Title: What Came Before

Fandom: Car Robots/Robots in Disguise, smidgen of G1

'Verse: Crystal'verse unless otherwise renamed

Characters: Prowl, Side Burn, X-Brawn, Optimus Prime, Predacons and Decepticons in passing

Rating: G, but will go up in later chapters

Warnings: Minor spoilers for a conversation in episode 2 of CR/RID. References things from the second half of the series. Weirdness for the G1 influence.

Summary: "This is what I once was, long ago. Beautiful, don't you think?"

Notes: Set in a slightly AU Car Robots/Robots in Disguise-type series, mainly the second half. Slight crossover with G1 snuck in at the last moment. Minor spoilers for a conversation in Ep. 2 of CR/RID. This turned out longer than I thought it would be. First line taken from tf_bunny_farm at LiveJournal. Originally posted as a comment there; added in a little detail for further clarification. Post for original idea found here: http : // community . livejournal . com / tf_bunny_farm / 320943 . html

"This is what I once was, long ago. Beautiful, don't you think?"

"I . . ."

"I'm not always like this now, for obvious reasons. The transformation is easy enough to power on my own, but it always leaves me drained afterwards, and strains critical systems if left running long enough even with the crystals. The crystal powering it helps relieve a good deal of strain."

"How?"

"Truth be told, I am unaware of the precise mechanics behind it. That is something my creator would have been able to explain, if he were still alive."

"But . . ."

"My creator was very careful in creating the upgrades, as I recall. Only my brothers and myself are able to utilize it. We hadn't used it in ages . . . The power boost that Ultra Magnus unleashed only reactivated the ability from where it lay dormant. Finding the crystals established the upgrade permanently, and unlocked the memory sets necessary to utilize it."

"Is there a way to reproduce this?"

"I'm afraid not. Our creator's instructions were very specific on that point. My brothers and myself are the only ones capable of utilizing this upgrade. To do so for anyone else would be disastrous."

"Thank you for the information. Nevertheless, we must do everything we can to keep this information out of Predacon and Decepticon hands."

"An excellent idea, Optimus. Having the crystals stolen to prevent our prolonged transformations would be . . . inconvenient."

A moment's pause, and the fire engine transformed and rolled away.

The mech gently cradled the sky-blue Praxian crystal he held, sighing as his armor faded back to its usual coloring.

The truth was that each crystal controlled specific abilities. As he and his brothers had been designed specifically so that their root forms would have proportionally weaker forms of these abilities, it was easy enough to state that their creator had designed the crystals to power the upgrades for them and them only.

"You okay, bro?"

"Just finished briefing Optimus on the crystals. He thinks that disastrous consequences will befall anyone who is not one of us that tries to utilize the crystals."

"Just say that he thinks the crystals will go 'boom' if we give the crystals to anyone else."

"Crude, but accurate."

They'd been created to use the crystals. Each crystal housed the memories and abilities of long-dead Autobots of vorns past.

X-Brawn had been designed with the Autobot engineer Wheeljack in mind.

Side Burn had been created to house Hot Rod, the Autobot-that-had-been before Rodimus Prime rose to power, but also somewhat reminiscent of one of the infamous Autobot twins, Sideswipe, as his name reflected.

Prowl had been forged to house the Autobot tactician Prowl, his namesake.

It showed more in the personality of their unpowered forms. Side Burn flirted with red sports cars - no doubt Sideswipe's influence; the mech had a red sports car as his alternate form. X-Brawn had a so-far hidden ability to make the most innocent of items explode with a little tinkering. Prowl had his namesake's love of logic and order.

"C'mon, bro! You're going to rust if you stand there all day!"

"Like he wouldn't otherwise?"

"Hey, he told me about the transmission incident."

"Leave that out of this!"

His brothers stood waiting for him in alternate form.

Smiling, Prowl slipped the sky-blue power crystal that he cradled into subspace gently, and went to join his brothers.

Fin

Edit: rating for story explained