The word Amaranth means "Ever Blooming Flower" or "Flower That Never Fades"and also "One That Does Not Wither"
CHAPTER 1
She could still remember it. It was still fresh in her mind. She couldn't block it out no matter how hard she tried. Whenever she came to the plant the memory was still there, staring her in the face. Especially when she went to his room. Mostly when she looked up into his tree, expecting him to look down from the branches and greet her.
Prowl was dead. He'd died saving everyone from Megatron's Omega Supreme clones.
He'd died a hero.
She didn't care.
She would admit to anyone who asked that she was grateful for what he'd done. She honestly was but that didn't change the fact that he was gone. He wasn't coming back. He would never greet her when she came for a visit anymore. He'd never sit in front of their big screen TV and watch those silly nature specials. He'd never complain anymore when Bumblebee laughed at him for it and turned on MTV..
It was over. All of it. She had to move on.
No...
She didn't want to move on. Not with him not there to see her become the person she was destined to be. Not without him giving her some form of encouragement.
"Yes, Sari. you can do these things. You just have to be careful. You're not as durable as the rest of us."
"I believe in you, Sari."
"Sari?"
The girl jumped. She'd been so lost in thought she'd forgotten where she was. She looked up at Bumblebee who sat on the couch beside her. He had a concerned look on his face. "Huh?" she asked.
The yellow Autobot looked worried. "Are you all right?" he asked. "You've been unusually quiet today."
"I'm okay," she said, looking away from him and playing with the thing in her lap. The dead AllSpark key. She'd come over to be with him but now she wasn't sure it had been a good idea. She couldn't think of anything else but the fact that Prowl wasn't there to say hi anymore. Maybe she could tell Bee her thoughts anyway? Maybe he would be able to give her some answers."I was just thinking... why did he do it?"
Bumblebee looked away. She was still thinking about that. It had been over a week since... then. Shouldn't she be feeling a little better about it by now? I guess not. "He wanted to stop the Omega clone," he explained.
She'd heard that explanation too many times already. "I know that," she said a little crossly. "What I'd like to know is why he didn't just do it another way. Surely there had to be some other way to stop that thing..."
Bee went silent. He didn't know what to say to her. "Maybe you're right," he agreed after a moment's silence "But it won't change anything now. We can't turn back time. He did what he thought was best."
She looked back down at her key. She'd heard that excuse as well. "I don't believe that," she said finally. "I can't believe that."
"Sari-"
"No!" she burst out. "You know it's true! Why can't you understand? He wasn't just my friend he was..." she burst into tears, burying her face in her hands.
Bumblebee watched her cry, unable to say any words of comfort. What could he tell her? That everything would be all right? That she'd see him again someday? Wasn't that what people said at funerals? It might be work for them but... if Sari died where exactly would she go? Heaven? Hell? The Pit? The Well of AllSparks?
"Sari..."
But she was no longer listening. She pushed herself off the sofa and darted out of the room just as Optimus Prime was entering. He'd just gotten back from Cybertron where he'd given his full report of what had happened. Somebody, he didn't know who it was, blamed him for what had happened to Prowl. Somebody who wasn't so willing to forgive. It hadn't been his fault. Prowl had made that choice out of his own free will. He'd tried to explain this, but his words had fallen on deaf ears.
He'd come back to earth, thinking he could get away from the problem there. Now it seemed that it had followed him. He watched the girl run past him then looked over at Bumblebee who looked just as upset as he felt. "What's wrong?"
Bee looked away. "Sari still doesn't understand why Prowl had to die," he explained. "We all tried to explain it to her but..." he had to be honest. "To tell the truth, I don't understand it either."
Optimus looked at him sympathetically. He'd been asking himself those very questions since it happened. "It was his choice," he told him. That was the excuse he'd used at the briefing."He had made up his mind and knew what would happen if he tried it."
Bumblebee wasn't buying it. Neither had Prime's superiors. "He didn't have to try it, though," the yellow mech pointed out. "Jazz told me they could have found another way."
"There wasn't any time..."
Bee fell silent for a moment. "I guess I understand," he said. He looked the way Sari had gone. "But when will Sari?"
"She will," Optimus said assured him. "Someday."
Professor Sumdac couldn't do anything for her either. "Come on. Sari," he said, coming into the girl's room with a tray of food. "You have to eat something."
She sat on her bed, looking out the window. "I'm not hungry," she said, not looking at him.
"But I made chicken," he said, holding up the tray and forcing a smile. "It's your favorite."
She still refused to look at him. "No, thank you."
"Look, Sari," he said finally. "I'm sorry about what happened to Prowl but not eating won't bring him back."
"He shouldn't be dead in the first place," she said flatly, her eyes focused entirely on the skyline.
He sighed. "Yes, you are right," he agreed. "But what would he say if he saw you now? I don't think he would be happy that you're not eating."
Now she did look at him. Her blue eyes were icy. "If he was here we wouldn't be having this conversation." she pointed out.
That was true. If Prowl was still alive she would be her smiling old self. But he wasn't and nobody could change that. Sumdac set the tray down and sat down beside her on the bed. "I know, Sari," he said. "I know it's hard to cope with the death of somebody you care about. I know it hurts right now but someday it won't hurt so much and you can move on."
She looked away.
"I know it won't be anytime soon," he went on. "It could take weeks or years and you will always feel that loss when people mention him but someday you'll be able to smile again."
When he received no response he sighed and pushed himself off the bed and picked up the tray. "You don't have to say anything," he told her on the way out. "But I hope you will at least think about what I said."
She was like a statue until she heard the door close behind her father. She sighed then and flopped onto the mattress, closing her eyes and letting the tears spill through her lashes. Her father was right. She would have to move on eventually. But not today and maybe not ever.
She cried herself to sleep.
The All Spark fragments glowed a soft blue color as they floated above Sumdac tower. It was nearly whole but.. it was still missing quit a few fragments. It wasn't enough. They needed more if they were going to pull this off.
Jazz and Prowl. They were on the roof of the tower. They had called the fragments together. But there weren't anymore. The rest were missing or lost. They needed more power.
Prowl floating... hovering in front of the All Spark.
She watched, unable to move to stop him, unable to even cry out.
He seemed to sense her there or he'd merely heard Jazz calling to him. He turned... and smiled.... then a bright light enveloped him, followed by blackness.
Sari woke with a start. She looked around herself, breathing heavily. Only a dream... but it was that dream. The one she'd been having since the day it had happened. Since the day...
The day Prowl had died... using his own spark..
She tried to banish the thought from her mind but it refused to leave. It wasn't just a nightmare. Prowl was dead and he wasn't coming back. Ever.
No! she thought, shoving back the covers. He can't be dead. Not forever. There has to be a way...
She remembered that the Autobots still had Prowl's body. It had still been intact when they'd take it back to Cybertron. She'd attended the funeral. They'd taken him to their form of a cemetery... He hadn't been buried... only... he was in some building. Somewhere.... with others like him..... a tomb..
Sari stepped over to her bedroom window and looked out at the night sky and the city lights. It was still early. Dawn wouldn't break for a few more hours. She saw the moon hanging low in the sky, full and bright. Prowl had enjoyed looking at the moon. She sighed and turned away. It brought her no comfort.
You know you can't see him again. You have no way of seeing him again even if there was a chance. a voice in her head told her.
"No!" she protested. "Not if I can help it. There has to be a way to bring him back."
How and why would you do such a thing? He died a hero. Do you want to take away from his sacrifice by bringing him back against his will? What would he say to that?
She shook her head, banishing the voice from her mind. Right now she didn't care what he'd say. That's when she noticed the AllSpark key lying on her night stand. It still wasn't working but maybe... maybe she could make it work. Maybe she could force it to work.
She crossed the room and picked up the key, closing her fingers around the cold metal. "It has to work," she told herself, already heading for the door. "Because I'm going to try it."
Hanging the key around her neck, she raced out of her bedroom and into the elevator across the hall. She pressed the button for the top floor and waited impatiently as it moved slowly to the roof. When the door opened she moved quickly across the roof and straight to the controls for the space bridge.
The Autobots had meant to tear it down now that they didn't need it anymore but hadn't had time to do so yet. She was glad. If they had she would never be able to do what she was about to attempt.
She typed in the coordinates she wanted and pressed enter. She heard a whoosh behind her and turned to see the bridge activating. She climbed the stairs and stood under the blue transporting orb, staring up at it.
This is it, she thought. I'm going to do it.
Then, before she could change her mind, she jumped into the orb and vanished.
She came out on the roof of the Autobot Council Building. She straightened up, looking for anybody who might have seen her come through. The roof was empty, nothing up there but the view of the city. Good.
She dashed across the roof and took the stairs, not wanting to wait for another elevator. It would take her to the same location but wouldn't help her avoid running into any unwanted trouble. Like Sentinel Prime. When she'd met him he'd made it blatantly clear that he thought she was disgusting. She'd been in a horrible mood then and had nearly fried him. At least Jazz had been understanding. He'd tried to explain things to the big jerk. He hadn't listened.
Jazz? Would he help her do what she intended to do?
No, he would try to stop her. He wouldn't understand either. He'd just tell her it was a bad idea.
She wouldn't tell anyone. They'd find out eventually, especially when she brought him back with her.
But first she had to find him. She knew he was in one of their crypts but which one and where was that one?
She would have to find that out somehow.
Computers! she thought, stopping. This building should have plenty of them. I just have to find one. Then I can search the web.. if that's what it's called here.
She descended the next set of stairs and stopped at a door. It was not made for somebody her height but maybe she could still open it anyway. She decided to find out.
She reached out her hand and touched the door, closing her eyes. She concentrated, hard. Her hand lit up with a blue light. The door opened with a faint whoosh. She looked at her hand, surprised that it had worked then dashed into the hall. There was a room to her left with an open door. She saw a giant computer on a desk. It seemed to still be on.
What luck! she thought, going into the room and climbing onto the desk.
She stood in front of the screen with her hands on her hips, studying the monitor and the keyboard. They were a little on the large size but maybe she could still manipulate them. Hmmm.. "Let's see if this will work here too," she said out loud, kneeling down and putting her hands on the keys.
Almost instantly they opened up, exposing her wires. Her fingers ran madly over the keys, searching almost on their own accord. Finally, after about a minute, they stopped and she looked at the screen. She saw what looked like a long list of transformers. Prowl's name was at the bottom, along with all the information on where he was being kept.
She smiled. "Perfect."
"Hey! What are you doing in here!" a voice exclaimed.
She jumped. Caught. She straightened up and looked over her shoulder. Sentinel Prime stood in the doorway, staring down at her with a mixture of disgust and horror. He was the last bot she wanted to see right now.
"What are you doing on my computer, you organic freak?!" he demanded. "You'd better not be touching my keys with your oily hands. I just had them replaced."
"None of your business," she informed him, jumping down from the desk. "and my hands aren't oily."
Clearly he hasn't been expecting her to give him lip. "You have some nerve coming back here and using my equipment, organic," he said, looking down his nose at her. "I don't know what you were doing but I'm going to find out." he started to step forward but thought better of it. She was in his way after all.
She glared up at him. "I said: It's none of your business," she snapped. She took a step toward him. She didn't want to be around him anymore."Get out of my way."
He stayed put. "You don't order me around, you freak of nature."
She didn't have time for this. She raised her hands, exposing her circuits. "Move or I'll make you!" she yelled, her eyes going white.
Sentinel stared at her, his optics widening. He didn't know she could do that. When he didn't move she fired at him, just to show him she could.
He screamed and ran out of the room.
She sighed. That hadn't taken long. She returned to the computer and took one last long look at the information on the screen. When she had it memorized she exited the page then jumped back down and left, remembering to turn off the computer before she left.
The Autobot memorial crypt was on the other side of the city so she had to find get a lift. For somebody like her it proved to be complicated and she might have wound up walking. Luckily there was at least one transformer, somebody named Firestar, who was willing to take a half organic-half robot girl all that distance without looking at her in disgust or making any rude comments about her origin. Firestar didn't even ask her why she wanted to go there either. She just took her. No questions asked.
Firestar took her right to the front entrance and waited until she climbed out of the passenger seat before saying. "Good luck. I hope you find what you're looking for." before she drove away.
Sari wondered for a moment how the femme had known she'd come there to find someone. Wasn't this place made just for corpses?
All well. It didn't matter. She had more important things to worry about right now. Like the fact that the entrance was guarded by security droids....and these weren't like the ones her father had created. They were much more sophisticated.
But maybe she could get by them anyway. All she needed was a distraction.
That proved easy to create. There was a large pile of scrap metal lying in a dumpster beside the building. Why it was there and where the scrap came from wasn't important right now. She took one look at it and got her idea.
Wasting no time, she ran over to the dumpster and grabbed up a few stray pieces littering the ground in front of it. She studied them carefully then closed her eyes, concentrating. The pieces beeped under her hand and started whirring. She smiled to herself. Excellent.
The security droids were suddenly alerted by a strange barking noise. They tensed, their scanners searching for the source of the noise. Almost instantly a small moving ball of metal rolled toward them.
"Halt!" the droids ordered.
The ball ignored their orders and rolled on by, still barking, and around the side of the building. The droids gave chase. From where Sari stood she couldn't help but giggle. Even Cybertronian droids were stupid.
Now that they're distracted I'll just let myself in.
The crypt was much larger than she'd expected. It was a dark, cold place with only a tiny rod of light in the ceiling illuminating the halls ever few rooms. If she hadn't had her own source of light she would have gotten lost.
Now which room is he in? she wondered, holding the glowing blue ball up so she could read the characters. Thanks to her key she was fluent in Cybertronian and could also read their writing. She knew what room he was in but she wasn't sure what floor it was on.
"That shouldn't be too hard," she said out loud. "This place only has two floors, unless there's a basement...."
The room she stood in front of wasn't the one. It said: Alpha. She turned away and moved down the hall.
After searching many rooms and finding nothing she started to feel discouraged. What if her information had been wrong? What if the location was wrong?
One more room. She'd try one more room and then she'd leave.
She stopped to read the characters on the door before her. The symbol read: Beta.
She felt a wonderful sensation course through her. This was it. This was the room she'd been searching for.
She reached over and touched the door. It opened instantly and she stepped inside. The door closed behind her with a faint whoosh.
A cold chill washed over her. The room was like a freezer. But why?
She squinted, trying to see what she could in the light of her torch which was the only source of light in the room. She saw a what looked like a coffin in the center. It was the only piece of furniture, in fact the only item in the whole space.
It was also what she was looking for.
She quickly closed the distance, her footsteps echoing eerily off the cold metal floor. When she reached the coffin she looked up at it. There was no lid on this thing. It was wide open. She squinted, thinking she saw something dark gray on the flat platform like top.
She had to make sure.
Extinguishing the light she put her hands on the side of the coffin and jumped up. Her fingers barely touched the edge but on a second try she caught it. She hoisted herself up and climbed onto the platform. Straightening up, she activated her torch again.... and found herself staring into the cold, gray face of Prowl.
She stood still a moment, studying him. Aside from the dead gray color, nothing had changed. He was still whole.
Of course. Metal doesn't decay.
"Hi, Prowl," she said, her face showing a faint smile as she looked into his darkened visor. "I bet you never thought you'd see me again. I would have come sooner but I didn't know where you were. I don't think this is the same place you were laid to rest before. Why did they move you?"
She shifted, doing her best to take up as little space as possible. "Well it doesn't matter," she said. "Pretty soon you won't have to stay here anymore. I'm here to get you out."
She touched his chest plate. It was cold. Usually it would be warmed from his spark humming under the plating. The cold feeling only made her more determined to bring him back. "Don't worry." she took the key off her neck. "This shouldn't take long."
She climbed onto his chest plate, stooping down to touch a special spot in the center. The spot she'd touched when she'd resurrected Optimus. They all had it. The chamber opened with a faint whoosh, exposing the inner workings and the cushioned area where his spark should have been but wasn't.
But not for much longer, she determined.
Sari shoved the key hard into the spark chamber, her hands lighting up as she forcefully powered it. "I won't let you leave me," she told the empty shell. "I refuse to believe that you can't never come back to me. I don't care what everyone told me!" tears were streaming down her face now. She hadn't realized she hadn't cried until then. "Don't you realize how much you mean to me?I can't let you go! Not now! Not ever!"
Whether from sheer willpower or from sympathy the key suddenly powered up between her fingers. Her eyes grew wide as the blue light grew stronger and sent a shockwave of energy through the girl and Prowl's empty shell. This was different. What did it mean?
Suddenly she felt something change under her as a pulsewave beat through the body benieth her. She stared down into the spark chamber, seeing something there that hadn't been there before. It was a spark, a strongly beating spark. The key let out one final pulse of energy then went dark, once again becoming useless. The darkness of the room came flooding back, leaving her alone with that softly glowing spark.
She set the key aside, her attention diverted from it to the Cyber ninja's face and body. It had regained its color and the spark didn't seem to be fading. Had it worked? Had she really brought him back to her? She had to be sure. "Prowl?" she said, moving toward his face.
Prowl's darkened optic visor flickered then brightened. He stared right into the girl's face. "Sari?" he said.
She smiled at him, her face streaked with tears. "Hi," she said.
"Where am I?" he asked, looking around in confusion. He did not recognize this cold dark place.
"You're on Cybertron," she replied, sitting back. "You died. I brought you back."
He didn't seem happy with that answer. The fact bothered her. Why was he frowning? What was wrong?
"Prowl?"
When he spoke he did not sound the least bit thankful. In fact, he sounded angry. "Sari," he said his voice low and cold. "What have you done?"
A/N
Yes, Sari is being out of character but how would you act if a close friend of yours died? Sometimes grief makes us do stupid things. By the way... Prowl's comrades suck. They weren't even upset to see their friend a gray, dead corpse. The only sad person was Jazz and he didn't even know him as long! If I want a good reaction I guess I have to do it myself.
I know very little about Cybertrons tombs so I'm being creative. I don't care if you don't like it.