"On ya feet Boss Bot!" Jazz urged their leader who had fallen to his knees sometime in the light show. "Tahm ta go."

Prime nodded his agreement, but couldn't seem to get his limbs to work right as he struggled to do just that. They didn't have time for him to recover though. What was left of Unicron was protesting violently over the abrupt removal of the spark. This time when the violent shudders began, they didn't stop, just grew in intensity.

Jolt was already calling for Omega Supreme to meet up with them as Hide whirled to the nearest Dinobot, which happened to be Scorn. "Grab Prime and let's go!"

Scorn just nodded in agreement and scooped up the Autobot leader surprisingly gently in his spinosaurus arms. Grimlock led the charge out, roaring as he stomped along and shouldered the now falling debris out of the way to clear a path. He was surprisingly quick and the others struggled to keep up with his long strides, except Sideswipe. He was just skating alongside the large Dinobot with ease, his body bent low like one of those professional Earth speed skaters. Slug's head slammed into a fallen metal beam, shoving it out of the way with his head without even breaking stride.

They were at the edge of the drop off that marked the end of their running room when Omega lowered himself into position, his loading door already open and the ramp sliding out without him even touching down. He hovered as they quickly ran inside, and was moving even before they were settled, closing up as he flew away.

"Faster! Must go faster!" Mirage was almost yelling, Bumblebee nodding his head in agreement as the explosions started.

"Omega Supreme understands, but can not comply without risking damage." As if to make his point, he tilted sharply to avoid a large piece that was breaking away from what had been Unicron's hand.

Normally Hide would have throw a fit, but he just kept quiet and held on the best he could. His complaining would do nothing but distract their ride as he fought to get them all out of there.

"Too close..." Wheeljack was muttering as he looked out the window to the destruction now all around them. "We are too close. We're going to get caught up in the main blast!"

"You should be used to that by now." Sideswipe told him as he pushed his twin off of him. "You've been blowing things up for a milennia now, if not longer."

But Wheeljack had a reason to be concerned, they all did. Even if Sideswipe refused to admit it. There was no way to clear the blast radious.

'Fear not noble Cybertronians.' Ironhide stared as the faint outline of the Japanese Goddess came into view. 'Your escape to safety will be aided. As will the planet below be shielded from the remains of the Chaos bringer. This is now our task to take on.' Then she faded back out.

And as soon as she was out of sight Omega suddenly jolted forward, sending everyone inside tumbling once again all over the place.

"Me Grimlock no like this no more! Me Grimlock want off! Me Grimlock tired of falling down!"

"That makes two of us." Hide muttered as he struggled back up into a standing position.

What they couldn't see was that once they passed a certain boundary, a line of figures came into view. Amaterasu had brought all of those she led with her and now they hovered between the planet below them and the increasing explosions above. Their hands came up and began to glow brightly before a soft glowing white barrier came up in front of them, just moments before what was left of Unicron exploded in a blinding flash. The shock wave and shrapnel hit the barrier hard, causing many of the gods to struggle to hold it in place. If the intent had been to hold this force back, they would have failed. Instead the barrier curved, guiding the blast around the planet and out into the empty space beyond. But even that was enough to exhaust the majority of the lesser gods Amaterasu had brought with her.

Even the tiny god of healing looked more than a little beat down as he approached her. "Mistress, it is done. May we have your permission to withdraw? I feel tainted dealing with the scraps of the outworlder."

"Yes, Sukuma. You and the others may depart." She sighed a moment before looking at the planet under them that had been spared. "I can not. There is one more task that must be completed. One I find distasteful myself, but it must be done."

"It does not seem fair to me mistress."

"Nor to me. But that it what had been agreed upon, and we are bound to that agreement now."

Sukuma just nodded before he and most of the others departed back to their home. Amaterasu just hovered a moment longer, now very hesitant to visit her champions. Because she knew in this visit she would rip a family apart.

.

.

When the lightshow finally died down up there, Blaster broke out in a very wide grin. "They did it! Primus! They actually did it!"

Even Ratchet had that relieved look on his face and ignored the hard excited slap Blaster placed on his back. "Yes, it seems as if they did." He actually smiled a bit.

I wasn't paying either of them any attention as my eyes swept the skies, looking for those four large silhouettes to come back into my view. They were so high up I couldn't see them anymore and the only hint I had of where they had been was the beam that flew across the sky earlier.

"There!" Cait pointed to the four specks that were rapidly growing larger as our dragons finally made their way back down.

We watched them as they drew closer, their path going straight down. I frowned at that. Wouldn't they be angeling our way? I mean, they did know we were here and not way the fuck over there.

"Something is wrong." Marina mumbled and I slowly nodded my agreement.

Still they came down, and my unease grew even as I watched. Without even knowing why, I broke out into a run to where their trajectory was taking them, trying to keep an eye on them as I did. It didn't take me long to notice that Cris, Marina and Caitlin were matching me step for step as I disappeared into the treeline.

"Mom! Wait!" Amy called after me. I ignored her, my attention fully on those descending dragons.

My fears turned out to be well founded when they came into view enough for us to see that they weren't flying down, they were falling. Their limbs and wings moving limply in the current their passing caused as they sped towards the ground. I ran faster, fear taking hold of me now.

I lost sight of them because of the trees moments before they hit the ground, but the four very violent tremors and the sounds of their impact told me they had made contact with the ground, hard.

The dust was still thick in the air from their impact when we finally broke through the trees and we found them in the craters their landing bedded them in. We stared in shocked disbelief a second before we rushed forward.

"Mikey!" Caitlin almost screamed, her tone matching the terror I was feeling as I closed in on Leo's limp body.

I slid down the side of the crater, only coming to a stop once I reached Leo's head. "Leo!" My eyes were frantically searching his body for any sign of life. I was relieved to see his chest moving, but scared on how shallow those breaths seemed. He was barely clinging to life. "Leo..." Tears filled my eyes as I ran my hand over his snout, not knowing what else to do. "What happened..."

His blue eye opened slightly, trying to focus in on me as he weakly moved his head under my hand. But it was a dazed look, a weak one. A look of someone one who had nothing left in him to fight with, much less stay alive. I was losing him. And the frightened crying I heard told me I wasn't the only one.

The arrival and Ratchet with our children went unnoticed as I cried, my hand softly stroking the creature who was the center of my world, trying to get him to hold on. Leo's eye wandered over to the children we had raised as they ran over to join us, and his breathing slowed even more. Ratchet ran over to Raph, who was the closet to him. But even his eyes held no hope. He didn't understand their anatomy in these bodies, and the confusion I saw on his face told me he didn't even know what was wrong. The miracle worker medbot had no answers for the desperate Cris who was pleading with him to save Raph.

"Daddy!" Lavi screeched. "Get up! You have to get up!"

He did try, but his effort only resulted in his head shifting a small distance on the ground before it grew still again, a very faint rumble coming out of his throat. Then his eye focused on something else and he actually managed a low growl before his head lifted a few inches off of the ground, only to fall right back down again.

"So, the mighty creatures aren't so mighty afterall." Megatron sneered as he came into view. "And to think I wasted time and effort on trying to claim the gems of power." Then he got the most gleefully evil look on his face you could think of as he raised his blaster. "Perhaps I should be merciful and put them out of their misery."

"You leave them alone!" Ari screamed at him. "You big fucking coward!"

"And who is going to make me? You?" The blaster lit up. In another instant it would fire on the defenseless dragons who were now at his mercy.

But the shot never connected with it's intended target. Megatron was hit with a blast of pure white light that sent him hurtling to the ground and the shot went into the air.

"Not her, leader of the Decepticons." Amaterasu told him firmly as she moved in on him, her hands still aglow. "But I. Stay away from my champions!" Then she blasted him again, and once more. "Begone from this place!" A fourth time she lashed out at him.

By the time the fifth one hit he got the point. "You." He sneered at her. "You and your kind will be dealt with soon enough. But not now. The time isn't right." And with those confusing words, he took to the air.

The light goddess took a deep breath as she watched him go, then turned and made her way over to where I was watching. I was still crying and my hand had never left Leo through that exchange and I was staring at her in desperation. "Please! Please tell me there is something you can do!" Leo's eyes had slipped back shut again by this point, and you could tell he was trying to open them again. "They are dying!"

"Calm yourself water companion. I had indeed prepared for this outcome." Her eyes grew hard then. "And if my preparations do not show themselves they will deal with my wrath!"

Slowly, ever so slowly, the gods I had first seen in the cave came into view. Almost as if they were embarrassed to have been caught slacking at something. Amaterasu apparently knew what they were slacking about because she fixed a very angry stare at them. "You know what to do. I should not be here to remind you of that!"

Kagu-tsuchi winced a little at her tone, but he didn't move right away either. "Mistress, we saw the opportunity to let the matter resolve itself. There would be no further need of our interference if we just let them slip away to the afterlife."

If he had hoped that reasoning would calm the normally gentle goddess, he was dead wrong. She literally flared up in anger, her glow extending to her whole body as her eyes went an eerie white and her black hair flared around her from the aura she was giving off. Even I shrunk away from her a little. "This is not what was agreed to! And you will be bound by your word! You know what is required of you, and you will see to it that it is done!"

They scrambled into motion very quickly after that outburst. So quick that their feet skidded out from under them when they stopped by the dragon they were bound too. I glared at Watasumi, just as angry as Amaterasu was over the fact they would just let the guys die. I just couldn't do the fancy light show like she could to get my point across though. Didn't mean I wasn't tempted to beat his face in with my asp.

The God of the Sea didn't meet my glare as I kept staring at him. He seemed almost embarrassed as he zeroed in on Leo's collarbone area, placing a hand at the V where the two sides met in the middle at the bottom of Leo's neck. The spot under that hand began to glow.

"What are you doing?" Ty asked, his tone also hinting at his anger.

"They carry their gems in this form as well child. But it is hidden inside of them to keep it safe. I must reach it to unlock what I need to restore him." Again, the god seemed almost apologetic as he focused solely on his task now.

Leo's chest was barely moving by the time the glow brightened to the point I had to look away. But not before a column of water shot out of that glowing spot to spiral up and around in the air directly above Leo. Then that water solidified and turned into an asian style dragon, and the look it gave Watasumi clearly told me it wanted to sink it's teeth into the god. "You walk a fine line with our charge Watasumi. A very fine line." Then he also began to glow, a bright blue, and it flowed out from him to surround Leo.

I blinked in shock. I knew that voice. "Mizuchi?"

The dragon smiled at me but didn't stop what he was doing and a moment later Leo was laying on the ground next to me in his turtle form. But he still wasn't moving. I was about to pull him against me when a glowing blue tail held me back. Mizuchi's head came low on my other side and he looked calmly a me. "Hold firm. It is not finished yet."

I looked at him, then back to Leo and the god who helped himself to Leo's pouch, and the sapphire Leo kept in it. Watasumi held the gem in his hands over Leo and once more my turtle was surrounded in a blue glow. I could only watch with worry, not even beginning to understand what was going on. Then I didn't care what was going on when Leo took a very deep breath and moved his limbs weakly. It was then Mizuchi moved his tail and I threw myself across Leo, wrapping my arms around his neck as I sobbed into his shoulder.

The slight pressure of his arms folding around me was the most welcome feeling I've felt in a long time. "That hurt a bit..." His voice said tiredly into my ear. I sat back up a little, laughing and crying at the same time, to see those blue eyes looking back at me. And his smile lit up my world as he calmly brushed the hair out of my face. Then he was buried under Amy and Lavi as they had to have their turns to hug him. Ty and Dennis were a bit more dignified. They just hid their misty eyes and helped him up into a sitting position.

I used that moment of distraction to look around, and was almost brought to tears again to see the others sitting up as well. Tired and a little confused, but they were alive when just moments before they had been on death's doorstep. Cait and Ari both had a deathgrip on Mikey and wasn't letting him go for anything. Cris and Marina were pretty much the same way. Raph even held his wife close to him, his own eyes closed to keep back the tears that threatened to fall down his cheeks. So much for the rough and tough turtle facade.

Then, just as we overcame the fear that we had lost them, we were reminded that we still were going to lose them. "Now," Kagu-tsuchi firmly said "it is time to complete our agreement. It is time to send them away with the spirits."