Omega Supreme: Castle in the Sky

by TyLeeChan

Oneshot: Sari never thought her key was this important. Everyone seems to be after it and its strange power, and the only one willing to help her is Bumblebee, the bot who caught her from the sky. Parody of Laputa: Castle in the Sky slight SarixBB

This is a parody of the movie Laputa: Castle in the Sky by Hayao Miyazaki, one of my favorites of all Studio Ghibli. For all purposes of this story, Omega Supreme is NOT sentient. In fact, its not even the same ship, nor is the others (except maybe the Nemesis). They are just namesake g1 or Animated references. Also..I'm not the best at physics so sometimes gravity is ignored. I forgot that this happens in space most of the time XD Well enjoy!

---

Bumblebee increased his speed as he continued along the railroad tracks. His wheels fit perfectly around the metal bars, as if squeezing around them. He had to be fast, but not too fast. The tracks were far above the ground, at least a thousand mechanometer drop to the mining settlement below if he made the wrong move. He didn't want to take the chances and see if he would survive that. Or if his passenger would.

Sari sat nervously in the shotgun seat, her small hands clenching and unclenching around the seatbelt that she had strapped herself in. She kept looking back to see if their pursuers were any closer, and then would try to keep her gaze on what was in front of her so as to ignore them. She was scared. Bumblebee understood that, he was a little scared too. But mostly the adrenaline of the situation had taken over, and although there were risks he was excited and ready to face the unknown of what would happen next.

It had been complete chance that he had found Sari the solar cycle before. This was Iacon. A mining colony. Femmes didn't show around much, mostly because they had common sense. The ones that did come never stayed long, or else weren't the kind of femmes you'd want to be seen with for sake of reputation. Because of this, seeing a femme here was very unlikely.

Even less likely for them to be an organic. And even less likely for them to simply float down from space.

Yet, crazy as that sounds, it was that exact circumstance that brought Bumblebee and Sari together. The girl had hovered down above the mine that he worked in, completely unconscious, the strange key around her neck giving an unearthly glow. How that worked exactly he still wasn't sure about. As far as he knew, organic-human-things weren't able to fly. He had been in just the right place to catch her, however so reluctantly. Bumblebee knew that organics were supposed to be dangerous. But she didn't burn off his armor or cause him to contract a deadly computer virus. Actually, her skin had felt rather soft. He had liked the smooth fleshy difference to the usual `bot's cold metal exterior.

She hadn't woken up until this morning, confused, but not because of her surroundings. She had expected to be dead. Something about falling off of a ship somewhere over Cybertron, though she couldn't remember all of it. Bumblebee wasn't sure how she had gotten here, or how she had survived it, but she had. And he was glad for that. So far she had managed to drag him into what was turning out to be the only excitement he had had in a long time. Working in a mine wasn't exactly the most enjoyable thing to do. But he enjoyed being with Sari.

Before she could explain much more though, the space pirates that apparently caused her fall appeared outside of Bumblebee's house. He recognized them from wanted holo-scans, remembering they were a part of something called the Red Alert gang. And that they were considered very dangerous. So Bumblebee did the only thing he knew he could do: run. Risking his life for somebot he barely knew, especially an organic, was not something Bumblebee usually did, but there was something different about this femme. Something that made him want to protect her. Almost like a responsibility, since he was the one who had found her and saved her in the first place.

With Sari hiding in the front seat, he had sped off before any of the pirates could approach them. The two `bots had stared at them stupidly as they passed, Bumblebee leaving a burst of exhaust fumes in their faceplates. They weren't as stupid as they looked, though. Soon enough they were after them, and that was about where they still were now. Forced to escape onto the railroad tracks with the pirates right behind them, hot in pursuit.

Bumblebee had no idea why the Red Alert gang had such an interest in Sari. Well, except maybe that key. He thought that there might be some power attached to it, the thing that had made her float to safety like that. But when he had experimented with it, he discovered the painful way that it didn't work for him. So how had it worked for Sari? Was it because she was an organic? Slag, organics were tricky.

"Bumblebee! They're catching up!" Sari cried, "What are we going to do?"

He quickly checked his rearview mirror. Four cars on the tracks behind them. Two jets in the sky above. One lone vehicle following alongside them on the edge of the cliff that was easily one long jump away from the tracks. No matter how they sliced it, the only way to go was forward. But Sari was right, the pirates were getting closer. He didn't have the nanoclicks to just cruise along like they weren't in any danger at all.

"Okay then, hold on to something!" Bumblebee announced, "You're about to see the 'Fastest Thing on Wheels' in action!"

He revved his engines, feeling the energon flowing through his systems. The potential energy ready to be released. All in one big eruption of speed that would take them away from the pirates and back to safety.

Instead, all that came out was a big eruption of black smoke.

"We're not going any faster than before!" Sari exclaimed.

"It takes some time, slaggit!" He retorted, hoping and praying that this was actually the case. He never had his engine fail on him like this before. Not that it was really failing, though. Just being all out uncooperative. Both of those were unacceptable at a time like this. He needed to protect Sari, not give the pirates a better chance at catching her. He couldn't, wouldn't, let them lay one slimy servo on her.

"Bumblebee…is there supposed to be something on the tracks?" Sari asked.

"Huh?" He looked ahead, trying to see what she was talking about. No, the only thing on the tracks should be trains, and even then they weren't usually out here so early.

Bumblebee almost hit his brakes when he saw what would be blocking their escape. A giant tank was rumbling toward them, barely fitting onto the tracks because of its size. On top of it was what appeared to be a femme, though she didn't look normal at all. She had weird spider parts all about her. Not a `bot…but not an organic. What were those called? A techno-organic? Didn't matter. Bumblebee couldn't believe his luck. Already he had seen two femmes in the course of about a solar cycle. Of course, this one kinda looked like one you didn't want to hang around. Like she was bad news. Like she was hiding some big secret under the helmet hiding her faceplate from view. Something about those numerous red viz scanners was unnerving too.

Nevertheless, he came to a slow stop, waiting to see how the tank would respond. Then he saw the insignias on the battle vehicle: these two worked for the government. Bumblebee felt hopeful. At last, somebot could get these creeps off of their tailgates. One of the `bots at the town must've reported the gang to the autotroopers, and they sent this battlement to cut them off and save him and Sari. Already he could see the pirates behind them at a standstill, even the jets taking cover from the air and landing on the tracks, holding on to each other to keep from falling off. There was no way that they would try anything with this tank around. Finally, Bumblebee began to calm down.

Until he noticed that his right door was open and his passenger seat felt oddly empty.

Without wasting any time he transformed to robot mode, looking around wildly for his missing charge. It took a nanoclick, but he caught a flash of her yellow dress as Sari continued to run down the right turn of the y-intersection directly to their rear. She was running away from the pirates, that was clear. But she also seemed to be running from the tank. That wasn't quite as unexplainable. Why would she be running from the `bots that were going to be helping them?

"Sari! Where are you going?" Bumblebee called after her.

She turned around and gave him a grave expression. "I have to go. Don't follow me!"

"But, Sari…!"

"Wait, Sari!" The techno-organic dropped down from the tank, smiling a very fake loving smile. "Come back here like a good little girl, okay?" She reached out her servos and motioned for her to come. Sari shook her head violently and resumed her escape, running almost blindly now. As if she'd do anything not to be with the femme.

It was then Bumblebee began to understand, even if it was still a little confusing. The government, or at least these two members of it, was against them too. The tank and the femme weren't here to rescue them from the pirates. They were here for the same reason as the Red Alert gang; to steal Sari away for reasons still unknown to Bumblebee. He was going to have to go against two strong forces in order to keep Sari safe.

Against her wishes, Bumblebee raced after Sari, not nearly as fast as if he was in vehicle mode but definitely a lot safer. He was more likely to lose control and fall off if he was a car without limbs to grab on if he did lose his balance. Quick, unexpected transformations weren't something that he was good at.

"I said 'don't follow me'!!" Sari cried. She wasn't looking at him, her back to him as she kept on running, but must've have figured he was the one after her making the loud footsteps using logic. Not that he thought his footsteps were loud. Actually, they were rather light compared to other `bots. But to her small audio receptors it probably sounded like thunderous rumbling crashes. Undoubtedly she could hear them from a long way's away.

An explosion ripped apart the start of the intersection that Bumblebee had just crossed, pieces of debris scraping against his armor. There was the lowing sound of the tank's cannon as it adjusted, aiming for a new target. The tracks wobbled under him and he lunged forward, sweeping Sari into his servos as the second detonation hit. This time it blasted some of the support rafters that kept the tracks in the air, and the beams holding them up shook dangerously. It wouldn't be able to hold under the pressure. Even as he stood there watching it he could see large chunks of the tracks snapping off like twigs, plummeting that down that deadly drop. There was nothing they could do.

Sari let out a scream as the tracks collapsed beneath them, leaving nothing but air under Bumblebee's stabilizing servos. Sharp blasts of frigid wind shot up against his chassis as they plunged down, the ground growing larger as if coming up to meet them. To smash them into slag when they hit it. The vertigo was making him sick as the cliff sped past him, the crags and crevices melting together in his blurry vision. He pulled his servos further around Sari, hoping to somehow shield her from the impact once they hit. That didn't stop the feeling rising in his chestplate that he had failed. He had failed Sari.

They were both going to go offline.

A bright glow almost blinded him, and he wondered if this was it. The Well of All Sparks. He had heard many legends about it and some of them had included blinding lights. But he could still feel Sari in his servos, so that threw out that possibility. As an organic she wouldn't have made the journey with him. She would've gone to…'haven' or whatever the organic Well was called. So he was still online…but why wasn't he falling anymore? The feeling of doom and quick descent had disappeared completely, replaced with senses of exhilaration and peaceful control. It was more like they were gently coming down. Floating.

Bumblebee blinked in realization.

Sari was holding onto his fingers for her life, the key around her neck hovering slightly in front of her face. That was where the glow was coming from, just like when he first saw her. She stared at it in a mix of horror and amazement, her mouth gaping in surprise.

"We're…We're flying!" She exclaimed. "O-or floating…or something like that…!!"

"Ha! It was your key! I knew it!" Bumblebee shouted. He started to raise one of his servos to further this sensation, but Sari held on tighter and gave a small cry. Even though they were safe at the moment, she was still afraid the safety would disappear. That they would still fall. "It's okay. We're almost to the bottom."

They continued to glide towards the ground, their course taking them towards the opening of one of the mines. That was good. He could already hear shouting and shots from both the pirate gang and the government officials above. Their enemies would be after them soon once they got rid of each other. It would be the best to be in a place Bumblebee knew well, and where they could hide themselves easily. He doubted any of these `bots from off-colony would be able to find their ways through these mines effectively.

When they touched down inside of the dusty and dark mine the glow of the key faded, as if being drawn back in now that the danger was over. He lifted Sari up to let her sit on his shoulder, and he turned on his brights so that they could still see in the shadows. As far as he could tell it was empty; no other miners in sight, nor anybot from the pirates or the government. Still, they would have to move. Their pursuers saw them land here and they would be coming at any moment.

As he started down the left shaft he turned to Sari. "All right. You've got some explaining to do. You said that that key couldn't do anything, but it did. And what was up with that techno-organic femme?"

"It's…it's kinda a long story…" Sari said hesitantly.

"Then you better start talking."

"Okay." She breathed in, "I used to live on Earth with my dad. We lived in a big tower in the middle of a city where I was taught everyday by this annoying robot named Tutor Bot. He was the one who gave me the key…after my dad died. He never told me it had powers like this. All I knew was that was always in my family and that it let me lock the tower's front doors. I was doing okay by myself in the city. Tutor Bot helped take care of me and stuff. But one day Blackarachnia – the techno-organic – came with some autotroopers. She said that I was a ward of the government; that I had no way to prove my identity. No birth certificate. Nothing. So they took me away."

"They kidnapped you?" Bumblebee replied, shocked.

Sari nodded. "Yeah."

"So they must want your key. Just like the pirates do!"

"I never thought such a boring key would do that…Dad never even told me it existed while he was alive. Tutor Bot gave it to me in his will."

"That means we're both orphans." Bumblebee realized, "We have to stick together, right?"

"Bumblebee…" Sari looked at him solemnly, "Why are you doing this for me? I've only gotten you in a big mess through this whole thing…and it could get worse…"

"Are you kidding? This is the most fun I've had in stellar cycles!" He grinned, "Besides, I couldn't just leave you at my work after that kind of an entrance."

Sari smiled softly and gave him a small hug around the neck. Bumblebee angled his faceplate slightly so she wouldn't see him blush. Him, liking an organic of all things? Preposterous! Yet he couldn't suppress the perpetual high he was feeling as long as he was around her. Yes. He liked Sari. Why should something like species prejudice make that any different? That was some lie that the bureaucracy wanted you to believe.

The shaft continued winding on, the black rocks throwing off strange shadows as the light hit it. Bumblebee ran his servo against the side. This mine had long been abandoned. He knew this, not just because of the fact that he had never been in it before, but because of its smooth surface caused from stellar cycles of probing and explosives. If this mine had any precious elements or metals, which was not always likely, it didn't have it anymore. The miners had drained it of all its worth and moved on to a better prospect. It was sad how something that once so important and valuable suddenly became so forgotten.

To make up for lack of conversation, Bumblebee started up one of his favorite subjects. "Ever heard of the ship, the Omega Supreme?"

Sari shook her head.

"It's this big ship that my dad saw once. He even took a holo-scan of it to prove it. Maybe if we make it back to my house I can show you." He explained, "Anyways, it's huge. About half the size of Iacon, according to what Dad said. There's this sweet castle on top of it too that makes it even bigger. But here's the best part: it doesn't run on fuel. It's self-propelled by some sort of energy nobot has ever discovered before! ...Well, except for whoever built it, that is. Dad saw it in the middle of a magnetic storm, so he was only able to get one scan of it, but it's so cool."

"That's so awesome! Did he get some award or something for discovering it?" Sari asked excitedly.

"Well…nobot believed him. They said that the picture was a fake. That he was a liar…" Bumblebee revealed, "…that's why he went offline."

"Oh, Bumblebee, I'm sorry…"

"Don't be! That just makes me more fired up to find Omega Supreme myself and prove that my dad was right!" He insisted, lifting a triumphant fist into the air.

"How are you going to do that?" Sari asked as they neared the end of the shaft. He could tell because it grew lighter, suggesting that there was starlight coming in.

"I was building my own ship…but that didn't work out very well. So I'm getting a friend to build one for me, and once I save up enough I'll pay him for it." He informed, "It'll take awhile, but it'll be worth it."

"Maybe I can help you. I've got nothing else to do and nowhere else to go." Sari offered.

Bumblebee smiled. "That…that sounds good."

He stepped out of the mine, collecting his bearings as he did. He wasn't exactly sure where the tunnel had led them to since he had never been in it before. It would only take a nanoclick to figure out where on the colony it had dropped them off, and then they would find out where to go from there.

It also only took a nanoclick for Bumblebee to see the autotroopers surrounding them, destroying any chance of escape.

Their blasters were trained on him and he froze, not sure if he could risk running back through the mine and possibly get shot. What good would he be to helping Sari if he was out of commission? Or worse? Sari held on to his shoulder fiercely, her eyes darting in fear from all the `bots. She had no way to defend herself without him around. A dark figure slunk in between the cadre and appeared before them, her expression as delightful as poison.

"You really didn't think you'd get away, did you?" The techno-organic, Blackarachnia, asked. "Now, please, don't make this too hard on yourselves."

She extended her servo and a shot of webbing flew out, wrapping itself around Sari. Bumblebee grimaced at the sticky feel. Then, with a quick tug from Blackarachnia, both Sari and the web were wrenched away from him. Sari shrieked. Bumblebee's viz scanners widened and he reached out. He had to get her back. But his fingers were too slow for the spider-like reflexes of this techno-organic. Sari was hanging loosely from the web, still attached to Blackarachnia's servo, struggling against her viscous bindings.

"Let her go!" Bumblebee shouted. He displayed his stingers, as if they were a credible threat to any of the high-level blasters the autotroopers had. If they functioned the same way they did the last time he used them, then he would barely be able to scratch the armor of any of these `bots. Nevertheless, it was the intimidation that counted. And being a little scrawny Autobot, he probably didn't have a lot going for him there, either.

He let a small spark of electricity loose. One of the autotroopers stepped forward. The blaster was no longer aimed at him, but was still held with the purpose of a weapon. He did nothing but stare at it in a stupor as it was raised high and then brought down quickly, connecting with a sickening metallic thud against the top of his helmet.

The last thing he heard before everything went black was Sari screaming his name.

---

Sari hugged her knees under her chin. She was in a new building than before, a completely new colony in fact. But that didn't make her room any different in the least. Dull. Gray. A lone bed in the corner intended for a Cybertronian, not a human. The only thing that was slightly different than before was the yapping Sparkplug racing around the floor. A gift that was supposed to appease her. To make her feel more at home. To make her forget about how awful they treated her. And Bumblebee.

Bumblebee. Where had they taken him? Was he hurt? She wiped away stray tears that began to run down her cheek. Why had she let him come with her and put himself in such terrible danger?

She supposed it was because she was lonely. Throughout this whole affair of being held by the government she hadn't actually had anyone she would consider a friend. Only enemies and `bots intent on exploiting her for something she didn't even know. Well, she sort of knew now. Something about her key. But if they just wanted the key, why wouldn't they take it and let her and Bumblebee go?

There was a knock on the door and Sparkplug raced over to it, barking madly. Sari didn't bother to ask who it was or tell them to come on in. Blackarachnia wasn't one for such formalities anyways.

"Oh, good! I see you've found your present!" Her captor said in an overly sugared tone as she entered. Sari hated that. Hated that she had the gall to even pretend that they were friends. That this was all just fun and games. Not that the act ever lasted long. It was always how she started things out. After a minute or so of softening her up Blackarachnia would always show her true colors: her spiteful, malicious nature.

Sari frowned, turning her back to the `bot that had caused all her troubles. "What do you want?"

"I take it that you aren't happy. Maybe I can get somebot to bring up those – what are they called? Oh yes – 'video games' from your house. Would that make you more agreeable?" She asked.

"Where's Bumblebee?"

"Don't worry about him, he –"

"Where is he?"

Her lips twitched in annoyance and then contorted into a scowl. "Look, brat, we don't have all solar cycle, so come with me."

Sari considered refusing, but knew it was no use. If she said 'no' Blackarachnia would just drag her there, kicking and screaming, with one thread of web around her ankle. So instead of rebelling she sullenly stood up and followed Blackarachnia out of the room.

The hallways leading to their destination were about as boring as her room. Except it actually showed some signs of life. The autotrooper stood at almost every corner, keeping silent vigil of all possible escape routes. Not that she would be able to anyways. One shot from a blaster about the size of herself would probably leave her a smoking pile of…whatever her skin was made out of. Or they might just step on her. Both of them were something that didn't sound too desirable.

They approached a big steel door with huge bars over it, which Blackarachnia opened with some intricate password that Sari wouldn't have been able to catch even if she was tall enough to see what keys she had pressed. Her claw-like fingers were moving like a blur, too fast to catch the pattern. As soon as the door eased back they walked into a large, darkly lit room. It may have even been larger than Sari could tell, the walls hidden completely in shadows. There was only one light, which illuminated a rather big area on the floor.

When Sari saw what was on that area she gasped.

"Yes." Blackarachnia said, "That's why I brought you here."

It was a `bot. Definitely a `bot. But the alt mode was completely different than the usual. Like…like a dinosaur. A Tyrannosaurus Rex to be exact. She would've thought it was a techno-organic, except it had no actual organic features. Just shaped like a metal dinosaur. It was lying on its side, almost like it was dead. Maybe it was dead. She wouldn't be surprised with the way the `bots here treated others. One of its arms had been torn of and was lying by its side.

"What…what is it?" Sari asked.

"A Dinobot. Very dangerous. Not this one, though. This one has been offline for a long time." Blackarachnia explained, "Fell from the sky, landed in an energon farm. We've been studying him. His spark was manufactured. Even though it's not there you can tell from the shape of the sparkchamber. We're trying to find out how somebot could create life."

"What does this have to do with anything?"

"The only documentation we have of anything like him came from a legend. A legend about a ship called the Omega Supreme."

Sari bit her lip. That was what Bumblebee had been talking to her about. The ship his dad had seen and taken a picture of. The one that was self-propelled with a castle on top. He had been right. It was real. This 'Dinobot' was proof of that. If only Bumblebee could be seeing this now!

Blackarachnia went over and patted the Dinobot on the head. "The legend tells us that it holds a great amount of treasure, along with a great source of technology way beyond our own capabilities. Raw power. Something like that just can't be left floating around, waiting for anybot to come upon it, now can it?"

"You're looking for the Omega Supreme." Sari realized.

"Wow, you're real sharp." She rolled all of her red beady eyes at her, "Yes. We're trying to find it. Maybe…maybe you know something about it?"

"No. I don't."

That was a bit of a lie. She did know what Bumblebee had told her in the mine, but that was about it. Yet, now that she thought about it, a robotic dinosaur did sound kind of familiar. Something that Tutor Bot had taught her once during school, after her dad died. Tutor Bot had acted really weird during that time, teaching her obscure sayings and stuff. He might have mentioned something about a dinosaur once. Even if that had anything to do with this, she wasn't going to tell Blackarachnia.

"Not anything? Are you sure?" Blackarachnia asked, "You said the key had belonged to your father. Did he ever say anything about it?"

That key again. It was always about the key. The reason they took her. The reason the pirates attacked the ship they were on. The reason both the pirates and Blackarachnia chased her down. She hated it. She had had enough of it. She tore it off of her neck and thrust it toward Blackarachnia.

"If you want it, take it. Maybe it'll tell you how to find the Omega Supreme." She huffed. "Now leave me along, and let me and Bumblebee go."

"Glitchhead, only you can make it work!" Blackarachnia snapped.

"Work…?"

"Yes. Work." She repeated, "You were being sarcastic, but it really may be what will show us the way."

"But…but I don't want to go on any stupid wild-goose chase! Figure it out yourself!" Sari cried, "I don't even have any idea how I could get it to work!"

"Look, I'd really like to just squeeze you to death so that I wouldn't have to lug you around everywhere, but as I said before you're the only one who can make it work. It was given to you; it will only show you how to get there." Blackarachnia insisted, exasperated.

"No. I'm not doing it."

Blackarachnia set her hands on her hips, her eyes little slits that looked like they could kill. But Sari held her ground. She wouldn't let them boss her around and make her do this. They were all just selfish. The Omega Supreme had treasure and stuff. They were going to use her to make themselves rich.

"Your friend, he's yellow, right?" Blackarachnia asked.

"Yeah…" Sari said slowly. She didn't like where this was going. "Do you know where he is? Can I see him?"

"No. He's in line for an experiment I had in mind." She said with a wicked grin, "I want to see how long it will take for a young, fit `bot like him to crack under extreme amounts of torture."

Sari felt her skin grow cold. She couldn't be serious. Bumblebee had already been through so much trouble. So much pain. They were going to make him suffer more, and then probably kill him. All because of her. Because he had been sweet enough to care about her. He had wanted to be her friend.

Friends didn't let other friends get hurt like this.

"You can't do that!! You can't!!" She cried, her eyes watering up.

"I might be able to find somebot else for that experiment in particular," Blackarachnia said, "but only if you decide to be a bit more…cooperative."

It was like the ground had been swept out from under her and she was falling again. The same feelings of nausea and dread welling up inside, right in the pit of her stomach. An ultimatum. She had been given an ultimatum, and one she couldn't choose the wrong way. Not if she wanted Bumblebee to live. Blackarachnia knew this, the smug look on her faceplate beaming down on her. She knew she had won.

Sari raised her hands to her face and sobbed.

---

Bumblebee resisted the urge to squirm as Red Alert laid her servo on his back, leading him towards the small aircrafts they were about to board. Sure, they weren't as slimy as he thought they would be, but the thought of being so close to a no-good, dirty pirate was a bit unnerving. He had nobot to blame but himself though. He had signed up for this willingly.

The government had finally thrown him out of that cell. Literally. Grabbed him around the waist and hurled him, hitting the ground face-first. That had hurt. Not nearly as much, though, as what Sari had said to him. With Blackarachnia right behind her, she had stared at the ground, avoiding his gaze. She had looked so pale, so frightened.

"Forget about me, Bumblebee. And forget about the Omega Supreme. Just go back home."

The words had stung. It was like he was being betrayed by everything he once knew. Forget about her? He couldn't do that. Not after he promised to protect her. And as for the Omega Supreme…well that had been a priority in his life for so long that it couldn't be expected. Ever since his dad had told him about it he had been obsessed with it, now even more so because of his death and defaming. Why had Sari said that to him? This wasn't like her at all. What did they do to her to make her say that?

Then they had paid him. Tossed the credits at him as he worked his way back on his stabilizing servos. Told him it was to keep him quiet. He had barely been able to hold it as he trudged back home. It was like acid burning against his armor, reminding him of what he was doing. Blood money. He had been given blood money. Sari's blood.

And now he was here. Working with the pirates that he had been fighting against not so long ago. It was kind of confusing, the segue between the release from the government compound to starting a rescue mission with the Red Alert gang. Mostly it was because of the fact that the pirates had decided to hide out at his house from Blackarachnia, so their meeting was inescapable. Getting Red Alert to let him join in on their plan to storm the complex was a lot trickier, but he had done it. She figured that he would be able to convince Sari to come with them when they got there.

Red Alert wasn't anything like he would have expected. She was actually rather sophisticated compared to what you would think of a pirate to be. He could tell she could enforce her control as leader, though. When she told her crew to do something, they did it without hesitation. Well, they complained a bit, but they still did it. Bumblebee didn't want to know what she would do if they didn't. Her left servo wasn't even really a servo. It had all sorts of medical tools and stuff. Maybe she used it as a punishment or something.

"Alright, step up here." She practically pushed him towards the aircraft, "Hurry! Before they move her off-colony! You want to save your little sparkmate, right?"

"She is not my sparkmate!" Bumblebee insisted. He wasn't even sure how that would work physically with her being an organic. But if it could then maybe…

"Whatever. Come on." She turned back toward the house, where the rest of the pirates were continuing to stuff themselves with the energon Bumblebee had, "Kids, if you don't have your gearshafts out here this instant, I'm leaving you!"

Immeadiately all of them raced out, tripping over each other in order not to be left behind like Red Alert threatened. It was strange. There were six of them, but every two of them looked similar to the other. A blue and orange pair he recognized as the jets, a yellow and red pair, and a blue and red pair. One word came to mind upon seeing them: twins. They all stood next to their counterparts, waiting to hear Red Alert's next instructions.

"Sunny, Sides, you take that one. Natron, Freezon, the other. Jetfire, Jetstorm…you know what to do." Red Alert commanded. They all nodded and took their respected posts on different ships, save the two jets. "Alright, let's go."

Bumblebee stepped up onto the aircraft that he was supposed to be on, and leaned to the side, leaving enough room for Red Alert to board as well. He knew that there was no way in the pits he was going to fly this thing. Red Alert knew too, as she instinctively slid in and grabbed the controls. After pressing a few buttons the machine suddenly came to life, humming and vibrating, slowly rising up from the ground. Bumblebee clutched onto the side, surprised at the sudden motion. The other ships began to ascend as well, and they were soon on their way back to the government compound. Back to Sari.

He watched as the boringly flat Iacon terrain sped under them, the aircraft gaining speed as they went. It was rather incredible. He would never have thought that something this small and without a roof would even fly, but they were doing it rather smoothly. A few bumps every now and then, but better than anything Bumblebee had tried to build. He had only made a small prototype once, and it hadn't even left the ground. Although he was still in the air like he had been before, this was nothing compared to the feelings he had felt with floating with Sari. This was much more mechanical and not as natural and freeing.

"Where'd you say they had her?" Red Alert asked over the roar of the engine.

"Just a bit over from the communication towers. We should be there soon." Bumblebee said, pointing, "…you called them 'kids' earlier. Are they yours?"

"Technically. We adopted them, but not legally. Shouldn't expect that from a pirate though, should you? Nobot else wanted them anyways. The jettwins we actually saved after a refinery accident. That's why they are jets. We reconfigured them." Red Alert said quickly, "Twins are the best soldiers you can have. They are efficient because they have to take care of each other. It gives them more of a personal commitment to the cause."

"'We'? Your sparkmate, then?" Bumblebee asked with a sly grin.

Red Alert glared. "No. Just a good friend and one of the greatest scientists I know. Nothing more."

"So you don't have somebot special…"

"You know what? You talk entirely way too much." She snapped, faceplate burning her nominal color.

Bumblebee almost laughed, but stopped. This was serious. It wasn't something he could just joke around with. He was so used to being immature and fun that he almost forgot what it was like to be concentrated on something like this. To have someone's life resting on your actions. Actually, he had never had something like that happen to him before. What if he was going about it all the wrong way? He couldn't ask Red Alert. Not only was she already ticked at him, but she probably didn't have the right answer. She was only 'rescuing' Sari to get her key. She could care less if the girl survived.

He began to recognize the way to the compound. It should be in view by now at this height. He peered around, searching for the outline of the building he had been held captive in. There! Out in the distance, gradually coming closer, was the compound.

And it was surrounded by flames.

Bumblebee's spark lurched. On fire? Why was it on fire? The government took care of it, right? They wouldn't set it on fire. And the only enemies he knew of that they had were the pirates, and he was with them now. `Bots went offline in fires all the time, and they had armor plating to protect them. He wondered how long it took humans to burn…He shook his head, ridding his processor of the thought. There was no reason to believe that that had happened. Yet.

"What in the pits…" Red Alert murmured as they neared in.

"What's going on?" Bumblebee asked, his voice cracking. He felt like crying. He felt like he had failed.

"No idea. But I do know that buildings don't just spontaneously combust." She said flatly, "We'll need to take a quicker look to…"

A static noise and then Bumblebee's commlink activated, a mildly accented voice filling his audio receptors. "Big ship is to be leaving, Red Alert."

He turned, trying to find out what they were talking about. Over to his right a large and rather menacing looking vessel was lifting from the docking yard connected to the compound. They were evacuating, it seemed. Too cowardly to face their problems or to try to extinguish the fire. So this is what their government had become.

"Slaggit! The Nemesis is already taking off! They probably have her in it too!" Red Alert cursed. "We came a cycle too late…"

Too late. They were too late. Too late for Sari. Too late for the key. Too late. Bumblebee stared down at his servos, not sure what to think. Why had he listened to her and left her here? He should've refused to leave. He would have been more help to her then than now.

A bright flash of metal on one of the compound's many towers caught his attention, and he absently looked up at it. Appearing from the backdrop of the flames was a large dark figure. He could see something that looked like gunshots repelling off of its chassis. And on top of it was a smaller figure. One that he thought was familiar.

"Sari!" He cried, leaning forward so far that he almost fell out of the aircraft, "There's Sari! Right there!"

"Hm? What are you talking about, motormouth?" Red Alert asked. She must not have heard him correctly over the noise.

He pointed drastically to the spot on the tower. "Sari! I can see her! She's not on the ship!"

"Huh?" She looked where he indicated, "Wow. She's really holding on there, isn't she? And she'll have to have that key on her."

"We've got to go get her!"

"We're on it." She tapped the side of her helmet, "Sunny, Sides, we need cover from those guns: commence operation 'Mess with the Medic'. Jetfire, Jetstorm, you're on the Nemesis. Make sure it doesn't leave the airspace quite yet. As for the rest of you, you're on our tailgates. It's time to go in."

The aircraft took a sharp dive down and dramatically increased its speed, heading straight for the tower where Sari was. The air around them grew hotter as they got closer, heated up by the raging fires. Bumblebee could feel his coolant cooling down his internal parts, and possibly running because of his nerves. They had to get this right. It was his last chance to get Sari back. He really couldn't screw it up this time.

The sight in front of him blurred because of the temperature, but now that they were mechanometers away he could see better what was happening. Autotroopers were everywhere, shooting at a giant `bot with the strangest alt mode he had ever seen. They were driven back a considerable distance from their target, though, by spews of flames blasting from the `bot's open jaws; the obvious source of all this fire damage. Sari was on top of his head, gripping onto it for her life. They had to hurry before one of the autotroopers accidentally shot her or she fell into the blaze.

"Sari!!" He shouted.

The wind whipping at her pigtails, she looked up at the sound of his voice. Her eyes were wide in terror and she reached out her arm toward him. They flew in, Bumblebee prepared to retrieve her from the fiery backdrop. But just when they were about to make contact, the `bot she was propped on staggered back, a giant hole gaping in its chestplate. The autotroopers had brought out the larger artillery. Sari screamed as it toppled over, taking her along with it.

"Red Alert! We're going to have to circle around and try again!" Bumblebee cried, making sure to keep his viz scanners on where Sari landed.

"I know! I'm not stupid!"

The aircraft swerved around, sending up a flare of flames with the acceleration. Red Alert held the controls in a death clutch, making just the correct movements to avoid the fire and maneuver where they needed to go. She really was an experienced pilot, probably with several stellar cycles of experience in stressful situations. Pirate or not, Bumblebee was glad to have her help. Even if she was just in on it for the key.

They flew lower, aiming in for Sari, who was hugging herself around the neck of the fallen `bot. Bumblebee wasn't sure if they were close enough. Only one way to be certain. Without even thinking of what could possibly go wrong with such a reckless move, he jumped back, his stabilizing servos catching the side of the aircraft and securing a foothold. He could hear Red Alert shouting at him as he extended his servos. Yeah, he already knew this was suicidal. He didn't need the pirate to tell him.

He was barely a mechanometer away. He could practically feel the tension rising. Feel his stabilizing servos start to slip from their notch. This had to be perfect. C'mon! C'mon!

"SARI!!"

She turned just in time, releasing her hold of the `bot. His servos enfolded her and he quickly leaned back, right when the aircraft soared upward. The combined momentum sent him backwards, hitting the back of his head sharply next to the controls of the ship. He let out small moan, but more of in relief than pain. He didn't have to worry as much anymore.

They had done it.

He raised his servos up and opened them. Instantly Sari burst out, grabbing his chestplate in a tight squeeze. She was leaking hysterically, body racking after each deep sob. It sounded like she was saying something, but it was all mumbled together by the grief-stricken cries. Bumblebee gently pressed his fingers against her, reassuring her that everything was alright. He even forced himself not to wince as the water ran down his armor. He was too concerned to let something like that bother him.

"She's in shock." Red Alert informed as they veered away from the compound, the temperature cooling the father out they got. The rest of the crew was soon behind her, the whole campaign being completed. He thought he could hear two of the pairs arguing over who had done a better job, but didn't pay too much attention to it. Sari was much more important at the moment.

"Will she be okay?" Bumblebee asked.

"Yeah. It'll just take her a nanoclick to realize that it's over."

"…you sure?"

"Believe me, I've seen this countless number of times in my lifetime. Don't even get me started about when the war was happening…"

Bumblebee was about to ask something else when a small voice, barely above a whisper, spoke up.

"…he's dead…"

"What?" Bumblebee looked down at Sari. She was furiously wiping at her eyes, trying to get herself to stop crying. Her breathing was still very irregular, but you could tell she was calming down. She wobbled a little bit on the spot and threw out her arm to keep herself from falling. What was really the strangest thing was that she didn't seem at all disturbed that they were with the pirates.

She was more concerned about what had just taken place.

"The Dinobot…he died…protecting me…" She took a deep breath, as if threatening to lose control of her tears again.

"It's okay, Sari. We don't have to talk about that now." He assured. He could see that this was hurting her, making her leak uncontrollably. He didn't want to keep on seeing her cry.

"…and…a-and…I lost the key…!!"

The aircraft almost came to a complete stop, Red Alert releasing the controls in surprise. "You what!?"

There was an awkward silence. Sari's face crumpled at Red Alert's outburst, and she huddled closer to Bumblebee, as if asking him to protect her. He nodded, letting her know the promise he had made to himself a long time ago: He would always keep her safe. Always.

"It fell…when they shot him…" Sari grabbed vaguely at her neck, as if she could feel it there even though it was gone.

"Slaggit, slaggit, SLAGGIT!" Red Alert screamed, slamming a fist down on the side of the ship. "Of course! Of course this would happen! Even with something as fool-proof as this it doesn't work!"

"B-But…" She took another breath, this time seeming to regain all composure, "I saw where the light was pointing from it. I remember the direction."

"What are you talking about?" Bumblebee asked, severely confused.

"My key. I said one of the spells Tutor Bot had taught to me, and it got all crazy. This beam of light came out, and Blackarachnia said that it was showing the way to the Omega Supreme." Sari explained, "…that was right before the Dinobot woke back up to save me…"

"No way! The Omega Supreme?" He repeated, "That's really what this thing has been about this whole time?"

He looked at Sari and Red Alert, who both nodded, the latter very sarcastically as if he should've known about this a long time ago. He couldn't believe it! This was the ship he had been searching for for more than half of his life, and the secret to finding it had literally fallen to him out of the sky! This was so unreal. And yet it made sense! This had to be the reason that he was so inexplicably attracted to Sari, that he felt like he had to protect her.

The thought that the reason he became fast friends with her was based on something so materialistic made him feel a bit uneasy, though.

No. No that couldn't be it. Her being connected to the Omega Supreme was just a coincidence. His friendship and dedication to her was something completely different. Something more special.

"Wow, Sari! It looks like you really can help me find it!" He exclaimed.

"Yeah, you're right." Sari gave a small smile, the first sign of happiness since they had found her. In fact, even her complexion was looking incredibly better, reflecting the usual cheery disposition she had.

"Oh, no you two don't." Red Alert scowled, "You've got to tell me that information too. I was the one who risked my life and my family's life for you."

"Okay." Sari shrugged, "We can't get there anyways. We don't have any way to fly…"

Bumblebee suddenly had an idea. It was a little crazy, but it just might work. Slag, crazier things had worked for him in the past. Sari must've shared his brainwaves, because they looked at each other knowingly at the same time. Then they quickly turned back at Red Alert, armed with mischievous grins.

Red Alert sighed. "I have a bad feeling about this…"

---

Sari held onto the stairs, her knuckles white, as she continued up to the observation deck. The Ark was a lot smaller than the ship she had been on when she had fallen to Iacon, and it made moving about a bigger hazard. Every time it accelerated she would have to find something to hang onto, the force threatening to throw her off. She had to admit, though, for being homemade it wasn't that bad. Wheeljack had done a really good job. But for someone of her size it was a nightmare climbing these slick stairs, each rung seeming to take her farther out of her comfort zone. What if the next move she made was her last?

She sighed as she reached the top, dropping down into the close area surrounded by higher walls. Her heart rate decreased significantly, the color returning to her hands. It would be harder for her to go flying off into the unknown regions of space with barriers like this. They were way taller than her, and it would take a big sudden stop to fling her out. The suspense had been lifted.

"What are you doing here?" It was Bumblebee. He was sitting on the opposite side, staring at her in amazement, "How did you even get up here?"

"I followed you." She replied simply, walking over and plopping down next to him.

"Up the stairs!?" He gawked, "You could've fallen off!"

"'It's nice to see you', too." Sari made a face.

"Sorry. It's not that I don't want you to be here...but won't Red Alert be upset? She wanted you to stay in her room-er…'cabin'."

"She'll get over it. She's not as mean as she makes herself out to be anyways." She explained, "I think she's trying too hard to keep up that 'pirate' image of hers."

"Can they even really even be called pirates?"

"I don't know. As far as I can tell, it's more like a buncha kids and two scientists on a ship. Nothing real evil like Blackbeard or Davy Jones."

"…who?"

"Never mind." She rolled her eyes. She hated how no one understood her Earth knowledge out here. Anytime she made a reference native to her planet all she got from the `bots around her were looks of utmost confusions. If she never got back home, would anyone really understand her ever again?

"Have they been bothering you again?" Bumblebee asked offhandedly. She could tell he was far more interested in this subject than he let on.

He was talking about the kids. All of the twins on the ship had been paying a lot of attention to her. At first they had wanted nothing to do with her, the usual organic reaction. But after she got some of them to talk to her, get to know her, they had become far more amicable. Almost too amicable. Sari didn't mind that much, though. It was better to suddenly have a lot of real friends than barely any.

The jettwins, Jetfire and Jetstorm, seemed shyer than the others, Jetstorm doing most of the talking for the two of them. She liked listening to them; their accents reminded her of people from Russia. Sunstreaker and Sideswipe were different. When they talked, they liked to talk about themselves more than anything else. And they had a lot about themselves to talk about. She wasn't sure about Natron, though. Freezon would always drag him off before they could talk, the male twin fighting against the female one. Sari figured that Freezon was trying to do her a favor and get rid of at least one of her new fawning 'friends'.

Funny, though, since Sari actually liked all of this attention.

"Oh no, they don't bother me." She insisted. "I think it's cute."

"Cute?"

"Yeah. Cute." Sari repeated, "Why? Jealous?"

"Jealous? Me? No." He turned his head, apparently doing his job of being the look-out, but Sari could still see his blush.

Personally, Sari didn't understand why there had to be a look-out in the first place. The Ark had a system that could check the surrounding area for energy signals and such, but Wheeljack said that it was 'slow and ineffective'. Apparently there was a couple cycles of a lag between when the signal was identified until when it was displayed on the screen. It was easier and more accurate to have someone watching around for oncoming ships and planets. And since no one else wanted to be up so high on the observatory deck in the chill of space, Bumblebee, as the newcomer, was appointed to this job.

Sari rubbed her hands up and down her arms. The others were right. It was really cold. She looked up at the universe around her. The countless number of stars. The distant glow of planets and solar systems. So amazing and intricate, and yet at the same time so strange and unfamiliar. Looking at it reminded her of how far away from home she was. Made her think of her dad. Tutor Bot. The Dinobot. Uncomfortable feelings rose up, and she knew that she couldn't ignore them.

"Hey, Bumblebee…I actually wanted to talk to you about something…" She said slowly.

"Okay. About what?"

She took a deep breath. "I don't know if I really want to find the Omega Supreme."

She paused, waiting for the fireworks to explode. The Omega Supreme was really important to Bumblebee. She knew he wouldn't understand. But instead of getting angry, he just looked at her with a worried expression. He was still concerned about her.

"What?" He asked, "But you said…"

"I know, I know. But…I was thinking about what happened before, and I thought-"

"It's the Dinobot, isn't it?"

She nodded. "He's gone now, because of me. What happens if anyone else dies? And that spell…Tutor Bot taught me all kinds of ones like it…some of them were really scary-sounding too. Especially the spell of destruction. I was told never to use that one…but I thought they were just sayings. I don't want them to actually work!" She fought back the oncoming tears, "Darn, I wish I had never been given that stupid key!!"

She came to this conclusion rather quickly. Without the key she would've never have left home. She would've stayed on Earth, in Detroit, with Tutor Bot. Maybe even her dad would still be alive! The Dinobot wouldn't have been killed and she wouldn't have put anyone, including herself, in danger. She remembered a time when she thought her life was boring. Being homeschooled by a robot and staying in a tower all day with no friends wasn't exactly something every kid wanted. But now she knew that she would give anything to have that same life again.

Bumblebee frowned, looking down at his fingers, which were fiddling with each other solemnly. "Without that key…I would've never met you."

Sari stiffened. No, she hadn't thought about it like that. She hadn't meant it in that way. Of course, she was so grateful that she had met Bumblebee. He was her first friend, the first person to ever really care about her without a reason. To risk his life for her. She fumbled with the sleeves of her dress. How could she have just gone and hurt him like that? She knew that he was in pain. He couldn't even bring himself to look at her.

"Bumblebee…I'm so sorry, I didn't even…You know that I…" Sari couldn't think of words to say to make up for her mistake. Nothing she came up with was good enough. She had messed up their friendship. Things between her and him would never be the same.

But Bumblebee did something extraordinary. He smiled.

"Don't be so hard on yourself." He said, "This only shows why we have to go to the Omega Supreme. What if it is dangerous, like your spells say? Well, that just means that Blackarachnia is going to get a hold of it, and we can't let that happen."

"B-But…"

"Besides, even if we were to just ignore this, they would come and find us. We know too much." He reasoned.

"I still wish we could." Sari mumbled. Go into hiding. Start over again without the dread hanging over them like a cloud. But Bumblebee was right. Blackarachnia would go after them. Nothing in her life was that easy. She should know that by now.

"Look, I've got a deal for you." Bumblebee began, "Once we find the Omega Supreme and stop Blackarachnia, we'll go back to Earth."

This took her by surprise. "What?"

"I want to see your home. The tower. The city. The robotics your dad used to make. Everything. Even that yucky organic stuff." He grinned playfully. "And, most importantly, I want to see you happy."

Sari's heart soared. Bumblebee would really do that for her? He would give up his normal life back on Iacon to appease her wants? Her desires? Sure, he had said before that he had never been one for the mining job, but that was still a big sacrifice. So many things would change for him. But he didn't care. He only cared about her.

"Oh Bumblebee!" She wrapped her arms around his waist, the only part she could reach, and hugged him. "Thank you!"

She finally understood: This was what it was like to have a real friend.

"Hey, no probl-" He stopped, suddenly leaning over one of the barriers, almost taking Sari with him, "Whoa, what's that!?"

She tried to see what he was talking about, but found it impossible with the height of the walls. Even with standing on her tip-toes her forehead didn't reach the edge. It would be too risky to prop herself up on top, so she had nothing else to do. Whatever this was, though, it was important. Bumblebee sounded really worried.

"What? What do you see?" She asked.

"The Nemesis!" He announced, "It's coming up to our left! I gotta tell Red Alert." He pressed a finger to the side of his head, "Hey! I see the Nemesis to our portside…er…starboard…one of those two! Just look out the window, you'll find it! And…and there's this strange cloud a bit past them…I don't know!! Just look, it's out there!" He winced as if someone had shouted in his ear, "Yes, captain."

"What did she say?" She asked as Bumblebee tended to his sore ear, if you could call it an 'ear'. She didn't understand how they could talk like that. Something like a phone built into their bodies that worked when they put their fingers next to their heads. She wished she could do cool stuff like that too.

"We're supposed to launch some kind of 'look-out pod' or something. There's a button we have to press to get it to work." He explained, "At least, I'm supposed to. I think she may know you're up here, but she didn't say anything about it. Still, if you want to go…"

"No." Sari said firmly, "Wherever you're going, I'm going."

Bumblebee laughed. "I knew you were going to say that. Okay, the button should be down over there. Could you get it for me?"

"Sure thing." She scrambled over to a small control panel on the other side of the deck. There was an array of buttons, and she was momentarily overwhelmed with the choices. Which one was the one Bumblebee was talking about? Well, she just had to pick one and see what would happen. There was a big red one off to the side, and she pressed her hand onto it.

The floor under her shook, accompanied by the 'whirrs' and 'clicks' of rotating gears. Sari had to step out of the way in order not to fall in all of the movement. By the time it was done, a majority of the observation deck had been transformed into a small ship, the kind that was completely covered, unlike the other airships that the Red Alert gang used. Typical for a Cybertronian to make something that transformed itself. There were tinted windows to look out of and a door that could latch from the inside.

They went in, Bumblebee lifting Sari up and setting her on his lap. They fit with just barely enough room to not make it so claustrophobic. Sari didn't even want to imagine what it would be like for a larger `bot to be manning this vehicle. She wasn't sure she would even be able to breathe with that much space. Bumblebee shut the door, locked it, then looked at the computer screen in front of him.

"Okay…I read about how to do this before…" He murmured.

Warily, he took hold of the controls that were made to look like a steering wheel and pressed a combination of buttons. The ship shuddered as it practically jumped up, catching the two of them by surprise. Sari grabbed onto Bumblebee's knee in shock, but quickly let go. She was rather accustomed to being in the air at this point, but the initial butterflies that rose in her stomach still felt unfamiliar. The lights blinking all over the screen danced across her face in a mesmerizing display of colors.

They lurched forward, heading for the Nemesis, which Sari could now plainly see. She shuddered at its dark, intimidating form. It was travelling the same course that the Ark was, since they got their directions from the same source, just at a dramatically different speed. The government ship would definitely reach the destination before the pirate one. Unless, of course, this ominous cloud ahead of them meant anything.

"What's that, Bumblebee?" She asked gesturing to the cloud.

"Dunno for sure…" He admitted, "This may be a stretch, but my dad did go through a magnetic storm before seeing the Omega Supreme, and those have clouds just like that…"

She didn't think that was a stretch at all. Considering that's where they were all going to, it made sense that it would be here. It also made her very excited and frightened at the same time. Even though Bumblebee had made her feel a bit more comfortable about going to the fabled ship, she still had bad feelings about what would happen there.

The small pod whirled to the right suddenly, a deafening roar following it.

"Bumblebee!?" Sari cried.

"I don't know! I don't know!" He replied, his hands tightly around the steering wheel. "Something just flew by us!"

Natron's voice filled the interior, activated by some sort of radio. "The Nemesis has spotted us! That means yous too! Take co'er! Captain's order!"

Another sudden jerk, this time to the left. Sari peered over and could see, even from this distance, the turrets on the Nemesis aiming toward them. They were like sitting ducks, no possible way to fight back. The Ark had some ammunition, but nothing much. As for Bumblebee and herself, they could easily be shot down. She hoped that their small stature would make them a harder target to hit.

"We're going in." Bumblebee announced, increasing the speed.

"Where!?"

"The cloud. It's the only 'co'er' we've got." He informed.

"Can we make it?" She said quietly.

"We'll have to try."

Stars passed by faster than before, the cloud growing larger as they approached. Sari became dizzy at the motion, not helped at all by the size of the pod. Everything outside of the window was a smudge, the only time she could distinguish anything was when they entered the cloud. And that was because it became distinctly hazier and the bright lights of the stars disappeared. She was forced into the corner by the momentum, and she covered the back of her head for protection.

Something rammed into their rear. Sari shrieked as they went spiraling forward, her vision melting into a cold, tilting blackness.

---

Bumblebee rubbed her fingers over the metal, over the inscription. Then again. And again. Each touch made his surroundings more real, made everything come into focus. Still, it was hard for him to accept this. Accept what he had been waiting for for so long. He wondered whether it was his processor playing tricks on him or not.

"We did it, Bumblebee…" Sari whispered excitedly, "We made it."

Yes. Yes they did. He read the inscription under him for what seemed to be the millionth time, but the effect was the same as when he had read it the first.

The Omega Supreme.

He got to his stabilizing servos slowly, not taking his viz scanners off of those precious words. He was on the Omega Supreme. He was standing on the Omega Supreme. Though, how he was standing was very odd. It felt like there was some sort of artificial gravity. He finally had the sense to look around. To see what the rest of the ship, not just this little portion of it, looked like. He shook his head, trying to rid himself of the grogginess from the crash that had led them here. And completely demolished the pod. Hopefully Red Alert wouldn't be too upset about that. He knew Wheeljack wouldn't. He would be happy to make a new and better version of it. After a few unintended explosions, that is.

Bumblebee gasped as he took in the sight around him. It was like the holo-scan his dad had taken had come to life. The giant ship was as big as he said it was, the end of it hidden from this distance. And on top was an old-looking castle. It had an odd nostalgic beauty about it, as if beckoning to be entered. He couldn't hold in his excitement and just stay still any longer. This was what he had wanted to do for stellar cycles.

"C'mon! Let's go!" He cried happily.

Grabbing Sari he ran up towards the castle, the two of them laughing the whole way. He practically skipped over to it, twirling around at least once, lifting Sari into the air. There was a strange sense of joy and elation coursing through him, almost like the ship was sending off these feelings to everybot who came across it. He sure knew that his dad had been happy when he had found it. Until everybot mocked him, that is.

On his first step into the castle he knew something was different. Instead of the cold metallic surface under him, he felt a strange, soft, wet…thing. He involuntarily shivered, and looked down to inspect this…whatever it was. As he did, Sari climbed down to the ground, Bumblebee too absorbed in what was on the floor to really notice.

Little green pieces of this stuff were all over, clumped up in giant patches. Where the green wasn't at there was this dusty brown substance. It reminded Bumblebee a bit of the rocks at Iacon. The make-up of an asteroid. As he continued to look around, he saw that there was green everywhere. Green growing from tall brown poles. Green hanging from the top. Green shoots coming out of the green ground. Sometimes it wasn't just green, but other colors too. Blues, pinks, purples, and yellows were scattered about. He couldn't tell whether he was fascinated by it all or horrified.

"Wow! It's just like a nature preserve!" Sari exclaimed, running about from each of the different colored…things, "I've never seen this kind of flower before!"

"Oh…" Bumblebee said, slightly disappointed, "This is organic."

Sari shot him a look. "And what's wrong with that?"

"Nothing! Nothing!" He insisted, trying to make up for his blunder, "So…is this what Detroit is like?"

"Not really." Sari giggled, "We've cut down most of the trees and cleared out a lot of grass. The only places you can find plants like this is in the park and the forest outside of the city."

Bumblebee nodded, even though he barely understood a word of what she said. Earth had so many weird words and concepts that he couldn't wrap his processor around most of the time. Maybe once they got there he could get her to teach him everything about it. And maybe then he wouldn't be so disgusted by all of these organic 'plants'. There was something sort of pretty about them, but the fact that they were organic turned him off. He would have to get used to that soon so that he wouldn't keep insulting Sari on accident.

"How did they get here?" He asked.

"I dunno…what I'm wondering is how they breathe up here." She muttered, "Then again, I've been able to breathe this whole time…"

"…breathe?"

"Well, it's sorta like…" She stopped, her attention caught by something beyond them, "Oh! A Dinobot!"

Bumblebee turned to see what she was referring to. The `bot approaching them did have a strange-looking alt mode, that was for sure. But he couldn't see any resemblance to the giant monstrous `bot that had destroyed the government compound a few solar cycles ago. This one was short and stout, with a helmet that fanned out kind of like Red Alert's and three pointed horns, one on its olfactory sensor and the other two above his viz scanners. No elongated neck. No small servos. No teeth. No fire.

"A Dinobot? You sure?" He asked skeptically.

"Duh. It looks like a dinosaur." She explained, much to Bumblebee's confusion.

The so-called 'Dinobot' walked up to Sari. A little too close if you asked Bumblebee. He tensed, waiting for the moment when he would have to lunge forward and fight. The Dinobot sniffed her, looked her over, then gave a small approving grunt. Bumblebee loosened a bit, but didn't let that make him too unprepared for what might happen. Sari carefully reached out and patted it on its snout. This brought more happy grunts, and the Dinobot shook his tail back and forth.

"His name's Snarl and he's the guardian of the garden." She said.

"How do you know that?"

"It's weird…but I just know. It's like he's talking to me." She answered. "I can hear him when I touch him."

"Yeah, that is weird. In a cool way, though."

"Everyone who lived on this ship died…" Sari said softly, "The ones that stayed. Some came to live on different planets though. This garden is in their memories."

Bumblebee looked around at all of the organic plants with a newfound respect. This wasn't just some tacky display of green and such. It was a memorial for `bots. For the `bots that had created the Omega Supreme and also apparently had an interest in organics. This was a castle that should be treated with the utmost reverence. He checked the area around his stabilizing servos, making sure that he wasn't accidentally stepping on any of the plants. The green that was over the ground was okay to step on, since Sari and Snarl did it and didn't act like they did something wrong.

A deep rumble followed by the sound of an explosion. Snarl jerked over, letting out a shrill growl, almost hitting Sari in the act. The blast came from somewhere to their left, outside of the castle. A window was cut out near the source, and Bumblebee ran over to it. It was low enough for Sari to climb onto and look as well. Snarl didn't follow, just pacing around in anger and bewilderment.

Below the deck where the castle was was a docking area, and in the docking area were both the Nemesis and the Ark, the latter in worse shape than the former. A multitude of autotroopers were storming into an entrance they had just created with the explosives, the proof still evident by the smoke pouring out of the poorly made hole. They were armed to the teeth, like this was some sort of invasion. Maybe they thought they would be met with a resistance of the ship's citizens. Well, they were wrong. They would be met by Sari and him.

"Look! There's Red Alert and the others!" Sari cried, pointing. The whole crew was lined up on the side of the deck, stasis cuffs around their wrists. "What will they do to them!?"

"Send them to the stockades." And then execute them, but Bumblebee left that part out. He didn't like the thought of seeing any of the twins or Red Alert or Wheeljack offline, and he knew it wouldn't help Sari at all.

"We have to save them!"

"Yeah." He replied, suddenly struck with an idea, "And we'll need your key to do it."

"What?"

"Your key has a power over the ship. Maybe it could help get rid of all the autotroopers and stuff."

"Okay…but how are we going to do that?"

"How am I supposed to know?" Bumblebee asked, "I'm making this up as I go!"

Snarl snorted, motioning with his head. At first Bumblebee thought he was mocking him, but then saw that he was showing them something.

Sari translated. "There's stairs leading over there this way. If we go from the bottom up they won't see us."

"Got it." He nodded.

They headed over to the stairs, which were almost hidden by a mass of plants. Sari gave Snarl one last pat, much to the Dinobot's pleasure. Then, slinking behind the plants, they started down the narrow winding passage. The steps were really small, and Bumblebee made sure that Sari stayed behind him in case he lost his balance. Several times he almost tripped, leading himself to lean slightly against the wall for support. His stabilizing servos usually held up better, but in this confined space they were like an accident waiting to happen.

When they were finally out, they were faced with two walkways. Bumblebee quickly turned to the left, knowing that was where the docking area was. Also, because, he knew if he stood there looking at his options he would begin to second-guess himself about how sure he was about his directions. Okay. They were almost there. Bumblebee figured that they would release the pirates, use them as a distraction, swipe the key from Blackarachnia, then insert it somewhere in the ship to make it work. Fairly simple.

The plan became more complicated when part of the walkway ahead of them was missing. Rust and other factors seemed to have eaten away at it.

"Whoa!" He cried, taking a step back. He had been a nanoclick away from falling straight through. "Roadblock! Be careful!"

As far as he could tell there was no other way to get to the docking area. In fact, he could even see part of their destination at the end of the new set of stairs that the walkway led to. He frowned, trying to think of how he could get around, or in this case over, this obstacle. They didn't have time to go back up the stairs and through the garden, and even then they would lose their advantage of coming from below.

"I'm going to jump it." He thought aloud.

"What?" Sari asked.

"Stay here. I'll see if I can jump across, get the pirates, then meet you back here." He elaborated.

"And if you can't jump across?"

"Well…" He gave a half-smile, "That'll be a pretty long drop."

"But you will make it, right?" Her pupils wavered, her skin pale with worry.

He couldn't say 'no'. Not to her. He had to keep her spirits up. Besides, he didn't really want the outcome of this jump to be a 'no' either. He didn't want to have come this far, all the way to his dreams, just to go offline in a stupid stunt.

"Of course." He replied simply. Sari nodded, giving her consent.

He set his sights on the other side of the walkway. It was maybe a mechanometer's distance away, if not shorter. Still, he didn't want to undershoot the length. One mistake here could be his last. No, would be his last. He had heard terrible stories about `bots who went offline drifting about in space.

With a yell he ran forward, not launching off the edge until the last possible moment. He hung in the air for what seemed to be an eternity, his chassis threatening to plunge into the expanse he was trying to clear. For a nanoclick he thought this was it. He had miscalculated. Sari would be left all alone to navigate through the Omega Supreme, and probably get killed by Blackarachnia or one of her cohorts.

That being said, it was a bit shocking when he collided into the other side of the walkway. His shoulder hit part of the stairs it was connected to, and he rolled over, groaning. That could've been a smoother landing. But he was online, and that's what was important. A cool, refreshing calm swept over him as he propped himself up on the railing. He had made it. One more step in his spontaneously-formed plan.

Then Sari screamed.

Bumblebee whirled around at the sound, his circuits running cold. What was that? A shot struck him in the faceplate, sending him backwards. The energon leaked out abundantly as he tried to get back up, almost blinding his left viz scanner. He had to get back up! Another shot, this time missing him, but only by a hair. Nevertheless, it brought him back to the ground simply by startling him. He struggled to reclaim his bearings, both mentally and physically. Everything was happening so quickly and he couldn't get a firm grasp of reality.

He got back on his stabilizing servos just in time to see Blackarachnia closing a previously unseen door behind her, the entrance melting back into the wall.

With Sari in tow.

---

"Let me go, you creep!" Sari cried, squirming about in the sticky web about her.

"Quiet." Blackarachnia barked, "Nobot can hear you here anyways."

She considered testing this theory by screaming at the top of her lungs, but thought better of it. Even if anyone could hear her, they wouldn't be able to find her fast enough. The door that they had used to get into this part of the ship had been created by the key, and it had disappeared the same way. Blackarachnia seemed to know a lot more about this ship and the key than she let on.

Bumblebee would be looking for her. That is, if that shot hadn't scared him off. She would be scared of that. She was still a little wary of the blaster that had fired the ammo, which remained in Blackarachnia's other servo. But the techno-organic hadn't shown any reason to use it on her. For the time being, that is. She kind of hoped that Bumblebee had been scared, that he would go away and save himself. But she also wanted him to care for her, to come to her rescue like a knight in shining armor. Literally, since he had a lot of armor.

They turned at the corner, continuing down the dark hallway. There were very few light fixtures, making visibility nearly nonexistent. Sari wondered how long it had been since a Cybertronian had walked through here. For sure this had to be the first time an organic had. Well, not that she was technically 'walking', but being held up by Blackarachnia's webbing had to count for something.

"Here it is." Blackarachnia announced as they entered a small room, "The engine. Just like the legend said…"

"Oh wow. You found some boring room. Big whoop." Sari rolled her eyes, "Lemme guess…the key told you where it was?"

Blackarachnia didn't reply, instead choosing to throw Sari to the ground in contempt. She landed with a dull 'thud', barely missing cracking her head on the hard metal. She managed to prop herself upright with her feet, and then proceeded to work on releasing her restraints. If she wriggled enough, she should be able to get out. Blackarachnia wouldn't notice. She was too caught up in this 'engine', which looked like a Star Trek-esque transporter. It was closed at the moment, and Sari was sure whatever was in it was what Blackarachnia was after.

She began to shimmy in place, feeling the web start to turn slack. During all of this she made sure to keep an eye on Blackarachnia. If the techno-organic was ever to turn back and look Sari would have to feign stillness, or else ruin all chances of escape. Maybe then the blaster would be used. She didn't want to think about that.

As the web grew more and more loose, her captor inserted the key into a computer panel next to the tube-transporter-thing. It opened, revealing an almost blinding light. Sari forced her eyes shot, taken aback at the sudden brightness. Once they adjusted to the intensity, she could identify what was inside of the engine. Or, at least, take a guess at it.

It was some strange yellow case, covered with alien markings. In between of the spaces within it was this blue glowing substance. Something like a combination of crystal and glass. Whatever it was, Sari knew it was important. She wasn't sure how she did. It was a gut feeling, like how she could understand Snarl.

"There it is…" Blackarachnia said in a hushed tone of awe, "The Allspark…"

Some roots fell down from the ceiling, hitting her on top of her helmet and effectively distracting her. Sari hadn't noticed the before. Now that she was looking, she could see all kinds of them scattered about, some almost reaching the floor. They must've been from the garden above them, the bottom of those magnificent trees. Blackarachnia snarled, wiping them off in disgust.

"Utter defilement." She growled, "I'll get rid of these as soon as my organic half is finally gone…"

"How do you know so much about the Omega Supreme?" Sari asked, buying time. The web had fallen down to her hips, and with her arms free she could do a considerable amount more. Only a few more seconds and she'd be completely out. She needed her captor occupied during this time.

Not even looking away from the glowing Allspark, Blackarachnia answered her. "All techno-organics came from here. The legends about it were passed down in my family. We were the result of an experiment on this power. The idiots here valued organic life forms more than their own kind and created a new species. They could've achieved so much more if they had focused on the energy that kept this ship flying!"

"Oh, what a shame." There! She slipped the webs off her heels and slowly rose, making as little noise as possible. She didn't need Blackarachnia to rebind her now.

"I wouldn't expect you to understand. You were raised in their culture. Corrupted." She sighed, setting the key down on the computer panel and reloading her blaster, "Well, it's time to dispose of the extras. Nobot will miss a few autotroopers, convicted pirates, and one little pest."

No! Not the Red Alert gang and Bumblebee! She could've run away right then and there. Out the hallway, finding a new way to the docking bay and then hitching a ride out. But even then there was no way to say that she would save any life other than her own. And living knowing that she had left these `bots to die wouldn't really be living at all. She would have willingly killed her new friends, her new family, because she was a cowardly little girl. Because she was scared more for herself than others.

She wouldn't let that happen.

Her feet started to move before her brain could process what she was doing. A plan? She had no plan. She was acting on instinct, on natural reflexes. Her hands reached out, fingers curling around the strap of the key. She got a good hold of it just as one of Blackarachnia's limbs smacked into her, flinging her across the floor. There was a burning sensation on her elbow as it scraped against the ground, the skin tearing off on the spot. But she didn't release her grip on the one thing she knew, or at least hoped, would help her and her friends. She had seen what the key could do on this ship. It should be able to do the same to help them.

She clambered up quickly, knowing that she couldn't waste any time. Blackarachnia would shortly be after her, with the advantage in the chase since she could cover more ground faster. She gritted her teeth, a wave of pain shuddering through her, emanating from the injured elbow. Sari told herself she had to ignore it. She had to run, to get the key out of here. But she couldn't. The pain was overwhelming her senses. She had never been hurt like this before. Growing up so sheltered only permitted bruises and small scratches at home. She had never been open to situations that would result in this way. Dad hadn't allowed it.

Sari gave into the throbbing. She looked down to assess the damage.

When she did, she gasped.

Where flesh should be there was a newly exposed patch of sparking circuitry. She stared at it in horror.

"That's right, Sari." Blackarachnia sneered, "You're from the Omega Supreme too."

---

"Guys…psst! Hey, guys!" Bumblebee whispered. He kept his head below the top of the stairs, so that only those near the edge of the docking bay (i.e. the pirates) could see him. There weren't a ton of autotroopers watching the area, but still enough to possibly ruin his plan.

Sideswipe looked around until he caught sight of him. "Hey, look its Bumble-" He started to scream, but was quickly shushed by everybot around him. Bumblebee wouldn't have been surprised if Sunstreaker had mentally kicked him in the faceplate. Twins were supposed to be able to convey feelings like that.

"D'yah reelly wanna tell all `em troopers an get `im `n these spark-fersaken cuffs too?" Freezon hissed.

"Sorry!"

"What are you doing here?" Red Alert whispered.

"Getting you out." Bumblebee replied. He activated his stingers, applying small jolts of electricity into each pair of stasis cuffs. One by one they fell off, leaving the pirates' wrists free. "You all have to take the Ark and fly out of here. I…I have a feeling that nothing good's gonna happen."

"And I have a feeling you are going to be the cause of that." She retorted.

He didn't reply, continuing to release the rest of the cuffs. She was absolutely right, but he didn't want her to know that. He didn't want her to leave feeling guilty. Didn't want anybot to make him reconsider what he knew had to be done. He already was having enough trouble keeping himself from turning tail and running away. But this was more than just about saving Sari now. It was about stopping Blackarachnia from hurting others with this power. The sudden stress made the cut under his viz scanner start to bleed again.

Once they were all free, they remained in their sitting positions, as if the cuffs weren't lying disabled next to them. The autotroopers wandered seemingly aimlessly about. They probably could care less if the pirates were out. It might put more excitement into their lives. Bumblebee knew that's how he had felt when Sari had come.

"Okay. Now go to safety. Don't wait for me or Sari." He ordered.

"So what? We just leave? Without even putting up a fight?" Sunstreaker asked, cracking his knuckles, "We can take these glitchheads. Easily. Or my name isn't Sunstreaker. Which it is."

Bumblebee ignored this. "Wheeljack, I need you to upgrade my stingers to battle grade."

"Uh…well, sure…but I don't have anything to do it with…" The scientist admitted, raising his empty servos.

"Here. Let me do it." Red Alert sighed, configuring her left servo into some sort of screwdriver, "Never send a mech to do a femme's job."

"Hey! I could've done it if I had the tools!"

"That's why I had mine built-in. So that I wouldn't ever be in a scenario like this without them."

"Okay…point taken…"

She leaned over and started to mess with something on his arm, speaking to him in a low whisper at the same time. "You sure you want to do this, motormouth?"

"I have to." He said softly.

"We don't have to leave, though. We could help."

"Sari won't do it if you're here. Besides…I don't want your family broken because of this."

"You two are a part of our family now."

Bumblebee couldn't help but smile. Red Alert had lost her gruff demeanor, speaking entirely from her spark. He always thought that she really was nice, somewhere deep, deep, down. Why else would she have taken in all of these twins as her own? Her offer was so enticing. A family? He almost forgot what it had felt like, what with his parents long gone. But it was for that very reason that they had to go. Sometimes, some should be sacrificed for the good of others.

"Please. Do this for me. And for Sari." He begged.

"…alright." She withdrew the screwdriver, the work on his stingers complete. He could feel the new burst of power connected to his primary weapons, along with the sad gaze of his captain.

For a moment it was quiet. The autotroopers had meandered back to the Nemesis, most likely out of boredom, and everybot stood up. There was no verbal exchange, but Bumblebee understood from their expressions what this was: they were saying good-bye. He held back liquid welling in his viz scanners, wanting to remain strong even now of all times. To distract himself, he brought out his new stingers and shot a lone spark of electricity into the air. Much more potent than the previous model.

"Vat are you to be doing vith those?" Jetstorm asked.

Bumblebee grinned. "I'm going to fry me some spider."

---

Sari raced through the halls with literally no sense of direction. Was she moving to the south of the ship, or the north? East or west? One of those in between ways? And then when you considered the pirate terminology…it was all very jumbled up in her head. What mattered was she was escaping, the key in her possession. She had scarcely been able to dodge the first blast of web that Blackarachnia had shot at her, which had given her the time to run out. The webbing had gotten stuck on something, making it harder for the techno-organic to retrieve it and follow after her.

Not that she could really refer to Blackarachnia as 'the techno-organic' anymore. She was one too.

The whole thing was very bizarre. How could she have lived for eight whole years without knowing this? Had her dad known? Or was he dad a techno-organic too? Tutor Bot had to have known. That's how he knew about the key and the spells connected to the Omega Supreme. But then, why hadn't he told her? Why had he left her live without knowing all this time?

Everything about this was so unbelievable, and her body was not reacting well to it at all. She was breathing so fast that she knew she had to be hyperventilating, and splotches of color had started to appear in front of her eyes. On the other spectrum, her elbow had started to bleed some pink-ish color liquid, and she held her other hand against it to keep it from dripping to the floor. The puddles would make a trail leading right for her.

"Come on, now, Sari. We all know that you won't be able to do anything." Blackarachnia's taunting voice echoed from behind, "You might as well just turn back now."

An intersection up ahead. With only a moment's hesitation she veered to the right, hoping that her pursuer would choose the wrong way. Sweat was practically pouring from her face, her legs shaking and threatening to give out. Why was she suddenly so low on energy? She felt like she could collapse. Fall down and take a nap. She had to keep going, though! The lights flickered over her, guiding her to the end of the corridor.

She stopped in her tracks as she entered a new room. A dead end! She whipped her head around wildly, searching for any sight of a way out. She couldn't go back and try the other side of the intersection; Blackarachnia would be there by now. She was trapped, no chance of getting out of this. She rushed over to the back of the room, holding onto one of the roots coming down. It was almost identical to the engine room, just without the tube and the Allspark. She could try to hide herself in the plants…but if she was a techno-organic, then Blackarachnia might be able to pick up the energy signal she never knew she had.

She gulped in big breaths of air. She had to calm down. Strange and random thoughts were popping up in her brain, some completely unrelated to what was happening. Others horrible depictions of how she was going to die. She was becoming hysterical.

"Hello."

Sari bit down hard, forcing herself not to scream. Blackarachnia was standing in the entranceway, blaster aimed straight at her. She couldn't say anything. Any words that would come out would just result in screaming. This was too much for her to take so quickly.

"Just give me the key and this will all be over."

"No!" She managed to say, though it sounded more like a whine than anything defiant.

Blackarachnia fired. It hit directly next to Sari's ear, cutting off one of her pigtails neatly. The strands of red hair brushed against her cheek, mixing with the tears that had begun to run down.

"Give me the key, Sari."

Sari shook her head. "No."

Her other pigtail was shot off, landing lifelessly to the ground. This one had been closer. She had felt the heat of the ammo as it passed by, almost blistering her skin.

Blackarachnia lowered the blaster so that it was pointing straight between her eyes. "This time, I won't miss. So, let's try this again: Give me that slaggin' key."

Sari's heart (or was it a spark?) stopped beating. This was it. Her time had come. She squeezed the key in her hand, taking a small step back. In a manner of seconds, all of her suffering would finally be over. She almost looked forward to it.

"Shoot, and you'll be offline."

That voice! Sari turned to the entranceway, where Bumblebee was, stingers pressed together in a battle stance.

He had come back for her. Again. She wasn't able to completely sort out everything she was feeling, but knew that it was good. Relief and fear were now equally fighting for dominance in her spirit. She was relieved to see him. To know that he wasn't to give up until she was safe, until they were both free from this menace. Then they would go to Earth and she would be able to share everything about her culture. After that she would let him take her to Iacon, so she could learn about her secret other side.

But she was also afraid to see her best friend die.

"What are you going to do, shock me to death?" Blackarachnia asked sarcastically, "I'm tougher than that, kid."

He let off a blast of electricity that hit the floor inches away from Blackarachnia's feet. The shot left a smoking black mark. Sari didn't know that he could do that. Obviously Blackarachnia didn't either, as her eyes widened in surprise.

"Look! Just let me talk to Sari, then we'll give you the key." Bumblebee insisted.

What? She didn't understand. Weren't they trying to keep it away from Blackarachnia? What good would they do by just giving up? But this was Bumblebee. He had to know something. Or maybe Sari was still too frenzied from before to reason correctly. Her heart continued to beat faster than it should be, making her chest feel like it was going to explode.

"Why not offline me now and be done with it?" Blackarachnia asked skeptically.

"This whole thing is pointless. Nobot should die because of it." He replied plainly.

She pursed her lips. "Fine. Three cycles, and that's it."

He hurried over to her, switching his stingers back to his hands. As soon as he kneeled down she embraced him, holding him firmly. She would never let him go. She never wanted to be away from him. She was never truly safe unless he was around. Even now she felt secure, a glimmer of calm surrounding her.

"Bumblebee…p-please don't leave me again…promise you won't leave me again…" She cried, rubbing her face into his armor.

"…I promise." He paused, "Sari. You have to use the spell of destruction."

She froze. Memories were called up, ones she tried hard to forget. The day Tutor Bot had taught her that spell. The long week she had spent locked in her room, scared to death. Quiet nights broken by the screams her nightmares had caused. Tutor Bot had told her awful, awful things happened if it was used. Things that she really had forgotten in her terror. She withdrew, staring at him in disbelief.

"No…no I can't…" She protested. Why was Bumblebee asking her to do this? Didn't he know how much it hurt her?

"Red Alert and the others are safe in the Ark, hopefully hics away from here." He explained, "…it's the only way to stop her, Sari."

She didn't want it to come to this. She didn't want to do it. But she knew he was right. To keep the power of the Omega Supreme out of Blackarachnia's hands, and any other corruption, there was just one thing to do.

Destroy it.

"Time's up!" Blackarachnia announced, blaster raised.

"You ready?" Bumblebee asked, taking her hand in his. The touch broke through some of her numbness, making everything feel better. Whatever was going to happen, they were in this together. As long as that was the case, she was ready to do what was needed.

Filled with a new confidence, she nodded. Lifting the key high, she stared Blackarachnia down, watching her expression as the realization dawned on their enemy. The word came back fluidly, like she had been waiting for this one moment her whole life.

"Balse!"

---

Red Alert watched as the ship fell to pieces in front of them, explosion after explosion firing off from within. With each blast she winced, wondering which one would be the one that offlined Bumblebee and Sari. That is, if it hasn't already happened.

They were good kids, didn't at all deserve the curve fate had inscribed for them. Sure, Bumblebee had been a little talkative and annoying at times, but his dedication to Sari was something of the likes that Red Alert had never seen between a `bot and an organic. Not that she could be fully organic. She had come to that conclusion recently. The legend had said that they had formed techno-organics on the Omega Supreme, along with the set of keys energized by the Allspark's power.

The last piece finally came apart, floating about with the others around in space. Only the castle at the top remained, strange organic roots hanging from beneath. She put her servo on the wheel, ready to move the Ark once a piece of debris wandered too close. Their sacrifice would be useless if they let themselves get hit. Off in the distance she could see the Nemesis in a full retreat, the idiotic autotroopers running for their lives. Hopefully they wouldn't be so cautious and not make it back.

It was quiet in the ship, other than Jetfire's persistent sobbing. He had started when the first eruption took took place and hadn't stopped since. All of the twins were attempting to comfort him, but to almost no avail. They all looked close to tears themselves.

Wheeljack walked, sitting down in the seat next to her. "Did you know?"

She nodded. "Yeah. He told me."

"I had my suspicions…but I really didn't think he would do that. Especially when he asked to upgrade his stingers…"

"That was to provide leverage. He needed to have some way to have Blackarachnia's attention. Force was the easiest to do." She explained with a small shrug, "Makes a lot of sense. He had more going on in his processor than he let on."

"It's okay to be upset, Alert. You don't have to hide it all in like he did." Wheeljack assured.

Red Alert glared. "I told you that I didn't want to hear about him ever again, okay?"

"Sorry…but he was my best friend too, you know."

She rose from the seat and marched over to the deck where the twins were eulogizing. She didn't know what was worse to be reminded of: Bumblebee and Sari's death, or Perceptor's. The wounds for the kids were yet to take full effect on her, so she decided to stay there. If it would ever get too painful she could just leave. Anything for the sake of keeping up her reputation.

"Both of `ems war good people…wasn't thinkin' any bad of us `cos wes is pirates." Natron began. All of them were sitting in a circle around the floor, seeming to take turns in their short speeches.

"Bumblebee was being cool with his talking. He was teaching all sorts of cool things and nice to us." Jetstorm added. Jetfire wasn't able to say anything, nodding in between his sobs.

"And Sari was pretty cute…for an organic, that is." Sunstreaker said, "Almost as attractive as me…"

"Ah slaggit! Look at yah, yah pompous no-good jerk!" Freezon snapped, "Yah ruinin' the mood! Always thinkin' `bout yahself all the bloomin' time! Ain't it obvious that we dun really care?"

Red Alert sighed, walking back over to her seat. She could sense a fight coming on. Even in a time of mourning like this inflated egos could make the tension rise. She didn't want to watch it. Not now. Hopefully Wheeljack would either be quiet or realize that she wasn't going to listen to him if he was going to continue where she left their conversation off. As she sat down she could hear the quarrel grow, joined in with protests by the more pacifistic of the group.

Wheeljack was staying silent, which was okay with her, so she turned her attention back to the wreckage of the ship they had so eagerly sought after. On a closer inspection, she saw that there was a glowing light in the midst of the roots below the castle. It reminded her of another time, not maybe a few solar cycles ago, when a bright glow had been around a certain key…

"Wheeljack!" She shouted, startling him, "Do you think it's possible that they could be stuck in those roots over there?"

He looked at the area she was referring to. "Hm…maybe…that does look like Allspark energy in there. Actually…it might be the Allspark."

"Good enough for me. Let's go in."

She brought the Ark forward, taking it slowly to the remains of the Omega Supreme. Hope, a feeling long forgotten, began to rise up inside her. She tried to remain realistic, though. Just because their bodies were caught in the roots may not make them any less dead. The bickering between the twins stopped at the movement of the ship, and they all scrambled up next to the controls to look through the window. She considered ordering them to fall back, as this was very cramped with all the `bots gathered in one spot, but decided not to. They deserved to be there just as much as she.

They got close to the castle, and Red Alert didn't know what to expect. Should she close her viz scanners and wait to hear the other's reactions? No. That was for protoforms, not a captain of a crew of pirates. She could handle this. She was a tough femme. So instead of waiting she searched around the roots, looking for any sign of them.

"There! Over there!" Sideswipe cried, pointing frantically.

She shouldn't have been surprised at all when she saw Bumblebee and Sari sitting next to the Allspark, waving at them.

---

Sorry about the abrupt ending. That's about how it happens in the movie.