Unicron Rising

Disclaimer: I don't own any Transformers characters or storylines. This fan-fiction is loosely based on Bay's movies. One-shot.

Leslie watched as her brother, Cody, flipped through the channels on the TV from where she sat at the kitchen counter. His favorite show wasn't on today so she knew he'd just continue to flip through the channels until he found something that interested him. She never bothered to fight with him over the remote anymore like normal siblings did. That was because of what happened two years ago when she was seven. She'd been sitting on the couch with him fighting over what to watch. She was supposed to watch a nature documentary for a school assignment, but Cody didn't want to miss his cartoons. Even though she had retrieved the remote first, he had pushed her hard in retaliation and she had fallen to the floor remote still clutched in her hand. As she tried to get up and crawl away, he kicked her from behind causing her body to surge forward and her head to collide with table edge. Everything went dark after that. The next time she woke up, her head hurt really bad, but Cody was still there on the couch watching the tail end of the show. Their mother had finally returned from the grocery store and she looked down at Leslie who was still slumped on the floor.

"What's wrong with your sister?" she asked raising an eyebrow.

"She's pretending," said Cody instantly. "She threw a temper tantrum when she couldn't get her way when I got the remote first. You know how babies are."

Her mother shook her head at the ridiculousness of her children's actions and moved to the kitchen. Leslie was in too much pain to argue with his words and she didn't want Cody to punch her in retaliation if she tattled on him. A short time later, Leslie slowly make it back to her room. In the bathroom mirror she could see a large black bruise that had already formed on her forehead conveniently hidden by her bangs. It took a whole week for the ache in her head to finally subside, but the real damage had already been done as she lost her trust in her brother that day. He never apologized to her even privately for what he did and he'd simply covered up what happened so their parents never knew.

Since that time, she never again got in her brother's way. She knew without a doubt that he wouldn't hesitate to hurt her if she got in the way. He was a bully not a protective big brother like those siblings in the stories she read. Nowadays they didn't even hang around each other because he was constantly hanging around with this group of three other boys probably doing dumb stuff they thought was important.

Her mother told her to go pick the ripe tomatoes from the garden so they could use them for dinner later so Leslie headed outside to do just that. Cody and his friends, Stevie, Cam and Lynol were in the backyard with their Transformer's figurines. Luckily she had come out late enough to avoid the Nerf gun war or she would have been shot at by all of them. Nerf rounds were strewn all over the ground and she kicked them as she walked. She completely ignored the boys and reached the garden when all of a sudden the backyard was bathed in a bright light. Leslie squinted in the light as it became brighter and brighter. Suddenly it was gone leaving everyone dazed. Leslie and the boys looked around to find themselves on the sidewalk of an unfamiliar street.

"What happened?" asked Cam looking around.

"Where the hell are we?" asked Stevie.

Cody could only shrug in confusion.

Leslie quickly pulled out her phone. She didn't know how they had gotten here, but if they were lost, the first thing to do was call Mom. The phone woke up, but the date was wrong. It said 2007. The current year was 2018 so that was weird. Leslie frowned, but dialed her Mom regardless. All she got was a voice recording telling her that this number has been discontinued. She dialed her Dad's number, but a woman picked up and told her she had the wrong number. Leslie didn't understand what was happening. She chose the Map App and it placed her current position in California which was weird because she lived in Wyoming. What was she doing in California, she wondered. Cam had followed her example and was shouting out the same discoveries that she had just found. She pressed on the News App and the first headline that she saw was about an attack in Qatar on a US military base. Since they were such big fans, it occurred to the boys before it did to her.

"It's the movies," exclaimed Lynol excitedly. "Michael Bay's movie Transformers. 2007 was the first one."

"You mean we can actually meet the Autobots," said Stevie in disbelief.

"Cool," added Cody enthusiastically.

"How are we going to do that?" asked Lynol.

"We just need to find Sam and Bumblebee," said Cody. "If we can get the glasses from Sam, we could take his place."

"No way man," said Lynol shaking his head. "I don't want to go through what he did. Let's just go along for the ride."

"Yea," agreed Stevie. "As long as I get to meet them, I don't care about getting that involved."

"What about her?" asked Cam pointing Leslie's way. "She'll only slow us down."

"We leave her here," said Cody quickly. "She'll be safer that way." He walked over to stand in front of Leslie. "You saw the Transformer's movies," he said. "You know what's going to happen. Go find a police officer and they'll help you. You can't get involved with this. You're too young. They won't take you seriously."

"Okay," said Leslie meekly. She had to contain the smirk that threatened to blossom on her face. She was nine, but would be turning ten soon and the others were around thirteen. In the movie Sam was sixteen and they had still treated him like a kid. Cody and the others wouldn't be taken seriously either. "Are you taking that with you?" she asked pointing at the Ravage figure that Lynol still held. The rest must have dropped their dolls when they were hit by the light.

"Here," said Lynol tossing the doll to her. "Don't lose it," he warned.

The boys left in a flurry of excitement after they found Sam's address and Leslie followed the Map App to the nearest McDonalds. She had overheard the boys talking about being close by to Sam which means that the one she was searching for would be close by as well. It didn't take long to spot more than one police car, but it wasn't the one she was looking for. She finally walked over to a payphone and looked up the last name Simmons. It took her three calls before she found the right one. She talked to Simmon's mother and confirmed that she had a son named Seymour. She told her that she might be his illegitimate daughter and to give him a message. She weaved a tale about how her mother had met him in Egypt around a pyramid while on vacation. Her mother's last coherent words were alien pyramid weapon sector 7 and his name before she died. She asked her to relay the message to him word for word and to ask if he remembered her mother Ashley. She could tell the woman was steamed that her son might have an unknown daughter out there so she was sure she'd deliver the message soon. She then walked into McDonalds and ordered a couple of cheeseburgers and a few bottles of water with the pocket money she kept hidden between her phone and its case. The burgers would last for a while if what she'd seen on the internet was true. She didn't order the fries though because they would be too greasy and she made sure to take plenty of napkins with her. She used the washroom and them took her food to one of the tables outside. She didn't know how long she'd have to wait so she sat in the shade. She had eaten a big lunch before she got here and she was still full so she simply sat and waited patiently. Two hours later just when the restaurant workers were starting to give her odd looks, she saw another police car. It slowed as the car in front stopped at a red light. The words on the car said to Punish and Enslave and Leslie knew she'd found her target. She walked right in front of the car with the Ravage doll in plain view and walked over to the driver's side window.

"I know where Megatron and the Cube are," she said. The hologram in the car turned to look at her. "Megatron's being kept captive in the Hoover Dam. If you blow up the generators that run it, that should let him escape. The Cube is in the chamber next door. You'd better hurry before the Autobots get there because they intend to destroy the Cube."

The back door of the car suddenly popped open and Leslie got in nervously. She sat down holding her bag of food on her lap and placed the Ravage doll next to her. With his sirens wailing, Barricade slid into traffic.

Based on the information Barricade had passed to him, Starscream flew over the Hoover Dam taking out the generators. Inside, the systems failed to keep Megatron frozen and he emerged not long after with the smaller Cube in hand. To satiate the anger he felt after being confined for so long, Megatron fired on the Dam where he knew it was the weakest successfully breaching the Dam. Then he transformed and took off heading out of Earth's atmosphere with Starscream following. Tons of water burst through the breach in the Dam sweeping concrete and everything else swiftly downstream.

The boys had staked out Sam's house, but he wasn't back from school yet or maybe him and his Dad were out buying Bumblebee today. They'd been there for about four hours now just waiting. Cam was so bored he was looking at the news. It was more out of desperation than want because some of the sites he used to entertain himself didn't exist here. Suddenly there was breaking news and he waved to get the other boy's attention.

"Guys, the Hoover Dam has been destroyed," said Cam in horror as he looked at the footage.

"Anything downstream, whether a city or lone town has been swept clean," said an emotional reporter as their helicopter hovered over the devastation of the Dam. "This is the worst Dam collapse in the history of our time. My heart goes out to the families that have lost loved ones."

"So Megatron already has the Cube?" asked Lynol in worry.

"How did this happen?" asked Cody perplexed. "The Decepticons couldn't have known. The Autobots haven't even arrived yet."

Just then Sam pulled into the drive followed by his father. The car he was driving was not the familiar Camaro they had expected. It was some type of silver sedan. Sam was clearly unhappy when he got out.

"What do we do?" asked Stevie in a panic.

"The Autobots could still come to Sam," said Lynol shrugging.

"Don't you see, Bumblebee already knows they have the Cube," retorted Cam. "Bumblebee no longer has to guard Sam. The glasses are useless."

"We still have information they can use from the other movies," said Cody suddenly. "We just have to find the Autobots."

"Look," said Cam. "It's over. We're as good as dead. We just need to find an officer and turn ourselves in. They'll put us in foster care and we just need to stay out of Chicago. On second thought, maybe we should go somewhere rural. Cody, you should probably find your sister."

Just then Cody was struck with a terrible realization and the others saw the look on his face.

"The Cons could have captured her," said Lynol. "She was carrying Ravage. I knew I shouldn't have given her the toy."

Cody shook his head. "She's not stupid. She knows what the Cons would do to her. She would have run from them."

"Then, what," said Stevie. "Your sister did it on purpose? I mean I know she knew about the movies, but why would she. Is this because we left her behind?"

"No," said Cody. "Leslie never really cared for Transformers. She only watched because that was the only thing I would put on."

"So she's a fan of the Decepticons?" asked Lynol.

"No," said Cody as he sunk to the ground in defeat. "She was sympathetic to only one being in the entire movie. You were right. We are all dead."

"Who was it?" asked Stevie lightly kicking his side when he didn't immediately answer.

"Unicron," he said looking down.

"No!" cried the others.

"You're her brother," said Cam desperately. "She wouldn't kill her own brother."

"I'm her brother in name only," he said. "She hasn't gotten along with me in a very long time."

After her information had been verified, Barricade had brought her to Chicago to one of the tall towers. There she was led by a pretty model that looked like the Decepticon pretender from the movie. She was essentially kept under guard there, but she was fine with that. She had her own room and bathroom. There were clothes she could wear in the closet even if they didn't really fit and there was plenty of food in the fridge. A maid came by once a week to restock the fridge and clean, but she didn't speak English so Leslie couldn't communicate with her. There wasn't much to do there, but watch television. Even if it was boring, Leslie kept it turned onto the news channels. About a week and a half after she arrived there, she heard a report about the destruction of a pyramid and she smiled. Agent Simmons hadn't let her down. Now the Fallen wouldn't be able to destroy the sun immediately. Leslie wasn't quite sure how the sun exploding would effect the Earth, but she wasn't going to risk it.

It was a week later when it started to rain Decepticons. Through her window, Leslie could see Sentinel and Megatron clinging to the top of one of the towers. It looked like her actions had sped up the time line. Sentinel placed the space bridge pillars and activated them. Leslie walked out on the balcony and looked up. She could see Cybertron appearing overhead. When Cybertron finally settled next to the Earth and the pillars were shut down, that's when the chaos started. The Decepticon troops from the moon arrived and started ripping the city apart. Megatron dropped to the ground and a flash of energy emanated from where he stood. All electronic machines in range of the blast started to transform and attack. Leslie quickly went back inside. There was no need for her to see the destruction that she knew was going to follow. The Autobots weren't here to stop it, but then they also weren't here to die pointlessly either. Now that Cybertron was here, maybe Unicron would make his move.

Leslie was fully aware how all the movies turned out. She was also aware that her interference had essentially damned the Earth to destruction. The final movie had the few Cybertronian survivors returning to a planet that was half dead. They say that sometimes it's the journey not the ending that's important, but that ending wasn't even worth it. Quintessa hated Unicron, but she was unaware of the reason why. Cybertron, aka Primus, and Unicron were supposed to be brothers, but were they also adversaries like the stories said or were they just split up by time and differences. Leslie didn't trust the Primes. As her Dad always said, "Everyone has their own agenda." Her agenda was simple. She was curious. She wanted to see what Unicron would do. If he would try to save his brother or if he would try to destroy him. It was a much better choice than trying to build a life among people that eventually saw to the destruction of an alien race. She really couldn't blame the humans though because the aliens had brought their war here in the first place. She stretched out on her bed and relaxed. There was no point in turning on the television because they had probably hijacked it to send a message to the humans.

Cody and Cam stared at the screen along with the other children at the foster center. There was Megatron and Sentinel in real life demanding that the human race surrender to them. Stevie was currently still in juvenile detention for breaking and entering, home invasion and stealing a car. Lynol had a nervous breakdown and was currently sedated at the local community metal health facility. Cody sighed and got up. There was no point in watching because he knew what was going to happen. It was a nice day out right now so he headed out for a walk.

Leslie walked out into the kitchen to get some water, when the screen on the wall transformed into the psychotic birdlike Con, Laserbeak. The Con stared at her with its beady red eyes as it jumped onto the counter.

"Did you want to know something?" asked Leslie standing still. If she ran, she knew she'd be killed instantly.

"You're of no more use," said Laserbeak.

"Unless," said Leslie quickly. "I give you more information. How about the names of the Autobot's human allies?"

Laserbeak paused and his eyes dimmed. Hopefully, he was asking for orders. "Names," he finally rasped out.

At least the names she gave them would result in quick deaths and those people wouldn't have to suffer. It was the only kindness she could offer even her own brother. "Tom Banachek, Theodore Galloway, General Kellar, Sam Witwicky, Mikaela Banes, Glen Cooper, Maggie Madsen, Cade Yeager and his daughter, Victoria Wembly, Sir Ed Burton and Cody Harper. Cody and his friends might be in foster care so check the police files in California in order to find them. Cody is my brother so we'll have similar DNA if you want to scan me. There's also Sector 7, an undercover branch of the government that isn't supposed to exist who were responsible for Megatron's confinement. There is also a group of soldiers from the regular military, but I'm sure you'll see them eventually. Sometimes humans don't know when to give up. A word of warning, Sir Burton has bots loyal to him on his estate. They're his protectors. So can I live a little longer?"

"For now," said Laserbeak taking flight and heading out the open window.

Leslie hadn't added Lennox or Epps' names because she knew they would fight back regardless and she liked them a little. She'd let them go down as the soldiers they are. She owed Simmons for taking out the pyramid so she kept his name out of it. With Victoria gone, there would be no one to activate the staff and Unicron wouldn't be hurt by it unless Quintessa found it. She was saving her name for the next time she needed a bit of information to save her life. She calmly sat at the counter and made a sandwich like she hadn't just sent others to their death. Ultimately what was one more life when it was likely the entire planet would be destroyed soon. Besides, something like suddenly finding yourself in the Transformer's universe wasn't possible anyway. She didn't accept this reality so if she chose to destroy it just to sate her curiosity, she was fine with that.

The following day Sentinel landed on her balcony. Behind him the smoke and fires from the city created an apocalyptic looking landscape. Leslie left the safety of her room and walked out onto the balcony. Sentinel barely gave her a glance.

"I have a warning for you," she called up to him. "The Fallen seeks to destroy this planet, but the sun harvester was destroyed so he cannot. According to the prophecy, only a Prime can kill the Fallen. The matrix of leadership is kept hidden in the Mountains of Petra. There is a large door and inside is a painting. Behind that painting is the tomb of the former Primes and the matrix."

"Why tell me this?" asked Sentinel in his gravely voice.

"Because I'd much rather you have the matrix than the Fallen" said Leslie. "You at least tried to save Cybertron instead of trying to destroy a planet that could help restore it." Leslie walked back into the apartment and Sentinel left to continue his campaign.

Leslie heard a noise on the balcony again sometime later and this time it was Megatron. She walked out and looked up at him. "I have a warning for you," she said. "There is a being called Quintessa that will try and stop you. She wishes to rule Cybertron. She has a mercenary that works for her and his name is Lockdown. They can be defeated, but Lockdown has a seed that transforms everything it touches into your base Cybertronian metal. It could be useful in Cybertron's rebuilding. There is also a staff that can give Quintessa unimaginable power. The HMS Alliance can take you to it, but it is underwater and guarded by others."

Leslie didn't see anyone for a while and was unaware of how much time was passing. The sky outside her window was gray and dark constantly now, but she still continued her normal routine. There was still plenty of food left in the fridge even though the maid no longer showed up. She could feel earthquakes every now and then, but she didn't know if that was from a nearby battle or Unicron himself.

One day she heard some noise on the balcony and wandered out to check. Megatron stood there and as soon as she emerged, he scooped her up and transformed around her. The parts moving around her confused her until she found herself sitting in his cockpit. Megatron started flying higher and higher. Eventually, he left the atmosphere and emerged into space. He quickly entered his ship and transformed as he walked onto the bridge. He roughly dropped her on the arm of his seat. The screen in front of them gave an excellent view of what was happening on Earth. There was an energy beam projecting from the Earth that was hitting Cybertron.

Leslie ran her hands over her arms and shivered. It was very cold here and the air was thin. "What's going on?" she asked looking up at Megatron. Her breath fogged the air as she exhaled.

"Unicron is firing on Cybertron," said Megatron bitterly as he settled. "There is nothing we can do to stop it. Cybertron is lost and soon Unicron will fall as well."

"So they were adversaries after all," said Leslie pulling her legs to her chest as the chill settled in. "Even after so much time apart, nothing changed for them. I understand completely, but I still feel sorry for them."

"You knew this would happen?" asked Megatron accusingly.

"No, but I was curious to see what he would do. In the end, Unicron chose to destroy his own brother for defeating him. I simply understand him because I did as well," said Leslie looking back up at Megatron. "Even though it doesn't really matter anymore to me, I still don't believe I'll ever be able to forgive my brother for what he did."

"You do not want revenge?" asked Megatron his deep red optics meeting her eyes.

"No," said Leslie softly. "In reality as long as he lives, he'll be punished for his actions by society and himself. I feel so sorry for him, but I don't hate him. Two years ago when he fought me over that remote, I died when I hit my head on the table. Now that I have my answer there is nothing to keep me here any longer and it is time for me to go." Leslie lifted her hand as it became see through and she finally disappeared from sight.

Megatron continued to watch as Cybertron and then Earth was engulfed in flame.