Update month once again, my lovely readers! This was going to be much longer, but I felt it dragged on a bit so I shortened it to this.
An extra note: As this fic' goes on, there are gonna be less OCs. Especially in the second half of the story. Only Aluri is gonna stick around to be honest because she's kind of important to the plot.
I am trying my best to prove that she's not a Mary-Sue, especially after the Prologue. She and Bluestreak are good friends for a LONG time before they came together. That'll be explored a bit in the next chapter and fully in Trouble on the Time Scape (which can be read on deviantART).
I'll also be explaining a lot of the TimeScape universe as the story goes on. I firmly believe in learning as you go on (with films, books, fanfics etc). I only explained so much in the Prologue because that's the Prologue's job - to explain as much as you can while moving the plot along. I left a lot out though so you could learn it later, where it's more important.
Enjoy!
Dedicated to Prowl and all the true heroes that have passed.
A confused soul finds no peace as he wonders
~wolvesandavatar.
0XX0
Sari was utterly confused, scared yet curious and feeling so brave. Somehow Prowl was kneeling in front of her, but she knew he was recharging in his room. She didn't say another word, watching as he looked around; like he couldn't quite see through his visor.
"When did Red Alert turn off the lights?" He didn't seem to be asking anyone, only himself, that question. Sari was even more confused now as her new expression told him.
"Red Alert?"
"Our team medic, remember? You help her and Swoop out occasionally." He turned back to her with a small smile, a shadow of a chuckle cast upon it. Prowl himself had never smiled at her, but...it was nice.
"You should smile more!" "Oh, really?" "Yeah, you have a nice smile, Pa!"
"Sari, are you okay?" Her head snapped up to him. 'Prowl' was now wearing a look of concern, the smile long gone. Sari shook her head and grinned back up in reply.
"Yeah, I'm fine." He visibly relaxed, as did she, but the smile did not return. 'Prowl' stood up straight and looked around with a cautious gaze, still unable to see clearly in the darkness. "There's no one else here. They're recharging."
"I'll believe that when I see it." The black and gold mech walked away from his spot...and straight into a wall.
Falling back onto his skid plates with a soft "Oof!" 'Prowl' held his head in dear pain. However, Sari couldn't help but laugh outrageously at the accident. What made it funnier was the victim!
The lights suddenly exploded into life and clanging, metal footsteps echoed down the corridor from a few steps away. Instantly, 'Prowl' was back on his feet, now fully aware of his new surroundings; the look of seeing a ghost was about him - bewilderment even! When Ratchet came into full view in the doorway, Sari managed to hold down her laughter enough to listen.
"How did you get back online?" There was no reply to the medic's question. The mech only stared at Ratchet, full of fear all of a sudden. They stared each other down for a few moments. "Just stay calm an' we'll try an' explain things to ya, kid."
'Prowl', instead, ran for it.
0XX0 SNIKT!
Bumblebee jolted awake from his recharge. He rubbed his optics clear of the blurred monitor screens and looked around, not completely out of recharge just yet. The living area was empty; the conveyor belt was silent and he was alone in his seat in front of the monitors. Must have just been his processor playing tricks on him again.
"But last time that happened..." Bumblebee stiffened. Last time, Blackarachnia attacked him, Sari and Bulkhead and all organic life in Detroit had been sucked dry; including Sari! The yellow mech stood up and took out his stingers; No 'con was going to get him this time!
"Stop!"
"Doc bo-?" A blurred figure burst through the doorway and instantly transformed! Ratchet and Sari were quick to follow, the medic holding a servo over a gash through his vehicle front. Bumblebee jumped from his spot and fired two shots from his stingers at the vehicle mode of the bot. However, the bot was already outside, turning the corner by the fence! The shots hit a couple crates instead, just skimming by the bot.
"After him, Bumblebee!" Ratchet ordered, pointing quite dramatically in the direction of the base's main entrance. Just as the mini-bot stepped forward to transform, Sari ran out in front of him. Her eyes were enlarged with plea and something he had seen before, but could not pinpoint.
"Bumblebee, don't! Please don't hurt him." Sari pleaded. Something in her voice, on the edge of cracking, made Bumblebee glance back at Ratchet, whom was leaning on the doorframe; his servo dripping with energon bleeding from the gash like thick oil. He then looked back down at Sari and shook his head.
"Look what he did to Ratchet!"
"He didn't mean to, he's just scared!" Bumblebee looked away from Sari, trying to resist the puppy-dog pout look that she had about her at that moment. But he kept glancing back every couple klicks and eventually sighed, putting away his stingers. Sari immediately smiled and hugged Bumblebee's leg.
"Thank you, 'Bee!"
"Doc bot!" "Ratchet!"
Optimus and Bulkhead came as fast as their voices echoed. Bumblebee, Ratchet and Sari looked over to them as Optimus stood by Ratchet and laid a concerned servo on the old medic's shoulder. "What happened?"
"He escaped O.P," Came Bluestreak's voice from...above? Turning their gazes upwards, the small group could see two blue dots, the gunner's optics, glaring down at them from the beams supporting the building structure. "Are you done yet? You could wake up the whole city-state with the volumes you're speaking."
"Sorry, Bluestreak." Optimus apologized while the blue and grey mech muttered something akin to 'noisy rookies'. The Prime then turned to Bumblebee with a less sympathetic stare. The young bot knew that look; he was about to be lectured, and tortured, via speech. The infamous, long and cheesy speeches of Optimus Prime! What an honour. "Why didn't you go after him, Bumblebee?"
Bumblebee felt all optics on him and he laughed nervously, twiddling his digits; a habit he had picked up from long megacycles of patrol in the city. He then pointed down at Sari and practically whimpered: "She wouldn't let...me?"
"Sari?" Optimus asked in his all too serious voice, raising an optic ridge at her. She, unlike Bumblebee, was not nervous and held her hands up in her own defence.
"You don't get it! Prowl was jus-!"
"Prowl was what?" The black and gold cyber-ninja asked, now standing between Optimus and Bulkhead in the doorway, sending a somewhat disapproving look at Sari from behind his visor. He had heard what had happened; she knew it.
"He was scared, he didn't know where he was!" Oh, what am I saying? "He was you!" She pointed a small finger up at Prowl. Optics were raised towards the ninja, surprised and in a way, sceptical of her claim.
"How can that be? I'm right here." Looks turned to a less calmer Sari, who was trying not to become too frustrated with her giant robot friends like she had a couple of months before. The air in the whole room seemed to stiffen at the rising tension between girl and machines.
"I don't know! But I'm not lying; he was! H-He knew me; there was a Red Alert and a Swoop, and he sounded like you!"
"I don't know any Red Alert or Swoop, and a bot can be programmed to sound like another." Prowl retorted in his usual way of logic. Sari's hands curled into fists by her sides and shook, but before she could respond, Bulkhead spoke before her.
"Yeah, but no bot outside of us, the Elite Guard and some Decepticons even know about her. How could he?" There was no answer to Bulkhead's questioning. Sari smiled up at her large, green friend; he believed her! But, would the others follow suit? Optimus turned back to Sari and sighed.
"I'm not sure, Sari. It does seem far-fetched." The other mechs, apart from Bulkhead, did not speak, but they agreed in some silent vow. Sari's face fell like lead to gravity upon noticing this.
"What? Why don't you guys believe me? I'm not lying!" Sari then ran past the mech's legs and back towards her room, eyes pouring out hot tears of frustration that only a child like her could produce. The Autobots merely watched her run; Bumblebee was held back by only Ratchet's right servo on his shoulder, but once Sari retreated into her own room, he flinched away from the medic in anger.
"Why didn't you guys believe her?" Bumblebee exclaimed at the older mechs around him. Ratchet, still holding his open wound still, stepped forward with a wince in his stance and a look that did not at all convey his pain to sternly reply:
"You didn't either, Bumblebee."
"Yeah...but Bulkhead has a point! How could he have known about Sari?" Bumblebee asked in a much calmer tone, but it still had a taste of frustration at the edge of each syllable he took great care not to spit out. Optimus sighed once again and rubbed his sore helm.
"We'll have to ask him when we find him." The Prime turned to each mech in his team. "Bulkhead, you stay here with Sari, Aluri and Bluestreak. The rest of us will search the city. He can't have gone that far."
Just as they agreed to the plan and were about to transform to leave, a voice, again, from above them stopped their actions.
"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait!" A thud beside Optimus brought Bluestreak, now fully online, into their half-huddle. "I'm going with you. If what you mechs are saying is true, then I might know what he is."
"How would you know?" Came a sceptical yet curious question from Prowl to the gunner of his height. Bluestreak kept his optics away and made a half shrug with his dirt-ridden shoulders.
"NetGear, Skyfire and Sky's friend created clone engineering. Skyfire perfected it on Cretomain where I've been stuck, so I know a fair bit. When me and Aluri first met NetGear, he downloaded our knowledge of the cloning process and now the Elite Guard has access to it."
"Get to the point."
"Skyfire's friend. He helped out a lot. I heard that he went Decepticon at some point. I'm just saying that he could of given your Decepticons clone info' and they made a copy of this guy." Bluestreak jerked a thumb to Prowl standing beside him, whose look of hurt and disappointment was hidden behind his visor. His face remained neutral as always. The mechs pondered on Bluestreak's explanation; the latter half of it anyway.
"It seems reasonable, Bluestreak, but what abo-?"
"We have no time to waste!" Bluestreak stopped Optimus' words and gave the team a grin that seemed professional, mastered and all around confident at the same time. Prime nodded and transformed alongside his team, sans Bulkhead, and Bluestreak whose own transformation was slowed by his scars and the matter of the fact that he had not transformed into vehicle mode for thousands of stellar cycles.
"Autobots, roll out!"
0XX0
Meanwhile, in the car-scattered streets of Detroit, the time-displaced Prowl barely dodged the humans in his speeding path towards who knows where. Fear pulsed through his spark as all too familiar buildings and sights returned to him. Had he been in robot mode, Prowl would have clutched his helm.
It was all too much for him to handle.
All the memories...
It's not possible! I can't be here; Not again!
But as he came further into the depth of the grey city, the reality was beginning to dawn on him. There was no other way! But it couldn't be...
As a processor ache began to emerge, Prowl spotted a familiar place so clear in his mind; settled near the water of Lake Eerie that he had more than once dived into for many old reasons mumbled in his processor. With his team that he had just left behind in their old base...
No! This is impossible; I will not accept this trick. It could be either side. Maybe I was left on the battlefield. But Sari...
While he brooded on his situation, Prowl did not notice that he had begun to turn towards the old Detroit pier where the machines slept in stasis and the large docking ship stood untouched. Before he registered it, he was sat beside it, overlooking the lake with a weary mind and searching his limited sight for the island he spent so little time on.
Transforming into robot mode for a better look, Prowl gave a sound akin to something disapproving. "Even if this is a trick, they should still be there." Perhaps he wasn't alone here. It would be good to see a familiar face, even if it weren't real.
Without a second thought, driven by hope, fear and possibly something alien to him, Prowl jumped up onto the docking ship effortlessly and repeated the exact same actions to start the automatic ship to the island, like he had a million stellar cycles before.
"Go there...Go..."
Sometimes, Sari's voice wasn't the only voice that invaded his thoughts.
0XX0
Bulkhead, left alone in the main room by the other bots, looked back down the corridor where a glimpse of light slipped under Sari's door. "Maybe I should go talk to her..."
"If you do, please do it quietly." Came a femme voice from the couch. Bulkhead looked over to see Aluri peering over the top of the couch with a smirk plastered on her face. "Y'know, you and your friends are louder than Blue is in recharge."
"Oh!" Bulkhead exclaimed in realization, suddenly becoming anxious as he would on occasion. "Did we wake you up?"
"Not you, the organic femme did. 'Sorry', was it?"
"Sari. It's a common mistake."
"Right. Sari." Aluri pushed herself up, stretched her arms and then straightened her whole chassis to stand. "Look, big guy, I'll go talk to her. You keep an optic out for your friends."
"I-I'm not sure. Sari doesn't really know you..."
"I have to listen to Bluestreak rant more than once a solar cycle all the time, big guy. I might not be the greatest of all listeners, but I've had my practise." Aluri assured Bulkhead as she walked over to him, immediately dwarfed by his immense size. A pang of nervousness hit her, but she kept it behind relaxed optics and a small smile. Bulkhead processed the thought for a few moments, staring up at the ceiling as he did so.
He then smiled. "Okay then, Aluri. If Sari starts leaking, don't worry about it; Nothing's breaking down."
Aluri let out a half-scoff, half-laugh and her smile enlarged. She then patted Bulkhead's chest piece in reassurance. "Don't worry, big guy. I think I'll be okay."
Aluri then left Bulkhead behind for Sari's room. The green mech stood alone for a moment in silence, broken only by the femme's footsteps, then he sighed and trotted over to the monitor area; scanning each screen carefully with his bright, azure optics for any sign of the mysterious look-alike.
0XX0
In the dim-lit streets of Detroit, each Autobot had taken a different route to search the city. It would be easy to find the escapee; there was no scanning technology for him to hide with ease. Any Cybertronian could be picked out from a car park if one looked carefully.
Jazz had joined the search when Optimus came across the ninja on patrol (outside of a nightclub, no less). The situation was quickly explained and Jazz suggested they use the Steelhaven's radars; they were much better suited for this kind of job. Optimus was hesitant, but once Ratchet came to their location, still bearing the gash the mech had given him (which had stopped leaking and the medic was now able to ignore), the young Prime became determined.
So, once the Autobots gathered, they let the Elite Guard ninja lead them to the magnificent vessel only suited for the Magnus. However, once they arrived, they found that the force field used to keep organics out was still activated. Jazz turned his comm. link on.
"Hey, S.P?" Jazz asked, confusion filtering through his strong voice. There was a distilling silence as Sentinel answered on the other end. "I brought some of O.P's team back with me an'-"
Jazz then looked up at Optimus. "He wants t' know why." Obviously, the ninja didn't want to complicate the search with Sentinel knowing the details of the escape. Or did he want to keep the team out of trouble? It was hard to tell with Jazz's straight face and visor covering expressive optics.
"Go on, Jazz. This mega-cycle can't get any worse."
0XX0
The sounds of the arrogant Sentinel Prime's laughter filled the long corridors of the Steelhaven. Behind him, Jazz wore a look of embarrassed shame and kept giving Optimus apologetic glances; like a puppy would when he knew that he had just done wrong; to which Optimus returned, sighing every couple cycles and trying to ignore the upcoming yell that Ratchet would soon let out.
Thankfully, upon reaching the main bridge, Sentinel silenced himself in Ultra Magnus' presence. The supreme commander had been waiting for them having heard of what had happened less than a mega-cycle ago. His old optics widened at the sight of Ratchet's deep injury, but kept quiet and professional. Just like a Magnus should.
"Do what you must to find this bot. He has a lot to answer to." It was a simple half-order that they would follow, hopefully, with ease. As the Magnus departed in favour of his quarters for a good, long recharge, the Autobots began their work with the ship's scanners.
Well, except Bumblebee.
Why didn't I stick up for Sari? I shouldn't even be here. I should be back at base...
"...I know where he is..." Bumblebee's head snapped over the opening of the corridor leading to the brig; where the voice had been carried from. The mini-bot glanced over at the older Autobots momentarily, all of whom remained unmoved from their jobs; still working with the scanners.
Knowing he wouldn't be missed, Bumblebee edged away to the corridor entrance then bolted down it to where the Decepticon NetGear had been locked up. Of course, with his speed, it didn't take more than two cycles to reach the laser-barred cell.
Everything slowed as Bumblebee peered into the shadowed block; the darkness seemed to follow him everywhere! In there sat NetGear; head lowered in defeat and chassis slumped in a much sorrowful way. Stasis cuffs were clamped into his forearms and his servos were still curled into fists, like he was about to attack.
Yet, something was odd about this 'con.
"What do you want, Autobrat?" NetGear hissed from the shadows of beneath his helm, like the beast his form inspired by. Bumblebee, despite his want to jeer at the Decepticon who had nearly killed them all, stayed calm and crossed his arms. Quite clearly, he was not in the mood to exchange wits.
"Where is he, Decepticon?" He felt NetGear's glared pick at his armour and pierce his spark. Bumblebee flinched when NetGear's tail twitched in his direction.
"'He'? The one who used the forbidden form on me?" The glare sharpened and Bumblebee swore he saw a smirk glisten. "The one you let run away?"
"If you're not gonna answer, then why'd you tell me?" Bumblebee burst out, the events of the solar cycle catching up to him. Quickly he checked the corridors and saw no motion. A cold chuckle escaped from NetGear's unseen mouth, but it stopped as he struggled with the oral act of icy joy. "Huh? What's wrong with you? A bit of dust in the ol' vocalizer?"
NetGear remained un-angered, though he probably didn't want to move against the stasis cuffs. "They tore it from me. I'm not going to last through the trip."
Bumblebee looked down at the armour piece where an AllSpark fragment had been kept to power NetGear (or so what Bluestreak and Aluri said about him). The armour had turned completely grey; like an offline bot. The rest of him was following, kept only at bay since once fragment still remained. The second was now in Autobot servos. Bumblebee then turned serious.
"Save me the drama, Prissy-con. Where is he?"
"Closer than you think. I have only been like this for a few solar cycles, youngling; I cannot give answers you're not ready for."
…
"What's that supposed to mean?"
0XX0
A knock on Sari's door alerted her to a visitor. Sari, sitting on her bed and her head buried in a pillow, groaned. "I don't wanna talk, Optimus!"
"Last time I checked, I wasn't the paper-skinny Prime." A femme popped her head into Sari's room. The young girl remembered her from the battle, and when she and the new mech stayed at base with them. It was kind of strange meeting an Autobot femme; the only Cybertronian girl Sari had really known was the creepy spider lady who had kidnapped her more than once. Sari really couldn't say she trusted her that much, especially since they only came when the Decepticon did (from what she had heard).
Then again...Prowl did say that he knew the mech; Bluestripe was it? They could be okay, but she would still have to see.
"I actually came to help you." The femme stepped into the room uninvited and took up a seat on an empty patch of carpet. Sari couldn't really be bothered to tell the femme off, so she just stared up at her instead with heavy eyes. "But a couple things first. I'm Aluri."
"Hi." Sari muttered in a tone that portrayed the simple fact that she just did not care.
"Second. You're not going to leak...are you?"
"Le-? Oh, no. I'm no cry baby!"
"Good. Last, are you gonna be as dramatic and flashy as Bluestreak is?"
"That's his name?"
"Yes."
"Okay. It depends on what we talk about."
"Great, we've got that outta the way! Now," Aluri shifted her position to a more comfortable one and rested her head on a servo. "Why do you think those two mechs are the same?"
"He knew me. And...I sort knew him."
"Doesn't he live with you?"
"I-I mean, I knew the other him! I heard voices in my head and...I just knew him."
"Hearing voices in your processor is not a good sign, Sari."
"It's not like that, okay?"
Aluri was taken back, optics wide and stance ready to rise. Sari calmed and lowered her head. "Do you believe me?" Her voice was quiet and solemn yet...hopeful. Aluri sat down properly again and searched the ceiling with a glance of her blue optics.
"...Bulkhead did have a point."
"So you believe me?" Sari's face burst out with a wide smile and her eyes glistened at her. Aluri smiled nervously and rubbed the back of her neck. The femme couldn't say she didn't completely believe the young organic, but she didn't not believe her either. How did that bot know her, anyway?
"Yeah, Sari; I believe you."
Immediately Sari attached herself to Aluri's leg, almost scaring the spark out of the femme. Almost. Aluri smiled at the sight of the happy child.
"Thank you!" Sari jumped around, joy radiating from her aura. Someone else believed her! The others would see soon; she knew they would!
0XX0
Just like he remembered, the ships voyage to the island was short and quick. It parked itself beside a small pier nestled on the beach and allowed the armoured Prowl to jump off and land on the sand. He slowly rose and looked around with wide, almost frightened, optics under his visor.
Dinobot Island looked just the same as it did before the explosion. Such a perfect imitation; Swoop would've been pleased if he were in the ninja's place. The trees were the same height; the shadows had the same depth; the bushes all had the same leaves. There were even footprints in the sand!
Prowl sighed with melancholy and a long felt nostalgic feeling. He had not seen the Dinobots together for such a long time, not since Snarl left the original three to stay with the Constructicon, Scrapper. Only Grimlock had stayed the same, positioning himself as leader of the new Dinobots on Cybertron. Sludge and Slash had been built by Perceptor and a group of his clones, given life through energy drawn from the AllSpark when it was still in one piece.
Swoop had left quite early in the war, having grown tired of Grimlock and wanting to expand his knowledge; wanting to be more than just a Dinobot. As for Snarl...no one really knew the true story, but it was rumoured that he had left Scrapper after the destruction of Iacon and was now in New Koan fighting in the gladiator ring.
THUD. THUD.
Prowl snapped his head up. The approaching footsteps quickened, and became louder and louder. He looked in all directions, trying to pinpoint the source, but his fear mixed with the echo messed up his scanners.
"Intrudor!"
Oh. Fraggit. "Dinobots..."
10 pages? I promised myself this wouldn't happen again! This is what happens when I write new chapters in my notebooks and then type them up without my beta online. This chapter will be replaced with a better one tomorrow when my beta is online.
I'm going to go sleep once I've finished uploading this chapter, so I just wanna thank the guys down at Transmission Awesome (from ThatGuyWithTheGlasses in case you don't know) for keeping me awake as I typed this up. I'm gonna have an early night with my new DVDs so...please review and tell me your thoughts.
Good night!
