When All Lights Go Out I (TFP)

Chapter 27

After walking back through the ground bridge, Azura noticed that Fowler was awake. He was sitting up on the gurney, and she suspected that Ratchet had filled in what had been happening. The man had a worried expression and he looked down at Azura, smiling a little at her. She smiled back at him as she walked towards the platform. She felt bad that they weren't able to stop the decepticons from locking onto Cybertron. She had no idea what was happening right now, but she was feeling quite nervous.

"I do believe you were able to stale the decepticons were you not?" Ratchet asked as he looked at Raf. The boy looked up at him and nodded. "How were they able to override it so quickly?"

"Because one of them happened to be there," Jack responded and the medic widened his optics slightly. "We didn't even know until his tentacles reached in to stop us." Ratchet glanced at Azura who stood there silently listening to him. "But he also tried to snatch Azura."

"I see..." Ratchet placed his hands on his hips, and Azura just tensed under his gaze, knowing he was unhappy about the news and also another reason why he had told her to stay here. "It seems he was unsuccessful. It sounds like Soundwave was there, which I guess I am not surprised. He would be the only one who can hack directly into the array and control it no problem."

The boy nodded. "Though I am not sure how he was unsuccessful. We saw him pull back his tentacle after shuddering from what looked like some kind of electric shock..." Azura tensed her jaw and felt her heartrate increase nervously. "And the tentacle looked like it hard been burned somehow..." Ratchet raised an eyebrow and looked at Azura curiously. "She mentioned that she met Soundwave three years ago. I am going to assume that is also the reason why Azura happened to be held by those two decepticons several days ago."

"She did, that is true. But it wasn't the way you think it was." Azura glanced up at Ratchet as he gazed at her before looking up at the monitor. "Thank you for informing me of this information, Jack. Unfortunately, even though your efforts to stop the decepticons were good enough to stale, I am afraid things aren't going so well for Optimus. I detected a large chunk of dark energon being thrown into the space bridge."

"Woah, that's bad," Azura said nervously, looking up at the monitor. "Does that mean we lost?"

"No, we have not lost, Azura. It just means we will need an alternative solution, and fast." Ratchet widened his optics as the system began detecting a heap of signals in the space bridge, and Azura couldn't help but worry about Optimus. She didn't know how he was going to stop Megatron now. Ratchet opened the com link again to speak to Optimus. "Optimus, I'm registering a rapidly expanding mass in their space bridge vortex. One with a peculiar energy signature."

"Dark energon," Optimus confirmed as he listened to Ratchet. Fowler walked over to observe what was happening while holding his right side, still in discomfort from what happened to him. "Ratchet, we must destroy the space bridge." Azura hoped it was possible to do, but she didn't know if the bots would need a big explosive to do that. "There's enough live energon coursing through it to achieve detonation, but we lack the firepower to ignite it."

"If I knew how the space bridge was engineered, I might find a technical way of accomplishing that feat," Ratchet responded to the Optimus.

Raf reached into his bag and pulled out his USB. "Um, would schematics help?"

The medic just nodded slightly before speaking to Optimus. "Optimus, I must say, the space bridge is our sole hope of ever returning to Cybertron. Are you certain its destruction is the only option?"

Azura felt bad for the autobots. It was their only means of returning to their home, but if they had a different way of defeating the undead, this wouldn't be the only option. And Optimus knew this too, despite the sad tone of his voice with his response. "I am afraid so."