As Arcee, Bulkhead and Bumblebee prepared for a mad dash across the plateau, all three froze as the sound of an approaching helicopter filled the air. For a desperate moment, Arcee hoped it was Fowler, but as she turned to face the familiar craft, dread filled her. She new that helicopter's make and model.
"Airachnid!"
"Nope." Bulkhead rumbled as many more helicopters began to fill the horizon line, "Guess again."
"MECH?"
"That'd be my guess."
"What the slag could they want now?"
"What they always want, to take a Cybertronian unawares and capture them in order to experiment on them."
"With such a large grouping of Decepticons, they're probably hoping to take any one who gets separated from the group," Bee added. Which meant the Decepticon miners wouldn't stand a chance.
But then, without any other warning, the MECH helicopters began to open fire on the canyon below, setting off a ripple of smaller explosions as the energon crystals ignited and then combusted. And suddenly, Arcee couldn't worry about the other vehicons. Already, their odds had improved when Megatron and Optimus had began to walk away from them, but now, with the arrival of MECH and the mayhem they were inciting, they'd be foolish not to take the opportunity that had been seemingly handed to them.
"We can't worry about them, we have to go now!" She barked.
Not needing any other encouragement, Bulkhead charged right through their rock shelter, Arcee at his heels as he made straight for Optimus, feeling only slightly bad that he would have to tackle the Prime, but, then again, Bulkhead figured there would be time for apologies later. Quicker than Bulkhead, Bee headed straight for Megatron, still determined to ensure his companions would have enough time to get Optimus away, and back to the ground bridge coordinates.
But as their luck would have it, neither of them made it to their intended targets, for just as Bulkhead gave a defiant roar—loud enough to cause Optimus to look over at him, completely startled—MECH's helicopters opened fire again, this time at the cliff face just below where both Optimus and Megatron stood. In a cacophony of noise, the rock face exploded into a comparative avalanche, sweeping all in its devastating path into the canyon below.
Of all of them, Megatron seemed to have the only advantage, and just as the ground gave way beneath him, the Decepticon leader used the momentum to make a hasty transformation into his favored Cybertronian jet mode. He didn't try to save Orion, there was no need—the fall into the canyon wouldn't prove fatal for any of their kind, though it was a long and damaging fall—and instead charged at the MECH helicopters, determined to destroy the human insects who were trying to destroy his cache of energon.
Optimus, Arcee, Bulkhead and Bumblebee weren't so lucky however, and all were caught up in the surge of flowing rock into the canyon below. Halfway down the cliff face, Bulkhead managed to grab onto a ledge, and even as he struggled to maintain his grip, he reached blindly for any of his allies. Through the roar of the rocks that beat down upon his frame, Bulkhead felt a hand grasp his own, and the Autobot didn't question, didn't hesitate to try and pull whomever he had caught, free.
"I've got ya!"
It was then that Bulkhead looked down—straight into the optics of Optimus, who had in turn caught Arcee. For a moment, it felt as if nothing had changed, as if the last few weeks had never happened. He could discern no animosity, no hatred or anger in Optimus' optics, only concern for the one he held on to.
"I have you!" Optimus called down to Arcee in a tone that Bulkhead knew he meant to be reassuring, but the sound of that voice speaking to her as if nothing had happened, was too much for Arcee, whose expression twisted into one of pain. Bulkhead knew what Arcee was going through in that moment, and could only hope that she wouldn't say anything, not yet.
"Keep it together, Cee!" Bulkhead shouted down to her, hoping she'd hear him. Right now, they had to focus on not getting crushed by the avalanche around them.
"I won't let her fall," Optimus looked back up at Bulkhead, misreading the concern in the Autobot's voice to be directed at him. That voice; what once was filled with deep caverns and velvet midnight, now seemed softer, gentler, somehow, even amongst the comparative roar of the cascading rocks and gravel that pelted their armor, Bulkhead could hear that something had been irrevocably changed in Optimus.
Unsure of what to say, Bulkhead could only look back to the bot who had been his leader, his Prime for so long. It was then that Bulkhead caught sight of the other's shoulder, and of where the Autobot symbol should have been. Now, freshly burned into that familiar metal plating, was a Decepticon symbol. If Bulkhead hadn't already locked the servos in his wrist, he might have dropped all of them out of sheer surprise. But he couldn't dwell on that, not right now; though he took some solace out of the grim fact that at least Arcee couldn't see the Decepticon insignia.
Suddenly, there was a flash of yellow, and Bulkhead thought that through the chaos of raining rocks, he could just make out Bumblebee; he tried to yell out, though with one hand desperately straining to maintain a grip on the cliff, and the other hanging onto Optimus there wasn't much that Bulkhead could do to help Bee.
Somehow hearing Bulkhead's shout through the din, and instinctively understanding it's meaning, Optimus made a desperate attempt to grab for Bumblebee as well. Whether it was because some part of him distantly remembered his Autobot brethren, or because he was merely reacting to the sight of a fellow Cybertronian in trouble, Bulkhead couldn't tell. But the movement jerked Bulkhead too much, and he lost his hold of the cliff, sending all four of them tumbling down the cliff face once more, into the canyon below amidst the maelstrom of crushing rock.
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A/N: Look, a literal cliff hanger! ;) Sorry about such a short chapter, but don't worry, the next chapters will be up soon! Hope you've enjoyed this one so far!
Please R&R!
~~~Epsilon Pax & Bumbee