Author notes: And this is it. The final wrap-up of a crazy adventure I started eight months ago. Of course, if you guys would vote on my poll, I'll know if that prequel with Shockwaves' first six would be required.. ;)
I hope you all enjoyed this insane trip as much as I have.
There WILL be one follow up; a 'chapter' with all the dropped plot points, various things of note that I think should be said, or random tidbits from this insane near-novel. Got a question? Any question? About anything in this thing? Leave it in a review; next chapter will answer EVERYthing that I may not have been clear about.
*salute* Thanks for the ride, ya'll. ;)
RESPOND TIME. YAY.
Artisan Brown: ..You read this despite not liking the subject matter and STILL enjoyed it? .. Wow. Also, I'm a huge fan of your work. XD
Sandmiller: Sentinel makes a brief appearance here. ;) Hope it's what you expected.
Blackmoondragon: The red and white Elite Guard? Hotspark. ... No, I'm serious. His name is seriously Hotspark. Look him up in the TF wiki. I imagine this name did not work to his advantage as a prisoner.
I I I I I I I I I I I I I I
There is no future, there is no past
Thank God this moment's not the last
There's only us
There's only this
Forget regret
Or life is yours to miss
No other road
No other way
No day but today
I can't control
My destiny
I trust my soul
My only goal
Is just to be
- 'Finale B', RENT (musical)
Souvenir: Chapter Forty-Five
I I I I I I I I I I I I I I
Cliffjumper had thought that the shock would have abated by now.
Although he hadn't known exactly how he would react to seeing Blurr again, he certainly had given it some thought. The delight at simply being free from the flagship and that the possibility of seeing his dear friend again existed at all had left him not knowing what he was going to do when the time came; he had allowed the joy to overtake all else.
Dimly recalled memories from his youth gave him fiction-filled comparisons. Fragmented clips from the holovids his creators had loved to watch were all he had to go by, filled with the weeping femmes running in to the arms of their loved ones and of heroic sparklings greeting their friends with a laugh and a smile.
None of those films had ever shown a bot simply sitting there with a processor frozen from sheer disbelief.
It truly felt as if it had been forever since he had last seen the blue Elite Guardsman; all he could do now was sit on the hospital berth he had been given, staring at his friend beyond the doors in slack-jawed wonder.
Outside the plexiglass, the mech in question continued to argue with the stubborn medic that blocked his path. Despite a mind adept at taking in detail, lip-reading the pair was outright impossible; Blurr spoke too quickly and the medic had a face guard in place. Only the painfully obvious words spoken in obvious enunciation from the agent could be made out at all.
The doors muffled the noise made by the verbal combatants, but the sheer volume of both voices made it through. A set of whimpers from around him caused Cliffjumper to turn and stare; several of the other escapees appeared frightened, quivering and shrinking in to their own berths. One even hid under the metal and fabric, covering his audio sensors with both hands.
It was a stark reminder of where they had come from; with a gulp, the red minibot slowly looked back to the doors.
He still couldn't tell what was being said, but something from Blurr caused the medic to stop. Above a bold green face guard, blue optics widened in what appeared to be surprise; the much shorter speedster simply glared and folded his arms.
With a cringe, the medic turned and tapped at what was likely a keypad by the door. Before the doors were completely open, a flash of light made its way through the parting metal and glass.
The next thing that Cliffjumper knew, something was pouncing him and hugging him tight.
"Cliffjumper thank Primus thank Primus you made it out finally and you're okay and I'm so sorry I'm so sorry I didn't mean to leave you with the slagger but I didn't know what to do and I'm so sorry I'm so sorry..!"
"Blurr.." Cliffjumper choked. "..Blurr, I'm.. I'm overheating, you're going to have to.. Let go a little..!" He hadn't known the speedster could cling so tightly.
"Oh Primus!" The hold was released immediately; guilt spread along Blurr's faceplate as the smaller mech wheezed.
"I'm okay..!" Cliffjumper took in a deep intake to settle his systems. Then, he looked up at his friends' wide, worried optics; he smiled broadly. "You have no idea how glad I am to see you."
Blurr tried to smile back; he could tell that much, but the speedster was shaking far too much to make it possible. He appeared ready to start crying at any moment. Shakily, he sat down at the edge of the berth. "I'm so sorry I'm so sorry.."
"..The slag do you have to be sorry for?" Cliffjumper boggled; it took him a few seconds to understand. He rolled his optics with incredulity. "Primus, Blurr, you did what any sane bot would have done! Anyone would have done the same exact thing! You did the right thing to leave when you did!"
The words didn't appear to lessen the guilt; if anything, Blurr only appeared more distraught.
Before the speedster could form a proper response, a joyful voice came from the door. "Cliffjumper! You're okay!"
The minibot turned; the smile reformed. "Trackback!"
For the few moments per day that Cliffjumper had seen the gold and blue mech in the mess hall, he had always sported scars or wounds; a good portion of the time, he had been covered in his own bleeding energon. Now, he gleamed; somehow, the former secretary couldn't help but think that he appeared positively healthy.
Trackback rushed in, clutching a square plush in his arms; the toy was set aside - earning a gasp from Blurr - in order to hug the red minibot.
"Thank you." Trackback whispered. "Blurr and the Magnus told me what you did. Thank you."
"..The Magnus?" Cliffjumper blinked as the young mech pulled away from the hug. He looked to Blurr with more than a little curiosity. "Who is the Magnus, anyway?"
"Where is he!" A loud, booming voice echoed down the hall. "Which room is he in? Someone give me info and give it to me now!" There came a very short pause. "What do you mean, 'visiting hours'? I'm the slagging Magnus! I don't need visiting hours!"
"Speak of the Pit." Blurr sighed.
Cliffjumper opened and closed his mouth several times in deeply baffled confusion. "..No way."
The entire hall had gone silent at the thunderous boom of a voice; even the medics pressed themselves against the walls in the attempt to steer clear of their new Magnus. Perhaps their choice was for the best; the tall, bulky mech that rushed through physically tossed an empty IV stand aside for no discernible reason other than the fact that it was there and in his way.
As soon as Sentinel Magnus strode inside the hall, Cliffjumper gaped, optics wide. "..How the slag did you get to be the Magnus?"
The bulky blue mech in question stood tall, arms folded behind his back. He stopped by Cliffjumpers' berthside and peered down with a haughtiness that bordered on contempt. "I'll have you know that some of us actually work at."
Cliffjumper raised a brow, appearing to all the world as if he were affronted. "Oh, instead of spending all solar cycle at Maccadams like some bots?"
The Magnus glared. "Are you insinuating something?"
The minibot straightened and didn't so much as flinch. "I don't know, sir. Are you?"
Then, a very long moment of silence passed. Both Magnus and former secretary glared daggers at each other as the rest of the halls' inhabitants stared in shocked disbelief. However, before any of the various mechs and femmes could form some sort of response or rise up against the cruel words against one of their own, they were again surprised by the actions of the pair.
After a brief moment, both Cliffjumper and Sentinel burst in to loud, boisterous laughter. They laughed long and hard, all but howling as if their argument had been nothing more than a hilarious joke.
"..What just happened?" Blurr sputtered.
"Was.. Was that.. Banter?" Trackback blinked widely, clutching the plush drone once again.
"Slag, Cliffjumper, good to see you made it out of that Pit-hole in one piece!" Sentinel grinned, patting the much smaller bots shoulder with clear affection.
"I actually just got out of repair, so 'one piece' is debatable." Cliffjumper grinned back. "I don't know how you convinced the Council to come back for us, but, frag, am I glad you did."
Surprise crossed the Magnus's faceplate. "What are you talking about? It was your messages that got them off their afts! Slag, half, if not all of the Elite Guard wants to buy you drinks for the stunts you pulled! If it wasn't for you, none of these bots would have gotten out of there at all!"
At first, Cliffjumper stared at the Magnus with stunned optics. Then, feeling a sense of nervousness creep along his processor, he glanced around the room.
As expected, a good number of the recent escapees were staring.
"..What's he talking about?" Furao frowned from the next berth over. "What does he mean, what you did?"
"What, you didn't tell them?" Sentinel boggled; he looked around the room before turning back to the red minibot. "Oh, come on, Cliffjumper! You hacked in to Shockwaves' personal communications system and sent us emails with floor maps and the names of a lot of the bots in there! It would have taken us centuries to get anything even close to that! We were going on what you sent us the entire time!"
At that moment, Cliffjumper wished he could shrink in to the berth. In a previous function, he would have loved the attention and even sought it; now, all he wanted was to be left alone with his closest friends to regain what was left of his life.
Instead, the dozens of bots around him were staring in a mix of awe, wonder and a gratitude that he found strangely disturbing.
A pang of guilt began to form; he hadn't sent the emails for any of them. He had been desperate; there was nothing else to it.
"..Holy slag." Furao's hushed voice was the first to break the silence. He held the same gratefulness that everyone else seemed to hold. "Frag, mech.. You saved our lives."
Cliffjumper simply shifted on the berth and was unable to look back.
I I I I I I I I I I I I I I
Epilogue: Some time later
The months that followed were some of the best that Carerra had ever experienced. Being held in captivity and constantly surrounded by pain had stripped away any sense of content she may have once felt; for the last millennia of her life, she simply existed and nothing else.
Suddenly not being pawed at by eager Decepticons or struck at every turn was en entirely new way of life. Being able to walk around with others without a sense of fear had been nothing short of miraculous. It had taken months to get used to the notion and even now had some trouble with it.
Of course, it wasn't a surprise. They all had trouble; the dozens of them that had escaped had their trials and tribulations. It was a strange comfort to know that they weren't alone in their difficult adjustment; more than a few times, she wound up seeking the others simply to talk to and had her own called in return.
They had become a family. A large, strangely jointed family, but a family nonetheless. Cliffjumper had even opened his apartment for anyone who didn't want to recharge alone or simply wanted to sit down and talk. She thought she would never be able to thank him enough for all that he had done.
"Are you sure you'll be okay?" Furao looked to her in concern from a short distance away, breaking her from her musings.
"We could stay if you want us to.." Glyph, a short blue minibot femme at his side, frowned with worry. The pair had been inseparable since their escape and reunion; Carerra had begun to suspect that they had bonded not too long after.
"I'll be fine." A forced smile. "I've done this before. I'll be all right."
"If you say so.." Still, the concern didn't leave Furao's faceplate. "Just call us if you need anything, okay?"
Carerra kept up her smile and nodded back. "Sure.."
She waited until they were gone before walking in to West Iacon Repair Facility. It was the first time she's been back there since she had been discharged after her escape.
It didn't take long to find where she needed to go; the signs stationed all over the complex were clear enough. When she did, shuffling quietly through automatic doors, the medic was already there to greet her.
"Right on schedule, I see." Red Alert smiled kindly. "Follow me."
The smile that responded was real, this time; Carerra remembered Red Alert. She would likely never forget seeing her blast against the Decepticons blocking their path or that she had been the one to push her in to the small craft that had rescued her from cruelty.
The berth was waiting; the green minibot let out a soft sigh at the sight of it before climbing atop the cushioned metal.
She had known this day would come. It was bound to, sooner or later.
"Ready when you are, docbot." Carerra smiled sadly.
"It might hurt a great deal, you understand." Red Alert warned.
"I've been through this too many times to count." A deep sigh. "Let's just get it over with."
"If you're sure.." A frown.
Carerra shut down her optics and waited. She heard the slide of something hovering by her berthside; a single blue optic lit halfway to take in the sight of a very small, empty sparkling protoform. Ready to house the spark about to be extracted from her own.
She closed her optics again and waited.
Carerra could truthfully not recall how many sparklings the Decepticons had forced out of her chassis. She could, however, recall the deep, horrible depression she had felt after the first few had been taken away, never to be seen by their creator again. After a while, she had grown numb to the entire process; she had never been allowed to see any one of them or to even know if they had been born a mech or femme. All she had ever heard was their wailing cry as their systems were booted for the very first time.
She doubted there had been a time in the past several hundred stellar cycles that she hadn't been carrying or in the process of being forced to carry; none that she could recall, at any rate.
It didn't even hurt, anymore. Even as Red Alert plunged her servos in to her chassis and deep inside her spark, all she could feel was a faint pain. It must have hurt, once; perhaps long ago. She couldn't remember.
She wondered if she would be bedridden for too long; the family she had become part of were having a celebration that evening. Cliffjumper had been promoted to Prime of the intelligence division; she hoped this poorly timed sparkling wouldn't force her to miss it.
"There we go.." Carerra hadn't been paying attention to the time to know how much had passed before Red Alert had spoken again. "You didn't even make a sound, Carerra. Never had a patient that did that, before."
Carerra only shrugged, indifferent. "I'm used to it."
Red Alert frowned; then, she closed the chest plate over the tiny protoforms' spark chamber. As soon as she did, the newspark let out the typical shriek that always came out.
"Ah-ha!" The medic cooed down at the babe. "Hello there, brand new little mech! Welcome to the functioning world!"
Carerra sighed and closed her optics. All she felt from the experience was a vague sense of exhaustion.
The room was, for the most part, silent; only the waning cries of the sparkling filled the air. It didn't take long for even that to quiet down under the medics' expert touch.
"Would you like to hold him?"
The words came as a shock. Hesitantly, Carerra looked up. "..Hold him?" She had never had that option before; somehow, she had assumed she wouldn't have it this time, either. She hadn't known what to expect, really. "..Okay."
The towel-wrapped protoform - she had never seen a body so small - was carefully placed in her waiting arms. At first, she simply didn't know what to feel, staring down at the first of countless children she had ever been able to see.
A bright white wash covered the small, generic model frame. The cries has quieted, only for the sparkling to shutter his optics and wriggle in what might have been content.
Slowly, a sense of delight crawled along her meta. This was the first child she had ever seen; the first not in Decepticon hands. This was her sparkling; she didn't have to give this one up.
After several long moments, the sparkling lit his optics; the most beautiful shade of blue Carerra had ever seen stared back.
All at once, she fell in love.
"..Oh, Primus.." Her intakes hiccuped as a wide grin formed.
"I take it you won't sign off on adoption papers, then?" Red Alert smirked. "Do you have a sparkling designation in mind? You don't have to give it right away.. Some creators even wait a stellar cycle.. But if you want to give one now, the option is there."
The green femme stared down at the tiny sparkling in her arms; she knew what she wanted to call him almost immediately. "Hubcap. Can I call him Hubcap?"
"Sure." Red Alert grinned. "Little Hubcap it is."
Carerra hiccuped again, unable to look away from the little one in her arms; Hubcap simply dozed.
I I I I I I I I I I I I I I
Without you
(There's only now)
The hand gropes
(There's only here)
The ear hears
(Give in to love)
The pulse beats
(Or live in fear)
Life goes on
(No other path)
But I'm gone
(No other way)
'Cause I'd die
Without you
No day but today
(I'd die without you)
No day but today
(I'd die without you)
No day but today
- 'Finale B', RENT (musical)
I I I I I I I I I I I I I I
Author notes: Remember to review with a question on this if you want it answered. ;) Next chapter WILL have lots of interesting stuff, I assure you. Like a director's cut. Or something. *bows out*
