Optimus watched as the space bridge closed in on itself, leaving no sign of either Omega Supreme, Megatron, nor Julie.
"Sari...Oh Sari!" Professor Sumdac cried as he ran over to his daughter and the two embraced. Optimus watched as they did, before the cavern around them started to shake and tremble around them.
"Hate to break up the family reunion, but we gotta bolt." Bumblebee cried as he drove up next to the two humans.
"Everyone out, now!" He cried as he pointed to the exit, before transforming himself and driving through the tunnel. Driving straight through the tunnel, they stopped right outside, on a ledge, where every bot transformed into their bipedal modes and looked over at the mountain, where they just had escaped.
"Everyone still online?" Optimus asked.
"All, but one." Ratchet replied, looking at them, before looking at the smoke in the distance.
"He's probably still out there somewhere." Bulkhead commented, as he stood next to Ratchet as support.
"Thank goodness that ordeal is over." Professor Sumdac exclaimed, as he had an arm on Sari's shoulder.
"See guys, I knew all along my dad couldn't have betrayed us. He's as honest and trustworthy as they come." Sari cried, as everyone looked at her, only to see her arm torn, revealing electric circuits in place of her skin. "Huh?"
Sari turned around, covering her arm with her servo, while looking at her father.
"Sari, we need to talk." Professor Sumdac spoke as he saw the girl panic.
"Let's head back to base, and figure things out from there." Optimus spoke as he looked at everyone. "We still are missing Julie. Ratchet, is her clone still with you?"
Ratchet and Sari looked at him, before the two both avoided looking at Optimus. "No, her clone died in front of us." Ratchet replied, his voice filled with tons of resentment.
"So, I guess we are on our own." Bumblebee commented.
"No, we're not on our own. Julie will come back. It may take her some time, but she will come back to us." Optimus cried, before transforming into his altmode. "Come on, let's transform and roll out." Both Sari and Professor Sumdac climbed into his cabin, as the others also transformed, immediately making their way back to the base.
"Okay, I'm waiting." Sari spoke up, looking at her father.
"Uh...I...uh yes..well.."
"Still waiting."
"It is complicated."
"Hey Sari, guess what? You're a robot! How complicated is that?" Sari yelled. "You know why there's no record of your birth, because you weren't born. You were built." She cried, before looking away from her father.
"Ah...you're right. I should have told you long ago, but the truth is, I don't know where you came from. You see, some years ago, I saw a very strange flash of light coming from my laboratory. I had never seen anything like it. A little body, like liquid metal. I touched it and got quite a shock, when I came to, you were just there." Professor Sumdac explained
"Oh, please. Why don't you just tell me you found me in a Cabbage patch. Or the stork brought me." Sari cried out.
"I concur Professor, your story's not consistent with where Sari told me small organics come from,..."
"Don't even bother Prime, why should he tell the truth now, after lying to me my entire life. If only Julie were here to help me. She would be able to tell me the truth."
Julie hovered in deep space, but as she looked around, she saw a planet sitting in the distance, not too far from her as she awoke. Cybertron sat right there in her view as she looked at it, recalling what happened in the process.
"Primus, what happened to me?" Julie mumbled as she looked around at the deep, dark space around her. She didn't know what to do, as she looked around. The only possible thing she could do is perhaps land on Cybertron and see if there was some way to get help, or something.
Taking a deep breath, she felt a surge of energy, as though someone was in need of her help. "Sari..." She mumbled as she looked at the area around her, seeing tons of space bridges, and yet somehow she was able to a few weeks ago teleport herself. Could she be able to teleport herself right back to Earth? Remembering what Prowl was talking about, if she can focus, relax and focus on what she needed to do, perhaps then she would be able to not only accomplish what she needed to, but at the same time be able to overcome this darkness within her.
Optimus Prime, both in this world and her home world cared about her, the teams both cared about her, whether Bulkhead back home admitted it or not. Primus cared about her. He gave her these powers to live and accomplish things that she only could have dreamed of when she was a kid. Yes, her parents were dead, along with her ancestors. Midnight is gone for all she knows, and yet she is no longer by herself. She had friends, people who cared. She had a true team to back her up. That was something that Unicron didn't have. He didn't have love, which is where she should be able to learn to overcome and defeat his evil tricks.
Where evil lies, love cannot exist.
"Focus, come on. I can do anything, if I put my heart and mind to it." she mumbled, as she slowly folded her arms in front of her, her legs crossed beneath her as she sat in a similar position she often saw Prowl in, when he was meditating.
Her power slowly surged around her. Taking a deep breath she channeled her power in front of her, revealing a space bridge portal right in front of her.
Not hesitating a moment longer, she walked through the bridge, finding herself hovering over the bots, seeing an injured Bumblebee, and seeing Sari looking different than before.
"Bumblebee, what's his status?" Optimus asked as the bots gathered around Bee, she examined what was going on as she tried to puzzle together what was going on.
"Bad. His CPU is fried, and his primary capacitor has suffered major damage." Ratchet replied.
"But we don't have Sari's key." Bulkhead cried.
"Bulkhead, trust Ratchet. He is the best field medic there is from Cybertron." Julie spoke, startling everyone. "Let him do his job. I need to get to Sari."
"Julie? Where did you come from?" Optimus asked, looking at her.
"Don't focus on me, get Bumblebee taken care of. I'm gonna do my job and save Sari." Julie yelled, as she turned and saw Sari slicing and cutting through poles, mailboxes, and anything else that was near the girl. Flying over toward the girl, she hovered close to her, well aware of the chance that the girl had at nearly slicing her.
Sari took off running full speed down the road, away from her as she tried to get close.
"Sari, you need to calm down. You panicking is not going to help with the key overloading your circuitry." Julie yelled.
"Julie?" Sari asked, as the girl looked back at her.
"You need to calm down. The more you panic, the higher the danger you risk." Julie spoke, looking at the girl. "Take a deep breath and calm down, Sari."
"I can't. I keep blowing everything up."
"Sari, take a deep breath and trust me. You need to calm down." Julie watched as the girl stood still, with both Bulkhead and Optimus standing behind her watching. "Take a deep breath and hold it."
"Ok, nothing else is working." Sari replied, as she slowly took a breath and held it, allowing enough time for Julie to fly over to her and pull the key out of the girl's chassis. She tossed it across the street, already aware it was of no use. Before the girl started to surge, causing a power wave that knocked Bulkhead and Optimus down, but she simply held onto the girl.
The girl was going to explode, but she knew what she needed to do. She needed to take the overloading energy from the girl and absorb it herself. The girl couldn't handle the full power of the key on her own.
"Sari, you gotta stop this. I don't want to hurt you." Ratchet cried, pulling up behind them as she held onto the girl. The power continued to surge from her, but she needed the girl to calm down.
"I don't want to hurt you either. I can't stop myself." Sari replied.
"Julie, get out of here." Ratchet yelled. "I need you to move out of the way."
"No. Trust me, I know what I am doing." Julie mumbled as she grabbed the girl, and pulled the girl up against her. Resting her own chassis against the girls, as the girl stabbed her blade into her hip and her leg, but she simply held still, feeling the energy leave the girl, and enter into her.
"Primus, release this power from this girl. She needs to rest." Julie mumbled, as she felt Sari start to calm down, once the energy was done, the girl collapsed, passed out in her own arms, leaving her bleeding fresh energon in her two wounds, but she didn't care. She felt the energy helping to cleanse her own spark. It wasn't all the way, but the strong hold of Unicron was diminished to where there was a very small fragment of it left. Hopefully buying her enough time to rid herself of it on her own over the next couple of days.
Slowly laying the girl down, she heard the others slowly approaching her, as they came up behind her.
"I did what I could. It may take a little while before she wakes up." Julie commented, as she looked down at the girl.
"You're injured, Julie." Ratchet cried as the bot grabbed hold of her and looked at the two stab wounds the girl had given her.
"That may be, but I was able to rid myself of some of Unicron's corruption within my own spark."
"You said some, meaning you still have some of his power in you, is that correct?" Optimus asked.
"Not enough that he can control me, yet, but hopefully it can allow me time to figure out how to rid myself of his powers within my spark." Julie replied, as she sat in Ratchet's servo. "I feel weak though. During the battle in the mines, I had many forces trying to pull at me, making it merely impossible for me to even function. Which is why..."
"Which is why your clone simply died, disappearing into thin air." Ratchet commented. "I need to tend to your wounds, Julie, and you need to rest. I am sure you need it from everything that has happened in the past several hours."
"A rest does sound nice, doesn't it?" Julie asked as she felt herself wearing down, while he used his EMP generator to put her into a deep sleep.