Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers Prime. I only own the OC George Edwards/Bladewolf.
I groaned as Dark Energon continued to pour out of the volcano and rain down on the ground. That stuff was really bad to normal Cybertronians. The only reason Megatron wasn't as weakened or affected was because he had a Dark Energon shard in his spark chamber. Like Primus would I ever try that.
"Why is Dark Energon erupting from the Earth?" Optimus asked in his weak state.
"A question, Optimus, that you and the Techno-Organic shall take to your graves!" Megatron responded, ready to deal the final blow. I was ready to deploy a weapon or anything and continue fighting Megatron, even if it meant my death, when a Groundbridge opened and Bulkhead and Ironhide came through, blasting Megatron back. Bulkhead continued to fight off Megatron as Ironhide and Chromia helped me to my pedes, Ratchet and Elita helping Optimus to his.
"Quickly! We must get them through!" Ratchet said to the others.
Ironhide looked back. "Bulkhead! Move it! Now!"
Bulkhead transformed and drove after us with Megatron in pursuit, but we got through the bridge that closed before Megatron could get after us, leaving him there at the site of Dark Energon.
Optimus and I were helped through the bridge and into the base.
"Easy you two." Ratchet told us. "From the looks of it, you've both been exposed to a great amount of Dark Energon."
"...Never doing that again." I groaned weakly as Arcee took Chromia's side and helped me down. I transformed back to human and groaned again.
"You okay?" My Sparkmate asked me worriedly.
"I'll live." I said with a smile, feeling myself feeling a bit better now that I was away from the Dark Energon.
"Megatron found more of the dark stuff?" Jack asked, walking down the stairs with Miko behind.
"A volcano full." Arcee informed us.
"The question is 'how?'" Bulkhead pointed out.
"No… the question is 'what?'" Ratchet instead said. "As in 'what in the world is the blood of Unicron doing here on Earth?'"
"The 'Cons killed a Unicorn?"
"…"
"…"
Everyone just gives her a blank look at the question.
"White horse, with a horn on its head? Prances around all sparkly?" Miko tried to give an explanation.
"His name is Unicron, Miko." I corrected her darkly.
Ratchet nodded. "An ancient evil whose fossilized blood comprises the matter that which we call Dark Energon… as legend would have it."
"So you're saying this Unicron is some kind of boogeyman?" Miss Darby tried to simplify it.
"Boogeyman?"
"Make-believe creepy guy who hides in your closet." Miko explained.
"No, Nurse Darby. Unicron is very real… was." Ratchet seemed to hesitate a little as he tried to come up with better words. "That is… while I do believe he once existed, I just don't subscribe to the theory that his primordial life force is the substance which harmed Raf."
"I've heard enough. Jack, Miko please. Help me get Raf in the car. He's going to the emergency room." June said while moving Raf near her car and the protests from Bumblebee.
"Mom, I thought he was doing better?" Jack asked his mother.
"Raf needs to be examined by real doctors. And Raf's family needs to know what happened." June said turning her attention to the Autobots. "His real family".
'Ouch, way to shoot us further.'
"Mom, Raf's family can't protect him from what's out there. Not like they can." Jack said to her.
"June. It deeply grieves me that I had failed. But I will do everything in my power to ensure that no harm comes to our human friends, your son and any other human ever again." Optimus said with the support of Ironhide keeping him stable as he stood.
"Optimus, they're children! They don't belong in your world. The same goes for George as well. They should be worrying about grades! Prom Dates! Pimples! Not their own survival!" June remarked.
"Mom, Dark Energon is pouring out of the earth! It doesn't do that." Jack said to her. "This could be about everyone's survival, not just ours."
"You're coming with me, all 3 of you." June said, ignoring her son's words.
'Well, at least she's not including me into that.'
"And they will NOT be coming back."
"I understand." Optimus replied.
"That's it?" Miko scoffed. "After all we've been through together. 'See ya!' What about our freedom to choose?"
"That may fly on their planet, but not here on our planet." Miss Darby stated as she helped Raf get into her car. "Get in." She firmly demanded, pointing into the backseat. Whether she was talking to Miko or all humans I didn't know.
"You really expect me to ride in a non-transforming vehicle?" She asked like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Guess having been spoiled with Bulkhead, she doesn't want to go back by any other means.
"Miko, I'm serious."
"You're not my mother." Miko said matter-of-factly.
"Miko…" Bulkhead tried to keep her from antagonizing the adult.
"Neither are you!" It didn't work.
June looked at her son. "Well I am yours. Let's go."
Jack hesitated as Arcee walked up. "She... is your mom." She told him sadly, though she didn't want Jack to go.
After a few seconds of silence, Jack spoke to his mother. "I'm staying. I'm sorry."
June was surprised and clearly hurt before she huffed and got into the car, refusing a Groundbridge and she drove away with Raf in her car. The base was very silent from that point on.
"Prime!"
Until a very familiar voice shattered the silence.
"Do you copy?!" We looked and saw Agent Fowler as he appeared on the computer's screen.
"I hear you, Agent Fowler." Optimus replied.
"Been watching the news? Mother nature's got a twitch in her britches." Despite the sadness of the scene just now, I couldn't help but chuckle quietly at his analogy.
"We know about the volcano."
"And the quakes? 7 major tumbles, at the same magnitude, at the exact same time as a volcanic eruption. All over the globe on different tectonic plates, in theory unrelated if they hadn't—"
"At the exact same time." Ratchet finished the Agent's sentence.
"The planet's crumbling at the seams." I grimly stated.
"Check it out." Miko got our attention as she pointed to the TV. "More good news." She sarcastically said. A news broadcast appeared on the channel, informing us and just about everyone else in the world at the catastrophic state the planet was in. Thunderstorms, hails, tsunami's, earthquakes, the works. If it was something that had to do with mother nature or any sort of weather anomaly, then it'd been cranked up to 10 out of 10, all at the same time.
"Don't tell me the 'Cons have built a weather machine." Fowler said.
Ratchet scoffed. "One that powerful? Highly unlikely."
"I do not believe the appearance of Dark Energon at this time to be coincidental." Optimus said grimly. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Bumblebee leave, most likely to get Raf and June back since the weather was getting out of control.
"Guys, there's something I need to tell you." I said, getting everyone's attention. "Not too long ago, I was contacted by the Primes."
"The who?" Miko asked with a frown.
"The original Primes before Optimus." I explained.
"What did they say?" Optimus asked seriously.
"The appearance of Dark Energon? The weather getting out of control like this? They aren't all coincidental." I said grimly. "It's because of Unicron himself."
"What?!" Everyone except Optimus yelled in shock. Optimus just narrowed his optics in thought.
"How is that possible?" Jazz asked. "Unicron's like... a big guy, right? We'd notice if it would be him, unless-"
"Unless he IS the planet we're on right now." I said with a sigh. "As it turns out-"
I stopped when we saw Bumblebee drive in with June and Raf, which pleased us. Jack and June had a reunion before Fowler soon arrived.
"Anyway, what were you about to say, George?" Elita asked me.
"What I was going to say... is Earth IS Unicron."
"I think he's right." Ratchet said as he was typing something and displayed the planet. "The earthquakes are beginning from the very core of this planet. Tiny tremors rising and falling in a consistent manner. Almost like..."
Ratchet paused and his eyes optics widened in shock as he looked at me and I nodded to confirm what it was.
"By the Allspark, if I covert these data points to audio files... listen."
Once Ratchet did that, we all heard it.
A heartbeat.
A Cybertronian heartbeat.
The heartbeat... of Unicron.
"A Cybertronian heartbeat?" Jack asked in shock.
"Unicron's heartbeat." I said to all in the room.
"So what you're saying is that there's something living down there. INSIDE our planet?" Miko asked me.
I shook my head. "No Miko, he's not just living down there... He IS the very core of this planet."
"Then it appears that Unicron is the rising darkness the prophecy foretold." Ratchet said grimly.
"So, how do we stop this thing from rising?" Fowler asked.
"That, I'm afraid, was not foretold." Optimus said.
"How can something be in our Earth's core and be alive?" June asked in disbelief.
"That's a very long story." I said, looking at Optimus who took over from here.
"In the beginning there was Primus. And there was Unicron. One the incarnation of creation; the other, destruction. For eons Primus and Unicron battled. The balance of power shifting between them more times than could be counted. Only by creating the Thirteen-the original Primes that proceeded me-was Primus able to defeat Unicron and cast him out. Primus became one with the very core of our planet, creating life through the Well of Allsparks for existing Cybertronians to bare. The Thirteen, the main representatives of Primus, ruled over Cybertron on his behalf. Unicron was never to be heard from again… until now." Optimus said, finishing the story of how Transformers came to be.
'The Quintessence can go screw themselves if they think THEY created Primus and Unicron, followed by every other Cybertronian.'
Optimus and I were in a canyon, looking for any signs of Unicron. I had convinced Optimus to let me come with him because we were both descendants of Primes. Optimus was a Prime, and I was the son of two of the Primes who defeated Unicron. If he could easily sense us and our connection to Primus and the Primes, we'd only be putting the others at base in danger.
Optimus agreed and allowed me to come along for this one.
And to start things off, we searched the multiple epicenters of the 7 earthquakes that occurred at different points of the globe at the same time. We knew that it would do very little to help us locate and defeat Unicron, but we had to start somewhere.
"Ratchet, this epicenter is consistent with the findings of the others. Its terrain is rich in aura." Optimus said on the comms.
"So what does that tell us?" Fowler voiced the question on everybody's mind.
"It follows that the natural meddles in your Earth would be extensions of Unicron. His limbs, if you will," Ratchet answered.
"So he did have his morning stretch. Which is why these quakes happened," June grumbled.
As Optimus and I continued to walk on, Ratchet soon contacted us again. "Optimus, Bladewolf, I'm detecting a swell in Unicron's spark activity," Ratchet warned.
"Understood Ratchet." I said.
"We will proceed with vigilance." Optimus added before our attention turned to a nearby wall upon which it sounded like rocks tumbling. However, we saw something much worse... Unicron's face in the wall.
"Do you know me, followers of Primus?"
"Unicron..." I growled.
"The Chaos Bringer." Optimus finished.
"Good..."
With that 1 small word said, his face disappeared and rocks crumbled around them. Emerging from the chasm in the wall created was the rock body of a titan. A direct representation of Unicron. Optimus and I moved backwards slightly. From surprise and the rumbling Earth rather than absolute fear. Immediately, we knew that we couldn't show what we fear to Unicron.
He fed on fears after all.
"Now know me as Unicron... YOUR DESTROYER!"
Unicron charged at us and Optimus and I unsheathed or deployed our respective swords to battle the Chaos Bringer. Whenever Unicron moved forward, Optimus and I moved backwards. Strategically perfect to avoid any attack Unicron served upon us…
Most of the time.
"We humbly request your ear, Lord Unicron," Optimus started.
Unicron's purple eyes narrowed at us. "And what would 2 Primes be so compelled to say to me?"
'Okay, so he knows I'm a child of 2 Primes, but doesn't know I don't have the title of Prime.'
"We make this appeal not for ourselves, but for this planet, which you constitute. And the beings who inhabit this world. The entire human race depends on YOU, Lord Unicron. For life. Sustenance. Your resurrection will only result in the destruction of a species which evolved from the seeds of your very greatness." I said.
"So this human kind of which you speak... you consider them my progeny?" Unicron asked.
"Indeed." Optimus nodded.
Unicron's expression shifted to disgust. "PARASITES! They too shall know my wrathful hand once I'm finished with the 2 of you!"
Unicron blasted both Optimus and I with purple lighting, sending us flying and slamming into the wall. We groaned as Unicron approached.
'Dark Energon is such a bitch to be hit with, especially a lightning version made of it.'
"The line of Primes has grown weak during my absence. And thus, both of you shall fall."
"Not even YOU – the almighty Unicron – can predict that outcome. But I can tell you this. It WON'T happen today," I declared as me and Optimus stood.
We deployed our weapons and blasted Unicron repeatedly until I deployed a fusion cannon and blasted Unicron's head off, destroying this manifestation and causing it to crumble into rocks and dust.
"This isn't the end." I said and Optimus gave one nod of agreement.
As if hearing what I said, multiple manifestations of Unicron appeared out of the ground or the walls. Optimus and I stood back to back as we were surrounded...