Thanks for the review gawilliams!
In the aftermath of her conversation with Miko about Cliffjumper, Arcee has begun to tell the tale of her early life to Jack. Her journey into the past has revealed that she is a cyber-ninja trained by a legendary master.
Out of the Past Redux - Part 2
"So Master Beta was your teacher," Jack said, "like Alpha Trion was Optimus's?"
Arcee nodded.
"Yes. But whereas Alpha Trion was a historian, Master Beta was a warrior. Under her tutelage, we learnt to hone our combat skills."
Outdoor grounds of the Temple of Solus, pre-war Cybertron, millions of years ago.
Rows of fembots sparred with one another. At the end of one row, Arcee was fighting a dark blue fembot with red highlights and red flames on her body who was the same size as her.
"Heeee-yah!"
Arcee flew at her opponent with a jumping side kick. The dark blue and red fembot evaded the incoming attack by moving to the side. As Arcee landed, she swung a sudden roundhouse kick at her head. Arcee leant back, barely missing the kick. The roundhouse kick was followed immediately by multiple kicks and punches. Arcee struggled to avoid and block them all and finally was caught by one hard punch to the stomach region. She staggered back, holding her stomach. But her opponent did not give her a moment to recompose herself. The dark blue and red fembot threw herself at Arcee with a jumping back kick. As her opponent's foot flew toward her, Arcee reacted by grabbing it and with a twist, throwing her opponent over her shoulder by the leg. The dark blue and red fembot struck the ground. Pushing herself up, she glared back at Arcee angrily. Then without warning, she leapt up and launched herself at Arcee with a vicious spinning back kick. Arcee saw this coming and reacted by leaping up high into the air, performing a somersault and descending with a gravity-charged chop kick that cut down upon her opponent's chest. The dark blue and red fembot hit the ground hard once again. Her hand went to her dented chest and she looked back up at Arcee lividly. She forced herself up and, with a furious cry, charged at Arcee again.
"Enough, Flamewar!"
Flamewar jolted to a halt at the voice, stopping just short of striking Arcee. Several other nearby combatants also stopped fighting and looked at Flamewar and Arcee. Arcee watched Flamewar warily as the source of the voice, Master Beta, approached them with a hand held up.
"You are sparring with Arcee, not beating her," Beta told Flamewar sternly. "She is your temple sister, not your enemy."
Flamewar bowed her head.
"Yes, master," she said quietly, a subdued distaste in her voice.
Beta turned to Arcee.
"You have improved greatly, Arcee," she praised. "Your skills have increased and your technique has sharpened. You are a natural warrior."
Arcee bowed deeply to Beta.
"Thank you, Master Beta."
Flamewar glowered at Arcee.
"Flamewar?" Jack inquired.
"One of my temple sisters," Arcee said distantly, "along with others: Chromia, Moonracer, Flareup... We all trained together."
"Sounds like you were all close," Jack commented.
Arcee's expression fell.
"Not all of us..."
Oil bath grounds of the Temple of Solus, pre-war Cybertron, millions of years ago.
Arcee sunk into a pool of warm oil. She and other fembots were unwinding in one of the temple's oil pools. She leaned back into the thick, dark liquid and sighed contentedly.
"An oil bath is just what the doctor ordered," a turquoise fembot next to Arcee said blissfully.
"You said it, Moonracer," an orange and yellow fembot next to the turquoise one agreed. "Mah joints are rusted stiff."
"Yeah, today's training was intense. I'm beat," a deep electric blue fembot on Arcee's other side sighed.
Another fembot walked into the oil spa area then and came to stand by the oil pool. It was Flamewar. She looked down at the fembots in the pool with a hand on her hip.
"If a little harmless sparring tires you out, I can't imagine how you'd all fare in a real battle," she taunted.
Arcee and the others were looking up at her now.
"Sounds lahke someone's got her bolts wound up tight," the orange and yellow fembot commented.
"Lighten up, Flamewar," the turquoise fembot, Moonracer, said. "Why does it always have to be doom and gloom with you? The way you go on about battles and war, one would think you actually want a real war to happen."
Flamewar's brows lowered.
"What is the point of learning to fight if we never fight for real?" she said icily. "All we do here is pretend at fighting."
With that, she turned round and stalked off. The fembots in the oil pool looked at one another. Arcee watched Flamewar with concern as she disappeared.
"Flamewar was always apart from the rest of us," Arcee recalled sombrely. "She frequently pushed the limits of our training, craving brutal fights and dangerous combat. She was obsessed with battle and war."
Crystal gardens of the Temple of Solus, pre-war Cybertron, millions of years ago.
Arcee's body moved with graceful, fluid motions. With precise steps, she glided through an open space amongst sparkling crystalline structures. Alone in the crystal gardens of the temple, she practised sequences of moves. She threw her fists out, turned, sliced her arms out, stretched out into a wide stance, launched forward with a high kick, followed it with a jumping kick... Then suddenly she stopped. She sensed another presence. She was not alone. She looked behind her. There was Flamewar.
"Hello, Arcee," Flamewar said tonelessly.
Arcee turned to face her.
"Flamewar, what are you doing here?"
"I wanted to get you alone."
Arcee felt uncomfortable. There was something unnerving about the way Flamewar was staring at her. She wasn't sure what it was. Then without warning, Flamewar suddenly snapped out her arm blades. Arcee looked at her in surprise.
"Draw your blades, Arcee," Flamewar stated with utter severity.
Arcee took a step back.
"I don't want to fight you, Flamewar," she said quickly.
Flamewar's face hardened.
"I said DRAW THEM!" she demanded.
Flamewar suddenly charged at Arcee and swiped at her viciously with her arm blades. Arcee staggered back to avoid the attack.
"Sister, stop! What are you doing?" Arcee attempted to plea.
"There's no use been humble about it, Arcee," Flamewar said coldly. "You and I are the best of Master Beta's students, whether she acknowledges it or not. It is time we determined which of us is the better fighter."
Flamewar threw a spinning back kick at Arcee, nearly catching her by surprise, but Arcee managed to cross her arms and block it. Her block took the brunt of the spinning kick's force, but Arcee's feet slid back, scraping the ground. Flamewar came at her relentlessly with punch after punch.
"You were always the Master's favourite," Flamewar declared, "whilst I could never please her!" Flamewar's foot rammed into Arcee and threw her back onto the ground. Flamewar approached her. "But I know why that is! She is weak! She is afraid I am becoming stronger than her! That she cannot control me for much longer!" Flamewar bent down and gripped Arcee by the neck. "She chooses you because you are obedient!" She hoisted Arcee up into the air, glaring contemptuously at her. "But I am your equal, Arcee." She drew Arcee's face closer to hers. "No, I am your better."
Arcee gripped Flamewar's stranglehold and suddenly twisted herself loose from it. As she rotated away from her opponent, Arcee back kicked her, pushing herself away from her. Flamewar staggered back, but recovered quickly. Spreading out her bladed arms, she jumped up into the air and became a spiralling force flying for Arcee. Arcee's arm blades snapped out and she responded in kind by pushing herself off the ground with both feet together. She shot upwards in a straight line and threw her bladed arm out as soon as she came into contact with Flamewar's whirling form. A second later, Flamewar crashed to the ground and Arcee landed with her back to her some distance away.
The sound of feet approached and as Flamewar pushed herself up onto her arms, she looked up to see none other than Master Beta standing above her, an unreadable expression on her aged face. Gathered behind her were some of the other temple students, looking down at Flamewar wordlessly.
"You have dishonoured yourself, Flamewar," Beta said in a hard voice. "You must leave."
For a moment, Flamewar glared silently at her master. Then she stood up and turned her glare toward Arcee behind her.
"I won't forget this," she uttered venomously.
Then she transformed into vehicle mode and sped away. Arcee, along with the others, watched her go.
"That was the last I saw of her" Arcee informed. "Not long after her departure, the war began. There were rumours that she'd joined the Decepticons."
Jack nodded.
"From what you've told me about her, I wouldn't be surprised if she did."
"When the war began," Arcee continued heavily, "the temple was amongst the first places to fall. We lost our home...and our lives changed forever."
To be continued.
A/N: Ever since picking up her Cyberverse figure, I've been wanting to use Flamewar in a story. I had the idea of creating some kind of initial sisterly bond or relationship between her and Arcee in their early lives as a reason for why Flamewar later became Arcee's obssessive enemy and began to hunt her. Though I kept Flamewar of the same physical size and build to Arcee here, I don't imagine her appearance was so close to Arcee's yet at this time in the past. If I ever get round to writing a follow-up of any kind to this fic, I might address what happened to Flamewar after she left the temple. Next up, Arcee's life as a cyber-ninja student comes to a screeching halt with the onset of war.