—parallel earth—

      She sniggered as two giant robots chased her around the jungles of the Amazon rainforest. The woman's head was tilted as she gazed upon their familiar figures, the attitudes of these Decepticons never ceased to surprise her.

Considering that they were both made of shining metal, the Cybertronians were having difficulty keeping up with the feminine human. They were built to live on a planet of metal, not one of soft soil and all things organic.

Starscream roared in fury as neither he nor Knockout was able to get any kind of grasp on the human.

Then again, it had been months and they were never able to so much as touch her with a digit.

She was too fast. Impossibly fast.

"Knock Out, get out of the way—AGHH!" Starscream shouted only for Knock Out to stray too close to him and trip on the roots of a large tree.

Unfortunately, they had been running near a dirt cliff that was directly next to a powerful river. The two Decepticons cried out as they fell, hitting the rushing waters with incredible splashes. They struggled against it, fighting to not be carried away.

The woman let out a hearty laugh from where she watched in the trees, a bright grin that spoke of the crazies stamped onto her mouth. She winked as the one named Starscream made a face of red-hot anger at her. Knock Out was too busy freaking out over his dirtying appearance to bother.

She looked toward a device strapped to her wrist, the woman fiddling with it before she was gone in the next instant. A moment later, she was back in a little apartment while patting away a small fire that appeared on her head.

She huffed in relief as she managed to put it out.

Southside Chicago was probably the worst area one could live in, but it was also the cheapest and the only thing that she could afford.

Astraea sighed as she fell back on her couch—eyes tired. She did not hear either of her two roommates around, they were probably gone.

Carly and Nicki both tended to stay at their boyfriends' places rather than home.

How long have these Cybertronians been after her? It had been a few months at this point. Then again, it was her fault for falling into that stupid portal. The stupid portal that—for as much shit as she gave it—Astraea was actually rather grateful for.

After all, it took her away from her broken reality and brought her to this better version of Earth. A nicer and safer and less eroded reality than the one she was born into.

This planet, she had come to realize in the few months that she had been living on it, had not been taken over by the evil Autobots.

In her reality, Astraea was born weeks after Optimus Prime and his heinous legion first started their attacks on Earth.

For the first time in its history, the world banded together—governments fell away as they became one Earth—one people.

Humanity vs. the machine, as it was called. Earth and her people put up one hell of a fight, they had even formed allies with the Decepticons (a party of Cybertronians who stood against the Autobots).

Alas, after over a decade of war, humanity fell against Optimus Prime. Her world—beautiful Earth—was left damaged with many of its natural species (including humans) on the brink of extinction.

Even as the Decepticons still fight and stand against the Autobots, they too are near being wiped out. Optimus Prime has all but won, his goal of plunging the galaxy into an age of darkness under one rule—his rule—is near completion.

Optimus Prime, the last of the Primes, betrayed the name of Primus by choosing to walk a dark and maleficent path.

Or at least, that is how the story went in Astraea's reality.

When she fell through that portal she realized that her universe was parallel to this one.

In her home reality, the Autobots were tyrants who drove Cybertron and Earth into ruins.

But in this reality, the Decepticons were tyrants who only drove Cybertron into ruins. And while they attempted to do the same to Earth—the Autobots stood against them, valiantly protecting this planet and humanity.

And they were doing a much better job of it than the Decepticons of her reality, no shade, seeing as most of the Earth was not even aware of this alien war. In this universe, while Megatron still held the upper hand, he was nowhere near as successful as Optimus Prime was at taking over the galaxy.

All this being said: Astraea had her own long history.

A history that involved her importance to both the Autobots and Decepticons of her reality.

But when she appeared in this parallel dimension, by all unfortunate measures—she happened to fall into an Energon deposit under the Decepticon's control.

She was confused by the hostility that they showed her seeing as 'Cons were supposed to be the 'good guys', but she managed to get away. And very slowly over the next few months, Astraea gathered the differences between this dimension and her own.

Including the flip between the Autobots and Decepticons.

Since arriving, she was not able to stay in one place for very long seeing as these 'Cons were tracking her. To her knowledge, the Autobots of this reality still did not know of her existence, but she was okay with that.

Even knowing that they were the good ones in this universe, it was still a terrifying thought to be in the presence of Optimus Prime himself.

Optimus Prime—the destroyer of chaos and bringer of unity.

But really, everyone other than the Autobots considered him: Optimus Prime—the bringer of darkness and destroyer of freedom.

Recently, Astraea had been able to settle down in Chicago because she realized exactly how the Decepticons were tracking her.

They tracked her by her supreme speed—each time that she went fast they were able to pick up on her energy signals.

So she stopped going fast, choosing to consistently travel at the speed of a normal human being.

Thankfully, she had a prototype invention of Shockwave's (the good version of him from her universe) that allowed her to teleport from place to place.

It was dodgy and would more than likely break in the next few months, but she had it for now and she used it on occasion.

Or more like until her need for speed prevailed and she would run somewhere only for the 'Cons to eventually appear. When they appeared she would use the invention to teleport far away from them.

This happened once or twice every few weeks—give or take.

The woman let out a loud groan, finding herself hungry. It was odd because she had grown up with food very much being a luxury that one had to fight for. In this universe; however, food was easy to access.

While it cost money, it was within reach. On her Earth, food was scarce—so much so that some of the remaining humans had even resorted to cannibalism. It was terrifying. Not only were people hiding from Autobots but they also had to be cautious around other humans in fear of being robbed or even killed.

But here—life was easy.

And despite the wailing sirens and gunshots from outside her crappy little apartment in Southside Chicago, Astraea could not be more grateful. Because this was easy—this was much better than living in the ruins of her once prosperous planet.

Astraea flipped on her television, finding humor in the fact that Sonic the Hedgehog started to play. She could relate to his need for speed.

She stood up to go make popcorn—her once malnourished form having filled out just the slightest so she no longer looked as though she was starving.

The thing about money, on this version of Earth, was that one needed to get a job to make such funds. Astraea had managed to get a shitty little job at a local gas station—mostly because they were the only ones that did not require legal documentation like a birth certificate or driver's license.

Well, excuse her for being born in a crumbled society where such things were no longer needed.

It was definitely illegal on the gas station's part, but they were more concerned with hiring cheap labor. And seeing as the people they hired were people trying to evade the eye of 'Uncle Sam', they weren't exactly at risk of their employees reporting them.

Astraea had only managed to gain a room at this apartment by pure chance.

The girl who originally signed the lease—Carly—had been desperate and walking down the streets with flyers asking if anyone was looking for a new place to move into that same day.

Apparently, her old roommate pulled out last second so Carly and Nicki were looking for a new third roommate. A roommate they needed that same day.

Astraea had been the only one ready to move in that same day—mostly because she was otherwise homeless.

Thankfully, Astraea had spent enough time around Shockwave to have a mild understanding of the nature of hacking. Enough at least, that she was able to transfer some funds to a fake account under a false alias owned by her to cover rent each month.

But that was about the extent it, for transferring any larger number of money or doing any further would gain unwanted attention and no doubt end with her locked in a cell. She was not that sly of hacker.

Seeing as she came from a planet of ruins—Astraea wanted to do everything that this world had to offer.

Beach days, parties, traveling, exploring—anything and everything.

In her mind, the amount of people she had met was boggling seeing as there were much less humans on her world.

She loved talking to those that she could. Everyone on this Earth was so kind, and it was nice to know that she could talk to others of her species without fear of being eaten.

They all had so many different stories to share. So much happiness and prosperity—so much hope that it made Astraea nearly burst from joy.

Astraea had taken to keeping many of these peoples' stories in her journal.

It was her personal journal with various entries throughout her years. Up until she fell through the portal, her entries were all about the fall of humanity, the rise of the All-Seeing (what Optimus Prime had taken to calling himself), and her experience living in the post-apocalyptic Earth.

She sat with her finished popcorn back on the couch, her gaze glued to the television.

It was an old movie that was playing, one that she—surprisingly—recognized. Since arriving to this reality, she absolutely loved watching the television. Movies and shows that never had the chance to exist in her reality.

Her version of Earth never managed to make it to 2010 as this one had. Her planet had fully fallen sometime in the late 90s', and it was a relic of just that.

On rare occasions, Astraea would stumble upon an old Blockbuster and take as many working DVDs or VHS tapes as she could.

Exodus, a movie from the 1960s' was one that she was very familiar with. She had watched it countless times, and somehow, sitting here in her safe apartment watching the movie with a freshly popped bowl of popcorn brought tears to her eyes.

Tears of happiness spilled upon her cheeks like waterfalls from the Garden of Eden. But she was happy.