I don't know how long I sat there crying, curled up into the rough wall. As I started to calm down, I found myself feeling mostly numb. It felt like it went deep. Like it was a numbness of my soul. The only feeling I did have the hoarse soreness in my throat. It was irritating, but I didn't care. I could have cared less if a Decepticon came out of nowhere and shot me right now. I pushed myself away from the wall, discovering some scrapes down my arms. Guess that happened when I hit the wall. Oh well. I stood up and stumbled back, looking around at my surroundings. I was in an alley on the far side of a nearly empty dumpster.
"Oh?" I took in a shaky breath an looked up at the voice. "What do we have here?" I could barely see through the tears.
"Please..." I said, my voice hoarse and think with emotion. "Lost...I'm lost...Home gone..." I couldn't even manage a full sentence. It was all still too much. I was breaking.
"Don't worry dear. I'll help you." I tried to smile at him. I tried to thank him, but I choked on my tears. "Oy! Boys! Come see what I found!" I looked up at him surprised. More footsteps echoed in the alley.
"She cute." I heard a new voice say. Something about the way he said it had me on edge. "Hey, cutie, want to play?" He almost purred out the last word. I begun to shake.
"Now look at what you've done. She's scared." It was the first guy again. "Don't worry honey, we wont hurt you if you play along." I gulped. This was not good. This was so not good. Through the tears I could make out three guys. All were larger than me. I wanted to cry. I wanted to scream.
They group kept getting closer. Daddy! Papa! Someone! I was terrified. What would the point of everything Metroplex had just done for me if I just let this happen!? I had faced Decepticons for crying out loud! Not that I remembered doing that, but supposedly I did. If I could do that, then these assholes should be easy. I swallowed my fears and put on a brave face.
"Look boys, this one has some spirit left." The trio laughed. I wasn't going to let this happen. No. I was going to fight back.
Suddenly the scene before me changed. Brick became scorched metal. The men turned into red opticed mechs. I blinked my eyes and it went back to normal. This had happened before. The ravine...I heard the men laugh, probably due to the confused expression on my face. I shook my head and looked up at them. They were not going to touch me. After everything I have been through, these idiots were not going to have their way with me. My mind went fuzzy again. A fog seemed to lift in my mind, something became clear; I had done this before and I could most certainly do it now. Like a switch had been hit and I was running on autopilot. Every move sure and sound. I didn't feel afraid, I knew what I was doing.
I stood up, tears no longer falling. The men seemed to hesitate. I took that moment to strike. I ran at the nearest guy, it was the man that had found me first. I punched him square in the face, sending him stumbling back before crumpling to the ground. Without wasting a nanosecond, I twisted and swung my leg out at the guy to my left. I connected with his midsection. He went down just as the first. I paused a moment to gauge the reaction of the third guy. His face held only shock. He didn't move and I didn't feel like dealing with him if he wasn't going to make himself a threat. I quickly grabbed my suitcase from where it had fallen and brusquely made my way out of the alley and onto the sidewalk.
I wandered for what could have been breems. My only goal had been to get away from those punks. I didn't even know what direction I had taken or if I was even in the same town. The buildings had gotten more sparse and larger. Whatever. It didn't matter so long as I got away from there. A sudden breeze had me stopping and looking up at the sky. It felt like rain. It looked like rain.
No sooner had I thought that that the clouds gave way. The rain wasn't a downpour, but it was enough to make me cold and uncomfortable. I quickly moved to find shelter.
It took a few tires to find a building with an open door, but I didn't hesitate entering when I did. I sat down near the door, my suitcase next to me. I was wet and cold, but it wasn't unbearable. As I sat there, my mind started to wander. At some point I began to think about the ravine I could remember exactly what I did. How had I forgotten? My eyes widened. I couldn't remember what I had done at the ravine. No mater how hard I tried. I always got a helm ache a few flashes of color or sound. Why could I remember now?
The more I thought about it the more it didn't make sense. Just what was going on? I tried to figure out an answer. Was what Liege Maximo said about me true? More and more thoughts sifted through my already overwhelmed mind. Too much. This was too much! My head started to hurt and my vision began to swim. Soon enough my chest flared with a pain I only associated with my nightmares.
I slumped to the ground, curling up into a tight ball on the cold concrete. It hurt. It hurt so much! I closed my eyes and tried to wait out the pain. Reprieve came in an enveloping darkness.
I felt like I was floating. It was not uncomfortable though. It was nice. I could have stayed like that forever, but something told me I needed to open my eyes. So I did. All around me was nothing but a silver/blue light. I twisted and turned the best I could as I floated there. There was nothing around me. Just the silver/blue glow. Just what is going on?
"This is unexpected." I stilled. That sounded like my voice...But I hadn't had said anything. I quickly turned in the direction the voice was coming from. In front of me was a Cybertronian femme.
Her frame was a crisp white, accented with red. A chevron with a tall center peak adorned her helm. Two wheel wells jutted out from the back of her should plates, which had large pieces of armor coming off of them. Her torso was wrapped in armor in the classic femme way. Around her waist the armor sat almost like a human skirt, the front left open for mobility. Her legs were covered in more ivory armor, accented by bits of red here and there. Two more wheel wells adorned her lower legs. I met her gaze, shocked to see the same markings around her optics that I had around my eyes.
"Very unexpected." She didn't approach me. We just floated there, staring at each other.
"Who, who are you?" I asked quietly. She looked at me with a sad smile and as our gaze met once more, I found I knew the answer already. "You're me..." With a tired nod the femme sighed.
"I am the part of us that was never supposed to be awakened." That made almost no sense...
"Then what am I?" I asked, curious.
"The core. The manifestation of our spark. I am merely the memories and experiences of who we once were. We were never supposed to meet. I was to remain buried within our spark. You were to live a quiet human life. That was Primus' plan." The more she spoke the more it felt like I understood what she was saying. The more things felt familiar. It was confusing and terrifying.
"Then why? Why are we meeting?"
"Plans change. You had need of me. We needed to become who we were. It was the only way to continue with the task Primus gave to us." I nodded, still confused. "As I said, plans change. He was not supposed to be freed. We were supposed to be safe. Liege was not supposed to be able to come near us..." Her voice, my voice, sounded sad and scared. "Now we are unable to complete the task."
"What was the task?" I asked. She looked up at me, optics looking eerily like my own eyes.
"To live. To find happiness in life in the way we did not before." As I thought about the task I smiled.
"We already completed it." She looked at me shocked. "While I don't remember what you remember, I just know we have already completed the mission he gave us. Think about it, we fell in love. We gained a family that loved us. Friends. Even if it was not meant to last, we still got that chance." The nightmare flashed through my mind. "We also faced Liege and survived..." My words were soft. "If we were to die now, I don't think Pimus would be angry. We completed the task we were given. Even if it was for a far shorter time than he would have liked."
"You, you are right. And I fear we just might." She looked sad.
"Die, you mean?" She nodded.
"As it stands we are dying. Us meeting is only proof." I cringed.
"I don't want to die. That's why I went through with Metroplex's plan. I wanted to live." My voice was low, and heavy with emotion.
"I know." She floated closer and placed her hands on my cheeks, pulling my head to hers until our foreheads touched. It was a strange sensation. It almost felt like I could feel my skin under her hands. Almost like there was a faint feedback loop. "There is a way for us to live, but it means giving up the human part of us."
"But we would live?" I asked.
"Yes. We would be whole again. You and me as one." I closed my eyes ans relaxed against her.
"But that wont change everything we have learned. Everything we have become."
"No it wont. But are you sure you want to remember? Our past is not a good one."
"I think I already remember the worst of it." I felt her shift. Her hands moving from my face to hold my hands.
"Then, let us return to who we were." Her fingers intertwined with mine. "This will hurt."
I didn't even get the chance to respond as a current of electricity flowed over me, through me. As the pain intensified I started to scream. My screams echoed in the vastness around us. Or maybe that was her screaming with me. I couldn't tell. I couldn't feel anything but the pain.
Suddenly, a different noise broke through the endless screams and images flashed in the darkness behind my closed eyes. Voices, faces, names, places. It all clashed and bounced in my head. A chaotic symphony of color and sound.
Out of the chaos came understanding. I knew these places, these people. I knew which face went with what name. I knew so many thing I hadn't before, yet, it felt like I had always known. Things I could do, skills I had. Everything was beginning to make sense.
Eventually the still images began to move. Pictures into short films. Memories, my mind told me. My memories. Emotions soon paired with the memories. Pain and fear, joy and contentment. Everything was coming together. More images, more mini-movies, more feelings linked with each. Then darkness. I felt myself breathing heavily, but the reprieve was short lived. A new voice flooded my head. One I knew all too well.
"Die!" A pain radiated through my chest, as I shot up, my eyes opening wide with the searing pain. Then it was gone, as quickly as it came. I sat there on my knees for a long time. My breath was uneven and heavy, like I had just run a marathon up hill. The images remained. The voices and names, were still there. Memories. That's what they were. My memories.
I collapsed onto the concrete and let its' coolness relieve the feverish state I was in. Too much. It was too much.
"I am Deltus Prime..." I whispered, tears once more falling from my eyes. He had been right about that. But I am not what he said I was. I was the Fourteenth Prime. The Guardian of the Allspark. The Commander of the Knights of Cybertron. "I am still Katie." I whispered again. I was Katie. I smiled to myself as I surrendered to the darkness. Nothing had changed. Not really...
