Deep within the Council Citadel, Tarantulas's roars and hisses of fury could be heard echoing...
The spider's diagnostic drone hovered around him, holding a sparking wire.
"A temporary setback at most, my liege..." it told Tarantulas, preparing to place the wire upon him. Tarantulas swatted the drone away.
"I tire of suffering your "Temporary setbacks"!" the Unicronian declared, ripping a panel off the wall and hurling it across the room.
"Every moment I waste on your ineffective treatment-" Tarantulas started before reverting to beast mode in rage, "...The organics grow stronger! They've already reverted two of our Vehicons to their original selves!" Tarantulas ranted, ripping another panel off the wall and hurling it at the drone with an energy web!
After dodging the panel, the drone tried to calm down its master.
"Eminence, please, I need to remind you that these treatments are supposed to eliminate your beastly contamination. We could have avoided this disappointment by simply transplanting your Spark into a purely robotic body in the first place..." the drone sighed.
Transforming back into robot mode and reconnecting with the control harness, Tarantulas sneered.
"Leaving my Spark vulnerable? I wouldn't risk it for an instant!" he declared.
"There is one other possibility..." The drone surmised. "The Maximal unit Nightscream; somehow, he was able to generate a beast mode on a planet devoid of organic life. If we replicate and reverse the process, the result would theoretically be a purely mechanical body!" the drone explained. "Lamentably, my ongoing directive to purge you of your beast mode has prevented me from studying this peculiar creature closer..." the drone hinted.
"Your directive, then, is hereby amended!" Tarantulas chuckled. "All remaining Vehicons! Escort my drone to the catacombs and retrieve that flying rodent!" he ordered.
Jetstorm flew up to his master and saluted. "Piece of cake!" he declared, flying off. The other Vehicons and the drone followed suit, although Scavenger seemed halfhearted, and Tankor lagged behind the others...
"Don't forget: I want him... ALIVE!" Tarantulas ordered.
Deep in the catacombs, Rattrap gave Nightscream a once-over while Primal Prime tried to help him shake off his amnesia.
"Open your Spark to me, Nightscream; if we were able to recover Snowstalker, Dinobot, and Rhinox's memories from Spy Streak, Blastcharge, and Tankor, then we may learn much more from YOUR memories!" the ape reasoned, unaware that Shadow had also recovered Raptrix's memories.
"I didn't survive this long to become somebody's science project!" Nightscream protested, twitching as Rattrap probed over him with his beast mode's tail interface.
"Wait a Cycle, I've found something!" Rattrap announced, noticing something on the young Maximal's back. "Hold up... Your body's got a built-in DNA scanner?!" Rattrap gasped.
"Well, duh! Everybody's got a built-in scanner for beast modes! We trashed all the Stasis Pods in the Quantum Cycle Upgrade... Were you here for that?" Nightscream asked.
"Negative; we were on prehistoric Earth fighting the Beast Wars at the time..." Dinobot explained.
"And you did a fine job winning them! Oh, wait; too bad you didn't return to Cybertron fast enough!" Nightscream accused.
Rattrap grabbed Nightscream violently by the head.
"Watch your vocal capacitor, Junior! I lost friends in those wars, plus, it's not OUR fault that Tarantulas somehow survived!" Rattrap hissed. Dinobot tackled the rodent away from Nightscream.
"Stand down, Vermin!" he snarled. Blackarachnia turned Nightscream to face her.
"We... ALL lost friends..." she muttered. Primal Prime sighed in exasperation.
"Digging up the past can be painful, but let's not lose focus!" Primal Prime advised. "The Question isn't HOW you scanned a DNA sample, but WHERE you found any on Cybertron..." the Maximal leader said thoughtfully.
Nightscream growled. "I'm telling you, I CAN'T remember!" he said with venom. Primal Prime growled back.
"Nightscream, your memories may hold the key to the future of Cybertron!" Primal Prime told the youth.
Nightscream hissed. "Maybe if you focused on the present instead of dwelling in the past... "Beast Wars" this, "Rhinox" that! GIVE IT A REST, ALREADY!" he screeched.
Primal Prime sighed. "The Oracle said: "The Seeds of the Future lie buried in the past,"; have you forgotten that?" he asked.
"Yeah? Well *I* say NEVER look back! I wouldn't have survived for a single Nano-Klik if I'd gotten weepy over every Cybertronian that ran out of juice!" Nightscream reasoned, walking away.
"Eh, let him go..." Rattrap sighed.
"The Oracle has tasked us with restoring the organic to Cybertron, so our leader says..." Dinobot hissed.
"Yeah, and Bat-Butt over there holds our only clue!" Aurora snarled. Rattrap smiled fiendishly.
"I wouldn't say he's our ONLY clue..." the vermin announced, grabbing a seed from his back-mounted toolkit.
"That's from MY tree!" Nightscream growled.
As Rattrap handed the seed to Primal Prime, Cheetor and Snowstalker were concerned.
"Primal, no!" Snowstalker objected.
"Yeah, don't you remember that the fruit nearly turned you lot into primitives?" Cheetor snarled, recalling the event.
Primal chuckled. "The fruit isn't the clue... THIS is what the Oracle meant by the "Seeds of the Future"!" he reasoned, clasping the seed in his palm.
Later, the Maximals approached the location Nightscream had taken them to when they'd first met...
"We'll replant the seed here, in the chamber where we found the first tree," Primal Prime explained. Looking ahead, Primal Prime rolled his eyes and sighed in dismay.
"It's been sealed off!" he groaned.
"Big surprise..." Shadow muttered.
"'Tis nothing a little teamwork won't shift," Dinobot assumed, shuddering at his words.
As the other Maximals attempted to shove the barrier out of place, Nightscream rolled his eyes.
"Step aside, "team"; it's time for a little solo work..." the bat chuckled. Primal Prime nodded as he turned to the youth.
"Just keep it in beast mode; we don't want to attract any Vehicons..." he instructed.
Sighing, Nightscream let loose with a supersonic screech at high volume, making the tunnel shake!
Meanwhile, the diagnostic drone had detected Nightscream's screech.
"I'm zeroing in upon an echo-location audio frequency..." it explained to the Vehicon Generals. "Location... LOCKED!"
As the ruckus from Nightscream's screech shook the tunnel more fiercely, Primal Prime grew concerned.
"Nightscream, STOP!" he ordered. Dinobot nodded, holding his audio receptors.
"Yes, CEASE AND DESIST before you cause a cave-in!" he added.
Nightscream stopped, but the tunnel continued to shake.
"Sounds a little late for that, Dino-Boob!" Rattrap whined.
"That wasn't from me..." Nightscream realized as he heard blaster rounds on the wind.
Behind the Maximals, an explosion rocked the tunnel as Jetstorm and Megabolt flew in!
"Honey, we're home!" Jetstorm joked, grinning devilishly.
Flying to block the Maximals' intended route, Jetstorm and Megabolt started firing upon the assembled "Beast Machines", forcing them to flee...
Coming to a halt, the Maximals were presented with the remaining Vehicon Generals as they (Reluctantly, in Scavenger's case) opened fire!
"I am transformed!" the group announced, with Dinobot's new robot mode appearing for the first time. He was as lanky as in the Beast Wars but now sported a beam saber within his right hand's knuckles and an energy shield on his left wrist.
Primal Prime began taking Thrust and Mirage's shots to his forearm armour before launching a few energy shurikens from his chest.
The racing Vehicons dodged the energy stars and shot a ledge above the Maximal leader, causing it to crumble and fall!
Primal Prime was partially buried and reverted to beast mode as Blackarachnia began running towards Mirage!
Jetstorm fired relentlessly at the she-spider as she prepared a web shuriken...
Throwing the web star at Jetstorm, Blackarachnia smirked as the weapon encased the aerial Vehicon in thick strands of energy web.
Turning to Mirage, Blackarachnia hissed.
"What will it be this time, Mirage?" she asked. As Blackarachnia thought she was getting through to Mirage, Thrust fired at the she-spider.
"Sorry; I can't stand suspenseful moments like that!" he admitted to his partner.
Rhinox/Tankor let blaster shots fly left, right, and centre; Rattrap groaned as he and Nightscream were pinned behind a large hunk of scrap!
"Man, oh, man; if I didn't know that Rhinox's Spark was inside that tin can, I'd give it a piece of my mind right now!" he admitted.
"Too bad for him that he's not MY buddy!" Nightscream said, launching himself over the Vehicon's head.
As the smoke from all Rhinox/Tankor's firepower cleared, the Vehicon General could see Nightscream in his peripheral vision...
Nightscream emitted a mighty sonic attack from his amplifier in Rhinox/Tankor's direction, temporarily disorienting the Vehicon. This only served to anger him...
Charging forward, the colossal Vehicon was suddenly donkey-kicked in the face by Cheetor and Snowstalker! Rattrap joined in, short-circuiting the tank's left arm, while Aurora jammed the sawblade on his right arm!
Rushing to give Rhinox/Tankor a good kick to the head, Nightscream was taken down with a single punch from the Vehicon, which threw the others off him!
Firing a single burst from his cannon, Rhinox/Tankor forcibly reverted the Maximals that had been bothering him to beast mode...
As the others lay unconscious, Shadow and Dinobot ran in. They'd dealt with the other Vehicons, plus gotten Scavenger/Raptrix back!
"Is everybody still online?" Shadow asked, holding Scavenger's hand.
Regaining consciousness, Rattrap had a single question:
"Ugh... Where's the kid?"
The Maximals (And former Vehicon) began calling out Nightscream's name, trying to locate their missing comrade.
Nightscream, however, was inside a containment chamber on Rhinox/Tankor's back...
"Diagnostic drone to Tarantulas, the subject has been acquired..." the drone reported as it and the remaining Vehicons headed back to the Citadel.
"I regret to inform you, however, that Scavenger has been turned to the Maximal side..." it added. Silence answered the drone; it decided it would be wise to cut the feed before it got another earful...
It then observed something worrying about the containment unit...
"The regeneration chamber we've put this Maximal in does not appear to be working..." the diagnostic drone stated, humming in thought.
"Did you forget to charge the batteries?" Jetstorm asked half-jokingly. The drone hovered towards the container.
"The machine is fully functional; it seems to not affect this creature's body!" the diagnostic drone assumed, opening the container.
At that moment, Nightscream regained consciousness and flew out!
"Grab him!" Jetstorm ordered. Mirage and Thrust circled and fired at Nightscream, forcing him back into the containment unit.
"I am transformed..." Nightscream panted, changing into his robot form. The diagnostic drone observed the transformation process...
"Fascinating... His robot mode is implementing biologically enhanced nano-surgical capabilities! It seems to accelerate his beast mode's natural healing abilities..." the drone realized.
Jetstorm was curious.
"Which means, what, exactly?" he asked. The diagnostic drone chuckled.
"Which means that reversing this process will achieve Tarantulas's organic purge!" it explained. Entering the container with Nightscream, the drone made what it believed to be a simple request.
"Tell me the secret behind your healing process, please," it asked. Nightscream groaned.
"When did *I* become the class guinea pig?" he asked in exasperation. The diagnostic drone's tools emerged from its right hand, suggesting that it would torture Nightscream for the information...
"Okay, okay; I'll tell you!" Nightscream said, putting up his hands in "Surrender". "There's not much to it..." he said, charging up his amplifier...
A sonic burst blasted open the containment unit, causing an explosion! As Nightscream flew off, the Vehicon Generals got to their feet.
Jetstorm began directing the others.
"Tankor, dig out the egg-head; WE'll scope out the kid!" he ordered. The diagnostic drone had some parting advice.
"Remember: he'll have to remain in robot mode to continue healing!" it advised.
As the Vehicon Generals transformed and chased after Nightscream, the youth in question air-surfed along on his leg-wings...
"I can't go for help without leading the Vehicons straight to the others... Looks like I'm alone again, naturally," Nightscream told himself.
Primal Prime, meanwhile, was trying to get in contact with Nightscream...
"He's blocking my Spark-probe; that means he's alive, but I can't get any more information than that..." the Maximal leader told his subordinates.
"There is a possibility that he's in robot mode; I'm detecting a Maximal energy signature." Scavenger/Raptrix told the ape.
Primal Prime nodded and turned to Rattrap.
"Keep it brief," he instructed. Rattrap nodded.
"Gotcha," he said. "I am transformed," he announced, transforming into robot mode and lowering his visor.
"She's right on the money, Boss Monkey! I can see Nightscream. He's close by..." the rodent told his leader.
Nightscream led the Vehicon Generals into a large clearway; the land-based Generals stopped as they came to a deep drop!
"You can't out-fly us, sky-rat!" Jetstorm told the youth as he and Megabolt continued their pursuit.
Nightscream watched as Jetstorm flew ahead, performing a pincer movement with his fellow flyer. At the last second, Nightscream flew down, making the Vehicon aerial specialists collide! He then flew into a narrow tunnel, temporarily losing them!
"Hurry, I'm detecting movement!" the diagnostic drone told Tankor. "I can't mask our energy signatures forever!" it said as Tankor removed a piece of scrap covering the drone. "Are you listening to-"
Tankor suddenly dropped the scraplet on top of the drone, silencing it. Tankor moved into the shadows as the Maximals and his former comrade, Scavenger, entered the area.
"Your friend is right below us and is heading deeper; the remaining Vehicons, bar Tankor, are on his heels..." Scavenger/Raptrix advised. As she and the Maximals left, the diagnostic drone's muffled voice directed to Tankor.
"Tankor, protect me! That's an order!" it said. Tankor picked the drone out of the scrap and began speaking fluently, to the drone's surprise.
"I think it's time we came to an understanding about who exactly GIVES the orders around here..." Tankor/Rhinox said in his Rhinox voice.
"You're..." the diagnostic drone gasped. Rhinox nodded.
Chuckling, the former Maximal quirked an eyebrow.
"Were you happier when my vocabulary was limited to: "Tankor, SMASH!"? Poetic, perhaps... Somehow, though, it isn't me anymore, not since my dormant memories were recovered..." he explained.
"I'm no longer the Maximal that I was... Nor am I what Tarantulas made me... My experiences in both camps have afforded me greater clarity on the situation. I've grown to realise that Tarantulas's scheme for new order is elegant in its simplicity yet suffering from a catastrophic flaw: Tarantulas himself!" Rhinox ranted. "Cybertron requires a leader uncontaminated by a beast mode... Someone like me!"
Turning to the diagnostic drone, Rhinox smirked.
"Unlike Tarantulas, *I* will always have use for YOUR skills..." he reasoned.
The diagnostic drone sighed.
"I am programmed to serve Tarantulas; I have no alternative..." it told the Vehicon. Rhinox chuckled.
"Trust me; there are always alternatives..." he told the drone, picking up its dismembered arm and turning on its tools...
Nightscream was still managing to outpace the Vehicons; he chuckled to himself.
"I almost forgot how much I enjoyed flying solo!" he laughed. "This is MUCH simpler; just look out for yourself and NEVER look back!" he reasoned. Eyes widening, Nightscream gasped as he collided with a rock wall!
"You sure you don't want to look back?" Jetstorm joked as he arrived on the scene with the other Vehicons. "Because here WE come, in 3D!" he announced.
As the Vehicons rushed at Nightscream, he leapt overhead, using his sonic attack to open a fissure in the ground! As he flew into it, the Vehicons turned around...
"After him!" Jetstorm demanded; the other Vehicons were met with the Maximals and Scavenger/Raptrix...
"Not today, flyboy!" Scavenger declared, readying her minigun.
"Step aside, traitor and fleshwads!" Thrust growled. Snowstalker growled back.
"Make us!" she snarled.
"Mmm... Okay!" Jetstorm chuckled, opening fire.
As Cheetor's family and Dinobot deflected the shot with their respective swords, Blackarachnia gave Primal the opportunity he needed...
"We've got this; go after Nightscream!" she advised.
Primal nodded, following Nightscream into the hole. Mirage and Thrust went to the fissure but were chased away by Snowstalker and Rattrap! Jetstorm and Megabolt soared in overhead, leading to a remark from Blackarachnia.
""Come into my parlour," said the spider to the flyers!" she chuckled, firing an energy webline between the aerial commanders.
"You missed!" Megabolt chortled. "Yeah," Jetstorm added. "Now you've gotta k-" he began before Blackarachnia pulled down on the webline, making boulders fall on the pair.
They fell hard, skidding along the ground and knocking Mirage into Blackarachnia's path, while Thrust was knocked out...
"You two wing-dings are grounded..." Rattrap stated to the flyers. Groaning, the aerial commanders lost consciousness.
As Blackarachnia looked at Mirage, she was brought out of her pity by Cheetor.
"What are you waiting for?! Take him down!" the feline father ordered. Watching the racecar struggle to move, Blackarachnia reached out to him.
"Silverbolt..." she whispered.
Snarling, Mirage blasted an overhead boulder, fragmenting it and sending the rubble falling onto Blackarachnia!
"Blackarachnia!" Scavenger/Raptrix gasped, revving her engine to rush to the she-spider's aid.
The former Vehicon tackled the Maximal out of harm's way as the rubble covered the fissure entirely...
"Sc- Raptrix, they're getting away!" Blackarachnia said, stumbling over Raptrix's Vehicon name as she noticed the Vehicon Generals high-tailing it.
"You're welcome, by the way," Raptrix/Scavenger said, smirking.
Rhinox was finishing up his work on the diagnostic drone.
"Your reprogramming is complete, my drone," the former Maximal declared. "You are to remain loyal to Tarantulas by appearances only..." he ordered.
"I live merely to serve you, Eminence..." the drone decreed. Rhinox smirked.
"I now require you to trace a specific energy signature, a special one that I discovered during my Spark-meld with Primal Prime..." he tasked.
Nightscream fell flat on his face in a cave. Woozily getting to his knees, he looked around.
"Where... Am I?" he asked in a daze. He gasped as he saw a bat's skeleton, one the same size as his beast mode!
Primal Prime descended upon his flight pack, transforming to beast mode as he landed.
"Nightscream!" he sighed happily, putting his hands on the youth's shoulders.
"This must be where I acquired my beast mode..." Nightscream mumbled in shock. "My circuits scanned a cave and found the DNA of a fossilized bat; that's how *I* survived while everyone else was..." he whimpered. "They deserved to live as much as *I* did! More, in fact!" he sobbed. "Why did *I* get to live?! WHY?!" he shouted, thumping his fist against the skeleton.
"Beats me, kid!" Jetstorm's voice rang out as he, Megabolt, Thrust, and Mirage arrived. "But we'll obligingly put you out of your misery!" Megabolt stated with a smirk.
Nightscream. Was. TICKED!
He charged up his amplifier to the maximum decibel level...
"Uh-Oh..." Jetstorm whimpered, knowing what would come next...
Primal Prime covered his ears, as he also knew what would happen...
Nightscream let loose with a sonic attack of EPIC proportions! He sent the Vehicon Generals flying, made the cave shake and crumble, and made Primal Prime concerned!
"Nightscream, stop! Do you WANT to kill all of us?!" Primal PRime asked as the Vehicons were buried under rubble. Nightscream stopped.
"No... No more killing..." the bat declared. Primal put a hand on the youth's shoulder.
"Tell me what's wrong; let me help!" he requested.
Walking forward, Nightscream surveyed the area.
"All of these bones... There must be thousands! Do you KNOW what that means?!" he asked.
"Cybertron once supported natural, organic life!" Primal gasped, holding up a bat skull.
"NO!" Nightscream shouted, swatting the skull out of
Primal's hand. "It means that THOUSANDS of Cybertronians could've escaped Tarantulas's virus if only... If only..." Nightscream sobbed.
"If only what, Nightscream?" Primal asked gently.
"If only I was thinking about the others instead of myself! But... I didn't think about them at all... How many others could I have saved?!" he asked shamefully.
"I feel your pain, Nightscream; I sense this world's pain daily and blame myself for not returning to it fast enough! ...But I also believe we survived for a reason: We will heal this wounded planet for our fellow Sparks before they return..." Primal Prime explained. "And they WILL return..." he added, holding the seed from Nightscream's tree.
"The Seeds of the Future lie buried in the past..." Nightscream said, now understanding the meaning behind that phrase.
Primal Prime threw the seed into the soil below.
"For a better world..." Nightscream declared.
Tarantulas's roar of fury echoed throughout the Citadel.
"I AWAIT AN EXPLANATION!" he yelled.
"I have none to offer, sire..." the diagnostic drone falsely reported. Tarantulas was speechless.
"WHAT?!"
"The organic degeneration process I extracted from Nightscream was infallible; it SHOULD have worked! According to my data, failure to purge your DNA contamination may stem from your subconscious desire to retain your beast mode..." the diagnostic drone "Hinted".
"Be gone from my sight..." Tarantulas hissed.
Flying out of the Citadel, the diagnostic drone pulled out a communication screen...
"Tarantulas's latest organic purge has failed... As per your instructions, my liege," the drone reported to its' new master.
"Excellent... Incidentally, your information on that mysterious energy signature was accurate. The legends are true!" Rhinox stated as he stood before the source of the energy signature:
"The Oracle exists! And it will serve as the key to the downfall of both Primal Prime AND Tarantulas!" he decreed.