AN ~ Well, exams didn't stop the plot bunnies from leaping on me when I got home!

4 – Rebellion

The glaring sun of Cybertron made the chrome of the silver androids shine. One of them kicked at the debris that scattered the once beautiful city of Fibos. Over 50 of the New Ones were scattered at the site of destruction, not doing much but admiring their handiwork.

One if their com-link's activated. "Did you find him?"

"Negative." He replied.

"You must find him before they do!"

"Affirmative…"

One by one, they transformed into various alt modes and left. They were still searching …

***

Magnus in front, Optimus followed onwards towards the city of Fibos. They had begun to travel again to the New Ones base. Magnus had simply stated that morning that it was on the other side of the planet. Optimus knew he deserved this hatred, but he couldn't help but feel annoyed by it. He had left for reasons of his own, and he didn't need to tell anyone.

'But no even your own brother?' Optimus thought. No, Magnus would never have understood why …

A gasp from his brother stopped him. They both transformed and gazed at the destruction below them.

"We were too late …" Magnus muttered. Optimus stayed silent. "C'mon."

Magnus turned and transformed. Optimus stayed for a moment, looking at the destruction. He didn't notice Magnus's glance at him.

'It's … wrong …'

Transforming, he followed his brother.

***

His giant crane lifted the heavy metal box in the storage room. He grunted with the effort, and finally managed to place it on top of its brethren. He was glad to be doing something to save Cybertron from these monsters; glad that it wasn't fighting like what Hotshot loved so much.

"Hey, Hoist!"

The blue and white mech turned to find Hotshot in vehicle mode enter the room and transform.

"Hey there Hotshot! Haven't seen you for awhile." Hoist replied and transformed himself.

"It's only been a few weeks Hoist. That's nothing compared to the others. Ever since…" Hotshot broke off. His best friend knew that Optimus's demise was still a matter of torment for the yellow transformer.

"He went, we've been separated. I know what you mean." Hoist said and transformed. He walked over to Hotshot and said, "I saw Blurr the other day. Been ages since I saw him."

"Yeah well." Hotshot started to walk towards the control room and Hoist followed. He continued talking, "We all know that good al' Scavvy and Blurr keeps to themselves. Never the confiding type, them two."

Hoist laughed and replied. "Well, you'll get to see how good 'al Scavvy's goin' today. He said to Magnus, via the radio, that he would be coming in with reports on who's sided with whom."

Hotshot nodded and they entered the huge room. It was dark blue in colour with many winking lights overhead, giving the room a starry feel. It was circular in shape with four doors leading off it. Computers and communications panels lined the walls, giving off little circles of multicoloured light as their controllers pressed certain buttons. In the middle of the room was a podium structure that had five occupants. Four sat at a computer while one sat at a raised chair giving orders and controlling the computers that were on and other's that were off. In that chair sat Scavenger.

The other four wore cloaks like Magnus does. They were red, blue, green and light grey in colour and each had a story to go with them. Hotshot barely knew it, so he didn't try to guess. Scavenger wore a cloak of brown; like his old earthen cloak.

"What's with the cloaks?" He asked Hoist.

"Dunno." Was all he got for an answer, because at that moment, Scavenger turned to him and beckoned him over.

Hotshot and Hoist walked over. Some of the computers were unoccupied and others had what looked like technicians in front of them. One in particular was Sideswipe. He was chatting to another robot that Hotshot couldn't recognise. Hotshot also noticed Red Alert there for business of his own.

"So Hotshot, how have you been?" Scavenger asked as he made his way down from his chair and to the ground level.

"Pretty good. You?" Hotshot asked. Who's to excuse manners? But Hotshot thought it was a little out of character. But hey? It had been 500 years…

"Lets cut to the chase." Hotshot immediately forgot what he thought earlier. "You have been assigned to find Magnus and bring him back here. That bot has been acting real strange lately and he won't answer his calls. I don't know but we think he may have gone renegade."

"That's not possible! Magnus isn't the type!" Hoist said heatedly.

"Yeah, well we all thought that Cyclonus and Demolisher would be the same, but they are with the New Ones."

"What?!"

Hoist and Hotshot exchanged looks of shock. Over the last 500 years, it seemed that the former Decepticons had settled down to live peaceful lives. Although Cyclonus still cackled like a nutcase every few seconds, there was no denying that he had become a nicer guy. The same went for Demolisher; though he always was a nice guy, but just joined the wrong side. It was hard to believe that these two somewhat peaceful former Decepticons would get wrapped up in the wrong side again. But they were cowardly …

"Hard to believe I know." Scavenger said. "But you best come and see for yourselves."

He led them over to a console with a Dark blue transformer in front of it. He looked like he would transform into a satellite or something like it judging by the dish on his back. He had a silver and dark blue colour scheme and had a large gun attached to his arm.

"Soundwave, playback video footage file 6108." Scavenger ordered. 

"Accessing files." He said in a bored voice. Soon enough, a shaky, burry video of an attack by the New Ones showed. The video paused, and it showed the unmistakable form of Cyclonus in helicopter mode. The video started again and paused a second time, showing the armoured truck form of Demolisher. The screen went black soon after.

Hotshot looked with saddened optics at his friend. He looked back just as sadly.

"Now, you two." Scavenger addressed them once more. "You must find Magnus … and bring him back. Alive."

***

The sky was thick with heavy clouds of acid rain and electricity. Since the New Ones had arrived on the scene, the weather had been dangerous and unpredictable. Although weather was mostly the same, rain was not common. And wind was certainly not either. Lately, though, it had been completely out of control. Although the acid that fell from the clouds was harmless to cities and towns, it certainly was to Cybertronians. It was best to stay inside when it hit.

Having driven for 58 miles away from Fibus, Optimus and Magnus had entered the 'tropical' region of Cybertron. The reason it was called so was the bizarre structures of titanium and the exotic towns found there. The weather was also very hot usually, but – as the weather was not functioning properly – that was a thing of the not-so-distant past.

"So," Magnus said as they sat in a cave drinking some much needed energon. They had managed to scavenge some from the ruins of Fibus. "Are you going to tell me why you are wearing the Darkness Cloak of Power?"

Optimus almost choked on his energon. Coughing, he turned to look at Magnus, who was smirking again.

"How d'you-"

"I also gained training off the planet Elementus." Magnus stated supremely. "They showed me the Cloaks of Power, and I was given this one." He motioned to the indigo cloak covering his form. "They seemed to think I could be able to master the element it came with, I am the chosen wielder … of the Psychic Cloak of Power."

He looked at Optimus and said, "They also told me about how my brother would be fit for one of the elements. They said that with my new element, I would be able to detect the power you were destined to wield, but I didn't know where you were. Therefore they told me the colours corresponding to the elements: Black was Darkness. But they didn't tell me the reasons why a wielder gets a power."

Optimus turned away and didn't answer. Magnus spoke again.

"They said that I could wield psychic because my mind was strong enough to even bend the wills of my closest family member. That was you."

"You've bonded me." Optimus said in monotone.

"That's right," Magnus laughed without humour. "You are mine to control. Now tell me or I will make you. Or I could just read your mind. But what's the fun in that?"

Optimus pulled his cloak a little closer to him as the acid started to rain down. He didn't know why Magnus was so interested. Should he tell him?

"I'm interested because you are my brother." Magnus said, reading his mind. "The brother of the Wielder of Darkness is supposed to be the Wielder of Light, not the Wielder of Psychic. Therefore it is odd that you got the power of Darkness as your element. I would've thought fire was more your suited element. So tell me."

Optimus shut off his optics and said, "To be honest, I don't know why I got it. I thought that fire would also be my element, but it's weird the way it happened. When I got there 238 years ago, they gasped in surprise and led me straight to that big chamber; you know, the one with all the cloaks in it."

Magnus nodded.

"Well, they led me down the passageway until they reached the very end. It had a really weird symbol on it too. They opened it up and inside was the Cloak of Darkness and the Cloak of Light. They gave me this one and said 'It is your destiny to wield the powers of shadows and darkness. Use it not to your advantage, but to what you think is right.' I was stunned to say the least. After that I left the planet soon after and continued my journey though space."

Optimus looked up to find his brother listening intently. His gaze was intense and he seemed to be thinking of something very serious.

"Something bad has happened." He said suddenly.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Optimus questioned.

"The cloaks of Light and Dark…" Magnus said slowly, as though a million thoughts weighed every word. "Were meant to be taken together…"

"Taken together?" Optimus echoed.

"That's what they told me." Magnus said.

They sat in silence for a while. Then Optimus made his cloak disappear in a flash of shadow energy. Magnus couldn't help but gasp.

Optimus was no longer the bright blue and red he once was. He looked like he had been coated in darker colours of himself. Indigo replacing blue; crimson replacing red and storm grey replacing silver.

"Optimus, what the slag happened to you?" Magnus asked, his voice wavering.

"I …" Optimus was trying to keep himself online. His sudden drowsiness seemed to come from his Dark power. "I don't think I can control this element too well …"

Magnus stared, and then said, "It's like I said. Until the Light Cloak of Power has found a host, you wont be able to fully control your element. Light and dark must co-exist. They cannot function alone."

"I know …" Optimus said drowsily. "So tell me … what is the rebel side intending to do?"

"We were created a few months back to stop the New Ones when they first appeared. It's been the same since. Jetfire and Scavenger founded it."

"I thought as much … ugh … Lets recharge and continue in the morning. I don't think this rain will let up anytime soon." He gestured to the heavy rain outside.

"Alright." Magnus said and vaporised his own cloak. He looked a lot like before but now had an indigo patch on his shoulder, a mark of elemental power. He was mostly like Optimus in build, but he was more rounded around the shoulders due to not having wheels. Two jet engines sat on his back to give him speed in his alt more and flight power. He had red and blue highlights and black as his main colour covering his thighs and the top of his arms. A cover of what seemed like a double light sabre was snapped to his hip.

The rain continued to thunder down as the two transformers recharged.

***

The silver android paced his study. He was waiting. Oh how he hated waiting.

Suddenly, his video com-link activated and slightly blurry image of one of his underlings appeared.

"Sir, we have located the Rebel base." He said, saluting.

"Good. Now find me the stone!"
"Sir!" The 'bot said, "Do you want us to initiate an attack?"

The other mech thought about this, "Yes do so. You may find the stone in their base, knowing them …"

"Yes sir. I'll have some jets take to the sky and start an aerial assault?"

"Do it."

The com-link winked off.

The fools! I'm not interested in the stupid rebels! I only want the stone! I must have it! Now!!!

________________________________________________________________________

Heh, heh did you see that coming? Good for those that did!

Don't worry though; the whole cloaks thing is not the centre of the plot. It is merely a part of the story that I have bubbling away in my head. I hope you liked it though!

Anyway, here's a preview for next chap. It's most definitely gonna be very long as I have a lot to write and include in it, so don't expect it up too soon, alrighty?

5 – Retribution

The New Ones strike an unexpected base, but there is a little more to this than meets the eye. Just who are the New Ones? And why are they attacking the transformers? All will be answered soon enough … and what's with the three newbies that join?

Seeya soon and please review!

Edit: FF.net deleted the link to my cover for this story. Go to my profile to view it if ya wanna see it!

ST