A heart of gold (TFP Optimus Prime X Reader)

Chapter Ten: One shall rise. Part one

Ratchet opened a Groundbridge to Optimus' location and brought him back. He was holding onto Bulk and Ratchet for support and the stench of Dark Energon covered him. He was put on the medical table and looked at Raf who was getting a lot better.

"Hey," Raf said smiling at Optimus.

Optimus smiled back.

"He's lucky to be alive," June said making Optimus' smile fade.

"Megatron found more of the dark stuff?" Jack asked.

"A volcano full," Arcee said.

"The question is how?" Bulk asked.

"No, the question is what?" Ratchet asked, "as in, what in the world is the blood of Unicron doing here on Earth?"

"The 'Con's killed a unicorn?" Miko asked as everyone just looked at her, "white horse with a horn on its head. Prances around all sparkly."

"Unicron. An ancient evil whose fossilized blood comprises the matter which we call Dark Energon as legend would have it," Ratchet explained.

"So you're saying this Unicron is some kind of Boogeyman?" June asked Ratchet.

"Boogeyman?" Ratchet questioned.

"Make-believe creepy guy who hides in your closet," Miko explained.

Ratchet looked at June, "no, Nurse Darby. Unicron is very real. Was. That is... well, I do believe he once existed, I just don't subscribe to the theory that his... primordial life force is the substance that... harmed Raf."

June then took Raf away claiming that Raf needed to be examined by real doctors and that his family needs to know what happened. Jack told his mother that Raf's family can't protect him like the bots can. Optimus swore to June that he would do everything in his power to make sure no harm came to us or any human ever again but June was unconvinced. June told us all to come with her but me, Miko and Jack stayed. June left the normal way out with Raf in the back. I liked that boy. And June didn't let him or us give everyone a proper goodbye.

"Prime, do you copy?" Fowler asked coming on the screen.

"I hear you, Agent Fowler," Optimus said going to the screen.

"Been watching the news? Mother nature's got a twitch in her britches."

"We know about the volcano."

"And the quakes? Seven major tumblers of your exact same magnitude at the exact same time as a volcanic eruption all over the globe on different tectonic plates, in theory, unrelated, if they hadn't happened..."

"...at the exact same time," Ratchet completed.

Miko turned our attention to the news, 'freak storms unlike any the region has seen. Tsunamis threaten the Canadian coast while lightning storms pummel the Gobi Desert. Meanwhile, electromagnetic anomalies plague urban power grids. These abnormal global phenomena are leaving most to wonder why now and what next.'

"Don't tell me your 'Cons have built a weather machine," Fowler said.

"One that powerful? Highly unlikely," Ratchet said.

"I do not believe the appearance of Dark Energon at this point in time to be coincidental," Optimus said.

"Hold on, how far away is the base to the town?" I asked.

'A few miles away,' Bee said.

"June and Raf are on their way there," I said.

"And with the weather phenomenon, they might be in danger," Ratchet said.

Bee sped off to get them just in case. He came back with them both but June's car was gone. Jack apologised for choosing the bots over her and she apologised too but told Jack that he was grounded until he was twenty-five. Weird. The weather hasn't gotten any better and the patterns are being classified as a global emergency. That is bad. Fowler arrived asking Optimus what he had learned about the weird weather and was a little surprised yet nervous of June being here. I sense a connection.

"We have learned this- as with the so-called magma from the volcano, these earthquakes originated far below the Earth's crust, from the very centre of the Earth's core, in fact," Ratchet explained.

"Quakes don't start there. Do they?" Fowler asked.

"Tiny tremors rising and falling in a constant pattern, almost like..." Ratchet cut himself off when he looked at the frequencies of the volcano and earthquakes.

Ratchet realised something, "by the Allspark! If I convert these data points to audio files..."

That's what Ratchet did and we heard something unusual. A Cybertronian heartbeat? But... how? If there's a heartbeat, there's something living down there but a heart pumps blood and there's nothing in our planet to pump. Wait! The Dark Energon! Unicron! Everyone else figured that out too.

"Okay, hold on. You mean something's living down there inside our planet?" Miko asked.

"I fear the Earth's very core is not comprised of magma as your science had suggested, but of Dark Energon," Optimus said.

"And if we're hearing a spark, then Unicron is the rising darkness that the prophecy foretold," Ratchet said.

"So, how do we stop this thing from rising?" Fowler asked.

"That, I'm afraid, was not foretold," Optimus said.

"How can something be in our Earth's core and be alive?" June asked.

"Such a thing is not unprecedented," Optimus said, "before the beginning, there was Primus, and there was Unicron. One, the incarnation of creation; the other, of destruction. For eons, Primus and Unicron battled, the balance of power shifted between them more times than could be counted. Only by creating the thirteen, the original Primes who preceded me, was Primus finally able to defeat Unicron, and cast him out. Primus became one with the very core of our planet, creating life through the well of Allsparks, while Unicron was never heard from again... Until now."

"Maybe we can find the hole this uber-'con left when he dug himself all the way down there and fill it full of explosives!" Fowler suggested.

"Agent Fowler, I do not believe that Earth became Unicron's home but rather that with time and gravitational force, debris collected around the slumbering titan."

"Forming your Earth itself," Ratchet completed for Optimus.

"And he's only awakening now due to the magnetic pull created by the planetary alignment," Arcee said.

"Okay, well, what happens now when Unicron wakes up from his billion-year nap?" I asked.

"Yeah, does he stretch and KAPOW! Earth poofs to dust?" Miko asked.

Optimus stayed quiet.

"You don't know, do you?" I asked, my ears flattening on my head and my tail dropped.

"My guess is that Unicron has transcended physical form as we know it," Optimus said, "nonetheless, we must find a way to ensure that this force of nature never fully awakens. The fate of your planet depends on it."

Optimus soon went exploring Earth to find a lot of terrains rich in ore. Ratchet explained that the natural metals in our planet are extensions of Unicron, his limbs. Ratchet detected a swell in Unicron's spark activity before Optimus turned his communication link off.

(A/N: ANOTHER CLIFFHANGER!)