Author's Notes:
KisaraCrystal: Well, I really love how in Animated Grimlock was the big puppy dog, so I decided to really play it up. Glad you like it.
Sinead: Maybe they did. Grimlock was one of the robots created on Earth, so some of the other readers were wondering how I'd work them in. Don't worry, by not seeing the series you won't miss too much more.
Sweetyamiryugigirl: I try to update all of my stories quickly, but my muse can be stubborn sometimes. Sari and Megatron's relationship is one of the things you'll have to wait for the explanation of. As for "priestess", I assume you mean from where I mentioned it in the prologue. That's actually a reference to my movie-verse fic where you meet Sari acting as a priestess for the gods Primus and Primacon. That particular Sari is actually from a completely different world than either canon Sari or Detroit 2050 Sari.
Happyfish: As I explained to Sweetyamiyugigirl, I try to update all of my stories relatively quickly, but my muse if very fickle. At least you're not waiting three months this time.
Chapter 5: Memory
Megatron was still in a foul mood the next evening when Isaac came into the lab. He'd lost control of his new soldier and what's more, according to the building log, Sari had been scouting out the Sumdac Industries holdings. This raised red flags with him since she'd never had any interest in the company before. She was up to something.
"Good evening Magnus!" Isaac said cheerily.
Megatron pasted a false smile on his Companion's face. He'd learned long ago to not even attempt to manipulate his Handler's facial plates since the macabre parody of a smile freaked Isaac out. "Good evening Professor. What had you out of the lab all day?"
Isaac booted up the computer. "You will never guess what I have discovered! Well, what my exploration teams discovered."
"And what is that?" Megatron said with false interest.
"They found a large metallic ruin on a small island out in Lake Erie. I think it may be the rest of your body!"
This made Megatron take notice. "You are sure?" This time, the excitement was not faked.
"Not completely, but initial results indicate the same type of energy readings as your Handler's head. I do believe it is the rest of your Handler!"
"It must be uncovered immediately!" Megatron thundered.
Isaac looked taken aback by Megatron's tone. Too late the Decepticon realized that he'd spoken with too much authority infused in his voice. "I apologize for the rude tone, but I am ready to return to my body."
Isaac smiled and nodded. "I can understand. I will have my drones on it immediately!"
Megatron waited until Isaac's back was turned before he smiled evilly. Soon, very soon. It didn't matter that his first soldier prototype was a failure. He would still boot up the second. Maybe his Soundwave model would prove more willing to listen to his commands.
The Autobots stared at Grimlock.
"Come again?" Optimus said.
"Me Grimlock have tweeny sister." He cocked his head and scratched it, his Handler going down to meet his hand rather than having his hand meet his head. "Come think of it, me Grimlock think she love Bumblebee-bot too."
The Autobots and Sari were speechless. "But that's impossible." Bee said. "He can't be Cybertronian and have a tween sister. . . . Can he?"
Prowl nodded agreement. "This isn't right. Something is wrong."
Grimlock looked around with an expression of confusion. "Something wrong with me Grimlock?"
Ratchet cast a look at Prime. It was Bulkhead who answered however. "No, we mean that's there's something wrong with this entire situation."
Prime sighed. "Something is really wrong. Grimlock, with your permission, I'd like Ratchet to run a complete system check."
Ratchet looked up at his leader. "System check?"
"I want us to be sure that Grimlock is actually Cybertronian. Too many things are out of place for him to really be one of us. He has no idea what he is, no affiliation, and now he has a sister who we can only guess is human."
Ratchet nodded and looked over to Grimlock. "What'do'ya say big fella? Gonna let me see under your hood?"
Grimlock looked confused. "But me Grimlock have no hood."
"It's a figure of speech." Ratchet replied grimly.
"Oh. Okay. Me Grimlock let you look."
Sari went home that night with a million questions whirling around her head. Ratchet's system check - the equivalent of a full medical exam for the Companion - had turned up some really interesting and really frightening stuff.
Firstly, Grimlock-Companion was a true cyborg. According to Ratchet's analysis, his body was Technorganic on a scale that was not even seen on Cybertron. He had not only the typical nano machines, but also an artificial heart and part of his brain. Several other organs including his liver and part of his stomach were artificial as well. "I can't be sure," Ratchet had said, "But it looks to me that someone rebuilt him. He also has scarring that indicates puncture wounds over his heart and stomach."
Sari had seen round holes like those before. They were bullet wounds. She didn't say anything to Ratchet, but the more she looked, the more she had to agree with him. Someone had rebuilt Grimlock-Companion.
His Handler also showed signs of being built instead of the traditional growth present in Handlers. Ratchet had explained that Handlers and Companions both grew, but they grew in spurts rather than in the steady growth that humans had. The spurts were irregularly spaced and corresponded to the four main stages of a human's life: infancy, childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Bulkhead and Bumblebee explained that they were in fact still in their own late adolescence, known to them as their youngling stage. Ratchet was in his late adulthood, and Optimus and Prowl were both in their early adulthood. Cybertronians spent a short time as infants or protoforms, a pretty long time as sparklings, a good stretch as younglings, and then the rest of their lives as adults.
The reason Sari kept her realization to herself was because she had a clue who would have the technology and the resources to do such a thing. Her father, Isaac Sumdac certainly knew how to build nano machines and had already rebuilt someone once. He could very well do it again, but why add a Handler? How did he do it? Was that what the artificial portion of the brain was for?
Still, the question kept circling back to why her father would feel the need to build a Handler and Companion in the first place. And why would he not allow the Companion to remember anything of his past life? It just didn't seem like her father. Her father was always trying to improve the trash bots or the police drones. He cared about making better robots for a wider range of tasks. So far Grimlock only really seemed capable of acting like an oversized puppy. It didn't add up at all.
She entered the tower and waved at the receptionist robot. "Hey Dolores."
"Good evening Ms. Sumdac. I trust your outing was nice?" the robot replied in her distinct voice.
"Yeah, it was okay." Sari answered as she walked past. Sumdac tower was huge, but it was home. Right now, though, it didn't really feel like home. It felt like she didn't even know it anymore.
Sari plugged her key card into the slot and waited for the elevator. She fingered the key that she wore around her neck. Ever since the first day over two weeks ago when she'd saved Prowl's life the key had lain dormant on her chest. She wondered if the charge that the Allspark had given it - and that's really all she could call that strange event - had been temporary.
The elevator doors opened and Sari got into the car. She waited patiently until it got to the top floor where she and her father lived. She walked out into the gray hallway and then straight to her door. She inserted her key card and then walked in.
Her room was one large room sectioned off by shoji screens painted pink and black to match the color scheme of the room. Her living area contained a large screen TV and a large, dark pink couch. Behind another set of screens was her dressing area that included her walk in closet. Then there was her bedroom area that housed her king sized pink canopy bed. The sheets had changed from pink to black over the years. In the corner of this area was her tutor-bot. She hadn't used him in years.
Sari walked over to the dressing area and pulled off her shoes. She set them in their proper place and then set about undressing. She preferred to sleep in only in her underwear, so she muted the windows so she didn't accidentally flash the window cleaner-bots, and then climbed under the covers.
Sari decided to actually try to sleep, so she tried to think of things that had little to nothing to do with Grimlock and his mystery. The first thing was that she'd have to go out shopping for furniture and things for the Autobots. Probably would be best to invite them all out so that they could choose their own stuff. It'd be a great opportunity to hang out with Prowl. He was the only one that she hadn't really hung out with because he always seemed so aloof. Maybe a shopping expedition would be just the thing.
That led her to another thought. She'd have to go out and buy a new set of pajamas if she was going to sleep over sometimes. It was okay to sleep in the buff in her own home, but just in case it would be best to sleep in actual clothing when she was over there. Sari grimaced. She hated feeling constricted. That's why she favored the same clothing that she'd worn since she was a child: a long sleeved mini-dress with leggings and boots. The fit was almost like she had a second skin, and was very comfortable. She had them made by her very own tailor-bot. Unfortunately, the tailor-bot could only make dresses. Thus the need to actually shop elsewhere for sleepwear. She could ask her dad to upgrade the tailor-bot, but she didn't figure that it was worth her father's time. She'd only need one pair, and she had enough pairs of pants should she need them.
Sari shifted underneath the covers. Maybe she'd just get the tailor-bot to make a dress out of lightweight cotton. She could change the cut so that it was more of a formfitting sheath. She could probably sleep in that. And if all else failed . . . She could install a lock on the door and blinds on the windows.
Optimus laid down on the berth in the ship, questions still whirling in his head. They'd brought Grimlock with them to the ship, but it was only for the night. Sari had electricity and water in the old factory and she'd promised to take them furniture shopping the next day so they could move in permanently sometime tomorrow. Each Autobot had already chosen a room for himself and Grimlock had been let in on it. The Autobots couldn't just leave him without a place to stay.
The mystery of Grimlock was one that was bothering Prime with a vengeance. From all reports, Grimlock had been built and rebuilt out of regular Earth supplies and either a dead or dying human body. His Handler only held the bare minimum destronium circuitry and many of his synapse relays were faulty at best. Ratchet was already preparing to spend an extra day on the ship trying to replace some of them before poor Grimlock died from faulty synapses.
Optimus honestly didn't know what to make of it. First the Starscream imposter the day before, and now this. What was next? A visit from Megatron? He gave an involuntary shudder. He could still feel Megatron's strong hand around his neck promising certain death. To this day he had no idea how he survived that fight. Ultra Magnus had told him not to try to be a hero, but trying not to be a hero had landed him in the role of one. Optimus had no illusions, he really did not know how he had had the strength to break free of Megatron's grasp. It was almost as if something had help him . . .
Optimus shook his head. His Companion turned on his side and stared at the wall of his berth. He was staring at an old war poster. On it was a middling tall mech who shared the same coloration as he did. Would his grandsire be proud of him? He'd attained his goal of becoming a Prime just in time to be washed out from the Autobot Elite Guard Academy.
"Shouldn't you be like, leading the Elite Guard or something?"
Optimus squeezed his eyes and optics shut. Bumblebee's innocent question still stung a bit. He should be. It had been part of his dream to be. It seemed a heck of a lot simpler back when he'd been an orphaned sparkling with nothing of his own except his Companion's clothing and the framed war poster from times past. He'd become a Prime like his Grandsire Nova and do something great and be called a hero.
And then he'd met Sentinel and Elita-1. When he'd shown incredible scores at his orphanage school he'd been sent to an academy that taught the offspring of Elite Guard officers and other high ranking Autobots. It was there that he'd met Elita and Sentinel. His teacher had asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up, and he'd answered truthfully. He'd wanted to be a hero. The other children had laughed, but Elita had piped up. She'd wanted to be a hero too, and Sentinel had stood up as well. They walked with him out of that classroom, and from then on they'd been inseparable.
Optimus had learned early on that Sentinel often got into trouble because of his overbearing arrogance, but he was the son of Ultra Magnus, so it was probably to be expected. Elita-1's father was an Elder called Alpha Trion, but she wasn't arrogant or spoiled in the least. In fact, if she hadn't shown so much interest in Sentinel, he would have gotten up the nerve to ask her to the Annual Ball . . .
But they were both gone now. Elita-1 died on that ill fated trip to a Decepticon ship ruin and Sentinel Prime was firmly in the running to be the next Magnus. He'd done all the right things to get to the top. Optimus felt no envy for him. He'd been friends with Sentinel long enough to realize that his lashing out at Optimus was him trying to deal with the guilt. Sentinel blamed him for losing the femme that Sentinel loved. Optimus couldn't be angry when it was the truth.
Blackarachnia stared up at the moon. He thoughts were consumed by old memories, memories that were best forgotten.
"You guys don't think I'm stupid for wanting to be a hero?"
"Course not glitch-head. My dad's the Magnus. Being a hero is in my blood and energon."
"And I think heroes are awesome." she quoted. The first time she'd seen Optimus he had been a shy sparkling whose Companion's lips had been too big for his face and whose Handler's limbs had been too long for his torso. She couldn't help but smile at the picture. As a child Optimus hadn't been one of the more attractive mechs. He'd been the rare ugly kid, but then he grew up. His Companion's face grew into his lips and his Handler into his limbs. Maybe it had been because she hadn't seen him for so long, but she finally realized that Optimus was quite attractive.
She shook her head. None of it mattered though. Optimus still left her behind when she needed him most. He deserved to rot in the Pit for that. First, he'd help her rid herself of her spider half, and then she'd send him to the Pit. Blackarachnia didn't know how many times a day she'd say this to herself. Still, every time she saw Optimus she felt like crying, but she couldn't.
Spiders can't cry.