Chapter five: An Endless Darkness

That little nostalgia trip back there with me ripping a Decepticon rookie to bits definitely gave me a few looks from the Pentagon, and even more questions, a lot of them were just basic general stuff, but one stuck out:

"You said that you had a feeling of dread, and that you've felt it before, however you also explained that this was your first hands on kill, was it not?"

I explained that technically yes it was, and that I had a similar experience a long time ago.

"Care to elaborate on that?"

I told them I already did, if only vaguely.

"Well if you did, it most certainly didn't catch in with us, so again, care to elaborate?"

I didn't respond

"No matter, we always get answers, one way or another, however we only have a few more hours left for this debriefing session, so let's move on from this and... come back to it later, please continue."

My train of thought had been broken and it took me a minute to recollect my memories.

I remembered Deadringer walking me to his favourite scavenging spot, his face looked a lot more clearer than it did before.

"Now see that over there, that is a space bridge, or what's left of it at least, these things were used during the golden age to connect outgoing colonies on other planets in the universe, however the program was shut down when a rust plague began to spread across the colonies via the bridges, many colonies were lost, entire planets disintegrated away as the plague ate its way though the universe, the planets that were infected were left to die though, anyone on an infected planet wasn't permitted back onto Cybertron, a lot were killed for trespassing back onto this planet. I wouldn't be surprised if any surviving colonies died out by now, without a stable energon supply I doubt they lasted long."

A deep pain filled the area around us, Deadringer looked pale, and for a Cybertronian that wasn't normal.

"I Uh... I was formed on one of those planets, I was sent here during an energon shortage back on my planet and I was meant to fix the outgoing pump that fueled our planets infrastructure; the pump itself was badly damaged to the point that my colony simply just relocated me here for long term so I could fix it easier, and that's when the plague hit."

Deadringer's optics shrank, he stared into the abyss of his memories, I could tell what he feared.

"I watched a lot of bots I once knew just fall apart in front of me as they tried to escape my dying world through the bridge, though any that were close were gunned down as to prevent the spread from reaching here, as if that mattered now anyway. A space bridge doesn't just turn off with the flick of a switch, it's has a shutdown sequence that must be followed or the bridge might collapse too fast and create a black hole, so for a solid cycle I saw hordes of bots from thousands of planets try to escape back home, not one made it though, the only ones that did survive were already on Cybertron, lucky me huh..."

I felt useless, so many Cybertronians I've met so far always seemed to have a hidden guilt within them, I wanted to help, but once again I had no idea how to.

"I know that look, don't feel pity on me, I've done things now that don't really reward me such comfort anyway."

We both walked down the pipes, rust flaked down from above and the sick smell of engine fluid was everywhere.

"You know, I never really had anyone to talk to since that cycle, most Decepticons I know are just complete Scraplets."

The silence around us besides the dripping pipes and the occasional thump of a broken piece of metal really had a calming effect on me.

"Okay I think we should stop here for a bit, my joints hurt."

We both sat down on the giant pipe below us and stared into to horizon, the stars in the sky burned bright onto this place bots used to call a home.

I didn't know this world before its destruction, I heard some Decepticons earlier talking about how they wished they could relive the golden age all over again, even Deadringer shared those wishes, I wish that I could see this planet in its prime, wishes don't come true though.

"I always admired the stars, I mean they're really just giant balls of burning gas that light up the universe, but I can't help to wonder if even they might be alive, just in a way we can't comprehend y'know? I mean it's a stupid thought, but it's so weird to think that those gas giants might be alive, they have a life span, they're formed from the remnants of dead ones, and they even have a sort of heartbeat, I mean if you call nuclear fusion a heartbeat."

Something about listening to him, all the other Decepticons I've met just spoke like radio static to me, but Deadringer was as clear as freshly polished rims, I wanted to listen to him.

"If stars could be alive then what about planets? Well I mean it's already established that this one is alive, but I'm talking about the rocky ones, I mean we all came from something, a lot of life forms in the universe are vastly different from us, we're kind of unique."

"Other life forms" I wondered what those other creatures might've looked like, well now I know of course though.

"Ah scrap, I gotta get back to the base, Megatron is gonna kill me if I don't fix that relay, come on!"

Deadringer transformed into a Cybertronian utility truck, these automobiles were mostly used by mechanics so they could hold more tools, I had also completely forgot that I could transform aswell.

"Oh come on don't tell me you forgot already, just follow the pattern, simple."

I transformed and we both raced back to the base, I could feel the pipes below me rattle as my wheels spun above them, that feeling of freedom washed over me again as we both sped down the pipes.

"Damn, I gotta admit, Shockwave really knew how to design rims, and to think that before this change, you were about as attractive as a bucket of slag."

Yeah that stung a little, but to also think that he found me attractive was comforting, if not amusing.

"No worries though, we were all there at one point."

We both arrived at back at the base, thankfully we made it on time.

"Alright well, I gotta get up to the relay, see you later."

Just like that Deadringer left, and I was alone again, at which point static filled my ears, then the sound of a Decepticon.

"D-340, return to my lab, I have a quarter key for you waiting."

Shockwave always put me in a bad mood, his cold demeanour and his cruelty to me didn't go without tension, we were practically polar opposites if you will. I made my way up to the lab, Shockwave and Megatron were waiting for me.

"Ah good! The subject arrives."

"On schedule lord Megatron, my experiments never fail."

"I would like the honour of showing you to your quarters myself, now normally I would get Soundwave to assign you, but this moment feels special doesn't it?"

Megatron put a hand around my shoulder, I could feel his vice grip cling to my arm as we made our way out to my new quarters, Megatron was the one bot who didn't fear me, and that made me fear him.

"Now I heard that you went down to the Scrap Pit, find any thing interesting?.."

I told him that no I didn't, not yet anyway.

"Well that's why it's there, anything you can find and keep is yours, it's always good to recycle used parts, even sludge has it's uses..."

Megatron guided me to my quarters, it was mildly damp and rust flaked off from the ceiling.

"Now I know it's not triple A, but we all start somewhere, besides that severed head of yours could really do for a shelf, don't you think?.."

Megatron walked off back to wherever, and I was left alone in the room, I looked around, the room had a green tint to it from the lights above, the corners were caked in a rusty filament, I looked down at my key, is was a rectangle shaped object that could easily fit into a wrist plate for safe keeping, the door to my quarters were jagged a bit, rust covered the plating on the door, at least it was quiet here.

Hours passed with me just looking around, the buzz of the lights at least made the deafening silence mildly bearable. I sat down in my new stasis pod and plugged myself in, every room had one, it's a thing used to power down to recharge, humans call it sleeping, but I think I'm doing it wrong, humans talk about dreams and nightmares and stuff, I never had any of those, humans are lucky, they don't need stasis pods to completely power down or whatever they call it, they just sleep practically anywhere they find the most comfortable, a lot seem to sleep in "beds" or something, supposedly helps them retain there physical structure much more efficiently than a hard floor, though some apparently don't care. Humans sleep a lot, they burn themselves out before even a cycle, whatever fuel they use it probably sucks, but I heard that energon has negative effects on humans so that's out of the picture.

I woke up to the sound of an alarm, red lights filled the room as a speaker cackled to life, and a robotic voice spoke, the voice spoke in weird tones, always keeping a uniform tone to his voice with mild changes in pitch here and there.

"Attention all Decepticons, an intruder has been detected within the facility, operation: capture and detain."

I rushed out my quarters and I saw Decepticons mobilize around the base, I saw Ramjet walk around, ordering bots out of their quarters for emergency inspection, I joined a group of Decepticons and we made our way down to the barracks, each one grabbed a gun, I didn't like guns much at this point so I grabbed a volt staff instead, it's a weapon very similar to what humans call a cattle prod.

"What are you doing?! grab a gun!"

"Look dude forget it, it's not my problem if the kid don't wanna get his hands dirty, we got a job to do come on!"

We all rushed down to the supply chamber where the energon was stored, energon leaked from the fluid pipes down here; it was dark, very dark, we saw other Decepticon groups down here scouting for the same thing. There were three of us in the group, including me (so I guess that would be four then.). We slowly made our way around the twisting pipes, our spotlights did very little to light up the massive chamber, no one actually knew why there were barely any lights down here, but nevertheless it did scare a few of us, I on the other hand have seen far worse, I preferred the dark, I was made in it, so whatever was down here with us most likely isn't as bad as the Insecticons I met so long ago.

Besides the humming of the energon generators, it was eerily quiet, one of us radioed in for any sight yet, no one saw them yet, one dude was shaking so bad you could hear his plates clank against eachother, I just kept walking until eventually I ended up taking the lead.

"What's with this guy? He doesn't even look fazed."

"I don't know and I really don't care right now, right now I just really just want to find this bot and get out of here."

"Yeah... me too."

"Will you both shut up, I'm trying to listen for them."

The one Decepticon in our group was one of Soundwave's communication officers, she had a built in sonar system she could use to track footprint echos, however she wasn't picking up much besides the muffled sound of flowing energon.

"Pick up anything yet?.."

"Well if you two bolts would shut up then maybe I would."

"Alright fine..."

When I said that the place was massive, I wasn't joking, it went on for miles at a time, there was enough stored energon down here to power all of Kaon for eons.

"The scrap is all this energon doing down here, What would Megatron need with this much? I mean there's enough down here to fuel us forever."

"Hey, don't ask questions you don't want the answers too."

"Alright alright, just saying."

We made our way onto an elevator platform, the elevator hummed to life and we began to descend downward.

"How far do you think it goes? I mean I know the energon storage doesn't actually go down that far, but wow that's deep."

"Yeah, cool, shut up."

"Yes ma'am..."

The Decepticon gave a snarky expression towards the Officer, the Officer caught it and smacked him in the back of the head.

"Cut that scrap! You're a Decepticon, not a Protoform."

"Jeez, fine."

The elevator almost looked like it went on forever, below us was just darkness that was very poorly lit by the elevator lights.

"So what's your story new guy? Everyone has one."

I didn't respond.

"Ah com'on, this elevator goes forever and I'm bored anyway, come on newbie I wanna hear it."

I glanced over at the Officer, she looked at me then back at her data terminal.

"Well you know what, fine, stay quiet."

The elevator whirred as the motors creaked downward into the darkness.

"So, how did you become a Decepticon then, if you don't want to walk about your past, then at least tell us how you got the job then, what are you? Maintenance? Sentry?"

I still stayed quiet.

"Listen, if the new guy doesn't want to talk then he doesn't have to, plus he obviously has more lug nuts then either of you considering he's taking the charge."

"Alright chick, I just wanna-"

At this point the Officer is fuming, and grabbed the Decepticon by the arm.

"Do not call me chick Buzzkill, or I might just toss you off this elevator."

"And then what? What do you think Megatron might do to you if you chucked one of his best scouts off the platform?"

"I'm an Officer, you're a scout, I'll survive, besides, I think Megatron found a new favourite anyway."

The Officer glanced at me again then went back to her terminal.

"Oh that's right!.. you're Megatron's new favourite pet, I thought I recognized you!"

My servos twitched a little, I didn't like the term pet.

The other Decepticon, the timid one, stayed silent the whole time, he held his gun like he was about to die right here and now, I will say that I felt bad for him.

"So why the volt staff, afraid of getting your gears dirty?"

I responded by saying I didn't like guns.

"A Decepticon that doesn't like guns, that's the best joke I've heard all cycle."

The elevator came to a full stop, but not on the ground.

"Hey what the scrap!"

Buzzkill looked over the edge, he told us that the elevator cable was bolted to the wall.

"This elevator isn't going anywhere, we're stuck here!"

The timid Decepticon began to freak out, the Officer calmed him down.

"Calm your lug nuts, we'll get out of here..."

I looked over the edge, there was no way any of us would survive a fall from this height, and climbing the cables were out of the question, the cables were magnetically charged, any of us touch them and we'll fry.

"Well now what, can you radio Soundwave?"

"There seems to be some sort of interference.."

"You mean that we're to far down to actually get a signal?"

"Uh... sure..."

Buzzkill looked very annoyed, the Officer was trying to radio in, and Mr. timid was huddled in a corner gripping the railing.

I tried to see if I could contact Shockwave, no luck.

"Don't bother new guy, if my transponder can't reach home base, then that will do nothing."

I looked over the edge again, it always baffled me just how deep a planet could get.

"So now what, we just wait or something?"

"Waiting here with you is at the bottom of my list of things to do."

"Can't we go back up?"

"Not likely, whatever stopped the elevator stopped us both ways, look."

We all looked up and the top of the cable, bolted as well.

"So wait a second, you're telling me that someone bolted this elevator to a full stop, in both directions, without even making a sound?"

"Well I mean they could've been placed here as a trap."

"Oh that's fun, hey guys guess what, we're dealing with a ninja, awesome."

Buzzkill examined the elevator mechanism, then the cables, the Officer kept trying to signal in, and Mr. timid was still scared out of his mind, so I went to sit with him.

"Man I am not cut out for this type of job, I'm just a maintenance bot, I'm not even that I just help control the energon out flow to our outposts."

I reminded him that everything will be fine, and he'll get out of this.

"Yeah... okay..."

Hours passed as we were still trapped on the elevator, buzzkill wasn't helping.

"It's been 5 hours, they're probably gone by now, you think they're looking for us?"

"This far down I doubt it, to them were probably dead."

"Oh that's a comforting thought thanks."

"Are- are we gonna die down here?"

"Maybe, depends if any of us had energon this cycle, if not then I doubt it will take long."

"Shut up buzzkill you aren't helping."

The Officer sat down in a corner, her data terminal lost power an hour ago, couldn't find out why though, considering the thing had a battery that could last eons at a time.

"Alright, since we aren't going anywhere for the time being, how about we introduce ourselves, besides I'm getting really sick of calling you newbie. I'm Buzzkill, I lived in Vor until the collapse of the golden age, I used to be a social engineer."

"You, a social engineer?"

"Yup, I became a scout after Megatron personally selected me for my ability to decipher old Cybertronian, perks of being a social engineer, you know many languages."

"Alright, my name is Vectra, I was a communications Officer responsible for keeping a steady relay between outgoing colonies until the plague, once the war broke out I was enlisted by my commanding Officer Soundwave to join the Decepticon ranks. I never really liked my job, the amount of Decepticon voices I heard buzz out as they died really takes a toll on someone..."

"You next timid."

I don't really have much to say..."

"Hey, I shared mine and Vectra shared hers, your turn."

"Fine, names Hardhat, I helped build structures, I never really did anything worthwhile, I didn't have any redeeming qualities, and I never really helped much anyway. I was always at the back of the workforce, I helped out the helpers that helped out helpers, not kidding. Megatron had me enlisted as an assistant to the maintenance crew that controlled energon production, from there I would just spend my cycles adjusting the outflow to other outposts."

"Alright well that makes three of us, your turn newbie."

I didn't respond, instead I was fixated on the elevator cables thinking of a way to unbolt it.

"Ok, I shared my very personal story, and as a commanding Officer, it's your turn now."

I told them it was classified information.

"Yeah? Classified by who?"

I told them It was classified under the orders of Shockwave, Soundwave, and Megatron.

"Wow... you must be one special bot then, I mean I understand Shockwave's reason, but Megatron doesn't like secrets much, whatever he wants with you it better be worth it."

I had a guilty feeling, I wanted to tell them, but I feared that if Shockwave scanned my memories, the only place I could visit them would be the Scrap Pit, or in Megatron's trophy case.

"Huh, guess that's good news for us then, if you're really that special then I doubt Shockwave wouldn't stop looking, if I know anything about that guy, his perseverance is unmatched even by Megatron."

"Well then newbie, do you at least have a name?"

I told them my designation code, they laughed.

"No I mean a name, something to call you."

I told them I didn't have one, at first they laughed, then they realized I was serious.

"You... aren't kidding, are you?.."

"Man you really don't have a name? Alright hang on... Slick, nah too short..."

Hardhat spoke up.

"Well where were you created then? If you give us a location then maybe we could give you a name based on it?"

"Sounds like a plan to me, hit it newbie, where you from?"

I said that's also classified.

"Oh com'on! At least give us a general location then, like a city, or even just a land plate?"

I hesitated, then I spoke about waking up on a gigantic plane of golden rust then spanned for miles.

"The sea of rust? That place is an ecological deadzone, nothing survives out there besides the Insecticons underground."

"Dude, that is awesome, you're like a born survivor then huh, no wonder Shockwave likes you so much, anything else?"

I said I couldn't tell them anything else besides that, but I did tell them that I inadvertently killed an Insecticon, I may have changed a few details though.

"Now that's nuts."

"I've never met anyone who killed an Insecticon before, resilient creatures aren't they."

"Well Megatron made a fragile pact with them to keep them from eating us alive, Megatron and Shockwave are the two Cybertronians they fear the most, Megatron mostly for his brute force and extremely potent 'been there done that' attitude, and Shockwave for much more intricate reasons."

"The fear from Megatron is obvious, but Shockwave, he's the real horror show."

"Well if you knew Soundwave like I do, you would know that he doesn't scrap around like you do Buzzkill."

"Fair enough."

A few moments passed, and then Buzzkill's optics lit up like a human holiday.

"I got it, I know what to call you! How about... Deadzone!"

"I mean I guess it makes sense, you are the first Decepticon I've met that ever survived out there."

"I know right? It's perfect!"

"Well that's not up to you now is it? Alright newbie, how about it?"

I looked at my designation code, then looked over the railing of the elevator, Deadzone... I liked it, and I agreed.

"Hah! I knew it was perfect, well Deadzone, welcome to the Decepticons for real this time."

A few more hours passed, we passed the time just by talking about our past experiences, too bad I couldn't contribute.

"Yeah, he was a good guy, but after the collapse of Kaon, I never saw him again."

"Maybe you'll find him one day."

"Yeah maybe."

I was looking over the edge when my transponder buzzed to life, and Shockwave was on the other side of it.

"D-340, confirm transponder connection."

I told the group to get up, and responded to Shockwave that I can confirm.

"Good, I have a fix on your location, why haven't you moved."

I told him that something bolted the elevator cables to the wall, and that there was no way we could detach the bolts without frying our circuits.

"Why hasn't the communications Officer contacted Soundwave?"

I told him about the interference and that the tablet died.

"Do not move, I have calculated that someone has tampered with the relay system and is trying to prevent contact, I have sent the Constructicons to retrieve you, for now pretend that you've lost contact with me, one of them is a confirmed Autobot, I repeat, one of them is a confirmed Autobot."

I followed his orders and pretended to lose contact with him before he could relay any information.

"Well? Anything? Are we gonna get out of here?"

I said that I couldn't tell him our location in time.

"Scrap, well that might've been our only chance of getting off this elevator, awesome."

I held my head in my hands, pretending to be frustrated to hopefully throw off any suspicion.

At this point I had no idea which one it could be, and I couldn't let any of them know that I knew, for all I knew all of them could be Autobots, I glanced over at Hardhat who all of a sudden looked very anxious, but before I could question him, Buzzkill stopped me.

"Hey, we'll get off this elevator, I know it."

I looked over at Buzzkill, the comforting surprised me, but I could see it in his optics, sure he was kind of a lug nut, but I could tell he cared a little.

"Alright, we can't stand here anymore, we've gotta figure-"

The loud sound of a gunshot filled the echoing void, Buzzkill and I both turned around to see Vectra, with a burning hole through her abdomen, she collapsed to the floor with a loud clang, energon pooled out of her stomach, and her optics burned out. Hardhat stood behind her, his gun in hand and his finger on the trigger.

"Hardhat what did you do!"

The shock of everything happening caused me to freeze, I just stared at her corpse, and yet I saw the Insecticon, with his body still trapped within the laboratory; energon pooled around my feet, the smell of transmission fluid filled the area.

"You really didn't think I couldn't hear you're little conversation could you? No why would you, nobody suspects the outcast!"

Hardhat held his weapon tight, And aimed it towards me.

"You know, I was never really appreciated much, I did all the work behind the scenes, so I figured I could maybe change things up a bit, help out the other team this time, and you know what? They actually care about me, th- they appreciate the work I do for them!"

"Hardhat listen-"

"No you listen! All my life I've been forced into the backbone of everything! When I became a Decepticon I thought that I could maybe have a chance at something, but now I know that the Decepticon faction is just a bunch of arrogant, circuit fried, scrap piles who have a temper tantrum when things don't go their way!"

"Hardhat, put the gun down.."

"And you... I know what you are... You see, my original mission was just to Sabotage the relay systems, but after taking a very curious look at a classified file, I found out just how valuable you actually were. Wanna know the perks of being an outcast? no one ever suspects you as the problem, even though this isn't what was asked of me, getting you out of the picture will definitely be an advantage for the Autobots."

"Your the spy... You're the one responsible for the constant destruction of the relays! You sabotaged Vectra's terminal didn't you?!"

"Her terminal did take a lot longer to break than I thought it would, it doesn't matter now though, I know that I'm not getting out of here alive, so I might as well make my last moments worth it, say good night!"

"Hardhat wait!"

Still frozen in shock, I heard the gun go off in Hardhat's hands as the bullet headed towards my spark, and I watched on as Buzzkill knocked me down to the ground, taking the shot.

I fell into Vectra's energon pool, and I looked over to see Buzzkill, with a hole burned through his brain.

"Ah, I missed, what a shame... He was a lug nut anyway, once you're gone though the Autobot faction will remain safe for good..."

Energon soaked into my servos, bits of Buzzkill's circuits mixed with the spilled energon, and I could hear the sound of a gun ready to fire.

"Nothing personal, you were one of the few bots who were nice to me, so I'll make it quick and painless for you."

However before Hardhat could pull the trigger, a loud metallic thump was heard, and then another one shortly after.

"Wh- what is that?.."

I looked over to see Hardhat looking up the elevator shaft, panic filled his optics.

"Scra-"

Before he could even finish, a large green hand dropped down from the void above, and crushed Hardhat where he stood, the hand pulled back and metal scrap and servos peeled off of it, and a loud deep voice filled the void.

"State your designation code."

I told the giant my designation code and then another hand appeared out of the darkness, motioning me to grab on to it.

The Decepticon was massive, bigger than anything I've ever seen, even though I was built to kill, I stood no chance against something so big.

"D-340, I have been sent to collect you, do not resist."

The giant slowly climbed back up the elevator cables, apparently unfazed by the electro-magnetism that powered them, eventually we reached the top, Shockwave was waiting for me.

"Put him down Devastator, your work is done."

The giant began to disassemble itself into multiple smaller Decepticons, they all walked off to wherever.

"Come, I have to scan your memories for any incriminating evidence to your existence, and to see if there are any lose ends that need to be cleaned up."

After a few hours of examinations, Shockwave let me go back to my quarters for a power-down, on my way there I spotted Vectra, fully repaired.

"Hey newbie, good to see you standing, guess I'm not the only one who can pull a few surprises huh? This look in your face makes it worth it that's for sure."

Turns out Vectra had survived after Hardhat had accidentally put her systems into stasis lock, if it wasn't for that one in a million fluke, she wouldn't be standing here.

"I heard Buzzkill took the bullet, knowing him I'm surprised he didn't just use you as a shield or something, guess he saw something in you."

Vectra looked depressed, Buzzkill was apparently a good friend of hers, his death took its toll on her.

"Well.. if you need anything, I'll be in the communications sector, see you later."

Vectra and I parted ways, I could still smell the energon on her, at this point I really just wanted to power down. I walked into my chamber and laid down in the stasis pod, energon still in between my pistons, I didn't care.

The world really just is an endless darkness huh?..