Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

5,067 CE, Iacon, Cybertron.

Red and orange bulkily tall and winged First Senator Sentinel Prime sat in his beige chair of his city and landscape painting covered office, blue coated and brown mustached Terran Confederation foreign service officer Dirk Manus seated beside Sentinel’s desk in a chair that required traveling up a lift or stairs to use, so he could be at desk height with Sentinel. Next to them, widely sloped white and black door-winged Intelligence Director bot Prowl sat in front of the two alongside chubby turbine finned purple bot Diplomacy Councilor Nautica.

Sentinel’s blue optics and ruffled faceplate met Dirk’s brown eyes. “I’m surprised Ambassador Marissa Faireborn didn’t show up for this meeting, given how keen the old guard Galactic Federation is on these talks going smoothly.”

Nautica looked away and humphed quietly, containing her fury over the proceedings to come, well aware Prowl was squinting at her. She waved her off. Bloody conformists, Nautica thought. The Decepticons will take over without a fight at this rate. She resisted the urge to put her hand over her spark, where she had stuck a recording device inside with her dear friend’s Velocity and Brainstorm’s help in an intimately difficult procedure the month before, anticipating this meeting. If it’s never been done- maybe Prowl won’t figure it out.

“Well, Marissa is the one who dragged out these talks even happening, she’s very upset over the whole thing, making a formal complaint to the Galactic Council as we speak,” Dirk leaned back, arms behind his head, legs stretched out, smiling, while sharply staring back at Sentinel. "I’ll remind you that this is her friend we’re helping you with. She wants her and her family brought in alive for a public trial -”

“That is-” Prowl hesitated. “A security risk of the highest order in terms of public conflagration over us treating them that way. No- we can compromise- I can give them the resources to fight only the Decepticons and live in safety, if they lay low.”

“Yes, because all you think Arcee and her loved ones are good for is as a hired killer,” Nautica scoffed. “You, Prowl, who stylized her helm after her, who took up swords, but can’t get your head around how she is fighting out of desperation for what is happening to bots like you and me. She deserves to be heard and have her autonomy respected- not to be a pawn in one of your cop fantasies. Which-” Nautica smirked a polite sneer with fiery optics “you know will get you killed. By her. You do know that, right? This is a waste of time-”

“ENOUGH,” Sentinel Prime glowered at Nautica. “Councilor, I understand your feelings on the matter for the plight of trans and expansive bots during these difficult times, but Arcee’s way is no solution! Aesthetic anarchy will give way to the destruction of harmonious class values cared for by the state, and give the Decepticons more supporters from those disgusted! Her lot hates Pax Cybertronia! The only thing I agree on,” Sentinel pointed at her, “Is that she should stand trial. Aequitas and Tyrest are already slated to be the judges-”

Prowl meanwhile looked down, and shrunk into her chair as much as possible, trying to hide from sensing the world. This isn’t how things are supposed to be.

“That’s absurd! You want to put her on trial with an algorithm with no epistemic filter and - a known old guard zealot who designed it and got it on the Courts with a vote that was passed by the Decepticon minority ?” Dirk stood up on the platform around his chair. “Whose side are you on?”

“Whose side are you on, liasion FSO Dirk Manus, and Councilor Nautica?” Sentinel stood as well, fists clenched. “I will remind both of you that this meeting is happening with the blessing and order of the highest levels of the Galactic Federation we are both part of . Be careful you do not commit treason in the name of an ‘autonomous iteration revolution.’ Pah, a corruption of the word Autobot-”

“You took it from us, actually,” Nautica crossed her arms. “I was elected by the people to give voice to the transforming spirit of all our peoples and that movement, and I am doing so now, First Senator . You took it to a place of apathy and status quo, the antithesis of what revolutionaries laid out. You made it palatable, commodified. I am not breaking from law by exercising my position as a PEER to you on the Autobot Council to reprimand this course of action, and as our diplomatic face to the galaxy. I cannot believe you also wish to mire the record of a noble, naive, bounty hunter with this crusade of yours-”

Ironhide commed: =“Samus Aran is here, I’ll send her in now.”=

Everyone in the room sat back down quietly, glowering at each other, Prowl slowly unfolding with regret in every movement.

“Who said I was naive?”six foot tall, two hundred pound, brimming with muscle in her tight blue, lightly armored, and flat booted tactical zero suit Samus Aran stepped in, pistol grapple dual electric/EMP whips holstered on each hip, golden hair in a ponytail behind her face, a bit of heavy purple and orange armor folded up on her back. “I’m signing up for this rather odd job of bringing in a warrior trans woman history teacher who has a cross checked record of rampaging through government facilities looking for a nonexistent ancient enemy because of how they allegedly hurt her family, and her. The Functionists you bots, the Chozo, and the Federation defeated before I was born. I think it stinks, but she has an alleged criminal record pending trial that far outpaces-”

“Every time she did that, she acted defensively, for people dear to her or in need of help. Her movement is peaceful, otherwise Caminus, my home, wouldn’t harbor her,” Nautica smiled. “She’s not that different from you. You’ve uncovered multiple reactionary Galactic Federation, Chozo, and Space Pirate conspiracies and coup attempts. Can’t you see that?” She knelt and extended a hand.

“She is different from me,” Samus crossed her arms as she stepped closer before tentatively shaking Nautica’s much larger hand. “I defend the status quo of prosperity and democracy of the Galactic Federation and thus Earth and Cybertron-”

“The status quo will end if we continue defending it,” Dirk leaned forward. “The Decepticons are pushing for imperial expansion. For an end to elected rule. We must come together in solidarity, yes, but it is not the position of the Terran Confederation to ignore the numerous threats Federation and Cybertronian projects have caused to Earth and our allies such as Nebulos. The Bottle Ship, the X and Metroid weaponization programs, the Alpha Protocol, the facsimile encouragement of a reactionary coup, the Hive, the list goes on and on. The Golden Age of the Federation and Cybertron are over,” Dirk nodded at Nautica’s grin, before looking towards Samus again, who gazed back with steely attention. “What we need now is truth, story, and hope. On behalf of the Terran Worlds Delegates and Ambassador Marissa Faireborn, I ask that you look at this as an opportunity to create justice, not to bring in a bounty. This is pivotal to peace, yes, but not in the way the Federation or Sentinel will sell it to you. Surely the Chozo taught you the nuances of peace.”

“And of terrible, awful war,” Samus’s blue eyes turned towards the quietly fuming Sentinel Prime. “I will say, First Senator, that I do not often get tasked with bringing down the family of someone whose gender experiences deeply overlap with mine. Why her? Why not Elita One, Optimus Prime, Rodimus, Blackarachnia, Tigerhawk, or Windblade?” 

“Because,” Sentinel sighed and leaned forward. “Arcee is one of the oldest of us, and is deeply familiar with the structure of power, the underworld, the subaltern, war, and love. Her misunderstandings from her richly varied experiences when she often had so little are what puts us in danger. She is a martyr waiting to happen, or worse- she will take up a Matrix of Leadership, and disrupt our fragile peace by inspiring the military to attempt to crush the Decepticons. To end the Great Conversation of our multifaction democracy. She is not some great individual, special though she is. She was made by many people, and she makes many in turn. She, ” Sentinel toned while staring an explosive expression at Nautica, “is more dangerous than Megatron. An analogue of an X of transformation.”

“I understand,” Samus bowed her head, hand over her heart, and Nautica got up and headed to the door in a rush tearfully while Samus continued to speak. “While I find the metaphor inept and concerning, the threat to peace is clear. We have a future warmonger on our hands.”

“SHE’S A PACIFIST! Sentinel, you’ve buried your career with what you’ve said today, and I will preside over that, starting with a motion to censure!” Nautica pointed jarringly at Sentinel Prime before shutting the door, while Dirk Manus murmured about a headache. 

Sentinel chuckled. “That was going to happen sooner or later, bloody Camiens and their adoration of the ever-reforging journey of self…”

Samus gulped, feeling her Metroid and Chozo instincts and the rest of herself in sync for once, uneasy at Sentinel Prime’s wording, even though the Galactic Federation Chairperson had recommended her for the job, saying no one else could be trusted with untangling this… there’s more at hand here than anyone has told me. Sentinel is no Autobot even in facsimile or the radical meaning of the word. She shared a briefest of glances with Prowl, whose face was glassy with… worry?  

“With that out of the way, and someone to add to my watchlist,” Prowl grumbled as she booted up a galactic map projection above the floor with a small remote. “Let’s get to business on last known sightings, her home-ship was seen near the Ardurian moons, we think people are fleeing there given the times, absolutely atrocious for investigations by anybody…”

“I can track her down,” Samus smiled. “Are all her family combatants?”

Chapter Text

5,068 CE, AANS Claymore in orbit of Paradron.

“Again!” blue-gray boxy Gauge brandished her blue thermal swords in a front stance, one over head, the other pointing forward, at where black and red spike wheeled Sideswipe had been standing a few moments before, now on the ground picking up her metal sword and dagger before leaping back up to face smiling Gauge. “Come on sister, I know you can do this!”

“Yeah yeah, 2-3,” Sideswipe smirked, and started to circle around Gauge with her two blades forward. 

Gauge circled in turn, until Sideswipe made a short step forward to feint a blow that would fall too short of Gauge to actually hit.

Gauge didn’t flinch, instead chuckling, and went back to circling, and so Sideswipe continued as well…

Gauge sidestepped and dashed low, sword raised to block Sideswipe’s sword strike as she sweeped her leg around her sister’s, tripping Sideswipe backwards, and moved to place her canister safetied blade across Sideswipe’s waist when Sideswipe’s dagger swept in, blocked, while her sword blocked Gauge’s other blade, and she headbutted her before bringing her blunt dagger to Gauge’s throat-

Only to realize Gauge’s sword was on her own neck.

“Ah. 2-3 or 3-4, depending on how you look at it, in terms of survival, 2-3 still,” Sideswipe laughed, and Gauge did too, the cackling filling the ship’s small gymnasium while cyan visored bulky purple and gold Lancer clapped and chuckled along. 

“Well, you two, dear mentees, are rather equally matched, and quite spry,” Lancer stood, gray spear in hand. "Come on, we should get ready to land, Windblade just commed in-”

The hull creaked with a terrible burning sound followed by silence.

Aileron’s voice came over the three’s personal comms: =”We’re under attack! Chozo gunship craft, battle stations, must be the bounty hunter Samus that Nautica warned us about! Cutting power beams through our shields and hull like nothing!”=

Lancer, Gauge, and Sideswipe were already moving by the time the word attack was said, Gauge and Sideswipe leaping into mini mining half-track and car mode to tear through the central cyan - green - purple - pink flame motif corridors towards gunnery controls, while Lancer leapt into jeep mode to head for the engine room, “I love you two, be careful! =“We hear you Aileron darling, deploying!”=

The three sped apart, Lancer linking up with rotund green Cosmos and and white green red wheeler winged Wheeljack carrying engineering tools, Gauge and Sideswipe leaping into gunnery consoles alongside short lavender and pink flyer Javelin and curvy teal wheeler Moonracer respectively, the four trying to find Samus’s squat orange ship that continued to flit in and out of visibility.

Moonracer: =“She’s got a cloaker! Greenlight, get me all sensors on burn sweeps! Javelin, calculate location prediction from last trajectories!”=

Greenlight: =“Aye! All sensors burn, got a track starboard!”=

Javelin frantically typed and pulled up graphs, accounting for more hull creaks as she went along: =“Calculating now! Correcting Greenlight’s track bearing- sending coordinates!”=

Moonracer pulled the trigger on her quad ion and fusion battery cannons: =“FIRE ALL STARBOARD GUNS!”=

The two quad turrets lining the starboard side of the bulky rose bronze winged fighter-freighter blazed bright blue bolts and purple beams into the starry void over the blue - green planet below, tearing into the starboard bow side of Samus’s squat golden gunship, Aeion cloaking field dissipating.

Aileron: =“Alerting the local Paradronian fleet- Damn she’s jamming our comms! Engineers, flare the engines in an S.O.S.signal!”=

Wheeljack: =“On it! Setting up heat signature dilation now!”=

Within the small walkable pilot bridge of Samus’s gunship, Samus in full purple and orange big shouldered and curving gravity suit armor directed her craft from her plugged in cannon and by hand to perform evasive vector maneuvers in random directions, dancing around the Claymore, taking occasional hits from Javelin and Moonracer, all the while tearing the Claymore apart , trying to get a good angle on the engine.

“Heat levels of the Claymore are spiking in an S.O.S. pattern, Paradronian self-defense fleets inbound,” the gray plated sphere projection of ship AI ADAM rippled. “We are at risk of an intergalactic incident. The trail to out here from Arduria suggests that someone who knew about the hunt tipped them off, based on what you told me, probably Nautica. Recommend EMP weaponry and hauling.”

“That could short circuit them…” Samus shook her thick helmed head. “ADAM, pilot the ship, and open drop towards the Claymore bridge, and lock onto the ship’s jump signal.”

ADAM: “Aye, Lady.”

Samus unplugged her cannon from the ship, and ADAM brought the gunship around to flip over so the dorsal side faced the forward bridge, and opened the gunship roof. Samus launched herself out on her back thrusters, and locked her gravity suit on to the bridge, accelerating rapidly towards the chubby barrel shouldered orange, white, and black winged flyer Aileron at the helm, the tall burly green wheeler Greenlight on the sensor console, the lanky olive green and beige flyer Anode who had already aimed a revolver at Samus, alongside stout red gray Lug with a rifle, and leaping in Samus’s direction on a red jetpack was a robust pink, white, cyan, and gray back stacked bot with orange thermal sabers, Arcee - she’s heading towards the collision?!? 

Samus never forgot the ferocious snarl-smile on Arcee’s audial bunned crested face.

Samus maintained course, crashing through the transparent cybersteel with no trouble, fending off Arcee’s slash and stab with her own fiery flames from her green cannon arm, somewhat ignoring the barrage of gunfire from Lug and Anode’s guns, besides the knockback throwing her into the side of the hull. Systems nominal- I can take this for a while. They are bigger than me though- she leapt into her morph ball form- leaping and rolling across the bridge hull, dropping light EMP bombs on Greenlight’s console while zapping her with her screwball charge, leaving the sensor suite fried and Greenlight slumped over, suit sensors reading: still alive. Good.

“GREENLIGHT!!! HOW DARE YOU-” Arcee chucked a sword precisely at the trajectory of Samus’s movement towards Anode and Lug, stabbing her throw the center of her morph ball shape.

“AAhAH- Ack,” Samus coughed up blood as she switched back to her bipedal form, panting, grabbing for the door panel next to her, her arm lighting up with coils of pink Metroid energy draining the electric life force of the door systems to quickly heal the wound through her stomach while letting loose a barrage of homing EMP missiles at Anode and Lug, well aware that Arcee was switching from barreling towards her to blocking the missiles. You have a weakness, the one that is one of your greatest strengths. Fitting. Almost makes me feel- why am I here?

Didn’t Adam let me save my Chozo family and the Zebes survivors, even though it was against orders, and then helped me do so?

While Samus was locking onto Arcee to fire a wave beam, she missed the fact that Aileron had leapt into alt mode to slam bow first into Samus’s face, crushing the wall behind as Samus sheathed in her gravity suit left a deep indent in the wall, and on Aileron’s bow.

“Oh scrap you,” Aileron transformed into her bot mode with pistols pointed down at seemingly stuck Samus. “You tore up our ship, took out our guns, knocked out my Conjunx, and for what, to get stuck in a wall- urrk,” Aileron collapsed to her knees as the energon in her was secreted through her body by Samus’s glowing pink hand-

Arcee leapt forward to a low stance to cut towards Samus to behead her and stab through the heart-

In that instant, Samus’s Metroid genes kicked in, and she felt an immense rage and hunger sweep across her as her armor fused with her, turning green and fleshlike, her head taking on the appearance of a skull within her helm, her armored hand a claw, spikes forming around her cannon-

Arcee’s swords shorted out on contact, leaving her only holding hilts. 

“Aw bolts,” she ran backwards, drawing her blue-gray sniper rifle from her back while Anode and Lug opened fire on Samus, who pulled herself out of the wall, carefully stepped around stasis-locked Aileron, and dismissively fired a hyperbeam across at Anode and Lug while hearing the sounds of swords trying to cut through the doors behind her.

Anode and Lug hit the floor hard, completely burned on the front of their armor, bleeding through the burns.

Arcee screamed wordlessly and fired multiple thermal headshots into Samus, before Samus grabbed her rifle and depleted its thermal ammo into her sustenance just from a claw’s touch.

“What are you? Some Unicronian or Dead Universe nightmare here to slay me for my ancient wrongs or for opposing bioessentialism and hierarchy itself? Please,” Arcee knelt, hands open, droplets down her cheeks. “Please leave my family out of this. Kill me if you must. I’ve lived long enough. But leave them alone…” 

By this time, Gauge had cut through the doorway, gasping and raging at the sight around her, running towards Samus until Arcee shook her head and yelled: “GAUGE DON’T!”

Gauge stood perfectly still, her life flashing before her optics, of being forged with Anode’s help and held in her hands and that of Lug, Lancer, Greenlight, Aileron, and Arcee’s, of taking shape first of bot mode and then alt mode, of studying and enjoying life with them and her younger sibling, of helping her realize her aesthetic, of taking up arms and engaging in revolutionary aid after the terrors experienced when abducted by Reversionists… "I can’t believe this is where we are…”

Lancer stepped in behind her, scatter blaster raised, as did Sideswipe, Javelin, Moonracer, Wheeljack, Cosmos, along with shoulder stacked white red wheeler Minerva with medical equipment cases in hand.

“Your energies would be better spent against Megatron and the men he was inspired by, Nova Prime and Sentinel Prime, Samus, if that is what you are.” Arcee started to shake. “I told a difficult friend once that - ‘I don’t know. Maybe all we can do is try to love who we can and understand who we can’t.’ So can you do that? For us? It’s that or you face the might of a Cityspeaker who understands transformation just as well as I do. I don’t think your suit will save you from getting squished by a Titan teamed up with Windblade. The fleet is almost here.”

Samus stared, as she stepped towards the ship's helm, slowly, nodded, trying to decide how much of what Arcee was saying was true, but knowing that the love and bravery were, and the care for her own life, despite what she had done to her family. 

Samus felt tears run down her face, silently, as she willingly let the Metroid suit power down to her gravity suit form, taking in the sight around her, and input coordinates to the world of Aether, and initiated the jump sequence, while still pointing her cannon at Arcee, until she saw that Arcee had taken out medical supplies, headed towards Anode and Lug alongside Minerva, while Lancer plugged a cable between herself and Aileron to share her own energon with her. Samus lowered her cannon.

The Claymore jumped into quant space towards the known world of the Luminoth, and ADAM in Samus’s gunship followed, leaving the brawny Paradronian cruisers and sleek Camien dreadnought behind, along with the deep blue wide and overwrought ship mode Titan Lodestar with Cityspeakers Lightbright and Windblade within her.

Can you follow the quant wake? broad and curved winged Windblade thought to Lodestar, plugged into her brain module with a Cityspeaking cable.

Lodestar: I think so. Their heading is somewhere very bright.

Chapter Text

Six hours later, en route to Aether, aboard the Claymore.

“Anode, Anode please wake up…” Arcee sat in a chair next to Anode’s patch covered frame in the softly lit tool walled medical bay, beside Lancer, while Greenlight and Aileron watched over similarly incapacitated Lug. Gauge and Sideswipe sat nearby, tense and unable to look for very long.

Minerva moved between her two patients, gathering bio data on her squat hand scanner before sighing, face scrunched up at the results.  

“They’re in comas,” Minerva untightened her face. “I’m so sorry. The only way to wake them up now is with a Cityspeaker or patching in with a cortical patch.”

“I’ll do it,” Greenlight and Lancer both said at once, and nodded at each other.

“But- I want to…” Arcee put her head in her hands, cyan and orange biolights dimming, while Lancer put her arm around her.

“We need you around to fight and Aileron to pilot. You’re the one with the best chance against Samus if she decides to act on that bounty, you’re the ambusher among us,” Lancer pressed a smooch on Arcee’s audial bunned helm, whose orange lights lit up slightly as Arcee nodded.

“Lodestar is tailing us, is what I heard from Wheeljack and Cosmos,” Minerva crossed her arms. “I think they’ll be the best off in such an eventuality. We will need to buy time somehow if Samus proves hostile.”

“Bloody bounty hunters,” Aileron snarled. “Isn’t violence already bad enough without the antithesis of errant warriors running around for coin? Honestly, you’d think she’s cybertronian with how much she solves problems by fighting. No offense to the non-camiens here, dears.”

Everyone conscious in the room laughed.

=“We are arriving at Aether shortly, the Luminoth will handle your temporary custody until we get to the bottom of this,”= Samus announced over the bridge intercom. =“They have no love lost for the Federation given the past weaponization of Phazon.”=

“That backstabbing traitor,”- Arcee reached for her pistol by her blades in her back stacks. “If she thinks I’m going to suffer another prison term after Garrus-9 or let any of you go through that-”

“Arcee, wait,” Greenlight put her hand over her own spark within her squarish chest armor. “She’ll be expecting you. Now is not the time. We have to see how this plays out.”

___

As Samus flew the Claymore down towards the blue gold planet Aether escorted by circular brown-gold Luminoth war cruisers and her gunship, she reflected on how she didn’t like talking. She hoped that the inevitable conversation with Arcee and her allies would not involve her having to say much. She had gotten to spend most of last year without saying a word after the exhausting conversation with Sentinel, Prowl, and the diplomats over the mission she was now on and had derailed. ADAM spoke to her once in a while on their travels, helping with tracking data, and Prowl would call with leads. Does Prowl already know about Arcee’s accusation of Sentinel? Who is Nova Prime?

She typed a query into the Claymore’s data banks she had hacked earlier with her Metroid abilities, bringing up a wealth of data on the ancient leader, a tall winged artillery truck bot who had manipulated his way into the First Senator position,  and laid the groundwork for the Functionist coup, but disappeared prior in a military expedition chasing a necrotic energy source that would take over hosts into former Mawkin Chozo space??? Why wasn’t I taught that?? This sounds like the X or Phazon… 

She poured over the rest of the file during planetary burn, finding that Nova and Sentinel had served together in the abolished Cybertronian colonial peacekeeper force, Primal Vanguard, and while reading over Sentinel’s ‘peace in our time’ political career that came after, found mention of a pre-coup text that aesthetic Autobot investigation had concluded was Sentinel’s; Trust Not the Swords and Esoterics of Collective Agency . The review of the text and just skimming the introduction was enough to make Samus’s stomach in her hardy waist and armor curl in disgust, a dull headache forming at reading the poisonous words decrying and warning of the “chaotic weakness” the Primes, expansive transformers and similar life at large far beyond transness, and the Federation staff as supporters of a supposed ruling class of those who rejected power in favor of working with the people and acting directly for autonomous stories and the collective good, “so-called heroes of the people.”

That would include me on two accounts. Peace’s sake I hate politics. But how do we know this is by Sentinel, and that Megatron has read it? What does this have to do with the Federation? Does the Chairperson suspect a plot? 

“Reading up on our reactionary history, I see,” Arcee stepped onto the bridge as planetary burn into atmosphere was underway, towering over seated Samus even from the other side of the room. 

Samus stood and turned slowly, eyeing the ancient warrior, scanning carefully with her visor. Two back up sword hilts in her back stacks apart from the ones I confiscated, and two pistols too. Not enough time for her to draw them before I respond, though.

Arcee inclined her head, expecting a reply. “You don’t talk much, do you.”

Samus nodded. I’d rather see what you tell me. 

“Well,” Arcee smirked, chest headlights dilating. “I had a point in my life like that long ago, but I suspect you don’t do this out of dysphoria. I know your record that exists publicly, you seem quite at home with yourself.”

Samus shook her head, as the Metroid hunger seared green armor fused with her right arm, which she gripped with her left hand, thinking about her two lost families both human and Chozo, and of Arcee’s she had devastated. I am not just mere biology. I am not reducible to a monstrous essentialism, Old Bird and my parents told me when I was a toddler that- “my heritage of humanity’s and the Chozo’s violent past tortures my soul at times, and I have inured myself in the path of the compassionate warrior. As you did, not all by choice, gladiator, colonial soldier, errant, rampant revolutionary.” 

The Metroid armor faded back to her gravity suit, leaving her with a thought that disgusted her; her spark would be delicious to consume, all the prowess- NO SHUT UP! That is not my way, that is not the way of my lost baby…

Samus kneeled, breathing heavily, breaking eye contact, while Arcee stared on with her jaw dropped.

I might be able to kill her, but at this point I think that would be foolish, she is more like me when I was younger than I thought, Arcee smiled. “Well well, now that I didn’t know… I gather you are in part referencing Earth’s unfortunate history with toxic masculinity. Did you ever-”

Samus shook her head again.

“I see. But it weighs on you, the vestiges of the Earth originated patriarchies that survived. Samus, if this is an imposter syndrome, know that none of it invalidates who you are, and from what I know, you are better than that. Just as your whole genome and anatomies and modifications therein, human, Chozo, and… Metroid if I had to guess, and whatever else should not be reduced to stereotypes that invalidate who you are, rather than just- part of your story. I know that from my own first CNA modification that I… did not particularly enjoy, but I reshaped myself in mind and body after.” The thoughts of the pain, gatekeeping, and betrayal before, during, and after her first affirmation surgery did not weigh on Arcee, who let them pass with all the healing, love, and reformats that came after.

Samus saw that soft old smile on Arcee’s face, and felt her heart warm, I feel recognized… will I be like her when I’m older?

The Claymore and gunship docked smoothly on the gold gray domed metal lit with red Great Temple landing platform, ten tall spindly and long armed featherily antennaed Luminoth warriors in white and gold Lightsuit armor with Annihilator beam arm cannons, gathered behind one in simple robes and banded armor, Sentinel U-Mos. 

U-Mos spoke in Lorinoth over his Aether communicator sphere in hand: =“<Samus, why have you brought transformers here? Why really? You messaged that you need our help with them, that they are a threat to peace, and you want to help them live a different way.”>=

Arcee’s optics narrowed, wondering what Samus was actually up to. Bringing us to the Luminoth homeworld is certainly a sign she doesn’t trust Cybertron or the Federation. Maybe she genuinely doesn’t know what to do with us? I can use that.

Samus didn’t reply, and instead walked up to Arcee and hovered upwards in her thrusters, gently and firmly tugged Arcee’s much larger arm with her own hand, and pointed with her cannon to the hallway.

“You want me to disembark among your allies, don’t you,” Arcee chuckled. “Give me my weapons back, I don’t want to get caught off guard by your enemies.”

U-Mos sighed over comms: <=“Very well Samus, we will accommodate and question them for you drawing on your reports and their records. We await your disembarking.”=>

=“Thank you,”= Samus pulled on Arcee’s arm again.

“Samus Aran, meet my demands, please, I don’t have an intent of hurting you,” Arcee started to cross her arms.

Samus flew forward and downward, activating her cannon’s grapple beam to launch it’s yellow-white in a tight knot around Arcee’s wrists, and hit the floor with a dent with her Gravity Suit, dragging the ancient warrior down with her with a slam.

“Is this how you make friends?! Gods, could you consider asking me to acquiesce and honor my refusal? The nerve,” Arcee snarled and tucked her thumbs in, pulling her hands back to get out of the energy cable and promptly flung her arms back as her chest folded forward and ankles unfolded over her thighs, back stacks joining her chest to form her blockily curved muscle car mode. “Grapple this, bounty hunter,” she sped off down the hall, past the entrance hall, headed for the engine room, shouting over comms: =“Everyone not in the med bay form up in the engine room! We can buy time there, Cosmos, Wheeljack you know what to do to buy time! If any of us are dragged out of the ship, don’t blow us up …”=

Blast, Samus flew after Arcee on her thrusters, quickly passing over her while considering firing a volley of ice missiles. That could kill her though. 

Cosmos: =“I catch your fissioning drift Arcee, but this will put us in war crime territory… very well.”=

Instead she dropped in front of Arcee, letting her crash into her as Samus braced for impact, feeling the car hood chest of Arcee’s frame bend and crumple in the collision that knocked Samus off her feet and caused Arcee to flip into the air- where she landed past Samus in a falling somersault into her bot mode, bleeding pink energon blood down her torso, and started to run-

Samus turned around and fired her grapple beam again around Arcee’s ankle joint between her thick ankle and foot, and raised the gravitational force within and around her Gravity Suit, the pressure making her sweat, breathing difficult, and vision a little hazy. She did her best to take deep breaths as Arcee drew her swords, and pulled, while Samus painfully popped a sticky EMP bomb out of her back that she grabbed swiftly, really shouldn’t do this when not in morph ball mode- 

Arcee thought to herself how absurd it was that this tiny human Chozo Metroid hybrid and her newer Chozo technology could pull on her with the force of a bulk combiner. While pulled in a swift plummet towards Samus, she cut the grapple beam with her thermal sword, and crashed into Samus again- this time using her foot to turn the pull into a powerful kick, sending Samus flying back with equal and opposite force.

In that moment, Samus set the sticky activation fuse and chucked the bomb onto Arcee’s car hood, and yelled disgruntled “keep running and I’ll have to drag you out of here.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Arcee laughed, optics staring daggers. “My friends are going to set the engine to cascade into radiation leaks, if any of us leave here without our consent, this whole area will be covered in a neutron blast.”

Samus stopped moving. No- I can’t believe she’d- I really cornered her, but she’s a renegade, who’s in the wrong?

 “With all your fancy technology, you can overcome my 12 million years honed martial arts one on one if I don’t ambush you, but you’re no commander, still operating nearly solo as I did for a time. What can you or your friends do about radiation?” Arcee sat down. “As far as I’m concerned, we are at an impasse. Bring your friends aboard and we’ll talk. Lodestar should be showing up any moment- and then you’ll have to consider a liberation force rescuing us as well if you don’t cooperate, far from the notice of complicit in Functionism Sentinel Prime’s forces, for which I thank you. As you dear humans say- checkmate. At least this way the war doesn’t start with either of us removed from the board. I can tell you want to help, once you understand,” Arcee’s voice softened with a smile. “So stop jerking me and my friends around. You do know how stupid prison is, don’t you, and what I suffered in one?”

Samus brought the g-forces in her suit down to normal levels. The violent purple skied and mutated memories of what Phazon had done to Aether and the Luminoth with the creation of a parallel shadow world and its own sapient chaos-sewing shadows surfaced. The now extinct Ing, who nearly drove the Luminoth, their robots and the ecosystem to extinction and killed dozens of Marines filled her mind- and replaced with thoughts of an Autobot encounter leading to Cybertronian and Decepticon invasion and Federation claims for annexation. Of war across the Milky Way like the terrible Anti-Functionist War she had only known through stories and historical record. No. No. I can’t be responsible for this, and ADAM and I can’t do this alone.

= “I won’t let war tear apart Aether again, and I won’t let you all suffer for trying to be free, and I’m going to have to live with the fact I can’t just force you to do things my way just because I don’t trust you enough. So,”= Samus powered down her armor, which folded up onto her back to a much smaller mass shifted scale, leaving her standing in her zero suit and boots, pistols holstered on her hips, her thoroughly robust and athletic muscleclature sagged in the shoulders with resignation under her steely face. She took off her folded up armor, knelt, pushed it across the floor, and her pistols after, before pressing her hand to her comm earpiece. =“I surrender. I’ll give your weapons back, and if someone could open the hatch for U-Mos, who should board unarmed. We will resolve this without the threat of my power.”= She looked at Arcee and sighed. “I’m going to let U-Mos talk, if it’s all the same to you. I don’t enjoy wordplay much coming from me. I want a mission to work with and carve out my way- which brought me here.”

=“All clear, dears, I’m sure you heard me in the hall,”= Arcee scooted over slowly as her family members and friends started to make their way over. Arcee took the deactivated bomb off her car hood with a tug, and set it aside, and then scooped up Samus’s equipment. “The world’s complexities are incredibly simple once you know them,” she spotted Samus offer her wrists and paused. “No no, that won’t be necessary. I don’t carry restraints into combat anyways, I find binding people against their will distasteful, which if you read my file over again on numerous struggles over autonomy I think you’d understand. The threat of my armor melting swords are enough of a violation of autonomy.”

The port hatch nearby opened, and U-Mos took his cannon off, handed it to Champion E-Ato, and started to hover up the ramp. Samus, what have you gotten us into?

“I’m a Metroid in part, Arcee,” Samus chuckled. “Do you have ice weapons on hand to stop me if I rampage when your dignity and swords can’t?” 

“Been working on that, it’s completely adhoc on the fly,” Wheeljack pulled out a rickety looking blaster loaded with a cryo tube. “It’s an ice thrower. Shouldn’t kill you. I think we’ll be fine.”

“I’d love to have the specs on that myself for my cannon later,” Samus nodded before crossing her arms. “Okay, have it your way. Fill me in.”