"You… What?" The human male gave her an awkward glance, before, as if some realisation was dawning on him, he began to chuckle quickly escalating into a complete laugh, "Oh, sure, kill 'him', good one there lady! These spires are attracting the weirdo's huh? Is it part of your religion hmmm?"
The man's unwise tirade of disbelieving mockery continued for longer than her short patience could bear as the two stood in the shadow of the spire, the only landmark for miles around in this desert.
"Fine. I gave you little meat slugs a chance" She snapped harshly, her human disguise doing the same, metal tendrils rolling out of the disguise with a similar effect to bubbling water.
The human shrieked as Quintessa rose into the air and with an outstretched hand she used her power to fling the annoying primitive of an alien over the sand dune.
Humans nearby had seen the whole ordeal go down and began to panic too, kicking up sand as they rushed to get away.
It was her last resort really, but it was more enticing than working with these apes.
Silently glad she did not have to sully her form with the unpleasantry of the desert ground below any more Quintessa quickly closed the gap between herself and the colossal spire arching from the ground.
The metals that made it were old, older than her or anything she had ever seen before.
If she did not know the danger and power of that which it was attached to, Quintessa might even indulge herself to have called it 'amazing'. Bits and pieces of it bore a particularly dull orangey-yellow, barely noticeable among the rest of it, it must have been a wonderful golden shade when in its prime.
Quintessa hesitated for a moment, from now on she must tread carefully.
Allowing some of her own energy to flow more freely, focusing in her hands, she touched the spire.
"I seek an audience with you" she stated bluntly, unsure if this would even work.
It was silent.
Deafeningly so before the spire finally seemed to react.
Quintessa backed away in shock when a portion of the spire moved.
Inwards. While crumpling in on itself.
It was comparable to a plastic bag having all the air sucked from it, except metal and that it probably shouldn't be able to move like that.
The wrinkled patch of metal throbbed before sliding down the side of the spire and sinking below ground level.
The silence returned once more, only slightly broken by a reptilian organic quickly traversing the dunes unaware of metal gods beside it.
A low 'thunk' told of the great being's decision and the base of the spire twitched, sand began falling as the ground below it moved away, dust billowed out mixing with the falling land as a door opened just below the visible base of the spire.
'Audience granted it seems' Quintessa hummed to herself as she floated down.
Below she found herself in a pitch blackness that only began to recede like an injured Retrorat as a sickly green light slowly started to illuminate the chamber, lining the walls in several spots like little optics. Walls which looked like they were constructed from melted metal that had solidified in time for another few layers of metal to melt over the top and solidify again.
It certainly gave an eerie vibe.
With no further indication, she looked around the room, there were three arches each leading down pathways constructed of equally strange metals merged into bizarre structures.
Quintessa headed for the pathway closest to her.
A membranous film immediately slammed shut over it before she could pass through and the green lighting in the pathway furthest from her shone brighter.
Biting back the curse that threatened to escape her, Quintessa followed the new pathway.
The inside of Unicron was stranger than anything she'd seen.
Any 'incorrect' pathway was shut up with a membrane before she could traverse the wrong path, parts of it were huge and cavernous, while others were small, even for her. If she knew a jolt about how organic life forms worked she could compare parts of it to big veins and neurons only formed from metal in a fashion that implied it had grown like that rather than being constructed as so.
Tiny shapes skittered away from her whenever she turned her helm, trying to catch glimpses of whatever lived within Unicron seemed fruitless unless they wanted her to see them, only fleeting glances caught a glimmer of small, deformed things.
It was enough to make even her feel quite insignificant in the scale of its size and bizarrity.
Eventually, she found herself in another colossal cavern with several branching pathways, one wall was deeply concave, the dip framing a large bulbous, branched clump of metal.
It was this bit of metal that began to glow with the same green light as before but stronger.
"SPEAK" The light throbbed and a voice boomed in Quintessa's processor making her reel from the volume of it alone.
"I…"
"DO NOT WASTE MY TIME. SPEAK" The voice refused to get any quieter, every syllable hollered out as if it were being physically hammered in.
"I am Quintessa and I offer my services to you, O' lord Unicron" She bowed quickly hoping at the very least to placate him into speaking quieter.
"AND WHAT COULD THE LIKES OF YOU OFFER ME" The metal clump pulsated as it 'spoke'.
"I…" Quintessa had to compose herself for a second, no one had dared speak to her like this before, then again no one potentially had the power to back up their snotty behaviour before, "I can offer my own highly desirable power, fully and completely to you, as a… humble follower of yours. To add to that I still have control of another, and they too will be yours to command"
"I FIND YOUR BARGAINING POSITION HIGHLY DUBIOUS" Unicron boomed back, "I AM SPEAKING TO YOU DIRECTLY TO YOUR INSIGNIFICANT PROCESSOR I CAN SENSE YOU ARE HIDING THOUGHTS BEHIND YOUR POWER, BUT I AM NO FOOL, I KNOW THEY ARE DISOBEDIENT THOUGHTS"
Quintessa tried to smile.
She may well be in far over her head now, but she was nothing if not smart and crafty.
"Well, of course, I am a Prime, there are rumours you cannot penetrate all of our thoughts… Forgive me, my new Master, those disobedient thoughts were merely born of doubt, I know now you truly are as the legends say, greater even, to have so smoothly established a connection to my processor without me even noticing, you ARE powerful!"
Unicron remained quiet, but his silence was still heavily permeated with doubt and condescendence.
"Cybertron is in orbit, as is it's life core, as I'm sure you're aware, you can have both my power, my underling and everything we can get or provide you with! All I want is Cybertron, but not it's life core, you can destroy that as you please, without the AllSpark that thing is weak and practically just waiting for you to destroy it."
The silence still continued as Unicron thought over what she offered.
"SHOW ME YOUR OFFERING" He demanded.
"O-of course!" Quintessa perked up, for now, she must be the picture of perfect obedience, "He is far away however an-"
"SHOW ME IT. I WILL LOOK AT IT AND DECIDE MYSELF"
The mark Quintessa had branded her chosen 'followers' with was not just a signal for those to see whom they pledged allegiance to but helped her monitor and corral them unless the control was broken.
The pathetic hunk of slag was half buried in the dirt somewhere. The sight of and temporary return to Cybertron seemed to be causing some sort of distress as he did not move, choosing to lay staring wistfully at the fractured planet from where he had fallen, mind wandering to far off places.
As she watched him, the ground around him opened up and he was gone.
"I FIND THIS ACCEPTABLE. YOU WORK FOR ME AND ME ALONE NOW, AS DOES YOUR WEAKLING OF A PET"
"Ah, I am humbled you have graciously accepted my offering and my services, he is yours to do as you please with"
"I ALREADY AM"
Quintessa wanted to ask what he meant, but she could feel the connection via her brand vanish in an instant. Noises from deep inside Unicron blared and hummed, lights pulsated to an unknown rhythm as they 'flowed' to an unknown part of the behemoth before it all shut down.
Every source of illumination faltered and fizzled, struggling to stay alight, Quintessa noted the minor display of weakness.
So he had been affected to some degree by the transfer of energy through the ignition chamber.
"AHHH" Unicron seemingly 'came back', sounding satisfied with something, "TO THINK A USEFUL BODY WAS WASTED… BEHOLD, GALVATRON"
A section of the wall parted like water and as if suspended by invisible strings Galvatron was slid into the room, his external armour rippling as it settled into its current form, a clear indication he was back to the Transformium body he had upon meeting Quintessa before.
Quintessa scowled, now she would have to bother to remember this name, the only reason she made him retake the Megatron name was so she wouldn't have to bother associating with these beings beyond their usefulness.
Galvatron stood still, his armour shades of purple contrasting with the orange section on his chest his helm looked a little more like it had horns now, especially with the addition of a central spire. Flaming optics glanced around the room, Quintessa easily noted the emotions pouring from them; confusion, fear, panic.
How long before this worthless underling buckled from this, the stress and the frustration that had lead him to her in the first place? As long as Unicron was content to let her do as she pleased, Quintessa did not care.
"NOW, I WILL GIVE THE THREE OF YOU YOUR ORDERS ONCE YOU ARE ASSEMBLED, GO BRING OUR NEW MEMBER IN SO MY COMMANDS CAN BE HEEDED"
"Three? Who else would, I mean, who else even knows you're here besides the Autobots? Those little things crawling about?" Quintessa argued, not another worthless Transformer to deign to be around.
"I HAVE FOLLOWERS, ONES I DO NOT NEED TO BRAND TO CONTROL, THE CLOSEST LOYALEST ONE WILL DO"
Quintessa silently bristled at Unicron's thinly veiled remark.
Galvatron continued to stare silently like a Pterorabbit in headlights.
Elsewhere in space, an uncharted cluster of asteroids around a dusty, lava-ridden planetoid sat nestled in the back end of beyond.
Atop a plateau on the planetoid a dark, pointed structure sat, Decepticon emblems decorating the entryways the only indication of its purpose.
It was however near enough to Earth for Unicron's rather weak 'just emerging' signal to reach, even then it only touched those who'd dare listen.
To everyone else, there was nothing, nothing but the aftermath.
Which was where Oil Slick was.
He clung to the ventilation pipes that ran high in the ceiling, ignoring the heat that made his paint bubble, crack and flake away.
That could be replaced, his Spark could not.
The door hissed as it opened and Oil Slick clung tighter to the pipe.
If only the room wasn't so dimly lit.
If only it wasn't so noisy, then he could be sure it was the door and not a pipe…
He just hoped it was a pipe… please let it be a pipe.
There's only so much running one can do.
Heavy footsteps threatened to draw out a whimper from the fleeing con as he felt the pipe beneath him wobble and his servos dug deeper into its plating, clinging on for dear life.
Peering around the pipe it was not hard to miss the massive shape below, forced to quadrupedal movement in order to access this room and not be entangled in the pipes running at its peak.
Oil Slick watched his pursuer slink away around one of the ventilation units, maybe he could move now… or maybe he'd just stay still and not risk even the slightest bit of noise, even better.
Once more the thuds rose as they circled back and Oil Slick cursed the feeling of his external plating beginning to bubble at the heat.
"Oh"
'Oh'? 'Oh' what? What's 'oh'?
Lip plates trembling Oil Slick took another peek at the room from the pipe.
His paint!.
His bloody paint!.
Below him, he could see his tormentor looking at his servo's and the specks of paint that had stuck to it from the floor before his optics snapped upwards.
"No! NO NO NO NOOO!" Oil Slick scrambled to move, his balance only being thrown off by the curvature of the pipe, claws being his only saving grace as they pierced the pipe just enough for him to have a grip.
Uncoordinated movements were not a match for size and the reach that it provided.
Covering nearly half of his body, a hand clamped around Oil Slick's legs and pulled.
"NOOOOOOOO" He shrieked again, his talons leaving gouges in the metal as he tried in vain to cling to the pipe.
Just like that Oil Slick was now being moved through the base, clutched in claws too big for him to escape from, his aim suffering from his own panic and being swung around was not helping his shots either. He tried falling back on his claws, trying to cut and tear at his bonds, he even tried biting but they refused to budge.
"No, no please, not like this!" He pleaded, "Cyclonus please, I'm sorry about whatever it was! Anything! We've never seen optic to optic but this is absurd, you're going crazy! Please don't kill me" On any other day he'd despise the notion of begging but as the pungent smell of dead bodies, snuffed sparks and congealed vital mech fluids rose ever stronger anything was better than dying.
Mercy was not on his side as the last door opened into the main landing hangar.
The room was dominated by a twisted sculpture, internal support structures twisted together, spinal struts arcing from the top, servos arranged in a circle upon its front.
It looked almost like a face.
The slumped, gutted bodies of their teammates lined the back of the room and Oil Slick was allowed to join them as he was thrown face first into Strika.
Or at least what was left of her, one remaining shoulder strut was the only identifying feature left, from the looks of things she had put up one hell of a fight at least.
Oil Slick gasped and tried his best to get up, but the thick layers of ichor allowed him no footing.
Cyclonus pinned him down, forcing Oil Slick's face into the slurry that once composed bits of his teammates.
"No, don't, please, you don't know what you're doing" He tried one last time as he felt a claw poke and prod between his shoulder panels.
"For the glory of Unicron" Was his response as Cyclonus hooked a claw tip under Oil Slick's spine and stripped it out, severing several vital connections and energon pumps, letting it spew everywhere.
That was it.
All of Team Chaar gone, but it was good.
They were serving a far better purpose now.
Cyclonus almost envied them had he not been called to a higher purpose.
Oil Slick's spinal strut was added to the sculpture.
A crude imitation of what was supposedly the glorious visage of the great Unicron.
What a wonderful honour for them to contribute their own parts to bring forth his image to the realms.
Unicron will be pleased with his humble offering, now to present it to him; Cyclonus took to the stars following the quiet call wherever it may be.