Transformers Prime: Through Hell & Back Again

by xXBlack'BladeXx

She is his daughter; he loves her with his entire spark. He would do anything to protect her and keep her safe. Now both her fate and that of the universe lies in his hands. He will be tested, and he will not fail. He can't. He will do whatever it takes to bring her back home again safe and sound... even if it means going through Hell and back again.

35. The Mistress Keeps That Which is Hers

I'm not even gonna say anything about why this took so long. I'm not gonna say anything about when the next chapter will be up or when I expect the story to finish up. We'll get there when we get there.

Enjoy!

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Steve Jablonsky; Hunted

34

In Dominae Servat Quod est Eius

(The Mistress Keeps That Which is Hers)

The earth quaked. The night sky was filled with a heavy fog of dust and dirt and grit, and rubble and rock rained down from the heavens as the pillar Luna had erected came crumbling down. Hunter plummeted through the debris, shoving off rocks and leaping from boulder to boulder, both riding out the collapse of the pillar and searching for Luna. She'd struck the witch—she knew she had; the energon on her saber blade and spattered on her body clearly spoke to damage dealt. But how bad was the damage? Hunter didn't think for a moment she'd been lucky enough to actually kill her grandmother just like that; and she knew that so long as Luna possessed a head she'd be capable of making an escape. Hunter could not let that happen. She would not. The world—and more importantly her family—would never be safe so long as that witch was alive.

A flash of magenta caught Hunter's eye and she quickly threw her gaze in that direction. There! Several feet away falling through the debris was her target, desperately trying to keep away from the falling wreckage around her by sending out jets of fire to propel herself. Luna seemed to be having a time of it, as it looked like she was incapable of using her left arm to throw fire and had to resort to awkwardly using her left foot whenever she needed to propel herself from that direction. If that was the case, maybe Granny Luna would like some help getting back to the ground.

Flipping around to angle herself in the direction of Luna, Hunter erupted jets of fire from her feet and fists to push herself towards the witch. A boulder fell into her path and the teen gave a mighty swing of her saber, cutting the rock in two to clear her way. She punched her way through another boulder that cut off her path to Luna, smashing it to smithereens. She was clear now! Luna was right there, only feet below her!

Jetting over to a large, nearby rock, Hunter grabbed hold of it and scrabbled to the tip where she punched off with fire and strength. She rocketed towards the struggling witch, faster than ever. Very soon she was close enough that she could reach out and grab Luna's feet. Even as the Sorceress screamed and cursed and kicked out at her, trying to force the girl away, Hunter refused to be deterred. Luna landed a solid impact to the girl's jaw; Hunter bit her tongue, pain erupting as stars before her eyes, and the sweetness of her own energon filled her mouth. Renewed anger and hate flooded through the teenagers veins. Seizing one of the witch's ankles in a crushing grip, Hunter swung her feet backwards and down, pulling her captive with her as she tumbled head over heels through the air several times, gaining momentum with each spin. Finally Hunter yanked Luna up over her shoulder and chucked her down with every last bit of might in her body into the earth that was still a good distance below. "Hoo-augh!" Then she dived after the witch.

Luna hit the ground, a crater forming around her. Seconds later, Hunter came crashing down atop her, and a ripple tore through the estate grounds, churning up the earth. Then it was still.

Hunter crouched over her grandmother, both hands on the hilt of her flaming sword with the blade driven straight through the Sorceress' spark-chamber and into the earth beneath her. Luna lay prone on the ground, unmoving, not breathing, eyes closed. Her left arm was a bloody stub just below the shoulder and continued oozing energon; evidently she'd managed to move that far out of the way before Hunter's first strike. Energon seeped out from the witch's nose and mouth and around the edges of the blade skewering her chest as well. Luna was dead.

Panting heavily, Hunter hung her head. She closed her eyes as relief began to ebb through her. It was over. Luna was gone—it was all finally over.

The nearly silent shift of dirt came to Hunter's ears. The teen opened her eyes and looked to find the hand Luna yet possessed moving ever so slightly. She narrowed her gaze. Hunter had heard of "death spasms" before, but weren't they supposed to be a little less controlled and subtle and a little more… spastic—hence the term? Hunter looked suspiciously from Luna's hand back to her face, and had just enough time to glance down into a pair of blazing, magenta eyes before she was blasted back and away from the witch by magic.

"Aaaahhh! Ugh!" Flame-saber flying out of her hands, Hunter flew through the air and hit the ground several yards away. The teen shook away the daze and quickly sat up to stare in disbelief and horror at her grandmother. "What the hell?!"

The witch was on her feet once again. She still had a bloody stub of a left arm and an oozing hole straight through her spark-chamber, but she was also still very much alive. And very much furious, though her fury did seem to be tempered a bit with sadistic amusement. Luna cackled at her granddaughter. "Stupid, foolish girl!" she spat jeeringly. "Did you honestly believe it would be that easy—just one strike through the spark-chamber and that would be the end of me?" Luna suddenly blasted a nearby rock into smithereens and spelled the fragments to fly towards her. The bits floated around the stub of her left arm and began connecting to it and each other, taking the shape of an arm and hand. As the rocks took form, Luna passed a hand over the wound in her chest and the hole slowly began to close up. By that time the last of the rock fragments settled into place a magical aura rippled over the stone arm and there was a crackling sound as the stones bonded and solidified together. When the spell had finished, Luna raised her new arm and examined it, turning it over and flexing the earthy fingers one by one. It was craggy and rough, but it was usable. "It will do for now," she murmured, "at least until I retrieve my original." The witch turned her gaze back on her terrified granddaughter. "As you can clearly see," she went on, still flexing her new, rocky appendage, "I am not your run of the mill Hybrid or your bumbling Decepticon or your typical bounty hunter and I will not be killed as such." She stretched out her new hand and sent another powerful magic beam at the teenager.

"Ahh!" Hunter tumbled ass over teakettle across the ground from the blast. She'd quit rolling when another blast slammed into her, sending her skidding again. "Ugh!" Well this was gettin' real old real quick! Hunter shifted through her roll so that when she came out of it she landed firmly on her knees. As she came up she activated and brought up her force-field shield, having just enough time to brace it with both arms before yet another magical blast crashed into it. The girl crouched behind her shield, holding her ground and desperately trying to think of what to do now if she couldn't kill Luna.

"Is that what you're going to do now, Huntress?" Luna taunted. "Cower and wait me out? You will have a long wait if that's the case. I hope both you and your shield can hold out for it." She sent another blast at her granddaughter.

"This is bullshit!" Hunter thought to herself. "I can't just sit here! If I want any chance of getting home I've gotta fight! And if I want any chance of keeping my family safe, I'm gonna have to find a way to take Luna down, even if I can't kill her. But how?" Hunter tried to think. Even if you couldn't kill someone, there were still ways to eliminate them as a threat, right?

Maybe she could figure out a way to trap and imprison Luna. But there'd have to be magical seals on whatever she used to trap the witch and she couldn't do magic; and such things would be beyond Ally; and Hunter didn't think Steel was emotionally ready to do something like that yet. Imprisonment was out.

Make Luna see the light? Hunter snorted and immediately dismissed the idea. Yeah, right, because that was totally going to happen; Luna was so receptive to a new ideology that wasn't her own. Of course, she could always pound on the witch's head enough that maybe, just maybe, it might rattle her brain around enough to give Luna enough brain damage to change her personality. As much as Hunter relished the idea of pummeling her grandmother in such a way and found the concept amusing, it was barely within the realms of possibility, so she left it behind.

Hunter's thoughts went to Luna's severed arm. She'd managed to separate Luna's arm from her body and what had happened after that? Had Luna sprouted a new limb? No. Had she even healed? Well, she hadn't been gushing energon like she should, but Hunter wouldn't have been surprised if Luna put some sort of spell on the stump as she fell to keep from losing so much energon and becoming weak. And, no, she hadn't healed. Luna had lost her arm and she'd been forced to make herself a new arm from rock: "It will do for now, at least until I retrieve my original," she'd said. So Luna couldn't die, but she could lose limbs, and it sounded like she couldn't regrow those limbs (unless you counted forming a limb out of other material to replace a missing one as "regrowing") but she could reattach them. And of course, Luna could always be wounded and weakened. "So I'm gonna have to tear her apart literally," Hunter surmised. "Tear her apart and spread the pieces far enough that she can't put herself back together before I can find out how to kill her." Because Luna could be killed, Hunter was sure of it—she just had to find out how.

Great, so she had her plan, now she just had to get close enough to the witch to carry it out. Easier said than done. Hunter would have to be fast—incredibly fast; and she'd have to keep Luna guessing and on her toes. One thing that could potentially be in her favor was, with her arm severed and probably having lost a decent amount of energon before she staunched the flow, Luna was going to be weaker than normal and her magic would be more taxing to use, so she might not use it as much. Then again, with the way she'd created that arm and with the magic bolts she was shooting Hunter's way, maybe she wouldn't be as careful in using it as the teen hoped.

"Well, the sooner I move, the better," Hunter grunted. There was just one thing she needed to pick up before she started carrying out her plan. Glancing around, Hunter tried to spot her flame-saber. She spied the golden hilt several yards away from and in front of her. Without a second to spare, Hunter lurched to her feet, springing in the direction of her weapon. She only took the time to take aim at Luna and swing her left arm, detaching the energy shield and letting it fly. "Hoo-augh!" Then she made a mad dash for her saber hilt. She had just closed her hand around it when she was blasted again with another magic beam and sent rolling. It hurt, but the hurt was worth it because she had her sword again!

Willing her saber to spring to life, once again, Hunter twisted around to roll up onto her knees and drove her blade down into the earth. "Hrah!" She had just enough time to anchor it in deep and grasp on tightly when another blast of magic hit stronger than any of the others. The beam slammed into the blade of the flame-saber and the flames of the sword flared up bigger, brighter, and wider, forcing the beam to part around them and the girl crouched within their span. When Luna ended the magic, there was a large, dark 'V' scorched into the earth of the estate.

Snarling furiously, Luna turned her gaze upon her granddaughter, whom was rising to stand. The witch's gaze slipped from the teen's defiant face down to the saber aflame with blue fire held within her grasp. "Greasy returned the flame-saber to you, I see," she stated, meeting Hunter's gaze again. Luna tried to ignore the cold chill that went up her spine at the dangerous blaze burning in the girl's sapphire eyes. Fuser or not, she would not fear her own granddaughter. She would never fear her own granddaughter. So then why did she feel a touch of dread in her spark? "It is an advantage for you," Luna continued in regards to the flame-saber, "but don't believe for a moment that it will bring you victory."

Instead of responding with words, Hunter took hold of her sword's hilt in both hands and, as powerfully as she could, swung it like a baseball bat. "Hoo-augh!" An arc of fire flew away from the sword swing in the direction of Luna, crackling angrily through the air. Despite the speed at which the flames were flying, Luna was able to teleport out of the way. Hunter pivoted around, scanning the area for her grandmother. The witch wouldn't travel too far, she knew.

Through the sounds of battle, Hunter's ears caught the sound of rustling material and the slight metallic ring of a blade piercing the air. Whipping around she brought up her saber to parry Luna's rapier attack. Then she swung her weapon in her own attack. "Hah!"

Luna arched over backwards, just narrowly missing contact with the flaming blade. The heat of it was uncomfortable on her face and singed her hair as it passed overhead. The witch completed the arch into a back-handspring and sprung out of the immediate range of her granddaughter's reach. "You've improved with a blade," she breathed, trying to straighten her slightly disheveled self out as subtly as she could.

"Nice of you to notice," Hunter snarled, readying her saber again. Once more she lunged. Her blade rang against, not one, but two rapier blades this time and was thus stopped in its progression towards Luna's torso.

"You still lack style and flair however," Luna stated, glaring at her granddaughter of the flames of the saber.

"Flare, huh?" Hunter snarled. Without warning she kicked up a flaming foot and slammed it with all her might into the witch's middle. Luna went flying backwards, rapiers sailing out of her grip and a very plain footprint scorched into the bodice of her gown. "That enough flare for you, Granny?" Hunter jeered. "Or were you thinking something more like this?!" The teen leapt into the air, sword drawn back up over her head, blazing nearly white; then she came down atop the witch, swinging her sword down. "Rrah!" Her blade once again clanged against the rapiers that Luna had just barely managed to summon to herself and hold up in time. A fiery shockwave exploded out from the impact.

Luna groaned, straining to hold off Hunter's blade—something that was not the easiest thing to do from the position of lying on the ground. It was very clear that this battle was going to be very different compared to the one from several years ago. Luna would have to be very careful and never underestimate her granddaughter this time.

Luna forcefully shoved back against Hunter's blade, sending the teen flying back. "Hah!" She uncrossed her rapiers with a sharp ring. Apparating just a few feet away, she was on her feet and ready again. Just in time too, because another arc of fire came sizzling through the air from Hunter's saber, and the witch hurtled over it and surged towards the teenager, a whirlwind of flashing rapier blades.

Hunter blocked one attack from one rapier and had to sidle out of the way of the other at just about the same time. Quickly she activated her shield again and used it to knock the second rapier away as she did the same to the first with her sword. Then it was matter of alternating between blade and shield to block rapiers one and two, and ducking and dodging and diving to keep from being knocked off her feet. Luna hadn't lost her touch; she was just as flashy and showy as ever with her sparkling blades, but all that flash and show did not take away from her deadliness, and she seemed to be much more of that than ever before. Style was not the enemy of efficacy: Luna was the perfect example of that.

Leaping far back out of the way of an attack, Hunter dislodged her shield and sent it flying at Luna again. The second it was dislodged she went flying after it, sword poised to strike. Luna deflected the oncoming shield and Hunter took that opening to swing. Her sword scraped against the blade Luna barely managed to get up in time and skinned and burnt Luna's knuckles as it glanced down off the hilt, catching the hem of her sleeve on fire.

Luna's raspberry eyes flared wide with alarm. Quickly she flapped her arm to extinguish the flame.

Hunter took her advantage. Extracting a set of her razors she punched her fist forward and sank them deep into Luna's belly before raking them through her abdomen. Didn't quite cut the witch in half, but it was a good start.

Luna cried out in pain, dropping a rapier and pressing that hand to the wound. She apparated out of the way of Hunter's oncoming swing and reappeared about a hundred yards away atop a pillar that remained intact. Evidently she thought distance would help her.

Well, it might have given her time to heal herself, but that would be all it would do. "You're not getting away!" Hunter growled as she tightened her grip on her saber. Crouching into a deep wind up with her sword, the teen rocketed into the air as she released it, unleashing a massive arc of fire and energy ripping through the air towards Luna. The wave slammed into the pillar upon which the sorceress stood, crumbling it. Hunter lunged, forcing flames out of her feet to propel her forward, and tackled Luna as she tumbled through the air, locking her in an unbreakable hold. Together they crashed through another pillar, then a statue before finally slamming down into the steps of the manor.

Hunter pinned Luna beneath her and started to draw in a deep breath of air, preparing to release it in a sonic scream. She never got that far. Recognizing what she was trying to do, Luna snapped out a single word—"Muta!"—and Hunter felt her vocal chords freeze like statues in her throat. Then a hard forehead slammed into her face. The rhinestones of Luna's circlet dug into the girl's flesh, and the large stone at the center of it bashed into her nose in just the right way that the teen's eyes overflowed with tears and energon cascaded out her nostrils down her face. Mouth open in a silent scream, Hunter toppled over backwards, holding her gushing nose with a hand.

Luna rose to her feet and looked around. She wasn't standing on the stairs anymore; there weren't any to stand on—just a pile of rubble with a crater at the center. Every last bit of her meticulously designed and manicured courtyard below had been completely destroyed as well, broken and upturned by the shockwaves of their impact. Turning to look behind her, Luna saw that the front of the manor had taken significant damage from the force of the impact as well; many of the pillars holding up the roof of the porch had been severely cracked and crumbled or broken completely, the overhang above the entry way almost completely collapsed; all of the windows were shattered entirely, and there was a crack running along the entire front of the house that was so large the wall was slightly caving in at it.

Seething, Luna whipped back around to glare at her granddaughter, ready to bring fire and brimstone down upon the girl. "You little wretch!" she screamed at the teen who was currently trying to crack her nose back into place. "Look at what you've done! Do you know how many generations it took to build this—to reach perfection with it? Do you have any idea of the blood and sweat it took? Do you know of the history? Look—you're destroying it! You're destroying everything! Are you proud of your work?"

Slowly Hunter rolled over and pushed herself up onto her knees. Wiping the energon from her mouth, the teen looked up through ratty, red locks and gave her grandmother an infuriating smirk. "Very," she thought, suspecting Luna still had that mental link between them open. The way Luna's face distorted in rage was all the proof and prize she needed.

Luna lunged with a roar, rapier poised to strike, but Hunter rolled out of the way—causing the witch to drive her blade deep down into the stone. Then she was up on her feet, spinning around and running as quickly as she could away from her grandmother. After a few steps she boomed into her hyperspeed and disappeared into the distance in a blink of an eye.

Luna pulled her rapier out of the ground and summoned the other to her again. Then she stood, poised and waiting. Hunter may have been running, but she wasn't running away, Luna knew; Hunter wouldn't be leaving this fight until one of them was the victor, and Luna was not about to be anything other than that. No, this was an attack. And it could come from anywhere. So the sorceress watched and waited and listened, blocking out every other sound that could distract her.

For long, tense moments there was nothing; no sound or movement or sight or any indication that would warn of an oncoming attack. Then Luna began to feel something; a slight tremor in the ground that she could feel through her feet—then some small pebbles began to tremble and shake. Then Luna's ears caught the sound of a distant rumble growing rapidly closer. The woman turned to face the direction the noise seemed to be coming from and readied herself.

In the blink of an eye a fiery blue bolt flew by, but not close enough to the witch to be an attack; instead it went far to her left near the mansion. And then it was gone in a flash. The sections of the porch roof that had remained intact now came crashing down as the pillars that had held them up were now destroyed. Half of the front wall of the manor crumbled and collapsed as well. Fire licked and flared around flammable materials it had managed to catch a light on, flames slowly fading from blue-white to red-orange as they cooled being separated from their source.

A scream of rage surged up through Luna's chest and throat but she never got the chance to release it because she was suddenly broadsided as the blur—not blue and fiery this time, but red—came back. "Ugh!" Luna flew through the air, hit the courtyard ground and rolled. Fury sizzling through her veins, the witch was on her feet again, only to once again be struck. "Ack!" She fell hard to the ground. Hissing in pain, Luna groped at her right side to find what felt like another set of slashes. A bloody hand confirmed the wound.

Without warning the blur came 'round again and Luna was shoved to the ground, searing pain raking down her spine. The witch cried out in agony. Hot energon pulsed out of her wounds and oozed down her back and sides, soaking into the fabrics of her gown, making them heavier and sticky. Luna groaned and snarled, her fury rising hotter and higher all the time. When Hunter came streaking by once more to broadside her and send her rolling with another set of claw marks raked deep into her side, Luna had had enough. Casting a quick enchantment on herself to inhibit her pain receptors, the witch punched to her feet at just the moment Hunter was about to strike again. The teen caught her in the thigh. At the same time Luna's lightning fast reflexes gained her a chokehold on the girl's throat, forcefully ripping the child off her feet. She slammed Hunter into the ground. A shockwave rippled through the earth and fissures spread across the estate grounds.

Gagging, Hunter gripped the stony hand wrapped around her throat and tried to pry it off. She needn't have worried as a moment later Luna released her, throwing the girl across the grounds. Hunter slammed into the estate control tower, toppling it. She hardly had enough time to shove slabs of rubble of herself before Luna was on her again. Hunter just managed to pull her saber out of her sports bra (the best place she'd had to stash it) and get it up to block Luna's blades.

There was a mighty clash.

Hunter shoved Luna away with her saber as she withdrew it from Luna's rapiers at the same time, causing a sharp ring of metal ripping against metal to vibrate through the air.

Luna flew a distance away, landing gracefully.

Hunter was on her feet and charging the witch with a battle cry. She boomed into hyperspeed after a few steps.

Luna boomed into hyperspeed to meet her.

Two fiery blurs—one brilliant blue and one vivid magenta—slammed into each other with such force a shockwave exploded out from their meeting; rubble scattered, Hybrids and Decepticons were blown of their feet and sent flying headlong, what was left of the mansion crumbled to ruins. The two blurs shot back away from each other before quickly streaking out parallel to each other across the field. After a few seconds they arched in towards each other once again and clashed. They ricocheted off each other into a quick series of several meetings before shooting off in opposite directions away from each other again. They kept this up, sometimes keeping a great distance between them before coming to a meeting at the center; sometimes streaking directly side by side nearly butted up against each other; sometimes they ran in straightaways, sometimes in zigzags; sometimes spiraling around each other or pinging back and forth so that it almost seemed they were teleporting. But always they kept moving forward and parallel of each other.

After a while the blurs clashed once more before circling around each other and switching sides of the field to continue the battle back down the field the other way. Concussive sounds of bodies connecting and the sharp ring of metal on metal were punctuated with unintelligible roars and screams and cries of war. These noises seemed to be coming from far behind the blurs themselves as they zoomed along.

The blurs clashed one more time before quickly separating and then parting ways, each streaking around to the far opposite ends of the field. No sooner had they reached these far points than they came exploding back towards each other, seeming to travel faster than they ever had before. They hit, sending out another shockwave to quake the estate grounds. Anything that had somehow miraculously been left intact or standing was demolished this time, and the waves had blown everything away, leaving the estate grounds a decimated, barren warzone.

Even Hunter and Luna were affected by the shockwaves; knocked out of their hyperspeed state, they flew back away from each other, flailing through the air. Both females managed to gain their bearings and make as skilled and graceful landings as they could, Luna digging her rapiers into the earth to stop herself from sliding just as Hunter did with her flame-saber. They both paused a moment to take a quick breather and gather themselves, then they were off running again, charging each other.

Hunter narrowed her gaze as they drew closer together, locking her eyes on her target. She picked up speed. Both hands on her saber hilt, she extracted her right set of razors. Luna might see one attack coming and dodge it, but it would be harder to see a second.

They met centerfield. Luna lunged, one rapier ready to plunge itself into Hunter's flesh. Hunter swung her sword up, aiming for Luna's other arm: She let her right hand go of the hilt at the same time. Luna just barely dodged Hunter's blade. Hunter just managed to sidle away from Luna's rapier. Hunter swung her razors, initiating her second attack. Energon splattered the ground.

Hunter stumbled and tumbled head over heels to the earth. White hot fire seared up and down her right side. She gasped desperately; it felt like she couldn't breathe—or at least not as well as she should have been able to. Warmth welled up in her throat accompanied with the sweet taste of energon and Hunter coughed and gagged, expectorating said energon onto the charred, overturned dirt. The teen kept coughing and gagging and gasping for breath, agony tearing through her chest and side with each action.

Hunter trailed her hand down her side, trying to find the source of the trouble. Her fingertips met the cold, smooth metal of a rapier blade, now slick with energon—her energon. Frag! She'd slipped by one, but Luna had had the other ready. Curse the witch and her dual-wielding skills!

Forcing herself up onto all fours, Hunter took a shaky grip of the rapier, grit her teeth, and tore it out of her side, barely suppressing a scream as she did so. The thing made a sickening squelch! of a sound. She still couldn't breathe properly, and she was still spitting up energon, and the pain was just as bad as it had ever been, but at least the sword was out now so that she could start healing. It would still be a while before everything was set right, though. Problem was, she didn't have a while; she needed to get up and keep fighting now. Sitting up on her knees, hand pressed to her side, Hunter took in her surroundings. She saw her flame-saber laying not too far away, and just a little bit beyond that, a victorious thing: Luna's severed right arm.

A bit of triumph surged through Hunter's agony at the sight of the still twitching appendage. Luna may have been successful with her second attack, but so had she! One more piece of the witch torn off—one more blow struck—one more wound to remind Luna that she wasn't untouchable. Granted an arm or two was still a long way from tearing Luna apart entirely (especially when she could construct new limbs out of other materials) but it was still a step closer to that goal. Hunter would just have to make sure, Luna couldn't get this one back.

Gritting through the pain, Hunter crawled towards the limb, picking up her saber on the way. She activated the blade and used it to leverage herself up onto her feet. For several moments after that feat she had to lean heavily on the sword, trying to catch her breath via the shallow, painful gasps she could take. As she was doing this, the girl caught the stirring of movement through the shifting haze of dirt and smoke and turned her attention towards it. "Luna," she wheezed.

The witch was finally starting to rise from where she'd fallen. Doubtless she'd been taking the time to staunch her new injury and prevent extensive energon-loss yet again. Now Luna was standing and whirling around to face the girl again. She looked more enraged than ever, and why wouldn't she? She was someone who carried herself as one who was invincible, and she'd convinced thousands of people of the lie as well; and now here she was with two severed arms, both of which had been taken by her granddaughter in battle. That wasn't a good look. And it wasn't very soothing to an ego either.

"You…" Luna seethed, taking step towards Hunter. "You…!"

"Just… making you… symmetrical again," Hunter wheezed, hardly able to get the words out. She lifted her sword and stabbed it forcefully down into the earth through Luna's severed arm at her feet. Sending her pyrokinesis down through it, she caused the appendage to burst into flame. Luna wouldn't be getting this one back. "You're… welcome."

And with that, Hunter's energy swept away from her and she collapsed to her knees, her grip on her flame-saber the only thing that saved her from falling on her face. She vomited and coughed, energon and saliva dripping from her nose and mouth. The teen knew she was healing, but at an agonizingly slow pace; and the more energon she bled the longer it would take to get back to normal. She was gravely wounded, losing energon faster than she was healing, a long ways away from help and safety, and at the non-existent mercy of her furious, cult-leading grandmother. This was not good.

Tears that had nothing to do with her physical pain welled up in Hunter's eyes and flowed down her cheeks. Home. She wanted to go home. Her family had come here to bring her home and now they were all right back where they started with hundreds of thousands of miles between them. If nothing else, at least they were safe. At least Dad was safe. "Dad…" Hunter muttered, tears cutting through the energon splattered on her face and dripping from her lips. "Daddy…." A painful sob that was made all the more excruciating because of her injury built inside her chest and threatened to tear her apart. "I wanna… go home, Daddy. W-wanna… go home."

---

"Hunter…" Optimus murmured as he lay still on the medical berth. His optics were closed, and, while he hadn't powered down, he had drifted off a bit as Ally had worked on him unable to help himself. The Prime felt ridiculously exhausted and weak and when Ratchet had announced how low his energon levels were, it hadn't been any wonder. So Optimus had been made to lay quiet and still on the medical berth with an energon drip in his arm as Ally continued to spell away his pain. It had been hard and slow work for Ally, considering she wasn't used to soothing a pain as severe as this, but with determination and focus she had made steady progress. And from the feel of it, it was a good thing too, because Hunter was going to need help sooner than later.

Opening his eyes, Optimus pushed himself to sit up. He tried to stand, but Ally came to stand in front of him and put her gentle hands on his shoulders as she gazed up into his face looking concerned.

"Optimus," she said soothingly, "you should stay still. I'm not done yet and moving will only aggravate the pain."

"And apart from that it would be in his best interest if he lay quiet," Ratchet stated rather scoldingly. He turned away from the work he was doing on a badly cracked section of Bulkhead's armor and gave the Prime a hard look. (Bumblebee and Arcee were helping each other with their less severe injuries.) "You were running on fumes when you got here, Optimus," the medic pointed out. "You won't be going anywhere until that drip is finished at least. The Medical Division would have had my helm for it, but because of the circumstances and because of her healing factor I made allowances for Hunter to cut her drip short, and that was enough of a risk as it is. I won't do the same for you."

Optimus was listening to all of this, but he truly wasn't caring. "Hunter is in pain, Ratchet," the Prime stated harshly. "She is badly wounded and in need of assistance now."

"Then the rest of the team can go," Ratchet snapped, putting down his tools and crossing his arms firmly over his chestplate. He gave the Prime a hard, unyielding glower. "They're all in far better shape than you. You are not going anywhere until your energon levels have stabilized and that's final."

Optimus was silent for a long time. He was desperate to go to Hunter—he knew that she wanted and needed him—and the fact that he couldn't both greatly angered and dismayed him. Fathers—good fathers, decent fathers—were supposed to help and protect their children even to their last breath, and here he was unable to do anything for his daughter! The Prime had never felt more like a failure!

"Optimus?" Ally murmured, touching one of his large hands with one of her small ones.

The Prime looked up into the femmling's empathetic, two-toned optics. He got the sense she knew what he was feeling in that moment.

Ally seemed to confirm his suspicions when she assured him, "It's not over yet."

She was right. This battle wasn't over yet. Hunter was hurt, but she would heal and keep fighting; all she needed was the time for the healing. He just wasn't going to be the one to give it to her—at least not yet. All of these facts were hopeful, but they still weren't cheering, so when Optimus finally consented to Ratchet's terms and gave leave for his team to go, he was still angry. "Go," he ordered, not turning towards his soldiers and keeping his gaze on the floor.

As though they were all just simply waiting for the word—which they probably were—Bulkhead, Arcee, and Bumblebee all quickly moved out of the room as one. A few moments later the sound of the groundbridge powering up and the revving of motors came from the main room of the base.

Optimus squeezed his optics shut and sighed heavily in frustration. He hadn't imagine this day—night—whatever it was—to go very smoothly, but he certainly hadn't imagine anything such as this.

Ally squeezed his fingers reassuringly. "It won't be too much longer before I'm done," she said, "then you can go out there again too."

A large, firm hand came to rest on Optimus' shoulder. "Only after the energon drip is done," Ratchet reminded them as he checked Optimus' vitals. He gently pulled at the Prime, urging him to lie back down. "It will go much more quickly if you rest, Optimus." That was an order, not a suggestion, Optimus knew well enough.

As close to sulking as a Prime could get, Optimus begrudgingly lowered himself to lay back down on the medical berth. "I'm coming, Hunter," he whispered. "I'm coming. Just hold on a little longer, My Shooting Star. Just a little longer."

---

Hunter was in such a haze of pain and limited air supply that she didn't even realize Luna was coming upon her until the witch was already upon her. A stony hand encircled her throat once more and squeezed, lifting her off the ground. Great, now she really couldn't breathe!

"I have just about had it, Huntress!" Luna seethed as she glared up at her struggling granddaughter. Rocks were floating around and taking the shape of her other lost arm. "I have been patient. I have been kinder than I normally would have been in typical circumstances only because you are of my blood. But I have exhausted my mercy on you—wastefully I might add—and I see no other option to resort to brutality! Hrah!" The witch threw the teen harshly to the ground and fell hard to plant a knee in the girl's chest.

Hunter painfully gasped and cried out, spitting and spewing more energon.

Luna boxed Hunter's ears before squeezing her throat. Then, choking the girl down, Luna jammed rocky fingers into the stab wound in the girl's side. She forced her fingers deep into the wound, tearing away at what little progress Hunter's healing factor had made on it, opening it up, making it larger, bleed more profusely.

The fire in Hunter's side burned anew; it felt like bits of her lung were being torn out. More energon boiled up in her throat and she reflexively coughed and gagged. She moaned and choked out a shriek as she felt Luna's fingers stab deeper and deeper into her body, squeezing her eyes tightly shut against tears that fell regardless.

"That hurts, doesn't it?" Luna murmured coldly, screwing her fingers into the wound. She almost had her whole hand inside the girl's ribcage now. "Not as much as the Angustia curse, I imagine, but still pretty bad. I wouldn't know, you see—I've never had someone sitting on my chest as they tear a lung from my body." The witch's gaze left Hunter's face and travelled down to where her energon soaked hand disappeared inside Hunter's body. She stared almost rapturously at that spot.

"It must be a frightful thing," Luna said after a moment with a sneer, not lifting her eyes from the wound; "choking on your own energon—feeling as though you're drowning in it—dying from it." She looked back up at Hunter again. "But I suppose, in the grand scheme of things, the death wouldn't really matter to you, would it, Dear? Apart from maybe emotionally—psychologically.

"What must it be like to die? I suppose I'll never know now that I have taken precautions to ensure my own death never happens. We're rather alike in that regard, wouldn't you agree, Granddaughter?" Here Luna leaned down until she was cheek to cheek with Hunter and whispered superiorly into her ear, "Only I am much superior to you, as you must live to die and die to live and will eventually pass on altogether, while I will only live on and on forever and ever.

"I am aware you have passed once," Luna informed the child. "Killed by the bounty hunter Bombardier. I'll admit I wish it had not have had to go that way, as I only desired to retrieve you, but in order for the plan to work I'm afraid he had to kill you. That's right, my Dear: I was the one that set the bounty hunter scum on your trail. You believed it to be Starscream, and Starscream believes it was himself, but no—be aware that it was I. I reached out and planted the knowledge of your purported existence into the Decepticon's head and the desire to see you destroyed into his spark. I sent Bombardier to him, to take up the mission I was sure the despicable Purebed would put forth. I planned to make it seem to everyone as though you had been ended so that Bombardier could return you to me. I planned it all… except for how it all ended. That was you; you and your pathetic acquaintances—you ruined it all!

"And then I had to start making new plans. Nothing would stop me from getting you back—I refused to let anything stand in my way. Again my plans almost worked… except again for you. Again you threw my plans into disarray; denouncing me, withholding your allegiance from me, trying to escape. You are bound and determined to stand in my way; to ruin everything I have worked to achieve; to thwart my plans. Even after all I have done for you—given you a home, a family, taught you to use your abilities and fight. You ungrateful, insolent little wretch!" Luna jammed her hand hard into Hunter's rib cage and seized hold of her lung; Hunter tried to bite back a wail of agony.

"But no more, Huntress," Luna hissed savagely. "Yet again I've been forced into devising a new plan, but this time you will not derail it because this time you will not be alive long enough to do so. Just like Bombardier I am going to kill you, and I am going to keep you dead until I need you to live again because that seems to be the only possible way I can assure your compliance!" She squeezed Hunter's lung and jammed her fist harder into her side with every word.

Hunter didn't know which hurt worse: her side or her throbbing head. All she knew was that she could do nothing but writhe and scream in pain.

Luna chuckled sadistically. "Do you think your Prime will come to save you as you did him?" she mocked softly. "I doubt it, seeing as how he wasn't even capable of saving you the first time you died."

Hunter made a tortured moan of anger. "Bitch!" she forced out, energon flying from her lips. "Ahh-ah!" Luna's hand had constricted around her lung.

"I would mind my manners if I were you, Granddaughter," Luna hissed. "Especially if you would like to keep both lungs."

"What… do you… want with… me?" Hunter just barely gargled out.

Luna was silent for a moment. Slowly she pulled back to meet Hunter face to face and give the girl a grave look. "What I want," she said seriously, "is to fulfill both our destinies. You see, Huntress, our destinies are intertwined; we are both the savior of our people—two halves of the same whole; I the executioner and you the vessel through which to accomplish it. We are both needed to do this—together as one."

Hunter tried to shake her head. "No!" she rasped. No, no, no that wasn't right! That wasn't how it was supposed to be! That wasn't how it should be! It couldn't be like that—Luna could not be a part of it! She wasn't a part of it! Primus hadn't planned it like this!

"Yes, my Dear, yes," Luna insisted. "The only thing I must be sure of, Huntress, is the Primus-state!"

"Primus… state?"

"Yes! I have been waiting, Huntress—waiting this whole time to see if you would ascend to the Primus-state. I am well aware that you can but uncertain if you will. If you will then do so now. The Prime will not come to save you before I can kill you, but with the Primus-state you can save yourself; so do it now! Ascend and save yourself! And then I will be certain that we can achieve our destiny!

"Can't… do it," Hunter gasped. "Only… once when… bonded with… Primus. Never… again. Can't… do it."

"Wha… but that's a lie," Luna insisted. "That's a lie! I have evidence that you have ascended before, apart from when you first bonded with Primus!"

Hunter shook her head. "No…."

"You have!" Luna raged. "You have! I have seen the evidence! You can! You must!"

"Even if… I could… wouldn't… do it for you," Hunter struggled, trying her best to glare at the sorceress. "Why would… I… do it… for you?"

Luna glowered at the girl. "Fine," she said, a dangerous edge in her voice. "Have it your way." She squeezed Hunter's lung and began to pull.

Excruciating agony enveloped Hunter. Energon cascaded from her mouth. She began to pass out from the torture.

"Hunter!" a familiar voice pulled her away from the incoming black. "Hunter! Wake up!"

When Hunter faded back into complete consciousness, she found that Luna's face above her had been replaced with a much more welcome one. "St-te-eel?" she choked out. What was going on? One minute she'd been trapped beneath Luna, throttled and with a lung well on its way to being ripped from her chest; and now she was staring up at her cousin with much less pain in her side (though still hurting agonizingly enough) and the ability to breathe just a little bit easier, if only because she wasn't currently being strangled.

"Don't talk," Steel told her. "We don't have a lot of time." He made a summoning movement in the air with a finger and a moment later a glass bottle full with a familiar, glowing, amber colored liquid appeared in his hand. He bit the cork out and slipped a hand beneath the girl's head, gently lifting her up a bit. "You need to drink this," he stated, leveling the bottle to her lips. "All of it. It's a healing potion."

Hunter didn't argue—not that she had the capabilities or strength to be able to do so if she'd wanted to—and freely opened her bloody lips, swallowing as Steel carefully poured it down her throat. It was hard to swallow when your body was trying to expel energon that threatened to choke you as well as when you were just fighting for every breath, and the concoction tasted absolutely horrible; but the sixteen-year-old managed to choke it all down. A burning warmth had started through her veins the minute the first drop of the potion had hit her stomach, and now the warmth was a blazing inferno, painfully searing through her body before seeming to congregate at the gaping wound in her side and attacking it. Hunter curled into the fetal position and wailed in pain. It felt like lava was being poured into her side! This was almost worse than having Luna slowly rip her lung out of her body! She began hacking up energon more violently and frequently than before, as if it was being forced up from the very depths of her lungs to be expelled.

Steel's arms coiled around her and he embraced her, her back pressed tightly to his chest. He helped brace her against the pain. "I'm sorry," he murmured into her ear. "I know it hurts like hell. It'll be over soon, I promise. Drinking the whole thing will heal you quickly; but it hurts, and it'll leave you helpless for a good long while. It converts all your other fortitudes into healing properties; so it kinda just drains you out completely. That's why we usually only use small doses of potion along with healing spells."

Steel was right. In a matter of seconds Hunter found she was coughing up less energon and able to breathe more easily. Or relatively easier, considering the pain from the potion was enough to take her breath away. And also like Steel had informed her, she found herself growing increasingly weaker to a frightful degree as well. She felt practically human—like a toddler. Finally the searing heat dispersed from her side out through her system, quickly losing intensity as it went until the slightest sensation of warmth had vanished all together. Hunter was left a quivering, sweating, panting, bloody mess in her cousin's arms. She groaned wearily as she slumped against him, all tension swept away from her body and having no strength whatsoever to hold herself up.

Steel didn't let go of her. "You're okay now," he told her. "You're gonna be okay, Hunter."

Hunter really didn't feel like she would be, but she didn't say so because if Steel said she would, then she probably would. Instead she asked, "Wh-where's Luna?"

"I froze her in a time bubble," Steel answered. "That's how I was able to free you from her."

"Time freezing spell, huh?" Hunter wheezed. "Yeah, that explains a few things."

"But she won't stay there for long," Steel warned. "She could break it at any second and come for us. We have to get you out of here. Ahh!"

And explosion went off behind the cousins, causing them to jar apart and fly forward. They both hit the ground rolling.

Steel shook his head with a groan and sat up to look around for Hunter. He spotted her a few feet away from him, lying face down in the dirt and trying to push herself up. He started to crawl towards her. "Hunter!" He reached out for the girl when a sudden, familiar gravitational sensation slammed him down into the ground again, paralyzing him. "Ugh!"

Hunter lifted her head and turned to her cousin in concern. "Steel?"

There was a blinding flash of light and a shark crack of thunder. Steel cried out in pain.

"Steel!" Hunter shouted. Her eyes widened as she saw the burnt hole in the back of his shirt and smoke rising up from charred material and flesh. Movement from the corner of her eye forced Hunter to tear her gaze away from her groaning, shivering cousin. Luna was storming their way; from one of her hands, being held like a whip, snaked a long, strobing, twitching bolt of lightning. Hunter snarled. "Luna!" she spat, trying to draw the witch's attention.

Luna's livid eyes briefly snapped the girl's way and all at once Hunter found her vocal chords frozen in her throat again. She was also sucked down to the ground by a gravitational field, effectively preventing her from moving. Luna had to know how depleted Hunter's strength was at the moment—as she kicked the empty potion bottle out of the way as she came on—but evidently she wasn't taking any further chances.

The witch moved towards Steel, cracking her lightning whip up into the air and down across his back again, causing thunder to shake the earth. Steel's whole body violently tremored and spasmed as the electrical current pulsed through him. His electric-blue eyes seemed to bulge out of his head and his mouth was wide open in a silent cry of agony. The scent of burnt skin and clothing wafted through the air.

"Traitorous cur!" Luna roared, glaring fully upon the boy. "You dare to use your magic against me—on me?!" She brought the lightning down against across Steel's back, leaving an ugly, angry burn.

"You bitch!" Hunter screamed with her mind, hoping the witch still had that mental connection open. "You coward! I'm the one you wanna hurt—come at me! Leave him alone and come at me! I'll rip you apart!" The girl could see the torment and horror in her cousin's wide eyes. She had to get Luna away from Steel; she had to make Luna focus on her! If she didn't the witch looked positively livid enough to kill Steel, and Hunter wouldn't put it past her to do so.

Either Luna didn't have the connection open or she was just ignoring Hunter, because she didn't so much as flinch from Hunter's insults and taunts let alone stop her assault on Steel. "I suspected you may slip and hesitate a bit once we brought your cousin back into the fold, Steel," Luna seethed, "but this? Clearly the punishments I have given you have not been enough to sway you back onto the correct path; I will have to use far more extreme measures!" She brought the whip down again and again across Steel's helpless form.

"Please!" Steel finally shrieked, his voice almost incoherent with pain. "Please, Mistress! I never meant harm or to betray you! I-I only did what I felt would be best for the Lunation and your plans as a whole, as well as protect the cousin that I love. Family is a weakness I have tried and failed to overcome. Please, Mistress, please show mercy! I beg mercy, Grandmother! Mercy!"

His supplications fell on deaf ears. The whip fell and the lightning struck and marred and burned again and again and again. Steel's clothes were mostly destroyed; the flesh of his back was the consistency of bacon; his body constantly twitched and tremored and spasmed.

Hunter kept screaming inside her head, trying to draw Luna's attention to her and failing miserably. The teen had no idea how much more of the lightning Steel could take! Trying to summon all the little strength she had—and praying as hard as she could—Hunter tried to break away from the gravity spell upon her. Of course she couldn't. She wouldn't have been able to at full strength, so why in hell would she be able to while completely drained like this? Still Hunter tried. She had to try! She had to get free and get to Steel—she had to try!

Futilely Hunter tried to go to her cousin, to throw herself in the way of him and the whip, but she couldn't move even a fraction of an inch. She mouthed Steel's name over and over again, silently screaming until her throat felt like it would burst with the strains, but Luna's muting spell wouldn't be broken out of anymore than her gravitation spell would. She had to get to Steel! Luna was certain to kill him otherwise. "Stop it!" Hunter kept screaming inside her head, desperately trying to break through to Luna. "Stop it! Stop it! Stop it, you psycho witch—stop it!"

"You want me to stop?" Luna's voice questioned inside the girl's mind. (Ah, so she had just been ignoring Hunter then.) The witch had stopped whipping Steel for the moment and had turned her gaze upon Hunter now. "You wish to save your cousin?" Luna spoke aloud that time. "Ascend to the Primus-state."

"I already told you," Hunter thought desperately, meeting her grandmother's gaze, "I can't! I don't know how!"

"You little liar," Luna accused coldly.

"I'm telling the truth!" Hunter insisted. "I don't know! I've tried and failed to connect with Primus."

"You have done so before," Luna hissed.

"Once—when I bonded with Primus."

"Twice—the second in the energon mine in Chile where you damaged the Decepticon warship."

Hunter paused for a moment at this. Damaging the Decepticon warship? Hadn't Starscream mentioned the same thing earlier when he gave her sword back? Yes. She'd been a little too busy preparing herself and thinking of other things in that moment to pay much attention to that comment, but yes, she definitely remembered him saying that. But she couldn't for the life of her remember anything like damaging the Nemesis. Even after taking a few minutes to think back to that day and go over it in her head, Hunter couldn't remember anything along those lines. She remembered finding and mining energon. She remembered the Decepticons arriving and a fight ensuing and being captured. She remembered the kids showing up and helping set them free. She remembered Starscream using weapons Bombardier had left behind on her: the gauntlet (now that she remembered destroying) and the Agony Web. She remembered watching on helplessly as Starscream prepared to kill Raf and trying to get to him only to black out with the pain from the net. Then she remembered waking up wounded and weak but safe back home thanks to Optimus. Where, in the middle of all that, was this claim that she'd damaged the Nemesis? How could she have damaged the Nemesis significantly enough to the point that it was a point in time worth mentioning? It was too unbelievable!

But… both Luna and Starscream had mentioned it. It had to be true then, right? And if that was true, then Luna's claim that she'd gone into the Primus-state during that event (which definitely explained the whole damaging the Nemesis thing) would have to be true too. But then why couldn't she remember it? She would have to remember something like that right? She remembered the first time going into it so why now the second? Unless, maybe that black out in her memory…. But then, surely her family and friends would have told her what happened! They would have told her if she'd gone into the Primus-state! Right? Of course, they would have—why wouldn't they? They wouldn't keep something like that from her.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Hunter finally replied to her grandmother.

Luna's gaze turned to ice. "Shame," she said. "You might have saved your cousin." She turned away from the girl to focus on Steel again. The lightning whip in her hand slithered back up into her palm like a snake disappearing into a hole, except it didn't really disappear as the center of Luna's palm began to crackle and spark with it.

Hunter's eyes widened in horror. Luna was about to strike the killing blow! Her gaze flew to her cousin, willing him to get up, but Steel was as immobilized as she was, perhaps even more so now with the beating he'd just received.

As if he could feel her eyes on him, Steel found and met her gaze with his own pained one. He tried to smile at her but every muscle in his body was still twitching and out of his control, so he was unable. In his eyes was a goodbye.

No! Hunter wouldn't say goodbye! They couldn't say goodbye—not like this! Again the girl struggled and strained against the force holding her down, willing strength to come back to her body, willing for something to happen that would break the spell entrapping her. She had to get out of this! She had to save Steel! She'd lost him once to the cult—she wasn't about to lose him permanently!

Luna raised her arm into a striking position, palm downward, readying to bring it down.

Hunter desperately strained. Steel couldn't die! STEEL COULDN'T DIE!

All at once Hunter was overcome with an excruciating but energizing pain; like every depleted cell in her body was exploding and being reformed into a newer and far more powerful version. Life and power surged into her with such intensity her vision began to go white. She was aware of the bonds holding her to the earth breaking away as they could hold her no longer. Nothing could hold her any longer; not herself—not Primus—nothing! She was might! She was power! She would decimate anyone who threatened those she loved!

The spell in her throat broke and a voice that was both Hunter's and not hers bellowed; "LUUUNNNAAA!"

Luna stopped in her tracks and turned away from Steel. A quiet oath fell from her lips.

A blinding flash of light accompanied by a deafening whoosh and sweltering heat.

The gravity holding Steel down suddenly left him, relieving him for its great weight. The roar of a fire was in his ears. Weakly he lifted his head and fixed his watery gaze on a pillar of sparkling white fire blazing up into the sky. Lifting his gaze higher he found Hunter suspended at the top of the raging inferno. At least, he thought it was Hunter; his cousin looked more like a vengeful goddess than the cousin he knew and loved. The ghostly silhouette of Primus around her as well as the glowing eyes coupled with her murderous expression was enough to send a shiver that had nothing to do with his electrocution down Steel's spine. She looked beautiful and terrible at once, and the young man was both in awe of her as well as broken-hearted for her. Hunter had been forced into giving Luna what she wanted, and he had been the reason for it. A tear rolled down his cheek. "Hunter…" he croaked, wanting more than anything to apologize for this. For taking her away from her family. For not helping her escape when she had the chance. For not listening to her and leaving the cult with her all those years ago. For simply everything.

Arcee, Bulkhead, and Bumblebee reached the edge of the estate grounds—or rather, what had once been the estate grounds—and skidded to a stop in the charred, blackened sand before assuming their bipedal modes. They looked out across the wasteland of the battlefield, their gazes locked on the fiery, white pillar on the far side. Each of their tanks plummeted, their sparks dropping into the pits they created. Bulkhead and Arcee exchanged a look over Bumblebee's head, because unlike the Scout they remembered and knew that what had happened once was happening again. And this time it was happening with a witch whom they knew wanted Hunter's power: This time, what Greasy had warned them against concerning the Primus-state had happened.

---

Optimus slowly rose to his feet, using the medical berth for support. His energon drip was finished; Ally had completed her ministrations, though there was still a little stiffness and soreness in his muscle cables (nothing serious that wouldn't be worked out once he got moving again); and though Ratchet would have preferred he rested longer—maybe even had another energon drip—the Prime was ready to go. His daughter was out there and she needed him—nothing would keep him from her.

"Just try and be careful, Optimus," Ratchet practically beseeched the Prime.

"You sure you're okay?" Ally asked the Prime, looking him over carefully for any signs of significant pain that might yet linger and slow him up. "No, like, cramps or anything that might lock up when you start moving?" She smiled a little nervously. "I better get this right, 'cuz, like, Hunter trusted me with you, and I think she'd probably kill me if anything bad happened to you."

Optimus offered the girl a smile and chuckle. "Yes, Ally," he assured her. "I feel much better thanks to you. All I need now to get back to normal is—ahhh!" The Prime trailed off into a sharp gasp, throwing his head back as his spinal column arched and his body went rigid. His optics blew wide before shrinking to pin-pricks. An electrifying jolt shot into his spark and out through his chassis, vanishing the ache in his muscle cables and frame and leaving an abundance of energy and adrenaline in its wake.

"Optimus!" Ally and Ratchet shouted as one. They both grabbed hold of the Prime to keep him from hitting the floor as his body just as suddenly went slack.

"What was that?" Ally asked, voice shaking with alarm.

Ratchet thought he had an idea. "Optimus," he murmured lowly, giving his old friend a significant look, "was that-"

"Yes, Ratchet," Optimus cut him off, heaving a bit as his revving motor continued to settle from the jolt. He met his friend's gaze. "The Primus-state has been evoked, and Hunter is angrier than ever before." Despair was in the Prime's eyes and he sorrowfully shook his head. "Luna has found the trigger."

---

Luna was walking away from Steel towards Hunter now, an utterly enraptured and triumphant expression on her face. "Huntress!" she shouted up at the girl. "Can you hear me?! I knew you were capable! The Primus-state is more powerful than I ever imagined—I can feel the power in the air! With the two of us together, we will be able to save our people and ascend to the ultimate seat of power!" She held a hand out and up to Hunter as if she expected the girl to reach down from the height she was at to take it. "Come! It is not too late for us to start over and mend bridges! Take my hand and join me and we will meet our destiny together as one!"

Hunter's glowing gaze narrowed on Luna before throwing her head back and releasing an earth-shaking roar. Like a dragon a plume of fire spewed out of her mouth into the air. At the same time the base of the pillar of fire below her suddenly expanded with an explosive effort. The flames slammed into Luna sending her flying back across the battle field.

The pillar of fire continued to expand out as it left the ground, lifting into the sky and sectioning out and shrinking into concentrated streams of fire. Soon there were just two jets of fire, one at both of Hunter's feet, keeping her suspended in the air. The heat from the jets was so great that the air surrounding Hunter wavered.

Luna picked herself up off the ground and scrambled onto all fours, trying to get her breath back. That blow had really knocked the wind out of her. But before she'd had a second to recover the witch found herself being wrenched up into the air. She cried out at the painful sensation of her veins and capillaries and arteries—and thus everything attached to them—being pulled and yanked and twisted about inside her. It had been a long time since she'd felt that pain. Like great-great-grandfather like great-great-granddaughter, eh?

Luna was suddenly face-to-face with the god-infused granddaughter in question. The witch felt as though she were baking alive; the heat in the air around her was so intense. She stared at the monstrous, bloody face and into those glowing, livid eyes, longing to tear her gaze away from them but unable to. For once she felt a twinge of fear deep in her spark. What in hell had she just unleashed?

Not taking her gaze from Luna, Hunter punched a splayed hand out to the side. A second later, an awakened flame-saber came singing through the air and flying into the girl's grip. Once Hunter had a hold of it, the weapon began to transform, folding in on itself in some parts and elongating out in other until it was in the shape of a brightly flaming lance.

Luna was thrown through the air across the estate grounds to crash into a mountain of rubble. She just grasped her bearings before she caught a metallic glint in the air, and just barely managed to apparate out of the way as the flame-saber lance came crashing down, skewering the earth right where she'd been not nanoseconds before. The impact rose a mushroom cloud and sent a devastating shockwave through the ground churning it. Luna jetted into the air to avoid it.

"Oof!"

Hunter suddenly tackled the witch; locked her arms tightly around her and dragged her through the air. Luna snarled in anger and wrapped her arms around the teen in turn, digging the sharp ends of her rocky fingers into the girl's skin in retribution. Whether Hunter could actually feel it in her current state or not, Luna had no idea, but the action made her feel better at least.

The pair went spiraling through the air, blue-white and magenta-white fire corkscrewing around each other. Luna angled them downward and they spun down, crashing into the ground and sending out another quaking shockwave. When the dust cleared, Luna stood over a kneeling Hunter. The witch had summoned a nasty looking dagger from her arsenal and had the girl pinned with an arm around her shoulders and the knife blade at her throat. Luna looked far from victorious in her position however; with as disheveled as she looked and how hard her breathing was, it was clear she'd had to scrabble hard and fast to get to where she currently was.

Luna licked her lips and around her teeth collecting the energon from her bleeding mouth and spitting it away so she might be able to talk. "That's enough of that now, My Dear," she heaved.

From her kneeling position with one hand wrapped around the blade of the dagger and the other around Luna's rocky arm that encircled her shoulders, Hunter growled thunderously. Apparently she did not agree.

"Shut up!" Luna snapped. She tightened her hold on the girl as she aimed a kick at the girl's side. She relished the feeling of her pointed heel making contact with Hunter's flesh. The grunt Hunter made in response was just the cherry on top of it all. "So you can feel discomfort like this," she mused. "Excellent. Let's see how you like this!" The witch shifted her hold on her granddaughter so that she could force her to bend her neck far back while remaining pinned. The position exposed Hunter's throat more readily to the blade Luna held, and it was evident Hunter didn't like the position either as she grimaced. Luna couldn't help but give a weary but amused laugh at that. Oh, this felt good!

That's when Luna took notice of the dagger. The metal of the blade adjacent to Hunter's hand was glowing a bright red-orange color, and Luna could hear a quiet sizzling sound coming from Hunter's fist. As it was, she could see the same thing happening with her arm where Hunter had a hold of it as well. But Luna didn't have much time to come to a conclusion as the sound of a blade singing through the air caused her to look up.

The flame-saber—still in lance form—was coming straight for her yet again. Luna pivoted out of the way, pulling Hunter around with her as she did. The lance just whizzed by her head, slicing through a few of her mussed and ratty mahogany locks to trim a few hairs off them. At the same time this happened, the blade of her dagger snapped under Hunter's hand, smelted in two where the girl had grabbed it. Barely a second after, Luna's arm snapped where Hunter had grabbed it at as well. Then and elbow was slammed into the witch's middle and all the wind was knocked out of her as she was sent flying backwards. She hit the ground. Rebounded. Hit the ground again. Rolled. Rebounded. And finally slammed hard against the ruins of a pillar. That managed to stop her and Luna crumpled to the ground, shaken, dazed, and trying to get air back into her lungs as she heaved and vomited up energon.

She didn't have the time for it.

The pulling in her veins returned and Luna found herself being harshly and swiftly dragged back across the ground. "Ahh!" A hand crushed the back of her neck and she was hoisted off the ground. Soon enough Luna was facing Hunter again: that little twinge of fear deep in her spark turned into a small cringe. It turned into an all-out quiver when she caught a kaleidoscopic glow coming from Hunter's free hand. Even if she couldn't die, being vaporized was hardly an ideal scenario; it would require her spark to be brought out of hiding and fully restored to her in order to pull herself back together from that, and that wasn't an option for Luna. If her spark was returned, death would be back in the picture—she would be completely vulnerable again. No. No, Luna couldn't have her spark restored, and for that to not happen she Hunter disintegrating her couldn't happen.

"Huntress," Luna said, her gaze darting back and forth between her granddaughter's glowing gaze and her glowing hand, "please. Please, don't do this. You don't want to do this. I can help you—that's all I've ever wanted and tried to do is help you! We must come together and work as a team—a single unit—it's what we're meant to do." She was babbling at just about a mile a second now. "There is so much we can achieve together. But if you destroy me it will be harder for you; you'll be lost—you won't know what to do." She tried to smile in a grandmotherly way at the girl. "You need me, Huntress. You know you need me."

Apparently Hunter didn't agree because she snarled savagely and raised her glowing hand, readying to release a blast that would turn the witch to dust.

She didn't quite get the chance, because at that moment several magic chains came snaking through the darkness and the dust. They twined around the girl's middle and snapped tight as they jerked her backwards through the dark. The jolt was so sharp Hunter released Luna and the cosmic blast went off from her hand, shooting wide and wild into the Egyptian night.

The girl hit the ground and rolled, becoming more entangled in the chains. She made to lunge back to her feet, but more chains materialized and wrapped tight around her, holding her in place. Hunter released and blood-curdling roar. Puffing smoke she cast her glowing gaze around to see Acolytes of every kind on the end of each chain and casting more. They were all shouting to each other: "Steady!" "Hold her down!" "More chains! More chains!" "Keep that chain tight!" "Don't let go!" "She's not getting away this time!" "Be on your guard! Remember, don't underestimate her!"

Hunter screamed again as more chains joined those already twined around her and pulled tighter. The bonds bit into her flesh; that only helped to fuel Hunter's rage and thus her Primus-state as well. She was going to kill them! She was going to kill all of them: from Luna down to the very last and most inexperienced Field Acolyte! Not a single one would be spared! They thought they could hold her down with magic?! They were all gravely mistaken!

The silhouetted wings at Hunter's back seemed to violently spasm as they spread wide; gleaming slivers of cosmic energy zinged out from them. Multi-colored, pinstriped, shining chaos ensued as the little needles flew through the night and skewered anything or anyone unfortunate enough to be in the way. A radius of about a hundred yards was a blood bath; bodies littered the ground; energon stained it; little slivers of kaleidoscopic light glittered like stars from the locations they'd pierced the earth at before vanishing one by one. Acolyte after Acolyte fell, some dead—they're bodies disappearing as light and dust—others wounded—some fatally, others severely; the energy slivers flew everywhere; not one was spared.

Hunter stood at the center of the carnage, free now of her bonds. She cast her angry gaze around; some of the enemy was still moving. Not for long. A brilliant, crackling flare of fire ignited at Hunter's right fist, snapping and popping like a caged beast longing to be let loose. And Hunter did just that; without so much as a second of hesitation, the teen slammed her fist into the earth beneath her.

There was a mighty explosion and the ground opened up in a concussive wave around the girl, earth crumbling away to liquid lava, swallowing up everything in its path; rubble, stone, bodies living and dead.

Arcee, Bulkhead, and Bumblebee all stared in awed horror at the lake of fire stretching out below them. Though it didn't quite swallow up what remained of the Lunar Estate, it made the entire area waver with the heat haze. Even from their spot on the dune at the farthest point away from the lava they could feel it.

The sound of a revving engine caused them to tear their optics away from the destruction before them and look behind them to see a red and blue semi-truck racing through the sand towards them. The truck skidded to a stop just at the bottom of their dune and threw open a door. Ally had only just leaped out of the cab before Optimus was transforming to bipedal mode and rushing up the dune.

"Optimus…" Arcee said and trailed off, unsure of what to say.

It wouldn't have mattered if she did; the Prime was paying no attention to her anyway. He wasn't paying attention to anyone actually. When he reached the top of the dune and looked down at the carnage, the Prime too stared in terrified wonder. This was far worse than anything that had happened the last time.

Optimus lifted his eyes from the lake of lava to search for Hunter. Once they found her where she hovered above the lake—just barely visible through the heat haze—they locked upon her and refused to move away. All the love and empathy he held for the girl flooded into his spark and into their bond. "Hunter…" he murmured. Perhaps it was just the heat haze, but Optimus thought he saw Hunter move so that she was looking towards him. He knew she knew he was there, if nothing else; she had to feel him.

/I think it's safe to say that Luna's got one less stronghold to hide in now,\\ Bumblebee said, trying to be glib but not really managing to pull it off. As if to prove his words a cosmic beam of massive radius shot from Hunter's position and streaked in the direction of the ruins of the mansion. Soon there weren't even ruins as the beam completely obliterated what was left.

"Scrap!" Bulkhead quietly exclaimed. "Red's real mad this time 'round."

"Holy cats!" Ally exclaimed as she came to stand beside everyone else, still in organic form. She stared down at the remnants of the Lunar Estate, wide-eyed in disbelief. "Hunter did this?"

"Her and a renegade god-mode," Arcee answered.

But Ally didn't hear Arcee, because at that exact moment she spotted something that made her spark stop. "Steel!" she screamed. Her brother was lying helpless at the very edge of the lava, and the rock he was laying on looked like it would give and fall into the lake at any moment, taking him with it.

Without a second thought, Ally apparated and a moment later was right in front of Steel. She quickly knelt down and grabbed his hands, holding them tight. "Hang on!" she told him. Again she apparated away, and not a moment too soon; the ledge Steel had been on went crumbling into the molten lake the moment they'd disappeared.

The pair made a jarring re-entry on a sand dune at the very edge of the scorched battleground farthest away from the lava. Both of them went tumbling down the incline. Steel cried out in agony as his back was scoured by the coarse Egyptian sand. Tears leaked down his pale face.

Ally scrambled through the sand towards him. "Steel!" she exclaimed, cupping his face in one of her hands while splaying the other gently on his chest, silently telling him to stay down. It was easy to see he was in pain and she was trying to find out where it was; she hadn't focused on such things when she'd apparated him—at that point it had all just been about getting him out of danger. "Steel, where? Tell me where."

"B-Back!" Steel gritted out. "Get me off my back!"

Ally quickly and rather unceremoniously did as he asked. She wished she hadn't. Gasping in horror and disgust, Ally scooted back a bit as she caught sight of her brother's burns, her stomach churning. The whole thing was a mess: black and angry red; welted and crispy and fried to the point it looked like jerky; sand now caught in every crack and crevice; the smell was vomit-inducing.

"Oh, Steel," Ally whispered through her hand. Tears pricked at her vision as she scooted close to him again and reached out. She didn't dare touch him, but she didn't have to in order to feel the heat radiating off his charred flesh. "I'm so sorry, Big Brother," she choked out.

"No," Steel muttered into the sand. "No, I'm sorry. Sorry for everything. Maybe if I hadn't done what I did to take Hunter away from the Prime—or even if I'd left with the two of you all those years ago like I wanted to deep down-"

"Stop talking like that," Ally snapped the order. "This isn't on you. Luna totally would've found a way to get to Hunter with or without you. Heck, she probably would've just, like, come blowing in and killed the Autobots without your idea to use—you probably saved them."

"Maybe," Steel conceded, face still buried in his arms. "But I am to blame for Grandmother getting what she wants."

"What's that?"

Slowly, shakily, Steel lifted his head until he could look up and meet his sister's gaze. Shame shone in his eyes. "The Primus-state," he answered softly. "That's been what Grandmother's wanted all along, but Hunter never went into it. But Grandmother finally forced her."

"By hurting you," Ally said knowingly.

The shame in Steel's eyes gave way to something like fear and disbelief. "Sh-she was going to kill me," he murmured, like he couldn't believe what he was saying. "Grandmother was really going to kill me!"

There was a small part of Ally—a part that still felt incredibly hurt and betrayed that he'd left her behind—that longed to make a sharp quip and say "I told you so" at that, but there was a bigger part that pitied her brother and understood him. Maybe she hadn't been taken in by the whole Lunation thing like he had been, but she'd still been in it, seen the things that went on. The only reason she'd withstood the brainwashing was because of the fear she'd had of upsetting their parents. And, in speaking of their parents, Ally could understand a bit of being taken in by brainwashing; because wasn't what their mother and father had done been a certain form of brainwashing, too? Maybe not an evil or dangerous kind of brainwashing, but a damaging kind nevertheless.

"But Hunter saved you," Ally said.

"And now she's in more danger than ever."

The night was suddenly bright as day and the ground began shaking as a deep rumbling sound thundered through the air.

Ally turned her gaze away from Steel and looked back out across the Lunar Estate. She couldn't see the lava lake now; all she could see was a shimmering, multicolored wall of light moving across the ground. No, not moving across it, moving through it, eating it up, disintegrating everything as it came. She stared in awe. "What's that…?"

"Hunter's destroying the estate," Steel rasped, he, too, trying to crane his neck around and watch the destruction. "There's no way she'll leave a piece of this place standing."

"I wouldn't either," Ally remarked distractedly.

"I'm not sure how much longer Hunter can hold out like this though. She was already weakened before she went into the Primus-state, and now after all of this? She'll crash hard, and Grandmother will be there to snatch her up again when she does."

"We can't let that happen."

"No, we can't."

Ally looked down at her brother with a little more surprise than she intended.

Steel looked away from her ashamedly. "I'm… confused, Little Sister," he admitted quietly. "I'm confused about a lot of things right now." He met Ally's gaze determinedly as he went on: "But one thing I know for sure is that the Lunation is not the place for Hunter, and if we don't help get her out of it she will die in it." He turned his eyes towards the rapidly vanishing estate grounds. "And I don't think even Primus' blessing will save her then."

"What do we do?" Ally asked.

"Well, for the moment I'd say we just wait until Hunter actually does leave the Primus-state. She might just kill anything or anyone that gets close to her right now; that god-mode doesn't seem very conducive to being talked down."

"Right," Ally murmured, back to watching the cosmic energy wall eat up the Lunar Estate. Gosh, it really was pretty.

"Might be a good idea for us to move away in the meantime," Steel said a little pointedly. He shuffled a foot that was within the radius of the estate grounds.

Ally looked away from the wall down to Steel's foot and back to the energy wall. "Right," she said. She grabbed her brother's hand again and apparated once more. This time they reappeared at the top of the Autobot's sand dune.

The others were all standing around them in a heartbeat. 'Bee knelt beside them and buzzed quizzically at Ally, sounding incredibly worried but relieved as well.

Ally couldn't understand his buzzing language, but she understood him well enough by now to know he was asking if she was okay. "Fine," she puffed. "I'm fine. But Steel's hurt bad."

"I'll live," Steel groaned.

Arcee knelt beside them too and took a closer look at Steel's wounds. "We'll have to have a Hybrid medic look at him," she stated. "Ratchet's not gonna know how to take care of a Hybrid's organic wounds."

"Greasy left a short list of contacts should we need them during his absence," Optimus stated. "Alchemy, take Steel back to our base-"

"No!" Steel exclaimed through clenched teeth. He managed a determined shake of his head. "No," he repeated, "you can't take me back to your base. You can't—it's not safe; she'll come looking and find me there."

"He's got a magical trace on him," Ally explained glumly. "Luna puts it on all her Inner Circle members and her Field Acolytes to keep track of them and bring them back to her if and when they die. The only way to break it is if Luna does it herself or if she dies." She turned her complete attention back to her brother. "I can try to help soothe the pain a bit if you want me to," she murmured the offer. "It worked on Optimus, it might work with this too."

"Don't worry about me," Steel insisted. "Help Hunter. Get ready to help Hunter. She can't hold out in the Primus-state much longer."

"Anyone else notice that the rumblin's stopped?" Bulkhead asked.

Everyone quickly turned their attentions back towards what had once been the Lunar Estate to find a massive, cavernous, irradiated and blackened hole bored deep down into the earth. The lava lake was gone. The remnants of any architecture were gone. Whatever lay beneath the estate grounds was gone. There was just the hole and the Egyptian desert around it, and the sky above it.

And Hunter—Hunter was above it. She was still there, hovering in the air, the silhouette of Primus still surrounding her. The shadow was dimmer though, and seemed to be flickering. All at once it disappeared and the flames at Hunter's feet sputtered out; and then the girl was falling down, plummeting straight down into the pit.

"Hunter!" the collective cry rang out from the small group.

"No!" Optimus screamed. Without warning he began sprinting forward. He was acting purely on instinct, but he knew there was no way he'd be able to reach his spark-daughter without putting them both in danger. Even if he did manage to jump the distance from the edge of the cavern to where she was falling (and it was a large distance), he'd never be able to make it across to the other side—it was much too far! They would both fall into oblivion. But even as he was aware of this, Optimus couldn't bring himself to take heed of it, because that was his little girl falling straight into nothing! He'd watched her go out like that once—he couldn't allow it to happen a second time! He had to save her!

The rest of the Autobots recognized this and just managed to tackle him and bring him down to the ground to pin him. "Prime, no!" Horrible as it was to witness, Hunter would be able to walk away from a fall like that; their commander would not!

"No! Release me, all of you! That's an order! Hunter! HUNTER!"

"Ally!" Steel shouted over the quickly unfolding chaos. But his sister was already gone in a cloud of smoke.

Ally had never apparated to a destination in mid-air before; it wasn't exactly an encouraged thing to do with apparation. And as she re-entered, Ally could understand why; apparation was already fairly disorienting and jarring on the body enough, but then to just suddenly pop out in the middle of the air in instant freefall and over seemingly bottomless hole no less… suffice it to say Ally never wanted to do something like that again. At least she had something else to focus on and take her mind off it.

Speaking of which, Hunter was coming on and very quickly. Ally almost didn't have time to prepare herself to catch Hunter before the younger redhead was slamming into her. The impact drove the air out of Ally's lungs and an elbow slamming into her head dazed her a bit. Ally just barely had the sense loop an arm around her cousin. Typically when you visualized your apparation destination you were supposed to have a mostly clear and specific idea of it in her mind's eye, but this time all Ally could think of was sand, and for the moment that was more than enough to get them clear. Once again Ally apparated out.

The re-entry was very unceremonious as the girls slammed down into a sand dune, blowing it apart, and landing in a tangled mess of legs and arms and bodies. When the magic inside her had settled a bit, Ally shoved her cousin off her chest so she could breathe. "Never again!" the seventeen-year-old puffed. "I'm never doing that again!"

"Hunter!" Optimus shouted. He scrambled to his feet, knocking his team off their feet before they'd completely taken all their weight off him to let him up, and barreled in the girls' direction a good fifty yards away. "Hunter!"

Hearing her name, Hunter opened her eyes to see a blurry, wavering image of her spark-father moving towards her. "Dad," she rasped. She struggled to rise and go to him. She wanted him; more than anything else she wanted just him. "Daddy." The girl managed to lift her weight up onto trembling arms, but her arms quickly gave out under her and she flopped back into the sand with an exhausted groan. So weak. So tired. So drained. She couldn't move; couldn't get up; couldn't fight; couldn't do anything but lay there helplessly. She didn't even have the energy to think of anything more complex than wanting her dad, and she was only able to keep that thought in the forefront of her mind because he was directly in her field of vision.

But then he wasn't in her field of vision. Without warning a whirlwind of sand surrounded her and the next thing Hunter knew she was in a dark space, staring at a darker metal bar right in front of her nose. Hunter stared cross-eyed at it in confusion. What the hell?

"Oh, no, no, no!"

Ally's desperate cries caused Hunter to flop over so she could look in her direction. Through the dimness she saw that there were more metal bars on Ally's side; a whole wall of them in fact. Ally was currently grabbing onto a couple of the bars, trying as hard she could to pull them apart and failing. Hunter let her gaze slip away from her frantic cousin to look around them. Metal bars on her side; metal bars on Ally's; metal above and below them; metal bars at her feet…. It was a cage. They were in a cage!

Hunter's spark leapt into her throat and she pushed herself to sit up, grabbing a bar to help herself. Her gaze darted from one side of the cage to another, her panic growing bigger by the second. They were in a cage! They were trapped in a cage! They were trapped in a cage of Luna's making! They were going back to Luna! She was going back to Luna! She couldn't go back there! She could never go back there again! Not again!

A sudden rumbling like that of giant engines started up shaking the dark space the girls were in. Around them, dim lights suddenly flashed on, illuminating the area in a creepy magenta light. That was when they finally caught sight of the chains connected to the top corners that strung out across the floor towards a giant, black warship parked before them: The New Moon.

As one, Hunter and Ally recoiled and scooted back in the cage as far as they could from the massive ship. "We're in the hangar!" Ally hissed fearfully.

"You need to get us outta here!" Hunter hissed back, unable to take her eyes off the sharp prow of the ship that jutted out above them. The rumbling sound had turned more into a whine, signaling more power to the engines. It wouldn't be long before it was taking off and they with it.

"I can't," Ally practically sobbed. "I can sense obsidian in the metal—no apparating outside of it.

Hunter turned to look at Ally for a moment, despair rising inside her like a tidal wave. This was it then; she was really going back into Luna's fold. And this time there'd be no getting out of it—no chance for escape. No chance of seeing her friends and family again. No chance of a life with Optimus. No hope; no happiness; no love; nothing but Luna and her twisted ideology that made her cult.

The sixteen-year-old looked back at the looming warship. "Daddy…" the involuntary whimper left her lips.

Something suddenly crushed onto her hand and brought Hunter out of her terror enough to look towards her cousin again. Ally was still staring in horror at the warship while she squeezed tightly onto Hunter's hand. When the warship began lifting off the pad, Ally looked over at the younger girl. "What are we gonna do?" she quivered, tears shining in her two-toned eyes.

Hunter could only stare back in silence. She didn't know.

"Hunter!" Optimus bellowed, shoveling up handfuls of sand and flinging them haphazardly behind him. "Hunter!"

Every single one of Team Prime were on their knees and digging through the sand in close vicinity to the spot where the girls had been just moments before. They had no idea if this would accomplish anything—it probably wouldn't in all reality—but what else were they supposed to do? One minute the girls had been there and then, with a swirl of sand, they were gone! If nothing else they were in the right place, according to Optimus; thanks to their restored spark-bond, he could feel Hunter was close—perhaps right below them! But if the girls were in Luna's hands—and the girls' sudden disappearance simply reeked of magic—what were the odds of them finding them now? What were the odds of getting them back?

Optimus wasn't thinking about that right now. It was in the back of his processor, yes, but he refused to dwell on it or allow it to come forward. It didn't matter was the odds were, he would find Hunter and Ally; he would save them; he would bring his daughter back home safe and sound; and when he did he would never, ever let her go. "I'm coming, Sweet-spark. I'm coming—just hold on."

All at once there was a distant rumbling sound and the ground began to quake. All of Team Prime stopped what they were doing and exchanged confused and concerned looks. "What the pit is that?" Arcee voiced the question they were all asking.

A metallic whine pierced the air, making all the 'bots cover their audio-receptors and grimace. The sand around them began to shift, slowly at first, and then faster; the indentation of a line formed in the sand at Optimus' knees and that seemed to be where the sand was shifting towards.

The Prime immediately put two and two together. He lurched to his feet. "They're doors!" he shouted to their others above the din. "It's the Lunation's hangar! The girls are down there! Be ready! We enter on my signal!"

But Optimus never got to give that signal, because the doors were blasted wide open with an explosion. Team Prime was sent flying and scattered across the sand.

When Optimus opened his optics again and looked up, he saw a massive black and magenta accented warship rising into the air from beneath the sand. And dangling below it by chains was a cage. The Prime's spark dropped when he saw the cage—or rather who was in it. "Girls!"

Hunter and Ally were both in the cage, each of them on their knees and grabbing and pulling at one of the bars on the closest side of the cage, trying to rip it off. The bar didn't give, and the girls pulled so hard that when their grips finally gave way they flew across the cage to slam into the bars on the other side, sending the whole thing careening and swinging on its chains in the air. It was clear they were trapped.

Before Optimus knew what he was doing he was on his feet and running. His gaze was locked on the cage, never leaving it. "Hunter!"

Inside the cage, Hunter quickly sat up and grabbed the bars, pressing herself close to them. She reached out and down through the bars as far as she could, reaching for him. "Dad!" she screamed, terror in her eyes.

"Hunter!" Optimus shouted back.

Ally was beside Hunter again now. She too was reaching out and down, grabbing for someone. "Bee!" she shrieked.

Optimus just heard the frantic buzz of his scout behind him, but he paid no heed. All he could see at the moment was Hunter. He had to get up there! He had to get to her and find a way to open that cage, or at least break it free from the chains!

Out of the corner of his eye Optimus spotted the damage the blast had done to the hangar doors and only then did he tear his eyes away from Hunter's to look. Large sections of the metal were twisted up, pointing skyward. Many were too bent out of shape to make a decent runway, but there were a few that would be straight enough. The question was would they be sturdy enough?

They'd have to be, because Optimus was taking the chance given to him. If he didn't take it now he would lose both Hunter and Ally, most likely forever, and he was not about to lose his little girl for a second time! Not when he'd come so far and so close!

Midstride, the Prime transformed to vehicular mode. The explosion and the exhaust from the warship as it had left the hangar had blown most of the sand off of the hangar doors, so the Prime had decent enough traction to get moving. Optimus angled himself towards the large spire of metal and gunned it. "Maximum overdrive!" For a moment his tires skidded on a small patch of sand, but then caught the metal beneath. He barreled forward, a blazing streak of red and blue. His engine revved the loudest it had ever before and his spark raced in his audio-receptors. He shot forward across the metal, up the spire, and launched into the air. Once in mid-air he transformed back to bipedal mode and just managed to catch hold of the nearest chain. The cage at the end swayed wildly.

"Dad!" Hunter shrieked frantically, watching on as the Prime nearly slipped and fell from the chain. It wasn't a long enough drop to kill if he fell, but it was definitely long enough to do some serious damage.

For a moment Optimus struggled, but soon enough he had a secure grip on the chain, and he turned his attention to the cage. Reaching out to the chain parallel, the Prime grabbed it and expertly lowered himself down until he was face-level with the cage. He gazed in through the bars, meeting his spark-daughter's fearful sapphire eyes. "Hunter!"

"We can't get out! It's leviathan metal! And there's obsidian mixed with it—Ally can't apparate!"

Optimus' gaze shifted from Hunter to the cage. Leviathan metal: meant to restrain Hybrids; couldn't be broken, cut, or crushed. But, if you could get it hot enough, it could be melted! The Prime didn't have a welder, but his ammunition from his cannons could definitely heat a surface up with continuous and close-range fire. The Prime eyed the bars of the cage carefully. They looked thick, and it would probably take more time than he had to melt through them. The chains holding the cage however…. Optimus turned his gaze to them. Doubtless they were leviathan as well, and they were certainly sturdy chains as well, but they were still a good deal thinner than the cage bars. If he could melt through those and set the cage free they could take it back through the groundbridge and assure Hunter's safety, then worry about getting it open.

A loud revving noise caught the Prime's attention and he craned his neck to look around. His optics quickly robotic form. The young mech continued his ascent into the air towards the cage, but he was a little short of catching either the chains or the cage. Optimus quickly swung a leg down within the scout's range: Bumblebee snagged onto his pede. With a grunt, the Prime swung his leg up, propelling the scout further upwards. 'Bee flipped up into the air and grabbed hold of a chain on the opposite side of the cage.

"Bumblebee!" Optimus shouted. "Prime your cannons and help me melt the chains! We must free the cage!" He had already let go of one of his chains and had his free cannon out and charging. Once Bumblebee had done the same, the Prime ordered, "Put your cannon against the chain and fire! Do not stop firing until the chain has melted in two!" With that, Optimus stretched out his cannon and put it right up against the chain he wasn't holding. Then he let loose.

"We're getting really high up!" Ally exclaimed.

Optimus didn't bother to look at the altitude, because he knew Ally was right; this was taking too long! "Bumblebee! It will take less time to melt the chains if we concentrate our fire on one together!"

Bumblebee nodded to communicate his understanding, then left the chain he was currently working on. He slid down the chain until he could rest a foot on top of the cage. Then he crouched down and reached over to place his cannon against the chain right next to Optimus'.

"On my signal," Optimus grunted.

All at once three chains disappeared into thin air. With only one support to hold it up, the cage lurched downwards, swinging wildly on the last chain. Hunter and Ally slammed against the sides of the cage. Bumblebee toppled from his crouched position atop the cage, just barely managing to snag hold of the one chain left behind him. Optimus wasn't half as lucky, as he'd only been holding one of the chains. The Prime didn't even have time to yell as he just suddenly dropped into freefall.

Hunter screamed: "DAD!" Without a second thought the girl threw her hand through the cage bars firing off her grapnel cable. It whistled down in a spiral before wrapping around one of the Prime's ankles and snagging him up with a jerk. Hunter was slammed into the bars by her spark-father's sudden weight. "Whoa-oof!" Tears came to her eyes as her nose was bashed against the hard metal. "Ally!" she screamed, her voice muffled with her face smushed up against the bars. "Ally, help! I'm still weak—I need help! Please! It feels like my arm's gonna rip off!"

Ally rushed to her cousin's aid. Reaching through the bars with both hands, she grabbed the cable and pulled back on it; taking some of the tension off Hunter's arm and allowing her to pull her arm back in and sit up. Then she started reeling it in as Hunter reeled it up. As she looked out through the bars she could see Optimus getting closer. Soon enough they had the Prime where he could reach out and grab onto the cage to hold himself up. They breathed a collective sigh of relief.

/Only one chain left,\\ Bumblebee stated. /They can't get rid of this one without losing the girls.\\

"No," Hunter agreed, looking up at her brother. "But they'll kill you two before you have a chance of melting through it."

"They're coming!" Ally shrieked, pointing up.

They all looked up to see several Field Acolytes swinging down from the ship towards them on the last chain.

Optimus watched the oncoming cultists for a moment before lowering his head to rest it against the bars of the cage. He sighed heavily. What was he going to do? One thing was certain: Luna was going to succeed in taking Hunter back; there was no way he could stop that from happening. But did he allow himself to be captured as well? He wouldn't allow Bumblebee's capture so long as he could help it, but he could allow his own. If he did so, at least he would be with Hunter; perhaps not physically, but at least she would know that he was there on the ship with her, and perhaps they could find a way to escape together. That was, if Luna didn't torture or kill him first to traumatize Hunter into submission or force her into the Primus-state once again so that Luna could use her as a weapon. No, he being in Luna's hands would do far more harm than good to Hunter; he couldn't put her through that. But how in Primus' name could he let her be taken again? After he'd just found her?

"You told her you would fight for her once," a voice at the back of his mind said. "And you can't fight for her while held prisoner." And it was with that thought that Optimus knew what he had to do: However hard and impossible it would be; however much it broke both her spark and his; he would have to let her go again. And then he would have to find her. Again.

"Hunter," Optimus murmured, looking down through the bars to meet his spark-daughter's penetrating gaze. "My Shooting Star, I am so, so sorry…" he dropped off, finding it nearly impossible to say the words.

"D-Daddy?" Hunter squeaked pitifully. Tears were already starting to well in her eyes.

"I-I'm…" he dropped off and swallowed hard as he closed his optics, trying to work up the strength to say it. This was the hardest, most painful thing Optimus had ever had to do. "I'm going to have to let them take you, Sweet-spark…."

"No!"

"Hunter-"

"Don't leave me!" Hunter begged. She was on her feet and reaching up through the bars to grab his face with shaking hands. Her eyes burrowed deep into his spark, tormenting it—haunting it. There was no hope there; absolutely no light at all in those sapphire depths—only darkness and despair. "Don't leave me, Daddy, please! Please don't leave me!" Tears cascaded down the girls trembling and grimy cheeks, cutting paths through the dirt and muck and energon.

Optimus felt a simultaneous breaking of his spark and a stalwart resolve to make Hunter know that he was not abandoning her. "No, Sparkling," he said with quiet determination. "No, I'm not leaving you. I will never leave you, Hunter—not ever. And they will not ever take you from me. But I have to let you go with them now because we are out of options, Sweet-spark. The plan didn't work; we need a new one. And once we have one I will come for you, My Shooting Star; I will find you again. I will always find you again. I promise."

"I don't wanna be without you anymore!" Hunter wailed, just managing to press her forehead to his chin through the bars. "I can't be without you anymore, Daddy! I can't!" The teen's shoulders began to shake with sobs.

Optimus squeezed his optics shut as tears began to prick as his vision. Primus, help him—grant him the strength to do this. "You have to, My Shooting Star," he murmured, leaning into her touch. "For just a little while longer, you must remain strong." The Prime tried to swallow the lump forming in his throat. "If I could, I would allow them to take me so that we might be together, Hunter… but I dare not allow it. I am certain Luna would use me against you and I could not bear to be the cause of your pain; I will not be a weapon for Luna's use against you, Sparkling. Therefore I cannot allow my capture, and you must go with them without me."

"I can't! It hurts too much—I can't!"

Optimus pulled away from the girl and looked down on her in the way of a Prime instead of a father. "Huntress Starstreaker James," he rumbled softly, "you are the Fuser, the savior of the Hybrid race and most powerful of your kind. Primus resides within you; the energon of powerful Hybrids flows through your veins; and your spark was ignited with a piece of my own. You have endured countless hardships—even death—and overcome them; you have the strength to continue on this journey. You will find it; you will call upon it; and you will endure and conquer the struggles that lay before you-" his expression became more fatherly again "-until I am able to come for you and bring you home."

Hunter stared up at the Prime, biting her lip as her chin quivered. Optimus could feel the emotions swirling like a storm through their bond as well as see them in her eyes. He knew that this was as hard for her to accept as it was for him, but he also knew that—just like him—she would accept it. Because she had to. They both had to. There were no other options available to them.

Finally Hunter squeezed her eyes shut as though suffering a great pain and nodded her head. "Yes, Sir," she rasped.

Optimus smiled warmly and sadly. "That's my girl," he praised her, voice slightly quivering.

"They're getting closer!" Ally exclaimed, still looking up at the Field Acolytes.

"I'll lower you down with the cables," Hunter sniffed, trying to wipe her eyes. "You guys jump from this height and it won't be pretty. Better do one on each of you just in case—I've never tested exactly how much weight my cables can hold." She ejected the grapnel from her other palm and turned to her cousin. "Ally, can you help 'Bee with that, please?" When Ally had taken the cable and pulled herself up to help Bee wrap the cable around his ankle, Hunter turned to her spark-father again. His gentle smile caused the tears to come rushing tenfold. Putting her arms through the bars she tried her best to hug his face. "Daddy…!"

Optimus pressed as far as he could into her touch. Tears were just starting to creep from beneath his tightly shut optic shutters. "I will for another strategy, Hunter," assured her. "And when I do I will come for you and I will bring you home, I promise you that."

"I love you, Daddy."

"And I love you, My Shooting Star. I love you more than anything in this or any universe; more than words can say; more than life."

"Please, please find me again."

"I will. I will find you again, Sparkling—I swear it by Primus."

/Cable's secured,\\ Bumblebee announced. /We gotta go, Prime.\\

"I will find you," Optimus murmured to his spark-daughter one last time, meeting her gaze. "I will find you, and I will come for you—I promise."

Hunter nodded, fighting a losing battle against her tears. "I love you," she squeaked once more.

"I love you," Optimus returned. And then it was time for him to go.

He waited until Ally had wrapped her arms around Hunter and the girls had taken up a stable position before he let go of the cage, Bumblebee coming right after him. They descended at an alarming rate, getting nearer and nearer the ground; it was really amazing just how long Hunter's grapnel cables were. They had descended more than half of the way down and still had a decent drop to go when suddenly a sharp snap came from the lines. The two mechs fell unhindered through the air. High above, they could hear the girls screaming.

"The Acolytes must have cut the lines!" Optimus thought, because he was certain Hunter's cables hadn't snapped on their own. He watched on helpless as the desert below came rapidly closer and closer and closer. They'd more than likely survive this, but it was going to be one glitch of a crash, and it was certainly going to set him back a good deal in going after Hunter again.

Suddenly two F-16 jets came swooping in under them. Both Optimus and Bumblebee crashed onto them and just managed to gain holds on the wings to anchor themselves. "Need a lift?" a female voice crackled out through the radio of the Falcon that bore Optimus.

The Prime glanced over to see a Hybrid insignia on the left wing and a sigh of relief whooshed out of his chest. He wouldn't have to put his plans on hold; he could begin the search and rescue for his daughter the moment he was on the ground. She wouldn't have to be lost for longer than necessary.

As they descended to the ground, Optimus turned and looked skyward. The warship was turning into a small black dot in the early morning sky now, and he couldn't see the cage dangling below it anymore; they must have reeled it in. He could feel Hunter, spark-broken, terrified… but through it all he could feel a small spark of hope. Optimus sent as much love and reassurance and strength through their bond as he could, trying to stoke that spark into a flame because he knew that, right now, her hope was tied to him. He was Hunter's only hope. With the Fuser back in the hands of a mad-femme he was the only hope for everyone now. And he would not let that hope go out; he would not let her hope go out.

"I will find you again, My Shooting Star. I promise I will find you."

---

Luna stood by watching as the cage was hauled into the cargo hold of the ship; then she watched as her Acolytes opened it. She stood emotionless as they went into the cage and grabbed the girls, roughly manhandling them out. They shoved Ally down to the floor and held her there, but she wasn't the one Luna was concerned with. Oh, having Alchemy back in the fold was definitely an advantage, but the one she wanted most—the one she had plans for—was Hunter. And a Field Acolyte was dragging her across the floor right now.

The Acolyte threw Hunter down on the floor at Luna's feet. The girl cried out and groaned and then proceeded to lay there, unmoving. For a long moment there was silence, as Luna continued to stare coldly at the prostrate girl. Then finally the witch spoke.

"Well, well," she said, a dangerous edge in her voice. "We had quite a little party today, didn't we? You made quite a little mess of my estate. What have you to say for yourself, Huntress?"

There was silence. And then a noise came from the girl, muffled and unintelligible as it was aimed into the cold metal floor of the hold.

Luna gave a long-suffering sigh and rolled her eyes. "Huntress, please try and show some etiquette and look at me when you speak."

A snarl left the girl and after a second she began moving, struggling to rise up so that she could face the witch. "I said," Hunter growled as she slowly pushed herself up onto quivering arms, glaring indignantly out from beneath ratty, dirty locks at the witch before her, "I hope I get a gold star."

Luna's lips twitched slightly and her eyes hardened. She reached out and slapped the teen hard across the face, almost knocking her down on the floor again with a yelp

"Hunter!" Ally shouted, obviously concerned for her cousin.

Slowly Hunter pushed herself back up and turned to glower at Luna again.

"Really?" Luna asked, taking a deep breath to regain her composure. "You want to be rewarded for what you've done? All the damage you've caused? The history you've destroyed? All the lives that have been lost?" The witch's gaze became ice cold as it narrowed on the girl. "You've slain over half my forces. You've cast a significant portion of the Lunation's legacy—my legacy—into oblivion. And apart from that, all those soldiers that came to your rescue? How many of them do you think perished or will perish because of you? You want to be rewarded for those deaths?"

Hunter shook her head. "Don't you even start," she hissed, her glare turning deadly. "They didn't die because of me, Luna—they died because of you! If it wasn't for you, none of this woulda happened; none of us would be here right now. I'm not a stupid little girl anymore; you can't make me feel guilty for something you caused, so don't even try!"

Luna sighed. She began to move in a circle around Hunter, her heels clinking on the metal floor of the hold. "No," she conceded, "you're right. You aren't the little girl you once were; you have most definitely grown up. Grown up and a full-fledged Fuser, capable of ascending to the Primus-state and dealing out untold damage." She came to a stop in front of Hunter again and gave the child a significant look. "And let me tell you, it was quite a sight to behold."

At that Hunter's snarl and glare slipped away to be replaced by an almost frightened look. However, it appeared to be more inwardly frightened, as though Hunter was afraid of herself. "I-I don't know how I did that," the teen confessed, letting her haunted gaze fall from Luna's. "I don't really even know what happened. It was like a reflex; the power took over and I couldn't stop it—couldn't stop myself." She looked back up at Luna again. "I didn't go into the Primus-state willingly; I don't know how—like I told you before. This was… I don't know how it happened. Honest."

Luna was quiet for a moment as she gave the girl an appraising look. "I believe you," she murmured, an indecipherable glint shining in her raspberry eyes. Her gaze travelled from Hunter over to Ally and then she looked at the Acolyte that had pulled Hunter from the cage. "Take both girls to the detention block," she ordered coolly. She turned her gaze on the girls again as she added, "Put them in the traitor's cell."

"In the same cell, My Mistress?" the Acolyte asked, sounding just a tad skeptical. "All of them? Together?"

Luna turned back to him. "Yes. They are all traitorous wretches; it will be easier to keep a close eye on them if they are all in one place." She looked at the girls as they were being hauled to their feet and dragged off. "Besides none of them have much time left anyway, so they may as well spend what little they have with family. I am not completely without some mercy."

"Of course, Mistress," the Acolyte said. Then he went on, sounding cautious and empathetic: "Mistress? I'm afraid there is something else."

Luna looked back at him. "What is it, Captain?"

"Ma'am… your mate…."

"Ray?"

"Mistress… he is not accounted for. We have searched the New Moon from top to bottom but we are unable to locate him. We fear he may have been-"

"No," Luna cut him off with finality. "He's alive. I am not sure where Ray is, but I do know that he's alive—I can sense him."

"Could he be captured, Ma'am?"

"It is always a possibility."

"Should we not turn back for him?"

Luna smirked at the tall man. "Do you fear my husband will betray us, Captain?" she asked an edge in her voice.

"No, Mistress," the Acolyte quickly dismissed the suggestion. "Only… his rightful place is by your side, and seeing as how close you are to achieving your goals and taking your rightful place on the throne of power, it feels wrong that he should not be here with you."

Luna smiled. "Don't worry, Captain," she assured him. "Ray will be here when I need him most; he will find a way back to me. Bonded such as we are, he will always find a way back to me." Something suddenly sparked in the witch's eyes, as if a realization had just occurred to her, and the smile quickly slid from her face. "Excuse me, Captain," she said distractedly, turning away and walking out of the cargo hold. "I have some research to do."

The Acolyte reverently bowed her out. "Yes, Mistress."