AN: Sorry for the slight delay (though I feel like all of you are kind of use to that by now…)! I hope everyone had a happy Easter weekend because I did :D. I feel the need to put a tiny note up here to confess that I have never seen Vector Prime in canon. So if I completely butcher his character in this chapter, I sincerely apologize. I attempted to merge some of the characteristics I read from the Cybertron cartoon and the Prime verse (on a completely random side note, I imagined his voice sounding like Tom Hiddleston...it's not my fault I was watching the new Tinker Bell movie while writing his section).

Now onward to the awaited chapter :D

Time Units
Solar Cycle: ~1 day

"Thinking"
:Comm. Talk:
~Bond Speech~

A New Version of Reality

Chapter Thirty Four

Cause and Effect

"Aid!"

First Aid's frazzled nerves caused him to instinctively jump at the shout directed towards him. He huddled further behind Prowl's back as the leading tactician protected the medic from gunfire, hearing the other mech hiss at the surprising strength of the humans' weapons. "Confused" was not a strong enough word to describe how the poor Autobot medic felt at the moment. "Severely perplexed" might have done it.

All he knew was that Sunstreaker had very randomly begun attacking the human settlement he had led them to, and they were fighting back despite the fact that the golden warrior would use his blades to quickly clear a path. Why had he chosen to follow Sunstreaker and Prowl instead of staying behind with Perceptor and Red Alert?

Prowl shifted aside and strategically aimed for a large container, causing whatever contents were held within it to negatively react to gunfire. A huge explosion caused the humans in the vicinity to go flying, but it was for enough away to leave them unaffected. All of that happened within the split second it took Bluestreak to jerk the medic around and shove his hands into his masked face.

"Tell me Ratchet taught you something about humans. Please, tell me he did."

First Aid stuttered before forcing himself into "medic mode" and looking down at Bluestreak's hand. It was true that Ratchet had taught him a little when he had found the head medic's data-pad lying around. The descriptions of alien medicines had fascinated the young trainee, and it was one of the experiences that had inspired him to join Prowl's team when they headed to Earth. However, this was the first human the poor mech had even seen up close!

He tried to ignore his rising panic and the battle that seemed to steadily decline the angrier Sunstreaker became. As a very experienced and grouchy medic had once taught him, First Aid immediately began a cursory scan on the tiny organic in Bluestreak's slightly trembling hand. Many lines of information began to pop up on his medical HUD, including messages of unidentifiable compounds, grievances similar enough to known injuries of their kind, and the shocking discovery of functional nanites traveling through the human's internal pathways.

Now, First Aid was not a leading expert on organic systems, but he was pretty sure that was not a naturally occurring thing. Neither was the weakening spark he found. And humans definitely did not exude traces of the AllSpark's signature.

All of that took a back seat when he realized that the human's internal systems were beginning to shut down. Ratchet's short lessons had been directed towards the very basics of the human structure and enough of those vital systems had been the easiest for him to learn. Some of their functions were somewhat similar to those of a Cybertronian.

Unfortunately, that did not mean he knew how to fix them.

"Hand it…I mean, her here."

But that did not mean he would not try.

Sunstreaker's rage was beginning to come to an end as the smarter humans decided it would be best to retreat, least they suffer the same fate as their fallen comrades. Prowl took the lull in action to glance behind him, and his door-wings slightly flared at the sight of the human passing hands. Bluestreak watched First Aid with desperate hope. The medic attempted to ignore both sets of optics on him as his fingers transformed into the delicate tools of his trade.

First Aid paused when he realized that even his smallest laser scalpel was far too big to work on the human, and he could not help the small slip in his professional demeanor. If he had been approached with a slashed Energon line, a frayed neural relay, or even a dislocated joint, he could have fixed them all without even a pause. However, there was nothing in his medical arsenal to treat a human with. Their frames were too tiny and frail for his usual tools, and according to his continuous scans, this one's systems were declining at a fairly steady rate.

It was the first time in a very long time that First Aid had been physically unable to work on one of his patients, and he could not prevent the severe blow it had against his confidence. He had to keep his optics on the human in his hand for fear of seeing the disappointment he would inspire from the mechs watching him. He had not even spent an entire solar cycle on this planet and he was already beginning to question his abilities…

Wait a minute.

"How does this human have a spark?" First Aid quickly asked, a tentative idea forming. He would have caught the way Prowl snapped his head around at the unexpected question, but his sole focus remained on Bluestreak as the Praxian twitched with unrestrained anxiety. Prowl was quickly forced to return his attention to the battle as some of the humans returned with vehicles mounted with more powerful weapons. Not that the new backup seemed to deter Sunstreaker. "Was it somehow extracted from another? Like a newborn spark fractured from a carrier? Would it still be connected to the original source?"

"No," Bluestreak answered, his optics never straying from the human in the medic's hand. His door-wings minutely twitched at the next explosion that sent a nearby building up into flames. Now the humans were abandoning their totaled vehicles and completely retreating from the front-liner's renewed wrath and Prowl's precisely aimed shots. "But…her spark is connected to someone."

"Well, who is it?" First Aid impatiently waited for the sharpshooter's answer, misinterpreting the sudden slump in the mech's posture and mimicking the gesture with a long sigh. "Oh. It was a long shot really, but-"

"No." First Aid perked back up when a determined frown made Bluestreak straighten. The mech's optics visibly dimmed as he communicated through his comm. link. Across the now destroyed stretch of warehouses they stood outside of, Sunstreaker suddenly froze as he punted a line of terrain vehicles that had attempted to fight him. As the front-liner retracted his blades, Bluestreak's optics suddenly brightened once more, and he stared at First Aid with earnest resolve. "What were you thinking?"

"Um." The medic quickly shook off his uncertainty as Sunstreaker stomped towards them, and Prowl took his place, strategically fending off the last humans who were still willing to fight. A small round of metal pinged off the armor on his arm, and he only had a brief moment to worry about an attack before Bluestreak placed himself in front of the medic, effectively taking Prowl's place and protecting the pacifist. Sunstreaker joined them just as First Aid began to explain. "I can't do anything to help her. I'm sorry Bluestreak, but I don't have the tools or knowledge to do anything. But I have an idea that may keep her alive until we can find someone to effectively treat her. We need someone who's connected to the spark inside her though."

"Sunny can do it." Sunstreaker was not allowed a chance to angrily protest the nickname before the sharpshooter was turning to him. Due to the fact that Bluestreak had his back to First Aid, the medic completely missed the deadly glare the normally friendly mech gave the front-liner. "You just tell him what to do."

First Aid nodded and turned to Sunstreaker, nearly cringing at the little red splotches around his legs and hands. He shook his helm and refused to become distracted again after running a quick scan over the human in his hand. His main focus became fixed on the spark slowly fading within her. "Sunstreaker, if you're really connected to her, you have to find a way to latch on to her spark. You've done it once before with your brother—remember the battle at Kalis?"

Dark blue optics glared into the medic's visor before a slow nod came from the tense warrior. "Yeah. The idiot got himself blasted in the chest, and Ratchet had me keep his spark going until we got him to a proper med-bay. But I'm not doing that for her."

"Why not?"

First Aid physically flinched at the hard bite that accompanied Bluestreak's voice, and Sunstreaker looked slightly ashamed to the trained onlooker. However, what little shame he had allowed to slip was quickly covered by his angry scowl. "Do you know how intimate it was to do that for Sides? He's my split spark twin—my other half. If it weren't for that, I wouldn't have done it for him either."

The medic immediately cupped his hands around the tiny human he held and backed away when Bluestreak recklessly withdrew his rifle and nudged it beneath the bigger mech's chin. Sunstreaker scowled at the sudden position he was put in to, but First Aid was surprised by the fact that he did not fight back. Neither was Prowl attempting to separate them as he made sure the remaining humans would not interfere with them anymore by trapping them inside a building.

"What're you gonna do?" Sunstreaker hissed, making First Aid step further away. He glanced down at his hands when felt a sudden tremble flow through the woman's body. "Force me against my will? Newsflash fragger—you can't force another mech's spark to bend to your will. Not even spark-mates have that kind of power."

Bluestreak glared before his hand suddenly quivered, and the weapon was retracted. The Praxian retreated without another word and refused to look back as he returned to First Aid. He stared down at the trembling woman with a hard, unreadable pair of optics that darkened with each precious second that passed before jerking his head up to stare directly at the medic. "What if our sparks were directly connected?"

First Aid instinctively jerked at the suggestion, and even Sunstreaker's optics brightened with surprise. Prowl, having returned from dealing with the humans, merely flicked his door-wings as he stared intently at his former Charge. The medic could only stutter as Bluestreak continued. "You said that if someone connected to her, it could keep her spark going and there may be a chance of us reaching someone who can really help her before she gets worse. Sunstreaker won't do it, and no one can make him do it. But I'm connected to her too; I just can't reach her. I'm willing to connect our sparks if we can find a way to do it."

"I…but you…no!" First Aid vehemently shook his head and stepped further away from the mech. "Connecting sparks in an environment like this? Do you know how completely unsafe that is?"

A terrible keen escaped the sharpshooter's vocalizer before he could control it, and he followed First Aid's retreat with begging optics. "But it's all we've got! I can't reach her, but I'm not just going to let her die! Please, First Aid. We have to try something."

First Aid could not restrain the earnest regret that flowed from him. "I'm sorry Bluestreak, but it's more than just being unsafe. Medical connection of sparks takes more than just a little flimsy jumper cable connected between you two. Without the proper tools, it can lead to severe repercussions to your spark that are completely irreversible."

"I don't care what might happen to me!"

"I can see that, but it's more than just you I'm worried about." First Aid gestured his head down to the woman still in his hand. "We would need a proper conductor to stave the surge from a connection like that because her spark isn't strong enough to take it. As a medical professional, I can't in good conscience attempt such a risky procedure on the field knowing that the chance of death is equal for both outcomes. Using a bond to feed her spark energy is one thing—connecting naked sparks would be too much. She'd be dead within a second of you two connecting."

"But Vicky's spark…it's different!" Bluestreak protested even as First Aid continued to shake his head. He missed Sunstreaker's head bowing in sudden thought or how Prowl suddenly whipped around at the sound of a massive crash. He kept his optics firmly locked on Victoria's body, which continued to tremble with each shaky breath she took. "I know it is. Her heart can serve as the conductor! It'll keep too much energy from my spark converging with hers but let enough through to keep it going until we can reach Ratchet. We've gotta at least try!"

"Move!"

Bluestreak took a step away in sudden surprise, allowing Sunstreaker to step up to the medic without a fight. His dark, indigo optics glared down at the pitiful ball the human had managed to curl up into, and his snarl seemed more forced now as he stared down at her. "Come on, you stupid human! I didn't put up with all your fragging slag just to get to this slagging dirtball and watch you die."

The Praxian's trembling door-wings suddenly flared in understanding of the front-liner's strange words. He stepped back up to the two and caught a new flicker of concentration in Sunstreaker's optics. He simply knew that the other mech had pushed aside his revulsion and dislike for having his spark connected to another. The golden warrior was fighting to keep their human bonded alive, and Bluestreak could not help the sincere gratitude he felt. If he had been able to reach Victoria, he would not have hesitated to do exactly what Sunstreaker was forced to do now.

Neither Bluestreak nor First Aid were prepared when Sunstreaker suddenly balked. Bluestreak automatically reached out to grab the front-liner as he fell, grunting under the mech's heavier weight. He noted how First Aid began to softly curse and angle the woman away from them, and Bluestreak's worry began to skyrocket. From the way he had attempted to grab his friend, one arm was slung across the mech's chest while the other was wrapped around his waist. He maneuvered his body around so that his shoulder was carrying most of the weight, and his face was angled up just the right way to see a flicker of intense pain flash across Sunstreaker's face.

Seeing the pain caused more worry to rise in Bluestreak than hearing First Aid suddenly curse. Sunstreaker and Sideswipe were two of the best warriors in the Autobot forces. They had learned to handle all sorts of pain without allowing any hint of it to be shown—heck, he had seen Sideswipe come off the battlefield with a missing arm, shattered olfactory ridge, and dragging a leg that was barely attached to him by sparking wires, and the mech had had the gall to tease Ratchet's bedside manners and earn himself a well-deserved whack upside the head. The only time he had seen one of them hint at their pain was when the other was in very critical condition.

"Sunny?" Bluestreak asked, worry leaking through his voice. He could feel Sunstreaker's spark begin to stutter at a startling pace inside his chest, and the front-liner's optics rapidly flashed as he went limp in Bluestreak's hold. "Sunstreaker!"

As quickly as it had started Sunstreaker was suddenly back on his feet and looking more perturbed than he ever had before. His dark optics flickered around the area in confusion and—no, Bluestreak must have mistaken the small glint of fear. Sunstreaker was not afraid of anything, and he most definitely did not allow it to show. It took a moment for the mech to be able to fully focus again, but his optics immediately honed in on Victoria, who still lay in the hands of First Aid, now frighteningly still.

"I can't feel her anymore."

The words hit Bluestreak like a Metrotitan, and he could feel his spark instinctively scramble around the wall he had been fighting against for a while. The wall slightly gave at the force of his blows, and he was temporarily relieved to feel Victoria's weak spark still there. He shook off his nerves and turned to First Aid. "We need to get back to base now."

"But—"

"Bluestreak is right." First Aid could not resist a slight jump at the sudden voice, and he realized it was the first sentence Prowl had uttered since Sunstreaker had raced off their ship. The older Praxian was now approaching them with a stoic frown. His new tagalong caused all three Autobots to tense, and Bluestreak and Sunstreaker automatically formed a wall in front of their only medic. Prowl did well to pretend that the Decepticon mimicking his appearance was not childishly clinging to his backplates as his door-wings twitched. "We should not remain in the open for much longer. It was foolish to attack a human settlement without second thought. Had they been more organized at the time, I doubt we would have been able to take them down as we did. We now need to travel to where the others have set up base. Bluestreak, you take lead; Sunstreaker serve as First Aid's protection detail; and I will take the rear with our…guest."

Barricade made a whining sound that made the majority of the Autobots present uncomfortably shift on their feet. Prowl flicked his door-wings in professional dismissal, transforming to solidify his previous orders. The Decepticon seemed to mimic the tactician with childish joy, nudging against the other police car with an eagerness that made even Prowl tense. Sunstreaker followed suit, and his engine growled when Barricade attempted to bump him too.

Bluestreak briefly took Victoria in his hand as First Aid transformed as well. He stared down at the small, frail form in his hands, trying to ignore how frighteningly pale she was. The unnatural branches of dark blue that highlighted her veins did not help distract from her paleness. He curled his fingers around her body to feel the faint thrum of the spark within her chest beneath her escalating heartbeat. He felt faintly nauseas as he knelt down to carefully place her in the back of the medic's alt-mode. :She'll be okay until we reach the base.:

First Aid's silence was more telling than anything he could have said, and Bluestreak quickly transformed to speed out of the abandoned storage lot that MECH had been hiding in.

)II(

"Excuse me?"

Victoria yelped as her question was left completely ignored when the massive figure lost its patience. A hand moved to her shoulder and roughly yanked her up to stand on wobbly legs. The massive mech that stood before her did not appear to notice her moment of weakness, optics flickering up and down her form before nodding in approval and briskly walking away. "Alright, as funny as it may sound, we have little time to waste on idle chitchat. There is only a small fraction of time for us to act before the rift closes, and I cannot just reopen it again without expending all of my energy—watch your step."

The offhanded comment came too late, and Victoria tripped over the floating ledge with a yelp. The supposed Vector Prime's pace never faltered, and the woman scrambled back to her feet to haltingly climb the spiraling staircase behind him. Her hesitation gradually shifted into fascination as she took the time to take in her surroundings. The floating ledges they walked on glowed with a luminescent sheen that was seemed somewhat familiar to her, and they did not appear until Vector took a step in a certain direction. The space around them was constantly changing, and Victoria had to pause and gap at the beautiful images of stars clustered together to create nebulas and entire galaxies. The images seemed so tangible that she was tempted to reach out and touch one of the orbs that floated past her face.

The higher they climbed, the more the wisps of stellar clouds and clusters of stars began to shift. Other images began to form underneath the freckle of stars, and it was not until she completely stopped on one of the ledges that they became clear. Victoria could feel her eyes widen with surprise at the sight of the beautiful city that manifested through the stars. Towers of metal and crystal towered over her, and she flinched to the side as an abnormal looking vehicle whizzed past her. As the streets began to gradually become more and more solid, the woman studied the street that divided the long row of buildings and belatedly recognized the beings that walked down the sidewalks.

Cybertronians of various sizes, colors, and shapes cheerfully walked through the city as many of their counterparts drove up and down the street or took larger group transports. Mechs of similar frames laughed together as they grouped around what looked like the construction site of another tower; a distinctively femme shaped Cybertronian walked along with another femme pointing out something high above them; and a group of older younglings stood staring in awe through the glass of one of the smaller shops. The distinct sound of jet turbines caused Victoria to look above her, and she caught the sight of a trio of alien ships speeding past, the head ship having a steady and almost regal position at the point of the trio while the two behind it twirled and dove in synchronized movements.

Victoria continued to stare at the surprising image—her fascination over it renewing all over again as she realized that all of the Cybertronians interacting had varying shades of optics from deep sapphire to vibrant ruby—until she realized that there was now someone leaning over her shoulder. The strangely accented voice of Vector Prime soon chimed in, "Fascinating, is it not?"

The woman briefly tensed before faintly nodding in agreement. The previously calming atmosphere was shattered as the image retreated back from the staircase, mingling behind the nebula it had been hiding behind before. She tilted her head ever so slightly to stare at the predominately silver mech towering behind her. His glowing white optics stared off in the distance with an almost sense of longing. "Reality…it is a very strange thing to behold. One small, tiny little event is all that separates nearly all of them—what determines the path a reality will take. See here? This is what happens if war had never become the centerpiece of our race. Problems managed to become solved through non-violent diplomacy. Cybertron continued to thrive, reviving another Golden Age the likes that have never been seen before. I have never been allowed to touch that reality because there is no need for my interference.

"But that is not the subject of our concern, so quit dillydallying around it." Victoria yelped when she was yanked up the stairs, leaving behind the glimpse into a peaceful dimension and tripping up the stairs that had appeared before Vector Prime had noticed her pause. "I have already spent too much time attempting to fix your interference, and our short time here is quickly coming to an end."

They reached the spot where the staircase ended, and Vector Prime took a bold step off the top ledge. Victoria automatically struggled to free her wrist, not wanting to fall with the deluded mech, but her surprise continued to grow as a surface appeared beneath his foot and spread to the area around them. As soon as she stepped on to it behind him, the staircase and its surroundings immediately vanished to be replaced by a massive hall.

Vector released the woman to travel to the center of the room, not bothering to chide her gawking expression aimed towards the pearlescent pillars that lined either wall or the precisely etched marble floors. The massive hall stretched further past their point of entry until the walls abruptly diverged into opposite directions to create a circular room. A dome covered the room and shone pillars of light down on to it through the crystal that comprised it, creating a spotlight effect on the room's centerpiece.

The centerpiece was a stark contrast from the gleaming marble that surrounded it. It consisted of a dark console that somewhat resembled the technology that Wheeljack attempted to replicate with his limited materials on Earth. Unknown controls dotted the surface, and glyphs shone around the base of the console. On top of the console sat a pristine blade propped up to display the golden hilt and the designs that were etched into the blade itself. It glowed with Vector's approach, and Victoria took its reaction as an opportunity to shake off her shock and join the giant mech.

"What is this place?" Victoria asked. She watched the Prime poke at some of the controls on the console and uncomfortably shifted her posture. "What was that place you dragged me out of? What was that…thing that got left behind?"

"I like to call the place 'home,' but if you feel less sentimentality than I do you can refer to it as 'Vector's Humble Abode' or 'The Magnificent Epicenter of the Universe.' I am not picky with either name." Vector ignored the woman's startled surprise and walked around the console to reach another set of controls. The sword glowed even brighter when he was finished. "As for where you came from, I think your kind call it limbo perhaps? One foot still in the land of the living and the other on the doorstep of death. And what we left behind was a very—excuse my poor attempts at your language—pissed off AllSpark. Thank you so much for making my life twice as difficult by the way. Really, it is not like I had better things to do than keep a powerful entity from ripping a cosmic hole in the fabric of time and space."

The tone in the mech's lilted voice finally shattered what was left of Victoria's speechless awe, and she could not help but glare at the massive Cybertronian that continued to ignore her. "Excuse me, but I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. I haven't done anything to either you or the AllSpark. In fact, I've been helping protect the damn thing since Mission City."

"And that is precisely the problem," Vector shouted from the other side of the room as he worked with an unfaltering speed. "You protecting it is what has caused all my problems at this point. I cannot get to the AllSpark when it is using you or my little descendant as a shield."

Victoria's anger quickly fizzled out in to confusion. "What?"

"Yes?" Vector asked, mimicking the same tone she possessed. "You have a question about your interference?"

"I haven't interfered with anything!"

"Perhaps not consciously, but my efforts to get the AllSpark back on course have been severely stilted by your existence. I have decided to forgive you though and take a new approach to this situation. Every cause has its effect—I'm sure you've heard of this at some point in your life."

"Yes," Victoria haltingly answered through her confusion at the sudden shift in conversation. "That's more or less common sense."

"Well, our effect here is a livid AllSpark. What was the cause? I honestly have no clue, but my choice to live here came with a price, and that price is to prevent the multiple realities from collapsing in on themselves. So, in the effort to do so, I retrieved the Prime I thought was most capable of settling the situation. A Prime needs a capable team, so I also chose those I thought would be capable of providing him that support. Unfortunately, the AllSpark somehow discovered my plans and used the link it has with sparks to divert them from the path I set them on. They were plopped down into your original dimension where they most definitely should not have been."

"Wait a minute," Victoria slowly said as a sudden thought occurred to her. "The group that appeared in my dimension were both Autobots and Decepticons. If you chose a team for Optimus, wouldn't it have made sense that it just be Autobots?"

"Who?" Vector gave her a dismissing wave when she could only stare in surprise. "Autobot, Decepticon—neither mean a thing to me. I chose those I thought were a perfect match for the Prime's team. Now where was I? Oh yes, I had just gotten to the part about you! Well, you had to go and form a bond with some of the mechs I had chosen before I could return for them. I could not allow them to be hindered by the effect of a severed bond, so I simply decided to bring you along with them. And that is when things got complicated.

"When I transitioned you to the gap between realities, the AllSpark managed to interfere once more. It scattered some of the mechs I had chosen, forcing me to expend the energy to fetch them before they were completely lost or…someone else decided to pick them up. It must have found the bonds you had created with the others and decided that it was the exact thing it was looking for. The AllSpark could only sever one of the bonds you had before you reached the second reality, and after that it was forced to wait for the direct contact it needed."

"You're not making any sense," Victoria said with a frown. She watched the sword in the middle of the console glow with a more powerful light as Vector began to slow down. "I thought it was Wheeljack's bomb that did all of this."

Vector completely stopped a few feet away from her and turned a pair of startling white optics on to her. Victoria shivered at the heavy stare that seemed to bore straight through her. Beneath the haughty façade she had first been introduced to upon her arrival to his "Humble Abode" there was something more. There was something…ancient in that gaze that immediately made her feel like nothing more than a naïve, little child.

Then he began to hysterically laugh, reviving the anger and annoyance she had previously felt.

"You think a little trinket like that could rip a hole through time and space?" Victoria huffed as the mighty Prime continued to cackle, going so far as to use the mysterious console to keep him standing. "Oh! Oh, I think I might like you a little more now. I haven't had this good of a laugh in a while."

Victoria glared as the mech's laughs came to a gradual halt, and she was surprised that she did not feel the familiar heat of embarrassment course through her. Vector Prime straightened back up and shook his head, regaining the grievous persona he had previously been exuding. "Yes, now back to the story. I have been attempting to place those I had chosen throughout certain periods of time in this dimension's timeline in an attempt to thwart the AllSpark's plans. Each one failed, seeing as I underestimated exactly how they would respect the AllSpark. It is only natural of course, seeing how our culture treats it. Then it decides to make matters worse and summons the Prime that is designed specifically to protect the AllSpark if it ever feels to be threatened. Thankfully, it could not do that until it reached Earth because Vector Sigma would not have allowed it to. It also has not helped that it has been able to keep such a tight hold on this dimension. I was only able to transport a few at a time whenever an event would leave the AllSpark temporarily weak. It took everything I had to get you and Patronus here at the same time, and I doubt it will be a walk in the park to get you two where you need to be…"

Vector trailed off as he carefully typed a series of keys. Glyphs appeared to float around the sword, and its glow grew stronger. He finished the input and spun back around to face her. "Now, here is the part you get to redeem yourself with! I'm going to place you somewhere, and all you have to do is take the AllSpark back to Cybertron, where Vector Sigma can regain control it and keep the AllSpark from going completely bonkers. Think you can handle that?"

"What?" Victoria took a step back from him. "No!"

"Ah, well that is too bad because you really don't have much of a choice darling." Victoria attempted to retreat again when Vector Prime stepped up to her. She stopped when his massive hands landed on her shoulder and did not attempt to hide her fear as she stared up at him. His silver face held nothing but the severity of an elder while his white optics shone down on her. "The AllSpark is after one thing now, and that is a proper body."

"A body?" Victoria felt her eyes widen once more as what he said hit home. She raised a hand to her chest, remembering the terrible nightmare of the AllSpark fusing with her chest and the burning pain she had just been through. "It's trying to take my body?"

Victoria could not keep eye contact with Vector when she spotted the glint of pity in his optics. "The sad part is no—it does not want your body. It wants one of a Cybertronian—an actual Cybetronian. That was the only reason it paid attention to you. As a precaution, Primus created a seal that would prevent the AllSpark from transferring its full energy to another Cybertronian. It only has the ability to create individual sparks, and even that is limited when Vector Sigma is close enough to direct it. However, the AllSpark has finally found a loophole in that seal. You are not Cybertronian, but when I was forced to place the team I had chosen in your dimension, you were forced to interact with elements that had never been introduced to your reality. That cause created an effect that had never been documented before—you began to form a spark when their unprotected sparks reached out to you. Directly severing those bonds would have potentially killed both you and the ones you were attached to at the time.

"But that left you directly attached to the sparks of five others. The AllSpark wanted one of those sparks, and the only way to get to them was merging with your spark and taking one of those pathways. It got rid of one to create its own connection to you; the second was attached to two others and it would not survive being severed from them; the third was too attached to you and refused to be taken. That left the last two—split sparks. It chose the one it felt would be easiest to assimilate and would have filled in the hole that the split spark phenomenon creates. It would not have cared if the other half died because of its action; it would not have cared if you had died. That is how far the AllSpark is now willing to go to get what it wants

"The worst part is that I have absolutely no idea why, which makes this even more crucial that we do not allow it to happen. There is a reason why Primus never gave it that power, and I am not willing to figure out why. I have managed to contain the AllSpark for the time being, but that in turn leaves only you able to get it back to Cybertron. You only have a short period of time to do it in before events in this dimension make returning to Cybertron completely impossible."

"What'll happen if I don't make it?"

"We're not going to let that happen." Vector abruptly released her to look over her head. Victoria belatedly realized that the sound of a pair of doors opening echoed through the room, and she barely had time to turn around when the mech flung his arms out in greeting. "Ah, you have finally arrived! My dear sister, it has been too long."

Victoria could not restrain herself from gawking at the new Cybertronian that had entered the room. The dusty rose colored femme stared back at them with critical off-white optics as she walked towards them with a powerful stride. Her armor clinked in time to every step she took, and the long cords that flowed from her helm swayed behind her. The aura she exuded was one of confidence and purpose, and Victoria could not help but think that she put the Arcee triplets—whom she had admittedly only met for a brief period of time—to complete shame. It was not until she was right upon them that a smile broke out over her face, and she seemed fairly pleased as she stopped before Victoria. Vector took a step around the stunned woman and embraced the rose-colored femme. "What a pleasant surprise to see you."

The femme hummed and pointedly shoved the mech away. "Yes, a 'surprise.' After all, you weren't the one who rudely pulled me away from Onyx to take part in this 'project' you refuse to tell me about. Not that I have much of a regret for doing so. I took joy in creating our young descendant's new frame and even this one. The seals appear to be working quite nicely as well."

Victoria felt only confusion as the femme's optics traveled up and down her. Vector merely nodded and took to observing her alongside the femme. "Yes, it did turn out quite well, did it not? Your Forge did an excellent job recreating the seals that Primus put on the Cube. From the simple fact that the AllSpark has yet attempted to take over our lovely guest, I can say that your craftsmanship has once again proved flawless."

The femme hummed once more before dismissing the confused woman and turning to solely focus on the mech. "Remember, I may have been able to recreate the seals and a fraction of the power they held, but I was unable to bless them as Primus did. The seals will begin to weaken over time. Whatever you have planned, you best make it quick. If the anger of the AllSpark is directed towards me, you best remember that my anger will be directed towards you."

A nervous laugh escaped Vector as the femme stared up at him with a serious gaze that never faltered. He eventually swallowed the chuckle and deeply bowed to the femme. "You have my word, Solus. This business shall be concluded before the seals are allowed to break, and you shall be spared from whatever outcome may prevail. Is there anything I can do for you before returning you to the dimension you currently reside in?"

The femme's harsh stare quickly evaporated as she turned around. It was then that Victoria realized that another mech had silently followed Solus in, and she stared as he remained completely rigid when the femme stepped up to him. The mech did not possess the same authoritative aura as the other two did, and his deep red optics refused to meet Solus' even when she turned his head back to look at her. His dark armor seemed to cling close to his frame, and a pair of wings on his back twitched in an uncontrollable show of his nerves. The fact that his helm seemed to be almost similar in design to Solus' made Victoria briefly wonder if they were somehow related.

Until a battle mask suddenly slid across the mech's face in an almost nervous twitch.

"Toshi?" Victoria questioned before she could restrain herself.

The somber red optics quickly looked up at the sound of her voice, and they instantly brightened, though they did not reach the same intensity as they normally did. The mech broke away from Solus after she had finished speaking to him and quickly crossed the space between them. "Miss Vicky!"

Victoria jumped in surprise at the deep voice calling her name, but she was not able to respond as she was suddenly yanked backwards. Toshi—or who seemed to be Toshi—immediately tensed at the movement, but Vector did not pause as he dragged Victoria around the console. He swiftly reached up to grasp the hilt of the glowing blade resting on top and used it to gesture Toshi to follow. "Come along now. You will have time for your reunion later. We have a small window of opportunity to get this done. You—get the AllSpark back to Cybertron and reunited with Vector Sigma before the seals completely break. You—do your duty and protect the AllSpark. Do not allow anything to befall it or its current vessel. I have chosen someone to begin your proper training upon your arrival. As for me, I will sit here on my rump until I am needed to intervene again, which should not happen if everyone plays their parts correctly. The AllSpark may have gotten the upper hand to start with, but I have had plenty of time to plan a counterstrike."

Victoria watched as Vector swung his blade down in a wide arc. A sound nearly reminiscent to a cloth being torn could be heard as the blade swung through the air, and Victoria could only stare at the luminescent tear that appeared in its wake. She refused to step anywhere near it even as Vector roughly guided her to it. "Hold it! Don't I get any say in this?"

"Darling, you only have two choices." Vector quickly spun her around, grasping the top of her arms as he stared directly into her eyes. Something flickered across those pristine optics before they hardened once more. "You either go through that rip or you die. If you choose not to do this, then you are condemning that mech that you are still connected to as well. And once the AllSpark achieves the goal it has been working towards, you may have also condemned an entire reality to collapse on itself, taking everyone you have grown close to with it. On the other hand, you can take the team I have waiting for you on the other side and return the AllSpark to a place where it can be contained once more. What's it going to be?"

Victoria could only stare with wide eyes as her mind went completely blank. In all honesty, she just wanted to go home. None of this had been anything she had ever dreamed of occurring—being kidnapped, experimented on, tortured, sent to limbo, then being saved from an apparent mech who traveled between dimensions and discovering the sacred object she had been attempting to protect was trying to kill her and take over Sunstreaker's body. She could feel the rise of confusing emotions wanting to push overwhelmed tears from her eyes. She wanted to go back to her sparklings; to her mundane, everyday problems; to the mechs she had come to see as her family. This was all just becoming too much for her.

A new hand reached down to gently grab hers, and Victoria snapped her head around to look at the massive, black armored mech that stood beside her. He had retracted his battle mask once more and any resemblance of the little mechling she had grown to love like her own were gone, save for the vermillion optics that glittered down at her. They seemed to convey everything she felt, but at the same time they held a grim resolve that she could not muster.

Toshi gave her an almost imperceptible nod and began to pull her towards the rip, which was slowly closing in front of them. Vector watched the two briefly pause in front of it before leaping into it at the same time. He waited a moment before swinging his blade once more, and the rip silently closed before him. His blade's lustrous gleam dimmed as the energy it had possessed was expelled, and Vector moved to place it back on its podium. He sighed with a sense of exhaustion he did not normally display and caught the optic of his sister, who was patiently waiting to be transported back to her current home. "What's that look for?"

"Is there something you're not revealing?" Solus questioned with a hard stare. "When you came to me and asked that I fashion a mech frame fit for a Prime, I didn't question it. When you asked that I create a femme frame with the runes of the Cube beneath its armor, I kept my mouth shut. But when you asked that I forge a weapon that had the power to destroy even the AllSpark, I hesitated. I once created a weapon as powerful as that, and it led us to nothing but ruin. However, I trusted you and your judgments as Primus' appointed guardian of time and space."

"And you don't now?" Vector joked as he began to set the next destination in the console. The almost undetectable slump of his shoulders was the only sign that the process took his own physical energy to function. "Where is your faith, sister?"

"Hanging on a very thin ledge. I wish to know whether you are beginning to tamper with something that is not yours to mess with."

"So that I may stop you before you lose your way," was the end of the statement that was left unsaid. Vector could hear the faint threat in her voice, and it pained his spark to be on the end of such questioning. But he refused to show any weakness and simply straightened his shoulders. "To be honest, I don't know. Primus has been strangely silent on this occurrence, but I have been simply doing what I can to keep this dimension from collapsing. The AllSpark has grown very angry in a startlingly short period of time. It's beginning to act in ways that confuse me—the one who has seen just about every event in time played out a hundred different ways. I don't know why it's angry; I don't know why it feels the sudden need to possess a functional body. I simply know that its actions are beginning to drastically change this reality, and I have felt attempts for it to reach out across the parallel universes attached to it. The last time someone attempted this type of act, we were forced to imprison him."

Vector hated to see the tinge of grief his statement provoked from Solus, but he simply retrieved his sword once more and guided her across the room as he had the other two. Rhisling, his blade, glowed within his grasp, and he knew that the exertion he had put forth today would leave him frighteningly weak for a period of time. But cutting rifts through the dimensions of time and space always came at a price.

Cause and effect—it was a concept he had come to learn very intimately throughout his time here.

"Do not attempt to overstep your boundaries, brother," Solus warned as her portal home appeared. She gave the mech one last critical stare before she approached it. "The AllSpark was created by Primus, and it in turn created us. There may be pieces to this startling puzzle that you are not meant to be privy of. Your interference may be causing more harm than the AllSpark's apparent rebellion."

Vector kept his lips firmly shut as his sister vanished through the rift. He waved away the tear, and instead of returning Rhisling to the pedestal, he sheathed the blade within the scabbard on his back. Ignoring how empty his pocket dimension now felt, the Prime strode towards the door of the room to return to his staircase. He stared out at all the pockets of reality that he was privy to and climbed the staircase until he reached the correct level he needed to be at. Vector Prime watched with forced detachment, as he always did, and waited to see if his attempts to set the reality back on course had worked and searched for any hint to what had set the AllSpark off.

Every cause had its effect as every effect had its cause. So what had caused the AllSpark to behave in such a way that had created a brand new branch in this reality?

)II(

Bluestreak was too focused on his goal to reach the NIMROD base that it took him a moment to notice that First Aid had come to a sudden, skidding halt. It was not until he heard Sunstreaker brake that he realized the medic had even stopped, and he immediately turned around to return to them. He did not think twice in transforming on the empty back road they took when First Aid ordered for someone to take the human from his alt-mode. Sunstreaker was doing it before he could reach them, and Bluestreak was startled by how quickly the medic moved to evaluate the woman. What had suddenly happened?

"How is this possible?" First Aid was muttering to himself, and Bluestreak could feel the medic's EM field expand as he scanned Victoria. "This can't be right; there were no signs of decline. It can't just disappear."

"Aid-"

"How far from the base are we?"

Bluestreak snapped to attention at the quick question. The soft glow that normally came the medic's visor had been completely replaced by a dire glint he had seen in Ratchet's optics more often than he wished. "It's still a few miles away."

"The nearest medical facility then?"

The sharpshooter felt his systems begin to stall at First Aid's question. The medic would only ask such a question if the situation had become dire. "Even further."

First Aid cursed as Prowl transformed to join them, attempting to keep Barricade and his strange behavior at bay. "First Aid, what's wrong? What happened? Why did you make us stop?"

"I don't know!" First Aid bleated out, and Sunstreaker glanced over at Bluestreak in light of the medic's distraught anger. "I was constantly running scans to keep an optic on her systems when I suddenly lost her spark signature. The AllSpark's too. They're both completely gone, and I don't know what caused it."

The Praxian belatedly realized that the anger in First Aid's voice was directed towards himself. However, there was not any time to feel pity for the medic. His startling revelation had caused nearly every gear in Bluestreak's body to come to a complete halt, and now he could feel Prowl's faint Guardian bond reaching out to him. He stared down at the human curled up in Sunstreaker's hand, and it took all the self-control he had not to completely break at the sight of how dead she looked.

No, no, no—this was not happening. Victoria was not ever meant to die in such a horrific way. Bluestreak was going to watch over her for her entire human life; he was supposed to have time to work up a defense against this inevitable outcome. She was going to live her human life for as long as any other human should have, and he would have been there to support her all the way. She was supposed to find a nice, human man that he thought was good enough for her, and they would have had human kids that she would love just as much as she did the sparklings, and she would have had someone to grow old with her and share the aspects of her life that he could not. He was going to make sure that she would happy and received everything she wanted out of life even at the expense of his own happiness. He was prepared to do all of that just for her.

But he was not prepared for this.

"We can get her to the base!" Bluestreak insisted as he made a grab for her. He refused to acknowledge how cold she had become since the last time he had held her. "I haven't felt our bonds sever yet; she still has a chance to make it. We just have to reach Ratchet; he'll know what to do. He can save anyone—he's brought mechs back from the dead before! He can fix her."

First Aid refused to meet Bluestreak's optics, and Sunstreaker had a blank mask carefully hiding his expression. Bluestreak turned to Prowl, instinctively reaching out for the comfort he knew his Guardian could give him. Periwinkle optics met unreadable azure, and Bluestreak felt his spark drop at the slow shake of the head that Prowl gave him. "I'm sorry."

A sharp keen escaped him, and Bluestreak shook his entire frame to restore his mind that was quickly spiraling out of control. This…he was not just giving up! Until he felt that painful sting of their bond being shattered by death, he would not give up. He knew that no type of barrier could block that pain. There was still a chance of saving Victoria!

The new resolve filled him like rapid torrent, and his door-wings automatically flung upwards to convey his internal thoughts. He did not spare another glance at the mechs as he cupped the woman close to his spark and prepared to transform. They could give up if they wanted to, but he refused to do so. He had lost too much from others' acts of violence, and his only regret was having been too small and weak at the time to do anything. But this was different. He could do something now.

Bluestreak had just signaled for his transformation cog to kick into action when he paused. His door-wings twitched at the familiar drop in pressure, and he had little time to prepare himself before a livid mech suddenly appeared in front of him. Out of instincts, he turned his shoulder towards the strong hand that whipped out to grab him, and he refused to let the woman in his hands come to anymore harm as he kept her firmly trapped to his chest.

Red optics burned down at him with hot anger, and Bluestreak barely had a chance to fight back as he was flung to the ground. A hot wave of pain caused him to shudder and quickly begin to disable the pain relays mounted into his now bent door-wing.

Skywarp ignored the weapons charging behind him as he reached down to drag the limp Praxian back up. The Seeker's face curled into a nasty scowl as he glowered down at the mech. "You stupid little brat! How could you let her be taken like that? What did you do, get distracted by a fragging butterfly? It's your fault she got kidnapped!"

"I know!" The Praxian's pained shriek caused the Seeker to pause in shock. The interim was long enough for Bluestreak to reestablish his footing and shove his cupped hands into the mech's cockpit. "I know this is all my fault. I should have been there to keep her safe like I had promised. But as much as I might want to, I can't go back and undo what I did. You're angry at me—more than usual—but you know what? That's okay because so am I. But hold off on pummeling me in to a pile of scrap because I need your help now! Victoria's dying, and she's gotta get to Ratchet so he can save her. I won't be fast enough to reach the base, but you can get there in a quarter of the time with your warp generator. Wheeljack's gotta have the Ground Bridge working by now; just get her to the base, and he can get her the rest of the way to Ratchet."

Skywarp stared down at the smaller mech, taking in the panic, worry, self-loathing, and determination with an oddly vacant expression. He looked down at the hands Bluestreak had painstakingly placed the limp body in before glancing back up with the same vacant stare. A tense glare manifested on Bluestreak's face, and his new scowl would have given Skywarp's previous one a run for its money. "What are you waiting for? Go! For all that time you preached being in love Vicky, you sure as pit better not be giving up on her the moment she really needs you. If I get back to base and find out that you took a detour on the way, I'll make sure that you stay grounded for the rest of your conceivable life. Now go!"

The Seeker suddenly jolted to attention and did not waste any more time. He safely tucked the woman into his cockpit and swiftly transforming, flying back in the direction he had come. When he was only a few feet away, his form promptly disappeared from sight and did not reappear until he was nothing more than a speck in the distance.

Bluestreak took a deep inhale to cool his systems as the speck disappeared from view again. He turned back to the group he had been leading, finding First Aid staring in absolute shock, Sunstreaker's optics dimmed as his concentration was turned internally, Barricade playing with a pair of rocks he had found on the side of the road, and Prowl looking at him with a chillingly blank stare. Bluestreak shook off his unease and transformed, peeling down the road and never pausing as a slick Corvette shot past him to tackle a confused Lamborghini.

He knew what Prowl thought, but he had not shoved aside his less powerful logic center to allow the emotional one to cloud his judgment. His decision came solely from logic. Victoria was not dead—her end of the bond would not still be there if she was.

)II(

Victoria could feel a twinge of pain shoot through her head as she began the slow process of regaining consciousness. She physically flinched as a particularly painful jab manifested at the back of her eyes and radiated on through to the back of her skull. A wave of uncontrollable nausea filled her, and she resisted the urge to groan at the two signs. She did not experience them often, but she knew a migraine when she had one. She would be limping around like a zombie for the first half of the day from the coupled pain and nausea she was feeling. Not the best of ways to start off the day.

The woman was startled to suddenly pick up on a buzzing drone through her rising conscious, and then a jolting realization dawned on her as she began to register other strange sounds. There was strange creaking all around her, the faint sounds of a massive engine thrumming with power, a faint set of voices that sounded like they were coming through water, and odd clinking that came whenever the buzzing would briefly pause.

As Victoria began to waken even more, she was hit with a pungent odor that sent her stomach into twists of agony. Once her nose seemed to grow used to the scent, a new, biting smell made itself known. It smelled vaguely like a hospital would—a "medical scent" she supposed—but the smells were…off. It smelled more like she was stuck in Ratchet's med-bay as opposed to the human one she should be in, with the tang of oil and other mysterious lubricants the medical mech worked with permeating the air.

There was a startling beeping that began to rise off to her side, and the buzzing noise cut off once more. An annoyed sighed reached her ears, and she was startled to hear the sound of heavy, metallic footsteps approaching her. There was the sound of tapping and another sigh was released. "Well, it's about time you started coming back online. I have better things to do than watch you two do nothing."

Something poked her head, and Victoria simply reacted. Her fist made the connection before she was even able to open her eyes; the startled shriek took a temporary backseat to the dizzying amount of words that popped up before her eyes. Everything she saw came with a slightly blue tint to it, and Victoria could not help the urge to hyperventilate as everything she looked at come with a new little description with it—everything on the counter near her was highlighted and properly labeled, the machines around her received the oddest of names, and the light beaming down at her came with a warning when she stared at it for too long.

The curses from the floor beneath her promptly reminded Victoria of the stranger in the room with her, and she attempted to bolt from the hard bench she laid on. She yelped when her legs refused to respond correctly, causing her to fall to the floor on the other side. She shook her head at the small bit of pain she felt in her hip and moved to stand up. That was when she caught a glance of her hands pressed against the floor.

They began to shake as she lifted them to get a better look, turning them over to watch the light reflect off the light silver. She slowly clenched her hands and watched the visible joints smoothly bend to her will. A sudden thought jolted her back to awareness, and she frantically looked down at herself, staring at the light bronze and dark black that broke apart the silver that now covered her body.

The already terrified and dumbfounded woman jumped at the clangs that came from the other side of the berth, and she refused to waste any more time gawking. She scrambled back to feet, cringing at the sound of metal screeching against metal, and quickly searched for a way to escape. She missed the massive black form laying on a bench not far from her as she spotted an opening out of the room. Ignoring the angered yells telling her to stop, Victoria took a few faltering steps before her frame began to take over, and she fled from the room at the fastest speed she could.

Victoria gasped as each step sent her wobbling from side to side in order to keep her balance, and she was afraid to let her mind wonder far enough to imagine why it was so difficult. She was thoroughly convinced that she was trapped within some nightmare at this point as her vision continued to point out objects while she hurried down the broad and unfamiliar corridor. She brought her hands up to block out the familiar sounds of vents—the same kind of sounds the sparklings and even mechs had made when their systems worked to keep from overheating—but immediately returned them to her sides when she began to wobble. She desperately pretended that she had not felt a pair of strange, wing-like projections on the side of her head instead of her ears as she promptly took a corner.

She yelped when she collided with a large object that sent her falling back to the ground. Her eyes widened at the red series of letters that warned her of damage and did not realize she was beginning to hyperventilate from a panic attack until a pair of hands were holding her shoulders and a soothing, accented voice was attempting to calm her.

"It's alright. Don't fight it. Just open your vents and let them expel all the overheated air. Now carefully inhale. Vent. Inhale."

Victoria was taken by surprise as her body automatically began to obey. As the pattern continued, new, cool air began to stave her overheated systems, and the bold warnings flooding her vision began to slowly fade away. She stared up into compassionate blue optics, and it helped her panic attack slip away even faster. The large, white and red mech was a complete stranger to her, but she kept her eyes focused on his blue optics. They were the only thing that was familiar in this strange place that Vector had dumped her in to. Why did he not put her back in the environment she was familiar with?

"Hands off my patient, Autobot!"

Victoria flinched at the shout, and she saw a quick flash of annoyance flutter through the Autobot's blue optics. He slightly straightened from his crouch to see a stylish red and silver mech stomping towards him, a slight dent on one of his cheeks. The other mech's red optics glared at the Autobot that was level with him on his knees, and he stopped just beside them to huffily cross his arms. "I was put in charge of medical."

"You may have been put in charge of our medical necessities, but that won't keep me from helping a femme that is clearly suffering from a panic attack. I will be speaking to Mirage about this."

"Go ahead. I don't listen to that washed up aristocrat. He can't even properly work a buffer."

"I suppose that is why you make Breakdown operate yours?"

Victoria paid little attention to the growl the small jibe evoked from the red mech as she stared at the tinted class she could see behind the Autobot. While the red mech retaliated with a suave flick of his hand, Victoria stumbled to her feet and approached the glass. As she got closer, she could see past the tint to the dark abyss cluttered with tiny pinpricks of light beyond it, but that was not her current concern.

There was the image of femme she had never seen before being reflected back at her. Each step she took the femme mimicked right along with her. When she finally reached the glass, Victoria tentatively stretched her hand out to skim the tips of her fingers along the femme's bright blue visor and the shining copper helm accented with strips of black. She hesitated before reaching up to touch one of the black wing-like projections on the side of her head and physically flinched when her shaking finger made contact. Her hands shifted tactics and traced the plans of the silver face she saw and did the same with her upper body. She touched the gauntlet like armor on her lower arm; the "shoulder guards"; her…chest.

No, no, no. This was not happening. All of this was a dream. She had had them before—brief little spurts of imagination and pretending what it might have been like to end up like Nuisance had. She had never actually wanted it to happen!

Victoria was too busy watching the femme's dark visor brighten with each second she realized she was awake and this was real, that she did not notice when the mechs behind her suddenly went silent. There were heavy footfalls heading towards them—footfalls that belonged to a mech much bigger than average. A massive grey image appeared on the tinted glass in front of her, and with each step the new arrival took, the image gradually sharpened. It took Victoria a moment to realize he was there, and that was not even until she felt a faint breeze brush across the top of her head. She completely froze and stared into the image of the bright red optics towering above her. The silver mech's scarred face stretched into a vicious grin, and had his uniquely bucket-shaped helm not hinted to who it was, the deep, growling voice did.

"Well, well, well. You kept us waiting for quite a while, girl."

Victoria barely saw the smaller blue and white frame that stepped around the warlord before the warnings in front of her eyes flared up again, and she began to unwillingly tilt to the side. The last thing she saw through the glaring red words were familiar golden optics staring down at her with immense worry.

AN: Only an epilogue left for this story :D. I could have revealed every little thing in this chapter but where would that leave the final installment I had planned for this trilogy ;P. I have to admit, I've been pretty excited to get to this portion of the story. I've had this thing against human-to-Cybertronian OCs for a while (you can probably tell if you ever read the Fangirl series of one-shots I did), and when the idea for this direction began to form, I was a little hesitant in taking the approach. But I started thinking about adding serious aspects of romance (and as much as I do tend to like humanxCybteronian pairings, I'm a realistic person who knew that wouldn't work out for varying reasons) and wanting to begin writing more about the actual Transformers and not just how they interacted with humans. I hope none of you guys see my approach to this as being too cliché because I don't plan on making it that way. It's why this story has to be split into another—because it was getting just too darn long and complicated to be in one continuous work.

Also to make things clear, I want to reiterate a fact that I revealed a couple of chapters back in another AN. For this story, Vector Sigma and the AllSpark are two separate objects that function on their own—Vector Sigma records Cybertron's history and relays orders while the AllSpark functions as the live-giving force. They are completely separate entities from Primus, created by Primus. They are sentient in their own right, and I plan to show more of that in the final installment to what has become a surprising trilogy even to me.

So, hopefully you guys will stick in there until the next (and final) update for A New Version of Reality :)