Alright! Bet you guy's can't wait for this chapter. I mean, I did leave it off a little weird last chapter. But hey, what van I say. There are so many players on the board right now. I have a lot of pawns to move before you see my master game plan. I have my rooks and knights in position. Let's see how the game progress, eh? (p.s. I am not Canadian! Almost...I blame being from Maine, but still!) Any way, enough author ramblings. One with the show!
Disclaimer: Transformers is still the property of Hasbro. Katie and the plot of this fic alone are mine.
I felt the the ground grow even rockier as I ran, dodging obstacles and trying to keep my balance. Screams echoed off of the stone walls raising high above me. Loud, booming footsteps trailed behind me, sounding as if they were getting closer the faster I tried run. I didn't look back, knowing I wouldn't like what I saw. My chest burned and my breaths were shallow. The screams kept growing louder and louder as I kept moving forward.
No. No. I have to get there in time. I have to save them! I tried to speed up. I tried push myself harder. The screaming got worse until it stopped all together. I felt my heart stop.
NO! A rush of air, just behind me, knocked me off my feet. I felt the rough ground scrape up my face. I tried to stand in the eerie quiet, but a force sent me flying into a pillar. A pain erupted in my back. I groaned as I found the ground. I tried to pull myself to my feet, but they seemed to not want to respond.
Explosions thundered through the ravine. The screams started up again. I could just hear shouts over the din. I would make it. I had to. I couldn't leave them. I wouldn't leave them. Not yet. Not when they needed me most. Not now. The explosions grew louder. I pulled myself forward with my arms. Crawling, crawling, scraping my forearms over sharp rocks and debris. When had the debris got there? A dark figure loomed over me. Why hadn't I heard footsteps? I couldn't hear much. Just the constant ringing of explosions. I was roughly pulled from the ground and slammed into the rock face, the sounds of battle, of war, echoing softly from somewhere. Muffled, but still there.
"Thought you could get away?" I was pushed into the jagged surface by my attacker, sending my vision churning. "Well, did you?"His voice rose over the din. "It matters not if you did or didn't." He pushed harder causing me to let lose a scream. "That's right." He sneered. "Scream for me sister." He hissed the last word as he applied more pressure. It felt as if I was going to be flattened. "Scream!" I screamed loud, my pain echoing off the rocks. He let me fall to the ground. I shuttered as the pain rose and fell like the Rust Sea. Once more I was roughly picked up, facing him this time. I recognized him. I knew him. Yet why couldn't I see him? He was large and blurred. Was I really that far gone? Was I really that injured? I looked at where I know his face would be, the servo around me squeezed tightly. I groaned as the wind was knocked out of me. My vision spotted, yet I still managed to see two glowing red orbs.
"This should have been done the moment you were sparked." He said, his grip tightening even more. I couldn't talk, yet still I tried. "Drones should know their place!" He shouted, giving me a violent shake. "Had they treated you properly then we could have avoided this, but alas, common sense has always escaped those three. It matters not though. I shall take the task on myself. I will finish what we started so long ago." The orbs seemed to blaze with fire.
"Brother!" A new voice, full of anger. "It is not time! We must first end this!" I tried to turn to see who it was. I felt like I should know the new voice too, but I couldn't figure out whose it was.
"I am ending this. They will see, Brother, just how powerful we are." Before the newcomer could say anything a loud CRUNCH rang out. Pain, worse then any I have felt before spread rapidly through my chest. Was that me screaming? "This will end all our troubles Brother!" More pain radiated in my chest. Intense, white hot pain flowed through me. With one last bout of strength I looked up. His face was clearer then it had ever been, yet not clear enough to see anything more then the burning red orbs. "I will be hailed a hero." He leaned closer. "Thank you. You have preformed quite well. All shall know that you died and with your death Cy–" His voiced fizzled out momentarily. "Will be saved and I will be it's savior." I had no time to contemplate his words as the pain intensified a hundred fold. I screamed and clawed at my chest. I had to get it off. I needed to get it off. NOW!
Red Alert quietly entered the apartment, thankful that the femme was so naive. He smiled as he tiptoed through the open door into the main room. He began to search. He would find evidence. He would prove that she was a spy.
"No. No." He looked up, scared that he had been found out. When he saw no one he resumed his search. Not more then a few minutes later he was jolted again in fear. "NO!" He once more looked towards the hallway. When no one came he shrugged, guessing she was having some sort of bad dream. Unfortunately he was right. She screamed. He jumped. She screamed again and again. He shrunk at the agony in her voice. It sounded so sincere.
Red Alert crept towards the hallway. One step at a time. He slowly moved down the hallway stopping at the first door. The screams grew louder and louder. He opened the door, covering his audios as another scream ripped though the room. A lamp was on, letting him see what was unfolding inside the room.
Metroplex's holoform was wrestling with the room's only other occupant. She flailed on the bed, arms clawing wildly at her chest. Her body swayed from side to side, though her legs never once moved. Well, he couldn't say she wasn't paralyzed. With how frantic her movements were, she couldn't have had that much control of her frame. Especially not with the banshee like cries she was releasing. He crept closer to the bed. He felt his optics widen. Metroplex was trying to keep the femme from clawing at her chest. Literally. Her tee-shirt was ripped across her chest. The tear was long, but that wasn't what made his intakes hitch or his optics widen. No. It was the red lines raked across her chest. The femme's life fluid leaking from them, staining the fabric red.
His shock radiated as she screamed and shouted, blubbering about needing to get something off. Metroplex tried to get her to stop scratching, but he couldn't. Red Alert stood in shock. She was hurting herself. Badly. Ratchet. They needed Ratchet. For once, he couldn't look at the femme as a spy or as a Decepticon. She was just a frightened young femme in the midst of a terrible nightmare that one of her closest friends couldn't save her form. He looked between the two. This wasn't working. He knew he was going to regret this later. He moved forward, it was time for a senor officer to take charge.
"Metroplex." The large mech turned, surprised that Red Alert was standing there. "Go get Ratchet. Perhaps he could wake her. Or maybe sedate her." Metroplex didn't move. "I'm not going to hurt her. She doesn't exactly seem very spyish right now!" He snapped, gesturing at the screaming femme. "Go. I'll try to keep her from more self harm." Again Metroplex didn't move. She screamed and clawed, deeper and louder then before. Red Alert jumped forward and pulled one hand away. He looked back and yelled at the Titan. "GO!" He focus shifted back to the femme. She was stronger then he would have thought.
He didn't watch Metroplex leave or even try to see if he did. He focused on keeping the femme from more pain. He wrestled with her like Metroplex had. Trying to grasp both of her wist and pin them down.
"Look femme, I don't like you and you don't like me. I think that you are a spy, but you do NOT get to get off do easily! You hear! You do not get to hurt yourself. You hear me?! ENOUGH!" In a burst of strength he pinned her arms above her. Her screams quieted to whimpers. He pulled back, servos hovering over her arms. As he looked down he saw her optics opened, but her gaze seemed far away, like she was looking through him. She whimpered again. He saw fear in her optics. Pure fear. He looked away. He couldn't believe he was going to do this. Inferno would never let him live it down. He shook his head. Now wasn't the time for self doubt. What if she relapsed? He scooped her up and pulled her as close as he dared, trying not to hurt her further. If he did, Ratchet would had his helm. He did not expect her to cling to him, crying. Holding on as if her very life depended on it. He began to wonder exactly what she saw. What her nightmare was about. To cause that much fear. He let himself relax, instead focusing on trying to quell her tears.
I didn't care who was holding me. I didn't care whose hands were rubbing my back or patting my head. I couldn't make out whose voice was trying to comfort me over my own tears. It didn't matter. I just wanted to forget the nightmare. I just wanted it to go away. Maybe this stranger could make it disappear. If only for a little while.
I clung to them, my hands balled into fists around their shirt. I sobbed into their chest. I could still hear the explosions going off around me. Could still hear their screams and the shouting. Two nightmares had become one. I cried harder. Why couldn't I win? Why did those satanic orbs haunt me? Who was it? Why? My mind was a jumble of thoughts as I cried myself out.
When Metroplex had awoken him, he had nearly had a spark attack, but he knew it meant only one thing; Katie was in trouble. He rushed out of his berthroom and to the wall that hid her apartment behind it. He transformed and activated his holoform, rushing towards the door. It opened before he had the chance to even hit the keypad, thankful for the Titan's ever watchful optics. He rushed through the room into the hall and through the first open doorway. He stood in shock at what he was seeing. Katie was hugging Red Alert. Crying, but clinging to him desperately. He would deal with that later, but first his daughter needed him.
"Katie." he said over her sobbed. She jerked her head up, crying harder upon seeing him. She released the Security director and reached out for him like a toddler. He felt his energon go cold as he scanned her. Rushing to her he, first drew her close. He needed to feel that she was okay. She shook like a leaf in a tornado, but seemed alright, even though her chest was coated in blood.
"Metroplex, retrieve the medical kit from the bathroom. Red Alert., we will talk later about why you are here, but first I need your help." Ratchet looked at the former mech, making sure he knew he had no choice, even though he felt Katie tense in his arms.