TITLE: On the Edge of Forever (at the start of whatever)*
SERIES: Imperfection Deviation
AUTHOR: Macx
RATING: PG-13
DISCLAIMER: None of the characters belong to me, sadly. They are owned by people with a lot more money :)
FEEDBACK: Loved
I blame this fic on: my vacation in Ireland (my mind goes on vacation as well…), and listening to three specific songs that really put me in the mood. Listening loudly. In my car. I'm not saying which ones.
* Story title shamelessly plucked from The Flood by Take That.
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Anthony Edward Stark was a genius.
He was brilliant, he was charming, he was suave. He had money to burn, he could have everything he wanted. He was the CEO of an international company.
He was Iron Man.
He had Extremis.
His mind was impossible to match with the addition of the nano virus hybrid.
Sometimes… just sometimes… his mind was a scary place even to him. Sometimes… the genius met the insanity and things happened. Sometimes his hard-headedness came into play when he couldn't solve a problem.
When it involved Cybertronian technology, he was a dog with a bone. He wouldn't let go, no matter what. He would dig in his heels, latch onto the problem and he would try to solve whatever was giving him a headache.
The fact that the problem involved bridging space, opening portals and actually teleporting by alien means turned it into even more of a challenge to Tony.
He was supposed to be able to do this. It was his freaking gift and ability! According to the long-dead Primes he should master this.
Right! What he could do was jump short distances, but he couldn't do it on his own. He needed an energy boost to use the long-distance gates, which meant tapping into Rodimus Prime's spark. Tony had to find a solution and whoever knew him also knew that there was no stopping him when he was like this.
Except when he was stopped by himself.
When he made a mistake.
And he made it.
A mistake that nearly cost too much.
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Rodimus Prime was on his way to meet with Optimus when it happened. The young Prime was just stepping into the conference room that was adjoining to the Autobot leader's main office at Nevada, nodding a greeting at his fellow Prime. First there was a strange tingling along his spark circuits, then a searing pain that let him stiffen, his optics suddenly glowing brightly, and then the blackness hit. Rodimus screamed in agony, clutching his chest, his spark, circuits exploding into pain, glowing and sizzling. He went to his knees, his world shrinking down to a very small part, a black part inside of him, which was steadily growing.
At least he thought he did all that. In reality he had frozen and appeared statue-like. All sensations were in his spark alone.
Someone grabbed his arm, but he didn't respond, and neither to the voice ringing urgently in his audio receptors. All he was focused on was a small spark in the blackness, flickering and dying, then coming back to life again.
::TONY!::
The mental scream echoed through the ever larger growing void and reached the little spark, which flickered again.
::Don't do this!::
Rodimus reached out and enveloped it with his own life force, trying to keep it alive.
::No! Tony! Don't!::
Stay!
He felt his friend close to him, so close, but leaving...
Far away... going even further…
Stay! Cybertron's Pits, no!
Rodimus concentrated on Tony with everything he had, trying to pull him back from whatever was pulling at him.
::Tony, stop it! STOP!::
Stay with me! Hold onto me!
His own spark whined under the strain and pressure, being pushed and pulled into every which direction.
Don't go!
The world outside ceased to exist for him.
There was only Tony and the increasing difficulty his friend and charge had in holding on to himself. Something violently tore into Rodimus and he cried out, but he refused to let go.
Stay…
And then the sensation increased, having him literally jump after Stark and grab him in one violent move, throwing everything he had around the other presence.
…stay…
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The office was located on level -1, which was two levels down from the massive above-ground structure that had once been a military base. It had been abandoned for a long time when the Autobots had been given this place as their new base shortly after the Mission City battle. A lot had been changed since then, a lot of levels had been dug underground, and the base was only superficially still old and abandoned. It was the entrance to a huge, futuristic place that the mechs had constructed as close to what had been their home back on Cybertron as possible.
Optimus Prime had chosen an office space close to the surface. While he had an immediate view of the hangar and the outside through the video surveillance system, he also wanted to be on site as quickly as possible, just in case.
Right now, that was farthest from his mind. He was going through reports, reading up on the latest developments, was assessing data that had come in from the Arkor the probes across the solar system, and so on. Rodimus was taking a load off his desk already, but there was still a lot that he hadn't had to handle in so long. The war and the loss of the Allspark had changed his duties. He had almost forgotten how mind-numbing this kind of routine could be.
Then again, it was a welcome routine. No death tolls, no files on Decepticon attacks… just normal things. Day-to-day bureaucracy and juggling their still hidden presence on this planet with the necessity of operating in the humans' world.
What wasn't routine was his silent watcher. Sam Witwicky, his fellow Prime, good friend, and the only technopath he knew of, sat on one of the side boards, eyes closed. He looked relaxed until one gave him a closer look. Then he could see the fine lines of tension around his eyes.
He wasn't meditating.
Actually, Sam was working, too.
On his technopathic abilities.
Optimus let him and tried not to think too much of the human in his office. Sam's aim was to get into the older Prime's mind without him feeling it and gathering information. It wasn't an easy task and it also wasn't the first time he attempted it. The first few times had landed Sam in med bay and Ratchet had read him the riot act. The medic called it foolish and idiotic, and a few other choice words.
Sam called it necessary. Optimus agreed.
Their young human Prime needed to handle his powers. Barricade couldn't be the only teacher any more. The shock trooper had done them an enormous favor by training Sam as hard and relentlessly as he had and still did, but Sam knew the former Decepticon too well by now.
"I can walk through his walls and enter every dark corner of his mind," he had told Optimus. "Barricade will deny it, but I know his spark just as well as I know Bumblebee's. I need a change. I need variation."
So he had started to work with Autobots who were willing to let a technopath try and look into their minds and sparks.
Optimus Prime was apparently one of the biggest challenges Sam had ever taken on. By now, six months into these training sessions, the Autobot leader knew technopath first aid – which mainly consisted of calling either Bumblebee or Barricade and keeping a stash of sweets.
A muscle twitched in Sam's face and he tilted his head a little, looking almost quizzical. Optimus felt nothing, but that was the whole aim of this operation: for Sam to get into a memory and Prime not noticing.
Suddenly he pulled back, his head swiveling to the entrance door. Optimus smiled as he felt the familiar presence of Rodimus Prime approach, unconsciously making himself known to his fellow Primes. While it didn't register with the non-technopathic human Primes – Will Lennox and Tony Stark - Optimus was keenly aware of the younger mech.
"Op…" Sam started, looking very pale. "Something's…"
Rodimus stepped into the office and suddenly froze. Blue optics turned impossible white-blue and then went dead.
"…wrong…" Sam breathed.
tbc...
Um, yeah, I'm in a hurt/comfort mood... big time! So be warned...