Chapter Fourteen

Harbinger glared at the two mechs who were standing in his way. Sunny and Sides were in between him and the military base, him and Rae, and he would not stand for it. His optics narrowed dangerously. "If you have any self-preservation instincts at all, you will get out of my way." he hissed.

"And let you take the AllSpark to Megatron?" Sunny snapped. "You wish, Decepticon."

Harbinger blinked, then laughed coldly. "You think it's the AllSpark I'm after? I couldn't care less about that, or about Megatron. He is no longer my leader. I care about a certain youngling who is in that base along with your two friends. I want her out of there, now."

Sides rolled his optics. "Wow. And I thought Rae was kidding when she said you were protective. A bit much, isn't it?"

"Mute it and get out of my way."

Sunny and Sides exchanged looks. Harbinger waited, semi-patiently, for them to come to a decision. After all, he was a Decepticon, and Autobots were not in the habit of trusting Decepticons. The twins also weren't in the habit of getting into fights with potential allies, either, and there were plenty of other Decepticons to have some fun with. Sides shrugged, and Sunny shook his head.

"All right." Sides said. "But we'll have to warn Ironhide you're coming down there, otherwise he'll kill you on sight."

Harbinger chuckled darkly at that. "Do what you think is best." he said simply. "Either way, I'm going down there." He pushed past the twins and headed towards the base, a determined look on his face. For once, the twins were speechless. Sure, the girl was likeable enough, and considering the way she acted it was only natural for Ironhide to grow as protective of her in a short time as he had – after all, for the Autobots under Prime's command, he took care of the younglings. Ironhide had been the one to raise Bumblebee when he had come to them as the human equivalent of a human teenager.

But why would a Decepticon take to her so easily?

Sunny shook his head and radioed Ironhide. "'Hide, we have a problem."

"What's wrong?"

"Some Decepticon is coming your way. I think it's one of Rae's friends."

On the other end of the connection, Rae smiled softly at that. "That's just Harbinger." she said. "Probably a good thing they didn't try to stop him. Harbinger doesn't take nicely to things like that."

Ironhide shook his head. "We'll be fine." he sent back. "You just keep an eye out on the rest of them. Don't let your guard down."

"What? Did you think we were sparked yesterday?"

The weapons specialist rolled his optics and cut off communications with the twin. Jazz simply shrugged, expressing everything in that one little gesture. What did Ironhide expect when it came to the twins – for them to take things seriously? The only thing they took seriously were their pranks. "So, where next Rae?" Jazz asked calmly, turning back to the task at hand.

Rae pointed down a long, skinny shaft that might have been an air vent at some point and time. "Down there." she said. "That's where the AllSpark is. I can sqeeze down that and back up easily enough."

Ironhide shook his head. "Find a different way down, Rae." he said. "We can't fit down that thing."

Rae nodded. "I know. But that's the only way down. It's not technically in the building. There's a chamber underneath the place from where the AllSpark plowed in the earth. They built the base over it, with this tunnel going down to it. There is no other way in." She flashed them a quick smile. "I'll be fine."

Jazz nodded slowly. "Yell up if you need help. We'll blast our way down."

Rae saluted him and slid down the shaft, vanishing from the mech's sight as she traveled down where they could not go.

/---/

The tides of battle found Prime and Veris fighting side-by-side, protecting each other just as they had done before. None of the Autobots were willing to fight against Veris, knowing that he was once an Autobot and trusted by Optimus. Prime himself wasn't entirely too sure if he trusted the mech now, but he would let it slide. There were more Decepticons than there were Autobots in this battle. They would need all the help they could get.

"Tell me, Veris." Optimus said calmly, tossing a Decepticon mech back into the group of them pressing the attack. "Who do you serve now? You never did have much ambition to be a leader."

"I'm still not." Veris responded calmly. Sheol's battle against the Autobot Ratchet wasn't going entirely too well, so Veris picked up another Decepticon mech and threw it into Ratchet's side, knocking the medic off-balance and giving Sheol the time to get around him. The mech nodded thankfully to Veris and headed off, rounding off another battle that was getting too close to the base.

Veris glanced at Prime. "I protect those who would call me their leader, Prime. Just as I have always done."

"Even the Decepticons?"

"Have you spoken to Rae?" Veris asked with a laugh. "There are no Decepticons and Autobots to her. We are all simply Transformers."

Prime blinked in surprise. "That explains why Megatron wanted her to manipulate the AllSpark. She cannot be corrupted." He paused long enough to tear a gun away from a mech attacking him and whack him over the head with it. "But what good will it do? No matter what you say, Rae is still a human. She cannot make contact with the AllSpark."

Veris stared at him a moment. "Don't you understand? The AllSpark will do anything to end the war between us. Even allow a human to control it."

/---/

Rae landed on top of something very large and solid. She was pretty sure the landing bruised her hip, but that wasn't the problem. What was problematic was the fact that the hole she had come through was now a good ten feet over her head, and Rae was only about five feet tall. Shaking her head, she knelt down and touched the metallic surface beneath her feet.

Are you a child of mine?

She jerked in surprise, but didn't end the contact. So the AllSpark was sentient . . . and female too. Made sense for something that had created the Transformers. "I'm a youngling." she whispered, not quite sure if it would hear her.

It did. A youngling. There hasn't been a youngling in centuries. You are special, Rae.

Another shock to add to the list. "You know my name?"

I know all my children's names.

She shook her head. "There's a battle going on right now. Megatron wants to find you and use you to end the war. Prime's up there as well, trying to find you before Megatron does." she explained.

And you could sense me as well as any of them. Optimus Prime and Megatron were created opposites, but the same. I had hoped that they would unite the Transformers under their joint rule. I was wrong.

"Their loss, not yours." Rae said firmly. "I need to get you to Case. He's still Neutral in all this mess."

Ah yes. I remember Case very well. You may take me to him, youngling Rae.

With that the AllSpark transformed underneath her, becoming smaller and smaller until it was the size of a die cube. Rae picked it up off the ground and placed it in her pocket. "Here's to hoping I can get you past Prime." she muttered under her breath. She looked up at the hole and called up. "Ironhide!"

"You all right down there, Rae?"

"I'm fine, but I don't think I can get back out." she admitted. "The hole was a bit bigger than I thought. No stairs."

Jazz chuckled. "Maybe Harbinger will have a trick up his arm plate when he gets here."

"Only if he brings Bracket with him."

Ironhide started to respond, but his words were drowned out by a massive explosion, and the world vanished into darkness and pain.

/---/

AN: Oh, you guys are gonna hate me for that. Well, the story is coming to a close now. Review, please!