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"So...how are we going to get up there? What's the fastest way?" Arcee asked.

Megatron clawed at the bark to test the stability of climbing and he noted the bark didn't like the pressure. Beneath the bark on the denser material the tree had was good for talons like his to hold onto but Arcee had no claws. Even the best climbers like her wouldn't do well without them in this case.

"Get on my back," the warlord then said.

"What?"

"You heard me," he smirked. "I'll take you up."

Arcee realized what he had planned and with a sigh, she agreed. Hoping onto his backside and clinging onto his shoulder armor for the best grip, she prepared for anything. To her surprise, Megatron lowered himself towards the ground in a type of pose ready to pounce. Then he pushed off into a high jump and immediately sank his talons through the bark into the wood itself. Shaken slightly by the sudden movement, Arcee gave out a squeak of shock to Megatron's amusement.

"Please warn me the next time you do that!"

"No, don't think I will," he mused.

She was too tense and focused on staying on him to retaliate with a snarky comment. Then she made the mistake of looking down as pieces of bark fell past her as Megatron clawed up the tree. The jump alone was a fair distance up, now seeing the ground growing farther through movement really made her unsure. She gulped and pressed her cheek against his spine.

Megatron peered back ever so slightly to acknowledge the gesture. He wasn't annoyed by it. In fact, seeing her trust him enough to be comfortable in showing her true feelings on the situation kind of made him a bit protective of her. She was growing on him each little moment between the creatures and monsters they faced. Not that he would admit it out loud though, one of his own personal flaws.

"Are you okay?" He asked in a low, concerned tone.

Arcee had her optics closed as she was holding onto him, a slight expression of discomfort most likely from seeing how far up they were. She barely nodded. He could tell she was growing exhausted as well with the creatures they had faced. He didn't press the matter any further and continued to climb.

A roar echoing above made him pause with bark crumbling under his grip and he could feel Arcee shuffle to look over his back. She perked up, crawling up onto his shoulder carefully.

"What was that? It had to be whatever the Metalwood tossed that gem to, right?"

The warmonger sniffed the air, "It's something alright. Is it me or is the air supposed to be thinner when it seems to be denser instead? There's also a weird smell, it's...not great."

"You have a heightened sense of smell? What else do you have?"

Megatron grinned, "Wouldn't you like to know? No but in all seriousness, working in the mines on Cybertron came with a very deadly cost at times. To prevent incidents, we were all tuned up to have heightened senses smell, sight, and hearing. When I became a gladiator, they never turned these attributes off, so it allowed me to counter enemies much easier and detect them when they were hidden hence why it was so hard to get the jump on me throughout the war."

Arcee stared at him. "Oh...BY THE GODS, that explains so much! You're an aft!"

"Now why would I tell my greatest enemies about that during the war, now really Arcee?"

"Unbelievable! Unbelievable. Alright, Mr. Sensory, what do you sense?"

"That's not how senses work, what you're asking, but I assume it's angry, prideful, and has the gem. Does that answer your question enough, Princess?" Megatron chastised.

Arcee shook her head with a sigh as Megatron continued upward until they reached one of many thick limbs protruding from the tree. The Decepticon let her down and it was noted that they were three-fourths the way up to the core of the crown where all the branches met.

"Arcee, I'm going to throw you."

Betrayal was the first thing that played on her faceplates and she grew aggressive. "What, why?! What did I do to you?!"

"Not throw you off the tree, throw you up," he urged as he pointed. "I can launch you the remainder of the way so you can figure out what exactly is up there. If something is wrong, jump to me and I'll promise I will catch you. I'll climb and meet you up there."

Arcee grimaced and crossed her arms, "Every time we separate, bad things happen."

"And it'll just keep getting worse. Do we have a choice?"

A fair point. Arcee didn't like the idea of splitting up anymore, but they needed to know what was up there and if anyone could slip away easier when everything went downhill, it would be her. Knowing there was no other choice, she looked at Megatron as he lowered his servo for her to climb on to. She gave a subtle nod and balanced herself in his grip.

"Ready?" He asked, lifting her and backing to give himself enough room for a good swing.

"Ready," she replied confidently.

Megatron then ran towards the wall of bark and did a slight twirl to increase momentum before using it to hurl Arcee up into the air. Given he was stronger than Wheeljack and Bulkhead combined, she found herself flying like a rocket at blazing speeds. Perhaps a bit too far, she zipped past her destination and up into the canopy.

"Uh...that's not what I wanted," she scowled.

Before she could breach the canopy itself, she held out her servo and caught the nearest thin limb she could. Swinging herself around a few times, she let go to slide on the branches back down, keeping balance as smaller branches merged with larger, shifting and curling around one another. When she saw the heart of the crown with a large flat area, she adjusted course and leapt off at the perfect time to hit the core in a roll upright.

The area seemed abandoned, nothing but streaks of light glistening through the canopy above. "Bolt, come in, I'm at the top of the willow."

Bolt seemed to have been napping as she heard a yawn on the other end, "Ye-ah? Sorry about that, energy was a bit low. Did you find the gem?"

"Well, no, but whatever has it should be still here but I'm not seeing it. That's a bit cowardly. My scanner hasn't alerted me to anything. Is anything visible on your end?"

"Nope, maybe whatever it was jumped ship after you made it up there? That's a crapshoot about things like this. You never know whether those creatures will run like cowards or-"

"I am no coward!" A deep voice boomed with an accent Arcee couldn't place, shaking the canopy and the birds nesting inside fled instantly.

Arcee immediately tried to pinpoint the voice's location as Bolt remained silent. There seemed to be rustling above but it was hard to tell where. Sunspots breaking through the canopy shifted and Arcee grew to the impression that whoever it was may have been as fast as she was if not faster.

The core of the area shook when a large form fell from the canopy behind Arcee who flinched and stared forward. Slowly, she turned to see a hulking rhino-like organic being staring down with reddish orange eyes and black slit pupils. His muscular body and thick reptilian tail emphasized his natural imposing strength alone and him being as large as Megatron really didn't help the situation. Strapped on armor and two holds on a belt for large swords meant he was very much a civilized species as her.

"Tell me I'm a coward again to my face, little one. I dare you," the brute alien spoke, sharp teeth very present in a wicked sneer.

Bolt quietly whispered in her ear, "That's a Rozarian, THE primary species of Rozaria. I thought the Allspark only brought animals and plants from the other worlds, not primary lifeforms. I warn you, with utmost importance, that they are very proud warriors. Don'tpiss them off."

Arcee attempted to appeal to the larger being, "I didn't mean it like that...brave warrior..."

"Good one," Bolt said blandly.

"I...um, I'm looking for a gem about yay big?" She gestured with a forced smile.

The Rozarian raised a brow unimpressed but then it changed to a dark chuckle. Arcee frowned until he pulled out said gem from a belt bag strapped on his back. "You mean this?"

"Y-yeah, can I have it? It's really important that I get it. A lot is at stake."

The gem hovered in his hand and he simply placed his free hand on his hips in a cocky manner as he studied it. "And what, pray tell, is so important about it?"

Arcee growled, "This island has trapped every living creature brought to it. We're trying to undo the Allspark's rule over this island. That gem is one of eleven and we really need it to set things right again! Surely, you want to leave this place, Mr..."

"The name is Xerophorus."

"Cool, I'm Arcee. Nice to meet you, Xerophorus...if we work together, we can survive anything this island throws at us. We can get you home too."

Bolt tried to cut in, "Arcee..."

Arcee ignored him and continued, "Please, all we need is the gem."

Xerophorus studied her, then the gem. After a second of thinking about the offer, the Rozarian grew a cruel smirk and clutched the gem in his hand hard. "A valiant offer, Ar-cee, but no sell. I would rather kill you than work with the likes of a Cybertronian."

Xerophorus knew what she was, but Arcee didn't know what he was? How alienated was Cybertron compared to all the other cybernetic worlds? Either Cybertronians were the most hated cybernetic species, or they had too many rumors surrounding them hence why no species outside Velocitron made contact with them.

"This gem you want? I know what it is, I'm no fool. It's mine now and I'll destroy anyone who gets in my way!"

"Arcee...!" Bolt urged in a whimper.

"W-what?" She said dejected as Xerophorus placed the gem back into his bag and reached for one of his huge gladius blades.

"That's Xerophorus, the Titan of Kyveria! He's a mass murderer! If he gets off this island, he will kill every human on this planet! You have to stop him!"

Arcee somersaulted away from the blade as it came crashing down with brutal force. The sword got stuck briefly in the ground before Xerophorus pulled it out rough and rotated it tauntingly. "If you were wise, my dear, you would stay still and not make this any harder than it has to be. I promise a quick death."

"If I was wise, there would be a whole lot of things I would have done differently in my life up to now," she said. She stood with her katana ready though compared to Xerophorus', it wasn't very impressive.

"Nice sword, mine's bigger," Xerophorus snarled, holding up his weapon. "Although, I'll be sure to take good care of it when I relieve it off your corpse."

Then the Rozarian began rotating his sword like a propeller, scarring the ground as he made his way towards Arcee. The Autobot had little places to go as the edge of the tree core was just behind her. Only one way left to go and that was up. Taking her chances, she retreated up the sloping huge branches of the tree to buy her time to strategize how she was going to take on Xerophorus.

Xerophorus roared as he watched her, "Who's the coward now?!"

He let out an animalistic bellow and followed her, dragging his blade alongside him. As Arcee leapt across to another branch, the Rozarian did the same and tried to slice her down to size but she would always be one movement ahead thankfully. He ripped out his weapon he embedded into the bark where she once stood each time, not caring about the state of the limbs he was leaving them in as he chased after her.

"A real warrior stands and fights to the death!"

He placed his sword back on his back and began to move across the crown of the tree on all fours. Arcee grew fearful as he began to catch up and braced her blasters, firing when he was deemed to close. Xerophorus dodged like a pro giving Arcee the impression she definitely wasn't the first Cybertronian he ever encountered. He almost had her when she shifted in a roundabout of tangled branches in which he miscalculated a turn and slid down the main branch a few feet, his claws stopping his descent and readjusting his course back on track against her.

Knowing it was only a matter of time before he caught her, Arcee whipped around with katana in servo in an attempt to cut at least a limb off if anything. Xerophorus ducked just before and slid himself into an upright horizontal roll before trying to swipe at her. Arcee leaned back, barely missing the claws of the Rozarian. He did this a few times, then reached for his gladius blades, this time pulling out both.

Arcee used one sword as a stand and did a backflip over him before attempting to trip him, but Xerophorus seemed to anticipate the move and turned on a dime, bringing down one of the blades into the bark and almost stabbing Arcee's thigh to her startlement. He twirled his free sword and went for the killing blow with a sick grin.

The problem with being a strategist was there was always a chance to go up against someone similar. Well, Xerophorus had his bag of tricks and so did she. She stared the blade down and in a calculated move, pushed herself to slide down the bark on her back so the sword impaled right above her helm. A second too slow and it indeed would have severed her head from her body.

With both weapons stuck, Xerophorus growled but didn't get the chance to speak when her pede clashed straight to his underbelly. He let go of his blades stunned as she stood up again. His brief handicap didn't last as he flung himself at her in rage. Both went flying off the side of the tree branch onto a lower one. However, the impact made the two separate and Arcee almost slid off the edge. Had she done so, the fall from the crown to the base of the tree would not be a pretty result. She caught, in her haste to survive, a stray small branch.

"Well, well, well," Xerophorus mocked, rubbing some green blood from his lips, "looks like the femme fatale is going to have a fatal fall. I would have liked to see you die to my blade, but I guess I can't have everything I want. It'll be very satisfying seeing your parts scattered across the marshlands instead."

Arcee tried to fire at him with her blaster but his sudden grip on her arm made her wince. When he started to squeeze, the panels of the blaster threatened to pop loose, sparking and a warning sign for weapon failure began to emerge. Her optics went wide as he came close.

"It's been a pleasure, Ar-cee," he hissed, flaring a serpent-like tongue.

Her grip went slack, and she let out a gasp as Xerophorus and the limb he stood on started to shrink. She understood the last thing she would hear is his boisterous bellow. But his cruel laughter died as she was lurched forward and swinging back upward again. Flying never felt so good. She was thrown and spun in the air to turn around to see Megatron swinging on the willow's huge strands of leaves.

She smiled as he gave her a salute and began falling back down with the hanging branch in hand. Arcee braced for readjustment and landed on the thick branch across from the Rozarian with a pose, one she learned while being an assassin for years. She returned her damaged weapon back into its place.

"Our dance isn't over quite yet, Rozarian."

"Efroc´ta y´atmilo-e, apparently not," he snorted. He then did a leap over to her branch and shook it upon landing.

Fight or flee, which one will it be? She backed up as Xerophorus cackled until her foot almost slipped and she peered down. A slight nausea hit her seeing ground floor so far up again but she ignored it as she saw a limb that had died long before sitting just beneath the one they were on. Its barren smaller branches were now nothing but jagged pikes. An idea hit her and lunged at the Rozarian to the latter's surprise.

Diving into a slide between his legs and avoiding his stomping tail on the other side, she swung around mid-slide to face him and stopped herself to give him two-foot kick on his back to push him forward. He stumbled further but not as much as she wanted. Now aware slightly of his fighting style, she dodged as he tried to tackle her again. Pieces of bark came off the stable edge of the branch but he was still balanced.

Snarling, Xerophorus changed his tactic as he began throwing punches, none of which Arcee took lightly knowing how easy one hit might just knock her out. But what Xerophorus was about to learn was just how hard it was to deal with agile Arcee. Now that she knew perfectly his strategies of brutality, it was time to counter him. None of his attacks landed this time. Arcee made sure of that but she wasn't aiming on attacking him back. No, she wanted him humiliated at his own game. That's what she did best.

"You know, Xerophorus, I've dealt with better fighters than you!"

The Rozarian growled like a beast, his pupils thin as a blade of grass. He threw a fist down in an attempt to break her leg. She moved it at the perfect time and created an infraction in the branch's bark that broke it like paper. He pulled out his hand from the impact and pieces of the branch crumbled instantly among the crisp air.

Arcee kept taunting, "Ooh, that's got to hurt! I meant you, not the tree. You barely tickled that thing."

"Shut up!"

He whipped his tail around and she did a somersault over him again, this time bracing for him to whip around and when he did, she sidestepped and crunched his nose against her knee when she brought up her leg. The noise his snout made and waterfall of green that briefly fell from hoarse-breathing nostrils was enough to make her giddy. She missed this action since becoming queen.

Xerophorus shook and a splatter of blood hit her chest armor. She now knew what she had to do. Getting as close to the edge as possible, she positioned herself to stand where the lower dead limb of the tree could be seen, making it a blind spot. It was do or die now.

"Hey, Xerophorus!"

The Rozarian froze and bared his fangs, staring her down and ignoring the pain. She could tell the emotions against her had overcome his reasonable intellect to deduce her ploy. All he wanted to do was kill her no matter what the cost.

She frowned, "I pity what you are. Just know when this is over, nobody will remember you."

The normally bipedal, level-headed warrior and one of Rozaria's mightiest became nothing more than a raging animal as he sprinted at her on all-fours. Arcee prepared to leap over him and he anticipated it to jump at her one last time, except she changed course and positioned herself low. He flew over her and she made sure to use her legs to push him so he couldn't correct himself. She could see his realization of just what she did as he began to flip upright over the edge of the branch.

Arcee heard the animalistic yelp and gasp that followed. Blood made a sickening sound as it poured across the dead branch and spots of it were painted on the wall of bark beside him. She watched the branch creak from the weight it suddenly took on. It held steady...to her slight disbelief. Suddenly, a blinding light shot from his backside and the gem presented itself back in the crown arena of the tree, unharmed by the fall.

She ignored it when Xerophorus gasped and quivered. Blood was coughed up as he shakily peered down his body. A broken, jagged piece of old branch was in the middle of his abdomen, covered in dense green that almost made it appear like it was alive and lush again. He brought his hand to loosely grip the pike and slipped it up, taking a small mass of his blood with the motion. He held two different expressions, changing between the two like a light switch. He kind of smiled but also appeared to be saddened.

Arcee couldn't tell what was going through his head, but his tail had ceased all but a twitch curved lightly among the upside of the branch and his armor seemed less shiny but that was more than likely the small shifting of the light of the day. She had seen death far too many times, some ignorable while others hurt hard. Xerophorus was a pitiful creature but seeing all that blood was hard to take.

There was a moment of relief and guilt when he hung his head to look at her and his pupils dilated. The brilliant orange and red his eyes held were nothing but darker, exhausted shades of dismay.

She shook her head in sorrow. Had Xerophorus just given her the gem like she asked, it wouldn't have come down to death. But the greatest weakness he had was perhaps his pride. She had also seen so many of her kind fall because of that one sin no one could escape no matter how hard they tried.

"I wonder...had we fought once more on the battlefield, if I would be there in his place instead," Megatron's voice said.

Arcee solemnly looked behind her to see Megatron staring down the corpse in notable regret but also a degree of fascination. Megatron was no stranger to death either, but the prospect of what could have been wasn't lost on her. She knew as well as him that their final meeting before the war ended could have gone south for either one of them.

The scariest thing she ever learned from Megatron when it came to battling him was how aware he was of his own mortality. Xerophorus believed himself unstoppable. Here, he lies dead on an island no one but a few know about. Megatron was alive and a war criminal but well remembered, no memory of the war untouched by his presence in some way shape or form. It really hit home just how mortal everyone was and what they did among their limited lives.

A servo caressed her shoulder. In a lighthearted manner, Megatron tried to break the tension, "So, you ready to climb down? I'll give you a ride, but this taxi isn't free. You can pay me in Energon rations, weapons of mass destruction or the death of Optimus Prime. I'm not incredibly picky right now."

"I'll think on it," she smiled.

"While you're thinking, do you want these?" Megatron held up Xerophorus' blades, the ones he left embedded in bark before tackling her.

The blades were nice, perfectly balanced. He kept them in pristine shape as she noted. However, taking the weapons of a fallen warrior...as deranged as he was...didn't sit right given she was the one who killed him. She politely declined and took them to the center of the crown of the tree. With all her strength, she impaled the ground with one and made the second cross over. A shrine and warning to anyone who found it a warrior and a murderer had perished there.

Grabbing the gem that hovered nearby, she huffed, "Okay, I don't know about you, but I'm kind of dying to get out of here."

Megatron snickered and she broke down laughing at his amusement to a poorly timed joke.

Bolt adjusted the panel on the ground bridge controls. If he couldn't bridge off the island, it would be a damn good help to at least be able to warp among it. It was far too large to just walk around on top of returning with each gem they found. But with the ship's systems doing fuck all since the crash, none of it wanted to work.

He had gotten a notice from Arcee that Xerophorus was no more and they were on their way back. There was a sigh of relief off his chest for the day against the damn bridge and that was the monsters of the Mystic Marshlands were gone. Now, there were some nightpaws roaming about and two or so smaller bloodhawks but none with serial killer agendas on their mind. The marshlands were peaceful and restored to its natural balance...well, as natural as species from other planets could make it. Xerophorus being here was a big surprise though.

That made Bolt shudder at the thought. If someone like Xerophorus was here, who else was? Each planet had its horrible people so there was no telling. Thankfully, one of Cybertron's most brutal warlords was on their side. Given Megatron knew Arcee's battle style compared to the past and future enemies, if they were lucky, Megatron being summoned to stop Arcee wouldn't bode well for her at all. Then again, she fought Megatron before.

Bringing out the most problematic of parts for the ground bridge, the nexus core which was also extremely delicate and very hard to replace even under normal circumstances, he noted it was very dim. The core wasn't like most other technology that ran on Energon. It had to have a specific type of power source to run on. Some Earth minerals managed to have similar properties which they had used to run the ground bridge on the Nemesis while continuing the war here. It wasn't a perfect substitute but it made things work. Space bridges had the same thing and boy, was that a pain to get fuel for every single time they turned that monstrosity on.

He slowly opened the case of the core as one miscalculated move could damage it or worse, explode. It opened like a breeze-

"GOT IT!"

The door behind him, which was broken, was slammed open suddenly and in a panic with a scream, he threw the core up into the air. Realizing what he did, he scrambled to catch it. It bounced a few times out of his grip but he managed to secure it and brought it close to his chest. Turning quickly with his blaster out, he glared at the people standing in the doorway.

Arcee slightly flinched with the gem in servo at the hostility while Megatron simply walked past her unfazed into the room toward the back room that held the armory. Bolt did a tense half-shrug before growling and putting his weapon away. "By Primus! You couldn't have called first?!"

"Sorry," she said. She held up the gem sheepishly, "I got the gem though."

Any anger he had towards her melted though the intrusion wasn't forgotten and a few side stares at her indicated after he carefully removed the gem from her. "Wow, you actually did it! You won against Xerophorus? Impressive."

"Believe me, Xerophorus won't harm anyone ever again. Let just say he retired to hang around the trees and discover how beautiful nature can be."

Bolt winced with a chuckle, "Ooohh-ho-ho, well, I bet the people of Rozaria will be forever in your debt."

The Vehicon passed the hovering gem from servo to servo, intrigued on its serene existence. Arcee leaned against one of his shelves as the energy sparked among his prodding. Megatron came back to Bolt's side.

The warlord studied it from over Bolt's shoulder and commented, "Appears to indeed possess the almighty power of the Allspark, only a fraction of it though."

"But...it might be enough to use for other things in the meantime," the smaller Con said. "I was going to figure out how to shut it down but now that I think of it, we could maybe power the ship with this. Once we have all eleven, then I'll redirect my attention to destroying them. Until then..."

Bolt took the nexus core in one servo and looked it over before eyeing the gem. "...the Allspark was believed to be able to do anything it set its mind to; if it willed it, it would happen. Create planets, warp the cosmos, and bring species that exist in the far reaches of the galaxy to the location it so desires."

Arcee exchanged looks with Megatron.

"I wonder..." He whispered. He carefully set both the gem and the core down and opened a drawer with cables, from medical use to mundane, and grabbed a pair of jumper cables. He took the core again and carefully reset its structure before setting it back into its rightful home. Popping out a button he didn't need on the control panel, he attached two of the ends to the core and slid the cable through the hole before placing the panel back. He laid the gem on its side and clicked the two ends to spark to make sure they were working.

"This will either work or it'll kill us. Just thought I'd let you guys have a few second head start out of the ship if you want to run."

Arcee frowned with wide optics and Megatron raised a brow with a humorous smirk.

Bolt positioned both ends to the gem and at the same time, he clasped both to it. The gem burst with power, shaking the table and the control panel and Bolt moved back immediately. A roaring sound emitted from it until the ground bridge controls lit up nice and bright as did the lights in the room. He could hear the weapons system powering up extremely fast.

"Well, I'll be damned. It worked."

Arcee perked up, "So, can we bridge off this island or no?"

"Most likely not," Megatron intervened. "Just because we have a portion of the Allspark's power doesn't mean we can breach its own defenses. If we try, we might be blown apart entering the bridge."

"Doesn't that mean we'll die if we use it around the island too?"

Bolt shook his helm, "I wouldn't think so. The Allspark wouldn't focus on keeping you from making your way around the island because it most likely has traps it wants you to meet. Until I can confirm it works right, I suggest either walking to Primal Jungle or Nemesis Forest. Since there have been no recorded energy fluxes or unstable creatures running amuck in the marshlands since you killed them, I say it'll be easier for you now to traverse this area to the forest than ever before."

The femme nodded but made a gesture of pause. "Before I forget, I brought you something else."

"It better not be a dead possum," he said deadpanned.

She held up a vial of green blood and feathers. "To help in your research or armory."

Bolt took them proudly, "Bloodhawk? Nice, I'll see what I can do. My question to you is: are you going to stay to rest or are you heading out immediately?"

Megatron placed his servos on his hips and gave Arcee a smirk which she proudly mirrored before addressing Bolt, "I think we deserve a little rest, don't you?"

"Yeah, I would agree. A homicidal tree and a Rozarian murderer are quite enough for me for today, not to mention the other beasts."

Bolt nodded, "Energon's in the stock room and your chambers are untouched. I thank you with all my spark for doing this, guys, I hope you know that."

Arcee snorted behind Bolt's back. She then said to Megatron, "Should we tell him we dropped that gem in the marsh like five times on the way here or-?"

"Nah, he doesn't need to know the gem had a bath in the muck. Just let him enjoy his moment of happiness."

AN: Bringing a Rozarian to life was one of the species I always wanted to introduce not as my OC, Captain Silos (who won't be making an appearance in this fic). I also will tell you that the marshlands is the only section with over four chapters to its name for bosses. The rest of the fic will usually only have three chapters for each area to get the ball rolling from here on out.

Featured Monsters:

Xerophorus, the Titan of Kyveria (Rozaria)