Note: I added indicators under the titles of chapters to help follow the universes and places, because I think it was becoming a bit muddled. So U1 is the sort of normal timeline, while U2 is the alternate one.

Allies

[U 2 – Decepticon base]

The next cycle found the three of them in Starscream's lab, discussing the circumstances of the cross-dimensional bridge that exchanged the two Optimuses. The lab itself, although strewn with datapads, mysterious parts and ongoing experiments was actually quite organized and a sight to see even for a non-scientist like Optimus, especially with the bright Seeker being so obviously home in it – he never knew him to be anything but a warrior. As for his own situation, at first he was simply glad that he didn't get thrown to a brig or interrogated but never in his wildest dreams had he thought of calmly walking the Decepticon base's corridors alongside with Megatron, nodding to the passing by Cons, hiding the anxious fluttering inside, hoping that it wouldn't show in his optics. They agreed that he should play his part, for the others at least, and feign memory loss if something unexpected happened – and so he was trying his best to imagine how a Decepticon Prime would behave in a world where Cons were definitely different from the ones he was familiar with. It was more and more queer by the second as he noticed things that were if anything a cross between his Autobots' behavior and something like how an honorable warrior would act.

"We will have to retrieve information from the weapon that the Autobot-affiliated humans used, because the recording is not enough even to make guesses." Starscream fiddled with his own null-ray gun but looked at his leader, ignoring Optimus resolutely. He might play his part publicly but the Seeker was not going to pretend that he was any kind of a superior to him in the situation – he didn't know anything about them and they couldn't trust him fully.

"Send in Laserbeak to gather info and if needed we will pay them a visit too."

Megatron was no fool and could read his Air Commander as easily as Soundwave would have; and he wouldn't force him to accept this Optimus as SIC either. The Seeker was loyal to them and to the cause but there was no reason to push his buttons needlessly. His proud vanity would not let an unknown quantity be placed over him. It wasn't necessary anyway for the hopefully short time until they had the 'wrong' Optimus to bear with.

"I suggest that we don't take him with us if the situation arises – which is probable as humans are notorious of not inputting experiments into networked computers. Laserbeak might not be able to gather the required info and if we go in he is a liability. He might even decide to join the Autobots…"

"These Autobots? I'd hardly think he would want that. Prowl would kill him faster than he could explain his story."

Optimus was watching them argue, quite comfortable of being ignored so far as he could observe them at it; listening at sometimes made one understand people more than any amount of interaction. So far the Seeker was the most similar to the one from his universe – maybe a bit less bitter and more scientifically inclined but otherwise just as snarky and outspoken as his counterpart. It was good to have at least something he could count on as familiar. Megatron on the other hand almost shocked him; not even way back, before the war had he known him to be so… calm and in control, but neither tyrannical nor violent. If not for the obvious Decepticon signs everywhere, he would have almost taken the atmosphere as like back at home – in the Autobot base that is. He observed the base too and found that it was totally different from the sunken Nemesis that he knew of; obviously above ground but where could it be?

"Where is this place? It doesn't look like anything familiar."

Megatron appraised him for a few kliks but apparently decided that it cannot hurt to let him know and proceeded to explain.

"We are in Russia. The Autobots made a deal with the USA government and some of their allies, so we came down to the other bloc."

"Wait a minute… you mean you are in contact with humans? Please don't tell me you are defending them, it would totally ruin my worldview…"

"Defending squishies… hnnhhh… Pit, no." Starscream's voice could have dried out a Martini – "We are allied to them, their long-range air defenses shoot down Autobots over Russian airspace just as they would do with human-piloted USAF jets, we give them some technology in exchange for some parts and resources; but mostly we do not have actual contact with them – to the relief of all of us. China and some smaller countries are with us too, while Europe is mostly neutral ground – far too heavily populated with squishies to fight there. Like…they shoot down say Thrust over Europe and his parts are spread over about six countries. A nightmare to pick them all up."

"But… actually why are you fighting our war here, allied to humans…? What is the point?"

"The Allspark shards."

"Wasn't it… I mean destroyed here?"

"It was… kind of. After we found it, we managed to haul it to orbit and started to build a space bridge to get it home to Cybertron; but then that idiotic excuse for a Prime, Rodimus charged in along with the cavalry and managed to blow up both spectacularly - it might have been seen even from Cybertron mind you, it was that huge. It was raining Allspark shards for a whole orn all over Earth, besides wiping out half their technology with the EMP blast. The shards are tiny and 'dark', the explosion drained them all totally, so they are basically invisible and undetectable; but with time they sort of… regain their energy. Both sides have detectors and sensors hooked up everywhere and regular sweeps conducted to see if we could find one; if one blips in the sensor-net it is a race to gather it – and usually a battle for it if we arrive at the same time."

"Wow..." Optimus could hardly imagine the thing Starscream was telling. To have all those Allspark shards around… he could hardly decide what questions to ask first. "And what do you do with the shards that you acquire? And do the humans know about it?"

"So far… it basically ensures immortality to all of us here on Earth. Unless you get blown into tiny bits or melted down, even the loss of the spark can be overcome with a charged shard. Later… well they could be a renewal of our race if this slagging war ever ends, there must be billions of shards still around. As for the humans… well, both sides tried to keep it a secret, but some of them guessed none the less and a few of their agencies are now in the running for the newly appearing pieces. They can glean information out of them about us, as we learned."

Optimus frowned a bit at that, not sure if using the Allspark for the immortality of a handful of mechs was to his liking but holding back from outright criticism; he tried to keep in mind that this place-time was not his and it worked differently, therefore he shouldn't pass judgment on their ways. Especially as he was depending on them for getting back to his own universe. So, he refrained from asking more questions and instead stayed with Starscream in his lab, interested in the Seeker who here was a scientist too, eager to help him even though he wasn't one; but also uncomfortable with Megatron whom he found strangely disturbing. The mech was giving him such strangely controversial feelings of being his arch-enemy and appealing him immensely at the same time that he rather stayed away from him. It spared them both the embarrassment, even as it was starting rumours among the Cons.

Laserbeak though, despite of their earlier misgivings was able to retrieve the necessary information from the humans and Starscream was delving into the schematics in earnest, going into theories and knowledge so deep that basically noone understood even half of what he was mumbling to himself. The Seeker, confronted with the really juicy scientific problem was totally immersed into it, leaving Megatron basically not only without his missing SIC but himself, the next line officer too. It weren't that much of the problem until it only meant reports piling up, but when the alert sounded the Commander was hard put to decide what to do; at the end he'd taken Optimus with him, the rest of the Seeker Trine and left the base in Soundwave's care. It was to be a short mission, close by in Asia anyway; unlikely that the Autobots would show up here to contest the Allspark shard.

Complications

[U 1 – Decepticon base]

"Boss, you are not gonna believe what we've seen!" Frenzy was almost dancing in his excitement as the Nemesis tower deposited him onto the deck and he ran to report their mission to Megatron. Laserbeak was flying beside him and looked just as excited as her brother, but still they didn't dare to speak anything further after his angry glare at them; Frenzy's shout cut into his talk with Soundwave and he never liked to be disrupted so. Even the telepath was looking disapprovingly to his rowdy creation, no matter the details of his report. Megatron finished discussing the personnel issues with his TIC and glanced the cassettes that were practically shaking with the suppressed excitement; they were never really calm but this level of exuberance was still unusual from them – especially after a long reconnaissance mission to spy on the Autobots.

"Now you may report." He grumbled to Frenzy, threateningly glowering at the small troublemaker, who only calmed down a little bit from his previous demeanor.

"Boss, we saw Optimus Prime attacking his Tactician, the SIC Prowl and he got landed in the brig! Before that he was in med-bay and there was some kind of a commotion there too but we don't dare to go there, Ratchet always notices us. But the 'Bots are all in uproar!"

"Frenzy: desist joking. Commence real report." Soundwave's voice was even more disapproving than before. Frenzy almost never passed up an opportunity to prank, but surely he was intelligent enough not to try one on Megatron? Even if he wasn't in a bad mood it was unwise to provoke him so and endanger their standing in his optics.

"Hey Boss, I ain't joking, this is what we saw, right, 'Beak?"

Laserbeak nodded emphatically, sending their report to Soundwave in a quick databurst. Amazingly it confirmed what Frenzy said, and he nodded towards the cassette, sending an apologizing mental nudge and sending him away, while confirming the report to his leader aloud.

"The audio part of the recording is mostly unintelligible, as unfortunately Frenzy took up position near one working ventilator in the shaft. I'll have to analyze the visual part for more clues, but so far they seem to support Frenzy's assessment."

Megatron looked completely nonplused as he watched the downloaded scene unfolding on the screen; not in the least by the complete ferocity of the Prime's attack, totally unlike his usual behaviour even in the battlefield. The Prime was a formidable fighter all right, when he didn't stop for one of his speeches, but there was a difference in his behaviour now that he couldn't quite quantify… like he was suddenly among enemies, not his own mechs. The fighting was very intense, even as the Autobots were visibly wary of him and understandably none too willing of seriously hurting their own leader, even as he was fighting them all out.

"Extrapolate Soundwave. What can be behind this?"

The telepath replayed the recording again, trying to pick up the smallest clues. He was just as surprised by it as his leader and as he shifted through probabilities in his mind, he was hard put to retain his usual calm, collected façade.

"Possibility: CPU damage. Detail: recognition system and/or memory banks malfunction. Cause: energy beam hit in latest battle."

He had a few other theories of course but so far this one had the highest probability from the available data. He would have liked to confer with Starscream though; no matter the obnoxiousness of the Seeker, he often had shrewd insights as to the particulars of mechs' behaviour. Megatron must have had the same thoughts, because in a klik they were joined in the Command Center by the scowling Seeker, who stalked towards them with all the irritations of being pulled in from off-shift – and not hiding any of it from the already bristling warlord. They both overcame it though when Soundwave presented the video again without commenting any further, as Starscream studied the scene with a rare public display of total focus and scientific observation.

"He looks like he is someone else… a different mech in that body." - was his first comment. "Not only he hates Prowl but the mistrust is evident even with the rest of them even as he is answering to their questions. It is almost like… well, I would imagine someone like Thundercracker would behave this way if captured by the 'Bots."

"How can we exploit this?" – of course Megatron was less interested in the cause of the situation as the possible uses that it presented to them.

"On the most basic level if we attack them now or go raiding somewhere they won't have the Prime with them in the battle – and maybe one more whom they need to guard him, and it would weaken them considerably. On a deeper level… if the Prime's condition is in any way permanent we could possibly even turn him to our side, or at least against them; and that would be a great victory over the Autobots."

"Soundwave: agrees. Possibility to tergiversate: to be contemplated. Suggestion: contact should be made."

"Who should we send in to contact him when it can easily develop into a dangerous situation? Your cassettes are no match for him if he reacts aggressively."

"And who else is a match for him…?"