Chapter 13-A Beautiful Lie
The Xing rice fields were set aflame as explosions blossomed in the area, and blaster bolts flew through the air. Autobots and Decepticons were shooting at each other from across the valley, both sides taking cover from the other's attacks. Lungnut and Barricade were trying to fight off the Autobots, who were a team consisting of Optimus, Ironhide, Bulkhead and Prowl.
Nightshade, who was perched on a cliff inside one of the valley walls, was taking pot shots at the Autobots from her position. It was an effective strategy to take the heat of her subordinates, but shooting heavy hitters like Ironhide and Bulkhead was like trying to shoot a tank with a pistol.
"This is not getting us anywhere," She muttered. The Autobots had another panel in their possession and they were trying to get it back before they had the chance to retreat, but their little assault wasn't going very well. "Where the hell are you Starscream?"
As if on cue, three jets flew in from above firing their auto-cannons down at the Autobots. Thundercracker and Skywarp went forward and dropped some cluster bombs, scattering the Autobots and riddling the ground with more explosions that caused the whole valley to shake.
Nightshade noticed that pieces of the rock walls were knocked loose, falling down on the Cons below. "Starscream, don't use too much firepower or you'll cause a landslide!"
"Don't tell me how to do my job!" Starscream hissed back and continued his assault on the Autobots. He grunted when a bolt grazed his wing, courtesy of Bulkhead. "You two, deal with the brutes."
"Got it." Skywarp said. He and Thundercracker vanished, and reappeared above Bulkhead and Ironhide, unleashing everything they had on them.
"Now where is Prime? Ah, there he is." Starscream spotted Optimus fighting Lugnut, tangling his battle blade with Lugnut's large mace.
He made a b-line towards his position and prepped his cruise missiles to fire at the Prime's unprotected back. He was so focused on his target that he didn't notice Prowl shoot one of his shoulder missiles at him until the projectile hit his wing.
"No!" The attack had knocked him of balance and threw his missiles off target. One hit the ground near Optimus while the other his Lugnut in the chest, blasting the Con back. Starscream cursed loudly at his failure.
Nightshade saw everything and moved from her postion. "Starscream fall back!"
"Never! I still have the advantage!" Starscream bellowed as he transformed and power linked with Zapmaster. He aimed his null ray at the Prime and fired his weapon at full blast.
Nightshade was already racing to him in beast mode, but she was too late to stop the seeker from attacking. As expected from her, Optimus moved so that the debilitating beam barely grazed him and fired his Ion cannon at the seeker. With his laser guided vision, Optimus had no trouble hitting Starscream in the leg, almost taking it off and sending him crashing to the ground.
Starscream spat out a mouth full of snow and dirt and winced at the pain in his leg. He got to one knee before a large shadow fell over him and he looked up to see Optimus glaring down at him. His already pale features went even whiter.
"N-no, don't!" Starscream stammered, losing all traces of his earlier bravado.
"You've already been given you chance, Starscream." Optimus said. He leveled his ion cannon at the seeker's head, but was forced to jump away to avoid the rain of missile darts that hit the ground around him.
Nightshade landed before Starscream in her bird mode and glared down at Starscream with her thin red slits she called eyes. The flames made her black armor glow, making her look even more menacing. Starscream held back any words he wanted to say, knowing she was seconds away from stabbing his eyes out with her beak.
"All units pull back," Nightshade said to her forces. "We're retreating."
Back at the Nemesis, the Cons were getting their wounds treated in the CR chambers, while Nightshade and Starsream were in the bridge having a little 'chat'.
"What the hell were you thinking? We had the Autobots on the ropes. They were running!" Starscream hissed at her. Nightshade pushed him back and sneered at him.
"Don't pin the blame on me. You and you lackeys almost blew your own people up in that valley. Not to mention that little stunt you pulled nearly put Lugnut in critical condition!"
"My target was Prime!"
"You never take Prime on alone unless you're Megatron, and you're certainly no Megatron!" She laughed. "I ordered you to stay back, and what do you do? The fragging opposite!"
"For your information, I was trying to get results. Which was much more than what you were trying to do." He replied angrily.
"You think you're tough slag, but it only took Prime three seconds to drop you out of the sky and had you on your knees begging for your life." Nightshade retorted bitterly. "Just because you're a seeker doesn't mean that you're all that. In the battlefield the Autobots don't care, they just want you dead. So shape up or you'll have more than your ego to worry about."
"Is that a threat Nightshade?" Starscream growled.
"No, it's a promise." Nightshade sneered.
"Silence both of you!" Megatron shouted.
The warlord's anger made both fighters clam up and stand at attention. Megatron glared at them both before looking out the monitor on the bridge. The calm image of the sunny tropical beach outside did nothing to quell the growing annoyance he was feeling at the situation at hand. Soundwave stood to the side, silent and still, but ready to intervene if necessary.
"For the past month, the Autobots have been steadily getting stronger. Though they rarely use their Minicons, the fact remains that they have so many at their disposal, and according to our mole, they are on the trail of another." Megatron said and faced his two underlings. "Our performance is nothing short of disappointing, and fighting amongst ourselves will only make things worse."
"Then try to keep Starscream on a shorter leash so he won't embarrass us again." Nightshade mumbled.
Megatron glared at her before getting to the real reason he called them there. "Soundwave has detected a stasis panel on one of the Grecian islands. The humans call this island Lemnos. The signal has been showing up at irregular time intervals, which is not normal for a stasis panel. The three of us are going to search that island for that panel."
"T-the three of us, sire?" Starscream blinked.
"I didn't stutter Starscream." Megatron said. "Take some time in the CR chamber then report to the shuttle bay at once. That is all."
Nightshade and Starscream glared at each other and exited the bridge. This was only one of many clashes between the two Cons, and wasn't even the most violent.
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The island of Lemnos was a land set in legends. To the humans, it is the home of a matriarchal society of women who had killed their fathers, brothers, uncles, husbands and sons. Nightshade heard this little tidbit from Knockout in passing, and wondered if all human mythological stories were as bloody as this.
They stood on the shore of Lemnos, the ground bridge vanishing behind them. Starscream sniffed as he kicked away a crab that was getting too close for comfort and looked around at the beach.
"This place doesn't look to bad. I could do without the fragging crabs though." He said. Megatron shouldered past him and looked at the jungle that lay before them.
"We aren't here to look at the scenery you fool. We have a job to do." He rumbled. He looked at Leader-1, who was holding the scanner. "Where is the panel?"
"Hard to say. I'm getting the signal from the jungle, but I can't tell if it's five kliks from us or five hundred. The damn scanner's been acting crazy since we got here." Leader-1 said.
Megatron hummed and looked at the jungle. The region looked plain and unassuming, but so did Nyx, until the pack of Lobos come and mow you down. It would be a waste of time to search the island from top to bottom, so there was only one logical solution.
"We'll split up. Starscream, you search for any caves or underground passages that may be hampering the signal. Nightshade, you will search the mountain tops. I will stay at ground level."
"W-why do I have to search the caves? I'm a seeker, not some mining drone!" Starscream exclaimed.
"If you do not cease your whining, you will be buried alive in the ground. Now shut up and get moving!" Megatron shouted.
Starscream gulped and quickly fast walked into the forest. Megatron made to do the same, but noticed Nightshade hanging back, looking at the mountain at the heart of the island.
"What's wrong?" He asked.
"Nothing, just making sure we're alone." She said. Megatron nodded and continued into the jungle, leaving her alone on the beach. Nightshade turned to her Minicon. "Be on your guard. Something is not right here."
"Yes ma'am." Songbird nodded and power linked with her mistress. Folding up into an arm mounted laser bow, Songbird remained on high alert.
Nightshade took a deep breath and walked forward, knowing that this was going to be a long day.
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In the middle of a dark chamber, three sisters stood in a circle, a round crystal ball floating before them.
"Do you feel it sister?" The younger sister asked.
"Yes, Grave. We have visitors." The older sister said.
"Odd ones at that, much different than the humans who came here all those centuries ago." The middle sister noted. "They are like Talon, but much smaller, and more…alive."
"Impossible! We are the only ones blessed by the Oracle! These things are nothing but automatons made in our likeliness. To think of them as anything else would be blasphemy in the eyes of the White Queen, Fortissimo!" Grave said.
"Calm yourself, Grave. Do you not feel their souls? They harbor metal shells, but they're souls are like ours. Interesting." The older sister, Allegretto, waved herhand over the orb and focused on the red one, Starscream. "Let's see what makes them tick. If they are anything like us, then this will give some credence to the disappearance of Feroce, Forte and Flebile in the northlands."
Fortissimo wasn't happy with the idea, but the word of her older sister was law. "Very well, we will look into their hearts."
"Yes, and we will see why they feel like us." Grave agreed.
"And they will kneel to the true masters of this world." Allegretto said.
Then all three sisters chanted, "For we are the three who act as one. All powerful, all knowing, ever seeing."
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Starscream found the entrance to the cave network that went down for miles under the island. He followed a river that went through the forest and into a honeycombed network of tunnels and caves that ran deep under the bedrock. Possibly even under the ocean itself.
He hated every minute of it. He hated being in places where his powers of flight were useless. It wasn't uncommon for a flyer like him to be unnerved by the dark, dank caverns of the earth, to feel restrained because the world tried to leash him to the ground with gravity. Thundercracker and Sunstorm, the hyperactive bastard he was, were the same way in that regard. He was a seeker, a king of the skies with skills rivaled by no one, not even that glitch Nightshade.
'No one save HER.' He thought bitterly. 'She was always better than me, no matter what I do, she was always looming over my shoulder like some god forsaken shadow. Even in death, people still compared me to her.'
Then he stopped. Why was he thinking of her now, of all places? His sister was dead and buried, gone forever to the Allspark with a legacy that was rightfully his. He had no regrets!
"Boss?"
"What is it?" Starscream asked rudely. Zapmaster looked up at him.
"What's with you, you've been staring at nothing for a while there." He said. Starscream took a deep breath and continued walking.
"It's nothing you should be concerned about. Let's move on."
They went deeper into the cave, which wasn't as dark as they thought it would be because of the light streaming in from the opening in the cave ceiling. Sunlight broke through the crack and shown down on the water, giving the place a rather cozy atmosphere that calmed Starscream a bit.
"Starscream."
He froze in place, eyes wide and spark pulsing as that voice he had spent so long trying to block from his mind rang in his audio receptors.
"W-who's there?" He stammered. He didn't hear Zapmaster calling out to him as he stumbled forward, trying to find the speaker.
"Starscream."
"Stop playing games with me and show yourself!" Starscream shouted.
That voice, that accursed voice reminded him of someone he much rather had forgotten. The voice of the femme that made his life a living hell once the day he matured from a protoform.
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The city of Vos was a place where those who ruled the sky ruled the people. It was home to Cybertron's Air Defense Force, composed of the Seeker brotherhood that dominated this state. The city was composed of towering spires and long highways that connected together in one large web that crisscrossed the landscape in a clutter that rivaled Iacon.
Starscream stood inside the citadel, watching the jagged skyline of the Vosian city that he called home. The sky was orange and the airspace was full of Vosian-born flyers who weaved through the buildings with such ease that it looked like they were swimming.
'This is the life. Living above the ground-bound lower castes and doing practically nothing with my life.' Starscream thought. He frowned as he realized that little tidbit. His life was boring as hell. Though with how things were heating up in Tarn, he knew things were going to get fun really soon.
"Screamer!" A jovial voice exclaimed. Starscream groaned.
"Oh Primus no."
A tall mech entered the chamber, he was mostly white with red energon lines running along the length of his body, and sported a blue visor with a white face-plate. He jogged up to Starscream and threw an arm around the seeker's shoulders.
"How's my favorite little buddy doing?" Jetfire laughed.
"Fine, Jetfire, just fine." Starscream said sweetly. 'If it isn't having to deal with Sunstorm's suicidal tendencies, then it's trying to survive Jetfire's exuberance.'
"So what you're doing up here all by your lonesome? Not pretending your Sentinel rime I hope!" Jetfire cackled.
"Nothing of the sort, Jetfire." He wasn't that ambitious. With everything that's been going on lately, he did not envy Sentinel's job." Now what brings you here, I thought you were out on patrol."
"I decided to come back early, I have a date planned for tonight." Jetfire whispered loudly. "Can you guess who it is?"
"Slipstream." He said.
"It's Slipstre-wait how do you know?"
"She won't shut up about it. What else?"
Jetfire was going to make a witty remark when the door slammed open and in walked their shared commander, Deadscream. She was a slender gunmetal grey femme with deep red eyes that bore into the very sparks of the seekers before her. Deadscream was the air commander of the seeker armada, and Starscream's biological older sister. Though one wouldn't know this after seeing how she treats him.
Both Jetfire and Starscream broke apart and stood ram-rod straight as she approached them in her tense stroll.
"G-good evening sister, how was your day?" Starscream asked.
Deadscream looked down at him, in both a figurative and literal sense seeing as she was a head taller than him and only a few inches shorter than Jetfire, and turned to the white mech.
"Jetfire, could you give us some privacy please?" She asked, though it was not a request.
'Uh oh. Someone's in trouble.' Thought Jetfire. There was a lot of bad blood between the twins and made sure to clear the area before the fireworks went off.
When Jetfire was gone, Deadscream didn't even wait a second before backhanding her brother across the jaw, knocking him into the window. She glared at him in a rare show of anger.
"What the hell were you thinking you fool?!" Deadscream snarled.
"W-what do you mean? What did I do?" Starscream stammered, though he knew what she meant.
"Don't play games with me! You were supplying nucleon grade weapons to the Decepticons weren't you?"
"How dare you accuse me of aiding those marauding band of barbarians! I would never do such a thing."
Deadscream held up a holo-vid that showed him, Skywarp and Thundercracker talking with the gladiator Megatron and Soundwave. It showed the entirety of the deal being made to periodically give weapons to the cause, as well as supply routes to secret areas within Vos, in return for a place at the table in Megatron's revolution.
"Skyfire is not a surveillance bot for nothing, Starscream." She said dryly.
'Stupid Minicon.' Starscream thought.
"I was simply securing a place for our kind in the new world to come, dear sister. The Decepticon revolt has been gaining speed, and it's only a matter of time before war breaks out over control of Cybertron. As seekers, we deserve a seat at the table, do we not?" He explained.
"YOU IDIOT!" Deadscream was positively livid. "Did you forget our creed, a seeker is loyal only unto himself! Even if we pledge to serve another faction, we are loyal only to our brothers and sisters of the sky! What you did could bring the whole damn senate and that fool Sentinel Prime on us! You placed our independence in jeopardy! And for what? To move yourself up in the world and satiate your inferiority complex?"
'I I just-ugh!" Starscream grunted when she punched him again and planted her foot on his chest.
"Just what? Speak up your whimpering fool! Show me that bravado you always parade around behind my back!" When he remained silent, she sniffed and stepped back. "Just what I thought. You're only brave and tough when I'm not around to show people what true leadership is. Stop your backroom dealings with the Cons or so help me I will rip out your voice box so that you will never embarrass the seekers again. Do you understand?"
"Yes, sister." He said softly.
Deadscream sneered at her brother and marched back out the room. When she was gone, Starscream sat on his knees, looking at his hands. They were trembling.
He was sick of this. Of being treated like he was trash. His sister may think that she could act like nothing was happening on Cybertron, that no one will dare attack them. But she was wrong.
There is a war coming, and he planned for the seekers to be on the winning side. Without Deadscream.
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Starscream gritted his teeth at the memory. Deadscream was as stone cold as they come, and she always lorded her position over him. It didn't help that she was a point one percenter, something that only made him more jealous of her.
He shook his head, now was not to the time to be thinking of the past. She was dead, he was alive and in command of the mightiest force in the Decepticons. That's the end of it.
"That's what you think."
A bolt of energy tore into the ground in front of him. Starscream leapt back and had Zapmaster powerlink with him to bring out his null ray cannon.
"Who's there!" He shouted. "Show yourself or face my wrath!"
"Oh Starscream, we both know that you're nowhere near as fearsome as you think you are. All you are is hot air."
A figure stepped into the dim light. Starscream felt his anger fade almost immediately as he saw who his attacker was.
"Deadscream?"
His sister gave him a truly devilish smile, teeth and all, as she glared at Starscream.
"Hello brother."
XXXXXXXXX
Nightshade and Songbird flew up to the mountain near the center of the island, more specifically a small cliff that caught their eye. It was oddly tall, and looked like the tip of a spear, stabbing through mother earth. The red dust on the rocks even looked like blood.
It reminded Nightshade of the towering spires of the Badlands back on Cybertron. The Badlands were just full of these spires, tall points of warped metal that fit all too well with the grim motif of the Badlands where the downtrodden and forgotten bots of the lower castes resided.
She landed on the cliff and transformed, as did Songbird who landed on her shoulder. The Con turned to take a moment to look at the vast island before her. As much as she hated being stuck on this planet, she had to admit that this world had some amazing scenery. It was a shame that most of it was being torn to shreds because of the humans.
'Though, we weren't any different.' Thought Nightshade, thinking back on how the war had pretty much destroyed much of Cybertron's surface. Even the Helix Gardens weren't spared, and she loved those crystalline trees of harmony. 'But it wasn't our fault that Cybertron was dying. None of this would've happened if those racist fools in the Senate weren't so caught up in trying to control us.'
Nightshade's thoughts drifted back to a time when she was not the second in command officer of the Decepticons, but simply Nightshade, the scavenger with wings as black as Unicron's spark.
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The Badlands of Cybertron were among the harshest territories on the planet, just under the Sea of Rust, which was along its borders. The metal there was as black as the bots who lived there, and the landscape was marred by tall, twisting spires that jutted up from the ground. It was said that the Badlands were once the site of some battle from ages past that turned the entire region into one black scar, but that notion has yet to be proven.
Nightshade flew over the blackened land in her beast mode with a large energon cube clutched in her claws, her red eyes scanning the terrain for any stragglers or agents who might be following her. She may be acting a bit paranoid, but when it came to the Senate it paid to be careful.
She flew over a small mountain range and saw the edge of Kaon ahead. Diving low, she flew close to the ground as she approached the very edge of the city. Nightshade reached the old, dusty streets and transformed, catching the two cubes in her arm.
She made her way to the old house at the end of the street, which looked like a storm had tried to blow it away multiple times and just gave up on the last attempt. Nightshade looked around one last time before ducking into the house, kicking the door closed behind her.
"Damus, I'm home!" She called out.
"In here!"
Nightshade tossed the cube onto a stack of energon cubes stockpiled in the corner and walked into another room, where a slender red mech was sitting listening to some music.
"Primus, Damus are you listening to that damn song again?" Nightshade groaned. Damus, her conjux endura, turned his dull yellow eyes onto the much taller femme.
"Don't talk smack about the Emyprean Suite, it's a work of art." He said.
"It's annoying as hell."
"Don't blame me because you don't have any musical appreciation." Damus shrugged. His sister was one of those 'new age' bots who liked the garbage they played in the clubs in Ky-Alexia.
Nightshade sighed and plopped herself in the broken down chair next to him."Not now, Damus. I just flew in from Stryx today and I'm exhausted."
That caught his attention. "Stryx? Whoa, Shade, that's like 500 kliks from Kaon. What are you doing flying over there?"
"Getting us energon. Those oil holes over in Stryx have laughable security. It's no problem snatching some cubes from there." She said.
Damus didn't say anything. He hated that she had to go to so much effort just to get enough energon to feed them both. It was a dangerous world out there, especially for a beast former.
"Relax," Nightshade said, sensing his discomfort. "I don't mind flying the distance if it means that you get to function properly."
"Still, if I could just go outside, then I can get some cubes from the refinery-"
"No, too risky. You know that the Senate's lapdogs have been sniffing around for any bot stupid enough to go against the system." She said. "And a mech who can turn into a tank that's working as a musician is not a part of the system."
Damus sighed and looked down at his hands. He was born with a tank alt mode, but he hated fighting and wasn't the type of mech who did well under the strain of military conduct. His main love was for music, listening to performing pieces of his own design that gained a bit of a fanbase among the lower caste bots in the neighborhood. This was going against the will of both the senate and the Funtionist council, and that terrified him almost as much as the thought of losing Nightshade to those butchers in the Elite Guard.
"I know it's dangerous, but it's better than having you risk your life every day just for a few scraps of energon. You strong Nightshade but not strong enough to take on the entire world." He said.
Nightshade took his face in her hands and turned it so he faced her. "Damus, as long as I have you, I will keep fighting. I don't care about the risks, all I care about is making sure you get to live your life the way you want to. Together we can fight through their oppression."
Damus smiled. "Nightshade, I love you. And even without my music I can still make it through this with you."
Nightshade smiled and pressed her forehead against his. "You will stay with me, right?"
"Always."
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'Damus.' She thought forlornly. The thought of her lover made her spark ache. It had been a while since she thought of him, but she didn't know why she was thinking about him now of all places. 'It must be the scenery. It's getting me sentimental.'
Nightshade inhaled the fresh air and walked into the cave that was behind her. The trail spiraled down into the rock formation, leading her deeper and deeper into its dark interior. She was waiting for any sign of the panel's location, but she wasn't getting any clear sign of it being nearby.
"Songbird, do you detect any sign of the panel? I'm not getting anything on my scanners." She said.
"No, mistress. All I can tell you is that the signal is below us." The Mini-Con said softly.
Now she was getting worried. Nightshade descended deeper and deeper into the darkness, and yet they still hadn't made any progress. Half an hour passed and she was no closer to the end of this natural pathway than she was earlier.
"What the hell is going on here?" She growled. She extended her sensors to analyze the rock around here to see how close she was to the bottom but something was blocking her scanners. She had no idea where she was! "Enough of this!"
At her command, Songbird attached herself to Nightshade's arm and formed an arm mounted railgun, which Nightshade used to blast a hole in the wall. She jumped through the wall, but was surprised not to find herself outside, but in the heart of some cavern.
This cavern was like nothing she had seen before. The walls were lined from one end to the other with hard crystal that glowed a prismatic radiance that made the place just seem heavenly. Water flowed down onto the ground from the rivers and streams outside and collected into a pool in the middle of the cavern.
Looking up she saw that the cavern actually extended hundreds of feet above her, continuing upwards in a spiraling pattern that shrank the higher it went. This was the inside of the spire.
"Beautiful isn't it? You've always loved crystals. They natural beauty they displayed."
Nightshade raised her weapon as she heard an ethereal voice ring in her head. "Who said that?"
"Why, don't you remember me, Shade?"
A red form rose from the pool in a slow gait, water dripping from his small form as he exited the pool and approached Nightshade. Her eyes widened as she saw who it was that appeared before her.
"D-Damus?" She gasped. Damus smiled and held his arms out to her.
"Hello my love."
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"Deadscream?" Starscream gasped. He took a step back without thinking and cursed himself for showing fear. "How are you still alive?"
"Is that fear I hear in your voice, Starscream? Even after all these years you still tremble at the sound of my name?" Deadscream let out a horrid cackle that sent shivers up Starscream's spine. "Pathetic. And you want to take over the Decepticons."
"Shut up!"
Starscream fired a blast from his null ray at Deadscream, but the beam missed and hit the far side of the wall.
"You can't even hit me because you're so scared. Fine then, if you're not going to draw first blood, then allow me!"
Deadscream ran forward with her arms shifting into a pair of barbed swords, phasing in and out of sight like some ghost as she got close to him. Starscream brought himself to deploy his melee weapon, a three-bladed bayonet, to deflect a powerful strike that sent him crashing into the wall.
"Fight back!" Deadscream shouted. She stabbed at his chest but he deflected the strike and rolled to the side, only for her to kick him in the face. "You coward! Fight back!"
He was trying, he really was, but something was crippling him. A soft hymn at the back of his mind was distracting him, slowing his movements. He fired his null ray again but she dodged it and slashed his shoulder, sending energon mixing into the water below him. Her attacks were as quick and precise as they were all those years ago. His close combat skills were garbage enough without her here to make that fact evident.
They clashed for a few seconds more before Deadscream knocked his arm aside and jumped up, planting both feet into his chest and kicking him so hard that he was sent flying across the cave back to where he first entered. She rushed at him and pinned him to the ground.
"I'm going to kill you, Starscream. Nice and slow." She hissed. "I'm going to pay you back for killing me all those years ago!"
That jogged something in his mind. Yes he did kill her, a long time ago during the twilight days of the Decepticons Uprising.
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Vos was burning. Word had gotten out that Senator Crocus was assassinated, and just a few hours later a Decepticon army was approaching Vos's gates. An army led by Shockwave.
Starscream and Thundercracker were standing on one of the lookout towers watching the chaos unfold.
"This is a disaster." Thundercracker said.
"Indeed it is Thundercracker." Starscream muttered.
"I thought the seekers were supporting the Decepticons, what changed to make them attack Vos?"
"Guess." Starscream growled.
Deadscream had publicly denounced any further dealings with the Decepticons, making an effort to insult them in full view of the cameras. As leader of the seekers, she was well within her rights, but with how the Decepticons were quickly taking over Kaon, not many shared her confidence. It didn't help that Vos's senator was killed in his home. The seekers now had control of Vos, but for what cost?
"If something isn't done soon, then Vos is going to end up like Stryx." Thundercracker said. Then Skywarp's voice came over their internal comms.
"Hey, boss lady is wants you both down here stat."
Starscream made a noise of acknowledgement before nodding to Thundercracker. They both jumped off the tower and transformed to jet mode, flying to the citadel that the seekers had made their main base of operations.
They switched back to robot mode and landed on the ground. Entering the citadel, they saw that most of the seeker's inner circle was assembled in the main hall. Deadscream looked at them like they were noting but dirt at the bottom of her foot.
"It's about damn time you joined us." She said. Starscream looked around for a certain white flyer.
"Where's Jetfire?"
"The bastard ditched us for the Autobots." Slipstream grumbled."The same with Sunstone."
Starscream gritted his teeth. Sunstone was another seeker who was an ace flyer, capable of performing nearly impossible maneuvers in the air, moves that were considered too risky by most other seekers. If she had defected to the Autobots, then this was a sure sign that they needed to pick a side and soon.
"Deadscream, we must side with the Decepticons now or else everything we've built here we be destroyed." He urged his sister to see reason.
"I have told you one too many times Starscream, that we seekers adhere to no one! If those savages from Kaon want a fight so badly, then we will give them a fight. We have the surperior numbers and the home field advantage and we will win."
"But-"
Deadscream stepped up to him, close enough that he could see her optics through her glass coverings. "I will not throw away our independence because you are too scared to fight like a true warrior!"
"I'm trying to preserve our way of life. The Decepticons are going to rule Cybertron, and the seekers will be at the vanguard of their efforts! As seekers we deserve the glory of conquest!"
She promptly punched him in the jaw hard enough to send him to the ground, and began kicking him. The other seekers hanged back, wanting to help, but knowing that Deadscream would kill them if they tried.
"I AM THE COMMANDER! NOT JETFIRE, NOT SUNSTONE AND CERTAINLY NOT YOU!" Deadscream roared. "I AM SICK OF YOUR COWARDICE! YOU ARE A DISGRACE TO OUR BROTHERHOOD, AND I WILL NOT TOLERATE WEAKNESS FROM ANYONE, ESPECIALLY FROM MY FAILURE OF A BROTHER!"
Each word hurt more than the blows he was taking. She abused him, treated him like he was dirt, insulted his pride. But this time something was different, she was accusing him of being a traitor to the seekers, to his kin. That was something he was not going to take. He was trying to save the seekers from annihilation, give them the chance to become the mighty armada they were meant to be. He wasn't the traitor, she was!
"ENOUGH!"
Starscream roared and jumped up, his bayonet shooting from his arm as he leapt at her. With a trust of his arm, the blade sank into Deadscream's chest, emerging from her back and extinguishing her spark almost immediately. Both twins looked each other in the eyes before the light faded from Deadscream's optics, her face still stuck in its shocked and enraged expression.
Starscream pulled his arm back and let her drop to the ground, staring at the corpse in shock. She was dead? Yes, yes she was dead, and by his own hand no less. He was finally free of her!
Looking at the other seekers, Starscream stood up straight and tall, trying to look every bit the commander he now was.
"Seekers! Our leader is dead! As the highest ranking officer here, it is now my duty to take command of the Seekers of Vos." He said. "Are there any objections?"
No one spoke up, in fact they looked rather relieved that Deadscream was gone. No longer did they have to fear for their lives, or tip toe around her to avoid triggering her psychotic temper triades.
Starscream smirked. "Good. Now as my first action as commander, call Shockwave up and tell him we need to talk. It's time things changed around here."
XXXXXXX
He killed her because she was leading the seekers to ruin, infecting them with the same stagnation that took hold of the Senate and Sentinel Prime. He did the world a favor by snuffing her out!
'And if she was dead, then this specter,' thought Starscream. 'This ghost isn't her at all.'
"I see now. You aren't Deadscream, you're nothing like her." He growled, making her stop her assault. "You're an imposter, the real Deadscream is dead and buried, her body tossed into the sonic canyons. And Deadscream never plays with her food!"
He shot forward and jammed his bayonet into the fake Deadscream's chest, just like before. But unlike the last time, her body began to shimmer and fade, like some hologram. Starscream grinned as he was correct in his assumption.
"Now why don't you come out so we can have a real battle."
Be careful what you wish for, seeker. You will regret that decision."
Starscream saw the air before him shimmer and distort before a large form appeared in front of him and what he saw was nothing like what he was expecting.
"What are you?"
XXXXXXX
"Damus?" Nightshade whispered, her voice little more than a breeze. "Is that you?"
"It is, my dear." Damus said, smiling. "Look at you, I'm amazed at how strong you had become. You truly are a predator."
Overcome with emotion, Nightshade disengaged Songbird and ran into the arms of her lost love. She hugged him tight, afraid that he may disappear again.
"I thought I lost you."
"I came close to death, but I made it through. And I came a long way just to see you again Shade."
Songbird transformed and looked at her mistress. This was her lover Damus? But, didn't he die during the Clampdown on Cybertron? There is no way he could have survived and flew all the way to this planet, where no one knew where they were. Something wasn't right.
Then she saw it, Damus's body shimmered for a split second, but she caught it with her keen eyes. Physical beings don't act like that, not if they were some form of hologram or solid light projection!
"Lady Nigtshade! It's a trick, that's not Damus!" She yelled.
Her words did not reach Nightshade, because unknown to her, there was a high pitched noise ringing in the Con's audio receptors. Seeing that her words were not reaching her mistress, Songbird tried the next thing she could think of.
She transformed into her railgun mode and fired off her thrusters to give her enough height to fire a plasma beam at Damus. The beam shot over Nigtshade's shoulder and hit him in the chest, knocking him back a bit.
"Songbird stand down!" Nightshade shouted. "He's not your enemy!"
"That is not Damus, my lady. He is an imposter, look!"
Nightshade looked back at Damus just in time to see his body ripple like water before returning to normal. Her eyes went wide, then she winced when the noise in her head grew louder.
"Shade, is something wrong?" Damus asked.
"W-who are you?"
"Excuse me?"
"Who the hell are you?!" She shouted, the ringing was getting louder now, and it was only making her angrier. "You're not Damus, you're just some ghost wearing his face!"
The real Damus died because of a mistake she made long ago. Because she wasn't strong enough.
XXXXXXX
Nightshade flew onto the familiar street where she lived with her conjux. She was about to call out to Damus when she noticed that the door to their abode was smashed in, and scorch marks were on the street.
"Damus?" She called out. When she didn't get a reply back, she ran into the house. "Damus! Answer me!"
The interior of the house was a mess, ransacked. The entire stack of energon cubes was gone, and there was some energon pooling on the floor. She looked in Damus' music room to find that all his instruments were destroyed, and another gruesome sight.
A pair of severed hands.
"No," Nightshade gasped. They got him. Those functionist bastards got him!
"Aww, is the little birdy sad that her boy toy got taken away?"
Nightshade spun around and saw a light blue femme walk out of the storage room. She looked like she was a lightning bolt in physical form, with long, sharp claws that were jagged like thunderbolts. Her head was curved and angular, and her blue eyes held a certain degree of madness in them.
"Who are you?" Nightshade asked. She was just barely able to restrain herself from animalistic rage.
"Sourcefield, proud agent of the Legislators, and you must be Nightshade." Sourcefield raked her eyes along Nightshade's body. "My, you certainly are easy on the eyes aren't you?"
"Where is Damus?"
"You boyfriend has been shipped off to get some reconditioning. Don't worry, he'll still be alive. Which is much more than what I can say for you, animal."
"Tell me where he is!" She snarled. Sourcefield laughed.
"You'll have to do more than just give me a scary lo-"
The femme was suddenly propelled through the wall by Nightshade's beast mode, crashing into the ground outside with the large black bird looming over her. Sourcefield encased her body in electricity and fired nearly a dozen lightning bolts at Nightshade. Nightshade switched to robot mode and ducked under the bolts, letting them crash into the remains of her house before leaping at Sourcefield.
Sourcefield channeled lightning into her fist and slammed it into Nightshade's face. She went crashing into the ground, but retaliated by pulling out one of her swords and stabbing Sourcefield in the thigh.
"Gah! You glitch!"
Sourcefield tried to electrocute the blade and Nightshade with it, but she let go just in time and jumped up, stabbing her other sword into the femme's gut, right through the T-cog and pulling the blade upwards. Sourcefield coughed up energon as she was almost bisected, but Nightshade stopped the blade just as it was under her spark core.
"Tell me where Damus is or I will make your death slow and painful." Nightshade hissed.
Sourcefield coughed a laugh. "He's at the Rivets Field facility. Good luck trying to get in there, because the place is heavily guarded."
"I'll deal with that as I see fit."
Then she jerked her blade and cut Sourcefield's upper body in half, from spark to brain module.
Hours later, Nightshade was deep inside the facility that was holding Damus. She was covered in wounds and dents, but nothing serious. She did a lot worse to the guards and medics blocking her way.
She blasted the door open and ran into the cell he was being held in. "Damus? Please answer me!"
"S-Shade?" A weak voice answered. "Is that you?"
Nightshade looked forward and saw that her conjux was strapped to an operating table, and sounded like he was just waking up. She ran over to him and broke his bonds. Pulling him off the table and onto her lap. She let out a gasp upon seeing his face and hands.
"W-what's wrong? Why do I feel so strange?" Damus asked.
"D-don't talk. Just rest, you've been through a lot. But you're safe now." Her voice cracked a bit as she was slowly overcome with emotion.
"Shade what's wro-" Damus cut himself off as he tried to reach for his face, only to notice that his hands were not five fingered, but three clawed and clunky. "What is this?"
Nightshade said nothing as she watched Damus stumble to his feet, grabbing the first reflective object he could find and looked into it. What he saw staring back made him give a horrific scream of agony and pain. It wasn't his facc, but a round head with a single yellow eye in the center.
"WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO ME! MY HANDS, MY FACE! THEY TOOK IT ALL AWAY!"
Nightshade stared up at her tormented lover and stood, up wrapping her arms around him as he a he sobbed over his face and hands.
XXXXXXX
"You're not Damus." Nightshade muttered in realization. "He's dead."
"What? But I'm right here, I'm as real as the crystals you see around us." Damus said. She shook her head.
"The mech I loved died that day, when the functionists stole his hands and face!" Nightshade drew her blades and pointed them at the fake Damus. "And you dare desecrate his memory by wearing his face. Show yourself to me you hellspawn!"
Damus frowned. "But I am Damus. Don't you remember how we would argue about my tastes in music? How I always loved listening to classical cybertronian orchestra?"
The ringing was getting louder, but she did her best to ignore it. "No, I saw him die in my arms. He is gone, now and forever! And there's nothing anyone can say about that! So get out of my head!"
Songbird connected to Nightshade's arm and fired a beam at Damus. The beam hit him in the chest, and this time, his image shattered like glass before fading into nothingness. The crystals around them went dark, dimming from a brilliant prismatic radiance into a dark blue glow that cloaked her in shadows.
"Well done. Not many can break out of my illusions so easily." A disembodied voice said. "As a reward, you shall fight me in my full splendor."
XXXXXXX
Every fiber of Megatron's being was screaming that something was wrong. It first began when he followed the trial of the Minicon panel into the most remote area of the island, a marsh that led deeper into the jungle. Then he had lost contact with Nightshade and Starscream. When he ordered Leader-1 to contact his Minicon comrades, the little bot had no such luck either.
"I don't know if it's the dense foliage or our different locations, but I'm not picking up their comm signals." Leader-1 said. It was a bit unnerving, seeing as he was used to being in constant contact with the other Minicons.
Megatron thought about his next course of action for a minute, and only a minute, before continuing on his way. Leader-1 tried to catch up to his master's long strides.
"You aren't going to look for them?" He inquired.
"Unlike Prime's lackey, I can trust my lieutenant to take care of herself. And as for Starscream," Megatron chuckled. "Self preservation is a running gag for that ambitious fool. He'll be fine as well. Right now I have a job to do, and I intend to finish it."
Leader-1 scanned the local area for the panel's signal and saw that it was only a few feet ahead of him. He relayed the information to Megatron, who grinned.
They went deeper into the forest, where the sun's light barely shown through the trees. Then they made it out of the dense brush and found themselves at the edge of some courtyard.
"Wow, I was not expecting this." Leader-1 said.
It was a temple of some kind, one that had to be dedicated to some deity that the humans worshipped. The ground was oddly smooth and polished, despite the entire place having been abandoned for thousands of years. The floor was tiled with extravagant murals that went around in a circle, each one depicting a man performing some task. And at the center of these murals was a statue, one that sent a sharp pain through Megatron's spark.
'What is this?'
The statue depicted the broken form of a woman being held in the arms of a man with half his face missing. The woman, who was little more than a torso, was caressing the broken side of the man's face with her one arm. Both figures were staring at each other with unbridled love.
"I'm so sorry Megatron. I wasn't strong enough."
He gritted his teeth as a memory rose up from the depths of his mind. Images of a broken body in his arms, buildings and bots destroyed and burning around them, the soft feel of a dainty hand running down his face as he watched the light fade from her eyes.
"Lord Megatron?" Leader-1 said. "Are you alright?"
A song rang in Megatron's head now. One that he heard before. It was a soft melody that he would hear after every gladiator match he fought in the Pits, a low humming that increased in tone as it reached its climax. Megatron covered his audio receptors but the song still rang in his head, getting louder and louder until he couldn't even hear his own voice any more.
"STOP IT!" He roared.
"Megatron, I want you to remember that I will always be with you. Be it in person or in spirit. But know that if you want to realize your dream, then you must take charge. Never give in, never show weakness. Because it is by showing defiance that you prove to them that you are a threat the likes they have never seen before. Someone they cannot subjugate. When they realize that they cannot silence you, or coerce you to take a different path, that is when they'll learn that you are stronger than all of them combined. Such is the strength of the individual heart, your heart."
"Thank you, Elmeth."
Megatron's eyes snapped opened and he let out a mighty roar that could be heard from all over the island.
"KRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"
Leader-1 jumped back as he felt some sort of wave wash over the area, and then realized that the air felt much lighter than before, something he did not realize until now. Megatron was on one knee, panting and holding a hand to his aching head.
"Lord Megatron?" Leader-1 said slowly. He didn't want to be anywhere near the warlord if he was to have another outburst like that.
"Leader-1, powerlink with me right now." Megatron said gruffly.
"Wha-"
"DO IT!"
Leader-1 transformed and connected to Megatron's left arm, deploying his arm blade coated in electricity. Megatron forced himself to his feet and called out into the darkness that set over the temple.
"Come out and face me! Your illusions will not work on me anymore!"
The air in front of the statue shimmered like water before a form appeared. It looked like some floating statue, with a vaguely humanoid shape that was stuck in a large V shape. It had a body shaped like a curved musical note, with two large wings connected to the main body with stony veins and blue crystalline armor that ran along its spine over its head, covering its eyes but leaving its mouth exposed. A crystal orb floated above its head.
"Who are you?" Megatron asked.
"I am Allegretto, leader of the Muses, and queen of Lemnos." Allegretto said and a smirk spread across her blue painted lips. "And I know who you are, Megatron of Tarn."
Megatron pointed his sword at her person. "You should know better than to try to defeat me with magic tricks! Who do you think you are?"
Allegretto's smirk grew wider. "God."
That was it. Megatron fired his fusion cannon at her, the weapon's power amped up by the powerlink he had with Leader-1. To his surprise, the beam was diverted away from Allegretto before it could even reach within a foot of her.
"Don't think it will be easy to kill me, machine. I am more than just clay and crystal!"
The orb on her head grew brighter and fired a beam so luminous that it blinded Megatron with its radiance. He had enough sense to jump to the side to avoid the blast, and felt the heat scorch his armor as it hit the trees behind him, carving a smoking path for about a mile before stopping.
"Try as you might to kill me, you will only wear yourself down. Even as we speak my sisters prey upon the memories of your fellow warriors, and grow stronger from them." Allegretto said. "It is no use."
"The last person to say that to me I killed him with my bare hands!" Megatron shouted. "No one if greater than Megatron!"
Megatron charged forward to battle this witch of stone, ready for what was to be a very hard battle.
XXXXXXX
Starscream burst out of the ground in his jet mode with five beams of light chasing after him. He performed a series of maneuvers in the air to get the beams to crisscross and crash into one another, making them all explode. Not long after, another larger form rose out of the ground and into the sky at break-neck speeds after him.
The goddess known as Grave of the Muses was a being unlike anything Starscream had seen before. Her body was massive, around the size of a fully grown 20 feet tall Adamanchelid; sporting a thick body with four short stubby legs with the bottom half of a feminine face at the base of a large stony monolith that rose from her back. Two thick wings were on the sides of her body, but they only seemed to be there for decoration, as she was flying by the use of some unknown power.
"Why do you run, when I can chase you to the ends of this world and the next? You did not run from your sister, and she was much more savage than I." Grave said.
"Shut up!" Starscream fired two cruise missiles at her. But when they got in close, they exploded just inches from her face.
"What hope do you have against me, a muse of the song of pain?" Grave laughed. She opened her mouth and sang a low note that rose in tempo.
From her song her body glowed before the light gathered around her in a halo and extended outwards. Starscream only had time to feel his body get heavier before he was sent crashing onto the beach. The force of his impact shook the beach and sent sand flying everywhere.
"Move boss!" Zapmaster shouted.
Starscream snatched up Zapmaster and used the thrusters in his feet to push himself off the ground. A millisecond later the spot where he was just in caved in like all the gravity in the world had compressed in that single spot.
"You, a warrior who fears the earth so much that you scorn those who are not blessed with flight. I shall burn your wings and anchor you to the ground for your hubris!" Grave declared.
"Don't you ever shut up!" Starscream growled. He pumped all his power into his feet and shot into the air.
Zapmaster brought out his null ray as he flew at Grave like a bullet. Grave sang once more and this time Starscream felt the air around him get thicker. He dived to the side just as a deep boom rumbled in the air, and kept charging ahead.
The air was alive with deafening booms as Grave tried to crush Starscream into oblivion. Each time the seeker avoided such a fate, but the attacks were getting more and more faster, with the chances of failure and death increasing with each second.
'Let's finish this!' Starscream thought. He flew high enough so that he was on Grave's level and fired his null ray.
"Arrogance fool." Grave sang and the beam grew smaller until it dissipated a few inches from her. But when she went to attack Starscream, she didn't see him anywhere. "What?"
Then she felt something sharp poke her in the back. "Time for your encore."
Grave screamed melodiously as the full powered null beam tore into her body and blasted her face apart. Starscream wasn't taking any chances as he made sure to destroy any part of her body that could still attack him. When he was done all that was left was dust in the wind.
And so the first sister fell.
XXXXXXX
The crystal cavern shook violently as a high pitch scream reverberated throughout the area. Nightshade hid behind a pillar to avoid a sonic wave that crushed the stone next to her into dust.
Her opponent was as vicious as she was thorough. Fortissimo of the Muses was a being who looked like some deformed tuning fork. Her body was like red clay, and she had no arms or legs, only two short spiky stumps in place of arms, and slightly larger protrusions on her lower half, one longer than the other. Her face was made of marble and floated unassisted in a beige headdress.
"I thought you liked music, my dear?" Fortissimo mocked in Damus's voice. "Don't tell me you like that new age crap these humans listen to!"
She opened her mouth and released a strong high frequency wave at Nightshade's hiding place. The femme ducked out of cover just before the stone pillar was pulverized by the sonic attack and vaporized.
"Not when I hear singing as bad as yours!" Nightshade replied. She fired a blast from her railgun, but the muse floated aside to dodge the beam. "What are you? What is your quarrel with us?"
"Our quarrel?" Fortissimo repeated. Her voice was soft like tinkling glass, but had a murderous edge to it. "Quarrels are for mortals. We are goddesses, and this island is our domain. Your lives were forfeit the minute you stepped foot on our shores! But fear not, for through death, you will avoid the eventual end of the old world as we usher in the new one."
"Great," Nightshade ducked under another wave and fired again at the muse. "A religious nut who thinks she's some deity. I don't believe in gods."
"But you do believe in the closest thing to one. Tell me, how long will it take for you to realize that Megatron's heart belongs to another? He will never love you the way he loved the other one!"
"…THAT'S IT, YOU'RE FRAGGING DEAD!"
Nightshade took on her beast mode and flew at Fortissimo. The muse sang a devastating sonic wave at her that hit her body with the force of an Omega Sentinel, but she kept charging forward. Fortissimo was surprised as she was rammed into by the black bird and was sent crashing through the wall. They went smashing through three layers of rock before emerging in the jungle, where Nigtshade flew back and fired her missile darts at Fortissimo.
The darts exploded around the muse like miniature landmines, blowing off pieces of her clay skin. She scowled at the Con with her pale, cracked features and sent a sonic wave that deflected the darts and crashed into Nightshade's right side at full force. The attack crushed her arm and mangled her wing, but she fought through the pain to deliver one final strike.
Songbird delivered the final blow, lifting Nightshade's arm and firing a plasma beam that blasted Fortissimo's head to pieces. The rest of her body shuddered one final time before falling to the ground, dead.
Songbird separated from Nightshade and climbed onto her knee. "Mistress, are you okay?"
"Y-yes Songbird, I'm fine." Nightshade hissed as she tried to move her damaged arm. "Just a little banged up. Nothing a few minutes of rest won't fix."
'Megatron, be careful. These things are no joke.' Thought Nightshade. 'This planet just got a lot more dangerous.'
XXXXXXX
Megatron cursed as he was forced to dodge another beam from the crystal ball. Allegretto had him on the defensive, making sure he didn't gain enough ground to fire his fusion cannon. Smart. She knew that was his most powerful weapon.
"Why do you resist? I am trying to give you a merciful death." Allegretto said. "You should be honored to be killed by me."
"Why do you continue your pointless chatter? You're no different from any other worthless life form on this world. Always talking and not enough action." Megatron retorted.
"And yet my planet is not on the verge of death."
Megatron fired his cannon, and she flew past the beam to deliver a blast from her orb. He ducked under the blast but it caught his shoulder, burning off a piece of his armor.
"It will when I'm finished with it!" He roared.
Megatron planted his feet on a stone pillar and launched himself forward at her. She fired a beam that caught him in the arm but he stabbed his sword at her face. Before he could impale her, Allegretto summoned a shield of light to block the attack. Megatron tried to force his blade through but it could not pass through her defense.
Allegretto smirked and sent the shield outward, releasing a force wave that knocked Megatron back and sent him flying into a broken wall. She floated over to him and stared down at his damaged form, trying to keep her arrogance at bay. Such feelings were not befitting of a goddess serving under the Divine Mother.
"Megatron of Tarn, the fallen hero who failed to deliver on his promises of freedom and prosperity for his people. You have sacrificed much to get to where you are now, even the life of the only person you loved. And what do you have to show for it? A dead world? A dying species?" Allegretto asked.
Megatron smiled through a mouth of broken teeth. "Nothing you'll live long enough to see."
A pair of twin pulse blasts shot the crystal ball and shattered it. Allegretto screamed in shock and spun around to see Leader-1 in vehicle mode backing up, his orange cannons smoking from their shot. A large metal hand reached out and grabbed the muse by the throat, pulling her close so that she could look into his red eyes.
"Now I ask the questions. What are you? Who sent you here to this world?" Megatron growled.
Despite being near death, Allegretto smiled. "We were born on this world long ago, shaped from Gaia by the hands of our Mother. This world is ours, and you will not take it from us."
Megatron scowled and squeezed harder until he felt her stone skin crush under his grip. He released her and let her fall to the ground. Even as he body began to crumble away, she was still laughing.
"You think you're all powerful, but you have no idea what your arrival to this world has wrought upon yourselves. You will live through your battles, only to see everyone and everything you care about crumble to dust and be left with a kingdom of corpses. And when the end of the world comes, I will be there to sing of your demise." Allegretto said. Then finally the light began to fade from her body. "May the Divine Mother grace you…"
Allegretto's body crumbled to pieces and Megtron stared down at her body, holding his injured shoulder. He did nothing until he heard Leader-1 walk up to him.
"Lord Megatron, I found the panel." He said. "It was at the foot of the statue."
"Good. Locate Nightshade and Starscream and call Soundwave for a ground bridge. We're leaving this hell hole."
"Yes sir."
Leader-1 scampered off and left Megatron alone in the courtyard. He stared at the statue of the man holding the dying woman in his arms. He didn't show it, but Allegretto's machinations brought up memories that he hadn't felt since he began the war. These memories hurt, a lot.
He raised his arm and blew the statue to pieces with his fusion cannon. Then he walked away, his eyes closed and spark heavy.
"Nevermore."