Iota Temple-Home of Ancients

[Laser]

Laser fell as the ground crackled. The rocks fell from above and smashed his mighty head. His shoulders were rocked as he was tossed about, and he took damage from the sharp stalagmites jamming at him. Grunting in struggle, Laser held at his arms, attempting to shield the others from the damage.

Beam could tell he was struggling. The impact was intense, and so was the heat being generating around them. Not to mention the several metric tons of rocks ramming into him from above. "Laser!" She screamed in concern, but she got no answer. All the Guardian was concerned about now was caring for his allies that weren't protected as safely inside of him.

**********************

Valk grinned as the scene below. Especially at the Guardian. "What's this? The Decepticons don't have a Guardian! I'd say that's an unfair advantage, wouldn't you?" He lifted his hand to alter the environment around Laser....

**********************

Laser overheard Valk's observation and realized he was in great danger. "Beam! You must leave!"

"I'm not leaving you dude!" Beam crossed her arms.

"It is nonnegotiable."

Beam protested: "But why--"

The ground exploded around them on all sides, making pentagonal shape. The cracks began to drift, and slowly, the fluid around them began to pour into the crevices and past the surface. Laser attempted to transform, but he had no space, and would severely damage himself or kill Beam.

Valk grinned. "You all know that Corrosia and magma don't mix right?"

Laser's eyes widened. Flammable. He hit the deck as a massive curtain of fire shot up around him from all sides, the rock formation drifting away unsteadily from the mainland. Extreme heat and toxic gas attacked him from all sides, and he began feeling the effects immediately.

Beam screamed.

Laser frowned.

"You must go!" He ejected her and held her in his palm.

"No! You'll die!"

Laser didn't care if he died or not. And he could indeed die in the next 30 seconds. But there was no need to be negative here. "No. I am a Guardian, child. We cannot be killed."

Beam smiled at the lie, and the ground broke beneath them, causing them to tumble towards the depths. She was tossed at an incredible but safe speed back to the mainland, floating upwards and screaming in horror as her big friend became tangled with the falling rocks.

Valk laughed as he saw her fly upwards. "I guess someone ought to catch her. Perhaps I should?"

********************

Kol stepped in front of Rexacon. "No. This is a trap. Do you really expect that monster to hand over the cube after we get there? Even if we manage to beat him, he'll find a way to kill us all! The only person who has been guaranteed salvation is you, Rexacon! The rest of us are damned! I have no problem dying...but if you are protected, then I will protect our comrades. I will not allow you to drag them to hell! There is no walking back from this. We don't have enough men and the temple is falling apart. Forgive me, but even your blind raged beast form cannot save us. Turn us back! We will find another artifact. The Autobots are falling, and if we do not leave, we will suffer the same fate. I speak reason, for he has warned me. Do not make a mistake you will regret, I implore you."

[FrostWhisper]

Iris' blind rage slipped away after a few moments and she started to turn back towards her screaming teammates. As she flew back towards the Autobots, she saw a large portion of the floor collapse and a huge figure going down with it. For a moment, she was just plain shocked, and then she realized what had happened.

Iris fired her thrusters and sped past massive rocks as they fell all around her. She knew that without Laser, the Autobots' chances of gaining the cube were incredibly slim if they had any chance at all. She didn't think she'd be able to lift Laser on her own, and she knew that she probably wouldn't be fast enough to help him even if she could lift him, but she felt that she had to do something.

Then Iris saw Beam hurtling through the air. She flew up to catch the small bot, but a rock fell on her and she barely missed being crushed between it and a small area of ground as she flew forward and away from it.

Turning around, Iris quickly located Beam again and headed in her direction, opening the cockpit. Flying slightly below and ahead of the green bot, she hovered and hoped that she would be able to catch her before they were both crushed.

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Silentsong watched as Laser began to fall and as he threw Beam to save her from the same fate he would probably suffer. She was silent as the Autobots' best chance for survival in the temple started falling, then she turned her attention back to trying to climb back up onto the small portion of ground that was crumbling beneath her fingertips.

Silentsong's optics grew wide as she saw a rock hurtling towards her little piece of ground, but another Autobot flew under it and slightly altered its course. The black and blue bot quickly pulled herself up onto the bit of ground she'd been hanging from, jumped up as the rock fell past her, and pushed off the rock to leap to the nearest unoccupied patch of ground.

Silentsong had barely made it, but she hardly took time to balance herself before she looked to see how her teammates were faring.

[Cutlass Rebooted]

Tecton was about to follow the rest of his team on the ground when the place started falling apart. He leaps into flight scanning the ground below for signs of the autobots, and more importantly his crew.
Cutlass could only watch as Laser threw Beam. "Why didn't I let Tecton turn me into an aircraft?" Attaching the gunblade to his back he runs across the crumbling ground observing another autobot catching Beam as he reaches more stable ground. "Good she's safe, I don't think I would have made it to catch her." He looks around, noticing that a lot of the autobots haven' t made it to safe ground yet. He waves to Tecton who barely acknowledges him. "I guess he's looking for Volca..." He turns round spotting Silentsong. "You okay Silent?"
Volca struggles to run getting hit repeatedly by falling rock. I'm not going to make it...
Tecton catches a glimpse of some red and orange armor in the distance. "VOLCA!" He flies towards her knocking obstacles out of the way with EMP blasts.
Volca attempts to destroy the debris as it falls blocking her path, failing to notice a much larger piece of rock heading for her.
Tecton attempts to push himself to fly faster and tries to knock the rock off it's course. The blasts barely move the rock. He slams on the air-brakes to avoid getting crushed himself, praying that Volca managed to get herself out of the way.
Volca attempts to call out to Tecton but blacks out sending out a couple of seconds of static over the channel instead.
Tecton shuts off his jet engines landing heavily next to a partially trapped Volca. I can't shift this... He kneels next to her checking her vitals. Barely alive. Loosing a lot of fluids. Working fast he clamps the leaks. Unaware if she can hear him or not he whispers to her. "I will save you..." Using his sword he severs most of the lower half of her body leaving it trapped beneath the rock. Lifting her up in his arms he takes to the skies flying as fast as he can back to the ship.

[Bivile]

The Seeker stopped his slow glide when he saw Kol step out before their leader. Wariness crossed his usually blank crimson slits. While Onewing was listening to Kol's speech, he took his time to look about him at the Decepticon forces that remained. Would they even be able to hold out for another battle? Onewing was still aware of his function: that he needed to protect the stronger bots from harm - even sacrifice himself if needed. If they had to head into another headlong fight with a monster, then the teal 'con wasn't sure how well they'd fare. A sound briefly distracted him, making him turn his head around his shoulder. He could hear Echoblade approaching. Working up his bravery, Onewing floated overhead before he came a stop, hovering over the ground, in front of Rexacon as well.

"Maybe we should leave," He groaned before his damaged optic let out a small explosion of sparks.

~*~

Watertight's claws strained as the ground trembled and began to fall away. He jammed his weapon into his back so he could hold on with all his limbs. The blue Autobot shuttered silently in fear as he pressed closer to the floor that was beginning to break away. A wall of fire burned at the plates covering his spine. Still, he kept collected enough to continue to clutch the stone he was on. Suddenly, he was made aware of his patch of earth crumbling away. His optics flashed open and he let out a shrill yelp. The burning liquid below was approaching quickly.

Hooked fingers ripped lose from the stone and he began to sprint up the face of the rock like an animal. Smaller hunks of the place rained down, striking him all over his body, but Watertight climbed until he reached the top of the tumbling fragment. He jumped up, and clinged to another large chunk that was falling. His blue form shot up the plummeting rock like a bullet as he climbed up and jumped once again. A part of the floor that was not yet crumbling was his target. Splayed claws nearly landed atop of the safe ground before a boulder the size of his head struck his arm. One of the fins on his shoulder was painfully sheered clean off. But he didn't have much time to think of it because the rock had knocked him off course.

He managed to take hold of the side of the sturdy section several meters away from the top. The burst of energy nearly spent, Watertight began his climb up the ledge.

[Rexacon]

Rexacon looked at them as he took a look around to see the situation. The temple was crumbling and the decepticons want to retreat. Cowards, there is no retreat in the his eyes. Vali was probably busy battling the autobots, with the autobots busy battling the boss, this was the perfect time to take what will be his. Rexacon pointed to the exit in front of Kol.

"If you want to leave Kol then be my guess. I've come to far to lose this, the autobots are dealing with this game dealer and with him distracted. I will get the all spark."

Rexacon turned around and charged ahead to go get the Allspark as he transformed into his dino mode. Keeping his insanity intact, he crushed every rumble that stood in his way. Damaged, but his dino form should be able to withstand it for a bit.

--------

*Past*

"Where am I?"

"We are in your memories….remember?"

"What?"

Shadow eyes open up as he is in the citadel; the heart of Iacon. Impossible, Iacon was destroyed or at least captured by the decepticons. And the citadel was still intact, what was going on here? Shadow looks down to see that he was floating in the air as a ghost. Wandering around, he saw a group of bots that looked familiar to him.

"It can't be?"

"It is……lets see why your goal is revenge."

From Shadow point of view, he sees his past self with his friends.

[Laser]

Valk laughed maniacally when Laser fell like an oversized rag doll. The Guardian's survival factor sneaked into his mind for a bit, but he brushed off the thought. It mattered not. Valk was planning on lighting this place up--

A one way trip.

Quickly analyzing his enemies once more, he found all of them in a state of confusion, except one...

"Aaaahhh Rexacon!" He grinned at the sight of the robust commander thundering toward him. "How can you hope to sneak up on me with such a frightfully anti-stealth alt form?" He lifted his hand and telepathically lifted Rexacon from the ground, roughly gripping him with the invisible force. "What a strange choice of monster you opted to become," he frowned and snickered, "What the hell is this?" Reaching out quickly, he slammed Rexacon into the rocks above. "I offered to spare you Rexacon. Do you want to know why? Oh fine you don't have to shout. I was planning to wipe your entire squad out. So that once you escaped, you'd find out what was really more important to you. Your loyal Decepticons, or your precious Cube. But I think it's a waste of time, isn't it? I have my answer now, thanks to your little spat with Kol." The rock underneath Valk crumbled and fell away, revealing the massive AllSpark, floating in thin air.

"You really want the power of the Cube so badly...take this to heart."

A energy charged violently surged up from the Cube into Valk, lightening up his eyes and body. He then sent a lethal, continuous pulse of energy through Rexacon's spark.

"Behold the power, Lord Rexacon! Hahaha, burn, burn!!!"

****************

Kol looked on in horror. They needed to do something. He began quickly calculating all options. Valk was far too powerful, and the Decepticons would need the Autobots to help take him down. Afterwards, the Decepticons would need to be well regrouped to immediately eliminate the Autobots. But he could not interfere with Rexacon's execution by force, he would simply be caught in another telepathic field and would undoubtedly suffer the same fate. Things were looking pretty dull--

But wait!

Kol had been given the options earlier to betray Rexacon or join him by Valk himself. What if he acted on the former? Valk may be distracted enough for the two to get ever so close...but there was one problem. Kol could not warn Rexacon, lest his transmission was intercepted by Valk and his plans were foiled. He would have to brutally attack, and the two would suffer injuries inflicted upon one another, and could potentially die. He could only hope it would buy the Decepticons some time.....

[Rexacon]

"RAWRRRR!!!!"

Rexacon roared in pain as tried to block the energy blast that Valk was giving him. His endurance was strong enough to handle such an attack, but if this continues then he wouldn't know how long it would last. This is tragic, the cube within his clutches only to be tricked by this annoyance.

~~~

Roll looked in horror as she saw Rexacon getting in trouble. Valk was annoying and to be honest, they gonna need the autobots help. Even if it would cost them the cube. Looking over to Kol, she approached him to ask him for the plan.

"We need him, if we can find a way to distract Valk. I can teleport Rexacon away from him."

~~~

*Past*

"Alright team, lets move on. Zeta Prime has given us a mission. Lets show these cons why we were made."

Shadow approached a blue bot with two dual blades. He appears to be sharping his blades as he looks upon Shadow.

"Solo, my good friend. Are you ready to blow away some decepticon scum?"

Solo got up as he was two inches shorter than Shadow. His armor shined bright blue with red and black as his secondary color. Putting away his swords, Solo grabbed Shadow hand to give him a handshake.

"You know it brother. Say, you should make a move on that fembot you looking on right there." Solo giving Shadow a slight elbow.

"What you mean? I don't know what you talking about." Looking away as if his optics doesn't check out the fembot practicing her chain blade.

The fembot is a slim bot who has light orange armor. There is no difference between her and the team except that unlike the others, she has a chain blade. An energon chain where each side has chainsaw blades and the end tip is a normal blade for stabbing. She looks at Shadow and gives him a smile.

"Ahhh Natilda….."

"Seee, you in love her."

"Hushhhh."

Footsteps could be heard as Shadow, Solo and Natilda line up. Two large bots come with one bigger than the other. The larger bot goes to join up with the rest of them while the shorter one looks towards them. The bot standing before them was Zeta Prime.

"Soldiers. Time to begin your mission…"

Shadow and the dark figure watch above as Zeta Prime gives them the debrief of the mission.

"I remember that day, it was the day that everything changed."

"Where you learned the truth of being an autobot, you & your team was the best of the best ever since the guardians. You could even say that for a couple of more training and upgrades, y'all could of been the next guardians…."

"The guardians were in a class of themselves, but I do agree we was the best of the best in keeping the autobot order."

"Then lets find out what happened after the mission…"

"Noooo, I don't want to go through that again…"

"Oh? But we must.."

A blind light engulfs Shadow as they are taken forward.

[Laser]

Beam looked about the unfamiliar (and strangely cozy) cockpit she had landed in. It almost took her mind off of things for a quick second. The inside was almost soundproof from the happening outside. "Hey..." she stroked the interior, "It smells nice in here..."

But then she snapped out of it.

For just a second, she had forgotten what was happening. For a small time, she had forgotten the danger of the situation. For but a moment, she had all but forgotten her dear friend, the Guardian, had fallen to his certain death.

And this was an unfamiliar cockpit....

"Hey! Let me out! Let me go! Don't kill me! They made me come along! I am innocent!"

****************

Kol stared through Roll's eyes in wonder. She could teleport Rexacon! This was great news, and he wouldn't have to fight with the Commander either. This was also good, because he was afraid of Rexacon, and few experienced the wrath of the Dinoform and lived to tell the tale. Nevertheless, she would need a distraction to get Valk to release their leader.

"Valk cannot possibly stop all of us. We must save Rexacon at all costs. Onewing, Bunker, Echoblade, keep firing on Valk! No matter what the circumstances, do not cease fire!" Kol opened fire on Valk, using whatever he had. As he gunned away, he heard a hissing sound at his feet, and he turned to see Spironok. The creature was wounded, and stared at him with more contempt than the devil, but it stood beside him, and began opening fire with the others.
"The Autobots...they are working with us?"


***************

Valk grimaced in annoyance as rounds began scratching his armor. He was impermeable at this stage--at his full concentration. He stopped electrocuting Rexacon and sneered at Kol. "You'd really lay down your lives for this arrogant fool? Are you his lapdog? Well then, fetch!" Using his telekinesis, Valk slung Rexacon down into the fiery cracks and canyons below.

"No..." Kol stared, defeated.

Valk laughed. "You see, I cannot be killed. There is no other like I. No one else is eternal. No one else, is imm--"

A deep, rumbling sound came from within the fiery crevices. There was then a brisk crackling, and then a massive hand ridden with fire gripped the cliff edge, followed by another.

"--Immortal...." Valk finished uneasily.

Laser emerged from the canyon. His hellish appearance more than enough to inspire the best of deeds or the evilest of doers, molten rock dripping from his torso and the flames dancing on his shoulders. His armor had all but melted away, revealing a truly horrible endo-skeleton, woven and tightening as the leftover armor wiggled like pulsating flesh, slowly regenerating. He was on fire; a true titan returning from the underworld to claim his prize. And it was not the AllSpark, nor was it the death of his enemies. He had emerged only to inflict pain and suffering. To distribute agony and despair. And when he was finished, the others could harvest Valk's life in anyway they chose.

Valk smirked, but his smile faltered a little when Laser pulled his second trick:

He pulled Rexacon off his back, and set him down to safety.

"But...you're enemies! You...you hate each other!" A lull was seen the the ever-revolving chaos surrounding Valk. "Why would you save him?"

Laser solemnly stared, part of his face melted from the heat, revealing somewhat of a skull.

"I demand an explanation! Answer me worm!"

Kol looked on in disbelief. "It's our chance," he whispered to Roll, "Teleport him, Mistress!"

[FrostWhisper]

Echoblade was confused by the several sudden changes in attitude and the environment, so when Kol gave a command, she gladly followed it. Still in her alternate mode, Echoblade began to fire her missiles at Valk.

After a while of shooting, she realized that the Autobots were assisting the Decepticons. Echoblade became even more confused, but since it seemed to be working, she went with it. The heat and excitement was messing with her thought processors, but she snapped out of it when she saw Rexacon being hurled into the molten-who-knows-what.

Echoblade knew that some of what Valk said was true, but she also knew that if he were to win this battle, she'd be worse off than she was now being Decepticon cannon fodder. At least in her current position, she had the chance to fight for her life.

Echoblade was about to shout something back to Valk when the giant Autobot pulled himself up with Rexacon on his back. "Yeah! That's more like it!" she shouted when the behemoth of a Cybertronian set Rexacon down safely. Firing missiles continuously with renewed vigor, she hoped that she would have enough ammo to help make a difference.

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"I'm fine," Silentsong answered Cutlass as she surveyed the area. She knew that with her weapons, she could never get close enough to Valk to damage him.

She was trying to figure out a way around this predicament when she saw Laser rise from the molten metal. "Yes!" She exclaimed and jumped as she watched the large Autobot pull himself up onto ground. Silentsong knew that the Autobots had a chance of survival now.

Silentsong watched as he safely set down the Decepticon leader, but before she could decipher the meaning of the gesture, her audio processors picked up a familiar voice, one that she hadn't heard in a long time...

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"Hey! Calm down! I'm on your side! I think.... You are an Autobot, right?" Iris attempted to calm down the small bot she'd caught. As she spoke, she scouted out a safe place to land and began her descent. "I'm Iris Demi-Prime, it's nice to meet you and all mate (pronounced meeate), but I've really got to let you out now," she said as she landed softly. "Thanks for the compliment."

As soon as the small bot had gotten out, Iris transformed into her normal form and was about to set up her sniper rifle when a huge, flame-covered, heap of metal emerged from the floor. As she realized that it was the guardian, she brought her sniper rifle to her shoulder and took aim at Valk, recognizing the opportunity Laser had provided with the distraction.

Iris aimed for Valk's head, and fired.

[Rexacon]

Roll nodded towards Kol as she teleported towards Rexacon. As soon as the sequence was done, she grabbed the commander and looked at the guardian. He look like he came from the depths of the hell and it was truly frightening. Rexacon was always interested in Laser, his capabilities were astounding and now she knows why. Interesting data that she has collected from this battle. Roll activated her space bridge as she teleported away from the battle scene. Sitting her commander down, Rexacon had a large hole in his armor as his visor flicked on & off. He was badly injured and on the brink of stasis lock.

"Hang on tight, Commander. Help is on your way."

"….Roll..?……get…..the…cube………"

"Sorry, commander, but i'm disobeying your orders."

Roll pulled up her comm link and began encrypting a message to Steelfrost.

"We need a transport. Our coordinates are in text."