Chapter 9 – Cybertron
Vash's dinner plans ended up being a casserole dish that was big enough for everyone to eat their fill and then have leftovers afterward.
Maria remained quiet throughout the meal with a nostalgic, faraway look in her eyes. No one attempted to disturb her, although they occasionally sent her concerned looks.
The kids did this the most. While Sixer did occasionally look over himself, he seemed to be trying to figure something out about her. His gaze was unusually piercing.
Maria didn't find out why until the following morning, when she got up at sunrise to put together something that resembled a breakfast.
Sixer stepped into the kitchen on light feet as Maria waited for the toast to pop up. "Maria?"
Maria glanced over. Sixer looked like he was trying to walk on thin ice. She raised an eyebrow. "What's up, Sixer?"
"Well, I – I considered your question, from before," Sixer said carefully. "And…considering that I am not familiar with the friends you have, I doubt that I should come with you."
Maria said nothing for a long moment. Sixer shifted from one foot to another, waiting for Maria to give an answer.
"It's okay, Sixer," Maria said. "You can – it's okay if you don't come along. I understand your reasoning." She paused. "I…I guess that, if I you could see Cybertron sometime, it might be a better idea if it wasn't on such a somber occasion."
"I…would like to see it, but it doesn't seem like a good time," Sixer agreed. "Perhaps…when this is solved?" He motioned to himself.
Maria gave a small smile. "Yeah. Sounds like a plan."
Two slices of toast popped up with a quiet ding! from the toaster, and Maria grabbed them and, using a knife, almost scooped peanut butter from the jar sitting nearby. It was promptly slathered on the pieces of toast and eaten.
Sixer waited until she was almost done eating to ask quietly, "You will be heading out shortly, then?"
Maria licked the peanut butter off her fingers. "Yeah. Vash and Knives rose earlier and are already waiting outside for me. I'm…probably gonna be gone for a couple days. I don't know how busy things are going to be, either, so I don't know if I'll answer if one of you guys call me."
Sixer nodded. "I've…been left alone before. I think I'll be able to handle it."
Maria's mouth pressed into a straight line. She sighed and turned her gaze towards the window over the kitchen sink, then closed her eyes for a moment before looking back at Sixer and nodded. "Yeah. As much as we're connected, we need to get rid of that, and part of that step is making sure you know you can do things without me needing to hover nearby all the time. I'll make sure my worry about that doesn't get the best of me." A flicker of a smile slipped across her face for a moment. "I'll see you in a couple days."
Sixer watched Maria step out of the kitchen and out of the house, closing the front door behind her. He followed after and caught the portal closing, with Vash, Knives, and Maria nowhere in sight.
Sixer lingered for a moment, then turned and retreated to the living room. "All right. Time to find something to do."
Change in POV
Maria stepped out of the portal and onto metal ground, her boots clinking against the surface like she was wearing tap shoes. She paused as a gentle flash covered her clothes for a moment, and then faded, revealing a transformation that had taken place. No longer was she wearing clothes, but armor, with a gray jumpsuit underneath the orange and red plates that covered her forearms, chest, shoulders, and abdomen.
Vash stuck his head out of the portal. "Is it safe?"
"There's oxygen in the air here, Vash," Maria replied. There was a static accent to her voice. "I managed to get us into one of the organic air pockets. We're good."
Vash nodded and stepped out of the portal, Knives following after him moments before the portal shut behind them both. The two looked around at what amounted to a large collection of runways that led off into a star-lit sky above their heads.
"So, who are we looking for?" Vash looked back at Maria. "I mean, someone is meeting us, right?"
"Pretty sure that the right people have been alerted to our arrival," Maria replied. "Jolt and his team at his lab know what to look for when a portal with my signature pops up. All we have to do is wait a few –"
A screech of tires interrupted Maria as a bright yellow, sportscar-looking vehicle with glowing blue highlights skidded sideways towards them and came to a halt a few feet away. Vash took a step back in surprise while Knives simply looked curious.
"It's good to see you, Maria," came a voice from the car.
"Same to you, Coil," Maria replied. "You're our ride?"
The doors of the vehicle popped open in response. For a moment, there wasn't a person in the driver's seat, but then a hologram flickered to life of a young man with a shock of blond hair and piercing blue eyes.
"Since the ceremony's tomorrow, we've got a little time," the hologram said with the same voice as the vehicle. "Jolt wanted to see you. Optimus too."
Maria nodded. "Sure." She walked over and sat in the front passenger seat, Vash and Knives taking the back. The doors closed on their own, and the vehicle turned and started back the way it had come.
"How's Gunsmoke?" Vash asked as Coil drove past the runways. "It's…it's still okay, right?"
"Far as I heard, yeah." The wheel turned under the hologram's hands without the fingers so much as twitching. "The Earth Federation is really starting to buckle down on squashing rumors that you are still alive and out there somewhere. They haven't found your cabin yet, so far as I know. Hound has been working on making sure that everything's still alive down there."
"Then they still think I'm…" Maria trailed off.
"Yeeeeeeaah." The hologram's face looked a little nervous. "About that. There's gonna be one of their agents attending the ceremony, and since you're kinda…one of Wildfire's closest allies, they're gonna notice you sitting in one of the seats of honor. They think we left an open spot to represent you and the fact that you died before she did, but…."
Maria met the hologram's gaze for a moment, then sighed and shook her head. "Well, I…suppose that can't be helped. It was probably going to come out sooner or later, might as well let them know myself."
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Vash frowned. "They're going to want you to sign into their—"
"They can try, but I'm not going to let them." Maria leaned back in the seat and folded her arms. "Technically, I do not exist anymore in this dimension, except for those who can still remember me. They can find proof of my existence all they like, but they can't tie me down here."
"No, they cannot," Knives agreed. "But that does not mean they will not try every trick they have. What has Optimus to say about this?"
"He's already got paperwork written up declaring Maria a full citizen of Cybertron and that she's dropped her citizenship with Earth and its colonies," Coil replied. "Which, I think is a bit much? I mean, you still have that house on Gunsmoke. It wouldn't be right for you to just abandon it."
Vash and Knives exchanged looks as Maria closed her eyes.
"So, what have you guys been up to, anyway? Wildfire said something about doing something dangerous when you left last year." Coil's hologram actually moved with the wheel when they turned this time. Tall buildings lined the street they were on, with giant robotic beings walking along either side of the road.
"Do you remember Gravity Falls?" Maria looked at the hologram.
"Gravity – wasn't that one of the cartoons that was on several centuries ago?" Coil tilted his head, frowning. "I remember Collin talking about it a few times. Not very well, though."
"We went to a dimension where it existed, and we helped the people who lived in that area fight off a dimension-ending threat." Maria shrugged.
"Oh. So everything's taken care of now? You guys can go home after this?" Collin looked at Maria curiously, then frowned when he saw the look on her face. "Or is there something else going on now, too?"
"We've taken care of most of the problems," Maria replied. "It's just one final bit that needs to be taken care of. Speaking of, I'd like to talk to Optimus about it when we get to where we're going. I doubt I'll be able to find anything that can help in this dimension, but I'd at least like his advice on who I could look for."
"Is it something that the rest of us could help with?" Coil raised an eyebrow. "I mean, it's been a while since we've been able to work together, and I'd really like to be able to see what you've been up to."
Maria shook her head. "This is beyond what I've done before, Coil, and I'd prefer to keep some parts of it secret. It isn't something that I want to be talking about out in the open."
Coil's curious expression shifted to a more serious one. "How bad is it?"
"Remember how I came back after a twenty-year absence more serious than when I had left?" Maria nodded when Coil's eyebrows rose. "It's about that bad."
"…oh. Gotcha."
Vash leaned forward, sticking his head between the two front seats. "Hey – how long until we get to where we're going?"
"Oh, not long." Coil looked back at the road ahead of them. "We're coming up on the Hall of Records now."
Maria leaned against her window and looked out at the buildings, noting the rounded tops on the ones she could see in the distance. And, sure enough, there was a red and blue-colored building just up ahead of them on her side of the road.
Coil came to a stop just in front of the doors. "Okay, the oxygen bubble is over Iacon for the next few days, so you two shouldn't need suits." He nodded at the rearview mirror, at Vash's and Knives' reflections. "There was some debate over whether to have it here or in Kaon, but I think it's mostly settled that the ceremony is going to happen here, but she's going to be buried in Kaon and get a monument here with the other Autobots."
"Sounds like a good compromise," Maria agreed. She waited for Coil's doors to pop open, and she stepped out of his vehicle mode. Vash and Knives followed suit. "So, are you going to carry us in, Coil? Or am I allowed to fly in like I used to?"
The doors of the vehicle closed, and the sportscar sat for a moment before it suddenly came apart and put itself back together in a flurry of motion and the sound of shifting mechanical parts. In seconds, a giant, mechanical being stood over Vash, Knives, and Maria, with glowing blue runic markings carved into the golden armor he wore.
"You can go ahead and fly in, but stay close?" Coil knelt down and held out a hand. "I'll carry Vash and Knives in, though."
"Thanks!" Vash stepped onto the open metal palm, Knives following with a frown on his face.
"I find it somewhat annoying that you have not designed walkways and areas for people of our size," Knives commented as Coil rose to his feet again.
"We don't get visitors of your size very often here," Coil replied. "And besides, it's not like the Hall of Records is open to everyone who reaches Cybertron."
Below, Maria backflipped. A metal pack detached from her back and unfolded into a red and orange hoverboard, which moved under her feet before she could hit the ground. "And those of us who do come here often enough to have access aren't exactly around as much as we used to be. For obvious reasons."
Coil looked somber at that, while Maria's hoverboard rose up to the height of his shoulders. "I wish humans could live as long as we could."
"Then we'd be more elves than humans," Maria murmured. "Or maybe something like me."
Coil said nothing in response. He just gave Maria a sad look before he started up the stairs and into the Hall of Records. Maria followed after him, hoverboard keeping up with the pace that the Cybertronian kept.
The inside of the Hall of Records was well-lit, with multiple desks scattered around holographic figures standing at the ready for anyone who might ask for help looking for information. Some Cybertronians were milling around, moving from bookshelf to bookshelf as they perused titles that had been recovered from the long-abandoned Net of the planet, which had been left to rust during the war.
One or two of them noticed Coil and his smaller companions as they moved towards the back of the building, past the stairwell in the middle. Maria caught some whispers of mechanical whirrs and beeps as the Cybertronians spoke to each other in their native language.
"Isn't that Flare-Up on that hoverboard? Wildfire's MiniCon?"
"Are you stupid? That's not a MiniCon, that's a human."
"Humans don't live for several centuries, scraphead. There's no way Flare-Up's human."
"I was," Maria murmured under her breath. "Once."
Maria didn't look back to see if her statement had been heard; Coil had already reached their destination: a door hidden behind one of the bookshelves at the back of the first floor. He rapped against it twice with his free hand.
"I'm back," Coil said in a low voice. "And I've brought a few familiar folks."
Maria raised an eyebrow at Coil's alliteration, but it seemed to do the trick; the door opened a crack, revealing a single glowing blue Cybertronian eye. There was a moment of staring, and then the crack opened a little more, revealing a familiar blue, feminine-shaped Cybertronian with a pink crest on the top of her head.
Arcee motioned with her head for them to step inside, and moved to close the door behind Coil as soon as he was on the other side. "Good to see you're still alive, kid."
Maria gave a nod in reply. "Same to you. How's it been?"
"Quiet." Arcee shrugged. "There's been a bit of political tension between us and the Earth colonies. Nothing to start a war, but I think the fact that they haven't figured out how to use Energon yet is a pretty big plus. Especially considering most of it was off-planet by the time they started to figure out about it."
"Thank Primus for Joshua and his Space Bridge." Maria shook her head.
"And sealing off his lab to make sure no one ever knew he worked with it," Coil agreed. "Otherwise we would be in trouble."
"As true as that is, they do have a large amount of his plans already."
Maria turned at the new voice and caught sight of a blue-green Cybertronian leaning against one wall of the small room they were in.
He raised a hand, blue sparks flying off his fingers. "Wildfire mentioned you were going to a dangerous area when you left. Is it taken care of?"
"Mostly, Jolt," Maria replied. "There's one part of the problem that I have yet to solve, but I don't have a deadline to the end of a dimension anymore. Still, I can't help but feel like there is a deadline I don't know about."
"How bad is it?" Jolt frowned.
Maria hesitated. "…Remember Cyrus? Someone tried to pull something similar to what he did to that world. "
Jolt stiffened, eyes flashing. "Who—"
Maria held up a hand. "Monster's dead, I'm just helping people recover from his aftermath. One of them's got a connection to me that wouldn't exist if the monster hadn't done what he did. That's what I'm working to undo. Fix that, and everything's okay."
Vash and Knives exchanged looks while Jolt huffed.
"You are supposed to be dead."
Maria turned at the new voice and caught sight of a woman standing on the desk in the middle of the room. She glanced up at the Cybertronian behind the desk for a moment – taller than the rest, red and blue armor well-kept and a guarded but kind gaze in his eyes – before she looked back at the figure who had spoken. "Chronica. I hadn't thought you had made a good enough impression with Wildfire."
The Independent Plant from Earth raised her head at Maria's words. She tried to pierce Maria with a sharp gaze that was probably meant to chill the victim to the bone. "I am here as a representative of the Earth Federation, as the original humans who had been involved in the Cybertronian War are long dead, and their descendants don't have the connections they used to. But you. You we saw burned up in the conflict between—"
Chronica's gaze moved then, and she caught sight of Vash and Knives standing on Coil's hand.
"Eh heh." Vash waved a hand as Chronica's gaze sharpened again.
"They are here with me," Maria replied. "I bear no animosity against my adopted nephews."
Chronica looked back at Maria.
"As for why I am not dead, well." Maria shrugged, unaffected by the glare. "The multiverse needed me, and wasn't going to let me die yet. To be honest, I'm glad it didn't. I wouldn't have been able to save more lives if I had passed on."
Chronica frowned, but before she could say anything else, the large Cybertronian behind the desk spoke up.
"It is good to see that you are alive and well, Maria." Optimus Prime's voice had not lost its gentle force, even when there was no war to fight. "However, we have other matters to discuss besides what you are up to currently. If you wish to speak with me of your current mission, it will have to wait until after we speak of the matter of the ceremony."
Maria nodded. The Matrix may no longer exist, but Optimus still had the mind reading skills of a Cybertronian who knew when someone was coming in looking for advice. "I should think most of it has been planned already."
"It has," Optimus agreed. "However, she has requested that someone from Earth be there to speak. If none of those that she knew are present, then the honor is to be given to Jolt or Sparkseer, as they are two who knew her personally."
"Not Shape-Change?" Coil asked.
"She's…not the best public speaker," Jolt replied. "If anything, she'd probably end up mimicking Soundwave and play back clips of things Wildfire's said."
"Which basically means that this is going to fall to me," Maria said. "She knew I would be the only one alive who could be remotely considered from Earth, even if this body isn't and I have a home elsewhere."
"Do you even have a speech prepared?" Chronica responded.
"No. I wasn't informed that Wildfire was dead until yesterday." Maria raised an eyebrow at Chronica, who had the decency to back up a little and not respond. "I'll think of something. Wildfire wouldn't want me to be formal about it, even if she has made a bit of a name for herself on Cybertron as a result of her actions. Enough of a name to get a statue here while she is to be buried elsewhere, apparently."
"Indeed," Optimus agreed. "The other details of the ceremony have already been decided, but I am relieved to know that you will be taking part where she needs you to be. As for your nephews, they do have a place to sit near you, as the number of organic visitors we have to this ceremony is small in number."
"That's fine," Vash said. "At least I won't get squished that way, right?"
Talk turned from there to the ceremony itself, with the layout of the venue (the local church to Primus that was willing to let them reserve the building), as well as how the ceremony was going to go, and when people were going to be speaking for this or that.
Maria made sure to listen carefully and absorb when she needed to know, nodding and asking questions when she felt she needed to.
Optimus moved the stack of metal sheets aside. "Coil, Arcee, if you will take Chronica, Vash, and Knives to where they will be staying, I wish to speak with Maria."
Chronica stiffened, but she didn't voice anything going through her head. Maria could read the Earth Plant quite well, however.
"If you want to talk to me later, my comm number hasn't changed since I died," Maria told her crisply. "But I don't know how long my conversation with Optimus is going to be."
"Fine," Chronica replied shortly. She turned and looked at Arcee, then gave a curt nod and stepped onto the offered hand.
Arcee sent Maria a look, then turned and walked out of the room. Coil followed after her as Vash waved over Coil's arm.
"It's good to have you back," Jolt said to Maria as he stepped out of the room. "Swing by my lab and I'll show you some of the upgrades you might be able to pick up."
Maria nodded, then waited as Jolt left the room before Maria turned to look at Optimus.
"The Covenant has said that your troubles deal with an extra-dimensional creature." Optimus sat down at the desk and opened the large metal tome that was sitting on one corner of the desk.
"He's out of the picture physically, but his effects are still felt." Maria landed on the desk and stepped off the hoverboard. It connected to her back without so much as a backwards glance. "The demon went by the name of Bill Cipher, and since there are multiple versions of him, we called this one Puppeteer because of what he did."
Optimus' brow furrowed at the name, looking down at the open Covenant.
"The Pines, the family who stands against Ciphers, failed to defeat him in their dimension and not only lost their dimension, but lost their freedom. Puppeteer took a part of their souls and forcibly turned it into puppet strings that connected them to him. At least, until I got involved and led the charge to take the four of them from his control. After a year, we were given a chance to take him down, and we were able to. Not me – the Pines he had taken. I was…almost a casualty, so I couldn't participate personally."
Optimus' fingers hovered over a passage in the Covenant, and he looked at Maria. "You did not bring him here."
"Because I suspect that the solution to restoring their souls doesn't reside here," Maria replied. "Cybertronian Sparks are different from human souls, even when you couldn't exactly say they're human anymore. Not to mention – their souls aren't split. Not completely. We just…need to find a way to sew the repurposed bits back in, I think."
Optimus looked between the Covenant and Maria. "You are correct in saying that your solution does not like here, in our dimension. However, I would have liked to have met the man you rescued."
"I gave Sixer the option to come, but he said he wouldn't fit in well at a funeral for someone he didn't know," Maria replied. "He does like the idea of coming to Cybertron at some point in the future, though. Maybe when this problem is solved."
"Indeed." Optimus closed the Covenant. "You said you almost became a casualty. Did this demon attempt to do the same to you as he had to these Pines?"
"Y-yeah. I'm lucky he didn't succeed, but if he'd tried a second time, I doubt I would have survived in a whole state." Maria shook her head. "But that's past. Right now it's just me concerned for Sixer and his family."
Optimus' gaze hardened. "The only suggestion I can offer is continue to search for a solution in places both familiar and beyond what you know. I have no doubt that a solution will come to you soon."
Maria nodded in agreement. "That's how I feel about the situation as well. I've got to find something to help Sixer, but this isn't going to be easy. You haven't…in all the time you've been alive, you haven't heard about anything that might help?"
Optimus quirked an eyebrow, then placed a hand over the Covenant. "In what Alpha Trion had recorded before his disappearance, he mentioned in the beginning that there were strange forces that existed before and during the time of Unicron and Primus. There is no more indication of them than that passing mention, but if one of them knew how to forge souls, then there is a chance that they exist elsewhere and will know how to reverse this damage."
Maria nodded. "Okay, that…gives me something to shoot for. Thank you, Optimus."
Optimus nodded in return. "I don't doubt that you will find the solution that you are looking for." He rose from his desk again and walked towards the door. "And I do not doubt that your appearance tomorrow will bring some reactions you will and will not be prepared for."
Maria stepped back onto her hoverboard as she walked off the edge of the desk. "I don't doubt it. Claiming to be dead when I am actually not is going to make a lot of people turn their heads, if Chronica hasn't sent a message to her superiors."
Optimus glanced at the door. "I would recommend you speak with her, if possible. Most do not understand the position that you have been placed in relation to the universe."
"Yeah. I need to get that taken care of before they try to cart me back to Earth."
Optimus opened the door, and Maria flew out and almost collided with Arcee.
"Do you mind if we have this conversation in there, Optimus?" Arcee asked.
Optimus stood in the doorway for a moment, then stepped aside.
Arcee nodded, then stepped back into the office, still carrying Chronica. Maria flew back in and landed on the desk as Arcee put Chronica back down on its surface.
Chronica turned to look at Maria, arms folded. "Explain, then. Why is it that you claimed to be dead when you clearly are not, and why haven't you informed the government of this?"
"Firstly, I was expecting myself to die as well, but I guess the Multiverse still needed me around, and I'm glad it does," Maria replied. "And secondly, as a World Jumper, the places that I need to be are far different from what you might 'need' me for. The only use I would have to you is if you wanted a nostalgia run through the works of fiction from the past. Or for war, which – I am not a weapon of war unless I have a need to be there, and I chooseto be. Right now, I have no emotional or personal investment in Earth or its colonies that would draw me to participate in war or anything similar."
Chronica frowned. "This is your home dimension. You should—"
"If I was human, I would. But because I have lived for longer than a human has, and I have lived in far more dimensions than a human can, as a result my connections with this dimension have waned." Maria motioned to the Cybertronians standing above them. "Other than Vash and Knives, Cybertron is the only place left for me that feels like home. My family died a long time ago, and when I look at Earth I only see the memories of what I have left. You would not understand because of the age I have lived for. You are not old enough – not yet. And possibly not ever."
Chronica moved back when Maria pointed at her in an accusing fashion, looking between the accusing finger and the frown on Maria's face. "You are like our forefathers, then."
"More than you know," Maria replied. She lowered her arm and backed up a couple steps to give Chronica some space. "That's the reason why I haven't contacted Earth before now. It's not that I want them to think me dead – it's that I am needed more in other places. If Earth needs me again, I will come to aid it. But until it does, it's better that I remain absent from this dimension."
"I understand." Chronica looked aside. "But I cannot guarantee that my superiors will understand."
"To Pit with them."
Arcee looked at Maria sharply.
"Don't give me that look, I'm a thousand Earth years old, I can talk like that if I want to." Maria gave her a pointed look, then looked at Chronica. "If they want me, they can contact me and get an earful from me. Don't worry about what they think; I do what is needed, and I am not needed here."
Chronica inclined her head slightly, then nodded. "Very well."