Title: At the Crack of Thunder

Author: Sebequerel

Summary: For a teenager whose 'Normal' day features alien robots from outer space, you can't help but wonder exactly what it is he calls 'Abnormal'. His accidential transformation into a Seeker at the hands of Miko? Oh yeah. That totally counts.

Disclaimer: I own nothing. NOTHING. Transformers is just an old love of mine which I have happened to kidnap temporarily in order to write this... monstrosity.

Warnings: Sort of character death, and swearing. Also I have no beta.

Chapter 1:

In which Miko touches what she shouldn't, somebody dies (sort of), and somebody be trippin balls.

Chapter warnings:

Mild character death (nothing descriptive).

Also there's a seriously weird bit at the bottom. Seriously. I had a 'What the hell did I just write?' moment as I was writing it! Thankfully such a writing style or situation will never turn up ever again. Ever.

Jack Darby's day had started out completely average. Wake up, get cleaned up, get dressed, eat breakfast, say goodbye to his mom, go to school, be bored, avoid Vince during break, be bored until the last bell of the day, get a ride with Bulkhead to the base, hang out with the two younger kids, bully Miko into doing her homework, help out Raf with his homework, do his own homework, chat with the bots, be startled by an alarm going off, follow them 'bots on their mission, and keep a firm eye on Miko when she inevitably dives straight into danger straight out of the blue.

Now usually, the Autobots would either trounce the Decepticons or lose, everybody would march back off to their respective bases, Optimus would chastise them for simply running out into danger unprotected, Fowler and Miko would grate against each others' nerves most amusingly, Fowler would then discreetly thank Jack for making sure she got out of there alive, the kids would play around with the 'bots until evening, and then get dropped back home in time for dinner.

This time, however, things didn't go quite as smoothly.

What had once been a perfectly normal day went just a bit haywire when Miko decided, completely out of nowhere, to dash into the battlefield and straight at the artifact the Autobots and Decepticons were currently grappling over. This wasn't too surprising to the older teen, Miko was rather spontaneous on the best of days, but he had been left in charge of her and so it was his job to get her out of danger as quickly as possible.

He dashed across the grass after her, ducking around a tree (one he was fairly sure he had seen Bulkhead whack a Vehicon or three with just moments ago) and avoiding various puddles and patches scattered about due to the rain.

Mostly ignoring the crashes, growing more distant now as he moved away from the skirmish, Jack instead focused on catching up to Miko as quickly as possible before she did anything else really stupid.

Jack, unfortunately, did not tear into the clearing until it was much too late to stop Miko from pressing one of several buttons on the machine's surface.

It was at that moment, as the machine in question whirred ominously and started to rattle, that Jack despaired at the fact that Miko really just seemed to lack any and all common sense whatsoever. Even Raf, who was almost half her age, wasn't stupid enough to touch something he shouldn't (unless it was a computer but, oh well, Jack couldn't have everything).

If only she weren't as impulsive as she was, he thought, as he seized her about the middle and hauled her away from the contraption as fast as his legs could carry them over the treacherous ground.

Glancing back, and blanching with alarm at what he saw, he shoved Miko as hard as possible, sending her sprawling into the tree line.

"Hey-!"

The bang was spectacular, although that was hardly a good thing for the boy, who had, unfortunately, not been able to escape the blast radius in time.

"Jack!"

Miko couldn't believe how horribly today had gone. It had started out fine, everything as normal as it was possible for it to be when alien robots were involved, and then everything had just gone wrong! And it was all her fault.

Jack was always telling her to be careful, to watch what she was doing, and keeping an eye on her and Raf, massive mother-hen that he was. He was sixteen for goodness' sake, sixteen! Hardly old enough to be considered properly able to look after himself and he was looking after two people even younger than he was! Surely he could just loosen up a bit and have fun, maybe quit bothering her all the time, right?

He did though, he had fun like the rest of them, just not in dangerous situations, not when people could be seriously hurt, or killed, or captured by the 'cons. He had fun, but never once had he ever treated it as a game, he saw the dangers. She hadn't, and god, she felt so very blind.

He was always watching, listening, learning, and paying specially attention to anything that could potentially be considered hazardous. Ratchet liked that about him, she knew, even if he hid it under his bluster and grouchiness.

He had even tried to leave before, tried to take them back as well, her and Raf, because, instead of just seeing four cool aliens, like something out of an anime or movie, he also saw their war, saw the danger of just being involved. He had come back of course, but now she just wished she hadn't been so very bull headed.

Jack was her Guardian, just like Bulkhead, just smaller and smarter and much less likely to just cave to her whims (and that was hard, her parents and her host parents and Bulkhead all had problems, but not Jack, Jack forged on anyway, and she hadn't liked that, hadn't liked losing, even if it was to another kid).

And god that made her feel bad as she stood and stared down at his still unmoving body, laid flat out on the berth. It would have been hilarious how small he was compared to the metal bed, but this wasn't funny, not when he looked so pale and felt so cold, and it was. All. Her. Fault.

It was just wrong. Sure Jack didn't move a lot, not like her, who jittered and fidgeted and always had to be doing something, with her hands, with her feet, not like Raf, who shuffled and picked at his sleeves and adjusted his glasses, sometimes. Jack hadn't moved a lot, besides crossing his arms and how his eyes and head would track the younger two as they did whatever they were doing. Such stillness, on anybody, let alone Jack, Jack her best friend, Jack one of two people who didn't care where she was from or how she acted, was simply wrong, Jack who she actually thought was kind of cool for a guy.

It took her a long moment to realize that she was crying, sobbing into her palms, Bulkhead making soft crooning noises as he held her close to his chest, high enough that she could see Bumblebee doing similar to Raf, and Ratchet staring very hard at a machine readout, face pinched into something horribly flat and professional.

Optimus stood by the door, Agent Fowler, who had flown in so quickly Miko was still half convinced he had discovered how to teleport, perched gingerly on his shoulder, both looking serious.

"Ratchet." The Prime rumbled, asking without asking about whether the teen would be alright.

Ratchet didn't move for several small eternities, optics switching away from the cybertronian gibberish on screen and instead focusing on the still form of Jack, still unmoving.

He turned his head to look at his leader, expression not even flickering.

And Miko knew, knew by the way Optimus's face crumpled, how Bumblebee whines, how Fowler suddenly goes grim, and how Arcee, who had been stood in the corner, not even able to bring herself to look at the boy who she considered a friend, a brother (a sparkling), wails and collapses where she stands, that nothing would ever be right again.

And she cried, and she cried, and oh god, what were they going to tell his mother?

He was drifting, floating in a sea of Nothing/Everything/Something. It didn't matter where he was going, it didn't matter who he was, all that mattered was that he was going Somewhere/Everywhere/Nowhere. Going away from Here/There/Somewhere/Nowhere/Everywhere.

He didn't remember his name, he didn't remember how he looked like, he didn't remember where he Had/Hadn't been Before/After or where he was supposed to be going. His name didn't matter, who he was didn't matter, he didn't matter.

And that was Right/Wrong.

(wrong right he didn't know which was right/wrong didn't need to)

Everything looked Strange/Normal. Colors and colors, blending, blurring, merging together even as they shifted apart, separated, disappeared into Nothing/Everything/Something.

The colors made strange shapes, strange symbols, strange silhouettes. Strange, strange, strange.

(strange but right/wrong which was which right was which which was wrong he didn't know didn't know and he didn't care couldn't/wouldn't/shouldn't care)

Nothing mattered. Nothing.

(but it did it did he did everything did everything)

(why)

And then, where there was Nothing/Everything/Something (jack where there was jack) there was Pain/Agony/Hurt (peace peace there was peace emptyness). It was burning, burning him away Inside/Outsided/Noside/Everyside.

(It hurt)

(It hurts)

(stopstopstopstop it huuuuuuuuurttsss)

A voice, a voice, it Whispered/Shouted/Screamed/Cried/Mumbled (burned burned it burned burned him burned jack). It was too Loud/Quiet/Silent/Nothing/Everything/Something and it Burned.

(buuuuuuurned)

You saved her

You did

Why

Because because

You were her

Guardian

Yes?

Yes

You will die

Machine

Will burn you

Away

To ash

No

Cannot

Should not

Happen

Yes

Your body

Will die

But you

Shall live

On

Not human

No

Guardian

Seeker

Soldier

Child

Live

Live

Live

And Jack woke.

And nothing was the same.

Sebequerel