Chapter 9
Quicksilver's optics sparked once or twice as she tried to rouse herself from slumber. She groaned as she placed a hand to her head. Her memory circuits sparked madly as she tried to remember where she was and what had happened. As she allowed herself the time to think, she began to recall what had happened. She was on Optimus' ship helping her friends to send a message. They had been under attack by decepticons, and Starscream of old war fame was there, too. She remembered gunshot, followed by a blow to the head. Had she been injured? No, she felt a bit dazed, but she wasn't hurt too severely.
She took a better look at her surroundings. It was some sort of cell by the looks of things. About midsized with a wall of energy acting as the door to her cell door. So she was a prisoner. Starscream or that other con from before must have captured her. Her optics went wide, and she looked to one of her arms. To her mounting horror, the secret compartment in her arm was sitting wide open, and her map, her precious wonderful map, was nowhere to be seen. She scrambled about and fell onto her hands and knees looking for it. They couldn't have taken it! They just couldn't have. But try as hard as she might, it was nowhere to be found. She trembled fiercely as the stress of the moment began to flood her spark, and then she tossed back her head and she screamed. She screamed, and she screamed, and she screamed as total anguish erupted from her throat.
"Hey! Keep it down! I'm trying to sleep here!"
The sudden noise caused her to freeze. She looked up, and she looked out her cell door. On the other side of the room was another cell and sitting huddled in a corner was none other than Padlock. The small green mech looked as though he had been set upon by a swarm of scraplets, and he appeared to be leaking energon.
Quicksilver scrambled to her door, trying to get as close to him as she could.
"Are you ok? What happened?"
Padlock shifted from his spot on the wall, and he pulled himself closer.
"The cons captured us. After they tossed you into that cell, their boss decided to treat me to some good old fashioned Decepticon hospitality, which entails of slamming a guy against a wall one hundred and thirty-seven times. I know because I counted them out."
Quicksilver winced and grimaced as the image of a burly looking con three times her poor friend's size slammed him against a wall of solid steel. But that left a question in her mind.
"Why are we here? Shouldn't they have put us with the others?"
Padlock started to answer, but he was cut short when the door leading to the cell block slid open. In stepped Starscream, the lion themed con from the fight on the ship, and the biggest Decepticon Quicksilver has ever seen. He was a massive creature in cracked azure armor. It appeared that he had just been in a massive fight, as every square inch of his body had been either bashed in, torn off, or melded together. There was, however, one part of his body that was all shiny and knew. His left hand, more accurately a three-pronged claw, appeared to be a prosthetic replacing a limb that had been severed off recently. However, what really caught her attention was what that hand was holding. It was her map!
"Hey!" She called out, rushing to the door of her cell. "That's mine! Give it back!"
Padlock looked as though he was about to short circuit.
"QS! Can it before he cans you!"
Deathsaurus shot Padlock a look, making him shrivel up, and then he looked to Quicksilver. The femme looked at him with a defiant sneer, her tiny fists quivering with insurmountable rage. He sized her up, and then he snorted.
"This one. Bring her out."
Leozack wordlessly approached the cell and entered the code into the pin pad, disabling the energy field that kept Quicksilver inside. Immediately, the femme leapt from her cell in an attempt to tackle the larger con and reclaim her missing property. She didn't get far, however. Leozack was quick to grab her by one arm, spin her about, and then force her to her knees. With her properly restrained, Starscream swept in and attached something around her neck. Padlock had to strain to see what it was, but the red blinking light was not a good sign.
"Hey! What are you doing? What is that?"
Deathsaurus, still staunch in his form, turned about to face him. His blood red optics pierced deeply into Padlock's own, making the smaller green mech feel even more miniscule.
"You care for this femme?"
The question shocked Padlock, putting him in a daze.
"The ring around her neck is a powerful explosive. With but a simple command, it will detonate. I need not explain what would happen next, so I will ask again. Do you care for this femme?"
Padlock stared at him. It was a...and they had just...why would they...This wasn't happening! He wasn't actually standing there in a prison cell looking up at the most terrifying decepticon he had ever seen! It was all just one big, terrible dream!
"I'm getting tired of asking, little autobot!" Deathsaurus said, sounding genuinely annoyed. "Give me an answer now, or else I will detonate the device! Do you..."
"YES!" Padlock screamed as loud as his processor would allow. "Of course! For Primus' sake, I'll do anything you want! Just leave her alone, you big...jerk!"
He wanted to call him something worse. Something so much worse, but Primus help him he couldn't think of anything. Forutnately, Deathsaurus seemed to like his answer. He made a motion with his free hand, and Leozack shoved Quicksilver back into her cell, reactivating the door. She leapt at him, but she came up with nothing but an electric shock.
"Why are you doing this?" She demanded. "That map may be an antique, but I guarantee that even the Quintessons wouldn't give you a platinum dollar for it!
Deathsaurus looked her way, and a wicked gleam came into his optics.
"Oh, don't think me a fool, my child. I'm all too aware what this little trinket is, and, better yet, where it will lead me. The hour of my revenge is nigh, and your friend over there is going to help me claim it."
He shot a glance at Padlock.
"Provided, of course, he does truly care about you. Your life literally depends upon it."
With that, he took his leave with Starscream and Leozack following closely behind. Once again, the two of them were alone, and all was silent. In her cell, Quicksilver slowly sunk to her knees. She then buried her face in her hands, and she began to cry. Padlock, still trapped in his daze from before, could only stare at her. When had he ever seen Quicksilver cry? The happy go lucky femme was, if anything, a well spring of cheer and happiness. To see her so distraught, it seemed to tear at something inside of his spark.
The sight was enough to knock Padlock out of his funk, and he moved closer to the door of his cell so he could see her better. He knelt down so that they would be at eye level, and then he knocked against the ground to get her attention.
"QS?"
The femme sniffled some more, and then she looked up. She didn't meet Padlock's gaze, though, and she clutched her knees to her chin.
"This is all my fault." She whimpered.
"Hey, now!" Padlock said quickly. "There's no need for that! We all thought the decepticons were disbanded, and we were pretty isolated back on Rillick. We were just in the wrong place and at the wrong time is all."
"But I shouldn't have even been there!" Quicksilver insisted. "I was never supposed to be there. He must have known this was going to happen. That's why he tried to force me to stay."
Padlock cocked his head and stared at her.
"Eh, do you want to run that by me again?"
Quicksilver finally looked directly at him, and she sighed.
"Father Yoketron, the head abbot of the abbey where I was raised. You see, I had lived there every minute of my life. I had often asked, even begged him to let me venture out and see the world with my own optics. But, he had always refused, saying that I could not leave until Primus had divined the path he had set before me."
Padlock blinked at that. He had understood that the Path of Primus had some strict, and perhaps even convoluted, customs, but he couldn't help but feel that there was something sketchy about this.
"I had almost given up." Quicksilver carried on. "I had been searching for signs for all my life, anything that could get me out of that musty old abbey. Then, one day while I was dusting the archives with some of my abbey sisters, that map had quite literally fallen into my lap. The Knights of Cybertron had been one of my all-time favorite stories, so I was certain that this had been the sign I was waiting for. I can't even begin to describe just how excited I was to bring my find to Father Yoketron."
She paused for a moment.
"So you can imagine that I was equally discouraged when he all but snatched the map away and told me never to look upon it again."
And now Padlock was certain that he absolutely hated this creep.
"That probably would have been the end of it, too. I had never seen Father Yoketron so...so cross. I remember going into sleep mode in tears that night. However, it was that very night where it finally happened: I had a dream. I was standing on a hill that seemed to overlook the entire universe, daylight and the sun on my left and the moon and the night sky on my right. All was calm, peaceful and quiet. Then, there was a sound like a clap of thunder, and a terrible shadow began to sweep across creation. The stars fizzled out, the sun died, and the moon hid its face. All around me, everything was dying, but I didn't do anything. What could I do? It was the end of everything. But just as the last tinges of hope were about to take their final breath, a light pierced the darkness, and within I beheld a spectacular sight. A tall, proud warrior with a vorpal blade clutched in one hand and a towering shield in the other. There was no denying what I saw: it was a Knight of Cybertron, the first in what would surely be a new court."
Padlock watched as a dreamy look came to Quicksilver's optics, as though the memory brought her some sort of peace in their dire situation.
"It was so exciting, made even more so when I had to steal the map from Yoketron's office. I had long since learned that he was never going to let me leave, and with a dream like that I knew I couldn't stay any longer. So, I took the map, hotwired a ship, and then went barreling into space towards Cybertron."
Her grin then died, and she scoffed at herself.
"What a joke! I'm such an idiot!"
"No you're not!"
Quicksilver jumped, not expecting her smaller friend's sudden outburst. Padlock was now standing at his full height, and his blue optics were burning bright.
"You had every right to leave! It was an abbey, not a prison. That Yokel-tron,"
"Yoketron."
"I know what I said! I don't care how smart he claims to be, he doesn't have the right to hold you against your will. Besides, you said you had that prophecy dream thingy, which I guess is really important for people like you, so who did he think he was to keep you away from it?"
"He's the head abbot." Quicksilver replied, albeit a bit defensively. "What's more, look at what's happened. You heard what that big galoot said; he was looking for that map. What if that's why he attacked? What if another Cybertronian civil war breaks out because of this? Primus, Wing Dagger is probably dead because of me!"
"No he's not!" Padlock said suddenly. Quicksilver was genuinely starting to scare him, and he knew if she lost it then he wouldn't be far behind. That wasn't what they needed right now. "That shot he took for me wasn't as bad as it looked. When they were taking you away, Starscream blasted Ratchet with a null ray. Dag went to check on the old bot, and I went hunting after you, resulting in our capture. I guarantee-no, I promise you! -he's out there hunting for all of us with an entire armada of Autobot warships in tow to save us from these Decepti-creeps."
Padlock bent down, and he placed his hand on the threshold of his cell.
"Everything is going to be alright." He said softly. "You can count on it. Just take her easy for a little while longer."
Quicksilver stared at him for a long, tense moment. Then, she smiled at him, and it appeared that his lie had worked. She moved over to a corner of her cell, where she curled up and, within moments, was soundly resting in power down.
Padlock sighed and wiped the non-existant sweat from his brow. That had been rough, but he somehow managed to pull it off. Not feeling particularly tired, he stepped away from the door of his cell and over to a window. He looked out the window, out to the stars and the vast empty space surrounding him. Padlock had always been a bit of a loner, not one to get involved with things. Well, he certainly couldn't get more involved now. In spite of what he saw back on Optimus' ship, he really did hope that Wing Dagger had indeed survived, because, come Unicron or meteor showers, his friend would indeed come after them, and he would no doubt have the craziest scheme to break them all loose.
"Come on, Dag." He whispered quietly, almost in prayer. "I made a promise. Don't make a liar out of me. Not this time."
...
Back on Rillick, Ratchet was quietly putting away his tools and other forms of medical equipment. He had tried three times now to console Optimus in the other room, but the old Prime had resigned himself to wallow in self-pity. Ratchet had half a mind to whack some sense into him and get him off his duff, as he had done several times before in the past, but this time was different. The prime that had fought in the desert wasn't the same prime that had defeated Megatron the warlord. What's more, the many sparklings that had perished in the ensuing battle no doubt weighed heavily on the poor bot's soul. Better to just let him ride the motions out and wait for a better chance to revive his senses.
Suddenly, there was a crash, followed by loud shouting. Ratchet immediately dropped what he was doing, and he rushed in to see what the matter was. What he saw absolutely astounded him. It was Wing Dagger, very much alive and now scrambling about on the floor! Though momentarily stunned, Ratchet rushed over to the boy's sides and grabbed a hold of his arms, trying to hold him still.
"Kid, it's me! Settle down! You're safe!"
"PADLOCK! QUICKSILVER! PADLOCK! QUICKSILVER!"
The boy was rambling like a madman, and he had even started to foam at the mouth, much to Ratchet's surprise. After a while, the old medic's choices had dwindled to one option, and so he reared back a hand and swatted Wing Dagger. The result was immediate, and the red, white, and blue mech suddenly became still. He looked to the left, then right, and then he looked up at Ratchet.
"Hello, doctor." He said sheepishly.
Ratchet sighed with relief, and he helped Wing Dagger to his feet. Wing Dagger winced at the pain in his back, and he brought hand behind himself. He sighed as he ran a finger over the arc of the hole that now adorned his back.
"I almost don't want to know," he said, "but how bad is it?"
"Pretty fraggin' bad." Ratchet muttered. "Sorry that I haven't had the time to patch that up yet. I was slow to do much of anything since it wasn't clear if you were going to make it or not. I was even preparing a cryo chamber just to try and keep you functional to Cybertron."
He thumbed a finger to the said device that was leaning against a wall.
"You're lucky to be alive, Wing Ding."
"I can feel that." Wing Dagger grunted as he took a seat on the operating table. When he was comfortable, he cracked a wide grin and breathed a relieved sigh. "But, if you're here too, then the message must've gotten out, and we sent those Cons a'running. Where's Padlock and Quicksilver? Ol' Paddy is probably ready to ring my neck after scaring him half to death."
All of the sudden, the medical ward had gotten deathly silent. Wing Dagger studied Ratchet carefully, and he noticed that the old field medic was looking mournful. As though he had just attended the funeral of a dear friend. It made Wing Dagger uncomfortable.
"Doctor?" He dared to ask.
Ratchet looked up at him, and then he sighed.
"This isn't easy for me to say, so I'm just gonna lay it out flatly. Shortly after that creep with the lion gun blasted you to near kingdom come, he grabbed your femme friend and ran off with Starscream. Green bean went after them shortly, but I had to stay behind to tend to you. Shortly thereafter, the decepticons fled. I'm sorry, kid, but we scoured the entire grounds. They're gone. All of them."
His reaction was slow. It started with Wing Dagger's optics as they grew wide and bright. His mouth was sitting wide open, and his arms were limp at his sides as his processor tried so desperately to make sense of what could only be the beginnings of a very bad dream. At last, Wing Dagger found his words.
"But, we're going after them, right?" He asked, no begged. "Padlock's message had to have made it out. He's going to be a communications officer; it's his thing! Optimus is leading the charge right now, isn't he? He'll find them, bring them home and..."
"Optimus isn't going anywhere!" It was a bit blunt, but the boy was starting to sputter. Ratchet would be soft, but he would never mince words. "This is hard to admit, kid, but Optimus was in just as bad, if not worse shape than you were. He's taking the kidnappings, not to mention the numerous deaths of young bots, really hard and it's slowing his healing. Ironhide is making plans to deal with this new threat, but for now he's holding back."
"But they'll get away!" Wing Dagger bellowed, rocketing to his feet before nearly falling over. "Ion trails from interspace engines only last for so long. We lose that, and we'll never find them again! I'll hunt them down myself if I have to!"
"Like scrap you will!" Ratchet growled while grabbing Wing Dager by his shoulders and forcing him to sit. "Settle down! I know you're worried, but that's no reason to fly off the handle. Especially in your condition."
When Wing Dagger was calm again, Ratchet took a step back.
"I took a read of your file. You're pretty bold for a sparkling, and I don't doubt that claim of going after your friends. Courage is a valuable resource, lad, but courage without good sense is just recklessness, and that's what gets good people hurt for no reason. We'll find them, but you're gonna have to sit tight, heal, and let the grownups do our jobs."
Wing Dagger breathed in a long, heavy sigh, and he hung his head sadly.
"You're right, sir." He conceded. "It would be pretty crazy of me to go after a ship full of decepticons all by myself."
Ratchet managed a grin and he nodded.
"There you go, lad. Now you're talking sense."
He started to walk off, but he stopped short when Wing Dagger suddenly got up and gave the old bot a shove. Ratchet went stumbling forward and slammed face forward directly into the open cryo chamber. A moment later, Wing Dagger shut and locked the door, and, for good measure, switched on the freezing circuits. He then stood there a moment to watch the ice form on the little window and to meditate on the horrible deed he had just committed.
"Guess I really am that crazy." he muttered to himself. "He's going to be so mad when he gets out of there, but there's no time to dwell on that."
A couple of nights ago, after he, Padlock, and Quicksilver had come up with their scheme to leave, Wing Dagger had learned that there was a secret elevator in Prowl's office that led to his personal star ship, The Interceptor. It had taken some doing, but Wing Dagger knew where to find the elevator as well as the password needed to access it. Therefore, he made haste out of the infirmary and went streaking for the main office.
As he made his way through the maze of hallways, Wing Dagger couldn't help but feel a twinge of sadness. Outpost Rillick was far from a paradise, but it had been home to himself and several sparklings for a decent amount of time. Now, to see it littered with gaping holes, broken pieces of refuse, and even a couple of bodies lying around left the bot feeling somewhat hollow on the inside. He wondered to himself if this is what the war had been like for the autobots during the war. All of this death and destruction, and all seemingly for no reason; he didn't like it, and he hoped desperately that it wasn't an omen for things to come.
Finally, he reached Prowl's office. The shelves and filing cabinets were all in disarray, a sight that would have made even the staunch Ultra Magnus quiver, but fortunately Prowl's desk was still perfectly intact. Wing Dagger quickly swung around it and plopped down into the chair. He then reached underneath and pressed a hidden button. A computer monitor and keyboard flipped upwards, and a prompt appeared on the screen asking for a password.
"Death to the cons! Autobots roll out!" Wing Dagger said as he typed.
The screen then went blank, and there was a pop before Wing Dagger and the chair sunk into the floor. For what felt like hours, he descended into a secret section of the outpost, eventually coming out into a small hangar where the Interceptor was waiting. When the elevator stopped, Wing Dagger made a beeline for the ship, racing up the ramp and onto the bridge.
"Lucky thing I'm already a flier." He said to himself. "Otherwise this would be a very short trip."
He entered some commands into the ship's console, activating the runway catapult. The entire hanger began to groan and shake as the blast doors opened, and a ramp began to extend out of the hangar and into the sunshine. The starship's engines hummed to life, and a small countdown appeared on the console. The ship lurched a foot as the launcher for the catapult latched onto the hull, and Wing Dagger steeled himself for what was next. The countdown reached zero, and then the Interceptor was sent hurtling upon the ramp and out into open air. Wing Dagger mashed the accelerator forward, and before long he went racing through the atmosphere and into great void of outer space.
Now that he was far enough away from anyone of authority, Wing Dagger took a few precious moments to allow his rapidly fluxing spark to settle and to gather his thoughts. He wasn't kidding back there; this was, without question, the craziest thing he could be doing. Padlock was bound to give him an earful when he found him. If he found him, and if he and Quicksilver were still alive.
He quickly shook his head. Now wasn't the time for such negative thoughts. He had a job to do, and he was going to do it. With that in mind, he switched on the long-range scanners, and he set out into the void.
...
IThe time has come. He's on his way. /i
IAre we sure of this? He is still so young. /i
ISadly, there is no further time to delay. The shadow has started it's decent. /i
IThen let us prepare. Soon, very soon, we will be required to fulfill the task that has been handed down to us. The day of rebirth has at last arrived. /i
