Yes. I cried.
Beast Hunters: Predacons Rising
[Amanda]
For some reason, Cleona was on a warpath in my head today.
"The fates have alined-"
You said that fifty times. What does that mean?
"The fates have alined. It is time."
Time for what?!
"A?" Miko's voice cut through the conversation in my head, and I opened my eyes. My vision was blurry for a moment before I could finally make out the living area of the base, the rest of the area sharpening soon after.
"It happened again, didn't it?" Finn asked, sitting on the couch next to me. I rubbed my temples and nodded.
This morning, Cleona had unexpectedly burst into my mind, cutting through my peaceful sleep and forcing me up at 5:00am, which I still wasn't happy about. She then proceeded to go on and on about fates and prophecies, none of which I understand a single thing from. Naturally, with her constant commentary, I had to cancel all of my meetings for the day and headed to the base, where I knew the others would be. Jack was the only one missing, since he and his mom were in Fernley buying the last few things for their house. Raf had been dutifully recording everything I told him Cleona was saying, and was currently trying to find a pattern with Ratchet.
"What'd she say this time?" Raf asked, his pen and paper ready.
I shook my head slightly. "Same as before. 'The fates have alined' and that 'it's time'."
"Time for what?" Miko grumbled.
"I don't know," I scrubbed my hands over my face and Finn put an arm around my shoulders. "I wish she would just be straight forward and tell me some scrap is going to go down, not give me headaches with all these riddles."
"You know how goddesses are," Finn said gently. "Even in those ancient myths from every culture, the gods and goddesses are completely unhelpful most of the time and only confuse people more."
I frowned, but looked up at Ratchet, who had a similar frown on his face as he searched through his databases in an attempt to connect the messages I was receiving with an actual event. "Is there any word from Optimus?"
The medic tore his eyes away to shake his head at me. "I've sent numerous messages to Cybertron, all of which have been answered with Optimus' unavailability at the moment. It seems that he may even be off world according to the replies."
Of all the times to go on a field trip...
"Light must be brought to the core."
What?
"Primus cannot sustain himself. He needs his light."
What do you mean? I thought we already brought Primus back to life! What else does he need?
"He needs to create life."
Can't he do that already?
"He needs his light."
"Dammit," I clutched my head as a wave of pain and nausea swept over me. Finn tugged me closer, allowing me to lean against him for the worst of the wave. Once I was able to breathe normally again, I told Raf what the goddess had said.
"How is Primus not able to create life?" Raf asked, chewing on the back of his pen.
"Yea," Miko piped up. "I thought we took care of that."
"I don't know," I groaned, repeating the words for what felt like the millionth time.
A sound from the base's computers made everyone's attention snap up to see an incoming call from Cybertron.
"Finally," Ratchet muttered before answering. "Team Prime Earth Division, Ratchet speaking."
"Ratchet? It's Arcee," The Autobot's voice filled the base. "We have a medical emergency and there's no one here now who's able to help. Are you able to bridge to Cybertron immediately?"
Ratchet nodded grimly. "I'll be there in a few moments." He closed the call and then headed to his lab to grab medical kit. "Raf, open the space bridge to the Autobot headquarters on Cybertron."
The younger boy quickly got to work, and Ratchet began to head out, calling a few last instructions over his shoulder.
"Continue to record everything that happens between Amanda and Cleona," He instructed. "When I return, we will continue our analysis."
And with that, he disappeared through the space bridge, leaving us all wondering what happened so suddenly on the other side of that bridge. I wasn't able to ponder on it for long, because my vision went silver and pain split through my skull.
"Primus has become vulnerable. He can no longer protect what lights every Cybertronian spark. He has told me what we must do, and we must do it if there will ever be hope for any Cybertronian in the future, once the dust settles and the war is over."
"The dust has settled. It is time."
"Just stop it," I growled, not even noticing that it was out loud. Immediately the silver vanished and I was left reeling, my hands pressed to the sides of my head. I left my eyes closed, trying to block out the ringing in my ears, and only when it faded did I open them to see the others huddled around me.
"What was it this time?" Raf spoke first, making me flinch slightly. Only Finn seemed to notice though, and he drew me close as I told them what Cleona had said.
"So I'm gonna go out on a whim here and say the first bit happened before the Bots left Cybertron," Miko said once I had finished. "And now she's saying the dust settled cause we fixed Cybertron and all."
I nodded. "I agree. But it still doesn't make sense. Time for what?"
Raf frowned. "I wish Ratchet didn't have to get called right now. This message made the most sense and there was the most context to it."
"Hold on," Finn peered at Raf's paper, where he'd written what I said. "'He can no longer protect what lights every Cybertronian spark.' The 'he' is obviously Primus, and what lights a Cybertronian's spark in the first place?"
I sucked in a breath. "The Allspark! That's what Cleona's been nagging about; she did something to the Allspark during the war, and now she needs to bring it back to Primus-"
My words were cut off when my vision went silver again, but this time images became clear. Suddenly, I was standing on Cybertron, but not the one I had visited a couple days ago with Optimus. This was Cybertron during the war, with rubble and debris everywhere, with no single building still standing tall in the area. I was in front of a massive hole in the ground, one I recognized as the Well of Allsparks.
"Jazz, Warpath, take the north end. Ensure that no one is allowed to approach the well. Ironhide, Jetfire, you defend the south end." I whirled around the moment that familiar voice filled the air, and my eyes landed on a group of five Autobots, one of which sported a familiar color scheme that made my heart leap. Optimus Prime didn't look the same as when I first met him, but I still knew it was him immediately.
"Sure thing, boss," An Autobot saluted before they all split up. Optimus scanned the area quickly, seeing that it was empty. A frown formed on his face, as if he were waiting for someone to appear.
Out of nowhere, Cleona materialized in front of the edge of the well, her gaze settling on him. "Come forward, Optimus. We have much to do but little time to do so."
The Prime did as she said, stopping when he was next to her. "The Guardian's Cradle, my lady."
"Good," She seemed distracted, her eyes continuing to dart towards the horizon.
"Is there something wrong?"
She shook her head. "I just felt a disturbance. Valilorna looms ever closer. You brought your most trusted allies, correct?" He nodded. "Good. We will see how much you can trust them very soon."
"Why are we here, my lady?"
"We must protect the Allspark," She informed him. "Primus has become vulnerable. He can no longer protect what lights every new Cybertronian spark, and Valilorna has made too many advances on it for it to be safe here. He has told me what we must do, and we must do it if there will ever be hope for any Cybertronian in the future, once the dust settles and the war is over."
"You intend to move the Allspark to the Guardian's Cradle." Optimus realized.
She nodded. "Yes. But we must work together to do so. I am only so powerful, and I will require the Matrix of Leadership in order to move the Allspark from the well to the cradle."
"Do what you must, my lady."
Cleona took the Guardian's Cradle from Optimus' hands and placed it on the ground, almost on the edge of the well. Then she moved Optimus to stand across from her, forming a triangle between her, the Prime, and the well. A silver sort of dust formed at her fingertips, flowing to cover her body, and then to cover the Prime and the cradle. Finally, her magic reached the edge of the well, where it began to dip in.
Optimus looked wary, like he wanted to struggle against Cleona's magic, but he forced himself to stay still. That was when I heard a click and saw his chest move to expose the Matrix of Leadership. Cleona's magic touched it, traces of blue from it flowing through her stream to the cradle and then into the well.
"I am here, Primus," the goddess whispered. "Allow me to protect you, old friend."
I gasped, suddenly ripped out of Cleona's memory. It all suddenly made sense now. Finn, Miko and Raf all gave me worried/expecting looks, and I quickly recalled what I had seen. Once I finished, I saw that I wasn't the only one who understood everything now.
"Cleona wants to get the Allspark back," I concluded. "Because that's the last thing Primus needs to make Cybertron truly whole again."
Miko made a face. "Why didn't she just say that in the first place? It would have saved us a lot of time and spared you the massive headaches."
I winced. "Honestly though. Speaking of which, anyone have an Advil?"
~~~
For the next hour, Raf continued to try to call Ratchet or anyone else on Cybertron, but they were all completely occupied. I had already tried to go to the atheneum and find anything to help, but came back empty handed and with an even worse headache. We ended up with no other options than to sit tight until someone on Cybertron got back to us.
I stood in the small bathroom at the base, washing my face with cold water in an attempt to calm my headache with little luck. It didn't help that over the last hour, one of those bad feelings had settled in my stomach, making me feel even sicker.
What's going on?
Primus, I wish I knew. I wish Optimus was here, he'd know exactly what to do. Spending the day with him earlier this week only reminded me of how much I missed him when he was gone. The reassuring presence I'd grown so used to was now missing, and I had to completely readjust myself to compensate for that.
It didn't help that the others turned to me when they experienced the same things. Already, Miko, Raf, and Jack had each come to me expressing their similar feelings, and I'd told them the same things I'd been telling myself ever since the Autobots left.
"They're not gone, not really. The moment you need one of them, they'll be here and you have every opportunity to go there. They may be busy rebuilding their homeworld, but they will never be too busy for family."
I was glad the others trusted me enough to talk to me though. When I had told Optimus about this, he was quite pleased and was proud of the way I was handling things. I didn't want to tell him that I only pretended to handle things, but he seemed to notice my hesitation anyways.
"You are a leader, Amanda. Both humans and Autobots alike have followed your command in the past. Do not underestimate yourself."
Shaking my head, I rubbed my hands over my face again. I really needed to just stop thinking, at least once in awhile, or else I was going to drive myself insane.
I turned away from the bathroom and began to walk out when a sharp, sudden pain filled my chest. I gasped, stumbling back and reaching for something to steady me. It had felt like something snapped within me, sending waves of pain through my entire body. I fell to my knees, hand on my chest, and tried to cut through the pain to find the source of the pain. Knowing that it wasn't biological in origin, my will went to my powers, and that's when my eyes widened in shock and fear.
Because I had felt the snap right where I usually felt the presence of Optimus Prime.