Rating: T for some violence and Cybertronian swearing

Warnings for this chapter: Really nothing other than Echo cussing in Cybertronian.

Summary: The Autobots discuss an ancient prophecy.

Pairing(s): None.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything except Echo.

A/N: Here we go into the finale of season 1! This is one of those chapters where not a lot happens except talking, but that needs to be written for everything else to work. I promise the next few will have more action. This isn't just a filler chapter, though – there are a few plot points here, so hopefully it's not too boring. Now, I'm off to work, and I'd love to see some reviews when I come back! *hint hint*

Chapter 38: Prophecy

And it was written in the covenant of Primus, that when the forty-seven spheres align, a perpetual conflict will culminate upon a world forged from chaos, and the weak shall perish in the shadow of a rising darkness.

Optimus's recital of the ancient prophecy was met with a long moment of uncomfortable silence, which Arcee finally broke with a half-serious, "No 'sky is raining fire'?"

"Goes without saying, don't you think?" Ratchet pointed out dryly. "It is a doomsday prophecy, after all."

"I think it's a load of hooey," Bulkhead grumbled. Echo glanced sideways at him.

"Really? Why? I mean, I know it's one of those sparkling stories, but you can't write it off completely. Remember dark energon? The energon harvester? Cybonic plague? Those are all things I learned about in the stories too, and look what we've had to deal with."

"Those are exactly the reasons we are discussing this," Ratchet responded with an approving look at his daughter. "I always assumed the prophecy was referring to our home planet, but seeing that Cybertron has been dark for eons…"

"And considering what has befallen this planet since Megatron's arrival here…" Optimus added with a slight hint of concern in his voice.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Bulkhead held up both servos. "Okay, Echo has a point about the other stories, but we've known about this one for ages. No one ever gave it a second thought."

Arcee nodded in agreement. "Why all the ominous rumblings now?"

"Because the planetary alignment to which the prophecy refers is nearly upon us." Optimus gestured toward the computer screen, where Ratchet and Echo were running a simulation of various planetary trajectories. "And it would seem that its endpoint is Earth."

Echo looked up at the simulation and grimaced. He was right – every possible combination ended with Earth as the last in a chain of forty-seven planets. "…Right. Slag it."

"Uh…" Bulkhead chuckled nervously. "Crazy coincidence, right?"

Ratchet and Echo shook their heads simultaneously. Arcee frowned and took a step closer to get a better look at the computer. "How long are we talking? Before the alignment, I mean."

Echo shrugged and looked at Ratchet, who pulled up some data on the computer screen. "A few days, at most."

"Oh." Arcee, Bulkhead, and Echo exchanged nervous glances, before Arcee muttered, "Scrap."

Optimus moved away from the computer so that he could see all of them clearly. "However unsettling this revelation may be, I am not particularly worried for us. Now that we know that something is coming, we can prepare to defend ourselves and humanity. Also, the prophecy does not specify what the danger might be. I am more concerned with those who may believe that the prophecy speaks to them alone."

"You're referring to Megatron," Ratchet said quietly. It was not a question. Optimus simply nodded in response.

Echo waited for someone else to ask the obvious question, and when no one did, she spoke up. "Okay, assuming Megatron thinks the prophecy is about him, what is he going to do about it? I mean, perpetual conflict, that's probably the Autobot-Decepticon war. That's nothing new. I suppose he could try to force a decisive end to it here. But 'shadow of a rising darkness'? If Megatron is the darkness, didn't he 'rise' already, when he showed up with the dark energon? Or when he…came back after being in stasis?" After I brought him back. She flinched involuntarily at the thought and hurried on. "All of that happened before the planetary alignment. He's out of dark energon. What's he going to do now? And what about the 'chaos' bit? Earth isn't exactly a world known for being chaotic. On a galactic scale, I mean."

"I too am concerned with Megatron's possible plans." Optimus shook his head. "But until we pick up traces of Decepticon movement, we have no way of knowing. Bumblebee will be here with the humans in less than an hour. I would appreciate it if none of you discussed this with the children. Either Echo or Ratchet can explain it to Bumblebee in private, but until we know something concrete, I do not want them to worry."

"Yes, sir." "Got it," Arcee and Bulkhead responded in unison. Echo shrugged.

"I don't talk to them much anyway."

"Same here." Ratchet sighed. "Echo, better get to work on those scanners. Maybe we can pick up the 'Cons more quickly if we recalibrate a few of the older ones."

"That would help," Echo said hopefully. "Maybe we could even reset a couple, scan for specific signatures…"

Two hours later, her optimism had been completely replaced by frustration. The reset hadn't helped, and attempting to calibrate their oldest scanner had resulted in a small explosion. By the time Jack, Miko, and Raf had calmed down and settled on the couch with the youngest boy's laptop, Echo was laying on her back under the main computer screen trying to find the source of the problem. This time it couldn't be blamed on the humans – it was standard tech failure, nothing new. And at least the one currently talking was Jack, the human she had the least problem with, but it was still not helping.

"Pass…nope…kid in a costume…balloon…nope…uh, hold on, right there. The camera sure loves Bee."

"What can I say?" Miko chirped. "When you're a superstar, you're paparazzi bait!"

Echo poked her head out from under the computer with a sigh. "Will you please stop narrating everything on the screen? What are you even doing? Dad, try it now – I reattached a couple wires."

"That wasn't it," Ratchet reported before looking over at the children. "Is that a picture of Bumblebee?"

"Yeah, on a conspiracy website," Raf answered. "Where users post evidence of 'close encounters'?"

Echo groaned and glared at Bumblebee's left pede, the only part of him she could currently see. "Really, Bee? That's the last thing we need right now!"

"It's okay, Echo, we have it under control," Jack called down. "Raf knows how to change the picture."

"Yep! We just scrub…and…replace." Raf clicked on a few things, and an automated female voice sing-songed from the computer. "Mars cat says take me to your feeder!"

Ratchet chuckled. Echo had to smile, even without seeing the picture – she'd run across the captioned cats online before. "Not bad."

"Wait, did Ratchet just laugh?" Miko was clearly exaggerating her surprise, to Echo's annoyance. "And Echo liked something we did? Everyone take cover, the world's ending!"

The comment made Echo jump slightly and almost hit her head on the underside of the computer before she realized it was a figure of speech. Calm down, Echo. Luckily, none of the children had noticed; Jack was talking to someone else. "Hey, Optimus! Wanna see something funny?"

"No," Optimus responded distractedly. Echo slid out far enough to see that he was still looking at their simulation, and mostly ignoring the humans. Jack sighed in disappointment.

"Don't take it personally." Arcee held out a hand to help Echo up, which the young medic brushed away with a quick head-shake. "Primes are built that way."

Bulkhead nodded in agreement. "Never seen Optimus laugh, cry, or lose his cool."

"I don't know if he ever has," Echo commented, poking another wire into place. "Try it again, Dad. I think it's a Prime thing - I can't remember even hearing about a Prime losing control. Maybe the Matrix picks 'bots who just don't show that much emotion."

"Not exactly," Ratchet responded. "While Optimus certainly keeps his emotions in check, I've known him far longer than any of you have, and he was different before he was made a Prime. Very different."

"Huh." Echo fiddled with her wrench. "Different how?"

"Wait a second, Optimus wasn't always a Prime?" Raf interrupted.

Ratchet looked annoyed. "On Cybertron, one isn't born into greatness. One must earn it. And Echo, different enough that you probably wouldn't recognize him. I think you would have gotten along well with him, though."

"So…" Miko dragged the word out. "We talking 'party animal'? Like Bulkhead or Wheeljack?"

"No, no." Ratchet shook his head. "Optimus was more like…well, more like Jack."

"Really?" Echo sat up in surprise and turned to look at the young human, who shuffled uncomfortably and stared at the floor.

"What? Come on, guys, I'm nothing like – "

"Prime!" Agent Fowler's face appeared abruptly on the screen along with his voice, causing Echo to jump, glare, and reconsider the idea of making him a collar with a bell. "Those tech heists my department's been tracking? At first we thought it was MECH, on account of the stealth tactics. Until a few minutes ago, when a security feed at the Pennington-Ebbs particle collider captured this."

Echo stood up and moved over to Ratchet's side to look. "That's…Primus, that's Soundwave! He never leaves the Decepticon ship, except for emergencies. What's he doing running errands for Megatron?"

"Raf can swap that out for you with a funny cat," Miko offered. Echo, Jack, and Ratchet shot her simultaneous glares.

Fowler continued, oblivious to the interruption. "The 'Con without a face made off with a cutting-edge phase conductor. Here's a punch list of everything else we've confirmed stolen, to date."

"Plasma injector, neutron shield, tesseract?" Echo read the list off in growing worry. "Dad, there's only one thing you need all of those and a phase conductor for. And the only thing they still need…"

"Is a power source," Ratchet finished quietly. "You asked what Megatron could be trying to do this time? Here's your answer." He looked over at Echo, who stared back at him with wide optics. "They're building another space bridge."