Ah, I couldn't help it. I made a continuation to the last chapter. Or, if you like, it could fit into "The Pledge" somewhere. Gyaahaaa this is a long one, sooooorrrryyyyyy!
Remnant
The whiskered screech ruffled its feathers in agitation as a lone figure broke from the shadows under its perch and darted across the wasteland. Disgruntled, the owl began to preen itself.
Humans! What a nuisance, it thought, strutting about as if they still owned the place! Why couldn't they get it through their funny heads that Jasper was the domain of owls and foxes now?
The bird screeched bad-temperedly and flapped away, leaving the solitary human to the dystopian wasteland that was the Desolation of Megatron. He burrowed into a heap of scrap metal and ash as a pair of Seekers swooped low overhead. The human watched them with cold blue eyes as they finished their sweep and returned to their point of origin: that scar on the face of the earth, Darkmount.
The young man's blood boiled at the hideous sight, but his hand went to a pale light shining from around his neck. "I know, I know," he whispered to the unheard voices, "Even Megatron can't undo a prophecy." His eyes narrowed. "The reckoning is coming."
When he was certain that the patrol was not returning, he slipped from the makeshift shelter and scurried from hiding place to hiding place in an increasingly fruitless search for survivors. Each corpse found left him feeling cold, sick, and longing for home.
He crouched next to a body in the bombed-out florist's shop and respectfully closed its eyes. She had been a gentle soul, the shopkeeper, and had died the way she had lived: trying to help others. The searcher shook his head pityingly and resumed his quest. When he came to the remains of Memorial High School, he stopped.
Intuition was telling him that someone at least was alive there. Wrenching the battered doors back, he dropped into the hole that was once a front walkway. Cautiously, the boy made his way down the maze of hallways until the debris blocked the windows and rendered the school completely dark.
"Great." he muttered.
He slipped the glowing object from under his shirt to provide a little illumination, and drew a long blade from a nylon sheath on his back in a somewhat clumsy motion. The moment the hilt touched his skin, the sword radiated a vibrant blue light, chasing away the shadows.
The human caught sight of long scuff marks and scrapes in the linoleum flooring, and began to follow them. His ears twitched slightly as he began to hear the sounds of whispering and dry, rattling coughs. The trail ended at what had once been the cafeteria door, now completely barricaded by desks and lockers.
As he approached, a voice faintly whispered, "Beck, what's that light?"
A second voice quickly shushed the first. "Shh! Keep your head down, it might be one of Them!"
Now, a third voice joined the others. "Nah, too small. There's no way one of those Iron Man knockoffs could fit down here."
The swordsman waited outside the barricade appraisingly, listening. The first voice, the coughing girl, spoke again.
"Vince, I think somebody's out there. Maybe they need our help!"
Vince groaned softly. "Okay, okay. Fine. I'll look, but that's it!" his voice grew quieter for a moment. "Come on, Sierra. You need to drink that water if you're going to lose that cough."
"I won't." Sierra sounded stubborn. "That's the last of the fresh water, Vince. Give it to one of the younger kids!"
The scout had heard enough. "Vince, Rebecca, Sierra! How many are trapped in there with you?" he called, striking the desks and lockers with his blade.
The pale, dirty face of Sierra Cody appeared through a gap in the desks. "Oh my gosh! It's you!" she cried. Without a second thought, she squirmed out of the blockade, hacking dryly all the way, and stumbled up to throw her arms around the boy's neck.
"Jack! I'm so glad you're okay! One of the cheerleaders saw the robots take you the day they came. Are your friends alright?" She only stopped for air when she began to cough again.
With a kind smile, the tracker gently removed her arms from around his neck and patted her back until she could breathe again. "Not Jack," he said softly, "It's Rodimus now."
Sierra crinkled her nose. "Radames? Like that guy from Aida?"
He chuckled. "Close enough." He enveloped the girl in a warm embrace. "You have no idea how glad I am to see you!" he whispered, "I thought for sure I was going to find nothing but corpses down here!"
"Wait..." Vince peered out from the desks. "Darby? You...you came back for us?"
The other teen walked forward to shake Vince's hand, and the former bully could not help noticing that Darby was not the shrimpy kid he remembered. "Rodimus, not Darby. And yes, I can get you all out of here, take you someplace safe. The question is, are you willing to follow me?"
In answer, Vince called over two other boys to help him move one of the lockers aside. He beckoned to the twenty-eight students who had been trapped in the room for five weeks.
"Come on, guys. We're leaving."
Rodimus strode forward with Sierra trailing close behind. "Is anyone sick or wounded?" he asked authoritatively.
There were three twelve-year-olds in the group who were somewhat weaker than the rest, and one of the thirteen-year-olds, Harmony, had sprained an ankle. Otherwise, everyone was limited to cuts and bruises.
"Alright," Rodimus said firmly, "We have a lot of ground to cover tonight. As soon as the sun goes down, we make for the northern mesas. There are plenty of abandoned houses along the way if we end up needing shelter." He turned and began the march, holding his sword in front of him. "We'll need to take turns carrying the younger ones. No talking, stay together. If you see any aircraft, no matter what insignia it's got, you hit the ground. You don't run, you don't hide, just play dead and let me handle it."
The small line of refugees nervously followed their rescuer up through the halls to the ruined doors. "Almost sundown," Sierra rasped.
Rodimus nodded, crouched on the top step. "It's three hours' march to the first outpost," he murmured back.
The girl blinked in surprise. "What outpost?" The boy she had known as Jack turned to her and raised an eyebrow calmly.
"You didn't think we'd let the 'Cons waltz in and take over without starting a resistance, did you?"
Rebecca joined the two and tied her blond hair back. "Radames, who are the 'Cons?"
The boy cracked a grin at the mispronunciation of his mandated codename, but he didn't correct her. "It's short for Decepticon. They're the ones who trashed our town." He stood and stretched. "I fight for their mortal enemies, and that's all you need to know right now."
As the last light faded from the horizon, Rodimus sheathed his sword. "Okay people, let's move." he said grimly.
It was a long, slow exodus, stopping for cover at every noise. It was two hours before they made it as far as the first set of abandoned houses. Rodimus wrenched a window open and hoisted Harmony through, followed by the other three youngest students. One by one, the teenagers silently slipped into the house and gathered on the floor in the hallways and kitchen.
"Stay away from the windows," Vince ordered in a low voice, "Just like at school."
The discovery of running water led to quickly hushed shouts of joy as each boy and girl was able to drink his or her fill for the first time in several weeks. The pantry had already been looted, but a box of shredded wheat was found and passed from person to person.
"Slow down with that!" Rebecca scolded in a motherly tone, "We don't know when we'll be eating next!" She moved from student to student, rationing cereal and trying to boost morale.
Vince watched her for a moment, then leaned on the doorpost across from Rodimus, toying with the baseball bat he'd brought from the school.
"Gang initiation."
The raven-haired youth looked up in surprise. "I beg your pardon?"
The ginger glared at him. "What was it you said? A bunch of guys grabbed me and shoved me in a trunk? I remember some of that night, Darby. Don't tell me the giant hand ripping off the car door was my imagination." His eyes narrowed, taking in the strange pendant around Rodimus's neck. "They came for you, didn't they?"
Rodimus blew out a breath and nodded solemnly. "Yeah, they did. The one that saved you is the leader of the resistance." He let out a dry chuckle. "I got in so much trouble for that whole fiasco. You should've seen it, Vince. It was worse than that Elephant Graveyard thing in the Lion King!"
"Yeah?" Vince grinned ever so slightly and shifted to sit next to his old rival. "What happened?"
The other boy's smile dropped. "I disappointed him. Well, we disappointed him. I wasn't the only one involved, but I was the instigator."
Vince slugged him on the shoulder in a halfhearted show of camaraderie. "You disappointed him? What is he, your dad?"
Rodimus laughed again. "Honestly, he's kind of everyone's dad. You'll understand when you meet him." He stood once more and addressed the others.
"I know you're tired guys, but it's time to move on. If we don't make the outpost by morning, we're dead in the water."
Without protest, the young refugees began helping each other to their feet. They had nearly reached the edge of the desert when a low hum was heard overhead.
"Seekers!" Rodimus hissed, "Everyone down!"
It wasn't a Decepticon patrol. Out of the dark clouds covering the stars, a huge starship lowered itself towards them. Rodimus drew his sword, prepared to lead the ship's occupants away from his charges if need be. The ramp extended to reveal—
"Jack!"
Arcee dove from the ship and swept her partner into a tight embrace. "You're alive! Primus! If you ever go off on a solo mission without telling me again, so help me I'll-"
"Soldier! Who are all these native life-forms?" a demanding bellow interrupted.
Arcee seemed to notice the twenty-eight for the first time. "They're children, sir." she said in surprise.
Rodimus nodded. "I'm under orders to lead survivors back to R.O.1," he explained to her in a low voice.
The newcomer, a very large male Autobot, frowned. "Whose orders, native?" he asked brusquely. The boy glared suspiciously at the unfamiliar warrior and stood straight and tall.
"I am afraid I cannot answer that question without the express permission of my commanding officer."
"Soldier," the blue and red mech addressed Arcee acidly, "Perhaps you will remind the native to watch its tone."
"Radames, perhaps you will remind the alien whose turf he's on!" Sierra marched up to stand beside him, glaring up at the Autobots.
"At ease, Sierra," Rodimus whispered, "He's a stranger in a strange land. We can't expect him to behave like us."
Sierra did not, in fact, calm down.
"I don't care if he's the gosh-danged Pope!" She pointed an accusing finger at the Commander.
"We're called humans! Not 'native life-forms'. Get it right! And just because you don't - and won't - control us doesn't mean you get to treat us like...like... like someone who doesn't know the first thing about respect!"
Ultra Magnus was somewhat taken aback by the tiny femme. He scowled, but grudgingly admitted that he may have been out of line—in the privacy of his own processor, of course.
"Very well, humans," he stressed the word. "The question remains: under whose orders are you meeting this Resistance?"
Tactfully, Arcee interrupted before the tension could rise any higher. "Commander, these kids are extremely vulnerable out here. We need to get them to safety, then I can take you to the base." She was visibly relieved when he reluctantly agreed.
Rodimus noticed that the other twenty-six students looked expectantly at Vince and played along. "It's your call," he said easily, "We can fly with these guys, or walk for another two hours."
The other boy bit his lip in thought, then turned to look up at the female alien, who seemed to be the friendlier of the two. "Last year," he said, masking his nerves with bravado, "I was almost killed by one of the same creeps who took over Jasper. I was saved by one of your kind. He was big, red and blue, ripped the door right off the car I was in. Sound familiar?"
Arcee's optics widened. "By the Allspark! You were conscious?!"
Vince smirked at her. "That's all I needed to hear."
He turned to the others and jerked his head towards the Storm Bringer. "Let's go," he ordered in a clipped tone.
Rodimus hid his smile, but clapped the boy on the shoulder as he passed. "Good call."
The band of highschoolers settled into the cargo bay, but Magnus noted that they looked ill at ease and stayed close to the doors. The longer he observed them, the more they reminded him of the survivors of Crystal City, or the orphans of the Altihex Bombings. His spark twisted painfully in his frame when one of the smallest ones began to cry for its guardians.
"That was my church," she sniffled, pointing out the window, "They were supposed to be safe in there!" A boy from a higher grade level wrapped an arm around the child's thin shoulders while she wept.
Ultra Magnus stood. "Take the helm," he said to Arcee quietly.
Rodimus looked up sharply and watched him with keen eyes as he approached the humans. Magnus cleared his throat awkwardly.
"I fear that I was...unnecessarily terse at our first meeting," he told them, "I am unaccustomed to interacting with civilians."
It was as close as they were going to get to an apology. From her spot tending to Harmony's ankle, Sierra barely nodded in acknowledgment. Cautiously, Magnus seated himself between the cockpit and the cargo bay to keep watch over the refugees. Merciful Thirteen! They were only sparklings!
"This is your first experience with war?" he asked gently. The one with the sword made a sound that might have been a laugh.
"For them, yes. I've had a little longer to get ready for this." Rodimus momentarily laid his head down on his knees, remembering.
"Go ahead! The Autobots were willing to sacrifice themselves for my planet. I'll do the same for theirs!"
"Perhaps we should oblige them?"
"JACK!"
"How did you do that?"
"The Decepticons have discovered the location of Outpost Omega."
"Take refuge in Vector Sigma, wait there until called for."
Rodimus shook off the memories and threw his jacket to a round-faced girl in the middle of the pack. "Here, J'ournae. You're shivering." he sighed. The child nodded gratefully and pulled the garment around her shoulders.
"Listen up, guys," the young soldier waved for their attention. "We'll be there in a few minutes. Everybody pick a partner and stay with them until we get to the refugee camps."
A little ways apart from the others, Vince stood on a crate, looking out the viewport as Jasper, Nevada faded into the distance. His eyes were hard as he caught sight of Darkmount behind them. A voice at his elbow startled him.
"The bells were ringing in the dale/
And men looked up with faces pale;/
The dragon's ire more fierce than fire/
Laid low their towers and houses frail."
Rebecca stood behind him, anger and despair compounded in her eyes.
"Appropriate," Vince acknowledged, "Seeing as we are exiles as well, now."
The girl smiled sadly. "You know, I never pegged you for a Tolkien fan."
Vince met her grin with a rueful smirk of his own. "Well, you never pegged me for anything." They stood together, watching the wasteland disappear behind them, not quite able to look towards their new destination yet.
When Arcee landed the Storm Bringer, Ultra Magnus was not sure why. He saw no base, nor did anything appear on his scanner. It was nothing but a sheer cliff-face with a small waterfall beside it.
Arcee turned to the students. "Can everyone swim?" she asked. Ten of them could not. "Right, you ten come with me and Commander Magnus. Everyone else, go with Ja—with Rodimus."
Very reluctantly, the group split up. They had spent close to a month trapped together, and had grown to depend upon each other.
"Go ahead, guys," Vince placated them, "I'll go with the non-swimmers."
Reassured, the rest of them waded into the water behind Rodimus. He dove beneath the waterfall and began to swim. There was a low rock ceiling above him, but it wasn't so low that he couldn't surface briefly for air before submerging again. Followed by seventeen of his classmates, he made his way through a natural stone tunnel that ended in a hidden bay within a cave.
"We've got Selkies!" someone shouted, and the unmistakable clack of bullets being chambered alerted a very human presence.
"At ease!" Bill Fowler's voice carried through the stone chamber. The man with the gun, a well-built blond man with a stern face, nodded and offered Rodimus a hand out of the pool.
"Thanks, Duke," he gasped. He turned to Fowler.
"Arcee, another Autobot, and eleven refugees are coming in through the Chimneys." He shook some of the water from his hair and turned to help Sergeant Hauser remove his comrades from the water.
Meanwhile, Fowler shouted to the gathered humans and Autobots, "Front door, people! Move it! We need eyes on the Stacks!"
A bulky red-orange mech flashed an "ok" sign and rolled out of the room.
Sierra and Rebecca climbed from the bay with Harmony draped over their shoulders.
"Oh my-" Rebecca never finished the sentence. The refugees stared mutely at the sight before their waterlogged eyes.
It was like something out of a film: floodlights lit the cave, highlighting a hive of activity. Squads of soldiers jogged back and forth drilling, organizing weaponry, and aiding the metallic giants with small injuries.
A white and red robot stood in the middle of it all, giving directions and repeatedly calling out, "Blast it all! Where are those boys of mine?"
Noticing the wet teenagers, a pink femme strolled over and smiled down at them all. "Welcome, young ones," she greeted them in a low, gentle voice.
"She sounds like Galadriel!" J'ournae whispered to Harmony.
The femme heard her and laughed lightly. "I am flattered, little one! My designation—my name, if you will—is Elita One." Her pale optics shuttered quickly. "My goodness! You're all soaked to the skin! Come with me."
Cooing and fussing like a mother hen, Elita ushered them all to a smaller cave adjoining the main chamber that was heated and filled with towels and blankets.
"Wait here, my little ones," she said, smiling sweetly, "Once you are all warm and dry, you will be escorted to the human living quarters, where perhaps we can reunite you with your families."
She tilted her winged helm slightly to regard Rodimus as he began to move past her. "Not you. You are to report to the place the soldiers call "the audience chamber". He wishes to speak to you."
Rodimus suppressed a groan and saluted the towering femme, then set off across the base at a good clip, just as Arcee, Magnus and the others arrived from the Chimney Passage.
The so-called "audience chamber" was a long stone vault that the soldiers had taken the time to put doors in. On completing it, Miko had remarked that it looked like the setting from the last scene of the first Star Wars film, thus granting it its nickname. Optimus Prime stood within, staring at the north wall.
The littlest Wrecker had enlisted some of the more artistically inclined soldiers and refugees in the making of a long mural depicting the history of the Autobot/Human alliance.
"For posterity!" she'd chirped. They all knew it was an attempt to distract them from their present circumstances, but they gratefully accepted any paintbrush she gave them and pitched in wherever they could.
Optimus did not look up when the doors opened a fraction, nor did he question how he knew it was Jack. "Come in, young one," the sonorous voice rumbled.
Rodimus hurried to stand before the Prime, who glanced at the water dripping from his clothes with mild amusement.
"I came in through the Selkie door," the boy explained sheepishly. Satisfied with the reason, the Prime returned his attention to the mural.
"Given your youth, General Bryce and those he represents are having difficulty understanding why I sent you out to search for survivors without an adult or your partner." he remarked in an almost conversational tone.
Rodimus sighed. "Did the three weeks in Vector Sigma come up?" he asked gingerly.
Optimus shook his helm. "I make it a point not to involve family matters in official meetings. Questions were raised," he warned, "About your loyalty." He held up a hand, forestalling an angry outburst. "Not that they doubted your loyalty, Jackson. Rather, they did not understand why a human should pledge his service to the Autobot cause."
"To the Autobot leader," Rodimus corrected. He shrugged. "I guess the idea of anyone willingly putting themselves under the authority of another is kind of a foreign concept here." He made a face, imagining the human government's reaction to finding out about the Omega Lock incident, or worse, all the times Miko had run into battle.
"They didn't threaten to call CPS, did they?" he looked up at the Prime, who met his gaze steadily.
"General Abernathy did, but Nurse Darby quickly made him understand that anyone wishing to separate Miko, Rafael, or you from this family would not only have to go through her, but some very unhappy guardians." He paused for a moment. "And then they would deal with me."
He held out his hand and Rodimus climbed up. "I have already spoken to Miko and Rafael, but I had not the chance to ask you before. Are you adapting to the codenames?" he sounded genuinely curious.
The boy rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "It's a little hard, when everyone keeps calling me Jack. I mean, I know Vector Sigma told me to take the name for a reason, but I kinda wish it'd said why before we came back to Earth."
The giant's fingers curled inward slightly, as if shielding the small human from the expectations of Cybertron's super computer. "Was it difficult?" he asked gently, suddenly changing the subject, "Seeing your home like that?"
Rodimus ran a hand through his hair and sighed again. "It's...it felt like being in Kaon again." He sat down on Optimus's palm and rested his forehead on his knees.
"There were so many corpses Optimus!" his voice cracked. "I knew most of them. They were good people. I guess I should've been grateful that they weren't in so many pieces that I couldn't identify them, but-" He felt the touch of one massive servo on his head as he quietly retched at the memories.
"Jasper has been completely destroyed. It looks like a zombie apocalypse waiting to happen!" He groaned softly, and fell silent for a time, save for the muffled gasp of sobs he tried too hard to suppress. Then, he raised his head and grinned fiercely through the tears.
"I thought I wasn't going to find anyone alive, honestly, but then I found Sierra and Vince and the others. I saw them, and it was like the sun came out for a moment. I saw them, and I thought They didn't kill all of us. We won't be erased so easily!"
Optimus nodded sympathetically. "Hope is a very powerful thing, Jack." he looked back up at the mural. "Without it, I certainly would not be standing here."
Rodimus leaned back against Optimus's thumb. "It's like the old stories..." he let the quote trail off with a knowing smile.
There's some good in this world, and it's worth fighting for.