"Let me out!" I begged as I slammed my fists against the bars of my cell. "Please! Just let me out! You can't do this!"
"Shut it, you!" The prison guard barked as he jabbed me through the bars of with a shock rod, electricity pouring into my frame and causing me to yelp out in pain. "You're lucky the Magnus is even letting your sorry paint job live!"
The guard yanked the rod out of my frame, and I crashed to the floor like a sack of energon cubes, my seams hissing with smoke from the electrical shock I received. The guard then jabbed me again, causing a shriek of pain to rip through my voice box once again.
"In fact, I'm gonna make you WISH he hadn't!" The guard opened my cell and proceeded to beat the ever loving slag out of me. The entire time, I would try and fight back only to get put back to the floor with the shock rod. I ended up completely giving up to the beatings and laid limp on the floor. Small drips of energon leaked from my intake and down my dermas, eventually making contact with the floor with light drip sound.
When the guard was done thrashing me about, he left and re locked my cell with a disturbing grin on his face.
"Oh, by the way," he said. "Megatron says hello." Before I could respond, the guard turned and left, leaving me alone in the dark prison.
'Primus... have mercy...' I thought to myself as I slowly and shakily pushed my frame back upright, stumbling a little in the process. 'I... I don't know what... what they are telling me....' I limped over to the recharge slab that was bolted to the wall, carefully maneuvering my now battered and beaten frame onto it with my back facing the bars of my cell. 'But... but i.... I can't... be who they... they claim I am...' I curled up tightly and allowed my optics to close.
"Primus... if you can hear me... please... they need to know i... I'm innocent." I quietly prayed.
But deep down, I knew that was a lie, yet I couldn't give anyone a reason for it. All I felt was guilt.
I ended up drifting into recharge, and in my dreams, I saw disaster and chaos. Thousands laid strewn dead across a battlefield and in the center stood Megatron with a cold and sadistic smile on his face.
In his grip was a glowing crystalline gem that seemed to hum and pulse like a thousand sparks all in unison.
'Help us.' I heard the gem whisper in many voices. 'Find us. Save us.'
The dream then changed to what looked to be a staging area for a siege outside of where I knew the Well of Allsparks was located, most likely outside of Crystal City.
'They will find us! They will hurt us! Hurry! Please!'
I jolted awake with a gasp and an overwhelming sense of dread crossed my spark like a shard of ice. A dread one should never ignore. A dread of the end.
"Gotta... gotta get outta here." I whispered to myself as I shakily pushed my frame upright. "Gotta... get to... the Allspark."
-with Ratchet and the others -
"And you're saying this data just straight up appeared?" Ratchet asked with a cocked optic ridge.
"Yeah and?" Pharma huffed. "It's still information that is evidence and support for Y/D's deactivation." Pharma then turned to the Magnus with a stern look. "You need to have him terminated."
"Not until this information is traced back to the source." Ultra Magnus said firmly before motioning for Wheeljack. "Wheeljack, can you run a trace in the data?"
"I can try." Wheeljack said as he went over to Pharma's work station and began running various lines of code in order to find where the data came from. "My question is why someone would send this in the first place?"
As if on queue, an alert popped up on a nearby workstation, then another, and another. Alarms began to blare, and lights flashed wildly, surprising the group of Autobots.
"To distract us from that!" Ratchet said as he pointed to the alert. "The security system for the brig has gone offline. Y/D isn't the only Decepticon down there!"
-with Y/D-
"There..." I murmured to myself as I retracted my probes from the wall, the bars to all the cell doors in the brig dropping and releasing everyone inside. "I'm sorry, my friends... but this is necessary."
"Hey! We're free!" One of the other Decepticon prisoners exclaimed.
"Go go go!" Another one yelled. The next thing I knew, Decepticons of all shapes and sizes were making a break for it. At the same time, swarms of Elite Guard came rushing in.
Battle broke out, and I did the best I could to dodge and weave through the chaos. I eventually made it across the prison and towards an emergency exit that led directly outside. Once I went through that exit, I quickly made a beeline for my best route to Crystal City.
That route being an Autobot space bridge.
"Almost there." I said to myself as I stumbled over and quickly hijacked the controls. "Just gotta enter the coordinates -"
"Hey! There's one!" A guard yelled.
"Scrap!" I cursed to myself as I saw the guard and a few others running down towards me. "Hurry, hurry! Cmon, cmon!" Suddently, the space bridge fired up, and the glowing swirl of color roared to life. "Yes!"
"He's getting away!" The guard yelled. I quickly dove on through the bridge and tumbled out the other side, the bridge closing shortly after and preventing the guard from following.
"Too close." I panted as I shakily looked about. I somehow emerged right inside of the walls of Crystal City rather than through another space bridge. I didn't have time to ponder the oddity of that. I needed to find the Allspark.
I dove into the alleyways and weaved through the Autobot city, taking extra care so as not to be spotted by the passing of guard and civilians. Unfortunately, despite my best efforts, the injuries I gained from the guard who beat me started to take its toll once again.
I ended up slumping in one of the side alleys, my vents heavy and straining from the pain.
'Dammit.' I thought to myself. 'Can't... can't keep moving... but... but I gotta.' I looked over to my wings and stared at the bold violet insignia that adorned them. I then proceeded to scratch at them, drawing thin streams of energon to the surface with each mark until the insignia was barely visible. I did the same to the other side, effectively solidifying my abandonment of the Decepticons. 'There... that way if I am found... they'll think I'm neutral. Hopefully. Primus....'
I ended up falling into a light recharge in that alleyway. But it wouldn't last very long as the sound of combat would reach my audials and awaken me from my slumber.
'Dammit!' I thought as I saw several autobot soldiers and guard rush down the streets with weapons in hand. 'I've gotta move my aft! But... where do I go?'
I felt a tug on my spark as I thought this as if the Allspark itself were calling me, and I knew I had to trust it. I followed the pull through various backways and hidden alleys until I came across a strange structure nestled out of sight.
It had a large doorway with intricate designs carved into it that seemed to glow and hum with raw energon crystals. Hesitantly, I touched the designs, and they lit up like the night sky. The doorway cracked and ground as it slid open, exposing a long and dark hallway with streaks and swirls of light lining the sides. Cautiously, I entered and continued to trust the pull I was feeling on my spark, unaware that a few Autobots and a certain medic were following not far behind me.
"What is he doing?" Pharma whispered to Ratchet as he, the medic, and a few Elite Guard quietly followed behind just out of audial shot of me.
"I... I wish I could tell you." Ratchet whispered back.
"Sir, should we take him out?" One of the guard asked as he aimed a rifle at me.
"Not yet." Pharma said. "Let's see where this... thing is going."
"He has a name." Ratchet scolded. "Use it."
They continued to follow me through the maze of tunnels and passageways that seemed to go deeper and deeper underground until they came to a massive, almost cathedral like space with statues and ancient carvings lining the sides. A line of crystallized energon ran forward to a large, circular basin where the gleaming light of the Allspark was hovering above like a beacon.
"Is that...." one of the guard whispered.
"The Allspark?" Another said.
While the group were gazing in awe, I had managed to sneak around and behind them with my probes ejected. I knew what I had to do, and I didn't want to do it.
"I'm sorry." I whispered.
"Did you hear that?" Pharma said before I drove the probes into his back and forced him to shut down. His frame crashed to the floor, and the pair of elite guard and Ratchet whipped around to see me towering over them. I quickly gave the two guard the same treatment before they could act.
"Y/D wh-," Ratchet started to say before I stopped him.
"They will be fine. Get them out of here before the Decepticons come."
"Kid."
"There's no time! Megatron is here, and he wants the Allspark. I have to get it out of here." Ratchet studied my face and saw there was no falsehood in it.
"Be careful."
"Till we meet again, my friend." I said with a small smile. "And... thank you for your kindness."
I quickly rushed over to the basin and leaped up into the air, my servo making contact with the Allspark as I grabbed it from the air. I felt a surge of power rush through me, and the cathedral cracked and ruptured open. Bits of plating melted and formed into a sort of canister that morphed and molded around the Allspark. I gripped the handles and soared out of the now gaping ceiling, my goal one location and one location only.
The space bridge.
Time seemed to blurr as I used whatever energy I had left to fly as fast as i could towards it, the great gateway igniting to life just before I crashed into it.
I was launched into a void of color, the bridge collapsing and exploding behind me. My systems began to shut down in this place, and I heard the Allspark one last time before entering a deep and death like stasis.
'Sleep, Allspark Guardian.'