thought they finally had peace, it all went to sit because someone just couldn't let go of the past. A decepticon attacked because he couldn't abide Autobots being alive. An autobot would take out a decepticon in revenge for Vorns old grudge. The humans would attack out of fear or greed.

It just never ended.

And then it happened.

They found Sam.

Or what was left of him.

He had not died in an accident. Another lie they were convinced of by monsters out for themselves. Prime hadn't allowed Bee to see the files they'd found, files that told of what had been done to the boy. But it must have been bad, considering Primes' behavior after. He became more withdrawn, heading off to places unknown and returned with tech and scrolls and information.

And then he began babbling about fixing everything at the point it went wrong. Honestly, Hound thought he had lost it.

He began gathering scientists. Autobot and Deceptacon, Alien and not, all of them worked to help Prime achieve his goal. Preceptor was found, alive and tired and willing to do anything to end the war, and had found Prime a way to harvest energon with destroying suns. It was slow and tedious but it worked, and there was hope.

But that hope didn't last long. Because with a new sauce for energon came a new lease of life not just for the Cybertonian race, but to rekindle the war.

But there wasn't war. There was nothing but madness as Prime tried to do the impossible.

TRID TRID TRID TRID TRID

He could feel Sam. He could feel the energy of the Allspark in him, and he could sense the poor boy's turmoil.

He would be safe soon. They all would. He would not allow his fate to come to pass.

Nemesis Prime would succeed where Optimus failed.

Chapter Text

Epps had decided to eat while he had the chance, grabbing a tray in the kitchen and joining his squad as they watched the TV.

People were dead. Thousands of soldiers, civilians, heroes and innocents who had the bad luck of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The death toll was going to be huge.

And then there were the deaths that came as massive surprises.

Dylan Gould had always been one of those rich dudes that you looked up too. Always donating to good causes, building wells in Africa, schools in impoverished areas and feeding the hungry. Every Christmas he goes 'undercover' and brought up a whole bunch of medical debt just to forgive it. He'd saved a lot of people, helped so many and to discover his whole family had been Working for the Decepticons was insane. But it seemed to be true.

Not to mention the reports of the activity of movement on the moon. Images and video of grainy footage of things moving around and doing god knew what.

The bots were freaking out. Apparently Sentinel was one of their leaders. It was believed he was dead and gone years ago, back around the time the Allspark had been blasted off into space. The idea he was alive, that he was so close was insane.

But the idea he could be a traitor was not one any of the aliens liked. Sentinel was a paragon of virtue, one of the only members of the sensate to put aside the 'impartial' ideals and try to help. He was a hero to many.

And a teacher to Optimus.

"How many more do you think were in it?" Epps asked, and a blonde called Pallish gave him a tired look.

"There not giving out names. They're Trying to implement A media black out nut no one can figure out how to do it. Not speaking to the press isn't going to keep anything hidden when there is a hell of a lot of info out there for them to find."

"I'll say. Fox is going ham over infiltration or 'liberal traitors' and CBS Is arguing that this is the fault of allowing contributors power in the senate. Not to mention the crackpots claiming to have known the grays were coming all along."

"But....there aren't any grays. At least none Of the Autobots have ever mentioned them." Epps said, "And believe me, they got grilled about other races by every politician and scientist who was allowed near them."

That was true. They new about Titan, a humanoid species with antenie and pink skin. The war between Agrorians and Zertonians fizzled out when the 2 races began to interbreed. They were warned about the Velgrox and given a heads up about things like scraplets and other pests that were often in space.

But no infamous grays.

And Epps didn't care about those right now. He cared about the fact all leave had been canceled. He cared about the fact that their little secret was out and the nastiest threat to the planet had awoken. He cared about the fact that for years, there had been people amongst them who had been working to help the decepticons.

TRID TRID TRID TRID TRID

They'd arrived at the deli to find a queue down the block with people buying whatever food they could before they were forced to evacuate or be put under quarantine. The streets were chaotic as people panicked, bought and raced to loved ones. The counter was half empty but the second that the man behind the counter looked up, the place was closed.

Simmons. Freaking Simmons.

Sam was really beginning to believe that the universe was out to get him.

Leo was pissed about the insults Simmons was throwing his way, and all Sam wanted was to find out if Simmons really did have any important information for them or if this was a dead end.

For good or bad, he did.

Eventually Mekeala bought out her trump card, and Sam felt a little bad for the poor thing. He loved Mikeala, but hearing her say, " I’m not gonna torch your other eye.’ in a comforting voice was a little freaky.

And the whole time the symbols lit up lights in his head, made him feel queasy. He desperately wanted to know what they meant. And more importantly, how to remove it. Because it was going to drive him crazy.

The small bot on the table explained the fact they needed a seeker, and the fact there were several on the planet at one point. Though it was unlikely any of them were still active. But they had a starting point, and that was something.

And then he felt something. It was weird, like an odd, wave against his brain. He staggered and his balance was affected, and Leo grabbed his arm.

"Wo there buddy. Maybe you should sit down." Leo said and grabbed at a box that Simmons grabbed back, then handed him a stool.

Mikeala came to him, worried in her eyes, "You need a doctor Sam. Whatever that shard did to you is obviously not good."

"Can't exactly rock up to hospital rig-hnnng." he clutched his head, the odd sensation flooding him again but he got something with it. A feeling,a person, a-

"Optimus." he said. "I think...I think Optimus is nearby."

As if on que, Mikeala's phone went off and she looked at her phone and a message said 'Come out back'.

They did, but Simmons spent a moment talking to his Mom so she would keep the store closed and be ready to visit her sister soon. He also told her to make up a hamper with everything and then showed them to the back alley.

The Twins were waiting for them,

“Yo, hurry it up man, we gotta go. We got so-ordinates for a meet up with Prime.”

“How long have we got?” Simmons asked, “I need to grab my supplies.”

“What supplies?” Sam asked.

“Couple of tasers, paperwork, burner phone-”

“Those might actually be helpful.” Mikeala said, crossing her arms, “How long will that take you.”

“ETA 10 mins.”

“Make it quicker.”

TRID TRID TRID TRID TRID

Ratchet hadn't seen Optimus in this much turmoil since they had lost Teletran.

Sentinel couldn't be a traitor. He had stood by their side when no one else would support them, and had convinced the Senate to start taking the Decepticon seriously before Megatron was discovered to be their leader.

He'd taught Optimus how to be a good Mech, and had been a source of comfort and friendship for so many.

Ratchets was about to speak, but Optimus beat him to it.

"Go and fetch the Bumblebee and the human Male. I need answers."

Ratchet nodded and sent a message to IronHide to bring their guest. less than 20 minutes later they arrived.

He'd been monitoring the group since they had arrived. Human intelligence had been running background checks on the humans, and so far their story was holding up. And as for the Bot?

Bumblebee was Bumblebee, but there were signs of wear and tear that only came with time. There was also the fact their internal chromeametres were off by just over 15 years. The fact he could speak was worrisome, because that was not his original voice. Which meant he'd likely transplanted a voice module which wasn't an uncommon thing, but much like human organ donation they needed the original mech's consent. You could take them without permission, but it was a violation that was only considered in extreme circumstances.

But for a voice box?

Something must have changed a hell of a lot for This Bumblebee to make such a choice.

He stood before them, the human beside him.

"You claim to be from our future? Then tell me, is the Sentinel on the Earth's moon." Prime asked.

"He is. In deep stasis. He can be awoken but the item was....a struggle to get hold of. And one of the possible requisites for its discovery has been...circumvented." Bumblebee explained.

"I suggest you explain in more detail." Prime said and there was an edge to his voice that Ratchet had never heard aimed at Bumblebee before.

The yellow mech shook his head, "I don't know how much cans ay with-"

"Oh for christ's sake Bee. I think Nemesis has changed enough that 'don't step on the butterflies' is gonna fly." Kade said, losing his patience quite quickly, "Prime? You should have died this morning. Megatron got in a lucky shot and blew your spark out of your chest. And that Witwicky kid went on a hell of a ride finding the tech to bring you back."

Ratchet shook his head, "That isn't possible. You cannot bring the dead back. Once the spark is extinguished there is no return."

"Tell that to Megatron." Kade said.

"That had to have been some kind of deep stasis survival. It has been documented before." Ratchet said.

Bumblebee rolled his optics, "I was there when Ratchet happened. I watched it all and I tell you now, there are forces in this world that you'd think were myth. But they are real. So very real and so very dangerous and we do not have the luxury of debating what is real and what is not."

As he spoke Ratchet couldn't help but feel a familiarity with the voice he was using. He knew it from somewhere but couldn't think where.

"So I should have died? Why is stopping my death so important."

"Because your death was the beginning of everything falling apart."

TRID TRID TRID TRID TRID

They eventually got to the meeting point 2 hours later, and they were full of deli sandwiches and sides because Simmons Mom wasn't as stupid as her Son.

"You are about to go do something dangerous, so fuel up and don't die." she'd said to her son, who'd been embarrassed but not argued, and Sam was reminded on sleepy car rides home after thanksgiving with grandma, overfed and needing a nap. Which he, Mikeala and Leo all did whilst they could. Bee softly honked at him and Mikeala to wake up, and they were in a small first just off the main freeway outside washington.

And Optimus was there.

Only he looked different. His shades were darker and flames were missing. But that made sense, since they probably wanted to look as different as possible from their normal alt modes.

They parked up and Sam stretched once they were out of the cars. The bots transformed.

"So what's the sitch?" Bee asked, using a sound bite from a show. He'd hooked his radio up with a massive portfolio of sound bites for emergencies, because as fun as using his radio was, some situations needed more than shock jocks and song lyrics.

"The human authorities are contemplating putting us under martial law. Unless we can find some way of dealing with this situation quickly, we are facing possible ejection from the planet." Optimus said. "And at this point, that would harm more than it would help."

"So what is the plan?" Sam asked.

"There is a possible connection at the Washington Air and Space Museum."

Relief floods Sam as he realizes that they are on the right path, and he sighs in relief. “So what's the plan?”

“We approached whatever seeker is there and hopefully use the shard you have to jump start their system. If we are lucky it will work. If we are not, then we will head for safety.” Optimus explained. “I ask that you travel with me Sam. There are things we must discuss.”

Five minutes later they were on the road.

Chapter Text

The ship that had slowly been making its way through the earth's air space was resistant to all efforts to stop it. Tiny, smaller ships were constantly darting in and out, gathering things that made no sense.

CCTV footage from stores were found of the odd squid bots gathering supplies. Medical, food, clothing and bedding. Everything people may need, and it was confusing as hell because the ship was not designed for human beings.

And then it left US air space and began heading towards the African Continent. Ships and planes and soldiers scrambled, terrified. The United Nations was in uproar, demanding answers as to why they had been left in the dark. The public was screaming for blood, the knowledge of betrayal and manipulation causing riots and fighting.

Arrests were made and people vanished. A few were found dead, having ended it themselves rather than face the consequences.

The ship moved and eventually ended up above Jordan, and whispers began circulating that someone was going to send a nuke. But it was then that the entire earth defense system seemed to go into flux. The connection that allowed those bombs to fly were destroyed, and the world found itself unable to do a thing except watch as the ship chose a part of the Desert to land in.

TRID TRID TRID TRID TRID

"You could have taken over so easily." Lennox said as he sat on the edge of the wall. IronHide sat beside him, watching the base as people scrambled, day or night the place was always bustling, but no it was insane.

IronHide sighed and looked down at him, "We don't do that. Destroying your planet's sense of safety and self wasn't going to help anyone in the long run, so we kept our mouths closed and we did as Prime said. We worked with you. And it was supposed to be a peaceful integration."

Lennox looked up at him and tilted his head, "Why integrate. Why not go off and find another world, one better suited to you."

"I wish we had." Ironhide stared up at the sky, "But it's lonely out there. After all the fighting. I doubt any of our people want to have to go through the arduous task of building from scratch. We just want somewhere to settle where life exists. Where the people just live their lives. We are a Dying race Lennox. We don't have the capability of reproducing anymore. We don't have the capability of creating the energon we need to survive. As much as I enjoy a good fight I was hoping that this could be somewhere I could simply exist until the maker took me.”

Lennox hadn't expected IronHide to get so emotional about it but he also understood that it was the truth. The government could demand that the Autobots leave the Earth and take all this trouble with them. Or they could demand that they hand over the weapons needed to fight whatever thing was invading. Then left the main hangar after the news that their nukes had effectively become big fancy ornaments had come in. He'd never been one for the use of nuclear weapons but the knowledge that their final resort was on usable to them and they hadn't been able to do a damn thing to stop it had left him with a sour taste in his mouth. So he had managed to find himself a quiet place to think.

“What do you think will happen next?”

“I honestly don't know. This planet has just had its eyes forced open and it is not seeing anything good. Most likely it will fight whatever the hell is this and with luck on our side will win. Or will adapt. Our species have that in common. We’re both very good at adapting to any situation that life may throw at us.”

Lennox took a deep breath and then got off the wall so he could sit on the floor instead. Comfort of the solid brick behind him was small but helpful for easing his mind. He got the occasional funny look from people who were passing. Or it could be because he was sitting next to IronHide as though it was the most normal thing in the world to hang out with an alien robot.

They just watched for a little while until eventually IronHide looked up and off towards the South.

Heading back towards the base was Optimus, Ratchet and the other bumblebee. Lennox still couldn't wrap his head around the idea that they were time travelers but hell if aliens existed maybe time travel could as well. Hey maybe they'd get real lucky and a Dude in a big blue box would show up and save them all.

“Do you think these guys are for real? Or do you think this is some Decepticon trick.”

IronHide Shrugged. “No clue. But I'll say this if they are trying to trick us they're doing a damn good job of it. That portal they came through was throwing off so much tachyon radiation that I'm surprised it didn't fry our circuits. You can't fake that kind of radiation. Not to mention that he seemed to have a lot of information that he could only have been given by me or Prime himself. I have the greatest respect for the scout but he is not High Enough on the food chain to know that stuff.”

“Considering what we're learning I’m kind of glad they showed up.”

IronHide watched them head towards the main Hangar and waited for the ping that may come to ask for his attendance. He hoped it wouldn’t come. Sitting here where Lennox, he could pretend they were just hanging out after a mission. The day had been too much for him. Nearly losing Optimus, the return of Mega and now Time travel. He needed a break.”

TRID TRID TRID TRID TRID

Nemesis had spent years waiting for this moment.

Samual Witwicky was safe, safe and would not leave his sensor range again. He knew the next few hours were going to be a struggle, and he had to play the part as best he could. He'd scrambled the comms system just enough that they wouldn't be contacted at the wrong moment.Every message was being redirected to avoid his deception being discovered before he can get to the Matrix.

"So what do we know, Optimus?"

That name made him rile, but he would abide for now. "We should have been more careful when checking for allspark remnant Sam. But I have a feeling that even without the second piece, something like this would have happened. There are things that even I was not privy too until recently. Things that bind you ancestors to us in ways we should not have known." Nemesis explained, "You're emitting a signal that your body shouldn't be able to create. You're suffering because the human body was not designed for this. You felt me earlier, didn't you? In your mind."

“Yeah. What the heck was that?”

“Your body is trying to forge connections as though it is one of us. It attempted to connect to the only Prime it could find. But you need not worry, we have a way to fix the issue.”

Relief flooded Sam the, and he sank into the seat, “Thank god. I feel like my brain is coming apart.”

“We will fix it. But first we must find out who is at the Museum. They could be a useful ally to us.”

“Yeah. Speaking of ally’s, what's the situation with NEST?”

“Unknown at this time. I know that your government is arguing about shutting it down until this crisis is over.”

“That seems counterproductive.”

“They are afraid. And I do not blame them.” Nemesis said, "There are conspiracies at work that have shaken them. They thought themselves safe and they are not. It would make anyone fearful."

They slowed down as they hit normal traffic.

"Sam, would you mind moving to the passenger seat and buckle up."

Sam did and once buckled in, there was a shimmering in the air beside him. A man was sitting there, middle aged and oddly normal

"That's not the holoform Lennox showed us." Same said.

"No. That one was designed to look like your average American trucker. We're supposed to blend in. I have been told that this form does not look like a regular Truck driver."

"No. You look like you teach 10th grade history."

This got him a laugh, and Sam watched the 'man’ next to him pretend to drive.

"This form is more natural. to personality and archetype."

Same watched him as they drove. This man was 40 ish, brown hair graying at the temples and pale skin. He was good looking, but in an everyday way. A definite 7/8 out of ten.

"I thought Holoforms were for emergencies only?"

"This is a circumstance where I think it can be allowed. The less attention we draw to ourselves the better. I will be going into the Museum with you."

"Is that safe?"

"Yes."

TRID TRID TRID TRID TRID

Lennox arrived at the private barracks and was shocked to see he wouldn't need to make a phone call, because Sara was there. She held Isabelle's hand and gave him a look that said she loved him, but oh boy was he in it deep.

"Sarah, what are you doing her-"

"Is flat top one of the aliens? The autobots?"

Erm, honey, I-"

She marched up to him and handed over her daughter, who smiled and hugged him.

"I'm gonna look like a moron if I'm talking to a car, but if you aren't, you better show yourself because he brought you to my home and I have a damned right to know who was in my garage."

IronHide seemed to think of it, then transformed. Sara stood her ground , but the fear was in her eyes, and Issabells gave a little gasp and William Lennox felt his heart melt when she said 'magic' in his ear.

IronHide stood there, looking sheepish and trying not to seem intimidating. Lennox prayed he didn't show off his canons.

"Hello Mrs Lennox." he said.

There was a moment of awkward silence. until Sara spoke. "Oh wow. Oh wow wow you are really...holy hell." she said, and ran a hand over her head, "I am really sorry I used you to get groceries that time."

Iron Hide laughed, "Don't worry. You didn't know who I was so...call it even?"

"Oh god no." she said, "But it's a start."

Issabelle wiggled, wanting down so he placed his daughter on the ground and she went to her mother.

IronHide knelt, trying to seem harmless. "Hello."

Issablee giggled and hid behind her mothers legs, and let out a tiny, "Hi." and waved. "You big."

IronHide nodded, "And you're tiny."

She ran back to Willam and Epps showed up, grin on his face. "Heya Sara. Are you doing okay?"

No. But I'll have to since I've no clue how long we'll be here. How's your wife settling in?"

Epps stared at her, "Moniqes here? I was told she wouldn't be here till morning, Where is she?"

"Four barracks down. With 5 jetlagged kids and a dog."

"General Peice wants you bye." Epps rushed off, hoping he wouldn't be lambasted by his wife.

IronHide bid them goodbye as well, and that left Lennox with his wife.

She walked into his Barrack without saying a word, but the order to follow was obvious.

General Peice would have to wait.

There were several bags and a fish tank on the kitchen table. Lennox knew that they'd bring everything, but he didn't think that meant the fish as well. He wondered just how long they would be expected to remain on the Nest Base.

"I knew there would be a lot you couldn't tell me. I came to terms with that. I even knew we may have to upsticks and run. But this?" Sara folded her arms, "I think this is a little beyond the pale Will. I thought IronHide was a call sign. Not an actual name or designation or whatever ALIENS have."

"I get that you're angry. I would be too."

"I could forgive it all, but you brought him home. An alien soldier. I went to the store with him and Issabelle in the car seat. He was at home. Not only could he be a risk, but I treated him like a thing. And whether or not he was okay with that is besides the point because I am not going to treat a sentient being like a random thing. I could have at least offered him the spare tv or put the radio on or something Will."

Will had to fight the smile that wanted to come to his lips. Out of all the things his wife was worried about, it was IronHides comfort. His feelings. God he had married the best woman.

"It was necessary Sarah. It's difficult enough keeping the world in the dark when it was secret. Doing so when our 3 year old could makeup stories or our phone lines could be tapped would be worse."

She looked away from him. “ I get that. But Jesus christ this is the biggest event in history Will. Aliens. Aliens at war. Did you not think for a moment that maybe, just maybe this might be too dangerous a job for a man with a family?”

Chapter Text

Ratchet stared at the container like it held all of the answers. Before being taken into custody Drift had given it to him and now he stared at it.

It contained four full refuelings of Energon. Real, honest to god energon. Not a chemical mix designed to keep them going, not an energy transfer pack of batteries or simple quick pak.

It was energon.

The urge to crack it open and take a drink was overwhelming,h but Ratchet was a professional. He took it to his makeshift lab and ran tests. He double checked consistency and compounds and found that despite a mild difference in its electrical density, it was real.

Ratchet thought of what good this could do if they could get more. Some of the Younger Bots had deficiencies and problems caused by lack of decent fuel. The Older bots were suffering early onset Kibble loss that could be reversed with the right treatment. But first he had to know where it came from.

So after their conversation with Bumblebee, he went to his lab and sent for Drift.

The Mech came in, and once alone Ratchet picked up the container.

"How?"

"Preceptor was able to reverse engineer a star harvester. It was a difficult process, but it worked."

"Perceptor?" Ratchet perked up, "He's alive?"

"Yes. Right now I think he is on the Pius system."

Ratchet lifted the energon up, "Can we replicate this?"

Drift nodded, "I would ask that you keep it on a NDK basis for now. My compatriots would not be too happy that I have given it too you."

"Why would that be?"

Drift looked off towards the door, "They believe that we can return to our own time, and do not wish to cause more damage to the timeline than necessary. As you'll agree, that is not an option anymore. I do not believe we will. The ship is useless, and the energy consumption required was so massive that we were forced to piggyback off of Nemsis's ship.

"You know you've still not explained who that is. I understand he's the bot behind all of this but that means very little, and I think everyone is a little preoccupied with asking what should be obvious questions."

"That I cannot say. You would not believe me, but I assure you that soon, he will reveal himself."

Ratchet wanted to tell him to cut the crap, but honestly he was far more interested in the energon. Let the true fighters deal with the big bad. He had the future in his hands and needed to know more.

"How do we replicate this?"

Drift reached behind him and pulled a small device from a hidden pocket, "This will give you all the information you need Doctor."

Ratchet took it but didn't attempt an install. He wasn't stupid, he'd need to run a lot of tests to ensure this wasn't a trojan of some kind.

But what he did risk was opening the container. Drift smiled and watched him. "

"It's safe."

"Well, you're drinking it too, so it had better be." Ratchet said and poured two portions into glasses. He handed one to Drift, who drank without fear and Ratchet took a moment before he lifted his to his lips.

He turned his intake sensors back on, and allowed his tank alerts to reveal themselves. Most bots kept them switched off, not wanting to deal with the discomfort of subpar fuel.

The taste hit him first. A soft flavour that was both familiar and not. Like Energon produced from different locations it was its own unique thing. It was also thinner than what he was used to. Ratchet swallowed and waited for any effects.

Nothing. Nothing but standard Energon, no additives. He took another drink and his system began to react, and for the first time in a very long time, Ratchet refueled without the warnings flashing in his mind. He refueled without fear of it causing intact burns or breakdown problems.
And he felt full. Not the fake full that came with shutdown sensors and quick swallowing.

Actually full.

TRID TRID TRID TRID TRID

Nemsis didn't need the Matrix, but he also knew keeping it from this time Prime would simplify matters greatly. Plus JetFire would get them to his main ship without having to worry about Samual being taken.

So he let Sam and the humans lead them to the seeker.

JetFire was old, older than any Bot Nemesis remembered knowing. His form had markings reminiscent of StarScreams, and he had tech that was lost to them. Nemesis could see weaponry that had been outlawed before he'd been online, and Nemesis felt parts of himself itch as he recalled that they were once a part of this mech.

"The Matrix needs to be found and either protected, or destroyed." He said, and JetFire stared at him a moment. "Without it we have no chance of making more Energon."

"If the only way to make it is to kill worlds like this one, then we must find a new way." Nemsis said, "We have come a long way since then JetFire. We have options that do not require us to be monsters."

"Erm Optimus, what do you mean destroy planets?" Sam asked. He felt an odd familarality. "Is this what Megatron wants?"

Optimus nodded, "We will not let him have it. It won't just be the earth at risk, but every planet with a viable sun."

Bumblebee looked from Optimus to JestFire. "Please please please -say it ain't so joe-there's got to be a way-to stop this vile fiend."

"Bees right, We need to get to this matrix thing. Can those symbols get us there?"

JetFire tilted his helm and then nodded, "Get closer. I will get you to its location."

"What, you got a spaceship with you?" Simmons asked.

"No." Jet fire said, and suddenly sparks began to fly. "Stay close, and hold still."

Nemesis knelt and his hand was behind Sam and Mikeala, keeping them protected as time and space constricted their forms. Bodies forced through a tunnel of of blackness and energy and-

LIGHT.

Bright light nearly blinded them as the air reappeared and suddenly they were flying. Nemesis rolled and got to his feet, only staggering a little. His senses were a little scrambled but soon reasserted themselves.

Teleportation. Now that was a skill that would be useful in future. He sent out a message to one of his drones and then located his companions. Bee had been flung to the wayside, struggling to get up. The twins were complaining and Simmons was still rolling down a hill as Sam lay in pain in the sand.

"What the hell? Where are we?" Sam asked.

"Egypt. Egypt? Why are we in Egypt?"

"Because this is where the Crypt of the Primes is." JetFire explained, "I can't follow, that jump took too much out of me. But follow the symbols, follow what you see and you will find what it is you seek."

Leo and Mikeala joined them, bruised and confused, "Wait, what direction do we go?"

Jestfire pointed and Sam groaned in frustration. "Great, great we are lost in the desert and relying on my misfiring brain." he rubbed his face. "God Damn my life."

"Do not fret Sam. If JetFire is willing to give me the translation codex, this may go faster."

JetFire nodded. "Of course, it would be my Honour Prime."

The transfer was a little odd, as different generations of coding tried to work together, but they managed, and the codex was in Prime, and a message was given to JetFire.

It told him to wait, that help was on its way.

And it was. Just not from the Autobots.

TRID TRID TRID TRID TRID

The President had come to a decision.

The Autobots would not be evicted from Earth.

And he wanted a meeting. Since the beginning of their partnership the president knew of them, but had never met them. It was a security measure, but that Measure had gone out of the window.

So Optimus and Sideswipe were aboard a transport, being debriefed by Galloway.

"We're doing this in a low population area. There will be press, but only the Whitehouse PR team. We've given them a warning, but give them a chance to get their shock out of their systems. Knowing and seeing are 2 separate things and the last thing we want is miscommunication."

"What about security?"

"High amongst the humans. As agreed, Your backup has been allowed to attend without telling us their locations."

"Surprised you agreed to that." Sideswipe said.

"SideSwipe!" Optimus snapped.

"No, he's right. As much as I loath to admit it, the last thing we need is someone in our own government going rogue and attempting to harm you. We might not be happy with his situation but we are not stupid." Galloway said.

At the other end of the plane Epps was surprised himself. But then again, he shouldn't be. Politics was a game he didn't play because it was too complicated. And this was a prime example. The US government couldn't turn on the only allies that had any chances of fighting this enemy, but they couldn't appear overly reliant. The rest of the world was already making demands for knowledge and access to the Autobots, and there were some governments that they absolutely could not allow near them.

The idea war could break out because someone decided that they wanted tech over peace and just capture them? Or some fundamentalist group deciding to blow up the envoy because the Autobots were devils in disguise?

Too much could go wrong and despite Epps's dislike of Galloway, this was his job. He was there to keep this shit working even if he was a dickhead.

"ETA 20 minutes. ETA 20 minutes." the captain said over the tannoy, and Epps began pre landing checks. He men were already getting ready, checking packs and weapons before strapping themselves back into their seats. Galloway sat next to SideSwipe and continued talking, explaining the people who would be there and what the emergency plans were.

Landing went without a hitch, and then Optimus and SideSwipe disembarked.

The president looked confident, and the PR Team was ready with Cameras and computers. A platform had been created to let him be closer to eye level.

Upon transforming Optimus greeted the president, who laughed.

After a moment he apologised and then shook his head and said, "I saw the tapes. But that, oh wow that is something else."

TRID TRID TRID TRID TRID

Sam writes each symbol on a single page and lays it out for Optimus's HoloForm. Mikeala had made a joke about liking older men, and the holoform actually looked embarrassed, so she went out with Leo to find supplies. She wasn't happy to do it, but she understood the necessity.. Simmons was too busy questioning the tiny decepticon about the other side's plans and capabilities to care about anything else.

Not that Wheelie could tell him much beyond gossip, but Simmons said, "Gossip is where the details are. One mans mundane is another man's intel."

So Sam and Optimus were alone, trying to make sense of the symbols before them.

"Any luck with the codex JetFire gave you?"

"It's old, my systems are having a tough time synching it to my systems." Nemesis said. He felt bad for lying, but he needed to keep the humans as calm as possible. Allowing panic to set in would make his own plans harder, and the last thing he wanted to do was to get nasty with them.

ASs he watched Sam scribble, memories flashed in his mind. Medical files and pictures, videos and notes. He had hidden that information away from Bumblebee, and at moments like these he wondered if it would have been better to tell him the truth of what happened, but Nemesis also knew it would break his friend.

And he did see Nemesis as a friend. The scout may not be his ally now, but one day he may see the truth in Nemesis's plan.
But not if he had seen what Nemesis had.

He must have been frowning., because Sam tapped his wrist with the pen. "Hey man, are you good?"

"Yes, just....tired. I had thought we had seen the last of Megatron." he said.

"Same here buddy. Same here."

They reverted to silence, and stayed like that until Leo and Mikeala returned.

The humans ate and drank before bedding down for the night, and Nemesis allowed himself to flicker out. Once back in his root form he went for a walk. He told Bee to keep watch and for the twins to rest, trying not to remember the last time he had seen them. Well, see Skids. He survived the initial attack, Mudflap had not. Twins were rare, a near different breed to the rest of the cybertronians. He'd not lasted a year after losing his brother.

It hurt his spark to see them, to know what had happened. But the pain was worth it if it meant he could stop it from happening.

He drove to the edge of the roads and then transformed, and looked toward the horizen. Since landing the view had been impossible to ignore, but they had. So far none on his drones had come close, which was as planned. He received the message that JetFire had been found and moved to the ship. He was currently being drip fed energon, not wanting to shock his aged system. Quarters and supplies were being stocked up and rooms made available for the mechs with him.

He would keep them safe this time. He would keep this world safe.

Chapter Text

The energy signature created by teleportation was picked up by Bumblebee's specialist scanner, and he started cursing.

"Okay, what happened."Hound asked, leaning against the wall of the supply depot.

"Teleportation. Sam must have followed the same path as last time. He's in Egypt."

Hound kept his cool, not wanting to draw anymore attention to themselves. "Why? Optimus isn't dead, why would he be led to the matrix?"

"I don't know. Maybe it was always supposed to go to him." Bumblebee said, and rubbed the back of his helm, "And If Sam if there and the ship is there-"

"The Nemesis will be there." Hound looked towards the humans, "We should have told them."

"No. If they knew the human government would have put a target on all of us, and we can't have that. We've already got an army on the moon to deal with and the Fallen, we do not need to make enemies of the humans again."

"Well what are we supposed to do? We haven't got any way of getting to Egypt without a plane or a ship."

"I know." bumblebee said, "Not unless we do something really, really dumb."

"Are we doing dumb shit? I'm in." Kade said as he wandered up to them, "Seriously though, what the heck has happened?"

"Sam had to be in Egypt. I just got an alert that someone teleported. The only person on this planet that can do that is JetFire, and the only reason he would be out of stasis is if Sam found him."

"Shit." Kade said, then put up his hand in a wait sign, "Hang on, maybe it wasn't Sam. If JetFire is the only one who can teleport, then maybe Nemesis decided to recruit him? Seems like a skill that could be useful to him."

"And a pain in the ass for us. I know you don’t want to risk it but-"

"We can't trust them." Bumblebee snapped, then deflated. "You know exactly what they did to us, Kade. What they hid and who they hurt. They've only learned a fraction of the cruelty some of their kind planned to visit upon us."

Kade stayed quiet. "The whole point of following Nemesis here was to stop him from ...whatever plan he has here. Maybe we can spare this timelines version of you guys from the same fate as ours."
Bee looked up at the sky.

Soundwave was up there, hacking the satellites and directing signals. Somewhere in the darkness the Fallen sat waiting for news of Optimus's death. On the moon Sentinel was in stasis, awaiting the Matrix's power. Alongside him were hundreds of Decepticons, just waiting for the order to awaken and come to earth.

Would the Decepticons begin an assault upon them? Would they hit whilst the chaos was fresh, or bide their time.

"They won't believe half of it. Especially Nemesis and..Him."

Kade nodded, "I know. But time will prove us right."

DZ DZ DZ DZ DZ DZ DZ DZ DZ DZ

The temple was Beautiful.

Sam had seen pictures of stuff like this, but to be here, standing in the doorway of something so ancient and spiritual?

“This is amazing.” Leo said in a hushed tone, “Like, real eight wonders of the world stuff.”

Sam looked around the building, trying to figure out what to do next. Outside Nemesis was in Robot mode, bending down slightly to look into the temple. He could feel the Matrix behind the wall, and his own pulsed inside of his subspace.

"So what next?"

"Stand aside a moment." Nemesis said and reached into the building, "Here, mind you heads." He said carefully pushed against the back wall. The brick crumbled, and he was given astonished looks until he cleared enough space to see the metal behind.

"Oh my God." Sam muttered, "Oh My god. How long have they been here?"

"A long time."

The Matrix glowed within its cage, and Sam climbed in.

"Quit being so slow." Simmons said.

Sam gave him a nasty look, "I am trying not to step on any face here. This is a tomb of ancient beings, not a jungle gym."

Simmons had the good grace to look abashed, and Sam wiggled inside and Mikeala followed.

The Matrix was beautiful. Curved lines and gorgeous blue light, Mikeala wondered how now one had managed to find it.

Nemesis didn't want to worry Sam by having him witness the Matrix disintegrate, so he went down to all fours.

"I am going to reach it, Sam, I want you to take my hand and try to stay calm. What I am about to do may feel uncomfortable, but it may help avoid any security measures."

Mikeala climbed out and Nemesis reached in, careful and gentle as Sam took his hands. Nemesis found the trust Sam had in him so very precious, and he sent out micro cables to carefully wrap around Sam's Wrist.

"This may be a little uncomfortable," he warned.

"Do it." Sam said, bracing himself.

Nemesis slowly reached out with his mind and magnetic field to envelop Sam. The Micro cables pressed into the skin, and filaments that glowed passed into the flesh. Sam felt them heat up, and almost burn. He may have felt the pain of a tiny incision, but the feeling of Optimus in his head was overwhelming.

=breath samuel. breath= his soft voice said and Sam did. He reached out his free hand, gently scooping the Matrix, and this time it didn't disintegrate. Instead it hovered Above his flesh, pulsing with light as Sam began slowly stepping backwards.

Optimus moved slowly and carefully, helping Sam out of the hole in the wall.

Bee sawe his friend and felt a shiver go up his back struts. He could feel Sam. Not just as a normal human but everything. He was a fluctuating field that Optimus was carefully maintaining so he could get the Matrix safely out of the temple.

Once outside Optimus disengaged, being more careful of Sam than he was of the ancient artifact they had just found.

And then Sam collapsed. It was like a puppet whose strings were cut, he fell and Optimus caught him, carefully lowering him to the ground.

"What's happening, what's wrong?" Simmons asked.

"He's okay, heart rate elevated, but just unconscious." Optimus said. He looked over his shoulder, "We'll put him in my cab. Mikeala, you come with us."

She nodded and between her and Bee they were able to get Sam settled in Optimus.

“Where do we go now?” Mikeala asked as they began to drive.

“The ship above us belongs to an ally. They have agreed to shelter us.”

Mikeala smiled and relaxed ,”That’s the best news we’ve had in days.”

TRID TRID TRID TRID TRID

"That went better than expected." SideSwipe said as they headed back to the plane.

Galloway huffed and agreed, "You got lucky, half the senate wanted to have you all incarcerated."

Prtime looked down at the Human, who was flicking through files and stopped walking. "SideSwipe, go ahead. I need to speak with Galloway."

SideSwipe nodded and left, a little curious as to what the Prime was gonna do, but not really caring enough to actually try and listen in. Politics bored the scrap out of him.

Once out of earshot Galloway closed his folders, "Well?"

"You do not want us here, and this meeting could have easily been swayed to make it so we weren't. So I must ask, what are you playing at?" Optimus asked.

Galloway shook his head and took off his glasses. "I was astounded when I was told about your existence. We are not alone, and you were here to be our allies." he looked up at Optimus. "I sat and I listened to your races story, and as I did I got a niggling feeling in the back of my head. Because when I started this job I was hired as a historical statistician. My job was to look at our history and figure out how statistically probable things were. And when you arrived I remembered the hundreds of times that an ally arrived in peace with war on their heels. And what happened to their new found friends."

Optimus felt his tanks tighten. He remembered his own studies, and knew where this conversation was going.

"Those societies burned Prime. They got used up. Either convinced to fight or conscripted into battles on fear of death. Entire countries were destroyed and drained of resources to ensure someone else's victory. If they lose they are often treated worse than the people who started the damned wore. And if they win? There's a damned good chance their allies will pick up and leave them with nothing."

"We would not leave a planet that needed us after that aided us in our time of need."

Galloway started with something unreadable in his eyes. "There's already proof of your species infiltrating our world convincing our own people to turn on us in order to survive their plans. What was it the leak said? Transfering the shell of cybertron to earth and using our world as a base to regrow you own?"

"Which cannot be done. Not without-"

"The Pillars. Which we now know are on the moon. Which is apparently crawling with the enemy!" Galoway put his glasses back on, "I get that you and NEST think I'm an ass. But someone has to think about these things, because pretty promises and inspiring speeches are all well and good, but they mean jack shit when we have war on our doorstep."

Optimus couldn't argue with Galloway. He was right, the current situation was not good. They had countless enemies ahead of them and nowhere near enough mechs to fight them. Not unless they used guerrilla tactics. But that would harm the earth in ways it might not recover from.

Like many planets they had landed upon, earth had suffered due to bad decisions and even worse luck. But they had helped those worlds to rebuild after the chaos. But Optimus didn't think that any of the human world wanted their help after all of this . Or if there would be an earth to rebuild.

"I am here to ensure that your friends remember that even though you are their friend ,it does not make you their protector."

Somehow that hurt the worst.

Optimus had a genuine soft spot for the human race. They were brave and intelligent and so full of love and loyalty. Short lived and vibrant, they were a fine example of a species. They had their problems, but the majority were good hearted. There were monsters among them, the petty and cruel, but over all the good won out over the bad. And he did wish to protect them.

He wondered how many of their allies would stay that way with the amount of destruction visited upon them.

TRID TRID TRID TRID TRID

Sam awoke with his head in Mikeala’s lap and the feel of weird fabric beneath him.

“He’s awake.” she said, and her head rested on his head, “Move slowly. I don’t want you passing out again.”

“Passing out?” Sam asked, being careful as he sat up. He looked down at his hands, and saw the the cuts on his wrists, and the vague memory of being enveloped in warmth and light and-

“Drink this.” Mikeala said and gave him a bottle of water. Drink slowly, I don’t think Optimus would be too pleased with you throwing up in here.”

“She is not wrong.” Optimus said, and Sam couldn’t help the smile the bad attempt at humour bought forward.

“So, we have the Matrix?”

“Yes. It is safe.”

“Where are we going?”

The ship we saw above belongs to an ally. They have agreed to harbour us for now.”

Sam felt a weird feeling well up, one that said something bad was happening, but considering he was on the run from one alien faction whilst dealing with aliens in his head, he’d likely look at his lunch and think something bad would come of it.

“How long until we get there?”

“A drop ship will meet us soon. Once aboard we can get you properly scanned and begin stabilizing you.”

Mikaela smiled and pressed a kiss to Sam’s forehead, “ See, you’ll be fixed up in no time.”

She really hoped so. When she had watched him in his weird fever, it was like watching a stranger. A madness in his eyes and a vibe came off him that made her skin itch. She felt bad for yelling at him about the weird pretender robot thing, but she had been stressed and annoyed and now all she wanted was to know he’d be okay.

She hoped her Dad was okay, but he would likely end up in protective custody, the same as Sam’s pare-

Oh God, Sam’s Parents. They were in Europe, and Mikeala had no idea where they could be or in what condition. She tightened her arms around him and hoped they were okay. They had to be.

Optimus stopped, and they got out of the cab and stretched out. The heat of the sun was insane, and Mikaela's couldn’t wait to be somewhere shady.

The drop ship was shaped like a seed, a little ragged at the end but the shape was recognizable.

Bee stared at it, confused, "This is-unknowable- to meeee."

Optimus turned to him and smiled, "Do not worry. They are no a threat to us."

They boarded the ship and The doors closed up before they took off. There was an area designed for smaller beings, which seemed weird but if this ship was designed for more than just one species, it would make sense for there to be places for beings of all sizes.

Only something still didn’t feel right. Something felt off not just to Sam, but Bee as well.

“Hey Bossman- call in now to - update all your - family and friends!- about our great deal-”

“No. And I would not try to contact them yourselves. The barriers in place will make unauthorized external communication impossible.”

“”W W Why?” Bee asked, and that awful feeling Sam had was suddenly his as well.

“Optimus-”

“Do not call me that.”

The sound of Transforming happened, not just Optimus - or whoever he was - changed. Armor became sharper edges and the helm changed slightly. Color became deeper and he turned to them. The transformation noises continued, and Sam realized it was the ship. Gunns appeared from the walls, pointing at Bee and the twins.

“I was once him. But now?” he turned to face them, his eyes a dark, near purple hue, “I am Nemesis.”

Chapter Text

The journey to the main ship was quick, and once aboard they were met by dozens of little (by cybertronian standards) squid-like bots that swarmed them. The humans were pushed towards a platform which rose and floated behind Nemesis, whilst some latched onto the twins and Bee.

“Hey hey hey, watch the tentacles. This ain’t no hentai.” Mudflap said, and got a weird look off his brother, “Oh like you never looked that shit up.”

Bee ignored their comments and desperately tried to figure out what was happening.

The bot before him was Optimus. You couldn’t fake the EM fields and codes he had used. But this wasn’t him. It couldn't be. Optimus didn’t have those cold eyes or the tight, of kilter feel that had fallen over him once they were aboard the ship. His body moved differently, and once properly docked he led them through to a medical bay.

JetFire was on a berth, resting as several fluid lines slowly fed him a watered down Energon.

He opened his optics and smiled, “Prime, did you get your job done?”

“Yes. How are you feeling?”

“My Nanites are working better than they have done in vorns.”

Nemesis smiled, “Good. I’m sorry I couldn’t allow you to refuel as normal, but with how long you have been without proper fuel-”

“I know. I’ve seen what over fuel looks like. It ain’t pretty.”

Bee was forced onto a Berth and glared up at Nemesis, “Nothing feels - like it should. -shine a light on - this experience-”

“I know it does not. But you will have to wait for your answers for now. Just know that you are safe.”

“Is that the voice of our great leader I hear?” A voice said from another room, and from the shadowed doorway came a red bot. “Do I have new patients?”

“Yes. General check up and patch jobs. And Energon infusions.” He pointed to the twins, “Be careful with those two, They were onlined after the substitutions became the norm.”

The Bot gazed at them, helm tilted, “Hm, that’ll make this trickier. Their bodies will have to have lower dosages so they don’t go into medical lockdown.”

“Who the heck is he?” Mudflap asked.

The bot gave a slight bow, “KnockOut, at your service.”

“Oh, I ain’t being stuck with a Decepticon medic.” Mudflap said, and Nemesis advanced on him.

“He is no more a decepticon than I am an Autobot.” He said, and pulled the symbol from his chest, “These Symbols mean nothing anymore. The war means nothing any more. The only thing that matters is the survival of our people.”

Sam stared up at him. “No. No no no. I felt you, I know you, your Optimus, not-”

“I was Optimus. But things change. We transform when life requires us to. And I was required to.” Nemesis answered, “I must go and send a message, When I return I will explain.”

Sam just stared at him, eyes disbelieving. Simmons was stone faced and already trying to come up with a plan, whilst Leo just sat on the floor and proceeded to go silent.

“Sir- Please please please - Explain these feelli-”

“And have his vocalizer replaced immediately. I want my scout to have his voice back.”

TRID TRID TRID TRID TRID

SideSwipe hadn’t meant to eavesdrop-no he had meant to. He was curious as to what the Galloweay had to say, and honestly? That conversation actually made him feel a little bad for the guy. He was trying to do a hard job, one that's gonna make him the villain of a lot of peoples stories. He was a dick, But SideSwipe supposed you had to be when you were dealing with the stubborn and impossible.

And god could the NEST men be stubborn. It impressed SideSwipe to be honest. They were a fragile species, but they didn't let that stop them. They threw themselves into danger with the same bravery as any of Primes mechs.

The Autobots had a lot of allies, some still tied to them and friendly, others who wouldn't trust them with a rust mite. He couldn't blame them. This war had caused a lot of harm for centuries, and hurt a lot of innocents. More than once SideSwipe had been sparked by the loss of a friend, but somehow it hurt more to lose their trust than have them die. Knowing that he had fucked up so bad that he'd lost a loved one was a pain he still couldn't get over.

And he didn't want to. That hurt was a damned good reminder of what was at stake if they failed.

But now it looked as though they had lost the trust of a new planet.

Now they were back on the plane, heading back to the NEST base and it was quiet. The humans were upfront talking, and Prime was busy with his own thoughts. His EM field was pulled in tight, and SideSwipe had no doubt he was hiding the turmoil he was feeling.

Then SideSwipe got hit with a signal ping that shocked him. It was a private message override, only supposed to be used during absolute emergencies. The last time it had been used was....Primus SideSwipe couldn't actually remember.

He got a private com from Optimuss telling him not to react as the Message was given.

"To all Cybertronians on earth, I am here to ensure our safety and prosperity. To those who are currently upon the earth's orbiting moon I say this. You have 24 earth hours to leave. If you are still there by this time tomorrow, I will take action. If you come to earth, you will submit to my rule. If you don't, you will die."

Optimus could believe what he was hearing. This voice was his. Whoever was speaking was using his voice.

"To the Autobots of NEST I ask that you refrain from interfering. Though I do not wish to harm you, I will not hesitate to stop you should you attempt to hinder my plans."

The signal cut out and SideSwipe felt panic begin to fester.

TRID TRID TRID TRID TRID

Sam clutched at his head as he heard the Message.

Bee tried to reach for him but was stopped by his binds, whilst KnockOut came over and Scanned him.

"Oh, this is interesting" The medic said, and reached out, "Don't panic, I just need to test a theory." He said and carefully reached out with his EM Feild.

It brushed against Sam, who recoiled in confusion. His skin felt too tight and his brain felt like it was on fire, and he jolted away from it.

Bee felt the reaction, confused and shocked, not understanding what was going on. The message was crazy enough, but now he was even more confused at the fact Sam heard it. He felt the odd rhythm to Sam since getting to him at the battleground, but he hadn't expected this. How could he have-

Nemesis. He must have hidden it by having Sam drive with him. Hiding this change with his own field.

"What is- this insane- affliction that is affecting - my boy!" Bee said, desperate for an answer.

KnockOut turned to him and frowned, "Okay, that is just annoying now. I'm Going to get your voice sorted before anything else. I cannot put up with that garbled noise." he looked over his shoulder at Sam, "There's water and food in the crate. Along with medical supplies. I suggest two Tylenol for now. And make sure he actually eats before taking them."

"Tyrenol? He's seeing alien thoughts and you're prescribing tylenol?"

"Until I can get him properly scanned and tested, that's all I can give him. And I can't do that until Nemesis is here. He wants to be present for any and all treatments I give."

"No. You aren't touching me." Sam said through gritted teeth.

He got a soft, condescending look from KnockOut, "I'd save that fight for later kid. You'll need it."

He turned away and advanced on Bee, who struggled against his bind for several minutes but then suddenly flopped, all the energy gone from him. "Don't panic, its just medical stasis. He'll be fine in about 15 minutes."

Sam didn't say anything, instead they watched as the KnockOut opened up Bee's neck and chest and began removing parts. He carefully cleaned up the section before heading to the wall and pressing buttons, revealing a large selection of parts. He found one and inspected it, before putting it back. He chose a different one instead.

He went back to Bee, and his hand bisected into dozens of little points that darted about the open cavity, melding the vocalizer into Bee's body. Sam had seen Ratchet do medical checks, but never something like this. Never anything so intricate. But then again, Ratchet had been checking for strain and injury, not replacing anything.

He finished up and waited for the metal to cool down, and placed off looking gel pack around the connections before closing him up.

"There. I'll let that sit for a few minutes before waking him up."

"That's it. That's all it took?" Simmons said, "The way Ratchet acted you'd think that this was a major repair."

"It is. But Ratchet doesn't want to break rules or taboos by using unauthorised parts. Think of it like organ donation. You don't just open up a human and take what you want. You need legal permission." KnockOut grabbed a rag and cleaned his digits. "We had similar ideals. But where Ratchet is reluctant to adapt, I am more than willing to do what is needed. After all, war has always overwritten what people think is decent behaviour."

"So what, this is like an illegal transplant. You just took that from someone?" Simmons asked.

"They were dead already. They won't miss it. And I'm not about to go without supplies because of something as silly as tradition.”

Leo had come to the edge of the platform and had watched the whole thing. He was scared out of his wits, half expecting to wake up in his dorm after another night spent searching new stories and downing full sugar pepsi.

He'd wound up in hospital because of that once. Maybe this was the same thing, some crazy sugar induced dream. Soon he'd wake up in a hospital bed with a drip and his dad calling him a moron.

Besides him Simmon was trying and failing to come up with a plan. In all the time he walked for sector seven, they'd gone over all kinds of scenarios. But this? He's never thought this could happen.

Sam stood and stared at Bee, worry etched in his face. Knockout glanced over at him, felt the turmoil and sighed heavily, "Come here. You can keep the dumb bug calm as he wakes." he reached up, holding out his hand. "Do not scratch my paint work."

Sam ducked under the safety bar and onto KnockOut's hand with no hesitation, and he crouched. Knock out was a little smaller than Bee, so his hand wasn't a stable perch.

Sam was placed on the berth near Bumblebee's helm, and he kept a safe distance as KnockOut reversed the medical stasis.

Bee came out of it slowly, his optics flickering and he sat up fast. His weapons weren't accessible, but he tried and failed to throw a punch. but then he froze, turning to see Sam.

"Sam, are you okay?" Did he..he...oh Primus!" Bee clutched his throat. "I have a voice. This isn't My voice." he turned to KnockOut, "Whose voice did you give me?" he asked, anger in his voice.

"Don't know. I was told to take what I needed from the battlefield, so I did." KnockOut gestured at Sam, “now Let you know you aren't hurt and maybe everyone can calm down a little."

Be turned to Sam, and after a moment came towards him. "Sam? Are you okay?" You...you felt weird earlier."

"Yeah. I just heard that weird message. It wasn't pleasant."

Beee shook his head and reached up, careful to keep his field tucked in tight. He touched Sam's head, gentle as possible, "You really really shouldn't be able to do that buddy. The human brain isn't made for that."

"It definitely feels that way."

"We'll figure this out." Bee said, "I promise, we'll try everything."

Chapter Text

The Fallen raged. Several Deceptacons and hatchlings found themselves offlined or injured as he took his anger out on all within reach, and StarScream made the smart move to remove himself from the air until the overly emotional mech got himself under control.

Megatron was just as pissed, but kept his anger simmering under the surface. The ex Prime was far stronger than he, and the newly revived leader of the Decepticons was taking a leaf out of his second in command’s book and stayed out of the way until his anger was….. Subdued.

Speaking of his second in command, he went in search of Starscream. He had been trying to contact Soundwave in order to ascertain where the message had come from.

It was from a Prime, the voice unmistakable but the tone and feel was all wrong. Megatron had been fighting Optimus for millenia, and knew the mech on a deep, intimate level. He knew the Prime better than himself and whoever was using his voice was not him. So he needed Soundwave to find where the signal had come from so they could find him and make him pay for the chaos he had caused.

For a fleeting moment Megatron had fought StarScream had something to do with this. It was no secret that the Damned jet had wanted him dead for a very long time and his return to life had been a complete surprise. But StarScream wasn't dumb enough to ruin centuries worth of work. Megatron had hoped that the Fallen would be able to lead them not only to victory over prime but a source of energon. but in case that hadn't worked they'd had a backup plan waiting. On earth's orbiting moon Sentinel was asleep and waiting to be awoken so that they may bring their home while back. But it looked as though that plan was also going to be a non-starter. So many of his army had been sitting and waiting in forced stasis until the call came for them to awaken and rejoin the war effort. The reason they were enforced stasis was because Megatron couldn't trust them to just wait on the moon. The fact of the matter was many of his troops only had loyalty to him for personal gain or out of Fear. Normally this would not be a problem for Megatron but when you're trying to win a war and keep your plans a secret it doesn't help to have your men wandering off to have fun on a local pleasure Planet or causing too much mischief amongst themselves out of boredom.

What did make Megatron suspicious was the fact that their mystery Prime knew of all of their plans. All of them. There should have been no way for him to know any of it. The grip they had on the Earth's traitors was absolute. Or it's what it's supposed to have been. Apparently somebody had either leaked the information or someone had discovered it themselves.

Or maybe that huge burst of energy above them on that Battlefield had been something that Megatron had fought impossible. Megatron was no idiot and more than once he had himself fought about using time travel. But he had always believed it to be a dream of some mad scientists.

Time travel.

Megatron would gladly take this inconvenience if it turned out that time travel was within his grasp. With it he could change the past so that Cybertron never fails. Change the past so that maybe Optimus would follow his lead instead of his ill-fated and ridiculous Crusade.

He knew that should this be a real technology he could access he could be god. Forget the Fallen or his troops he could become absolute ruler of the entire timeline. Megatron rather liked the idea of that.

TRID TRID TRID TRID TRID

“Those are buddlings.” Chroma said and stared at the tiny bots that tumbled. About now they were allowed outside of their box. “I thought they weren't possible anymore?”

Arcee crouched down and held her hand out to the tiny flyer, who landed lightly on her finger, “Hello tiny one.*

The bigger parent watched with daggers in his eyes as the baby bot explored his new perch.

“They are still very small, even for buddlings. Such tiny, sweet things.” Chromia said and turned to Elita, “I had thought we would never see children again.”

The three of them over watched the tiny beings, and other autobots were in varying stages of disbelief at the reveal of the offspring. Some had been confused, not understanding what buddlings were. Rachet was trying to convince the leader of the dinobots to agree to an examination so he could make sure they were developing well.

The humans were just confused.

None of them wanted to flat out ask what a buddling was but they were also confused as to why there were baby robots on the base. The fact that baby robots existed at all was a confusing concept. Then again a few of the soldiers wondered if it was possibly racist of them to assume that these beings came off of assembly lines. After all their injuries healed as a human would so why would it be so difficult to believe that they reproduced in a more biological manner than they were expecting them to.

Another issue was the dinobots themselves. They were standoffish and kept arguing with the wreckers, demanding to be allowed to leave. Which none of them wanted because once they were on the mainland they could end up anywhere.

The island was currently surrounded trying to get as close as possible without breaking any laws. Every so often a new, blurry long distance photo would appear online and the world was going crazy over it.

People were bombarding the government and every available contact method was being used to try and reach those they knew had some kind of involvement with the aliens. News channels wanted views. Hollywood was asking if they could have meetings to option movie rights in a few years time. Publishing houses were asking if anybody wanted to write a goddamn book. This happened every time there was a major reveal within the government and boy howdy was this revealed the biggest that ever been in. Hell, there were rumours that the toy company hasbro was trying to get permission to make action figures.

Honestly Arcee was kind of hoping the toy thing happened. The idea of teeny tiny models of optimus cute, but the EMBARRASSMENT it would cause their leader made her giggle internally.

Elita caught her thought and shook her head, "Real Sister?"

"Oh like you don't think it would be funny. We could hide them around his office and rooms."

Before Elita could chastise her the baby dino squarked and flew off, darting back to its parent.

The reason why was that the EM Field of the strongest dinobot came to them. Big and strong and brash and aggressive, Arcee was impressed by him. The battlescars told of survival and his sharp, unusual looks had her intrigued.

"Grimlock wants to know which mountain is the highest?"

Hisd speech pattern took all three of them off guard, but Arcee spoke. "The western Peak is the tallest. Why do you wish to know."

"High ground good. Easier defence. Dinobots go there."

Elita glanced at Arcee, "That will need permission-"

"No." Grimlock said. "We go. Try and stop, we go anyway."

He turned and left them and Chromia stood to her full height, "We need to tell island command. I don't think he was lying."

"Why does he speak like that? Doesn't he have the same language programs as us?"

"No clue. Ratchet hasn't had a chance to examine them yet. They are real tetchy about it."

TRID TRID TRID TRID TRID

The twins were fully patched up and JetFire was on his feet and had left the Medical bay to explore.

Eventually they were considered 'healthy' and Knockout Arranged for nearly all of them to be sent to their quarters.

Except Sam. Bee refused to leave, and was once again placed in stasis before being moved out. Mikeala gripped Sam's arm in a vice-like grip, refusing to let go until Nemesis returned to the room, and Sam turned away from KnockOut and Nemesis.

"Go."

"Sam-"

"Mikeala, please," Sam took her face in his hands, "I need to know your safety, and you are safer with Bumblebee than with me now."

Tears brimmed her eyes and she glanced at Nemesis, "How can you trust him?"

"I don't." Sam said, "But I want him away from you. He supposedly needs me, and you can be used. If your not here, he can't use you."

Mikeala bit her lip a moment, and then kissed him before letting go.

Once out of the room, KnockOut put a hand on his hip and asked, "So how much of that was scrap?"

Sam gave him a nasty look and stood tall, hoping he looked braver than he felt. KnockOut sniggered and walked away, allowing Nemesis to advance.

Sam was proud of himself for not scrambling backwards, and when Nemesis stopped he gave a soft, far too Optimus-like smile that unsettled Sam.

"You are just as Brave as I remembered."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Earlier, I told You I was not Optimus. But I had been. This is true. I am not of this time, Sam."

Sam gave him a confused look. "What, are you saying you are from some dark and awful future."

"Yes."

Sam stared at him a moment, and then laughed. "You're joking right? You know that sounds crazy?"

"Crazier than aliens? Crazier than the symbols in your head and the ship you're currently on?" the human didn't answer, and Nemesis tilted his head, eyes almost kind, "This life doesn't make sense. It never did. But the fact its it is true. Please, let me explain myself and maybe you will understand why I am here." Sam folded his arms over his chest and bit his lip. Nemesis reached out and held out his hand, "Please."

Samual Witwicky had stared at that hand, and then came to a decision. He stepped into it.

Chapter Text

Nemesis took Sam to his office and Private Quarters. There was a small area set up in the corner where he deposited, and he saw that it was set up like an office. There was a door leading to a box and Sam got a bad feeling in his stomach.

The rest of the room was decorated with knick knacks and papers and tech, and there was one wall covered in pictures.

"So, are you going to explain who you are?"

Nemesis turned to look at him and sighed heavily, then grabbed a seat and pulled it closer to the platform.

"I was Optimus Prime, but it is not the name I go by now Sam. I have left it behind."

"But why?"

"That...is a long story."

TRID TRID TRID TRID TRID

Sam had been pushed out. Not just sidelined to give him his own life, but outright ignored. Bumblebee had felt terribly guilty, but they had believed it had been for the best. Optimus had been an idiot to believe that it was the right thing to do.

Sam had been blackmailed into helping their enemy, an enemy he’s had to find with limited resources and helped by just Bumblebee and a few scrap bots who’d been deemed as worthless by the authorities. His life was once again put at risk to help them.

Detroit had changed everything.

Once the rebuilding efforts began, things looked like they were going good. The United nations spoke of allowing them to have a permanent base on an orbital satellite that would be built from the left over parts of cybertron orbiting the earth. Things were looking good.

And then Sam died.

It was supposedly an accident. He and girlfriend had been on vacation, and a storm had hit. The resort he had been staying at was completely wiped out, being ripped to shreds and dumped into the ocean. His body had been recovered a day later, and had been buried with full Military honors. Bumblebee had spent months in isolation, until Judy, the sweet, kind, crazy woman she was, dragged him out of it.Slowly he had come back to himself, as they mourned the loss of a friend and loved one.

And then the betrayal had come.

Nest had been attacked, and dozens of their people, mech and human alike, had died. They had scattered and as time passed, some of the humans had handed themselves in to protect loved ones. Others couldn’t handle being the enemy, but most had died.

Too Many.

He had wound up in medical stasis and hidden himself away in a theater, and knew nothing until he had awoken int Kade Yeagers Barn.

Learning the fate of his men had been spark breaking. Seeing what was left of Ratchet, one of his oldest and dearest friends, being melted down for parts? It had made him want to kill. Made him want to wipe the earth clean of any and all who had allied themselves with Cemetery Wind. Then LockDown and Galvatron took his attention and before long the battle was all any of them cared about.

And then he left. He'd gone into stasis and upon awakening, he had seen here.

Quintessa.

Bother Beautiful and awful, she had broken his spark and mind, twisting his mind into something she could use.

Nemesis glossed over Unicron, explaining that would take even longer to explain and of no consequence anymore, so he would concentrate on what came next.

And what came next was banality.

Everyone was sick of war. The humans were sick of being lied to and gave a simple ultimatum. Stay on the orbiting debris and designated zones only and they would not chase the Cybertronians down, and the few Cybertronians on earth agreed under the simple rule that those who had committed the worst treasons against the autobots would be handed over to face judgement.

No one had argued. Tired of watching their world get ripped apart by aliens and humans alike, tired of being lied to. Tired of chaos and just wanting a little quiet.

And for a short time they had it. Kade got back in touch with his daughter and they bonded as she planned her wedding. Optimus began allowing both Decepticon and Autobots alike into their home. It worked for the most part, but sometimes there would be fights and arguments.

Preceptor arrived and once on the earth immediately began working with the humans to examine the star harvester. Optimus had nearly put a stop to it, but he had been convinced to give it time. And within a year Perceptor made a breakthrough.

Energon. He found a way to make energon.

Using Sun Harvester tech, he was able to create a harvester that could transform energy into energon. He came to Optimus with enough to keep their population happily fed for a deca cycle, and more was in production. He was in talks with the human authorities to take their nuclear waste so they could process it into energon.

Things were going well. There was a tentative peace and they had energon.

And then fate reared its head as Simmons showed up with several files and eyes sad.

TRID TRID TRID TRID TRID

He paused the story then, needing to to stop, and looked over at Sam with eyes full of sadness. After several moments he turned away, turning to the desk behind him and opening the drawer, pulling a purple coloured liquid from it, then reached back in for a glass. He set it down and poured, and Sam was confused.

He knew that the autobots took on fuel, but normally it was in private or through line injection. Few drank it as they should due to discomfort and taste. When Opti-Nemesis drank this he did so with a slight wince.

“Is that….whiskey?”

“Engex. Something that hasn’t existed for a while. There’s gonna be a lot of mechs happy to see this.”

"Does the fact you have it mean this is gonna be that bad?"

"Simmons found you Sam. Or what was left of you. Your death had been faked and you had been kidnapped. Taken to a lab and-" Nemesis had to stop another moment, "They used you like a rat. Experiment and cut you up to try and reproduce the effect that the allspark all had on you. When you shoved it into megatron, it began changing you. The second piece sped up the process for a short while, as you began seeing things, but it would have subsided. The mutations would have been slow and built up over time, hurting your human body. If it has gone on any longer we would have noticed, and I think that was why they took you. They saw you as a boon, a way to combine our tech with human flesh." Nemesis leaned forward a little, arm coming to rest on the platform. "I saw what they did to you, and to the other humans they took. Soldiers we had worked with were reassigned or taken after Cemetery wind was initiated, and they tried to repeat the accident. None of those humans survived. Victims of their insane plans. And then Shockwave found them." Nemesis reached his hand out and carefully touched Sam's arm, "Do you know him?"

"Bee told me about him. Said "If I ever heard of him being around to tell you guys and run." Sam said, feeling his skin itch where Nemesis touched him.

"He was a monster. A good bot once, but he suffered a cruelty for rules and speeches of equality and became something evil. Unicron himself would shudder at his deeds. And he found you Sam," Nemesis wrapped his fingers loosely about Sam, and the human did his best not to panic at this touch. "He found you and he hurt you, and when you were no more he took samples and left what was left to rot."

Nemesis went silent then, "The rest of the experiments were just as bad. I don't know what Shockwave was trying to do, but most of them failed. What didn't was taken and used in an attempt too-" he shook his head, "It didn't take long to find where that tech had gone. Viruses and mecha beings began showing up across the globe and on battlegrounds. Our peace was eroding and I realised that there was no way of saving earth, or our friends."

"Why though. Why change your name? Why do....whatever the hell this is." Sam asked, annoyed, "They sky opened up, you kidnapped me, you you- what the hell?!" Nemesis Thumb once again stroked along his arm, and he shrugged it off, "What are you doing."

He finished his drink and put the cup down, and seemed to think twice about pouring another. "I wanted a way to wipe the slate clean. Start over and save both our races. Our war has decimated hundreds of worlds Sam, and too many species have died because of our stupidity. I always justified it, reminding myself we helped them find new homes, protected the survivors.The Decepticons would have killed all of them if we had not come and fought them. But in reality we brought the enemy to more than one world, even if we did not mean to. We caused just as many massacres, just as many deaths. Settling the survivors of earth on a new world wasn't going to absolve us. So I began searching for ways to revitalize the earth. Ways to gain forgiveness. And eventually I found it."

"Time travel?"

"Time Travel. The energy levels required to go back as far as I wished were impossible, but I could go back to when it went wrong on earth. I could save the earth. I could save you."

The hand that was still close to him, fingertips touching his back, gentle and protective and terrifying. Sam held strong.

"What comes next?"

"The only thing you need to worry about is keeping safe. As we speak my drones are collecting the medical materials required to ensure your safety, and Tomorrow I have to deal with those who have not heeded my warning."

"What are you going to do?"

"What is necessary."

TRID TRID TRID TRID TRID

Simmons should have stayed in his deli. He should have ignored the kid and stayed home safe, with his papers and his mom. Give it a few months and sell his story to the highest bidder. But no, he was stuck on an alien ship with an imposter going by the moniker of 'Nemesis'.

Could you get any more on the nose for a villain name than that? Because Simmons couldn't. In fact the whole naming convention of this species was -

"I can't take anything , Anything could be happening." Mikeala said, face still splotchy and red, her make up was gone, and without it she looked more like a little girl than a young woman. Simmons didn't like it one bit. That girl had fought aliens and driven through a battleground backwards., a true badass in anyone's eyes. But here she was, terrified for her own life and her loved ones.

Leo sat next to her, trying to be a comfort without being creepy. He wasn't used to girls. Especially hot ones who were sobbing their hearts out for the hero boyfriend who told her to leave for the relative safety of a cell.

Bumblebee was handling it worse. He paced, muttering under his breath and constantly scanning the area for any kind of weakness. There was none. The twins were off in their own room, and The humans could tell that this was indeed a room and not a traditional cell. The berth was more curved, designed for comfort rather than just a surface to sleep on. Several large, mesh looking sheets were hung on the wall and there was a sink and mirror with a set of bottles. The door was sealed and locked, but there was a lock on the inside as well as outside.

The area set up for the humans was well put together, looking like someone's chaotic mother had gone to the mall and grabbed everything a kid might need for their first apartment. All good stuff, but odd and mixed matched. It was worrisome, because there were toiletries and clothes and supplies to last them weeks, maybe even months.

“Looks like we could be here long term.” Simmons said. “He’s not looking to starve us, which is good.”

“He’s not looking to let us go either.” Leo said.

Chapter Text

“32 people have been arrested so far, and most of them immediately wanted to make a deal. Apparently finding out Gould got ripped to shreds has them terrified.” Pallish explained, “We’ve also had numerous reports about those squid things being spotted across the east coast.”

“What about the state of emergency?”

“Nationwide until further notice, but no one is listening. People are pissed sir.”

Lennox down the rest of his coffee threw the cup away before turning back to the man. "What about the Moon situation?"

"The images we've gotten from both military and civilian sources are showing that there is activity up there. Several ships had left the moon and were seen heading away from the earth. Two have settled into orbit but are sending out a white flag messages."

Surrender. They were surrendering. Whatever was going on was scaring the enemy. Maybe the discovery of their conspiracy was making them choose a more peaceful option, which could be good for them. Or it could be a fake out, hoping to draw them in for a sneak attack.

"What about the DNA info we wanted?"

"They confirmed the story. Kade Yeager and his Daughter are living on the farm right now, both about 15 years younger than they are now." Pallish explained, "The brass want them bought in, but so far the President doesn't want the public learning about the whole time travel aspect."

Lennox understood. It was too ridiculous to explain, and many wouldn't believe it. He still didn't believe it himself, but so far there was more proof than he could shake a stick at.

Time Travel. Real, honest Time travel. Just when he thought his life could get any weirder.

"Do we have any info on the Witwicky's location in Europe?"

"Not yet, but we have gotten a sighting of the boy Leo in A small village in Egypt. The team sent to check found a room with those alien symbols in a notepad, but beyond that they were long gone." Pallish double checked his paperwork. "They are also heading to a temple to investigate a report of vandalism."

"Lernnos gave him a look, "Vandalism?"

"There are rumours that Cybertronian tech was found there sir."

He sighed, "Okay. I want hourly updates via the mes system. I'll be in the debrief for the next few hours so don't interrupt unless necessary."

"Understood sir."

Pallish left him and Lennox went to the bathroom,. once done he bumped into Morshower.

"Sir." he said and saluted. "Stand down. I take it your prepping for the debrief."

"All done sir."

"I'm heading there, walk with me."

Lennox fell into step beside him. ""Is there something you want to talk about sir?"

"Senator Littler killed himself an hour ago."

Lennox fell silent for a moment, "I'm sorry sir."

"Don't be. Before he blew out his brains he sent us information. A lot of information. Remember how we couldn't figure out why Harold Attinger? Well it turns out he's been working with a group that had some pretty nasty plans for the Autobots."

"How nasty."

"Melt them down and rebuild them as mindless drones, kind of nasty."

Lennox felt sick." How did they plan on doing that?"

"One of the private research companies we have been working with has been making unreported discoveries." Morshore scowled, "They've been using dead decepticons."

"Where have they been getting them? We store or destroy all the bodies."

"That is a very good question Lennox. One we need to answer as soon as possible."

TRID TRID TRID TRID TRID

Nemesis had told him to eat and bath before the examination, and whilst he did the mech had gone to his computer and began typing. Sam took his time, thinking about what was to come, and what he had been told.

He wasn't an idiot, he knew there were people who had seen the Autobots and saw them as the future of humanities tech and warfare. Whether the mechs wanted to be or not. His stomach tied in knots over the fact that so many of the people he knew had suffered violent and awful deaths, that he himself had suffered in such a way. That earth had paid the price for other warmongering and greed.

He finished his shower and found his clothes gone, replaced by simple, clean clothes and slippers.

Nemesis held out his hand again, and Sam wondered if he should refuse to go with him, but he knew there would be no choice. So he climbed onto Prime's hand and sat down, holding onto the thumb that was offered to give stability. He had a moment of odd realisation over the fact he was comfortable being held and lifted by being dozens of times his height. Was this how MoJo felt when they picked him up and carried him about? Strangely protected but unsure of his perch.

They returned to the medical area, where KnockOut was video chatting with another Mech. He cut the conversation short before turning to Nemesis, "Are we ready for testing then?"

"Yes." Nemesis said.

Sam said nothing, knowing that he had no choice in this.

The room they went to next was obviously a lab more than a medical room. Anxiety began to build in his gut as he was gently placed on a table. The table held human sized equipment and several machines that were obviously designed to -"

“Change into the mesh sheet and lay down.” KnockOut said, and turned away to start activating equipment.

Sam did, starting with his shirt, then slipping on the weird, metallic mesh and removing his pants and boxers. It felt weird against his body, not metal, but not fabric. It was cold, but soon absorbed his body heat and warmed up.

The examination table was a soft material that molded to his shape.

“So what are you going to do?”

“The first machine will run several scans, each deeper than before. They will be a little ‘tingly’ as you species would say. If you feel any pain you must tell me, as there isn’t supposed to be discomfort.” KnockOut said.

“Define ‘tingly?”

KnockOut through on it, then reach out and touch Sam's hand. An odd, mildly pins and needles sensation started. It wasn’t painful, but weird. “Like that. If it becomes painful, you tell me. In Fact of it even approaches pain, I want you to speak up.”

"Got you." Sam said, then glanced over at Nemesis. The big bot was watching him, optics worried and intense.

"First scan initiated."

There was no sensation with this one. Just dim light and then nothing.

"Second Scan."

"This one had a warmth that was actually a little pleasant. Sam knew the pleasantness wouldn't last though.

"Hmm, that's interesting." KnockOut said, "Third scan."

This time Sam felt something. It wasn't much, and honestly was ignorable.

The next one wasn't. The thing KnockOut had done to his hand hadn't been painful, just weird.But over his entire body? Oh boy was that intense. Not painful, but so out of the ordinary his reaction had KnockOut ask, "Any pain?"

"No It's just....really freaky."

"I'm starting the 5th scan."

"Gah!" Sam said, "Weird weird weird." he chanted, and the sensation was thankfully short lived. "Okay, tell me there aren't too many more of these?"

"Final scan is now. Please hold as still as possible."

It wasn't easy. It wasn't painful, but Sam nearly said it was to make it stop. It seemed to gone on forever, his skin tingling and itching and he couldn't move, just brace and pray it would be over.

When it was, he rubbed his arms and racked his hands through his hair, scratching his scalp. KnockOut concentrated on the screens, murmuring to himself as he read the data. Nemesis joined him, leaning down to shepherd something to the other, something Sam couldn't quite pick up.

"Hey, do I get to know any of this?" he asked.

Nemesis turned around, and seemed to think about it. "KnockOut, tell him."

"Well, the second shard has had a speeding effect on the mutations in your body. This would have been temporary once you used the Matrix energy to supercharge Prime, but that won't be necessary so an alternative treatment option is needed."

"Can't you use the Matrix to slow it down?"
"That would only delay the inevitable." Nemesis said, "Alternative treatments are going to be needed."

Sam didn't like the sound of that. Not one bit.

TRID TRID TRID TRID TRID

“Deserters! Deserters and traitors!” The Fallen yelled, pulling free of his throne. “Activate the space bridge, send our troops to that accursed planet. We will take the matrix, we will-”

“He’s going to get us killed.” StarScream whispered, and though Megatron was loath to admit it, he was right.

“And what do you think we should do about this?”

“Lord Megatron, our Moon forces are revealed, the Fallens plan useless unless we are willing to take extreme losses. Our nearest reinforcements are 6 months away. We have two choices. We leave and reform our plan, or we approach that false Prime and see if he would be willing to align with us.”

"So we flee or seek the help of an enemy"

The fallen ripped the helm from a Decepticon who got too close, and StarScream winced at the painful death. "This mech is powerful and intelligent, but his focus is on revenge. You have you plans for Prime, but you have not allowed it to sway your mind from other plans. You still work to find us more supplies and create plans to increase the decepticons power and reach. What has the Fallen to offer but the chance to kill a single bot and maybe, just maybe a limited supply of energon?"

Megatron knew fro the way StarScream spoke that he had learned something that was going to make his day even worse. "What do you mean limited supply? The star harvester-"

"Is a single use machine. Once it's done with, it becomes unusable. And The Fallen does not have the skill nor plans to build another."

"Do you have proof?"

"Would I tell you if I didn't?"

"Not if you valued your life."

Chapter Text

The liquid looked like water at first glance but if you tilted the vial the light caught and there was a metallic sheen to it. Sam watched as KnockOut filled a small device with it, before heading over to the computer and checking the screen.

"I'm going to run a quick reaction test with the blood sample you gave, and then I'll know if we can begin infusions or if we need to wait for your bio systems to calm first."

Sam sat on the medical bed and watched the red Bot. Nemesis stood nearby, watching him. He could feel those optics on him, and it made his skin itch. Or maybe it was the fact he could feel the sensors on him. They weren't switched 'on' but acting like a heart beat monitor, low level monitoring his systems.

"What is the infusion?"

"They are designed to bolster your biological system by introducing nanites that will channel the 'signal' attempting to form in you. It should stop those visions from hurting you and keep your mind clear. Not to mention allow us to monitor and maybe even stunt or redirect the mutations you have."

"Redirect? Why redirect? If you can just stunt them, then do that."

Nemesis came to the table, "If the stunting doesn't work there we would have to direct it in any way we can to ensure your safety."

"Think of it like an electrical current. You don't want to overload the lightbulb, so you might reroute the current to a resistor or a purge system. Being human you don't have those, but the Nanites can help with that." KnockOut explained. "There are other options, but they are more.....drastic. And I would prefer to keep my digits out of your inner components."

Sam glanced at KnockOuts's finger, the claws and shuddered. "Will there be side effects?"

"Possibly. Biological matter can have interesting interactions with cybernetics. But we have everything we need to ensure there are minimal effects."

Sam stared down at his knees then, not sure what to do. Not that there was anything he could do. He doubted he could say no to anything they wanted to do to him.

"I won't tell you not to be fearful Sam. But please know this is for the best." Nemesis said.

“How long will it take to fix me?”

“Not entirely sure. We are working off limited data. Might take a few weeks, could take years.” KnockOut said.

Sam didn’t like the open endedness of that answer, but decided to leave it be.

“What are your plans for the morning? You gave them an ultimatum, Nemesis,are you really gonna give them a pardon so long as they agree to behave?”

“So long as they prove they are willing to do so, I am willing to let them live.”

“You’ll really kill other autobots if they get in the way?”

“If I must. And I truly hope that I do not have to.”

TRID TRID TRID TRID TRID

Egyption Air space was closed to everyone. The team sent to investigate was made up of native soldiers to avoid suspicion, and once they reached the temple, they had been beaten.

The squid type bot were carefully excavating the area, placing the stonework aside The soldier recorded and carefully sent the information back to base,

Until one of the bots spotted them. Panic and fear had the men ready to run, but they were stopped, the weapons they had taken and for a moment, they believed death was imminent.

It wasn’t.

Thsquids held them captive for several hours, allowing them to watch as eventually, the artifacts were removed. The Primes bodies were carefully moved, and once safely out of the rock face a power unit was used to dislodge their joints and allow them to be laid out onto racks for transport.

The squids then set about rebuilding what they had taken apart, and the Soldiers were herded into one of the spare racks for transport.

TRID TRID TRID TRID TRID

"What do you mean by permanent grounding? Galloway asked.

"It's exactly as it sounds. The ground is being prepped for the ship to make landing, and from there it will be decommissioned from a flight command centre to a land based site. The engines will be repurposed into generators and the land surrounding it will likely be made into sunfields."

"And Sun Fields are?"

"Basically like your solar farms." BumbleBee gestured to the screen beside them, "Though much more efficient than earth's version."

"So these visitors plan on putting down roots then." Galloway said and wrote something in his notepad. "And what of the being on our Moon. We know many are fleeing, is that because they fear the Atubots knowing their location or is the new guy a bigger threat to them."

BumbleBee had to be careful here. So far as he knew the humans were not privy to that particular communication. "Most likely. Anyone who can generate the kind of tech and energy Nemesis used to get here is someone you don't want to mess with. Like being a boxer and seeing some guy have a machine gun. you're not gonna risk the fight."

"So far he hasn't made any true contact. with anyone. The items stolen by his henchbots are varied and obviously supposed to be for humans. I assume he plans on housing members of our species."

BumbleBees tanks roiled, "Yes. We here certain that he wished to take certain humans close to use into custody."

Galloway narrowed his eyes a moment. "You say custody. Not hostage or capture, but custody." he glanced down at a file and then looked at him,"Why is that."

"Because he has no ill will towards some of the Humans he wished to find."

"So they could be possible allies to him?"

"I don't know why he wants them" BumbleBee lied, "I just know he wants them safe."

It was the truth. Even after losing almost everything that made him Optimus, BumbleBee knew he wouldn't harm Sam. Trap him, but not kill him. Why he still didn't know, but he knew he was safe.

Hoped he was as well. It was safe to assume that Nemesis was either close to him or already had him by now. The mech didn't waste time.

"You've stated the ship he's on has been upgraded, can you tell us how?"

"Weapons and engines were upgraded. The weapons are standard quickshot blasters. Not normally what you get on a transport vessel but recently upgraded. The engines have been redesigned to give more power. The internal structure has been retrofitted for housing and lab space."

"How do you know this?"

"We were able to get a hold of the schematic. But we've been abroad so this is still speculative."

"Do you think we would be able to send in a team?"

BumbleBee thought on it, and decided that honesty would be best for this answer. "Humans only, with open communication. No secret teams or sneaking in. He'll be reluctant, but less likely to become hostile."

"Why wouldn't you send in a bot team?"

"Because I don't know how he would react to them. He may give them the benefit of the doubt and give them a chance, or he could decide to open fire. Either way I don't think we can allow it."

Galloway went silent and began writing more notes. "It is the decision of the combined Interspecies collaboration Council that you and your men be given temporary clearance in order for you to help us with the current crises. The clearance can and will be revoked the moment, is that understood?"

"Clearly, Sir." BumbleBee said and hoped he sounded sincere.

The meeting over, BumbleBee left and found Hound Waiting for him.

"We in?" he asked.

"Yes."

“”We're gonna listen to them?”

“Until they start being dumb, yes.”

Hound grinned, “ I’ll let the others know.”

BumbleBee let him leave and transformed so he could get to the hanger they were put in quicker. As he Approached he saw Optimus waiting. It was still hard seeing him like this. Still him. Primus, BumbleBee hoped that he’d see Nemesis and keep his mind in this timeline.

“I need to speak with you.” Optimus said, and walked away from the Hangar. BumbleBee fell into step beside him.”We have less than 10 hours until His deadline hits. Do you know what he will do to the Earth Moon?”

“He’s not dumb enough to blow it up. But I have no doubt his threat is idle.He has some of the best weaponry that our time had to offer.”

“You come 2 decades away, I doubt it's that much more advanced.”

“You would be surprised what desperation will drive people to create.”

“Who?”

“Scorponok. Shockwave and Reflector. WheelJack. The Wreckers one, not the hack scientists.”

“He wasn’t-” Optimus tried to defend the mech, but BumbleBee jumped in.

“I worked with him when he got to earth and I can tell you now, he was a hack. Good for keeping the humans happy, but a hack.”

Optimus thought about it, “He really worked with Shockwave?”

“With? No. He used his tech and research though.”

“You're hiding something.”

“I’m hiding a lot. And if you knew the extent of the hUman lies and betrayal, you would be keeping secrets too.”

“Are….they really that bad?”

“BumbleBee sighed. “No, no they aren’t. They are good at heart. But the few that are bad have enough evil in them to make up for the good and then some.”

TRID TRID TRID TRID TRID

Mikeala wrapped him in her arms and held on tight, and Sam took the moment to just enjoy the fell of her, and the limited safety she offered. In that moment he could relax, even if it was just for a second.

"What happened to you? Those aren't the clothes you were wearing earlier." Simmons said.

"That Nemesis Guy is trying to stop some bad future from happening. Apparently a lot of us don't make it and he's here to change it." Sam looked over at Bee, "But he isn't gonna play nice about it."

"Do you have any idea how nasty he'll get about it?" Bee asked.

"I've no clue."

Mikeala pulled away and stroked the back of his neck, then frowned, "WHat the hell?" she turned him round and pulled down the back of his shirt, "What is that?"

On the back of Sam's neck was a long, metallic looking device.

"That's a bio health monitor.Its used for non mechanical lifeforms. It just monitors health." Bee said, and reached out, his hand hovering over it.

“It doesn’t hurt." Sam said, "Which is weird considering its got wire in my brain stem."

Bee from up. "What?"

Sam didn't like the way he said that. "What?"

"Sam, these things are supposed to be surface level monitors. Non-invasive.” Bee gently touched Mikeala's arm, "Can you step away a moment, I need to-with Sam's permission, check this out."

Mikeala did and stepped away. Sam stared at Bee, "Why would they lie about that?"

"No clue. Can I run a deep scan?"

"After the scans I've had today that is not a problem. Go ahead." Sam stood still and Bee did his thing, and after a moment he scowled, "This is a deep level scanner. Not dangerous, but there are adaptations I don't recognise. Not dangerous, but not normal."

"Can you remove it?" Leo asked.

Bee shook his helm. "Not safely."

"Look, we can't do anything about it. So Maybe we can sit down, and Sam can tell us what he knows."

Chapter Text

"They dropped men off and just let them leave?" Epps asked, red reading the report.

"Yes sir. They gave us nothing beyond a polite 'Please disembark' and stated that a message would be sent within a few hours, sir."

"You're dismissed. Report to medical and then you're on a 10 hour rest period."

"Sir?" The soldier started, but Epps jumped in, "I can't have my men exhausted right now. So medical, then rest. Anyone tells you otherwise, you send them to me."

The soldier nodded and left.

Epps wasn't taking any chances. The men they had on base now were the only means they had to work with for a while. He couldn't risk losing one to exhaustion or injury caused by exhaustion. every decision and moment counted right now. Monique was pissed at him. Might even divorce him kind of angry. The kids thought this was so cool, spying on the Mechs and asking endless questions. Two had decided they were either becoming alien scientists or soldiers like daddy. Monique didn't mind the scientist stuff, but she'd be damned if her kids were gonna end up soldiers in a world where they could fight aliens. The dog didn't care much, he wasn't just excited to be around more people who would sneak him treats.

The next issue was the DinoBots, who had gone up the mountain and were camp out up there, building a camp and refusing to come down. The only person who'd gone up there was Ratchet, and he'd returned with the news that the buddlings were healthy and safe.The higher ups had no clue what it meant and several were worried about the fact that these guys had the potential to reproduce.

Honestly Epps didn't see the problem. They didn't produce often. According to IronHide, most never had offspring of their own. They'd mentor or 'adopt' as humans would call it. Those that did bud did so out of desperation or by accident. Plus they took a hell of a long time to grow.

But they were worried. Worried about a lot.

And just as Epps thought he could take a break for coffee, the computers flashed with alien symbols and deposited a sound file that played automatically.

Across the base, a screen flashed those symbols and a voice, distorted and unrecognizable.

“Do not panic. The following actions are not an act of war against the earth. They are an act of protection against the enemy. I warned those upon the earth's moon to leave to face consequences. They have not left.”

The message repeated a dozen times ,but Epps was out of his office before the end of the third repetition. The base was in full action mode and he spotted the soldier he just put on leave rush past, half undressed as a medic followed him telling him he needed an antibiotic shot.

Everyone was bolting to the nearest screen to watch the news, which was now filled with dozens of pictures of the moon. Some were amateurish videos shot from home set ups. The main one was the privately owned Paticore Incs. They'd given everyone free access to the feed as a 'transparency effort' in this time of crises. The fact they were partnered with two of the now confirmed traitor companies supposedly had nothing to do with their attempts to sway the public.

The image was sharp, better than any other camera on earth bar the ones the Autobots bought with them. They could see massive shapes and the occasional bot, all of them just visible enough to know they were alive. Huge snake-like things that SunStreaker had called city killers. Ships of all shapes and sizes. They were close enough to see the colors of the mechs.

IronHide and one of the time traveler bots joined them watching the screen with worried optics.

"What do you think he's gonna do?" Epps said, eyes on the screen.

"No idea, We haven't see-"

"The hell is that?"

The scene showed something streaking towards the moons, that then fragmented and turned the color or a magnesium flare before hitting the surface. They hit the surface and plumed orange, spreading out in soft geometric shapes. And the beings on the moon began running.

"No. IronHide said. "No no no that sick bastard. He wouldn't."

"He would." CrossHairs said.

"Would what? What is it?" Lennox said, finally joining them.

"Those are rust bombs." IronHide said, voice a harsh whisper. There was horror there, and Epps knew that whatever he was about to say wasn't gonna be pretty.

"Normal Cosmic rust is slow acting, treatable. But this? This has been modified. It can kill in seconds."

"Shit."

IronHide turned away from the screen, where they could see that the rust had reached the being still on the moon. It wasn't pretty. Anyone watching knew what they were seeing. The massive snakes rived and squirmed, their color changings and slowly disintegrated into the ground. The bot withered and convulsed and many had to look away.

Bile tried to rise in Epps throat as he looked away himself.

A war Crime. The whole damned planet had just witnessed a war crime.

TRID TRID TRID TRID TRID

“So when did you switch sides?” Skids asked.

His brother was still in medical stasis, to have a minor repair done and Skids curiosity got the better of him.

“I didn't. A call came through for any and all medics with experience dealing with organics and the promise of energon. I answered.” KnockOut shifted his weight and looked over his shoulder at Skids, “Part of the job was losing the insignia.”

“Didn't you feel bad for it?”

“For what? Surviving? By the time the boss needed me, things were bad. Targets on our backs, half the universe banning us from their planets or turned unfriendly and little to no long term prospects that didn't involve death or servitude. Nemesis was the best option.”

“Must have been a really shit show for you to join him.”

“Oh, you've got no clue kiddo.” KnockOut looked over at the kid and saw he had a look on his face. “Out with it. I can see you have more questions, so talk.”

Skids glanced at his brother, “You don't seem very…. Decepticonny.”

KnockOut laughed, a sound of genuine joy, “And what am I supposed to be like?”

“I dunno. I've only seen you guys in battle or dead.”

“Well hopefully you'll get to learn more about me. But be aware, we don't use designations like autobot or decepticon on this ship.”

“That Nemesis really a neutral party.”

“That's a complicated question. For now just remember to keep the factions out of polite conversation and you should be good.”

Skids looked down at his pedes, “You said earlier that we might see some changes to our frames. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”

“Good. You were online after the last energon reserves were long dry. I don’t think you’ve had real energon in you besides your inner energon and how little your body managed to convert from the slag you've been refueling with.”

He frowned then, and looked at his brother, “I thought we were in pretty good shape. Ratchet said we were.”

“Depends on your idea of good.”

TRID TRID TRID TRID TRID

The medical tech was pulsing.

Bee could sense it easily, and it was regulating Sam's systems in ways Bee didn't recognise.

Which was also a problem, because Sam didn't have systems. Well, he did, but they weren't supposed to be something Bee could feel. The only way he could normally read human biosigns was to actively scan them. Be was grateful that the energy readings weren't chaotic and damaging anymore, but he didn't like how ordered it was now. Nor did he like the fact that it-

"You okay Bee?" Sam asked, pulling the mech from his thoughts.

"Hm? Yeah. Just thinking. Are you feeling alright?"

Sam nodded, "Surprisingly, yes. My head doesn't feel weird anymore. But I really don't like the idea that this thing is deeper in me than I thought it would be."

"There's a joke there." Leo said, and Mirkeala snickered and shook her head. Sam rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to Bee.

Simmons came back then, wearing a green shirt and khakis pants with slippers. His hair was still wet from the shower he had taken. "It feels good to be clean. I must have had half the desert between my toes."

"Pretty certain I had the other half in my hair." Mikeala said, standing up and stretching. They'd all used the living quarters facilities and changed out of their rank clothing. Mikeala was wearing sweats and a baggy shirt, her make up gone and her hair tied back from her face. Leo had opted for a tracksuit that was blue and looked like it was worth more than Leo was worth. They all wore slippers. Maybe not giving them shoes was a safety thing.

"So what now? There's a computer but I doubt it has any way for us to communicate with the outside world. There's a tv as well and-"

"And a 'tv'." Bee said. "I can see if we can get any local channels."

"There's a tv in here?"

Bee turned around and went to a desk where a keyboard sat, and a screen on the wall came to life. He began typing, and text came on the screen.

"Massive conspiracy?

"Attack on the moon?"

Sam stared at the screen, but not at the myriad of news stories that had come up. His eyes were on the text at the bottom. Standard cybertronian. But what was confusing him was the fact he could understand it.

Actually, truly understand it. As easily as english.

"Bee?"

"Yes Sam?"

"The bottom of the screen says that the signal is one way only, right?"

"Yeah, it's probably to stop u-" Bee froze up and then slowly turned to Sam, "How do you know it says that?"

"I don't know. I just do." Sam raised his hand to the back of his neck and touched the medical device, "What the hell is this doing."

TRID TRID TRID TRID TRID

There was silence on the ship.

Megatrona and StarScream had decided to relocate the frame of Sentinel prime before the deadline hit, and they had barely gotten out of range of the planet before the attack came.

They'd watched in first confusion, and then horror as their troops were decimated. Ravaged buried his faceplate in StarScream's leg, and the flyer had rested a hand upon his spinal strut. Megatron felt his very Spark freeze, and he had turned away from the viewport and sat down, helm in his hands.

After a long while, StarScream said, "That pretender is not Prime. He may use his voice and signature, but the real Optimus would never do this."

Megatron lifted his helm and for a moment StarScream thought he was going to be struck for using the others name, but Megatron seemed to deflate. "The Fallen is going to demand answers, and I have no clue what we should report to him. And there are others in our army who are not going to want to sit by after this."

"They'll want revenge on Megatron, and they'll take it after this. Rust Bombs. Where did that mech even get those? I thought the only samples were hidden away on black coded research vessels."

"Well he obviously found some." Ravage said, "I never thought I'ds see such a thing again. Not after Lilpot 7."

None of them did. The atrocities that had taken place on that civilian mining world had been horrific, and nothing had survived. And despite the fact that the planet had been decontaminated, no cybernetic or metal based lifeforms would settle there. It was the home of some insectoid species now.

"We need to begin regrouping. I want our high command to reconvene. I need my best at my side. StarScream, call in the rest of the Elite Trine."

StarScream straightened and nodded. "I'll send word now my Lord." he left, no argument and a determination in his step.

Ravage watched him go. "He's scared."

"He should be. This false Prime has committed one of the worst attacks the Decepticons have suffered in vorns. The Primes themselves would cry over this." Megatron looked over at Ravage, "I want you to talk to your contact."

"Which one?"

"I am no fool. I know you have an in with one of theirs. VBut I also know that that connection has been as helpful to us as you have been to him."

Ravage stood frozen for a moment. "I understand Lord Megatron. But please be aware that this contact is not just mine."

"I know. Now go."

Megatron watched the other leave and turned back to the viewport. The moon was growing smaller as the left, but he knew what he had seen. So many mechs, so many of his men, gone. He would have watched them die anyway, but not like this. Death in battle, for the cause. A worthy death.

Not this. Writhing as their bodies disintegrated, dying whilst being watched by a planet that had gained the protection of a monster.

Chapter Text

Knowing your enemy was important. And sometimes you had to befriend them. Not BFFs, but you certainly needed to be able to hold a conversation without pulling a gun.

Ravage had learned this well. More than once he had given information in exchange for it. Letting slip of a new weapon on a non important world in exchange for coordinates. Allowing a rescue team through the lines for the Schematics of a new engine type. Give and take. It had stopped mistakes from happening.

Sometimes there were elements none knew off, and being able to speak with your contemporary on the other side allowed them to avoid unnecessary conflicts. Accidental revenge was not uncommon. He remembered they had lost an entire base because the Autobots were under the impression their mechs had destroyed one of their medical facilities. It had been a mess, which could have been avoided if people had spoken to each other.

Sometimes Ravage wondered if this war could be ended if people just sat down and talked. But eventually something would cause offense or anger and violence.

GHe'd sent a message to Soundwave, who gave him the necessary contact information. He was denied, and SoundWave informed him he had already sent a message.

Just outside of Pluto's orbit, a small green and yellow bot received it it.

TRID TRID TRID TRID TRID

"The United Arab Emirates and The African Union are planning on sending a delegate to the alien ship." Galloway said and took a long sip of his coffee. "The United Nations is discussing following suit but Getting past UAE and TAU immigration is going to be near impossible."

Optimus checked the files he had been given. "This isn't going to be easy to stop. They have every right to make their own choices."

"He won;t play favourites between countries." BumbleBee said, "It's likely he just wants the area as a base of operations."

"But why?" Galoway asked. "There's plenty of other places he could go. Friendlier, or more profitable."

"He doesn't need profit. He needs space. We don't eat like you, nor do we require water. Power production will likely come from the engines until he has the solar fields setup. Which is likely why he chose that area. Plenty of open space with no people living there."

"Then why go out and gather everything as he did? The supplies were for humans."

"As I said before, he's likely looking for Sam and other allies. And since he's not particularly fond of asking permission, then I think he's preparing to gather guests."

Galloway took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes, "I am aware. You gave me a list of names. The Yeagers are under guard, but do we have an idea of any other targets or hostages he may take?"

"I gave you a list already. If he takes anyone not on it, then I've no clue why he wants them."

The three of them wound up the meeting, and Galloway was more than ready for a break. He planned on sleeping on his way to his next meeting. That morning's events had led to a lot of angry and scared people. No one wanted to make a move against the Cybertronians, afraid of what they might do.

Their greatest weapons had been made useless. And they couldn't get close enough to the threat to actually do anything to this enemy.

Galloway knew there was something being hidden about the guy. Something important that Bee wasn't telling them. But he also couldn't prove it.

As he walked he passed kids on their way to a school meeting.

The families that had been brought to the island were all in varying degrees of shock. The younger kids saw it as an adventure, but the older kids were as afraid as their parents. It wasn't nice to see. He also wished he hadn't had to bring them here. But in the end there had been no choice. They were targets the moment anyone knew they were related to the people on site.

TRID TRID TRID TRID TRID

Sam was panicking, but he wasn't showing it. Bee could feel it though. Though the strange EM field he had developed didn't seem to be hurting him anymore, Sam didn't understand how much he was projecting. Maybe he didn't know.

Bee hated it. He hated how afraid and worried his friends were. He wanted to reach out and comfort him, but he was afraid they might harm him with his own EM field. He had already pulled it in enough to be considered non-existent to others, but he still worried.

After the revelation of his new language skills, they had concentrated on what the nes had to say and it had been one gut punch after another.

Simmons had gone quiet, not talking to anyone. Leo had spoken about how he'd been right, there was a god damned conspiracy. But then he had gotten quiet too as he realized what that actually meant. Mikeala just sat with Sam, quiet and sad.

When there was a beep at the door, they all looked up.

It was neither Nemesis nor KnockOut, but a tall grey and blue bot with one topic covered.

"Hiya, I was sent to get you guys." he said.

"What for?" Bee asked.

"Debriefing and fresh air. Apparently humans need it." he smiled, glancing at the humans. "Oh wow, they are tiny."

Simmons sniffed, "What, have you ever seen one of us before?"

"Nope. Just made the planet fall this morning. Got asked to swing by and grab you on the way in."

Bee stood up, barely reaching this new guy's chest. "Do we actually have a choice?"

The bot grinned, "Nope."

The platform detachment was floated along so that the humans didn't have to be carried, and as they walked they looked about. The windows above were open to the light, and the hot sun beat down. Several Squids floated by and another smaller mech was rushing off in the opposite direction, carrying a suitcase.

"So who are you?" Sam asked, and the big bot looked down at him.

"BreakDown." he said, and caught Sam's eye, "Not the same one you've met. It's a common name."

"What? Like John or Dave on earth?"

"If you have a lot of people called that, then yeah."

Leo actually huffed a laugh, "Seriously? You got common names?"

"Well, they sound common to you, but on Codex they get spelt and said differently."

"What fraction?" Bee asked, suspicious.

"None. On this ship I'm just BreakDown."

Another bot goes by, huge and spindly. BreakDown waved and they turned along hit stairs, moving them up some stairs and out of several doors to a balcony type space. The view was insane. Squids were working to set up what looked like beefed up solar panels and

"Welcome back BreakDown." Nemesis said. "Was the mission successful?"

"Yes. The cargo is being unloaded as we speak."

It was then that KnockOut appeared, and when he did BreakDown rushed off and pulled the red mech into a hug, leaning down to press his helm to the others.

"Missed you." he said, and KnockOut chuckled and shook his head.

"It's good to see you too dear."

"Dear?" Leo asked, curious.

"BreakDown is my Conjunx."

Sam looked confused, "What's that?"

"Oh, it means romantic partner." BreakDown answered.

Sam looked confused. "I thought you guys didn't-"

"This can wait." Simmons said, "I want answers, and I want them now.”

"I will answer what I can." Nemesis said.

"Why did you use a possibly illegal weapon on the moon?"

Nemesis looked at him with sharp eyes, "Because soft measures don't work with some mechs. This way they won't attempt to take my mercies lightly."

"Even if it means using banned weapons?" Bee asked, then turned to KnockOut and BreakDown, "And you? You're okay with this?"

Breakdown spoke. "You haven't lived what we lived through. You haven't seen how bad it gets. And let me tell you, not one bot that stayed on that moon was gonna be any kind of good news."

"Calm yourself BreakDown, you don't have to defend yourself."

"The hell I don't. Ten credits says that those few ships that left have the civilian classes on them."

"Civilian classes? I don't understand, I thought the decepticons were all combatants?" Mikeala asked. "She looked over at Bee, "Why would they have civilians."

"Because an army is more than just its fighters. And that more held a full invasion force. Those mechs would be responsible for science, medicine, and infrastructure. Everything our society would need."

Sam felt his stomach roil. He knew that there was more to war than fighting. Had listened as The mechs discussed dealing with possible surrendering cons. But he'd never thought about the actual day to day of war. Supply chains and bureaucracy. The beings whose job wasn't to kill and maim but ensure spare parts get to medics and orders go to the right men. Were all the autobots professional soldiers? Or were they just every mechs who had taken up the fight? Ratchet was a medic, but what about others? Had Bee always been a scout? Or had he once been a delivery boy or an admin clerk? Who had been a cashier before being a sniper?

Nemesis stepped in then. "What's done is done. But you are right, there is no defending My actions. It is done, and I alone will bear the blame."

"What are you going to do with the surrendered bots?" Simmons asked.

"All will abide by the rules I set or they will be dealt with."

"Dealt with how?"

Nemsis said nothing, and no one wanted him to clarify.

Eventually Leo spoke. "Why are we here? I get you want Sam to get treatment for his....alien weirdness. But you could have dropped up at the border. Or left us completely."

"I do not trust your safety with others. Until humans prove themself, I shall not risk any of you."

Sam finally decided to ask what had been itching in his head for a while. "Do you know if My parents are safe?"

Nemesis eyes softened then. “As of now I know their location. I have my drones readying a rescue as we speak. With luck they will be with us by this evening." he looked at Mikaela. "Your father and Leo's family have been taken into protective custody, as have your college business partners."

"They're safe then?"

"Yes, they are."

"So what happens to us next?"

“You’ll have freedom on most of the ships that are safe for humans. They’ll be marked with doors and symbols, so memorise them.”

“Why are they off limits?”

“Security and safety. Unless you’ve suddenly become immune to radiation, I suggest staying out of areas that are considered off limits.” KnockOut said. “And that is not a joke. We have very limited treatments for radiation poisoning so please stay out of anywhere you shouldn’t be.”

“And what about communication? Are we cut off?”

“You will be permitted to speak with people. But the lines will be monitored.” Helm said, “We will allow this by tomorrow, as we are still setting up safe relays.”

There was a loud beep and Nemesis looked up. “That will be the surrendering Mechs. KnockOut, be ready in medical. BreakDown, you're with me.”

The three bots left and Sam Bee watched them go, confused. The squids released him and left, but he had no idea what to do.

“I’m gonna take a wild guess and say that just walking out the door isn’t gonna happen?” Mikeala asked, and walked to the edge of the platform to watch the construction, “I don’t think we’d get far.”

“I can’t geolocate where we are.” Bee said, “We could be days away from civilisation. Or a rocks throw.”

Chapter Text

Morshower felt better Which worried him. He'd gone to sleep and given order he wasn't to be disturbed for anything other than the president, and they had heeded him. How he wished he'd just wake him. He awoke to 50 messages on his phone and twice as many missed calls.

He called Lennox for an explanation, and once he had it Morshower knew what to do.

He took a shower. He set up an MRE to cook on his counter before he did so, but the time he got back his coffee was cool enough to drink and he could eat. He took his time, dressed in fresh clothes and took a long, deep breath before leaving his quarters.

The attack on the moon was over with. People were already working to control the situation. Morshower trusted his people to do the right things whilst he was getting ready for his day. Many would be mad about his cavaleredness, but after so long serving his country he had learned some important survival skills. And one of those was that when shit hits the fan and chaos reigns, you use every quiet moment you could. It set up the mind for the hectic day, and it allowed him the clearness of mind to make good choices. 30 minutes wasn't long to a civilian, but to him? It was like taking the morning off. But those 30 minutes to just shower, eat and drink a coffee allowed him to start his day as close to normal as he could, and give his men his best work.

Once he stepped out the door it was obvious that today was going to be long.

He was immediately pulled into a meeting about extra troops and where they were to pull them from. Logistics were asking for permission to redirect supplied to the island and the MP on base were asking for two of the bots to be assigned to their squad to give them better ways to handle the Mechs they had on island.

God, the AutoBots were a mess. Professional and did their job fantastically, but they were a mess. They weren't particularly trustworthy before the revelation of betrayal, but now it had become quite obvious that some of them had never trusted their human 'allies'. Morshower couldn't blame them. For the past 4 days he had witnessed the arrest and death announcements.

The Attorney General had said they had enough turn coats amongst the traitors. There were also alot claiming that if they hadn't agreed to help the decepticons, they would have been killed, or their kids hurt. Too many people were agreeing that leniency should be given to those suffering blackmail, but at what point do they need to turn around and say 'no, no more excuses'.

And there were so many excuses. So many lies to sort through and conspiracies to debunk or prove.

"Sire, Mercedes is threatening to sue if some of the bots don't choose different altmodes. They're claiming patent infringement."

And there were also the absolutely stupid problems.

TRID TRID TRID TRID TRID

They wandered the ship, the platform following Bee as they checked out the facilities. There were rec rooms and viewing stations, and storage areas, and they actually got to the desert via a lift, but tit was kind of boring, and the sand flying everywhere as squids worked was bad for human lungs, so they re-entered the ship.

They ended up at one of the rec rooms, where several screens showed news and tv.

Leo pointed at one screen, "Holy shit, it's alien news!" he said, and Bee looked up.

"Yeah, its-" The absolute excitement on Simmons and Leo's faces made Bee want to laugh, and he took them closer. "If you use the platform's secondary controls it will give you a translation."

They did, and the fascination was endless as they saw images of alien races and stories of political decisions and even the occasional celebrity.

"I should have bought chairs." Leo said, sitting on the floor and watching the screen.

"I’ll see what's in the storage area." Bee said and went to walk off, But Sam caught his attention.

"I can help."

Bee held out his hand and Sam joined him, and the storage room was behind a flat panel on the wall. There were more chairs, a whole bunch of cleaning supplies and-

"What are you looking for?"

Bee turned and saw a mech behind him. And then looked down.

The mech in front of him was almost as small as the Elita's; he had a standard humanoid appearance and was a soft blue shade. He had no mouth, just a flat, mask-like guard. His optics were big and bright.

“I need supplies for-”

“Oh right, the humans. Huh, that's what they look like.” The mech said, zoning in on Sam with curiosity. “You guys are tiny. Like, real tiny.”

“Not exactly the biggest guy I’ve met either.” Sam said.

The mech laughed tilting his helm and Sam could tell he was smiling. The those optics narrowed, “If you don’t mind me asking, I wasn’t aware your species was dabbling in cybernetics, I-”

“It's a medical thing.” Bee said, pulling Sam a little closer. He was keeping his field close, but Sam was untrained, and his field, though small, was obviously enough for others to notice.

“Sorry, sorry. Not trying to be rude. If you grab the blue labeled box there's a bunch of scaled down items. Might still be a little big but they’ll be easier to handle.” he said, pointing.

“What’s your name?” Sam asked, trying to calm the weird energy in the room.

“Reflector.”

Bee looked at the smaller bot. “Are you one of the triplets I heard about?”

The mech looked away for a moment, “I used to have a triplicated form, made my job easier. But war is war, you know. But I’m not a triplet.” He stepped aside so Bee could move away from the storage unit.

Bee seemed real uncomfortable, and Sam couldn’t blame him. The bots here were acting so….buddy buddy that it was unnerving. But he’d heard that the enemy was just as capable of kindness as your allies. He just had to remember that.

The box held odd, wide couches made of a weird fabric that was both soft and fuzzy but smoothing. Bee Put Sam down, and gave him a small container that held bottles and cups. Ity was big and heavy, but Sam managed.

Reflector followed them, and looked about to offer Sam a hand until Bee gave him such a look he decided to just watch.

“There’s human safe liquids at the dispenser, but you need to be careful, the distribution cap is still getting used to smaller increments.”

"Thanks for the heads up." Sam said, and Leo bounced up to help with the box. Bee moved several seats, and suddenly the platform was a lot more comfortable.

"I'm gonna suggest we put those seats on all the platforms, it seems like it could be useful." Reflector said. "There's a scheduled break in an hour, so this place might see more mechs." He waved and left, waving over his shoulder.

"Friend of foe?" Simmons asked.

"No clue." Bee said, "For now, be polite but don't trust."

Sam nodded, then thought of something Reflector said. "What did he mean by tiny?"

Bee gave that look he got when he didn't want to say something because it might be mean.

"Come on Mech, spit it out." Mikeala said. "It can't be that bad."

"Well, there are alot of aliens out there. Wide selection of species and evolutionary tracks and -"

"Bee."

"You guys are some of the smallest beings we've seen." Bee said, "Like, real tiny. Stupidly tiny."

"Hey, I'm 6'2." Simmons balked, insulted.

"And that's great, for a human. But there's a lot of species taller than you guys. Like, nearly all of them."

TRID TRID TRID TRID TRID

IronHide walked up to the peak the Dinobots had claimed as their base. Driving would have been quicker, but he needed time to process this.

Cosmic Rust. The fear of every mechanical being in the galaxy.

It had wiped out whole worlds, destroying civilization before a treatment for the original strain was found. But then some evil piece of scrap had made it into the worst weapon imaginable. He didn't normally feel sympathy for the enemy, but this? God, there's only 2 people he could think of who deserved this, and he was damned certain they weren't on the moon.

A shadow swooped over him and he turned, but didn't draw his weapons. He didn't want to seem like a threat. Yet.

"Swoop wants to know who said you could come up here."

"No One. I just wanted to speak with you and your group."

"About."

"Security measures."

Swoop transformed then and stood in front of IronHide. "Swoop take you, if you listen to swoop."

IronHide lift his arm, “Lead the way.”

They walked, and swoop kept his gae ahead of them. “Swoop smarter than others.”

IronHide kept his mouth shut, “I’m sure you are.”

“No, Swoop means it. Swoop talks bad, but does not mean Swoop dumb. But Swoop is not stronger than Grimlock or Slug. They think smart is not strong. Is not true.”

Okay, not IronHide was intrigued. “Is that a problem?”

“Yes. Swoop tried to get friends to listen, but they not. They are stubborn. They want to stay away from others, live alone like dinos. But babies are smarter, have better access to stuff to make them better.” Helooked at IronHide then, “Swoop not want babies learn to be dumb.”

Oh. Oh that tugged at his spark. “Your hoping we can help? Convince Grimlock to let us help.”

“Swoop hope.”

“You know, if you tell me a little more about how you guys wound up on earth, I’ll do my best to help you and the buddlings.”

“Buddings?”

“Babies, kid Babies.”

Chapter Text

"Of all the stupid, ridiculous ideas you could have had, this is the dumbest!!!" Ratchet yelled as he tried to help reattach IronHides arm. He had been flown back by Swoop, who had given a soft little apology before flying back up the mountain.

"Hey, we needed to do a check in. I didn't think it would go this bad."

"Frag, I'm gonna have to replace your rotors joint. Primus, this is annoying." The medic groused, "You are an idiot."

"I know." IronHide said.

Ratchet saw the look in his optics and shook his head in exasperation. "You feel useless right now. We all do. But until Optimus confirms anything about the enemy, there is nothing we can do."

IronHide huffed and went to fold his arm,s but only having one made it difficult. Ratchet laughed and pointed a wrench at him, "Look, we aren't gonna sit around forever. Things move fast on this planet. Its not like we're on Plastra again."

"Oh God, do not remind me of that planet. Most boring a cycle of my function."

"Seriously, don't wish for action. With everything that is going on, we should be grateful we are able to have this down time to properly figure out a plan. Who knows what we're gonna face ?"

Before IronHide could say anything, there was a beep at the door.

"Everyone decent there?" Lennox asked.

"You can come in." Ratchet said.

"Alright, as Of Now the future crew is on the payroll. They're joining us for a debriefing in an hour where we will go over the rules of....how we're going to deal with exposure."

"I hate public relations."

Lennox grinned, "Everyone does. Just grin and bare it pal."

"Any clue what is gonna be expected of us?" Ratchet asked.

"You’ll find out the debrief. Right now I need a Private word with Ratchet. You got time?”

“It’s gonna take a day to make a replacement joint for Hide, so he can go and come back tomorrow.” Ratchet turned to IronHide3, “Do not go back up that mountain without backup, or I’ll rip your other arm off.”

“Understood doc.” IronHide gave him a lazy salute and left, and Lennox made sure the door was shut before he walked up the platform to get to more of eye level with Ratchet.

“Okay, BumbleBee reluctantly gave us information about the Sun Harvesting devices. And that samurai guy told me that he gave you a heads up. You wanna explain a little more for me.”

Ratchet exhaled and shook his hand, “No. Not yet. I don’t want to get mech's hopes up before I know we can replicate the tech.” he went to the desk and pulled out the vial containing the tiniest amount of energon. “This isn’t just fuel, it's our life blood. It keeps our bodies from breaking down and allows us to regenerate from injury. You’ve seen how IronHide loses parts and Prime and Bee can’t keep their Paint bright? It's the equivalent of a bad diet. If we have access to this again, we have access to our full health and lives again.”

“Or superiors think that may be a bad thing.”

“They are thinking about us reproducing. AndI can understand why they are worried. We’re not native to this world Lennox, they fear we may take over. And children are a way to put down roots. And That scares a lot of people.”

"Speaking of children, have we got any info on the dino babies?"

"Healthy as can be. Also insanely young for being outside of the home. But then again, they are based on Biological lifeforms, so that may be speeding up their development." Ratchet put the sample back, "Honestly they are a miracle. Buddlings are rare enough as is. For a whole group to produce as they have is near unheard of."

Lennox looked a little embarrassed. “Look, I don’t mean to pry but do you think any of the autobots might decide to have kids whilst they're here?”

“I don’t know. There’s no official rule that says we can’t have families, but many wouldn’t. Not during wartime.” Ratchet leaned against his desk, “Honestly, I do believe some may attempt now we may have a source of Energon.”

“Well, rumours spread fast. Some mechs have been talking.”

Ratchet looked down and sighed. “I know. But There isn’t anything I can do until I get a prototype built, but I’m waiting on permission to build it.”

“I’ll see what I can do about that Ratchet. Is there anything dangerous in this device?”

“The only danger is someone coming into contact with the Energon. In its unrefined state it is somewhat toxic to biological life. Not deadly, but certainly not pleasant.”

“I’ll get started on that. Debriefing in an hour, Northern Building.”

DZ DZ DZ DZ DZ DZ DZ DZ DZ DZ

"I can feel your worries." Sam said, as he sat next to Bee.

Mikeala was with Simmons and Leo on the other side of the room, distracting themselves in different ways. Mikeala was half asleep, whilst Simmons was scrolling through a tablet, reading everything he could. Leo was on Social media, checking on people at college and making sure the news wasn't being too nasty about him and his family.

And Sam was beside his guardan.

"Sorry. I don't mean to be a -"

"Don't lie Bee. I think I can feel that too."

"We have EM fields. Humans don't. Or they're not supposed to." Bee said. "I figured it was a side effect, that it would eb dealt with. So I tucked up my field and tried not to make you uncomfortable."

"Is that what I felt with KnockOut the other day?"

"Yeah."

Sam touched the thing on the back of his neck. "Nemesis was in my head. It felt weird. Back at the Temple. Like he was guiding me through it." Sam let his hand trail down his arm, almost unknowingly, he touched where those wires had slipped into his skin, "I think, I think there was actually a part of him in my skin. But I don't know how that's possible."

Bee felt his spark freezer up. "Sam, when he was helping you in the temple, how did it feel?"

"Like....I wasn't quite me. It was calm and safe."

The freezing thawed a little. "Did you pick anything up from it? Memories, or ideas?"

Sam shook his head. "No."

Bee rested his hand next to Sam. "What do you feel about me?"

Sam reached out and touched his finger, "Worry, fear, Affection. But it's jumbled and weird. I don't know how I know this."

He squeezed Bee's finger, and gently as ever another of Bee's Fingers curled up and touched the back of Sam's hand.

Sam was scared, confused, and confronted by Bee's Presence. Carefully, so carefully Bee extended his field and Sam's mouth twitched, then he sniffed and looked away. "This is so weird. Not bad, but weird. I can feel how much you wanna help."

"I do. I don't want you to have to suffer like this."

Sam looked up at him and smiled. "This thing in my neck, you said it went deeper than it should. How deep."

"I don't have a scanner to truly know. It's not unheard of for a medical scanner to do this. But something doesn't feel right about this."

"Nothing about this feels right." Sam rubbed his face.

DZ DZ DZ DZ DZ DZ DZ DZ DZ DZ

Debriefing was split into different teams, and Lennox had to admit it was the right way to go. There was no point in wasting time getting everyone on the same page when most of them didn’t need to read the whole book right now.

Their best tech and info guys were to concentrate on finding every branch of the conspiracy tree. They were being given the entire temp building block to work out of.

The next team had possibly the hardest job right now.

Public relations.

No one wanted that job. But they needed at least 4 mechs to help.

Jolt had agreed, happy to get out of the war zone. He'd always preferred background work anyway.

SideSwipe didn't want to leave the front lines but he was good at putting people at ease, and the fact he was considered “handsome" by some of the human base workers could be useful.

Elita was willing to let one of the sisters join for a ‘feminine’ voice on the team. The femme had no clue what she could do beyond sound like a girl but they needed these humans at ease and she could be a help.

Hoist volunteered under the caveat that he finally receive more medic training, something he'd been trying to get for vorns but had been difficult to do when their medics were needed elsewhere.

The best spin doctors in the US were being brought in to help, and Optimus was dreading it. He hated dealing with the press, but there was no avoiding it now.

They also had to create drop teams. With every country on the planet ready to make their moves and stake a political allyship, or at least pact of nonaggression, with their enemy.

Russia had mobilized several ships that were on route to the African coast, which already had a flotilla of different nations' ships awaiting their orders. Soldiers of every nation and creed waited, and Optimus prayed that they would remain safe. Too many had already died in the first attacks when Megatron had come to Earth. They could not afford any more innocent casualties.

DZ DZ DZ DZ DZ DZ DZ DZ DZ DZ

ThunderCracker and SkyWarp met with StarScream outside the ship, magnetized to the hull.

"Word on the tacknet is that Prime used a banned weapon? This tree?" SkyWarp asked, helm tilting.

"It was not the real Prime. But yes, someone used a Rust Bomb. Nearly all of our men on the Earth's moon are dead."

ThunderCracker sighed, sitting down, "Unicron damn him. There were some good mechs there."

"Some took the warning and left. We can only hope that Megatron doesn't decide to class it as desertion.” StarScream said. “I am afraid that we will have to work hard to keep what is left of our troops from falling to bad decisions as well as the enemy.”

Unknown to the 3 of them, they were being watched, and Megatron sat at his desk and scowled.

StarScream was a duplicitous sniveling piece of scrap, but he was also right.

"Soundwave wishes to know if he should come here, or head to the Fallen's ship?" Ravage asked.

"Have him come here. I cannot risk my best falling to the fallen's temper tantrums."

Ravage nodded and left, and Megatron was left to think on the information that StarScream had given him of the Fallen. The oldest of their kind had wisdom and knowledge, there was no doubt of that. Megetaron had learned so very much from him. But he now knew that this Prime was not lying. Not a surprise, but the fact that they had no idea what they were supposed to do after the earth’s sun was harvested was an oversight that Megetron could not believe the Fallen would overlook. But looking back on all of the plans and promises, it made sense, and StarScream had proven that the so-called new empire wasn’t going to last very long if the Fallen could provide more sun Harvesters and more usable suns.

StarScream was sneaky, so Megetron had no plans to flat out kill the Fallen, not until he'd had a good, long conversation.

It felt as though it was time for the student to leave this teacher's tutelage.

Chapter Text

Judy should have taken Sam and run the second those bots had shown up. She should have demanded they leave her family alone, that they go on the run. But it was so damned amazing.

She'd thought life had become calm now, that they could move on from the craziness of aliens and enjoy the craziness of college and travel and life. Instead it had all gone to crap.

Her body ached from the running and falling and grabbing and rough handling. She'd never been afraid of the bots before, not since that first introduction. But with how easily she and Ron had been forced into vehicles and into holding cells she had no doubt that they should fear these beings.

Their rescuers were gentle, and had tended to their wounds as best they could, but the fear wouldn't leave. Judy didn't think it ever would.

"We're here. We'll take you straight to you sparkling." one of the bots said.#

"Sam? Sam is here?" she asked, and Ron was onto his feet. "Why is our boy here, why do you have Sam."

"Because he needs to be kept safe. At least that's what the boss said."

They didn't believe it, but followed the orders given, and after what seemed like hours were taken to a room and there he was.

"MY BABY!" Judy cried, rushing to her son and pulling him to her, squeezing tight and then Ron was wrapped about both of them.

"You're alive, you're alive. Oh thank god you're alive." Ron practically chanted, and pulled away to see Sam's face. "I thought we'd lost you."

"No Dad. I'm right here." Sam said and let his parents crush him back into another hug. They were filthy and looked banged up, but were otherwise okay.

After several rounds of hugs and I love yous, they parted and Mikeala came over with water.

"There's showers and clothes and food. Which do you want first."

"Snack now, real food after shower." Ron said, his hand moving up Sam's shoulder to his neck where his fingers brushed the device, and he paled, yanking Sam around so he could see what it was.

"Ow, careful of the neck." Sam said. "It's a medical device. It's helping with Allspark exposure."

"Are you sure?"

"No, but it's not like I know what else it's doing." Sam got himself free of his fathers hands and turned to him. "Let's get you guys comfortable and then we can talk."

Ron wanted answers, but Judy looked so tired and in the light of the room he could see the mess they were both in. They needed food, rest and clean cloths.

Before moving they both saw Bee, and gave him a stilted nod before leaving.

Sam looked over at his friend and saw the sorrow and pain there. It wasn’t fair that he was suffering for this. But he also knew his parents had just been through hell, and needed time.

They ate and walked as Mikela showed them the showers, and they were grateful for the hot water. Ron had massive bruising from where he had been grabbed around the torso, and Judy was covered in scraps from being ejected from a moving vehicle. The hot water sootheD her muscles, but stung her cuts. When she got out of the shower there were clothes and a first aid kit waiting. They cleaned and dressed their wounds before putting on the clean clothes, and when they got through to the 'lounge' area there was hot food in the form of MREs.

"Sorry it's nothing special, but it's filling." Mikeala said.

"Honey, its food and its hot. That's all I care about." Judy said and accepted the meal before sitting on the soft seats beside her son.

Ron made a loud groan as he sat. "I am never taking a good couch for granted again."

He ate, and kept glancing at Bee. "Is he your body guard again?"

"Yes. But he's as much a prisoner as we are. Nemesis said we could try and leave, but there's nowhere to go, and we'll be tracked pretty fast if we do. But so far we've been treated well." Sam said.

"So you stuck with us again Bee?" Judy said, trying to sound amused.

"I guess I am." Bee said. "Though I actually fit in this room when I stand."

"Well, I'm sure we-I'm sorry what did you just say." Judy said and blinked at him. "When did your voice get fixed?"

The way Bee became withdrawn made Judy feel a little bad, but she pushed past it. She didn't want to feel bad for anyone, herself and her family right now.

"It's a long story."

"Kid, we have time."

TRID TRID TRID TRID TRID

Nemesis watched through the cameras as Sam explained what had happened since they last saw each other, and watched the medical information filter in.

"How long until we can begin transfusions?"

"As soon as possible. The Naities have already begun to bolster his human body, but there is only so long they can mitigate the AllSpark Energy before they begin to burn out. We must supply the materials they need to reinforced his synapsis."

"And we have the equipme-"

"Nemesis, you have gone over our supplies personally a literal hundred times before we made the jump. You checked again when we landed. We are ready to go, we have everything we need. We have his parents, both of whom are the same blood type and that Leo Boy is a universal donor. The bio replicators are already working to recreate whatever we may need to replace should it fail the boy. We are good." KnockOut said, reassuring his superior. "Have you refueled today?"

"Yes."

"How much and what was it."

Nemesis sighed, "I'll refuel now, happy?"

"Not until I see you looking after yourself properly. " KnockOut said as he watched Nemesis to the dispenser and fill a tall glass. Pink, learning towards purple. A Nanite infusion of his own. "You know once the infusions start, there'll be no hiding what you are trying to do."

"I am aware." Nemesis said. "I want a suppressor placed on BumbleBee, to ensure he cannot cause harm whilst he is here."

"I'll have BreakDown do it. He's done it a million times."

Nemsis took a long drink, and once the glass was half empty he asked, "I shall be sending an invite to communicate to this planet's leaders. Once it is done, I will join you and Sam in the private labs. Be ready by 12 local time."

"I'll get things ready now sir."

KnockOut left his leader and headed towards the main medical bay, wanting to inform BreakDown of his orders. He found his Conjux helping JetFire remove a piece of rusted material, to allow his protoform base to replace the part easier.

"The old Timers already got improvement in the joints. Should be back up to full speck in a few human weeks."

"That's great news. How are you finding the ship."

"It's a little weird to be amongst so many decepticons again, but it's certainly better than my old digs." JetFire said. "I'll see you guys later."

He left, and once gone KnockOut had the doors locked and he leaned against the medical table."

Arms wrapped around him, and KnockOut lifted his helm and looked up at BreakDown. "You need to restrict the yellow guy. Maybe the twins too."

"He's going to start now?"

"Yes."

"You sure you can do this. I know that you've been pretty comfortable with working on non compliant mechs, but this is different' This is ShockWaves work."

KnockOut shuddered, "I know. But this has to be done if we want a new life here. That human is the key to our survival. I've made the process as comfortable for him as I could, now I just have to remember what this is for."

BreakDown nuzzled him. “Just remember what this could mean. No more running, no more desperate searches for fuel or deals with monsters and dictators. We can settle down and have a real life again.”

KnockOut had been holding onto that idea for a long time.

TRID TRID TRID TRID TRID

The next communication to come through was another world wide announcement, cutting into tv signals and everyone stopped what they were doing to watch.

The image was still blurred, the voice deep and recognisable. Too recognisable.

"The jackass is using Optimus's voice." Lennox said.

"I expressly invite the planet's people to contact our ship. Individuals in leadership and considered important to communication will be given direct contact details. If you are not on the contact list and have ill intent, you shall be reported to the authorities in your country. I know we will likely have communications from the curious and I ask that those who gain access to the contact information use it with discretion.

Going forward I will not take any unprovoked action against our shared enemies. I have done all that I believe is necessary to ensure the beginnings of a truly beneficial alliance. Many of you do not believe that. And I do not blame you. My actions have been violent and cruel, and done with the best intentions. I understand you humans say that the road to hell is paved with them, but I tell you now that I have learned that you must be willing to walk. There is much both our races do not know, and we must learn together if both our worlds are to survive.

Your questions will be answered in time, and I ask that you understand that some will go unanswered for now. But I will tell you all that is relevant to this new future."

The announcement repeats for twenty minutes. and already news channels are speculating and analysing.

As if on cue, Lennox's phone buzzed and he looked at the message.

*Hello Major Lennox. We would like to invite you to speak with us.*

Chapter Text

Optimus could feel another Prime.

Every Spark was unique, and even more so for Primes due to the unique radiation of their Sparks. Sometimes it would even allow other primes to track where each other was going. But when necessary they could hide that signature for their safety or privacy.

Put this other prime wasn't doing that.

This prime was blatantly allowing himself to be traced within his shelter. Prime couldn't feel what he was feeling, none could do that without Express permission and True Connection but he knew one thing about this being. His spark was identical to his own.

There were obviously slight differences but it was his. There was a darkness to this spark. An edge that felt as sharp as a blade when he reached out.

It was twisted in some way, colder and harsher than anty Prime he had known.

And he learned something else that was helping him understand the behaviour of their guests from the future.

This Prime was himself. Not a duplicate or a twin, but Prime saw that this was another version of himself. Every part of his being rebelled at the idea, but he knew there could be no other option. The Spark was his own, no matter how twisted or ruined it was.

Which had brought him to Cade.

The human was willing to speak where BumbleBee would not, and in that moment Optimus needed answers.

He invited Cade to meet him on the beach. It was a quiet and contemplative place.

The human joined him, but not alone. CrossHair was up the beachline, not visible but there.

“I know you said to come alone but-”

“But this conversation shed light on why you will not do that.” Optimus said.” Cade, what happened to turn me into that mech?”

Cade looked up at him and stared for a. Long while before he answered. “A lot of shit went down after Sentinel was discovered alive. A Lot of people and bots died, a lot of people got screwed over.” Cade said, and sat down in the sand. “I found you in stasis in an old movie theater. You woke up yelling at your comrades to run, to hide. I won’t lie, I nearly turned you in. The money they were offering was huge. It could have set me and Tessa up for a lifetime. But something didn’t seem right. I was proven right when they held a gun to my daughters head. No real talking, just violence. They were gonna kill us whether we gave them to you or not. Even after the truth was known, me and my kid were branded as criminals. It was chaos. Some guy named LockDown showed up for you, half the world was up in arms over aline rights. It was nuts.

Optimus knew that name. Some bounty hunter with a nasty reputation and a love of money and his own reputation.

“Why would he be after me?”

Cade hesitated. “Quintessa. She claimed to be your creator. As in the creator of all cybertronians. She did something to you, messed up your processor or something. You came back guns blazing and a target on all our heads. You managed to snap out of it, but not before. A lot of damage was done. And other things were discovered.”

Cade looked at the horizon like it held salvation and Optimus knew he wasn’t going to like what came next.

"The earth and cybertron have been linked longer than you think. Our world wouldn't exist. The Earth's core holds a secret, one that could destroy the planet if allowed to wake up."

"What do you mean? Is it something to do with the fallen."

"God I wish it was. That would be easier to explain." Cade said and rubbed his eyes. "Our planet is a prison, Optimus. A lump of living rock designed to stop a monster from causing destruction. The fact we evolved on it is a side effect. An accident of fate."

"What do you mean Cade."

"The core of the earth is a prison. Unicron was put to sleep, and as he slept he pulled in rocks that melted due to the heat of his spark. As the mantle grew and cooled, the earth grew. Eventually life grew."

Optimus stared at him, mouth slightly open. It took him several minutes to form words. "What?"

"Unicron. Big old planet eater that fought Primus? Yeah, he's real. And is napping at the centre of out planet in a ball shape." Cade looked up at him. "We managed to put him back to sleep, but the tremors caused by his sleep twitching caused a lot of damage."

Optimus looked down at the ground. "How do we not know of this?"

"Do you really think it would have been smart to let people know that something that powerful existed. Could you imagine what Megatron might try?"

Optimus didn't want to think about it. But he was still reeling from the idea of Unicron. The monster, the devil to their life giving Primus.

“That cannot be possible.”

“It is. Once we got things under control, there was peace. Sort of.” Cade said. “It wasn’t perfect but it was okay. But things just kept going wrong. When we got one lot of good, two loads of bad came along. Not just for you guys, but for the earth as well.”

But what drove me to become that monster.”

“Dude named Shockwave had been helping a bunch of earth scientists. Their experiments were discovered and after that you just kind…lost your way. Started spending more time alone. Heading off to explore and investigate stuff. Next thing we knew you were attacking some nearby planet for resources. Said it would be worth it in the end.”

Optimus looked away, “How bad did I-”

“You didn’t do anything. Nemesis is his own being, his own person. Not you.” Cade stood back up, brushing sand from his body. “You're a different Mech.”

TRID TRID TRID TRID TRID

"The good news is that the first infusion bolstered his system against microcharges, which was what was causing his pain. The bad news is that the mutations may speed up,and the energy out point could increase enough for some of his cells to lose cohesion. I suggest we begin cellular re-enforcement." KnockOut explained, "This may cause him some discomfort, but nothing beyond muscles aches. He will require a higher caloric intake for a few days."

Nemesis nodded, "Do it. We knew this would likely happen, so there is no point in waiting."

"I'll have him brought in soon. I take it, you wish to be present?"

"I do. Call me when he gets here." Nemesis said and left.

The walk to his office was short and silent. His thoughts were full of worry. There were many things that could go wrong during the next step, but Nemesis had faith that KnockOut would give it his all. If he didn't....Nemesis just hoped he could remember that the medic wouldn't allow anything bad to happen on purpose, and they needed the medic since he was the only one they had at that moment.

He got to his office and saw his screen flashing a number. 2004, all emails and messages that had been sent since he had given people permission to contact them. He sat down and began to search through them. Welcome messages, veiled threats and genuine curiosity. People asking for meetings and others asking for interviews.

He organized government emails from news outlets and the reduction in number was massive. 204 emails from leaders across the planet.

But one email stood out as being neither news nor government.

Its headline read, 'Hey'.

Nemesis felt his lip twitch. The small wave of nostalgia that came to him was bittersweet. A message from a man from a better time. Someone who hadn’t been manipulated or destroyed by the system and his superiors yet. Another soul he could save.

William Lenoox had sent him a simple message.

Hey,

I'm willing to listen.

Lennox

That was it. Nothing big or blustery, just a simple invitation to speak.

Nemesis looked at the time, and then checked the system for Sam's location before he decided to make a call.

TRID TRID TRID TRID TRID

His phone beeped, and he ignored it. When it beeped three more times, he glanced at his pocket. Galloway noticed his attention elsewhere.

"Who thinks you need interrupting right now?" Galloway asked, annoyed.

Lennox pulled out his phone and was about to turn it off when he saw the message.

"I think I've got contact with the enemy." Lennox said, standing, "Message is from the same unknown number as earlier."

"What does it say?"

"Just 'Willing to talk? Do I Answer?"

"Say yes and put it on speaker."

Lennox was shuffled over to the computer bank, where several monitoring devices were activated to allow them to monitor and record the phone call.

Lennox messaged back okay, and a moment later it rang. It didn't get through the ring cycle before he answered.

There was silence for a moment.

"Good Morning Lennox."

The voice was the same, and it made Lennox nervous. "My name Is Major William Le-"

"I know who you are, there is no need for rank. I have a few minutes if you have a few questions."

Gallaoway held up a paper with the question 'where are you calling from?"

"I don't suppose you can tell me where your calling from?"£

"You already know. In fact you are likely tracing this call already, and I assure you that you will find me on my ship. I've no intention of leaving just yet."

"You've given us a hell of an example of your intentions."

"I am sorry you were forced to witness that, but I assure you that the alternative was far worse."

There's silence in the room, and Galloway is scribbling on the notepad.

Lennox read the message. "Why did you raid that 'crypt' in Egypt?"

"That place held the bodies of our holy. I could not leave them there. Not knowing what some of your kind would have done with them."

"Can't say I blame you there. You got a name I can use, or is it Nemesis?"

"I would prefer it if you used that designation."

"Okay then Nemesis, Do you have Samual Witwicky?"

"Yes. He and his family are in my custody."

"Why?"

"For their safety."

"You think we can't protect them"

"I know you cannot." Nemesis said, voice low and sad. "That is not an insult to you, but a statement of Fact. By now my fellow travelers will have told you where we came from, believe me when I say you are not the best guardians at this time."

"Okay, okay that's understandable." Lennos saw Eps come into the room then, and a note pad of his own that had 3 questions on it.

"I gotta know, will we be seeing time travelers anymore?"

"No. No others have the capability to travel as I have. You need not fear others following us."

"So you have others with you?"

"A crew of 27. Not including those who surrender to me."

"Why let them surrender when you could have just wiped them out."

"The future needs more than mindless fighters. Those intelligent enough to take the warning are worth giving a chance to."

"You're not worried they could be a risk to us?"

"I know they won't be."

Lennox didn't ask what he meant, instead he asked Eps last question. "Are you claiming the land yours as yours?"

"Yes."

"People won't be happy about that."

"People will get used to it. This land is useless to humans, but perfect for Cybertronian needs."

"So I've been told."

"Ah yes, You have my old second with you."

"You mean BumbleBee?"

"Yes. Tell me, did they survive the journey well?"

"So far as we know."

"Good. Good. Despite what they believe, I am glad they are well."

"So, you wanna start arranging a meet up? I know a lot of folks wanting to speak with you."

"And I shall speak with them shortly. But It will be on my terms, not theirs." his voice lowered, "Or your's."

Galloway scribbled again, and Lennox said, "What would it take to get the first meeting?"

"You have nothing of use to me. But I will see to it you are given the same respect as the rest of this world's governments."

"Well I suppose that'll have to be good enough."

"It will. No, I must attend to other matters. I hope that we speak again soon."

The phone went dead and the room fell silent.

Galloway was the one to break it.

"Shit."

Chapter Text

His mother had thrown a fit when he'd had to go for his medical appointment, but eventually had calmed down enough to let him leave. Though he knows she was likely worrying herself sick. His Dad had been silent, but his eyes had been full of fear and Sam hatred that they were having to go through something like this again. This was supposed to be the beginning of their big adventures, not some crazy alien trauma.

Buit Sam needed to know more as well. BNee was good at calming his nerves, but he wasn't a doctor or medic. He didn't have the knowledge or skills to help.

So he sat in the medical bay awaiting Nemesis' arrival, watching as KnockOut watched screens and dealt with tiny devices.

Eventually Sam asked, "Am I supposed to be able to feel everyone?"

KnockOut looked over his shoulder at Sam. "How so?"

"Like a weird, vague 'someones there' feeling." Sam said as he sat on the med table, legs swinging slightly. "I've talked to Bee about it. He's helped explain it a little, but is it normal for even you guys to feel people across the ship."

"Depends on a bots job. Security and intel mechs often have permission to monitor people."

"How is that supposed to feel?"

KnockOut looked at Sam properly before taking a moment to think about it. "Well, I guess it's normally just location. Unless that mech is a threat of some kind. Why does something feel off?"

"I don't know." Sam said. I'm not exactly used to any of this yet, so how am I supposed to know if it's wrong."

"Well, I could attempt to piggy back your senses. I'm not sure if it will work though, considering you're organic."

"Piggy back?"

"I meld my field with yours as you 'sense' them."

"Have you done that before?"

"It's not uncommon. Sometimes medics need to get a feel for what might be wrong with the mech's systems."

Sam was about to answer when Nemesis entered the room, looking mildly annoyed.

"Everything okay?"

"Yes. Just a little trouble with a few of the new mechs."

"What kind of trouble?"

"Standard rivalries. I've only had to place one on lockdown though."

"Do I know him?" KnockOut asked.

Nemesis tilted his head, "Maybe. Have you ever met a mech called Draft?"

"Bladed Flyer?"

"Yes."

"Bluish in colour, seems to be a fan of decals?"

"No."

"Not the same one then. But I may be wrong. I'll visit him later if you wish."

"That would be appreciated." Nemesis turned to Sam then, "How are your parents?"

"Tired, scared and worried." Sam answered.

"Understandable under the circumstances. I thought I should tell you I have spoken with Lennox. He knows you are here, and that I plan for you to remain so."

Sam stared at him. "Why are you telling me this? Isn't this something you should be keeping hush hush?"

"I don't see why." Nemesis sat down, "What is happening today?"

"Well, Sam was just telling me he thinks he's feeling something out of the ordinary. So I'm going to see if I can find anything strange before we move forward with the next test and infusions." KnockOut explained. "I don't have to explain a piggyback, do I?"

Nemesis shook his head. "No, I'm aware of them."

"I'm not. Is this gonna be invasive or anything like that?"

"I'll be using the medical port on your neck to instigate a connection, before widening my EM field to encompass yours." KnockOut explained, “I will be using a fine wire connection, which shouldn’t hurt. If it does, you tell me immediately. In fact, I want you to explain what you are feeling as I do the connection, it should give me a better baseline for future treatment expectations.”

Sam nodded, hoping he was hiding his nerves well. The idea of a physical connection being made freaked him out, but it wasn't like he had any other choice. He needed to know what was happening to him.

"Okay then, undo the back of the robe so I can have access."

Sam did so, the fabric parting and then he felt the massive form behind him. The fingers were careful, delicate. Warm metal fingers lightly curled about him, and a thumb touched his back to stabilize him.

"I'm about to release the fine fibres, hold as still as you can and tell me what you feel." KnockOut said. A soft click and the sound of movement and Sam jolted a little when something very light ghost over his back, moving up along his spine to the medical device.

Sam licked his lips, "Something feels warm." He said.

"That's the contact activation. Nothing has been properly connected yet. I'm about to insert the first fibre. In 3, 2, 1-"

The sensation was barely there, a tickle but not quite.

"There's sensation." Sam said. "Not sure how to describe it."

"Good or bad?"

"Neutral."

Nemesis grabbed a seat and came closer, eyes darting between Sam and KnockOut. He said nothing.

"Next Fibre going in 3, 2, 1-"

"Oh, weird. Not bad, just an odd pulling sensation."

"One moment." KnockOut said. "Nemesis, could you pass me that blue pad please."

Nemesis did, and KnockOut looked at it. "Okay, that's your muscles system reacting. Can you feel anything now?"

"No."

"Involuntary connective reaction." KnockOut said. "Next connection in 3, 2, 1-"

"Nothing." Sam said. "Is it in?"

"I think there's a human joke I could make here." KnockOut said, voice amused and light.

Sam snorted and resisted the urge to shake his head. "Why does a robot need to know filthy jokes?"

"It pays to be well versed in other species' humour. Puts people at ease."

"I can't imagine the Autobots making dirty jokes."

"That I refuse to believe. Even Prime knows a couple so good. But you need to know the difference between a Quintason and a Florraltinan to get it."

Sam glanced over at Nemesis "Now I know you lying"

KnockOut moved his thumb down to the small of Sam's back and pushed lightly, "Arch you back a little. You can let your head rise if it makes it easier."

"There's a joke there too" Nemesis said, and Sam stared open-mouthed. He nearly said Optimus, but switched to a scandalised, "Prime!"

He laughed and then KnockOut gave a warning of another connection. “3, 2, 1-”

Sam’s vision whited out for a second and he jolted.

“Blind, I went blind there.”

Nemesis was on his feet and beside him, all traces of humour gone. “Any pain?”

“No, just got a shock then. Not a blinding white, just…like someone put a sheet of paper in front of my vision.”

"That's okay, another system jolted. Your biological body is going to have those kinds of reactions. Your body is fine, baseline functions are all working." KnockOut said, voice calm and measured. "Are you feeling any other weird sensations?"

"No. No." Sam said.

Nemesis stayed where he was, his eyes on KnockOut. "You're certain this is safe."

"Yes. Now I'm about to extend my EM field. You'll feel that, but I want you to tell me what it feels like."

"Okay."

Alright. in 3, 2, 1-"

The sensation was like walking into a pressurized room. Like when his school visits the science of flight museum and they had to go through a special set of double doors that kept the pressure high for the specialist instruments. It was a blink and you'll miss it moment, and once over he could feel KnockOut. It felt like he was there beside him, but there was something else. Like the overwhelming presence of him.

"Okay, I'm going to open up the connection, I'll do my best to guide you in this. We'll stretch out your senses to see the limit. If at anypoint you feel tired or weak, tell me."

"Okay." Sam said, "Let's do this."

It was weird. He could feel a mild push, like what happened with Nemesis in the tomb. But this was an all encompassing feeling. This was more like an arm around the shoulder guiding him.

He felt Nemesis first. The field was tucked up tight, but there was enough to know there was worry there. Outside the door were some who were annoyed but not angry. Two mechs were a floor down, appearing to be carrying stuff and another was above them, working on something.

As each Mech was enveloped in his range, Sam noticed a small difference. One ‘looked’ bluer than the others, some were nearly orange. A couple were flaring purple, and he felt KnockOut guide him away, amusement in his field. They reached a long line of personal quarters and Sam felt everyone mech, and he felt dizzy.

He said so, and Knockout pulled him back.

“Okay, I’ve seen everything I need.” KnockOut said, pulling Sam back.

“What is it?” Nemesis asked.

“It would seem as though Sam is picking up more than a general EM field and close range emotions sense. It's far deeper and individual with each mech.”

"Is that bad?"

"No. Might be a little embarrassing for some. You see we get a general fee for emotions through fields, but if people don't want us to feel it, they won't. But you Sam, you appear to be able to look into the deeper emotions. With time you'll learn to not see them. But for now, try and keep your senses tucked in."

Sam stared at him a moment. "Is that why you took me away from the purple guys. Were they having a private conversation or-"

Knockout laughed and shook his head, and Sam felt heat prickle his face. "Oh. Oh . I -" he looked away. "I didn't know you guys could- I mean I guess if you have relationships there's gonna be-"

"How about we save this conversation for another time. "

"Oh god yes." Sam said, "So, How do I learn to not end up being a perv to you guys?"

"That we can discuss later. It'll honestly be tricky, since your species isn't normal psychic or empathic enough to be intrusive. I think if you don't go looking for these connections you'll be okay."

Nemesis was looking at him with an unreadable look.

"I'm going to disconnect now. Once again I want you to tell me if anything feels weird." KnockOut said.

TRID TRID TRID TRID TRID

“A British ship just broke the line and is advancing.”

“Why the hell in the uk-”

“England. Separate Nation sir.”

Lennox kept his temper as he marched to Ratchet, who was waiting to speed him to the dock.

“Why hasn't anyone stopped them?”

“Because it's got a shield sir. Alien origin.”

England has alien tech.Great, just great. Lennox jumped into Ratchet and they were on their way. One of the good things about the autobot was that they were faced faster and safer than an earth vehicle.

"I'm getting sick and tired of all these surprises." Lennox said.

"You're not the only one. I'm not sure how many more revelations I can handle." Ratchet said.

They got to the dock and there was a full battalion ready to go, weapons out and Lennox knew they wouldn't be worth much against alien shielded opponents. but they were something.

"Okay, be ready to have everyone fall back. I want a full evacuation ready should this go south." he ordered once he was on the ground. "Have the civilians begun the safety-"

"They're already being funneled into the safe zones." Ratchet said, "We have two strike teams up in the hills awaiting orders."

"Good."

Not far away SideSwipe appeared, and Galloway stepped out, looking ruffled. It would have been funny if it wasn't such a dire situation.

The ship was old, but still moves pretty fast. Too fast. Lennox had a bad feeling sweep over him and he looked up at Ratchet.

"Please tell me that's a normal Ship."

"Can't tell. Shielding is good. Old though. Incredibly old." Ratchet tilted his helm.

The ship[ slowed and docked far smoother than any ship should, and the side opened out and a car came out, immediately transforming into a bot that SideSwipe recognised.

"Holy hell, HotRod?"

"You know him?"

"Yeah, he went missing a long time ago. I thought he was dead."

"Obviously not." Galloway said.

Two more beings were descending the ship's gangplank and Lennox had to take a moment to realize he wasn't seeing things. An old man and a ....

"That is the smallest Mech I have ever seen." SideSwipe said, and stared at the being who wasn't much taller than a human. "Who is that?"

"CogMan. Be careful with him, he's got a temper."

Lennox and Galloway stared at HotRod, but it was Rachet who asked, "Why the frag do you have a french accent."

Chapter Text

Sir Edmund Burton had a list of titles as long as Lennox's arm, and a political reach that wasn't very big. But his personal connections were vast and beyond belief.

Galloway had them sitting in one of the comfier meeting halls. When Eps had asked why, Galloway had told him that the old man's connections and tech meant that they couldn't risk him having something dangerous just waiting for a secret signal.

CogMan stood with them, close to the old man. It Was weird being near a bot so close to them in size. He stood, quiet and dignified as they tried to get a handle on each other.

“Okay Sir Burton, explain how you know of the Autobots.” Galloway asked.

“Cybertronians. I believe that it would be better to view them as a whole.” Beurton said. “I know of them because my family has held their secrets since they met the ancestors of the WitWicccan family.”

Eps looked at Burton with confusion. "You mean WitWicky."

"The bastardized americanization of the name. A very old, and very important name." CogMan said and lifted a device up, "I believe you know what this is."

"I do." Optimus said and took it, eyes amazed, "I had thought I would never see something like this again."

Lennox grew curious. "What is it?"

"This is a Holographic Data Unit." Optimus said. "I have seen one in...Primus cycles." There was a soft element of Optimus's voice, as though he was holding a real memory in his hand. He came out quickly though. "Is it coded?"

"No. All you have to do is activate it."

Optimus slid his hand over the device's surface before he pressed something, and the device lit up. Light bloomed and coalesced into shapes,

"Since we humans cannot speak Cyodex, I'll translate." Sir Burton said.

The light showed 12 beings, standing in a circle.

"The Twelve were defenders of the Staff. An item of Power that they both covered and protected. It was taken from a being known as Quintessa, who once had power over the Cybertronian race."

The image played out a battle, the twelve against ones, being huge and eldritch in shape. They eventually won, and escaped. Their ship takes them through a star field, until they come to a planet. A familiar planet.

"Why is it always earth?" Lennox asked.

The ship lands, and people come, curious and fearful. Many run, but one boy stays, curiosity outweighing his trepidation. He stands, tiny and ridiculous before the Knights.

"They came and settled in England, and became allies with those who lived there. They trusted in One man, who was entrusted with the power of the staff. A staff that was given a new name." Sir Burton said. "The Staff of Merlin."

This boy grows into a man, and he comes seeking help for his king. And who is facing a battle he cannot win without help. Man rides to thems, begs for help, and they give it.

They combine, bodies twisting and curling into each other. Necks ris and heads are revealed, snacking and snarking as wings sprout and the new being screams its fury into the air.

"Dragons." Eps said. "Holy shit, They became dragons."

"Are you joking?!?!" Galloway said, "You're actually saying that a fairy story is real."

"Not a fairy story. But those people had no knowledge of aliens or science as we know it. They saw being made of metal, with power unknown and unexplainable, and what else were they to call it but magic?" Burton said, "Merlin was only human, and in time passed on. He was entombed upon the Knights ship with the Staff, and they buried themselves beneath the waves."

"Is this staff a danger to us?" Ratchet asked.

"Not right now. Maybe never. But it is not the reason for this visit, it's the fact that the Order of WitWiccans has known and helped you kindly for centuries now. We know of you kings history on earth, and have tech that was bought by both the Knights and those who were sent to us over the years to maintain the alliance. It has not always been easy, and exposure to some of the tech has had some....less than pleasant side effects. But We come here to share what we know with hopes of securing long term friendship and survival."

"Not right now. Maybe never. But it is not the reason for this visit, it's the fact that the Order of WitWiccans has known and helped you kind for centuries now. We know of you kinds history on earth, and have tech that was bought by both the Knights and those who were sent to us over the years to maintain the alliance. It has not always been easy, and exposure to some of the tech has had some....less than pleasant side effects. But We come here to share what we know with hopes of securing long term friendship and survival."

“What kind of side effects?”

“Oh, mild forms of madness. I can give you more later,, but for now I think verifying our story is more important.”

Lennox rubbed his face and then looked up at Optimus, “He's not wrong. We need more proof than him having tech.”

CogMan spoke then, “I can supply that, as can HotRod.”

TRID TRID TRID TRID TRID

The liquid was pearlescent, thick and slow flowing. Sam watched it as it slowly dripped in the IV. 100cc of it had seeped into his bloodstream, and Sam tried to figure out the monitors. He was pretending to read a magazine he'd been given, but was really watching the monitors. He had no clue what they were saying, but KnockOut was happy and Nemesis had been convinced to go and work at one of the stations.

So Sam sat, trying not to be bored senseless until there was a beep at the door.

KnockOut didn't look up, but did say, "Is this important?"

"Yeah, my kids have been gone for hours and I wanna make sure he's not being Prob-i will not calm down when my baby boy is in there!"

Sam groaned and couldn't help the laughter that came out of him. "You may have to go speak with her. She will not stop until she gets in."

Nemesis shook his head and stood. "I'll speak with her."

They watched him go and Sam put the magazine down. "So I think you're about to meet my Mom. Be prepared for a crazy lady."

"I have been warned." KnockOut said and came over, "I think we can allow a short visit."

"Mrs WitWicky wait!" Nemesis said, and Sam shook his head in amusement.

"Do you think there's a choice?" Sam watched as his mother darted into the room, and Nemesis tried not to tread on her. Not far behind was Simmons, who was looking annoyed but kept pace.

"I tried to talk her out of it but she is not someone you can't reason with."

Nemesis nodded and deflated a little as he gave up trying to coral the woman.

"Sammy? Oh thank god." she spotted him and looked around for a way up, spotting the stairs and racing up them. "Jesus, that was a trek. Though the Bots here are very polite. Well, not the big silver one with the weird shoulders, he was kind of a jerk. But mostly they were helpful."

KnockOut didn't let her brashness shock him, instead he gave what Sam assumed was a charming for a bot smile and introduced himself.

"Med ic KnockOut. I'm treating Sam. And I'm giving you ten minutes before I kick you out of here."

"Well why has he been here so long? What are you pumping into him?"

"This is a bolstering solution to help his cells structure."

"Any side effects."

"Tiredness and increased appetite." KnockOut explained, "Maybe some sore muscles."

Simmons caught up and asked "Why?"

"As I said, it's a bol-"

"Bolstering solution, but why do his cells need bolstering? What's wrong with them?"

KnockOut gave Simmons a look. "Well, it stops the heightened Energy in his system from causing cells to break down. As we said. Another Timeline Sam had to go through quite a lot to get the energy reduced to safe levels and we can't actually duplicate that here, so we'll be using a bolstering solution."

Judy looked at the liquid, eyes narrowed, "What was the other option?"

"Your son dies and gets revived by an alien technology that won't activate without massive sacrifice."

She looked up at him, then at her son. "You know what the solution sounds like the better option."

“Heya kid, you doing okay here.” Simmon asked, whilst Jud fussed over him. The IV didn’t look like a normal needle, but her son wasn’t in any pain so she wasn’t going to say anything yet.

“Good. Little bored but others are fine.”

“Are you saying that cos you want to or cos you have too?” Simmons watched Sam’s face carefully, and then at Nemesis’s glare. “I spent decades learning when people are lying, and I know how authorities can get people to say what they want. So I'm asking, You okay kid>”

Sam nodded, “Yeah, I’m good."

For all the goofiness of the man, Sam forgot that he had been a secret government agent for most of his life. Simmons likely did know shit that Sam could never understand. He likely did know if Sam yeses and nos were coerced or real.

"Everything happening here is for Sam's own good. I would not permit anything else."

Simmons said nothing, but there was a look in his eyes

Judy butted in then and began nattering about when Sam could come back to their room, or how long he would need to have these treatments for. The ten minute visit beacham theory and KnockOut had to insist they leave so he could complete the day's final set of treatments.

TRID TRID TRID TRID TRID

Judy didn't like leaving her kid behind, but she had no other option but to trust that Sam would be with them again shortly.

They walked in silence, passing a few mechs who gave them curious gazes, but otherwise ignored them. They were on a moving platform when Judy finlay asked, "Was Sam telling the truth?"

Simmons was silent for a moment. "Yes. He's not being made to lie to us."

"You think something else is going on though."

"I don't think you're ready to hear what I have to say."

At any other time Judy would think Simmons was trying to be mysterious and cool, but she knew that this wasn't the time for it.

"Tell me, please."

"I think that they are trying to help Sam. That what they are doing is designed to make sure he survives whatever the allspark did to him. "

"But?"

"One of my men once broke his arm in two places. They set it wrong and the only way to fix it was to break it again. His arm works fine, but he got some gnarly looking scars to show for it. He keeps them covered up as much as he can. Doesn't look good, but it shows he got better. And watching the treatment happen, you wouldn't think they were doing good."

"What's that got to do with my son?" Judy could feel her throat tightening.

"I'm saying that what they are doing to help may not look like help in our eyes. And by the end of it, Sam may end up being someone else's version of okay."

"Is that a good or a bad thing?"

"I don't know. But I think we need to keep a real close eye on the kid."

Chapter Text

Ratchet was still laughing when IronHide arrived, and HotRod looked monumentally annoyed about it. "

"I 'ave come 'ere for 'elp, can you vix this of not?"

IronHid raised a brow and Ratchet got a hold of himself. "Yeah, yeah. I'm guessing you've already done the standard reboots and troubleshoots?"

"of course, eet weres ze first ving I tred."

Suddenly IronHide understood what had happened.

"Has your language matrix been stuck like this? Is that why you're talking like that?"

"I vas 'elping 'viv' a translation en battle an vas struck by morter. Zince ven I 'ave bin stuck speeking like vis."

"Was CogMan unable to help?"

"CogMay is so old 'is insides are clockwork and pulleys." HotRod said, "He vinks I do vos on purpose."

IronHide did a much better jo than Ratchet keeping his face straight. "Plenty of Bots have gotten themselve stuck with a language glitch due to a battle injury. Kup once stuck nothing but Junkion for a cycle cos his helm got blasted."

Ratchet motioned for HotRod to lift his head, so he did and shifted his plating to allow Ratchet access to his inner port. A moment later they were connected and Ratchet made several noises that Hot Rod didn't like."

"Wow. That is an interesting little bug you got there."

"Can you vix eet?"

"Yes. but it will take a little while. The coding that is working here is a twisted little thing. I'll have to copy it and run a detangle on it on a safe server."

"'ow long?"

"Couple of days, maybe a week or two. We're a little busy right now."

"I can vait. I 'ave 'ad vis dacades, I can managed avew more veeks."

"I'll make sure he does kid. That accent is already getting on my sensors."

"Try leeving viv eet."

Ratchet disengaged and went over to a computer, uploading the code and putting it on the big screen.

IronHide didn't know much about medic stuff beyond how to stop an energon bleed and how to reattach a minor joint but this code was a doozy. Even the uneducated would be impressed by how fragged up it was.

“Well, looks like you might get a condition named after you.” Ratchet said.

“Merde.”

TRID TRID TRID TRID TRID

Killing the Fallen was not going to be an easy task, but it was one Megatron would have to try and succeed in if he wished to move forward. The Mistake to follow him was regrettable but rectifiable, and as he made his way through the ship, Megatron saw bots hiding away.

One of them was carrying several tiny hatchlings, each undeformed and weak. If Megatron had had anything left of his pity he would have felt something close to it now. They shouldn't exist, but The Fallen had demanded they be created in preparation for the use of the Enegron harvester. But that seemed to be a dream now. Or at least the enegeron it promised was. Intel spoke of another source. One that Megatron hoped to take control of.

But for now he had more important things to think of.

He went to the brigde of the ship first, where he activated several backup systems and did all the appropriate things needed to get the ship moving, and no one would notice the tiny worm or a virus he introduced. And with any luck no one, not even its victims, would see it coming.

Speaking of the Fallen, Megatron knew he should show his face. He was not looking forward to this interaction, but he had no choice. To leave without speaking with his teacher would be to invite suspicion. And he couldn't have that now.

The inner 'throne' room was being fixed and set right by drowns, the tiny things darting too and throwing as they worked to put right what the Fallen had destroyed in his anger.

"Well, have you found anything useful?"

"The Fallen asked, voice low and full of false calm."

"The fake Prime has sent an invitation to any who would seek protection in exchange for obedience. Some of our men have accepted. I know some among them are there under orders to spy and feed us information."

"And when will that gambit give us something useful?"

"Soon.”

The Fallen stood, slowly so he wouldn’t dislodge the power cables that allowed him to function without the slag that passed for fuel they had.

"Do you think I'm a fool, Megatron?"

"Megatron rearranged his plating to protect his most important parts and waited, and sure enough in a flash of speed that none would expect from a being so old and decrepit and had his claws in Megatron's throat. Claws tore and pierced but were not deadly. No, Fallen did not wish to kill him yet.

"You had better hope that this gives us something useful, because this new mech may be a better option as an apprentice, considering that in one day he has done more to dominate this pitiful planet that you have managed in the centuries you were there."

Warnings flashed in Megatron's mind and he ignored them.

"He has destroyed our army, willed them to his side and holds the key to a god's power. Best you show your worth Megatron, lest you prove insufficient."

The Fallen dropped him and Megatrong did not rise until the bot was seated again.

"I will endeavor to prove myself, my liege."

Megatron moved slowly, not wanting to appear to be running but knowing that in the Fallens eyes he was. All the tryan could do was wait for the message that the next stage of his plan was ready.

TRID TRID TRID TRID TRID

Ron had awoken to find his wife missing and had been furious, but before he could go off in search of her she returned, with Simmons in Tow.

"Your wife is crazy." the agent said and flopped into a seat. “No survival instinct, None.”

“Judy, what the hell are you trying to do, you're going to get yourself killed!”

“I had to see him, Ron. I don’t like not knowing what's happening to my boy.”

“And what is happening?” Mikeala asked, "Is he okay?"

"Yeah. They're giving him some kind of cell treatment. Said it would stop him from getting weak or something. It's all alien mumbo jumbo." Judy froze then and looked up at Bee, "Crap, was that racist? That sounded racist."

Bees shook his head and smiled, "No, lots of mechs think medics speak in riddles on purpose. Make themselves sound smarter." This wasn't a lie, sometime Ratchet seemed to be showing off when he spouted off a million different technical terms in a matter of minutes.

"Well when will they be done?" Ron asked.

"Couple of hours, maybe sooner if Sam doesn't show any side effects." Simmons said, and sighed, "Now that we've ascertained the kids' well -being, can we talk about our own? Because I'm gonna start going crazy if we stay cooped up here, and we do have permission to travel the ship."

Bee shook his helm, "I don't know. I don't trust the mechs here. Some have only been here a few hours and were active combative decepticons yesterday. I can't trust them not to hurt you guys."

"So we don't leave without you? Because I just proved that I very much can." Judy said.

Leo piped up then, "Maybe no going out alone. The buddy system."

"Two humans against a cybertronian isn't much of an equal fight."

Leo shook his head, "Nah nah nah man. Growing up me and my buds would have the runner. Someone started messing with us, one of us would run to get help."

"Where the hell did you grow up?"

"Oh, no, we were a Larping group and we got a lot of people trying to start stuff."

“Well, I don’t want to be stuck in one room for the duration. Plus we may actually learn stuff if we head out.” Mikeala said. “I mean the socialising area was sort of safe.”

Bee nodded. “Yeah. But I reserve the right to pull us back here if anything happens.”

“That's a rule I can live with.” Simmons said. “Though where the hell should we go?”

“Not many places. Couple of socializing areas, a few outdoor areas. There’s the solar farming area that looks like it's going to be a nice walking area.” Bee said. Thought the heat could be a problem. Not to mention not knowing the local-” Bee looked at them with alarm, “Don’t humans need injections to travel to places like this? Inoculations against disease and that stuff.”

Ron paled, “Oh crap. Are we safe here? Do we need a hospital or something?”

Bee thought about it. “Frag it.”

TRID TRID TRID TRID TRID

"So what kind of Mutations am I gonna get?"

KnockOut and Nemesis looked at him, and at each other.

“Nemesis said it was bad for the other timeline. I wanna know what I could be facing. I think I deserve to know the medical stuff.

Nemesis nodded, eyes sad, “You do deserve to know.”

He tried to think of the best way to phrase what came next, when KnockOut came to his rescue.

"I can explain it in a purely medical way if you like."

Sam looked between Nemesis and KnockOut, then nodded, "That sounds good."

"Nemesis has likely already explained who had gotten hold of you, and given you an idea of the experiments performed. But medical changes began happening before your death was faked."

"What kind of changes?"

"Mild headaches, odd cravings and energy field changes. If you had remained close to the autobots, they would have noticed. Which is likely why you were taken. The early reports we have on your treatment began with observation and basic testing and samples. The human scientists didn't want to risk losing their only subject so did not attempt anything life threatening. They needed to know everything that was happening to you, and they used multiple surgical and invasive techniques to do so."

Sam was grateful that KnockOut didn't go into detail, "What were the changes they saw?"

"As we said, electrical activity within the body increased dramatically. You began producing a mild radiation that mimicked the AllSparks. You began suffering from weakness and wasting, but this was solved when the doctors realised why you'd been craving those non biological materials. The allspark energy needed them. Once introduced to your system the wasting began to fix itself. But your body still had its problems as the immune system tried to fight the allspark energy as it tried to fix you."

Sam looked at the IV again, and then down at his hands, "So does that bolstering stuff act like a conductor or insulator or something?"

KnockOut smiled. "Smart boy, it does. The Allspark energy will be incorporating it into your cells and protecting them."

"And incorporating means?"

"It means that your body is being augmented in order to survive. As I said, your body would have done it on its own, but it would have been a long and painful process. By giving your body," KnockOut pointed to the IV, "what it needs now, we can bypass some of the more harmful side effects. And since we aren't going to be trying to force your body to do as we want, the progression should be far more natural."

"Nataural?" Sam shook his head. "Nothing natural about this."

"If we could stop this we would Sam." KnockOut said, "But you have to understand this is the first time AllSpark energy has latched on to a biological being. This has never happened like this before. The energy either has no effect or it kills them. You are an anomaly."

“How human am I gonna be at the end of this?” Sam didn’t like the pause he got. “You don’t know, do you?”

Chapter Text

SkyWarp hated council meetings. It was just them listening to Megatron rant and Starscream snipe. Amusing at times, but eventually got tiring when all they wanted to do was figure out what their next step was.

This one wasn't like that.

StarScream kept his snide remarks to a minimum, and he didn't argue with Soundwave once throughout the meeting. Megatron listened more than he had done in Vorns. It felt almost like the early days of the war, when they had a sense of comradery amongst the leadership.

"SoundWave verifies that none of the AutoBots knew of the attack beyond the same warning that was given to us."

"And do we have a solid number on those who heeded the warning?" Megatron asked.

"Not yet. But we have audials within the group, we merely have to wait to hear from them."

"I suggest we send out sniper drones. Not to attack, but to survey. They are undetectable in flight mode, and though their camera capabilities are more scope based than landscape, they will provide us with some surveillance until a better option comes along."

Megatron nodded. "Do it. Send them to this Nemesis stronghold and the Autobots island."

"And what are we to do about those who escaped the moon?"

Megatron went silent for a moment. "Though I am incensed they would run, the power shown by our opponent is formidable. To ignore a warning given by him was a mistake many have paid for."

"What are our numbers right now?"

StarScream scowled, "We've lost a third of our men. We have seven solid battle battalions and 150 mechs available for standard attacks. Everyone else is at least 2 metacycles away."

"Can SkyWarp do anything about that?"

"Negative." SoundWave said, "His warp capabilities are mostly batlle and trine travel specific. We could risk losing valuable assets in battle if we over tax him."

Megatron shook his head. "I want a 60/40 split of our heavy hitters. We want 60% in reserve in case we have to retreat from this planet."

ThunderCracker glanced over at StarScream, but the look he got told him to stay silent.

After reclaiming Megatron, the big plan had been finding the Cube and creating purely Decepticon loyal mechs.

That hadn't gone well. Not only had the Cubes energy been impossible to properly control without Primes and Apostles, and the resulting mechs were downright deranged. Marely mechanimals levels of sentience and running one cube energy that would have dissipated over time, and with real energon to sustain them, would have lasted less than a vorn. ThunderCracker felt bad for the poor things. They could have taken the Cube as a trophy, but all it would do was remind the faithful of the loss of life and the taking up space and resources to guard that could be used elsewhere.

Don't get ThunderCracker wrong, if people still wished to believe in the old ways and faith kudos to them, but ThunderCracker had never really put much thought into it. They were machines, having deities and gods seemed a little weird but who knew aht the universe held. He kept his mouth shut and his opinions to himself.

The rest of the meeting was spent divvying out responsibilities and streamlining what they had to do next, which seemed to be gathering intel and waiting.

TRID TRID TRID TRID TRID

The tiny bot that had spent the past decade circling the solar system had been thinking. Not much else to do out in the vastness besides listen to radio and television signals. Sometimes he gets a message, sometimes he responds. But mostly its quiet.

He’d been expecting a message from a particular mech since settling into orbit around this world. When you funneled info, you got good at predicting what was to come. And it had become obvious that things were going to go very wrong on earth.

Cosmo couldn’t flat out tell people, because they would either refuse to believe him or accuse him of being in communication with…..unsavory type. But the fact was he’d saved countless lives by keeping those connections. He didn’t agree with the politics of his source, but they agreed on one thing.

Miscommunication would destroy them all. If people just sat down and actually talked to each other, most of the time things worked out. Cosmo often wondered what would have happened if Optimus and Mergatron were forced into a room, unable to fight and left alone for a few cycles. Would they eventually come to an accord? Or would they part fiercer enemies than before?

Who knew.

Folding his solar panels, Cosmos tilted his axis and turned himself towards the earth. He’d been out here so very long, and tyo be frank he was getting sick of it. Under appreciated and ignored unless seen as a last resort, he wondered why he even bothered anymore.

Maybe he should take that Nemesis up on his offer. Get out of the war and actually try to live his life. No more lonely vorns floating in space, settle down and enjoy some peace. Earth was actually a nice little world. He’d seen a lot of bad, but to remember the good all he had to do was look through the endless videos and messages between loved ones and friends. Pictures of people beaming with pride over children, videos of tottering first steps. Reunions and cats and parties and simple moments caught on cctv. Life is thriving and growing and Cosmo would very much like to be part of it.

He came to a decision, then he calculated his co-ordinates. Blasting his ending, he picked up speed and let inertia carry him.

TRID TRID TRID TRID TRID

His muscles ached. Like when you got the flu, and Sam wasn't sure if he should complain about it. He rolled over and groaned, forcing himself to sit up. His stomach felt tight and his mouth dry, so he reached over to the side table to grab some water. He drained the bottle, and stood. He felt dizzy, but made himself walk.

The 'kitchen' was empty, and he grabbed juice before KnockOut's voice reminded him to drink the protein drinks as often as was comfortable.

"Your body needs the calories right now." the bot had said. “Add one of the additive packets I’ve given you and that should help satiate you.”

So Sam grabbed a strawberry shake, and the additive and shook it up and downed half of it in one go before he went in search of aspirin.

Before he could take it, he stopped. Was it safe to take them?

He thought for a moment, and then went back to his 'room' where he found the intercom and stared at it for several minutes before he pressed the code he'd been given.

KnockOut answered nearly immediately. "Everything okay kid?"

"Ye-no. I woke up achy as hell. Is it safe to have aspirin or should I wait this out."

"Explain as best you can."

"The aches are like when I have the flu."

"So a possible immune response. I'm going to access the monitor. Let me know if it feels weird."

Sam braced himself but felt nothing.

"Okay Sam, it looks as though you're getting an immune response . Its safe to take aspirin. If you are still in pain in an hour, I'll see about getting you something stronger."

Sam wasn’t sure if that worried him or not. He took the aspirin and went back to bed, turning on the tv screen to have something to distract him whilst the aspirin toon effect.

He worried that it might not. Everything he’d learned so far had left him scared of what was to come. Nemesis had said they’d done everything they could to ensure his safety and comfort, but would any of it work?

Fear settled in his stomach and the protein shake wasn’t sitting well, but he managed to keep it down.

Eventually others began waking, and he heard a knock on his door. The aspirin had been helpful, so he got up and joined everyone else in the common area. Leo was talking with his Dad, and his mother was at the table setting up breakfast.

“Hey honey. You sleep okay?”

“Yeah. Got up for a protein shake, but KnockOut said increased hunger was a normal thing.”

“Well, I found some actual breakfast packs, so reconstituted frittatas are coming up.”

Bee joined them, sitting at a stool that was perfectly seized and it was kind of nice to see him looking comfortable as he sat with them. No crouching to fit in a garage or stuck in vehicle mode.

“So what are we doing today?” Simmons asked.

“Well KnockOut said he’s seen about getting everyone inoculated against whatever disease you're at risk of out here, and then…well I’ve got no clue. I’ve not been given any jobs, so I guess we'll just hang around.”

Leo pondered for a moment, “Maybe go outside? Check out the solar fields and stuff. Should be safe if we stick to the areas shaded by the ship.”

Be thoughtful about it. "Sounds safe enough."

Sam just listened to them prattle on until his Mom called them over for food.

It was decent and Sam checked the label. For a moment it was nonsense, but something itched in his head and then it made sense. It didn't look like English, but he understood it, and rather than panic he kept eating. Though the protein drink should have kept him going for a while, he was already hungry again.
He wondered if he would gain any weight, and then worried that Mikeala wouldn't like it. Then again, if he came out of this on the heavier side as the only side effect, he'd class himself as lucky.

He wondered if he should tell his parents about his aches, but decided to wait until the evening. The aspirin was doing its job so he could hide it a little while.

TRID TRID TRID TRID TRID

KnockOut needed more materials. The baseline formula for the treatment they were giving Sam was one of the things that Nemesis was keeping close to his chest, adn KnockOut wasn't sure he wanted to know why that was. Most likely because the ingredients weren't something that he would be happy about.

Sometimes KnockOut felt like laughing. He wasn't a good mech, he'd done awful things. But even he had had his limits. And whatever Nemesis was hiding was likely to be one. The fact he was willing to ignore those possible limits was something that played on his mind.

"You need to take a break K.O. You're gonna give yourself a Processor ache."

KnockOut looked over at BreakDown, who was standing next to the berth with a worried loo on his face.

"Once I've filled out this acquisition form I promise to take a moment."

"You said that an hour ago." BreakDown said and came over to him. "You are finishing that now, and then we are going to watch mindless trash for a while."

KnockOut laughed, "What kind of mindless trash."

"Either human housewives screeching at each other or Galaxy Hospital."

The medic groaned. "Why must your torture me with that crap? If I wanted melodrama I'd go to the second floor bar near closing and listen to the lonely sad sacks complain about their failed relationships and gossip."

Breakdown nuzzled against his neck struts. "You love it."

KnockOut finished the request and set it before shutting down the screen and joining his Conjux on the berth, cuddling up and switching on something mindless.

TRID TRID TRID TRID TRID

The request came through and Nemesis knew that this was coming. The final part of the formual was difficult to get, and had to be carefully sourced.

Living metal and ranite samples. When Nemesis had learned this, he'd been sickened, but that did not change the fact that it was a necessary evil. Samples could be taken from the OffLined, and they could revitalise the material. Then it was a case of distilling the element s and transfusing it into the subject.

Nemesis didn't want to risk Sam with subpar materials, afraid of what might be transferred, so he gave the past of himself. With a proper diet could regrow the materials he took from himself. The purest and most protected parts had been chipped away at. It had been painful but worth it to know Sam would be getting the best he could provide. It seemed fitting that the first and deeper seated materials would help to see Sasm through this. A constant reminder and connection to Nemesis. But there was a chance that he would need more than Nemesis could safely give. So He'd racked his brain to figure out who or what else could be used.

And he'd realized the purest of Prime Material were available once he tracked down those who'd hidden away the matrix.

He'd meant what he said about keeping those bodies safe. They were a part of their history, sacred and godly. WHat better donor to provide what was needed?

Once The Primes had arrived, Nemesis had moved quickly. At first he had been worried the age of the remains would leave them completely inert, but between the shard and the matrix he had, they had become perfect. Samp[les from the spark chambers and cerebral casing were taken and he had watched as they'd become the perfect infusement. The oldest and kindest of them. Those that had died to keep the Earth and so many other worlds safe.

And enough material to ensure Samual's transition. To ensure his safety.

Nemsis lifted a vile and looked at its contents, and smiled to himself. No matter the hardships to come, he would be here to ensure those he loved survived.