CHAPTER 68
Silence fell.
In his armour, Father John felt his heart miss a beat. Even though he was currently sheltered, it didn't bring him much comfort.
He didn't know where Tarantulas exactly was, but according to the volume of his voice, he guessed that the Cybertronian was not far from them.
"Did you really think you could escape from here? Did you think I could be fooled that easily?" Tarantulas quietly kept on, his tone calm.
Father John guessed a smile on his face. Was he even able to smile?
He heard Ratchet's jerky breath nearby. He was worried… scared. And he was not the only one. However, Tarantulas did not get closer. Father John guessed that he did not need it. He was standing between them and the ground-bridge anyway.
"Very ingenious way of you in sounding the alarm" said Tarantulas. "Alas, it didn't last long."
"Let us go, Tarantulas!" Ratchet replied, his voice trembling.
Father John stiffened inside the armour. Ratchet wasn't just afraid ... He was panicking. Tarantulas managed to trigger these emotions in him. And Father John did not dare imagine what Ratchet had gone through during the time he had remained a prisoner.
Undertone said nothing. But Father John also read similar emotions there. Suddenly, Father John felt a violent smell strike his nostrils. He didn't know where it came from.
A strong smell ... but familiar. Where had he ever felt it?
"... What have you done, Tarantulas?" Ratchet asked, articulating slowly over each word.
"Ratchet… you break my spark. I who awaited your response to my proposal to bind us impatiently. And you dare to do this to me? After all that I did for you? You run away?"
Ratchet ticked.
Father John ordered the armour to back off. He felt Tarantulas' gaze on him. Father John could not guess his current expression, if he had one.
"Furthermore... you dare to take not only my Minicon ... but also one of my armours? My creation?"
"I told you to let us go!" repeated Ratchet, his voice shrill.
"And I refuse," Tarantulas replied coldly.
Finally, Father John heard a step. Then a second one.
"You know, Ratchet. All it takes is a call, a call ... for the Queen to know about your little runaway. After so much time in her service, she gave me the opportunity to keep a pet. Because I am faithful to her. Because I don't disappoint her. My skills as a torturer and a scientist made me indispensable" he whispered.
Ratchet's response was immediate, although his tone was uncertain.
"Shut up ! I am not your pet! Or even your Conjunx! And I never will be!"
"But this time," said Tarantulas, ignoring Ratchet's answer, "she will be less likely to let me keep you if she learns about it."
Then, in a somber tone, tinged with obvious sadism, he added these words, making Father John shiver.
"You would join the comrades you cherish so much, Prowl."
His friends… ? Father John swallowed as he felt Ratchet leap forward.
"DON'T DARE TO TALK ABOUT THEM!"
"No !" shouted Father John, realizing his intentions.
But the priest could do nothing. He couldn't even use his mechanical arms.
He heard Ratchet rush towards Tarantulas, not repressing a cry of rage mixed with unconditional pain.
Mourning, he recognized.
The next moment Father John jumped when he heard Ratchet's heavy body hitting the ground. Immediately, the priest wanted to rush. He was about to order the armour to assist him when Ratchet, between two deep coughing fits, yelled at him.
"Don't come near!"
"I don't know who came to assist you" said Tarantulas, "but believe me, he won't save you. I'm the one who knows all the weaknesses of this armour. It's the first prototype, after all."
Father John felt his own body tremble.
He wanted to move, of course ... order it to move. But it was as if fear paralyzed him, preventing him from saying any command. How could he even assist Ratchet with the armour? Which command to use?
He wanted to ask Undertone for an explanation, but Undertone still said nothing. Again, the sweat returned, wetting his forehead.
And the strong smell only got stronger.
The smell of energon ... the same smell he had smelled at Garboil's Castle, when he and Wing had discovered the latter's body together.
But… No. Where did it come from?
Tarantulas' tone suddenly turned sweet again.
"But you know, Prowl ..."
"Don't call me Prowl!"
"... I can pretend it'd never happened. If you agreed to come back with me. If you agreed to become my Conjunx. The Queen would never know."
Father John guessed that Ratchet had spit on him.
Suddenly, Tarantulas made a movement. Ratchet let out several strangled noises. Father John heard him struggling. He immediately understood that Tarantulas had grabbed him.
"What would you be without me? After all that I did for you ... I spared you, I fed you, I kept you alive ... I gave you someone who could take care of you after the death of your pathetic comrades."
"Don't ... Don't talk about them !" he managed to articulate.
"... I gave you someone who could love you. Who could love you better than your old comrades. And you stab me in the back. See what you make me do, Prowl."
"Shut up!"
"Stop it!" shouted Father John at the same time as Undertone shouted.
However, Tarantulas seemed to hear only Undertone. The next moment, Father John heard the sound of a thrown object. Undertone had thrown something at him to help Ratchet.
Tarantulas groaned and Ratchet suppressed another cry of pain.
"Undertone! I am your Deployer! Your master!" Tarantulas squeaked at him.
He felt Undertone freeze.
"…No…"
"We made a contract that will only end with my death or yours! You must serve me! Now I order you to undeploy!"
"… No…" repeated Undertone.
"You're here to serve me! Don't forget your place as a tool!" growled Tarantulas. "If I'm able to kill the bot I love, I can definitely kill a stupid tool like you without any thought!"
Undertone did not answer.
For a moment, Father John felt his hesitation. It was weak but present.
"Go back to your disc form if you don't want me to kill him in front of you!" finished Tarantulas.
He wasn't going to listen to him, was he?
"Undertone ... you don't have to follow him" managed to breathe Father John with difficulty.
Of course ... of course he would not follow him ...
"... You are right, Master. Please forgive me."
"Don't forget your place!"
No!
However, Father John doubted. He found hard to believe the words of the Cybertronian.
"Undeploy now!"
Doubt was allowed.
The tone ... sounded almost robotic. As if he were playing a play.
"Undertone! Get back in your disc form!"
"... Very well, Master."
Then the doubt evaporated completely from the moment Father John felt Undertone slowly turn towards him, addressing these few words to him in a low voice.
"… Escape as quickly as possible to the ground-bridge. Protect the artifact."
A sound of transformation ensued.
Father John understood that this had been his intention from the start. And when Undertone charged, probably in the disk form ordered by Tarantulas, and despite the violence for him to leave them behind, the priest ordered the armour to rush straight towards the bridge.
Father John fell from his seat as soon as it started walking. Behind him, the struggle began. Father John ignored who had taken over the other. Tarantulas hissed, rabid growls as he made quick movements to either attack or defend himself.
The priest gripped the seat, the ground shaking under his feet. The armour continued to advance. The black became a little greyer around him. He was approaching the light from the ground-bridge.
But before he could even enter it completely, the smell of energon jumped to his throat.
Terror took him. He understood. He understood where it came from the moment he heard the few words spoken by Glacius, words bathed in the energon he inhaled.
"Mary… is safe…"
Father John immediately ordered the armour to stop.
"Glacius!" he yelled.
"No ... go ..."
"Go join him!" shouted Father John at the armour.
"No!" Glacius retorted weakly while behind him, Ratchet's screams of pain resumed, covering those that could emanate from Tarantulas.
What an idiot ... What an idiot had he been to run away ...
No one left his comrades behind ... Even in the army, it was a principle, thought Father John. Even if there was the artifact at stake, he couldn't bring himself to leave them behind.
Father John commanded the armour to activate his arm, to stretch it out towards the wounded Cybertronian.
"Tell me ! Tell me if it's serious!"
"No ... I'm fine ... I assure you!"
"I'll carry you!"
"No ! The artifact ... you have to watch over the artifact! Remember! And Mary… Mary has already crossed the bridge… she is fine! you just have to join her!"
"But I'm not abandoning you! Climb ! Climb ! Try to climb!"
He had a promise to keep!
He had promised him asylum. For him, for Swelter… Glacius groaned in pain. However, Father John heard him move, move closer to his arm.
But as Glacius was about to reach the mechanical arm of the armour, Father John suddenly wavered forward. His skull hit the ground as he felt his surroundings rock.
He didn't know where the ground, the ceiling was ...
"Father John!" he heard Glacius exclaim.
The armour ... the armour was falling.
Father John wished to order it not to fall, but his order drowned in the gigantic roar that ensued, pressing Father John against the very ground which trembled with great intensity.
Father John found himself struck. A stream of drool flowed from his split lip, while blood emanated from his nose. The human, who had probably passed out for a few seconds, touched it with a weak hand. It had to be broken. He understood that he had been hit, probably in the head area.
Behind him, he felt Tarantulas coming closer.
"You don't even know how to handle my armour properly," Tarantulas commented nonchalantly. "It doesn't matter who you are."
Father John did not have the strength to respond.
Ratchet ... Undertone ...
"It hurts ... but well. It's just the first model. I could improve it."
"Don't touch him!"
Ratchet ... Ratchet got up.
Tarantulas hadn't killed him ... Above him, Father John heard a crash noise. Probably Ratchet had hit Tarantulas with all his might to keep him away from him.
"Father John ...?" Glacius asked, exhausted.
"... I'm fine" he managed to answer.
Get up, he commanded it.
Please, get up!
After a few attempts that seemed unsuccessful, the armour managed to execute. Father John clenched his jaw, his seat found stuck to the wall as it stood up.
Sizzling sounds made Father John understand that the armour had been damaged.
They had to get out of here ... no matter the cost ...
"Glacius!"
"No ! Run away!"
"No ! Grab if you can!"
Again, Father John ordered the armour to reach out.
He heard the sound of the joint whistling when the armour was running. As he tried to reach Glacius again to carry him to the exit, a new shock hit the armour, this time propelling him back. Father John managed to command the armour to lean on his right foot to cushion the fall, the latter sliding until it hit a firm surface.
Again, Tarantulas was charging. Father John's ears whistled. Tarantulas struck him a third time on the head. Father John shouted, not having time to dictate anything. The armour hit the wall and a new blow made the ground shake, Father John falling for the umpteenth time.
"The pilot isn't very solid!"
The blows started to rain. Tarantulas had every intention in the world to put him down. Father John weakly tried to order to block the Cybertronian's next blow, but it was not enough. Tarantulas' strokes were fluid and fast ...
Father John wondered briefly if he really had two arms ... or more ...
On the next stroke, Father John was thrown from his seat and landed against the wall as the armour collapsed back in a deafening din which nailed Father John to the surface preventing him from crossing the armour in his fall.
His breath stopped. Father John tried to catch his breath, ignoring the physical pain that paralyzed him.
The armour ... straightened. It was getting up.
How was it possible? thought Father John, barely reacting when it was standing up again.
He understood that it was Tarantulas who had lifted it by himself ... to deliver yet another and powerful blow to the face of the armour.
A cracking noise alerted Father John.
Tarantulas… he had punctured the helmet area?
"... What do I see there?" he whispered.
Father John dared not reply. He guessed that Tarantulas had moved closer to him. The priest remained motionless, pain preventing him from making even a return gesture.
Without warning, Tarantulas giggled.
"…Who are you kidding? The first to use my armour ... is a human?"
Father John said nothing. He kept his mouth open, thoughts circling in his head.
"... Not very smart, you human. It wouldn't surprise me that my armour is so vulnerable. Especially if you activated it in defensive mode."
In the distance, someone was crawling. At the sound of the voice, which begged Tarantulas desperately to let them go, Father John quickly guessed that it was Ratchet.
But Tarantulas kept him maintained. A low noise emanated from the ground. A cry of pain ensued as Ratchet collapsed to the ground.
"Too bad for you ... The armour is only really useful through a spark" Tarantulas continued as if nothing had happened.
"... What?" he managed to pronounce.
Again, Tarantulas stifled a laugh.
"You humans are so pathetic about using technologies that don't belong to you ... you ignore the very consequences."
He paused.
"But everything will be fine. I'll get you out of there before you hurt yourself any more."
A flurry struck Father John in the face. Something strong was tapping against the surface that kept him locked up. As time went on, it intensified. Tarantulas hit the helmet so he could break it and let it in.
Or ... if he was that tall, let his giant hand come in. Father John remained against the wall, his legs slipping under him.
Without a word, he collapsed to the ground as the blows continued.
The artifact ... he shouldn't open the chassis and see the artifact ... or all was lost.
The sound of broken glass…
Tarantulas had achieved his goal. Father John clenched his jaw, approaching the wall to be out of reach.
But it was only a question before he ...
"Father John!" Glacius yelled at him. "The shield ! Activate the shield!"
The shield…
"How cute" whispered Tarantulas. "It looks like a tool has become fond of a human."
A sound activated.
That same sound ... That of a cannon ... a cannon that was charging.
Father John turned pale.
"... Shield ... activates the shield ..." he stammered.
"Go ahead?" sneered Tarantulas. "Repeat it louder."
"Activate the shield!" Tarantulas laughed.
Father John understood that nothing was happening.
"Too bad for you ... It looks like my armour doesn't work as well with a human. It will be useful to mention it in my report."
Please ... Please ... We are so close to the goal.
Without thinking, Father John screamed. He screamed with all his might at the armour to turn the shield on.
He suddenly heard Tarantulas snatch a cry of surprise as a harsh, mechanical sound began to invade the human's ears.
A falling noise was heard near the wall facing him. Father John understood that Tarantulas had been thrown back and that it had bounced against the wall, enduring the shock. The hiss of the arm joint hit the human.
The shield.
"Glacius!" Father John immediately called him.
Now that he had activated it, he had to keep it. At least to defend themselves.
He wouldn't risk anything anymore ... he could protect and Glacius, and the artifact ...
Father John ordered the armour to approach Glacius. Maybe by placing him inside the cockpit, it would be better able to keep him.
But as he was about to reach him, the Cybertronian standing a few inches from the armour, Glacius gave a shrill cry, screaming as loud as Father John had never heard anyone scream before.
Father John felt the armour being violently pushed back.
The noise ... the barrel that was loading ...
The smell of energon which intensified only more.
"No!" shouted Father John. "Glacius! Glacius!"
But Glacius did not answer.
Father John's heart almost stopped. Again, the armour was struck in the chest. This time, Tarantulas used his weapon. Father John quickly ordered the armour to straighten, but that did not stop the fall.
Soon, Father John rolled on the ground, using his nails to slow down the dive, the ground tilting more and more.
A nausea took him by the throat ... and Father John suddenly began to vomit.
He had a stomach ache, a headache, his heart was beating as if it were going to come out of his chest ... and he couldn't move his arm anymore. His human arm.
Glacius ...
Again, the vibration cut Father John and prevented him from acting. Whether it was commanding the armour or even standing up ... The human could do nothing.
He was not a fighter ... He couldn't go out… they couldn't go out…
"Nice demonstration" sneered Tarantulas.
Father John was too weak to answer.
"But as I explained to my beloved Prowl ... you will not save him. You will not save anyone. It's over for you."
The priest tried to raise his head. But Father John dropped to the ground, waiting for the next attack.
The last attack he could endure.
But the shot never came. It was like time stood still.
Someone interrupted Tarantulas before he could even finish him off.
"... You're the one who harmed Mary."
Father John froze.
That voice… he recognized it.
He had heard it before ... that voice ...
The one who had saved him ... who'd saved Wing from the fire at Garboil' Castle.
The one ... he was there.
He had returned.
"Gasket" sneered Tarantulas in a contemptuous spit. "You there."
Father John heard nothing.
He no longer heard a word from his benefactor or his attacker.
Do not listen to your fear ...
Do not listen to your fear ...
Even if Gasket hadn't dared to go back, hadn't dared to come back to face the Decepticons, the humans, the Autobots at the risk of being tortured again and succumbing to his injuries…everything had changed from the moment where Mary had returned from the ground-bridge, her body and face bloody.
Something had happened ... and Gasket had realized that he hadn't needed to hear her explanations.
He hadn't needed to hear her explanations to act.
Someone had harmed Mary, the person who'd saved her ... and others ...
It was his turn to help her.
These years at the Circle of Light, at the Crystal Cities, his training ... all these events resurfaced. Gasket had entered the ground-bridge and set off for battle.
Tarantulas blasted Gasket in the face. The green bot spat energon and blocked the second. However, he could not dodge the third and fourth attack in time, Tarantulas using several of his legs at the same time.
"You will never help anyone, Gasket! You are dead!"
The venom in his voice was clearly audible.
Gasket blocked yet another blow. He was scratched on the right cheek while trying to attack. The green bot caught his breath for a few seconds, the time to see one of Tarantulas' legs rise and dive straight on it.
With a dry gesture, the green bot grabbed it.
Then he pulled out. He pulled with all his might.
"Let go of me ... Let go of me!"
Gasket pulled… And with a fluid gesture, he tore off half of his paw, the tip landing on the ground while the other part was bleeding profusely.
Taking advantage of this opening, Gasket grabbed Tarantulas by the wrist before he could even aim at another victim with his cannon in his arm ... and suddenly turned him around to twist him, in a dry crunch.
Tarantulas howled stridently. Immediately, he tried to use his other arm to shoot Gasket, randomly at different parts of the body, while his other seven legs slapped, scratched his cheeks, his forehead.
Gasket did not listen to his fear. He listened to no emotion. He would postpone them until later.
Gasket turned it over, and while keeping a grip around the neck of the Insecticon, he planted his digits in the wrist that held the barrel to make him let go.
"Monster! Coward! You dare to come back!" Spat Tarantulas quickly.
Gasket growled. The energon sprang from the cables coming from his wrist. Tarantulas screamed in pain and began to struggle, wringing his body to push it back and make it move back, and thus, ease its grip on him.
It wouldn't work. Gasket only further strengthened it. He kicked the cannon that had landed near them, before turning Tarantulas over as he used his other arm to hold his body against his, hugging him tight.
Tarantulas hit him, howled. He struck him on the side of the helmet, one blow at a time, using his seven legs behind his back, which Gasket had managed to imprison along with their owner.
Gasket was imposing, more imposing than Tarantulas was. That had been his advantage at the Circle of Light… Axe had never managed to beat him. Not once.
Tarantulas hissed in pain as the ribs began to break, one after the other.
Gasket took a punch in the optic. He tightened his grip.
"Coward! Coward! Coward! "
Yes ... coward ...
"You wouldn't kill me! The Circle of Light forbids it!" Tarantulas said in a strangled voice.
Gasket nodded.
"… I am no longer in the Circle of Light."
There was no longer any reason not to kill anyone who attacked his friends.
The cry of Tarantulas began to resound stridently, reaching the audios of Gasket.
Kill him ... kill him ... He had killed Vertebreak. He would kill him too.
Gasket pulled up his arms which wrapped themselves around Tarantulas' neck.
Again, he squeezed. He squeezed as much as possible to unscrew his head ...
"Please!"
Gasket stiffened.
"Please!"
Tarantulas… begged for mercy? Him ? it must have been a joke!
Gasket did not stop his attack. He was fighting, forcing Tarantulas to die as quickly as possible.
"Please!"
"No ! I suffered too much because of you ! You tortured me! You took everything from me! Everything!"
Memories that would remain until the day he joined the Allspark ...
He was no longer Gasket. He was no longer a former member of the Circle of Light who had learned from combat and was no longer afraid of its outcome.
He had rediscovered fear ... because of them. Tarantulas kicked him again in the leg. Gasket started slightly, but it wasn't enough for him to let go.
"Please! Please! Arg ..."
"No ... it's over ... it's over ..."
Gasket heard a screw jump from Tarantulas' neck.
He was almost there ... Gasket forgot the seven legs that fidgeted, struggled to be left free ...Tarantulas was going to die… He was going to die…
The Insecticon uttered a strangled cry.
Gasket closed the optics before sighing.
Then, without a word, he pushed Tarantulas back violently at arm's length, the Insecticon collapsing to the ground in a plaintive moan.
Gasket looked at him coldly.
"... You don't deserve me to kill you."
He was deplorable ... But Gasket didn't want to become like him. Tarantulas turned painfully towards him, fear apparent despite his visor hiding his face and his emotions.
He would be too weak to attack again.
After one last stare, Gasket rushed towards the wounded ones.
He found an orange and white bot that had been stabbed in the ankle. A white, masked Minicon supported him as best he could to keep him standing.
A Minicon of his knowledge…
"... Undertone?"
"... Gasket."
If he could have, Minicon would have smiled at him.
"I knew you'd come back and help us."
"Glacius!" shouted the one in the white and black Cybertronian armour.
Despite the damage done to the armour, Gasket realized that the one most in need of emergency treatment was a blue and white Minicon, lying on the ground, bathed in his energon following intense bleeding from an injury to the chassis, in the same place where the spark was located.
Immediately, the spark beating, Gasket rushed towards him and shook him, shouting at him to wake up.
Glacius did not wake up. Gasket clenched his dentas. He grabbed him in his arms, placing his servo on the wound to compress it and further prevent bleeding.
"Undertone ... Go ... go help Father John" ordered the orange and white bot, his voice shaking.
Father John?
Gasket's memories resurfaced.
He remembered a human ... a human whom he'd met while saving Wing from the flames, after an ambush by the Decepticons.
Father John ... but ... it couldn't be the same.
Even battered, Undertone ran to the armour to help him straighten up.
"Glacius ..."
"...He's fine ..." Undertone tried to reassure him.
But the so-called Father John was not fooled. The bloodied face of the human appeared through a hole in the armour, probably caused by Tarantulas in the fight.
Gasket looked at him.
He recognized him. It was him.
It would mean Wing ...
"…No. He's not fine," Father John said, the timbre of his slow voice shaken by the shock. "I feel it."
He would help him...
He would do whatever he could to help him...
Gasket turned to the ground-bridge, ready to leave the Sanctuary.
Tarantulas' voice rang again.
"... Ratchet."
The white and orange bot turned in his direction.
Tarantulas was spitting energon. He said, in an almost tender and affectionate tone.
"... Everything will be fine ... doc."
Ratchet's optics went wide.
His expression, weary and terrified, changed abruptly.
Slowly, Ratchet leaned over to pick up something. Gasket didn't realize until too late what it was.
"No! Ratchet!"
Gasket leapt toward him, his arm outstretched to stop him from doing something he would regret all his life.
Don't shoot ! Don't shoot !
Do not destroy your soul!
In a howl ripping with rage and pain, Ratchet pointed the barrel of Tarantulas at his own owner and fired.
He fired multiple times, uttering a new cry at each detonation.
Tarantulas expired one last time before falling to the ground, lifeless.
As soon as the alarm had stopped ringing and the Queen had been escorted at her quarters, Glowstrike returned to her room alone.
When she put her optics on the empty cage that had once imprisoned the human, the firefly did not remember that she shall no longer feel anything. That all real emotion was now impossible for her.
She did not feel the false rage, the false anger.
She did not feel the false contempt for humans, the Autobots or even her own comrades who should have seen this human escaping much earlier.
She didn't even feel the annoyance of losing control and being deceived by an organic being smaller than her.
Instead, she only felt a void ... with the ghost of a brief pain that twisted the spark.
Something had escaped ... something she thought she had found and that had escaped her again... this time, to disappear for good.
Glowstrike closed her optics, slowly taking a breath.
She had left the door open behind her. Someone called out.
"... Where's Glacius?"
Swelter.
Glowstrike had no answer for him. She just closed the door, ending all attempts at communication.
"Glacius ..."
In the ground-bridge leading to the base of the Autobots, Father John remained in his armour, using his arms to carry Glacius while Gasket supported Ratchet behind him.
"Hold on" he encouraged, even though Glacius was unconscious. "We will treat you ... we will treat you ..."
He tried to suppress the sobs that stifled his voice.
He had to keep talking to him...
"We are going to help you ... we will not let you down ... we are coming ... we are coming ..."
They were nearing the end of the bridge. It was then that Father John collapsed, sinking into unconsciousness in his turn.