Disclaimer: Well, I have to say that this is coming along better than I thought. Big thanks to all providing the support. But now is the time to start the next chapter. Still don't own the rights to Transformers, but who cares at this point?

Chapter XIII

Autobot City; Oregon Mountains
13:17 hrs.

"Now what do we do?" Springer asked.

Ultra Magnus wasn't sure how to answer, on account that he'd never seen anything like what he saw. The video had gone dark and there was no communication from the Moon Bases. "I don't know." Ultra Magnus finally said.

Then Breakaway asked, "What in Primus' name was that thing? How could it just eat up a couple of moons?"

"Why would it do it, that's the question?" Pipes added.

"You think the Decepticons built it?" Breakaway wondered.

"No way," Pipes said. "The 'cons wouldn't have been able to hide that thing."

"Then where did it come from?"

"How should I know?"

Ultra Magnus slammed his fist into the console and shouted, "Enough. Both of you," That was enough to silence the bickering between Breakaway and Pipes. "Alright, I'm going on the assumption that that monster planet is not a Decepticon creation."

"You sure about that, Magnus," Springer said. "I mean, Trypticon was a Decepticon creation."

"Trypticon ain't been active or even seen for over three hundred millennia, Springer," Kup pointed out. "I doubt Shockwave could build something as big as a planet and even if he did, he'd have to be completely insane to want to outright destroy Cybertron."

"Agreed, Kup. Which means salvaging the city will have to wait," Ultra Magnus said. "We have to get to Cybertron before that monster planet devours it," With that in mind, he turned to Hound. "Are there any spare shuttles available?"

"There's one intact in the southeast hanger bay, as well as the one Mirage and I came in with Prime and the Dinobots." Hound said.

Ultra Magnus nodded and turned to Perceptor. "Perceptor, is it possible to retrofit the shuttles with some weaponry?"

"I don't see how, Magnus," Perceptor said. "The shuttles are designed for transport. All they have are countermeasures. They aren't equipped for firefights."

"Even so, we have to be ready to launch as soon as possible, otherwise there won't a Cybertron left," Magnus said. "If that thing destroys Cybertron, then it'd be reasonable to assume that Earth will be next."

"Ultra Magnus, what about my Mom and Dad," Daniel asked worriedly "They were swallowed by that monster along with Bumblebee and the others. We can't just forget about them."

"Daniel, I give you my word. We'll do whatever it takes to get them back." Ultra Magnus told the teenage human, though he wasn't sure if he was convincing Daniel or himself.

"And what do we do when we get there," Springer asked. "If that thing can rip moons into fragments, and does the same thing to Cybertron, it'll make an appetizer out of us."

Ultra Magnus was silent for a few moments, deep in thought and then said, "This is just a guess on my part, but maybe… Maybe the Matrix can stop it."

"How do you mean?" Perceptor asked.

"Think about it; Optimus Prime said that the Matrix would light our darkest hour. May this is what he meant." Ultra Magnus reasoned.

"No offence, Magnus, but that sounds a little farfetched." Breakaway said with uncertainty.

"He's right," came the unexpected voice of Hotrod. "The Matrix can stop that thing." His tone sound slightly more determined than normal, enough for everyone in the area to gaze at him.

Of the bunch, Kup approached Hotrod. "What do you know about it, lad?"

Then Hotrod fell silent. "I… I don't know. I've just got this weird feeling in the core of my Spark. I can't explain how I know. I just do."

"We can't afford to second-guess amongst ourselves right now," Ultra Magnus explained. "We've got work to do, so let's do it."

He felt something like tapping on his forehead. He had been in stasis lock for an undetermined stretch of time. The tapping continued and his optics flickered on in a brilliant blue shade and his systems rebooted. There was a shadowy darkness around him mixed with a faint light, and then the familiar visor that belonged to Jazz appeared in view.

"Yo, Bee. Wake up buddy. C'mon, up and at 'em."

Bumblebee sat straight up and tried to gather himself. The he looked around at his surroundings. "Tell me… tell me we aren't where I think we are!"

"I'm havin' trouble believin' it myself," Jazz exclaimed as he helped Bumblebee to his feet. "I got separated from Cliffjumper on our way in."

Bumblebee looked around, unsure of where exactly he and Jazz were. Then he realized that Spike and Carly were missing as well. "Looks like it's the same thing with Spike and Carly for me. We've got to find them."

"Don't even know where to look, Bee!" Jazz pointed out.

"It's got to be better than standing here, Jazz. We can't…."

A faint sound caught the two Autobot's attention and they armed up. But they weren't sure where to aim. Bumblebee tensed while Jazz was more relaxed. But when he spotted a shadow's movement, he tensed. Then from out of the shadow came a silvery form, which then tumbled to the floor with a clang. Bumblebee and Jazz lowered their guns once they realized, by looking into the clear dome piece, that it was Carly. Spike and Cliffjumper weren't with her, but at the least Carly was relieved to see the two Autobots.

"Carly?" Bumblebee inquired.

"I'd appreciate it if you put those guns away." she said in relief.

"Yep, defiantly Carly!" Jazz joked as he and Bumblebee holstered their weapons.

"You okay, Carly?" Bumblebee asked.

Carly approached the two Autobots, consciously due to the atmosphere. "I'm a little dinged up but I'm fine. I thought Spike would be with you."

"We got separated." Bumblebee explained.

"Same thing with Cliffjumper," Jazz added. "With any luck, they managed to find each other."

Carly became concerned and stated, "They'd better be alive."

"Oh this! This is just perfect," Cliffjumper was fuming much to Spike's chagrin. "We're inside a giant planet-eating…planet. Now what in Cybertron's name are we supposed to do?"

"You know, you griping isn't helping, Cliffjumper," Spike said. "I think for right now, our first priority is finding Carly and the others."

"And how are we supposed to do that," Cliffjumper challengingly asked. "Don't know about you, but I don't see a sign that says "THIS WAY TO MISSING FRIENDS!"

"We'll find them, Cliffjumper. We have to," Spike said. "I just hope Carly is okay."

Cliffjumper only huffed but then armed up suddenly. "Did you see that?"

"What?"

Cliffjumper was getting a bad vibe, yet remained fixed on a darkened part of the area. "I don't know. I guess I'm just jumping at shadows."

But Cliffjumper was almost certain that he'd seen something. It was too hard to tell. The area was darker than most of the ruined cities of Cybertron. Spike was staring to tense up and closed the distance with Cliffjumper, going back to back with the bright red Autobot. They moved in unison on a single direction with Cliffjumper keeping his gun pointed in his line of sight. They then heard a faint hissing sound; too faint and yet, it seemed to come from everywhere. Something caught Spike's eye in the darkness and on instinct, he moved slowly toward it. Cliffjumper kept Spike in his peripheral vision so as not to loss sight of him. He pointed his gun toward wherever the sound was originating, though it maintained a silent hiss. Spike drew himself closer to the unusual thing he'd only now just seen. Upon further inspection, he realized that he'd found what looked like a body, mangled and ripped apart so badly that it was barely recognizable. For the first moment, Spike thought it was Carly or Bumblebee or Jazz. It wasn't but it was still unrecognizable. It was mechanical, almost similar to any other Transformer, but not of Cybertron. The lower half of the body appeared to have been melted away, while the upper half was stripped of most it metal chassis. Cliffjumper was still listening for the faint hiss, which seemed now to intensify ever so slightly.

"Spike, I think we should get going," the Autobot told his human companion. "I feel like we're being watched."

Spike didn't seem hear Cliffjumper and said, "From the look of it, this poor guy's been here a long time. What do you think happened to him?"

"Don't really care at the moment." Cliffjumper deadpanned.

Spike wanted to know more about the fallen husk of metal and inched closer. Then the broken form burst to life and made a grab for Spike. Cliffjumper instinctively fired at the corpse, striking it on the lower left side. Spike crawled backwards away from the corpse, which appeared to remain where it was. It was quivering as if in intense pain, dark fluid streaming like a miniature waterfall from its mouth. Still it reached for the Autobot and human duo and failed, and ultimately it spoke.

"Help… me!" it begged with pain etched on its face.

Spike felt like his heart was about to burst. "You're not an Autobot or Decepticon. Who are you?"

The corpse tried again to reach for Spike, who was still taken aback. "My name... Zeta. Home… gone. Cybertron… doomed. All… is lost." And then the corpse shut down.

Cliffjumper then saw something coming out of the wall. A steel lined tentacle with a pincer like claw at its end. Cliffjumper shot it as it went right for Spike, shattering it. More similar looking claws came from out of the walls and Cliffjumper shot at them. He got several of them while other weaved in between the shots. One grabbed Spike by the leg of his exosuit and tried to drag him away but Cliffjumper managed to strike its tentacle, severing it. More of the claws appeared, and Cliffjumper and Spike retreated. Several of the claws gave chase and Cliffjumper shot a few of them to pieces.

"The walls," Cliffjumper shouted. "They're coming out of the blasted walls."

"You think!" Spike shouted.

At another part of the labyrinthine area, Bumblebee and Jazz were fighting off the same threat of wall claws. They kept Carly in between them to protect her. The wall claws persisted and flew and slinked around the trio so fast it was hard just to keep track of them. Bumblebee managed to take out several of them, though some managed to get through and scratch him. Jazz had about the same results, until one claw grabbed him by the arm. Bumblebee, with near pinpoint accuracy, blew that claw away without striking Jazz. With a nod to Bumblebee, Jazz went back to shooting at anything that moved. It might have ultimately been a loosing battle as more and more of the wall claws appeared. Bumblebee and Jazz kept shooting if only to keep their attackers at bay. Bumblebee became oblivious to a single claw creeping up behind him, but Jazz was paying attention and shot right in Bumblebee's direction. Bumblebee duck a split second before the shot hit him, which ended up hitting the claw. Jazz caught an accusing look from Bumblebee and shrugged it off. Between the two Autobots, Carly was holding her own. Her exosuit had a built-in plasma blaster. But she'd never fired one before, so the first was one of luck. Thankfully, luck was one her side as she shot one claw and then another. Jazz was impressed even as he kept shooting away. The claws backed the trio up toward a corner, and Jazz unknowingly backed right up against Cliffjumper, who'd been doing the exact same thing. On instinct, they turned right and aimed at each other and almost opened fire. Several more claws came about and the two Autobots fired. Spike joined the fray along with Carly and Bumblebee, until the quintet stood back-to-back-back to fight of the attacking wall claws. As more fell to gunfire, the claws finally receded into the walls and didn't return.

"Good seein' ya again!" Jazz told Cliffjumper.

"Yeah, likewise!" Cliffjumper said back.

Spike and Carly embraced and Spike asked, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Carly said. "I thought I'd lost you."

"You don't rid of me that easy." Spike joked.

Bumblebee looked up and his became agape. "Guys!"

The others directed their gaze to Bumblebee, and then looked to where he was looking. Their collective mouths were now agape and Cliffjumper felt like he was about to eats his words of being watched. Above them were two gigantic green orbs, each of them about the size of five Devastators. They appeared totally inert and yet seemed to follow the quintet. Then a faint green light filled the area and slightly lit the darkness. It seemed to come from everywhere and that was when Carly noticed unusual markings. It all appeared to be in some ancient language. Bumblebee took noticed and discovered to his surprise what the runes were.

"No way," he whispered still audibly enough for the others to hear him. "I think this is ancient Cybertronian."

Jazz came up next to Bumblebee and used his visor to scan the runes. "My ancient Cybertronian is a bit rusty, but I think I can translate bits of it," Jazz scanned the runes while the other waited impatiently. They felt like they were alone. "You were right, Bee. This is all ancient. I'm mean like ancient ancient. Like Alpha Trion ancient.

"I think we got the idea, Jazz," Spike said impatiently. "Can you tell what any of it says?"

"I barely got a single line. But I'm seein' reference to the Thirteen Primes and the Fallen, and it goes further into the past. All the way back to Primus himself and…" Jazz suddenly trailed off.

"And what, Jazz?" Carly asked.

"Unicron," Jazz whispered and looked as his comrades, a look of astonishment that had never cross his face ever in his life. "I don't think this is just some random roamin' planet. I think we're inside Unicron himself."

"You're kidding, right Jazz," Cliffjumper said. "This thing can't be THE Unicron. It's impossible."

"Well, this is it, Cliffjumper. And for once in my lifetime, I ain't got nothin' clever to say." Jazz exclaimed, still in shock.

"If you like that," Spike called out from across the area. "You're gonna love this."

Jazz let the rest of the group to where Spike was standing. They stopped short of an enormous mechanism. It was impossibly big, bigger than all of the Transformer combiner teams put together. To Spike and Carly, it resembled a massive gear in a great machine. But to Jazz, Cliffjumper and Bumblebee, it was far more than just a gear.

"A conversion cog?" Bumblebee finally said.

"It's as big as Autobot City and the Ark combined. That's means," Cliffjumper said in awe. "If this thing's a Transformer, what's it transform into?"

Jazz was at a loss for words. "I don't think I wanna know."

As the group gazed in awe at the giant conversion cog, the two giant green orbs shimmered. They then moved ever so slightly that none watching would've noticed movement at all. They gazed down on the group, waiting and watching.

Autobot City

6:15 hrs.

It was early the following morning in the city. Preparing the two shuttles took longer than Ultra Magnus anticipated. At least the Decepticons didn't make another appearance. Not yet anyway. The Autobots were separated into teams on round-the-clock shifts to hasten preparations of the shuttles. Ultra Magnus led a team consisting Hound, Perceptor, Hotrod, Kup, Blur and Tracks in prepping the first shuttle, which was designated Equinox. Springer was in charge of prepping the second shuttle, designated as Odyssey with Mirage, Arcee, Breakaway, Pipes and Blaster. Meanwhile, Daniel was still sound asleep. Arcee figured he could use the rest after everything that happened. The attack on the city; the death of Optimus Prime; the disappearance of his parents. A teenager like Daniel could only take so much. At least he had some protection in the form of the Dinobots. Most of them were also asleep except for Grimlock and Swoop. Swoop was perched up high on a ledge to keep a look out for any Decepticon incursions. Grimlock was keeping his optics on Quickstrike. Velociraptors had a reputation for being ferocious, especially in packs. But Quickstrike was just one Raptor, one that Grimlock didn't fully trust. Daniel was just starting to awaken when Arcee arrived to check on him.

"How're you doing, Daniel? Sleep alright?" she asked.

Daniel stretched his limbs and lazily said, "Pretty much," He glanced at Quickstrike. "At least my limbs are intact."

Arcee smiled and looked up at Grimlock. "Thanks for looking after him, Grimlock."

"Grimlock, happy to help," said the brutish but otherwise good natured Dinobot. "Daniel, friend to Dinobots."

Quickstrike growled audibly, as if challenging Grimlock. "Daniel, just food to Quickstrike. And Quickstrike hungry."

Grimlock stood tall, proving that he was clearly bigger than Quickstrike. "Quickstrike, no eat Daniel. Daniel, friend not food. Grimlock, smash Quickstrike."

"Quickstrike, like to see Grimlock try."

But just as T-rex and Raptor were about to come to blows, Swoop squawked loud. "Swoop, see many flying things. This way, they come from east."

Arcee became concerned and used her optics to zoom in on the east. Indeed, she caught sight of several flying objects approaching. Most were unrecognizable, while some resembled Earth based aircraft. But they all a common telltale insignia; they were all Decepticons. Arcee knew time was short and picked Daniel up in her arm. The Dinobots, now all six of them, flanked Arcee as she got in contact with the other Autobots.

"Arcee to Ultra Magnus, we have incoming."

The massive fleet of aircraft descended upon the city. Leading the pack was a large dark purple spacecraft, a great, golden cannon situated at the front. To its right was a reverse winged fighter jet. To its left was a similar jet with non reversed wings. A squadron of wingless flyers brought up the rear while a black and silver spacecraft appeared above it. More aircraft appeared, all of them being Earth based fighter jets. The leading craft burst forth and toward the city.

Determined to see Ultra Magnus destroyed, Galvatron gave his first order. Decepticons Attack!"

Author's note: That brings another chapter to a close. The big difference here focused on what happened to Jazz and the other after Unicron ate the moons. Plus, I delved just a little bit deeper into the mythos of Unicron. And don't be alarmed; the poor speech at the end is how the Dinobots actually speak.

Also, I gave the two shuttles name to tell them apart. Be too confusing otherwise, don't you think? Stay tuned for the next entry and be sure to give me your thoughts. See ya soon!