The Intergalactic Highway

"They blame us? 'Us' as in Cybertronians in general?"

Would explain their pure hostility after finding out who and what we were."

"Yes, though, the aliens always had a stick up their... well.... if they had tailpipes... when it concerns their experiments." Tarantulas smirked. "But it always seemed their anger was mixed in with a bit of resentment. Now that we are aware of their intentions, it has become clear that they were trying to help humanity become better prepared when the Great War begins millions of years later. I guess.... because of our interference, they would just have to accept humanity's fate." Not like it matters anyway. If he completed the mission the Tripredicus Council and he were eager to accomplish, nothing the aliens, the Autobots, Decepticons, Maximals, or Predacons could do nothing about it. But let them all be distracted and wondering about this little war here on Earth. Pfft.

"Computer, locate Maximal and Predacon signatures."

"Unable to comply. Unit signatures and frequencies are being scrambled by alien interference."

"Then I think it's safe to assume that everyone is stuck inside of that thing,"

As Rhinox tried to contact the Maximals, Tarantulas threw his arms in the air, "Waste of time. The aliens no doubt make sure outsiders wouldn't be allow to contact their fellow comrades. We need to figure a way to get inside that ship before -

"Acknowledged. Tracking..." It was a mere few seconds that they waited with anticipation until the Metal Hunter suddenly appeared above the Maximal base. "Alien vessel located in close proximity," which caused their alarms and red, flashing lights to automatically activate inside of the Axalon. "Warning: Alien weapons detected."

Both Tarantulas and Blackarachnia looked at the alien ship hovering above them. Tarantulas' claws tapped rapidly against each other. Blackarachinia was hitting her own head inwardly trying to figure out a way to survive the aliens' attack.

"Shields on-line!" Rhinox ordered Sentinel which immediately blanketed the Maximal base. "We have to figure out how to get inside of it!" he said. "Magnify image," he told the computer as it zoomed in on the Vok vessel at one of the rounded plates that looked like a possible doorway with a giant alien symbol on it, one that matched that of the alien disk Megatron had in his possession as well one that Optimus had drawn in his quarters. "If you've got a plan, Tarantulas, now is the time to share it with us..."

"I got a plan! But It doesn't matter if I can't find a way inside the aliens' Metal Hunter!"

"What about your virus program? Couldn't you use that to get inside?"

Tarantulas glared at her, "No! I can't! The amount is too small!" Tarantulas' optics darted away. There was enough, but he wanted to hit the aliens hard with his virus program. There wasn't any other choice now, was it? Wait! Maybe there was a way. "If I can use a small portion of my virus to a missile or drone, I could perhaps inject some of my program, so we could at least damage the shields and contact our people.
Or be able to infiraliate the Metal Hunter itself!"

((OOC: I will try and post Whietrgazer's and Vok's response later today.))

"Ahhh, I am quite an enigma, aren't I?"

"You dare to presume my intentions and underestimate what I'm capable of?!" he hollered at Whitegrazer as his hands gripped the controls on the chair while he leaned forward, apparently insulted by her words. There were times that whenever Megatron's ego was damaged that was when he would falter in his conquests and often when Primal would capitalize on his mistakes. "How easily you have forgotten that I've already killed him once before," he bragged. "So believe me when I say that there's no desire for me to keep him functioning simply as a witness or a spectator to my success! I've had control over his fate ever since we arrived here!"

Whitegrazer realized her mistake. No, not that Megatron will not kill Optimus, but the fact of Megatron's ego. His ego was so fragile that he would do whatever it took to regain it again. With Optimus chained up and at his mercy, Optimus was paying the price for her words that struck like daggers towards Megatron's big ego. She regretted Optimus' pain, but not her words. The Vok inside her swam around, growling. They stabbed and pounded against her chest cavity. Her body tingled with an inch that needed to be scratched and couldn't. Just looking upon Megatron stirred up powerful emotions inside and none of them were good. Her teeth clenched. There was a time and place for anything, but right now, she needed to control her tendency to talk. But there was one thing she had to said.

Glancing at Optimus with a remorse expression, watching the smoke raise from his body, she then glared back at Megatron and then smiled, "You have just proved my words true, Megatron. There is nothing for you to be proud of."

Her body continued to itch. Images of tearing Megatron apart entered her mind. His body parts littering the ground like her tore apart arm, bleeding on the ground. A vacant expression yet with a twinkle in her-no, their optics. Her breaths came with a staggering distortion. Deep breaths, Whitegrazer, long and deep breaths. Must focus on saving Optimus and the others from Megatron's plans as well as my own people. After all this is over, she really needed a long and cleansing meditation. The meditation inside her own soul wasn't enough. She needed to cleanse these thoughts and think clearly. Right now, despite her regaining control of her body, she will always have the Vok inside, pounding away at her resolve. You want him dead. So do we all." "Megatron is a threat. His spark must be extinguished." "We don't wish you any harm, but you are interfering with our plans. "You know the penalty for interference. We warned that we will tear your soul apart." "Don't make us have to harm you. You are one of us. And no Vok has harmed one another. Except for you.""You feelings are getting in the way of our goals. Have you forgotten?"

No, of course not, she hasn't forgotten. She believed in their goals, but is t wrong that she wished for a different method?

Her body was burning. Burning! She felt like she was suffocating. The Vok..... They couldn't settle with being observers. They interfered. Always interfered! Why was her interference so looke ddown upon? Heh. After all this time, she hoped to forget about them, and yet, now, she couldn't.

Elbowing Megatron and throwing him off the chair was so satisfying and a great distraction that she was both happy yet disturbed at herself at the same time. Especially when Optimus was finally released, thanks to Rattrap, and began to fight Megatron. Part of her hoping Optimus would throw Megatron towards one of the electrical veins. Watch his body be burnt to a crisp!

What was she thinking?! What was wrong with her?

"Stop playing with my mind. Back off!

She shook her head.

"Rattrap, the control chair! Destroy it!"

Whitegrazer grimaced, bending over. Then her optics lit with a purple fury!

"NOOOOOOOO!" Whitegrazer's body dashed towards the shots and took them. Her body was thrown against the chair. All of a sudden, the Vok lurched forward and they screamed. A hallowing, soul-piercing screaming directed at Megatron. Optimus. Nemesis. Zodiac who snatched the disk from the little one. Aurora. Towards the Axalon itself. A scream that echoed. Boomed across the entire region!

The Metal Hunter went dark.

Then turned a blood red. Pulsing. Humming louder and louder.

"YOU DARE TREAT US LIKE FOOLS!!"

"YOU DARE SABOTAGE OUR TECHNOLOGY!!!"

"YOU DARE TURN ONE OF OUR OWN AGAINST US!!!"

Whitegrazer's body started to rip apart by the seams. Scratches of bright light peaked out from her torso and thigh area.

"WE SHOULD HAVE DESTROYED CYBERTRON LONG AGO!!!"

"WE GAVE MERCY!! YET YOU STILL CONDEMN A CIVILIZATION TO DEATH!!"

The Vok smashed a fist against the console. Snakes of wires came down from all directions to wrap everyone. One flew towards Optimus' board to snap him to the ground. The vein heading towards Megatron went to his body to wrap it around and throw him back towards a electrical vein. Two cam eat Rattrap with one heading towards his feet and the other ready to snap his weapon from his hands. The wire heading towards Aurora headed towards her body to wrap around. One of the veins snapped and flew towards Zodiac, to knock him down and the disk out of his hands and back to theirs!

"NO! What are you doing?!

The Vok closed their optics. "What we should have done a long ago."

((OOC: All right, the Vok are generally ticked off now. You guys are all in for it now. ))

(( OOC: Yay! Thank you, una, for getting that post done. I hope you don't mind what I do with mine when it comes to the cables. I just figure that Optimus and Megatron would fight them, so it'll be easier if I just keep adding more so we don't have to keep going back and forth with our posts. ))

"You have just proved my words true, Megatron. There is nothing for you to be proud of."

Pah! As if that had any meaning to Megatron whatsoever. He cared not what she or anyone else thought!

"NOOOOOOOO!"

"Whitegrazer!" Rattrap called out as he watched her put herself between his gun shots and the chair. He shouldn't have hesitated! It was his fault he missed his target, and now she, or the Vok, had the controls! He tried firing a couple more rounds, aiming for the chair and trying not to hit Whitegrazer, but it may have been a futile attempt. Then someone else's voice nearby immediately stole his attention.

"Ooomph..!" "Hey..," "That's ours!"

The rodent's eyes darted from Aurora to Zodiac and then to the pedestal that was now missing the golden alien disk. He watched the shape shifter walking away with his back toward them and his wings draped around him. Rattrap went to the Fuzor's side and helped her up to her feet. "It ain't worth riskin' your life over it," he said, reassuring her that it was okay that Zodiac took it since Optimus still had the other one, wherever that one had come from. Optimus must have known. "Besides, we got bigger problems."

Megatron, on the floor in his beast mode after being pummeled in the head by Primal's club several times, grumbled as he slowly got up and took in the situation...

Optimus heard Whitegrazer's scream and looked over from where he was hovering in mid-air to see her take Rattrap's fire power only to land in the chair. Her optics were purple, which told him that it was one of the Vok in control of her again. By Primus, no! The holler that came out of her was deafening as well as haunting. It made his head pound as visions of the symbols and their language raced through his mind again. He saw their faces along with Whitegrazer's and Tycross's. Then darkness swallowed them inside of the alien craft. Only each of their optic sensors shed some light; his own pink optics, Rattrap's, Megatron's, Aurora's, Nemesis's and Zodiac's. Just as the ship had turned pitch black, it also went deathly silent. No one moved. No one seemed to breathe. Then it lit up in red and the humming of the vessel grew eerily louder...

"YOU DARE TREAT US LIKE FOOLS!!"

"YOU DARE SABOTAGE OUR TECHNOLOGY!!!"

"YOU DARE TURN ONE OF OUR OWN AGAINST US!!!"

"WE SHOULD HAVE DESTROYED CYBERTRON LONG AGO!!!"

"WE GAVE MERCY!! YET YOU STILL CONDEMN A CIVILIZATION TO DEATH!!"

"Whitegrazer!" Optimus cried to her as he watched in horror the light was seeping through her armor as if it was ready to burst. She had to have been in pain. She had to have been terrified or angry or refusing to give up. But he couldn't feel anything from her because their link was still severed. It continued to be an empty void in him. The whole time she had been Vok... The whole time... And he never knew, never suspected. Despite that, what he did know about her and how she cared for all of them, that to have been real. That had to have been her. And that was what he chose to hang on to.

Rattrap had to cover his sensitive audio sensors from their war cry, cringing at the volume of their voice, or rather voices. There was terror and some hopelessness in his optics when he gazed upon them gaining control in the chair. He didn't want to say it, but he thought it, We're all gonna die... Distracted by this, he suddenly felt something wrap around his ankles, squeezing them together and making him fall onto his back as he lost his balance. He dropped his gain which landed by Aurora's feet while the cables started to drag him away. "Aurora!" hollered to her. "Grab my gun!" As long as someone had a weapon, they still might be able to sever the cables from each other.

Spotting the cable quickly snaking its way toward him, Optimus growled and back-handed it with his club as it shattered. He then blasted off toward Rattrap and Aurora, swinging low to break their cables, too, as he flew by them and then swooped upward on his hoverboard. He refused to give up! But more cables seemed to appear as fast as he was breaking them.

After Optimus did a fly-by and broke his cable, two more took its place and grabbed a hold of Rattrap, one winding its way up his leg to his torso and the other around his arm toward his chest. The Maximal Spy struggled to break them off but they constricted him tighter and tighter. He squirmed and groaned thinking how bad this was.

Megatron, meanwhile, had terrorized to his robot mode and blasted the oncoming cable to pieces. More came at him and he blasted those as well until there were too many that overwhelmed him. They wrapped around his torso and lifted him off of the floor, throwing him toward one of those many veins that hung across the room, obviously carrying electricity in them. But Optimus managed to catch him in his arms and spared him the very unpleasant electrocution. Megatron looked at him face to face, bewildered for a brief moment as to why the Maximal would even consider saving his hide after everything he had put him through. However, instead of expressing any kind of gratitude, the Predacon's face went neutral and there seemed to be an unspoken, mutual understanding between him and his nemesis. They had a common enemy now whom they must defeat together. At least, just this once. Primal released him as Megatron ignited his engines so he could hover beside the Maximal leader. With each other's backs to one another, they continued fighting off the cables for as long as they could. Unfortunately, it took more strength and energy for Optimus to keep swinging his arms, one of which was badly damaged by Megatron's mouth, and hitting the cables with his clubs as opposed to Megatron simply using his energy weapon. Eventually the Vok had sent more than they could handle all at once.

Several cables wrapped around Megatron's arms, chest, engines and torso, and then turned him upside down, effectively rendering him immobile. "No!" he snarled and growled as he struggled against them, trying to free himself as he could barely hold on to his tail gun with the pressure of them squeezing his arms and hands to his sides.

Just as they overwhelmed his adversary, Optimus also fell victim to the Voks' weapons. They wrapped around his hover board and legs tightly, forcing him to disengage his flight mode or risk snapping parts of his body. They also came from above and winded their way around his arms, suspending him in the air. More came at him, eventually wrapping his entire body like a cocoon with only his head visible. The cables wound and squeezed tightly around the blue gorilla, constricting him with so much pressure that he could barely breathe.

"What we should have done a long ago."

"You can't..." Optimus objected to the Vok with a quiet voice that could hardly speak in his confinement.

"Brilliant," Megatron said sarcastically while looking at Primal upside down as he hung there. "What now, my ever optimistic adversary?" he asked the ape.

Optimus tried to maximize, but with a strained groan, he was unsuccessful. Things may not have gotten this worse if Megatron hadn't stolen the ship, but it was useless to blame and complain when he needed to use his time more efficiently. With his spark still pulsating, he was not willing to surrender. His pink optics frantically scanned the area below. Rattrap had been caught by the cables as well, so their fates may be in the hands of Nemesis, Zodiac, Aurora, Inferno, and perhaps even Whitegrazer. And what of Rhinox and Blackarachnia who were still at the Axalon as far as he knew. Now that they were hovering above it, surely they would have been alerted of its presence and were working on a way to disable the ship or somehow rescue them. "Not all hope... is lost, Megatron..." Optimus struggled to say. "Whitegrazer..." his voice trailed off.

"Nemesis, get us down!" Megatron ordered her as his voice echoed in the large, open room. These aliens will pay dearly, he angrily thought. Then his optics shifted to the pedestal where he found the alien disk was gone and they enlarged with surprise. Zodiac, Rattrap and Aurora had been nearby it, but who took it?! Who would dare steal my disk?! WHO?! He growled and struggled so much that he started to sway in his restraints, albeit it was very little movement. Nevertheless, he was furious inside and wanted so much to destroy the Vok, even if it meant destroying Whitegrazer. Whatever the cost! He would do what Optimus could not in order to stop these aliens!

"Aurora, Zodiac... Retreat... Reach Rhinox... Go!" said Primal in his coils, peering down at them. "TyCross... Why?" he asked him. As curious as he was to learn of Whitegrazer's former master's involvement with all of this, he really just wanted to keep him and the Vok distracted from the others below.

-----

Would explain their pure hostility after finding out who and what we were."

"Yes, though, the aliens always had a stick up their... well.... if they had tailpipes... when it concerns their experiments." "But it always seemed their anger was mixed in with a bit of resentment. Now that we are aware of their intentions, it has become clear that they were trying to help humanity become better prepared when the Great War begins millions of years later. I guess.... because of our interference, they would just have to accept humanity's fate."

"Hm," Rhinox mumbled thoughtfully.

"Waste of time. The aliens no doubt make sure outsiders wouldn't be allow to contact their fellow comrades. We need to figure a way to get inside that ship before -

"It was worth a shot," the Maximal retaliated. "At least I'm trying," he said with the accusation of Tarantulas doing nothing at the moment.

"I got a plan! But It doesn't matter if I can't find a way inside the aliens' Metal Hunter!"

"What about your virus program? Couldn't you use that to get inside?"

"No! I can't! The amount is too small!" "If I can use a small portion of my virus to a missile or drone, I could perhaps inject some of my program, so we could at least damage the shields and contact our people. Or be able to infiraliate the Metal Hunter itself!"

"This could very well be an entrance point," Rhinox said as he pointed to the magnified image of the doorway. "If your virus can penetrate the shield, you and Blackarachnia are the only ones who can reach the vessel." So, would both of the spiders be willing to help? Could he trust them to get it done and not bail or try to take control of the ship? After all, Tarantulas had been trying to escape Earth for a long time now. What would stop him from doing so this time? "I'll be right back," he said as he exited the command center and headed for the armory. Digging through some weapons, he grabbed a smaller sized missile launcher and brought it back with him, handing it to Tarantulas. "This should work. We just need to infuse it with some of the virus." Rhinox carefully set down a small missile that was meant for the weapon and grabbed a tool from his subspace pocket to open the tip and access an empty space to place the vile inside so the explosive impact would also inject the concoction, thus hopefully rupturing an opening in the Metal Hunter's shield for the spider's to get through. Then he reassembled the ammunition and handed it to the TransMetal mad scientist.

((OOC: I will post Ba and Tarantulas' response, for now. No, I don't mind. That's why I left it open, so you guys could fight back! ))

"It was worth a shot," the Maximal retaliated. "At least I'm trying,"

"Do or do not, there is no try!" Tarantulas chuckled, but Blackarachnia yanked him downward, causing him to gag. "All right! All right! It's not like I haven't do anything for y'all." He said the last word with his own expression of that buffoon Quickstrike. "I made the virus program. I have done my part. Hmph."

"Well, you love challenges, remember? Helping us contact our comrades shouldn't be that difficult."

"Ooooooooooo! Then I suppose maybe you SHOULD try and contact them. See how well you fare!"

Blackarachnia just smirked and yanked him downward again. Tarantulas choked and coughed. "Keep smirking, widow. I will remember this....humiliation.

This could very well be an entrance point," Rhinox said as he pointed to the magnified image of the doorway. "If your virus can penetrate the shield, you and Blackarachnia are the only ones who can reach the vessel." So, would both of the spiders be willing to help? Could he trust them to get it done and not bail or try to take control of the ship? After all, Tarantulas had been trying to escape Earth for a long time now. What would stop him from doing so this time? "I'll be right back," he said as he exited the command center and headed for the armory. Digging through some weapons, he grabbed a smaller sized missile launcher and brought it back with him, handing it to Tarantulas. "This should work. We just need to infuse it with some of the virus."

"Well, that sounds reasonable." Blackarachnia didn't want to put herself in harm's way, but Tarantulas was a sneaky guy. No offense to Rhinox, but Tarantulas needed to be put in his place. Not given mercy or compassion. He was their enemy, her enemy, and she was't going to allow him to get away. "I will make sure to watch Tarantulas and make sure he will implement the virus without interference.

After Tarantulas used the virus program, she will deal with him. Permanently.

Tarantulas tapped his fingers and grabbed the missile launcher, "This will do nicely! Can I keep it? Tarantulas knew the answer as he motioned for Blackarachnia to allow him to see at the command center and used one of his own missiles. HE would used the normal sized ones that came with the launcher, but he wanted the aliens' to not be aware of what happened. He needed to be sure that the aliens didn't see him coming. The idea of Blackarachnia following him didn't fill him with ease. He knew what she planned to do with him. Tarantulas narrowed his optics as he replaced the inards of his missile with the virus program. At least, a small amount of it. He twisted and tightened the missile and placed it inside the launcher.

"This should be enough to allow Blackarachnia and I to enter inside the Metal Hunter. We will only have a few moments before the shields to come back online."

"Once we are inside, I will see if I can try and bring down the shields. Just in case, his program doesn't work." Blackarachnia opened the hatch above them. She cocked her grappling hook and picked up Tarantulas towards her side after she jumped on top of the hatch.

"Don't you dare grab me, widow!

Blackarachnia rolled her optics. "Just fire the missile, legs!"

Tarantulas grumpled and aimed the launcher at the doorway and fired. The missile didn't explode, but mainly, it impacted. The patch of teh shield near teh doorway brightened to a green aura. "Now, grapple us inside!

Blackarachnia quickly fired, but before she triggered, she winked at Rhinox, Wish us luck. Then she pulled the triggered and Tarantula and her flew upwards and inside the Metal Hunter.

"It ain't worth riskin' your life over it," "Besides, we got bigger problems."

The fuzor swallowed, casting one more glance at the retreating shapeshifter before returning her gaze to Rattrap. The rat had a point. Still she didn't want to see the troublemaker simply bailing on them, no worse for wear, his powers and now the disk returned to him. Albeit it was technically a different disk but still..

"We need to get out of here," Aurora muttered in response to Rattrap, an uneasy feeling growing within her. Between the Vok, Megatron, to some extent Zodiac, and certainly this alien death machine, they were all in big trouble.

"NOOOOOOOO!"

Aurora had to cover her ears, the scream emerging from the Vok-infested Whitegrazer threatening to overload her poor audioreceptors. It was truly an out of this world noise, not unlike that of a banshee in old human stories. Yes, humans had a vivid imagination from what she had learned about them by studying their culture and history, yet strangely these stories of the past hadn't actually been created yet since the Cybertronians' travels had taken them to a time before humans grew civilized. It was quite puzzling..

But if the Vok got their way, none of that would even matter. The Cybertronians, the humans, even Earth as they knew it and would come to know it in the future would all be gone. Replaced by some horrid vision the Vok had imagined.

Then... everything went dark. The machine the Vok had intended to use against all of them having returned to its slumber thanks to Rattrap and the others' interference. Aurora slowly released the grip on her ears, daring to glance over at the zombie that now only remotely resembled Whitegrazer. She certainly looked terrible to the point Aurora feared there was little they'd be able to do to save her. Yet somehow she remained standing, perhaps due to the influence of the Vok occupying her body. And as if to prove that the white mare was indeed still alive, those Vok within began speaking out loud. Each of them with a different voice and her optics changing colors as each of them took their turn.

"YOU DARE TREAT US LIKE FOOLS!!"

"YOU DARE SABOTAGE OUR TECHNOLOGY!!!"

"YOU DARE TURN ONE OF OUR OWN AGAINST US!!!"

"WE SHOULD HAVE DESTROYED CYBERTRON LONG AGO!!!"

"WE GAVE MERCY!! YET YOU STILL CONDEMN A CIVILIZATION TO DEATH!!"

Aurora didn't have a chance to react before a cable suddenly came to life and wrapped itself around her, threatening to suffocate her much the same way a large snake preyed on its victim. The fuzor gasped in surprise and pain, her optics revealing all too well how terrified she was at this moment. She tried to struggle, to fight the constricting force enveloping her, but the cables were too strong..

"Aurora!"

A sudden thump near her feet along with Rattrap's voice grabbed her attention, forcing her focus away from the cable that had curled around her like a snake. But she still couldn't move, not even to pick up the weapon that had landed so close to her.

"Grab my gun!"

"I can't!," Aurora frantically replied while trying to budge without any success. "I'm stuck here!"

The sudden appearance of Optimus, appearing quite heroic as he slashed and diced at the alien vines and helped free her and Rattrap from the tentacled attackers, left Aurora gasping for air for a brief moment before she could bring up the strength to brush the cables off of her body. She sent Optimus a grateful smile before grabbing for Rattrap's weapon.

Meanwhile Zodiac had moved far enough away that he thought only the others would be left to their fate at the hands of the Vok. A slithering cable emerging out of the darkness that had since gotten somewhat illuminated by a red glow, made the truth about his assumption all too clear. He felt the cable wrap around his leg, attempting to crawl up his limb to restrain him, a sensation that would normally extract a shudder from anyone it happened to. Fortunately Zodiac had regained his shapeshifting abilities, so he merely ordered his nanomachines to form the sharp spinning blade of a saw from his ankle and thus promptly cut through the cable before it had the opportunity to truly restrain him.

Did the Vok seriously think he'd be that easily captured? Yes, they were egomaniacs. And they tended to belittle anyone that wasn't one of them, even someone who'd been created from their own technology. But they were not fools. Perhaps they'd simply been pushed too far at this point and had lost all grasp of reality?

Not that it mattered. Zodiac just wanted to get away from this place.

"Aurora, Zodiac... Retreat... Reach Rhinox... Go!"

Rhinox? Zodiac hardly thought so. He would fight a common foe with these Maximals if he needed to in order to protect himself, but he didn't want to risk ending up in chains again.

Aurora, however, was busy trying to shoot at more approaching vines to make sure Rattrap stayed safe. She did not intend to lose anyone else. Besides, weren't they still trapped in here by the alien shield?

"Nemesis, get us down!"

Nemesis had been standing relatively still, watching the horror unfold with disbelief. Her nanomachines remained in the Vok's control, but they seemed otherwise preoccupied right now so she hadn't been actively fighting anyone since Zodiac had attempted to make his escape.

She heard Megatron's beckoning and to her surprise she found that the Vok's grasp on her nanomachines had weakened. Likely due to their attention being focused elsewhere and they were presently trying to kill every other Cybertronian around her. Surprisingly none of the attacks had been directed towards her, however, perhaps due to them not seeing her as a threat right now. So she grabbed the opportunity and aimed her weapons at the vines presently holding Megatron and Optimus high up on the air. And fired.

The Vok watched the events unfold before them. Optimus and Megatron fought to remain free from their control. But even it was inevitable for them, they watched their cables wrapped around them and hovered them upwards far off the ground. The little one, Aurora, got caught too....or was if it had bee for that rodent. Yet, Zodiac fought off the cables. His shapeshifting abilities saving him from their attempts to keep them from escaping. Nemesis was similar, firing a couple of shots towards Megatron to free him. The Vok threw one of the cables forward to try and threw off Nemesis' shots as well as had a second cable cover Megatron's restraints to block the shots. They weren't going to allow Megatron, especially Megatron, to escape.

You can't..."

"We have the power over space and time. You don't think we can do whatever we want to your planet?" The Vok sneered at Optimus. "We are tired of your race destroying others.""We had thought we had stopped that when we gave your ancestors our protoform technology so they could dispense their huge warehouses and bulky and large forms. After all, that's what causes your race to travel around the galaxy and meddling in weaker species affairs.""Yet, your kind still fights and now, with our technology, you have colonizinged other worlds and brought more destruction.""The one you know as Whitegrazer wanted to try and help meditate affiars. To stop the conflicts happening around those planets. Her job was to be a guide, but things got out of hand. She shouldn;t have chosen a side. It was wrong of her to do so."

"Brilliant," Megatron said sarcastically while looking at Primal upside down as he hung there. "What now, my ever optimistic adversary?" he asked the ape.

"You lost, Megatron. Admit your defeat. The Vok smirked at the purple tin tyrant.

"Not all hope... is lost, Megatron..." Optimus struggled to say. "Whitegrazer..."

"Aurora, Zodiac... Retreat... Reach Rhinox... Go!" said Primal in his coils, peering down at them. "TyCross... Why?

"Why? Optimus? You still don't get it, do you?" TyCross's optics brightened and rolled. "WE, The Vok, are just tired of you. It's nothing personal. There isn't any malice towards you individually nor are we angry at Whitegrazer. Well, maybe alittle bit. After all, she shosen to help you and teh others rather than her own people. She know our purpose, and she has thrown hers away. And for what? Selfishness. I'm surprised she saw herself as a Maximal. Her selfishness rivals that of the Predacons. But who cares, right? It's all the same." TyCross spat. "Your people can't seem to get a grip. It's our fault actually. We should have known better than to give children bigger weapons!

"You are committing the same sis. Hypocrites."

"Shut up, Whitegrazer!

"I know what you all are planning to do. I can't allow you to do it. You can't destroy Cybertron. Time and space can be damaged if you do. You know this. Why are you allowing your feelings to get in the way? Are you having problems with a physical form? I understand. I had the same issues. I can help you with this. But not until you release everyone and leave them alone. Or I will continue to fight you."

The Vok growled. Opening their chest cavity, they took out Whitegrazer's spark. Holding her spark, it pulsed and hummed against their fingers. Expression was expressionless. They looked at Optimus and Megatron. Then back at Whitegrazer's spark. They took one of the cables and shocked the spark. AGGGGGGH!!!WHY?! They took another cable and shocked the spark with the other one as well. STOP!!!!! STOOOOOOOOOP!"

"We have been careless."

"We should have thought of this sooner. Forgive us. You are one of us."

"You will not die. No, but we can at least put you to good use."

"We didn't realize what you carry inside. It was you all along."

The Vok growled as they continued to shock Whitegrazer's spark. It pulsed harder.

The spark cried out. The voice was strained yet concerned, "Stop! Stop! Stop! Please! Leave them be!"

As more electrical currents entered the spark, the spark expanded and contracted at the same time. The Vok closed their optics as they ignored the spark's pleas. More and more currents flowed towards the spark from the Metal Hunter. The Hunter quaked. It pulsed again and again. The spark's pounding cries echoed from within everyone else. At first, it touched Optimus and Megatron. They would feel an ache from within their spark. An ache which would grow harder and more intense. Then it gripped Nemesis' spark. Zodiac's. Aurora's. Rattrap's.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

As this was going on, Tarantulas and Blackarachnia were making their way.... when they felt the ache too.

"It's them! I feel them. They... are reaching out."

"What are you talking about? Blackarachnia didn't understand. "What's causing this pain?"

"I don;t know, but it was something I read... before." Tarantulas seemed confused. Then his optics widened. The Battle Of Gaila! They! THEY WERE THERE!!"'

Blackarachnia noticed Tarantulas didn't even seem to be there at that moment. Gaila? What was that? A planet? A colony?

Tarantulas screamed in anger. "They were there!"

"What are you babbling about?! Blackarachnia yanked the leash.

Tarantulas rammed Blackarachnia against the wall, catching her offguard.

Tarantulas ran down the hallway. Blackarachnia shook her head, taking out her weapon and followed suit.

"Get back here, Tarantulas!

"We have the power over space and time. You don't think we can do whatever we want to your planet?"

Optimus shook his blue head in frustration, desperately trying to squirm under the tight cables.

"We are tired of your race destroying others."

"It's not... all of us," he tried to convince them.

"We had thought we had stopped that when we gave your ancestors our protoform technology so they could dispense their huge warehouses and bulky and large forms. After all, that's what causes your race to travel around the galaxy and meddling in weaker species affairs.""Yet, your kind still fights and now, with our technology, you have colonizinged other worlds and brought more destruction."

He looked at them through Whitegrazer, bewildered for a moment. Just how far did their influence go with Optimus Prime, the High Council and Cybertron? "Destroying us... Destroying us won't stop them... There's always... going to be someone else who... will take our place," Primal tried explaining in his confinement.

"The one you know as Whitegrazer wanted to try and help meditate affiars. To stop the conflicts happening around those planets. Her job was to be a guide, but things got out of hand. She shouldn;t have chosen a side. It was wrong of her to do so."

"It takes time... Stop punishing her... She..." The cables were so very tight around his arms and chest. "She's not done yet. She's guiding... me. She's still guiding me. Look at my crew. It's comprised of Maximals... Predacons... Vok... Give us more time to learn," Optimus pleaded with them.

"You lost, Megatron. Admit your defeat.

"Never!" Megatron growled, narrowing his optics at them with as much anger and hatred as he could muster.

"Why? Optimus? You still don't get it, do you?"

Primal watched Whitegrazer's optics brighten and shift to yellow, letting him know that TyCross was taking the bait.

"WE, The Vok, are just tired of you. It's nothing personal. There isn't any malice towards you individually nor are we angry at Whitegrazer. Well, maybe alittle bit. After all, she shosen to help you and teh others rather than her own people. She know our purpose, and she has thrown hers away. And for what? Selfishness. I'm surprised she saw herself as a Maximal. Her selfishness rivals that of the Predacons. But who cares, right? It's all the same."

Optimus once thought that he couldn't meet anyone else who had a bigger ego than Megatron, but he was wrong. "Perhaps she simply... disagreed with your lack of ethics... and compassion. I think... you have too much power... at your disposal. I think you're just... using us to cover up... your mistakes," he purposely taunted TyCross.

"Your people can't seem to get a grip. It's our fault actually. We should have known better than to give children bigger weapons!

"And this... is how you try to rectify it? You're no better... than Megatron or Unicron," the gorilla said, narrowing his bright pink optics at them accusingly. "Such hypocrisy." Considering his current situation, it was probably unwise to push them further toward their rage, but Optimus was willing to keep them distracted in hopes that someone else could do something to interfere. Unfortunately, what happened next was not what he was expecting...

Judging by their sudden growl after being quite for a few moments, there must have been some kind of turmoil between them and Whitegrazer. He could feel something ever so slightly emitting from her. In horror, Optimus witnessed them open her chest and pull out her spark. Her spark! Her very life source! They held it in their hand and proceeded to electrocute it with one of the cables nearby. "STOP!" he helplessly screamed at them, just as she was doing inside of her own body. Their expression was haunting and emotionless. "STOP IT!" He desperately struggled in his restraints.

"We have been careless."
"We should have thought of this sooner. Forgive us. You are one of us."
"You will not die. No, but we can at least put you to good use."
"We didn't realize what you carry inside. It was you all along."

It was her all along? What did they mean? They were torturing her!

"Stop! Stop! Stop! Please! Leave them be!"

"Whitegrazer!" He helplessly watched them close their optics as they continued to send more and more shocks to her spark. The whole ship shook which prompted him to glance around, feeling the vibrations through his cables. And then he felt her. But how? Their link was still severed. He felt her pleas and cries and pain. From her spark to his. It was like someone was squeezing his spark in their hand and it made him cringe and lose his breath every time. Whitegrazer... he quietly tried reaching out to her with desperation.

"Argh!" Megatron felt it, too. To him, it was the oddest sensation he had ever felt. Even more so than when his body changed to a TransMetal. This was deeper... This was more personal. But he didn't understand how it was happening and by whom, besides the Vok. Her spark... and his spark? And Primal's, he could see him struggling in the same kind of discomfort. "What... is happening?!" he sought out for information.

Optimus was in too much pain to respond. How they did get around their link? They were affecting everyone with it?! They were using Whitegrazer's spark to touch all of their own sparks!

"I can't!," "I'm stuck here!"

Although Rattrap's predicament was no better than Aurora's, he felt a lot more concern for her than he did himself. Getting fed up with these aliens who were making his friend, Whitegrazer, do all this against her will, not to mention shredding her body apart in the process, the rat dramatically shook off what was left of the cables on him as if they were slimy snakes grossing him out after Aurora had skillfully blasted them to pieces without harming him. He smiled at her with appreciation and pride until he looked up and saw Megatron and Optimus all tied up. Then he looked at Zodiac who appeared to ignore everything Primal told him and he glared in his direction. No doubt the shape-shifting dragon just wanted to flee with the disk without helping any of them, leaving them to their own demise. Getting to his feet, he hurried to the Fuzor's side to watch her back, pulling out his tail and straightening it to use it as a spear, stabbing, swinging and slicing any cables that came at them.

Then the rodent felt a deep throbbing in his chest from his spark. "Whoa!" He stopped what he was doing and held his hand over his chest. It pounded again and then again. It was an ache and a cry. "You feel that?" he asked Aurora. It pounded again, harder now. He squinted his optics in pain and fell to his knees. "Ugh! What's doin' this?! What's goin' on?!" The pain struck him down as he laid on his side on the floor.

As he hung upside down, watching Nemesis's shots coming right at him, Megatron momentarily turned his head away as they hit their targets. The cables shattered and he stretched his arms out as he started to fall, flipping himself over to be upright, but there was no sign of panicking. Nemesis had done well, yesss. Immediately he ignited his twin engines and hovered there in the air, grabbing a hold of his tail gun with both of his hands and targeting Whitegrazer. There was still hope for him to stop this pain in his spark, knock the Vok down, and regain control of the chair, but Primal wouldn't know who he was really aiming for.

As Megatron had instructed her to do so, Nemesis had also fired at Primal's restraints. He was a little taken aback by the order to help him as well, so he assumed there had to be another angle to benefit Megatron's ambitions. There was no doubt he still wanted control over the alien vessel. Although her shots had hit their marks and assisted with his freedom, they made contact at the same time that he was able to break them around his body. Once all of the anguish, trauma, and anger that collided inside of Optimus with the peace, warmth and compassion that he had gained from Whitegrazer, the strength in his spark and mind exploded like a galaxy coming to life. Pushed the breaking point after feeling her being tortured by her own kind, he forced himself to maximize which stretched and stripped the metal hoses around his body, blowing pieces of them in every direction. He fell to the floor with a loud bang landing on his feet, and he glanced at Rattrap and Aurora who were also writhing in agony. He balled his fists. "ENOUGH!" Optimus still felt her aching spark and her cries for them to stop which they ignored. He defiantly approached them from below with his limp and licking the scar across his mouth. "DO YOU HEAR ME?! ENOUGH!" Whitegrazer, the green meadow... He sent a visual aid to her of their tranquil meadow full of green, lush grass swaying in the breeze, and a bright blue sky full of warmth and glow from the sun. You need to fight! You must regain control! FIGHT! He opened his spark to her to give her strength. And there was an overwhelming amount of suffering and sorrow from her end, but he pushed back. FIGHT WITH ME, WHITEGRAZER! I WILL NOT LOSE YOU!

"No, Megatron!" Primal hollered up at him when he noticed he was targeting his powerful weapon at Whitegrazer. "You might hit her spark!" Was he really that callous?! Well, probably.

The Predacon suddenly glared down at Optimus with a sneer. As little as Whitegrazer's life meant to him, far be it for him to interfere with the tension between Primal and the aliens. Fine. Let him handle this while I secure my alien disk! he thought bitterly and immediately changed his direction. Although he still felt the pounding in his spark, he tried to disguise it and focus on the shape shifter. Swooping down behind Zodiac, he hovered a few feet in the air off of the floor and targeted his tail gun at his back. "I believe you have procured an item of stolen property. Hand it over, Zodiac," he asked as nicely as he could to the traitor.

-----

"Do or do not, there is no try!" "All right! All right! It's not like I haven't do anything for y'all." He said the last word with his own expression of that buffoon Quickstrike. "I made the virus program. I have done my part. Hmph."
"Well, you love challenges, remember? Helping us contact our comrades shouldn't be that difficult."
"Ooooooooooo! Then I suppose maybe you SHOULD try and contact them. See how well you fare!"

Rhinox merely shook his head at their bantering again. They were worse than Rattrap and Dinobot.

"Well, that sounds reasonable." "I will make sure to watch Tarantulas and make sure he will implement the virus without interference.

He certainly hoped so. This could just be another agenda for one specific bot. They all had to work together now. It sounded impossible but it could happen if everyone on both sides was a team player. He couldn't even imagine what might be going on inside of that thing.

"This will do nicely! Can I keep it?

"You ought to be more concerned about keeping your life if we're to survive this ordeal," Rhinox commented, who couldn't care less what happened to the little, handheld missile launcher.

"This should be enough to allow Blackarachnia and I to enter inside the Metal Hunter. We will only have a few moments before the shields to come back online."
"Once we are inside, I will see if I can try and bring down the shields. Just in case, his program doesn't work."
"Don't you dare grab me, widow!
"Just fire the missile, legs!"

After nodded in agreement to Blackarachnia's plan, the engineer watched them zip up through the roof hatch and exit the base. He lowered the shields for them just before Tarantulas fired the missile.

"Now, grapple us inside!
Wish us luck.

Rhinox's red optics saw her wink but his expression remained neutral. "Good luck," he said quietly after they had already left, grappling up to the dangerous Metal Hunter. Watching their signatures on the scanners, he saw they had made it inside, so he activated the shields again to try and protect the Axalon from whatever that ship was capable of.

Then he felt something in his spark. It was faint but there was an aching of sadness... and desperation. For some reason he immediately thought of Whitegrazer, and he instinctively looked upward as if he could see her beyond the Axalon's ceiling and through the Metal Hunter's exterior and walls. "What could possibly be happening up there?" he pondered with concern.

"It's not... all of us,"

"We have give you enough chances," The Vok sneered.

"Destroying us... Destroying us won't stop them... There's always... going to be someone else who... will take our place,"

"It takes time... Stop punishing her... She..." The cables were so very tight around his arms and chest. "She's not done yet. She's guiding... me. She's still guiding me. Look at my crew. It's comprised of Maximals... Predacons... Vok... Give us more time to learn,"

"We had hoped your race would have changed, but it didn't."She failed. To a Vok, failure is inexcusable. There is no more time for excuses nor pleads. Only punishment.""You think in such small terms.""Why should a Vok care of your race's ideologies? We only see Predacons as arrogant aggressors with falsehood of superior intellect and ambition." The Vok glared at Megatron. "You, Megatron, represent the worst of your own kind. You would bring chaos and destruction. WE can't allow that."Maximals, you talk of peace yet like the Predacons, you build weapons. Your people's rampant paranoia forces them into distasteful ignorance that they are blinded by it. Like a parent covering their child's ears away from the world. We have no personal vendetta against you, Optimus Primal. There was a reason we allowed you to talk. We allowed you a certain mercy, but we can't allow such to get in our way. Whitegrazer wishes to undo the damaged she caused. She wants to find a way for peaceful coexistence. Yet, your people thrive on this...cold war. And you all just didn't know it. Ask her.""No more time."

"Never!"

"Your persistence is an annoyance," The Vok said emotionless.

"Perhaps she simply... disagreed with your lack of ethics... and compassion. I think... you have too much power... at your disposal. I think you're just... using us to cover up... your mistakes,"

The Vok remained silent for a moment before they spoke. Just as emotionless as they were towards Megatron beforehand. "You, an individual with physical form, could never comprehend us or our understanding of the universe."

"And this... is how you try to rectify it? You're no better... than Megatron or Unicron," the gorilla said, narrowing his bright pink optics at them accusingly. "Such hypocrisy."

Their eyes brightened yellow once more, "Oh Optimus, if you were a Vok today, you would begin to understand. You yourself had make a dire mistake, didn't you?" TyCross smirked at Optimus. "You would do anything to rectify it because you feel it is a duty, your responsibility to do so because your hands were stained by that mistake's consequence. What if you find a way, but people kept interfering. No matter what you plan or pull, you desire to set things right blow up in your face. Wouldn't you be furious at those who robbed you at your chance to do right?

The purple-eyed Vok frowned, "This is pointless. Why are you trying to explain this to him?"

"Oh, just for her sake."

The Vok nodded to themselves.

"STOP!" he helplessly screamed at them, just as she was doing inside of her own body. Their expression was haunting and emotionless. "STOP IT!"

The Vok ignored the pleads from Whitegrazer and Optimus. They were intent in their actions, continuing to hit Whitegrazer's spark, her very essence of life, with more and more electrical currents. The spark grew bigger. Whitegrazer's pleads and screams of agony intensified just as the spark's grip towards everyone in the surrounding area increased as well. The Metal Hunter kept blackening out. Then a pure white. Grass seemed to appear on the ground. Clouds formed above with a bright, blue sky peeking through them. The green meadow and Metal Hunter kept appearing and reappearing.

"Warspark."

"Wraith."

"Destructor."

"Wrench."

"OilBuster."

"Carnage."

"Needler."

"LowBeam."

Whitegrazer kept saying names. A many more. They were names of soldiers who fought in the last battle of Gaila.

The Vok closed their optics, "Forgive us. But you must be held responsible."

"You-" Whitegrazer's voice became more distorted and stained. "You don't think I don't know that. Why did you think I stay? I deserve to stay. I must stay. Why are you forcing me to relive what I'm already reliving myself?"

"Failure is inexcusable. Your punishment is....

"I think her exile on Cybertron was punishment enough."

"It was wrong of us. A penance must be exacted."=

"We all know the rules."

"For them....

"Not for us.


There seemed to be a bit of contention between all the Vok like they couldn't agree with what they wanted to do to Whitegrazer. The Cybertronians must be dealt with, but one of their own.... It was difficult. The spark continued to grow and change shape. Tentacles seemed to burst out her spark's backside. They were trying to morph Whitegrazer' park back to what it was originally. "Stop!" The tentacles went back inside the spark. Despite the fact she knew she as a Vok, she had pent so much time away from the Nexus and felt her place was on Cybertron. For many reasons now more than ever. How could he go back to her people when they were doing something so wrong in her optics? How could they do this to her?

The Metal Hunter returned to what it appeared. Whitegrazer took advantage of her people's bickering about her fate. Yet again. The pain seem to lessen a bit. The spark returning to a more normal sphere than before.

"Stop resisting!"

((OOC: I was going to post for Tarantulas and Blakarachnia, but I didn't want the post getting too long and too much. I'm going to wait on TA and Ba's response. ))

(ooc: I've come to realize there's too many birthdays crammed into a single month in my family.. And of course this entire thing with preparing for the baby that's coming soon now and all the medical issues I've had to deal with as a result of this pregnancy.. Just carve that baby out of me already, I can't take this any longer..!)

You would bring chaos and destruction. WE can't allow that.

Aurora tried. She honestly tried to keep a relatively open mind towards these aliens, but all they were giving in return was unfair judgement and hypocrisy. Clearly these Vok were determined to judge everyone else for those very sins they themselves had committed for millennia.

"Maximals, you talk of peace yet like the Predacons, you build weapons.

"Hypocrites!," the little fuzor suddenly called out, not able to keep her mouth shut any longer. "As if you are any less guilty of these crimes you are accusing our kind of, and of building weapons to use in our wars.. We are standing inside one of your weapons that was built to assure the destruction of other species!"

She paused for a moment to gather her thoughts again. Albeit she doubted her words meant anything to the Vok, at least speaking them made her feel a little better.

Meanwhile Zodiac was taking the opportunity to leave this dreaded place. It was clear the Vok were determined to finish what they had set out to do, and the hybrid had no intention of remaining here when they did. If he got too close to them, they could simply try to take over his nanomachines from within, so the safest bet would be to put as much distance between himself and them as he could. Fortunately they seemed busy enough with the other Cybertronians to keep them preoccupied for the time being.

There isn't any malice towards you individually nor are we angry at Whitegrazer. Well, maybe alittle bit. After all, she shosen to help you and teh others rather than her own people. She know our purpose, and she has thrown hers away. And for what? Selfishness. I'm surprised she saw herself as a Maximal. Her selfishness rivals that of the Predacons. But who cares, right? It's all the same." TyCross spat. "Your people can't seem to get a grip. It's our fault actually. We should have known better than to give children bigger weapons!

Their hypocritical words almost made the renegade chuckle. Almost. They really had no clue, did they? With any luck he could get away from this place and blow them all to smithereens by igniting the powersource they were relying on to power their weapon. Hopefully..

He only briefly glanced back when the Vok removed Whitegrazer's spark and proceeded to torture it, finding it interesting they would go to such lengths to torture her for standing by the Cybertronians. Yet oddly he didn't derive much pleasure from seeing it, not anymore. Thankfully Whitegrazer had cut her connection with him or he more than likely would be writhing in agony on the floor right about now. He needed to hurry to avoid it.

Aurora watched in horror as the defenseless spark got electrocuted time and time again. Before long she, too, started feeling something tugging at her own spark. It hurt, burned almost, and to her surprise she could see Nemesis drop to one knee while clenching her chest at that moment. The avian Predcaon had been standing closer to Whitegrazer than the fuzor was, so the sudden impact hit her harder still. Zodiac also felt the effects,but he was a bit further away so he merely pushed on, determined to make it out of here before this entire place would come down.

Or at least so had been his plan until another, more powerful jolt of electricity penetrated her spark, and managed to stop the renegade in his tracks as well. And for that moment he felt the connection start to re-establish itself.

No!

In his determination to stop this.. stop her.. stop THEM.. his shoulder cannon popped back into place and he immediately took aim at the spark that was being used as a torture device against the rest of them. Yes, it would no doubt hurt temporarily when the spark went offline, but at least then he'd be free again. No longer influenced by their wicked agenda.

"No, Megatron!" "You might hit her spark!"

Apparently Megatron had a similar idea.. Zodiac pondered it for a brief nanoclick before he slowly retracted his cannon and turned around again. And kept walking, as fast as his aching spark would let him.

Let Megatron take the brunt of the damage.. Let him carry the responsebility and the Vok's wrath..

Yes, the purple tyrant deserved as much. All that mattered was putting enough distance between himself and them so he wouldn't go down with them. Unfortunately as he turned around, he also missed out on Megatron's decision to make him the target instead.

"I believe you have procured an item of stolen property. Hand it over, Zodiac,"

Zodiac stopped, quickly realizing how close Megatron's voice had come from. Well, in the words Primal had used on more than one occasion.. Wasn't that just Prime..

"Were you expecting honor among thieves, Megatron?," Zodiac responded with a slight chuckle without turning around, "Lest you forget that you only acquired this item by stealing it for yourself as well."

As he spoke, his entire shape appeared to shimmer, as he took on the form of Cryotek. Once completed, he was facing Megatron with his own weapon aimed at him.

"Don't be absurd," Cryotek told the tyrant, "We can use this disk to destroy them all. Primal and his lackeys, the Vok, all of them."

"We have give you enough chances,"

Primal glared up at them as he stood on the floor below, secretly trying to reach Whitegrazer through their bond, but he felt no response from her. Was she still trying to keep them safe? It hardly seemed to matter at this point if they could still use her spark to touch all of them, even the Predacons.

"We had hoped your race would have changed, but it didn't.

"Has yours?" he asked with defiance. "And if so, how long did it take? Years? Decades? Eons or longer? And are you still evolving, or is this it? Because if this is it, then I must tell you that you still have a long way to go. What you're doing is not right, and it's exactly what Megatron and Unicron did so long ago."

"She failed. To a Vok, failure is inexcusable. There is no more time for excuses nor pleads. Only punishment."

"Then how did you change?!" Optimus barked back at them. "Surely, you made mistakes along the way before you considered, or were given, ascension of this magnitude! How is she supposed to learn if you punish her like this? How are any of us supposed to learn if you kill us?! There will be no one left to rectify our own mistakes. And I still don't understand what gives you the right to control the universe. Maybe Whitegrazer is the one to finally turn my species around. Or Dinobot. Or maybe I am. No matter who it is, if it could be someone who's present on this planet, we'll never know if you destroy us, and nothing changes."

"You think in such small terms."

"Do I?" the Maximal inquired quizzically and rhetorically, disagreeing with their assessment of how his mind worked.

"Why should a Vok care of your race's ideologies? We only see Predacons as arrogant aggressors with falsehood of superior intellect and ambition."

"Again, you're grouping Predacons all into one stereotype. I know for a fact that not every single Predacon shares the same desires and ambitions as Megatron. Many of them want peace. Many of them want what's fair for everyone. Many of them have mercy... and honor." Optimus thought of Dinobot and grew somber and respectful for a moment in his name.

"You, Megatron, represent the worst of your own kind. You would bring chaos and destruction. WE can't allow that."

"And yet that's exactly what you're doing, is it not?" Megatron glanced over at them. He almost grinned at the hypocrisy but his expression remained in disgust toward them, or rather the beaten and broken body of what was once Whitegrazer.

"Hypocrites!," "As if you are any less guilty of these crimes you are accusing our kind of, and of building weapons to use in our wars.. We are standing inside one of your weapons that was built to assure the destruction of other species!"

"You see? Even the youngest can descry just how transparent you are," the Predacon finally smiled at them after glancing at Aurora's courageous words.

Optimus also suddenly looked in Aurora's direction over his shoulder, and although he agreed with what she said, he very subtly shook his head at her as a gesture to tell her to not draw attention to herself. He wanted the aliens focused on him since she and Rattrap and Nemesis were clearly in pain from them using Whitegrazer's spark against them.

"But you needn't worry," Megatron continued in a lighter tone, "you can count on Optimus Primal to stop me." He held back his laughter and forced himself to remain neutral in order to keep the aliens calm.

Maximals, you talk of peace yet like the Predacons, you build weapons. Your people's rampant paranoia forces them into distasteful ignorance that they are blinded by it. Like a parent covering their child's ears away from the world.

Optimus gave a glare at Megatron's words, reading past his tone as he was quite familiar with his mockery. But he decided to leave it alone. There were countless times now that he and his Maximals were able to stop him, so no matter what false information Megatron tried to spread, Optimus knew he and his crew had been formidable adversaries against him and his Predacons. "We build weapons to maintain the peace. To be prepared for those who wish start a war and murder innocents. I know we can improve on a lot, but most of it is out of our hands... My hands. If you have a complaint about the misconduct here and what you've disappointingly learned about us, then I suggest you take it up with someone who has higher authority and who might be the root of what's displeasing you."

We have no personal vendetta against you, Optimus Primal. There was a reason we allowed you to talk. We allowed you a certain mercy, but we can't allow such to get in our way. Whitegrazer wishes to undo the damaged she caused. She wants to find a way for peaceful coexistence. Yet, your people thrive on this...cold war. And you all just didn't know it. Ask her.""No more time."

"No, we don't!" the Maximal argued. "Please, give us more time to learn! My Maximals and I don't thrive on war. We thrive on education and knowledge. We came here as explorers and scientists, not warriors and soldiers."

Megatron rolled his optics at his adversary begging for their mercy. Oh please, Optimus, he thought with grotesque. Like himself, the Vok grew tired of Primal's bumbling speeches and hollow words. The aliens didn't have to listen to this pathetic attempt of rhetoric, they already saw themselves as gods. Optimus was merely delaying the inevitable, and it was a complete waste of time. Instead, they should be persuading them with their combined firepower.

"Your persistence is an annoyance,"

Now you're beginning to see what I've been dealing with, Optimus thought to himself. Whitegrazer, where are you? Can you feel me? You have to share our link. You have to let me help you. I can give you strength, he pleaded to her once more. He voice was calm and steady. He was ready to take the pain, the discomfort, the sorrow, the helplessness, the vulnerability. Through our bond, we can show them our progress. Together, we can stop this. You don't have to do it alone. Look at them, they're harming Rattrap, Nemesis and Aurora by using you. I will not tolerate this. I can not stand by and do nothing.

Megatron simply grinned at them as the cowards who remained hidden in the Maximal equine's body. "My persistence will grant me my victory one way or another."

"You, an individual with physical form, could never comprehend us or our understanding of the universe."

"I understand that you're hiding behind someone else's physical being without their consent, torturing her spark so as to torture others!" Primal declared as his own spark continued to ache, the pressure of it feeling squeezed and burned growing considerably as he tried coping with the agony while remaining strong. "I believe I've seen and felt enough from your species to understand your lack of empathy and love. What you're doing to Whitegrazer and what you've done to me in our past encounters has told me everything I need to know about you. You are not as complicated as you claim to be."

Very bold words, Primal, to such seemingly powerful beings, thought Megatron while he, too, kept feeling that burning sensation in his chest. Are you deliberately trying to kill us? He glanced at Nemesis, who had been closer to Whitegrazer, and witnessed her collapse to a knee while clasping her hands to her spark's location under her armor. He growled a little in frustration, for if he remained there much longer, he may lose a couple of his troops, or even his own life. He would recommend that Optimus tread lightly so as not anger the Vok further, putting them all in stasis lock or worse.

"Oh Optimus, if you were a Vok today, you would begin to understand. You yourself had make a dire mistake, didn't you?"

"Many. And I've learned from them," the Maximal leader pointed out.

"You would do anything to rectify it because you feel it is a duty, your responsibility to do so because your hands were stained by that mistake's consequence. What if you find a way, but people kept interfering. No matter what you plan or pull, you desire to set things right blow up in your face. Wouldn't you be furious at those who robbed you at your chance to do right?

Primal's gaze dropped for a moment, thoughtfully, to the floor before he looked back up them, his orange optics studying what was left of Whitegrazer's body. So much pain... What was she feeling? Why wouldn't she let him in? Despite his already close proximity to them, he moved closer still, almost directly beneath them, and the pain grew exponentially in his spark, but he endured. It was the least he could do for everything Whitegrazer had done for him. "No," he answered them with unusual calmness and clarity. "It's already too late. I can't rectify what I've done or what I've been involved with. What has happened has happened. There's nothing I can do to change what I did. I can't... I can't go back in time and stop myself, or stop others from creating the idea in the first place, or annihilate my entire home planet just to start over. No one should have that kind of power even if it's done with the best intentions to avoid the same disastrous circumstances. I know what I did was wrong, and I have to carry that heavy, unspeakable burden for the rest of my spark's existence, forever haunted by the screams and the pleading optics that sought mercy and freedom from the agony that was forced upon them. All while I stood there on the other side of the glass and did nothing..." Optimus shook his head in his own disappointment and couldn't help but look over at Zodiac. "But now I stand up against such unethical atrocities so it doesn't happen again. That is the extent of the power I have, but my will and remorse are endless. My persistence of compassion and my moral compass is what will eventually collide with Megatron's insane ambition of a conquest full of dictatorship."

"This is pointless. Why are you trying to explain this to him?"
"Oh, just for her sake."

Primal tried very hard not to let his anger get the best of him, but the pain in his spark actually helped distract him.

"Were you expecting honor among thieves, Megatron?," "Lest you forget that you only acquired this item by stealing it for yourself as well."

"Hah," the tyrant smirked downward at Zodiac after having lost interest in Primal's endless lectures with the aliens. "I've never claimed to have honor, so I certainly don't expect it from other thieves. You, however, have changed since you arrived here. Spending all of that time with the Maximals has softened you. They have that unfortunate and pathetic effect on those with weaker sparks," he taunted the shape shifter. "And lest you forget that though I stole it first that doesn't mean its ownership is any less rightfully mine. I keep what I claim, and I do not share well with others," he implied as a threat. The charge on Megatron's tail gun grew louder as he armed it, keeping it targeted at the base of Zodiac's neck while his back remained facing him as he continued to hover a few feet off the floor. That was until Zodiac's entire body shifted with the nanobots, reminding Megatron that he had acquired his abilities to effectively repair himself and change shape. He sneered inwardly at this revelation but remained composed on the outside despite the pounding in his spark.

"Don't be absurd," "We can use this disk to destroy them all. Primal and his lackeys, the Vok, all of them."

Cryotek. His body... even his voice was spot on. How dare he take the form of such a highly respected criminal! Megatron managed to calm himself once more and smiled. "Your parlor tricks are hardly amusing anymore, Zodiac. That disk?" He chuckled as if he knew more than anyone else who was present did. "Perhaps." Let them believe that there is moe significance to these disks than to The Sounds of Earth. "I almost proved its usefulness with this vessel," he thought out loud while maintaining his aim on the shape-shifting thief now to his upper chest. "I do sometimes wonder how you and Optimus often manage to interfere when I'm always three steps ahead. But no matter. He has obtained an entirely different alien disk that certainly requires my attention. One might ponder if it had anything to do with you regaining your unique abilities, and what other secrets it has yet to reveal." So the question remained for Megatron: Fire upon Zodiac to take back his disk, or fire upon the very unsuspecting Primal in order to steal the other disk of information? Before he could decide, the Vok ship's physical appearance suddenly started changing, or so he thought if he wasn't hallucinating or succumbing to some kind of trick. It inevitably distracted him and he unknowingly lowered his weapon ever so slightly as he looked around observing the trickery.

"Warspark." "Wraith." "Destructor." "Wrench." "OilBuster." "Carnage." "Needler." "LowBeam."

Optimus recognized those names, they were soldiers, but he was just as taken aback by her saying them as he was with the Metal Hunter blackening out, then shining brightly almost blindingly, and shifting to their meadow and then back again, repeatedly. Was she doing that? And was it on purpose or was it involuntary? He heard her scream more which pierced his spark emotionally, and finally, with all of the pain she was enduring by them punishing her, Primal could no longer remain standing. In such close proximity to them, he fell to his knees and wrapped his arms around his abdomen as if the motion could some how soften the pain. He could barely breathe as the jolts of electricity felt like a blade of fire stabbing his spark. Looking down, in all of its absurdity, he saw the floor shift to grass back to the metal floor then back to grass.

"Forgive us. But you must be held responsible."
"You-" "You don't think I don't know that. Why did you think I stay? I deserve to stay. I must stay. Why are you forcing me to relive what I'm already reliving myself?"
"Failure is inexcusable. Your punishment is....
"I think her exile on Cybertron was punishment enough."
"It was wrong of us. A penance must be exacted."=
"We all know the rules."
"For them....
"Not for us.

She must be held responsible? Why her?! Didn't they have everything to do with all of this?! While they tried changing her against her will, tentacles creeping out of her spark, Optimus gagged and coughed below them as his spark raced and was quenched.

"Stop!"

Whitegrazer... He heard her plea and felt her desperation.

"Stop resisting!"

Outrage and anger overwhelmed Optimus hearing Aurora and Rattrap squirming in pain and seeing Nemesis hunched over, so as she managed to gain a little more control over her spark, it lessened the torment Primal was under enough so that he could reach for his gun on his hip, lift his good arm upward and target the command chair. From his position, he couldn't miss it nor would he hit Whitegrazer's spark. So with a grunt of exhaustion, he thought - although he would have thought he said it out loud -, I SAID ENOUGH! and he fired a shot at the chair in the hopes of destroying it or at least distracting the Vok and TyCross.

(( OOC: Okay. Four hours of typing is enough. I have things to do before sleep! ))

((OOC: This is going to be a very long post. I'm sorry for not responding to everything Optimus said, OOP, but after wrote the responses, I seemed to repeating things, so I decided to write the post a different way. I hope you are okay with this. ))

After he knocked Blackarachnia aside, Tarantulas quickly tore off the leash that witch used on him. He would very much love to turn the tables and see how she liked being his pet once more. Oh, he would do more than just yank her leash. She thought he was perverse before. She never seen anything yet, but business before pleasure. The aliens were his target now. With this virus program, he would be able to stop their plans. He chuckled to himself as he transformed into his beast form. Those fools really helped him out. If they knew of his true allegiances and what his virus program would ultimately do to the aliens, he had no doubt in his mind that the Maximal rhino would try and stop him. Let him believe that this is just a simple virus program that would render the Metal Hunter inert.

Blackarachnia quickly quickened her pace, "Where are you, Tarantulas?! She couldn't believe she allowed Tarantulas to slip from her hands. He was an opportunistic spider.

Tarantulas froze, "Go away, witch!" He quickly turned a corner and gain some distance. He only needed enough strength to burst out a web to at the very least catch that witch's weapon before she could fire at him. He held his breath and pushed.

Blackarachnia jumped from the corner.

Tarantulas fired his web. Blackarachnia let out a shout of disgust, trying to wave the webbing off. Tarantulas pounced. Her weapon flew out of her hands, which the distraction gave Tarantulas the time to stab his mandible into her throat. Blackarachnia screamed, trying to get get him off her. But it was too late. A urge of his venom entered into her body, paralyzing her.

"I thank you for the ride, widow, but I can't have you interfering with my plans. Don't worry, you will not die...yet." Tarantulas laughed as he transformed once more.

Then his body spasmed. Hand gripped his chest area. What was happening to him? He got down on his knees. Almost dropped the virus program, but his reflex was quick, catching the program and bringing it closer to his side. He choked. Coughed. He... He knew this pain before. For a moment, he saw the green meadow. What....? What? He shook his head. Not here. Not here!

He stalked alongside the edge of the peaceful meadow, entering inside the Maximal compound. He silently stabbed a few lone Maximals guarding useless doors. The Maximal and Predacon soldiers were fighting brutally a few miles away from him, but the gunfire, shouts, screams, and smell of smoldering metal and fumes filled the air inside. Bah! Good thing he wasn't a soldier. He got his hands dirty, but not that dirty! Also, sneaking in and out stealthily insides places was so much fun.

"Agent Tarantulas, have you armed a bomb yet?"

"Not yet, General Ram Horn."

"Hurry up, the Predacon Wraith's forces had caught the Maximals in an ambush as per the intel we slip towards him."

"It would be long now."

He chuckled and continued down the corridor. Looking for the entrance to the protoform faculty. As he reached the faculty entrance, using codes he bribed off a Maximal, and killed right after, he entered inside and planted the bomb deep inside the faculty's core. Once the bomb goes off, it's goodbye protoforms. He allowed himself a thirty second window for escape. He quickly made his way towards the exit, and as he flew the exit, the bomb went off, explding a massive shockwave that toppled him to the ground, making him roll down a grassy hill.

"Mission: accomplished! HAHAHAHAHA!"

He chuckled then laughed outloud.

A hollow scream shattered his triumph laugh. A scream so loud that he was holding his auditory sensors. It nearly busted them. creams and shouts of mercy replaced gunfire. What was going on? He fell to his knees as a sudden unknown force gripped his spark.

"Agent Tarantulas, report. What is you status?"

He couldn't answer. The pain was so great that he blacked out.

That same hollow scream echoed the halls here. "It can't be."

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The purple-eyed Vok growled at Optimus and Megatron, Our will is absolute." "We are beyond your comprehension." The Vok maintained their stance. They had no further wish to discuss their intentions.

"Hypocrites!," the little fuzor suddenly called out, not able to keep her mouth shut any longer. "As if you are any less guilty of these crimes you are accusing our kind of, and of building weapons to use in our wars.. We are standing inside one of your weapons that was built to assure the destruction of other species!"

Our will is absolute." "We are beyond your comprehension." "What does a child know?"

The Vok added more and more currents to Whitegrazer's spark. She had grown numb from the pain. Feeling nothing, making it impossible for her to separate her pain from everyone else and it exhausted her. Not only that, ever since she was pulled out of her body, memories of her past seemed to flash before her, especially one certian moment in time she regretted. It repeated over and over in her head like a movie restarting over and over. Wondered if the Vok were doing this to her.... or was she doing to herself?

Whitegrazer, where are you? Can you feel me? You have to share our link. You have to let me help you. I can give you strength,

Optimus, she smiled despite it all. It's good to hear your voice. I don't have any strength left. Sorry. I'm just... just so tired. Words falling on deaf ears. Blind leading the blind. I worked hard over the years. I never given up. I fought hard. Despite how many times I got knocked down, I got back up. I let everyone run over top of me. The Vok. The High Council. Individuals on both sides. Optimus, do you feel the world's burden crashing down on you? I do. Everyday. Sometimes, you just want to quit. I know, I know. No one should quit. But sometimes, when you feel the pain of others, the pain they wrought on you and others, it drains you of anything. She seemed to reach out towards Optimus to embrace his soul. "You want to scream, lash out, you want to just tear everyone and everything around you. You can't always be strong. If you do, you bottle up emotions and thoughts that would just become a ticking time bomb. Then snap. Everyone snaps, eventually. I did. Once. Oh Optimus, I did once. I don't want to do that again. Optimus... She didn;t tell him about that one time. The war stories she shared with her friends weren't just ones of optimism and hope. She just told them things to go on. They need that optimism... that hope in this war. But never had she told anyone what happened at Gaila. Oh, she couldn't never forgive herself for such an action. Despite everything the Vok did to her, they were still her people, and she understood what was happening now.

That's what they are feeling. We, Vok, were never meant for physical bodies. I know it is hard to understand them, and you are angry with them. I am too. Or at least, I want to be. I can't. I want to be, though."

Through our bond, we can show them our progress. Together, we can stop this. You don't have to do it alone. Look at them, they're harming Rattrap, Nemesis and Aurora by using you. I will not tolerate this. I can not stand by and do nothing.

Whitegrazer nodded in agreement with Optimus' words, Neither can I, Optimus. Whitegrazer allowed Optimus' reconnect their link, taking special care to not allow what she saw and was feeling to overwhelm Optimus' sense. As they reconnected, it showed her what was happening ever since she left her body. Flashes of Aurora down on her knees. Rattrap. Nemesis. Zodiac. Megatron and Optimus grimacing. No. No! Not again!

Predacon Wraith knocked her to ground. Both of her Maximal comrade beside her were dead. A smoking crater in their chest area alongside many other bodies both Maximal and Predacon. She felt their lives drain away, their last thoughts before their sparks extinguished. Thoughts of horror, agony, and wishing not to die. They didn't want to die! Not here! Not like this! Predacons ambushed them as they were carrying their wounded, which she was, back to base for repairs. Many of them tried to fight their wounds like she was, but many were too far gone to be of any use. She felt their deaths as well, continuing to feel the pain of others around her as they continued to fight off the armies. Pounded against her chest. Echoing screams gripping his spark. Wraith used his cannon to push her down even farther. Aimed his weapon at her chest area. It warmed up. But Warspark came to her rescue and fired at the Predacon.

"Get back on your feet, soldier! We have to continue to fight them off until reinforcements arr-"

She was just about to pick herself up when she felt her entire spark drop and heard the cries of many sparks before sudden silence. She screamed. Flashes of the protoforms' burning sparks entered her mind as well as the images of her fallen comrades.

"The protoforms!" Warspark looked behind at the smoke rising.

Wraith looked surprised, but no more surprised when she dashed towards the Predacon Leader and held him by the throat.

"You-You..." Her eyes widened and brightened whiter. "You. All of you! Never thought you would be this low."

She crushed the Predacon's vocal processor before he had the opportunity to run excuses for their behavior. Warspark grabbed her shoulder, "Wait a minute."

She slapped him, "All of you." Her voice distorted. Her people whispered at her. Failure. "You all cause pain. Chaos." Protoforms burning continued to flash through her mind. "They are all dead. You are dead. No more!"

Warspark pulled his gun and aimed at her, but it was too late. She gripped his spark. Then everyone, Maximal and Predacon, stopped fighting. Gunfire ceased and was replaced with moans and shocked expressions. Then blinding screams. Former comrades reached out to her to stop before she growled and let out a hollow scream, drowning their own.

Until.... silence.

She sighed in relief as she looked upon the dead bodies of both friends and enemies. The pain... The pain was gone. No more pain. Except the sting of regret and the horror of silence around her.

The sparkless bodies of both friends and enemies collapsed on the ground, holding their chest areas.

Optimus' shot at the chair destroyed it, breaking it apart. Though the Vok didn't need the chair anymore, they were still quite angry at Optimus' act of defiance. Their grip on Optimus' spark increased tenfold. "No!" Whitegrazer shouted, feeling what they were using her for. Her spark used the electrical currents built up in her systems and pulled it back towards the Vok, electrocuting her own body.

"If you harm this body, you will no longer have a body to go back to."

"You would attack your own people?"

"Think about what you are doing."

"You hurt me first. You possessed my body. You used my own abilities to harm the people I love." Whitegrazer continued her attack. Without her body, she made her intentions and emotions clear to the Vok. "I understand your goals, but I don't condone your methods. Optimus was right. If this is the change we proud ourselves of, then I no longer want to be one of you!"

"You are severely weakened, Whitegrazer. You can;t defeat us on your own."

The Vok gripped her spark, squeezing her. She grunted, but with a wave, she used her own force to push them back.

"I'm not like you. I used to be, but I'm not now. I can't allow you to destroy them or Cybertron. That's not what The One would have wanted."

"So you are going to kill us?"

"You refuse harm to the Cybertronians, but would kill us in a heartbeat?"

"No, like I said, I'm not like you."

Her spark dashed forward, fighting to enter her body once more. The Vok resisted, but she continued. Pushed forward with electrical currents helping to weakening them down. Her body began to smoke and spark, but she had no choice. Besides, the Vok twisted her form. It wasn't her anymore. Just a tool to bring harm to those she was closest to. Slowly, she entered. Inch by inch of her spark went inside that battle-torn form. Once she made it back inside, the Vok and her were in a constant struggle. The Vok tried to push her out. Outwardly, the body lurched forward and backward, face changing from shock to anger to agony, and the hands gripped the sides of Whitegrazer's face. Fingers tearing slips of the face's metal structure.

The hunter brightened in a green color.

Veins of blue electricity changed to a green soupy texture.

Whitegrazer strained, taking control for a moment, "What? What is happening? Are you doing this?"

"This is not our work."

The Metal Hunter wasn't responding to their commands. A tube slammed down, trapping them. The Vok pounded a fist against the plastic. Mere plastic! What is this? The green soupy texture draped over them. As it made contact with the body, the Vok were perplexed, but it wouldn't last long. The green soup glowed and began absorb into the body. Then something akin to green lightning surged through them.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!"

"Who did this?"

"WHO DID THIS?!!!"

Whitegrazer regained control of her body, surprisingly, and tried to get up. Her knees threatened to buckle, leaning against the tube for support. The green lightning still sparked around her arms and legs. It felt weird. Looking at her hands, they trembled. Her optics began to fog over a bit, but she shook the sensation away. She looked up to see Optimus, Aurora, Rattrap, Nemesis, and Zodiac. The Vok swam inside her body erratic. "What happened?"

"I happened." Tarantulas, who crawled from behind a tube on a wall in his beast form, jumped down and transformed. He laughed.

Our will is absolute." "We are beyond your comprehension."

Bewilderment was cast over Optimus's face. The only thing he was incapable of comprehending was their lack of explaining anything to them and maintaining a thought-provoking conversation. He was disappointed that he failed with the negotiations with the Vok and failed to acquire any more information from them, which concerned him because it felt as though they were coming to an end with this encounter, and he and his Maximals had yet to gain the upper hand or to find an escape. What little was left of his optimism lingered with Whitegrazer and Rhinox.

Our will is absolute." "We are beyond your comprehension." "What does a child know?"

Aurora is wise beyond her years; wiser than most her age, in fact, thought Primal, offended by their words. Recognizing the repetition with their words, the aliens seemed to have disengaged themselves from any more talking, much like a prisoner of war would do when being interrogated. ...Much like Optimus had done when he had been captured by the Predacons. So what now? What could they do to save themselves? The Maximal didn't get much time to think about it when he and rest of them felt more pain again from them torturing the equine's spark. Was Whitegrazer faltering now? She must have been exhausted, unable to carry on. Was he losing her...? He wrapped his arms tighter around his abdomen in response to the burning and squeezing he felt through her connection. So much pain.

Optimus,

Then Whitegrazer's voice finally appeared like a ray of light peeking through dark, ominous clouds. And he suddenly forgot about the anguish within his spark.

It's good to hear your voice. I don't have any strength left. Sorry. I'm just... just so tired. Words falling on deaf ears. Blind leading the blind. I worked hard over the years. I never given up. I fought hard. Despite how many times I got knocked down, I got back up. I let everyone run over top of me. The Vok. The High Council. Individuals on both sides.

Don't give up now, Whitegrazer. Please. Just hold on a little longer. I know Rhinox is working on something to help us, he tried encouraging her, but her voice and her bond was the weakest he had ever felt from her. Despite her physically being a mere several feet away from him where he should have been able to feel her so strongly to his spark, her voice was distant and gray. If she was giving up, then he could not blame her. She had been through more than he could possibly imagine, much more than himself. But he wasn't ready to quit.

Optimus, do you feel the world's burden crashing down on you? I do. Everyday. Sometimes, you just want to quit. I know, I know. No one should quit. But sometimes, when you feel the pain of others, the pain they wrought on you and others, it drains you of anything.

Yes, I do. Every day, he repeated her words, reminding her that they were in this together. And not just the world, the universe as well, and quite possibly... our future. Of course, he left that part as vague as he could until he could be certain that it was what they were up against. It is exhausting, as well as mentally and emotionally draining, but we're the only ones who stand in the way of Megatron and the Vok. We're the only ones, Whitegrazer, Optimus emphasized, referring to himself, her, and his crew. As dire as their situation was, and as tired as they were, they had to keep going. Well, Optimus knew he had to, but he wanted her by his side. ...That is, if she chose to continue on because he could not and would not force her. She had done her time, and she had made her sacrifices, and as far as he was concerned she had redeemed herself of any wrongs in her past. If she wanted to... if she really wanted to... she could let go. It would devastate him, but he would carry on; he just didn't want her to continue with so much guilt, remorse, and painful memories if she no longer wished to.

"You want to scream, lash out, you want to just tear everyone and everything around you. You can't always be strong. If you do, you bottle up emotions and thoughts that would just become a ticking time bomb. Then snap. Everyone snaps, eventually. I did. Once. Oh Optimus, I did once. I don't want to do that again.

Feeling her stretch out her hand to him in their link, he tried to do the same but she was just out of his reach. Whitegrazer was right that no one could be strong all the time. It was often too much and too unbearable. Maybe it was his stubborn determination or his younger age that refused to let himself crumble under the pressure. Meditating with her had always helped him cope, however, as well as sharing each other's burdens through their bond. She had done plenty of that for all of them, not just him. It was time to return the selfless gesture. He didn't know what she was talking about when it came to unleashing that bottled-up rage since she hadn't shared that incident, but he could relate it in a way when not long ago he hit the lowest that he had ever been. Whatever she had done, she must have deemed it too cruel, dark, tragic or unspeakable to share it with him. He understood since he had yet to talk about Protoform X.

That's what they are feeling. We, Vok, were never meant for physical bodies. I know it is hard to understand them, and you are angry with them. I am too. Or at least, I want to be. I can't. I want to be, though."

Optimus nodded at her as if to say it was fine, it was alright, it didn't bother him any more. He used the positivism and his love for her to strengthen his spark that had once crossed over the Matrix. Though hidden from everyone, it brightened within his chest and he shared the elevated power to her to help her. And through Whitegrazer, remnants of his empowering spark also touched Aurora, Rattrap, Nemesis, Zodiac and Megatron. Then there was a burst of energy he gave her that he hoped would help her fight the Vok and reclaim control over her individuality, but this action came with a consequence as it greatly decreased his energon. It was something he had never done before. In fact, he didn't even know he could do it, but it happened.

"No!"

He was awake to see the chair shatter with its shrapnel blowing off in every direction, some of it falling on him. And he heard her scream, but the pressure that the Vok put onto his spark to punish him for what he did ended up being too much for him to bear despite how long he tried to hang on and fight back. Primal's gun fell out of his hand as he doubled over onto his palms and knees, gasping for life. His vision went blurry and seemed to narrow as if he was looking through two straws while he stared at the floor under him.

"WARNING: Energon depletion critical. Spark deterioration detected. Stasis lock is imminent," his internal computer alerted him with grave concern. All he could feel was the Vok's grip on him through Whitegrazer. Although he didn't fully understand what had transpired, he gave her what he could to help her defeat them. Hopefully him being unconscious would be one less way for the aliens to use her, and he would be one less burden attached to her link.

"Beast mode," he said quietly, and his TransMetal body struggled to successfully transform. Once it did, he collapsed on the floor on his stomach.

"Power levels extreme. Stasis lock commencing," Primal's computer said. He saw a flash in his mind of Whitegrazer's beautiful face full of serenity, joy and warmth. Then there was nothing. Simply a void. No aliens. No pain. No wars. Just peace, darkness and silence.

Rattrap looked over to them when he heard Whitegrazer cry out. The pain on his spark had started to subside as if someone was fighting it. And there was another sensation he felt. It wasn't from Whitegrazer, it was different. It was strong, and pure, and it suppressed the agony he had been feeling from the Vok. Unfortunately, it hadn't lasted very long. And judging by the way he watched Optimus succumb to stasis lock, he was willing to bet that it had some how come from their fearless leader. Optimus! The Spy slowly got to his knees but hesitated to move any more when the Vok began speaking again.

"If you harm this body, you will no longer have a body to go back to."
"You would attack your own people?"
"Think about what you are doing."
"You hurt me first. You possessed my body. You used my own abilities to harm the people I love." "I understand your goals, but I don't condone your methods. Optimus was right. If this is the change we proud ourselves of, then I no longer want to be one of you!"
"You are severely weakened, Whitegrazer. You can;t defeat us on your own."
"I'm not like you. I used to be, but I'm not now. I can't allow you to destroy them or Cybertron. That's not what The One would have wanted."
"So you are going to kill us?"
"You refuse harm to the Cybertronians, but would kill us in a heartbeat?"
"No, like I said, I'm not like you."

Beat 'em, 'Grazer! Rattrap cheered her on in his mind. You gotta beat 'em! And then the electrical veins around the vessel changed color and texture, which distracted the smaller Maximal. "What de heck is goin' on?" he asked Aurora quietly and with caution.

"What? What is happening? Are you doing this?"

Whitegrazer didn't seem to know what was happening? The rodent looked around, desperately trying to keep himself calm.

"This is not our work."

"Okay. Not even the aliens know what's going on. Dis can't be good," he said to the Fuzor beside him.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!"

Rattrap made a disgusted expression as he watched the gross, soupy mess dribble onto what was once Whitegrazer's body and start to glow. As it was absorbed, it flashed and flickered throughout her form. Was it going to kill her and them? Was there something he could do to help her? He didn't really want that goopy stuff touching him in fear of not knowing what it would do to him if it was having that kind of affect on them. Yeesh!

Having watched all of this unfold, and feeling the unpleasantness of Primal's very spark within his own, albeit very briefly, Megatron realized how distracted everyone was and capitalized on the opportunity. Unlike Rattrap, he cared not for what was happening to Whitegrazer and the Vok, or the ship that had obviously been tainted or corrupted some how now. Clearly someone was behind it, but as to who that was had yet to be revealed. And the command chair had now been destroyed thanks to Optimus Primal's heroics. No, what stood out to him at that very moment was Primal's unconscious body laying helplessly on the floor and completely vulnerable. It was the perfect opportunity to pry that alien disk out of his subspace no matter what damage he would have to inflict on the Maximal in order to retrieve it. Turning his attention away from Zodiac, Megatron blasted off toward Optimus.

"I don't think so, Megajerk!" Rattrap shouted when he saw the Predacon fly by him and Aurora, his optics focused on their fallen commander. Grabbing his gun, he quickly targeted the Pred's engines and fired off two shots. The first one missed, but the second shot had been the repaired judgement of speed, distance and anticipation, so it slammed into Megatron's right engine and deactivated it.

As soon as he was hit, he was forced to the ground, landing on the balls of his feet not too far from Optimus. He immediately turned and growled deeply at Rattrap, narrowing his optics. I may have to change my strategy after all. It would be unwise to linger here much longer, Megatron considered. He would have to retreat empty-handed, but at least he, Nemesis and Inferno would live to see another day. "You have the gift of endlessly trying my patience, rodent!" he hollered angrily at him, lifting his tail gun to target him.

The only response that Rattrap thought fitting was showering Megatron with more fire power before he could return it, so he continued shooting at him, mostly aiming at his chest and shoulders in order to get him away from Optimus as well as himself and Aurora.

The rat's shots did indeed force Megatron back, and he couldn't see well enough to return fire. He stepped backwards more and more as the relentless stream of firepower slammed into his chest, eventually knocking him off balance and onto the floor. Only then did Rattrap stop firing as he said, "Eh. Don't take it personally, Mega-ugly. I get on everybody's nerves."

"Who did this?"
"WHO DID THIS?!!!"

The Voks' very loud demand to know who had tampered with their technology made Rattrap look at them after he blew off the smoke from the end of his gun's barrel, satisfied with his results. With the monkey taking a nap, that left him in charge for the rest of this affair, and he had no idea how they were going to get out of this one.

"What happened?"

Rattrap shrugged at Whitegrazer as he got to his feet and hurried to her, although he stopped a couple feet away as a precaution despite how much she sounded like herself again. "Aurora, check on Optimus," he told her. He watched Whitegrazer struggle to stand with the support of one of the tubes. His optics were drawn to the uncertainty of the green lightning-like fluctuations around her limbs. He frowned at her trembling hands. "Whitegrazer...? Are you... you again?" Rattrap wanted it to be her and have her back to normal, but it couldn't have been that easy. And what about her broken and shredded body? Also, he didn't know how anyone could reduce the Metal Hunter to the soupy mess that it was turning in to, until he heard a very familiar and surprising voice and laugh...

"I happened."

The Maximal Spy was taken aback, to say the least. "Tarantulas?! How did you get in here?! What did you do?!" If the spider got in, then there was a way out! Unless, of course, he had been there this whole time. He better have a way out!

With his chest now covered in welts and smoking from the bullets that had hit him, Megatron sat up as his optics immediately zeroed in on Tarantulas. "I should have known," he said mostly to himself, disappointed in himself that he hadn't predicted the arachnid's appearance sooner.

"You see? Even the youngest can descry just how transparent you are,"

Aurora's fur had been standing nearly on edge as she had blurted out those infuriated words. And although Megatron had a tendency of creeping her out almost as much as the Vok did, at this very moment the tyrant offered an almost welcome distraction opposed to the aliens who had made it clear they intended to destroy all the Cybertronians with severe prejudice. Of course she was well aware of how two-faced the tyrant could be.. and what he was capable of.

The fuzor glanced over at Optimus, only to look away when she saw the disapproval in his optics. Clearly the Maximal leader did no agree.

Our will is absolute." "We are beyond your comprehension." "What does a child know?"

More than you!, she wanted to scream at them as loudly as she could. But the look Optimus gave her quickly calmed her down, preventing her from making such a potential mistake. Instead she muttered under her breath. "How narrow-minded can a species possibly get?"

Well, it hardly mattered if the aliens knew what she thought of them and their schemes. She was certain they wouldn't care or change their agenda regardless.

Before moving on, Megatron continued to have a bit of fun at Primal's expense while downplaying his own role in all of this. Aurora realized it was all a ruse, a way to distract the aliens, but at this moment the fuzor couldn't care less about Megatron's devious motives. She honestly just wanted to get out of here, safely, with her fellow Maximals.. and of course Whitegrazer.. Provided she could be saved at this point. The white mare's appearance left more than a little doubt of the possible outcome in such regards, but Aurora tried not to contemplate it too much. She didn't need such a distraction weighing down on her, not now, not when they..

As the aliens finally eased up on torturing the spark, Nemesis gradually came to enough to get back to her feet. She felt awful, truly, like she was having the worst hangover imaginable. But still she was clear minded enough to at least somewhat take in what was going on around her. Primal was still arguing with the aliens, futile as that had proven so far, whereas Megatron's attention seemed to be wandering elsewhere. And so was the tyrant for that sake. The avian female's metallic feathers ruffled a bit as she saw the target of Megatron's attention moving away from them all.

Zodiac..

She sneered a bit upon seeing him attempt to desert them all to a terrible fate, but really.. it came as no surprise.

Then.. more torture followed as what little patience the Vok had was tested again and again by their Cybertronian foes.. and Primal's words more than most. Nemesis took a staggering step forward, nearly dropping her weapon on the ground, as the pain to the chest intensified. The torment incapacitating her, at least for a moment.

"Hah," "I've never claimed to have honor, so I certainly don't expect it from other thieves. You, however, have changed since you arrived here. Spending all of that time with the Maximals has softened you. They have that unfortunate and pathetic effect on those with weaker sparks,"

The shapeshifter let out a low chuckle upon hearing those words. It wasn't so much the words themselves, let alone the fact that Megatron had called him out on what should have been a well guarded secret, but more so the fact that the irony of this change of spark and attitude had certainly been noticed by Zodiac himself. Oh he was well aware of what he was.. and who he was.. And as much as he tried to deny it to himself, Megatron was right. A lot of that hatred that had compelled him before, had since dwindled away. It was certainly not that he had grown to care about the Maximals, no, but recent events had forced him to re-evaluate certain aspects of all of this. He was no longer as hellbent on their destruction, but that was not to say he wouldn't grab the opportunity should it arise and he could benefit from it.

"Believe what you will," Zodiac replied after a brief pause to allow him to assume his desired form. His own weapon trained on Megatron now that he had taken the form of Megatron's former teacher. Much like he had used Nexus Prime against Primal. "But an opportunist by spark doesn't throw away the chance of a lifetime."

"And lest you forget that though I stole it first that doesn't mean its ownership is any less rightfully mine. I keep what I claim, and I do not share well with others,"

"It was never intended for you alone," the pretender snapped back without hesitation as his optics narrowed. "Yet Cryotek thought highly of you, his prized pupil. Too highly, some would argue."

His cannons remained on their target, just like Megatron had his weapons trained on the pretender.

"Your parlor tricks are hardly amusing anymore, Zodiac. That disk?"

Zodiac tilted his head ever so slightly, pondering the peculiar grin on display on Megatron's face. It was true this golden disk was different from the one the shapeshifter had possessed for so long and fully intended to claim again, but the disk he stole from Megatron had been used to re-activate the alien weapon so that Megatron could take control of it.

"Perhaps." "I almost proved its usefulness with this vessel,"

Almost... is not good enough.


Although the disguised Zodiac didn't say the words out loud, the look on his face was all too clear. There was no point in hiding it. "My dear Megatron.. Does your ego truly need that level of self-assurance?" He left the words to linger for a brief moment.

"While I agree the two of us may not be the best team players, it would be foolish to pass up on this opportunity to rid ourselves of of our enemies."


His weapon continued to follow the tyrant's weapon that was now targeting his chest.

"Besides.. there are other Vok weapons hidden on this world, not unlike this one. If you attempt to kill me or betray me to them.." The words were quickly followed by a nod in the Vok and Primal's direction. "..I won't be able to share their secrets."

"I do sometimes wonder how you and Optimus often manage to interfere when I'm always three steps ahead. But no matter. He has obtained an entirely different alien disk that certainly requires my attention. One might ponder if it had anything to do with you regaining your unique abilities, and what other secrets it has yet to reveal."

Tssk tssk.. Such ego was only comparable with a few of the true Decepticon tyrants. No wonder this Megatron had chosen such a name.

Tempting as it was to call the tyrant out on his words, to correct his statement by reminding him of how many steps ahead the shapeshifter himself had been, he chose not to ire the Predacon leader further. Annoying as he was, the tyrant could be a useful ally for the time being. At least until Zodiac had recovered his own disk and the remaining alien disk.

It was then that the pain in his spark suddenly got stronger again, drawing his attention to what the Vok were doing. Megatron seemed to be affected as well, temporarily letting his guard down.

"Warspark." "Wraith." "Destructor." "Wrench." "OilBuster." "Carnage." "Needler." "LowBeam."

Aurora looked on with confusion and a pained expression as Whitegrazer started to change again. The Vok were talking among themselves, blurting out names the fuzor didn't recognize. Optimus seemed as if in a trance, so the fuzor's optics darted to Rattrap instead. As soon as she located him, she tried to make her way closer.

"We have to go..," she muttered with a slight whimper, hoping Rattrap would be able to take charge. "I don't want us all to.. die like this. "

Meanwhile, Nemesis had forced herself back to her feet and had managed to put a little distance between herself and the clearly suffering white mare.She felt more than a little dazed and achy, but was still clear minded enough to Through the corner of her optics she noticed Megatron and someone else that she could only presume was Zodiac in disguise stand close together. They were both distracted by what was going on with the Vok and didn't seem like they were going to move any time soon, leaving Nemesis with ample opportunity to aim her weapon at the traitor. Directly at his spark chamber, or at least where she presumed it would be given his present form.

Her former friend, brother in arms, confidant, and one could almost say love in a sense. That was all gone now, tossed away the moment Zodiac decided she was worth sacrificing.

Bastard..


Her finger was on the trigger, ready to fire, eager to at least end this one life that bothered her so much with his mere presence. Or at least this had been her intention when suddenly she noticed the Vok's infuriated scream.

"WHO DID THIS?!!!"

"I happened."

By the time another voice responded, someone who hadn't been here until now.. or at least who hadn't been noticed.. Zodiac and Aurora had turned towards the newcomer as well. Neither of them had noticed him as he made his entry. Yet the male was infamous for lurking in the shadows. How did he manage to penetrate the forcefield? But more importantly, he had managed to stop the seemingly unbeatable aliens in their tracks. And now the Vok were trapped.

The Hunter was changing as well. Vines were glowing again, a humming.. yet it was different than before. Not as chaotic or destructive. And at that moment Aurora realized the ache in her spark was fading. Zodiac and Nemesis also noticed but both remained still, merely staring at the Vok, Tarantulas, Primal.. Who had reverted to beast mode by now. And lay in a pile on the floor. Megatron did not take long to see the potential of this opportunity and immediately set into motion straight for his long-time foe, his intent as obvious as ever. Zodiac drew a silent sigh of relief and left it up to Megatron to finish Primal off, his own desire for revenge having calmed considerably in the last few weeks. Megatron was right. He had changed. While everyone seemed distracted, the shapeshifter sneaked away into the shadows.

"Aurora, check on Optimus,"

Rattrap didn't have to tell her twice. The fuzor immediately ran over to the unconscious ape and checked for signs of life. Thankfully, albeit wounded and exhausted, Primal was still very much so alive. Aurora drew a silent sigh of relief before giving Rattrap a 'thumbs up' to signal Optimus was still okay.. at least somewhat.

Megatron's attack on Primal had suddenly come to a halt as Rattrap peppered the tyrant with shots, forcing Nemesis to take her optics off Zodiac and turn her attention to her leader's well-being. "Seize your fire, rodent!," she ordered while re-aiming her weapon at the pint sized attacker, but she didn't have time to fire off more than a couple of shots in the rodent's direction before Tarantulas' presence and the Vok's apparent loss became all too obvious. As everyone's hostilities seemed to dissipate, Nemesis hesitated long enough to cast a glance at the still functional, if a bit deformed, leader.

Don't give up now, Whitegrazer. Please. Just hold on a little longer. I know Rhinox is working on something to help us,

Yes, I do. Every day, he repeated her words, reminding her that they were in this together. And not just the world, the universe as well, and quite possibly... our future. Of course, he left that part as vague as he could until he could be certain that it was what they were up against. It is exhausting, as well as mentally and emotionally draining, but we're the only ones who stand in the way of Megatron and the Vok. We're the only ones, Whitegrazer,

"Maybe, maybe, that is why you and I have such a strong bond,"Whitegrazer smiled through both of their pain. We both have similar convictions. Equal in persistence and will. Both of us burdened by certain turmoils and decisions, and yet, we... preserve. Because we have to. Need to." She looked down upon herself. Look at her and her self-pity. What was she thinking? She can't allow herself to be defeated now. There was so much she still needed to accomplish. Promises she couldn't break. She promised to continue her mission to help Cybertron and it's people. Promised to help Optimus and his crew in stopping Megatron's plans. Her promise to Zodiac to help guide him. Despite the fact he seemed to get his abilities back, he still needed guidance. Also, Nemesis, too. She noticed how unnerved the former Decepticon was, and how her nanomachines seem to act funny around the Vok. She wasn't aware of the connection like Zodiac was. It took her completely by surprise. Not to mention, she still needed to feel her responsibility to them all.

Thank you, Optimus. You reminded me of what I still need to do."

She smiled, but her spark ached. Optimus had sustained to many injuries from the Vok and Predacons combined. Couldn't believe her own people used the same power they condemned her for using and proceeded to use that power to try and kill everyone around her. Optimus? She couldn't hear anything. But she saw him transformed into beast mode, wobbling and falling down. His spark was not yet extinguished, but his systems must have been forcing him to go in stasis lock so his body could start internal repairs. When Megatron attempted to fire on Optimus while he was down, typical Megatron, Whitegrazer bashed her fist against the tube to break off out of it. But to no avail as the tube was made of a hard plastic material that prevented beings such as herself from breaking off of. Rattrap came to Optimus' rescue, though, and she breathed a sigh of relief.

The tube lifted up. Because of the strange yet foreign substance taking over the Metal Hunter, the systems were losing control. So were the Vok, but they already crossed that threshold.

"Aurora, check on Optimus,"

"Whitegrazer...? Are you... you again?"

Whitegrazer smiled at Rattrap and nodded, " Yes, I am definitely me. The Vok.... They have grown silent." She looked around, noticed that Zodiac was no whre to be seen. He was gone. Made her wonder where he was going.

Tarantulas laughed made her turn, reminding her that it was the spider who did all this.

"Aww, poor Vok! I'm glad to see that they can still underestimate me."

"Tarantulas?! How did you get in here?! What did you do?!"

"I should have known,"

"You all should be grateful because if it wasn't for the virus program I developed, thanks to a little from your big rhino friend, you all would probably be writhing on the ground until your spark pop out of your chests." Tarantulas glanced at Whitegrazer, "It's funny. I never realized that you were one of them, Maximal hag, but when I saw that little drawing your precious leader drew, I sensed something familar about that face. Now that I can see you, I realized my suspicions have been confirmed." The spider growled, shaking a fist at Whitegrazer. "You are the one who interfered. If you have just stuck your arrogant noses out of a war that didn't concern you or the Vok, the Predacons would have won the war.
Do you hear that, Megatron? She, this Maximal hag, is the reason the Predacons lost the war!"

Whitegrazer didn't show any emotion nor did she deny Tarantulas' claims.

"Don't pretend you care about that, Tarantulas. You have a secret agenda of your own."

"Everyone has an agenda,"Tarantulas spat at her. "The question is: would you be able to stop it in time?" Tarantulas laughed and rubbed his hands together. "But I got my revenge against you and those pesky aliens."

"What did your virus do to the Metal Hunter?"

"Oh, this fortress? The Metal Hunter is sick and dying a slow painful death, but you should be worried about yourself and the Vok."

"What about us? What did you do?"

"That is for you to found out. I hope I get to see the effects of my... work."

"You must have created an antidote."

"No, why should I? It doesn't effect anyone who is Cybertronian. So why bother? But I would love to see you try." Tarantulas aimed a weapon at her. Smirked before lowering it as fast as he drew it out. "Yeah, why bother?"

"We can't kill him. He has the knowledge to undo the damage."

"Don't we have the knowledge?"

"We can't allow him to get away from what he has done.

"I hear you are an empath. Can't you feel it?"

Whitegrazer looked around the glowing dark green aura above, putting some distance between her the others. Green lightning sparked within her body, arms, and legs. She grimaced, going to her knees and arms crossed against her chest. As she attempted to catch her breath and focus herself away from the pain, the Metal Hunter started shaking violently. A screaming siren filled the air. Veins were bursting out that green substance, starting to flood the area.

Whatever Tarantulus did, there had to be a way to undo it. All they needed to do was figure it out, and Aurora and Rhinox were the people she trusted with this task. Though, she wondered if Blackarachnia might be of some help as well since she knew the male spider more than everyone. Right now, though, Whitegrazer felt a deep hole in the pit of her stomach. The Vok. Herself. There was something horrible going on, and it hurt to know they didn;t know what it was.

"We need your help."

"It's been awhile since we felt this feeling of dread. Don't you all feel it? The bell tolls for thee."

"You must return us to Nexus Zero.""

"How?"

The Vok were silent.

"The chair is destroyed. Systems are wrecked. The Metal Hunter is gone. I can't send you back."

Whitegrazer got up. The Metal Hunter was being flooded. Sparks and flames began to slowly make their way around the top. Whitegrazer closed her optics, contemplating what to do with the Vok. Then she realized something. She forgot about this. Megatron moved the Metal Hunter from it's original position. "The Axalon! We are too close to the Axalon! We can't allow the Metal Hunter's debris to hurt it. We don't know what the virus would do to the shields and systems." She walked over where the chair's debris laid crumpled and smoking. She knew what she had to do. "I need to drive the Metal Hunter away. Everyone needs to get out of here now."

Whitegrazer looked at Rattrap and Aurora. She lingered her gaze at Aurora. "Aurora, I need you to do something for me. I want you to take some of my mechfluid and analyze it. Maybe we can monitor whatever is inside me and find out how to stop it. " She smiled at Aurora.

Tarantulas just snickered, "I would love to see you try and figure it out. Ha." Tarantulas put up a bold front, but he wasn't stupid nor arrogant. He was going to be watching how the Maximals dealt the situation, and also, he needed to be more defenses in his lair. Just in case.

(( OOC: una, we both prefered the first ending you had before you edited it. But since I doubt you had it saved anywhere, we're just going to have to roll with this one. ))

"Blackarachnia, do you copy? Are you receiving any communications?" Rhinox attempted to transmit from the Axalon. From his perspective in the Maximal base, the Metal Hunter was still quiet, but it also still hovered quite ominously from above. While he waited to hear any possible responses, he worked on diverting more power to the shields and kept the sensors on high alert in case the aliens, or whoever was in control, decided to attack.

"We have to go..," "I don't want us all to.. die like this."

Rattrap had frowned at Aurora as he sensed her fear and worry, but he assured her as best as he could as he placed a hand on her shoulder and said, "We ain't gonna die." He never thought those words would come out of his mouth, but right now he had to play the "What Would Optimus Do?" card in order to keep his team calm and optimistic, which for himself was a chore in its own. He didn't know how Optimus did this day in and day out all the time, but he was much better at it than the normally negative rat was.

Seeing Aurora's thumb's up about their leader's condition, Rattrap also gave a sigh of relief, but it confirmed his assumption of him being in stasis lock. He was going to need a repair chamber sooner rather than later, which concerned him. Sure, his beast mode could somewhat protect him and slow down the deterioration of his spark, but its internal repairs wouldn't be able to spare the power of what was left from the depleted energon that his spark needed in order to keep it on-line.

"Believe what you will," "But an opportunist by spark doesn't throw away the chance of a lifetime."

"True," Megatron had agreed with Zodiac who was still disguised as Cryotek. He could appreciate that quality in the shape shifter, after all his unique abilities granted him many opportunities. He, of course, considered himself an opportunist for obvious reasons. "However, to be both an opportunist and a strategist," he interrupted himself with a light, and short, cocky chuckle, "that is how one becomes an even greater threat. Yesss."

"It was never intended for you alone,"

The Predacon tyrant had narrowed his optics at him for a moment, but allowed him to finish his thought.

"Yet Cryotek thought highly of you, his prized pupil. Too highly, some would argue."

A mischievous grin had tugged at the corner of Megatron's mouth as his vision of a very possible and near future involving his plans played out in his mind. But he made no mention of it, keeping his secrets entirely to himself. "Although your disguise is uncanny, anyone could acquire his physical dimensions and weapons from the data tracks. But you speak as though you had known Cryotek personally. I may settle for a conversation with you later."

"My dear Megatron.. Does your ego truly need that level of self-assurance?"

No, I suppose it doesn't, he had thought to himself already knowing well enough how great he was.

"While I agree the two of us may not be the best team players, it would be foolish to pass up on this opportunity to rid ourselves of of our enemies." "Besides.. there are other Vok weapons hidden on this world, not unlike this one. If you attempt to kill me or betray me to them.." "..I won't be able to share their secrets."

Megatron had thoughtfully raised his chin a little bit at "Cryotek", considering his words carefully. Of course there were other alien sites and weapons across this planet, but he hadn't spent the time or the energy to search for them, especially when he had realized that they were on Earth in the past. There was a lot more at stake now. There was a lot more opportunity to change everything. So, did Zodiac know where each site was located? Or was he simply trying to distract him and take advantage of him? The Predacon was intrigued but naturally cautious.

"Seize your fire, rodent!,"

"I did, you nanobot-infested freak!" Rattrap barked at Nemesis out of annoyance and frustration after dodging the few shots that came his way from her weapon.

Megatron's optics glanced at Nemesis, silently appreciating her reinforcement from where he was sitting and holding a hand over one of his more damaged wounds at the joint on his shoulder.

"Maybe, maybe, that is why you and I have such a strong bond,"Whitegrazer smiled through both of their pain. We both have similar convictions. Equal in persistence and will. Both of us burdened by certain turmoils and decisions, and yet, we... preserve. Because we have to. Need to." Thank you, Optimus. You reminded me of what I still need to do."

Optimus was certain that was just one of many reasons why she and him were so well connected. Despite everything that had transpired in this war so far, it was as though it had meant to be this way. In any case, her last words were exactly what he had intended to happen, but he wouldn't be awake to witness her recovery.

"Yes, I am definitely me. The Vok.... They have grown silent."

Rattrap was relieved... to an extent. "Uh, is that good or bad? And how do we get 'em outta you?" he eagerly asked.

"Aww, poor Vok! I'm glad to see that they can still underestimate me."

The Maximal Spy almost shuddered every time that creepy spider spoke. He was so full of himself, too! Ugh, Predacons.

"You all should be grateful because if it wasn't for the virus program I developed, thanks to a little from your big rhino friend, you all would probably be writhing on the ground until your spark pop out of your chests."

The rodent gasped inwardly and looked at Aurora with hope in his optics, thinking, Rhinox! He knew his big friend would find a way to help them. But gross; he was working with Tarantulas? Ew. That must have been awful. And gross. Where was the she-spider in all of this? He kind of hoped Rhinox would have been with them, at least to help carry Optimus out of there since he was too heavy for Rattrap and Aurora. But he might have to ask someone else to help... Maybe even Tarantulas. Yeah right.

"It's funny. I never realized that you were one of them, Maximal hag, but when I saw that little drawing your precious leader drew, I sensed something familar about that face. Now that I can see you, I realized my suspicions have been confirmed." "You are the one who interfered. If you have just stuck your arrogant noses out of a war that didn't concern you or the Vok, the Predacons would have won the war.

What? Rattrap looked from Aurora to Whitegrazer, surprised and finding it difficult to register all of this. Confusion and uncertainty filled his optics as his gaze settled upon her. But how did Tarantulas know so much about it?

Do you hear that, Megatron? She, this Maximal hag, is the reason the Predacons lost the war!"

Megatron was, to say the least, quite appalled about learning Whitegrazer being of Vok origin and playing some kind of significant role in the war so long ago. He sent a glare at her as he got to his feet but he hesitated on becoming hostile since he knew better than to be so easily manipulated by that treacherous spider. And as much as he wanted answers, they simply didn't have the luxury of time to converse. What were these drawings that Primal allegedly shared? And how did he acquire such knowledge on something he knew very little about? And Tarantulas... He seemed to know quite a bit as well. This made Megatron resent him even more. Still, none of it compared to what he knew and the plans he was beginning to put together to make his ultimate conquest a reality. So, he may not have appeared as angry as one thought he might with that revelation from that scheming arachnid.

"Don't pretend you care about that, Tarantulas. You have a secret agenda of your own."

Of course he does, thought Megatron. But so do I.

"Everyone has an agenda," "The question is: would you be able to stop it in time?" "But I got my revenge against you and those pesky aliens."
"What did your virus do to the Metal Hunter?"
"Oh, this fortress? The Metal Hunter is sick and dying a slow painful death, but you should be worried about yourself and the Vok."
"What about us? What did you do?"
"That is for you to found out. I hope I get to see the effects of my... work."

"Tell us what you did, you psychopathic spider, or I'll blow your eight legs off one at a time," Rattrap tried threatening Tarantulas as he aimed his gun at him.

"You must have created an antidote."
"No, why should I? It doesn't effect anyone who is Cybertronian. So why bother? But I would love to see you try." "Yeah, why bother?"

"If you've got an antidote fer whatever you've infected dis place with, then you better fork it over! Whitegrazer's the best chance we have dealin' with these aliens! She might be one of 'em, but she's on our side," the TransMetal rat tried convincing him of her valuable usefulness if nothing else.

If his words didn't persuade Tarantulas, they certainly had an effect on Megatron who agreed with the small Maximal despite him having only recently delivered a humiliating onslaught of firepower onto him. Whitegrazer was obviously prepared to sacrifice herself to these aliens in order to save them, just like Optimus had done, which always proved to be a valuable sacrifice for him to capitalize on.

"I hear you are an empath. Can't you feel it?"

Rattrap glared at Tarantulas but his attention was quickly averted when Whitegrazer moved away from him and began to show signs of anguish again. "Whitegrazer? What it is? What did he do?" Violent tremors came forth again throughout the alien craft, almost knocking him off balance.

It shook Megatron as well, but he managed to stay upright as he watched the place starting flood. Blast it all! The vessel was a loss now. There was no way to regain its control. The best thing for him and his Predacons to do was to retreat and leave the Maximals behind to fend for themselves. But what about Zodiac? A quick look around made him realize that the sneaky renegade had already taken his leave! "Nemesis, grab Inferno and evacuate at once!" he ordered her with disappointment over the failed situation lingering in his voice. At least she appeared to be fairing better since the the aching and burning of their sparks was minimal to nonexistent now. So, no disks and no vessel. Taking the gamble that he did, he was leaving with less than he had arrived with and that infuriated him greatly, but it wasn't worth risking his life over. Quickly, the powerful Predacon turned around and headed toward one of the corridors in haste, his feet splashing in the gooey substance that was leaking everywhere and covering the floor.

"The Axalon! We are too close to the Axalon! We can't allow the Metal Hunter's debris to hurt it. We don't know what the virus would do to the shields and systems."

Cowards! thought Rattrap as he watched the Predacons take their leave without bothering to help them. "What do we do, 'Gazer?" he asked, refusing to leave her behind as his optics followed her around to the shattered chair's controls near Optimus while keeping his weapon targeted on to Tarantulas.

"I need to drive the Metal Hunter away. Everyone needs to get out of here now."

"Wait. On yer own? We ain't leavin' without you, Whitegrazer," the rodent told her. "Besides, we need help movin' the boss monkey. He's too heavy for us," he added as he gestured to himself and Aurora.

The shiny blue and silver ape laid in silence on the floor on his chest as the green fluid flooding the vessel inside gradually surrounded his body.

"Aurora, I need you to do something for me. I want you to take some of my mechfluid and analyze it. Maybe we can monitor whatever is inside me and find out how to stop it."

He frowned a little before glaring at Tarantulas again.

"I would love to see you try and figure it out. Ha."

"You! You either help us or we're gonna leave you here in a pile of slag ta let the aliens do what they want to ya!" Rattrap threatened him.