Shockwave continued to work on locating energon deposits per Starscream's instructions in his laboratory, a low volume Slash Monkey music video played in the background as he worked, giving Miko a feeling of assurance.
It's been three years since the Decepticons arrived on earth and the day Miko first met Arcee was nearing very closely, tomorrow to be precise and tomorrow was also the day Megatron would return, a bunch of dark energon (space crack as Miko calls it) with him.
So far, Miko has been using Shockwave's knowledge of her logic-driven processor to make herself blend in better… better than she expected. The most logical conclusion is that her Shockwave side is still loyal to the Decepticon cause. That or that nobody (not even her "superior", Starscream) would dare get suspicions of her because she's in the body of Shockwave. Either way, she didn't complain.
Though her Shockwave side was against it, Miko increased the volume of the music video slightly, humming with the music, not caring about whether or not a certain Slendercon was stalking.
Besides, according to Shockwave's infallible memory, she knew Soundwave doesn't monitor the cyclop's work... probably.
Miko paused for a while, contemplating. After a while, she shrugged. To hell with it. Even if Soundwave discovers Shockwave's sudden interest in human rock music why would it matter? Logically, nothing negative would arise from this should Soundwave find out.
Shockwave's terminal beeped. Miko paused the music and opened up the notification to reveal a message from Soundwave.
/Starscream wants you in the bridge./ the message said so Miko turned off the music entirely before making her way to the bridge. The doors slid open to reveal Starscream facing the monitor with his servos behind his back. Upon hearing the pede steps of Shockwave, Starscream turns to Miko with a grin.
"Ah, Shockwave. So nice of you to join me." Starscream said before turning his entire body to face her.
"How is the progress of our new spacebridge coming along?"
A part of Miko knew he was going to ask that. After Arcee and Cliffjumper destroyed the first one and first arriving on earth, Starscream had the vehicons steal parts from military bases required to build another spacebridge and put Miko or rather Shockwave in charge of its construction.
"The spacebridge is nearly complete, Commander Starscream. All we need is Energon." Miko reported, pushing back the venom in her voice when she addressed Starscream as "commander". Starscream grins in response.
"Excellent. We already have the Energon covered. In fact, we located yet another Energon deposit to further fuel our cause."
Suddenly, a mighty explosion was heard, rocking the warship. Starscream immediately turns to see a large pillar of tinted blue smoke. The seeker growled, clenching his servos.
"The Energon, it's worthless to me now." The seeker growled to himself before two Vehicon troopers dragged an Autobot across the room. While Starscream was upset about the destroyed energon, he was happy that the Vehicons brought him an autobot. Miko recognised the Autobot as Cliffjumper. It didn't take her Shockwave side to figure out what's going to happen next.
"Starscream, it's been a while." Cliffjumper commented, coughing up some energon. He ignored Miko's presence and started looking around but couldn't find him.
"Where's your master?" The red Autobot asked, angering Starscream.
"Never mind him! I'm my OWN master now!" The seeker roared and reared his servo back, ready to stab and finish the Autobot off. However, Miko intervened.
"Commander Starscream. Our prisoner has knowledge regarding the whereabouts of the Autobot base. Interrogation would be a more logical option than termination."
Starscream raised an optic ridge at Miko. His servo dropped and his mouth opened to protest but closed it almost instantly.
"I hate to admit it, but you have a point, Shockwave." The second-in-command huffed before turning to the two Vehicons.
"Lock him up and tend to his injuries. We want the Autobot to be in good condition for interrogation. Make sure to disable anything that could be tracked. We wouldn't want the Autobots to find the warship now, would we?" Starscream barked and the two Vehicons obeyed and dragged Cliffjumper away. Starscream turns to Miko.
"Go back to your post and locate more energon, Shockwave. We want to be ready for our master's return with his army. I'll deal with the Autobot." He dismissed the human-controlled-cybertronian. Miko obeyed and went back to her private quarters. As soon as the door to her quarters closed shut, Miko clenched her only servo in anger.
"I fucking hate that high-heeled con." She hissed. Miko had the desire to shoot the hell out of that bitch for three years now but her Shockwave side always tells her that the idea was illogical for many reasons; suspicions, risks to her top secret master plan, Soundwave, ect. Miko sighs in annoyance and slides down against the door, placing the only servo on her forehead(?).
Don't forget why you're doing this, Miko.
Miko stands up from and walks towards the shelf of empty data-pads before picking up a random pad. Once turning the pad on, Miko began to type down a list of coordinates to the Iacon relics. Hey, if Miko wants to find the relics before Megatron does, she gotta have a list of where they're actually located. She could type it down on the terminal but she didn't want to risk Soundwave finding the list, no matter how many firewalls she has protecting said list. It was more logical to put the list in something as simple as a data-pad because it was the cybertronian equivalent of a piece of paper.
Miko shuts off the data-pad and puts it in her subspace, now all she needs is a place to hide the relics until the time is right. Bringing the relics back to the nemesis is out of the question for obvious reasons. She could go to the harbinger but that place is, or rather, soon to be Starscream's sanctuary when he becomes a neutral. The Autobot plague ship is an option but then again, she doesn't want to catch the Cybonic plague. She knows what that disease does to a bot, just ask Optimus. An abandoned energon- NO! She is NOT going through THAT again. She almost lost Bulkhead AND missed slash monkey's live concert the last time she was in an abandoned mine.
"Think, Miko. Use the one-eyed freak's brain Primus gave him to find a good hiding place." Miko muttered to herself but came up with nothing. With a huff of defeat, Miko went back to locate any more energon mines.
Her mind went back to Cliffjumper. Thank God she was able to convince Starscream to spare the Autobot's life, she thought Starscream would just flat-out ignore her. Her plan was that if Starscream never killed Cliffjumper, Arcee wouldn't drive him off trying to kill the whiney bitch during the… she's going to call it the "partners" incident. Anyway, if Cliffjumper's alive, Arcee wouldn't chase off Starscream and the Autobots have an advantage over old Buckethead.
At least I saved you from being heart-broken, Arcee.
"Commander Starscream, the spacebridge is complete." Miko reported to the seeker in question who grinned.
"Excellent, Shockwave. Now all we need to do now is-"
Before Starscream could finish, Soundwave walks into the bridge and approaches the two.
"What is it?" The second-in-command demanded before Soundwave's screen showed transmissions. Starscream and Miko stare at the screen before the seeker hummed.
"Those transmissions are emanating from deep space, I would hate to waste the Energon... Unless you are absolutely certain."
Soundwave only nodded his helm for a response, making Starscream sighed. He then turned around and ordered a Vehicon.
"Lock on transmission coordinates and activate the space bridge."
I think I know what's coming next.
The Vehicon did as he was told as he typed in the coordinates and activated the space bridge.
In another part of Space, near the Earth's atmosphere a giant circular device activated and a green and blue light came from it and a Cybertronian Jet exited the spacebridge and transforms into the Decepticon leader, Megatron, himself.
"DECEPTICONS! I have returned."
At an energon mine, a big one at that, Starscream was boasting to Megatron.
"Out of all the energon deposits we have located while you were away, Lord Megatron, this one is by far the most significant. The drones have been mining without pause during your absence and have amassed quite a stockpile."
Starscream then looked at one of the drones.
"You there, fetch me a sample!" The seeker barked at the Vehicon before-
"Starscream!" a familiar raspy voice was heard, startling Starscream and turned around to see his master, walking towards him and passed him with Miko following.
"Now that I have returned, I will issue the commands."
"I-I understand, Lord Megatron." Starscream stuttered, bowing to him. If Miko was still human and not in the body of the one-eyed con, she would've rolled her eyes.
"Good, now allow me to clarify the new chain of command." Megatron said, turning his helm to her and Starscream who was confused.
"While you will retain military operations, Starscream, Shockwave will be my first lieutenant in charge of all scientific endeavours."
The seeker's optics widened in shock of this new arrangement.
"So you are saying… we shall EACH report directly to you?" The second-in-command asked for confirmation, gesturing to Miko and himself.
"Affirmative." Megatron replied before walking to the centre of the mine with Miko following but she did hear Starscream growling.
"Completely 'logical', my liege." The high-heeled bitch muttered sarcastically before catching up to the two.
Ha! Your days of bossing me around are OVER, Screamy bitch!
"Lord Megatron, as your humble servant, shall I ready the space bridge, to bring forth the Decepticon army you have surely gathered during your three years in space?" Starscream asked.
"My army will come, but my time away has yielded a more intriguing means of materializing them, a solidified form of the matter the ancients refer to as the 'blood of Unicron'." Megatron replied to his second-in-command before he showed him and the human-controlled-cybertronian the unmistakable purple crystalline shard he had in his servo, dark energon. Starscream looked at the crystal with familiarity as Miko recalled Shockwave's memories that the seeker once guarded a batch of the same form of Energon for thousands of years before joining Megatron. This was the reason why Starscream joined the Decepticons and betrayed his oldest friend in the first place.
"Unicorn the chaos bringer. But it is said that his blood is the anti-spark. It has been practically non-existent since Cybertron became a lifeless husk."
"Plucked from cosmic shores. Gaze upon… Dark Energon!"
"Legend tells that it holds the power to… revive the dead." Miko finally spoke up.
"Indeed Shockwave, but we require only a cadaver to be certain." Megatron declared before he then turned to his second-in-command.
"Are you willing to make the ultimate sacrifice?"
Starscream chuckles nervously, not wanting to be used as a science experiment for Megatron's power tricks although it was something Miko wanted to see. That was when it clicked in her helm.
Hold on. Revive the dead? A corpse? Dark energon? Oh shit.
Miko's blood, or energon, froze; this is where Megatron used the dark energon to turn Cliffjumper into a zombie. But Cliffjumper's alive, she remembered Starscream going into the interrogation room earlier today but he couldn't have killed Cliffjumper, right? She convinced him to spare the red Autobot.
"That may not be necessary. If I may, Lord Megatron?" The seeker in question spoke and snapped his digits before two Vehicon troopers pushed a table out of the darkness with a figure on it. When Miko's spark raced as she feared the worst, the light of the elevator shined on the table as it was pushed out of the darkness to reveal a deceased Vehicon trooper.
Miko's antenna dropped in hidden relief, silently thanking both God and Primus.
"Consider it a 'welcome home' present." Starscream told the Decepticon leader who smirked at the test subject.
"Let us see if the power born of Darkness can reignite the spark." Megatron said as he approached the Vehicon body before stabbing his spark chamber with the dark energon. The Vehicon body glows purple before it begins growling and snarling like a wild animal before breaking out of its restraints. The two Vehicons transformed their servos into blasters and aimed it at the undead Vehicon in fear. Unexpectedly, the undead vehicon rushes over to the first Vehicon and tackles it, then proceeds to pound it in the helm.
The Vehicon starts screaming panickedly and in pain as he tries to shoot the undead Vehicon in the helm, only to continuously miss. Eventually, the undead Vehicon bites the blaster off and spits it at Megatron's pedes. The Decepticon leader in question watched with an intrigued smirk forming on his faceplate. The undead Vehicon then grabs the Vehicon's helm and crushes it with little effort. Miko felt a twinge of fear in her spark of the horror show.
She knew undead cybertronians were dangerous but HOLY SHIT! Skyquake never moved that fast when he became a zombie. Though to be fair, he was bigger and severely more damaged but still.
The second Vehicon trooper began firing at the undead Vehicon but it was unaffected and pounced at the second Vehicon and clobbered him to death.
"That's your plan?! Bring our men back from the dead to attack us?!" A horrified Starscream cried out.
"That is no longer one of our own. Just a mindless beast; its only instinct is to destroy anything in its path." Megatron told his second-in-command before the undead Vehicon turns to him, Miko and Starscream and snarls. As Miko immediately readied her arm cannon, the undead Vehicon rushes at her, the warlord and the cowardly seeker, but Megatron was ready for the undead Vehicon as Starscream got out of the way. Megatron unleashes his sword and cuts the undead Vehicon in half and the lower half falls from the platform down into the mine, while the torso half held onto the edge of the platform.
"There, rise of the indestructible seed of my army, the ultimate weapon: the Terrorcon." Megatron continued as he walked to the snarling Terrorcon before he stepped on its head before kicking it towards another platform.
"Once I learned how to control it."
Starscream walked next to Megatron, looked down at the half-body of the Vehicon, and smiled darkly. Miko, on the other hand, was horrified. That psycho warlord almost succeeded in unleashing an entire PLANET of these things when she was human. Miko was starting to understand why the Autobots tried to keep her, Jack and Raf away from Megatron as much as possible. Miko was so oblivious of the dangers of the great war as well as reckless. To think that she THREATENED Megatron when he came to the base during the whole Unicron incident. She really needs to find the omega keys. NOW!
"Shockwave, return to your lab in the nemesis. I will be in the storage room of the warship with the dark energon I've gathered." Megatron ordered the human-controlled-cybertronian to look up at him.
"Yes, lord Megatron." Miko replies before approaching the elevator and ascends to the Decepticon warship and walks to her/Shockwave's laboratory. The door closes behind her before she rushes to a vent. She pulls the grate off before she pulls out a device, the same device Starscream found in the harbinger after M.E.C.H stole his T-cog to create Nemesis Prime: a remote control for the harbinger's groundbridge.
When the Decepticons first arrived on this planet, they immediately searched the first half of the harbinger and Starscream left the other half to take the immobiliser for himself on a later date. Speaking of which, let's just say that the groundbridge remote wasn't the ONLY thing she took from the harbinger and hid in the vent. Anyway, Miko needs to find the omega keys quickly and quietly, otherwise she'll risk rising suspicion among the ranks.
"Shockwave."
Miko nearly yelped as Megatron's voice was heard from the terminal. Miko turned to said terminal and with a sigh, she approached it and pressed a button.
"Yes, lord Megatron?"
"Meet me in the room where I keep my dark energon supply."
"As you wish, my liege."
Miko hung up and placed the groundbridge remote back in the vent and puts the grate back into place before she made her way to the dark energon vault. Once there, the door hissed closed and there stood the warlord himself standing near a pedestal of dark energon. Megatron turns to face Miko with a wicked grin.
"Shockwave. I wish to speak with you."
Miko and her Shockwave side felt a twinge of fear in her (their?) spark but the human-controlled-cybertronian sucked it up and approached the Decepticon leader.
"Lord Megatron, may I ask why you summoned me personally?" Miko asked, bowing to Megatron.
"Do you recall cloning an army of Predacons to attack Autobot outposts stationed on Earth centuries before we arrived?"
Miko looked up, not liking where this was potentially going. Ratchet always wondered why Predacon bones were found on earth but due to the cyclop's memories, the human-controlled-cybertronian now knows why.
"Per your orders, my liege."
"Then I have a task for you: I want you to create a new army of Predacons to go with my future Terrorcon army since you are the one who is capable of tampering with creation."
…
You. God. Damn. Mother. Bucketheaded. Fucker.
Before Miko could reply, Starscream came into the room and stopped by the door.
"Lord Megatron, I do not think you have to worry about further Autobot interference. Not with Prime's spark extinguished." The seeker reported with a cruel smile. Megatron gave the high-heeled bitch an unconvinced look.
"And what evidence do you possess of this fact?"
"I destroyed the mine. As you instructed."
"Optimus is not easily destroyed. We have millennia worth of battles behind us to prove it."
Megatron then turns his gaze to the dark Energon.
"Lord Megatron, perhaps it is more logical to spend some time away from the dark Energon." Miko advised and Starscream agreed.
"For once, I agree with Shockwave, lord Megatron. I fear too much contact with the Dark matter could…adversely affect you."
"Or perhaps Starscream… I have simply not permitted myself contact ENOUGH."
Megatron said before he ripped off a shard from the formation of Dark Energon crystals. Starscream's optics widened at the sight as Miko backed away.
"Wait! Lord Megatron, no! Not your spark chamber, you do not know what it will do!" The seeker warned.
However, the seeker's screams went ignored as Megatron stabbed the purple shard deep into his chest. Suddenly, a loud growl emanated from the depths of Megatron's throat. Bright purple light began to illuminate from the seams and joints of Megatron's body. As seconds passed, the warlord's structure started to shake rapidly.
Starscream looked on in horror as he took a few cautious steps back from the scene with Miko.
Without warning, another louder growl exited out from his mouth as his once red optics turned a bright purple. Miko looked on at the sight of Megatron forming a symbiosis with the blood of Unicron in fear.
Despite knowing this was gonna happen anyway, her mission just got complicated.