Maelstrom Chapter 34
Dusk

Author's note: This story is part of a LONG series called Maelstrom. It is strictly Gen. 1 - sorry, but that was all that was out when I started writing back in the late 1980's. It began as a fan-publication so the first chapters are in the form of a comic book! If you have not read the nine original Maelstrom Comics and the preceding text stories, I strongly suggest you do. This is a complex universe. They can be found at http// illmatar. deviantart. com (I have put double spaces between the URL here or FF . Net eats the link.) The comics and art which accompanies this series are there...and believe me I am a better artist than writer.

Most chapters of this series contain strong language and violence. Rated M for adult themes! Really! Transformers characters belong to Hasbro. Critiques adored! This scene contains strong language, violence, and sex. Rated M for adult themes!


Transformers characters belong to Hasbro. Story and OC characters are mine. Critiques adored!

Maelstrom 34 Dusk
Part I

Continued from Part H

The next day:

"That's absolutely fabulous news Rodimus," Magnus said in a very flat, not at all delighted voice. "And now I'm going to go kill that thing like you should have let me THREE DAYS AGO!"

Rodimus was standing a bit nervously in the doorway to the main council chamber. Jazz stopped jumping up and down and landed at Magnus' side. Magnus was looming over his younger commander, trying to intimidate him out of the way.

"Right you are Man! Let's go Major General!" the Specialist said.

"Guys, that didn't work last time either," Rodimus reminded them.

"So punch me in the face again. See if I care," Magnus said. He inched closer, missing the days when Hot Rod would have cowered back. Rodimus just folded his arms and looked annoyed.

Optimus and Elita watched this exchange with interest. The rest of the council was still too stunned to move.

Springer and Arcee were staring at each other, which Elita found promising. Perceptor had been rescued from his storm cellar for which he had received both praise and criticism from the reunified Primes. Cellar good. No escape route bad. He was muttering under his breath. Usually this meant techno-babble, but in this case it was just babble. Kup was silent, with his chin in his hand. Elita didn't know if his silence meant he was speechless or just too uncomfortable from having been pulled from the tunnels and into the council chamber in the span of five minutes.

"We don't KNOW that it will work yet! I'd like to see a viable breeding population up and running before we kill it!" Rodimus said calmly.

Magnus picked up his chair and threw it into the wall's ultra-shiny surface. It shattered there as if with explosives. Magnus slammed both fists down on the table and leaned on them, trembling.

"That...thing...set up my unit! It killed them just to manipulate me! It sent a mob after my pregnant wife!"

Rodimus grimaced. "I know."

"It toyed with all of us, but that doesn't change our responsibility to our people. Rodimus is right," Optimus said. "You know he is Magnus. We need to wait until we're sure, but at least we have reason to hope now!"

"We need to work out how to tell the populace too, and we need to set up an infrastructure for the newlings when they arrive," Elita said. "We don't have any schools for them, or trained medics, the shell factories are all set up to build only adult sized bodies, we will need care-givers to help parents on duty. We don't even have toys for them. There is so much to do."

"Yeah," Rodimus said. "And we need volunteers to go first. You and I don't count Magnus."

Magnus went for the glare.

"I think we need to let the civilian medical staff in on this first," First Aid said. "We need to give them training for how to help couples get started, how to spot problems at every phase, and how to treat the young ones if something goes wrong."

"I agree," Optimus said. "How are we going to explain all this new knowledge though? I don't think saying 'Rodimus went to another dimension and learned it there' is really that good of a choice."

"I'd rather the Jabez never learned of the other dimension's existence," Rodimus said grimly. "A whole new universe of Converts at their disposal. No thank you."

"What a horrible notion," Elita agreed, shuddering.

"So what are we gonna tell everybody?" Jazz asked. "That someone was just bored with a standard interface, got a little experimental, and hit number one on the charts by accident?"

"Jazz! That's genius!" Rodimus crowed.

"You can't be serious," Optimus said critically. "Who would do something like that?"

"Well, not YOU obviously," Rodimus snapped back instantly.

"Time out!" Magnus belted.

"Boys!" Elita cried at the same second.

Optimus jumped in his seat, then covered his optics with both hands, leaning on his elbows.

Rodimus winced at a chastising only he could hear.

"Sorry Rodimus," Optimus whispered from behind his hands.

Rodimus shook his head, but didn't answer right away. Finally he sagged and nodded, as if to himself. To his partner he said, "My mate takes longer to yell at me than yours does. I'm sorry too."

"Why does this seem to be getting worse instead of better?" Magnus asked grimly.

Optimus, still behind his hands, shook his head.

Rodimus shrugged. "Maybe because we are actually talking to each other instead of avoiding each other? Maybe because we're trying too hard?" Rodi met Elita's worried optics. She was up and rubbing Optimus across the shoulders. The senior Prime still wouldn't look up.

"Optimus...it's OK. Really it is," Rodimus said compassionately.

Optimus shook his head again and didn't answer.

"You two morons were supposed to have worked this mess out when we joined the council," Springer accused. "I know Vector Sigma was pushing you but I can't believe you never made more of an effort than this."

Rodimus winced again. "I told myself I was too busy to be around much, and then I made really sure I was."

Optimus' shoulders shook, just once. From behind his hands his deep voice barely projected. "I made sure he never wanted to be around. I don't know how to get around this Rodi. I promised myself I wouldn't react this way, but I keep wanting to jump down your throat. This should be a joyful discussion not blind contradiction."

"We'll get it back," Rodimus vowed. "Argue with me! Don't fight me! We used to be so good at that Optimus. We could argue all day and it was not only effective, it was FUN. Remember fun?"

"I remember a sort of perverse pleasure at seeing your mad notions get hammered into something useful," Optimus confessed. "As if I had achieved the impossible."

"Well, this is really Jazz's mad notion, but is there something solid in it we can work with?" Rodi asked.

"It solves our initial problem of breaking this news, but not how we know about the stages the youngsters will go through. I don't want to have to keep 'accidentally' discovering things, and I think it's dangerous to leave people ignorant about what has to happen for their new sparks to grow," Optimus said.

"That's true," Rodimus mused. "We want everything in place before the next generation needs it, even the first born."

Magnus sighed, thinking of all the prep work he and Marissa had been doing to make way for their incoming twins. It was time consuming and complicated even though humans knew full well what their offspring needed and had resources readily available. "I wonder why we can even breed this way. It seems so...organic to me."

"I think that was the point Major General. The Jabez that designed us wanted to set up his own way of life in metallic form. I guess he got impatient with waiting for the human breeding project to pay off and decided to try an alternative," Rodimus said.

Magnus mulled that over. "He didn't want to give up getting laid, you mean."

Rodimus chuckled. "You said it, I didn't."

"Can't say I blame him," Magnus muttered with an embarrassed grin.

"If that was the plan all along then why didn't happen that way?" Arcee asked.

"Vector Sigma was probably just supposed to start the first generation or so," Optimus muttered. "The Quints would have wanted to keep more control than that. They wanted slaves, not a functioning species. Once Vector Sigma became self-aware, it wanted to control everything too. Rodimus, if you are right, then we were designed to be self-aware. We were designed to be a new species for that Jabez to interact with. Maybe he would have invited other Jabez to leave their organic bodies to join us as well. It was the Quintissons who suppressed our knowledge of how to breed, followed by Vector Sigma."

"We can go ask it for more on that later," Rodimus grinning viciously. "I sure don't have a problem blaming it all on the Quints right now, do you? We can say, after our first volunteer gets knocked up, that we went looking for answers and found all of this in some dusty old records down in the tunnels."

"Convenient there are no Quints left to argue about it either," Magnus mused.

"There aren't?" Kup asked. The Quints had withdrawn mysteriously and suddenly, but as far as he knew, the reason for their disappearance was unknown.

"Long story," Rodimus told him. "They're gone."

"Gone....how?" Kup asked.

"I'll tell you later," Rodimus promised. He noticed Optimus' hands clenching and realized the first cracks in his friendship with the senior Prime probably stemmed back all the way to the Quint eradication...or maybe even earlier.

"We can make it sound like we're searching our past for other cases and stumbled upon a cache of Quint records," Elita suggested. "If we want we can even invent some and I'll lead some of my old team on the search. They'd be logical to take down into the tunnels."

"Maybe we can even play up like Vector Sigma led us to it," Jazz remarked. "Otherwise lots of folks are gonna protest. You know how they are about the Dinos. I never knew Autobots could be so prejudiced, but a lot of those Paradronians are down-right ugly about it."

"It's not just the Paradronians Jazz," Optimus said grimly. "I've just had to put my foot down with a few people under my command."

"Getting Vector Sigma 'permission' might silence some of it," Rodimus mused. Then he grinned. "Now that's just lovely irony."

"You are gloating," Elita laughed at him.

"Shamelessly," Rodimus purred. "We still need volunteers to be the first Mommy and Daddy. We'll have to be careful who we approach with this unless...." Rodimus' voice trailed off. Arcee had raised her right hand...and lifted Springer's with her left. Rodimus' optics and smile spread even wider. "Unless we have takers right here in this room!" he finished.

Everyone froze in place.

Springer stared at Arcee in plain shock. Arcee stared back at him.

No one moved.

Time held its breath.

Springer stared.

Arcee held his hand up.

Springer stared.

Arcee's left hand relaxed its hold.

Springer stared...but his hand didn't drop down.

Arcee stared.

Springer's hand went tentatively up an inch or two.

Arcee smiled slightly.

Springer's other hand rose up to join the first and Arcee surged out of her chair to wrap her arms around him.

The rest of the council dissolved into cheering.

"Whew," Rodimus told Elita and Optimus. "That's a relief. I was afraid it might have been you guys first!"

"Why? Would that be such a bad thing?" Optimus asked.

"No. Not really, but given the dimension I just visited I was afraid you might, you know...have Hot Rod!"

This froze the happy knot of people surrounding Springer and Arcee in its place.

Ultra Magnus looked at Optimus Prime gravely. "Have girls," he said.