Promotional artwork: tigressa101/art/Arcee-and-the-Isle-of-the-Allspark-Cover-931607333

Ground floor was coming fast. The Hydrax hawk's body didn't slow the momentum down much but long enough for Megatron to leap off as the lava crater came closer. In a miracle, his act saved his life. He slammed his feet into the blackened ground just on the edge of the crater's width while the hawk's body hit the lava. He watched it emotionlessly as it sank into the bubbling liquid.

Then he heard the familiar sound of Arcee running towards him with Moonhunter keeping pace right behind her.

"Megatron!" She slowed to a walk and said, "Oh, thank Primus, I thought something happened to you! I assume the hawk is roasted?"

Megatron cracked his shoulders and winced, "Oh yeah, that thing tried to dispose of me, the clever beast."

He then huffed as he stared into the crater. "That's the third time I killed a bird during my stay here."

Arcee smirked, "Just not your favorite animal, is it?"

"I feel sorry for unfortunate number four, whatever it may be."

Abruptly ruining their moment of peace, the comm line blared with static and both bots looked at each other before Arcee tried to answer. "Bolt? Hello?"

"Ar...ple...help!"

That put them on high alert. "Bolt, what's wrong? Send a ground bridge now!"

They heard him struggling like he was trying to get over something, then a growl...not his vocal pattern. He gave a yelp and the sound of a button resonated. The burst of green light of the ground bridge appeared and both bots knew they couldn't postpone any help Bolt may need. They sprinted through but when they reached the ship, Arcee stumbled back into Megatron when claws came down in front of her.

"It's about time you guys showed up!" Bolt screamed.

There was the Vehicon pressed again the control panel for the bridge by the black and red -horned head of the infamous hunter that was after them. One pede was on the red gem-tipped snout, the other on its jaw as the creature tried to eat him. Bolt shot at the beast, but the blasts barely nicked it.

Arcee saw how the monster got in. It had broken through the window of the ship and managed to get one of its arms and its head inside. She could hear scraping of the vessel's exterior by its other hand trapped outside.

The beast was, for a lack of a better description, a giant striped abomination. It looked like something from a monster horror flick Miko and Bulkhead always watched. Its red optics switched from narrowing at Bolt to opening wide enough for Arcee to see her reflection and its slit pupil contracting as it stared at her.

Its dragon-like appearance hardly scared her, but it was the dark, calculating glare it had that gave off a hidden intellect and a passion for destruction vibe. Given it was smart enough to go after Bolt a second time in one day, it meant it had been waiting for their friend to be alone to strike.

Megatron marched past Arcee and out of the blue, he rammed his fist straight into its right optic, cracking it. It roared but didn't whimper. Megatron was caught off guard when it whipped its head around from attacking Bolt with its fangs nearly in Megatron's face. He abruptly gasped, clutching his left arm and stumbled back to Arcee.

In retaliation, Moonhunter gave a leopard-like cry and clawed at the same optic. One hard hit from its paw caused the protective casing to completely shatter and reveal the bare optic sensor. The monster ripped its head from the ship, dragging a few snagged pieces of interior with it back to the outside marshlands and pawed at its damaged optic with a snarl. Tail wagging furiously, it butted its helm against the side of the ship several times leaving a huge dent in its wake.

"Damn monster got the drop on me after you encountered those two beasts back in the lavalands!" Bolt growled through the brutalization of his vessel. "It tore part of the Endeavor's weaponry to shreds and I can't get the siren back online!"

He limped slightly to the front of the ship away from any tears in the hull. Water began seeping in from a few low punctures, not that it would sink the vessel as it was already sitting on the marsh bottom, but it would get very damp after a while.

Arcee was just about to follow when she heard Megatron groan behind her. Seeing Energon leaking from him made her kneel beside him. Three puncture wounds in his forearm made him twitch when she brushed a servo over them. Moonhunter gave a soft whine, sniffing at it.

Megatron smiled at the cat and pet it. "I appreciate you avenging me, little one."

The Nitrotiger gave a purr and tried to lick the wounds to help. It made Megatron wince, but he didn't drive the animal away for doing what it could.

The ship rattled as the monster snapped its jaws into the interior again. It eyed the bots as pests, a vindictive crease of its brow noticeable, but it peered around for Bolt. Arcee and Megatron realized that the creature was on a mission, not looking for prey to eat. Bolt was its target. When it couldn't find the Vehicon in view, it growled in frustration and pulled out again, stomping around the vessel in search of Bolt.

In a panic, they raced to the main area of the ship where Bolt was hunkering down on the floor in between the control console for the weapons and the wall. "I take it it's still out there."

"Yes, and it's only after you," Arcee hissed sitting on the floor. Megatron only kneeled while Moonhunter wandered the deck growling at the movement outside. They both heard a taunting grunt from the creature like it was laughing at their misery and fear.

"I'm sorry I'm irresistible," Bolt joked which earned him a glare from the femme. "I should have known the Allspark would bring a Cybertronian Predator to the isle. I was such a fool for not recognizing it"

Both bots stared at him now and Megatron exclaimed loudly, "A WHAT?!"

The Vehicon noted the angry but surprised expressions he was receiving and put his servos up in defense. "Don't yell at me! I'm not the one who created them. The Cybertronian Predator is an ancient creature of Cybertron, I'm talking when Primus was still moving around type ancient. They come from the same bloodline as the Kanjian ridgeback but while the ridgeback evolved into bots like you and I, the Cybertronian Predator stayed nearly its same animalistic self though make no mistake, they are insanely intelligent. They hunted everything that moved or got in their way. When Primus created Cybertronians, they targeted the early bots with no mercy. Then Primus created the Thirteen Primes, and they were the first to figure out how to stop them."

"Well, we can really use that piece of information right about now!"

"That's the problem though. Nobody knows how!" Bolt said, "They were believed to have used some sort of sleeping agent because they couldn't destroy the Predators themselves with any technology or weaponry they had and sent them off world once they forced them into a pseudo-stasis long enough to jettison them out which is why we don't have them at all. No one knows the formula or method because the problem was eliminated so they saw no point in documenting it. If none of the Thirteen could take on the Cybertronian Predator, I don't know how we can!"

Arcee facepalmed, "So you're telling me the Primes, in all their wisdom, didn't think that maybe there was a slight, astronomical chance that we could encounter one of these things in the far future on another planet?!"

Megatron sneered, "Megatronus Prime wasn't the only imbecile in the Thirteen after all. I would ride Optimus' aft about it, but I don't think he would remember them so no point in prodding him on the subject as funny as that would be."

Bolt pointed at Megatron with a nod, "Yeah, just because they defeated Unicron doesn't mean they were the brightest people on the planet. Most of them were far too prideful anyways or so I heard."

The femme tensed and crushed her knuckles. "This day just gets better and better."

"And it's getting even more better!" Bolt jumped up as the control console for the weapons system spawned several windows on the screen. "I just got the system locked and loaded again! Hahahaha, let's see that Predator take a bite out of this!"

"I thought the weaponry we had did scrap all against it?" Arcee frowned.

"Oho, I can't kill it, but I can fuck up its appetite!"

Bolt launched the weapons system into overdrive and the big ion cannons on the vessel aimed at the Predator who gave them a toothy sneer. It moved from quadrupedal to bipedal in a raptor-like stance curiously when Bolt opened fire.

The blasts pushed it back but did little to damage its armor. However, Arcee noted the seams of the thick body were hiding mesh like protoform but slightly more reflective and thinner. That made her think.

"Bolt, when you said the Primes tried everything to kill the Predator, did they ever shoot anywhere else besides the armor?"

"You realize this thing's born covered in armor just like us, right?" He argued.

"What about making it fall?"

"Fall?"

"Yes, a fall high enough to break our endoskeletons or rupture our organs. Did anyone ever make the Cybertronian Predator plummet from a high enough point?"

Bolt went quiet and Megatron peered at her impressed by the deduction. Then the Vehicon huffed, "Um...I never heard of anyone attempting that on recorded encounters in old journals of the Thirteen, but there aren't any high points to throw the Predator off on Cybertron anyways. Maybe the Underground but I don't think it existed back then, at least not how we know it now nor do I think the Predator was that stupid to be tricked into going near it."

Arcee considered the information and quietly muttered, "Very interesting."

The Cybertronian Predator gave another roar which was interrupted by a blast to the face which it shook off in annoyance. Finally, after several minutes of nonstop firepower and preventing the Predator from going any closer back to the vessel, it gave one final growl and left.

Bolt sank where he stood with his elbows propped on the console and his head in his servos. "Primus help me. I only let my guard down for a second and that thing was on me faster than a nightpaw hunting deer."

The others were silent as Bolt just stood there contemplating life. Suddenly, he turned around fast enough to make Arcee jump. With a snarky but stressed tone, he asked, "So, who wants to help me with some repairs?"

The news of being traitors didn't seem to hit right with the bots who knew them. Haywire and Scythe could see posters of themselves left and right. Bumblebee was kind enough to reason with Iacon's head of the city-state to lessen the abundance of signs, but he couldn't get the city to stop since Rockrider as "Arcee" was overruling any such ask.

"This isn't what I would have imagined it would come to," Haywire said with distaste. "A traitor on my own world."

Scythe shrugged, "This is just a trip down memory lane for me. I honestly went through this with the Autobots the second time I betrayed their base locations to Megatron back in the beginning years of the war."

Haywire paused and glared at him. "Second time?!"

"Apparently, word didn't spread about me being a whistleblower the first time when I ousted the base in Cybertropolis...so I did it again for an Autobot spy ring in Kaon and got away with it, or at least I thought I did until Ultra Magnus put two and two together."

The red mech looked between a cross of anger and shock which earned him an open armed gesture and a scoff from the other.

"I was a Decepticon at the time! What did you expect me to do? Sit on my aft and wait for someone to get smart and move the war along. Granted, it wasn't my finest moment in life but still."

Bumblebee came up from behind them. "Yeah, I'll give you kudos for that stunt. That certainly turned the tide in Cybertropolis' occupation towards Megatron's favor. What a nightmare that was to deal with."

"And with good reason," Shockwave said. "Cybertropolis is not a usual instigator of Cybertronian law. They had their own access to oil, Energon, and resources hence why we needed the city for ourselves."

That made Haywire immediately gain an idea. "Wait...wait, wait, wait, if Cybertropolis technically operated separate from the rest of Cybertron in terms of function and independence before the war, is that still true today?"

Shockwave exchanged glances with Bee and nodded, "Well, yes, but it's harder to coax them into taking a side if that's what you're implying. Arcee's jurisdiction over the city is only valid if the current leader does something irrational. Rockrider being in Arcee's place would mean the exact same thing in her command."

"Then that's where we need to start. Irrational is Rockrider's forte and if Cybertropolis is independent from her, they could have a better say against her rule than any other place on Cybertron."

Bumblebee nodded, "He's got a fair point. Being the active Autobot leader, I can go to Cybertropolis and talk with their own leader."

The Decepticon scientist then said, "I will come with you. As the representative of the Decepticons as their second-in-command, I can vouch for you. Scythe, we may require aid if anything goes wrong."

"Will do," the dark green mech chuckled. "Haywire, you and Optimus along with Perceptor's guidance can handle Iacon, I assume?"

Haywire smirked, "Absolutely. Good thing about knowing at least half the Council and having the support of Optimus Prime means we have leeway."

Scythe then turned to Bumblebee. "We'll tell the others. When do you wish to leave, sir?"

"As soon as possible. Rockrider, as I can imagine, is already having a bad week. Might as well make it way worse."

The Endeavor had to be patched up with whatever they could spare or gather. It took a few hours, but the ship was stabilized enough to keep it in one piece from outside creatures. It wasn't the best work. However, Bolt brought out two of the Allspark gems and held them curiously.

"If these gems can replicate some of the Allspark's power, enough to fortify of citadel, I wonder..."

Bolt dramatically held up the gem and aimed it at the ship. Nothing happened.

Arcee shrugged, "Maybe you're holding it wrong?"

"How can I be holding it wrong?! It's a gem! It had a symmetrical structure! There isn't a top or bottom pointer on this crap!"

Megatron, who was sitting on the sidelines scraping at the wounds inflicted by the Cybertronian Predator, sighed, "Maybe the Allspark has the gems on a type of lockdown-I don't know, just do something already! I'm itching to get back into the field here!"

"Wait your turn!" Bolt barked, thumbing one of the gems. "Stupid rocks!"

After several more failed attempts, the Vehicon vocally scowled. When he was about to clash the two gems together, threatening to break them, is when Arcee intervened and carefully took them from him.

"Perhaps I should try before you do something you may regret?" She said softly, patting his shoulder.

Bolt looked at her defeated before wandering off. "Yeah, sure, go for it."

Once Bolt was out of range, Arcee observed the gems and their energy slowly moving inside them. She assumed they weren't like Dark Energon where they could be thrown at something to empower whatever they touched. There had to be a more subtle way of drawing their energy out. Bolt was using the one found in the marshlands as a means of keeping the ground bridge active through trial and error. If he could do it, she could too.

Then she noticed an inscription, very faint in the gem's surface. It wasn't a language she recognized, most likely a very ancient one that existed before the Primes. The Allspark technically was made by Primus but existed long before any Cybertronian did. Wherever Primus had come from, that must have been their own language.

"What secrets do you hold and why won't you show them to me?"

"Arcee? Why is Dagger Prima glowing?" Megatron asked suspiciously. "What did you do?"

Confused, she reached back and pulled out Dagger Prima. The symbols on the blade's edge were glowing blue and it was then she realized they were the same dialect as the gem's language. If the language of the Primes and language of the Allspark were two different dialects, how did Solus Prime know about it to carve such an unknown language on one of her weapons?

She peered between the gems and the dagger before gaining an idea and pointing the dagger at the ship. The gems suddenly responded and lifted out of her servos to orbit around the blade vertically. She could hear whispers as if they were communicating with each other and the blade.

"Whoa," Bolt said quietly.

"Protect our vessel," Arcee ordered, hoping the gems would obey.

Surprisingly, they started to circle faster around the dagger before the blade itself had a beam of blue emitting from it straight into the side of the Endeavor. All the cracks and dents of the ship creaked before the strands of damaged metal reconnected and pulled their pieces back together. The ship lifted slightly from the marsh and the excess water drained that had gathered in the Predator's attack.

When the glow of the dagger died, the ship looked brand new cosmetically. Then the gems both sparked in unison and a swirling shield fell upon the vessel like a veil. Bolt was in awe staring at his ship while Arcee just smiled.

"How...?!" He whimpered. "Wha-wha-what happened?!"

"The gems are connected to Dagger Prima somehow," Arcee stated in wonder.

Bolt was by Arcee's side immediately and looked over the blade. "But that makes no sense?! Solus Prime lost the dagger in the fight against Unicron. She went to Chaar with the others to lure him away from Cybertron and cast him off in a long stasis! I found the dagger there! It wasn't even remotely close to the Allspark!"

Megatron rose from his sitting position and navigated the marsh to stand by them. Upon hearing the story, he frowned in thought. "Bolt, you said Solus Prime forged all her weapons from lightning storms on Cybertron, right?"

"Yes, she didn't create the Forge until later, right before her death at the hands of Megatronus. She harvested the lightning to craft them."

"Was it ever said what created the storms?" The warlord asked.

Bolt paused and looked at Dagger Prima again. "It was assumed that she always forged weapons when a storm was about to come in naturally. Wait, you're not suggesting what I think you're suggesting, are you?"

Arcee then said, "If the Allspark is older than the Primes and it had the ability to-"

"Good observation, except one problem," Bolt huffed. "The Allspark was resting in Primus' core at the time in limbo and Primus had a working weather system in his planetary form. Maybe Solus dipped the blade into its core, the same material energy the Allspark is technically made of coated it? We'll never know because Solus Prime is unfortunately dead, murdered by Megatronus Prime in a rage brought on by arrogance and prodding of said arrogance by Liege Maximo. Tragic story. Regardless of what happened with the dagger, it doesn't explain why the Allspark hasn't done anything with it if it was associated with the dagger. Don't you think the Allspark would have sensed its own 'creation' if that were true?"

Arcee found he was technically right. The Allspark would have already hijacked the power of Dagger Prima had it been part of its creation. However, maybe there was something else neither of them was considering. The Primes were almost kin to the Allspark being created by Primus in nearly the exact same way. Maybe all the Primes had some copies of the powers demonstrated by the Allspark...but then what was Optimus'?

"Arcee," Bolt called out as he held up one of the gems. He must have taken them from her in her studying of the blade's abnormal energy. He began to chuckle. "The shield seems to prevent anything other than Cybertronians like us from entering or exiting. Apparently, those pesky garden leapers can't perch on the ship now."

The queen put away Dagger Prima and saw what Bolt was talking about. A garden leaper touched the edge of the invisible shielding and a blue glow radiated from the presence, but the Aquatronian species couldn't walk through like Megatron striding by. It croaked, clawing at the shield as it pulsed with each swipe. Moonhunter watched it humorously before giving a yowl.

"Oh, darling," Arcee mused. She walked through the boundary and began petting her Nitrotiger. "Don't worry, we'll be out of here soon, back in action."

Moonhunter perked up at that and yowled eagerly. He went to the ground bridge console and stood on his hind legs with a paw on the dash sniffing. Then Bolt shooed him off, making the cat hiss.

"Yeah, yeah, you can get angry at me in the lavalands when you burn to a crisp," the Vehicon scoffed. "Now, while you guys were fighting those two unruly beasts before you came to my aid, I managed to pinpoint an area that resonates the most Allspark energy."

He placed the gems back on the counter with the one powering the ground bridge and activated a surveillance feed of energy spikes. Tiny blips appeared throughout the island map faded and occasionally moving sans where they had already been, but the one in the Lyra Lavalands was spiking high and immobile.

"I've been noticing a pattern since you've gotten three of the gems. Each time you kill one of these guardians the Allspark seems to have deliberately placed on its isle, the more prominent the energy of the gem in each area of said beasts becomes allowing me to narrow down its location. It's like they are feeding off the energy to empower themselves and hide the signal, but you cut them out and it seems the energy becomes less dispersed."

Megatron nodded, "Easier to detect when there's no creature to hide its energy among."

"Exactly," Bolt said. "Apparently, the gem of Lyra Lavalands is...in Mt. Blastburn."

The horrified stares he got made him cough awkwardly, "Or rather around Mt. Blastburn. I can't tell, to be honest but there's a chance it may be in the actual volcano. In which case, I strongly advise being very careful."

"You think?!" Megatron snarled.

"Hey, don't get angry at me! I'm just the navigator. It's, you know, my job to inform you everything and wish you get back safely, or I could just laugh at you and say 'good luck' in a prideful tone. I try to be caring," the Vehicon growled back.

Arcee rolled her optics and pointed at the volcano. "So, that's where we need to go? How close can you get us?"

"About half a mile. I don't want to risk accidentally bridging you guys over an active lava pit or the volcano's core itself."

"Well, we aren't getting any younger. Let's head out, Megatron."

The warlord flashed a grin, "Round two? Excellent."

Rockrider slammed her first into the throne's arm. Wrathzone and the guards heeded her fury and kept their distance.

"You lost them?! How could you lose three idiots and a Prime?! One of them is red and blue and hulking, and you couldn't see them leave the prison?! Hell, what am I asking? You morons couldn't even lock down the prison!"

Some of the guards waited for others to speak while some just stood there knowing whatever they said wouldn't make the situation any better.

One of them finally spoke, "W-well, we did find out the Council leader, Tyrus, was helping them. We managed to stop him...at least."

The bronze femme glared at the outspoken guard as dead silence resonated in the room. Suddenly, she shot her grapple and attached it to the guard's chest before dragging him to her. She pulled out a sword and, in a flash, his helm was severed and hit the ground. His body followed suit, collapsing lifelessly to the horror of his peers. Wrathzone merely stared down at the carnage with a mild expression.

Frustrated, she pressed her servos to her temples and sighed, "I have planned this takeover for over a year. I promised you all a spot in my Royal Guard. I do everything I can to turn Cybertron back into a caste system...and you...IMBECILES...ARE...RUINING...EVERYTHING!"

Wrathzone, unfazed by her anger, approached her. "If I may, my queen, there might be some good news out of this. If Optimus and Bumblebee are seen helping traitors with Tyrus' help, perhaps that will convince the public that the monarchy doesn't work. When they wonder what to do next, you come in and present the caste system again with you as its leader. Since there are many here on Cybertron who are new sparks, they won't know about how the caste system...failed...last time, only about the epic war between Megatron and Optimus. They will side with anything that pleases them blindly."

Rockrider slowly grew from furious to neutral before finally growing a wide smile on her faceplates, brightly shining at Wrathzone's idea. She abruptly stood and dragged him to lean over her so she could kiss him on the cheek. Since she was only half his height, she couldn't reach his face. Then she shook him playfully.

"That's it! You're a genius, Wrathzone! And that's why you're my second-in-command," she purred as the larger mech was slightly stunned. She then patted him politely before pacing in front of her throne with poise. "Those sycophants in the Autobot faction and the obsolete Decepticons are almost outnumbered and vastly lagging in terms of the times by the new sparks of Cybertron. If we tip the scale in our favor by playing the future ruling generation of our planet into thinking I'm right over the Autobots and Decepticons, we could secure our reign forever."

The guards were forgiving of her actions and gleamed at the thought of taking the system permanently. The faded gold second-in-command darkly laughed, "And those poor Autobots won't even know what to do when all that they worked for is taken from them."

"You have a beautiful way with words, Wrathzone," Rockrider grinned.

AN: If you haven't seen my promotional artwork yet, it has a picture of the Cybertronian Predator on it, the face next to the volcano. Remember that face; it will be back.