Well I ended up finishing this chapter sooner than I expected. It still took a little while, but hey, its better than I have been as far as updating goes. This one is still pretty short, but it is longer than the original, so that's a plus. I will be splitting the "One Shall Rise" trilogy into a couple of chapters, much like I did last time. This just makes it a little more manageable, especially since I'm working with episodes that aren't exactly my favorite in the series. Thanks for being patient and I hope you enjoy!

Please note: I do not own Transformers. I do, however, have my own OC's which I have inserted into the story. My OC's include Reese Shields and Chase Sanders. Electra belongs to my sister.

The Rising Darkness

The events of this chapter correspond to the episode "One Shall Rise Part 1"

"Optimus, we did it. Rafael is doing well. What is your status?" Ratchet waited for a response from his leader, but none came. "Optimus, do you read me?"

Still no answer.

"I'm gonna lock onto his coordinates," Ratchet informed the others as he typed away on the Cybertronian keyboard. After a moment, Optimus' signature popped up, but so did something else. Something that worried Ratchet greatly. "We need to get him out of there, NOW!" Ratchet fired up the ground bridge, ushering the others towards it.

"Ratchet, what is it? What's wrong?"

"No time to explain, we just have to get Optimus back here as quickly as possible. Move quickly. There is no time to waste!" Ratchet ordered, then ran through the ground bridge himself. Everyone, except for Bumblebee, followed through. Bee wasn't quite ready to leave either Rafael, or Reese's side just yet.

Reese stirred, groggily opening her eyes. As her vision came into focus, she noticed Bee looking down at her. confused, she bolted upright.

"Whoa there, take it easy, Reese." Bee jumped back, startled by her sudden movement.

"What happened? I vaguely remember Ratchet saying that the procedure was a success, but I don't remember anything else."

"The process depleted your energon reserves. Ratchet had to set up an energon transfusion. You were already asleep by then, though."

"Oh, well, I'm feeling fine now," Reese swung her legs over the side of the gurney, but she noticed the IV still in her hand. Despite the fact that she was feeling better, she knew Ratchet would throw a fit if she messed with it, so she decided to just sit tight and leave it alone. "Hey, where is Ratchet?"

"He and the rest of the team went to go help Optimus. I stayed behind to keep an optic on you and Raf."

"Is Optimus in danger?" Reese's eyes widened a little at the thought that something might have happened to the Prime. Now that she was living at the base, she saw him as kind of an adopted father. He was someone she could trust, and he helped to protect her.

"I don't know. Ratchet didn't give any details. I am assuming that something was wrong, though, since he had everyone leave in a hurry."

Suddenly, the whole team came back through the portal, Ratchet and Bulkhead supporting their leader.

"What happened?" Reese jumped up.

"Take it easy, Optimus. From the looks of things, you have been exposed to a massive amount of dark energon," Ratchet lead Optimus over to one of the medical berths in the med bay.

Optimus vented as he eased into a sitting position, looking down at Raf, who's gurney was nearby. "I'm not the only one." He gave a small smile upon seeing Rafael's much improved condition. His smile faltered, however, as June glared up at him.

"He is lucky to be alive, no thanks to you! It's only because of Reese's organic energon that he isn't dead right now!"

Optimus quizzically looked from June to Reese, who was still standing beside her own gurney, using it as a support. She was paler than usual and looked tired. Whatever she had done, it had clearly taken a lot out of her.

"Come on Nurse Darby, that's enough. I'm fine, and Raf is fine, so there is no need to point fingers. This wasn't Optimus' fault. It was Megatron's, so don't go pinning blame where it doesn't belong," Reese glared. If she hadn't been tethered to an IV, she would have walked over, but instead she just sat back down on the gurney and folded her arms, giving June a hard look.

Sensing tensions brewing, Jack decided to change the subject. "So, Megatron found more of the dark stuff?"

"A whole volcano full," Arcee replied.

"It doesn't explain how the blood of Unicron found its way onto this planet, though."

"The cons killed a unicorn!" Miko stared at Ratchet with disbelief.

The autobots all shared a look of confusion before turning back to the girl. "A what?"

"A unicorn. You know, a magical horse with a horn on its head. They prance around all sparkly and stuff."

"No Miko, Unicron. Legend says that he is the incarnation of an ancient evil and dark energon is his fossilized blood. This is why dark energon is able to revive the dead."

"Hold up, what? Revive the dead? Like, zombies?" Now it was Reese's turn to stare at Ratchet with disbelief.

"Yes. Dark energon is able to raise the dead, though, they aren't exactly in control of themselves once they are raised. That is why Megatron infused himself with the dark stuff, so he could gain control those who had been revived by its dark powers. He has used it before to create an undead army. Despite all this, I still don't relish the thought that it was this stuff that harmed Rafael…"

"So, this Unicron, he is some kind of boogey man?" June crossed her arms, not looking pleased.

"Boogey man?" Ratchet again looked to Miko for an explanation.

"Make believe monster who lives in your closet."

"No, Unicron is very much real, well, was real, anyways. He isn't alive anymore."

"Well, I have heard enough. I don't care about some stupid legend. Jack, help me get Raf into the car," June began wheeling Raf's gurney over to her car.

"But Mom, I thought he was doing better!" Jack protested.

"Maybe, but I still think its high time he got looked at by real doctors. Not to mention, his real family needs to know what happened to their son."

"Mom, Raf's family can't protect him, not like the autobots can."

"He was almost killed, Jack. I wouldn't call that 'protection'!"

"June, it deeply grieves me that I have failed, but I will do everything in my power to ensure that no harm comes to our human friends, or any human, ever again," Optimus spoke up.

"Optimus, they're children! They do not belong in your world. They should be worrying about grades, prom dates, and pimples, not their own survival. I know that you mean well, and that you are fighting for our planet, but I fear that you are bringing more harm than good to the humans around you. Jack, Miko, and Raf, just aren't safe in your presence. To be honest, I don't think Reese is either, but she isn't exactly human anymore, so I can't speak for her."

Reese winced at June's comment and looked away. So that was how the nurse saw her? She wasn't even human anymore, at least, not in June's eyes.

"Mom, you heard what they said. Dark energon is pouring out of the Earth. It doesn't do that. This is about the survival of the whole planet, not just us."

"I don't care! You are going home too, all three of you!" June snapped, ordering both Jack and Miko to get in the car as well. "And Optimus, they will not be coming back!"

"I understand," Optimus relented sadly.

"Are you serious? You gonna get rid of us, just like that? After everything we have been through? What happened to our freedom to choose?" Miko glared up at Optimus and stomped her foot angrily. How could he just push them away like that?

"Miko, that may fly on their planet, but not here on Earth. You are still a minor. You still have to listen to your parents. Now get in the car," June pointed to the open backseat.

"Really? You expect me to ride in a non-transforming vehicle? Yea right! You're not my mom!"

"Miko, maybe now is not the time," Bulkhead tried to calm his charge.

"You're not my mom, either!

"Well, Jack, I am your mom, so get in the car," June glared at her son, daring him to disobey.

"I'm sorry Mom, I'm staying."

June looked appalled at her son's decision. How could he reject her like that? She was his mother! Angrily, she climbed into the car, slamming the door shut once she was in. Without another word, or another look at her son, she started up the car and pulled out of the base.

Jack looked after the car longingly, then, once it was out of sight, he walked over and sat down beside Reese, wringing his hands.

"Give her some time to cool off. There has been so much going on lately, she is just wound up," Reese comforted, placing a hand on Jack's slumped shoulders.

"She's my mom. I know she is trying to protect me, and be a good parent, I just don't think she realizes the severity of the situation…"

"She might not. That is why you need to give her some time. She may be upset with you now, but I think that once she realizes the situation at hand, she will be more understanding."

"I hope you're right."

"zzz…zzzzz… Prime! Zzzz…" a static-y voice came through over the communications link, interrupting everyone's thoughts on how the situation with June had just gone down. The voice sounded like Agent Fowler. "Prime, do you read me?"

"We read you Agent Fowler."

"You been watching the news lately? Mother nature seems to have a twitch in her britches!"

"Yes, Agent Fowler, we are aware of the volcanic eruption of dark energon."

"Don't forget the earthquakes," Fowler butted in. "There have been seven major quakes of the exact same magnitude and at the exact same time of the volcanic eruption. They happened all over the globe, on different tectonic plates. In theory, they would be unrelated, except that they happened at the exact same time!"

"Well I've got more good news for ya." Miko drew everyone's attention over to the TV, which she had turned to news channel.

"Freak storms unlike any the world has seen. Tsunami's threaten the Canadian coast, while lightning storms pummel the Gobi Desert. Meanwhile, electromagnetic anomalies plague urban power grids. These abnormal global phenomena are leaving many to wonder 'why now' and 'what's next'."

"Don't tell me the Cons have built some kind of weather machine!" Fowler distracted everyone from the news report, bringing their attention back to him.

"One of this caliber? No, it's highly unlikely," Ratchet waved away Fowler's suggestion.

"I do not believe the appearance of dark energon on this planet to be purely coincidental. I fear that all of these natural phenomena are related to the planetary alignment and the reawakening of Unicron. If this is the case, then this is something even bigger and more destructive than the Decepticons."

Everyone's stomachs/tanks dropped at Optimus' words. Bigger and more dangerous than the Cons?

Bumblebee, with all the abnormal weather phenomena happening currently, I would like for you to go and check on June and Rafael. They may be in danger if they are out in this weather," Optimus turned to his scout.

"Yes sir!" Bumblebee whirred, not needing to be told twice. He immediately transformed and speed out of the base.

"Mom…" Jack wrapped his arms around himself and shuddered as worst-case scenarios began plaguing his mind.

"I'm sure she is fine. Bee will make sure that nothing happens to her, or Raf." Reese tried to ease her friend's mind.

"Agent Fowler, keep us updated." Ratchet said as he prepared to terminate the comm link.

"I'll do you one better. I'm coming to the base right now. If this is something bigger than the cons, then I want to plan out how we are going to stop this thing, and I want to do it in person. Over and Out." Fowler cut the link.

Once Fowler had hung up, Ratchet and Optimus went back to studying the strange phenomena. Jack, on the other hand, looked as if he might be sick from worry. He clenched his fists until his knuckles went white. "I'm gonna call mom. I need to make sure she is okay."

"Jack, you gotta calm down. She is driving, she can't safely answer the phone right now. Bumblebee has probably caught up to her by now, anyways." Reese sat beside Jack, placing a comforting hand on his arm.

"Yea, it's not like she is dead or anything," Miko added needlessly to the conversation.

"NOT HELPING!" Reese snapped, shooting daggers at the girl with her eyes.

Jack only put his head in his hands. "If something happened to her, after the way we ended things… I could never forgive myself."

"Jack, look at me. You are panicking. I am sure your mother and Raf are just fine, but you need to get a grip on yourself. You haven't lost her, and contemplating 'what-ifs' isn't going to help this situation." Reese grabbed Jack by the shoulders, forcing him to look into her piercing blue eyes, eyes that were both serious, but also… sad, like something in Jack's words had struck an old, painful memory.

"You're right… I'm sorry. I need to pull myself together," Jack sighed shakily.

"That's it, deep breaths."

A few minutes later and Jack seemed to finally be back in control of his emotions, but now it was Reese who seemed to be struggling. Jack's words had reminded her of how her last encounter with her parents had gone. She had yelled at them for forcing her to stay home instead of letting her go with them. She called them selfish and uncaring. Looking back at it now, it was a petty reason to be upset, and not going with them had actually saved her life, but those were the last words she would have ever said to them. The last thing that they remembered was her calling them selfish and uncaring. Her nose stung and tears pricked her eyes as the memory unfolded. She couldn't forgive herself for how she had spoken to her parents. She knew exactly how Jack was feeling, and she sincerely hoped, from the bottom of her heart, that he wouldn't have to suffer the same fate.

Thankfully, a few moments later, Bumblebee pulled into the base, letting both June and Rafael out of his vehicle form.

"We're back," Raf announced a bit awkwardly, considering they had apparently 'left for good' only a few minutes before.

"We are glad," Ratchet turned away from his computer, smiling down at the young boy.

"Mom!" Jack ran over to his mother. "Are you okay?"

"I will be…"

"Mom, I…"

"I know, me too," June sighe, anticipating her son's words and pulling him into a loving hug. "But you're grounded until your thirty… okay, twenty-five."

Reese breathed a sigh of relief as she watched mother and son make up. She let the two have their moment. Instead, she called Raf over to her gurney, seeing as she was still tethered to the IV drip.

"Hey bud, you okay?"

"Yea. I'm just glad to be back. I didn't want to leave. You know?"

"Yea, I know," Reese pulled Raf into a hug, which he gratefully returned.

With everybody back together, the humans went up to the TV to continue watching the news. It seemed like things were continuing to spiral out of control.

"What have you learned, Prime, and you better not blow smoke up my…," Fowler stormed in but caught himself upon seeing June in the room. "Nurse Darby! What a nice surprise!

"Special Agent Fowler," June smiled back cordially.

"We have learned this," Ratchet drew everyone's attention to the overhead monitor, "As with the dark energon from the volcano, these earthquakes originated from deep beneath the Earth's crust. From the very center of the Earth's core, to be more precise.

"Quakes don't start there! Do they?"

"These are tiny tremors, rising and falling in a continuous rhythm." Ratchet ignored Fowler's question. "It is almost like… By the Allspark! If I change these seismic frequencies to an audio file… Just listen."

Ratchet made a couple of configurations and then played the new file for everyone to hear. To everyone's astonishment, the wave file sounded like a heartbeat!

"is that a Cybertronian heartbeat?!" Jack voiced what everyone was thinking.

"But that doesn't make any sense. A heart pumps blood, but what is there in the Earth's core to pump?" June looked thoroughly perplexed.

"The Blood of Unicron!" Raf replied, starting to put two and two together.

"Wait, so are you saying that something is living right in the middle of our planet!?" Miko looked at the heartbeat on the screen with a dubious expression.

"I fear that your core is not comprised of magma, as your science has suggested, but rather, Dark energon." Optimus explained.

"And if we are hearing a spark, then it would seem that Unicron is the rising darkness that the prophecy foretold." Ratchet piggy-backed off of Optimus' analysis.

"But how can something be in our Earth's core, and still be alive?"

"Such a thing is not unprecedented. Before the beginning of Cybertron, there were two primordial beings. One was called Primus, the other, Unicron. Primus was the incarnation of creation, while Unicron was the one of destruction and chaos. The two battled for eons, until Primus finally created the Thirteen, the original Primes that preceded me. It was with their help, that Primus was finally able to defeat Unicron.

With Unicron defeated and cast out, Primus became one with the core of Cybertron, creating life through the Well of Allsparks. Unicron was never to be heard from again, that is, until now."

"Well, if Unicron has dug himself into our Earth's core, then maybe we can find the entrance and fill it full of explosives, or something like that," Fowler suggested after Optimus finished recounting the lore.

"Agent Fowler, I do not think that Unicron stumbled across your planet and decided to make it his home. Rather, since the fight between Primus and Unicron likely happened eons before your planet's creation, it would stand to reason that the slumbering Titan became trapped within the core of your planet as it was being formed. If you were to try and destroy Unicron, The Earth would likely collapse, as he makes up the structure of its core."

"Well, since the planetary alignment is causing him to reawaken, what is going to happen to the Earth once he fully wakes up? If he is what is holding the structure of our core together, then if he wakes up, wont it destroy the Earth?" this time the comment came from Jack.

Optimus only looked down at the boy with uncertain optics, not sure of what to say. "I cannot say for certain what will happen if he wakes up, which is why it is important that he never fully awakens. The fate of your planet depends upon it. I am uncertain of what must be done to keep him from reawakening but investigating the epicenters of the tremors might lend us more information about what we are facing. That is where I will begin my search."

"What can we do to help?" Reese asked, wanting to do something to aid both the team and her planet. She had been quietly contemplating everything that had been said, but now she was ready to take whatever action was needed to protect her new family.

"For now, I think it would be best for everyone to remain here, within the confines of the base. You will be protected from most of the inclement weather phenomena, and you will have access to the technology that you need to continue researching Unicron."

"I… Understand. Please be careful, okay?"

"I will, Reese, thank you," Optimus smiled down at Reese before turning to the groundbridge, which had been locked to the coordinates of the nearest epicenter. "I will be back, and will be in communications range, if you need me." Then he walked through.

Thanks so much for reading! I did change up the original story of the episode a little bit, since I wasn't a huge fan of the "your planet and everything on comes from Unicron, blah, blah, blah" I decided that instead of the whole planet slowly growing and collecting around Unicron, that it was created all at once, and Unicron just happened to be trapped inside of it during its creation. Other than that, I tried to stay pretty true to the episode.

If you liked what you read, please leave a comment and let me know! I love getting comments from you guys, and it really helps keep me going. I tend to work faster if I know that people are enjoying what I am pouring so much time and effort into, you know? Anyways, I hope you have a lovely blessed day, and I will see you all soon with the next chapter! Love you guys! - Lucy