Starts off as Post Galaxy Force/Cybertron, moves into the Dynasty of Primes pre-fall and carries on from there. This fic/drabble series should be fairly light-hearted most of the time, and only pays attention to the first two movies, with limited input from the third and the tie-in comics/comics in general.
(Powerlinxing to an Original is different. Safeguard just found out the hard way.)
The bond had never faded like it should have, and Safeguard had become even more closed from the rest of the crew on the ship. He knew he shouldn't have, but it was- he felt incomplete. He felt- not useless, but close to it. He felt - not unwanted, but left behind. Like a weapon thrown away, unwanted - unneeded. Useless, worthless, some dark, insidious part whispered. He left as you were weak, not powerful enough, that part of him had once said. At the time Safeguard had ignored it. It was not true.
Now he was no longer so sure. No longer so certain of things. He was just a minicon, a defensive weapon, but still a weapon. It was possible...? No. He'd fought with his partner - his master if he was truly honest with himself - side by side, against the traitors that served the Chaos Bringer. Then Vector Prime had sacrificed his life for a good cause. There had been no other way to make sure the Unicron Singularity had been stopped. He knew Vector hadn't taken the action lightly.
But echoes of the bond remained. Faint but there, they drove his programming in circles as it struggled to compensate, and Safeguard had no idea why; a design quirk in his programming maybe. He was Gigantion in design.
Instinctively, he knew otherwise, and it hurt.
They - the other minicons on the ship - didn't understand, didn't get why he was so hostile to them.
They had what he had, but physically the partner was there. Safeguard could only see what he didn't have; a partner - a master - something that, on the very base level of coding and sparks and all that other junk, defined his very existence as a Minicon.
It'd taken half a megavorn for him to turn bitter and cold, unable to have what he wanted most of all. That he sometimes thought he heard Vector's voice, felt him - saw him even, did not help, and those times were relentlessly shoved away.
Hallucinations. Not reality. It wasn't real and it would never be real. He'd never see his partner again, never be 'complete'. His only hope was for the bond break.
The mere thought terrified him.
"He's gone to the Sky."
"You shouldn't say that," another voice whispered. Safeguard's head jerked up, optics narrowing. Not this talk again.
"Why? It's true. Everyone knows he has. He's insane."
"Boltbar! He's still grieving, that's all..."
"What sane mech would bury themselves in work for a megavorn and call that grieving? What sane mech would push us all away? He's insane. Face it. Maybe his partner did something to him and made him that way. It wouldn't be the first. Remember what the Slagmaker did to Leader-One and Starscream did to Swindle."
"I don't think it's like that. Swindle's still… well. Sane. Mostly."
The first speaker laughed, her voice ringing out down the hallway. "Think what you will, but it's true. Safeguard's gone to the Sky."
Safeguard swallowed the growl, but that didn't stop the flash of hurt from colouring golden optics. They were comparing him to legitimately insane minicons, though he couldn't - wouldn't- correct them. It had been...
How long had the bond been in this state? with the voices of self doubt and worthlessness?
He didn't know nor care; the drive to find someone he'd never see again consumed him in a never-ending cycle of pain and despair. The medics had brought him out of the last shutdown and Safeguard had screamed at them for it. They didn't understand. No one understood and yet they compared him to Leader-One and Swindle, both minicons who were able to forge a linx with another bulk.
Minicons who had lost their partner asked him why he was so bitter and cold.
When he told them, they didn't understand.
"Shut up," he snarled as they approached where he was. They fell back, a little fear in the optics.
While he didn't blame them - his sense of civility around others was almost gone, he'd have smirked if he could have. Safeguard knew he was only still around because the non-Gigantion bulks didn't want to lose a potential partner, lying through their teeth that it was far to dangerous to strike out on his own. At least with Gigantion bulks they'd been upfront in their desires. "You know nothing!"
"Wha- Safeguard!"
He ignored them as he stalked off, golden optics narrowed. He had to leave and never return; he was dying in degrees and he wanted to offline on his own terms, while he still had some sanity.
It took him less than a cycle to manage it. A small jet zooming away from the ship, he wouldn't be noticed missing until it was too late. He was alone with his increasingly unstable mind and core programming that would see him crash and burn for failing it.
Safeguard didn't care. He'd long stopped caring about the hows and whys. Programming was programming.
Somewhere in the Tyran cluster, red optics brightened in surprise as the owner let out a startled sound as his optics turned green, data scrawling over his HUD in short, rapid bursts. A space-time-dimensional tear had opened. It was impossible. But, if the fading energy signature was to be an indicator of how the new arrivals - arrival, he corrected himself, senses stretched out - had reached this cluster, apparently not. He smiled a little. It had been a long time. To long, perhaps. But why would they be brought here? There wasn't a nee-
Something ghosted over his armour, modifying and adding. The Prime raised an optic ridge as the ghost-feeling left. "Then so be it."
"What is it, Master?"
Red optics looked at the Seeker that stood by him, and he smiled. "Come, Skyfire. There is someone I want you to meet. It's been a long time..."
Skyfire nodded. "As you wish, Master Prime."
Drawing his twin blades, the Prime opened a spacebridge.
He was tired of this strange place he'd found himself in, yet it was peaceful. The bond had seemingly settled, but the damage was done. Safeguard wanted to rest. To join his fallen brothers and sisters in the Long Rest. Yet something tugged at him and held him back, and he knew - knew that feeling. The feeling that everything was going to be alright. Somehow, he trusted it.
Trusted the hands that reached and pried him out of his resting place. He offered up only a token whimper. He knew these hands - hands with claws - familiar, yet not - trusted them to keep him safe. Trusted them as one closed around him, gently, caring. He knew who this was.
"Why..."
"Rest, my friend."
As he felt Safeguard settle, the Prime looked down at the minicon who'd curled in his hands, form changed to fit the design of the cluster, seemingly.
By Primus, he hadn't expected to see the little one again. Yet here he was, the minicon only adapted. Vector wasn't about to complain, though he was saddened to see the effects the Chaos Bringer's programming had wrought.
An effect that had he been another mech would not have happened. Yet it had, and he knew, without a doubt, why Safeguard was here. Aside from being near literal Unicron spawn, the little minicon's systems were linked forever to the Prime, simply because Vector was an Original. In retrospect, not unexpected, but something he'd never taken into account and now he thought about it, not even breaking the link willingly would have done much good.
Blast, but he couldn't find it in himself to regret partnering with him. To think he'd once despised the idea of letting something the Chaos Bringer made attach to him.
He ran a claw over tiny wings gently, humming. It was a low note; one he knew would help ease the troubles. For now.
"It is so small..." Skyfire peered at the little thing so gentle cradled in his Master's claws, confused. He'd never known the Prime to cradle anything so reverently, aside from the Matrix. It was almost like this new thing meant so much to his Master. Yet he wouldn't ask. It was not his place to know the reasoning.
"He's also a long way from his original cluster. I... am unsure as to what power brought him here." A white lie. The Seeker need only know what he wanted him to know.
"I see. Does he have a name, Master?"
"Safeguard."
"It is a nice name. Shall I warp us back to Cybertron, Master?"
"Please." He didn't want to risk his own powers, not with how faint the minicon seemed to be. Better to have the servant have that task, than risk this second chance that Primus had given.
Plus, he wasn't sure if Safeguard would be able to withstand the current method of space bridging.
Safeguard groaned as he stirred, optics blinking and rezzing as unfamiliar data poured into his CPU. Instinctively, he reached for the bond, letting out a squawk when it was there. There and as solid as it could get.
"It's not a dream, my friend."
"Sir?" He blinked, then blinked again, looking up at the unfamiliar yet familiar face. A voice that he knew, intimately, came from it and he frowned a little, uncertainty playing out over his face.
"Indeed. My latest incarnation, if you will. Or concurrent, I suppose."
Safeguard just stared blankly, optics blinking. "Bwah? But you..."
"Died?"
"No..." And then his voice took on a lecturing tone Vector knew only too well. The slight smile didn't seem to endear him to his minicon any, though. "Said that you would be Outside of Time."
"In that cluster, yes. I was needed here."
Safeguard nodded, seeming to accept it. He could puzzle everything out later. Wait a klik - "You are speaking Minicon."
Vector Prime merely chuckled. "No, this version of Cybertronian only sounds like it. I suspect in time it shall change to most other Cybertronian we have encountered."
Safeguard nodded as he shakily stood, finally able to look at himself. He was like himself, yet spikier, pointed. More like a jigsaw puzzle now, yet still like the jet alt he'd had in the Aurex cluster. "I have a mouth?"
"Indeed. It makes you look personable." The Prime smirked a little at the deadpan look he got from his friend. "If you are wondering, yes, we are still able to powerlinx. Whatever power brought you here, decided to see fit to restore that as well."
On his left arm, something shifted into a small recess. Safeguard's optics lit up and he happily climbed up to have a poke at it. It matched the linx port on his midsection exactly. "Looks different."
"Of course."
"Why?"
"The laws of this universe are different, little one," a new voice spoke up, a femme, and Safeguard turned, shifting curiously. He knew this - this was another Original. He had a vague recollection of meeting this one before but...
"You are the wrong gender."
"Safeguard!"
The newcomer just laughed. "Perhaps. Though, I come with a gift for you, young one." The femme held out two tiny cubes. One was a darker pink than the other and this was offered first. When safeguard had downed it, the normal energon was offered, and the minicon drunk that rather easily. Satisfied, the femme nodded and headed out. She had a bar to run, after all, along with a young pair of twin Primes -who'd recently found their Lord Protector- to keep an optic on while Prima was away.
"In this universe, she is the right gender."
Safeguard just grinned and shook his head. Originals were confusing. Not that it stopped him from cuddling up against his partner. The Prime simply sighed and pet him a little. Time would tell how this ended, though an exploration of the minicon's base coding was needed.
Later, when Solus was around.
Solus sighed, pushing away from the console as it displayed readout after readout after impossible readout. But that was part and parcel of dealing with anything Unicronian and somewhere, she knew this wasn't the first time, but frag her if she could put her finger on just why she knew that. The coding was both amazing and frightening; she wasn't sure if she should be amazed, sickened or awed or all of the above.
Yet, after seeing what she'd seen and read in the very nature of the creature's innermost codes-
She exhaled, optics darkening. She wouldn't want a minicon linking with her, regardless of the benefits the small things held. That it was a Giant Planet minicon only made it worse and she couldn't even begin to comprehend why Vector had allowed it in the first place. To have anything Uncronian attached to her… The femme shivered. Logically, she knew it wasn't the poor thing's fault, but a lifetime of conditioning told her anything related to the Dark One - Chaos Bringer- was evil, vile and wrong. A corruption of Life and what was Truth.
Unfortunately, they now had proof of just how right that was.
"Solus?"
"Vector. You came at a good time. Walk with me?" The weaponsmith pushed herself up, ignoring the glance her sibling gave to the prone minicon hooked up to her machines. If he noticed her shudder, he didn't comment on it.
"That is his spark?"
"Yes. That's part of what I want to talk about. We'd always assumed minicons to have sparks like ours. This…"
"He took sparks and twisted them in a perversion of what should be." It wasn't a question.
"Exactly. I've never seen anything like it." A gesture to the swirling black mess of a spark that sat in the open chamber, several cables hooked into it. She ignored the look on her brother's face and headed up towards the surface of the planet. "It's not quite what an original minicon's would be, based on the data you gave me, but it does explain how they have that power."
"Due to the Gigantion construction?"
"I would assume so. The deeper I looked, the more disturbing things became. He should be like the rest of his race, equivalent to what we'd term an adult. He's not." At Vector's blink, the femme continued on. "He is mature, certainly, but his basic processor construction remains on a second vorn youngling level. A mutation due to his origins, I'd assume."
"A kin to that of a human child's. It does explain much," the older by several breems Prime nodded and at Solus's confused look, he chuckled. "A team of minicons I was responsible for in the Aurex cluster behaved more like children than Safeguard ever has. When Jolt's CPU was scanned, it was likened to that of a child's, something that while unexpected, was not investigated due to pressing matters. I assumed Safeguard to be different, given his actions and maturity."
"It could also have been due to his work on Gigantion." Solus didn't ask why it wasn't investigated. It could have been a number of reasons and she wasn't sure she wanted to know.
"Perhaps." It sounded reasonable. Vector knew that Safeguard had been responsible for the some of the most dangerous detail work-teams before they'd partnered. That alone would have necessitated a more mature personality at the very least. "What of the coding? Is there a chance to reverse what was imposed on him?"
She shook her head. "I'd run the risk of killing him. I will not take that chance. Nor shall Nexus. The code's mutated over the generations too."
Vector knew what his sister meant. She created. She didn't take life. He wouldn't ask it of her, nor Nexus. "Perhaps Logos..."
"Logos," Solus looked sharply at the older Prime. "Would not know how to code things if it bit them in the aft. No. The mutation is beyond their skills."
"Very well, sister." Vector nodded. Solus had a point. Logos's own coding left much to be desired in their work; he would not chance Safeguard's safety. "That would make sense. The Giant Planet was lost soon after the spacebridge network was established in his home cluster and the first minicons accompanied the ships there."
Solus nodded. "There is more, brother. Where normally the link would terminate on the death of the bulk, the Gigantion mutation twisted the nature of it. While it terminates, it lingers for some time. It also twisted the amount of power he provides when attached to the powerport. Linking with you mutated it further due to our very nature. He'll never have another bulk. I'm sorry, brother."
Vector was silent for a while as he mulled it over. So it was he'd suspected. He allowed a bitter, if not triumphant smile; even though the minicon was Unicronian, he served Primus. A meagre pittance for the damages done in Aurex, but one that Vector was willing to take. "I see. Perhaps it's Primus's will."
Solus only offered a sympathetic smile. "One can hope. Should I wake him?"
"No. I have much to think on for the moment. I shall collect him soon enough."
"Of course."
Time passed, as it always did. Some wounds healed, others...
"Master Prime! Master Prime!"
"Hmm? What is Skyfire?"
"You are leaving." Came the accusing tone of Safeguard from within the Seeker's grasp.
"For the moment, yes."
"Again. You are leaving." Safeguard's voice cracked and both Seeker and Prime winced.
"It is a battle that you cannot help with, young one." He wished he could take his words back as soon as he said them, for his minicon's optics hardened into cold daggers.
"You do not want me."
Those words hurt. The Original bowed his head, intakes cycling in a sigh. "That is not true. I shall return. "
"No, you won't." Safeguard struggled in the Seeker's grip, optics holding that light - the light Vector knew was from when the bond had been so stretched back in the Aurex cluster. Not for the first time did he wish he knew where Unicron's spark, if only so he could shove Rhysling and Calibre though it. Face unreadable, he wordlessly held his hand out. Skyfire relaxed his grip on his Master's tiny companion who darted to the hand, then up to the hidden linkage port, tapping the cover until it opened. The minicon shifted forms, linxing. If one didn't know about him, they'd assume he was simply a part of the Prime.
Next time, Skyfire, put him into medical recharge. This is the fifth time.
Of course, Master.
Satisfied with the answer, Vector waved his hand in dismissal and turned to go. As much as he didn't want to involve Safeguard in this battle, he wouldn't force the worry, the panic and uncertainty that he wouldn't see Vector again, on his minicon. It was wrong, cruel and he had no wish to deepen any psychological scars. Nor did he have a way, as of yet, to prove to the minicon that he would return. It was hard enough to get Safeguard into the medical bays at times for check-ups and to keep him out of the Temple when he was communing with the AllSpark. The minicon had become clingy.
He couldn't blame him.
But one day he would find a way to undo the damages wrought by the coding.