— robot rumble —

"Base to Autobots. Base to Autobots!" Ratchet's voice came through Optimus Prime's commlink.

They had only been fighting for about a minute—the shots started the second they emerged from the groundbridge. The Decepticons had them surrounded from the moment, but they were making quick work of the clones and moving on to the main Decepticons.

Cloning 'Bots was frowned upon in many ways, but the Decepticons didn't care. They used the weaker clones as decoys to hold the Autobots off. And as bad as Optimus felt to tear through the clones who knew no better, it was still war, and they did what they had to do.

Optimus brought a free digit to the side of his helm, optics bright as he continued to fire.

"What is it, Ratchet?"

"The speedy human went through the groundbridge—I repeat, the speedy human went through the groundbridge. Keep your optics focused!"

By speedy human, it was obvious that Ratchet meant Astraea. Optimus's optics widened as did the other Autobots who heard his words. All of them looked around hoping to find her, alas, they made no such discoveries.

If she indeed did go through the bridge, with her speed, she could easily be many miles away by now. The Autobots had already lost her: Agent Fowler was not kidding when he said she was the hardest thing to keep tied down.

Nothing could match her speed. Even if a Cybertronian used red energon themselves (something impossible seeing as red energon was rare and had not been seen for thousands of years) was not as fast as Astraea.

"Understood," Optimus said almost in a frustrated manner himself.

But ever the patient mech, he allowed no true irritation into his tone.

Nevertheless, he made sure to keep his optics focused in case she was not as far away as he suspected.

"Autobots, report Astraea immediately if she is spotted..." He said through the comlink, all of them speaking back in acknowledgment before the fighting continued.

Optimus refused to allow the same fate befall on Astraea as her counterpart.

His processor momentarily flashed back to him holding her frail dead body in his servo.

Starscream roared in anger and ordered the clone to hurry with its drilling as he anxiously watched the Autobots fight their way closer to him. At this point, he was hoping he could get even a small canister of the stuff.

Knock Out and Breakdown were standing guard, both 'Cons racing to join the fight that the clones were losing.

When Starscream watched Knock Out get smacked down by Optimus... well, he kicked the drone out of the drilling seat and proceeded to drill himself, setting the machine the intense and dangerous speeds. Especially seeing as he was dealing with such a volatile substance as dark energon.

Regular energon was already flammable enough—dark energon even moreso.

Optimus was engaged with about three clone fighters and Knock Out. Bulkhead was engaged with Breakdown while Arcee and Bumblebee were fighting off a number of clones themselves. Starscream smiled, it looked like he would cause a leakage of dark energon from the ground before they could stop.

It would be more than enough for him to collect. And more than enough to destroy the next 20 miles of land.

If he caused a dark energon leakage, it would make the next 20 miles toxic for any of Earth's natural life to be caught in.

Optimus desperately fought harder, but even a Prime had limits.

Starscream howled with laughter, only minutes away from getting to his source.

"Ugh, your laugh is terrible!"

The temporary leader of the Decepticons cried in shock as a familiar human suddenly appeared before him. Her body tiny as she stood on top of the drill console.

The dastardly little pest that Starscream had been after for months, the one who reeked of red energone and moved impossibly fast. The girl who controlled red lightning—she'd been running circles around both he and Knockout for months.

Since right after Megatron himself went into comatose mode, laying nearly lifeless back on his warship.

His shock soon morphed into rage, the Commander of the Decepticons hollering as he brought his fist down in the spot where the human was. While he wanted to bring her back alive for Knock Out to study, in the current moment, his anger won and he wanted to see her suffer.

Suffer far more than the other human he'd killed a few months back, the one that bore an eery resemblance to speedy one.

None of the Decepticons cared to figure out how the two humans had looked so similar, all of them simply writing it off as humans looking one and the same.

He punched a hole straight through the console causing the drill to momentarily shutter and freeze. He brought his hand up, gasping loudly when he saw he'd missed.

"Missed me, missed me—now ya' gots to kiss me!" She shrieked with laughed, standing calmly on the other side of the console.

Starscream shrieked as well, but his was out of pure anger rather than laugher as he once again brought his hand down and destroyed the other side of the console as well. He missed yet again at the human standing just outside of the console near the wiring.

She was laughing that familiar irritating, holding her stomach.

"You infernal creature!" He roared, bringing his hands down again and again trying to strike.

But she was too fast.

Always disappearing faster than his optics could process and appeared feet away from where he would strike.

Astraea herself was having the time of her life as she easily evaded Starscream's strikes—as easy as dancing as she twirled to different areas of the drill causing him to destroy it. If there was anything she cared the most about, it was about not seeing this version of her planet turned into a torn-up warzone like her own home.

Arcee was the first to finish off the clones, surging forward to stop Starscream from drilling any further. But she froze upon the sight she was greeted with.

Starscream tearing up his own drill? No... it was the speedy human taunting him! Causing him to destroy his own drill in his anger!

Bumblebee joined her a moment later, appearing surprised at the sight as well.

"What're you all waiting for—?" Bulkhead stopped himself as he had just hurled Breakdown into many trees, running to join the others only to stop next to them.

Optimus joined them soon after, having torn through the clones and tossing Knock Out in the trees beside Breakdown. Even Optimus froze upon the sight he was met with.

Even for them, it really was not every day that one witnessed a human in a bikini taunting a Decepticon.

"I will kill you!" Starscream wailed, pulling his final punch and putting all his power into it... right in the center of the drill's wiring.

And it was enough force to cause the entire thing to not only shut down but explode.

Astraea realized this, a shit-eating grin on her face as she covered her mouth.

"Oops?" She said, making eye contact with an astonished Starscream "Bye, Screams..." She waved, disappearing faster than he could blink.

Starscream, while still wildly upset, stared around in shock.

"By the All-Spark!" He cried, leaping in the air and transforming while flying sky-high.

"I'd run if I were you!" Astraea, still not totally sober hollered to the Autobots.

Optimus looked back and forth between the about-to-explode drill and the human.

"Ratchet, we need a groundbridge, NOW!" He commed, leading the others in racing away.

Almost instantly, a whirling green portal opened up and they all raced inside. Optimus no longer had sight of Astraea, and he could only hope that even if she had not run into the bridge, she was out of exploding distance.

But with how fast she was, there was not a part of him that thought she was in danger of the explosion.

Optimus was the last to leap through the bridge, making sure his team went through safely first.

The humans gaped as the Autobots came flying through the portal—Optimus Prime being the last, landing with a shake to military silo around. The bridge closed quickly afterward, stopping any fire from spreading.

While they stopped a dark energon leakage, they were still the cause of a major explosion that would no doubt lead to a forest fire. But that would be the firefighting team's job to put it out.

Optimus briefly thought about sending Heatwave and his human partner Kade out to clean up the fire. The intrusive thoughts were quickly stopped, there was a reason that Optimus kept Heatwave and his team in hiding on Griffin Rock. It would be risky and counterproductive to let them leave their protective shielding.

Not to mention, even if the area had been effectively abandoned by the 'Cons, there was always the chance for them to return.

Optimus would not put any of the last team of Rescue Bots at risk.

"What happened?" Ratchet asked, turning to look at the team. "You weren't gone for all that long."

"Bulk! Did you pummel Breakdown into the ground!" Miko cried from where she was leaning against the railing, nearly falling off.

Bulkhead was quick to poke her back and away from the edge. "Not pummel, but I threw him far away from us!" He laughed and Miko cheered happily.

"Arcee—any stories?" Jack asked hopefully.

Arcee briefly glanced at Jack. "Other than Astraea taunting Starscream into destroying his own drill? No." She shook her head. "Ratchet, how did you get through the groundbridge?"

The Docbot looked at Optimus who nodded in confirmation of Arcee's story.

"How do you think? She's faster than light—she walked through the portal! Even Optimus couldn't stop that if he tried!" He angrily grumbled. "Speaking of which... did she come back with you?"

Optimus looked around hoping to spot the human. "I believe so, although, she once again appears to be hiding." He said slowly, allowing his optics to scan the area only to find nothing.

Fowler growled, spinning on his heel and walking toward the corridors.

"Astraea, stop being a wuss!" He hollered while down the corridor.

"Agent Fowler..." Optimus started in a tone that was both gentle and stern.

Fowler only held up a hand as he continued on until he could no longer be seen as he went down the corridor. "I'll find her, Prime! Just do whatever it is you aliens do in the meantime!" He shouted back crudely.

Ratchet, of course, immediately started grumbling his annoyance about humans. Optimus frowned as he watched him go, but he was soon drawn into a quiet conversation with Arcee and Bulkhead, and Ratchet about his decision in allowing Astraea to stay.

However, they all agreed that allowing her to fall into Decepticon's grasp would be horrible for everyone on this planet. Along with it just being morally terrible for them not to help in protecting her—if they did acquire her, there was no telling what kind of discoveries Knock Out might make with such a human.

Agent Fowler, on the other hand, was absolutely done with this shit. But he reminded himself—just another short 10 years and he would be retirement age. Beaches, beers, and babes... that would be his life soon enough.

Until then though, he would need to continue to put up with immense military secrets, global wars, aliens, and damn superhumans.

Aliens who are robots and a superhuman drunk from a different reality.

"Mayweather!" Fowler cried out, pausing as he heard shuffling coming from a door far in the back.

His brows raised as he noticed a lock on the door had been broken—it was one of the locked rooms in the silo. One of the rooms was meant to keep people out. Of course, she had broken into it.

Grumbling, he stormed inside only to find Astraea standing with a huge machine gun of warfare in her grasp. She was still in a damn bikini, the boots large on her feet and a cigarette hanging from her mouth.

Her choppy hair was pulled back halfway, her bright eyes excited as she checked out the machine gun.

It seemed that Optimus was right, Astraea had come back through the portal with them. But apparently, she had moved fast enough once she was through the bridge for them not to notice her coming back.

This room was in the back and locked for a reason. This was a weaponry room with guns, bombs, and all things violent galore. Neither the Autobots nor humans even knew it was here because it was locked away, just as the missiles hiding underneath the bunker.

Retired weaponry that had no business being brought back to the surface. Especially considering the current residents of this place.

Fowler had made sure this lock was extra strong when he first saw the Autobots had brought human children aboard their team and under their protection.

He probably should have mentioned this room to Optimus in case the children ever went snooping and got curious enough to try and break through this lock. But the lock was strong—Astraea was probably only to break through it with her abilities.

While she was probably stronger than the average human, speed also gave a person strength. If she pulled the lock at sonic speeds, of course, it would give.

Nevertheless, Astraea was the last person who should be holding a loaded machine rifle.

She looked at Fowler, grinning with the cigarette hanging from her lips and she motioned to the gun.

"I'm already lovin' it here! Is this my room!"

"No!" He cried furiously, pointing to the gun. "Put that down!"

He refused to get any closer to her until she put that kind of weapon down.

"Okay, okay—sheesh..." She put it back on the hanging brackets she had found it on, putting her hands on her hips while admiring the other weapons.

She brought her hand up, taking a long drag from the cigarette and blowing out.

"Where did you get the cigarettes?" Fowler sounded utterly confused as he finally approached her, his arms crossed sternly.

Astraea shrugged. "One of the locker rooms—some people left some things behind. There's a basketball somewhere in there too!"

"I don't care about no basketball!" He howled. "What was that? Are you still drunk?"

"Always."

"You followed them to a Decepticon brawl drunk?! Are you insane? You do realize the 'Cons want to take you for experimentation! Taunting Starscream seems like a one-way path to a potentially painful demise!"

"Puh-lease! That cornflake isn't gonna do shit!" She drawled in a humored tone. "The 'Cons make better good guys than they do villains! Either that or they're just always destined to be on the losing side no matter what moral side they take..." She pondered toward the end.

"What? Do you know who these people are—?"

Astraea waved him off. "My version of the Autobots has nearly taken over half the universe... so excuse me if I can't help but chuckle at how little the 'Cons have done here..." She giggled at the end. "I mean—here, you can buy a Corona for $1.50... a dollar $1.50 for a cold beer! Beers don't even exist anymore in my home world!" She laughed harshly, and it didn't sound completely sane.

Fowler was hitting her with the biggest deadpan he'd ever conjured.

"Do you think Optimus Prime is going to accept that as a reason for following them into danger? Or this entire portrayal you have going on, for the matter? You need to start squaring up and you better listen to Optimus from here on out unless you wanna end up in a high-security military prison! Or worse, finally caught by the 'Cons! The other you is already dead, don't end up with the same fate!" Fowler lectured and Astraea started finding it harder to keep her eyes open. "Not to mention there were kids present here—you can't be stumbling around drunk with no cigarette... are you falling asleep?!"

"No, no, I'm listening!" She yawned. "Something about something about your kids or something...?" She was nearly slurring her words.

Fowler facepalmed himself, mentally counting as he watched Astraea tiredly lean against the wall. He eyed the bikini and how inappropriate she looked, she looked like someone who belonged on a rachet swimsuit calendar.

And not Ratchet as in the Autobot.

He meant Ratchet as in a hot mess of a young lady with serious issues. A problem who would wholeheartedly dump on Optimus Prime.

"Let's go," He harshly grabbed her arm and dragged her behind him as he left the room and started toward the atrium of the base.

"You showin' me my room?" She asked between another drag of her cigarette, the tiredness eating away at her bones.

She was ready for bed, she felt as though she could fall over and pass out now.

"I'm introducing you to your new roommates!" He answered roughly. "Don't pass out on me now, Mayweather! You had so much energy before..." He smirked. "Aren't you excited to me Optimus Prime himself?"

"Plus company?" She giggled.

He rolled his eyes, but there was a ghost of a smile on his lips. "And company..." He confirmed.

"Wow, a version of Optimus and Ratchet who aren't psychos? And Autobots that are not entirely power-hungry or maleficent? Weird...!"

Fowler could not imagine Optimus Prime being a psychopath. If anything, Fowler thought he might even be too gentle and soft to be an entire leader of a war faction. But what did he know? He was no Cybertronian.

He also wondered if Astraea even remembered banging on Optimus's hood earlier and essentially blaming him for the mess her version of reality went through. Probably not as she had been more than wasted then.

"Save it for Prime, crazy pants, save it for Prime..." Fowler sighed, relief filling him as he caught the light streaming from the main area of the base and the noise of conversation. "And stop zipping around without talking to anyone first..." He scolded. "No more disappearing without explanation..."

Astraea did not answer with any more than a hum as she took another drag of the cigarette. Nicotine was far and between from back where was from too.

"Team!" Fowler announced as he turned the final corner and appeared in sight of everyone. "Meet Astraea Mayweather!"

"Heya, new roomies!" She chirped before taking another long breath of smoke.

The human children who had been in the middle of being coraled toward their guardians by Ratchet—Optimus having now instructed them to leave for the night froze as did everyone else.

Astraea was... identical to her dead counterpart in the sense that they shared the same face. However, there were also the obvious differences. This version of her was skinnier with a more muscular frame, the body of a runner.

Her hair was also much shorter, chopped unevenly to her shoulders with highlights.

It was her eyes, so different from humans and even Cybertronians. An array of silvers and purples and reds mixed together in a kaleidoscopic mess.

"You're my idol," Miko sighed dreamily, attempting to skip up to her until Jack grabbed her arm and stopped her.

"Miko, I'm taking you home, now," Bulkhead said with a rare sternness to his voice.

"Ugh," Miko pouted, following Jack and Raf down the stairs.

Astraea raised an amused brow as Mikoe turned her head back to look at her with stars in her eyes. The other two children only regarded her with hesitance and slight caution. Miko, on the other hand, had looked like she wanted to bombard the woman with a thousand questions.

"Astraea," Optimus regarded with a nod. "The pleasure is mine."

Astraea handed her cigarette to Fowler who took it with a scowl, desperately looking around for a safe place to put it out and discard it.

After she handed her little white stick to Fowler, she strolled toward the railing and directly up to the Prime. Optimus did much the same, walking to the railing and stopping just before it. The two were nearly optic-to-eye, Optimus still looming over her gigantically.

Astraea noted right away how different he was from his counterpart, the psychotic evil version of him that he was so familiar with.

The Optimus she was familiar with, or, as he was called by many across her galaxy—The Great Uniter—was a large mech of murky purples, dark greens, and navy blues. And his optics glowed a constant and bright yellowy-orange, similar to a sun.

And standing in his presence caused most people to tremble in fear as he regarded them with an emotionless and cold gaze.

Oh yeah, and he seldom slid back his battle mask.

This guy though, this true Prime in front of her may have shared the same face, but even she knew he was certainly not the same 'Bot.

He was a series of bright righteous reds and even brighter blues. Light metallic grey made up everywhere that was not colored.

His bright blue optics seemed to swirl like the clearest of oceans on Earth. Or better, the very clean energon that ran through his lines. His face was almost friendly to gaze upon, nothing to fear.

Optimus Prime did not stare down at her with a cold and calculated look but rather a curious and kind soft gaze.

Ratchet who stood behind him staring at her with a judgmental look was much the same. He was not sterile whites and clinical blues with red glassy optics. Instead, he was almost more of a cream, an off-white with soothing oranges to make his frame and almost soft energon-blue optics.

They truly did remind her of the 'Cons of her universe.

The others she could see as they transformed were equally as colorful. Bulkhead, Arcee, and Bumblebee. Only three, but they all looked kind enough compared to their counterparts. In her universe, there were many more Autobots that flanked Optimus such as Prowl or Wheeljack, but their presence seemed to be nowhere in this version of reality.

She watched the children scamper into the vehicular modes of the Autobots before they all skirted out of the base.

Allowing her gaze to brush across both the Autobot doctor and leader once again, she could not stop herself from tilting her head in disbelief.

"It's weird to stand in both of your presence and not be trembling in fear... like I don't know if I'll ever get used to either of you not being complete and utter psychopaths bent on control and power..." She laughed as though it was the funniest thing ever.

Optimus's optic ridges furrowed in concern, he was not sure how to respond to that.

"...That is most concerning..." He finally settled on saying, speaking it unsurely.

"Isn't it," She said back in an eerily happy manner. "Like, dude, you need to see the other version of you to believe me. Fowler thinks I'm crazy, but that guy is all sorts of insane..." Astraea leaned against the railing, getting even closer to Optimus.

He did not move away, instead leaning even closer as well to try and take in the small details of her face. It was certainly the same face as the version of her that died in his servos mere months ago.

The same face and kind of the same person, but not really.

"I am sure I would agree with you if I ever had the displeasure of addressing my other self," Optimus nodded.

"And don't even get me started on you—" She pointed to Ratchet who had already turned his back to her and started on some sort of work once again.

He simply held up a servo, not even bothering to turn back to address. "Bah, indeed, don't get started. I have no interest in learning about the Knock Out version of myself..."

Astraea did not bother to correct him in saying that his other version was about ten times worse than the Knock Out of this reality.

She shrugged turning to look at the Prime almost playfully. "So am I bunking with you in your bed, big guy?" She ended the statement with a wink.

Fowler's eyes nearly bulged out of his head at her tone and Ratchet spit a snort from where he was working, now turned slightly to see his oldest friend's reaction to that.

The Prime lost brief control of his cool—something which he always kept—as he answered the speedy human in front of him.

"Ah... no... to be truthful I am not sure where you are bunking as myself nor any of the others have ever been through the human sections and tunnels of this base," He sounded almost bashful as he answered.

"You're sleeping on the couch the next few nights, Astraea, I have some agents coming in on Monday to reconstruct one of the old bunkers to be a room for you. You're welcome." Fowler grumbled. "As for now—there's some old t-shirt and basketball shorts for you to chang—" He stopped himself, blinking as in the next second Astraea was standing in the same place with entirely new clothing on.

A plain T-shirt and basketball shorts, the ones he was talking about. Her boots were also discarded as she stood barefoot.

Even Optimus and Ratchet blinked in astonishment, all of them doing a double take. However, at this point, Astraea's party tricks really should not surprise them.

She leaped onto the couch, stealing a wool blanket strewn over the back and placing it over herself before cuddling deeply into the cushions.

"I'm still tipsy," She muttered, opening her eyes only to see Optimus and Ratchet still looking at her.

"How shocking," Ratchet muttered sarcastically, turning back to his work.

Optimus watched her for a moment longer before he rumbled a response. "Do you require anything?"

"Cuddles?" Astraea pouted.

Optimus raised a metallic brow of confusion. "Cuddles? I do not understand—"

"Ignore her, Prime," Fowler huffed in an irritated manner. "She's making another drunken sarcastic pass at you."

Astraea waved Fowler off. "Or maybe I'm genuinely flirting with the attractive and righteous leader of the Autobots... I've always had a thing for older dudes..." She said through a yawn before her eyes closed and she was falling asleep faster than she cared to admit. "A version of him that doesn't paralyze me with fear from just a look alone."

Optimus continued to stare at the weird human for many moments. He did not care to admit that his spark felt lighter than usual and his inner Orion Pax seemed much more jittery. Thankfully, the outward Prime was able to keep composed.

Mostly.

Ratchet rolled his optics as he noticed the blue hue of Optimus's face plates. The Autobot leader had always been an easy bot to fluster. Even in his Prime age.

Always far too humble.

"Right, of course," Optimus nodded, slowly looking away from the girl as she fell asleep.

However, he could not keep his optics from returning to glance every few seconds. There were a few reasons for this. One of those reasons was that he almost thought she might disappear. Another was that he was still in slight disbelief that he was staring at the young woman he had watched get buried in a casket mere months ago.

But here she was, seemingly back from the dead.

"I need to go pull a few strings, Prime, I'll be back tomorrow. You all have her, right?" Fowler asked but was already heading toward the elevator.

He was more than ready to drop Astraea on Prime to deal with.

"Very well, Agent Fowler," Optimus affirmed just as the Agent left through the elevator.

And like that: it was just Ratchet and Optimus left with a sleeping human.

"This human is bound to be more trouble than she is worth, Optimus," Ratchet grumbled as he continued to work at his station.

Optimus frowned. "No one is ever more trouble than they are worth, old friend. But your opinion has been noted." He spoke calmly and Ratchet huffed but was not surprised at the answer.

He could only hope this decision didn't blow up in their faces. Then again, despite everything, Optimus Prime had never truly led them wrong before.