Rebirth was not fun. Teresa had to learn this the hard way. After graduating by the skin of her teeth, Teresa had paired up with her friend to stick together and be roommates. It also gave her a reality check - no job offers, working your life away only to realize there really isn't much you can do without having drawbacks was how most of her classmates had ended up. She entered the same school, got the same level of education and would probably live her job like the rest of them. Nothing more than another brick in the wall.

Dying in a fire wasn't how she expected to kick the bucket. A microwave dinner left on a frying pan, forgotten by her roommate, had caught on fire and spread. She had noticed a bit too late and ended up inhaling fumes and smoke. The entire building evacuated and the fire department was called. They managed to greatly her out of the building a bit too late. Death by asphyxiation was a nightmare to say the least. Constant wheezing and coughing was painful and messed with her senses. The being powerless to change the situation was terrifying.

Passing out and then waking up and not seeing anything was just as scary. A solid six months had passed before they managed to open their eyes. The result was...debatable.

Realization struck. Maybe Teresa could live the life she never had again, this time as someone else.

It had been a few years since Teresa, now James, was born. James Witwicky, really felt like the world was screwing him over. The gender change didn't really bother her,him, whatever. "Teresa" will just act like "Jamie" for the time being.

None the less, he found it absolutely ridiculous that he managed to be reborn as Sam Witwicky's younger brother. It took him a solid two years to remember why his brother looked odly familiar and why the word Witwicky seemed too strange. "Teresa" had not just been reborn, bit reborn into a franchise about alien robots who butchered Teresa's entire understanding of history. The only reason why he even knows of this was because nothing else was in theaters and their roommate, who had become a die hard fan of the movie series, who demanded that they see every single one of them, no matter how horrible the first two sequels were.

He tried to stay as normal as possible, but Judy and Ron knew something was wrong by the quiet nights interrupted only by meek whimpering.

Sam was six and he really didn't know what all the confusion was about. He really didn't know what was wrong. That had changed when Jamie's first word was "Thammy".

Little did he know, impending doom would be looming over his seventeenth year. Jamie couldn't tell if the idea of getting a car struck Sam during early fall, when the weather was still warm, or during May, when the seasons started to drastically change from spring to summer. From Jamie's memories, Sam had bought his alien-in-disguise Camaro during somewhere around that time, but the gap was three months.

It could have been in May since it was most likely going to be Sam's first or second year in high school. Exams technically weren't supposed to be a problem during those years. Sam would be doing a genealogy project, which probably meant that it was one of the assignments that teachers gave to raise the student's grade.

So during May, Sam would probably want a car but it seemed unnecessary during the end of the year. Sam's reasoning for getting a car was to impress Michaela, who was currently his classmate and friend. Well, friend seemed far fetched - they sat in the same room and that was as far as it went.

Well, James would just have to change that.

For now, he could enjoy his new life properly.

"Jamie! Don't touch the stove!"

"Maa- mac an cheeze!"

"Judy I think he wants more."

"Hey, how come he gets seconds?"

"We all can have seconds."

He's six now and he was beginning to think that everything was a lot harder than it used to be. He managed to talk Sam into befriending Mikaela over a gruesome three hours of whining, petty arguing and a trade. The results were more or less good. Mikaela had thought he was funny and interesting when he tried to do a backflip off the teachers desk and eventually they started to get to know each other.

That was during break and Jamie had managed to sneak out of his classroom to see how it went. Not as he planned, but a success nonetheless. It was the last lesson of the day. Physical education.

The gym was spacious but too much. Just enough for a small basketball field. The high ceilings were probably the reason why it felt so...uncomfortable.

Then it happened. James was a child, yes. But Teresa was impulsive and stubborn. So when the teacher asked how much they could run, James took it as a challenge. After running a few dozen laps, he started coughing and wheezing. Pain rippled through his lungs as he tried to breathe properly. It was like there was something stuck in his respiratory tract. The teacher took notice immediately and stopped the exercise. James passed out.

It was dark when James woke up. Not as if it were night time because it was dark beyond all points. He couldn't see or move. He couldn't even feel his limbs. So he panicked.

"What the fuck- shit. Where am I?"

" Calm yourself, youngling. Your body is asleep. You are not in harms way." A voice answered. It was deep yet oddly soothing.

As much as Jamie wanted to deliver a one liner, sassing someone or something inside your head is not the best idea. Two heads were better than one.

"...Who are you?"

"I am the being that br-"

" What are you doing here?!" A shrill voice yelled. There was silence.

"Hello." Something told Jamie that the deep voice was not who he was supposed to have an appointment with.

"You better have a good reason for being here of all places."

" I could say the same for you. You supposedly left this race alone centuries ago." History was not Teresa's best subject but hopefully they aren't talking about the world wars. That was an absolute nightmare to learn.

"I chose this one to clean up the mess you started. You know, the one you started before this world had even known of your Cybertronians and the one you're unable to clean up."

"He was brought here by chance. And by what means do you have the right to meddle in my business?"

" That's not important at the moment. I brought her here to minimize the death count. You, too, wish to change the outcome of this war."

"Your kind has left the humanity and whatever trases left have diminished. You have no reason to try and save what's left of the Cybertronians." Voice number one seemed to dislike voice's number two answer. They seemed to know each other. Not in a good way though.

"I am not letting Quintessa get her way." The second voice spat out. Words filled with venom was all that seemed to come out of them." It was your fault for letting her off her leash, so if I can't take my anger out on you, I might as well take it out on her. Whether physically or mentally or however. You know this as well,"

"Primus..." Unease began to form in Jamie's mind. If he was in the middle of a raging fight between a techno - organic god and someone of the same if not higher rank, he'd better find a way to leave. Immediately.

"Anyway, you, child. Or rather adult in child form."

"By all means, the reason why I can be called an adult is not being a minor. Besides that, calling me an adult is not exactly accurate. But go on. "

"You have choices - change the future events so that there would be a minimal amount of casualties on your own, do nothing or,"

"We're out of time."

"What-"

Waking up in the hospital to Judy's frantic panicking was something Jamie nor Teresa had experienced before .

Sam was back home with Ron while Judy was watching over Jamie. He had been unconscious for a large part of the day. After passing out, the teacher had called an ambulance and he was sent straight to ER. A call and a frantic drive to the school then to the hospital later, his parents managed to arrive.

Now he was sitting in a chair, waiting for x-ray scans to show what exactly was wrong with him. The doctor came out of the room.

"Miss Witwicky?"

"Yes?"

"I'd like to speak with you both."

And now he has to walk. They reached the doctors office and Judy took a seat. Jamie decided to prop himself up on the bed across the table.

"Jamie, have you ever had any problems sleeping?"

"Mhm"

"Shortness of breath?"

"Sometimes after running up the stairs."

" , does he have any allergies? Like pollen or fume related ones?"

"No. We have a garden and it doesn't seem to affect him. We don't know about fumes but since we live in the suburbs." His mother was worried, Jamie could tell.

"I see. Comparing to what the teacher told us and what we managed to uncover, Jamie has exercise - induced asthma. It's not allergie induced but we don't know whether or not fumes cause the same problems. "

"Asthma?!" Asthma. Jamie felt suspicious. Asthma was related to lung problems and as far as he knew, nobody in his family had that. Sam was lanky but he had a strong immune system. So did his parents. Then it hit him.

He died in a fire. From inhaling fumes. And now it's back to haunt him. But why exercise induced? It would gave made more sense if it was allergy related.

Asthma was...exhausting. The doctor had given Jamie instructions for the inhaler he got (it wasn't cheap, but he didn't need to change them every two months or so- just the canister) and a doctors note to excuse him from gym. He was told about the difference between rescue inhalers and maintenance inhalers. He had a maintenance one and was supposed to use it before breakfast, bed, furing asthma attacks and, if necessary, physical activity. He has to carry it around at all times and never lose it. That much he could bear.

The side effects, on the other hand, were the bane of it all. Sometimes he wished he didn't have to use the medicine before bed because he couldn't fall asleep afterwards for hours. At times if he ate too fast or wasn't patient enough for the medicine to reach his lungs, he would throw up the breakfast right after eating it. Headaches are the only thing he's used to.

His brother hadn't understood the concept of asthma or why he had a "little red boot" with him at first but after several talks with Judy and Ron, he began to worry if the medicine was even helping Jamie or making everything worse.

It had been two years since that and Jamie has been...thinking. He never heard from the voices for the past two years. They said he was brought here. For a reason. The question he kept asking wasn't why, but what if. Was he reborn with the help of a god or was this a normal occurrence? But if he was born from the will of, let's say Primus, then why him? He had knowledge of future events but that knowledge was limited to the movies. The whole franchise stemmed from comics to television shows. There were probably other people more suitable for the job, right? Could he have died at the wrong time and was now forced to live like this? All just to fix everything? Had it been like that, then this wasn't even a second chance. He was already dead and if not for so many mistakes, he would've stayed that way. Unable to move, speak, think and feel.

And the purpose of it. To minimize the death count? To fix everything? Were they hearing themselves?! He was going to shoved in a war, one in which he has little to no influence or power. If his calculations were correct, then by the time the Autobots get to Earth, he'd only be fourteen. They would have a fourteen year old child change the course of an intergalactic war? We're they crazy?! What is he supposed to do? What can he do?! Keep Sam's glasses with him at all times so that they could give it to the Autobots quicker? There was no guarantee that he wouldn't be kidnapped by Barricade before that happens. Destroy Sam's phone in disguise before it could break Megatron out of his frozen prison? How exactly? They were made of alien metal. Even if he could melt it down, he didn't think he'd find a place where he could do it quickly enough before suspicion arises. He didn't have any powers, nor anything he could use. He'd be getting in the way with his sickly body.

And what if, no- when he fails? He was brought here, from death, for a singular purpose. If he couldn't do that, then he'd probably be shot by lighting or killed in an accident orchestrated by the same god who brought him back.

A god should have chosen someone suitable for the job, not someone who was bound to fail. He couldn't do it alone.

He wished he could just run out of the house to the nearest abandoned building and take his frustrations out there, like he did when he was Teresa. Like he did when he was free from responsibility and had a decent coping mechanism. Like drinking spiked grape juice.

But he can't. He's not Teresa the job hunter with all the time in the world. He couldn't go outside and take his frustration out on the world. He couldn't even vent to anyone. He was Jamie Witwicky, child sick with asthma and nothing else.

He was nothing else. He had nothing else. All he had was a straight line leading to a nightmare.