Disclaimer: I only own my OCs.

Authoress: And, due to the nature of this chapter, I know ban all of the characters in this story.

Primus: Uh-oh. This can't be good.

Unicron: No kidding. She only bans them when there is a major event.

Authoress: *chuckles evilly*

Ch. 35: The Fall of Playback

This was it. This was the moment that Sentinel had been waiting for. The crowd on the next level down where waiting with anticipation as they made final preparations for the execution to begin. While they like the coliseum matches, Sentinel knew that it was a thirst to see energon spilled that drove them to any sort of Viron event, and that was what he was going to give them.

"Time for you to suffer." Sentinel whispered as he stared at Kaon, the city very visible in the light of the new solar cycle. After countless stellar cycles of him being the bottom of the barrel and of their jokes, he would finally have the last laugh. He would take from them those that they cared for most. The Alliance would not be able to withstand this final onslaught.

"Bring out the prisoners!" Sentinel yelled to the bots backstage.

The crowd roared its agreement and, soon, the four bots were led out. Sentinel frowned when he saw that they didn't look downcast, like most sane bots were before they were offlined. Instead, they seemed almost bored. While there was slight fear in their optics, it was greatly overpowered by the boredom that they were emitting. Growling, he walked up to Chala, because she seemed to be their ring leader, before saying, "You do know that you are to die this solar cycle?"

The response was not what he was expecting. "We shall see Sentinel. From what I've heard in the rebels, you have a problem keeping bots offline." He knew that she was hinting about the rumor that Pandimala might be online out there.

The clang of metal on weaker metal caused him to smile when his fist met with her faceplate. The crowed yelled in approval and he smirked as she staggered slightly. But, that smirk disappeared when the femme stood directly back up.

"Ah, what's the matter Sentinel, did I hit a sore spot?" The femme continued to tease him.

It was then that he realized that she was baiting him. So, instead of responding, he turned to the crowd. "Over fifty stellar cycles ago, I personally offlined the blight known as Pandimala. It was a glorious day for our cause which will be remembered for generations to come. This solar cycle, I am about to show the Alliance why they should fear me. This day, I snuff four of their youngest members." He then turned to the four before saying, "Are there any last words you wish to say? Maybe plead for your pathetic sparks?"

The mech called Sunblast shook his helm. "We have nothing to ask of you Sentinel. As to what we say, well, Chala is better with words."

Sentinel was a little upset that they wouldn't be pleading for their sparks. But, he was curious as to what Chala was going to say. It would be the last words that the Alliance would utter before they were all gray lifeless husks.

"I just have one thing to say. The Alliance will live on after we are gone. Our offlining will bring the spark that they need to come and bring their full force down upon you and you will be the one begging for mercy, but none will be shown. You have ignited a flame in their sparks, an everlasting flame that will stand as a reminder that you have shown no mercy towards your enemies and will receive none in return. This solar cycle marks the end of the Virons and, frankly, I hope that I get to see some of it." Chala preached.

Sentinel growled before turning to the bots at the back of the stage. "It is time to bring out our special guests. They were found just in the early cycles of this solar cycle trying to free these four here. But, they were no match for us."

He smirked at the worried look on Chala's faceplate. Served the femme right, and this revenge would be most sweet. When the bots back stage came out with their last two bots on death row, he smirked at the horrified reaction on Chala's faceplate. For, being held by ten Virons, five on each, were Blitzwing and Blitzkriea.

"Carrier, Sire; NO!" The femme yelled as they were placed next to her. Perfect. It was nice to see the femme put in her place.

"This solar cycle," Sentinel continued, "We will not only see the offlining of the four young bots who escaped our coliseum, one being the youngest of Pandimala's youngest, but we will be able to witness the offlining of Pandimala's youngest as well as her bondmate. Also, we see the offlining of the chief Dragon Scouter medic's youngest, the youngest of the 'mighty' Megatron, and the youngest of the 'great' Optimus Prime!"

The crowd went crazy and Sentinel knew that he should not hold off any longer. So, turning to the six Alliance bots who were lined up before him, chained to the stage and helms over chopping blocks, he said, "Now, I believe that the spokesbot for you all should be the first to go." He then walked up to Chala.

From the corner of his optics, he could see that her creators were struggling with all of their might to get to their child, but it would be of no use. They would have to sit and watch as he offlined their youngest. It was a glorifying moment for him and, as he took out his lance, he paused to sink in the glory.

"This isn't over Sentinel." Chala hissed at him.

Sentinel smirked. "Oh, but it is femme." He then raised his lance to strike the femme's helm from her chassis.

A hiss of something flying through the air was the only warning he got before his lance was suddenly ripped out of his servos. After rubbing them together, he turned to where his lance had fallen to see that it had been stopped by an arrow, and a familiar one at that.

"Your reign of tyranny ends here Sentinel!" Playback yelled as he landed on the stage, Rodimus Prime being set down and said mech holding his bow, already stringed with a second shot. Once the Prime was set on the ground, Sentinel barely had time to react when Playback suddenly launched at him. Running to his lance, Sentinel glanced at the crowd and saw that Playback had somehow rallied a good number of the Alliance forces and they were now locked in battle. Once he grabbed his own lance from where it had been knocked, he picked it up and swung it backwards, meeting blades with Playback.

Rodimus wasted no time when Playback set him on the stage and ran to release the prisoners. When said mech had approached him and his team in the late cycles of the previous solar cycle, he had wanted to chop the mech's helm off. But, once Playback had explained his situation and what he needed, he and his team had decided that they would help Playback in rescuing the captives. When they had all heard about Blitzkriea and Blitzwing disappearing, they knew that they had to act quickly. Thankfully, the Virons hadn't notice them move in because they were too preoccupied with Sentinel's ramblings.

"Rodimus, what are you doing here?" Blitzkriea asked as he cut her chains with a blade that he borrowed.

"I'm getting you all free so you can help us kick some Viron can." Rodimus answered as he walked up to Blitzwing's chains and broke them.

"Zhank jou." Blitzwing stated as he rubbed his wrists.

Rodimus nodded and quickly freed the others before saying, "You can thank me by getting out there and helping us kick Viron tailpipe!"

The others nodded and went off. Well, most of them did. Rodimus wanted to ask Chala something so he grabbed her wrist, to hold her back. She stopped and turned to him. "What is it?"

There was a question that had been bothering him about this mission and he wanted it answered. "What were you four doing here in the first place? I know that your creators were here to get you but I don't see why you were here."

Chala's amused smirk told him that she must have realized something. "That mech really does like to keep his plans spread out. Playback sent us to Iacon as a part of his plan. He knew that Sentinel wouldn't pass up a chance to display us to the Alliance and had heard about their portable stage."

Rodimus stared in shock. Playback had planned this all out. He wanted the Virons close to Kaon, the Alliance's center of strength, because he wanted backup to be as close as possible as well as the Virons on unfamiliar ground. "I wonder what else he has planned?"

Chala shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know and I doubt that we will learn while the Virons are here."

But, Rodimus knew that she was wrong. "No, we will find out soon. Playback promised Pandemonium that he would tell us everything once this mission was over." That seemed to surprise Chala and, honestly, he was surprised by it as well. But, glancing at the battle, he took out the blade that he borrowed and said, "Care to help me offline some Virons?"

Chala took out her own blade and nodded, "It would be my great honor and pleasure."

Rodimus smirked at her before the two launched into battle. He didn't want to be left out of the greatest Alliance offensive in over fifty stellar cycles.

Playback growled as he blocked another of Sentinel's slashes at him. This was going to be it. This was when he would finally rid known existence of this blight of a mech. He had been a curse to them for too long and had caused too much sorrow and despair to be allowed to continue living. He would sacrifice his spark to make sure that the mech offlined.

"You seem so quiet Playback." Sentinel taunted as he struck at him again.

Playback wanted to play with the mech so he said, "Only because I am trying to figure out which wall on Kaon we should hang your offline chassis on once I am finished with you." He then paused as they were in a deadlock. "Of course, now that I think aloud, your chassis is to ugly and would make the wall look bad."

Sentinel growled at that and Playback internally smirked. It was so easy to push Sentinel's buttons. The mech could be so emotional about the smallest of things. Too bad he had turned that emotion to evil and used it to try and crush those around him. But, when he was done with the mech, Playback was going to make Sentinel see that he would never win, no matter how far he got, he would never beat them.

"Why do you hide your faceplate? Is it too ugly to be shown to the rest of the universe? Or is that your actual faceplate and too scared to admit it?" Sentinel questioned back.

Playback shook his helm at Sentinel's sad attempt to get him upset. That had been a pretty pathetic attempt on his part and Playback almost felt sorry about how shallow the mech was. He didn't have any problem about his appearance.

"I don't think that I am going to answer that, but I will say that you should definitely consider getting a mask for your own. That mug is probably why the Alliance is attacking now. They want to rid the universe of such a blight." Playback shot at the mech.

Sentinel, of course, then decided that he was done talking and flew into a flurry of attacks. Playback would admit that he was having a hard time concentrating on the mechs attacks. He had to implement his plan. But, it had to be timed right or he risked offlining.

When Playback felt like the time was right, he purposefully weakly blocked an attack and left an opening and hoped that Sentinel would take it. The mech did.

"Playback!" He heard a voice faintly yell. But, his visor was going dark and he felt a strange energy burn inside of him. It felt so foreign that he wasn't sure what it could be. Slowly, Playback felt like he was falling backwards. As he fell, the events of what led him up to this piled in his helm and he knew that it was now up to them now. Hopefully, they could pull through for him. The last thing that he saw was a flicker of light before everything went dark.

"Playback! Playback no!" Chala yelled as Sunblast held her back.

Toxica, on her part, shook her helm. She hated how they had to do this, but this had to happen to make the Alliance get back and to let their plans move forward. But, it didn't make listening to Chala's screams any easier. After Sentinel had stabbed Playback through the spark, the entire battle seemed to stop and all they all could do was stare as the mech seemed to fall, almost in slow motion, until he landed with a thud on the ground, chassis gray and offline.

"Sentinel." Toxica stated, walking up to the mech.

He turned to her with a smirk and said, "Have you come to surrender?"

"That will come later." Toxica stated. She could hear the sound of complaint come from the Alliance bots but they were not in on this part of the plan. Only herself, Caliber, Flintlock, Lockdown, and Kiva knew about this. They had to play this right. "For now, we must worry about putting Playback to rest."

"Why?" Sentinel asked. "Why when I could just kill you know and display both of your chassis for all to see?"

Toxica admitted that he had a good argument, but, she had a better one. "Why? Well, when I was travelling on Playback's home of Terra, he died."

"Then how was he here?" Sentinel asked.

This was a crucial moment. She could see the fear entering Sentinel's optics. "Because, the bots who killed him did not put him properly to rest and, since we didn't know how, his spark returned to his chassis and he healed himself. Playback later told us that there is a ritual that must be completed for his kind to be put to rest and not come back."

"Tell me what it is!" Sentinel screeched at her. She could tell that he did not want Playback coming back. Just like Playback said he would.

"Well, you cannot do it. Only bots who gained a close relationship with the deceased can preform the ritual. Since you offlined him, you cannot preform the ritual. Instead there are only nine bots, possibly ten, on this planet who can do this ritual."

"Who? Who are they?" Sentinel demanded. She could see the desperation in his optics.

"Myself, Caliber, Flintlock, Kiva, Lockdown, Chala, Sunblast, Zinnia, and Shadow Fall. The tenth might be Chaom but we are not sure."

A murmur went over the crowd as the names were called. The four bots who didn't know what was going on stared in shock at her but, thankfully, were smart enough not to say anything. That had been one of the iffy parts of this plan. They weren't sure how the final four would react to being called. Thankfully, Playback had been right, as always.

"What do you need to do?" Sentinel seemed very worried about the possibility of Playback coming back to life.

"What I need is access to that stage of yours. The nine of us who are here must take his chassis up and sing a total of five songs. At first, it will look like he will resurrect. But, when the final song is finished Playback will be no more." Toxica stated.

Sentinel didn't hesitate a nano-click. "Get him on the stage now and preform this ritual." He quickly responded. Then, after a pause, he said, "But, this better not be a trick."

Toxica shook her helm. "This is as much of a trick as the rebels saying that Pandimala is still online being true."

Sentinel seemed to relax at that and nodded before motioning them to go on the stage. Ok, hard part was done. Now, all they had to do was sing.

Authoress: *stares ahead blankly*

Primus: You just killed off your second main character. What are you going to do about your main characters?

Unicron: Eat them of course, and I suggest that you season them up first. They can sometimes be a little tough.

Authoress: *shudders* Need to get that mental image out of my head now.

AN: Well, here is the next awesome chapter of this story! *sings* I killed Playback! I killed Playback! *pauses* I wonder what is going to happen with this ritual? Well, what I will say is that the next five chapters will be very short because they showcase each song and one bots reaction to it. So, that means that they will be up pretty quickly. Maybe even today if you are lucky. *winks and smirks* I guess you will all find out. Drop a review and I may or may not tell you the name of the first song that is coming up. You'll have to take the chance and see. *runs off to plot awesome scenes!*