Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

So, ‘why’d you put your other fics on hold for some slop about alien robots fighting?’ I hear you ask. Well, I’m a proud Bayformers fan, but I acknowledge that these movies have flaws, like really big flaws. So I’m going to fix those flaws.

I would write a rewrite of the first movie as well, but first off, that would take a while, and second, I feel that that movie is perfect as is, except for a couple minor changes that I will now list.

1. Jazz is still alive: in this universe, Jazz managed to avoid his death by shooting Megatron in the face before the Decepticon leader could rip him in half, making him drop him into an alleyway.

2. Brawl is still alive: unlike Jazz, he still takes that massive shellacking at the end of the movie, the only difference is that Bumblebee’s final shot only knocks him unconscious instead of killing him. Why? Because I think Brawl is awesome and I wanted him to show up some more.

So those are the changes I’ve made, I hope you enjoy the rewrite, the first chapter will come out… at… some point. So stick around! Maybe read my other subpar fics.

Chapter Text

Time: 17,000 BC

“Earth, birthplace of the human race, a species much like our own. Capable of great compassion. And, great violence. For in our quest to protect the humans, a deeper revelation dawns.”

The tribe of humans come across a huge metal structure jutting out of the hard desert rock, surrounded by large robotic organisms.

“Our worlds have met before.”

One of the robotic organisms takes notice of the fact that that they are being watched, and suddenly teleports up to the rocky ledge where the tribe is standing, startling them all into jumping backwards, landing on their backs. Reaching down, the metal creature picks up one of the humans, watching as the tiny fleshy creature thrashed and struggled in its grasp.

———

17,000 years later

To say that Demolisher was annoyed was an understatement, he hated working for these blasted Decepticons, and the only thing he hated more was being given conflicting orders, ‘Lord’ Starscream, as he so arrogantly called himself nowadays, had sent him on the wild goose chase of locating the last shard of the AllSpark, which nobody knew where it was. Why he needed it, Demolisher didn’t know, how useful could it be if it was in pieces. Anyway, after that impossible task, he was meant to bring it straight to the transformed jet. However, Soundwave also wanted it, when Demolisher asked why, he was met with Soundwave’s favorite phrase.

”That is classified.”

Demolisher didn’t care enough to ask why it was classified, all he wanted was for it to be over so he didn’t have to work for them anymore. Truth be told, he and the other Constructicons really only worked for the Decepticons under the threat of death.

But the worst part, the absolute worst part of all of this, was that he had been teamed up with the cowardly Sideways as his partner. Demolisher as well as most of the other Decepticons hated Sideways, the amount of times the transformed Audi would abandon his comrades when things got heated outnumbered the times even Starscream did it. Nobody was sure why he hadn’t been executed for his cowardice by now, but the Audi was pretty good at being stealthy, so that was something.

However, as the two-wheeled Constructicon made his way through the human city (he didn’t know it’s name, nor did he care), Sideways decided to try to strike up conversation with him.

“So once we find that AllSpark shard, if we do, what do we do with it again?”

Demolisher sighed, “I don’t know, both Screamer and Soundwave want it for their own things. I bet you anything that we’re dead no matter who we bring it to, though.”

”So what do we do?”

”We’ll figure that out if we find it. But something tells me that we ain’t finding it here.” He paused for a minute, “But just in case Soundwave is tracking us, let’s make it at least look like we tried.” He lifted up one of his shovel-hands and pointed to his right, “You go that way, I’ll go this way.”

———

“Ding-a-ling, come out and get yo’ ice cream!” Skids said over his loudspeaker as he and Mudflap drove through the backroads.

“Any bad robot out dere betta’ get ready fo’ a tail whoopin’!” Mudflap joined in his brother’s taunting.

———

“For the last 2 years, an advanced team of new Autobots has taken refuge here under my command.”

Inside a trailer, three motorcycles conjured holographic drivers, revealing them to be transformers.

”Arcee sisters, get ready to launch.” A soldier said over the radio.

”We’re locked and loaded.” Arcee replied.

”Together, we form an alliance with the humans, a secret, but brave squad of soldiers.”

Inside a helicopter, Lennox speaks with his team about the mission, “Aight, listen up. The cover story for this one is ‘toxic spill’, they had to evac the area for search and rescue. This makes 6 enemy contacts in 8 months. We gotta make sure this one doesn’t get out to the public eye, let’s keep it tight.”

“A classified strike team, called NEST. We hunt for what remains of our Decepticon foes. Hiding in different countries around the globe.”

———

As Sideways rounded a corner, Demolisher contacted him on his comm, “There’s Autobots here.”

Those three words nearly threw the Audi into a panic, “Seriously?! Why can’t we-“

“Shut up!” Demolisher cut him off, “Don’t make it any easier on the insects!” He paused for a moment, “Just stay in vehicle mode while I think of a way out.”

On the other end of the line, Demolisher transformed himself into vehicle mode, before hiding behind a stack of metal pipes.

Not even moments later, a familiar GMC Topkick rounded the corner, it was Ironhide, carrying a few NEST soldiers, who jumped off as soon as he stopped.

”Alright, Ironhide.” Said Lennox, patting the Topkick’s hood, “We got echoes. Vamos.”

With that, Ironhide converted himself into robot mode, deploying his cannons before sniffing the air. “He’s here, I smell him.”

The soldiers began to spread out around the area as they used their thermal cameras to locate their target.

Demolisher was starting to get nervous, they were getting too close for comfort, and they had Ironhide with them. It only got worse when he heard one of the soldiers say “We’re right on top of it.”

Knowing he’d been had, Demolisher immediately converted into robot mode before grabbing the metal pipes and throwing them into the air, watching as they crashed back to the ground on top of the soldiers while they ran for safety. Before he could roll away however, he felt a stinging pain in one of his arms, and he looked down to see Ironhide with his cannons drawn, shooting at the giant Decepticon. Grimacing, Demolisher swung one of his massive arms at Ironhide, only for the black Autobot to roll underneath the swing. Suddenly, a missile also hit Demolisher in the back of the head, knocking him off balance and sending the Constructicon toppling over. Demolisher growled when he saw Ironhide run towards him and leap into the air, but Demolisher promptly smacked him away, sending the Autobot flying and landing on one of the Humvees. While Ironhide was dazed, Demolisher quickly got up and started rolling away, but another missile struck him in the shoulder.

He was starting to tire of the humans and their annoying weaponry, so he quickly turned around to see what shot at him, seeing that it was one of those things the humans called ‘helicopters’. He rolled towards the helicopter and used one of his arms to smack the thing straight out of the air, sending it into the ground with a fiery blast.

Seeing an opening, Demolisher opened his comm link again, “Sideways, they’re onto us! Get out of here!”

———

Nearby, Sideways didn’t need to be told twice, he quickly switched his engine on and bolted. But soon enough he had been found too, the roaring of motorcycle engines told him the Arcee triplets were after him, along with a random pink and white, rusty old ice cream truck for some reason. Thinking fast, the Audi turned and drove down an alleyway. As he did, he heard the Arcee sisters transform into robot mode and start firing upon him. Fortunately for Sideways, his vehicle mode armor protected him from their shots, but he knew he needed to get away from them quickly. Then, he had an idea.

He transformed into robot mode and smashed through the wall of a building in front of him, caring not for whatever humans were there. After smashing through the other wall, he quickly transformed back into vehicle mode.

Behind Sideways, the Twins made an error in their driving, resulting in the ice cream truck getting split in half, the two halves quickly transformed into robot mode as they tumbled down the alley before coming to a stop.

Mudflap was the first to get up, clutching his head, “I screwed dat up.” He said as he stumbled forwards, “I’m okay! I’m alright.”

Skids was outraged at this turn of events, “Dis is combat, man!”

”Total brain freeze, man.”

”Whazz wrong wit’ chu?!” Skids yelled before he promptly smacked his brother upside the head.

———

Sideways had managed to lose the Arcee sisters, but NEST wasn’t about to let him get away, “Bring in Sideswipe!”

The red Corvette Stingray quickly drifted around the corner before transforming into robot mode, “Clear a path!” He said as he zipped by on his wheels.

Knowing that he couldn’t outrun Sideswipe, Sideways quickly turned into robot mode and formed his daggers out of his hands, he turned to face Sideswipe and blocked the incoming sword slash, the two locked blades for a second, but Sideswipe broke it by kicking Sideways in the stomach, knocking him down before stabbing downwards, Sideways blocked the sword again before rolling out of the way. Sideways moved to stand up, but Sideswipe was too fast, he slashed with his blade again, and this time he succeeded in slicing off Sideways’ leg. The Decepticon quickly fell to the ground, and before he could do anything else, Sideswipe spun and cleaved off his head, watching as the Decepticon’s optics faded out. Once they did, he span and struck a pose, “Dang, I’m good.” He said as he retracted his blade.

———

As the NEST Team (and Ironhide) raced after Demolisher, it didn’t take them long to realize that they were going to lose him. Sergeant Epps wasn’t about to let that happen, “Air support, we need Big Buddha to deliver the drop now!”

High in the skies above Shanghai, the cargo bay of a plane opened, revealing a familiar, flame decal covered Peterbilt 379, the truck turned on before driving out of the plane, then it transformed, revealing the form of Optimus Prime, who spun as he descended through the air, parachutes deployed, slowing his descent.

”Autobots, I’m in pursuit!” Optimus aid before using his energon hooks to slice off the parachutes, dropping the ground and rolling before transforming back into his alt mode. Once he got to a bridge, he could easily see his target as he barreled towards the bridge. Optimus transformed again to dodge a flying car, then rolled to dodge another one. Then the Autobot leader jumped to avoid the destruction as Demolisher, well, demolished the bridge. Optimus grabbed onto the side of Demolisher as he continued rolling down the highway, crushing more cars.

By now, the NEST soldiers had peeled off, leaving only Ironhide in pursuit. Once he caught up to Demolisher, he transformed and grabbed onto the side of his wheel.

Back up on top, Optimus pulled out his blaster and shot at Demolisher’s head, “Pull over!” He shouted. While he did that, Ironhide shot his cannon at Demolisher’s wheel, destroying it and sending the giant Decepticon crashing off the freeway, smashing through the roof of a warehouse before he finally skid to a stop.

NEST closed in on the downed Decepticon, as did Optimus and Ironhide.

”Any last words?” The Autobot leader asked.

Demolisher gave the Autobot leader a glare, he wanted to beg for mercy, but not only was it against the Decepticon code, but he feared that Soundwave would track him down and kill him if he did. So, with the last of his courage, he spat, “This is not your planet to rule, the Fallen shall rise again!”

Ironhide narrowed his optics, “That doesn’t sound good.”

”Not today.” Optimus said before raising his blaster and shooting the Decepticon in the head, killing him instantly.

Chapter Text

High up at the edge of the atmosphere was where the Decepticon ship known as the Nemesis was located. It had arrived here about a year after Sam Witwicky killed Megatron, and it was where the Decepticons had set up their base of operations for the time being.

Inside the bridge of the ship, Starscream was outraged, “Why can’t these idiots do anything right?!” The transformed jet screeched at the top of his voice box, he was sorely tempted to let loose with his rockets to let off some steam, but he didn’t want to send the ship into a death spiral, “Every time I send them out, they get themselves killed!”

Another voice interrupted Screamer’s temper tantrum, “Maybe someone with more firepower should be tasked with this.”

The transformed jet whipped around to see Brawl standing there, “Brawl? First of all, You’re supposed to be in the med bay. And second, a tank is infinitely more conspicuous than construction equipment. And third, your plan is probably to blow up the planet and hope to find the shard in the remaining rubble.”

”Yeah, well it sounds dumb when you put it like that!” Brawl retorted.

”You’re not going!”

Brawl rolled his optics before deciding to change the subject, “Why do you need this stupid shard anyway? It’s not like it’s useful for anything!”

”You fool!” Starscream yelled, “That shard contains the map to something that could solve all of our problems! An ancient machine that could give us more energon and get rid of this wretched planet.”

”So are you gonna tell me about it or…”

”Later! First we need to focus our efforts on finding that piece, wherever it may be.”

”And hope that the next search team doesn’t die.”

Starscream turned to glare at the transformed tank.

———

All in all, Sam Witwicky would consider this a good day. He as about to go to college, and he already had most of his things packed up and ready to go, all he had left was to pack up his wardrobe. As the boy was going through his closet, his phone rang. Pulling it out of his pocket, Sam looked at the screen, seeing that it was none other than his girlfriend Mikaela. He quickly answered the call, “Hey, beautiful!” He said cheerfully.

“I’m breaking up with you, Sam.” Mikaela said over the phone

”Really? I’m not hearing a lot of conviction there.”

”Well I am, so there’s no reason for me to come say goodbye to you.”

”Come on, man, why you gotta do ‘im like dat?” Another voice said over the phone. Sam recognized it, but couldn’t place the name.

”Who is that?”

“You know the robot that almost got ripped in half? He’s my ride now.”

“Jazz?” Sam asked.

”What’s crackin’ li’l homie?”

He heard Mikaela sigh playfully, clearly giving up on the whole ‘breaking up’ thing, “Look, I’m heading over there.”

“Cool, hey I got something to show you.”

”What is it?”

“I set up a long distance relationship kit! Yeah, I got you webcam so we can chat 24/7! All Witwicky all the time.”

”Sounds cute, I can’t wait.”

Suddenly, Sam found something, the fateful sweatshirt he wore on that day. During the battle of Mission City. He had lost it shortly afterwards, and he had been looking for it for a while now, “Oh, hey! You want the infamous D-Day shirt?”

“You kept your nasty, shredded clothes?”

“Yeah, of course I kept it. It’s, like,  my football jersey, I bled in this thing.” As Sam was unfolding the sweatshirt, something dropped out of it, he looked down to see a weird sliver of metal. “Wait, hold on a second.” He reached down to pick it up.

”What is it?”

”I think a sliver of the Cube got stuck… to… my…” As Sam was holding it, he suddenly slipped into a trance, strange visions of strange symbols danced across his vision. He was broken out of it when the shard suddenly started glowing red hot, it almost burned the boy’s hand, making him drop the shard. When he did, it burned straight through the floorboards, landing in the kitchen and sending an electrified shockwave rippling through the house. The kitchen appliances started vibrating profusely after it did.

When Sam had finally recollected himself, he noticed that there was a small fire when the sliver had burned through the floor. Immediately, he started to panic, stomping on the flame to try to put it out, when that didn’t work, he ran to find a fire extinguisher. “DAD, WE GOT A FIRE!!!” He yelled as he ran through the house.

———

Outside, Sam’s parents were unaware of the chaos that was about to unfold, they were still busy moving stuff into the van. Judy was having a bit of a breakdown over the whole situation, she was definitely going to miss her little boy, but on the other hand, Ron seemingly didn’t care, if anything he seemed glad to have Sam gone.

”Did you know it was gonna be this hard?” Judy sobbed.

”Look, could you just stop?!” Ron replied, clearly sick of his wife’s whining.

”Yeah! Okay, I’ll stop!” Judy yelled, dropping the bags she was holding, “You carry this crap! I’m going back inside!” She turned to walk back into the house.

———

Back inside, Sam was pouring a bottle of water in the floor in hopes of putting out the fire, not noticing his door slowly being opened.

He breathed a sigh of relief as he realized the fire was out, but as he turned to give his parents the good news, he was met with the sight of several small robots, “What the-?” He couldn’t finish, as they immediately started shooting at him. Their aim was terrible, and they missed all of their shots somehow, but the shock made Sam jump onto his back, before he quickly got back up and ran towards the window. Thinking fast, he climbed through it and onto the roof, where Ron saw him.

”Sam?! What’s going on?!”

Sam didn’t answer, instead he jumped off the roof, landing in the bushes as the little robots kept firing at him.

Realizing what was going on, Ron started running too, taking cover behind the fountain. Sam kept running too before hiding behind the fountain as well. Once he was sure everyone was out of harm’s way, he did the only thing he could think of, “BUMBLEBEE!!!!”

In seconds, the yellow Camaro came roaring out the garage, smashing through the door before transforming into robot mode. Upon realizing what was happening, Bumblebee drew his arm cannon and started shooting at the robots, blasting round after round before charging up a shot and shooting at Sam’s room, destroying that entire chunk of the house in a massive explosion.

When that happened, Judy came running back out of the house with pie pans covering her head, before she ran into on of their hanging plants.

“Call 911!” Ron said as he saw the destruction to his house.

Sam was more than a little miffed about the situation, considering that it was his room that got destroyed, “Get in the garage!”

”What?!” Bumblebee said. (AN: Bumblebee still has his voice from the first movie here, forgot to mention that.)

”Get in the garage, right now!”

”But I just-!”

”I’m about to have a nervous breakdown, just go in the garage, quietly please!”

Bumblebee rolled his optics and started grumbling to himself as he stormed back towards the garage, “Whatever!”

”Just get in the garage, now!”

In response, Bumblebee slapped away Sam’s TV, which had landed outside when he blew up his room, as he crawled back into the garage.

———

“What happened here?” Jazz wondered aloud as he pulled up to Sam’s house, there were police and fire engines surrounding it. And a huge chunk of the house looked like it had been blown off.

“Shh. Just lay low, okay?” Mikaela said, before she opened the door and stepped out of the car and walked up to the house, where Sam was standing. He quickly handed her a glass vial with the AllSpark shard inside.

Mikaela hesitantly took the shard, “What happened?”

”Long story. Listen to me, I need you to take the Cube sliver, and keep it somewhere safe for me.”

”Sam Witwicky?” Judy said, walking up to them and sounding more than a little upset.

”Yes, Ma?”

”A word with you?”

Sam turned to face his mother.

”When you go, he goes, I cannot live with a psychotic alien in my garage!”

”Shh!” Ron suddenly shushed her, “National security! If we stay quiet, they’re gonna take care of everything.” He stole a glance back at their destroyed house, “Just consider this, the official start of our remodeling. ‘Kay?”

”Fine.” She started walking away, “If the government’s paying then I want a pool! And a hot tub! And I’m gonna skinny dip and you can’t say jack about it!”

———

After thinking it over, Bumblebee was feeling incredibly stupid. Of course he would be mad at you, you blew up his room! ‘Bee facepalmed, mentally and physically, as Sam walked through the door.

”Yeah, you know you’re in trouble.” Sam said.

‘Bee only gave Sam a regretful look.

“Still having voice problems?” Mikaela asked.

”Sort of, he still uses the radio sometimes.“ Sam turned to Bumblebee, “‘Bee, I wanna talk to you about the college thing, okay?”

Bumblebee started snapping his fingers while playing a song on his radio, “I’m so excited! And I just can’t hide it!”

Sam cut off the transformed Camaro’s celebration however, “You’re not coming with me.”

There was a record scratching noise as the music stopped, “What?! Why?!” ‘Bee whined.

Mikaela tapped Sam on the shoulder, “I’ll be outside.” She said before abruptly walking out.

”Here’s the thing, ‘Bee, Freshmen aren’t allowed to have cars, okay? If it were up to me, I’d take you, but it’s not.”

Bumblebee sighed with disappointment as Sam continued.

“Look, you’re an Autobot, you shouldn’t be living in my dad’s garage, I mean you’re suffocating in here! You deserve better than this!”

“Kid, Prime said that I’m your guardian, and that’s what up gonna do.” Bumblebee said.

Sam sighed, “The guardian thing is done, okay? I’m safe now. You need to go be with Optimus and the others.”

”But, Sam-!” Bumblebee started.

”Look, it won’t be the last time I’ll see you, okay? You’ll always be my first car.”

Bumblebee sighed, “Fine, okay. I’ll miss you.”

Sam nodded and turned to walk out, “I love you, ‘Bee.”

When Sam walked out of the garage, he was met with the sight of Mikaela in a white skirt, he chuckled at the sight, and it made him feel like the luckiest guy in the world.

The two embraced each other, but a car horn interrupted them. They turned to see Jazz rolling up to them, “All right, you two, don’t nobody wanna see dat.” The Solstice said, “Come on, Mikaela, you got a thing, remember?”

Mikaela sighed as she let go of Sam and walked towards the car, “I’ll see you later I guess.”

Sam simply smiled as he watched her get into the car and drive off.

As she did, neither of them noticed a peculiar toy monster truck, a red light peeked out of the top, the optic of a transformer. It had been watching the whole thing, and it quickly beamed a message to its master.

———

High in low Earth orbit, Soundwave perked up as he received a message from one of his cassette-cons, “The female has the cube sliver.” It said in Cybertronian.

”Soundwave acknowledges. Pursue her. Retrieve it.”

Chapter Text

NEST Classified Operations- Diego Garcia

Everyone was just now returning from the mission in Shanghai. It was a sort of bittersweet triumph, two more Decepticons were down for the count, but once again, they had another massive cover-up job to do, and judging by Demolisher’s warning, there were almost certainly more Decepticons.

For the time being though, they were free to rest. At least some were.

”Autobot Twins, report to hangar three.”

The ice cream truck in question quickly rolled into the hangar, “Awesome ice cream truck comin’ through, excuse me.” Skids said over the loudspeaker. As they rolled up, they saw what they were called here for, they were about to scan a new mode, throes being a Chevy Spark and a Chevy Trax respectively.

”Those are nice.” Mudflap said as the two transformed into robot mode, “Time to get my sexy on with the green!”

Skids took offense to that, “Green?! No green is mine, I call green!”

Mudflap wasn’t listening, instead he was busy doing some kind of dance while scatting to himself, so Skids tackled him, punched him in the face, and threw him towards the red one, “I got da green!”

”That hurt, man!” Mudflap complained.

”It’s ‘sposed to hurt, it’s a tail whoopin’!”

With that, they transformed into their new vehicle modes and drove off.

———

As the rest of the Autobots drove into the main hangar, Lennox couldn’t help but notice a middle aged man with a notably receding hairline shoving some paper into the guard’s face before walking past him. He recognized him, it was Theodore Galloway, the National Security Adviser, and a well-known jackass.

”Director Galloway, what an honor.” Lennox said, somewhat sarcastically, “I’d show you around but you’d need to be on the classified access list.”

Galloway shoved a paper into his chest as he walked past, “I am now, presidental order, Major. I got a message for your classified space buddies. You guys made a mess of Shanghai.”

As they walked into the hangar, Lennox started showing Galloway around, “Alright, so this is where we communicate with the JCS, and this area serves as the Autobots’ hangar.”

As he said that, another soldier notified him of the progress made, “Secure link to JCS is up, Major!”

———

As all this was happening, Soundwave was attaching himself to a government satellite, metallic tentacles peeling open panels to suck out information. Soon enough, he had hooked up to the satellite, reading through its transmissions.

———

In a secret location, a different set of Decepticons was listening in on Soundwave’s transmissions. They were the Constructicons, Long Haul, Scrapmetal, Rampage, Mixmaster, and Hightower. The rest of them were situated elsewhere.

Mixmaster was starting to get impatient, “Come on! When’s Mr. Autotune gonna say something?!”

”He’s doing it, just give him time.” Long Haul replied, “Soundwave rarely fails.”

Hightower interrupted them, “Hang on, I’m getting something!” She said.

“Well, what is it?!” Mixmaster demanded

”Shut up!”

”Come on, female, speak!” 

“I can’t hear if you keep-!” Long Haul cut across her.

”Both of you shut up!” He snarled, it was finally quiet for a minute as the two mechs quit arguing, allowing them to hear the signature voice of Optimus Prime, “I think that’s Optimus.”

”What’s he saying?”

Long Haul gave Mixmaster a backhand to the face to shut him up.

“General, our alliance has intercepted six Decepticon incursions this year, each on a different continent. They’re clearly searching around the globe for something.” Optimus said over the radio, “But last night’s encounter came with a warning.”

All of the Constructicons’ optics widened as they heard Demolisher’s voice, “The Fallen shall rise again.”

“Demolisher…” Scrapmetal said in realization. All of them shared a moment of silence at the news of their comrade’s demise.

”The Fallen, meaning what?” Another voice said, presumably the human Optimus was talking to.

”Origin unknown, the only known history of our race was contained within the AllSpark, and lost with its destruction.”

Another voice spoke over the radio, quietly enough that the Constructicons could barely make out what it said, meaning that they must have been far away from the mic. The voice said something else, steady getting louder as they presumably walked towards the mic.

”Director Galloway, sir.” Yet another voice said, “Our national security adviser, the government just appointed him liaison.” The voice sounded irritated, evidently, this Galloway guy wasn’t too well liked.

The voice spoke again, this time it was close enough that they could make out the words, even if they were still a little fuzzy, “Forgive the interruption, general, but, after all the damage in Shanghai, the president is hard pressed to say the job’s getting done.”

“Will these guys skip all this crap and get to the good stuff?” Hightower muttered.

Galloway continued speaking, “Now, under the classified Alien-Autobot cooperation act, you agreed to share your intel with us, but not your advancements in weaponry.”

”We’ve witnessed human capacity for war,” Optimus replied, “it would absolutely bring more harm than good.”

”But who are you to judge what’s best for us?”

Rampage couldn’t help but comment on Galloway’s sour attitude, “Primus, this human sounds like a jackass.”

”Quiet!” Long Haul hissed.

“And, uh, the newest members of your team, I understand they arrived here after you sent a message into space, clear invitation, ‘come to Earth!’ Vetted by no one at the White House.”

At this point, even Long Haul was started to get irritated, “Enough of this petty human nonsense, where is the shard?!”

“Now, what do we know so far? We know that the enemy leader, NBE-01, aka Megatron, is rusting in peace at the bottom of the Marianas Trench. Surrounded by full time submarine surveillance.”

“Good riddance.” Scrapmetal snarked, crossing his arms. 

“Soundwave would probably have you executed for that comment.” Hightower replied.

”We also know that the only known piece of your alien AllSpark is locked in an electromagnetic vault, here at one of the most secure Naval bases in the world.”

“Finally! Something important!” Hightower yelled.

Long Haul contacted Soundwave on his comm link, “Soundwave, we know where the shard is, but there is a problem, there is absolutely no way any of us would be able to get there.”

”Leave that to me, Long Haul.” Came Soundwave’s signature monotone voice, “Just tell me the coordinates.”

Chapter Text

Starscream never once thought that being leader of the Decepticons would be so tiring. Megatron made it look so easy with how he frightened his subordinates into line. But as it turns out, it was hard to be intimidating when everyone knew the old boss would wipe the floor with you in a fight. He was half certain that a good chunk of the Decepticons were planning against him, and that thought made him a little paranoid.

Soundwave was a pretty big suspect for this, with how loyal he was to Megatron and Megatron alone, Screamer wouldn’t be surprised at all if the mech was planning to somehow bring him back from the dead. Fortunately, such a feat was impossible. At least as far as the transformed jet knew.

At least he hoped such a feat was impossible. He was destined for the scrap heap if Megatron ever found out that he had not only left him to die, but contributed to his defeat by shooting those missiles at him.

Starscream’s thoughts were interrupted by a voice on his comm link, “Lord Starscream.” It was Grindor, perhaps the only ‘Con that gave Starscream any respect.

”Grindor! Finally, someone who knows how to do their job! What is it?”

“We have located the boy.”

”Fantastic.” Starscream sneered, “And where is the little insect?”

”He appears to be attending a college in New Jersey.”

 “Keep an eye on him, I bet you anything that the kid has some idea where that Cube shard is.”

“I’ll have Alice get right on it.”

“Excellent.”

———

“Are we absolutely positive about this?” Scrapmetal asked as the Constructicons sat on a cargo ship, “If Screamer finds out that we’re responsible for bringing Megatron back, he’ll have our heads!”

Mixmaster was equally as pessimistic about their situation, “Look at it this way, if we don’t do it, then Soundwave will probably have our heads a lot sooner. I’m going with the option that keeps me alive the longest.”

Long Haul rolled around the corner before transforming into robot mode, “Alright, here’s the plan. The ship route that we’re on will pass over the area where Megatron was laid to rest. By the time we get there, Ravage will have hopefully gotten the shard and rendezvoused with us, then we go down there and bring Megs back.”

Hightower raised one of her tiny arms, “One question, oh wise leader,” She said, a hint of sarcasm entering her voice, “how do we know this is going to work?”

”We don’t, I’m just following what Soundwave says.”

———

Back in space, a compartment opened on Soundwave’s chest, and inside that compartment was a sphere of metal, that sphere of metal was quickly launched out and down towards Earth. Within a few minutes, the metal sphere had slammed into the water just off the shore of an island, and soon after it splashed down, a panther shaped Cybertronian with one optic popped out of the water. This of course was Ravage, one of Soundwave’s loyal cassette-cons.

Ravage wasted no time sprinting towards the fence of the Naval base, easily clearing it with a single leap. He knew he had to act fast, chances are a place like this had sensors all around to detect his approach, so, using his claws, he sliced open an air vent before putting his mouth up to it, then, in a somewhat nauseating sequence, he proceeded to vomit up a whole metric ton of tiny metal balls.

The balls cascaded down the air ducts, eventually reaching the room where the AllSpark shard was kept. With their target reached, the balls began to transform, revealing themselves to be Microns, tiny, spherical Cybertronians that were engineered to infiltrate secure areas.

The Microns began to combine together, creating long, thin sheets of metal. When they were done, they had formed a strange, borderline 2-dimensional robot called Reedman.

Reedman cautiously approached the glass vial that contained the shard, before beginning to cut through it with its tiny, razor sharp appendages. Alarms sounded as soon as it touched the glass, signaling that the Decepticon had to work fast.

Quickly, Reedman pulled out the shard, and not a moment too soon, as soon as it did, a bunch of soldiers came bursting through the door.

”The shard’s gone!” One of them said in shock, but he saw nothing as he scanned his flashlight around the room.

Pretty soon, Reedman got sick of hiding, so it carefully stalked out from behind the shelf it was hiding behind, before violently tackling one of the soldiers, the thinness of its body sliced through the soldier like butter, leaving his bisected corpse to flop to the ground. The rest of the soldiers opened fire on the thing, but Reedman’s speed and small profile made it extremely hard to hit. 

Reedman escaped through the opened door, only to be met with the sight of several humvees, with their guns all aimed at it.

Fortunately for Reedman, Ravage deployed the guns mounted on his back and started firing at the Humvees. The shots instantly killing the soldiers they hit, all while Reedman escaped right under their noses.

———

Sam was not what you would call a party guy, and yet here he was, in the middle of a massive frat party filled with scantily clad girls dancing suggestively to music of questionable quality. In all honesty, he didn’t want to be here, he had been dragged here by his roommate Leo Spitz, or Leonardo Ponce De Leon Spitz, as he preferred to call himself. His first impression of Leo wasn’t the greatest, that being a nerdy conspiracy theorist who couldn’t stop staring at girls to save his life and believed in aliens, not that that last part was exactly wrong, but the Autobots wanted their existence to be kept a secret. Leo himself had even claimed that the only reason he was at this party was so he could hook up with someone.

Well, at least this cake looked nice.

However, as he continued to stare at the cake, he started slipping into another trance. Strange symbols started dancing across his vision as his consciousness slipped away from him.

He suddenly snapped back to attention when some blonde girl asked him something, “Are you okay?”

Sam found himself staring at the symbols he saw in his trance, only they were drawn on the tabletop in cake frosting. Trying not to embarrass himself, Sam quickly turned and walked away, “Um, no, I was just getting a napkin.”

The girl grabbed his arm, stopping him, “It’s Sam, right?”

”Yeah?”

The girl suddenly started dragging him towards the dance floor, “I wanna dance.”

”Wait!” Sam yanked his arm out of her grasp, and the girl stopped to turn and face him, “I’m kinda involved with someone already, so, um, sorry.”

The girl moved to grab his hand again, but Sam backed up slightly, staying just out of reach, “Relax, I just wanna have some fun.” She said.

Sam decided to try to turn her down in a friendlier way, “You wanna have fun?” he sat down at a table, where there was a checkerboard, “We can play checkers. You can sit over there and-“ he was cut off when the girl roughly shoved his chair against the wall and sat in his lap, “Oh my-“ Sam sputtered.

The girl flipped her hair seductively, “So, tonight, how about I pretend you’re my boyfriend, and you pretend that I’m your girlfriend?”

Thankfully, the uncomfortable moment was broken up by someone, “Hey! Who drove the freakin’ yellow Camaro?!”

Sam quickly pushed the girl off of him and ran to the door, and found none other than Bumblebee, in vehicle mode, sitting right on top of the decorative bushes. Sam quickly ran up to ‘Bee’s door, “What you doing?”

”Houston, we have a problem.” Bumblebee said with his radio.

Another voice caught Sam’s attention, “That’s your ride on our bushes?” Sam turned to see a pair of burly looking dudes.

”No, it’s just a friend of mine, he went to see if he could get you a tighter shirt.”

”There isn’t a tighter shirt, we checked.” The shorter one fist bumped his friend, “Now how about I park my foot up your tail?”

A wave of daring energy suddenly came over Sam, he had no idea where it came from, but the words just slipped out, “What size shoe do you wear?”

That seemed to get the dudes riled up, “Oh really?!”

“I was joking! I’ll move it right now!”

”Yeah, you’d better!” The dude said as Sam opened the door and got in the car. However, a familiar voice suddenly made itself known again.

”I love Camaros.” The girl from earlier said.

Sam groaned in frustration, “Look i can’t do this right now!”

The girl ignored him, opening the door and getting into the car, “Don’t be a wimp.”

Sam let out another groan of frustration before he backed up and drove off. As they rode, the girl decided to share a bit of a story with him.

”My first car was my dad’s ‘92 Z28, fuel-injected, the roar of the engine, it just tickles me.” Sam couldn’t help but notice her slowly hiking her skirt up as she said that.

”Um, we shouldn’t stare- uh, share stories with each other. At all.” He said.

”Come on, Sam, it’s just one ride.” 

Evidently, Bumblebee was just as unnerved with this girl as Sam was, as he started playing some song about cheating on his radio.

”Your cheatin’ heart.”

Sam promptly smacked the radio, and instead of stopping, it switched over to playing the Jaws theme. Sam smacked it again and another song began to play.

“She’s super freaky!” The radio sung.

Sam smacked the radio again, and it finally stopped.

”Is your radio broken?” The girl asked.

”No, my concentration is. And uh-“ The girl’s seat suddenly lurched forward, smashing her face against the dashboard and making her grunt in pain. “Are you okay?!” Sam frantically asked.

”Ow.” Was the girl’s simple reply. 

“I’m sorry, but this car has a lot of problems, I mean a lot-“ he stopped when some strange green substance started spraying out of the dashboard, coating the girl in it almost completely.

Screaming, Sam slammed on the breaks. Bringing the Camaro to a stop on the side of the road. Before he could even say anything, the girl got out and stormed off. Sam got out and called after her, “I’m so sorry!” More than a little upset, he turned back to ‘Bee, “What are you doing?”

Chapter Text

Sam was irritated, irritated about being borderline SA’d (AN: can I write that? I feel like I can but I don’t want to) last night, irritated about getting dragged here to this random graveyard with no sleep, and irritated that he couldn’t just have one normal day in college. He should have expected that his life would never be normal again when his car turned out to be a giant robot from space, but even then, he was disappointed.

When he got out of the Camaro, he found none other that Optimus Prime standing there, even then, the teenager couldn’t help but vent some of his frustration, “One day. You couldn’t give me one day in college, huh?”

Optimus was clearly regretful about the situation, “I’m sorry, Sam, but the last fragment of the AllSpark was stolen.”

”What? Like, Decepticons stole it?”

”We placed it under human protection under your government’s request. But I am here for your help, Sam, because your leaders believe we brought vengeance upon your planet. Perhaps they are right, that is why they must be reminded by another human of the trust we share.”

Sam desperately didn’t want to get involved in this mess again, ”This isn’t my war.” 

“Not yet, but I fear it soon will be.” Optimus said, “Your world must not suffer the same fate as Cybertron.” The Autobot leader shook his head in sorrow, “Whole generations lost.”

Sam looked down in thought, “Look, I wanna help, I really do, but I am not some alien ambassador. I’m a normal kid with normal problems!”

”Sam, fate rarely calls upon us at a moment of our choosing.”

Sam turned and started walking back towards Bumblebee, “You’re Optimus Prime, you don’t need me.”

”We do, more than you know.”

———

Western Pacific

There was a loud crash as Ravage crashed onto the deck of a cargo ship, landing right in front of a certain green haul truck, along with an excavator, a crane, a bulldozer, and a cement mixer. The construction vehicles quickly transformed into robot mode.

”Alright!” Mixmaster exclaimed, rubbing his claws together, “Finally, some action!”

”Let’s keep this brief, guys.” Long Haul said, “We want to get in and out of here before they have a chance to deploy their weapons.

”As long as I’m undamaged, then it’s fine.” Hightower said

”Yeah, we wouldn’t want something to happen to that gorgeous face of yours.” Rampage snarked.

Hightower used the claw on her crane arm to grab Rampage and slam his head against a shipping container.

”Shut up and get going!” Long Haul snapped, pointing a digit overboard.

With that, the Constructicons all leapt overboard, rather quickly descending down to the ocean floor. The toughness of their Cybertronian bodies would easily withstand the high pressures of deep ocean for the time it took to bring Megatron back.

After what seemed like forever, they reached the bottom, and it didn’t take them long to find Megatron’s body, considering that they almost landed on it.

Rampage couldn’t help but comment on their leader’s condition, “Yeesh, I know he’s dead but he doesn’t look so good.” It was a fair enough point, Megatron’s body was missing an arm and a leg, and was covered in barnacles, seaweed, and rust.

Ravage swam up to Megatron’s corpse and deployed a smaller robot, it was Scalpel, one of the Decepticons’ little medics. After a quick assessment of the body’s condition, he quickly came to a conclusion, “We need parts. Kill ze leetle vone!” He said, pointing at Hightower who stepped backwards

Long Haul quickly came up with a different idea, “Wait, nobody has to die! We could all lend some of our parts.”

Hightower crossed her arms, “Nuh-uh, not me! This body is pristine, and it is going to stay that way.”

Long Haul gave her a deadpan glare before grabbing and tearing off one of her treads.

”Hey! Give that back!” Hightower yelled.

”Which fate would you rather take? Some repairable damage, or getting killed by Soundwave’s little pets?”

Hightower groaned, “Fine!”

The rest of the Constructicons started ripping parts off of themselves as well, laying them next to Megatron’s body.

Scalpel then took out the shard, “AllSpark, make energon! Yah!” He yelled before he jammed it into Megatron’s chest, there was a blue glow, then something amazing happened, all of the Constructicons’ parts started merging into Megatron’s body, and the body started creating new parts for itself as well. The same thing happened to the Constructicons’ damaged bodies, the parts that they ripped off suddenly growing back. A glance at Megatron’s face revealed glowing red optics.

The leader was back.

Megatron quickly stood up, wheeling a death glare over the Constructicons. Before anyone could say anything though, Rampage suddenly yelled out, “Incoming!”

Sure enough, it was a torpedo, probably launched by a submarine, the torpedo crashed directly into Megatron and exploded, the force of the blast knocking the Constructicons back.

When the blast cleared, Megatron was still standing there, looking completely unfazed. Grimacing, the Decepticon leader transformed his right hand into his signature fusion canon, before taking aim and shooting directly at the submarine. Suffice to say, the sub fared much worse than Megatron, the blast tore the hull completely to shreds, leaving pieces of metal to litter the ocean floor.

The Constructicons looked on in awe and terror at the display of raw power. Then, Megatron took off, using the thrusters on his back to fly back towards the surface.

Rampage was a little annoyed, however, “Dang. Not even a ‘thank you’.”

———

Back on the Nemesis, Brawl suddenly burst into the bridge, “Starscream! Megatron’s back!”

”WHAT?!?!” Starscream… eh… screamed, he activated the jet boosters on his back and flew towards Brawl, tackling the transformed tank to the ground, his hand wrapped around Brawl’s throat, “Megatron is rotting at the bottom of a trench.” He said dangerously calmly, “How could he possibly be back?!”

”I don’t know! But somebody was demanding to know where you were! And it wasn’t no Barricade!”

Then Starscream heard a voice that made his energon run cold, “STARSCREAM!!!!!”

Sure enough, it was Megatron’s voice, and shortly afterwards, the Decepticon leader himself came storming in. Immediately Starscream released Brawl’s neck and started stepping backwards, “Lord Megatron! I was so relieved to hear of your resurrection!” He said, chuckling nervously.

Megatron pointed a claw at Starscream as he continued to storm towards him, ”You left me to die on that planet!”

Starscream was somewhat relieved to know that Megatron didn’t know about the whole missile shooting thing, but that relief completely dissolved when Megatron grabbed him by the throat and threw him to the floor, “You let that insect destroy the Cube!”

Starscream quickly stood back up, “L-Lord Megatron! Please! I was only helping to spawn our new army! The Fallen decreed it!” Megatron seemed to calm down a bit at that, “After all, Someone had to take control in your absence!”

And, as usual, Starscream had destroyed his own self, Megatron punched Screamer in the face before grabbing him by the throat and throwing him to the floor again, “Let this be known, you imbecile, even in death there is no command but mine.”

“Yes, sir!” The transformed jet strained out as Megatron choked him.

Megatron reluctantly released Starscream before walking away.

”And, just like that, everything’s back to normal.” Brawl said.

”Shut up!” Starscream spat.

———

At the back of the ship was where the Fallen was located, sitting on his throne, he oversaw pretty much everything. Including the formation cells for the hatchlings. As he sat there, some of the hatchlings would hatch, only to die shortly afterwards from lack of energon. The old transformer was pleasantly surprised when his student came in.

”My master,” Megatron began, “I have failed you on Earth. The AllSpark is destroyed, and without it, our race will perish.”  

“You have much to learn, my disciple.” The Fallen said, “The Cube was merely a vessel. It’s power, it’s knowledge, can never be destroyed, it can only transform.”

Megatron grimaced, “How is that possible?”

”It has been absorbed by the human child. The key to saving our race now lies within his mind.”

Megatron clenched his fist, remembering how that insignificant insect tricked him into his demise, shoving the cube into his spark to kill him, “Then let me strip the very flesh from his body!”

”And you will, my apprentice, in time. For millennia, I have dreamed of my return to that wretched planet, where I too was once betrayed by the primes I called my brothers. Only a Prime can defeat me, and now, only one remains.”

Megatron instantly knew who he was talking about, “Optimus. He protects the boy.”

“Then he will lead us to him, and revenge will be ours.”

”Yes…”

Chapter Text

Anyone who knew Jazz would tell you that he was a very sociable Cybertronian, a people person. So as you would guess, it didn’t take him long to realize that something had upset Mikaela when came out to go to work.

”All right.” He began, “I know that face, what tweaked you?”

”Nothing. Just drive.” Mikaela spat as she opened the door and got in.

”Mikaela.” Jazz called.

”I said just drive.” Mikaela said again. To her chagrin, the Pontiac refused to budge.

”I ain’t goin’ nowhere ‘till you tell me what’s botherin’ you, sista.”

Mikaela breathed an irritated sigh, “Sam stood me up.” She spat curtly.

“Look, I’m sure he was just tired from unpacking.”

“Well I’ve been waiting for that date since he left, and-“ Jazz shushed her.

”Chill, dawg! You gotta be understandin’ in times like this! What if he just forgot?”

”How could he forget?! He had a whole setup and everything!”

Jazz already knew what Mikaela was thinking, “If you think he’s cheating on you, then let me be the first to say, that is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.”

Mikaela thought it over for a second. In all honesty, she just didn’t see Sam as the cheating type. She sighed, “Yeah, you’re probably right.” 

———

The drive to the shop was relatively uneventful, but once Mikaela got inside was when the interesting stuff started happening, first up, she got a call from Sam.

Mikaela breathed deeply before she answered, “Hey, Sam, I-“ Sam cut her off, he sounded panicked.

”Look, Mikaela, something just happened to me.”

“What?”

“You remember what happened to my grandfather? Archibald Witwicky, remember?” Sam explained rapidly, “When he found Megatron and Megatron zapped him, and then he started seeing these symbols? Well now I’m seeing ‘em too!”

Mikaela was still trying to wrap her head around this, “What?” She repeated.

“I just read a 903-page book in 26 seconds and had a meltdown in front of my class.”

“When did you start seeing the symbols?” Mikaela asked, finally starting to understand.

“Ever since I-“ Sam cut himself off.

”Since what?”

”Since I touched the Cube splinter. Do you still have it?”

”Yeah, I still have it. It’s locked away. It’s safe.”

”Okay, well don’t touch it.”

“I… won’t…” Mikaela trailed off, hearing a strange clacking noise, “What is that?”

”What is what?” Sam asked.

“Hang on…” Mikaela got up to investigate, putting down her phone and walking over to the shop safe. That’s when she saw it, a small Cybertronian was trying to break into the safe, it looked similar to that one that she cut the head off of 2 years ago, but it only had two optics instead of four. When the Cybertronian turned to look at her, it immediately stumbled backwards, screaming shrilly.

Thinking fast, Mikaela grabbed a pair of metal pincers and used them to grab the Cybertronian by the throat and pick it up, when she did, the Cybertronian started taunting her, “Is that the best you got, huh?! Is that the best you can do?!” In response, Mikaela slammed the Cybertronian against a table before picking up a blowtorch.

”What are you doing here, you little freak?!” She yelled, before using the blowtorch to fry one of the Cybertronian’s optics.

”OW!!!! THAT’S MY EYE YOU CRAZY B*TCH!!!!” The Cybertronian screamed as its eye popped out of its socket, but Mikaela showed no sympathy for the Decepticon.

”You gonna talk now?!”

The Cybertronian frantically tried to shove its eye back into its socket, “I seek knowledge from the Cube, The Fallen demands me!” He exclaimed.

”What knowledge?!” Mikaela demanded.

”GimmetheshardIneedtheshard! GimmetheshardIneedtheshard!” The Cybertronian said rapidly, “Without it they’re gonna whack me, I’ll be dead without that shard!” Mikaela shoved him against the table, “Easy, warrior goddess, I’m just a little salvage scrap drone!”

Mikaela lifted him off the table, “And I’m your worst nightmare.” She said before dropping him into a chest, closing it, and locking it. After she had done that, she picked up the chest before walking back over and grabbing her phone.

“What the heck was that?!” Sam asked.

”I’ll tell you later, just not on an open phone line.” Mikaela replied, “I’m gonna hop on a plane, I’ll be over there later this afternoon.” 

When she got outside, Mikaela was met with Jazz’s voice, “Okay, good you’re out here.” He said.

”What’s wrong?” Mikaela asked.

”Just got a call from Optimus, they’ve detected several Decepticons, and they’re all closing in on Sam’s school!”

Mikaela quickly jumped into the Pontiac, haphazardly throwing the box into the passenger seat in the process. The Cybertronian inside let out a few choice curses when she did.

”Who was that?” Jazz asked.

”I’ll tell you on the way. Step on it!”

With that, the Pontiac quickly pulled out and drove down the road.

———

Once he had gotten to his dorm room, Sam had taken a jar of paint and painted the symbols he saw all over the walls. He needed to in order to memorize them. All he hoped was that Bumblebee or maybe Optimus would be able to help him out.

Just then, Sam heard a knock at the door, quickly he ran over to answer it, throwing the door open, “Mikaela, I-“ he cut himself off, it wasn’t Mikaela standing there, it was the girl from the party, Leo had told him that her name was Alice. Sam’s next words sort of slipped out, “You’re not Mikaela.” 

Alice looked around the room, “You’ve… been busy.”

“Uh, yeah, and that reminds me, I’m not finished yet, so I guess I’ll see you later.” He moved to close the door, but Alice held it open.

”Come on, Sam, I just want to TALK!” In a display of inhuman strength, Alice forced the door back open, making Sam stumble backwards. 

“Wait, wait, wait!” Sam exclaimed, “I already told you, I’m in a relationship already!”

Alice moved as if she was trying to pin him to the wall, so Sam quickly moved to the other side of her, “I always knew you were special, Sam.” She said, before she suddenly grabbed by the shoulders and threw him onto the bed.

Sam immediately moved to get up, but Alice quickly pinned him down, “Look, I already told you no several times! Now let me go!”

”Just RELAX!!” Alice hissed, shoving Sam back down, leaving the boy to wonder ‘Just how is this chick so strong?!’ No matter what he did, he just couldn’t force her off of him.

———

Around this time, Mikaela was getting out of her taxicab, she grabbed the chest with the Cybertronian inside before walking into the school. 

Going off of what Sam told her, it was the first room on the second floor. Oddly enough, the door was open, and when she walked up to it, she was horrified by what she saw, Sam was being pinned to the bed by some blonde chick, despite him repeatedly protesting. “What is going on here?!” Mikaela said loudly, catching the attention of both of them.

The blonde chick looked at her with an expression that made Mikaela want to punch her in the face, “Is that your girlfriend?” She asked with feigned innocence.

Mikaela answered for Sam, “Yes I am. Now let him go.” She said with almost disturbing calmness.

The blonde girl sat up, and Sam quickly got up to run towards Mikaela, but as soon as he did, a metal tentacle suddenly shot out of the girl’s mouth, wrapping around Sam’s neck. Mikaela watched in horror as the girl let out an animalistic growl and started violently throwing Sam around the room with that tentacle. Thinking fast, Mikaela lifted the chest she was holding and threw it at the girl, and it hit her on the head before bouncing out of the window, breaking it in the process. Somehow the girl was uninjured, but the impact did make her drop Sam.

Mikaela quickly grabbed Sam’s hand and started running out of the room. What they didn’t see, was the girl transforming into robot mode, revealing herself to be a Decepticon.

Sam and Mikaela ran down the stairs and out into the courtyard. After stopping for a second, they quickly decided on running into the library, hiding under a table.

Mikaela immediately started to check up on her boyfriend, “Did she hurt you?” She whispered.

”No, I’m fine.” Sam answered.

Mikaela balled a fist, ”Because if she hurt you, I’ll have to f*ck her up!”

”Mikaela, she didn’t hurt me, I’m fine!”

”No, you’re not! You just got thrashed around the room by a robot alien girl… thing!”

Sam paused, “Okay, physically, I’m okay. Mentally? The jury’s still out on that.”

Mikaela couldn’t find any relief in in that statement, because she was hung up on something else, “Those things can transform into people?!”

Sam didn’t get a chance to respond, as the wall suddenly exploded, and in walked the Decepticon Pretender. Sam and Mikaela quickly found themselves on the run once more, with Sam jumping down to a lower level while Mikaela used the stairs.

Sam slid under another table as Alice jumped down to their level. The Decepticon then hissed before aiming her gun at a bookshelf and shooting it, blowing it up and creating a chain reaction that destroyed several other bookshelves.

Alice then spotted Mikaela and fired another round. The girl dove out of the way at the last second, resulting in the shot missing and blowing a hole in the wall. Sam quickly grabbed Mikaela’s hand, “This way!” He yelled as the two ran through the hole.

As they fled, Alice easily kept pace with them. As they ran, Mikaela took a moment to retrieve the chest with the Cybertronian inside before they ran out into the parking lot, jumping into an SUV. Mikaela immediately started trying to hotwire it, sparks flying as she tapped the two wires together.

”Come on, come on! Hurry up!” Sam exclaimed.

”I’m trying!” Mikaela replied.

Sam could see the Decepticon outside of the windshield, “She’s right there! Hurry up!”

Finally, the car started, but Alice jumped onto the hood before punching a hole in the windshield. “DRIVE!!!!” Sam screamed as Alice stuck her tongue through the window.

Mikaela reversed suddenly, trying to shake the robot off of the hood, but Alice stubbornly stayed hooked onto it. Mikaela then tried to make several sharp turns as she drove out of the parking lot, but nothing she did seemed to shake Alice off.

Then, Mikaela had an idea, “Kiss this, b*tch!” She spat as she drove straight into a lamppost, crushing the robot between it and the SUV. After reversing, she quickly drove forwards, eliminating any doubt of the Decepticon’s demise by running her corpse over.

“Anything else I should know about, Samuel?” Mikaela asked as they drove away.

”Well, no, actua- LOOK OUT!!!!”

Mikaela slammed on the brakes as a helicopter suddenly bore down on them, before a huge grappling hook shot through the roof.

”OH MY GOD!!!” Sam screeched as the car was lifted into air and slammed into by another car, sending it spinning as the helicopter lifted it further off the ground. In the chaos, Sam somehow wound up dangling outside with the car door open, hanging on with one arm and screaming in terror. Mikaela immediately climbed over the seats to try and save him.

”Grab my hand!” She yelled, and Sam did so, but just as he grabbed her hand, the helicopter dropped the car. Mikaela quickly pulled Sam inside, and the car smashed through the roof of an abandoned building, landing upside down. There was no relief, as a huge saw blade suddenly punched through the bottom of the car, narrowly missing taking Mikaela’s arm off and slicing the car in half.

The car halves fell apart, revealing the culprit, who was none other than Starscream, who kneeled down for the sole purpose of spitting at Sam multiple times, before he stood back up.

Mikaela clung to Sam out of fear, ”What’s this about?” She whispered.

”I don’t think they’re too happy with me killing Megatron.” Sam whispered back, equally as scared.

Starscream suddenly dropped down to his level, “Believe me, insect.” He spat, “If you had actually done the job, I would be thanking you, but… well…” Starscream stood back up as a familiar face suddenly loomed over the the two humans.

“No way…” Sam breathed.

It was Megatron, back from the dead evidently, and he looked more than a little pissed off, which was understandable, Come here, boy.” The Decepticon leader snapped, Sam obeyed walked closer to him, if only to prevent himself from being turned into a red stain on the spot, Megatron continued, “Closer… You remember me, don’t you?”

”I did what you said, okay?” Sam said, “Just don’t hurt-“ He was cut off when Megatron abruptly smacked him off the ledge.

”Shut up!” Megatron snapped as the boy went flying from the force of the blow, Sam landed flat on his back with a loud groan of pain. Before he could recover, Megatron reached down and used his weird claw hands to hold Sam down, “Yes! It feels good to grab your flesh!”

Sam knew from the pain he felt that the Decepticon leader could easily flatten him if he wanted to, and he had every reason to want to. That realization filled the boy with dread. Not helping matters were the next words out of Megatron’s mouth, “I’m going to kill you! Slowly, painfully. But first we have some delicate work to do.”

A microscope on a nearby table transformed into a weird spider-like Decepticon that jumped onto Sam’s chest, and it put on a pair of glasses as it got uncomfortably close to the boy’s face. Sam tried to turn his head away, but the thing swung at him with one of its sharp, blade-like legs, immediately putting a stop to that.

Mikaela could only watch on in fear as the thing snapped it’s fingers, ordering what she could only guess were it’s assistants to bring it something. That something was a gross looking octopus looking thing.

Things only got worse from there as the spider looking thing shoved the octopus looking thing down Sam’s throat. (That’s… uh… that’s a sentence. Anyway…) Mikaela simply couldn’t take any more of it, so she turned away, if only to keep herself from vomiting.

Fortunately, it only lasted a few seconds, as the octopus looking thing was vomited back out. Then, the spider looking thing started playing a hologram display on a nearby wall, similar to the one Optimus played when they first met, only this one was of Sam’s memories, and among them were the symbols he kept seeing.

”Yessss…” Megatron said, obviously pleased, “These symbols will lead us to the energon source!”

The spider looking thing looked delighted, “We must have ze brain on ze table! Chop, chop!”

Sam on the other hand was terrified, “My brain? What does he mean by my brain?!”

Megatron was all too happy to explain it to him, “Well, you have something on your mind. Something I need.”

Sam desperately started to try bargaining as the spider looking thing formed a saw out of one of its legs, “Look, I know you’re pissed, because I tried to kill you. If someone tried to kill me, I’d be pissed too. But you know what? This is the perfect time to build up our relationship!” The saw started spinning, making Sam panic, “SO JUST CALL OFF YOUR LITTLE SPIDER THING FOR 5 SECONDS!!! PLEASE!!!”

Mikaela covered her mouth as the saw got closer to her boyfriend’s head…

Chapter Text

Optimus suddenly came crashing through the ceiling of the building, before Jazz came bursting through the wall. Jazz deployed his shield cannon and started firing at Starscream, “Get out of here, li’l dudes!” He shouted, continuing to blast Starscream as Sam and Mikaela fled.

As he did, Optimus pulled out his ion blaster and leapt into the air, flipping through the air as he shot at Megatron, pulling out his second ion blaster in the process, while Megatron jumped into a backflip as well. Both landed at the same time, shooting at each other before Starscream tried to attack Optimus. The Autobot leader quickly dealt with him by smacking Starscream with the barrel of his gun before shooting him twice. Starscream tried to fly out of the way, but Optimus shot him twice more, the force of the shots sending the transformed jet flying through a window. Once Screamer was dealt with, Optimus turned his attention back to Megatron, shooting a single round at the Decepticon leader. The shot hit Megatron in the chest, sending him flying out of the window. Nearly squashing Jazz as he drove away in his vehicle mode.

Megatron transformed into his tank mode and drove away as Optimus jumped through the hole in the wall, calling for Sam as he did.

Optimus then transformed into vehicle mode to allow Sam to get in, before driving off. On the other side of the building, Mikaela hopped into Jazz, “Sit tight, bro, we’re gonna get some backup!” The Pontiac said as he drove away.

———

While that was happening, Optimus had entered a forested area, with Megatron right on his tail. The Decepticon leader fired a round from his tank barrel, the shot missed, but it forced Optimus to transform and face Megatron as he transformed and tackled him, sending the two rolling down a hill.

Optimus had wound up losing Sam in the process, “Hide, Sam!” He called out, before hitting Megatron in the face with a hard left hook. Megatron recovered quickly, and responded by tackling Optimus again, sending the two crashing to the ground once again.

When the two got up, Optimus grabbed a fallen log and smacked Megatron over the head with it, “Weak!” The Autobot leader spat as the wood splintered from the impact.

Megatron hit Optimus in the face with a right, and Optimus responded with a punch to Megatron’s back, “Puny!” He yelled as Megatron reeled back from the blow. Megatron formed a sword out of his arm and tried to swing it at Optimus, but the Autobot ducked it before hitting Megatron in the face with a hard haymaker.

”Waste of metal!” Prime called as Megatron was sent tumbling from the force of blow. When got up, Optimus was right there waiting for him, stabbing him in the shoulder with one of his energon blades and bringing Megatron to his knees, all while continuing with his trash talk, “Junkyard! Crap!” He cursed as he elbowed Megatron in the face, grabbed him by the throat, and threw him to the ground.

Optimus realized that despite the Decepticon leader’s return, he had grown weaker, likely as a result of the harsh conditions of his tomb at the bottom of the ocean. His clearly scrapped together new body likely didn’t help matters.

Megatron seemed to realize this too, as he quickly called him in backup, “Decepticons!”

On cue, Grindor arrived, transforming into robot mode and deploying his rotor blades. Starscream also showed up, but it seemed he was more focused on Sam, “Come here, boy!” The transformed jet growled as he gave chase.

Megatron quickly took advantage of the distraction, slashing Optimus across the chest with his sword before giving chase himself. Optimus quickly caught up before tackling Megatron, when the Decepticon leader got up, he went for a kick, but Optimus caught it before elbowing Megatron in the knee, bringing him to his knees again, before Optimus kneed him in the face, knocking Megatron away.

Starscream tried to rush Optimus, but the Prime caught Screamer by the neck before punching him in the back and grabbing him in a chokehold. Megatron tried to get up, but Optimus kicked him away before lifting Starscream up, flipping him over, and kicking the transformed jet hard in the mouth, sending parts flying as he crashed to the ground.

———

By now, Jazz had gotten the other Autobots, and they were now rushing towards the battle, but only time would tell if they got there in time.

———

At this point, the tide of the battle had started to turn, Optimus slashed Megatron across the chest with one of his energon blades, but was swiftly met with a haymaker from Starscream that knocked him towards Grindor, who grabbed the Autobot leader by the head. Optimus retaliated by elbowing the Decepticon in the face, but Grindor responded by cutting into his side with his rotor blades. Optimus managed to pry Grindor’s grip off of him, but was met with a stinging pain in his shoulder as Starscream sliced into it with his saw. Optimus went for a punch, but Starscream caught it with his free hand and sliced Optimus across the stomach. He went for an overhead strike as well, but Optimus deflected it with his blade. But before he could mount a counterattack, Megatron grabbed him and threw him over his head, smashing through some trees.

Optimus quickly got up, but just as quickly he was met with a kick to the face that shattered his battle mask and knocked him back over.

”OPTIMUS!” He heard Sam call out, moving him to stand back up again, but the Prime was met with a rocket to the face and multiple machine gun rounds from Starscream. Then he was smacked in the face by Megatron, who then charged up a shot with his fusion cannon and shot Optimus, sending the Autobot leader flying a good distance away.

When he landed, Optimus spit out a piece of his battle mask as Megatron spoke, “Is the future of our race not worth a single human life?”

Despite the beating he just took, Optimus forced himself to stand up once more, “You’ll never stop at one!” He said before drawing his second energon sword, “I’ll take you all on!”

Optimus leapt into action, stabbing Starscream in the shoulder and throwing the transformed jet at Megatron, before stabbing Grindor in the arm and slicing it off, sending the rotor blade flying towards Megatron and causing him to miss his shot with the fusion cannon.

Starscream tried to attack, but Optimus sliced him across the face before spinning and slicing Grindor in the chest. Starscream then tried to aim up a shot with his rocket launcher, but Optimus stabbed him in the shoulder again before flipping over his back, making him shoot off the rest of Gridor’s arm instead. He then spun and threw one of his energon blades at Grindor, stabbing him in the leg.

Megatron tried to charge at Optimus, but the Autobot leader kicked him in the side before deflecting another attack from Starscream and head butting the transformed jet, knocking him over. He then blocked a kick from Megatron by stabbing him in the leg, he then violently ripped the blade out and stabbed Megatron in the chest, forcing him down on all fours, then he stabbed him in the shoulder, picking him back up, only to deliver brutal haymaker to the Decepticon leader’s head that left him dazed, before punching him in the face hard enough to send him flying away.

Again Optimus blocked an attack from Starscream, before karate chopping the seeker’s arm off and smacking him with it twice.

Seeing Grindor pull the sword out his leg, he quickly went to put him down, he deployed his energon hooks and jumped onto the transformed helicopter, digging them into his face. Then, in a brutal display, he ripped the Decepticon’s face in half with the hooks, then he leapt off of the ‘con’s still standing corpse and threw it to the ground, “Piece of tin.” Optimus muttered.

Believing the battle was at a standstill, Optimus leaned against a tree, ”Sam, where are you?” Suddenly, the Autobot leader was met with an excruciating pain in his spark chamber as Megatron violently impaled him with his sword, “AUGH, NO!!!” He screamed in agony as Megatron lifted him into the air.

”You’re so weak.” The Decepticon leader taunted before blasting Optimus’ spark point blank with his fusion cannon.

Sam started trembling in terror as he watched Megatron pull the sword out, leaving Optimus’ limp body to fall to the ground.

———

Back on the Nemesis, the Fallen rose from his throne, “The last Prime is dead!” He declared.

———

Optimus survived just long enough to look at Sam, “Sam, run… ru…” he trailed off as his optics faded out.

Sam was left with no choice but to follow the Autobot leader’s last words. He ran out into a clearing, with Megatron hot on his tail, but he was met with the sound of Ironhide’s voice, “Autobots attack!” The transformed truck yelled, shooting Megatron in the chest with both of his arm cannons, the force of the hit knocked Megatron over and allowed Sam to gain some ground.

Ironhide bull rushed Megatron as he got up, but the Decepticon leader grabbed him by the throat, “You are not Optimus Prime!” Megatron taunted before blasting the Autobot with his fusion cannon, sending him flying and crashing through a tree. 

Megatron moved to finish Ironhide off, but was met with more shots that forced him to block them. He turned to see Ratchet, Bumblebee, The Twins, the Arcee sisters and Sideswipe shooting at him, while Sam was relieved to see a familiar Pontiac Solstice with a familiar face inside.

”Get in!” Mikaela yelled as she opened the door. Sam was in no position to argue, so he quickly did so.

”Jazz, get them out of here!” Ratchet yelled as he continued shooting at Megatron. 

Jazz did so, quickly driving away with the Twins in tow.

Megatron growled as he saw Sam escaping, he charged up a fusion cannon shot, but was met with a punch to the gut from Ironhide that staggered him, then he quickly smacked the Autobot aside with his sword. Megatron turned his attention back to Jazz, but the Pontiac was nowhere to be found.

He growled in anger, “Decepticons, retreat!” He yelled before transforming into his jet mode and flying away. There was no point in continuing the fight at this point.

Starscream flew away as well, leaving a battered Sideswipe to fall over, “Yeah, run away, like you always do!” He strained out.

Ironhide got up, “Where’s Prime?” He asked, but what happened next made him regret asking.

“Oh no…” Ratchet said quietly.

Ironhide turned around, and his optics widened in shock and horror.

Sideswipe rolled over and gasped when he saw it.

Optimus’ dead body.

———

Sam’s eyes stared at nothing as the Autobot trio drove down the road, and Mikaela could tell that something was up.

”Sam? What’s wrong?”

Sam only gave her a resigned look.

Mikaela’s expression shifted to a more grave one, “Sam, what happened in that forest?”

Jazz suddenly realized something, “Come to think of it, where’s Optimus?”