Disclaimer: I only own my OCs.
Megatron: I don't like wasting time. *glances around* Where is Team Apocalypse!?
Authoress: *rolls eyes* You know I can't tell you, so why do you ask?
Megatron: *glares*
Authoress: *glares back*
Megatron: *powers up cannon*
Authoress: Eep! *runs away from being obliterated*
Chapter 11: Laying Demons to Rest
Megatron's 1st P.O.V.
Where were they?
Twenty clicks had passed since we began this fight with Team Orion. Usually, Team Apocalypse at least communicated their location with Team Orion's scout as of late. However, from what I was seeing from the young mech fighting Starscream, he was growing more nervous. All of this planning, and hesitating, and the other team wasn't even in communication yet?
Something must have happened.
Every other fight that we had against Team Apocalypse, they were always ready to assist in fighting us. While they weren't exactly on friendly terms with most of Team Orion, they at least were competent enough to realize that grudges needed to be sat aside against a common enemy. They had the discipline to realize this. Team Orion, for the most part, seemed to be failing against us due to the lack of assistance from their fellow Autobots.
Even Optimus Prime, who I was currently fighting, seemed to be distracted by this. I had not failed to notice him muttering about Sentinel's team not arriving yet. From what I was hearing, he wasn't even taking into consideration that his fellow Autobots could be in serious trouble at this click. This rift between the two Autobot teams here on Earth was even deeper than I realized it was. Or, perhaps the right thought was that the rift was growing since the two teams were the only Autobots working on this planet. That would explain this devolution of cooperation from the first fight we had against them.
"Megatron, I think you should switch me opponents. ~Starscream." The private message from Starscream surprised me.
Had I allowed myself to be focused on my thoughts and missed Starscream getting into a tight spot? Glancing at the mech, I was confused that he seemed to be fighting the yellow scout still and didn't seem to be struggling. "Why? ~Megatron." I responded to my second in command. This was strange, but Starscream wouldn't be asking this on a whim.
"It's something you need to see for yourself. ~Starscream." He was being strangely dodgy about answering me.
However, I would humor him for now. "Very well. ~Megatron"
I then forced the Prime to back off for a nano, giving Starscream and myself plenty of time to switch between the two of us. As soon as I stood in front of the scout, the nervousness that was usual when opponents fought me was readable on his faceplate. "So, can I get a redeal?" He then ducked out of the way as I swung my sword at him.
The mech continued to dodge and strike at me as the clicks passed by. During this time, I couldn't see what Starscream seemed to be worried about with the mech. He seemed in a stable processor-state to keep up with my attacks, even if those attacks were restrained to not push these Autobots into collapse. Remembering that Starscream had fired a few shots from his null-rays at the mech, I decided to see if that was possibly the case. So, with aiming slightly off to give the mech time to dodge, I primed my cannon before firing it at the scout.
A yelp escaped the mech's vocals as he ducked away from the shot, the edge just scraping against his backplates. Not terrible reflexes. The training we were assuming he was getting from Team Apocalypse was helping him. Once the mech seemed to be back on his pedes, I moved in with my blades. As I struck down at the mech with the first one, I saw it.
The mech seemed jittery after avoiding my shot. This didn't match up with how the mech had acted previously. Well, since he had started his assumed training. Of course, the lack of arrival from Team Apocalypse might be amplifying whatever nervousness the mech had in a fight before. As I continued to attack the mech, he started to grow almost paranoid from my strikes. His optics were dilated to a point where I was sure he was panicking. This wasn't something that I had seen in the mech before.
"I see what you mean Starscream. ~Megatron" I figured my second in command would like confirmation that his suspicions were correct. Something was off with the scout.
It didn't take long for my second in command to get back to me. "He seems to be falling into a trauma-induced memory. I'm not sure if it is from our previous fights before the arrival of Team Apocalypse, of something that transpired before he even left Cybertron. I wanted you to see this and decide who would be best to take over the fight against the scout. ~Starscream."
There was only one choice that I felt would be able to balance the fight so the Autobot didn't break down and force us to leave or have to capture him. "Shockwave, take over here," I spoke aloud as I saw he was fighting the big green mech on the Autobot side. That mech would take less restraint than me fighting their scout. Plus, Shockwave would be better to judge how to pull back from causing the mech to completely break down.
However, as we switched opponents, I was surprised to receive a private message from the mech. He must not want the Autobots to hear what he had to say. "Megatron, scanners from the base have informed me that there seem to be neutral and Autobot signals on the other side of the city. Should we go and interfere?~Shockwave"
Frag, so that was where the Team Apocalypse was. But, what they were doing with neutrals instead of answering the hails from the other Autobots? I knew that tensions were high between the two teams, but at the least, they would not keep the scout out of the loop. Something was not adding up with that situation. However, it would take us some time to pull out of this fight without raising too much suspicion. I could see that the scout and their medic were already on edge, and would notice if we suddenly departed after switching opponents.
Frag, I was going to have to stay here longer. The mysterious absence of Team Apocalypse and this disturbance had to be connected. Yet, I couldn't possibly move to investigate. I would need to plan for this sort of eventuality in the future.
Trecke's 1st P.O.V.
Dead.
Anastasia was dead.
Even as the assassins were gathering, now with more numbers to their group, I couldn't form any other thoughts except for that. We knew that she could die at any click. It was one of the first things that Lizzie had told us about Stasi's disease when we first met the human.
But, for her to offline so soon after we had met her, it seemed too cruel. Primus overstepped his bounds. Such a bright human spark, despite her illness, being snuffed from existence so soon her in life was an affront that I could never forgive.
But, now was not the time to gain information from our newest member. I finally focused as I blocked an attack coming from the mech I was fighting earlier.
"You look distracted Autobot," The assassin taunted me before he struck at my side...a strike I barely blocked. "Being distracted like that could get a bot killed if they aren't careful."
The mocking tone that this mech was taking with me caused me to grind my denta. His kind offlined any being as long as the price was right. They held no moral compass, and I would even argue that they lacked a spark in their chassis. How dare he mock our friend. Anastasia might be offline, but I would not let this mech tarnish her memory.
"Howler!" The mech fighting my dear love yelled at the mech I was fighting. "Hurry and get that mech restrained. There isn't a lot of time before we are discovered, and I want to be able to draw out their offlining as long as possible." The mech, Eclipse, then turned to my leader, who was recovering from a hit, before he smirked. "Starting with this one."
Anger filled my circuits as I heard the filth dare disgrace, my love. He would offline before he had the chance to offline my dear Sentinel. "You'll all offline before you get the chance," I snarled before lunging at Howler.
That seemed to take the jet ski mech by surprise as he stumbled backward, barely keeping his footing as my blade arched, craving to make contact with this foul creature.
As I tried to take out this mech, I did a quick look at the battlefield to see how my team was faring. My precious leader seemed to have recovered from whatever Eclipse did to him for he was seemingly pushing the mech back.
Then, I glanced at our newest member and saw that Pastel was doing just fine in keeping up with her opponent, one of the new bots who was a dark blue car mech with light green highlights. I would make sure to check on her as we continued to fight, just in case though. I didn't know how she fought in battle so I wanted to make sure that she had whatever backup that she needed.
Finally, I glanced over at Fable. The sadist was taking on two different bots at once. The first was Delirium, who he was fighting earlier. The second was a femme who was colored white with silver and light blue highlights. She seemed to be able to turn into a moped, putting her on the smaller size. However, having two opponents seemed to not even be slowing our battle medic down. However, I was noticing something. "Fable, you idiot! Keep your emotions in check!"
The mech snapped those blue optic toward me, their orange centers seemingly boring into me, before he smirked. "I always do Trecke."
Right.
I had to focus back on my fight at that point as Howler took a swing at my helm. I liked my helm without damage and firmly on my shoulders thank you very much.
"You know," I listened as Howler spoke to me. "I thought that Autobot teams were supposed to care for each other equally."
"None will ever supersede my love and leader," I proudly stated. Fable and I both knew, as soon would Pastel, that none were above our leader on our team, even if he said otherwise.
Howler, to my surprise though, raised an optic ridge at that. "I was not talking about your leader. You seem to have a special focus on that medic of yours. Addressing him and no other bot on your team when you are checking up on them. I thought you two must be especially close to each other."
A snarl ripped out of my vocals at that. "That sadist is nothing compared to our leader. Any care I show to him comes from being his teammate and serving our leader, at the most." I could never like Fable anymore than that. He was too close to what my future is supposed to…
Screams suddenly came from my vocals as Howler was able to land a blow across my chest plate. I held a servo there, hoping to stopper the bleeding slightly. My faceplate turned into a frown as I studied the mech in front of me. He was able to use my emotions and fears to distract me. I had figured out his pattern by this point and I had let him lure me into a sense of security. That wouldn't do.
"Trecke! Do you need dissection?" Fable yelled to me. I was surprised he was the one to yell until my processor remembered that he was our team medic and as such should be worried about my physical welfare.
"I'm fine," I growled as I glanced at the mech, who was staring at me. My optics widened, though, as I saw the two bots he was fighting taking advantage of his distraction. "Fable behind you!" I then moved to intercept the blows that were heading towards our medic. He wouldn't be able to stop both!
Flashing white pain seared through my helm as I tried to step toward my teammate. As I fell to my knees, I realized that Howler had used my distraction to land a critical blow. I could not defend myself now, my helm barely able to keep my optics functioning behind my visor.
Fable was down. The two bots who had been attacking him seemed to have gotten the advantage of him. I struggled to break free and help him but Howler seemed to have a firm grip on my wrists. A scream of pain caused me to turn to see that Pastel was also down, the bot who she was fighting keeping her down with his pede. Energon seemed to be leaking from her side.
I kept struggling as I glanced toward Sentinel. He looked like a demon, possessed, striking at Eclipse with everything that he possessed...as a true leader should. However, my spark stopped and my optics widened as Eclipse took advantage of my leader's concern for us and struck him against his helm. My great leader fell to his knees, barely able to move as Eclipse put pressure behind his helm with his dagger.
"As I said before," Eclipse smirked now that the fighting was over with. "None escape their fates. Now, I will be taking your leader somewhere more private to finish him." He then leaned down and whispered something to our leader. From the widening fear in his optics, it was not something pleasant.
"No. You have me. Leave them alone." My leader sounded haggard as those words escaped his vocals.
Eclipse let out a 'tut' before he shook his helm. "Sorry, but the bounty says that the goal is to eliminate your entire team, and we are being paid by the helm." Of course, by the look on his faceplate, he was in no way sorry for what he was about to do.
As they dragged my leader away, I let out a cry of despair. I had failed him.
Starscream's 1st P.O.V.
I could see that Megatron was upset. After Shockwave had sent that private message to the rest of us, about the neutral signals coming up by other Autobot ones, obviously Team Apocalypse, I could see that our leader was torn between going to investigate this new development and making sure that any retreat we made here did not raise suspicion.
Already, I could tell that we were being observed by the old medic and the yellow scout. I was sure that we were just fortunate enough that the scout was still not as proficient as a true scout should be. Otherwise, he would have noticed the way we were holding back.
Team Orion was pathetic, and even struggled against us Decepticons when we had strayed from our path. Now that our processors were once again united, these Autobots, for the most part, were soon to learn their weakness against us.
And that weakness would be even easier to exploit given the strain between the two teams. With the lack of Apocalypse at this battle, where the Autobots were struggling, the tensions between the three Primes would rise and that would be followed by the tension between their teams.
Maybe we could use that to our advantage. Bots on the edge usually had processors that would not be so hardwired to follow a code they had followed all of their existences.
Leaning back from a strike from Optimus Prime's ax, I could see the frustration that was in his optics. That frustration was more than just from being inept at battle. It was easy to read that the mech was upset about the lack of arrival from his fellow Prime. It was causing this Prime to move sloppily.
Of course, that sloppy movement was making it even more difficult for me to pretend to be taking this fight seriously.
"You bore me," I couldn't help but let out as I dodged another of the Prime's attacks. Did I seriously have that much trouble before against these attacks?
"Strong words coming from you Starscream," Optimus growled, clearly letting the frustration get to him. "In all of our past fights, you would have run by this point. Surprised you haven't actually."
While I felt a small spike of anger for the attack against my pride, I pushed it aside for now. "That was, as you said little Autobot, the past. You will find I am not so easily driven off as before."
That anger returned slightly as this Prime dared to scoff at my response. Talk about insolence! "Right. A bot doesn't change his programming. So once a filthy Decepticon coward, always one!"
Anger blazed through my spark at the mech's insolence. How dare he! "Listen here you insignificant pile of slag," I grabbed the front of the mech and picked him up. I could barely feel his struggling kicks against me, nor the shots that his team fired in response. "I could crush you with ease!" Before I could say more, however, a shot of pain traveling from the back of my leg caused me to drop the Prime in shock, who moved away from me.
When I turned, my anger dissipated to be replaced by surprise by who I saw. "Back off Starscream." The yellow scout, Bumblebee, had already moved out of striking range. I thought that Shockwave was supposed to be dealing with the mech. However, I soon realized that the reason the mech was able to interfere was that Shockwave had been forced to focus on fighting their cyber-ninja Prowl.
"Bumblebee, fall back now!" Elita-One yelled at the scout.
While that was a normal command for on the battlefield, the anger behind the order was not. I knew that the two teams were at odds with each other. However, I did not realize that the bots within Team Orion themselves had started to pull apart. However, now that I looked at it, I did realize that the old medic seemed to be on edge around the two primes on his team. Even now, the medic was looking at Elita-One in surprise.
"Are you fragging kidding me right now!" And that yell from the scout proved it. "I just pulled boss-bot out of the fragging smelting pit and you want me to fall back!?"
"That wasn't a suggestion Bumblebee!" This time it was the bot that the scout just saved who jumped in with this.
It seemed that this tension between the scout and his primes was deep. That was especially seen as I watched the bug wave off the Primes before he launched at me. Well, that seemed to go full circle. I had started this fight off against the bug. Now, it seemed that I was back to fighting him.
"Decepticons, there is nothing we can gain here. Return to base." And I seemed to finish the fighting with the bug as I heard Megatron's order. That fight between the three Autobots did create the perfect excuse for us to pull out. So, with that, I pushed the scout back before retreating next to Shockwave. We all then followed Megatron into the sky and made our way toward the base.
I knew that it was eating at our leader that we could not immediately head toward the site of the neutral signals. However, the Autobots would be monitoring the city and the area surrounding it for our signals and, while the signal dampeners worked, they did lose their capabilities when away from the carbon-rich caves we were using as our base of operations.
"Megatron, it seems that the infighting between the Autobots has spread to more than just between the two teams," Shockwave spoke up as we continued to move toward the base.
In return, he nodded. "Yes, and I would like to keep an optic on that as our time here on this planet continues. However, we have more pressing matters to attend to. Starscream, once we return to the base, we will wait for the necessary cycle for the dampeners to get back to full strength before we go and investigate the neutral signals."
Our leader seemed upset that we were going to have to wait at all. However, he also realized the necessity of waiting. We would hopefully find out more answers without the Autobots venting down our backs.
Sentinel's 1st P.O.V.
I had failed.
As Eclipse dragged me through the trees, the femme that Fable had been fighting walking next to him, that thought bored into my helm. My team had depended on me to lead them, to keep them safe. And I couldn't do that. Now, the thousands of stellars that we had put in to create our team into the best that it could be was for naught. I could not see any way out of this for me. Hopefully, Fable would be able to detach his servos so he could slip through their grasps. He could save the others. Eclipse had whispered that he would personally be offlining each member of my team, one at a time after he had offlined me.
That would give my team the chance to survive.
I had already lost Pandimala. Now, it seemed like I was destined to meet with her in the Well. While I was afraid for the fates of my teammates that I would be leaving behind, I was glad that I would be able to see her again.
"The great Team Apocalypse." I glanced at the femme as she sneered our name. "Not much to be impressed about."
Well, I was going to offline anyway. I had best make sure to make the most of it. "This coming from the femme who had to fight my medic with the help of another bot, and then still had issues."
The femme snarled at that and struck me across the faceplate. I felt a small trickle of energon slip past the corner of my mouth, but it was worth it when I heard Eclipse berate the femme. "Enough Deja. These are my kills. You strike him again, and you will face consequences on our return to headquarters."
Deja looked admonished for a nano before she turned to me with a glare. Well, that was worth it. "Despite Deja's lack of information, I do know about you Sentinel Prime."
I glanced at Eclipse, now curious. From how he was talking, he knew more about me than he should. However, there wasn't much in my past that would be considered hidden knowledge. My friendship with Pandimala, and her being the official first member of my team was one of those. What did he think he knew?
After a click of him not talking, I realized that he was waiting for me to make some sort of comment. "What would that be?"
The mech raised an optic ridge in return. "From the very start of your journey as an Autobot, you were just as shallow as the rest of your ilk. Not only that, but you seemed to slack where you thought you could get away with it. However, something changed after you were made a Prime. Something that did not affect even your closest friends at the time. And I know what that something was."
My optics shot open wide as I glanced up at him. He roughly threw me against a tree, since I had been bound before we had left the clearing. I flinched slightly from the pain of the impact before I immediately met the mech's gaze. "What do you know?"
Eclipse smirked at that. "While I do not who it was you were in contact with, I have a very reliable source that says you were randomly contacted by a neutral who had become isolated on a distant planet. That planet was Archa 7. You kept constant contact with this neutral up until your failed journey to said planet with your two teammates at the time, who are currently the two Primes of Team Orion."
How...how did he know so much? While he didn't seem to have all the information on Panidmala that I knew there was, he still knew too much. I never told anybot until Trecke and Fable that I had been contacted by her, and that her contact had been quite a surprise to the both of us. Neither of them would betray me. That meant that there was another party who was aware that I had been in contact with Pandimala back then. "How did you find this out?" I growled at the mech.
"I have contacts who are very deep in information," Eclipse smirked at me before pulling out his blade. "And that will be the last thought you will take to the Pit!" My optics then widened as he drew back his arm, blade poised to run my helm through.
"Ack!"
My optics widened in surprise as a black blade protruded suddenly through Eclipse's helm, forcing the mech forward slightly. When the blade was pulled back, I felt my spark stop. As the figure before me turned their blades toward Deja, I couldn't come out of the stupor that I was in. This couldn't be real.
Even as I watched Deja fall, and the bot in front of me used their blade to release me from the bindings I was in, my processor wouldn't believe what my optics were screaming at it. That was, until, the bot knelt to the ground in front of me. Glowing green optics met mine before the figure smiled.
"Sen, I'm sorry it took me so long."
"'Mala."
*silence from Team Apocalypse*
Authoress: Umm...surprise?
AN: And here is the next chapter! I hope you all enjoyed it. As some of you may have guessed (or not if I am getting that good) Pandimala was bound to return. Of course, the 'how' in the question of how she was able to live will lay some groundwork for later. All I have to say on this for now though. Don't want to give too much away.
The next chapter will have us see how Pandimala and Sentinel rescue the rest of the team from the other bounty hunters/assassins. Of course, we will have meetings between the rest of the team and their long lost member. How will Pandimala's return change everything?
So, with that out of the way, time for the names of the next chapters!
Chapter 12: Brief Respite and Reconnection
Chapter 13: The Autobots Strike Back
Chapter 14:...(find out next time!)
Well, that's all for now! Reviews are of course appreciated but I do love that you all are just reading this, to begin with. I don't give up on stories often (unless the writing has been simply atrocious or something similar) and I don't plan on giving up on this one. Updating between this one and a few of the others might cause it to take some time, but not forgotten.
Until next time, ttyl! *smirks as looks at names of chapters not yet revealed*
