Transcenders
Disclaimer: Hasbro and Takara-Tomy own The Transformers, m'kay? I just hijack them for fun.

Author's Note: This fic is a mosh of continuities and off-cannon inspiration topped off by caffeine filled nights of typing so please don't get mad if you're a hardcore cannon fan. It also contains Original-Characters for fun and heavy use of jargon terms, some unique to this story. The way I see it, the Transformers universe is massive with thousands of possibilities and elements; so this story takes place in an alternate TF universe. On that note, a lot of "keynote" Transformers elements are missing or altered, thus the whole AU thing. This story just takes the idea of giant-transforming-robots-from-space and goes from there. So for the sake of simplicity; most characters designs are a blend of Prime, IDW G1, and/or Bay-verse where hinted. Finally, working on this story was good fun and a great stress-reliever. I hope you have as much fun reading as I did writing it.

Cybertronian Time Lengths

Eon= really long time Vorn= year (83 human years) Orn=month Mega cycle= week

Cycle= day (2 human days?) Joor= hour (2 human hours) Klik= minute

Nano klik (nano)= second

Cybertronian Anatomy/Jargon

Digit= finger• Servo= hand • Optic= eye• Derma= lip• Spark= heart•

Glossa= tongue• Processor= brain• Helm= head• Protoform= skin

Armor=plating •Chassis=chestplates

Mech= male• Femme= female• New-build= young adult •Youngling= preteen/teenager• Sparkling= infant/young child• Pre-form = embryo/fetus

Scrap= roughly "crap"• Slag= roughly "nasty mess", is interchangeable with frag •

Frag= processor fragmentation or a crude term for interface• Pit= smelting pit where frames are melted down to be recycled• *%.^?£.%,!=!*?&)$ = words you should not know

Chapter 1: "One Thing about the Past"

Marci jolted awake in a cold sweat, chest heaving and short brown hair draped over her face. It was a dream…just a dream. She ambled to the bathroom and splashed the sleep from her eyes with freezing water. Four years it had been and flashbacks of the attack on their base came as clear as if it had been yesterday. She dried her face off and took a look out of one of her tiny apartment's windows. From the looks of it, it was barely morning, the sun wasn't even up. Pity, she'd been hoping to sleep in for once… Strains of an action cartoon echoed through the flat and she smirked, sounded like someone else was up with the birds. "Kyya-chan…"

Her next words lodged in her throat as she stepped into the sparsely furnished room. On the screen was a mecha show, typical for children's programming and pretty innocent in itself, but her PTSD wasn't choosy about triggers. In those waking nightmares there was always the smell of burned and burning corpses, arid heat, sharp grains of sand in her eyes, crying, screaming, and inhuman lilac eyes.

A little hand tugging her pants leg startled her out of the flashback. "Auntie?" She gave her a sympathetic smile, "Good morning." Kyya clung to her neck, chocolate tinted fingers digging into pale skin. "'Mor-n-ing, wanna watch TV with me?" Deep, garbled voices filtered from the screen and lifeless eyes seemed to glare back at her own. "Not this show sweetheart. Let's go for a walk, hmm?"

A few minutes later the pair were walking down a mostly empty street of the small city Marci had chosen to take refuge in. Gētou~ei, Japan was a far cry from the United States but she couldn't go back to all those stares and questions from family… She barely contacted anyone these days. The only exceptions were her friend Eric back in the states and an elderly woman here that had taken her in at first. Here, Marci had time to start over. Hopefully that town in Utah she'd picked out would hold the same promise.

"So…Are you ready for the big move?"

Kyya made a face, "I don't wanna, Americans are weird! Taro told me—" The young girl frowned at her aunt's laugh, "What's so funny?"

"You're an American and so am I."

"Oh…"

Marci bit her lip, "And so were your parents." She watched her expression change to one of curiosity, "I don't remember them." They sat on a bench, "I know but remember when I told you about them when you asked why we don't look alike?"

"Yeah."

"Well you're old enough to know the whole story. We were all in the ARMY together, doing a very dangerous job, and then you came along. You were a surprise, your mom had you on base." Marci took a pause, "And two days after, there was an accident. They were killed."

The full impact of it seemed to settle on the four-year-old and she stared at her sneakers. "Oh…everyone was fighting?"

"Yes, there were lots of loud noises."

In Kyya's mind there was only one thing besides fireworks that made louder noises. "Is that why you don't like robots?"

"Yes."

"And why you cry at night?" Marci stared down into dark, innocent eyes, suddenly those plush animals that appeared at the foot of her bed were making a lot more sense. "You heard."

"Yeah…you get nightmares?"

"Yes and sometimes it happens when I'm awake." Kyya tipped her head, "That's not fun."

"No, it's not and it's no fun losing your friends," Marci pulled a beaded chain from around her neck and collected the dog tags that dangled in its center in her palm. "I know this move is going to be rough on us but I don't want you to feel alone. I think you're old enough to keep up with these." Kyya ducked her head as the tags were placed around her own neck. "This is all that's left of your mom and dad. They were really brave people, Kyya-chan. I want you to remember, no matter what, that you are too." She toyed with thin sheets around her neck, rubbing the imprints of her parents' names with her thumb. "Yes, ma'am."

"So do you want to go to Mrs. Yamoto's?" Kyya frowned, "Can we go to the park?" Marci gave her a strange look, "I know you and the cat don't like each other but you love it there…"

"The park's more fun though!"

The brunette shrugged it off and took her hand, "Park it is then."

Kyya swung their joined hands out of habit with her face scrunched in concentration. So her aunt was scared of robots... she didn't want to take her to Mrs. Yamoto's house then. It was way back in the woods outside of the city and it was cool even if that tabby cat was evil. But behind the house one day when she'd wandered off she'd made a new friend. He was the color of tar and he looked like one of the monsters from her show, with big teeth and long claws but he'd been so nice… Still, if Marci was scared of things like that they must be bad. Besides Mr. Su told her not to come back or tell on him, so she wouldn't.