“You’ve double-checked?”

 “Yep. We ain’t got no more blank pods, Boss Monkey. I’ve been searchin’ all day.”

 “You know, you need to stop calling me that,” Optimus Primal reminded the Transmetal rat, “I’m a bat now.”

 “Sorry. Force of habit. You change bodies so much, I lose track.”

 “What about the long-range scanners? Have they picked up any?”

 “None that we can get to. That alien shield-thingy is still surrounding all the stasis pods we know about.”

 “Well… that’s just prime. Prometheus, do you know any way to deactivate that thing?”

 “Even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you,” Prometheus retorted, glaring at Optimus- if that was possible, considering Prometheus had no visible eyes.

 “Answer Prahmal’s question, or Ah’l blow yer head into next week,” Ironhide threatened, pushing his gun up against Prometheus’ black, eyeless head.

 “Okay, okay! I don’t know- really. The only Vexorans who knew how to deactivate the shield were Star Captain Gragnox, my eldest son Scourge, and Tarad, and they’re all dead.”

 “Well, then we’ll have to make use with what we’ve got,” Primal sighed. “Prometheus, that flesh sack you have Rhinox’s spark in- it protects the spark just like if it was in a real transformer shell, correct?”

 “Correct. It keeps the spark suspended in a vacuum. As long as the sack is not punctured, the spark will be fine.”

 “Hmmm…. Airazor, I’m going to expand a little on your idea you had last night- the one about building a new, temporary body for Rhinox.”

 “I must protest against this ridiculous idea, Optimus,” Dinobot said. “As much as I would like Rhinox to be back, it would just be a waste of our time- not to mention that Rhinox would be utterly useless on the battlefield even if we do manage to cobble something together.”

 “I know,” Optimus answered, “But I’m thinking of integrating Rhinox’s spark with something- a new defense system, perhaps, since Sentinel has been stolen by the Predacons. That would not only solve the problem of Rhinox being inert, but it would give him some strategical value as well.”

 “Wait, wait, wait-“ Rattrap said. “You mean if this thing goes through, I’m gonna have Rhinox’s face on all the computer screens, watching whatever I do!? I don’t want that!”

 “Don’t worry, Rattrap,” Optimus chuckled,  “I’ll make sure he’s- limited- to one section of our computer system.”

 “Yeah, well… it’s still gonna freak me out.”

 “Okay, people,” Optimus said, changing the subject, “Let’s get moving. Grimlock, you go ahead and lock up Prometheus in his air-tight cell until I figure out what to do to him. Rattrap, Airazor, Tigerhawk- you three continue on your search tomorrow morning for parts you think would be useful in building Rhinox’s new body. See you all tomorrow.”

 Prometheus was awakened from his slumber when he heard a soft thud outside of his cell.

 “Who’s there?” Prometheus asked, angry that he had gotten waken up.

 “An old friend….”

 An intense red light shot through the door, and within minutes, the five-inch thick iron door was reduced to hot molten slag. A dark figure stepped into the room, training his laser-eye sight on Prometheus.

 “N-Nighteye?” Prometheus stammered, unbelieving. “W-what happened to you?! You look like one of the Transformers! And h-how did you get on this planet?! I thought you died when the ship blew!”

 An alarm immediately started to go off outside the cell. Nighteye took note of it and started to talk faster.

 “I wish I could explain, but I’m afraid I don’t have the time right now. Let’s just say that, after spending several days with these… Maximals….. I have come to realize that they are not the pathetic, underling creatures we thought them to be. I am surprised you have not come to realize the same, old friend. I know you- I know what you are thinking. I will not allow you to harm these Maximals in any way. The Maximals, as intelligent as they may be, have not realized yet that some beings- you included- are not worthy of any trust whatsoever. And so I bid you farewell, friend- for your destruction will ensure these Maximals’ survival.”

 And that was the last thing Prometheus heard before his world went black.

 “Aw, great…..” Rattrap groaned, upon entering the jail hall and seeing the melted prison doorway. He was already ticked when he heard the alarm go off in the middle of the night, but then Optimus had to send HIM to investigate, as well…

 Rattrap took out his gun, and silently sneaked up to the doorway.

 Please don’t tell me he’s still in here….. I don’t wanna be slagged…

 He jumped into the cell, pointing his gun in front of him, and firing off a shot instinctively.

 “Take this, ya alien- GAHH!”

 “Silverwing, you aren’t thinking….”

 “I’m sorry, my love. I would love to stay on Cybertron and be with you, but this is my last chance.”

 “But-“

 “Don’t fret, Blacklight. The Axalon is only taking in crew members for a few more megacycles. This is the last exploration ship taking off for more than five stellar cycles, and I’ll be too old of a ‘bot if I wait any longer. You know how much I want to go out on one last mission for my people. Besides, if this “protoform” technology really works, whenever I re-emerge, it will re-energize my body as well, making my systems work like they are brand new. Then, beloved, when I come back home to you in another stellar cycle or so, we can carry on with our lives… and I will be with you until our sparks join the Matrix.”

 “You always were a sweet-talker. But it’s not working this time. A stellar cycle is almost a year in Earth time! I can’t bear to be apart from you for that long!”

 “You needn’t worry, my love. I’ll contact you every week to see how you’re doing.”

 “But it isn’t the same! Why can’t I go with you?”

 “The Maximals need your skills here. You’re one of the best diplomats our kind has to offer, and if anyone can bend the Predacons into compromising with us, it’s you.”

 Silverwing gave her a long hug, and Blacklight returned the favor, knowing in her spark that her mate was right.

 After their long embrace, Silverwing reluctantly stepped back, waved good-bye, and transformed into his silver-and-gold jet mode, streaking toward the Cybertronian spaceport.

 “Goodbye…” Blacklight waved, although Silverwing was already out of sight.

 Enough doddling, Blacklight thought to herself. Time to make your move.

 As soon as the red-and-black guard turned his back to Blacklight’s position, she snuck out from behind the fence and crept toward the entrance to the spaceport. In her alternate mode, she resembled a Cybertronian rutmore- a tiny mechanical insect that could camouflage itself to blend almost seamlessly with its surroundings. Blacklight had incorporated this ability into her beast mode as well, allowing her to sneak past the guard, even after he turned around and started to patrol towards her.

 As soon as Blacklight had crawled far enough away from the guard so he couldn’t hear her, she let out a sigh of relief.

 Now all I have to do is figure out which shuttle he’s in, she thought to herself.

 Lightspeed… no… Blockade… no… Axalon.. that’s it!

 As Blacklight crawled toward the Axalon, she asked herself why she had even come here in the first place. Although she tried to fool herself into thinking it was to help the crew of the Axalon on their exploration mission, she knew deep down that wasn’t it. She loved Silverwing with all her heart, and she wasn’t about to let him go off for that long of a time without her. Wouldn’t he be surprised when all their pods were reawakened on some far-off alien world in a month or so, and his girlfriend would be standing right next to him!

 Blacklight quivered with delight as she thought of that moment.

 Soon, Blacklight had reached the Axalon’s entry port, surrounded by a small wall of stasis pods. Looking around carefully, she saw that no guards were in the near vicinity, and Blacklight silently transformed to her robot mode. She knew that she would now have to act quickly, since her camouflage abilities wouldn’t work in her robot mode.

 Blacklight gently took one of the empty stasis pods off of the top of the stack and placed in on the ground. She activated the pressure hatch that opened up the glass top of the pod, and slid in quietly, closing the lid behind her.

 After about five cycles, as per the pod’s programming, it sent an electric jolt through her- it was essentially painless, but it did knock her into stasis lock.

 The next day, Blacklight was loaded into the Axalon’s cargo hold, and converted into a protoform.

 “All Maximals please report to the command center immediately. Code Beta.”

 Optimus’ loud, commanding voice over the intercom jolted Blackarachnia out of her slumber.

 Sitting straight up in her recharge bed, the spiderbot rubbed her head slowly.

 “Ugh…. Computer, lights on.”

 The Maximal computer system in Blackarachnia’s room merely beeped softly in reply, and the lights flickered on.

 After giving her optics a moment to adjust to the sudden flood of light, Blackarachnia slowly sat up and slowly walked to the entrance to the room. Her optics wandered around her room a moment, but when they stopped when they reached a picture of Silverbolt and her.

 “Silverbolt… was… that… you?”

 “This had better be good,” said Dinobot, grumbling as he came into the main command room, rubbing his optics and yawning. “I was dreaming I had strangled a certain vermin’s life out of his very body.”

 “Eh, nice to see you too, Chopperface.” Rattrap replied sarcastically, eyeing Dinobot’s feet. “’Ey, just wondering….were you dreaming about strangling the life outta me with or without the bunny slippers?”

 Dinobot’s optics quickly opened as wide as they could at that comment. As soon as Dinobot realized what he had left on, he tromped off back to his room grumbling, a soft squeaking resounding from his feet with each step.

 “So, what’s the emergency?” Airazor asked. All of the other Maximals had shown up, most of them only half online.

 “Maximals,” Optimus said, sighing, “It seems out main source of information has been… cut short.”

 “Meaning…?” Prowl asked impatiently.

 “Prometheus has been killed.”

 A soft gasp escaped from some of the Maximals as soon as Optimus had finished speaking. Any transformers that weren’t awake before definitely were now.

 “Yep, saw it with my own two optics,” Rattrap said. “Now, let’s cut the small talk, shall we? Which one o’ you traitors did it?”

 “Rattrap, please,” Optimus replied sternly. “Now, I realize none of us were exactly friends with Prometheus, but that was no reason to go and kill him. He had some valuable information that I’m sure we could have weedled out of him eventually. Now, I’m giving whoever did this a chance to come clean. I’m willing to go easy him or her if he or she confesses right now.”

 Silence.

 “Anyone?”

 Still silence. Most of the Maximals were starting to look pretty uneasy.

 Optimus sighed. “All right then, we’ll do this the hard way. Rattrap, fetch-“

 “I did it.”

 Optimus’ head jolted up at the confession.

 “Who said that?”

 “I did,” resounded a deep voice behind the Maximal leader.

 A large transformer seemed to suddenly appear, emerging from the shadows. He was roughly the size of Depth Charge. His large, black wings were retracted back into his sides as far as they could be, and as he walked toward Optimus, his silver talons scraped the metal floor. His face had a very uneven look to it, immediately identifying him as a Transmetal 2. He also had some silver runes inscribed into his forehead- what they meant, Optimus was not sure.

 Optimus immediately activated his Transmetal 2 nanite armor, not wanting to take any chances.

 “Who are you?” Optimus demanded, taking a battle stance.

 “I killed Prometheus,” the transformer said, ignoring Optimus’ question. “If it wasn’t necessary, believe me, I would not have done it. As it was, he was merely a time bomb waiting to explode. Eventually, you Maximals would have let your guard down- not completely, but just enough to let Prometheus take advantage of it. Once you did, I’m sure it would have proven fatal- you would have all been dead within the next few megacycles.”

 “Who are you!?” Optimus said, shrugging off the transformer’s narration.

 “I am Nighteye,” the winged ‘bot responded, a bit sarcastically- if sarcasm could be detected at all within that deep voice. “I have a hunter owl for a beast mode, and I fly via ion thrusters, not by flapping my wings. There. Are you happy now?”

 “It dep-“

 “That information isn’t relevant to this discussion, however,” Nighteye interrupted. “What IS relevant is that you Maximals need to learn not to trust any of Prometheus’ kind. As I have found out, they are prone to lie, convincing those who would hear of their misconceived notions, and killing those who would not.”

 “What do you mean, ‘as you have found out’?” Dinobot asked, an eyebrow (or the equivalent of it) cocked. Dinobot had walked in, albeit startled at this strange transformer’s appearance, during Nighteye’s first narration. “Have you had any past experience with these aliens?”

 “They are called Vexorans,” Nighteye responded, “And yes, I have. In fact, I am one of them.”

 All of the Maximals, minus Rattrap, immediately drew their weapons out upon hearing this.

 “’Den why don’t ya change back into your old Vex-whatever self ta prove it to us, hmm?” Rattrap asked, a little skeptical.

 “I can’t,” Nighteye responded, a note of sadness detected in his voice. “Scourge, Prometheus’ cursed first-born, had betrayed me, and threw me into an escape pod, launching it and sending me tumbling to Earth. As young as the lad was, he was very strong. My pod crashed here on Earth, so messed up that the form it gave to me, it gave to me permanently. I couldn’t morph out of it. So, I am stuck forever in this transformer body.”

 “But why haven’t you attacked us yet?” Optimus questioned. “I thought you Vexorans were determined to either keep us in tests forever or see us dead.”

 “Originally, I was that way,” Nighteye regretfully admitted, “But, since landing on this planet and observing you transformers after you came back as well, I have learned differently. You transformers seem to behave in much the same way as we Vexorans do- emotionally, at least. I was led to believe that all transformers were inferior, worthless creatures, with no emotions whatsoever. You have proved me wrong, and I am very sorry for any pain my fellow Vexorans may have caused you.”

 “Then why not join us?” Optimus replied, relaxing a little. “You would not only be helping us defeat the Predacons and save our race, but you would be paying off your debt to us as well.”

 “Boss, are you off yer rocker!?” Rattrap protested. “We just met the guy, he claims he’s an alien, he looks tough enough to take on half of us at once, and you want to INVITE HIM TO JOIN OUR TEAM!?”

 “Regretfully, I must agree with the vermin,” Dinobot responded. “This can only end in pain.”

 “Hmmm… that’s interesting,” Optimus said. “Because that’s not the way it turned out with you.”

 Dinobot stood stark silent, while Rattrap mumbled something under his breath.

 “So, how about it?” Optimus said, disengaging his Transmetal 2 armor. “Will you join our team, Nighteye?”

 “No,” Nighteye responded. “I have few things to work out eternally, first. And, it seems your teammates are not up to the idea of accepting me. I would prefer to take my chances alone- at least, for now.”

 “I understand,” Optimus responded, although obviously saddened a little at Nighteye’s refusal. “However, if you ever change your mind, I’ll always be here.”

 “Thank you, Optimus Primal,” Nighteye replied, transforming into his beast mode. “I shall take my leave- for now.”

 Nighteye quickly engaged his ion thrusters and took off out of the base, leaving the Maximals silent- some because of confusion, some because of anger, some because of pity for Nighteye. Slowly, some of the Maximals made their way off to their quarters.

 Silverbolt, Blackarachnia, Grimlock, Airazor, Gryphtron, Tigerhawk, and Prowl, however, made their way up to Optimus.

 “What is it?” Optimus asked, seeing the look of worry and/or anxiety on all his friends’ faces.

 “Well, you see, Optimus,” Airazor began, “I had a dream while I was in recharge mode and I- I need to talk with you….about it.”

 The other Maximals that had come up to Optimus looked at Airazor in bewilderment.

 “You’re kidding,” Blackarachnia said. “That was exactly the same reason I came to see Optimus too.”

 “Same with Grimlock,” Grimlock said.

 Tigerhawk, Silverbolt, Gryphtron, and Prowl all nodded affirmatives, too.

 “All right, let’s go to my office,” Optimus replied, sighing. “It’s going to be a looooong night.”

 Megatron was awakened from his slumber by a familiar voice calling out his name- or, rather, his title.

 “Royalty!” Scavenger yelled anxiously, flying up to Megatron’s throne/bed on a hoverpad.

 “What IS it, Scavenger? I’m trying to get some sleep!”

 “I know, Royalty, and I am very sorry,” Scavenger said, bowing deeply, “But I had the strangest vision during my slumber! It had nothing to do with the colony or you, Royalty, and I- I am worried!”

 Megatron had no idea what Scavenger was babbling on about, and was about to respond when Sandstorm entered the room, on another hoverpad.

 “’Ey, Bossbot!” Sandstorm said, “Ah’m sorry to wake you, but- oh, wait, yer already awake. Anyway, I had a dream, and it was really weird- and it had you in it, too. But it felt so real, Ah’m really startin’ to wonder if it was a dream at all…”

 Before Megatron could say something, Buzzclaw, Octopod, and Manticron all entered the room, too, yammering on about some dream as well.

 “What is going on here!?” yelled Megatron, silencing all the conflicting voices.

To be continued……

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