Arc 4: 01 Metamorphosis

by Macx

Doorway travel has been declared safe between certain locations, but suddenly one transfer back home goes horribly wrong. Nightmare and Melissa Witwicky end up on an alien planet with no idea how to go home; and Mel finds herself .... changed

Metamorphosis
by Birgit Staebler
The doorway system is a delicate construction of infinite energy lines, intermingling with small knots and pockets of raw energon masses, crossing and intersecting, starting and ending. The doorways, physical entrance and exit points, are nothing but visible signs of its existence, an existence hidden from the eyes of many.
It is ancient.
It is powerful.
It is fragile.
Doorways. There seem to be an infinite number of them, some mapped, but those are only a small percentage of what is really out there. They run toward centerways, which in turn run toward the main gate. When the center was destroyed decades ago, destroyed by the one guarding and watching it for so long, many power lines were rerouted. The only functional centerway, the one on Cybertron, was made the main channel into the system now. It's construction is more primitive than the main one, but it had never been intended to run the system. No one ran it now. It ran itself, it tried to compensate for the loss, and it grew.
And then there are the Gatelinks, a still unknown factor in the doorway system. They are small openings to places no one has ever seen nor dreamed off. They are the places of myth and legend, of mystery and fantasy. They are outside everywhere else. They are an unknown factor, something written down in the ancient files but not yet discovered.
One of the gatelinks currently receives a visit from a creature seen in this part of the inside-time universe only once before. Manipulative fingers reach out and touch the structure. Intense eyes scan for the activation code.
A surge of energy.
A creaking noise.
The gatelink shudders once and then refuses to do anything at all.
The creature growls in anger and frustration at its failed attempt and removes its presence. But it has set into motion an avalanche of events.

* * *

It was Starscream's shift. He had swapped with Nightmare because the other Gatekeeper's presence was requested on one of the safe planets. Shifts in the doorway chamber were always a time to sit back and enjoy the relative peace and quiet. Since Raven had managed to get the short-cuts working the doorway exploration teams didn't have to rely on Keys to get them back home and the Gatekeepers were no longer required to stand by all the time. Starscream liked the peace, he liked the silence, something he had never thought would hold any appeal to him in his former life as a Decepticon. Now, after such a long time as a Gatekeeper, after a rough start and a rather rocky road, he was quite content with what he had become.
He smiled and checked almost automatically on his doorway. Yes, his doorway. Starscream had been assigned to the Cybertron centerway, Ralyk had programmed him on it so to speak, but he had never realized it until Nightmare had mentioned this as a fact. Gatekeepers were keyed on one doorway and this one doorway would align itself to them. Who assigned the doorways to what Gatekeeper was not clear. The Veneran had sent out the robots they had created, but Starscream suspected Ralyk had done this. It was a manipulative creature after all. Or had been, he thought wryly.
The Cybertronian centerway had been assigned to him and he had grown with pride when he had felt the first signs of the doorway sending data his way. It had been strange and frightening because it had been new. Now it was something comforting, something he grew increasingly used to. The doorway sent information his way, it seemed to vibrate when he entered the room, and when Starscream had mentioned this in a quiet minute to Nightmare once, the older Gatekeeper had smiled. Maybe it had even been slightly rueful because Nightmare's doorway had been destroyed and only one Gatekeeper could be assigned to a doorway. They ran shifts here, but it was still Starscream's.
The former Decepticon went to the control cube and typed in a few commands. Satisfied with the results he was just about to turn away when he felt a tremor pass through the construction behind him.
Activation, he thought and instinctively checked origin and signal.
It was an authorized activation, coming from a remote control device. Most likely Nightmare, Sandstorm and Melissa Witwicky returning. They had been on Viji to check on the Gatekeeper and the team there. The doorway flared in brilliant light, a sight he never grew tired of watching, the rings moving in perfect rhythm and alignment.
Incoming traveler> the doorway sent. It wasn't really a voice, it was more like an impression of someone talking.
Starscream had been scared when he had first experienced this strange voice/impression, but now it was normal. It was just another new function. But then the tremor happened again and this time much stronger, alarming him immensely. He reached out for the central core of the alien construction -- and received a blow to his mind that almost wiped him off his feet. He gasped, optics dimming briefly, then flaring a deep red.
System failure!
The doorway screamed all of a sudden and alarm klaxons went off. The rings shuddered, high pitched whines filling the room. The column of light forming the exit of the doorway tunnel faltered, pulsing strangely, losing in strength.
A screech like the death cry of an animal echoed through the chamber, bouncing off the walls in a myriad of echoes impossible to hear all. And then Starscream saw a shape appear, almost oozing out of the doorway's opening. The Gatekeeper tensed, all his defensive systems powered up and ready. He watched the shape transform into a bipedal being which was still growing, changing shape.
The shape seemed to go through a kind of metamorphosis, twisting and stretching. His mouth was open as if he was screaming. His hands and arms were spread out, his back arching, then he was flung out of the gateway, the last changes taking place as he crashed to the ground.
"Sandstorm!" he whispered.
The Cybertronian's skin still seemed to ripple with energy and he moaned faintly. His body was slightly dented and bruised, but no open wounds were visible. Then he stilled, going off-line.
Someone stormed into the room and he discovered Sphere. His sister immediately ran over to the bottom ring, trying to access the coded keylock. The doorway screamed again as it seemed to overload with whatever was happening. Starscream went into battle mode. Whatever was about to come through, it would confront one very determined Gatekeeper.
A flash of light passed from the top ring to the bottom one and he averted his optics, half blinded.
"Overload!" Sphere yelled over the cacophony. "I can't connect to a stable tunnel!"
And then it died. There was a sputter, a coughing nose, and the rings stopped moving. The light went out and the room was suddenly deadly quiet.
"What happened?" Starscream heard himself asking, his voice too loud for his own optics.
A medical team rushed in, but he ignored them as they started to examine the motionless form in front of the rings.
Sphere shook her head, unable to say anything until she saw the log. "Something.... some kind of energy interfered," she said slowly.
"Any other travelers?" he asked, voice rough, optics on Sandstorm, who still hadn't moved, and on the medics who were busy trying to figure out what was wrong.
She met his troubled optics. "I think they entered, but we have to check first."
Starscream swallowed heavily. If anyone had been in the tunnel when it had collapsed on them.... what had happened to them?

* * *

A rush of energy.
Light.
Sound.
The transition was instantaneous.
There was no displacement of energy, no displacement of air and generally no warning. One moment she was here and then she was .... wherever she was now.
Sensations.
She screamed, falling to her knees, everything collapsing on her like an old building. She was overwhelmed by the force of what she felt, completely helpless in trying to ward it off.
Melissa Witwicky gave a groan and curled into a tight ball, her skin scraping against the hard ground, evoking more sensations, more pain and unpleasantness. But suddenly it was gone. As if her body had found a switch to tune down the force of the input and she became gradually aware of her surroundings, not only what they evoked in her. The human tried to get to her feet and stopped in mid-movement. Her hands..... her legs... she looked at her body, carefully touching her mid-rift.
"What....?" she whispered.
This wasn't her! Not at all! She was ...was....
What happened? This can't be! It's a nightmare!
Melissa Witwicky was a robot. Her hands were clearly metal, as was the rest of her body. The main colors seemed to be a silver-gray and black, though the black shimmered strangely. She sat back heavily, shock coursing through her.
"Oh my god...." she whispered. "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!"
Panic spread with the shock and she was losing it. Her body started to tremble uncontrollably and a faint keening noise crept up her throat. She felt ....things...react in her body....circuits or whatever, and something moved at her back. She flinched, whirling around. That was the moment she discovered she also had hair, a strange and rare fact when it came to Cybertronians. Sphere had hair, but she wasn't Cybertronian; not really anyway. Now Mel belonged to that kind of robot as well. Her hair was black and much longer than Sphere's, and it moved as if it had a life of its own.
"God....." she moaned again and buried her head in her hands.
How could this have happened?
What had happened to her?
Who had done this?
Mel wrapped her arms around her unfamiliar body, shaken by inner tremors. She was normally a very strong woman, someone who had been confronted with a lot of pain and emotional upheaval in her life, had gone through more than anyone could imagine, but this was too much.
After some time something else penetrated the fog of panic and utter fear in her mind. She hadn't been alone.... She had entered the doorway with others. Nightmare..... Sandstorm.....
Mel looked up and took notice of her surroundings for the first time. To both her sides endless seeming walls stretched away into blackness that was only lit by a greenish light. To her surprise she noted that the light came from something that looked like moss or fungi. Above she could see a tiny fraction of the sky, a band of blue and white. They had taken quite a fall, she noticed.
"Nightmare?" she called softly. "Sandstorm?"
She stumbled to her feet, her new unfamiliar optics trying to search through the twilight around her. And then she saw him. Nightmare lay further away, half on his side, one leg twisted beneath him and mech-fluid pooling under the torn skin. His left hand was smashed and his chest and back showed severe bruises and scrape mark. There was dried energon on him everywhere. Liquids flowed freely out of the wounds and dried around it, covering the armor and skin with a sticky mess of fluids and dirt. There were multiple other wounds, abrasions, bruises.....
"Nightmare!" she exclaimed and ran over to him, her body reacting much better to the commands from her brain than she had thought.
He was off-line .... unconscious. She was amazed by the size difference...well, shrunken difference. Nightmare was still larger than her, more massive, but now she was a lot taller than an ordinary human. She drew on her medical knowledge, her knowledge of Gatekeeper systems, and began to check her friend. He had lost energon, his leg was beyond her ability to repair it and his hand was useless, several muscle cables torn and cut. The bruises and cuts were superficial enough to be a minor worry.
Mel sighed. She had her work cut out for her. She was a medic after all.....

* * *

"Fool."
The word had been uttered softly, but it still bounced loudly off the ancient stone walls and the younger of the two only occupants of the room flinched as if it had been a whiplash.
K'va li Opnah smiled as he saw the reaction. "You are afraid of him."
Snera sighed. "He is our High Lord, K'va li Opnah. He rules our kind."
The old man shook his head. "No, young friend. He is the High Lord, but he does not rule us. We are watchers and historians. Our kind has always been outside his power and jurisdiction. That he is trying to frighten us only shows how little he knows, how little he holds tradition, how little his power really is." He studied the old frescos and nodded to himself. "And now he made another mistake on top of the ones he has already made."
"What will happen now?" Snera asked, voice trembling a bit.
K'va li Opnah walked to the table in the middle of the room and several bubbles appeared above it, swirling in an intricate dance without music.
"He upset the balance of the doorway net and it had consequences." He reached out with one spidery-fingered hand and touched one of the bubbles. It changed color rapidly and suddenly lit up with a picture. "He nearly destroyed lives as well because he interfered with what is not his and can never be his."
"But didn't you interfere as well?" Snera asked and gazed at the picture he was shown.
K'va li Opnah smiled softly. "No. It is true I reached out for them and changed their path and probable history, but only to right what had been done wrong."
The younger one looked doubtfully at him and K'va li Opnah smiled more.
"Maybe I interfered just a bit," he whispered almost conspiratorially.
Snera blinked. "But you taught me the Rules, Master. We are Outside Time and there we will stay. We are Outside Time and we will not influence. We are Outside Time and we watch and record."
The old priest lifted his hand to stop the flow of words. "You learned well, young Snera, but we also do not sit back and watch the High Lords rule. We are guardians, watchers, whatever history calls us to be. The High Lords do not differ from us and they will obey the same rules we follow. Our Lord might have forgotten this when he tried to activate the gatelink, but he has learned that he is not all-powerful In Time. He is Outside and he will stay Outside, only able to watch and let others act for him. The Tji failed to satisfy him and he will soon find someone else. Until then he will meddle a bit. Nothing we can't handle."
Snera sighed deeply. K'va li Opnah took the bubble and handed it to him.
"Right now we watch here."
The younger priest nodded and folded his legs under him, sitting back with the bubble in his hands. After a while he closed his eyes and lifted his arms, releasing the bubble and it floated off to dance with the others.
K'va li Opnah watched him for a while, then walked off.

* * *

Rodimus had been on a one week leave when he had received the call and had rushed back as fast as he could. Shanygn had simply shrugged in acceptance and refused to stay behind.
"But it's your vacation!" Rodimus argued as he packed the last of his things.
"And yours, so shut up," Shanygn replied with a friendly smile that told him that any argument of his to make her stay would fail.
He sighed heavily. Silhouette had reacted in almost the same way and Nicholas had only muttered something about needing to get to work anyway because of back-log. It had been like a family holiday, he mused as he walked to the waiting shuttle ship. And after the disaster of the last vacation it had been a very pleasant change. No hurry, no stress, no obligations, no duties, just time for themselves. Nicholas and Shan had gone off to see the sights and Silhouette had dragged him through some of the tourist routines as well. Rodimus hadn't minded. As long as it meant no duties as a leader he was fine with whatever was going on.
Now this. The young Autobot sighed. He should have known! The last uninterrupted vacation had been..... he tried to remember and came up with a blank.
"We'll get another shot at it," Shanygn told him as she settled down in the seat of the shuttle.
He grumbled something. "Sure. But when?
Silhouette came in and smiled at her slightly miffed partner. As much as Rodimus was dedicated to his job, as much as he did for those under his command, he could be slightly grumpy when it came to interrupted vacations. Especially those after a long time of hard work and a lot of stress. She sat down beside him and elbowed him slightly.
"Hey, smile!" she whispered, her voice still loud enough to be heard by everyone. "You are scaring the righteous."
Rodimus grimaced and Sil chuckled.
Shanygn, picking up on his emotions, grinned a bit and got a mental kick from him in return.
[She is right, you know. Smile. It's not that bad, and we got four days of relaxation]
Rodimus looked down at her. [After two years of only work, you call four days okay?]
[No, not okay, but better than no vacation at all, Roddy. Look at it from the bright side, will ya? And wipe that frown of your face before any of us does it for you!] Shanygn grinned irrepressibly.
The Autobots' second shook his head, caught between two rather amused females, and settled back. The shuttle took off a few minutes later and rendezvoused with the Autobot pick-up three hours after that. At that time Rodimus had already received all the necessary files and was fully informed.
How he hated accidents......

* * *

Mel had worked for some time now. The darkness around her had grown and when she had looked up once she had seen the tiny speck of blue sky darken and then grow black. It had to be night now. She sighed and ignored it, concentrating on what her new body could do, what it seemed to have copied from her exo-suit. Like her suit she had medical displays. Surgical information ran up one side of her field of vision if she accessed that particular program while the center of her focus was an enhanced frame on the 'screen' that showed her the delicate circuits in all clarity. She worked calmly, methodically and also quickly. Mel had removed most of the damaged circuits and had circumvented the destroyed pathways. Nightmare was still off-line and she was making sure he stayed that way. He would be in severe pain if he woke now.
Strangely enough she still seemed to have her empathic powers and part of her mind was busy touching Nightmare's, keeping him calm and sleeping. She was as surprised as she was thankful for it.
All around her were puddles of cooling liquids, energon and oil. The self-repair had kicked in shortly after she had started her work and it helped immensely. It was one of the most basic programs, as was the anti-body program, which expelled foreign material out of a robot's body quite effectively.
All the time her mind was also watching over her patient's. Mel's hands worked automatically on Nightmare's body while her mind was trying to keep him from slipping from off-line to activation. She wasn't telepathic and even then she would not have been able to read the mind of a patient. There was no such thing as real mind reading anyway. No one could filter a being's thoughts so clearly as to get words and sentences out of the mess inside a mind. Interface partners were able to touch each other's mind and 'talk', but they weren't telepathic. They used one special bond, nothing more, nothing less. Empathy was hard enough for Mel, sorting through a myriad of emotional nuances and trying to focus on helping the patient without getting lost in his or her own problems and sensations.
Finally she was done, at least with what her meager supply of medical help and her skills could do for her friend.
"Okay," she whispered, her voice eerily loud. "Let's hope this is enough."
Now, as she sat back with nothing more to do, she thought about their missing third member. Sandstorm. He wasn't anywhere around where she was guarding Nightmare and she had no clue as to how to use her com lines. She knew she probably had an internal communicator, but how to access it....?
Mel sighed in frustration.

* * *

"Do you understand your mission?"
Yellow eyes looked back at him, calm and completely emotionless. "Yes, I understand."
"You will be In Time, my friend. Walk carefully." K'va li Opnah's voice was serious. "The planet is dangerous to the unwary and I do not want to lose you to Thaenjhvuinhj."
"She has no power over me," the other replied, unimpressed. "You know that."
He nodded. "I know. And she is someone I consider an ally, but her moods are unpredictable. She might as well simply ignore what is going on, which is the most likely scenario."
"May I ask a question?"
"Go ahead."
"Why did you send them into her realm and not displace them anywhere else?"
K'va li Opnah smiled. "Because I had to move quickly, because I had to be invisible and because it is the only world In Time close to where the others can find them." The old priest shrugged.
"I understand. When will they come?"
K'va li Opnah shrugged again. "When they have solved the mystery of their friends' disappearance. Now go."
The other nodded and silently left the temple.
He watched the strange being go. "Good luck, my friend."

* * *

"What do you mean they are gone?" Rodimus demanded.
Spook flinched a bit, trying not to look as helpless as he felt. He was several times Rodimus' size, but right now he wished he could shrink and disappear.
"We have no idea," he finally confessed. "They are just ...gone...."
"No one simply disappears, Spook! We have logs for that kind of stuff! The doorway must have opened somewhere."
Spook knew that he wasn't really the target of Rodimus' anger. It was just that after Melissa and Nightmare had disappeared in a rather spectacular malfunction of the centerway, he was more than helpless. He had been called back because of the accident, had been briefed on who exactly had disappeared, and no one could offer a suggestion as to what had happened exactly and where the travelers had ended up. No one knew what to do.
Sandstorm had been wheeled to the med bay and was currently receiving repairs. Even though he had looked rather okay from the outside, except for the bruising, he seemed to have suffered extensive internal damage.
"We believe that something tried to interfere."
Rodimus gaped. "What?" he demanded.
"Something has happened and we have no idea what it is. Starscream is still tracing the interferences and Sphere is going through the recorded logs."
"Where are Mel and Nightmare?"
"Like I said: we have no idea," Spook answered.
The Autobot inhaled deeply, a gesture adopted from his steady exposure to organic life forms. "How do we know they are still alive?"
"We don't," the half-serpent told him. "We can only suspect. No one has ever been killed through doorway energy. Wherever the doorway placed them, they arrived alive. What happened to them then....." Spook left the rest unsaid.
"Great!"
Rodimus fell back into his chair. There went all the relaxation from his short vacation. Here came back the tight knot of fear in his fuel pump.
"We are doing what we can, Rodimus," Spook told him softly. "Whatever happened, we'll find them."

* * *

Nightmare came back on-line to someone touching him. His blurry mind tried to get him in touch with his memory circuits and he thought he remembered a weird light, an explosion of energy in the doorway tunnel, and then.... what had happened then?
"Nightmare?"
The voice was familiar. It was a female voice and he knew he had heard it before.
"Nightmare, can you hear me?"
He concentrated on the voice and finally got a string of memories.
"Mel?" Aghast he noticed how weak his voice sounded.
His optics went on-line and a pair of strange optics looked worriedly at him. They were mostly black, but not the black of a dead robot, more like a living, liquid blackness.... and the silver specks in them moved in a disturbing way. The face was female and familiar, just like the voice, colored in a non-reflective silvery gray, and what he saw of the rest of the body was held in the same silver- gray and shiny black. Black hair spilled down her head and shoulders. It seemed to ...move. Maybe it was his imagination.....
"Mel.....?"
A smile split the strange face into halves. "Hello and welcome back to the land of the conscious. You gave me quite a scare."
"Mel, is that you?" It was hard to talk. The pain made it nearly impossible and fought his failing systems to initiate the dampening devices.
The eyes turned a shade more silver, the tiny grains increasing in number. "Yes."
"What ...how....?"
"I don't know, Nightmare. I have no clue." She raised one hand and he saw they were colored in black and five-fingered with talons attached to each finger tip. "I woke and looked like this." A shiver raced down her body and the hair twitched once. "How do you feel?" she asked, changing the topic.
"Lousy," he confessed, trying to find a position where the pain was bearable. "What happened?"
"I wish I knew. Looks like the doorway went rogue on us."
"Impossible!" Nightmare protested immediately. "There was nothing wrong with the alignment or the power flow! It was perfectly stable!"
She smiled dimly. "I know and I trust your judgment as a Gatekeeper, but something happened throughout the transfer and here we are. It even changed me, and I don't think this has ever happened before."
He shook his head. "What's our situation?"
"We are on an unknown planet with a breathable atmosphere... well, if I were human I would be able to breathe it. We are at the bottom of a chasm. You took a nasty dive down, Nightmare. I don't know what your system check told you, but you were badly damaged."
"I can guess," he said softly.
"I also haven't found Sandstorm. No trace that he is down here as well."
Nightmare's face darkened. "Where is the doorway?"
Troubled optics answered him. "I haven't seen it. Judging from our current position and the fact that both of us fell all the way down here, I think it is above us."
Nightmare bit back a groan of anger.
"Any way out of here? Other than climbing up this wall?" he finally asked.
Mel shook her head. She had roughly explored the narrow canyon the last hour and had only found two dead ends. One side of the canyon was so narrow not even her slim body could fit and the other was blocked by an avalanche of rocks. She might be able to climb the walls, but Nightmare wouldn't be able to follow her and he was too heavy to carry.
"None," she whispered.
"Any way to get in contact with anyone?" Nightmare wanted to know, trying to work through his shock.
She shook her head again, the hair moving in a strange way, like it had a life of its own. "There is no one here but us."
Nightmare stared at the small part of the sky above. At least they were not dead.... yet.

* * *

Spike looked into the blue optics of the larger robot. Rodimus Prime watched him, knowing the worry and fear the Protogen leader had to be going through. Spike had been informed of the accident by Rodimus and he had immediately canceled everything on his schedule, and Rodimus knew it was a busy one. Backdraft had taken over.
"There is no trace at all?" Spike asked, voice level and calm.
Rodimus shook his head. "None. We believe that the doorway took them somewhere. Sphere is working on it."
Spike nodded. He knew the centerway on Cybertron and the two teams assigned to it inside out and he knew there was nothing they wouldn't do to find the missing people. He had been through the doorway countless times and nothing had ever happened. Now... now his daughter was gone, as was one of the Gatekeepers, and no one had a clue as to where they were.
Spike inhaled deeply, a human trait he had kept, glad that his wife was no longer alive to go through another crisis. This was bad enough as it was and Daniel still didn't know what had happened. He and Kimberly were currently cooped up with delegates on Orle.
"Thanks," he finally said. "I'll be ..." He made a weak gesture, "...around."
Setting up camp in the doorway chamber would only lead to further annoyance and irritation of the two robots working down there and he wouldn't help them at all. When Spike had left the office, Silhouette detached herself from the wall she had been leaning against, her facial expression pure compassion. She had been very silent throughout the meeting.
"He's taking it well," she said softly, looking at Rodimus who looked rather less than well at the moment.
He nodded. "Spike has dealt with a lot in his time with us," he said, almost absent-minded. "He won't go for a death explanation until he sees a body."
"And how are you taking it?" Sil probed.
Rodimus head snapped up and he looked at her. "Am I that transparent?" he asked with a fine smile.
She nodded. "Like air. This is getting to you, isn't it?"
"Well, I'd have to be a rock not to feel anything," he confessed, not even trying to hide his emotional turmoil. Sil knew him too well anyway.
There was no hiding anything from her. He could put on his 'leader mask' in front of 99% of the Cybertronians under his command, but some would never be fooled, Silhouette among them.
"No, you are not a rock. I never said you were. Sometimes you are a bit too empathic when it comes to problems all around you, but you never blanked out your emotions, though sometimes it would help." She met his optics, smiling gently.
Rodimus shrugged, knowing it was true, but he was unable to let all of this pass by without feeling a single thing.
"I'll go and talk to Spike, you handle the rogue doorway." Sil rose. "And delegate your other work. I'm sure Shanygn will volunteer."
"I'm sure she's gonna volunteer to kick me into the next millennium if I try that," he muttered.
She grinned and left his office.

* * *

Med bay was a picture of the usual bustle and slightly chaotic day-to-day business. At least to an outsider it could appear like there was no system behind it. But there was. Med bay, alongside the Council and the whole administrative machinery behind it, was one of the most effectively working sections in West Central. It consisted of a maze of labs and a honeycomb of treatment rooms, quarantine and radiation chambers, quarters and surgery theaters, and more. Each section was run by a different head and all ran together in First Aid's hands. The chief medic had long since given the section heads more or less free reign, telling them that as long as everything worked, he was not to bother with petty day-to-day administration. And it worked. Strange as it seemed to a visitor, but it worked.
Right now First Aid and Disaster were busy working on Sandstorm. When the unconscious robot had been brought in it had looked like a normal case of severe trauma and partial energon loss/drain. But now, after a complete scan, it looked very different.
"I don't understand it," Disaster muttered and removed another slice of what had to be organic material out of Sandstorm's body. "What is this stuff and where did it come from? There is no opening other than the normal intakes through which this could have entered his body!"
"And from the location of it, it's highly unlikely it entered there," First Aid sighed. "I'll send it to the labs to get it checked. We'll have the results in an hour."
Disaster nodded and continued the repair. Whatever it was, they'd hopefully soon know.

* * *

Nightmare watched his friend pace in the small patch of twilight that was their world for now. Melissa walked carefully but surely, and she seemed to adapt to her robot body. Still, he knew she wasn't totally secure. First of all there was the size difference, he had seen. She wasn't used to be several times as tall as her prior body. Whenever she had turned to him to talk or check on some of his injuries he had seen puzzlement float over her features. Next came the metal skin. Not only was it totally unlike her old skin but it also wasn't Cybertronian metal. It was alien. Nightmare wondered what exactly had happened inside the tunnel to transform a flesh being into a metal one. In all his time as a Gatekeeper he had never ever heard of anything like that. And it wasn't as if Melissa's consciousness had been transferred into a new body; her whole body had metamorphed into what she was now!
"MJ?" he called softly.
She whirled around and the strange, alien optics met his. Nightmare wondered if they were real optics at all or something hybrid, like her whole body seemed to be.
Hybrid.....
He shivered a bit.
Metal and flesh in one? Was there some of the old body still hiding beneath her exterior shell or was it fused into the molecules of steel? Her optics were strange, her body alien, the hair organic as far as he had been able to determine. She wasn't a robot and she wasn't human. What was she?
He had learned to read those pools of liquid blackness by now, knowing that the silver specks in them were a mirror to her mind and soul. Right now he read emotional turmoil in them. Mel had every right to be in emotional distress and he wished he had a way to help her. But he had no prior experience with this! Nothing even remotely comparable had ever happened!
"Yes?" she asked, voice trembling a bit.
"Stop pacing." He smiled, hoping to calm her.
Calm, hah! Nightmare himself didn't feel calm! He was badly injured, his systems failing, and Melissa was not only confronted with this fact but also with her own changes. And she was still an empath. She could still sense his emotions, better than anyone else's he knew; a fact that had frightened him in the past. And it frightened him now as well, because MJ was confronted with his rampaging helplessness and slight guilt, as well as her own.
Now she sighed and walked back over to where he lay and settled down, back against the wall.
"How do you feel?" she asked.
"I should ask you that," Nightmare replied softly.
Mel stared at him. Her face was very much like her old human one, he saw. Like Sphere she had no 'Cybertronian' features. She had a smooth, almost soft skin, her optics oval shaped without edges, a hint of cheek bones, and gently curving lips. Her expressions were more pronounced because of it and she even had lines creasing the smoothness when she frowned or smiled. Nightmare was reminded of the Protogens and some of the Sentinels.
"I'm not the one wounded here," she then told him firmly.
Nightmare held her troubled gaze. "Yes, you are. You were wounded as well and I think your wounds are worse than mine."
Mel evaded his optics. "I can manage," she muttered.
"Melissa, you don't have to lie for me. I know you and have so for some time now. You are a robot. You changed from an organic being into a mechanical one. Don't tell me you can manage." He tried to lever himself up and failed, sinking back with a grimace of pain.
She sighed deeply. "Well, it takes time getting used to."
"And you are afraid you will stay this way...." he added.
Mel winced. "Yes," she whispered.
"Tell me what you feel."
She shivered and Nightmare reached out, focusing his strength into this one move. He was so incredibly weak. Finally his hand closed around her arm.
"MJ....? It's okay to talk about it. I may be a robot but I'm not without feelings."
She flinched. "That's not it, Nightmare. It's just.... I feel like in my exo-suit with no way out of it. I have a metal shell, I have sensors and scanners and dozens of programs I can run but am afraid to. I found out how to access my medical programs, I found out how my optics work because they are not so different from the Net, and I manage limb coordination."
"But...?"
"But I'm no longer in an exo-suit," she added in such a low voice that he nearly didn't hear her.
They shared a longer silence after that and Nightmare desperately thought about how to help her. She had to get accustomed to this new body. If she was stuck in the robot shell then she had to start accepting now. There was no guarantee that another trip through the doorway would change her back again.
"MJ.... You can learn," Nightmare finally said and thought it was the most unthoughtful sentence he could have thought of.
She looked at him and smiled bravely. "Yes, I can. I have to even." She gazed at her hands as if they were alien objects. To her they were. Finally she met his optics again. "Will you help me?"Nightmare nodded slowly. "Yes, MJ, I will."
The new Melissa Witwicky might not be a Cybertronian but he was sure the basics were the same. He could teach her a few things as long as they were here.
"We'll start with the basic check and support systems."

* * *

"So something flooded the system," Rodimus said thoughtfully. "Could the energy running through it have killed them?"
Starscream shook his head. "No. Doorway energy displaces matter, it doesn't destroy it."
"Then where did it displace Mel and Nightmare to?"
Starscream sighed deeply. "We have no idea."
"What about the logs?" Rodimus wanted to know.
"Sphere is checking them already. Rodimus, we are doing what we can."
Rodimus nodded, sighing, giving Starscream a closer look. The former Decepticon looked a bit grey, but all in all well-composed for someone known to have screaming fits and temper out-breaks over minor things. It was as if this accident had put a damper on his sometimes explosive temper.
Both looked at each other and both saw something reflected in the other's optics, then Starscream nodded.
When he had left his office, Rodimus sank back with an even deeper sigh. Now for the call he had put off for too long. Optimus Prime had yet to be informed of the latest problem. He was on Orle with Daniel. Rodimus punched in his personal key code and waited for the line to establish.

* * *

Spike played with a metal shard, twisting and turning it in his hands. His mind was miles away, maybe even light-years, reaching out for his daughter. He didn't know where she was, how she was, if she was hurt, what was happening to her right now.... He knew nothing. All he was certain of was that if Nightmare was with her and functional he would do everything in his powers to defend her. Nightmare was like a personal guardian, a guardian angel maybe, he thought with a wry smile. He had been with Mel since she had been able to walk her first, unsteady steps. He had been frightened and fascinated by the tiny life form who was so very much interested in the much larger robot herself. They had grown tight friends, developing a bond that was more than just friendship. Mel was able to read the former Decepticon like a book, even without her limited empathic skills, and he was ready to do almost anything for her.
Yes, if he was still functional there was no better protector Spike could think of or could wish for. Still, he was frightened by what had happened and what might be the outcome. He wouldn't be able to stand another violent death of a loved one, he knew. His wife had been taken from him in the Tji war and if he lost his daughter to such a tragic accident.....
He felt a tremor run through his body.
Carly's second pregnancy had been an as unexpected as it had been a happy event in his life. Neither of them had thought of having a second child, not with Daniel already fifteen and growing faster than both parents were able to follow. But he had loved his daughter for the joy she had brought into his life. She had developed into a woman with amazing skills and powers, with a strong personality and a strong confidence in her abilities. She not only had Carly's features -- though her wavy, brown hair was definitely not from her mother's side – she also had her mental strength and wit.
The dull ache came back and Spike dimmed his optics in pain. It had been such a long time since his wife had been killed, but every time he thought of her, the pain returned. Maybe he would have been able to cope with the loss better if Carly had died of a natural cause, but she hadn't. The war had killed her. Cybertron had killed her.....
No! part of him protested. The Tji were responsible!
He was past that; he was past blaming it on everyone and everything. Carly was gone and he knew he would also lose other family members to death one day, but it was a fact he would never be able to accept completely.
With a sigh he lifted his optics to stare into the star-speckled sky. Carly looked back and he smiled. He couldn't see Hope from here, the tiny star that had burned his wife's remains and made her one with the universe around her, but he knew she was there.
"Spike?"
Part of him had heard the light steps, but he was still startled by the voice. Backdraft sat down beside him, compassionate optics asking a silent question. She was one of the youngest robots he knew, one of the youngest Protogens as well, but her mind seemed to be ancient, just like her optics. Unlike the others she had an almost empathic understanding of the world around her. She was like a quiet backbone, a support, for him, and Spike had chosen her as his second-in-command for the Protogens under his care. He found her an incredible receptive and sensitive person, and even though he rarely spilled his inner-most thoughts, Backdraft seemed to know them. There had been dozens of occasions when they had simply sat together in companionable silence, understanding each other without saying a word.
"I'm fine," he now said quietly. "As fine as I can be."
She nodded in acceptance, not digging, not telling him to talk to her. She never had. She offered her presence and friendship and it was enough for him.
Together they watched the first silver sliver of the MoonBase creep over the horizon.

* * *

They sat in the doorway chamber, the atmosphere glum and depressive, no one really wanting to talk about what had happened. Raven wished she had anything to do at all. But there was only sitting and waiting, and mentally bracing herself against Starscream's helpless frustration and anger. The Gatekeeper wanted to do something but he couldn't. It was maddening him and Raven in turn. Sphere was in the adjoining room, out of the immediate radius of her team mate's emotional aura, but Raven was sure she was picking up on it as well. Starscream had gone from pacing to total motionlessness to anger attacks and temper flares. Sphere had totally ignored him in her task to find whatever she was hoping to find and Raven had silently watched him.
Finally Starscream had apologized for it, but he couldn't help feeling what he felt. He couldn't help feeling guilty, worried and responsible all in one. He had been the Gatekeeper on duty, he was the only Gatekeeper of this doorway, this was *his* doorway..... He should have seen it coming, he should have known, he should have.....
"Sometimes no news are good news," Raven said softly.
Starscream managed a smile. "Yes, sometimes. But then, other times, they are harbingers of bad news."
"Wossname!"
Both flinched at the exclamation. Raven looked over to where Bat lay curled up on the com console. The little winged lizard had come down here some time ago, not uttering a word, sometimes humming strangely, and waiting. Now his faceted eyes were alive with colors, most of them representing emotional turmoil.
"They are not dead!" he declared with total conviction.
"Bat...."
The colors intensified. "Not dead," he repeated, then huddled even more into a small ball of hope and worry, ignoring them again.
Raven exchanged a look with Starscream. They all knew Bat shared a unique link to Nightmare, had been his companion ever since the former Decepticon had been chosen as a Gatekeeper for Crea. This little organic was as old as a Cybertronian, ageless and nearly immortal, and a mystery to many. No one knew anything about Bat's kind or his origin other than what he had volunteered – and that hadn't been much. He hung around West Central or the doorway chamber, he popped up in the most unlikely places, and he was Nightmare's companion.
Could he feel that Nightmare was still alive? Raven wondered. Maybe.....
If so, and if the declaration had been correct, then there was hope.

* * *

Mel had her back against the rough, rocky surface of the wall and stared into the darkness. She tried to take her mind off what she was but failed. She was incredibly sensitive to this body, aware of every tiny ridge, unevenness, every wire, every circuit and every board. This was not her body, those were not her eyes looking at the world around her.... this was not her! Nightmare had helped her a bit, had explained the basics to her, how to check her functions, how to access certain information, and it was like a bad dream. She couldn't be a robot!
Her mind was another matter. She was constantly pondering what had happened and why she had changed into what she was now. She was no Cybertronian, so much Nightmare had told her, and she knew she wasn't any of Ralyk's children either. Her core programming was different from what data she had pulled out of it and told the injured Gatekeeper.
Her hand touched the fabric of her new metal skin. She felt sick at the contact of metal hands on skin. Melissa stared at her hands and flexed them. Neuro-wiring reacted. Metal muscles moved. She shuddered again.
"Five fingers. Any more and I'd be slightly worried," someone commented and she looked up, her optics finding the deep red glow of Nightmare's. There was a slightly amused expression in them.
He was dying and he was still trying to cheer her up. He had told her a lot about what being a robot was, drawing on knowledge millions of years old. And all the time he suffered from throbbing pain, from energon loss and system malfunctions. Mel could feel his pain, could feel it pulse in the back of her neck. She was an empath after all and she had always read Nightmare better than anyone. He had been her first friend among robot kind and had till today remained her best. She had never cared about what he was, a former Decepticon, the leader of an elite troop, the Assassins. For her he had been a friend, someone to trust.... and now he was someone in need of help she couldn't give.
"Are you okay?" he asked softly.
Mel was about to give a sharp reply, then sighed and briefly the silver specks in her black optics increased.
"That bad, eh?" Nightmare muttered, optics serious. "It's not easy to be someone else. Especially someone you might stay for a while."
She knew that, but she was not yet ready to give in to the overpowering feeling of this body. Deep inside of her was a terrible fear that this condition was permanent...... Being a robot permanently was a nightmare and right now she was living this nightmare without a chance to wake up. She didn't want to end like this!
But maybe she would. She had to accept. She had to get over her shock and inertia and do something. She had to find out what had happened to Sandstorm! He could be close by and hurt, unable to communicate. He could be up there, also hurt and unconscious. He could be.... somewhere else completely.
"We will get back," Nightmare added calmly. "I know we will."
Mel nodded and rose slowly. "I'll have another look around," she said and turned to once again explore their little world.
"Be careful," Nightmare advised.
Of course she would be. Mel walked cautiously through the semi-dark and narrow canyon which was lit by the strange, glowing moss. The plants didn't give enough light to illuminate more than the immediate space around them. Mel had to rely on her optics adjusting to the darkness, and her instincts. These new eyes were not so much different from the Net she had lived with for years now, but still needed some getting used to.
Darkness wrapped itself around her like a blanket and she felt the rocky ground turn into softer sand. It whispered beneath her feet, grains crushing against each other. She was about ten steps into the dead-end tunnel when he felt a strange tingle along her spine. She stopped, scanning, her new senses alert. She thought she saw a shadow, unnatural black moving through natural darkness, just outside her vision. Then it was gone and she was alone again. She shivered in fear. It had to be her imagination! There was nothing here and she was seeing ghosts!
Mel turned and almost fled out of the now oppressing darkness.

* * *

"No!"
The cry echoed through the doorway chamber and rebounded off the walls. Starscream looked up and watched a silver-blue twister hit the room. Maybe it was his imagination, but her white hair seemed to crackle with energy.
Sphere was utterly frustrated and everyone around her saw and felt it. Starscream was currently the only one in the doorway chamber and he kept out of her way as she hissed darkly, glaring at the controls.
"There is nothing in the log but a garbled mess!" the female Key exploded, slamming her hands on the quartz control cube. "Whatever hit the system, it is totally alien compared to everything I ever saw! Everywhere I go I'm greeted by this nonsense!" A string of rather rude curses followed and Starscream smiled.
Her emerald optics flared angrily. "What are you smiling about? What's so funny?"
Inside her, Ranora curled into a tiny ball, trying to shrink back into the protective folds of the Host space. Sphere angry was a rare occasion; Sphere furious and frustrated like this had never happened before. Her emotions were leaking into the Tji and they hurt her a bit.
"Nothing. Nothing at all. I know the situation is serious, but an emotional override of your logic circuits won't help, sis." He tilted his head a fraction. "At least that's what you tell me all the time."
Sphere glared at him, then sighed. "Okay, okay. I'm calm!" She turned back to the control cube. "All I can say is that the energy came from far outside the known system and that it wrecked havoc on the transport. The logs are not very helpful either."
::Sorry::
Sphere sighed softly. ::It's not your fault, Ranora. I'm sorry I flooded you with this. I'm just frustrated::
Ranora smiled slightly. :I can feel that::
A shadow fell over her and she looked into two golden optics. Spook's head was directly above her. "Give me a pattern and I'll see if I can trace it," he said calmly.
Sphere sighed. "Okay, let's try it." She called up a small holographic image of the pattern the alien energy surge had left. "That's it."
Spook regarded it, then scanned it into his tracing systems. He moved into a corner, curled up, wings hugging his serpent body. His optics dimmed a little as he switched off most of his external sensors and concentrated on the world open to him as a former Security guard of the doorway system.

* * *

Sandstorm was as good as new. First Aid had declared him fit and ready for duty. Now he stood in Rodimus Prime's office, watching the young commander leaf through his report. Sandstorm had typed it up while still in med bay, much to Fist Aid's dismay.
"So the remote activated the doorway, it connected, there were no anomalies, and you began travel," Rodimus said out loud now.
Sandstorm nodded. "Sable checked the connection and gave us a green light. There were no signs of any malfunction."
Rodimus tapped his chin. "We talked to Sable through long range communication and he is one hundred percent certain that the doorway was properly open and connected. He didn't even pick up on the malfunction throughout transport."
"Sandstorm frowned slightly. "So it wasn't the Viji doorway that sent the energy wave?"
"No. We checked that right away. It came from within the system but we have no point of origin we can point out." Rodimus played with the disk he was holding, thoughtfully staring at the report. "How much do you remember from your entry to your exit."
"Nothing," the other robot answered with a sigh. "We stepped in and when I next came on-line I was in med bay and receiving repairs."
Rodimus nodded. "Thank you, Sandstorm. Dismissed."
"Prime?"
"Yes?"
Sandstorm hesitated. "What happened to the others?"
Rodimus' face shadowed. "We don't know, Sandstorm."
His optics dimmed in shared worry. "Oh." Then Sandstorm left.
Rodimus was alone with the mystery of where Nightmare and Melissa had been transported to.

* * *

They had sat together in silence for some time now, Nightmare because he had to conserve the little energon he had, and Mel because she was busy digesting what she had learned. Her new body held many mysteries and she knew it would take time to unravel them all. She explored what Nightmare had shown her, trying not to shy away from it, trying to get herself to accept what she was now. She turned her head and looked at the prone Gatekeeper.
Nightmare was dying. Mel had been able to patch him up so he was no longer on the brink of death, but she had only given him a bit of additional time. He was no longer losing energon, but his energy levels had dropped rapidly and he was in no condition to do much but lie there and wait. She hated to be so helpless, but she was missing surgical instruments and replacement parts. She had done what was possible for her to do under these circumstances .... then why did it feel like she was letting him down?
Mel drew her knees to her chest, encircling them. She felt terrible and this time it wasn't a physical sensation. It was all in her mind. She had never felt so helpless. They were trapped down here and there was no way out but up. Her optics turned skyward. She had no idea what was up there, but one had to be the doorway. The doorway home....
Maybe she could get up there.
Maybe she could climb and reach the top, then send a call home.
Maybe.....
Maybe.....
She sighed deeply and checked on Nightmare once more. She let her scanners run and took note of his energon levels. Rest did him some good since he was no longer experiencing rapid energy drops, but it was no reason to feel cheerful. An increasing energy drain in some of the core circuits told her of his rising consciousness.
"Nightmare?"
His optics brightened a bit. "Hi, MJ," he rasped.
She winced. "Hi," she said softly.
"Hey, I'm not dead yet, so stop looking at me as if I were," Nightmare quipped.
Mel winced again. "Sorry... Listen, I thought about our situation and maybe I can climb up and reach the doorway....."
Nightmare shook his head almost imperceptibly. "No, MJ. Too dangerous."
"It's even more dangerous to sit down here!" she told him in a hiss. "You are in bad need of help!"
"You falling down from up there won't help me at all," he told her.
"Nightmare....."
"MJ, no! Please!"
Suddenly there was a noise — but it didn't come from above. It came from out of the dead end tunnel. Nightmare stiffened, his optics trying to see through the darkness.
"Nightmare? What is it?"
"Shh," he whispered.
Mel obeyed. The noise came again. It was a scratching, like sharp claws over stone. She felt her own body stiffen as well and fear rise inside of her. She remembered the shadow she had seen when exploring the area they were trapped in. She had later thought it was only her imagination, but then.....
The scratching noise stopped, replaced by a low growl.
Something stepped into the twilight. It was large, maybe as large as a Cybertronian-size pony, but it definitely didn't look like one. It had four legs, the body was slim and covered with black, wetly glistening armor. The head had a long snout and two pointed ears were pricked forward as if it was listening to something. Yellowish eyes watched the two robots and a long tail twitched now and then.
"What is that thing?" Mel whispered in horror. It reminded her of a mixture between the Alien from the still well-known movie and a horse.
Nightmare grabbed his gun tightly, though he was unable to lift it. "I don't know, but I don't want to find out."
There was a snort from the entity and it cocked its head, eyes narrowing on him as if it tried to determine whether he was a possible prey or another predator. Nightmare might be injured, but he would defend Mel to his last pump-beat. His body as a Gatekeeper was strong and could withstand a lot. Would he have been a normal Cybertronian he would be dead now. Still he felt an icy shower run down his spine. But instead of coming closer or giving off more hisses and growls, the creature walked back into the shadows, its eyes never leaving them. The blackness swallowed it up completely.
Nightmare shivered again. Those eyes had not been ones of an animal. This creature was intelligent.... highly intelligent, and it had checked out the situation. Though it was gone now, he still knew it was here. And that gave him a chill. He glanced at Mel.
"You all right?" he wanted to know.
"Yes. What was that thing?"
"Wish I knew. It's still there, I think. In the shadows." He tried to penetrate the black hole, but failed.
"What now?"
Nightmare had thought about that, too. He didn't really know what to do. His own condition was declining and Mel was no warrior. She was a human trapped in a strange, robotic body, without battle experience or any weaponry, as far as he could determine.
"I don't know...."
Mel reached out for the weapon and took it from his barely moveable fingers.
"MJ!" he whispered, optics flaring. "What...."
Mel rose carefully. "I'll.... go and check it out...." she said, voice strangely numb to his audios.
"No!" he hissed and tried to rise, falling back with a moan of pain, sparks erupting from his damaged body. "Mel, no! You don't know...."
Her strange eyes silenced him. Helplessness coursed through him.
"No...." he whispered again, then his energy drain forced him to lie back.
Melissa stepped into the darkness, holding the borrowed gun tightly in her hands.

* * *

Sphere had not surfaced from her work for two days now and Starscream was getting increasingly worried about her. She was obsessed with finding the missing people. Everyone was edgy because of the accident and all doorway travels had been canceled, but Sphere didn't even recharge properly anymore. She ignored what wasn't vital for her task.
While she worked, Sphere seemed to be lost in a world of her own, a world only Keys understood and which Starscream had only a rudimentary grasp of. Raven and Sphere had taken turns teaching their partners about the doorway system and a lot had stuck.
Sphere ignored the entries of the usual activities of the doorway throughout a day, which consisted of the low energy flow it sent out when inactive, the regular pulses when it opened and the echoes of other doorways. She called up more pages and found nothing amiss in the energy flow of the hours just before the accident. Everything had been normal up to that point! Not even a shiver of alien influence!
::Any ideas?:: she asked, addressing the Tji inside her.
Ranora sighed heavily. ::No. I'm sorry I can't be of any help. I was born and bred a warrior, never a scientist:: She sounded crestfallen.
::It's okay:: Sphere muttered, glaring at the displays.
Spook still lay curled up in one corner, scanning, his body representing more of a statue than a living being. Suddenly his golden optics flared with life and a soft hiss escaped his snout.
"Access file H5/00-12UJ67.9KK!" he told Sphere, his voice booming through the room.
Sphere never even thought about asking why. She simply accessed the file, which was the unreadable mess. Spook slithered over to her and hummed.
"Access code 'LC-IJ.11," he rumbled.
She typed in the code the half-serpent dictated, along with the string of numbers that followed. The screen lit up after she hit the 'Enter' button. There were symbols, strangely slashed letters and numbers, repeating strings of weird combinations. The stuff in-between the weird things looked faintly like coordinates, but she recognized none of them.
Why?
Sphere frowned. She had a full data file of coordinates inside her and the control cube had them as well, even the remotest ones. She would recognize coordinates everywhere in the system.
She stopped.
Everywhere.... in ... the ... system....
What if.... what if they were no longer in what they knew of the system?
Ranora twitched inside her, confused.
"Oh... my...." Sphere whispered.
Spook rumbled again.
Sphere deleted everything on the file but the last entry and then accessed one of her own Key programs. She stared at the soup of letters and numbers, suddenly seeing a light at the end of the tunnel she was walking. Outside! They had to be outside! These coordinates described an exit outside the known system and all she had to do was translate it into a readable program to open the doorway to!
"They left the known system!" she whispered.
Spook nodded. "Yes."
"How?!"
His golden optics flickered. "The interference must have knocked them out of what we know of the doorway net."
"I got the coordinates, but I'm not sure if I can set the doorway...." the Key muttered.
"Try it," Starscream said and joined them.
"What if we hit something?"
A cold smile crossed his lips. "I'm ready for it."

* * *

Nikaa sat on one of the many different machines in med bay and watched the large silver and black colored robot work on one of the scanning devices used to determine system errors in a patient. He wasn't a very technical-minded person but he knew enough to tell them apart. Otherwise Nikaa had never been very much interested in what one thing did or another. He only wanted to know how much it was worth and who might be interested in acquiring it. Right now thievery was the farthest from his mind, though his subconsciousness had already started to take note of the valuables, assessed their worth, had made a list and classified it into what could be easily stolen and for what he needed more finesse or help.
He couldn't help it.
It was in his blood.
He was a thief.
Nikaa sighed softly. It was his destiny and always had been. Being the second son from where he came from was like a curse. Only the first son inherited the father's land and herd, the second and all following sons were without rights. The daughters were married off and the first daughter inherited the mother's valuables and possessions. Nikaa had left his family when he had been old enough to declare his independence, which had been at the human age of thirteen, and had learned the ways of the world.
It had been hard, it had been cruel, it had confronted him with death many times, but he had survived. And he had become a thief. There was nothing he wouldn't steal and nowhere he wouldn't break into.
Skywolf turned and cast the silent visitor a quizzical look. Nikaa sighed. He had come down here to ask questions because this Sentinel seemed to be the only person who could give him answers. Now he had no idea how to start.
"How long have you known Gryph?" he finally asked.
Skywolf placed the tools he was holding on the work table. "Very long," he answered.
"And has she always been like this?"
The medic tilted his head. "Like what?"
Nikaa shrugged. "Like she is right now. A pain."
Skywolf chuckled. "Depends on your definition, but to tell the truth, Gryph always was a difficult person to deal with. Why do you ask?"
Nikaa didn't like the way Skywolf asked the question. Those four words had been asked in a way that implied he knew or suspected what was going on, though Nikaa himself wasn't so sure about it himself. He wasn't sure what had happened between him and Gryph that day she had attacked him and suddenly backed off. Something had passed between them and something was still lingering. He had snooped around, as he always did when being somewhere new, and he had discovered Interfacing. It was fascinating, it was interesting, it was intriguing ... but he didn't need it! Nikaa shivered. He wasn't so much shocked about the possibility of being bonded to a near-immortal being and becoming nearly immortal as well. He could see a lot of advantages in that, his quick and agile mind coming up with a hundred possibilities open to him if it was true. No, his main worry was the fact that this robot would now be privy to his thoughts. He didn't need someone snooping around in his thoughts!
"Because she seems to be my personal curse and pain!" he now muttered. "Wherever I go, she pops up and interferes! I can't live my life anymore!"
"Ah," Skywolf smiled.
"'Ah' nothing! She ... she doesn't let me live my own life!"
"Because your life interferes with mine!" a voice cracked like a whip-lash.
Nikaa's head snapped around and met two rather annoyed green optics. "Who is interfering with whose life?!" he demanded. "I can't make a step or two without you hovering around me!"
"Because after a step or two those thieving fingers have displaced something or other into your bottomless pockets!" she shot back.
"So what do you care?"
Gryph hissed darkly. "You always seem to end up in my vicinity and I wish to keep all my body parts!"
"I wouldn't touch your flea-ridden shell even if my life depended in it!" Nikaa growled.
"You'd very quickly lose those fingers of yours!" Gryph retorted and leaned forward. "Which might be a good idea because then everything around here would be safe from you!"
Skywolf stood back and watched with a fine smile on his face.
Nikaa glared back at the slender but much taller Sentinel, his dark brown eyes alight with an angry fire. "I'll make sure you don't see me around here anymore. You just make sure you don't accidentally pop up wherever I will soon be! Like last time!"
Gryph's wing's quivered with barely suppressed fury. "Listen, human..."
"I'm not human! I told you so a thousand times!" Nikaa hissed angrily.
"Flesh creature!"
"Metal head!"
"Worm!"
"Bird brain!"
Skywolf hid his face behind one hand, biting down hard on his lower lip not to burst out laughing.
Gryph's hiss turned even angrier and more dangerous. "Watch your tongue, mouse!"
Nikaa drew himself up to his full height. "You watch yours! You think you over-sized rust bucket of bolts can order me around? I'm not impressed, neither by your size or your weaponry, chicken wings!"
Tiny yellow pinpoints glowed in the female's optics and she flexed her hands. She was close to strangling this annoying and infuriating creature. Finally she whirled around and stalked out of the lab, tail twitching.
Nikaa looked at Skywolf who tried to maintain a straight face.
"See?" he asked plaintively. "I bet you three steps around the next corner and she is trailing me again!" He jumped off the machine and left, a dark cloud hovering over his head.
When he was gone, Skywolf broke out laughing. The laughter was echoed by a white-haired woman now coming out of the adjoining room.
"Interfaced?" Jill managed between giggles.
"If they aren't, I don't know who is," Skywolf hiccuped.

* * *

Mel didn't feel as brave now as when she had taken the gun. She was frightened, she was shaking, she felt weak..... and the weight of the gun in her hands tripled the effect. She thought she saw shadows move, claws scraping over the ground just ahead of her. She had only taken a few steps toward the total blackness and she thought she felt Nightmare's anxious optics in her back. Mel straightened her back and walked into the tunnel. She looked around the darkness, wishing the moss would give off more light. And then she heard it. A growl, low and barely audible, but still a growl. And it was menacing.
"Mel....?" Nightmare's weak voice reached her audios.
Something jumped forward, directly at the female robot. Melissa gave a frightened yell and stumbled away. She felt something unyieldingly hard slam into her. She lost her balance and went down, Nightmare's weapon flying out of her hand. She rolled around, blindly groping for the gun or another weapon, whatever she found first. Her fingers closed around the gun's front end and she gave a silent thanks, pulling it toward her.
A growl made her freeze in her actions, then she quickly grabbed the gun. When she saw the shadow again, she fired. The blast illuminated the blackness for just a second, revealing rocky walls and an uneven, sand covered floor. Nothing else. And the creature was gone.
Mel was panting, her oxygen pump racing, and she felt like when she had an adrenaline rush as a human. Every sense was heightened and she felt some strange instincts rise with those senses.
She retraced her steps and finally saw the dull twilight of the spot where they had crashed down. Quickening her retreat she was just out of the tunnel when the growl and hiss came again. Mel whirled around as she heard it. The black creature jumped her again, bright yellow eyes alight.
She gasped as claws pressed painfully into her body. The gun went flying a second time.
"Melissa!!" came the frightened yell from Nightmare. He tried to rise, screaming in pain as repaired fuel and liquid tubes ruptured and energon spilled out. She thought she heard servos creak and circuits tear.
Mel's breath came in rapid, strangled gasps, something adapted from thinking as a human while in a robot body. Whatever it was that stood on her chest, it was heavy. The creature gave another snort and turned its head, taking in the helpless, frantic form of Nightmare and then staring at the gun. With a quick snap of its tail it whipped the weapon away. Then it turned back to the robot it had pinned down. A hiss escaped the lipless mouth.
Nightmare clenched his teeth and rolled around, hissing in barely bearable agony. "Mel...." He channeled what energy he had left into the still functional hidden weapon systems.
Melissa knew she was completely helpless. Whatever that thing's intention was, she couldn't do anything to prevent it. She didn't know her powers, she didn't know if she had any other weapons..... Silently writing off her life, she steeled herself for what was to come.
Nightmare felt panic ensue him when he saw Mel go down and the strange creature keeping her pinned to the ground. He was unable to move, but he was not completely helpless. He had been an Assassin, whatever his occupation now was, and he would always be one. He raised his arm and activated a hidden weapon. Since he lay at an awkward angle to it, the bolt only grazed the entity's head, leaving a sticky white trail. Blood? There was no reaction at all except a low rumble. The eyes fixed on Nightmare again. Melissa used that moment of distraction to slam her hands into the snout to try and dislodge the thing from her. It felt like hitting pure granite. Her wrists took the impact and she gasped again.
A strange hum came from the creature. All of a sudden it pulled back — just far enough to give Mel a chance to sit up. And she did so, carefully, warily.
"Nightmare?" she whispered without turning around.
"I'm ... I'm fine," he gasped. "You?"
"Never felt better," she lied.
The creature cocked its head and snorted.
"I think it understands us," Nightmare said in a low voice.
"I think it wants to eat us," she hissed back.
"I don't think so. Why would it release you then?"
Mel moved closer to him, never letting the black creature out of her sight. "Ever heard of hunters playing with their prey?" she asked.
Whatever that thing was, it didn't want to kill them -- well, not yet anyway. But why did it behave like it did?
"Maybe we should try to communicate with it," Nightmare suggested. "I think it can understand us"
"I don't know," Mel said doubtfully. "You want me to give it the 'Me Tarzan, you Jane' routine?"
That drew a chuckle, followed by a hiss of pain. A movement caught Mel's optic. The creature came closer. She tensed immediately and moved back further. It stopped, snorting again.
"He is hurt." Its voice was deep and dark, but not unpleasant. In fact, it was very pleasant, warm and calm.
Mel stared at the thing in disbelief. "It talks," she whispered in complete surprise.
Yellow eyes bore into her. "Why shouldn't I?"
"Ahm, well, I ... I'm sorry."
"What for?"
Melissa inhaled deeply. "What are you? And where did you come from? The tunnel is a dead end!"
"I am called a Sinth. And I came through the darkness. There are no dead ends for me."
"Oh, that explains everything."
The creature, the Sinth, snorted again. "You came through the gate," it suddenly said. "You are lost."
"How do you know?" Nightmare demanded.
"I know," its soft voice said and Nightmare thought it somehow sounded female, though he couldn't say why.
"Our friends are searching for us," Melissa said slowly.
"They won't find you."
The statement hung in the air and Melissa felt her stomach clench, or at least what doubled for what had been her stomach before. "What do you mean?" he asked slowly.
"They won't find you," the Sinth repeated.
"Why? This chasm probably isn't far from the doorway! They will come down here and look! They can pick up our energy signatures!"
"They won't." The dark voice didn't change in tone, the pupilless yellow eyes simply continued to look at them.
"Listen," Nightmare hissed, his patience close to being nullified, "what do you mean they can't find us?"
"This is Thaenjhvuinhj's realm. She decides what will happen. And for them you are dead.""
That left both of them speechless. Nightmare was the first to get his tongue untied.
"Dead?" he whispered.
"You do not exist to their eyes and ears."
Mel frowned. "You mean they can neither see nor hear us?"
"They can if they use more than their given eyes and ears." The Sinth tilted its head.
"Scanners," Mel muttered slowly. "Could it be that no scanner can pick us up? Do you mean they can only see us when they are down here?"
The Sinth nodded.
Nightmare muttered a Cybertronian curse. Then he asked, "And who exactly is this Thaenjhvuinhj?"
"She is a powerful Ji'hintj. I respect her for her power."
"Well, that's really an explanation. Thanks very much," Melissa muttered. "What is this Ji'hintj?"
"The Ji'hintj is more powerful than I am, but we are of the same kind."
"Okay, so it's family ties. You working for her?"
The Sinth cocked its head, apparently not understanding Mel's question. "I am my own," it simply said.
"What do you want from us?" Nightmare finally asked.
"I was sent to help."
"By who?"
It didn't answer.
Melissa exchanged a weary look with her wounded friend. This creature was not exactly a fountain of willing information.
"How can you help us?" she then wanted to know. "I severely doubt you can fly both of us out of here."
"True. I cannot fly. I merely walk the darkness." The Sinth looked first at Melissa, then at Nightmare. "But your companion is unable to travel."
"What about me then?" she demanded.
"Possible. Have you ever traveled in the darkness?"
"Do it all the time," Mel replied, though he had no idea what the entity was talking about.
"MJ!" Nightmare hissed. "No!"
She turned to him, her alien face set. "I'll get help for you," she promised.
"No!" he protested weakly. "It could be a trap...."
She nodded. "I'm aware of that, but you need help."
Nightmare shook his head. "I can...." He groaned in pain as he moved his leg. Sparks erupted from the multiple wounds.
"You can't!" she said forcefully. "Stay here, please! I'll get help, I promise!"
He shook his head in desperation. "No, MJ, no!"
"I'm a grown woman. I can take care of myself," Mel told him gently. "You stay here and don't move. I will be back with help."
Nightmare's face was a mask of pure anguish now. "No...."
Her mind reached out for him to calm him and he fought against her soothing influence. No....! She smiled gently.
"I will watch out for her," the dark voice of the Sinth penetrated their exchange.
He looked into the strange yellow eyes and shivered. Nightmare's Assassin instincts flared. He didn't trust this creature, whatever it was. It didn't seem real somehow .... too alien ... too .....too.... much like an illusion.
"Follow me."
The Sinth stood and walked off into the dead-end tunnel Mel had explored before. With a last, encouraging look at Nightmare she followed it. Blackness swallowed her and the Gatekeeper was alone, only the rocky walls keeping him company.

* * *

"That's it? You sure?"
Sphere cast Rodimus a slightly annoyed look and he raised his hands in defense.
"Okay, okay, you are sure," he said quickly.
"It is a location far outside the system we have come to know so far," she told him. "And it seems to be a dead doorway as well."
"Then how....?"
Sphere nodded. "I know, I know, but I double-checked it and it is the correct exit point. Strangely enough I receive low-level energy fluxes from there and it seems like it isn't as dead as the logs of the old system make us believe."
"Can we go there?" the Autobot finally wanted to know.
She nodded again. "Give me some time to adjust the streams to this location and Starscream the chance to set up the defenses and emergency shut-down and we are go."
"Do it."
With that Rodimus turned and left the chamber.

* * *

Orle was a small planet but with a gigantic potential. It was mainly a mining world and it had trade treaties with various neighboring planets. Now Cybertron had become interested in such a treaty as well. The planet needed resources and with Earth still not on the best of terms and just in the first stage of defrosting trade and diplomatic relationships, the Council had decided to look for alternatives. Some of the reawakened Game participants were from Orle and one had held a high position once. His family had welcomed him back, even though he had been gone for over 100 Orle years, which were about 345 Standard years. Orlen were long living people and very traditional. This high ranking Orlen had contacted people he knew and an avalanche had been started. Orle was very interested in Cybertron and vice versa.
Optimus Prime and Daniel Witwicky had traveled to the small planet for a first contact and except for a few minor language problems, everything had gone smoothly. And then Rodimus' call had come, informing him of what had happened. Optimus sighed. He was currently on his way back to Cybertron while Daniel was wrapping up some last minute details.
The shuttle approached the warp gate and he was on his way.

* * *

Mel was surrounded by suffocating blackness. There wasn't a single point of light and she wasn't so sure if she was coming or going. Her sense of direction was gone, her optics of no use, and her feet were definitely not on solid ground. She gasped, feeling the blackness close around her, bringing an inhuman coldness that penetrated her metal body like tiny spikes. She had the sudden feeling of falling down and screamed in surprise. Then light washed over her, blinding and unexpected, and her optics dimmed automatically. A wave of dizziness washed over her and the world tilted sideways.
And then everything cleared and she felt almost normal, except for a low throbbing just behind he forehead, like a mild migraine. Mel looked around.
All around her was nothing but landscape. A wild, beautiful landscape, with tall grass, far away mountains and the occasional hill. Behind her stretched a whole forest of strange trees, all of them looking like no tree she had ever seen before. They were tall with a dark, nearly black bark. The leaves had a bluish tinge and were shaped like triangles. Everywhere a fine layer of snow covered the fauna. And not very far from her position was the doorway. It was old.... looking a bit brittle but still strong. It was missing the rune-like carvings and the differently colored sections, the rings, but it had to be the doorway.
Staring at the gigantic construction she didn't notice the Sinth coming up to her.
"You lied to me," it said sternly, the deep voice full of reproach, but still kind of warm.
Mel turned her head when she heard the voice. Yellow eyes looked seriously at her. In the light of the day the Sinth didn't hold any less menace than in the twilight below. The black color of its body was of a black Mel had only once seen before. It was very black, pitch-black, swallowing all the light touching it. It was like a copy of Midnight on four legs....
For the first time she saw the sharp claws she had only felt before and the spikes that covered the shoulders, sticking out like dozens of blades. She shuddered, remembering that she was trusting this thing to help her.
"What?" she asked in a rough voice.
"You said you walked the darkness before. You have not."
Mel massaged her temples. "Oh, that darkness. I thought you were talking about another darkness down there. I must have misheard something." She wished her head would stop pounding like mad.
The Sinth gave a snort of pure disbelief. "You could have been killed. And you would not be the first one vanishing because he was too confident in his own abilities. Call yourself lucky you are still alive."
"I don't feel alive," she muttered. The yellow stare unnerved her. Mostly because the thing looked ... worried?
"You are foolish."
"We made it, okay?" Melissa was annoyed by the statement because she knew it was true. But she still felt touchy about it. "It was my decision, my risk."
"I hate to say you are wrong again. The risk was ours, not simply yours," the Sinth corrected her somberly.
"What do you mean?"
It met her optics but didn't say a word. Mel sighed heavily and turned to look at the doorway again.
"What now?"
It had been a rhetoric question, but the Sinth answered nevertheless. "That is for you to decide."
She walked over to the strange doorway, noting the fissures, the peeling paint or whatever it was, the cracked stones. But all in all it looked still strong and functional to her, even if she had never seen a doorway like this before. She remembered what Sphere had once told her about the centerway in the destroyed space station. Though the one she was looking at was nowhere near as big and not even circular, it reminded her of the stories she had heard from the Key.
Mel carefully touched the stone and was surprised to feel it warm and faintly vibrating. A hum from behind her made her whirl around. The Sinth stood not very far away from her, head cocked, the yellow eyes holding a strange expression.
"It is sending."
"Sending?" she echoed.
Again the Sinth was silent. Melissa rubbed her optics and wished she knew why she felt like she was close to a headache.
"Why don't you go back to Nightmare and keep him company?" she finally asked
"Why should I?" was the question in return.
Good question, Mel thought. She wasn't even sure her badly hurt friend would want this particular company, but she didn't like imagining him down there all alone.
"Can you help me here?" she asked matter-of-factly.
The Sinth pondered that. "No, I don't think so."
"Why don't you consider it a favor then?" She gave the Sinth a hopeful glance.
Again the creature thought about it, snorting. "I do not understand 'favor'."
Mel blew out an exaggerated breath. "Okay, okay, cut it out!" she snapped. "Then just keep standing here, staring and talking down on me! I just thought you might want to help me a little bit more and watch over Nightmare! He's all alone down there and hurt! How'd you like to be in his position, without help and moral support?"
Everything suddenly blurred around her for a second and she gasped. Mel rubbed her optics, trying to concentrate. Whatever the Sinth had taken her through, some kind of gate or tunnel, it must have had some side effects that now showed up.
"Just forget it," she muttered.
She turned her back on the black being and walked to the doorway again. She didn't look back and so she missed the disappearance of the otherworldly being.
Melissa Witwicky had no idea how to handle the situation, not a single one. She had never activated a doorway; she was not a Key. And she didn't have the remote control anymore. She had .... Nothing, her mind answered. Nothing at all. Sighing, she stopped in front of the alien construction.
Some time passed as she examined the whole structure, trying to find a way to trigger either a short energy flow or something like it. Nothing. The surface, as cracked and old as it was, showed no sign as to how to open this construction.
Suddenly there was a far away growling and rumbling. She tensed and her optics narrowed. Then there was a roar, not unlike the one when a doorway was opening. Mel felt a shudder run through the giant doorway and then it exploded into a brilliant shower of light, fire and sound.

* * *

The doorway chamber was almost crowded. Starscream stood back, watching everything carefully, closely, keeping another optic on Sphere, who was busy with her doorway settings. The first connection to the strange and faraway location had been a success and now it was time to send in a team.
Backdraft, quite well-versed in doorway travel, nodded at her four companions. Blitzwing, Octane, Fireflight and Punch entered the glowing entrance to another planet and Backdraft followed.
Now all they could do was wait.

* * *

Nightmare lay with his optics dimmed, trying not to feel the pain that raced through his body. It was hard to catch a clear thoughts with steady system failures and circuit fires. And above all he missed his company. It was a strange feeling and he'd never tell this to anyone, but right now he would be more than glad to have anyone here, talking, taking his mind off what had happened and might happen. When he had been on Crea he had had Bat and back on Cybertron he had his team mates and Mel. Now, for the first time since his rebirth, he was truly alone, with no one around.
There was a little noise from the dead-end tunnel and he tensed. It was the same noise as before when the creature, the Sinth, had appeared. But it had gone off with MJ, leading her out of here, hadn't it? Maybe Mel had been wrong to trust the thing and it had killed her! This thought turned Nightmare's fuel pump into an icy pit and he banished it immediately. But when he saw the familiar figure emerge from the blackness into the dim twilight of the canyon, his mind presented him with the worst case scenario.
"Where's Melissa?" he demanded to know the second the Sinth came into view.
The black creature came a bit closer, sitting down barely three feet away from where the Gatekeeper lay suspended on his back. Yellow eyes studied him with interest.
"Your friend is in the light outside."
Nightmare felt relief flood through him, though suspicion flared immediately. "How do I know you tell the truth?"
"You are very suspicious creatures," the Sinth said with a hint of offense. "I said I would bring her through the darkness and so I did, though she lied to me about her ability to walk the darkness." It snorted. "She could have died."
"Died?" Nightmare echoed, aghast. "Why didn't you say so before?"
"Because she said she could do it. I do not question statements made with confidence. But do not worry, she is alive."
"Then why are you back here and not upstairs, helping Mel?" he asked, voice holding an edge.
"There is no way to help her. I do not know how to travel the gatelinks. She has to do it on her own. And she asked me to...." It searched for words, the ears twitching. "She said you needed company?"
Nightmare blinked, then had to suppress a chuckle after the immediate surprise was gone. "Company?" MJ had sent the Sinth down to keep him company? Geez! "Well, I could need some company," he confided. But I didn't think of a creature like that when I wished I had someone down here to keep me from going nuts.
"You do not like my kind."
Nightmare studied the strange creature. "It's not dislike," he told it honestly. "I am used to alien beings of all kinds, but I never saw anything remotely like you."
"There are few of us," the Sinth acknowledged. "And we don't usually hunt in your world."
His optics narrowed. "Hunt?"
The Sinth gave a hiss but didn't elaborate.
"Okay," Nightmare sighed. "Another question. What is this world? What is its name?"
Nightmare thought that if he was trapped down here with an alien creature he might just find out a bit more about its kind and where this world was.
"It has no name."
"You are from this planet?"
"No, I was sent here to help you."
Nightmare felt like talking in a loop. "Yes, you already told us that. And you won't tell who sent you, right?"
No answer.
"Right," the Gatekeeper muttered. "Do you have a name?"
"Name?"
"Well, I'm called Nightmare. How do you call yourself?"
"I am a Sinth," the creature replied, a bit puzzled.
"Yes, no, well .... if there are more of you, you gotta have a way to address each other. Or do you just say 'hey, you'?"
"We simply recognize each other."
"By smell?"
"We just know who we are." It gave a strange hum.
Nightmare sighed. "Okay. Let's leave it at that." He glanced at the sky high above, wondering how Mel was doing. "Can't you get me out of here somehow? There must be a way."
"You can't walk the darkness. And even if you could, you are too weak to withstand the powers in the darkness itself." There was genuine sadness in the creature's yellow eyes. "I am sorry, but you are confined to this place." It settled down, resting its head on its front paws.
"What is this 'darkness'?"
"I do not understand your question."
"You say you walk the 'darkness', that Mel was nearly unable to do so, and that I can't. What is the darkness? Do you teleport?"
The Sinth snorted and shook its head. "I do not understand your question. The darkness is what I walk."
Nightmare sighed. He suddenly dimmed his optics as a new wave of pains ran through his circuits. The Sinth gave a strange hum and edged closer. He tensed, hand closing around the spare weapon he had lying at his side.
"I will not hurt you," the creature said softly.
Nightmare didn't trust it. At least not further than he could crawl right now, and that wasn't very far.
Above, a loud roar could suddenly be heard, followed by the sound of something heavy creaking.
"What's happening?" Nightmare demanded. "MJ!"
The Sinth lifted its head. "I do not know." The yellow eyes became small slits.
"Then go up there and find out!"
It shook its head. "Impossible. I cannot travel the darkness again this close after doing it before."
Nightmare growled and tried to get up. All circuits seemed to flare with pain and he gasped, then cried out, unable to bite back the exclamation as the agony overwhelmed him. After some time the pain ebbed away and he was aware of the Sinth watching him.
"You are dying," the creature said.
"I'm aware of that," Nightmare whispered, feeling another subsystem fail and take the main system with it. "I don't need a reminder."
The Sinth just lay there, silent, quiet, totally motionless.
Nightmare sighed and tried to conserve energy. He had not much time left before his final systems would fail and he'd slip into what would be called a coma for humans. After that his core unit would lock up and if not revived, supplied with energon, it would die. He had a time frame for it, but he tried to ignore it.
Some time later his consciousness slipped.
Nightmare didn't hear the call of his name.
He didn't see the flashlight pierce the darkness and he also didn't hear the crunching nose of heavy feet on sand.
The Sinth had moved back into the blackness around him and watched. Then it melted into the darkness......

* * *

The doorway opened with a whoosh of light and energy, a sight Starscream never grew tired of. He felt the familiar tingle of the background energy release of 'his' doorway, felt his Gatekeeper systems reply, felt his fuel pump skip a beat as he decided whether to go into a defensive mode or not, then it was all over. All took barely a nano-second to happen and it never showed on the outside.
Then the travelers arrived.
Starscream did a double-take and gulped once. Nightmare lay just outside the bottom ring, energon splattered all over his severely damaged body, his normally deep red optics dull and lifeless, his body limp. Chaos was at his side in no time and began shouting orders into her com link, requesting a room to be prepared for an emergency case. Then he lifted his optics and .... stared.
Another robot had come through. A female. She was tall but not as tall as he was, maybe Sphere's size. Her body was held in subdued colors, mainly a silvery gray and black. Hair fell down between her shoulders to her hips and the strands seemed to ....move..... Silver-speckled optics looked around, but there was no surprise or amazement or shock in them, only a hard to define emotion. Hesitation coupled with fear would be one way to describe it.
The stranger wasn't wearing an insignia. Backdraft laid a light hand on her back and pushed her forward and the strange female moved away from the rings.
In the meantime the medical team had arrived and was wheeling Nightmare out of the doorway chamber, leaving the other traveler alone.
"Who is she?" Starscream asked, finally finding his voice.
Sphere joined him, her emerald optics holding a strange expression. "Someone we know," she finally said, almost as if to herself.
He gave her a quizzical look, but she didn't elaborate. Backdraft guided the alien female out of the doorway chamber and left the silver team alone.

* * *

It was a rare event, mainly because the two robots sharing office space right now were seldom seen together for more than a few hours at best. Optimus Prime and his second-in-command Rodimus had different duties, different areas of work, and only when the Council was coming together for a monthly meeting did they see each other. The last years had been rather stressful. Now one of the many problems the leaders were facing had brought them together.
"And that's all we have," Rodimus finished his report about what had gone wrong.
Sphere had not been able to determine where the surge of energy had originated. It had to be outside the known system, just like the planet they had discovered now. That there was more than what had been on the map Starscream had extracted out of the destroyed station a long time ago gave room to think – and to worry. How much more was out there? How many more accidents like these could happen? How safe was doorway travel now? Rodimus had decided to shut down all operations concerning doorway usage, except to access new worlds and send in exploration teams. It would throw them back in their efforts to use the system to their advantage, but safety came first. Both doorway teams and Spook were now running extensive safety checks.
"How is Melissa?" Optimus wanted to know.
Rodimus shrugged. "Physically she is fine, Disaster told me. Psychologically..... It's a completely different matter."
Optimus nodded. Mel had been changed into a new life form, a totally alien life form, and her past life had been destroyed to a degree, as had been her future as a human. She was coping ... but how? Melissa Witwicky was a strong woman, but even the strongest had a breaking point. Where was hers?
"Spike is helping her as best as he can and Nightmare will do so as well. I don't know what else to do, Optimus. We don't know how it happened, we don't know if it will be really permanent or might one day change, and we have no clue as to what exactly she is. Melissa is a robot, but she is not a Cybertronian of any kind." Rodimus rubbed his chin. "First Aid detected molecules of organic matter in Mel's metal skin and he says the tissue they removed from Sandstorm is made of the same organic material, though with a different DNA structure."
"Meaning...."
"Meaning Melissa's organic body is partly fused with her new metal one."
"But the tissue inside Sandstorm was not hers," Optimus reminded him.
"Yes. We have no clue what it was, but it was there and Disaster is running a theoretic model of what a further outspreading of the organic matter would have done to Sandstorm. First Aid has cultivated some of and is recording any changes, any growth." Rodimus leaned back and stared at the ceiling. "I wish I knew what happened. I wish I knew what this Sinth is. I wish I knew what is behind all of this!"
Optimus watched his slightly agitated partner-in-command. Rodimus had long since ceased to be second to him. They were equal, their positions were not different and both held the same responsibilities and power. True, Rodimus was officially second-in-command, his lieutenant, but few really seemed to recognize that as the appropriate title. He was Prime, just like Optimus.
And he had grown. The fear and insecurity of the young leader were gone, no longer visible on the outside. He knew who he was, what his abilities were, what his position was, what he could do. He was Hot Rod and he was Rodimus Prime, but he was both in one person and both persons had merged into who he was today. A lot of factors had played into this merging, mainly Optimus Prime's unwavering belief that Rodimus hadn't been the Matrix's wrong choice, Shanygn's mental support and friendship, and Hot Rod's own stubbornness.
Optimus smiled behind his mask. Their partnership was probably the best that could have happened to Autobot kind. Optimus brought with him the wisdom, the knowledge, the calmness and strength of a leader who had seen it all; Rodimus was the youth, the innovation, the adaptability, the criticism and temper. Optimus valued the criticism a lot. No one else had ever really criticized Prime. They had been too much in awe. Of course there had been his old friends, but they had never been completely frank and open. There had always been an underlying respect and awe. Not so when Rodimus had finally realized who he was and just how little difference there was between him and Optimus Prime. His openness had helped, even if those 'meetings' had been a strain sometimes.
Both had grown stronger. Both had changed. Both had survived. And with them Cybertronian kind. Prime didn't want to think about what might have happened if the past had been different, if Hot Rod had not brought back the Sentinels, if he hadn't met Shanygn, if he had really lost it and fled, seeking solitude and death. He shivered. It wasn't a thought he liked to entertain at all.
"Maybe we will find out one day," Prime now said quietly. "We have a team on the strange planet going over the alien doorway. This has to be enough for now. We can't do more."
"And hope the doorway safety is not compromised."
"And that as well."
Both leaders sat together, lost in their thoughts, wondering what all these events meant for the future.

* * *

"Your systems check out fine," First Aid told her and stepped back from the examination table. "In case you have any problems, come here."
Mel nodded and summoned a smile. "Thanks," she said softly.
First Aid nodded and discretely left her alone. Melissa looked up and met a pair of ice blue optics. Worry, confusion, pain, anger and hope warred in them for dominance, none of them winning.
She wanted to shrink back and melt into the wall. She wanted to be invisible, she didn't want her father to see her like this. No one should see her as what she was now. A robot..... Mel felt a tremor pass through her.
"Hi, Dad," she said in way of a greeting, her voice sounding choked and unsteady.
Spike walked over to her. He was not as tall as his daughter now that she was a robot as well. She had to smile inside at the sudden change of him now looking up at her, but the smile wasn't more than a fleeting shadow.
"How are you?" he asked.
It was a simple and very straight-forward question, but there was no such answer to it. Yes, how was she? She was no longer human, she was no true robot, she was alien.... and there was no cure for her condition. She had to live with what she was, whatever that was anyway. Her mind was awhirl with images of what she had been and what had happened to her. She didn't know how to feel about it all. Her immediate fear was a matter of the past, but the dread had remained. Nightmare had helped her through the first critical stage, but there was no one who could help her now. She had to handle this on her own.
But how? She couldn't even stand to see her own image in a mirror. She hadn't seen herself when she had been with Nightmare. Now.... when she had been back, when she had come to med bay, she had been confronted with what she was. Now she not only felt it, now she saw the extent of what she had changed into.
"Afraid," she confessed softly.
Spike sat down on the table beside his daughter and smiled. "That's only natural. I know what I felt when it happened to me and I had a choice in the matter." He gently rubbed her back. "Melissa, it's completely okay to be frightened."
She nodded, wishing she still had the ability to cry because that was how she felt like right now. Emotions were building up inside her and she wanted to release them, but she didn't have the means she was used to anymore.
"Why?" she asked after some time. "I always ask myself why it happened. Was it an accident? Was it the strange energy surge? Was it something else?" Helplessness course though her. "What was it?"
Spike didn't know the answer to that either. No one knew. "I wish I could tell you."
They sat together in silence for some time.
"Do you need anything?" Spike asked after it was almost oppressively silent.
She shook her head, her dark hair moving like in a faint breeze. First Aid had found no explanation as to why it sometimes moved like this. To the scanners it was a semi-organic substance attached to her cranium. Nothing special about it, except for the fact that it was partly organic, like her body.
"No," she said, smiling bravely. "I'll just try and get a grip on this as best as I can. I'll go back to work and maybe this way I learn enough about this body to handle it."
She had already been assigned new living quarters. Cybertronian-sized living quarters. Mel suppressed another shiver. She had to leave everything behind, her whole human life, all she owned. She was no longer the 5'6" human woman. She was a robot..... Too tall for her old life to fit.
Spike nodded. "You know you can talk to me."
"Yes, I know. Thanks, Dad." She hesitated. "Where is Daniel?"
"He had to detour over Eschal on his way back from Orle. He'll be here tomorrow. I... I contacted him and he knows." Spike briefly dimmed his optics. "He wanted to be back as fast as he could."
Melissa only regarded the wall at the other side of the room silently. "Sometimes I think we are cursed," she suddenly said, startling her father.
"What?" he managed.
"Think about it, Dad. It started when Daniel was badly hurt on Nebulos and became a Headmaster partner for Arcee. You had to force him to separate before he linked too closely. Then Nebulos struck again and nearly killed you. You went through cybernetic replacements and treatments until you got a Protogen body." Mel's voice was almost level. "Then I was blinded by the doorway explosion. Mom died in the Tji attack, DJ almost drowned in the Below accident and now this..... Is there a curse on our family?"
Spike swallowed hard. It was as if his daughter was reading his mind and maybe she did. She was a robotic empath and when he had turned Protogen he had become such a robot she could read, though he had never heard her comment on anything concerning his emotions. She was discrete and she never pried.
Was there a curse? He had asked himself that since he had nearly lost his son and then his daughter. He had been the first human, along with his father, to make close contact with the Autobots all that time ago. Had it been fate? Had it been cruel destiny? He didn't know. All he knew was that he was still alive, no longer human by definition, that his wife was dead and that his daughter was now a robot as well.
"No," he finally said. "No, not a curse. Maybe fate, maybe destiny."
Mel looked at her hands, making a fist, then stretching her fingers again. "Destiny?" she echoed. "What is my destiny?"
"One day we will know." Spike smiled and slid off the table, stretching out one hand and she took it, following him. "For now all we can do is follow where it leads us."

* * *

"It's not over yet."
K'va li Opnah looked at his assistant and student. "No," he said, a tinge of sadness in his voice. "The Lord meddled and lost, but he doesn't know about the damage he did. It will have consequences."
Snera rearranged some ornamental stone work on the large table. "What about the female you changed?"
K'va li Opnah shrugged.
"You know it won't stop with what she is as well," Snera reminded him.
"Not necessarily. She will stay what she is."
Their eyes met and K'va li Opnah finally sighed.
"We have to wait and see."
Yes, wait and see. The Gatelink was closed and could not accessed from the Lord anymore, but the consequences of this attempted meddling.....