"It seems all the great guests have arrived on stage," Airachnid sneered, her voice dripping with disdain as she observed the battlefield, untouched by the crushing tension that weighed on everyone else.
Arcee clenched her teeth, outraged by how calm Airachnid remained in a moment that would decide the fate of Cybertron.
Megatron planted a heavy step into the ground, the earth trembling beneath his weight. His piercing gaze swept over the scene, calculating every detail. Strategically, he had blocked every possible escape route for Airachnid. But one problem remained—the portal leading to the Autobots' base. Ironically, it gave Optimus a direct path to escape instantly with the Allspark, and that infuriated him.
He clenched his fists tightly, the metal creaking under the pressure. How ironic. His victory now depended entirely on Airachnid's decision. Megatron knew her arrogance too well to believe she would choose a path that benefited her.
"Hand me the Allspark," Megatron commanded, his tone icy. Inwardly, he was scheming. By offering a false pardon, he believed he could stoke Airachnid's ego, convincing her she had the upper hand by siding with him. "And I shall forgive your past insolence."
"As if I would ever allow that," Arcee snarled, her blasters primed to fire.
"You won't shoot, Autobot," Megatron replied coldly, never taking his eyes off the ultimate prize. "You wouldn't dare risk the Allspark."
"You think I wouldn't risk—" Arcee's words froze as she saw the faint glow ripple across the golden casing clutched in Airachnid's claws.
"I suggest you use reason, Arcee," Airachnid hissed, her voice laced with venom and mockery. Slowly, she dragged her claws across the surface of the Allspark, scratching it lightly, further thickening the tension in the air.
"The Allspark is not a toy, Airachnid," Optimus said, his deep voice now carrying a note of pleading. "For the sake of all future generations, I beg of you—hand it over. We can restore Cybertron to its true state."
"Spare me your lies, Optimus!" Megatron roared. "You doomed our world to exile when you hurled the Allspark into the depths of space. Do you think I will allow you to repeat the same mistake and make us wait another million years to reclaim it?"
"You seek to use its power only to rebuild your army and unleash war upon the entire universe," Optimus countered, his gaze unwavering. His voice carried not only unshakable determination to stop Megatron's plans but also genuine concern for the artifact's safety and the future of Cybertron.
"We Cybertronians were once the most powerful race in the universe," Megatron said with a dark smile. "Our place is at the top—not in misery, scavenging fragments of Energon to survive. The war ends today, Prime, and I will not hesitate to do whatever it takes to seize that power."
Optimus narrowed his optics, silently calculating his options. The chance to end the war was right before him, but two obstacles remained. He had been reckless in allowing Arcee to join him in this trap, endangering her life... and Bumblebee, already injured and with a damaged arm, could barely defend himself.
Were he alone, Optimus would not hesitate to risk everything in a desperate strike. But he would not gamble the lives of his soldiers on a reckless decision.
"Hahahahaha!" Airachnid laughed, a cruel, mocking sound. "You fools... Do you really believe you can wield the Allspark's power as you see fit?"
"If I dropped the hint that Lux is the true Allspark, it would throw these idiots into utter chaos... but where would the fun be in that? Better to save the revelation for the perfect moment." she thought, relishing the chance to sow confusion while carefully concealing Lux's true identity.
"The Allspark has always been hidden on this planet, right under your blind optics. You never had the vision to see its true form. And that," she declared, her voice dripping with mockery and defiance, "makes this moment all the more delicious to me."
A faint twitch flickered across Megatron's dark gaze. The thought that the Allspark had been on Earth all along enraged him, especially since the Decepticons had established themselves there long before the Autobots.
Optimus kept his composure, though inside he was frustrated with himself for never having realized the Allspark's presence sooner. He still wondered why the Matrix of Leadership had never revealed it to him.
He remembered the moment when he had first felt the Matrix's power resonating intensely after so long—within that cyberformed forest. He had felt something similar once before, back on Cybertron.Now, he sensed that same faint presence emanating, strangely, from Airachnid. She was already a formidable threat simply for holding the artifact, yet there was something unnervingly unusual about her absolute calm amidst the chaos.
Oddly, Optimus recalled Grimlock's behavior—how unconcerned he seemed about the possibility of losing the Allspark altogether."Why doesn't he care? To him, it seemed like a waste of time," Optimus thought. "None of this can be coincidence. If the Allspark has been here all along, why now? What has changed? What am I not seeing?"
He stared at the Allspark in Airachnid's claws, his optics narrowing with new caution. He could feel the artifact's energy vibrating in the air, but not with the overwhelming force he remembered from Cybertron. It was as if its core of power was nothing but a shadow—a distant echo of what it should be. The golden glow seemed bright, but to Optimus, it was nothing more than an empty shell compared to the true might of the Allspark that had pulsed on his homeworld. That realization only deepened his unease.
Airachnid met his gaze with smug superiority."Looks like Lux was right—the Matrix of Leadership doesn't deceive so easily. But from the Prime's expression, he's still not entirely sure." She smirked to herself, then glanced at Megatron. "He, on the other hand, has fallen perfectly into Lux's plan."
She recalled Lux's words, echoing clearly in her mind: As long as no one discovered my true identity, it wouldn't make a difference if the Autobots or the Decepticons knew my power was on Earth. Lux had been right to exploit the Cybertronians' ignorance of humanity, letting them wage a blind war over what they only believed to be the Allspark.
Above, the massive Decepticon warship began blotting out the sun, its looming silhouette heralding a new era of darkness.
Megatron smiled in triumph."It's over, Optimus. Victory is mine." He stepped forward, extending a hand toward the artifact. "You know no one can afford a single mistake now. One wrong move will destroy the Allspark... and with it, our last chance."
"Bastard..." Arcee muttered through clenched teeth, her optics locked on the enemy before her. No matter how swift she was, it would be madness to spark a firefight here and try to dash through the portal. The risk of catastrophe was far too great.
"What an irony of fate... it seems, for once, we finally agree," Airachnid said with a chilling smile, her optics gleaming with arrogant delight as if savoring her superiority.
"Don't you dare mock us, you wretch!" Arcee growled, her voice shaking with suppressed fury. Every word was a shard of venom spat at Airachnid, who only seemed to revel in the tension, amused as though the entire game was hers to control.
Meanwhile, Bumblebee grew more tense with every passing second. The weight of guilt crushed him—how could he have been injured at the very moment when the end of the war was within their grasp?
On the Nemesis's command bridge, Soundwave observed everything with his usual cold detachment. The trap was set, the triangulations flawlessly calculated. Only one unpredictable variable remained—an unknown factor outside the perfect equation. It was only a matter of waiting for the right moment, yet that one uncertainty could change everything.
Airachnid, until now, had shown no sign of allegiance. Soundwave knew well that she would never side with the Autobots—driven only by survival and self-interest. Yet he distrusted her cunning. If Airachnid decided to hurl the Allspark through the portal, the Autobots could escape with it—an outcome utterly unacceptable. Thus, he reasoned, the pressure of the situation would eventually force her hand, driving her to give the Allspark directly to Megatron. Logic dictated it was her only path to survival.
The siege was flawless. In the end, everything hinged on a single move—the fate of the Allspark could be decided in an instant. If it fell into Decepticon hands, only one course would remain: to hunt down the Autobots' secret base hidden somewhere on this planet and wipe out whatever resistance lingered there. But if she allowed the Autobots to escape with the Allspark, the war would drag on—perhaps into even more unpredictable consequences.
But before Soundwave could lose himself deeper in his calculations, a sudden energy spike erupted across his monitors. Alarms shrieked, cutting through the silence, and for a moment, time itself seemed to freeze. The Nemesis's decks rumbled faintly as crimson lights flickered violently, as if the warship itself could feel the threat approaching.
Soundwave remained motionless, his expression unreadable. Yet within, his focus sharpened like never before. He knew without doubt—something unexpected was coming.
"We've lost one of the thrusters!" shouted a Decepticon, stunned by the impact."Power down by thirty percent! Whatever hit us fried the electrical grid!" reported another, his fingers flying over the controls."Reroute energy to the remaining stabilizers!" ordered a third, struggling to contain the chaos."Soundwave! Multiple contacts on the radar! They're coming in fast, straight at us!" the tracking officer warned.
Soundwave didn't answer. Only the way he rose from his station and the restrained movements of his hands betrayed his irritation. He knew exactly who was approaching. The humans.
The explosion tore across the battlefield like a scream from the pit of hell. The impact was so sudden, so devastating, that the very air seemed ripped away, replaced by the deafening roar of fire and shrapnel sweeping everything in their path. Megatron lifted his gaze to the skies, drawn by the force of the catastrophe, and saw his warship—his fortress in the heavens—being consumed by a brutal wave of destruction. Flaming debris, twisted and broken, rained down like a storm of death, carving craters into the ground.
"What?!" he hissed, his voice a mix of fury and disbelief.
That was the moment Airachnid had been waiting for. In a single, acrobatic flip filled with arrogance, she leapt into the air, bolting away with the artifact clutched like a prize.
"You think a mere explosion will distract me, Prime?" she taunted, her words dripping with scorn as she darted away at an almost supernatural speed, cutting through a line of Decepticons too stunned to react to her near-unbelievable swiftness.
The soldiers prepared to fire, but Megatron's furious roar froze them in place."Do not fire! I want the Allspark intact!"
Airachnid smirked, eyes gleaming with disdain. In a vicious leap, she tore the head off a Decepticon who dared block her path. She slipped past every attempt to restrain her, moving like a shadow, her mockery in every dodge and strike.
Arcee surged forward to catch her, but it was useless. Not even she could match Airachnid's newfound speed.
"Do you want me to slow down?" Airachnid jeered, ripping another Decepticon's head clean off with one hand and hurling it into another soldier's face. "How rude… forcing a lady to exert herself like this."
She spun past another attack with a graceful, almost taunting acrobatic twist—only for her grin to falter when dozens of missiles suddenly locked onto her position.
"Oh no…" she muttered, closing her eyes for a fleeting instant.
The barrage erupted, drowning the battlefield in fire and chaos. The heat of the blasts painted the horizon in infernal shades. Most of the strikes hammered the Decepticon warship, which still loomed above, but now scarred by blackened wounds across its armor. What had once been a shining titan in the skies was reduced to smoking husks of metal raining down like the bones of a fallen giant.
"Well… I admit I didn't see that one coming." Airachnid whispered, brushing embers from her frame as flames licked across her plating. She scanned the wreckage, her eyes narrowing. "Where's my little toy?"
Her gaze sharpened when she spotted the fake Allspark lying beside Arcee, who struggled beneath the weight of mangled Decepticon corpses pinning her down.
"Damn it… just a little more…" Arcee muttered, her trembling hand reaching toward the Allspark. But before her fingers could touch it, another hand snatched it up.
"Arcee, you really are terrible at this," Airachnid mocked, making her rival flinch. "I so badly wanted to kill you… but you're so pathetic, you've lost all entertainment value."
"No!" Arcee's cry tore from her lips, helpless, as Airachnid walked away with the artifact in hand.
Airachnid examined the object with disdain. At first glance it seemed intact, but then the fractures began to spread. "This thing isn't nearly as durable as it looks… but at least I had fun." She lifted her gaze to the human warships above, the architects of the chaos. "I need a cleansing… I feel filthy."
She turned slightly, her eyes gleaming with malice as she noticed Arcee struggling out from under the metallic corpses. The Autobot, miserable and desperate, clawed her way free inch by inch, every motion fueled by rage.
"Well… I can still give her that traumatized look I love so much," Airachnid murmured, smiling cruelly as she dissolved her battle mask, revealing her true face, savoring the dramatic effect.
When Arcee finally broke free, she rose with fury burning in her optics, her gaze locked on Airachnid and the Allspark clutched in her claws. Without hesitation, she charged, ready for a brutal melee. But Airachnid's smile only widened—now the deranged grin of a psychopath savoring her victim's suffering.
"If you want the Allspark… you can have it. Piece by piece." she hissed, her claws tightening around the artifact.
The air filled with the sound of shattering cracks as thin lines of light broke through its surface.
For Arcee, time slowed to a crawl. Her optics witnessed the sacred heart of Cybertron—her planet's last hope—breaking apart before her very eyes.
With one final crushing grip, Airachnid destroyed the Allspark's shell. The blue glow flared for an instant before fading, like a dying star, as fragments scattered across the scorched battlefield.
Arcee staggered, her knees nearly giving way. She stood frozen, staring at the pieces on the ground. No words came. She was silent, her very spark crushed by the horror of what she had just seen.