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"No news on Airachnid yet," Arcee muttered as her remote-controlled body held the door open for Jack, his mom, Miko, and Ashanti's team. "Optimus said he's holding off on reviving the two dormant 'Bots until after we view the new records. He didn't say why, but it can't be a good sign. It's probably also something he'd prefer to avoid showing Tomoko."

"Well, maybe he just doesn't want to overwhelm them with too much new information all at once." Jack gave her hand a gentle squeeze. "Those two have probably been out of the loop for a long time."

"I hope that's all it is." She smiled, but let it fade as soon as he looked away. She'd seen too much carnage in her life not to assume the worst. Which meant the records probably showed the destruction of Cybertron by the Dyson sphere-size being named Unicron.

Well, even if that's what we're about to see, Cybertron was already uninhabitable. Maybe it could've been revived, or maybe not. Either way, Earth is our home now. We have friends here. Family.

Beyond the hallway through which the group walked, at the far end of the warehouse, Arcee opened her optics and turned her head toward the door as her human-size body emerged, followed by Jack and the rest. Arcee zoomed in on his face and smiled.

However this plays out, our future is here, on Earth.

He smiled back and jogged across the floor to her. She piloted her smaller body over to the nearby wall, sat it down, and disengaged the link. She lowered herself to her hands and knees, leaned over a little farther so he could reach her, and they kissed.

_Heh. Probably have to prepare the new guys for this thing with me and Jack, rather than let them walk through a door and catch us making out._Aside from this sort of "interfacing" being a completely alien concept to her people, her impression from the few times she'd met Ultra Magnus was that he was kind of uptight.

"Thanks for dinner," she said when they parted. "I'm looking forward to trying more later on."

"I'm looking forward to dessert." Jack grinned and winked.

June sighed and shook her head as she continued walking past them. She joined Optimus, Fowler, General Sanchez, and the two Vehicon defectors, Steve and Khalilah.

Miko laughed softly and walked after her, then paused long enough to turn around, hold her hand in front of her pants, and make a "flicking the bean" gesture. She followed it with a quick double thumbs-up before turning and walking on over to the others.

Jack's face turned red. "Uh, wow. All of a sudden, that girl's kind of developed an obsession with masturbation."

"Well, I've also developed quite an interest in it, given everything I've heard about what it's like." Arcee shrugged. "I mean, if it feels good, why not, right? I'm looking forward to trying it sometime soon." She chuckled. "Every time I think your face couldn't possibly turn a darker shade of red--"

"It's because you keep putting certain images in my head." He laughed and reached up to run his palms over her chest plate. "Certain..._beautiful_images."

General Sanchez made an unnecessarily loud throat-clearing sound. Arcee gave Jack one more quick smile before turning to face the others and shifting into all-business mode. Sanchez appeared to be trying to hide a lopsided grin as he faced the huge screen.

"Okay, Optimus," she said. "How bad is this going to be?"

He opened his mouth, hesitated, and nodded at the screen. "The few intact records we've found so far are...unsettling."

_I fucking knew it._Arcee braced herself and waited for the playback to begin.

A graphic representing a binary star system appeared on the screen. Fourteen planets, most of them rocky but without an atmosphere, four gas giants, and two in the habitable zone that had atmospheres similar to Earth's, according to the data scrolling up the right side of the screen.

"The date stamp on this file puts the event at around two hundred thousand years ago," Steve said. "If our calculations correcting for stellar orbits around the galaxy are accurate, this would be the star system humans call Gliese 674, currently fifteen light years from Earth. There was an Autobot research station in the system back then, studying a population of primitive organic beings."

"The civil war on Cybertron was at full-throttle by that point," Khalilah added, "but many 'Bots were still trying to keep up with their scientific endeavors."

"How primitive was this organic species?" Jack walked closer to the screen.

"Their technological development had reached a point roughly equal to humanity as you were around a century and a half ago. Telegraphs, steam engines, that sort of stuff."

"Cool." Miko grinned. "Another alien species, practically right next door!"

"Well, about that..."

Arcee raised a brow plate. "You mentioned an 'event.'"

Optimus nodded. "This file was among the information retrieved from a series of emergency buoys launched from the research station. It seems the _Harbinger_found one of them and copied its files to the ship's memory core."

"Observations made with the HARPS spectrograph a few years ago detected only one planet orbiting Gliese 674, and you could say its orbit is 'unusually eccentric.'" Steve nodded at the screen. "We're about to see why."

On the screen, a new object appeared at the edge of the star system--an _enormous_one.

"At first," Optimus said, "those aboard the research station thought this was a ship dropping out of hyperspace, but once they scanned it, they saw that it was far bigger than any ship either side had ever built."

Ashanti sighed. "Unicron?"

He nodded and continued staring at the screen.

"The playback is accelerated," Khalilah said. "What we're seeing actually took decades."

Unicron entered the star system, passing near the outermost planet. The planet's orbit changed and it spiraled in toward the two stars, perturbing the orbits of other planets as it crossed their paths. One of the planets ended up in an extreme elliptical orbit, causing it to cross other orbits repeatedly, until it collided with one of the rocky planets. Other planets spiraled in toward the stars, two of them plunging directly into one of them, and four were ejected from the system.

One of the terrestrial planets finally intersected with the inhabited world, obliterating both.

"Jesus," June whispered.

"The research team saved as many of the indigenous population as they could," Optimus said softly as video images of a massive, spherical object appeared on the screen. "All Autobot ships were engaged in operations far away when this began, and most could not reach this system in time. The team had to use shuttles. Their efforts took many years, but still they were only able to save a few hundred, even once they had help from other ships."

"And what would you even tell those people?" Ashanti shook her head. "They probably couldn't understand what was happening, and giant robots suddenly showing up out of nowhere would've only terrified them even more."

"Imagine noticing planets' orbits changing like that, not understanding why, and knowing there isn't a single goddamned thing you can do to stop it." Jack shivered. "The end of the world, and all you can do is watch it happen."

Arcee crouched beside him and reached out to hold his hand.

"I guess that's why Unicron is called 'the Chaos Bringer.' Not even jumping in and taking out the target directly, but letting gravity do all the work. Letting his victims live in fear for several decades before finishing them off." Ashanti turned away from the screen. "When your lifespan is measured in hundreds of thousands--or even millions--of years, a century is just a pit-stop."

Arcee scowled at the images on the screen--vid records of Unicron scooping molten planetary rubble into his maw-like opening, moving slowly, taking his sweet time, simply because he could. He wasn't quite as massive at that point as he was in the file they'd found earlier, but he clearly generated enough of a gravity well to knock entire planets out of their orbits.

Withholding this from Magnus and the other 'Bot, and especially from Tomoko, was definitely the right call.

"That was way too close to Earth," Sanchez said. "Fifteen light years is spitting distance compared to the size of the galaxy."

"Shit." June trudged away from the screen and crossed her arms over her chest. "Well, there goes any chance of getting any sleep."

#

"Any change yet?" Miko glanced from Lucas and Rosalina up to Ratchet.

The former shook their heads slowly and the latter turned to stare for a moment at Bulkhead's inert body on the far side of the repair bay. Finally, he turned back to Miko and sighed.

"I'm sorry, Miko. He's stable, but hasn't shown any signs of increased processor activity."

She nodded and walked across the bay without another word.

Damn. She seemed to be feeling better while we were having dinner, but now...._Jack glanced up at Arcee. _Well, when you're that close to someone, you can't just forget about them when they're hurt. And if you manage to get your mind off them for a moment, you feel like you shouldn't have.

Miko climbed the stairs beside Bulkhead, hopped over the rail once she was high enough, and walked across his chest until she reached the middle. She sat, took a breath, and let it out slowly.

Optimus stared at both of them, his sorrowful expression indicating a desire to comfort Miko and sit with his old friend, but he turned back to Ratchet with a soft sigh and got back to business.

"What is the status of our new guests?"

"I've managed to repair the damage, which was comparatively minor. They appeared to have shut themselves down sometime after the crash. I suppose they had no way to call for help, and decided to conserve their remaining energon until an Autobot ship passed close enough to detect the_Harbinger_'s wreckage."

"Or," Arcee said, "maybe they sent a distress call, but no one came to help."

"That's another possibility. We won't know for certain until we can speak with them. Which we should be able to do momentarily."

Optimus nodded and turned to watch the two 'Bots stretched out on the floor. "Revive them."

Ratchet picked up his tools and crouched beside the larger 'Bot, the one Optimus had called Ultra Magnus. He waved one of his gadgets over the 'Bot's head and waited.

Magnus opened his optics, blinked several times, and glanced around. His movements became less twitchy as his systems finished rebooting. His optics found Optimus and they stared at each other for several seconds, giving Jack the impression that they were sending wireless signals back and forth. A much more efficient way of getting the new guy up to speed than simply talking, Jack assumed.

Ultra Magnus nodded. "I've connected to the global computer network and downloaded the major languages I found. Am I using the correct one?"

"You are, my friend." Optimus held out his hand and helped Magnus get to his feet. "We found the Harbinger's wreckage. You and this one were the only Cybertronians still intact." He nodded at the blue-and-white Autobot as Ratchet crouched beside him.

"His name is Smokescreen," Magnus said. "He's a rookie. This battle was one of his first." He turned back to Optimus. "No one else survived?"

"The rest of the Autobots, and all of the Decepticons onboard, were dead when we found you. I'm sorry."

Magnus stared at the floor for a long moment. "Unfortunately, sir, they're not the first troops I've lost."

"I understand." Optimus put his hand on Magnus's shoulder. "We did not find any of the Wreckers on the Harbinger. Are they--"

"Gone. All of them. The last few were lost not long before we boarded the Harbinger. Once we found no other survivors after the crash, Smokescreen and I sent a distress call and put ourselves in standby to wait for pickup." Magnus arched a brow plate. "According to my internal chronometer, that was nearly fifteen thousand years ago. Our energon managed to last this long, but now that we're operational again, we'll run out soon."

"We acquired a small supply after a recent battle. You and Smokescreen are more than welcome to replenish yourselves. It's in a storeroom through there." He waved a hand at one of the tunnels branching out from the repair bay.

"Thank you, sir. You found us just in time."

"We did not know the ship was on this planet until this morning. We're already running on fumes."

"I see. Our signal was never received."

"Well, on the bright side," Arcee said, "at least the 'Cons didn't pick it up and come looking for you, either."

"True enough." Magnus stared at her. "On the bright side, sir."

_Really? Seriously?_Jack glanced from him to Arcee and caught her trying to suppress her Clint Squint--and not entirely succeeding. He clamped his mouth shut and held his breath to stop a laugh from bursting out.

Ratchet rolled his eyes as he finished reactivating Smokescreen. The young 'Bot snapped his optics open, glanced around frantically, and deployed his arm cannons.

"Stand down," Magnus snapped.

Smokescreen whipped his head around, found Magnus standing over him, and retracted his guns. He appeared distracted for a moment, as if staring at something only he could see. Connecting to the Wi-Fi and finding language files, Jack assumed. Smokescreen's expression cleared and he hopped back to his feet.

"Sorry. I was just startled. Is this the rescue team? Wait--we're not on the _Harbinger_anymore."

Magnus raised his brow plate again.

"Uh, sir!" Smokescreen snapped to attention.

Arcee finally managed to soften her expression. She waved a hand across the repair bay. "Two of the Wreckers are still around, Bulkhead and Wheeljack."

"Bulkhead is badly damaged, but still alive," Ratchet said. "Wheeljack went off on his own after working with us for a brief time."

"Hmph. Typical." Magnus turned to stare at Bulkhead. "What is that thing on his chest?"

"Uh, that's Miko," Jack said. "She's a member of the team."

Magnus glanced down at him as if noticing him for the first time, and turned back to Optimus. "One of the indigenous life forms?"

"They're called humans." Optimus smiled slightly. "This is their planet."

"You're allying yourselves with such tiny, fragile creatures? The war must not be going well."

Jack held in a sigh. Oh, wow, isn't this guy charming?

"The war's long over," Arcee muttered, "and everyone lost. The 'Cons just refuse to admit it."

"Hmm. And you're counting on these small, soft humans provide the support we need?"

"Do not underestimate them," Optimus said as he began walking toward the tunnel entrance, and the others followed. "Though their technology is far behind ours, they've still found ways to take on our mutual enemy and win."

Arcee nodded over her shoulder at Miko. "After Bulkhead was shot in the back by an Insecticon, she killed the one who did it and four of his buddies."

"And blew a huge, gaping hole in the side of the Nemesis at the same time," Jack added.

Magnus stared down at him with a slight frown before turning back to Optimus. "Is that true, sir?"

"Yes. I will fill you in on everything you've missed while you slept. Jack, once they've finished refueling, perhaps you could show Smokescreen around and introduce him to the rest of the team?"

"Sure, I'd be happy to." Jack faced Smokescreen and smiled. "I'm Jack Darby."

"Hello."

They reached the storeroom and walked over to a stack of glowing blue cubes. Ratchet entered the room behind them, carrying another set of tools. Having seen Arcee using them, Jack knew they were for processing the energon into a non-volatile form and injecting it into Cybertronian bodies.

Magnus stood back and motioned Smokescreen forward. The younger 'Bot stepped up to Ratchet and turned around. Ratchet opened a port in Smokescreen's back and connected a conduit. The process took only a few minutes, but before it was over, Smokescreen had begun shifting anxiously from one foot to the other.

Jack chuckled. "He kinda reminds me of Miko. The only time I've ever seen her sit still for more than a few minutes is when she's eating or sleeping."Or sitting with Bulkhead and hoping he wakes up. Jack kept that one to himself to avoid bringing the group's mood down even further.

"Or masturbating, I assume." Arcee grinned, and Jack snickered.

"Alright, kid, you can stop being so antsy. We're done." Ratchet disconnected the conduit and waved Magnus over.

"Thanks!" Smokescreen stepped aside, stretched, and grinned. "That was exactly what I needed. I feel like I can take on the whole galaxy now!"

Magnus appeared to stifle a sigh as he walked over to Ratchet.

"Well, I guess I'll start the tour." Jack glanced up at Arcee. She nodded at the others.

"I'll help bring Ultra Magnus up to speed, but when you start showing Smokescreen around Groom Lake and introducing him to Ashanti's team, I'll link up with my Mini-Me and join you."

"Sounds like a date." Jack grinned.

Arcee chuckled, glanced over at Magnus, and smirked. She crouched, leaned over until Jack could reach her, winked, and pursed her lips. He laughed and kissed her.

Magnus stared at them with a blank expression. Smokescreen glanced around at everyone and shrugged. When they finally parted, Magnus focused his stare on Arcee.

"What were you doing?"

"It's a local custom. I'll explain it later." Arcee winked at Jack again. "Actually, there are some...educational videos I could show you sometime, just to give you the clearest possible picture."

_Oh, damn, girl!_Jack imagined Arcee showing Magnus some of the porn videos she "researched" a few days ago, and the resulting look on Magnus's face. The image it brought to mind almost made him burst out laughing.

He took a slow breath, turned to Smokescreen, and waved a hand. "Okay, the rest of Team Prime is in the main hub. Right this way."

#

"Hey, kiddo." June smiled as her son, Arcee's human-size body, and a full-size Autobot walked over to the table where she sat with Sierra, her parents, Ashanti, Jensen, Khalilah's mini-me, and several Pretenders. Everyone else had gone home or resumed their duties.

"Hi, Mom." Jack pointed a thumb over his shoulder as he and Arcee took seats beside her. "This is one of the new guys. His name's Smokescreen."

"Pleased to meet you." June smiled.

"Likewise. Arcee's been telling me all about Jack's performance in recent battles." Smokescreen sat at the end of the table, stretched his legs out, leaned back, and propped himself up on his hands. "It's an honor to meet the one who produced such a formidable warrior."

Jack blushed. "Eh, I think Arcee might've oversold my involvement a bit."

"Okay, I admit I'm kinda biased." Arcee shrugged and grinned. "What can you do, eh?"

Jack chuckled and slipped his arm around her waist. "Of course, we had to explain the whole human reproduction thing to him before he understood what the words 'mother' and 'son' meant."

"I'm still getting my head around the idea, but I think I can grasp it on a basic level." Smokescreen grinned. "From what I've heard about the process, it sure does sound like fun!"

June laughed. "Well, the conception part can be fun, if you're with someone who knows what he's doing." If he's not the kind of guy who only cares about sticking it into a naive girl and then running like hell when he finds out she's pregnant. She kept that thought in her head and reached for her cup of green tea. With a smile, she added, "The pregnancy is not pleasant at all, but it was _so_worth it."

"I've heard a lot about the act itself in the past few days," Khalilah said, and motioned at herself with one hand. "This mobile platform has some hardware and software that my own body doesn't have, and I'm thinking about trying them out, if I can find a willing partner."

Jensen shrugged. "I'm available."

Ashanti raised an eyebrow at him and he shrugged again.

"Eh, why not? It's an opportunity to get laid without any emotional baggage." His smile almost collapsed, but he recovered in an instant. "After recent events, I really need something a little more life-affirming."

"Yeah, I can understand that."

Jensen turned back to Khalilah and smiled. "Whenever you're ready, just let me know."

"There's no time like the present."

"Oh, now?" He arched an eyebrow, shrugged, and picked up his tray. "Okay. Shall we go find someplace private?"

"Okay." Khalilah walked around the table and both of them headed back toward the building containing the mess hall.

"Huh." June stared at them for a few seconds before turning back to the others and shaking her head. "If only dating humans were that easy."

"No shit," Rob grumbled.

Alice chuckled and patted him on the back. The action produced a metallic clicking sound.

Smokescreen cocked his head and stared at Jensen and Khalilah as they stepped through the door. He glanced at the Pretenders and then back to Arcee.

"So, you've really got the Decepticons working with us?"

"Some of them, yeah. I had my suspicions at first, but Rosalina and the other Pretenders have gone out of their way to help us, and Khalilah and several other Vehicons risked their lives for us. That counts for a lot."

"There were other Pretenders who remained loyal to the 'Cons," Rob said as he reached for another beer. "The rest of us were already sick of the war, and when our homeworld died, that was pretty much the last straw. We ran like hell. Found this planet eventually, decided to try to blend in and live in peace. Then the 'Cons brought their war here, and we've been pulled back into it." He managed to smile a little. "But at least we're on the right side, this time."

"I don't know why _any_of the Vehicons could stay with Megatron's bunch," Alice said. "I've seen the way they were treated. I was on Cybertron just before the end, and saw how badly the Vehicons were treated. None of the higher-ups even blinked when a bunch of 'em got mowed down, and their remains were just left on the battlefield. Megs and the rest didn't even give a shit. Once it occurred to Khalilah and the others that they could change sides, I bet they couldn't wait to do it. They're probably dying for a chance to stick it to the 'Cons."

"Well, the increase in our numbers will give us a much better shot at doing just that." Arcee smiled. "Who knows, maybe we'll finally be able to bring the war to an end."

"I'll drink to that." Rob hoisted his bottle and took a long swig.

Everyone sat in silence for a moment. June glanced at Jack and Arcee and sighed. "Before I forget to mention it, sorry I didn't join you guys for the 'reawakening.' After that video we saw, I just needed a break from all of it."

"I understand, Mom." Jack patted her shoulder. "Luckily, there hasn't been any more bad news. We were giving Smokescreen a tour of the Autobot base and the areas of this one that aren't off-limits. And now we're kind of taking a break from that, and figured we'd come out here and relax for a few minutes."

"Well, you arrived just in time." June motioned at Sierra and her parents. "Carl, Melanie, and Sierra have been filling me in on current events back in Jasper."

"We've been out of the loop, ourselves, being on vacation and all." Carl chuckled. "We've got friends and family there who keep us updated via Facebook and Twitter."

"Been a bit busy lately, so I haven't kept up," Jack said. "Have I missed anything good?"

"Well." Sierra grinned. "My cousin Jade got a job working the customer service desk at Walmart, and has been feeding us a steady stream horror stories."

"Walmart." Alice snorted. "Fuck me. My boyfriend's brother works in one of those. Our civil war was bad enough, but at least there, we could shoot at our enemies. This poor guy just has to stand there and take whatever abuse the public decides to throw at him."

Sierra nodded. "From what I've heard, the service desk is the worst, especially when they're dealing with returns." She turned to Jack and grinned again. "One of the latest horrors Jade ran into was just a few days ago. Guess who came walking up to the counter?"

June snickered, having heard the story a few minutes ago.

"Weird Walter."

"Oh, wow. What was he on, that time?" Jack chuckled.

"Rum and Percocet." Sierra laughed. "But that's not even the best part. He tried to return a box of condoms."

Jack grimaced. "That puts images in my mind that'll take an acid bath to get rid of."

"No kidding. Wanna know why he was returning them?"

"I'm really not sure."

"He said they didn't fit."

Jack slumped over the table and buried his face in his hands.

Sierra shrugged and picked up her bottle of water. "He probably had several of 'em slip off inside his sister."

"Sierra!" Melanie tried to fix a stern stare on the girl, but a grin kept tugging at the corners of her mouth.

Sierra rolled her eyes. "Mom, you've seen that guy before. You just know that if he ever reproduces, the baby will come out with one eye, three fingers on one hand and seven on the other, and a club foot."

Carl slumped over and howled with laughter. When he caught his breath, he muttered, "I...I feel terrible for laughing at that, but I can't help it!"

Jack's phone beeped, but he couldn't stop laughing long enough to take it out of his pocket.

Arcee turned her head abruptly, which usually meant she was receiving a text message or a comm. She turned back to him, uttered a long gasping sound, and broke into a brilliant smile.

"Got a text from Miko. Bulkhead's awake!" She threw her arms around Jack, kissed him passionately, and sprang from her seat. She'd already reached the door by the time Jack got to his feet.

"That's wonderful!" June smiled and finished her tea. "This one, I _definitely_want to be in on."