Queen's Notes: Soooo...yeah old story I started as an even older plot bunny. This was originally an rp between Fatala and myself, then I kind of took it over and have been doing a bunch of small things since my Knights of Chaos can work well with TFP, giving where Unicron is XD
So... welcome to the world of chaos, lots of madness in the backround of the show. Oh, and don't let Skyquake step on you.
Blood Of Unicron
Cliffjumper stood back up, wiping the purple energon from his lips, which curled into a deep snarl. He didn't know what he hated worse; having to stoop to catabolism or that he had become so use to it. The enraging effects of the dark energon only made his mood worse. He had learned the hard way to ration how much dark energon he took in so that he wouldn't revert into a snarling undead beast, but regardless ingesting the cursed energy always made his temper rage.
Now he had more to be enraged about than ever. He had drained the last body that was left on the battlefield; now he had no other sources of dark energon. It was a very scary reality he had to face. The first and last time he tried to go beyond his limits if abstaining from dark energon had caused a rapid breakdown making his chassis decay rapidly. He did not want to go through that again. Slowly he stalked away from the canyon dark thoughts still floating through his processor.
A wisp of energy, red tinted passed by Cliffjumper, it was almost unseen except...it was right there, resonating with the dark energon in the mech. Another wisp flickered by, this time within reach, and longer.
The partially undead mech saw the wisp that flew by. He could clearly smell the dark energy coming from it. As the next wisp came to pass he reached out with his claws attempting to grab it out of the air.
The energy wisp, or the image of it distorted, bending and widening before absorbing into the mech's fingers. It was a bit more 'pure' than the raw dark energon Megatron had used in his ultimately failed attempts to create an undead army. But it was just a little blip, and there were other little blips here and there, and if one looked closer the wisps of energy were of dark blue and purple as well as the red. It was all going in one direction, to the heart of the once grave-yard.
He felt the energy absorb into him lessening the hunger that still remain. A purplish glow appeared around the blue optics which watched the other wisps. Cliffjumper moved to follow them, as he did so the mech reached for and took swipes at the trails of energy. His path wasn't exactly straight and to anyone who was 'normal' who never been exposed to the Dark energon, would be highly confused as they wouldn't be able to see the trails of energy.
Not to say Cliffjumper wasn't highly confused as well, but for a different reason. In all the times he came here to feed he had never seen these things before. He was strangely intrigued as closer he got to the center of the gathering energy the 'louder' hum of power was, having been in the background all day nearly yet only now was Cliffjumper consciously aware of it.
There was something...alive and dark coming. Cliffjumper could feel it, and this, this area was evidently the landing spot. How he knew was bizarre, as that sense seemed to echo out of his darker half. That chaos beast in the back of the mech's mind and spark howled and cried in a twisted mix of bitter fear and hot pleasure, with a stinging twang of pride overlapping the other two, almost washing out the not so faint relief.
The red and grey mech snarled darkly as he felt the energy gathering increase. Despite what he was Cliffjumper would always see himself as an Autobot. But right now with a high concentration of dark energon in his systems he was itching for a fight. He also couldn't shake the feeling, a sense that back up was coming...
But back up for who and-
The air exploded, or imploded into itself before space ripped open into a jagged portal in the shape of a tear. Bright red energy crackled along the edges, in the center was a distorted image of space and the hazy likeness of a silver and scarred world. Cliffjumper knew a space bridge and ground bridge when he saw one but this was neither. Whatever it was he didn't like it, and that twisted feeling was back in force.
Though his slowly reforming instincts told him he needed to get some normal energon in him before he lost control again he was too focus on this tear to care.
There was a slight pop and then a female voice called out a, "Kiiiimaaa!" ...the Cybertronian equivalent of 'bonzii!' and a Cybertronian body launched out from the other side of the portal, rolling on landing and jumping up with two energy sabers in hand.
There was a long pause as the portal snapped shut on itself with a dramatic flair and pulse of Dark Energon and that other, more sinister energy. The two energies turning into a misty like glitter cloud that fell over and behind the very strange being standing there. It was, honestly, semi-planned dramatics for first impressions to confuse those on an active battle field not to shot at her upon arrival.
Than the new comer twitched organic looking wings as she took in all the dead, sliced and twisted bodies around her.
"Aw fraggit I'm too late." The femmie said, wings wilting and tail dropped with a thud on the ground, the lingering energy display dissolving as she then flicked her wings neatly onto her back. The energy sabers in hand fizzled as they deactivated and the femmie planted her knuckles on hips, "Great, this is what I get for going to Cybertron first to clean up."
At hearing the 'Kima!' Cliffjumper had nearly been snapped back to his right mind, but at seeing the energy sabers made the snarl on his face return. He knew that she would see him, yet he didn't care right now he was trying to hold back the conflicting dark energies and focus on figuring out what side this femme was on. Or what the slag she was for that matter.
She was as alien as she was clearly a transformer. It was the beast mode, and the added limbs of wings and tail, she was mostly blue and green, with the inner parts black and red. With slumped shoulders she kicked a severed hand, flipped her wings up and closed on her back again, hocking the saber hits to their places on her hips at the same tome.
"Okay that's the last time I ever take directions from those fliers..." The femme muttered shifting to now nudge at another body part.
Glowing lowly Cliffjumper didn't care about the femme's strange form any more, instead his attention was on the energy she gave off. From where he had stayed out of sight (I.e. behind the femme) he moved forward still with a hint of dark energon madness running through him.
The strange femme turned, not seeing movement out of the corner of her optic but sensing the Dark Energon as she extend that other-sense. Snapping around with an animalistic snarl of her own, her wings lifted up and fanned out automatically to make the femme look bigger than she really was. Red optics looked at Cliffjumper, and the power of Chaos was coming mostly from a stone, or gem or... gem-like thing imbedded in her forehead as well as spark, but she was far from undead, for living energon cursed though her as well.
"What the slag?" the female asked, tail lashing as she balanced on tree toed feet that came from her beast mode, the due claws flexing as she eyed the mech.
Cliffjumper could say the exact same but the chaotic energy he could sense coming from the femme only made a snarl come out. The red and grey mech had definitely changed since his so called rebirth, with claws now tipped his finger tips and a sharp of fangs came from his dentia. He still only had one horn; and a faint purplish glow from the dark energon in his body surrounded his blue optics.
"Dead space, someone overloaded you." The femmie said coming closer, but out of reach as she circled around what she thought was a basic Chaos-Beast.
He snarled at the comment but at seeing no other hostile reaction he let his guard drop slightly, straightening. "Who and what are you?" his voice came out with a growling edge obviously hinting to the mistrust he felt for this strange femme. There was no small pleasure as his words made her hop a pace away.
"I am the Ice Queen," She said moving to look around the mech, "One of the Chaos Knights...and you look like someone botched your integration to Chaos."To put it lightly, Ice Queen added to herself.
"More like a botched experiment to bring back a horde of the undead." Cliffjumper spat, andvenom filled in his voice. He knew that he reeked of death and dark energy, It was the only thing that kept his mutated body functioning.
"...and you're still hanging in there?" A tone of admiring was clear in Ice Queen's voice as she stopped, wings folding up once more on her back. Fairly sure she could handle this.
"I'm not going to let myself be another mindless zombie." Cliffjumper said definitely. He had gone through that once before and he refused to be a lifeless destroyer, killing everything let along those he cared for. Especially not while drops of pure energon coursed through his lines.
"That alone makes you a Champion, no mereminion or pawn," Ice Queen rustled her wings a little, still just out of reach, "Who did this to you Autobot?"
The Ice Queen's words seemed to be encouraging (even if Cliffjumper wasn't sure what she meant by 'Champion') but at her question he hissed out the answer with great hatred, "Megatron."
It may have been Starscream who had killed him originally but Megatron was the one who had forced his spark back into this decrepit shell.
"Aaaahhh," the sound was drawn out with exasperated understanding, "That doesn't surprise me, he's always been a pain no matter the reality." She paused to look around at the dead, and the de-coloration of them. She snorted, "And just like him to dishonor his own fallen ancestors."
Cliffjumper watched the femma, he still couldn't understand her. Though he could smell that strong chaotic power around and in her, she didn't talk like the delusional Megatronwhen he had that shard of dark energon in his spark chamber.
And she wouldn't, not while she still had her imbedded chaos stone anyways. Making a move like a human wound to pop their fingers she grinned, "Well, I guess the boss was right. Never send a Decepticon to do a Unicronian's job. You, what's your name? And tell me all you can about what Megatron has done, and what's he's planning if you know."
Hearing the word 'Unicronian' made Cliffjumper snarl return and caused Ice Queen to once more hop away from him. The Autobot knew the legends of Unicron and had heard that dark energon was believed to be his blood. It sickened him to think that the dark god's blood was keeping him in this existence.
"The name is Cliffjumper. And what you see around you is what Megatron wants to create an army of the undead to destroy everything." he growled gesturing to the corpses around them.
The self proclaimedUnicronian stiffened, red optics widening, "...you're slagging me." she said, tone sounded both bland and shocked at the same time somehow.
"I know because I was his first 'test subject'." His optics darkened with anger as the horrible memories of what he had become upon his spark being forcibly returned to his corpse back in the energon mine.
"Tell you what," Ice Queen turned to face the mutated mech, reaching up to take off her mask, waving it at him as much to add emphases to her words as to keep his attention. Playing off of Cliffjumper's new predator-pry responses to fallow movement, "I'll make you a deal. Help me find out what's fully going on and get back the stolen blood and I'll take you to the best Chaos Healer I know, or reverse your 'condition' myself. The later would be just as painful but not as long."
Cliffjumper snort at that. Though the thought someone being able to heal him would be a miracle, he was more than a little pessimistic. "And how am I supposed to trust you?" he demanded. Right now he had no reason to have any faith this femme that smelt like darkness and chaos.
"Well, isn't this the clinch of any Knight's job," Ice Queen looked up, "At the moment, I guess you can't, but probably short of storming whatever stronghold the boss' blood is in, I'm probably the only one who has access to refined dark energon on this world."
At hearing that she could get dark energon made Cliffjumper grumble to himself. He wanted to survive it would seem that he needed her help. It wasn't something he wanted to admit but it didn't look like he had a choice, "Fine. But I'm not some animal on a leash or a puppet for your 'boss' to control."
"I said you were a Champion, at least, low or mid rank." Ice Queen dismissed that and offered a four digit hand to him.
Blue hued optics looked at the offered hand suspiciously. He couldn't care about the supposed 'ranks' or champions. "I'm only doing this to survive." he growled not taking the offered hand.
"Be careful," Ice Queen said with amusement as she dug into subspace and then tossed a small, transparent purple cube at Cliffjumper as she fallowed the trail of dead un-dead, "You sound like a Unicronian."
Cliffjumper caught the purple cube instantly knowing it was dark energon. Immediately he sub-spaced it. Right now he didn't need any more of the dark energy within him. Growling at the comment he followed after Ice Queen.
The femmie laughed, "Relax Cliffjumper," She waved a wing like one would wave a hand, "There's nothing wrong with surviving, the same drive led me to climb the ranks to being the Knight I am today."
A snort was his only reply as he stalked behind her. On the edge of his senses he could detect something that would slightly help his mood. Several Decepticon drones were nearby probably scouting for more energon deposits or checking on this twice used battle field.
Ice Queen looked back and up at the mech, she frowned, "You need repairs." she noted, slowing down,"And a cleanup."
He looked down at her and then Cliffjumper noted his shambled appearance. He did have to admit his last few raids on the Decepticons had him coming out with more damage that he would like. "No, I just need some 'fresh' energon." he dismissed the comment before stalking out of the canyon turning in the direction he knew the Decepticons were heading. He still refused to use the word 'feed' when it came to draining the drones. It was cannibalistic but necessary, yet the pure Autobot part of Cliffjumper died a little bit every time he did.
"Fresh? You mean normal energon?" Ice Queen slowed, "Huh...you are blending the two."
"Normal energon isn't what I'd call it. Follow and you'll see." he said before transforming and rolling in the direction of the couple of Decepticons.
She was about to fallow, but hung back, sliding into a large shadow cast by a curve in the canyon wall to watch. Keeping her wings tight on her back and curling her tail over her legs to be as small as physically possible.
The Decepticon drones didn't even know what hit them. Cliffjumper had drove up fast surprising the 'cons before transforming and letting the rage of the dark energon run wild. The mutated mech was much stronger than he had been before and made quick work of the drones. One had been torn to shreds by his claws; the other he had killed more 'carefully' so most of its energon was still intact.
With an angered growling hiss he tore into the expired Decepticon's chest to gorge himself on the 'fresh' energon. As he drank up the wounds on his body healed leaving newly regenerated armor. The other side effect of the pure energy was that the raging anger began to subside until he could think clearly once more. Back to as close to normal he could be, Cliffjumper threw the body away in disgust watching the remaining energon bleed out on the ground.
"Well that brings back some memories," The Unicronian muttered, shifting her wings closer and then smiled slowly, her red optics brightening a little. Ice Queen debated, clicking her mask back into place and then moved over to Cliffjumper, "Pre-processed energon?" she asked in a soft tone, almost soothing.
Cliffjumper looked back at the Ice Queen. This time all the anger and animalistic rage was gone, even the purple glow around his optics had all but disappeared. He seemed much calmer and in control as he straighten back up. "My body can't process regular energon, so its my only option."
"Hmmm..." the femme sighed and then face palmed, "Another vampire, okay I'll keep that in mind, next time, I'll handle the next drones. Good to have more help around."
"I wouldn't exactly say vampire." Cliffjumper knew the difference between vampires and zombies (too many off shifts watching TV with Bumblebee and Bulkhead) and he was closer to the later. "Too much regular energon will cause my chassis to decay. Too much dark energon and I'm just as mindless as I was when forced back into this shell."
"I think that's from the raw dark energon to start with." Ice Queen considered, one elbow in the other hand and claw finger tapping her mask. She was looking at Cliffjumper, but didn't see him or the dead body she had to stand on to be near optic level with the bigger mech.
Cliffjumper frowned deeply, reviewing what all had been said until now, "And you said that there is someone who can cure me?" As far as the red mech was concerned his condition was a curse keeping him lingering between both life and death; living and undead.
"Pretty sure," She shrugged, wings lifting with her sounders, "At the very least get you balanced so you don't have to do..." Ice Queen looked down at the dead body she was on, "...er, this."
Though her words did seem hopeful before, it was slipping to Cliffjumper's audios, "It would at least be an improvement to this." he said though not sounding thrilled.
"Oh much, since you know it would be true living." Ice Queen tilted her horned head smiling under her mask, "Now, why don't you take me on a tour?"
At the request for a tour Cliffjumper couldn't help but smirk. "Sure you can keep up?" he asked playfully.
One long, massive wing extended, held stiffly out, "There's a reason these are so big mech."
"Just make sure no humans see you." he warned before transforming into his alt mode. "But 'til we get to a town let's just see how fast those wings can carry you." he said before peeling out his tires kicking up dust.
"What do I care if humans see me?" Ice Queen ran up the leg of the dead drone and then hopped to a rock and then launched herself into the air, transforming in the same move. Body twisting, folding and rearranging as only a transformer could, and the dragonic like beast mode took shape. The bipedal in that it only had four limbs not including the tail, mush like a bird or bat. The scaled mane from before was from this form, and after the first critical downbeat she rapidly gained speed and proper wing room.
"I'm here to get the boss' blood, not shelter a humanity from reality of their world." Ice Queen muttered to herself under the cover of the wind, almost like a reminder to herself.
"Suit yourself." the red mech shot back at the same time. "But don't expect me to bail you out if you get unwanted attention." And Cliffjumper wasn't just talking about the humans.