Imperfection
Disclaimer: A sequel I had planned for Imperfect. A day late and a dollar short, but you know. LOL. Many other ideas came out of nowhere, so I had them to deal with. Anyway, this is an AU story that focuses around RoTF. Read and review.
"Traveling through the world produces a marvelous clarity in the judgment of men. We are all of us confined and enclosed within ourselves, and see no farther than the end of our nose. This great world is a mirror where we must see ourselves in order to know ourselves. There are so many different tempers, so many different points of view, judgments, opinions, laws and customs to teach us to judge wisely on our own, and to teach our judgment to recognize its imperfection and natural weakness."
-Michel de Montaigne
"It is extreme evil to depart from the company of the living before you die."
-Seneca
By: VampireQueenAkasha
"Is the future of our race not worth a single human life?"
-Megatron, RoTF
Jetfire
The Air and Space Museum was closed. That posed some complications for them.
"Okay, so what's the plan?" Leo asked.
Simmons frowned thoughtfully and reached into Bumblebee's back seat, pulling out a jar containing several small pills. "Here, take one of these pills and slip it under your tongue," he told the boy, "It's the high concentrate Polymer they put in Oreo cookies. It flukes the polygraph every time."
Leo held out two hands. "Whoa, this is nuts!" he cried, "Those guys might be armed! We could be shot!"
Mikaela nodded in agreement. "He's right. If we're going to do this, we need to do this right."
Simmons frowned and the three looked thoughtful and silently contemplated their plan of action before they eventually looked at Terra at the same time. She frowned at each expectant face for the moment before shrugging. "What are you staring at?" she asked.
Simmons smirked. "What's the usual time it takes you to take out at least four to five armed people?"
Terra sighed, knowing what he meant. "Depending on the conditions and environment; my record time was about four minutes."
"Can you do it in half that time?" Simmons asked.
Terra made a sound of disapproval. "I don't know. I'll try."
"Good!" Simmons said, "We'll be right behind you!"
Terra straightened and approached the museum, stepping inside. It was mostly empty save for a few security guards pacing back and forth. Terra scanned each guard and noticed that they were indeed armed with semi-automatic handguns, tazers and pepper spray. When two of them saw her, they held up their hands in warning. Terra could see that one of them had his hand close to his gun. Fortunately, she could handle that. The guards did possess a significantly high threat level, but they were ill-equipped at actual violence.
"Whoa, we're closing up," one of the guards warned, "You need to leave."
Terra shook her head with a pleasant smile. "My friends, this is important, I'm afraid," she told them, "It will only require a moment of your time."
"I said, you need to leave!" the guard warned.
Terra's smile disappeared. "I'm afraid I'll have to refuse."
Simmons, Leo, Sam and Mikaela watched in amazement from behind the glass doors as Terra fought off each and every security guard who attacked her. One of them attempted to pepper spray her, but she grabbed his arm and forced it back with speed and strength to the point that he sprayed himself in the eyes. He wailed in pain and she quickly flung his body through the air. He landed with a crash against a table with pamphlets lying on it and was still.
Another guard lunged and grabbed Terra from behind. She immediately slid two fingers into his nose, causing him to cry out in pain and she flipped him from her back, delivering a fierce punch to his chest that knocked the wind out of him.
Once it was clear, she gestured for the others to come inside.
"Shit!" Leo gasped, "That was nuts!"
Terra looked at him. "Thank you for that assessment, now let's move."
They made their way through the museum with Simmons wielding a scanner, attempting to pick up traces of radiation. He scanned each and every winged relic until he stopped at an enormous SR-71 Blackbird.
"Got him!" he cried.
The others stared up at the massive reconnaissance craft. Wheelie transformed from his vehicle mode and stared up in awe at the large machine.
"Oh, there he is..." he said, grinning broadly, "This guy's a legend, like the Chairman of the Board!" He gestured to Sam. "Yo, freshman, point the shard and watch the magic happen."
Mikaela looked worriedly to Terra and she smiled sadly and nodded her head, offering Sam the shard. She mouthed the words "it's okay", to Mikaela and Sam missed the looks, but Simmons caught them. He didn't mention it and instead, decided to save it for a better time. Sam held up the Allspark shard to the jet and it suddenly flew into the machine on its own. A jolt of electricity surged through the vehicle and it seemed to jolt to life.
Mikaela briefly spotted a symbol beneath the jet; the Decepticon logo. Her eyes went wide in horror. "Oh, shit... It's a Deception!" she cried.
Simmons' eyes widened as well and he staggered back. "Decepticon?" he gasped. He gestured behind him. "Behind the MiG NOW!"
The humans scattered away as the Blackbird began a painful, rusty transformation in front of them. The Decepticon cleared his throat as he straightened as much as his old body would allow; it sounded like ancient gears whirring together and when his head appeared, he spat out thick globs of brown fluid in the effort of attempting to form speech. Overall, it was a painful, wretched sight to see for the humans below.
"What sort of hideous mausoleum is this?" the Decepticon growled. His red optics landed on the humans at his feet. "You little spinal-cord-based organisms! Answer me! Where am I right now?" He looked around briefly before hissing out his words like a madman. "Answer!"
Terra tilted her head. "And who might you be?" she asked.
The Decepticon scowled. "ME? I AM THE ONE AND ONLY JETFIRE! Glory eternal!" he declared, "Prepare for-" He banged his head on a model of a satellite and winced, shuddering in pain and gripping the affronted spot. "Oh, bugger it!"
Wheelie chuckled dryly. "I tell you, this guy did NOT age well..." he remarked.
Jetfire staggered toward a sealed set of bay doors and angrily banged on them with what appeared to be the robot equivalent of a cane. "I command these doors to open!" he shouted, "Open! Open, I say!" He banged again. "Open Sesame!" Jetfire paused and frowned thoughtfully. "Uh...Open Bay doors?" He gave an angry curse and aimed one of his blasters at the doors. "OPEN! I SAID OPEN!" The blaster sparked and malfunctioned, firing off behind him before taking out a 1940's bomber.
The humans ducked to avoid falling debris and Jetfire looked back sheepishly before growling. "Oh, bollocks! Damn these worthless parts..." he muttered, before he smashed his way through the bay doors and out into the bone yard display. The humans and Wheelie chased after him with Bumblebee and the Twins following behind them.
Simmons glanced back warily at the smashed wall. "The museum is going to be very angry, very angry! We gotta catch that plane!" he cried.
Terra chuckled dryly. "I doubt it. I struck several pressure points in their bodies," she told him breathlessly, "They're going to be out for a while."
"Oh." Simmons breathed, shrugging, "Good to know."
Sam stopped in front of Jetfire. "Hey! Hold up!" he shouted, "Wait a minute!"
Jetfire stopped his trot and turned at the human with a sneer on his metallic mustache face, "What do you want?" he snapped.
"Look, we just want to talk!" Sam told him.
"I've got no time to talk, I'm on a mission! I'm a mercenary doom-bringer!" Jetfire declared. He looked around at his surroundings for a brief moment before he frowned dumbly down at the humans. "What planet am I on anyway?"
"Earth." Sam said.
Jetfire snorted at the name as if he had consumed bad Energon. "Earth?" he sneered, "What a terrible name for a planet. Might as well call it DIRT, Planet Dirt..."
With emphasis on his disgust for the name, he turned his head and spat a glob of what might have been identifiable as saliva. Terra grimaced and arched a single brow at the gesture and watched the fallen pile of spit with just as much disgust as he had.
"My, how charming..." she muttered.
Jetfire was silent before he looked down at the humans. "That reminds me; is that robot civil war still going on? Who's winning?" he asked.
Sam made a face. "The Decepticons."
Jetfire grimaced and spat to the side again. "Well, I changed sides to the Autobots." he said.
Terra frowned at that. "You can change sides at will?" she asked.
"It's a choice. It's an intensely personal decision," Jetfire told her, "So much negativity... Who wants to live a life filled with hate?"
Wheelie seemed absolutely relieved by this new revelation. "You mean you don't have to work for those miserable freaking Decepticons?" he asked, "You actually get a choice to go where you want to go in this hellhole?"
Jetfire nodded. "If the Decepticons had their way, they'd destroy the whole universe!"
Sam frowned thoughtfully, letting that register for a brief moment before he looked up at Jetfire. "Maybe we can help each other," he offered, "You know things I don't know, I know things you don't know..."
Leo whispered sidelong at him. "I don't think he knows what we know."
Sam looked around before he turned back to Terra. "Hey, got a knife on you?" he asked.
Leo stared at Sam in disbelief while Terra patted herself down in a search for the supposed weapon. "Now why in the hell would she be walking around with a-Oh, she actually has one." He cut himself off in mid rant when Terra produced a large carving knife from her boot and offered it to Sam.
Sam bent down in the dirt and began to carve the symbols into the ground. Jetfire watched him silently, curling his metallic lip in a perfect human representation of a grimace. When Sam was finished carving a few, he looked up at the large Decepticon.
"I could do this all day. It comes in waves, these vivid symbols," he told him, "They're symbols, but they're in my mind. You see, all this is in my mind, and Megatron want what's in my mind, him and there's someone called the Fallen..."
Jetfire reacted visibly at the mention of the name. "The Fallen?"
Terra nodded her head. "Yes. Do you know him?"
Jetfire nodded bitterly with a snort of disgust. "I know him. He left me here to rust!" he growled, "He was the original Decepticon! He's terrible to work for, it's always apocalypse, chaos, crisis and..." He trailed off and bent down to study the symbols. "These transcriptions, they were part of my mission! The Fallen's search for them was, ah..." He brightened now. "Yes! Yes, I remember now!...for the Dagger's Tip, a-and the Key!"
Sam held up two hands. "Slow down! The Dagger's Tip? The Key? What are you talking about?"
Jetfire opened his mouth to speak, but then, he looked beyond them and his optics widened. Then, he bent down and scooped the humans and Autobots close. Around him, the air began to heat up and crackle. "No time to explain! Hold on, everybody! Stay still or you'll die!" he shouted.
Then, everyone vanished into a flare of light.
O
There was a cracking sound and then, Jetfire appeared on top of a cliff surface. He smiled with pride and cast his gaze toward his surroundings. It resembled endless desert and appeared to be the correct world as well as the area on the planet that he needed to be.
"Well, that wasn't so bad. I just hope we're still on the right planet." he murmured.
There was another crack and Wheelie appeared through the air, tumbling off of Jetfire's back before he landed in a heap. "Hey, that freaking hurt!" he shouted angrily.
Across the desert, each and every one of them began to reappear with various popping sounds. Terra found herself sprawled on Skid's leg and she quickly scaled down the length of it and peered into the distance, spotting Mikaela, Leo and Sam. She was bent over the boy, tending to what appeared to be a burned arm. Terra rushed up and her eyes went wide in shock at the severity of the damages done from the trip.
Leo looked around. "I think we're in Vegas!" he exclaimed.
Terra bent down to Sam and frowned worriedly. "How did this happen?" she asked.
Sam gestured up to Jetfire with a hiss of pain. "Ask that maniac!"
Jetfire was in the middle of an argument with Simmons at the moment and the three humans and Autobots approached him in the end of it. Jetfire was clearly losing his patience as evidenced by the way that he rubbed his forehead.
"That really, really hurt!" Simmons snapped, "You're just lucky that I didn't get hurt! People could have gotten killed, okay? And if I would have gotten hurt, you would have heard..."
Jetfire scowled down at him. "Oh, shut up! I told you I was opening a space bridge, it's the fastest way to travel to Egypt and-"
Sam looked angry now. "When did you tell us? You didn't tell us anything!" he spat, "You didn't tell us anything. Why are we in Egypt?"
"Don't you get snippy with me, fleshling!" Jetfire warned. "You were duly informed! I have issues of my own, and it started with my mother!" He ignored the bored looks from the humans and continued on his tirade. "My ancestors have been here for centuries! My father, why, he was a wheel! The FIRST wheel! Do you know what he transformed into?"
Simmons arched a brow. "No. What?"
"NOTHING!" Jetfire declared, "But he did so with honor! DIGNITY, dammit!"
Sam rubbed the bridge of his nose with his good hand before he frowned impatiently up at Jetfire. "Can you just relax and give us a bit of info here so we can all have ourselves a little peace of mind?" he asked, impatiently.
Jetfire nodded his head and took a deep inhale. "This planet was visited by our race once before, by our earliest ancestors, millennia ago. They were on an exploratory mission to harvest Energon, the lifeblood of our race," he explained, "Without it, we'll all perish, oxidize and rust... like my wretched self!" He gestured to his rusted, outdated parts. "Do you have any idea what it's like to slowly fall part and die?"
Simmons rolled his eyes. "Let's not get episodic, okay, old-timer?" he snapped, "Beginning, middle, end. Facts, details. Condense: Plot. Tell it!"
Jetfire gestured to the broad desert. "Somewhere buried in this desert, our ancestors built a great machine. It harvests Energon by destroying suns."
The humans reacted visibly with shock.
"Destroy suns?" Sam stammered.
Leo made a gesture with two hands. "You mean blow them up?"
"Yes!" Jetfire continued, "You see, in the beginning, there were seven Primes, our original leaders. And they set out into the universe, seeking distant suns to harvest. The Primes set out with one rule: never destroy a planet with life. Until one of them tried to defy this rule. And his name was, forevermore, the Fallen..." He projected a holographic image of the horrible face of the Fallen; the same one seen on the televisions across the world. They witnessed the construction of the mighty machine and the downfall of the primitive humans around it. They also witnessed the uprising of the Fallen himself. "He despised the human race, and he wanted to kill you all by turning on that machine. The only way to activate it is with a legendary key called the Matrix of Leadership. A great battle took place over the possession of the Matrix.
The Fallen was stronger than his brothers, so they had no choice but to steal and hide it from him. In the ultimate sacrifice, they gave their lives to seal the Matrix away in a tomb made of their very own bodies. A tomb we cannot find." He shut the hologram off. "Somewhere, buried in this desert, that deadly machine remains. The Fallen knows where it is, and if he finds the Tomb of the Primes, you world will be no more."
Mikaela looked up at Jetfire. "Okay, so how do we stop him?" she asked.
"Only a Prime can defeat the Fallen." Jetfire told her.
Sam reacted with despair at this. "Oh. I get it..." He paused and looked up at Jetfire again, "So say this energy from the Matrix can be used to reactivate the machine... could that energy somehow be used to reactive someone and bring him back to life?"
Jetfire looked a little confused. "It was never designed for that purpose, but it's an energy like no other."
Sam nodded and he seemed a little bit relieved to hear this. "Okay, good to know," he said, "So, then how do you get us to the Matrix before the Decepticons get to me?"
Jetfire gestured to his own head. "Follow your mind, your map, your symbols! What you carved in the sand, it's your clue," he told him, "Remember what I told you; 'When dawn lights the Dagger's Tip, Three Kings will reveal the doorway'! Find the doorway!" He gestured for them to depart. "You have to go now! That was my mission! It's YOUR mission now! Go before the Decepticons find me and find you!"
They turned to go, but Terra stopped them. "I want to stay with Jetfire," she said.
Mikaela looked startled. "What? Why?" she asked.
"There's a few things we need to talk about," Terra told her, "But we won't be far behind you. I'll join up with you again in due time. But you go on."
"Are you sure?" Sam questioned.
"Yes, I'm sure."
Jetfire gestured. "You don't have time to stay here and talk," he said, "Go!"
The humans departed, leaving Jetfire and Terra alone. She looked up at the aged jet.
"It's time to talk." she told him.
He nodded in agreement. "Yes. It is."
