Ratchet and the three new arrivals had a staring contest. No one wanted to look away, until Ratchet took a step closer.

"Get away!" Miko cried...if that was even Miko. Ratchet stopped, keeping his gaze firm. The second-tallest one gulped.

"Guys...? He's...his...optics...his...paintjob...he's..."

"Different," the shorter one finished for him. The shorter one nodded. Ratchet didn't want to scare them off, but he needed to work.

"I don't intend to harm you," he simply stated, looking at them sincerely. "My name is-"

"Ratchet. You're Optimus Prime's medic and scientist," the female finished for him. Ratchet silently nodded, rather confused.

"...How do you know that?"

"Megatron filled us in," the shorter one replied, like it was the most casual thing in the world. Ratchet frowned.

"You've made contact with Megatron?"

"Well...yeah. He's the Decepticon leader."

"Of course he is. But, he didn't hurt you?"

"You're kidding, right?" the shortest one asked as he raised an eyebrow. Ratchet was tempted to glare but his better judgement told him not to.

"No, I am not kidding. Megatron is a cold and ruthless warlord bent on seizing power and taking control of Earth after he destroyed Cybertron."

The female looked like she wanted to argue, but the look the Autobot was giving her told her not to.

"That's weird...that sounds exactly like Optimus," the middle-sized one replied. Ratchet couldn't help it, he snorted.

"That's the most absurd thing I've ever heard."

The kids were now confused. Megatron was a warlord? Did that mean...Optimus was good?

"Look...something happened. We were just chilling at the base and then the GroundBridge opened and turned into some black hole and sucked us through. And here we are," the shortest one stated. Ratchet sighed.

"I need to work on the bridge...which means you need to get out of the way. I really don't want to hurt you, but you shouldn't leave the base if I think what happened...happened."

The female slowly nodded, and shakily stood up as she spotted the yellow couch. Weird. At the other base, it was green.

The three slowly moved over toward the "human area", their gaze never looking away from Ratchet as the medic sighed and kneeled to the floor to continue working. The Autobots were still in the mine and probably still fighting.

Deeply concentrated on his work, Ratchet called out without looking away.

"Raf, what are the energon readings for the bridge?"

"Uh...what?"

Ratchet immediately remembered what had happened and pinched an imaginary nose with his digits.

"Never mind."

"How do you know my name? You've always sort of referred to us as "Decepticon human pets".

Ratchet snorted again.

"Change that to Decepticon human 'pests' and that would sound like me," he muttered to himself, before looking over to them.

"Our human allies are named Jack, Miko, and Raf."

"Well...that's a...mighty coincidence," the female muttered. "That's our names."

Ratchet nodded. He thought so.

Although, something told him that he wouldn't mind this Miko much and would probably mind this Raf more.

He looked back down at his work as the comlink went off again.

"Ratchet, I know you're busy, but that bridge would be really nice about now," Arcee said, and Miko seemed to tense at the voice.

"I'm working on it, Arcee," Ratchet replied with a sigh, his welder sparking as he worked. The kids were silent, too scared to say anything. A few minutes passed as Ratchet fixed what was wrong, and soon the bridge was ready for testing.

"Hold on to something," Ratchet muttered to the kids before pulling the lever.

Everyone waited in anticipation, but the bridge never turned into a black hole, and Bulkhead was the first through, followed by Optimus, who was carrying a wounded Bee, and Arcee brought up the rear.

Ratchet led Optimus to a berth so he could place Bee down, and started working on him as he looked over at the others.

"I need to talk to you-where are the children?"

"They...the bridge...sucked them through," Arcee replied, looking downcast. Ratchet nodded. Maybe they were experiencing what the other Jack, Miko, and Raf were experiencing now.

Hopefully.

"Anyway...we...have three new arrivals. Jack, Miko, and Raf..."

"Ratchet, you're not being funny," Bulkhead replied. Ratchet shook his helm.

"They seem to come from another...dimension...where we are essentially the Decepticons...and the Decepticons are...essentially...us."

"That's impossible," Arcee growled lightly.

"No, it's not," Miko shot back, glaring at her. "Airachnid is my guardian."

Arcee's optic twitched.

"Arcee," Ratchet called from where he was with Bee. "Remember, we're their Decepticons."

Arcee sighed and nodded, as Optimus walked over to look at them. They were certainly...different.

Raf still had his hair as well as his height, but he no longer had glasses. He was wearing an orange hoodie, with a yellow T-shirt under it. He was wearing grey-blue jeans that bagged at the ankles, but his shoes were the same. Miko's hair was down, mostly, but the big change with it was that some of it was in a bun, held together with chopsticks, and there was no dye in her hair. She wore a solid light pink t-shirt and dark blue skinny jeans, along with black flats. Jack's outfit was a lot like the normal Raf's, except for the colors. He had yellow glasses, a dark grey sweater vest, and a white button-down shirt sticking out under it. His jeans, however, did not bag as much at the ankles. They fit him better, and they were a teal-ish blue, while his shoes were the same ones normal Jack wore; dark blue and white converses. He and Miko seemed to have switched heights.

"...Optimus..." Miko greeted hesitantly. Optimus nodded in greeting as he retracted his mask.

The kids couldn't help but stare. They expected to see the scars that always littered Optimus' faceplate, but, there weren't any. Not to mention, his paintjob wasn't black and purple, and his optics weren't orange-yellow.

"Whoo, boy, this is gonna take some gettin' used to," Raf muttered.

***

"Jack? Jack! Jack, can you hear me?" Raf called. Miko sighed and grabbed a fistful of Jack's shirt and shook him a little.

"Jackson Darby do not make me splash water on you again!"

"Ngh..." Jack replied, and Miko smirked.

"Knew that would get him."

Raf rolled his eyes. "Only because you poured ice cold water on him when he was asleep in the base once."

Miko shrugged as Jack finally opened his eyes.

"I had the weirdest dr-"

He stopped when he noticed Knockout watching him.

"...oh."

"Doctor Darby has been called; he'll take care of your injuries."

"Doctor?" Raf asked.

"He?" Jack added.

Miko looked at each Decepticon, looking them up and down, as if she were assessing them.

"Guys...this isn't...right..."

"You're telling me," Jack muttered.

"Soundwave is white and blue, not...blue and purple. Starscream...is white, red and blue...Airachnid....white...blue and pink...Knockout is blue...and...his finish is scratched...and he has an eyepatch...and Breakdown...is...green...and has both optics...and Megatron...is silver...and...red...and...no scars..." Raf whispered.

"And all their optics are blue..." Jack added, placing a hand on his head, feeling the injury. He took his outer shirt off and pressed it against the wound. He looked up at Megatron, glaring slightly.

"What's going on here?"

"All we know is a black hole opened up, sucking our human allies through, and then you came," Starscream replied before Megatron could.

"Did we ask you, Screamy?" Miko practically snapped. The seeker seemed taken slightly aback at her remark.

"Miko..." Jack sighed, looking over at her. "We kinda want them to like us."

Miko made a face at the thought of making friends with the Decepticons.

"This is going to be really, really weird," she muttered. Raf nodded in agreement.

"I know it may take some getting used to," Megatron started, and the kids jumped at his voice. It was less...threatening. It was...friendlier. Warmer. More...inviting.

"...but know that we do not want to harm you."

"That's gonna be hard to remember," Jack muttered as he briefly glanced toward Airachnid and Miko to Breakdown.

"May I ask why?" Knockout asked. Jack frowned, but Miko spoke before he could.

"You tried shooting at Jack when he was racing with Bumblebee. Airachnid has tried killing him to torture Arcee even more, and Breakdown threw a pillar at me in Greece before Bulkhead saved me. Starscream harassed me and Bulk."

"And you," Jack added, looking up at Megatron. "We had a conversation in the mine."

The kids all stared dumbfounded at Jack as Megatron looked at him.

"I do not know what you are talking about," he said simply.

"Hold on," Airachnid said, gesturing for Miko to slow down.

"You three are with the Autobots?"

"Of course," Raf replied quietly. "They're our guardians."

"And they didn't try dissecting you?" Knockout asked skeptically.

"What? No! They'd never hurt us!"

"I find that a little hard to believe," Breakdown muttered.

"Well, yeah, you guys are our enemy!" Miko argued.

"Something strange is going on..." Knockout muttered. Soundwave nodded once in agreement.

"So...if we're now in a world where you seem to be...good...does that mean...?" Raf trailed off.

"Is...Optimus...evil?" Jack asked.

Megatron nodded.

"A warlord bent on seizing power and destroying humanity."

The kids all made faces with each other. That wasn't Optimus.

That wasn't Optimus at all.

That was Megatron.

What strange dimension were they even in?

~~~

Welp

There's a lot of dialogue in this one, and I feel like the kids were kinda just talking in circles and hung up on the fact that the 'cons were good. Lol.

I'm not sure I'd believe that either.

I kinda think that the kids from the SG dimension didn't freak out as much as the kids from Prime did because Ratchet was the only one at the base, and, like Soundwave, didn't show himself much to them. Probably only one time. So they were just...extremely cautious.

Also this is during S1, so the kids wouldn't have seen Megatron before (save for Jack), but they knew everyone else, so it was kind of a given.

That must be a little unnerving...the first time you see the leader of the Decepticons...he's actually nice.