Insectoid creatures hopped over dead and broken Cybertronian bodies, giving little regard to the robots. Their homes and been destroyed in the battle. Homes made of techno-organic leaves and grass, homes where food was kept and that took meticulous weeks of construction. Gone. All gone.
Rawhyde consulted a terminal with Cheetor's medical status. He watched the lights blip, bouncing up and down. He closed his eyes, wishing that this was all just a dream, and that it would go away.
"How's Cheetor…?" a fully repaired Silver Convoy meekly asked. One day ago, Cheetor had been badly damaged in a fight with Magnatron, but as he was about to give the finishing blow, was impaled by a surprise attack. Since then, he hadn't looked well, never waking.
Rawhyde looked down, and said, "There's a chance that he'll live. But, as it looks right now…" The words caught in Rawhyde's throat. "With the damages he has, he'll either exist in a coma or he'll die."
"Can't we repair him…? Put him in the regeneration chamber?" Silver Convoy said, fear echoing in his voice.
"That's the problem," Rawhyde answered, "If we put him in a repair chamber and set it to full-repair, the repairs would be too drastic, and his spark would die. But, if we do nothing, then his body will break down, and he will still die." He looked up, "The only way to keep him alive would be to keep him in a low-speed repair chamber, and hope that the slow repair speed won't rush his body to repair, but won't let him die, either."
"Do it." Silver Convoy's voice was stern, his eyes heavy set. Rawhyde took a step to the side, calibrating the repair chamber.
"Set," he said. Silently, the Convoy lifted Cheetor's unmoving body and set it down in the repair chamber. Both robots stepped away as the chamber doors closed, locking Cheetor in a mass of slowly moving, sapphire particles.
***
"Pax Convoy," Silver Convoy greeted, walking to a crumbled techno-organic tree stump where Pax had been sitting for the past few hours.
"What will happen to Cheetor?" he asked.
"Cheetor…" Silver Convoy hesitated, "Will be in a coma within the repair chamber for a while."
Pax brushed his hand in front of his mouth. "Serves him right. He had Autobots at his command, and should have had them fight Magnatron. He shouldn't have pursued his own pathetic vendetta."
Silver Convoy's fist smashed into Pax's chest. "You damned idiot!" Silver Convoy yelled, knocking Pax down. He picked Pax back up and punched him in the stomach, then gave him a hook in the face.
"Cool it, boy-," Pax Convoy was cut off in mid sentence by a jab to the face. The mercenary wrapped his hands around Silver Convoy's throat, who responded by breaking the grip and painfully twisting Pax's arm behind his back. Disgusted by both himself and Pax, he side-kicked him in the back.
"Cheetor gave you life. He gave you a spark," Silver Convoy lectured. "And now, after all that, you choose to leave him to die? You don't deserve the name Pax Convoy. Get out of my sight, you wretched scum."
Pax lay outstretched on the ground, a soft wind humming over his body. Why did everyone expect him to be some great Autobot? It didn't make any sense…simply because two great leaders lay dormant in his spark, everyone thinks that he should be like them. Whatever happened to "Freedom is the right of all sentient beings?" What about his freedom, to make his own choices? To live as he wanted to? To ignore what everyone else said? After a few minutes of lying face down, he pushed himself up.
"Fine!" Pax yelled to the dead steel doors. "I don't need you! And don't even think about hiring me again! From now on, the Autobots and I are through!" He stormed away angrily. His drones seemed almost afraid of his rage, keeping their distance to avoid angering him any more.
Silver Convoy leaned back on the gateway door, Pax's words echoing in his head. His own uncontrolled rage added shame and sorrow to his flood of emotions. While Pax was a selfish lowlife, the Autobots would still need his help to drive the Omikron off the planet. While the Silver Convoy Plus mode was powerful, it wasn't as powerful as Pax's, not to mention the fact that without the drones, he couldn't achieve it.
"Just….prime."
***
Within Stronghold's citadel, Omikron clean up crews were recovering what remained of Thrust, Charade, Big Tank, and Magnatron. With surgical precision, Pharaoh extracted Magnatron's spark, gingerly holding it within his palm.
"Magnatron. You weak idiot." A salvage drone holding a spark container hovered over to Pharaoh, who placed Magnatron's spark in the container.
"How are the others?" Pharaoh walked to the corpses of the three other Predacons.
"Lord Pharaoh!" The medical specialist saluted, lowering his hand when Pharaoh did the same. "Thrust may not be salvageable. His spark is very old for a Predacon and has gone through much. But, we will try to save him." The medic walked over to Charade. "His body was fairly weak to start off with, but he'll survive. Finally, we have Big Tank."
"Magnatron's most powerful warrior?"
"Yes, but he got beat up quite badly," the medical officer said. "Too many blast wounds to count, not to mention the fact that his tank mode was almost ripped apart. In better shape than Magnatron, though."
"Good," Pharaoh's deep voice replied. "He'll share the same fate as Magnatron then." Without warning, Pharaoh backhanded Big Tank's body, ripping away his breastplate. His hand shot into the cadaver, lifting out the spark, and placing it in the salvage drone's container.
"Follow me," he ordered the drone.
"How…?" Magnatron thought, "How? How could I be destroyed? How could I have been so foolish? So weak? Why was the red robot, "Pax Convoy" stronger than I? Why? Why? Why? I can kill him! I want to kill them all! I am the strongest! I cannot die! I will kill them all!"
Magnatron's spark was still very much alive and sentient. Pharaoh removed it from the container and placed within a drab, basic humanoid body. This new body was permanently attached to the wall, absolutely lacking servos and movement components, serving only as a life support and communication device for sparks. Lights flickered all over the body as Magnatron's spark began to take control.
"I will be the ultimate!" Magnatron screamed, unaware that his spark was within a new body. Regaining consciousness, he asked, "Where am I?"
"You are within a new shell, Magnatron," Pharaoh replied.
"I...I can't move at all! What kind of shell is this?"
Pharaoh replied coolly, "One that will keep you alive. You are far from useless to me, Magnatron. I require your vast knowledge of this world."
"Is that all I am…?" Magnatron replied, sadness in his voice. "I want power! I can be so much more!"
All according to plan. "Magnatron, we can give you power. Do you want it?"
"Yes!" Magnatron cried, his paralyzed body unmoving.
"It will cost you-,"
"I don't care!" Magnatron shouted, "I'll do whatever it takes!"
"So be it."
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