A/N: I have to admit that the lack of reviews has cast me into a depressed slump. :( It only takes 5 seconds of your life and it makes me feel a whole heck of a lot better about my stories. The only reason that I've even continued writing is because my little brother has been threatening me. So please, kind readers whom I love dearly, if you could find it in your hearts and/or sparks to review, it would be tremendously appreciated. Thank you.
Vertigo hit the afterburners, building up momentum before transforming and colliding with the larger decepticon. The wreck was messy, painful, and the femme found herself momentarily disoriented as she tumbled in a flailing ball of limbs along the earth. She managed to untangle herself quickly, despite the stinging pain coursing throughout her body, and leaped to her feet in an attempt to get an edge on her opponent. Skidding as she hit the soil, she sent a blast from her ion cannon in his direction. Still disoriented, she crouched down, centering her gravity.
Payload twitched, slowly getting to his feet. He glared at her with his cold red optics. "Resorting to surprise attacks. How very decepticon in action, Virigo." He mused darkly.
Vertigo aimed another blast at him. It merely grazed his shoulder plate as he ducked quickly.
"Do not ever compare me to you again." Hissed the femme; Her voice low and filled with unquestionable menace.
"Touchy, aren't we." He replied, sending a powerful shot that caught her square in the chest.
She was sent flying, landing sprawled on her back, barely avoiding serious injury to her wings, dazed. Shaking her head to clear it, she leapt up barely avoiding a follow up shot. Vertigo charged him, dodging a punch to the face as she unsheathing a blade from her arm. She sunk it into where she knew a weak spot would be in his armor. Payload howled in rage, batting her away with a powerful swipe. She landed neatly on her feat, taking to the air to avoid another blast.
Her processors nagged darkly that her that this was not a battle that she could win on these terms, but she had to try. She could not lose control... not now. Vertigo fired another projectile at him, hitting his shoulder. Payload shrugged it off, lunging at her and seizing a taloned pede before she could dart out of reach. Her thrustors screeched furiously as she pushed them to their limit, feeling the servos in her leg searing in protest from being pulled in two directions at once. He brushed off the blasts from her cannon, heaving her down to the ground with a triumphant roar.
She groaned in pain, feeling her wings slam into the earth followed by the rest of her body. Her tanks lurched again as she was swung over the decepticon's head once more and hurled to the dirt; leaving the femme gasping in pain. Her hands planted themselves on the ground, about to push her back up to her feet, but Payload would not have any of that. His knee found her abdomen, pinning her to the ground.
"This? This was all you had to offer?" He growled, massive digits curling around her jaw. "This was it? I had heard of cunning and bloodlust. Where is the ferocity of our great Virigo?" He plunged a blade into the largest of her wing segments, eliciting a spasm from the femme.
"I am Vertigo-" She hissed before letting out a small wail as Payload twisted his blade.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Does that hurt?" His voice was filled with amusement as he dragged the blade down the relatively delicate appendage. Vertigo clenched her jaw shut, a low scream erupting in her throat. The decepticon continued his ministrations, ignoring the talons raking feebly against his armour. "How disappointing. Though I'm not sure why I expected much more than this from someone who betrayed her cause." He lifted his weapon as if to admire his handiwork, vibrant pink energon dripping down his arm and onto her chest. He leaned in closer face just a few feet from hers. "Don't worry." Murmured the mech, "I'll be sure to kill you slowly."
With those words he speared his blade into her side, impaling the earth behind her in his eagerness. Her systems convulsed in protest, talons digging into the armour of the decepticon as a screech tore through her vocal processor. "How does it feel to know that you're just another failed experiment in the end? To know that you could not stop me?-"
"Shut up!" Vertigo spat heatedly, arms struggling to unload rounds of missiles into the decepticon.
"How unoriginal." Were his last words before returning to the dam. "I will dispose of you momentarily."
The femme lay there. He was right; she had failed. Failed miserably. Had Optimus ultimately foreseen this? Was that the reason he had demanded the she monitor rather than fight? The thought caused Vertigo more pain than her wounds did.
She had to try... She still had to try. She wasn't dead yet, and until that moment she would not stop. No, there was still a small glimmering chance that she could defeat Payload, and she would do it on her terms. She refused to accept failure once again.
Vertigo planted her hands on the ground, struggling to get up. Gradually the pain began to fade, diminished but not fully dulled as she turned off her pain sensors. She stood up, though still a little wobbly, drops of energon spilling onto the ground from her wounds. She held the cannon on her left arm steady with her right, glancing down quickly to make sure that it was still there.
Reassured that her limb was not going anywhere, the female cybertronian shot a powerful blast at the decepticon. It caught him off guard and sent him sprawling to the ground. She leapt at him, the blade on her other arm arcing down to slash at an unprotected joint between plates of his armour. "Damned traitorous glitch! Why won't you just die?!" Payload snapped, fist colliding with her face.
It knocked her back a few paces but she jumped back into action, plunging her blade into the exposed circuits in his side. "If I die, then I will take your spark with me!" She replied, rolling with another punch, this time to her shoulder. His next blow sent her flying back a few dozen feet. Landing nimbly on her feet, she dodged a blast aimed at her spark. Vertigo sent another shot his way, hitting his chest. She charged him, hitting him with a well-placed kick.
He staggered back a few feet. But retaliated by grabbing her and throwing her as hard as he could. "I will destroy you. My master will be very pleased when I bring him your mangled corpse."
She got to her feet, straightening herself. "You really think he would be pleased if you were to mangle his most prized possession?" She retorted, firing a missile at him. Payload jumped to the side, missile avoiding his more vital components. "I don't think he would appreciated that one bit." She raced at him, tackling him to the ground, talons piercing his visage. "You would have to make it a clean kill."
He shoved her off, blast glancing her shoulder. "You were given wonderful opportunities that none of could have fulfilled. Wonderful honors that most of us dreamed of." He kicked her in the side. "But you ran away from them, you feared them like a coward." His largest cannon trained on the portion of her body that harboured her spark. "You don't deserve to live!"
Vertigo swung her arm, knocking Payloads legs out from under him. She jumped to her feet as he fell. "Honour." She remarked bitterly, blade coming down on her opponent. "That was no honor. That was the pit, and I had no choice."
"No, you were a fool!" He aimed a punch at her face but she grabbed his arm, pulling on it. His servos whined in protest as she yanked it out of it's socket. A howl of pain and rage met her audio receptors. She brought his appendage over her head and swung it down to collide with his helm. He grabbed his arm back, getting to his feet. Their fistfight turned into an awkward wrestling match.
Vertigo strained, even with his weakened state, a contest of raw strength was barely even. "I would like to see what you would have done in my position!"
"I would have submitted! I would have gladly accepted the honor bestowed upon me; my purpose!" He put the force of his massive weight on her. Her knees bent under the stress. Though she had managed to come this far, she doubted she would ever make it back to base in one piece. "Do you think your precious humans will still ally themselves with you once they learn who you really are? The Right Hand of-"
Then suddenly like the force of the devastator winds on Cybertron, a wall of water swept them up and sent them crashing downriver in a tangled heap. Her already raw wings caught the current, carrying her now helpless form wherever the water wished. Payload clung to her, dragging her down in their flailing jumble of limbs. Struggling to break free, Vertigo unloaded several rounds into the mech. With his grip weakened, she managed to kick him off of her. "Sorry." She commented, bracing her wing joints as she was swept further away. "It looks like you will be the only one dying in this fight."
Fighting against the waves she powered her thrustors, flaring her wings. And with that she rocketed out of the water, refolding herself into her preferred terrestrial mode. For once, she felt a joy that overcame all of the dismal feelings lurking in her cranial processor. It was a feeling of accomplishment, of importance, she knew that she had just helped win that battle.
Vertigo swooped around, heading back to where the rest of the NEST team had begun to regroup. She transformed, feet alighting on the ground, a tired smile on her lip plates. Optimus gazed at her, concern evident as he called Ratchet over. "Are you alright?"
She nodded, wincing as her wings had attempted to refold themselves along her back. She would have to keep them flared until the damage had been repaired.
"That was very rash of you to take on Payload... Although your courage is perhaps the sole reason that the Kariba is still intact. For that, you have my gratitude." He said softly. "You've been badly damaged."
She let out a cough, shrugging it off. "These wounds should not be fatal..."
Her thoughts were cut short when she caught sight of the humans staring at her uncertainly. Whispering, pointing at her wings.
Slowly Epps raised his gun, pointing it at her as his eyes went wide with mistrust, Petr followed suit, taking a few steps back. "She's a decepticon!"
She looked at him, optics widening dangerously, then turned to look at her left wing. Sure enough, the symbol was there, strikingly pink from her own energon, standing out against the black surface.
"... No..." She whispered. "No!"