Gravity
Disclaimer: Good day ladies and nonladies-and whatever the hell category fans fall under-lol. Here is a sequel to the fic "Mnemonic" for your reading pleasure-at least I hope for your reading pleasure anyway-that will take place a little bit after season one-and an AU fic again! Am I abusing the AU? LOL. Maybe.
"The brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past; you can't go forward in life until you let go of your past failures and heartaches."
-Unknown Quote
"A sorrow's crown of sorrow is remembering happier times."
-Alfred Lord Tennyson
By: VampireQueenAkasha
"Now, there's nothing louder to me than the silence."
-Arcee, Transformers Prime
Lurking in the Dead Streets
The sight of the barren city brought back memories.
Arcee had been following Barricade through the market district for what felt like many groons until she stopped at a dried up, Energon fountain. She could picture it when Cybertron flourished; many younglings came to the fountain to play, including herself with her friends. Looking back at a happier time made her spark only ache, so she followed Barricade into a market shop and noticed that he was rummaging through some containers.
"Uh, what are you doing?" she asked.
"Seeking suitable parts," he growled, kneeling near a crate that had been ripped open, "If you want to be of any use, you can start searching too."
Arcee rolled her optics and walked up to a crate that was sealed tight. "What am I looking for, uber tracker?"
"Anything that may assist us for the moment," he told her, almost as if he was impatient with her question.
She decided not to argue further and started in her search. So far as she was searching, everything she found was either too old for use or just completely useless. She knew that there were a lot of things that COULD hold up in a war, but so far, they weren't finding anything. Arcee looked up and noticed Barricade's rapt attentiveness to a pile of coiled wire; he seemed to be deciding whether or not if it was of any use.
Before she knew it, Barricade was already making his way outside again. To ease the tense silence, her mind nagged away at her to say something.
"So do you remember ever coming here before the war?" Arcee asked.
"No," Barricade said, glancing down at his wrist; he tapped a few keys on the miniature controls before scowling.
Arcee arched her optic ridges. So much for conversation...
"Are you going to stand there or start moving?" he snapped, interrupting her thoughts.
Arcee glared up at him. "Well frag you too, Decepticon!" she snapped.
They started forward toward with Arcee still ranting lowly. "This place is huge, Barricade; we need to stop every once in a while to slow our systems down," she insisted, "You have no idea what's going on and neither do I. For all we know, we might be here for a while and we can't risk-"
At the sound of a soft crumble of stone, he had stopped suddenly and was leaning his head to one side, straining to see something ahead of him. He held up a hand and she stopped talking, staring up at him impatiently, but no longer irritatedly as she had. He seemed intent on a towering pile of scrap and glanced down at Arcee briefly before looking back up at the spot in sight, catching a brief movement that alerted him immediately.
"Hey!" he yelled, "You there!"
Arcee furiously grabbed his arm, tugging sharply. "Stop it!" she hissed, through clenched denta.
He glowered down at her. "Do not tell me what to do."
"Shut up! You don't know what that could be!"
A heavy metal-buckling sound stopped them in mid-argument. They both looked up as the shape seemed to tumble from the pile of scrap and land a few feet in front of them; it was a Cybertronian, that was certain, but covered in violet, glowing wounds and locking soulless optics onto the two. Their presence seemed to draw intrigue in the shambling creature as it began moving toward them at a slow, sluggish pace.
"What in the name of Primus?" Barricade whispered, stunned.
It occured to Arcee that perhaps Barricade had never seen the extent of what Dark Energon was capable of to the deceased. Megatron had sent a large amount to Cybertron and awoken the dead for his own personal army. Even though they had arrived at the space bridge he constructed, most of them must have lingered here.
Fragging wonderful... she thought.
"Shoot it!" Arcee spat, aiming her weapons at the reanimated Cybertronian.
Barricade's arm transformed into a cannon and they took shots at the zombified creature, easily taking it down. It crumbled to the ground in a pile of smoking metal and Barricade approached, tapping the lifeless corpse with one foot.
"How is this possible?" he demanded.
Arcee started to explain, but when she looked up, many more Cybertronian undead were slowly making their way toward the two, obviously drawn by the sounds of their weapons. "No time to explain," she told him, "Go!"
Barricade surprisingly didn't argue with that. He followed Arcee as she transformed and rode down the streets with the undead slowly lumbering after them. They made their way around a street corner where Arcee quickly rushed up to a building; she pried a piece of metal that had been blocking the doorway aside and gestured for Barricade to follow her. He didn't argue and rushed inside and they fitted the metal piece back in its place.
The two pressed themselves further down below the shattered window, trying to keep as silent as possible while the horde of undead moved passed their location without so much as a single moment of suspicion. They were simply just mindless creatures now, so there was really no chance of any intellectual manner of thought.
"What are they?" Barricade whispered, gazing out somewhat from the shattered window.
Arcee smiled smugly. "What? Doesn't Megatron tell you everything?"
The look he gave her was practically murder, but also demanded an explanation.
"You're familiar with Dark Energon, right?" Arcee asked, rolling her optics at the look.
"Yes. But Megatron had merely mentioned it to me briefly upon my arrival. Knock Out had once complained of the consequences of its usage."
Arcee nodded. "Well you can clearly see what kind of consequences he was talking about, can't you?"
Barricade grudgingly agreed with a low grunt before casting his gaze out to the streets again. Arcee watched him cautiously before she dropped her voice to a low whisper. "Do you see them anywhere out there?"
"No. They must have moved on."
"So what now?"
Barricade shifted and looked around, surveying their surroundings; it was an oil bar from what he could tell. Most of the tables and chairs had been toppled over, covered in rust and worn from the effects of war. There were a few empty Energon bottles scattered about as well and he could even see a back room where it led to storage.
"We'll recharge here and make this our camp for the time being," he replied, standing and approaching the bar counter, "The walls are heavily fortified and we can easily block this window with some of the tables and chairs. Once that is done, we make our way forward."
Arcee arched her optic ridges. "Any idea where we're going?"
"No."
O
Arcee didn't trust recharging alone with Barricade, but she had no other choice; she had to preserve as much of her energy as she could while on Cybertron, even arguing with Barricade that he should do the same. Of course, he didn't seem equally as trustworthy of her either, but vocalized his opinion when she declared that she was not so easily frightened by him as he was of her. Barricade only laughed at this in response.
"I care very little if I scare you," Barricade had said, "or of your falsified opinions of me. I care only about survival."
After their recharge, Barricade and Arcee moved on to Iacon Infirmary to gather up any supplies that might have been useful. Arcee could easily compare the Infirmary to the hospital that Jack's mother worked at; there was a layer of dust across counters, gurneys scattered about and overturned, chairs thrown and windows smashed. It was difficult to look at for too long because it once again reminded her of an easier time than this.
"Arcee, quickly. Come here."
Arcee peered into another room labeled MATERNITY WARD and noticed that Barricade was going through a crate. He seemed satisfied with something and that piqued her interest. She walked up and he held out what looked like a supply of liquid Energon sealed tightly in a container and with a tube attached to it. When she looked up, he was grinning in a way that looked almost...happy. Not malicious happy, but genuine delight.
"Gourmet Energon," he told her, "Enough to suffice for us both."
Arcee arched her optic ridges with a smile and she took the container, studying the red liquid within. "Really? I'm surprise it's lasted this long."
"Most females require such a supply after birthing younglings," Barricade said, "This is quite a find for us."
Arcee tucked the container under her arm. "We can take this back to camp." She looked around the ward. "Is there any more?"
"I don't know. Let's look."
Arcee set the container down and decided to help him search the room. The atmosphere between them both wasn't quite as tense as before and she couldn't help but feel a little relieved by this. Perhaps bringing this back to their campsite and talking a bit would help. Maybe she could even dare to try and get him to remember a few things...
A low, rattling chirp filled the air and the two froze in their search. They glanced at each other before looking around.
"What was that?" Arcee asked.
Barricade spotted movement beneath the berth to his right and readied his cannon with a scowl, slowly approaching it. "I have grown weary of these games!" he spat, "Whoever you are, face me now, coward!"
There was the faintest of chirps in response and a shape slithered out from behind the berth. It was small-probably about the size of Barricade's helm, had a weak, sickly humanoid body and small wires trailing behind it. When it moved, it seemed to crawl on weak, slender arms and small, barely there legs. Barricade's optics widened and Arcee's did as well when they both suddenly understood what this thing was.
It was a sparkling, barely old enough to exist outside of its mother's carrying chamber.
When it looked up, it let out a soft, metallic screech and lunged at Barricade. He recoiled to the side and the creature tumbled head over heels across the floor. When it attempted to right itself, Barricade's foot came down, crushing the small thing into a puddle of violet. Arcee couldn't help but wince and look away as he did this; it was such a horrid sight to see a once, living sparkling crushed to death so easily in such a way.
Barricade stared down at the remains of the sparkling before he looked up sharply, catching notice to several more crawling shapes making their way toward them, forming an Energon-thirsty horde. The two backed away toward the doors slowly.
"We can't take them all out and waste energy!" Arcee whispered fiercely, "Go!"
The two sprinted down a hallway with the creatures crawling after them, moving surprisingly fast for what they were. Arcee could see a good portion of the wall to the left had been blasted out and the floor was gone. She raced as fast as her legs could carry her and jumped over the hole, landing onto the other side with ease. She quickly looked back at Barricade, seeing that he was hesitating, obviously calculating the possibility for him to make it over.
"Barricade, hurry!" she shouted.
Barricade looked back at the approaching horde before he backed up a few paces and ran, vaulting over the hole where he then landed next to Arcee in a roll. The two watched as the sparklings attempted to follow, but their jumps held very little power in them and they fell right into the gaping hole, plummeting to the darkness below. A chorus of screeches and screams echoed from below them and they let out relieved sighs.
"If that's the worse that happens to us, I think I can handle anything else that comes our way..." Arcee muttered wearily.
Barricade grunted and stood up, his voice resuming that tone of contempt. "Finally, something we agree on."