Chapter 3: Scars

Warning: Self Harm and Abuse in Chapter

Raf sat on the yellow couch in the base as June sat beside him looking over the horrible bruise on his arm. Raf held the strand of black cloth that Zagreus had wrapped around his arm. Bumblebee had come and gotten him once the storm had cleared and after the sun had started to rise. Once the duo had returned to base, June was quickly called to look over the teenage boy's wounds. The Autobots watched the human nurse do her thing to treat the wounds. June noticed the black cloth being clenched by the teenager, "Raf. what's that? Wasn't that the cloth wrapped around your arm?" Raf nodded and glanced over at the Autobots before looking back down. "Who gave it to you? Was someone with you in the cave? Did someone else hurt you in the cave?" June asked in a harsh tone. "And don't you dare lie to us. You already lied to us when you said a bully did this but instead it was that bastard father of yours."

"Fine, fine," Raf said as he pushed up his broken glasses and fixed his hair a little bit to compose himself. "While I was in the cave this Decepticon came in and helped me calm down and wrap my arm. Her name was Zagreus," Raf explained.

The Autobots all reacted in variations, shocked expressions, and looked at each other, and mingled amongst themselves for a few moments. Optimus, however, remained to have an emotionless face as he glanced over from the main counsel, curious what others thought about Commander Zagreus.

"Zagreus? As in Megatron's hellspawn," Arcee asked as she narrowed her optics. "Why would she help you? She is just as sparkless as Megatron and has murdered thousands of Autobots," Arcee explained further as her optics narrowed as thoughts raced through her mind.

"Megatron has a daughter?" Miko asked as she sat on Bulkhead's shoulder. "Someone had a kid with the big bad of the Decepticons?" Miko asked, clearly very confused.

"Megatron has two offspring. Kronos and Zagreus both were born before the war. Their carrier died in the gladiator pits of Cybertron," Ratchet elaborated. "Their carrier was the kindest yet stubbornest femme but sadly made one mistake in the pits and that was it. Megatron was devastated because of her death and it was one of the first things that began to plague his spark. Maybe Zagreus has some of her kind spark left in her?"

"Could she have some sort of spark under all that coldness though?" Arcee asked as she looked up at the humans.

"Zagreus did say something that stuck out to me. Well, a couple of things actually. One was 'I do not like seeing any life form in pain, especially with wounds that look like mine' or something like that. The other one was, 'not all Decepticons are sparkless, much like all Autobots do not have the purest sparks," Raf said as he glanced between all of the Autobots. "It doesn't make sense to me that she was being so kind and so unlike the other Decepticons that you guys have faced."

"What does she mean by either of those? Those are very unlikely things for a glitch like her to say," Bulkhead said as he looked just as confused as Miko did a few moments ago.

"She had a holoform like you guys and there were scars on her arms. Like self-harm scars that some humans have. Maybe she isn't as ruthless as you guys think?" Raf mumbled quietly.

"Cybertronians can also inflict scars upon themselves, be it on their armor or their protoform underneath. Some also have scars from the war that struck that deeply. Most of those scars heal but it also depends on the type of trauma the bot has as well. " Ratchet explained. "As for her not being as ruthless, I have seen her go into a rage and rip the arms off of Autobots. Her amount of rage and strength are like that of Megatron."

Optimus subconsciously reached to his side as he remembered the large scar hidden under his armor. Optimus released a vent before going back and typing away on the counsel as the others talked. His mind began to wander back to his nightmare, the femme seemed so familiar to him for some reason and the name Zagreus fit the femme as well. Perhaps the femme in his visions was Megatron's daughter? Though why would his daughter be with him, crying, screaming, and reciting some sort of chant with him? Just as his mind began to race a signal began going off that they had found a mine filled with energon.

On the Nemesis

Zagreus sat on her berth in her small quarters, she spun a small dagger in her hand and opened the armor on her forearm and looked down at the many scars already apparent on the silver metal. Some scars were so deep that you could see the wires beneath it. Zagreus laid the blade on a small open area on her one forearm. She slid the blade across it with ease and some energon came to the surface. She barely flinched, let alone felt it, not feeling it was what she wanted though. She watched the strange mixture of pure energon and dark energon drip down her forearm.

Earlier the sire daughter duo had been sparring and Megatron beat the scrap out of her with very little thought that she was his daughter. When the sire and daughter were together Megatron always taunted her about how much better her older brother was at leading and fighting, how little of a success she was in his optics, and she didn't know if all this resulted from her carrier passing away in the pits.

"Zagreus, report to the skydeck now," Megatron said through her com. Zagreus stood and swung her hand and released the dagger to send it into the wall of her room. She closed the armor around her forearm before leaving her room and made her way towards the skydeck. Vehicons with land vehicle modes and flyers were there as well as Starscream and Megatron. Those ranked below the femme bowed. Zagreus bowed to Megatron before looking up at her sire.

"It would seem there is some Autobot activity in an old mine, I would like you to take a few troops and deal with them," Megatron said as he looked down at his daughter. Zagreus bowed her helm and looked around and pointed to a few flyers as well as simple soldier vehicons. "I also want you to see how well you hold your ground against Optimus now, with the Matrix of Unicron in your control."

Zagreus turned and took a deep breath before exhaling, she opened her optics and revealed them as a bright purple. "Yes my liege," she said with ease before she and the others headed through a groundbridge. Zagreus and her fleet made it to the cliff above the cave. Below was the small band of Autobots going in and out of it. "Stay here and await my signal," She said before she jumped down the cliff and landed in front of the mouth of the cave in front of Arcee and Bumblebee who instantly jumped back and activated their blasters.

"Holy scrap," Arcee mumbled as she saw the taller femme's optics glowing a bright purple as well as a similar aura radiating from her chest. "She is on this planet," Arcee said as she charged her blasters.

"She? What am I more sinister than Unicron that no one can speak my name?" Zagreus taunted as she smirked slightly to reveal a few sharp dentas. "I am only going to ask twice, leave this mine or deal with the consequences of the possibility of your sparks being extinguished on this very peaceful day?" Zagreus said as she moved slightly to loosen her joints.

Arcee and Bumblebee looked at each other before looking behind the heir of the Decepticons to see Optimus and Bulkhead with their blasters aimed at her as well. Zagreus glanced over her shoulder and saw the Prime standing there. "What do you say, Optimus? Make this easy for all of us or do this the much harder way?" Zagreus smirked. Optimus's optics narrowed as he looked at his team then back to her before he slowly lowered his blasters before transforming his hands back to normal. Zagreus went to step out of the way but Arcee moved and slashed across her face with one of her sharp side blades. Zagreus groaned and hunched over slightly as a hand went over her optics.

"Oh scrap," Bulkhead cursed before he glared at Arcee. Arcee's side blade had dark energon on it as well as bright blue energon as her arm shook slightly. Her optics were narrowed at the Decepticon.

Zagreus stood up and removed her hand from over her optics. A clear slash could be seen across it as energon came down her faceplates. She growled and her optics narrowed at the femme. "Guess I get to claim your spark first." Zagreus moved quickly and grabbed the femme by her helm and slammed her into the ground before picking her back up and spinning around and chucking the femme past the two larger mechs. Arcee rolled across the stone floor before sliding into the cave wall. Arcee screamed and groaned as her wings were now all fragged up and a few scratches on her faceplates. Zagreus looked and saw Bumblebee and took his blaster shots to the chest with ease before moving and kicking him in the abdomen to send him sliding back into a couple of trees.

Optimus and Bulkhead quickly got into the battle to ensure that their comrades would not be killed. Bumblebee also came charging at the femme. Zagreus smirked and extended her blade from her arm and began sparing all of them with ease. Zagreus dodged the Prime's attack and ended up causing him to strike Bulkhead in the chest with his sword. Bulkhead moved back clenching his chest. "Bulkhead and Bumblebee go check on Arcee and have Ratchet groundbridge you out of here," Optimus ordered as he saw Vehicons heading into the cave.

Optimus clashed blades with Zagreus and both were using all their might against each other. Energon dripping down the pair's armor. The two Matrix's glowed slightly in their chests as they were at a slight stalemate. "Zagreus, we do not have to finish this fight, allow us to leave and you can have the mine," Optimus groaned as he pushed his blade harder across the femme's.

"This is no longer about the damn mine, your fragging unstable soldier broke that by attacking," Zagreus said as she pushed her blade against the Prime's more. Her optics flickered back to red for a few seconds as the dark energon in her system began to go down a little bit. Zagreus quickly moved her blade and dodged the Prime's and stabbed him in the abdomen. Optimus quickly moved his own sword and plunged it into her abdomen as well. The pair hunched over slightly and were looking into each other's optics. "Nice move for an old data clerk," Zagreus said as she groaned and coughed slightly.

Optimus groaned and hid his pain as well as he saw her optics go back to red. "Why was she not showing that she was in so much pain?" Deep in her optics there was a slight glimmer of weakness and fear. Optimus's expression softened slightly. He shook his helm slightly before he moved his sword from her abdomen, Zagreus did the same before collapsing. Optimus caught her and went down to one knee.

"Why not finish this?" Zagreus asked through panting. She looked up at the Prime and frowned as she could barely move from fighting with so much adrenaline and having sparred with her sire earlier in the day. "I am at your mercy, you could rip my damn spark out," she said as her body shook and tears came from her optics as her helm dropped. "Megatron would."

"I am not Megatron," Optimus said as his spark was screaming to help this femme. Help the one who had been in his visions.