The Predacons drag their prisoners into the deep cave, preparing to torment them and trade them. Stalker, having woken up from hideous nightmares to physical damage, drops like a heap from the wall when she is suddenly released. Upgrade hangs Blackarachnia in her place; Stahldrache crucifies Silverbolt next to her. Upgrade's sense of irony kicks in, and he tells Stalker that because Edge saved her life before, she can decide his fate. Visions of evil influence her, and his exposed spark is too much for her to resist. Waking him first to seal his torment, she tears it free, and Edge perishes.
Outside of the larger cave, Upgrade has posted Krakken, with Miriam's energon sword. When Miriam, injured but still functional, comes back into the cave, he spots her and panics as ordered, using his T2 powers to destroy the sword and a good portion of the cave. He actually fares worse than she from the explosion, and she goes tearing through the rubble looking to throttle the Predacon who took her blade.
Tarantulas is the Predacon who makes the call to the Maximal base. When Cheetor answers, Tarantulas and Stahldrache gleefully display the prisoners. They offer Cheetor an opportunity: release the Predacon prisoner, and you can have ONE of ours. Considering the possibilities, Cheetor finally tells them to set Blackarachnia free, making the wisest choice but crushing Pantora.
At this, an explosion from outside the cave alerts the Predacons to Miriam's presence. Stahldrache and Stalker are deployed at once to aid their comrade. When they arrive, they find Krakken in dire straits, having come very close to having his own spark torn away. When they barely manage to save him, a very strangely-acting Miriam becomes self destructive, and it is her own actions which allow them to capture her. They now have one more prisoner, which they take back with them, and are surprised to find that Tarantulas has done some work to repair Silverbolt, whom he states will be part of the trade. The Predacons meet up with the Maximals at a neutral location, and the transfer is made. Once the prisoners have been traded, the Predacons decide to up the ante, asking for a non-interference policy from the Maximals for another decacycle on Earth, in exchange for the other two Maximals at the end of the agreement. The Maximal counter-offer is provided by Optimus: call for the release right away, and he won't tell his much more numerous troops to open fire. The Predacons suddenly feeling outclassed, Upgrade demands to know what happened to Swiftsting. When Darkwave states calmly that he's probably being digested by Insecticons, Upgrade is angry enough to call off any further dealing. Though the Maximals DO attack, the Predacons run away as quickly as possible. Wearily, Blackarachnia explains that she's given the Ark codes to Tarantulas in exchange for Silverbolt's life, and the uninjured Maximals immediately set themselves up guarding Ark.
When the somewhat injured villains arrive at base, Upgrade is put down for immediate repairs. Seeing the commander temporarily off-line gives Stahldrache an idea. He calls the Maximal base at once, reaching Klaatu but asking for Blackarachnia. When the spider answers, he offers her a deal: he's highly suspicious of Tarantulas inside his commander's body, and would like for Blackarachnia to offer her expertise in deprogramming him. Blackarachnia considers, and she agrees to help, so long as the other Maximals are set free. She then enlists Klaatu for instant backup before she departs. Stahldrache tells Sellsword to drag the Maximals out of the cave and onto the Predacon ship; he meets Blackarachnia and Klaatu halfway and leads them there with her optics shut off. A few megacycles later, when Silverbolt comes out of the R-chamber, he finds Blackarachnia missing, and calls Optimus and the others in a minor panic. The others are unable to offer her location, and he signs off in haste. Back at the Predacon base, with some Maximal backup behind her at last, Blackarachnia hooks up to the computer.
Thundershot and Ceasar, who are scouting their scheduled patrol, find a few more destroyed stasis pods, and, oddly enough, a few ripped-up Insecticon drones. As their patrol of the oceans is nearing an end, something unusual comes up on the scanners; an OPEN stasis pod. Upon inspection, the pod is revealed to have activated twenty years prior, meaning that the Maximals have another potential, or potentially dangerous, ally, somewhere in the ocean.
(Thanks here owed to BW Anonymous writer Silvergirl, whose fan-fic title I homaged to name my SoC episode.)