Time Scale: Nano-click: second ; Cycle: Minute ; Groon: an hour ; Mega-cycle: days ; Orn: 13 days ; Steller Cycle: year ; Vorn: 83 year

Chapter 24: Never Changing

In her dreams there was laughter and a shifting shadow that crawled on the wall like a spider. It was cold and cruel laughter that she had heard many times over the last vorn and it always caused her to wake in a cold sweat. She hated that shadow, hated how it seemed to always be wearing a new skin that it dug from a grave, but mostly she hated it because it wanted him dead.

She did not know his name or where he was or even who he was, but her mind always imagined him as a small frail star, twirling around a large blue giant star. And how that blue star suffered and suffered to keep that little golden orb alive … especially since the darkness was after that little star, trying to snuff it out.

And so the darkness closed in.

Sari, the darkness blocking out the light, was ripped from her sleep and for a moment she sat there, panting in her bed. She sat there as a sweat and coolant mix dripped down her skin as she panted. It took her a moment to focus, to remember where she was, safe in her bed. And yet her chest felt tight, her spark pounding away, whispering up to her that she had to do something, to say something, that her light would have a say in the manner. And yet, she merely pulled her knees into her chest and wished the vision away.

Yes, it was a vision. What else could it be. Ever since she had had her upgrade, things like this had started to happen to her, to haunt her. She hated these dreams and she would dully admit that they were half the reason she was still here, in this tower, forcing her father to hold on. The dreams bid her to bigger fates and she knew the moment she started listening to them … it was the moment she started to stop being human … and then her father would finally fade, a man of nearly two hundred years old. Though most people had stopped calling him a man long ago.

Her eyes glowing eerily in the dark at the thought, a glowing tear dripping slowly down her cheek. She quickly wiped it away, having no want to see a sample of what she was becoming inside.

Suddenly, if only to bid her from the sour aftertaste of her dreams, there was a bing at her bedside, a face floating over the newest version of a cell phone. To some the floating head would look like a transfixing mix of faded old flesh and plastic, but to her it was her father, Issac Sumdac. Time had warped him in his struggle to stay alive, to stay alive and care for his little girl that had barely aged past the look of a young teenager. The man was now more metallic and plastic than he was flesh, a marvel of science some would call it. Others called the man an abomination despite how his finds had helped in the creation of automated limbs and plastic organs. Most people still didn't live past one hundred and thirty and yet here he was. This mix of plastic, metal and a few dying parts of human flesh. Though she had gotten used to his constant upgrades, she also knew that she had prolonged his suffering because his existence was a far from painless one. And yet, she would not see herself just leaving, joining the Autobots in their near agelessness, because she knew the moment she set foot on that planet, something would stir in her. Something more than visions.

"Morning dad. Up early, I see," she murmured, pulling her barely aged form up to look at the hologram, giving a sad smile. "How are you feeling?"

The old man frowned, the metal ridges that made him mostly cyborg digging into his brow, "Should I be asking you that instead? You seem upset, Sari. It was one of the dreams again? Wasn't it?"

Frowning, looking away from the hologram, the girl rubbed her face and grumbled, "I don't want to talk about it. Its … unimportant stuff."

Shaking his head, looking tired and grey, the man murmured, "Well, perhaps you can tell Ratchet of it. He will be by today with Optimus Prime."

The femme, torn between excitement and an odd mix of worry. A part of her knew, along with the dreams, that the Prime's presence had a way of setting things into motion. He found the Allspark and awoke her other half, allowed Earth to know they weren't alone in the universe and basically ended a millennium old war.

Part of her wondered what he would set into motion now.

The feeling in the back of her mind and the skip of her spark told her she might not want to know. True, she had a lot more knowledge than she did in the past since her friends had went back to Cybertron, but her mentality had not changed. She blamed it on her spark, personally. It was still the spark of a youngling in Cybertronian standards and she hated it. She hated being reminded that she was the reason that her father still wanted to play the roll of caretaker when she should have been taking care of him.

In fact, she was sure that if her father was unable to find a way to hang on, he would find someone else to take care of her as if she were still a child.

She now cringed at the thought of Optimus and Ratchet. She loved them, they were unchanging as she was, but they also meant the death of her father. She didn't know when or how, but it was one of the things the dreams had installed in her. And she had no want to see them come to fruition.

"Oh it will be so good to see both of them again. I know that half a vorn is half of a normal year to them, but to me ..." the man cut off, perhaps knowing how sensitive the subject was for a girl that had seemingly never aged. He knew all to well that everyone called her vampire and freak and that some merely thought she was a wined-up toy created by her father. It was part of the reason he didn't allow human staff into the living quarters anymore. And thought he was a bit angry that the Autobots had just gone back home, leaving his little girl behind to stumble in confusion as to what she was, he was glad that unlike most fathers she would always be his little girl. Yes, he knew it was kind of a messed up away to look at it, but then again any parent would love to know that their child was meant for greater things; that they would not struggle for less than a century and then be lost to the dirt. Forgotten and rotting away.

Not that anyone really buried their dead anymore. Cremation was how the world looked at death now. Nothing but ash.

Shaking off the thought, promising himself that he wanted to live passed the day when his little girl could be more than a little girl, but instead a young woman, he decided that today was the day. Optimus and Ratchet were finally coming to Earth, if anything happened to him, he knew that their was someone who still saw his little girl as a little girl and not a freak … and would take care of her.

"Ugh, anyway, I figured since Ratchet was around he could help me with an upgrade that I have been planning on," piped up the scientist, knowing how much his creation hated being reminded how he extended his life.

"Another upgrade?" said Sorry, her tone worried, knowing all to well how hard those upgrades were on her father. "T-the last one didn't take?"

The man frowned, his features becoming soft as he murmured, "The brain is still made of flesh. It won't last forever, but this one … it should work."

Sari wanted to fight with her father, deny him this madness and yet she knew he was right. Even though his legs and spine were replaced by treds and his arms mostly robotic, his heart long since plastic, she knew that his mind could not be so easily replaced. If only … if only he had a spark like her or any other transformer. Though a spark did not necessarily keep exact memories, it kept a persons being and soul and the faintest traces of memories that made that mech the person they were.

But her father had no spark, no matter how hard she wished he did.

"Now, don't worry. This time … this time will work."

Sari, spark hammering in her chest, felt he was far more wrong then either of them could imagine.

...

"Ratchet, Optimus Prime. It is good to see both of you. It feels like it has been a lifetime," said Issac as his treads ran over the floor of his lab, clicking hauntingly as a man that was mostly metal came over to greet the two mechs. Optimus, for his part, tried to keep his smile warm, shocked at how the man had changed it what would have been very little time to a Cybertronain.

For a moment, Optimus felt nothing but guilt. He had visited Earth a few times as he had promised, but was it too little by human standards.

Ratchet was not surprised, having visited the planet far more often under the pretense of assisting Sari. He had to. The young femme's body was slowly adapting and becoming more and more Cybertronian, but mostly he had come at the femmes beckoning about her father.

And all the times after it had been Sumdac summoning him … asking for someone to take care of his daughter. His time was drawing to a close and yet he still, somehow, held on.

"So," said Ratchet, watching as Optimus walked over to greet Sari, a friendly reunion for the two. "You don't think it will work this time, do you?"

Professor Sumdac gave the tall mech an upward glance, gears whizzing as they helped lift up his head. He was silent for a moment, his words almost a whisper, "I've lived a long life for a human, Ratchet, but all I want to know is that if this does not work … you will keep your promise to this old man and watch over his daughter."

Ratchet slowly nodded, always knowing that this day was coming, that this experiment was coming, his own daughter for inspiration.

"Good, an old man needs his comforts," he whispered as he watched Sari and Optimus turn towards them.

"Now Sari," said the man in the same professional manner he would to a lab assistant, his daughter long since having started to assist him.

"Dad," she interrupted. "Is this another bad upgrade, like the spider legs?"

The man chuckled, a dry cough escaping him, "No, no. I've decided that its time to stop holding on to old things and so I made something new … something that can look after you."

Sari tried not to gasp as a metallic form was revealed, a glass observational room turning on its lights in the corner. The figure gleamed and though it was a differing design, it was obvious what he had used for inspiration: Cybertronians.

"Its time to do away with flesh … and I will become something more. I have been building this body for the last forty years. A body that I can digitally upload my mind to. I believe I now have the equipment to download my mind … all I require to run it now is a spark and someone to help me jump start my new form," he finished, smiling as well as his features would allow him to.

Sari, for her part, seemed horrified along with Optimus Prime. Ratchet … Ratchet was not surprised. He had given Sumdac plenty of files on Cybertronian forms … though he always lied to himself and said it was only for Sari.

"W-what, you can't do that!" cried Optimus before Sari could even chide her father. "You can't just download your mind and a spark … a spark can't just be made! It is the essence of life. It is … it is our heart!"

Frowning, his words clear and not the least bit bothered by Optimus' rage, the human stated almost coldly, "I have made artificial hearts and lungs and livers and limbs. How different is an electric soul?"

Optimus, mouth agape for a moment, part of him now disgusted more than pitying the aged form. He couldn't help but choke, "Y-you can't make a soul, Sumdac."

Looking at the mech, offering a metallic hand out to his daughter as if asking her to come nearer, he said simply, "What is a soul really, Optimus, but a spark of life? And life can be easily created. Now come Sari, I need your hand. I need just a spark. A spark from the last build up of the key's energies, from your powers. And then I … can be like you."

Sari, staring at her father in shock, looked at his hand as if it would burst into flames at any moment. Then, slowly, her head started to shake, part of her finally realizing, to get a new body he would have to do away with an old one. And to do away with an old one, it must die.

"No, no, no. Dad, you are fine as you are. Y-you don't have to do this," begged his daughter, stepping towards him. "You don't have to do this for me, dad."

Hand still offered, unyielding, a tone that no child could deny, the scientist murmured, "Of course I must, Sari. A father must give all for his children … even if there is a chance he may not live. Give me your hand Sari."

And she did, hand shaking, she offered it to the man that had protected and loved her as much as a mortal could. She allowed him to lead her into the room with the still body and to stall before the empty shell, which was not much taller than her surprisingly but quite bulky. It was just silver at the time, simple and rather characterless. She would have liked to ask why, but she knew that when a spark was placed in a unused protoform, it would shape and mold itself to the data that came with the spark.

Despite knowing how dangerous this was, the scientific mind that was slowly being passed on to her from her father, she could only stare in wonderment and dwell on what form the protoform would take if her father was successful.

No, when her father was successful.

"Now, Sari. I know this is scary for you and you love me just the way I am," said the aged, mostly robotic man as he turned his taller daughter to face him, knowing already what she was going to say. "But I refuse to leave you alone in this world. I know a daughter is supposed to bury her father, but that daughter is supposed to be a young woman with children of her own … she is not still supposed to be a child."

Sari could feel tears gathering at her eyes. So, they were finally having this conversation. The conversation that would wake her at night, real human tears dripping down her face: I am human and I will die. He had hinted at it many a times, but this was the first time he had taken up her hands and told her the way it was, his next words stinging in her heart.

"But flesh is weak and short lived … I am dying and have been dying for a long time. I've been holding on, but I know I cannot last much longer. So, you might think this is cruel making you watch an old part of me part with no promise this experiment will work, but I have faith and I can think of no crueler thing to do than leaving you alone," he said softly, his fake eyes whining slightly in an electronic way as he looked her up and down. "Now, we will have no goodbyes. This will work and though I am sure I will still die before you, it will not die here today."

A small sob threatening to escape her and she raised a hand to wipe away her tears before they dared fall. And yet she was strong, she smiled and hugged her father slightly as she murmured, "I will do my best dad … What do you need me to do?"

Smiling, he opened the chest piece, revealing the black and empty spark chamber, his voice sad and yet hopeful, "To give it the spark of life, with the last bit of energy in the Allspark Key. When my mind is fully uploaded, I need you to place the key against the glass and give it the jolt it needs... Can you do that for me?"

Sari had nodded her head, wiping tears from her face, giving her dad a quick hug as his treads clicked down a nearby ramp, to the Autobots. She tried not to listen, tried to pretend that she did not hear Optimus raise his voice or to hear Ratchet softly warn her father that this would kill him, the amount of electricity required to copy his mind. She tried not to listen to the man make Optimus and Ratchet promise, promise him, that they would take her and treat her like the child she was.

And not some kind of monster.

She was perfect in every way. The way the Allspark wanted her to be.

Yet, when her father allowed Ratchet to hook him up, throwing the switch himself, she found that even the Allspark could not keep her from freezing up when she needed it the most.

She had tried to mind the download of her fathers' mind, to make sure she activated the key at the singular most important moment, but something appeared over her father's body, as smoke was coughed up from the surrounding equipment along with sparks and flames. She could not hear Ratchet yelling, telling her to activate the key or Optimus' pleas to turn off the machine as he tried to put out the flames … she only saw a shadow standing within the smoke, jumping to and fro with the shadows. It was trying to take a shape, trying to take some kind of form be it a yellow femme or a red flamboyant mech or something that looked like a horned metallic beast. She could see that they were all fake and she saw him for what he was: a shadow.

And he was warning her to not even take a step onto Cybertron, but the deed was done … a young girl screaming as she clung to the dead fleshy form of her father.

XXX

Paw07: Well, we finally got to Sari's part. As for Sumdac, things didn't go exactly right, but I wouldn't say they went wrong either. Also, heads up, someone got three of my slash fics deleted last week. It doesn't take much of an imagination to guess who, but I just wanted everyone to know that if this does get deleted, I keep a copy of it up on AO3 as well. Links are on my profile page. I'll put it back up, no doubt, but I just wanted everyone to be aware that it should be no surprised if someone tries to have the last few of my slash fics deleted.