Saturday Night Fic - Astrogenesis, Chapter 1
Hookay then, LJ poll shows a slight lead for Project Resetverse so starting with this one. Fair warning - this is the only part I have written out, and I *think* I know where I'm going with this but until I actually start writing it, there's no knowing how long it's going to take me. So, apologies in advance if this turns out to be a horrible horrible tease! I'll try to post at least a bit of something once a week, no guarantees as to what ^_~
To recap, since it's been awhile: the Protectobots arrive on Earth shortly after the events of DOTM, and First Aid confronts Optimus about leaving Megatron in torment, unable to die with the Allspark in his chest. Optimus, already clinging to the bare shreds of his sanity, turns on his own hatchling and nearly kills First Aid, triggering Aid's last molt cycle in which it is revealed that he is the Prime spark of his clutch. In an agony of guilt, Optimus follows Aid's plea to heal Megatron instead with the power of the Matrix, and between the Matrix and the Allspark and the deep bond that still exists between them, Megatron is reforged into Galvatron, and Optimus is made whole again in spark and mind. ( Project Reset Chapt 4 has the slightly less Cliffs Notes version).
Title: Project Reset - Astrogenesis (1/?)
Characters: Optimus Prime, Galvatron, Will Lennox, Charlotte Mearing
Universe: Bayverse DOTM fix-it fic
Rating: T overall, K for this chapter though
Word Count: 1190
Warnings: Mention of (hypothetical) spiders. Eventual descriptions of mpreg (of the glowy chest things variety), and alien reproduction.
Summary: The good news: Earth is not going to turn into a ball of molten lava, thanks to Galvatron. The bad news: there's still a lot of red tape to work out. Optimus needs some time off to take care of his family, and his human family pulls some strings.
Galvatron had been doing a surprisingly good job, Will Lennox mused, for a former insane warlord. He’d been blending into the background during the weeklong negotiations, at least as much as an enormous shiny silver robot could, taking a guard’s position behind Optimus and giving off an aura of innocuous attentiveness, although Will hadn’t missed the narrowing of his optics and subtle looming during some of the more blustery and hyperbolic demands. And the proud-amused glint to his optics each time Optimus deftly deflated them.
Galvatron hadn’t apologized for the loss of his men, the destruction to their planet. Will didn’t think he could have borne it if he had. “You have every right to destroy me where I stand,” Galvatron had told them instead. “Unfortunately, that option is lost to us. Give me leave to do what I can to save Earth, to save both our worlds.”
Galvatron hadn’t wasted any time (not that anyone really could have stopped him, if they’d decided to decline his offer, but it had been magnanimous of him to ask). Will had seen him, or what was left of him, after Galvatron had crawled from the New Great Rift after stabilizing it with a few strategically placed not-quite-nuclear-anymore warheads. Indestructible didn’t mean invulnerable, it seemed, although the damage was barely perceptible now, visible only as faint rippled and pitted areas of his armor. Watching Ratchet scold the battered Lord High Protector would have been more amusing at the time were it not for the look in Prime’s optics as Galvatron leaned against him. It was only later Will had learned that Galvatron had never intended to return from his attempt to stop the continent from splitting in half, at least not in any time frame that had meaning to humans.
Optimus had recovered his spirits well enough, as Galvatron had healed. Will thought he could...not forgive, but maybe forget a little, everything Galvatron had done in his other incarnation in exchange for Optimus whole and himself again, Earth no longer in immediate danger of turning into an uninhabitable sphere of molten lava.
Will?
What’s up, Ratchet? Lennox answered with a worried frown, knowing the medic wouldn’t be interrupting lightly.
What are the odds of pulling some strings, wrapping things up early today?
What kind of strings do you think I can pull, Ratch? I’m not exactly running the show here.
Ratchet made a mechanical sigh on the other end of the transmission. I know, I know...it’s just...Aid’s down again.
Aw, man...how bad this time? A ‘traumatic molt cycle’ was what Ratchet had called it, something that happened to immature Cybertronians suffering severe damage. First Aid had survived the process, but continued to suffer from short outs that left him disoriented and in pain. Poor kid. Poor big guy, to know that he had been the one to cause said damage. Will glanced again at Optimus. He seemed calm and collected, outwardly unaffected, but Galvatron had moved up closer behind him, so that they were nearly touching.
His spark energy is strong, is the good news. Too strong. His frame can’t handle it yet, and the short outs are throwing him into a feedback loop. If anything he’s worse than Optimus at getting around my sedation programs; I’m having trouble getting him to offline and rest.
Prime sparks were difficult that way, another thing Will had learned in the last few months. He was one of a handful of humans who knew the true nature of Optimus’s relationship with the five rescue vehicles recovering in Ratchet’s medbay, the importance of the ambulance in particular to the Autobots. Charlotte Mearing was another. Optimus had shared the full truth with them, including what had happened in the vault where Megatron’s remains had been stored. In atonement, in a calculated experiment of trust, Will wasn’t quite sure which, but it made him immensely nervous.
It’s putting a lot of extra strain on his brothers which is only making him more upset. Optimus is talking to him, which is helping, but he’d stabilize faster if Optimus were actually here.
Give me three minutes, Ratch; I’ll see what I can do. He opened a channel to President Mearing. She was a hardass, but she was a fair hardass. And she was as happy as any of them not to be dealing with an out-of-control Prime, an unstoppable reincarnated robot warlord bent on revenge, or the prospect of attempting to relocate humanity to a new planet. Knowing what Optimus had been through maybe she’d be inclined to cut him some slack. Will had known human soldiers, some in his own unit, who had brought the war home, hurt those dearest to them, or, more often, turned their pain inward. Some he’d been able to help, or to get help for, and some...some he hadn’t. Sharing the stories with Optimus had seemed to help, though. Lennox had his own demons to battle, but somehow he’d avoided that particular side-effect of combat, thank all the gods. He missed his ladies suddenly, even though he’d seen them just that morning.
An infestation of brown recluse spiders? Optimus sent twenty minutes later, with a slight amused lift of one robot-eyebrow equivalent in Will’s direction. Delegates and officials all around them were beating a hasty retreat, with varying levels of dignity. My database indicates they are not native to this region.
Keiko has friends in the Entomology Department. President Mearing informed them, not skipping a beat as she let herself be ushered from the raised seating area. Lennox kept a straight face with an effort, watching Sam, who apparently hadn’t gotten the memo that this was a conspiracy, scale Bumblebee’s shoulders in record time. No wonder he’d survived Decepticons and worse. Kid was nimble. Go take care of your family, Prime. I have it on good authority it’ll be several days before we get everything fumigated.
It does not pay to underestimate the organisms of this planet, no matter how small. I commend your caution. Galvatron nodded gravely, completely poker faced. Will was pretty sure he was being ironic. Reasonably sure. He shook his head. Any longer and he’d be admitting he kind of liked the formerly-evil giant robot warlord.
Optimus met his gaze briefly, optics warm in a way that made Will wish he could go over and give the big guy a pat on the leg or something. He had to settle for a grin and a salute, and then Galvatron transformed, Optimus gathered himself and leapt aboard in a maneuver that never ceased to amaze, and they roared out of sight. Lennox surveyed the rapidly emptying meeting arena. Bobby Epps, unfazed by the rumor of spiders as only a person intimately familiar with the invertebrate life of the Middle East could be, made his way over.
“Cookout at my place, your turn to bring the drinks?”
“Sounds good.”
Will dialed up Sarah. Looked like he had an unexpected day off to spend with his ladies.
This entry was originally posted at http://playswithworms.dreamwidth.org/146053.html. Please comment wherever you wish.
To recap, since it's been awhile: the Protectobots arrive on Earth shortly after the events of DOTM, and First Aid confronts Optimus about leaving Megatron in torment, unable to die with the Allspark in his chest. Optimus, already clinging to the bare shreds of his sanity, turns on his own hatchling and nearly kills First Aid, triggering Aid's last molt cycle in which it is revealed that he is the Prime spark of his clutch. In an agony of guilt, Optimus follows Aid's plea to heal Megatron instead with the power of the Matrix, and between the Matrix and the Allspark and the deep bond that still exists between them, Megatron is reforged into Galvatron, and Optimus is made whole again in spark and mind. ( Project Reset Chapt 4 has the slightly less Cliffs Notes version).
Title: Project Reset - Astrogenesis (1/?)
Characters: Optimus Prime, Galvatron, Will Lennox, Charlotte Mearing
Universe: Bayverse DOTM fix-it fic
Rating: T overall, K for this chapter though
Word Count: 1190
Warnings: Mention of (hypothetical) spiders. Eventual descriptions of mpreg (of the glowy chest things variety), and alien reproduction.
Summary: The good news: Earth is not going to turn into a ball of molten lava, thanks to Galvatron. The bad news: there's still a lot of red tape to work out. Optimus needs some time off to take care of his family, and his human family pulls some strings.
Galvatron had been doing a surprisingly good job, Will Lennox mused, for a former insane warlord. He’d been blending into the background during the weeklong negotiations, at least as much as an enormous shiny silver robot could, taking a guard’s position behind Optimus and giving off an aura of innocuous attentiveness, although Will hadn’t missed the narrowing of his optics and subtle looming during some of the more blustery and hyperbolic demands. And the proud-amused glint to his optics each time Optimus deftly deflated them.
Galvatron hadn’t apologized for the loss of his men, the destruction to their planet. Will didn’t think he could have borne it if he had. “You have every right to destroy me where I stand,” Galvatron had told them instead. “Unfortunately, that option is lost to us. Give me leave to do what I can to save Earth, to save both our worlds.”
Galvatron hadn’t wasted any time (not that anyone really could have stopped him, if they’d decided to decline his offer, but it had been magnanimous of him to ask). Will had seen him, or what was left of him, after Galvatron had crawled from the New Great Rift after stabilizing it with a few strategically placed not-quite-nuclear-anymore warheads. Indestructible didn’t mean invulnerable, it seemed, although the damage was barely perceptible now, visible only as faint rippled and pitted areas of his armor. Watching Ratchet scold the battered Lord High Protector would have been more amusing at the time were it not for the look in Prime’s optics as Galvatron leaned against him. It was only later Will had learned that Galvatron had never intended to return from his attempt to stop the continent from splitting in half, at least not in any time frame that had meaning to humans.
Optimus had recovered his spirits well enough, as Galvatron had healed. Will thought he could...not forgive, but maybe forget a little, everything Galvatron had done in his other incarnation in exchange for Optimus whole and himself again, Earth no longer in immediate danger of turning into an uninhabitable sphere of molten lava.
Will?
What’s up, Ratchet? Lennox answered with a worried frown, knowing the medic wouldn’t be interrupting lightly.
What are the odds of pulling some strings, wrapping things up early today?
What kind of strings do you think I can pull, Ratch? I’m not exactly running the show here.
Ratchet made a mechanical sigh on the other end of the transmission. I know, I know...it’s just...Aid’s down again.
Aw, man...how bad this time? A ‘traumatic molt cycle’ was what Ratchet had called it, something that happened to immature Cybertronians suffering severe damage. First Aid had survived the process, but continued to suffer from short outs that left him disoriented and in pain. Poor kid. Poor big guy, to know that he had been the one to cause said damage. Will glanced again at Optimus. He seemed calm and collected, outwardly unaffected, but Galvatron had moved up closer behind him, so that they were nearly touching.
His spark energy is strong, is the good news. Too strong. His frame can’t handle it yet, and the short outs are throwing him into a feedback loop. If anything he’s worse than Optimus at getting around my sedation programs; I’m having trouble getting him to offline and rest.
Prime sparks were difficult that way, another thing Will had learned in the last few months. He was one of a handful of humans who knew the true nature of Optimus’s relationship with the five rescue vehicles recovering in Ratchet’s medbay, the importance of the ambulance in particular to the Autobots. Charlotte Mearing was another. Optimus had shared the full truth with them, including what had happened in the vault where Megatron’s remains had been stored. In atonement, in a calculated experiment of trust, Will wasn’t quite sure which, but it made him immensely nervous.
It’s putting a lot of extra strain on his brothers which is only making him more upset. Optimus is talking to him, which is helping, but he’d stabilize faster if Optimus were actually here.
Give me three minutes, Ratch; I’ll see what I can do. He opened a channel to President Mearing. She was a hardass, but she was a fair hardass. And she was as happy as any of them not to be dealing with an out-of-control Prime, an unstoppable reincarnated robot warlord bent on revenge, or the prospect of attempting to relocate humanity to a new planet. Knowing what Optimus had been through maybe she’d be inclined to cut him some slack. Will had known human soldiers, some in his own unit, who had brought the war home, hurt those dearest to them, or, more often, turned their pain inward. Some he’d been able to help, or to get help for, and some...some he hadn’t. Sharing the stories with Optimus had seemed to help, though. Lennox had his own demons to battle, but somehow he’d avoided that particular side-effect of combat, thank all the gods. He missed his ladies suddenly, even though he’d seen them just that morning.
An infestation of brown recluse spiders? Optimus sent twenty minutes later, with a slight amused lift of one robot-eyebrow equivalent in Will’s direction. Delegates and officials all around them were beating a hasty retreat, with varying levels of dignity. My database indicates they are not native to this region.
Keiko has friends in the Entomology Department. President Mearing informed them, not skipping a beat as she let herself be ushered from the raised seating area. Lennox kept a straight face with an effort, watching Sam, who apparently hadn’t gotten the memo that this was a conspiracy, scale Bumblebee’s shoulders in record time. No wonder he’d survived Decepticons and worse. Kid was nimble. Go take care of your family, Prime. I have it on good authority it’ll be several days before we get everything fumigated.
It does not pay to underestimate the organisms of this planet, no matter how small. I commend your caution. Galvatron nodded gravely, completely poker faced. Will was pretty sure he was being ironic. Reasonably sure. He shook his head. Any longer and he’d be admitting he kind of liked the formerly-evil giant robot warlord.
Optimus met his gaze briefly, optics warm in a way that made Will wish he could go over and give the big guy a pat on the leg or something. He had to settle for a grin and a salute, and then Galvatron transformed, Optimus gathered himself and leapt aboard in a maneuver that never ceased to amaze, and they roared out of sight. Lennox surveyed the rapidly emptying meeting arena. Bobby Epps, unfazed by the rumor of spiders as only a person intimately familiar with the invertebrate life of the Middle East could be, made his way over.
“Cookout at my place, your turn to bring the drinks?”
“Sounds good.”
Will dialed up Sarah. Looked like he had an unexpected day off to spend with his ladies.
This entry was originally posted at http://playswithworms.dreamwidth.org/146053.html. Please comment wherever you wish.