Disclaimer: Not mine!
A/N: Stuff happens, omg! ^.^ Please review!
- Chapter 10 -
Sure enough, at 6 o'clock the next morning, the obnoxious taps tune you always hear in army movies started playing from seemingly everywhere on the base, waking me out of my recharge, and I grouchily rolled off the bed. Looking back, I realized that I hadn't even crawled under the covers, so I simply neatened the few wrinkles I'd made before heading outside. My human instincts were telling me I should be seeking coffee at this time, and so I followed my nose to the mess hall. Even if I couldn't drink it, the smell would put me in a better mood - don't ask me how, but Cybertronians could apparently smell the same as humans, though they described it differently. My human mind smelled coffee, whereas a Cybertronian mind would smell soggy, burnt organic material. Vector and I had experimented with it during our week of freedom (actually, it had been prompted by being asked to move the coffee maker some of the NEST soldiers had left up on Ganymede to a new location - with my human alt form, I'd been deemed perfect for the job).
Of course, as soon as I entered the mess hall, every eye turned to me. I glowered a little, then made for the nearest empty chair by the coffee pot. Taking a deep breath, I relaxed in the chair, letting my eyes slide closed as I enjoyed the aroma. Around me, conversation gradually resumed, and I did my best not to listen in on the whispers that I could hear sprinkled around amidst the normally-voiced conversations - it seemed the NEST soldiers still hadn't quite realized how acute a Cybertronian's hearing was.
"I didn't expect to see you here." The comment from Epps startled me out of my coffee-aroma enjoyment, and I looked up to find him sitting down across from me with a tray full of food.
"Coffee is the single best reason to protect Earth from getting pulverized by the Decepticons," I said solemnly. Epps quirked an eyebrow upwards.
"I didn't think you could drink the stuff," he said.
"Notice I do not have a mug in front of me," I said, motioning. "I can't drink it, but I can smell it."
"Autobots can smell?" Epps seemed entertained.
"Cybertronians can, yes. We just have different ways of describing smells, since we can analyze the chemical components of any smell we come across. For example, any other Cybertronian than me would describe the smell of coffee as being a soggy and burnt organic smell," I elaborated.
"But you're special, because you've been on Earth for...how long?" Epps asked, looking at me curiously.
"A long time," I said ambiguously. The dates Prowl and Magnus had come up with for my background put me on Earth from about 500AD on, but I didn't want to spread that around much, lest people start asking me about it. I had taken some classes in history, but any specialty was a bit before that. "Long enough to know that this specific soggy and burnt smell means coffee, and I've come to associate it with waking up in the morning. Hence my presence here."
"Ah, makes sense," Epps replied with a nod, then started in on his breakfast in earnest. I took the opportunity to glance around the mess hall now, and found that most of them seemed to have adjusted to my presence there. A few of them kept glancing in my direction, and there was one private who kept staring at me, even when his friends kept pulling his attention back to them. The rest, however, acted as if it was any normal morning, and I found myself feeling remarkably human for the first time in almost two months. It threw into sharp relief just how strange my life had become, and I spent the next little while contemplating that, only half-conscious of murmuring a 'goodbye' to Epps when he finished his breakfast. I didn't really focus on the real world again until a new companion sat down across from me.
"Magnus," I said, smiling as I saw the familiar holoform, and Magnus smiled back.
"Epps said I would find you here, deep in thought," he said.
"Ah, yes, just thinking about how quickly life can change," I said, purposefully ambiguous. The noise level in the mess hall had fallen again, and it wasn't entirely because there were fewer people eating now.
"Oh?" Magnus said, and something in his expression made me frown - a flash of nervousness. I wondered what he could have to be nervous about, and then I narrowed my eyes as I realized.
"He was lying. You did know."
"About what?" Magnus tried to play innocent.
"Oh don't give me that - why else would he lay all the groundwork first, and then dump such a ridiculous job in my lap? Anyone else he would've asked ahead of time, but with you telling him it would be better not to, he'd stay silent," I accused. Magnus shifted uncomfortably for a moment, then hung his head.
"Alright, yes, I knew," he said with a sigh, and I glared at him.
"You realize, of course, that if I become some sort of liaison to Earth, I won't be spending near so much time up on Ganymede?" I asked.
"Yes, but unfortunately I cannot put my wants over the benefits of having you in such a position," Magnus said seriously, and I sighed.
"Of course not," I grumbled, then pushed myself up from the table. "Walk with me?" I asked him, and Magnus nodded, getting up and following me out of the mess hall. Eyeing his alt form sitting unassumingly outside, I contemplated turning 'walk' into 'drive', but then decided I wanted to stretch my legs a little. I transformed, and behind me, Magnus's holoform disappeared as he, too, transformed. He looked over at me once he finished transforming, and I nodded and started walking, Magnus beside me. It seemed my presence in the mess hall that morning had done more than I'd thought, as there weren't half as many stares today as there had been yesterday when I was driving around with Optimus.
I really was perfect as a liaison between the humans and Cybertronians, I realized as we walked. From the Cybertronian point of view, I was a human who was now one of them, and involved with one of them. I had proven myself knowledgeable about them, and willing to learn what I didn't already know. Some of their more complex social beliefs would probably be forever beyond me, but with Magnus's help, I would be able to understand more of them than any other human.
From the human perspective, I was a Cybertronian that had spent enough time on Earth to fool even my own race into thinking I was human. I understood their culture more than any other Cybertronian, because I had supposedly been there for the formation of most of it. I could explain Cybertronians to them in terms they would understand, and I could explain them to the Cybertronians.
From both sides, it was a perfect proposition. No one else could do the job quite so well, not at this time. Sam was good, but he was a human, with a human perspective. Certain Cybertronian aspects still escaped him, and when it came down to it, the human governments still saw him as a random boy trying to tell them how to do their job. He didn't have the authority that I would in their eyes. Lennox was better, but his loyalty was to his country. He was seen as being on the human's side, and not the Cybertronian's, and that made some of the Cybertronians wary of him, and the humans to assume that he would back them up in the end. Whether or not he would I wasn't about to bet on, but that wasn't what counted.
"Fuck," I said finally, sighing, and Magnus looked over at me as I stopped walking. "I hate being backed into a corner that I literally cannot get out of without totally destroying my life. You do realize that, right?"
"I know that you hate being in an important position less," Magnus said. "If we had given you the option, you would have flat-out refused."
"You know me far too well," I said with a sigh, and Magnus grinned.
"I try," he said.
"Yeah, well, if this is how you get when you try at something, let's hope you never decide you want to try and take over the Autobots, cuz Optimus'll have absolutely no chance," I said with a snort. Magnus chuckled.
"Fortunately for him, I dislike leadership positions as much as you." he said.
"Which is why you conspired to get me in one. Great. Thanks." I said sarcastically, and Magnus's grin drooped slightly. "Oh stop that, I'm teasing." I leaned over and gave him a light kiss. He quickly deepened it, only to break it a few moments later as someone did the Cybertronian equivalent of clearing their throat nearby. We looked over to find Prowl giving us an arched look.
"Optimus would like to see you both before the meeting this morning," he said, then turned on his heel and walked away.
"Well good morning to you, too, Prowl," I grumbled.
"He's just grumpy over the reminder that it's down to him and Ratchet as the single officers," Magnus said with a chuckle, and I laughed in reply.
"Maybe they should get together and solve the issue?" I joked in reply, and Magnus made a face.
"They'd kill each other," he said.
"Or they'd bond over the burden of dead mechs that they've lost, either in the med bay or by sending them into battle. It could be terribly romantic and full of angst," I said, sighing dramatically.
"You know, I could've sworn Prowl said Optimus wanted to talk to us," Magnus said with a grimace, heading off, and I followed him, laughing.
It wasn't far to the hanger where Optimus was, which, I realized when I entered and saw the energon on the table, was also the hanger we were going to have our meeting in shortly. Optimus invited us to sit, and we both did so, snagging some energon as we did so.
"What's up?" I asked once we were settled.
"I wanted to speak to you about the meeting we will be having shortly," Optimus said. "Prowl and I have decided that it is, perhaps, best if we tell the whole truth. At this point, anymore lies or half-lies will only further damage our relations with the humans should they be discovered." He looked at me when he said that, and I nodded.
"You're probably right. Humans can understand being lied to, but they're not too fond of being lied to multiple times, especially if they think they've shown you no reason not to trust them," I said.
"Exactly our thoughts," Optimus said with a nod.
"Though, just to clarify, the truth doesn't include telling them about the whole alternate reality thing, does it?" I asked, and Optimus chuckled.
"No, it doesn't," he said, then glanced at Magnus. "It does, however, include Primus. I don't know just what Magnus has explained to you, though, and I didn't want you to appear surprised at an inopportune moment during the meeting and destroy your cover story." Magnus snorted.
"Don't bother, she knows," he said, and Optimus scowled.
"Magnus -" he started.
"She already knew," Magnus interrupted. "I didn't disobey your order. She up and asked me about Primus not long after I showed her who and what I was." Optimus glanced at me in surprise.
"I - see. It appears I have still not quite grasped how much you know about us, Terry," he said.
"Don't feel bad, it took Magnus awhile, too, and he got to play 20 questions with me," I said with a smile. "But don't worry, on the off chance that you say anything new and surprising to me during the meeting, I'll keep my expression neutral and badger one of you over the comms."
"Very well," Optimus said. "Then may I ask your opinion of how you think the humans will react? To Primus, I mean." He seemed honestly curious, so I thought about my answer for a bit.
"Favourably, most likely," I finally said. "Having a religion will make you more real, and the fact that it's monotheistic will allow them to relate to it."
"Technically, it's not," Optimus pointed out. "Unicron is a god, and even if none of us follow him, we won't deny him that."
"No, but the humans will see him as a parallel to the devil or satan. You can stress the fact that he's a god if you want, but that would just create unnecessary conflict," I said. "When it comes down to it, though, I don't think they'll make a big issue out of it if you don't. Well, the normal ones won't. The strongly religious will naturally have an issue with it, but there's nothing you could do about them, anyways. Sooner or later they'd decide you needed to be converted and 'saved', whether or not they knew you had your own religion." I shrugged, and Optimus nodded.
"Very well," he said. "That's all until the meeting, then." I was surprised he wasn't asking if I'd thought about his proposed liaison job, but he must have decided to give me some time to think about it. I figured I'd let him. It wasn't long now until the meeting, anyways, so Magnus and I choose to stay, chatting quietly to each other as Optimus went over some datapads. Soon enough people and mechs began drifting in, and then it was time to start.
It was an oddly straight forward affair, all thing considered. Optimus prefaced it with a little speech about how they asked for the truth and now, for better or worse, they were getting it. Then he let me and Magnus have the floor, and with the help of the others, we told them everything about my little trip through time, including the events preceding and following it. Then Optimus got to explain the importance of Unicron, Primus, and Vector. I found myself glad that Vector wasn't there for that explanation, as Optimus let a little bit of his awe for the mech seep through - as young as he was, Vector was still one of the First Thirteen, and a legend to the modern generation of Cybertronians.
The people from NEST just sat and listened in silence for most of the explanation, only occasionally asking for clarification, which I usually supplied, with the subtle approval of Optimus. Finally, all the explanations were over, and the floor was turned over to the humans.
"Alright, one thing I don't understand," Epps said after several minutes of questions. "You can't find this Fallen guy, but this Herald chick could...and so can Lifesong?"
"No, I can't. I just -" I paused, thinking back to the events of the day. My sensors, I realized now, had not been screaming at me about the time bridge. I mean, they had been, but that wasn't all. "I...just picked up the time bridge." I continued shakily. Epps frowned. "Sorry, it's still very unsettling after all this time," I excused. Epps seemed to buy it, and Lennox spoke up with another question, something about finding the Fallen, and Optimus and Prowl had the floor. I tuned them out, and focused on my sensors. Concentrating, I began sorting through the log of that day, of the event I had detected in SanFran, picking out the time bridge and leaving the other thing they'd been screaming at me about - a higher priority, it seemed, than even a time bridge, but I couldn't get my systems to explain what exactly it was.
I had a hunch, however, and with a sick feeling, I turned my sensors outwards, around Earth, and told them to scan for the same thing. I figured if they could scream that loudly about something half-way across the country, anywhere else on Earth wouldn't be a problem. Unfortunately, I was right - not only about the distance I could scan, but about what I was scanning for. They picked up something in southern Africa, and when I tried to hone in on it a bit more, to narrow it down, I felt - a feedback, like a microphone too close to speakers, only in my sensors. What I had been scanning for was looking back at me. I yelped, cutting my sensors, and my attention snapped back to the meeting to find everyone staring at me.
"Excuse me." I jumped up and darted out of the hanger. Outside I transformed into my alt form, taking off for the less inhabited parts of the base, eventually finding my way into a storage room. Closing the door behind me, I took a deep breath and stepped into the middle of the room.
"Jazz you fragger, where the fuck are you!" I tried to remember the exact sensation I felt the two times he'd contacted me. It wasn't anything physical - my communications and sensor logs had no record of him ever having spoken to me, but there was a mental feeling there, a sense of surreality that I'd previously assumed was just my human mind trying to comprehend what was going on. Now, however, I latched onto that feeling, and lo and behold, Jazz suddenly wisped into existence in front of me, human sized and everything.
"You rang?" he asked brightly, and I stared at him.
"My body. It's the Herald's, isn't it?" I asked.
"Ooooh, you figured it out!" he said brightly.
"What the hell happened to the original occupant?" I demanded, trying not to let how freaked out I was seep into my voice.
"Oh, she's here, in the Matrix. By choice, actually. She got tired of wandering, and asked Primus to relieve her from her duties. He did," Jazz said with a shrug.
"And what, gave them to me?" My voice squeaked. "I can't even throw a decent punch, let alone fight the Fallen!"
"Despite some of the spectacular fights they got into that I'm sure Vector could describe to you, fighting someone like the Fallen isn't so much physical as it is psychological and spiritual," Jazz replied.
"I hate psychology and I'm an atheist!" I protested.
"Sure. So how am I here?" Jazz asked with a grin.
"Buh..." I paused. I'd pulled him there with my mind, out of the Matrix, an afterlife. "Oh."
"See? You have the ability, you just need to learn to used it," Jazz said, beaming brightly. I was about to snap something at him when the door opened behind me. We both turned to look, finding Magnus's hologram, currently looking a wee bit stunned. Jazz yelped.
"You saw nothing!" he said, pointing to Magnus, then disappeared.
"Uh..." Magnus said, staring at the spot Jazz had been.
"I told you I'd been talking to him," I grumbled, grabbing his arm and pulling him inside before shutting the door again.
"That was Jazz. Visiting you from the Matrix," Magnus said slowly.
"Yep, I dragged him - over? up? down? whatever - I dragged him here to have a chat," I said.
"You what?" Magnus looked at me incredulously. "From the beginning, please?" he asked plaintively.
"Um. I'm not really sure what the beginning is, to be honest," I said.
"How about from whatever made you run out of the conference room, then?" he said.
"The Fallen's in Madagascar," I replied promptly. Magnus stared at me some more, and I grimaced. "I realized, when Epps asked about the Herald and possibly me detecting the Fallen, that it wasn't just the time bridge my sensors were screaming at me about in SanFran that day. They wouldn't tell me what else they were detecting, but I had a pretty good guess, and so I tried scanning for it again. I found it in Madagascar - and then it started looking back."
"Wait. You scanned Africa. From here? That's over the horizon. You shouldn't be able to do that."
"Probably not, but apparently the Herald can do a lot of things normal mechs and femmes can't," I said, sighing. Silence for a few beats.
"You're the Herald," Magnus said, his utter disbelief audible in his voice.
"Kinda? This body is the Herald's. According to Jazz, she got tired of running around the galaxy hunting the Fallen, and asked Primus to let her rest. So he did. She went to the Matrix, and left her body behind. It somehow got onto that moon, and, well, the rest you know," I replied.
"I..." Magnus seemed at a loss for words.
"Yeah," I agreed.
"We should tell Optimus," Magnus said after a few moments.
"Yeah," I agreed. Magnus just stood there, staring at me as I looked back at him. Then, suddenly, he broke the connection and started pacing rapidly.
"You think if I convert to another religion, Primus will stop fragging with my life?" he asked as he paced, and I cackled.
"Magnus love, I don't believe in any god, and he still fucked with mine," I replied. Magnus proceeded to curse quite fluently. Then he stopped as, I'm guessing, his comm system pinged at the same time as mine. Activating it, I found myself listening to a base-wide broadcast from Prowl, informing everyone that there was a large unidentified mech attacking Antananarivo - the capital of Madagascar. I cursed and headed for the door.
"Terry -" Magnus grabbed my arm. "You don't even know how to fight. Your weapons are still in safety mode!"
"Jazz said it was mostly psychological and spiritual anyways," I said with a grimace.
"And you have even less of an idea how to wield those weapons than physical ones!" Magnus replied.
"So what, I should just let him tear up a city?" I demanded, and Magnus opened his mouth, then close it again, grimacing. "Yeah, I don't like it either."
"I'm not leaving your side," he said firmly.
"Wouldn't want you to," I said seriously, and with that, we headed out, Magnus's hologram blinking out as I exited the storage room and headed for his alt form. We both transformed, heading for where the Autobots were gathering, getting ready for a mass space bridge around the world. Prowl, of course, objected to my presence as soon as he spotted me, knowing how weak my combat skills were. I was all set to start the argument, and explanation, all over again when I felt something, reaching out to me.
Where are you want to see you crush you destroy you felt you looking for me here I am now where are you come to me -
I'd bridged on instinct, not stopping to wonder about the personal space bridge I'd just discovered I had. Magnus, who had been resting a hand on my shoulder, came with me - straight into chaos.
I'd never been to Madagascar before, let alone their capital, but I was fairly sure this was one of Antananarivo's worse days. The sky was black with smoke, fires raged everywhere, and the cries and prayers of the injured rose from destroyed buildings. In the midst of it all stood the Fallen, twice as tall as Optimus and as proportionately bulky as Megatron. Even amoungst all the destruction, he was clearly visible, pure black in a way that only black holes ever managed, his only features visible thanks to the fire pouring from inside of him, escaping where it could - through his optics, his mouth, joints, a grill on the front. He looked like hell on Earth, and he turned to look straight at me as soon as I appeared.
There you are looking for you here you are now to crush destroy burn end this now -
I reeled back at the mental onslaught, and Magnus caught me, his arms wrapped around me, helping to ground me. I reached out, desperately hoping to get some last minute advice from Jazz as the Fallen turned fully in my direction and started advancing. Instead, I touched...someone else.
A neverending cycle, destroy or be destroyed. A curse, a gift, they thought we could settle their differences for them, but we are locked forever in combat as they are. We are tied, linked, forever at odds. No more, no more. I will not fight, I will not die, I will not continue the cycle. He wants it to end as much as I, but neither of us can walk away while the other exists. Only that untouched by them/blessed by them can break the cycle. But not yet, not now, not here. You are not ready.
Light, exploding outwards, washing over everything. I saw a ghost before me, an image of the golden femme that Vector had shown us, reaching out a hand to the Fallen, who froze in place. Then the light was gone, and the Fallen seemed to collapse in on himself, bridging in his own way, disappearing into nothingness, but not before leaving me with a parting shot.
Freedom so close close close you will deliver life you will fail crush burn destroy him and then you -
I was left standing, Magnus's arms wrapped around me, in the midst of a burning and destroyed Antananarivo, just as the other Autobots bridged in, weapons drawn. They looked around in confusion.
"What happened?" Sideswipe asked.
"I don't know, but I feel like now would be a really good time to fall unconscious," I said, feeling more than a little ill, despite not actually being able to be ill anymore.
"Don't you dare," Magnus said from behind me. "I'm not explaining all this." I groaned.
Despite his refusal to explain, Magnus gave Optimus a quick explanation, basically just saying that the Fallen was gone, and then rushed me back to Ganymede as quickly as possible. Ratchet, and the other Autobot medics, had bridged down to deal with aftermath, so there was no one to look me over in med bay like Magnus wanted, but I assured him was fine, if a little tired. He tried to bundle me off to our quarters to recharge at that admission, but I refused to be left alone, so he let me join him in the command center, where he was helping to organize the cleanup. Some of the other mechs in the command center gave me a strange look, but I ignored them. I had other things to think about, such as what exactly had happened in Antananarivo.
Everything was a bit of a blurr, including the conversation that had gone on in my head without my say-so. I was fairly sure it had been the Fallen and the Herald, both speaking to me, but also to each other. They were trying to tell me something - something to do with me - but I found it hard to focus on their words. I could clearly identify the events in sequence, but the details, the exact words, refused to make sense. When I found myself puzzling over why Magnus had his arms wrapped around me I decided to give it a rest, and found a comfortable position to fall into recharge. When I woke again, it was in Magnus's and my quarters, with a quiet conversation going on not far away. Looking over, I found Optimus, Vector, and Magnus speaking softly, seated in Magnus's little sitting area. Vector noticed I was awake first, looking over at me and smiling faintly.
"Perhaps you should try to explain. Magnus doesn't seem to know much of what happened in Antananarivo," he said, alerting the other two to the fact that I was awake.
"I'm not sure I know anything more," I said, sitting up and shaking myself slightly before joining the three mechs.
"Considering all I know was we showed up, there was light, a ghost of the femme that Vector showed us, and then the ghost, light, and the Fallen disappeared, I think you're bound to know more than me," Magnus said.
"There's not much more to know, to be honest," I said, shaking my head. "I mean, there were...voices. But..." I trailed off.
"Voices?" Optimus asked curiously.
"Yeah. The Fallen. And I think the Herald," I said thoughtfully.
"I didn't hear anything," Magnus commented.
"No, it was in my head. The Fallen was going on about destroying me, and...ending it." With some rest behind me, things were slowly sliding into place, making sense. "They're tired of fighting. Both of them. It's why the Herald asked Primus to let her return to the Matrix. The Fallen couldn't give up, though, and so they're stuck fighting."
"But you said the Herald went to the Matrix," Magnus pointed out.
"She didn't die, though. She went willingly, just gave up her body and left. I think that means she's not as restricted as others in the Matrix. She can still come back. And the fact that this is her natural body is, I think, the reason I have 'ties to the afterlife that others don't', to quote Jazz," I said.
"Her natural body?" Optimus asked, looking startled.
"Oh right, I didn't have time to share that particular revelation," I mused, and explained to them about my encounter with Jazz after the meeting with the NEST personnel, and what he'd told me. Vector seemed both disturbed and fascinated, while Optimus just looked disturbed.
"Does this means she could possess you?" he asked. "Or that you're possessing her?"
"Um. Both and neither?" I said. "I mean, this is her body, but she left it behind. So technically I'm not possessing her, but I think she could return if she wanted to, and take over. I think she did a bit in Madagascar, and that's where the light came from. But she doesn't want to - she wants to break the cycle. She wants to stop fighting, and so does the Fallen. Except they can't, unless - what was it she said? 'Only that untouched by them blessed by them can break the cycle'." I couldn't make much sense out of it, but Vector seemed to understand right away.
"Well that's pretty much impossible," he commented. "I mean, even if they are Cybertronian gods, they're still gods. Anything that interacts with any of their race, especially the Fallen and the Herald, is touched by them. And anything blessed by them is obviously touched by them."
"What about something from another reality where they don't exist? Would that still count as being touched by them, even if it had interacted with a Cybertronian?" I asked. Vector frowned, and Optimus and Magnus went still.
"That would probably do it," he said. "I don't know much about different realities, that was Fracture's area as the Guardian of the Prime Realities, but I remember him commenting about how different realities repel each other or something. I'd assume individual things from different realities would repel each other, too. But then if it was blessed by them..." Vector trailed off. "It's a contradiction in terms."
"No. It's not," Optimus said. "In order to break a divine cycle, you would need something untouched by a divine, otherwise it would get caught up in the cycle. But in order to affect that cycle, you would have to be touched by those divine involved, or else everything you'd do would be futile, unable to alter the events because you wouldn't be tied to them in any way. So you would needed something both untouched and touched by them to break the cycle."
"Exactly, a contradiction," Vector said, giving Optimus an odd look.
"A contradiction that's sitting right in front of you," I said softly, and Vector turned to me with a frown.
"What?" he asked.
"We never told you, but I'm from another reality," I said. "And I'm in the body of the Herald. Untouched, repelling things from this reality - and yet forced into the body of the Herald of fucking Primus, presumably blessed by him."
"Oh," Vector said after a few moments.
"And you, in the future, had something to do with this," I said, glaring at him.
"Most of the First Thirteen did." The new voice startled us all, and we turned to find a new mech suddenly standing in the room, by the window. He was as tall as Magnus, but slender, wiry in a way that reminded me of the stereotypical high school geeks who had big wire-rim glasses and went to chess club. His plating was green and gold, lightweight, but with a shimmer to it that made me suspect a forcefield. He had no visible weapons, and I suspected that was because he got by on charm - for all that his face was elongated and thin, there was some indefinably quality to him that made me want to trust him.
"Fracture!" Vector exclaimed happily.
"Hello Vector," the new mech, presumably Fracture, said with a smile. "I see I finally get to find out what happened on your first time trip." Vector grinned.
"Well, my instruction in time bridging was prefaced with 'don't tell anyone about your jumps'," he said, and Fracture snorted.
"I'll refrain from comment on that, to protect the time continuum," he said. "Besides, messing with your past, present, and future is not why I'm here."
"Yes, let's get to the reason why you are here, and why you pulled me from my reality and dumped me here," I said pleasantly. Magnus started slightly, probably not having figured that part out yet. It wasn't too hard of a jump for me to make, though - if someone had told me one of the First Thirteen was a guardian of reality or whatever, I would have figured it out sooner.
"You already know why," Fracture said. "To end the cycle that Primus and Unicron began with the Herald and the Fallen."
"Yes, but why? Why not just let them go on fighting for all eternity, like they were meant to?" I asked, waving my hand through the air vaguely.
"Because they do not want to, and in the end, if they continue, their combat will engulf the galaxy, driving it to destroy itself. Chaos versus order, on a galactic scale," Fracture said.
"Wait, I think I've heard this before," I said, eyeing Fracture. "Can I just tell them to get the hell out of our galaxy?" Fracture laughed.
"An admirable sentiment, but unfortunately the situation is not quite the same as in that delightful television show," he said, proving that he knew a fair bit about Earth culture. "They are the only two of their kind, and they fight not only for ideological reasons, but also because they have to. Telling them to go elsewhere would just doom that elsewhere. The fighting must be stopped. For this reason, the remaining members of the first thirteen conspired to convince Primus to let the Herald leave her duties, to go to the Matrix and leave her body behind. Then we left it on the moon - for you."
"But how did you know to leave it for me, if you had to pull me in from another reality?" I asked.
"Vector. He showed up with all the necessary information," Fracture said with a shrug. "He still hasn't explained to me how he got it, though I suspect his presence here, now, may have something to do with it." Vector just shrugged, and I frowned.
"OK. But then how did you know to get me?" I asked.
"It's something that I've been investigating for awhile," Fracture said, his gaze skipping to Magnus. "Having a pair of sparkmates in different realities leaves a rather...distinctive trail, but I was having difficulty tracking it down until recently - I suspect because you were not technically alive in your reality. Truthfully, I didn't know you were the one we were waiting for until you opened that door on Earth's moon." Fracture glared at Vector at that.
"I was told by Primus not to say anything!" Vector said defensively, and once again Fracture snorted.
"Or you just enjoy being contrary," he said.
"I don't. Now." Vector looked confused, then frowned. "I think I will, though, if all time travel is this fragging confusing."
"Remind me to show you every piece of human literature on time travel ever written to help confirm that," I told him cheerfully, and Vector grimaced. I chuckled, then turned back to Fracture. "OK, so you just grabbed me to solve the whole sparkmates across realities thing, then found out I was the one Vector had told you guys to design that facility on the moon for. This is, somehow, making a teensy bit of sense."
"You're not the only one that's had trouble grasping it, believe me," Fracture said with a grimace.
"Heh. Ok. So then one last question," I said.
"Go ahead," Fracture said with a nod.
"Why are you here, telling us all this?" I asked. Fracture chuckled.
"Because someone, my dear, has to teach you how to break the cycle. And tell Ratchet how to fix Vector's time bridge, since it's disrupting the timestream and preventing him from bridging in for some time in either direction. If it's not fixed soon, he won't be able to prevent the coming apocalypse on Earth," Fracture said. "I was fortunate enough to run into an alternate reality where you had Wheeljack instead of Ratchet - the fix is relatively easy."
"That's some good news, at least," I said with a sigh.