"So your plan is to be a sneak?"
"Yes."
"Swoop in and grab Prime, then swoop out?" Starscream sneered. "Oh Dreadwing, I can see why Megatron chose you to replace me as his second-in-command."
Dreadwing swept closer, wingspan nearly brushing against Starscream's. The Seeker, uncomfortable with the close proximity, jerked away and dove lower, streaking through the clouds.
From this height, the Nemesis was a straight line across a deep indentation on the ground. Chronos and his charge were just a dot. Prime, and even smaller dot, chained and tethered to a rock.
Starscream's vision exceeded that of any other creature on Earth. He zoomed in, watching as Chronos and his charger leaped from the Nemesis and landed with a thud next to Prime. The cliff trembled upon impact.
"Lower," Dreadwing urged quietly, all business. All warrior.
Starscream was not.
"That Chronos can sense when he's being watched," Starscream snarled. "The fool chose not to mask his signal – detecting him was easy, for once."
"He wants us to go to him," Dreadwing replied bitterly.
"What else are we supposed to do? Stand and wait? Fly away?"
"The Decepticon's could. We have no ties here."
Starscream streaked to the side, directly beside Dreadwing. Dew clung to the exterior of their frames, cold and fresh from the clouds. A light inside Starscream's cockpit flashed, a sure sign of anger.
"I'm not leaving Eva and you know that."
"She is Cybertronian now. She can fly."
"She wouldn't leave her planet," Starscream said firmly. "I know it. She'd choose Earth over me. And I can't choose anything else over her."
"She has you wrapped around her servo, Starscream," Dreadwing said softly.
"Whatever."
Dreadwing dove, suddenly. A deep spiral that caused him to shoot through the clouds. Starscream cursed and followed behind, following behind as Dreadwing leveled himself and flew at a leisurely pace. They cleared the ravine and the Nemesis and shot towards even ground, soaring over the helms of Arcee, Bumblebee, Bulkhead, and Knockout.
They landed, skidding. Then Starscream turned and noticed that the soldiers, their gang, their pathetic little gang of six wouldn't stand a chance against Chronos.
"We've tried before," he murmured, walking towards Bulkhead with his arms clasped behind his back. Oh, how he wanted Eva to hurry. It had been a day already. She knew the location of every M.E.C.H base in the United States; hopefully her father, who'd no doubt been tearing the earth apart looking for her, would answer whatever calls she broadcasted across the airwaves.
He had to. The planet depended on it.
Either that or he'd just shoot her dead for what she had become. Or dissect her.
It was a possibility that caused Starscream to shiver. His little Eva, strapped to a table, being sawed apart by her own father. His Eva…his mate.
"The plan?" Starscream asked Arcee. The femme crossed her arms and held her helm high, trotting over towards the edge of the ravine. She glanced down, calculated the angle, and said, "We can't wait this out forever. I don't know what Chronos has planned, but it's big."
"Kill Prime and then come after us himself," Knockout replied acidly. He swung his energon prod, twirled it like a baton, appearing bored. But Starscream could see the trepidation hidden in his optics. "It's a fools plan, but for someone like Chronos, it's a working plan."
"We can't wait for Eva any longer," Bulkhead agreed.
"So we'll hop to our deaths before," Starscream replied. "Excellent. I was getting tired of our war, anyway. Autobots versus Decepticons. What a drag."
"Aaaaahhhh!"
The bird dove again. Began to dig at the gauze on Prime's stomach, tearing it away, pecking, pecking, pecking.
"Get off me!"
"Take it, Prime!" Chronos howled. "Take it like a man!"
The bird flapped its wings. Prime's back arched against the rock, armor scraping, the pain flaking away and settling around him. He kicked at nothing.
Chronos was there, suddenly. Kneeling next to him. The bird had retreated and was circling around.
Chronos grabbed Prime face with his claws, squeezing. The massive lizard head, yellow eyes blinking, appeared directly before him.
"I'm enjoying this," he cooed. "I'm enjoying this, and so should you."
Prime squirmed and tried to jerk his head away, but Chronos held him firm. Then he ducked his head and nuzzled Prime's stomach.
His tongue shot out to lap up the dripping energon cascading down his hips. The touch was foreign, intimate. Like something lovers would do.
"Get away from me," Prime whispered.
"Beg."
"Never."
"Beg," Chronos squeezed, talons digging past Prime's facial plating. "Beg for me!"
Prime yanked his head away and Chronos's talons scratched several long gashes across his face, nearly obscuring one optic. The lizard rose, armor glistening with energon, and nailed Prime in the chest with a kick so powerful that the rock beneath him cracked.
Prime felt agony, and then nothing.
"You have failed, Prime," Chronos whispered, leaning down to lick the side of Optimus Prime's face, tasting the seeping fluid. "You have failed, and you will die."
Dreadwing saw the bird first.
Chronos had retreated to the Nemesis. Back reporting to that satanic freak, Howard Darby.
"It's an eagle," Starscream snapped, searching for an opening. Prime lay chained, unmoving. "Just an eagle."
A voice in his head screamed that something was wrong. The bird's eyes seemed to glow. It was huge, matching Starscream's speed. Its wings were primed and it looked tamed, way to clean and put together.
Before Starscream could comment, the eagle dipped and disappeared beneath the clouds.
"There," Starscream said, letting his voice travel across the link to Dreadwing. The larger mech gave a grunt of apprehension and dropped out of the sky.
Arcee, Bulkhead and the rest were stationed around the ravine, invisible to Chronos and the rest.
"We can always retreat," he said to Dreadwing.
The mech didn't hear him.
Something tugged at Prime's restraints.
He glanced up.
"Get up," Dreadwing hissed. "Now. Now!"
Optimus rotated his aching wrists and pulled, but the chains would not let up. They were too tight, too thick. Dreadwing cursed and stepped back, drawing his gun.
He leveled, aimed, and fired. The blast echoed around the ravine.
"That was stupid," Dreadwing said after, "I know," he freed Prime's left wrist, and began to work on the legs. The mechs fingers spun deftly, breaking links, sawing past knots. Soon, both Prime's legs were alive and unshackled.
The agony in his stomach had subsided, but it was still there. A roaring lion behind a massive frame.
"I am in your debt," Optimus murmured to Dreadwing. The mech did not reply – instead he worked faster.
Optimus stood and then knelt. One hand helping Dreadwing.
"Everyone is here," Dreadwing finally said. "Bumblebee, Knockout, Bulkhead and that two-wheeler. Starscream is circling above. We sent that human-Cybertronian girl to get extra support."
"Fowler's men?"
Dreadwing glanced up, shaking his helm. "No. The human organization known as M.E.C.H. The girl is acquainted with their leader."
Optimus nodded, watching as Dreadwing–"
Dreadwing sputtered. Stopped.
Prime heard the mace before he saw it. A whistle in the air. A streak, then impact.
Dreadwing sputtered. Dreadwing, the honorable Dreadwing who had come to Earth in search of his dead brother. Dreadwing, the only Decepticon Optimus had ever met who possessed a sense of honor.
He had a mace embedded deep in his back, buried all the way to the hilt.
Dreadwing coughed, spat energon all over Prime. Yanked at the last chain, freeing Optimus.
Then he slumped and died.
Prime was free! He was free and Chronos was thundering towards him on his charger. Drones screamed down from the Nemesis. Megatron leaped from afar.
Optimus Prime drew his swords and bellowed something he'd never imagined he'd bellow.
"Autobots, attack and kill Chronos! Kill him! Kill him!"