Oh dear, oh dear. It's time, I fear, for "Darkness Rising, Part 1". I'll be doing the episode(s) in installments rather like the comic book adaption, because otherwise this would be a really long chapter.

How many of you remember watching the show when it premiered for the first time? (Raises hand). Homework was completely forgotten that day, as was laundry...which was unfortunate, because everyone was waiting for one of the dryers to be open...

Anyway, who remembers how it opens? I have to introduce a character, just to kill him off. This stinks. (Shakes fist: "CLIFFJUMPERRRR!") Also, according to the Tfwiki, apparently Arcee and Bumblebee are somehow distantly related. O_O well, didn't see that coming!


The skies over Jasper, 2012.

The roar of an F-16 was hardly enough to make the humans of Nevada take notice. If they had looked up, and if by some miracle they had the eyes of a hawk, they might have been caught off guard by the guady purple and black paint scheme. Skywarp whooped in exhilaration and dropped into a barrell roll. His com crackled, warning him that he was not alone.

"Skywarp, you're going to show up on every radar in the country if you keep that up!" his older brother lamented.

"Relax, 'Screamer! Can't a guy have a little fun, every now and then?"

To his right, a silver F-16 drew level with him. "So, it's fun you want?" The voice was distinctly mischievous. With a burst of speed, the jet soared ahead and cut off Skywarp's path.

"Cheat cheat cheat!" the younger Seeker fumed.

"Last-sparked, last place!" Starscream taunted, rotating to fly backwards while facing his brother.

A third voice joined the conversation from a back-country road far below. "Will you two knock it off?" Knock Out peevishly rolled along the bumpy highway, doing his best to avoid the pot holes. "We're not out here to have 'fun', we're supposed to be on the lookout for Autobot activity."

Skywarp snorted and playfully nudged Starscream as he caught up again. "Relax, Doc. The 'Bots haven't made a move for five years!"

"That's what worries me." The doctor's half-murmured statement silenced the Seekers, and their flight patterns straightened out in response.

After another hour of flight, they began to pick up a large-scale energon reading. "Got a spike in my sector!" the purple and black Decepticon reported, "I'm gonna go check it out!"

From his own search coordinates, Starscream involuntarily shuddered, remembering how Soundwave had lost his voice. "Be careful, Skywarp. It could be a trap," he warned.

His brother merely laughed. "I always think everything could be a trap, which is why I'm still alive!"

Starscream huffed in annoyance. "Why you delight in quoting that film is beyond me!" he grumbled.

"It's because you have no sense of humor," was the cheeky response.

"Starscream has a point, Skywarp," Knock Out observed, narrowly missing a cactus below, "Will you need backup?"

"Do I ever need backup?" Skywarp peeled out on his own, headed for the signal. The slim Decepticon landed gracefully in the midst of an energon mine. He whistled appreciatively and tapped his claws against one of the massive blue crystals.

"Skywarp to Starscream: I found a whole mine! Looks abandoned, but just to make sure..." He fired a flare into the mine entrance. His optics widened, almost comically. "Ohhhhhh scrap!" he gulped.

Autobot drones poured out into the open air, surrounding him. "Hey, bro?" Skywarp chuckled nervously. "About that backup..."

He turned his attention back to the dull bronze Autotroopers* and sighed. "Well, when I got out of recharge this morning, I didn't think I'd kicking any skidplates, but thank the Allspark for small favors, I say!" He made a "bring it on" gesture and dropped into a fighting crouch.

From far away, Starscream alerted the Decepticons of Skywarp's predicament before nearly breaking the sound barrier in hopes of reaching the mine in time.

Halfway there, Skywarp's somewhat weakened voice broadcasted over the open Decepticon channel. "'Scream? I'm gonna have to blow the mine."

"Just take off, Skywarp! I'm almost there!" Starscream reassured him, pushing his engines to go faster than perhaps they should have gone.

Skywarp scoffed. "Sorry, 'Scream. They've got me pinned down." His voice wavered for a moment, making him sound much younger. "Hey, big brother? If I don't get a chance to tell you in person...this isn't your fault. I love you." Then the sounds of explosions eclipsed the speakers.

A groundbridge opened, and the remaining three Autotroopers took the opportunity to flee...taking the prone form of Skywarp with them.

Starscream, Breakdown, Knock Out and Megatron arrived moments later and stared in horror at the wreckage.

Starscream began to shake, his armor rattling. "He's not here," he whispered. His knee joints gave out and he collapsed to the ground, servos spasming.

"Oh no," Knock Out groaned, "Not now!" The medic crouched in front of the trembling mech as the others searched the crater. "Starscream? Hello? It's Knock Out, remember? This is Earth, not Cybertron."

Vacant optics met his: the Commander was in the middle of a flashback. "Where are my brothers?" he whispered.


The Autobot base was dark and cavernous, dimly lit by hundreds of viewing screens keeping tabs on locations all over the globe. A dirty blue shape with broad shoulders swaggered up to the helpless Decepticon.

"Well well, how the mighty have fallen, eh Skywarp?" the horned mech sneered.

Skywarp spat a mouthful of energon at the Autobot commander's pedes. "Cliffjumper. It's been awhile! You're looking awful, as usual." The Seeker managed a shark-like grin, despite his position. "Where's your master?"

Smugness and fury made an ugly show simultaneously on Cliffjumper's faceplate. "I am my own master!" he shrieked, plunging his fist into the weakened prisoner's sparkchamber. Skywarp's breath hitched, and the light in his optics faded out as his lifeless husk crashed to the deck.

"Oops," Cliffjumper muttered, "I think I was supposed to interrogate him..." He shrugged and motioned to the drones. "Clean that up," he said carelessly, "And see what can be salvaged from the mine."


Knock Out looked up from his scanner grimly. "Skywarp's life signal just went offline."

Starscream remained seated on the ground, clutching a shard of raw energon to his spark, but his optics hardened.

"What do we do now?" Breakdown asked quietly.

Megatron shuttered his optics and shook his helm. "For now, we return to the Nemesis. Tonight we will hold a vigil for Skywarp." He turned and helped Starscream to his pedes, steadying him with one hand.

"I'm the last one," the younger mech said hollowly. He repeated the words over and over as Soundwave bridged them back home.

That night, Airachnid, Breakdown, June and Pax stood with Knock Out, Starscream, Soundwave and his cassettes, listening to Megatron speak.

"We must not allow our anger over the loss of Skywarp to impair our judgment. As of today, only we few Decepticons remain on this earth. We owe it to ourselves, to the memory of Cybertron, to any Decepticon in any galaxy seeking refuge, to humankind, and we owe it to the memory of Skywarp to survive."

The huge warrior stepped forward to a lit torch in the center of their circle. From two pots beneath it, he drew two brushes and painted a geometric design on his faceplate, beneath his left optic. The colors of the sign of mourning were Skywarp's purple and black paint scheme. Megatron motioned to the others, and one by one they stepped forward to have the mark of grief brushed onto their faces and visors.

Pax stood up straight as Megatron set aside the brush and fixed him with an apologetic look. "The brush is too large, Pax. Hold still."

Airachnid dipped her servos into the paint and carefully traced the design onto the boy's cheek, then repeated the process for June.

The woman clung to Airachnid, lips pressed firmly together to keep from crying out against how wrong it all was. Skywarp and Starscream had been her closest friends when she was growing up. The first time she'd ever had her heart broken, it had been Skywarp who had held her until the tears stopped.

"Mom," June croaked, but was unable to speak beyond that.

Airachnid held her daughter close as Breakdown settled Jack on his shoulder. "I know, Sweetspark, I know," she whispered.

Starscream turned away, wings trembling with emotion.

"Starscream?" Megatron asked quietly.

"If my brother is dead, no amount of tears and pleading will bring him back," the Seeker growled. "Perhaps one day I will go to him, and to Thundercracker, but they will not return to me." He stalked towards the flight deck. "So unless anyone minds," he said bitterly, "I'll go back to protecting humankind."


"Welcome to K.O. Drive in, where every patty's a Knock out!"

Sierra pasted a smile on her face as she rollerbladed up to the car, but her hands were making the signs for I hate my life.

The tired looking man in the minivan full of kids sighed. "Do you still take cash here?" he asked.

Sierra's smile dropped and she shook her head. "I'm sorry, sir. The Currency Act affected us too. We're only allowed to take government-issued credit cards."

The woman in the seat next to the driver gave Sierra a pleading look. "Please, we can't afford an Autocard! Can't you just let it go this time?"

Sierra looked away. "I wish I could, honestly I do. Times are hard all over."

A little voice in the backseat piped up, "Mommy? I'm hungry!"

The blonde offered the speaker a shaky smile. "I know, Daniel, just be patient."

The man was about to begin arguing with Sierra when he noticed her hands. He squinted, catching her urgent expression. Was that...finger spelling? He remembered taking a required course in ASL (American Sign Language) when he was in grade school, ages ago, but never remembered more than the alphabet.

The red-haired carhop was spelling out, Purple door. Free meal. Secret.

"Well," she said in a cheerful voice, "I'm sorry I couldn't help you folks, but have a nice day anyhow!"

The van pulled away, the driver making sure to throw angry looks at K.O. Burger as they left. Sierra deflated slightly. Hopefully her boss wouldn't ask about the almost-customers. This was the third family this week that she'd directed to the illegal soup-kitchen, and she had a feeling that the boss wouldn't care for that too much.

A familiar blue armored van pulled into the lot and her shoulders sagged with relief. She was slightly surprised to see Jack in the driver's seat, but she reflected that he was technically old enough to have his permit. Sierra rolled up to the window and leaned on the door.

"I hope you're here to rescue me," she moaned.

The young man offered her a sympathetic look, somewhat marred by the black and purple star-like shape under his left eye.

"I meant to ask you at school, but I didn't get a chance," Sierra motioned to the design.

Jack shrugged with a sad smile. "It's my family's way of showing grief. I lost an uncle three days ago. He was a soldier." He didn't say anything more on the subject except to thank Sierra for distracting the teacher who'd nearly had a conniption fit the first time he showed up in class with the mark.

The man Sierra had come to recognize as her friend's grandpa sat in the seat next to him. He also had the twisting design on his cheek. "Family tradition dictates we wear this for the remainder of the week," he said gruffly. Suddenly, his eyes seemed to vanish for a moment. They didn't close, or hide behind wrinkles, they just weren't there for about three seconds.

Sierra jumped, and Jack noticed. "Pop, what's wrong?" he asked.

The man began spewing out a list of words Sierra had never heard before but guessed were not the kind you used in polite conversation.

She followed his gaze to a pair of bronze and green muscle cars slowly patrolling the streets. Great. Government guys. Was the Darby family in trouble with the law or were they here about the secret soup-kitchen? Sierra turned a concerned eye to her friend.

Jack quickly signed to her, Clock out now, go straight home.

She scowled. How? You guys normally drop me off!

Jack shook his head emphatically. Not this time. Stay inside.

Sierra planted her hands on her hips. "Jackson Darby, you tell me what's going on right now!" she snapped. The boy's eyes widened and he shushed her quickly.

"Stay out of this! You'll be in danger here. It's not your concern, just run home and you'll be safe." Abruptly, the blue vehicle sped out of the lot, and one of the two government cars tore after it.

"Oh man," Sierra gulped. As calmly as she could manage, she clocked out of her shift and began to walk home. The remaining car began to covertly follow her. Sierra quickened her pace slightly, even though she knew she probably looked guilty.

Finally, she broke into a run and ducked down an alley. She didn't want the feds knowing where she lived, not if she could help it. When she came to the old dirt road, she turned left instead of right, her dusty boots taking her out into the desert.

With everything in her focused on running as fast and far as she could, she didn't hear the scream of a jet engine, or the mysterious sound of gears and plates sliding. She only knew that the silent government car was catching up to her.

Suddenly, her feet were no longer touching the ground, and she was watching a laser bolt fly through the space where she had just been. Terrified, Sierra looked around and found herself in the grasp of a giant silver hand.

"Stay still!" a raspy voice ordered, "This is going to be tricky!"

Metal began to shift and fold around her, and she covered her head with a shriek. When she opened her eyes, she was in the cockpit of an F-16 fighter jet, pulling away from the car.

"Ohmygosh, ohmygosh, ohmygosh," Sierra was hyperventilating.

Starscream had flown too low to snatch the human. He would need space to regain altitude or else crash to earth: he was vulnerable at this height.

"Starscream to the Nemesis!" he shouted over the com, "I need immediate backup!"

The Autotrooper had been joined by several others, justifying Starscream's mild panic. Spotting a canyon, he dove, ignoring the shrill screams of his passenger.

"Hang on, kid," he growled, "This is going to be rough!" He pulled out of the dive with a last-minute correction and soared up nearly vertically.

Sierra desperately hoped she wouldn't throw up.

"Where do you live, human?" the disembodied voice asked.

Sierra nearly told him, but then frantically shook her head. "You can't take me back there! Those guys saw what street I live on! What if they go after my grandma?!"

Starscream sighed in exasperation. "Fine, fine! I'll take you with me."

Somehow, when Megatron had told him to protect humankind, this wasn't how he'd pictured doing it.


Bahaha, poor 'Scream. Stuck with a stowaway. Miko shows up next time, being all cute and adorable and stuffs. Just like a certain Decepticon that I think she's going to get along with perfectly! :D

*The name "Autotroopers" was suggested by guest reviewer "e2". Thanks, e2!