Vector Sigma, Cybertron
"No!" Jack yelled as he raised his arms to protect his eyes from the bright flash. The screech of Scraplets gnawing through metal set his teeth on edge. He felt reverberations through his feet as something weighty and important-sounding fell.
Jack opened his eyes, dreading what he would see. Part of the gate to the Primes' knowledge had fallen off. The lights were now only flashing through one half of it, and it looked like the download would not ever be able to be fully completed again.
His stomach dropped as he heard the terrifying screech of an Insecticon. Well, it was probably the best bait he could hope for down here…
"Hey! Why don't you go chew on him?" he called, hesitantly picking up one of the little metal terrors. He lobbed it at the con, and thankfully the rest of the hive mind followed his lead.
The download finally came to an end and the bright string of data returned to the giant hole it had risen out of. The damaged key had trouble transforming back down, but it managed to get back to a size which Jack could realistically carry around.
He breathed a sigh of relief before turning to run outside. The place could come down on his head at any minute, and he had to find Arcee.
Decepticon Warship, Earth
Orion Pax shakily made his way to the door, still staring at the guns his hands had transformed into in response to some hidden instinct. A part of him knew he shouldn't shift back just yet, and he was too stunned from the fight to do so anyway.
He made his way down the corridor, very aware of the loud footsteps his large and unfamiliar frame made. He soon came to a control room from which he could activate the ground bridge. Only one con was inside, and Orion soon found one well-placed blast was enough to knock him aside. "I'm sorry, but if you're as violent as your comrades I'm guessing you wouldn't just stand there and let me open a bridge."
The con groaned but didn't move, deciding it wasn't worth getting scrapped over.
He saw that the last used coordinates led underground, and that they had been used but five minutes ago. "Megatron," he muttered, changing the coordinates at this end to the room he was in. He had only a few seconds to get by Soundwave.
He exited the ground bridge and felt it close behind him immediately. Megatron turned his head away from the spacebridge, undoubtedly listening to a warning from his communications expert.
Orion was glad his weapons were still out, and that he had regained his balance. He stepped forward slowly, but kept all traces of hesitance and fear to a minimum. "Megatron, I have had enough of your lies. I am joining the Autobot cause."
As Megatron turned further away from the spacebridge, Ratchet took the chance to charge him from behind. The ease with which Megatron flung the medic across the cave confirmed he had made the right decision.
"Optimus!" Ratchet called, staggering back to his feet. "You're back?"
"Not in the way you think, Ratchet," he replied.
Megatron snorted and agreed by criticising his form. "Yes, and shooting the ceiling won't do anyone much good."
Orion lowered his arms from the stiff and defensive position they had been in since the conflict on the Nemesis. Megatron pointed his own cannon at him, but was tackled by the yellow Autobot before he could fire. A large green mech also jumped into the fray while Ratchet staggered over to him.
"Arcee, if you can hear me come through the spacebridge right now! Optimus is here waiting!"
The familiar sound of teleportation was heard from the spacebridge, and the sound of a two-wheeler's engine filled the cavernous mineshaft. A native jumped off her back as she skidded in front of them. Arcee finished her sharp turn and rode at Megatron, who had already thrown the others off.
"Optimus!" the small native called, holding up an ancient Cybertronian artefact. Had he, then, chosen this one to retrieve the knowledge of the Primes? His chest plates reacted to the presence of the object and revealed his spark chamber, and what could only be the Matrix of Leadership.
Blue energy started transferring from the key to the matrix, and he started to remember. Memories of the one named Optimus came back to him. The native before him was an Earth boy called Jack, and the bots facing Megatron were what was left of his team. Bumblebee, Arcee, Bulkhead… And how could he have forgotten the present Ratchet, along with little Miko and Rafael?
After the light faded he could still feel there were significant gaps in his memory. Much of the wisdom of the Primes was gone. He still felt incredibly disconnected from Optimus Prime, if that was indeed who he had once been.
"Optimus?" Ratchet asked when he just stood there processing.
Jack sighed and looked away. "I'm sorry, Scraplets were eating the download device when I got there. I guess we couldn't transfer everything with such faulty equipment."
"You did what you could Jack, and it was more than enough," Orion said, now noticing the difference between how he spoke now and how he had behaved as a Prime. No wonder the others were so worried. What would they all do without Optimus Prime? "I remember much of Optimus' life and something of the more recent Primes, which is greater than what I had just moments ago."
He levelled his weapon at Megatron now that he had the confidence to shoot without hitting the others. At least that much had been transferred. "Autobots!" he hesitated when his team looked back at him hopefully. "Fall back," he called.
His brief falter had been noted by all of them.
Megatron frowned and simply watched them leave, processing deeply. Orion glanced back at him before following the others through their ground bridge. Megatron did not look amused.
Decepticon Warship
At his lord's behest, Soundwave replayed the data he had picked up from Megatron's optics across his faceplate again. "Autobots, fall back!"
Megatron let out an incomprehensible exclamation of rage as he turned away sharply, clenching his fists. "That was not a Prime speaking! Orion Pax is not my sworn enemy!"
"Let us address the council together, brother," Soundwave played a memory from many millennia ago. They had all been involved in important historical events, and unlike Starscream he was legitimately interested in recording them for future generations.
"Yes," Megatron replied gruffly. Soundwave was probably the only Decepticon on the ship able to identify that tone as embarrassment. "Orion Pax is neither fighter nor warmonger. We did not truly oppose each other until he accepted the matrix."
"Peace?" Soundwave displayed on his faceplate.
"He has the same ideals as the Primes, things will not change. I will have to stay off the frontlines until I have sorted myself out," he admitted.
"Wise."
Autobot Base
"And so, my friends, may I ask that you try to call me Orion?" he finished. The Autobots and humans surrounding him all glanced at each other. "I do not have enough of Optimus Prime's memories to be him, so I would feel like a fraud if I answered to such a designation."
"Well, whatever, I'll try," Miko said flippantly. "Might take us a while to remember though, right Bulk?"
He nodded while Bumblebee whirred his agreement.
"What is our next move?" he asked, looking to Ratchet.
The medic started, not expecting the sudden pressure of leadership at such a critical time. "I-I don't know what Megatron told you, but I am not in charge around here."
Orion hesitated before glancing down. "I apologise, but I am unsure of what should come next. While I was with the Decepticons, Megatron fooled me into deciphering Autobot codes to reveal coordinates. Perhaps we should be racing them to those destinations."
"My only concern is, well, how much do you remember about fighting? Megatron will not let these three items escape his grasp if he can help it. I do not want you to be put in danger," Ratchet replied.
A warning alarm beeped and the monitors flashed overhead. "The cons are on the move," Arcee explained.
Agent Fowler sighed and Jack's mother looked concerned.
"No time for deliberation, then. I will have to rely on my instincts and memory as I did during our last encounter with Megatron," Orion decided as their ground bridge opened.
Decepticon Warship: Bridge
"The Spark Extractor?" Megatron hissed as he watched Soundwave's display. Soundwave knew he was considering Knockout's willingness to change sides at the first sign of trouble.
"Operation: retrieve Spark Extractor," Soundwave spoke in the melodic harmonisation that he had not emitted in the presence of others for eons. Perhaps Orion's presence was making him feel nostalgic. He opened a ground bridge behind them and stepped into it.
"Soundwave," Megatron spoke, and he paused. "Do not put yourself at risk. Prime might use it, but Orion would never."
He nodded before disappearing into the green energy field. He separated from Laserbeak before appearing on the other side. He glanced down at the native lifeform hyperventilating at his feet. It wasn't one of the Autobots', so he let it be.
"Stay back you fools, or we will all be destroyed!" Knockout yelled from the other side of the clearing. He was surrounded, and would never make it back to the ground bridge on his own. Unfortunately for him, Breakdown was otherwise engaged with Bulkhead.
Laserbeak sped toward the commotion, and thankfully Knockout was aware enough to let him snatch the spark extractor.
"Better keep your eye on the birdie!" he yelled as he transformed and weaved between Orion and Ratchet, the slowest of his aggressors.
Soundwave calmly took two steps to the side as their vain scientist leapt through the bridge. Laserbeak sped after him and Arcee was hot on his trail.
Learning from last time, Soundwave closed the bridge in her face.
"Soundwave?" Orion said cautiously, eyes fixed on the native at his feet. "You are outnumbered, don't do anything drastic."
Soundwave saw the simplest solution to his predicament. He picked up the human in one of his tentacles, ignoring the high pitched squeal it emitted. He transformed and fluidly deposited it in the small cockpit of his vehicle mode.
He took off, not having to worry about being followed or shot down. He reopened the bridge in mid-air and pulled up sharply upon crossing onto the Nemesis.
He casually changed back and placed the native on top of the computer terminal so it wouldn't go squish. At least, not accidentally.
"Good work," Megatron began, but changed his tune quickly. "What is that?"
"Hostage."
"Well, we hardly need it now. Get rid of it!"
"No!" it yelled, and Soundwave surmised from the pitch of its voice that it was probably female.
Megatron raised a brow, seemingly amused, and bent down to her level. "'No' what?"
"No, please don't kill me?" she asked more quietly this time, intimidated.
"We do not take freeloaders like the Autobots. If you cannot make yourself useful, I see no point in expending any more Energon on the matter."
"I can, I can, um…" She glanced around desperately. "Clean in and around nooks and crannies?"
Soundwave had to resist venting when Knockout actually looked interested in this suggestion.
"Well, really I'm a researcher in biological chemistry, but I'm sure your technology is far more advanced than anything I've worked with. Not to mention, biologically foreign in every way." She sighed. "There must be something I can do though."
"You're not wrong," Megatron said, quickly losing interest. "Get rid of it Knockout," he seemed to notice the mech's interest at last, "or look after it. Either way, it's your responsibility."
"As you command, Lord Megatron," he said and bowed with a flourish before picking up the female human. Her limbs locked around his pointed fingers and she looked vaguely ill. Soundwave thought he should probably explain their squishy composition to him before something unnecessarily untoward happened.
"That should keep him entertained long enough to forget about this," Megatron murmured as he took the Spark Extractor from Laserbeak.
Soundwave felt the usual twinge of relief when she reconnected to his body.
"The good doctor should be focussing on the Energon equation, at any rate."
Soundwave nodded and went to move back to his usual position on the bridge.
"Fetch Breakdown won't you?"
If he were any other con, he might have vented at this point. As it were, Soundwave continued walking as he opened a ground bridge between the clearing and the ship's laboratory.
Soundwave connected to the camera in the room he had left Megatron in and watched him stroke the Spark Extractor. Unease shuddered through his systems and he walked down the hallway a little faster.
Decepticon Warship: Laboratory
"Your scientific background is quite convenient," Knockout explained jovially. If the others wanted to believe he had adopted the native because of vanity, then that was their prerogative. Not that it wasn't a nice perk…
She glanced at him briefly before her eyes returned to the ground. From her point of view it would be quite distant, he supposed.
"I have a sample of synthetic Energon, but it is far too small to be used effectively in my lab equipment. After all, I have to improve upon it, not simply replicate it. But for something of your size, the sample has to be a good beaker-full!" he joked.
Her response was nothing more than an unenthusiastic mumble. When he put her down on his workbench, she immediately collapsed and began to inspire and expire rapidly. "What on Earth… is Energon?"
He laughed before realising she wasn't making a joke. "Oh, of course you're not in the know. You aren't an Autobot human.
"Energon is what my species lives on, like the water on this planet is necessary for your survival. Unfortunately it is in very short supply here. However, some Autobot fools managed to make a prototype for synthetic stuff. Although it does have rather unpleasant side-effects on one's mentality."
"Whatever, I might as well play along until I wake up from this crazy dream." She still looked unsure of herself.
"My dear, I am stunning but this is no dream!"
She tilted her head to the side and stared up at him. "Are you for real?"
"Didn't we just establish that?!"
She jumped suddenly as the sound of a ground bridge opening came from behind him. "There you are, you big lug!" Knockout said affectionately as Breakdown stood next to him. "We have a new assistant. What is your designation again?"
"I, oh… Viviana. Doctor, for what it's worth."
He shrugged. "As you probably picked up before, Doctor Knockout. And this is my assistant, Breakdown. Now, I expect we will all get along together. We will just have to get Soundwave to, uh, 'procure' you some tools."
"Or we could go to my lab?" she suggested. The sooner she got out of this place, the sooner she could work toward freedom.
Also realising this, Knockout simply grinned. "No, no, I like the idea of stealing currency for something so trivial much better!"