One of Us

We had a week left now. All of our hard work devoted to getting things prepared was leading to a climax. Though Tully was still considered untrustworthy, someone that still needed to earn out trust, he had become an everyday necessity. And now, today was the first day we would begin working on the Machine. The time before now had been used for preparation: to gain clear admittance from both the American Government and the state of Nevada, gathering the supplies the doctor said he would need, and setting up camp around the crumbling 'city' itself while hiding behind the same cover story. We spent most of the day going over what was damaged, and what would need to be fixed or cleaned up before the Machine would work, and returned to the main camp so Dr. Tully could mark on his papers and blueprints to remember what needed repaired.

"How are things coming along?" Lennox walked up to meet us, his expression reflecting his concern. I turned to Dr. Tully to let him explain, rather than trying to speak for him. There was a short silence as he was caught wrapped up in his plans. For a second I considered leaving him be and trying to explain anyway as we all looked and waited as he wrote notes down on slips of paper, not really noticing our silence. It took Bumblebee's sudden jab of his elbow to gain the man's attention. He jumped when he noticed that we were all waiting, his expression reflecting that he had missed everything that had just gone on.

"How are things coming along, Tully?" Bumblebee prompted, repeating what Lennox had asked.

"Oh! Um . . ." Dr. Tully began, standing up and spreading out his papers. "There was damage taken to the outer extremity here . . ." he pointed with his index finger, outlining a part of the outer rims on a diagram of the Machine. "Some of these towers need modified, and a lot of the main wires were fried and need renewed. They were fragged the last time the Machine ran. Luckily the containment chamber wasn't punctured or damaged in any way. Then there'd be no way you could turn back."

"And?"

"With the parts gathered, it should be easy to—"

"How does it work?"

Prowl, speaking again for the first time in a while, took our attention as he leaned up off the wall, walking to join the small circle from his place by Jazz. As he approached Dr. Tully, the man pushed up his glasses, his timid blue eyes blinking multiple times. "I . . . I . . . um . . ."

"How does it work?" Prowl pushed again. "You said that some chamber wasn't damaged. That if it was, it wouldn't work. . . . Better yet, tell us why you did it." The entire tent was devoid of conversation, all of us curious to know how and why, and thankful to Prowl for speaking again, for asking. How would we go back, and how had we gotten this way in the first place? What was the doctor's stance? Tully took a few minutes to compose himself before he sighed, and finally began.

"It's complex. But I'll do my best to explain it simply . . ." He pulled away some of the papers, and took up a book, his index finger coming to rest on a picture. "Everything . . . even Cybertronians, when broken down until you can't break down anything anymore, are made of atoms. Building blocks. Back before Megatron found me, and forced me to begin to do his bidding, I was researching this. I was curious if we were different, or that maybe we were wrong about something, and you guys were the answer. The key to finding it out. And everything, so far, is built on this fact: That when broken down until we can't break down anymore, we're all made of nothing but atoms."

Again, he fumbled through the papers, pulling up data systems printed out on paper. "I was beginning to work on a hypothesis . . . studied the similarities between our building blocks and yours. I'll be the first to admit scientific curiosity was getting the best of me. The comparisons were good, and after a bit I was beginning to wonder if it was possible if humans could somehow become Cybertronian."

" . . . Why?" Bumblebee asked.

". . . Because robots are cool . . . Living, thinking robots are cool. And I wanted to be one. But I was going to give up. I didn't have the resources to research or even try to make something further. My fantasies wouldn't have been funded. Unfortunately, Megatron found me before I could get rid of all of my data. He confronted me at my home, tearing through it and cornering me, nearly squishing me to death.

"He wanted me to continue my work. Except . . . he wanted me to turn you Autobots human, rather than turn humans Cybertronian. He used his human lackeys . . . humans that had been promised that they'd become rich, that he'd give them power . . . he forced me to begin again, to do things his way. For a while, I wasn't getting anywhere, it was just a ludicrous idea that now a lunatic robotic warlord wanted me to make true. It was only when I was about to give up again that I had an idea.

"What if it was possible to 'switch' the building blocks . . . take Cybertronian ones for human ones? Of course I knew by then human DNA and Cybertronian CNA would have to be involved . . . so . . . I took samples. Not only of Autobot CNA, but I took Decepticon CNA in secret, too. I . . . had a plan formulated in my mind for this to work."

"Well, you got that going for ya." Iron Hide interjected.

"Ahem . . . So . . . once I was sure things were prepared, once I had all of the CNA I needed, I had to start to code DNA so that it would hold the atoms that would be switched, and figure out a way to keep them all from scattering when they were undergoing an exchange."

"Wait. That doesn't make sense." Wheeljack said. "You can't just collect DNA that would be compatible to our CNA by taking random samples."

"I didn't take random samples. I knew that wasn't going to work . . . after . . . a while. So . . . I thought of something different." Dr. Tully leaned forward, readjusting his glasses. "I was able to create a synthetic strand that would act a lot like human stem cells. It would adapt and form whatever was needed to make a copy of the CNA that was being replicated. The created DNA strand would be the very basis of your human forms . . . of course with a few holes. Like, how you don't have certain genes like aging and then there's the no belly-button thing . . ."

"So . . . that means that everything we had before . . . ?"

"Was made into the human equivalent. For instance, the energon flowing through your veins? Replaced by blood. Metal turned into flesh and bone, Cybertronian organs exchanged for human ones . . ."

"Still, the chances of everything being switched at once, and keeping us all alive, without error would be, at its highest, forty-eight percent." Prowl muttered.

"Thirty-seven percent, actually." Tully corrected, making Prowl slightly jump.

"And you still tried to-" Iron Hide began, but Tully put up his hands. "I had no choice! It was do what Megatron wanted, or I was going to die in the worst way he could possibly think of. And the possibility of it failing was also why I demanded that it be tested on a Decepticon first."

"Smart." Bumblebee mused.

"I'm not meaning to gloat when I say this, but my IQ is pretty high . . ."

Before anything started, I asked a question to further the narrative along. "How did you change Megatron and his Decepticons all at once, rather than change only the one he selected?"

"I told him that I'd only placed the data needed for Starscream's transformation, and that we'd be safe. It was a lie. I'd put in all of the Decepticon data, and since they were all within the perimeter of the Machine, they all were Changed. Except . . . not . . . all of them survived the procedure. A few of them were killed. Megatron was furious, and I . . . I insisted that it was a glitch, that I could fix it. It stopped him from killing me, and I readjusted errors, and ensured him it would work the next time it was fully charged."

"Which Decepticons were slagged?" Iron Hide asked.

"Um, the Insecticons, and some guy named Swindle, Thundercracker, Skywarp, Thrust, and two of Soundwave's Cassettes- Rumble and Frenzy."

"Good riddance."

"That just leaves Megatron, Starscream, Scourge, Soundwave, Laserbeak, Ravage, Breakdown, Dreadwind, and Darkwing. At least, Decepticons stationed on Earth, anyway."

I took that in for a moment. That meant it was nine to nine. We were evenly matched in this battle, for the first time since the War had gotten to this point. Before, we had little chance, and now we had more of a chance than ever.

"How did we get our alt modes?"

"I programmed them in for you guys. The Decepticons didn't get them."

"No air support."

Now we were on even ground. And, despite all things, it was because of the very man who Changed us in the first place.

"Still, that takes a lot of power." Lennox pointed out. "How did you get it?"

"It takes two years for me to get enough power without being detected and have enough for the Machine to work. It's why you can only use it once every two years. I built the circuits so that they would fry if Megatron got impatient and tried to turn you guys human before I could get the chance to try and warn you."

"You never warned us." Jazz pointed out vehemently.

"Megatron and the other Decepticons told me if I didn't disappear, they would kill me. So I disappeared. And I trusted Moses enough for him to try and rely my message. He . . . he must not have been as much of a friend as I thought."

"So, we're sure this thing can switch us back?" Bumblebee asked. Tully nodded. "Yes. All I have to do is switch the polarity."

"When will your repairs be finished?" I inquired.

"A week from now. The day it'll be ready to use."

"Good." I replied, and turned to leave, to prepare to start patrols, so that we could look out for any of Megatron's advancing Decepticons.

". . . Optimus . . . ?"

I turned and looked back at the doctor.

"Megatron . . . said he would kill me . . . if I helped you guys . . . I'm still afraid that . . ."

"Despite that fear, you joined us on the plane, and you have been helping us. You are helping us, and have been assisting us all along the way, even while you did a few underhanded things." I said. "As of now, Dr. Joseph Tully, you are one of us. Be reassured . . . we all will protect you."

" . . . Th-thank you. Sir."