The Edge of Darkness

By Tony “Thunder” Klepack

    Sunfire awoke to a slight, comforting hum. Slowly opening her eyes, she discovered she was no longer in the cockpit of the Star Sentinel where she had last been. Instead, she was in a dimly lit room with dark olive-amber colored walls and ceiling. The amber portions of the room seemed to pulsate slowly, apparently producing the soothing hum she heard. The room had slightly higher than normal amounts of moisture in the air about her--but after almost suffocating to death earlier even it was welcome.
Rising slowly, she noticed she was lying on a bed composed of a metal rim with a soft porous padding. There was a soft cotton-like substance balled together for her head to have rested on. A thin, warm sheet of material covered her body and kept her warm.
The room had a warmth to it she couldn’t quite quantify-beyond the previously noted characteristics, there was nothing really special about it. Yet it felt homey-comfort and reassurance radiated throughout her, soothing her sub-conscious mind.
It was almost as if the room had wanted her to feel at ease here…
To her right, the wall abruptly rippled and seemed to melt open. Three Humans entered the room through the new portway. Two walked halfway to her bed and stopped while the third stayed back closer to the wall. Behind them, the wall warped and resealed itself. The lighting increased slowly, respecting the fact her eyes needed time to adjust to more light in the area.
“Greetings, milady,” one of the two closest her said, executing a bow as he spoke. “I am called Avatar Prime.” He gestured beside him. “This is thy peer, Militant Prime.”
“Where...am I?” she asked calmly. She blinked twice, allowing her eyes to further adjust to the brightened room. “Who are you?”
“I am glad to see thou art recovered from thy injuries,” Avatar Prime told her. “We art called the Masters. So named, for we are masters of our environment.” He gestured about the room. “We understand how to control machinery and nature, allow the two to co-exist in perfect synchronicity.”
“You have some kind of organic technology?” Sunfire asked. “How is that possible?”
It made sense though-she understood now why the room seemed so relaxing. The organic systems of this world must have been programmed to put the Masters and their guests at ease when they felt uneasy or frightened. The room really was trying to soothe her.
Avatar smiled. “There is much time for answers...much thou must be made to understand. Know this, we are in a place of safety, of peace... a sanctuary from the coldness of the Galaxy.” He paused, mostly for emphasis, she suspected. “We call our home Eden, named for the Human legend of paradise. For we have taken nothingness and created something anew here, transforming desolation into a paradise of our very own.“
”How...do you know about the legend of Eden? You aren’t Humans from Earth. Did you--”
“Enough of this!” Militant snapped, speaking up for the first time. “Woman, we are the ones demanding answers here, not thou! Who art thou? Where did thy come from? And how were thoust flying a mech ship?” He stepped forward forcefully.
“Be calm, Militant,” Avatar said, holding his hand out to keep the other from coming closer to Sunfire. “She is a Human as we are--a fellow Child and shall be treated as such.” He strode closer to her, smiling politely.
“You must excuse, Militant’s more... blunt approach to matters. Still, his inquiries are valid. The state we found thou in lent itself to more mysteries than it answered. If thou could explain how thy got in the predicament we found thou in, it would be greatly appreciated.”
Sunfire nodded. She knew that the Masters were more mentally advanced than the Humans of Earth and had developed powers such as simple telepathy. Fortunately, Avatar was the courteous type and would not enter her mind to gain his answers. The thought had crossed Militant’s mind, but thus far, she’d kept him from reading her thoughts by distracting his sub-conscious mind with other concerns. Still, she’d suspected she had better start allowing them to read her surface thoughts to maintain the illusion of normality, or they would discover she was not an ordinary Human.
“I first want to thank you for helping me out--I would have died without your assistance. And you’re right, I do you owe you some answers.” She exhaled slowly, collecting herself. “I am an ally of the Autobots and had been flying the ship in a scouting mission for them when I was attacked by a Decepticon vessel. They pursued me for several star systems. I had tried everything to escape them, but my ship’s weaponry was too light and I couldn’t evade them. They finally managed to take my ship’s shields out and then destroyed the main energizers on my ship and the life support systems. They...must have scanned me and known they were only fighting a Human and decided to destroy the life support systems, so I’d suffocate....” She trailed off for dramatic effect.
“They’re like that...” she said, her voice trembling slightly for their benefit. “The Decepticons have no regard for us...we’re less than alive to them. All they care about is the machine lifeform--at least, the Autobots realized we were worth protecting...” she sobbed then, forcing herself to finish the sentence. “If only they could’ve saved Earth too...”
Avatar took her hand in his and sat down on the bed beside her. “I am truly outraged by the Decepticons callousness for our own kind!” he snapped, looking deeply in her eyes. He seemed warm and genuinely concerned for her well being. “But they will pay for their disregard for our kind. Thou hast thy promise on that.”
“Thank  you...” she said softly. He smiled at that and rose quickly, letting go of her hand. He seemed almost embarrassed by the attention, Sunfire noticed. Had she done something wrong?
“How do we know thy ship wasn’t part of the recent invasionary force to our world?” Militant demanded. “Maybe thou were some kind of back-up plan to finish us off if the first teams failed!”
“That’s preposterous,” Avatar retorted, noting Sunfire’s uncomprehending expression as he did. “We have already determined that they landed here accidentally. Our own scans revealed that one vessel was pursuing the other and they crashed here. Our world’s security is maintained...”
“And how was she flying a mech ship? Why does she look like a Master? Earth’s people have not advanced as far as we have yet, so how is it possible?” Militant looked menacingly at her. “Explain thyself, woman!”
Sunfire looked back at him, attempting to keep her own expression and posture strong. She used the eye contact as a distraction to subtlely probe the other’s mind for a few facts, before she formulated her response.
“I had an autopilot system!” she snapped, abruptly standing upright and holding Militant’s eye contact. “You have heard of such a thing, haven’t you? It’s a machine that does the work for you by voice command!”
“We have no way to prove such a thing existed--we have already destroyed thy vessel! How convenient for thou...”
“Yes, your own stupidity is convenient!” Sunfire retorted.
“Enough of this!” Avatar intervened between the two of them. “Our studies did detect artificial intelligence systems on the crashed vessel.” He looked at her. “Is this what thou meant?”
“Yes...it’s a non-sentient computer system. Most space faring races have them from what we’d understood...”
Avatar nodded. “I believe her.”
Militant fumed, his body practically shaking from his own anger. “Fine. And what of her appearance?”
Sunfire sighed. “Look, some Humans have silver hair... some of us change the color for fashion reasons,” although the concept seemed rather strange to her personally. ”And some of us, maybe one in ten thousand, have it naturally.” She gently grasped a few of her strands and shrugged.
“This is reasonable,” Avatar agreed. He looked to Militant beside him. “Now, do thoust have any other questions or can we safely assume she is not a mech?”
The other said nothing, merely crossed his arms and let out a grunt of disgust.
“Thou must forgive him. It is the Militant Prime’s job to assess potential security risks to our peoples and find ways to neutralize them,” Avatar explained to her. “He merely gets a little overenthusiastic sometimes.”
“I live to serve my people. I make no apologies for that.”
“And so thou shouldn’t,” Avatar replied. “Thou have the right spirit, Militant. Thou just need be more patient sometimes.”
Militant Prime remained silent at that, leading Sunfire to believe that Avatar may have struck home with his point.
He turned to her and smiled. “Thy would like thou to see the rest of our world, if thou art interested.”
“Of course.” Sunfire nodded in agreement.
“Need I remind thou that she is an Autobot ally”? Militant interjected in a beaten tone--as if he knew how Avatar would already answer. “We are enemies of all the mechs race, not just some of it. She cannot be trusted!”
“That is simply because she does not know the Truth yet,” Avatar replied as predicted. His gaze met Sunfire’s as he spoke. “Once she does, she will understand and I believe feel motivated to join our holy cause.”
Sunfire shot him her most intense, honest-filled look. “If this truth is that important--honorable enough, that I should need to renounce my previous allegiance...then I will.”
Avatar gave Militant a subtle glance and a mix of defeat and disgust crossed the other’s face as he received it.
“Now, Milady,“ he addressed Sunfire. “What is thou name?”
Sunfire smiled. “My name... is Sunfire.”
“Cometh then, and see what wonders await thee...” He motioned for her to follow him as the wall rippled open once more, allowing access to the corridor beyond. Together, Avatar Prime, Sunfire, Militant Prime and the Sentinel walked out in succession.
*            *            *
Matthew Kirkby let out a sigh and continued attempting to meditate. After another couple of minutes, he stopped and looked up at the Decepticon standing off the waterfall to his right side.
“What’s the point of all this again?” he asked. “How will this save Gwen from Starscream’s control?”
Face strode closer to him. All about them, a virtual landscape of a tropical rainforest surrounded the two. Matt sat cross-legged on the shore beside the storming river which was fed by a nearby enormous waterfall. Matt was bombarded by the sights and sounds about him; the songs of exotic birds filled the background, sweet perfume from a kaleidoscope of flowers filled the air and even virtual mosquitoes swarmed about here and there--much to his annoyance.
“It is quite simple actually,” Face replied. “By learning to clear your mind and be patient, you will better learn how to combat Starscream. Remember, she is a formidable foe and if you are distracted by thoughts of Gwen--or anything else--you will lose and die.”
“That doesn’t sound too pleasant,” Matt mumbled.
‘No, it doesn’t,’ Whisper’s voice agreed in his mind.
“You must be focused and in the clarity of the moment in order to see Starscream’s plan of attack before she can use it. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” Matt responded. “But, why didn’t you just tell me that earlier?”
“It was part of the process of learning that patience...” Seeing the other’s annoyed expression, he allowed himself a slight smile. “You have progressed well these past few days, Matthew. Learned at a far accelerated rate--possibly due to your binary bonding to Whisper. But it takes one a lifetime to truly master these techniques and I must make do with teaching you the basics in a greatly reduced amount of time.”
Matt nodded at that. It had been a grueling four and a half days since Face had started him on these meditation techniques. Somehow, Face had gotten Talon a little time off during a rather hectic time for the Decepticon Empire--whether through influencing others’ minds or through the simple logic that he was too green yet for full scale combat. At any rate, he had been forcing Matt to rise early every morning and had put him through a variety of holo simulations. The tropical beach the first day, some sort of mountain monastery the next, a lone windy plain yesterday and now the rainforest. All were meditation sessions lasting hours and with incidental little annoyances working against him--his own tiredness, holo insects, violent gusts of wind, wind chimes, etc.
But he had weathered them thus far, surpassing even his own expectations. He had found a certain level of inner calm despite the discomfort and inconveniences. The second and third days had rushed by relatively fast and today, Face had arrived in the middle of this meditation session to observe--he suspected that had been what had distracted him today. The presence of his instructor at this session seemed a little unnerving compared to the solitude he and Whisper had previously experienced.
“Distraction is the enemy of your inner calm,” Face explained. “You have succeeded against minor distractions such as the holograms, but you must be able to do more. A real person in your presence must not be able to invade your calm--otherwise, you will not prevail in battle against an enemy.”
“I think I just need more practice,” said Matt defensively. “A real opponent is another step up from what I’ve been doing so far.”
“Of course,” Face agreed. “Still, you must be made ready for such an occurance--it is your only hope of defeating Starscream.” His comlink chimed at that. “Excuse me for a moment, Matthew.”
Face turned and walked a few steps away. “Yes?” he spoke, as he tapped the activation panel on his link.
“This is Soundwave. Megatron requires your presence immediately at our tactical meeting. It is already 13:10 hours.”
Face looked down at his chronometer. “Apologies to our Commander, Soundwave. I was engaged in a tactical simulation and lost track of the time. I will be there immediately, of course.” He tapped his comlink, shutting it off.
“I guess you’ll be going then?” Matt asked, noting the expression on what little he could see of the other’s face.
“It would appear so,” Face replied. He looked down at his pupil. “Before I go, however, I believe it is time for a new challenge.”  
He produced a comp pad and tapped a few commands into it. Immediately, the simulation changed into a cityscape scenario--the first non-nature setting Matt had yet been involved in. The two of them stood on a narrow boulevard dividing a noisy highway. To either side of them, six lanes of bustling traffic rushed by, their hoverjets roaring and being intensified by the deep concrete canyon design of the highway. Matt immediately recognized the scent of that odd combination of dust and pollution all busy roadways held.
“When you have passed this test,” Face spoke loudly over the noise. “You be ready for the next phase.” At that, he pressed a button on his comp pad, turned and left through the just-opened holo chamber doors. After a moment, they slid shut behind him and the illusion returned, concealing them once more.
Matt looked at the noise and traffic charging past him and groaned loudly. He sincerely hoped Gwen was worth all of this effort...
*            *            *
Tempest awoke to see Megatron and Frostwing standing nearby her bed. Casting a quick glance at the room, she came to realize she was in the Dark Glory’s Medcenter, although she had no idea how she’d gotten there.
“Greetings, Tempest,” Megatron said. “I see you have finally come out of your comatose state. I trust you are feeling better?”
“Yeah...I think,” she replied. “It’s nice of the brass to come down and visit. So, what’s the occasion?”
“We were hoping you could tell us,” Frostwing said. “You appear to have been involved in some type of explosion in Corridor 132-T. A strong electromagnetic burst shut down our security sensors in that area and we have no recordings of the incident in question.”
Tempest looked straight ahead, her optics unfocused on any object as she attempted to replay the scene in her mind. She had been walking down the corridor pondering recent events when… a flash of light… pain…
“I dunno,” Tempest told her. “It must’ve been some system that blew out and just happened to go at the right time to smack me down.” She gave them a bewildered expression and shrugged.
A strange sensation crept into her mind just then and the realization of what had actually occurred struck her. She had to get rid of these two and be alone now--she had to be alone with her thoughts so she could cope with the new reality of her situation...
“All right,” Megatron said after a moment. He cast a glance at Frostwing and the two seemed to exchange some sort of look. He turned back to Tempest. “If Frostwing has any more questions of you, I expect your full cooperation.”
“You got it, Boss.”
The two turned and left the Medcenter, walking out into the corridor beyond.

“Well?”
“I think she’s hiding something,” Frostwing replied. “After all, with the sensors in that area out we just have her word for what happened. And Tempest’s file suggests a certain level of impetuousness-I could easily see her lying.”
Megatron nodded. He recalled the name Tempest as having been the codename of the Decepticon scout sent to locate Midnight on Cindras 2 some time ago. Surely, this was just an odd coincidence though--the two events were not related as far as he could surmise.
They had nothing to go on, really. Except for a mutual feeling that something further was going on beyond what they had been told. And he did not like secrets…
“Something does seem amiss about this whole situation...” Megatron spoke softly, keeping his voice low to avoid being overheard. “Keep a discreet watch on her.”
Frostwing nodded.

     Tempest wasn’t sure they’d believed her story. But right now she had bigger concerns to worry about--like the truth.
It had been an ethereal assassin whom had attacked her and left her unconscious... and when she’d just awoken, much to her horror, she’d discovered her awareness was no longer present. The Three had passed some sort of judgment upon her and removed her powers!
It could only have been in punishment for using her Syntara powers to destroy Midnight back on Cindras 2.  She’d known it was wrong at the time--a violation of Syntara law to actively use her powers in the physical universe, but she’d ignored it. Bent on avenging Sunfire’s death she had not thought--she had just acted.
She had hoped to return some time to the Three and explain her actions, but it would not be now. They had passed judgment upon her actions and decided to strip her of her powers.
She’d never thought they’d do this to her--she’d never thought they’d go this far! Especially after how loyal she’d been over the millennia in all her previous assignments. She’d only ever seen an ethereal assassin once before, countless millennia ago when one had hunted down and killed a rogue Syntara.
It seemed an overreaction to strip her of her powers--her very essence. But they had done so in judgment and she suspected there would be no turning back now. The Three were not quick to resolve but once they had done so, they believed they had considered all possible outcomes in making their decision and it was difficult to convince them otherwise.
This was all too new, too difficult for her to accept. Tempest had no powers, no higher awareness, no status among her own kind any more… she had most certainly been removed from the mission she had been assigned to.
What now? Why had they bothered sparing her life? She had no further purpose in the Universe without her assignment! Tempest’s mind reeled with the possibilities, the confusion of it all… the Transformers were on a collision course with destruction and she had been marooned among them--powerless, helpless when the time came.
She collapsed onto the pillow on the medbed. For the first time in her life, she didn’t know what to do.
*            *            *
Starscream crept along a silent corridor of a little occupied maintenance section of the Dark Glory. It had taken several days for her to stumble onto a method to crack the triple-encryption protocol on the personal log files of Megatron’s that she’d stolen. But now, she had found someone off ship whom was said to be a master decrypter.
And after fueling up to maximum and disabling the security sensors in this section, she was ready to depart the mammoth Decepticon fortress for her new found destination. It would’ve been a lot harder to escape the ship normally, but since they were currently cloaked while they scouted out these mysterious Disciples of Primus for a serious offensive strike, the ship was parked in a fixed orbit and pretty much all of its personnel’s attention was trained on Cybertron and their newest enemy.
Finding the airlock she was seeking, she entered the chamber and closed it behind her. Carefully prying the controls open, she set about rewiring them to bypass the security protocols and open without a password. She did not want to use her own identification for fear it would alert the bridge to her presence and they would capture her there, with the justification Megatron needed to have her executed for good. No, this would be easier and allow her the opportunity regain access after she returned--after all, she didn’t know what would greet her on the other end of her journey and it made sense not to limit her options.
Succeeding in her action, the outer door of the airlock opened and she floated outside the ship’s hull. Smiling at her freedom, she spun and looked in the direction of the silent Cybertron for a moment. Its silvery beauty was apparent even from this angle...
Swiftly, she transformed to her spacecraft mode, making sure her Headmaster was stowed safely inside her cockpit. Firing her retro rockets, she floated to where she thought the edge of the cloaking envelope was. Piercing it, she fired her engines to full and thundered into the interdimensional nexus of Hyperspace.