Aside from "Twenty", which has 7 chapters to go (Which I really need to get around to doing), and "LWIDTMI", which is an ongoing series for who knows how long (I need to update this one too...), all my main TF stories are dying down. "Queen of Junk", "Through Glass", and "YMBR" all have ether 1 or 2 chapters left. So while I have 2 AUs outlined, I discovered this bunny over at the farm on LJ and it just wouldn't leave me alone. Somehow it's evolved into this, which I don't even have a full outline for yet. Sigh. Well, I hope you all enjoy this anyway.

Oh, and because BlackArachnia is techno-organic, I will be using terms such as "breathe" and "bleed" in association with her. And I apologise for any screw-ups on Perceptor's dialogue. I love his big word usage, but English isn't my first language, so forgive me if his speech doesn't sound right. Then again, I have a good enough vocabulary that it'll probably turn out decently.

Furthermore, all chapters will be named for and include at the beginning an excerpt from a song which describes one of the character's (Either BlackArachnia or Perceptor) feelings. Just so you all know.

Technically, since this is posted on a fanfiction site, I don't legally have to put a disclaimer, but I like to give credit where credit is due, cos I'm nice like that. "Transformers" (c) Hasbro. Lyrics (c) Hasbro too, for this one. (Misfits! Whoo!)

oOo

Life can be so hard

Girl, you better be on your guard

oOo

"Megatron does not take kindly to treachery," the voice was disturbingly calm, coming from one who was holding a delicate femme up by her throat - she couldn't breathe, not when the cold, metallic hands were closing around her windpipe. She couldn't protest her innocence - not that it would have mattered, as he wouldn't have believed her, and she wasn't exactly innocent. Still, he was overreacting just a bit - she'd have thought exile from the Decepticons would be punishment enough. But that had only been the beginning of her punishment.

"G-get off of me!" She struggled to say four short words, struggled to move the slender attachments on her back in order to poison him and free herself, but to no avail. Her torturer had been sure to freeze them solid before slashing at the faction symbol emblazoned on her chest until it was hardly recognisable.

"You should be thankful," he spoke, again in an extremely calm tone of voice that drastically contradicted his actions in a way that was terrifyingly chilling. "Had Megatron let Lugnut punish you, you vould certainly be dead by now."

Unable to choke out another reply, she glared out from her four fiery red optics.

"Yes," he continued, probably deriving a sick enjoyment from her struggling, "you should feel honoured, BlackArachnia, zat Megatron has chosen you to test our new Space Bridge."

She felt her eyes widen involuntarily at this - the Space Bridge hadn't been tested, and it certainly had no set coordinates yet. She didn't know much about Space Bridge technology, but she could guess being killed by Lugnut would have been preferable to this.

BlackArachnia hated Blitzwing. She always had. Three very different personalities meant three times the work to try and control, and normally, she'd have welcomed the challenge - but she'd quickly realised not one of the three personalities wanted to see her unless she was being squished under someone's heel.

She hated Hothead because he was needlessly violent and gave her a headache, though he was also the dumbest of the three, and easily predictable. She hated Random for the same reason everybody did - he was fragging insane, and just a little scary with all his comments on cannibalism. But her least favourite Blitzwing was Icy Blitzwing. He never appeared to have any emotions, even when he was mercilessly torturing Autobot captives. Or Decepticon traitors, like herself. He had probably been a serial killer or something like that before joining the Decepticons - the thought was so concievable, it scared her.

She felt herself - still held up by the throat - being carried across the room to the gleaming Space Bridge, and tried not to look afraid, even though she was secretly terrified. She would never give Blitzwing the sick pleasure of knowing the effect he had over her. Instead, she shot him one final, murderous glare before feeling herself being roughly thrown into the Space Bridge as Random Blitzwing's laughter filled the air.

All of a sudden, it seemed to BlackArachnia that the mouth of the Space Bridge, unbelievably incandescent, rose up to meet her and swallow her.

She felt nothing.

And then she felt everything. She was, for a time, in complete blackness which felt as if it were tearing her apart from the inside out. Then came a speck of bright light, a pinpoint of brilliance, to seize on the dazed ex-Decepticon. It grew nearer to her, or maybe her to it, she had no way of telling which way was up or down. Closer and closer; somewhere in the parts of her that weren't paralysed, questions formed, but she had no way of asking them, even to herself.

Around her, she seemed to feel a tunnel made of the increments of her journey, as if she were flying or falling through an infinite series of loops of energy. She fell and fell, feeling completely disoriented and amazed nearly to the point of thoughtlessness.

And finally the tunnel ended. She shot from its mouth and the ground flew up at her.

As the dizziness cleared, BlackArachnia wondered where the frell she was, before she was overwhelmed by a strong urge to either vomit or faint. She ended up doing both, right there on the strange ground she'd fallen to.

oOo

She woke up in a bright room - a little too bright, actually, as her vision was taking much longer to adjust than it should have. She still felt ill, but was doing a much better job of suppressing it. She remembered Blitzwing throwing her out of the Decepticons on Megatron's request, but not much else, especially not where she was.

"Oh," a strange voice caused her to jump, "you're awake. Guess I'd better go get-"

Before the mech - BlackArachnia could at least figure that out from the quality of the voice - could say who he'd better get, she backed up defensively, falling ungracefully a few feet onto a cold, hard floor. Her vision cleared up a little more, and she could see two strange mechs looking down at her with even stranger expressions. They were both blindingly white, and she hissed, catlike, squinting. They were Autobots, which could only mean she was a prisoner.

"I don't know who you are," she growled, "but if you think you're going to get any information out of me, you can forget it." She almost continued, to explain she'd been exiled, but quickly clamped her mouth shut. These Autobots didn't need to know the Decepticons wouldn't be coming for her. Maybe they hadn't seen her slashed insignia yet, after all. BlackArachnia could always hope, regardless of how little good hope usually did.

One of the strangers turned and muttered something to the other, who was a little shorter. The shorter nodded curtly and exited the room.

"You aren't a prisoner, you know," the remaining mech seemed bemused. "We don't have much use for an ex-'con." Her optics widened, then went back to a defensive glare. Damn! Now what could she use to threaten them, especially since she still couldn't feel a majority of her body?

"Then what do you want with me?" she forced herself not to sound afraid, though she was, of what they might do to someone like her. BlackArachnia had no intention of becoming someone's experiment with organic life.

"Nothing yet," the strange-looking Autobot shrugged, and she noticed odd, red X shapes on his broad shoulders. Now that she could see a bit better, she could see how weird this Autobot really looked - he was unusually boxy, with a prominent olfactory sensor that he didn't even bother to cover up like most of the Autobots she'd met. "Optimus probably'll have questions for you once Prowl gets him down here, though."

Oh, this was just great. Optimus and Prowl were here? She looked around desperately for escape, but the only door in the room was currently opening to let more strange-looking Autobots in. Cursing her luck and fearing the worst, she scuttled backwards and upwards, nestling herself where the wall met the ceiling so she could look down on these enemies - and possibly muster the energy to jump over them, if needed.

"Don't come near me!" she warned the three that stepped in, defensively, not even bothering with the seductive behaviour she'd normally use on Autobots. She couldn't even think to do that; instead feeling panicky at what was to come. Two of the new Autobots looked up at her, each red with blue accents. The one with the darker blue was huge, and wore a pointed battle-mask. The third mech was the short white one from earlier, though now she could see black on him too. He looked emotionless, icy - she suppressed a shiver when she locked optics with him. His doorwings twitched, but other than that, he didn't move.

The red one with lighter blue on him was the only one with any sort of expression she could find solace in - not that that was saying much, not here. He carried a box of supplies, and he stared up at her with an awe that he didn't bother to conceal.

"She's awoken from stasis lock?" he cocked his head slightly, his voice lightly accented, with an odd airiness to the way he spoke. "Oh, good - I had wondered if we'd have to use something to online her. We have no way of predicting what could potentially harm such a specimen, after all - which reminds me, I have so many inquiries to-"

"Not now, Perceptor," the red-and-white one held up a hand that was surprisingly delicate, contrasting the boxiness of the rest of his body. BlackArachnia narrowed her eyes when she realised she was the "specimen." "Optimus first." At these words, she looked around wildly - Optimus? Here?

"Thank you, Ratchet," the large Autobot with the mask nodded politely. His voice was deep, thundering, yet also smooth. Like Megatron's. This didn't do anything to ease BlackArachnia's apprehension. "You should be thankful Perceptor saw you when he did. Your colouration blends so well with the Space Bridge, Jazz might have accidentally run you over."

This might have been meant as a joke, or it might not have been. Either way, she didn't find it amusing in the slightest - Jazz was here too? Which meant Sentinel must be here as well! She groaned audibly, causing the shorter red one - "Perceptor" he'd been called - to look worried, and the red-and-white to look amused as he held Perceptor back.

"Look," she decided to try to reason with this huge Autobot, whoever her was. "I'm not a Decepticon anymore, so there's nothing you could possibly want with me. So maybe you could just let me go-"

"Optimus," the black-and-white interrupted her. "We cannot take her suggestion. It could be a trick."

"I wasn't going to, Prowl, though I doubt Megatron would even think to do something like that."

BlackArachnia blinked once, feeling strangely disoriented. The black-and-white had called the larger one "Optimus" and been called "Prowl", yet they weren't Optimus or Prowl. Before her head could hurt, she snapped, "What the frag are you trying to pull?! Do you think I was created yesterday?"

The four beneath her looked up at her, not sure how to take the outburst.

"Explain," the huge one finally broke the silence.

"You aren't Optimus," she glared, "and he isn't Prowl. I'm not stupid, you know!"

"Ratchet," the one claiming to be Prowl turned to the red-and-white, who merely shook his head.

"And he isn't Ratchet! I don't know who you freaks are, but I know what Optimus Prime looks like!"

"Remarkable!" the one with the accent - Perceptor. She'd have to remember that. - "I'd thought there was something strange about any being that managed to be both technological and biological - but that the femme was found by the Space Bridge and knows another Prime; I hadn't thought it possible before, but there can only be one explanation for her confusion."

"And what's that?" the one with the doorwings who was definitely not Prowl asked impatiently.

"She must somehow have travelled from an alternate reality - the femme is literally from out of this world!"

BlackArachnia felt another wave of dizziness at the shocking statement which caused her to fall in an ungraceful heap in front of not-Optimus. What!?

-TBC-

Sorry for the short intro, but I didn't want to delve too deeply. I want this to be a multi-chapter story after all. I hope you all enjoyed it!