Chapter Text
U N I V E R S E - 5 5 5 :
P R I O R T O A L T E R A T I O N
I've been here before.
She could've sworn she...
But that's impossible. This is the first time...
Hm.
The concept of deja vu is a weird one.
To feel as though you had been in a moment before. Like buffering, in real life, where you feel as if you've lived this exact moment but it hasn't happened before now.
Your subconscious is quite literally blaring alarms as if to tell you to remember something that hasn't even happened yet.
Then come dreams, vivid ones that will become reality...
It's not entirely insane to not rule out the idea of endless diverging paths that lead to those moments of flateration. Perhaps in one life you repeat the same mistake, maybe go down the same road, maybe your new version is trying to warn you to divert from other paths taken previously.
Not all can be avoided of course, because canon events exist, right?
You're meant to make mistakes, that's what it is to be human. You'll have to relive this mistake in every reality, every version of yourself.
It's the particularly egregious mistakes that stand out and you imagine remedies to. Perhaps in the next life, maybe another version of yourself will learn from it subconsciously and you'll become closer to who you were supposed to be. The purpose you were destined for.
We all have a purpose.
Some just vary in importance.
Deja vu can save your ass one time after the another if you're not stupid like your other, other alteration who decided to turn their blinders and go-lucky attitude on.
But what if this mistake, the one you relive, is not something you can fix or learn from? What then?
She didn't quite know because, well, this was only a theory.
And there is a theory around the concept of the multiverse–an infinite realm of being or potential of being of which the universe is regarded as part or instance. Trippy to think of theories within theories, but her mind liked to wander.
It's called the "invisible string theory," which implies that fate plays a role in someone meant to be in your life. You'll meet them again, and again, and again, and not just as a fleeting acquaintance but someone so significant to your personal story.
Visually, it was an invisible red thread connecting those who were destined to meet, regardless of time, place, and circumstance. The thread may stretch, it may tangle, but it will never break.
And she couldn't help but find it admirable to dream of.
Isn't it just so pretty to think all along there was some invisible string tying someone to her? Who would it be? Has she met them yet?
Better question.
How the hell does one prove the multiverse exists, let alone the invisible string theory?
She could only hope there was a version of her that didn't have to deal with this shit, because who knew aliens weren't the creepy green guys with big eyes but rather giant, metal robots?
She was twelve years old when the first 'Decepticon,' or so they called themselves, ship touched down on Earth.
By the time tanks, jets and missiles took those that had been inside down, the city of Chicago was in shambles. Tens of thousands of lives were lost, but everybody thought that was it.
Six months later, they realized they were nothing but scouts, and the Decepticon warship entered their atmosphere.
They were nearly impossible to take down, let alone put a dent in the giant metal forces, that they soon realized were aiming to call Earth their home, without humans on it.
The world came together, all facing a common enemy, to pool their resources into a more effective way to fight back against these aliens. All rivalries, trade wars, politics were cast aside for the sake of their world.
What hits metal better than metal itself?
The Talos Program was born.
Derived from Greek Mythology, built by Hephaestus himself–a perfect name for giant robotic beings they built to protect them from those that called themselves Cybertronians.
Setbacks were given at first.
The neural load to interface the Talos proved too much for a single pilot.
That's when they implemented two pilots to share the burden.
The humans were busy actually putting up a fight against Decepticons, and winning quite a lot.
World domination turned into a surface war.
Danger into propaganda.
Decepticons into TV shows and toys.
She had seen plenty herself, and the kids adored the media and many figurines while living in various networks underground.
But every once in a while she couldn't help but wonder if there was a universe in which so-called Autobots existed and continued to keep the Decepticons at bay.
Not that any human could say they've seen one before. The information was only discovered after tapping into a severed head of one of the bots, and news spread fast about those of their kind that used to battle them. Apparently, it was a full-out war on their planet... Cybertron, was it?
To their luck, they didn't exist anymore. Just the memory of whatever scientists found and reported, later turned into various interpretations via TV shows and movies.
She'd kill for their help now, because she was awoken by a blaring alarm filling the once dark room.
"Valkyrie Sin report to Bay 06. Decepticon attack on the front."
"Rhea, wake up!"
Her eyes snapped open, alert but fuzzy as she gathered her bearing in the now flashing red lighting followed by the automatic lights.
But what really woke her up was the blanket being ripped off of her as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes.
"We're being deployed. Real deal now. Better be ready."
She was not, but she wasn't about to admit that out loud.
Instead, she slowly rose out of bed, tension in her shoulders as her personal alarm clock was already tugging off her camo pants and replacing them with the skin-tight ones of their uniform.
"Remember. It's just like our training and field tests,"
Rhea was half-listening, busy stretching her arms above her head–the loud pop of her shoulders a little too loud. She blamed the plastic, thin mattress she was given.
"Only we will actually be kicking Con aft for real."
She chose to ignore the confidence and suffer internally with how much she was a nervous wreck.
"What time is it, Nellie?" she asked instead.
"Three."
"AM?"
"Yup."
Nellie was already suited up, tucking her dog tags into the matching, skin-tight, long-sleeve top while Rhea trudged over to the bathroom.
There were two heavy knocks on the door, someone telling them to hurry up.
With nothing but a closed door between them and whoever was on the other side, she didn't mind flipping them off for rushing her. Nellie laughed, throwing the younger girl's clothes in her direction which she lazily caught.
They suited up quickly, traveling the halls to their respective bay side by side.
One radiant with confidence, immediately called out as they entered the loading dock, "Lets kick some Decepticon aft!"
The other was silent, not outwardly showing that she was anxiety-ridden as she wore nothing but a straight face.
Those working on the deck began to secure the girls in their suits made of fabric, urethane, rubber, synaptic processor mesh, and harvested metal from fallen Cybertronian that was damn near impossible to break. It was stronger than any of Earth's material, so it only made sense to make Drivesuits with it.
The truth was, Rhea was never meant for this.
She felt them snap armor to her back, then her chest, working on snapping her into the parts for her abdomen and legs as she gently lifted foot by foot for each piece to slip into.
Rhea was not a fighter in nature.
Along with the chatter in the room, the buzzing of machines drilling in the suit, snapping on the arm gear, and shoulder-plating, was deafening. In a good way. Best she not be left alone with her thoughts or she might turn tail and run out of here.
She couldn't. Nellie needed her here, and she'd do anything for her.
Shivers ran down her spine as the spinal cord was locked onto the back of the suit, nearly completing the circuitry suit that allowed the connection with the Talos and their human nervous system.
She buried her anxiety underneath this foreign armor as the helmet she was quickly handed, her thumb tracing over the hints of red adorned on the purple plating.
Matched their Talos.
Rhea slipped the helmet over her head, watching as the blue goo in the mask seeped down the moment the airlock sealed, traveling through the suit's circuitry–not that she could feel that.
It was called Relay Gel. Also something new the science guys cooked up that dispersed through the suit and served as a conduit for electrical impulses between the two pilots during the drift.
She couldn't help but wonder if they made it that blue color on purpose, given it was practically the same color their enemies "bled."
The pit in her stomach grew deeper as they entered the helm of the Talos that served as a cockpit, the hum of machinery whirring to life as the two motion rigs lowered down.
Her eyes stared down at her feet as she gently stepped over the gap in the floor and secured her feet into their locks.
It's just like the field test. It's just like the field test.
The motion rigged locked to her back, also securing itself around her right arm, which made her imperceptibly jump.
Blame the nerves. They made her jumpy.
"Good morning, ladies. Surprised to see you alive at this time of morn', Rhea." A familiar voice said over the comm.
Relief filled her at the distraction, practically able to see his smug smile through the tone of his voice alone. She reached toward the center console between them, pressing her comm open so they could hear her.
"Madoc, what are you doing in the control room?"
"I run this place, babe. No place is off limits for me."
"Astryd's gonna kick your ass when she finds out."
"If she finds out," he corrected, "and I never pegged you for a tattle tale, Ms. Stiles."
She grinned wider, teasing right back. "When it benefits me."
"What's the benefit here? You're off fighting Cons, annoyed that I wasn't deployed with you guys by the way. You won't get to see her wrath."
Nellie was the one to press her com this time, "I'm sure she wouldn't mind waiting so she can have an audience to your ass-kicking. Again."
"That's cold."
"Mr. Everhart." A firm voice they knew as their commanding officer suddenly spoke in the background, "You must be lost if you're in the active command room. I suggest you find your way out before I give you further incentive to."
Madoc practically squeaked before turning on his formal, soldier voice when addressing out. "Finding my way out, Sir."
The girls shared a look, stifling their chuckles.
"Good." Madoc was long gone, and he addressed the command room, "Engage drop."
"Valkyrie Sin, reading for the drop." Nellie announced once their entire system was online, followed by the hiss of locks unsnapping from the bay.
The nervous pit in her stomach turned to butterflies as they free-fell for a few moments, clenching her fists together hard.
"Here we go!" Nellie whooped right before the brakes slowed their descent. Yay...
Their bodies jerked at the impact of the helm-cockpit meeting with the rest of the body of the Talos, getting locked in.
"Pilot to Pilot connection protocol sequence engaged." She could hear their voice over the comms as she tried to ignore the whirring charge of Valkyrie Sin coming to life, the Bay doors ahead of them peeling apart.
The platform the robot stood on moved forward, rain and wind suddenly pounding against the outside but not to be felt by the pilots inside. She only felt her stomach swirl as the ships locked onto their Talos and began to lift them into the air, delivering them and many other Talos to the battlefield.
"Prepare for neural handshake."
Hiding how sick she felt wouldn't be a possibility much longer.
"Starting in 15... 14... 13..."
"Ready to step into my head, kid?" Nellie asked, looking over with a small smirk.
Rhea used her humor to cope. "After you. Age before beauty, you fossil."
"I'm only four years older than you."
"And which one of us is closer to being thirty?"
Nellie shook her head and laughed.
"Neural handshake initiated."
The drift.
It was tech-designed in the light of something they discovered with much research on their alien invaders. It allowed scientists to come up with the drift while replicating a version of Cybertonian bonding... only much more temporary. It was used only to pilot.
It still allowed the two pilots' minds to meld together, sharing their memories as they melted into the machine. So they moved as one, not needing to exchange thoughts out loud to fight as a single being.
It was a lot different from bonding, and there was much humans didn't understand, but it was certainly the closest version to it–not that they knew much about bonding and how deep it really was.
All they knew, the deeper the bond between the pilots, the better your Talos did in a fight.
It was why drift compatibility was so important.
Rhea forced herself to take a steady breath, ignoring the memories she just dove into and the feeling of someone else's presence in her skin as she continued. "Right hemisphere, calibrating."
Nellie followed, "Left hemisphere, calibrating."
Despite the machinery hooked to them, they moved with little to no restraint, and entirely perfect synchronization as their Talos followed their every move as they were dropped into the battlefield.
The rain was relentless. It poured like a punishment, turning the ruined streets into rivers and pounding the metal titans like war drums. Lightning cracked across the city's empty skyline, illuminating the battlefield in stark flashes—glimpses of towering Talos units locked in brutal combat, their silhouettes jagged and monstrous through the downpour.
They dodge crumbling buildings, trade blows with Decepticons whose frames scream with alien tech and jagged design. Every punch leaves dents in steel. Every second is a gamble.
Overhead, a roaring screech tore through the storm, followed by gunfire raining down on the Talos preoccupied with the Grounder battles.
With one scan, their systems locked on the purple and black flier, reading as "Skywarp" in their database.
His wings carved the sky, sleek and deadly. Plasma blasts fired from his cannons rained down like comets, ripping craters into the streets, striking down another Talos with a spray of sparks and twisted steel.
They were just thankful that it seemed the rest of his trine was elsewhere in the battlefield.
Inside their cockpit, Rhea flinched as the shrapnel from the blast rocked them, gripping the controls on her secured arm like they might vanish if she let go.
But she watched his movement, almost too fast to follow as he warped from one place to another to surprise troops.
Nellie was busy barking their observations as she geared up for the approaching Con that took notice of their arrival. "Talos Three is down. Four is flanking Dreadlock. Valkyrie Sin approaching combat."
Until the Seeker warped once more, and they instinctively raised an arm when gunfire rained down on them for a short burst as he flew by. Only for the mech previously approaching them to swing.
"I think we're the next target." Rhea noted out loud, referring to Skywarp.
"No shit," Nellie snapped back, fighting with her half of the Talos controls. Her side of the Talos was locked in close combat with a ground-based Decepticon, clawing and ramming against their shielding. "I need you on Skywarp, he's killing out air cover!"
Rhea looked up through the smeared cockpit glass. Skywarp was arcing back into a dive, another attack run. If they didn't take him out soon, he'd tear through the remaining Talos one by one.
"You'll have to do it," Nellie growled. "I'm a bit occupied."
Another missile shrieks past, ripping through a building not far from them. The entire structure collapses, raining debris. Screams from comms. A Talos unit below is crushed under a steel column the size of a bus.
Rhea flinches. The noise, the smell of scorched metal seeping into the Talos—this isn't a simulation. This is real.
She swallowed hard.
She wasn't ready for this...
Sensing this through the drift, Nellie spoke once more, "Rhea, look at me. Look."
Her eyes flicked to her. A rush of assurance flew through the drift, trying to send the confidence she felt in her.
"Breathe. You just gotta line up, and fire. You can do this."
It was not in Rhea's nature to hurt anyone, let alone kill someone. And it was only dawning on her while in the reality of it.
But Nellie pushed her doubts away, and she trusted Nellie.
If Nellie thought this was right, that she could do this, then she would.
Outside, Skywarp dips again, strafing low across the street. But then he warped right in front of them in time for him to shoot a bolt of plasma blasts past their Talos, nearly tipping it the moment Rhea activated the cannon and lifted it.
They both stumbled, being held by the other Con Nellie struggled against.
Rhea closes her eyes for half a beat.
Her breathing slows.
She moves her hands into position with care, recovering from the previous hit as Nellie follows her movements even if Rhea had control over the right hemisphere.
The targeting HUD locks into place—tracking Skywarp's movement in a sweeping arc.
She exhaled.
Focus.
Traced the line of his flight.
Skywarp curled into a dive, arcing down toward the street. He prepared another strafing run—
And fired.
The recoil jolted the entire Talos. The round screamed into the sky and slammed into Skywarp mid-dive. There was an explosion of light, then chaos—his wing twisted, systems sparking.
Skywarp spiraled out of control, shrieking as he transformed last second before crashing into a skyscraper with a deafening roar. The building collapsed at his impact right on top of him.
Rhea blinked. Shoulders sagging with disbelief.
"I hit him," she said, stunned.
"You got him," Nellie said with a proud tone, as if the girl didn't just pull the trigger on a living being. "You brought down a flier on your first try. Not bad for a softie."
Rhea gives a weak laugh, but her hands are still shaking. She's proud—and terrified.
She was finally able to maneuver around the con pinning her, blasting his spark and standing back upright.
Then, movement up ahead.
The mech emerges from the smoke, rising like a demon from a dream. His frame gleams black and blue, rain slipping down his armor in rivulets. He looks up with those burning red optics—aimed right at them.
Barricade.
He walked with purpose. Slow. Confident. His optics glowed with cold menace.
They barely had time to reposition when Rhea spotted something out of place. Something fragile. Something small.
A little girl.
She stood in the middle of the street, soaked, barefoot, crying into a rabbit clutched to her chest. Her eyes were wide, terrified. Lost.
"Nellie," Rhea said urgently. "There's a child. She's right there—she must've been missed during evac." Or her family was trying to live on the surface, stupidly... But she had been that person before. That was a story for another day.
"No, the area's supposed to be cleared—"
"She's right there!"
"We are literally face to face with Barricade right now. We don't have time—"
"We make time!"
Rhea yanked the Talos into a kneel as a charging Barricade was thrown over them with the raise of her side of the Talos. It bought them time.
The street cracked beneath their weight. With shaking hands, she plunged their arm into the ground and punched until the concrete gave way—revealing the mouth of an old maintenance tunnel.
"Go!" she shouted.
The girl stared, hesitated, then bolted, feet slapping through rainwater. She dove into the tunnel just as—
Barricade struck.
He rammed into them with a roar of rage, knocking the Talos backward like a toy. Sparks exploded.
Rhea and Nellie both screamed as alarms blared across their HUDs.
"Brace!" Nellie yelled. "He's going for the--"
Too late.
Barricade leaped onto them, claws shredding the weakened armor. He punched through the shoulder plating and ripped open the cockpit. Wind and rain poured in, chaos and fury.
Rain slammed into her face like needles and wind howled inside, a roar that deafened her as alarms screamed and sparks flared around her.
Everything blurred—Nellie yelling her name, warning lights flashing red, the storm outside surging in like a beast unleashed.
The protective shell of their Talos, their armor, their safety, had been ripped away, and now there was nothing between her and the Decepticon outside.
Rhea barely had time to look up before she saw him.
Barricade's face filled the opening—massive, angular, monstrous. His optics were cold, a predator's stare. She froze. Something primal locked her in place.
Run.
Move.
Do something.
But she couldn't.
Terror iced through her body, a scream trapped in her throat as a massive claw reached in.
And then—
He grabbed Rhea.
Tore her out like a ragdoll, as though the universe was punishing her for the mistake of stepping out on this battlefield. She hurts, and it'll hurt her right back.
Nellie screamed. "RHEA!"
She could only watch it all from the torn cockpit—helpless as the girl she called a sister was murdered in front of her, feeling every bit of Rhea's helplessness, terror, and pain before the drift was snapped.
Her scream broke the storm. "NO!"
Thunder boomed as lighting zipped across the sky, as if the universe was stamping a period on yet another mistake repeated in time.
Across thousands and thousands of versions of herself that had gone through this before, different versions and realities across the multiverse, every single one ended the same.
Some might think her purpose was merely to die, to push the girl she saw as a sister forward through it, to die in the name of sacrifice.
And yet, the universe had other plans for her beyond such. A fate bigger than she could know rested on her shoulders the moment something... changed.
It would only take an alteration and the soul attached to the other end of the string to draw this purpose to the surface.
Because the Autobots were never meant to be in Universe-555, nor were they meant to see how Rhea's story played out before that invisible string drew her close in their own universe, and those two facts alone would change everything.