Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

After falling through death and swallowed by darkness, you were reincarnated as a living metal in Cybertron. But things grew complicated--tragic, even. In every path you chose, every mistakes you made, pulled you back to the very beginning of your life once more. 

You learned to be cautious. To keep your distance, you began avoiding the characters you once knew, not out of hatred, but of fear that knowing meeting them again would reset everything, that they would bind you to another loop of loss and regret.

All you ever wanted was to live a life with them, but things aren't yours to decide. 

You don't even belong here. And you never will.

Chapter Text

A spark.

A surging energy of life and soul.

With one's capability to assert themselves to reality of another, they might as well adjust to its beliefs and environment. But that was just one of your options to survive as a person. As what you believe that you are your own person. 

But what if, the options you had to survive, had its consequences?

Veiled in a vast expanse of darkness, an orb, far from your reach--though, you never sought to find the reason of your desperation to be close to it.

Your limbs dangling through the air, floating peacefully as you are surrounded be an empty abyss and twinkling dots of lights. But it seems you felt yourself slowly moving towards the blue orb.

You didn't pay much attention on everything but the orb ahead of you. A low resonance rippled through the void--that only you could sense at that moment. 

It calms you deeply, cradling you towards your end point like being carried by the hands of an entity. A hand of somewhat from a god who guides you caringly after the battles you'd faced during your wake.

As you slowly drifted towards your fate, you'd raised your arm mindlessly reaching it. You drew in a soft breath, sighing as you felt the orb shimmered as its light touches your finger tips, and slowly crawling towards your hand.

You closed your eyes in contentment, taking in the radience of the sphere. The soft current of energy whooshed gently, as if the space you were in exhaled. The dusts of light swirled around you until it came in contact with you along with the blue orb blocked your vision before you were in darkness again.

At that moment, you were woken up by realization and consciousness. You were confused as to why you were in such state in an empty, dark place.

Why you couldn't move your limbs? Why you couldn't open your eyelids when you're already awaken?

"System initializing. Operational parameters loading." A robotic voice resonated within your mind--processor?

A blue window tab was shown in your vision as dots moved in order, presenting a loading cycles before it disappears, replaced by a new tab.

"Designation: Awaits Verification."

"Huh? What?"

After some tabs showing right after another, a short beep sounded before the system activated your vision, showing pixelated arrangements before the view becomes vivid.

The first thing you see was a two metal shaped bases. You feel yourself humming on the inside, like a machine turning its gears for activating its movements. You intended to move yourself when you saw the bases beneath you jerked lightly.

It scared you that it might have felt your presence. So you moved again slowly only to make it worse when the left base turned its point to the direction you thought to move.

This gave you the idea that it might be a part of you but that wouldn't be possible since you'd never had them in the first place.

Minutes drifted by, in silence, you moved your vision away from the bases beneath you, shifting your sight straight up. 

The moment you moved them, you seen yourself inside of a lab--or an abandoned hospital?

Taking in the vision of a foreign elements, you roamed your eyes--optics in every corner of the room--debris everywhere, dusts and metal limbs?

The fact that it was all metal, cold-looking--you felt your insides moving on its own, making a noise of low whirring as what you knew that you were having an anxiety attack.

Even making it worse to your core, you catched yourself venting statically. You gasped as you heard yourself.

Your voice sounds.... mechanical.

Fear flashed before your very optics as you abruptly pulled yourself out from your resting position. Loosing your footing, you fell on the floor, your body echoing with the cry of metallics heavy joints you never possessed before.

"Uh--ugh..."

Placing your hand against your head, you froze halfway from the floor, wondering why your hand felt so...rigid. With your mind adrift for a moment, you unconsciously raised your head, and found yourself staring at your hand. You gaped, forcing yourself upright.

Standing felt unreal as derealization at its best. Then, a loud thud cut through the silence, and you stumbled back, crashing into your back before scrambling away again.

Metallic thuds echoed closer through the opened doorway. Each step growing heavier as you stared, frozen in horror, waiting for your doom as the shadow stretched across the floor. 

In a sudden urge of instinct, fueled by determination, your hand--er...servo darted for one of the nearby objectives.

You slung it towards the creature, its head just beginning to peek through the doorway before it jerked back, and the object smashed against the wall.

"Woah! What--" it spoke, its voice sharp yet oddly human. As it stepped into the doorway, it's head tilted toward the broken object, then slowly turned to face you.

They stood their unmoving, staring at you with its single optic. Their metal color scheme was a light blue, and their form featured clawed limbs--resembling a Cybertronian in its deformed protoform--

'....Whirl..?'

"That small? You could have at least threw bigger than that, brat," he scoffed, tilting his head as if your aim didn't surprise him in the least.

Even though you'd known him from the comic, you couldn't shake the fear, remembering that he was somewhat aggressive in the past--and that the war had only hardened him.

But your thoughts were interrupted as he aimed his weapon at you. Light burst from the tip of the gun, and before you could fully move, it discharged--slamming through your shoulder joint with a metallic crack. 

You whimpered, startled as your back hit the slab you'd been lying on, before scrambling to the far corner while covering your wound with your other servo.

"Alert: Shoulder Pads Compromised/ Damaged. Potential Threat Detected. Recommended Protocol: Initiate Defensive Maneuvers."

After the reminder showed in your vision, you felt your other arm shift. A startled gasp escape your dermas as you saw a gun forming on your arm. 

Your body trembled as you whipped your arm, desperate for it to disappear, but the moment the tip began to glow, you didn't hesitate.

Without a second thought, you aimed it down at  Whirl, optics instinctively darting away.

"I'm sorry!" You shouted just before your gun shot at Whirl's pede.

The blast was so fast that its beam cut through the darkness, casting a sudden, piercing light that seared both your visions.

"ARGGG!" 

Whirl spun around, slamming his back against the wall. Above him, the lid of a vent burst open, sending wires tumbling down, tangling around his helm as he flailed.

This made you bolt, sprinting through the other doorway. You heard him shout something behind you, but you knew better than to linger.

"Warning: System parameters exceeding safe limits. Maintain operational stability to prevent thermal failure."

The body you possess began to overheat, forcing you to vent. You could feel the tension within your body parts like it was forming a lump of air.

It wasn't anything like the sensation you felt as a human--this was alien, and now it was just so unnerving and overwhelming. As you felt like you are going to explode due to the pressure within you.

"Reminder: Elevated Stress Levels Detected. Recommended Activation of Pressure-Release Procedure."

You ignored everything around you, focused only on running. The pounding of your pedes against the floor was defeaning. 

"Reminder: Elevated Stress Levels Detected. Recommended Activation of Pressure-Release Procedure."

Accompanied by seams hissing out smoke and the relentless clanging of metal on metal. Up ahead, a light pierced the darkness, and for the first time in what felt like forever, after waking up, a rush of relief and joy surged through you--that you're finally about to leave the shadows behind. 

"Alert: Stress Levels Have Reached Maximum Threshold. Predicted Consequences: System Shutdown In 5 Seconds."

"5........4.."

"No! Please, I'm almost there!" You prayed as you're about to reached the exit, putting more pressure on your systems without noticing it.

"....3..."

You leapt through the exit, tumbling down the slope before finally sprawling flat on the ground. Dust swirled around you, settling as you caught your breath. Gritting your denta, you hissed as you put pressure on your wound to stop the leakage.

"...2.."

"...1."

You lifted your helm and pushed yourself up with one arm--only to be jolted by a surge of electricity, and darkness claimed you once again.

"Estimated Time To Regain Consciousness: Approximately 1 Hour And 30 Minutes."