*This fanfiction is set at the times of episode, 'Project Predacon' and before 'Chain of Command'. There has been alterations of the goals and changes in brief amounts.*

Changes to the canon:

* Optimus never found the fossilized skull of a Predacon.

* He did not send out groups to collect said remains, nor did he leave with Bumblebee and Smokescreen.

The mission was meant to be low-risk. Their goal was to simply retrieve the relic and get back to their new base. It was a small mission meant to only bring the normalcy back to the group, still fairly rattled by the events of Darkmount; Megatron's latest scheme to overthrow the Autobots and claim Earth as his own. Fortunately, he failed.

Ratchet had detected the relic, powered by energon and very well functional. After their success, the kids were depressed. They had lost their homes, schools, base, and fateful memories in an extremely short amount of time. Optimus Prime had figured to increase their motivation was to bring them along, to enjoy the old adventuring. It worked.

Optimus and Ratchet had located the relic and began to harvest it from a large boulder while the Autobots and their respective partners had trivial, yet entertaining, conversations.

"And, now…" Ratchet said, plucking a small staff from the rubble, "We have freed the relic." The children and Autobots cheered and Miko bounded up to Ratchet.

"Mind if I hold onto the do-hickey, Champ?" she teased, tossing an elbow into his metallic foot.

"Only if you remember that this is not a do-hickey, this is a relic that can greatly benefit us, especially against whatever Megatron must be planning," Ratchet said, trailing away. He gently handed the girl the device, to Miko's delight.

"Sweet!" she cried, running over to Jack and Raf to show her new toy.

The children ventured a bit farther into the cave, with the Autobots chatting behind them. They faintly heard something from the entrance, but disregarded it with settling rocks or boulders...

"What do you think it does?" Miko asked absent-mindedly.

"It kind of looks like that device Bulkhead had," Raf noted.

"The Immobilizer?" Jack suggested.

"Yeah! They both have this same structure," Miko said with wonder, bringing the small staff into the air. "It's pretty small, huh? It barely fit in Ratchet's hand." Suddenly, Jack put his arm out to stop them.

"What?" asked Miko.

"Ssh," Jack whispered gently.

In the silence, the children heard the growing sounds of giant, metallic stomps against the hard ground and sinister speaking.

"Oh, no," Jack muttered.

"Maybe it's just Smokescreen from base," Raf - obviously panicked - suggested.

"Or it could be Wheeljack and U.M.," Miko said nervously.

Jack looked behind them and saw the Autobots slowly making their way towards them about thirty feet back. The children all looked ahead and saw a glimmer of silver. Megatron appeared from a turn suddenly, along with Starscream and Knockout. The Decepticons saw the children immediately.

"Well, well, well," Megatron himself said proudly.

The children darted. "BULKHEAD!" Miko screamed, heading in the opposite direction. Knockout transformed and raced after them, revealing the Decepticons to the Autobots. They all transformed then, racing after the children, besides Optimus who aimed a large gun at Megatron himself. His shots were futile, however, as each coming shot missed, leaving a cackling Megatron with an advantage to Jack, Raf, and Miko.

Unfortunately, Knockout had a gain of about 10 feet to the children, with Bulkhead shouting threats and obscenities to him.
Miko looked at Jack, panicked. He quickly realized in almost a second that the relic was slowing her down. He made a small nod, and she threw the staff to him. Jack stopped however, with the device in hand, and aimed at the three Decepticons as it began to glow.

"Jack, now's not the time to attack!" Miko screamed against the staff's growing and roaring energy.

"We need to move! Jack!" Raf shouted, frightened.

"'Cons, stay away from them!" Arcee shouted from across the large, open cave. The other Autobots began to yell, as well.

"Stay back!" he threatened to the towering titans.

Suddenly - as Knockout and Starscream were right above the children, with Megatron behind them - the edge of the staff expanded into a ball of light that surrounded them and Decepticons. The only sound that could be heard was from the Autobots and the energy beam the relic was releasing.

A large cloud of dust pushed the Autobots several feet, but tossing the children, forcing the staff to escape Jack's grasp. Arcee made it to Jack first, relieved to see him still breathing. Bumblebee chirped happily as he grabbed Raf, who opened his eyes, although absent of his glasses. Bulkhead sighed, washing away his worries as Miko stood up, shaking her head with his hand nearby.

Optimus stood over the crumpled forms of the three Decepticons. He kept his eye on the other ones, who were slowly still recovering, and forcefully slammed a large, metallic foot over Megatron's large chest with a gun pointed at his face.

"O-Optimus!"

The evil war lord's expression and tone was not expected from the Prime. His face showed of pure fear, bewilderment, and hurt, and his voice mimicked these emotions in the truest of ways.

Near the Autobots, the teenagers were squirming and shouting from inside the grasps of their protectors. Surprised and worried, the children were placed back onto the ground gently, who were startlingly reeling with rage.

"What's wrong with you guys? Jack, are you hurt?" Arcee asked calmly, visibly concerned. Her eyes flashed to the damaged Decepticons.

"I am not Jack!" cried the boy, whose voice was spoken darkly and angrily.

Optimus took a long, deep look into Megatron's eyes, which were growing more and more panicked along with his body movements. Looking closer, the red optics were now changing before the Prime's very eyes into a darkening blue.

"Megatron?" the Prime said, slowly and cautiously.

"I – it is m-me," the Decepticon leader shook. "Jack."

There was a long silence among the humans and Cybertronians.

"My body has been switched – with a human's!?" the dark-haired boy screamed.

"There's no possible way…" Arcee muttered.

"Apparently," Ratchet said, bewildered, "there is."

Optimus turned to the large, robust form and offered a hand. Reluctantly with worry, the hand was taken and the new Jack was brought to his now large feet. The Prime then turned his attention to Starscream and Knockout, who were still sitting up with their recovery. Their eyes were wide and jaws slightly ajar.

"A-am I…Starscream, now?" the smaller, silver Cybertronian said with stress, looking down at his hands.

Knockout brought himself to his feet, all eyes on him. Looking down at himself, he groaned.

"Now I'm the creepy cat!" he bellowed. "Oh, this is just great! I can't be one of those creeping 'Cons!"

Raf's form was panicking, breathing heavily, holding onto his chest.

"I'm…a…human!?" he shouted.

"At least you're not the walking circus," the small Asian girl retorted, analyzing her clothes.

Bulkhead mumbled angrily, Bumblebee sadly whirred and Arcee brought herself to her feet.

"Megatron, Starscream and Knockout switched their bodies with Jack, Raf and Miko?" she attempted to summarize.

"But I'm Raf! I'm me," the medium-sized silver Decepticon said sadly. "Or at least I was..."

"You still are, Raf," Arcee reassured the young child in his now large, robotic form. "Your bodies were switched with the Decepticons, of all people...but this isn't your fault."

Bumblebee nodded happily in agreement, raising the boy's spirits.

"The only explanation I can offer for this perplexing event is the doings of the recently uncovered relic. Ratchet, we will need to retrieve the device to attempt to undue these transformations," Optimus explained.

"Would it be very wise to merely give the Decepticons their previous powerful bodies back to them? This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to put the odds in our favor for the war permanently," said Ratchet.

"I do not wish to force the children to be inside the very bodies of the enemies who have tried to harm them, their families or humanity. Their stress and pain experienced from the Decepticons are traumatizing as is. I will not allow them to have to live through their eyes," Optimus said gently.

"I don't want to spend another minute in Megatron's shoes, Optimus. But I know we can't give them their bodies back now. Not with this advantage. You sacrificed the chance of reviving Cybertron for us, so I promise you we can sacrifice our comfort for the war," said the Decepticon ruler.

"For science!" shouted the small, red Decepticon, throwing a happy fist into the air.

There was a small thump, and a shout from the youngest of the humans. He tripped over a large rock in his attempt to flee, or just to even try to understand his almost complete blindness.

"Agh! How do humans function!? I can't see! Is this how humans operate!? Do they use magical senses of some sort that I'm obviously missing!? Someone, help me! Ugh!" the small one ranted angrily, patting the cold ground for some sign of life.

"What will we do about...Starscream?" Arcee asked uncomfortably, shifting the weight on her legs unevenly.

"We'll just give him my glasses. I hope they're not broken..." said Rafael in the larger Cybertronian body.

"Why are we even doing this? We can just change the kids back! Let the Decepticons keep their worthless bodies. Don't make the little guys go through this. They don't deserve to be trapped inMegatron's, or Knockout's or Starscream's shameful forms!" Bulkhead expressed angrily.

"First of all, Bulkhead," Ratchet began impatiently. "We're not even fully knowledgeable of what caused the Decepticons and the children to switch bodies in the first place! Second, letting this chance slip through our fingers is dangerous and reckless. We are then continuing to allow the Decepticons to pursue their plans to conquer earth and humanity. In the long run, that's just not a sound plan. I'm sorry, Bulkhead, Miko. We're going to have to get used to it for a bit, until we find out how to use this to our advantage precisely."

Rafael shyly walked over to the Autobots, specifically Bumblebee, his best friend. Miko strolled over in style, making sure to embarrass Knockout when she can. Megatron was feeling quickly surrounded as Optimus Prime and Jack joined the group. There was almost formed a circle, and Megatron had never felt so insignificant and...small. It was almost ridiculous. He wanted to laugh, but obviously he didn't.

Starscream was a few inches away from Ratchet's feet, still feeling around for any sign of help, or the devices he saw Rafael use for his sight. Maybe then he would finally see, as obviously his leader and Knockout could. Why did he have to be the blind human? Suddenly, bang, his hand hit something very hard and metallic.

"Aaaye! Ah, ah, ah! Ooh! Hand! What was that!?" he bellowed.

"That," Ratchet said informatively. "Would have been my foot, Starscream."

"Aiighh, that hurt! Stupid fleshy, crunchy, weak, flimsy...aye, I think it's broken..." Starscream whined.

"Oh, toughen up, Starscream! Where's this baby's 'eye devices' so he can shut up and watch where he's going?" Knockout moaned.

Megatron looked behind him discretely and saw the small relic from before. He knew it was responsible for what's happened to him and his followers. He looked back at the commotion, realized it had taken everybody's attention, and dashed. Much to his fright, a large black hand slammed on the ground right in front of him, preventing the Decepticon leader from reaching his target.

"I believe it is time we return to our base," Optimus concluded.