The cargo hold of the base was set up for Merlin’s ritual. Gaia, Sonic, and Arthur accompanied him. “More elaborate than I wanted, but it WILL make the job easier,” mused Merlin. “I must thank Sira for this.” He went into the magic circle drawn in the center and raised his hands. The circle then started glowing and Merlin started feeling the strain. Gaia then placed her hands outside the circle and helped Merlin’s load. Restoring people from death was quite taxing.
“Gaia, I can understand,” Sonic muttered to Arthur. “You, well, the knights need to see you, but why me?!”
“Mayhaps so my knights may divine differences twixt their king and his descendant,” guessed Arthur.
“…I mean, I guess,” muttered Sonic. As they talked, six figures of Mobian height managed to appear in the circle around Merlin. The strain was still visible on his face. The figures then gained more definition.
“Almost!” grunted Merlin in an urging manner to himself.
“A little more!” Gaia cheered on. The figures were then solidified, and Merlin and Gaia collapsed. Sonic and Arthur then went to them and checked them over.
“We will be fine,” answered Merlin. “Arthur, I could not bring all your knights.”
“Then, by heaven, let us see whom thou couldst!” declared Arthur. As Sonic looked, his eyes goggled.
“Um, Merlin, are you SURE you brought back Arthur’s knights?”
“I did.”
“Then why do they look familiar to me?” The people looked a lot like Shadow, Rouge, Silver, Knuckles, a purple female cat, and a green male hawk.
“Their original bodies had long decomposed, so I used forms based on those you knew.”
“Five of them, I can definitely call friendly faces, but the bird and I aren’t exactly friendly with each other.”
“Arthur, place your hand on the bat woman, then everyone should know themselves and each other,” instructed Merlin. Arthur then did as he was told, then a flood of memories hit him as well as her. The shapes of their original selves then entered the other’s mind.
“…Arthur, my king!” breathed the Rouge double.
“Guinevere, my queen!” cheered Arthur.
“Guinevere! Arthur!” gasped the Shadow clone. His old shape then flashed into their minds.
“Lancelot!” greeted Arthur.
“Father?!” asked the Silver duplicate.
“Galahad! My son!” cheered Lancelot.
“My lord, Arthur!” called Knuckles’ twin.
“Sir Gawain, welcome!”
“It does my heart well to see thee, my lord!” called the hawk.
“My heart as well, Sir Lamorak!”
“Lamorak?” asked the purple cat. Lamorak then arched an eye ridge.
“…Percival?!” he yelped.
“Erm, Merlin…” gulped Arthur.
“That was beyond even my control, sadly,” answered Merlin.
“What are you guys worried about?” asked Sonic. “I met a woman called Percival before, when I was running around the King Arthur stories.”
“A woman?” asked Percival. It was then that she looked down. “WHAT?!”
“Dame Percival, ease thy…”
“SIR Percival, my Lord.” Percival then noted her tone. “…I…I beg thy pardon.”
“Thy tone be understandable, Sir Percival. Thou art in a strange land and body, as are we all.”
“I thought something looked off,” muttered Gawain. “What has happened?”
“Morgane hath resumed her quest for the Sword of Parallels,” explained Arthur. “We have comrades from beyond the stars who wish for our help.”
“That witch lives?!” asked Lamorak. “Then, by the Lord, let us defeat her!”
“Merlin would know little of the Lord,” muttered Guinevere. “He IS the spawn of a devil.”
“Now, Guinevere, his advice protected Camelot long afore I became King,” remarked Arthur. “Besides, he has fought AGAINST evil for longer than any of us. If he were to desire to commit to his father’s bidding, then none would stand against him.”
“Very well,” sighed Guinevere.
“Speaking of allies, what’s Optimus up to?” asked Sonic.
Optimus was alone in his office with the Allspark. He…was unsure of things for a bit. “…I’m about to talk to a magic life-giving cube,” he muttered to himself. “I’m about to talk to a magic life-giving cube and convince it to give up what remains of its power. Primus, I must be losing my mind!” He sighed again, then held his hand over the Allspark. The runes on the cube started glowing. “…Hello, Allspark.” The Allspark said nothing. “You…might remember me. Optimus Prime? The one who activated you, then left you open for Eggman to abuse you?” Still nothing. “…Right. Look, I’ll make this brief, I know you’re damaged. The greatest wizard of Mobius, however, is insistent that I use you to make four more soldiers. I don’t know, but I don’t feel comfortable about this. I mean, let’s look at the Quintessons and how they manipulated the Prime of that time to force you to make soldiers. I feel like doing that brings me down to…” The runes glowed brighter, and a display was projected onto the ceiling from the Allspark. It showed various scenes of if Optimus didn’t use it versus if he did. As each scene played, a green line went along the bottom and branched off into a red one at various points. When the scenes became ones where he did use the Allspark, the red line were very few in number. “…You’re gonna lose all your power if I do that!” protested Optimus. “All right, one flash for yes, two for no. Are you sure you want to go out in this fashion?” The Allspark flashed once. Optimus’ shoulders sagged. “…That’s that, then. Thank you for this and…I’m sorry.” The Allspark projected a smiley face on the ceiling before the runes faded. Optimus sighed as he made his decision. He called up Tails in the Science Lab. “Tails, what kind of vehicles did you make?”
“Let’s see here,” replied Tails as he looked at a list, “I’ve got me another jet, a car, a motorcycle, and a drill tank.”
“I just had a chat with the Allspark. It wants to sacrifice itself to bring them to life.”
“…It’s sure about this?”
“It’s positive.”
“Then bring it to Storage Barn 4 at G.U.N. HQ. Everything will be ready by the time you get there.” The call ended and Optimus headed out.