Since this story will be doing a lot of back and forth between the past and present I will make the past parts in slanted bold letters so you will know when it's the past. When it's just regular slanted letters it means it's a thought or they're talking through the bond.
Arcee's spark skips a pulse as the door opens and she walks into the room. She slowly approaches Megatron who is laying on the berth in med-bay hooked up to a monitor to help him stay functioning. She knew he was still alive, she could feel it in the bond, the connection never broke. Though it's very faint due to the fact that he is so close to death.
:: Arcee, what is it? :: Ratchet asks over the comm.
Arcee steadies herself as she looks over at Bumblebee in hopes that he couldn't tell that something was off with her. He doesn't seem to notice which relieves her and she gets on the comm to respond to Ratchet, "It's Megatron… He's alive." Arcee transforms her servo into her blaster as she tries to calm her spark which is pulsing so hard she feels like it's gonna jump right out of her chest.
:: Th-that's not possible! :: Ratchet responds in complete shock.
"Well, I'm staring right at him. Good news is, he's not staring back."
Arcee doesn't know if she should be happy or mad that he's still alive. This is her sparkmate, her old lover, but he's not the mech he was when they met and fell in love. He's now a warlord intent on creating destruction everywhere he goes and getting rid of the Autobots. Every so often she catches herself thinking back to when they met when he was the Gladiator Megatronus and a good mech, and she wishes she could go back to that time where everything was good.
Arcee checks her armor once more to make sure it looks nice before she runs out to get on stage with the other femmes. She works as a dancer, part of a dance group that goes all over Cybertron to perform at any building that would hire them. The group was led by an old mech and femme who went around taking young femmes and forcing them to be part of their dance group, and they have to do any dance that they were taught. If they refuse they wouldn't get any Energon.
Arcee has tried a number of times to escape and return to her parents but she always got caught, usually by one of the guards that were assigned to watch over them. It seems that there are only two ways to get away from them, offlining or being sold.
Acree gets on the stage with the other femmes and gets into position to begin. The others have grown accustomed to this lifestyle and some seem to be really enjoying this fame and having the mechs fight for their attention. They always get so giddy when a mech comes to talk to them and flirt with them after the show, but she would rather stay to herself as she makes a plan to escape.
The lights turn on to focus on them and they begin their dance routine, moving in a sexual way as they strut around the stage before breaking out into a dance. That was when she first saw him, Megatronus, he was sitting with other Gladiators drinking high-grade and seeming to be celebrating. Probably celebrating that they were still alive. She doesn't get why they would willingly put their lives in danger to entertain other bots.
She turns her gaze away to look at the rest of the audience who were howling and saying inappropriate stuff, as usual, she just rolls her optics as she continues dancing. A few minutes later she looks over at him again and sees him looking right at her, his optics roaming over her body as he seems to be ignoring his pals. She quickly looks away not liking the tenseness of his gaze. Why doesn't he look at the other femmes and watch them?
She could feel his gaze on her the whole time until the dance ended and she exited the stage, which made her feel uneasy. She quickly exited the stage with a few of the others while the other femmes stayed to drown themselves in the applause and compliments, once again taking in all the mechs that wanted to flirt with them and fight over them.
"Can you believe them? How can they stand this kind of attention?" One of the femmes asked as they headed to the back.
"They just like attention, they don't care who they get it from." One of the other femmes says.
"Well, I'm gonna go get some high-grade Energon, I haven't had any in quite some time. Wanna come Arcee?"
Arcee looks at them, "No I'm fine."
One of the femmes walks over to her to whisper, "If you come up with a good escape plan let me know, I too would like to get back to my parents."
Arcee smiled at her and nodded, her spark went out to her. The other femmes began to leave but stopped when they saw the two leaders come to the back with the Gladiators that were sitting out front. They all looked at them and they could guess why they were brought back here.
"The great Gladiator Megatronus wishes to buy one of you." The old mech tells them.
Arcee looks at him and her spark quickens when she realizes it was the mech that was staring at her so intently while she was dancing. Primus, don't let it be her that he wants to buy. She turns to sneak away before he notices that she's there but she stops when she hears him speak.
"Where do you think you're sneaking off to?"
She turns to look at him and sees him walking around the other femmes as he heads over to her, "What's your name?" He asks her.
Arcee remains silent, she doesn't want this, she doesn't want to be sold to a mech she doesn't know. She wants to go home to her parents, "With all due respect Megatronus, you don't want to take this one." The old mech tells him, "She's very disobedient and she's a fighter, you would have a really hard time getting her to do as you say."
Megatronus chuckles, "She sounds very interesting and quite challenging. How much do you want for her?"
"The kind of femme she is I'll have to say, ten thousand creds."
"It's a deal." Megatronus says before getting on his datapad to send him the credits.
"Her name is Arcee and she's yours. It was a pleasure doing business with you." The old mech says before he walks away.
"Arcee…" Megatronus repeats as he takes her servo. He bends over to place a gentle kiss on it before looking up at her again, "It's a pleasure to meet you, my little dancer."
Arcee is pulled back to the present by Bumblebee nudging her, "Are you ok?"
Arcee looks at him, "Just fine."
:: Arcee, does Megatron display brainwave activity? :: Ratchet asks over the comm.
Arcee looks over at the monitor, "Spiking hard. His sick mind is still at work."
:: Perfect, if a cure exists Megatron may be the only one who knows it. You must enter his brain and find it. ::
Arcee pauses for a moment to think about this. Doing a mind and body split is risky but they need to find a cure for Optimus. She wishes that she could just read his mind through the bond and find it, but Megatron seems to have blocked off a lot of stuff from their bond so she can't see it. Also, she would have had to come up with an explanation of how she was able to find it to keep Bulkhead and Bumblebee from finding out about her bond with the warlord. Optimus and Ratchet already know but they've been keeping it secret from the others.
Bumblebee was getting ready to volunteer to go in when Arcee speaks up, "I'll do it."