The Dying of the Light Part 3: Your Fierce Tears

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Death waits you! You have made a covenant with death, and with Hell you are in agreement. You're all going to die! Don't you realize? Can't you see? You're all going to die! Die! Death awaits you all!
"The Dying of the Light
Part 3: Your Fierce Tears
Publisher IDW Publishing
First published April 27, 2016
Cover date April 2016
Written by James Roberts
Pencils by Alex Milne
Colors by Joana Lafuente
Letters by Tom B. Long
Editor John Barber
Continuity IDW continuity
Chronology Current era (2016)

Megatron versus Tarn! A new challenger appears!

Synopsis

As Ratchet and Drift struggle to hold off the DJD and their allies, Drift observes Kaon's horrified reaction to Ten striking The Pet, then seizes the little creature and threatens to kill it in order to stay the villains' hands. A distraught Kaon orders everyone to stand down, and Ratchet, Drift, and Ten are then airlifted to safety by their own ship, piloted by Ravage. Helex, furious, overturns Kaon's order and everyone opens fire on the ship, damaging it and sending it falling out of the sky.

Elsewhere on Necroworld, Tarn and Megatron meet in front of Megatron's statue, where Tarn is left incredulous by Megatron's request that the DJD spare the other Autobots if he surrenders to them. Tarn speaks of Megatron's inspiring legacy and all the lives that were willingly sacrificed to his cause, but the weary Megatron regrets everything, even his own life. Disgusted, Tarn launches a brutal physical attack on his former leader, knocking his Autobot insignia off, hoping to reignite his lost fire by forcing him to fight back. But the battered Megatron refuses to rise to the bait, citing both his newfound pacifism, and the fact that the Fool's Energon he is fuelled with makes it impossible anyway. Megatron chuckles, reflecting on the side effect of Fool's Energon that can allegedly change 'bot's personality... and realizes that, even if that is true, despite his lifelong fear of mental tampering... he's better the way he is now. Realizing that the 'bot he once worshipped is gone, Tarn blasts him point-blank in the chest, and is about to deliver a second, fatal shot when a third party suddenly arrives on the scene and orders him to stop... a third party named OVERLORD!

Ravage manages to crash Ratchet and Drift's ship at the entrance to the Necrobot's fortress, and the group takes cover inside. The Autobots are happy to see their two old friends again, but Skids is confused as to why they are here; it turns out they came in response to a call Velocity made on the communicator First Aid gave her, which the DJD's signal blockers had cut off before she could speak. Velocity had thought she was making contact with First Aid himself, and immediately makes a rather terrible first impression on Ratchet. Infinitely more tense is the concurrent reunion of Drift and Rodimus, the latter still feeling guilty over letting Drift take the blame for the Overlord debacle, and for never coming to look for him after the truth came out, out of fear he would hate him. Drift accepts Rodimus's sincere apology, but doubts his belief that they can all make it out of their present situation alive.

Overlord demands that he be the one to kill Megatron, and a fight instantly breaks out between the two Decepticons over who will have the honor. As they battle, Tarn remarks that the DJD believed Overlord to be dead; the Phase Sixer explains that he was recovered and repaired by a group of mysterious benefactors, who have sent him to Necroworld to kill Megatron—an "alignment of interests," as Overlord puts it. Tarn proposes an alliance, but Overlord refuses: Megatron is his, and his alone, to end. At that point, however, the two combatants realize that while they have been distracted grappling with one another, Megatron has dragged his battered body onto the space scooter that brought him there, and escaped back to the fortress!

At the fortress, Rewind regards the Necrobot's memorial for the "disappeared," pondering the names carved into it as a means of keeping his mind busy. Presently, Nautica arrives; she wonders where Chromedome is, and the archivist tells her that they have had an argument, each believing the other should have used the teleport chamber to escape. Nautica then asks about the pair's history, wondering about the protocol for becoming either Conjunx Endura or Amica Endura in Cybertronian society. When Rewind asks her why, she remarks that their looming fate has led her to question some matters she has been avoiding...

Tarn and Overlord return to the Peaceful Tyranny, where Overlord immediately sets about mocking and undermining the group and its alliance with Deathsaurus. The distressed Kaon then arrives to report what happened to his unit, and the capture of The Pet, which only gives Overlord more material to work with. Tarn embraces his panicking colleague... then with cold fury, rips his head clean off, horrifying the watching Template:Nickel. Smashing Kaon's severed head across Overlord's chest, he declares that emotion was the weakness that changed Megatron, and it is a weakness he will not allow himself, or any of his men, to feel.

And back at the fortress, the unconscious Megatron is hauled inside by his allies, fuel-streaked Autobot symbol still defiantly clutched in his hand...

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots Decepticons Others

Quotes

"Drift! Say something inspirational! I fight better when I'm annoyed!"

—Ratchet


"You want to talk about wasted lives? What about all the people who died following your orders? The road-sweepers and the haulers. The miners! All those who died in service to a future you promised to bring about? Did they waste their lives? Did I waste mine? Look around you. Every flower represents a life you ended—a death for which you bear full responsibility. You think they're all Autobots?"

—Tarn


"I know everything is connected. I know it's impossible to preserve some moments and not others—however tempting it might be. I know that not long ago, someone tried to kill me before I was born. And I know I hated them less for their ambition than their failure to realise it."

—Megatron


"The thought of anyone tampering with my mind used to terrify me. But if Prime's chemicals have kept me in line... then maybe that's a good thing. I'm better like this."
"No. You're better dead."
(CHOOM!)

—Megatron and Tarn


"You're Ratchet? The sourpuss? The slavedriver? The hand-thief who took a thousand years to retire? You're him?"
"Er..."
"I hope not—otherwise I've made a really bad first impression...!"

—Velocity and Ratchet


"You're both angry for the same reason? Is that logical?"
"Let me know the next time you and the person you love have a logical argument."

—Nautica and Rewind


"Come here, Kaon. I never realized that you cared for that creature as much as you do.. Sorry—"
(RRRIP!)
"—as much as you did."

—Tarn


"Don't you ever think you can come into my house and pass judgement. I will not be ridiculed by someone who spent half his life running and the other half sulking because no one gave chase."

—Tarn, to Overlord

Notes

Continuity notes

  • Megatron hints that, before becoming a Decepticon, Tarn was a significant 'bot in the life of some importance, remarking that he "turned" him to the Decepticon side in order to "hurt" that 'bot by proving that it could be done. The last time Megatron talked about doing something purely out of spite in order to hurt someone, he was talking about Optimus Prime, back in issue #34. Is that misdirection we see, or it is another big fat in-your-face hint that Tarn is Optimus's old buddy Roller under his mask, following the possible set up in issue #36? Of note, Roller's name seems to be included on the Necrobot's memorial for the "disappeared"...
  • Megatron refers to Brainstorm's attempt to kill him before he was born, from issue #38.
  • AaaaaaaaaAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA IT'S OVERLORD!!!! The original MTMTE Big Bad makes his return after being blasted out of the Lost Light back in issue #15, but c'mon, none of us really believed he was dead, did we? Tarn gives a quick rundown of his backstory from Last Stand of the Wreckers, summarizing how he refused to follow Megatron's orders, went rogue, and then, upon realizing that Megatron didn't care and wasn't pursuing, staged the events of that mini-series as a way of trying to get his old leader's attention.
  • The last time Tarn saw Overlord would be the alternate Overlord whom the DJD dismembered - THAT is why they thought he was dead. However this must be the Overlord blasted out of the Lost Light. If that isn't a big glowing sign saying "The original Rewind may be alive just to mess with them"...
  • The single flashback panel that shows Overlord floating in space pulls the same trick as the last panel that showed us him doing so in issue #16—obscuring his left hand, and whatever he may or may not be holding in it...
  • As noted in a footnote, Ratchet gave First Aid the communicator in issue #40, which he then passed onto Velocity in issue #43.
  • Given that Drift knows that Rodimus told the rest of the crew the truth about the Overlord conspiracy, Ratchet must have told him about it following the end of Empire of Stone. That mini was evidently written without proper understanding of the full story behind Drift's exile, while issue #40 of this series also floundered a little while trying to deal with the fallout of Rodimus's reveal, but this issue ties it off at last. Rodimus told the crew the truth, but didn't try to find and bring Drift back because he was afraid he would hate him for making his sacrifice meaningless.
  • We previously saw the Necrobot's memorial for the disappeared in issue #44.
  • It is noted that several months have passed between the two-part story in issues #48 and #49 and "The Dying of the Light" (during which, we know, both the Holiday Special story and issue #50's back-up strip took place).
  • Tarn ripping Kaon's head and spine out and crushing it against a solid surface echoes Kaon's killing of Trailcutter in issue #34.

Real-life references

  • As with the previous chapters, this issue's title (and the title of the multi-parter itself) is taken from the poem "Do not go gentle into that good night," by Dylan Thomas.
  • On the Necrobot's memorial to the disappeared, there's a name reading "-EAMWA-". Now it could certainly be "Screamwarp" or "Steamwash" but there's one other very obvious answer...

Errors

  • On page 6, Tarn says "wasted lifes," rather than "wasted lives."
  • Not strictly an error, but on pages 7 and 19, Megatron and Tarn use the British spelling, "realise," rather than the American "realize."
  • On page 17, Rewind says "and they pleasure they take in doing it" instead of "the pleasure."

Other trivia

  • We learn a little more about the types of "Endura" bonding. Nautica notes that in some civilizations, you have to be "Amica" before you can then move on to being "Conjunx," though that is not true of Caminus. Rewind explains that in Cybertronian society, one must actually first rule out being Conjunx before "opting" for Amica. "It can make for a very bittersweet ceremony," he says. No doubt!
  • Other mostly-legible names on the Necrobot's monument include "Stratum", "Syphon", "-gator" or "Gator", "Auboros", and "Corrad-"
  • Whirl and Cyclonus feature quite prominently on the Retailer Incentive cover but do not appear at all in this issue.

Soundtrack

For all of "The Dying of the Light":

For this issue alone:

Covers (4)

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