Demigod_Writes

The camera jolted, the device the call had been answered on swinging around to reveal the other world’s Optimus as he seemed to be watching whatever was going down, deeply disappointed.

“How are things going?” Optimus dared ask, already knowing what the answer would be.

“More space to move around, more opportunities to cause mayhem.”

The mistakable boom of an explosion sounded in the background, Optimus swinging around to face out the hanger and toward the commotion. “Hound! What is the matter with you?”

Whatever the medic turned weapons enthusiast said back was not loud enough for the speakers to pick up on, but Optimus’ sigh and the way he moved to pinch the bridge of his sensory valve were. “I should have let Megatron kill you all.” he muttered.

“Heard that!” Kira barked from somewhere beyond the frame, and then she was yelling again at someone called ‘Sharp-T’, though neither mech knew who that was.

“How is she?” Ratchet asked.

While Optimus had been silent in his worry for the human who left with those Autobots, Ratchet had not. The medic had paced, constantly muttering about how it was unsafe and how he should have grabbed the femme when he’d had the chance.

“They gave her energon!” he’d snapped when Bulkhead had complained. “They stood there enabling her trying to kill herself! Did you see what it did to her? She needs rest and care.”

She hadn’t looked so weak and frail and in need of anyone caring for her when she’d sat atop the Dinobot, beaming like she’d just found a stash of energon gummies. And it certainly didn’t look like she was in any sort of danger when said Dinobot was glaring at everyone, his message clear. Look at her the wrong way and you died.

Optimus had no doubt she was safe so long as she was near any one of those beings she now shared a base with, but humans were smart and manipulative. They would find a way to get her away from them.

“She has made a full recovery.” Optimus started, the brief moment of his reassurance of her well-being cancelled out when she yelped out an “Ow!” immediately after he finished speaking.

The Prime barely glanced in the direction of the shout, seeming to be walking to a quieter corner within the hanger. “She is enjoying having the Dinobots back. She thinks of them as pets.”

Ratchet scoffed. He had just about passed out seeing Grimlock step through the Ground Bridge. Optimus had been convinced the old medic was about to blow a gasket when he’d seen her perched atop his head like she was meant to be there.

“And the humans?” Optimus asked, keeping his voice soft.

The Prime had seemed to have reached his intended destination, the ruckus of the others now a dull drone in the background. “They have asked to speak to her at her ‘earliest convenience’. My team knows to keep at least two of them on her at all times. They will keep her busy with their… distractions.”

That was a start, ensuring she was never alone and had plenty of excuses not to bend to the will of the organics. But Optimus still couldn’t let go of the feeling that she would be so much safer within the silo, rock walls separating her from them.

And his face must’ve shown as much because the Optimus in the screen sighed, looking away briefly. He was beginning to think so too. “They have begun patrolling the fence and have a helicopter circle nearly every cycle. It could be they are now cautious with the Dinobots around but she knows something they want.”

“We received the schematics you sent.” Ratchet started, pulling up the aforementioned data file on his work station screen. “I’ve begun reading through it and gathering the parts I’ll need.”

Holoforms were coming to Optimus’ team after all. Should they need to hide Kira somewhere far away, they certainly would not be sending her alone. Bumblebee would the best fit but in order to truly blend in, he’d need to be human. Or as close to it as they could come up with.

The Prime nodded, flinching when something nearby shattered and there was a cacophony of “Wheeljack!”

Pedsteps approached and Optimus turned to time to see Ironhide deposit Kira onto his shoulder, the lieutenant nodding at the screen in silent acknowledgment before rolling his shoulders and beginning to bark orders at the others to take their mischief making elsewhere. Namely, away from the human.

Every bot was in on the plan, and every bot knew that no matter what, Kira could never know.

“Hey. Sorry about that, Grimlock likes to chew on metal things. And Sharp-T has gotten bolder with her fire.”

Optimus and Ratchet still had no idea who that was, or sure they could entirely trust the metal-loving dinosaur to not get distracted if he was supposed to be watching her, but the shine in her eyes and the glow of her smile made it hard to keep the mood heavy.

Optimus had seen her fear when she’d first arrived, seen her relief at finding her team, witnessed her sorrow at the realization of what her actions may have done, and now he got to see pure, unbridled joy as she was exactly where she wanted to be.

“It appears everyone is settling in well then.” Optimus spoke, his spark thrumming with the wider grin he was graced with.

“Yeah, it’s great. A little weird that it’s not Cybertron beneath our feet but it’s still like home. Almost. You should stop by. I bet Ratchet misses the noise.”

The grumbled curses the medic beside him muttered had the femme throwing her head back with a laugh so fierce Optimus had to reach up with his free servo to steady her.

“Oh, don’t lie. You miss us.”

“Like a plague ship misses a scraplet.”

“What’s a scraplet?”

Ratchet chuckled, partly humorless as the memory of that happened the last time a scraplet infestation rocked the base and a but warmly, the genuine question and little head tilt the human did so innocent. “Little one, you don’t want to know.”

Kira shrugged, shifting on her Optimus’ shoulder to press closer into his neck cables. “If you say so.”

She did seem better, more color in her face since yesterday and a brightness in his eyes Optimus hadn’t realized was so drastically dimmed until now.

Would she be so happy when she found out she was in danger? Would she understand?

Maybe they could make this a little better, easy her into the idea, phrase it like a little getaway from all the chaos.

Optimus opened his mouth, ready to prose the question, when pedsteps thundered over and a worried Evac appeared in the corner of the screen. “Optimus, the humans are entering the base.”

---

This was not how Kira was expecting her day to go.

Firstly, the humans reached out asking to meet with her about something to do with the relics and then suddenly everyone on base needs something from her. Watch Sunstreaker try a new flip, help Drift with a haiku, stop Grimlock from eating the warehouse bulkheads, design new holograms for the femmes, umpire a game of thumb war between Skids and Mudflap, help Roadspin name clouds. If she didn’t know any better she’d think they were trying to keep her distracted.

Which begged the question, what the hell did they do that they were trying to cover up? The last time they’d acted this needy was when her one and only pillow had met an unfortunate demise and they were trying to get a new one before she went to bed.

Now the military, having understandably gotten tired of waiting since it had been well over twenty-four since their message, were rolling in and Optimus was trying to shove her into his chest cavity.

“What the hell are you?” she snapped, wriggling around for all her worth.

She hung out in there frequently, when she needed a nap and Optimus wasn’t in the mood to convert into his alt mode, or if she got caught up in a battle and needed somewhere sheltered to hide. That was one wild roller coaster. Now it was being turned into a time out contraption.

“Stop squirming.” Optimus growled, trying to gently maneuver her, but large digits and agile limbs don’t make a good mix.

“No. Why?”

It was just a meeting. Talking, something that needed to happen way more often around here. Why was he acting so weird? Why were they all being so weird?

Finally able to get a solid push off from his palm, Kira deftly swung herself down and descended his body with all the grace and skill seventeen years of avoiding a babysitter had granted her, landing on the floor with a sound grunt and booking it toward the doors.

Evac had rolled the hanger doors shut on his way out, but none of them were small enough or smart enough to check the human sized door. Throwing it open, Kira sprinted across the desert space towards the gathering that was gearing up to start a new war.

The Bots stood ready, weapons out and aimed at the four humans standing beside their Humvee, arms held up in surrender and while they should have been terrified, they stood calm and open.

General Bryce stood in the front of the group, Fowler close behind him and two humans Kira had not met before. They hardly flinched as Grimlock roared, Slug his huge, crowned head back and forth in a threatening display.

“Woah, woah, what is going on?” Kira slipped between peds, twisting and turning to avoid outstretched servos trying to grab her. Even Strife tried to grab the back of her jacket with one of his heads.

The only ones not out with weapons brandished were the Knights, but they were yet to leave the hanger for more than just a moment to throw a question her way. They certainly wouldn’t emerge for this, even with all the yelling going on.  

“While I understand the apprehension,” the General started, Kira managing to get away from Ironhide leading the and firmly placing herself between her team and the humans, “I don’t believe this is necessary.” General Bryce spoke simply, not raising his voice like most people did the first time they met the bots, assuming the height difference equated a hearing deficit.

Kira remembered the first time something like this happened, back in New York after Optimus had been killed. The military had arrived, armored vehicles and soldiers aiming everything they had at the Bots, the gathered team instantly moving to defend themselves.

Epps and Lennox had gotten the situation under control only because Ironhide had reminded everyone that Optimus would not have wanted the Autobots to attack the humans when all it was was fear making them lash out. 

But this time it fear causing the Autobots to go on the defensive, the memories of what happened the last time humans decided they wanted to control the Cybertronians causing them to go immediately to ‘fight our way out’. Only there was no reason to fight this time.

“Guys, stand down!”

A roar echoed across the base, followed by the hanger doors being ripped from their hinges as they were thrown open, Optimus having taken a running charge to burst his way through them. Why the hell had they tried to lock him and her in there?

“What is going on!” Kira shouted, the Bots shifting to allow Optimus to make his way to the front of the assault circle, the Prime pumping his cannon and aiming right at the General. Even though she was feet from him Optimus would fire, his aim near perfect.

“Kira, it’s time to go.” he spoke, her knowing him long enough to know that was his commanding voice. She had long since stopped finding authority in it.

“No, you all need to stand down.”

“It is not safe-”

“Stand down!” she barked, furrowing her brows as she glared up at the titans. “That is an order.”

Optimus might not have been able to command her anymore, but she still some authority over the others. And the glances between her and Optimus as the Bots decided who they were going to obey told her as much.

Yes, the humans should have seen this as a problem, but they weren’t doing anything wrong. This was still their base. A warning that they were coming would have still been helpful, if only to avoid this exact situation.

“They are here to discuss the relics.” Kira spoke clearly, “They want to start planning which we’ll need their help to extract. We’re not about to go and destroy the pyramids again.”

That did nothing to calm them. Why were they so defensive? Besides the trauma of before, these guys hadn’t done anything to cause such fear to ripple through her team. This was all so ridiculous.

“Kira, come here.” Optimus tried again, a hint of pleading making its way in. He was scared.

Of what?

“Optimus, it’s-”

“I know my kind have done you all so very wrong in the past back on your world and for that, I am truly sorry.” General Bryce started. He tried to take a step closer but the shifting of weapons had him pausing where he was, still content to keep his arms raised in surrender. “You are heroes, who sacrificed so much for our planet and encountered unimaginable losses and what was done to you was a great injustice. Your efforts and success at minimizing the terror the Decepticons unleashed should have been acknowledged, not blamed. I know the uniform I carry brings painful memories, but I chose to wear it to remind myself that I am fighting for the freedom of my planet, my family, and my home. And I hope, soldier to solider, we can find some common ground.”

That sounded genuine, an honest plea that he truly did mean no harm to them. That he, although it might’ve been against the judgement of all those around him, did not see fault in her team. And his words had the effect he intended, Kira’s team shifting on their peds and they looked to one another once again, gauging the reaction of the others to see whether they were going to believe him.

“Kira,” Optimus whispered, not bothering to hide his desperation anymore. He was begging her to step away from the humans and get closer to him. But this was more than their weariness of humans after all their experiences. This was more than a distrust, or a hatred. This was terror.

He was so sure that something was going to happen to her, and that the humans, this human, would be the one to do it.

“What are you scared of?” Kira asked, in Universal so they knew the humans would not understand.

Optimus didn’t seem surprised. He knew she knew him well enough to know he was hiding something from her. “They want the information about the gun.”

Was that all? All this fear and weapons out for something as small as thinking she was about to be tortured for information about a couple bullets.

Yes Kira understood entirely why those bullets were important and what she would have done for information like that if it had meant keeping the Autobots safe, but as much as Kira hated humans she was still one of them and she knew them.

Fowler had been pissed she’d broken the gun, and he obviously wanted it, but one look at his eyes and he knew why she’d done it and respected that decision. And that was the end of it. But apparently the message hadn’t been so clear with her Cybertronian companions.

Kira turned to the humans, addressing the General loud enough for all to hear. “The gun, the one I destroyed. You want to know what it’s laced with, right?”

General Bryce blinked, genuine shock painting his face. “No.” Kira raised her brow. “I mean yes, but I understand why you destroyed it and honestly, I do not think we need it.”

Kira opened her mouth, ready to press about him torturing her to get it if necessary when his response had her thoughts careening in a different direction. “How come?”

There was the thunder of pedsteps as this world’s Optimus came storming out the hanger, rushing over to join the Bots still armed and ready. The only explanation would be that he Ground Bridged, but why he have come here?

Kira really needed to have a talk with everyone to figure out just what they thought was going on because the Autobots were apparently preparing for a war no one had even thought about waging.

I turned away from him again, staring back at the dark, silent city. If I didn’t know for a fact humans still hid out there I would have almost considered it peaceful. But it was too quiet. The forest had noise always, the rain dripping, birds by day and crickets by night. Here, beneath the towering buildings, it was silent.

I watched Caesar through the reflection as he moved slowly to stand behind me, wrapping his arms around my middle and dropping his head into my neck and inhaling deeply. “I… am sorry. Should have… warned you. Told you… before we… mated.”

I grunted in response, melting into him as I rested my head back against his shoulder. I hadn’t come in here truly mad, and I was not looking to start a fight, but he needed to see that what was obvious to him wasn’t obvious to me. I could spend the rest of my life with the apes and still know so little about their ways.

I could talk like them, walk like them, learn their grunts and growls, but I would never be one. My brain was too human, the human thoughts and human ways of handling things different than their own. Caesar had been like me but he’d learned and could understand them on a biological level. I would forever be playing catch up but no matter how hard I worked, I’d never reach their level.

“I sorted it out. Luca, Rocket, Maurice and I came to an understanding. Tinker and the other females too, I think. Blue Eyes…”

How would Caesar react to what we’d said? He had prompted Cornelius to call me mother but he had never forced Blue Eyes to form that kind of a relationship with me. How would he feel about it?

Caesar, mistaking my silence for things not going well, said, “Will… figure it out. You always do.”

I hummed again as he began to sway us. And then I jolted with a gasp when his tongue darted out to lick my neck before kissing a trail from below my ear down to my pulse point.

“May I… apologize?” he asked, his voice somehow getting deeper and gruffer as one hand left his hold around my stomach to settle on my hip, his thumb drawing small circles there.

Of course one night of sex would not be the last, not by a long shot, but I had been so focused on everything else I hadn’t even considered doing it again. Besides that, I was used to craving his touch and not being able to satisfy that need.

But now, I was married to the King of the apes. And he wanted me.

Feeling me tense, Caesar lifted his head just so to catch my eyes in the reflection, a silent question.

Those eyes, those brilliant hazel eyes that I could see a million thoughts in that looked at me with so much love, watched me. And I was reminded I wasn’t alone in my desire anymore.

“I spent so long wanting you in ways I couldn’t have.”

He watched me, taking apart my words. “What ways… do you want me?”

I swallowed, the room suddenly a lot warmer and it had everything to do with his furry mass pressing against me, holding me up as a pillar of strength while my knees began to shake. “To kiss you and hold you. To taste you.” He inhaled, the fur along his shoulders bristling. “To feel you inside.”

His chest rumbled, something between a growl and groan as he moved to kiss my neck again, nipping at my exposed skin before soothing to ache with feather light kisses. “You have that. You have me.”

He let me go, moving before me to stand tall and using his forefinger to tilt my head up to look up at him before kissing me sweetly. It didn’t stay sweet for long, the both of us ravenous.

How had I survived two days without this? And would I ever be able to survive another minute without it?

Caesar led me back, my back pressing against the cold glass and in response I opened my mouth, begging him to ruin me. The next couple of moments were a blind blur of groaning, grinding and ecstasy as we tried to get my clothes off but kept getting distracted but somehow I ended up naked, laid out of a pile of blankets and gasping as Caesar feasted on my pussy.

“Why… are you… so good?” I whined, my hips jerking with every touch he graced me with, following every roll of his tongue and pump of his fingers.

God he felt like he was delivering me straight to heaven, which was diabolically sinful because there was nothing holy about this.

I whimpered following a well placed curl of his fingers against my g spot, the rough pads of his skin so delicious against the softness within me it had me almost coming, when the hand that had been kneading my hip moved to my lower stomach and pressed down right as I tried to push up.

I snapped my head, trying for a glare but my eyes rolled back half through when he moved again.

“Stop… moving.” he rumbled, his voice all bass and scratchy, before he slipped his tongue into my hole.

“Fuck!” I tried to jerk my hips but I was trapped. And somehow the knowledge he was barely using any force to hold me down to eat me out exactly how he wanted me had a full body shudder rocking through me. “I’m gonna…”

“I know.” he mumbled, barely moving away from me as he spoke.

I came with a mewling of his name, hands snapping down to fist the fur of his shoulders, which had him growling.

He continued to lick me through my orgasm, kissing at my sensitive hole when I began to jerk under the overstimulation. And then he began to move up, trailing slow, loving kissing up my thighs, across my stomach, between my breasts, before stopping at my cheek.

He paused along the way at each of my scars, kissing along the thin lines forever etched across my skin. That was the first time he’d ever acknowledged them, and do so while kissing them obliterated all the self-consciousness I felt about them. And by the time he pulled back enough to look at me, I was crying,

The soft love in his eyes was instantly overruled by concern as he reached up to cup the side of my face. “What-”

“I love you.”

I could say that. I could say that while we lay naked moments from sex. I could say that while I kissed him. I could say that and watch as the worry melted from his eyes, that same starry-eyed look I know I wore looking back at me as he whispered the words right back.

And before I had the chance to pull him down for a kiss, the world shifted. Or rather, I did. I was no longer on my back but settled on his stomach, my legs snapping open to drape over his sides as he lay back, his warm rough hands settling on my hips. I was beginning to think he liked them.

My eyes widened, gazing down at him as he shivered, his eyes hungry as he trailed them down my body seated atop him as though I was something precious. “Are you sure?”

His eyes met mine again and I understood that look of longing. I felt it for years. The craving of needing someone’s touch. He rolled his hips, his hard cock rubbing against my bare ass.

Well, I was a queen. And I couldn’t imagine a more perfect throne.

Bracing on my knees, I lifted myself enough to reach back and take hold of his hot dick, lining it up with my hole. He felt perfect slowly pushing into me as I lowered myself, the new angle pushing him deeper than before. And when I was fully seated we both groaned, his entire body shuddering.

“Fuck.” he growled and my hips snapped forward with a gasp.

One wide eyed look at him and he knew exactly what he needed to do to break me now. And if I hadn’t been so busy trying to keep myself together I would have tried to say something to wipe that smirk off his face.

I did something else instead. All it took was rolling my hips forward again for his mouth to drop open with a whimper, his own eyes crossing as his head tipped back. “Alina,”

I bit my lip to stop my own whine, my name never sounding so wonderful before. And the fact that it was him, that I could bring Caesar to this level of pleasure, made the fire rolling through me turn volcanic.

I rolled my hips again and again, adding a bounce to my motions when his hands tightened on my hips, his nails biting into my skin. God I couldn’t wait to see the bruises he left.

“Fuck, Alina, yes. So good.” he breathed, my hands on his chest feeling the growl in his words.

I needed more. More praise, more of his words tumbling out as he got lost in our pleasure.

And then as I rolled down, possibly slowing down just to hear him moan, Caesar snapped his own hips up and I yelped. Finding his eyes, I saw that look of admiration, but also that hunger. And the reminder that he was still King. But I was not backing down.

My challenge as I moved slow once again was all it took to set him off. His grip on my hips tightened and he stopped holding back, pounding up into me as he held me in place.

“Fuck!” I fisted his fur, head dropping to rest onto his chest. It was all I could do as he used me to push us both closer to a release, his hips slamming up as he pulled me down.

“Good… wife.” Caesar groaned, his lips moving to brush against my ear. “Always… so good. So… pretty.”

I whined, my entire body tensing.

“Always… looked so… fucking perfect. You are perfect, Alina.”

I was close, so goddamn close. And he was right there with me. All we needed was for someone to break first.

“My perfect wife.” Caesar spoke again, his lips trailing small kisses from my ear down to the junction of my neck where he opened his mouth and let his teeth graze my skin before growling, “Mine.”

I vision went white, then black, then strands of black fur as my back arched and my second orgasm rippled through me. Caesar was right beside me, a roar leaving him as his own body convulsed, his warm cum filling me.

But he didn’t stop there, even after I collapsed onto his chest boneless and shivering, little moans leaving me with very languid thrust he kept up. It was like he couldn’t stop. He had me, could have me in any way he wanted, and what we’d just done would never be enough.

“Caes,” I whimpered, the pleasure bordering on pain as my overstimulated body tried to pull away from him, but I had no strength to even lift my head.

But he knew, he always knew me better than anyone, and so he stilled still buried deep inside me. Our chests heaved, my entire weight upon him. His hands moved, finally releasing my hips and leaving them feeling cold and lonely, to trail his fingers up and down my spine, drawing aimless patterns as I always did against his birthmark.

“So smooth.” he rumbled, my body rising and falling with his words. “So perfect.”

“You said that.” I slurred, so close to falling asleep as his steady breathing and soft touches lulled me. With him still inside me, his warm pooled at my core, it had me feeling complete. And it helped I was utterly fucked.

“You are perfect.” Caesar whispered, pressing a kiss to the top of my head. “Never… said it enough. But you are… perfect.”

It was almost like he was trying to talk his way into my pants. But this was different, he was different. Caesar never went off on tangents or indulged in senseless fantasies. He said exactly what he meant, and he meant this.

I was perfect in his eyes, pretty. And I was his. His mate, his wife, his queen.

“I’m yours.”

His cock twitched inside me, the chimp taking a sharp inhale before wrapping both arms around me and squeezing me tightly against his chest. “Mine.” he growled deliciously.

I tilted my head back, finding his eyes. “Are you mine?”

The primal glint that shone back at me cooled, the possessive slant in his eyes and the smug pride of his smile dropping away to show him, my Caesar. My friend who had given me a life I never thought I would ever want but I knew I was happier here at the end of humanity than I ever would have been living among them. My King, who had given me a home in a colony so different to anything I had ever known and yet I fit in so well it was like I was always meant to be there. My husband, the shadow at my back who carried us through the hardships this life threw at us, the man who had pulled me through the hardest days and reminded me I was never alone.

My Caesar, my mate.

He brought one hand to cup the side of my face, running his thumb across my lower lip before guiding my forehead down to rest against his own. “Yes.”

“I love you.” I whispered, wishing was more than just those three words to express the depth of my feelings for him, my gratitude, my devotion, my love. But like always, we didn’t need those words. We knew how deep the love ran, how fierce it was.

We two souls meant to find one another, one being separated and now reunited by our love.

And even as he whispered those words back I knew he did love me, a love far more than actions or words or frivolous gifts. To love one another was to breathe, to admire the views from the tops of the trees, to feel the warm sun on our backs. To love him and to be loved by him was simply to live.

“I know what happened was wrong. And your dad and I should have spoken to you and I am sorry you found out the way you did but…”

But what? But I don’t regret it, and that if I could back and do it all over again I would. That I would go back and ensure we’d done it sooner. That even though I know everything now has to change, I don’t want things between us to change even though they already have and there’s nothing I can do to fix it.

“… but I want you to know I’m still me. I’m still Alina, and I love you so much and I don’t want anything to change between us. You are- I care about you, and your brother and your father. Things don’t have to change, I don’t want them to change.”

I watched, unable to breathe as his eyes bounced between my own, waiting for him to say something, anything.

An ape hooted, wind rustling the bush we stood beside and sending speckles of setting golden light across his dark fur.

“Can we talk later?”

Now really was not a good time to talk, especially not about something this big. I should have stayed home.

“Yeah. Yeah, of course. I’ll see you back at the colony.”

I bit my tongue as he left, forcing myself to be okay with him walking away. With my power I could tell him to come back, to sit down so we could get through this but that would be abusing the power I already did not want. I needed to let him decide how we moved forward.

And so I got back onto Oreo and rode back to the females, finding Ash animatedly signing to some of the babies about a rabbit hunt his father had taken him on years ago. His eyes caught mine and he smiled, then remembered everything and he quickly ducked his head.

I couldn’t even be overjoyed that my nephew was alive and well.

“Mama,” Cornelius cheered when he turned to see me walk up, the prince rushing to climb onto my chest and snuggle close to me. “Will I hunt rabbits when we go back to the forest?”

When, not if.

I hated the stab of jealousy that rocked through me. He was a child, he should be allowed to be ignorant. Yes he knew what was coming but to him there was no other option but to win.

I looked down at my son, those brilliant hazel eyes looking back at me, but they didn’t shine as bright as they used to. He’d watched his father die, been ripped from me as his home burned. He’d be orphaned, left in the forest with no idea of if they were safe or where they would go.

Someone should have checked on him and that someone being me, I am his mother. Instead I kept handing him off to play 3D chess in this building war. I should be better than this.

But those bright eyes kept watching me, the excitement and wonder and total trust shining up at me as he knew I would keep him safe. I had to win this war, for him. For his brother. For all these young apes who deserved to grow up in a world without the threat of humans.

“Probably.”

Lily ran over to join us, also climbing me. “And me? Can I hunt?”

I wanted to say yes, the realization that I could use my title as Queen to get more females trained in hunting and defense, but Tinker came rushing over and pulled her daughter off me with a snarl.

“Absolutely not. I would not trust you with a basket of herbs. And do not touch the Queen.”

“It’s okay, Tinker.” I spoke up, noting how she flinched under my words and would not look at me. “I enjoy the company.”

The female’s eyes met my tentatively, unsure if I was being genuine or merely saving her from embarrassment. I smiled lopsidedly, giving her my most honest gaze. “I don’t want anything to change. Except females being allowed to hunt. That we are definitely changing.”

Glancing around, finding the other females watching us, Tinker jerked her chin for me to follow and headed further into the abandoned building, the four of us now out of sight. “You cannot say that.”

I frowned, relieved she was finally looking me in the eyes but not understanding the anger I found there. “It’s what I want. I don’t want to be isolated from-”

“Ape way!” she snapped, cutting me off. “There is a way that we do things, who we show respect to and how. It is how we do things. You want it to change, you want us to change, be more human. You accepted this new role, now you must be ape Queen.”

Her words sunk in deep, cutting me in ways I didn’t know could hurt.

I didn’t want them to be human, I wanted them to be apes.

But I wanted to be human. I wanted human logic and human thinking and human ways. I wanted to have everything. Caesar, friends, my sons, peace. I wanted the forests and to chase the sunset with my boys.

But life doesn’t care what you want, it doesn’t wait for the right time or change the rules for you.

I mated with Caesar and became the Queen of the apes. That title, the responsibility, was something I now had to carry. I had to learn, just like I had when I’d first met Caesar, and as I had when I’d moved in with the apes, what my place within the colony was.

Rocket, Luca and Maurice had never outright said they were going to stop acting so distant with me, merely reassured me they did not hate me and were thrilled with what had happened. Blue Eyes had said we would talk but I had no idea which way the conversation could go.

I had to start acting like a Queen, hold my head high and accept the level of respect they were showing me because it was owed to me. I had to step into my new role.

“I understand.”

With a firm nod and a snort, Tinker took Lily and left, Cornelius still silent as he looked up at me from his perch on my chest.

“Mama,” he whispered, “why are you sad?”

I smiled, and even he was able to tell it was fake. “There’s just a lot of things changing and I miss the old way.”

“Do I have to change?”

“No. You are perfect. All you need to focus on is getting bigger and stronger and learning all you can about the world. Your father and I can handle all the rest.”

Squeezing the young ape tightly, I led us back to the main room and set him down so he could rejoin the circle of enamored apes. Lake brought me a plate of food and while my instinct would have been to join Tinker at one of the circles of females eating, I knew that was not my place. The Queen ate with the King, away from the others unless Caesar invited someone to join us. And with him not here, I was alone.

“He’s doing much better.” Ellie spoke, startling me as she sat beside me, her own plate in her hands. See! I wasn’t the only one who didn’t know the rules.

Alex moved to sit with the babies, the two having just entered the room after caring the for injured all day. I watched as Cornelius sit beside the teen, a lot of miscommunication happening as the baby and the boy tried to talk, but Alex was coming a long way in his signing abilities.

Ellie stifled a yawn, her eyes swimming with the unshed tears of the losses she had carried the past few days. But still she managed a smile. “Apes heal a lot faster than humans.”

“They are strong.” I agreed. We ate in silence, watching our children laugh and smile while the weight of what had happened and knowing what was to come rendered us speechless and frightened.

It was after sunset when Malcom came to get Alex and Ellie, offering me a tired smile as he approached. “We’ve managed to get most of the weapons distributed. There are quite a few on the Bridge. It’s not much but it’s a start.”

I nodded. A start, but not enough.

“Caesar stayed at the lookout. He’s asking to see you there, after the boys are asleep. There’s an escort outside waiting for you.”

“Thank you.” I replied, wishing them a good night and retrieving Cornelius. Many females had done the same, moving to one of the nests scattered throughout the room. Along the floor-to-ceiling windows gorillas stood silent as they looked out at the dark city.

Led by Willow to our nest, I stroked Cornelius’ forehead until he was asleep, blinking away tears as his little frame relaxed when he finally drifted off. He was too young to carry so much.

Movement from the corner of my eye had me looking up to find Blue Eyes approaching, his eyes not leaving mine for the first time in days as he stared at me directly and moved to sit beside me.

I had to let him speak first, to say what he felt and help me understand him. I could speak all I wanted but until I knew where he wanted this conversation to go, I had to let him guide us.

“Koba told me about your scars.”

I hadn’t expected that. Nobody had ever acknowledged them, Koba only looking at them once as he understood we shared the pain of humans and our hatred was as deeply etched into our being as our scars were.

“I know what humans did to you, and what they did to him. I know you are an ape, you always have been. To me, you are ape, Alina. You are my…” he paused, his hands stilling as his eyes glistened in the ambient firelight.

I was Alina, the human who his father had loved. Alina, the human who had saved his friend as a baby. Alina, the human who had become an ape. Alina, the friend who Caesar had relied on after Cornelia had died. Alina, the female who had helped raise his brother.

But what was I to him?

I did not want to force him, had never once wanted to erase Cornelia’s memory, but I loved him so much.

“Mother.” he signed slowly, flinching as though he thought saying it aloud would burn him. or maybe he thought I would react negatively. When I didn’t, he kept going. “You are my mother, but I am not-”

“Yes you are.” I leaned over to grasp his hands before he could sign more. “You are my son.” My voice cracked as I let go of his hands and reached out slowly, waiting for him to let me rest my hand against his cheek. When he didn’t stop me, I cupped his face softly. “I did not birth you, but I have been here for almost your entire life and I love you, Blue Eyes. I love you and your brother. You are my son.”

Both our eyes welled with tears, the boy turning to face toward me.

“I know I am now Queen, but you are still my son as you always have been and nothing has changed. Nothing will change between us. We can still argue and sit together, and I’m sure as hell still going to treat you like my boy who is growing up too damn fast. And you act as you always have because there is nothing I want more than you. You are growing up and things are not going the way your father and I wanted for the colony but you are so brave and I know we’ll get through this.”

I ran my thumb along his cheek, careful of the still healing wound from the bear attack weeks ago.  

I would play the part of Queen. I would distance myself from my friends, place myself on a pedestal far above my allies. I would be what the apes needed me to be, do what they needed me to do. But I would never give up my sons. Not ever. And if I had to use every ounce of my authority to demand the colony accept that, so be it.

Blue Eyes and Cornelius were the sons of Caesar and Alina, princes of the Ape Colony. It was how things were going to be.

If any ape had a problem with it, I would be happy to show them how human I could be.

“But I am not yours and you and father-”

“You are mine.” I whispered. I would say it a million more times if that’s what it took for him to believe it. “You are mine. Nothing will change that. You are our son, just as your brother is.”

Blue Eyes nodded, sniffling as the tears began to fall. I surged forward, wrapping my arms around him and pulling him close to me. “Shh, it’s okay baby. It’s okay.”

Those arms around me weren’t just clinging to my comfort, they were offering it right back as he squeezed tighter when I jerked as my own tears fell. But this was what we needed. To finally forge our way through that wall together and to cry about it.

“Father… looking for… you.” he whispered as he pulled away, wiping his cheeks.

“I know. I’ll head over there soon.”

Blue Eyes nodded, looking down at his sleeping brother. “I will stay with him.”

The only way anyone could agree on the Dinobots being transported to Nevada was to Bridge them, but with not enough space within the silo an alternative had to be made. And so the humans had built a massive tent right outside the base’s entrance. It provided somewhere to keep them without the public seeing them, though this mission was happening at two in the morning to ensure no humans may happen upon their operation should something happen.

The Dinobots would go one at a time through the portal and slowly, carefully, head down the hall and into the huge “waiting area”. Once all of them were through, the Bridge’s location would be set to the secondary base and they’d do it all again. If things went right, which was very rare, the whole thing would take less than an hour.

Optimus shifted, though not from the tension of having had humans constantly around his base for days and nights on end, nor did he feel uncomfortable having Kira’s Autobots loitering around as they waited for the final confirmation from the human crews. No, he had been about ready to tear his way across the desert for three days because he had been unable to see Kira.

The base she had been transported to was only a short drive away but he not been granted clearance to enter the base and it had been driving him. He did not know if she was recovering well or if Optimus had made another attempt to attack her. He had barely gotten a goodbye, her focus on getting the rest of her team out that she hadn’t spared a moment to even glance his way. And now she was back, right within his reach and yet she barely looked at him.

Was she upset about him attacking her Optimus? Did she fear him as she should her own Prime?

She should, all he wanted to do was scoop her up and lock her away in his berthroom so they could have enough privacy to ask her if she was okay. And perhaps beg to her stay with him.

He hadn’t slept, his tanks roiling too much to keep any energon down. All he could think about was her, wonder if she was safe, happy, if she truly wanted to be there. And feel completely helpless at the thought that his variant, who had proved he was more harm than a protector to the small organic femme, was all she had in the sense of a guardian.

If Kira asked he would keep her sealed away in a sparkbeat, safe from any who tried to harm her. He would take on her team, the humans, Decepticons, the entire universe if he had to, to keep her safe.

“So then what’s with the gun?” Jack asked.

It was Optimus’ turn to suppress a sigh, turning to the small circle of the human children and raise a brow as they slowly crept towards Kira. Apparently Miko had somehow convinced Bulkhead to help her sneak out to be able to see the Dinobots, and then Raf and Jack had heard about it and threatened to tell Optimus and so Bulkhead had fetched them as well.

The plan hadn’t included them obviously getting caught when the mech rolled back into base but the tents were already secured and so though no one liked it, the kids were going to get the full show.

“Just a general maintenance check. Something I do before each mission. Rather not need and have than have and not need.”

“That one doesn’t look like it’s from Earth.” the smaller boy spoke, moving to the front of the group and pointing to the femme’s hip where the Cybergun was strapped.

Kira turned and smiled at the sparkling, placing her regular gun onto the table before her and pulling out the Cyber weapon. “It’s not. Ironhide and Wheeljack worked on it for me as a gift. It’s a blend of human sizing and Cybertronian tech.”

“It kills Decepticons?” Miko asked, reaching out to touch the weapon. Bulkhead held out his servo and nudged his charge back, giving her a stern look when she tried to snap back.

Kira watched the interaction with a soft smile though her eyes showed great sorrow. Optimus now understood why. She had once been like that with her own Optimus, but the mech across the room was nothing like the bot he had once been.

Optimus desperately wished to show her he could be that bot for her now.

Setting the Cyber gun back into its holster at her hip, she once again picked up her regular handgun and finished doing her finals rechecks. “Yep. I mean they both do, but that one’s a little better at it.”

“How?” Agent Fowler asked, uncrossing his arms from where he had been sulking across the platform and moving towards her. “Human bullets can’t pierce their armor.”

Kira snorted, her focus still on the gun, but the way she shifted her weight told Optimus she knew he was approaching as the shift into a battle-ready position was instinctual. “Of course they can, just coat it in-”

Optimus’ own spark dropped the exact second he saw Kira’s team flinch, the understanding of where the rest of her sentence was going to end sending all of them into high alert.

This world’s humans didn’t know how they could kill Cybertronians. They had not figured out what Kira’s world had, that apparently all it took was coating the shells in something to pierce through the bioarmor to shred the delicate fuel lines and techno organs beneath.

They didn’t know they could hurt Autobots. And she was about to reveal how they could.

“Hecale,” Fowler called, taking a tiny step closer, his hands beginning to fist.

Optimus saw Kira’s shoulders tense, that subtle shift again as she knew she needed to be ready to fight. She kept her optics forward, hardly reacting to Ironhide moving closer behind her. One glance at her Optimus and the Prime saw him focused on the agent with a predators gaze. And Optimus was surprised at the realization he would not stop him from killing the human if it meant Kira remained untouched.

Optimus knew too much of humans and their capacity to enact cruelty to gain what they wanted. They would torture her for the information unless she handed that gun over. But if she did, his team was doomed.

“Coat them in what?” Agent Fowler moved a step closer, the children now seeming to recognize the severity of the situation and shuffling back as Bulkhead moved to servo to no longer force Miko back but shield them from whatever was about to happen.

If the Agent found out, every weapon in the base mere minutes away from this one would be able to kill Autobots in moments. One misstep, one Chicago, and his Bots would be just as trapped and hunted as hers were. But if she did not hand it over, she would be hurt.

She had to feel the optics of both Optimus’ on her. One, begging her not to answer and the other waiting for one sign, any chance, to step forward and finish what he started days earlier.

“I can’t remember.” Kira replied, turning to face the agent with a wide, forcefully cheery smile. She moved the gun behind her, knowing that would be his target. She had to keep it away from him. “I’m not very good with names.”

The Agent hummed as his eyes followed the movement. He didn’t need a name if he could grab the gun. “Unfortunate.”

No matter how much he said he trusted the Autobots, Optimus knew the humans had to be endlessly searching for a way to take them down in the worry that one day they might turn on humans, or the Decepticons become bolder, or whatever other excuse Fowler would spew that would really just be him trying to cover up the fact that these humans wanted something to hold over the Autobots, some threat to be able to say they were on equal ground. Optimus knew that. And he knew Kira did as well.

With a flick of her wrist the gun sailed over the guardrail, dropping to the ground far below with an audible clatter, followed closely by the satisfying crunch on it being stepped on, shattering it into dust.

Kira spun around, the gasp a little too dramatic. “Ironhide! Dude, that was my second favorite gun.” Turning back to the agent, Kira winced. “Man, I’m such a clutz. And he’s an oaf.”

Optimus watched as the Agent seemed to go through three different emotions before settling on a cool, calm expression, his target no longer the gun but Kira herself.

Before he had the chance to speak though the radio crackled over the speakers and the human crew reported that the mission was a go.

With one last challenging look at the agent, Kira turned her attention to the human children. “You coming?”

Miko’s eyes widened with a gasp, Raf and Jack turning to one another with equal looks of excitement. “We get to come with?”

Kira shrugged, beginning to walk towards the stairs that would lead to the ground level. “Like I said, it’s safe. And you’re here anyway.”

With a final look to his variant, and a shared understanding that they could under no circumstances let that agent anywhere near Kira, the Bots moved to get ready to step through the Bridge.

---

“Well, they are certainly… something.” Bulkhead managed to get out, his voice a little higher than it had been hours earlier.

Kira snorted, casting a glance up at the big green guy as he tried to cradle Miko closer. The girl seemed too shocked to react to his coddling, her mouth hanging out and eyes practically shining.

The group stood gathered atop a rocky outcrop, looking down into the dip of a sandy basin where the four Dinobots were currently curled together in a sleep pile. Only Strafe was awake, his two heads doing a slow swivel as he surveyed the area.

Upon seeing, and hearing, the Bots arrive he chirped and the other three began to move, slowly standing.

Kira had imagined she would stay composed, a picture of leadership, but one look at the last four members of her odd family and she was sprinting down the sandy slope with a wide grin. “Grimlock!”

She was slightly ashamed to admit she had a better relationship with him than the others, but it wasn’t entirely her fault. Leader to leader they had just spent more time together over the years. Didn’t mean she didn’t respect the others, she just sorta had a favorite. Besides, who doesn’t love a t-rex.

Spotting the human barreling towards him, Grimlock stepped forward and lowered his head until it was flat against the dusty ground, allowing Kira to run right into him and throw her arms open to embrace his muzzle. “Hey big guy! Oh my Primus I missed you so much! Are you okay? You must’ve been so scared all alone.”

Grimlock let out a low rumble, Slug and Scorn both making their own noises of agreement at her cooing. Strafe had taken to the skies, landing before Bumblebee and earning a generous amount of head pats.

A soft grunt from the Dino and his optics shifting away from the human told her he was now watching the ones behind them, though he remained bent as she pat his nose. Looking over her shoulder, Kira saw both Optimus’ had been making their way down to join the group slowly trailed by the Autobots of this world, though that was largely due to the insistence of their young charges.

This Optimus was saying something to Kira’s, neither of them looking away from her still pressed up against Grimlock, but whatever he said earned him a grunt in reply and nothing more.

“So, we have some news.” Kira started, taking a step back so Grimlock could lift his head and fully take in the dual Optimus’ and the Autobots of this world, still trailing very far behind and seeming content to stop a good distance away from the others.

“Good to see you again, Spike.” Crosshairs greeted Scorn, gently petting his snout. Drift and Slug had a silent reunion that consisted of a glance.

Kira let Optimus take the lead in the explanation, only because his voice did a far better job at projecting enough. While she had no doubt they could perfectly hear her, they only ever seemed to listen when she yelled. They were much like dogs, though huge, and metal, and dinosaurs.

Leaving Optimus to fill them in, Kira headed to the children trapped in the protective hold of their guardians, those little eyes glistening with wonder. “You can put them down, they don’t bite.”

“You said they don’t do well with humans.” Arcee pointed out.

“I meant adult, military. They love kids.”

“Yeah, to chew on.” Bumblebee beeped back, believing his statement even though all it did was make Kira snort.

“They like to snack on cars. I’ve been told organics are too squishy.”

That did not reassure the Bots but they did not have much choice when their guardians began to squirm in their servos, forcing them to put the children down before they hurt themselves.

Heading back toward the group, Optimus now halfway through the explanation of how everybot ended up on this planet, Slug noticed the timid approach of the children and lowered his own massive head, snorting a puff of warm air across them. Raf giggled, his glasses fogging up.

Resting her hand against his beak, Kira held out a hand in prompt for someone to take it, Miko jumping at the opportunity and letting Kira guide her to touch his warm, smooth frame.

“This is so cool.” the teen whispered, Raf joining her as Kira took a step back. Slug rumbled in agreement, his tail swooshing behind him in a slow wag as he titled his head to better see the tiny humans fawning over him, careful of his horn.

“They’re huge.” Jack marveled, eyes locked on Grimlock and Scorn who were focused on Optimus.

Kira was impressed, this was the longest she’d ever seen them pay attention to anything without being threatened. They must’ve been concerned, in the middle of nowhere with no way to reach the others.

She knew they could talk, had heard what sounded like murmurs between the group when they thought everyone was out of earshot or asleep, and Scorn could take apart a gun and put it back together almost as fast as Hound. And yet they seemed content to remain as Dinobots, carefree and destructive as they did what they pleased when they pleased.

Years trapped in a cage aboard Lockdown’s ship would have left scars she could only imagine. If this was how they healed, how they processed the trauma and chose to spend their time with the team, she wasn’t going to complain. Dinosaurs were fucking cool.

Kira turned her head, feeling optics on her, and found this Optimus watching her with a soft expression, his optics briefly jumping to the two teens who giggled when Raf scratched a spot on Slug’s chin and his back leg began to shake like a dog.

Kira had met the Autobots as an adult, forced into the army and then war. She had times when she felt like a child again, playing a dumb prank or starting a game of tag against sports cars. But there had always been this lingering of responsibility, the reality that while she could have her moment of fun, she had a duty to return to.

These children did not have that yet, they could have the childhood she’d always wished she could have had. The lazy afternoons spent at the base, the weekends hopping from one adventure to the next. And they could be kids who were fawning over a robot dinosaur without the fear of what these titans could do.

And while she had loved every moment of her life and her time with the Autobots, having them as her guides and teachers, there were days she wished she’d had someone a little more like her to help her through it all. And she could be that person for them, at least as long as she was here.

“It will be safer for you all to remain with us.” Optimus was saying, concluding his sales pitch to convince the Dinobots to come with to the new base.

Kira knew what could happen next would be one of two things. The Dinobots would agree and they’d all be home in time for breakfast. Or they didn’t and Optimus challenged Grimlock to a duel, won, and the Dinobots were indentured into his servitude once again.

Having witnessed that fight once before, Kira was really hoping for option number one. Obviously for the safety of everyone involved and not because she had a bet running with Sunstreaker than involved chocolate chip pancakes.

Just as Kira and Optimus knew the possibilities, as did Grimlock and one shared looked between him and his second in command was all Kira needed to know they had come to an agreement on choosing the peaceful option.

Though, and Grimlock would never admit it but everyone knew it to be true, he was only agreeing because it meant they’d get to stay close to Kira.

“Bulkhead, please alert Ratchet that we are ready to return to base.” Optimus spoke.

Well, looks like their time was running out. “Hey,” Kira called to the kids, jerking her head for them to step away and join her. “Wanna see something cool?” Of course they would nearly break their necks nodding. “Grimlock?”

The leader turned his head toward her.

“Transform!”

Kira watched, entirely too giddy, as the four dinobots did as she asked and begun to unfurl from their animal forms and stand tall, tall, taller into their bipedal modes.

“Holy shit.” Jack whispered, craning his neck so far back he almost stumbled as he looked up at them.

One glance towards this world’s Optimus and Kira broke out into giggles, the Prime not even attempting to hide his fear or his wonder. He looked down to the human in disbelief.

“Now you know how tiny we feel.”

The bipedaled Dinobots towered above the humans, creating as much distance between the Autobots and them that Autobots had with humans.

“That’s so cool!” Miko cheered, jumping up and down.

“Yeah, that’s not a word I’d use.” Arcee spoke as she took a step back and then another, not seeing any joy in this at all.

“It is… impressive.” Optimus murmured, his optics tracking the giants above him.

Moments later, the unmistakable sound of a ground bridge activating behind them put an end to the fun. It was time for Operation: Dino Excavation.

“Okay, time to go.” Kira called up to the huge beings so far above her she probably looked like a mere speck.

“Woah, they aren’t going to fit in the base.” Bulkhead pointed out. “You had them change the base but that,” he gestured above him, flinching when Scorn growled, “is still way too big.”

“I know.” Kira replied, the Dinobots transforming back into their dinosaur modes. Optimus stepped forward, kneeling to pick up Kira before gently setting her onto Grimlock’s reptilian head, giving the human an excellent view of the horror rippling across the group.

“You can ride him?” Miko yelped from down below.

Optimus moved to the warrior’s side, hoisting himself up and throwing his leg over, settling onto Grimlock’s back. Drift, Bumblebee and Crosshairs followed suit, each mounting their own Dinobots.

With so many wounded the medication was lying around, the midwives distributing it under the doctor’s orders. No one would notice the sheets missing.

“I have some stuff to help you. This one still stop the pain, and this will keep away infection. But you need food before you take them.” I nudged the bowl closer to him, stopping when he weakly snarled. “I know you don’t want my help-”

“Human…” he wheezed, grimacing as he exerted battered ribs. I waited as he took a couple breaths in to recover. “Human… medicine.”

Human medicine, like the things they tested on him in the labs.

The thought of what he’d gone through had tears burning my eyes. “I know, but you aren’t going to survive unless you take it.”

The look I received, the eyes looking back at me, told me he didn’t want to survive this. And maybe a better human would have let him die. A better person would have left him in that hole, having taken the shot as a sign of mercy and not revenge. A better person would have made sure the one who had threatened her family was well and truly gone.

But I wasn’t a better human, I wasn’t a good person. And I knew we would not survive what was to come, not with Caesar leading us. We could not count on intimidation, on peace talks, on appealing to the humanity of others.

We needed someone who would be ruthless, willing to cross the lines to do whatever it took to keep apes safe no matter the cost.

I was not planning on Koba overthrowing Caesar again, nor did I ever plan on them meeting again, but if Koba worked in the shadows, unleashing that monster inside to cut down the humans, it would give us a chance.

And if it came down to it, we could truthfully blame the initial attack on him, his sacrifice buying us enough time to fall back and regroup.

His eyes still watched me, one milky and another emerald green. Shame, guilt, regret. Whatever he was feeling, it paired nicely with the agonizing pain of the injuries he’d gained from the fall and left him shattered.

And shattered meant I could rebuild him into any shape I wanted.

Leaving him to think about it, I restarted the fire and boarded up the windows in an attempt to conserve as much heat in the room as possible. He watched me the whole time, unmoving but his eyes tracking me. When I returned to kneeling just out of his extended personal bubble, he finally looked down to the bowl of food with eyes that spoke of his surrender.

Shuffling closer to him, I gently lifted his head onto my lap and cracked an egg. We worked together in silence, taking is slow as he made his way through the food I had brought him. He would need more soon, but he was still too weak for a full buffet.

When he had eaten all he could manage, I set his head down one more and began to work on his wounds, apologizing every time he grunted or hissed, but he knew it was what needed to be done. He had accepted, though probably unwillingly, I was not going to let him die.

Looking like a mummy, paired with an adorable pout that should not have been as funny as it was, I brough the second bottle of water and tablets to his side once again, popping the antibiotic out and holding it near his mouth.

He turned his head, a growl starting deep in his chest.

I had been telling myself this was just the plan, saving him was just a mission, a need. It was the only way we’d win. I had to do it to save Caesar. It was the final thing I’d thought as I’d fallen asleep in the King’s arms and the first thing I reassured myself of when I’d awoke alone. Saving Koba was as simple as a job, just some good business.

But it had never been a need. I had to save him because if he died then who would know me, who would understand me? Who would be able to look into my eyes and see the monster inside and smile at her?

But it was more than wanting someone to commit war crimes with. He was more than just this monster everyone had a right to fear. He had been my friend. It may have been one sided, his hatred for humans too deep to see past my species, but there had been moments when we got along just enough to not feel like we weren’t enemies.

I couldn’t forgive him for what he’d done, but I could look past it if it meant he and I were the only chances at making it out of this war with enough apes alive that we could consider the battle won.

But this wasn’t about saving them, it was about saving myself because if I was evil then he was right there beside me, a friend in the darkness us monsters liked to roam.

“Please Koba.” I whispered, my voice cracking as a tear rolled down my cheek. “I need you.”

His eyes darted back and forth between my own before he opened his mouth just enough for me to slip the tablets in.

---

Oreo snorted again, making very sure he told me how displeased he was that I had soaked him in icy water to rid him of Koba’s blood. I tried to tell him I was just as cold, shivering from my own bath, but he wasn’t in a listening mood.

My wolf fur coat hung from his side, dripping. I’d need to find somewhere to hang it for a couple days to dry.

Ahead, the new command center for the ape army loomed, the woman and children already settled in their home high up on the hill far away from the coast. It was nearing sunset, most of the nighttime sentries heading out for the night as the day guards waited to be relieved for a well-deserved dinner and rest.

Stowing Oreo in the temporary paddock with the other horses and giving me more than enough hay as an apology, I rushed up the stairs to the fourteenth level. I was sure some kind of meeting was happening there. I had been gone a couple hours, but my excuse of searching for humans would cover that time.

Stepping into the room I found Maurice and Luca waiting at the table. I smiled, as I always did, and walked forward in the assumption I would be greeted with hugs and possibly a joke, as always, but instead they shifted to stand straighter, shuffling a couple steps away to grant me a wide birth at the table.

Right, they still hated me.

But why? Why was I getting this cold shoulder, these looks I could not discern? Did they truly hate the idea of Caesar and I so much that they could not stand to be in the same room as me? I thought they’d wanted this.

Before I could get a chance to ask, the door swung open once more and Caesar walked in, Malcom and Blue Eyes behind him, Rocket brining up the rear and closing the door.

Caesar at least smiled at me, soft and warm and loving, and Malcom nodded in my direction, but Rocket did the same Maurice and Luca had, standing tall and moving to the opposite side of the room.

Trying to act as though it didn’t leave a burning hole in my chest, I turned to the prince and smiled, reaching out to brush my hand against his shoulder. “How are you…”

I trailed off as he pulled away, looking from my arm to my eyes briefly before dropping his gaze as though I was something so vile he could not stand to look at it.

Biting my lip so hard it bled was my only way to keep the tears away and somehow I managed to make it through the meeting. What was discussed was expected, Malcom giving an update on how it was going with preparations for him and his family to leave. Rocket informed us of where his scouts had found some of the humans hiding, Maurice going over what food his orangutangs had managed to find.

Luca assured that the females and young were settling in well to the new safehouse, what wounded that could be moved being transported there as we met. And then Caesar allowed Blue Eyes to explain all the apes had been doing in preparation for the human army’s arrival, how the weapons were being distributed.

The pride in Caesar’s eyes and we watched his son sign and speak as a prince was beautiful, the young apes own shining eyes at the chance to bloom under his father’s pride adorable. What ruined the moment was Blue Eyes taking a moment to glance around the room at the pride we all felt and his eyes meeting mine, his avoidance quickly taking the warmth and leaving a cold awkwardness in its place.

With assignments for tomorrow handed out by our King the meeting concluded, Blue Eyes running from the room with a half-signed reason of going to check on Ash. Caesar and Malcom were lost in ideas for how to block the bridge leaving the room together, which left me with the three apes who wanted absolutely nothing to do with me.

They waited a moment, then another as though expecting me to say something, before Maurice began to lead the parade out the room. And with each step away I remembered a once warm moment with them turning cold and dark as they left me here.

And I couldn’t help but feel as though I’d lost them forever.

“Okay, just stop.”

They didn’t, continuing to file out the room.

Luca’s warm hugs, Maurice and his endless patience and silence companionship on nights when sleep would not come and my mind was too loud. Rocket and our hours spent watching the babies, his jokes the highlight of the afternoon.

I was losing it all. Even the memories hurt.

“Stop!”

They did, each freezing in place, their backs still turned to me.

I had practiced what I’d say a million times over throughout the meeting, how I’d broach the subject, how I’d ask them. I had planned this conversation. Instead, I opened my mouth and my voice cracked, “Do you hate you?”

They snapped around in unison, Luca taking one look at my dampening eyes before rushing over to me and cupping the side of my face. “No.”

I wanted to lean into his comfort, bury my face in his chest and feel his arms around me in a hold I knew felt like he was taking all your troubles away. But if they didn’t hate me, why was there suddenly this wall that seemed to get higher and higher? “Then why?”

Maurice grunted, Luca moving aside so we could watch him sign, “You and Caesar are now mated. He is king, and you are Queen.”

The human part of me wanted to laugh about it. One night of sex didn’t make us married, even if this relationship, which was still only days old, had been building for years. But to them, mating was the final show of courting, the act of marriage.

Holy shit, Caesar and I were married. A week ago we’d been friends who couldn’t agree on the color of the sky, much less how to handle the human crisis. Today, I was married to him.

And Queen of the apes. But it didn’t explain their behavior.

“So?”

The three glanced among themselves, sharing looks of ‘she really isn’t getting it’. Rocket decided to step forward to end my confusion and the growing headache. “You are our Queen. We must show you respect.”

The words hit me hard and I would have stumbled back if not for Luca’s hand on my shoulder. “What?”

This was why they’d been so cold? Barely looking at me, tiptoeing around me like I was about to jump on them? Not looking me as I spoke? Keeping their distance? Not hugging me or nudging me or even tossing me a sideways glare when I tried to make an ill-timed joke?

It was respect?

Sure, in an ape point of view this was how they showed respect to their leaders. It’s certainly how the others acted with Caesar. But with how close Caesar was with these three, they crossed more into the friend’s territory than followers.

But we had been friends since day one. Since the sanctuary for Rocket and Maurice and since the day I was entrusted into the Gorilla Guard’s care eight years ago with Luca. We were friend’s, family.

Why the hell did they think me becoming Queen, though I hadn’t even considered taking the title, would change that?

“Are you fucking kidding me?” I did pull away from Luca, running a hand through my hair as the last tears fell, the cheeks wet. I smiled, relieved I had a damn answer and unbelieving this was what was actually happening. “Why the hell would you think me becoming Queen means we stop being friends?”

“Because you are Queen.” Luca repeated. “We must show respect to you.”

“Bullshit!” I snapped.

Usually when I swore, or got loud and aggressive, Luca moved to correct me with a silent snarl, or Maurice shot me a warning glare while Rocket danced between bemused and eager to see how far I’d go before calming down. Now, none of them moved. Stony faces, still bodies.

But in their eyes I could still see them. I could see Luca itching to urge me to settle, feel Maurice wanting to glare at me, I knew that twinkle in Rocket’s eye.

“I am still your friend, still Alina. And I want you to still be my friends, my family. I want us to be like we were.”

“We must show respect to Caesar that we submit to you.” Maurice explained.

His words made sense, but it also fueled my anger. “You are friendly with Caesar! More than you have been to me the few days.”

“You are female.” Rocket replied.

“You didn’t act this way with Cornelia!”

“How would you know?” Luca fired back. “You avoided her.”

Okay, that wasn’t entirely true. Sure, I didn’t always want to be included in events that had her and Caesar together, but I spent plenty of time with her and the apes didn’t act any different towards her than the other females.

Except, now that I was thinking about it I only ever really saw her with the other females. I could think of maybe two times Luca had directly addressed her in front of me, both when I was more focused on the children than their demeanor.

Did they really change that much around the Queen? Is that why everyone had started creating this bubble around me, leaving me alone in the center of it?

My world was falling apart, war was imminent, I was currently committing high treason and aiding the ape who had tried to kill the ape I loved, twice, and I was left alone.

Being a queen sucked.

I shuddering breath in, biting my bottom lip. “So you don’t hate me for being a human who mated with Caesar?”

The three looked at me like I was mad.

“Why would we hate you? We pushed for this.”

“Well, you were acting like you hated me! I thought you… changed your minds or something. You suddenly acted like you didn’t want me around and you didn’t want to be around me. And you won’t hug me, barely speak to me.”

“All signs of respect.” Maurice reminded.

“We cannot be seen roaming around with the Queen.” Rocked added.

“Well, I want to be seen with you.” I whimpered, the tears building again as I wrapped my arms around myself.

If this is what being a Queen was, I didn’t want it. I didn’t want to be alone while my friends passed by as ghosts. I didn’t want it to be wrong that Luca and I did a patrol together for old times’ sake. I didn’t want it to be wrong to sit beside the fire with Maurice long into the night as we watched the stars. I didn’t want it to be wrong that Rocket pretended to shove me into a pile of horse shit. I wanted my friends back.

I wanted Luca back, as a guardian, a father figure, a mentor. I wanted Maurice as a friend, a fellow scholar, an ear when times got hard. I wanted Rocket back as a brother, as someone to bitch about the latest family drama to. I needed them to be those people now more than ever.

“I need you.”

Rocket, surprisingly, broke first, rushing forward to wrap his arms around me and squeeze me tightly in his embrace, rocking us back and forth.

And then another pair of arms joined us, and another.

“I hate you guys.” I laughed, sinking tighter into the embrace as my shoulders unwound, the stress from the past few days ebbing away. “I really thought you hated me because Caesar and I finally…”

Okay, I really didn’t need to be talking about Caesar and I and our night. I wanted my friends back but even that was a little too much.

“I’m really glad you don’t hate me.” They pulled away, Luca taking Rocket’s place to pull me back into him again. “Though I did wish you’d at least explained it.”

Rocket rubbed the back of his head with a shrug.

“We thought it’d be obvious.” Maurice signed.

“Well, it wasn’t. Not to the human, at least.”

“I wasn’t happy about it.” Luca signed one handed, keeping me close to his side. “But we thought it would be best to give the others a clear understanding of your place now.”

That at least made some sense. Leading by example at all that. Still wasn’t right that they’d damn near broken my heart.

“Blue Eyes has it worse.” Rocket added.

“Blue Eyes? Why would Blue Eyes have it worse?”

Why was my son somehow suffering because of this? What had I done to cause him to suffer, except the obvious. Why would he be struggling with my new role?

“He is not your son.” Maurice began to explain. “Cornelius you somewhat raised as your own with Caesar, but Blue Eyes was not raised by you. And with you as his Queen, he must show you the respect any Queen should get, not the familiarity of a son.”

What?

It was like I had been shot, stabbed, beaten and then taken an ax to the chest all at once. This was some goddamn Snow White story? He wasn’t my son so now his place under me, submitting to me? Fearing me?

He was my son. No species or DNA was going to change that. Nothing would change that.

And he was my future king.

I couldn’t even begin to imagine what was going through his mind.

Pulling away from Luca, I looked between them. “Where is he?”

“Searching for food with some others. They went toward the large park-”

Not waiting for Rocket to finish, I turned and flew from the room, completely ignoring Caesar calling out for me as I raced passed him down the stairs and hit the floor running, leaping onto Oreo’s back and spurring him on as we raced toward Golden Gate park.

Was it an absolutely idiotic idea, considering he could be anywhere in the miles and miles of park, not to mention he could have taken a million different routes to get there or be heading back. And sunset was approaching fast. Without a doubt, this was stupid, but it couldn’t wait.

Outside, the unmistakable crunch of a large metal foot pressing into the asphalt reassured Kira Optimus was right behind the closed blinds and should things get any more awkward, he would rescue her in a sparkbeat. If she vision continued to swim much longer she might have to take him up on that offer.

“I see.” General Bryce replied, turning to look down at the notepad he had been using to jot down some of the answers she had been giving. “And why would they do such a thing?”

Great, now she got to speedrun the explanation all over again, while her throat burned from the acid. “One of the companies that funded the military and designed their tech was indebted to the Decepticons and had been working for them for decades. Using their influence, assisted by an individual who had been working with Megatron to double cross the Autobots and enslave the people of Earth to rebuild Cybertron, they banished the Autobots from Earth and destroyed Chicago. When the Autobots returned and killed them the humans blamed the Autobots. They intended to lock them up but the Bots weren’t willing to be held accountable for crimes they did not commit and went on the run. I went with them.”

The paling of General Bryce, followed by the way he slowly looked down at the papers spread across his desk like they held any answers told Kira she might have given him too much all at once. An awkward silence settled over the room, General Bryce looking very uncomfortable as he began to organize the loose sheets of paper and slipped them into the first draw of his desk.

“Saying that out loud makes me realize your Megatron doesn’t seem that bad of a guy. He hasn’t revealed himself to the public, hasn’t employed human slaves and as far as you seem to know doesn’t have any pull in the government.” A little toe dipping into the territory, gauging their reactions for a response. When both gave no hints of being called out, Kira went on.  “Why haven’t you managed to kill him yet?”

“Kinda hard to when they have an impenetrable warship circling the globe.” Agent Fowler muttered back in response.

“The Nemesis is here?” For as much as Kira had not revealed to Team Prime, it seemed they had just as much secrets they had kept from her.

“You said there were four more to retrieve?” General Bryce interrupted, trying to get the conversation back on topic.  

“Yes. Four Dinobots. They’re similar to the Autobots, just slightly larger.” The human men glanced to one another, a look she knew well. “Too large for military aircraft to safely transport them.”

General Bryce leaned forward, interlocking his fingers and he rested his forearms on his desk. “So tell me, Lieutenant Hecale, why I should allow these ‘large’ individuals onto my base?”

Ahh, the good ol’ intimidation tactic, a reminder that he was still very much in charge of this base and all the aliens who were now essentially captured within its walls. Agent Fowler, bless his heart, hadn’t revealed his attack but Kira was sure the moment he did her Autobots would no longer have the privilege of roaming around outside the hangers they had been shown to while Kira had been whisked off to meet the general, Optimus insisting on remaining at her side.

But Kira had gotten pretty good and making humans believe they still had some power over the Autobots, it had been her job after all. Reassure the higher ups that Optimus and his team were totally going to follow orders and were definitely not sneaking out of the base at night. And so she’d play along with his game, giving him the illusion of control he craved. What he didn’t know probably wouldn’t kill him, unless the Decepticons got involved.

“Do you want them to wander into Russia?”

Kira fought very hard to keep the smirk off her face at the shock on the general’s face but Fowler covering a snicker by coughing into his fist told her she probably failed. None the less, General Bryce immediately straightened. “And what is your plan to get them here without the use of an aircraft? Will they be willing to swim?”

That proved exactly how much he knew about the aliens who sheltered on this planet, Cybertronians sink. Besides, putting the four of them onto the boat would end in disaster.

There was only one way. Kira could only hope this government was better at knowing when to shut up and follow orders than her world’s had been.

---

The base itself wasn’t terrible, much the same as their old set up. Six hangers arranged in rows of three, with a human sized bunkhouse capable of holding ten service members off to the side and a helipad in front of each. The human base was over three miles away, close enough that they could be there in a matter of minutes should Kira’s team do something they didn’t like but far enough away that they had enough privacy that they didn’t feel constantly watched. Crosshairs had no doubt already disabled the cameras to play some ridiculous loop and disarmed the sensors while they still seemed to be working on the human’s side.

The fencing that surrounded the area was way too small, more of a suggestion than capable of keeping them in, but there was more than enough space between it and the hangers that all the Bots could be outside playing Cube and no one would accidentally stand on it.

It was only a thirty minute drive from the previous base, except the only road was through town unless you felt like off roading through the desert. Overall, it wasn’t awful. They’d had to put up with much worse during their years on the run.

Walking beside Optimus, Kira made her way to the hanger the Autobots had seemed to be claiming as the unofficial meeting room, the group of them loitering outside hanger 4. The Knights seemed to have made themselves at home inside hanger 2.

Slipping between the peds, Kira led the way into the gutted hanger, only a basic ring of catwalks and platforms attached to the walls. Climbing the stairs, Kira slung one leg over the yellow railing and watched her team file in.

“I still don’t get it.”

“Shocker.” Sideswipe replied, getting a firm whack upside the helm from his twin.

“Why do we have to stay here? There isn’t a Ground Bridge here. Do we need to go all the way to that base every time we head out to go after a relic?”

“I think the idea is we don’t, just give them the locations.” Evac answered, looking to Optimus and Kira for confirmation.

There were a lot of questions like that that Kira herself had. The most prevalent being the lack of anything they could use to make a Space Bridge. She had explained to General Bryce what the Primes had told her and while he’d seemed disbelieving he’d said she could need to draw up a list of materials they’d need to build one. But if it was going to be handled the way she knew the military handled things it’d take months to get the approval on half the things they’d need.

“We need to focus on getting everyone settled for now and get working on extracting the interdimensional residue.” Kira answered. By the lack of a Wheeljack in the hanger, Kira had to assume he was beginning to turn one of the hangers into an impromptu lab and was doing just that.

“What about the Dinobots?” Chromia asked.

Kira was beginning to miss her team not giving a slag about what was happening around them. All these damn questions. Good ones, but damn. “I have a virtual meeting with that Optimus and Fowler in an hour to discuss how we’re going to get them here. I have an idea but getting them to agree might take a little work, And I don’t need any more questions or comments.” Kira added, when three different Bots opened their intakes.

What she needed was some strong pain killers and a quick nap.

“Are you going to wear that?” A voice called out anyway, Hound glancing down at the clothing in her arms.

Him calling attention to it had the whole room shift with nervous energy, the reminder of what people wearing those uniforms had done to them over the years.

“No.” she replied, tossing the clothes to the floor. “But I do need some new clothes. Or at least a washing machine.”

“I’ll take you into town.” Jazz offered.

“We aren’t supposed to leave the base.” Topspin reminded.

“Since when has a gate ever stopped us?” Crosshairs responded, earning a round of chuckles and a fist bump from Mudflap.  

“Okay, new rule. We are going to stay inside the fence.” The overlap of near twenty voices crying out in defiance of this rule had Kira leaning back with a groan, Optimus stepping forward to shush the group with a barked order for quiet. “For now.” Kira added, when it was somewhat settled enough for her voice to be heard. “We just need them to back off and think they’ve won. Give it a couple days for them to have the illusion of control and then we can sneak out.”

“Sneak out where?”

Kira could spend the entire day complaining about how stupid her team could be, but at the end of the day that was just them screwing around. When it came down to it, they were the survivors of a genocide who had been engaged in a war for millennia. They weren’t dumb.

And it was time to let them in on her plan.

“We aren’t going to kill Megatron.” The Autobots looked around to one another, but they stayed quiet. “This world’s Decepticons have a Space Bridge. We don’t need to fight them for it or spend years trying to build one. We get Megatron to fight his variant, offer him an army, let him do the dirty work and get us the Space Bridge.”

“He won’t let us keep the Space Bridge. He’ll want to stay here.” Ironhide pointed out.

He had not spent much time with his doppelganger yet but from what he could tell they were in some ways different and in some ways the same, yet Kira did not treat him as she did her own Ratchet but as he was his own being.

Putting all that aside, she carried herself with grace and purpose, the Autobots of her world seeing her as an equal and treating her as such. Ratchet had never thought he would ever meet a human who he thought would come close to earning his respect, let alone his trust or to be seen as anywhere near an equal in his mind. Kira somehow surpassed that and made herself more reliable than her own Autobots.

And so how, after all these years of teaching her their ways and welcoming her as one of them, could they let her simply throw her life away?

Doing a quick scan of the room once again, Ratchet shifted on his peds.

None remained in their true forms, most using the hologram technology to occupy themselves on the catwalks silently or recharging in their alt modes by the hall. It would be simple enough to reach over and grab the sleeping femme from where she rested in Optimus’ arms.

Take her where and do what with her while the others were in hot pursuit he had no idea, but he could not let her stay with them. It was not safe. It was clear they were willing to sacrifice her to attain their own goals.

“I wouldn’t do it, if I were you.” a voice called out into the silent base. One he knew so well it usually washed over him in a wave of calm, but this one’s tone had Ratchet flinching.

Pretending he did not know who that was aimed at, just like he had been pretending to be focused on his workstation screen for the last earthly hour when in reality he was planning a kidnapping, the medic kept his optics on a blank screen.

“Do you honestly think you could take all of us and manage to keep her safe? That is assuming you have a plan as to where you are taking her that we will not follow.”

Ratchet could feel human optics on him, those foolish attempts to appear more of the native species more unsettling than he would have assumed. But they did allow Kira’s team to care for her, so there was one advantage. Though she would not have been in that situation if they had not allowed her to do something so reckless to begin with.

Ratchet saw Optimus, his Optimus, shift from where he was at his own work station not even attempting to appear at work as he’d stared at the hologramed Prime and the femme. Perhaps he was not the only one who had been working through the same idea.

But he knew it was for him. Optimus was far better at keeping his plans off his face plates and appearing casual even when things were far from normal.

Turning, he faced the Prime, his optics dropping to the femme still curled in his arms. She was no longer devoid of color, a flush he had learned was natural to humans returning to her face. And the sickening blue of their energon throughout her body was gone. Still, she slept. Why did she sleep?

Was she fighting to recover, losing a battle of expelling all the energon from her body? Did his life blood give her too much damage her small frame could not recover from? Would she die?

“She needs human doctors.” he decided to answer, a plan starting to form. If he could get her out of the base and to the place where Jack’s mom worked, they would be able to smuggle her out of Jasper, far away from these Bots where she would be safe long enough that he could find a way to get them off his world and she would be free of them.

“You think they would be able to understand any of what just happened?” that Ratchet asked, looking up from the scaled down version of a data pad he had been reading.

“They understand her biology.”

“I have done more than enough research on the topic and have been her primary physician for near half her life. I do believe I am capable of understanding her biology.”

“You allowed her to ingest energon, which nearly killed her.”

Ratchet could see his variant was ready for a fight, his holoform dissipating into pixels as he could be heard transforming down the hallway, but the verbal spat never came because a moment later another voice called out, “So,”

Every bot reacted instantly, the holoforms rushing to the platform’s edge and waving their servos in the air in an attempt to silence the human. But the damage had already been done.

With a jolt, Kira sat up in her guardian’s arms.

Whatever plans Ratchet had to try safely remove the human were now thwarted. He had no doubt she would not go willingly now that she was awake. But perhaps he still had a chance. Afterall, there was no expectation she would be going home with them if they did find a way back to their dimension. And if that Optimus cared about Kira as much as he said he did, he would see reason in her being safest here.

---

Kira had hated humans for so long that even the sound of them speaking sent her body into defense mode. The reaction had come from years of being on the run from her kind, hiding anywhere she could find. As a result, anything said not in Universal or Cybertronian had her body flying into fight or flight mode, ready to attack the humans.

“Shh, easy Little One. It’s alright.” Optimus reassured, his hold of her shifting so she could stand if she chose to, but still keeping her resting against him.

If he wasn’t rushing to evacuate, there was no real danger, and so she curled back into him with a groan and pressed her head into his chest with a sigh.

It was amazing how they’d managed to replicate Earthly textures so well for the holograms. It truly did feel like she was snuggling against the soft cotton of his shirt, the electric warmth of his synthetic skin a comfort she had grown used over the last fifteen years that the holoforms had been in use.

“What happened?” the human voice came again, reminding her that the government agent was still here, just as trapped as the rest of them after she’d initiated the lockdown of the base. And now there’d be questions she did not feel like answering about how she managed to astrally project and does that mean she’s no longer human, and how he could be sure what she saw was real and not an acid trip after she drank literal acid.

She should have let Optimus kill him.

Usually when she drank energon to meet the Primes she slept for hours after, her body replenishing all it lost. When she threw up, her body was expelling everything the energon had infected, and she meant everything. Any food that had been in her stomach, the blood that had been corrupted, the lining of her organs that had begun to melt as the foreign liquid had burnt its way down.

Her recovery usually took days, her body healing and regrowing. And after the first purge she slept almost the entire day.

Now, she’d felt like she’d only just closed her eyes before being awoken by Fowler. And he would soon be growing impatient and demand answers.

She heard Ironhide answer something, the other Optimus stepping around the control room and addressing the human as well, but their words were distant. She was somewhere between awake and asleep, dying and dead. But beneath her Optimus shifted, his hold tightening. Something was wrong and she could no longer rely on those around her to handle the situation.

“If I don’t get word to my guys back on base, they’re going to storm the base and turn this place into def con one. I need to let them know I’m okay.”

“As I said, Agent Fowler, we need to ensure it will be safe enough to open us the base before-”

“We have a way home.” Kira spoke up, her voice cracking as her damaged throat tried to make sounds once again. She hadn’t expected her attempt to be loud enough to be heard over Optimus but it was, everyone’s attention shifting to her as the human made his way up to the catwalks.

“We have a way home.” Kira repeated after clearing her throat, taking the water Jazz walked over to hand her.

Optimus helped her sit, allowing her to continue to rest entirely on him and holding a hand out ready in case she lost hold on the bottle.

“The Primes said that all we need is a Space Bridge recalibrated to account for interdimensional residue.”

Wheeljack stepped forward. “So it was not my fault?”

The human shook her head, smiling weakly at the cheerful “Ha!” the wrecker let out as he smugly looked around the room. “It was merely bad timing. They were working on their own experiments in their realm and the two energies crossed.”

“But how do we account for that interdimensional yada yada? We don’t even have a Space Bridge.” Sideswipe asked.

“We know who does.” This world’s Arcee mumbled, evidently intending for no one to hear her. But Kira did, and only one person could incite that level of hatred in a sentence. Which brought her to issue number two.

“We have interdimensional residue on us. All we have to do is extract enough to make a sample large enough to be equated into the formula.” Steelbane responded, the Knights having heard the commotion and having joined the party in the control room.

“You’re right.” Wheeljack mumbled, walking over to take the data pad from Ratchet and beginning to type out something. “We do. And it would be easy enough to add it in, factoring the difference in our frequencies and-”

Whatever else the inventor muttered to himself was tuned out by Kira as she shifted to take more of her own weight, her vision blurring for a moment. She needed food. Luckily, Bumblebee was always one step ahead and handed her a sleeve of crackers he had gotten during a food run he and Evac had done right before the lockdown.

Signing a thanks, she opened the bag and pulled one out. “That wasn’t all they said.”

She explained briefly, through bites of cracker so she didn’t pass out halfway through, what Micronus had said about everyone leaving through the Bridge together and the artifacts.

“Which means we either need to kill Megatron and his two Decepticons and drag their bodies through, or capture them and bring them with us.” Kira concluded, already knowing what the answers would be.

“I say kill ‘em.” Ironhide replied, as expected. As was the chorus of mechs voicing their agreement of his plan.

“I’m sorry, who are you?” Agent Fowler interrupted, having missed the whole holoform explanation. Once Optimus had filled him in, he turned to Kira again. “And you were going to tell us you’re Megatron is on our planet when?”

“When it seemed important.” she answered.

Truth was she didn’t want to keep it a secret, but she’d needed to in case her Bots found out. It would take them mere seconds to activate the Ground Bridge and storm out to find him and while he would have been desperately outnumbered, it was still an avoidable fight Kira wanted to avoid.

“Right. Well, is everyone ready to move to the new base?”

That question she could not answer. It wasn’t her call.

And apparently nobody else was eager to either because the silence that fell over the base was comedic.

Optimus decided to step forward, trying to play the mediator in the situation. “If what Micronus said is true, having a base to operate out of will help-”

“We ain’t doing slag for that mech.” Jazz interrupted, the look of horror on Optimus’ faceplates enough to give Kira just enough energy to chuckle.

“But he is a Prime, one of the original Thirteen.”

“So?”

Did he really forget these Bots took authority as an invitation to riot? The Thirteen could give them orders under the penalty of death to simply touch the ground and they’d find a way to learn how to fly. Just because he had given a vaguely disguised order did not mean they were going to follow it. Nor would they see reason in helping.

They had forsaken humanity, helping only if Kira’s fate lay with the rest of her kind. And with Cybertron somewhat restored, they did not need to concern themselves with what happened to Earth. They would not see reason in checking to see if this dimension had a sun harvester.

But they did need to leave. Even she was beginning to feel trapped and Kira could run miles around the base’s halls.  

“We’ll head to the base.” Kira interjected, stopping an argument from breaking out. “We’ll just need about an hour to prepare.” Optimus, taking this as his cue, gently lifted Kira so he could stand before laying her down on the couch once again and tucking the blanket around her, his pixels dissipating as he transformered and made his way into the control room.

The agent nodded. “I’ll let ‘em know. It’ll probably be best if you use that Ground Bridge. Last thing I need is people seeing thirty cars driving around like lunatics.”

“I thought you’d be more worried about the dragon.”

“The what?”

The rest of the bots followed suit, the cacophony of them all transforming a sound that never ceased to send a spark of wonder through her. It always reminded her of the first time she met Optimus, the huge mech transforming right beside her.

An automated voice announced the end of the lockdown, the steel doors lifting down the hall. One glance at the orange and white medic revealed he did not seem too thrilled with the idea, for reasons Kira didn’t understand. Wouldn’t he be happy to have his base back to himself?

Looking toward Optimus, she found he bore the same grim expression, his focus on her like she was about to die. She technically almost did, but this was like he was watching her march toward her own funeral and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

“Smile Optimus, you’re finally getting rid of us.”

The gathered apes, Caesar and his two sons, remained silent as the two of us talked. But their eyes moved, those brilliant, bright irises tracking every reference we made to the map, bouncing between Malcom and I as we talked. They were listening, taking in all we said and were forming plans in their minds.

“Well, a boat does give us some advantage.” I started, uncapping a marker and frowning at the tip when it didn’t write before tossing it over my shoulder.

“How?” Blue Eyes asked, the first time he’d spoken to me in over a day.

“They’ll need to reach the shore to get the human soldiers into the city. So long as they don’t make it to the beaches they won’t be able to make it into the city.”

“Yeah,” Malcom agreed, uncapping his own marker and smirking at me when his did write, “but if they get under the bridge they’ll be able to sail right up to the city. Which will be their first attempt.” He drew a red line from the bridge to the harbor, marking the route that would spell our annihilation.

“So we don’t let them get past it.” I agreed.

“But how do we keep them from landing here?” Malcom gestured to the beaches along the coastline outside of the city, both to the north and south of the bay. “It’s hundreds of miles.”

“Not hundreds.” I murmured, taking the marker from him and tracing a basic shape along the coastlines directly on either side of the bridge. “Here.”

Malcom hummed, cocking his head in that ‘I don’t think so’ way. “These are trained military. If they can’t get under the bridge, they’ll dock and hike closer, using the vegetation for cover. We’ll need to prepare for them to come from any direction.”

Sure, if they knew their enemy. But from all they knew, the apes who had caused chaos as they’d retreated into the Woods a decade ago attacked a human colony. To them it’d be a case of simple, savage monkeys getting a little too bold. They would be counting on a quick massacre before claiming San Francisco once again.  

“Did you think you were going into the Woods and would find a civilization?”

Malcom flinched, glancing from me to Caesar and Blue Eyes before focusing back on me. “Well, no. We thought you were all dead. We didn’t-”

“They won’t be expecting us to know what we’re doing. They certainly won’t be expecting humans to be helping them. They’ll plan on sailing right on up to the docks and infiltrating the city. We’ll need to find a way to keep them from getting beneath the bridge. At least to start. We’ll go through what was left in the armory. There’s gotta be something we can use to destroy the ship.”

I concentrated on the map, thinking of ways to block a bridge hundreds of feet above the water. My first idea would be to destroy the bridge, the debris hopefully enough to stop boats getting into the bay but then we’d be cut off from the city forever. Not that it was a terrible plan, but then they’d know we were on the side of the Woods and would storm the beaches anyway and follow us into the Woods. If we kept them busy in the city, we’d keep them far away from our home.

I felt more than saw their moods shift as Malcom and Caesar glanced to one another, a look passing between the two of them that had a tingling start at the base of my neck. It got worse when I realized Malcom was looking at me with pity.

“What?”

Caesar chose to avoid my eyes, pretending to study the map. Even he knew what was about to be said was going to piss me off.

“Alina, we aren’t going to fight them.”

Rage snapped through me like a wildfire, quelled only by the shock of fear that pooled in my gut, my ears ringing with the phantom screams of the apes as they’d charged from our burning home. If we didn’t fight them, those screams of rage would turn to screams of pain as we burned once again, only this time we would not be saved by a miracle.

“What?” My voice was remarkably calm, so much so that I startled myself as much as I did them, the men f;inching. Even Cornelius shifted on my shoulders.

“We aren’t going to fight them.” Malcolm repeated. “We’re going to show them the ape’s strength, make them see fighting is pointless.”

“And how exactly are we going to do that if the plan is to not let them reach land?”

Again, so calm. Where it came from I didn’t know. My chest felt like it was about to be ripped open, the angry heat and the icy fear waring inside me, begging me to lash out so they could sink their fangs into something, or someone.

“If-” Malcom shifted again, my eyes not once leaving him, “if they see we’ve barricaded ourselves, they’ll realize we have a plan for their attack, that we are ready for them. They’ll see it as a pointless fight and-”

I spun on my heels, not waiting for him to say another word and ignoring Caesar as he called after me. “They won’t see strength.” I spoke over my shoulder, pausing at the doorway just long enough for my words to reach them. “They’ll see a challenge.”

Slamming the door behind me, I headed for the floor with the females and children. Cornelius needed lunch, and I needed to be alone.

---

I breathed heavily, my arms shaking from exertion and adrenaline. But I was far from over.

Raising my arms once again, I swung the bat back before arching the wooden weapon forward, hardly satisfied at the earsplitting crash of the wood shattering as I smashed in another cabinet, revealing more cases of ammunition.

“Feel… good?” the figure who had been watching for me over ten minutes called from the door, casually resting against it.

“Hardly.”

Winding up for another swing, I took the lock off a metal locker, reaching over to swing the door open. Two hunting bows and industrial arrows, as well as a crossbow. Nice.

The humans had managed to get their hands on some pretty neat stuff during the apocalypse. I’d even managed to find a rocket launcher and some munitions for it. It would definitely be useful in taking out the ship if it did get close enough.

Pushing off the frame with a grunt, Caesar made his way over to me, staying out of swinging reach as I wound up to take another crack at the gun cage I’d broken one bat trying to get into already. I was beginning to think I might need a crowbar.

“You’re… scared.” he spoke plainly, very confident for someone so close to the bat.

Why wouldn’t I be scared? His plan was stupid and endangered ape lives. It wasn’t even a plan, it was his attempts at making friends with humans, again.

I opened my mouth, ready to say something along the lines of Koba being right and Caesar loving humans more than apes, but I had enough common sense to know that was not the right thing to say, even if I was mad and wanted to insult him.

Instead, I put more weight into the next swing, breaking the bat. I took a step back with a sigh, my throat already burning from the five minutes of yelling I’d done when I’d first started this demolition project and what fight I did have having left me hours ago.

Guess it was the crowbars turn.

Before I had the chance to pick it up Caesar did, taking up the space before the gun cage and using a bit of physics and a whole lot of ape strength to wedge the metal hook into a gap between the bars and shoving at just the right angle, the cage snapping open with a simple crack of the metal.

Yay, now we had some assault rifles. Add that to the rocket launcher, the other crate of rifles, some arrows and two bows plus the crossbow and we had about enough to last us maybe one fight.

“Why aren’t we fighting?”

Caesar sighed, placing the crowbar down gently beside the pieces of the bat I had thrown aside. “You know… we can’t win.”

“We can’t run, you won’t let us fight. ‘Showing strength’ will do absolutely nothing and you know that!”

He turned to me, still so damn calm even when I was yelling. Why did he always have to be so calm? Why was I the one always losing my cool while he remained this levelheaded, composed pilar we all leaned upon? And why did he not see how often he was wrong?

“Know apes… will die if we… don’t have a plan.”

Apes were going to die anyway. It didn’t matter what plan we came up with, how good we got with these weapons. Hell we could have a nuclear warhead and we’d still lose. Until we knew what ship they had and how many soldiers were coming, not that it would make much of a difference, we were  severely underprepared.

Our only chance at surviving this would be to run to the woods and disappear. Sure, they would follow us, but we’d have home ground advantage and at least a few days to prepare. We could leave the sick here and if some recovered in time, they got the luxury of joining another fight.

These thoughts, these plans, had my stomach twisting and bile rising in my throat. That was how Koba had thought, except he’d added actual homicide to the list and had acted on it. I really was no better than him. Maybe we both should have died.

But that didn’t matter now, there wasn’t time to feel guilt or regret. No matter which way we looked at it, all the ‘what if’s and ‘if only’s all still led to the same problem, we were unprepared. And we always would be. No matter how much fire power we had, one ape still alive would be one too many and these soldiers would level the city and the woods to make sure we were wiped from existence.

Did I know this to be a million percent true, no. But I knew humans, and I knew that those who had formed a militia in the apocalypse didn’t do so because they thought living all kumbaya was an option.

I was fairly certain that even if we hadn’t attacked and this group of soldiers had come while the humans still held control of the city they would have taken over.

Maybe that was just my twisted way of thinking, too long having had the time to nurse my hatred for humans while surrounded by those who held the same beliefs. Maybe I was jumping to the worst case scenario, a wounded animal lashing out at any who got too close even they were trying to help.

But these humans would not be coming to help. And at that moment I felt like the only one willing to do whatever it took to keep apes safe.

Well, not the only one.

“What is the plan?”

Taking my question as a sign I was agreeing with him, not that I was too busy forming plans of my own to think of anything else to fill the silence, Caesar reached out and pulled me into his arms, tucking me beneath his chin as he began to sway us gently.

I didn’t want to, the embers of fight inside still strong, but I sagged into him. Days of not sleeping, well over a day since my last meal, and hours of breaking down this room into something we could use to defend ourselves had left me weak.

And not just in the physical sense. I was tired of having to be strong, of wondering if those I loved would survive the day, the hour, the next fight. I was tired of my fear pushing me to lash out, to turn friends into enemies as the walls I had torn down years ago started to build themselves up again. I was tired of feeling helpless, the enemy this phantom cloud looming in the distance but we could do nothing to stop them, no way of knowing how best to combat the storm.

And so I let him take my weight, my worries, and instead called forth the memories of being in his arms. After so many years of us both fighting this, or rather me fighting it, we had something new and precious that we should have the chance to nurture. Instead all we’d done is steal moments between fate throwing battles at us and hold onto them.

I remembered his lips, scared but sure as they pressed against mine, and his arms so tight as they held yet so gentle it was as if he was sure that if he held on too strong I would break.

Caesar was not someone I needed to fight, nor was he someone I had to keep my thoughts from. He was the person, my person, that I could go to with my fears, my burdens, my nightmares. And in turn I was that person for him, the one he could rely on and lean upon.

We did not agree, which wasn’t new, but that did not mean I had to see him as the enemy. He could prepare his way and I could prepare mine and at the end of the day we would climb into the same nest and curl up together knowing we played our roles in keeping our family safe.

And as long as he thought I was following his plan, I could use his trust to my advantage.

“Malcom… gather humans and help them… prepare to leave city. Scouts will survey… shoreline for ship… arrival. Woman and children will move… away from water.”

Solid plans. Safe. Enough preparation that we aren’t just sitting around. And enough distractions.

The first time she’d been astrally projected into the Realm of the Primes had been entirely by accident, her having been holding the Matrix when a drop of Energon had entered an open wound. After weeks of being turned into an experiment by Ratchet, Wheeljack and the wreckers, they came to the conclusion that it was having the Energon within her as a fuel source that allowed her to connect to the Primes, shifting her consciousness into their plane of existence.

The second time had been purposeful, a trail run. She’d drank some of Optimus’ recycled Energon in the hopes that it would do less damage than the raw mineral and after a somewhat successful conversation with the Primes she had snapped back into her body just in time to hurl the Energon to save herself from any permanent damage from the acidic liquid completely destroying her internally.

There had never been a need to try it again thus far, but with interdimensional travel no one was a better expert than the Primes. Even if it did seem they themselves were at the mercy of the weirdness that was continuity errors.

“Why did you not check first?” Alpha Trion barked.

“So now I must worry about what every being in the universe is doing before conducting my experiments?” Alchemist crossed his arms, glaring at his fellow Prime.

This was going nowhere.

“Hey!” Kira yelled, the ground shaking with her cry even though her voice was nothing more than a whisper compared to their noise. “I don’t care who did it or why it happened, can we go home?”

“Obviously.” the elemental scientist rolled his optics, suddenly interested in his digits. “All you’d need to do is modify a Space Bridge to factor in interdimensional pathways within a regular Bridge conductor.”

“Great.” Kira replied, as though what he had said made any sense to her. “When can you do that?”

“Us?” one of the new Primes, Amalgamous, laughed. “Why would we do the work?”

“You caused the problem.” Kira snapped back, glaring up at him.

The Prime snarled down at her, moving as though to take a step toward her when another moved first, Onyx shifting so he stood between the human and the Primes.

Onyx had a soft spot for her since Dragonstorm had entered her life and she had insisted they be treated with kindness, not fear. Apparently they were a distant descendant of one of his early creations long before the mechs and femmes had begun to walk the planet.

But soft spot or not, she could tell from the arguments dying down and the bored glances sent her way that the Primes were seriously not going to help her or her team get back home.

And if she’d learned anything in her seventeen years of working with Cybertronians, they were more stubborn than any person she’d ever met and nothing would change their minds. Her team was on their own.

With a sigh, Kira put on her best pleading face and tried again, “How would we do that?”

Alchemist waved the servo he had been inspecting dismissively. “It is easy. Your scientists should be able to figure it out.”

Sure, because they had already and Kira was just double checking their findings. Primus she wished she was tall enough to strangle him.

“Are you sure you are ready to leave yet?” Prima asked, tossing a glare at Onyx Prime who growled as the first Prime when he took a step toward Kira.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

The scene shifted, the beings no longer standing in Quintus’ lab and now in the Glass Tree gardens that had once surrounded Iacon before the war. A mini con Kira had never met before flickered into being, floating with his Prime brothers and sister. The Matrix telling her his name was Micronus, and for the past several moments he had been staring at her while his processor seemed to race with thoughts. She hoped he kept them to himself.

“When you leave, you will do so through a regular Bridge. Any thing or anyone who was brought with you will remain on this world unless you carry it through the Bridge with you.”

She was so over these cryptic messages.

“You mean y’all messed up and now we have to make sure we drag Megatron and his Decepticons with us or this world ends up with two Warlords and they lose the war and Cybertron is forever destroyed.”

Liege Maximo chuckled darkly but said nothing, his joy in chaos unsettling on any day.

“It was poor timing, is all.” Vector spoke up, his words doing nothing to quell the fire of being called out for their mistakes.

“Okay, so we have to fix your screw up and make sure anyone from our world is with us when we leave? That’s it, right?”

The few helms nodding gave Kira all she needed. “Well, this has not been fun and it’s never a pleasure talking to you all. I’ll be going now.”

“It may take a while for your team to modify the Bridge.” Micronus spoke up, catching Kira’s attention as she turned to head back toward her body. She knew she would not be so lucky. “It would be a shame to waste that time.”

“And what do you suggest we do?”

Fix more of their mistakes? Build a temple? Every time Kira met these Primes she was reminded of how the Greeks had taken influence from these beings when writing the legends of their Gods. All they wanted was the praise but none of the chores to receive it.

“I am sure your team carries much knowledge from your world that could be helpful to this one. A few relics come to mind.”

Of course, where would a wild adventure be without a side quest from a powerful being too lazy to lift a digit to deal with it themselves.

“Thanks for nothing.”

Spinning on her heal, Kira stepped back into her body, her eyes snapping open with a gasp.

---

Time moves differently when you are waiting for someone to die. You feel your own spark stop beating, your cooling fans stalling as if waiting to hear the other beings start up again. Your entire frame freezes, as though if you don’t move, fate will forget about its cruel game and you would have saved them.

Seconds seem to stretch on for minutes, minutes to hours and barely a moment turns into a damn eon.

That’s how long it felt watching as Kira drank the energon, dropping the empty container and sitting straight with a sharp inhale, her optics glowing blue as they glazed over. Beside her, Optimus and Jazz shifted closer, but neither made a move to touch her as her skin began to change color, the fuel lines running throughout her body turning a bioluminescent blue.

Optimus was used to seeing this color on a Cybertronian, not a human. It made his tanks roll. But that’s all he managed to do, feel sick and watch in horror.

“Are you all suffering from sever processor damage! You’ll kill her!” Ratchet cried, lunging forward to try grab the human.

He was stopped by Ironhide reacting faster, grabbing the medics servos and locking them behind his back.

Not the pained yelp from his friend or the charging cannons of his team could pull Optimus’ optics from the human.

She was dying.

He should move, shove Ironhide off the medic and hold him back so Ratchet could try something, anything, to save the femme. But Optimus could not seem to get his frame to move, his optics tracking the lines of blue expanding beneath what exposed skin he could see.

“This is what she wants to do. She will be fine. We have done this before.” Ironhide spoke clearly and plainly, hardly bothered by the sets of cannons aimed his way. His words did little to reassure the medic as he shrugged the weapon’s specialist off and spun back toward the catwalks.

“No she won’t! Even skin contact with our fuel can cause severe burns to humans. Their frames are organic. Ingesting it will-”

“Ten seconds.” Kira’s Ratchet murmured, gaining the attention of the entire room as he pressed his human digits onto her neck and winced. “Her sparkbeats are dropping.”

“She asked for a minute.” Bumblebee reminded the group, though Optimus had not been there when this conversation had taken place.

At Kira’s side, servos outstretched ready to grab hold of her at a moment’s notice, Optimus’ doppelganger focused solely on his charge, his now human eyes watching every rise and fall of her chest.

Behind her, a holoform Jazz sat ready too, Jolt prepared to step in and assist if needed.

While her bots seemed tense, they did not seem alarmed. Uneasy, yes, but not as though they were watching someone die. More so waiting to hear if a dangerous mission was as successful as they’d hoped.

“Optimus,” begged, imploring the Prime to do something, to save the human. But he could not move. He could not believe she would willingly do something that harming. He could not believe this was the end.

Optimus waited, watching as the energon spread from her chest toward her limbs. He watched, frozen in place, as he felt time drag with every second more.

At second twenty-two Kira blinked and her eyes lost their shine as she gasped. No sooner had she fully inhaled, she was turning toward Optimus and blindly reacting for the metal bucket. With an odd sound, Optimus watched as she emptied her human tanks, the energon rushing back through her veins and leaving her unsuitable body. She made the sound two more times, more of the blue life force leaving her, before slumping over.

Her Optimus took the bucket while Jazz caught her, the lieutenant having been holding her hair back while Optimus had rubbed her back through the ordeal. Now shivering in the arms of Optimus’ most trusted Autobot, Ratchet quickly began to access the human while Jolt retrieved water and a blanket.

The medic mumbled as he worked, Jazz shifting her body around when needed so Ratchet could get a better angle to work on her.

Blinking her eyes open, she found Optimus’ optics and smiled. It wasn’t like the smile she had tried to do before, one unsure and tense. This one was tired, but even in that weakened state she was trying to comfort him, to let him know she was okay.

Her Optimus, the one who could hold her and help her because he had the benefit of being her size through the use of a holoform, took the bottle from the medic-in-training and carefully offered it to the human, gently encouraging her to take a small sip before she spit it back into the bucket.

With a final use of some strange device Optimus assumed helped Ratchet hear her sparkbeat and breathing, the medic confirmed she was well and the Prime could feel the relief settle across the room, his own frame sagging as his internal fans kicked back to life.

Ironhide took a step back, no longer a physical shield between Kira and Ratchet.

Finally glancing away from the human, Optimus met Ratchet’s optics and they shared a look of complete bewilderment before turning back to the catwalks. “What just happened?”

“Kira met the Primes in their realm, seeking them out for answers.” Bumblebee spoke again, watching as Jazz handed the human to Optimus and he stood, heading toward the couch.  “The only way she can reach them is when she has energon within her body and is holding the Matrix.”

“That should have killed her in seconds.” Ratchet replied, his servos clenching at his side. Optimus knew his medic enough to know he wanted to pace as he absorbed the information but his concern for the small organic kept him rooted to the spot.

“The Matrix ensures she is healed once the meeting is over.” her Ratchet replied, beginning to pack his supplies back into his bag.

The holoformed Prime sat down, Kira still cradled in his arms as she curled into his chest, Jazz laying the blanket over her before bending to press his human lips to the crown of her head. “Get some rest, kiddo.”

The rest of the holoformed Autobots seemed to take these words as an order, beginning to find somewhere to sit silently or disengaging their holoforms and choosing to recharge in their alt forms parked not far away. For the first time in days, the base was completely silent.

Ironhide transformed and activated his own holoform, making his way up the stairs to join Jazz, Ratchet and Bumblebee in their silent vigil of watching over the vulnerable human and Prime.

“It always takes it outta her.” Ironhide informed, leaning to rest against the railing near Optimus and speaking softly. “She’s alive, obviously, but weak and tired. Give her some time to rest and then she’ll tell us what they said.”

“That was dangerous.” Optimus’ Ratchet spoke in the silence that followed. “She could have-”

“We know!” Jazz snapped. “But she’s stubborn, just like him. She’d sneak off and do it alone. This way we’re there to help when it goes to slag after.”

Him, being Optimus. The violent, war hungry monster who had been decapitating Decepticons only hours before. The senseless brute who had held a sword to her for protecting a human.

Now, he gently rocked her back and forth as he hummed a tune Optimus had not heard since his early days on Cyberton, having just emerged from the Well of Sparks. It was a song of protection, of guidance, of finding your place in the universe as those around you lifted you up and aided you in the trails known as life.

His optics flicked over to the Matrix, discarded on the metal of the catwalks. The most powerful power source in the history of the universe, the sole object capable of untold greatness on Cybertron, the store of knowledge from beings immeasurable in their abilities, and it lay forgotten as a human was coddled like a sparkling.

That was it, the piece Optimus was missing.  

Kira was not just a human. If she was able to use the Matrix to contact the Primes, then she herself was a Prime. And by the way she had explained it of her universe, Optimus’ successor. That was where the dumping of responsibility came from, why he stood by and did nothing as she led his team. He was training her to become the next Prime.

He was not abandoning her to carry his weight, he was sharing the load. She was sharing the load, taking the responsibilities and dividing it among them. That was why she did not waver under the pressure, did not turn to him for guidance, why she was as well respected and her words as revered as his own.

She was a Prime.

She was his protégé, his future. And the influence of humans meant he now had a clear understanding of their relationship.

Kira was Optimus’ child.

It didn’t work, though I was rewarded a barely meaning it glare with a poorly hidden smirk as he pulled away, needing to pour his full attention into trying to rid my hair of the icy water keeping me cold.

Turning us so my back was to the sun, he moved a hand to settle between my body and the wet locks, keeping me secure against his chest so I absorbed the sun’s rays and his body heat at the same time. “Why… swim?”

“I thought it’d make the voices go quiet.” I lied, running my finger through his tuft of white fur on his chest.

My reply had him stilling, his arms tightening around me just a smidge as he took in my words and tried to protect me from the meaning behind them.

That wasn’t entirely unture. Half my mind had been screaming at me about how this was an absolutely terrible idea and the other half had been yelling about how I should be doing more for Koba. Then there was the choir reminding me I was terrible for leaving Caesar alone, again, at a time he needed me. And let’s not forget the symphony reminding me what Koba had done and why he deserved a painful death.

I had let myself linger under the water longer than necessary, the silence below somewhat dulling the roar in my own head. I was now paying the price, though if Caesar had any say in it I would not suffer for long.

“Did it help?”

I shrugged. “Briefly.”

Guided by his gentle nudge on my chin, I raised my head to meet his eyes. “Not alone… Alina. We face this… together.”

His words, meant to be reassuring, felt like a stab wound to my chest.

We weren’t together in this. I’d lied to him, saved his enemy. I was keeping secrets again, putting him in danger, again. I alone was dooming us.

I should have taken the shot.

“Many dead… loss is great and… danger is coming. We cannot… let our fear or our… sadness stop us from moving forward.”

Oh I hadn’t stopped moving forward, I just seemed to be moving backward. Koba showed us we cannot trust him and I damn well gave him a chance to screw us over again.

“How do we move forward when all we’re moving toward is war?”

War with Koba, war with the humans, war with my own mind. That’s all life seemed to be at the moment, war. And somehow I was losing on every front.

“We do not fight alone.”

Caesar began to sway us gently, my body heating enough that the shivering stopped and my muscles relaxed as I sagged into my ape.

We stayed there for a time, a couple minutes at most, when Caesar spoke up again. “Want you… with the midwives.”

I pulled back with a jerk, frowning up at him. “Why? Ellie is helping them.”

“May need a… translator.”

“Luca is perfectly capable of…”

I knew that look in his eyes, the look of no matter what I said or what I did, he was not changing his stance on his decision. A decision he’d made without me.

“Why am I going to be stuck with the females?”

He never forced me to stay with the females. All my time with them had been because I was part of the gorilla guard and the guard had been guarding them as they’d gathered herbs and foraged for medicines.

He knew I was a protector, a fighter.

Did he know? Was he trying to keep me here so I couldn’t get to Koba? Or did he sense I was restless inside and would wander around alone anyway? Either way the feeling of him trying to trap me, to force me into some new role had me needing to step away from him.

I did so, the frown he gave me as I pulled away confirming I was right about him knowing something was wrong.

“Caesar, why must I go to the midwives?”

So there would be more apes to keep an eye on me? So Luca could have an excuse to loom in my presence?

I knew enough about medicine from the midwives, I hadn’t taught them anything. And most of them were more than capable of understanding Ellie, I did not need to translate.

“Because… it is what you must do.”

Must do? What the hell was he talking about? Must do? I must protect apes the way I was good at, archery. What I ‘must do’ is be out there on the streets looking for the humans who were still out there, potentially with weapons, and erase them from the playing field. What I ‘must do’ is sit down and think about how stupid I was to keep Koba alive and decide if I was going to let him die or go through with my plan.

What I ‘must do’ is keep doing what I always was doing, keeping apes safe.

“And why is that, Caesar? We fuck once and you realize I am a woman and now I must be all weak and helpless and hide away?”

His frown fell with an exasperated sigh. “Alina…” he started, his tone somehow reprimanding and knowing he had already lost this fight.

Was I overreacting, scared he was locking me away because he knew what I had done, knew what had happened? Yes. And I knew how I was handling it was all wrong but he couldn’t keep me in this tower. He couldn’t force me to be a good woman who sat obedient as the men prepared for war.

He couldn’t turn me into Cornelia after one night when I finally had everything I had ever wanted.

Oh my god, Caesar and I were finally together, every dream I had ever had was coming true, and I go and save the ape that killed him. I betrayed him. More than that, I was giving Koba another a chance to kill him again. I was putting every ape in danger.

“I’m not her!” I yelled back instead, taking all the fear inside and pushing it onto him. “I’m not Cornelia. And I won’t play midwife.”

Not waiting to see his reaction, not giving him a chance to process my words, I stormed past him and slammed open the doors.

Everything was falling apart. And the only person I could blame was myself.

It was decided that while space was limited for the time being most of the bots able to use a holoform would, their alt modes resting in the tunnel that led into the base. The Knights did not use holoforms and were not willing to share their newly acquired room and the others could not loiter around the base without bumping into someone, so a compromise had to be made.

This came a couple hours after Kira’s Autobots had spent some time discussing their options and coming to the conclusion that they would try to reach the Primes to see if they had any knowledge of how they had crossed dimensions and if there was a way home. If not, they would allow Fowler to escort them to the new base.

Kira had liked this plan, mostly because the other option had been to kill the Autobots of this world and use the Ground Bridge to hide away deep in Earth’s wilderness where they would not be found by humans.

The only downside was the actual process of reaching the Primes. She would willingly do it a million times over if it meant helping her team, but the aftereffects were hard to get used to. Thankfully she had done this only twice before, meaning she now knew what to expect but not frequently enough that any lasting effects had been found, yet.

Hence the bucket.

 “And he is now?” Bulkhead asked, the question entirely rhetorical.

“The alternative is he kills you and takes command of the base.” Kira shot back, not turning to face the green lug as she spoke. “I’m sure he’s willing to change his mind if you’d prefer.”

A tense silent settled over the base for a moment before the former wrecker replied, “I’m good.”

Setting the bucket down in the center of the cleared space, Kira let her eyes roam about the room. The human Agent had chosen to not share the room with the Bot who had tried to kill him and had wondered off to find somewhere the Cybertronians could not squeeze into to hide out until a decision could be made.

The holoforms of her team outnumbered those still in Bot mode, each making use of the catwalks. None looked happy, their battle ready expressions making an appearance.

They really did not enjoy when Kira did this, but it was the only way to reach the Primes and the only plan anyone could agree on. For the sake of this Optimus and his team, she had to do it.

Speaking of, something had this Optimus in a bad mood and she could not figure out why. She had not left him in a bad mood when she’d hurried off into the tunnels, and had returned with a compromise, so why he had done nothing more than grunt at her proposal of a compromise and now stood glaring at everyone from the sidelines she did not know.

It was rather annoying to have another Optimus in a sour mood, his clear displeasure at what was happening evident as his optics bore into her every move.

“And… finished.” Kira’s Ratchet declared, taking a step back from Optimus.

No sooner had to stowed his welder, Optimus opened his chest plates and called forth the Matrix.

Everyone in the room watched as the cone-shaped power source floated from the Prime’s spark chamber, hovering in the air for a moment before settling in his outstretched hand. The titan did not hold it for hold, the artifact tiny in his rough servos.

Urging it along, the object of unspeakable power floated from his servo once again and bobbed through the air, its determination unyielding as it settled in the hands of its true welder.

Turning the Matrix in her hands, Kira still remembered the first time she’d ever held it. Optimus was dead, Sam had a solution stuffed in a sock. Megatron emerged from the battlefield damaged and enraged. There was only one way to bring Optimus back.

She remembers shoving Sam aside as the warlord fired but after that it was a blacked out blur. She could hear Lennox screaming for medics, feel the electricity of the defibrillator kick her in the chest, could sense Ratchet and Ironhide standing above her ordering her to get back up. She remembered Jazz praying to Primus.

And then she was with the Primes, tiny compared to them as they explained the truth of the Matrix, how it had always been Primus’ will that she earn it. It was the reason for her creation.

Born human yet entrusted with the fate of countless planets, burdened to carry the weight of bearing a title of power to ones infinitely stronger than her. She was yet to meet Primus but when she did, Kira had a couple choice words and kick or two ready for him.

It wasn’t all bad, except for Sentinel viewing her as some gift from Primus for him to try turn into a prized little pet. She got to live an amazing life and when her time came, eons before any of her team would be ready to meet her, she’d get to wait for them in the Allspark.

Kira turned the artifact of immeasurable power over in her hands, the warmth and weight familiar after all her use of it, allowing the memory of having to trust it into Optimus’ spark to revive him to wash over it. It was always better to remember than to fight it. There were plenty of other awful memories she would rather use her energy fighting.

Kira was vaguely aware of Arcee asking, “Why is she holding it?” and she moved to the table.

“Because Kira earned the Matrix of Leadership.” her Optimus replied, Kira eyes flicking away from the power source to smile at him. “I merely store it until she is ready to use it.”

Feeling a shift in the air, Kira turned to the other Optimus, him taking a break from the grouch-fest to straighten out as the Matrix came into view, his own servo reaching subconsciously to rub at his chassis, a spark of wonder in his optics as he watched the power source float through the air before settling in the human’s hands.

The wonder only grew as his gaze jumped between the Matrix to her eyes.

Picking up the bottle and giving the Energon a swirl, she moved to the center of the catwalks and sat beside the bucket, Optimus moving to kneel beside her and Jazz taking up place behind her.

Ratchet activated his own holoform, bringing with him his human medical bag, Jolt already on the platforms waiting.

With everyone in place, Kira let her eyes flick to the native Prime a final time, the wonder now melting into confusion. With a half smile in his direction, Kira picked up the bottle and opened her mouth, preparing to chug the liquid.

“Wait, stop! That will kill you.” This world’s Ratchet barked, rushing a step forward.

“Only if they talk too long.” Kira replied with a wink, tossing her head back and downing the Energon.

She was more than just a human, she was a member of their team. One they could trust, someone to rely on. She was important to them, someone to keep the morale up as she found wonder in so much they had taken for granted. She listened, she took action when they had a complaint or a question. She made them feel welcome.

It broke his spark to watch the twinkle in her optics dim over the years since Chicago, but to see it reignite the first time she took a step on Cybertron was worth the years of hiding. She was happy among them, felt safer on an alien planet where mere moments without her breather could kill her than she did with her own people.

She had been one of them, so why? Why did she do this? What had he done to allow this to happen?

Had he been wrong about her all this time? Had he been blind to her plotting with the foreign Prime and let his brethren be led into a death trap? Had he allowed himself to let his armor down around her when this whole time she had been the biggest threat?

No. No she had fought for Autobots, died for Optimus. She had shot at humans for them, severing all ties to her species as she’d rushed to warn them of the government’s betrayal. She had not even planned on joining them in their escape, Ironhide needing to grab her as she’d tried to stay behind to offer cover fire and a distraction while they’d fled the base.

She had been on their side since day one. So why change now?

Grunting as Roadbuster shifted, he tried to move over to avoid the mechs shoulder strut jamming into his side only to nearly stumble as his ped caught on Steelbane’s sword. This room was far too small for near fifty Cybertronians.

And she’d known that.

Of course this wasn’t some stupid, unprompted invasion of what they could call a safe space. And he knew, Ironhide knew without a second of doubt, Kira would never willingly spend a heartbeat sharing a room with a human again. She took hours to gather the mental strength to return to Earth for human sustenance and absolutely refused to speak to any organic except Lennox or Cade.

She would never do something like this willingly or without cause. That human agent, whoever his was and however he viewed his station with the Cybertronians, was not here because Kira wanted to make a friend or she was ready to hand over her role and betray them.

There was a reason. There, however, was not a reason to condone why she had not told them of his arrival. Though, Optimus’ reaction was answer enough.

Glancing his way, Ironhide found Ratchet already at work welding his arm back on, Jolt close beside him as an assistant.

The Prime had always thought he was good at keeping his thoughts to himself. His faceplates were as open as a book. And Ironhide watched as the Prime went through the exact same thought process he had, watched as he thought back to every interaction with the human and came to the same conclusion Ironhide had.

Kira did not want to betray them, at least not in the way they all thought she had. Yes, she had kept it secret that a human would come to the base and she did initiate a lockdown so they could not leave until speaking to the agent, but it had not been done with the intention of hurting them. She was just trying to keep everything together in a world that was not hers to carry.

Why had they given so much weight to bear? She was only human, a mere sparkling. This was their fault and theirs alone, not hers. She should not be punished for their negligence.

And Ironhide should not have just stood there while Optimus had pointed his damned sword at her.

Shoving through the cluster of bots trying to find space in the tiny room, and ignoring the grunts and curses thrown his way, he stormed right up to Optimus seated before Ratchet and punched him square in his faceplates.

Optimus, having not been expecting the hit, fell to the side with a crash and a groan, Ratchet wheeling on the warrior with a scowl. “Ironhide, are you out of your-”

“Point your weapon at her again and Prime or not I will kill you.” Ironhide seethed down at his Prime, his friend, his brother.

Ratchet scoffed, shoving his welder into Jolt’s servos and moving to help Optimus back to his feet, the Prime’s arm somewhat attached but not entirely secured. “You did the exact same thing, you giant oaf.”

He knew that, and he couldn’t hit himself but he was hoping that in hitting Optimus not only would it relieve the anger within him, but grant him the punishment he deserved when Optimus hit back.

Only Optimus didn’t hit back. He sat there, staring at the ground, Ironhide’s words no doubt finally breaking through the haze of hurt and rage to reveal the truth to the Prime.

Lurching to his peds, Optimus practically sprinted from the room, the crowd leaping out his way as he hurried to the door and skidded around the corner.

“Optimus-” Ratchet yelled, about to reprimand him for leaving in the middle of repairs, but Jazz placed a servo out to stop him.

“Let him go.”

The guilt in the lieutenant’s optics matched the same as every bot gathered, the clarity seeping in as the shock wore off. They had just stood by and done nothing as Optimus had threatened their human. It would take no small feat of groveling to earn her trust back. Nor would they ever forgive themselves.

---

“I don’t know what you want me to say here, Prime.” Agent Fowler paced the length of the catwalks for the fourth time, rubbing at his forehead with more force than Optimus though necessary. “He attacked me without reason. That is more than enough to have him detained.”

“You really think you’d be able to get any of them into a cell without killing your human soldiers in the process?” Ratchet fired back.

“You all seem more size appropriate for the task.” the small human responded to the medic.

Optimus held a servo out when Ratchet growled, starting to take a step toward the organic. “I will not risk the lives of my Autobots to confront him.”

“You just told me you’ve fought him before.”

“This little slagger doesn’t know when to shut it.” Bulkhead mumbled to Arcee and Bumblebee from the sidelines.

“Optimus was severely wounded. You cannot ask him to go against that thing again in the hopes of detaining it. Within this base they are contained.” Ratchet addressed the human again, now pacing near his work station.

“How long will that last? They have the numbers. One attack and they’ll be free to roam the country.”

Optimus had better things to be doing than stand here arguing with Agent Fowler, like going after Kira. The human had said to let her go, that she needed to be alone, but the Prime couldn’t stop the need to be by her side from clawing at his chassis.

Optimus didn’t even care that his base had been turned into a hostage situation, nor that he now had almost thirty highly dangerous criminals somewhere in his base without supervision who could be planning to slaughter his team. He needed to find Kira.

“We will not let that happen.” the medic snapped back when a moment of silence has passed and Optimus had not said anything, his optics once again straying toward the hall Kira had run down.

“I cannot stay here forever.” Agent Fowler pointed out, slamming his fist against the elevator button to  further his point of the lockdown.

None of them could stay locked in here forever. Nor could they stand around waiting for a side to come to its senses. Not without a certain human pushing the scales in favor of a non-violent outcome.

“You will not. Once Kira has had a chance to speak some sense into them-” Optimus did not want her anywhere near those things again. That same blind rage that had compelled him to move before struck again and he barely managed to stop himself from tearing his own base apart in search of that Optimus and driving his sword through his chassis for what he’d done to her.

“Can she? Seems to me that other guy was happy to kill her before you stepped in.”

Optimus did not have time for this, nor did he want to stand around and talk. Kira needed him. His team could manage to take care of themselves and come up with a plan should the others attack. He needed to find the human.

Without a word, and ignoring the screeching of the human he left behind, Optimus began down the hall she had run.

He should have seen the signs, noticed the violence that hid in his doppelganger’s optics. He should have sensed the rage boiling underneath, the spark of a Bot who did not care who he had to go through to get what he wanted, even if it meant hurting those he claimed to care for.

He had attacked Kira, there was no other way to say it. His first attack had not been aimed at her, but the second once knowing she was there, was. And she now bore the wound to prove that.

He would not give them a chance, not give them the choice, they were leaving for the new base Agent Fowler had found immediately. And if he had to kill every last one of them to do so, so be it, but Kira was staying with him. He could not, would not, let her return to their side. He had no way of knowing if they would hurt her again.

He had seen the hateful glares, though the fact that not one of them had even flinched when Optimus had pressed his sword to her body,  never mind trying to help her, told him that none of them would try to defend her should that Optimus attack again. In fact, he was sure they would join him.

How? How could one that called themselves an Autobot attack a human? The brutality with the Decepticons he could excuse as fatigue from the war, a desperation for it to end, but a human? One who spent years of her life in service of them? Her first response upon being discovered in the desert was to worry about how to reach them, not her own safety.

The search for the new base had been for them. And while she had made it obvious she had reservations about trusting a human, she did not say anything to them because she knew they would not see it as what was best for them given the situation. Instead, they attack her.

She needed somewhere safer, someone to take her away from their violence. And he could do that, he could keep her safe.

He could scoop her up into his servos that felt too large and clumsy and cradle her close, keeping her safe from all the dangers she faced with them.

Turning the corner, he intended to do that, until he found her already held in another set of servos.

“I am so sorry.” his variant spoke, his voice cracking as he practically breathed them out as a plea.

He should be begging for her forgiveness. And she should not grant it.

“Please don’t hate me.” Kira whimpered in reply, still curled into herself even though the Bot held her close, her tiny frame shuddering as she sobbed.

“No.” the foreigner moved his servos higher, pressing her body against his faceplates as he nuzzled her. “I could never hate you.”

Optimus felt like his tanks were going to purge as he forced himself to step back, retreating around the corner once again. He had to take an unsteady step back, the wall the only thing keeping him upright as rage turned his vision spotty and his legs trembled with the need to kick something.

She didn’t forgive him because she was too busy blaming herself. And that thing, that monster, instead of groveling or correcting her that he didn’t deserve to share the same room as her, he consoled her as though she was the problem?

Why was this all so wrong?

“The others will.” Kira replied, sniffing as she seemed to move.

“They understand why you did it. As do I. I just…” that Optimus trailed off.

‘Just what?’ Optimus wanted to ask his variant. ‘Just forgot she is the only reason the war still matters? Just forgot your vows to protect all sentient life from the dangers of Cybertron, forgetting that included you?’

“Got angry?” Kira filled in.

That Optimus huffed, her words downplaying the situation so much yet also perfectly summing it up. “Got angry. And you-”

“You didn’t hurt me.” Kira cut him off, Optimus freezing for a moment as the violent fog cleared just enough for her words to drift though. “Your sword didn’t touch me. I cut my cheek on that guy’s tie clip as I tackled him. You never touched me.”

Relief flooded Optimus, but it felt wrong. Why was he happy she had not been harmed by one like him? He should still be beyond enraged she was so close to danger to begin with.

“So, what’s the plan?”

Of course they would have been looking for me. And with half the colony injured resources would have been better spent taking care of them. Not to mention them potentially running into the humans they had thought I had fallen victim to.

Why did I keep screwing up so badly? Maybe the colony would be better off without me. No, they definitely would be better off without me, but I had so many reasons to stay. Unfortunately for my idiot brain those reasons weren’t enough to keep me from putting the ones I loved in more danger. And even worse, lying to them so easily.  

“We have to tell Caesar we’ve found you.”

Taking a step back he called out a bark, the kind used to signal the end of danger or it being all clear. Basically that I had been found and was going to be escorted back to the colony.

Following wordlessly as he started to lead the way back to wherever our new home would be until we could get back to the forest, it dawned on me as we stepped into the shadow of the towering skyscraper that Luca wasn’t actually reprimanding me. He’d asked questions, explained what had happened in my absence and why, but wasn’t giving me shit for what I’d done.

This was the gorilla who threw me in the river when I threw raspberries at him. This was the gorilla who had assigned me a week of night shifts on the wall after I’d found a dead snake and chased the babies with it. This was the gorilla who had not once but twice smacked me on the back of the head when I’d made an entirely poorly timed joke in a single council meeting.

And now I’d disappeared, for once done something that actually deserved real punishment and a proper lecture, and he wasn’t even looking at me.

He hadn’t hugged me. His only point of contact had been to check me for injuries before stumbling back as though touching me was an offence. To who I didn’t know, but he was definitely keeping distance between us.

I tried to speed up, to walk beside him and closer to his shoulder as we’d always done, but he simply sped up more, pulling away from me.

Was this still about me and Caesar? I knew the reactions would be mixed but this? Hadn’t he wanted this, pushed for Caesar and I to get together? He’d told me my feelings were not wrong and were not felt alone so why was he acting like this after we’d finally followed their insisting?

Following Luca past the tower, silent as though an all out war had not occurred within its walls only hours prior, we walked a couple more blocks before I saw the apes posted outside the Salesforce Tower.

It wasn’t exactly inconspicuous, but no humans would be dumb enough to camp out in there.

Nodding the sentries as we entered, I sighed as Luca headed toward the staircase. Another thing to lament over without electricity, no elevators. “How far up do we have to go?”

“Fourteen.”

Usually Luca would throw in a comment about humans being weaker, or make some stupid remark like ‘what, you tired’ while playfully offering my a piggyback ride that I knew he would totally turn into reality if I didn’t have the competitive need to prove him wrong, even if it led to me gasping the moment we’d reached the summit of the hill we’d hiked back in the Woods years ago.

Something was off with him. And not just giving me the silent treatment as a form of torture, he was putting up a wall between us.

Could he smell Koba? Did they know what I’d done? Was this my walk toward the guillotine, my executioner fourteen floors above?

Finally stepping out of the industrial staircase at floor fourteen, my legs already exhausted from the walk all the way across the city and now officially dead from the climb, I wobbled after Luca as he swung open the door and found the council gathered.

Oh shit, I was dead.

Instead of glares and snarls, I was met with avoided gazes as Caesar turned to figure out what the interruption was. Spotting me, he dropped to all fours and ran across the room, throwing his arms around me.

“Where… have you been?” he grunted out, head dropping to rest in the crock of my neck and inhaling deeply.

The usual mushiness of being wrapped up in his arms turned to ice as I felt him breathe me in, freezing in place as I waited for the scent of his enemy to register. A second later my ape slowly pulled away, keeping his arms on my shoulders as he ducked his head to be eye level with me. “What… wrong?”

He couldn’t smell Koba. I was okay, everything was all good.

“Nothing. I just… needed some time.”

Caesar’s brows furrowed, confusion mixed with understanding. The last few days had been a lot for all of us, but shouldn’t I want to stick close to those I almost lost rather than go off alone? I should.

For fuck sake, Caesar had almost died again yesterday. That came just two days after his last death scare where I thought I lost every ape I knew. Luca, Maurice, Rocket, my sons. And instead of wanting to stick to them like honey, I disappeared all night.

Maybe this thing with Koba wasn’t worth it. My family needed me, I needed them. I should be relishing I get to see another day with them. Most apes weren’t so lucky. I should just forget about him, go back in a couple weeks to at least bury the bones, and be done with it all. We would leave, get so far away those soldiers would never find us and I would never had to think of the bonobo again.

Koba deserved his fate. I deserved to be happy.

A grunt from Maurice had us both looking at the great orangutang. “Finally. Perhaps you can talk some sense into him.”

“Sense about?”

Lacing his fingers with mine, Caesar led me to the circle of sitting apes, settling me at his left side while Blue Eyes sat at his right, not looking at me even when I tried to smile in his direction.

“Caesar wishes to stay in the city.” Rocket replied.

“What?”

Caesar grunted, giving his friend a look that had Rocket huffing and finding interest in the ugly gray industrial carpets. Turning to me, the chimp signed, “It is not a good idea to leave now.”

“Why not?” Maurice pushed again, a rare anger making his signing sharp. “There are no trees here, little food. Apes hate it here.”

The orangutang wasn’t wrong. And why would we stay? Our job here was done. Most humans were dead, now we needed to skedaddle before more came.

“We have many wounded. Remember those first days in the forest, trying to run, to hide while carrying wounded?” Caesar signed back.

A heaviness fell over the room, the memory of the hardships they had endured in the early days of their survival. Blue Eyes and I had not been there but we had both heard the stories all the same. So many lives lost because of their inexperience in fending for themselves and foraging for food, infection and exertion taking the wounded as they tried to get further and further away from the humans chasing them.  

I had not stopped by to see the wounded yet but something told me their numbers would be far greater than the last battle against humans, and the death toll higher too. Trying to move any of them would be to sentence them to death. Here, given the time to heal, they might stand a chance.

“And we have the females and children here now. Our village is burned, we have no wall, no gorilla gate, nothing to defend us. If we go into the forest, the humans will come after us. They will have guns and weapons. Last time, we were lucky. The sickness stopped them from chasing us. This time they will keep coming until we are all dead.”

I wanted to interject, to say something to try put everyone at ease, but he wasn’t wrong. If even one human survived, which we knew some had, they would be fueled by revenge and could burn the city and the forest to the ground to eradicate us. It’s what I would have done if the roles were reversed.  It’s what Koba had planned to do after he’d faked Caesar’s death at the hands of humans.

“Here we can defend ourselves. Guns are here, explosives, other weapons. We will need these things to fight the humans.” Caesar continued.

“Must we fight them?” Maurice spoke up again, looking around to try gain some supporters in his ideas. “Can’t we find some other way?”

All eyes turned to me, the resident human expert, but I had nothing. I knew these humans would not think of a peaceful resolution. They would want blood to pay the price for this loss.

“Maybe.” Caesar signed back with a shrug, oblivious to the attention I was getting as the others sought my opinion more than his.  “If we show we are strong enough, make the humans know how costly a war will be, then maybe they will talk to us. Maybe we can have peace. But we must be prepared to fight.”

There would be no peace. Caesar finally saw that. He knew now, he had seen it, that humans hated the apes. A few, like Malcolm, might see reason but the rest only saw monsters who had attacked humans after almost erasing the human species only a decade earlier. He was not going to make the same mistake of banking on their humanity again.

Except now he was taking it to the opposite extreme and planning to fight instead of flee. Maybe some of Koba’s influence had rubbed off on him recently. That thought didn’t settle easy in my stomach.

“Alina,” Maurice addressed, making it clear he was no longer seeking Caesar’s input, “you have a better understanding of humans. Is it worth staying to prepare for war?”

“War was inevitable the first day we crossed paths in the forest. If Malcom is right and human armies are coming, we need to be ready.”

And by ready I meant get the hell out of dodge because there was no way any of us, whatever remained of the armory or not, could face a coordinated military group and win. We were monkeys with some guns and half a dream.

I opened my mouth, ready to tag on that while I saw Caesar’s reservations about leaving, staying would only cost more lives, when I remembered a certain injured ape all alone. If we left the city, I wouldn’t be able to care for him anymore. And I sure as hell couldn’t bring him with.

“The city will be a safer option.”

The apes gathered froze, their attention on me going from awaiting an answer to disbelieving the one I had given.

“Really?” Caesar asked beside me, giving me a concerned once over.

“Okay, screw all of you. I argue with Caesar often, doesn’t mean I never agree with him.”

My answer had been too plain, agreeing too easily. They knew I put some thought into things. Not as much as Caesar, I did still act upon impulse more than sense at times, but I usually had some reason to disagree with Caesar behind it. I wasn’t as smart as him, but where he saw things with cold, hard logic, I was usually the one to put a flare of fantasy into the dream.

Our roles had reversed with the humans. He had wanted peace, I had wanted genocide. In the end I had been right, though this would never feel like a victory. Seeing reality, Caesar was back to his logic and reason and sense.

If only it was because for once I was there with him on the logical side and not wanting to play Florence Nightingale.

“Trying to get across the city and into the woods with the wounded won’t work. And we can’t leave them here. With the loses from the fight there won’t be enough apes to guard the females, wounded and children here while the rest scout out a new place to live and we try to rebuild. Not to mention the bear attack we had a couple weeks ago. Bears have a good sense of smell, they will scent the wounded. There isn’t much food in the city but it will be easy enough to find more. The human colony would have been preparing for winter and will have all we need to last a few weeks at least.”

Varying looks passed over the apes gathered. Caesar, surprised I’d agreed with him and had actual reason beyond his own for agreeing. Luca, impressed I’d used my brain for a change. Rocket, sharing Luca’s amazement that I had enough brain cells to come about those reasons. Blue Eyes, still stuck on the fact I was agreeing with his father. And Maurice, annoyed I hadn’t taken his side.

I could only imagine what expressions I’d get when they found out I was actually only agreeing because it was the best way to keep close to Koba and the rest had all be bullshit I’d pulled from thin air as I’d started to talk.

“I hate the idea but it’s the best thing for the colony right now. We need to heal and prepare. Once we have a healthier troop of apes and a better understanding of what humans are coming then we can adjust our plans.”

“Alina right.” Caesar spoke, though technically it had been all his plans and I was just adding more reasons why everyone should agree with him. “We remain here and prepare. Luca, assemble the gorillas. They will stay here and protect the woman, children and wounded. Rocket, Blue Eyes, gather what chimps are able to travel. We are going to retrieve as many weapons as we can. Maurice, establish scouts throughout the city. We need to know where the remaining humans are and where the soldiers-”

“Sorry to interrupt.”

I damn near leapt a foot in the air as the voice behind me, spinning to find Malcom, Ellie and Alex flanked by two chimps at the entrance. “What are you doing here?”

“Caesar invited us.” Alex answered.

I turned to Caesar, the ape pointedly ignoring me as he stood and walked to greet the humans, filling them in on his plan.

Looking to Luca, Rocket and Maurice, I shrugged and mouthed ‘What the hell’, only to receive looks of disapproval and resigned acceptance.

Okay, sure Malcom and Ellie had proven to be on ape’s side and had risked their lives for the colony, but that didn’t explain why they were still here.

“I… will join in a moment.” Caesar addressed the room, signaling the end of our meeting and the start of action.

Standing, the apes moved to follow the three humans out the room. I intended to join them until Caesar called out my name, moving to stand before the floor to ceiling window at the end of the room.

Watching the council leave, my chest sank at the lack of reaction. Not even a smirk from Rocket or a sympathetic smile from Maurice. Luca did not even pause to let me know where he’d be once I was free from my impending lecture. And Blue Eyes practically ran out the room, so eager to get away from me.

They hated me. Well, they were avoiding me and that was pretty much the same thing in my books. I had lost them.

Still reeling from the aching sting in my chest from their reactions, I numbly joined Caesar at the window, barely stopping to appreciate the view of him standing with his back to me and his head held high as he gazed out over his new domain with the midmorning sun turning his fur glossy and warm.

I expected to immediately be subjected into a lecture, questioned over and over again about where I had gone and what could have convinced me wandering the city at night mere hours after the battle was over and desperate humans still hung around. Maybe he was going to push about why I had agreed with him when the last seven years of our lives had been me stating over and over again how much I loved not having to ever step foot in the city again.

I expected things to be how they had always been between us. I did not expect him to grab my shoulders the moment I stepped beside him and pull me into his chest, pressing his lips against mine.

Optimus felt his spark shudder again, his tanks shifting inside. He needed to move, to pace, to drive his sword into that monsters chassis and twist until the light extinguished from his optics. He needed to kill the thing that had hurt Kira. He needed it removed from the face of the earth, wiped from the universe.

Red splotches appeared in his vision, her small body coming in and out of focus and his energon boiled, the fire inside roaring to be let out and maim any that dared touch the human. He watched, restless inside while his frame remained frozen, as another droplet of blood rolled down her cheek and dripped to the floor.

His base stained with the blood of a human at the hands of Bot so much like him.

It felt like an Earthquake, his body trembling with the effort it took to not charge through the base and do something to regain control of his base. Or maybe it was fear. If he turned away, if he left her here, she could break and he wouldn’t be there to save her.

Stuck in this indecision, frozen in fear and rage, Optimus stood a silent, looming figure, feeling helpless as she struggled to keep her face blank. Why couldn’t he have been created human? Then he could hold her, heal her, take her from away from this place so she never again had to face them or a desert ever again.

There had been this place Optimus had been to once, in the early days of their settling into Earth. An energon scouting mission west of here, close to the Canadian border. Mountains shrouded in mist that fed straight into the sea. He thought she’d like it there. Maybe he could take her, open the Ground Bridge while Ratchet was distracted and grab her and just go.

No war, no evil doppelgangers, not Decepticons or humans or Dino Bots. Just them and the endless rolling of the waves and the tall trees.

Optimus felt in his spark that if he did ask her in that moment, if he let his control slip for just a moment, she would have agreed in a heartbeat.

The Prime was pulled from his rage fueled frozen state and fantasy lost processor by Ratchet moving closer, forcing him to take a step back as the medic forced himself into the spot Optimus had been and leaned over the railing to inspect the small femme. “It does not appear too drastic, a graze. There is a human medical kit in there. Use what you need.”

Wordlessly, emotionlessly, Kira turned and followed the medic’s instructions to open a small cabinet attached to the human desk and pulled out a white box with a red cross. Placing it on the desk, she flicked it open and began to rifle through it, pulling out what she needed.

“How do you know that, Ratch?” Bumblebee asked, optics roaming over the human. No doubt he was imagining his own young charge being in such a situation and his processor was running through the same rage and fear Optimus was navigating. “That she doesn’t need a human doctor. It looks bad.”

“I have been studying human medical texts.” Ratchet replied, moving to the control station and clearing the lockdown warnings. Then he pulled up the bases cameras, flicking through the feeds until he found the foreign Bots cramming into the storage hanger.

Optimus was sure his team would be keeping a close optic on them in the hours to come. This was, after all, now a hostage situation.

A small huff and a mumbled “Softie” had the servo that had clenching around Optimus’ servo loosening a tad. Though she was likely still working through the shock, the Kira he knew was still there. The one who was stronger than any Bot he’d ever met.

“Someone had to make sure those little vermin don’t kill themselves. I refuse to have that happen under my watch. Do you know how many more humans we’ll have in this place then?” the medic tried to recover, but while his frame faced the cameras, his attention had not strayed from Kira since she’d pressed a pad of wet bandage to her face and hissed.

Optimus wanted to help too, looking down at his huge servos that could do nothing but carry her in a time in which he wished to heal her, to comfort her. He wanted to take her pain away, her worries for what would come next, crushing feeling of being alone and scared as she replayed all the angry faceplates that had glared at her in distain before turning away.

He wanted to hold her close to his chassis and never let go, let the primal inside him out and growl at any who strayed too close. But as he moved to reach for her he remembered that blade from that Optimus being inches from her face and the same icy fear that had gripped him before came rushing back.

He didn’t even remember moving. One moment he was seated, watching as that Optimus raised his sword and stalked toward Agent Fowler. He saw Kira move, saw the blade go down, down, down right above her and the next moment he was standing opposite the Prime, his sword out and ready to murder anything that moved.

“There’s that monster.”

It made sense now. He understood it all. The looks, the anger, the guilt. He now understood the loss and the pain that had forged his variant’s spark and for a moment he’d lived it.

Should anything like that ever happen to Kira again, or any of the humans or the Bots of his team, he would stop at nothing to kill everything that posed a threat to them. Of this he was certain.

He owed that Optimus an apology. And a fist to the faceplate.

“Prime,” a tentative voice called, lacking its usually bite, and Optimus turned to see Agent Fowler finally standing though on shaky limbs and trying to adjust his tie, though it had little effort in making him appear any less disturbed than he had been. “What is going on?”

Well, this was going to be one long afternoon.

---

Kira drowned out most of what Optimus and the Agent said, checking and rechecking the information the Agent had sent over only seconds before stepping into the silo and surviving his near death experience. She needed to do something to keep her shaking hands busy so they didn’t give her away.

She had never once feared Optimus, and not for a second thought he would in any way cause her intentional lasting harm, but that didn’t stop the adrenaline nor the instinctive fear of something much bigger and badder than you.

“Are you okay?”

Kira jumped, having been replaying Optimus’ optics burning down at her with his sword brushing her cheek so she did not hear the human agent approach until he was right beside her.

Her jolt and the lean away from the human had Optimus, who was standing silently at her side, shift with a flex of his fists. The reaction from the titan had the human shuffling back with his hands raised in surrender.

“This whole base is losing its mind.” the agent muttered.

Kira chuckled, though the action was humorless as she turned in her seat to face him. “You think this place was ever sane?”

The agent huffed a laugh back, and from the corner of her eye she saw Optimus loosen his fists, shaking out his servos. He was still trembling, whether from rage or the waning Cybertronian equivalent of adrenaline she couldn’t be sure, but it was getting better.

She refused to think about what had happened ten minutes ago. Thinking about it would lead to thinking about what had happened to her team and thinking about her team would remind her she was betraying them and they now hated her and so she rolled her neck, the action causing her cheek to twinge again.

It didn’t hurt, but she could feel it there. She was sure the pain would come soon enough.

“You’re still bleeding.” the agent spoke again, pointing to her cheek.

She could feel the sogginess of the bandage she had taped on, the warmth of her blood soaking through it. She’d been spoilt in life, always having Ratchet and his holoform steps behind her to clean up her messes. It had been years since she’d had to tend to her own wounds, nevermind one she couldn’t see.

Though her blood rioted against the idea, her loyalty to the Autobots practically etched in her bones, she nodded to the man, understanding what he wasn’t saying.

Nodding to her in reply, and keeping his eyes shifting between her and the Prime looming above them, he tentatively reached into the first aid box and pulled out a pair of gloves and snapped them into place  before getting to work preparing gauze and fresh tape.

She made sure to keep her face neutral as he worked, biting her tongue at hide the flinch. Any reaction from her would cause a reaction in Optimus and the last thing any of them needed was two angry Primes wanting the human agent dead.

“So, tell me a little about your work with the Autobots.”

Such a loaded question. How did she fit almost eighteen years worth of her life into a couple sentences? How did she properly convey the horror they had faced as N.E.S.T had fallen apart to excuse what had happened to him? How did she explain that she had not for a single moment felt as though she was in danger even as Optimus’ sword dug into her skin?

“How much time you got?” she mumbled back in reply.

“Well, considering you put us into lockdown and I can’t go anywhere, about as long as you want to make it.”

With a deep breath Kira began, for the third time, the story of her life with the Autobots. This time she didn’t hold back details, sugar coat events. She kept it real, solid, truthful. The arrival of the Cybertronians, the formation N.E.S.T, the disbanding of N.E.S.T, the attack on Chicago, the Hong Kong incident, Stonehenge.

Everything. Every battle, every mission, every statistic. And the agent, who had pulled out a chair, sat silent, listening. And not just listening to gather the information or understand the situation, he was listening to her. Her experience, her thoughts, her place in all this.

When she was done, having ended her story at the moment she’d found Optimus on that desert highway, he took a slow, measured breath in and exhaled with just as much control and blinked. “I see.”

Well that was not the answer she was expecting but it was something, right?

“What is your plan with them?” Fowler asked, jerking his chin in the direction her Autobots had gone.

What was her plan? Kira thought she’d have some time at least to slowly break the news of a human coming to the base, one who had military ties. She’d assumed she’d have a chance to explain why they needed to move to a bigger base, one potentially closer to humans. Instead, everything had gone belly up and she’d fucked it up further by initiating a lockdown.

Kira hadn’t thought. She’d seen Optimus moving to leave and knew nothing would stop him and so she jumped, hitting the small orange button she’d spied while cataloging locations a couple days before. She hadn’t meant to trap them.

Oh Primus, she hadn’t seen Optimus’ face when she’d locked this place down. He hadn’t even turned back to look at her. And the others, the hate in their optics was so potent she could almost taste the anguish rolling off them.

She had betrayed them, trapped them with the enemy. She had broken their trust.

They would never forgive her.

Laughter around a fire, cold nights huddled together to hide from a storm while Jazz played some soft music to keep the spirits up despite the terrible situation, Optimus’ soft voice as he pointed out stars in the sky and told her stories of his journey across space and all the other beings he had met.

Comrades, friends, family. Her family. Her home.

She’d lost it all.

“Soldier?”

Kira’s eyes snapped up from where they had been locked on the floor, desperately staring at it as though it held the answer of how she could fix this. She took a breath, ready to answer. He had asked a question after all.

But what could she do with them? They hated her and she knew the extent of that hate, how deep it ran, how long they could hold a grudge. She had lost them forever.

“Excuse me.”

She must have stood up and walked to a hallway because the next thing she was aware of was being slumped against a wall, sobs tearing at her chest as she cried silently. Servos reached out, large and warm, lifting her toward his own body sitting rested against the wall and pressing her to his chassis.

Dragging his unconscious ass to Oreo had been one thing. Getting him onto the horse was another. And just as I was ready to give up, he’d woken enough to help me by using his good arm to pull a fraction of his own weight up so I could get beneath him and haul him up high enough to settle his legs on either side of Oero’s back.

Guiding the horse away from the city center, I took a page out of Caesar’s book and headed for the homes. Somewhere no one would go looking for an injured ape. I could not go back to my own home because the humans were still there with Rocket and his family, so I headed further up the hill, toward Haight Street.

Kicking in the door of a random home, I found a sofa to put him down and almost died dragging him up the porch stairs and into the house, sitting beside him and panting heavily for a good five minutes after while my arms shook.

I needed to get medical supplies, but everything was at the human colony and I was covered in his blood. I could not go to Ellie because Rocket was there and he would not give me a chance to explain.

But Koba was going to die unless I did something.

All these houses had been ransacked, the hospital burned down. Besides, he had broken bones, internal injuries I could not see or mend.

God this had been a stupid idea. Stupid and pointless. I let my empathy overrule reason and now all I’d done is exhaust myself. He’d die soon anyway. I should have just left him to his fate.

Standing, I was entirely ready to do that, but then I turned back one final time and found his drooping eyes watching me, accepting that he was going to die alone and I broke all over again.

“Fuck!” Grabbing a dusty throw blanket from the floor, I gave it a good shake before laying it over him. I’d need to build a fire, both for heat light, but there was no fireplace here. The last thing I needed was to start a fire that consumed the city.

“I’m going to find some supplies.” I told him, stopping myself as I went to rest a hand upon his brow. “I’ll be back. Just don’t die.”

With the moon as my guide and adrenaline to keep me going, I rummaged through the house. Every draw, every cupboard, every closet. I almost cried when I found the old cookie tin used to hold a sewing kit. Thank God for grandmas. It was a small victory, but it was a start.

Setting the tin down beside what I prayed to be a sleeping Koba, I ran through the streets looking for anything to contain a fire, an old oil drum practically a gift from the Gods.

Rolling it back to the house, I hauled it inside and began manically smashing chairs and the coffee table, throwing the wood into the barrel and tossing in handfuls of fall leaves as kindling.

A roaring fire was step one. Now, step two. And I prayed he stayed asleep for it.

---

It took thirty-four stitches to close the gash at his side. Another five for a cut at the back of his head. And three torn down and ripped apart lace curtains to make enough bandage to wrap around his torso.

His lungs didn’t seem to be filling with blood, I couldn’t hear a rattle as I placed my ear against his chest, so I took that to mean he didn’t have a punctured lung. But he did have some tenderness there so probably a couple broken ribs at least.

His right wrist was broken, all swollen and unnaturally angled. He’d winced as I’d splinted it but didn’t do much more. He hadn’t flinched at all as I’d stitched him. His legs seemed alright, nothing abnormal, and his stomach wasn’t tender when I tried to press around his abdomen. If he’d had lighter colored skin I’d have been able to check for bruising to indicate internal bleeding, but with all his fur it was near impossible.

I briefly entertained the idea of shaving him to try see what was going on but decided he needed the body heat more. Or maybe I subconsciously was granting him a death with some dignity.

I needed to find antibiotics. Honey and ginger paste weren’t going to cut it this time. Or maybe alcohol to disinfect the wounds. This house did not have any and I wasn’t sure leaving to search another was a good call.

I knew there was more wrong with him, more hurt, but I didn’t know how to tell, how to check. How to help. I didn’t know how to make him better.

And as the sun rose and I got a good, clear look at him, I saw how badly hurt he was. His face, stained with blood and permanently in a pained scowl even as he slept.

He wasn’t a monster. He was Koba. Not my friend, not my enemy. Someone who understood me, who knew me in ways words would never tell. He knew me better than Caesar, not because we found words to relate to one another or actions to guide our interactions, but because we carried the scars of humans. Because we suffered the nightmares of humans. Because we were willing to fight for a world without humans.

I shivered, not cold as I wrapped my arms around myself and watched him, silent tears rolling down my cheeks.

I saw his pain now, and my chest ached from the pain he’d caused me, but I also saw a baby who didn’t understand anything of the world around him. A baby who was hurt and scared and alone in suffering as those around him laughed.

He could have been Caesar if the world been less cruel to him. He could have been my friend, that bright, happy ape I saw in the window. He could have been someone’s son, someone’s family. He could have been my family.

Why had the world chosen to give him this fate? What did he do to deserve such hate from humans? Why would I see him now, in my dreams, and know I couldn’t help him. That I didn’t save him.

He probably wouldn’t survive this. I’d given him a day, maybe two. But you don’t overcome something like this. Not unless you’re a stubborn son of a bitch not even the devil wants back.

And I knew that’s what he was. He had to be. He had to, because I still needed him. I needed someone who understood me.

Someone who would laugh as the humans who thought they could come to our home and cut us down burned. And together we would rejoice in their screams.

I needed his monster to come play with mine.

Moving to his side, I once again knelt down low so I knew he heard me. “Okay, listen asshole. I know you are hurt, and tired. But you’re a tough bastard so you can’t die. You won’t die. You understand me?”

His eyes stayed closed, his chest barely rising and falling at all. He made no indication he’d heard me, even his eyes still behind his eyelids.

“Damnit, do you hear me?”

His eyes snapped open, his head rolling to the side so his eyes could lock on mine. I thought he’d simply glance past me, blink maybe, and go back to sleep. Instead, a green eye locked on me and a fire shone there. Not a reflection from the flames behind me, from within him. He wasn’t going down without another fight.

“Hear… you.”