Well, Maria's definitely in a different mood here...thanks to Shadow-Wolf-Hikaru and kat151820 for the Fav and Follow!

Shadescribe - Yup, that's basically where Maria's world has progressed to. As for Galvatron, it actually isn't a different version of Megatron - not in the "upgraded Megatron" sense. It's actually the Predacon leader in an anime that came out not long after the Beast Wars cartoon in the states. He's a bit...different, from his Decepticon counterpart.

But we won't be meeting him yet - we've got other things to take care of first!

Chapter 2

The trip across the country took less time than an average roadtrip from the Rockies to the Midwest, if only because neither First Aid nor Maria really required all that much sleep. They stopped once or twice, pulling off the highway to recharge a little of First Aid's energy while Maria watched her ambulance form just in case anyone got any ideas.

No one did, and it gave Maria time to peruse the news archives from the last twenty years in order to find what it was that she had missed.

The fact that she was 38 in her home dimension's time wasn't what surprised her. It was that technology had moved forward, that Earth was aware of Cybertronians and hadn't gone to war against them (even if they had panicked about their presence for a few years), and that people were very acutely aware of the fact that there were people on Earth who now worked in the government who had the honor of claiming first contact with the alien race.

Jack, Raf, and Miko had all taken jobs that Maria was sure that Fowler had pushed in their general direction. Collin, according to First Aid, was doing something similar in California, but he never said what exactly it was he was up to. Something about evil beings and framed agents.

Maria made a mental note of that and decided to look into it when she returned to the base with First Aid.

"We're coming up on the base."

Maria opened her eyes, pulling out of the Internet and looking over at First Aid's holoform in the front seat. The hologram of a human looked like the medic's Pretender form, which made Maria think that the Pretender's appearance came from the holoform, not the other way around.

Maria glanced around at the street they happened to be on – plain houses lined the streets, some looking better off than others. Some were also different from the ones Maria knew from her memories. "It's good to see that most of this hasn't changed."

"Wait until you get inside," First Aid replied. "Half of the houses here have been gutted and turned into labs. Anyone who lives here is part of the base that Joshua helps to run. They already know we're here."

Maria nodded slightly. "I'd expect nothing less. Is Joshua still where he was?"

"Yes, but…he's expanded a little."

Maria saw what First Aid meant when they reached the part of the street where Joshua's house had once sat.

In it's place was a two-story building that looked more like a lab and less like the house that had once stood there. The symbol over the door was of a rune of the planet Cybertron.

Maria stepped out of First Aid's vehicle mode before she shifted suddenly to her Pretender form. "This is it?"

First Aid nodded. "You might want to stop shielding your Spark signal."

Maria inclined her head slightly. "My apologies. Old habit." She walked towards the front door.

"Old habit?" First Aid followed after Maria with an expression of surprise. "The only reason that it would be an old habit of any kind would be if you were on the run from…" She trailed off.

Maria paused right in front of the door and looked back. Her expression, which had remained serious and stoic throughout the drive from the base in the mountains to her old hometown, softened slightly – but only slightly. "You needn't worry about what happened in the past. What's done is done; there's nothing any of us can do to change that. I'm fine." She turned and started to push the doors open.

The doors flew open before Maria's hand could touch the glass, revealing a frazzled-looking young man with electric blue hair sticking up in all directions and wide, glowing blue eyes. He blinked a couple times, then stared at Maria before looking at First Aid and back.

"You have got to be kidding me," he said.

Maria tilted her head slightly. "Jolt." She frowned and folded her arms across her chest. "Where's Joshua?"

The blue-haired young man in front of her stared, jaw loose and mouth open. "Y-you – " He shook his head. "Where have you been?! I expected you to appear on our doorstep nineteen years ago!"

"Time fluctuated while I was absent," Maria replied flatly. "Where is Joshua?"

"He's, uh, kind of in the middle of a meeting with Galloway," Jolt replied hesitantly. "Has…Aid told you about him?"

Maria frowned slightly. Galloway…. "She mentioned him in passing. A man who thinks he knows everything about Cybertronians but clearly doesn't and it has Fowler pulling out what remains of his hair. Is he here in person?"

"Y-yeah; this kinda is a base, even if it doesn't look like one." Jolt ran a hand through his hair. "Primus, I didn't think that I'd ever see you again. I don't know if Joshua did, either."

"I find that highly unlikely." Maria started to move forward, but stopped after half a step when Jolt didn't move. "Jolt. Let me pass."

Jolt shook his head. "I don't want Joshua to get into more trouble than he already has. A lot of what he's done in the last twenty years has gotten him a lot more attention than either one of us would like. You showing up suddenly in the middle of a conference wouldn't be a good idea, especially since Joshua is trying to tell Galloway that he's not going to give him the technology to make Reploids."

Maria's eyes narrowed. "And how would this Galloway know about something like that? There have only been two Reploids in this dimension, and we haven't made it a point to tell anyone outside of the Cybertronians and our families that we are no longer human. How did this human manage to get that information?"

"Extensive background checks," Jolt replied flatly. "There are some things they know about that they really shouldn't."

An annoyed grumble settled in Maria's throat. "We should do something about that."

"What do you want to do? At this point, they probably think you're dead, so you're probably not an American citizen anymore in the usual sense. I don't know if—"

A man in a suit pushed past Jolt suddenly and stepped out of the building. He brushed past Maria and First Aid as he stomped down the street, muttering curses and threats under his breath.

Maria's eyes narrowed as the man disappeared into one of the nearby houses. "That was him, wasn't it?"

Jolt nodded tiredly. "That was him. Theodore Galloway."

"Hm." Maria folded her arms across her chest. "He looks like a fool in a suit that's too big for him."

Metal footsteps came from behind Jolt. "Jolt, I'm going to need to…Maria?"

Maria turned away from looking down the street and looked at the dark-haired boy standing in the doorway next to Jolt. Her bright blue eyes locked with his green ones, and she inclined her head slightly. "Joshua. You look the same as ever."

Joshua blinked a couple times, then moved to stand in front of Maria, looking her over. "I hadn't realized that you'd managed to come back."

"Your visions didn't tell you?" Maria frowned. "That doesn't seem like them."

"One thing led to another and I found that my abilities lean more towards the electrical side of things now rather than the psychic ones." Joshua shrugged. "I suppose that comes from having Jolt as my influence, rather than someone like Garnet from Steven Universe." He frowned. "What happened? I'm aware of what part of their initial plans were—"

"How."

Joshua blinked at Maria's flat tone. "They…they invaded a dimension that I was looking into – I was able to break into their system and see some of the things they were planning. I was going to warn you, but you had already left for Kalos."

Maria put a hand to her chin as she looked away from the three standing near her. "That was when…." She dropped the hand and shook her head.

"I was able to warn your parents, at least, but Morgen acted like he knew it was coming. I can't help but wonder if he had something that allowed him to see the future as well." Joshua shrugged helplessly. "I'm sorry I wasn't able to do more."

"You did enough," Maria replied tersely. "The past is in the past. Now we have something else to be concerned with: what exactly is going on in this world. Something that the Cybertronians haven't solved yet has taken the lives of some of those we knew and has caused Ultra Magnus to kick some of you off Cybertron as a result." She looked between Jolt and First Aid as she spoke. "I'd like to find out why he decided to take that road of action, as well as what exactly caused their deaths in the first place. Whoever took their lives could take more if we don't do something."

"That is something that I've been working on investigating in secret." Joshua motioned for them to follow him back into the building. "First Aid, I assume you're here to do something about giving us a check up?"

"And Maria," First Aid confirmed. "Wherever it was that she came from, she's been dropping hints that it may as well have been a war zone. She could have been damaged in such a way that she needs major repairs and is hiding it in the same way she's shielding her Spark signature."

"Considering what I saw of their plans, I'm not entirely surprised that you came to that conclusion based on Maria's present personality." Joshua looked Maria up and down as they started into the building. "You definitely seem to be more serious than you were when we saw each other last."

"That may be, but you don't need to worry about me so much as we need to look into what's happening in our dimension," Maria replied.

Joshua's lab had definitely expanded in the twenty years that Maria had been absent. Not only was he no longer in the cave where he had found a supply of Energon, but his technology had advanced in leaps and bounds from when Maria had seen him last. Joshua led them past multiple labs that were filled with different kinds of technology and experiments, drawing Maria's eye in some cases out of surprise, but only for a second or two.

The lab that Joshua finally settled on looked more like a medical bay armed with a mechanic's tools, with a high ceiling that opened to a sky light and a large slab of steel that looked like a metal table – to an average human, at least. Maria knew it to be something else entirely.

"Maria, you first." First Aid patted a table that was clearly meant for someone more human-sized. "Drop the hologram and I'll get started."

"I'm not using the Light Refractor anymore," Maria replied as she sat on the table. "I had an upgrade; my power is now separated into multiple levels. My present form is the first; my Reploid form is the third." As she spoke, her clothes flashed brightly, only to be replaced by red, orange, and gray armor that covered her body from the neck down.

The table groaned suddenly under her weight as Joshua, Jolt, and First Aid looked at Maria in surprise.

"Who gave you this?" Joshua asked.

"An alternate version of Ratchet and a man that X and Zero trust to do their repairs," Maria replied. "I had a need for them."

First Aid pulled out a scanning device, and a green light flickered up and down Maria's form for a couple seconds before disappearing. She pulled back and looked down at the screen on the device, blinked a couple seconds out of surprise, then frowned.

"You…you're fully operational – and running better than the last time that you were looked over by anyone." First Aid looked at Maria with a surprised, confused expression. "How?"

"You would have to talk to Dr. Cain about that, but he resides in another dimension entirely." Maria shrugged. "As the foremost leading expert on Reploids second only to Dr. Light, his knowledge proved useful to making sure that any damage I had was repaired."

"Repairs?" First Aid frowned. "Lie back. Now. I want to see what parts were replaced."

Maria lay back on the table without changing her expression other than slightly raising an eyebrow. She watched with a distant expression as First Aid popped her armor open with practiced ease, despite the fact that Maria had been absent for so long that most others would have forgotten.

First Aid paused when she saw Maria's inner workings. "Joshua, what do you make of this?"

Joshua stepped forward and blinked. "It looks like Maria has been given upgrades with technology that I don't have access to. I don't recognize some of this, but it seems that it is working well with Maria's core and isn't causing her any issues that I can see."

"I should hope not," Maria replied. "Considering that I have put myself through the wringer in order to reverse some damage that has been caused."

Joshua frowned. "Either you tell us what happened or stop alluding to it. This isn't like you to keep beating around the bush, Maria."

Maria's armor closed tightly over her inner workings and she sat up. "A group of creatures that are similar to Shadow's relatives attempted to merge multiple dimensions together – I doubt that I need to tell you who, considering you say you ran into them before." She eyed Joshua with narrow eyes. "They nearly succeeded in causing a portion of the Multiverse to collapse. I had to step in and do something in order to not only reverse it, but to prevent as little of their influence from staying in those dimensions as possible. They were planning on making a new world for themselves after destroying their own, and I was not about to let them do so."

Joshua tilted his head slightly at that, then nodded. "You prevented that portion of the Multiverse from collapsing?"

Maria nodded as her armor shifted back to normal clothes.

"How?" Jolt asked. "If they were merging dimensions together, then—"

"I caused a Continuum Shift."

"That –" Jolt stopped short. "A what?"

"You rebooted multiple universes." Joshua's eyes were narrow, now. "You…you caused multiple dimensions to be reset at once? How are you still functioning?"

Maria shrugged. "My energy pool has increased in size since you last saw me. And the Continuum Shift was set off by the Multiverse itself in an attempt to save itself; it simply chose me as its chosen instrument, instead of Matthew or Myra."

Joshua stiffened. "Myra? You saw her?"

"Myra?" First Aid repeated in confusion. "That sounds familiar…didn't you mention someone with that name during the war?"

"Yes…on Reverse Cybertron, we saved someone from being controlled by…our opponents," Joshua said carefully. "She disappeared after that."

"The version of her I saw was before that point in time, some time after she had met Liz and-" Maria cut herself off, then looked away from them. "And my parents."

First Aid gained a surprised expression, but it quickly turned to concern as Joshua's brow furrowed.

"I believe that our timelines intersect at different places, because of how the Multiverse is," Maria said. "And considering that, it's likely I'll see Myra again. When, I can't say for certain." Her expression shifted. "Enough of what-ifs concerning Myra. Tell me what's happened here and if there is a chance that something that happened before could end up happening again."

Joshua's frown deepened.

"As far as we know, Wildfire and the others just sensed something, then went off to investigate and disappeared," Jolt explained. "I asked her what she was up to before she left, and she said that 'the past's come back to haunt us.' I'm not sure what she meant by that."

"The past…." Maria's eyes narrowed slightly.

"It can't be the Decepticons," First Aid said instantly. "If it was, we'd have started to see the signs already. Ultra Magnus and the council are made of former Autobots and Decepticons, with Maximal and Predacon representatives every time they meet. If there's been any unrest—"

"I…don't think it's that. The look on Starscream's face right before they disappeared suggested he was scared of it, whatever it was. And he scoffed in my face when I asked if any Decepticons were trying to pull anything, so…" Jolt shrugged. "I don't know what it could be."

"It goes beyond Cybertronians, then." Maria tilted her head slightly. "Is there any way for us to contact Cybertron from here?"

"Yes, why?"

"I want to consult with Alpha Trion, if that's at all possible."

Joshua and Jolt exchanged looks. Maria noticed and frowned.

"Alpha Trion…passed, five Cybertronian years ago," Jolt said carefully. "We can't exactly ask for his help on anything anymore."

"…I see." Maria reached behind her and pulled out a black hardcover book that was as thick as half the length of her hand and large enough to be the size of an average laptop. "If it is not from Cybertron, then it must be something that you faced as a people before. Something that some of you remember, but some don't."

"That's a copy of the Covenant?" First Aid asked in surprise.

"A twenty-year-old copy, yes; I'm going to need an updated version if I'm going to keep up with everything that's happened on Cybertron in my absence." Maria opened the book and started paging through it, moving past the story that covered the creation of Cybertron and the 13 Primes, Unicron's destruction, and the disappearance of the Predacons and Maximals from the annals of Cybertronian history.

She paused when she started reaching the later pages, during the time the Cybertronians were starting to come together. "Jolt, First Aid, were you there when Cybertronians started to create their society?"

Jolt looked over at First Aid as he shook his head. "No; I came out of the Well long after that."

First Aid nodded. "I came later, as well; I heard stories, from some of the medics, but I never got any specific details."

Maria slammed the book shut, and it disappeared from her hands in a bright flash. "I think I have a few ideas as to what happened – at least, the creatures that may have caused the disappearances and deaths. But I don't know why or how they caused these things to happen." She looked at Joshua. "Your future vision could have been helpful, if you had managed to keep it in the twenty years I was absent. So we will have to improvise."

"What about your own visions?" Joshua responded.

Maria paused at the question, tilting her head slightly. "I haven't had one since I returned. For now, I plan to just continue on as though not expecting one. If I receive one, plans will change accordingly."

"What's the first order of business, then?" Jolt asked.

"First, I am going to need to speak with someone on this base. I have no doubt that people consider me passed on, and I need to have that corrected." Maria's eyes flashed. "Let's see what they think of Flare-Up now that she's back and standing before them."