Welcome back to the chaos!
Sorry for the wait. College started recently and is more than a little hectic.
I won't draw out the introduction, but thanks if you're still sticking around. You guys are real troopers.
FYI, this episode takes place during 'Crossfire'.
Enjoy!
Chapter Seven: Open wounds
Raf, Jack and Miko continued browsing through local conspiracy websites while Bulkhead and Arcee talked near them. If the 'Bots were gonna be spotted anywhere, it was more than likely in Jasper. Turns out, they didn't need to look for that long.
"Ugh, who actually has time to read all these theories?" Miko yawned.
Jack shrugged, "People like us who have nothing better to do?" He pointed to the screen, "Wait, is that...?"
"Halo," Raf adjusted his glasses, "Jack, isn't that the street race you and Bee went to?"
The others all lifted their helms towards them. It was no secret that the femme Wrecker had been spending a lot more time out of base recently, but they'd just assumed she was on patrol.
"Alright! She won!" Miko cheered.
Arcee rolled her optics, "I was going to say 'unbelievable', but I'm not surprised."
"Jack, Miko, Rafael," Optimus began, to which the children glanced up at him, "Did you say that Halo Jyn was at a street race?"
"Uh, y-yeah," Raf turned his laptop around to show him the video, "The upload date is from about two days ago."
"I see," The Prime said simply in response. He turned to Ratchet, "Is she here?"
The medic shook his helm, "On patrol with Bumblebee. Should I call them both back?"
Optimus sighed, "We will deal with this new development when they return. Given what ensued at our previous racing endeavour, Halo Jyn must understand why we do not engage in the sport."
Bulkhead too was unsurprised. It was in Halo's nature to rebel, or lash out when she didn't know what to do with her anger. From what Wheeljack had told him, it'd gotten really bad after he left.
With any luck, Halo would give him the chance to say how sorry he was. But luck was the one thing that had been lacking lately.
It was barely a few minutes later when the revving of both a car and motorcycle engine came from the entrance to base. Bee and Halo both rolled into base, transforming as they did so.
"Hey, guys," Halo greeted, apparently content for once, "How's it going?"
No one replied.
"Um...why so quiet?" Bee asked.
Finally Optimus stepped forward. He didn't want to make the Wrecker mad anymore than the others.
"Halo Jyn," He began, somehow more solemn than usual, "Are you aware of the rules against street racing?"
She paused, but sighed, "Yeah."
Arcee blinked, "Wait-you knew and decided to go anyway?"
"You are aware that your actions could have caused awareness of our existence?" Optimus asked. She slowly nodded, "And despite that, you chose to participate?"
Halo shrugged, "I just needed to let off some steam."
The blue femme stepped forward, "You could've blown our cover."
The Wrecker tried to ignore her agitation, "I was careful."
"Obviously not careful enough. Someone caught your holoform glitching out on video." Arcee folded her arms.
"Arcee, aren't you overreacting a little?" Bee tried standing up for Halo.
"Bee, she needs to hear this," The blue femme countered, "MECH, Dreadwing, the racing. You can't play by your own rules whenever you want. And what you do affects everyone, not just you. Being on Team Prime means working as a team. "
"Got it. No 'I' in team," Halo murmured, "You done?"
Arcee rolled her optics, "You can't take anything seriously."
"And you've had a problem with me since day one," Halo took a step forward, servos balling into fists.
"Maybe I wouldn't if you stop acting like a sparkling and grew up," Arcee also stepped forward.
"Making jokes doesn't make me immature."
"No, but ignoring protocol does."
The team had just been watching this argument unfold. True, the responsible thing would've been to stop it, but breaking apart that fight didn't seem like a safe idea. Optimus stood at the ready to intervene if things got out of hand.
Halo gritted her denta, "Try putting your metal where your mouth is."
Arcee raised an optic ridge, "How?"
"Training room," She stated, "Let's go a few rounds."
The blue femme scoffed, "Never found a problem you couldn't punch your way through."
The gold Autobot wasn't backing down, "Punching seems to work just fine for me."
"That is enough, from both of you," They stopped arguing as the Prime interrupted, "Halo, we do not use violence as a means of resolving issues. Should you have a problem with someone, use your words not your fists."
The gold femme had more than enough words to describe how she felt. None of which she could say in front of the children.
"Whatever," She murmured.
The team watched as the Wrecker marched off towards the hallway, brushing past Arcee as she did. Arcee rolled her optics.
That kid was impossible.
--
About twenty minutes had passed since Halo decided that her and the blue sharpshooter were never going to get along. Sure, she felt guilty about the racing thing, but Arcee didn't have to go and make a bigger deal of it than it was.
Besides, it was just one time.
The femme sighed as she walked back to the main room. She was reluctant to, but hadn't realised that she left her bow there earlier and had wanted to do some target practice.
She entered the room to notice that no one but Ratchet was there. He barely glanced up at her.
"The others on a mission?" She guessed.
He nodded, "Had you not stormed off earlier, you could've gone with them."
"Really?" She put her servos on her hips, "You too?"
The medic turned back to her, arms folded, "Halo Jyn, while I might be able to cope with your loudness, recklessness and generally dislikable qualities, I will not stand for it resulting to in-fighting among our own team."
Jyn sighed, "Fine."
As he was about to add to his statement, a transmission came through the main computer.
"Optimus to base," The Prime called as shots fired in the background, "Arcee has gone after Airachnid alone and is not answering her comlink."
"Her signal is still online and unharmed, but I'll send backup just in case," Ratchet responded, typing Arcee's coordinates into the ground bridge, "Halo-"
"Backup," The femme interrupted, already walking towards the portal, "Got it."
--
Arcee glared angrily ahead at the Decepticon spider. She would've fought back had she not currently been hanging upside down by the tough webbing that restrained her from moving.
The Decepticon growled, "This may not be the day I extinguish Megatron's spark, but it will be the day I remove yours."
She drew out one of the talons from her eight legs. The blue femme couldn't do anymore but kick and thrash to try and break free.
"I admit, I will miss these little reunions, but don't worry," She grinned devilishly, "I'll be sure to pay a visit to Ja-"
The spider femme was instantly cut off as a pede collided with her face sending her flying away from the Autobot. Arcee was surprised to see a familiar gold frame now standing between her and Airachnid.
Halo drew her staff, transforming it into a sword as she took on a battle stance.
"Sorry to interrupt your big moment," The gold femme smirked.
"Halo?" Arcee recognised, "Get out of here. This is my fight."
"Well, it's your funeral if you don't let me help," The Wrecker retorted.
Airachnid glared as she stood up. Her magenta optics narrowed at Halo, "If you insist on bringing another partner for me to terminate, Arcee, I suggest someone other than this scrawny scraplet."
The gold femme sneered, "Better a scraplet than a creepy-crawley."
At the last word, Halo lunged forward, swinging at the spider-con. Airachnid dodged with ease. She swiftly reached out a talon to the Wrecker's spark, but Halo was quicker. Before the weapon could touch her, she spun around on her heel and slashed one of Airachnid's eight legs clean off.
The spider screamed in agony as her talon clattered to the floor. Now she was angry.
"You little glitch!" She hissed.
Now Halo was angry.
The two ran at each other. They met in the middle. Halo slashed quickly and precisely at the 'Con, but this time Airachnid knew better than to underestimate her.
Finally, she managed to knock the sword out of the Wrecker's grasp.
Halo threw a punch but Airachnid quickly caught it. She tried to kick, but the 'Con stabbed at her leg.
The gold femme was shoved back against the trunk of a tree, causing a pain to ripple through her spine. Before she could get up, she felt herself become encased in the stubborn spider webbing.
It practically glued her to the tree.
"Halo!" Arcee still tried to break free.
Airachnid grinned, transforming into her bipedal mode. She strode over to the femme Wrecker. As Halo was trying to tear off the webs, she felt her chin roughly grabbed by the 'Con.
"Let go, fragger!" She yelled.
The spider merely chuckled, "Ah, now I recognise you. You were one of Shockwave's little lab rats. A rare find, too. Not many younglings remained after the Allspark disappeared."
Jyn froze as she felt the spider's talon run along the surface of her visor.
"Now, what could this be for?" She taunted.
"Back off, Airachnid!" Arcee threatened, "I'm the one you want, let the kid go!"
Airachnid ignored her, "Last time I saw you, you were pleading for your life on an operating table. Shockwave never did like using sedatives. Tell me, do you see much of anything nowadays?"
A scream escaped the Wrecker as one spidery talon forced its way past her visor. But not just the visor. It went through to the gold band that hid her injury.
The pain only worsened as Airachnid pried off both the visor and the band. After all, the band had been welded to her face.
She felt the cold air hit the inside of her empty optics as she struggled to control her cries. The spider looked at the injury and laughed.
"I guess the answer is no," She taunted, "Not as tough as you claim, are you, Subject 1-4-2?"
Halo never wanted to heard that name again. It wasn't a name. It was a ball and chain. It was the empty cell she spent every night scared and alone in. It was the endless torture and experiments that nearly drove her insane.
As Airachnid continued to taunt her, she didn't notice the other two-wheeler break free. Arcee sliced away the few remaining parts of webbing and drew her blasters.
Knowing when to back out of a fight, the spider grabbed her detached leg and transformed, heading for the skies. Arcee fired after her, but to no avail.
Meanwhile, the gold femme remained quiet. After all these orns, all the proving that she was tougher than steel, a single Decepticon had found a way to make her feel like a helpless youngling again.
Arcee rushed to Halo, but slowed her pace as she got closer. Her optics...they weren't just damaged; they weren't there. All that remained were two hollowed spaces where they should've been, surrounded by scars.
Snapping back into the moment, the blue two-wheeler was quickly able to cut away the webbing from her teammate. Halo Jyn cautiously picked up her visor and gold band from where it'd fallen next to her.
"Halo?" Arcee said, in a softer tone than the one she'd used earlier, "You...okay?"
She felt her visor in her servos, sighing at the damage before holding it against her face to hide the wound, "L-Let's just go."
The blue femme glanced at her in sympathy, but nodded.
Later . . .
Halo had tried to slip away once she got back to base, hoping to fix her injury herself. Unfortunately, Ratchet had clocked the wound straight away and ordered her to stay in the med-bay. She sat on the medical berth, shuffling uncomfortably as she waited for him to get the first-aid kit.
As for Arcee, she hadn't suffered any serious injuries. But she couldn't unsee what hid beneath that visor. She'd known that Halo had lost her sight, but had no idea to what extent.
"Halo, I..." She hesitated, "I just wanted to say thanks for having my back. I really owe you one."
The gold femme shook her helm, "You don't owe me anything. That's what being on a team means, right?"
Arcee glanced away, remembering how she broke her own rule by chasing after her foe alone, "Right."
There was a silence between the two as they both conjured up the next topic of conversation. Arcee debated whether or not to ask about what Airachnid meant earlier, but Halo talked before she could.
"Please, just forget today ever happened, okay?" She asked, "It's just not exactly my finest moment."
Arcee shrugged, "Halo, you're allowed to be vulnerable."
The Wrecker scoffed lightly, "I'm not vulnerable."
"Strong 'Bots can still have weak moments," Arcee reminded her, "What happened earlier was just you being a person."
"No," She disagreed, "That was the scared kid I used to be. And I almost got us both killed because of it."
Arcee paused, wondering if she should ask the next question, "How did you really lose your sight?"
Halo gritted her denta and turned her helm away, "Shockwave. I don't want to talk about it."
The name alone was enough for the blue two-wheeler to make her guesses. She'd had her own encounter with the mech on her first mission with Cliffjumper.
"Airachnid said you were a kid," The blue femme added, sympathy clear in her voice.
"I said I don't want to talk about it."
The gold femme struggled to stand from the medical berth. Her pedes half-dragged along the floor as she trudged towards the hallway. Knowing she likely wouldn't want to talk later, Arcee quickly stepped in front of her, placing her servos on her hips.
"Out of the way."
"No." The blue Autobot refused, "Bumblebee's a good kid, but I'm not as naive. If you're hiding something, I'll make it my personal mission to keep you two apart."
Halo clenched her servos into fists, "Seriously?"
Arcee narrowed her optics, "If that's what it takes to keep him safe from someone I don't trust."
The gold Autobot remained quiet for a few seconds, seething that Arcee had the bearings to threaten her friendship with Bee. Just thinking about it, she felt herself gradually overtaken with memories of the pain. A lot of pain. Too much for one lifetime.
"I ran away from the Wrecker base looking for Bulkhead. Got captured. Experimented on. Almost killed if troops hadn't found me," Her frame tensed even more as she tried not to let the memories of fear take over, "The last thing I saw was that monster's single red optic before they put me under."
The blue femme's tough demeanor had softened, shoulders falling as she heard the truth.
Halo raised her helm again, facing her teammate and straightening her back, "I don't want your pity. I don't want your trust. And I'm lightyears past needing anyone's validation, least of all yours. Now, out of my way."
This time, Arcee obliged. Not out of fear, or pity, more from a place of understanding. It was difficult enough being a femme in the warrior ranks, but Halo had that much more to battle against in her lifetime, and as a kid nonetheless.
She was done proving herself. Arcee could respect that.
Halo Jyn seemed to rest slightly at the lack of resistance. Still, she moved towards the hallway in a half-march half-trudge. She was trying not to show weakness, but was honestly too tired.
The Wrecker made her way to The Angel, shutting the door to the hangar behind her as she tried to fight the worsening pain of her injury.
But there were some wounds that couldn't be ignored.
--
And thats a wrap for this chapter. Thanks for reading.
Also, should I give Halo a human friend? I have an idea for one, but if you guys have any feel free to let me know.
Til All Are One,
GreyroseLegacy