When Bots Die
Dreadwing felt the ion blast rip through his body for only a moment before the shock set in; giving him enough time to feel the pain of Megatron's betrayal. He was his second-in-command, but one look at those slender legs and his leader was back on Starscream's side. Even if Dreadwing had betrayed the Decepticons by bringing the forge of Solus Prime to the autobots, Starscream had assisted the autobots and attempted to assassinate Megatron countless times; hardly the ideal role model. Yet, it was Dreadwing whose spark was flickering out, while the slender grey flier escaped death for the umpteenth time.
Dreadwing hit the floor with a loud clang, and he used his last conscious thought to comfort himself with the thought that he would soon be with his brother in the Allspark. He nearly died peacefully, until the realization that Starscream had ultimately caused both of their deaths tainted the bright light and everything went black.
"Soldier!" a sharp voice roused Dreadwing.
The mech blinked his optics as if waking from a deep recharge; and noise erupted around him, causing his audio receptors to ring violently. Blaster fire ricocheted off of the rocks around him, and a grenade exploded close by; the bot that leaned over Dreadwing flinched in response.
"Where am I?" Dreading croaked out. He rubbed his head and tried to remember what had happened, but he drew a blank.
"Fighting the autobots—Megatron's master plan—any of this ringing a bell?" they grey mech was losing patience with Dreadwing, the large wings on his back twitching irritably.
"I'm on Cybertron?" the blue flier vaguely recalled his master's plan to use the Omega keys to revive their home planet, but he could not remember travelling through the space bridge. He must have hit his head harder than he had thought.
"We're just outside Autobot City numbskull; did an autobot knock your circuits loose?" the newcomer's voice grew impatient, "Come on!"
He held out his hand for Dreadwing and helped pull his mighty frame up until he was on his feet once more. The grey mech handed the dazed bot a gun and ordered him to shoot at anything that moved within the great fortress that rose up before him. Orange and purple energy blasts lit up the sky, and without time to fully assess his situation, he decided to trust the first cybertronian he encountered. He quickly took down every autobot in range, feeling no satisfaction from taking life. He moved on to where more of his "comrades" had gathered, although none were fighting. Six of them transformed, but instead of becoming individual vehicles, they combined into a massive bot that proceeded to bash at a door with both fists. Dreadwing had been so stunned that he had not noticed the autobot that crept up behind him and, as punishment for failing to check his surroundings, he was shot.
Surprisingly, the energon blast did little but to cause the plating on his shoulder to tingle uncomfortably. His assailant seemed as baffled as the flier was, and he fired a few more futile shots before dashing off.
"Let the slaughter begin!" a familiar voice shouted from close by, and Dreadwing watched as the giant green bot ripped into the orange metal door. What he assumed to be decepticons flooded into what he surmised was Autobot City, leaving only a boxy silver mech standing outside.
Dreadwing thundered over to where the rest of the bots had disappeared and went to follow them when the silver mech stopped him.
A black servo clamped down on his shoulder, "Who are you?" the raspy voice demanded.
Dreadwing started, "Megatron?"
In a flash, his death rushed back to him and a fresh wave of contempt washed through his mind; it took all of his strength not to wrap his capable hands around his leader's throat.
"Dreadwing," he said through gritted denta, clenching his hands into fists while his optics flashed menacingly. How could his leader not remember him?
"You seem like a capable warrior. You will accompany me and take on Optimus' most powerful soldiers, although they will be weak in comparison to the might of a decepticon."
It was an order, and Dreadwing's loyalty to Megatron ran deep, so he obeyed. The flier fell in behind his leader and was joined by a handful of dangerous looking mechs, all brandishing their own weapons of various shapes and sizes. They marched in silence, broken only by the sounds of war. The warriors fanned out to cover more ground and prevent any autobots from launching a surprise attack when they were so densely packed. However, before the decepticons had a chance to rip into any enemies, a red flat nose semi-truck barreled into the 'cons who took the rear, sending a handful of them flying. Dreadwing managed to dodge out of the way, but the truck transformed into a bot not unlike Optimus Prime and took down more adversaries with energy blasts, Dreadwing included. While this shot was more than just a tingle, it was still underpowered and only managed to make the bot grunt with discontent.
Meanwhile, the rest of his team was being taken down effortlessly by the new bot on the scene, and after taking out the decepticons, the red-and-blue mech pursued Megatron into a darkened room. Dreadwing was left to help the wounded up and drag the dead to the side; there would be time to bury them later.
The last mech Dreadwing assisted was the first cybertronian he had encountered in this strange place. He offered his clawed hand to his ally, which the winged bot took gratefully.
"I guess we're even, er," he searched his mind for a name to match the face of the mech before him.
"Dreadwing."
"Dreadwing? Never heard of you, but if you've made it this far, you've gotta be pretty good. The name's Astrotrain," his new friend now offered his own hand, this time to shake, which Dreading accepted.
An ion blast brought them abruptly back to reality, "Not the most proper time to be making friends," Dreadwing remarked.
Astrotrain acknowledged him with a smirk before proceeding to fire upon the autobot who had interrupted their conversation, swiftly extinguishing its spark.
"I'll crush you with my bare hands!" the gruff voice of Megatron roared from inside, tackling the Prime look-alike back into the light and onto the ground. The two bots grappled for a while, all other battles momentarily paused to witness them.
"Rip out Prime's spark, Megatron!" Astrotrain cheered on his leader, throwing his fists in the air enthusiastically.
"Optimus Prime?" Dreadwing asked skeptically—what were Optimus and Megatron doing here? Moreover, they didn't look like the autobot and decepticon leaders, not exactly anyways.
"Of course Optimus Prime, do you know any other primes?" Astrotrain mocked his acquaintance.
Only the nameless Prime I helped out leader to desecrate, Dreadwing commented in his mind.
As the soldiers began to bore of their leaders' battle, they took up arms once again; death was still ripe in the air. Astrotrain nudged Dreadwing away from the quarrelling mechs and towards their own adversaries. Numerous autobots charged at Dreadwing, and he killed a handful of them with photon charges before he was forced to draw his blade, which he used to hack away at the throng, terminating autobots left and right.
Standing knee-deep in carcasses, Dreadwing became aware that Astrotrain was being overwhelmed by enemies; he was screaming out in unbridled terror. The blue mech immediately ran to his aid, letting out a war cry. Dreadwing sliced off the closest bot's arm, he had been grappling with Astrotrain, and his now severed arm lost its grip on his friend's wing. Energon spurted from the mech's stump, and the gore was enough to send him running, but the massive amount of energon leaking from his fresh wound made him falter. He fell quickly and his body greyed in a pool of his own life force.
His sword slashed effortlessly through the autobots' armor, and once Dreadwing had eliminated most of the bots surrounding his friend, Astrotrain resumed battle, clawing into the closest bot and ripping at the cables he found beneath armor. It was not the most efficient method of battle, but it did the job. Dreadwing trudged through the wreckage to stand beside his comrade; spilt energon sucked at his feet and, if it weren't for the metal body parts, he would have thought he was walking through a muddy swamp.
Astrotrain's eyes were wide with awe and a hint of fear, and he took a hesitant step back from the flier.
"You're some fighter," he remarked, averting his optics.
"Those autobots were weak, nothing like the warriors I am used to," Dreadwing answered, heading back in the direction of Megatron, hoping to get some answers as to where he was.
Astrotrain ran to catch up with Dreadwing, "You're not going to want to get between Megatron and Optimus."
"Rest assured; I do not plan to."
Dreadwing left out that he was hoping to watch Megatron perish at the hands of his oldest enemy, and if the opposite occurred, he would eliminate the silver mech himself. He was already dead, and therefore had nothing left to lose. The sight that appeared before him, however, was unexpected; both leaders had fallen. Optimus was hunched over, clutching at a painful looking wound, while Megatron lay in a sparking heap.
A red, blue, and white winged mech approached their fallen master and said, "How do you feel mighty Megatron?"
He then proceeded to violently kick Megatron before arrogantly leaving him to leak from his wounds. Dreadwing despised this decepticon immediately, and there was something strangely familiar about him, although he could not place him.
"Astrotrain! Transform and get us out of here!" the winged bot continued. Astrotrain scrambled to obey the command given, and Dreadwing lost a little respect for his new friend for following such a bot.
"Soundwave, don't leave me," Megatron said weakly.
Dreadwing whipped his head back and forth, searching to the slender mech, until a boxy blue mech approached their leader and, with an electronic-infused voice, said, "As you command, Lord Megatron."
"That's Soundwave?" Dreadwing was dubious.
"It's like you've been in stasis for the entire war," a garish green-and-purple mech came up beside him; one of the six bots that had formed the gigantic bot from before.
"Sometimes it feels that way," Dreadwing responded before following the mass of decepticons filing into the back of the purple train.
Given Astrotrain's reaction to his massacre before, Dreadwing decided it was best to keep to the shadows and simply observe. He took his place behind the group of combiners. The last bots to board were Soundwave with Megatron draped over his arms, and the smug bot from before.
"Astrotrain, take off!" he commanded.
Take off? Dreadwing grew worried as Astrotrain picked up speed—he was a train; he couldn't fly! Metal shifted around them and the ground disappeared from below Astrotrain. Dreadwing shut his optics and braced himself for impact, but instead he felt the train ascend into the sky. Peering out the tiny window, Dreadwing found that his friend had sprouted wings, and, although it better explained his bot form, but he had never heard of a cybertronian capable of two vehicle modes. Dreadwing wanted to ask someone how this was possible, but his need to stay anonymous overpowered such an urge.
The Earth shrank below the decepticons, and the sky darkened around the ship until stars were visible. Dreadwing wondered where they were headed, and could only hope he would not be singled out until they arrived. Fortunately, Astrotrain was nearly bursting at the seams with decepticons, lowering his chances of being spotted.
"Jettison some weight or I'll never make it to Cybertron," Astrotrain's voice echoed around his passengers.
"Fellow decepticons," the bossy winged bot began, "Astrotrain has requested that we lighten our burden." His high-pitched voice hurt Dreadwing's audio receptors, and he had to fight the urge to silence him.
"Then I say it is survival of the fittest!" one of the combiners spoke up.
The arrogant bot smirked, clearly betting on this opinion, "Do I hear a second on that?"
A majority of the 'cons raised their fists and claimed "Aye!" and, when prompted, the heavily wounded bots let out a weak, "Nay," and the undamaged and functioning bots wasted no time in forcing the wounded out through the open door. Dreadwing was disgusted; he understood letting the dead go, although he wished they could have a proper burial, but how could the decepticons abandon those that were still alive and had a chance at survival? These were not the decepticons that Dreadwing had signed up for.
"Oh how it pains me to do this," the irritating voice piped up from the mass of bots, and Dreadwing was forced to creep forward to see what was going on.
He saw the despicable bot holding the limp figure of Megatron in his arms, who let out a feeble moan and said, "Wait, I still function."
Smirking, the mech responded, "Wanna bet?" and released his master, sending him hurtling towards the stars below.
"Starscream!" Megatron shouted before his voice was lost to the vacuum of space.
Rage boiled inside Dreadwing at that name, and the anger muffled his hearing so he missed a part of the conversation. Evidently, an important part, for the mechs around him had all broken out into a fight; over what Dreadwing could not know. What he did know was that this Starscream would pay for his crimes, and he would enjoy watching the spark fading from his soulless eyes.