If That's What It Takes: Part 3
I had no idea that the home of the human woman that Prime had given his heart to was so far away from where the Ark was located, so it came as a complete and utter shock to me how long it took to get to the girl's home even at the considerable speeds we were reaching. I must admit that it was perhaps just my personal perspective at the time however. It seemed to me that a great deal of time was being wasted, and that there must have been some faster way to reach her. Granted there was the fact that all of us who made up the search party were forestalled when we learned that Megatron had escaped from the Ark at the hands of the gestalts that he commanded.
There was a moment of indecision that passed over the faces of all that were present here. I could tell what they were considering doing and the choice that all of them specifically Optimus had to be facing at that point. So I attribute what happened as they all fought with this decision, to an act of Primus himself.
"Look," Smokescreen told them from the other end of the communications link, "We all knew that this was probably going to happen anyhow. What you have to think of now is getting there and making sure that he doesn't get his hands on Miss Angel a second time."
"Are you positive?" Prime asked.
"Don't even go there," This time it was Brawn shoving Smokescreen out the way and taking his place, "Just get there and get the girl. We can handle it here."
"But…" He kept trying.
"I'm not discussing this any more," The mech on the other end of the line told him. "This conversation is over, Prime. Go get your lifemate."
With that the line promptly cut off and left Optimus staring blankly at the scene on his communicator.
"Well that settles that," Ironhide chimed. "C'mon Boss, you heard the man. Let's go get her back."
So shortly there after we were all back out on the highway leading deeper into the green heart of the Appalachian mountains, in search of this girl. Each one of the members of the search party committed to finding this young woman and putting her back where she belonged in their world. Every single one of them valued her for their own reasons and all of them willing to do whatever it took to save her.
It was a scant two hours later when we reached the town and saw that the place was indeed shrouded in layers of storm clouds and sheets of rain. The streets of the town being near a river were quite flooded and it was apparent that most of the residents of this area had taken it as a good idea to leave and seek drier conditions some where else. To wit, Beattyville Kentucky was little more than a ghost town at that point. This of course was, in all truth what we had been hoping for. The less people there were there to see what we were about to do the less of a chance there was of the Decepticons being alerted to the fact that we had made it here to find the girl.
Twenty minutes more and the search party was setting up to go and track down the wayward mate of Optimus Prime.
"Okay here it is," Ratchet turned to face Prime and held out his ion cannon to him, "This thing has been modified to fire actual Ion charges not concentrated blasts."
Jazz looked around Prime's shoulder as the leader checked to make sure the weapon was in working order, then looked back at Ratchet and then back at the gun.
"Okay," He paused, "Now you two wanna tell the rest of us what that means in basic?"
Ratchet paused and made a face at the porche's and then picked up the data pad he had been working from.
"Its pretty simple actually," He pointed to a set of figures, "You ever seen "The Empire Strikes Back?"
Jazz drew back from the Medic and gave him a look that plainly said "you have got to be kidding me."
Then he finally managed to give Ratchet a nod, "Yeah I've seen it."
"Good," Ratchet continued, "Remember the bit where they use Ions to knock out some of the ships? Well it's actual electronic process. It's also the most efficient and least painful way to take out the implant chip that's responsible for the alterations in Angel's memory."
"So what," He looked in the direction of Prime's gun again, "He's got to shoot her?"
I took one look at the appalled expression on Jazz's face and shook my head, choosing that moment to come over and give Ratchet the support he might need.
"If what I'm hearing is correct Jazz," I took the data pad from Ratchet and looked it up and down, "Physically it won't hurt her in the least. The worst she'll feel is like getting zapped by static electricity."
"Pretty much," Ratchet nodded.
"That's not what I'm worried about man." Jazz shook his head
"Then what are you worried about?" Prime asked.
Jazz got a blank look and then put his face in his hand for a moment and then looked back at them."
"Basically what you telling me is this, in order for Optimus to save his Lifemate, he's got to shoot her?"
The medic got a look on his face and seemed to fade for a moment as if this eventuality had not occurred to him when he set up this way of neutralizing the chip. Once again I decided to offer what wisdom I had in this instance.
"Jazz," I looked at him, "this is the only way that he can save her without hurting her physically. Granted it's not the easiest choice to make for Prime, but I wouldn't underestimate him if I were you." I looked at Optimus, "You are willing to do it for Angel aren't you?"
"I am willing to do whatever I have to in order to make sure that she's safe Jazz." He put his hand on the younger mech's shoulder, "Thank you for worrying about me my friend. This is going to be the hardest thing that I have ever done in my life, so I want to thank you in advance for being there for me and for her."
Jazz nodded and squeezed the hand that was on his shoulder, "I promise that if you need someone to talk to after it's all over Prime, I will be there to listen."
At that point Ironhide stuck his head into the garage we were using to set up and nodded.
"We got a bead on her chief," He motioned in the direction of the farm. "The motion sensors have picked up movement in the house. Someone or Something is alive in there. My guess is, its Miss Angel."
"Alright then people," Prime said to get everyone's attention, "This is probably not going to be the easiest thing that any of us have ever done. It is however one of the most important, at least to me."
"So?" Prowl chimed in, "Let's get a move on then! The longer we wait the harder this is going to be."
"Boy's got a point there," I had to agree.
Prime nodded to me and the whole search party moved out in the direction of the farm. It took a lot longer to get there than any of us would have anticipated due to the condition of the town. Most of the roads that led out to where she was staying were flooded and those that weren't were for the most part reduced to giant bogs of muck. To say that it was slow going was something of an understatement. Eventually however we did manage to cross them and slowly but surely, a search party of muck splattered Cybertronians made their way up the mountain road.
There were however some things that we were not counting on when we got there. The foremost was the reaction that we were about to receive from the Lady in question. The fact of the matter was, this woman believed that a full half of the search party members that were looking for her, were now nothing more than burnt out corpses. So it should have been plain to us that she would be shocked at the very least to see us when we arrived.
Shocked turned out to be an understatement. The moment all of us assumed our human sizes we realized that there was something amiss about the house. For one thing it looked slightly unkempt and the outside door hung at a slight angle . Secondly none of the lights in the place were on, it looked just as dead as the rest of the town. That is probably what caused us to be as careless as we were.
Upon seeing this place looking dead the search party over reacted and charged into the house doing its best to get to Angel in case she had done something like attempt to end her life with her own hands. This however was not what happened, it was the exact opposite. Ironhide rounded one corner of the hallway and was in the process of calling out for the girl when we heard it.
"ANG…." He stopped in mid sentence and staggered back one hand clapped over his left optic.
Standing there in the living room having just placed one round in his head was the missing person we had all come to save. Only she didn't look like she needed help, for that matter she looked about ready to kill. This assumption was proven right the next second when she opened fire on Ironhide and emptied a full clip in his direction as he did his best to scrabble out of the woman's way.
"NO!" She screamed at the top of her lungs. "Get away from me! YOU'RE NOT REAL DAMMIT!"
Now she proceeded to turn her attentions to Prowl as she ejected one of the clips from her rather large firearm, and slapped another one into its place.
"How dare you come here?" She snapped, "How dare Glavatron send monsters like you here to torment me!"
She cocked the gun and lined up her sights on Prowl. The police car for his part was doing his level best to calm the girl down.
"No one sent us Miss Angel! We're really us!" He tired.
"DON'T," She yelled again, "I saw you die! I saw Megatron blow you to bits! Now his successor sends you THINGS here to make my life even more miserable!" She pulled the trigger and one of the armor piercing rounds proceeded to bury its self in Prowl's shoulder the same way it had Ironhide's eye.
"We're not illusions!" Jazz insisted as he took Prowl's place so Ratchet could check him along with Ironhide.
"STOP IT!" She wailed, "Wasn't killing all of them bad enough! Now you have to haunt me too!"
I watched as she kept those in front of her at gun point. She however, completely forgot that some one could come in the back door and come up behind her, which is exactly what Optimus choose to do . I saw the girl realize that something was behind her and then proceed to freeze in her tracks.
"Angel please calm down!" he pleaded.
In turn she spun to look at him and let loose with a scream that surly must have turned the energon in every one's veins to pure ice. Then as she drew a breath to let loose with yet another wail, she leveled the gun point blank in Prime's face and pulled the trigger.
If Optimus Prime had been one nanosecond slower in his reaction time he truly would have been dead. It was clear to me that this woman was an expert marks man and had loaded her weapon with something that could more than get through the armor that any given Cybertronian had chosen to wear.
He grabbed her arms and somehow managed to push them out of the way before the shot rang out. However either the girl was in weaker condition than he had anticipated or he accidentally used more force than he had meant to because she wound up lying on the floor, gasping for breath and trying get herself under control. Optimus moved in her direction and held out his hands to her as if trying to help her calm down. Still it seemed the girl was convinced we were somehow illusions sent to torment her by the Decepticons and so she spun around and pointed the firearm at him.
"Please stop!" She begged, "Please just go away and let me mourn in peace!"
"Angel," Prime told her, "I'm not fake," He clasped both of his hands around the one that she was holding the gun with. "Does this feel like and illusion?"
For one second I thought that some how he might have gotten through to her as something flashed in her eyes. Then the woman jerked back from him and pulled the trigger on her gun. For a few stunned seconds Prime looked down at the hole in his shoulder and then turned to gape at the girl.
"Please just leave me ALONE!" She shrieked, her desperate cry trailing off into another banshee like wail.
This time however she didn't wait until someone came closer to her or made any other moves to try and get her attention. She jerked away from Prime and lunged out of the doorway heading into the sheets of rain and gloom that surrounded her house and home town. As the girl disappeared into the darkness outside, those of us in the search party began to collect our wits.
Optimus was about to charge out the door and go after the girl when he felt his Medic clamp his hand down on him and drag him back into the house.
"Nuh Uh, Boss Bot," Ratchet shook his head, "Not 'til I get a look at this." He motioned to the wound on Optimus' shoulder.
"What happened?" Prime actually managed.
"There's more going on than we gave the good Doctor Archevil credit for. Apparently he found a way to do more than just alter her memories. Apparently Angel has been programmed to attack any of us that showed up here."
"How?" Prowl asked from where he was sitting next to Ironhide.
"From what I could guess," Ratchet told us as he slapped a patch on Optimus' shoulder. "She's been programmed to think that anyone who fits the parameters of those she saw "killed" is an illusion and was sent here specifically to torment her."
Optimus flexed his shoulder to make sure it was in working order and then turned back to the medic. "So how does this affect what we came here to do?"
"It doesn't" Ratchet replied, "The only way to shut off the programming is to get hold of her. And the only way to get a hold of her it's to shut down the chip with the Ion charges from you weapon."
Prime nodded, "Stay here and take care of Ironhide and Prowl."
He then proceeded to head out side to go and find where the woman he loved had disappeared to.
"Prime," He stopped and looked back at me, "Don't go out there to find her alone. It's not going to do either of you any good."
"I have to find her Alpha." He told me.
"But you don't have to go look for her alone," I looked at him, "Please allow me to accompany you."
He took measure of me for a moment and then nodded. After leaving instructions with the rest of search party, the two of us set out into that fake storm looking for a small spark of life that was as slipping further and further away as we forged ahead doing the best we could to try and find her.