The audience was dead silent. Not once did they imagine that Unicron had a role to play in the Beast Wars. First they knew of him since he tried to consume the All-spark, that he had destroyed Starscream whose Spark possessed Waspinator for a time. Now, to see him, in his might untold? That he was attempting to destroy the planet? A mad affront that even Optimus Prime will not allow.

No one managed to say but even the fewer words they could come up, not much to break the silence.

"This may be the last viewing I could give you. There are more, but I will require time to present them once I have scrubbed them clean. Are. You. Ready?" The cold silence became Omega Scion's answer. Down to three the viewing began once more...

The moon began to glow in an overwhelming veil of Energon, On the outskirts of the Axalon, Cheetor and Tigatron witnesses the escalating cascade come to pass.

"Suffering circuits! What could it be?" Cheetor asked.

"The light at the end of the world." Tigatron answered.

"Optimus Primal to Cheetor and Tigatron. Do you copy?" Primal hailed, though comms were static due to heavy Energon activity.

"Tigatron here." the snow tiger Maximal responded.

"I'll explain in the base. Head there fast. Code X." Primal ordered as he flew with Rattrap riding on his back.

"On our way!" Tigatron beckoned to Cheetor to run back to Maximal Base.

"I've been saying it ever since we hit this mud ball...we're all gonna die!" Rattrap yelled, fearful of his demise.

"We're not scrap yet. Rhinox will find a way to deal with these aliens."

"I wouldn't bother, they hadn't known that Rhinox is offline." Smokescreen commented.

{Termination sequence engaged. Return to Nexus Zero.} Unicron announced. Once the Energon extraction bridge was done, it was monitored by the Predacons themselves.

"They're leaving! We scared them away." Terrorsaur announced.

"Fool! Did you even see that they're trying to wipe out the planet you sit on?!" screeched Starscream.

"Hardly. Computer, patch in space scanner..." but before he can finish his command, Scorponok announced "The moon! It's gone. The aliens have destroyed it.

"Dolts!" Megatron hissed. "It was never a moon. And it's far from gone." then he ordered the Darksyde's computer "Computer, magnify image." It complied, revealing that the planet itself began glowing immensely with Energon. So much so that it began to change and reshape it's form, to that of two rings, a larger ring that emcompassed a smaller, golden one shaping itself to that of a cone with a hole inside as if it was some kind of weapon.

Everyone felt fear unlike any seen before. Prime mostly. In all of his studies regarding Perceptor.

"I... have never seen Unicron possess such a weapon before.." Perceptor admitted.

"Nor do I Perceptor." Prime added.

"What is it?" Scorponok asked.

"I'd say it was the instrument of our destruction. Impressive, yess" Megatron hammed with amazement.

"What do we do?" Terrorsaur asked.

"Seal the base and charge all shields. I will see to the rest." Megatron turned to the computer "Computer, activate Program: Zero Hour."

[Activating. Scanning for transwarp signature.]

"Now we'll see, if my faith in Tarantulas's ability is justified."

[Signature located. Establishing position.] once the computer started triangulating Energon signatures to follow with the programming.

"The Maximal base! And their shield is down. Oh, yess." Then Megatron ordered "Computer, scan Maximal Base, use alien frequency!"

[Scanning. Two Maximals detected in command center. Non-functional. Unit Tarantulas and Blackarachnia - active - in stasis hold. Unit Inferno moving toward their position.] the system replied 

"So my loyal drone is still with them. Perfect." Megatron said self-satisfactorily.

"Not perfect. Abysmal. Especially when you've sent your 'loyal drone' to confront them without any form of backup whatsoever." Megatron griped.

Inside the Axalon, Tarantulas was working on a stasis pod.

[Transwarp drive functioning at tolerable levels. Force shields at 55%]

"Excellent..." Tarantulas muttered. Until Blackarachnia came and interrupted.

"It's a bit small for both of us. Of course it could be kind of romantic..." she said flirtatiously.

Arcee frowned. That kind of tactic was used by Decepticon scouts that seduced her partners for information. Especially Swindle, who had seduced Tailgate into giving him the codes that opened the gates of north Iacon.

"This planet will be extinguished in less than a mega-cycle. I have no time for your inane banter." Tarantulas rebuffed. He ordered the stasis pod's computer "Download datatrax Argon."

"You won't have to put up with my banter much longer...partner." Blackarachnia spat out disdainfully. Tarantulas was playing hard to get. A shot came off, she looked, but could not react as she was knocked to a pile of crates.

Until Inferno arrived, preparing his weapon threateningly towards both Tarantulas.

"The Royalty will be interested to know what you spiders are up to." Tarantulas removed his datatrax visor.

"Inferno to Megatron...Inferno to Megatron!" the ant Predacon tried to hail his queen, but not a reply came from him.

"I suppose no one told him that communications are cut off due to heavy Energon activity." Barricade commented.

Tarantulas pulled a quick one and fired a bolt at Inferno, but the latter threw his gun high and caught the bolt. He dropped the bolt and caught his gun as it fell in the air, Tarantulas readied his leg appendages and fired a rapid barrage, but it hardly harmed Inferno.

"You're no match for me!" Inferno taunted. He loaded his gun and unleashed a spray of fire on Tarantulas "Burn, traitor, burn!" he yelled cacking maniacally.

Engulfed in flames, Tarantulas screamed running past Inferno until he ran headlong into a wall, falling down out cold.

[Transwarp signature no longer active. Data flow aborted. Scan shows unit Tarantulas non-functional.] the Darksyde's computer announced.

"No! What has that fool done?!" Megatron cursed.

"Your undoing. You told your pet insect to follow them. You didn't order him not to render your minions offline." Megatron spat out.

"That I may agree with Megatron here. Apparently, long-term planning is not that coward's strong suit." Predaking stated.

Primal, Rattrap and Airazor arrived on the Axalon, both former and latter transforming to Beast Mode.

"The shield's down." Airazor pointed out.

"And unless my opticals are malfunctioning, so's one of the moons."

"You think, Rattrap?!" Warpath asked angrily.

"Rhinox said something was happening out there." Primal said.

Airazor's sensors found "Cheetor and Tigatron are coming." as both Maximals are underway to the Axalon.

"Oh, terrific! Now we can all get reduced to hot burning slag TOGETHER!" Rattrap spat out pessimistically.

"SHUT UP, RATTRAP!" Primal and Airazor silenced him.

"Or else I'll break your scurrying legs and arms!" threatened Warpath.

Bulkhead, Grimlock, Wheeljack and Smokescreen wanted in.

Inferno tampered with the stasis pod...

"Mustn't touch..." as Blackarachnia leaped at Inferno from behind and injected cyber-venom into his nape. It wasn't long till Inferno threw Blackarachnia off him.

"So, you're still functional. I'll soon remedy that mistake." Inferno then pulled out his weapon and fired at Blackarachnia. Like one of an acrobat, she dodged his shots then rushed in for a kick, but Inferno dodged, replying with wild swings of his own. starting with a round house which Blackarachnia evaded by lowering her head forward then backward, then jumped to dodge his leg sweep, one at the ground and another in the stasis pod she used to jump to, then flipped over as she landed on her hands and struck at Inferno with both legs at his face.

"Much like Arcee when it comes to going toe to toe with Zonelander, eh?" Cliffjumper brought up.

Arcee frowned. Zonelander was a Decepticon assassin who was reknowned for eliminating the head of the security details charged with protecting the Primes. She had accomplished her job, allowing Megatron himself to slaughter the vulnerable Primes like cyber-boar. Only a dozen Primes survived Megatron's attack.

But she smiled slightly, knowing that she, a mere scout, had defeated Zonelander in intense combat after she accomplished eliminating the security captains, one of them was her mentor, Kup.

Barricade frowned, remembering the affairs he shared with Zonelander back when he was a cop and she was his partner. They joined the Decepticons together since then.

Vortex scowled. He was never fond of Zonelander due to the pranks, ridicule and jokes she made about him. She died before he could have his revenge on her, yet he felt satisfied that she was gone for good, but only felt half of it when she was done in by a Autobot, no less.

Inferno then caught Blackarachnia's flying foot and threw her to the ground. Then stood over her aiming his gun at her head.

"Don't count on it, ant-breath!" she taunted, as she slid under Inferno then kicked him on his rear, then jumped over with a roll, catching his weapon and pointed it towards his face. A moment of silence has passed as she fired right into his face, knocking him out.

"That'll teach him to backshoot a widow." Blackarachnia spat out kicking off one of Inferno's parts as she dropped his gun and picked up Tarantulas' datatrax visor.

"Poor Tarantulas..." she mulled seeing his charred chassis. She continued "More to the point, poor me! If he was right, this planet is about to go boom." and wore the visor. "Sorry about this, partner, but I need your datatrax to finish that ship." But unfortunately, Tarantulas had put in a failsafe that turned Blackarachnia's memories and mind against her.

"WHAT?!" turning around hearing Tarantula's cackling, forced her to remove the visor as she screamed in pain and agony.

"It seems Tarantulas was not foolish enough not to install failsafes in his devices to ensure that only he can use his inventions. Clever." Shockwave commented. He began working on such to ensure no one would dare intrude on his private information by typing it to a data plate.

"Failsafe plans stored." Soundwave announced.

Once the Maximals arrived, they found the interior devoid of any staff they left behind.

"Rhinox? Dinobot?" Primal called out to his subordinates.

"Oh great!" Rattrap whined "The planet's about to get zorched, and those two are on a positron break!"

"Optimus!" Airazor called out as she found both Rhinox and Dinobot webbed up to the ceiling. After spotting a bit of cyberwebbing on her talons when she arrived with Tigatron and Cheetor.

"The spiders! Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse!" Rattrap deduced.

Primal then ordered "Tigatron, Cheetor, get Dinobot and Rhinox to the R-Chamber, quickly! Rattrap, you and Airazor search the base! Our Predacon visitors might still be here."

"So let Sentinel handle them." Rattrap suggested.

"Slacker." commented Knockout.

Onslaught grimaced. He never liked slackers or incompetents. Same with Ironhide.

"We can't spare the power." Primal rebutted.

"So I get to do it the hard way. As usual." Rattrap transformed readying his weapon. "Lets hit it!" preparing to search with Airazor who had transformed as well.

"One more thing. If you find them, I want them functional." Primal reminded.

"You just have to spoil my fun, don't you..." Rattrap left with Airazor to find the intruders.

"Do your duty, you spoiled rat!" barked out Ironhide.

In the Darksyde....

[Transwarp cell: reactivated. Data flow: resuming.]

"So, Tarantulas's plan proceeds... Then he must have..." 

"Megatron! The alien machine!" Scorponok cuts off.

As the alien machine he mentioned began to charge up yellow energies thrumming in the golden ring gathering up as much as possible. Enough for it to be unleashed upon the planet.

"NO!" shouted Prime.

"All available power to shields..." Primal ordered. The Axalon activated shields at full power.

[Alien ray causing planet wide superheating. External temperature 140 rads and climbing. Shields holding.]

"By the Matrix, no!" Primal gasped. "They're going to ignite the energon deposits!"

"Curse you aliens..." Megatron spat out.

The Audience was shocked. The aliens are attempting to destroy the planet.

"Brilliant." Megatron hammed as the Darksyde's systems were breaking under the intense solar heat. "They're causing a chain reaction, which will rip this planet to atoms and destroy all traces of them... simply to deal with us! What sheer ruthlessness! What disregard for sentient life! I rather like these aliens!" he finished his monologue.

"No... no!" Prime yelled, losing his cool.

"They wouldn't..." cursed Bumblebee.

"Like them?! They're trying to destroy us!" Terrorsaur panickingly screamed.

"Waspinator not want to be destroyed. Waspinator has plans!"

"Megatron will save us!" Scorponok assured.

"Oh yes, he will, you kiss-aft." Onslaught sarcastically commented.

"I think not. I've reserved that task for Tarantulas." Megatron ordered "Computer, re-establish signal."

[Unable to comply Maximal's shields at full power.]

"Blast!" Megatron cursed.

As the intense superheating began to slowly break down on the natural shield covering the Energon, Rattrap and Airazor began their patrol, aiming their weapons and proceeding carefully for any traps Blackarachnia might have left inside.

[All systems on-line.]

"It's ready. We... I did it!" Blackarachnia cheered.

"Hooray for you." Airazor replied sarcastically as she and Rattrap then found her with their guns trained at her head.

"Congratulations, you got caught." Cliffjumper commented.

"Did you know we have a truce?" Blackarachnia reminded after removing the visor, unaware that the truce had already been broken.

"Saying that just to silther your way out? Nice try." Arcee spat out.

[External temperature at 300 rads and climbing.] the Axalon's computer notified.

"Modulate shields as necessary." Primal ordered.

"Leaping Lasers!" Cheetor commented as the intense heat began climbing up, melting a significant portion of the Axalon as the ship began sinking to the ground.

"How long before Rhinox is functional?" Primal asked Cheetor.

"At least a mega-cycle.. He took a pretty big dose of cyber-venom."

"Computer - Projection, based on present data..." Primal ordered.

[Planetary destruction in 28.5 cycles.]

"Scrap! They'll be gone by then!" Ratchet cursed.

"And with it, the planet itself." Ultra Magnus replied.

"Not enough time..." Primal cursed. Without even any options to stop the alien weapon no less.

"Rattrap to Optimus..." the aformentioned Maximal hailed via comms.

"Optimus here..." Primal replied.

"Get down to the Stasis Hold quick, Fearless Leader. There's something here you gotta see!" Rattrap notified.

Upon arrival to the stasis hold, Primal was rather astonished by the modified stasis pod.

"Incredible. It just might fly." he surmised.

"Of course it will fly, you ape." Blackarachnia spat out while being held by both Cheetor and Tigatron. "But it won't do you any good. The systems will only respond to me."

"Then change them to respond to me!" Primal demanded.

"Dream on, Captain Hair-ball." Blackarachnia refused.

"Computer, projection..." Primal ordered.

[Planetary destruction in 22.5 cycles.]

"Crash that bug! She'd rather use that thing to save her frame while everyone else is blasted to pieces!" Warpath cursed.

"Got ya there. Scrapping coward." Grimlock agreed.

"I hate to put a bug in a program, but Tarantulas didn't build this thing to do get-out with a planet buster!" Rattrap reminded.

"Every one of this aliens structures has been designed for a specific purpose, Rattrap. This one is busy, and I betting I can fly close enough to take it out." Primal stated.

"With what? One of your famous "we can do it" speeches?" Rattrap asked.

"A transwarp explosion."

"SAY WHAT?!" asked Warpath.

"You-you want to fly into that alien weapon to cause a transwarp explosion? Are you mad?!" asked Ratchet.

"Didn't Prime literally risked his Spark to save our afts before?" Jazz pointed out.

The Autobots felt nostalgia running in their circuits. Prime had done such things to save them... and had nearly tempted fate with his actions more often than not.

"You'll blow yourself to atoms!" Blackarachnia argued.

"If it saves this planet, it will be worth it. If not, I'm no worse off. Either way it's the only chance any of us have right now." Primal replied in a pursuading tone.

Convinced, Blackarachnia then began to relent... this time.

"Unhand me pussy cats, I've got work to do." She was released then began working on the stasis pod teluctantly.

"At least someone's come to their senses!" Grimlock commented.

"For now at least. It'll be long before she returns to her Predacon masters." Knockout stated.

"Then again, I hope she comes back to the Maxies like she was orginally meant to!" Air Raid added.

"You can't do this, BigBot. I'll fly the ship!" Cheetor offered.

"No, let me, I owe this world..." Tigatron offered.

"I'm grateful, but only a flyer has a chance at getting clear of the blast!" Primal replied.

"Exactly why I'm the one to go!" Airazor offered as well. "What about you, Rattrap?"

"Hey, suicide ain't in my job description!" Rattrap refused.

"Or mine. Now start rigging an auto-charge on that transwarp cell I'll need about 30 nano-kliks to clear of the ship." Primal ordered.

"You got it." Rattrap complied.

The superheating has intensified further and further, worsening the situation as another part of the Axalon fell off. Blackarachnia had finished her work and opened the stasis pod for Primal...

"In you go." she offered.

Primal moved in the stasis pod and laid down. "Cozy." he commented.

"Just like a coffin." she complimented then asked. "You realize this is crazy?"

"Sometimes crazy works." Primal retorted. "Thanks for your help."

The Autobots had a mirth of another nostalgia trip. Times when Prime had nearly killed himself saving their Sparks.

"Better you than me." Blackarachnia then closed the stasis pod's computer.

"Take care, Optimus. Come back to us." Airazor spoke.

Prime frowned. He remembered promising Elita he would come back to her... and he didn't. Because he hadn't made in time when Elita