Chapter Text
Deep in Cybertron, flashes of transwarp energies flickered throughout the planet. Autobots would complain about important objects falling through them; pens, tablets, pagers, cups, small things.
No one noticed the small portals deeper down, in the sewers, the back alleys, the waste disposal sites. Bits of trash and gunk seeping through before the energy fizzled out.
And no one noticed when a portal opened and a blue cube fell through, only to vanish from sight.
---
“Sari, you’ve been cooped up in this old warehouse for days.” Professor Sumdac started to say, gesturing around the Autobot’s home base. “I know things have…” he struggled for words. “ ...changed. But you still need sunlight and fresh air-”
Sari was nestled deep into a beanbag, covered in blankets, and playing with a small handheld.
It had been a week since her Upgrade, and a week since her new body was overloaded and nearly destroyed all of Detroit. Ratchet had managed to ‘rewire’ her, (whatever that meant) and had instructed her to rest.
She repeated Ratchet’s orders. “Ratchet told me to rest.” she muttered, sounding exhausted. No, not exhausted, she sounded almost…subdued. Very little emotion.
He sighed and pat her head. She was still his little girl, and that would never change. “You can rest and get some fresh air, you know.”
“Mhm.” Despite her clear disinterest, she leaned into his touch.
Professor Sumdac visited often. Sari had grown comfortable here, and with her recovery, it was advised she stay a bit longer. But even with his relatively brief visits (Sumdac Systems had fallen so far in his absence), he could sense this awful unease in the old warehouse. The Autobots were so tense and focused, and his poor Sari was so passive…
“A daytrip?” Prime repeated, sounding a little surprised and confused at the notion.
“I know things have been hectic. And I am unsure how things work where you are from. But I have seen you all working so hard, and I have seen Sari hiding away in her room…” Sumdac trailed off, glancing in the direction of her room.
(How grateful he was that they stepped in to care for her. How wonderful it was that these massive robots were part of his little family.)
“...but perhaps a break would be nice?”
Optimus Prime seemed to mull this over, standing back up to his full height.
“Uh, Bossbot?” Bulkhead quietly interjected. “I think…I think a break would be nice.” He glanced down at his servos. “I've been seeing bridge parts even when I recharge.”
“I wouldn't mind getting away.” Added Prowl. “We could find a nice spot with some trees on the beach, to get away from the hustle and bustle.” There was a pause. “It’d be good for Sari. Take her mind off things.”
Prime hummed at this. “I suppose a break would be good for all of us. Professor Sumdac, will you be joining us?”
“Oh, I would love to! Really, I would. But Powell left quite a mess that I am still cleaning up. And…” He shifted from one foot to another, clearly anxious. “And…forge some documents for her. I didn’t know it would be a problem…but I also didn’t think I would be kidnapped by Megatron.”
Bee snickered. “It’s not exactly something you can predict huh?”
Prime rolled his eyes. “I don't see the harm in taking some time to rest. It could be good for us. Good for Sari. Take everyone’s processors off things.”
---
Sari stuck her head out of Bee’s window, feeling the wind in her hair. She did have to admit, it was nice to get some fresh air.
“That’s not very safe, Sari.” Prowl scolded, coming up to Bumblebee’s side.
“Oh, she’s fine , Prowl.” Bee huffed. “Leave the kid alone.” Then, choosing to ignore the motorcycle, he asked, “Sari, what do you wanna do when we get to the lake?”
“Uhm…” she found herself staring at the clouds drifting by. Were the colors always this saturated? Were her eyes upgraded too? If she thought hard enough, could she make a little HUD appear, like a video game? “...maybe skip some stones?”
“Don’t worry, we’ll find something actually fun.” Bee assured her.
They had picked a secluded little beach, because the Detroit locals might be used to the Autobots, but other humans were…not. Best to not be disturbed.
“This is perfect.” Bulkhead said, mostly to himself, planting himself on the shore and setting up one of his canvases. “I don’t have much experience with landscapes.”
Prowl leaned over his shoulder. “You know, some humans actually paint on rocks? I'm not quite sure of the purpose, but I could imagine you enjoying it.”
“I dunno, rocks are a bit small. Might be tricky.”
Bumblebee huffed, setting Sari down as he turned to the two of them. “You two are so boring! We get a day off and you talk about painting? And rocks??”
“Well in truth,” Prowl started to clarify, “I plan to explore the lake bed to see the local wildlife and plants-”
“BORING! Sweet Primus, you two are so boring! Sari, let’s get away from these two.”
“Actually…” Sari shifted her feet in the sand. “I think I wanna walk around. Stretch my legs. Maybe poke at some crabs.”
Bee gestured to her. “Look what you’ve done! You two bore-bots are rubbing off on poor Sari! She’ll be boring forever!”
Bulkhead ignored him. “Hey Sari, if you find any good rocks to paint on, bring them back.”
“And don’t go too far.” Prime added. “Stay close by.”
“Aye aye, bossbot.” she said with a salute. “Do you want good rocks too?”
“...well, if you want.”
Sari left, with Bee’s whining growing more distant. It had been some time since she had visited the lakefront…actually, she was unsure if she had ever visited the shore before. It was…peaceful.
She could just turn off her brain for a few hours. Wander the shore, play in the sand, pick up rocks and marvel at small pools of water. There were no Decepticons, no weirdo in spandex, no explosions, there was nothing to worry about.
Sari returned to her little family after a few hours, arms laden with various rocks. “How do these look?”
Bulkhead paused in his painting - wow, he had gotten a lot done - and inspected the rocks she presented. “These look great, thank you Sari.” He carefully selected one of the larger ones (still tiny to him) and held it in his servo. “...I might be able to paint this. I have been wanting to practice small details.”
She smiled. Things felt good. Things felt… normal.
Glancing around and seeing a lack of robots, she asked, “Where is everyone?”
“Ratchet’s taking a quick recharge behind the trees, even though he says he’s not. Prowl’s underwater, Bumblebee went to race on the streets, and Bossbot went after him.” Bulkhead explained. “I think Prime wants to leave before it gets dark.”
“But, but, we won’t see the stars! Or the moon! And-and I think the lake gets fireflies!”
Bulkhead smiled at her. “Wow, it's been a bit since you've sounded so excited! Guess you were all cooped up. I bet you can convince Prime to stay a bit longer. Do those dog eyes, he can't say no to that.”
“Puppy dog eyes?”
“That's it.”
Prime and Bee would return shortly after, with Prowl emerging from the lake only slightly covered with aquatic plants.
Sari immediately ran to Prime. “I don't wanna go yet! The stars are going to be so bright and I wanna see fireflies!” and she pulled the best puppy dog eyes she could.
He couldn't stop the smile at her hopeful little eyes. “Well…I guess we can stay for a bit longer.”
“I'm gonna DIE OF BOREDOM.” Bee shouted from behind. He was immediately pelted with rocks and aquatic plants from the other robots.
Sari sat on the sand and watched as the sun dipped into the lake. She could see the stars start to twinkle in the dark blue sky and the little green flashes of fireflies on the shores.
“Ooh, that's a way better sky.” Muttered Bulkhead, starting to mix a dark blue to alter his painting.
Prowl sat on the edge of the shore near a still recharging Ratchet, motionless, allowing the fireflies to slowly approach him.
Bumblebee crossed his arms over his chassis. “...this is pretty. Whatever.”
Optimus Prime took the opportunity to sit next to the little girl. “So.” He began, immediately sounding awkward. “How are you feeling?”
Squishing the sand between her fingers, she didn't answer right away. “Uhm…I feel a little…good. I feel good. It was nice to get outside. I still feel…weird. About everything. Uhhh…”
Prime cleared his throat. “I can only imagine. You know you can talk to us about anything. We'll listen.”
Sari was looking up at a twinkling star, one that looked…not right. Like it wasn't supposed to be there. She had no real experience with astronomy, this was more of a gut feeling.
“...Sari?”
“Does that star look weird to you, Bossbot?”
“What?”
“That star.” She pointed at the star, slowly standing as she did so. “It's…not right. It's a different color…?”
Prime frowned as he inspected it. He, too, was no expert in astronomy, but he had seen enough stars to know something was wrong. “...Prowl. Get Ratchet out of recharge. I think our day off is over.”
The Autobots and Sari began packing their things, all of them keeping their optics on the twinkling star that was growing bigger by the minute.
It wasn't a star.
It was something falling. Falling very quickly.
“What is it?” Asked Bumblebee as the five of them sped down the roads to try and keep up with it. “It’s not moving like it's flying, its-”
“It's Cybertronian.” said Sari, almost in a whisper as she stuck her head out the window. It was a feeling, deep inside her. The thing falling from the sky was Cybertronian. This she knew.
“Sari, please,” Prowl started to say. “That really isn't safe-”
“What is something from Cybertron doing falling onto Earth?” Ratchet grumbled. “I don't want to spend the last few mega cycles of my day off cleaning up space trash!”
“It's not space trash either.” She insisted. “I can feel it. I can feel it…I dunno how-”
The falling star began to rapidly lose altitude, flickering red and white as it gained speed.
“Autobots! After it!” Prime put on his sirens and took the lead, the rest of the team following with their own sirens and lights.
The falling star zoomed past them with a rumble, crashing into the grassy meadow ahead of them with a brilliant glow.
They veered off the decently paved roads and into the fields, stopping at the (relatively small) crater’s edge.
“Everyone, stay alert.” Said Prime. “We don't know what this thing could be-”
Sari opened Bumblebee's door and lept out, nearly stumbling over her own two feet as she raced to the crater's edge and started to slide down.
At the very center of the impact site was…a cube of metal. Slightly singed and hissing from the heat, it was composed of light and dark blue metals, crushed and squished into a relative cube shape a bit larger than she was tall.
Sari briefly thought of car crushers in Detroit, used to crush old, broken down cars to become more compact.
But as she looked closer, she saw something in one of the larger cracks in the cube. And upon realizing what it was, her blood ran cold.
The cube’s gleaming, sluggishly-beating spark.
This was an autobot at one time. A robot with thoughts and feelings and hopes and dreams, crushed into a cube.
Something compelled her to reach out. The same feeling that told her the falling star was Cybertronian was now urging her forward, guiding her hand to rest on one of the sides of the cube-
A crackling of electricity surged through Sari and the cube. She squealed, using her other hand to try and cover her eyes from the light. The cube's spark, which had barely moved, began to rapidly twitch and pulse.
“Hello hello? Anyone-there-anyone-hear-me? Can't-see-can't-feel-can't-hear-hello? Hello? Dark-can't-see-can't-hear-hello?-SOS-SOS-SOS-need-help-need-help-”
Sari yanked her hand away, glancing around for the owner of the frantic voice. Nothing. All she could hear was the whistling of the wind and her family above, asking if she was alright.
“I heard a voice!” She shouted back. “Something's wrong! He says he needs help, but I don't see him!”
“Stay put, kid!” Ratchet called out. “I'm coming down.”
She absentmindedly put her hand back on the cube.
“-can't-move-can't move-why-can't-I-move? Where-am-I-can't-remember-SOS-SOS-SOS-”
The voice had returned…inside Sari’s head? She turned back to the cube, connecting the dots on her mind.
No, the cube was trying to reach out. The cube was talking to her.
“I'm here! I'm here! I'm listening, I can hear you!” She shouted, both hands on the cube now. “Can you hear me?”
There was a moment of hesitation from the cube, but only for a moment. “Yes-hello-hi-I-can-hear-you-loud-and-clear-loud-and-clear-where-am-I-can't-see-can't-hear can't-feel-can't-move-where-am-I-hello-hello-”
“It's OK! It's OK. It's OK.” She repeated, trying to talk over his frantic messages. “What's your name?”
“Blurr-my-name-is-Blurr-I'm-an-intelligence-agent-for-the-Elite-Guard-I-was-reporting-to-Longarm-Prime-who-attacked-me-and-I-don't-remember-don't-remember-can't-remember-hello-hello-my-name-is-Blurr-”
That sounded…oddly familiar. Weirdly familiar. Why did some of that sound familiar?
She could mull over this later. More importantly, Ratchet had finally joined her in the crater, trying to dust off the dirt from sliding down.
“Alright, kid. What kinda space junk-” Ratchet started to say, until his eyes fell upon the cube and its beating spark. Horror set into his features. “Oh sweet Primus-”
His eyes darted to Sari and her hands on the cube. Ratchet reached down and yanked her away. “Don't- Don't touch that, Sari. Just…don't look.”
He sounded so distant. And when she looked into his eyes, it looked as though Ratchet was far, far away.
She squirmed in his grip. “Ratchet, no, wait! It's OK! Put me back!” She could only imagine how Blurr felt; if he couldn't hear, couldn't see, couldn't feel, and could only understand her when she was touching the cube…what was that like?
Ratchet put a servo to his comm link. “Prime. I need you down here. This…this is bad. This is real bad. I haven't seen this since…”
“We'll be down in a second.”
“Just you, Prime. The young bots don't need to see this.”
Ratchet was talking like Blurr was dead. But she had heard him! Spoken to him, even! Sari had seen death, she had watched Prime die before her very eyes.
Blurr wasn't dead. And she wasn't going to let him die, either.
“He's not dead! He's not dead!” She insisted, trying to squeeze out of his grip. “I talked to him! I heard him call for help!”
“Kid…” Ratchet began to say, sounding so gentle it was almost sickening. “I know you think we're invulnerable, but we're not.”
Optimus slid down the crater walls, briefly glancing at Ratchet and Sari before turning to the cube. He, too, seemed shocked and horrified. “Th…that's…that has a spark, but…”
“Only a Decepticon could've done this. I haven't seen anything like this since I was on the field.” Ratchet said in a quiet hiss.
Prime didn't reply, only putting a servo to his faceplate.
Ratchet might not believe her. But Prime might.
“He's not dead! I heard him!” She continued to insist. “Prime, you have to believe me! There was electricity, and I could hear him calling for help-!”
“You could hear him?” He asked, sounding skeptical, but not terribly so. “Sari, that's…it's hard to believe. You're positive?”
“Prime, you can't seriously believe-”
“Well, she brought me back, didn't she?”
Metaphorical foot in the door, Sari vigorously nodded. “Yes! Yes I did! I put my hand on the cube, and I could hear him in my head! He doesn't know where he is or what happened, but he's calling for help and-”
Prime hesitated, looking at the cube with clear discomfort. “And you're certain?”
“ Super certain.”
Ratchet finally set her down, to talk to Prime one-on-one. “What do you propose, then? We just…take the thing home?! Load it up on your truck bed?”
“We can't just leave it here, Ratchet. It'd be cruel and disrespectful.”
The medic had no rebuttal for that and fell silent.
Sari, finally freed, ran back to the cube. “Hear that? We're going to take you back!”
“You're-back-where-did-you-go? Take-me-where? Where-is-here? Where-am-I? Who-are-you?”
“He sounds…scrambled.” Sari looked up at Prime to explain. “Confused. He doesn't know where he is.”
Ratchet scoffed. “If what you said is true, I wouldn't be surprised if his processor is still functioning.”
“You're going to fix him, right?”
Ratchet and Prime looked at one another. Sari knew her autobot family well enough to know they were silently communicating over a frequency that she couldn't hear.
“Let's get it back to the base first.” Prime eventually answered.
“...can I at least ride with him, so I can keep him company and answer his questions?”
Another pause of silent communication. Finally, Ratchet transformed into vehicle mode and grumbled, “I'll take the thing, you can ride with me.”
“Thank you! Ratchet you're the best!”
“Get the thing in the back before I change my mind.”
Prime took a moment before picking up the cube, then tried to actually physically touch it for the least amount of time possible. But he still took care in placing the cube in the back of the ambulance. Sari clambered in after, not wanting to leave Blurr alone for so long.
Ratchet closed his doors. “Prime, you can explain this to the others.”
He sighed. “Thank you, Ratchet. I will.”
Sari tuned out the upset mutterings of Ratchet and the tired sighs of Prime. She placed her hand onto the Blurr Cube, feeling a soft, warm crackle of electricity as she did so.
“Can you still hear me?” She asked, softly.
“Still-hear-you still-hear-you. Still-here. Why? Who?”
“Sari.”
“Why-sorry? You-do-not-sound-like-Longarm-Prime-nor-Shockwave-I-don’t-think-you-were-involved-why-sorry?”
She couldn’t help but smile. “No, it’s my name. Sari.”
“Oh-I-see-I-see. Well-I-don’t-not-really-can’t-see-a-thing-a-thing-not-a-thing-where-are-we-where-are-we-going?”
“We’re gonna take you back to the base. We’re gonna try and fix you up.”