Chapter Text
Your body feels cold, you can't breathe, At least that's what you think, you're not in your five senses at the moment. What happened? Vague memories of the glowing colors and the screams of the autobot team sing in your head painfully, but you're not sure if it's some kind of dream. Your memory is fuzzy, you can't see anything, you are confused. Thoughts come and go in your mind, fast, precise and shorts.
You can't see anything, no darkness, no light. Such is the life of a blind man, you think somehow.
But you can feel... Or something. It's emptiness, like floating in ice water, the kind that numbs your body. It definitely doesn't feel good. Are you dead? Is this what there is after death? Nothing... The thought twists your heart and creates a desperate feeling in your soul.
You don't like it to end like this: no heaven, no hell, no reincarnation, no eternal restart or any of those hundreds of theories. Just nothing in consciousness. You want to cry, but you can't, or at least you don't feel like you can.
Well, you're dead.
You're dead.
You're dead.
You're dead.
You're dead.
The air rushes back into your lungs overwhelmingly, it's painful. Your chest hurts, and your lungs feel strange. Your head aches.
You groan, coughing weakly as you begin to regain your senses as best you can. The cold is just as icy, you're really, really hungry, your whole body aches, and fuck, you're so tired.
You just want to sleep...
Sleep...
"£¢√'~π£^μ..." Your eyes open immediately at the sound of a..... Voice?
You stare in shock at a Cybertronian you don't recognize above you. What, where are you, did the decepticons kidnap you?
Something around your mouth and nose allows you to breathe, It's huge, made of plastic but you can see through it well. There is light, a sky, scenery? Your head hurts and you decide not to strain your eyes anymore.
God, you are so tired...
"π€∆¥£√μ‽~∆!" The mech's sounds alerts you again. He's talking cybertronian or something, you don't manage to understand shit. You move feebly under the luxurious blue and gold mech.
He is hot, the thought crosses your mind along with a little deja vu. His blue optics focus on you momentarily before moving on to someone else, you guess. They talk more, you don't understand anything.
You relax again against your will, your body screaming for a rest. You barely notice any more figures approaching.
Between your slight unconsciousness and trying to recompose your memory, you examine it. You know you won't be awake much longer.
You struggle with your memory.
You've seen it before... You're sure of it. Those colors, those optics, those features. Fuck, fuck, those... Those wings...
Wings?
Golden wings?
Like...
Your heart leaps.
"Sentinel Prime..." The faint, pathetic sound reaches your audio receivers, because he immediately directs a glance towards you, a puzzled look. Don't they understand you? No... No they don't...
Uhg...
You just need a break. You just...
Oh...
Finally, the comforting clutches of the ground catch your mind and your body gives in to exhaustion.
...
The vibrant colors swirled across the cold concrete floor of the base in a gritty image that Optimus presented for you. Despite looking different than what you're used to, the landscape of an old living Cybertron lit up your eyes, the floating buildings and futuristic streets, you could almost feel yourself in the place.
"Wow, this is so cool Optimus, why didn't you show me this before?" your voice echoes in a low murmur that the Prime managed to hear as you wander in the limited space of what looked like sand. "Wow."
"I did not think it was necessary before. But now that your curiosity about our history again has surfaced, I am more than willing to show you." He replied softly from the much higher position. You were always amazed at the size of Optimus and the Cybertronians in general, it was difficult for them to find a place as a base when they arrived on earth (especially one that was comfortable for their 48 foot grandiose leader). No complaints though, the scenery from his shoulder is wonderful.
"This was once Iacon City, as you will see, back then it was full of life and Cybertronians going about their day to day lives as normal. Before I was named a Prime, I worked in the energon mines, collecting fuel for our species." The Prime explained wistfully, looking around at what was once his home.
In between his story, you continue to look at the beautiful scenery, but listen carefully. You know the basics of the story, of course, but you never insisted on knowing more aside from his past as Orion Pax and the current war with Megatron.
Suddenly, the image changes to a different scene: a handsome Cybertronian of ostentatious deep blue and bright gold, confident stance, charming smile, shimmering sea-colored optics along with gleaming golden wings on his back was towering over a cheering crowd, almost praising him.
Optimus was about to speak when you interrupted him with a playful exclamation. "Wow, wow, wow!... Wow! Who is he and why is he so handsome?"
"His name was Sentinel Prime, back then our leader, our hero. We all looked up to him... Until we discovered his foul treachery."
Oh, it's always the handsome ones.
Optimus tells you the story in detail at your clear interest, relating how Sentinel destroyed the other Primes and committed terrible deeds, such as removing the transformation gears from all Cybertronians for his own benefit, forcing them to work cycle by cycle under a lie, where their efforts ended in servos of Quintessons. Sentinel Prime's arrogance is reflected in the way Optimus tells his story, mixed with the sadness of losing his former Megatron.
Sitting, you continue to listen to the long story...
"Sentinel Prime...- Sentinel Prime...- Sentinel Prime..."
The recording looped from the chassis of Airachnid who, of course, had recorded everything. It had been a long time since the universal translator had been so useful to Sentinel, especially in a situation as unique as this one.
"How curious... An organic falls out of the sky seemingly out of nowhere, without any technology, unable to survive without O2, extremely young species and.... It knows me." Sentinel mused, walking around the small being cautiously under the gaze of his guards, who had several weapons at the ready.
Of course, just a few seconds ago he ordered his guards to eliminate her upon finding no use for the (apparent) femme organica, but now.... "Do you think it's some kind of trap?"
Airachnid was about to answer when he answered himself. "Nah, however this is still very.... Peculiar."
His blue optics focused on you before he looked off into nothingness, thinking; His servos hesitated before pointing at his guards. "Keep her alive and pack her up, we're heading back to Iacon."
"Do you plan to take her to Iacon?" Airachnid protested mildly as the guards carefully took the little organic. After all, they could never quite know what an unknown organism was capable of, especially one that appeared out of nowhere.... "What if it's dangerous?"
"I can crush it with a servo and it can't even survive without O2, can die quite easily. Don't question me, Airachnid, stay in your place." Sentinel said with disdain. "I know what I'm doing."
Without further ado, Airachnid grimaced imperceptibly and accepted it, remaining silent.
The Prime ignited the thrusters on his pedes, opening his gold wings to take off followed by the rest of the guards and his now suspicious guest. A tiny organic who knew his name, the thought throbbed in his processor. How does he know his name? Why? How is that possible? Maybe the brief studies were wrong, maybe the tiny being was millions of years older than they thought. Still, he's pretty sure he's never come into contact with such a species. There were very few reasons left for her to know his name, his optics narrowed as his fleet followed the road back to Iacon.
For now, it would be best to keep their new friend a secret.
The pang of consciousness forces you to open your eyes automatically, your sight being greeted by a gigantic and elegant room, clear light illuminates the gold-colored room with white that soon becomes a passage of black dots accompanied by a hard headache. Your hands go to your face to seek relief somehow.
Fucking migraine. "Uhg...!"
You struggle to dispel the clutter of your memories (and the sharp pain), barely making any headway when an unfamiliar cybertronian is the last thing you manage to pull out.
Unknown mech, a groudbridge, pain. The groudbridge sucked you in, yes, and Optimus.... Optimus screamed or something. You get up with a start. Decepticons kidnapped you? Optimus!
"£√π€∆!" The familiarly unfamiliar sound makes you turn your head to the left to be greeted by a wide weapon blowing warm smoke in your now pale face, the carrier is a flying vehicon, you recognize the golden color, though less worn than you remember. You freeze, where are you, is he going to kill you, why?
How are you supposed to fight this. The sound of a door interrupts your thoughts.
"§°£π`Ω£|€√-§£^√£μ!" Again, you understand nothing, but your heart beats painfully at the thought of being a hostage. You see the big deep blue and gold mech enter the room in high spirits, a bright smile on his face and a femme at his side that you definitely recognize.
Airachnid, but she looks different.
You try to speak but can't even open your mouth. The blue mech says something else and signals the smaller one to lower his weapon, who quickly obeys. You're relieved and scared at the same time.
It's him, the one you just remembered, an ally of Megatron probably. But where are you? You don't remember the decepticon base being so nice.
There's some kind of giant glass oxygen concentrator (very clean, you might say) all around you that allows you to see the room, which alarms you more. Why do you need this? Is it even oxygen? They're probably slowly killing you with a toxic cybertronian gas.
Your breathing increases. Oh god, you haven't said goodbye to the autobots, you don't want to die like this. Do they even know? You don't want to pass to the other side without anyone knowing you died or how.
In one swift and alarming movement, the luxuriously painted mech leaps up to your resting place with an exclamation that makes you jump and scream. He looks at you in confusion before opening the optics, walking away, talking to Airachnid about something, and coming back up next to her, now facing the stretcher (?) you're on. Yes, stretcher, you feel the (surprise) golden colored material under your fingers. Seems like these guys really like the color gold....
He speaks again. "Greetings, organic being!" You blink in shock, looking from one side to the other without moving your head. Since when can you understand?....
This is all confusing you too much.
His enthusiastic words impact your head and then melt out of your ear, to which you have no exact response to give him and just stare at him.
He, with his charming face, raises an eyebrow before questioning, "Do you understand me?"
You only manage to nod.
"Oh, you don't want to talk? That's okay, I guess I'll initiate." His voice has a slightly humorous tone to it, he walk calmly back and forth, his stride confident with the servos on his back. "Your arrival has been quite a surprise to all of us, may I say. Your presence is practically impossible, we were surprised that you will manage to live until we found you, which was very fast, haha, you fell from the sky."
His laughter is rich, you think. The words are spoken with a tone of familiarity, as if talking to an old friend, which makes you feel a little more comfortable in the environment. Your thoughts begin to organize and your body finally calms down.
"You're a strange discovery... But getting to the point, what I'd really like to know, little being." Your voice becomes more serious. "How do you know me, how do you know my name?"
You swallow saliva, finding your voice. "...Your name?" You are surprised when you hear yourself in a different language coming from.... Airachnid? Your voice sounds weak, hoarse, barely aware of how dry your throat is.
"Yes, little one, my name. When we found you, you watched me, you uttered it and fell into ecstasy, do you remember?" In between their short explanation, you notice their lips move first before the sound reaches your ears from the femme. Are they using some kind of translator so they can talk to you? That explains why you didn't understand anything before.
But it doesn't explain why the hell they're speaking Cybertronian to you. "Where am I?" Again, your voice comes out as if you don't know the word 'hydration'.
"Don't be hasty, organic, I'd like you to answer my question first." He ordered, stopping in front of you.
You swallow saliva again in a futile attempt to quench your thirst. You don't know what he's talking about, so you again fight a battle to the death with your brain to force it to work.
First it's the cold, the darkness, the feeling of despair and when you thought you were dead; then the pain, the realization, voices and your surroundings, one you don't recognize; thoughts followed, all over again until you focus your memory on the blue mech. There is something repeating in your mind, you know who it is, you knew who it was.
It's on the tip of your tongue. Your tired eyes focus on it, on the present day. His handsome color and long... Wings.
Wings.
The memory with Optimus blooms in your head. "Sentinel Prime?" You hate the sound of your voice.
"That's it! Now, how do you know me?" His voice is still serious, though there's not much difference to your previous tone.
You completely ignore his question as panic and realization begins to invade your entire being. He.... He is Sentinel Prime, the same Sentinel that Optimus showed you in the story, the one who had died millions of years ago, right in front of you, alive and kicking.
Where are you? You jump up, looking around, looking through the glass and getting nothing.
You can't be looking at dead people, no... What's going on? Your breath hitches, where are you? what happened? There's a lump in your throat, where are you? Why is there a cybertronian with thousands of years dead perfectly alive in front of you.
Where are you?
You are afraid.
You need to remember.
...
"Don't get too close to the groudbridge, it's malfunctioning." Elita's voice echoes through the warehouse as she addresses you, firm.
"Malfunctioning, what do you mean?" You question, setting aside your stuff after a long day's work as you address her with a brief muscle stretch.
Elita focuses on the cybertronian computer in front of her, suspended on one of the tall shelves they arranged when they first arrived at what they took as their base. "There's something wrong with it, very wrong. We didn't manage to identify the problem, but it's tried to take Bee with it before, Wheeljack said he'd seen something similar in the past, it's dangerous, but he needed to do some studies first. For now, we can't turn it on or get too close to it, we don't know what would happen to us if it catches us." She sighed. "It turns on only at random times, so we have to be alert."
"Wow, that's too bad." You look at the groudbridge, a shiver running down your back with a bad feeling. "Uh, where's Optimus?"
"Optimus is working together with Wheeljack to find out what's going on with the groudbridge in the lab."
"Lab, thanks. See you later, Elita." You pull back as she waves a servo amicably. You walk through the wide corridors of what was once an industrial warehouse, now the base for a bunch of giant alien robots.
Reaching the lab, you see the backs of Optimus and Wheeljack, both leaning over whatever it is they're looking for. Chromia, farther in the background, reads some papers. You approach, mostly in search of Optimus.
"Hey guys, how's it going?"
Optimus calls out your name in a tired greeting. "We are working hard to solve our problem, I assume Elita has already told you."
"Yeah, she already did, so how are you guys doing with that?" you approach, in response, Optimus lifts you up to sit on his shoulder.
"Hello girl, we're not doing so good." Wheeljack greets you without encouragement. "I know I've seen this before, I'm sure! Maybe in a book or some anecdote? But we can't seem to find anything." He sighed. "This is a critical problem for us, if we don't manage to solve it, we may have to destroy the groudbridge."
"Wait, if they haven't identified the problem yet, how are they so sure it's super serious?" your question floats in the air momentarily before someone's answer stabs the tense little bubble.
"We know what it is... But we do not know why is it happening." Optimus explains slowly and you're a little confused as to why Elita hadn't told you.
"And what is it?"
"We think it is best to keep the length of the problem discreet from the rest of the bots so there is no panic in the base."
You frown. "What is it?"
"Go play with Bumblebee." Without answering, Optimus drops you from his shoulder and ejects you from the lab.
You grumble, accepting it without choice and deciding it was best to simply obey and wait. Playing cards with Bee for a while wouldn't be a bad idea...
Later, you are hanging around the base to stretch your legs. Elita is no longer in the common room, no one is guarding the groudbridge and the lab is closed, although you can see the figures of Optimus and Wheeljack there.
How boring, no one knows what's going on and those who do know don't want to tell you. how bad is it?
You look at the groudbridge, taking a few steps to get closer before redirecting them to your stuff lying in the entrance. Being near that feels like being near a bomb, you think uneasily.
You plan to sleep at the base, but you don't want to disturb Optimus. Maybe spending some time with Arcee wouldn't hurt.
Amidst your thoughts, you don't notice the dangerous white spark that makes its way into the middle of the groudbridge, growing into a web of stellar colors. Making its presence known, the entire base is shaken by a sudden, abrupt rumble that vibrates the ground.
Every hair on your body stands on end in horror. The distant alarmed cries of bots repeating 'it's repeating, move away and refocus!' light a fire of despair in your heart. You try to run, grabbing your stuff to get past the front to the other areas of the base.
This was a bad idea, this was a bad idea. You can only see the silhouettes of bots and femmes oblivious to your situation that quickly advanced until several things in the common room began to float, namely you and your stuff.
You try to call for help, but the rumblings of the groudbridge are louder than your weak human voice. That is until the damn thing started sucking you in.
Freeing yourself from a lump in your throat, you break your throat screaming: "OPTIMUS!"
Your desperate scream made it through the din because not a second later, you see Optimus destroy the lab door only to be greeted by a sight that contracted his optics.
You try to hold on to anything as the claws of hell pull you towards the dull colors you've never seen before on the groudbridge. "Optimus!" Your tears are slowly drawn in as well.
Optimus shouts your name and alerts the other autobots as he tries to get closer, but the portal for some reason forcefully ejects them just to take what it can. "Optimus, please save me!"
You sob with the same horror that is in the optics of the autobots desperately trying to advance on you. "Help!" Your voice is advocated by an invisible force.
Optimus screams your name in a thunderous sound, accompanied by other autobots gasping and sobbing words that you no longer manage to hear as a swirl of intense colors engulf you to numb your body and drive you into unconsciousness.
...
Your eyes are fixed to the stretcher while in living memory it opens your mind to the truth. The groudbridge... That damn thing did something, sucked you in, brought you here, didn't it?..... You stare into nothingness. It's your fault.
But where are you supposed to be? Optimus or Wheeljack or anyone else told you what the groudbridge was doing?
A loud bang on the glass snaps you out of your thoughts. "Eh-what?"
"Ah, you're still there." Sentinel sighs with relief. "For a moment there I thought you'd gone into stasis with the optics open."
Immediately upon his words, a gun slams into the side of the glass, aimed directly at you. You freeze.
"Now, you're not cooperating, you little organic. I just need you to answer the question, how do you know me, why and what do you know about me?" he growled menacingly.
You gasp shakily, needing to organize your thoughts, though you already have a suspicion of what has happened. Sentinel Prime alive, Airachnid in a practically new state, vehicons cared for... "I-I..."
"3..." He counts, the weapon glowing, charging.
You're in the past, on Cybertron. The groudbridge has sent you to ancient Cybertron for some reason. Shock is replaced with panic when only seconds are all you have left.
"2..." Why was he attacking you now so suddenly!
"...1-"
You're not going to die.
"I came from the future!"
It's the first thing that comes to your mind.