Hey guys super wholesome Brainstorm and Chromedome friendship story idea
It starts off after the events of the Overlord arc but sometime before the Brainstorm time-traveling arc. Chromedome is still kind of depressed despite having Rewind 2.0, so he unexpectedly seeks out Brainstorm's company.
Brainstorm is almost done with his suitcase. He's obsessively working on it since completion is so near. Thus, he's tired and doesn't take the correct precautions to lock his hab suite door, and Chromedome finds him working on the suitcase. Bewildered, he asks Brainstorm about it.
Brainstorm's been caught by his best friend and is a terrible liar (his "eccentric" personality covers most of the mistakes he makes which is the only way he's made it so far), so he tells Chromedome the truth...or at least part of it.
He tells Chromedome that he is building a time machine to go back and save Quark. He does NOT tell Chromedome about being a Decepticon or the REAL plan of going back to stop the war, which would also erase Brainstorm's existence.
Chromedome asks Brainstorm if they can go back to save the original Rewind. He seems like he's willing to give up Rewind 2.0 for this endeavor.
Brainstorm, feeling guilty that his REAL plan will likely end up in Chromedome and Rewind never meeting, agrees. He says he'll go back to the day that Rewind dies, but he secretly plans to stop the war anyways. This will make the entire Rewind-saving thing a moot point, but it'll give Chromedome some closure at least (and Brainstorm less guilt).
Brainstorm finishes the case, and they go back in time. However, the case malfunctions and takes them to the wrong point. Instead of going back to the beginning of the Overlord day, they go back to the place where Overlord's just escaped and Chromedome is still in the time chamber.
Brainstorm realizes this and tries to go back to the correct time. However, the case is not responding, and Brainstorm discovers there's been a malfunction. While Brainstorm is trying to fix the malfunction, Chromedome is trying to save Rewind. He fails and watches Rewind die again.
Then it starts again. Brainstorm and Chromedome realize they're caught in a time loop that restarts with Rewind's death. All physical conditions are reset. Brainstorm and Chromedome hold only the memories of the time loop.
It seems like they have 2 options to stop the loop: they can save Rewind, or they can fix the briefcase.
They attempt to save Rewind first. Cue the angst: over and over and over again, Chromedome watches Rewind and the Lost Light crew die. Every loop, his hopes are raised and then crushed, just like Rewind's tiny body. Over and over and over again, Brainstorm also watches Chromedome fall into a cycle of despair.
A bunch of things happen during the time loops. The first time Chromedome doesn't immediately try to save Rewind. The first time they realize that even their own deaths (guess how that happens) are reset with the time loops. The first time Chromedome thinks about leaving Rewind. There's a lot of unpleasant first times, despite the time loop.
Chromedome can't take it, so he wipes his memories of the last 2,375,499 loops. He only remembers that he and Brainstorm had time traveled to save Rewind.
Brainstorm is infuriated. Chromedome's left him to suffer under the weight of 2,375,499 loops alone. He barely talks to Chromedome for the next 3,200 loops.
Chromedome is mostly distraught about rewatching Rewind's death, which is a novelty to him since he erased his memories of the previous loops. Thus, he notices Brainstorm's tenseness but attributes it to Overlord's slaughtering of the crew.
After Chromedome wipes his memory, Brainstorm starts working on fixing the briefcase. This is very difficult, as all research is restarted with every time loop. It's impossible to run any long tests. It's also difficult to set up the lab and find the correct components for conducting research as materials always return back their original places at the beginning of each time loop.
In a moment of frustration (it's loop 2,430,567 for Brainstorm, loop 55,068 for Chromedome), Brainstorm tells Chromedome about the memory-wipe. He confesses that he's looking for a new way to stop the time loop that doesn't involve saving Rewind.
This is a breaking point for Chromedome, who wipes his memories the next loop. However, he goes back even FURTHER–to the point BEFORE he learns about the time-traveling and Quark at all. This effectively leaves Brainstorm alone in the time loop, as Chromedome is now unaware like the rest of the Lost Light.
Over the next few million loops it takes to repair the briefcase, Brainstorm has essentially explored the entire ship. In his exploration, he stumbles upon 3 unusual drives. They're Rewind's old drives, but they've been wiped. The first contains ALL of Chromedome's memories from the first 2,375,499 loops. The second contains the memories from loop 2,375,500 to loop 2,430,567. The third contains a message from Chromedome. He expresses his guilt, regret, and apologies for abandoning Brainstorm. At the end of the message, he asks Brainstorm for forgiveness and to make Chromedome download his memories again. Brainstorm realizes that these drives are the only things that can change. Despite the time loop, they haven't reset the information Chromedome put on there. He uses the drives to store research, and progress moves along much faster after that.
Brainstorm doesn't know what to do with the memories left on the drives. He ends up leaving them alone for now.
On loop 2,786,777, Brainstorm fixes the briefcase. Rewind dies and plot happens like normal. Chromedome is devastated, but in a normal way. He's about to erase his memories of Rewind, like canon.
Brainstorm enters the room, seething and hurt. He tells Chromedome that he doesn't deserve ignorance because ignorance is bliss. He's not allowed to forget Rewind after all that had happened. He then tells Chromedome about the time-traveling loops. Chromedome hardly believes him at first. However, his friend is so different and changed that he begins to possibly consider that there may be truth to the story.
Then, Brainstorm offers him a choice. He pulls out the drives and plays the third drive's message. Then, he says that Chromedome can choose to download the his memories from the time loop and suffer in knowledge with him for the rest of his life. Or, he can not look at the loops or delete his memory after looking at the loops. If he does this, Brainstorm will never acknowledge at him again.
At the end of this offer, Brainstorm pulls out a fourth drive, which is Rewind's message. After listening to Rewind's message, Chromedome decides to not delete his memories about Rewind and to take up Brainstorm's offer on downloading the time loop memories.
This ends in crushing depression, but Chromedome finds it within himself to not delete the time loop memories. Brainstorm and Chromedome live out their days in burdened memory, but they do it together.
Yay wholesomeness!
