Prologue
It was a solemn trip.
Aboard Omega Supreme, Optimus Prime had been gearing up for their arrival on Cybertron for the last three solar cycles. Omega was running low on energon and had been forced to stop the transwarp a few light-years away from their intended destination.
The thrill that Sari Sumdac should have felt for finally visiting her home planet had been marred by a death in the family. Prowl was a loyal friend that had given his spark to protect the planet that she had called home for the first ten years of her life. He did not deserve to die on that day.
Everyone else was apparently busy, constantly working with their heads down as they tried to grasp the fact that their stick-in-the-mud of a cyber-ninja was no longer with them. Bulkhead was busy pretending to wipe off oil off his wrecking ball while Ratchet ran a 72nd scan on Arcee's systems while she drummed on her servos on the berth. Bumblebee was compulsively pressing the buttons of a video game that flared GAME OVER on the screen as Jazz stared blankly at it. Sari, meanwhile, was busy watching Bulkhead polish his wrecking ball, Bumblebee mindlessly press buttons, Jazz staring numbly at a blinking screen, Ratchet run yet another unnecessary scan on Arcee while she drummed her servos on the berth, and Prime trying to look like nothing was wrong in the universe.
But something was wrong, and they knew it.
"Do you guys remember Sparkplug?" Sari suddenly said, "Y'know, the little robot pup dad made for me? The one Masterson trashed?"
Everyone's heads turned to look at her, trying to understand why she was suddenly talking about a robotic drone meant to mimic an organic canine.
"Did I ever tell you guys how I got him?" she continued, "I mean, it's weird isn't it? That dad would give a seven-year-old girl an expensive piece of machinery that wasn't even going to be mass-produced when it is easier and cheaper to buy a real dog."
She sighed as she hopped onto the table and off the empty energon cube that she'd been sitting on for the past hour.
"You see, the previous year I did get a real dog. A beagle named Sparky. Real original, huh?" she paced around the cube. "Anyways, I loved that little furball. We would always play around in the park or around the tower's parking lot. Then one day, around six months after I got him, he ran off towards the highway looking for a ball I had thrown too hard. There was an eighteen-wheeler coming around the corner and I guess the driver didn't see Sparky or Sparky didn't see the truck or-, well, he got hit. I cried for my dad and he ran down from a meeting with the board of directors just to see what was wrong. He saw Sparky and he saw how I was trying to get to him. He grabbed me before I could get hit by another distracted driver."
The technorganic girl took a deep breath before continuing. "Well, he didn't make it. We buried him and dad promised me that he would get me a new pet once I felt I was ready." She chuckled bitterly at the memory. "That didn't go as well as he had expected. I stomped off and told him that I would never want another pet because no one could ever replace Sparky."
She paused for a second to look at the Autobots' thoughtful faces before she resumed the story. "I moped in my room for days, lamenting Sparky's death before I finally decided to let dad comfort me.
"Six months later, I was sorta over Sparky and was close my old cheerful self again. Then my birthday came around and, well, you remember the disaster that my eighth birthday party was, right? Well, this wasn't too different." Sari said with a sad smile before brightening up. "But then, dad came out with a present in a bright blue box with a red bow on top. Inside was Sparkplug, dad had been working on him for months to cheer me up."
She looked at their mildly confused faces for a second before she finished up. "The point is that-,"
"Prowl will not be forgotten," finished Optimus Prime, "neither will his memory nor the sacrifice he made. Time will pass and eventually we'll meet new people, but he will always be in our sparks."
He turned to smile at the diminutive girl that was standing on the table. She smiled back, and they knew that everything would eventually be fine.
It was then that Bulkhead, who was apparently satisfied with the hygiene of his wrecking ball, decided to leave it out to dry next to him on the bench. It was also that moment that Jazz decided to give a small speech of his own.
"The lil' lady's right," he said, unknowingly knocking Bulkhead's ball off the sofa, "Prowler wouldn't have wanted us to sit here moping."
He took a small step towards the wrecking ball, an action that did not go unnoticed by Bumblebee, who grinned in anticipation.
"Wait for it," he whispered to Bulkhead.
"For what?" responded the green mech.
"The bot was a bit of a stiff," continued the cyber-ninja, "but he wouldn't have wanted us to-WHOA!"
Jazz had finally slipped on the wrecking ball, said ball then proceeded to hit Bulkhead in the face only to bounce off like a pinball to land on Bee's helm before he could get a chortle in.
Everyone else just stood there, stunned by Jazz's uncharacteristic clumsiness. Then their faces started to scrunch up as they tried, and failed to hold in their snickers. Eventually the snickers turned to all-out laughter as Bulkhead, Jazz, and Bumblebee all tried, and failed, to untangle themselves from the wrecking ball's cable.
A giggling Arcee had to support Ratchet to keep him from collapsing under the weight of his own laughter, Optimus was leaning on the Magnus Hammer, and Sari was holding her sides as she leant on the empty energon cube. Even Omega's chuckles could be heard throughout the cabin.
Some ten minutes later, their laughter died down, but by that time, a new life was obvious in each of their optics.
"Yeah, you're right Jazz," said Sari as she wiped tears from her optics, "Prowl was strict, but he wouldn't have wanted us to lie around moping all day."
Prime nodded in agreement as he turned to go back to his work.
"Hey, Boss-bot," yelled Bumblebee, "do you have to carry that hammer around all solar cycle?"
Optimus looked at the Magnus Hammer for a second, pondering the possibility of Bumblebee somehow managing to break it. Eventually he decided that if it could be used to crack Decepticon heads open, it was probably strong enough to stand two hyperactive younglings and left it leaning head-down against the doorway. What he wasn't counting on was that a certain technorganic girl would be just as curious as he had suspected the yellow mech to be.
Sari leapt off the table and grabbed onto the hammer's handle to smoothly slide to the bottom like she would do with a fireman pole.
"Let's see how you work," she muttered under her breath as her hand broke apart and her optics started to glow.
"Oh no you don't," said a grumpy voice and Sari jumped back as the hammer's head floated up beyond her reach, wrapped in an envelope of pink, electromagnetic energy. "The last thing we need is for you to break the slagging thing," finished Ratchet as he magnetized the hammer and stuck it to the roof.
"Aw," pouted Sari, "c'mon, aren't you curious? How the heck does it control lightning? Did Magnus steal it from Thor or something?"
"This weapon's inner workings are the business of the reigning Magnus and the Autobot Council alone, I can assure you that it is in no way Asgardian," snapped the grumpy old medic, "besides, you'd probably blow a hole in the hull and/or land yourself in my med bay. Again."
"Oh, you overcharge and destroy a city one time-!"
"No. Touching."
Sari just pouted and returned to her seat on the cube after Ratchet gave her a short ride up. She sulked for a few minutes, watching Bumblebee play the game after he had apparently figured out how to restart it, before her eyes landed on her moped. She peeked to the side to make sure that Ratchet wasn't watching to find he was testing Arcee's suspension in the med bay. Once she was satisfied that she wouldn't get caught, she jumped off the cube and made her way over to her especially made two-wheeler. She pressed a button on the side and stood back as the moped folded itself onto a jetpack before flying onto her shoulders. She grabbed onto the controls and flew towards the Magnus Hammer.
"Now where were we?" whispered the inquisitive technorganic.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," said a stern voice somewhere below her, she looked down to see Optimus' face glaring upwards, "curiosity off-lined the sheepacron you know."
"What's a sheepacron?"
"A cybertronian animal with a horrible sense of direction and a short attention span," answered Bulkhead as he buffed out the new scratch on his helm, "I tried to keep one as a pet once, but it got lost and fell in an energon tank."
"Oh. Well, it's not like this thing's gonna zap me for touching it," exclaimed Sari, putting her glowing hand on it from behind her back as if she was leaning on it, "See?"
Then, of course, the hammer started powering up. Sari turned to look back at the hammer, pupils fully contracted and looked back at Prime's shocked face.
"Me and my big mouth," she muttered dejectedly as she activated her armor right before a lightning bolt shot out of the hammer and launched her across the room.
"SARI!" everyone yelled, rushing over to check on her as she bounced off the wall and landed behind a console.
"Let me through!" yelled Ratchet, as he narrowly dodged a second bolt from the erratic hammer, "Prime! Shut that thing off!"
"I'm trying!" Prime yelled back, "What the frag is it doing on the ceiling!?"
Eventually, Optimus got tired of jumping for the hammer and activated his wingblade jetpack. He hadn't been able to take it off due to a number of broken cogs courtesy of Megatron.
Once he grabbed the Magnus Hammer, it calmed down and unstuck itself off the ceiling as it demagnetized.
"And I thought Ratchet was a grouch," muttered a small, female voice as a charred Sari emerged from behind a console, "at least he never shot me with a lightning bolt."
"Don't move!" said the aforementioned grouch, as he picked her up and took her to the med bay, "who knows what that thing did to you."
"I'm fine," insisted Sari, "just need to wipe off the soot."
"You're fine if I say you're fine," stated Ratchet, "now sit down before I magnetize you to the berth."
Sari, who would have rather avoided Ratchet's wrath, grudgingly sat down and let Ratchet take her to the med bay to run a quick scan.
"What happened to that thing anyways?" asked Bumblebee.
"I don't know," admitted Optimus, "but from now on, no one touches it. Understood?"
"Yessir," yelled Sari from the med bay, "I don't feel like getting barbequed again anytime soon."
Prime sighed with his servo on his forehead, satisfied that the threat of electrocution would be enough to deter both the technorganic and her playmate from playing around with the ancient cybertronian artifact.
"Um, bossbot?" said Bulkhead, "is it supposed to do that?"
Optimus looked back at the Magnus Hammer to see it giving of a faint blue glow.
"Definitely not," he said.
He poked the head with a servo and yanked it back as a loud beeping sound emanated from it. Prime then held the oversized hammer at arm's length as the head opened to reveal an odd looking object inside. It looked like a sphere with a blue glowing crystal inside it and two handles coming out of the sides.
"Well she's fine," Ratchet's voice startled the crew out of their shock, as he came back into the main cabin with Sari on his shoulder, "turns out her armor's resistant… to... electric…"
He trailed off as he took in the sight before he turned to glare at the femme on his shoulder.
"It wasn't me!"
"And who was it that was playing with the slagging thing when I specifically said not to?"
"Well-, um…"
"Ratchet, it really wasn't her," said Jazz, "I think. Anyways, the thing just fell apart when Prime touched it."
"And you said I would break it!" Sari accused the old medic.
"It fell apart after you played with it!" Ratchet reminded her.
"Well-! Uhhh… what's that thing in the middle?!"
"Don't change the subject!"
"Seriously though, what the frag is that?" Asked Bumblebee as he stepped closer to get a better look.
"It kinda looks like-, no that can't be right," muttered Jazz.
"What does it look like?" asked Optimus.
"Well, Yoketron once told me a legend about a device forged in ancient times. It was built specifically to eliminate threats to Cybertron in the days of the Guardians by an ancient bot named Prima out of a piece of the All Spark, but even Yoketron thought it was a myth. Who'd have thought it was the Hammer's power-source?"
"Wait," said a pensive-looking Bulkhead, "What kind of threat would've been big enough to need the AllSpark to end it?"
"The only thing I can think of would be the Living Planet project," said Ratchet, "it was the Decepticons' idea to turn the whole planet into a living weapon that started the Great War in the first place."
"Sorry to interrupt," stated Omega's voice, "but we will land soon, I suggest you strap yourselves down."
"Right," confirmed Optimus, "Ratchet, you'll have to postpone the history lesson. Bumblebee, you'll have to carry Sari inside your alt-mode. Everybot else, take a seat and brace yourselves."
"Wait, Prime!" yelled Jazz, "What about the Hammer?"
"We'll have to fix it when we land."
Everyone sat to strap themselves down while Bumblebee let Sari and Ratchet tie him down to the floor with large straps before opening his door to let her in.
"Sari," said Ratchet, catching her attention through Bumblebee's com, "do yourself a favor and stay in robot mode while we're on Cybertron."
"Why?"
"Remember that captain Fanzone took an impromptu trip off planet?" she nodded, "Well he nearly got stepped on by an organophobic Autobot."
"Lemme guess, Grandus?" proposed Jazz.
"How'd you know?"
"Well, from what y'all are telling me, Fanzone landed himself near his favorite pub," answered the silver mech, "Plus this one time when we were in the dojo, Sideswipe and I dared Sunstreaker to put putty in his locker and tell him it was organic acid. He's been scared stiff by 'em ever since, but man that face? Priceless!"
"Well, it's only gotten worse with Sentinel as Magnus," continued Ratchet with a slight optic twitch, "with that ridiculous, fear-mongering propaganda he set up."
"He set up propaganda against organics?" asked Optimus, almost incredulous. Almost.
"No, the Decepticons," corrected the medic, "well, organics too. The point is, Sari, that it would be best that you keep your organic half a secret. Sentinel's not the only bot I'm worried about."
"Ratchet, please strap yourself down," echoed Omega Supreme's voice, "Cybertron is within view, we land in three cycles."
"Gotcha," confirmed Ratchet as he sat down.
"How long is a cycle anyways?" inquired Sari from inside Bumblebee as she buckled her seatbelt.
"About an earth minute," answered Bumblebee, "give or take a nanoklik."
"And a nanoklik is?"
"About a second."
"Hmm, so what's a megacycle?"
"WOULD YOU TWO MUTE IT!?" Yelled Ratchet, "We'll get there in a couple cycles so be quiet until then!"
"I'm just trying to figure out how long an Earth year is to a Cybertronian year," justified the technorganic.
"Cybertron orbits Haldeen at a slower speed than Earth does Sol," stated Ratchet, obviously exasperated, "a cybertronian stellar cycle is equivalent to 83 of Earth's. We should return by then."
"WHAT!?" exclaimed the girl, "I can't stay that long! By the time I make it back, dad will be dead and buried! I can't just leave him! The man forgets to eat if I don´t knock his door down for crying out loud!"
"How long do humans live anyways?" asked Bumblebee.
"Supposedly its 125 years, but few make it past 100 and dad's pushing 70," answered Sari before she turned to Prime with tearful eyes, "please, we have to make it back sooner."
"Sari, relax," said Optimus in what he hoped was a soothing tone, "we need to head back regularly to help with the relief effort, remember? I'll ask Cliffjumper to arrange for a frequent travel permit for you."
Sari nodded, not quite happy but satisfied with Prime's promise. Meanwhile, Bumblebee had fallen unusually quiet as he pondered his playmate's lifespan. Would she live as long as a Transformer or age like a human would? He didn't know, and he suspected that Ratchet didn't either.
The cabin shook as Omega entered Cybertron's Earth-like, but much dryer atmosphere. Sari excitedly looked out the window as Bumblebee pondered his thoughts.
As Omega approached the dock, those inside couldn't help but be amazed at the crowd that had gathered for them. Mechs, femmes, and younglings alike had gathered around the dock once news of the downfall of the notorious Decepticon leader had spread.
Once they landed, the first order of business was to fix the Magnus Hammer.
"Why. Won't. It. Close!?"
Which was going about as well as a feral cat's first bath.
Currently, Optimus and Bulkhead were pushing on the sides of the Hammer with the power source in the middle, trying to force it closed.
"Prime, I'm sorry but I just don't get how it fit in there in the first place," said Sari as she looked at Ratchet's scans.
"Square peg, round hole," confirmed the grumpy medic, "it looks like it was built for something smaller now."
"Maybe it's like my key."
The two stopped pushing and the whole group turned to look at their resident technorganic.
"Remember how my key used to change shape, size, and weight to fit any keyhole I needed? Maybe it's like that."
"But why wouldn't it accept its original power source?" asked Arcee.
"Well, my key always did what it wanted depending on what we needed," she remembered, "maybe the Hammer needs a new power source? Or maybe that power source is needed for something else?"
"Well, what should we use then?" asked Bulkhead.
Sari thought for a second before she jumped up onto her giant friend's shoulder to get closer to the giant hammer. She opened her palm and placed it onto the cool metal surface, mentally noting that it used to be a lot warmer the last time she touched it.
Jazz had spent enough time around cyber-ninjas to recognize processor-over-matter when he saw it, although it seemed to be a specialized version.
Her small size would certainly give her an edge as a cyber-ninja, particularly for a spy or a scout. Back in the day, Yoketron would've probably taken her in as his personal apprentice due to the special needs her training would pose.
Now Jazz wasn't Yoketron, but maybe he could still help her come along like he'd helped Prowl. He doubted she'd ever be able to levitate objects like Prowl had since technopathy tended to sacrifice that ability in favor of hardwiring the processing power necessary to achieve it, but she'd probably be able to move small objects with some training.
Jazz was shaken out of his thoughts when Sari's palm finally stopped glowing.
"Yeah, that could work," she said as if she was agreeing to something someone else had told her.
Before anybot could think to ask her what she meant, the tall ten-year-old leapt off her friend's shoulder and walked to her scooter before donning it as a jetpack. Without another word, she flew off towards the cargo area.
"Isn't that were we're keeping Megagoon and the Deceptiturds?" asked Bumblebee.
"HOW DARE YOU CHAIN DOWN THE GREAT AND POWERFUL MEGATRON!?"
"I see Lugnut got his muzzle off again," noted Ratchet.
Sari flew back up, chuckling to herself whilst carrying a fist-sized Allspark fragment.
"Isn't that a little small?" asked Optimus.
She simply tossed it in the Hammer's general direction. The fragment's path then curved towards the Hammer, landing smack dab in the middle of the metal casing before it closed around the fragment and regained its blue glow.
"Just what it needed," she said with a smirk, "the original power source is a watered-down version of the Allspark. The fragment I popped in should be just as powerful, and a bit more manageable."
"What do you mean?"
"This thing is a jerk," she deadpanned while she jerked a thumb towards the framed crystal, "It gave me this gigantic list of things it's looking for before I even said hello. Do any of you know what a Sword of Time or a StarSaber is?"
"I know a bot named Star Sabre," pointed out Jazz.
"What do we do with this? Throw it out like an old battery?" asked Bumblebee as he picked up the old power source.
"Nah," retorted Jazz, "we should make sure it's safe though."
"Just what I was thinking," cut in Bumblebee as he picked up a length of chain, "time to get your 'bling on Prime!"
He looked around, expecting some sort of response, but was disappointed by the dead pan stares.
"What?"
"No 'Bee. Just, no."
Megatron, Lugnut, and Shockwave glared at Optimus and Jazz from their cells as the two came to retrieve them-.
"Optimus Prime," sneered Megatron, "to what do we owe this pleasure?"
"We've landed," stated Jazz as he deactivated the energy cell, "time to face the music."
Megatron chose to ignore his comment and turned back to the mech that had become the bane of his existence practically overnight.
"You are aware that it's only a matter of time?" he stated, "Those prisons of yours won't hold us forever."
"Perhaps," stated Prime as he maneuvered Megatron onto a platform, before bringing his face up to the Decepticons' leader, "but if they can't, we will."
The Decepticon leader could only growl and watch as his two most loyal warriors were placed on their own cargo platforms.
"Jazz, get Bulkhead and Bumblebee to help you with the prisoners," stated Prime, "tell Ratchet and Arcee to get the protoforms. I'll retrieve Prowl's shell."
Jazz merely nodded at the final, mournful sentence and did as he was told. Optimus merely turned to head down to the secondary cargo hold where a large, metallic casket laid. The Prime momentarily closed his optics in silent mourning and vented sharply, before loading the casket onto a cargo platform.
"We all miss you Prowl," he muttered, "you shouldn't have gone the way you did."
When he finally reached the top, he noticed that the Decepticons were already on the airlock and that Ratchet was floating up three protoforms as Arcee guided him.
"What about the other protoforms?" asked Jazz.
"They're back on Earth," stated Arcee, "we will send out an armored convoy to retrieve the few that are left."
"How few we talking?"
"Sixty," growled Ratchet, "Between Starscream's experiments and Lockdown selling off the others, we're lucky to have gotten this many back."
"But there were thousands of them!" yelled Jazz angrily, "You're telling me that this is all that´s left!?"
"Afraid so," said the medic, "but at least we got the Allspark back, and don't forget that we still have the main stock."
"Most of the Allspark," corrected the cyber-ninja, unaware that the Decepticon was now within earshot, "Prowler and I managed to get the smallest particles that would've been hard to get otherwise, but the largest fragments are still on Earth."
"We'll have to go back for them later," cut in Optimus, "right now, our top priority is securing the prisoners."
"Well, at least it will be easier with these bozos out of the way," said Sari from her perch on a shelf, startling Shockwave.
"I was not aware that you had such a diminutive member on your ranks," he stated, "actually, I was not even aware that any cybertronian short of a turbo-rat was that small."
"I'm a newer, more compact model," stated Sari, "smaller, easier for me to infiltrate ships."
"About the size of a human," noted Shockwave, somehow managing to narrow his single optic.
Sari just gulped and flew up to Prime's shoulder.
"Reindeer bot here's perceptive," she whispered into his audio receptor, "what the frag has bucket head been telling him?"
"He's one of the Decepticon's most notorious minds," he reminded her, "short of Oil Slick or Scalpel anyways."
Shockwave was visibly offended. "I'll have you know that I AM the best scientist on the Decepticon ranks!"
"Oh please!" snorted Ratchet, "The only one you bested regularly was Starscream and you know it! And now that HE'S offline, well, I guess you're on the bottom!"
"Scientist, schmientist," said Bumblebee, "I just wanna find Blurr and hit the racetrack."
"Agent Blurr?" sneered Shockwave, "Give him my regards."
"What do you mean?"
"Why don't you ask Cliffjumper?" proposed the Decepticon, "Ask him about a light blue garbage cube I asked him to dispose of."
"Light blue…" trailed off the yellow speedster before his optics grew in realization, "YOU FRAGGING MONSTER!"
He lunged at Shockwave, stingers out and sparking, only to have Bulkhead hold him back.
"Let me at him!"
"Bumblebee, stand down!" ordered Optimus, "Let the courts settle this!"
"Courts," snorted Megatron, "do you honestly think that we can expect a fair trial from Autobots?"
"Yes," stated Sari coldly, suddenly on his shoulder, "though that is more than what you deserve."
Megatron just smirked, apparently interested in the tiny femme.
"Well said," he agreed, "but who are you, or they for that matter, to decide what we deserve?"
"A citizen of the city that you ravaged," she replied with an icy voice and narrowed optics before she flew off to land on Optimus' shoulder, making sure to flash the giant mech in the optics with her turbines.
"Was that really necessary?" he asked her.
The young technorganic only turned her eyes downward with a sad expression.
"Sari?"
"Prime, I gotta be honest with you," she sighed sadly, "when we get back to Earth, we'll have a body count on our hands."
"What!?"
"Detroit is home to millions of people," she reminded him, "not all of whom wanted to leave, despite the danger. I did my best, but one of the Lugnut Supremes stepped in a hospital and I had to drag a woman in a bathtub out her apartment for crying out loud! There is no way we got everyone out."
"So that's why-,"
"I am supremely pissed off." She finished as she flew off once more to comfort Bumblebee.
As Optimus pondered the girl's words, he failed to notice the pink and white femme that stood behind him.
"Optimus Prime, sir," said Arcee, snapping the Prime out of his thoughts, "with all due respect; I would like to remain inside Omega."
"Why?" asked the Prime, slightly startled by the formality.
"I am not comfortable with joining the celebration," she explained, "not with the part I played in Megatron's plan."
"The part you were forced to play you mean," cut in Ratchet, "none of this was your fault, and don't let anybot tell you otherwise."
"Maybe so," she admitted, "but I would still like to stay here until the celebrations are over."
"We will leave you to your thoughts if you wish it," stated Optimus, "but nobot, in here or out there, blames you for what happened."
"Thank you, sir."
Prime just nodded and turned to the rest of his crew as Ratchet comforted Arcee.
"Alright, everybot," he said, "it's time, the prisoner platforms can move on their own but we'll need to load them onto the conveyor belt. Same with the protoforms and Prowl's… casket."
"We'd rather carry Prowler's casket," stated Jazz with Bulkhead, Bumblebee, and Ratchet behind him, "no reason to let him drag on the floor."
Optimus nodded his approval as his crew led the Decepticons onto the airlock's conveyor belt alongside the protoforms. He stood at the front as the doors opened with a hissing sound to reveal the grim celebration.