YOU GUUUUYS! Are you confused because the chapter count is off now that I removed the Author's Note, or are you just CHOOSING TO PUT ME THROUGH TORTURE BY NOT REVIEWING!?
I'm slowly getting back into Mira and OP's story, working through some kinks. I've decided to kinda change the direction of the relationships of this story - as many of have probably witnessed throughout the years, we have a bit of a love triangle going on here, between Cade, Mira, and Optimus. It isn't official, but, it's kinda there, as a few of you have pointed out.
So, I've decided to kinda play on this a little, torture Mira further...you know. Angst and stuff, LOLZ. I've been fully flushing out a storyline for The Last Knight and it is going to be SO EPIC. It's completely different than the movie, but follows the main flow of the film. DON'T wOrRy, we'll still have all the Quintessa-Knight-Nemesis-Prime drama that makes that movie SOAR.
AnYwAyS, I love ya'll and look forward to your thoughts on Mira's return. Here's to getting this fic DONE so we can play in another movie, muahaha! Errors and grammar are on Megatron because why not? xoxoxo
Bumblebee put on the brakes quickly as he came up to a corner, locking his fronts so hard that the back end of the Camaro fishtailed, the alternation vehicle coming to an abrupt stop. The dust from the street floated by in a dark cloud, mildly clouding his view of Lockdown's ship overhead as it crawled through the sky menacingly. He revved the Camaro's engine a few times, feeling the burn in the vehicle's tires as he contemplated his next move.
He received a communique from the others, signaling that the humans were well and safe outside the city. His gaze from within the Camaro filtered to the Seed, which rested in its full form on the backseat, still steadily signaling location in rhythmic beeps. In his core, it feel like each pulse of the signal seemed to bring the word's end steadily closer, a feeling that ebbed into reality as he considered the spacecraft overhead. Deep within his sparkchamber he felt a heavy doubt fall, remembering Mira's words to him - remembering her order. She'd given him the Seed, confident in his abilities to keep the city - to keep people - safe, just as she'd given her brother's life to him to guard and protect.
The scout thought of Mira, and her transformation not only before their very eyes, but throughout the years. Losing Will had strengthened her, though he'd never be able to miss the veil of grief that stole the jovial sparkle from her eyes that he had remembered. She'd been so young once, so young and full of vigor - so eager. She'd thrown herself into every area of the Autobots as she'd been able, and it had cost her everything - a mate, a profession, a life.
She had been embracing her calling as Optimus' charge for years, and now...now she'd stepped fully the mantel, assuming the responsibility unlike he'd ever seen. She'd ordered him away so strongly that it had stirred in him a need to obey, as if Optimus Prime himself had backed her decision even though he hadn't been present His spark soared at the realization - Mira was an Autobot leader. More than she ever had been before.
He followed her energy signature to the ship, relieved that she had survived the travel in the upper atmosphere. His spark pulsed with indecision as he watched her signature vanish into the ship, which obviously was utilizing scrambling technology. He sank a little on his frame as worry consumed him - worry for the leadership of his people; his friends, his mentors. Losing both Mira and Optimus would be an incalculable blow to their ranks, should it come to that, and Lockdown was a formidable foe...could he just stand here and hope they survived? Waiting for news that may never come?
Bumblebee couldn't speculate. He had to see - if both his leaders were going to die, he needed to know. He wouldn't survive the uncertainty, the lack of closure - the Autobots wouldn't survive. Even now he could see them, in his own mind, fracturing apart to lead their separate lives without hope. He couldn't return to waiting and hiding - he'd been hiding for three years.
The frame of the Camaro stiffed. I'm not sitting by without knowing. Enough hiding. Looking at the Seed once more, he again recalled the order of his leader, feeling something harden within his sparkchamber. Mira, forgive me, but - I won't let you do this alone...
The engine revved again, hard. Lifting the clutch and sending the Camaro into another gear, he felt the tires pulse against the pavement of Bogota's streets. Whirling around in a 180, he rocketed down the way he'd come, looking up to Lockdown's ship. He'd have to get aboard somehow, and unlike Mira and Prime's ability to take to the air, it wouldn't be so easy as flying up there.
From the rearview, movement caught his eye - movement in the sky. He screeched to another halt, the Camaro's gears grinding wildly as he abruptly stopped. He found Strafe, making surveying circles in the sky, eyes cast downward to the city as he patrolled for more prototypes. An idea buzzed in the back of his processor, and had he been in bipedal, he would've smiled.
Signaling his transformation, he commed the flying Dinobot. Time to go to work and save your life, Mira, he looked over his shoulder to the ship, I hope you don't kill me for breaking rank, Optimus...
He looked to Strafe, who dipped low below the skyline, and he jumped.
. . .
The upper atmosphere was hell on her lungs, but Mira didn't care. Pressing against Prime's shoulder armor for stability, she tried her best to ignoring the filtering information in her left eye, instead her attention focused on the corridor before them, each fall of Prime's foot sending spikes of heat down her spine beneath the CAST armor. Her mouth was still dry, though she'd managed to seep some moisture into it by running her tongue across the front of her teeth.
To say she'd been surprised by Optimus' reaction to her presence aboard the ship would've been laughable. He hadn't so much as blinked at her presence as much as he'd seemed relieved to find her, which was very unlike the Prime she had come to know throughout the years. He was aggressively passionate about her safety, and she'd always admired his defensive approach to his care for her, but she'd grown accustomed to his chastisement.
Years ago he would've argued with her, demanded she stay behind to be safe - Will would've echoed his concern. And, just as in the past, she would've argued against him, against them both. The fact that Optimus hadn't even so much as offered a rebuttal was almost...off-putting.
Instead he'd stared at her so softly, a look of intensity on his face that she'd ever only seen once before, on Will. He'd looked at her so closely the night they'd married, studying her mettle with vested interest as if he'd never see her again. She remembered the feeling fondly, a wash of memory cascading warmth down her spine the night Will had made her his, had held her so closely...she'd never been the same. Will had looked at her that way, his gaze stealing away her resolve and taking with it her soul. He'd had made the very core of her his own, with such a tenderness and care that it made her throat catch.
And she had seen that same gaze...in Optimus. Her heart stopped and a sharp pain stabbed into the bones of her ribcage. A strangled breath rose in her throat as realization down at the base of her spine. Her mind fractured back to the moment he'd held her; all the times he had touched her so tenderly, had smiled with such intense love that it had melted her own knowledge of herself. He'd given her the Shield, his guardianship...a part of his spark he could never give back, all so willingly and selflessly. He'd been there when Merrick was born; had watched her marry, had been the first one she'd told about her first kiss.
He'd been there since the beginning, in the shadows of her heart, while being so present in the light of her life. He had promised to fight for her, protect her family, to come back. But back to what? For what? NEST was gone, the Autobots had a ship...why come back when the Earth had forsaken him and his people? Her stomach bubbled with a sour bile, remembering how angry he'd been with Joshua, so cold.
Glancing at him from the corner of her eye, she fought for an answer. Why come back to me when you want to leave? The thought stirred something in her chest and she felt a burst of heat explode from the Shield, rocketing blood all the way to her eyes. Her pupils dilated, whatever light the ship offered searing her retinas so strongly that she pinched her eyes closed, reaching up to rub the pain from them. Her breath caught in her chest as the memory of him, at Bryce's property, holding her so closely bombarded the nerve pathways of her brain.
Then, the realization hit her like a blast to the chest. Staggering forward, Mira gripped onto the finial of his helmet for stability, her knuckles ghosting with white as pain rocketed down her spine. Their conversation about sparkbonds between Prime's and Countesses summoned the attention of her brain functionality, stabbing her with the memory of his face as she recalled the conversation.
Did...Optimus love her? How could she not know? She scolded herself, biting on the inside of her cheek roughly Mira, you fool!
Her eyes widened as her knees quaked, and for a moment she felt nauseous at the thought of him...for so long...waiting for her. Her jaw set, solely from the need to stop the contents of her stomach - or lack thereof - from surfacing into her throat. Hot tears, and overwhelming pressure, erupted in the side of her temples - the whisper of a tear formed in the corner of her eye, but she willed it away. Optimus...my sweet Prime, what have I done to you...?
She flicked a look over to him again, studying the language of the Primes etched into the form of his being - so many times she'd witnessed them without actually seeing. Then, looking down to the Autobot crest etched into the armor above her heart, she put a hand over it, curling her armored fingers over it protectively. It seemed to almost hum, as if it were breathing in the revelation of her suspicions.
Mira felt the pull of the Shield reminding her of how close he was, reminding her of all the responsibility on her shoulders - of her own revelation. As much as she wanted to think, all she could do was focus on his movement, the pulse of his run beneath her, the very movement of his being seeping into each nerve of her body as he moved. Very suddenly the blood in her veins ran still as she considered the features of his profile - she was stuck dumb at how beautiful he suddenly seemed.
For years she'd stood in his shadow, loving him as a friend; seeing him as a mentor - her heart belonging to William Lennox, when all along it was meant to be his.
So many times she'd sat here, on his shoulder, taking in the magnificence of his presence - but she'd never felt so close. Mira closed her eyes, breathing in the thin air, which was pummeled with the trace of steel and musk and moisture. Her lungs burned as they tried to find oxygen in the atmosphere, which was difficult, though it might as well have felt impossible. She bit her lower lip, a vision of Optimus passing through her mind. From nowhere, suddenly her lips were burning, and another stab of grief suffocated her. Her eyes popped open, Mira for a second considering that they'd flown out of her head.
Oh no. Cade, I -- there was sudden, burning light in her left eye, and a pulse of heat from the implant, triggering her attention. Enemy forces detected. Energon signatures unconfirmed. Deploy defensive countermeasures?
The CAST system exploded with information, energy pulsing through her body as the armor triggered the ion cannon from her arm, it rising out of the plating effortlessly. Her head snapped up to attention when the warning of detected energy signatures again flashed to life in her left eye, the CAST system signaling the presence of bogies a second time. Her blood exploded with familiar heat and she curled back into a low crouch, still gripping to Optimus' frame with every ounce of life she possessed.
There wasn't a need to communicate the presence of enemy fighters. Mira felt her Prime curl with tension at the acknowledgment, and he brought the sword to his side, coming to an abrupt halt as two enemy scouts skidded to a stop from around the corner, weapons drawn. Sparks from the inertia of their feet scraping across the steel walkway skittered across the floor, and Optimus took stance, his sword drawn. Hearing a mild transformation, she watched him reached behind and withdraw an actual shield from his back, his battle mask dropping into place solidly over the lower features of his face.
Mira studied the fighters - she immediately recognized them as prototypes from KSI, a wedge of fear splitting her chest. That could only mean that Galvatron was rallying forces to the ship. Realization hit her in the back of the head, sending a bolt of fear down her spine - if Galvatron was drawing his forces to the vessel, that would mean her and Optimus would be severely outnumbered, Galvatron and Lockdown aside. They'd be overwhelmed.
Standing to her full height, ion blaster still deployed, Mira gripped onto a junction of Prime's armor, dropping off his shoulder to swing herself down to the platform. She hit the platform hard, the rattle of Cybertronian metal reverberating as she collided. Feeling nothing, she raised her arm and took two steps forward, the targeting system flashing in her left eye - she had a lock on one of the prototypes, and the armor was signaling to engage fire.
The tension between the two parties was thick enough to slice, though it didn't last - all at once, both prototypes lunged forward in a burst of speed, scrambled technobabble erupting from the both of them. It took her a fraction of a second to realize they were speaking Cybertronian before the system in her left eye disengaged, flashing a warning signal that she no longer had targeted lock.
The prototypes advanced, crossing one another's path - suddenly Mira was faced with a different enemy charging at her, and before she realized what had happened, the one prototype collided with Optimus, Prime raising his sword to counterstrike the enemy's blow. She watched as Prime braced his forearm against the being's chest, shoving him back while taking an offensive step forward, crouching low to gather more momentum to back the blow.
Snapping to attention, she raised her blaster to take aim again, only to find that the other prototype had leapt over her, reaching down mid-air to pluck her front the ground in its massive hand. Drawing her to his chest to maintain inertia, the world spun momentarily as the bot flipped through the air, landing behind Prime's engaged form to stare down at her. Mira felt her stomach land back in her abdomen, her head burning with the dizzying array of a spinning world.
The being's grip on her body was steeled, and unwavering. She squirmed within its grasp, pushing against his fisted hand around her middle for any type of give. It did little other than to make the prototype chuckle at her, prompting her to stare up at it with a narrowed sneer. Setting her jaw, she reached up to press the insignia over her heart, "Thrusters, engage!" was her command, her voice bouncing off the open air of the platform.
At once the thrusters in her feet ignited, the system informing her that they were online and fully operational. Bringing up the ion blaster again, she leveled it at the bot, and triggered a shot swiftly. It hit home in the bot's arm, the prototype releasing a growling scream before his grip released just enough for Mira to pry herself loose. Using the thrusters, she managed out of his grip, rocketing away from his reach before his sweeping arc could capture her again.
Instead, she went up, spotting Optimus still fighting hand-to-hand with the other prototype. Somehow he'd managed to drop his sword to the platform, raising the shield to block whatever blows the sizable prototype managed to swing his way. For a moment fear plagued her core at the thought of him actually getting hurt, but she willed her stomach to steel itself solid - she'd engaged in combat many times with Optimus, and she couldn't afford for her emotions to cloud her survival instincts. Instead, she looked down to the other mech she'd been engaged with.
Realizing she had bested him, he moved to counterengage Prime. Rocketing downward, she killed the thrusters, Mira dropping onto the mech's back heavily. It staggered beneath the added weight and paused, glancing over its shoulder to register her presence only momentarily, before it snarled and reached for her, Mira dodging its massive hand, clutching to the back column of his neck.
She charged the blaster, aimed it at the base of the prototypes neck, and burred the muzzle deep within the protomatter of its exoskeleton. Triggering another shot, she fired the blast into the mech's body, it screaming as the shot connected with its sensitive innards. The bot collapsed to its knees, jerking forward, and Mira released his form when she saw the inside of the being's sparkchamber - or what would've been a sparkchamber, had he been actually Cybertronian - hit the floor before him.
Falling for a moment, she tucked into a roll, the armor absorbing the impact in her shoulder as she staggered to stand, adrenaline racing throughout her body. She was sweating and clammy all at once, her breath uneven and triggering the system to flash her oxygen level. Behind her, she heard metal connect with metal, and then a heavy thud! as something shook the platform, causing her to swing around in an about face so swiftly her hair smacked her in the face.
She watched Optimus rip his hand from the other bot's sparkchamber, the being collapsed to the floor on his knees as he stared at Prime, the light of his optics flickering for only an instant before they cut into darkness entirely. The entire frame of the being fell forward in dead weight, Optimus releasing his other grip on the mech's shoulders. It staggered in midair only momentarily before falling forward, fluids spilling onto the walkway, rapidly emptying from the chassis.
Moving to collect his weapons, Optimus put the shield back into place behind him, it connecting again with a mechanical click. Mira blinked at him, clearing the sweat from her eyes as she tried to level her breathing again, signaling the system to disengage the shield from over her eye. Optimus too dropped the battle mask, and Mira reached up to run the back of her armored hand beneath her nose, sweat dripping to the floor in fat drops as she considered the prototype before her that he'd killed.
He took a knee, offering his hand to her. She obliged, and he lifted her, checking their surroundings in an calculated sweep. "Are you alright?" he asked her hurriedly, standing and falling back against the corner the two prototypes had rounded from. He held her close to his chest as he surveyed the area, Mira so close to the chamber of his spark that she could hear its strong thrum, even amidst the cavity of the ship. Pressing a hand to his chest plating, she nodded, sucking in a leveling breath as she looked up to him.
"Fine," she affirmed, her brow knitting into one of concern for him. "Those were prototypes, Optimus," she observed, looking to the fallen bodies. "Galvatron is rallying his forces here. We're going to be outnumbered here, within minutes," her tone dropped into a quiet one as he lifted his other hand to stay her observation. "Prime, we have to go -"
He ignored her statement altogether, moving to peer around the corner, his expression drawn downward in concentration. Mira leaned in his hand for a look of her own, but was unable, until he turned back to consider her in his hand. His neon optics focused on her, whirring lightly, and Mira could practically see the inner workings of his process displayed - he was thinking, about her, and how to keep her safe.
He was distracted, she could feel it in his hesitation to press forward.
Frowning as he did another sweep, she stood to her full height in his hand and without warning, dropped from it to the platform. Staggering up, she moved around the corner at a sprint, her arms pulsing at either side of her as she bolted down the platform, in the direction of Lockdown's bridge. Setting her jaw, the clear path before her was promising, and she didn't even hear Optimus call after her, instead feeling the weight of his mass chasing after her, rocking the entire platform beneath her feet.
Movement from the left made her hesitate, and she slowed to a stop, glowing green optics snatching the entirely of her focus. Tripping over her armored feet she fell forward, colliding with the platform fully. Not wasting a moment, she growled and pushed herself up, but before her head could snap up to register the presence before her, her stomach flew up into her throat, stealing away her breath in a gasp. Her eyes flecked upward, her features falling into a narrow sneer as she snarled at him.
"Lockdown," she hissed at him, Prime slowing to a stop in her peripheral vision.
The mech before her grinned wickedly at her, before dropping to a knee and taking a large finger to dip beneath her chin, snapping her head back so her attention fully found his face, which was twisted into a wicked smirk. Something in his shoulder transformed, and before she could fully discern it, he turned to consider Optimus. He chuckled, then looked back to Mira, darkness flickering through his optics.
"Welcome back..." he leaned in closer to her features, his face dropping into a scowl. "...Countess of Iacon."
As a reminder, reviews are great! Helps me pump out chapters faster, and genuinely makes me smile. As our good friend Simmons would say, "We've got a possible resurrection going on here!" Help me revive Mira and Optimus, ya'll! xoxoxo
