There was a pulse of energy.
Like an echo.
Answering his own.
His chest hurt dully and the pulse came from deep within him.
The infinite white drifted, he drifted, everything was… just… different… wrong… strange… not… it was not. Nothing existed.
There was a world where Jazz didn't die. There was a world where Barricade was killed by Optimus Prime. There was a world where Captain Will Lennox didn't survive the attack on the Soccent base in Qatar. There was a world where Sarah Lennox died in childbirth and her husband resigned from Army life. There was a world where Sam Witwicky auctioned off the glasses to a guy who was later found gruesomely killed in what seemed like a car accident. There was a world where Optimus Prime sacrificed himself, laying waste to Mission City, and Sam Witwicky died a year later from radiation poisoning. There was a world where Sam Witwicky absorbed the Allspark and became it. … where the Autobots crashed the Ark on Earth in a mountain, asleep for millions of years. … where the Nemesis was located on the bottom of the ocean. … where the Allspark never existed. … where the war was avoided by the assassination of Megatron and his closest circle. … where Jazz defected from his own kind to follow the call of his spark-bonded. … where the Allspark wasn't destroyed and chose Sam Witwicky as his tool to interact with humanity and the Autobots. … where Sam's consciousness was transferred into a mechanoid body. … where Lennox's body changed into a mechanoid form forever. … where the claim of a Cybertronian on his mate was absolute. … where Jazz wasn't brought back and Barricade killed whatever Decepticon he came across without mercy, and Optimus Prime let his new assassin work as he wanted.
… and there was a world where Will Lennox could see all the possibilities. Where he stood rooted to the spot, breathless, close to tears, feeling terrified, elated, in mourning, defeated and so very, very glad all in one. His body thrummed with energy, the runes bright and pulsing on his visible skin. His human skin and his human body. He could feel his power, he could feel the possibilities, felt the barriers between dimensions.
Parallel universes fold against each other, separated only by a thin layer of nothingness. Right now he was looking through those layers, felt it, experienced it, and was it.
The Allspark that existed in alternate worlds pulsed with his own powers.
The Matrix of Leadership responded.
For a clear moment he knew that it was there, not everywhere, but in some universes. It was like a tiny sister of the Allspark, powerful and still not the same as the cube. It was important in some universes, redundant in others, and in some it was purely legend, or had never existed.
The Primes knew. All of them, in every reality, were aware of this moment.
He was so tempted to answer, but the divide that kept the dimensions from touching was closing and he knew it was for the better.
This was his world, his life.
"You're part of the future," a voice said and it seemed to come from everywhere.
"You're part of our heritage, William Lennox." Another voice, slightly different, but still the owner was unseen.
"What are you talking about?!" he demanded.
"You carry part of the Allspark."
Fear coursed through him and he felt the presences around him rise in strength.
"It won't hurt you. It submits to you. You use what powers were given to your body."
"You protect," one of them said and Will thought he saw gigantic shapes in the distance. Their structures were like protoforms and their optics were red.
"Who are you?" "We are who came before." "The Primes?"
"Yes. All of our kind's sparks return to the Allspark upon death." "Then how can you still be alive?" "Through the Matrix."
Will froze.
"You are part of it, as is the human called Sam Witwicky. As is Optimus Prime. As is one of the few of our direct descendents. You are the key, William Lennox." "How can you guys inherit something?"
One of the Primes finally grew clearer. Will stared at the protoform that was unlike any he had ever seen. It was powerful, as tall as Optimus, but it appeared more massive. Red eyes glowed in a decidedly inhuman face.
"Our sparks were created by the Allspark. We were the first thirteen. Our heritage are those created with the same energy as us, the Primes. Not all were knowledgeable of their past. The Allspark gave them potential. Not all could use it because of their inability to access it." "I'm not a Prime,"
"You have the power inside you. You are, as your kind would say, related to us. The Allspark gave you the power." "Why?!" "Our world is dead. Our race was scattered. Optimus Prime will need you and Sam Witwicky. He will need your strength and your abilities, as well as your trust." "I trust him."
The Prime knelt down, still terrifyingly awesome and large. The others had formed a circle around him, their equally red optics watching him with a silent power that had Will trembling.
"Trust him with the knowledge you have." "Trust him with the matrix code,"
"What code?"
There was something like amusement. "You have already deciphered what is written on you. You know." "What will it do?"
"It has no powers by itself, but it will show him who he needs," the third one told him.
"It's our genetic matrix," another added. "A code without power, but still very powerful. It's the base of the design framework."
Will was teased by knowledge from other realities where the matrix was more.
"Not here. Not with you." The Prime shook his head. "The matrix is a part of the whole and a part alone can't unlock the Allspark. It was disassembled by Samuel Witwicky. Its energies dispersed and it will take time to reform. No one knows where and when." "And the part inside me?" "Offers opportunity. It offers hope."
Will shivered. "Is it… alive?"
The red optics of the Prime flared. "No. It's up to you to control, not the other way around." "So I have something akin to a Cybertronian DNA strand painted on my back?" "Yes." "And because of it I'm here?" "Yes." "Like some access card to a room?" "A room with many other doors,"
"So the matrix is like a blueprint. You see the schematics, but I can't use it to create mech sparks or something like it because I'm lacking the machinery?"
The Primes radiated slight amusement.
"Yes."
Will felt a tremor race through him. He finally pulled his thoughts back to the part about showing Optimus who he needed.
"How can I help him?" "The matrix key, when you use it, will allow you to understand what the ancients did." "What are you talking about?! How can I use it? It's a tattoo!" "You'll know."
So everything was more or less involuntary. He had no control. Will felt less and less amused.
"Why don't you talk to Optimus yourselves? He's a Prime!"
They were fading back into the nothingness they had come from.
"Your connection to the Allspark makes it easier for us," the first one explained.
"So how often do I have the honor of relaying your orders?" Will called angrily.
It got him the first chuckle he had heard.
"We don't guide. Our time has passed. You will create your own future, William Lennox. You saw the limitlessness of dimensions, of possibilities. This here is the one you will shape."
And then they were gone.
But someone else was there. Someone powerful and someone known. Will turned and found himself facing a tall, slender, protoform-like shape. Blue optics in a strangely familiar face. Symbols overlapped with the facial features, exactly where Prime had his markings.
"Optimus?" he asked.
"Yes, Will."
Lennox felt something surround them, something incredibly strong. It felt like…
"A spark," he heard himself whisper. "We're inside… a spark?"
"My spark."
"Impossible!"
"You pulled us here."
"And you heard…?"
"Yes. Part of it. I felt them."
"Optimus…" Lennox suddenly felt all his fear race back at him, the fear of who he was, what he was, what he could become.
Hands rested on his shoulders. Hands of his own size, no difference between them. While he still thought of himself as human and saw human skin, Prime was a protoform – and they were no different.
"In here, we are equal in every term, Will Lennox. Outside only our physical appearance differs. I don't know what you did, but it opened a door for us, showed us possibilities. This is the reality we live in and you are my friend. I need you as my friend and ally."
"I am," he stuttered.
"You are powerful. Like Sam is powerful. Your gifts differ, but you are important."
He felt Prime's spark, a fragile but strong coil of energy. His heart and soul. His very self. He could see it so clearly, felt it so deeply… and he knew this was where he had to be.
Not a life with Sarah in another universe, where they were happy.
Not with his team in a world where he had never married.
This was it.
Here.
It was so tempting to let go and slide to a place where he might be happy, where he thought of himself as luckier than here, in his reality.
"Will," Prime intoned, voice very intense, gently squeezing his shoulders. "You are where you have to be."
"I'm not the ultimate solution, Optimus," he managed. "I'm not the all-powerful weapon. I'm me!"
"And you will always be. You have a gift and you will use it wisely."
Power. So much power and strength. Such incredible age. Will was inside a millennia old being, looking at the very center of his being, and Prime let him. He understood so much and still didn't. It was so vast, so terrifying, so much more than he could understand.
Will stepped back. The infinite white wavered, then closed. His body suddenly relaxed, muscles going limp, and he was caught by familiar hands. He grabbed at the too big fingers, breathing hard all of a sudden. The runes skittered over his hands as if hurrying to the point of contact between him and Optimus Prime. The mech made a startled sound, apparently able to feel something.
"Will?"
"I'm fine. That was… unexpected."
And scary, terrifying, frightening… elating, powerful, like a caffeine boost… and it somehow also calmed him.
He was still Will Lennox, still mostly human, still… himself.
Ancient blue optics regarded him and Prime's expression was knowing. He didn't say anything, but he didn't have to. For a moment Will understood it all in great clarity. He knew about the first thirteen Primes, created by the Allspark. They had disappeared to somewhere, never to be heard of, never to be found. With them, knowledge and technology had disappeared, too. He knew of the struggling line of Primes, the hidden-away new generation. He knew that the one before him was the last of this heritage line because the Allspark was gone.
Optimus Prime wasn't just a mech who had become leader by default. He had been born this way. It had been his destiny.
"Optimus…" he said softly.
They were on the ground, Prime's back against the rocks that he couldn't recall being there before, but they must have been. He was cradled to the big mech's chest. And he was naked; looking like the Allspark – bronze and burned golden, covered in runes – but naked.. Great. He had reverted from protoform sometime throughout whatever had hit them both.
"We have a destiny together;" Optimus said, voice so deep and serene, it calmed jittery nerves. "You, me, all of us. Every single one of this team was meant to be here, Will."
"I'm not your salvation. I'm not some mystical figure! I'm still human!"
"I know. Neither am I more than who I am, though some of my people look at me as if I am. I am a Prime, last of a long line, but no closer to the first ones than you are. We all are simply parts of a greater puzzle."
The hybrid nodded dazedly, mind still reeling. "We need to talk," he said firmly.
Optimus inclined his head. "And we will."
Will gazed at the symbols on Optimus, the designation of the Prime Dynasty. He was scared of the implications what his own meant, what the Primes had meant by Sam and him being needed.
But there was someone else, someone who had been kept hidden from possible enemies. Another heir. For millennia there had only been one Prime. Now there was a new possibility. And in that second Will Lennox knew that what he had, his abilities and powers, might one day become an asset greater than a few energy balls and shape-changing capabilities. He wasn't the Allspark; he wasn't a mech; he wasn't human. He incorporated it all. He could help and he would, in whatever capacity.
"Will?"
He was startled out of his thoughts and found that they had moved. Not far, just to where Will had set up his camp in the desert for the night. It was already getting dark. The mech smiled a little at his confusion.
"You zoned out."
"Oh. Okay."
He looked at his skin, alive with runes, as alive as they hadn't been in a while. He quickly got his spare clothes and redressed, feeling a little more human because of it. His skin looked far more human, too. Only the glyphs had remained and they moved in a lazy dance.
"Tell me," was the gentle prod.
Lennox was pulled out of his thoughts. "What?"
"What you saw. What they said. I only felt their presence."
"Have you ever…? Before, I mean?"
"Not to my conscious knowledge. It might have happened once before, but never so I knew that it had."
Will sat down in front of his tent, then got up and paced again, finally he stopped and rubbed his bare forearms. He wasn't cold, just… feeling helpless and overrun and like everything rested on his shoulders.
Optimus suddenly transformed and opened a door in a clear invitation. Lennox took it after another second of hesitation.
For some inexplicable reason just sitting inside the semi-dark cab had him relax.
"Tell me," Optimus repeated gently.
"I was… connected to you, right?"
"Yes. You touched me; my spark."
Lennox chewed on his lower lip. "Not like a spark-bond, though."
There was a soft rumble, a laugh. "No. That you only have with Ironhide."
"But it was familiar… like it's supposed to happen. It wasn't a bad feeling."
Optimus was silent, letting the human hybrid think.
"Because of the Allspark and the matrix code?" Will finally wanted to know.
"Most likely. Tell me what you saw and heard, Will."
And he did.
tbc...
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo xoxoxoxoxoxo xoxoxoxoxoxox
*careful peek* Still around? Still reading? Still want more? --- 'Cause I still got something up my sleeve...