The Truth Rings

  Author's note: Totally inspired by the movie The Polar Express. This is an Ambrosiaverse Christmas fic, y'all!  It takes place "inside" of Ambrosia.
  
  .o  

  It was a curious phenomenon.  

  Unicron first noticed its occurrence a "short" time after mankind evolved from primates. He memorized the date so he could train his sensors on Earth every year and record this oddity, which came in the form of a red glow in the north pole and rapidly circled the planet at light speed. If he went into stasis for a few centuries, he'd wake up to find this anomaly hadn't missed a year.  

  Such a thing should have been impossible. Even Unicron, a godly being, had to generate wormholes to travel such distances in a short time.  

  After three hundred years of this unexplained annoyance, Unicron had enough. He needed to know the secret, so he captured the light just as it made its return to the planet's northern ice cap. He couldn't scan what he'd caught--except that it seemed alive and composed of several pieces. A sensor sweep revealed ten tiny life forms. One generated a red glow. Another had a life force made of something he once felt long ago.  

  Unicron materialized his avatar and coolly snatched his prey up in his silver hand. He found himself staring at nine hoofed organics attached to a strange, wooden contraption in which sat a bipedal creature dressed in red. It had white fur growing on its face and bright blue eyes.  

  There were bells strung on almost every inch of the wooden machine, but they didn't make a single sound. All Unicron could hear were occasional snorts and hooves clicking on his hand. These organics seemed oddly unafraid--especially the quadruped in the lead. How in blazes did its nose glow like that?  

  "What are you?" Unicron focused on the organic sitting in the red device. "Why are your bells so silent?"  

  "I'm a being much like you," the organic said calmly, his eyes twinkling with a wisdom belying his appearance. "I have many names. Saint Nicholas, Santa Claus, Father Christmas, Kriss Kringle...which is easiest for you?"  

  "Whatever, Santa," Unicron barely held his temper in check. All this love and joy dug into a painful wound he'd rather not revisit. "Why do you circle the globe?"  

  "Why...Unicron..." Santa spread his arms as if the answer was obvious, "I am the spirit of giving, just as you are seen as the spirit of destruction."  

  "How do you know my name?"  

  "Oh, ho, ho..." Santa winked one eye and smiled behind his white facial fur. "I know a lot. Which reminds me--catch."  

  Unicron opened his other hand when Santa tossed something tiny towards it. The glittering sparkle seemed to inflate once it landed on his palm.  

  "What's this?"  

  "A sleigh bell." Santa patted the side of his red contraption--the sleigh.  

  "Why would I need a sleigh bell?" Unicron shook the golden bell, which was attached to a long piece of crimson ribbon. It was big enough to fill his hand and should have rang deeply in the quiet. But this bell didn't make a sound when it landed or when Unicron jostled it. He faced Santa again, deadpan. "It doesn't work. Is this a sick joke?"  

  The figure in red laughed, his abdominal area shaking like a bowl full of lubricating jelly. Unicron pondered, just for a moment, if the world would notice when he crushed this obstinate creature.  

  But, for some reason, he just...couldn't. Something in Santa's face reminded him of a person he hadn't seen in eons, but still remembered like a distant dream.  

  Primus--a god who gave of himself--seemed to smile through this tiny creature's eyes.  

  This being was no ordinary organic. Normal organics died after a few decades, yet this one just appeared one day and continued existing for centuries. But what purpose did Santa serve? If his job was as thankless as that of Primus--giving gifts that were forgotten after a time--why did he bother?  

  "Unicron, listen," Santa grasped the leather strap connected to the nine quadruped beings powering his sleigh. "You won't understand until you experience it as they..." He gestured outwards in the general direction of Earth, "...out there, do."  

  "So you gave me a bell?" Unicron's eyes would've popped out of his head if he still remembered how to look irate. He did not enjoy being led around in circles like this!  

  "It's a very special bell," Santa replied simply.  

  "It doesn't work."  

  "Yes, it does. You just can't hear it. And you won't until you believe in what I represent."  

  Scoffing, Unicron leaned back against the tentacle-festooned wall behind him. "You waste my time, Santa."  

  "You haven't wasted mine." Santa grinned again. "The fact that you can see and speak to me means something, you know. There's hope for you yet."   

  Unicron stared. What was this fat fool talking about now?  

  "Oh, my..." Santa went on, rubbing at his eyes, "Could you please return me to Earth? It's been a long Christmas eve."  

  The entire exchange left Unicron exhausted and angry. Tossing the bell over his shoulder, he waved his hand and the red organic with his strange sleigh vanished in an orange flash.  

  .o  

  -Two centuries later...-  

  Starscream was gone. Gone back to Megatron, to liberation and death.  

  Unicron hung alone in the void, mourning the inevitable. Any minute now, he expected Sideways to inform him that Starscream was about to face down Megatron.   

  It was winter on the northern hemisphere of Earth. Unicron wondered if winters on Earth were as frigid as space. He gave the planet a lazy sensor sweep and--just as expected--Santa was just leaving the northern pole.  

  Sideways to Unicron. This is it.  

  Keep me posted.   

  Something inside Unicron clenched tight. Familiar pain, like a fragile treasure crushed by its own weight. Would Starscream ever forgive him for letting him die like this? Was freedom really worth its price? Unicron sighed, hanging his head. His eyes fell upon something shiny lying in the rough ridges of the floor.   

  It was the useless bell he'd flung away centuries ago. He never really forgot about it...but he never had the heart to jettison it into space.   

  Unicron bent and picked it up.  

  Time wasn't kind to the fragile bell--the gold was wearing away and the ribbon became little more than a frayed black tangle. It reminded Unicron of how he saw himself...something decaying and forgotten.  

  He shook the bell.  

  Silence.   

  Painful silence.  

  Unicron's optics misted over. Starscream was probably dying right now, and there was nothing he could do. He'd give his Spark if--  

  Unicron! Sideways sounded unusually alarmed, Megatron is going after Starscream's Spark! This wasn't part of the plan, was it?   

  No... Time jammed to a halt around Unicron. He stood there, frozen, Sideways' words barely reaching his CPU. Starscream was fatally wounded right now. He was probably frightened and in pain that he didn't deserve. Megatron going after Starscream's Spark would undermine everything Unicron did to prepare Starscream for a liberated death. He had to do something...but what? What could he do?  

  What's my next move, Unicron? Sideways asked him.  

  I don't know! Unicron growled, desperate for an answer, and threw the bell aside.  

  And it rang as it hit the floor.  

  He spun to stare at it.   

  The bell was brand new, shining like it did the day he received it.  

  Perplexed, Unicron picked it up and shook it, listening to the clamor echoing around his stone center. The sound reminded him of his Mini-cons, of how they once looked upon him with love. He rang it again and it sounded like light. He felt something--the warm stirrings he couldn't ignore any longer.  

  Any moment now, Starscream would lose his purity. He'd die a prisoner to hate and despair.  

  Unicron couldn't run away now. Not when the truth jangled so clearly in his audios. He hung the bell on a tentacle dangling from the ceiling and dispelled his avatar along with his doubts. He had the power to stop this atrocity. It wasn't too late. He was willing to give everything just to tell Starscream he loved him before his Spark went out untouched.  

  "Santa," the dark god powered up his engines. "...I understand now."  

  Vibrations rocked the bell back and forth, making it ring out like hope as Unicron set a course for Earth's moon.