A/N 1: Thank you muchly to TrueBornChaos, you stinking mind reader you. I had completely forgotten about that episode, as Arcee didn't mean much to me at that point, but you've come across a fact that will be important later on. Thank you for reminding me to make a note of that. Also, thankies to Pivot for a nice shiny review. I like reviews. steals back Shatter No! He's mine!

A/N 2: Edited chapters one and two, and I'm really sorry for the recent lack of updates. I'll be better about it, I promise!

The Sands of Time Cycle: Differentiating Viewpoints

Chapter Three: Futures

By Brain Damage 101

DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything except Slinger, Layshaft, Shatter, Wringer, and Wraith, who hasn't actually made an appearance yet. Oh, and Jetstorm. And this timeline. Though who wants it, I'm not sure.

---

Last time:

..."Have we picked out names yet, guys?"

"Slinger!" answered the former Slinger unit. "There are so few Slinger units left that it's not going to be anything out of the ordinary. Besides," she continued with a distinctly feral grin and a nod towards the two missile racks, "I'm certainly slinging quite a bit here..."

"Very funny. And my new name's... Layshaft. I'm not certain why, but it seems good enough." This was an interjection from the former flier, who looked up from examining his plating to answer.

"This new form is certainly powerful. So my new name is Shatter." This was from the former Strongarm unit, who was currently standing and leaning against the berth he had formerly occupied.

"Okay," answered Sideswipe with a grin, and he took Slinger by the arm to lead her off to... something. Wringer wasn't sure if he wanted to know or not. Layshaft and Shatter were sure they didn't.

---

Unlike the Omnicon overseer Wringer and her trinemates Layshaft and Shatter, the newly reformatted Omnicon Slinger did, indeed, want to know where Sideswipe was taking her. She voiced her question as he dragged her along the hallways of Project HQ. "Side...swipe... WHERE ARE YOU TAKING ME? Oh, no. Sideswipe, look out!"

As it was, Sideswipe had not 'looked out' and, in true Sideswipe form, had walked straight into the large Autobot known as Scavenger. Sideswipe yelled and, pulling Slinger with him, fell over. Slinger held her slightly dented cranial unit with one hand and hit Sideswipe upside his own with her free hand. Sideswipe mumbled an apology, which Slinger accepted with a grunt, and then she stood. She offered her friend a hand, and helped him up. Then she turned to look at Scavenger, who was laughing quietly at them.

This elicited a glare from Sideswipe. Then he mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like, "Shut up, Scavenger, you old coot…"

Apparently Scavenger's hearing was just as acute as Slinger's, for he reached out and cuffed Sideswipe firmly about the head. Sideswipe sighed moodily, and then grabbed his companion by the elbow. She began to move as he then propelled her in their original direction- outside, unless Slinger's recollection of the small tour she had been given previously was failing her. Her memory was still accurate, however, as she and Sideswipe stepped out into the strange Brazilian sun. Sideswipe fell from one form to the next, and revved his engine as he waited for her on the road.

Slinger understood his unspoken challenge immediately and wasted no time transforming. For a moment, she simply sat and took in the new lines and contours of her body- because she had been a prototype in her first form, Red Alert had managed to keep most of the lines and contours of her robot mode the same. However, he had allowed her to choose the alternate mode, and her choice had been a flashy gold and red Plymouth Prowler, which was such a far cry from her former pickup truck alt that she felt strange in her armor for the first time in her existence.

Then she grinned inwardly and floored the gas pedal, whipping past the idling blue Ford Mustang that was Sideswipe with a challenging honk of her horn. He took off after her and pulled ahead with his own horn blaring. For the next few hours, the pair raced- sometimes Sideswipe leading, other times Slinger stealing the lead out from under his proverbial nose. Slinger had been in the lead for longer than a half hour when she noticed a small dirt road pulling off the main road. She followed it, hearing Sideswipe come behind her, and finally exited the jungle area onto a rock outcropping with a view of the rainforest beneath it.

Slinger fluidly shifted from one form to the next and settled down on the outcropping, one leg hanging over the rock and the other drawn up to her chest. Sideswipe stood behind her with the afternoon sun glinting off his blue optical visor for a moment before settling in next to his companion. They sat for a moment in silence before Slinger broke it. "Sideswipe," she began, "what are you going to do?"

"Do," he asked, "when?"

"Next," she answered, gesturing vaguely around her, "in your future, I guess. You're not cut out for the whole 'personal secretary' bit. You can't want to do paperwork for the rest of your life- even if, you know, this peace lasts."

Seriously, Sideswipe looked at her, whispering, "do you think it will, Sling?"

"I… I don't know," she confessed, looking away, "I mean, I want it to- of course- but while they were testing me back at the research facility, I researched the Minicon War thoroughly. I've heard about the peace treaties- the texts I read made a lot out of them- but the Autobots and Decepticons have been fighting for four million years. They've become very good at it."

"Yes they have," agreed Sideswipe quietly. Then he continued abruptly, "and what makes you think I don't want to keep my nice simple job, huh?"

"Not enough challenge- stagnancy in any form is unhealthy, even in a species as long-lived as the Transformers. Look at what four million years of constant- but actually stagnant, because no one gained or lost ground for most of it after the Minicons left- warfare have done to the state of Cybertron. And no, making sure Red Alert naps on time does not qualify as anything that breaks the monotony. Me, I want to explore, get out and see the big black void of space. I guess that's always what made us different."

"Us?"

"Layshaft, Shatter and I. We weren't originally paired together, you know. They requested a new Slinger unit after their last one complained of borderline insanity in both of them. So they assigned the most recent- and, might I say, the most adaptable, opinionated, and difficult- prototype from Wraith's labs to their team. That's when I discovered that I wasn't the only one who didn't want to spend my life mining. The three of us would argue with the others, who were firmly entrenched in how they thought things should be, and we didn't meet anyone like us until we met Jetstorm. He was one of out overseers, and he's actually the basis for the Skyblast units, only bigger. He told us that we were the smartest Omnicons he'd ever seen, and then explained counter arguments for the conservative slag we'd been fed since our sparking. Layshaft, Shatter, and I broke the mold for the Omnicons, because we wanted more than we'd been given. A lot more."

"Looks like you got it."

"Seems so," she paused for a moment, "Sideswipe- oh, never mind."

"Huh?"

"I said never- oh, ok, fine. Just… stop looking at me that way! Okay, so Sideswipe… how would you feel if I told you I wanted to ask Red Alert for the funding for a space exploration mission?"

"I'd say that you're going to get very little support at all. Space exploration is generally held as frivolous. And career suicide for anyone with ambition."

"Why?"

"Because it so often fails."

"Frivolous?"

"Well, alright… that depends."

"Depends on what?"

"On what you're looking for."

"On what you're… Sideswipe! Space exploration doesn't always have to have a specific goal in mind… does it?"

"It does in my experience."

"That's extensive."

"Hey! Who here fought in the Minicon War?"

"And who here managed to get himself into so much trouble he had to be rescued by that big yellow idiot Hotshot several thousand times? By the way, did you get an award for that many mistakes in a single campaign?"

"Leave Hotshot- and me!- alone. Besides, at the end of the war he wasn't yellow."

"But still a big idiot."

"I never said he wasn't. Anyway…so, okay, if you were looking for something- hypothetically, of course- what would you be looking for?"

"An alternative to Cybertron, of course. Our world is so rapidly degenerating that the repair crews can't keep up, even with this period of peace. And it's not like we have enough resources to completely reform the planet- even with help from Earth- in the first place."

"That's true."

"So what should I do?"

"Go for it. What's the worst he can say?"

"Um… no?"

"But there's always that chance, no matter how slim."

"Right," she said, then stood and yelled, "transform!" She took off, leaving Sideswipe scrambling in her dust cloud.

"Slinger!"

---

Slinger and Sideswipe walked into the lounge together. Slinger attracted many glances and whispers as she walked past- not for her appearance, which was slightly dust-stained, or for any outstanding physical features, which clearly displayed that she was a worker plain and simple, but for the sheer newness she embodied. Sideswipe attracted a few glances and mutters, too, but that was just because he could be a little terrorist when it came to interrupting Red Alert's schedules and had physically removed several mechs out of the outpost commander's office several times. How exactly he did this was still a mystery, as he was one of the smallest and weakest mechs on base, but those who had undergone the treatment weren't talking.

"Hey, Sideswipe," said Slinger, idly tracing a line in the dust covered plating on her forearm with one finger, "do you know where I'm quartered?"

"Uh… yeah," answered Sideswipe, pulling a datapad from subspace and looking it over. "You're… on the third level, room 63," he said, glancing at her.

She nodded and answered, "thanks, Sideswipe," before turning and walking out the door. As she came to the elevator, she glanced inside and, finding only one other occupant- a blue and orange car Transformer, with small wings on the side of his head and a mask covering the bottom portion of his face- she stepped inside. Seeing that the button for level three was already highlighted, she settled against the circular wall to wait. Neither she nor her traveling companion spoke or looked at each other. When the elevator came to a stop, she started out first, and suddenly a low voice spoke, "name's Blurr. You need anything, let me know, okay kid?"

"S-Sure, Blurr. Thanks. I'm Slinger, in case you were wondering," she answered, glancing back and then at the numbers next to each room's door. When she came to 63, she stepped inside and glanced around- it only had a single recharge berth, but was connected to the next room by a slightly ajar doorway. Slinger glanced inside, spied Layshaft tracing lines on Shatter's chest, and shook her head with a chuckle. Then she turned to the cleaning unit and stepped inside. She pressed a few buttons- cleaning units were fairly standard- and smiled as first soap, then water, then hot air brushed over frame and washed the dirt away. She quietly removed her visor, which hid her gold optics, and pulled a buffer cloth from her subspace, then wiped out the cracks around her optics, which were very sensitive and tended to go on the fritz if she didn't regularly clean them. She ran the towel over the visor itself, the settled back onto her face.

She stepped out and saw the jar of wax almost immediately. Her expression one of rapture, she spent a while waxing her frame lovingly. 'I need to look impressive when I go talk to Red Alert,' she tried to convince herself, then gave up and admitted, 'besides, it's been so long since I've had a good wax. I've needed it.'

When Slinger was finally satisfied with the status of her outer plating, she stood, examined herself in the thin mirror on the wall next to her. Then she straightened her shoulders and walked out to go talk to Red Alert.

---

Sideswipe was being difficult. He had removed himself from the active duty roster for that afternoon, but had put himself back on after Slinger's departure from the lounge. Now firmly entrenched in the outer office (the one where Wringer had almost suffered spark failure of embarrassment), he was keeping everyone away from the workaholic CMO. Everyone included Slinger, who was not happy about the fact.

"But, Sideswipe!"

"No."

"I spent an hour on my finish, Sideswipe! I need to go see him while I'm still shiny!"

"What is this, a date?"

"…"

"Sorry."

"Yeah! Ew!"

"I said sorry!"

"So can I go in now?"

"Do you have an appointment?"

"…No, Sideswipe. I don't. Would you be so kind as to schedule me for one?"

"That's much better, now isn't it?"

"Whatever you say, O Secretary of Doom."

"…You know, I like the sound of that."

"You would- hey, are you absolutely sure you weren't a Decepticon during the War?"

"Haven't you heard? Former Autobots are the most evil bureaucracy ever to exist. Must come from all that extra time on our hands."

"But aren't the Decepticons supposed to be evil?"

"They are…"

"They're just honest about it, then."

"Yup. Now... I can squeeze you in tomorrow…"

"Don't push it, Sideswipe," she said dangerously.

"You got it. Well… I can get you in now, if you want."

"Oh, thank you, Sideswipe."

"No charge!"

"Thank Primus."

Shoving her blue-armored friend into his chair, Slinger stalked past Sideswipe and entered Red Alert's personal office, the one where he went when he wanted to be disturbed as little as possible. The blue-and-white CMO glanced up at her entrance and motioned towards on of the chairs in front of his desk. She ignored the command and instead stood ramrod straight, her face more serious than he had seen it so far.

She looked stiff, but gathered her wits and spoke. "Red Alert, sir," she began, "I just wanted yo know if you had any plans for Layshaft, Shatter, and I… any at all."

"I had been hoping the three of you would stay on as liaisons to the Omnicons for us. As you yourself have experienced, relations have been… minimal, at least," answered Red Alert as he placed his datapad on his desk and fixed her with a look. "Now, what are you really here for?" he asked.

"I was… here to ask you I-if you would be willing to bring a proposal to the Council for me. A proposal for a space exploration mission."

"Space explor- Slinger, that's not going to be very popular."

"I think it will have a better chance if someone as respected and… um… not unstable… as you were to bring it forward."

"That's true… why?"

"I… I've never been your average Omnicon. I'm not really a very good example of what one should be. Besides, someone malicious may bring my roots before the Council and try to discredit you or the others. I want to get out of here as soon as possible and avoid any trouble."

" 'My roots'? "

"Layshaft and Shatter are adaptable. More than me, at least."

"I see. Than answer… is no."

"N-no!"

"No."

---

Oooh- that must have hurt. Leave a review on your way out, please, and feel free to pick nits- I like sticking to canon as much as possible, which means I have to somehow work Red Alert back to Earth in time for Cybertron…Grr. Oh, once again, sorry for the lack of updates. I've been very busy with school starting up again and all the drama that comes along with it.