Did you know that I get really irritated when someone suggests I "Be kind?"

A dedicated chronicler with a camera bolted to the side of his head, Rewind is Conjunx Endura with Chromedome. Passionate, kind-hearted, and conscientious, Rewind is well-liked among his peers, who often excuse his constant recording of their every interaction for posterity.

Rewind effortlessly ingratiates himself with even the most rigid, antisocial and troubled of his compatriots. As Chromedome is fond of pointing out; his partner is someone who sees the best in everyone and Rewind makes sure that these moments are preserved for as long as he lives.

First appearance: The Transformers vol. 1 #28

Fiction

Joining the Autobots

Rewind of Lower Petrohex was extremely old: he could remember when Cybertron switched to the New Calendar, and he predated the rise of the Functionists and their Grand Cybertronian Taxonomy. Within the new caste structure the Functionists imposed upon Cybertronian society, Rewind's memory stick alternate mode saw him labelled as a member of the Disposable class, who were little better than slaves. Fortunately, Rewind was lucky enough to wind up working as a data receptacle for Dominus Ambus, who treated him with respect and eventually became his friend, and then more, even fighting for civil rights for the Disposable class. Seeking a cure for the disease Cybercrosis, Dominus departed Cybertron to search for Luna 1, and Rewind accompanied him; their quest ended in failure, and when they returned to their homeworld, they discovered a civil war had broken out in their absence. Rewind joined the Autobot faction, but the war soon became a distant second concern for him when Dominus mysteriously disappeared.

Rewind began a lifelong search for his friend, but when no sign that he still lived could be found, the archivist eventually started investigating the Relinquishment Clinics, thinking that his friend may have committed suicide, and that he could at least gain some measure of peace by learning his fate. It was while visiting such a clinic, where he was confronted with failure yet again, that Rewind was approached by Chromedome, another Autobot waiting to die who had found something inside himself touched by Rewind's anguish. Together, the pair gave each other a reason to live and began a relationship that lasted for millions of years, but Rewind never stopped searching for Dominus. With a camera mounted to his head at all times to record anything and everything around him, Rewind even began to plumb seedier and seedier depths, procuring footage of deaths of all kinds, in hopes of one day finding something that would reveal Dominus's fate to him. Despite being named Rewind's Conjunx Endura, Chromedome resigned himself to the fact he would only ever be the second most important person in Rewind's life. Before & After

Half a million years ago, around 6th Cycle 351, Chromedome and Rewind were posted in the Manganese Mountains, fighting Scorponok. The Custom-Made Now

Rewind was among the Autobots stationed at the Kimia Facility at the time of the Chaos event, and escaped an attack by Cyclonus and the Sweeps by fleeing in an escape pod with several other survivors. Kings Genesis Returning to Cybertron, he was tasked with putting his mastery of language to use translating the inscription found within the Matrix of Leadership, but even he struggled with it. The Death of Optimus Prime When it was determined that the Matrix contained a map believed to lead to the long-lost Knights of Cybertron, Rewind elected to join Rodimus's crew aboard the Lost Light in following the map. How to Say Goodbye and Mean It Though Rewind's primary motivation was to see if somewhere along the way he could learn what had happened to Dominus. The Not Knowing

Some time before Rodimus made the announcement, Rewind and Chromedome attended the Festival of Lost Light together. Twenty Plus One

The Lost Light

"Did you know that I have a camera attached to the side of my head at all times so that I can record everything?"

Before the launch, Rodimus approached Rewind with a quest to film everything he could, as a travelogue, though Ultra Magnus would have say over what entered the final cut. Little Victories On the craft's launch day, Rewind accompanied Chromedome to a meeting with Prowl, who was rather annoyed with Rewind recording their conversation. Before boarding the Lost Light, Rewind purchased some more death footage from Swindle before joining Chromedome and Ratchet in crossing the Mitteous Plateau to the ship, causing some grumbling from his partner that they were being forced to walk because of Rewind's non-mobile alternate mode. Upon launch, a malfunction of the Lost Light's quantum generators damaged the ship and hurled it into deep space. How to Say Goodbye and Mean It

Once the ship was set down on a planetoid, Rewind helped Chromedome and Hoist recover the damaged Cyclonus, who had been clinging to the hull. Returning to the ship, they met with Swerve and Tailgate, and then witnessed a battle between the newly arrived amnesiac Skids and a group of mysterious robots, which Rewind gleefully recorded. Hangers On No sooner was the Lost Light airborne again than Rewind was called upon to help investigate the death of Shock, identifying the murder as the work of a Sparkeater. The Chaos of Warm Things

Shortly thereafter, Rewind and Chromedome attending the grand opening of Swerve's. No Guns, No Swords, No Briefcases Rodimus later called Rewind up to give Tailgate a history lesson about the war: having been in stasis throughout the conflict, Tailgate had decided that he wanted to be a Decepticon, but a super-compressed summary of the villains' actions during the war beamed straight into his head by Rewind quickly disabused him of the notion. Life After the Big Bang

Rewind was sitting with Chromedome and Skids at Swerve's when the former managed to snag the latter's gun. Skids didn't notice. Rules of Disengagement

After the Lost Light was impacted by a discarded thumb from Metroplex, and was subsequently repaired, Rewind attended an award ceremony honoring Brainstorm, Chromedome, and Highbrow for their part in saving the ship. Later, Rewind along with nearly everyone on board of the Lost Light were frozen in place due to one of Brainstorm's experimental weapons accidentally going off. After he recovered, he was awarded a Rodimus Star "for exceptional endurance in the face of adversity." The Reluctant Specialist

When Red Alert discovered the footage Rewind had bought from Swindle and brought on board, Last Light he dubbed them "snuff movies" and punished the little 'bot by having him replace rivets on the ship's hull. He was soon joined in his task by Swerve, and the pair were then pressed into action when Fortress Maximus took Rung and Whirl hostage. Rewind projected footage of Max's torture at the hands of Overlord at Garrus-9 through a window from outside in order to distract him, while Swerve took a shot at him, but wound up grievously wounding Rung instead. Interiors

"Did you know that although I appear to be flying in data slug mode in these panels, this is not in fact possible for me to achieve?"

Against Rewind's wishes, Chromedome had begun using his mnemosurgery skills again, resulting in him reliving the experience of Skyfall's death. After helping calm his partner, Rewind accompanied him to Tailgate's Autobot Initiation Ceremony, during which Rodimus was seized by a strange compulsion and drew some ancient Cybertronian on Tailgate's chest, which Rewind translated as "let me out". Shortly after, Rewind was among those teleported to the planet Theophany by the Galactic Council to investigate the abandoned Crystal City. Beneath the city, they found Metrotitan, a Titan whose psychic emanations were revealed as the cause of Rodimus's trance. The words, Cyclonus explained, were a plea from the Titan that actually said "set me free". When the Autobots shrank the titan so it could teleport away, it sent them back to their ship and quantum-jumped them out of the Council's reach. You, Me, and Other Revelations

Rewind hosted a movie night in his hab suite, projecting "Proteus's Promise". Tailgate, Swerve, Pipes, and First Aid joined him in watching the film. Who's Afraid of the DJD?

With Rung's body repaired after the hostage ordeal, Rewind determined to heal his comatose mind by gathering together a group of other Transformers to tell stories of their shared experiences that would notionally help Rung's unresponsive mind form connections. Post Hoc Though Rewind's intentions weren't entirely selfless, as he wanted to have what he felt was a long-overdue conversation with Rung about Dominus. No Guns, No Swords, No Briefcases The first two attempts didn't work out, An Intimate Beheading so for the third try, Rewind got Chromedome, Ratchet, Skids, Drift, and Whirl to help him tell a story about events set during the Clampdown. Post Hoc The story didn't appear to be having any effect, Patternism but Rewind was determined to keep going, having discovered that Rung was strangely ubiquitous in Cybertronian history, having been presented for virtually every major event in the planet's span. In the end, it was not the story, but Skids's deliberate mispronunciation of the psychiatrist's name that awoke him. An Intimate Beheading

Did you know that I nearly oiled myself at the realization that I was about to be blown up?

Rewind took part in an attack on a Decepticon battalion on Temptoria, which kicked off with an argument between him and Chromedome, as he had previously promised his partner that he would not put himself in danger in this manner any more. The argument was cut off when Whirl dragged Rewind away to take footage of him during the attack; while Whirl and Cyclonus took care of the combat end of the mission, Rewind and Tailgate explored the Decepticon base and discovered the villains were using pink alchemy to drain energon from the natives. A bomb was wired to the chamber, so Rewind helped Tailgate to defuse it, but when the process went wrong, he wound up locked in the bomb chamber with Cyclonus. The larger 'bot shielded Rewind from the explosion, but the archivist was still badly damaged. He was returned to the Lost Light by Chromedome who reminded First Aid that Rewind was allergic to Crude Energon and ultraviolet light. Rewind would have died had not Whirl (secretly responsible for locking them in as part of a deluded attempt to kill Cyclonus) volunteered to take part in jumpstarting his spark. Before & After

Did you know that my holomatter avatar is adorable?

After the crew and Rewind had recovered from the battle of Temptoria, Rewind was one of those invited with Swerve and his "gang" to the tourist planet of Hedonia for a night of R&R. Rewind was one of the group who had the opportunity to scout the organics-only bar using his holomatter avatar, a 20-something human called, appropriately, Joe Human. Cybertronian Homesick Blues

At one point during the night, Rewind witnessed Skids and Whirl's meeting with a bunch of Ammonites, eerily similar mechanical lifeforms stuck in their own civil war. He also presumably witnessed the arrival, and subsequent murder by Whirl, of their arch-foe Imperius Drax. Little Victories

While Swerve babysat a drunken Ultra Magnus, Rewind joined the others in the gift shop. Rewind suggested to them that if they were already in trouble with Ultra Magnus, they might as well get into some serious trouble by searching for the "dark secret" of Hedonia. He later convinced Rung not to buy any Hedonian tourist memory sticks, as he was recording his own version. Signal to Noise

Rung bought an Ark-1 model instead, which led Rewind to an impromptu showing of some ancient footage of the real Ark-1's opening ceremony. Before he could roll footage, an apparently drunk Cyclonus flew into a rage. With only twenty minutes to spare, Rewind helped the others to get a comatose Ultra Magnus back to the shuttle. Cybertronian Homesick Blues

Shortly thereafter, the Lost Light had the pleasure of crossing paths with the legendary Thunderclash, with Swerve managing to save him from an Ammonite spy (it turned out the Ammonites were the bad guys of their particular war). In the meantime, Rewind got lots of footage of Rodimus desperately trying not to be his usual self. Afterward, Rodimus expressed the thought that maybe giving Rewind complete access to everything wasn't such a great idea. Little Victories

Unknown to Rewind, Chromedome was busy interfacing with the secret Decepticon prisoner, Overlord, who would later use Chromedome's memories to escape from his slow cell prison. Rewind suspected something was going on, and visited Brainstorm to relay some of his suspicions. At that moment, Overlord killed Pipes and the Lost Light was alerted to their emergency.

He followed the rest of the crew to find Overlord crippled by Trepan's Trigger, the mnemonic process Chromedome had installed in the Phase Sixer as a failsafe. Rewind felt betrayed by Chromedome's return to mnemosurgery, a dangerous practice which Chromedome had previously promised Rewind he would no longer do. Remembrance Day Rewind angrily told Chromedome that they would talk later, but the chance never came. When Fortress Maximus managed to put Overlord back into the slow cell, the doors had been wedged open by one of Drift's swords. The only way to close the cell was for Rewind to get into the cell and remove the sword from the inside.

As the ejection countdown began, Rewind apologised to a distraught Chromedome for things not working out. As the cell fell away from the ship, Rewind turned to find Overlord looming over him. What was said between the two is not known as Chromedome, only too aware of Overlord's depravity, rushed to blow up the ejected cell rather than leave Rewind to a sadist's mercy. Under Cold Blue Stars

In that short time, though, Overlord had already killed Rewind; tearing off three of his limbs before biting off his head to stop him from screaming. Rage, Rage After the missile struck all that remained of Rewind was his camera unit, drifting through space next to a fully intact and not-quite-dead Overlord.

Memories

Did You Know that I love you?
Or were you not aware?
You're the smile on my face
And I ain't going nowhere

Unknown to Chromedome, Rewind had the foresight to compose a message to his partner and eject it from the cell prior to the door's closing. After his in absentia funeral, Rewind's data slug gave a grieving Chromedome a final message through a series of edited clips, finishing with the words "I Love You". The Gloaming

In the aftermath of Tyrest's scheme to kill all the Constructed Cold, Rodimus removed the garish decorations of his office, and installed a memorial to all the fallen, Rewind included. The Sound of Breaking Glass Meanwhile, Skids tried to convince the Circle of Light to join up with the Lost Light's crew by showing them Rewind's film. For some reason, they only came away convinced that the ship was filled with maniacs, and went looking for Thunderclash instead. Little Victories

For months after, Chromedome sat in his room playing the message over and over (and felt guilt over not searching for Dominus Ambus as he'd promised). One day, the end of the message was simply an anguished scream and he went to Nightbeat for aid. The detective realised it wasn't just Chromedome imagining things when Rewind's ghost showed up for a second. Nightbeat called it a "data ghost", theorising it was the impression left on the physical world by the metaphysical weight of the data that Rewind carried. All this took a back seat when the ship began to disappear. Towards Peace Words Hang in the Air Only a few hours after that, the remaining Autobots came across a duplicate Lost Light: one that had been massacred 18 months prior by the Decepticon Justice Division. The only survivor, hidden and unconscious in the Magnus Armor, was this Lost Light's Rewind! slaughterhouse

Rewind 2.0

Unknown to everyone else, the explosion at the Lost Light's launch had created a quantum duplicate of the Lost Light and its crew, including Rewind. This crew also faced the Sparkeater, but the incident ended with Rodimus's death. Assuming command, Ultra Magnus promptly canned Rewind's travelogue. Around the same time that the crew of the other Lost Light found Metrotitan, Ultra Magnus suffered an attack of Nanocons. In order to combat them, he was infected with a swarm of Scraplets. This incident revealed he was Minimus Ambus, Dominus's brother. The Road Not Taken Rewind confronted Minimus, angrily accusing him of withholding this fact from him. Minimus emphatically stated his brother was dead, and Rewind retorted that there was no way he could've known. It took Chromedome intervening to separate the two after that. The Not Knowing

At some point around or after that, Brainstorm led the Decepticon Justice Division to the Lost Light with the promise of giving them Overlord. While they had been intending to keep their word of not harming anyone, the sight of Drift set them off, and they began killing everyone on-board. The Permanent Revolution They spared Rewind, forcing him to film them doing their dirty work in exchange for letting Chromedome live. Then they changed their minds, telling the two they'd let them live only if Chromedome used his mnemosurgery skills to erase all his knowledge of Rewind. Chromedome refused, and was violently killed for it. Rewind managed to get away, hiding inside the now abandoned Magnus Armor, where he passed out. The Road Not Taken

Did you know that if you did not cry at this scene you are a heartless monster?

Upon his awakening, he was shocked to see Nightbeat, Nautica, and Megatron among the Autobot ranks. Skids and Nightbeat attempted to question him as to the catastrophe that had befallen the ship, but the traumatized archivist broke down at the prospect and silently offered them a data slug instead. The video, containing the beginnings of his travelogue, confirmed Nautica's belief that this wrecked Lost Light was one of two created by quantum superpositioning during the launch accident. Rewind went on to describe how an unknown mole had tipped the Decepticon Justice Division off to Overlord's location, their massacre of the crew, and how they forced him to tape the affair in exchange for Chromedome's survival, followed by their subsequent change of mind. No sooner had he finished his tale when mutated quantum foam leaking from the quantum drums began spreading, threatening to cause a cataclysmic explosion. Rewind offered to help shut off the drums and reinstate the others' Lost Light, and set about the task with a mass-displaced Megatron. He asked Nautica, directing the pair from the Rodpod, if shutting off the quantum drums would lead to the cessation of his own existence in addition to the wrecked Lost Light, but her affirmation did not deter him, as he saw no further purpose in life with Chromedome dead. After Megatron falsely assured him that the two were still going strong on his ship, they shut off the quantum engines, causing all of the duplicate Lost Light to disappear... except, for unknown reasons, Brainstorm's briefcase and Rewind himself! Though Rewind was disheartened at the thought of life without a Chromedome of his own, his sadness ceased as he and Chromedome reunited, embracing silently on the outer hull of the Rodpod. The Road Not Taken

However, the reunion of sorts was far from perfect, as Rewind wanted to ease into the relationship with someone who was, to him at least, another person. Not helping was Domey not seeing why immediately giving him the other Rewind's stuff was such a big deal. Within two hours of meeting him. So Rewind moved into a different hab-suite. While resting, Rewind suffered a flashback to the Dark Dawn, crying out loud enough to draw Chromedome's attention. The two briefly tried working past the awkwardness, before Rewind brought up the Dark Dawn, and when it was. Except the story his databanks were telling him didn't match what history said happened, at all, talking about the long-dead Functionist Council, and obsolescence chips. The Custom-Made Now Meanwhile, Brainstorm had turned out to be a Decepticon agent, and not only that had built a time machine, with which he'd fled into the past to apparently kill Orion Pax and prevent the war. When informed about this by Rodimus, Rewind guessed this was responsible for his databases changing. In order to determine where Pax was, Rewind was called upon. Working out he would have likely been in or around Alyon on 1st Cycle 502, Rodimus chose a team of those who had spark types compatible with the time machine, in order to find Brainstorm and "punch some sense into him". Rewind was one of those chosen.

Meeting Pax and his brigade of outliers defending a hot spot, it was Rewind who realized (thanks to his databanks being overwritten) that the Senate was messing with it to try and create their own outliers. Fortunately, Pax was able to prevent them from destroying the sparks to cover this up by being impressively heroic. With that done, the team went off to another time-period to find Brainstorm. All Our Parlous Yesterdays

Arriving in the time of the Clampdown, Rewind was positioned on an airship, to watch out for Brainstorm. He soon saw him fleeing towards the Dead End, but he jumped away before anyone could catch him. Following after the mad scientist, the team arrived in 4th cycle 499, outside Maccadam's. Splitting up, Rewind and Chromedome positioned themselves outside Rodion's police headquarters to play a game of stargazing. But Rewind's mind was on other matters, namely Dominus, and whether it would've been possible to use Brainstorm's time case to try and find him, and if he was killed, try and prevent it. Chromedome raised the point that, altering the timeline aside, if he did that their own relationship would never happen. Then Whirl interrupted when he realized they were present on the day he nearly killed Megatron.

Later, Rewind and Chromedome were unable to intervene as Senate goons murdered Orion Pax's fellow cops, despite Rewind really wanting to. Then he noticed some new arrivals: the Heavies, and some new guy, which set Whirl off. As Whirl dealt with some personal revelations, Perceptor realized Brainstorm hadn't been after Pax at all. He'd been after Megatron. Stet Managing to track Brainstorm to the Con Facility Megatron had been built in, everyone tried preventing him from destroying the future Decepticon, which worked. However, as Rewind saw the revised, Megatron-free version of history falling into place, he came to a conclusion: While life on Cybertron would suck, it would be infinitely better for everyone else. So, spurred in part by his regret over not acting when the D.J.D. had attacked, he blasted Megatron's spark to pieces.

This didn't change Chromedome's opinion of him in the slightest, as he offered the upset archivist a supportive hug. However, his actions soon proved for naught when Whirl stole a Point One Percenter spark Brainstorm had been carrying on his person, and installed it in the body as an act of spite against the Functionist Council for ruining his life. Afterward, as everyone looked for a way to get back to the present, Rewind talked with Brainstorm, thanking him for looking after Chromedome. When Brainstorm mentioned his own personal loss, Quark of Rodion, Rewind looked him up in the database, only to find he'd died at Grindcore. Meanwhile, everyone else went looking for a quantum generator, travelling to Unitrex to find one, while Rewind filled Tailgate in on where that was, finding a surprisingly familiar shot in his databanks. Fortunately, everyone managed to get back to the present intact. The next day, Rewind and Chromedome were sharing a hab-suite again, holding hands as they rested. Predestination: An Expert's Guide

In the aftermath, Rewind attended Brainstorm's hearing. Our Steps Will Always Rhyme

After a chance encounter with Thunderclash, and a mess involving personality ticks the Lost Light threw an EarthDance party at Swerve's, where Rewind and Chromedome strutted their stuff together. The Frail Gaze The party went south when it turned out Swerve had actually been locked in his room for months, and was now dying from an infection. And the ship was being chased by a planet. As it turned out, that was a holoprojection of Swerve's. Scrambling to find out the cause, the crew started projecting themselves over to "Swearth", as it was dubbed, Rewind included. It turned out the infection was because of a bullet wound inflicted by the Autobot Agent 113, who as part of his duty as a double-agent in the D.J.D. had found out something about the mysterious Necrobot. The One Where They Go to Earth

Rewind "West Wing"'d Rodimus about said being as the ship's captain made his own discovery relating to his desk, and had in fact been unconsciously drawing a map to Cyberutopia. Discussion ensued between the co-captains and Ultra Magnus about whether to follow up on 113's intel or not. Then Rewind, encouraged by Chromedome, spoke up on how he wanted to try and find the Necrobot, to see whether he could learn anything about his former lover. Megatron decided to go along with the idea. As the ship detoured, Rewind had a talk with Minimus about his brother, and how it was even difficult looking at him given his resemblance to Dominus. Once the ship reached the Necrobot's home planet, a nervous Rewind was one of those who went down to the planet. On arrival, everyone noticed the holographic statues of still-living 'bots. Mainframe and Chromedome analyzed them, and determined each plinth was connected to a database, which could be used to determine who was still alive.

Rewind hesitated to search for Dominus's status, terrified of learning what had happened to him, but at the same time terrified of giving up the chance to learn. As Chromedome told him they'd find out the answer together, Rewind checked. Dominus was listed as deactivated. For some time afterward, as everyone else met the Necrobot in person, Chromedome continually offered to just erase the memories of what they'd learnt. Then an exited Nightbeat showed up, leading them both to a large memorial stone, one dedicated to everyone who the Necrobot hadn't found. And right at the very bottom was Dominus. The Not Knowing

Some days later, Rewind and Chromedome were at Swerve's. The sight of them holding hands put Cyclonus, upset at his growing distance from Tailgate, in a bad mood. The Lopsided Triangle

Around the twenty-fourth of December, by human reckoning, the Lost Light passed into Mauler territory, and had to take to Biometric Envelopment Devices to avoid them. Right up until the big snooze, Rewind pestered Minimus about being allowed to share a B.E.D., to which he had to be told repeatedly "no". Silent Light

Once the ship was out of Mauler territory, Rewind was one of those who used the "time fissures" present in Swerve's to look back at the past, before joining in a toast to "surprises". No Guns, No Swords, No Briefcases

Some months later, after movie night got too populated to keep in Rewind and Domey's hab-suite, they held it in what had been the ship's exhibition hall, with a showing of Rewind's documentary about the fate of Sentinel Prime, one commissioned by Optimus himself. Megatron arrived late, then dared to question the accuracy and fairness of Rewind's work, even calling it biased. Then it turned out Rewind had made a mistake by saying Megs was responsible for the apparent desecration of Sentinel's corpse, which he wasn't. The Last Autobot

Discoveries

A few weeks afterward, Rewind was one of several crewmembers who experienced a psychic attack, which in his case made him see Dominus accusing him of "giving up" on looking for him. Among with the other afflicted, and the rest of "Team Rodimus", Rewind went aboard the Rodpod to find the attack's source, which led them to the Necrobot's planet. They were promptly attacked, and the Rodpod destroyed, meaning Domey had to carry Rewind to safety as they fled into the Necrobot's house, where they found Censere's corpse.

"Did you know that after I find Dominus, I intend to look into what happened to Dreamwave?"

As everyone else analyzed the deceased's tech, Rodimus got Rewind to try and call the Lost Light for help. What they got was Getaway, telling them the news: The rest of the crew was fed up with Megatron, anyone who supported him, and Rodimus, and this was their way of getting rid of them. And the bad news just kept on coming, as a battered Ravage appeared to tell everyone the D.J.D. were the ones attacking them. How Bright Their Frail Deeds Rewind manned the cameras, showing the D.J.D. blasting the word "sunset" into the ground before leaving.

Rewind was present when Nightbeat declared he'd found the teleporter Censere had used to get around, and when Velocity announced what she and Swerve had found in the basement, which was dozens upon dozens of people in life-support pods. With that, everyone came to the conclusion to stay. The Sun in Flight Shortly thereafter, Rewind and Chromedome argued about the other electing to stay behind.

As sunset approached, Rewind went outside to examine the list of the disappeared, trying to work out whether there was some order to the list, in part to keep his mind away from the D.J.D., while Chromedome recovered from the last time he'd injected. He also conversed with Nautica about the list, and the nature of Conjux Endura. Your Fierce Tears With six hours before sunset, everyone began recording last wills, which Rewind sent out once completed. As Chromedome injected once more, without Rewind's knowledge, he decided to reward himself by rummaging through the Necrobot's archives, at least before he got distracted by Minimus and Brainstorm. Minimus and Rewind began talking about Dominus again, and how he'd actually been a loadbearer, all the time.

"Did you know that this was the second time 'Domey lost an arm for me? What a guy!"

Looking through the Necrobot's records, Rewind found a copy of the Grand Cybertronian Taxonomy, the original and unedited version. Soon, he found page one-hundred and thirteen, depicting Dominus' true alt-mode, a turbofox. Then, Rewind got a call from the returned Drift: Chromedome was injecting again, only it was going wrong. It was at that point both realized the horrible truth. The D.J.D.'s so-called "pet", the being Chromedome was injecting into, was Dominus, and Agent 113. Having been discovered, he'd been surgically mutilated and lobotomized. Rushing to the medibay, stopping briefly to uppercut Rodimus for enabling Domey's injecting, Rewind found Chromedome trying to undo what had been done to Dominus, ignoring Ratchet's warnings that doing so was killing him, and Rewind's protests, on the grounds that he felt Rewind deserved Dominus more. Grabbing one of Drift's swords, Rewind sliced off his lover's arm, severing the connection and dooming Dominus, as he told Chromedome it wasn't his choice to make. With twenty minutes left before the fortress's shields gave out, Rewind felt the urgent need to talk to Minimus, who'd been absent from the proceedings involving his brother. He then presumably took part in the group hug before everyone went out to fight. At Close of Day

During the battle, in which Skids had sacrificed his spark to give them a brief boost of power, Rewind sat on Ultra Magnus's superarmour shoulder and manned the guns. Throughout the battle, he kept trying to tell Minimus about his brother, only to be constantly rebuffed. In the end, when the power-boost ran out, they were forced back to the fort while Megatron covered them Rage, Rage and as Rewind watched, Megatron tore the Decepticon Justice Division to pieces. Rewind played the key role of driving off the other few hundred Decepticons by reverse-engineering the Necrobot's psychic weapon and using it to attack Deathsaurus' conscience; the general finally broke down over his dead soldiers and led them home.

At fight's end, the crew were amazed to find out that the Necrobot had been using time travel to rescue all the missing in action Transformers on his 'Disappeared' monument. These had been the "organics": disguised by holograms. But Rewind and Minimus could only lament that Dominus had been too far down the monument to be rescued in time, and Rewind left flowers at the monument for his lost conjunx. Do Not Go Gentle

Brainstorm constructed a teleportation "den" to send some of the group back to Cybertron to find transport for the rest of them. When they arrived, however, Cybertron was undeniably changed. Rewind soon recognized it as the Functionist Universe, the alternate history that overlapped on his database when Brainstorm used his time case. Some Other Cybertron Twelve-of-Twelve captured Rewind and the others as suspected members of the revolutionary Anti-Vocationist League. The real AVL arrived and caused a distraction for the crew to escape. Anomie Rewind and his friends were matter transported to "Cyberutopia", the sanctuary city of Adaptica ruled by the rogue Functionist Nine-of-Twelve. They learned that in this reality Rung was hailed by the AVL as the "Useless One" for his alt mode that apparently stood in defiance of Primus and Functionism. Unfortunately, the Functionist Council chose that day to reveal they had discovered Rung's true use as a mining tank, allowing them to access Vector Sigma which had been sealed off by the Senate millennia ago. A World Misplaced

Rewind and the others traveled to Vector Sigma to confront the Council and rescue Rung. Bad Moon Rising They succeeded and stole the Council's flying base, the Cog, to make their way back home. Rewind was despondent to learn from Rung that the Functionists were as bad as the Decepticons had been regarding attitudes towards organic species. Modes of Production With the help of teleport technology in a weaponized Luna-2 and wand-tech Brainstorm recovered from Killmaster on Necroworld, they transported the entire world back from the Functionist Universe to their original one. This Machine Kills Fascists

Rewind and Chromedome made a special stop at Rung's quarters to tell him about the different life he could have lived. The crew prepared to continue their quest for the real Cyberutopia, and for revenge on Getaway and the mutineers. A Decepticon corpse named Skip was modified and mass-displaced to form a passable space craft, and so Rewind and the others pressed on. After Megatron

Traveling aboard Skip to catch up with the Lost Light, Rewind and Chromedome snuck aboard the sleeping vehicle mode Roller for some private cuddle time. Roller was NOT happy about this upon awakening and complained to Rodimus, as the mood in the cramped quarters continued to grow more tense. After Cyclonus learned that Tailgate had possibly died, he lashed out in grief and accidentally sliced Rewind's chest open and severed his primary fuel line. Rewind was tended to by Velocity while Chromedome furiously attacked Cyclonus. Everyone's attention was soon drawn to Ten, who astonishingly began speaking in complete sentences. Sardines

Ten got the group to redirect Skip to the nearest Mederi facility, but in transit Skip's mass-displacement gave out and dumped everyone into space. The group suddenly awoke to find themselves in what appeared to be a transitional dimension to the Afterspark, believing to have died from exposure to super-compressed space. Metastasis Rewind and Chromedome were seemingly reunited with Dominus Ambus and the quantum duplicate of Rewind, furthering the belief that they were dead. The quartet reconciled and decided to ascend into the afterlife together, but the entire scenario was soon proven to be a complex illusion created by the Mederi facility. As it crumbled, the simulations of Dominus and the duplicate Rewind disappeared. Joined by the Scavengers, who had also wound up there, the group barely had time to process their ordeal before being set upon by a horde of Sparkeaters- mutated from the rest of the Lost Light's crew! You Are Here

After a failed attempt to reason with the Sparkeaters, Rewind and the others retreated. When the afflicted Slapdash attacked Rodimus, he was put down by Krok, which Rewind angrily castigated the Decepticon for. The group split up, with Rewind being part of the one that barricaded themselves in Mederi's Ward Zero to try and find a cure for the Sparkeaters. A Dance Before Dying A blast of "concussive medicine" managed to purge the Sparkeater mutation and return their former crewmmates to normal. Getaway was also defeated and the Lost Light reclaimed, but the group again had no time to process as a massive rift in nearby space opened up. Lūstrāre

Aboard the Lost Light again, Rewind and the others were pulled through the rift into the Benzene Cluster, now populated by five duplicates of Cybertron. Touching down on one, the crew was quickly taken prisoner by the forces of the Grand Architect. Joined by Froid and Sunder in their holding cell, Froid explained that the multiple Cybertrons were an upscaled God Gun which opened a portal to the next universe over, out from which came Megatron flying point amongst a fleet of starships. Farsickness

After reassuring that he wasn't invading, Megatron directed everyone to the real threat, a massive planet-sized effigy of Primus, one that Chromedome recognized as the Functionist Universe's Cybertron granted a robot mode. When Megatron came to rescue, Rewind was part of the group that managed to be pulled aboard the Last Light. After Megatron had caught everyone up on the Functionist Council's schemes, he revealed that "Primus" was still populated by the citizenry of Cybertron. The Return of the King After the rest of the group had managed to free themselves, and discover that Rung was the true Primus, everyone touched down on the last Cybertron for a group brainstorm, hitting on the idea of using twelve copies of the Matrix of Leadership to overload Cybertron's twelve hot spots to wipe out the Functionist Council in Vector Sigma. When the Omega Guardians speaking through the Magnificence expressed their displeasure at this via deadly energy bolts, Rewind and Chromedome took Rung away so he could make the Matrices. The Unremembering

Rung gave Rewind and Chromedome some kind parting advice, leaving them to comfort each other as he closed himself in his quarters and created the duplicate Matrices, at the cost of his own life. Rewind and Chromedome were then sent to Port Residua to guard the Matrix-bearing Roller, facing down Functionary troops intent on stopping them. They managed to hold off the enemy forces until Rodimus delivered a rousing speech that allowed everyone to open their Matrix, overloading Vector Sigma and killing the Functionists. Returning to the Lost Light everyone saw that Luna 1's hot spot had been reactivated by Cybertron shunting the energy wave, bearing a final "Don't Forget Me" from Rung. A Spark Among Embers

Rewind went on the "victory lap" aboard the Lost Light before the ship's decommissioning. He and Chromedome explored the ship's corridors one last time, with Rewind making a complete recording of its interior. They stumbled upon Rung's office, but sadly had lost all memory of their compulsively-forgettable friend, and could only wonder about the collection of model spaceships they found within. After agreeing to another potential quantum duplication with the rest of the crew, Rewind and Chromedome attended the Lost Light's farewell party in Swerve's, then left for a trip to the census center on Milnex.

After the Lost Light's final victory lap and subsequent disassembly, Rewind settled down on 'New Cybertron' with Chromedome, but tragedy struck soon after; the archivist became obsessed with downloading every tidbit of history about Functionist Cybertron, but this new information was incompatible with the knowledge he already had of Cybertron. This caused him to overload and corrupt his brain, contracting the neuro-degenerative disease Delta's Malady; he became trapped in data stick form when he forgot how to transform, but continued to live and love with Chromedome, who gave up his job as a grief counselor to look after him. The two were still able to communicate with each other in a more 'intimate' manner by plugging Rewind into a slot behind Chromedome's neck, although Rewind could still speak in traditional manners.

And far away, in some distant corner of the multiverse, a quantum duplicate Lost Light materialized with Rewind on it, ready to set sail for an infinity of new adventures. How To Say Goodbye And Mean It: Part 2

The Functionist Universe

In a timeline created thanks to Perceptor poking about with Brainstorm's time case, the Decepticons never rose up against the Senate, resulting in a Functionist-ruled Cybertron, where entire classes of alt-mode were "recalled", the Intellectual class was outlawed, and all the Constructed Cold were deported. However, Rewind remained Dominus's partner and lover, with Dominus pulling a few strings to get Rewind bumped up to research assistant, which granted him the extraordinary right to talk to 'bots from other classes. On the sly, Dominus continued fighting the Council's increasingly horrific actions, including removing Rewind's obsolescence chip.

After the Council handed Luna 2 over to the Black Box Consortia to prevent war, Rewind met Minimus on his return from serving in the Primal Vanguard. As the two made their way to Dominus' apartment from the spaceport, they witnessed two Functionaries "recall" the last of the Astro class. On their return, they witnessed some footage stolen from a Sky Spy showing an apparently female protester speaking out against Functionism, and Minimus learnt his brother had been subject to the new form of empurata. When Minimus left to attend other matters, Rewind asked whether he would side with them, which Dominus couldn't determine.

Then things got worse. In the time Minimus was gone, the Council determined data slugs were obsolete, and began recalling them. Worse, they wiped Dominus's mind, making him incapable of saying things Rewind felt were too important to lose. Then it turned out the Council could "speak" to people through the flatheads. The two realized the council were watching them, through Minimus, having installed cameras in his eyes on his return home, and that with that they were going to do the same to the entire population. Rewind valiantly vowed to stop them, defiantly stating the Council couldn't reach him without his obsolescence chip.

In response, the Council activated the backup chip, killing Rewind in the arms of his lover. The Custom-Made Now

INSIRT continuity

"Let's have a go at Rewind because he turns into a super space tank and not a... giant memory stick or—or—whatever..."

Did You Know that Rewind in a small universe orbiting Primax 1005.19 Gamma...

• Was part of INSIRT alongside Chromedome and Stylor?
• Was obsessed with accessing the contents of the Vestigial Cortical Complex?
• Enlisted the help of Treadshot as hired muscle?
• Successfully found and accessed the Complex's treasure trove of Decepticon secrets?

(Jesse Wittenrich & Pete Sinclair. "Timeless". Fort Worth, Texas: Fun Publications, 2013.)

• Died, prompting Brainstorm to set Chromedome up on a blind date with Eject?

(David Willis. "Recordicons" #27. Fort Worth, Texas: Fun Publications, 2015.)

Notes

• "Timeless" co-writer Jesse Wittenrich would later reveal his intention that the Rewind depicted in "Timeless" was being projected into Chromedome's mind by Stylor, and that the actual Rewind was deceased. Vestigial remnants of this plot point remain in the published comic, in the form of Stylor's constant physical contact with Chromedome, and Treadshot never acknowledging Rewind.^[1] Whether this holds true in the completed comic or is merely authorial intent is an exercise left to the reader.
• James Roberts' plans for Rewind changed radically. Originally, the intent was to reveal that Chromedome had aided Dominus Ambus in becoming Agent 113, as well as performing mnemosurgery on Rewind so that he had no knowledge of Dominus's fate or the circumstances surrounding it. The pair's meeting in the Relinquishment Clinic would thus have actually been their second meeting, with Chromedome keeping the truth from Rewind during their entire relationship. Furthermore, it would be revealed that during More than Meets the Eye #12, Chromedome had confessed all this to the comatose Rewind, unaware that the archivist's camera was still recording.
• The "original" Rewind would also have been revealed to have survived his encounter with Overlord. Subsequently, he would have been found by the Galactic Council, and used as part of an experiment to create a weapon that could punch into different dimensions. When it malfunctioned, he would have been thrown through time and space into another dimension, leading to a universe-hopping odyssey to find his way home, seeking out power sources in each new world to recharge the experimental device (and explaining why the duplicate Rewind did not disappear: because the original was no longer present in that universe). While travelling, Rewind would have discovered the recording of Chromedome confessing his secret, learning the truth of Dominus's disappearance. Eventually, he would have returned to his original universe, leading an issue in which Chromedome and both Rewinds decided which of the two quantum duplicates would remain (with the on-course Rewind also learning Chromedome's secret). These plans were dropped for space when Lost Light was scheduled to end with fewer issues than Roberts had hoped for, with the writer also deciding that he "didn't like that to be part of their relationship".^[2]

References