DISCOVERY OF THE ARK, PART V
"Ehh? Vriad is my Keeper?"
Sam's shouts echoed rather horribly in the valley of the ritual and to his astonishment, no one even turned to look at him or even see who spoke out.
His older self bowed before the High Priest of the Sun God, or Primus as it were, and, along with Vriad, they were blessed by Ryka. The resulting cheers deafened the poor boy's ears and he found it strange that while they were ignorant of his present, he could sense and feel everything in return. He found it both relieving and disturbing at the same time.
Ryka's voice murmured in the background as the scenes changed, resulting in him getting older but not aging the way a human would; his self just became more experienced and more fed up with his role until eventually in the end, he had actually forsaken his duties for one brief moment and it was the last mistake he had ever committed.
"And so, we have placed our hopes and our confidence in the wrong person. Primus was a fool to choose you as his champion, you who were selfish and young. Our entire race suffered because of you,"
As the Hexarian spoke, Sam was helpless, bound in place and seeing the terrible visions of his past unravel right before his eyes. His gut tightened when he saw himself being kissed so passionately by the humanoid form of Virtus Prime and the subsequent lovemaking. He's not Optimus! He's not Optimus! Sam tried to shove away the awful memory, the one thrust upon him by his captor, who wore a stoic expression, as if unfazed by his captive's responses.
"You will understand more if I start from the beginning," Ryka finally said after a long moment of silence that was intermittently broken by pained moans and soft gasps.
"We were created by Primus eons ago. The exact time of when our race came to fruition is still unknown, even by our current members. However, we knew that Primus made us for he came to us in person. He blessed us with long life and the knowledge of the stars. Because of this gift, we flourished like no other races and there were no limitations, not even distant galaxies could be out of our reach. His only boon was to keep watch over our home planet with a careful eye, though he did not explain why. His warning prior to his departure was to never spill on the sands of Ikarn, a forsaken desert that surrounded our capitol. In time though, as is the wont of any creature that has no nothing else to do, a few of us discovered something that should have stayed hidden, stayed secret. Such a secret was revealed by the murder of someone special, a Chosen one as the High Priest of that time dictated."
"Wait, you mean there were more like me out there?" Sam said. He really didn't want to see clones of himself.
"Do not interrupt." The young man shivered as there was a hint of controlled anger boiling underneath. Suddenly, the air grew denser around him and his jaw clamped together, as if someone was holding his mouth shut with a pair of strong hands.
Pleased that his captor had his mouth bound, the lean Hexarian stood up from where he leaned against the wall. His hands made some odd, circular gestures before images wavered into existence, showing Sam of that indelible scene, which still burned his mind, even afterwards.
"The Chosen One was the title given to his male descendants. Your ancestor was betrayed by his closest friend and lover out of madness. With the resulting act of cruelty spilling unto the dry sands, your ancestor's blood was the key in unleashing a powerful entity, one which we had to face for several millenia. Primus' warning was warranted, much to the dismay of those disbelieved in such unproven acts and had no faith in their God. As such, we were punished for our unforgivable act and Primus, instead of using his powers to rid of this Great Beast, kept him caged, saying that the only way to fully defeat it was to satisfy it with a sacrifice of the Chosen's descendant, one victim per cycle, one hapless soul whose sole destiny was to appease the insatiable thirst of this monster. The Beast was never appeased until you showed up."
Sam's eyes widened in horror when he realized that his captor was truly upset that he managed to do whatever it was to this Great Beast. Wouldn't his captor be relieved that this monstrosity would have finally been defeated?
"The threat of such an evil kept even the wildest fancies of our criminals in line. He devoured the souls of those who tread off the path to Primus' greatness and our Empire, instead of declining because of this entity, rose to such a great height that we almost forgot about our intended sacrifice, you.
"You reminded us of our duty, even though you were just a child in our eyes, and for some inexplicable reason, Primus favoured you most out of all the sacrifices. He gave you everything, even two people who loved you more than they loved life itself. How ironic it is to fall for your former lover's brother towards the end, when all is lost. At the end you abandoned us to the merciless torments of Him and only at the very end, where our own empire crumbled into dust and our planet was breaking, did you come to your senses."
Suddenly, Sam's dream of Orieon hovering over him, his face bloodied and his eyes dull with impending death, came upon him and Sam gasped as Orieon whispered to him brokenly, "You did it, but it's too late."
When Sam watched his lover from another lifetime speak to his older self, his heart broke and all he wanted to do was to just close his eyes, to not see the eventual sacrifice of Orieon, who stood in the way of the Beast's assault. He didn't want to see himself die from being rendered into pieces afterwards, making Orieon's selfless act meaningless and worthless as well.
Don't listen to him, Shi'an! It was that female voice again, but that of his captor's drowned it out with a retelling of the story, as if he didn't believe Sam was listening.
"Do not worry though, Shi'an." That wasn't a female's voice and Sam jerked at seeing Ryka kneeling in front of him. The cold grip that held his face in a vise disappeared but the poor man preferred that to seeing the dark pits of Ryka's eyes as his captor said with a smile, "you'll be on time. In fact, you're early compared to your last act."
-o0o-
"You know," Glenn remarked in a very serious tone as he briefly looked at his best friend, who sat next to him, "that your hair is kinda of frizzy and sticking up now."
Maggie exploded on him and, for his trouble, there was an angry red handprint on his left cheek.
"Ow! What was that for?" The injured hacker rubbed his cheek, trying to really rub in the hurt and earn some sympathy from the soldiers and the Autobots as well.
"It's your fault, Glenn!" She screeched at him. Glenn winced for his cheek wasn't the only thing hurting now. His ears were but he didn't dare say that she had a loud mouth, especially when in a frenzied state like now. Nope, he liked having his ears intact and his cheek. Someone snickered nearby and Glenn's head jerked to the side, to see that it had come from one of the Autobots he had seen before but was never fully introduced to.
"You humans act so strangely," Sunstreaker said to him. His yellow form contrasted wonderfully with the mech sitting next to him, who glared at his twin brother as if he just said the worst insult in Cybertronian.
"Sunny, you're just as bad. You just don't want to admit it."
"Hey, I don't want the whole world knowing of our antics," Sunny bit back but there was a smile on his face.
Glenn didn't know what to make of the duo. Deducing from their close proximity to each other and their familiarity as well, the African-American figured that they were either brothers or lovers.
"So," Glenn pitched in, trying to interrupt the banter between the two. "What are your designations?"
The two immediately stopped pestering each other with verbal assaults and looked to the human. The older of the twins, Sunstreaker, discovered that the human species were equally just as different and variable as their own race. While the girl next to him, designation Maggie, was thin, the male's heavyset body made her body look like an anorexic by comparison. Of course, Sunstreaker knew that wasn't the case as he scanned her vitals with his HUD and discovered her to be in good health.
The male hacker's dark skin would have initially proved disconcerting to the yellow lambourghini. However, the interaction with Epps and his other friends for some time inured him to the sights of many people with dark skin. When Sunny first landed on earth a year ago, he truly thought that the human was burned by the sun and he had rushed him to Ratchet, thinking that he was dying of overexposure to heat. Epps was not happy at all by his actions and while Sunny never apologizes, he acted more friendly to the current commander of NEST.
"I am Sunstreaker," the yellow mech pointed to himself and then to his brother as he finished introducing themselves, "and this is my brother, Sideswipe."
"Yo," Sideswipe waved in reply.
"Brothers? You mechs can reproduce?" Glenn's rotund face was contorted in thoughtful perplexity, as he tried to imagine two robots going at it. The resulting image was rather strange and quite funny to the male hacker.
"Yes," Sunstreaker's voice turned serious, as if he was either insulted by the human's bafflement or equally confused as well. "We mechs can reproduce. Would you like to know the specifics?"
"Errmm…" The young man shuffled further away from the yellow mech. He was saved from further embarrassment when Sideswipe punched his brother in the sides, earning a rather hoarse yell from his older twin.
"Don't be like that, Sun! He just thinks that machines can't replicate themselves in that way."
Then it started a whole other argument between the twins and the Sergeant who was watching the whole scene just clasped at his temples and sighed heavily. For a second time, he really wished Lennox was here.
"Hey, Epps. Got something for you," one of the pilots called out to him and Epps gave a relieved sigh. Thankfully, there was something else to do and Epps gave one last glance at the bickering mechs before heading to the cockpit.
"What is it?" Epps asked of the dark-haired pilot, who was studying an odd display of signal on the radar that was originating from the north, ahead of them.
"Not sure. It could be a distress beacon or something. Maybe one of the Autobots knows about this?"
Epps regarded the green dot that was bleeping erratically on the navigation system. He had no idea on the actual specifics of signal analysis but he does know someone. In fact, there were two people in his possession that were known experts in this field.
"One minute," Epps told the pilot and he went back into the main cargo bay of the Big Birds. The twin mechs were no longer arguing with each other but were cuddling quite close, resulting in Glenn's face being as red as a beet from embarrassment while Maggie was absolutely cooing over the mechs' adorable moment. She had no idea that the mechs were brothers and lovers until Sunstreaker's hand went behind Sideswipe's aft in a suggestive way. Then she too had her face blushing crimson.
"Alright, twins, 'nough messin' with our hackers here. We need them in their focus mode now."
"Yeah," Sideswipe reiterated Epps' comment and he slapped Sunstreaker's hand away from his rear end. "Quit doing that! You'll mess with their heads even more."
Sunny pouted at first and seemingly surrendered to both Epps' and Sideswipe's wish until he leaned forward, placing his lip plates directly on top of his brother's. Sideswipe at first protested at such a blatant display of affection until Sunny deepened their kiss and causing Sideswipe to moan helplessly, his servos holding Sunny's sides. They would have continued the kiss were it not for a hesitant cough and both mechs drew apart, one pleased at drawing such a reaction from his lover, who was both surprised and shocked to have returned the kiss.
Bumblebee gave them a wolf whistle and a thumbs up to the taller of the two, who smirked at his blushing other half. Maggie didn't know what to say, even after Glenn fell backwards in a dead faint.
"Guessing he's already out," Epps commented dryily and he made a motion to the blonde lady to follow him into the cockpit. He pointed out the weird signal they were getting and Maggie's brows furrowed in concentration as he relayed certain aspects of it: the direction, the magnitude, and the odd pattern as well.
Once he was done, she stepped forward and then took a small palm pilot from her jeans' pocket.
To both the pilot and the Sergeant's surprise, the palm pilot transformed and its head snaked forward, two blue eyes regarding the signal in a calm manner.
"That has no civilian nor human military origins," it finally said, its triangular head rotating clockwise to meet Maggie's thoughtful green eyes. The lady's mouth pursed in a thin line. That means it's either an Autobot and Decepticon calling out.
"I had no idea you had a transformer with you," Epps murmured quietly.
"Sorry about that," Maggie apologized as she placed the small transformer on top of the controls panel. "This is Forsight. She was actually on orders from Prime himself to come with me."
"From Optimus huh? Did Lennox know about this?" Epps disliked the feeling of being kept out of the loop. Of course, being a non-com had its cons, which was to have the priviledge of being on the need to know basis.
"Yes. However, the information was on a need-to-know basis. I guess now countsas one."
"S'okay," Epps said reassuringly. He was all too familiar to that kind of policy. Perhaps Lennox spoiled him with too much information, more than was permitted.
"Right, anyways," Maggie continued, glad that the misunderstanding was quickly corrected or at least settled for now. "I'm guessing Forsight wants to investigate."
The palm pilot's head nodded. "I want to make sure who it belongs to. It could belong to one of us who needs help."
Or a nasty Decepticon was Epps' thought but he needn't say it. Everyone else was thinking of the same thing as well. However, Epps was the not kind of guy to ignore a distress call.
"Let's do it. It's sort of on the way to base. Besides, we've got two hackers and Agent Simmons is near that area anyways, in New York."
"No, he's not," Maggie corrected him. "He's been missing actually."
"What? How could he be missing? We need him to clarify on some facts!" Epps cried out. Damn it! Things were really going to shit now!
"That's what we've been working on ever since this whole fiasco started," Maggie said. The blonde girl was growing rather flustered at having to work overtime, followed by an interrupted vacation, which will stay unsaid if Glenn knows better. She could see it now in the newspapers headline, Hot Aussie Caught Showering by A Robot!
"Maggie!" The image of Bumblebee gawking at her nakedness disappeared with a poof sound.
"Yes, yes, I'm still listening and no, I don't know where he is still." The Australian lady anticipated Epps' next question and the answer frustrated him.
He paced back and forth in the cockpit, which really had no room for even two extra people let alone the two pilots.
"Look, Epps," the pilot started to say. The young Sergeant still paced, but at a much slower rate now. The brunette pointed at the blinking beacon and then their suggestive path back to the Autobot base.
"Like what that thing,"
"Cybertronian," Maggie interjected.
"Cybertronian said," the pilot continued with a very blank face, "we can just take a look. It's not that far from our current location."
"ETA?"
"From the way this baby's going, two hours tops," the other pilot butted in.
Epps stared at the display again, the thoughts running rampant in his mind. The Autobots really needed the two hackers back. Optimus' and Prowl's lives depended on it. However, he just knew that once Optimus recovered, he would just send another team to investigate into the anomaly. Why not just do it now, when it's on the way already? Saves time, money, and effort.
Coming to a decision that he hopes he won't regret, Epps nodded in approval to the first pilot's suggestion and everybody on board felt the plane shift slightly off course.
"I'm going to call Jazz and give him a heads up," Epps shouted over his shoulder as he and Maggie departed, not wanting to distract the only two people who could fly these Big Birds. All the pilots did to show their acknowledgment of what he said was to give them a thumbs up before focusing on the frontal display and thankful that there was an auto-pilot option.
The plane had turned directly in the path of the morning sun, which greeted them quite brightly and almost painfully.
"Thank god for auto-pilot," the brunette said and his partner smiled at him.
As Epps and Maggie walked back to the bay, they heard laughter echo and another shriek that sounded strangely like Glenn's.
"Ughh! Those twins betta not have pulled a prank on board! They know better than that!" Epps groaned. When he first met the older set of twins, he had really hoped that the younger and smaller set would look up to them for guidance. Unfortunately, the only guidance Mudflap and Skids received was on an improvement in pulling off pranks. No wonder Ratchet looked so horrified and pissed at the same time upon the older set of twins' arrival.
The twins were actually well behaved for once, according to Epps' record keeping. It was Bumblebee this time who pulled off a prank at Glenn and the poor lad had his entire rear end covered in lubricants that had popped out of a small bag.
Maggie giggled at the funny sight of Glenn fuming at the mech. Take that, Glenn!
"Wow, Glenn, blue looks really good," Maggie laughed and she earned a light-hearted curse. "You know, Epps, I think two hours isn't going to be long now."
Epps grinned in return and looked on at the scene of the mechs and humans laughing together. He had a feeling that another chance for this wouldn't be available for a long time.
-TBC-
Review responses:
Ciega Chica: Thank you! Plot's still going...
MissMary: Poor Sam! He's always in the middle of some plot or whatever.
ShiftingWinds125: Right now, I think you want to kick the bad guy's arse, huh?
Yatsuki: I hope this chappie answers some if not all of your questions about the new Hexarians.
ChaosGarden: That almost happened to me once! Lol, anyways, in regards to the past relationship with Virtus Prime and Sam, let's just say Optimus won't be happy about it. Oh, a side note, I've just started on your request fic, but it'll take some time in finishing it and then posting it on the website. Hope that's ok.
Thanks to all old and new readers, those who left reviews, and the silent readers.
Thanks to: Vampiric-Blood, freeprincess, AlienKittenwithClaws, SerenadeOfTheFallenAngels, AndromedaGabriella, Rin'negan Naruto, KuroHaine, Ciega Chica, crafty joe, hii, OniTenshii, Yami Amy Lau, ., princessella85, and Gunnery Sergeant for recently putting this awesome story on their favs and/or alerts lists.
A/N: Wow, this was actually a hard chappie to write and I hope I didn't disappoint! I'm still taking in suggestions for Will's new designation as an Autobot, so please recommend now as he will make an appearance very soon!
Review plz! Or Sam will be fed to Ryka in a not so nice way!