Chapter 8
Answers

Stripes awoke from stasis, in a dark room. He immediately recognized where he was. He was on the Decepticons' dreadnought, Nemesis. He was in a recharge berth. In the same room where they had changed him into what he was now.

He bolted off the recharge birth, going for the door. It didn't open. He dug his hands in between the seals of the door, trying to force it open. No use. He struck his fist on the door control pad. Nothing. He tried to blow it open with his Gatling cannon, but even that wasn't functioning at the moment.

Desperate, he backed up and ran up to the door, leaping into the air, in an attempt to kick it down. He only succeed in making a dent. After several attempts with no results, he started to panic.

"LET ME OUT!" Stripes yelled repeatedly, punching the door in a frenzied fashion leaving small indentations of his fists. "MEGATRON, OPEN UP THIS DAMN DOOR NOW! I KNOW YOU CAN HEAR MY, YOU SORRY SON OF A BITCH! WHEN I GET OUT OF HERE, I'LL TEAR YOU TO PIECES, YOU HEAR ME?!"

After several minutes of punching and screaming at the door, he fell to his knees, giving up. His intake took in air as if he couldn't get enough, his anger turning to hopelessness. He started to cry, energon tears going down his face again. He had been captured, and this time, there was no way out...

Nemesis - Bridge

Mia and the others watched Stripes' display on the screen with Megatron, whom let out a sigh from his throne.

"Do we have to keep him locked up?" Mia asked, turning to face Megatron.

"Uh, reality check, Townsend!" Cross intervened with a sneer. "He's kinda livin' la vida loca at the moment! Or did you miss the memo?" He held his hand up near his head, spinning his index finger in the 'crazy' motion. Mia just gave him a look of annoyance.

"Just why is he so special, anyway?" Razor piped up. "I'd scrap his ass right now..."

Megatron got up and walked over to Razor with intent to harm.

"No. You. Will. Not." He said, grabbing Razor by the neck and lifting him off the deck. "And you will never even THINK of doing anything to harm him! If you wish to keep your pipes! Is that clear?" He said, slightly tightening his grip.

"Crystal, sir..." Razor wheezed.

"Good." Megatron released Razor form his grasp, and he fell to the floor with a loud clang.

"Still, I don't see why we need to keep him locked up..." Mia continued.

"He doesn't know what role he is to play in the events to come. Forces intend to hunt him down to destroy him. He needs protection until then." Megatron said, sitting back down.

"Protection from who?" Cross asked.

Megatron sighed again. "In order for me to answer that question, you will have to answer a few of mine."

"Okay..." Mia said, uneasy. "Ask away..."

Megatron then proceeded to ask his questions. They were rather basic: When was he
born, and who were his parents. Cross told him that when he was human, Stripes didn't have any parents, that he was an orphan. He made emphasis that he entered the justice system when he barely eight years old for joyriding. As for his current age, he was just twenty-four years old.

"Barely a youngling by Cybertronian standards..." Megatron muttered. "Primus, your kin has been so misguided..."

"Primus?" Cross asked.

"its none of your concern." Megatron said.

"Really? Well, I think it is! If it has to do with Carlos!" Mia snapped with an attitude. Starscream's jaw dropped.

"...Did thou just 'sass' lord Megatron?" Starscream managed to say.

"What do you think, jet boy?" Mia replied, sassing him. Megatron was starting to like this femme. She was fiery, and anyone who could stand up like that to Starscream, or himself for that matter, was held in high regard in his book.

"Again, why is Stripes so damn special?" Razor piped up again.

Megatron growled. "Razor. Begone. Leave us..." He waved a clawed hand.

"Um... What?" Razor didn't like being bossed around.

"You heard the man, Razor." Cross said, shoving him into a nearby lift. "If he says make like Micheal Jackson and beat it, then you make like Micheal Jackson and beat it." With that, the lift closed, with him inside.

Mia returned her gaze to Megatron. He looked back into her pink optics with surprising sincerity.

"I'm sorry you have to find out this way, Townsend." He said, regret in his voice. "But Stripes... Carlos... He was never human to begin with, and your questions confirmed my suspicions of that. He is part of a great legend of our people. A legend that is starting to coming true. I believe he is the son of Primus, our creator..."

Mia's optics widened. "What?"

"Show them the images of the tablets on the main viewer, Starscream." He ordered. Starscream did so. The main view screen of the ship changed from the view of cold space, to images of an engraved metal tablet. It almost looked a mix of Egyptian and Greek art, except for the symbols. Images of Both Autobots and Decepticons decorated the slabs, rallying around one being; A Cybertronian whom was descending from the arms of what she assumed was Primus, with what appeared to be robotic angel wings. Sword in hand, it looked as if it was getting ready to do battle with another godly figure, from below. Cross and Mia looked closer at the being descending from Primus' arms, and saw it!

"Its Stripes..." Mia whispered in awe.

"Yes." Megatron said. "He is destined to stop the third coming of Unicron. The chaos bringer. You could call Unicron, the "Hades" of Cybertronian legend and myth. Show us the next tablet, Starcream."

The screen then flickered to a new tablet. Stripes was on it again, landing on earth as a human.

"The prophecy states that Primus transmitted a piece of his spark to a far away
planet, to be born and hidden among its people until he is needed, born to uncertain parents, prior to these events." The screen switched again, to Stripes in bot form, healing what looked like a wounded Autobot in his arms, with several others laying down on the ground around him.

"One of the myths of the son of Primus is that he will bring back those whom had fallen to stop Unicron's second incarnation, to aid him, including a prime. He will perform this miracle of breathing back life to several beings."

The screen then switched to a third tablet. This one showed Unicron erupting out of the surface of earth.

"According to the prophecy of the son of Primus, in one stellar cycle, or year, after his second defeat, Unicron will rise again, from the crust of the planet he was sealed in, to bring chaos and death to the universe. Starting with Cybertron. His second defeat was ten orbital cycles ago. In your time, that would be ten months."

The screen then switched to a tablet, showing the battle for Cybertron. "The son of Primus will not be without aid, according to the prophecy. Both Autobots and Decepticons shall join together to battle alongside him, to combat Unicron and his Allegiance. Unfortunately..." The screen then switched to what appeared to be the final tablet, and Mia gasped, her hands over her mouth. Even Cross' optics widened. It showed Stripes, fallen in battle, a prime holding his corpse.

"NO!" Mia cried, tears welling up in her optics.

"Unfortunately... he will be forced make the ultimate sacrifice, to save us
all... I'm sorry." Megatron finished. Mia started to cry, sobs shaking her frame as she buried her optics in her hands, tears flowing. Megatron put a hand of comfort on her shoulder. It was all he could do. He couldn't say everything was going to be alright, because it wasn't. This would be a troubling time.

"...There is one more tablet, that may offer you some hope." He said.

"Why?" Cross asked with curiosity.

"Because it shows it." Megatron answered. The screen then switched to a final, damaged tablet. It showed hieroglyphics below Stripes, whom were on it in bot form, holding each hands with a bot in veils, as two sparks intertwined above them.

"The heiroglyphics read, 'the lover shall allow his spark to live on.' We could never understand that, as there was no mention of any lover in the prophecy until this point..."

Cross looked at the tablet, then at the crying Mia next to him. He always wondered if there was a thing between them. If this tablet meant what he thought it meant... could she be the one?