The base was plunged into darkness in an instant.

Not gradually — not the flickering of lights, not a warning.

No.

Just an abrupt extinction of all lights, as if someone had pulled the entire power grid with a single flick.

The silence afterward was almost deafening.

Only the occasional emergency lines glowed a dim neon hue — red and blue stripes, intermittent, like the breathing of a dying generator. These faint reflections glided across the metal walls, picking out fragments of the structure... and, just barely, the outline of a huge figure.

You froze in the middle of the corridor.

Your optics slowly adjusted to the darkness. The faint hum of the fans in your chest sounded louder than usual — the blackout strained your systems every time.

And then — heavy, confident, even footsteps.

Ultra Magnus entered the darkness.

You saw not him at first, but his reflection. The red line of his emergency light cut through the darkness and caught the edge of his shoulder armor, reflecting off the cold metal. Then a faint blue glow ran across his body, briefly illuminating his stern lines.

He seemed carved out of the darkness itself — huge, calm, in complete control.

"Don't move," — he said lowly.

His voice seemed to cut the darkness in half.

You took a step toward him, but instantly felt something crunch in the air — an overloaded transformer at the other end of the base collapsed, blinding the corridor for a moment with another burst of red light.

Magnus was immediately at your side.

His palm was on your back — warm, broad, confident. He pulled you closer protectively, as if all this darkness might collapse right on you.

"Power has been lost in all sectors," — he said.

"The emergency generators have only partially started."

A steady, quiet vibrational warmth emanated from the proximity of his hull.

You could feel your own fan responding to it, trying to compensate for the strain.

Somewhere in the distance, a metallic scraping sound cut through the air. It was very quiet, but in the complete darkness, it sounded like a blow.

You instinctively pressed yourself even closer to Magnus.

His armor barely trembled — not from fear, just... in reaction to your step.

"Are you okay?" — He leaned in, his voice lower. So much so that it vibrated through you.

A faint blue line of light slid across your silhouette again, capturing the moment:

Your face raised to him, his hand resting under your shoulders, and the darkness around you, as if squeezing the two of you into a single space.

"Until the network stabilizes," — he said, — "you will stay by my side. I don't intend to let you out of my sight in this darkness."

He said it calmly... But the tone — it was something more. Protective. And at the same time — almost intimate.

Magnus leaned slowly so you could better see his optics in the dim glow of the emergency indicators. They reflected red and blue light: like in a photograph — creating the impression that he himself was emitting the light.

"Come on," — he said quietly.

"I'll show you the way."

His fingers intertwined with yours. In the darkness, where the world had vanished, you felt only one thing: his warmth, his strength, and the way he gently held your hand.