WIP Monologue - Jetstorm
Friday, June 18th, 2021 09:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
zakiyahmuseSome things I might need to explain though - when they first met, Auspex and Foresight were in organic humanoid forms in a fantasy setting, due to some events happening in a dream because Nexus LOL-ish stuff that's a long story (and it's still unfinished, so it's not up on DW yet). So Auspex needed to ask Primus for an image of Foresight's true form, instead of the winged elf creature she was appearing as at the time.
Also, about the mention of a temporal storm - we'd decided that after the time of Auspex's last LJ entry, her reality had some kind of temporal/spacetime glitch that resulted in it being cut off from the Nexus, and the portal outside the sanctuary disappeared. I really didn't want to just pick up right where she left off when I hadn't played her for 11 years, especially when most all of the friends she'd made, being other mun's characters, are gone, and the settings such as the Sages of Chaos Nexus and Dear Multiverse Nexus, and even the collective truce-verse, are gone as well. So reality glitched, it took a decade or so for Primus and Vector Prime and whoever else is in charge of that kind of thing to stabilize it; in the meantime, Primus put Auspex in a prolonged stasis (as she was during quite a bit of the 4 million years of energy shortage) because the mun was having a decade-long panic attack about LJ the stress of losing so much (people and places) all at once would have totally freaked her out. So when the reality was sorted, the portal was reinstated, she woke up, and the Nexus has totally changed. New Nexii and universes/realities are available, and old ones are not - including truce-verse, where Jetstorm was staying last.
And the temporal storm is also how Foresight exists; Tam had the idea that all this temporal havoc could cause spacetime to shred (at least that's how I personally understand it), and bits of possible timelines might materialize as reality, including a certain LOL offspring. She was sent back quite a ways in the reality's timeline, so she's actually ~7 million years old at this point.
Okay, hopefully that's enough context...
"There was a reality parallel to ours, where events surrounding Unicron's arrival on Cybertron happened... very differently. Megatron was still reformatted to Galvatron, still served as Unicron's Herald, and still rebelled against him. The exact details were never given to me... but when the time came that Hot Rod was to use the Matrix to destroy the Chaos Bringer's body... something went very wrong. Unicron corrupted the Matrix, which in turn corrupted Hot Rod when he took it, and he became Rodimus Void. I... would rather not say very much about him, other than that he was more deeply twisted than Galvatron ever was when the Decepticon leader was still in Unicron's hold, and he had the ability to feel the pain inflicted on a person in whatever shattered pieces such an injury would leave behind... and he collected such trophies to savor. He tore Galvatron's head from his body, and kept it in a box. It held all of his pain, and it was his most prized possession.
"Things went even worse from there. Though Cybertron survived, so did Unicron, and he continued devouring planets, as Void became his new Herald, and he and his second-in-command, and also another of Unicron's thralls, consigned worlds to their master in advance of his arrival. Earth did not survive, among many other inhabited planets. Then, Void discovered the Nexus.
"The first reality he came to was one also parallel to ours, though slightly earlier in the timeline, where a lasting truce had been forged between Rodimus Prime and Galvatron, and their respective peoples. It was very fortunate that it was as strong a truce as it was - Void put up a terrible fight, but together, the natives were victorious against him. One of his gravest mistakes was capturing the native Cyclonus, which brought the wrath of Galvatron down on him, and the rest followed. But, when Rodimus Void handed Cyclonus over to his second to be tortured... Cyclonus persuaded him to help bring Void down. When Void was defeated, his second-in-command was rescued and brought to Autobot City in the truce universe.
"It's this mech that I wish to tell you about - his name was Jetstorm, and he was once Silverbolt, the Aerialbot leader. He was captured by Void early on, and Unicron reformatted him. Unlike Galvatron and Cyclonus and Scourge, the new directives and drive for destruction clashed badly with his original nature as an Autobot, and he was not always very sane. The Chaos of Unicron kept his mind together, but only just barely.
"Unicron and Rodimus Void had decided that his brothers should be reformatted as well, but Jetstorm made a plea to the thrall I mentioned before, whose name is Sideways." There is a flatness in her tone as she says the name; there is a story, here, but now is not the time for it. "In order to keep them from Void, Jetstorm learned a horrific procedure from the thrall - a rite of primal Chaos, in which he severed his brothers' heads from their bodies and bound their life forces to his own. They would live, tied in to his own systems, free of Chaos, but stripped of their autonomy in all but mind. He carried their heads on his wings."
Auspex sighs at this point, optics dimming as she takes a moment to compose herself. Remembering all of this is hard on her, especially considering the associated emotions are still relatively fresh; these things happened not very long ago, all things considered. Finally, she continues.
"When Jetstorm aided Cyclonus's escape and Void's defeat, Cyclonus had appealed to the Autobot still buried in Jetstorm's mind... it allowed him to break free of Void's hold, but not Unicron's. A combination of his own conscience, memories, and separation from Void and the corrupted Matrix, began to bring the madness to the forefront. When I first saw him, he was catatonic, in an isolation cell in the medbay of Autobot City, turned inward and dreaming, and his brothers were doing all they could to keep his mind stable... but they could not bring him back to normal functionality. The best way to permanently stabilize him would be to completely remove the reliance on Unicron's Chaos from his spark. So, the people of the truce reality called me; Rodimus Prime lent me his strength, and the power given to him by the Matrix, to increase Primus's power in me... and I cleansed Jetstorm's spark. He fought me, and I did not know specifically what he was doing at the time, but he tried to seize my spark as he did his brothers'... but Primus was ultimately successful, and Jetstorm regained his awareness, and most of his sanity. At the time, he was overwhelmed by the newly clean link between himself and his brothers, and it was another decacycle or so before I was able to actually speak to him.
"Finally, we met properly, and I watched over him for a good while; we were in the locked-down medbay, due to a crisis that I can explain later if you'd like - but I learned the former Aerialbots' story in that time, and of all the... understandable rage and betrayal Jetstorm's brothers harbored for him, and their continuing grief over the loss of Silverbolt. But they were still tied together, could not talk to me individually while the others were present, and there was too much that could not be spoken of. It took... considerably longer than I liked, for new bodies to be built for Fireflight, Air Raid, Skydive, and Slingshot.
"In that time, a few other calamities happened: Jetstorm stopped a rampaging Motormaster before he could take his Stunticons and devastate a human highway and everyone on it; he was gravely injured, but he was also very strong, himself. What was of more concern was the detachment of some of his brothers from his systems; still, they survived. I received a shock when he helped to fight a chaos elemental of sorts that was awakened in Earth's frozen north: encounters with chaos of any kind could induce hallucinations and temporary madness in him. Fortunately, he recovered after some rest. Most alarming: it became apparent after a chance meeting with Galvatron, that any sort of leftover Unicronian energy in large enough quantities might bring him back to the state he was in before I healed him. He fled, and took me with him; I was stranded in the mountains for six Earth days as he struggled with relapse. It was then that he told me... how much he was drawn to the light I hold... " A strained tone creeps into her voice, and she sighs softly. "But he was not entirely himself yet, and I did not take his words as solid truth. When he had sufficiently recovered, we returned to Autobot City.
"Finally, his brothers' new bodies were built, and their heads were successfully transferred. Unfortunately, the chaos-rite Jetstorm had been taught was irreversible; at least, no one I found (that I trusted) had the knowledge to do so. Their life-forces were mingled with his; if Jetstorm was killed, every one of them would die. Still, it was an... insurance, of sorts; none of them, including Jetstorm himself, could kill him if they wished to live. The rage from them, the self-hatred from himself... it might have been a near thing, otherwise.
"I counseled Jetstorm's brothers to the best of my ability, but they proved to be somewhat elusive after their transfer. Still, I think what they needed most was simply time away from Jetstorm, and possibly from each other, to allow their anger to cool. They still loved him; he was their brother still, despite the different identity, and I had faith that they would eventually come to terms with what had happened. He did try to save them from Chaos, to the best of his ability, as much as he could under duress of his twisted directives and a need for destruction, and they made it through.
"As for Jetstorm himself..." She pauses, emotions full of layers of complexity she's not sure she could name - though sorrowful, sentimental nostalgia is prominent, "...his attraction to me did not wane. I was wandering the Nexus around the time certain humans celebrate Christmas, and there was a sprig of mistletoe hanging somewhere. I did not know of the tradition of kissing someone standing under it, but he did, having lived almost his entire life on Earth. He ah... introduced me to that first-hand." She laughs softly, but the edge of pain is evident. "He was... very strongly grateful for what I'd done for him and his brothers, and he was determined to make sure I knew it.
"When I next encountered him, it was after his first... confrontation with his brothers. They'd beaten him, driven him off, and he'd let them... but he was so drawn up in self-loathing and regret for what he had done to them after he was reformatted. I reminded him that, although it is the work of servants of Chaos to destroy what others love, and despite the fact that he'd been one... he'd found a way to save his brothers, and he was not what he was anymore. I also reminded him that it is the work of a servant of Primus to restore faith in love. He found solace in my presence, and I think it was then that my spark went out to him most strongly. It brought me so much joy to see his burdens eased, if only for awhile.
"I saw him a few more times... he was recovering well, was coming to terms with who he was now, and who he was no longer. He was always affectionate, always reminding me to remain steadfast and to keep my light strong, was always a reminder that Primus's power can shine light where there was so much darkness and despair, and a reminder to continue sharing it as much as I am able. I was so proud of him, and what he was becoming... but he was restless, and his brothers still could not bear to be near him. His skills were still suited more for destruction than he had use for in Autobot City of the truce reality; he was atrophying where he was. I believe it was Skyfire who encouraged him to use his skills to fight evil in the universe abroad; there were people who needed help, who needed the sort of strength he had to defend them from oppression.
"Finally, he made up his mind... and he left, to travel the truce universe, as he could not go back to his native reality; there were, of course, those there who wished him dead (though I believe he was more concerned with what he might do to them than vice-versa), and it was painful to face what he had done, with the evidence so blatant before him. He also wanted to be where his brothers could reach him still, and they stayed where they were. So he left to see what he could find, what wrongs he could right, what new beginnings he might make. He had no plans to return, unless his brothers called him - and that was very unlikely to happen in the foreseeable future. It was... quite possibly the most painful goodbye I've ever endured." Her tone wavers, lost for a moment in the memory.
She takes a long moment of silence to commune, and draw some small measure of peace from Primus's comforting presence. "He... never promised me anything, other than that he would be mindful of relapse, would take care of himself... and that he would remember me always." Her voice is nearly a whisper. "And then he was gone."
"This was nearly two stellar cycles before our reality closed, and his new reality became inaccessable to the Nexus.
"Now," She takes a moment to gather herself, "for the reason I'm telling you of him. As soon as I laid eyes on you, Foresight... Primus spoke to me." She has to stop again, to still the trembling in her voice. She looks toward the ceiling, unable to meet the younger fem's gaze, as she paraphrases the impression her lord gave her, "He said... 'See, Jetstorm and his brothers left something of themselves behind'." Her voice trails into static for a moment. "I... didn't quite understand, and I asked him to show me your true form.
"And when I saw it... there is no doubt that, somehow... you are Jetstorm's construct, and... also, mine. Your build has elements from both of ours... and you have his power to discharge lightning, and his ability to still the air. You can hear Primus's voice, as I do.
"There... was always a sense of acceptance from Primus, that Jetstorm and I were a match that he approved of, and a relationship that he encouraged me to cultivate. If we'd been given time, if circumstances had not unfolded the way they had... there would have been opportunity for something like you to have happened. There were Nexus LOLs of all sorts that might result in offspring... there were chances for it to happen, if there had been time. I don't understand how temporal storms work, but there is the sense that you are... some sort of might-have-been that came to life from the possibilities that spun away from my reality during the storm.
"And I have no doubt... that Jetstorm would have loved you, as much as I already do."
