Hello faithful readers!
Thanks so much for continuing to check back on this story and being so incredibly patient. You have no idea how much that means to me, especially with everything else going on in my life right now.
Is anyone reading this also watching Transformers RID? If so- I don't know about you but I'm super SUPER stoked about the insight the show is providing as far as what Optimus is up to with the Primes, and now I can use it to influence and inspire part of my story! I hope you all don't mind, but I do try and keep my stories as canon as I can.
Of course, that doesn't mean I won't use my own creativity and see if I can't work out a very happy ending for our favorite TF couple anyway!
And to that same certain guest reviewer from last time-
I just wanted to say I truly appreciated your review and thank you for your understanding. I am sorry it took soooo long for me to get back to you about it, it's just I haven't really been on fanfiction at all lately. I didn't mean to leave you hanging. And I totally understand about reading to relieve stress. I do the same thing. :)
Chapter 35: Megatron
...
Titan was not a long flight from Cybertron, but none the less, each cycle seemed to drag on in the most excrutiating way. Elita One knew Chromia could sense just how tense she was by the way her leuitenant continued turning to look back at her occasionally from where she was piloting the ship at the drive console.
As reassuring as her friend's concern and loyalty was, Elita had no idea what awaited them once they arrived to their destination, and no amount of Chromia's silent support would calm her anxious spark.
Megatron was not a mech in whom she had ever encountered under less than horrifically destructive circumstances. Her processor could hardly comprehend what a non violent confrontation would look like, much less how she would handle herself during it.
Elita One hated to admit it to herself, but she was afraid.
But on the other servo, she trusted Optimus Prime with all her spark, and she knew deep down that if he had asked her to do this, there was no harm that awaited her in doing so. Optimus could see a lot more than she from his position with the Primes and therefore, he would not send her should he have foreseen a need to be cautious.
"Commander?"
Elita was jerked from her thoughts and turned to look at the femme addressing her, finding instead two femmes standing there. Ultra Violet and Firestar. They both looked anxious.
"Yes Firestar?" Elita replied in calmly, noting the look of barely suppressed fear on her young soldiers' faceplates. Firestar fidgited a moment with her hands and then spoke.
"Ultra Violet and I were down in the engine room, and we heard a really strange noise," she blurted. Elita One narrowed her eyes curiously.
"A strange noise? Can you explain what it sounded like?" Elita inquired patiently.
Firestar looked to Ultra Violet, and the purple femme stepped forward.
"It sounded like moaning. Like... eerie... creepy, screeching and moaning..." the femme explained seriously. Elita blinked.
"Was it from the engine?" She asked calmly.
"I don't think so," Firestar answered quickly. "Please... please come."
Elita nodded and stood up from her command chair. "Of course. Let us go down," she agreed, leading the way. Both young femmes fell in step behind her, trying not to appear as shaken up as they felt.
Cautious, but thinking logically, Elita led the way down into the deep tunnels of the ship and soon came into the engine room. Her audio's were set on high alert for any foreboding sounds, and her eyes swept through the darkness, evaluating every shadow in the corners. The two young femmes stood quietly behind her and they remained perfectly still in the silence.
Two clicks passed, and all remained quiet, aside from the steady thrum of the ship's engines. Firestar was tense and her optics darted over to Elita's nervously. After another moment without any sound, Ultra Violet spoke up.
"We both heard it as clear as I'm speaking now, we promise," she pleaded. Elita nodded.
"I believe you girls. Just keep me posted if you hear it again," Elita replied calmly. She wasn't about to doubt the girls when they were her team now. They mattered, and she trusted them. But all the same, she needed to return to the bridge.
"Must we stay down here?" Firestar asked, her voice shaking. Elita looked compassionately down at her, and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Fear is easy to succumb to when we are in situations we don't understand, but we have a mission, and we each must play our part. I will only be a call away..." she promised softly. Her optics went from Firestar's to Ultra Violets as well, and both femmes nodded.
"Yes Commander," Violet replied, and Firestar echoed her.
"You girls will be fine," Elita assured, giving one last squeeze to Firestar's shoulder before stepping out of the engine room. Elita had just stepped out of the room when suddenly she heard a screech, loud, and metalic, like metal scraping against metal. Elita froze, and turned swiftly back around into the engine room. Both femmes rushed at her.
"Did you hear that?!" they exclaimed.
"Yes, yes I heard it," Elita responded assuredly. And it hadn't sounded like the engine, that was for sure. Lifting a finger, Elita dialed Chromia.
"Chromia we have a situation down in the engine room. Please meet us down here," she requested.
"Sure thing," Chromia replied before cutting out.
Elita activated her weapons system, and looked around, her optics sharp as they swept through the engine room. Then, once again, the screech resounded and the young femmes jumped in fright, activating their own weapons hastily. Forming up back to back, the femmes continued to look around and wait. But no other sound came. That was, until Chromia came rushing down.
"What's going on?" she questioned, walking in on the scene with confusion.
"Strange sounds," Elita said.
"Creepy screeching noises!" Firestar blanched.
"There's a ghost in here!"
Everyone turned to look at Ultra Violet.
"Just where did you learn about ghosts?" Chromia questioned, brows cocked. Ultra Violet shrugged.
"There were rumors about that creepy intelligence Decepticon Soundwave who's spirit was said to creep around in the Nemesis... Why wouldn't a ghost be able to creep around in this ship too?" Violet answered. Elita blinked. Well wasn't that an entertaining idea.
"Well whatever it was, I can't hear anything," Chromia stated, after a moment of silence and listening. A click later, Elita's HUD informed her that the ship was close upon destination. She sighed, transforming away her weapon.
"This investigation will have to be put on hold for now. We are coming up on our coordinates," she informed the girls. "Come with me," she instructed, turning out of the engine room to head back for the bridge. Ultra Violet and Firestar were more than happy to rush out of there.
...
Titan looked just like it had in Elita One's dream with Optimus. Devoid of life, yet with a wild landscape that was as dangerous as it was beautiful. The Tenacious landed on the clearest flat surface and all the femme's finished shutting off the engines and deactivating the ship.
"Some of you will be required to stay here with the ship. Greenlight, Flare Up and Firestar. Please remain here and be ready for when I ask you to start up the ship," Elita commanded. Greenlight and Flare Up saluted but Firestar hesitated, looking put out. She lifted her hand less steadily to also salute, but a look of dissapointment was in her optics. Elita didn't have time to address it.
"The rest of you follow me," she said, turning for the docking ramp. Chromia, Moonracer and Ultra Violet set out after Elita as instructed. Elita had chosen the femmes to come with her very specifically. Chromia was coming because of her combat experience and tactical genius. Moonracer, for her speed and agility. If anything went wrong, Elita could count on Moonracer being able to avoid injury and getting back to the Tenacious safely. As for Ultra Violet, the purple femme could read heat signatures and possessed other forms of multi-visions to aid in helping Elita with the finding of one lonely Megatron, upon this vast moon.
The air was heavy with mist when they stepped out onto the moon's jagged, gray surface, making it hard to see very far. However, the mist did seem to be moving, and Elita had confidence it would all be blown away with the wind soon.
"The ground is so sharp," Moonracer commented. "Not good for driving," she murmured in distaste.
"The moon was nearly destroyed many years ago. As result, many of the streets and other signs of civilization that was once here were completely wiped away," Chromia spoke up. And Chromia knew this better than Elita. Elita still regretted not having been a part of the fighting towards the end of the war... It tore at her spark that her best friend had seen so much more destruction and chaos than her own self, and she had been a commander! Oh, if only she'd stood up to the council, and refused to let them pass judgement over her fate. Then, she would have been able to spend more time with Optimus while he was still alive- or in physical form at least.
"Do we split up?" Ultra Violet asked, snapping Elita One out of her sad regrets.
"No, I won't have anyone getting lost out here," Elita responded. "Ultra Violet, I want you to use your scanners and begin searching the surface for signs of life."
Ultra Violet nodded and her violet eyes flickered to a cold gray that began glowing as she activated her multi-ray vision.
"It is entirely possible Megatron already knows that we are here," Chromia commented as they walked. "What if he doesn't want to be found?"
"I cannot imagine that he of all mechs would be inclined to retreat when his territory is invaded," Elita responded flatly.
"But you said that Optimus assured you he was a changed mech. As in..completely changed. Is it so wrong to expect that he's now a runner?" Chromia scoffed.
"You want to see him run, don't you?" Elita asked, shooting a knowing smirk Chromia's way. Chromia didn't bother denying it.
"The idea brings great satisfaction to me, so yes," Chromia grinned back. Elita shook her head in amusement but they kept walking.
Moonracer trotted ahead alongside Ultra Violet, every vigilant and full of energy.
"Commander! Look!" Moonracer called after a little while, she had stopped just a few hundred feet ahead and was pointing downwards. Ultra Violet walked up beside the racer, and Elita and Chromia hurried to come alongside them. They stopped just short of a large cliff that opened in a huge mouth reveal a winding river of energon below. The energon was falling from one of the higher points of the cliff, spilling in a blue spray on its way down. The sound was magnificent.
"An energonfall," Chromia stated, "You don't see many of these. Spectacular."
Elita had to agree, gazing at the beauty before them and finding it incredibly peaceful.
That was when Ultra Violet frowned, adjusting a setting on the side of her optic lenses.
"I'm... Picking up something... Down there, behind the falls," she informed. "It looks like a cavern of some kind... But there's also a strange energy signature... I don't know what it is. I've never seen one like it," she explained. Elita narrowed her own optics down onto the falls, trying to see, but unable to view anything past the massive spray of energon.
"Sounds worth investigating," Chromia replied.
"Sure, but is there a way to get down there?" Moonracer asked. All the femmes began looking for cliff edges that might lead down into the gorge.
"Sure would be nice if one of us was a flier," Ultra Violet sighed. "Might make this easier."
"There," Elita spoke up, her eyes catching sight of a particularly jagged cliff scape that dropped naturally to different ledges, like a giant set of stair cases.
"This way," she said, now leading the team along the cliff side towards it. Once they reached the location, the cliff ledges were even larger and more frightening up close, but they would serve the purpose of getting them down into the gorge.
"Follow my lead," Elita instructed, going down first and showing the femmes how to handle the steep ledges. "Don't look down. Just focus on your peds and where you are placing them," she advised, as the two femmes began following her down. Chromia followed up the rear.
"This is a nature walk from the Pit," Moonracer whined, after they'd been climbing down for a while, and still only found themselves to be half way down the cliff side. Ultra Violet sniggered at her team mate.
"You think this is bad kid?" Chromia snorted. "Just you wait. We still have to climb back up these afterwards."
Moonracer moaned in angst, making Ultra Violet giggle even more. At last the group reached the bottom of the gorge. Elita One was thankful when her peds reached the soft river bed and found it steady, reliable ground. She waited for the rest of her team before they pressed onwords towards the energonfall.
"The life signature is getting closer!" Ultra Violet shouted, trying to raise her voice over the roar of the raging falls. Elita resisted the urge to start up her weapon systems, and instead looked to the two younger femmes
"You both wait here. Chromia and I will press forward," she instructed, loud enough so they couldn't mistake her orders.
"But what if you run into trouble?!" Moonracer shouted.
"Then trouble's going to regret ever running into us!" Chromia shouted back, moving past the girls to follow Elita towards the falls.
Once both experienced femmes walked underneath the arch of spilling energon, the cavern Ultra Violet had spoken of was waiting for them. It was wholly dark and Elita and Chromia both turned their headlights on to light the way ahead. However, they only had to step one foot into the cavern before a dark, enormous figure suddenly appeared inside the cave, having merged from the shadows. The form was hulking, with spikes rising off its shoulders and head. Elita stared wide eyed at the approaching monster, for a moment not at all recognizing who or what was walking towards them. She and Chromia both took quick steps backwards, a natural reaction neither of them could avoid. But then, Elita saw the eyes. Two, blazing red eyes pierced the darkness, and Elita One knew it was none other than Megatron. He continued walking forward, his steps almost labored, and a twist to his mouth that indicated a great level of pain.
Chromia took a ready stance, not wanting to be caught off guard, and stopped just short of activating her weapons, when Elita lifted a hand to stay her from doing so.
At last, Megatron had walked into the light of the day, and Elita's optics took in the ex-Decepticon War Lord for what he was. What he had been reduced to...
His armored skin was tarnished, dents and scrapes having dulled its once healthy shine. Megatron's legs quivered with an incessant shake, as if the task of standing upon them was too much for him. He leaned forward in a slight hunch, his chassis and torso covered with multiple slashes, outlined with dried purple energon drip stains. His face was scarred as well, dark as if it had been bashed against a wall repeatedly. Even his red eyes looked dim now, outside of the darkness of the cavern. The fire in them seemed long extinguished, and his optics were only left with a faint dwindling glow.
"Megatron..." Elita breathed, scarcely able to hide her great horror at his condition, and unable to process the tangle of emotions that gnawed at her from seeing him this way.
"If...it...isn't...the Timeprotector... Elita One," Megatron grunted slowly, every word a challenge.
"What has become of you?" Elita couldn't help but blurt out. "Why do you do this to yourself?"
"I am imortal... I cannot...die. It is the price I have paid for binding myself to Unicron. I am unfit to live any longer...yet remain a prisoner of time.. Entrapped, and tortured by my own demons, and all other horrors of my past," he rasped. And then he grunted and a leg gave out. Elita's brows shot up as Megatron fell to a knee, and before she knew what she was doing, had launched herself forward to try and help him. She lay her hands around his massive arm, trying to steady him.
"Easy, you need to stay sitting down," she instructed, helping Megatron to lean against the nearest cavern wall. Chromia watched, slack jawed, until Elita shot her friend a glare and Chromia speedily moved forward to help. Once the femmes had gotten Megatron's large form safely against the wall, Elita remained crouched by his side, a hand on his shoulder. Megatron's power was on empty, and his optics he struggled to open once more, before his gaze slowly turned to her.
"Wh-why are you...here?" Megatron asked.
"Optimus Prime has sent me," Elita One answered softly. "I've come in search of the Book of Alsparks. He said that you would know of its location..."
"Why...doesn't he come for it...himself?" Megatron wheezed, his tone almost offended. Elita leveled a sad, serious expression on the ex-con.
"Because he has become one with the Alspark."
Megatron's expression turned from critical to crestfallen. His optics slid closed and he leaned his head slowly back until it rested against the cave wall. After a long moment, and a great deep breath, Megatron spoke once more, his voice quiet, and broken.
"So, the Prime has what I will never know... Peace with the Alspark."
So, not an extremely long chapter I know, you guys certainly deserve one, but I have to get warmed up. I haven't written in I don't even want to think about how long... So this will take some practice on my end to return to all that writing! Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! Answers are coming! At long last!