Enjoy the first chapter of the sequel to Tale of Terror!

Chapter one Unknown sacrifice

The darkness of the off-cycle covered Lumen.

A quiet wind blew over the mountain top, above the terrorcon hive.

On the flat top of the mountain, two Cybertronians, one much larger than the other, lay unconscious on the ground from a battle that neither won.

Soundwave walked towards them. He saw that the two mecha were Iron Blade and Hun-Gurrr.

The dark-blue and grey Decepticon looked down at the terrorcon king, noticing that Iron Blade's longsword was in Hun-Gurrr's chest, but only half of it.

Soundwave had watched how the terrorcon king was created, and he now understood how Iron Blade was trying to kill the beast.

Soundwave gripped the sword-handle and moved it slightly further into Hun-Gurrr.

The terrorcon king awoke and grabbed the sword-handle as well, which was at his servos' length away.

Soundwave then pushed as hard as he could against Hun-Gurrr to drive the long sword into the terrorcon enigma.

They were stuck in that position for a few astrokliks as Hun-Gurrr said, "Your optics are red, not dark pink like the rest of the terrorcons, why?" The special operative always wore his visor, but for this fight, Soundwave wanted Hun-Gurrr to see his true colours.

"Maybe I'm not a terrorcon," said Soundwave.

"Impossible, I terrorized you in Shockwave's lab."

"Did you? You also thought you terrorized Shockwave as well."

The terrorcon king frowned, and winced from the pain.

"Terrorcons inferior, Soundwave superior."

Then Hun-Gurrr kicked the dark-blue and grey special ops in the legs.

Soundwave tripped, but used his fall to his advantage and landed on the terrorcon's servos.

Hun-Gurrr let go of the sword, and Soundwave quickly got to his knees and drove it through the terrorcon king.

The tip of the sword went a few inches into the ground, and the sword-handle was right up against Hun-Gurrr's chest.

The terrorcon king gasped as he felt the enigma inside him start to crack in half.

Hun-Gurrr had grabbed hold of Iron Blade's other sword, the one that was thrown into the terrorcon king's forehelm, and thrusted it all the way through Soundwave's back.

The dark-blue and grey Decepticon's optics widened as he gasped and looked down at the sword tip that was sticking out of his chest.

Hun-Gurrr got to his pedes, ripping the longsword inside him out of the ground, and pulled the sword out of Soundwave.

"There's a price to being the one who kills me," said the terrorcon as he rolled Soundwave over on his back and leaned over him. "You must die yourself."

Then the special operative turned on his sound blasters and blew Hun-Gurrr up into the air.

The terrorcon enigma completely cracked in half, and the venom from every terrorcon, exited their frames and zipped across the battlefield, up the terrorcon mountain, and back into Hun-Gurrr.

Then the dark-pink and white terrorcon exploded, forming a cloud that covered the entire top of the mountain.

Skyshadow, Jazz, and Bug had almost reached the top of the mountain, when they were knocked off by the explosion. The three Cybertronians rolled back down the mountain to the bottom.

Suddenly, the dark-pink coloured cloud turned to a aqua-green coloured mist, which floated down the mountain and covered the mecha on the battlefield. Then it absorbed into the Cybertronians and lumens, and the ones who were still alive when they were turned into terrorcons, started to wake up.

Skyshadow, Jazz, and Bug watched in amazement.

They ran in among the rising mecha to find their loved ones.

"Bumblebee!" yelled Skyshadow as she ran to, and hugged her twin.

"Sunny!" said Sideswipe as he hugged his brother.

"Sides, I missed you," said Sunstreaker as he hugged his twin back.

Prowl got to his pedes and was almost knocked over again by Jazz, who had run over to him and tackle-hugged him.

"Ah missed you, buddy," said the saboteur."

"I missed you too, Jazz," said Prowl as he hugged his friend back.

"Hey, Jazz," said Blaster as he got off the ground.

Jazz hugged Blaster, "Sorry about the shot to the helm, B."

"Don't worry about it. You did what you had to do," said Blaster.

(Intro music is: Sacrifice by Steve Jablonsky.)

Iron Blade opened his optics and slowly got to his pedes. He was a mess of scrapes, bent armour plates, and four largish round black marks were on his chest from where he was shot by terrorcon venom. He walked unsteadily to the edge of the mountain and looked over the side, down at the Cybertronians and lumen rising to their pedes.

Skyshadow was nearly crushed by the terror twins, who hugged her and Bumblebee.

The black and red femme looked up at Iron Blade as he looked down at her. Then she watched him fall backwards.

"Iron Blade," she said out loud as the twins stopped hugging her. She transformed and flew up to her brother. "Iron Blade!" she said as she leaned him up against her right shoulder.

"It's okay, Sky. I'm just exhausted is all," said the former gladiator as he looked down at the mecha below. "We did it, Sky."

"Yes, it's over," replied Skyshadow with a smile as she looked down as well.

"So many lie dead across the battlefield," said Iron Blade.

"Yes, I do not think they were meant to come back in the end," said Skyshadow sadly.

Ultra Magnus and Mirage walked around to the other side of the mountain, where their comrades were gathered.

Jazz ran to Mirage, lifting him up slightly as he hugged him.

Jazz then saw the two black scars that Mirage had on his chest, indicating that the spy had been terrorized.

"He got ya too, Mirage," said Jazz sadly.

"Yes, for a few astrokliks before I blacked out," explained the spy.

Iron Blade and Skyshadow transformed and flew down to their comrades.

Laserbeak flew to Skyshadow and landed on her shoulder.

"Hello, girl," said Skyshadow as she petted the cyber-bird's back. "Where's Soundwave?"

Laserbeak looked sad as she told the black and red femme that Soundwave was dead.

"I'm sorry, Laserbeak," said Skyshadow sadly in cyber-bird speech.

Laserbeak told the femme she was perched on that she decided to stay with Skyshadow and be her cyber-bird.

Skyshadow smiled at this and replied that she would love that.

Laserbeak flapped her wings happily twice.

The lumen separated themselves from the cluster of Cybertronians. The elderly luman Chief called to Iron Blade.

The grey, black, and white Autobot walked over to the lumen.

"Because of what you Cybertronians brought upon us, we order you to leave our planet immediately," ordered the elderly luman Chief.

"We understand, but could you give us an orn to bury our dead?" requested Iron Blade.

"Very well, but contain it to the battlefield," said the elderly luman as he turned to his tribe.

"Thank you," said the former gladiator. "I'm so sorry that you got caught in our war."

The luman Chief looked over his shoulder and replied with a tears in his optics, "So am I."

Then the lumen collected their dead, and left the Decepticons and Autobots, who temporarily formed a truce, to bury theirs.

Bug picked up the lifeless frame of Steeldust and walked over to where he was to be buried. Tears streamed down the Insecticon's faceplate as he set Steeldust down and started slowly pawing a hole for the young mech's grave. When he had a hole the right size, he placed Steeldust into it gently, and covered him with dirt.

Jazz and Bluestreak watched as Bug placed a gravestone at Steeldust's pedes. They could not read what the creature scratched into the stone with a claw, but they knew Bug could.

When Bug was done he stepped aside for Jazz to write on the stone with a knife.

"Goodbye, Steelblue. You and C0d3y are our only friends, and we won't forget yous," sobbed the dark-coloured Insecticon. Then he started to quietly hum in Insecticon.

Jazz could barely see what he was writing for the tears that were welling up in his optics, and he had a great lump in his throat.

Blurr was buried between his brother and his best friend, Hot Rod.

Barricade, Prowl, and Bluestreak buried their brother Smokescreen, who had died in the battle between the Autobots and the Decepticons a decacycle ago, beside Hot Rod.

The flat, dirt-covered battlefield was now a graveyard, where hundreds of graves were freshly dug and covered, and scattered Cybertronians stood or knelt over the graves of those they most cared for, mourning those who were buried there.

They also had stones in a line that had no graves, because those mecha were the ones killed by Megatronus, so there wasn't anything left of them to bury. On these stones, were the names: Bulkhead, Blades, Wheeljack, Moonracer, Powerglide, Inferno, Warpath, and Roadbuster.

Springer stood up from his kneeling position beside the line of stones, of the mecha Megatronus killed, and walked over to Magnus, who was kneeling over what was now Optimus' second grave. "We're the only Wreckers left."

Ultra Magnus turned to his comrade, "I know. I'm so sorry, Springer."

Whirr clicked the buttons on his wrist gauntlets to reactivate the Cyberbots.

Aragon's, Sixgun's, Cog's, and Ironworks' parts connected back together, and they all stood around Whirr.

"Hey, Whirr," said Aragon.

Then all four Cyberbots hugged Whirr.

Vortex walked over, stood beside his older brother, and clicked a button on his wrist gauntlet that allowed Brunt to reconnect his parts back together.

After Brunt had reassembled himself, he and Vortex and went to stand with some other Decepticons.

The Cyberbots collected what parts they could find of Ironhide, and buried them beside Chromia, placing a stone beside her's, Aragon wrote the words: Here lies Ironhide, sparkmate to Chromia, and Sire to Moonracer.

Then Whirr had the Cyberbots help him bury the rest of the Protectabots, who he was a part of and was now the only living one of them.

Iron Blade went up on the mountain top to look for his swords. His longsword was destroyed because it was inside Hun-Gurrr when he exploded, but he did find his regular sword beside Soundwave, who was dead. The former gladiator called up another mecha to help him bring the Decepticon special ops down. Starscream volunteered, and the two brought Soundwave down to be buried. Laserbeak scratched the memorial onto his stone.

The black and red cyber-bird was the only one of Soundwave's cassettes that had lived past the battle between the Autobots and the Decepticons that took place before Hun-Gurrr had started terrorizing.

Rumble, Frenzy, and Ravage were buried beside Soundwave.

When each buried mecha had a stone at their pedes with writing on it, Ultra Magnus cleared his vents and said, "We mourn the loss of those who have died to save us and many others that would have been taken by the terrorcons. Family and friends we mourn for. They will always be remembered for their noble sacrifice."

Then they carved these words into the side of the mountain that faced the graves: Heroes of the Terrorcon War.

When the funeral for the heroes was over the Decepticons left the graveyard, walked around to the other side of the mountain, and entered Megatronus' warship.

The Autobots watched as the warship took off and left the planet behind.

Then the Autobots boarded the Iron Will, and left Lumen for their home planet Cybertron.

(Credit music is: Burying the Dead by AtinPiano.)

(Credit song is: Home by Power-Haus, Christian Reindl, Lloren, & Lucie Paradis.)

The characters that I own:

Iron Blade

Bug

Aragon

Cog

Sixgun

Whirr

Blades

Hun-Gurrr

Vortex

Brunt

Characters I borrowed from space-blue-spirit.

Skyshadow

Steeldust

The planet Lumen and it's alien inhabitants, I own.

Thanks for reading!