Second Chances

[Cyberwarp]

Characters: Cyberwarp , @cyclonus
Location: The Sierra Mountains
Content Warnings: N/A
Plot Summary: Now that she knows the Cyclonus on Earth is very different than her own, Cyberwarp wants to get to know the all too familiar mech. Will things go smoothly between the two?

[Cyberwarp]

It was so strange.. getting this chance to meet Cyclonus all over again.

Cyberwarp had panicked when she first saw him after arriving on Earth, but something seemed different about him.  His energy signature was ever familiar; Primus knew she'd known it so well given the fact they were part of the same Combiner team.  But at the same time, there was something different about it, and different about him as well.  He seemed calmer and not nearly as aggressive.

This Cyclonus was like a whole new mech to her.

It had taken some time, but Cyberwarp thought on it long and hard.  If he was truly so different, would it hurt to get to know him?  Maybe they could be friends, but there was also that part of her that was worried this was all just some trap.  Worst case she could always contact Wing, but this was something she felt she needed to do.  She couldn't run from Cyclonus forever.

The femme sent the mech a private communication, asking to meet with him at the Sierra Mountains.  While it was a little ways away from where she had landed originally, it was also the closest place she could think of that there wouldn't be much local life.  At least, that was her assumption anyway.  She flew out that way in the early morning, naturally letting Wing know beforehand where she would be going.  Cyberwarp wasn't sure what she would be in for, but she hoped that Cyclonus would show.

She transformed, sitting down on the ground while staring out at the view.  Who knew that a planet like this could be so beautiful?

[Deleted]

To say Cyclonus had been surprised to receive the private communication would be an understatement. Given the femme, Cyberwarp's, initial reaction to him, he had thought it best to simply keep out of each other's way. He saw no issue with that, as he was a fairly reclusive mech. But, then, she had reached out to him.

He had pondered over whether or not to meet her. On one hand, he would have an ally. On the other...he really had no interest in allies. But...he couldn't afford to be alone forever.

He was still reluctant when he made his flight. Though he was certain the Autobots would allow him use of the groundbridge, he much preferred the feeling of his own wings. The wind over his paneling. The feeling of his thrusters propelling him. He rocketed high into the atmosphere to shorten travel time before coming in on the mountains she had mentioned.

As soon as he was near enough, he picked up on her signature and flew in to meet her directly, jet engines whining overhead.

He would come in for a landing, carefully. Using his transformation to drop from the air, he landed quite steadily on his pedes. After he landed, he faced the femme, folding his arms over his chassis.

"...you called me," he stated.

[Cyberwarp]

Cyberwarp watched the world beneath her until she heard the familiar sound of a jet filling the air.  As Cyclonus landed, the femme stood right up, looking directly at him.  To say that she hadn't felt anxious in this moment would have been a lie, though she did her best to put on a brave face.  Anything less might cause the mech to leave immediately.

And she had so many things she wanted to ask him.

"Cyclonus, I.. I've been expecting you."  The femme seeker already felt herself fumbling with her words, and she was going to do everything she could to just power through this one conversation.  Even if she never talked to him again, Cyberwarp wanted this.

"There's a lot I wanted to talk to you about, but.. more than anything.."  She paused, grasping at her left arm as she looked aside for a brief moment, just trying to find the right words.  "Maybe.. we got off to a bad start the other day, but.. I need to know..  Are you still angry with me?  I wouldn't blame you for it..  I disobeyed your orders and broke our transformation..  I couldn't bring myself to harm anyone else.  That's why I fled..  Why I quit the Decepticons.."  Worry overtook her expression, but she kept her focus on Cyclonus.

"Where are Skyjack, Treadshock, and Riotgear?  I'm.. surprised to not see them with you."

She didn't even realize that the mech she was talking to wasn't even her own Cyclonus.  As far as she knew, this was hers.. albeit his appearance had changed somewhat.

[Deleted]

Cyclonus maintained his distance, his stance as closed off as ever. Red optics fixed unerringly on the femme. He didn't so much as twitch as she spoke.

He was an intelligent mech. He could tell that, whoever she thought he was, this Decepticon, she felt the need to reach out to him. To make amends it seemed. If he'd been a more empathetic mech, he would have felt pity for her, that she was on her way to pouring her spark out and he wasn't the mech she needed.

Given his own experience with, apparently, dimension-hopping, he thought he might understand what had occurred. When she finished, he looked at her for a long moment.

"I am Cyclonus...but I do not believe I am the Cyclonus you are looking for. I do not know anyone by the designations you have given...nor do I know anything about the event to which you are referring."

[Cyberwarp]

That single moment of silence was enough to terrify Cyberwarp.  She couldn't even imagine the things that had to have been going on in Cyclonus' processor.  Was he going to terminate her.. or bring her to the Decepticons?

The answer she did get.. wasn't something she could have prepared for.

"What?  I..  I don't understand.."  How could he not be the Cyclonus that she was looking for?  Maybe this one just shared the name, but was from another City State.  It happened sometimes, though it wasn't fairly common.  Even stranger still was the fact that he looked so much like her own, only with actual horns and was a bit more on the slender side.  More intimidating looking, too.

"We were part of the same Combiner unit, working under Megatron.  We not only tampered with those Mini-Cons, but we were supposed to work undercover and use mind control in order to devastate the Autobots.  You truly don't know any of this?"  Cyberwarp was actually a little disheartened, but in a way relieved that Cyclonus knew nothing of any of this.  "If you aren't the Cyclonus I know.. then who are you?  Why are your energy signatures so similar?"