Transformers Prime: Shrouded Truth (#4) [Completed]

Chapter 38

Even though I had seen what he looked like, kind of, through his holoform, it still shocked me to see him as he was before me. Smokescreen's eyes looked at us, recognition and worry in them.

"Smokescreen," Arcee breathed. Everyone was the same. Hearing that he was alive and as he was from me was not the same as seeing it for yourself. Even with me having seen him, I still found myself shocked.

He looked away, pain in his face.

Unicron turned his attention back towards reviving his true form. "Deal with the infection."

The circle of troops around us all surged at once, and I had no time to comprehend what had happened before Wheeljack scooped me up and lobbed me up and over the heads of the enemy. No one paid me any attention as I flew over them. The heads of the Autobots and Smokescreen vanished in the enemies' midsts. Alpha Trion summoned a bubble of energon that protected me from the impact.

I hit the ground and rolled to my feet, rising from my crouch. I could only see blaster shots and hear the shouts as the enemy engaged my allies. I should have been in there with them, I should had been fighting along side them.

"I would be caught underfoot," I realized. So, I did the only thing that made sense.

"Hey!" Heads from the back troops looked my way. "Don't you want this?" I held the amulet up for them to see.

"Lora. I do not believe this is the best course of action," Alpha Trion pointed out.

The zombie cons ran towards me.

"Too late."

I turned and ran, leading them as far away as I could. Dwindling the numbers was the best plan I had.

Unlike 'normal' zombies, these ones were not slow. They were on top of me within seconds.

I summoned my staff, already in a spin. It connected with the ankles of those surrounding me, cutting though them like butter. There were no yells in pain as I did that, only the sound of grating metal as those troops wobbled and collapsed. They were now at the perfect height, and temporarily disabled. I turned my attention to the others.

My energon disk provided me with the height I needed to vault towards one. I landed on its shoulder, already willing the disk towards a second opponent. My disk flattened a zombie to the ground and as I commanded it to break into shards, the zombie shredded. Those shards I shot through the air, aiming for the heads. That too was an unreliable fact, as the zombie cons did not stop functioning. I was going to have to fact check those movies if I got out of here alive.

"When."

Primus' method for dealing with the reanimated amulet bearers came to my mind. I leapt off the shoulder of the con as he swatted at me, landing on one of the ones with out feet. At the impact, I released a pulse of energon. Instantly, the dead vehicon became dead once more, his body being reduced to nothing more than powder. I couldn't help but grin.

I leapt from one zombie to another, hitting them in the head or neck, or whatever I could hit, and sent pulses of energon through their bodies. That seemed to do the trick, taking them out from the inside. The energon acted as a neutralizer for the effects of the dark energon, or something like that. Either way, it was efficient.

Soon, the group of zombie cons were dealt with, laying dead around me in piles of black and purple ashes. I was given a moment to concentrate.

I held my staff in front of me. Letting the world drop away as I called upon the energon stores in the amulet. I felt them gather, pushing a fragment of the store towards my staff. I let it grow in power and condense and grow in strength. I could feel it still growing, and when I felt it was enough, I let it go.

I brought my staff down on the ground as Primus had once done, and with it I released all of the power I had built up. It roared as a wave, myself as the epicentre. All zombie cons dropped where they stood, their bodies disintegrating into black ash at the touch of my attack. The Unicron clones staggered, all pausing in their fight with the Autobots. That was all the time Team Prime needed.

They rallied together, blades flashing out and guns firing. They broke through the circle, allowing them to leave the confinement and have the space they needed. No longer where they surrounded, and this was when they fought their best.

Smokescreen was still no where to be seen.

I swayed from the strength it took to preform such a feat. I was only glad that the energon stores still were decently full.

"Move!"

I listened to the command, not even noticing who it was from. A fist came down where I had been. I whirled my staff upon it, letting energon travel through it as I severed the wrist. The Unicron clone fell back, turning into a dark energon crystal as he was over taken by the energon. The crystal timbered and shattered, hitting the shield I hastily formed and disintegrated. I felt the stores grow.

"Alpha Trion?" I asked, worry clear. Did I just absorb the dark energon? Did I just give Unicron a way in?

"You... you absorbed energon. It was dark energon, but it's energon now."

"English," I shot back, rolling out of the way of another attack and returning with one of my own.

"I think you just purified the dark energon into energon. I heard rumours that this was possible, but now seeing it, this is amazing."

"Does it cost me energon?"

"Yes, but you get more in return. You can replenish the stores with ease."

I blasted another one of Unicron's clones, feeling yet again as the energon stores increased as I absorbed the dark energon. "How come it didn't work the first time I came into contact with dark energon?"

"You must not of had enough to start to process. Now you do, and it is a massive benefit."

"And an advantage." I stabbed the leg of a clone, already sucking the dark energon from him. This would actually work.

I grinned.

I took off running, spinning my staff and weaving between the enemy. At any touch, I took the dark energon powering Unicron's clones, reducing them to colourless crystals that shattered as soon at they formed. Power filled me, growing with each hit. I pulled an energon disk under me, guiding it through the air. I flew through the ranks, taking clone after clone out. The Autobots froze as I passed, watching as I tore through the ranks of clones with ease. Wheeljack grinned madly. A cheer followed his grin.

A passed a smile back to him, looking towards my family. We could do it. We could win this.

Then I was flying, but not on my own accord. The shield Alpha Trion hastily put up took the brunt of the blow, but I still felt the harsh impact, felt the air driven from me.

It hit the ground and bounced, the shield protecting me fully this time, thankfully. I slid to a stop. Coughing racked my body and I tried to stand. I fell back down, hand on my knee as I regained my composure. From my peripheral vision I watched as footsteps approached. The sound echoed in my skull, reverberated through my bones. The steps stopped, replaced by smaller, more human like ones. A hand grabbed my by the chin, the other grabbing the amulet.

I felt Alpha Trion release a pulse of pure power, but it was too late. The amulet was ripped from around my neck.

All the energy I had was snatched away in that action. Any strength I had left and I fell to the ground. The holoform disappeared before the amulet fell.

It clattered far away, rolling away, further and further. The comfort it brought me, the reassurance, all gone, and growing more distance with each second. I closed my eyes, breathing heavily.

I heard the sound of transformation, then the sound of a powering blaster.

I looked up into the barrel of Smokescreen's gun. The bot behind it was not who I remembered.