AN: And now, the conclusion to the final battle is here! I will not take long and keep you from reading this chapter that concludes such a great struggle for peace and freedom and so I shall simply provide the disclaimer and allow you to continue you on with the chapter.
I do not own anything from any of the Gundam or Transformers franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story.
Chapter 28: The End of the Nightmare
Though none of them could see it, everyone knew that the Autobots were all falling into despair as Bumblebee's lifeless body continued to sink into the residual cyber matter that was in one of the discarded GENESIS focusing mirrors. The young scout was by far the bravest and most hopeful of all the Autobots, never once giving up no matter what, and to see or even hear of such a valiant and brave soldier falling in battle like this was enough to cause anyone to lose hope for a moment.
This fact held true for all of the Autobots, but soon enough that despair had turned to anger as they faced their life-long Decepticon foes once again, and then engaged them in battle even more furiously and determined than they ever were before. All of them felt that they owed much to Bumblebee for what he had done and that the scout was a part of their family, so they intended to make those who followed the one who had ended the scout suffer as much as they possibly could. This fact was made much easier considering how things had begun to turn on the humans' side of the battle.
Despite the fact that the Earth Forces were now all but defeated, the battle continued to rage on, as the Eternal and the Kusanagi did everything they could to hold back the Z.A.F.T. forces while the Autobots fought off the Decepticons. Amidst this chaos, Lacus continued to call out, "I demand that Z.A.F.T. cease firing GENESIS immediately. We've experience the pain and sorrow of nuclear and energon reactor attacks, yet we are inflicting the same suffering on them now. Will anything be made right if we fire it, or if more innocent men, women, and children keep losing their lives? Is this justice? Don't you realize yet what these attacks on each other are giving birth to? Do we want even more sacrifices?"
"Ugh will somebody shut her up already," Junkheap shouted as he hurled a large, bladed boomerang weapon at the Eternal. The spinning weapon was quickly intercepted by Hound as he fired off a few rounds from a Scrapmaker gun which he then turned on Junkheap.
"That's no way to treat or speak to a lady 'Con," Hound snarled as he spat out his cigar, right into Junkheap's face. The minute the device hit the 'Con's face though, it started beeping and the next thing that happened was Junkheap's entire helm exploding. Hound was quick to finish off the rest of Junkheap just for good measure while he scrapped a few vehicons as well.
"You'll pay for that Wrecker," Blackout shouted as he prepared to launch his EMP attack against Hound and the Autobots. Just as he was about to fire, Bulkhead slammed his wrecking ball into Blackout's side and fired his blaster right into Blackout's chest at pointblank range, seriously injuring the aerial Decimator.
"You've gotta get past me first pal," Bulkhead snarled, but just as he was charging, Breakdown had slammed his hammer into Bulkhead to knock the green Autobot off balance.
"Don't think I'll let you forget me Bulkhead. We've still got a score to settle," Breakdown snarled. Bulkhead was quick to return the glare and soon enough he and his old rival were charging at each other again, while Ironhide moved in to take on Blackout in Bulkhead's place.
Jazz and Wheeljack were doing their best to cover Arcee, who had lost any resolve she had at the news of Bumblebee's demise, but they were vastly outnumbered by the remaining Decepticon forces and Superion could not do much to help since he was too busy dealing with Bruticus and Devastator at the same time. This meant that Jazz and Wheeljack had to deal with the entire Seeker sibling family, Airachnid, and the Insecticon hive leaders at the same time while the other Autobots were occupied in other matters and Arcee was trying to get a hold of herself. "Come on 'Cee we can't do this without you," Jazz shouted.
"Well I'd hate to say it Jazz, but it looks like we'll have to it," Wheeljack argued. "She's too out of it to keep fighting. We should contact the Omega II and have them bring her aboard before…"
"No," Arcee croaked, getting both of their attentions. "I'm not going to sit back and cry anymore. Bumblebee would never forgive me if forgot his words from long ago again. I won't look back, and just keep driving!" With that said, Arcee blasted onto the battlefield once again firing everything she had at anyone unfortunate enough to get in her way.
Seeing that Arcee was back to herself, Jazz and Wheeljack exchanged a smirk and charged in right behind her. Arcee did not get far in her charge though, as soon enough she was caught in Airachnid's web shots. The spider like 'Con then leaped at Arcee to try and drive one of her talons into her when she was blasted back by a shot from a TechVolt that also freed Arcee. Arcee looked to see that Elita was the one who had fired the shot and simply gave a mock salute in thanks.
"Hey Elita, is it okay for you to be out here right now," Jazz asked as he blasted some Insecticons back with his blasters.
"Don't worry," Elita reassured him as she downed multiple enemies with her TechVolt. "Ratchet's got things covered on the Omega II and Natarle should be able to last until we can get her better treatment on the Archangel after the battle's over."
Jazz nodded in acceptance of that and then joined her in charging into battle again. As they did, Elita silently prayed, Please be safe Optimus.
As the main battle raged on, Optimus and Megatron continued to trade blows, each matching the other and vice versa, countering and blocking any attack that the other threw at them. Optimus would throw a downward vertical slash at Megatron, which Megatron then parried before striking back with a horizontal slash at Optimus's chest which Optimus barely avoided. A moment later, their blades locked once again, and the two were pushing hard against each other in an attempt to overpower the other. Finally, Optimus won out as he forced down Megatron's blade, giving him an opportunity to slam his fist into Megatron's face. Optimus then quickly followed up with a diagonal slash from the Star Saber across Megatron's chest before slamming a hard kick to send him flying into the remains of a destroyed ship.
As Megatron tried to rise, Optimus was immediately on top of him and grabbing Megatron by the back of his neck. Optimus then proceeded to slam Megatron's face against the ground multiple times over before spinning the Star Saber into a reverse grip, intending to stab Megatron's spark through his back. Just before he could strike though, Megatron slammed an elbow strike into Optimus's chest which he immediately followed up with a hard left jab and a low level blast from his fusion cannon. It was not enough to finish Optimus, but it was enough to drive Optimus off of him and allow him to rise before charging once more with the Dark Star Saber, eventually clashing the blade against Optimus's Star Saber once more. "Not bad for a librarian," Megatron admitted as he and Optimus pushed against each other. "Perhaps you should have spent more time in the gladiatorial arena."
"And perhaps you should have spent more time in the library," Optimus retorted as he forced Megatron back once more and followed up with a sword barrage that eventually knocked the Dark Star Saber out of Megatron's hands.
As they watched this go on from the corner of their eyes, Kira and Le Creuset also matched each other blow for blow as Kira used every long range weapon the Freedom had to destroy the DRAGOONs that Le Creuset sent his way, which was not easy considering how many of the little things there were and how fast they moved. "You're nothing but an irritant. A pest," Le Creuset shouted at Kira. "You're something that shouldn't have been allowed to exist boy! If people learned of your existence, they would want to be just as you are! They would want to become like you, and that's the reason why your existence cannot be allowed!"
"That's garbage," Kira retorted as he whipped out the Freedom's beam sabers to block every beam that the DRAGOONs were firing on him while he used the rail cannons to destroy them where he could. "Even if that's true, I'm not defined by my abilities alone!"
"Who's going to believe that line? Will they understand that," Le Creuset demanded as he fired another barrage from the Providence's gun and from his remaining DRAGOONs. "Of course they won't, nobody will!"
Kira simply snarled at the madman, only making a small notice of how far their battle had gone from Optimus and Megatron's and also from where Bumblebee had fallen, never noticing how the cyber matter seemed to begin stirring all of a sudden in the spot where the scout had fallen in.
Soon enough the Eternal and the Kusanagi were within firing range of GENESIS, and prepared to attack. "Are we sure this will work Andy," Aisha asked from her position on the Eternal's bridge.
"We have to at least try Aisha," Waltfeld replied. "After all even Phase Shift isn't invincible."
"Lohengrin, fire," Kisaka shouted as the Kusanagi fired said cannon along with the Eternal's main cannon. Both the shots hit their marks but did not seem to make even the slightest scratch on the weapon.
"Oh for…we're in real trouble now," Waltfeld commented. Just then the ship shook against an explosion. Everyone looked to see that the Raider had just burst onto the battlefield, but was now fighting like a madman with no sense of direction or real purpose other than to lash out at everything in sight.
"We've got him," Nicol shouted as he, Dearka, and Yzak fired everything they had at the Raider. Their efforts did not hold for long as Dearka was soon hit hard by the Raider and found himself unable to properly handle the Buster's rifles while Yzak lost his own rifle. It was not long after that the Blitz blasted off behind some debris and disappeared from sight completely.
Seeing what his friend was trying to do through the enemy's insane firing pattern, Yzak quickly turned to Dearka as he brought the Duel close to the Buster and shouted, "On my signal, give me your weapon."
Dearka nodded in reply and waited for said signal. The Raider then charged at the two mobile suits still firing and its pilot cackling like a complete lunatic when suddenly the machine was hit from the side. A second later, the Blitz had deactivated its mirage colloid and stabbed its beam saber into the Raider's arm.
"Now Dearka," Yzak shouted, and soon enough the Duel was wielding the Buster's long range sniper rifle and firing it directly at the Raider's head. "Now quick, grab one of the Duel's beam sabers and finish him," Yzak then told Dearka.
Dearka did not have to be told twice as he quickly pulled out one of the Duel's beam sabers and charged right at the Raider, landing a powerful slash right through the machine's torso and the pilot's cockpit. It was only a few seconds later that the Raider finally blew and the three simply stood there in victory. "Now that's the power of the real Joule team," Yzak smirked with pride.
"Since when were we ever called the Joule team," Nicol asked with a small chuckle.
"I don't know I kinda like it. It has a way better ring to it than Le Creuset or Zala team," Dearka commented with a smile. "Maybe we should make this a permanent thing."
"How about you guys talk about it after this battle is over," Ironhide cut in as he blasted Breakdown away. The three then nodded to each other in agreement and immediately charged in to help bring down Breakdown.
"Hey what are Athrun and Dreadwing doing anyway," Dearka asked. "Weren't they going to try and break through Jachin Due to bring down GENESIS from there or something?"
"That's what I heard from Cagalli when they last checked in," Nicol replied. "I just hope they're okay."
What they did not realize was that Slipstream had heard what they had said and immediately ordered Thundercracker and Skywarp to follow her to somewhere that no one could quite hear. While the departure of three of the Seekers gave the Autobots something of an edge, it was not by much, and it was more worrying as to where the Seeker siblings were going than it was relieving that they had left.
A moment later though, the Archangel had arrived on the scene with the Omega II by its side and Ratchet was more than happy to lay down a barrage from the ship with the Archangel doing the same on the still offending ships. His main target though was the Nemesis and he was hitting it with everything he had. Now if one were to ask later if this was in retaliation for what the 'Cons did to him, Ratchet would deny this and simply say that he was targeting the most serious threat at the time, but no one could help but wonder if that was really the case.
"Those ships are run by a little girl, some Naturals, and a single Autobot. Why can't you destroy them," Chairman Zala demanded from his command chair in Jachin Due. He then saw that the third mirror was now in position and then ordered, "Hurry and commence target input. North America continent east coast."
"But sir," one of Zala's aides tried to protest. "We've already won the battle, and if we fire we'll wipe out half the life on Earth and there's no telling what the cyber matter will do to the planet afterwards. Lord Megatron himself stated that such a thing could have serious consequences. There have already been enough sacrifices."
Any further protest the man had was quickly silenced by a gunshot that was aimed at him. Everyone looked to see that Chairman Patrick Zala himself had fired on one of his own men. Zala then turned to face forward once again as he growled, "They're right there. Our enemies are still out there! Why would you even suggest that we not fire it? We must fire it again before they have a chance to retaliate! The enemy must be annihilated! Why won't you all understand that?"
Seeing that no one was doing anything at all, Zala rose from his chair and began punching in commands for GENESIS himself. "Excellency, our forces are still in the line of fire," one of the other commanders warned Zala when he saw what the chairman was doing.
"All of our soldiers are fighting for one thing. Victory! I'm sure they're prepared to pay the cost," Zala argued angrily.
"You bastard," the man that Zala had just shot groaned out. When Zala turned to face him though, he himself was shot in the chest by the injured man. Muttered shock and surprise had swept throughout the control room at the sight of this as the doors opened to reveal Athrun, Cagalli, and Dreadwing who had all managed to fight their way into Jachin Due's control room just after Patrick Zala had been shot, much to Athrun's horror.
The shocked mutterings quickly turned to panic cries of fear as they all began to flee the control room with the three recent arrivals being the only exceptions. Athrun and Cagalli slowly approached the former's father while Dreadwing simply stood where he was with his cannon armed and his head bowed, until eventually Athrun was right next to Patrick Zala. "Father," Athrun called weakly.
Patrick Zala turned to face Athrun, but he was so weak he could barely tell who Athrun was and as such he weakly ordered, "Fire…GENESIS. We must…make…the world…ours."
Having said those final words, Chairman Patrick Zala coughed up a small amount of blood before he died, leaving a grief stricken son who could not believe that his father remained so horrible right to the end. Suddenly an alarm sounded that drove all three's attention to the nearest computer, seeing a countdown running on the monitor. Athrun worked quickly to do what he could to stop the countdown when he realized what it was for as he explained, "They've activated a self-destruct sequence. When Jachin blows up it'll trigger GENESIS!"
Cagalli and Dreadwing both gasped in shock as Athrun continued to try and disengage the self-destruct sequence. Eventually though Athrun slammed a fist on the console as he realized that the process was already too far along to be stopped from there. Seeing this, the three quickly raced back to the Strike Rogue and the Justice and moved as fast as they could to evacuate Jachin Due.
"Athrun what do we do now," Cagalli asked once they were clear of the base.
Athrun lowered his head before he announced, "There's only one thing we can do. I'll blow up the Justice and create an energon fueled explosion to destroy GENESIS from the inside."
Cagalli and Dreadwing both looked at Athrun in horror as the red mobile suit blasted off towards GENESIS. They both nodded to each other and immediately took off after Athrun, none of them noticing that they had passed by Kira and Le Creuset's continuing battle as they did.
After seeing the three pass by them, Le Creuset began laughing in realization of what was happening. "No matter what happens now the Decepticons have won," Le Creuset exclaimed in victory. "When Jachin self-destructs GENESIS will fire. There's no way the process can be stopped. Earth will burn, the ensuing cries of the victims will trigger battle anew, and the new Cybertron will be born!"
"It can't. I won't allow it," Kira protested. He then charged the Freedom right at Le Creuset as it armed itself with a double blade beam saber just as the Providence destroyed his beam rifle. The ensuing battle between the two was more than simply intense; it was truly a fight to the bitter end. Kira slashed the Providence with both ends of his sword while Le Creuset was only able to block one blow while the other caused his mobile suit to lose its gun. The two were soon engaged in a full on sword battle that was quickly matching that of Optimus and Megatron's.
Kira was able to deflect a blow from Le Creuset that was aimed at his cockpit before he slashed at the Providence's arm, severing it from the mobile suit. Le Creuset only snarled at this and then simply charged in slashing wildly at the Freedom so fast that Kira was having a hard time keeping up. Eventually this led to him losing one of the Freedom's arms as well and its head. This did not stop Kira though as he began to just ignore Rau Le Creuset's continuing rant in favor of denying every word that the masked man was spouting right to the bitter end.
Seeing that he had a chance, Kira charged the Freedom at its top speed towards a feebly defending Providence, channeling a bit of Optimus as he shouted, "This world is still worth protecting, and more importantly everyone deserves the right to choose for themselves, because freedom is the right of all sentient beings!"
At that point, Rau Le Creuset cringed in disbelief because he did not see Kira and the Freedom charging at him, he actually saw a faint bit of Mu La Flaga and everyone else that had fallen at his hands charging him. More than that, he could have sworn that he saw what could easily be described as a human version of Optimus Prime coming at him with everything he had, and the masked man began to wonder if it was possible that Kira had become more than the ultimate Coordinator. Was it really possible that somehow Kira had become the Earth's first and the universe's first human Prime?
He could not ponder this for much longer, as the Freedom stabbed the Providence near its cockpit and then immediately pulled back just before the suit exploded, taking the insane pilot with it. Seeing that he had finished his job there, Kira quickly turned to rejoin the others in doing what they could to stop anyone who was still foolish enough to continue fighting with the Decepticons, hoping that Optimus would be able to win his own battle as well.
As he went though, Kira looked back one more time and silently prayed that the nightmare of Rau Le Creuset had finally come to an end. He then refocused his attention forward and blasted off back towards his friends and allies, the whole time though he never noticed a strange purple glow envelope the remains of Le Creuset and his machine.
The core of GENESIS was a massive structure unlike anything any human had ever seen, especially when one considered the amount of Cybertronian technology that was used to create the massive Z.A.F.T. weapon. The walls were covered in what looked like circuit lines that seemed to pulse with a dark purple glow that one would normally only find in dark energon or Megatron's optics, numerous containers of the cyber matter formula were plugged into the machine across the ceiling and the floor like batteries, and in the center of the room was a massive cylindrical tower that glowed a bright blue as energon pulsed through it.
As he looked on at the sight from the Justice's cockpit, Athrun had to admit that were it any other place of any other thing that the sight of such technological marvels and multitude of colors would have been beautiful. This fact alone made it almost a shame to destroy it by destroying the Justice, but Athrun knew full well what monstrosity this was the core of and that gave him no reason to doubt what he was about to do. With his goal in mind, Athrun took a deep breath and opened the control panel that he would use to key in the command to begin the Justice's self-destruct sequence.
Before he could so much as hit one button on the control panel, Athrun heard Cagalli's voice call out to him, "Athrun stop running!"
Athrun instantly turned and saw the Strike Rogue and Dreadwing approaching him at each of their top speeds. As soon as the two were close enough, Dreadwing assumed his robot form as Cagalli gave Athrun a teary smile and stated, "The hardest battle is to keep living."
Athrun gasped in shock at what he knew Cagalli meant by this, and was about to argue that if he did not do this GENESIS would destroy the Earth, when Dreadwing cut in saying, "And it is a battle that seems to be approaching its end for me."
That got the attention of both Athrun and Cagalli, both fearing what the former Decepticon meant by that statement. "What are you saying Dreadwing," Athrun asked.
Dreadwing's only response was to pull out multiple explosives and toss them around the room. Most of the devices landed on the central pillar in the middle of the room while the others hit the cyber matter tanks that were plugged into the floor and ceiling. As he continued to toss the devices around the room Dreadwing explained, "With enough of these explosives in key positions, I'll be able to destroy GENESIS just as easily if not more so than the Justice's self-destruct would. Unfortunately the detonator will only be able to send a signal if it is inside of GENESIS."
Now Athrun knew what Dreadwing meant by that. "Dreadwing you can't! There must be another way for this to be done! At least if I use the Justice's self-destruct I'll be able to escape with you and Cagalli."
"What's wrong," Cagalli asked, not quite understanding the meaning herself.
"Dreadwing's planning to sacrifice himself to destroy GENESIS," Athrun answered grimly.
At this news, Cagalli's eyes widened in shock as she too began to shout out protests of why Dreadwing could not do this. Dreadwing was not going to hear any of their protests against his decision and simply argued, "I believe there will come a day when you will need the power of the Justice again Athrun Zala, so it would only make sense to save as much of the suit as you can for when that day comes. Don't worry; the explosives are on a small time delay that will give me enough time to escape as well. I'll be right behind you both as soon as I activate the devices."
Before anyone could say anymore they all found themselves being assaulted by a barrage. Turning to the source, they saw that Slipstream, Thundercracker, and Skywarp had been waiting for them inside of GENESIS in case something like this happened. Cagalli and Athrun moved their mobile suits to counter attack when Dreadwing suddenly raised his left arm in front of them, with his sword in hand. "Go on and escape now! I'll hold them off," Dreadwing told them.
"We can't leave you like this! They'll tear you apart if you fight them alone," Athrun argued.
"If they remove even one of the charges before they are triggered then it won't matter at all," Dreadwing countered. Dreadwing lowered his helm, knowing full well that the chances of his survival were no longer as high as they previously were before he turned to Athrun and said, "Athrun, if I don't make it I have a message that I would like you to deliver to Miss Lacus Clyne."
Athrun wanted to argue, but when he saw the look in Dreadwing's eyes he could not do anything other than nod in agreement to what he was asking. Dreadwing then told Athrun, "This message is for both you and Kira as well Athrun. Tell them this is my choice, but I do not make it out of honor or because I owe someone something. I decided to do this because I wanted to do so and because I wanted to protect my friends." Dreadwing then paused for a moment before adding, "Oh and tell Optimus Prime and the others that I would've been proud to have been called one of the Autobots."
Athrun nodded in acceptance and understanding of Dreadwing's words as he said, "Alright Dreadwing, but please do what you can to come back alive." The Justice and the Strike Rogue then both blasted out of GENESIS at their maximum thruster speed before Dreadwing could answer, just missing the former Decepticon's grateful smile as he pulled out his gun with his free hand.
"Do you really think you can stop us alone Dreadwing," Slipstream mocked. "You've become such a soft, pathetic fool."
"That may be true Slipstream, but for the first time in my life I am fighting for what I believe in and what I want to fight for," Dreadwing retorted as he charged at the three Seeker siblings. "And if I must fight you to do so, THEN I'LL TAKE YOU ALL ON!"
With that, Dreadwing blasted ahead at full speed, firing his cannon at the three as he went and causing them to scatter. Dreadwing the swung his cannon like a club and knocked Skywarp off balance before landing a powerful slice with his sword across the black and purple Seeker's chest. He then spun around and proceeded to fire on Thundercracker just as he was charging up a Shockwave blast, and then charged in with a pair of slashes. This back and forth continued for another moment or so and it began to seem that Dreadwing would emerge victorious enough to escape and trigger the explosives, but that hope was quickly dashed when he was suddenly hit from behind by a Null Ray. Dreadwing turned to see the last trace of Slipstream speeding away with her Hyper Speed ability just before her two brothers began to bombard him from all sides.
Dreadwing was barely able to hold his ground due to the first Null Ray blast slowing him down a bit and then a number of continuous ones slowing him down even further until eventually the long range barrage stopped. Dreadwing thought they figured he was finished but was soon proven wrong when Thundercracker and Slipstream swooped in and sliced off his right leg and his sword arm. Dreadwing cried out in pain as he dropped his gun and fell to the ground, and then struggled to rise until Skywarp teleported on top of his and held him at point blank range.
"Looks like your efforts were in vain Dreadwing," Skywarp smirked, and his smug look was soon copied by his two siblings. They were all certain that they had their former ally beaten when suddenly Dreadwing chuckled and caused all three of them to raise an eyebrow at him.
"What's so funny," Slipstream demanded. Dreadwing merely opened the hand that he was previously holding his gun in to reveal the trigger for his bombs which had been activated. The Seeker siblings looked around frantically to see that every single explosive that Dreadwing had set were counting down to detonation and realized that sometime between when he was falling and then attempting to rise again, Dreadwing had managed to pull out the trigger and activate it.
"Unless you intend to die here with me, you and brothers might want to make whatever efforts you can to escape now bitch," Dreadwing spat at Slipstream. The female Seeker only growled in response before she led her two brothers towards the quickest exit in their jet forms.
Dreadwing attempted to rise again and upon finding he could not, he simply began to crawl towards the nearest exit as the explosions started going off around him. He was not doing this in a desperate attempt to escape, but rather because he wanted to make sure that he had enough time to complete all of his last thoughts.
"Lacus Clyne," Dreadwing moaned as he crawled. "Thank you for helping me to see the error of my ways and showing me that there are other ways to regain ones honor than just fighting to kill. Kira Yamato, I consider you to be a true warrior that I was proud to have fought beside, and of which I believe could have become a Prime had you been born on Cybertron. Optimus Prime, words cannot express my gratitude for what you had done for both myself and Skyquake, so I simply ask that you never falter in your fight for freedom and peace as thanks. Arcee of the Autobots, I'm glad that I was able to meet someone that I felt could understand me better than anyone else on Cybertron in you, even if you were my enemy at the time. Athrun Zala, you were one of the first humans I had ever met, and somewhere down the line you became more than simply a partner to me. You became my best friend, something that I had never truly had since my brother had perished. I thank you greatly for that."
Eventually Dreadwing had reached a hatch that he thought was far enough away to finish and simply laid back against the wall as he finished. "Goodbye Athrun…my friend…and thank you again…for everything…Farewell Autobots…til all are one."
With these final words, the inferno quickly consumed the Decepticon now truly turned Autobot as GENESIS was whipped out in the blast from within. Everyone outside of GENESIS, Decepticon, Autobot, and human all gasped in shock at the sight of this, while Athrun and Cagalli simply watched as it exploded but Dreadwing did not emerge from it. After another moment, it became clear to Athrun what had happened, and he could not stop the tears that came as he cried out the name of his friend. "DREADWING!"
Cagalli sat in her cockpit crying along with Athrun as she watched any sign of the former enemy of the Autobots vanish along with GENESIS until a welcoming voice called out, "Athrun, Cagalli, are you two alright?"
They both turned to see what was left of the Freedom approaching them and knew that it was Kira who had called out to them. Athrun could barely keep his sadness at bay as he meekly responded, "Kira…Dreadwing is…he's…"
Kira did not need his friend to finish as he knew what he was trying to say, and he quickly spun his head towards GENESIS, instantly knowing what had happened. Kira lowered his head in sadness before he looked back to his sister and childhood friend and said, "Come on guys. Let's get back to the others. Optimus should be right behind us at any minute."
Athrun simply nodded in agreement with this and allowed Cagalli to help the Freedom and the Justice back to their friends in the Four Ships Alliance as an announcement went out from the Clyne Faction member, Councilwoman Eileen Canaver, called out requesting that the Earth Forces meet with them for negotiations on a cease fire and that any Decepticons still in the area be driven away as quickly as possible.
Seeing that the tide had turned so far against them, Slipstream growled in annoyance as she reassumed her robot mode and radioed her leader asking, "Lord Megatron, the battle appears to be lost what should we do now?" After a moment of waiting, no reply ever came. "Lord Megatron do you read? Lord Megatron?"
From where their battle had been raging on, Megatron and Optimus could see GENESIS exploding and soon after they could hear the announcement that Councilwoman Eileen Canaver was making moments later and needless to say Megatron was not pleased with this development. In his anger and rage, Megatron rushed Optimus and hit him hard enough to cause Optimus to lose his grip on the Star Saber as he declared, "No it's not over yet! I'll crush you with my bare hands Optimus Prime!"
Soon enough, the battle between the two had resumed and now Megatron was simply swinging his regular sword at Optimus's remaining intact arm blade. Megatron attempted to fire his fusion cannon at Optimus, but the last Prime was quick to knock it aside before charging up his left arm blaster. Megatron recovered just in time to knock Prime's blaster away just as it fired and slashed Optimus's chest with his default sword. Optimus stumbled for only a moment as Megatron rushed him once again, but he was able to recover just in time to catch both of the Decepticon war lord's fist in his hands before he landed a hard head butt on Megatron's helm, causing Megatron to be the one who was disorientated this time.
Using Megatron's temporary moment of disorientation to his advantage, Optimus slammed every form of punch that was possible into Megatron until the Decepticon war lord was knocked up against what remained of a destroyed Z.A.F.T. ship and collapsed. Optimus then walked up slowly as he primed his arm blaster once again to deliver the final blow, when suddenly Megatron spun around and unleashed a powerful energy wave from his Dark Star Saber that he had ended up landing next to when he fell. The unexpected blast had knocked Optimus off his feet and sent him soaring across their battlefield until he found himself hanging down from the remains of another ship.
Before he could pull himself up, Optimus was met with the sight of Megatron moving to stand over him and raising the Dark Star Saber over his head to strike as he declared, "I would've waited an eternity for this. It's over Prime. Now prepare to join your scout in the AllSpark."
Megatron prepared to make the final blow when an unknown voice suddenly shouted out, "Megatron!" Megatron spun around to the source only to widen his eyes in shock the second he had turned all the way around. The reason for this was twofold, because the main reason was because he had been stabbed through the chest with the Star Saber sword but the other reason was because of who had stabbed him.
There before him stood a miraculously fully repaired Bumblebee, who was panting slightly from when he had grabbed the sword in his rush over to them, but the most surprising thing was when the scout actually spoke saying, "You took my voice. You will never rob anyone of anything ever again."
Megatron could barely raise the hand that he held his Dark Star Saber in before he ended up dropping the great sword and was then kicked off of the end of the Star Saber by Bumblebee and set adrift into space for parts that were yet unknown. Unknown to any of the three that were on this battlefield, a surprisingly slightly dismayed Starscream had seen what had transpired and found that he had to answer his sister's call saying, "Decepticons, the battle is indeed lost. Lord Megatron has fallen. Return to the Nemesis and commence full retreat so that we may avenge our master another day."
Optimus only watched his former brother turned late foe floated away, barely registering Starscream taking off to the Nemesis so that the remaining Decepticons could complete their full scale retreat, before a very familiar yellow and black armored hand reached out to him and helped pull him up. Once he was on his feet again, Optimus saw that he had not simply seen things and that Bumblebee was indeed standing before him alive and well. Optimus disengaged his battle mask to show an extremely grateful smile as he said, "Thank you old friend and I am glad to see that you still function. Let us return to our allies so that we may learn of what happened with the rest of the battle and tell them of the fortune that has befallen us this day."
Bumblebee simply nodded, feeling that he should not say all that much just yet for some odd reason that he did not understand, and then simply leapt up after Optimus as the two made their way back to their waiting allies, who would receive a great deal of good news indeed.
Kira and the others had already returned to the Eternal and were now greeting the rest of their friends on the ship after they had all come over via the Ground Bridge. Surprisingly, even Yzak had come with the group and Dearka, Nicol, and Athrun were all eager to introduce him to Kira and Cagalli, the former more so than the latter. After he was told who Kira was, Dearka and Athrun half expected the silver haired boy to explode much like Dearka had when he first found out the truth about Kira, but instead Yzak surprised them by simply scoffing and saying, "You know I guess I shouldn't be too surprised after all that's happened. I mean only someone who was such good friends with Athrun could've given me such a hard time."
Kira and the others who were just meeting Yzak for the first time simply looked at him strangely before Dearka finally chuckled saying, "Don't worry that's just Yzak for ya. Always has to look tough to others."
"Shut up Dearka! I don't need to look tough when I already am," Yzak retorted, only getting everyone to start laughing at the two of them.
Everyone's attention was soon averted by Flay coming through the Ground Bridge and tackling Kira in a tight embrace as she cried into his shoulder saying, "I'm sorry Kira. I'm so sorry for everything. For all the things I said, for how I treated you and tried to…" Flay could barely bring herself to say anymore than that as she just broke down into sobs.
Seeing that the girl truly meant what she was saying, Kira smiled and simply patted her on the back as he softly said, "It's alright now Flay. I forgive you. I just hope that we can be friends again."
Flay finally let go of Kira and dried her tears as she nodded in acceptance of this. A minute later, the door to the hangar had opened and Lacus rushed in right towards Kira. Before Kira could say anything Lacus had already embraced him and cut him off with a kiss. Everyone looked on in wide-eyed shock as Athrun's ex-fiancé kissed Kira so passionately until Cagalli cleared her throat saying, "Ahem, uh Lacus. Would you mind not embarrassing my little brother in front of everyone here like that?"
Lacus and Kira immediately broke off their kiss, and before Lacus could give any kind of apology Kira simply held her close saying, "Hey, you don't hear me complaining do you?" At Lacus's brilliant smile, Kira then turned to Cagalli before he asked, "And what's this little brother stuff? For all we know I could be your big brother."
"Oh shut up! There is no way you're the older one here," Cagalli snapped.
"Wait, wait I'm confused here. Why are you and Miss Cagalli saying that you're Cagalli's brother Kira," Flay interrupted.
"Yeah I think we all missed the memo on that one," Dearka added.
"Did you know about this Athrun," Nicol asked.
"Yep," Athrun replied as he wrapped Cagalli in his arms, getting the blonde's face to turn crimson. "My childhood best friend turned out to be my new girlfriend's brother."
Now everyone was shocked by this since this was the first any of them heard of Athrun and Cagalli dating, but Cagalli just smiled and planted a kiss of her own on Athrun. Hoping to turn everyone away from the lovey-dovey stuff, Yzak cleared his throat as he turned to Flay and said, "So, I didn't expect to see you again, especially so soon."
Flay turned to him and asked, "You're Mister Yzak right?"
Yzak simply smirked as he replied, "Just Yzak's fine, and these are my pals Dearka, and Nicol. I'm sure Kira will give you a more proper introduction to Athrun later on."
Nicol barely registered Athrun and Yzak starting up a playful banter on how Athrun noticed how Yzak seemed to indicate that they were not pals as he walked up to Flay and said, "So yeah…I'm Nicol Amalfi."
"Nice to meet you Nicol. I'm Flay Allster," Flay replied.
"So uh…I heard from Kira you're not a big fan of Coordinators and well…"
Flay simply smiled at Nicol for a minute before she placed a hand on his shoulder and softly said, "Actually, I've recently had a major change of mind on that."
"Oh really? Well that's uh…that's good," Nicol said, clearly becoming more nervous than he already was. "So uh…do you like music?"
Flay simply giggled at Nicol's nervousness before giving her reply while Dearka smirked at the sight of potential sweet payback, only to have Miriallia loop her arm around his with a smile. The tenderness of the moment was soon broken by a communiqué from Optimus as the last Prime said, "Optimus to Autobots and all allied forces. We have gained great victory in our war with the Decepticons along with the end of the Bloody Valentine War. Megatron has perished and Starscream is leading the remaining forces in a full retreat on the Nemesis. We are returning to theOmega II now."
"Well done Optimus, but you should know that…wait. Did you say 'we'," Ratchet asked from the Omega II's hangar where all the Autobots had ended up gathering to wait for their leader.
"Yes I did old friend. I am returning with the one who dealt the final blow to Megatron, and who we thought we had lost. Bumblebee is returning with me," Optimus replied. As soon as everyone heard that, gasps and cheers of joy rang throughout both the three human ships and the Omega II with Arcee's seeming to be the loudest despite how soft it really was.
A moment later, the two Autobots had landed in the Omega II's hangar and every Autobot saw Bumblebee was indeed alive and well with excited cheers and pats on the back. Soon enough they were all able to calm themselves down enough to allow Arcee to approach Bumblebee and hold him tight in a hug as she cried, "I was worried sick about you, you big scrap-headed idiot!"
Bumblebee simply held Arcee in a soft embrace of his own as he softly said, "Hey it's alright Arcee. I told you I would keep my promise."
That caused every Autobot to freeze and Arcee to widen her eyes in shock as she whispered, "What…did you just say?"
"I said that I kept my promise to you," Bumblebee replied. Arcee then stepped back, her eyes still wide and one hand over her mouth in disbelief while Bumblebee just gave everyone a confused look wondering why they were all staring at him.
"Bumblebee," Ratchet gasped, unable to finish the sentence.
"Your voice…," Arcee then finished.
"My voice? What're you g…my voice," Bumblebee exclaimed, finally realizing that he was in fact speaking. The scout then lowered his battle mask to reveal an overjoyed smile as he grasped Ratchet and Arcee in a tight hug as he exclaimed, "Ratchet, Arcee, I have my pipes back!"
"Yes. Yes we noticed," Ratchet chuckled happily at how enthusiastic the scout was.
"But how's this possible," Elita asked from where she was next to Optimus.
"It must have been the residual cyber matter I fell into," Bumblebee answered.
"It is the only possible explanation," Ratchet agreed.
"Now that's what I call one seriously sweet miracle," Jazz said.
"Or to put it another way, it would seem the old field medic made good after all," Optimus stated, and it was a statement that everyone agreed with.
Before anymore could be said, Arcee grabbed Bumblebee in another hug as she looked into his eyes and stated, "And I think it's time I did something I should've done a long time ago."
Before Bumblebee could ask what she meant by that, Arcee planted her lips on his making his eyes widen in shock before he returned the unexpected kiss. After Arcee broke off the kiss she simply gave Bumblebee a loving look as she stated, "Once we get back to Earth, you owe me a drive."
Bumblebee stuttered for a minute which led Wheeljack to joke, "Uh oh. I think you broke his voice box again Arcee."
"You okay there Bee," Bulkhead asked.
A minute later, Bumblebee had a love struck smile on his face as he simply said, "What a woman." He then paused for a minute and asked, "Wait isn't the guy supposed to ask the girl on a date normally?"
"Oh Bumblebee, you want to go on a date with me," Arcee asked in mock surprise. Bumblebee just stuttered in confusion before Arcee silenced him saying, "I would love to."
With that she began to head back to the bridge with Jazz, Ratchet, and Ironhide as Bumblebee simply looked at the others and asked, "What just happened?"
Optimus and Elita both looked at each other before they simply chuckled and Elita said, "Don't worry Bee. You'll get used to this kind of thing soon enough. Maybe."
Before Bumblebee could get even more confused, Optimus contacted the other ships and stated, "Optimus to Archangel, Kusanagi, and Eternal. As soon as we have finished here we should depart from the area and make our way either to Earth or to another location should anyone believe it necessary."
"Roger that," the three ship commander replied.
Athrun then remembered something important that he had to tell them. "Optimus, Lacus. Dreadwing didn't make it, but he wanted me to tell you guys and the others 'This is my choice, but I do not make it out of honor or because I owe someone something. I decided to do this because I wanted to do so and because I wanted to protect my friends.'"
At this news, everyone sobered up and hung their heads sadly at the realization of the loss of Dreadwing, but they all felt a bit happy for him knowing that he had made the choice to do what he did on his own. Everyone simply stood in silence for a moment praying for Dreadwing and hoping that he would be with his brother again in the next life. As they did so, they all had the same thought going out to Dreadwing. Your sacrifice will not be forgotten Dreadwing. We would have been proud to call you a fellow Autobot.
After everyone had effectively held the silence for a reasonable period of time, Bumblebee decided to lighten the mood a bit, and he quickly gained a glad smile as he tapped his own comm. link and called out, "Hey Kira, let's hope these guys finish up with what they need to do here quickly so that we can get back to Earth soon."
At the sound of an unknown voice reaching their ears, Kira and the others were all quickly confused. This confusion was quickly voiced when Dearka asked, "What…who said that?"
Cagalli's eyes then widened in realization as she asked, "Kira was that…?"
Kira did not say anything in reply as he simply tapped his own comm. link and replied to the initial call, "Bee, is that you?"
"You know it pal," Bumblebee replied proudly. His tone then turned teasing as he stated, "Oh and before I forget, if you plan asking me to act as your ride when you take Lacus on a date, please try not to start making out with her in the back seat."
Kira and Lacus both gained brilliant blushes at this statement as everyone else just widened their eyes in shock. "Hey Bumblebee," Kira protested.
"Ah, ah, ah Kira. Arcee already gets to have her bit of payback on Cagalli for you guys making fun of me and her, so it's only fair that I get my fair share of payback on you," Bumblebee interrupted.
Everyone just erupted into laughter at that statement, including Kira and Lacus after a moment, and they all soon went back to their assigned posts so that they could finalize whatever they needed to in order to ensure that the future of Earth, at least for the moment, would be a bright one.
AN: For those of you who recognized that I effectively brought in one of Transformers Prime's most epic scenes from season 3, arguably of the entire series when I wrote that final part of Optimus and Megatron's battle, give yourself a pat on the back and a round of applause. For those of you who thought I would bring Bumblebee back later as Stinger, please never think of thinking of such a thing again. Honestly, that punk was nothing more than a Decepticon wannabe knockoff in Transformers Age of Extinction, a fact that Bumblebee himself believes, but don't think that Stinger won't be making an appearance at all, because he will. Also, yes I killed off Dreadwing, but as much as I hate to admit this, I was planning on doing this from the beginning, but I dare you to try and tell me that this time around was NOT better than what happened to him in Transformers Prime. Anyway, now that I've said my piece on that, don't think that this is the end of the story, because there's still one more chapter left before this story is effectively ended before it is ready to hand things off to its sequel, so for the preview I shall simply say...
Next time on Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Prime…Epilogue: A New Era For All.
Please read and review, and I'll see you in the final chapter!
