Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“On this very day, two unsuspecting explorers have probably made the greatest discovery in the decade. I am standing in The Amazon rainforest, and past the trees behind me is an ancient civilization virtually untouched by all elements.” The woman with the mic said. Her face was full of actual wonder, not the type of fake smiling and overly enthusiastic voices. No, her eyes were shining with amazement, the laughter lines on her face showing as she smiled brightly. Her posture was full of pure excitement and she was gripping her microphone as if she was in some type of dream and didn’t want to wake up.

William Lennox huffed as he watched the news channel and listened to the hosts talk between each other. An impatient groan came from his left and he looked over to see Epps staring intently at the screen. 

“C’mon. Show the damn city already.” He hissed out, his hands gripping the chair he was sitting on so tightly that his knuckles were turning white. Will just chuckled and leaned back on the desk behind him.

Finally, the hostess walked through the trees and the camera followed. Will heard all of the different N.E.S.T employees and soldiers gasp as the giant city came into view.

There were small buildings made of stone wherever you looked, and the different paths between all the houses were lined with colorful flowers and small trees that seemed to be fully grown but only three to four feet tall. There was a big path -probably as big as a highway- splitting the many buildings into two giant chunks. On this path, there were painted rocks lining the road corresponding with the different flowers, and all of the paths were surprisingly clean without any mud or all. Each building lining the way had carved letters and glyphs on oval signs at the front of the buildings. 

The farther the camera went up the path, the more exquisite and detailed and advanced the buildings became. This continued until the cameraman and the hostess walked up to a group of archaeologists staring up at a giant temple. The temple seemed to be at least sixty to seventy feet high, made of dozens of different gems and valuable metals like gold and diamonds,  and there were hundreds of crystallized-looking steps going up to the top of it. Each step of the temple seemed to have glyphs carved into them, and when one of the archaeologists ran a hand over the different carvings, they confirmed that they had been done without any type of mistakes or mess-ups.

“Can you tell us what you’ve learned about this city and its people so far?” The hostess prompted, nudging her microphone at one of the archaeologists. The man looked at the hostess and then at his crew, before nodding and starting to talk.

“It seems that in this civilization, each person thought of themselves as equal to the next. The small stone buildings that you walked past at the beginning of this trip? Those were all houses. All of the people in this city never saw themselves as greater than or less than the other, and we believe we have a reason for that.” The man said, his hand coming up to sweep away his golden brown hair as he started walking left of the temple. The man made a gesture and the hostess and cameraman started following him. 

Will just stared wide-eyed at the retreating temple, his mind wondering what these people would need a temple so big for or how they built it. When he looked at his fellow companions, it seemed like they were wondering the same thing. He quickly texted Ironhide, asking him if he and the other Autobots were watching the channel, and then focused back on the TV as the archaeologist started talking again.

“It seems that these people had some type of ancient being taking care of them. From what we were able to decipher from the scrolls and texts that we have been able to translate, whatever this giant entity was, it acted as their guardian. That was the only name they called it in the deciphered texts and it seems that they were right to call it that.” The man says, pausing while his eyes roamed over a couple of paths before walking down one that wasn’t as maintained. Giant vines were curtaining the path, and all three of the people had to move the vines out of the way as they walked down the path. When the three of them got to the end of the path, the vines seemed to be a lot thicker and the archaeologist looked directly into the camera. 

“Brace yourselves.” He whispered, before using both arms to push the vines away and walking forwards. As the cameraman walked forward, they focused on a gunmetal gray color and once they got past the vines, what was there made the hostess gasp.

Will jolted forward from where he was leaning on the desk and the multiple gasps of his colleagues echoed throughout the giant room. His eyes roamed over the giant, almost seventy-foot, gunmetal gray, Cybertronian statue, and the pieces immediately clicked into place. 

The statue was standing tall, its posture relaxed and friendly its arms and servos crossed behind its back. The statue's faceplates were upturned into a bright sharp fanged smile. Its helm was tilted to the right and the finials on its head were lazily up. There was a tail that was curled in the air on the left of the statue and the claw at the end of it was relaxed and open a little. Glyphs were littering the body of the figure, some of them the same glyphs on the stairs from that temple but most of them were different. The one glaringly obvious thing was the colored metal surrounding the arms of the statue since it was the only other color on the figure. On its right was a deep purple and on its left was a bright gold. 

“This is the ‘Guardian’?” The hostess asked, her voice barely a whisper. The archaeologist just nodded and walked a little closer to the giant statue. On the stone where the figure was sat, there were two words. The archaeologist ran his finger over the first one and motioned for the cameraman to come closer. 

“Guardian.” He said. His hands drifted to the other word and gently ran one of his fingers over it. This one seemed new and fresh, and it was messy as if a kid had carved it. “Nebula.” The man muttered, almost silently. 

Will’s phone pinged and he looked at it, noticing that it was a message from Ironhide telling him that they were coming back so that they could discuss whatever this was. Will sent an ‘okay’ and looked back at his colleagues. Most of them were staring at the TV, their eyes wide in surprise and confusion. This was all broken when Epps started chuckling.

“What is it now, Epps?” Will asked, one eyebrow raised. Epps chuckles turned into full-on laughter as he stared up at the ceiling. 

“How much do you guys want to bet that Pandora’s going to be pissed ?” He asked. Everyone froze and then laughter erupted from everyone as they all thought about their resident assassin. 

When Pandora walked into the N.E.S.T base, something seemed…off. Everyone was staring at her and chuckling or giggling before looking away and making eye contact with the closest person next to them. Every time she would ask someone what was going on, they’d just tell her to go check with Will for her next mission, and it hurt. This was the first time since her parents left that others seemed to be mocking or dismissing her, and she didn’t like it. 

When she walked into the giant room the Autobots and Will’s team were supposed to be in, she froze. On the big screen was a news channel, and the hosts were talking about a newly discovered, untouched by time, ancient civilization. Pandora felt herself walk forward on autopilot, her feet carrying her closer to the big screen on their own. She stopped when she was standing next to Will who was dividing his attention between the TV and herself.

“Tada,” Will muttered. Pandora was barely able to hear his voice because she was so entranced with what was on the screen. She hesitated for a couple of seconds, swallowed, and then painstakingly turned away from the screen. 

“Agent Pandora Trein reporting for the next mission.” She said, her voice wavering a little as she forced herself not to look at the screen. Will looked at her with a raised eyebrow then sighed and put a hand gently onto Pandora’s shoulder.

“We are going to be traveling to the city. You’re coming with us.” He explained, short and down to the point without any extra detail. 

It was like everyone held their breath as Pandora’s eyes widened. Her body was tense and her eyes were roaming Will’s body for any source of a lie. When she didn’t find one, they could all see her visibly relax as she exhaled and then nodded at Will. 

“Thank you, Colonel Will. I…appreciate you…giving me this opportunity.” Will just nodded and gave her shoulder a squeeze before taking a folder from the desk he was standing in front of and putting it in her hands.

“This is everything you need to know about the mission. You will need to go in your civilian disguise as well as make up a good cover excuse for why the military needs a history graduate, but I believe you can do that. Your work at the museum has already been called and they have given you leave for as long as this is going to take. Do you think you can keep your cool while we are there?” Will asked. Pandora nodded once, already skimming through the folder while he was talking. Her eyebrows went to her hairline as she read and she gave Will a questioning look before rolling her eyes at him and starting to read again. 

“So,” Pandora started, looking up and making eye contact with Will. “When are we leaving?” Will just shook his head in exasperation at her and took his hand off her shoulder. 

“We have to wait for our alien friends to come back from their trip. While we wait for them, you go make sure your siblings are going to be okay, okay?” Will questioned. Pandora just smiled and nodded at him before turning around and leaving the room. 

“Well, that could’ve gone a lot worse.” Someone said, making everyone laugh again.

“Do we know whether or not there is transportation for the Autobots to travel to this civilization?” Optimus asked, the deep timbre of his voice reverberating throughout the room while he and the other Autobots walked in. Will and Epps stared at him with poorly concealed disappointment and shook their heads. Will made eye contact with Optimus and tilted his head to the man behind him who was yelling and screaming at the different soldiers. 

“Mr. Galloway, why are you yelling?” Prowl asked, his optics roaming over the soldiers and the men in suits who were all looking extremely annoyed with Galloway's yelling. The man in question turned to him, his face a deep red from yelling so much. An annoyed grimace turned his face and he bared his teeth at the giant mech before glancing over to the others. When his eyes landed on Optimus, he snarled and tensed.

"What have you all been doing? Is there some type of history that you never told us?” Galloway asked, his voice shrill and a little hoarse from how much he had been yelling previously. Optimus walked forward, gesturing to the other Autobots to stay there with a flick of his servo. 

“Mr. Galloway, we did not know that there was a Cybertronian on your planet before this,” Optimus explained. Galloway glared at Optimus and the other Autobots, before throwing his hands into the air and walking away from the mech. 

“The next thing you are going to tell me is that Megatron raised the unknown mech.” He hissed out, his voice loud enough for everyone to hear. Optimus tensed and looked down a little sheepishly, one servo fidgeting. Will looked at Optimus, his eyes widening when he realized what Optimus was going to say. He glanced at Epps and made an, 'are you understanding the implications of this right now.' Epps just shrugged and went back to what he was doing. They both jumped when they heard an inhumane screech from Galloway who was staring at Optimus mouth agape and eyes wide. His quickly composed himself and glared at the Prime, his eyes burning with suspicion and complete mistrust. 

"Do you mean to tell me that Megatron did raise the mech?" He asked. Optimus nodded his helm and Will could see all the other Autobots shift uncomfortably. Will just sighed and rubbed his temples, his body going lax in his chair. He could hear a lot of the other N.E.S.T employees sigh as well when Galloway started sputtering indignantly. He was about to hiss something out when Epps stood up from where he was sitting.

“Man, shut up. We know nothing about the things these beings don’t want to tell us, and you just have to accept that.” He pointed out. Galloway opened his mouth to respond before Will interrupted him with a cough as he too stood up out of his chair.

“So, do we have any way to get the Autobots to the city?” He asked. Galloway opened his mouth, then closed it, then opened it again, and closed it. He seemed to be thinking about the question for a couple of seconds before whipping out his phone and typing on it furiously.

There was nothing but the click of Galloway’s phone keys and the whirs of the Autobots. Finally, the man looked up and sighed.

“There is transportation available for all of you in a few days. That’s the earliest available time.” He said. Will nodded and looked at Optimus who also gave a minute nod of approval. 

“Thank you, Mr. Galloway,” Optimus said. Galloway just scoffed and stalked away.

Chapter Text

"Colonel Lennox, you mention someone named Pandora a lot. Who are they?" Prowl asked, his frame hovering over Lennox as he worked. Lennox looked up at the mech, his eye ridges quirked up in surprise as he stared at Prowl. For a second the two just stared at each other, both equally confused as the other then, Lennox froze and his mouth pulled into a thin line.

"Oh shit. Most of you don't know who Pandora is, do you?" He asked, the question directed to him more than Prowl. Just as the silver mech was about to answer, the Colonel grabbed the phone on his desk and quickly sent a text to someone. Prowl knew he could easily hack into the system and tell who Lennox was texting but he decided against it as that would be invading the humans privacy. When Lennox looked back up to him, Prowl could see the confusion and urgency in the man's gaze. 

It was only a couple of minutes after Lennox had sent the text before Sergeant Epps hurriedly strode in. He and Colonel Lennox made eye contact and Prowl could tell that a silent conversation passed between the two of them. The mech stared at the two of them as they walked closer to him, seemingly in a silent argument about what was happening. It was a no less than a minute before the two of them composed themselves and looked up at Prowl, who had now crouched down so he could hear the humans without them having to yell. 

"Prowl, how many others don't know who Pandora is?" Lennox asked, his eyes a deep pit of exhaustion that Prowl could relate to. Prowl considered the question carefully for a few seconds before he tilted his helm and glanced back at Lennox and Epps. As he was about to speak, he heard the rev of an engine and turned his helm curiously. A red camaro came speeding into the N.E.S.T base. It spun a few times before, without warning, it jumped up and transformed. Prowl watched as both Lennox and Epps jumped a little, but they relaxed once they realized who it was.

"Colonel Lennox, Sergeant Epps, we have a giant problem!" The mech yelled, spinning to look at the three of them. The mech paused as he looked at Prowl then raised a servo and timidly waved at him before walking towards the two humans. The two of them were staring at the mech with an annoyed expression but quickly reeled it in when a motorcycle came sliding in, also transforming into a mech mid slide. 

"Cliffjumper, Arcee, what is it? And where are Chromia and Elita One?" Lennox asked. Cliffjumper shifted from ped to ped as Arcee walked up and the two glanced at each other, wariness in their fields. That was when Prowl realized that Arcee's red and white plating was dulled under the fluorescent lighting and her arms seemed scuffed as if they had been scraped lightly and Cliffjumper's plating had muddy brown gouges in the sides of his chassis. 

"You know that assassin that you told all of us to follow?" Cliffjumper started, his optics flickering to the two humans, Arcee and Prowl. Lennox hesitated and Epps gently massaged his temples as the two nodded. "Well, she got into a...scuffle and beat the frag out of these gang members that were trying to jump her. However, once they realized she wasn't going down without a...uh...fight, they started pulling out the knives and guns." Lennox held out a hand, stopping Cliffjumper from talking and for a few seconds there was a heavy silence hanging over the five of them. When Lennox fell into the chair near the desk he was standing by with the most exhausted sigh, Prowl felt that the human seemed older than what he looked.

"Did any of you intervene?" Epps asked. Arcee hesitated, tilting her helm while her optics dulled as she checked her comms. She shook her head and let her smooth voice echo throughout the room. 

"Neither Chromia nor Elita One have intervened at the moment. We initially came here because we thought you would know what to do about this dilemma." The femme explained, her servos gesturing to the two as she mentioned them. As if something clicked in their minds, Lennox and Epps jolted up their eyes wide as they stared at Cliffjumper and Arcee.

"Why didn't you start with that!?" They both yelled, making the two mecha jolt. They looked at each other and gave a noncommittal shrug as they transformed back into their alt-modes. Prowl walked forward as the two got into Cliffjumper's front seat. Lennox looked at him, at the two vehicles, and then gave a 'come on' motion with his hand. Prowl nodded and transformed into his alt-mode and followed Cliffjumper and Arcee.

Pandora thought she had seen it all, ultimately, she had been trained as an assassin since she could remember. She had been all over the world, wherever he job entailed, and she had infiltrated more things than she could count. She had foiled innumerous plans and destroyed and seen things that haunt her to this day, but that was all for the greater good. That's at least what she told herself. Something she would've never expected though would be the fact that street thugs would be able to beat her in a fight. She knew why she obviously couldn't fight them at full strength though, she was supposed to be undercover as a historian, working at the local museum. If she were to fight these people, she knew what would happen and her cover would be blown. That was why she was also surprised when two motorcycles, one purple and the other blue, came driving through the group, their riders wearing matching black outfits and everything. 

Yelps of surprise were the only thing she heard before she felt hands grip her arms and pull her up to her feet. Pandora shook her head, trying to focus on the motorcycle drivers but not being able to because of how much her head was spinning. Her feet came out from underneath her and she heard a small yelp before strong arms were curling around the crooks of her knees and her back. She felt the rider pick her up swiftly, and before she knew it, the two of them were speeding away on one of the motorcycles, the other one not far behind. Pandora could hear wind in her ears and feel the hands surrounding her tighten as they speed up even more. Her head lolled to the side and she heard a muffled shout followed by low clicks and high pitched hums before her head was being supported by the arm wrapped around her torso. 

A voice Pandora immediately registered as 'caretaker' filled her ears and her vision became a little clearer as she turned her head in search of the owner of the voice. Another, deeper voice joined in on the conversation and Pandora hummed quietly, listening intently as the pitch of the two voices rose and fell. Suddenly, the motorcycle jolted to a stop and Pandora yelped as black spots appeared in her vision. She squeezed her eyes shut, her stomach churning with discomfort, before the arms around her loosened and were replaced by warmer arms that handed her with a lot more care. 

"Lennox?" Pandora asked, her throat contracting at the word because of how much it hurt to speak. The blurry figure in her vision looked down at her, their deep brown eyes filled with worry and concern. The person looked up again when something giant moved close to the two of them and Pandora heard a smooth voice fill her senses, to overstimulated from pain to really do anything but close her eyes and listen.

She felt the person start moving again, felt her mind slipping into the dark embrace of sleep, and couldn't help but let it take her.

When Pandora woke up, it was to a high pitched screech followed by a multitude of profanities, some she knew others she didn't. The first thing she did was check her body, poking and prodding at different areas to create a report of all her injuries. As she was doing this, she heard, and felt something stomping into the room, shaking the ground with them. Whatever they were stopped when they realized she was awake and after a few seconds, she heard some low grumbling followed by softer steps that she could still hear, but that weren’t shaking the ground this time. Pandora, knowing she was going to regret it, pushed herself up off the soft bed below her. Her body protested this vehemently but she ignored all of it's warning signals in favor of opening her eyes gently. 

When her eyes were fully opened, Pandora looked around and her eyes locked on a giant mechanical creature that was staring at her with bright cerulean eyes. They were covered in mostly green and black plating with a hint of yellow, every part of them that wasn’t covered in plating was colored silver. Pandora stared at them for a couple of minutes and they stared back, both of them locked in a contest, neither wanting to be the first one to look away. Pandora was sure she wouldn't be backing down first, that is until the mechanical creature decided to speak. 

"So you are this Pandora person everyone's been talking about, huh?" Pandora reeled back, her eyes going wide as she processed what the creature said, and the creature continued to stare at her. Their mechanical eyes felt as if they were scanning her, and she shivered uncomfortably, covering her body by crossing her arms over her chest. She nodded minutely, her eyes flickering from the floor to the creature every few seconds, but after saying that, they didn't seem interested in her anymore, their focus on arranging giant metal tools that Pandora didn't know anything about.

Her curious side was warring with her wary side, survival versus the innate curiosity warring in her mind. Unluckily, or luckily even, her curious mind won over and she tilted her head, expanding her senses as she examined the creature. 

"That I am. Who are you?" She asked, her eyes tracking every movement the creature made as they worked. Their head tilted towards her, and she could see their cerulean eye again. They were considering her, wondering what they could tell her and what they couldn't. Reluctantly, the creature sighed and they reluctantly moved towards Pandora, their bright eyes now dark with contemplation. Their mechanical frame creaked and hummed as they walked closer to her and as the creature walked forward, Pandora felt a different, more powerful sensory field push up against hers. That's when the creature stopped, their eyes going wide with surprise and the field pushing deeper into Pandora's.

"You have an electromagnetic field too?" They whispered, alarm making their frame tense. Pandora tilted her head, her eyes going wide as she realized that the mech had the same sensory detection that she had. Pandora hesitated for a couple seconds before looking at the mech with a confused expression.

"Wait, it's called an electromagnetic field?" She asked. The creature huffed and shook their head, one of their hands coming up to rub at their head. 

"Yes, that field that you have and that you are also feeling is called an electromagnetic field. And I need to go talk to Lennox about you." The creature said. As they turned out to walk out of the room, Pandora felt the concern in her flare and she tried slipping off the bed she was laying on. The creature turned just before Pandora landed on the ground, diving down just before she was to land on the ground and catching her in one of their metal hands. 

“Careful youngling.” The creature rumbled. Pandora could hear the engine in their chest hum and her hands itched to reach up and touch the plating covering it. She refrained herself, luckily, but then she was being lifted into the air so abruptly that she almost fell over the side of the mech’s hand. Pandora gripped the mech’s thumb, one hand flying to her mouth as she closed her eyes and waited for her stomach to settle. Thankfully, the mech could at least tell that something was happening with her so they stopped and let her catch her breath.

Once Pandora was able to straighten a little and take her hand off her mouth, she looked up at the creature who was staring at her with such intensity in their over-bright eyes. Their head was tilted and their mechanical eyebrows were furrowed in concentration. Pandora stared into their eyes and she half smiled at them after giving them a thumbs up. The mech shook their head a couple of times and began walking towards the door of the room.

“Where are we going?” Pandora asked, her eyes tracking every movement the mech made.

“Well, you seemed so interested in getting off the berth back there so I can only assume that you want to get up and by reading your EM field that you apparently didn’t know you had, you certainly won’t be easy to keep down for a long period of time.” The mech explained. Pandora nodded and hummed and nodded her head, smiling up at the creature again. Something dawned on her, and she narrowed her eyes. The creature looked at her, a  confused field brushing up against her still extended sensory net.

“What’s your name?” The mech looked at her consideringly then huffed and continued walking. 

“Ratchet.”

“Pandora!” Will yelled as he watched Ratchet walk into the hangar, Pandora cradled in his servos. The girl perked up at her name and her eyes found Will, the stoic facade she had previously melting off her face and morphing into a giant, toothy smile that made her eyes glow with a certain type of light. Ratchet tightened his cupped hands as the girl tried to squirm out of them, his face plates pulling into an annoyed expression. 

“It’s okay Ratchet, you can put her down. Right?” Epps asked, coming to stand by Will’s side. The mech glared at him, his optics narrowed making both of them flinch back. 

“No, I can’t put her down because she’s still recovering from her run-in with that gang.” Ratchet hissed, his vocalizer spitting static as he cursed in Cybertronian when Pandora made a fairly risky move where she almost fell out of Ratchet’s servos. Will couldn’t help but chuckle at the medic’s unfortunate position he was put in, but after a few minutes he decided to help the mech.

“Pandora, be still and let Ratchet put you down where he thinks you need to be. Ratchet’s a medic, he knows how to take care of others.” Will said, his voice reaching the girl and making her pause. The girl looked at Will, her body looking relaxed and comfortable in Ratchet’s servos. However, her eyes were narrowed as if she wanted to get down and Will could mostly see what her mind was warring over. 

Pandora was trained to be an assassin, listening to every order and direction given to her with pristine precision. But, she was also trained to be able to protect her caretaker whenever they would need it. These two thoughts were making her squirm and she grimaced every time she brushed up against a too sensitive bruise or one of the many fractured bones she had obtained during the ordeal.

“Ratchet,” A cool voice called from outside the hangar’s doors. Giant footfalls reverberated throughout the floor of the hangar and everyone looked up to see a blue, red, and silver mech walk in. His optics were an over bright cerulean and his helm was tilted in curiosity. “You should let the youngling go. After all, she is trained like a soldier, she needs to be able to help when she can.”

The green mech grumbled a little, obviously wanting to protest the idea but also not wanting to deal with the young one any longer. As Ratchet kneeled down, Pandora walked over to the edge of his servo tilting her head as she looked down. When Ratchet was close enough that Pandora could jump down without hurting herself, she did vigorously and turned back to the mech. She bowed her head to him and then walked over to Will, her body straight and to attention. 

“You’re relatively calm even though you were just in the palms of an alien.” Epps commented. Pandora looked at him and showed her fangs in a toothy smirk. She tilted her head in contemplation before shrugging her shoulders and widening her smirk. Epps just shook his head in defeat and walked towards one of the other bots. 

“Pandora, these are the Autobots. They are our allies from the planet Cybertron and are helping us with defeating the Decepticons, the other group in the war they are in.” Will explained. Pandora stared at all the bots in the hangar, her eyes roaming over their plating and colors. When her eyes landed on Cliffjumper, they narrowed minutely and she walked towards him a couple of steps. 

“You look…familiar. Who are you?” She asked. The red mech stared at Pandora, then looked up to Optimus who was watching the two intensely. A light tilt of the Prime’s head, and Cliffjumper was transforming into his alt-mode. Pandora stepped back when he settled, her eyes roaming the new form he had taken. 

“Oh, so you’re one of the cars that’s been following me around. I was wondering if I was being stalked or something but I just never really thought about it that deeply.” Pandora stated, her eyes sparkling as she ran a hand over Cliffjumper’s door. The mech’s engine purred as Pandora ran her fingers over a certain spot and she stopped, hesitating for a couple of seconds before ghosting her fingertips over the spot again. Again the purr and the gentle hum of a content engine. A smile overtook the girl’s face and a mischievous glimmer appeared in her eye as she started tapping on the spot.

“Hey!” The mech yelped, shooting towards where Arcee, Elita One, and Chromia were. The three all scattered as Cliffjumper slid into the wall they had previously been standing in front of. The metal scaffolding that he hit tilted and rocked before crashing down on top of the mech while he was transforming. A groan came from the pile of twisted metal, and the only other sound that could be heard was the soft giggles that Pandora was making. 

“We don’t call her ‘Pandemonium’ for nothing.” One of the other soldiers remarked, glaring at Pandora where she stood, the mischievous look still in her eyes. She glanced at the soldier and stuck her tongue at them, before looking back over to Cliffjumper. Arcee and Chromia were helping him get the scaffolding off himself while Elita One was staring at the girl, her optics cycling as Pandora giggled. 

“I can’t believe we were sent to look after you, especially when you are the most chaotic out of all of us!” Cliffjumper yelled, his optics narrowing as he stared at Pandora. The girl just gave him an innocent smile, turned, and walked back to stand by Lennox. 

Chapter Text

Nightlight woke up to a gray sky and a helm ache that made her processor spin. What had happened to her? Nightlight tried to force herself up, but her arm struts were weak and she collapsed back onto the rough ground. She heard an engine echoing in her audials and she tilted her helm that way, trying to listen closer to it. That is, until she realized who the engine belonged to. Optimus Prime, an autobot. He and his team had probably got the report when she was entering the atmosphere. Nightlight could hear at least five other engines along with the Primes and she groaned, probably louder than she meant to.

“Who’s there?” She heard the Autobot ask. Nightlight froze, halting all of her internal components, even her cooling fans, so she could try to calculate where the bigger mech was. When she heard the Prime’s ped steps grow closer, Nightlight stopped moving all together and almost activated her fail safe protocols, but the gentle rumble of an engine almost right above her stopped her and made her turn her optics up. Prime was standing there, his battle mask snapped up but Nightlight could still see his concern just by the way the mesh near his optics were pinched. 

“Hello,” He said. Nightlight hissed at him, flaring her optics and baring her fangs. She could hear other ped steps rushing towards the two of them and her processor screamed at her to run, to get away. Ignoring the pain flaring through her frame, Nightlight pushed herself up, her claws swiping at the Prime’s face plates making him rear back, and then she jumped up. She turned towards the Prime and the newly appeared Autobots and growled deeply at them all.

“Nightlight.” One of the mechs muttered. They were silver and blue and…where had she seen that frame before. Her optics narrowed as she stepped away from the mech. It was the little ghost. One of the scouts that had foiled hers and Shockwave’s plans more times than either of them could count.

“Phantom.” She hissed. The mech tensed at the nickname, making Nightlight flick her finials back and shift into as much of a fighting position as she could be in without making more pain shoot up her spinal strut. Prime held one of his servos out, the other one slightly curled towards her in a placating manner. He didn’t want to fight. Nightlight tried activating her sensors but they all crackled and sent bolts of electrical shocks through her frame which made her warble and fall to her knees. She heard the ‘bots shift and power up their weapons, but she couldn’t care less. 

Where were the others?

“It’s okay, we don’t want to hurt you.” Nightlight heard Prime say. She felt him come closer and swiped at him with her claws, making him draw back minutely. He still was holding his hand out to her though, the glitch. Nightlight forced herself to look up, her neck screaming in pain as she did. Her optics locked onto Prime’s and she felt some sort of fire in her dim just a little. 

The weariness in his gaze was the same one she had seen in Megatron’s before they all had realized that sooner or later, The Fallen would be coming back to resume his control on the mech. It was the same look that her team had when they realized that their Lord was dead, and that meant The Fallen was going to do anything to get his little ‘pawn’ back. It had been the same look she had seen every single day when she looked into any type of reflective object.

Nightlight clicked her vocalizer on and after having to reset it a few times she spoke.

“Where…others? Team?” She asked. Prime looked surprised that she would actually give in, but she missed her team, her family, and she wanted to be with her Lord again. She knew that at the moment she could only choose one, so she decided to choose the one that involved the least amount of pain for everyone. Eventually, she felt servos grip her arm struts and carefully lift her up onto her pedes. She immediately groaned and her optics flickered, but once they turned off, they wouldn’t turn back on. Surprisingly though, she wasn’t bothered by this. 

Being in a group full of enemies with most of her processor either powered off or sluggishly moving, Nightlight thought she would've freaked out more. But the comforting press of the servos gently carrying her and the slow pulses of her team's spark beats was making her become dizzy with content. The only time she had felt like this was when they had cuddle piles on the Nemesis, and they were a rarity before they had left the Cybertonian solar system. 

What would happen if Nightlight were to just…let her processor relax and turn off for a while? Couldn’t hurt to try, right?

Highbeam woke up, and there were immediately faint warnings flashing on his HUD. Low energon warning, what was new? Unknown substance in his system, pretty normal. Teammates resting near him, not completely out of the ordinary. Autobot systems detected…maybe they had found the Autobots? Autobot presence detected. Oh slag!

Highbeam shot up, his canon already powering on before he was able to register what was happening. At the end of his cannon was a green and black mech and a mostly silver and white mech with red traces and details. They both were staring at Highbeam’s cannon with wide optics and for a couple of seconds, everything was silent. Then a low chuckle escaped the white and gray mech’s vocalizer and her ghosted one of his servos over the cannon.

“That’s some firepower you got there.” He remarked, his voice smooth and amused. The green mech stared at him before smacking him over the helm with a wrench that seemed to appear out of nowhere. 

“You are at the end of a ‘cons cannon and the first thing you think about is how much firepower they have?” He questioned, his gravelly voice confused, a little scared, and very angry. The white mech whined while rubbing his helm, about to say something before the green one cut in, yelling at him and whacking him over the helm a few more times.

Highbeam stared at the two of them questioningly before dropping his cannon slowly and making himself comfortable on the medical berth he was lying on. As the two were arguing, Highbeam let his optics wander the room and that was when he caught sight of his team. Everything was good, until he realized that Behemoth was nowhere to be found and Nightlight looked almost dead. The sharp, shrill buzz of his vocalizer and the way he clambered off the berth in a mad frenzy made both the mechs stop arguing and watch him all but run over to Nightlight’s side.

He let a low drone out of his processor as he poked at Nightlight gently. The femmes EM field was soft and lazy, until Highbeam let his field brush up against hers. Their fields were a mesh of excited-melancholic-relieved as they danced with each, and Highbeams spark almost sang when he felt the gentle thrums of the other’s EM fields respond to the chaotic frenzy of his and Nighlight’s. Just as Highbeam was about to relax, he turned to see the two Autobot mechs staring wide-opticked at Highbeam.

He tilted his head and let out a few beeps in binary about what was wrong but both of the mechs just shook their helms and smiled at each other. For a couple of seconds, Highbeam let his wings hike up in surprise but he let them relax quickly since he realized there was no danger. He felt the gentle pull of Nightlight’s EM field and he let his processor follow the things she was thinking about. 

After a while, Highbeam heard the two mechs shift and move around. He looked back at them and watched them shift around him. The background noises that were coming from the lab table the two were working at made Highbeam relaxed and he immediately was wondering what had happened to them all. 

The great Lord Megatron and his team had been scrounging the galaxy for millions of years to find the Allspark, all to have it shoved into Megatron’s chest because he was controlled by a mech wanting more than he deserved. Their team was falling apart, their Lord being the only thing keeping it together. Look at them! Laying in an Autobot base, relaxed and without weapons at everyone’s throats. Highbeam looked down sadly. 

“I guess…we–really are…tired.” Highbeam said through broken and broken and patched up recordings. The ambient hum of the other two mechs stopped abruptly and Highbeam turned around confused. His optics landed on the green one, who was staring at him with narrowed optics while the white one stood stalk still watching the two of them. Highbeam tilted his helm, resetting his optics a couple of times and then making a questioning noise from his vocalizer.

“Can you…do you not have a voice box?” The green mech asked. He seemed to be familiar with the scenario, because when Highbeam nodded his helm with a resigned hum of his engines, the mech immediately pulled out some type of scanner. The mech gestured to the scanner then to Highbeam as if asking permission and Highbeam just stretched her helm out, showing off his neck cables. The gentle prickle of the scanner’s rays and the deep red color of the lines running across his frame made Highbeam a little uncomfortable but he was able to push through it. 

“Just as I thought,” the mech began. Highbeam felt the mech ghost his digits over his neck cables, and he tensed. His wings hiked up in surprise and he gripped the servo with his claws. The gentle comforting rumble of the other mechs engine made him hesitate from closing his claws around the servo but he eventually did, just very gently. 

“Sensitive there, huh?” The white mech asked as he walked up with another scanner. Highbeam scrunched his face plates up a little and shook his helm softly, letting the servo go from his claws when he felt a small tug. The green mech exchanged scanner’s with the white one and started scanning Highbeam again. This one made his optics shutter closed in content, the soft golden glow of the scanner making him feel content like he was encased in a warm hug. 

“When did your voice box get ripped out?” The white mech asked, his blue optics following the soft lines of the scanner as it surrounded Highbeam. A small thinking noise escaped his vocalizer and he titled his helm a little before shaking his  helm and shrugging a little. The scanner turned off, making him whine a little, but he looked at the other mech with a confused raise of an optical ridge. The green mech sighed, shaking his helm and walking away back to the workstation but he didn’t seem annoyed. In fact, he seemed a little exasperated by both Highbeam and the other mech.

“Younglings these days. Don’t know when to quit, do they?” He mumbled before turning around and fixing Highbeam with a stare. “So, here’s what we are going to do. You and your team are going to be staying here with all of us Autobots, if you don’t like that…tough slag kid. Wheeljack and I are going to be helping you with your voice box. We were able to help Bumblebee so we also might be able to help you but we’re going to need yours and your crew's names. In turn, we’ll introduce you to the others.”

Highbeam stared at the green mech and the white one –Wheeljack? – then nodded his helm. For a couple seconds while he was finding the clips to tell the two mechs their names, everything was silent. Barely any noise besides the invents of his crew and the gentle thrums of the engines of the mechs. Finally, he found his words. 

“I am…High-beam. This is…-Nightlight. That– would be - Laser…quake. Other one– is Thunder– blade . –Athena” He paused for a click, looking around. “There is another one…came from the very heavens above.” He gestured towards the sky. “His name is…Behemoth.” The two mechs didn’t look surprised at all about the mixed clips from various things. In fact, they seemed actually used to it, which made Highbeam interested. The green mech looked over at him and the rumble of his engine sounded like a laugh. 

“Trust us, we’ve dealt with a bot without a voice box before. We’re used to it.” He said. Highbeam nodded a couple of times and let a low, muffled and binary-like trill rumble from his voice box. The white mech smiled at him and walked over to the green one, anticipation painting his field. 

“Here we go.” He exclaimed.

Chapter Text

It had been almost a week after Pandora had gotten into the little scuffle, and learned about the Autobots in general when she saw the pile of mechs laying in the medibay. There were five in total, each of them just as vibrant as the Autobots were, and she paused to marvel at them. It was hard to tell the colors of most of them because of them all being jumbled together and the room being dimly lit, but she could still see that there were many colors.

There was one which seemed to be actively awake as she could see an arm waving around at times, grabbing tools and wires and supplies yet still laying down. From what she could see of the mech, they were mostly bright teal with maize yellow lines running up their arm and looping around their digits. The plating that the maize lines were on was fully cobalt blue, as if they were highlighting the brightness of the yellow.

Pandora felt herself gasp in awe and the arm was stilling in mid air, jumbled wires still tangled in between gaps of plating on their servo. The low creak of a mech sitting up made Pandora flinch back, trying to hide, and then pure white optics were illuminating the room. 

They made eye contact with her for a brief second and then the mech was shifting, pushing himself out of the jumbled pile and walking towards her. She yelped in surprise, stepping backwards when the mech all of a sudden leaned down as if to get a better look at her.

Low beeps and short clicks came from the mech's throat and Pandora widened her eyes, stepping back a couple more steps. A teal servo brackets her exit, halting her form stepping back anymore meaning that the mech could come closer to her.

She squeezed her eyes shut, bracketing her head with her arms as she felt the mech’s helm get closer to her, but paused when the only motion she felt was the sharp breath of the mech’s vents. Cautiously looking up, she found those same white pinpricks of light dimmed and wide, staring at her with such curiosity that she couldn’t help but slowly relax.

She relaxed her arms, letting them fall to her sides and shifting so that she could get a better look at the mech. She was right about most of the mech’s color scheme, especially the cobalt blue and yellow. But one thing she never expected was to see the deep purple insignia which laid on the mech’s chassis.

“You are a Decepticon?” She asked, stepping forward and holding a hand out. Her fingers flexed when warm metal was pushed against her skin and she ghosted her fingertips over the insignia, outlining it and then slowly traveling inward to trace the inside lines.

There was a long beep and radio static filled her ears for a couple of seconds before something else took its place. 

“Yes…Decepti– /con. Me.” Pandora nodded, gently stroking over the maize lines which were interspersed on the mechs plating like circuit board lines, or technology lines. It was quite interesting to follow them from the start - the con badge - to wherever she could touch without moving her feet. 

“Who are you?” A talk show host asked from the hidden speakers underneath the mech’s plating on their shoulder pauldrons. She looked up, into giant, glowing white optics, and smiled.

“Pandora…or Pandemonium. But if you want to go the short route, some just call me Monium. If you need a definitive answer, it’s Pandora.” She half-rambled, the words forcing themselves out of her mouth without letting her catch a breath. When she did, she was breathing a little heavier than normal, making the mech stare down at her with something akin to concern in their optics.

“Highbeam! ” Someone yelled from the mechs speakers, making her jump back a little in surprise with how loud it was. The mech let her jump back this time, they were giving her the chance to run, or run as far away as she could without them catching up to her.

“Pleasure to meet you, Highbeam.” Pandora murmured, nodding her head in a short bow. There was a short burst of static before a reply was gently playing through Highbeam’s speakers. 

“The pleasure is mine.” Some old, medieval sounding gentleman murmured towards her, making her chuckle a little at the posh sounding tone of the man's voice. As she covered her mouth a little with her hand, she looked back up at Highbeam and finally saw the giant metal slabs jutting out of the mech’s back.

“You’re a flier?” She asked, her eyes traveling up the jutted out wing-like appendages. They were just like the rest of them, except black was tracing the maize lines like an outline, making his wings look a little cartoonish.

“Yes!” He replied from what sounded like a way to cheery commercial which made her laugh again. She could see him flex his wings for her and she smiled once more, watching the metal of them adjust and shift. 

“But you have wheels.” She muttered, her eyes darting to the wheels on his legs and arms. Another yes from the mechs speakers made her tilt her head in confusion, but she sighed in exasperation after debating over it for a while.

“Do you wanna go flying? ‘Cause I can sneak you outta here and we could go flying.” She explained, her voice timid and her eyes downcast as a hand rubbed her neck.

“Let’s…do it/!” Pandora smiled as Highbeam nodded at her and she gestured for him to follow her as she looked down both ways of the hallway. If they wanted to get out of there, they needed to time this perfectly, meaning they had to be perfect.

She relayed this to the other mech and he nodded his helm in agreement, letting out a low trill as his optics narrowed into tiny slits and a visor snapped over his optics, making them glow red.

“Let’s go.”

When Nighlight woke up, the first thing she registered was that her tank was almost full. Weird, she hadn’t been this full in a while, especially accounting for the small ones that the Fallen had forced out of their pods to make them work when they were starting to run out of mechs. 

The next thing she noticed was that she was snuggled up around the others, like they used to do, all of them laying on or around each other on one massive berth, just reveling in each other’s EM fields. It was weird, she couldn’t deny that it was, especially now that their Lord was nowhere to be found, but at the time, it was incredibly comforting.

“I see that you’re awake.” She tensed as a voice interrupted her comforting silence, making her jolt upwards. Which happened to be a mistake on her part.

Pain flared across her neural net and she choked on her glossa as a ragged scream tore itself out of her vocalizer. Her optics flickered off as almost all of her processing power was diverted to finding out where the pain was coming from, and she almost didn’t feel the cool servo that pressed against her chassis until she was falling backwards.

She could hear sound. It was jumbled and distorted and seemed incredibly concerned but she could still hear it. The servo on her chassis let up and she felt her vocalizer vibrate, but couldn’t hear what sound she let out. Her digits twitched as she tried to catch the receding object, but it was bumping against her chassis once more, blessedly cool.

When her processor didn’t find anything of use for her, it slowly diverted power back to her systems and she was able to see things once more.

“Phantom?” She croaked out, finding blue and silver plating taking up her vision. Blue optics stared into hers and the mech inclined his helm, barely moving from where he stood beside her. His servo rubbed her chassis and she felt her wings flick in content.

Heavy ped steps filled her audial receptors making her tense a little, but the other mech just pressed her down, forcing her to relax unless she wanted her wings to be in an awkward position. She saw red and blue and chrome and expected the Prime to talk to her, but her audials caught someone else talking before him.

“About time you woke up.” The voice admonished, making her sulk a little. She grumbled something but stopped when a field brushed against hers with a short reprimand. Bright blue energon appeared in front of her faceplates, and before she could reach for it, Phantom was taking it from the offering servo.

He drew away from her and there was an immediate heat cloying around her spark, making her vent steam. His servos gripped her shoulders, tugging her up gently so that she was sitting up and not half-leaning on the berth and her team.

“Can you lift this yourself?” Phantom asked, holding the cube out to her. She went to grab it, but almost immediately dropped it as white hot arcs of pain shot up her arms and she shook her head to rid herself of the pain. Luckily, Phantom had bracketed her servos with his own and was staring up at her with a concerned expression.

“Just as I suspected. You have some type of infection or virus making your processor project pain every time you move. Do you have any idea who could’ve given this to you or what you contracted it from?” A green, black, and silver mech appeared in her peripheral vision with a scanner.

A memory from their Lord flashed in her processor of him telling her not to tell the Autobots about The Fallen without significant proof or there was a high chance they wouldn’t believe her. Though if they did, there was another high chance that they’d try to fight him, and get the same treatment all of them were.

So, she swallowed the lump in her intake and shook her helm, her wings flicking back just a tad. Her optics looked away from all of them, instead surveying as much of the room as she could as they seemed to quietly converse with each other. 

When she felt the cube leave her servos, she focused more on the three mechs in front of her. Phantom was holding the cube, looking at the green medic with a considering look. He muttered something and Phantom was tapping against her arm in a rhythm.

“Nighlight, do you still have that other virus that Shockwave created the one time?” He asked. She stared at him with narrowed optics, but then remembered what he did for a living and sighed in annoyance.

“Subspace. Second pocket. Shouldn’t be that hard to get.” It felt weird to have another mechs servo in her subspace but she fought past the discomfort as the other brought out a small, thin metallic card with dark gray lines fraying off the edges. 

“And you’re sure this is safe?” The green mech asked. She tried to nod, but winced when the pain built up in her processor and she swatted Phantom as much as she could when he nodded as well.

“It’s as safe as it could be for us.” She explained. Phantom nodded and then stepped behind her. She felt her tilt her helm forward a little and she tensed as his digits ghosted over the sensitive and vulnerable cables there. There was a sharp spark, then all of the sensations disrupting her processor dulled to their lowest setting.

She raised her arm, flexing her digits as a small ping of discomfort appeared in her processor, but she bypassed it, putting it in the ‘deal with later’ file. A cube appeared in front of her face once more and she grabbed it, slowly chipping it open and taking a short sip of it.

“Now that we have that figured out for the time being, where did Highbeam go?” She tensed as she looked around the berth, not finding the color combination she was looking for.

“I saw Pandora walking in here a couple hours ago.” Prime said. Everyone looked at him, their optics wide in surprise or narrowed in exasperation.

“Really Prime?” Nightlight asked, grumbling in annoyance. The mech nodded, then shrugged in a ‘what?’ motion, making her groan.

Chapter Text

He was their leader. Their symbol of perseverance. Their…carer. No, he had been all of those things. After he had crash landed on this wretched organic planet, he had become no more than a mindless drone for the fallen Prime to control.

And now? He was stuck in a ruined rainforest, covered in moss, precipitation, and crumbling like stone as if he were one of the ancient statues the people who resided here had created.

He had to admit, being here wasn’t all that bad. Sure he couldn’t really think because of the copious bouts of fading in and out of consciousness, but at the moment, there was no war to worry about, no Prime invading his processor, telling him the most brutal way to wound his opponent just so they could live in agony before they died.

He still winced when thinking about what he had done to Jazz, a sharp shimmer of regret that coated his spark and thoughts like a film of muck over water.

There was a way to bring him back right?

Who was he kidding? Unicron? It was a fundamental law in their lives, no one could be brought back, even with the aid of the Allspark, unless you knew exactly what you were doing. Millions of things could go wrong, millions of things had gone wrong when trying it in the past, and he had to concede that he was the least likely mech to know what to do and how to do it.

He sighed, a heavy one that seemed to burn from the very center of his spark. Progressively branching out through his energon lines until his whole frame felt like it was burning with the emotions he had kept in check throughout the entirety of the war. Until now of course.

Why was now the time he was showing weakness? Why was now the time he felt all of this? He could’ve used this burning, aching pain in battle, force it to go to someone else, so he wouldn’t have to deal with it.

That’s what he had always done. He did it when he figured out nothing was ever going to change on their planet. He did it when he found out half of his army had been paid to attack and question his every move and glyph just to get a rise out of him. He did it when Orion…when Optimus…when he found out that the mech he loved had known what the council planned to do with him. 

Quickly brushing that train of thought out of his processor, he slumped even more onto the giant structure he leant on, letting his helm roll back and squeezing his servos into fists to ground himself, to help him understand where he was.

Self pity never did him any good. Just like being away from his army for too long never did them any good. He couldn’t just stay here and wallow, he needed to get up.

He needed to get up.

He needed to get up.

He needed to get up.

But that was the thing wasn’t it? He couldn’t. 

He couldn’t get up.

He was stuck. There was nothing that awaited him when he left the planet but ruins till he eventually either died or found a way to get back to New Kaon. 

And there was nothing that awaited him on the damned planet but death by starvation or death by the Autobots and their human pets.

If you asked him, there was really no good way to go about it. But he needed to see his army again. He needed to reassure them he was alright. He needed to finally tell them, ‘it’s okay. We can go home now.’ And then follow up on his promise of taking them home.

His soldiers, his army, deserved so much better than anything he could ever give them. He conceded that. It was why he was trying to change for the better, make himself less hostile and more approachable. He assumed it was working alright, but he had never gotten a definitive answer from anyone before he had needed to go, so he didn’t know.

There was a short lull in his thoughts, a sharp pulse of something traveling through his frame and jolting him somewhat before he collapsed back onto the structure. 

For the longest time, he had always wondered exactly what Primus had thought, letting someone like him ever have a semblance of free will. He had always seemed to screw everything up, and every time he planned something, it never went how he expected it to. He believed the god had a personal vendetta against him for opposing his golden Prime, but he was never able to prove it.

The Allspark. He had been able to prove the favoritism the god had the nano-klick the artifact had been shoved into his spark, and for the barest hint of a moment, he raged. 

He wanted to tear apart everything the precious god had ever cared about just so he would look at Megatron with something other than thinly veiled disinterest, but as he grew used to having the sacred artifact in his chassis he realized one thing.

A god was a god. If they wanted something or someone to win, they would without a single doubt.

There was no getting Primus to look at him. His optics were trained on Optimus and there wasn’t any way Megatron could get any recognition from the god.

Once he realized this truth, it had felt like some type of weight had lifted from his frame, and he was moving before he knew it.

Now…

Now that same weight weighed him down in place. What good was doing something if it wasn’t recognized by at least one, he asked himself. And he seemed to sit there for breems contemplating that very question.

He eventually came to the conclusion that he felt horrible. He knew that many of his Decepticons congratulated him on many of the achievements their army made.

‘All because of our Lord are we still here.’ They’d say when something got turned in their favor. They’d all congratulate each other and smile and laugh because succeeding - winning- something that was more in the Autobots favor than theirs, was an almost miracle.

And they’d congratulate him for this winnings. He did not deserve any of the congratulations his army gave him. It was all their own faults that they succeeded, he rarely had anything in control in those battles besides the over increasing urge to just get his army out and away.

He guessed that feeling, it was one of the things that helped get him going. Helped keep him going as well. 

When he died, his army was light years out of reach and the small battalion he had brought had all either been slaughtered by the Autobots or murdered by the humans. 

The fallen Prime sat on his throne on the celestial body they had landed on waiting for him to come back, he knew, but he also knew that if he did go back, he’d be ripped to shreds almost as mercilessly as he had done to others.

Punishments are supposed to be grievous and all that the Fallen Prime had told him. He couldn’t deny the claim now, for when had his punishments been anything but.

There was a small rustle somewhere beside him and his frame groaned as he struggled to turn his helm, thinking that it was just another one of the giant forest’s local fauna. 

It was not.

It was a human. With a camera. And a backpack. And, were they…? 

They were taking pictures of him.

Just what he needed.

He pushed himself up, or at least, he tried to. He was immediately unsuccessful and collapsed back against the giant statue, feeling it crack. He sighed as he felt the top of the statue lean forward and then stone was crashing onto his face, crumbling on contact.

He growled in exhaustion, frame going completely limp. There was a gentle tap on his arm and his optics flickered on, trying to find a hole that he could see the human from.

“Are you alright?” The voice was timid, incredibly so, but there was an…edge to their voice. As if they genuinely cared. He tilted his helm, the stone slowly sliding off his face as his optics caught sight of the human.

They certainly looked concerned, and there was one of those electronic devices the humans had made from his frame pressed close to their helm. Probably where their audials were since he could somewhat hear a small voice coming from the device.

He just rumbled at the human, turning his helm away.

“Hold on. I’ll get you some help.”

Silly human. He thought, optics darkening as he felt another bout of unconsciousness starting to seep into his frame. There is no more help for me.

Chapter Text

Nightlight paced as she sent out another comm, branching out through the radio towers she had hacked into to try and find the missing mech of their gestalt. She had felt Highbeam briefly, zooming past an almost abandoned radio tower as she had just finished hacking into it, but he was gone before she could even send out a signal. She was left scrambling to try and find him with nothing but reports and his distant feelings.

Phantom(Mirage) stood at the door of the medbay, watching her as her panic slowly grew the harder it was to find her other. He stood there, making sure no one could come in and she couldn’t get out but also trying to comfort her.

“He’ll be okay. Highbeam has the ability of others underestimating him on his side.” He said and Nightlight sealed her derma, trying not to laugh at the truth in the statement. Her vents puffed out warm air and she knew she had lost when Phantom(Mirage) gave her a warm smile. 

But that wasn’t what she was worried about. If Soundwave’s brief reports were to be believed, the Fallen’s ship had been seen entering the solar system and was hovering somewhere close enough to monitor them, while also far enough that nothing they had on the planet could monitor him. If he realized Highbeam was flying out there, alone, without any backup, he’d attack. And their Lord was gone, so there was no one who would be able to save her gestalt member from the Fallen’s ‘conditioning’. 

All of them knew what would happen whenever their Lord intercepted the Fallen’s rage. He’d stumble into the medbay with more dents and scrapes than the being in battle had ever given him. And his internals were worse. He’d be scratched up almost beyond recognition and it took every medic not occupied with something else to make him stable enough to look and act normal.

It was terrifying, and knowing that there was a possibility her other could be subjected to that made her tanks roil.

A hum interrupted her thoughts and she looked over at the other two of her gestalt who were still there. Thunderblade’s optics were slowly opening, her copper wings flaring as her wheels gently spun. Laserquake was sprawled out underneath her, and he reached for her, actually whining when she evaded his grasp and slowly slipped off the large medical berth they had been laying on.

Thunderblade looked around, orange optics dim with exhaustion. She walked over to Nightlight, patting her shoulder before glancing over at Phantom(Mirage) and giving him a tired half-smile. She looked around again, optics scanning the room more, and Nightlight watched as the problem settled into Thunderblade’s processor, her wings jolting.

“Where’s beamer?” She asked, her tired voice sounding way too loud in the quiet room. Laserquake propped himself up, his mask making it seem like he had one singular yellow optic. His mask split in the middle, receding into the side of his helm and revealing his face, which was scrunched in concern, his actual yellow optics glowing.

“Yeah, where is Highbeam?” He asked, voice gravely from not using it for a while. When they both looked at her, she looked down and slowly shrugged. Their concern flashed through the bond as well as through the EM fields, filling the room with worry. When she glanced up, Laserquake was standing, his black and dark silver wings hiking and dropping as his processor reeled.

Thunderblade’s copper wings had risen high, fanning out behind her. Her copper and brass plating flaring as she stumbled back, leaning on one of the many medical benches.

“You mean he’s gone?” She asked, her voice so quiet Nightlight could barely hear it over the sounds of Laserquake’s rumbling engine and Thunderblade’s own hitching one.

“No. He just went flying and I can’t contact him at the moment.” She reassured, walking over and knocking her helm against Thunderblade’s gently. She heard the audible vents of relief from both mechs and smiled, gently petting Thunderblade’s wings to calm her down before walking over to Laserquake and running her digits over his arm to calm him.

For a few minutes, they were all quiet, and then Thunderblade pushed off the medical bench. “Why don’t we just go find him?”

Laserquake perked up at that, sliding off the berth. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, he knows our abilities, knows what we can do. What if we just send him a message he won’t be able to miss?”

“Thunderblade, if you’re thinking about making a giant lightning storm so you can call Highbeam back to base, I’m gonna have to say no to that.” Phantom(Mirage) said, stepping closer to them. Nightlight tilted her helm towards him in a ‘what he said’ gesture.

Thunderblade let out a low whine and Laserquake groaned as they both looked at Nightlight with pleading optics. She raised her servos, wings flicking towards Phantom(Mirage). 

“He’s the one who makes the decisions right now. We’re basically prisoners, he’s the one overseeing us.” She muttered and watched as Thunderblade’s and Laserquake’s pleading expressions turned to him. She covered her intake as Phantom(Mirage) stumbled back, optics wide and intake open as he tried to say something.

She honestly was sorry for having to subject her past ally to what her gestalt mates were doing, but there was some part of her that saw it as payback for having them believe he had died in a battle instead of leaving like a normal spy . 

Phantom(Mirage) bowed his helm, sighing in defeat. “I’ll go talk to Optimus. See what I can do.”

Thunderblade and Laserquake hummed in delight, wings dancing in the air. Phantom(Mirage) just huffed, helm down in defeat. “I’ll be back. Ironhide will be in to monitor you.”

Thunderblade perked up, derma twisting into a smile. “I love Ironhide! He’s always so kind! He gives me a lot of treats whenever I come over when I’m bored.”

Laserquake turned to stare at Thunderblade, optics pinched in confusion. Thunderblade waved him off, accidentally slapping him in the face as she urged Phantom(Mirage) out of the room. “I’ll tell you later.” 

Nightlight puffed some air out of her vents, plating flaring as she watched Phantom(Mirage) leave the room.

Highbeam buzzed as he spun, internally smiling as the human in his cockpit laughed. He zoomed up, spinning towards the sky before transforming and tucking Pandora into his chest as they fell towards the ground. The rushing air had made it hard for her to breathe let alone laugh, but Highbeam could see the giant smile on her face and the joy in her eyes and hummed.

He angled his frame, tucking Pandora into his opening cockpit as he transformed into a jet once more. Pandora laughed once more, trying to catch her breath as she leaned against his seat, face red from both the cold and lack of air. The smile on her face though, made Highbeam buzz with excitement.

[Enjoying the ride?] He asked through his radio, and watched as Pandora looked around the cockpit. He flickered a light on his console and she looked towards it, crawling over the back seat she had landed in and tumbling over the front, her back landing on the bottom of the seat and her legs leaning against the back.

“I really am!” She exclaimed, stretching her hands out and fiddling with some of the buttons and knobs on his console. Highbeam trilled, strapping a belt across the girl's chest before barrel rolling. He righted himself quickly and buzzed once again when he heard the gasping laughter from Pandora.

[Where should we go next?] He asked and Pandora hummed, slowly pushing herself up and contorting her body before collapsing in the seat, sitting with her legs crossed on the bottom of the seat, her head lolling to the side as she leaned on the back of the seat. 

Pandora pursed her lips, tilted her helm as she leaned over to look out the cockpit window. “Well, I gotta go see my siblings and…shit! I was supposed to be going on a mission last week! Damnit.” She groaned, hands rubbing over her face.

Highbeam rumbled, trying to project comfort since the human couldn’t feel his EM field. Pandora groaned, before patting Highbeam’s seat, her frown turning into a little smile.

“Thanks beamer.”

[Of course! So…back to base or more fun?]

“Can we have just a little more fun?”

Highbeam growled his engine before zooming off, twirling around and dipping and soaring. They could spend some more time being young and having fun for a while.

When Phantom returned with a somewhat upbeat expression but his field brimming with exhaustion, Thunderblade stopped hovering over Ironhide and pressuring him to give him more treats, instead landing on the ground and tilting her helm at Phantom.

“Come on.” He said, gesturing them towards the open door he was somewhat guarding. Thunderblade felt a servo grip her shoulder and looked over with a deadpan expression, finding Nightlight giving one of her own. 

[Designation: Nightlight.med]

::You and I both know you have absolutely zero impulse control!::

::I am not risking our other in favor of you flying off and accidentally stabbing someone.::

Thunderblade rolled her optics but raised her servos, a promise flitting over their bond of being on her best behavior. Both of her gestalt mates looked at her, optical ridges raised. She placed a servo over her spark, pushing honesty into both her field and the bond. Laserquake just shook his helm, walking over to Phantom. Nightlight pushed her forward and Thunderblade followed reluctantly, derma pinched into a thin line.

Phantom and Ironhide led them to a large hangar where humans and Autobots resided in abundance. She could see most of the Autobots staring at them warily while most of the humans regarded them with a sort of closed off, monotonous face. Thunderblade’s optics moved to a different human and she startled as she saw the enamored look the human was giving them. 

She tilted her helm at the human, leaning as close to the human as she could with Nightlight’s servo tight on her shoulder. She huffed a burst of air into the human's face and the human lurched back as the warm air slammed into her, blowing her hair back and making her face scrunched. Thunderblade hummed as she looked over the human, optics roving over them as she stepped a little closer. Her vocalizer clicked and she opened her intake to speak and then Nightlight was slowly but firmly pulling her back.

Thunderblade let out a low whine, wings drooping as she glared at Nightlight. Laserquake was standing next to Phantom with a slightly amused smirk as Nightlight started ferrying her away from the human and towards the gathered Autobots.

“Nightlight!” She whined quietly. The femme behind her huffed, field brushing hers with exasperation and amusement as she led her to the Prime.

“You don’t even speak human.” Nightlight muttered and Thunderblade rolled her optics.

“So?”

“You’re insufferable.”

“You’re the one who wanted me in your gestalt.”

“I did, didn't I?” Nightlight murmured, voice distant and fond as if recalling old memories. They stopped before the Prime, and Laserquake came up behind them and walked over to Thunderblade’s other side as Phantom and Ironhide loosely stayed behind them. She was trapped, and she had to restrain the urge to thrash and get away because she was safe.

“Hello again Prime.” Nightlight said beside her and Thunderblade focused on Nightlight's voice and the way she was venting, trying to calm herself down. Her audials started ringing way too early and she clenched her servos, venting in and out to calm herself down.

A servo gently rubbed in between her wings and a burst of comfort filled her processor. Her frame relaxed minutely but enough to not be grinding her gears together and hopefully not be denting her own plating. She could distantly hear Nightlight on her side, talking to Prime, and she dug deep into the bond, swirling around her presence and latching onto it. 

Laserquake was hovering over her and she drew him in as well before reaching out towards her other gestalt mate, trying to thread her own consciousness in the threads of what was left of him. 

Highbeam had been broken from their bond a while ago, after their Lord had disappeared. Too many enemies of their Lord had surfaced all at the same time, and Highbeam had gotten so damaged that no one could fix it. His spark had almost guttered out more than once, and every time it did, it loosened their bond until it was barely there any more. Their bond had become  faint, none of them could feel Highbeam unless he was standing right next to them.

She brushed against the threads once more as she felt Nightlight and Laserquake calling her to respond and then focused on the conversation going on, skimming over her short term memory to try and get some more knowledge at what was going on.

“Are you sure you’d be able to call him back without causing significant damage to the surrounding areas?” The Prime asked, bright blue optics staring at her. Thunderblade blinked up at him, then looked away fluttering.

“That depends, sir. Where are you gonna put me to do this?” She asked, looking back up at Optimus with an unsteady smile.

“There’s a field a couple miles north of here. Once you get past the tree line, grassy land is all you see!” One of the humans interjected and she looked at them, noting their uniform and the small rectangular strip on their breast.

“Yeah, I should be able to contact him without any type of casualties.” She paused, looking at the surrounding Autobots. “You all do know what I’m gonna do, right?”

“Call up a giant storm ta get Beamer’s attention? Yeah, most of ‘em know.” Meister said from beside her. Thunderblade turned towards him with a smile and pulled him into a side hug. She softly swatted his helm before glaring at him.

“Why is it that all of you Autobot spies must kill yourselves off whenever you’re done with a mission? I mean seriously, just leave. You don’t have to ‘die’.” She grumbled, her glare bouncing between Meister and Phantom. Both of them looked down, seeming a little guilty and she vented, turning back to the Prime.

“I mean, seriously. Bad manners.” She said, leaning into him with a servo covering her mouth as if telling him a secret. Prime froze for about two seconds before he was falling into the act.

“I know right? Ugh.” 

Thunderblade looked up at him with a giant smirk, fangs and all, and his optics crinkled at the corners, signaling he was smiling himself. 

“Alright! Can we get a move on? We need to see if Highbeam is having any issues.” Nightlight called from where she was standing next to the open hangar door with Ironhide and Ratchet. Laserquake was between her and Thunderblade, talking to Wheeljack and he looked up at Thunderblade when Nightlight said it.

“Yeah yeah! I’m comin’!” She called, walking over to where Nightlight was. Laserquake stood by her side and gently nudged her, a thread of concern and worry flitting through the bond towards her. She pushed comfort towards him and squeezed his servo, smiling at him.

“We’ll be fine and Highbeam is probably fine as well. He’s probably flying around with the human and they are most likely having the best time of their lives right now.” She reassured, and Laserquake inclined his helm in agreement.

“Alright, let’s go!” Ironhide called, transforming and driving off, Ratchet right behind him. Nightlight jumped up, transforming into her jet form and flying up over the treetops so she could still see them. Laserquake followed her and Thunderblade reluctantly transformed, following them. 

She heard Prime and a few others transform as well, following them and she rolled, field brimming with excitement. If she played her cards right, she might also be able to get a read on where their Lord was.

–

Thunderblade landed in the field, far away from where the others had stopped, and even farther away from the trees. She looked around, admiring the organic ground as she took a few steps forward. 

The air was brimming with electricity, a storm was already brewing, and all she needed to do was harness it. She was always glad when she first experienced a storm on a different planet. It made it easier for her to harness it, easier to copy it and see how it reacted. This was no different.

[Designation: Nightlight.med]

::Be careful.::

[Designation: Laserquake.sci]

::Good luck.::

Thunderblade pushed the comms to the side of her vision, smiling to herself as she raised a servo. Automatically, she felt electricity crackle through her frame, her plating heating up as the insulation between her protoform and her plating started processing the electricity.

The clouds got darker as she curled her servos, drawing the storm closer to her. She took another step forward and raised her other servo, opening it wide. Lightning zapped beside her as the ground rumbled with loud thunder, the now dark gray clouds rolling over them like a curse.

Thunderblade activated her thrusters and flew up, breaching the clouds and hovering in the middle of the storm, watching as lightning slashed through the clouds, breaking them apart briefly before the clouds formed once more. She stretched her servos out, feeling her optics start to burn and closing them as lightning ran through her frame.

When she opened her optics once more, she was everywhere. She was the rain falling to the ground, the clouds slowly moving across the sky, the lightning that struck the ground, and finally, the electricity running through the world. 

She used most of her processor power to find Highbeam, searching for anything that could give her a hint to where he was. She searched the electrical signals of the world, searching for the radio frequency type that Highbeam usually used.

The other part of her processor was used to search elsewhere. She spread out through the ground, traveling through the earth and trying to find their Lord, following the spark trail he had left along with the trail the Allspark had left as well. She followed it to the ocean he had been dropped in, and then towards a forested land mass. When she tried to reach out more, she found she couldn’t sense them anymore and almost screamed in despair.

When she reeled back from that, her processor pinged at her and she focused on it.

::Thunderblade?:: Highbeam’s familiar radio frequency buzzed in her helm and she purred contently, sinking into the dark clouds surrounding her. 

::Get home. Now.:: She called, surrounding him in electrical pulses like wrapping her EM field around him from far away. There was an affirmation and she distantly watched the bright blue and maize jet start following her trail.

Thunderblade receded into her processor again, slowly pulling away from the storm and unhooking herself from the surrounding electricity and clouds before carefully flying down to the ground. When she landed, Nightlight and Laserquake were at her side almost immediately, gripping her arms and helping her stand.

“Did you find him?” Nightlight asked, voice urgent and concerned. Thunderblade nodded, giving her a sleepy smile before leaning on her. 

“He’s coming back. He’ll be a while, but he’s coming back.” She assured. Laserquake’s grip tightened on her arm and she heard him vent in relief as Nightlight wrapped an arm around her waist, helping her stand.

“That’s good. Come on, let’s go back to the base.” She said and Thunderblade perked up, looking over at Ironhide.

“Can I have some more energon goodies?” She asked, optics cycling wide as her field reached out and gently brushed his in question. 

“Sure Stormy. I’ll ge’ ya’ some energon treats.” Thunderblade flicked her wings up in excitement, derma pulling into a soft, fanged smile. 

“Thanks ‘hide.”