As soon as everyone went back to their seats, they were silent as Omega Scion prepared the viewing in the countdown of three...

The time stream continues to tear right into the existence of the Maximals, threatening to erase them for their ancestor has fallen.

Prime grimaced. He hoped the Maximals would find a better solution to save the Autobots' existence before it's too late.

"OPTIMUS!" Elita gasped when she saw the love of her life destroyed with his face blown off.

"Farewell, Maximals! With the destruction of Optimus Prime, the Decepticons and Predacons now take their rightful places as rulers of Cybertron! I, Megatron, have triumphed, yess!" Megatron gloated.

But unbeknownst to him, Blackarachnia stood right behind him, not out of loyalty but of defiance to him. "No! You forget, I was a Maximal protoform! Teletraann 1, activate!" as she turned to the ancient Autobot AI.

The Ark's systems activate, enticing Megatron in an electrical web that throws him out of the Ark itself.

"I KNEW IT! I KNEW IT! I KNEW THAT BUG WOULDN'T STAY A PRED FOREVER! GOOD JOB!" Warpath chortled.

The Autobots cheered, most of them would. Only the Autobot leadership and Arcee were skeptical if this meant that Blackarachnia is defecting to the Autobots. Sensing Arcee's unease, Prime assured. "We've had Decepticons that were disillusioned to the cause Arcee. They may have died, yet we have ensured their deaths have meant our survival. It is better if you give Blackarachnia a chance."

"I don't know, Optimus, it would take more than kicking Megatron out of the Ark considering that she had plotted to be leader herself." Arcee replied.

"Then find out with us if her Spark has changed for the better."

"Blackarachnia! Stay by me! Whatever this storm is, I will protect you!" Silverbolt harkened to Blackarachnia.

But she wouldn't have it this time while she was on her knees and replied "Oh, Bowser-boy, you have no idea what you're dealing with! Just shut up, and follow me!" she turned to the

"What are you doing?" he asked in horror.

"It's not what I'm doing, it's what I'm undoing!"

They both flew towards the Ark's monitor.

"COME ON! DO IT! SAVE OPTIMUS, YOU TWO!" Bumblebee shouted.

"TURN THAT THING ON! IT CAN SAVE OUR LEADER FROM DYING!" Warpath shouted.

Blackarachnia pressed a few buttons to the monitor that had elicted a pair of wires to hook up to Optimus Prime's corpse, which Silverbolt was facilitating himself. "Auxiliary life support, on." Blackarachnia then activated the Ark's systems to use it's aforementioned life support systems to activate.

Once it does, Silverbolt then plugged it in Prime's body "It's... done!"

This effectively stopped the time ripples momentarily.

The Autobots breathed out sighs of relief, but Ratchet interrupted.

"Not so fast, that life support system has only bought as long a time as it can for Optimus there. They have to work quickly to save his Spark or else that life support system will exhaust it's power."

The Autobots were now terrified. Prime just remained grim, death was an old friend he tried to avoid.

The Renegatrons were skeptical.

The Predacons were apathetic.

"The... time storm. It... it appears to stabilized somewhat." Blackarachnia turned to the systems to check Prime's condition "But Big Mac here's still fading! Reality is still in flux!"

The Maximals quickly arrived to check on the dying Optimus Prime.

"Silverbolt, what-" they saw Prime hanging in life support. "Well, that's just prime." he muttered sarcastically.

"Or what's left of him, anyway." Rattrap's comeback had his face smacked by Rhinox.

"Shut up, Rattrap!" said the young Autobots.

"He's our ancestor, we've got to get him repaired! Or we're goners." Cheetor suggested.

"We'll never make it. His spark is already joining the Matrix. With the repair trauma, we'll lose it for sure!" Rhinox replied.

"Then we'll have to move it." Primal replied.

"His spark can't exist outside a living body!" Rhinox argued.

"I know." Primal replied holding his chest which began to glow with his own Spark.

"Wait, what?!" asked Ratchet. "That's impossible!"

"Then again, impossible hasn't stopped our leader, we don't see how Monkey Boy there lets it get him down." Knockout corrected.

"What? Ratchet! What is he doing?!" Bumblebee asked.

"He's going to absorb my Spark into his body, Bumblebee." Prime replied. "It could save me, and the Autobots, from extinction."

Bumblebee gasped in horror. No Cybertronian has ever taken two sparks in one body before.

Arcee would never admit it, yet her favorite novel "The Bot with Two Sparks" had this concept in technicality, but she never imagined it would be a reality.

Everyone else was stunned by Prime's reply or just baffled.

"What are you, nuts? You can't hold two sparks in your body!" Rattrap objected as he saw Primal fly towards Prime's body. "This spark has the Matrix with it! It's too powerful!" Rhinox objected next, but since their existence is at stake, Primal replied "Like we have a choice."

Prime's chest opens up, revealing the Matrix of Leadership containing his Spark. Primal opens his that reveals his own Spark as well and pushes the Matrix towards his insides, creating a bridge of energy that merges the two Sparks together as one. Though painful it was for Primal, he maintained it long enough for his ancestor's Spark to be converged with his, though the aftermath had knocked him off his hoverboard and into some debris, and left the empty Matrix split in half.

Everyone either gasped while the process was available, remained silent or were left with their jaws literally in the floor.

"Quickly!" Rhinox snapped to Blackarachnia "Get that repair equipment online!"

Blackarachnia complied activating the Ark's systems once again, as the Ark's repair drone then flies towards Prime and closes it's repair apparatus at his face.

The Autobots felt relieved.

Megatron woke up after being knocked out cold. Pushing the boulder behind him, he hailed in his comms "Attention! Waspinator, Inferno! We must finalize our victory! Converge in my position!"

"Coming, my Queen!" Inferno replied even if he was a sputtering mess. Waspinator had finished reassembling himself and moved to Megatron.

"Now the Predacons are attacking to ensure victory. My so-called 'descendant' must be desparate for such that he craved for so long." Megatron replied.

"Didn't you-"

"Finish that sentence, Starscream, and I'll have your Spark thrown out of dark space."

Starscream just kept his mouth shut.

The repair drone was making repairs as it can under Blackarachnia's programming.

"Hurry!" Rattrap barked impatiently.

"This technology is 4 million years old! It takes time!" Blackarachnia argued.

"Time you don't have, she-spider!" Rattrap spat out, still distrustful of her.

"You'll have to shoot through me, rodent!" Silverbolt intervened

"Don't tempt me!" Rattrap threatened.

"Knock it off! We've got bigger problems." Rhinox shouted, but then they saw

Primal groaned and moaned as he was growing bigger and stronger.

"Ooooooh!" said the warriors.

"Now that's a upgrade!" Bulkhead stated.

"Much like our leader and buckethead when they came back to life, Bulk." Wheeljack commented.

"BigBot, what's happening to you?" Cheetor asked, concerned for his leader.

Elsewhere, the Predacons were making recoveries after the last battle had obliterated them, though they were charred and covered in soot, they were able to make recovery as quickly as possible.

"Attention all Predacons. Pull yourselves together. Our situation has altered."

"Oh brilliant, now the fools thought destroyed are making recovery. He's calling to them for a sustained assault on the Ark." Predaking commented.

The systems were powering up to the max as it can "Circuit regeneration to maximum!" Rhinox pulled down a lever.

"Gotta love these old machines. Crude, but the... the parts are cheap." Rattrap commented.

"Guys? Check out Big Bot!"

Primal rose up in a much powerful body the size of Bruticus. Towering over his subordinates and holding Prime's Spark in his body.

Everyone was shocked. Some of them had their fair share of upgrades, but nothing like what Primal had undergone.

"Man, that's the size of our combiner, Bruticus, Onslaught." Vortex replied.

"I know, Vortex." Onslaught said.

"Big Bot... how do you feel?" Cheetor asked.

"In a word? Prime." Primal replied.

"Man, I wished our Optimus would say those kinds of phrases." Sideswipe whispered to Smokescreen who only nodded in reply.

"But not for long, no!" Megatron and his beleaguered minions arrived. "This has been but a temporary delay. Open fire!"

The distraction had caused Blackarachnia to sneak out quietly.

"Have you spoke a bit too soon, Warpath?" Arcee bitterly asked.

"You haven't seen the last of her yet! Blackarachnia's gonna change her mind, you'll see!" Warpath argued.

Yet Primal raised forth shields the size of a quarter of Kaon's walls that protected his subordinates from incoming fire. He approached them menacingly, unfurling his chest-built autocannons with laser sights trained at Megatron himself "Not here! Do you understand? Take it outside!" Primal then snapped to Rhinox "Rhinox, keep those repairs going!"

"Ah, I see we have a new Optimal Optimus to deal with. And carrying Prime's spark as well." Megatron hammed.

"Well, duh, fool! You killed Prime for it!" Wheeljack spat out.

Elita could not find anymore reason to not forgive the future Megatron for murdering her love.

"I said outside!" Primal demanded.

"Or would you want for things to get ugly in the inside?"

"Not now, Ironhide!" Prime snapped to his older subordinate.

"You wouldn't dare fire in here! It might upset history!" Megatron barked back.

"We'd have 4 million years to clean you off the walls, Megatron. I might risk it." Primal challenged.

"I will protect you, Royalty!" Inferno stepped up, despite being heavily damaged.

"No, Inferno! Not this time." Megatron stopped him.

"Oh come on, this is like one of Prime and Megatron's debates, isn't it?" Jetfire groaned in irritation.

"I'm afraid so, Jetfire." Omega Scion replied.

Prime and Megatron just kept quiet while EVERYONE else save the Predacons groaned. If their subordinates had known them for something else, is their tendency to debate over which ideology was better. It was a complete pain in the aft. Yet only Thunderblast grinned.

"This is not the end of it, Optimal Optimus, no." Megatron replied bitterly. "The Universe cowered once at the name of Megatron, and it shall do so again!"

"Freedom is the right of all sentient beings, Megatron." Prime replied back.

Prime smiled that his descendant had remembered his famous motto.

"Then they'd better stay out of my way!" Megatron spat out.

"Oh, for bootin' up cold, will you just shoot him?" Rattrap interrupted, irritated.

"Yes! Finally, some common sense in the table!" Arcee spouted.

"I'm trying not to resort to that." Primal argued.

"Then I will!" Rattrap raised his gun.

"No!" Primal slapped him away.

"What'd you do that for?! He was trying to be sensible here!" Ironhide argued.

"They're fighting while our leader's making a recovery, Sergeant Ironhide. I don't believe that's sensible at all." Ultra Magnus replied.

"Waspinator, cover fire, do it!" Megatron commanded.

Waspinator arrived and fired two stinger projectiles that caused two stalactites to fall on the Ark, disorienting the Maximals.

"This place remains a target, Optimus! I will be back!" Megatron hissed as he and Inferno left by flight.

"Our base! It's unguarded! Don't let him escape!" Primal commanded next.

The Autobots gasped again. The Axalon was utterly unmanned.

"You heard him! Move, move! I can handle this!" Rhinox suggested next.

"Blackarachnia!" Silverbolt called yet she did not reply.

"Already gone, Bonehead! What's say we do the same?" Silverbolt relented and went along with his comrades.

The Maximals turned when they saw their leader preparing a transformation the likes they never witnessed before.

"Oh, scrap! The Preds are in for it now!" shouted Grimlock.

"Congratulations, Maximals, you shall have the honor of becoming the first cybertronian fossils." Megatron gloated as he departed by flight.

But when they turned around, they saw Primal in his new flight form, ferrying the rest of his subordinates with their weapons at the ready.

"BLAST THEM TO SMITHEREENS, MAXIES!" Warpath yelled.

Realizing their situation worsening, the Predacons blasted their way out of the cave in and flew out when the very cave in caused much seismic turmoil that causes fissures in the mountain they were in. Luckily, Primal's massive bulk saved the Maximals, but it wouldn't last.

"Oh, man! I hate to say it, but we're trapped like rats!" Rattrap spouted out fearfully.

"Stay close, Maximals. It's time to transform, and roll out!" Primal replied.

"HE SAID IT! HE SAID OUR LEADER'S PHRASE!" Bumblebee bounced with joy. That was his favorite quote after all.

Prime could not feel anymore prouder than that. Elita just held his hand and smiled, which he returned.

"I don't blame him, that's what I liked about Prime." Jetfire commented to Air Raid who replied "Deja vu..."

The Predacons regrouped, but to Megatron's surprise, even Blackarachnia made it out alive yet she was stuck in the process.

"YOU!!!" Megatron hissed spitefully and converged on the treacherous spider.

"Well, what did you expect, you metal megalomaniac? That I would die for your insane ambition?!" she questioned. They turned to see the Maximals arrived in force out of the cave-in.

"Maximals to the rescue!" 

"Then or now, Blackarachnia, there will be no more betrayals!" Megatron prepared to deliver her excruciating pain.

"NO!" Jazz yelled dramatically.

"Jeez, you like Blackarachnia that much?" Arcee asked.

"Shush, lemme just have this romantic drama for once!"

They transformed and saw Megatron leaving immediately with an out-cold and damaged Blackarachnia.

"Blackarachnia?" Silverbolt gasped on seeing his lover broken.

"They're headed for our base!" Cheetor shouted obviously.

"Which means no time to lose! Cheetor, you're with me!" Primal transforms and takes to the skies.

"Jumpin' gyros! Optimus sure learns a new body fast." Cheetor muttered.

"Well, what do you expect?" Rattrap snapped at Cheetor "He changes them often enough. Now get moving!" and pushes Cheetor to follow Primal.

"Now, kitty! You're gonna lose the Axalon if you stay!" Ultra Magnus shouted.

Meanwhile, in the Ark, Rhinox was facilitating the Ark's repair systems.

[On reconstruction: Commencing.]

"Just a few more cycles should do it. Now, if Optimus can bring that spark in one piece..." Rhinox's muttering was interrupted by Rattrap. "Yo, Big Green, I don't mean to interrupt, but I think Birddog's got a situation here."

As they saw Silverbolt carrying a wounded Blackarachnia aboard...

"Blackarachnia. Oh, dark poison of my heart, abide with me yet awhile."

"You've got a way with words, Rover. You almost make me wish I was a better girl." Blackarachnia spouted back to the Fuzor carrying her.

Both Rattap and Rhinox cringed.

Silverbolt and Arcee felt the same.

"But you are. For at the last moment you made a stand against evil." he mused dramatically.

"She was saving herself, you idiot." Silverbolt spat out.

"I was saving my own shell." She retorted.

"And with it, the universe! And me." Silverbolt continued. "Understand this, like never before, my life, my heart are now yours."

Jazz cooed, he was a fan of romance flims.

Arcee and Silverbolt wanted to rip out their own optics.

"You really mean it, don't you?" she questioned.

"With all my spark. Blackarachnia, please, join me." Silverbolt begged her. "In this last dark moment, say that you will be a Maximal!

"For you, Rover, I join your side." Blackarachnia spouted. "But as a Predacon, good-bye." She began to short out and fell into stasis lock.

Believing she had passed away, Silverbolt screamed "Nooooo!"

"NO!" Jazz shouted, now in tears.

Rattrap felt his audio receptors taking a hit from Silverbolt's dramatic screaming. "Yeesh! Where's my cyber-violin?"

"Very touching, Silverbolt, but she's just in Stasis Lock." Rhinox stated, seeing that Blackarachnia's Spark has not departed from her body.

"I mean, obviously, her spark's not leaving her." Ratchet pointed out.

Grimlock, the Dinobots, Dreadwing and Predaking were deathly silent, remembering the bot named after the second's heroic demise. They were innately angered that he died, sure, but it was not going to be what he wanted.

"Yeah. So, if you can stop crushing her to your manly torso plate for a while, what's say we start the repairs?!" Rattrap asked.

"Oh." Silverbolt lessened his grip on Blackarachnia. "Yes, very well."

Arcee and Silverbolt face-planted to the ground.

Jazz calmed down.

"Hurry back with that spark, Optimus, or none of this will have mattered at all." Rhinox muttered in hope for his leader.

Primal and Cheetor were giving chase as quickly as they can as they managed to catch up with the Predacons.

"OH? Oh no!" as Cheetor and blasted Waspinator off flight and tackled Inferno to the mountain.

Primal caught up and ripped Megatron's fusion cannon from his hands and smashed him out of his flight pattern.

Megatron paled. Prime had ripped out his fusion cannon out from his arm before.

"It's over now, Megatron!" Primal proclaimed.

"Is it?" Megatron hailed again "Rampage, as I instructed, NOW!"

Primal realized and raced as Tarantulas' bugs and Rampage pull the Axalon down in tow, causing the rock formations around it to whittle and shatter as the land bridge holding the Axalon together began to crumble.

"That wasn't their strategy after all. Megatron knew they would come for him, so he came up with an alternative to bring the Axalon down." Prime realized.

Having learned much from her lover about the Maximals, Elita hugged him in worry.

Primal arrived, firing a strafing run that eliminated Tarantulas' insecticons then veered right so that his wing can slice off the tow cables. Rampage transformed and saw Primal and prepared his gun, but the latter smashed a fist to his face, which had the psychotic protoform fire off a missile intent on Prime's spark he was holding. Primal protected himself, yet the immense momentum the deflection caused