So it's been a little while since I posted a chapter, but I think it's time I did, since this is going to be a big turning point in the story. So last chapter, S7 was taken down, and the core's energy levels were dropping, so Optimus, Elita, Magnus, and Ratchet immediately started towards the core of Cybertron. But this chapter may seem a little slow in the beginning and at the end.


Optimus, Elita, Ultra Magnus, and Ratchet stopped before transforming, all under the shadow of a huge being. The huge, almost skyscraper like transformer's optics were dark voids.

Ultra Magnus opened his chest, his spark chamber revealed, in front of it was a large mechanism, it almost looked like a large, round key. He grabbed it and removed it from his chest. The tool he held was the Metro key, which like the Matrix of Leadership being trusted with Optimus, he was trusted to carry through the stars.

It's purpose was to reactivate the great being who towered over the three mechs and femme. He held it up and aimed towards the huge Cybertronian's chest.

The significance of this key, was that before the core died, there was another huge being, not as large, but still, huge, named Omega Supreme, who was the guardian of the core, but Megatron had nearly killed Omega in a battle between the two, and later, in the midst of combat, was engaged by Trypticon, who cheated in their battle and eventually killed Omega.

But when the Autobots were about to lose the war one day, Megatron had attacked Iacon in a frontal assault, targeting The Ark so the bots' couldn't leave Cybertron. But in their darkest time, Optimus discovered a miracle, a huge Cybertronian who completely turned the tide of the battle.

After the battle, when the last reservoir of energon, that the Autobots and Decepticons had fought an EXTREMELY costly battle over, had ended up in Decepticon control, but at too great a cost to be called a victory.

The Autobots had lost hope that they could leave Cybertron, due to the portal that Grimlock had discovered becoming unstable and soon closing. They had no energon to get the Ark through the portal, so their ally, Metroplex, the huge being who had saved them, gave up his life energy to power the ark, but at the cost of his life, sending him into stasis lock, but in his time of death, he intrusted Ultra Magnus to carry the Metro key, which would one day be able to reactivate his system after his life power had replenished over time.

He now stood, the key help up, aiming at Metroplex's chest and spark chamber. Ratchet looked very unsure of this however.

"Will this truly work? I mean, one would think that it would take thousands of years for a being as large as Metroplex to restore his life energy." he asked Optimus.

"It's our only hope Ratchet, without Metroplex's ability to open the core to Cybertron, we will never be able to reach it before we're too late. We must pray that Metroplex has at least enough power to open the gateway to the core." he hushed them.

"Metroplex, in our time of need, I CALL UPON YOU!" Metroplex yelled, the key took a few seconds before glowing brightly. Then fired a beam of white energy into Metroplex's chest armor.

A surge of light started traveling through Metroplex's body, the white light blared brightly. Until it fell silent, Ratchet almost instantly lost hope. Almost instantly after, the seams of Metroplex's body started glowing red, until everything but his optics were glowing. Then, his optics slowly faded on, and his large hands formed into fists as Metroplex began to reactivate.

The huge walking city, Cybertronian, with all of his might, pulled himself to his huge pedes, trying to watch where he stepped. He looked down upon Optimus, Magnus, Elita, and Ratchet and instantly remembered what had happened.

"Metroplex online, weapons primed, ready to serve Optimus Prime, leader of the free, defender of the innocent." He spoke loudly, his voice echoing across the sector.

"Metroplex my old friend, I have longed to see you return, but I apologize to say that we need your help as soon as you are brought back to life, we need you to open the gateway to the core of Cybertron." Metroplex nodded.

"The gateway will be open when you arrive, but make haste Optimus Prime...I sense a dark presence taking hold over the core of Cybertron, feeding off of it's life energy." he warned them.

"Then we do not have a moment to lose! Autobots, roll out!" he changed form, along with his companions and compatriot.

Omega Three, Nevada, Earth)

The rising sun barely peered over the horizon of the desert, it had a streak of light that hit the mountain of the hidden base.

It was quiet inside, the bots were still asleep in their quarters, except for a certain sparkmate couple.

In Arcee and Blackwolf's quarters, the two were wide awake, having taken time off of their work lately to just spend time together, especially Arcee, who didn't give him a moments rest in their quarters the night after he had almost died at Hoover Dam.

She laid on top of him, both were panting heavily, she kissed him repeatedly, "I love you." she spoke slightly seductively, yet lovingly into his audio processors.

He returned the kisses she gave, "And I love you..." he looked around their room.

"Thank Primus for the soundproof barriers each quarters has." she looked at him with a raised metal brow.

"You sure didn't seem to care if anyone heard us, we went at it like animals last night." he leaned down, she looked into his golden optics as he leaned in to softly kiss her neck, causing her to moan slightly in response.

"Well you know what you do to me when you press me to go slightly feral..." he pressed with a little more force into her neck.

"We should probably get up, we've only left to recharge our systems' energon before going back at it." she chuckled. He sighed, having enjoyed their time alone.

She got up, her wide hips swaying seductively as she walked away from the berth, purposely doing it so he would stare. He shook his helm and with a heavy sigh, stood up from the berth.

She opened the door to their quarters, checking to see if anyone was awake before walking out into the control center.

In her quarters, Nitalia sat in a crisscrossed position, Jack's head laid on her much larger lap, while she was softly caressing his dark hair.

He had fallen asleep in her lap much earlier, most would expect to feel a sharp pain from the metal they were made of, but they didn't, they were beings made of a soft, metal polymer mesh.

"Jack...sweety it's time to get up hon." his eyes slowly opened as they met her electric yellow optics.

"Morning Tali..." he yawned slowly. He leaned up from her lap and rubbed his eyes.

Arcee heard the door to Nitalia's quarters open, as their daughter and Jack stepped out of the room together, closing the door behind them.

Jack made his way to their raised area, and decided to walk over to the area overlooking the science area, where Blackwolf was forming up a few energon cubes for himself, Arcee and Nitalia.

Blackwolf was so relaxed in what he was doing. Until Nitalia came up from behind him to ask something, "Hey dad-" he jumped up as she caught him by surprise, as he jumped, he helm hit a shelf above him, he growled and cursed in Cybertronian dialect, but he didn't notice his servo smack a vial of something Ratchet had been testing.

The vile flew up, all that could be heard was the sound of something burning, and Jack screaming in agony. Nitalis's optics jumped to where he was.

"JACK!" she reached up to grab him, he had been covered in the stuff, Blackwolf opened his optics to see Jack being held by her in agony.

"Scrap!" he yelled, Arcee ran over, having heard the noise, the others awoke immediately and ran out to see what had happened.

Ironhide ran out first, "What happened?!" he saw Jack's condition and gasped.

"Jack!" he yelled in fear.

"Get him to the infirmary!" Blackwolf ordered Nitalia as she ran to get him there quickly. Arcee opened the door and let Nitalia pass. The young femme carried her lover to the first open medical bed.

"Now what was that stuff he got covered in?!" Arcee asked.

"I think Ratchet was talking about it being an experiment he had with dark energon being mixed with regular energon, but I-I swear this is my fault, I shouldn't have jumped like that." he was ashamed of himself.

"What do we do?" Ironhide asked, Jack was still in agony where he laid.

"Frag, I don't know! I'm no medic, and Ratchet hasn't responded yet!" Nitalia said worriedly.

Blackwolf activated his healing palm, "If it doesn't heal him, it should ease his pain until we figure out what to do." he pressed his palm against Jack, who was still wailing in agony.

"WAIT! Look at the readings!" Jazz, who had joined them, pointed to the medical monitor, they looked to it, the mixed material was alternating Jack's complete body structure, his genes were mixing with the energon mixture.

"It-it's changing him." Blackwolf said in amazement. They could hear suddenly a loud, t-cog noise sound in the room.

(Cybertron)

"We're here!" Optimus yelled back to his allies. They changed forms as they stopped before the gateway center. As Metroplex had promised, the gate to the core was open. Surprisingly, unlike the last time this had happened, there was no security to hinder their progress.

"Let's roll." Optimus ordered as they changed back to their vehicle modes and made their way down the long road leading to the core.

"So when we get to the core, what can we expect to be happening?" Elita asked Optimus as she drove alongside him.

"I do not know, but I pray it is not what I suspect." he spoke in a worried tone.

(Iacon)

Slipstream entered Centurion's temporary quarters, knocking on the door. Seconds later, it opened, revealing Centurion, who had a smile on his faceplate almost instantly once he saw her.

"Hey." he greeted her.

"Hey." she answered back.

"Something up?" he asked her.

"Yes actually, I wanted to talk about something with you." she sat on his berth.

He closed the door, making sure it was locked before turning to look at her. His optics widened slightly when she looked at him with longing optics, a slightly seductive look in them, he stepped towards her and sat next to her.

"So what's up?" he asked calmly. She sighed slowly.

"Well...how to start, I'm really bad at this..." she chuckled.

"It's okay, go ahead." he reassured her.

She looked into his optics, "I've been having these feelings lately, I've honestly felt guilty about how you've done so much for me already and I've done nothing to help you." he was shocked.

"That's not true. You don't need to feel guilty, I'm thankful that we're a couple." she shook her helm.

"Not what I meant, you first trusted me, gave me someone to show my soft side, you let me know what it feels like to be loved again, and you have me a new start as an Autobot. Oh, and I heard you talking about me the other night." he rubbed the back of his helm.

"You...you did?" he asked nervously, she nodded.

-flashback-

"Hey Chromia, can I talk to you for a bit." Centurion walked towards her..

"Yeah sure, what about?" she asked.

"Well, I needed someone who can understand my feelings." she understood completely.

"Is this about Slipstream?" she asked, he nodded in response.

"I just wanted to know if I feel too much. I mean, I love her, I truly do, I mean, besides the fact that she's drop dead gorgeous," he didn't know, but Slipstream was hiding behind a corner, listening to him talk.

"She's kind, intelligent, independent, brave, caring, and passionate, and I wanna do more for her, but I keep telling myself I've done almost as much as I can."

Slipstream almost gasped, she placed her palm over her spark chamber, her spark was rapidly pulsing after hearing him.

"I understand what you feel, you're one of a rare breed Centurion, of course, you did come from your father and mother, just know that what you're feeling, is a very good thing to be feeling." she smiled, assuring him of this.

-present-

"But now that I've said this much, I actually did find something I can do to finally repay you." she smiled.

"Oh?" he asked, she nodded. She scooted back slightly, and opened her spark chamber, revealing her spark to him.

"Slipstream, what are you do-?" she cut him off with a metal digit over his lips.

"I love you Centurion, I'm not good at the sappy talk, but I want to be with you, to be your sparkmate." she smiled at his shocked reaction.

"Slipstream, even if we want to, Blackwolf WILL kill us both if we do, he doesn't even know we're together, or if you're even here." she shook her helm.

"If he can't accept it, then as humans say, to hell with him. I care about you more then I am scared of your father." he was shocked.

"Are you sure, I don't wanna rush this and ruin what we have." he gave her the option.

"I said it didn't I? It takes a lot to admit something such as that, especially coming from me..." she leaned in, pressing her metallic lips against his, both instantly melting into one another. He eased her down until she was on her back as he hovered over her.

He returned with as much pressure as she gave him, giving her his everything, his spark chamber opened. Both of their sparks were blue in color, both connected two beams of energy, the second step of the process to becoming sparkmates.


So things are happening! The core is being investigated, something is happening to Jack, then Centurion and Slipstream are finally sparkmates. Blackwolf is gonna be so mad, but oh well.