FicWad

Jack opened his eyes as he looked up at the star field through the skylight in his room, he was lying down on his bed with Arcee in his arms. They were just lying there together, the femme had her head resting on his chest. She had missed just do nothing with her partner. Jack usually found that he could just lie back and relax whenever they were alone together. But not right now, not with this war going on around them.

A whole month had passed since the events on Tuchanka and the Reaper war had been going from bad to worse for the Alliance. Even with the help of Turian fleets, the Reapers had taken over a third of the star systems that were part of the Alliance's territory. The Defiant had been taking part in evacuating civilians from several of the systems that were under siege, but they had still lost hundreds of thousands of people overall. The enemy forces either killed the humans or took them to be harvested, Jack knew what that entailed.

People being processed into the liquid substance for the creation of a new Reaper. It was a terrifying thought, one the Prime had tried not to think about. But after seeing the casualty reports for the last few weeks, the lines of names of the dead or the missing continue to mount. It was getting to be too much. If only the Alliance and more so the Council (who were still just sitting on their hands with their heads buried in the sand) had listened to his warnings about the Reapers, maybe they would have been more prepared to defend against this seemingly unstoppable enemy. Arcee looked up at Jack and saw his trouble expression.

"Jack, what's wrong?" she asked, her voice soft but full of concern. Jack looked down to her and saw her looking back at him intently.

"Nothing, I'm fine." he lied hoping that she would not push him for more. But he really should have known better. If there was one thing that Arcee was good at, it was seeing right through a lie. Especially when he was the one saying it, so her expression changed to slightly annoyed.

"Jack, I know when you are lying so just tell me."

The Prime sighed in defeat and sat up, the femme doing the same.

"I was just thinking…" Jack started before looking at the fish tank.

"Was it Soundwave again?" she asked, knowing that his death had effected her partner a lot.

"Yes, but also some other friends who should be here… but are not." he replied solemnly.

"Miko, Kaidan and Wheeljack." the femme said, gaining a slow nod from her lover.

"I miss them too Jack, I can only imagine what Miko would be like if she was here now."

Jack looked over to the Autobot.

"But not 'right here'….right?" he asked. Arcee slapped the back of his head playfully.

"You know what I mean."

Jack smiled at her before his expression went back to sombre again.

"Yeah she would be all hyped up for it, nothing ever fazed her did it." he replied as he remembered his friend.

"No, she certainly didn't lack confidence. I bet she would just take a look at the Reapers and say 'we can take them'", Arcee said with a slight smile, Jack looked back at her and saw the loving gaze she gave him and returned the smile. The femme then put her arms around him and they embraced for a long moment.

"I'm glad you're here Arcee, I don't know if I could do this on my own." The Prime said as rest his head against hers. She responded by squeezing him slightly more.

"Well I am not going anywhere Jack, we are going to see this through together." she replied gaining a sigh from the Commander who just let himself relax in the femme's embrace, and they stayed like this for a long moment. Arcee stroked her partner's hair as she held him in her arms, she herself had seen enough war to put even the most decorated human veteran to shame. But she had to admit that this war was far worse than anything she had experienced before. Just as they started to relax the intercom activated.

"Prime, Hotrod here. I have a transmission from Admiral Bryce waiting for you in the com room." the pilot said.

"Thanks Hotrod, I'm on my way." Jack replied as he pulled out of the femme's embrace. He then got up as the Autobot sat on the bed and watched him, he then looked around and saw some her belongings.

"have you finished moving your stuff in here?"

"No yet, still have a few things to fetch." she smiled back.

"Considering all the missions we have been getting, I have been lucky to bring this much in."

Jack then tidied up his uniform and stood before her.

"How do I look?" he asked. She looked him up and down before smiling back.

"Smart and very handsome."

Jack smiled back.

"Thanks Arcee, I see you later." he replied before walking out of his quarters.

The hologram of Admiral Bryce was waiting for Jack as he entered the com room.

"Commander, good work on Alpha Centari. If we hadn't moved fast, those colonists would be either dead or harvested by the Reapers."

"Thank you sir, I just wish we had been as efficient with the other colonies." Jack replied solemnly. Bryce's expression softened somewhat.

"I know Darby and I sympathise with you, I really do. But with the speed and power that the Reapers have shown in attacking our colonies, we were always going to lose a lot of people at first. Though now that we have adapted to their tactics, our evacuations have now become far more effective. Even if we still haven't taken out a Sovereign class ship yet."

Jack nodded before looking back at the Admiral curiously.

"Sir, where do the refugees go in the meantime?"

"To Sanctuary, it's a space station on the other side of the galaxy. It is inside Council space, they have allowed us to use it due to the Reapers laying waste to our own territory. The refugees should be safe there until the Crucible is completed." Bryce answered.

"Crucible?" the Prime replied.

"Yes the Lithone weapon has been name Crucible by our scientists. And according to their last report, they are already forty five percent complete."

Jack looked at him in surprise.

"That far ahead already, we are only more than a month into the war?"

"Believe me I know, but apparently the plans for the Crucible once deciphered are very intricate and simple to build. It's almost like who ever designed it, wanted it to be built in an efficiently but also quickly. And considering how fast the Reapers have turned this war, I can see the need to have a super weapon as quickly as possible." the Admiral said while the Commander crossed his arms.

"So we know it's a super weapon now?"

"Yes, the scientists have theorised that it uses un-quantifiable levels of power and then releases it as a highly altered wave of energy that will encompass everything in range. The energy wave will destroy everything in it's path that is of the same matrix." Bryce said while looking away, most likely looking at a screen at his location.

"So if we don't get the right target data for the Crucible, when it comes to arming the device. We may well end up blowing ourselves up instead."

"Yes, that's why we need the 'Kranix matrix' before we are ready to move the Crucible." the Admiral responded.

"Don't worry Admiral, I'll find it." Jack replied, gaining a smile from his superior.

"I know you will Commander, but in the meantime I have another mission for you. I need you to rendezvous with the 'Charon' and it's expedition's leader, Dr Bryson. His last transmission to me has left me well….worried, so I want you to go make sure he is alright."

The Prime nodded in return.

"Of course sir, but what is his mission?"

"His expedition's mandate was to search out any information about the Reapers, from rumours to fables about them. To weed out the myths from the truth, because apart from what you learnt about them from the Lithone. We are still in the dark when it comes to everything else we know." Bryce replied.

"More information on the Reapers would certainly be of help to us. But I have to ask, why Charon, isn't that the ferryman of the river Styx in Greek mythology?" Jack asked.

"Yes he is, and all I can say of that is Dr Bryson is well versed in mythology and is also very religious considering his family's Christian background." Bryce said before looking away and accepting a pad from someone that Jack could not see. The Admiral's face went serious as he view the data on the pad.

"Commander I had our analysts go over all the data we could come up with as how the Reapers have been attacking our systems. And it seems that as we know, anywhere that has humans situated gets attacked. But it seems that any colony that has only Cybertronians is left untouched."

Jack's eyes widened at the Admiral's information.

"Well that explains some things." he replied.

"What do you mean Commander?" Bryce asked.

"Well sir, as we know. The Cybertronians have been around for millions of years, but Sovereign claimed that the Reapers were even older, so why didn't the Cybertronians even know of them. I mean the great war kept their attention mainly on themselves, but still you would think they would notice a race of biomechanical giant squids purging the galaxy around them every hundred thousand years." Jack said as the Admiral stroked his own chin while listening.

"You make some good points Darby and I will be asking Optimus this when I next speak to him, getting a signal to Earth is proving tricky at best these days."

"Have you spoken to him recently, how is he doing?" Jack asked.

"I spoke to him a week ago, the resistance is holding it's own against the Reaper ground forces, helping civilians to safety and sabotaging the enemy's attempts to harvest. Optimus is leading the resistance with the help of Ironhide, Kup and Dreadwing. They are all in command of their own cells. Optimus did ask how you were doing, when I told him how you orchestrated the curing of the Genophage, thus gaining the Krogan and also the Turians to aid us in this war. He was very proud." Bryce replied with a smile.

"Thank you Admiral." Jack said with a smile. The Admiral then looked away for a second before looking back at the Prime.

"Well I have to go Commander, I have already sent the coordinates of the Charon to your pilot. Contact me once you have completed the mission, Bryce out."

The hologram then disappeared prompting Jack to activate his com link.

"Hotrod set course for the coordinates that the Admiral has given us."

"Aye aye Prime." the pilot responded. The Defiant then veered away from the nebula that it was heading to and jumped into hyperspace.

PRIME EFFECT 3

An Alliance science ship was orbiting a red/green planet in an uninhabited system when the Defiant appeared out of hyperspace and slowed to a halt next to it.

"Alliance vessel Charon, this is the Defiant. Please come in?" Hotrod said over the com while Jack stood beside him.

"Charon this is the Defiant, anyone over there?"

The Autobot then looked up to the Prime with a worried expression. But before anything could be said, a voice came over the com.

"This is Charon, we read you Defiant." a male voice spoke, but it sounded very distant and void of emotion. Both guys looked at each as confusion took over before Hotrod spoke again.

"Yeah, why did it take you so long to reply Charon?"

Another long moment of silence followed as Jack crossed his arms and the pilot started tapping the arm rest of his chair.

"Sorry, but we had a problem with our com systems. We are repairing them as we speak." the voice said again.

"Well we have Jackson Prime here to see Dr Bryson on behalf of Admiral Bryce." Hotrod replied. While they waited for a reply, Jack turned to the holo-form of Teletraan.

"Does the Charon have any weapons to speak of?

A screen then appeared in front of the Prime and showed the schematics of the Charon.

"No Jackson Prime, the Charon is primarily a science vessel and so has no weapons to speak of."

Jack turned back to Hotrod just as the Charon responded.

"I am afraid that the Doctor is unavailable at this time. Sorry you came this way for nothing." the distant voice answered.

"Sounds like indoctrination to me" Arcee observed as she joined the Prime and Hotrod in the cockpit. The Commander smiled at her before looking back at Hotrod, his face returning to a more stoic like look.

"Hotrod, I've got a bad feeling about this so I am taking a shuttle and a team over there. And if they so much as attempt to flee, I want you to disable them." he said before heading for the elevator, gesturing to his partner who followed him.

"Will do Prime." Hotrod replied as he worked his controls.

As the shuttle left the Defiant and made the short journey over to the Charon, the science vessel made no attempts to move away. The shuttle then landed on the hull, over a small access hatch. In an empty room aboard the ship, the hatch opened and Jackson Prime (in his Prime Armour), Bumblebee, Arcee, Airachnid, Smokescreen and Jazz all dropped in with weapons ready. Jack then tapped his com link.

"Teletraan, what kind of defences do they have aboard this ship?"

"They only have pistols and some shock sticks Prime." the AI replied. Jack then looked to his team.

"Okay, set your weapons to stun rounds only. We will split up into two groups, Alpha will be made up of myself, Airachnid and Bumblebee. Our objective is to reach Dr Bryson and make sure he is alright. Beta will consist of Jazz and Smokescreen, Arcee you will be in charge." the femme smiled and nodded in return.

"And you objective is to secure the CIC." the Prime continued.

"We can do that Jack." Arcee replied as the group split up into their respective units. Smokescreen opened the door and Jazz peeked out into the corridor, but saw nothing.

"It's clear." he replied, gaining a nod from the femme as they started to leave the room. She looked back at Airachnid and gave her a slight smile.

"Look after Jack now." she said, trying to hide the concern in her voice.

The former Con smirked back.

"Don't worry Arcee, I keep an eye on him." she replied with a wink as the Prime shook his head.

"Okay, lets keep on mission. Beta team move out." Jack replied gaining a nod from Arcee and the others.

"We'll be back before you know it." Smokescreen said before he followed Arcee and Jazz out of the door. Jack then tapped his com link again.

"Teletraan, can you tell me where Dr Bryson is right now?"

"Of course Prime, I am uploading his location to your holo-tool." the AI replied. The Commander activated it and saw a layout of the ship and their approximate distance to their target.

"Okay let's roll." Jack replied as he deactivated his holo-tool and re-equipped his weapon. The three of them then headed out of the room and down the opposite way to Beta team.

Alpha team ran down the corridor and turned a corner to come face to face with four of the crew. Their faces looked devoid of emotion and their eyes looked empty. They were all armed with pistols and had them aimed right at the Prime and his team.

"You do not belong here, leave now." one of the said in a toneless voice. Jack thought about saying some think but then just shook his head.

'This would be like talking to a brick wall.' he thought to himself, so he shook his head in response. The crewmen tightened their grips on the pistols.

"Now!" Jack said and the three of them fired at the indoctrinated enemies, the stun bullets hit each one. Causing them to go into shock as they collapsed on to the ground, unconscious taking hold. Bumblebee walked over and scanned them with his holo-tool.

"They are going to be fine Jack." he said as Jack looked down the corridor towards a T-junction.

"Well lets keep moving." he replied as they left the crewmen where they were and moved down to the junction. Airachnid looked down one corridor, while Jack the other. He then peeked at the map on his holo-tool.

"This way." he said, gaining the other's attention as they joined him.

Meanwhile Beta team had made it to the CIC without any real trouble, the three of them were outside the room and Jazz had his holo-tool activated as he took a scan of the room.

"Well folks, we have seven hostiles in there right now, and they are scattered around the room, one is right behind this door." he stated as he readied his weapon. Arcee moved herself to the other side of the door and prepared herself.

"Alright, I will go in first and subdue this one, then I will draw the others attention and allow you two to take them down. Are we clear?"

Both bots nodded in agreement, gaining a smile from the femme as she held up her SMG with one hand. The other held over the door controls, she then took a breath before hitting the panel. The door opened to reveal a crewmember who just looked at her blankly, Arcee did not take another second as she ran through the doorway and punched the crewman in the face, she then grabbed him and threw him over the table behind. This gained the attention of the others who stared at her just as blankly before raising their weapons.

As they fired back, the femme jumped over the table and took cover behind it. They then started to move in on the blue bot, but as they got closer. Smokescreen and Jazz entered the room and fired a shot at each crewman while their attention was elsewhere. When all the indoctrinated crew were down and out, the three of them secured the room and Arcee activated her com link.

"Beta to Alpha, come in Alpha."

"Alpha here, what's your status Arcee?" Jack said as his voice came through over the link.

"We have secured the CIC and locked it down." she replied.

"Good work, we are almost at Bryson, according to Teletraan there are only a few crewmen left to deal with."

"Do you need help?" the femme asked.

"Just remain at the CIC Arcee, we've got it handled here. Prime out." the Prime replied confidently before shutting down the link. Arcee then turned to her team mates.

"Okay, lets secure this guys before they reawaken."

On the other side of the Charon, Jack, Airachnid and Bumblebee had just made it to the the science lab and found that Dr Bryson was being held captive by the remaining crewmen, and were waiting for them. There was one standing with Bryson on his knees beside him, he had a pistol pointed at the doctor's head. At either side were two more crew, their pistols aimed at Alpha team.

"You do not belong here, leave now!" the hostage taker said, his voice sounded like it had another voice underlining it, a more older and alien voice. Jack thought it sounded similar to when harbinger took over the body of Dr Henson.

"You give us Dr Bryson and we will leave." The Prime replied, but this only seemed to make the crewman angry.

"No, it is because of this one that we find ourselves in danger again." he replied, his expression was so much different to the others, one of anger and fear.

"And so we need to keep ourselves in the shadows, so that the others will not find us."

Jack listened to possessed crewmen, but all the while he looked around the room and spotted what looked to be a crystal sphere at the far end of the room, sitting on a table. It looked completely black, just like any Reaper artefact, but instead of the blue energy that you would associate with such tech, this one had red like fire emanating from it.

"Who are the others, do you mean the Reapers?" the Commander asked, gaining a change in it's expression as the crewman's eyes started to glow red.

"Reapers….a name given by organics to something that they can not understand."

"Then help us to understand them?" Jack asked as he lowered his weapon.

"No…..we have exposed ourselves for too long already." the crewman replied as he prepared to pull the trigger.

"Once this one is dead, we can fade back into the shadows."

He then looked back down to Bryson and started to pull the trigger.

"No!" Jack shouted as he fired back, hitting the crewman's arm and gaining his attention. The two other crewmen started firing back, making the Alpha team dive behind cover. The lead crewman who was unfazed by the Prime's attack grabbed Bryson by his arm and pulled him up onto his feet.

"You will pay for your defiance." he answered as he then positioned his gun behind the Doctor's back and fired, the shot ripped right through Bryson's back and out of his chest spraying blood everywhere. The hostage then fell to the floor, landing face down as blood started form a puddle under him. Jack then gritted his teeth and launched himself over the work top he had used for cover and fired at the lead crewman, who just stared at him. Meanwhile Bumblebee and Airachnid took out the two other crew easily, but the one that was possessed did not even flinch as Jack's bullets appeared to not have an effect.

"You are out of your element here, now be gone." he replied as he raised his pistol at the Prime. But Jack then saw the artifact again and raised his weapon and fired at it, knocking the sphere off the table and it hit the floor, cracking it. Suddenly the crewman fell to the ground, as if whatever had taken him over was now gone. The Commander then ran over to Dr Bryson and turned him onto his back. The Doctor opened his eyes and looked at Jack, while blood starting spilling out from his mouth.

"Don't worry Doctor, we will fix you up." the Prime said as he activated a pack of medi-gel, while Airachnid knelt down beside them. The Doctor though shook his head slowly.

"It's too late for me, I am guessing Bryce sent you." he replied through the pain.

"Yes, I am Commander Darby of the Defiant." Jack said while the femme tended to the Doctor's chest wound.

"Jackson Prime, I always wanted to meet you."

"Save your strength, we can still talk." the Prime said back but Bryson shook his head again before pointing towards a computer.

"No we won't, but everything you need is in my database."

"what we need?" Jack asked back.

"To find…. Lucifer!" Bryson replied before his eyes glazed over and his body went limp, his outstretched arm falling to the floor. Jack just sighed as Airachnid shook her head and looked back at the Prime.

"I am sorry Jack." she said sadly as she packed up the medi-gel.

"It's not your fault Air." he replied gaining a surprised look from the femme, who then nodded back. They then just stayed there for a long moment as Bumblebee kept an eye on the stunned crewmen.

It had been over an hour since the entity that had he whole crew of he Charon under is influence had been cast out, unfortunately it was also a hour since Dr Bryson was murdered by said entity too. The crew had recovered and resumed their duties as Jack had took command until the were ready to head back to the fleet, meanwhile Airachnid was helping with the Doctor's research. Jack entered the lab and walked over to the femme who was to busy looking over some data on a large holo-screen to notice.

"Airachnid, how is it going?" he asked gaining the femme's attention.

"Well the doctor was definitely tracking this entity and he believes that it was responsible for killing the Reaper that the Alliance found in the Malleos system. That Reaper corpse was carbon dated to be one hundred thousand years old, so it would have been during the purge of the Lothine. But he also has proof that this entity was also responsible for the destruction of a Reaper found by the Batarians, they called it the Leviathan of Dis. And that was carbon dated at around four million years old."

"So this Lucifer as Bryson called it managed to kill two Reapers, it is definitely something worthless looking into. Why Lucifer though?" Jack asked while looking overarching the screen.

"Maybe because he believes that it is a Reaper." She replied as she brought up more information for Jack to see.

"A Reaper, how did he come to that conclusion?" the Prime asked.

"Well it appears that he managed to get his hands on the scan results from both Reaper corpses, now each has the weapon signature of the one that killed them burnt into their damaged parts. He then searched for known energy signatures that would match, he found one." Airachnid said as she continued to type.

"And that was?" the Commander asked, listening to the femme's every word.

"Sovereign, it's beam weapon."

"So Lucifer is a Reaper, a Reaper that attacks it's own kind. Makes sense why he would call it that name." he replied as Arcee joined them.

"Found anything?" she asked as she stood beside Airachnid.

"Yes, Lucifer is a Reaper and Jack was about to tell us why Dr Bryson called it that." the femme said with a smile, Arcee then looked at Jack too. The Prime suddenly felt very self conscious as both femmes watched him.

"Oh, okay. In Earth religion Lucifer was one the Archangels in heaven and when God created Humanity, He asked all angels to bow down to them, but Lucifer said that humans were below the angels and that he would never bow down to a lower form of life. He then rebelled and so was cast out of Heaven and down into Hell by the Archangel Michael."

The two femmes just stood there and listened to the Prime until he finished.

"Interesting, so Bryson believes what…that this Reaper rebelled against the others. If that is true, it might be worth trying to get it on our side." Arcee replied, gaining a nod from Airachnid.

"I don't know, this Reaper could turn out to be just as dangerous as the rest of them, except in this war it is a wild card." Jack said in return, but Airachnid shook her head in response.

"I agree with Arcee on this one Jack." she said, gaining a smile from the femme.

"After all, if the Reapers are looking for it. What's that Human saying, the enemy of my enemy…"

Jack had to agree with her there and so smiled back at both of them.

"Alright, so how do we go about finding a rogue Reaper who doesn't want to be found?"

Airachnid turned back to the screen and brought up a number of coordinates.

"Here is all the planets that Bryson believed could have been hiding places for Lucifer."

Jack walked over and activated his com link.

"Teletraan, I am about to link you up to the Charon's computer. I want you to run a full analysis of Bryson's database and see if you can triangulate the location of Lucifer."

"Very well Prime. This will not take long." the AI responded as it's holo-form appeared next to the screen. The data said screen suddenly started speeding down as Teletraan began processing it all. The Prime and two femmes waited patiently for a long moment before an image of the galaxy appeared with a red dot in in an area of it. Jack smiled and looked over to the femmes.

"We got it." he said as Arcee and Airachnid looked over to him.

"Looks like we are Reaper hunting then." Arcee said before Jack looked over to one of the crewmen who were working in the room.

"We are heading out now, will you be alright getting the Charon back to the fleet?"

The man looked back at the Prime sombrely.

"Yes, I am sorry for what happened to the Doctor, we were friends."

Jack placed his hand on the crewman's shoulder.

"It's not your fault, the Reaper had control of you. Don't go blaming yourself." he said gaining a sheepish nod from the man. But suddenly the ship's alarm system activated, causing the corridor and room lights to go red.

"Defiant report." Jack said into his com link.

"Teletraan here Prime, three Sovereign class Reapers have appeared in the system and are heading this way."

Arcee and Airachnid's eyes widened in response. The Prime though remained calm as he looked back at the crewman.

"Once our shuttle un-docks, jump to hyperspace. We will keep the Reapers busy, alright."

The crewman nodded and walked away to the CIC as the Prime and the two femmes headed in the opposite direction.

The Reaper ships closed in on the two Alliance ships, one of the three had six glowing eyes and could only be Harbinger. Suddenly the shuttle disconnected from the Charon's hull and flew toward the Defiant, the science vessel then veered away before jumping to hyperspace leaving the Defiant to contend with the three behemoths.

As they approached with their beam weapon ports charging, the shuttle flew directly into the shuttle bay before the Defiant pulled into a dive as Harbinger fired it's beam which narrowly missed. The two other Reapers then fired causing the Alliance frigate to spin and dodge the attacks before flying directly at the Leader. Harbinger just stared at the Defiant as it stayed on course, it's beam weapon powering up with a deadly red glow. Then it fired and yet again the Defiant turned ninety degrees on it's side and missed the beam before flying past Harbinger and jumping to hyperspace.

PRIME EFFECT 3

In another part of the galaxy, the Defiant reappeared from hyperspace and flew toward a grey, moon looking planet. In the cockpit Jack and Arcee was standing next to Hotrod, the pilot looking very happy with himself.

"Come on, wasn't that the best flying you have seen or what?" he said cockily. Jack just shook his head and smiled.

"Yes Hotrod, it was brilliant. How many times do you want to hear that?"

The young Autobot just shrugged his shoulders as his grin went even bigger.

"You shouldn't have asked me that Prime because I will be asking none stop now."

He then looked at his readouts and his expression changed to serious.

"We are approaching the planet Karumto." he said as Jack looked over the information on the screen next to him.

"Prime, Karumto is uninhabitable. It's surface is covered in volcanoes which have made the atmosphere unbreathable, due to the amount of ash and carbon dioxide, not to mention the earthquakes that regularly occur due to the instability of the planet's core."

Jack looked down at the screen and a smirk appeared on his face.

"So basically the planet is Hell." he stated. The AI stayed quiet for a moment as it took in the Prime's comment.

"An interesting observation."

Jack then looked over at Hotrod.

"Stay in orbit, I will take down a team via the shuttle. Meanwhile keep scanning for Harbinger or any other Reapers. It was no coincidence that they turned up when they did earlier, they are looking for Lucifer too. So if they do turn up, I want you to hide the Defiant behind this planet's moon and await my signal okay?" he said gaining a nod from the pilot.

"Will do Prime, just be careful down there." he replied. Jack smiled back before walking back down to the CIC and the elevator. Not long after the shuttle left the Defiant and flew down into the planet's atmosphere while the Frigate moved over to it's neighbouring moon to hide.

Once down on the planet surface, Jack, Arcee, Airachnid and Bumblebee all climbed out of the shuttle via it's hatch and looked around (with breather helmets on). The surface definitely looked like something hellish. There were volcanoes as far as the eye could see and more than half of them were active, there was also lava beds running close by. It looked like nothing living could survive here.

"What a hell hole." Airachnid said as she felt the heat through her suit. Arcee nudged her gently, getting the femme's attention.

"This was just as bad as the time Optimus and I were trapped in the Artic. That was not that different…..well except for the temperature."

Jack activated his holo-tool and immediately picked up a strange signal emanating from the volcano directly ahead and it was absolutely massive, it looked like the Everest of volcanoes.

"Okay guys, it's this way." he said as he started to move.

"Jack wait." Bumblebee called out as he stopped the Prime and handed him a device.

"What's this Bee?" he asked as he looked down at what was in his hands.

"That is shield amplifier, Raf designed it. It should be able to withstand the extreme heat of the volcano for a limited time that is." the scout replied.

"Thanks, do we all have one?" the Commander asked, gaining a head shake from the Autobot.

"Sorry, that's a working prototype. So we can't go along, but we can wait here for you."

Jack looked back down at the amplifier and then back up to his team mates.

"Right, I will be back before you know it." he said as he connected the device to his armour and watched as his personal shield doubled in strength. He was about to walk away when he suddenly noticed Arcee staying at him worriedly.

"Jack…." she said hesitantly with concern in her voice. Jack though just smiled at her reassuringly.

"I'll be fine Arcee, don't worry." he replied. The femme simply nodded back before the Prime turned and began the short trek to the volcano.

When he made it to the base of the volcano Jack looked back to see the shuttle in the distance, a small spec on the horizon. It had taken him a while to reach it, but now that he had a chance to see how far he had walked. It was quite a distance, he looked at his holo-tool and saw that the counter for his shield strength was still ninety nine percent. The Prime looked up the mountain side, it was certainly to high for him to climb. But something caught his eye and he noticed a large cave like entrance just to his left and so he walked over to it. Once he was in the cave, the temperature shot up immeasurably. His shield strength went down to ninety four percent in one go, but then stayed there. Jack sighed in relief before descending into the cave as the heat from the volcano blew out through the naturally made corridor.

He walked down what felt like an never ending descent through the cave, to his right was another lava bed that was illuminating Jack's surroundings. He turned a corner and entered a massive chamber which held an even bigger lava bed in front of him. The Commander looked at his holo-tool, the signal was coming from this exact spot and also his shield strength was down to eighty six percent. He looked around but could not see anything of interest, but when he looked up. He saw the top of the volcano and the sky above, he was at the center of it, but it looked nothing like the volcanoes he had studied at school when he was younger.

'Could this be Lucifer's doing?' he thought to himself. Suddenly the room began to shake as what felt like an earthquake erupted around him. The lava began to stir and spill over the sides of the ground that Jack was standing on, causing him to back track so not to get any on him. Then at the center of the lake of lava, a black tip appeared before it rose out of the molten magma, revealing more of it's shape.

In just a few seconds Jack found himself standing before the recognisable shape of a Reaper that was hovering just above him. It was about the same size as Harbinger, but with noticeable differences like instead of the blue like energy that ran though the Reaper's outer shell, this one had a fiery red energy. Plus it's eyes instead of being yellow like Harbinger, they too were red. Jack just stood there for the longest moment in awe of the sight before him.

"You have come too far." it said with anger tinged in it's voice.

Jack felt his head ache for a second before finding his voice.

"I had to find you." he said.

"We warned you, yet you still came for us. What will it take for you to leave us alone." it replied. Jack though did not budge as the Reaper's beam weapon powered up.

Look, you killed Dr Bryson. That was not necessary when all we wanted to do was talk to you."

"You do not understand."

"Then help me understand then, You have killed Reapers, I want to know why." the Prime said. The Reaper just looked at him.

"They are the enemy, one that seeks our destruction. But what do you want?"

Jack suddenly felt like his head was about to explode as he fell to his knees and clutched at his helmet.

"We see your memories, your very soul. So you are a disciple of Primus, it has been such a long time since we were in the presence of a Prime."

Jack looked at it in surprise.

"You have met a Prime before?" he asked with a somewhat confused expression.

"Yes, billions of cycles ago in a time before we became the thing that is before you now."

Jack then suddenly saw images flash before his eyes as the Reaper began speaking in his mind.

"You see we were once an organic life form like yourself. Our original form was similar to the shape that this body has."

"You were an aquatic race?" Jack asked observantly.

"That is correct, we lived in oceans on a number of worlds. We believed that we were the first race in the galaxy to become sentient and then evolve to the first advanced civilisation. We mastered interstellar travel and colonised these ocean like worlds as our own. But then he came."

"He?" the Prime asked as he listened and watched the memories before him.

"Unicron the Chaos Bringer."

Jack saw the image of a giant biomechanical planet appear before him as it attacked one of the ocean planets.

"Unicron began devouring our worlds, murdering millions of us. One world after another fell to the deity. And when we had just one world remaining, he appeared again and we feared the extinction of our race. And then they appeared."

The Commander then saw the silhouettes of thirteen Cybertronians appear before Unicron.

"The Thirteen Primes!" Jack said in surprise.

"Yes, they fought with Unicron and managed to drive him away from our last remaining world."

"And after that, what happened?"

"The Primes left and chased after the Chaos Bringer, finally defeating him years later. We then began to rebuild, but after several thousand years, just when we finally reached the strength of our previous empire, war broke out between us. A war that tore our empire in two."

"A civil war, why. How did it happen?" Jack asked while noting the counter on his holo-tool.

"It just happened, one day a number of us did not agree with the rest and so that disagreement turned to anger and then hate. And before we knew it, we were at war with our brothers and sisters. And then that was when it arrived."

"What was it?" the Commander asked.

"It was a very dark very old power, it had the shape of a giant. It's shadow cast darkness over our empire as it began to harvest our race and mold us into the first three Reapers."

"The first three?"

"We were the first, the one you call Harbinger was the sceond and finally Sovereign after that. The dark power gave us an order. To harvest the galaxy every hundred thousand years, and to give one organic race per cycle the honour of becoming like us."

"And then what happened. Did you do as it told you?" Jack said looking up at the Reaper.

"No, for some reason the indoctrination being forced on us by our creator did not take hold of us, our minds remained and we did not agree on this slaughter at such a galactic scale. So we rebelled and was chased away by our brothers."

Jack kept quiet for a second as he thought on what the Reaper had told him, and then he looked back up.

"What happened after that?"

"We hid, we were no match for both Harbinger and Sovereign. So we took refuge in the dark areas of the galaxy and watched, as the ones you call Reapers harvested and purged one cycle of the galaxy after another. So many lives lost."

"What of Cybertron, did you see that?"

"Yes we saw the Cybertronians, the ones who descended from the Thirteen themselves. We also saw their war, long and bloody and full of hate. We also noticed that our brothers left them alone."

"Do you know why?"

"We do not, we rebelled before the dark power revealed all to us."

"Look I know you want to stay hidden, but we could really use your help against the Reapers now. If you join us, you can fight your brothers and help us end this." Jack pleaded with them.

"But we are only one Reaper against billions of our brothers."

"You won't be fighting alone, I am attempting to forge an Alliance of all the races of this current cycle. We are also building a super weapon called the Crucible. If you join us, we can end this."

"We have seen your past through your memories Jackson Prime. And we are impressed by what you have accomplished, you killed our brother Sovereign. You defeated the plans of Harbinger and his Quintessons, the Reapers no doubt consider you a threat. We will join you Prime."

Jack smiled before suddenly his com link went off.

"Jack, it's Arcee. Hotrod just called us, the Reapers have appeared in orbit and are making their descent. We are bringing the shuttle over to you now." the femme said before the transmission was cut off. Jack looked back at the Reaper.

"The Reapers are here, we need to leave now." he said.

"We will assist you Prime. But when this is all over and our brothers are put to rest..."

"Yes?" the Prime asked curiously.

"We ask that you allow us to be destroyed as well, for we have grown tired of this existence and when our brothers die, we too wish to join them."

Jack nodded in return.

"Alright, when this is all over, I will allow you to die." he answered sombrely. He then turned to leave before stopping and looking back to the Reaper.

"What should we call you?"

"The Doctor that we wrongfully terminated called us 'Lucifer'. In reading your mind we have come to see the meaning of this name and we find it adequate. Now go before our brother arrives."

"Thank you Lucifer." Jack replied before running back out of the chamber and up the tunnel to the surface.

Once out of the cave, he found the shuttle directly ahead of him hovering slightly off the ground. The hatch opened and Arcee held her hand out.

"Jack come on!" she called out to him, Jack responded by running up to it and climbing in. Bumblebee closed the hatch behind the Prime, as the shuttle flew up into the sky as the three Reapers came ever closer.

"Commander, we have three enemy ships directly ahead." the shuttle pilot called to the Prime nervously.

"Evasive manoeuvres pilot." Jack replied in return. Harbinger then fired his beam weapon which narrowly missed the shuttle as the two other Reapers took positions either side of the small Alliance ship.

"They have us boxed in." Airachnid observed as the three Reapers powered up their beams for one final attack. Suddenly below them the volcano erupted sending lava and ash high into the sky. Then as the ash cloud began to spread out around the volcano, a red energy beam fired out and hit the first Reaper dead on in it's center. The black behemoth exploded in one shot as Lucfier ascended out of the cloud and up to it's brother. Harbinger turned and looked down, it's eyes burning a bright yellow in rage at what it saw.

Meanwhile the shuttle veered away from the family brawl that was about to start but the second Reaper turned to chase them as it neared firing strength. But then suddenly Lucifer fired again, in cutting action the beam sliced through the Reaper. Splitting it into two pieces that fell and crashed into the ground below. Then both Lucifer and the shuttle made the ascent into space as Harbinger held back.

"You will pay for this betrayal... brother!" Harbinger cried out.

Once in orbit the shuttle docked with the Defiant as Lucifer hovered nearby. Jack and his team arrived in the CIC and went straight up to the cockpit. Hotrod looked over to the Prime rather nervously.

"Commander, you do know we have a large Reaper right next to us don't you?"

Jack placed a hand on his pilot's shoulder and smiled.

"Don't worry Hotrod, this Reaper is on our side." he said confidently. Then the Lucifer's voice could be heard throughout the ship as it spoke into their minds.

"When the time comes for you to begin the final battle, call our name and we will be there. And do not forget the promise you made us Prime."

Jack nodded as he looked out of the Cockpit windows at the black ship.

"I will not Lucifer and thank you." he replied stoically. The Reaper then moved away from the Defiant and jumped into hyperspace.

"Okay Hotrod, get us out of here before Harbinger decides to take another shot at us." the Prime said, gaining a nod from the Autobot.

"Aye aye sir."

The Defiant then flew away from Karumto and jumped into the safety of hyperspace.