:: When should we confront her? :: Bulkhead asked.
:: Wait until you're out of the town and in the desert. :: Optimus replied.
:: Alright. ::
The 'Bots continued driving while keeping an optic on Arcee who continued to follow them. They drove on heading out of town into the desert. Once they were far enough out Arcee sped up and got in front of them, she stops and transforms. Bumblebee and Bulkhead stopped as well and the kids got out, looking at Arcee. Jack ran up to her, "Arcee, do you remember us?"
Arcee glared at him, "I don't know who you are, I never met you before in my life, so stop acting like you know me!"
Bumblebee and Bulkhead transformed, "Arcee -" Bulkhead began but then was interrupted by Arcee.
"The same goes for you! I'm not an Autobot, I never was and I never will be! So stop telling me lies and trying to make me think I am!" She then brought her blades out of her arms, "And I'm not weak so stop thinking so!" She then ran at Bulkhead and tried to slash his abdomen.
Bulkhead dodged her attack, "We're not lying Arcee and we don't think you're weak. You're the strongest femme we know!" He tries to explain as he continues to dodge her attacks, but she wasn't listening.
Bumblebee ran up and grabbed her from behind putting her in a bear hug, "Arcee, please listen. We don't want to harm you and we would never lie to you. Megatron is the one lying to you."
"Just another lie!" Arcee says as she rams her blade into his side. At that Bumblebee releases her and she turns around and knees him in the face, sending him flying backward onto his back. She stayed focus on 'Bee and didn't see Bulkhead coming at her with his servo transformed into his cannonball. She hears him and turns catching a glimpse of him coming at her when WHAM she was struck with the ball and sent flying into a nearby ridge, she makes impact and falls to the ground with her helm spinning. A portal opened up and Optimus and Ratchet came running through. Ratchet had a device in his servo that looked similar to a remote, Bulkhead and Bumblebee saw it and guessed it was the device he was working on to help them get Arcee back.
Arcee started getting up with a servo on her helm. She looked at them and they saw her optics flicker to their original color they were used to seeing, "Bulkhead, watch where you swing that!" She says as she glares at Bulkhead.
They all look at her in shock, "Arcee, you remember?" Bulkhead asked.
"Remember what?" As soon as those words were out of her mouth she grabbed at her helm and started screaming in pain, "Guys, what's goin -?" Before she could finish her optics went back to the way they had been, with no color or life in them. She looked at Optimus and glared, "I'll show you Autobots, I'm not weak!" She yells as she runs at Optimus.
Ratchet presses a button on the remote he was holding and Arcee stopped in her tracks and grabbed her helm as it started hurting worse than she ever felt before. Ratchet and Optimus run over to her but before they could so much as lay a servo on her she jumped up and kneed Ratchet in his abdomen before slicing him on his shoulder down his chest causing him to stumble back.
Ratchet manages to catch himself and he grabs at his shoulder as he looks at Arcee, Should have known it wouldn't take effect right away, not on her. He says to himself as he watches Optimus come up from behind and grab her, putting her in the same hold 'Bee had her in earlier. Arcee brings up an arm and while doing a little turn she elbows Optimus in the face making him stumble back and loosen his hold. She then slides her blade across his neck, cutting his neck cables as she goes to the ground. She lands on her feet and Optimus goes down to one knee, he holds his neck as he looks at Arcee, "Arcee, we never said you were weak... We don't think that at all, you're actually one of the strongest femmes I've ever met."
Arcee glared at Optimus, "Which is exactly why you keep trying to trick me into joining your side, trying to make me believe I'm an Autobot when I'm not. Megatron -" Before she could go any further with what she was saying her helm started hurting again and she grabbed it with both servos as she yelled out in pain.
"The device is working!" Ratchet informs.
"Arcee, we're not the ones lying to you Megatron is. He's the one telling lies, he's the one making you believe you're something you are not. You are an Autobot and one of my soldiers, not a Decepticon." Optimus says as he starts getting all woozy from losing Energon out of his neck.
Arcee looks up at Optimus, "You...!" Her optics then turn back to their original color once more, "Optimus... help me." Then in a split instant she changed back again and she ran up to Optimus and sliced at his chest just below his neck, she then pushed him back and he suddenly found himself on his back with her on top of him. Arcee could tell that she was close to finishing him off and she raises an arm to give the final blow.
"OPTIMUS!" The others yelled. Bulkhead starts heading over to stop Arcee when he noticed Arcee had stopped herself.
Arcee halted in her action and looked down at the Prime, "Arcee, I know the real you is in there trying to get out. Just fight Arcee, we believe in you."
Arcee's face softens up then turns back to the glare then softens up again as a hint of color returns once more, "Optimus... I'm trying... I've been trying all this time. I don't... I don't want to hurt any of you." She says as a bit of lubricant escape from her optic.
"I know you don't, Arcee. Megatron is making you do all this."
Arcee opens her mouth to say something else but before she can get anything out she falls over onto the ground and passes out, whatever the device did to the chip caused her to lose consciousness. Ratchet goes over to her to check her vitals, "Ratchet, is she..?" Optimus starts to ask but couldn't bring himself to finish.
"She's still alive. Quick let's get her back to base before-!" Ratchet was interrupted by a groundbridge opening up, he looks and sees Megatron coming through followed by Soundwave, Starscream and a bunch of drones. Bumblebee and Bulkhead grab the kids as the drones surround them.
Megatron walks towards Optimus and Ratchet with his blaster at the ready, "Unless you want your helm blown off doctor I suggest you step away from her."
Ratchet glared at him refusing to move. Optimus tried to get up but couldn't due to the injuries he got from Arcee, "Just do it Ratchet, none of us is in any shape to face him right now." Optimus says as he looks at Megatron.
Megatron finally took notice of the state he was in and laughed, "Arcee did a real number on you, on all of you."
Ratchet continued to glare at the warlord as he moved away from Arcee. They could only watch as Soundwave walks over and picks her up then head to the groundbridge. Bumblebee and Bulkhead glared at Starscream who had his missiles aimed at them ready to fire if they tried anything, "Hope you enjoyed your brief reunion. There won't be another one." Starscream said with a devilish smirk.
"No matter how hard you try or what you do you're not getting her back." Megatron says as he heads for the groundbridge.
"We'll see about that." Optimus says as he watches Megatron enter the portal. The rest of the 'Cons followed leaving the Autobots where they are.
Ratchet started looking over Optimus as he tries to figure out how they're gonna get back to base as neither him nor Optimus is in any condition to drive, Optimus especially, "I know you didn't want to harm Arcee, Optimus, but I wish you had done at least a little something to keep her from hurting you this badly." Ratchet scolds him as concern rises for the Prime's wellbeing.
"I suppose I should have, but I wanted to reason with her more... She was pulling through and she said she's been trying to fight it."
"I heard." Ratchet says with a bit of a sad tone.
Just then they get a call over the comm from Agent Fowler, "Prime, where are you guys? I'm at the base and no one is here."
Ratchet is the one to answer, "Agent Fowler, we need a groundbridge back to base."
"A groundbridge? Do you think I know how to work your controls?"
"I'll talk you through it and tell you everything you need to do."
Fowler lets out a sigh, "Alright. What do I do?"
Ratchet tells him everything he needs to do to open the groundbridge and a couple of minutes later one opens up, "You did it!" Ratchet says ecstatically as he gets up and tries to help Optimus up, but he finds it difficult with his injuries so Bulkhead comes over and helps him. They all then go through the groundbridge and back to base.
On the Nemesis Arcee starts coming through though everything is all groggy, she doesn't hear or see much but she can hear Megatron and Knockout talking. Knockout said something about the chip being too damaged beyond repair and that it's no good anymore. She could feel her processor swirling as a pain shot through her helm, she tries to put a servo on her helm only to discover that they're strapped down.
"So you can't repair it at all!?" She heard Megatron shouting.
"N-n-no my lord, it's too damaged." She then heard Knockout respond with fear in his tone.
Then through blurred vision she saw Soundwave hand Megatron something, it was the remote Ratchet had used to fight the control of the chip, "Apparently the Autobots used this to damage the chip, no doubt to bring the femme to her senses." Starscream spoke up as Megatron took the remote.
Megatron let out an enraged growl as he crushed it in his servo then threw it down to the ground, "We better have another chip!"
"S-sorry my lord but that chip was the only one we had left." Knockout informed him.
"DO WE HAVE ANYTHING!?" Megatron shouts out in anger.
"W-we'll have to check." Breakdown responded this time.
"Very well, take a look and notify me when you find something. In the meantime -"
Arcee passes out again before she could hear what Megatron had to say next. She found herself in a dark void as images went racing by, images of her with her teammates, her real teammates the Autobots. Images of her past partners and images of her and Jack... Jack... The human boy she kept denying she knew, how hurt he must have felt to hear her say the things she said. Her teammates must be feeling hurt as well with everything she said, all the injuries she gave them. But they know it wasn't her, they know she was being controlled.
She just wants things to go back to the way they had been with her being back at Autobot base and spending time with her teammates and their human friends. Racing with Jack, training with 'Bee, teasing Bulkhead for all the clumsiness and mistakes he would make. Get lectured by Ratchet for not taking care of herself like she should, or getting a lecture/lesson from Optimus on how to handle your foe and battle strategies. She would give anything to wake up and find herself back at their base and hear Ratchet get onto Bulkhead about something he broke or the kids playing their video games. Wake up and see their friendly faces.
After some time Arcee finally wakes up, her optics trying to focus as she looked around. Her vision isn't as groggy as it was before but she still had trouble seeing as she waited for her optics to get to fully functioning and clear. Her optics soon become fully functioned and focused and she sees where she is, in the brig on the Decepticon warship. Exactly where she found herself when she first woke up after being captured by the 'Cons. She grabs her helm as she fully sits up, it's not hurting as much as it had before but it was still aching. She soon discovered she had chains on her wrists which connected to the wall behind her. She examined the chains then looked to the other side of the room as she heard a noise, "Who's there?"
A tall grey mech came out of the shadows, it was Megatron, the warlord himself. Arcee glared at him, "So you finally wake you. You were out for quite some time." Megatron said as he walked towards her. He gets down on his knees so he can be a bit more on her level and runs a digit down the side of her faceplate, tracing along the pink ridge she has on the side of her helm, "I wish you hadn't gone out and gotten yourself in that position, now the chip is useless."
Arcee jerks back away from his touch, "You had no right to use a chip on me like that in the first place!" She says with a scowl as she scoots back to get away from him, but she finds herself up against the wall, "How long am I gonna be in this brig? Why don't you just kill me?"
Megatron lets out a chuckle as he grabs her chin with his right servo and places his left servo on the wall, "This is just a temporary arrangement until I can find another way to get you under my control once more since the chip is no longer effective. I have no plans to kill you as long as I find you valuable to my cause."
"I'm not yours to control, I'm my own!"
Megatron let out another chuckle, "Keep thinking that dear, but as long as you're my prisoner you are mine to control whether you like it or not." He says as his face gets closer to hers. Arcee started thinking that he was gonna kiss her with how close he is and she started hoping and praying he wouldn't, she doesn't want to kiss this tyrant. But Megatron pulled away releasing her chin as he stood up, "I'll send for you when we find something." He says as he walks out and leaves Arcee alone with her thoughts.
Arcee pulls her legs up to her chest and she rests her chin on her knees as Megatron's words repeat over and over in her processor. She has to escape, but how?
Yeah, my mind and imagination really got away from me on this chapter. xD But hope you enjoyed it. ^-^