Rushing into the inner sanctum of the temple, the group resumed their search for the hidden tomb entrance, retracing the steps they had taken over the previous few hours.
This time, they made a discovery almost immediately.
"Sam, get over here, quick!" Mikaela's voice echoed urgently from the shadows. She was crouching near a weathered stone wall where a deep, narrow fissure had split the rock.
"What is it, Mikaela?" Sam asked, rushing to her side with Simmons and Leo close behind, while Bumblebee and the twins filtered into the chamber after them.
"Look inside," Mikaela pointed toward the split. "There's something in there."
"What kind of something?" Simmons muttered. "I could swear we already checked this wall."
Sam crouched down beside Mikaela, pressing his face close to the smooth stone to peer into the dark opening. With just a single look, a spark of recognition flared in his eyes. "The symbols!"
Beyond the narrow, arm-span crack lay a hollow, pitch-black space. Guided by the faint shafts of morning light filtering through the high ceiling, he caught the cold metallic sheen of an ancient artifact engraved with the exact glyphs burned into his mind.
"Everyone back up!" Sam scrambled to his feet, waving the others away before looking up at the scout. "Blast it open, Bee."
"Leave it to me, Sam," Bumblebee chirped, stepping forward as his right arm shifted into a plasma cannon, locking onto the fractured section of the wall.
BOOM!
The localized blast of the plasma cannon reverberated through the hollow sanctuary. Outside on the monolithic platform, several heavy impacts shook the stone steps as giant metallic feet touched down, but the thunderous echo of the explosion completely masked the sound.
Clatter, clatter—
As the dust and stone chips settled, a jagged hole just wide enough for a human to crawl through was revealed. Sam and the others moved quickly through the haze, staring into the dark subterranean chamber beyond. Bumblebee had precisely regulated the yield of his cannon; had he unleashed any more power, he would have brought the entire ancient ceiling down upon their heads.
"Flashlights out!" Sam commanded, ducking low to lead the way through the breach.
The sharp beams of their lights pierced the gloom, bringing a hidden sanctum that had been sealed for a million years back into the light of the living. After a few short paces, the narrow tunnel opened into a vast, cavernous vault.
Rising out of the darkness were several towering, skeletal metallic chassis, standing in a silent, eternal circle around a raised circular altar. Atop the altar sat an object that cast a pale, silvery reflection beneath the sweep of their lights.
"Look at that... this must be the tomb that Jetfire old-timer was talking about," Simmons whispered, his voice hushed in reverence.
"And these guys... they must be the ancient Primes," Leo added, keeping close to Sam as they navigated the tomb.
"Hey! Anyone home?" Simmons called out, his voice bouncing off the ancient walls in hollow, fading echoes.
"What is that on the pedestal?" Mikaela asked, her light locked onto the center of the room.
"Let's find out."
The group approached the altar, their combined lights illuminating the artifact clearly. It was a twisted, stylized metallic key shaped like a triangular pyramid, its core swirling with a faint, pulsing blue radiance.
"The Matrix of Leadership," Sam breathed.
"Careful, kid," Simmons warned, holding his breath.
"I know."
Taking a slow, steadying breath, Sam reached out and carefully lifted the ancient relic from its resting place. The moment it left the stone altar, however, the Matrix reacted as if it had been severed from its life support. The swirling blue energy frozen instantly, and the entire structure began to dissolve into shimmering, crystalline dust.
Simultaneously, the surrounding sentinels of the Dynasty of Primes began to disintegrate, their ancient metal frames crumbling like dry sand, raining down onto the floor until nothing remained but a ring of grey dust.
The entire process took less than three seconds.
Before any of them could process what had happened, the legendary treasure of Cybertron was gone. Simmons, Leo, and Mikaela stared at each other in stunned silence, completely lost.
"Whoa... a million-year-old artifact just turned into cat litter," Leo remarked, trying to break the heavy silence. "At least we got to witness a legend die."
"How can this be?" Sam stared blankly at his empty hands, touching the fine metallic residue left upon the stone altar.
"Does this mean it's destroyed?" Mikaela asked uncertainty. "If it's gone, at least it saves us the trouble of hiding it from The Fallen."
"Maybe..." Simmons looked around at the empty pillars, a sudden wave of emptiness washing over him. "Is that it? It's just over? The grand mission to save the world is complete?"
"No medals? No applause? Not even a crowd cheering for us?" Simmons muttered. He felt the climax of a world-saving adventure should involve spotlights and global recognition, cementing their status as international heroes.
"What else did you expect? A parade?"
"Well, naturally—"
"Shh!" Leo's expression sharpened suddenly, his head tilting toward the tunnel. "Did you guys hear that?"
"Hear what?" the other three asked, turning to him.
BOOM!
A deafening explosion tore through the sanctuary outside, shaking the cavern walls.
"Move! Get out there!"
Forgetting their confusion over the dissolved Matrix, the group scrambled back through the breach in the stone wall, sprinting toward the grand pylon gate of the sanctuary.
The moment they emerged into the daylight, their blood ran cold. Bumblebee was pinned to the stone floor, a heavy mechanical foot planted firmly on his chest. Several other Decepticons stood arrayed across the platform, weapons deployed. Skids and Mudflap were crumpled nearby, unconscious, with two Decepticon enforcers aiming heavy repeaters directly at their heads.
Sam looked up along the towering frame of the warrior pinning Bumblebee, his optics widening in sheer terror as he recognized the distinctive black-and-red silhouette.
"Skygnaw!"
Skygnaw paid no attention to the struggle beneath his foot. After concluding his meeting with Clarice, he had returned directly to Egypt, only to find that Megatron had already initiated the slaughter in Yunu. Shortly after, a secure encrypted update from Clarice's tracking network flagged Sam's location at the ruins near Aqaba. Skygnaw had tracked them effortlessly from the border checkpoint to this very mountain.
"Skygnaw! What are you doing here?" Bumblebee thrashed violently beneath his foot, but the scout couldn't budge the massive Commander-class frame an inch.
Skygnaw casually scanned the architecture of the temple. Back in Shibuya, he had easily captured Bumblebee while fighting four Autobots at once; facing a single Elite-class scout now was trivial. As for the twins, Skids and Mudflap? He completely ignored them. A pair of minor skirmishers wasn't worth a glance.
Simmons nudged Leo aside, subtly edging closer to Sam. His jaw barely moved as he hissed a warning through his teeth: "Kid, whatever you do, don't let this Decepticon know we found the tomb of the—"
"Skygnaw, you came for the key, didn't you?" Sam interrupted, his voice frantic as he stepped forward. The situation was too desperate for stealth. He had already cost Optimus his life; he couldn't let Bumblebee be destroyed because of him. "The Matrix that activates the machine The Fallen built?"
The Matrix? Skygnaw thought, a slight pause registering in his processors. He realized the human was referring to the Matrix of Leadership.
"Correct," Skygnaw nodded, his voice deep and rumbling. "Is it in your possession, boy?"
"Yes," Sam said, a flicker of panic crossing his eyes as he held his ground. "It's right here. I just pulled it from the altar."
"Excellent." Seeing Sam's obvious agitation, Skygnaw didn't question the claim, assuming the youth was merely terrified of him. After all, they had a history, and Skygnaw had personally captured him not long ago. Furthermore, he couldn't help but admire the narrative weight of the human protagonist—finding the key in less than forty-eight hours was an efficiency that left Onslaught's tracking squads in the dust.
"Hand over the Matrix, and I will give you my word: Bumblebee lives." Skygnaw glanced toward the crumpled forms of the twins, who had been beaten into stasis by Obsidian and Strika. "And those two as well."
If the Autobots were his leverage, the Matrix was Sam's shield. This was the sole reason Skygnaw hadn't simply leveled the structure upon arrival; if the human panicked and detonated the artifact out of spite, this entire operation would be a waste of resources. While the Matrix of Leadership was an ancient relic, he wasn't about to test its durability against human desperation.
"Do we have a deal?" Skygnaw asked, retracting his integrated photon cannon as a gesture of bad faith negotiation.
Without a word of acknowledgement, Sam turned on his heel and ducked back into the dark interior of the sanctuary. Simmons, Mikaela, and Leo exchanged terrified glances, swallowing hard under the gaze of the Decepticons.
Skygnaw watched Sam disappear into the ruins, a faint anomaly registering in his tactical routines, though he couldn't quite pinpoint the discrepancy.
Inside the dark vault, Sam moved with frantic speed, scrambling through the breach. "Don't look close, please don't look close..." he muttered like a mantra, desperately scooping the fine, metallic sand of the dissolved Matrix into a coarse cloth sack. He weighed the bundle in his hand, his heart hammering against his ribs. Please let him fall for it.
After a quick sweep to ensure no large metallic particles were left behind, Sam hoisted the sack and crawled back through the hole. Emerging into the sunlight, he raised the bundle with both hands, opening the neck of the cloth. "This is what you wanted. The Matrix."
Skygnaw looked down at the offering, his processor instantly flashing a series of syntax errors.
Inside the sack was nothing but a heap of pulverized metallic dust.
"Are you playing games with me, boy?" Skygnaw's optics narrowed, shifting his gaze toward the dark corridor behind the humans. He fully intended to inspect the sealed vault himself.
Though Skygnaw's voice remained calm, the absolute lack of emotion sent a wave of pure dread through the humans. Responding to their commander's shift in tone, Obsidian and Strika leveled their heavy plasma repeaters directly at the chests of the unconscious twins. One command from Skygnaw, and the Autobots' Sparks would be extinguished permanently.
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