Disclaimer: I only own my OCs.
Chala: Hey, where's the Authoress at?
Zinnia: *walks in with sleeping Authoress* Here and be quiet. She is out like a light.
Sunblast: *runs in* *says loudly* I'm not late, am I?
Authoress: *wakes up* *glares*
Sunblast: Oops.
Ch. 6: The Rise of Evil
Tana growled as she punched at the practice robot. Earlier that solar cycle, she had gone on a walk and she had ended up in front of the memorial for Pandimala. Even though something in her processor had warned her against going into the room, she had to go in there and see her old friend, to remember her. When she had walked inside, though, all of the memories from the past. One of her fondest, even though it wasn't shown, was the solar cycle when she had first met Pandimala. Pandimala had seemed so scared of them and, of course, she hadn't helped by practically shaking her arm off when she said hi, but it was that solar cycle which had sealed their fate.
Ripping the head off of the drone, Tana stood and waited for the next one to appear. When it didn't, she turned and smiled when she saw Blackbit standing there, next to the controls.
"Hey sweetspark, are you ok?" Blackbit asked her.
Tana knew she couldn't lie to her bondmate so she shook her helm. "I keep thinking about 'Mala Blackbit. I visited the memorial again and I remembered the first day I met her. She was so scared of Zarron and I. But, it just reminds me of how much was taken away from us when she fell."
Blackbit sighed and walked up to her before wrapping his arms around her shoulders. Tana leaned back into his touch. She loved how protected she felt when she was in his arms.
"You know, whenever I visit there, I think about the first time I met her, well, saw her as well." Blackbit stated.
Tana vaguely recalled the story. The Guardians had told her some time before she had left Cybertron with 'Mala and had something to do with them. "Care to remind me again sweetspark?"
Blackbit chuckled and said, "Well, it was back when the council made us go through applications to find bots to be Guardians. None of them never worked out of course but we had to sit through them. Before, the council had sent in an application for a bot to become a Guardian who didn't want to be a Guardian and we warned them that, if they ever did it again, we would stop the application process and go out and search the old fashioned way."
"Let me guess, they did?" Tana asked. The story was starting to come back and she remembered the talk of an application from a bot who didn't want to be a Guardian sent again but she couldn't remember who.
Blackbit smiled at her and held her closer. "Yeah, they did. It was the very last application that we went through that day. The bot was none other than Pandimala. We were all ready to go and test her but Hinge held us off. He had seen something in the application that puzzled him. So, he called Ultra Magnus when one of us, can't remember who now, said that he knew her. Well, long story short, he told us that the council did send this and Pandimala did not want to become a Guardian because she wanted to be Prime."
"Stupid council was always trying to get her off of being a Prime." Tana growled. She hated the council back then for the most part and she cursed the day they were ever allowed to sit on council seats.
Blackbit kissed the top of her helm and said, "Well, after we calmed down about that, we went off and walked around before Hinge and I walked into Slapjack's bar. And boy were we surprised at the scene we found. There were tables and energon cubes that were smashed, burned, and frozen. We asked Slapjack what happened and he said a bunch of academy bots got into a fight."
Tana let out a laugh and said, "I remember that fight. I got some nice hits in on some of those fraggers."
Blackbit laughed and said, "Anyways, he said that the bots should be coming in to help clean up and, after some more talking, Hinge and I sat at the bar. When you lot walked in, we didn't look at first. We only looked at you when you all started to clean. The first one I saw was Pandimala and I was surprised since I had seen her picture earlier. Then, my optics scanned the other bots but you held my curiosity. You seemed so independent but ready to accept help that you had captured a part of my spark."
"So, you meeting Pandimala was what helped the Guardians meet me? I remember you telling me this story now. That was a good day." Tana whispered before leaning against her bondmate. She was tired, both physically and mentally. She just wished that things would be different. She wished, that there was still hope for a better solar cycle.
Balm sighed as she walked down Kaon's streets. Everybot was always on edge and she hated it. Back when 'Mala was still with them, even during the fighting, there was always time to have fun and just let loose. But now, now things were different. Very few bots were out on the streets anymore and most bots barely had fun. Most of the time, they stayed at home and made no contact unless for training or meetings.
When she finally arrived at the house she wanted, she knocked and waited. After a click, the door opened and Balm smiled when she saw the familiar faceplate. Of course, the femme smiled as well.
"Balm, how have you been?" Malice asked.
Balm smiled sadly. "Just fine for these days."
Malice let out a sigh and said, "Well, come on in dear and we can talk."
Balm nodded and followed her inside. Once inside, they walked over to the living room and sat on one of the couches before Balm asked, "Where's Pandemonium?"
"He had to go and meet with Starscream about something." Malice answered before asking, "What is troubling you dear?"
Balm let out an exasperated sigh. Where should she start? "Everything Malice. I hate how we are all always so afraid to walk out of our homes now instead of going to fight the Virons. We have the numbers but they are all too scared to do a fragging thing. There are so many bots in this city and yet I was the only one outside that I could see. That never used to happen. We were confident and we could hold our own. Plus, Chaom is in such a depressive state that I am not sure that he is even with us anymore at times. I'm just so angry and yet I have this same fear that I fragging hate."
The two femmes then sat in silence before Malice but a servo on Balm's shoulder and said, "I know things are a lot different from when, Pandimala, was around. I've been thinking about it to. But, there is no going back. Nothing we do can change the past, but what we can do is look to a brighter future."
Balm let out a sigh and said, "You aren't going to start talking about those radicals are you?"
"Balm, they are acting just like Pandimala would be if she was here and you know it. The only reason that Pandemonium and I haven't joined is because it is too soon after Pandimala's offlining. But, we have told the members who we have talked to that we do support them and, once we feel like we can do so without breaking down into sorrow about her, we will join them." Malice stated.
"Malice, they insult her! They keep claiming that there is a possibility that she is alive!" Balm stated.
Malice sighed and said, "Honestly, they aren't wrong."
Balm stared in shock. "What! I,"
But, Balm was silenced by Malice holding up a servo. "They aren't wrong in the sense that she could be. But, the odds of that are astronomically slim. They are right to suspect because we never found a body."
Balm sighed and said, "I guess you are right. As always." Balm really hated to admit it but that statement alone started to give her hope for a better world. If, if she was alive, Pandimala could be the savior that they had all been hoping for to save them from the Virons.
Ultra Magnus growled as he stared at the map that was in front of him. He and Megatron had been going over it for the past cycle and they had yet to figure out how they could infiltrate the Virons. They just had too much of a grip on Cybertron for them to do much.
"Megatron, how are we supposed to attack these creeps when we can't even figure out how to get to them? From the looks of this, the only way we are going to be able to get to the Virons if they attack us first and we will not be able to rally the forces in time before they over run us." Ultra Magnus stated as he leaned over the board.
Megatron nodded and said, "True, and that means that, when the Virons finally find us at a vulnerable spot, we will be most likely destroyed or, at the very least kicked off of Cybertron." He then let out a sigh.
That sigh sounded different to Ultra Magnus so he said, "Ok, I have heard that sigh before Megatron. What is wrong?" He had grown to learn the Decepticon leader's habits and he knew that sigh meant that he was thinking about something that was upsetting.
Megatron shook his helm and said, "You know me way too well Magnus." He then paused for a moment. "I was just thinking about how ironic this whole thing was. Before The Fall, our roles were switched with the Virons and, actually, we were ahead of them. Maybe if she hadn't, offlined, we would have already exterminated the Viron menace."
Ultra Magnus knew that Megatron was thinking about Pandimala. Of course, he was too. He was thinking about what she would think if she was here. "Megatron, I am glad that 'Mala isn't here right now. Could you imagine what she would be feeling if she saw how we have fallen just because of her loss?"
Megatron let out a sad laugh and said, "She would be ripping us all new ones. Though I think she would take it easy on Chaom because they were bonded and she would understand the pain he went through when she died."
Ultra Magnus nodded and looked at the map again. When his optics landed on Iacon, he felt his spark drop. The city used to thrive with life and now, well…
"Ultra Magnus I look that look and I know that something is bothering you. Now, what is it?" Megatron stated.
Ultra Magnus sighed and motioned toward Iacon. "I was just thinking about Iacon. It used to be so alive with activity and wonder and now, well, now Sentinel has built that monstrosity he calls a coliseum."
Megatron let out a growl and said, "Those gladiatorial coliseums never do any good. Back when I fought in the one here in Kaon, it was terrible. The conditions of the med bay were awful and the fights were normally weighted. The Viron one is probably much worse."
Ultra Magnus nodded and the two bots continued to study the map. As they did, Ultra Magnus couldn't help but feel like hope was slipping away.
Sentinel was impatient as he waited. With the events in the coliseum now over, he was only there for one reason. Pitch had said that the bounty hunter wished to prove herself by fighting one of the demons. Sentinel knew that, if she beat the demon, that she would be able to accomplish their mission. And, if she did that, then he felt like the Virons would have enough momentum to take Kaon and, hopefully, destroy the Alliance.
The sound of a gate lifting had Sentinel glancing down in the arena and, even he had to admit, that she was already impressing him. She definitely had that air around her that made even him want to go and hide. The femme was obviously a techno-organic and, while he hated most of them, she might be an exception because she didn't show it as much as most did. The one thing that really gave her away was the extra appendages. She used them to walk in some kind of hunting mode.
She then transformed her bottom half into legs and she stood up before staring up at him. "I hope you're ready for a show because this will be one that you will remember."
Sentinel simply nodded and said, "We shall see femme."
He continued to watch her as the second gate rose. He had seen countless demons come out from those gates. What his attentions were on right now though were the femme, Airachnid. Her reaction was a surprise. Instead of showing any fear, she almost looked excited. It was strange how she looked ready to play with the demon, like it was some toy.
"Now Sentinel, you really couldn't find a greater challenge for me? This will be far too easy." Airachnid stated before she launched herself into the air. The demon clawed after her but Sentinel was surprised when the femme turned in midair to avoid the demon before she brought her extra appendages together and drilled through the ground. The demon had no chance when the femme sprang out of the ground from behind him and shredded the thing before it had another chance to attack.
Throughout the rest of the testing, Sentinel became more and more impressed at her strength and agility as well as her ferocity and lack of remorse. After the final enemy fell, Airachnid looked up to him and asked, "Well, what do you think? Willing to allow me to help you all with you, Triune Alliance problem?"
Sentinel knew his answer right away. The femme had shown the answer to him as she had continued to destroy demon after demon. Her last challenge, which was a bot who had tried to betray them, had shown him the true side of her. She tore him apart mercilessly and he couldn't do a thing, tied up in webbing, as she let her acid slowly eat away at his chassis. All that was left of the mech was a puddle of melted alloy. Like he through before, he had seen her true side; and he liked it.
"What do I say?" Pitch asked him, probably in case he didn't hear her question.
But, he had definitely heard it and he smiled before looking down at her and saying;
"You are perfect."
Chala: Sunblast, you are so dead.
Sunblast: Why?
Zinnia: Because Authoress is acting evil and we have never seen her get that way.
Authoress: MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! *evil grin*
AN: And here is another chapter. The next chapter won't be up as soon but it will be up by next week at the latest. This is going to be so much fun though. Next chapter is on Earth and a lot of fun stuff happens. Plus, the chapter after that is going to be very interesting and is going to help the plot along a lot. Until next time folks. Please read and review. But no flames.
