As usual, I want to preface this story a bit. Well, a lot, actually... Hence, why I made the Author's Note its own "chapter." You may skip it, if you like. No vital or exciting information is divulged. I just like rambling on, is all.

This is actually a fanfic originally written in *gulp* 1992. It is/was pretty awful, but I still had this weird soft spot for it anyway. Probably because it's still fun for me to read; its original incarnation more or less centered on my self-insert character, Nightwind, whose name became my screen name – obviously – in TF fandom. I like her well enough, given that she's my idealized self-insert, but I doubt that she would be nearly as enjoyable for anyone else. So her presence was exactly the thing that made me consider the story BadFic.

Yet, I like the kernel idea of the story because it's fun. Many of the chapters/bits of the story – Basically, those parts of the story that were Nightwind-less – were/are enjoyable in and of themselves, and it dawned on me that with some fixing and some updating and rewriting and filling in of holes left by removing said self-insert, it could even be a good story, if I wanted it to be.

So, that's what I've decided to do: Fix it. Update it. Revamp a good three-quarters of it. I never finished the original story, and yet it was 269 pages long before I started to take a self-insert-obliterating machete to it. (Ah, for the days when I had time to write like that!) After removing Nightwind by hacking out entire (sometimes long) scenes and by editing bits of others in which she is mentioned but doesn't appear or only appears in a very small way, I've got it whittled down to 136 pages, though now it has lots of big, gaping holes in the plot. The Nightwind-ectomy is forcing me to rewrite two entire plotlines, though; I now have to entirely rethink the motivations of two of the major characters in the story. I've got one under control already. (Here ya go, Skywarp: Have a heaping helping of yummy angst. It's good for what ails ya!) The other…Well, I'll think of something. I hope. I've got a bit of time since that particular plotline doesn't kick in until a little bit later in the story, as that particular character's off-planet for a little while…

But anyway, of the 136 pages I've got left, the bulk of it is "front-loaded" toward the beginning of the story. So, I have decided to bite the bullet and start uploading it here. My plan, at this point, is to update every other Saturday. Perhaps more often than that, occasionally, if I can manage it. I just don't want to be too ambitious. I'm hoping that I'll be able to keep ahead of myself that way, given that I have a bit of a head start with the already-written stuff. I'm not promising that this is what will happen because I'm a grown-up and have a life and things happen that take precedence over writing silly fanfics, but that's what I'm hoping will happen. I'm also hoping that doing this will serve to keep my interest and motivation up; I've been seriously lacking in enthusiasm and inspiration for anything, writing or otherwise, in...Well, for quite a while now.

Now, a bit about this story in general. Warnings, perhaps:

1) This story is certified completely 100% canon-compatible, in the sense that nothing in it directly conflicts with the events of the original G1 cartoon. (And, you know, according to me the comics don't exist. Any of them. )

2) As will shortly become obvious, the story takes place sometime in the big ol' gap between the first two seasons of the cartoon and the original 1986 movie. I envision it as kind of a lull period in that stretch of time in terms of the Autobot/Decepticon war thing. By the time of the movie, the 'Cons have taken over Cybertron, but at whatever time this story takes place, I'm declaring that it's more the Autobots who are in control of it. Why? Because otherwise the very first non-prologue chapter of the story would not be nearly so amusing. ;) After that chapter, though, things on Cybertron don't really matter in terms of the story anymore, anyway.

3) Although it could by rights do so, given its time setting, the story features none of the third season Autobots. The original version did have some of those characters in it, but I've written them out already in an effort to keep the cast size under some vague sort of control. Apologies to those who like those characters.

4) This story contains no slash, which will perhaps disappoint some while delighting others, even though it features some characters that I slash with gleeful abandon nowadays. This story doesn't belong to that "universe," though. It dates from a time period in which I was doing my level best to avoid the whole slash thing when it came to TF fic, having gotten sick of it in other fandoms for which I wrote stuff and things. In fact, this story contains NO ROMANCE WHATSOEVER. I guess it's me writing in "guy mode" or something… ;)

5) There is no five. There is never a five. The five is a lie.

6) The original three Seekers all take a severe beating, each in his turn, over the course of the story. This is something which brings me great joy and satisfaction for some perverse reason. I guess it's true that you really do hurt only the ones you love. This is not so "guy mode" of me, I guess, as character-whumping seems to be a chick thing in fic, eh?

7) Although Nightwind has been eradicated from the story, it does still contain two original characters in not just prominent but honest-to-God major roles. One is the main villain himself. You are not meant to like him at all, so feel free to despise him. You will meet him in the prologue, which I will post directly after this. (Given my more recent stories, it's odd that I'd write a story in which Megatron becomes, in a sense, a "good guy." But there it is. :) ) The other OC is a Decepticon chief medic that I created. I figure that the Decepticons need a dedicated medic, as the Autobots have in Ratchet. They always get the shorter end of the stick, in the end, and Hook can't be everywhere at once. Plus, she has an important role to play in the story. I do hope that you like her. Or at least that you don't want to strangle her simply because she is a Dreaded Female Decepticon OC™. Hey, at least she's not a Seekerbabe! Nor is she busy macking on anyone. And at least with the removal of Nightwind, she's the only DFDOC™.

8) The story contains mild-ish cursing. Human-style cursing, even, because I've never been one for making up Cybertronian-sounding ones. I haven't even really adopted the otherwise universally-adopted "slag" as a TF curse word. (Because, you know, poor Slag, the character. *pets Slag*) Way I figure it, the TFs were "programmed" to speak English by Teletran One, so they're gonna curse in English in my stories, too, dammit! :) Even if it makes no sense. Also, there is violence. And feeble attempts at writing action/adventure, a genre at which I generally suck. But, like I said, no mushy stuff! It's rather nice to take a break from mush, actually.

9) For those who might care, like if you're one of those people who seeks out stories about only certain characters, the non-OC main characters in the story are:

Decepticons: Starscream, Thundercracker, Skywarp, Megatron, Astrotrain(!), and a wee smattering of Soundwave here and there. ("Wee" because I generally suck at writing him, else his role would likely be much larger. He's a very useful character but…dang, is he hard to write properly! Drives me nuts…)

Autobots: Jazz, Ratchet, Grimlock, Optimus Prime, Ironhide, Wheeljack, and a smattering of Prowl because, you know, there's this law says that any story I write has to have him in it somewhere. *sigh*

Other characters on both sides appear, too, here and there, and some of those characters might end up with larger roles as I fill in the holes in the story, but the above-named are the main focus as it stands right now. The story's pretty epic, at least in terms of sheer length, but I'm trying to keep the main cast to a manageable size. Mostly for the sake of my own sanity, really. I'm selfish that way. ;)

As a wee note of trivia, just because: I call one of the plotlines of this story "Astrotrain & Grimlock's Not-So-Excellent Adventure." Be warned. As another note…Isn't it funny how my author's notes are longer than many people's entire fics? HAH!

So! On with the tale…