It was, for all intents and purposes, a more or less normal day on the Arc, or, at least, what passed for normal in the world of mechs, monsters, and humans. It remained a normal day up until Sans wandered into Wheeljack's lab, looking unnaturally thoughtful and... nervous, almost.

"say, wheeljack. you know much about quantum physics?"

"Eh, I know a little. I mean, it's a pretty tough subject, even for us bots with computers for brains. What kind of knowing are you asking about?"

"oh. you know. the spacetime-bending-world-altering-reality-destroying kind." Sans answered casually.

"Weeeeeelll... Yes. To put it shortly. I had this spacetime-bending-world-altering machine once. It didn't work too well, so I stuck it in a corner and forgot about it and Prowl ended up being sucked into it and... well, I did manage to get him back, so I know a little bit. Kinda. It wasn't the reality-destroying kind of thing, though. I know a lot about destruction, but... not reality-destroying quantum physics."

"hey, well that's great! i didn't actually really want the reality-destroying part because last time was bad enough, but the rest is just what i need!"

Wheeljack brightened, the fins on the sides of his head flashing through a multitude of colors. "Well! Maybe. I'll try, anyways. That's not really my specialty, and the one time I got it to work after I got Prowl back the thing exploded, so we're going to be going from ground zero here, but that's fine! ... Um, what are we doing, exactly?"

"uh, well, see, i knew this guy, really smart guy, the last royal scientist, in fact. and he wanted to bend space and time. but it kinda. went wrong. and. he. uh. kinda got stuck out there. in the void. outside space and time. and, i think maybe it's time that someone rescued him." Sans paused for a minute. "... we won't have to start completely from scratch, though. I still got some of his old blueprints."

The Autobot inventor stroked his chin for a moment. "Well, having the blueprints will help immensely! But... stuck in the void? I don't know. Prowl was just sent back in time to a different location on the same planet. He was never... in the void, so to speak, I don't think. How do you know he's stuck there?"

Sans looked away, unnaturally remorseful looking for his usual grinning disposition. "he... uh... he sent me a message... a while ago. told me not to forget."

"Hm." Again, Wheeljack's helmfins rippled in a rainbow kaleidoscope. "Not to forget. Implying that he thinks he's forgotten? And that he's still aware of what's going on..."

"well... as far as the forgotten thing goes... i can barely even remember him. everyone else has forgotten him. i mean, it makes sense! if you 're not in time, you have no history, and if you're not in space, you have no form to be observed. so you don't exist, at least not on our plane of reality! but... somehow... he's still connected to our reality. i... i don't really know the specifics of it, 'cuz i'm here, not in the void. but he did send me a message! and i did promise him..."

Wheeljack nodded along to the story. "Sure, it makes sense... there'd be an inevitable connection to this reality, really. He must have made some very significant changes to the world, things that couldn't be completely sucked away with him. But yes, if you don't exist in time or space, how could anyone remember you, past or present or future? Hm, hm, that itself is a theory to explore... But for another time! You have blueprints?" the inventor asked, optics sparkling in a manner that many mechs feared.

Some unnatural brightness shone in Sans' eyesockets, a hope that had previously not visited the small skeleton. "yeah! hang on, i'll go get 'em."

It was as if Wheeljack blinked, and Sans was simply gone. a few minutes and another blink later, and he was back, some rolled up papers in his arms, which he held out to Wheeljack.

Wheeljack extended his hand, palm flat up. "Roll them out on my hand, I'll be able to see them just fine."

Sans did so, then paused, looking at the blueprints. All of the notes, the measurements, everything, was in an illegible scrawl, somewhere between quick, messy writing, and another language entirely. "... oh. right. they're all in, uh, hands. guess i'll have to translate that..."

Wheeljack bent over the (to him) miniscule blueprints. "No, no... hm. Looks like a strange form of some alien language I've seen before... one moment, let me call up the file... hm. Is this word 'tubing'?"

Sans gave him a look. "...no. that's indicating the placement of some sheet metal... i think. i'm a little rusty on hands, it's been a long time."

Straightening, the inventor rubbed his free hand on the back of his helm. "Heh. Well, it looks sorta like... Hm. Oh well. Get to translating those into something I can read and I'll certainly see if I can give it a go!"

Sans just nodded, a determined look in his eyes.

~o0o~

Over the next few days, Sans could be seen at any hour of the day working furiously on the translation. Everyone who knew the skeleton, Papyrus especially, was surprised- pleasantly so- to see the change in demeanor, even if Sans... didn't exactly tell anyone what it was he was working on.

But, in just a week or two, he was returning to Wheeljack's lab with mostly translated blueprints. There had been some parts that he hadn't been able to figure out due to ruined paper or smudged ink, but for the most part,it was all there.

Wheeljack was thrilled. "This is wonderful! Of course, I really don't know much about this stuff -" he gestured at some lines about runes and Magic "- but with your help, I think we might be able to do this!"

Sans' grin widened, and he said something he had not said in many, many years. "well then, let's get to work!"

~o0o~

"Just a few more things here and there," Wheeljack muttered, half to himself, half to Sans, as he soldered another wire into place. "How's all that rune-drawing going up there?"

"it's, uh, going," Sans replied, "but i really don't know much about runes, so i guess we'll see!"

The Autobot inventor grinned. "Yep! We will! I've got this one last thing to connect, so..."

There was a small spark, a quiet "Oops," and then a massive ka-BOOOOOOOOM.

Once the room stopped shaking and most of the smoke had cleared, Sans peeked out from the corner he had taken refuge in. "uhhh.... wheeljack? just a guess, but i don't think that's what was supposed to happen..."

"Heh... Probably not... Okay, take number two!"

~o0o~

"Think this is all to specs this time, Sans. Double checked everything, this time. Before I soldered them, this time."

Sans nodded, hands in his pockets. "good. though, uh, maybe I should add, the royal scientist, he checked too, and still got stuck in the void. so maybe we should triple check...?"

Wheeljack eyed the skeleton. "You have a point. I, for one, do not wish to end up there with him. Let me take a look at those plans again... How's the runework and Magic going?"

"well... i think i got everything right, but like i said last time, i dunno much 'bout runes. so I just followed the blueprints. but anyway, it's done!"

"Like you said though... coulda been a rune problem. But we'll see!"

A fair distance away, in the commissary, Ratchet stopped speaking mid-sentence, looked up, and stared into space for a moment. Sideswipe, sitting next to him, blinked, confused. "Ratchet?"

"My Wheeljack sense is going off. He's going to explode soon."

Sideswipe raised an optical ridge. "Really? You have Wheeljack sense?"

Ratchet gave the red Twin a Look.

BOOOM

The medic's expression turned satisfied. "Point made."

~o0o~

"Okay... Mark twenty nine."

"hey, wheeljack, don't ya ever get tired of these explosions?"

"Nope!"

BOOOOOOOOOM

~o0o~

"... alright. this is, uh... mark... sixty seven? or eight? no, I think it's seven... hey, wheeljack, is this our sixty seventh att--"

KABOOOOOM

".... okay. now it's the sixty eighth."

~o0o~

Skywarp was feeling odd. He had been for a day or two. Or more than that, really, it just had been getting worse lately. Something was just slightly off about him, about the world around him. No one else seemed to notice, but things seemed blurry around the edges, like he was always on the verge of a warp.

His Trinemates had noticed. Starscream had commented on how jumpy the purple Seeker had been lately. Thundercracker responded with a sarcastic, "When is he not jumpy?"

Skywarp just brushed off their concern. He didn't want them worrying needlessly, not to mention nothing had happened yet. He just felt odd.

Maybe he just needed to fly? That usually sorted out any strange feelings in Seekers, and with their ship now stuck at the bottom of the ocean, the mechs once accustomed to sometimes spending orns on end without touching the ground developed some strange quirks.

::Hey, Stars, I'm going on a fly,:: the purple Seeker commed his Trineleader. ::Wanna come with?::

::I'm in the middle of something at the moment. Perhaps later?::

::Sure! I'm sure I'll be out for a while... I've got some energy to work off.::

::Stay safe, 'Warp. Don't frag with any humans or Autobots, please.::

::Not looking for trouble today, promise. Love ya, Stars.::

Starscream, never fond of expressing his emotions, sighed across the comm link and closed it. Skywarp knew that it meant, in Starscream, "thanks, love you too, Skywarp," so he didn't take it personally. Instead, he initiated his warp drive.

There was a strange tugging sensation in his spark, and for a moment, Skywarp really worried. Then the familiar darkness closed around him, what he called the Place Between Places. He was only ever there for a fraction of a klik, and was grateful for that; the Place Between Places was dark, lonely, cold, and vaguely... not painful, exactly, but not comfortable.

The darkness seemed to surround him for longer than normal, but it disappeared with a VOP! and he was high above the surface of the Earth.

He let himself freefall before igniting his thrusters and soaring across the sky. For a moment, he just reveled in the feeling of air on his wings.

Then he noticed.

He wasn't out over the open ocean above the Nemesis where he'd planned on warping to. He was above land. Mountainous, rippled terrain with scattered clumps of foliage.

That was... very odd.

And that weird feeling was still there, making things seem blurred and faded.

A little smidgen of fear began blooming in his spark.

Something was definitely not right. He hadn't warped to somewhere he did not intend to since he was about a centivorn old. And that weird stutter before he warped, and the weird extended darkness.

He needed to get back to the Nemesis, back to Starscream. Starscream was smart, he'd know what was going on.

Skywarp launched himself into a warp, all his massive processors and warp drive computers on full power, full concentration.

There was no lurch as he went into the Place Between Places.

But there was no re-entry into the world. No VOP of disappearing darkness, no sudden rush of new senses and new places.

It was certainly a strange feeling, and he didn't like it. He tried to power up his warp drive and just warp out. He could feel it power up, feel the coordinates for the space above the Nemesis load up and standby... But nothing happened. He remained where he was.

"Well... Now what?" he said to the darkness, feeling that little bloom of fear grow and grow until his whole spark was consumed with fear and sadness.

Yeah. Definitely not good.

Suddenly-... Suddenly, there was a sound., not quite like anything Skywarp had ever heard before. To describe it would be impossible, but it was something of a cross between a human's frantic babbling, something screaming, and a savage animal's growling, all rolled into one sound, and overlaid with severe static. But, as the sound continued, Skywarp realized it was a voice, and, somewhere in that mess of sound, there were distinguishable words.

"Now, I aM sORry to tEll yOU, YOu arE sTUcK. AssUmINg, oF CouRSE, yOU aREn'T jUsT ANoTHer hAlluCINaTion oF mINe."

Well. Apparently the Place Between Places wasn't as lonely as Skywarp had thought it would be. Thinking back for a half-klik, he realized he'd never actually spent enough time in the Place Between Places to ever actually find out if anyone lived there. He kinda just assumed that since he was the only one he'd ever met who was able to warp, he'd be the only one in the warp space. Then he remembered he was talking to someone. "Oh. Well. I'm not a hallucination, so I... guess..."

There was a sharp burst of cringe-worthy noise that it took Skywarp a moment to realize was laughter. "THaT's whAT ThEY alL SaY. ExCEPt, tHAT iS, the OnEs I knOW are HalLUcinaTioNS, and fORce mYSeLF inTO AdmITTiNG iT." There was a pause, and for a moment, the darkness was engulfed in silence. Then, "ThOUgh... YoU aRE A RatHer peCuliAR oNE. NoRMAlly, I See beINgS oF a mORE FLeSh-aND-MaGIC tyPe."

Skywarp looked down at himself, somehow visible among the nothingness. "I'm metal and energon, so there is that," he offered hesitantly. "You said if I wasn't a hallucination I was stuck?" the Seeker asked after a moment.

"ThIS Is thE VoiD, OuTSIdE SpaCE anD TiME. BeYonD ReaLiTY anD ExISTenCE itSelF. NotHIng that EntErs cAN lEaVE. EvER. I HaVe BEEn Here foR InFINitY, unABlE tO retUrN hOmE." A pause, then, "... BuT, As a fORmEr scIENtIst, I mUSt ASk, whAt iS EneRGon?"

Skywarp blinked. "Before I answer your question... I come and go all the time. This is the only time I've ever been able to come but not... go again. This is the Place Between Places, I go through it to warp. And energon is our lifeblood and our food. Well, different varieties of it. Cybertronian, my language, has different glyphs to describe the food and what's inside us, but this language is -" Skywarp made a face "- limited."

There was a long, long silence, and Skywarp was almost afraid the stranger had left. But then, very slowly, "... Hmmm... PeRHaPS yoU NevER FullY EntERed thE VoId... AnD ThUS coUlD LeAve at wILl... I tRIed SoMEThINg liKe thAt once... AnD Now I aM StUCk hErE. ...PerHaps... PeRHAps, if YOu dO FiNd a wAY to leAvE, cOUld yOu tAkE mE WIth you? I wANt... to sEE my sOnS agAiN..."

Sadness welled up in Skywarp's spark. He knew the moment he didn't pop back into reality that something was wrong, and the idea was brewing deep in his processor. His companion's plea for a way out to see family pulled that feeling to the forefront of his thoughts. Starscream, Thundercracker... Their fellow Seekers, those on Earth and those still on Cybertron... If Skywarp really was stuck...

"Am... Am I really stuck here? I... Stars... Thunder..."

"... UnFORtunATelY, UnLESs yOU HaVE SoME METhoD oF esCaPe thAt I hAvE no kNowLEdGe oF... YeS, we ArE sTucK tOGeTHer, AnD MaY bE, fOR SeVErAl MoRE InfinITiEs."

"Oh... I mean, I have my warp drive. It's what got me here in the first place. It always worked before to get me out. I didn't do anything differently before I warped... I felt weird though."

"HmM... YoU... ARe a RoBOT of sORtS, aRE yOu nOT? I UsED To bE QuITE pRofICienT in MEChAnICaL mAttERs. PeRHapS if yOur... WArp dRiVe, yoU sAiD?... is DaMAged, I CoULD trY to FiX it anD SaVE uS."

Skywarp let out a sharp laugh. "Maybe. But I don't see a way for you to interface with my systems to diagnose a code problem, and the actual drive itself... well. Starscr... Starscream has been studying it for centivorns and still doesn't really know... As far as he's been able to tell, it's a... lot of different parts and places. Bits and pieces scattered through my whole frame. The core of it is near my spark, though." With a mental shrug (what harm would this being do to him? Skywarp was potentially his only way out), the purple Seeker unlocked his chestplates, slid his cockpit aside, then the lower levels of armor, then the core casing, not exposing his spark itself, but exposing the delicate chamber which housed it. "Here," he said, poking at something slightly below and to the left of the spark chamber. "This thing here is the main warp drive."

There was a long silence. When the being spoke, it was in odd halts and starts, almost as if he was hesitant. "WElL nOw... In orDEr tO ReaLLy dO AnyThing... I-... I MusT WaRn yOu, I HaVE nOt sEEn mySELf iN a LOng tIme, anD THe lASt tiME I dId, I WaS In a RAthEr hORRiFic stAte. So I MuSt apOLOgIze in adVanCe if mY FOrm is sOMEwhAt DisTURbiNG." Not waiting for a confirmation, slowly, a figure materialized near Skywarp. Humanoid in shape, albeit possibly wearing a strange robe, he wasn't tall compared to the mech, but by fleshy-being standards, he was of unnatural height. His body- or clothes?- seemed to be made of black ooze, somehow distinguishable, but no lighter, than the blackness around them. His hands were pale, ghostly white, with holes through the palms, and his head would have been a ghostly skull, though with a toothless, gaping crevasse of a mouth, a scarred crack running down from the left eyesocket, and another going up from his right, paralyzing it into a crescent.

Without waiting for a response from Skywarp, the figure reached out for the warp drive core. Then he paused, hands near the warp drive core, and... just kinda stayed like that.

Skywarp fidgeted after a moment, never one to be still for long. "Um, what are you doing?"

The response was long in coming, and very quiet when it did come. "...YoUr... spArK... ...It'S... WaRm... I hAD... FoRGoTTen... WhAT it wAs LikE... To nOT... be CoLD..."

That one brought Skywarp to a halt. Cybertronians weren't sensitive to temperatures like organics (or whatever this thing was), but... the way the being spoke... Skywarp recalled a fellow Decepticon, vorns ago. A flier, groundbound, both wings irreparably damaged, thrusters damaged... Not a Seeker, so despite the massive loss of flight, the mech did not go insane. But when Skywarp had struck up a conversation with the groundbound flier, and taken pity on him, and warped him into the air to experience a freefall again (of course, safely warping him back to the ground again before they went ker-splat), the mech had spoken like this being. So longing, so...

So Skywarp cycled his systems and held still, chestplates open, the strange being's hands hovering close to his lifeforce.

For a long time, he just stayed there, holding out his hands. Then he shook his deformed head, laughing a bit. "BUt I aM GettING DiStracTed. LeT's taKE A lOok here, sO we mIGht spEnd nO lOngeR heRe than nEcessArY." Then another pause, and another laugh. "EvEN Still, I Am gETTinG ahEad oF MySELf! I haVe nOt even IntRodUcEd mysElF. OnCe, iN rEAlIty, I wAS Dr. WD GaSTer. AnD, pRoVIded yoU aRen'T a HalLUCinAtiOn, yoU aRE?"

"Skywarp. Sorry, I... was kinda preoccupied, I guess. Should I run a diagnostic?"

Despite the strange, paralyzed, already grinning face, Skywarp had the distinct sense Gaster was grinning. "IF yoU WoulD LiKe, bUT bIEng A PaRT Of thE VOid haS IT's perKS. I cAN AcceSS THe wORlD cOde, anD SeE anYThINg yoUr chECK wouLd FiNd, wiTHouT thE WaiT. RegARdless..." Gaster reached again for the warp drive core, this time not getting distracted by Skywarp's spark, "lET's gEt to WoRK."

~o0o~

"Well, Sans, d'ya think letting it run diagnostics for three days is enough?" Wheeljack queried his short companion as he eyed the device that was humming quietly on the desk.

Sans just shrugged. "i mean, if nothing's come up so far, i don't see what running diagnostics again would change about that. so yeah, let's give it, uh, another go...!"

Wheeljack grinned. "Alrighty. Well, get behind that blast screen... no need for another Ratchet Lecture."

Sans chuckled as he walked over. Though he had yet to be harmed himself in one of the explosions, he had been forced to listen to the medic's lecture as well, and would be satisfied if he didn't have to listen to another any time soon.

Wheeljack followed him behind the shield and remotely started the device up. It hummed for a moment, a few lights flashed.

Sans and Wheeljack exchanged a glance.

The machine kept humming.

"D'ya think-"

KABOOM

"... Fraggit."

~o0o~

Skywarp's frame gave a violent twitch. A confused expression crossed his face as he lifted a hand to his closed chestplates – they had given up on the warp drive what seemed like aeons ago, after all their efforts ended in failure. "I-" he started to say, then with a quiet VOP! was gone.

Gaster blinked. His hands were still extended, where he had been holding a pair of wires a moment ago. Then he just sighed. It had been a hallucination after all. And this one had seemed so. Real. too...

But, it had merely been a trick of his subconsciousness, and he was still alone in the Void.

"WeLL... CrAp."

~o0o~

When Skywarp came barreling into Starscream's lab, the red and white Seeker vented with exasperation. When Skwarp didn't stop, just kept coming, Starscream began to panic and hurriedly tried to set the (volatile!) chemicals he was working with on the counter in front of him without spilling any.

"OH, STARS! I'M SO GLAD TO SEE YOU!" the purple Seeker shrilled as he tackled his Trine leader in a bear hug. Starscream landed with a muffled oof! as his larger Trinemate cuddled into his chest. "I missed you so much..."

Starscream eyed the teleporter. "Missed me? You've only been gone like, forty five minutes! What's gotten into you? You are acting strange, no matter what Thundercracker says."

Skywarp sat up. "No, I've been gone..." He checked his chronometer. "Forty five minutes? But... it felt like... I could have sworn..."

Starscream just sighed again. "Could you please get off me? I want to make sure I didn't spill anything that'll burn a hole in the table."

"Oh... yeah, okay."

Suddenly thoughtful and quiet, Skywarp lifted himself off his Trine leader and took a seat perched on one of the many tall stools scattered through the labs. "But it seemed so... real," he muttered to himself.

"What now?" Starscream asked as he lifted himself off the floor.

"I warped and didn't come back from the Place Between Places. And there was someone else there! His name was Gaster. Doctor WD. Gaster. He said he was a monster who had been sealed in the underground after a war with the humans and he was trying to get out but the humans used magic to make a barrier that the monsters couldn't cross, so Gaster was trying to make a machine that would fold space and time so they could go back to before the barrier was made to make a door in the barrier so they could to come back to the future to exit the door so they didn't make a paradox or break time or something like that, but when he turned the machine on it broke and exploded and sucked Gaster into the Place Between Places – he calls it the Void – and he's stuck there but he wants to get out and see his sons again and whatever happened if I had just been holding on to him when I got pulled back maybe I could have saved him too!"

And with that, Skywarp dropped his helm into his hands and slumped there. Starscream regarded the mech critically.

Skywarp could be crazy, and silly, but he wasn't stupid like a lot of mechs believed. The Trine leader poked his mate over their sparkbond. A feeling of genuine sadness and loss radiated from the purple Seeker.

So, Skywarp wasn't crazy. He wasn't one to make up lies. And he was genuinely feeling this. There was no trickery involved. So either he had hallucinated the whole thing, or this strangeness had happened.

And stranger things have happened, the Aerial Commander of the Decepticons thought.

... Okay, Starscream couldn't think of anything stranger offhand at the moment, but he was sure there had been stranger things! So.

"This monster..."

"Gaster."

"Gaster, then. You really feel that badly about it?"

Skywarp looked up at Starscream, and the feeling of loss over their bond deepened to the extreme. "Stars, it sounds crazy, but I was there for vorns. Gaster's the only one there. Primus knows how long he was there alone before me... And if he hadn't been there... Frag..."

Starscream nodded slowly. "I will think on this," he promised quietly, processor already whirling.

~o0o~

The blueprints were gone.

The blueprints were essential to Sans and Wheeljack's work. Without them, they could do barely anything- they needed those blueprints.

And they were gone.

"but--" Sans spluttered, uncharacteristically aggravated."but they couldn't have just disappeared! that's not possible! i mean, it is possible, if they fell into the void, but we never actually made it to the void! where are they?!"

"Maybe... our last attempt was more successful than we thought?"

~o0o~

Starscream was puzzling over the scraps of paper Ravage had just brought back. The felinoid had informed the Seeker that Wheeljack had been working on this one with one of those new creatures wandering around the Arc for months now. Had to be important, the black cat had said with a shrug when he handed them over.

They were indeed some of the strangest things the cat had ever brought back from the Autobot base. Scribbles covered every sheet. Ink was smeared and smudged, a few corners were ripped and the edges were tattered. Fold marks were clearly visible, white against the dark blue paper, perforated with small tears.

Starscream had been studying them (and making no sense of anything) for three earth days when Skywarp wandered into the lab, humming, sipping energon, with a spare cube in hand for his Trine leader.

"Here," he said, and stuck the energon right under Starscream's nose. "You need this. When was the last time you refueled?"

Starscream straightened and took the cube quickly, before its caustic contents could spill on the delicate paper. "Since I got these documents from Ravage," he said. "They're confusing, to say the least."

Skywarp leaned over (Starscream carefully guided his trinemate's energon-holding-hand away from the table) and looked at the blue papers spread out and carefully held down at the corners.

"Hey..." he said after a moment, and leaned closer. Starscream snatched the cube from the purple Seeker's hand before it tipped and set it gently on a table behind them.

"Hey, Stars?"

"What?"

"What does that right there look like?" Skywarp asked as he pointed to a series of smudged marks in the lower corner of one of the papers.

"Hm. English letters. Maybe? Looks like a W... is that a B or a D?"

"Last one is a G. W D G."

Starscream leaned back and vented. "Your Place Between Places Doctor Gaster?"

"I.. think so! I mean, now that I'm looking for it, this here - " he gestured at a large schematic taking up most of a page " - looks like how Gaster described his folding machine!"

Skywarp straightened suddenly, almost headbutting Starscream as the Air Commander was leaning down to look.

"Do you think, Stars?"

Skywarp's optics gleamed with hope, a hope Starscream hadn't seen in the weeks following the teleporter's time stuck Between. Ever since then, Skywarp had been... quieter.

Starscream wanted his carefree trinemate back.

"If it is, I'll make it work. If not, I'll figure it out anyways. How have your attempts to stop Between been going?"

Skywarp grinned at the first part, but at the question slumped slightly. "I can't do it. Never could before, can't now. I wonder what made me get stuck there in the first place..."

Processor whirling, Starscream glanced at the blueprints. "Wonder if the Autobots had anything to do with it," he mused.

Skywarp looked up. "Huh?"

"I mean, that's where Ravage got these from. Said Wheeljack and one of those freaks that've been wandering around the Arc have been exploding whatever they're trying to build for a few months now. If this is what you think it is, perhaps they were trying to build the folding machine, got it partially working, it messed with spacetime, and you just happened to warp at the wrong moment."

Skywarp mused that over for a moment. "Could be. I had been feeling weird before... Maybe my warp drive just makes me more sensitive to space and it warping?"

"And time," Starscream offered. "Remember that one time we did that experiment, and I determined your warping had something to do with time, too."

Skywarp rolled his optics. "We did tons of experiments. You think you could get this working?"

Starscream eyed the plans. "If I can get some of it translated, probably. They're in a really strange language."

"Yeah, Hands." At the odd look his Trine leader gave him, Skywarp elaborated. "It's a language Gaster speaks. He likes to use it to swear."

"Hm. Well, we need someone who speaks Hands. Or reads it."

Skywarp grinned. "I think I know where to find one."

~o0o~

"GAH!" Wheeljack roared and leaped backwards, tripping over his stool and falling on his aft.

"Hi, Wheeljack! Please don't blow anything up!" exclaimed the purple Seeker crouched on the desk (on top of the project the Autobot scientist had just been about to finish up). "I need your help!"

And with that, Skywarp grabbed Wheeljack's wrist and with a VOP they were gone.

A moment later, Sans wandered into the lab, energon cubes for himself and Wheeljack in hand. He looked around, and, seeing Wheeljack wasn't in the room, just shrugged and settled down in a chair to take a nap until the scientist returned.

~o0o~

"I can't read them, though! I mean, I remember bits and pieces from actually building it... okay, I remember a lot, but we've gone through a lot of modifications and the original plans didn't work well anyways," Wheeljack explained to the three Seekers standing around him.

It was, he had to admit, one of the strangest abductions he'd ever been through. One, normally the Decepticons avoided abducting him in particular; he had an explosive reputation. Two, he hadn't been taken to the brig. Or even put in chains or stasis cuffs or had his weapons removed from his subspace (frag, he had twelve grenades (well, improvised grenades he had made earlier that day just because he could) right there in the top of his main subspace pocket!), he had just been brought right here to Starscream's lab and set on a stool in front of the formerly missing blueprints.

Then asked to translate them.

"You mean... You've been reading them for months, but you can't read them?" Starscream asked skeptically.

Completely ignoring the fact that Starscream had at the very least a rough estimate of how long he and Sans had been working on the folding machine (it was pretty well known that everybot knew what everybot on the other side was doing, more or less), Wheeljack shook his head. "No, it was the monster helping me that was translating. Sans did all that."

"That freak?" Starscream snickered. "I like that guy. He kicked Old Bucket Helm pretty fragging good."

"Yeah, he's pretty cool," Wheeljack said, then shook his helm. "Either way, though, this thing never worked. And the one time it did, the guy building it got sucked into the Void. Why do you guys want it so bad anyways?"

"Gaster."

Wheeljack looked at Skywarp, surprised that he had spoken. He hadn't since he had dragged the Autobot to the Decepticon lab. "What?"

"Gaster. The guy who designed this is Doctor WD. Gaster."

Wheeljack just sat there, staring at the Seeker, for a very long moment, helm fins flashing though a multitude of confused colors. "How?" he asked finally.

"Well. Nearest we can figure it, you were playing with one of your prototypes of the folding machine, and it did at least something to space and time so that when I warped, I got stuck in the Place Between Places. Gaster calls it the Void. He's stuck there alone. He's the one who designed this." Skywarp stabbed a finger down on the large schematic drawing. "I spent... here it was less than an hour. There, it seemed like vorns. He's... a good person."

Wheeljack nodded. "Okay. So all we have to do is recreate the prototype we had running when you got stuck and do the same thing over, but this time, when you come back, you bring him with you."

Starscream grinned. "Precisely!"

~o0o~

Sans yawned, stretched, and sat up. Looking around, he saw he was still in Wheeljack's lab. And Wheeljack had yet to return. Sans pulled out his cellphone.

It had been almost the entire day.

maybe... Sans pondered. maybe he was here and didn't wake me up, and left again? no... even if wheeljack didn't wake me up, the explosions woulda. Shaking his head a little, Sans hopped out of his seat. "guess i oughta go look for him."

But Wheeljack was strangely persistent in not being found. Sans asked all manner of monsters and mechs, and even a few humans he came across in the Arc, but everyone said they had last seen the scientist heading for his lab. No one knew where he was.

Eventually, Sans found himself entering Prowl's office. "hey, uh, prowl?"

The taciturn tactician looked up from his datapad and nodded a polite greeting to the skeleton. "Good afternoon, Sans. How may I help you?"

"I, uh, can't find wheeljack. he's been gone all day."

Prowl frowned. "That's odd. One moment." ::Teletraan-1, Wheeljack's position, please?::

::Searching... Searching... Autobot Wheeljack is not currently onboard the Arc. Would you like a planetwide search initiated?::

::Affirmative.::

::Searching... Searching... Autobot Wheeljack's location; Decepticon Ship the Nemesis, Pacific Ocean. More specific coordinates required?::

::Negative.:: "Sans, we might have a problem. We must go see Optimus."

~o0o~

Megatron answered the incoming call with slight hesitancy. The call from the Autobot leader was unexpected.

"Optimus," he rumbled deeply as the Prime appeared on screen. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"What do you want for him?" the Prime asked. It was pretty customary for the Decepticons to kidnap an Autobot for energon.

"Who?"

There was a long pause. "Wheeljack. He's on your base."

"No, he's not," the Decepticon Warlord replied, confused.

"Yes, he is."

"No, I can assure you, he is not."

A voice came from somewhere offscreen. "tell him that if he doesn't stop lying, i'll come over there and kick his tailbone again. er. you guys don't really have tailbones, do ya?"

"Was that that infernal skeleton?"

Optimus sighed and muttered something to someone offscreen that Megatron couldn't catch. Then he turned back to the screen. "Yes. Look, Megatron, Teletraan-1 is reporting that Wheeljack is on the Nemesis. We've run multiple diagnostics, it's showing everyone else exactly where they are. Wheeljack is on your ship. Stop lying."

The Warlord shook his helm. "If I'm lying, I don't know it. I never authorized nor was I notified of any Autobot capture, much less that boom-happy crazy mech. He's not allowed here, and you know it."

That moment, a loud explosion rocked the seabound spaceship, and Megatron blinked.

Optimus gave him a skeptical look.

Megatron shrugged. "Okay, maybe he's here. I didn't know. SOUNDWAVE!"

The prime flinched at the sudden volume.

Soundwave opened the throne room door and stuck his head in. "Megatron: called?"

"Yes. Is Wheeljack aboard?"

The telepath was silent for a moment. "Autobot Wheeljack: Aboard the Nemesis."

"Where?"

"Location: Starscream's laboratory."

That led to an even longer silence. Mechs exchanged confused glances.

"Wheeljack... is in Starscream's laboratory?" Optimus finally said. "That's... a new one."

Megatron sighed. "I'll go investigate. This is bound to be an interesting story."

~o0o~

"Oooooohhhh...." Gaster groaned, pressing the heels of his hands to his forehead. This was... not at all anything he had expected to ever happen. Normally, his loneliness-induced hallucinations didn't return. Normally, when he persistently ignored his hallucinations, they went away. And, well, sometimes they did insist that they could help him escape the void, but...

Never had one grabbed hold of him, and plunged him into a world of light and noise and color and sound and feeling and just reality.

With a string of incomprehensibly muttered curses, Gaster pulled himself to sit up and look around, squinting against the sudden light after so many eternities of the Void. He seemed to be in some sort of lab, but everything was... biggified. Unnaturally so. Almost as if...

Well, almost as if it was meant for beings more like the giant robot creatures- mechs?- that were standing around him, Skywarp included.

"... Well," Gaster huffed, "I gotta admit it, I've really outdone myself this time. Three sentient beings and a giant lab? This is some hallucination. Good job, subconsciousness."

Skywarp snickered. "Nope. Remember me, Gaster? I managed – well, they managed to figure out how I got stuck in the Void, and we just replicated it, and I got you!"

Wheeljack was eyeing a pile of smoldering remains on a table. "Gotta admit, people ask me to make things that go boom, and they ask me to make things that don't, but I don't think I've ever been asked to make something that works and then goes boom. This was fun. Oh, I'm Wheeljack by the way. Autbobot scientist, kidnapped by Skywarp to get you out of the Void. It's nice to meet you."

"And I'm Starscream. Decepticon scientist and Skywarp's Trinemate. The tall silent one over there is Thundercracker."

Thundercracker nodded.

"Ooooooh!" Gaster snorted. "They even have backstories and titles this time! I'm really pullin' all the stops, here!" Still laughing bitterly to himself, Gaster struggled to stand up on unsteady legs, then promptly fell face-first back to the floor. When he rolled over, he looked at his legs, an expression of wild wonder crossing his scarred face. "...Annoying Dog...."

Skywarp crouched down to get more on Gaster's level. "We're not hallucinations, Gaster. We're real. You're out of the Void."

Gaster blinked a few times, then looked up at Skywarp. "No, no, I believe you now. There's no way this is a hallucination. I have proof."

"Proof?"

The expression that crossed Gaster's face was purely the excitement of a child. "I have legs again!"

Skywarp paused. "Oh yeah. You were just kinda... goopy before."

Gaster nodded."Yep! 'Void goop', I've taken to calling it." Then, grinning, he again attempted to stand, almost fell over, but managed to regain his balance. After a moment, the tall skeleton-like monster tried to take a step forward, and promptly fell flat on his face. Again. "... Stupid gravity..."

Wheeljack snickered, but eyed the tall (for a monster) monster. "You're a skeleton."

"Would be a skeleton," Gaster corrected, "if my body existed. But it doesn't. Because I'm part of the Void."

"Well, you sure look like a skeleton, and you're not really in the Void anymore. You know those other monster skeletons?" Wheeljack asked.

Gaster's gaze shot immediately towards said mech, and his words were delivered in rapid-fire. "Other skeletons? Where? Who? What do they look like?"

"Well, they're on the Ark now. They're-"

There was a loud pounding on the door. "Starscream!" a deep voice boomed, "Answer your fragging comms for once, you incompetent Seeker!"

The smallest winged mech in the room sighed and signalled his door to open over his comm system.

Megatron was standing in the door, a scowl on his face. "Why, please do explain," he hissed, "is that pit-slagged glitch of a walking explosion doing on my ship, Starscream?"

The Decepticon Aerial commander sighed. "It's a long story involving lots of sciency things. He's done here now, though. Wheeljack, you can leave."

The Autobot hesitated, looking at the only exit (currently blocked by the Decepticon Warlord), then glanced over at Skywarp. "Mind giving me a lift?"

"Wait, where are you going?" Gaster cut in. "To that Arc thing you mentioned? Can you take me, too? Or if you give me coordinates, I can probably get us there."

"Yes, I'm going to the Arc, it's where I live."

"How would you get there?" Skywarp interjected quickly.

"What is that?" Megatron growled

"Well, I could ask the same about you!" Gaster shot back, frowning, hands finding their way to rest on his hips.

"I am the Decepticon Leader, Megatron, and you are currently trespassing on my ship!

"And I'm the Dog-Blasted Royal Scientist, Dr. WD. Gaster! I go wherever the heck I want, dangit!"

Megatron growled and took a step forward, but Skywarp stepped in front of the monster. "He's my guest. We just rescued him from the Void."

The gunmetal gray mech in the door paused, sighed, closed his optics, then reopened them. "Skywarp. What have I said about bringing stray things home with you? Especially ones that look like that infernal skeleton."

"Infernal skeleton?" Gaster hissed, then paused, leaning back on his heels. His expression changed from furious to condescending. "You clearly don't know who you're talking about right now. I'm the Royal Scientist. I built the CORE. I bent the whole of reality to my will, and spent aeons in the darkness of the Void." Then the monster grinned. "And, that infernal skeleton is my son!"

Megatron hesitated, then looked at Wheeljack. "Autobot, take that thing with you. You're free to leave whenever you want. Please make that as quick as possible."

"Well we don't wanna stay in your dumpy ship anyway!" Gaster sneered.

Without responding, the Warlord turned and marched back down the hall.

Wheeljack looked down at the skeleton monster. "Well, you said you need coordinates," he said, then rattled of a list of digits.

"Wait, wait though. Gaster, you can warp too?" Skywarp said hurredly.

"Pfffft, warp?" Gaster snorted. "I can manipulate reality as easily as you can walk. I don't warp, I teleport. Much faster. Instantaneous, actually."

"Huh," the warper said thoughtfully.

"Manipulate reality?" Starscream asked, raspy voice genuinely curious.

"Yup. Just look around." Gaster gestures to their surroundings, which were no longer Starscream's lab, but outside the Arc. There had been no transition between, no instant of darkness or noise to indicate the movement. They were simply there.

The mechs blinked. "Well, that was easy," Wheeljack snarked.

Starscream sighed. "Warp, please take us home. I don't feel like getting shot at today."

Skywarp giggled. "Hey, Gaster, mind if we, like, schedule sometime to hang out sometime soon? I liked talking to you when I was stuck Between."

"Sure, I don't see why not," Gaster laughed a little. "Let me see if..." he patted at the pockets of his coat for a moment, then let out a triumphant "ah-HAH," pulling out a cellphone. "Let's see, does this still work...? Ha! Eternities in the Void, and my phone still works! Let that be a testament to my skill in mechanics!" He then proceeded to, without a moment's pause, rattle off his phone number.

Skywarp paused for a moment as he stored the number, then made a test call on his comm system.

Barely a second passed before Gaster's phone began to ring, a mildly annoying, repetitive ringtone sounding from the speaker. "Yep! Works just fine!"

Skywarp laughed, then waved jauntily. Grabbing his Trinemates' hands, he threw a happy, "Talk to you soon!" over his shoulder, and with a quiet VOP!, he and the other Seekers were gone.

Not a moment after they were gone, Gaster turned to Wheeljack. "Now then. I believe you know where my sons are?" He was practically bouncing in excitement.

Wheeljack nodded. "Actually, I commed them just a moment ago. You giving Skywarp your number-"

And then it was like the mech and monster blinked, and suddenly Sans was there. His eyes immediately found Gaster, and he froze, just standing there, staring, expression blank.

Gaster grinned and held out his arms. "Hi, Sans! I'm home! Kinda!"

Sans blinked a little more, then suddenly lunged at the taller skeleton monster, grabbing him in a bear hug and just holding on. Gaster was quick to return the hug.

Wheeljack slipped away quietly, letting the monsters get reacquainted.

For a long moment, Sans and Gaster just sat there, hugging, finally reunited. Eventually, Gaster looked up though. "...Sans?"

There was a muffled response, Sans' face being buried in Gaster's chest.

"Where's your brother? I want to see him, too!"

"somewhere inside," came the still quite-muffled answer.

"And you're expecting me to carry you there, I assume?"

"yes."

Gaster just let out an amused sigh and turned to the Arc.

But they didn't have to go far. Wheeljack was standing in the entrance, a small figure standing next to him.

"Papyrus!" Gaster called excitedly.

Papyrus looked Gaster over with a critical eye. "So... you're my dad?"

"I am!"

Immediately, with a happy laugh, Papyrus responded in much the same way as Sans, crashing into his father with a hug.

§

A/N

Yay! Another one of these!

Also, this is the second time on my account that Gaster's been rescued from the Void.

Anyway, thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it! Comments and votes are my favorite part, and every notification I get makes my day!