DISCLAIMER: I do not own this franchise I am only using it and some of its characters as a base universe for this story.
Chapter 29- Orion Pax
POV: Twinwave
": :" Bumblebee talking
(Note: this chapter takes place during season 1 ep 26 "One shall stand part 23" of TFP)
We hadn't been walking long, maybe ten or so minutes. There wasn't much around us but dark energon and the different parts of Unicorns nervous system, respiratory and critical organs. The constant beat of Unicron's sprak still beat rhythmically in the background as we took each step closer to it, though we were getting close I could already feel the effects of the dark energon taking over. Little by little.
We were walking in some sort of wiring when it happened, Megatron just stopped and collapsed onto his knees midstep letting out a pain filled gasp as he had some sort of flash from Unicron's twisted mind. "Unicron grows ever stronger." Megatron said after his flash, he rose back onto his pedes and looked at Optimus before brushing past the rest of us that had gotten ahead of him during whatever had just happened. "How do we know Unicron isn't using Megatron to lead us all into a trap?" Arcee asked skeptically, it was in both his nature and the nature of the titans to do so but I had a feeling we needed to have a little faith in our new found alliance, even if it was temporary. "We do not." Optimus said as he walked past her to catch up with Megatron, she transformed her blaster before following behind him. "Have a little faith." I reminded her, even though I was still being cautious around him. We just continued walking for what seemed like forever, down the same stretch of wiring for miles and miles.
There was the occasional creepy sound that echoed throughout the tubing, like some sort of other sentient being that let out a cry that I could only associate with an insecticon. "Did you hear that?" I asked when we stopped for a moment to rest because Megatron was getting another flash, I turned around to look into the stretching dark that loomed behind us. ":No I didn't, I think you're hearing things.:" Bee buzzed back. "Yeah, maybe." I replied as I turned back to face the rest of our group as we continued the journey to Unicron's spark. Though the dark behind us loomed as we picked up the pace, there was a light in front of us. Probably where this set of wiring connected to something else, as we approached closer whatever we'd just stumbled into the purple glow of dark energon appeared in random spirts across the open cavernish place.
We came to a complete stop at the entrance to the cavern like thing we'd come across. Here the beating of the titans spark was much louder than before, more rhythmic and hypnotic in a way. "Unicron's spark is near." Megatron commented as we glazed around the open area, there was only one way across from here and that was across the membranes that we'd first walked upon when we bridged here. Arcee stepped in front of all of us to survey our surroundings, of course it wasn't mucch different than everything else we'd come across during our trip but she did it anyway to make sure we weren't heading blindly into a trap. "After you." Arcee said, she was quoting herself from earlier today when she'd let Megatron go through the ground bridge ahead of everyone else. She gestured to move along to Megatron, and instead of getting a worded response back he just shot her an sort of angered glance as he stepped out onto the membrane. Optimus second, next was me, than Cee, than Bulkhead and lastly Bee who brought up the rear of our exploration team.
We walked silently as usual, and the only sounds that were heard was the beating of Unicron's spark, our padsteps and this time to add to everything a groan from Bulkhead. He too was starting to be affected by the dark energon, even though I was ahead of everyone else I stopped and rushed past Cee to see if he was okay. I wasn't a medic but I did have enough first aid to see what was ailing him, even if it was fairly obvious. ":Are you okay, Bulkhead?:" Bee buzzed as he and Arcee each grabbed an arm to help stabilize his footing. "Fine, Bee. Just woozy." Bulk said to my partner in a reassuring tone, "The dark energon is starting to affect him." I said once I reached the trio. I'd stated the obvious to the rest of the group, like I mentioned before but they seemed to take it as new information. "Steady as you go, Bulk." Arcee said as she and Bee guided him down the stretch of the membrane to the other side of the chasm below. We weren't stopping to do a full assessment on him, we had a planet to save first! Though it would be a necessity to make sure everyone had a full recovery when we got back to base.
As the trio shuffled along behind me to keep pace with the two mortal enemies in front of me and myself of course. Megaton stopped as we heard a whirring sound, not like the ground bridge or wings but a mixture of both somehow. "The rest of you hear that right?" I asked the rest of the group, they gave some brief helm nods to my question as Megatron tried to place what was coming for us. "He's preparing to expel us." Megatron said, everyone stopped again to look around us to see where the threat was coming from. It wasn't whirling anymore but it now sounded like hissing and a similar battle cry to the insecticons that I'd heard before. "I knew I wasn't hearing things." I muttered as I spun around one more time and landed facing to the left of the other side of the bridge to see a whole swarm of them headed right for us. "What are those things?" I asked, I was officially more concerned for our safety than I had been when I found out Unicron was at the centre of the planet we were currently inhabiting.
I heard the guardian trios blasters transform and charge up as the swarm of whatever those things were encircled us on the membrane we were standing on. "As we are within Unicron's body, it stands to reason they are an antibody of sorts." Optimus replied to my question. I drew my swords, though they weren't going to do much unless it was for close range attacks. "This is one of the rare times I wish Primus had blessed me with a blaster instead." I muttered to myself as Optimus now transformed his blaster and the antibodies started to rain down from above us. Everyone opened fire on the things, blasting each one out of the sky via a fiery explosion as they swooped down on us. Here and there a few got close enough for me to stab or cut in half but everyone else took care of most of them with their blaster, however when they started shooting back my swords became a shield and my weapon because I did not feel like getting shot today.
Optimus transformed his blades instead as the few that were slipping through our blaster defence shield were getting too many for me to handle. I was running the antibodies through left and right as they swooped down to try and take us out again and again. They seemed to be doing passes around the membrane we were standing on as a way to encircle us as more and more kept coming. At one point Arcee jumped over one and shot it with her blasters from behind as it made a turn around to start another fly by, she missed our membrane but landed safely on another below us after shooting a couple more out of the sky.
Optimus and I continued to dismantle and mangle the antibodies as they slipped through the blaster fire and made a dive for us, I was jumping to get some of them that were higher than I was or sliding underneath the ones that made a shallow dive at me or anyone else around myself. But as we took more out, more and more kept coming. Blaster fire and the sound of explosions was the only thing that now could be heard throughout the cavernish space, the sounds bounced off the walls and came back to us louder. Unicorn's spark beat had faded into almost nothing in the background, ":BULKHEAD!:" I heard Bee shout amidst the chaos that had enclosed our party. I took a second to stop my share of the fighting to see my partner gripping onto one of Bulkhead's servos as he dangled over the edge of the membrane. Both mechs were being heavily fired upon as the antibodies took the opportunity of weakness to exterminate them.
"Bee, let me go. I'll only take you down with me." Bulkhead said to Bee whom was now laying on his chassis to grip onto the wrecker, "We aren't losing another one. Now try and pass me your other servo." I said as I dropped my sword on the membrane and layed down on mine to reach for his other servo over the edge. Though we couldn't currently see Megatron and Optimus were fighting in unison, probably like when they had been brothers fighting together against our corrupted planet.
"Come on just let go you two!" Bulk yelled as our grip on his servos started to slip up. Arcee had apparently also seen our predicament from below us because she had stopped fighting to see the outcome of what was happening with Bulk. "Bulkhead!" she yelled from below as Bee and I desperately tried to get a grip on his servos, there was enough chaos around us that Optimus and Megatron hadn't yet seen or heard our situation but Bulkhead was slipping fast and we needed more help. "Optimus!" I yelled as my grasp on his servo falled and he was now dangling by Bee's equally failing grasp. Optimus immediately recognized our situations and untransformed his blade before rushing over to grab Bulkhead just as Bee's servo slipped out of his. "I got you." Optimus strained as he pulled the wrecker to safety on the membrane we were standing on.
The moment Bulk was back on his pedes everyone started to make our retreat to the other side of the cavern. "Arcee!" I yelled down to my best friend, she was currently battling two of the antibodies as we made our escape. She saw us retreating and hopped onto the back of a nearby antibody and rode it all the way back up to us before stabbing it with one of her blades and jumping off of it before it exploded behind her. "Now that was impressive." I thought as she waved us forward to continue our retreat. We ran across the membrane and back into the wiring system that lay beyond.
Though we were retreating the antibodies continued to swarm and follow us down the wire. With Optimus coming behind us and last into the wire, I expected him to create a sort of cave in to stop them from flooding but instead he ran after us doing nothing but shooting as we ran down the wire. They didn't stop coming, I'd luckly remembered to grab my other sword before we'd started our retreat and any of the antibodies that managed to get as far ahead as I was without being shot down by the others first were then cut in half or stabbed before exploding as the fighting continued.
We ran along the wire until we reached a sort of crossroads and they started swarming again in the high ceiling. We formed a circle and everybody protected their neighbor and the person behind them as we cut through the swarm slowly. Each of us had a different fighting style and so often a few strayed youtube of our little cluster to take on more of the antibodies than the rest of us, aka. Megatron, mostly Megatron, was doing that. I just stuck to cutting through their ranks with my swords as more and more seemed to come through the wire we'd just been in and swarm us, of course there was so much blaster fire in the air.
We were in a heated fight, but it seemed like we were back to our calm. As weird as it seemed I felt an unusual sense of calm, like I was getting back into routine. And in a way I was, hopelessly outnumbered with a tiny squadron of Autobots as your backup with an enemy coming at you from all angles reminded me of when we were on Cybertron in a weird way. "Unicron's spark lies just beyond." I heard Megatron say to Optimus as the pair made ethier way to a door of sorts, everything was confusing here and this was no different.
"How do we get inside?" I heard Optimus ask back, they were clearly formulating a plan to get rid of these things and open that door. "By fooling Unicorn's defences into believing we are not a threat." I heard Megatron reply as I cut through another one of the antibodies. I stopped what I was doing to see what was happening with them to see Megatron's decepticon symbol glowing a bright purple, we backed him as he used the dark energon running through him to open the door. We shot down more and more of the antibodies as Megatron entered Unicron's sprak chambre, I knew Optimus had to follow him.
So I already knew the order was coming before it did, "Autobots, I will need you to keep our attackers at bay for as long as you can." Optimus said as he ran through the door after Megatron. It shut all of it's locks and doors as he chased after him. "We got to hold fast for Optimus." Bulkhead said as we continued the fire fight with these annoying antibodies, "For Optimus." I said back before launching myself on my heel straight into the swarm. I extended my arms and let my blades cut through the ones that were beside me or in my path as I flew through the air.
The others continued their shooting, we gunned down hundreds of them even though more of the swarm continued to stream in after the fallen ones. We protected the doors to Unicorn's spark chambre with all that we had as the effects of the mass amount of dark energon started to take hold. A serge of power happened at one point, it seemed to somehow supercharge the antibodies because they were coming at us stronger than befire, Arcee and I had taken to the fron and air as the mechs more so protected the door.
Arcee and I would use the walls in the cross roads room as launch pads to get smore air to strike down the anitviruses from above as he doged the blaster fire coming both from them and Bulkhead and Bee below. I cannapulted myself off a near by wall to cut through a few more of the dumb things (That's what I've decided to call the anitbodies) before I landed and all of them started dropping out of the sky.
Almost all at once they fell, crashing to the ground as whatever power serge that had been happening ceased and the caverns and wires around us became deadly quiet. "Do you think he did it?" I ask the rest who hadn't untransformed their weapons yet in case the antibodies decided to reanimated themselves via the dark energon that powered them and attacked us all over again. "Well, there's only one way to find out." Bulkhead said as he turned to the door and brough one of his wrecking balls down upon it, the door came crashing open as Bulkhead led the charge to Unicorn's spark. We crashed through each door as we got closer to the chamber until we crashed through the last one and it came flying open to reveal the empty spark chamber that lay beyond. "Optimus, are you okay?" Bulkhead asked as we jumped through the doorway and down to the floor level of the chambre.
"Why did he call me that?" Optimus questioned Megatron who currently had Optimus' servos in his as if he was helping him up. "What do you mean, your name is Optimus." I said as we came to a hult a few meters from the pair, "What did you do to him?" Arcee asked coldy when we stopped. Megatron was definitely not happy to see us, it was written all over his faceplates but Optimus', they looked confused and a little scared. He seemed confused as to who we were and where we were. He didn't seem like Optimus either, he was shy and showed emotions openly unlike Optimus who was normally reserved and stone faced. "Who are they?" Optimus questioned just as a bridge opened behind them, I could already tell Megatron was formulating a lie to use against us and take advantage of the confused and dazed Optimus.
"Our mortal enemies." Megatron started, "What!? We are about the complete opposite if that." I said to Megatron but mostly Optimus so he could get a sense of who we were again before he made a choice that he might regret. "We're outnumbered! Go! I'll cover you!" Megatron finished as he pushed Optimus into the ground bridge portal and started firing on us. We jumped out of the way as the first blaster shot hit the door frame we'd just broken through and caused an explosion, he continued to fire as Optimus made his way to the portal. He paused before he went to go through it and I got a glimmer of hope as he turned to us, looking to see if he recognized our faces before turning tailpipe and running through the ground bridge with Megatron following slowly behind.
We got to our pedes and made a rush for the portal only for it to close on us just as they went through. I didn't hear Bee's cries for Optimus to stop when he hesitated before going through but I was told after the matter that he had. I was just concerned right now about what was happening with him. We skidded to a stop before where the portal had been and where the edge of the platform for Unicron's spark chamber was, everyone had utter confusion on what had just happened written on their faceplates, Arcee's intake was open and everyone was wide opticed. "Ratchet, we… we need a ground bridge back." I managed to get out as we continued to be in our shocked state, I didn't get a reply from base but instead our own ground bridge opened behind us and we trailed through it. The guardian trio were the first in but I paused before going through to see if Optimus would come charging back to us, but he didn't.
We disappeared through the ground bridge, passed through it's limbo state and reappeared in the frame work back at base where everyone was eagerly waiting for our return at the ground of the ground bridge. "Arcee!" Jack said excitedly as he ran towards his guardian and stopped short of the top of the Autobot logo that was in front of us. "I was worried sick, Bulk!" Miko piped in as she and Raf joined Jack. "You all right, Bee?" Raf asked his guardian but we were a little too saddened right now to say anything, "And Optimus? Is he…" Ratchet started before trailing off. His voice was thick with sadness when he didn't see his friend return with us through the portal. "Dead? No." Arcee replied with little change in her voice.
"But he looked right at us without recognizing us." Bulkhead added. "He didn't even know his own name." I finished. We all had our helms down in the failure that we had accomplished today, we lost the last Prime to the Decepticons and it was our faults for letting him go so easily. "Hmm, When Optimus surrendered the Matrix of Leadership, he lost more than the collective wisdom of the Primes. He lost his own memories." Ratchet concluded solemnly and I was about to leak, actually I think everyone was about to. We had no way of getting Optimus that knowledge back, it was gone into when he surrendered the Matrix. "We lost Optimus… possibly for good." I said, though I knew everyone didn't want it said but it had to be.
Hello, yes you, welcome to the end of Book two of my series. Season one of Transformers Prime is officially over so you get to deal with the suspense until book three comes out in a few days. I appreciate all of you who have been keeping tabs on this series, it really means a lot to me. I'll try to have the next book out by Tuesday with the epilogue and authors notes coming out Saturday. Again thank you guys for tuning in and remember to stay safe and be happy!
I hope you enjoyed this chapter, feel free to leave some feedback for me so I can make it a better reading experience for you guys!
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