Author's Note: Sorry about the delay, but the last time I typed up this chapter the file got messed up and I lost the whole damned thing. Now I have to rewrite it from scratch, which won't be easy because I can only remember vague chunks of the chapter, and I didn't make a backup copy. So please bear with me here. It's the damn disk's fault, not mine.

Disclaimer: Ultra Rodimus and Falcon belong to me. Everyone else belongs to people with more lawyers than you can shake a stick at.

Past and Future

Chapter 2: Touching Across Time

Ultra Rodimus picked his way across the rocky ground toward the immense crashed ship, very aware of Prowl behind him. His mind was furiously working on a way to get him home. He'd never been much of a science type, but since his rebirth he'd become much more knowledgeable on the subject. Perhaps he wasn't as intelligent as Perceptor, at least not when it came to science, but he knew enough to know that under no circumstances could he reveal anything about the future. If any knowledge of what was to come leaked out, it would irrevocably change the course of history, and the change could be significant enough to completely wipe out the Autobot race. Keeping things to himself wasn't in his nature; he was the type who was free with his opinions. It would be difficult, but somehow he'd manage to keep from saying anything.

He rounded another boulder and paused for a moment, a strange feeling passing through him. The pause was only for an instant, and he was moving before Prowl could push him back into motion. But now his body was running on autopilot, his mind occupied with finding the source of the energy coursing through his body. It only took him a few moments to realize it was coming from the Matrix.

Whenever he morphed from robot form to human form, the Matrix had to go somewhere. His human body was incapable of carrying it. Another problem was its size. But he couldn't remove it every time he morphed. What to do with it had been a problem.

The Matrix itself had provided a solution. When he morphed, it became a cloud of energy, filling every cell of his human shape. Instead of decreasing in power, as had been expected of it during the change from solid matter into pure energy, it retained its strength. Not even Perceptor could explain why. Ultra Rodimus had simply shrugged and pointed out that the Matrix was a law unto itself, and not even its bearers understood it. It simply did it, and that was that. Normally when it was an energy cloud it was quiet, so that he had nothing more than the usual background feel of its presence in his mind. Now it was pulsing, sending waves of energy surging through him.

When he realized why, he swore under his breath.

Ultra Rodimus himself did not exist in the past, but the Matrix did, and it was currently on Earth with its former bearer, Ultra Rodimus's predecessor, Optimus Prime. It was reacting to the presence of its past self. Then it occurred to him that if his Matrix was reacting that way, the Matrix of this time would be reacting the same way. Which meant Optimus would recognize him as a Matrix-Bearer.

As if I needed more problems, he thought to himself darkly.

((Why is it doing that?)) Falcon asked in his mind.

(Because it already exists in this time, and it's reacting to its past self.)

The skrill shuddered, making his forearm twitch. ((Can you make it stop?))

(Not to my knowledge. Is it hurting you?)

((It feels like something crawling up my back and my tentacles,)) Falcon replied. ((It's bothering me.))

(Let me see if there's anything I can do.) Ultra Rodimus narrowed his eyes, reaching for the Matrix's presence in the back of his mind. As one of its chosen bearers he could communicate with it. Getting its attention proved somewhat difficult, but once he managed it the Matrix responded by blocking its energy before it reached the skrill.

((Thank you,)) Falcon told him with relief.

(You're welcome. Now stay quiet and lay low. These Autobots won't know what you are and they may try to remove you.)

Fortunately, the sleeve of his snakeskin coat muffled Falcon's hiss and suppressed his glow. Ultra Rodimus casually placed his left hand on his right forearm, rubbing as if to ease an ache, and Falcon's hissing subsided. Finally, the skrill's grumbling was entirely mental. The young Prime sent soothing thoughts to him until Falcon fell silent.

The Ark's corridors were quiet, for which Ultra Rodimus was thankful. He'd prefer as little contact as possible with the Autobots in this time. Then they reached the command center.

Most of the consoles lining the bridge of the Ark were occupied. Others, nonessential systems that could not be used on a planet's surface, remained dark and lifeless, sometimes coated with a thin layer of dust. Ultra Rodimus recognized all of the Autobots there, even those who had not survived the brutal attack on Autobot City. Then his attention was drawn to the opposite side of the bridge, where Optimus Prime stood with Ironhide, Jazz, Ratchet, and Wheeljack. The older Prime looked up.

Their eyes met.

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Optimus Prime shifted his weight slightly as he entered the Ark's command center. A few minutes ago the Matrix had begun to pulse, sending waves of energy through him. It was reacting to something, but damned if he knew what. There was no sense of danger emanating from the crystal sphere, nothing that indicated any approaching danger. It had started flaring without any prior warning. One moment it had been calm and the next it was anything but.

The instant he was spotted four of his friends homed in on him. He fell into a conversation with them, mostly about how to work with the humans, and it allowed him to take his mind off of the Matrix's strange behavior. The ancient artifact wouldn't tell him what was going on, and he found that more unnerving than the pulsing itself.

He managed to lose himself in the conversation until the Matrix gave a sudden mental lurch, and his head came up. Optimus looked across the command center to see Prowl coming in, gun drawn, herding someone ahead of him. Then he felt another surge of Matrix energy, this time not coming from himself, and his gaze was pulled downward to settle onto the person Prowl had brought in.

A human.

Optimus took a closer look and had to revise that impression. The stranger clearly had pointed ears, pierced, one with a small gold metal stud and the other with a slightly larger blue stone. The stranger could be taken for human, but once anyone noticed those pointed ears it would be clear that he was not human.

The stranger was fairly tall, standing about six foot six, with tanned gold skin and long silver hair hanging braided down his back. He wore a shirt and pants of a smoke-colored material, and a long, strangely patterned and colored coat with an odd shine to its surface. His feet were clad in matching boots, clearly tailored to fit him alone. At his waist was a broad belt made of a similar material, colored a shade of purple that went well with the light grey clothing he wore. He was lean in build, but something told Optimus not to underestimate him. Looks could be deceiving, that he knew well, and some sixth sense was telling him that this person was not what he appeared.

His blue optics met the stranger's green eyes, and he found himself staring.

Whoever the newcomer was, he wasn't the least bit afraid of or intimidated by Optimus Prime. He radiated Matrix energy, so much that Optimus was surprised he wasn't glowing with it. He knew exactly who Optimus was, what he was, and didn't seem to care. Looking at him, Optimus suddenly felt as if he were staring at another Autobot, one touched by the Matrix.

Tearing his eyes away from the confusing stranger, Optimus looked at Prowl, silently asking for a report.

"I found him not two hundred meters away," the tactician reported. "Inside our security perimeter. None of the sensors were tripped."

"Impossible!" Wheeljack blurted. "Nothing can get past the sensors without setting them off!"

"Nonetheless, he managed it. It's as if he appeared out of thin air." Prowl glanced down at the stranger. "He claims his name is Roddy."

"Doesn't look like anyone I've ever seen, and I'd remember somebody like him," Sparkplug Witwicky commented as he and his son Spike walked in.

Only Optimus seemed to notice how the stranger flinched when he saw Sparkplug, and he was instantly curious.

"Nobody I know of looks like that," Spike added. "As far as I know, nobody around here wears snakeskin, either."

Optimus returned his gaze to the humanoid, who shot him a sharp look. The red and blue Autobot resisted the sudden, inexplicable urge to shrink back, noting as he did so that the humanoid had a presence or aura of authority strong enough that the Autobots near him were reacting to it even though his attention was not focussed on them.

"You," Optimus told him, hoping that his voice wouldn't give away how uneasy he felt, "have some explaining to do."

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By the time Magnus reached the briefing room, the rest of the command staff and all surviving members of the Ark's original crew had gathered. They were conversing softly among themselves, wondering why they had been summoned so urgently. The conversations stopped when Magnus entered the room, all eyes following him as he strode to the head of the table, standing behind Ultra Rodimus's vacant chair.

Bluntly and in as few words as possible, Magnus explained the situation. Perceptor did his best to explain the consequences of sending aid to their missing commander, who was turning out to be a magnet for trans-dimensional and time phenomena. Finally, he sat back down and looked at Magnus.

The Autobot second-in-command looked at the small clump of bots who'd been awakened aboard the Ark in 1984. There weren't many of them left. The group consisted of Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, Mirage, Bumblebee, Bluestreak, Cliffjumper, and Jazz. All of them watched him.

"I asked you all to come because you were there at the time, and I intend to pick your memories for anything that might help us bring our leader home," Magnus told them.

Jazz looked at Spike. "You were there then, too."

The human nodded slowly, rooting through his memory. "Yeah, I remember now."

Magnus gave them a look he'd learned from his mate, Ultra Rodimus's infamous 'spill it or regret it' look. It wasn't as sharp as his lover's but it worked well enough to get them talking.

"Prowl found him a couple hundred meters away and brought him in," Jazz told them. "Optimus had been having a case of the fidgets for about ten minutes when Prowl came in. He could sense something, but what it was he kept to himself. Then he decided that he wanted to question Roddy, as he called himself."

The city commander groaned. "What happened?"

The black and white Autobot grinned while the rest of the group snickered. "I guess Ultra Roddy wasn't in the best of moods right then. You're not gonna believe what he did..."

To be continued...

There. That was faster than I thought I'd have this done. And if you wanna know what Ultra Rodimus did, then you're going to have to review this chapter so I'll start the next one. Remember, no reviews means no chapters. And yes, Omicron, I have e-mail. My e-mail address is on my profile page.