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pluralsword · 6 months

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Very Late Transformers: 2023 Rare Pairing Fest Post: The Fall of Mars (was less late on Ao3 lmao)

Hey so our life has kind of had a lot going on, so we weren't able to put this story out on the right day (got it out on the 22nd, the theme trust and failure was earlier so this fitting lol) and we weren't able to get it on tumblr along with a lot of other content that hasn't made it to tumblr, but here's the summary of this story that is near and dear to us:

Rating: PG-13 Written for the theme of Day 3 of the 2023 Transformers Rare Pairing Fest, the theme being Trust and Failure, which we were fittingly late for due to having to take care of family. In this story, the Great War rages on in the Solar System: Mars has fallen, and among remaining Autobots are three special forces Wreckers deployed there; reluctant warrior Arcee, die hard soldier Impactor, and hopeful strategist Aileron. They are holding the line against the Decepticons until civilians can be evacuated by the Earth Defense Command, but things take a turn for the worse when a Decepticon battlecruiser starts to fall out of the sky near the spaceport, and a bearer if Unicron's Matrix of Conquest enters the field... the three don't give up on hope, on love, and must make some difficult decisions in their last stand, including whether to bear the Matrix of Leadership... as always, the transformation of the present is the key to the future. Thank you to dear @maximus-dork (Take_it_to_the_Max on Ao3) for looking this over and greenlighting it!

Please note Unicron is a gaslighting jerk on trans stuff for a bit but this is not at all in the same way as how we write Functionists in other fics etc. they is entirely is doing it for the gaslight intentionally and not because they believe it. Also this is a Wrecker Love Wrecker (wlw, pun intended) story so yeah there is a casualty rate.

One other thing. This story was inspired by @quetzalpapalotl shipping Impactor and Arcee, this is our own spin on the concept with she/her Impactor, while also dating Aileron and Roddy (who's a trans gal)

And now, the story, which you can also check out on Ao3:

Ishtar Port, Nemesis Polity, surrounded by the Valles Marineris canyons, Mars. 2258 CE.

“At least I get to go out in your arms,” purple and yellow bulky slope chested Impactor tried to smile, but her jaw was too loose, bleeding inside and out, and she reached up with a quivering hand to touch Arcee’s own battle scarred helm’s left cheek guard, broken, missing the lower half, while she tended to the gash across Impactor’s waist with a metal seal painted with yellow and black stripes.

“Shh, save your strength, you flirt, you’ll need it for the next attack, you’ll live, if I don’t see to it, Aileron will, and to saving my aft too,” robust back stacked deep pink cyan white and gray Arcee leaned into Impactor’s touch as she finished sealing the wound by pressing firmly by hand.

Her work was done under the dying flickers of biolights of the dozens of felled Deceptivons nearby, blazing light of spreading fires, passing artillery and blaster fire screaming overhead, and shadows of steely colorful halls and towers falling and collapsing from barrages throughout the broken hab dome. Booms shook through the atmosphere down from the pinkish-red sky every time a lone massive golden half circle bowed long Autobot dreadnought overhead exchanged volleys with three pointy purple Decepticon battlecruisers.

While Arcee helped lift Impactor to her feet, the two’s Conjunx was busy watching the front and on a comms line from behind a mangled white with blue trim Earth Defense Command cybersteel barricade.

=“Windblade, we’re the last non-militia combat unit operational that we know of. The fight is finished here. I… I watched Optimus fall with my own optics,”= rounded stout and Aileron winced, her wings flapped nervously while she held her ironsighted double barreled pistol and fiery orange thermal saber ahead of her, the transformer and human body part strewn street before her vivid with the image of seeing blocky tall red and blue Optimus fire cyan light from the golden orb Matrix of Leadership with handles in their hands. The Matrix beam fired from there that promptly melted Nova Prime through his spark chamber before Optimus was struck down from a headshot from behind by burly blue and gold armored Zeta, before Aileron and her team could respond. =“The Wreckers here are finished. The rest gave their lives bringing down the traitorous Elite Guard along with Decepticon Mayhem forces. How long until reinforcements?”=

Windblade’s voice from her busy command center’s battle room within the Titan Metroplex on Earth in the Pacific crackled through Decepticon ship jamming, relayed by the Autobot dreadnought and aided by Windblade’s battle meditative cityspeaking in tandem with Metroplex, while the two attempted to manage command of the Sol System’s defenses with hundreds of staff and commanders to attend to: = “Thank you, Aileron, and your loves. Admiral Faireborn has broken through the high orbit and lunar sieges. Extraction: 2 hours from now. Do you have the Matrix?”=

Aileron gripped her sword hilt tightly, and looked behind her to see her loves moving to cover her, Arcee with her long side mlunted scope sniper rifle aimed ahead in her arms sweeping around, Impactor with a blue-green ununtrium cutlass ready alongside her harpoon and shoulder cannon.

Aileron looked at Arcee for a little longer than tactically advisable, thinking about the relic in one of her back stacks above a wheel, that Aileron had wished Arcee would put over her spark. =“Optimus gave the Matrix to Arcee. She refuses to bear it. She’s scared. You know how it is. She doesn’t want to have even more mythos around her and be made into a keeper of the status quo, instead of working to transform the world for the better more freely. She’s scared of- being the excuse for a new hierarchy.”=

Windblade-Metroplex minds churned with empathy and memory of the work for collective history for autonomy and transformation they and Arcee had been part of for hundreds and thousands of years, and amped up their neutrino channeling broadcast to Aileron, ready to reach out to her lancemates. =“Aileron, let her know we wish to speak to her. If our intel reports are right, there is a Matrix of Conquest bearer among the enemy.”=

A younger Aileron would have trembled in fear. Instead, she nodded, acknowledging her elected leader, home, and immense fear all at once. =“I’ll tell her.”= She looked over at Arcee, who had advanced up to her right shoulder, Impactor on her left. “Darling, Windblade and Metroplex want to speak with you. It’s about the Matrix… there’s a Conquest bearer on the field. I know that’s a touchy subject for you…”

Arcee stiffened, her memories rushed back to that fateful hour she and her purple brawny tank brother Galvatron and the old Knight Vanguard had bought time for Solus Prime and the delegates she defended of Cybertron’s early democracy to escape the mutated Terrorcon army and armada with towering gray densely armored Megatronus at the head of the assault. Megatronus, willing bearer of the violet blade spiraled Matrix of Conquest, who after the twins’ bloody fight defeating him and his vanguard, the dying Megatronus shoved the Matrix into Galvatron, leaving Arcee to kill her own Unicron corrupted sibling. To wander the planet after the war for a millennia, consumed by grief until she had the will to care to be around other people again.

The memories boiled in her into a wordless rage that she did her best to hold in, not wanting to alert enemies to their position. “I thought Unicron was dead long before I met either of you. Tell me. Where. I will. End it and them.”

“Dear, we have to defend the remaining civilians so they can leave,” Aileron’s face softened as she leaned on Arcee’s arm. “I think this is about a defensive measure.”

“I-,” Arcee blinked. “You are right. Tell Windblade she can reach out.”

=“All clear, Windplex,= Aileron turned her gaze skyward. The Autobot dreadnought’s hull was overheated and torn up by enemy plasma and railgun fire, while one of the Decepticon battlecruisers with thrusters aflame and hull broken towards the rear started to plummet from the sky down towards the outer perimeter of the habdome. Her yellow optics widened with alarm and rapid trajectory calculations, immediately thinking of the massive explosion that would occur when the warship crashed. =“All Autobot units and civilians, abandon the shuttle ports and get to the blast bunkers! A Decepticon battlecruiser is going to hit outside the city in ten minutes! DECEPTICON VESSEL, PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GODS HIT ALL THE BREAKS YOU CAN TO SLOW YOUR FALL! YOU’LL DIE IN THE EXPLOSION OTHERWISE!!”=

The battlecruiser did not reply, but the other three ships stopped fighting and moved in after the falling vessel, attempting to fire grapple tows to pull the ship up or slow it down to no avail.

Aileron turned and ran towards the nearest bunker entrance, down the street behind the barricade, next to the hexagonal port hall layered in dying red vines slowly suffocating from the loss of an oxygen rich atmosphere when the habdome was blown out. She leapt into her spaceplane mode, shoulders and forearms forming her engine thrusters, and rocketed off towards the hall, checking for ambushes in the surrounding buildings while her partners caught up. =“Um- Windblade, Arcee is willing to speak with you.”=

Impactor in her blocky artillery tank mode tailed behind armored muscle car Arcee, and while Impactor would have liked to take the time to admire Arcee and Aileron in action, she knew it was not the time. Instead, she swiveled her turret around to guard the rear of their retreat, raising her flat and wide cannon up towards the sky.

No one came. Impactor’s unease at the lack of fighting in the warzone clenched her fuel tank tight, as her spark roiled for vengeance. For Topspin, for Xaaron, for Spindle, for Thunderclash, for Cyclonus, for all of them… damn you Decepticons.

=“Thank you love,”= Arcee reached the thickset metal bunker blast gate built into the side of the port hall and stepped out of her car mode while Aileron finished her sweep of the skies, equally perplexed as Impactor to see the enemy had not fled in the direction of the militia and conventional military units they had fought for the nearest bunker.

Arcee was not surprised. She had expected this as soon as the Matrix of Conquest was mentioned. =“I expect they want to pull back and wait for the inevitable attack by their Matrix bearer rather than… overextend. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Bearer was directing the battlecruiser to crash, Unicron not caring about the allied death toll.”= She inputted the keypad code to to get inside and waited for the bunker gates to part while Aileron landed on her feet and Impactor folded herself up to a stand, both with guns raised, while Arcee gripped a two handed guarded hilt of silver and electric blue, and sighed. =“Windplex, can you hear me?”=

Windblade and Metroplex were quickly redirecting any spareable ship from the fights around the Solar System to aid in recovery efforts at Nemesis and the surrounding Martian area, and their sparks sang to hear Arcee finally make contact for a moment long awaited. =“We hear you, Arcee of Protohex, beloved friend. We will do everything in our power to continue to prevent and reduce mythologizing of you. And you know that power entrusted by the people is vast. Please. Take up the conduit. Do as I will, one day.”=

=“All right, once we are safe, thank you both.”= Arcee smiled as she felt the golden neural soft warmth of the vastness of Metroplex and Windblade’s joined minds across the solar system touch her, to share adoration for her, to say do what you must, a kiss of encouragement to her spark that overlocked Arcee’s self repair and fuel circulation systems. She started to make her way inside, following Impactor and Aileron, and then pressed the red button within to shut the gates while Aileron called an elevator up in the white-blue Sentinel sized shaft.

The whirr of an elevator on that scale rose up before the lift itself arrived. When the doors whished open the three hurried inside, and sat down together, holding each other.

Finally away from the fighting, Aileron started to tear up first.

“I can’t believe it… we lost our whole company we deployed with… and Optimus…” Aileron held on tightly to Arcee’s and Impactor’s rounded and square backs. “I just- I knew we never should have kept Zeta on, but Optimus wouldn’t listen… All I know is that between now and when Marissa’s fleet gets here in less than two hours, we might well join them to save lives. If either of you or both of you die I’ll- probably die inside.” She started to quake, sobbing, missing the trees, leafed and solar paneled, and mountains and song filled forges of her home at Caminus’s capital Dialgem. “I never thought when the Autobot Revolution got kicked off of Cybertron, that it would come down to this… to not even die where our bodies could be recycled on Earth or Caminus…”

Impactor held back from expressing the bloodlust that suffused her, enraged to see Aileron so pained. She knew it would scare Aileron and Arcee, that it scared her too. “I-,” she pressed her lips together tightly as she ran a hand over Aileron’s wing, finding that part of her holding still from her gentle caresses. “We’re not going to die, Aileron. We know you won’t let us, that we won’t let each other. That company of rascals died for us because they wouldn’t have it any other way, when they had a choice in the matter. I’ll never forget when Firedrive told me that the loss of us would break all their sparks and hearts and then she-” Impactor shut her optics, trying to shake the image of the black and red exosuit entwined Nebulan cyborg who had binary bonded to the late Rodimus Prime take down Thunderwing with final forearm blasts after Thunderwing had torn her in half at the waist. “For her to say that- with how much we all miss Roddy… my spark has been off ever since, and I want to live up to what she wanted for us.”

The elevator stopped at the bottom, and the three quickly ran towards the inner doors, which opened for them, revealing a brightly painted interior walls that had been decorated with art by children, protoforms, and adults alike, showing scenes of people dancing, reading, sparring, embracing, sculpting, healing wounds, cultivating plants, flying through skies and the starry void.

Among them were thousands of bots, green toned Nebulans in spacesuits and humans also in protective gear filtering in from other elevators or hallways into the vast underground plaza. Many carried arms: solid and thermal blades, rifles, holstered pistols, amd some bots with body integrated blasters, missile launchers, and cannons. About a third of the organics were also too young for combat duty. People were huddling together over food and gladness to meet each other or sorrow over those they had lost. Aileron, Arcee, and Impactor looked on and put away their armaments and held hands.

Impactor simmered. “Damn the Decepticons for fighting with so little care for how they destroy people’s homes and lives.”

Arcee took a curious, concerned look at Impactor’s glowing narrowed optics, and gave her hand a squeeze. “Even though we fight with the goal of only bombarding conventional military installations, it is not as if our infantry scuffles or missing artillery and bomb salvos do not have accidents that we weep over and cannot ever fully repay. All war, all violence beyond sparring and the like, is a violation of autonomy, even with supposedly good cause. Are you all right love?”

“The line has indeed grown thin between us and them despite our ideals, darling, we are part of a many thousands of years old actively fighting military industrial complex,” Impactor bowed her head, pressing a hand against her purple crest. “I just want to get over with as quickly as possible so we can actually practice peace. And that scares me, about myself, that the corners we’re not supposed to cut are looking… cuttable.”

“Peace at the cost of ethics of love and mercy would make us into them. We would have lost,” Aileron put a hand on Impactor’s waist, and pressed her own dome helmed low crested head against the blue squat Wrecker head over hammers insignia on Impactor’s chest. “Please- we will find a way. We have fallback strategies…” she noticed the room had grown quiet except for whispers. “They’re looking at us, aren’t they.”

“Yes, the only military personnel here and with enough publicly known record to be household names, that would make sense,” Arcee sighed. “They want to know that we can save them. Stand up tall you two, it’s time to inspire.”

Aileron and Impactor parted the huddle to flank Arcee, arms around her, faces with half smiles in response to the onlookers muttering curiosity, admiration, and worry.

One human came forward, the only one in a conventional military exosuit, sleek and white in the thighs, waist, and shoulders, boxy and red in the forearms, chest, pelvis, helmet, and legs, her forearms bearing cannons. She turned off her blue visor obscurer to reveal her beige-bronze skinned face, shiny straight jet black hair, and piercing brown eyes meeting the Wreckers in turn. “I know you three by reputation and what you’ve done here today, and speaking over comms. Always wanted to meet you, wish it wasn’t like this. My name is Verity Carlo, she/her, I’m sure you might recognize me...”

“Yes, of course,” Impactor saluted with a left hand over her spark. “Mayor of Nemesis, EDF reservist, veteran of the Battle of the Curve. It’s an honor.”

Aileron and Arcee joined in, and Verity returned the gesture with a grin, “Likewise, Wreckers, from the head diplomat and commander of first contact and alliance with Earth, to a first generation Solusian Knight, to the former Wrecker admiral, Autobot founders all. Tell me, how do you propose our bunker cells will survive-”

A thundering boom the likes of which Arcee had not heard since the collision of scuttled Autobot capital ships onto Unicron while she, Rodimus, other Wreckers and entire fleets fought Scourge desperately to keep Unicron’s fleet from launching back in 2005 before Unicron was finally killed. The sharp memory of the cacophony on top of the din of the din of battle made her think of orange and pink Rodimus fighting alongside her, and she reached out a hand to hold hers, and remembered she wasn’t here. “Roddy…” she tightened her hand into a fist, hoping no one had heard her.

Indeed no one had, many of the organics stumbling from the awful crashing sound and hungry burningly loud shockwave that came after and passed overhead.

Arcee took the time to, slowly, reluctantly, acknowledging all her fear, to pull the Matrix of Leadership out of her back stack and hold it in her hands by it’s gray handles, and all she could think of was how she wanted her mentees Gauge and Sideswipe to be safe, and that she wanted to teach when this was over, to carry and care for younger life and encourage them to go their own way-

Ah, so this is what the Matrix is trying to show me, ask me if I want to change my shape with its power. Her face tightened with thought while urges coursed through her to assume an affirming set of shapes the likes of which she had not had to see to since her youth.

What everyone else in the room saw was her enveloped in cyan light emanating from the blue crystals within the spokes and core of the Matrix. She was barely visible.

Do you want this? My dear knight, you can keep your form if you want. The Matrix only wishes to encourage you to be who you want to be. You are tired of the path of the warrior, old friend. the voice and ghostly visage of colossal lavender and purple rounded and squarish cable hair helmed Solus Prime towered over Arcee, smiling, golden and silver Forge hammer in hand, among a sea of stars forming the millions of faces Arcee had come across and cared for, near those she knew they were close to. The room she stood in was beyond sight, but she could feel Aileron and Impactor’s hands on her back, and hear Aileron singing wordlessly, humming a slow, high and low tune with her thruster shoulders providing soft thrumming percussion base chords to the melody Arcee recognized as a mountain song from her village she grew up in on Caminus: Love To and From a Prime.

Arcee’s spark oscillated and crashed around in its chamber, and she put her hands over the car hood armor covered it while Matrix remained hovering ahead of her. Her body and mind warmly relived all the amorous touches, dancing, sparring, and resting together with her loves she could remember, with her shape as it was now and as it had been in her first relationship both roiled in sensation across her. She knew that if she took the shape she thought she wanted, she would be taller than she had ever been, that Aileron’s hand would barely reach her waist, and neither her nor Impactor would be able to lean up or in to kiss her.

Aileron spoke a single verse, as her hand trembled, a tear down her face, worrying about Arcee being in the Matrix’s light so long:

“I will always love you,

No matter how large or small you are,

No matter who you become for goodness.”

Impactor wrapped her harpoon arm around Aileron, while looking around behind at the door they had come through, hearing the elevator going up, and immediately whirled around to face the doors. “Arcee, you may need to differ some of this for later. We’re about to have company, and I’m not about to let another Prime or you get shot in the back.”

“I…” Arcee tried to meet Solus’s violet optics she had last seen smiling and dim when Solus rejoined the Allspark when she immersed herself back in, cables of Cybertron’s metal underground plugged into her neck and back, prismatic crystals growing around her as she said goodbye.

“Solus, and Matrix both, the shape decision can wait. But I accept being a Prime.” Arcee smiled, and the energies around her permeate her frame, and she knelt, grunting at the searing pain of her armor, actuators, engine, and fuel lines getting souped up, and forming a new conduit of circuit responsive connection to the Star Saber hilt in her back stacks, usable as more than a blade. As she grabbed onto the Matrix, the A deep breeze of signals ran through her circuits to her module via my neural cluster and spark chamber. Arcee was one with the awareness of a vast conglomeration of sparks across a vastness, with billions grouped together in thirty different star systems, and less so in other places. The Matrix posed ideas and strategies to her the way a Titan does to a Cityspeaker, an array of thoughts and data, in this case drawn from her life, Rodimus’, Optimus’s, Tigerhawk’s, Override’s, Delta Magnus’s, Solus’s, and Primon’s, the previous Primes. All at once with the roiling emotional turmoil of the sparks around, mountainous waves of pain and stress and terror and fear and misery, pushed against with recognition and joy and resolve and spite.

Arcee let the access to knowledge and spark-visible kind guide her, and immediately she became aware that a terrible hunger consuming a desperately brave spark that… longed for me, Aileron, and Impactor? Oh no… Roddy… not you…

She narrowed her optics and drew in the Matrix energies and vision around her, Solus nodding at her as her visage disappeared into the Matrix that Arcee stored in her own opened car hood chest, feeling crushed by the weight of what lay ahead, wracking her mind and the Matrix for a solution. Maybe there’s a way to cleanse her… She sensed no other sparks with the descending one suffused with the Matrix of Conquest that gnawed at Arcee’s spark perception.

No. She blocked out Unicron’s Matrix using all her love and will, thinking of fighting for her loved ones and for her home, Earth, and for the galaxy’s sake.

Militia bots and humans had formed up with Impactor and Aileron to get between Arcee and the doors, weapons brandished.

“Stand back,” Arcee stepped forward, drawing the Star Saber, while still running through options offered by the Matrix of Conquest from past encounters with Conquest bearers, all unsatisfactorily lethal to her. “The Conquest Bearer is approaching. And I think I know who she is. Rodimus.”

Mutters and whispers ran through the group, who backed away to the edges of the hall, except for Verity, Impactor, and Aileron, the latter two conflicted between relief that Rodimus was alive and anguish that she was not in control of her faculties. Some of the adults who backed off shielded the eyes of the youngsters, wrapping themselves around them or urged them to hide under bunks or in smaller rooms. The interactions were not all tearless.

Arcee drew and ignited the Star Saber’s cyan golden broad blade. “If the Matrix and all the Primes don’t have a solution that doesn’t involve killing her, I damn well will touch my way through finding one. I make my own magic with strength, have all my life and because of that my name besides Arcee-” she and the Matrix spoke as one, “is Arcana Magnus. You all down to fight a Cron we care for? Keep in mind we have to minimize violence, since that feeds Unicron.”

The elevator hit the ground floor, and slow heavy footsteps thundered towards the doors.

“Being a Wrecker means signing up with a high chance of dying in some nearly impossible operation that we make possible,” Aileron smiled, her fingers wry around her sabers. “Wouldn’t have that any other way than for love, it’s why we’re here.”

“Aye, though this seems to be dangerously close relationship abuse, at the very least traumatic for everyone. But at least it’s not the bloody Noisemaze, Circuit Smasher, Flame’s zombies, Shadow Leeches, or Thunder Mayhem.” Impactor sighed and assumed a front stance with her harpoon, cutlass, and shoulder cannon. “Suppose this makes you a Wrecker, Verity. Though a counselor will have to assess you later.”

“Honored,” Verity leveled her cannons. “I do have this odd feeling that most of us are outclassed, though.”

The footsteps reached the doors ahead of the four, and stopped. Violet flames cut the doors in twain, revealing large thighed angularly and roundly lanky Rodimus in black and purple with smoking forearm barrels and a twisted grin. “How delightful, maybe I can finally crush the lazy vain hothead’s do-gooder attitude with the torture killing you will be for her.”

“Scrap you, Unicron,” Arcana Magnus seethed, showing her fangs, while Aileron and Impactor simmered and Verity stared slack jawed. Arcee cut down, channeling the might of her spark and the Matrix to galvanize the Star Saber’s energies into a precise arc of blue-white hot plasma that cut through the opening towards Rodimus, while Arcana still raced to construct a solution of Matrix of Leadership energies to quell the Matrix of Conquest, until considering what her own spark was doing. “Expose her spark housing so I can destroy her Matrix with mine!” She yelled as she leapt forward alongside her cut to stab forward-

Meeting Rodimus leaping over the arc of plasma, who stared with wide optics at Arcee’s follow up: “Would you really kill me sweetiegear?” Unicron toned in Rodimus’s softest coo that left Arcana and her partners freeze and want to belch up their energon, as did Rodimus’s own spark and mind overwhelmed by Unicron.

Verity immediately growled and fired off a volley of blue bolt ion blaster rounds into the center of Rodimus’s chest, tearing off the glacis point and halfway through the exterior armor as Rodimus twisted her torso to avoid Arcana’s stab, but was thrown back towards the floor by Verity’s blasts-

As Aileron and Arcana ran up on Rodimus, Impactor promptly aimed and fired her harpoon with the words “forgive me dear,” pinning Rodimus to the ground by her left arm, spilling purple Dark Energon out near her shoulder.

“How dare you! You say you love me for who I am, and this is how you treat me?” Unicron bellowed and fired a steady triple flare of violet Angolmois fire from the pinned arm into Impactor, straight through the armor towards the spark chamber-

Arcana Magnus had followed the move since the cannons started heating up and extended a protective cascade of energon plasma from the Matrix of Leadership through her hand that reached Impactor just as her armor was torn up, holding the blast short of the spark chamber.

“Of course you’d take her side, Arcee,” Unicron sneered through Rodimus’s face. “You don’t think I’m as real as you or your journey, do you? I’m not worth it. A waste. You bloody gatekeeper.”

Arcana struggled to stay afoot, tears streaming down her cheeks in equal measure to the quakes of Rodimus’s spark, the only thing Arcee could hold onto to keep from collapsing and sobbing. “Roddy would never say that… we helped each other find our way. You would never understand that.”

Aileron made use of the conversation to angrily move in with a heavy spark to rush and slice out the remaining front portion of Roddy’s car hood covering her spark and the cyclopean glow of the bladed Matrix of Conquest her two blades.

The Matrix’s twelve blades turned and launched cutting through Aileron’s torso from front to back, one through the spark.

“ AILERON! ” Arcana and Impactor both screamed.

“What do you expect Arcee would do if you did that to her, hmm? Our love is dead, like you,” Unicron kicked optics dimming Aileron over, and then pulled out the harpoon from Rodimus’s arm, shutting off the fire, cackling at the sensation of her spark shrinking and dying from the traumatic agony, and sealed the wound with Angolmois while projecting a shield sphere of such Unicron blood with a teethy maw and horns around Rodimus’s body. “You sweet fool. You denied me my champion of violence by showing her that she is ‘loveable and trustworthy,’ and listening to her when few would in the millennia leading to my triumph. I never wanted you, Rodimus Cron. I was always after Arcana, and you were never in the way. Aileron was, and so is the companion of violence, Impactor.”

The onlooking militia and civilians looked on in distraught, some saying prayers or speaking last rites, others turning to run into the tunnels only to see dead mangled and torn Angolmois filled bodies both human and transformer advancing slowly, and retreating back inside, opening fire on the Terrorcons, panic rising among the mass.

Arcee ran the words over in her head while she wove a song of wordless love with Matrix energies towards Aileron’s spark instinctively from Matrix memory, rekindling the sweet fire of the beloved bot, mending pierced fuel lines, while Arcana braced the Star Saber, knowing she could kill Rodimus and maybe the Matrix of Conquest, but it would be in violence. That cannot be the solution to this problem… Unicron feeds on that, something all prior Primes had missed, that we only learned during the recent Armada Wars after Unicron’s destruction. What if…

She will never give up. You are getting more than you bargained for. I took down Scourge and Shockwave and sent the Matrix away from your grasp so the last of your soul would have to possess me to avoid the Omniversal Matrix reconciling you before your Light and Dark peers, you idiot. I let you have me, knowing that the Autobots and my partners can beat you. Rodimus’s spark laughed, and reached out during Unicron’s shock to say to Arcee, Aileron, and Impactor: I love you all. Keep trying. Whatever it takes.

Impactor knelt, trembling after the shoulder cannon blast she fired did nothing to Rodimus’s Angolmois shield. “What use am I? I just know how to fight, to kill, to teach those things! Tearing into Rodimus made me feel worse than anything i’ve ever done. I’m no mage or philosopher! I just- have always been the last line. Arcee, what do we do?”

Verity looked up at Arcana Magnus. “Arcee… if not violence, then…”

“Then love,” Arcana Magnus leapt into the Angolmois sphere, shutting off the Star Saber to let it’s Cutting energies mingle with the Matrix, tearing apart the Angolmois shielding while Unicron attempted to fire full blasts of Hungry Fire with Rodimus’s arms, only to find the flames deflected-

Arcana let the Cutting fall away from her hands that she wrapped around Rodimus’s long pointy helm guard audials and her back, and plucked a kiss on her lips that Rodimus’s spark and module eagerly met, while Arcee exposed her own Matrix to simply shine upon the Matrix of Conquest, not attack it. “I love you, Roddy, dear transformation of my spark.”

I’m sorry, Primus toned through the Matrix to Unicron, all the way from and as the distant Allspark deep in the planet Cybertron. I didn’t mean for you to have to be the arbiter of destruction for so long, but ‘I’m sorry’ won’t fix that. Please- take this time as-

Rodimus put her arms around Arcana, smirking, “well this is just prime,” and smooched back, hands moving to her back stacks, while Impactor quickly ran over to a finger twitching Aileron, and Verity backed off to check on her people, trying to give assurances with words of hope.

Sibling, this is inane. You expect me to stop taking down your grand experiment with exposed spark life because of- sensory realizations and soulful iteration and… family? Unicron harumphed from within the Matrix of Conquest.

Then what are you, if not soulful iteration of someone lost in violence? Is it no surprise you were drawn to Arcee and her brother? You wanted to find a way to be good again. You can see into her, into me, right now. We have no moves to make. Primus-AllSpark hummed chords of song of Light and Dark that made emanations of stars and black holes dance among the onlookers, and stopped the Terrorcons in their tracks. You need rest. I don’t think I get to say I love you, sibling, after all this, but I do get to say- please take care. You can kill my spark, if you like- but it will live on in all of them, in all of you. We have done this dance before and will again. But Arcana convinced me that- violence is never the final answer. It is just a failure of society. And our Omniversal society, myself included, failed you.

Aileron came to slowly in Impactor’s arms, looking up at the splendor of starstuff filling the room and smiling down on her, and within Angolmois sharing tender touches hosting long lost family. “Wha- what did I miss? Did we win?”

“I have no damn idea,” Impactor kissed Aileron’s helm softly and laughed. “But I bet Arcee can tell you.”

“Let me go see her, then,” Aileron clasped Impactor’s chin, and the latter helped lift her to her feet, the two making their way over to Rodimus and Arcana, with only the Angolmois between them.

Unicron gazed, gazed upon the Matrix and AllSpark they had craved to consume for so long, and saw the lives that relived time after time in the memories of the sparks that came and went, that formed multitudes and stories, that all shared the conclusion of we are each other, different and alike, we are alone, we are together, infinite variation sparking again and again even when all times end, love remembers .

And Unicron gazed at Arcee’s spark, too, seeing that in all her anguish over the Cybertron’s bouts of reactionary violence and empire that had led to the Decepticons, that in all her loneliness when those cycles devalued all that she was and her only fearful worth to many was her honed capacity to fight, that she never let go of wanting to trust and love, because love is the greatest strength in the universe , because of the love she had gotten and given from time to time, once often, and then often once more a long while after.

Oh. The Matrix of Conquest dissolved, the last remains of Unicron’s violet anti-spark departing through a golden circle that formed in the ceiling. Will you join me?

I must. For all that I have done wrong. Primus departed from the AllSpark, saying farewells, and passed from the Matrix of Leadership, that remained not from their will, but from the love of an arcane mage for knowledge and teaching, longing to share all it’s wisdom, in peace, when the Great War would hopefully end. Good luck, Arcee, Rodimus, for all time. It was nice knowing you both. Their cyan spark left through the golden circle, which disappeared after.

The Angolmois and miniature stellar apparitions all fell away, the Terrorcons collapsing into corpses that blossomed with blue flowers and shrubs whether organic or metal- and the four Wrecker bots embraced, smiling, apologizing, soothing, kissing.

=”To all remaining Autobots and allies, this is Admiral Marissa Faireborn with EDCS Admiral Screwball! We have made an opening over Nemesis Polity, do any of you read? Do you need extra transport or medical evacs? We are ready to receive or send any transports necessary.”=

=“We read you, Admirals,”= Verity smiled. =“This is Mayor Verity Carlo, I will direct my people and remaining military units to take the shuttles now. We may be leaving Mars, but I trust that Unicron is no longer a problem. We also have a new Prime- maybe an old one again too.”

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sturthepotofmadness · 6 months

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TFRarePairingFest2023 Day 12: For All Eternity

Also on Ao3, as you do.

Pairing: Soundwave/Starscream/Thundercracker/Skywarp

Continuity: G1

@tfrarepairing

Soundwave looked up from the datapad as Starscream, Thundercrakcer, and Skywarp came trampling into the room.

“We found them!” Skywarp yelled to him as the trio stumbled over to the main living area. The purple and black seeker promptly teleported over to him and grabbed him. Soundwave barely had time to place down the datapad on the table before he was warped over to where Starscream and Thundercracker started to set up… whatever they were planning.

“Query: Found what?” Soundwave asked.

“You haven’t told him?” Thundercracker questioned, looking at Starscream. Skywarp pulled the cassette master onto the couch. Skywarp teleported off again as the blue and white seeker sat down next to Soundwave.

“Well what if we couldn’t find it? Or the other thing for that matter,” Starscream countered, briefly looking back as he put something into the box under the TV.

“That’s fair,” Skywarp chirped as he teleported back to them, placing already prepared bowls filled with various snacks onto the table. Soundwave blinked at the now unhidden snacks as Skywarp plopped down onto Soundwave’s pedes and Starscream moved away from where the TV sat. The grey and red seeker sat down on the other side of Soundwave as he pressed something on the remote he grabbed.

“Query: Found what?” Soundwave repeated, this time sounding a bit concerned as the TV booted up.

“How old is this thing?” Starscream muttered.

“It’s pre-war at least,” Skywarp commented.

“Oh shush, we know that,” Starscream replied as the TV finished booting.

Soundwave was about to repeat his question once again before he saw the popup on the TV for whatever was inserted into the box below it. He went quiet, never even getting to speak as he stared at the popup as it was highlighted by the remote’s cursor and clicked on. It began playing.

It was a black screen briefly before whatever device was recording was moved to show what it was now facing. The familiar frame of Frenzy was onscreen, grinning at the camera as he began to speak. Soundwave felt his spark tremble as he heard Rumble’s voice come through the recording as well, clearly being the mecha holding the camera.

Thundercracker pressed into his side as the recording continued on, showing Frenzy attempting to create something out of metal-rope and crystals while he and Rumble talked about whatever came to their processors. By the time the recording device went back to black, at least thirty-eight crystals were broken and twelve metal-rope lines were torn apart. The device was dropped when the sixty-first crystal instead decided to explode into powder. The playback made a noise signifying a different recording began to replay.

The next recording started already up, facing Laserbeak as she held her own metal-rope embedded with crystals. The camera moved towards where the voice came from when he heard Ratbat’s voice, now showing the odd cassette on screen. It was clear Rumble was still manning the camera as he was the one who answered Ratbat and the camera didn’t move. Another exploding crystal happened on the other side of Rumble as he dropped the camera, prompting Ratbat to pick it up and show that Rumble was covered in rainbow powder and Ravage was the culprit. Laserbeak spoke as Ravage laughed. Another cut, another noise.

Soundwave could barely hold his emotions in as he felt Skywarp press into him. As the recordings continued to play, Starscream eventually joined the pile of surrounding Soundwave with love and affection.

The second to last piece of footage shown was something Soundwave remembered clearly. Rumble, Frenzy, Ravage, Laserbeak, Ratbat, Slugfest, Buzzsaw, and Howlback surprising their cassette master on the day they figured out was Soundwave’s creation joor. (How the cassettes managed to convince Megatron to give him the day off, Soundwave didn’t know.) The camera was in the back corner of the room, facing the door and it caught the entire celebration in full, from the cassettes putting up the first crystal lines to him and all the cassettes save Laserbeak fell asleep in a giant pile in front of the TV in the room. Laserbeak approached the camera, gave it the best smirk she could, and turned off that recording.

It made another noise signifying the recording changed, and the last piece had such a different tone to it that it took Soundwave off-guard. Then he recognized where the recording was. The base he sent all but one his cassettes to (the one being Slugfest, not that it mattered now), which was buried by an attack made on it by some hostile neutral bots that called themselves Maximals. Said Maximals lived on this planet long before the war came to it, and the large group of beastformers were very unhappy about other Cybertronians trying to take over their territory. He vaguely remembered the Autobots trying to talk to them, their meeting almost ending in disaster before the Dinobots made their presence known. He didn’t know what happened after that, but he knew it wasn’t the same reaction as destroying whatever was made.

It was facing Frenzy, who gave the camera a terrified, sad smile while his plating rattled enough it could be heard. Through the recording, Frenzy said, {S-Sou-So-... Dad, if y-you’re hearing this, we l-love you with all of our sparks.} Laserbeak appeared on screen briefly, grabbing Frenzy and bolting off. The camera was tilted in a way that showed the collapsing ceiling behind them and Buzzsaw being crushed by all the rock and metal. Soundwave trembled as he remembered the ugly snap of Buzzsaw’s bond with him shattering. From the recording, Frenzy choked as he continued, {We love you s-so, so, much.} The roof collapsed over Frenzy and Laserbeak, the camera somehow being knocked forward and out of range of being crushed. The camera was grabbed by a different cassette, but he couldn’t identify which one as they bolted down the hall.

He finally realized who was holding the camera as the recording replayed Ravage’s voice. {Soundwave… we’re so sorry.} The camera barely showed it being shoved into somebot else’s arms before the walls collapsed in and the recording ended.

Soundwave released a pained kneen and he felt coolant run down his faceplate. The box under the TV popped the recording tape out, but the cassette master didn’t pay attention to that. He cried as he tucked into himself and felt the broken bonds with his beloved cassettes ache. The pulsing love from Thundercracker, Skywarp, and Starscream’s bonds flowed into him like a flood, but the painful reminders of his cassettes lessened their effect.

“We have something else to show you,” Thundercracker said, not removing himself from where he hugged Soundwave. Starscream didn’t move either, but nodded at Skywarp before the purple and black seeker stood up and walked off.

Soundwave looked at the two seekers at his sides, then at Skywarp as he returned holding some sort of pod in his servos. Starscream pulled away slightly and he could feel the eldest trine member smirking. “You did try asking what we found,” Starscream remarked. “Well, why don’t you find out?”

Soundwave gave Starscream a look as Skywarp moved the now basically empty bowls out of the way. The strange pod was placed on the table and Skywarp returned to sit by them. The purple seeker was quiet for a moment, then said, “We are conjunx endura, and we will be for all eternity. And you might not agree with this, but your pain is our pain.”

“We’re in this together,” Thundercracker said.

Soundwave leaned onto Starscream for a moment before moving to better access the pod. He pressed a button on the pod’s side labeled ‘expose’ and the metal retracted to reveal fogged by glass with a figure inside of it. A small, seemingly orange colored figure the same exact size of a cassette. His spark fluttered slightly. Maybe… did he never realize a bond was just muted due to all the other bonds breaking all at once? There was another button revealed by the outer metal being pulled back and he pressed it. The glass opened up and the cold air of the inner pod hit him.

He carefully grabbed the figure in the pod, cradling them as he lifted them out. His spark fluttered as, slowly, the cassette began to awake from their stasis. The cassette’s optics flickered on, their visor covering said optics going from resting grey to dull red to bright red, though it was clear the little one’s optics were still unfocused. Soundwave’s emotions scrambled to take hold of the slowly awakening bond and he poured all the fatherly love he could into it.

The amount of love he poured in might’ve ended up being overwhelming for Rumble, but soon enough that bond began to reopen and he felt the loving disbelief that rippled through their bond. Rumble’s systems rebooted themselves, as if confused by the now-active bond, but it calmed down and focused on finishing the reboot. Rumble’s systems finished their reboot and finally allowed the cassette to fully awaken.

Thundercracker and Skywarp tried to get closer to Soundwave and Rumble, while Starscream stayed out of the way. Rumble’s helm finally moved. In a small, underused voice, he chirped, “Sou… Soundwave?”

“Rumble…” Soundwave cooed, bringing Rumble closer to him.

“D-Dad!” Rumble cried, suddenly moving to hug Soundwave and Soundwave returned it. They both cried and were embraced by Thundercracker, Starscream, and Skywarp.

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schmem14 · 5 months

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Hello friends! Recently, I participated in the fourth HP Rare Pair fest, and with 81 unique and beautiful entries it was a veritable FEAST for the eyes and heart and soul. (Check out the whole collection here)

I wanted to take a moment to post highlights of the fics that just really brought me to my knees in hopes that you’ll fangirl/boy/person over them with me!

1. Evergreen by @thecouchsofa (23k)- Harry Potter x George Weasley What would happen if Harry asked George to go to the Yule Ball with him instead of Parvati? This GOF Yule Ball AU is sure to slay you with sheer adorableness. I couldn’t stop smiling and squealing through the whole thing. This rare pair is one of my favorites, and this fic went above and beyond, plus it’s the perfect holiday read! Rating: T

2. Lonely Creatures by @apricitydays-lazynights (5k)- Severus Snape x Giant Squid The prompt to put these two together could easily have been pure hentai crack nonsense (which is a brilliant option) but this story did things to me that I can’t even put into words. It’s tender, melancholy, and cuts to the heart of Severus Snape’s isolation and longing to be seen and loved. The details of this are so richly woven, and I particularly enjoyed the authors’ focus on Mermlish/Merfolk. Standing ovation to this fic! Rating: E

3. Slice of Night by SquibNation10 (9k)- Aurora Sinistra x Severus Snape This was the fic that took me the most by surprise. I love the creativity in taking a character who gets very few canon details and making them real and beautiful and believable. Auror Sinistra is divine in this, and I’ll give some honorable mentions to both Argus Filch and Rolanda Hooch as excellent supporting characters that also don’t typcially get a lot of spotlight. What a gorgeous slice of life fic! Rating: T

3. Quick Quotes and Quibbles by RainstormRadish (3k)- Luna Lovegood x Rita Skeeter Rita and Luna have to work together to cover the wedding of Neville Longbottom and Pansy Parkinson. There’s just something about a story told in unconventional medium that will always ALWAYS pull me in! This unlikely pairing comes together in the sweetest way, their strong personalities balancing each other out until they become a formidable team. I particularly loved the graphics and paper trail memos/epistolary style storytelling. Rating: T

4. Your seat, it’s the best seat by @the-houseryn (17k)- Ron Weasley x Draco Malfoy MOVE OVER only one bed, there’s a new trope in town and it’s the ONLY ONE SEAT trope!! This was sexy, flirtatous, and hot AF. I’m always down for a Dron fic, but this one is one of the best I’ve read in a while, with some delicious pining and a predictably oblivious Ron. Do yourself a favor and indulge in the lap-sitting fic of the year! Rating: E

5. Vivaldi and Hot Chocolate by @patriceavril (6k)- Percy Weasley x Stan Shunpike What was Percy up to in OTP/HBP? What a lonely life that must have been! This fic was soft and sweet, giving some much-needed love to a character that we all wrote off in canon for being a stuck-up prick. I love how Percy seeks out the warmth and comfort of the Knight Bus, coming back for more because of the kind-hearted and bubbly Stan Shunpike, who always insists on giving Percy free hot chocolate. I never expected to be so enamoured by this pairing, but I am! Rating: T

6. The monster you feed by @ghostfelicis188 (11k)- Regulus Black x Remus Lupin This canon-compliant fic tore me to shreds. TO SHREDS. Like, I am such a simp for tragic Remus romances, and this took the cake. Features: pining artist Remus, and shit-eating cruel Regulus who toys with Remus the whole damn fic. If you like hurt no comfort, this is the fic for you. *Chefs Kiss* Rating: M

7. Gilded Web by @emilyrickman AlihotsyTotsy (8k)- George Weasley x Blaise Zabini I cannot believe that this understated fic packed such a punch in 8,000 words. George agrees to an undercover operation to investigate the mysterious deaths of Mrs. Zabini’s deceased husbands. He is so pure in this, his characterization charming and believable, I just need more of this George! Bonus points for references to “the Sting” Rating: M

8. Sleeping with Ghosts by @ghaniblue (21k)- Harry Potter x Regulus Black x Draco Malfoy My initial thoughts when encountering this relationship tag was something akin to a bewildered head scratch but OMG the best thing about this fest is having expectations completely upended! This fic slayed hard with a slow burn, found family, semi-sentient house renovation angle that had me completely melted by the end. Rating: M

9. The Last Trial of Peter Petegrew by @sleepstxtic (20 k)- Peter Petegrew x James Potter If possible, I’d like to ram this fic down the throats of all my mutuals with a plea to PLEASE READ THIS FIC. I can’t begin to describe in a tiny paragraph what this did to me. Often Peter Petegrew is relegated to the traitor bus in fandom (understandable) but this took every mean and traitorous part of his character and made me almost like him despite his treachery! The format of this was also a delight to read, and I love that Hermione presents the case for Peter Petegrew in this meta purgatory-style courtroom drama. Rating: M

10. Anatomy of a memory by @venom0usbarbie (9k)- Ginny Weasley x Tom Riddle This story was pure poetry wrapped in a sinister diary-shaped package. I love the self-fulfilling prophecy nature of this time loop style storyline, as well as the toxic obsession and manipulation played out between Ginny and Tom. What a mindfuck ending that was, too! Kudos to the “Tom Riddle is his own Warning” tag. Rating: M

11. Sweet Boy by @maraudersaffair (6k)- Narcissa Black Malfoy x Harry Potter A not-quite-fake dating fic with lots of smut, thirst, and mommy/praise kink? Yes, please! I was literally panting by the end of this, Harry and Narcissa are so hot together! Rating: E

12. Growing Suspicion by nocturn (1.8k)- Neville Longbottom x Marcus Flint Someone keeps mutilating Neville’s plants, and he’s going to get to the bottom of it OR that time Marcus expresses feelings but doesn’t understand proper plant care. This fic was A-DOR-ABLE. Love me a good Hogwarts professors/staff fic, and this was just a bite-sized delight to read. Rating: G

13. For Your Burning Gaze by SquibNation10 (22k)- Neville Longbottom x Pansy Parkinson The fic that I most want to see a sequel for award goes to… this Twilight Zone post-war marriage law fic complete with creepy house elves and a very troubled Pansy, who seems to be the only one realizing that something is not quite right! This is one of the best Panville fics I’ve read, I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. Rating: E

Thanks to @hprarepairfest for putting on another amazing fest!

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