Transformers: Prime: Web of Shadows

Chapter 6: Resurrection

It had been just over a week since the Autobots had narrowly survived the nightmare on Cybertron's moon—a barren world smothered in a viscous, black ooze. Even now, memories of the mission clung to them like static: the moon's twisted surface, the suffocating stench of Dark Energon, and the way the ooze seemed to reach for them as if it could think.

Back on Cybertron, Optimus Prime stood before a reinforced containment field. Within it, the black ooze coiled and pulsed, writhing with unnatural life. Its surface glimmered with the faintest trace of movement, as if something beneath it stirred in anticipation.

Ratchet hovered over his scanners, the green glow of his instruments illuminating his worried optics. "It's worse than I thought," he muttered. "Every cell is filled with Dark Energon. It's not just toxic—it's predatory. Even minimal contact could... well..." His processors whirred in thought, leaving the threat unsaid but understood.

Orionus Prime leaned closer, optics narrowing. "It reminds me of an old superhero comic book... a symbiote, a living organism that bonds to its host. Highly adaptable, highly dangerous." He shivered slightly, though he would never admit it aloud.

Optimus Prime's voice cut through the tension. "It will remain contained. No one touches it until we understand its nature."

Altair Comet approached, her eyes fixed on the dark, shifting mass. Her voice was soft, almost reverent, but carried an edge of fear. "I know what this is," she said. "This... this is the Blood of Shadows. The Shadowcons made it. It corrupts. It kills. It will consume everything if we let it."

Ratchet's optics flickered in disbelief. "Blood of Shadows? I thought that was... a myth."

Altair shook her head. "A myth created to warn those who survived encounters with them. If we hope to restore the moon, we need Light Energon. Only its purity can cleanse the corruption."

For another week, the Autobots and their uneasy Decepticon allies searched the deep, twisting caverns near Cybertron's core. There, in a glittering cavern untouched by war, they found the Light Energon crystals. They pulsed with a warm, golden light that seemed to breathe, alive with the opposite energy of the Dark Energon.

The A.D.A. (Autobot Decepticon Alliance) assembled on the moon once more, the Light Energon ready. The black ooze hissed and recoiled as they approached, spreading tendrils in frantic, almost desperate movements. It was as if the ooze could sense the purifying power that threatened it.

Orionus Prime held a crystal in his hand, the golden light spilling over his fingers. "Begin," he commanded.

Altair stepped forward, her optics narrowed, voice steady. "Focus on the edges first. Don't let it retreat into the craters."

The moment the Light Energon touched the ooze, the black tendrils writhed violently, shrinking and twisting as if screaming in pain. Steam hissed where the Dark Energon met the pure light, and tiny fissures opened in the moon's surface as the corruption burned away.

"Keep going!" Altair shouted, moving alongside Orionus, directing the flow of the Light Energon. Slowly, the moon's gray surface began to reemerge from beneath the black. The ooze convulsed one last time before collapsing into itself, leaving behind only a faint residue.

When the last of it was gone, silence fell. The moon's barren terrain had returned to its natural state, bathed in the soft glow of Cybertron's distant sun. Altair placed a hand on Orionus Prime's shoulder, her expression somber. "This wasn't random," she warned. "A Shadowcon orchestrated it."

Orionus tilted his head. "A Shadowcon? What... are they exactly?"

Altair's optics darkened. "They are shadowy demon robots, created by Unicron to serve him. Their only loyalty is to destruction."