Ratchet rubbed his head and slowly got back to his feet. As he sorted through the information he had read, he explained, "This one had a bomb hidden in her head, but that's a minor issue... She came to Earth... to look for Megatron's corpse! Getting close to Charlie was part of that objective too. It looks like she has several companions, and they should all have infiltrated human society."
"What about Optimus Prime? Was there anything about Optimus Prime?" Arcee pressed anxiously.
Large amounts of data flashed rapidly through Ratchet's electronic eyes as he searched through the Pretender's past memories.
The Pretender's status was honestly very low. She knew that her side had captured the enemy leader, but she had no idea exactly where he was being held.
"I'll go look around Washington, D.C. Send me there." Natasha volunteered. Originally, she had been following her mother's instructions to keep an eye on her stepfather, afraid he might make a mistake at this critical time and destroy their family.
If the family fell apart, it would also affect her relationship with Bella. No matter what, Charlie absolutely could not have an affair right now.
She had never expected this situation to yield an unexpected bonus. If the enemy could come seduce Charlie, then naturally they could seduce other members of Congress as well, and the average legislator's resistance to temptation really was not very high...
"All right." Bella agreed and sent Natasha back to Washington, D.C.
Arcee, who could transform into a motorcycle, also volunteered to help. The two of them stepped through the portal together.
"Can you find any more clues from this one's corpse?" Jazz asked Bella.
Looking at the Pretender's corpse, which still vaguely maintained a human shape, Bella scratched her head. What could she possibly do with this? If it were a human, she could raise it as an undead, but this thing was a silicon-based lifeform! Did undeath even work on a lifeform like this? Even the founding masters of necromancy probably had no idea!
She stabbed the corpse more than a dozen times with Frostmourne, up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right. Nothing! A corpse was still a corpse. Necromancy was simply the wrong tool for the job; there was no reaction at all!
Still, it gave her a new line of thought. She had personally witnessed Optimus Prime kill Megatron back then: one sword through the Spark, followed by decapitation. For a Transformer, that counted as complete death. Optimus Prime had not held back in the slightest.
In Bella's current timeline, Megatron's death was different from what happened in the first Transformers movie. In the film, Sam Witwicky overloaded Megatron with the AllSpark and his body was then dumped into the Mariana Trench. In reality, that Megatron had not met Cybertronian standards for true death. His Spark had not suffered a fatal injury; at most, the sudden influx of energy had overloaded it. An AllSpark fragment could reactivate him.
But the Megatron of this timeline was thoroughly dead. Forget an AllSpark fragment—even feeding him the entire AllSpark would do nothing. If they wanted to resurrect him, they could only use the Matrix of Leadership.
Everything suddenly became clear. Bella used the Cauldron of the Cosmos to observe Egypt. She had never seen the Matrix of Leadership and couldn't simply use its appearance in the movie as a reference, but she was certain of its general function, or at least of its ability to resurrect Megatron. Those were secrets, things unknown to others. Using that secret as a lead, she could begin tracing the Matrix.
For the Cauldron of the Cosmos, the greater the distance and the longer the span of time, the greater the deviation. Right now, everything was on Earth at the same time, so observation was easy.
A cloud of mist rose from the mouth of the cauldron. More than a dozen images flashed past in quick succession before finally freezing on a pair of dark red electronic eyes.
A fully metallic face, long and thin, with a crown on its head and a metal beard along its jaw. This was an extremely old Transformer. He held a metal staff and stood at least forty feet tall, about twelve meters, more than two meters taller than Optimus Prime.
"Huh?" Bella was just about to study the enemy carefully and gauge his strength when she suddenly saw him turn around and look straight at her through the Cauldron of the Cosmos.
That glance carried immense mental power. Unlike human mental power, this Transformer's had a distinctly metallic quality: cold, gloomy, and utterly emotionless. It was clearly an invisible force, yet when it reached her through the Cauldron of the Cosmos, Bella felt as though she were staring at a towering mountain cast entirely from metal.
This was The Fallen! One of Cybertron's Thirteen Primes.
"You want to play this game with me? Then let me see your secrets!" Bella resisted his mental power while projecting her own Psionic Power toward him.
Mental power, telekinesis, and Psionic Power were all invisible forces. The main difference was that mental power and telekinesis depended on cells and the brain, while Bella's Psionic Power relied entirely on her own mind.
At lower levels, mind reading was an absurdly powerful ability. At higher levels, practically any top-tier powerhouse would have ways to read minds and block mind reading. Without similar defenses, it was like walking outside naked.
Bella and The Fallen both qualified as top-tier powerhouses by then.
The Fallen attacked, Bella defended and counterattacked, and he immediately raised his own defense. The two exchanged two rapid rounds of blows across the distance, mental power against Psionic Power, and neither side gained an advantage.
"Impressive!" Bella displayed The Fallen's image for Jazz and the others while marveling inwardly. Who said Transformers were all explosions, explosions, and more explosions? This one's mental power was unbelievably strong! He could actually contend with her, a demigod. She vaguely remembered that he also had a whole collection of abilities like Teleportation and Anti-Gravity. He was definitely powerful.
Jazz had already shouted, "It's The Fallen! This guy should already be dead!"
Having followed Optimus Prime for many years, Jazz knew about the ancient Primes and recognized him at a glance.
The Fallen waved a hand from the other side, blocking the Cauldron of the Cosmos's observation. When Bella tried to look again, all she could see was white mist.
"Where is he?"
"If I'm not mistaken, Egypt."
"Then let's hurry to Egypt! Now, immediately, right this second!" Jazz said eagerly. Ironhide even raised the two huge guns in his hands.
"Wait. Hear me out. We can't keep reacting this passively. I have a better plan."
Bella rejected the suggestion that they rush over and start fighting right now.
The Autobots' habit of dealing with problems only when and where they cropped up—running to wherever the enemy appeared and trying to stop them there—really did not work. It was far too passive!
Bella was not even confident she could defeat The Fallen alone. His mental power was anything but weak, and then there were abilities like Teleportation and Anti-Gravity. Without bringing in the Ghost Avengers and using every trump card she had, she had no confidence at all.
She could call Kong in for support, but Kong would not budge without a reward, and Bella's supply of genuine dragon meat was getting smaller and smaller. Using it here felt wasteful. In her opinion, matters involving the Transformers were better left for Optimus Prime to handle.