Transformers Prime: Tarn & Spectra

Another dream

Destroyed battlefield, Cybertron.

6 years ago...

There is smoke and fire coming out of various places on the battlefield. The dead bodies are numerous, both Decepticons and Autobots laying lifeless all around. And among them, Tarn is walking with a green shard of energon in his hand. He stops, inhales the smoke and keeps it for a few seconds before exhaling. He takes one of the Autobot corpses, another one and a third one. He places them against a wall, takes some sharp pieces of glass and starts to play darts with the dead bodies. Tarn launches the first shard pierces the arm of the one in the middle; the second one goes through the eye of the body on the left. As he is aiming the third shard of glass, he is interrupted by a voice coming from behind him.

"Hey!"

He turns behind him and sees Spectrus. He visibly is not in a good mood, and his sword is dripping liquid energon. Tarn is the tiniest bit taken aback by the other's presence: "Hey! Spectrus! I'm surprised you're here. What brings you to one of those broken places?" he asks.

"You know why," Spectrus' mood doesn't seem to be improving much

"I know what? What am I supposed to know?" Tarn's confusion, on the other hand, is rapidly improving, as he understands less and less of what is going on.

"You and my sister are friends with each other."

"What are you-?"

"Talking about?" Spectrus cuts him off, "The green shard of energon you're holding belongs to Spectra , and I saw when she gave it to you."

Tarn looks at the shard, and back at Spectrus."Alright, you got me. One question; what's wrong with that?" he asks.

"Everyone knows who you are, am I wrong? Tarn, the leader of the Decepticon Justice Division, the one who tortures Decepticon traitors and Autobots. But the fact that you're secretly befriending my sister is for the least strange."

"And so what's wrong with that?" asks Tarn, losing what little patience he has left.

"I think you're fooling Spectra so you can, eventually, kill her. All while I am blessedly oblivious of your nefarious plans."

Tarn goes quiet, considering the words that were just spat at him, before snorting.

"Me? Kill her? Now, why would I do that?" His voice is all innocence, clearly making fun of the bot in front of him.

"You torture and kill Autobots and Decepticon traitors, don't you?" pushes Spectrus. Tarn glares at him, unimpressed.

"First of all; she's not an Autobot nor a Decepticon traitor, and neither are you by the way. And second of all; she did not, at any time, mess up with the Decepticons, and neither did you. By the way. I only torture and kill anyone that checks on those two conditions. Anything to say?"

Spectrus stays silent, regaining the composure he had previously lost in his fit of anger.,

"How can I know you're not lying?" he bites through his teeth.

"If I really wanted to kill Spectra, she would already be dead ages ago. I don't need to 'fool'" the air quotes are obvious enough, "my victims before killing. That would be ridiculous."

"But... Why didn't she tell me about her friendship with you?"

" Oh. Let me guess ; If she told you about our friendship before, you wouldn't believe her if she told you I was friendly. So, you would try to find me, and when you do, you kill me and then you and Spectra won't be together anymore because of what you did. And then you'll realize that Spectra wasn't lying and..." The smirk in Tarn's voice is what does it for Spectrus.

"Enough!" he roars, at the end of his rope. He charges toward Tarn and tries to strike him, but Tarn steps aside the punch. Spectrus tries again to attack Tarn, but what Tarn only does is staying away from Spectrus' attacks and standing back away from him. After a while, Spectrus was exhausted.

"Why won't you fight me?! I thought you weren't a coward!"

"I did not say I was a coward. Also, the fact that I didn't hurt Spectra doesn't mean I can hurt you. If I hurt you, or even kill you, Spectra and I are going to stop being friends, and I don't want that."

"Well, what I want is for you to stop seeing my sister!"

Spectrus attacks Tarn with his sword, but Tarn stops it by grabbing the blade with both hands.

"I will not fight you, Spectrus. How many times do I have to—"

He is interrupted by Spectrus as he pulls his sword back, slicing Tarn's hands. He takes a look at his hands and sure enough, there is a deep cut in both of them with Energon dripping from the wounds. Tarn drops all attempts to reign himself in and goes serious, taking a fighting pose, imitated by Spectrus. Spectrus rushes towards Tarn and is about to hit him but a purple shot comes out of nowhere and goes right through Spectrus. He looks down at the hole in his chest while moaning in pain, and falls to the ground, dead. Tarn turns around in surprise to see where the shot came from. And he sees Megatron.

Spectra wakes up again.