The Decepticons return to their ship still under construction, as Megatron lands he sees the Constructicons stepping forward to greet them all.

“Welcome back mighty Megatron.” Scrapper says to him.

“Save your greetings Scrapper…. how much longer will it take to build this shuttle?”

Scrapper scratches his head, “It’s taking more time then usual Megatron.  What with the Autobots and human interfering….”

Megatron places his hands on his hips, “No excuses…I want results.  Did you eliminate the human captors?”

The Constructicons looked at one another and then Scrapper quickly replied back.

“Oh…yes…yes we destroyed them.  Vaporized to be more precise.  Why bother burying the bodies…much better to get rid of any evidence.”

Megatron chuckles, “Such ruthlessness…if I didn’t know any better, I’d swear you’re trying to out do me? Bu-hahahaha!”

The Constructicons all nervously laughed along with the leader, all of them began to back away and continue doing their jobs.  Scrapper was the only one still standing in front of the evil leader as he continued to question him.

“Now then,” Megatron spoke, “We’ve brought more energon for you to store and the sooner you finish the shuttle, the sooner we can get off this miserable planet.”

“We need more alloy Megatron, as you can see the ship is only half constructed…”

As the two continue to talk away, Starscream and the others hang out near the energon cube piles and boast about their attack on the dam.

“Optimus Prime must be dead.  Megatron took one hell of a swing at his head and boy…you should have seen him fall.  It was beautiful.”, Thundercracker says to them standing all around.

They all laugh at the thought, then Rumble steps up and talks about his favorite moment.

“You should have seen the look on Hound’s face.”; Rumble says to Skywarp standing near him, “I sent that military moron to the bottom of a watery grave with my trusted pile divers!  Nobody…but nobody messes with the likes of Rumble! Hehehe.”

Skywarp laughs, “Yeah right…Hound is probably still alive and lookin’ to kick your backside Rumble.  We were the ones in the real battle…”

The tri-robot group of Reflector walked up and agreed with the black jet robot.

“Yes…the real fight was with the Autobots and not struggling with some weakling human. We saw you having trouble trying to subdue the small flesh creature.”

Rumble didn’t like Reflector’s smug answer, “Aw shut up, I wasn’t struggling with him…I was about ready to take that human out if it hadn’t been for Optimus Prime.”

Thundercracker laughed at him, “I might have been late for the battle…but I saw you struggling alright.  You had plenty of time to take out that human before Prime knocked you out of the water. What’s the matter Rumble…human kick you with his soft boot? HAHAHAHA!”

Rumble jumps onto Thundercracker and begins pounding his fist into his face.

“Oh yeah?  How bout this struggle…and that struggle…. how bout one of these too? Huh? HUH?”

Starscream walks over and backslaps Rumble off of Thundercracker.  As the mini-robot lies on the ground, the large air commander hovers over him and points his arm cannon at his face.

“Enough!  I want to test these energon cubes before we store them in the ship.  Go get me the laser cannons that haven’t been mounted yet and hook them up!”

Rumble trying not to look scared looks up at Starscream and questions his command.

“What?  Are you nuts?  Megatron doesn’t want to waste our energy like that…besides why do you need to test them?”

Pushing his arm cannon deeper into the mini robot’s face, Starscream glares at him intensely.

“Don’t question me Rumble.  Megatron may be the leader, but as second in command I in turn command all of you.  So do as I instruct or I’ll melt that puny brain of yours back into the dust it was spawned from.”

Rumble gulps and nervously smiles.

Soundwave who looks deeply concerned approaches Megatron; the leader motions Scrapper to leave him as he now focuses on his communications officer.

“Back to work Scrapper…we’ll get you the materials you need.”

“Yes Megatron.”

Scrapper bows and returns to the ship to continue on its construction.

“Megatron…”, Soundwave now says to him, “I have calculated the energon amount we have successfully collected so far…”

“Well done Soundwave, continue…”

The image on Soundwave’s chest plate shows graphical data as he talks about their supply.

“Energon is at maximum capacity, we have enough to fuel our return to Cybertron and restore most of our power.”

Megatron smiles with delight, “Perfect…just enough to give us an edge over the Autobots and return back to this planet for a full scale energy drain.”

“However...” Soundwave reluctantly begins to speak, “There is a slight problem.”

Megatron’s smile diminishes, “What problem?  I thought you said there were no problems…”

Soundwave points over to Starscream and the group of Decepticons just finishing hooking up a power cable to the stack of energon.  Megatron’s eyes grow wide with surprise as he is witnessing his second in command firing the massive laser cannon.  Starscream fires the weapon at a near by cliff and shatters the rocky side in an explosion that creates a large crater.  Smiling at the results, Starscream laughs hardily at the amount of destruction and turns around to the others in pride full joy.

“IT WORKS!  IT WORKS!!”

Megatron stomps angrily towards the air commander and shakes his fist at him.

“Starscream you idiot!!  What in the blazes do you think your doing?!”

“Testing the energy output of these energon cubes of yours.  And look…. see how it works perfectly.”

Megatron steps in closer to him, “Of course it works you moron!  But now look what you’ve done, you’ve drained half of our resources in a matter of seconds you dolt!”

The pale grayish robotic jet folds his arms together and looks away from the leader’s face.

“You didn’t know…these cubes needed to have a proper test to see if they were stable.  Without my experiment we wouldn’t have sure if they worked at all.  Had we gone back to Cybertron without giving them a sample test…we would have surly failed.”

Grabbing the air commander’s arm in anger, Megatron brought him in close to his face.

“The only thing you proved is that you’re a complete idiot!  Now we need to make two strikes instead of one.  To get more metal for the shuttle and now to restock the energon you just selfishly wasted!  From now on, you are not to make any decision without my approval and you will not be in charge of any other Decepticon except your own air force…. count this as mistake number two Starscream…”

“Do not threaten me Megatron…one day I shall be the leader.  All Decepticons will bow to my will...”

Megatron snickers, “Never…you couldn’t lead androids to a picnic, let alone lead the Decepticon armies.  The day you become leader is the day you get the best of me…and sadly Starscream…that day will never arrive for you.  So keep in line and know your place…understood?”

Megatron lets go of his arm and turns around walking away.  Starscream regrets that those words might ring true for him.  He hates the fact that the Decepticon leader is correct, but the itch for him to lead is too great for the likes of letting Megatron stand in his way for power and glory.  Shaking mad from the slivery robot’s cruel words, Starscream’s eyes squint at him and as the leader continues to walk away, Starscream aims his two arm cannons at the leader’s back.

“Megatron! Look out!” Soundwave shouts in his monotone voice.

But the warning came too late, as he was instantly shot by Starscream as he screamed in a furious rage, the leader’s back exploded from the impact and threw him face down onto the ground.  The leader lay motionless as smoke rose from his damaged back.  All the Decepticons saw that he was not getting up and felt that the attack did infact kill the leader.  They now all looked up at Starscream and saw him chuckling in joy.  The robotic jet commander raised his arms up in victory and continued to laugh away.

“The mighty Megatron has fallen!!  I am now the new leader of the Decepticon Empire!!  Where Megatron has failed, I shall now lead you to victory!  Optimus Prime, the Autobots and this insignificant planet shall now be vanquished in the name of Starscream!!  Bwa-ahahahahahahaha!!!!”

Starscream gloats to all the Decepticons who are in shock of his deadly blow to the evil leader.  The air commander turns around and faces Soundwave, the one who tried to warn Megatron of the shot.

“How dare you try to sabotage my right to become leader!  Traitor! I should have you torn apart limb from limb and reprogram you to be nothing more then a light post!!”

Soundwave lowers his head as Starscream screams away, but quickly he looks up again proudly and points his finger at him.

“You are not the leader of the Decepticons!  You are nothing more then a coward!”

Starscreams red eyes flash in anger, “How dare you!  How dare you say that to me!!”

Pointing his right arm cannon at the defiant Decepticon, Starscream snickers as he watches Soundwave cower in fear from it being pointed at his head.

“I shall teach you a lesson in humility, the likes of which no other Decepticon has ever faced!!”

Suddenly a voice grumbles out from behind him, “How amusing Starscream…I was just about to say the same thing.”

Turning around, Starscream gasped in amazement as he saw Megatron rising up from the ground and standing to face him once again.

“M-M-Megatron!  I thought…. I thought….”

The evil leader scowled at the mumbling traitor, “Thought what Starscream?  That your puny weapons could damage me in the slightest?  I am so very happy to disappoint you.”

“Yes...I mean no…I…. I mean…”

Megatron took slow steps towards the shaking air commander, each step made the robotic jet take one foot back.

“I am indestructible fool!”, The evil leader shouts, “And now that I’ve seen just how far your treachery goes…I think it’s high time I correct this oversight once and for all!  How did you just phrase it a minute ago?  Aaaaah Yes, by teaching you a lesson in humility the likes no Decepticon has every seen!!”

Starscream’s eyes grow wide with panic as Megatron aims his fusion arm cannon at him, blubbering in fear; the air commander begins to beg for his very life.

“Spare me Megatron!  I was weak!  You…. you can’t destroy me, I’m too valuable!”

“You? Valuable?”, the leader begins to laugh, “Don’t be absurd!  If you were going to finish me, you should have followed through and finished the job.  But your too sloppy Starscream, just like everything you’ve done over the eons and now it’s time to take out that weakness this Empire can no longer afford!  You…valuable….Bah!  What makes you so valuable to me?”

Starscream holds out his arms in a defensive position, as if he’ll be able to stop the blast from striking him down.

“I’m the most qualified scientist you’ve got…I…I…I know how to create new devices…and…and…”

“Good bye Starscream…”, the leader says to him now targeting his arm weapon directly at him, “Death to all traitors!”

Megatron’s fusion cannon recoils and the energy blast strikes the screaming air commander in the arm.  Shattering his left shoulder, the arm is completely blown off and sends the limb flying off behind him.  Starsceam screams in sheer pain and drops to his knees, the gnarled shoulder leaks out energon and vital oil fluids.  He holds on to the nub with his other hand and continues to whimper in pain.  Megatron barely moved, but with his shadow cast down on the wounded Decepticon, he forces Starscream to look up at him as he talks.

“Let that be a lesson in humility for you…. that was mistake number three.  There are no more after that…. if you so much as betray me again, I’ll have the Constructicons form Devastator and have him take you apart servo by servo.  I should kill you right now and here…but…I still do need you, unfortunately.  The Autobots could still be a threat to us and I need every last soldier I can spare…including you.”

Starscream bows to the ground grateful.

“Thank you Megatron, thank you…. I shall not fail.”

“Indeed you had best not.” Megatron says looking down at him, “And now…you must earn your rank back again.  From now on…you are no longer my second in command, no longer the leader of the air forces and you will not do anything…. ANYTHING!…. without my approval. Is that completely understood?”

Looking somewhat regretful and even somber, Starscream nods gently and agrees under his breath.

“Yes….Megatron.”

Turning to Soundwave, Megatron smirks at him and pats him on the shoulder.

“You’ve just been promoted Soundwave.  See to it that our next objectives are put in motion…at least there is one Decepticon that knows his place well.”

Soundwave nods, “As you command Mighty Megatron.”

“Thundercracker!”, Megatron yells.

Running over and saluting him, Thundercracker tries not to stare directly at the leader.

“Yes Megatron!”

“You may have Starscream’s position…you will now lead the jet force, that is, until Starscream can be trusted again.”

Thundercracker smiles and salutes the leader again.

“Yes sir.  I think we’ll be waiting a long time for that to happen…sir!”

Megatron chuckles at his answer, “Well spoken…you’ll go far Thundercracker.  In the mean time…have someone repair that idiot’s arm.  We must have all our warriors fully prepared for battle…hadn’t we?”

Thundercracker nods in agreement, the entire group of robots laugh at the air commander and Megatron walks away from the group as they continue to enjoy Starscreams humiliation.  The damaged commander still kneels in pain, the laughter makes his eyes flinch and scowls at all of the Decepticions standing over him and laughing.

“Megatron may have won this time…”, He thinks to himself, “But I will have my revenge…. and someday…. I will make him suffer.”


•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Inside a slightly darkened room, with monitors and blinking lights on the walls, lies Optimus Prime on a rusty orange table.  The monitor graphics show his energy output and make a pinging noise every time it spikes now and then.  His body looks fully repaired from the damage done earlier, yet he still remains unconscious.  As he lies there, sounds, voices, and old memories begin to haunt his mind as if they’re coming from all around the room like a stereo.  The mass jumble of it all fills his head; in it he can hear the screams of his people as the bombs blow up their Autobot base on Cybertron.

“Your our only hope Prime”, the voice of Ultra Magnus says.

The continued sounds of weapons fire and explosions now mix in with the sound of human cries and blood curling screams.

“Help Us Optimus!!  Help Us!!”

Prime's own voice cries out in his mind as he tries to call out to them.

“I can’t…I have to leave for Cybertron.  No!  No Megatron!  Don’t…please…the humans!! NOOOO!!”

The large explosion in his mind causes his head to twist about, Megatron’s constant laughing is stirring him awake slowly.  As it grows louder and louder, a faint angelic voice peers out from it’s on going taunt and awakens him like a kiss.

“Optimus…. wake up my love…. wake up.”

Sitting up fully awake and eyes wide with a glowing surge of blue, he cries out to the voice as he instantly remembers whom it belongs too.

“Elita One!!”

The nightmare was over for him; he clasps his head in sorrow as he fondly remembers his lost friends on Cybertron.  As he tries to deal with the memories and flood of voices, Ratchet walks over from the chair he had been sitting in all along. 

“So you’re awake…. welcome back to the land of the living.  Did you have a bad dream?”

Prime now turns himself and sits on the side of the table he had been laying on.

“All I ever have are bad dreams.  One nightmare after the other.”

Ratchet pats his back for comfort, “Don’t be so hard Prime…there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel.  That’s what one of the humans told me anyhow.”

“The Humans…”Optimus says looking over at Ratchet, “What happened?  Is the dam alright…were any of them hurt?”

Ratchet folds his arms, “No, no…they’re all fine.  The others managed to stop the floodwaters before it took out a small town.  And the dam was quickly patched up before anymore spilled out.”

Prime sighs with relief, “Thank the Matrix.”

Just as the leader stands to his feet, Spike, Ironhide and Bumblebee enter the room amazed to see Optimus fully recovered.

“PRIME!”, Spike shouts.

“I knew you’d come back to us Optimus!”, Bumblebee says rushing to his side.

Ironhide stands in front of the leader and pats his shoulder.

“Bout time you ended your beauty nap…Welcome back Prime!”

“Good to see all of you as well.” Optimus says back to the welcoming group, “Tell me…how long have I been out.”

Spike cheerfully answers, “Not long at all Prime.  We quickly brought you back here to have Ratchet get to work on you.”

“And Megatron…”, he softly asks.

Bumblebee sighs, “He got away Optimus…sorry…but we had the humans to save and you as well.”

Prime kneels down to Bumblebee’s height and looks at him, “You did right Bumblebee…don’t be ashamed, lives come first…fighting is secondary.”

While Prime continues to kneel there, Spike walks over to touch his hand.

“I want to thank you Optimus…for saving me.  Rumble nearly tore my arms off…if you hadn’t stopped him…I…. I might have…”

“You’re welcome Spike.  I really wish you would stop thanking me for just doing what’s right…It is we who should thank you for bringing us all back from the dead.”

Spike hangs his head, “Well…I wish I could have woken you up before Megaton.  Then maybe…all of this wouldn’t have been such a mess.”

Ironhide looks down at him, “Yeah well…wishing ain’t gonna change things.  Enough of this mushy garbage…what’s the new plan Optimus?  How are we gonna stop Megatron?”

Optimus Prime stands up again, “I don’t know Ironhide…for the first time, I’m not really sure how we can attack him without harming any of the humans.  He seems to use them as shields all the time.  A true sign of a coward.”

Spike looks up again at Prime and Ironhide, “Actually…Hound has an idea.  Ever since Carly and Mirage came back with the hostages, he’s been mulling over a big plan…I think he’d like to have you have a listen to it Optimus.”

Prime rubs his chin in thought, “Hmm…well, if Hound is going to suggest something, I think I’d like to hear from all of the Autobots. Perhaps if we share our opinions we might formulate a better attack strategy.”

Ironhide salutes, “Will do Prime.”

The red robot walks out of the room with Bumblebee, Spike is almost out the door when he looks back and sees Optimus looking rather concerned.  Spike figures it must not be easy for the leader, juggling both the safety of the Autobots and the Humans.  A huge burden to bear for any leader, still Prime looks as though he’s unsure about himself and his ability to protect all concerned.  Perhaps this meeting is a chance for him to let others make some of the tougher choices, or even just to give him some new ideas.  In any event, Spike feels for this large robotic leader, and as the doors close on him as he leaves room, Spike tries to think of a plan himself before the others gather.

“I’m running out of time…. and ideas.”, Prime whispers to himself.

Ratchet hears the leader as he folds away the table Prime was just laying upon, the metal bed lowers into the floor and becomes one with it as if it was placed into it like a jigsaw puzzle.  Stepping over the returning floor piece, Ratchet tries to once again console the troubled leader.

“Listen Optimus…no one expects you to have all the answers.  You’ve got so much to think about right now it’s easy to see how the future might look a bit hazy.  You’ve managed to listen to all of us before during the war and even inspired us all to see beyond our own basic programming.”

Optimus sighs, “A lot of good it’s done us.  I’ve managed to wipe out our remaining forces on Cybertron, shown Megatron a new planet to plunder and continually endangering the lives of these fragile creatures.  I feel as if I’ve single handedly doomed the universe by my actions.  What kind of leader is that I ask you Ratchet?”

Ratchet grabs hold of the somber leader and looks directly in his line of vision.

“Optimus Prime, you are the greatest leader any Autobot has ever followed.  We would have faded out into the darkness of Cybertron had it not been for your leadership.  Other’s tried to lead…Megatron managed to wipe them all out before they even got the chance, but you…. you alone were the one that stood up and made him take notice.  I’ve heard some Decepticons say they’ve never encountered a leader quite like you.  Your strong, you never give up and you are not going to let that manic take over the universe…”

“How do you know I won’t?  Perhaps I’m not the one to lead us out of this mess…. nor the one to liberate Cybertron.”

Ratchet lets go of him and calmly gazes at him as the leader stands there looking at him.

“Because you were chosen by the Matrix.  No leader in our history has ever bore that mantle and not found a way to bring us back into focus.  The Matrix of Leadership chose you because it believes that you are the one to make us whole again.  I remember you telling me along time ago Prime…It called to you by name, no transformer has had its name spoken by it since the last Cybertronian leader that was chosen before.”

Prime straightens up and pats his chest; deep inside the Matrix sits inside well protected within him.

“Yes…not since the Third Cybertronian war.  Somehow, it became lost soon after its end and was handed to me as the Fourth War began.  I wish I could remember who that man was who gave it to me…somehow…he seemed to know that it was looking for me.”

The leader once again looks at Ratchet with a grateful nod and taps his shoulder.

“Thank you for reminding me who I am…and for letting me ramble on about my doubts.”

Ratchet smiles, “Forget it Optimus.  It happens to the best of us, if we didn’t have our doubts now and then…we’d be no better then empty drones.”

Walking out the medical room door together, Optimus and Ratchet laugh as the leader shakes off his woes.

“Come on then Ratchet, lets show Megatron just how dangerous our Autobot minds can be, huh?”

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Deep within the underground lair of Area 51, Doctor Archeville calmly walks through the dark grey corridors.  The echoing of his shoes clicking below bounce around the entire length of the hallway as each step bring him in and out of the various lights shining down like spotlights.  The corridor shows no sign of decoration, no pictures hanging on the walls and not even a basic floor design that one would usually see down a hall.  Totally grey with black lines separating the various doorways and breaks in the walls are all that can be seen.  If someone was visiting for the first time, they’d be sure to be lost in the matter of seconds, the doors have a special labeling system that only come in the form of secret symbols.  These symbols are the code that the members of this secret organization have created, the only way that they can make sure no one else can translate any of it should their building be breached.  The Doctor continues to walk calmly down the hall, a man deep in thought that is soon broken as one of his men in black steps out from another door ahead of him.

“Sir!”

“Yes my boy what is it?” he says to the young Caucasian man facing him.

“We’ve been monitoring the Decepticons as you asked and we picked up a large energy signature a few minutes ago.  In fact when we looked from the new orbiting satellite…we discovered a large crater on the side of the cliff face near their position.”

“Indeed?” Archeville says with his eyebrows raised.

The young man hands him a few photographs from the satellite, which clearly shows the cliff before and one image of it afterwards.

“Incredible.  It only took them a few minutes to activate a powerful weapon like that; it must be those special cubes they’ve developed.  It must concentrate the energy into a pure form…almost like unleashing the raw power from the sun itself.  Good work…make sure you men keep a sharp eye on them.”

The young man salutes, “Yes Sir!”

As the one man leaves down the hallway, another one steps up behind the aging doctor.

“Yes Agent Drakemore you have something for me…”Archeville says sighing.

“How did you know it was me?”

Turning around to face him, the doctor simply chuckles to himself and smirks.

“After being on this project as long as I have…I’ve come to know the sound of every one of my men’s foot steps.  Now stop looking so surprised and report.”

“Just thought I’d bring you up to speed about the General.  He and his men are not following our orders to return to base, those that did return told us that the General is thinking of helping the Autobots launch a major offensive against the Decepticon ship again.”

The Doctor shakes his head, “The fool.  You’d think by know he’d know his place, I guess I’ll have to remind him of who’s really in charge of this whole operation.”

“And another thing sir…”Drakemore now tries to add to the conversation.  “Chip Chase has contacted us.  It appears he’s made a major breakthrough, he now believes that the project could be fully operational within four months.”

“Four months??” Archeville’s voice rises, echoing through the entire corridor.  “I gave him instructions to make it happen sooner!”

Drakemore squints at the old man’s howling.

“Sir…he said this time it is an accurate time to completion.  But he also wanted me to give you this as proof that it is working as planned.”

The agent hands Archeville a small palm pilot device that shows strange numbers and scrolling data.  As the doctor snaps it out of the man’s hands angrily, his eyes grow wide with satisfaction as he reads the information on it.

“Yes…. yes…. this is marvelous!!  There’s enough on here to get started right away!!”

Drakemore relaxes now that the aging doctor has become less tense.  Archeville giggles like a child as he closely looks at the data on the mini-pad.  Drakemore clears his throat to snap the giggling madman’s attention again.

“Huh?  Oh yes, yes my boy…Go and tell Chip that he may have those four months, but not one more month or day over the time.   Otherwise he’ll be finding himself filled with lead bars and dropping to the bottom of the ocean.  The final warning he gets from me, understand?”

Drakemore nods obediently, “Yes sir…I’ll see that he understands completely.”

“Good.  Now go…and also phone up the General…I want to speak to him as soon as possible.”

Once again the agent nods like a servant and walks down the corridor in the opposite direction.  Still giggling like a little boy, Archeville continues to stare at the pad with great interest.  The sounds of his shoes clicking are soon the only things to be heard as the hallway once again become silent to only him.