Author's Note: As I said, this fic is a G1/BW crossover. Sorry, I'm not going to go into the detail describing the G1 characters, but there are plenty of web sites out there that can provide more than adequate information.

Beast Wars and all related characters belong to Hasbro and Mainframe. The story, its original contents and ideas, and any original characters belong to the author and cannot be used or reprinted without the author's permission.

Blast to the Past

By nightdragon0

There were numerous advantages and disadvantages to my current condition.

On one side, my telepathic powers were stronger than ever. I could use them freely, without fear of the others finding out, because the truth was out.

Then again, my physical condition had taken a turn for the worst. I exhausted myself more easily and I'd lost the use of my voice. Not that those couldn't be overcome, but...

"Nightfire, stop! You're gonna overload the sensors!" Rhinox's yell snapped me out of my musings.

BOOM!

Too late. As before, the old geezer had been trying to determine the extent of my powers. And once again, I'd blown his control panel.

I shrugged a 'sorry' gesture.

"Oh, nevermind. I guess you've had enough for now."

Finally! I sighed.

I waved as I walked towards the control room, reverting to beast mode along the way. A faint beeping alerted me to one of the monitors, which showed that the scanners had picked up a Predacon signature.

I double checked its coordinates and found it to be a small cave at a sector just at the edge of our territory. I was reaching for the com-link when I suddenly stopped, grinning.

One Predacon signature. Plus, an area I knew pretty well. Everyone else was out and Rhinox would be busy with his data for a while. Basically, that equaled a chance to have a little fun.

I know I promised to obey orders, most of the time that is.

But most still doesn't mean all!

I quickly flicked the screen off and headed for the elevator. When who should just happen to ascend but Rattrap.

"Hey lover boy, what's the big hurry?" he teased.

I growled and gave him an annoyed frown.

"Oh yeah, Valentines Day! And you're late! Hey, hope ya got some nice rose for your GIRLFRIEND! Hehehe!" he continued, waving a freshly picked rose in front of my nose. "But tell yer what, I'm gonna be a nice guy and let you use this one, OK?"

I took the rose from him, then grabbed Rattrap by the collar and tossed him out of the elevator.

"Ow...just goes to show how much I'm appreciated around here."

Fortunately, I had five fingers on my claw. Snickering inwardly, I made it a point to stick the 'magic finger' at him while I descended. And made sure I ran off immediately after that, so I didn't have to hear anything he had to say.

As expected, a single Predacon was standing at the entrance to the cave. Shadowflare, the annoying panther who couldn't hit the broad side of a barn.

I was readying my weapon when a tan and brown motion caught my eye. In a flash, I raced over to the tall grass where I'd seen it and tackled the figure, grabbing firmly and covering her mouth, even though I knew whom it was.

"Mmmrrghhg! Mmmerrggh!"

(Hey Syndrea, it's me! ) I called out telepathically.

The female velociraptor stopped struggling at once.

"Nightfire! Don't do that!" she whispered angrily, "You nearly scared me to death!"

(If I were an enemy, you'd probably be dead anyway. You're brown remember, so sneaking through green grass isn't particularly inconspicuous. )

"Sorry I...huh this for me?" she noticed the rose I'd absent-mindedly stuck in my mouth.

That made me practically look like the perfect lover except that I'd actually meant to swallow the darn thing before this whole mess even got underway.

"That's very nice of you..."

(Erm...yeah. Tell you what, let's get this over and done with first. )

"All right."

I looked up to see Tarantulas and Waspinator arriving on the scene.

Damn! That'll complicate things.

There was a whispered exchange of information, and then Tarantulas entered the cave by himself, leaving the other two on guard. I sent Syndrea a set of instructions and gave her time to move into position.

Screwing a silencer onto my M4A1 assault rifle, I shot a small rock above so it rolled down to the ground and landed with a thud. While Shadowflare ran to investigate, I rolled a grenade up to Waspinator. This grenade was a little experiment of ours, designed to look like a fruit.

"Errmmm? Whatz zhis?" The wasp wondered, picking it up to take a closer look.

Perfect!

KA-BAM!

"Wwwwwwwwwwaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

"Hey, what's going on?!" Shadowflare came running back. "Let's see: trees--normal, rocks--normal, Waspinator in pieces--normal, cave--normal and...hey what the?!"

That was Syndrea's cue.

"Freeze!" she yelled, jumping out behind the panther and training her Desert Eagle against the back of his head.

"Ugh..." The Predacon raised his arms in surrender.

I had just left my hiding place and was walking up to the pair when Tarantulas abruptly emerged form the cave. There was a moment of confusion, in which everyone just stared, unsure of what to do.

Then, everyone started firing, punching and yelling at once.

"Take this!"

"Ow! Tarantulas that's me!"

"Get away from me!" Syndrea shoved Shadowflare forward.

"Rrraagghhhh!" I charged and plowed through the group.

I hadn't noticed the cavern was rather steeply sloping downwards and I found myself rolling head over heels. Luckily, it wasn't very long, but something in the wall I'd hit caused an energon surge, forcing me to revert to my beast form.

Either way, I didn't have time to waste as shots were already approaching. I drew my energon blade from its hiding place beneath my wing and deflected them. As I wasn't properly balanced, I stumbled and jabbed my sword into an odd looking pattern on the wall.

Apparently, it had hit something because the wall suddenly begun to glow.

In a blinding white light, I felt myself being thrown backwards. I didn't have time to do anything but cry out in surprise.

"What do you think it is?"

"I'm really not sure."

Voices. My head. My vision was still blurred.

"Don't ask me, but I think it looks like a dragon."

"You mean that old earth myth?"

"It seems to be breathing too."

I groaned, opening one eye. I was staring up into some bright white light.

"Looks like it's waking up."

A face suddenly obscured my vision. Pure instinct kicked in and I roared, knocked the figure away and sprang to my feet.

Even though my eyes blurred from the lights, I could tell that I was one the floor of a huge orange room.

But something had seemed wrong about that face. It had been...a human?

"Spike!"

"I'm all right!"

"Hurry! Shoot it!"

Wait! I wanted to yell, my mind still being at two places at once. That was when I realized that all that came out was an unrecognizable growl.

The next instant, I found my face hitting the floor. My world faded to darkness.

The next time I came too, I was in a much darker room. And judging from the stiff aches all over my body, I was also chained down to the table.

Great! What a wonderful way to make an impression in an unknown environment, Nightfire.

I felt at least two shackles on each of my arms, legs and my tail. There was another at my waist and others to immobilize my wings. Finally one that held my jaws closed and also prevented my head from moving. Being on my back with my head tilted to the left, I could see why my body was extremely sore.

Tugging at the restrains accomplished nothing other than giving me even more aches.

There was the electronic whiz of a door opening. I froze and strained my vision as far as I could. The light footsteps were soft and slowly at first, but I finally caught sight of him.

A young human boy.

"Wow..." both curiously and cautiously, he approached.

I wasn't a very good judge of dimensions, especially at this angle, but I guessed he came up to around my waist level in dragon mode.

I let the boy run his hand along the smooth section of my forehead. Not like I had much of a choice anyway.

"Poor guy. I'm sure you didn't mean to do that just now." he said, "I guess you were scared too, huh?"

At least someone's polite around here. Even if it's just a kid.

"Daniel, you know you shouldn't be here." An older human who could only be his father entered. I thought I recognized this one. He was the one I had accidentally attacked.

Maybe I could try telepathic communication.

(Hey...) I called out.

I saw both humans practically jump.

"Who..."

(It's me. ) I called again, (The dragon here. )

The adult walked over to my head.

"You're telepathic?"

(Yes. And I'm sorry for what happened just now. You people really startled me. )

He released the restrain on my neck, providing me with the great relief of moving it.

"Hope that's a little better." he smiled, "The Autobots were kinda worried about that little stunt."

(Autobots? ) I gasped, (Is this home...I mean Cybertron then? )

"Yeah, how..."

(When? What year, I mean. )

"It's 2007 AD."

(Oh boy... )

"Something wrong there?" he asked.

(That means that I'm some three centuries back in time...)

(Spike, do you have to keep these shackles on me? It's humiliating being treated like some wild animal. )

"Sorry Nightfire, but they don't want me to release you until you've convinced them that you're a Cybertronian yourself."

(Oh, that's just Prime. )

"Huh?"

(Nothing. Never mind. )

I was following the human, Spike and his son Daniel through the winding maze of corridors. They kept up mouth and upper body restrained, but at least they were letting me walk for myself.

Must've been a pretty quite day as the vast corridors were almost devoid of any activities whatsoever. They were gigantic to the two humans and myself, at least.

Technology had progressed pretty rapidly in my time and the Maximals/ Predacons had downsized from our Autobot/ Decepticon origins. I wasn't much into this sort of technical stuff, but I think it was something about conserving resources, which made sense to me.

The design of the area did seem rather familiar. I guessed that it was Iacon, on of the major Autobot cities on Cybertron at that time.

At this time. I corrected myself.

I was also trying to come up with a partially 'believable' story to tell them. I figured that they wouldn't exactly like to hear that I was Decepticon descendant, and not every detail of the Best Wars could be told.

I wasn't much of a historian either, but I guessed that around this year, the Autobot leader would be Rodimus Prime.

Upon entering the next room, I found myself staring up at the bot in person. The shackle on my mouth was practically keeping my jaws from dropping.

"So, this is our time traveler, huh?"

So, I told my story.

Fortunately, he decided to get the shackles off me and let me sit at a table obviously designed for a human. I told them about my time and this 'little' war I was in (with several minor omissions of course). I showed off my transformation and explained my physical condition.

I actually felt bad lying that I was an Autobot descendant and saying that I didn't understand where my telepathic powers came from.

I was so engrossed in 'talking' that I forgot one important fact abut my powers; they drained my energon reserves rather quickly.

"You all right?" Rodimus asked after I nearly collapsed on the table.

(Yeah, talking to you guys like this drains me rather quickly. Need energon. )

"I'm sure we can spare that much." Then he added in, "And I think I've got someone who can solve your vocal problems, if you'd like."

(Really? That would very much appreciated, sir. )

At that instant, a red-colored scientist-type bot barged into the room.

"Rodimus! I believe I'd discovered something extremely fascinating about the creature!" he cried excitedly.

"Erm... Perceptor..." Rodimus begun.

"I do believe that it's some highly advanced blend of organics and technology."

"Perceptor..."

"What's more, it seems to have its origins from Cybertron itself!"

"Preceptor..." Rodimus grabbed the scientist's shoulder and pointed in my direction.

"Oh..."

(Thank you for the kind evaluation. ) I growled sarcastically.

Apparently, I'd become the center of attraction as several other Autobots joined us.

The spotlight certainly wasn't my forte, but at least I didn't have to repeat the entire story all over again.

I just lay on the 'servicing platform' and let the scientist work on me. They'd offered to put me off-line while they worked, but I'd declined, saying that pain was one of my personal challenges. I really didn't want to tell them they I wanted to be sure I was conscious and could watch what they were doing with me.

Not that I didn't trust them but...OK, I admit I was just uneasy around all these Autobots.

Anyway, the Autobot commander told his side of the story.

Apparently, their far range scouts had detected an anomaly around the Quadropus Sector and had gone to investigate. Their ships had arrived just in time to witness an explosion on one of the uninhabited planets.

"Once we got there, all we found you, laying amongst the remains of what appeared to be a Quintesson Base." Rodimus finished.

"Hope you paid attention when they thought ya all bout' the Quins." Growled the old soldier, Kup. He was the one who'd shot me earlier on, but thankfully he'd had the good sense to set his weapon to stun first.

(Erm...they're our creators and er...they weren't very friendly and...erm...that's all I paid attention too. ) I answered meekly.

"Humph. 300 years and kids stay the same as always. Never listening to your elders..."

"Me Grimlock always listen to Kup!" A metallic T-Rex butted in.

"Argh, Grimlock! Would you get your snout outta my face!"

"Haha, just ignore those two." A jade-green colored bot, Kirath, stepped forward.

He seemed like an older soldier who'd seen his fair share of battles and as I would later learn, nicknamed the 'legendary general' by his peers for his exceptional exploits that had gotten him his rank. His alternate mode was that of a jet plane that reassembled my own former mode.

"But back on the subject of the Quins. We also do know that they tend to mess around with a whole lot of things. "Time for one."

(So, you mean...)

"Yeah, it just might be a coincidence, but it's probably their mess. And they probably have a way to get you back to your own time too."

"We picked up their ships lingering around the area and dispatched an attack squad," Rodimus continued, "but I wonder..."

He looked over to his comrades.

"Kup, Kirath, how bout doing a more detailed search of that planet?"

"We already scanned that whole planet and came up with nothing." Kirath answered.

"That's because we were looking for the Quins. What I want to do is see if we can find anything to help our lost friend here."

"Sorry to interrupt, but I think I'm done." Perceptor addressed me, "Try your voice now."

I moved to a sitting position.

"I...I...Wow, it really worked." I gasped, hearing the sound of my own voice for the first time in quite a while.

"There was a decent bit of human anatomy used in his design." The scientist noted, "Quite fascinating, really."

"Must've been for you at least." I muttered. "Anyway people, if it's something that might get me home, I'm coming too."

Rodimus nodded.

"The five of us then. But strictly search and recon. Any signs of hostility and we pull out immediately. Preceptor stays here in case the attack team calls back."

"Better be careful guys." Spike added in.

Now, why does this sound familiar? I asked myself.

"Oh, and Preceptor, you took a scan of Nightfire's structure didn't you?"

"Yes, it's right there on the computer." Preceptor indicated.

Rodimus walked up to it and hit the delete button.

"We wouldn't have to work towards the future if we got too many spoilers from it, now would we?" He asked, smiling.

Then, I realized why he was chosen as the Autobot leader.

"This is the hangar?" I asked as we stepped into the building.

"It's one of a primarily used ones." Kirath answered.

I broke into a run, trying to keep pace with the much larger Autobots. I stepped through the door and stared up and the white space shuttle docked there.

"And here's our ride." Rodimus said, "Sky Lynx, you ready?"

Sky Lynx?! My heart jumped. Wait a sec, so this guy...

The space shuttle transformed into a huge robot resembling a winged, four-legged dinosaur.

"Always Rodimus. What's our destination?"

Syndrea and I suspected the main source of my telepathic powers was that my spark had actually touched the matrix and left. Or to put it another way, I'd lived a previous life.

My recent, near death encounter seemed to have triggered more of these visions of myself fighting alongside Autobots.

And Sky Lynx was what they called me.

This guy...he's me. I shuddered.

It was a pretty long trip by my standards.

I left the Autobots to their own discussion as I wandered around the cockpit by myself. This bot was a transport, designed to carry troops within his hull. It never failed to amaze my about the size differences between our generations. But I guess with our downsizing and all, his kind were no longer energy efficient. Then I suppose, they just faded away into history.

Sad, really.

Still, Cybertron in my time didn't really fight too many battles, mostly those with terrorists like what I'd been before.

"Hey kid, would you mind those claws of yours? I recently got a new paint job." the control panel in front of me blinked. Sky Lynx was talking to me.

I realized I'd been absently mindedly running my dragon claws across the control panel. And those claws could easily disembowel a soldier with class 1 (extremely thick) armor. OK, maybe that was exaggerating, but you get the point.

"Sorry." I muttered. Back when I was a terrorist, I'd made it a habit to get my hands on whatever electronic equipment I could find and see what I could make out of it. "The least old high and mighty can do is address me by my name."

I hadn't intended for him to hear the last part, however he did so anyway.

"Is that so, Nightfire?"

Boy, from the tone of his voice, this fellow needed a major ego check. It was weird engaging in a conversation with somebody who in some twisted way was actually myself, but that seemed like a challenge nevertheless.

And I never back down from a challenge.

"Watch your tongue big guy." I growled. "Take out our size and generation disparities, and I'll bet I can do anything better than you!"

"Is that a challenge, my friend?"

"Bet your wings on it pal!"

"All right. See that tiny, blinking red light behind you?"

I turned around, spotting the previously mentioned light all the way on the other side of the cockpit. A long distance for me.

"Hit it." he said, "One shot, bullet weapons only. It's got no essential function, but I highly doubt you'll even get close."

"Ha!" I laughed, "Is that all?"

I turned my back towards it, whipped out my M4 and neatly shot it out with the rifle over my shoulder.

"Hmmm...not bad." Sky Lynx was slightly taken aback, but was determined not to show it.

"My turn." I grinned. Normally, I'd challenge someone to race me through an asteroid field and come out without getting a dent. However, I had to come up with something a little more creative in this situation.

"Vertical, side barrel double roll. One motion." I challenged. That basically meant he had to point the shuttle's nose 90 degrees upwards and roll sideways twice, with nose and tail trading places. And he had to do it with only a single burst from his jets.

"Watch and learn amateur!"

I grabbed a railing and braced myself, smirking. Sky Lynx did execute the move perfectly, throwing the other Autobots within him to various places all over the deck.

"Ow!" Rodimus yelled. "Sky Lynx, this isn't the time for games you know!"

"Ugh-oh...well...I...erm..." The larger Autobot staggered.

That was when I burst out in spasms of laughter.

"What?! Hey! You tricked me!" Sky Lynx yelled angrily.

"Given your state of mind at that moment," I sniggered, "that wasn't too difficult."

"Oh look. They're bonding already." Kirath laughed as he got up.

"No way!"

"Incomprehensible!"

"Well, if you kids are done having fun, then take a look at this." Kup called everyone over and pointed to something on the screen. "Seems like a NASA shuttle."

"But what's it doing all the way out here?" Kirath wondered. "This is rather beyond the limits of mapped out territory."

Just then, the com-link crackled.

"...hiss...n Autobot shuttle! SOS...hiss...eed...hiss.." the rest of the transmission was lost in a burst of static.

"NASA shuttle, respond!" Rodimus grabbed the com-link, but go no further response.

"The shuttle looks like it's in bad shape." Kirath commented. "The humans might be running out of air. I'll go check it out."

"It could be a trap though." Kup warned.

"We'll all go then." Rodimus decided. "But proceed with caution. And Grimlock..."

"Yea?" the T-Rex answered.

"No biting till we tell you to."

"Nightfire?"

"Yes, I assumed you want me to stay onboard." I answered. It wasn't my responsibility after all.

"Scanning is complete." Sky Lynx reported. "Several organic life forms detected. Not sure if they're human, but they seem to be in bad shape."

"Let's move troops!" Rodimus ordered, readying his weapon.

I got a really bad feeling as the Autobots left Sky Lynx and approached the shuttle.

"I actually agree with you." Sky Lynx said, startling me.

I realized that I'd unconsciously voiced out my thoughts.

Just as Kirath was pulling open the main hatch, a blurred vision snapped into my head.

(Kirath! Don't touch it! ) I called out telepathically.

The warning came too late. A cannon emerged through the hatch, swiftly firing off an energy blast. Rodimus and the others scattered, however at this range, Sky Lynx wasn't able to escape in time.

All of a sudden, I was being roughly thrown from wall to wall. Sky Lynx was spinning out of control.

"Do something you idiot!" I screamed desperately.

"Arghhh! Ion blast! Navigational systems failing...can't control..."

He was plummeting wildly towards the planet below. I could see the planet spinning through the cockpit window.

That was the last thing I saw before losing consciousness.

"Uuugghhh..." I groaned, pulling myself up.

I looked around. I was still in the cockpit, but there was no one else around.

We had landed too. Or crash landed actually. The planet's surface was a dirty green and completely barren, much like the surface of Earth's moon. No signs of the enemy as of yet, but I wasn't sure how long that was going to last.

"Sky Lynx?" I called, "You all right?"

"If I told you I was, that would be lying." he groaned.

"Can you stand?"

"I can barely even move."

"Hold on." I shoved the hatch open and stepped outside.

He'd transformed into his dinobird form in order to break his fall. He was sprawled across the ground, lying on his chest, with his neck and tail stretched out. There were dents and scratches all over his hull. Parts of the formerly white painting was charred and covered with dust. At least his wings and thrusters seemed relatively intact.

"I'd say you're still space worthy," I muttered, "but..."

"My navigational computer is damaged." He finished. "Don't think I can fly."

I looked up and was surprised to see the starry sky filled with numerous colored laser bursts.

"The others are fighting up there." he told me, "So, it was a Quintesson trap after all."

"Then we've got to help." I flew over to where his head was lying and pulled open a panel at the back of his serpent-like head.

"What are you doing up there?" Sky Lynx asked.

"Trying to repair you, so just relax." I closely examined the circuitry within. "Well, you're in luck. Happens I'm pretty familiar with this format. I could get you up and running, give or take an hour or so."

Sky Lynx considered it for a moment.

"All right then. Just as long as you don't fry my CPU."

"Chill man," I said as I got to work, "I used to sneak into the hangars at night, disassemble the old space craft and reassemble them before dawn, just to see how they worked. Fixing you shouldn't be too different."

"Let's hope you can hurry," he urged, "we don't have forever."

I spent the next half-hour racing around his huge mass, desperately trying to recall all my self taught methods of ship repair. Of course, I'd never worked with a sentient shuttle before and I did pull a few wrong switches here and there.

"Ow! Do you know what you're doing?"

Fine...I pulled a lot of wrong switches.

"Well, sorry but battlefield medication wasn't meant to be a bed of roses you know." I growled, nearly slipping off his back, where I'd been working on.

"Then at least try." he complained, lifting his head and turning to stare towards me.

"Oh, shut up or I'll pull your vocal cords and disable your motion systems."

"You wouldn't dare!" he threatened.

"Oh yes I would!" I yelled back. I did just that, crossing a couple of wires and punching a few buttons.

Immediately, his head and neck fell back to the ground, paralyzed.

"Mmmmrrmmm! Hmmuuummm!"

I grinned. I'd always wanted to do that to somebody.

It took me a while longer, but finally the huge Autobot was able to get to his feet.

"Not bad at all." He commented, "But there's still a problem."

"Yes, I know. Your power supplies are pretty depleted too." I nodded.

That was a problem; we couldn't help the others if we couldn't fight.

Hmmm...Sky Lynx's power supplies are drained...but mine aren't!

I climbed up into his cockpit and placed a claw on the control panel.

"I've got an idea, but I need you to relax."

"But why?" he asked, confused.

I had already started the process, praying that I wouldn't screw up. Already, I could feel the link forming.

"Because, I'm going to borrow your body for a while."

"What the...argh!"

It was a really freaky sensation, suddenly shooting up from my smaller dragon mode to this gigantic winged dinosaur. As I charged towards the battle in dinobird mode, I realized that I actually liked it.

"How you doing there?" I asked.

"All right," Sky Lynx replied in my voice, "but I wish you'd given me some proper warning before switching our bodies."

"Sorry, but I think you wouldn't have approved of it."

"Sure as hell I wouldn't!"

My sensors automatically began to lock onto the enemy targets. There was a whole fleet of them, surrounding the false NASA shuttle. The Autobots were still firing away.

"Those are drone ships," Sky Lynx told me, "The Quintessons seldom fight their own battles."

"Then watch me bust em' up!" I roared, charging into the fray.

I unleashed a torrent of flames from my jaws, burning several of the drones into obviation. My comrades were cheering, but I didn't really hear.

I was a blur of motion, charging around and torching every hostile in sight. That added to the body mounted lasers, missiles and destroying ships with a single swipe of my tail, was one thrilling experience.

"Watch out!" I heard Kirath shout, "The ship!"

I watched, transfixed, as the hull of the NASA shuttle seemed to peel off. Parts were shifting too and the ship was doubling in size. As it formed into some spiral shaped spacecraft with a 'point' at its nose.

I absolutely do not want to know which maniac designed that!

It suddenly begun firing a beam and beginning to create a vortex, the only way I could only describe it. I then jumped back to reality and fired up my thrusters. A little too late though, because the force of the vortex was pulling me in.

"Damn!" I cursed.

I fired off my weapons wildly, hitting the enemy spacecraft and disintegrating it. There wasn't time to celebrate, however as I was beginning to lose control. That was when I noticed something near the eye of the storm.

That symbol!

"It was the same one I remembered jabbing my energon blade through. That was how I wound up stuck here in the first place." I gasped. "My energon blade gives off a strong energy burst, so perhaps I could activate the transport process if I hit the symbol with enough power."

"It's your choice!" Sky Lynx yelled.

My gut feeling told me to go with it. In my mind, I quickly formulated a plan.

"Yeah, this could be my ticket home. So here's the thing; I'm gonna blast it once more then switch us back. Give me enough time to jump out, then get away ASAP."

"Decided then." he nodded, "And Nightfire?"

"Yes?"

"It was...good to know you." He finally got out, "No matter how short it was. Fight hard."

"You know me a lot better. Someday, you'll understand why." I quickly replied, without giving him a chance to answer. "Brace yourself!"

I fired off one last fire blast and switched back to my own body. The task had taken a lot out of me and my strength was failing rapidly, but I couldn't give up.

Roaring, I leapt out of the door and unleashed my own fire breath into the eye of the storm. In the distance, I could hear jets sounding as Sky Lynx took off.

Energy was building up, lightning bolts flying everywhere, hinting an explosion was imminent. In a moment of despair, I realized I wouldn't be able to sufficiently power up the gate in time.

Then, I felt someone grab onto me and begin firing his own energy weapon into the eye.

"Kirath?!" I yelled, surprised, "Get out of here!"

"You need help!" he protested, still firing.

There wasn't anymore time for arguments. A white light was building up in the center and soon, it had completely engulfed my vision.

I hit the ground chest first, knocking the wind out of me. I looked up just in time to see Shadowflare reloading his bow gun.

Apparently, nothing but a few clicks had passed since I'd left and returned. Instinctively, my hands went for my rifle, but someone else shot the Predacon first.

"Who the?! Kirath?" I stared, open mouth at the jade green dragon bot that now wielded a deadly looking pair of handguns. He had practically the same structure as me, down to the transformation procedure and all, except he was larger and had yellow eyes instead of red.

"I think it's me, at least." the older soldier muttered.

Kirath shot the stunned Predacon again, sending him flying out of the cave to where Tarantulas and Syndrea were exchanging rounds.

"Huh? What?!" Tarantulas gasped as two Maximals emerged from the cavern. "Where'd that other one come from?"

"Who cares?" Shadowflare groaned, pulling himself to his feet. "Run for it!"

The duo grabbed Waspinator's pieces before dashing off into the distance, cursing and swearing all the way.

"Nightfire, who's that?" Syndrea asked, holstering her pistol.

"It's a really long story." I replied.

I saw her eyes go wide.

"You can speak again!" She ran up to me and gave me a hug.

"Great huh?" I asked, with false enthusiasm.

I turned over to Kirath, who was currently staring down into the cave. I felt whatever presence of the time warp gone, but I think he already knew.

"Guess I won't be going home..." he said sadly.

Over the next week, I helped Kirath adapt to his new environment. One with his experience and skills was gladly welcomed by the Maximals. And I had one heck of an adventure to brag about.

Later on, I managed to drag him out to a cliff overlooking a huge river, one of my personal favorite spots, and asked him why he'd come back to help me.

He was silent for a long while before he finally gave a reply.

"Sky Lynx asked me to." Kirath said, "All he said was he felt like it was destiny. Besides, I was the only one who happened to be within range."

"Kirath..." I muttered, "I'm sorry. It was selfish of me to ask you to do that, but..."

"You don't have to apologize, Sky Lynx. It was the honorable thing to do." The former Autobot put a hand on my shoulder.

"You know?" I snapped up, startled.

"Syndrea told me. I know she promised to keep that secret, but she felt this was an exception because you're terrible at expressing your feelings."

"Yeah, she does know me best." I nodded.

"We came up with a theory that when you switched bodies with Sky Lynx in the past, that was when your sparks bonded, or sort of became one with each other."

"And that's why...I as I am today." I muttered. "Because I made it that way. Hard to make sense of, though."

"Any plot line involving time travel is confusing either way." Kirath grinned.

"So Kirath, you're not mad at me?"

"My friend, why should I be?" He smiled warmly, "Sure I may have lost some things, but we have to move on. You've been through that too, right?"

I nodded.

"Don't look now, but I think it's my cue to go." Kirath whispered as Syndrea approached from behind. "I'm gonna go exploring a bit."

With a wave, the green dragon leapt off the cliff and spread his wings, soaring off into the dark sky.

"That probably would've been you." the female velociraptor walked up, clicking her killer claws against the rocks.

"It can be me." A toothy grin crept across my dragon face.

With a swing of my tail, I knocked her off the edge. I then somersaulted off and spread my wings, catching her in mid-flight.

"Grrrr...you trying to give me a heart attack or something?!" Syndrea growled.

"Maybe...and maybe not."

I lowered my head, feeling her neck muscles tense as our lips (or jaws) touched and held there. A feeling I was really beginning to enjoy.

That passionate moment was broken up when I failed to watch where I was going and promptly thumped my head against a badly positioned tree.