Rodimus knocked on the door to Rewind and Chromedome's room, then turned to the six. "So, I gotta confess something - I don't really call myself a Prime, so if you guys could just forget that part of my status, that'd be great.

"Well, I mean, it's pretty difficult to forget meeting a Prime." Tinker rubbed his neck as he spoke. "I mean, we could pretend to not remem-"

"Tink, buddy," Storm rested a hand on his shoulder, "that's what he meant."

"Oh. ... Oh! Yeah, that makes sense." Tinker nodded to himself. "My bad. Yeah, totally, we'll forget about it."

Rodimus gave him a confused look before the door opened to reveal Chromedome. "Rodimus? What do you... Need...?" He gave the six an odd look. "Who are they?"

"Tinker, Storm, Werren, Teplex, Supplera, and Pickup. They've been... Out of the loop for the past six million years. Can Rewind catch them up to speed?"

"One sec." He turned, "Hey, Rewind, you hear all that?"

"I did." Rewind stepped out, looking up at them. "I could compile a compacted data transfer, teach them everything in about eleven seconds."

"Well that'd be great. Do you have the badges?"

"Domey, can you get them?"

"On it." Chromedome then disappeared into the room to grab whatever the badges were as Rewind fiddled with something on his forearm.

"And... Done! If you could all just sit on the ground so I can interface..."

The six newcomers complied with his request as Chromedome returned. "This badge belongs to the Autobots," he held up the red one, "and this belongs to the Decepticons." And he showed them the purple one.

"You're all Autobots, then?" Tinker pointed out, observing their own badges.

Megatron looked down at them, "We are."

The look Rodimus gave him went unnoticed as Rewind plugged a wire into each of their helms. "Starting info upload... Now." He pressed a button on his wrist, and the info poured into their processors, replaying everything right before their optics.

Megatron folded his arms, watching carefully. Once the eleven seconds ended and Rewind unplugged them, he waited for the looks of anger and accusations.

As they got to their feet, Tinker looked up at Megatron. "... You look a lot like the Decepticon leader."

'Here it comes...' "That's because I am him. I disbanded the Decepticons."

"Woah."

... 'Woah? That's all?' Megatron frowned a little. "Aren't you going to get... Upset with me?"

"Why would I be upset?" Tinker knocked his head to the side.

"..." Megatron turned to Rodimus, "Is he serious?"

"I think he is..."

"I mean, I'm a jetpack - with hotspots going out of commission my blacksmith skills would be useless, and the Decepticon campaign would've directly applied to me. Plus, you took down functionalism!" Tinker held out his arms to Megatron. "You made it so Cybertronians don't have to define themselves by their alt modes!"

"Yeah!" Pickup looked up at Megatron in adoration.

Werren folded his arms. "And though you may have... Fallen from grace, you realized your mistake in the end and repented. If you were truly the evil warlord you appeared to be, you wouldn't be here right now."

Megatron was... Well, he was surprised. It's not every day someone defends you after hearing you nearly killed off half of the entire race.

"... Well!" Rodimus clapped his hands together to get everyone's attention, "As long as you're aboard the Lost Light, you're free to do as you wish - so long as you don't cause any big problems. That said, feel free to explore! See what there is to see, integrate yourself into the crew if you want."

The six traded glances, then Supplera gave him a grin. "Will do, captain."

"Good. I'll be off doing captain things, then." Rodimus walked off.

The six turned to Megatron, and he stared back for an awkward moment. "... I should be going. Lectures to give." And with that, he turned and started walking.

... With tiny footsteps following.

He stopped, and his pursuer bumped into his legs with an 'Oomph'. He turned and looked down slowly.

As he did, Pickup looked up as she rubbed her head, "Why'd you stop?"

"Why are you following me?"

"To see what you're doing."

"For what reason?"

The tiny femme rested her hands on her hips, "I just told you."

"You don't even know what I'm teaching."

"The point is that I now have the choice to do whatever I want, and I wanna learn."

"You're from Nova Cronum, one of Cybertron's most academic cities."

"But you forget that I was just the janitor - I wasn't allowed to participate in the classes, just clean up the messes they left behind."

Megatron sighed, pinching his nose, "I can't deter you. Can I?"

"Nope!"

"..." He looked down at her, "Very well. I can admire someone whose first act of freedom is to learn."

She smiled up at the ex-Decepticon, "Thanks!"

He merely turned around, and continued his brisk walk. She hurried to keep up before eventually huffing and transforming.

The other five colonists were walking through the hulls of the ship, earning glances from several other inhabitants of the crew. While most of the rooms they passed were mostly silent, an open door seemed to be letting out an obscene amount of noise.

Out of curiosity, Supplera peeked in... And grinned wide, looking over her shoulder at the others, "Guys, good news..." She stepped aside to let the other see, "We just found the bar!"

"Oh hell yes." Teplex muttered.

Werren pointed a finger at Supplera warningly, "You're still not allowed to drink anything too high grade."

"Aw, why not?!"

"Remember what happened with Volt?"

Supplera pouted, folding her arms, "It was an accident..."

"You tossed him through a wall."

"He got better!"

"After his legs were reattached."

"Fine. I won't take too many intoxicating drinks. Deal?"

"Fine."

"Great!" The giant femme lead the group in, rubbing her hands together.

Swerve grinned from behind the bar. "We-he-hell, looks like we got some new crewmates! I'm Swerve, owner of Swerve's! What are your names, if you don't mind a mech getting social?"

"I'm Supplera. The grump's Werren,"

"I'm not a grump."

"- the one with wheels is Teplex,"

"It's true, I'm the one with wheels."

"- the boat is Hurricane,"

"It's just Storm, stop telling people it's some random type of storm."

She waved him off, "- and the guy with thrusters for elbows is Tinker the tinkering tinkerer."

Swerve grinned wide, "Is he friends with Tinkerbell? Or from Tinkerland?"

Supplera grinned back, pointing at him as she took a seat, "Oh, I like you. You're now on the top five list for favorite bartenders."

"You flatter me! Now - how's about I fix you up with some Engex?" He set it down in front of her.

"Don't mind if I do!" She took the glass, downed it in one gulp, and set the glass down. "Woo! Good stuff."

Werren and Teplex sat beside her, then Storm jabbed a finger over his shoulder, "We're gonna keep looking around."

"Aw, what? Not gonna socialize?" Teplex took the drink Swerve offered.

"No, not really." Tinker shrugged. "You know us, not really the meet and greet type."

Werren sipped his drink, "Do as you please. We'll meet up later."

The blacksmith smiled before speaking, "Well, we'll leave you to your drinks. See you later, guys."

The pair walked out, and the three reminisced about old stories over drinks.

After about ten minutes of silent walking, it was Tinker who broke the silence, "This is all so strange."

"?" Storm looked at him curiously.

"The ship. The time period. Functionalism not existing anymore."

"Oh, that. Yeah, it's... A lot to take in." Storm glanced over his shoulder, "Supplera was taking it rather well... Better than when we first emerged."

"She laughs to make herself appear better..." Tinker rubbed his neck, "She's probably dying on the inside... But who knows? Maybe it was just initial shock."

"Yeah..." Storm looked ahead - then squinted as someone left their room. "Wait... I think I know that mech...!"

"Huh?" Tinker looked up at the mech Storm was pointing to.

Rung was looking over one of his model ships, pursing his lips.

"Rung?"

The psychiatrist looked up at the call of his name, surprised.

"It is you!" Storm grinned, running over.

"Storm? Is that you?"

"Yeah! Can't believe you're still up and kicking!"

"I could say the same to you - I thought your ship went missing a long time ago."

Tinker raised his hand, "Hey, uh, sorry to interrupt a moment, but... Who are you? And how d'you know each other?"

"Oh! Geez, introductions... This is my old psychiatrist, Rung. Rung, this is my friend Tinker."

"Ah, Storm mentioned you in our last few sessions." Rung offered his hand to Tinker.

The blacksmith took it, a light smile playing on his face, "Did he now?"

"Yes, he did." Rung smiled earnestly. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you."

"Right back at you!"

"Tink, do you mind if I catch up with Rung? I'll meet up with you when I'm done, promise."

"Sure thing!" Tinker smiled wider as he continued on with his walk, waving to them, "Have fun!"

Storm waved back, then followed Rung back into his room to talk.

Tinker was whistling to himself as he strolled down the halls, looking around absentmindedly. At one point he crossed an open room that at first glance appeared to have a great deal of recharge slabs...

... But as he took a second look, he found out it was the ship's medbay, and he could see First Aid organizing some data pads.

"Uh, hey! First Aid, right?"

The medic looked up, "That'd be me." He returned to his organizing, "Do you need any medical attention?"

"Oh, no, I'm just strolling around the ship." He glanced around the room, mildly amazed, "So much new tech..."

"Surprised what can be done in six million years?" The smile in First Aid's voice could practically be heard.

"Well, yeah! Like this wall of drawers." Tinker looked over the drawers, "What could you possibly have in them?"

The edges of First Aid's visor dropped lightly, "That's cold storage. We put patients in them when they can't be given proper medical treatment."

"Oh no... Is there anyone in there now...?"

"Just one." The medic patted one of the lower drawers, "Pipes of Helex. When we first found his body we'd thought he'd died, but - by some miracle - a portion of his spark remained. But enough of it slipped away that, if we performed surgery, he'd definitely go out of commision..."

Tinker pursed his lips. "... What spark type is he?"

"He was... Isometric Positive. Or Negative. I'm not sure which."

"Perfect." He opened a compartment in his waist, fishing around.

"What?"

"You know how sentio metalico develops into a protoform?"

"Yes...?"

Tinker grinned, pulling a snowflake-shaped piece of metal.

First Aid's visor went wide, "How did you...?!"

"The most common cause for body formation failure is a defect in the sentio metalico, a lack of proper resources, or even a combination of the two. As a blacksmith, it's my job to be ready." He closed the compartment, then opened another one in his thigh, "Isometric sparks use pure sentio metalico with an outer layer of similar metallic materials." He pulled out a few lumps of metal, held it in one hand with the sentio metalico, put on his goggles, and then swiveled his arm so the thruster took the place of his hand. "You might wanna adjust the brightness on your optics."

First Aid nodded, lowering the brightness setting. After getting the all clear, Tinker released a burst of flame over the materials.

After a moment, he swiveled his arm again and started to move around the mesh of materials in his hands, "Get ready to release his spark on my word."

"Got it." The medic opened the drawer containing Pipes, and got ready to open his chest.

Tinker started to spread it out, making a net with the materials, "And... Now! Release the spark!"

First Aid flung Pipes's chest open, and the spark flew out. Tinker put the net in the spark's way, and quickly bundled it up within it. "Now we need to get him to accept the protoform materials..." He moved it around in his hands some more, causing the surface to ripple and occasionally reveal a flash of light from the spark, "While I talk him into it, get out his processor."

First Aid gave him a look, clearly confused.

"I find it easier to convince a spark into surviving if you talk to them by name. And if he wants his memories, he'd need that processor. Now hurry! Before he accepts and makes a new one!"

"Right! On it!" The medic grabbed a scalpel, and started cutting open Pipes's head.

The blacksmith looked down at the protoform mix in his hands, speaking softly, "Hey there. Pipes of Helex, right? I'm Pyre of Tagan Heights. You ever been to Tagan Heights? I think the view's pretty stellar. Helex is pretty great, too - sometimes I'd go to the hotspots there to help oversee the development of the Cybertronians."

The spark flashed, seeming to grow a little brighter, the holes slowly closing.

Tinker smiled a little, "That's right, accept the protomix... How are we on his processor, First Aid?"

"Almost done... Just has to disconnect it from the spinal cord."

"No, leave it - a lot of the info on the body's design comes from the spinal cord. And with the processor being manually put in, his spark will think he's already got one."

"Right... Then just let me get this out..." First Aid carefully pulled out the processor and spinal cord, holding it gently, "When do I put it in?"

"Just before the holes seal up."

"Got it." First Aid held it just above the protoform mixture, watching the holes seal themselves.

"You're almost there, Pipes... Just another minute, and you'll be able to start making your body brand spanking new! Isn't that exciting?"

The spark flashed, and the holes closed with slightly greater speed.

"Now! Put them in now!"

First Aid slipped the spinal cord and processor into the mix just before the holes closed. Steam escaped the mix, and the surface smoothed out.

Tinker sighed in relief, rubbing his brow. "We're in the clear. Now we wait for his body to form."

First Aid went to take the sphere of protoform from him.

"Ah-a-a! Still burning hot." Tinker held him gingerly.

"Then... How are you-?"

"It's what makes me a blacksmith. My ability to withstand heat, a pulsewave that my spark radiates, and my hands."

"So... Kind of like a medic. How their hands can naturally take up surgery?"

"Exactly! A blacksmith's hands are perfectly smooth, which is highly necessary for keeping the sentio metalico in check."

"Okay... And you mentioned something about a pulsewave from your spark?"

Tinker nodded, "How to describe it... Essentially, it assures the spark - which is incapable of registering the world around it - that I'm here to help. That I'll give them form."

"Ah..." First Aid looked down at what would soon be Pipes, "So this will take about a day, right?"

"One to two, yes."

"Alright. I'm going to let Rodimus know." First Aid started to leave, then patted Tinker's shoulder, "You just saved a life today, Tinker. And I, for one, really appreciate it."

Tinker smiled back, "Hey, it's my pleasure."

"I'll see you around." First Aid left the medbay, leaving Tinker with the developing Pipes.

"Looks like it's just you and me, Pipes." The blacksmith took a seat on one of the recharge slabs, getting comfortable. "Why don't I tell a few stories to pass the time?" He paused, pretending to wait for a response, "Oh good! I know a few good ones."

And there you have it, the second chapter of this story! And my goodness, there's already been a surprising turn of events, and they haven't even been on the Lost Light for a day now!

Stay tuned for the next chapter of Dawnbreaker!

Til All Are One,

- Alpha