Once outside the ship, Bolthex clamped a servo on Echo's other shoulder. "Delta, hold on to me, we're teleporting."
"Got it." Delta put his servo on Bolthex's arm.
"Tele-" Part of Echo's question was lost in the transition. "-ing?" He looked up and saw that they were now standing outside his ship. "Alfa." He tried to hurry inside but got yanked back by Bolthex who still had him by the shoulder.
"It's alright, Bolthex," Scythe said, waving him off. "I doubt he would be stupid enough to try anything with me sitting right here."
With a heavy humph, Bolthex finally let Echo go, shoving him slightly as he did.
"You'll have to forgive him," said Scythe as they went. "He's not the nicest bot you'll ever meet."
Echo just gave her a side-optic glance but didn't say anything.
Char met everyone at the outer hatch. "Well, look at that. It really is an Autobot."
"Where's Fritz and the patient?" asked Scythe.
"This way." Char led them into the ship to where Echo had set up a makeshift med bay of sorts. In the middle of it was a mech on a berth who, even though he was lying flat, looked like he could rival Megatron in height. What little plating he had left on him was painted a dark gray with hints of dark green. There were lots of other parts missing too. One leg was reduced to just the struts barely holding together. Even his spark chamber was exposed.
Fritz came over to meet them. "Well, well, our Con here is one lucky mech," he said, looking Echo up and down. "You are quite the catch, Autobot."
"Fritz," Scythe warned, feeling Echo tense underneath her. "The patient's condition?"
"Alive, amazingly, given the lack of a couple vital components," Fritz replied with a wave of his servo. "Stable-ish, for now. We can keep him that way as long as we have energon to spare but we don't have enough parts to completely fix him."
"Alright." Scythe shifted to look at the femme flyer. "Hey, Char."
"What's up?"
"I want your opinion too. What do you think about using That?" Again, tilting her helm to the North.
"Will that work? I mean…" Char glanced at Bolthex.
He shrugged. "Theoretically."
"Then, I guess we could give it a shot? But we can't take the ship there. And the water…"
"There's a cave system that runs underneath It," Bolthex informed them, "that connects to our base."
They looked at him.
"There is?" Char asked.
"I got bored too you know," Bolthex answered, "while you were out flying around."
"Fritz, how long can he live without life support?" Scythe asked.
"A few minutes, at best," the medic replied.
"And this ship, can it still fly?" Here she looked back at Char.
"A little banged up from the landing," Char said, "but as long as you don't want to take it out of the atmosphere, it will still fly, sure."
While Scythe and Bolthex teleported ahead to scope out the cave system under the AllSpark, Char and the others flew Echo's ship to the base.
"Wow. This is pretty neat," Scythe said as they entered the cavern.
It was decently sized by Bolthex's standards, meaning it was freaking huge compared to Scythe.
"Ugh! It's so wet!" complained Leech.
"Well, we are under the river, you know," Scythe replied as Bolthex shined his lights around and the walls shimmered and water droplets fell from formations on the ceiling periodically. Some of the formations growing on the floor were taller than Scythe, making it easy for her to hide from Bolthex if she wanted to.
The AllSpark was on the far side of the cavern, half buried in the wall. All that could be seen was a partial corner like in the river above. Bolthex could reach up and touch it just fine, but it was way above Scythe's helm.
"How are you going to do this?" Bolthex asked, standing behind her to provide light while Scythe looked around.
"Me?" Scythe gaped.
"Yeah. It was your idea."
"Humph. Alright." She examined the wall again. "Give me a few minutes to do what I do best. How about you go find out their ETA. I'll meet you back at the base when I'm done."
"What you do best?"
Scythe brought out her blade and activated it. "Cutting things."
"What about a light?"
She made her blade bigger, the red glow reflecting off her armor. "I've got plenty. You can go. I'll be fine."
"Whatever you say." And teleported out of there, the clap following his departure echoing throughout the cavern.
Everything was left in darkness again except for a soft red glow around Scythe. She adjusted her optics and other sensors accordingly so she could easily make out her surroundings.
"I seriously wonder what people think I did before Megatron turned me into an assassin," Scythe mused as she started to cut into the rock wall, steam rising off it from the heat of her blade.
"I don't think they actually think about that kind of thing," Leech replied. "They just see you for what you are famous for. And Bolthex probably wasn't listening when you mentioned being a miner last time."
"I did say 'mostly miners' though, so he could have interpreted that as I've always been an assassin."
"Either way, you cut things."
"That's true," Scythe said with a laugh.
When Scythe was finished, she teleported back to base. The ship had landed just outside the entrance where Bolthex and Delta were waiting for her.
"Are your preparations complete?" Bolthex asked.
"Yep. I'm all ready to go," Scythe answered.
"Then let's get this done."
They entered the ship.
"Fritz, how is he?" Scythe asked as she came over to the med bay.
Fritz looked up from the datapad in his servo. "Same as before."
"Alright. Well, I can only transport one," Scythe said, zipping up onto the med berth. "So, Bolthex, Char, you get the other three."
"Understood," Char replied, catching Delta and Fritz by the arm.
Bolthex roughly grabbed Echo by the shoulder causing the smaller mech to flinch.
"See you there." Scythe and the wounded mech disappeared, leaving the medical equipment behind to flatline.
Fritz was close enough to silence it before Char teleported and Bolthex followed suit.
"Where are we?" Delta asked when they reappeared. "What are we looking for?"
Bolthex shone his lights on the dark metal that stood out from the lighter colored rock around it. There were gasps from all the mechs who did not know what to expect, including Echo.
"Is that… the AllSpark?" he asked.
"Yes, it is," Scythe answered. She stood on a high ledge in the rock that she had cut out to get her and the injured mech closer to the AllSpark. It was still just out of reach but when she fully extended her staff, she could touch it.
"You guys found it and didn't tell us?" Delta demanded, turning to gape at Bolthex and Char.
Char shrugged. "We were looking for the right time."
"Ugh… Is that look really necessary, Scythe?" grumbled Bolthex.
"Yes, it is," Scythe replied, her voice sounding strange coming from a fleshling appearance. "This way I can control Leech."
"Isn't that a native fleshling?" inquired Fritz.
"Yeah," Char replied. "Turns out she's also a pretender."
Scythe placed her left hand (Leech) on the wounded mech. She could feel him fading and distantly wondered if Echo could feel it too. Then she reached out with her staff and touched the AllSpark. Closing her eyes, she concentrated and mentally reached for the AllSpark. Its power leapt at her call. A visible aura of blue energy flowed down her staff and up her arm. As it moved across her body, lines of red light began to glow underneath her skin. Even her optics glowed behind her eyelids. The right one was red but the left one which she shared with Leech glowed orange. Leech's other optic, in her cheek, glowed yellow and the lines that spread down the left arm were yellow as well.
The aura danced around her torso until all the lines had spread to the ends of her limbs. Then it raced down her left arm to the mech she was touching. Scythe gasped at the sudden surge of energy when the aura reached the dying spark. She had been the guide. Now there was nothing she could do but stand there and be the conduit. She managed to open her eyes so she could watch in fascination as the near skeleton of a mech was suddenly growing new parts out of thin air.
The process continued for several minutes until even his plating was replaced. Once it was complete, any remaining power fled back to the AllSpark. Exhausted, Scythe collapsed, transforming back to her root mode as she did.
The mech beside her groaned.
"Alfa!" Echo cried, shrugging off Bolthex's servo. He hurried across the cavern and pulled himself up onto the ledge. There wasn't much room up there now that the other mech was fully formed but Echo managed to get one knee up and leaned over the mech with his servo bracing next to his helm.
"Alfa?" he prompted, using his other servo to cup the mech's cheek.
It took a moment, one very tense moment, for those red optics to come online, but they finally did, and they looked up at Echo in confusion. "Echo?"
"Oh, Primus! Thank the AllSpark!" Echo exclaimed, attempting to hug him while he was lying flat. "It worked! You're alive!"
"Yes, it seems I am," Alfa replied hesitantly as he looked around while returning Echo's hug. He noted the metal cube above them and the four other Decepticons in the cave, but he missed Scythe as she dragged herself over to lean against the wall.
Are you still hungry now, Leech? Scythe asked as she watched the newly awakened and bewildered mech comfort his shaking partner.
Nope, I'm good. Leech purred contently, eye stems retracting until the optics rested gently on her shoulder while the tails hung limp at her side.
Good to know. Scythe was exhausted and could hardly move herself. She was content just to stay there for a while and recharge.