All Creatures Great and Small
Directors Edition
Chapter 10

The Autobots stood at the cliff face just before the shore. A handful of Autobots had water capable modes or modifications but non had weapons designed to deal with an underwater base. It was one of the reasons that, despite the Autobots knowing exactly where his base was, Megaton never abandoned this base. Prowl had brought this little fact up on the way there but Prime told him he had a plan.

'Jazz, Trailbreaker, Sideswipe, Ironhide and Dinobots. Front and centre.'

'Right here Prime.'

'What you need is what I got.'

'I'm ready Prime.'

'You got it boss.'

'Me, Grimlock, follow orders Prime.'

'Trailbreaker set a force field up around the Decepticon base, but don't give it a roof. Ironhide use your liquid nitrogen blaster to freeze the water around the force field while the Dinobots vaporise the water inside with their fire-breath. All other Autobots ready your weapons. The first hull plate we see we hit it with everything we got. Then Trailbreaker drops the field as Jazz and Sideswipe melt the ice. If we time it right we can dowse most of the Decepticons before the battle even begins.'

'But what use is that?' Xander asked from inside Grimlock.

Prowl smiled. 'Salt water damage, that's sure to slow them down at the very least. At best it could short some of their higher functions, disabling them.'

'It's also one hell of a way to knock!' Buffy joked.

Faith was dropped carelessly on her ass and the 'raptor leaned down and picked up the sword. 'This is mine.'

'Well then there you go no harm no foul.'

'Want to bet, Faith?' He put his hand behind his back and the sword vanished.

'How.. how do you know my name?' She stood up if he knew her name and this was still a dream what was going on?

He smirked at her. 'I have watched you, I have watched all the Slayers in their struggle against the monsters of your world. And, more recently, I have watched this sword find another traitor to wield it.'

Buffy transformed and was pointed by Prowl at the boiling sea. The shear power that the Dinobots were using had to be stupendous but she knew that was nothing compared to the arsenal of ordinance surrounding her. She was sure that nothing like this had ever been done before.

Prime had his doubts. The last time mass fire tactics were used on this scale it was by the Decepticons. They were attacking the Autobot's capitol city Lycon at the time. The combined effect had enough force to knock Cybertron out of its home suns orbit and left it stranded as the tenth planet at the outer reaches of this system, so far away humanity had only just discovered it. Looking down he saw Sunburst rev up her main cannon, a moment ago she had chosen full yield for all three rockets, each one would house a raw energon / naquada warhead with the combined destructive power of a low yield nuclear device. 'Autobots, ready your weapons, activate optical shielding!' Prime followed his own orders and gazed down the hole in the water. To his back the sun set to a red sky, in a moment a new sun would blossom in front of him. 'FIRE!'

'A traitor?' Faith gasped. 'You mean me.'

'Yes, I do.' the tan and metallic blue robot growled. 'You betrayed your friends, those that trusted you and your whole race! For what?' he advanced. 'Answer me!'

'If you've been watching you know already. I killed a man.'

'And another, and another. You were very good at it and that's not the answer. You're hiding from yourself. The answer is Ms Summers. She failed you, you resented playing lieutenant and when the chance came to prove who was best you grasped it. You didn't care about that man or the others you murdered. All you care about is proving who's best.'

'Shut up!' Faith shouted at him.

'When you couldn't be the best Slayer you tried to be the best killer. When you couldn't be the best killer you tried to be the best person, best human you could and it's pathetic' She looked at him, that was the last thing she suspected. 'Stop wearing your crimes like a badge of pity. Take up my sword and use it for what it was meant for, battle!'

Jack glanced at the sleeping young woman. She gasped and rolled over in her sleeping bag. Bad dreams, he'd been getting them too in what sleep he grabbed and she probably had her fair share of bad memories to draw on. He shook the idea from his head, lack of sleep usually got him like that. She was a criminal and a killer and far too young to be both.

Behind him someone stamped to attention 'Reporting for suicide duty Jack.' a long dead voice said.

Spinning around he saw the rest of his team and those few there that remembered the man gaping at the ghost; 'Kawalsky?'

Megatron sat back and allowed himself a smile. Zarak had just reported that the Insecticons had collected most of Earth's artificial satellites and had started converting them into Insecti-clones. Megatron knew it was too good an opportunity to pass up. The moment the planet was sent into chaos he sent the Insecticons into orbit to build him an army big enough to take over the world in one fell swoop. His sporadic raids against power stations were to both equip his Decepticons and to distract the Autobots. Best of all without communication equipment no one on Earth would know what he was doing until it was too late.

The undersea base shook again, Megatron hit the comm button on the desk in front of him. 'Shockwave, is this another anomaly?' Whatever had happened to the planet, most likely a stellar dust cloud or a solar flare, had knocked out their sensors.

The one eyed Decepticon appeared on the viewer. 'Investigating now, reactivating external sensors. Confirming sensors accurate, confirmed. Megatron; Autobot army above water level, attacking now.'

'WHAT?!? How many?' Could Prime have deduced his plan and, as the humans say, "upped the anty" and thus starting the final battle.

'This is not logical. it appears to be all of them.'

Blinking rapidly he calculated the odds, half of him couldn't believe Prime would do such a thing while the other half welcomed it. 'This is Megatron! All Decepticons evacuate and defend headquarters.' Quickly he patched into the space transponder. 'Scorpinok, return to base.' Megatron allowed himself a short chuckle moments before the entire ship shook apart.

'Sort of Jack.' the dead man smiled.

Jack waved his hand through the other man's head. Rupert Giles bit back an oath; 'The First! Colonel, this is not your dead friend! The First is only using his form.' The older man shouted.

'You see that's not quite right. While a big part of me is the First, the rest is Charles Kawalsky. The man you let die all those years ago. Makes you feel good don't it. But who was that other guy you knew, began with a C? You named him after me.'

'Don't' Jack knew exactly what was coming. but he couldn't hide the pain he felt as his friend morphed into his dead son.

'Was gun safety something for other people dad?'

Jack didn't hesitate, drawing his pistol and putting it to his son's head; 'I. Am. Not. Falling. For. It. Now change or I swear I'll put another bullet in Charlie's head.

'You would wouldn't you.' The sandy haired boy looked disappointed and morphed again 'But I am your one true god Apophis...' But Jack interrupted.

'Killed him already. Let me guess,' Jack said then in a squeaky high pitched voice '"I live forever as the first evil. Fear me because I am as dangerous as a chipmunk on helium!" That about sums it up?' Holstering his gun Jack looked the ghost in the eye before shaking his head and turning away.

Faith was slowly standing to her feet her eyes flashed in an unearthly green but behind him the First growled 'Don't turn your back on me!'

'Colonel!' 'Jack' O'Neill various people shouted and Jack jumped to one side, catching a glimpse of this big floating torso with long arms and a demonic head.

'Your race will die. This world then this reality will be mine. I will storm the gates of heaven itself with my armies!' It ranted before it had a hole blasted in it by a green laser burst.

'What the hell?' Jack asked as Faith, her eyes glowing like an Autobots only green, spoke up.

'You strike without honour!' she growled in a voice that wasn't hers.

Riley lead the small convoy into the town. He couldn't believe he was ordered to Sunnydale by the President himself. The high ups must have finally gotten wind of what was really happening here and panicked.

An Army Sergeant stepped out of a barricade his men had put in the middle of the road. 'Sorry sir, the town's being evacuated. I have to ask you to turn around.'

Riley looked at the Sergeant for the briefest of moments 'Sergeant. My name is Major Riley Finn' he flashed his ID 'I've been told to report to the governor immediately, can you tell me where he is?'

'Sorry sir,' he saluted him. 'The Colonel has set up base at a civilian residence. 1630 Revelo Drive. I can guide you there Sir…'

'No need Sergeant, I know the way.' Driving off Riley glanced at his wife who was sitting next to him 'I should have known Buffy was involved.'

'I'm more worried that you asked for the Governor and they directed you to a Colonel. Things must be bad for a military government to be set up.' Sam said.

Riley thought about that; 'Yep, so am I.'

Giles watched as Faith shimmered and was replaced by a tall tan warrior made of spikes and muscle. 'How did you do that?' The First evil snarled as it floated off the ground. A couple of airmen rushed up and fired at it, there was no effect. Not that Giles thought there would be. The First's arm swept through them just as harmlessly.

'Back off' The spirit possessing Faith shouted. 'You cannot fight him.' The First swung at the possessed Slayer. This blow connected, sending her cart wheeling into a bookcase.

'Stupid spirit. I am as ancient as the first idea. You are nothing compared to me.' It lifted her up, ramming her against the wall. Angel ran into the room, tried to tackle the First and ended up doing a cartwheel through the window. Showered in glass the Vampire started smoking the moment sunlight hit him.

Faith lopped off the arm pinning her and then rammed the spinning sword through the First's heart. Faint white cracks scattered across the First; 'You can't kill me!'

'No. but you are now too weak to maintain your place here. Goodbye.' Faith grinned with a predator's smile as the first shattered like the window had. and the form that was superimposed on her winked out.

'Mind explaining what just happened?' Colonel O'Neill asked him as they both knelt next to the dark haired Slayer.

Giles winced for a moment. 'The First only physically exists on the astral plane. Apparently the spiritual plane can effect the other and vice-versa. Who ever owned that sword... Of course! Ancient warriors would forge their weapons with a piece of themselves, the Knights Templar often claimed their swords were part of them. The sprit used that connection and was able to help!'

'Is that possible?' Dr Jackson asked

'Yes. But the warrior would have to be powerful and have a personal stake in his actions and have been very powerful in life.'

'I believe him to have been a Cybertronian, Rupert Giles.' The tall dark Teal'c said, using more words that Giles thought he knew.

'If their life force can survive after death... that's fascinating.'

For the dive to Buffy's house Riley and his team sat in silence, only the occasional report filtering through the radio. As his little convoy drove down the half familiar streets he was shocked at how empty it all was. 'No people, no vamps, no demons. I think this is a bit bigger than a simple international disaster.' Riley would have called it a ghost town if it wasn't the Hellmouth. Not a good place to tempt fate

Slowly they approached the Summers residence. It now resembled a military base. Sandbags, machine gun nests and an unfolded trailer surrounded the detached, suburban, house. Some sort of look out pod sat on top of a tower, a radar dish pointing into town. Riley lead his seven man team out of the cars and to the building. where a broken window was hastily being boarded up. From the looks of it there were two types of armed forces standing guard, Air Force and Army. Most of the Army men were looking around, not believing the things they were seeing. The handful who did had asked to be armed like the flyboys.

The Air Force carried an odd assortment of high calibre guns, unidentifiable Z-shaped pistols and whatever medieval equipment they could scavenge from Buffy's arsenal. They were pretty much equipped for anything, a trick Riley and his men knew all to well.

A tired looking man in Air Force fatigues hopped over a barricade 'Major Finn, I'm Colonel O'Neill. Ready for the briefing?' The Colonel was in his mid to late forties with greying hair but some how he looked younger around the eyes.

'Yes Sir. But I think we already know what's happening.'

'Oh, you do?'

'Yes sir,' The animosity between Air Force and Army was well known, Riley never liked it but for the first time he understood it. This Air Force jock was on his turf now. 'You and your men found out about demons and decided to do something about them but then had to call in the professionals when it got to hard for you to handle on your own.' He scorned the older man.

There was a moment where no one said anything, the Air Force officers in earshot winced noticeably '…Son, you don't know squat. Out there is a portal to hell it's self. It's opening. That's right the Hellmouth is about to swallow us whole and we don't have a chance in hell of stopping it. All we can do is delay it. Get inside I'm starting the briefing in five minutes and you expert Jarheads better listen!' he turned around and marched back into the house. Riley could hear him muttering under his breath something about stupid kids and shooting them.

Riley and his men had barely shook off the Colonel's retort before a new voice spoke 'Don't you ever learn Boy?' Sat amongst the snickering Flyboys was a pail dark haired man, he was sticking to the long shadows of dusk and smelt slightly of burnt bacon.

'Angel. What are you doing here vampire?' At his last word his team brought up their blasters and stakes.

'Same as you Finn. Saving the planet. Get inside, O'Neill has a little demonstration for you and the rest of your guys.' Angel thumbed them on with a wince.

The Autobots watched as the Decepticons came pouring out of what was left of their undersea base. Buffy could tell that they were pretty evenly matched and the only edge they had was that they had surprised them. Then the fireworks started. It became hard for her to keep track of what was happening, Prime shouted for the Autobots to spilt up and fire at will. Buffy heard Xander shout back 'What's Will ever done to you eh!' before things moved to fast.

The sky was full of conflicting planes, helicopters and even flying cars. Missiles, lasers, arc lightning and shrapnel bombs were everywhere. Suddenly one of the Decepticon planes switched from a jet into a tank, before she could react to him aiming at her and Prowl the red Autobot tank Came out of nowhere and fired at it 'Tag Blitzing, Boom! Kapow! spoing! ha, ha!' and the battle pushed the duelling tanks to one side as she and Prowl were swept away in the flow of combat.

Prowl was firing on the move, never stopping, never a target. alternating between short bursts from her and missiles from his shoulder. Between them he and Buffy were missing quite a bit but to be honest no one could keep track of it all. Then something new happened, from somewhere on the battle field a shout came up. 'Stunticons combine!'

Then another, 'Constructicons combine!'

And another, 'Terrorcons combine!'

Buffy caught a glimpse of what was happening, Decepticons were jumping into each other, fitting together into some thing new. Three massive, even by Autobot standards, robots dominated the sky line. Then came more shouts jumbled together she couldn't make them out. Within seconds two dozen of these giants strode amongst the chaos below them, some of them were Autobots and others Decepticon. They continued fighting with every thing they had, trying to push the final battle of their aeons old war one way or another.

Prime had lost sight of Sunburst just after the gestalts started appearing. He was wrestling it out with Cyclonus and his nebulan Nightstick when he got a cold feeling in his gut. Dispatching Nightstick before shooting Cyclonus he realised what it was. Megatron had committed all his forces save one. His biggest on the planet, Scorpinok. In an instant he saw his biggest mistake, he had sent his two largest men to get reinforcements. Those two were the only thing he had that could possibly stop the town sized spacecraft.

Jack grimaced. This was the fifth group of "things" that SG1 and their temporary additional members had come across that night and they had only been at it for an hour. Yesterday he had been training with Faith and was thankfully better with the sword this time than his pathetic previous attempt.

Faith was now awake and fighting with them. Before she was struggling, only just getting the upper hand however today she was in a class of her own. With that spinning sword each cut, thrust, and swing ripped the things apart. The mess was appalling but her face never cracked its grim mask. Who or whatever that possession was from it changed her. She wasn't the young timid woman but well the only word that fit was Slayer. All he and his expanded team had to do was hold their own while she cut through the apparently endless demons and monsters of this quiet little town.

He and Prime were going to have words about where that sword came from. Jack had a nasty feeling he already knew.

Sunburst was wilting her way trough the Decepticon Micromasters and Nebulans relatively easily. Their fight had, and still was, taking place behind the larger Autobots. Sunburst's shell made her equal to the Decepticons who had tried to go for the "easy kill' of the smaller Autobots. She had just blasted one of the Air Strike Patrol down, one of four Decepticon micromaster jets when she saw her real target.

Trailing after the damaged triple changer Broadside, Starscream was laughing. Another cowered Sunburst thought before calling up; 'Hello Chuckles, lets play!' With a quick mental command her shoulder armour folded out into razor sharp wings and her A/G system activated. There she hovered for a second, realising she was about to fly. Sunburst fought back the reckless enthusiasm that was left over from Dawn and replaced it with determination. She hadn't actually killed a Decepticon yet, damaged them yes but they would be back. It was time to change that and put another nail in the coffin of Dawn Summers.

Starscream was a coward and a liar. He found the idea of flying out of the combat zone and staying out the best idea he ever had. Shooting down a pathetic Autobot who was too damaged to save himself was just the excuse he needed. The Decepticon Lieutenant suddenly heard a shout from behind him. For only the shortest of moments he risked looking back.

A mechanoid he had never seen before was less than an inch from his tail fins, one hand was an oversized block and the other was a multi barred gun mounted in place of a fist. the weapon rotated once and three ugly missiles slid into place. 'Buss off 'bot can't you see I'm busy.' In an instant he hit hyper-boost, attempting to get away from whoever it was.

A fast blur flew past his cockpit followed by a searing pain in his right intake. Somehow the mechanoid had fired a grappling line into him, another glance back and he saw the thing land on his tail. 'Get off meeeee!' Starscream panicked, he dodged from side to side, up and down, everything he could to shake whoever it was off of him.

Highbrow swallowed hard. He and Springer were following a couple of Decepticons into a low cloud. The Decepticon jets were pulling off the kind of manoeuvres that made him sick, trying to shake the two futuristic Autobot helicopters. Pulling out of a particularly suicidal dive out of the cloud he saw something, it was big and green and had a lot of purple lights coming from it…

Springer was right behind Highbrow when the laser burst vaporised most of the other Autobot. He pulled away as fast and as hard as he could but still lost part of his tail to the bombardment. 'Prime, Scorpinok approaching from cloud cover,' he glanced back 'Oh shit! Prime, it's unloading Insecticons! Hundreds of them! There's a whole other army up here!'

Transforming Springer went into free fall as he picked off Insecticons with his rifle. Moments before landing he used his hip mounted boosters to land, relatively, safely. The damage from a near by missile blast knocking him into status lock.

Prime spared some time from pummelling Soundwave to look up at the Decepticon spaceship that was coming down 'Damn.' Pulling his fist from the crumpled Decepticon tape deck he looked for someone, anyone who could do something about it but saw no one.

Grimlock had lead his motley crew of Dinobots into combat with the Decepticon pretenders. Now with Xander in control he was facing off with Bludgeon, both swords were drawn and the two combatants were ignorant of every thing else. Xander gulped, this could get bad, fast.

The Decepticon samurai made a swipe. Xander had Grimlock block and lash out with a foot. Kicking the Decepticon back.

'Clumsy oaf, your crude force is no mach for a master of Metallikato such as myself!' With a short burst of speed the Decepticon charged. Xander got the Big grim to side step away from the powerful swing and then smack the pretender in the face, cracking the skull like head back. The difference between the two combatants was that both Xander and Grimlock were more confident with fists and feet.

Xander allowed himself to smile. This guy was the best sword fighting expert in the entire Decepticon army. He looked like an ancient samurai warrior, a skeleton wearing armour, but deep in his mind Grimlock told him that it was only a shell and that the real Decepticon was hidden behind it. As Bludgeon approached more slowly than last time Xander realised just how good he was. Xander had spent most of his adult life with trained fighters and knew the way they moved. Now the Decepticon had the measure of him, he'd be ready for another cheap trick. If this fight didn't finish soon he would lose. If, however, he could pull of an expensive trick on the ninja-bot-boy he might just win yet.

Parrying blow after blow the swords clashed together as Grimlock took control of the defence. Xander hoped and prayed that he would get this next move right. He remembered watching Buffy and Giles train and had, in his spare time, practised with his own sword the same moves. He watched as Bludgeon took the one gap Xander told Grimlock to leave. Thrusting his sword the Decepticon aimed for Grimlock's unprotected head.

It was just what Xander needed. Taking control in an instant he span on Grimlock's left heal and Bludgeon's thrust passed harmlessly in front of his eyes. Grimlock's sword followed a deliberately wide ark that started with the spin. He caught Bludgeons leg with the sword tip, shocking the Decepticon still.

Half way through his spin Xander dropped to one knee and straightened the arm, the move lowered the blade and locked Grimlock's arms in a straight line. Nothing could stop this blow, it had all of Grimlock's strength and body weight behind it and enough momentum and speed to stop anyone reacting fast enough. Xander saw the surprise in the Decepticon's face as the sword passed through it's abdominal armour, cutting him in half with a fury of sparks. 'Looks like Metallikato is no match for my Xander-fu!' Turning around Xander saw another pretender, Stranglehold, turn and run, throwing his ball and chain weapon to the ground. Only to be picked off by another Autobots laser fire.

Sunburst had picked up Springer's radio message seconds after seeing the behemoth that was Scorpinok herself. Starscream however hadn't, like this he could… Sunburst swung around and pulled herself to the nose cone. With her right arm she gripped the under side and pulled the jet up and towards Scorpinok. It was painful work melting her rocket turbines and she had to keep Starscream's optics covered otherwise he would be able to turn away. Unfortunately it looked like Starscream wasn't going to play the fool much longer. He switched to robot mode in an instant.

Sunburst was left holding to the robots chest, with her hand caught between two plates. Starscream was shouting in pain while trying to pull the arm free. Sunburst knew it was impossible, with all the energy she could muster she rammed up the power to her thrusters. Now they were locked on course, head long into Scorpinok's engines. She armed the high explosives mounted in the suits wings and blew the escape hatch, or head as it was more commonly known.

The look on Starscream's face was priceless as Sunburst pulled out her Photon cannon and fired a handful of rounds into his face. 'That should keep you busy. bye bye.'

Starscream lived up to his name sake as he screamed all the way into the spaceship sized Decepticon.

From the ground Megatron watched as the two grappled high above; 'Starscream you fool! TURN!'

It was spectacular. Flying into Scorpinok's power core was the combined might of both transformers and their impressive ordinance. Many Insecticons were caught by flying shrapnel and their wreckage just added to the chaos that rained down upon the two warring factions tearing up the landscape for miles around. Megatron stood immobile as he watched one object fall. A power master painted green, who had jumped at the last moment. He recognised her and was not happy that yet again this little slime had got in his way.

Megatron ran, jumped, and flew at the small young Autobot as she fell. Rolling with the landing she was able to survive with the help of her small internal jet pack and not just a little luck. 'YOU!' The small thing turned to face the lower shin of Megatron.

'Uh oh. Urm, Hi?' she fired repeatedly at him. Visibly shaking, the couple of shots that hit had the same effect as the dozen or so that didn't.

'Hi indeed.' With a broad grin he pointed his much larger gun at her and fired. In a puny attempt to save herself she held the pitiful gun as a shield, it was no real use. Burnt and damaged her surprisingly substantial remains catapulted backwards only to be stopped by a piece of Scorpinok. Another shot collapsed the wreckage on top of her and yet another shot scattered that wreckage a good mile in every direction. Pleased that he had removed one problem Megatron turned round to see Prime, or more accurately Prime's rifle butt.

Prime noticed Megatron when he didn't budge during the wreckage storm. It took him a moment to realise what he was looking at. Telepathically he had heard Sunburst shout with glee on the way down. He barely had time to tell her to get back to The Ark when he realised Megs' intentions. Hampered by falling parts and a particularly reckless Micromaster (who's mec-fluid was now drying on Primes fist) he didn't get there in time to stop Megatron from blasting the child into the ground.

Now Prime wasn't thinking. His gun broke on his second swing so he activated the energy axe in his right arm. Megatron was in no state to fight back but he still tried. Prime didn't feel the blows that bounced off his face, nor the kicks that shattered his knee. Consumed by rage he cut Megatron's right arm off in one stroke, then with three short hacks into his chest and the Decepticon commander was as good as dead. To finish the job Prime buried his Axe, up to his wrist, in Megatron's spark core. Prime was so intent in destroying Megatron that he didn't notice the one eyed, purple, Decepticon come up behind him and fire.

The battle raged on throughout the night but it was easy to guess who the winners were going to be. With the destruction of Scorpinok and the Insecticon army depleted to a few of each type the Autobots had the upper hand. That and the destruction of Megatron shortly before Buffy blasted Shockwave into something resembling a slice of Swiss cheese left the Decepticons leaderless and helpless. Most of the combatants didn't notice the sunrise. After all the laser and explosive flashes the sun was quite a disappointment. Buffy had seen Prime taken down, however she had no idea about Dawn's fate and has spent the battle worrying. By the time the last Decepticon fell the last slivers of darkness had disappeared from the horizon.

Buffy returned to having limbs and went up to the damaged Prime. He had crawled and clawed his way to a small crater a short distance from where he had fallen. His face was buried in the ground and his out stretched hand clutched some black and burnt thing. 'Prime, you're damaged. Come on.' Buffy was tired, too tired to realise what was wrong.

He turned his massive head, for a second Buffy couldn't believe he was crying. Slowly he brought his hand back. A horrid feeling knotted up inside her chest as he slowly opened his hand. Black with both dried blood and burn marks, Prime held a broken Dawn. Under the mess that was her helmet there was one gap that showed pale skin and a closed eye. The expressionless mask that was frozen on her face had the over tone of fear and agony. Buffy slumped to the ground as her world seemed to spin.

Fortunately General Hammond had organised a massive military presence to prevent the public from being hurt, or indeed to witness the end of the Cybretronian war. With a little convincing they were able to get help transporting the damaged Autobots back to base and clean up the Decepticon wreckage. Xander could guess that the planets biggest minds would pour over the Decepticon components but from what he could tell they wouldn't understand any of it.

At the Ark a final count was made. Over two thirds of the Autobot presence on Earth were un-repairable and already dead. Best estimate was that just over a quarter of the wounded would not survive. That left about 20 percent of the Autobots functioning that were this time the previous day.

Xander was with the two surviving Dinobots, Grimlock and Swoop, when he heard about Dawn. According to Prime Buffy was also malfunctioning and probably wouldn't respond to much. He was right, heck Xander was almost in the same state. Dawn dead, it was almost to much to take. It was Sunburst, that sounded better. He could ignore who it was if he though of her like that.

Walking on his own, half lost, he saw damaged and dead Autobots. They were piled outside cargo rooms or clinging to each other to stay standing. The entire thing was heart retching. Before the battle he had agreed with Buffy that they were soulless machines programmed to think and feel but looking around he couldn't hold on to that fantasy. These people were just different. Whatever a soul was they had one, the way they acted and lived and, in the end, died proved it. Numb from all the emotions arguing around in his mind he found himself in one of the cargo rooms. Placed in and around the boxes were fallen Autobots. With unshed tears filling his eyes he looked at them. brushing his face he remembered the mask of his Headmaster form and threw the whole helmet off. It bounced next to a nebulan that was slumped against a crate, he walked up to it not realising until it was too late that he had found the one person that he never wanted to see.

Dawn was propped there like a battered and broken toy. Her metal body resembled a lump of slag more than a person. Xander found himself looking into her face. Among the scrap and blood one open eye could be seen, in it he could see a bottomless pit of pain and despair stand out from her blooded blue eye…

It took Xander a few moments to get back up and wipe the tears from his own eyes, with a sad smile he leaned over and whispered 'Goodbye Dawnie.'

End chapter 10