Vortex found Luna to be a curious and at times amusing youngling. She told him tales of what it was like at her school; making Vortex bristle with interest, and occasionally indignation.
"Aren't you worried about, you know, the Autobots. They might get angry if they knew you were hanging with a Decepticon" Vortex said with a glint in his optic bar.
"Drift might, but he's got a temper like Ronald does. Rally probably would understand if I told her" Luna looked up from drawing in the dirt to give Vortex a considered stare.
Vortex had told Luna an abridged version of what Onslaught had told him: enough to prove the point that he and the other Combaticons weren't responsible for the act of barbarism at Kytanium Plains. Luna knew Vortex had omitted certain details or even whole events but she didn't press.
'Guilt is easy to see when it sits on shoulders so large' she thought as the Combaticon chuckled wearily.
"True, but if they found us like this, I'd probably be pummelled real well before they started to listen" Vortex said with no small amount of humour.
Luna had to chuckle: Vortex was funny in his own way, although most of his jokes were easily gallows humour as she'd heard it referred to once. In turn Vortex found her to be a fascinating conversationalist since her mind didn't work like everyone else's.
"Vortex, do Cybertronians fall in love?" she asked out of the blue.
Vortex recoiled at the question, his rotors flapping from the movement. Luna didn't seem to be trying to shock him, but was doing a very fine job of doing so anyway. He sat and looked thoughtful for a while, wondering how best to explain it.
"In truth Luna, you're asking the wrong mech. Decepticons don't put much stock in such, intimate emotions. We believe it makes us soft, weak and vulnerable and above all the Decepticons value strength, treachery, power and skill" Vortex's tone indicated something sinister in what he said.
"But what do you think?" she asked.
"Having never experienced the sort of 'love' I assume you're talking about, I honestly wouldn't know" Vortex said, feeling a little confused.
"What about friends?" Luna decided that was a question better suited to Vortex.
"Well I have my brothers of course. I'm the youngest and ironically the biggest too" he said with a glint on his optic bar that simple said 'I am smiling'.
"Any others?" she noticed this was an easy conversational piece and prodded further.
"Astrotrain and Blitzwing, without a doubt those two are our best friends. Blitzwing is one Pit crazy glitch though; the med bots think he's got a couple of different personality components rattling up in that cranium of his" Vortex remembered the time Blitzwing's demeanour kept swapping from calm and collected to a total maniac as they were drinking in their barracks.
"And what of Astrotrain?" she pressed.
"He's a much easier going mech than most of us. He drinks, he seduces and he fights" Vortex recalled, a wistful tone to his voice.
Luna began to wonder if the Autobots were correct to call all the Decepticons monsters. She could say without reservation that Soundwave was a monster and Shockwave too. To say nothing of what she had been told of Megatron….he was evil without question.
'Yet Vortex here seems to more of a, soldier I think Muggles call them' Luna remembered them being mentioned in a Muggle Studies class once.
"It's getting a bit late in the day, Vortex, I'm going to go home now" Luna stood up, dusting off her dress.
"Okay then I shall take my leave. Perhaps I shall see you again, Luna Lovegood" Vortex stood up also, almost reaching the canopy of the forest.
As he stood up, something alerted Vortex's sensors. There was an acrid, unnatural scent wafting across the air currents. Using his directional sensors he turned and zoomed in, his enhanced vision removing foliage from his readings.
'A dwelling. Scans indicate no weapon fire, no fuel or defensive installations or other explosives. Yet it burns' Vortex took a quick image of it.
"Luna, your house, is it near here?" he asked.
"Why yes it is, why?" she asked curiously.
Vortex clenched his metal fists and projected a hologram of the burning but still recognisable house. Luna's expression went from curious to desperate in the space of a nano second.
"My home…" she fell to her knees seeing it that way.
Vortex looked down at her, feeling torn: as a Decepticon he should not care for Luna, her home or her kin. As a warrior and a soldier however, the attacking of a civilian area by a military or terrorist force for no reason would once have been enough to incur the full wrath of the Cybertronian Military of which he was member.
'Find it where you can' he decided.
Luna looked up when she saw Vortex blast a hole in the canopy of the forest. Her confusion mounted when he transformed into his alternate mode of a helicopter, an object she had never seen before. A door opened at the front of the vehicle and Vortex's voice came from it, a decided chill in his tone.
"Get in" was all he said.
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Xenophilius Lovegood was in pain, lots of it as matter of fact. The Death Eaters had struck without warning or mercy, as was their tactic. He was glad that his daughter was not present for this most unpleasant encounter with the Death Eaters.
"Now, once again, you foolish toad, tell us what you were working on" a Death Eater screamed, casting the curse of pain.
Xenophilius grunted and grit his teeth to stop from making a scream: these bastards didn't deserve the satisfaction. He was faintly aware of the sounds of other Death Eaters roughly looking through what remained of his research area. He couldn't fathom what they would want with his research; most of the world didn't believe what he published anyway.
'Unless….' He suddenly remembered something Luna had mentioned in her letter home after a few weeks into the year.
It was the word Horcrux; she'd heard Harry muttering it a few times apparently and the word had fascinated her enough to mention it. At first he'd thought nothing of it, dismissing it as just some new word that the kids were using at school. Then, he'd come across it in a few articles he'd been proofreading from his regular contributors.
'And so began that little line of enquiry' he groaned as he tried to move.
As the Death Eaters argued, none became aware of the slight thudding sound in the air. Vortex hovered above them, using his scanners to take stock of what was going on and devised some appropriate tactics.
'Looks like we've got seven hostiles among a single friendly' he thought.
"Luna, I'm going to display an image of all the people down there: point out your creator" Vortex wanted to be sure he rammed his weapons up the right afts.
Swallowing, Luna reached out the three dimensional display and touched her father's image. Vortex thanked her and turned it off and went back to pondering: his basic medical scans saw that Luna's father was still alive and not in imminent danger of shut down. He was however in immense pain.
'This will require finesse and skill' Vortex thought and activated his tactical systems.
As if seeing it on a view screen in his head, Vortex took the already three dimensional map out of the area and locked onto the other bodies using pheromone, heat and the strange energy signature they displayed. Then came choosing the pay load to deploy: missiles would certainly gain him a twisted satisfaction but that would incur a civilian casualty. Then he remembered the laser pods on his outer pylons.
'Ah yes, independent target seeking class 3 laser pods. I forgot I had those' he thought with malice and assigned a barrel to each Death Eater.
"Okay Luna, we should have your creator out of there before you can blink" Vortex confirmed his decision and fired his payload.
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Xenophilius was watching one of the Death Eaters fiddle with something when a strange shower of blue light followed by some screams and then the distinct sound of bodies falling the ground all occurred in the space of three heartbeats. Blinking he became aware of that thudding noise getting louder and louder and a wind was picking up.
"My word" he muttered as the obviously Muggle contraption landed mere inches from him.
Xenophilius gasped when he saw his daughter jump from the vehicle and run towards him, skidding to a stop and dropping to her knees to embrace him. The vehicle, now seeming to operate on its own, opened a door at its side. Luna quickly got to work.
"Father, can you stand?" she asked.
"I believe I can" Xenophilius muttered and painfully stood up, putting some weight on his daughter.
"Okay, come on, follow me" Luna guided her father to Vortex's open passenger side.
Gently helping her father inside, Luna was taken aback by the stark and purely functional interior of Vortex's alternate mode. Giving it no further thought after he father grunted in pain, Luna sat him down, allowing Vortex to gently wrap some restraints around him.
"Strap in, Luna. And then, point me in the general direction of a safe place for you two" Vortex knew enough that these two could not go to a human hospital.
"About twenty five miles that way is Ronald's house, but the Autobots will be there" Luna remembered that today would be when the Autobots met the Order.
'I'll use the White Signal' he thought as he took off, making bee line in the direction Luna had pointed.
'I just hope Drift doesn't shoot me out of the sky' Vortex though, his somewhat unprofessional behaviour at Kytanium coming back to him.
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Rufus Scrimgeour could not believe his eyes or ears. It had spoken, the golden orb, now known to them all as Vector Sigma had spoken. He roughly composed himself and tried to look as dignified as possible.
"Forgive me, I am Rufus Scrimgeour and I am the Minister of Magic" he announced as importantly as he could.
"I do not recognise that designation: where am I?" Vector Sigma's glow seemed to pulse as it spoke.
"Well, this is the Ministry of Magic, in London, England" Scrimgeour explained.
"What world am I on?" Vector Sigma's tone was getting distinctly aggravated.
"This world is known as Earth" Percy replied before the Minister could answer.
Vector Sigma's glow became consistent and bright that the wizards took as a sign of anger. Suddenly the glow died down and a light began to take form before them. It stood near eight feet in height and almost half that across the shoulders. The light then took colour and detail.
'My word' Scrimgeour thought.
The figure before them looked like an old man, a beard sat upon his face that trailed down to his chest in three long white braids. His face seemed wise and just, pale blue eyes in his head and a long staff in his outstretched hand, a cloak covering what remained of his body.
"I have taken this form so as to better communicate with you" his voice however was uncompromising and stern.
"I see" Scrimgeour said, shooting Percy a look to shut up.
"Why have you reactivated me?" Vector Sigma asked.
"Well, to be honest we weren't sure what you were. We found you and your, key, buried underground" this time Rocksalt answered, keeping his composure.
"Why did you remove me, did it not occur to you I was there for a reason?" the man thundered.
"Well, since you displayed none of this sentient behaviour beforehand, we assumed you were an artefact" Rocksalt was the only one answering questions now.
"A mere artefact, you foolish organic" Vector Sigma shook his head, laughing darkly.
"What do you mean?" Scrimgeour demanded: this was not turning out well.
"My reactivation will cause the coming of a great Darkness for your world, a darkness the likes of which that puny, child like mind could not comprehend in a million lifetimes" was all the reply Scrimgeour got.
As quickly as he appeared, the man left them. Then Vector Sigma's key hatch closed and he lowered himself to the ground; his golden glow slowly fading until the room no longer bathed in his light, again lit by the measly glow of firelight.
"Lock it away, Rocksalt. Do you hear me, lock this thing in here and never open the door to this room again. And I'll have you all swear by your magic never to speak of this to anyone" the Minister was clearly shaken, as were most in the room.
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Harry and Tonks were sitting under a tree with Rally, Ron and Hermione just talking and allowing Harry and Tonks to engage in what was soon to be rare together time. Burnout was in the house with most of the other adults, discussing plans to get their help in using Transfiguration to create raw materials for building.
'The twins are…around somewhere' Harry kept a sharp eye out; it wasn't that he didn't trust Fred and George: Tonks didn't.
The only ones that hadn't moved from their previous position was Drift. He was still having a nap with Ginny in turn napping on his foot which somehow was comfortable for her. Rally merely gave her sleeping brother a cryptic look and shook her head with a smile.
"What?" Ron asked, following the Femme's line of sight.
"Nothing, but it looks funny you must admit" Rally said.
Ron conceded the point and returned to conversing about Quidditch with Harry while Hermione leaned against Rally's leg, reading a translated piece of a Cybertronian literature on what Rally called a data pad. Tonks was just content to sit and replenish her strength after that Apparition had taken so much out of her.
'So very peaceful, but if Molly catches us I'm for the high jump' Tonks thought, snuggling closer to Harry.
A steady thudding slowly threw off the silence, Hermione and Harry recognised the sound instantly: a helicopter. Rally immediately began scanning the sky, contacting Gauge and telling him to stand by in case of attack. Slowly a shape came into view: Rally's optics widened.
'A White Signal. But the only ones who would use that would be…' she trailed off and spoke.
"…Decepticons" she muttered.
"What?" Tonks was on her feet in seconds.
"That's a Decepticon, but whoever it is, they're transmitting a truce signal: meaning they aren't here for a fight" Rally drew her weapon but kept it at her side.
By the time the helicopter had landed, most of the people from the house had assembled outside. Much to everyone's surprised, Luna and her injured father got out of the side of the vehicle.
"Luna, what on Earth happened?" Molly asked, helping the girl with her father.
"We were attacked by Death Eaters" Xenophilius said with some effort.
To add further to the confusion, the helicopter began to change shape and become a man shaped robot. He towered above Rally and looked more like a fighter: Rally recognised him in an instant and scowled.
"Vortex" she hissed, clicking her safety off.
"Rally! Stand down, he's here under a flag of truce" Burnout quickly got between the two larger robots to prevent violence.
"What are you doing with Luna?" Rally asked, practically snarling.
"Rescuing her creator from some decidedly unpleasant characters. Is there a problem with that?" Vortex stepped forward, his impressive bulk towering over the smaller beings.
"Luna is this true?" Dumbledore asked, seemingly not afraid of the large Decepticon.
"Yes. Vortex saved my father and brought us here" she answered.
Rally seemed to back down a little, still throwing a contemptuous glare are the Combaticon; which he pointedly ignored. Madam Pomfrey saw to healing Xenophilius while Vortex tracked Luna almost anxiously.
"He will be fine, he has some cuts and bruises but other than that he is okay" Madam Pomfrey announced happily.
Harry took a moment to study the Decepticon up close: somehow he envisaged something more monstrous or savage looking, despite what he'd seen on the hologram recording. Yet Vortex was just like the others; although his face lacked a mouth and individual eyes and as a result he was less expressive. He supposed that was part of the reason Decepticons were feared: their faces were so…blank.
'But the eye or eyes' he wondered, staring at the optic bar that stretched across Vortex's face.
"Well, that being said Luna, I shall take my leave" Vortex transformed again and powered up his rotor blades.
"VORTEX!" Luna cried over the din of his engines.
"Yes?" he replied.
"THANK YOU" she screamed back, knowing he would hear.
"You're welcome" Vortex lifted off as he spoke, thundering away into the distance.
While the rest of the group sat and talked amongst them selves, some were getting the full story of Xenophilius's assault and extraction and others making sure Luna had survived her encounter with the Decepticon soldier, Vortex. Ginny now fully awake from the din ran and hugged her friend tightly. Drift meanwhile, slowly came online and stood up, stretching his abused metal body.
"What did I miss?" he asked.
"A visit from Vortex" Rally said in a low voice.
"Oh…OH" Drift realised he'd slept through a Decepticon being present.
"Professor?" Luna addressed Dumbledore with a pleading look.
"Yes my dear, what is it?" he asked.
"What is a Horcrux?"
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Location: Planet Cybertron.
Sector: Northern Hemisphere.
Area: Iacon City Forward Operations Base.
Autobot communications officer and code breaker Blaster sat at a large control panel in the main communications array of their base; his multi-tracked mind checking, deciphering and encoding several communication signals at once. To an outsider, it seemed as if Blaster were in a state of shut down since he barely moved, the lines flicking across his optics the only signs of life.
'Hello, what have we here?' a strange signal came into his head.
A quick analysis of the signal indicated that it was a simple distress beacon: Autobot standard frequency for long distances. Its origin was many light years away, indicating that it had been travelling for some time.
'Okay, just check the embedded code and match it against records' Blaster extracted the serial code from the signal and checked it.
"By Primus, that beacon was on the Prowler" he muttered.
"Tracer, get up here and take over" Blaster called to one of his subordinates.
"Aye sir" Tracer sat down in the main seat as Blaster stood and left the room.
Taking a lift down from the Communications Array, Blaster headed towards the Tactical and Strategic Development base. He needed to speak to someone specific, Prowl.
"Prowl, you in here?" he called, seeing several tacticians in the room.
"Over here Blaster, what do you need?" the ever logical Prowl responded, going back to his planning.
"You wanted to know if I got any word about the Prowler, which was escorting a prisoner or something, I just got a distress signal from one of its beacons" Blaster said off hand.
Prowl stopped what he was doing and looked up at Blaster, who wasn't in on exactly what the Prowler was doing nor who was on board. Asking one of his own officers to take over, Prowl grabbed Blaster and yanked him out of the room.
"Prowl, what the Pit?" Blaster exclaimed as the door shut behind them.
"Was there any other information in the signal or was it just the distress call?" Prowl got to the point.
"Just the distress call, nothing more" Blaster confirmed.
"Okay, thank you Blaster and apologies for getting bit rough; I have been waiting for some time to get information on that" Prowl appeared to calm down and turned to leave.
"I'll just go back to my post then?" Blaster called out.
"You do that, I need to speak with Prime and Red Alert" Prowl disappeared around the corner, heading to the Security area.
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Red Alert was at best described as jittery and at worst, as delusional, paranoid mess. When Prowl entered the room, the mech seemed to be in one of his more lucid states, seeming almost relaxed: Prowl knew as soon as he mentioned his information, that would change.
"Red Alert, we need to talk" Prowl said seriously, closing and locking the door.
"About what?" he asked.
"Blaster picked up a signal from a beacon pod off the Prowler" Prowl admitted.
Red Alert immediately lost any semblance of keeping it together. He began running around his office, picking up data pads and throwing them around, looking for something and yabbering on about nothing and everything: none of making any sense. Prowl knew that it was best to let him panic for a few minutes to wear himself out and then give him a bit of a rest, then speak.
'Best signal Optimus while he's having his fit' Prowl thought and sent an electronic message to Optimus Prime via a private communication link that existed only in the command staff.
By the time Red Alert had calmed down, Optimus Prime had arrived at the Security Director's office, an urgent look in his optics. Prowl unlocked the door to let his Commander in. Red Alert, now back to his lucid state asked the first of many questions.
"Are we going to get them?" his optics flicking between Optimus and his Chief Strategist.
"We have no choice, the last transmission I received indicated that the Combaticons were after them, not a group to be trifled with at the best of times" Prowl said.
"To say nothing of their history together" Optimus added in a low tone.
"Indeed, but the signal had travelled some distance according to Blaster, I'm going to seem him later about the location of the signal. Once we have that, we can schedule a rescue: I'd advise a small crew personally" Prowl explained all he had.
"Agreed: you, Ratchet, Ironhide and I will go" Optimus declared.
This sent Red Alert into a small seizure of worry and anger. Again, the two other Autobots simply let Red Alert rant and tire himself out before speaking again.
"Red Alert, the Autobots will be under the command of Elita One; and we won't be setting out for some time: Megatron has launched an offensive not far from here: as soon as it is repelled, then we will depart" Optimus nodded curtly to his two officers and left.
"He intends to take the upper echelons of our whole command on this jaunt, Prowl you can't seriously condone this" Red Alert exclaimed loudly.
"I can, and I will. Elita One isn't second in command of the Autobots for no reason, Red Alert. Jazz is staying, you're staying. Elita One, Chromia, Arcee and First Aid are more than capable of handling things" Prowl tried to assuage the feelings of paranoia in Red Alert.
"I appreciate that Arcee is your protégé and talented, but she isn't you: Chromia hasn't seen field combat for a while now and Elita One is…less even tempered than Optimus" Red Alert mumbled.
'Oh for Primus sake' Prowl thought.
"I would advise not letting Ironhide hear that you said that, to say nothing of the several new outlets that Elita One will tear in you for doubting her officers. We'll be fine Red Alert" Prowl just patted his old friend on the shoulder and left the room.
Prowl trekked back to the Communications Array to speak to Blaster again, to get the location of their destination and any other information he could. The walk was sobering for him: as much as he hated to admit it, Red Alert's points weren't entirely out of order.
'Then again, if Elita One was in charge for so long, then decided to leave command to Optimus, he'd have the same fits' Prowl had to chuckle.
"Blaster, were you able to back-trace the signal to get a location?" Prowl asked.
"I can try, but it was from a long way away, Prowl, doing an effective trace will take up at least fifteen planetary cycles" Blaster answered.
"Do it, inform me the instant you have a location" Prowl said firmly.
"No problems" Blaster then set to work.
Prowl left out some air from his vents, it had been a tough decision to ask Rally and Drift to take Bonesaw, or Burnout as he now used as an alias, to safety. They didn't know the true extent of who he was, and hoped they never did. Prowl didn't like keeping secrets from his own, least of all two of Jazz's best troops.
'I feel dirty' Prowl thought and headed for the wash racks.