Chapter Twelve: A Date with a Decepticon (Part Three)
As Jack drifted into unconsciousness, a voice called to him. At first, the young techno-organic saw nothing in the gloom of disorientation. Then, cycling rings that spun counter to each other and overlapped with a large sphere of energy-easily the size of Optimus-in its center appeared in front of Jack.This odd …thing cast light all around the room. As It filled with blue light, the room revealed itself to be massive and entirely metal. Cybertron, why would I be on Cybertron, and if I'm on Cybertron, where am I on the planet? He could feel ancient power in the strange structure. Part of him urged the boy to bow in reverence. Jack thought it wise to err on the side of caution and listened to that part of himself.
"Rise, Human, and speak." The voice sounded powerful and gentle, like his Mom when Jack would be scolded as a child, both fear-inducing and oddly concerned.
Thought of June mustered Jack's courage. "Lord Primus," the teen ventured.
"I speak to you through a conduit of my power: Vector Sigma." The voice was ancient and powerful but also somehow kind too.
Jack looked at the massive…computer and found a smile on his face at the thought as it glowed and flashed in time with the god's words. There's only one way to find out how Primus will respond. Jack thought before he steeled himself, looked up, and began. "Optimus…and I need your help."
"I know what you seek," Primus boomed. "I will grant life back to Orion's Sparkmate."
Jack could feel his Spark slow down as panic ebbed away, but part of him worried the god only lied to him. After all, Jack read in a data pad on Cybertronian myth that Primus created Liege Maximo, a master of trickery and cunning that reminded Jack too much of Loki from Norse myth. "Thank you." Jack turned to leave and made it only a few steps.
"I do everything with purpose, mechling." Primus said. "This is no exception."
Jack stopped and turned again to face Vector Sigma. "Yes, sir?"
"The Primes have their purpose in speaking and leading in my stead among their kind.You and your Sparkmate…" Vector Sigma began to to grow in luminous intensity before it ejected twin metallic devices that seemed oddly familiar though Jack couldn't understand why. "…will defend your world and foster peace, Jackson Prime."
Jack froze and stared at the computer in shock as one Key floated to him while the other vanished.. "Are you certain I am ready?"
"Do not fear, Jackson Prime." Primus told him as the new Prime stared at Vector Sigma in disbelief. "Your sire and Sparkmate will help you." Even though there was no face, Jack could feel a comforting smile embrace him. "When you awaken, your carrier shall be once again online."
The Energon blue light which Primus told Jack of fell down like a shaft onto June's dying body and the bright red bike on which the body now gently rested grew in intensity. Every instrument for data collection on the Nemesis pegged out at maximum and shorted out, including Soundwave. The Faceless Con felt the energy roll through her hardware and software systems in a flash. In the haze, Soundwave saw one line of code blink in and out of existence before it vanished completely. Then, the femme's systems crashed hard, leaving the Con TiC to fall over like a stiff beam and slam loudly into the floor of the Nemesis while various terminals recover around her.
When Soundwave rebooted, she pushed up to a standing position with an audible groan and looked in on Laserbeak. The minicon seemed slightly worried for his mistress, but a quick surge of comfort calmed the little drone as he looked at June, Jack, Arcee, Ratchet, and Optimus. When the feed came back to her, Soundwave couldn't help a small feeling of relief to know June would be ok as she watched the formerly Hunan femme slowly rise to her pedes remotely a few moments after the light faded via Laserbeak. The Silent Con grew to respect and trust June as she watched the woman care for her mechling and knew her little Rafael would be devastated if June died. Before Soundwave could let the satisfaction and relief sink in to any depth, her master called.
"Soundwave, what was that burst of energy near Elita's signal?!"
Soundwave shook her helm after a wave of disorientation assailed her systems when Megatron spoke. When the femme recovered, she managed to snap a picture of the ruined instruments and send it to him along with a graph of the luminosity before the scanners failed due to overload.
"Only the power of Primus Himself would be so great." The Warlord muttered. "Why would the Creator heed the call of techno-organic filth?"
In response, Soundwave sent Megatron a picture of the bots and Humans in a group photo with a digitized voice of Rafael with a bit of unknown anger. "Family is more than who you're related to, Ratchet." Soundwave could sense Raf's disarming smile in the boy's words, and it warmed her Spark for the first time in years. "It's an emotional bond Humans develop with friends and loved ones who may or may not be related by blood."
"UNBELIEVABLE!" Megatron roared. "The cries of that pathetic creature for its glitch of a carrier bent Primus' Spark to the mongrel's plea?!"
Soundwave shivered, not in fear but rage. Something in Megatron's tone unsettled the femme. Her Spark burned with a confusing cocktail of rage and fear with rage rapidly consuming the other. At that moment of mental rebellion against Megatron, Soundwave realized something. The same surge of Primus' power that brought June back was enough to lift the obedient fog the virus planted in her a decade ago held her under and completely obliterated the malicious code. With her emotions and mind back, the slim Con pinged Megatron for a query.
"I'm going to take Elita and break Optimus to end this war, Soundwave." He said coldly. "I will destroy anyone who gets in my way!" He looked at her. "That abomination of yours will be the first to feel my wrath when I conquer this planet!"
Once the threat left Megatron's mouth, he unknowingly sealed his fate as the last of the fear in Soundwave's Spark turned to rage hotter than O-Type Supernova. You won't lay a digit on Raf if I can help it!
"Open a groundbridge to their location."
Soundwave gave a slight nod before the portal glared to life. Then, the femme charged Megatron, pulled her right arm at an angle as if she held a blade and extended her blade-like arm at the apex of her jump. Megatron roared in pain and surprise as the arm dug into his faceplate. He turned through Energon-clouded vision before Soundwave struck the blinded warlord again and again. With a final double kick after the onslaught, Soundwave pushed Megatron and herself all the way through the groundbridge and landed in a heap on the asphalt of the motorcycle lot.
"Don't come near my son or June again, or I WILL OFFLINE YOU!"
Ratchet, Optimus, and Jack glared at the groundbridge and stood between it and Elita. The confused femme looked around still trying to get her bearings and jumped back in surprise when a bloodied Megatron tumbled out of the wormhole with Soundwave of all Cons on top of the warmonger with her blade ready to kill Megatron!
"What the frag is happening?!" Elita asked in shock.
Optimus nodded in agreement with his Sparkmate before turning his full attention to Megatron's attacker. "What happened, Soundwave?"
Looking down to insure her opponent's optics offline, Soundwave then looked up at the Prime and reached for her visor. Quickly and with visible anger, Soundwave tore the thing away as if it was a vile parasite to reveal yellow/golden optics that studied the group critically and a feminine face that held vorns of ware and tiredness but still managed to have a strange beauty even as she smashed the visor hard under a pede.
"Raf, where's Rafael?!"
Elita could sense the worry in Soundwave's voice while the others just stared in disbelief at the emotive voice that spilled from Soundwave's vocal processor. "If you send Megatron back before he wakes up, I would be happy to escort you back to your son, Soundwave."
Ratchet just looked at Elita in anger. "You expect me to believe Soundwave, Megatron's most loyal supporter, betrayed him?!" The medic snorted. "Please…this is just a plot to learn our base's location."
"Ratchet…" Jack said as he felt something softly coaching him in the back of his mind while the teen spoke. "You've never seen a femme when their child is in danger. Have you?"
Ratchet shook his helm in wordless response and looked visibly aggravated at Jack for questioning the old medic.
"Megatron threatened Raf." Jack guessed as he looked up at Soundwave's angular faceplate and unconsciously noted a few similarities between her face and Raf's while the Surveillance Chief sent Megatron's wounded chassis back through a Decepticon bridge depositing the shark-denta mech directly onto a berth in Knock.Knock Out's medbay. "That's what pushed you over the edge."
Soundwave nodded. "After Megatron forced me to come back with him, Knockout wrote a virus to keep me loyal to Megatron." Soundwave gave a soft smile. "When that energy from Primus restored Elita, it fried every sensor on the ship. I was connected to the system by hardline at the time. My systems crashed, and the viral code was destroyed by the surge." She glared at Ratchet. "When my processor rebooted, I was myself again."
Optimus vented. "I had thought Megatron incapable of sinking to such lows as mind control given his past as a laborer and gladiator, always at the mercy of others."
Soundwave looked at Optimus with pain in her optics. "I fear your dear friend was lost long ago, Prime."
Elita looked at the bots assembled around her and shook her helm. "This isn't the time or the place to rehash old memories." She took note of the sun beginning to light the horizon. "We don't need to be discovered."
Jack nodded and concentrated. After a moment, he felt a connection to the comm array back at base. "Raf, we need a groundbridge."
Not knowing what to expect, Miko and Raf who had arrived earlier that morning after a pair of somewhat frantic calls from their guardians looked at each other in worry as their Autobot counterparts felt their pistons freeze with the same dread. The normally energetic Asian girl sat quietly and moved closer to Raf for comfort. (If asked about it, she would say she was comforting Raf.) The whole base waited as uncomfortable tension filled the air.
"Powering up now, Jack."
As the bridge powered to life, Raf looked at his laptop in confusion. The program designed to allow his laptop to communicate with the groundbridge fed the device something strange. Five life signals left, but six were coming through the vortex field now. Raf turned the laptop to Miko who signed quite expertly for the Wrecker and Scout to be ready to defend if it came to that.
"Come out of the ground bridge slowly…" Bulkhead ordered as he held his large cannon out, ready to fire.
"…with your weapons offline and servos in the air!"
After a tense few moments of bots disembarking from the portal, Bulkhead and Bee almost deactivated their own weapons until they saw the last Cybertronian to enter the base.
"What the Pit is Soundwave doing here?!"
"Cool it, Bulkhead." Raf growled. "Optimus wouldn't let her near the base if he believed she was planning treachery."
"Don't get between Raf and family, Bulk." Miko said with a frown. "It doesn't end well. He inherited Soundwave's combat skill."
Bulkhead quickly shut his mouth after that.
Meanwhile, Raf smiled and quickly left the Human area to join his carrier. "Whatever Megatron did to her has been erased completely. Otherwise, she couldn't betray him." Raf looked up at the medic with mild irritation. "If you still don't believe she's peaceful, check her antivirus files in her processor."
Ratchet looked up from Raf to Soundwave. I withhold my judgment for Raf's sake, Soundwave. Ratchet's processor turned dark for a moment. Betray him, and you'll get no mercy from me.
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