A little bit about the story before we start. The idea of this story came to being when me and a friend were basically have a what if discussing, were we talked about what things like ceratien such as what the movie TF movie would have been like if Prime didn't die, when we came up with this idea of what might have happened if in Transformers Animamted, Elita-1 never became Blackarachina. After that, the idea grew into this story.

Now, on with the show.

Darkness.

It was all she could see, there was darkness around her.

There was darkness below her. It was all she could see in her future.

She was surround by the darkness.

"Elita!" the voice cut through the darkness like a beam of light. Looking up, Elita-1 looked up to see Optimus, reaching for her, "grab my hand!"

Elita-1 reached for Optimus' hand, but couldn't reach it. She watched as the distance between them and Optimus was swallowed up by the darkness.

"ELITA!"

"Elita? Elita. Come on Elita, snap out of it."

Elita-1 woke from her thoughts and looked up to see Sentinel standing over her, "Sentinel?"

"Look Elita, you have to focus." The blue mech hissed in urgency, "Ultra Magnus is on his way to question us, if we want to make it out of this hearing with our careers intact, you can't have your processor up in the clouds."

Elita's thoughts returned to the present. They were back on Cybertron, awaiting Ultra Magnus' final decision on the hearing of the cadets' unauthorized trip to the organic planet, Archa Seven and their fate for such a action. However, not all of them had made it out.

"Listen Elita. After all this, Ultra Magnus is going to throw the book at us." Sentinel continued to speak, "if we're going to get through this, we have to stick together."

"What are you talking about, Sentinel?"

"What I am saying is that if we both tell Magnus that neither of us came up with the idea of going to the planet, we can get out with out any blame."

Elita-1 looked up at Sentinel in shock, "You want us to pin all the blame on Optimus." She said, her shock soon replaced with anger, "Optimus did everything he could do to help us back on that planet and it cost him his spark. He saved my life and you want to blame him for everything?"

"Look, I know this isn't right, but Optimus is offline, isn't it better that those of us still online get out of this with our records clean?"

Before Elita could say anything else, the door to the council chamber opened and Mainframe entered,

"Sentinel, Elita-1." Mainframe said as he approached them, "They're ready to begin."

Elita and Sentinel silently entered and stood before the Elite Guard commander. Ultra Magnus watched them from where he stood, the reports Sentinel and Elita had given about the event beside him.

"Cadet Elita-1, Cadet Sentinel, you stand accused of trespassing on an organic planet in violation in cybertroniaon law, resulting in the lost of cadet Optimus. Before I declare judgment, do you have a final statement?"

"Well sir, with all respect to Optimus, but both me and Elita told Optimus that we should have stayed away, but..."

Elita-1 glared angrily at Sentinel, iHe's actually going to do it,/i she thought, iHe's actually going to pin the blame on Optimus just to save his own plating./i

"How dare you!" She shouted at her fellow cadet, not caring how Ultra Magnus will react to this. "Optimus did everything to get us out of there and it cost him his spark! And you're trying to use him to protect your cheerer!"

Ultra Magnus banged the base of his hammer on the ground, stopping the argument before it could continue.

"That's enough." Ultra Magnus spoke again, "I've read both reports and heard your statement about Optimus' involvement, but I suspect there is more then meets the optical sensor in this." Looking over to Elita-1 and asked, "Who's idea was it to go to the planet?"

Elita-1 glanced over to Sentinel for a second before speaking, "Both Sentinel and I made the decision to go to the planet. Optimus wanted us to leave, he only stayed to keep us safe."

Ultra Magnus gave a small sigh and spoke up again, "Very well, Elita-1, Sentinel. You are suspended from all academy training pending a formal investigation, from there, it will be decided whither or not the both of you will be expelled from the academy and lose any change of joining the Elite Guard."

And just like that, it was over. Elita watched as Sentinel hurried out of the room, no doubt intending to call in a few favours to help him save what he could of his chances to get into the Guard. She wanted to say something to him, anything at all, but she couldn't and she knew he wouldn't have listened anyway. Leaving the chamber as well, Elita-1 headed for her quarters, thinking about the friend she had lost.

Meanwhile, deep within the cavern of Archa Seven. The spiders gathered within their lair, repairing, scavenging, hunting for new pray, all but one. This lone arachnid slowly, but determinedly, made it's way to the surface. Once there, the spider lifted its head up towards the sky. The stars that glittered down on it almost in a way that would make anyone watching them feel sad.

The Spider opened its fanged mouth and bellowed a scream caught between rage and pure agony. It transformed.