In the distance, Cordelia could see an eerie blue light, the same shade as the Autobots' optics. As they drew nearer, Cordelia began to make out a distinctive, circular shape in the murky water.
Through the murk, Cordelia could make out a loose, cross shape within the circle. From the centre of the cross descended a long platform. Cordelia tracked it with her green eyes until the darkness of the water made it impossible to do so.
A popping sensation came over Cordelia's ears as the submarine descended, getting ever nearer to the strange object before them.
Leo stood at her side, a comforting hand on her shoulder. No one could seem to find the power of speech, for they were all too transfixed by the view that stood before them.
Cade suddenly gasped and Cordelia turned to see that the little talisman that had settled itself around his wrist had now transformed into a large flat disc and was slithering up Cade's arm, across his shoulders, down his other arm and then back again. It was as if it was alive.
Cogman smiled knowingly. "You are the first to see this ship since the Dark Ages. Your talisman is the key to unlocking this ship."
The talisman on Cade's arm began to glow a dazzling cerulean blue, causing the four human passengers within the Alliance to shield their eyes from the intense brightness.
The same blue suddenly enveloped the submarine as it was pulled forward, by some ancient, invisible force.
In her mind's eye, Cordelia saw twelve enormous Cybertronian Knights, who stood as sentinels behind King Arthur's twelve knights of the round table, their swords erected in ready defence.
Percival. Lancelot. Gawain. Tristan. Leon. Elyan. Bedivere. Palamedes. Lamorak. Kay. Gaheris. Geraint.
Twelve men who would have given their lives for that of their king and the people they had sworn to protect.
"Seglass ni Tonday. Without sacrifice, there can be no victory."
Cordelia had not even realised that she had spoken until Leo took her gently by the elbows.
"Lia? Are you alright?"
She shook her head a little, trying to fight through the fog that had suddenly engulfed her brain.
She forced a smile onto her face, squeezing Leo's hands with what she hoped was a close proximation of reassurance. "I'm fine. Just ignore me, a mixture of daydreaming and baby brain is never good."
Abruptly, there was the sensation of rising upwards, as if the submarine was ascending towards the surface.
It seemed to be that this was exactly what was happening.
Cogman made his way to the ladder that allowed exit from the vessel and climbed it, easily opening the watertight hatch. He popped his head out and then jumped back down the ladder, landing lightly on the 'balls' of his metallic feet.
"We have arrived. It is safe to exit."
They made their way up the ladder and when it came to Cordelia's turn, Cogman leaned down through the open hatch and held his hands out to her.
"If I may, my lady?"
Cordelia started to protest that she would be too heavy for Cogman to lift, but he merely slipped his small hands under her arms and lifted her from the ladder as easily as Optimus would have. He set her gently on her feet, keeping one hand on her elbow while she regained a steady base.
Leo helped her down the steep stairs that had appeared on the side of the submarine and she gasped as she joined Cade and Viviane in the freezing, waist-deep water.
Bumblebee jumped off the sub and into the water, showering the humans with ice-cold droplets.
Prince's Purple Rain sounded through his speakers, wiggling his door-wings sheepishly.
"Never meant to cause you any sorrow, never meant to cause you any pain."
Cordelia laughed and tied her hair into a higher bun on the top of her head, keeping it from getting wet.
"You get away with it this time Bee!"
He laughed his strange mechanical laugh and began to climb upwards, using metallic vines hanging from somewhere that Cordelia could not see.
Cordelia, Cade, Viviane and Leo made their way through a thin passageway, the walls on either side stretching upwards and upwards.
She could hear Cade and Viviane bickering quietly amongst themselves as they progressed further and further into the bowels of the great ship, passing huge statues of Cybertronian Knights, silent witnesses to their passage.
Cordelia noticed strange hieroglyphs along every surface; the floor, the walls, even the statues themselves. Cordelia was familiar with the hieroglyphs that adorned Optimus and knew that they were the ancient language of the Primes, she knew enough to know that the glyphs on this ship were not of the ancient protectors of Cybertron.
They emerged from the narrow passageway into a huge circular space. If Cordelia had to guess, she would have said that they were in the very centre of the ship itself.
Four giant columns rose up from the floor in a gentle arch to converge in the centre, about one hundred feet above their heads.
In the very middle of the circular space, stood an ornate marble tomb.
A man was sculpted into the marble, a long staff resting beneath his clasped hands.
Cordelia felt her breath hitch involuntarily in her throat. She was standing metres away from her God knows how-many-times great-grandfather. All the mystery and the heartache at being separated from Optimus had led her here, to this very moment.
Hah, she mused. Burton was right after all. Sometimes it just comes down to one, inescapable moment.
She cast a subtle sideways glance over at Viviane, who seemed to be having a similar experience to Cordelia. She ran her lithe fingers gently over the marble's surface, tracing the lines of her ancestry.
Cade and Leo hung back a little, perhaps opting to give the two women a moment alone with their ancient ancestor.
Viviane started muttering to herself, reading something that had been inscribed on one side of the tomb.
Cordelia walked around to stand next to her half-sister, placing a tentative hand on Viviane's shoulder. "What is it?"
Viviane turned to look at her, her blue eyes full of an emotion that Cordelia could not identify.
"There is a Latin inscription that reads, 'no one shall have it' when it is translated to English."
Cordelia's mouth dried. "Well, it can't mean the Staff, can it?"
Viviane had no answer for her, but turned to look at Cade with what could only be described as defeat.
Cade walked forward, his face a picture of disbelief. "No, no. You are not gonna tell me that we've outrun MI6, the TRF and rode in a Transformer submarine with a crazy ninja butler to a long lost Cybertronian ship to find some ancient stick of destiny, only to get here and be told we can't have it? No, no fuckin' way. Leo? Give me a hand."
Cade rolled his sleeves up and began to push on the lid of the marble tomb. Leo approached apprehensively, but stood next to Cade and began to push.
Cordelia watched as the two men's faces grew steadily redder as they exerted more and more pressure in an effort to shift the weighty lid. She wondered if she ought to be concerned about the desecration of her ancestor's final resting place, but she couldn't quite find it within herself to verbalise the thought.
After two minutes of relentless pushing and grunting, the lid slid out and off the main body of the tomb. It fell to the side and cracked perfectly down the vertical centre, rendering Merlin in half.
Nestled within the tomb was an intact skeleton on a bed of velvet blankets that had discoloured over the thousands of years away from natural light.
Clasped in the skeleton's clawed hands was a single, thin, brown…stick.
Cordelia scoffed.
This couldn't be it. She hadn't been brought here, found out she had a half-sister and had the last letter from her mother to find that she had been bequeathed a literal stick.
How was this supposed to help them save the planet?
She felt anger broil deep within the pit of her stomach, rooting her to the spot.
Cade swore. "Great, this is just fucking great. I've travelled halfway across the world to meet with a know-it-all professor to save the planet with a fucking stick. I could have just cut an oak tree down at my house! I have all the sticks you could ever fucking want!" He kicked the tomb and walked away, both hands clasped behind his head.
Viviane followed him, trying to console him in her gentle voice.
Leo approached Cordelia, taking one of her hands in his. She knew that he was reading the disappointment on her face, anticipating the anger that was threatening to explode out of her.
She concentrated on breathing it back down. Getting angry would not help the situation now. It would only complicate things and make things more difficult than they already were.
She forced a wan smile in Leo's direction. He saw straight through it and pulled her fiercely into a tight hug.
She buried her face against his firm chest, inhaling the aftershave and outdoor smell of him, relishing in the feeling of his arms around her.
"I don't understand it Leo," she said against his chest. "This isn't how it's supposed to end. Why would Burton go through all that effort in sending us here, why would the talisman have directed Cade here? Why would Viviane and I have found each other if it was all just going to end like this?! Why did Optimus have to go to fuck knows where?!"
Leo's arms tightened around her while she cried hot, angry tears.
She was angry at herself for crying when the whole world was at stake, when she knew that tears, angry or not, would not solve a damn thing.
She wiped her eyes with the cuff of her sleeve and stepped back from Leo, going over to the tomb and resting her hands on the cold marble.
Cade and Viviane were still a little way over to her left, speaking in quiet but heated tones.
She looked down into the contents of the tomb again and marvelled at the stories that those bones would be able to tell if they could talk.
She thought of the things that Merlin must have been witness to when he was serving in the court of the famous King Arthur.
Cordelia felt quite humbled at the fact that she was descended from a group of humans who had been involved with Cybertronians for at least the last 1,600 years. She wondered if there had ever been any like her and Optimus, and if there would be any after they had gone.
She reached down into the tomb and wrapped her hand around the stick that lay atop Merlin's skeleton.
At once, an electric shock pulsed through her entire body, causing her hair to stand up on end and goosebumps to raise on her pale skin.
The wood on the stick fell away to reveal a thick silver staff with a blue glowing tip.
Cordelia's blood pumped audibly in her ears as she comprehended what she held in her hand.
It was at that point that several things happened at once.
Cade and Viviane look up in perfect synchronisation, an identical expression of shock on both of their faces.
Leo laughed triumphantly at the appearance of the true Staff.
A dull explosion sounded behind Cordelia as one of the ancient knights came online with a furious proclamation of "who has come for the Staff?!"
Half a dozen men dressed in black combat gear and armed with semi-automatic rifles entered the chamber.
Cordelia was shocked to see William Lennox leading the charge, his gun cocked and ready to fire.
Viviane sprinted over to Cordelia and held her hand out for the Staff. "Quickly, give it to me. It's too risky for you to have it."
Wordlessly, Cordelia handed the Staff to Viviane, not taking her eyes from Lennox's.
She took a careful step forward, her hands coming up of their own accord.
"Will? What are you doing here?"
He appraised her carefully, pointing the rifle away from her but not lowering it. "I could ask you the same thing, especially given your condition," he said somewhat defensively.
"Wait, are you with the TRF?"
"It's not through choice. It was either thirty years in prison for 'treason', because I apparently 'consorted with the enemy' by fighting in Chicago, or it was join these guys. It was a no brainer. I've got a family Lia, I had to put them first. I didn't want it to end up this way, but it is what it is."
Cordelia placed a protective hand over her bump, not knowing if she was trying to reassure herself or the squirming baby residing in her womb.
"We always have a choice, it's what we choose to do with it that matters."
They were interrupted by a ferocious roar from the Knight that had come back online. It had powered up fully and was now marching towards them, intent on their destruction.
Leo immediately took Cordelia's hand and started to pull her away from the rampaging knight. "I promised Optimus that I'd keep you safe, come on. He won't be happy if he gets back and you have even one hair out of place!"
She did not resist but let him guide her away from the tomb and towards the edge of the circle, back towards the way that they had come.
Lennox turned his attention away from Cordelia and focused on Viviane. He trained the rifle on her whilst Cade tried his best to draw the knight's attention by running in between its legs and firing at it with the 'alien' gun that he had become so fond of during the Hong Kong battle.
Leo and Cordelia found their way barred by the remaining TRF operatives, who were all pointing their weapons at the fleeing pair.
At once, Leo took up a defensive position in front of Cordelia, using his body to hide her from the view of the advancing soldiers.
Fear crawled from the pit of Cordelia's stomach and settled in the base of her throat. Leo was doing exactly what Optimus had done countless times; defending her without question in the face of a threat to her safety.
Only Leo was made of flesh and bone. He was soft and vulnerable. He wore no protective armour or clothing and Cordelia could only imagine with horror the way that any bullets fired would rip through his human flesh, rendering him dead or at the very least, mortally wounded.
"Stay back," he warned, his voice low and ice cold. He stepped slowly back, his arms coming behind him to half-wrap protectively around Cordelia.
They moved back in perfect synchronicity, keeping the distance between themselves and the TRF agents perfectly even.
On the opposite side of the massive circle, Lennox and Viviane were locked in a tense stand-off.
For every step that Viviane took away from Lennox, he took one towards her, not letting the distance between them grow by even one foot.
Cordelia looked on helplessly as Cade fought a losing battle against the raging Cybertronian knight, narrowly missing getting stepped on.
Lennox raised the gun and pointed it at Viviane, his index finger hovering over the trigger.
"Drop it! Or I will!" Viviane snarled, holding the Staff over the edge of the massive platform that they were all stood on.
"Come on Lennox! You don't know what you're doin'!" Cade's voice betrayed his desperation, but his pleas seemed to fall on deaf ears. Lennox did not alter the position of his gun one inch.
"GO ON! SHOOT ME!" Viviane screamed at Lennox, defiance oozing from every pore of her body.
"All I want is that weapon!" By comparison, Lennox's voice was shaky, lacking the conviction that was needed for what he was trying to prepare himself to do.
"I am the only one who can wield it!" Viviane shouted, conveniently leaving Cordelia's name out of her statement.
Before Lennox could get a chance to respond, chaos reigned.
Another three knights emerged from the darkness, all intent on destroying the intruders who had come to take the Staff.
At once the TRF agents opened fire on the mammoth titans, aiming for their optics and the weaker armour that was located under the chest.
One knight that looked older than the others collapsed easily, its red optics going dark and lifeless.
The remaining two were not so easily dispatched.
The TRF agents emptied round after round on the advancing Cybertronians, but the bullets raining down on them may as well have been confetti for all the harm that they were inflicting.
Cade continued firing desperately with his alien gun and Viviane took advantage of all the anarchy to sprint over to Leo and Cordelia.
The three of them huddled together in a tight circle, Viviane and Leo pushing Cordelia into the centre so that she was as defended as possible.
Then, out of seemingly nowhere, came the sound of louder gunshots. They had been fired from higher up than those of the TRF agents.
Cordelia watched as one knight collapsed to the floor, clutching at his chest armour as his Spark chamber ignited from the inside out. The single remaining knight was sliced and stabbed from behind before being viciously kicked to the ground.
Cordelia's heart stopped for a beat and then resumed as she saw who had saved them all.
Optimus.
As soon as she allowed her gaze to travel upwards to his face, she knew that something was drastically wrong.
He wore a defiant, violent expression on his face. His facial plating was scrunched in a territorial scowl, his lip plates curling back in an angry grimace. He stored his sword on his back and stood over the humans, his fists clenched and his shoulders back.
"I've come for that Staff." When he spoke, his voice lacked its usual warmth and friendliness. Instead it was cold and aggressive, hostility being the only identifiable emotion.
It was not any of these things that disturbed Cordelia most. No, what disturbed Cordelia most were Optimus' optics themselves.
They were cold and flat, but most intriguingly, they had changed colour.
Instead of their usual cerulean blue, they were now a deep violet colour. The lenses that made up his optics were constricted to their narrowest aperture, reminiscent of a pinprick.
Cordelia could not place the emotions that were currently crossing his face, or the unspoken words that rolled across his optics like malevolent storm clouds.
He crossed the circular space in three easy strides, marching forwards with purposeful aggression and determination.
He headed straight for Viviane, his gaze locked on her and her alone, as if she was the only being in the area that he had noticed.
Cade looked up at the approaching Autobot leader, fear written all over his weathered face. "Optimus…what are you doing?"
Optimus ignored him, simply responding "give it to me!" in a voice so cold and indifferent that it sent shivers down Cordelia's spine.
She noticed, for the first time as Optimus drew nearer, the red mark that adorned one side of his face.
Down the whole left side of his face, from his helm down to his chin, was a red mark. The blue metal on his helm had faded to silver and then bled into the red. It snaked around his left optic and down his facial plating, giving the appearance of someone who meant harm.
It did not belong on Optimus Prime at all.
As Optimus halted in front of Viviane, his mouth plates curled back to form a snarl. He eyed her with nothing but contempt and disgust.
"Optimus! What are you doing? We fought together!" Cade's pleas fell on deaf audios as Optimus lowered himself to one knee, punching the ground with such force that Viviane fell back against one of the four columns that seemed to support the whole structure.
"I fight for my own kind! My own planet!" Optimus roared the words, pitching his voice to its lowest tone but highest volume. It made Cordelia's bones feel as if they were vibrating.
He pushed his great visage into Viviane's personal space, looking her up and down coldly.
"Give me the Staff, human." Viviane hesitated, visibly and audibly trembling.
Cordelia wanted to run to her guardian and take his face in her hands and take away all that was wrong with him. She wanted to call out to him to look at her and her alone.
But she could not do either of these things. It was as if her feet were rooted to the spot and it felt like she had swallowed her voice deep down into the pit of her stomach. All she could do was look on helplessly whilst the person that she loved most in the world bore down on Viviane, intent on his mission.
Viviane looked to Cade, her blue eyes bright with fear and trepidation.
"I will kill you." Optimus stated calmly, and Cordelia swore she saw the fingers of his clenched fist flex, just a little.
Viviane found her voice again. "C-Cade?"
"Give it to him," Cade commanded, his voice sounding as desolate as that of an abandoned tomb.
With a shaking hand, Viviane held the Staff out to Optimus, who reached out and took it roughly from her. He tucked into place behind his left breast plate, as one might tuck something into a breast pocket.
As soon as Optimus was clear from Viviane, the TRF agents opened fire on him.
One round struck him squarely on the back of his right shoulder, but he did not even flinch.
He rose with an easy grace, as if he did not have a care in the world and fired a single blast from a cannon that had appeared from his right arm.
He stepped over the TRF agents, seemingly making a deliberate attempt to not step on them.
"Who dares to challenge me?" His rhetorical question hung in the air for a moment, and it was what Cordelia needed to drive her legs into motion.
She stumbled forwards, planting herself deliberately in the Prime's path.
"Optimus Prime!" At the sound of her voice, he stopped and looked down at her.
She met his gaze, desperately trying to snap him out of whatever influence he was under.
This was not her Optimus.
This was not the gentle giant that would caress her in the palm of his hand and nuzzle her gently with his nose. This was not the mech who would bring her out of her darkest days with an encouraging word and the comforting presence of his thumb on her back.
This was not the Autobot who had saved the planet four times.
She knew he was in there somewhere, she was convinced of it. Why else would he not have killed Viviane or the TRF agents when it would have been so easy to do so?
A crushed skull between a thumb and forefinger. A body easily compressed to nothing under gigantic pedes.
No, her Optimus was in this stranger…somewhere, and she was going to bring him back.
He canted his head slightly as he drank in her appearance, his violet optics looking at her but almost through her at the same time.
He knelt, bringing one hand down to her level, a finger extended.
He drew it gently down her cheek, shoulder and arm before resting it tenderly on her bump. Then he touched it to his mouth plates and back to her bump; a metallic kiss.
Then he rose and stepped over her and walked from the chamber without looking back.
All she could do was look on in silent opposition, tears streaming freely down her face.