Hello! I'm just budding in ta tell you that I've made some tweaks to the storyline to better suit what's gonna happen. This also happens around the time 'Darkmount, NV' would happen in the canon timeline.


Arcee's back throbs, her audios ring, and her mind is blanked. In the War, she survived far worse explosions by running and hoping for the best, but with the humans to protect, it's different, she gathered and wrapped her arms around the three children, taking most of the pain for them, and she feels the injuries it wrought. The explosion may not have severely hurt even the humans, but the shrapnel has. Slowly she lets go, the children lean on her while everyone has a swirling sensation in them as the last of the groundbridge glows until death, like the campfire it blew out that formally kept the humans warm. Cinders dance in the air and float down, charcoal and burning wood glitter the places it settles, including Arcee. She brushes it off and frowns at the flickering lights and equipment.

"Is anyone hurt?" She worries and looks for any severe injuries, Miko and Jack shake their heads, while Raf looks at the destruction and wipes his cheek with his dirtied sleeve.

"It's all my fault," his voice cracks as tears stream down his face "I didn't do the calculations right, I could've done better!" His tears blacken with soot and glisten with the energon colored lights.

"Raf, it's not your fault, it's mine, for pushing you so hard. You're still a kid!"

"Ow," Miko groans and puts pressure on where she feels pain "man, why didn't it hurt before?!" The soreness she felt on her arm and thigh turn into sharp pains as they start to bleed. She rests against the wall next to Jack, who coughs the ash from his lungs. He feels scratches and scrapes wetting with blood and swats away burning cinder from his neck with a hiss.

"C'mon, let's get you three some air." She gently ushers them out of the thick room to the egress of the Harbinger.

The world outside is frigid, and galling to their skin, the clearing the Harbinger made during its crash allows the icy wind to reach their ground at full strength. The clean air are but icy needles to their warm lungs, the wind messes their hair and before them is a darkness thick as bear fur, the only thing giving them vision is the Cybertronian flashlight Arcee holds. She uses it to look into the wealds of pine, in the slumber of winter are fewer animals to fear, which brings her relief. The ternion of children shiver and huddle, Arcee looks with regret at them, thinking next time to take them elsewhere in the ship.

"I think you three got enough fresh air, why not call it a night?" Arcee's warm exhaust fogs into the night as she spoke, the others nod and go further inside while Arcee presses the button to close the door, the door itself buffers and does not close all the way, but it is enough to keep animals out.

They head to one of the remaining quarters for soldiers long dead, and Arcee carries Raf and Jack after they get too tired to tread. Meanwhile, Miko continues next to Arcee and holds her head high, limping as the pain on her lower leg slows her "Miko," Arcee looks over tiredly "stop putting weight on your leg, let me carry you."

"No," Miko stubbornly huffs "I can make it! You have Jack and Raf already, you can't carry me too!" She clenches her fists and looks straight ahead.

"You'd be surprised~, " Arcee smirks, glad to see Miko still hasn't lost her strife.

Arcee places Jack and Raf in the sleeping bags Bulkhead always kept, due to Miko's love of camping, and her tendency to blandish her friends into to joining. Miko hugs her knees and stares into the fire Arcee ignited. Their three sleeping bags are kept at a distance from the new fire that still warms, but doesn't harm if they were to reach. Arcee watches over them as she lays on her berth, her mind wandering to Bulkhead and Bumblebee and why they have not returned, their trip for supplies should have ended hours ago.

"Wish I could call them," Arcee mutters and curls up.

"Maybe they got lost in the snow," Miko hopes and looks at Arcee with her hazel eyes struggling to stay awake "or they can't see in the dark...and are staying put somewhere." Arcee hums as Miko goes into her sleeping bag.

"I pray to the Allspark that's true."

"おやすみ。" (oyasumi/good night) Miko yawns, leaving alone Arcee with her thoughts.

Arcee ignores or replies, with insult, to the few flirts Tailgate sends her way to try to include her in a conversation with his friend, and doesn't notice the blue blush on her cheeks as he does. After defeat at one of the battles before Cybertron's fall, her team returned to their humble basecamp somewhere. The defeat, while tragic, did not reap their spirits, for hope was still high that they can return to civilian life, one without the War, without losing any more good bots with bright futures ahead of them. She remembers how she extolled them, and lo, how dearly she misses those times. Her pining then drifts her memories to her most somber hours.

Arcee gasps and shoots up, waking with a start. The screams of her memories die and are replaced by Jack worriedly shaking her awake.

"Arcee." Jack rubs her forearm, a method he knows soothes her. She trembles with pain in her spark and leans to his touch. After the shaky spell of comforting, reposed, Arcee then messes Jack's tangled hair and he stops rubbing her shoulder. They lock optics and eyes as they share a small smile of reassurance and trust. Behind Jack, a charcoaled log breaks and tumbles down, throwing cinders into the air, which die. The fire is near death, it pops and sizzles as Miko puts another log from a small pile.

"Wake up, sleepy head." Miko tosses an empty can of corn at Raf, who groans and reaches for his cracked glasses. For breakfast, she uses the meager fire to warm up corn in an iron pan. Jack looks over and frowns as the last can is used.

"We should go buy supplies, we can't wait for Bulkhead and Bumblebee any longer."

"I'm coming with," Miko stands up "there's no way I'm eating another can of corn!" Arcee chuckles and Raf watches.

"But what about me?" Raf frowns, the group looks at him then at one another.

"Stay here and keep watch in case Bulkhead and Bee comes back." Raf slumps in his chair "C'mon, you went with me last time!"

"Yeah..." Raf almost cracks a smile.

Outside is bright with snow, the sun alas shines and warms the air to a thick honey, the smell of pine is sweet and sharp against the smell of smoke on them. Raf stays near the flickering monitors while Arcee takes Jack and Miko to an amply small town in Canada. At the local grocery store, they walk the aisles of food and load a shopping cart while Arcee keeps a lookout outside. The locals buying food stare at the two with odd eyes, making Miko shift uncomfortably.

"We can pay for this, right?"

"Of course, Miko," Jack glares at one of the women who stares "I still have the card."

"It better work!" Miko huffs and puts cans of baked beans in the cart.

"Yeah," Jack mutters "it better..." They get several cans of vegetables, other than corn, along with locally made cookies. Jack puts in two large jugs of water, toilet paper, and soap, while Miko puts in camping materials and a box of maxi pads. Deeming it meeting Arcee's newly expanded capacity, they head for the cashier, who needs to come out to scan all of the goods. The middle-aged cashier's dark eyes widen as she scans, her two braids dangle as she bends over to continue scanning the things at the bottom of the cart, they can see that she looks at them as she works.

"Do I need to call the police?" Her brown features wrinkle with concern.

"No," Jack forces a chuckle "it's just a camping trip gone wrong. Dad accidentally set our tents on fire."

"Yeah, his dad is sorry though, and we're going to his house after this," Miko adds, to which the cashier hums in acknowledgment.

"Better keep him away from fire from now on."

"Yeah," Jack half smiles.

"That'll be C$157.73," getting the card out of his wallet, he holds his breath, then swipes it and types in the pin. Miko looks over, once it finally beeps their lips perk with relief "want the receipt?" They shake their heads and watch her throw the crumpled paper away.

"Thanks." They go outside and hurriedly load the goods into Arcee's new sidecar.

The roads to the Harbinger are icy and as they near-unplowed. Arcee does her best not to get stuck in the deep snow, but with her wheels unmade for it, it proves difficult. Unbeknownst to them, however, they have a watcher in the low clouds, Laserbeak, whose white colors blend in with the sparse clouds and snow owls, records their location.

The Deployer shows the live feed to Decepticon Outpost Omega One, where Megatron Prime and his team tensely gaze at the monitors. Megatron's bright blue optics look hard with concern for the humans and sees the bags of groceries they have in the sidecar, his filed down talons cup his square chin with thought. The armor he wears is bulky like his counterpart, but they are studded and rounded and shine like silver. Soundwave, who looks unchanged aside from his whiteness and green biolights, turns to his leader.

"What happens next is up to you, Prime." Megatron carefully examines the body language of the children.

"Hmm, let us observe further, then decide that must be done." Knockout, a curvy blue femine with an optic patch, uncrosses her heavily scarred arms.

"I can go check once they've stopped." Breakdown, who stands next to her, gasps and looks at his friend in worry with his golden optics

"Alone?! You need backup!" Knockout chuckles and pats her larger friend's arm.

"Relax, Champ! I can just go with Nightwave," her smirk of artifice then turns into a moue "not like Prime's gonna let me go otherwise." Nightwave scoffs, causing Megatron to chuckle, and watches as Nightwave complains about not being good enough company for her.

Arcee almost drops the bags as she did her jaw, the two teens gawk and gasp at the sight. The Harbinger looks like a computer glitch brought to life, parts of it they recognize, and parts are of a lissome ship with cubic designs. Raf runs out to greet them with a grin until he sees them stunned.

"Uh, hello?" He raises a brow then turns around, gasping when he too sees.

"Woah, what happened to that ship?!" A strange voice asks, they gasp and whip around to see a red bot with black designs, walking into the clearing they stand in with their servos in the air in surrender "Relax, I'm not here to hurt you!" He shouts with panic as Arcee's blaster was about to fire, but doesn't-much to his relief, yet her blaster remains ready and her optics narrowed at him, the kids instinctively rush to hide, with some hesitation from Miko, into the deformed ship and watch from afar.

"Who are you?!"

"My common name's Steve, and I've been sent here to help those humans of yours." He points with his chin at the entrance, making the kids hide deeper in.

"And who gave the order?!" Arcee scowls and stalks closer to Steve.

"Prime of course! He's worried sick about them!" Her optics widen and her blaster lowers.

"He's alive?!" A grateful smile creeps her thin lips.

"Of course," he chuckles until she lifts her aim at him again.

"Then prove it!"

"How?" Steve's thick optic ridge raises in confusion "Look, just give me the kids and we'll give you energon," he looks at Arcee's caved in midriff and hears her tanks growl at the mention of food. Arcee covers her midriff with her arm and sneers as she sees his insignia proudly on his chassis "it sounds like you can use it. All of-"

"You're not taking them anywhere and putting them in danger, 'Con!"

"Okay, bad wording, but the whole point here is to get them out of danger! They'll be free to go where ever they want! Prime also wants to know who you are, so you can come with!"

"I'm Arcee!" She rumbles with wrath, Steve's red optics widen and he thinly frowns.

"Then why is your signature so different?! Last we checked, indigo isn't your color either!"

"How long have you been able to see my signature?!"

"Since that energy surge in the Harbinger, how did you even do that?! That place's stripped clean!"

"Tell that to Starscream, he's the one who left a half working groundbridge there."

"He what?! He's never been in the Harbinger!" The crunching of snow from another catches their attention.

"Okay, this is taking way too long." Arcee looks to see Knockout walking out of the wealds, her optics widen, a bot so recognizable, yet completely new causes shock, even as Steve is uncomfortably close and continues to advance she stares "My name is Knockout, we aren't here to fight, but we will if we have to."

"Knockout?! Since when were you blue?!"

"Since forever." Knockout crosses her arms, seeing Arcee too shocked to attack, and sees her distraction working.

"How is that possible, last I saw you, you weren't the mech to keep those scars of yours!"

"Then you must have me mistaken for some other bot, last I checked," she motions to the world behind her "there's no other Knockout here. I've always been this way." Steve moves behind Arcee, entrapping her arms with his, she growls and kicks as she's unable to reach the ground.

"Gargh! Let me go you slagger!" She unleashes her arm blades and stabs him, he cries out and lets go, only to get kicked down to the snow. Arcee then runs at Knockout, who gets out her electric prod, which glints under the gentle sun as she spins it.

"The hard way it is then!" Knockout grins with excitement and strikes her attacker, who fails to dodge her strike, Arcee is then snatched by the neck and chucked into a tree. The pine breaks in two and hurts her back upon landing, she hits her head on another tree and sees stars. She sees double of Knockout swinging her crackling prod and stalking closer. Arcee, who waits and feigns unrecovery until Knockout is near, swoops under Knockout's legs and slices her inner thigh. Energon sprays and gushes, Knockout winces and clutches her thigh and is then kicked facedown to the snow. Arcee was about to stomp on her injury but is kicked back "There is no way I'm letting you win!" Knockout stands and unleashes her saws, Arcee growls and charges. Once they clash their weapons tear at each other like dogs, energon from their arms fly with sparks, Arcee ducks and slices Knockout's vulnerable midriff, at the price of a slice to her shoulder. Knockout looks down to feel the energon she bleeds-and smiles "My~, finally, someone as good a fighter as I!" Arcee growls and leaps from a wall of the Harbinger, the two warriors move past each other, their blades slash, and Knockout's saw hooks onto Arcee's forearm.

"Argh!" Her arm halts.

"Knockout," Steve shouts "she's had enough!" Knockout takes no heed to Steve, she gets Arcee by the helm and slams it against the wall "KNOCKOUT!" Steve rushes over and cradles an unconscious Arcee's head.

"She started it, Nightwave, I warned her!"

"Your warning was fragging terrible!" Steve holds Arcee in his arm like a limp stuffed animal "This was supposed to be a peaceful mission!"

"Plans change," Knockout smirks "now let's find the humans."

"Too late, they've been watching you the whole time!" Knockout looks to where Steve points, the trio is terrified and in the Harbinger

"Frag," Knockout curses under her vent "um...we come in peace?" The children's held in cries erupt, Miko clenches her fists and her knuckles turn white, and Raf stops trying to keep his cries quiet. Steve gulps and nears as much as he can without them backing away.

"Please don't cry," he kneels and softens his expression "we're not here to hurt you. I promise. Where are you three from?"

"Jasper," Jack whispers.

"What are kids from Jasper doing all the way out here?" Steve smiles comfortingly.

"What are you gonna do to Arcee?" Asks Jack, ignoring Steve's question.

"I really don't know," sighs Steve "hopefully, she won't freak out when we bring her along. I was hoping to chat and give all four of you a nice meal, maybe ask why she's changed so much."

"She's the same as she's always been." Steve raises an optic ridge and sees that Jack is serious.

"Well, now it's even more confusing! How do you know her anyway?"

"Nightwave," Knockout comes over with the limp she hides "it's time to go, we can talk about this more after they're outta danger." Miko's monolid eyes narrow with rage.

"The only danger here is you, ろくでなし!" (rokudenashi/asshole!)

"But what about this cold," Steve frowns softly "you'll freeze to death out here. To add to that, you can get sick if you don't wash up, and by the looks of it, you haven't had a bath in a long time. You'll all die if you stay." The trio frowns and looks at their dirty clothes. Knockout looks away and to the trees as she calls Soundwave for a bridge, which opens nearby.

"Let's go," Knockout starts to head for the bridge as Steve motions for them to follow.

"It's okay, I know that I may look scary, but, I'm a really nice bot. As for your unconscious friend here, we'll make sure she's comfy too!" Hesitant and afraid, they follow.

On the other side, the trio can't help but feel comforted. The enormous rooms sized for a Cybertronian are made of rock, which is smoothened, they see its layers and the different cables stapled to the wall running to different equipment. On the monitors is Soundwave, who rushes over while Breakdown grins and shakes his fists near his large chassis in excitement.

"Yay~!" He quietly cheers. Knockout comes through before Steve.

"She's comatose, but let's made sure the kids are-"

"Ah~~!" The frightened shrill erupts from Arachnid upon seeing Arcee in Steve's arms, with her slender arachnoid legs she scales the thick cables to reach the ceiling, Breakdown shrieks from startlement and clings to Knockout.

"Arachnid!" Knockout scolds, her voice boiling "Stop being terrified of everything! She's comatose! Climb down!" Steve sighs, as does Megatron.

"Prime," Steve starts "I don't think she's with Soluto, anymore at least, when I mentioned you...she acted different." The rest of the teams creeps closer "She was trying so hard to protect those kids, she was scared that we'd hurt them."

"So?!" Soundwave huffs, his shoulders tense and high, and his visor displaying ':(' "That energy surge could've scrambled her circuits!"

"But then how did it change her energy signature," Starscream interrupts and all optics turn to him, his large blue optics look at Arcee, his wings tuck in behind him, and blushes a soft baby blue "s-sorry for interrupting, but if you think about it, Arcee has half of her left arm missing and replaced with a small cannon. There aren't any materials to build even an arm, let alone one identical to her old one in the Harbinger." Megatron hums in thought.

"You do hold an excellent point," the Prime turns to Steve "Nightwave, take her to the interrogation room, but don't make her bindings too tight." Steve nods and leaves to do so "Knockout-" when he turned to her he sees her clinging to a wall to avoid getting dragged to the Med-bay by Breakdown. He sighs and turns to the petrified guests "I apologize for not greeting you here. I know you're scared, but we brought you here because we saw the circumstance you were in."

"Perhaps you'll be more comfortable with the children here." Starscream smiles until Shockwave barges into their view.

"Hello~~! I'm Shockwave!" The scientist's voice is bubbly and cheerful-despite its deepness "Oh wow, you look so much like Dexter!" He turns to the platform blocked from the trio's view "Dexter, look, it's your twin!" The trio leans to the side to see who this Shockwave spoke to, but can't see them from where they are.

"Who's Dexter?"

"That'll be me." They look at the stairs, a boy, with the same height and age as Raf, stands at the bottom. The boy wears no glasses, thus his brown eyes are more awake than Raf's. His black shirt with neon designs ruffles as he uncrosses his arms while his knee pokes out of the tear on his jeans as he heads over. Raf adjusts his cracked glasses at the boy's facial similarities then nervously fixes his hair, which does not have neon orange highlights like the boy does. Raf hears the boy's spiked bracelets jingle until he's in front of them "My name's actually Rafael, but only my parents call me that."

"You," Raf stutters "you look like me!" Dexter looks Raf over, with furrowed brows his brown eyes widen and he frowns in bewilderment. The soft clicking of heels snap them from their wild realization, walking down the stairs with a slender hand on the railing is a girl who looks like Miko, but with a mellow face. The stairway is short and does not take her long to be by Dexter. Her hair is undyed and let down past her shoulders, she wears a blouse with its sleeves to her elbows and black palazzo pants. Her heels are short and in her arms are blankets, which she offers for the trio to take.

"Here, you must all be exhausted from what I've heard." They each take a blanket and feel their bodies warm in them "I'm Nakadai Miko," The girl does a Japanese styled bow and smiles at them warmly "but please call me Nakadai-san. My family moved here from Japan a few years ago."

"Oh...my...gosh," Miko gasps, despite her exhaustion "we have the exact names!" Both girls' hazel eyes widen, Nakadai shrugs with a polite smile.

"What a coincidence then!" They all fail to notice Shockwave's burdened shuffle.

"These are the people Knockout an' Steve found?" A voice much like Jack's own confuses him further, Jack looks at who spoke and sees a young man walking down the stairs, he wears rancher clothing, his skin is colored by the sun, and a straw of hay runs along his messy raven hair.

"Yep!" Dexter's confused face doesn't change.

"Why do you look like me?" The boy asks Jack.

"That's because there's a chance he is you." Shockwave interrupts, his deep voice rumbling in his chassis "Remember that energy surge?" Dexter nods to the uncomfortably close Shockwave, who holds a datapad recording them with both his servos holding it "Well, if what Night said is true, then that groundbridge they were trying to fix might've opened a space-time conduit instead! Creating an Einstein-Rosen bridge, or an Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox and put copies from their universe to our own!"

"WHAT?!" Miko cries.

"So what are your names?!"

"Wait, so we're stuck in another universe?!" Jack gasps "Why couldn't it just be the Shadowzone again?!" He hides his face in the blanket and groans. Raf frowns and adjusts his broken glasses, one of the legs came loose.

"How are we gonna get home?"

"Don't worry," Shockwave smiles with his voice "we'll find a way."

"I'm Jack by the way..." Jack sighs, the boy looks at him.

"I'm Jackson, Jackson Jenson." Jackson offers to shake Jack's hand, he accepts it.

"Why not take them to the showers and get them some clean clothes," Nakadai buds in "they smell." The trio frowns and self consciously try to scratch off the dried bean stains from yesterday's dinner.

"It's been rough," Jack mumbles, Nakadai then motions for them to follow.

"I bet, doesn't look like whatever happened, happened yesterday."

"So what did happen?" Jackson adds in, Nakadai and Dexter nod and look at the trio.

"Shit went down and the 'Cons found us," Miko scowls at the memory "we had to take a groundbridge to different parts of the country. It took us weeks to find each other again!" The trio's counterparts raise a brow and Jack takes notice.

"Where we're from, the Decepticons are the bad guys."

"R-Really?" They turn around, they are at the mouth of the hall and see Arachnid slowly climbing down. Instead of being black as death, she is as white as snow under the morning sun, her once pink optics and biolights are now as gold as clover honey, and her facial markings are vined swirls, instead of obsidian daggers. The trio nods and looks at her features in a fix of fear and wonder.

As the trio stares at Arachnid with an odd fascination, Megatron, Starscream, and Soundwave stand together in a corner. With their seeker hearing, they were able to listen in on the conversation.

"Do you think what Shockwave said is true?" Muses Starscream, Megatron cups his chin and hums.

"That would explain a lot of the things that we saw that simply didn't make sense."

"How will we break it to her," Soundwave sighs "we barely found out about her and already I know she's gonna give us a hard time!"

"Maybe I can give her some of my energon cookies?!" Starscream hopes, Megatron cannot help but smile and softly chuckle.

"Maybe after she calms down."