Hello, to any new readers and old ones that kept this story close to heart.

It's been a long while since I broached this subject. This Transformers story is one of my oldest of the franchise. I wrote it over a decade ago, I think. Then my life suffered a major shift and I deleted all my stories, back then. A decision that I came to regret.


PAST ATTEMPT

Years later, I thought I would rewrite and remake it – because though the original version was good, there were some plots in the second half that were rushed or poorly thought out – into something less TLDR. But alas, my life got so busy that I gave it up.


NOWADAYS

Now, I'm giving it another shot. Not because I feel like I can finish it, this time. But rather because I feel like I have to try. To make matters worse, I've been feeling depressed. My job is exhausting and unfulfilling. To quote a Megatron, 'my spark flickers when it once flared'. Matter of fact, lately I haven't written anything new. Was ready to throw in the towel and give up fanfiction for good.

So I'm trying to find hobbies and distractions. So I'm giving this a go and hopefully it will rignite my interest.


MOTIVATION FOR THIRD TRY

Now, what motivated me to bring this back and not another simpler project? A few months ago I stumbled upon a Tropedia webpage that divulged the original story. There I read about the list of tropes other people wrote about my work. To be honest, there were a handful of plot points that I myself had forgotten about! Regardless, seeing other people's perspective of it reawakened the will to write in me.

So I'm ready to try again.


BUT…

While I have motivation now and have already made the script for different arcs of the narrative, I'm quite busy, so don't expect frequent updates. Plus, since the old story was deleted with no backup, I have to start from scratch. And if my life becomes even more complicated, I might have to put the story on a long hiatus.

Therefore, I could use some help. If anyone is willing to become a beta-reader, suggest plots and stories or even help write down, it would be much appreciated.


WHAT IT USED TO BE

WARNING: THIS SECTION CONTAINS SPOILERS!

Here's a summary of what the old, forgotten story used to entail (as far as I remember):

Earth is cyberformed. Jack, Miko and Raf are the last humans alive (until they were not). Raf begins tinkering with scraplets. Miko scavenges the ruins for supplies they can use and Jack looks after everyone.

On a mission, Bulkhead is KIA by Starscream. Miko and Wheeljack avenge him by killing Screamer. Megatron mourns him for about a second. Cyclonus, one of the newly-arrived 'Cons, is promoted to SIC.

Time skip. Children are young adults. Jack has a goatee and is a spy. Miko is a Wrecker snipper. Raf is a hacker and has developed an helmet that allows him to control scraplets. He even modifies some for battle.

New York, the 'Con capital, is conquered by the Autobots in an all-out assault. In the aftermath, Miko reveals she's pregnant and Jack's the daddy. Like a big man, he passes out on the spot.

To overcome the loss, Megatron has his two prisoners, Airachnid and Sylas, power-linxed together to form a super-soldier that Megatron can control. The process is excruciating and drives them both insane.

After a mission against the combined duo, Miko and Jack agree to work this out and raise the child. Arcee gives a weird explanation to Wheeljack of how human babies are conceived. Also, Sylas-Airachnid die.

Shockwave is finally found on Cybertron. Project Predacon begins.

Another time skip. The child, now a thirteen-year-old is named Riku Bulk Darby (in memory of Bulkhead). His partner is Smokescreen. Rafael is now an outcast of the Autobots. When Riku was little, Rafael whom had become obsessed with his scraplets, performed an experiment that went haywire and almost killed Riku. Optimus, whom had grown frustrated with Raf, proposed an ultimatum: give it up or be banished. Raf chose the latter and went his way with his metal-eating minions.

Riku, Smoke and Bumblebee go visit Raf but realize the guy has gone completely flamboyant super-villain with his creations. Now there are scraplets as big as Insecticons and they can talk!

Raf receives them without any resentment but quickly turns out he's building a weapon of mass destruction. Riku, Smoke and Bee shut it down, but it explodes.

Riku and Smoke are blasted through different alternate universes. The last one is a technorganic jungle of a planet inhabited by giant technorganic beings of light - Techno-Angels. The Techno-Angels were aliens from the very, very, very distant future (8 billion years) and were pulling the pair through the multiverse to give Riku the long lost Key to Vector Sigma and genetic upgrade to his body for some unknown future purpose. Afterwards, they were returned to their own time and place.

However, Raf and Bee are nowhere to be found. It's discovered that Rafael's helmet has been deteriorating his mental health over the years.

The Decepticons begin mass-producing Predacons and the Autobots are pushed back. Then its revealed they can talk and transform! So a paranoid Megatron tricks all Predacons into getting vaccinated by Shockwave as protecting against a disease he just made up. In reality they are loaded with microscopic bombs.

The 'Bots suffer a major loss because one of their own, HighWire turns out to be the spy Shockblast. Shockblast, the 'twin' brother of Shockwave, is a weirdo no other 'Con likes.

Later, Rafael is revealed to have survived, hiding in Australia. Plus he brainwashed and modified Bumblebee into being his loyal soldier - Goldbug. He kidnaps both Optimus and Megatron to fight for his entertainment. Raf's completely coocoo bananas at this point. One piece of good news is that there are humans still alive, but they are all enslaved by Rafael.

(Yeah, at this point the story was completely going off-rails.)

So Predaking starts an uprising but the bombs go off and all Predacons die.

Rafael has a dark energon mining operation on Yellowstone which the 'Bots and 'Cons thwart. However all that Dark Energon sinks into the core. Unicron wakes up and begins spewing it all over the Earth. Suddenly, 'Bots, 'Cons and even Raf's forces are attacked by human and cybertronian terrorcons. Worst is that these Terrorcons can talk and torment the living! The crisis is overcome, but many die on all sides, including Miko, Shockwave, Shockblast and others.

Later, Rafael is defeated and killed. But before he dies, he kills all of his human slaves and Goldbug. Thus, humanity becomes truly extinct.

At the end of the story, Jack is an old man and he's kidnapped by the 'Cons because there's something on his mind that they need. He's rescued but begins to die. The experience taught him that there's a way to use the Key to Vector Sigma - that the Techno-Angels sent them - to hack into the Omega Lock and reverse the cyberforming of Earth.

At that point, I was sick of this story so I let it end like that. It was revealed that eventually the Bots were successful in restoring Earth and humanity, because the Techno-Angels are humanity from the future and they manipulated past events to ensure they would exist.


WHAT WILL CHANGE

(WARNING: THIS SECTION ALSO CONTAINS SPOILERS!)

Many of the old arcs will be restored, if some slightly improved:

The story will revolve around the children as they grew and develop in a world where they are (potentially?) the last humans. The original version did a few time skips, like when they went from teenagers to young adults. Now, the time skips will be shorter, so the characters don't change so radically from on chapter to the next.

In the last one, Jack and Miko developed a 'friends with benefits' relationship because, quite frankly, their options were quite limited. Realistically, I don't see two people like them becoming romantically involved. That story will be maintained. As for Miko's pregnancy…

In the original, the Autobots found a human girl who was surviving on her own in the cyberformed world. She was an OC that I toyed with to have Raf become romantically involved. But nobody seemed to like her, so I gave her the boot. That idea will not be used again. If you want Raf to be shipped, go ahead and give me ideas.

Again about Raf, like in the original, he will indeed develop a means to control scraplets via an helmet that commands them telepathically. However, its use over the years would corrupt his mind and drive him insane against the AUtobots and Decepticons. To my shame, that subplot was one of my poorest decisions. I wrote it because I didn't know what else to do with Rafael and planned to make him a human villain. So in this version, Raf will control scraplets, which will be an asset to the 'Bots. But he will not go insane. For Rafael, I have a different character development planned for him, already.

A grown-up Miko will become an official Wrecker. She will become more mature, molded by the reality of her species being nearly extinct.

Riku Bulk Darby, the unplanned son of Miko and Jack was another mistake. He was mostly a 'vessel' for the whole plan the Techno-Angels (more on them later) had to alter the past, which was never fully explained. After his 'mission' was accomplish (while he was still a teenager), I did another time-skip in which Riku had been KIA. Ugh, I'm ashamed of myself. I create him so that Jack, Miko and Raf wouldn't be the only humans, but didn't work. So this time, no OCs. Instead, pockets of humanity will emerge, here and there. All with different backgrounds and motivations.

Techno-Angels. The whole Alternate Universe leaping plot - in which Riku and Smokescreen were pulled from one AU to another - was a actually a good idea. The AUs they travelled in between were my other TFP stories. In the end, the two wound up on a technorganic planet that was the homeworld of the Techno-Angels. Turns out the Techno-Angels were beings from the distant future and they were pulling Riku through time to give him the Key to Vector Sigma (which had been lost in the past). By taking the Key to the past, the Autobots learnt it was possible to revert the Cyberforming of Earth and therefore resurrect humanity. In the end, it was revealed the Techno-Angels were humans themselves, whom in billions of years had evolved into technorganic beings. And they were altering the past to ensure their own existence. In this version, the Tecno-Angels will be more proactive and have a more of an impact on the continued war. (NOTE: I have a deviantart account with an artwork about the Techno-Angels. Search: AUTOBOT FILE: Techno-Angel by orichalcosdark)


Planet No-uk. Homeworld of the Ankzox species.

Unknown date.

"Come on!"

"I don't think this is a good idea, Basidi. The mothers and fathers forbade us from going near...it."

"Don't be such a spore, brother. He won't hurt us, so long as we bring him this." the boy, Basidi, produced from his clothing a sort of blue glowing crystal. The younger brother looked confused.

"A lightstone? What for?" lightstones were a natural occurrence in nature, but served no purpose other than decoration.

"Apparently he eats this stuff. Let's go, Omycota"

The two brothers, Basidi and Omycota, were members of a species of sentient mushrooms, Ankzox. Their civilization was rather young, still in the equivalent of what the Iron Age had been to humanity, so long ago. Like many such nubile alien civilizations, they were unaware of other worlds and life in the universe.

Until one day, a giant, strangely-shaped being made of metal descended from the sky. The being, claiming to be from another world, was seen as a god by the local folks. Yet, the 'god' refused to be worshiped or even to interact with the 'mortals'. So out of respect and mostly fear, the elders of the village decreed the metal god from the stars was to be left alone.

However that wouldn't stop some - from pilgrim zealots to glory-seeking warriors - to come and meet the divine being. All were turned away from the metal god, many without the chance to say a word to it. The one who was rumored to have gotten the most interaction with the metal titan was a traveling bard who claimed the being from the stars accepted a piece of lightstone the bard offered.

The two brothers sneaked out of the village. Basidi practically dragged Omycota when the younger sibling almost denounced them. The place they were going was the hill a few ways north from the village. Up on top was a rocky formation with a small cave. The being had taken its residence there and done very little else. Some of the superstitious folk said the titan would gradually become rock and that was how mountains were formed.

When the two brothers reached the place, Basidi began to understand why everyone was fearful of the giant. It was made of metal, though not shiny at all. The giant's skin(?) was covered in patches of rust, giving it a touch of decay to an already creepy appearance. Long fingers that ended in tips looked more like claws. And its face was the worst: a mouthful of razor-sharp teeth and two crimson glowing eyes.

Basidi felt his brother shaking silently. Omycota was pulling at him, urging them to run away. And Basidi was about to turn around…

"And what do you want from me, Ankzox?" A raspy, dry voice that sounded bored asked.

Time froze for the two young organics. Omycota was as if a statue, while Basidi still made a few shaky movements. Looking down at the offering he brought, the older sibling swallowed his fear and approached the giant.

"G-greetings… Great One." he couldn't stop his tone from whimpering. "I have…I…"

The giant groaned in exasperation. "Say no more. Allow me to hazard a guess: you came here for an audience with the 'metal god from the stars'. And you even brought an offering that you heard would please me." the giant casted a glance at the glowing substance in the little alien's grasp.

Basidi nodded quickly. His vocal cords were unresponsive at the moment. The titan seemed frustrated for being proven right.

"I am not an animal who will be tamed because he is given treats! This area is so dry of energon nowadays that I will be moving on soon."

"Energon?" Omycota whispered, having remained hidden. Did he mean the lightstone?

He yelped when the giant addressed him. "You might as well come out, little organic. I will not harm you." with some hesitant prompting from his brother, the younger sibling stepped out.

The titan sighed tiredly. "Now I am being bothered by children. Go away. I have no patience for you, nor any interest in your insignificant gift."

"But…" Bayside pressed, Omycota silently begging him not to provoke the giant. A part of him wanted to follow his brother before the titan decided to step on him. And yet, he had come this far. Thinking quickly and desperately, he proclaimed. "I found this in a cave in the forest. The walls were covered in so much of it that I didn't even need a torch to see."

The giant became more invested in the children. "So you know of a stash of energon close by."

"Yes, if you mean lightstones." he looked at the blue crystal.

"Alright, you picked my interest. What do you want in exchange for the location?"

Basidi shouted before his courage left him. "Tell us about the stars!"

The giant blinked. "What is there to tell that is so special? Stars are just massive amounts of gas, pressed so tightly that it generates heat and light."

Basidi blinked back. "Gas? What's that?"

Omycota butted in. "I think that's a word for 'air'."

"So stars are just air on fire? That can't be right! The fathers said each star is the kingdom of a different god."

Omycota again intervened. "No. The elder says each star is the eye of a god. They each keep one eye on the mortal world and the other - that we can't see - in the divine realm."

The little debate over which elder figure was correct concerning the mysteries of the night sky was cut short by a frustrated growl of the metal titan.

"I'm surrounded by primitives!"

Basidi retorted in a brief moment of daringness. "You are bad at telling stories."

"As you are at listening to them, puny fungus."

Basidi didn't know what the insult meant and didn't care. "Then tell us an actual story. Something about battles and heroes and villains."

The giant turned to Omycota, who shuddered under the crimson gaze. "And you?"

"Uh…a r-real story, please."

The titan shrugged. "If that is your price, so be it. I will share with you a true story of great battles. A story about armies of light and legions of darkness. A story of two worlds coming together and destroying one another. A story in which all fell into the shadows and forgotten to time. Forgotten by all but myself.

"I know, for I was there…"


So this prologue was just a little introduction. Basidi and Omycota are two OCs that have no purpose of the narrative except to drive home the fact that what will happen in this story will become forgotten and irrelevant in the far, far, far, far future. As for the metal giant telling the story, its (obviously) a Cybertronian telling about the war after 8 billion freaking years.