A/N: I have never, nor do I think I would ever put so many twists on one poor story and so many traumatized Autobots, and prolly Decepticons again!
With that said, I do not own Transformers.
Oh yes, another twist, and the plot thickens. Enjoy!
Bright green optics stared out across the endless cosmos as he neared his prey. They flared as the feeling had hit him like a thousand stars and he was furious. One for not knowing where it was before, but even more that it seemed to grow in power. He was currently stalking a supernova, something he enjoyed consuming. Usually he went for planets and moons, once in a while, he would even go for large meteors that housed vast amounts of ore, something to sustain him and stars were far too unstable to him for him to even try, plus they were huge compared to him, but Supernova remnants were perfect and like a delicacy to him because he could drift in them until they were gone, giving him constant energy. His stalking stopped when the pulse hit him again threateningly. The universe was so vast, and he knew the pulse was really, really far away. He had traveled between galaxies before, being as ageless as he felt, the dankness of space between galaxies was usually boring. He had seen all space had to offer, usually they were blind to his seeing optic, but if he switched his vision when he sensed an anomaly, he would spot it, running his visual sensors over every code he knew until whatever it was he had sensed made itself into his vision. Some of the anomalies he had set his optics on were beautiful, some highly bright, some not, some ugly and some were spectacular. This is usually what drew his attention to the Supernova remnants, which also meant he would regain all of his power and then some.
The Matrix had been created by Primus, given to one of the planet's inhabitants to be hidden and kept from the prying senses of the other. It worked, it only emitted some power, which the other could sense, but never find, and now, it was double, which, if Wheeljack had sent Hot Rod back into time as himself and not Rodimus, Unicron probably never ever would have found. It was like a beacon calling him. A beacon he'd been longing to get his giant hands on since he could last remember. He knew what direction it was coming from, now all he needed to do was get there. Well that really wasn't the problem; it was the vastness of space he had to cross to get there, which in all actuality was more than he even sometimes thought he could comprehend. And it was boring. The cosmic web of galaxies was distanced, and he knew by the coordinates that his mind was starting to hone in on meant it was in what he had come to name the 'Starburst Vector' of the vastness. Well, now that he had a general idea, he decided a better way of travel, and it consumed less power, also. As he decided on his next move, metal against metal started to scrape, although the vacuum of space hid the actual sound from only him, his round body deforming from being so round, and he started to unfold. Slowly, just because of his sheer size, he folded out, his arms emerging, his legs, and his ring broke apart before moving to his back as giant wings. No longer did a behemoth of giants take the smaller planet's place, but this one looked far more evil than a little planet did, even if the planet that moved was conspicuous as it was.
Of course, Unicron wasn't the only one to be alerted to the appearance of the sudden burst of energy and it woke the planet deemed dead, destroyed by war. In fact, it was still very much alive just… asleep. No one knew about it, however, even Optimus, who was told about Primus, but Primus was like a God to them, so he only assumed it to be some kinda myth. It was no myth as Cybertron started to shake violently. The molten liquid substance that flowed over the planet suddenly started to seep away as if something was sucking it dry. The ones left on the planet were suddenly aware of the instant shortage of the flow of life and beat hasty retreats, succumbing themselves to the vastness of space or to distant planets, not knowing where to head, but hoping that Optimus Prime was somewhere out there and very much alive, some just hoped he was very much dead.
Primus knew there was trouble and knew that if he knew about the Matrix, deep in his own spark Unicron knew, wherever he was. The planet continued to shake and rattle, as if Primus was flexing all he could in his ball shaped form. What had caused the surge in the matrix's power? He was confused and a little aggravated. Had someone who wasn't supposed to have it gotten to it? Who knew, but he did know he needed to rectify the situation, no matter what the outcome, because Unicron only needed the Matrix to destroy it, consuming their own silent war. Nothing could stop him. Which spelt very bad fate for the universe that he now strolled through, consuming everything he possibly could. This was bad, and the only thing to wake the other sleeping giant.
Tampering with time and space does have its consequences, even if you had no idea that the consequences even existed. It was like lying to hide a lie, eventually it would catch up to itself. Of course there were always consequences, but none of the Autobots or Decepticons would ever be able to understand what was going on now. They didn't even know who or what Unicron was, so this would be a new surprise. A really huge surprise. Primus could have only sighed as he started break orbit with his current star, deciding also to go to the direction that the Matrix called from. For the two warring giants, time wasn't the issue, it was space. It was the pair of Matrix's.
Above all, the two giants weren't the only ones to realize that something fishy was going on in that particular galaxy. It was the second time that the Ancient Cybertronian awoke to a rift in time and space. He knew it was Cybertronians by the pulse that was emitted when it happened each time, also. It was only to wake him fully from his watching sleep if such a thing ever occurred, now considering himself silly for even thinking that wouldn't. This time when he woke, he stayed awake, his body grinding as he moved, his pale blue optics coming online as he woke fully, curious as to what was causing the rifts like that. He wasn't far from the source, maybe a galaxy or two, but that still wasn't right. He was the guardian of time and space, as given his job by Primus himself, so he, himself was also a legend in Cybertronian history, also considered a myth. He also decided to head towards the galaxy the rift came from, he wanted to make sure there was a damn good reason why any Cybertronian was messing with time. Could the race really be that far advanced now? How long has it been? For the time and space keeper, both time and space attracted him, but the time being the one to call him, since materialization wasn't all that unheard of.
Back on Earth, the Autobots had since gone to the 'Area 51' place and were watching as a ship was coming in uncontrolled. Even with Rodimus' best efforts, the ship was apparently doomed to land. Well at least that's one thing that was going the way he knew. It just crashed in a different place. Well two, if Optimus was gonna die again. Was he doomed also? This bothered the younger leader quite a bit, and he refused to speak about it, hoping that if he kept his trap shut, it wouldn't happen. He was Rodimus, perfectly able to protect Optimus if he had to, lord knows he'd done it many times before, and even with less firepower, so he didn't allow the thought bother him too much, which let him concentrate on the incoming fireball that was… headed right for them. Shit, Move, move!
He reached out for Optimus' arm and suddenly jerked it back, and he got a scowl and a glare from the leader who hadn't been watching. His face softened at the sight on Rodimus' face. It was of horror, and instantly he turned his head to look, finding what Rodimus was reaching at him for, "Primus, scatter, Autobots!" Well that was a new one. All looked to the leader in question to the sudden command, and upon seeing his face and where he was looking, they all looked and nearly tripped over themselves to escape the incoming ship.
The twins did trip, however, tangling up before they both sat back smacking each other in the arm, aggravated because they had tripped over one another, then their heads, then each other, faster and faster until both were looking away, trying to keep their faces from the fray, while their hands flailed out in front of them, the sound of metal clanging and hitting made Rodimus and everyone else look up and all of them but Rodimus sorta gave them a stupid look, all of them quirking a brow at the odd behavior, even Rodimus did for a short second, wondering why of all times they chose to act like sparklings at a time like this, who it suddenly dawned on him what they were doing, "Yo, you two, quit the slapfest and get your afts in gear!" What was wrong with them? Did they go kamikaze on the Autobots thinking they could get hit by a really big ship and survive? Man, that ship was bigger than he remembered. Holy shit, it could move, too.
Both of the slappers stopped suddenly upon hearing the rather loud command from Rodimus and looked to him before both suddenly transformed and scattered, hitting each other as they drove down the road, one trying to knock the other into a spin. Rodimus facepalmed, already out of the way from the incoming ship, along with everyone else. Those two were sometimes the strangest bots he had ever come to know. Vicious on the battlefield, but… well otherwise, they were confusing at times, other times no one knew what was going to come from either of them at any particular point, and everyone just knew to be wary when they were alone together and grinning madly. That instantly spelt trouble for someone. And that someone didn't know they were the target until it was too late. Rodimus shook his head at their antics. Why did they do that again? It was… for the lack of a better word… odd. And the times they chose were sometimes stupid.
Rodimus and the other Autobots dove to the right and left as the Ark barely missed a building then them as it hit the ground. It hit in such a way that it picked back up off the ground and then flew through the air for another mile before landing again only to bounce up again and fly another few hundred feet before finally sliding to a stop farther away than they had predicted. All of them waited until the dust settled, causing them to blow extra air from their systems to clear the debris from their intakes and they slowly stood up, looking out towards the horizon at the big dust cloud that started to settle, "Let's hit it," Rodimus said, transforming. Everyone followed suit, tearing into the direction of the Ark.
"Prowl?" Wheeljack suddenly asked as he onlined suddenly. He remembered incoming, the fact that though they argued that Hot Rod may have been right, Prowl's logic systems didn't want to listen. They had no problem entering any other atmosphere, why would this be any different?
"Prowl?" Wheeljack called again, moving to stand, finding that he was one aching unit. He looked to the source of the pain, finding that he had some kind of slab of metal protruding out his abdomen. Well wasn't that just Prime. Thank Primus Ratchet was already here, and he already knew the cranky medic would not be pleased. He started going through the wreckage of the interior of the ship until he even came across the bodies of the twins. He cringed, somewhat from pain, other from mortification, moving past them to the controls of the ship, he lifted a large piece of sheet metal and flung it to the side, revealing it's hidden prize. A very offline prize.
For the love of Primus. "Prowl, how do you manage to get into these things?" he asked the offline bot as he started to pick him up and move him, getting him positioned so that he could check his injuries. He may well have just been knocked out by the crash. Of course, he was no Medic, but he could do on the spot fixes if need be, but found nothing in his scanners to show that Prowl was offlined permanently, or under any such danger. He stood erect and moved towards the busted windshield, scrutinizing Teletraan One's damage, he looked up to find a bunch of vehicles he had never seen before coming at him. A secondary scan kicked on and he realized who it was. His scans were far more advanced than any other. It was a special ability of Scientists and Engineers. Wait, that couldn't be right. He scanned again, his brows furrowed in frustration as he looked back to the bodies of the twins, he immediately scanned them, but still found them offline. How in the Pit?
Optimus and Rodimus were the first to stop. He scanned Optimus, relieved of who he found. The second larger bot with him, however only made him raise his optic ridge really high. It gave off a small signature like the other two, and he was vaguely familiar with who he was, but he wasn't sure. The signature was different and he emitted the Matrix, just as Prime did. Well that was baffling as all Pit. His optics caught the sight of a pair of vehicles that slid to a stop, both of them transformed and instantly looked at Wheeljack, who was dumbfounded, knowing who they were immediately. He was pointing to them stupidly, then the other arm to the other set of twins.
"Wheeljack!" they both chimed, and he felt his processor crackle a little. His finger twitched. Now, Wheeljack was the epitome of strange and unusual, but this was beyond that. He stared at them as they called his name, he couldn't put together a word as his processor caused his optic to twitch. Even the fins on the sides of his face blinked slightly as he barely squeaked from his vocal processors.
"Wow, I think you guys broke poor Wheeljack's core processor," Rodimus chuckled, looking at the confused bot with a smirk, "Better hope it doesn't offline him, we need him and I owe him a few more smacks before I am fully happy with my revenge."
What? Revenge? It barely registered in Wheeljack's processor as to what the younger bot was saying, but he couldn't put the words together to formulate exactly what he was saying. His mind was still trying to figure out the twins.
"Looks that way," they both grinned, walking up to the confused bot as they put their arms around him on each side and both stared at him. He still was speechless. He wasn't sure if ghosts of Cybertronians existed, but he felt he was being targeted by a pair of them. The pair of ghosts no one in the galaxy would want to have haunting them. They both still stared. What was up with that? Why are they staring like they were scheming against him? He felt so uneasy about what was going on as he didn't move or even acknowledge their presence. Optimus looked over with concern playing on his faceplates, Ratchet also running scans on him before he stood up from the form of Prowl and started stalking over, and wow did he look pissed. Both of the twins released the Chief Mechanical Engineer and darted away before the Medic could wring them new necks and his optics went over Wheeljack, each time they changed a bit in color as he ran different scans, "You idiots," Ratchet squawked at the twins as he brought his hand up and it transformed into a very small needle and he leaned in and found his target, he moved and reached behind Wheeljack's shoulder and plastered the thing. Wheeljack's optics shuttered a few times before they finally focused again, "That hurt!" He cradled where he had gotten the wake up shot and grimaced at Ratchet.
"I never thought in a million vorns that your processor could actually fail by pure illogic." The medic mused and his finger reformed as he back up slightly, "I know it's hard to understand, by Primus, I agree, but we will explain it," his attention suddenly going to the leaders, then he started back towards Prowl.
Wheeljack still wasn't sure how or what to say. He looked at Rodimus and again, he felt he could go nuts, because this was Hot Rod. He was a lot bigger than he ever remembered him being. How was he here? He was told that Hot Rod and his team had left Cybertron a few days after they did, there was no way that they were going to make it here faster than the Ark, besides, they were going the opposite direction.
"You know, Optimus, if it made Wheeljack go on the fritz, I think we better secure poor Prowl," Rodimus couldn't help stifling a chuckle as he looked to where Ratchet glared up at him. He knew full well what the younger bot leant, and he knew he was right. Ratchet knew that as soon as he onlined and saw the situation he was going to go out cold again. He snorted and stood, "Let's wait till we get him back to base before waking him," he sure wasn't looking forward to having to deal with the over-logically thinking Chief Security Officer right now.
"Someone fix Wheeljack," he grumbled as he stood erect, waving a hand in his direction where he was still frozen.
Rodimus moved to the CME and smirked at him. Ahh, Payback, but oh how subtle. He whacked Wheeljack upside the head, which made him look up at him, "Wha – What was that for!?"
"Because you're being a loon, wake up," he said playfully before smirking, "and no, you're not dreaming,"
"What?" Wheeljack asked as he rubbed his sore head. Where did the youngling learn to speak like that? Why did he give off residual Matrix signatures? Why was his and the other two's signatures so faded? Why did Hot Rod act like he had just seen him yesterday? Too many why's. Too many what's. Too many how's. Too much… period. Wheeljack shook his head softly as he took a step from his frozen position, "Yo-You're Hot Rod, right?" Wheeljack needed answers. His curiosity only fed his desire to learn.
"Was, Wheeljack, it would be Rodimus," the younger leader spoke with an assuring tone. He sure never sounded that… adult before, "Rodimus Prime."
Ok, the Rodimus he could accept as some bizarre evolution. "Pr-Prime?"
"It's complicated, and before I go on any further, I will tell you now that it was all your idea,"
Well that perplexed the poor CME even more. My idea? "Huh? I don't get it?"
"I know," Rodimus smiled at him and then turned and frowned when he felt optics upon them all. They weren't friendly, either. He scanned the area further out, father than the present Autobots but came up empty, thinking it was just a glitch when nothing appeared in his vision, but it wasn't. The Decepticon cloaked himself well, and had also become curious as to what was going on. He moved away, determined to follow them, even though he thought that he hadn't been picked up, he was. It wasn't the first time that Rodimus noticed an anomaly in his scanners, but this third time was making him believe he needed Ratchet to check his scanners out.