As Ruby came to she heard both Megatron and Rampage screaming in pain amidst the rushing air of the storm around them. Inside her torso armor she felt a terrible throbbing, one pain overwhelming the rest she felt as she rested one hand on the orb on her chest. Looking over at Rampage first she saw him struggling on his knees, flickering between two different forms as he both laughed and screamed in pain. She quickly checked on Megatron, who was behind her at this point. The tyrant was holding his head as his own form shifted violently from his current robotic body to his dragon form to his Transmetal one state then to his pre-Transmetal and back to one of the others.

Looking down at her left hand, she was rather surprised to find that she wasn't shifting herself, but then she focused down at the half orb on her torso plating. The device that kept her from becoming erased in Megatron's altered future kept the time storm from the affecting her. Looking back up at Megatron, who was now on his knees with the pain, she realized that now would be the best opportunity to end his threat. Her energy weapons were useless but if she could reach her gatling gun she might have a chance. The storm began to ease away as she slowly crawled over to her weapon, wincing at the twitching in her torso. Dinobot's spark apparently was still being affected by the current time flux. If she could just reach her weapon she could take Megatron out in his weakened state.

As his body finally settled into one form, Megatron took the time to wait out the pain as he focused intently on the ground. It seemed so much closer now than it had before but a quick check of his hands and body confirmed solidly as to why. He was back in his Transmetal one state. A satisfied rush washed over him as he stood back up onto his feet.

"Oooh, yes!" the tyrant laughed, "Victory will be mine!" With a quick look around he found the wounded Maximal reaching out for her weapon in a desperate hope, her fingers just barely brushing along its grip but still too far away for her.

Ruby heard the powerful steps of her enemy's approach and scooted a bit more to be able to grab her weapon. Unfortunately something sharply gripped around her left wrist as she just began to wrap her fingers around the grip and yanked her painfully off the ground. Megatron swung her through the air before he had her dangling just a hair's breath from his face.

"Foolish Maximals," he spoke darkly, but the viciousness of his satisfied smile could cut with how sharp it was. "I understand the error from so long ago now, yeess. Dinobot must have come back and taken over his new body, leading to his betrayal in my moment of ultimate triumph. But now instead of repeating history he chose to nestle himself into the bosom of his lover."

Ruby felt Dinobot's spark lurch in anger at the slight and narrowed her optics in anger as she realized that Megatron could be right. She couldn't let him think that though.

"I doubt that," she retorted, "I think this is a sign of your ultimate failure with the fact that you'll never reach the Ark to gain your upgrade from the original Megatron's spark."

"And how do you come to that conclusion, you worthless Maximal?" he ground out.

"Because I backed up Sentinel."

She might have been prepared for the violent shaking he had given her, knowing that Megatron would take his anger out on her in many painful ways if he thought she was telling the truth, but it still hurt what little bit of her body that wasn't damaged and shot pain through the rest that was. She swung limply like a rag doll by her arm as he lifted her back up to look her in the eye, painfully holding her by the back of her head.

"That is something that I will just have to remedy, isn't it?" he told her coldly, "But as for you, my little pest, today you die."

"You first," she retorted, suddenly jabbing her right palm up to his face. As soon as it connected to his cheek the blade she had tucked into her wrist compartment, yet another little trick she had picked up from her Uncle Rattrap, ejected out and buried itself into his optic sensor, "Check."

Megatron screamed in pain as he let her go, dropping her harshly to the ground as he covered his face with his left hand, his tail weaponry swinging around as that arm too moved up to protect his face. Ruby groaned a bit as she rolled to her side, slightly disturbed by the round optic sensor unit that stuck to her blade.

"You'll pay for that!" the tyrant screamed as he kicked her in the abdomen, sending her flying a short distance away before she tumbled wildly to a stop.

Her systems couldn't even power her enough to lift her head up, so she just closed her optics and focused inward. "Thank you for your help, Dinobot. It was an honor to fight with you again."

Rampage's body finally stabilized enough for him to catch Ruby being kicked into the air like a football. He knew that this wasn't the Megatron that held half of his spark under his control; not with the viciousness he was pouring into his attacks on the much smaller bot. Ruby's cries of pain were music to Ramapge's audio sensors but the source of the pain was making him angry. No sooner did he pull his rocket launcher into position he let loose all three rockets that were at the ready.

Megatron barely heard the scream of the rockets heading his way in time to turn right into them, sending him flying to the side and off of the cliff the Axalon currently rested on. The small lake splashed violently as he hit it like a boulder, the under currently quickly sweeping him away from his targets.

Rampage slowly made his way closer, standing over Ruby as her damaged from sparked sporadically. With a care he had only showed one other, he set down his weapon and gently scooped the tiny thing into his hands. When her optics blinked back online he just looked into them.

"That was fun, my sweet," he let his relish over the events pour through is voice, "but your battle is not over. Go into stasis lock, sleep. Let your companions find you."

"I … have to back up Sentinel," she mumbled, noting the cresting dawn slowly bathing him in its light.

"Your spark cannot wait for that."

There was a plea from inside of her, the pulse from Dinobot's spark urging her to do the same. With a soft sigh, Ruby powered off her optics. "Computer," she whispered, "activate stasis lock."

"Acknowledged."

Her form finally relaxed as the pain suddenly faded away, head rolling back onto Rampage's arm.

As he stood up, the mad Predacon noticed that Tarantulas' little army of walking flashlights were crawling all over the area, picking up the pieces of the Predacon to take to a central location. The sudden voice in his ear made him frown viciously.

"Attention all Predacons. Pull yourselves together, our situation has altered."

As the other two found their pieces, he slowly walked over to the Axalon, gently laying her on the ground nearby since he could not access the ship directly, and he did not want her harmed as Megatron finished giving his orders.

"Rest up, my little toy," he said as he settled her form on the rocky ground, "Your training begins the next time we meet."

Rhinox paced in front of where they had set up the CR chamber in the cavern surrounding the Ark. It had taken them the whole day, but they were able to salvage what they could of their former base and relocate it to their new home. Cheetor and Optimus had found her laying nearby where their ship once rested, badly damaged once more. Somehow she had made it back to the base in time for another vicious battle.

Glancing over at the chamber door as he stopped the Maximal engineer pondered what events might have been changed that day but quickly pushed them to the side. It didn't matter and focusing on all of the 'what if's' of the situation would drive him crazy.

Optimus, now quite large from the unintended upgrade from protecting Optimus Prime's spark, quietly stepped closer to his dear friend, "How is she?"

Rhinox had looked up as he heard Primal approaching, his frown deepening at the question. "Her spark has a lot of trauma from the battle. It looks like she had figured out how to bypass my programming block."

Primal frowned as well, bothered by the events of the day as well as his concern over his crew deepening the motion. "That is troublesome. What about the optic device we found on her blade?"

"Scans shows that it does belong to … him." A quick look around to assure that they did not have extra ears to listen in, he continued. "The data from it is troublesome. It exactly matches 'him' as he is now. He might be able to interact with the other Predacons as long as he avoids himself."

Optimus wasn't sure if this day could get any worse, and leave it to Rhinox to take what little wind out of their sails that they had gained from their hard earned victory, but better to know the ugly truth as soon as possible so they could face it head on. Watching his friend closely as he looked back at the CR chamber and the little bot it contained, the commander knew there was more.

"There's something else, isn't there?" he asked quietly.

Apparently it wasn't something Rhinox could find the words for, so he brought up the information for Primal to read. During her initial scan before repairs their systems detected a second spark that was dependent on her systems. It took him a few cycles to actually find the words, knowing that he had a surprised, probably shocked, look on his face. The idea was something he really honestly didn't want to think about.

"Um … congratulations?" he offered, not sure how Rhinox was really taking the idea of becoming a Great-Grandsparker before he actually began that line.

"That is one possibility," the engineer conceded.

"What's the other?"

"Starscream."

It took Primal a nano-click, but his optics widened a bit as he looked back at the chamber. "That would explain quite a bit, actually, but we'll have to wait and see." Then he suddenly smirked down at the Maximal that not earlier in the day towered over him, "Which would you prefer?"

The sudden pondering he experienced was enough of an ice breaker for Rhinox to relax, letting him chuckle a bit. "We all miss him, especially Rattrap, but I don't know how long her systems could continue to support his spark without adverse side effects. If it is the other possibility then she'll need our help. A war is no place to raise a sparkling. Either way we're going to have to find a blank protofom and soon."

Megatron fumed as he stomped around in his beast mode, the cavern echoing his angry footsteps painfully around him. His returned form granted him more freedom, but he still risked too much if he exposed himself openly. He needed repairs to replace his missing optic sensor but he could not access the Darkside to do so. His younger self had set up security measures to prevent his older self from accessing the ship at any given time. "Curse my constantly paranoid state of mind!"

The familiar buzzing that was approaching calmed the torrent tyrant, letting a smile creep slowly over his muzzle. He still had a way of influencing events still to come and Waspinator was going to happily go along. If he could ever get Inferno, one of his two most loyal of his crew, into his plans then the future would once again be his.

Waspinator transformed as he landed outside the mouth of the cavern, once again sent as a liaison between the huge dragon creature and Megatron, and cautiously entered. The stomping that greeted him was still loud, but it held nowhere near the impact that it had that first night he had come to the cavern. What shocked Waspinator this time was he was now standing face to face with Megatron himself.

"Megatron?" the winged Predacon asked, confusion making him scratch the back of his head. "Waspinator following orders, come to cave to talk to future-bot like Megatron asked. Why Megatron here?"

"Ah, Waspinator, my best of my troops," Megatron began, smiling to himself as he thought, Best as a shield, yeess. "As you can see, your influence has already began to turn the tide back to a Predacon victory, yeess. Our victory is now even closer at hand, but there are still a few more … small matters to attend to."

Waspinator surged upright on the work table that had been the resting place of his new body. Slowly he looked down smiling privately at the almost completely finished form, but he was confused as to why he was in it now. There was also the puzzle of the wires that was running from his opened torso plate. His optics followed the trail to find that the other end attached to the red device attached to Rhinox's torso plate. The Maximal was sitting beside him, but was focused on the smaller work table he was facing, something slowly forming under his diligent hands.

"Waspinator feel like he been run over by Optimus Primal," he said quietly when Rhinox looked over at him.

"The temporal storm from when Megatron attempted to kill Optimus Prime affected you during the spark transfer," the Maximal explained, "We'll have you stabilized and mobile soon."

Slowly turning himself to face his partner, being careful not to tug on the wires, Waspinator simply watched Rhinox work, understanding why the Maximals had always had such a regard for him. He was able to turn what others thought of junk and scrap and utilize it for a brand new purpose a thousand times better than it had been in its previous life. As they sat in the relative quiet, Waspinator closed his optics and let his new memories fall into place.

"Squirrel-bot is alive," he told Rhinox after a moment, doing his best not to jump for joy.

Rhinox nodded, but gave his partner a tired smile. "My memories altered as well. She took out his eye, but it was hard earned."

"Megatron change back from Dragon-bot."

"I know, and that does not bode well for us."

For once she wouldn't complain about being forced onto light duty, using the extra time it gave her to unpack both her and Dinobot's belongings into her new chamber. Choosing one of the many alcoves within the cavern, Ruby was rather pleased by the view. She could sit at her desk and look out at the Ark itself. They all described its magnitude in their own way, each seeing it from a different aspect, but they all painted the same picture in her mind. She was just disappointed that her mind didn't put it into as sharp of detail as what was before her. With a shrug she smiled it off as she went back to work. She now could cherish the historical view herself.

Her hands smoothed over the hide decoration from the first clone of Dinobot, the one he had hanging in his room for so long until she had taken it down. Now it hung on the wall over her recharging berth. Stepping back with her hands on her hips, Ruby nodded her approval before she went digging back into boxes.

Things were stressful at the base, between the loss of the Axalon and Black Arachnia joining them because she was needing their protection from Megatron, things never quite began to calm down. She knew how happy the former Predacon made their Fuzor so she would be openly supportive of her staying with them.

With a tired sigh, Ruby sat down at her desk and began to work again with the batch of clay she currently had just lumped to the side. They were about to gain a new piece to their game, she just didn't know how to begin putting the description they had given her into clay form.

Optimus had some respect for Depth Charge, despite the arguments they had had over what was to be done with Protoform-X, but their commander always had a thread of respect for even the most difficult among them. The one consensus she had from everyone was that he had rare moments of kindness, but otherwise was extremely rude and completely focused on the hunt of the dangerous Predacon, even risking the lives of his comrades to gain his revenge. She never could decide who was the better monster out of the two.

"Find out soon enough, won't we?" she asked the clay, and her companion that was close to her spark. The trouble she saw coming was how Depth Charge could make her deal with Rampage more dangerous than it already was.

Author's Note: I don't own the show. Thanks for reading.

Well, here we are at the start of Season 3.