With the palace immediately going under repairs, Haywire, Matriarch, and Shockwave were left in charge as Predaking and Grimlock took their respective teams back to their regions of conquest. Ultra Magnus stayed in support but had to take Bumblebee's place to keep the Autobots from doing anything irrational in their anger that their leader and the Prime were gone.
Haywire sat on his designated chair lower to the throne, sulking as he watched a repair crew fix the windows Rockrider's ship blew through for her to escape, a reminder of their failure to capture their enemy. He would have taken the throne to temporarily sit in but there were two problems with that. One, it didn't feel right. Two, The Matriarch was already sitting in it.
As Arcee's assistant, he always came to her defense so he found himself snapping at The Matriarch when she was drumming her claws against the throne's armrest. "Hey, don't scratch the chair! That's the queen's!"
In a dull manner, The Matriarch simply tilted her head towards Haywire. "Yeah, because a scratch on the queen's throne is the worst damage this tacky room has ever seen."
That made Haywire pause and then look back at the damaged window. He sighed when he realized she was correct but he still wanted at least the chair to look nice upon Arcee's hopeful return. Then he scowled at her comment.
"Tacky? What? If it isn't covered in Energon, dark and grueling like your soul, it's automatically bad?"
The Matriarch simply shrugged, "Eh, the colors are a bit much."
"They are not," he scoffed.
"They are too."
"Are not."
"Are too-look, the blue and white make it appear like a wedding in the ocean! How can you call that good?"
"Blue and white are pretty colors. Sorry if it burns your demonic optic visor."
Haywire was about to retort when Shockwave approached them. "You two getting along?"
"If you mean judging whether or not the palace's décor is passible, then no," she laughed as the red mech below muttered something. "Any good or decent news?"
"Kaon is being searched thoroughly after the discovery of the warehouse crime scene. They still haven't found Rockrider. I'm afraid with Tyrus' death, we may also be looking at another gruesome fact that our fellow leaders may also be-"
"No!" Haywire shouted standing up, "I will not lose another friend! We have to keep trying!"
The Matriarch stood up as well and gestured to the room whose workers went silent. "Look around, Haywire! These are the consequences many of us faced every day, disappearing and no one ever knowing if we would turn up alive or dead! Shockwave was believed dead after Arcee blew up his space bridge with him in it! He's here but how lucky can a group of bots be?! I know you care about Arcee and the others but wake up and smell the churned Energon!
"War is hell! It has always come with these consequences! I might be strong and cocky but you don't understand how every single Vehicon in Megatron's army, including me, would sometimes wake up and wonder if we were going to die that day or not for a cause we weren't even sure of anymore. Every single day! I don't know where you were throughout the war but to me and Shockwave, this is just another day in our lives! I'm sorry for your loss but we have to face facts and even if we do find Rockrider, there's no guarantee we will find any of them alive. You have to see that. We can't be looking for them forever and Ultra Magnus is prepared to take up the mantle of the Autobot leader permanently because he's under fire for trying to substitute instead of leading."
Shockwave waved down The Matriarch, who stubbornly sat back down, and walked up to Haywire. "The point of the matter is, like we discussed, we...we need to consider a future without Arcee and even with any of our friends. We all made a promise to help Cybertron rebuild after the war. That was our agreement. I will hold up my side as will Matriarch but that means we can't wait for them against hundreds of thousands of Cybertronians who need us now. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. We will do this either with or without you. So, what's it going to be?"
Haywire didn't move at first, unsure of what to do. He was still hopeful as Shockwave told him when sending the broadcast to Arcee. But Shockwave was the second-in-command of the Decepticons and he did have half leadership of a still functioning faction to maintain. He couldn't give it up for a few bots he knew mostly as enemies for the longest time.
With some hesitance, Haywire finally nodded and gulped, "Do what we need to do...very well then. But until we find a suitable ruler, I'm managing the throne. I...I don't trust anybody with it and I refuse to insult Arcee's memory by putting in someone who will hurt us."
"That is logical. We will await your choice then."
Shockwave waited as The Matriarch walked down from the throne and he took her servo in his. As they left, Haywire was stuck to contemplate his new crucial decisions. He had no choice.
"Okay, the plan is we talk to the Allspark. If anything weird happens, we fight it, correct?"
Megatron made a hiss of concern. "You realize with the Allspark fully conscious, it can take our sparks out in mere seconds. So, approaching it would most likely result in death. Just going to put that out there."
"Come on, work with me here. We have to have some type of plan meeting an entity that can terraform time and space," Arcee said.
"We never had a plan really for anything. We winged it and hoped it stuck. We don't have time for a plan anyways. Our world is collapsing."
She smirked upon hearing that. "Our world? Earth? And here I thought you hated this planet."
"I...may have had a few opinion changes since being here but don't think I would choose this planet over Cybertron," he scoffed.
A rumbling outside made them both pause as they walked down the halls of the citadel. Time was running short and they were arguing what to do when they approached an antagonistic Allspark. The stupidity of arguing about it caught up to them and Arcee sighed.
"Alright, no plan then. Just wing it like everything else. That'll go over well, I'm sure."
Megatron nodded, "Better than nothing."
Cracking was suddenly heard and the walls of the citadel began to shift, realigning in different directions like a haunted maze and both Megatron and Arcee expressed shock when a wall went in between them.
"No, goddamn it!" Arcee complained.
She heard Megatron's muffled voice on the other side say, "Of course..."
The queen tapped her chin in thought about what to do when she noticed Moonhunter was not with her, instead he was trapped on the other side with Megatron. "Okay, not the greatest convenience. Megatron, just continue with Moonhunter! I'll try to find a way to you!"
"Are you sure?" He asked.
"Yes, I'll do everything in my power to set this right. Trust me," she said.
Megatron seemed to sigh on his end. "As you wish. Just be careful."
With the new halls of the citadel settled in silence again, Arcee peered around in caution. The Allspark knew they were here. A faint glow caught her attention and she peered down to see the gems as well as the dagger pulsing. They were reacting to being in proximity of their creator and most likely, that was the main reason the Allspark was hyper-aware of her presence, not that Arcee could blame them for it.
As she ran down the corridors, she thought she could hear movement elsewhere echoing. Hopefully that was Megatron and Moonhunter. But as much as she hoped, her idea of what she was dealing with got a bit stranger after a while.
The labyrinth of the citadel was driving her insane. Twists and turns like it was a house from a circus but it held pristine décor and, as she passed them, glass windows with various depictions of past events and people. It amazed her how much detail the Allspark put into the citadel's infrastructure. Seeing the more iconic events described wordlessly among glass paneling was like a literal trip down memory lane.
Suddenly, she stopped when she passed one room and slowly backtracked to peer inside. Stained glass in an atrium that led to a larger domed chamber. Each glass sheet in the atrium held a stylized depiction of well-known Autobots and Decepticons...including her and Megatron. The Allspark seemed to at least recognize their part in history.
She was depicted in her normal blue armor like currently, not as a queen but as Optimus' proud warrior lieutenant. The glass made it where she had no mouth, none on the others either, but full colored optics. She was in a regal pose with the Autobot symbol behind her head and what looked to be swords framing her among a pink background.
Curiously, she looked at the other stained windows alongside her. All on her wall were Autobots with Ultra Magnus being the closest to the main chamber, her beside him, then Bulkhead, Ratchet, Bumblebee, Wheeljack, and Smokescreen. Each posed according to their personality, but then she noticed Optimus wasn't among them. Strange.
The opposite side, Megatron was across from Ultra with Starscream parallel to her followed by Breakdown, Knockout, Soundwave, Shockwave, and Dreadwing. Megatron looked fearsome with full red optics and a Decepticon symbol behind his head with a dark blue nightly background. His pose looked to be directing the others to attack.
Curious as to why Optimus was the only bot not available, she walked past the atrium into the main chamber only to gasp upon peering around. Larger windows, thirteen in total, all circled the room. Each one depicted one of the Primes. Solus Prime with her mighty forge and streaks of lightning dancing behind her to frame her, Optimus was near shelves of data as a nod to his time as a data clerk and he had the Matrix of Leadership in hand, and Alpha Trion with inscriptions similar to data found in Iacon engraved in the glass beside him.
Then there was Megatronus who was half shrouded in darkness in his position against the chandelier's light that hung above. The shrouded half had a red under glow by the bio lights running around the room, giving the tainted glass the illusion of a monstrous side to him. The lighter side had his original orange and black color scheme including his orange optics. The dark half not only shadowed the colors, but the position of the bio light running under the frame and the position of a table made the red streak across the almost invisible orange optic split into two to give him two red optics on the same side instead. It haunted her just how uncanny the resemblance it had to the real Megatronus she fought.
The Allspark certainly knew what it was doing when it designed the room. Why though was the question. Why would go through all the effort to construct a memorial to the past if it was trying to kill those among it? Then she noticed something. In Solus' lowered servo upon the other holding the forge, there was a dagger.
Arcee frowned and took out Dagger Prima. It looked nearly identical to the glass depiction. Then she peered upward and saw the mural of the Allspark itself. On the ceiling, the Allspark was centered with all the planets like Cybertron and Earth circling it among a starry background. Between each planet was a weapon or object, a few she recognized. A talisman of Kanjis, the Allspark's former casing next to Earth, a Velocitronian trophy, and even Quintessa's staff for Aquatron. There was the Matrix of Leadership to the right of Cybertron and to the left, there was...Dagger Prima. Why was the dagger that significant to the Allspark to make a secondary visage of it as an important relic? The Matrix was obvious but the dagger wasn't.
She looked back at Solus' glass-stained window then back at the real Dagger Prima in her grasp. The theory she had prior to Bolt correcting her was the dagger was created by the Allspark and given to Solus. She was beginning to think that she was right or close to it. Why else would the dagger be so prominent? Some sort of deal between Solus and the Allspark led to the creation of Dagger Prima but how did it end up on Chaar all those years and no one ever found it until Bolt went there? Something wasn't adding up in the stories told about its journey to the present.
She heard a clacking noise and shook out of her trance to run towards the doors of the atrium to leave. To her surprise, she caught sight of a light-based animal prancing by like a ghost roaming the halls. It slowed to where she could see more details on it. It was no animal.
The Allspark's sentry looked at her but unlike what she assumed it would do, it merely seemed to point her in a direction as if to tell her to follow it. A part her hesitated for it could be a trap but the Allspark and any force created by it would have the power to just take her life she would assume. Luring her to a death like that seemed weird.
Thinking on what she saw previously to what she was witnessing currently, Arcee came to a speculation. If the Allspark was showing respect and regrets, it must be going against itself by remnants of its personality trying to lead her to fix it. Then, by some degree, the gems were not just a part of it either. They could have been more like fragments of its personality which was why they were reacting so heavily to the Allspark's power.
As much as she shouldn't have, Arcee found herself drawn in the sentry's direction. She followed it as it wanted, disregarding the potential danger the decision could bring her.
Megatron and Moonhunter ran through any and every entry trying to find a staircase or a lift to dwell deeper into the citadel. "What do you think? Hard right?"
Moonhunter gave a growl and turned to be in front of Megatron as they banked right. Suddenly, the walls of the corridor far beyond them grew spikes and started to creep towards them.
"This is like being in Unicron's body," he snarled. The spikes grew to a faster pace impaling anything in their path. When they started to appear through the ceiling and the floor, Megatron lost his bravado. "Except maybe more dangerous."
Both sprinted back towards the intersection they came from as the spikes chased them. To make matters worse, a door to their corridor began closing them in so they had nowhere to run. Megatron ran faster as the spikes drew closer rapidly. Right as the doors were nearly shut, he jumped through, and the spikes popped up right where he took his leap along with the Nitrotiger.
They hit the ground as the door sealed, sliding upon the pristine floor with Megatron laughing. "Having a little fun scaring us, huh? Nice try!"
As he got up, he kept his smile until he heard a whimper. Peering down, Moonhunter struggled to stand with shaky legs and collapsed a few times. Energon was streaking across the floor when he moved more than a foot. Concerned, the mech kneeled to observe the animal and noticed the problem. The spikes had impaled Moonhunter's abdomen when he leapt through the door. It wasn't enough to cause major internal damage to any organs, but it did leave a big enough wound to where Moonhunter wouldn't be able to make it far without making himself bleed faster and deplete his Energon supply before proper help could be obtained.
Megatron petted the poor Nitrotiger and whispered, "There, there, you're going to be alright. I promise."
He carefully stroked behind Moonhunter's ears as the cat looked up at him from his lying position with a low yowl. The warlord knew that neither of them could stay among the unstable citadel, especially when they heard the exterior tearing itself apart. The isle only had a few hours, maybe less before the Allspark would destroy it and them alongside it. And that wasn't even counting what would happen afterward presumably with the Earth and the cosmos.
"You're not going to like this, kitty, but I have no choice."
Lifting the Nitrotiger up, Megatron flinched when the cat hissed, not at him but at the pain. He shifted Moonhunter to cling to his shoulder and held him secure.
"This is a nightmare," he complained tired. "You and I really need to stop getting ourselves into trouble."
He was about to continue running when a ghostly voice echoed among the halls, sounding as if they were the halls themselves. "Your valor will not save you, Megatron, or anyone you supposedly care about. I know who you are; you are a selfish, tyrannical liar and you deserve no mercy. You destroyed Cybertron, decimated its ability to maintain life by tainting its core, and you attempted to demolish Earth for your own personal gain. Seeking to repay what you have done is foolish for there is no fair trade you could possibly offer to annul your debt except with your own life."
The warlord snarled, "So, you know a little about me. Of course, you do but do not assume you know me personally. I should have absorbed you when I had the chance before Optimus sent you far from my grasp. And besides, I already died thrice before coming to the isle. Been there, done that. You want my life, come and get it. Everyone's tried and no one has ever kept me down, so who the hell do you think you are addressing?!"
He bared his fangs animal-like still holding Moonhunter. If the Allspark was going to challenge him directly for his soul, there was going to be a struggle and he was going to make it count.
"Heathen, you will not taint my halls with your presence! You are not welcome here!"
A red light crept into the far hallway around a corner before a ghost-lit red energy appeared. A bird-like arm emerged and cracked the tile flooring while stomping on it followed by hooves. When horns became visible alongside a contained wingspan, all Megatron did was growl.
"Alright then," he sneered.
A hippogriff with lifeless red eyes and energy cascading off its raging form growled back at him. It raised its wings before standing on its hind legs, converting to a bipedal stance. When it roared at him, its talons were spread wide ready to tear him to pieces.
Megatron couldn't let go of Moonhunter without leaving the Nitrotiger vulnerable, so he aimed his cannon at the energy being with no instance of fear to be shown. When the hippogriff charged, he fired. The good thing about being in a clustered hall? There was no room to run. The blasts hit the monster repeatedly, leaving holes through its boneless, organ-less structure. It squealed with each hit but still pursued him. When it got close, he charged the last blast and aimed for its head. The hippogriff shattered into tiny segments of energy that faded into the air with a distant, echoing bellow.
It was a victory most sour for Megatron knew that one beast of pure energy could be summoned so easily which meant it could be destroyed just as much. But that also meant more could be brought in fast and he had a feeling his fight was just getting started.
He suddenly heard similar roars in various directions among the halls, red lights slowly glimmering in the distance. Preparing his cannon, he circled in place to keep track of all directions.
"Moonhunter, prepare for the ride of your life."
The Nitrotiger perked up in concern despite being weak from the Energon loss. He hissed in the direction where a clawed animalistic hand was placed from around a corner, tapping the wall anxiously.
Arcee followed the Equus-like sentry in any direction it wanted to go unquestioning. It knew its way around better than her. When it stopped to investigate a certain room from the hall, she paused not wanting to go by its side in case it grew uncomfortable or alerted. It moved on and Arcee got her chance to see what it was looking at.
A mirror of sorts, its image rippling like water. From the details she could make out, it almost looked like Cybertron, specifically Crystal City. There was a ruckus in the city, but she couldn't tell what it was. A protest? A battle? A festival? The last thought made her frown, and she hoped it was only because whoever took her throne was truly gone as Haywire seemed to describe in his scrambled message. The Allspark had been spying on the whole conflict and didn't do a damn thing. How infuriating.
"Stop her!" A booming voice said among the halls.
She peered at the sentry but noticed it too was looking around as if it didn't like the voice. A sudden red glare upon the ceiling moved above her and went past the sentry before shooting downward and manifesting into a canine form. The bluish white sentry reared in anger at the red sentry at the same as Arcee noticed the gems began glowing through the bag on her hip.
"What are you doing?! You defy me?! My own sentry thinks it can save you, but we won't allow that," the Allspark growled.
The canine sentry snarled at the horse that stood its ground. The conflicting energies of the sentries seemed to be corrupting each other as both were becoming aggressive. Arcee knew it was up to her to tip the scales of this encounter. Bringing out the dagger of Solus Prime, she didn't hesitate to leap into the fray.
With fire in her optics, she hit the floor and her advantage of surprise to swipe the dagger across the canine's body. The beast burst into fragments with a fading whine. "I don't need saving."
The horse sentry stared down at her before prancing happily past her, giving her a small smile. Then more red spirits seemed to bubble out from the ceiling and Arcee had enough.
"You want me? Come and get me," she called out.
The queen heard a ghostly roar shake the walls and took that as her cue to leave. Running alongside the sentry helping her, she noticed the red energy was trying to spawn above her, attempting to outpace her to get the drop on them.
She frowned and brought out her gatling gun. Running backwards at a slower pace, she lit up the halls with bullets as various sentry types tried to lunge at her. Earth-based animal-like sentries roared at her, outreaching to grab her while more alien breeds shrieked in anger until she shattered them. Red energy coated the halls in her wake, and she couldn't help but smile at the bloodless carnage.
"This is more fun than lighting up Cons in a trap! Is that all you got? Is that all?!" She laughed.
The sentry led her to a room with an elegant staircase and quickly climbed up it. Arcee followed but never stopped firing as the corrupted sentries started to circle below the higher she climbed. She could hear them rumbling to each other, most likely planning to suck out her soul or worse.
The multiple floors she passed visible from the transparent staircase had stained glass, decorative displays of past events and one piece even had over ten planets in a circle around what looked to be a blue sun. It seemed it was a self-portrait in a way for it looked like the Allspark and the planets represented its rings. But what was weird was its green light background. That seemed to be an odd color for the Allspark to use describing itself.
Arcee stumbled halfway up when the lower staircase was torn apart by the energy eating away at it as the sentries rose in their fury. With the staircase held by both top and bottom supports, all that kept it from falling was the top support that was groaning from the misplaced weight of the overall structure. It swung slightly and she raced to go as far as she could before it threatened to collapse on her.
Abruptly, she was lifted by the blue sentry guiding her and thrown nearly to the second to last floor. Upon peering down at the sentry, it gave a whinny and let itself be consumed by the dark energy swirling upward. Arcee felt terrible but its sacrifice was notable. The gems really were on her side as were their constructs.
Climbing the remaining stairs, she reached a golden hall at the top and as she stepped off the staircase, she winced when it cracked then fell finally. The red energy seemed to stop just below her, and the sentries peered at her with hatred. Something was keeping them from going higher and she had a feeling she knew what.
Walking along the golden hallway, she noted the various mirrors like the one she saw previously, all displaying events she recognized well. The siege of Iacon from Megatron with Metroplex, her fight with Shockwave during her travel to Earth with Cliffjumper, the space bridge battle when Megatron tried to bring an army of Cybertron's undead through it, the fight putting Unicron in Earth's core into a permanent slumber, and even the last stand where Bumblebee killed Megatron with the Star Saber.
Watching it play upon a mirror like a memory relayed, Arcee couldn't help but admire how far she and her friends had come, including Megatron himself. War was never a great thing to remember but it did hold crucial moments, and those moments defined a person no matter what consequence or success they led to. Perhaps the Allspark knew at least the importance of these memories to understand why it needed to come back so that this never happens again. But, then again, it wouldn't be currently trying to tear apart reality if it did dwell on such things.
Arcee reached two doors connected, both held inscriptions of Cybertronian nature as well as the Primes' language and the same foreign language found on Dagger Prima. If this wasn't the door to the Allspark, it held something important regardless, and Arcee was prepared for anything. Pushing it open, she was surprised at what she found.
Megatron shot at anything moving and red as he backed away. He hoped Arcee wasn't putting up with anything like this.
On top of the cackling of the portals growing closer to attacking the citadel itself and the red sentries crawling closer to suck out his life force, he wasn't very confident now that he would be making it out alive. Moonhunter's life depended on his own success and that wasn't turning out so well as more sentries started to spawn through the walls and floor.
Suddenly, Megatron tensed as a bird-like sentry sent a bolt of energy at him and hit his cannon. He winced as he got a slight shock from it but when he aimed to fire again, the cannon didn't respond. The pulse of energy had temporarily shut down the weapon. The warlord was stunned by the move, but he refused to show it, instead roaring back at the sentries in warning.
He knew touching them would probably be a death sentence and as they drew closer, he backed against a wall. Moonhunter whimpered but he didn't let go of the Nitrotiger for anything, petting him to try and keep the animal calm.
"I guess I was wrong," he muttered. "Ah well, I tried."
Bringing Moonhunter close to his chest to comfort him in their final moments, he still bared his fangs defensively as a bear-like sentry reached out towards him with a roar. Right as the claws barely touched his helm, he growled and expected to feel his soul being ripped out or destroyed. Moonhunter was practically buried in his arm. But, to their surprise, they weren't dead.
Megatron slowly peered at the sentry before him and saw it looking up at the vacant ceiling. The others were doing the same as their energy seemed to lessen from their former vengeful inflammation. Megatron couldn't guess what was happening except that whatever they were reacting to must have been the Allspark. Was it in danger or...?
"Arcee," he whispered in realization.
The sentries roared in unison before evaporating through the ceiling, leaving a distraught Megatron and shaking Moonhunter left in the hall. If Arcee made it to the Allspark or was dead, the sentries no longer were needed for either situation. Then he heard the faint sound of the portals outside. Their noise, the sound of them ripping through the isle stopped. He had no clue why.
Megatron was never a religious mech, never once believed in spirits or anything spiritual but for a second, a brief one, he prayed to Primus silently that Arcee was okay. He stayed in the hall, sliding down the wall to sit on the floor tired. Stroking Moonhunter and whispering softly to him, he waited for any sign, good or bad, of a miracle.
AN: What has Arcee found? You probably know the answer but not everything is as it seems...