Primes (In order of receiving Matrix) :

Prima

Primon

Onyx

Vector

Megatronus

Solus

Alchemist

Amalgamous

Quintus

Micronus

Nexus

Sentinel

Alpha

Time Units (Found on Tf wiki):

Astro-second: .498 seconds

Breem: 8.3 minutes

Cycle: 1.25 hours

Deca-cycle: ~3 weeks

Groon: ~1 hour

Klik: 1.2 minutes

Meta-cycle: 13 months

Orbital cycle: ~1 month

Solar cycle/lunar cycle: 1 day/1 night

Stellar cycle:~7.5 months

Deci-vorn: 8.3 years

Vorn: 83 years

Currency:

1 credit: ~60.25 shanix

1 cred card: 400 credits

Notice: Espoir and Andromeda belong to my friend rewindthetime_ (her IG) Also I apologize for the silence on this specific fic, I have to manually type the chapters in whereas my other posts both here and Ao3 I just c/p them. I also am still working while the Covid-19 fiasco is going on.


Ch. 14

"Do you remember where the mech was at?" Casper asked while him and Meister hid near the back alley of several buildings in Iacon. The droid ran his servos down his face and to his chest plate, his frame changing slowly from silver to a deep purple. He frame flattened out and he now looked boxy with a mask sliding up to cover the bottom half of his face. He took his visors off and his optic filters were now red, and large spurs grew from his elbows. The Predacon stared at Meister with his optics scanning the mech in front of him. "Wow, where does all of this come from?"

Meister lifted his servo to see his frame ripple before him, "my frame is filled over eight-hundred trillion nanites that lay dormant until I activate my mod." He lifted a fist to his mouth and coughed before looking at Casper, "how does my voice sound now?

The droid's voice was now deeper and had that bit of age behind it. Casper coughed in attempt to shake off the feeling that sent a small twinge in his frame. He nodded with his optics averted, "it sounds good. Shall we go and bring the target in?"

The now purple mech nodded and they left the alley to round the corner. Meister never thought he would be coming back to this shop ever. The droid frowned in concern of possibly being spotted by the store owner and called out. Casper looked at him with a frown at his hesitation. "Are you okay Meister?"

"I'm not, I am scared to go back in there." Meister looked over at Casper with an uncomfortable shift of weight. "It feels like… like I may be taken back to Artificial Life. I'm okay, can we take care of this before I decide to just rid the planet of this mech."

Casper nodded before opening the shop door, the owner popped his helm out and smiled enthusiastically. "Welcome! Interested in buying any droids or modifications for your existing droids? We won't be getting our new line of assisted living AI droids for a couple orns due to unfortunate setbacks."

"Oh, no we came to just see if we were interested in buying one. We are a few credits away from being able to afford one." Casper flashed the seller an award-winning fake smile. "So, tell us isn't it weird to look at bots in boxes?"

Meister went down the aisle and came to a halt when he saw the several boxes of Polyhexians that looked exactly like him, except they had different colors. He looked over his shoulder to see Casper taking the shopkeeper to the other side of store. Meister put a servo to the plastic window as if he could feel them. "I don't know if you can hear me, I promise to help free all of you. I'm working with the Council to figure out what we are and why we are here."

"Hey love, can you come here?" Casper called Meister over. The disguised mechanism sped walked to the Predacon. Meister smiled at his partner. "Our dear friend here was just telling me all about the additions all droids are required to be installed with. What were they again?"

"I work as security for a noble femme and she is rather paranoid." Meister hoped that the lie was sufficient enough for the mech.

The seller nodded with a solemn look of understanding. "I absolutely understand the need of secrecy. Well as I was telling your bond mate, Artificial Life is coming out with a new software update, it will replace the tracking chip all of the older models have. It also has some improved anti-hacking upgrades to prevent any well hacking. Artificial Life has announced they were personally sending their engineers and technicians to every registered home that droids currently reside in."

"Really? Every registered home? Have there been issues with droids being hacked?" Meister knew it was a cover up because he went off their radar and then the twins. "I had thought that with all the precautions you took that hacking would be difficult?'

He looked at the disguised mechanism up and down with that skeptic look. "Well they are mostly unhackable," his skeptic look quickly turned into a smile, "but now with this new update anyone who attempts at hacking will be met with resistance!"

This is not good. They will not leave Alchemist alone if I do not have this update, but the twins will be safe from harm. And Vector Prime won't be able to help me this time. Meister was brought out of his thoughts by Casper elbowing his side. "Ow, that hurt. I was just thinking if my employer would be willing to risk it. What else does the software update include? Anything that could potentially cause a glitch?"

"No sir, every new droid that was already installed with it have passed every test." He continued to smile.

Meister nodded with hidden doubt, "well that is good to know. I think we'll look around for a bit." The droid was going to back to gathering information on the boxed up droids before there was a crashing sound. The three of them rushed over to the sound, coming upon a silver femme with gold and white accents. On the top of the femme's helm were long gold audial fins. Around her were broken crates and some products were now unsellable; the shopkeeper was enraged and went to strike her, but Meister grabbed his wrist.

"Unhand me, this incompetent droid has just broken all of my new product! That's was worth thousands of shanix!" He jerked his servo away from the mech. "3vo-2703, I'm going to be so glad when you're implanted with that chip. Clean this mess up."

Meister clenched his fists in anger at how disrespectful the mech was. The femme moved onto her knees, keeping her helm turned down. Casper gently elbowed the mech that was rippling in an attempt to calm him down. The droid knelt down beside her, causing her to flinch when he touched her back. "Do not worry, I've come to help." He smiled at his fellow droid; placing her servo on her chest to show the femme that he meant no harm.

She placed her servo on his chest, gasping softly while Meister put a digit to his lips as he nodded. "Please, I want to go home. This… this isn't my shell and that mech is not my code holder."

"I will help?" Meister stood up and looked around to see Casper smooth talking the shopkeeper. The mech put a servo on the droid's chest and they started communicating before he pulled away with a firm nod. "I will return you home."

"Thank you so much." The femme droid smiled before Meister went over to the two Cybertronians.

The droid smiled with a misleading smile, "say I think I've found something my boss will like. Why don't we talk credits in a more private area? Can't have the droids learning, can we?"

The shopkeeper looked at the bounty hunter and his companion with a suspicious hum before smiling. "Brilliant idea, let's go to my office and we can discuss prices. Which droid caught your optic?"

"The black droid in the assistant section." Meister pointed to the contained droid as they walked into the corner office. Once the door was sealed, Meister changed into his Mask agent disguise when the shopkeeper moved to his terminal to get everything for the requested mechanism.

"So, this is one is an older model which means you'll be getting it half off! And it looks like this one has a rather unique mod, increased strength." He shopkeeper looked up just as Meister and Casper to pull out their blasters. The mech jumped in his chair with his servos instantly going to the air. "No, don't kill me."

Casper licked his lips as he opened his mouth just to taunt the mech with his mouth filling up with fire. Meister was intrigued by the bounty hunter's choice of intimidation, but he refocused his attention the shopkeeper when he saw the mech move slightly. "Do not move unless ya wish want yer helm blown up. Tell us about Artificial Life; how are they supplyin' ya?"

"I don't know! I just sell the blasted things." Meister frowned and shot at the mech's shoulder. He fell back in his chair, holding his shoulder with fear growing evident in his optics. "You're crazy, both of you! I'm calling the enforcers."

Casper exhaled the fire he held in his mouth next to the mech's helm. "Ah, ah, ah you would do wise not to call the law. Now answer my buddy's question, or I'll have to eat your spark." He made an exaggerated sound as he licked his lips.

"A-All we are told is what we say in order to sell the droids! I swear!" His field was spiking with panic. "P-Please don't kill me, I have a family."

"Lies won't get ya anywhere. Ah know ya do not have a family, not even a sparkmate. In fact, she broke dah bond with ya when she caught ya foolin' around with yer droid." Meister picked up the shopkeeper and shifted into him, getting a shocked gasp from the mech he was disguising as. "No one is gonna miss ya. In fact, ya angered a many bots, especially some with a lot of power. Why shouldn't we kill ya?"

The shopkeeper struggled in his hold. "I-I can… uh, uh… I can give you three AI droids for free!"

Meister glared and something snapped in the droid for only brief moment. He grabbed the shopkeeper's face and bashed the back of his helm into the way. "We are not toys to be passed around." The droid lifted his fist to punch the mech in the face, but a large servo grabbing his elbow stopped him.

"Hey, I wanna kill him as much as you, but we can't kill him yet." Casper gave the mechanism a stern look.

"But you didn't see, you don't understand what he did. What he, what they did to all of us when we were left defenseless." Meister gripped the shopkeeper's neck as he felt this overbearing anger that he hadn't felt even for all of his previous targets. "Why should he stay online?"

Casper gave him a firm glare, "trust me on this." He held up his pistol near the relieved shopkeeper's helm, smiling when he saw the return of fear in his optics. "Besides fear makes the spark tastier. Now, tell us some useful information or we'll shorten your life span even further."

"I don't know anything more! Please don't kill me." He begged when Meister finally released his neck. The shopkeeper rubbed his neck to see how damaged he was before braving to attack the droid with a quick draw of a small blade. Meister hissed in pain. The mech went to press the panic button, but he was sadly interrupted with a hard force against his midsection. He froze and there was nothing before he coughed up energon. "You…w- get… away."

The Predacon yanked his servo out of the shopkeeper with a small growl. "We already have." Casper looked at the cut across the silver mechanism's chest plate, touching it with his clean servo. "It doesn't look too bad, you okay? Never seen you so mad."

"I-I think I'm okay. I'm sorry for getting mad, it's just… Cas you don't understand what it's like to be like us. You didn't see the things we're put through, forced to go through in that building! Artificial Life treated us like mindless toys, for entertainment, and they destroyed any of us that showed any form of free will. I went through that six times, not remembering my past lives besides tiny glimpses." Meister looked down at the graying form at their peds. "Alch, the Council, Mask have been helping me figure out what we are and why Artificial Life is doing all this."

The Predacon wrapped a wing around his frame to provide a little comfort. "Hey, no need to get sappy yet. We got a job to do. You take care of the cameras and I'll handle the body."

"What about the others? I can't just leave them like this." Meister went over to the terminal, but kept his optics on the Predacon, interested to see how he worked.

"Um," the pair looked up quickly and Meister smiled at the sight of the femme he had spoken to earlier, "my code holder Andromeda may be willing to house at least a few of them. She lives in the commons of Polyhex, at least she did when I was still with her."

Meister smiled with a bit of excitement at that idea, "really you would do that? Casper please, even if it's only a few it would mean they'd be safe."

Casper stood up with the frame going over his shoulder. "And how, do you expect us to stow not one but several full-sized frames?"

"Have you forgotten what I can do? I can change into a large enough transport vehicle to hold all of them." Meister looked at Espoir with excitement in his optics, "Espoir, I will only be able to save a few. I can take them to some friends in Helix until you get the okay from your code holder."

"I can do that." The other droid nodded before going to grab whoever she could.

Two groons had gone by the time Meister was sitting in the back alley with Casper and Espoir loading up only four offlined droids before he turned onto the road to Polyhex. They were only on the road for a few kliks before Meister questioned his partner. "Cas, what happened to the shopkeeper?"

In the trailer, Casper rubbed his midsection with a lick of his lips in satisfaction. "No trace of him, not that any of you will miss him. So, are ya going to turn them on or just keep them off like this?" The Predacon looked over at the sitting frames that just moved in their spot with every little movement.

"It would be better if they remained offline until we get to Helix. They'll respond better to droids, even if you are not going to be their code holder." Meister said as he turned onto the bridge going to Helix.

Espoir kept to herself as she watched the Predacon go to poke the closest droid, "we can still feel even if our chips aren't activating our shells."

"Wha- really? Strange." Casper lowered his servo but kept staring at the frames. "What do you remember? Before uh… onlining?"

"Lots of tests, pain." Espoir gripped her legs with her face going behind her knees.

Meister came to a stop outside the gates of Mask and waited for everyone to get out before shifting back. They were met at the gate entrance by Wicker and femme that Meister had never met. Espoir stood close to Meister and the other droids, not knowing either of them. The Polyhexian stepped forward and tilted his helm upon seeing that the femme had one amber optic and the other was blue. "Who are you?"

"I am 553-15JM, but my manager has decided to refer to me as Jem. He has instructed me to show you something when you arrive." She held her servo out and Meister cautiously pressed his servo against her chest as she did the same.

"Hello, Jzz4-Meister, I am the associate that Wicker has as a spy to gather intel on Artificial Life. I go by the code name of Timestone, not even Jem knows my real name to protect you both from any… unfortunate captures. Anyways, I know Wicker hasn't told you about what we are doing, so I am hiding away every droid I am capable of hiding. I am going to take them off world once filled enough; if they wish to go with me. When we had gotten more conclusions that you were not simply a… rare anomaly, we have tried to give them as much freedom as we possibly can. If they wish to remain on Cybertron, I have a list of trusted medics and confidential… clients that I can hide more of your kind."

The silver droid pulled his servo away and looked at his servo as if it contained a surprising secret. He looked at Jem with concerning gaze, "your optics, did your code holder do this?"

"No, Artificial Life made my model five generations before yours. They had actually scrapped my model when we were not purchased at a preferred rate. Timestone had found my body, and repaired me the best he could."

"Can we take dah chit chat inside?" Wicker threw a digit over his shoulder. "Also, who's yer new friend, Sparkles?"

"You know who this is, as for the droids, this is Espoir. She wishes to be returned to her code holder in Polyhex." Meister looked at Casper with a smile. "Could you head to the twins? They probably want to make sure that we are okay."

Casper rested a servo on the small of the droid's back with his wings opening up. "Will you be coming back?"

"Briefly, I will have to inform," he remembered the basic training he remembered from Wicker. He shook his helm and smiled up at the Predacon, "I will later."

The Predacon nodded before stepping back so he had plenty of space to transform. When he lifted off, Meister picked up a couple droid frames while a couple Mask members grabbed the others. Espoir followed the visored mech closely, "can they be trusted?"

"They can be trusted; they'll be able to return you to your code holder." Meister smiled at the femme before following the other members to where a small collection of droid were at. They were onlined and all turned their backs when the mask members got close to them. The droid activated the others before looking at them all with a smile, he deactivated his mod as well as his visors to show that he was like them. "I know you do not trust them because of what happened, but I can vouch for them."

He was answered with them all touching his chest plate to see if he spoke the truth. The droids eventually pulled away, all looking at Wicker with amber optics. They believed Meister in them being safe, but they didn't trust them enough to speak. Meister understood their uncertainty and wasn't going to force them to speak. "We can put you into hiding if you want too that is."

"Hey Sparkles," Meister looked up at the walk path over the conveyer belt, Wicker tossed him a couple small boxes. He fumbled a bit to avoid spilling it, but managed to keep hold of them. "Ah know ya wanna chat with yer buddies, but they are still connected tah AL. So, hush hush, aight?"

Meister nodded and looked at the small group of droids, "I will be able to help you. Just do what I did from my memories."

"Thank you." One of them nodded at the Polyhexian.

Meister returned to the apartment with the twins tackling him just in the doorway. He chuckled at their excitement. "Meister, Casper told us a story!"

"Yeah, and he even made pretty dancers with his fire!" Saber pulled Meister to the couch. The Polyhexian laughed lightly as he sat beside Casper. The Predacon pulled them into his arms. Star and Saber giggled in the hold of their caretakers. "Casper, can you make more pretty things out of fire?"

Casper chuckled while rubbing Meister's helm, "okay fine one small one. I don't want to melt anyone." The Predacon tilted his helm up as he released a medium-sized ring of fire, manipulating it to form a single glyph. Meister, along with the younglings, were looking at it with amazement in their optics. "Like it?"

"It looks beautiful," Meister whispered as he watched Casper extinguish the flame with a wave of his servo. "What does it mean? It's not any glyphs I recognize."

"That's cause it's an old Predacon dialect. It means 'together under one roof'." The dragon repositioned himself.

"Like a family?" Star turned to look up at Casper and Meister with a hopeful glint in his optics.

The silver droid nodded with a smile, pressing their noses together, "yes like a family Star."

Hearing this made the younglings even happier. "I can't wait to be a family with you, Star, Casper, and Papa Alchemist." Saber hugged the two adults with a smile on his lips.

Alchemist was repairing Meister while the droid was reading a datapad on one of Alchemist's old research papers. The visored mech looked up at his code holder with a curious gaze in his optics. He didn't know how to ask the Cybertronian, but the droid wished to learn more about their lifestyle. "Alch, I have a few questions in regards to myself." The Prime hummed in acknowledgement. "How does one know when they are ready to take the next step in a romantic relationship? Do your people just expose your sparks and bond?"

Alchemist was caught off guard by the questions that he accidently burnt himself. He dropped the torch with his servo going to his mouth. Meister frowned in confusion at the extreme reaction. "Are you okay Alch? I didn't mean to startle you with my questions."

"No, no you're okay Meister. I just wasn't expecting it." The Prime picked up the torch, turning it off and setting it on the table in front of him. "Can I ask as to why you're asking about bonding? Are things with Casper going that well?"

The silver mechanism lit up with a smile at the second question. "It is! Being with Casper makes my systems feel strange, my anti-virus and firewall protocols see it as danger which is interesting that it sees emotions as dangers. Cas, doesn't care that I'm not a Cybertronian and hasn't even asked to have a master file. I've even gotten comfortable without my visors around him."

"Well that's good that he is respecting boundaries, and isn't letting major differences influence his feelings towards you." Alchemist touched the welded spot on Meister's chest plate. He knew that having Meister involved with Wicker would cause some injuries, but no one but the Council knew about his friend's involvement with Mask. "It looks like it will blend in decently. As for bonding you asked, we don't just merge sparks and are bonded. Sometimes the merge won't work, even if the two are in love the sparks are not."

The Polyhexian nodded in understanding what he was saying. "Well seeing as I do not have a spark, I know it would be impossible for me to give Cas that level of trust."

"And you wish to use your master file as a way of showing your trust in him?" Alchemist rose his optic ridge at his friend. Meister fidgeted with his digits in thought. The Prime smiled, placing a supportive servo on his the Polyhexian's knee. "If you believe he will be responsible with it, then you should speak to him about it. Oh, before I forget did you hear Artificial Life's announcement on the upgrades?"

Meister nodded before hopping off the table, "how are we going to avoid it? They will not leave until I'm upgraded."

"I have a plan for that, and I would like your thoughts on it." Alchemist typed on the terminal nearby, pulling up schematics of Meister's frame. "Now, it will take a bit to make an exact replica, but with you it will be easier to make a copy of you. They will be uploading the files into this frame and then we'll destroy it once they leave."

"What about me? Won't they be confused when they can't find me?" Meister questioned as he looked at the schematics of his shell.

Alchemist was the one quiet now as if he were feeling guilty about something. "I don't want to do this, but I would need you to be a part of me. I found out after studying some of files Wicker brought me after breaking into a smaller building under Artificial Life's ownership. There were schematics for all of the different models, the master files, but nothing on how they get you."

"It would be with Gearshaft in the main building. The smaller buildings are most likely repair shops, customer service, and shops where we're sold at. It would be hard to break into the main building." Meister put his servo to his chest with a slight frown before looking up at the other silver mech with an encouraging smile. "I trust you Alch."

The Prime put a servo on Meister's back with a smile, "then let's get started on building you."

It took several solar cycles for Meister and Alchemist to build a near perfect replica of the droid. The only thing that separated the real mechanism and the fake one, was the fact it didn't have the AI. The droid poked the face with a strange feeling in his systems. "This makes me feel… uncomfortable. What if they don't come here?"

"I know it is strange, but-" the doorbell rang, and the Prime whipped his helm over his shoulder. "Come on, I'll keep your frame in my chambers."

The pair hurried to Alchemist's room where the Prime took Meister out of his shell, laying it on his berth, and placed the card into his wrist. He left the room to see that one of the servants was greeting two white and orange mechs that had goggles covering their optics and suitcases handcuffed to their outside servos. Alchemist felt memories that were not his push forward in his processor.

"Is the unit ready for frame and AI integration?"

"Yes Sir."

"Good, bring formula 14-O up to 14%. Gearshaft wants obedience in this unit to be absolute."

The Prime curled his digits in a brief moment of anger, knowing that these two could have be one of many mechs to have experimented and worked on Meister's kind. He shook off the feeling as he got closer to the front door. "Hello, my name is Alchemist, what brings you fine mechs here?" Alchemist held his servo out, but dropped it awkwardly after the pair refused to shake it.

"We have come for the droid." The mech spoke with almost an echoey tone as if he were speaking through a megaphone.

"Where is it?" The second mech spoke with the same tone.

"Come for my droid? Are you with Artificial Life?" Alchemist played dumb while leading the two to his conservatory where the fake Meister stood firmly. "I was going to comm someone to come fix my droid. He was going to entertain me with some music, but he just glitched out on me. Shame really."

Meister was a bit amused by the fabricated story. The two mechs didn't speak as they mirrored each other's movements. They slammed their cases on the table and started their examination on the 'droid'. The AI brought up another memory.

"Unit seems to be following commands with peak obedience. Unit 4 pick up the cup of energon and drink it."

A silver arm grabbed the cup and drank it before falling to the ground and purged for several groons straight.

Alchemist couldn't believe that they would intently endanger someone just for tests. The mech watched how they connected cables to several ports in the exposed systems in the fake Meister's chest. He kept silent as the pair started downloading several files. Having the AI in his frame was odd, it was like a bond with having the memories and thoughts being shared. He had also saw what Meister was talking about in regards to his mod not appearing in any files.

"The frame and AI card are not functioning in unison, a possible new glitch. These new updates will fix any bugs this unit has." The first mech closed up his case.

"It will take twenty groons for the updates to finish. If there are still any glitches, contact your nearest Artificial Life facility." The second followed his partner. They turned and left through the front door without a second glance.

Alchemist shook his helm at how unfriendly the pair was. Meister agreed as his code holder picked up the fake and connected it to a terminal to inspect the so-called updates. "I want you to take this to Wicker, maybe his crew can find out how many have been affected of these updates."

I'll be sure to drop it off. And I can't reveal much, but Mask has been rescuing droids from being purchased. They're taking them to a safe location. Meister saw how Alchemist's terminal was popping up with hundreds of warnings of spyware and other dangerous files.

"Well that's not good." Alchemist put his servos on his waist as he stared at the now corrupted terminal. "Fantastic. Oh, rescuing? Finding out about your sentience must have gotten to Wicker. He may be many things, but the moment he finds out about slavery he gets mad. Were you breaking them free from AL like Maccadam did with you?"

Yeah, Wicker didn't want to risk Artificial Life to find out about them. Meister watched Alchemist unplug the frame from the terminal before he started dismantling it, and then smashed the CPU. Do you think you could put me back in my frame?

"Oh," Alchemist perked up with realization on his face, "right! I'm sorry Meister!"

Meister chuckled at his friend's strangeness. You are amusing Alchemist. Don't change please.


I'm still alive.