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(Y/N)’s POV
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If there was one thing I had learned after being accidentally stranded in the Transformers universe, it was that surviving giant alien robot wars was somehow less stressful than not knowing what happened next.
Which was saying something.
I sat on the hood of an old truck outside the Autobot base, staring out at the field in front of me and trying very hard not to have an existential crisis.
Unfortunately, I was having an existential crisis.
A pretty big one.
The kind that came with dramatic staring, excessive overthinking, and the growing urge to bury my face in my hands and scream.
See, for the last few years, I'd had an advantage that nobody else had.
I knew the movies.
Not every tiny detail, obviously. I wasn't some walking Transformers encyclopedia. But I knew enough.
I knew Lockdown was coming.
I knew KSI was shady.
I knew Optimus was going to leave Earth and become brainwashed.
I knew Quintessa was bad news.
I knew Megatron was about as trustworthy as a shark wearing a fake mustache and insisting it was actually a dolphin.
It had given me a baseline. A rough roadmap.
But now?
I groaned and dropped my head back dramatically.
"Movie six hasn’t come out yet."
The words sounded ridiculous when I said them out loud.
Yet they were absolutely horrifying.
"There is literally no movie six."
I sat upright again, pointing accusingly at absolutely nobody.
"Who stops a franchise on a cliffhanger?!"
The universe, unsurprisingly, had no answer.
I sighed heavily.
For the first time since arriving in this world, I had absolutely no clue what was waiting around the corner.
No spoilers. No trailers. No script.
Nothing.
And somehow that terrified me more than fighting Decepticons ever had.
Because Decepticons, at least, usually had the courtesy to announce themselves before trying to kill you.
Unfortunately for me, apparently giant alien robots were way better at noticing emotional distress than actual humans.
I was still sitting on the truck, deeply invested in my personal mental breakdown, when a familiar voice spoke from behind me.
"You have been distant today."
I nearly jumped out of my skin and whipped around so fast that I almost slid off the hood.
Optimus Prime stood behind me, blue optics focused entirely on me.
And wow.
You'd think after years of traveling with the Autobots I'd be used to that.
I was not.
Especially when he had that look.
The concerned one.
The one that always made me feel like he could somehow see directly through every excuse I was about to make.
"I'm fine," I said immediately.
Optimus stared.
I stared back.
"..."
"..."
"..."
"That was unconvincing," he said.
I groaned.
"You're impossible."
"I have been called many things. Impossible is a new one."
Despite myself, I laughed.
Only Optimus Prime could say something that accidentally sounded funny while remaining completely serious.
His expression softened slightly.
"What troubles you?"
For a moment, I considered dodging the question. Then I remembered who I was talking to.
There was absolutely no point. Optimus could probably detect anxiety from three zip codes away.
So I sighed and gave up.
"It's stupid."
"If it concerns you, then it is not stupid."
Why was he like this?
Why did every conversation with him sound like it belonged in a motivational poster?
I looked away, staring out at the distant treeline.
"It's just..." I hesitated. "I've always known what was coming."
When he didn't interrupt, I continued.
"Not exactly. Not every detail. But enough."
I picked at a scratch on the truck's hood.
"When I first got here, I knew about Lockdown. I knew about KSI. I knew about Quintessa." I laughed nervously. "Honestly, I knew way too much."
"You used that knowledge to help us."
"Yeah, but that's the problem."
I looked up at him.
"For years I've had this baseline. A roadmap. Every time something crazy happened, I could tell myself that I knew roughly where the story was going."
My smile faded.
"But now we've passed the last movie that came out so far."
The words sounded ridiculous.
Yet saying them out loud made the fear feel more real.
"I don't know what's next anymore."
For a moment, Optimus was silent…and that is not good.
Because if Optimus Prime didn't immediately know how to fix my problems, then maybe I was doomed.
For a few moments, neither of us said anything.
I sat on the truck, feeling ridiculous for being worried about something as stupid as running out of movies, while Optimus stood beside me looking thoughtful.
Finally, he spoke.
"(Y/N), when you first arrived here, you carried knowledge that none of us possessed."
I nodded.
"Yeah."
"You used that knowledge to protect others."
"I tried my best.”
"You saved lives."
I shrugged awkwardly.
"I mean, most of that was teamwork with you guys."
"That does not make it any less significant."
There it was. The Optimus Prime effect.
The man – well, Cybertronian – could make freaking make ordering lunch sound inspirational.
He continued.
"But there is something I do not understand."
I glanced up at him.
"What?"
"Why do you believe the future is yours alone to carry?"
I blinked.
"...What?"
"The burden you place upon yourself."
His voice remained gentle.
"You speak as though it is your responsibility to know every danger before it arrives."
I opened my mouth.
Then closed it. Then opened it again.
"...Okay, when you say it like that, it sounds slightly unhealthy."
"Slightly?"
"Oh, don't start."
To my horror, I heard the beginning of a laugh in my own voice.
Optimus continued anyway.
"For years, you have worried about threats before they appeared. You have carried this responsibility alone."
His optics met mine.
"But you were never meant to."
Something in his expression softened.
"Whatever future awaits us, it is not yours alone to face."
I swallowed.
Why did his speeches always do this to me?
How was I supposed to defend myself emotionally when he sounded like that?
"You worry as though the fate of two worlds rests upon your shoulders."
I stared at him.
Then raised an eyebrow.
"...Says Optimus Prime."
There was a long pause…
A very long pause.
Finally, Optimus nodded.
"That is a fair observation."
I burst out laughing.
"There it is! Finally! Self-awareness!"
Even Optimus seemed amused.
Just slightly.
The tiniest smile crossed his face.
Then his expression became serious again.
"(Y/N), you are no longer merely a visitor in this world."
My laughter faded.
"You are part of this family."
For a second, my chest tightened.
"Family?" I asked quietly.
"Yes."
The answer came without hesitation.
"You are one of us."
And for reasons I absolutely did not want to examine too closely, hearing him say that meant more than it probably should have.
"Whatever comes next," Optimus continued, "we will face it together."
“Thank you…I’m going to head back to the house now.”
He gave me a gentle nod, and we both walked out separate ways.
By the time I got back to the house, I was feeling considerably better. Not great, exactly. I was still stranded in an alternate universe with no way home, living alongside giant alien robots who regularly found themselves in the middle of world-ending disasters. There were definitely still things to be stressed about. However, after talking to Optimus, my anxiety had dropped from full-scale catastrophic panic to mildly concerning overthinking, which was a significant improvement by my standards.
The moment I stepped inside, I was greeted by the familiar sound of arguing.
"You can't seriously think that made sense!" Izabella exclaimed from the living room.
"It made perfect sense!" Cade shot back immediately.
"It made no sense whatsoever!"
"It did!"
"It didn't!"
"Did!"
"Didn't!"
I sighed heavily and dropped onto the couch beside Vivian.
"Good to know some things never change."
Vivian smiled knowingly. "You've been gone for approximately three hours, and they've spent at least two of those arguing."
"I heard that!" Cade protested.
"That doesn't make it less true," Vivian replied.
Honestly, it felt nice. For so long, my life had consisted of running from explosions, warning people about evil plans, and trying to prevent disasters before they happened. Sitting on a couch listening to Cade and Izabella bicker over a movie felt strangely comforting. It was normal. Well, as normal as anything could be in a household that included Autobots parked outside.
The movie eventually started, and before long we were all completely invested. Of course, by "invested," I mostly mean we spent the entire runtime making fun of it.
"The villain literally explained his entire plan out loud," I groaned.
"Bad guys love doing that," Cade said.
"No, seriously. He just stood there and told everybody exactly how to stop him."
"Honestly, that's on him," Izabella agreed.
Vivian shook her head. "None of you appreciate cinema."
"We appreciate good cinema," I replied.
By the time the movie ended, I felt lighter than I had all day. The credits began rolling across the screen, and I stretched my arms over my head while fighting off a yawn. It had been a long day of worrying about things I couldn't control, and for the first time in hours, I wasn't thinking about the future at all.
"Well," I announced as I stood up from the couch, "I'm going to bed."
"Hold on."
I paused and turned toward Cade.
"What?"
A grin spread across his face.
"You gotta wait for the credits."
I stared at him.
"The movie is over."
"You never know," he said with a shrug. "There could be a sequel setup."
The words hit me so hard that I physically froze.
The room suddenly felt very quiet. Slowly, I turned to look at him.
"...What did you just say Yeager?"
Cade blinked. "There could be a sequel setup?"
My stomach dropped.
Oh.
Oh!
There was a sequel setup.
My eyes widened so quickly they almost hurt.
There had been an end-credit scene in The Last Knight.
An actual end-credit scene.
One that hinted at what would happen next. One that I had somehow completely forgotten about.
"Oh no."
Vivian immediately noticed the look on my face.
"What?"
"Oh no."
Izabella sat forward.
"What does that mean?"
"Oh no no no no no."
I shot to my feet so quickly that everyone jumped. Because I remembered now. I remembered exactly what happened in the end-credit scene.
And suddenly I understood two things.
First, there was information about the future.
Second...
The future was probably terrible.
Without another word, I turned and sprinted.
Not speed-walking.
Running.
The kind of running that would make people think either a murderer was chasing me or the house was on fire.
Behind me, I could hear chaos erupting almost immediately.
"(Y/N)!" Cade shouted. "Why are you running?!"
"What's happening?!" Izabella yelled.
"Should we be concerned?!" Vivian called.
"YES!" I shouted over my shoulder.
There was a brief pause.
Then I heard Cade yell, "THAT DIDN'T ANSWER THE QUESTION!"
I threw open the front door and practically launched myself outside.
My brain was moving a thousand miles a minute.
How had I forgotten?
Seriously, how?
I had remembered Lockdown. I had remembered KSI. I had remembered Quintessa.
I had remembered approximately seventeen thousand useless Transformers facts that nobody had ever asked for.
Yet somehow I had forgotten the one piece of information that came after the fifth movie.
The literal setup for the future.
The garage wasn't far away, but by the time I reached it, I was completely out of breath. Unfortunately, sheer panic had overridden my common sense several minutes ago, so I kept running anyway.
As I got closer, I could hear voices inside.
The Autobots were apparently enjoying a rare, peaceful evening.
Poor innocent fools. They had no idea what was about to happen.
When I burst through the entrance, every optic in the room immediately turned toward me.
Optimus was standing near the center of the garage while Bumblebee sat nearby. Crosshairs was leaning against one of the support beams looking as uninterested in life as usual, Drift appeared to be meditating, Hound was cleaning one of his many weapons, and Sqweeks was rolling around excitedly while making a series of cheerful noises.
The Dinobots were resting nearby.
For one glorious moment, everyone looked relaxed.
Then they saw me.
Unfortunately, I must have looked absolutely insane.
I was bent over, gasping for air, hair disheveled, eyes wide, and very clearly operating on pure adrenaline.
Crosshairs immediately pointed at me.
"That can't be good."
"Agreed," Hound said. "Last time she looked like that, somebody tried to end the world."
"Which time?" Bumblebee's radio crackled.
"Exactly."
Drift slowly opened one optic.
"I sense great panic."
"No kidding," Crosshairs muttered.
Optimus stepped forward immediately, concern replacing whatever he had been doing before.
"(Y/N)," he said. "What has happened?"
I held up a finger.
Air first. Doom second.
It took me a solid ten seconds before my lungs finally started cooperating.
Every Autobot was staring at me expectantly. Even Sqweeks had stopped moving.
I straightened up and pointed at Optimus.
"Guess what?!"
The Autobots exchanged looks.
Optimus, thankfully, chose to humor me.
"What?" he asked.
My grin became impossibly wide.
"I figured it out!"
Now they all looked interested. Optimus tilted his head slightly out of curiosity.
"You have?"
"Yes!"
I pointed triumphantly at absolutely nothing.
"There was an end-credit scene after the fifth movie!"
The reaction was immediate.
Bumblebee's radio burst into an excited melody. Sqweeks rolled in an excited little circle. Hound grinned and slapped his hands together.
"Now that's what I'm talking about!"
Crosshairs nodded.
"See? Useful information. I knew all that screaming had a purpose."
Even Optimus looked relieved.
"That is excellent news."
I nodded enthusiastically.
"Exactly!"
Then my brain finally caught up with the rest of me.
While I had remembered there was an end-credit scene...
I had also remembered that the contents of said end-credit scene were not exactly sunshine and happiness.
"Oh."
The Autobots immediately noticed.
To be fair, my face had apparently gone from excited golden retriever to victim of impending doom in less than two seconds.
Crosshairs pointed.
"There it is."
Hound frowned.
"There what is?"
"The problem."
I looked around at everyone gathered in the garage and felt my stomach sink.
Bumblebee.
Drift.
Crosshairs.
Hound.
Sqweeks.
The Dinobots.
And finally, Optimus.
I took one very deep breath.
Then unleashed every thought in my head at maximum speed.
"Actually, it isn't great. It isn't great at all. It's really bad news. Potentially terrible news. We’re probably all gonna die– “
"Tomorrow."
I stopped mid-sentence.
"...What?"
Optimus looked completely unfazed.
"If there is concerning information, you may explain it tomorrow."
I blinked.
"Tomorrow?"
"Tomorrow."
I stared.
He stared back.
"But– "
"Tomorrow."
"Optimus– "
"Tomorrow."
Somehow, he managed to sound both incredibly kind and completely immovable at the same time.
It was honestly a talent. The frustrating part was that I knew exactly what he was doing.
He knew I had spent the entire day worrying. He knew I had practically sprinted myself into another dimension trying to tell everyone this.
And he knew that if he let me start talking about it, I would probably spend the next six hours spiraling into increasingly ridiculous worst-case scenarios.
The worst part was that he was right.
Crosshairs immediately folded his arms.
"I vote we listen to Prime."
"Seconded," Hound said.
"What?!" I exclaimed.
"Kid, you've been freaking out for ten straight minutes."
"I have not!"
"You literally ran here screaming."
"I was communicating urgency!"
"You were communicating something."
Bumblebee's radio played a clip of laughter.
Traitor.
I pointed accusingly at him.
"You are supposed to be on my side."
His radio immediately responded with another laugh.
"Unbelievable."
The entire garage erupted into amusement.
Even Drift appeared entertained.
"I believe Optimus is correct," he said. "The future will still be there tomorrow."
"I hate when all of you agree with each other."
"No, you don't," Hound said.
"You're right. I don't."
For the next hour, nobody let me talk about the credit scene.
Not once.
Every time I tried bringing it up, someone changed the subject.
As the conversation continued around me, I found myself relaxing more with every passing minute. The knot in my stomach that had been there all day was finally gone. Hound and Crosshairs were arguing over something completely ridiculous, Bumblebee was contributing entirely through radio clips, and Drift was pretending he wasn't enjoying any of it even though he absolutely was.
For once, nobody was trying to save the world.
Nobody was fighting Decepticons. Nobody was panicking about mysterious future threats.
Well…
Nobody except me.
I glanced over at Optimus.
He stood slightly apart from the others, listening to everyone's conversation with the small, quiet smile he sometimes got when the people he cared about were happy.
It was strange.
For someone so large and powerful, he always seemed calmest during moments like these.
Without really thinking about it, I looked down at my watch.
The moment I did, Optimus noticed. Of course he noticed.
The man could probably detect emotional instability from orbit.
"You are thinking about tomorrow again."
It wasn't a question.
I sighed.
"Maybe."
Across the garage, Hound groaned dramatically.
"Prime, don't encourage her."
"I am not."
"That's exactly what somebody encouraging her would say."
I laughed.
Optimus ignored him completely. His optics remained on me.
"The future will still be waiting in the morning."
"I know."
"And worrying tonight will not change it."
"I know."
A pause.
Then, more quietly:
"But it's hard not to."
For a moment, he didn't answer.
The sounds of everybody else's conversation seemed to fade into the background.
Then Optimus slowly stepped closer.
"You have carried the burden of knowing what was ahead for many years."
I smiled weakly.
"Turns out I got attached to knowing things."
"That is understandable."
I expected another speech. Instead, he surprised me.
"For what it is worth..." he began.
Then stopped. And I just stared.
Optimus Prime never stopped halfway through a sentence.
Ever.
Apparently realizing everyone was now looking at him, he continued.
"For what it is worth, I find the future less uncertain when you are with us."
The garage went completely silent.
Every. Single. Person.
Stopped talking. Including me.
Hound slowly lowered the weapon he was holding.
Crosshairs looked like Christmas had come early.
And then Bumblebee immediately played a dramatic romantic song through his radio.
My face instantly caught fire.
"Bee!"
The song got louder.
"Oh my God."
Across the room, Crosshairs looked delighted.
"I knew it."
"Knew what?" I asked far too quickly.
Crosshairs grinned.
"The thing."
"There is no thing."
"There is absolutely a thing."
"There is not!"
"There is."
I looked toward Optimus for backup.
Unfortunately, Optimus had suddenly become very interested in a nearby wall.
Which only made everything worse because Optimus Prime did not get awkward.
He faced down ancient evil gods. He is a knight.
And yet...
Here we were.
My eyes widened as a horrible realization began creeping into my brain.
Wait a second.
No.
Absolutely not. There was no way.
I looked at Optimus. Then at Bumblebee.
Then at Crosshairs, who was still grinning like he'd just solved a mystery.
Then back at Optimus.
The realization hit me like a freight train and my face somehow got even hotter.
"Oh no."
Crosshairs immediately pointed.
"She figured it out."
"I don’t know what you’re talking about."
"You totally figured it out."
"I DIDN'T."
"You did."
I buried my face in my hands.
This was somehow more stressful than being potentially doomed by the future.
And judging by the amused rumble of laughter that ran through the entire garage – including a suspiciously soft one from Optimus himself – everyone else seemed to know it too. This new movie is going to be in the romance genre…
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