These Paths We Tread (Autobot x OC)

XLV. Mad World

***Parts in italicized present tense are memories-like scenes

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First there is only darkness, but then— a light so bright she cannot see. She can feel, though, and she feels as she never has before. The outside world, which had once been forever out of reach, she now grasps within her hands. She has a form and shape within which is a mind to think thoughts, and a flow of life which burns red within her. She is not alone. Around her, others of similar make emerge, and they too gaze upon her with both recognition and curiosity. How strange are these creatures that feel as though they are brothers!

Then—a voice.

She turns with her fellow creatures and there, gargantuan and enclosed by a circle of claws that seem to reach forth from the ground to grasp it, is a Cube. On its surface, ancient words and symbols she knows and understands, but within she feels a power that beckons her forth; reaches out to the beating pulse inside her. She answers at once, and approaches with her brothers.

The Cube sparks and the same light from before arches out towards each of them, encompassing them again. The voice is loud and clear now, though its words are an image instead of sound. There, she sees it; a barren landscape of a barren world, fresh from the womb and yearning for nourishment to grow and create life of its own. What life it wishes for is beyond her, but she knows what has to be done; only the Cube—the Allspark—can give the energy the planet needs, but it needs energy in kind. In that her and her brothers’ part comes. They are to go forth into the chasm beyond the planet—far beyond their world to the glowing orbs of light. From there they will find what they need. From there they can power the Cube and turn the barren landscape fertile.

The light releases them, and her body pulses with a great power; it fills and strengthens her in a way she can scarcely understand and yet she does. Her gaze lifts to the blackness far above, out to the countless dots that flood the chasm. Her duty set, she summons forth the power, and from the ground a triangular shape forms. On its surface, a pointed face she carves in resemblance of her own. It begins to glow blue, not unlike the light that gave her form. Around her, her brothers do the same, and, with but a simple thought, the triangle—a sarcophagus, she dubs it—encases her in an orb of blue, pulsing light.

When it fades, the barren planet is gone, and in its place is one that is also barren, but its surface is not made of dirt and metal, but rather a hard, blackened material surrounded by pools of red that remind her of the life that flows beneath her shell. She turns her gaze to the sky, but instead of the abyss she finds a sphere of burning energy and power, whose size dwarfs the Cube and her own self. She does not fear it or its smoldering heat, however, and summoning the power again, she lifts her hands toward the sphere. Not a moment later, she feels its energy fill her, and she knows that soon...soon her planet will be rich with life.

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-O-

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Catherine’s eyes opened slowly. The image of the sun faded, and in its place was her hand, which she clenched slowly. She breathed in and out deeply, listening to the slow beat of her heart. She was human again.

She pulled her arms and legs close, burying her head into them. For days—or was it weeks? Months? Years? She couldn’t remember anymore. It could have been vorns—no, that was wrong. She meant millennia. She whimpered, grasping at her head. She could barely tell what or where or when anything was anymore. She wasn’t even sure she was on the Decepticon ship. Yes, she could feel the hard surface of the floor and occasionally the thrumming of the Energon which pulsed into the throne next to her, but she couldn’t be sure it was real.