Title: Know the Mystery

Universe: G1 cartoon.

Rated: PG-13 for the notions of sensual spirituality and xenosexuality.

Pairing: Cybertronian Mech/Womanly Deity.

Author's Note: If you recognize it from Transformers canon, it belongs to Has/Tak/IDW; if you recognize the rest, I say 'Blessed be thou!' This was the lone entry to the August 2007 challenge at Mecha Erotica. 850 words.

Looking back on it later, Mirage would not be able to remember exactly how he came to be there. He left the Ark in a huff after yet another altercation with Cliffjumper. That little fragger just would not leave him be! After driving for a few minutes - or was it hours? - he heard the chanting and was both disturbed and drawn by it. He approached the source, disruptor engaged.

Come and be one, become one, be one, be! they sang.

Invisible, he knew the women did not see him as they continued to chant. There was a non-human presence with them. His optical sensors perceived only the woods, the women and their small items. His more delicate circuitry detected immense energy building, like that possessed by Vector Sigma: creative and watchful and knowing. It was coalescing before him, as if it were drawing itself together from the space surrounding the women, surrounding him.

We all come from the Goddess, and to Her we shall return, like a drop of rain falling, flowing to the ocean, the chant changed but the process going on around them continued. His optics insisted the scene remained as before: a circle of women, some holding candles, some holding tools, chanting and swaying slightly. He could not pinpoint the source of his certainty, but he knew there was another present.

One moment he was watching a tiny, silver-haired woman walk to the center of the circle and speak in a clear, ringing voice. The next, his entire processor was engulfed by that other being. He - no, She - spoke to him directly in his CPU: Mirage.

He no longer perceived the woods, the women, even the air around him or the ground beneath his feet. He perceived only the limits of his own frame and field, and that Other. She was before him, he could see Her now: She looked human, but scaled to match his height. He found Her beautiful, strong and shapely, which surprised him because he'd never thought about the aesthetics of a human form, and never really noticed an individual before except to recognize Sparkplug, Spike, Carly and Chip from the rest and each other. He brought his hands up warily, unsure of how to respond. He was half preparing to defend himself, half reaching out to the unidentified entity.

I am the beauty of the Green Earth, the White Moon among the Stars, the mystery of the Deep Waters, the desire of every Heart. She moved toward him, seeming to step gracefully into his reach. She took his hands in Hers. He felt Her field seep slowly into him, starting from that contact. It was more relaxing than the best hot-oil bath he'd ever had on Cybertron, more heady than the most successful hunt he'd ever undertaken, and more intimate than any interface he'd ever made. He felt completely exposed to Her, from the last molecule of his armor to the least-accessed part of his memory and the deepest flicker in his spark. She saw his strengths and successes, She saw his faults and failures, and She forgave him.

Mirage felt love.

Know the mystery, henceforth: if you find not what you seek within, you shall never find it without. For I have been with you from the beginning, and I am whom who you will find at the end of your desire. In the manner of a dream, he found their position had changed to an embrace. Her arms were around his chest, his around Her shoulders. The exquisite physical contact was nothing compared to the feeling of Her field permeating him. His field was not damped by the intrusion: it was cleansed, it was fired, it was freed.

Was She stimulating his sensors? He didn't know. Was She really in his arms or was She a ghost in his processor? He didn't care. He wanted the feelings to last forever. He basked in the sensations.

He would never know how long She was with him; it felt like an eternity, until it was over. She gently released him and began to move away, reversing the movement from embrace to lightly holding his hands in Hers. He felt bereft, thinking he would never encounter Her again, that She would leave him and he would return to the loneliness and isolation that had become his companions in this existence since the war destroyed his home.

She knew. All acts of love and pleasure are my rituals. Whenever you extend kindness to another, I am there, and kindness will be returned to you. She laughed, and the sound in his spark was sweeter than anything in his experience. Start with the pugnacious one that tries so hard to win your attention! She released him, and started to dissipate, returning to the Earth from which She had risen. Mirage began to perceive the woods and the women again.

"Wait!" he exclaimed. "Who are you?"

Those who invoked me called me Inanna, Her voice grew fainter as She dispersed, so Inanna am I, tonight. You may continue to call me Primus.