Summary: Megatron wants to resurrect part of his past to destroy the future of the Autobots. But will his desires be the end for both factions?
Disclaimer: I don't own any of these Transformer characters, Hasbro does.
I know my in-story character pairings are not originals, so kudos to whomever smashed them together first.
Some characters may seem OOC to you, but I'm bridging together different characters from all different TF shows to fit neatly in my twisted little story, so just deal with it. Just imagine everybody got a TFPrime upgrade/makeover, and I have given some G1 characters new backstories that reflect a TFPrime theme.
I'm a bit rusty at writing fanfics. Reviews are helpful- especially when you're honest so please level with me on this and offer constructive criticism. Don't flame me just because you hate my pairings. I will list official pairings at the end of this chapter- if I said it all now I would ruin the fun!
Warning: This is rated T for violence, mild cursing, slash, angsty teenagers, lots of death, a dark romance, a love triangle, ninja robots, zombies, and whatever else I can write for you. So, for those who get upset by some of that stuff, ye be warned! I will up the rating if I decide to be as unforgiving as I originally intended to be… Hence why I ask for reviews!
The amber sun was slowly sinking across a forgotten part of Nevada. At the bottom of a jagged mountain ridge, the dusty earth was blowing gently across a lonely two-lane road that seemed to stretch for miles. Cactus plants and tumbleweeds casted their last shadows across the desert landscape like tiny headstones in a graveyard.
All seemed quiet on the western frontier, but it was soon shattered by the unmistakable sound of a jet flying low against the rose-colored sky. The solitary seeker was not amused by his mission. He was also less than thrilled that his assigned partner was on the ground. He really wanted to fly back to the Nemesis without saying a word to his present company. But Starscream knew he would only get chewed out by their leader for yet another failure.
This is such a meaningless task, he thought to himself, and being forced to work with this fraggin brick on wheels has made this whole assignment completely unbearable!
They had been out all day in the scorching heat scanning through layers of rock that all looked the same to him on the outside. To make things worse, the lucky participants got to wear large, box-like devices that would map out whatever lay inside the solid mountain rock. Soundwave had stolen it all from a nearby human research facility the day before. Soundwave did a great job at reformatting the tech to fit Cybertronian bodies in vehicle modes, but the scanners were still slightly awkward for flight based beings to use. And Starscream knew that they had to stay in vehicle mode when using the scanners or else they wouldn't work.
I am Second in Command; Starscream hissed to himself, I cannot waste my time looking for some worthless, forgotten femme locked up in a rock coffin! If only Megatron would think with his processor and not his-
"Commander Starscream," Breakdown cut in, "this is the last bit of mountains to check before we have to return to base but my scanner just ran out of power, can I head back to the ship?"
Starscream let out a sigh and coldly replied, "No. You will remain here as my lookout until I have completed the mission."
"Yes sir." Breakdown said dejectedly. He really wanted to go back to the Nemesis. His favorite TV show was about to come on, and he wanted nothing more than to enjoy it with Knockout.
"Don't worry Breakdown," Starscream said in his usual haughty tone," In just a few moments, you'll be back in time to watch your precious humans dance. Ugh. The thought of those fleshbags shaking their bodies like that is disturbing. No self-respecting Decepticon should watch such garbage. Honestly, I just don't understand you four wheelers and your tolerance for those inferior creatures..."
Breakdown replied nothing over the com link; he was used to Starscream being a hateful son-of-a-glitch. It was better to just take the insult and bury the anger deep down so he didn't have to deal with him at the moment. Instead of dwelling on Starscream, Breakdown quickly tried his best to think about the mysterious thing he was searching for all day. Only Starscream and Soundwave knew what the item really was, Megatron didn't give any other details about it. He simply stated he wanted all findings directly reported to him as soon as they arrived back.
Maybe it's another Cybertronian relic that will help us finally win this war! he thought happily to himself. Well, whatever Lord Megatron is looking for, it'd better be worth missing part of 'Dancing with the Stars' tonight!
Starscream had taken longer than a few moments.
In fact, he took about twenty Earth minutes. He was going to pull up and blast out of the mountains when his scanner began to beep wildly. He found what it was zooming in on. He swooped down so fast, anyone else would have crashed headfirst into the ground or clipped their wings on the narrow pass. But not this seeker. He wove through it all with ease and gracefully glided to a small plateau that was hidden among the pointy mountaintops. He hovered above it and pondered how far down Megatron's precious treasure actually was. The scanner indicated there was one large form almost directly underneath him, and hundreds of smaller forms were scattered further down all around the plateau.
"Ah well, I must have found something of importance," he mused," there is definitely someone familiar buried here in all this mess... Megatron will be pleased."
He quickly called Breakdown on the com-link. "Breakdown!" he snarled," call Soundwave to bridge us out of here. I believe I discovered what we came for. I am saving the coordinates and gathering the last bits of data to be analyzed later."
"Yes Commander!" Breakdown answered quickly. He had to stifle any joy in his voice about going back to the Nemesis or Starscream would likely rip into his human interests again.
Suddenly, the familiar whoosh and green lights of a portal flashed a little farther down the road in front of Breakdown.
Odd, he thought, someone activated the bridge before I could even request it? Then it dawned on him; that was not his bridge portal! And there were two figures coming out of it…
"Autobots!" Breakdown shouted, "I see you're asking for a smack-down today!"
"It's past your curfew, so go home to your mothership!" Arcee growled at him as she transformed into her vehicle mode. She was speeding straight at him, shooting bright blue laser bolts as Breakdown tried to return fire at her. But she quickly turned right off the road and jumped behind two large boulders near the bottom of the mountain range. Breakdown raced over to the boulders, but as soon as he reached them, he was promptly smashed front end first into the giant rocks. He backed up a little and tried to focus his blurred optics. Clearly he had forgotten about the second bot!
"Take that you creep!" Bulkhead snorted as he backed up and rammed Breakdown again into the boulders as hard as possible. Breakdown could feel his entire body frame being crunched up as Bulkhead pushed harder. He howled in pain as his windows cracked and shattered into the sandy desert. He could feel energon starting to leak out of him. He tried to back up as Bulkhead suddenly reversed, but Arcee popped up from behind the rocks, transformed into her robot mode in mid-air, and landed neatly on the left side of Breakdown. She proceeded to slash both of his left tires with her sharp arm slicers. Breakdown screamed again, but this time it was into the com link.
"Soundwave!" he gasped, "I need... a bridge… and …Knockout …" and then he fainted as Bulkhead smashed into him again for good measure.
"C'mon Bulk," Arcee said in disgust," you can stop the massacre now. Breakdown won't give us any more problems. We have to try to find what Starscream is looking for."
"Okay. I hope Breakdown is still here when I get back." Bulkhead said as he revved his engine a bit. "I wanna turn that guy into a trash can for Miko." He replied.
But their small victory was quickly overshadowed by the deafening roar of a powerful jet engine flying overhead. Starscream had heard Breakdown cry out into the com link, and so he flew down to investigate.
I bet that buffoon decided to romp around in a cactus patch! he thought.
But Starscream was quickly enraged by the sight of the two Autobots standing next to Breakdown's unconscious body. He pointed his nose straight down and dove right at them full speed, firing two missiles before pulling back up at the last few moments as the explosions shook the ground. Because she was in robot mode, Arcee had dodged one of the missiles with some fast acrobatics and watched it hit the side of the mountain ridge. She tried to return fire at Starscream but some rocks were falling too close to her from the mountain explosion. All she could do was cover her head.
But Bulkhead wasn't so lucky. He took a direct hit from Starscream's other missle. For a moment, there was nothing but a cloud of sand that swirled around the fiery explosion. Starscream gave a maniacal laugh and circled around to see what had happened. His fly by had swept away the dust cloud. But what Arcee saw made her stop shooting and go weak in the knees.
"NO!" Arcee whispered in horror.
Her blue optics surveyed the scene that lay before her. She was frozen by the sheer carnage of Bulkhead's twisted frame, and sickened by the smell of burning metal. There was no hood on him, his green paint had turned grey and was completely charred in most places. All of his windows had blown out, and there were fragments of glass everywhere. But the worst sight was the gaping hole that went all the way from his roof through the very middle of his body, exposing his circuitry. There was a pool of energon forming underneath his body from his severed internal parts that burst open. Flames were creeping out of his engine and across his doors as his body frame made a sickening shudder.
"Bulkhead..." she said softly.
Arcee sunk down into the hot sand. Her whole body was going into shock. Time seemed to stand still as she watched the flames roar higher out of Bulkhead's body. She didn't bother to look at the portal opening up near her. She paid no attention to Knock Out and two Vehicons coming out of it. Thankfully, Knock Out rushed over to Breakdown so fast he didn't even notice Arcee staring at the giant bonfire. She watched the last rays of sunlight fade away behind Bulkhead's flaming corpse as Knockout and the two Vehicons lifted Breakdown and carried him into the portal. It closed as soon as Knock Out went through.
I'm so sorry you had to go this way big guy, Arcee thought, How am I going to tell the rest of team Prime? Worse, how am I going to tell Miko?!
She was fighting back the tears harder than ever. The thought of anyone else mourning over Bulkhead was too much to handle. She buried her face into her hands and screamed in agony as the flames raged on.
"Why is it that every bot I care about gets killed by Cons?! I... I loved you Bulkhead. I never got the chance to tell you, but I wish I would have!"
She was so lost in her own thoughts that she didn't hear Starscream land just in front of the fire and change into his robot mode. His piercing red eyes bore into Arcee as he strolled right up to her and gently brushed his razor sharp fingers against the side of her face.
"It's a shame I had to offline another one of your boyfriends, Arcee." the seeker said with a twisted smile, "Bulkhead would've made a great punching bag for Megatron."
Arcee looked up through the space between her hands and face. Her grief quickly turned to anger at the sight of Starscream.
"You MONSTER!" she spat at him as she jolted upright and took a swing at his face.
But Starscream seemed unfazed and grabbed her by the wrists before she could hit him. He pulled her close up to his face.
"If you surrender yourself to me, I promise I won't ruin that pretty face of yours." he whispered darkly.
Arcee just growled and turned her back to him with the intention of flipping him over her shoulders- but she couldn't gain the proper leverage to pick him up. Starscream seized the opportunity and overpowered her. They both fell forward to the ground. She tried to wiggle out from underneath him, but he pulled out his favorite secret weapon- the null ray. He quickly stunned Arcee in her lower back and Starscream cuffed her as she gasped in pain. She couldn't believe what was happening as Starscream got up off her. He smirked triumphantly while dusting himself off.
"Soundwave," he called into his com link, "I need a bridge out of here. I will inform Megatron of what I discovered today, after I take care of some personal business." he gave a devious chuckle as the familiar green glow of a portal appeared. Starscream picked up Arcee in his arms since the null ray had temporarily paralyzed her. He wasn't about to drag her and possibly damage his prize.
"I hope you put up more of a fight once the null ray wears off. I like it when we play rough."
Arcee gave a slight moan from her shameful defeat. She knew once she boarded the Nemesis her chances of escaping were slim. She tilted her head to catch one last glimpse of the sky as the swirling green light engulfed her and Starscream.
_
Megatron was pacing in his private quarters. He was now questioning the choices he had made earlier. He was starting to regret letting Starscream out of his sight for a whole day. He knew the scanners couldn't have that much energy left in them- so what was keeping him?
Starscream knows how important this is to me- and to the entire Decepticon cause! he thought angrily, What in the Pit is taking him so long to report?!
Just then, a small ping echoed through his com link. It was Soundwave calling.
"Lord Megatron, Breakdown is in the medical bay being repaired from his fight, and Starscream has made a discovery." His cold monotone voice was actually a small comfort to Megatron. "He wishes to inform you of his progress and will do so after attending to a personal matter."**
Megatron clenched his servos at the last part. "That arrogant little piece of slag! How dare he put himself before his mission!" he bellowed.
"Sir," Soundwave cut in, "I will retrieve the data from Starscream myself and deliver it to you immediately. My research depends upon his findings as well."
Megatron paused in mid rage. "Agreed." he said. "And take the data by force if necessary." He knew Soundwave was the only mech he could ever rely on to do anything right.
"Yes, Lord Megatron." Soundwave replied quickly.
Megatron relaxed his stance and walked over to the large window near his berth. He sighed heavily. He usually enjoyed letting his mind wander as he stared at the endless void of space. He always gazed out to the stars before a recharge. But the past few times he felt plagued by loneliness. He knew damn well what it was. He tried to bury the memory of her deep down so it wouldn't torture him as much. But now he could not longer ignore his desire to be re-united with the one and only femme who was everything he had ever wanted.
He wished he would have made her his Sparkmate when he had the chance back on Cybertron. Oh how his decisions always seemed to come back to haunt him!
I am closer than ever to finding you, Nightbird. This time, you will rule by my side as we wipe out every Autobot in existence!
**A/N: I am making Soundwave speak in his G1 voice, even though he has a TFPrime body. For me, I was able to flow the story better that way because there are a lot of scenes where he needs to speak/report, but if I get enough complaints I suppose he can take a vow of silence.
And now for those pairings: Megatron/Nightbird, BD/KO, Starscream/Arcee (in his sick mind anyway), Optimus/Elita One (together forever!), and a Miko/Jack/Sierra dilemma just for kicks. There is a possibility for Prowl to get romantically involved with someone, but I may end up making it an unrelated one-shot if I can't find space for it here.
Thanks for reading- PLEASE review!