Transformers VG (Fan Fic)

[sonicgirl313]

Chapter 26

Ironlink's blue optics glanced around at the many Autobots present in the Command Room. His vents deeply cycled in air as he shuttered his optics, gathering his thoughts. After a few seconds he gently banged his servos against the control panel, prompting all the Autobots to turn their helms toward him. Seeing he had gained their attention, he nodded to Wheelegad who immediately typed away at the control panel and brought up the image of the map on the ship's computer screen with two sets of signals.

"Alright guys listen up." Ironlink said in a loud and commanding tone, "We got two situations here. Thanks to the efforts of Windike and the Dinobots, we know that Shadowarachnia is commanding the Insecticons. Mastertran-1 managed to pick up their signals with the scan range and they along with readings of a large amount of energy was heading for the city. I'm going to need one group to take them out and if you can, take Shadowarachnia into custody. We're not sure if we can restore her back to being Peach-One but it's best if she was in our custody since her cyber-venom provides an advantage to the Decepticons."

He took a pause as he walked over to the other side of the screen and pointed his index digit at the signal readings before continuing "About three breems ago, Mastertran-1 received an Autobot distress signal around the same coordinates where the Decepticons crashed into the ocean, obviously they were taken prisoner so I'll need a small rescue team but you'll have to be wary since you'll be in the enemy's territory."

Jazzden glanced over at the screen before stating "Calliester, Trailston, and I will take the Dinobots and deal with the Insecticons. With Callister's ability to pick up the human radiowaves, it'll be a snap for her to pick up the human authorities so we can stay out of sight and Kongbreaker's forcefeild can make sure the Dinobots don't cause too much damage since they'll be needed to them since Shadowarachnia's cyber-venom is useful on them while in dino form."

"And I guess me and Sun here will rescue the Autobot from the Decepticon ship, we've handled worse." Sidesnake said as he gestured his servos at his twin who glared at him.

Ironlink nodded his helm, prompting the selected Autobots to dash out of the Ark while the rest returned to the normal routines but remained on standby in case they were needed.
Descole watched the Autobots leave while he was assembling a broken blaster, finding it surprising how many parallels he continued to draw with the Cybertronians and the Gollums built by the ancient Azran civilization. He was stirred from his thoughts when noticed Ness and Jeff entered the room with disturbed expressions.

"What's wrong with you boys?" he asked as he set down his tools.

Ness sighed before he answered "I'm a little worried about Paula. She's never left the Medbay ever since Bulkmurray fell into stasis. I've seen her constantly using her PK healing powers, hoping maybe they could heal him much like they could humans but it never works. It's getting harder and harder to explain to her parents for her constant absence."

"And Ratchet stated that he noticed that Daisy is having a little more trouble recovering thanks to venom being more effective against her organic half thanks to the venom mostly being an organic substance due to Shadowarachnia's own technorganic nature. He's not sure how much longer it'll take for her to recover. If only there was an antidote, then Ratchet could treat them and they all could recover faster." Jeff stated with a frown.

Descole was about to comment but then he paused when he thought about Jeff saying the word antidote. He firmly pressed his index and middle fingers against the side of his forehead and tapped it a few times in thought; he recalled how people create antidotes by gathering samples of the venom that want to counteract before injecting it in animal's bloodstream and extracting the blood which contains antibodies fighting against the venom. Without warning his crimson-like eye snapped open and he snapped his fingers when an idea struck him.

"We can create an antidote, all we need is to gather a sample of her venom." he said with a victorious smirk.

The two young boys' frown vanished at they stared at each other in shock before Descole proceeded to explain his plan on how to obtain the venom.

Meanwhile in the city, Shadowarachnia sat on the perch of the building, watching as the Insecticons assemble a large signal antennae with grunts and groans. Once they held it stable, she shot some of her webbing at the base of the antennae to temporarily hold it in place before she made her way over to the small control panel and made sure everything is properly functioning.

"Why do we even have to set up this stupid antennae poyo?" Sharpkirby grumble as he continued to firmly hold it in place.

"Because I need it for your clones. I want a large transmission range so they'll be able to pick up my commands from hundreds of kliks away. I'll need them ready in case..." she started to stay.

But her chassis stiffened when she found herself interrupted by a familiar voice saying "In case of what, Shadowarachnia?"

The black femme spun around to be immediately greeted with the sight of Bowsertron and Jetdark landing on the roof. She did her best to hide back her snarl of anger at the fact she no longer had an advantage over the Decepticon Leader. She asked him how he managed to locate her only to grow confused when the gray mech explained how he had Vectorwave use his telepathic programs to gather information from an Autobot's processor he had recently captured.

"I learned she was a spy that was reporting on all events and that included you trying to build an army consisting of Insecticon clones behind my back." he stated with a hint of anger and malice lingering in his voice.

Shadowarachnia reared back her upper legs slightly as she noticed Jetdark shift one of his servos into his flamethrowers, preparing himself in case she decided to betray them. Deciding that she needed to salvage her efforts, she formed a sly smirk on her face as she walked over to Bowsertron.

"Lord Bowsertron." she began in a slight sultry tone as she fanned out her talons on her chestplates as if she was shocked and hurt, "Why would I ever want to betray the mech that plans to restore Cybertron back to its glorious state, after all I am no Wartscream. I did not tell you I was building an army simply because I did not see need to concern you. But now they are created, you can now use this army and crush the Autobots with greater numbers."

She smirked as she leaned herself on the gray mech's chestplates, prompting Jetdark to immediately point his flamethrower at her helm. She rolled her optics as she gently grabbed the orange mech's wrist and pulled away the flamethrower before directing her attention back to the Decepticon Leader. She noticed how he stared at her with a raised optic ridge to silently question her actions which only caused her smirk to grow slyer. She pushed up her pedes, allowing her to lean in close the mech's face and her other servo rested upon his shoulder.

"Believe me, Lord Bowsertron. I am completely loyal to you. If I wanted to betray you then I would have injected you with my cyber-venom by now." she stated.

Bowsertron did not reply as he thought about the femme's words. While he knew she did make valid points, he still wanted to keep his guard up in case she was lying, something he learned to do from Wartscream's many attempts to kill him and quickly try to regain favor by being a suck-up, something that annoyed him rather than pleased him. Without a word he finally gently pushed Shadowarachnia away before his red optics glanced at the antennae.

"So if I heard you correctly earlier, this antennae will send out commands to the Insecticon army?" he said.

"Yes, it'll basically amplify my command inputs, something that is really required because while the clones have the Insecticons abilities, they do not have freewill, meaning they're pretty much mindless beasts." she answered.

"Hey I resent that since there are clones of me!" Kickdedede yelled in anger.

Ignoring the Insecticon's comment the gray mech narrowed his optics in acceptance as he stated "Well your army will have the chance to prove themselves and we'll see how exactly loyal you are."

Without another word Bowsertron and Jetdark took off, allowing the femme to finally hiss in frustration as she stopped her heeled pede on the ground so hard that it cracked slightly. Her talons slightly dug into her arm slightly before she commanded the Insecticons to finish the construction on the antennae, having no other choice to set it up for the Decepticon Leader. But despite his knowledge of the Insecticon army, she still believed she had an advantage over him and that was that she could still control the army herself and if Bowsertron ever tries to eliminate her she would have her Insecticons at the ready.

Later that day Sidesnake and Sunsnake arrived at the ocean's edge where they knew the Autobot's distress signal was emitting from.

"Okay so we made it, now the question how are we suppose to rescue this Autobot without managing to get captured ourselves, after all this is basically entering the Decepticon base we're talking about." Sidesnake commented as he leaned over the water slightly, trying to see if he could spot any Decepticons leaving their ship.

"The obvious solution is stealth." Sunsnake answered as he summoned a small needle gun from his subspace, "Before we left, Wheelagad gave me some of the nanites Keiracer developed so we would appear as Decepticons on their radars."

"We let's hope he didn't try to alter them or there's a chance this will backfire on us." the red mech commented as his twin brother grabbed his arm and injected the nanites into him before doing the same to himself.

With the nanites hiding their signals, the two mechs entered radio silence before jumping in the water and allowing the heavy weight of their chassis to sink to the bottom. Once there they were able to easily find the crashed ship and spotted the hole left behind by Blurricks. Figuring it was the best way to get in, they both entered the hole and pulled themselves out of the water.
Sunstreaker signaled with his servo for them to split up before pressing the panel and opening the door. Within seconds he dashed away from his twin, searching for the prisoner cell. He kept running until he saw one of the doors opening up.

Thinking fast the mech slammed his chassis against the corner as he remained silent as he saw Vectorwave, Marible, and Skyreala walking down the hallway.

"Honestly, Skyreala, Vectorwave was getting the information perfectly fine. You didn't need to storm in and almost offline that Autobot. You know if her spark was extinguished, we wouldn't be able to get more information from her processor. It's a good thing Vectorwave called on me to get you away from her." the purple femme commented in a bitter tone as she glared at the black seeker.

"Well it was her fault she refused to shut up. Even while Vectorwave was gathering information, she still talked away about his abilities and kept constantly asking if he had spies planted all over the city. You should be thanking me for what I did." Skyreala snapped.

Sunstreaker raised an optic ridge upon hearing this as he left his hiding spot once the three Decepticons were gone. Wasting no time he ran over the door they left from and opened it up but the moment he stepped inside, much to his shock he immediately found himself harshly slammed to the ground. He glanced up to see none other than Blurricks glaring at him with coolant streaking down her face and in a fighting stance and one of her servos clasped against her neck. He grunted as he sat up, revealing the Autobot insignia on his chestplates.

Blurricks' glare immediately faded when she saw the mech she had attacked was a fellow Autobot. Without any hesitation she reached out with her free servo and helped the yellow mech stand back up.

"So I'm guessing you're the Autobot they took prisoner, well so much for gratitude." Sunsnake said with an annoyed sigh.

Blurricks nodded her helm as she smiled sheepishly, prompting the mech growing more confused at the fact she wasn't speaking. At that moment he remembered how Marible mentioned that Skyreala had did something that almost offlined her.

"Before we get out of here, I heard the Decepticons mention Skyreala did something to you, I would like to know so our medic back at the Ark can treat you." he stated.

The femme frowned sadly as her blue optics glanced downward. Her chassis shook slightly as she slowly lowered her servo from her neck, revealing a large gapping hole with torn circuitry and cables with her main energon cable barely avoided from getting torn with a few scratch marks. Her engine revved both in anger and sadness as she recalled Skyreala burst in the prison cell and dug his clawed digits deeply in her neck before ripping and pulling out her voice box, rendering her speechless.

Sunsnake didn't reply as he narrowed his optics, needing no words to guess how heartbroken the femme was from loosing her ability to speak. Figuring they stood around for too long, he gestured his servo behind him before dashing out of the prison cell with Blurricks trailing behind him. They kept running until he managed to spot Sidesnake running toward him with a panicked look.

"Sun, we need to go now!" the red mech shouted as he dashed pass the two Autobots.

Sunsnake was confused until he heard snarling and saw none other than Huntage and Laserduck dashing down the hallway. Wasting no time the mech and femme quickly turned around and chased after their fellow Autobot, making their way to the escape route. Within seconds they dashed into the room, prompting Sunsnake to hold the door closed while he yelled at his twin brother to get Blurricks to safety.
Sidesnake nodded his helm before wrapping his arm securely around the femme's midriff and jumped into the water. He didn't dare look back as he changed into his car form with Blurricks clinging onto his roof.

His engine revved loudly as he managed to zoom the water with ease before reaching shore once more. He changed back into his bipedal form and spun toward the ocean, growing a little worried if his twin brother made it out of the Decepticon ship. He stared at the ocean until finally much to his relief he saw a yellow car burst out of the water and screech to a stop.

"Sun, I was starting to worry you weren't able to escape." Sidesnake commented as the yellow mech transformed back into his bipedal form.

"By the way, do I dare ask how the pit you managed to get those two scrappers to chase your aft?" Sunsnake asked with his arms crossed as he shot an accusing glare toward his twin.

The red mech smiled nervously as he rubbed the back of his neck and replied "I sort of gave into temptation and used Laserduck as target practice. But it was worth it to see that robotic duck take a nose dive and Huntage have to catch him like one of those hunting dogs I've seen on TV."

Back in the city, Ness clutched his red cap in his hands tightly as he remained curled up in the floor of Trailston's vehicle form which he had snuck into before the troop took off. He couldn't believe his was following through Descole's plan to gather a sample of Shadowarachnia's cyber-venom to create an antidote. He thought back to the small meeting when the brown-headed man assigned him the duty of getting the sample, believing he would be able to defend himself better with his psychic powers and that the spider femme would be less likely to spot him with his small size.

"I just hope Espiowl never gets wind of this plan. If he were to find out, I would never hear the end of it." the young boy thought to himself before he finally felt Trailston stop.

"I just spotted Insecticons over on top of that building, Calliester check the radio waves." Jazzden stated.

Calliester turned the dial on her boom box until she picked up a news report about how the section of the city had been closed off for a film.

"We should be clear for now, but we need to be quick unless you want to be caught on film and used in a summer blockbuster where everyone will discover our existence." the femme stated.

Ness fortunately managed to crawl out of the black van unseen and unheard just in time as the Autobots transformed. His brown eyes glanced at the building, figuring that if Insecticons were up there then most likely Shadowarachnia would be there too. Gathering up his courage, he hands tightly gripped the large needle shot gun given to him by Descole as he quickly darted into the building.
Trailston formed his forcefield around the area as Jazzden called in for the groundbridge. Within seconds the green glowing gate appeared and out from it emerged the Dinobots.

"Where are those creeps, I'm dying to squash them." Snarldile commented with an excited grin.

"Wait don't go after them yet!" the Jazzden commanded as he pulled out his sword and stood his ground in front of the troop, "The last thing we need is for you Dinobots to bring a building crumbling down. What we need to do is draw the Insecticons to us so Trailston over here can contain most of the damage."

"Get their attention, oh that'll be a snap. Just watch me pull off this totally fresh maneuver." Calliester replied as she changed her servos into her sonic wave blasters and began playing loud rock music.

Upon hearing the loud music, the Dinobots immediately yelled out in pain as they slapped their servos over their audio receptors, preferring the idea of destroying the building instead of having to suffer what they considered to be wretched noise.
The music blared loudly as the sound waves were strong enough to reach the top of the building. The Insecticons were about to finish work on the antennae until the noise reached their audio receptors, prompting them to yell in pain.

"What's that horrible sound?" Kickdedede shouted, having trouble hearing due to the loud music.

"It sounds worse than Scraplets feasting on a Cybertronian." Metashell grumbled as he went over the edge and spotted Callister with the Dinobots.

"There's the source and those stupid Dinobots are there too poyo! Let's take them all down poyo!" Sharpkirby yelled before he jumped off the building with his blaster ready, shortly followed by his two companions.

Yoshilock stopped holding his servos over his audio receptors when he saw the Insecticons charging for them. His optics narrowed and a vicious grin formed on his face as he summoned his sword and made it engulfed in fire. The other Dinobots followed their leaders example and the moment the Insecticons finally reached the ground, they charged, burning with the need of vengeance.
Jazzden looked around and frowned when he saw there was no sign of Shadowarachnia; hoping she was still on the roof the white mech signaled to Calliester before he darted into the building, thankful that it wasn't occupied by any of the film crew.

Ness panted as he finally reached the top of the building, his lungs burning from the fact he made the mistake of running up the stairs. He took a few sluggish and tired steps as he looked around, searching for any sign of Shadowaracnia but much to his worry and fear, he saw no sign of her. But then without warning webbing had been shot at him, and firmly binding his arms in place. The young boy couldn't prevent the scream of fear emitting from his mouth as he was jerked up into the air and found himself dangling in front of the Decpeticon femme's face with her red optics narrowed, revealing the reason he hadn't spot her was because she had hid herself by hanging onto the back of the building, out from the sights of the Autobots.

"Don't think I didn't notice you snooping around." Shadowarchnia smirked.

She carefully studied the young boy's appearance, recalling how he was one of the children she saw trick-or-treating. Her optics glanced at his hands to see the needle shot gun still being held tightly in his grasp. Using her free servo, she managed to easily pluck it from his tight grip.

"And pray tell what were you planning to do with this?" she taunted as she kept constantly twirling it around one of her talons, "It has no liquid in it so you weren't planning to knock me out which means you were planning to obtain something from me, but the question is what that thing is."

Ness formed a brave and stern look on his face, doing his best to hide his fear from the Decepticon as he asked "How do you know it was you I was after, I could have been after one of the Insecticons."

Upon hearing this, Shadowarachnia chuckled slightly before answering "It's too painfully obvious because I have noticed that Prime himself has failed to make an appearance, meaning he's still in stasis lock thanks to my cyber-venom and while Metashell had caused that Autobot to get injured, there's nothing you can obtain from him since the Autobot can recover on his own, which leaves only me as the target."

The young boy did not reply as he glanced downward, unsure of what to say since now he knew he couldn't lie to trick the femme since she would be able to easily see through those lies.

The black and purple femme grinned darkly when she saw the boy's expression, knowing she was right, leading her believe the only thing he had came for was her venom in order to try to create an antidote to help the Autobots. She hummed slyly as a plan began formulating in her processor, believing that she could use the information to her advantage.

"You know, I already have antidotes since I was required to create them for the Decepticons incase any of them were accidentally stung by me. I would be happy to provide some to the Autobots if they do me one favor." she said as the boy stared up in her in confusion before continuing, "Give me Mario Prime."

[sonicgirl313]

Chapter 27

"What, you're expecting the Autobots to hand over Mario to the Decepticons?! They would never do that, not even for your antidotes that for all I could know could just be more cyber-venom just so you could finish off your victims!" Ness snapped as he jerked around his body in an attempt to free himself from his bonds.

Shadowarachnia hissed as she narrowed her red optics, infuriated that the young human dared to speak up to her when she could easily let go of the web that held him up and allow him to fall screaming to his death. She was about to open her mouth in reply until she heard a voice shout the words PK Fire loudly. The femme didn't have time to see where the yell had come from when within seconds a blast of fire hit her servo. She shrieked in pain and upon reflex, released the strand of web holding up Ness.

The young boy screamed as he started plummeting at tops speeds, but then much to his surprise his body jerked and slammed against the building. He squeezed his brown eyes shut when the glass window shattered and he tumbled into the room, with broken glass cracking underneath his body, stabbing into him and creating a few bleeding cuts. Ness groaned as he felt blood trickle down his forehead and to his nose. His senses were dulled to the point he could barely make out the footsteps running toward him.

His world continued spinning, unable to grasp his surroundings as someone sat him up and freed him from his bonds. The young boy blinked his eyes a few times until finally he felt warmth start spreading throughout his body. He sighed in relief as the old pain began to fade away but when his vision returned, he nearly jumped when he saw Paula holding his hand into both of hers as it glowed blue.

"Paula, what are you doing here?" Ness asked in confusion.

The blonde-headed girl glared at him before she released his hand and whacked him on the shoulder hard, earning a pained yelp from the boy due to the fact the pain from his previous wounds hadn't completely faded away.

"What was that for?" he said as he rubbed his arm.

"I heard you and Jeff talking with Descole about the crazy plan you've concocted! You're lucky I decided to sneak into Jazzden when I saw you climbing into Kongbreaker. Ness, what was going through your mind?!" Paula snapped with her hands firmly planted on her hips.

Ness sighed, understanding his friend's anger before explaining "I just wanted to help the Autobots, if Descole went to you instead of me and explained how the antidote would help the Autobots in the Medbay, including Bulkmurray and Daisy, tell me would you still say no even then?"

The young girl opened her mouth to immediately answer but much to her shock she froze when her mind was drawing blanks; she knew it was dangerous to try to gather venom from a deadly Decepticon but she couldn't find the strength to say she wouldn't face the danger especially if it meant to save her friends. Fortunately the tension filling the air was interrupted by a loud bang and the building shaking. The two children got up and ran out of the room and back up to the roof. Once there they were greeted by the sight of Jazzden clashing with Shadowarachnia in battle.

The white mech's working optic glanced at the spider legs slamming toward him before he quickly whipped around his sword and deflected the legs. He stayed aware of his surroundings as he watched the femme hiss as she cautiously circled him, searching for an opportunity to attack. He still found it hard to believe that the vicious femme before him was once the kind and brave femme commander Peach-One, leaving him to wonder exactly what the Decepticons did to her to leave her in such a state.

"I have to admire your bravery Autobot." Shadowarachnia taunted as she jumped back and shot some webbing, prompting Jazzden to quickly slice it in half with his sword before continuing, "I usually expect no one to face me with my ability to render my opponents helpless."

"That's because us Autobots refuse to give up on you, Peach." Jazzden replied in a stern tone.

The black and purple femme grinded her fanged denta together in anger before yelling "I am not Peach, I don't even know who this Peach is! At first I found it mildly amusing but now I've lost my patience that you scrap metals refuse to get your facts straight!"

Without warning she lunged at Jazzden and pinned him to the ground. She slammed her upper spider legs toward him but much to her frustration, he was able to hold them back with his sword.
The mech kicked his pede against her torso and knocked her off him. He managed to sit up just in time to see her transform into her spider form and charge toward him. Jazzden immediately got into a fighting stance with his sword ready, but much to his shock instead of attacking, the spider simply jumped over him and latched onto the side of the building and scampered down it at top speeds.

The mech was about to chase after her until he spotted both Ness and Paula watching from their hiding place. His engine revved as he recalled how he managed to find Paula hiding in his vehicle form when he felt banging in his torso, discovering the young girl was accidentally trapped inside of him since she hadn't got out before he transformed but thanks to her small size she didn't get crushed by his inner workings.

"I'll deal with your two's actions later but right now, just stay put and out of trouble." he said in a stern tone before jumping off the building after Shadowarachnia.

Back on the ground, Kickdedede yelled as he was sent flying by Klag with his fiery club, resulting in him smashing against Trailston's forcefield. The turtle-like mech snickered at the sight of this before charging at the Insecticon once more.
Metashell barely dodged Swoopdo's attack as she swung her fiery mace at him with her battle cry sounding primal and vicious.

"Looks like they're still more prone to rage despite the Autobot's removing the chips." the small Insecticon commented.

Without a word he quickly summoned one of his cerebo-shells and blasted it at the Dinobot femme. Unfortunately for him the cerebo-shell didn't get the chance to drill into her processor because Snarldile managed to catch it in his servo. His yellow optics widened slightly as the mech shot him a dark grin before he watched him crush the cerebo-shell in his servo. Due to the mental connection required for the device, Metashell shrieked upon its destruction, receiving pain from the forcibly broken connection.

"Hurts? Good, now you might get an idea of what you made all of us suffer through, especially when you tried to make me your next meal." Snarldile snarled in a bitter tone.

Calliester kept fighting until she heard the sound of loud tapping. She spun around just in time to she Shadowarachnia darting toward her; the red femme tried to quickly summon her blaster but unfortunately the spider managed to shoot webbing, knocking and pinning her to the ground with a yelp.
Yoshilock heard her yelp and saw the large black spider land on the femme, getting ready to bite her. Acting on instincts alone, the mech quickly yelled as he charged toward her with the flames engulfing his sword. He didn't care if Shadowarachnia was a transformed Peach, at the moment he was allowing his more primal instincts to win the battle for him. He swung his sword, successfully getting the spider to back away from the femme but he wasn't fast enough to prevent her from sinking her fangs into his arm.

Yoshilock yelled in pain as the cyber-venom started flowing into his energon tubes, forcing his systems to shut down at a rapid pace.
Shadowarachnia removed her fangs and transformed back into her bipedal form; she grinned slyly as she summoned Yoshlock's sword and made it engulfed in fire. She glanced at the mech to see him struggle to stay active but when she saw his weak state, her grin slowly transformed into a frown. She didn't know why but seeming him in that state make her spark slightly ache in pain.

The black and purple femme shook her helm, pushing away her thoughts as she turned toward Callister. She narrowed her optics as she pointed the tip of her sword at the femme's neck.

"I shall be taking my leave now but tell your human companion that my offer still stands and should you accept I will be waiting at the coordinates thirty-three kliks west of here. I will give you two breems to think about it and to show I'll keep up my side of the bargain..." she started to say before taking a pause to summon a small vile with yellow liquid inside and toss it down next to Calliester before continuing, "This is a sample of my antidote, not enough to analyze so you can make copies but enough so you can at least bring Prime out of stasis, I require him active for this agreement."

Without another word she blasted flames at Trailston, knocking him down and forcing him to lose control of the shield before she issued a retreat. Within seconds the Insecticons transformed into their alt forms and took off with Shadowarachnia hanging off one of them with her web. Her vents cycled in air as she shuttered her optics, thinking about the deal she made.

"They better accept, for their comrades' sake." she thought to herself.

Calliester clenched her denta as she jerked around her chassis; she kept struggling until finally the webbing snapped, freeing her. She stuck out her glossa in disgust as she pulled off the web strands that kept constantly clinging onto her red armor and her two black tentacles before directing her attention to the vile.

Later that day Mario's vents gently cycled air as he found himself walking around in a black void. For the past few days, ever since he was attacked by Shadowarachnia, the Prime woke up to find himself in the mysterious void. He had always searched for a way out but much to his disappointment, he never could seem to find one. The red and blue mech continued walking until he heard a voice calling out for him. His blue optics immediately widened when he recognized it as Peach's voice. Without any hesitation he chased after her voice.

His engine revved loudly with determination as he continued following her calls, wondering how she managed to change back and how she stumbled into the void herself. He kept running until finally he spotted the pink femme in the distance. Happiness and relief rushed through his spark as he darted toward her, but that immediately faded away when he saw the darkness from the void had grabbed her. He reached out his servo as she screamed, trying to grab her servo to save her but unfortunately he was too late. Mario nearly froze as his grasp barley grazed the tips of her digits before she was completely consumed in the darkness.

He clenched his denta in rage, angry that he wasn't able to save her. All of the sudden he found his chassis slammed to the ground by a purple clawed servo. He grunted upon impact as he looked up seeing none other than Shadowarachnia standing over him with her helm off, exposing the face that belong to Peach and had been twisted by the Decepticons. He watched as her optics glowed brightly in delight as she dug her talons into his chestplate and ripped it off, exposing his spark. He pleaded for her to return to her senses, to remember who she once was. But the femme only grinned, exposing her fangs before grabbing his spark and painfully ripping it out of his chest.

At that moment Mario yelled as his optics reactivated; his vents blew air constantly in an attempt to cool down his engine that was burning in panic and fear. It took him a few seconds to calm down before he realized he wasn't in the black void but rather the Medbay. The Prime groaned as he rubbed the crest of his helm, realizing what he had witnessed was a vision from the Matrix.

"I can see your pain, but Prime you must not look at her for what she once was but rather for what she is now. Don't make the same foolish mistake I did." he heard Phoenix's voice echo in his processor.

He shuttered his optics for a few seconds before reactivating them and craning his helm, seeing Luigibee, Bulkmurray, Daisy, and Megahound laying on berths in stasis while Ratchet had activated the flashlight in his index digit and was examining a blue femme that had a large hole in her neck. Without a word he firmly planted his servos on the berth and began to sit up but immediately was greeted with a wave of dizziness washing over him, almost resulting in him falling back down on his berth if it weren't for him quickly steadying himself.

Having heard the slam from him steadying himself, both Blurricks and Ratchet quickly turned their helms toward his direction, surprised to see him finally awake.
Ratchet raised his index digit in front of the blue femme's face, silent telling her he would be back before making his way over to Mario.

"Glad to see you finally come out of stasis, it seems Shadowarachnia was telling the truth about the antidote." the medic commented as he placed his servo on the red and blue mech's back to help him sit up.

Mario's optics widened the moment he heard the Decepticon femme's name; his memories instantly rushed back to recalling the pink femme with her sweet smile before they shifted to see her hissing with her optics burning with malice and hatred. He couldn't wrap his mind around how the femme he had come to love and hold dear was the very same femme that taunted him with her devilish smirk as she sunk her talons into his chestplates, willing to extinguish his spark with no regrets.

"What do you mean by that?" the Prime asked out of curiosity about the antidote.

"Well you see..." Ratchet started explained before walking back over to Blurricks and picking up one of his tools to preform repairs before continuing, "According to Ness who thought it was a bright idea to sneak on the field mission in order to gather samples, Shadowarachnia informed him of a deal. She is willing to offer antidotes that I can use and replicate to help the Autobots still stuck in stasis thanks to her cyber-venom, but what she wants in return is for you to be handed over to her most likely so she could hand you to Bowsertron. She gave Callister a sample of the antidote to prove she would hold up her end of the bargain, not enough to duplicate it but enough to bring you out of stasis."

Mario was speechless when he heard the explanation; it puzzled him why the femme had asked for him to be pacifically handed over to her rather than Bowsertron. Despite the medic's assumption that she would simple deliver him to the Decepticon Leader later, he believed that not to be the case since she would had commanded them to give him to Bowsertron rather than her. That was when he realized how after she injected her cyber-venom into him, the mech was left defenseless before her. He glanced down, seeing no signs of repairs except for the wounds he knew he received during the battle with her.

Deciding to get an answer, he asked "Ratchet, tell me, after Shadowarchnia attacked me, what did she do?"

The medic paused in his actions, glancing at his leader with a raised optic ridge before answering "According to Ness and Paula, she stood over you with your axe raised high, intending to strike. But then she froze before picking up her helm and left."

The Prime couldn't help but flinch as his spark began pulsing faster with anticipation. With his mind set he got off the berth and made his way into the command room. Once there he was greeted with the sight of Ironlink talking to Wheelegad while Espiowl was scolding the two children for sneaking on a dangerous mission.

"We got to get those antidotes from her. No way she'll keep up her end, she's a con after all." Ironlink stated bitterly with his arms firmly crossed.

"But Con or not, she's still Peach-One. It's just..." Wheelegad countered.

Unfortunately he found himself interrupted when the red mech snapped "She is not Peach-One, there's nothing left of the brave femme commander we knew. That eight-legged freak attacked the ones she once called friends, attempted to harm a human, and shows no regret for it. And now she wants to deliver Mario into Bowsertron's waiting servos and provide the Decepticons victory, dooming the Earth. The Peach-One I know would have never done those things so as far as I'm concerned, Peach is offlined and that thing is nothing more than a disgrace to her memory!"

Ironlink waited for his comrade's response but much to his confusion he saw the mech was staring at something behind him. He immediately turned around and almost jumped in surprise when he saw Mario standing behind him, staring at him with a stern yet understanding expression.

Deciding to ignore the mech's comments about Shadowarachnia, Mario spoke up "So Ratchet informed me of the deal offered to us. Well I came here to tell you that I've decided to accept it."

All the Autobots in the room fell silent upon this revelation, even Espiowl stopped his lecture to stare with his mouth hanging open in shock.

"Mario, you can't give yourself up to her! I'll never forgive myself if something happened." Ness pleaded, feeling more guilty for sneaking off in the first place, considering the whole situation to be his fault.

The Prime looked at the young boy and kneeled down before him so he could be level with him.

"I understand your fears, Ness, but this is something I must do. Not only am I doing this for the benefit of my troop but also despite her twisted transformation, I think there's still a bit of Peach left." he said in a stern tone, "I have to at least try to finally put the memory of Peach to rest. If I can successfully make her remember then there's still hope, but if not then as Ironlink said Peach would be gone and Shadowarachnia shouldn't be treated as her."

With the plan set, Mario along with Ironlink and Jazzden arrived at the destined coordinates within a few minutes, just in time to see the Decepticon femme arrive with her Insecticons. The Prime remained silent as he watched her red optics focus on him intently with her lips pursed, almost as if she was examining him in order to figure something out. It wasn't long till she summoned three viles of the antidote from her subspace and approached them, with her movement slow and cautious.

"Alright, hand Prime over now and I will give the antidotes." she said.

Mario glanced over Ironlink, nodding his helm before they both walked to her. He said nothing as the red mech accepted the antidote before making his way back over Jazzden. His blue optics glanced over at Shadowarchnia to see her chassis was stiff and her upper legs would twitch every so often, showing that she was just as suspicious of the Autobots breaking the deal just as much as they were afraid of her doing so.
Seeing that the Autobots hadn't made any actions, the femme finally lowered her guard slightly as she commanded Kickdedede to place energy cuffs on Mario and temporarily deactivate his optics. The black and purple femme glanced at the Prime, her spark pulsing in pain slightly when she saw his blue optics stare at her. She snarled in frustration before commanding the Insecticons to leave.

Ironlink had to use all his willpower to prevent charging at the Insecticons, especially since his leader made it clear he wanted this to happen. He grinded his denta as he watched the Decepticon disappear with the willing Prime. Once they were gone, the red mech finally unleashed a frustrated grunt before shoving the viles in Jazzden's servos.

Jazzden rolled his optics before he commented "Calm down, Ironlink, Mario knows what he's doing. Besides should the plan go south he'll alert us with the secret distress beacon and we can rush in and get him out of there."

Ironlink sighed before replying in a slight bitter tone, "For the sake of the Autobots, I hope you're right."

A few minutes later, Mario reactivated his optics, surprised to discover that rather finding himself on the Decepticon ship before Bowsertron, he instead found himself in a dark cave, pinned to the wall by webbing. Before he could even figure out where he was, the mech was startled slightly when Shadowarachnia dropped down from the ceiling, hanging on her web upside down with her red optics glaring hatefully at him.

"Alright, Prime." she hissed as she lowered herself to the ground, never taking her sights off the mech for one second, "I brought you to my base for one reason only and that's to get answers."

She stood upright before leaning in close and snarling "What did you do to me that night I fought you?"

Mario tilted his helm in confusion before answering "I don't have the faintest idea what you're talking about. If you recall the only thing I did was punch you."

Without warning the femme grabbed him by the neck and harshly slammed him against the wall as she snapped "Liar! Ever since that encounter, I've been seeing visions of a pink femme. Over time the number of visions has grew and grew and no matter how many times I force them away, they always return. I didn't start seeing this visions until my encounter with you so logically you had to have done something to my processor without my knowledge!"

Mario's optics widened slightly upon hearing this; he knew those visions in truth were Peach's old memories trying to resurface. He did his best to prevent himself from smiling in relief at the fact he was correct that deep down the femme still remembered who she once was, the femme he loved was still alive.

Hoping to trigger more of her memories, he replied in a calm and stern tone "Those aren't visions. They're your old memories, the memories of your past life, Peach."

Shadowarachnia hissed in anger as her talons slightly tightened around the mech's neck, infuriated that he had addressed her by the name she had grown to despise.

"I'm getting tired of you Autobots calling me that to the point I liked it better when that brat called me Spidey. Why is it you keep thinking I'm a femme named Peach?" she said as her optics narrowed.

The Prime hissed in pain slightly when he felt the femme's talons dig slightly into his neck cables before replying "Because that's who you once were. Peach, I don't know what Ganonwave did to you when you were captured but I know your processor is fighting to remember. You could have easily offlined me that night, but instead you spared me, I know you remember who you once were."

Shadowarachnia's denta clenched tightly as she found her patience wearing thin. She hated how the Prime before kept insisting she was a different femme. But before she could object to his accusations, her chassis froze when she realized that she truly had no memories of before she awoke to see Ganonwave. Without warning her spark pulsed in pain, prompting her to let out a small shriek and her servos clasped around her helm. The femme fell to her knee-joints as she tossed off her helm, exposing her true face once more.

Her optics were shuttered as she kept constantly trying to banish the constant images of the smiling pink femme charging into battle with her fellow Autobots. Shadowarachnia's vents cycled in air as she slowly reactivated her optics and found herself staring at spilt energon left over from the Insecticon's feeding. It was then she realized how she never truly looked at herself without her helm, always having hid away her face to protect the vulnerable organic features around it. Without any hesitation the femme looked down and stared at her reflection.

Upon doing this her spark nearly stopped in disbelief when she found herself greeted with the image of the pink femme but with drastic changes. She could see how's the femme's pink lips were replaced by dark-red ones with deadly fangs poking out, her long metal blonde hair made short, and her kind blue optics replaced with ruthless red ones with spider-like features extruding from her audio receptors and chin. She remained silent for a few seconds before she placed back on her helm and stood back up.

Mario watched in concern, worried about what was running through the femme's mind after he witnessed her episode. He was snapped out of his thoughts when he saw her walk toward him with her expression unreadable, unable to give him any idea of what she was thinking. He jolted slightly as he watched her raise her talons in the air. Fearing she intended to strike like she did in his vision, he shuttered his optics and waited for the impact. The Prime heard her swipe but instead of pain, he felt the web loosen around him.

He reactivated his optics to see he had been cut free and the Decepticon was still standing before him.

"Leave now, I have no further use for you. I will not deliver you to Bowsertron since you had cooperated with me when you could have easily remained silent." Shadowarachnia stated in a stern tone.

She was about to turn her back to him until Mario grabbed ahold her arm as he began to say "Peach..."

Unfortunately he didn't get to finish because the femme jerked her arm out of his grip and hissed "Don't call me that. Memories or not, I need to straighten a few things out but that doesn't mean I'm this Peach like you claim. My name is Shadowarachnia and I know where my loyalties lie and they're certainly not with you."

The red and blue mech was unable to prevent the flash of hurt and betrayal that flashed across his face for a few seconds before he finally replied with a sigh "Alright, I understand. I will not greet you with the same willingness as I do now, the next time we meet it shall be opponents on the battlefield... Shadowrachnia."

Without another word he left the cave and transformed into his truck form. As he sped away his engine revved as he gathered up the determination to conquer his grief. He succeeded with his attempt reach to the femme in hopes she would remember but now his hope was dwindling about her, making him to start to believe that Ironlink had been right in his claim about Peach-One being dead and Shadowarachnia being nothing but a cruel reminder of this fact. But for the sake of the Autobots, the Prime knew that despite how his spark felt, he had to treat that as a fact, just like the Matrix told him.

[sonicgirl313]

Chapter 28

Luigibee kept rotating his arm, trying to get rid of the stiff joints. He, Daisy, and Bulkmurray had received the antidote and were able to recover from the cyber-venom induced stasis. He glanced around the Medbay, searching for any signs of Mario until he forze when he spotted none other than the blue femme that rescued Paula earlier that year.

"Hey you were that weird femme, why the heck are you here?" the yellow mech exclaimed.

Blurricks turned toward him but much to his surprise she only responded with a series of beeps that seemed to never end. Fortunately much to his relief the beeping stopped when Ratchet walked over and slammed his servo over the femme's mouth.

"Sorry about that, this here is Blurricks." the medic explained, "She was a spy sent here by Peach-One to keep an eye on the Decepticons and find out what happened to us after they lost contact with the Ark. Unfortunately while gathering information she was captured and while she was being interrogated, Skyreala ripped out her voice box. I have no spare parts to create a new voice box for her at the moment so instead I taught her to speak in through an ancient cybertronian code system that recon spies used to relay information to Autobot commanders."

"How did you know about the code?" Luigibee asked out of curiosity.

Ratchet smirked slightly as he answered "I was one of the Autobots that the spies relayed information to. Why else do you think they sent a medic to escort an informant?"

The yellow mech remained silent as he recalled how Ratchet was sent to escort Angelight by the council for reasons unknown to even Mario Prime. He frowned slightly when he remembered that was the mission that both resulted in Ratchet and Angelight being taken prisoner and were dragged to a Decepticon prison. He still wished the medic would reveal to his fellow Autobots exactly what happened behind those walls that resulted in the loss of most of Angelight's memory but he knew he wouldn't talk about it until he was ready.

He was snapped out of his thoughts when Jetpit ran into the Medbay exclaiming "Mario's back!"

Luigibee raised an optic ridge, unaware of the deal Mario made with Shadowarachnia in order to get the antidote in the first place due to still being in stasis. Without hesitation he rushed to the Command Room just in time to see his leader enter. He frowned slightly when he noticed while the Prime had a stoic expression on his face, he could see a small amount of sadness in his optics.

Mario sighed before commanding "I need anyone who is capable and willing to pull off a full assault on Shadowarachnia and her Insecticons."

Ironlink's optics glanced to the ground, knowing if Mario wasn't addressing the femme by her former name, it meant his suspicions about her being lost were truly correct.

"While I was held in her custody, I noticed that she was using a machine to build a clone army of Insecticons." the Prime continued to explain, "I can't allow her to provide such a great advantage to the Decepticons. So during the battle, capture her at all costs and while I usually advise against it, destroy as many Insecticons as you can, otherwise their numbers will only increase, leaving us at a dangerous disadvantage."

"What you were caught by freaky spider lady, don't tell me this all happened while I was knocked out." Daisy grumbled with her arms crossed.

Mario flinched slightly at the technorganic's nickname for the femme before quickly reminding himself that he couldn't treat Shadowarachnia as Peach. He opened his mouth to reply only to have Ironlink step in and explain how they managed to get the antidotes in the first place. He wasn't surprised when he saw the look of shock form on the young woman's face but he was thankful that the red mech has chosen to conveniently leave out the detail about how the Decepticon in reality was a transformed Peach-One, considering it better not to reveal that fact due to the femme turning away her former identity.

Without another word he finally dismissed the Autobots, urging the ones that wished to accompany him on the mission to gather all the supplies that they recovered. He was about to head to his office until he noticed Luigibee staring at him with a frown.

"Mario, is there something else you want to tell us about Shadowarachnia?" the yellow mech asked.

The Prime clenched his servos slightly before answering "No, there isn't. All you need to know is to capture her and be wary of her stingers, the last thing we need is for you to fall into stasis again."

And with that said he left the room, leaving the young mech to sigh in disappointment at the fact he could tell his leader was hiding something.

Back at Decepticon's base, Bowsertron snarled in annoyance as he made his way to the Medbay. While he was annoyed that his troop failed to capture the two Autobots that rescued their prisoner, he was more infurated at the discovery at Shadowarachnia's secret army. The gray mech sneered at the memory of her try to use her charms as she claimed that she was completely loyal to him. He knew she hadn't shown any signs of betrayal, especially when Ganonwave claimed that she would prove to be a valuable asset. But the Decepticon Leader didn't want to take any chances as he finally entered the Medbay.

Knockster lifted his helm up, pulling his attention away from some scans he was looking over before commenting "Lord Bowsertron, I wasn't expecting you to drop in."

"I wouldn't come here unless it's absolutely necessary." Bowsertron stated as he summoned a small chip from subspace, "I require you to install this chip into my processor."

The red mech took the chip from the gray mech and examined it before asking "Might I ask what this chip is for?"

"It contains the Insecticons' command frequencies that were gathered by Vectorwave. I want the chip installed so I can rip the command away from Shadowarachnia, I'm currently wary of her and her control over the Insecticons could transform into a deadly weapon to be used against me." the Decepticon Leader answered.

Knockster nodded his helm before gesturing over to the medical berth. He waited until the gray mech laid upon it before summoning his stasis shot gun from subspace. But right about as he was going to inject in his arm, Bowsertron stopped him, stating he wished to be online during the process to prevent any surprises and that he could handle the pain since he endured much worse during his gladiator days. The medic rolled his yellow and brown optics before putting down the stasis shot gun and removing his leader's helm, exposing his processor. Without another word he grabbed one of his tools and got to work, trying to prevent a chuckle when he heard a pained hiss emit from his leader's mouth.

In the command room, Thundernights rubbed the crest of her helm with an annoyed sigh as she watched Wartscream yell at Skyreala.

"You idiot, because of your idiotic actions, we lost our prisoner!" the red and gray mech snapped.

"Me?! All I did was rip out her voice box so we could finally be spared from the madness at the fact she never shuts up! You would have done the same thing! Heck even Thundernights was at the point that she wanted to offline her." Skyreala snapped back.

The blue femme released another sigh before stating "I hate to admit this but I'm siding with Skyreala on this one, he all did us a favor by silencing her. Besides Vectorwave didn't really require her to speak in order to extract information from her processor. But I will say he could have at least waited till after Vectorwave was done interrogating her since the shock from energon loss and the wound did cause her to collapse."

The black and purple mech snorted in response, partially surprised that the seeker that despised him managed to side with him for once and at the fact that once again someone was scolding him for his timing.
But before anyone could say anything else, they were silenced by the sound of grunts of pain. They were all shocked as they stared at the closed door of the Medbay as they heard the sounds of sparks and a drill.

"That sounded like Bowsertron." Thundernights commented in almost in a whisper.

"Maybe, Knockster, had finally gain enough sense that I'm the true leader and is trying to offline Bowsertron for me." Wartscream stated with a smug smile.

Upon hearing this, Skyreala immediately slapped his servo against the crest of his helm and replied in a grumble "No one thinks you're the true leader you scrapper. Obviously Bowsertron is having Knockster install something for him, why he didn't have himself put into stasis is pretty obvious when he's stuck with you for a second in command and you have multiple times tried to overthrow him."

The red and gray mech glared at his fellow seeker with his wings twitching in frustration and anger. He couldn't understand how despite Thundernights and Skyreala despising each other, they some how could both agree on the fact they both despised him and would often would take each other's sides if it meant not siding with him. Befor ethey could discuss the matter even further, their attention was directed toward Vectorwave who entered the command room.

"Get ready, Lord Bowsertron wants us to accompany Shadowarachnia and her Insecticons on an attack on the Power Plant sixty-five kliks west of our base. Ganonwave is running low on energon due to his experiments and the frequent attacks on the Autobot base that has yet to crumble." the blue mech explained.

"Heh, funny how we got these around the time he's having Knockster install something in him, my guess he doesn't really trust Shadowarachnia with the fact she lurks in her own cave with her own personal army." Skyreala commented, still bitter about the time when the femme demonstrated the use of her cyber-venom on him.

"It doesn't matter our leader's intentions, just be ready to leave." Vectorwave replied in an angry tone, especially since he was adressessing the mech that interrupted his interrogation with Blurricks.

Without another word he left the command room, leaving the three seekers to stare at each other silently.

Back at the Autobot base, Descole inhaled deeply as he sat outside of the Ark on a rock while mindlessly running his fingers through his air. He couldn't help but think about how he had unintentionally put Ness in danger by convincing him to draw to gather a sample of Shadowarachnia's venom. While in the end the Autobots did manage to get the antidote they need, it still almost cost them their leader. The brown-headed remained silent until he heard the sound of loud footsteps approaching him. He lifted up his head to see Ironlink leaving the Ark and leaning his back against the Ark.

"I'm surprised you're not back in the Ark giving out orders like you have been doing for the past few days." Descole commented.

"Eh that was only while Mario was in stasis. Now that he's fully recovered he has taken over that duty." Ironlink replied.

The red mech didn't say a word as his blue optics glanced down at the human. Thanks to Ness and Paula he had found out how Descole was the mastermind behind the plan that got Ness caught by Shadowarachnia in the first place. He found it strange how the man didn't even take in the consideration of how dangerous the plan was. From watching Dr. Andonuts reactions to Jeff and Daisy, he had assumed that adult humans were very concerned about the safety of children.

Deciding to get answers, he asked "Descole, why did you send Ness on that mission? I understand you simply wanted to aid the Autobots, but surely you knew the dangers of sending a child."

The brown-headed man remained silent for a few moments before finally answering "I suppose I misjudged the situation by thinking of my own experiences."

The red mech was confused until Descole continued to explain "At a young age I had to look out for myself with the loss of my parents and rejecting adoption in order to provide my little brother a better life. During that time I had to face many dangers from a criminal organization that hunted me for years. I witnessed many tragedies but in the end I forced myself through every single one with only one drive and that was revenge."

Ironlink was slightly surprised both by the man's confession and at the fact the story had reminded him of the many battles back on Cybertron. He knew just like the human he had witnessed many tragedies and forced through every single one of them in the hopes that one day the Autobots would overcome and defeat the Decepticons one and for all.

Upon realizing this he let out a small chuckle before saying "Don't I know it pal."

Descole glanced up at the mech once more, raising a brow as he asked "You act like you are familiar with the experience. Exactly how much devastation has this war caused?"

Ironlink's servos tightened slightly as he answered "Too much to even keep count anymore. While I don't doubt that you suffered from the sounds of your story, I know for certain that suffering can't compare to the suffering this war brought. We have been fighting for hundreds of vorns to the point our planet is dying. Even if we win, I'm not sure how Cybertron will recover, but despite that I won't stop fighting until the Decepticons are defeated for good or till the orn that my spark ceases pulsing."

The brown-headed man hummed in response as he glanced down at the ground and slightly muttered "It seems I was wrong about you, Ironlink. We aren't so different after all."

The two were snapped out of their thoughts by the Ark door sliding open to reveal Mario, Jazzden, Espiowl, and Trailston.

"Mastertran-1 has picked up reports of a power plant under attack." Mario stated in a stern tone, "I have no doubt that it's Shadowarachnia's Insecticons. We need to deal with them before the human authorities arrive on the scene. Ironlink, I'm going to need you to accompany us to take down any Decepticons that appear on the scene. The Dinobots will be there too but I fear their attention will be preoccupied with the Insecticons."

Ironlink nodded his helm in understanding before he and the four other Autobots transformed into their vehicle forms and took off.
Descole didn't a single word as he watched the Autobot troop leave; he only silently wished them luck with the knowledge that Ironlink was fighting with war with as much ambition as he did in the past when it came to the Azran Legacy.

It didn't take long for Mario and his troop to reach the power plant and be greeted with the sight of hundreds of Insecticons breaking into the tanks, eating away at the metal to create huge holes so the Decepticons could gather the energy to create energon. Wasting no time, the Autobots quickly changed into their bipedal forms and began firing at the Decepticons.
Seeing they were being fired at Vectorwave quickly dove for cover and summoned Huntage, Laserduck, and Marible.

"Try to hold them off until we gathered enough energon!" he commanded.

"Just leave it to us, Vectorwave." Marible said as she saluted him with her index and middle digits pressed together more dashing off with her comrades.

Mario's engine revved as he dodged the enemy fire; while apart of him was making sure not to get, another part of him was searching for a certain Decepticon femme. His blue optics scanned the battlefield until he saw web latch onto a wall and break off a large piece, sending it flying toward him. Fortunately the Prime managed to quickly jump out of the way and look up to see the purple and black femme standing on a tank, glaring at him hatefully with her red optics narrowed.

Meanwhile with the other Autobots, the groundbridge portal opened up to reveal the Dinobots who had finally arrived to the battle.

"Hey they started fighting without us." Snarldile stated with a disappointed frown.

"Who cares, let's just take care of those Insecticons freaks! Mario isn't going to hold us back this time!" Swoopdo replied before she transformed into her dino form and took to the air, blasting fire at the Insecticon clones.

"I've been dying to hear those words." Yoshilock smirked.

Without hesistation he quickly changed into his T-Rex form and charged toward the Insecticon clones, snatching a few up into his jaws and crushing them. The rest of the Dinobots grew excited at the sight before changing into their dino forms as well, loving the fact they were finally allowed to unleash their full wrath on the ones responsible for their imprisonment and torture for millions of years.

Back with Mario, he clenched his denta as he managed to dodge each of Shadowarachnia's angry stabs, trying to avoid get injected with cyber-venom. Only one thought kept running through his processor and that was to capture the Decepticon femme before him. He summoned his axe and quickly used it as a makeshift shield to block her spider legs, refusing to use his ion blaster all due to the fact he remembered who she once was and it still pained him to fire at her. As he battle the Prime could see angry burning in the technorganic's optics as her attacks became faster and less precise.

"You are the last mech I want to see on this battlefield!" she snarled as she swiped her talons, successfully managing to land a blow on the mech's arm.

Mario hissed in pain as he covered his wound with his servo before replying "I told you I would treat you as an opponent. I understand that you're Shadowarachnia, not Peach."

"That isn't the problem!" Shadowarachnia snapped as she kick him in the chestplates, knocking him against the wall.

The red and blue mech's optics widened when he saw the femme charg toward him and thinking fast he managed to grab ahold of the upper spider legs and force them back while demanding "Then what is!"

The femme snarled, exposing her fangs and she tried to force down her spider legs and stab the Autobot Leader in his neck as she replied "I didn't want to see you because your appearance confuses me. I can't think straight with you and now with the revelation I might be some other femme called Peach-One, I don't who to trust. Your encounter has only shown me one thing, that there is only one person I can be loyal to and that's me!"

Unfortunately before Mario could reply, his blue optics glanced behind the femme and he gasped. Thinking fast he managed to force her spider legs away and firmly wrap his arms around her midriff and manage to tackle her out of the way just in time before explosion went off. The two cybertronians groaned as they looked up to see Bowsertron standing before them.

"Well if this isn't like old times." the grey mech smirked, "I knew there was something familiar about you the moment I first met you, Shadowarachnia... or should I say Peach-One?"

Shadowarachnia snarled as she slightly shoved Mario away from her before demanding "Don't call me by that name, especially since you tried to offline me moments ago!"

The Decepticon Leader narrowed his optics as he stated "I heard your little chat with Prime, proving to me that you aren't as loyal as you claim. While I had often knew you would be a valuable ally, it seems not even when you have that symbol upon your neck your loyal. So you leave me with little choice, until you change your ways and obey my every command, I have no choice but to offline you."

"I wouldn't count on that." the black and purple femme said with a smug grin before she sent out a command to the Insecticons to protect her.

But much to her horror, instead of the Insecticons standing behind her, awaiting her command, they stood behind Bowsertron while staring at her. Her red optics widened slightly in fear, realizing she no longer had any control over the Insecticons and Bowsertron had made it where they now obeyed him. Many panicked thoughts ran through her mind, unsure what she should do with her greatest advantage gone. But much to her surprise and some of her anger, Mario stood firmly in front of her with his axe raised, ready to attack.

"If you want to get to her, you'll have to get through me!" the Prime stated in a stern tone.

Bowsertron remained silent for a few moments before finally muttering "Heh, it really is like old times."

Without another word he commanded the Insecticons to attack.

[sonicgirl313]

Chapter 29

Acting fast Mario quickly swung his axe and knocked away two of the Insecticon clones. He glanced toward Shadowarachnia to see her firing her webbing at a few Insecticons and pinning them on the floor. Taking advantage of her fallen opponents she quickly stabbed her upper spider legs into the Sharpkirby clone's helm, killing it upon impact and gaining its abilities. Electricity surged off of her servos as she blasted a few more Insecticons, leaving their chassis in a crumbled, smoking heap.

"You know these Insecticon clones are going down fairly easily." Mario commented as he took down two Kickdedede clones with one swipe of his axe.

Shadowarachnia grunted as she blasted a couple of more Insecticons before responding "I designed them with numbers in mind, not strength. It takes a lot of energy alone just to preform the cloning process so I didn't want to waste almost all of my energon supply just to make strong clones. But note this, Prime, even if the clones are weak, Bowsertron still has the upper-hand since the clones can make up for what they lack in strength in numbers."

Mario nodded his helm in understanding before immediately raising his guard once again and managing to use his axe to block the energy blasts fired at him by the Metashell clones.
Meanwhile Jazzden and Ironlink had taken cover behind Trailston's shield that was constantly being fired upon by Marible, Laserduck, and Huntage.

As he loaded his gun, Jazzden commented "You know, we already know that the Decepticons messed with Pe... er Shadowarachnia's processor. So I guess it's a safe guess they did a bit of scrambling with Marible's after they captured her."

"Most likely and as much as I know Callister is going to strangle me for doing this, we can't worry about her. Our main priority is defeating the Insecticon clones and taking Shadowarachnia into custody. Marible is a minor threat that we can always deal with later."

The white mech was about to open his mouth to reply until Trailston immediately snapped in anger at the two mechs, pointing out how his forcefield wouldn't be able to withstand the constant fire much longer. Nodding his helm in understanding, Jazzden loaded the last bit of ammo into his gun before finally tumbling out from behind the forcefeild. His one working optic glanced up at Laserduck who had just then directed his sights toward him. With his denta clenched he fired at the robotic duck while running as fast as his pedes could carry him.

Ironlink readied his blaster as he watched this scene unfold before him. He was fixing to charge toward his companion until from the corner of his optics he managed to spot Marible change her arms into her signature pile drivers, just in time. Already knowing what was the Decepticon was scheming, the red mech wasted no time darting toward Marible and tackling her just as she activated her pile drivers.
The purple femme yelped in both surprise and pain as her chassis smashed against the ground, unaware that the pile driver she activated punched a large hole into an oil tank, prompting large amounts of oil to spill out onto the ground.

"You scrap heap, you're gonna pay for that!" Marible hissed in rage as she smashed one her pile drivers against Ironlink's face.

The force of the impact resulted in the red mech's chassis to be sent flying the the air before sliding with a loud screech right up next to Jazzden who had just taken shelter behind a destroyed tank.
The white mech rolled his working blue optic as he grabbed his comrade by the shoulder and pulled him to the safety of his cover.

"You look in a pretty good state for someone that basically just took a sledge hammer to the face." Jazzden commented as he fired his blaster, smirking in victory when he successfully shot down Laserduck.

"They don't call me Ironlink for nothing you know," the red mech replied as he wiped away the energon constantly leaking from his olfactory sensors and his mouth, being careful not to accidentally further damage himself, "besides, Zel hits way harder than that and that's when she's in a good mood."

Upon hearing this Jazzden raised his optic ridges in surprise as he stared speechlessly at his Autobot comrade, unable to come up with a response.

Back with the Dinobots, Yoshilock unleashed a primal roar as he constantly destroyed Insecticon clones in his T-Rex form. His optics glowed, brightly red as he snatched a Kickdedede clone into his jaws and bit down hard, easily crushing the clone and resulting in its energon to splatter on the ground. But while attacking the clones was thrilling to him and the other Dinobots, it did not satisfy their primal rage. He turned his helm just in time to see both Swoopdo and Snarldile finish off their own Insecticon clones.

"Argh, it's just not the same!" Snarldile grunted in anger.

"I know, Snarldile, I think we all feel the same way," Swoopdo sighed as she noticed Klag and Pledge approach as well, "it was fulfilling at first but it just feels like there's something missing."

All the Dinobots remained silent until finally Klag spoke up "Maybe it's because we know these ain't the real Ridleycron Spawns that were slaughtering. It'll only mean something if we can get payback on the real thing."

Yoshilock did not say a word but instead snarled. He knew instantly that Klag was right with his assumption. The idea of destroying the clones was appealing at first because it was like they were finally getting payback on the ones that took so much joy in torturing them and acting like they were superior to them. But the appeal had worn away when they all began to realize that no matter how many clones they destroyed, the original Insecticons would still be unharmed and all the rage and destruction would have gone to waste.

"Okay we all know when you don't talk it isn't a good sign." Swoopdo commented with her optics narrowed, "Admit it, Yoshilock, you know we're wasting our time blasting these copies."

"Hey, I'm the one in charge here!" Yoshilock snapped angrily at his comrade before taking a few moments of silence and replying with a grumble, "But yes, destroying copies isn't exactly getting payback."

Pledge snorted in frustration which prompted her to flick her tail angrily. But because she did this she failed to notice that she unintentionally whacked a Kickdedede clone that tried to attack her from behind multiple times across the face, resulting in it crashing to the ground with the last flick of her tail.
Snarldile rapidly tapped his pes on the ground; he knew it was important to find the true Insections, but he wasn't sure how to tell the difference between the originals and the clones. He continued thinking until finally the answer struck him.

"Yoshilock, the clones don't talk!" the mech exclaimed, "If we want to find those freaks all we need to do is find the ones stupid enough to open their mouths!"

The Dinobot leader's optics widened in surprise at this realization. Wasting no time he commanded the rest of his troop to spread out and seek out the Insecticons as quickly as possible. Within seconds he and his rest of his troop transformed into their dino forms, all of them unleashing primal roars of rage as they charged through the crowds of the Insecticon clones, seeing no reason why they couldn't destroy them along their path.

Meanwhile, Shadowarachnia clenched her denta tightly in frustration Mario managed to successfully pull her behind the corner of a wall just in time to dodge the blast from Bowsertron's fusion canon. Her red optics narrowed as she watched the Prime immediately jump back up on his pedes and fire at a couple of Insecticon clones that tried to sneak up on them by climbing down the walls toward them. She couldn't understand why the mech continued to lend his help to her in the battle, especially after she crushed any hope of her joining the Autobots. The femme wondered if the reason was connected to the mysterious memory logs that belonged to her supposed previous identity. But she didn't get to think about it long when a blast of lightning barely missed her helm, snapping her out of her thoughts with a startled gasp.

"Shadowarachnia, be more aware of your surroundings!" Mario shouted both as a warning and out of worry.

The technorganic snarled in reply "Worry more about yourself, Prime! Just cause we're temporarily working together doesn't mean I'm taking orders from you!"

Not wanting to give the mech a chance to object, Shadowarchnia latched herself onto the wall and scanned the battleground. As much she hated to admit it, she wasn't sure how much longer the Autobot leader and her would last against the Insecticon clones. She knew if the Autobots stood a chance of winning, commands had to temporarily shut down which meant that someone needed to distract Bowsertron to prevent him from sending out more commands to the clones. With her mind set, she jumped back down next to Mario.

"Alright here's my plan, you keep Bowsertron distracted long enough so I can inject him with my cyber venom. With him in stasis, the clones will cease to function without the commands." she stated.

"Shadowarachnia, that's insane! You do realize what Bowsertron is capable of and if you get injured I'm not sure if we would be able to treat your organic half." Mario replied in a stern tone as he held back a couple of punches from a Kickdedede clone.

The femme hissed in frustration as she stabbed one of her upper legs completely through an Insecticon and replied "May I remind you that our alliance will end once we get out of this situation. I will not let any of you Autobots near me. Second of all you should be grateful I even told you the plan, I could have went after Bowsertron alone but I decided to go with the wiser option."

The red and blue mech couldn't help but raise an optic ridge as he watched the Decepticon changed into her spider form and take off. He noticed that in her words, Shadowarachnia exhibited the same determination and stubbornness she did as Peach. After his encounter in the cave, he had come to accept that her old identity was possibly long gone. But after witnessing her attitude and her lack to kill him, it made him wonder if Shadowarachnia and Peach-One were really as different as he originally thought. The Prime shook his helm with a grunt, deciding to push aside his curious, hopeful thoughts. His blue optics narrowed as he quickly charged through the crowd of Insecticons as best as he could to seek out the leader of the Decepticons.

The Dinobots continued smashing their way through constant waves of Insecticon clones, seeking out the genuine article. Yoshilock's blue optics kept constantly glancing around the battlefield, searching for any Insecticons that were speaking. He was focused on his task until the sound of electricity reached his audio receptors. His optics widened as he immediately skidded to a stop; fortunately he managed to barely dodge the source of the sound which was none other than a lightning blast. The Dinobot leader snarled as he heard the sound of an angry growl. Knowing what that meant, Yoshilock, turned his helm to the right to see none other than the real Insecticons.

"Darn it, poyo! I almost had him, poyo!" Sharpkirby yelled with a pout.

"I suppose after hundreds of vorns torturing him, he learned to recognize the sound of your lightning blasts." Metashell commented, "Remember that he hasn't forgotten anything during that time period unlike his comrades."

Yoshilock snarled as his optics glowed, brightly red. Without warning he lunged at the Insecticon trio, snapping his jaws, forcing the three mechs to quickly jerk backwards to narrowly avoid being snatched up in the robotic T-Rex's razor, sharp teeth.
The rest of the Dinobots growled in anger with their optics glowing red as well as they watched the Insecticons laugh as they flew around the gray robotic dinosaur that constantly snapped his jaws in an attempt to catch one of them. It infuriated them that the beings that took enjoyment in torturing them for so long was now mocking their leader. Not even needing a command, the rest of the Dinobots charge forward, unleashing their primal roars.

Kickdedede yelped as he felt the spike from Snarldile's tail graze his black and purple pede before flying higher.

"They're ganging up on us and we just can't keep flying around, that freak with the wings can pursue us. We need to split them up! I'll take on three-horns and the long-necked idiot!" the mech stated.

"I agree, so I'll take on the flyer and her cerebo-shell crushing friend. It'll be the perfect opportunity to get payback for the battle in the city." Metashell replied.

Without another word the two Insecticons took off, putting their plan in action, leaving behind Sharpkriby who was pouting at the fact he realized his comrades had left him stuck with Yoshilock.
Kickdedede laughed in delight as he summoned a giant hammer from subspace and smashed it on the ground, creating a shockwave that knocked Pledge and Klag away from the rest of the group.
Metashell narrowed his yellow optics as he fired bombs which managed to successfully hit Swoopdo and Snarldile, resulting in the two Dinobots to roar in rage before chasing after him.
Seeing their plan succeeded, Sharpkirby couldn't help but release a mischievous giggle before turning his attention to the remaining Dinobot.

"Looks like it's just you and me, poyo!" the black and purple mech commented with a grin before firing his lightning blast.

Back with Bowsertron, the gray mech's red optics carefully scanned the battlefield, searching for any sign of either Mario of Shadowarachnia lurking around. He was focused on his task until he heard the sound of jets landing behind him. Already knowing who it was, the Decepticon Leader turned around to be greeted with the sight of Wartscream and his seeker comrades.

"We collected all the energon we need from this area, do you want us to retreat, Lord Bowsertron?" Thundernights stated.

The gray mech shook his helm in reply before responded "No, while normally that would be the case, we still have the situation with Shadowarachnia. I need you three to capture her so that we may remind her exactly where her loyalties lie."

"Ha, I knew that organic femme freak would be a traitor!" both Wartscream and Skyreala exclaimed in unison, prompting the two mechs to turn their helms toward each other and stare with horrified expressions at the fact they both shared the same thought.

Thundernights stared at the scene for a few moments before slapping her servo against the crest of her helm and shaking it with a sigh, finding hard to believe that out of all the things she tried to make Skyreala horrified or disgusted at in order to create guilt, those things somehow didn't match up to the terror the mech felt at the fact that for once he agreed with the most annoying Decepticon he knew.
Bosertron couldn't prevent himself from rolling his red optics in annoyance before shouting at his troop for attention, resulting in the three seekers to straighten up.

"Stop talking and go find Shadowarachnia! NOW!" the Decepticon leader commanded, his voice bellowing with his last word.

Too frightened to speak from their leader's voice, the three seekers instantly activated the thrusters in their pedes and wings before taking to the sky. The gray mech unleashed a loud blast of air from his cooling vents before directing his attention back to the battle. But much to his anger, due to being distracted by yelling at Wartscream, Skyreala, and Thundernights, he failed to notice in time Mario charging at him at top speeds and slam into him with his truck form. He grinded his sharp denta together as he quickly changed into his tank form, managing to use his treads to stop the red semi truck in its tracks before using the canon to fire.

The blast knocked Mario back as he tumbled on the ground, transitioning from his semi truck form back to his bipedal form. He grunted in pain as he shook his helm only to see a gray tank charging toward him at top speeds. Thinking fast, the mech jumped up, managing to successfully flip over the tank. Before he landed on the ground, Mario aimed and fired his ion blaster at his target.
Bowsertron yelled in rage as the blast knocked him out of his tank form. His red optics glowed with fury and air blasted out of his noseplates as he changed his servo into his chain-mace.

"No matter what I do, you always show up to interfere, Prime." Bowerstron stated in a venomous tone, "If you had let me win this war, Peach wouldn't have to be in the state she is in now."

Mario narrowed his optics as he changed his servo into ax. Much to the Decepticon Leader's surprise, the red mech uncharacteristically made the first attack, yelling in rage as he charged forward with his ax ready to strike.

As the leaders' battle raged on, Shadowarachnia was preforming her part of the plan. She silently crept along the walls in her spider form, making sure that there was no attention drawn to her. Her red optics glanced at the two mechs battling, searching for an opening to strike. But as she did this, she couldn't help but let her thoughts wander on the subject of the name that caused confusion for her. The femme noticed easily how much Bowsertron's last words before the Prime charged wounded him and it all surrounded her supposed former identity. While Shadowarachnia knew that the other Autobots had shown a form of care for the mysterious Peach, by observation alone she could tell that Mario's feelings went much farther than the others.

But what confused her the most wasn't concerning the mech's feelings but rather hers. The moment she saw the flash of sadness and anger on the mech's face, much to her confusion, she experienced a pang of sadness and regret deep within her spark. Shadowarachnia grunted in frustration, unsure what to make of her feelings, deciding to instead focus on current objective. Her red optics narrowed when she saw Bowsertron had backed up where now he was positioned directly below the spot she was perched. Deciding to take advantage of the opportunity, the spider wasted no time lunging herself off the wall and sending herself flying toward the gray mech.

The femme was centimeters from sinking her fangs into the Decepticon Leader's back. But much to her shock, within a split second Bowsertron managed to spin around and snag her neck in one of his clawed servo. She hissed in anger as she began squirming around, only for Bowsertron to tighten his grip around her neck.

"Oh please, you thought I would fall for a sneak attack in the middle of a battle? That's tactics youngling's play when you face off against other gladiators." the gray mech deadpanned.

"You might consider revising that statement!" Mario shouted.

Bowsertron quickly turned toward the sound of the voice only to be greeted with a blue servo punching him square in the jaw. The force of the impact resulted in him crashing on his back and releasing Shadowarachnia from his grip.
The femme changed back into her bipedal form as she tumbled on the ground. She hissed both out of frustration and discomfort whilst she used the spider legs attached to her back to push herself upright. Much to her annoyance, she saw Mario give her a glance to make sure she was alright before charging toward Bowsertron who was starting to get up as well.

"Honestly, he keeps concerning over my safety. I thought I made it perfectly clear to him that I'm not Peach-One." Shadowarachnia hissed to herself.

But no matter how much she claimed it to herself, the technorganic dug her clawed digits into the palm of her servos upon sensing a pang of sadness and disbelief in her spark.
Bowsertron's red optics flared in rage as his servo snatched onto Mario's fist, preventing him from delivering another punch. Air blasted out of his vents as he dug his pedes into the ground and forced his opponent into a struggle. The gray mech couldn't help but smirk slightly as he watched the Prime before him summon all the strength within him to prevent being shoved down. While he knew the Autobot Leader was a formidable opponent, when it came to the strength department the Prime was unable to match up with his experience gained from gladiator battles. Feeling more confident, Bowsertron used more of his strength, his dark grin growing wider as he watched the red mech almost lose his footing from this action.

"Face it, Prime, you might as well surrender. We both know that this is a struggle that you can't win." he taunted.

Mario grunted as he pushed forward with all his might before replying "Like I said, you should consider revising your earlier statement."

The gray mech raised an optic ridge, wondering what the Prime was referring to. Unfortunately for him, the answer to his question struck his processor a second too late. Without warning Shadowarchnia landed on his shoulders while being mindful of his metal, spiked shell. He roared in rage as he quickly let go of his opponent to quickly grab the femme's arm and throw her off his back. But he wasn't fast enough to prevent the technorganic from successfully stabbing her spider legs into the back of his neck. Bowsertron yelled as the cyber venom entered his systems and electricity coursed throughout his chassis. Before he managed to lose consciousness, the gray mech blindly grabbed at Shadowarachnia and threw her at full force.

The black and purple femme cried out as her chassis smashed against the wall. She didn't make a sound as her optics shuttered and she collapsed limp on the ground.
Mario's optics widened before he quickly ran over to the fallen femme, ignoring the many Insecticon clones that started smashing to the ground around him due to the loss of their command input. Being as careful as possible, the mech kneeled down and pushed the technorganic into sitting position. Part of him wanted to make sure she was alright out of duty while the other part was connected to the feelings that dwelled in his spark, believing in the small hope that Peach can return. When he lifted her up, his blue optics immediately took notice of the bright green energon that started dripping on the ground from her back. From examination he was able to discover that Bowsertron had thrown her hard enough that the impact broke two of the four spider legs on her back.

Before he could check for anymore injuries, the sound of primal roar filled the air. He lifted his helm up to see Yoshilock in his dinoform chasing after a panicking Sharpkirby.

"Why are you able to keep up with me when I fly, poyo?!" Sharpkirby exclaimed.

Much to his displeasing, the robotic T-Rex blasted a stream of fire at him, forcing him to dodge. He huffed as his engines revved in frustration, wishing his comrades weren't busy dealing with the other Dinobots. He kept trying to escape the Dinobot, searching for anything to give him the advantage. At that moment, he managed to spot the oil that was spilt on the ground from the busted tank. A sly grin formed on his face as he immediately created a plan.

"Bet you can't hit me, Yoshilock, poyo!" Sharpkirby taunted as he flew close to the ground.

Already realizing what the Insecticon was planning, Mario shouted "Wait, Yoshilock, don't!"

But the Prime's words did not affect the Dinobot whom was blinded by his primal rage. Wasting no time, he blasted his fire at the Insecticon. Unfortunately the moment Sharkirby dodged by quickly flying upwards, the oil was ignited by the flames. Within seconds the power plant was set ablaze.
Knowing the fire would destroy their cargo, the Decepticons quickly retreated from the battle while grabbing all the energon cubes they could carry. Wartscream was quite happy when he saw no sign of their leader until Vectorwave flew up next to him with the gray mech slung on his back.

"Oh why can't you be selfish for once, you're a Decepticon for Primus sake." Wartscream grumbled before speeding ahead.

Back on the ground, Mario hoisted up Shadowarachnia into his arms while shouting commands to his troop. Unlike the Decepticons, he refused to flee the scene since he knew the fire would be a risk to the humans who were unaware of what had conspired. Fortunately with Trailston containing the fire with his forcefield, Ironlink was able to switch his servo into his fire extinguisher and began spraying the flames. It took a few moments but thanks to the combined effort of the two Autobots, the fire was successfully put out.

"Whelp, now we don't have to worry about the fire hurting the humans. But we should get out of here before they come to investigate." Jazzden noted, "Man I would hate to be the person that's in charge of cleaning this mess up.

"Yeah, but before that we have to deal with Shadowarachnia here." Ironlink pointed out while jabbing his digit at the unconscious femme.

Mario was about to open his mouth to reply but without warning he felt a strong servo shove him back and Shadowarachnia pulled out of his arms. He shook his helm rapidly, trying to regain his senses. When his vision returned, he was stunned to see none other than Yoshilock clinging onto Shadowarachnia while the rest of the Dinobots had their weapons out, ready to fight.

"You're not taking her as a prisoner. She deserves better than that," Yoshilock snarled as he clung onto the technoragnic's chassis protectively, "She's coming back with us."

"Yoshilock, you honestly can't be s-" Ironlink began to say.

"Not another step, unless you want us to set this place ablaze again but this time on purpose." Swoopdo immediately interrupted in a threatening tone as her blue optics changed to red and she made her chain mace engulfed in fire.

The red mech took a step back, clenching his servos both out of anger and nervousness. He couldn't understand why the Dinobots refused to believe that Shadowarachnia was dangerous, especially after she nearly sent Yoshilock into stasis with her cyber venom. He turned his helm toward Mario, trying to search his face for an expression that could give insight to his thoughts on the current situation. Finally, much to his shock, Mario activated his commlink and requested Ratchet activated a Groundbridge to Dinobot Island.

"You're really letting them take her, after all that's she done?!" Ironlink snapped, not bothering to hide his anger with his leader's choice.

In an attempt to calm down his second in-command, the Prime responded "As long as she's still in the Dinobots' custody it's fine. The Dinobots will insure that she is taken of and won't cause anymore trouble for us."

Ironlink's engine revved as he folded his arms across his chestplates and clenched his denta. While he still had a strong disagreement with the Prime's choice, he relented to the decision made. He only hoped that Shadowarachnia wouldn't do anything that would make Mario and the Dinobots regret that decision.
Without another word, Yoshilock nodded to his comrades before entering the Groundbridge, returning back to Dinobot Island.
The moment the green light of the Groundbridge faded away, Mario finally released a loud exhale he had been unaware he was holding. He could feel his spark whirling with worry for the purple and black femme only to recall Phoenix's words to him from the Matrix.

Noticing his distress, Jazzden rested his servo on the red mech's shoulder and asked " Mario, is everything alright?"

Mario released another sigh before muttering quietly in reply "This will seem like a horrible thing for me to say but perhaps it would have been better if Peach really did die back on Cybertron. Then perhaps I wouldn't be going through as much emotional torment as I am now."

Neither Jazzden nor Ironlink spoke up to their leader's confession. Both mechs understood how the Prime was having to constantly force away his emotions toward Peach out of worry that they could blind him from Shadowarachnia's actions. But the two also found themselves speechless due to the lack of an answer. Neither of them knew whether it is better to have a loved one die or have that loved one altered and twisted almost to the point of beyond recognition with only a small chance of their former self returning. With silence filling the air, Mario and his Autobots transformed and took off with heavy thoughts filling their processors.

[sonicgirl313]

Chapter 30

A few weeks had passed since the incident with the Insecticon Clones at the Power Plant. Back on Cybertron, Red Amy was lying unconscious on a medical berth, still recovering from her wounds that she gained after trying to flee from the Decepticons when she had infiltrated Ganonwave's lab. Her servos and denta clenched as her whole body stiffened in panic. Many thoughts filled her processor, worries that she was no longer deemed valuable and would be placed in a stasis pod. Finally she reactivated with a loud gasp and quickly sat up. Her engine revved in panic as she looked around the Medbay, seeing no sign of any other Autobot. Amy tried to get up from her berth until she was stopped by an aching pain in her helm.

The red and white femme groaned as she pressed her servo against the crest of her helm, unaware of her optics that flickered for a few moments before finally changing from green to red. Once the pain had subsided, Amy finally slipped off of her berth and made her way toward the exit of the Medbay. But before she could open the door, the sound of talking reached her audio receptors. Curious of who was talking, she tuned up her audio receptors and pressed her helm against the door. Within seconds she was able to recognize the voices belonging to Firerouge and Inferknuckles.

"So is her state getting any better?" the red mech designed to look like an echidna asked.

Firerouge sighed as she leaned against the wall before replying "Clank Aid has been doing everything he can for her. It's really hard to determine her state. Not to mention he hasn't had much time to treat her ever since Ganonwave started sending out Insecticons to attack the base. The attacks obviously take more priority, especially after we lost Peach to him."

Inferknuckles grumbled in frustration as he firmly crossed his arms over his chestplates. It deeply angered him that the Decepticons had turned their troop leader into a different being and that his friend was stuck in the Medbay.

"You know I don't even understand why she went to the Decepticon base alone. Honestly it was incredible stupid of her, she should have taken someone with her. She wouldn't be stuck injured in the Medbay had someone gone with her." he grumbled.

Firerouge couldn't but chuckle slightly at the mech's annoyance as she commented "Maybe you should use that fire hose of yours to cool down."

Her smug smirk grew when she saw her companion glare at her with his purple optics; she always found it amusing to get his engine revving in anger. But her smirk slowly turned into a frown when her thoughts drifted back to Amy, knowing that the mech had brought up a very good point. She couldn't understand why Amy had chosen to go alone, especially when normally the medic was the most cautious out of the troop. She recalled how none of the Autobots were able to find out the reason for the femme's hasty actions due to her falling into stasis and having no data pads nor discs in her possession.

Firerouge was awakened from her thoughts when she heard Inferknuckles ask "Do think it's possible her processor is dead? Her helm was busted pretty badly."

Upon hearing this, the femme huffed as she responded "Better hope not. A dead processor requires materials and energon for repair and replacement; but we're running low on those supplies. If Red Amy's processor is dead, she may have to be left in stasis. Well at least until Zeldia sends someone through the Spacebrigde to restock on supplies at the base on Earth."

Before either one of them could say another word, Zeldia's voice echoing from the comm speakers reached their audio receptors, informing them of their required assistance with a small group of survivors. Without another word, the two immediately dashed off.
Once the two were gone, Amy slowly backed away from the door with a concerned frown.

"They were talking about me." she muttered to herself, "They acted like I was in some kind of terrible state when clearly I'm fine. Firerouge even mentioned leaving me in stasis, but why?"

The medic shuttered her red optics as she pressed her servos against her helm. Her thoughts of confusion and worry kept swirling in her processor, causing a large ache to course throughout her helm with a few sparks emitting from it. Suddenly her optics snapped wide open when a horrid theory entered her thoughts. Amy began to wonder if the reason she heard talks of Autobots pretending she was in a terrible state and should be kept in stasis was because she was no longer deemed worthy as an Autobot. Her vents pounded as she imagined Zeldia being disgusted with her attempt to obtain research from Ganonwave's lab, believing a true Autobot would never allow themselves to get caught and wounded so easily.

Amy could nearly picture the disgusted expressions painted on each of the Autobots' faces, considering her even worse than a Decepticon. It terrified her to think that entire faction she stood loyally by for so long would be more than happy to leave her to rot in a stasis pod for all of eternity. The more Amy let her irrational thoughts build up in processor, the more she believed those thoughts as being the truth. Finally she narrowed her optics that glowed brightly red; she intended not to allow the Autobots to do away with her. With her mind set, she opened the door and made a mad dash for the supplies room.

She unlocked the door by pressing her servo against the scan panel, pleased to see the security was still set to respond to her. Acting fast she began grabbing as many energon cubes and medical supplies she could get off the shelves. The femme was in the middle of placing the items in her subspace until she heard the sound of peds quickly approaching before abruptly stopping. Her spark nearly stopped pulsing when she spotted a shadow casting on the floor next to her, prompting her to slowly turn around and be greeted by the sight of a stunned Zeldia.

"Red Amy, you're awake?!" the blue femme exclaimed, both surprised and happy to see her comrade had recovered.

But her happiness immediately turned into confusion when she took note of the energon and medical supplies both lying at Amy's black peds and being held in her servos. She opened her mouth to ask the medic why she was taking supplies required for the war effort, but never got a word out when she saw the red and white femme quickly form a sneer on her face as her engine revved in rage.

"I will not be put back in stasis!" Amy shouted upon dropping her things and summoning a large blaster rifle from her subspace.

Zeldia barely had any time to react as she quickly threw herself to the ground, fortunately managing to duck just as the medic fired her blaster. Her optics shuttered tightly when the blast of the laser blew up the wall in the hallway, causing debris to fall scattered around her chassis with smoke filling the air. Her blue optics peered through the smoke, catching a glimpse of the Autobot gone rogue dashing down hallway. Knowing that something was wrong, the femme commander quickly stood back up before following in pursuit whilst activating her comm.

"This is an order issued to any Autobots currently not engaged in combat or any rescue missions. Red Amy has reactivated but is experiencing uncharacteristic behavior. I believe it is connected to her wound she received a deca-cycle ago. She must be subdued with little to no harm so our medic can examine her." she commanded in a stern tone with two of her digits pressed against her audio receptor as her freehand summoned her blaster from her subspace.

Zeldia kept her eyes trained on the red and white femme, intending not to let her out of her sights. Her optic-ridges furrowed together in focus as she began firing at her target. She made sure each shot was precise as to avoid delivering a fatal wound, just like she trained herself to do with Decepticons so many times.
Amy could feel her vents constantly blowing in an attempt to cool down her burning engine as jerked to the side of the shots. Her denta was practically grinding together at the thought of the femme chasing her severely wounding her and dragging her off to rot away in a stasis pod with no medical attention. Wanting to be rid of her pursuer, Amy's optics quickly darted around the Autobot base, searching for anything to help her.

Suddenly from the corner of her vision, she saw none other than the control panel for the space bridge. A confident smirk formed on her face as her optics glowed brightly red.

"Just the thing I needed. A distraction and a way that won't insure Mario and his troop try to come back. I won't let any of them lock me up!" she thought to herself, unaware of the occasional sparks that emitted from her helm.

Without a word, Amy fired her rocket launcher that rested on her shoulder. Much to her happiness, Zeldia didn't even have a split second to react to prevent the rocket from blowing up the control panel. The destruction created a large explosion that sent out shockwaves that knocked back the two femmes in different directions. Amy couldn't prevent the yelp that escaped her mouth as her back smashed against the ground at full force. She sat up with a groan, slightly dazed due to her vision partially being blinded by static. After a few seconds, the medic's vision cleared and her bearings returned. With her mind clear, she immediately was able to notice Zeldia was still dazed as she struggled to get up.

Not wanting to give the femme commander a chance to catch her, Amy quickly transformed into her vehicle form and sped away with her tires screeching. Her spark pulsed frantically as she finally reached the outside, knowing if she could get far enough she could lose the Autobots in Decepticon territory. But her hopes of making a flawless getaway were shattered when a red and blue car sped past her, creating a large could of smoke. She tried to pass through the cloud as fast as she could only for her decision to prove to be a terrible mistake. The moment Amy entered the smoke cloud, she found herself tripped up by a strong object.

The femme shrieked whilst flying though the air, quickly changing back into her bipedal form before hitting the ground. A frustrated yell escaped her mouth as her hands frantically searched for her fallen blaster rifle. She kept searching until the sound of chuckling reached her audio receptors. Within an instant she directed her attention toward the smoke cloud, seeing it disappear to reveal a mech designed to look like a raccoon with red and blue armor.
The mech had a devilish grin painted on his face as he leaned on his metal cane. He didn't say a word as he constantly tapped the tip of his red pes on the ground, allowing Amy to stand back up. Once the femme had gotten back upright, his grin grew as he finally got off his cane and began twirling it in his blue servo.

"You know you shouldn't have let me get back up, Slyscreen. Now I'll make you regret it." Amy bitterly remarked upon picking up her blaster rifle.

"Now come on, Red Amy, we both know that is more of Bowsertron's thing and your not clearly Bowsertron. Have you considered getting your logic circuits checked out?" Slyscreen replied.

The medic clenched her denta; she refused to fall for any of what she believed to be the Autobot's tricks. With her irrational thoughts running amuck, she only saw her comrades as enemies. Not wanting to fall to the scenario she had created in her processor, Amy started firing at Slyscreen. Her optics shook in fear as she watched the mech easily dodge each of her shots, making his way closer to her with each dodge. She could feel the joints in her chassis stiffening out of fear. Panic grew in her processor when she began to get paranoid about her systems failing on her, fearing it could've been done through sabotage while she was stuck in stasis. She could barely think nor respond when the red and blue mech finally managed to get close enough where he was a meter away from her.

But before he could lay a servo on her, Slyscreen found himself knocked back by a strong force. His voice box tried to cry out in pain as electric waves pounded away on his chassis only for no sounds to come out of it. Unable to handle the electric force hitting him in constant waves, the blue mech slipped in stasis.
Amy was confused about the scene she had witnessed, wondering why the mech collapsed without her making any moves whatsoever. She dwelled on her confusion until she heard the sound of barely functioning vents constantly blowing. She immediately turn to see a large mech that wore a skeletal mask with a strange generator attached on his gauntlet.

A few sparks flew from her helm as Amy got ready to fire her blaster, not trusting the strange mech. Unfortunately for her she wasn't able to fire in time to prevent the mech quickly dashing at her at top speeds and force away her arm holding with her blaster with his servo that he transformed into a large hook. The medic was stunned at the speed the mech showcased when he had disabled her with the swiftness and ease. The actions actually reminded of her of Espiowl to which she found quite strange. Remembering the situation she was in, Amy grunted as she struggled to get out the mech's grasp.

She kept struggling till the mech commented in a annoyed tone "Stop squirming, if I was going to take you out I would have knocked you out with Smokey over there."

Amy's optics widened in surprise as the mech immediately released his grip on her. Many paranoid thoughts filled her processor, wondering if the mech was one the Autobots sent by Zeldia to throw her in stasis or if he was a Decepticon that was on a mission. She pursued her lips as she silently studied his appearance to determine which faction he belonged to. Her eyes scanned his chassis only to be surprised hat he had no visual signs of being an Autobot nor Decepticon; most of his chassis hidden under a black cloak, but even then she noticed that the armor on his legs and arms were strangely a mismatched green and red.

"Look we could stand here all day and let those Autobot friends of your catch back up to you, or you can come with me." the mech spoke up.

Amy snapped up her helm, shocked at his words. While she was wary of him, the offer of help to escape from the Autobots did seem very tempting for her.

"Why do you want to help me anyway?" the femme asked with her arms firmly crossed in suspicion.

The mech snarled slightly in frustration at being presented another question. He was tired of asking questions when he had only came after her for one goal. Suddenly the sound of speeding engines filled the air, prompting the two to stare toward the distant horizon. Knowing that more Autobots were coming, the mech quickly slid on a panel on his red gauntlet and began typing in a code. Within seconds a large red ship flew to his location and opened up the hatch door. He began to take a few step toward the ship, but before he entered the mech turned back toward Amy with his arm extended to the ship.

"I'm only helping you because you can access info I'm seeking, but if you dare ask another question I will leave you here in a spark pulse. It's up to you, let the Autobots catch you or accept my offer." he stated in a stern tone.

Amy was speechless; she wasn't sure what to do. She didn't fully trust the mech but she didn't want to be taken back by the Autobots. She stuttered her red optics tightly, fearing the growing sounds of the approaching Autobots. Finally her optics reactivated after a few seconds in thought, knowing what she wanted to do. Without any regrets, she dashed past the mech and entered the ship.
The mech couldn't help but smirk under his mask as he entered the ship, satisfied he had obtained the thing he had came for. He knew that with Amy's help he could finally find something he had been searching for millions of years.

Zeldia had arrived just in time with her troop to see the ship taking off. She transformed from her vehicle form as she watched the ship blast off in the distant before disappearing with the help of a cloaking shield. Her voice box was silent as her servos clenched into two firm fists, shaking a bit with anger and guilt. She was angry that she had failed to obtain Amy when it was clear her actions was only the results of her wound, and she felt guilty because she believed she failed as a leader.

"First Peach, now Amy. I should have learned to be more careful after we lost Peach to the Decepticons. Fortunately in Amy's case we may still have a chance to save her." she thought to herself.

Her blue optics glanced over at Slyscreen, to see the blue mech recovering from stasis as Mooncreamer helped him sit up.

Deciding to get answers, she walked over to him and asked "Slyscreen, how did Red Amy managed to knock you into stasis?"

The blue mech groaned as he rubbed his servo against the back of his helm in an attempt to soothe the throbbing pain coursing through out it. His thoughts were dazed and groggy as he tried to piece together the events that happened between him and Amy. Much to his surprise, while some pieces he could recall with some concentration, the rest seemed to be missing in large gaps.

"Well I can remember tripping up Amy and her trying to fight me, but there's big gaps I can't remember. I tried searching my memory logs but it's like they've been erased completely." he admitted.

Upon hearing this, Zeldia's vents inhaled sharply as her optics widened within an instant. She knew that what Slyscreen had described was the nearly the exact same state the Autobots discovered Angelight in the Decepticon Prison. She recalled the Autobot Rescue Team silently entering the base with one of the soldiers carrying Angelight with a guilty looking Ratchet trailing behind. The memory of the green femme squinting her optics with a dazed look as she struggled to recognize her surroundings was burned into her processor. It was at that moment Zeldia realized that the pilot of the ship she saw flying away had to be connected to the incident at the prison.

Knowing what was needed to be done, the blue femme commanded in a stern tone "Mooncreamer, help Slyscreen get back to the base and then help the others repair the controls to the Spacebridge."

Mooncreamer tilted her helm slightly, surprised to hear the tone currently in her commander's voice.

"Um pardon me, Zeldia," she spoke up, wanting to satisfy her curiosity, "but what shall you be doing?"

Zeldia silently turned toward her comrade to see the confusion painted on her face. She glanced at the rest of her troop to see all the soldiers had the same expression. She couldn't help but chuckle at the sight, realizing that her troop was curious as to why she wasn't going to help out with the repairs. Her engine revved as gathered her composure, knowing that she needed to explain her actions.

After a few seconds of silence Zeldia finally answered "I will be trying to get in contact with the Ark back on Earth. I believe that I can find out where Red Amy might have gone, but in order to do that I need Ratchet to tell me exactly what happened when he and Angelight were taken as prisoners by the Decepticons."

[sonicgirl313]

Chapter 31

Daisy took in deep and frantic breaths as targets were sent flying toward her. With her arm blades flaring with energy, she slashed and destroyed the incoming targets. Before she could get the chance to breath, more targets were sent flying toward her. She huffed in frustration as she swung her arm blades once again. But due to spending most of her energy destroying the first targets, a few managed to pass her and hit the wall. The technoragnic flinched when the sound of the buzzer filled the air.

Espiowl was silently watching the training scene unfold before him with his arms folded across his chest in a stern appearance. His yellow optics glanced over at the fallen targets as he began counting them without uttering a single word.

After a few moments of silence, he finally said "You missed three more targets than last time, your movements have gotten sloppier. Your goal is to try to miss as little as possible and showing worse results isn't a sign of improvement."

Daisy yelled and stomped her foot in frustration. It annoyed her to no ends that the mech insisted that she train without even using her jet boosters or her palm blasters. She didn't understand why the Autobot wanted her to work on her arm blades when her specialty was to zip around the enemy in order to confuse him before using her advanced scanning ability in order to learn their weaknesses. The young woman never considered using her arm blades for attacks but to block blows from her opponents.

Espiowl didn't even need his student to say anything in order for him to understand the frustration she was feeling. A small happy yet bitter smile grew on his face as he recalled how he was very much the same way with his former mentor Lucariotron. His grin began to falter more and more as his processor pulled up the memory log of the scene of devastation once he returned from the task given to him by his mentor. The Autobot's spark pulsed frequently in rage and agony at remembering every single Cybertronian in Lucariotron's dojo laying dead on the ground with a countless of assortment of wounds that nearly caused the ground to be completely covered in the energon of fallen and defenseless Cybertronians.

The black mech grunted as he pressed his servo against his helm, doing his best to banish the horrifying images that managed to remain burned into his memory logs over the course of thousands of years.

Having noticed her teacher's struggle, the technorganic frowned as she tilted her head to the side in both confusion and concern.

"Espiowl, are you alright? Are you wanting to take a break or are you starting to get more frustrated with how my training has been going?" Daisy finally suggested.

Espiowl jolted up his helm as his yellow optics shuttered frequently, having forgotten what his current task was.

His vents rumbled as they cycled in air, using the training Lucariotron had taught him to help clear his mind.

Once he was calm enough, he finally replied "I'm alright, but I suppose a break is needed anyway. It's about time I escort Ness back home anyway."

Daisy frowned as she watched her teacher leave the room. Feeling the exhaustion from her training she let out a tired sigh as she plopped onto the ground, transforming back to her human form. She was so tired that she failed to notice the sound of the door to the training room reopening. All of the sudden, the technorganic jolted in surprise when she felt something tap her shoulder. She immediately spun around to be greeted by the sight of none other than Calliester.
The red femme's chassis was frozen stiff in surprise from the reaction of her newest comrade before she slowly eased down and allowed a smirk to grow on her face.

"You know, it's good Espiowl's training is making you more aware and ready for action. But you don't need to act like a kremzeek running rampant on Cybertron." the Autobot remarked.

The ginger-headed girl tilted her head in curiosity before asking "What exactly is a kremzeek?"

Instead of the red femme answering, Jeff entered the room as he explained that a kremzeek was a creature engineered by the Decepticons that fed off of pure energy.

"Cliffalcon taught me about them during one of my many lessons about Cybertron. The creature drains any energy it can find, including the ones found in Cybertronians. They programmed the creature to ignore Decepticons so that they wouldn't have to worry about the creature trying to feed on them." the young boy continued to explain, "Apparently the Kremzeek was created to drain the Autobots of their resources and to weaken their numbers. Fortunately Wheelegad was able to help Mario with a plan to drive them off of Cybertron by using an energy field hooked to a missile. The Kremzeek chased after the energy and was promptly destroyed."

Calliester smiled nervously upon recalling that event. She did her best from groaning at remembering how the Kremzeek seemed especially interested in the energy radiating off her spark, resulting in the creature zipping in and out of her, constantly feeding on her energy bit by bit. The femme knew her spark would had been consumed by the creature if not for the fast thinking of Angelight by spraying her down with the insulating foam she developed.

"I have to admit, Jeff." Daisy spoke up, snapping Calliester away from her memories, "I'm impressed with how much you keep learning about Cybertron from your lessons. You know the planet's history, culture, and from what I've heard, you're even learning a bit of the Cybertronian language. Maybe with the knowledge you can help me get a better understanding of my technorganic nature."

Jeff hummed as he pushed up his glasses a bit in thought; he never considered the possibility of using his studies on Cybertron to gain knowledge on the unique trait that not only his friend possessed but also the former Autobot femme commander Shadowarachnia. He was stirred from his thoughts when he heard the red Autobot state that they would have to take the topic outside of the training room. The two friends were confused until, for a split-second, they both managed to catch a glimpse of a certain blue and white youngling.

Knowing they had already spotted Strongsamus, Calliester smiled softly with her servos firmly planted on her hip-joints as she explained "She's been warming up to me quite lately. But I suppose that's because I don't bombard her with questions, instead I opt to change into my altform and listen to the latest fresh tunes. I understand that it's shocking to learn there are still surviving younglings, but she's isn't really going to provide any information to a bunch of Cybertronians she barely knows."

Daisy nodded her head in understanding; she easily noticed how the youngling often steered clear of the other Autobots, especially Sidesnake. Without another word, she gestured Jeff to follow her as she began to leave the training room. But once she reached the door, Strongsamus tried to dash past the young woman which caused her shoulder to accidentally make contact with Daisy's hand. The ginger-headed woman sucked in a sharp breath with her eyes glowing bright blue. Visions flashed through Daisy's head of a fierce battle between Cybertronians, offlined mechs and femmes that had fallen in battle, a mech with a large gash in his chest, a femme impaled with a large sword with her optics flickering as spark faded. In the center of the horrifying carnage she witnessed a dark figure with bright glowing yellow optics.

The technoragnic rapidly took in quick breaths, jerking her hand away from the youngling. Her body shook with her eyes wide in horror, terrified at the visions she witnessed.

"Daisy, are you alright? You're freaking out pretty bad." Jeff stated with a frown.

Daisy inhaled deeply, trying to calm herself down before answering in a hesitant tone "Yeah, yeah I'm fine."

Without another word she left the training room, not knowing that Strongsamus was staring at her with her optics filled in confusion.

Back at Dinobot Island, Shadowarachnia sat on a large rock with a frustrated glare; the injured legs on her back twitching every so often. It infuriated her that the Autobots left her in the one place she couldn't escape from unless she had help. Being trapped on an island, surrounded by the very thing her organic form couldn't survive in. But she didn't blame the Dinobots for their insight. The femme was stunned when Yoshilock explained that he was only trying to prevent her from being locked up as a returned favor for her helping him and his team.

She was stirred from her thoughts when she saw the familiar green glow of Groundbridge appear behind her. The technoragnic hissed as she crossed her arms, her digits rapidly tapping her arm. When she saw the glow disappear and the sound of heavy footsteps approaching her, she already knew whom had emerged from the Groundbridge.

"Whatever you have to say, Prime, I'm not interested." Shadowarachnia stated without even looking.

Mario's optics widened in surprise before he asked "How did you know it was me?"

The black and purple femme spun around on the rock where she was now facing the Autobot leader, revealing her narrowed red optics that were filled with both anger and hate.

"I knew it was you because you're the only Autobot, aside from the Dinobots, that insist on helping me. Well if you're here to once again try to tell me I'm this Peach-One or trying to convince me to join the Autobots, it's not going to happen." she replied in a bitter tone.

The Prime remained silent for a few moments, a little disappointed at the femme's words before finally speaking up "Actually I came to see how your legs were healing. They were damaged pretty badly when Bowsertron threw you."

Shadowarachnia's face softened in surprise. She leaned one of her spider legs forward to show it had stopped leaking energon and was now slowly healing. Her lips pursed together as she ran her servo over the tip of the leg, flinching in pain upon discovering that it was still quite sore from the impact. Her servo lingered for a few seconds before finally lowering as she moved her leg back.

"As you can see, my legs are still in the process of growing back. It may be a quite a few cycles until it fully recovers. While I despise you at the moment, I thank you for your concern." the technoragnic replied in a softer tone.

Mario raised an optic-ridge in interest at the tone Shadowarachnia had taken on. He constantly told himself multiple times that the femme before him wasn't the Peach he knew, but he couldn't help but draw a parallel between the two. Every action and word the technorganic uttered, it held the same determination and strength carried in Peach's words.

Drawing himself away from his thoughts, the red mech asked "What shall you do once you have completely healed?"

Shadowarachnia scoffed bitterly at the Prime's question. She couldn't believe he would ask such a foolish question when in reality, it didn't matter if she would completely heal, she would still be trapped on the island. Apart of her was tempted to even inject the mech with her cyber-venom once more if it weren't for the fact the legs on her back were stuck healing. So instead, she opted to remain silent as she hatefully glared at the Autobot before her.
The Autobot leader, frowned in slight guilt when he realized his question has accidentally struck a nerve. His vents cycled in air as he sat down next to the femme.

"I'm sorry, Shadowarachnia, but you were a risk to my troop. Just know that putting you here was better than leaving you in a cell back at the Ark. I wasn't sure what to do with you and when the Dinobots offered to take you, I took advantage of it. I'm not forcing you to join the Autobots, but I can't allow you to bring harm to my troop either. I hope you understand this; my intention is not to treat you as a prisoner." Mario explained.

The femme remained silent but the grip on her arm loosened. She didn't understand why but the mech's words made her spark ache a bit, as if she did understood his intentions but it hurt that she understood. Her optics glanced at the ground as she gently cycled in air, unsure how to respond to the Prime's confession.

Deciding to break the silence, Shadowarachnia finally spoke up "Why do you care about this Peach-One?"

Mario lifted his helm in surprise. Due to his lack of silence, he saw it prompted the former Decepticon to repeat her question in a slight annoyed tone. He took a few moments as he debated where or not to tell her the truth. Finally he came up with a decision whilst his vents released a long blast of air.

"I care about Peach-One because I love her." the Autobot Leader confessed, "She was by my side almost to the beginning, fighting through the thick and thin. She would travel to the Pit and back if it meant helping me win this war. We were both equals and we both contained our emotions for the sake of the war. That choice is something I deeply regret. I never realized how much I truly cared for her until that day I had received news that she had been taken by the Decepticons and there were no signs of her life signal."

The black and purple femme's chassis stiffened as her legs slightly curled around her upon hearing the mech's words. Each word caused her spark to ache as images of Peach-One fighting alongside the brave leader constantly flashed through her processor. She clenched her denta and dug her clawed digits slightly in her arm, not caring if they left scratches.

"Is that why you seem to fuss over me so much, because you believe somewhere inside Peach-One is still the femme that sits before you?" she asked, doing her best to shove back the bitterness in her tone.

"Only at first, but not anymore." Mario answered, causing the technoragnic to jolt in surprise as he continued, "That day when we had that meeting, I hoped I could prove you were the femme of my past. But after that encounter, I came to realize you weren't quite the Peach-One I remembered. So I decided to accept the fact, no matter what name you carried, you were your own being. No matter what you would choose, may it be Shadowarachnia or Peach-One, I would respect and accept that decision. Only you can decide who you truly are."

Shadowarachnia was stunned by the Prime's answer. She had thought at first that she was only a mere beacon for a lovesick Cybertronian's hope that he could regain what he had lost, but she saw that thought was wrong. Instead the Prime had chosen to cast away the memories that emanated from gazing on her form and accept her for who she believed to be. But before she could say another word, the sound of stomping filled the air. The next thing she knew, Mario had been knocked to the ground by a very angry Yoshilock in his T-Rex form.

"I told you, she's staying with us. Spiderlady stays with Dinobots!" he roared with his optics glowing brightly red, struggling to form proper sentences due to his rage.

The red mech grunted as he pushed himself off the ground a bit as he exclaimed "I wasn't trying to take her! I was just checking to make sure she was alright!"

The robotic dinosaur snorted with steam blasting out his vents before craning his helm toward Shadowarachnia.

"Does Prime speak truth, or was he bothering you?" he asked with a hint of a snarl with his last few words.

The technoragnic shuttered her optics a few times before answering "Yes, he is telling the truth. He wasn't bothering me whatsoever."

The Dinobot cycled in air, giving one last glare at Mario before stomping off.
Shadowarachnia sighed in relief as she rubbed her digits against the crest of her helm. While she did appreciate how the Dinobots insured she wasn't taken by the Autobots, she found herself often annoyed by how protective Yoshilock could get with her. She wondered if the Dinobot's protective nature might have been accidentally increased when Ganonwave altered him to be more aggressive in the first place.

"It's about time I should leave anyway, I can't be gone from the Ark for long periods of time." Mario stated as he stood and dusted the dirt of his arm.

He activated his comm and requested for the Groundbridge to be reopened. Within a few seconds the green glowing Groundbridge appeared before him. Though before he could enter it, he turned back toward Shadowarachnia.

The technorganic raised an optic-ridge as she said "I suppose this means I should expect future visits."

The Autobot leader nodded his helm to silently answer. Without any words or goodbyes, the Prime entered and disappeared into the Groundbridge.
Shadowarachnia's optics lingered on the spot Mario once stood, even after the Groundbridge disappeared. Her healing legs twitched once more and she cycled in air, nothing but heavy thoughts filling her processor.

Back at the Ark, Ratchet was in shock as he stared at the video-screen that held the image of none other then Zeldia.

"What do you mean that Red Amy has fled Cybertron?!" he exclaimed in shock.

The blue femme's optics glanced downward in guilt as she explained "Red Amy tried to infiltrate Ganonwave's lab a few quartexes ago. We never knew why she did it but upon trying to escape she ended up getting caught in a blast that broke her helm. She eventually woke up but her optics were glowing red and she kept shouting these crazy paranoia's. We tried to recover her so she could be treated, but she managed to escape with an unknown pilot on a ship."

The medic stroked his chinplates in thought for a moment before commenting "Sounds like that blast ended up frying her logic circuits. With her logic circuits not functioning properly her processor ends up running rampant with thoughts that result in her paranoia."

"Fried logic circuits, that's terrible. If she isn't treated, her processor will overload and end up frying all of her systems, extinguishing her spark!" Zeldia stated as her spark pulsed in panic, "Ratchet, you need to tell me what happened that orn."

The medic froze a bit in fear, needing little to no guesses to know what the femme was referring to. Gathering his fear, he asked her to be more pacific only to have his fears confirmed; Zeldia wanted to learn the untold story of when he and Angelight were captured by the Deceptions. His chassis shook as the memory logs flashed through his processor, prompting him to shutter his optics.

Zeldia frowned when she noticed the medic trembling in fear before gently stating "Ratchet, when Slyscreen tried to get Red Amy, he ended up in a state that was much similar to the one Angelight was found in, but not as bad of a degree to hers was. I think whoever was the pilot of the ship, might be connected to your experience in that Decepticon Prison. Please, Ratchet, you have to tell me."

The red and white mech's green optics snapped wide open when he heard those words. He was in disbelief that the one that aided Amy was the one that delivered him and Angelight to the Decepticons in the first place. Knowing the threat that the mysterious pilot was known for, Ratchet cycled in air deeply as he lifted his helm.

He remained silent as he prepared himself to face the memories he swore never to revisit until finally he uttered "Alright, I'll tell you what happened that orn."

 

[sonicgirl313]

Chapter 32

Never thought I would have to revisit the memory of that orn. But for you to understand exactly who took Red Amy, I have to start at the beginning.

Ratchet's engine revved as he dove for cover in the middle of a war zone. His vents pounded with adrenaline and some fear. Not wanting to make any sounds, the medic pulled out his navigational scanner and saw he wasn't too far from the marked coordinates. He had received a coded message from one of the Autobots' informants and the council commanded that he recover and escort that informant at all costs. The red and white mech cycled in air as he frantically searched the battleground. Seeing there were no Decepticons nearby, without hesitation, he made a mad dash for the coordinates.

He clenched his denta tightly as he jumped down in a large hole, managing to avoid a few stray laser blasts sent his way. The mech's spark pounded as he immediately pressed himself against the wall, hiding away his chassis in the shadows. Much to his relief, a few Decepticons ran by without even noticing him. He sighed before taking a look around in the hole, searching for any sign of an Autobot. Ratchet kept searching until the sound of a blaster charging up reached his audio receptors. He quickly spun around to see an injured green femme, holding her blaster in one servo and laying her other over a large hole in her side.

Immediately recognizing her as the informant, Ratchet slowly held his servos up as he said "Easy, it's okay. I'm an Autobot too. My name is Ratchet and I'm the chief medical officer. I was sent here to escort you back to Autobot Headquarters after we received your distress call."

The femme shuttered her optics a few times before she slowly lowered her blaster. She immediately hissed in pain, tightening her grip over the wound in her side.
The medic quickly kneeled down next to the femme. Silently he activated the flashlight in his digit in order to assess the Autobot's injuries. The moment the light shined upon the femme's chassis, the mech's spark nearly stopped pulsing. He could see that not only was there a large blast wound in her side, but also that her entire leg managed to get blown off.

"No wonder you sent that distress signal. You can't even transform with this much damage done to your chassis. Fortunately I think I can at least patch up that hole of yours. As for your leg, I'll have to do most of the work at headquarters, but I think I can use some scraps here to make a temporary leg." he stated.

The femme nodded her helm in understanding, watching as the medic began summoning a few of his tools from subspace.

"So tell me," Ratchet asked as he got out the last of his tools, "what exactly is your name?"

The green femme grunted in pain before managing to utter out an answer "Angelight, my name is Angelight."

"Okay Angelight, so your wounds are so severe that using stasis gas won't work. Your circuitry and sensors are in a panic from the shock, meaning even in stasis your chassis will still feel pain and you'll awaken with extreme pain. So in order for you to be fit for travel, I'm going to have to nullify your sensors with this." the medic replied.

With the last of his words leaving his mouth, the mech made a small yellow generator raise up from an open slot in his red gauntlet.

"What's that device?" Angelight asked out of confusion.

"It's an EMP generator." the medic answered, "It's designed to send out electronic waves that nullify all sources of technology. It can be quite dangerous which is why I'm only going to give you a low dose. With such a small amount, it should only nullify your sensors. Any stronger and it can wipe out functions such as movement, transforming, speaking, or even worse, your processor."

The injured femme flinched slightly, feeling uneasy about a device capable of such devastation being used on her. But slowly she become more calm and trusting of the medic as he constantly reinsured her, telling her that he knew how exactly how many waves he should output to avoid doing any damage. The femme uttered no words as Ratchet activated his EMP generator. Within seconds, her optics dimmed as she temporarily slipped into stasis.

I thought it would have been an easy job. Just patch her up and get her back to headquarters. But I could have never imagined the events that followed.

Ratchet rubbed his servo across his helm as he finished the last of the repairs on Angelight. He had patched up the wound on her side and crafted a temporary leg for her to walk on. He grunted as he placed the femme on his shoulder, knowing that she still had to recover from the effects of the EMP generator. Using all his strength, the mech managed to haul both him and Angelight out of the hole. His optics glanced back and forth searching for any signs of Decepticons. Believing the coast was clear, Ratchet quickly darted for a tunnel. He required cover if he were to safely transform and get Angelight to safety.

Unfortunately the moment he reached the tunnel, he heard the sound of an engine roaring. The medic knew instantly that he had been spotted. In an attempt to protect the injured informant, he ran deeper into the tunnel, hoping the darkness will act as cover. Once he felt he was far enough, he gently rested Angelight against the wall. Ratchet clenched his denta whilst summoning his blaster. He intended to deal with his pursuer personally. Very carefully and cautiously he searched the tunnel, looking for any signs of a Decepticon.

He searched every corner of the dark tunnel till suddenly he heard the sound of footsteps. Quickly he spun around and began firing. The light from the laser blasts manage to shine upon this pursuer to reveal a dark figure. Ratchet tried to fire at the figure, unfortunately the mysterious Cybertronian dashed along the shadows, almost as if he was a mere shadow as well. The medic jerked his helm back and forth, trying to relocate his opponent. Suddenly, without warning, he was greeted with a swift punch to his face. He yelled out as he smashed against the tunnel wall. The red and white mech shook his helm a few times, just in time to see another fist flying toward him.

Acting fast, Ratchet jerked to the side just in time to avoid the punch. Using the dodge to his advantage, the medic quickly summoned his wrench. With his servo gripping it tightly, he bashed the wrench against the intruder's head, earning a yell from them. The mech's green optics widened in shock when he heard his opponent's yell. To him the yell sounded distorted, almost as if the voice box was barely functioning. Unfortunately he failed to stop his pursuer from quickly turning into his vehicle form and began to quickly speed off in the direction where Angelight lay unconscious.

Not wanting to lose the Autobot's informant to a possible Decepticon, Ratchet brought out his EMP generator. He never wanted to use it as a weapon due to its capability of devastating results, but he was desperate. Without hesitation, he blasted the electric waves toward his fleeing opponent. All of the sudden, the loud beeping of something shutting off filled the air. The medic glanced up at the source of the beeping only to realize too late that he had fallen for a trap. Within seconds a wall dropped down on the mech, both injuring him and pinning him to the ground.

Ratchet grunted as he desperately tried to free himself from underneath the wall. He kept struggling until he heard the familiar sound of transforming. He tilted his helm back to see standing before him a mech with a green and black chassis and wearing a skeletal mask that hid his face.

"Normally that wall was suppose to drop with a push of a button. But either was, I'd say my trap worked out rather nicely." the green and black mech chuckled as he kneeled down to the Autobot's level, "By the way, I noticed that you left a femme a little ways back. I wouldn't suppose she's an Autobot Informant."

Ratchet snarled at the tone the mech before him taunted him with.

The green and black mech couldn't help but find himself amused at the Autobot's rage before commenting "You Autobots are all the same. Act all angry and are ready to charge in battle, yet gullible enough to follow orders from a processorless leader."

"So in other words, you're another Decepticon." the medic stated.

Much to Ratchet's surprise, the medic groaned in frustration before answering "No, I'm on no one's side. If you ask me, both the Autobots and Decepticons are like squabbling younglings, fighting over a simple planet. No, I'm a bounty hunter. I work for whoever offers me the most and it just so happens that Bowsertron has offered me quite the reward for the capture of your little friend over there."

The mech laughed as he stood up, his red optics glowing brightly behind his mask.

"Originally I was going to just take her and possibly just offline you. But after seeing that little, interesting gadget on that gauntlet of yours, I think it's in my best interest to take you as well." he stated.

Without another word, he punched Ratchet directly in the helm with all his strength, managing successfully to knock the medic into stasis.

I had no idea how long I was under. All I know is that when I woke up, it wasn't a pretty sight.

Ratchet groaned as his senses slowly returned to him. He shuttered his optics a few times as he examined his surroundings. Quickly he learned both he and Angelight were in a prison cell meant for Autobots. He glanced over at his companion to see the femme frantically cycling in air. A guilty frown formed on his face as he turned his helm away; his job was to escort her yet he ended up landing both of them in a Decepticon prison. The two were stirred from their thoughts when they heard the sound of someone approaching. Ratchet felt like his spark nearly stopped pulsing when he lifted his helm to see not only the mech that had captured him but Bowsertron standing outside of the cell as well.

"One Autobot informant like you asked, heck I even snagged a field medic to boot." the green and black mech smirked.

Bowsertron remained silent for a few moments, examining the two Autobots with a stern glare.

Finally he turned toward the Autobot's captor and said "Well done, Locker. Have the femme sent to Vectorwave so he can retrieve the information stored in her processor. As for the medic, I can care less what happens to him. Either way, you shall receive your reward once the task is complete."

With that said, the Decepticon Leader walked away without a single noise, leaving Locker with the two prisoners.
Locker chuckled as he signaled with his servo for two Decepticon guards to come over. He stood back as he allowed the guards to enter the cell, placing energy cuffs on the two Autobots before walking them out of the cage. The moment Ratchet was brought out of the cell, without warning Locker instantly seized ahold of the mech's neck. He grinned underneath his mask as he watched the Autobot squirm in his grip.

"Quit squirming will ya?" he said as he formed his grip tighter around the medic's neck, "I'm not going to do anything to ya... yet. You're just insurance that your friend doesn't try anything stupid. Once she's in Vectorwave's custody, I'm going to take that little generator of yours and add it to my collection."

Ratchet clenched his denta both in anger and pain. He refused to accept that he failed his mission. His green optics focused on Angelight; he saw the frightened look on her face as the Decepticon guard held her back.
The femme optics darted between the floor and the energy cuffs around Ratchet's wrists. Finally her engine hummed as she shuttered her optics, content with what she was about to do. The moment her optics snapped open, she kicked the guard that had ahold of her, freeing herself. Acting swiftly she slammed her chassis against Locker's, prompting him to immediately drop the medic on the floor.

The red and white medic shook his helm, quickly regaining his bearings. Seeing that the other guard was after Angelight whom was in a struggle with Locker, he quickly bashed his energy cuffs down on the guard's helm, both knocking out the guard and breaking the cuffs.
Seeing that his servos were free, Angelight immediately asked if the medic still had his EMP generator. Much to her relief the mech revealed he still had in his possession by raising it up from his gauntlet..

Struggling to keep the bounty hunter back, the green femme shouted "Remember what you told me the EMP generator was capable of? I need you to give me a strong enough blast to erase the codes in my processor!"

"What?!" Ratchet exclaimed out of shock, "But that's dangerous! I have no idea what kind of effect that strong of a blast will have on you!"

"Please Ratchet," the femme pleaded, "we can't let these codes fall to the Decepticons. Otherwise they'll gain control of Project Omega X!"

The red and white mech's felt like his entire chassis was shaking in panic. He didn't want to possibly do irreversible damage to his comrade, but he didn't want the Decepticons to gain important information neither. Unfortunately he didn't get a chance to decide when Locker finally successfully shoved Angelight away and charged toward him. Out of reflex, he activated the EMP generator before entering a struggle with Locker. The two used all their strength in attempt to overpower the other. But as they fought, the energy in the EMP generator constantly built up.

It didn't take long for the medic to finally realize what was happening. His vents cycled in air sharply upon noticing that the generator had built up too much energy and would soon overload. He tried to shut down the generator, but unfortunately he got smashed to the ground by Locker. The moment the medic's chassis smashed against the ground, electronic waves finally blasted forth from his generator. He quickly lifted up his helm, hoping he hadn't hit anyone only to see, much to his horror, that the waves had hit Angelight.

The femme was only in pain for a few seconds before lifelessly falling to ground. Ratchet's spark pulsed in fear as he quickly scampered off of the ground and darted over to the femme's chassis. His denta and servos were clenched tightly when he lifted up Angelight and began shaking her. Much to his relief, after a few moments of shaking the femme in his arms finally started to awaken.

"Angleight, are you okay?" the medic asked out of concern.

Angelight silently stared at the mech with her helm tilted slightly.

Finally after a few moments of silence, she asked "Who's Angelight? Who are you? What is this place?"

Ratchet felt like his entire world had shattered. The thing he had feared had come true. His optics shuttered tightly shut as he desperately fought back the cries of anguish he wanted to release. He was in charge of keeping her safe and now he had failed both her and the Autobots. The mech continued to dwell in his depression until he felt a pes deliver a hard blow to his side. Ratchet cried out as he slammed against the wall, pain coursing throughout his entire chassis. He groaned as he looked up to see an enraged Locker.

"You idiotic scrap! Do you have any idea what you just cost me?" the bounty hunter roared in anger whilst delivering another kick to the medic.

He snarled as he slammed his green and black pes down on the Autobot's chest, earning a yell in pain from the mech. His red optics glowed in rage behind his mask as he leaned down and grabbed ahold of Ratchet's arm. Using his free servo, he ripped the EMP generator off the medic's gauntlet, ignoring his yells of pain as the circuitry lines snapped.
Ratchet's engine rumbled as he coughed; his green optics glanced at his gauntlet that now had a large sparking hole with broken wires. He looked over at Angelight to see her curled up against the wall in fear, still confused by her surroundings and the event she was witnessing. He wanted to comfort the femme, insure her that everything will be alright. Unfortunately he didn't get the chance as he found himself lifted up by Locker and smashed against the wall once more.

"I was just going to take your EMP generator and just offline you. But after what you've just done, it isn't good enough to just offline you. No I'd rather tell Bowsertron what you've done. Trust me, once he finds out he'll make sure you feel like you've gone to the Pit itself!" the green and black mech snarled, "But before Bowsertron takes his rage out on you, I think I'll have my turn first."

Ratchet said nothing as he was forced to bare through the mech's beatings. With every blow and kick, the mech clenched his denta tightly, refusing to unleash any yells of pain. He could feel nothing but pain throughout his entire chassis as the bounty hunter continued to beat away on him.

Locker stayed true to his promise and informed Bowsertron of my deed. Sure enough, the Decepticreep made sure my time in that prison was beyond the worse horrors I could even imagine. With all the torture I endured from the guards, I might have joined the AllSpark if not for that rescue.

Ratchet lay in his cell with his vents blowing softly. His sensors couldn't register anything anymore except for the pain running throughout his chassis. His armor was torn and dented along with many wounds that constantly were leaking energon. He could barely feel any strength within him as his spark pulsed weakly, showing signs of flickering out if he were to endure anymore of the guard's brutality. Suddenly he heard the sound of yelling fill the air. The mech tried to listen to make out the sounds but unfortunately his audio receptors were too damaged to make out the sound.

The medic groaned as he slowly shuttered his optics, struggling to keep them open. He kept them closed until the sound of his cell door opened. He reactivated his optics, expecting to see one of the Decepticon guards that had constantly tortured him. But much to his shock, instead of a Decepticon he saw a short red and white Autobot shining a light on him.

The Autobot stared at him horrified with his large green optics wide as he said "By the Matrix, Ratchet is that really you?"

Ratchet remained silent as he stared at the Autobot, trying to recognize him. Fortunately it didn't take long as he cracked a weak grin, recognizing the Autobot as Clank Aid.

"Hey Clank." he uttered weakly, "What took ya so long?"

Thanks to Clank, I was quickly patched up. I had shortly learned the council had sent the Protectobots team to recover captured Autobots, mostly to recover Angelight. As soon as we reached the base, the council took Angelight into their custody to see if the codes were recoverable. It wasn't long till finally they summoned me to forcible extract the codes from her processor. I felt miserable, first I caused her to lose her memory, then I was having to perform a procedure that could offline her. I can't explain what happened next but you know the rest for Angelight. She was taken into Peach-One's custody where Keriacer helped her back on her on peds by telling her name and reminding her of her core programing as a scientist. The reason I never wanted to revisit that orn wasn't because of the torture I experienced in that prison, it was because to this orn I still feel responsible for Angelight's state.

[sonicgirl313]

Chapter 33

"So you're saying that Red Amy was taken by a bounty hunter named Locker. But what could he possibly want with her?" Zeldia asked with her optic ridge raised in confusion.

Ratchet's optics dimmed a bit as his servos curled into two fists. It worried him slightly that he didn't know what the bounty hunter was seeking by taking a field medic. He knew the bounty hunter must have hidden motives considering that was the case when he accepted the job to retrieve Angelight.

Deciding to give a femme a response, he responded "There's no telling with Locker. But still, you'll need to track him down. If there's one thing I learned about Locker from my encounter with his is that his motives are only for his own gain."

Zeldia silently tapped her digits in thought on the communicator counter. She understood it was important to track down the bounty hunter before he could carry out his motives. Only problem was that she didn't have the slightest idea how to track him nor where he might have possibly taken Amy. Suddenly, without warning, the screen began flashing red with Cybertronian text, indicating the blue femme was receiving an incoming message. She narrowed her optics at the screen, studying the caller code in order to get an idea who was calling. It only took a few seconds for her mouth to drop open upon recognizing the code to be an Autobot one.

Without hesitation, the femme answered the call, prompting a blue and red Autobot to appear on screen with a black visor that hid their entire face.

"Sorry Zeldia, normally I wouldn't be taking such precautions during a checkup report, but I can't have my cover blown." the Autobot spoke with a voice distorter, "I managed to hack into your call with Ratchet and overheard you're both trying to track down Locker. It just so happens I have been tracking him over the course of many Orbital Cycles."

Zeldia's engines rumbled as she resisted the urge to groan in annoyance. She wasn't only annoyed by the appearance of the mysterious Autobot, but by their appearance as well.

"Devlita, you've got some nerve to call here. Peach-One may have tolerated your actions, but I won't now that I'm in charge." she stated with a hint of a snarl in her voice.

The masked Autobot shook their head with a slight chuckle before they responded "You're still mad that I chose to abandon the war. Look, I'm still loyal to the Autobot cause. But it was clear there was no survival for Cybertron; I rather be a help to those who still have a chance to live. That's why I left to become a bounty hunter. Peach-One understood my reasons, I still can't fathom why you still can't."

The blue femme grinded her denta with a sneer. It frustrated her that the bounty hunter carelessly was talking about what Peach-One accepted and didn't accept without being aware what had become of the former femme commander. Pushing aside her frustrations, she decided to focus on the matter at hand. As much as she hated to admit it, the Autobots did need help from the bounty hunter. They needed to track down Locker's location and Devlita was the only one with any idea of where he could be located.

Zeldia cycled in air deeply with her digits pinching the bridge of her nose plates. Asking for the bounty hunter's help was a blow to her pride, but she saw no other choice in her current circumstance.

Finally after a few more seconds of silence, she finally said "I still hate your decision to abandon Cybertron. Despite that though, I can see that we do need your help. So I'm willing to put aside my anger so we can ally together in order to recover Red Amy. Since you're the one that has Locker's coordinates, you'll be leading this mission."

The bounty hunter nodded their helm both in understanding and slight happiness at winning the argument before stating "Alright, normally I usually do these jobs alone. But I have been learning that Locker is a dangerous individual; he always knows how to deal with both targets and pursuers. If I can, I would like Ratchet and a few Autobots to accompany me on this mission. Since Ratchet has encountered the bounty hunter in the past, he should have an idea what to look for."

"Alright, I'll send Inferknuckles and Slyscreen with you and Ratchet. I'm sure you'll especially appreciate me putting Slyscreen on the mission considering you two do share a history." the blue femme replied with a slight smirk.

The bounty hunter grunted with their digits curling up into a fist. They knew Zeldia purposely had chosen Slyscreen because they never really got along with the mech. The blue Autobot could easily recall back when they still lived on Cybertron, how the mech would purposely pester them in order to get a reaction. With a slight snarl, they agreed to the femme commander's terms. While they still found Slyscreen to be infuriating, they were still willing to accept any terms necessary to go after Locker.

Back on Earth, Espiowl remained silent in his motorcycle form as he watched Ness talk to his mother. He could overhear the adult woman voice her concerns about her son always running off to places unknown on his motorcycle. He couldn't help but feel bad for the young child that kept constantly struggling to come up with excuses to hide the Autobots' very existence. It wasn't long till he saw Ness leave his house and sighed as he leaned against of him.

"I'm starting to run out of excuses to give my mom. At the rate I might have to start have to start preparing for the possibility of my family discovering you guys." Ness said with a small smile.

"I don't think you'll have to worry too much, you'll be fine. You've done well for a youngling thrust into a conflict between two factions." Espiowl replied, one of his sidemirrors angled toward the child as he did so.

The twelve year-old's smile faltered slightly upon hearing his Autobot guardian comment on the war. He had heard the Autobots often tell him and his human companions how they never had wished for their conflict to come to Earth. He understood why they kept constantly reminding him of this fact. He heard the tales about Cybertron in its prime; how it was a planet full of vibrant life. Now it has become a dying husk, devoid of most of the life that inhabited it. Yet here he was, a boy that wouldn't be aware of such a horrible fate to befall the planet had not the Ark crashed on the Earth millions of years ago.

In his ever growing timespan with the Autobots, Ness has felt more guilty for what the Cybertronians had lost in their war. He was aware how much of a threat the Decepticons posed, but he knew the only one to get a taste of what the Autobots experienced was Paula when the Decepticons had killed her uncle. The red capped boy sighed as his brown eyes glanced down at his hands, easily noticing the psychic energy slightly sparking off his fingers tips.

Without even glancing at Espiowl, Ness asked "Espiowl, do you think there's times I can help out in the fight against the Decepticons?"

The black motorcycle practically jolted, nearly lifting his front tire a foot off the ground from the question presented to him.

It took a moment for the mech to gather up his thoughts before responding "Ness, I thought we went over this. The Decepticons are full of dangerous individuals; you should have known that from your encounters with Bowsertron and Shadowarachnia. No Decepticon would hesitate to kill a human and you wouldn't be able to defend yourself against one, let alone harm one. I understand that you and Paula aren't like other humans since you both are capable of abilities that rarely any other human has, but that isn't going to help you against a Decepticon. Besides, the last thing a youngling your age needs to do is run off into battle."

Ness frowned at the answer he received. He could tell Espiowl could struggle the thought of him getting killed in battle, especially when he had stumbled upon a scene of many dead Cybertronians in his past. The twelve year-old couldn't help but wonder how old were some of the Cybertronians killed that day; all he knew was that Espiowl stated they were sent to Lucariotron when they refused to fight. The mech's views on the Decepticons were fully cemented that day, with the image of death burned into his processor to help him strive forward.

Without a word, he smiled as he gently patted his hand against the side of the motorcycle.

"It's okay, Espiowl, you can always tell me more about that day if it helps you." he insured, "I may not be able to help in battle, but I still want to do my part in helping you guys. I feel like I owe it to you."

The Autobot's engine hummed softly in thought, dwelling on the boy's words. He considered it noble the young child wanted to do anything in his power to help. But despite his insuring words, the black mech couldn't find it in his spark to share the details of the scene his optics gazed upon. Especially since he had yet come to terms with the horrible carnage himself. He grunted slightly as he quickly banished the memory log of the dead Cybertronians old and young alike and his master's dying gasps from his processor. Until he was ready, he refused to allow himself to revisit that day.

Meanwhile in Locker's ship, Red Amy remained deadly silent at the ship's passenger station. She couldn't prevent herself from shooting a few paranoid glances at the bounty hunter stationed at the front of the ship. She still didn't understand what the mech required for her to access. Her processor was abuzz with many paranoid trains of thought, fearing the possibility of him lying about his intentions. She clenched her denta as a large amount of sparks shot out from her helm, prompting slap her servos on both sides of her helm in an attempt to ease the pain.

She found herself drawn away from her pain upon the sound of a raspy sigh reaching her audio receptors. Her red optics glanced up to the bounty hunter away from the pilot seat and now leering over her. She flinched slightly as she could see his hateful red optics staring at her behind his skeletal mask.

"I really don't appreciate you burning a hole in the back of my helm with those paranoid glares of yours." he stated in a bitter tone, "If I were to offline you or hand you off to someone, I would have done it by now. But I believe I made it very clear when we first met, I need you to access information for me."

In an attempt to gather up her bravery, Amy narrowed her optics with her arms fully crossed, unaware her right optic was slightly twitching.

"You keep claiming that, but yet you haven't even told me what supposed information I am needing to access." she pointed out, "You've been very vague about what my task exactly is, giving me no reason to trust you. For all I know, you could be luring me into feeling safe and hand me off to either the Autobots or the Decepticons. Well I'm not letting my guard down! So you'll never get the best of me!"

The femme's red optics flared slightly as a few more sparks emitted from her helm.

"Right..." Locker responded, talking a long pause as he rolled his optics, "If you're done with your little delusional freak outs, I will tell you exactly what you're needed for."

Amy didn't utter a word as she pursed her mouth, awaiting what the bounty hunter had to say. It wasn't long till the mech began explaining his intentions for taking the medic in the first place. Her vents hitched slightly when the bounty hunter stated he was aware she made a copy on Ganonwave's notes concerning merging Cybertronians with organic material. She began to grow worried and paranoid about the possibility of the bounty hunter presenting her to Ganonwave. Fortunately her worries faded slightly when Locker continued to explain that her containing such knowledge was important.

"You've clearly shown you can hack into Ganonwave's database. Over the course of thousands of vorns, I've been keeping tabs on the mad scientist per Bowsertron's request. He had his suspicions that Ganonwave was working on a few secret projects and hired me to make sure none of those projects were attempts of treachery. Turns out, Ganonwave had been actually tracking a project that had been lost after the ambush on Lucariotron's base. Knowing him, he most likely wanted to find the project so he could run experiments on it." he stated.

The medic digits tensed as her chassis stiffened; she wasn't sure what response to give Locker. Her helm sparked as paranoid scenarios ran through her processor, causing her to grow more and more fearful of answering.

Finally after deciding to gather up her courage, her vents cycled in deeply before she answered "Yes, I can access Ganonwave's files. But I still don't understand why you want me to help track down a lost project. It shouldn't have any value to you."

Her spark nearly stopped pulsing at the strict glare she received for her comment. Amy could feel her confidence and bravery easily crumbling to pieces as she did everything in her power from shaking in fear.

"If you must know." the bounty hunter finally spoke up, not bothering to hide the annoyance in his raspy voice, "One of my clients actually hired me to collect that project. My client has asked all information remain classified on them, but I will say this, they made it very clear that project could be quite crucial to them."

The femme now found herself even more puzzled than when she first met the green and black mech. She didn't understand who Locker's client was and what mysterious project he kept referring to. But her curiosity didn't matter much to her to the moment; all she wanted to do was protect herself out of the paranoia of getting on the bounty hunter's bad side would result in him turning against her. So for the sake of her own safety, the medic decided to agree to the mech's terms.

"Just promise me you will not let any Autobot or Decepticon to capture me. Knowing either side they'll either lock me up forever or run experiments on me. I do not want to be the result of Ganonwave's insane experiments like the Dinobots and Peach-One were!" she said in a stern tone, voicing her paranoia once more.

The bounty hunter groaned with his helm leaned back. He had quickly grown tired and frustrated with the femme declaring every single paranoid thought that entered her processor. But he was willing to deal with it until her usefulness ran out. The mech grinned at the thought of finally disposing of the annoying femme; he was almost tempted to hand her off to Ganonwave to see if he would subject her to experiments or simply execute her to spare himself of her annoyance. Pushing away those thoughts for the moment, Locker directed his focus to his current objective.

"Well, if you're done asking so many questions, I would like you to go back to your seat so I take the ship off of autopilot. In order to gain access to Ganonwave's files, we need to make a stop by one of his secret suppliers. According to my resources, he's on Monacus." he stated.

"Monacus, the gambling asteroid? I fail to see why Ganonwave would be getting supplies from there." Amy commented with a raised optic ridge.

"You'd be surprised, now shut up and sit down already." the bounty hunter replied with a snarl.

The medic flinched in fear before quickly sitting back down at her station. She didn't utter a single word as she watched the mech return to the pilot seat. She remained silently until she felt another pang of pain shoot through her processor. She groaned as she pressed her servo against her helm, ignoring the slight stings from the sparks emitting from her helm. Her denta clenched slightly as she did her best to ignore the pain in her helm, unaware that the pain was a sign of her time slowly running out.

Back on Dinobot Island, Shadowarachnia's legs fidgeted as she tried to sort through the different images that dwelled in her processor. She was still unsure how to differ between the fake and real memory logs, causing her to struggle with coming to terms on her identity. She couldn't decide if she was always the kind and brave Peach-One, or the vicious and cunning Shadowarachnia. Two identities that contrast each other with their polar opposite natures, yet both identities are supposedly her. The technorganic sighed whilst her red optics glanced over at the large pond she often seen Pledge splash in.

Her optics shined in focus and curiosity as she walked over to the pond. The femme leaned toward the pond in order to see her reflection, managing to see the image of the moonlight reflecting off her black and purple armor with her red optics glowing ominously in the dark. Shadowarachnia's vents slowly and gently cycled in air as she reached up and took off her helm. Her spark pulsed frantically upon staring at the image of the face in the water. She closely studied the features on her face, finding herself comparing them with the image of Peach-One's face.

She twisted to the left and right slightly, making sure to study every detail of her face. No matter how much she looked, she could still see the striking similarities between her and Peach-One. Despite the drastic differences thanks to her technoragnic nature, she could still see the mysterious femme's face lying underneath. Even in her own red optics, she could still clearly see the stern and caring blue optics that belonged to the pink femme. Shadowarchnia snarled before she swiped her servo in the water, distorting the reflection so as to no longer see the face of the femme she had grown to despise.

"Stop taunting me!" the technoragnic snarled, "They're wrong, they're all wrong! I am not a shell of a dead femme. I am not Peach-One. I am not Peach-One!"

She continued to repeat this to herself, almost as if she was trying to convince herself of this fact rather than others. Her vents rumbled as she released constant heavy blasts of air. She began digging her claws into the dirt as the water settled, allowing her to see her reflection once more. The femme clenched her fanged denta upon glaring at the reflection, hoping to see her own face into of the pink femme's. But no matter how long she stared, all she could see was the image of Peach-One's face glaring back at her.

With her will breaking, Shadowarachnia dropped her helm as wavering sobs emitted from her mouth. Her entire chassis shook as her cries filled the air. She was no longer sure of herself anymore; she was torn between two identities, unsure which identity truly lay within her spark.