Forever is a Long Time Coming

Veni, Vidi, Vici

A battle was coming.

Of that, the Autobots were certain.

Optimus Prime, Sentinel Prime, Bulkhead, Arcee, Spotter, Silverbolt, Bumblebee, Ratchet, and Blaster stood side by side, in a straight line, 10 feet from the back exit ramp of the Ark. Optimus, and Sentinel both had their face plates covering their mouths. Silverbolt had his visor down, covering his eyes. And all the Autobots, excluding both Primes, had their forearms converted into their respected laser cannons.

Optimus Prime looked to his left. Silverbolt, Arcee, Spotter, and Blaster had their eyes focused on the horizon. If they were nervous, and he would not fault them for being so, the warriors did not show it. He then looked to his right. The same held true for Sentinel, Ratchet, Bumblebee, and Bulkhead. He knew they would all give their sparks for the cause. He knew they would all fight to the last. He hoped that they would all survive this day.

He hoped.

"Autobots." He spoke, looking to the horizon himself. "It has been a honor and a privilege to know you and to fight beside you. Know that, should we not survive to see this day end, that if we should fall to our enemies, that we do so with honor." He paused to look to his right and left again. All eyes were on him. After looking at each of them in the eye, he returned his gaze to the horizon. "May the Matrix preserve us, watch over us, and guide us."

With a sudden, almighty boom, Scorponok transformed from his jet mode and landed 20 feet from the Autobot line. Slipstream and Blackarachnia were next to land. Slipstream landed to his right, and Blackarachnia, to his left, converting from their jet mode, and helicopter mode, respectively. Ravage, in his cat form, jumped down from Scorponok's open cockpit and landed in front of his master. He let out a fierce growl for good measure.

Optimus took a step forward. "Scorponok."

The Combaticon General narrowed his eyes. "Optimus Prime. Still functioning I see."

"I offer you a choice." Optimus said, pointing at the giant. "Stand down and join our cause. Or fight, and risk losing everything."

Scorponok laughed. "Stand down? I think not, Prime. I did not come here to negotiate. I came here to destroy you and your retched Autobots."

Sentinel pointed at Scorponok. "You claim to hate Megatron, and refuse to bow to him. Yet, here you are, willing to do his dirty work. Does that sound logical to you, General?"

"Megatron and I may share a common goal," Scorponok countered, "But I do not follow him. The destruction of Autobot cause is what I desire most. And once I am done with that, the Decepticons will soon follow."

Optimus stood ridged. "Scorponok. Cybertron is lost. The war is over. Why continue to fight? For what purpose do you stand for?"

"I thought that was obvious, Prime." Scorponok sneered. "I will take Earth as my own. Any and all whom stand in my way, will perish."

Silverbolt had heard enough. He took several threatening steps forward "You're welcome to try, you overgrown junk pile!"

"Bolt, don't!" Arcee begged, as she changed her arms back, grabbed his right arm, and held him back. "He'll destroy you."

Blackarachnia looked at the struggling pair. "Jack?"

Arcee and Silverbolt froze.

"My, my..." The assassin chuckled. "Little Jack is all grown up. My how you've changed."

Silverbolt smiled back. "And I see you haven't. Nice scar, by the way."

Blackarachnia's face contorted with simmering rage. "I owe you for that. Been looking forward to it for a long time."

"Explain this, Spider." Scorponok demanded.

Slipstream answered for her, looking up at her leader. "You remember that human she told us about? The one that got the best of her, and blew up her ship? Yeah. That silver autobot over there is that kid. How, I don't know."

Blackarachnia's fists were balled. She looked ready to pounce at any second. "I don't care if he's an autobot now. I want his head."

"Then come and get-" Silverbolt started to say.

"Silverbolt. Stand down." Optimus ordered, cutting the young bot off. He turned his attention back to the combaticons.

Scorponok sneered. "It looks as though peace was never an option, Prime. Though I have an offer. Surrender without conflict, and I promise your deaths will be swift. As for your precious humans, no harm will come to them." He crossed his arms. "Do not, and I destroy you, Sentinel, and let Blackarachnia have her way with your troops. And I will kill every single human on this pathetic rock."

"Ah. Now see? That is why you will never succeed, fool. You lack vision." A familiar voice suddenly said, causing the Autobots to look left, and the Combaticons to look right.

There stood Megatron. Along with Starscream, Knock Out, Breakdown, and Soundwave. And they were backed by no less than 40 drones.

"Megatron?" Optimus questioned, his eyes narrowing. The older Miko had mentioned that he was functioning in the future. Though he would never had truly believed it, until he saw him for himself.

"In the flesh, so to speak." Megatron laughed cruelly. "And I have brought my ship and my entire army with me."

"Those drones are nothing." Scorponok growled. "I could destroy them without effort."

Megatron smiled evilly at the giant. "And there is your folly. Did you honestly believe I would bring along standard drones to such... a pinnacle battle? No. These drones have been infused with dark energon." He looked down at his commander, "Isn't that correct, Starscream?"

"Yes. Lord Megatron." Starscream responded in a monotone voice. His joints and eyes glowed with a sinister, purple light.

"Ever so faithful now." Megatron commented. "Such is the power of the anti-spark."

Scorponok didn't look impressed. "Dark energon or not. I will crush your troops, and take your canon as a trophy."

Now it was Megatron's turn to look unimpressed. He gestured to his arm. "You are welcome to it."

At those words, all hell broke loose.

Scorponok readied his canons and began firing at the gathered Decepticons. Megatron dodged the attack, and returned fire. The drones that were behind him, tried to avoid the barrage. Most of them managed to disperse, and either take to the sky in their jet modes, or to the ground in their car modes. The others where disintegrated, now only 30 or so remained.

Breakdown and Knock Out, meanwhile, transformed and charged at the gathered Autobots. More specifically, Blaster and Bulkhead. The two Wreckers, however, transformed to their vehicle modes and charged back.

Starscream converted into his flight mode, and joined the drones in the sky. Blackarachnia and Slipstream followed suit, and began an aerial dogfight. Taking shots at both the seeker commander, and the drones. Silverbolt, wanting payback against Blackarachnia, converted to flight mode and took off after the two combaticons.

Ravage remained in his cat mode, and charged at Spotter and Arcee. Before he could reach them, Bumblebee, in his car mode, rammed into him, and sent him sprawling. The scout returned to his robot mode, and beeped a challenge at the beast. Which the cat happily accepted, as he quickly rebounded and pounced.

Optimus, Ratchet, and Sentinel were drawn into the fire fight between Megatron and Scorponok. All five combatants had sought cover behind thick outcroppings of rock. And took turns taking pot-shots at one another, neither seeming to gain the upper hand.

Not wanting to be easy targets, Arcee and Spotter converted to their travel modes, and began to thin out the ground drones, all the while avoiding the sky drones that where now dropping from the sky. Thanks to the efforts of Silverbolt, Slipstream, and Blackarachina. Though not the combined efforts of those three.

...

Blaster and Bulkhead where now in a all out race with Knock Out and Breakdown, who had turned tail and ran. Both Autobots had power, but Knock Out had speed. So catching him would be difficult. Bit not impossible.

"Try to catch me, Bulkhead!" Knock Out taunted the green SUV. "You never will!"

"Let's just see about that." Bulkhead said quietly to himself.

Seeing an opportunity (and knowing the lay of the land) Bulkhead raced up a rock ramp, leaped off, and managed to collide with the race car. The crash sent both of them rolling (and transforming as then went).

"Pesky Autobot." Knock Out cursed as he stood up, and readied his staff. "You'll pay for those scratches."

Bulkhead changed his hand into his wrecking ball. "And I gotta pay ya back for what ya did to Arcee."

While Bulkhead was distracted, Breakdown tried to crash into him. Only to be stopped at the last moment by a shoulder check from Blaster.

"Not so fast, Con!" Blaster challenged, as Breakdown came to a stop beside Knock Out. The blue truck quickly transformed and scowled at the tactical officer. "You mess with one Wrecker, you mess with them all."

"I'll crush both of you!" Breakdown yelled back. Both he and Knock Out didn't mince words. They ran at the Wreckers at full speed. Blaster laughed.

"Let's get this party started!"

Breakdown collided with Blaster, and Knock Out tried to hit Bulkhead with his staff. Surprisingly, Bulkhead sidestepped the race-car, grabbed his staff, pivoted 180*, and used the momentum to send the medical bot flying back to original spot. Albeit of his face.

Blaster and Breakdown went rolling, with the blue con landing on top.

"I'm going to tear out your optics!" Breakdown roared, as he tried to grab Blaster's head.

Blaster grunted as he did his best against Breakdowns attack. "Get off me ya big lug!"

"My pleasure." Bulkhead said suddenly. He grabbed Breakdown and hoisted him above his head (with some effort) and tossed him to where Knock Out had landed. Right on top of Knock Out, to be exact.

"Thanks for the save, but I had it under control." Blaster quipped, as Bulkhead hoisted him to his feet.

"'Course ya did." Bulkhead deadpanned. "Now, how about you sing 'em a lullaby?"

Blaster smirked and activated his leg mounted sonic cannons.

The resulting sound waves hit the prone cons like a wall. Both Knock Out and Breakdown were sent flying into a rock wall.

"Useful." Bulkhead commented, patting his friend on the back. "Now let's finish 'em."

"Right, Bulk." Blaster agreed. He deactivated his cannons.

However. Before they could walk over and finish the two cons off, all four cybertronians were suddenly hit with half a dozen wires each.

"What the...?" Bulkhead asked. But before anyone could say anything else, the wires charged, sending a high voltage attack into each bot. And there were all immediately shut down.

…

"You want to play, Jack? You should have just said so!" Blackarachnia laughed as she chased after the silver jet. Firing widely, and laughing as he dodged.

Silverbolt pulled into a vertical corkscrew. A maneuver which he knew Blackarachnia wouldn't be able to copy. He then pulled a u-turn, so that he was now pointed at the ground, and aimed right for the helicopter. Has he neared her, he transformed into robot mode, and landed on top of her.

"Get of me, you pest!" Blackarachnia screeched as she pitched left and right, trying to shake him off.

"Sorry." Silverbolt laughed, "Can't do that." Holding on tight with one hand, he changed his other hand into his sword. With a yell, he tore into Blackarachnia's hull, nearly taking of her rotary blades.

The assassin cried out in pain as she plummeted towards the earth. Silverbolt jumped off her, and transformed back into his jet mode. She managed to transform into her robot form, however, before she hit the ground, but she still left an impact crater.

Silverbolt landed, and crossed his arms. "If you can, why don't you pick yourself up, dust yourself off and fight me, so we can finish this once and for all?"

With an angry hiss, Blackarachnia crawled out of the hole she had made. "That's twice you got the drop on me, Jack. It won't happen again. I promise you that."

Silverbolt uncrossed his arms and changed both of his hands into swords. "Come and get me."

"DIE!" Blackarachnia yelled as she ran at him.

He swiped at her with both swords, but she bent backwards at her waist, and dodged them. Using her momentum, she brought a leg up, and connected her foot with his jaw. This fazed the warrior, and sent his stumbling back a few steps. Using his confusion to her advantage, she ran forward, jumped, and used both her feet to kick him hard in the chest. Silverbolt landed on his back, with the con still on top of him. Before he could react though, she jumped off and flipped away from him.

"Poor little Jack." She cackled, as she landed facing him, several feet away. "All that power, and you can't touch me."

Silverbolt smirked. "Only that I did, while we were flying."

Blackarachnia clenched her teeth. "A lucky shot. That's now two scars I owe you for."

"Standing right her." Silverbolt shrugged. "Come and get me."

"You will regret the day-" the assassin began to say, as she ran at him again. That is, until a combined flying-kick from Spotter and Arcee sent her flying backwards.

Arcee and Spotter landed in a crouch, then stood up and crossed their arms in triumph. Arcee turned her head, and looked back at Silverbolt.

"Can't do a thing without me, can you?" She quirked an "eyebrow" at him.

"Yeah, yeah." Silverbolt grumbled as he walked up beside them. They all turned their attention to the fuming Combaticon.

"Pests..." Blackarachnia growled. "You won't get away with this. Why are you all looking behind me?"

She felt a tap on her shoulder, and turned around. Bumblebee was there. He waved at her, and then connected a powerful punch with her jaw. The result was immediate, as she slumped to the ground, unconscious.

"Nice work, Bee." Spotter giggled. "But what happened to Ravage?"

Bumblebee threw a thumb over his shoulder, indicating to a spot where the cat lay on his side. He let out a string of beeps in response as well.

"Good one." Silverbolt laughed. "Now let's go help-"

A grenade landed in front of him. It beeped twice, and then released an EMP dome shaped shock-wave.

…

"You shall die this day, Megatron!" Scorponok yelled from behind his cover. "As so shall you, you annoying Autobots!"

"He doesn't know when to quit, does he?" Ratchet asked, from behind his cover that he shared with the two Primes.

"No, Ratchet, he does not." Optimus agreed.

"I second that." Sentinel added, as he used his cannon to make sure Megatron stayed behind his cover. "And neither does Megatron."

A sudden shot from Starscream, from above, caused Sentinel to duck.

"Pathetic fool." The Seeker laughed, as he landed beside Megatron.

A blast from Slipstream, however, caught him in the chest. The blast staggered him, but didn't do anything other than annoy him.

"You cannot harm me while Dark energon flows through me." Starscream laughed again, as the female jet landed beside Scorponok.

"Is that so?" The Combaticon leader asked, as he sent a double shot at the laughing jet. The blast dropped him to his knee, and stopped him laughing, but once again, did nothing.

"Yes." Starscream answered.

Megatron looked down at his commander, and dragged him behind cover. "Stop being an idiot, Starscream."

While the two groups of cons fought each other, Ratchet remembered something.

"Optimus," The medic said, "Shall I activate...?" He gestured towards his arm computer.

Optimus silently nodded his head.

"Teletraan 1." Ratchet spoke into his comm. "Activate."

Teletraan 1 on-line, The voice of the Ark's defense spoke. Activating perimeter defenses.

One of the Ark's anti-ship turrets popped out of the ground. And the air around the Ark, and what remained of the mountain, shimmered as the Ark's shields came on-line.

Hostile signatures detected. Teletraan 1 announced. The turret aimed in the direction of the Decepticons and the Combaticons.

"What is this madness?" Megatron asked in anger.

Sentinel withdrew his face plate. "I believe this is what humans call 'an ace up our sleeve'. You did not think we would not be prepared for you, did you Megatron?"

"I'll show you!" Slipstream challenged. She jumped out from behind her cover, and blasted the turret with both of her cannons. The bounced harmlessly off it's hull.

Hostile detected.

Slipstream caught a low-yield blast full in the chest. She wasn't knocked back very far, but she was down for the count.

"Well played, Autobots." Came the voice of Silas. "Well played, indeed."

There, in the middle of the battlefield stood the human leader of MECH. He was casually smoking a cigar. And he did not look worried at all.

"Silas." Optimus Prime said, as he stood up. "This is not the time for your interference. Leave. Now."

"I think this is the perfect time." Silas disagreed calmly. "See, while you aliens were fighting each-other, I managed to not only land my jet, but off -load it's cargo, as well." He pointed at a group of ordinary looking construction equipment.

There, a few short meters away, where six blue and gray vehicles. A backhoe excavator, a dump truck, a cement mixer, a front-end loader, a bulldozer, and a crane truck. They where all lined up in a row.

"What is those supposed to do?" Megatron asked, with an evil laugh. "Are they meant to frighten us?"

"On their own? No." Silas answered. "However..." he activated a wrist-mounted control. "Transform."

All six vehicles transformed into six, very intimidating looking, robot's. They were of various shapes and sizes, but, they all stood nearly as tall as Optimus Prime. A fact, that Scorponok pointed out.

"Ha." the general said. "Those are small compared to me. And besides, we still have you outnumbered."

Silas laughed. "Not quite, Alien. See, while you were fighting, your troops were captured, and loaded on to my plane." He gestured casually to a C-17 Globemaster 3 cargo jet.

"You monster!" Ratchet exclaimed, as he went to rush the annoying human.

"I wouldn't do that, if I were you." Silas tsk'd, stopping Ratchet in his tracks "See, if don't return to my plane, unharmed," he looked at Scorponok, "My troops are ordered to take the other aliens, and then dump them in the Arctic Ocean."

"You are insane." Sentinel said in disbelief.

Silas smirked at the red titan. "Perhaps. But I'm also very smart. Watch." He activated his control again. "Robots. Assemble."

The six machines converted back into their vehicles. The front end loader, and cement truck, the changed into legs. The backhoe, and crane changed in to giant arms. The dump truck became a torso. Then, they assembled into a crude looking robot. Then using it's arms, the robot pick up the bulldozer. It placed it where the head would go, and the machine then became a head and chest armor.

It flexed it's arms mightily, standing 120 feet tall, and said "I AM DEVASTATOR. I AM YOUR DOOM."

The End.

A/N: And there it is, folks. See ya next time!