Wind howled over the plains, incessant and sounding of screams. Apart from that, there was silence in the world that the three Predacons knew extended beyond where they lay. While the Predaking and Twinstrike slept deeply, Lazerback stirred and cautiously crawled toward the surface. He felt heat worming through his metal and a strange, fuzzy feeling, but Lazerback needed to know what had happened to the others.

When his head peeked out to the surface, his jaw dropped. Smoke clogged distant visibility, but Lazerback assumed the horror spread into the beyond. A carpet of bodies surrounded him, winged Predacons twisted into agonized positions with partially melted metal and dark eyes. Now it did not seem likely that the heat had killed these Predacons, but Lazerback reckoned it had to do with the painful tingling piercing his body once again. The Predacon peered toward the sky, but the smog blocked out the sun that was to blame.

Some invisible weapon from the sky.

It was exhausting to move on the surface, but not as bad as before. Was it night now? Even if it was, the sky boulders might crash down upon him at any moment. Lazerback tensed up, believing that there was no safe time, but that surely there was some safe place left.

Two black forms soared through the polluted air. With sharp wings and small bodies, Lazerback knew they were Shrikebots and felt a burst of hope. He blasted fire into the air to attract them, then soon the messengers crashed down beside him, heaving and twitching. Their metal was scorched black, and their beaks and talons were dulled from melting. Savagery rested in their eyes although they did not attack him, a craze that unsettled Lazerback. They did not seem to be themselves.

"Fire, fire," one of them cracked. "All is burning."

"Where?" Lazerback froze.

"East," the other hissed. "On fire."

"What about the West?" Lazerback gasped.

They swayed. "We will see."

"You have to help us find a safe place," Lazerback gasped. "The King still lives!"

"King?" The Shrikebots blinked at each other, minds slow.

"Ah, ah…" one Shrikebot said. "Good for him. But there is nothing to rule. Every Predacon for themself now."

"What?" Lazerback barked, the tingling making him especially irritable. "This hasn't gone on long! You are just going to abandon us?"

"We will serve again, if we live."

"So you won't come back?"

"We will go west… You should too and find deep places. Cold places. The bipeds and animals already did, but now for us… Too late. Holes are getting covered, where to go?"

"How deep?" Lazerback glanced back at their own hole.

"I think very deep. Or else the fuzzy feeling will kill…"

Lazerback felt that very tingling as they spoke, and now his expression turned frightful.

"We will go now," said a Shrikebot. "We have to chase the night. Day is coming! Fly, or hide now."

The two flapped off as quickly as they could, but Lazerback supposed that in a time like this, it had been surprising that they had landed at all. Every Predacon for themself… yet, no one wanted the race to go extinct. Extinct was not a word they had in their language, but for the first time, the concept was entering their minds. If they did not act now, it could be possible that every Predacon would perish.

Lazerback tumbled down the hole and woke the others.

"They are dead," he growled. "We are the only ones."

"Dead?" the Predaking shrieked. The others jerked at the volume in the close quarters, then they followed him as he clawed his way up the tunnel.

The sight of so many dead Predacons shook the Predaking to his spark. Never could he have imagined one thing so powerful as to be able to do this, but there lay the Predacons, fading in and out of view with the puffs of smog brought by the wind. As a being more feral than civilized, the Predaking did not know how to handle his distress and fury, thus he screeched and blasted fire toward the damned sky. However, this enemy could not be touched, so after exhausting himself, the Predaking lay down and snarled.

"What is this?" he hissed. "Everything was fine for hundreds of seasons. This is not normal- someone made this."

"I do not think so," Twinstrike murmured. "I think there is an explanation."

"The bipeds!" the Predaking cried. "They did this! They create weapons of concentrated fire- they must have done this to the world! Remember how they fled so soon- they knew! They knew, because they intended to exterminate the Predacons!"

Twinstrike widened his eyes. "I do not think so. The sun and the sky were red long before this…"

"They changed the sky lights," the Predaking growled.

"The sun is far away," Twinstrike tried to explain. "It is a ball of gas and fire, enormous and-"

"Where did that green biped go?" The Predaking remembered at last. "He fled, didn't he! He saved himself and left us to die, because those puny creatures want to take the world from us!"

The sun that the Shrikebots had fled was beginning to rise. Unseen, yet flaring with insentient rage. For a moment, everything brightened and made the Predaking believe that all was returning to normal. Then, the patches of fine dust high in the air began to ignite with bursts of orange and yellow. Strange lights and huge veils flickered in the sky, exploding into iridescent colours and mesmerizing the Predacons.

Despite the burning prickle of radiation, the Predacons lay for a few minutes to observe the beauty. Then, the Predaking's mind cleared and suspected that there was danger behind this show. He hopped onto his feet, and the other two jogged to his side.

Lazerback shook his aching head and remembered to report.

"Words from the East say that everything's burning. Shrikebots flying told me it. They the fastest flying bots." Lazerback blinked, wondering why his cloudy brain had added that. He went on, "Came from far, far away, chasing the night. Said need deep, dark places. Cold places… Can't find."

The Predaking narrowed his eyes in anger and worry.

Twinstrike shook his heads. "There is something in the air, but I do not know how to describe it in our language. Storm told me about it… Radiation. It is not heat… but it is damaging our minds. I cannot even sense which way is home anymore."

The other two dug in their claws when they realized too, that they could not feel the pull of their homing instincts.

"All signaling has gone," Twinstrike sighed, then he pointed toward his audio receptors. "White noise. Static. Silence… I don't hear or see well." He blinked roughly to punctuate the next point. "I can't clear my optics. We need to get out of here."

The Predaking had always despised retreating, even to save his own life. And when he had fled after Skystalker had taken his land, he had planned to come back. There always had to be a counterstrike, otherwise, he was a sorry excuse for a Predacon. Here, however, there was nothing to plot against and fight… This was hiding for certain, and the Predaking had never truly hid from anything in his life. He would have stepped on a Predacon who had.

For the first time, he considered hiding from a greater power, only since it was a little past dawn and he could feel the temperature climbing rapidly. If it continued, overheating would expand his body and severely damage him like the bloated bodies of the winged Predacons. His extremities would melt, possibly off- his fangs, claws, and tail… it did not bear thinking about.

And yet… the Predaking could barely contemplate leaving the territories he had guarded for centuries.

"You're proud," Twinstrike said. "But you're not an idiot. If those Shrikebots are flying westward, we should too."

The sky still crackled with its attractive sparks of beauty. Lazerback watched it with mournful eyes, and sighed. "How can something so bad look so good?"

Twinstrike kept using jargon that no one understood, so perhaps he really did have a greater idea of what was going on. Perhaps it was not the bipeds' fault after all.

"What is that exactly?" the Predaking asked him while pointing at the lights.

One of Twinstrike's heads observed the sky while the other twisted to regard him. "As far as I can tell the solar storm is stripping away the magnetic shield. Electromagnetic catastrophes are not far away… They are already upon us, but I suspect that they will get worse."

Yet more strange jargon that were made of Predacon words, but absolutely incomprehensible to anyone else but Twinstrike.

"Meaning?" Lazerback asked.

The Predaking did not want to admit that he should have listened to Storm and learned of science like Twinstrike had. He pretended to have some understanding and uttered, "Meaning we could be killed and never see it coming…"

It was time to go.

"Predacons- to the air. We fly into the night. It is safer in the dark."

"What about the border patrols and the food?"

"Wake up, Lazerback," Twinstrike muttered. "No Predacons left, no borders. No one is going to challenge us."

"We feed on the way," the Predaking answered, trying to sound confident. "We will return when this is over."

Perhaps it would be true. They could live underground for a short while, then return and live as they had before. His ignorant mind imagined that this would be over within the year. Spreading his wings, the Predaking leapt into flight with the others launching after him. However, they could not travel faster than the sun, especially with all the time they had wasted talking.

Blackbeak's sense of direction was still intact, stronger than other Predacons since he had once trained as a Shrikebot. They headed eastward with many breaks, but then, Blackbeak and Storm were forced to retreat when they confronted what the Shrikebots had been fleeing.

There was fire and rivers of molten metal, and thick clouds of poison that sickened those who vented it in. Blackbeak spun around, fleeing it because he was sure that they would not find bipeds here.

Where should we go now? he thought. Northward? We have to find someone…

But maybe it was too late. Maybe all the bipeds had already gone underground, and they were flying for no reason. Storm stayed silent and gripped him tighter than usual, thus Blackbeak feared that the same thoughts were running through his mind.

Wet droplets began to fall from the sky. Blackbeak twitched when one hit his tail feathers, stinging the metal.

"Aie," Storm jerked.

More fell down upon them, proving themselves to not be going away anytime soon.

"What is this?" Blackbeak asked.

"Acid rain," Storm gasped. "Quick, start looking for shelter! If this gets worse…"

And it would. Blackbeak scanned for a hole or cave as the rain gradually got heavier, burning them and spotting them with holes. They hissed in pain, then cried in joy when a dark mouth in a mountain was spotted. Blackbeak banked and brought them down, then both trotted inside on foot.

"Ah," Blackbeak sighed and shook out his metal feathers. "Much better. Let's wait this out…"

He wanted to sound optimistic, but they were losing more time. Storm took the energon processor and dragged it with him to the back of the cave, then he sank down to the floor. Exhaling, Blackbeak waddled back to join him, for there was nothing else for them to do but listen to the splatter and sizzle of acid rain outside.

Skystalker blew his icy breath over top of the remaining bipeds on the surface. Far from the equatorial storm, there was no wind to whip away his refreshing crystals. The journey here had taken time, but it was cooler in these parts. A deep tunnel had been scouted out, then a roof of lead had been built over the area to protect them from the radiation. Even during the day, they could work here, with Skystalker's puffs of cold, and constant changes between the workers outside and down below.

Azure lay under the roof with him, and there was not much room, so she was crammed against bipeds. Irritation scrunched her eyebrows, but she tried to ignore them.

"Why can we not just go down already?" Azure sighed.

But they knew the answer. Not only did they have to go far down, they had to be under the right kind of element to block out the radiation. The kingdom was working swiftly to create a protective dome under which they would all pack together and go into stasis lock. The distance to the dome under-construction was so long that bots created a line to the surface to pass materials along.

Still, the occasional meteorite blasted the area and spooked the Predacons.

"Hurry up," Azure often hissed.

Then, yelling raced up the line and reached the Predacons.

"Scraplets!"

"What?" Azure asked. She had not been taught that word.

"Scraplets," Skystalker translated. "Scraplets have gotten into the tunnel!"

"No!" she snarled. "Pests! I will make short work of them!"

The silver Predacon charged forward roaring, and everyone leapt to the side as Azure plowed through. Her broad body pressed and scraped them across the wall as she charged down the sloping path, listening for the tiny patter of scraplet feet or the whirring of their teeth.

Skystalker's freezing breath was more effective on these creatures, but no Predacon was frightened of scraplets. Even if a cloud swarmed them, a Predacon spinning and blazing fire could fell them all. Azure pressed past fleeing bots abandoning the area, blue beginning to glow faintly in her throat. It was not the end of the line, but it seemed that scraplets had shot through a tiny tunnel into theirs, causing chaos in the middle ranks.

Still bodies lay where scraplets buzzed over them and feasted. The last of the bipeds who fled had a few caught onto their backs, but these scraplets jumped off to stick to the untouched Predacon. The cloud collectively turned, espying the Predacon and spinning their teeth in excitement at the prospect of huge, fresh prey.

The idea offended her. These tiny creatures, thinking that a Predacon was prey? Azure ignored the scraplets already nibbling her to blast the incoming swarm with intense, blue fire. The delicate animals melted upon contact and dropped, becoming sizzling blobs that stuck to the floor. For the moment, the tunnel was lit with blinding blue, then the darkness returned, only lit by a bipedal light behind her.

Azure walked back up the tunnel, clawing off and chewing the rest of the scraplets clinging to her. She made sure that the bipeds saw her eating them, so that they would know what she had done. The praise bestowed upon her made her swell in pride, but not for herself, but for what she thought to be the superiority of her kind.

Now get back to work, she thought. We need you to survive.

Then, a deafening boom shook the tunnel, and everyone screamed.

After Azure had dove into the tunnel, four pairs of hungry eyes gleamed in hope. Skystalker and Azure had not been watching for enemies, and they had not noticed four skinny heads peeking out and drawing back from behind a hill. They were flightless Predacons who had stalked the bipeds once prey started to vanish, but they were not the usual, heavy brutes that stomped on two legs. These Predacons were a band of one subspecies, slender with long necks, middles, and tails- such a subspecies whose clones would one day be sent to Earth and inspire the image of Chinese dragons.

However, they knew Skystalker and Azure, and reckoned that they could not fight both. The predators waited a minute, then shot forward, bounding like ermine towards the surface bipeds.

Skystalker noticed the streaks of colour, then gasped at the sight of four charging Predacons. He glanced at the bipeds, realizing that they were the targets of these starved Predacons. To the villagers, he shrieked a warning, before he charged from the shelter to confront them.

The heat and radiation had sunk into these Predacons while they had waited on the surface. They were vicious, spitting in fury when he opposed them. They then spread out, trying to dart past him or distract him. Skystalker pounced onto one that shot forward, then immediately had to leap and pin another by the tail. The third and fourth rushed forward toward the tunnel, forcing Skystalker to shriek and fall back under the roof.

Skystalker spread his wings and hissed, blocking the hole the best that he could. He had used much of his frost breath and was not ready for another powerful blast, and he prayed that Azure would return soon. The long Predacons circled him, closing in and heating fire in their throats.

They are fast…

He could fight wildly and try to defeat them all, but he was sure that at least one would slip past him into the tunnel. While he may then be able to catch up, he would be too late to stop at least one life from being lost.

"You will not pass me," Skystalker growled. "Leave! You will not get a single one of them, do you hear me?"

The four Predacons sneered at him and twitched their whiskers.

"What do you think you're doing?" one snickered cruelly. "You are a Predacon, like us."

"What are you doing with them?"

"Protecting them?"

"Think you can hide with them and survive this?"

They coiled up.

Skystalker snarled, "They are not your prey. Begone and find something else, or you will lose your lives here!"

"You sound like you care about them."

"Skystalker… he used to be so great. What happened to him?"

"He wanted to free us of Prima, so we could hunt these bipeds!"

"He's soft now, gang."

Skystalker collected the cold in his chest, but knew that they were ready with their fire to burn through his freezing breath.

"I have changed," Skystalker uttered.

"You're a Predacon!"

"Aye, a Predacon! Not one of them, idiot!"

"No," Skystalker snarled. "I am one of them!"

He shot the small cloud of freezing particles at the nearest Predacon, but he immediately countered it. All four Predacons blasted and charged, burning him before pouncing. Claws scraped his sides and fangs snapped into his back, and Skystalker rolled as the long bodies twisted around him like snakes.

"Oh yeah?" one barked. "Well then, how about we eat you then, fool!"

They bit into his vulnerable parts. He roared and thrashed as they clung to his body, but his racing mind thought, Take them away from the tunnel.

As he fought them, he skipped further from the entrance. Skystalker twisted and bit one of them- he did not know if it was neck or body, but the other Predacon shrieked. Then, the shriek was cut off abruptly. The Predacon collapsed, a long arrow sticking out from its head.

Three heads with antlers turned to their fallen brother, but Skystalker's looked on and saw warriors at the tunnel, kneeling and armed with crossbows. He gasped and spun, turning to expose the heads of two other Predacons to them. Before they gathered what was happening, arrows accurately sank into them.

The Predacons screamed and dropped dead, and the last Predacon panicked and zipped away. His short limbs were speedy, hurrying the Predacon across the land as Skystalker recovered. Blood leaked out from multiple stinging holes, but he glared at the last running Predacon.

No Predacon like that should survive into the next world. Skystalker's wings burst open. The reign of beasts is over! These people deserve to live in peace from you!

He flapped after the Predacon, desperate not to lose him in the haze beyond the hill. Flying, he closed the distance swiftly between himself and the flightless Predacon.

Yes, once I was a great scourge and an ignorant predator like you…

The Predacon yelped when claws caught his back and a heavy weight crushed him.

But a common bully like you would never understand and change.

Skystalker raised his head, the Predacon's blood now leaking from his teeth. He glanced back toward the tunnel and the two-legged silhouettes, but that was when the meteorite struck.

The acid rain had become a deadly, acid storm. All living things caught under it floundered and screamed until they found shelter or died upon the surface. Creatures as large as Predacons perished in the rain, those who were not lucky. But there was one swift flier who was fortunate to have spotted a hole, and he twisted to dive inside.

A Shrikebot zipped into their cave and crashed into the wall. Heaving and sizzling audibly, the small Predacon looked up with sickly, pale red eyes. His blue feathers were burned through with holes, and his red body was scorched and dirtied with soot from the lands he had fled.

Blackbeak sat up. "Divebomb?"

Divebomb stared at them without comprehension, or as though he could not see them.

"It's Divebomb," Blackbeak said again loudly, while nodding at Storm. They both knew him well; it was the Predaking's head messenger, and usually friendly among Predacons.

Yet they saw that his eyes were pink, then were certain that something was wrong when Divebomb ground his head into the wall.

"Where is the sun, where is the sun…" He muttered, banging his head each time he said sun.

"Uhhh, you alright there?" Blackbeak called.

Divebomb blinked. "Who are you?"

"It's Blackbeak," he stammered in reply.

"Black...beak?" Then Divebomb folded his wings and screamed in pain. Storm jolted and hid behind Blackbeak at the sound.

Divebomb then murmured at normal volume, "So... tired."

He scratched lines into the floor, one after the other. Then, he moaned and fell over, wings spread and chin hitting the metal.

"Oh-!" gasped Storm.

Blackbeak hopped over to check him. "Poor Divebomb's alive, don't worry. I think he fell asleep. But he's in rough condition. I don't know what's really wrong with his mind."

"The radiation," Storm explained. "It messed with him."

"Oh, yikes. Is it permanent?"

Storm sighed. "Yes. It was dangerous to be out in the day… But it looks like Divebomb has been flying out in it for a while, searching for a safe place."

"I can't believe he is still even alive."

Storm eyed the liquid energon remaining in the container. "We should give him that energon. We can get more for ourselves."

Storm carried over the container and undid the lid while Blackbeak roused Divebomb.

"Hey, friend, you need energon, right? You must be exhausted. Here. Come on."

Divebomb cracked open his eyes. "Hmm?"

"Energon."

"Energon? Did you store prey?"

"No," Blackbeak replied. "Better. This will energize you."

Divebomb caught the sight of vibrant blue and hopped up. He rushed in Storm's direction so fast that the biped squeaked and ran. Then, the Predacon pounced upon the container, biting into it like it was prey, tearing it open and spilling the energon.

"No!" Blackbeak hollered.

But already, the processor they needed was punctured between Divebomb's beak. Blackbeak yanked on the handle in vain, then he battered Divebomb with his wings.

"Stop! Stop that!"

Divebomb bit at the floor where the energon had spilled, but he could not gather it into his mouth. After a taste, he grew desperate for more.

"I need blood!" he howled. "Give me more!"

Blackbeak hopped back in fear when he saw the insanity in those pink eyes.

"Where is the prey?" Divebomb hissed, not seeing Storm as he had hid behind Blackbeak.

Divebomb lunged at the wall and clawed it, searching for holes like those the Shrikebots had once stored kills in their mountainous home. Blackbeak stared at the pouring wall of acid rain that blocked their exit, then slowly opened his wings to hide Storm better.

"There is prey outside," Blackbeak tried, hoping that the insane Predacon would rush out immediately.

Divebomb clacked his beak and scratched the ground. "Where did you get the blood?"

"It was not blood," Blackbeak hurried. "It was energon, pure energon from the ground made drinkable for Predacons-"

Divebomb started sniffing the air intently. He snapped his head toward Blackbeak and began to growl in his throat.

"You are hiding it," he hissed.

Blackbeak backed off. "It-it's Storm, Divebomb. You remember Storm. Ou-our friend."

Divebomb did not seem to remember at all. He padded after them, sniffing and growling.

Blackbeak squawked, "Storm, I'm going to have to kill him. I have to protect you!"

The Shrikebot was twice Blackbeak's size, but perhaps he had a chance. Small and fast, Blackbeak could hit him in his weak spots, and hopefully Divebomb was too injured and weak to hurt him.

Blackbeak shot for Divebomb's face, flapping and aiming his talons for his eyes. Fast movement prompted the starving Predacon into attacking, and his beak crunched down onto Blackbeak's feet. Shrieking, Blackbeak battered his head with his wings until he was released. Through the thrashing wings, however, Divebomb spotted Storm alone and charged.

The tiny Predacon fell from his mouth, twisted in the air, and pecked at Divebomb's eyes. Automatically, Divebomb shut them and jerked away, flapping his wings until he struck Blackbeak. Then he turned onto the Predacon, grabbing him from the air with his beak and throwing him to the ground. Divebomb stepped onto him, hissing in ire before biting deep into his shoulder.

The taste of energon excited him and made him forget it was another Predacon below him. Divebomb snapped his head side-to-side until Blackbeak's wing tore free, then he greedily sucked the energon that poured out. Metres away, Storm was pressed against the wall, shaking as he watched Blackbeak getting torn apart before him by the larger Predacon who blocked the exit. After Blackbeak, Storm would be next except, he did not even want the first step to happen.

Many did not know why the Primes had drawn away. Once, a warrior of light had protected them, but he had vanished so long ago that most had begun to wonder if he had ever existed. He could stop wars, save almost every life, yet it would have only made every Cybertronian cry for him to solve their every problem. Expectant, like chicks with gaping mouths waiting to be served.

But the reason Prima had left was for this very moment.

Storm did not sit back and pray for the aid of a powerful being; he did not think anyone would come to save them in this apocalyptic world. He was alone, the sole one that could do something. His shivering stopped, his spark hardened. For in times of utter despair, when the strong drove the weak to their breaking point, heroes arose.

A growl rose into a roar as Storm grasped Blackbeak's wing and twisted a feather until it tore free. Its edge was sharp, and now Storm clutched it like a dagger and sprinted toward Divebomb's lowered head. Blood boiling, he jumped with his roar becoming a passionate scream. The hoarseness, the raw emotions and fearlessness surprised the Shrikebot. His eyes flicked up just as Storm collided with his face, grabbing on and thrusting the blade.

It slid through his right eye then retracted. Divebomb screamed and scrambled, tripping over his feet while shaking his head. Storm's scream never ended; he stabbed the Predacon again and again, refusing to let go of neither face nor feather to keep piercing the Predacon's head.

Blackbeak watched him and felt awe overcoming him. As Divebomb swung, Blackbeak saw Storm and all of his savage, unquenchable courage, stabbing with all his strength, teeth gritted as energon sprayed past his face.

His eyes are as fiery as an aggressive Predacon, full of the same strength and determination.

The Shrikebot crumpled with a sigh, falling under the biped. Storm crouched on the Predacon's head, yanked out his dagger, and stepped off.

The biped just… singlehandedly killed a Predacon...

Even though Blackbeak had cared for Storm, he had thought he was an inferior being that had needed protection. He had been wrong… Storm was not as weak as he had thought, and his resourcefulness had been astonishingly deadly. Yet most importantly, that passion Blackbeak had thought only Predacons possessed, was within him.

Grimwing knew all along what he was capable of. He was right… we really are equal.

"Blackbeak!" Storm cried.

Blackbeak gasped. He had understood his clear, harmonic voice perfectly without needing to focus to translate his words. Despite that joyous development, so much blood was still oozing out his wing joint. The small Predacon hopped up, turning his head to weld the wound.

"Don't you dare die on me too," Storm whimpered.

"I don't plan to." He chuckled now in relief. "Pass me my wing."

Storm grabbed it, but kept it. "You can't just… melt it on. You won't be able to control it."

"Alright, smart bot." Blackbeak finished melting the wound closed. "Then we carry it, until we can find your healer bots to fix it properly."

Here, there was no burning rain, but there was death.

A chunk of space debris survived its journey through the atmosphere and struck the Plains of Iacon. The boom shook the land and dust rushed in all directions like a tidal wave. Chunks of the terrain and meteorite were tossed high into the air, then they all came crashing down in a hail of pebbles. At the impact site, metal burned and reeked, yet despite it all, villagers ran crying toward where Skystalker had been.

No one could reach him, for their feet began to melt when they stepped too close. By the time Azure emerged from the tunnel, they were still clustered there however. Not seeing Skystalker in sight, she flew toward the bipeds in hopes of finding an explanation.

Dread stirred in her spark as she drew closer to the burning site of a meteorite impact.

No, he could not be there… Why would he be out there…?

Then she passed over the crater and saw Skystalker's crushed, broken body. She did not notice the other Predacon body with him in her horror; Azure screamed and dove onto the scorched metal.

"Skystalker!" She shoved her muzzle against his cracked shoulder. "What? No! Get up! You cannot be dead! Why are you here? Skystalker!"

Her claws began to melt into the ground, yet she bit into his fractured wing and pulled him back. Somehow she imagined that if he were just taken out of this situation, he would recover and open his eyes. Spark pulsing, she mewled through her teeth until she set him down onto cooler ground.

"Skystalker?"

His eyes were cracked and dark.

"No… Why were you there…?" she whispered. "Why did it hit you? Why… Why are you always the one getting hurt!"

Azure tilted back her head and roared to the sky.

"Skystalker! Why you? Why is it always you? Why is it never me?"

The bipeds saw the Predacon getting worked up into a frenzy and did not know what to do for her. As she jumped about, breathing fire and tearing the ground, they kept their distance and passed the news down the tunnel to their ruler. Stardust the Gold jogged to the surface to see the body of the smaller Predacon "Blue", and while she felt for him, she was glad that her favourite had survived.

Stardust wished she had a lead to pull Azure away, for she did not think it would be easy to convince an animal to follow her. The queen tried anyway, pulling on Azure's arm and murmuring, "Come on, Silver. Let's get you down."

Azure growled and resisted at first, digging her claws into the ground.

"Please don't make this difficult. We don't want to lose you out here too…"

Then Azure remembered what she had spoken of with Skystalker. All the other Predacons would perish without the knowledge and help of the bipeds. She had to go down with them and survive this, then in the new world, she could be the only Predacon remaining. Although she would be free and the most powerful being (she thought), the prospect was not exciting without Skystalker there.

Now, she would be alone…

Is it even worth it anymore?

"Silver, come on."

I do not know.

Azure dragged herself slowly away from the body, head turned to it the entire time she trudged with the queen back to the tunnel. She knew that as time went on, she would forget how he had looked. Pain twisted her spark, and sadness was a foreign feeling to the feral predator. Skystalker was horribly mutilated, and yet, Azure needed to burn the colour of his blue into her mind so that the memory would remain there for as long as possible.

My saviour… I would never have gotten here without your genius.

Her green eyes passed over his broken feathers, then she slipped into the tunnel.

They flew in V-formation, heading westward and assuming it was, since Lazerback said that the Shrikebots had travelled this way. However, they were eventually worn down just as they had been in the great migration. Heat, pollution, radiation, and fierce wind brought them to the ground to wait for the night. However, they could not find deep shelter to fully protect them from the radiation of the day. Soundless buzzing in their minds ground their nerves, making them want to snap at each other if they so much as touched each other.

They could not sleep, and once they left their shelter to continue westward, they were not able to find any more shelter. They searched for caverns and tunnels, but their routes did not take them over areas with anything more than shallow surface shelters, and none large enough for all of them.

They found no live prey, nothing else than scorched bodies melted into the ground. The three Predacons pressed on, itching with worry and hunger. Once, they spotted a writhing, flightless Predacon fighting a boulder and smashing his head against it. Averting their eyes, they soared on as fast as they could with Lazerback's pace.

By the time two days had passed, the Predaking knew they were doomed. The prickle in his body had become a maddening buzz that never stopped. There were simply not enough living bots on the surface to eat, and they were all terribly weak. Shelter could not be found in the melting, cracking ground, and now the night was fading as the sun returned in red might. It was moments away with its flares clawing at their fleeing backs.

We cannot run… we cannot keep up the speed.

They shuddered in the air and dropped.

No, do not give up…

The Predaking tilted in landing and crashed onto his side. With his face pressed over the ground, he felt the light intensifying and waited for it to take him-

No!

The Predaking glimpsed a crevassed region over the cliff edge before him. The metallic rocks had been blasted into fractured gorges by some of the meteorite impacts.

"Rise!" he called to the others. "Shelter! Down there in the ground!"

Lazerback and Twinstrike quaked and stood up, just as heat swept across them as the line of dawn crept relentlessly, blinding, from tails to heads. For the Predaking, the buzzing became a shriek on the end of his nerves, but in his focus to persevere, he suppressed the craze. He had to think straight, he had to get them down into the crevices to find a cave before they perished here where they stood.

The Predaking glanced at the others, then watched in disbelief as Lazerback charged him. The light of intelligence had faded from his eyes as he pounced, latching onto his side to bite and claw his hide. Screeching, the Predaking flared his wings and shoved him off, spinning and staring with widened eyes.

Why is he attacking me? Is this hunger or madness?

Twinstrike had been encouraged by Lazerback's attack. He lunged at the Predaking, each of his heads striking in different directions. Yellow teeth snapped into the Predaking's arm, just as Lazerback regained his balance and rushed him again. With both on either side, the Predaking fought through his weakness to defend himself.

No! We cannot fight, there is no time! We must get to shelter-

The Predaking struck Twinstrike then Lazerback, but the Predacons did not have the intelligence to stay down. Both dove for him as though they had forgotten who they were dealing with, fighting not for survival, but fighting mindlessly like sun-crazed zombies.

The End draws near...