Well, this chapter is pretty short compared to the last two I've written, but it IS an action chapter; I hope you enjoy.

Chapter Nine: …We Rise: Part Two

Miko had been waiting for an opportunity like this, and tried not to smile victoriously as she leaned over the railing—a mere step away from the stairs—and watched the Autobots check their integrated weapons and sensors repeatedly with an almost obsessive fervour. She could almost feel their determination humming in the air, and could only imagine how epic a smack down the Cons would receive if they tried to get in their way, which, undoubtedly, they would.

And there was no way she was missing a chance to see a Con shoved face first into a sand dune.

She glanced behind her briefly as the ground-bridge spun to life; Jack, June and Raf were gone, the Nurse having taken her son to work a mere half hour ago, and the young genius having been ordered to return home through a lengthy Spanish conversation with his mother, which apparently had something to do with the fact they were still in the beginning phases of their relocation. Titania, however, was seated on the couch, and had been watching the news for several hours; she had seemed incredibly relieved to finally know what the present day was, as well as strangely baffled by the way things just were in the world. At the moment, however, Titania's attention had been diverted from the screen and towards the ground-bridge, the green light reflecting in her thoughtful, worried eyes.

Miko turned back to watch the Autobots stride through the bridge, body tensing as she slowly inched towards the top of the stairs; as soon as Bulkhead vanished and Ratchet turned back to the monitors, she bolted.

If Jack had been there, he would have been more than prepared to stop her, but he wasn't, and Miko figured that Titania was still in far too much pain to even try.

But as she stepped out of the vortex, something slammed into her back and the ground suddenly pitched out from beneath her.

In hindsight, it had been a remarkably dumb thing to do. However, Titania was so used to fighting, to leaping into combat without a second thought for her own physical condition in order to salvage a mission or save a life, that the thoughts of oh shit, I don't have my guns and Primus damn it that hurts, didn't occur to her until she had already tackled Miko around the knees and sent them both tumbling down a sand dune, the ground-bridge already closing behind them.

Miko let out a shriek as they fell, but Titania—despite being repeatedly knocked around by the younger (older?) girl's flailing limbs to the point of aching all over—maintained enough awareness of the situation to use their momentum to ensure she had the Japanese exchange student—stupid, idiot girl!—pinned beneath her once they rolled to a stop.

However, that proved to be of little advantage when Miko slammed both her palms in Titania's chest—"Get off me!"—and knocked her flat on her back, gasping for air and staring up at the swirling night sky of Egypt as every nerve in her chest and lungs lit up with pain.

"Hey! Are you all right?" Miko asked, concerned; she sat up, covered in sand, and watched Titania simply lie there for a long moment. Belatedly, she realized it was probably a bad idea to knock around someone who was technically still hospitalized.

"What…" Titania began, wheezing between words, "…were…you…thinking?" She pulled herself upright and ignored the way the world was still spinning as she glared in Miko's direction.

Taking the fact that the time traveller was talking as a good enough indication that she was fine, Miko hopped to her feet and started brushing herself off with a scowl, "We haven't been here more than two minutes and you already sound like Jack. I mean come on, where's your sense of adventure?"

Titania found herself climbing to her feet (and occasionally slipping back to her knees) before the world had even straightened itself out, stumbling towards Miko's twisting image with a raised, scolding finger pointed in her face, and a look of fury on her own visage.

"First off, I'm gonna take the 'Jack' comment as a compliment. Secondly, have you no slagging common sense!?" At the moment, it wasn't that difficult to pretend Miko wasn't her mother. She had never known her mother to pull such a slagging, stupid stunt, and it had only been a knee-jerk reaction that had sent her running after the girl in the first place, the half-terrified surprise her stupidity had invoked being shoved into the peripherals immediately.

Miko only rolled her eyes and scoffed, "What are you, my mother? I can take of myself, you know."

"Oh really? Because charging recklessly into battle is such a safe thing to do!"

The Japanese girl clenched her fists and took a step into Titania's personal space; "Hey! I killed an Insecticon, all right? Have you ever even seen one of those? They're big, mean, ugly and—"

Titania suddenly slapped a hand over Miko's mouth, her eyes wide and head turning in every direction. Miko shoved the hand away and opened her mouth to let out what certainly would have been a loud, angry tirade, only to be silenced as the time traveller lifted a finger to her lips and hissed, "Quiet…we're not alone."

It was true. As the two teens stood still and listened, they could hear the faint hum of an active ground-bridge, and the quiet shuffling of enormous pedes through sand.

And then came a deep, rasping voice that crawled down Titania's spine like tiny knives and brought every last nightmare she had ever endured, both real and imagined, to the fore-front of her thoughts.

"Spread out, secure the area. Knock Out, where is the beacon originating?"

Taking hold of Miko's wrist, Titania threw herself down to the base of a low, ancient stone wall and dragged Miko with her, miming for the girl to remain silent as the shuffling of Cybertronian feet grew closer, along with their voices.

"Directly ahead, Lord Megatron."

Titania's heart clenched with very real panic as she stared out into the moonlit night of the desert, her thoughts suddenly looping as she realized that she still couldn't sense any Spark signatures; she had no idea where any of them were in relation to her own position and oh Primus, she felt so damn blind.

She sat there with bated breath for what felt like far too long before, suddenly, a silver foot slammed down in front of them, and it was all Titania could do to slap a hand over Miko's mouth before the Japanese girl's untrained, civilian mind could allow a surprised shriek to pass her lips and give away their position.

They watched as a second foot joined the first, and then stared up, and up, and up at the tall, silver form of Megatron as he stood with his back towards them, the moonlight glinting dully off his armour as he surveyed the desert before him.

Titania couldn't rip her gaze away from the warmonger she had sworn (to the face of his future self, no less) that she would make pay for his crimes, and it seemed that a small, bubbling volcano had grown in her chest as she watched him slowly walk away towards the pyramids in the distance, with several Vehicons and Insecticons, the Decepticon medic, and a blue seeker that could only be Dreadwing, trailing after him. All she could do was bitterly wish that she had her guns, was healed, and could spontaneously grow at least fifteen or so feet so she could fire her cannon directly in his face.

It wasn't until they were out of sight that Titania dared to relax even half of a fraction, and turned to the girl beside her with a whispered hiss.

"Call Ratchet. Now."

"Fine," Miko grumbled with a scowl and dug her phone out of her pocket and flipped it open, only for an insincere (and definitely smug) apologetic expression to cross her face as she held it up and waved it slightly in her face, "Oh, would you look at that? No service. Who'da thunk it?"

Titania pinched the bridge of her nose with a groan and Miko hopped to her feet, her voice far too loud and cheerful considering their situation, "Well, I don't know about you, but since we're stuck here anyway, I wanna see Optimus kick King-Con's face in!"

Before the time traveller could stop her, the exchange student took off running in the direction Megatron had just gone, and Titania could see flashes of blaster-fire passing among the ruins in the distance as she cried out to the girl while stumbling to her feet.

"Miko! Stop!"

She made as though to take after the girl, only to freeze as she heard the mechanical whirring of joints, the oh-so quiet hiss of hydraulics, and the high-pitched whine of a charging weapon.

Slowly, she turned…

…and found herself staring up into the business end of a Vehicon's blaster.

Arcee ran for all she was worth, cradling the Omega Key to her chassis as blaster fire and battle-cries rang out behind her. She silenced the part of her that was screaming at her to turn around and fight—she felt like she was abandoning her team, slaggit!—and instead listened only to Optimus' voice echoing in her head, ordering her to take the relic—"Autobots! Cover Arcee!"—and return to base.

With Megatron, Dreadwing, and several Insecticons for Optimus and the others to handle though, it wasn't too surprising that there were at least four Vehicons pursuing her.

She lifted a servo to her comlink and hissed into it urgently.

"Ratchet! Ratchet, come in; this is Arcee. I need a ground-bridge now!"

"Arcee, I'm locking onto your coordinates, the bridge—"

Whatever the medic had been about to say was lost to Arcee as a bolt of plasma seared past her helm, the heat rippling through her sensor-net and leaving a scorch mark behind.

She immediately spun on her heel, her free servo transforming into a blaster as she prepared to take a shot at one of her pursuers, only for the loose, shifting sand to cause her pede to slide out from beneath her.

It ended up saving her life as another blaster shot soared through the space her helm had been occupying a second ago, and she wasted no time in rolling to the side—behind the cover of a nearby pyramid—before another one slammed into the ground where she had just been, turning the sand to glass.

For a moment, she cursed the burden in her arms; it was too cumbersome for her to do little more than peek around the corner of the ancient monument and fire off a few pot-shots at the Vehicons who were being intelligent for once as they ducked and weaved amid the ruins to take advantage of the copious amounts of cover they provided.

"Ratchet, where is that bridge!?"

As though in answer, it spun to life almost immediately to her right, just as a Vehicon grew either bold or stupid and ran around the corner of the pyramid, firing wildly.

Arcee didn't waste time, but bobbed and weaved around the shots and leapt into the ground-bridge, flipping around and skidding to a halt on the floor of the base while shouting at Ratchet to close the bridge as she fired off a few rounds into it in answer to the plasma blast that had passed through and slammed into the stone wall on her arrival.

When it finally shut down, she vented in relief and collapsed onto a crate, the Omega Key resting on her lap.

"That was way too close," she muttered, and didn't even flinch as Ratchet quickly ran a scanner over her.

"Merely some cosmetic damage," he told her as he checked the results, "I'll let the others know you've made it back with the relic; hopefully they'll be able to break off their engagement with the Decepticons quickly. I'll take the key."

Arcee was only too happy to hand it over to him; she didn't even know what the damn thing did and it was already proving to be a nuisance.

She got to her feet as soon as she was relieved of her burden, stretching her spinal strut and glancing over to the humans' common area, where the sound of the television was whispering quietly throughout the silo, and its light was flickering against the brown fabric of the couch.

The empty couch.

"Ratchet," she began warily, hoping she was wrong but knowing she probably wasn't, "Where are Miko and Titania?"

The medic reached out a servo from his place at the monitor to indicate the small, raised area, opening his mouth to speak as he turned to look at it.

"They're right—" He stopped suddenly, servo dropping limply back to his side as he immediately came to the same conclusion as Arcee.

"Scrap."

Heat crashed over Titania as she tossed herself to the side, plasma slamming into sand and shaking the ground on which she stood. She didn't stick around to see if the Vehicon was lining up for another shot—any smart enemy would—and bolted.

Directly towards it.

Vaulting over the wall, she ran between the Vehicon's legs, tucking and rolling—Primus, that fragging hurts!—to avoid the clawed servo that swiped at her.

She surveyed the area as she ran, constantly changing direction to throw off the Decepticon's aim (and trying desperately to keep breathing past the pain in her lungs). There were two other Vehicons still in the area, and they, their attention having been caught by the discharge of their companion's blaster, were heading towards her.

As she absent-mindedly reached to her side for a weapon that wasn't there, she realized she was so screwed.

Optimus Prime gave a grunt as he stumbled backwards from the force of Megatron's blow, the sound of metal clanging against metal echoing off the ruins, and barely recovered himself fast enough to duck beneath the sword that then attempted to decapitate him. He rushed back to his full height with an uppercut, and Megatron's head snapped back from the force, staggering him.

Optimus spun into a kick aimed at the war lord's face; Megatron barely caught it in time and happily—with a horrible grin—wrenched the Prime off-balance.

The Autobot leader let out an involuntary grunt as he was slammed onto his back in the sand and, hearing the whining charge and seeing the violet light of Megatron's cannon, he quickly back-flipped, kicking Megatron's cannon upwards in the process. The plasma was fired harmlessly into the sky as he landed on his feet in a crouch.

The Prime leapt forward, ramming his shoulder into Megatron's chest with all the force the hydraulics of his frame would allow—he felt something strain—and, while the warmonger was off-balance, took hold of Megatron's arm, spun, and threw him across the battlefield.

Sand erupted like a volcano where the Decepticon leader landed, and he angrily spat the grit from his mouth, glaring at his mortal enemy as he slowly, deliberately rose, coiled like a spring and every movement carefully tailored to give the impression of absolute control.

Optimus stepped forward as though to charge, but stopped as his comlink came to life.

"Optimus, this is Ratchet; Arcee is back at base with the Omega Key, but we have another problem. Titania and Miko aren't here."

"Where are they?" he demanded quickly. A guttural roar drew Optimus' attention back to the battle as Megatron's massive form slammed into him. Their fists locked together, and he skidded back through the sand, straining against the force bearing down on him.

As he did so, Ratchet responded; "Miko isn't answering her phone. I'm sending Arcee to the original arrival coordinates…"

There was a weighty pause during which Megatron finally gained the upper hand in their physical struggle, ramming his knee into Optimus' chest.

Something dislodged painfully out of place due to the force of the blow, and the Prime was bent double, air wheezing through his vents painfully as tiny gears ground to a halt inside his body. A massive grey fist slammed into his helm a moment later, sending him skidding through the sand and causing a ringing in his audios through which he could barely hear Ratchet as he continued speaking.

"Optimus; there are three Decepticon Spark signatures at the arrival point, if Miko and Titania are still there…"

The medic trailed off; there was no need to finish saying that uncomfortable thought out loud.

"Understood…Ratchet…" the Prime panted as he struggled onto his knees.

Megatron sauntered forward and towered over Optimus' kneeling form, a quiet shick cutting through the noise of the straining gasps of their vents as his sword emerged from its hiding place.

"Even after all these eons, Optimus," Megatron began with a sneer, raising his sword as he watched the Prime struggling to get to his feet, "You still don't know when to give up."

The warlord prepared to strike.

A small rock pinged against the back of his helm.

"Hey, Buckethead!"

Baffled, Megatron turned to stare down at the tiny human femme behind him. It took him only a moment to recognize the girl as the loud, obnoxious femme that had laughably tried to threaten him during Unicron's rise, and he chuckled before turning back to Optimus with a mocking grin.

"What's this Prime? Are you training your pets to do battle now?" He turned and raised his cannon; Miko gave a quiet gasp as the inside of the barrel began to glow, and took half a step back, "But I see you have failed to teach her consequences; such a pity."

For a moment—just a fraction of a second sandwiched between the hiss of hydraulics and the shriek of overworked gears—Optimus wasn't in Egypt anymore; he was seeing before his optics the terrible glimpses of a future he swore he would not allow to come to pass…

He saw Titania—a look of nostalgia and grief in her eyes—as she clipped a dog-tag with a green Autobot insignia around her neck, telling him; "It was my mother's."

Optimus leapt at Megatron with a cry of determination, and the out-of-alignment gear in his abdomen squealed with protest. He knocked the cannon aside and the blast slammed into the side of a pyramid, sending ancient rock tumbling down its slope.

He promptly struck the Deception leader across the faceplate, sparing only a moment to bellow; "RUN MIKO!"

The moment was still enough for Megatron to regain his bearings.

And, with the claws of his left servo sharply digging into Optimus' shoulder guard, defacing his faction emblem in the process, Megatron pulled the Prime off-balance, freed his still-bladed arm—

And ran his sword right through Optimus' side.

Arcee emerged from the ground-bridge and was greeted by the sight of three Vehicons firing at a small speck dashing every which way among their legs. One of them lifted a foot in preparation to stomp the speck into a smear, only to have its pede shot through by one of its fellows.

"My foot!" It howled out into the night, and promptly began hopping on its only functional pede, only to be put out of its misery a second later with a blast to the faceplates.

The two remaining Vehicons forgot about the speck as they turned to the source, with one following their fellow back to the Well of All Sparks immediately as Arcee swiftly decapitated it—still in mid-air from a flip forward—with one of her arm-blades; she used the shoulders of the mech as a spring-board and flipped over the next Vehicon's head. It predicted her landing, spun, and snapped out a servo, back-handing her and sending her flying before she could land.

Arcee switched a servo for a blaster while still in mid-air, rolled on impact, lifted it up, and fired off a few rushed shots that forced the Vehicon to retreat long enough for her to get back to her pedes.

The blue femme wasted no time in pushing her advantage, charging forward with a battle-cry and engaging in hand-to-hand combat. He struck at her with a fist and she parried it to the side, claws scratching her arm-guard. She twisted her wrist at the last second, catching the Vehicon's arm.

She pulled, yanking him off-balance, and then stepped around and slammed an open palm into the elbow joint, popping it out of socket.

The Decepticon cried out in pain, but was soon silenced as Arcee transformed her servo into a blaster yet again, put the opening of the gun to the nearest available transformation seam—which happened to be on his side, right below the Spark Chamber—and fired at point-blank range.

The mech's chassis was ripped apart.

The body fell to the sand, and, ascertaining that there were no other immediate threats in the area, Arcee began looking for either of the humans she had been sent to retrieve.

She didn't have to look far as a voice she hadn't quite grown familiar with yet spoke up.

"Hey…Arcee…nice…moves…"

Titania wheezed loudly from where she stood, half-seated on the edge of the stone wall where she and Miko had originally taken shelter, one hand was clutched to her chest as though she was trying to ease her own breathing, and she offered the Autobot a shaky smile before she visibly winced. Her forehead was gleaming with sweat, and her cheeks were flushed with heat.

Quite honestly, she felt like she was dying as she tried to get her spasmatic lungs under control.

"Titania," Arcee knelt beside the time traveller, ready to catch her if she collapsed, "Are you all right? Where's Miko?"

Titania scowled at the name and gestured behind her; "That idiot went to go watch the battle; I would've gone…"

She trailed off, swaying slightly, and put a hand to her head.

Closing her eyes, Titania gasped as every nerve suddenly seemed to light up, a thousand pinpricks digging into her skin. She felt a heavy pressure in her mind, building up as it pushed relentlessly outwards. She dug her fingers into her scalp and barely noticed as she collapsed to her knees and screamed.

It was suffocating—she couldn't breathe—her head was going to explode and—

The Egyptian night lit up with stars in her mind; shifting, moving stars—one close enough to burn her—that sang their sorrows and their hopes to her, and they slammed against her mind with all the force of a falling sky.

And then the world went blissfully dark.

So, yes, I left you on a cliffie; I'll try to update soon but life is hectic. Otherwise, though, I hope you enjoy the chapter.