Chapter 6

Journey Through Memories

Claw took a few steps towards the two Autobots. He extended his permanently stained energon blade and smirked. "Well well, look what we have here. The medic and the gladiator together?" He teased as he walked closer. Ratchet took a couple of steps backward. "What, don't want to give her up? I have the antidote to the poison in her system. The only way to save her is to give her to me" Claw tried to persuade Ratchet more and more. He didn't say anything and just held the blue femme against his chest. Her breathing was shallow but still very apparent. "Don't you want to save her?" Claw screamed getting more and more furious.

"She is my sparkmate, and if you dare break our bond it will shatter her spark and kill her even faster if the poison doesn't do it first. Only she and myself know the antidote formula, because I used her energon to create it." Vehicons started to surround the two Autobots. Ratchet activated his sword and prepared to fight. Claw just smirked and moved to the side, letting them go. "Have fun seeing her spark slowly extinguish" he taunted as the medic ran as fast as he could.

Soon enough the made it to the normal ground and met up with the team. Optimus rushed over along with the others. "What happened?" Optimus asked and took the femme into his arms as Ratchet opened the groundbridge with a remote control and managed to run through. They laid the femme on a medical berth. Ratchet started to look for an antidote in the Autobot system. He slammed his fist down onto the computer when he couldn't find it in any of the systems. "What? What is it?" Optimus asked.

"It's an old virus from before the war. She had it when we went to her gladiatorial match. Before the Autobots were even created, before these files were even thought of," Ratchet said as he faced the Prime. "I even checked some of the remaining Iacon files."

"Do we still have things for a cortical psychic patch here?" Optimus asked as he turned towards the medic. "We used it once to find information on the Nemesis through Megatron's mind, so why not try it again."

"Who's going to go into her mind though?" Arcee asked as she walked up to the two older mechs. "Should I? Or Bulkhead? Or even one of you two?" She said clearly worried about her sister.

"It has to be one of us, because she knew us before the war" Ratchet said as he went and found an old Cortical Psychic patch that he managed to steal once from the Decepticons to analyze. The kids ran over to the closest ledge and looked down at the Autobots.

"It should be me then, we're sisters!" Arcee said and the kids were clearly shocked. "I knew her when she was a gladiator and when we were younger. I was there before any of you were." Arcee did bring up a good point. The older mechs looked at eachother. "What?" she asked.

"Optimus is going in, Artemis trusts him more than you and you know that. And when she first got the illness. You were with Ariel training and becoming a proper femme and becoming higher up on the Caste system." Ratchet explained. Arcee went to protest but simply agreed. Optimus walked over and laid down on the berth next to Artemis. He looked over at her and then closed his eyes. "I'll help guide you best I can Optimus, just be careful. I do not know what you will see." Ratchet explained as he hooked them both up in a way that he could see what was going on through Optimus's optics.

Optimus opened his optics and appeared to be on Cybertron. He looked around and smiled a little bit. "Well it would appear we are home," he mumbled before walking around the city of Iacon. "Now where would she be?" he asked himself. He looked around and couldn't help but smile more as he saw bots he would've never saw again. Glancing up at the steps leading into the Iacon Hall of Records he saw Alpha Trion and his younger self, Orion Pax. Optimus made his way up the steps and walked through them to get into the Hall of Records.

"I don't think she would be in there Optimus, try the Gladiator pit." Ratchet said through the comm as he watched the screen. Ratchet turned his head and looked down at Artemis. "So...what exactly are we looking for? Or hoping to find something by going into her mind and memories?" Jack asked as he leaned over the railing slightly.

"The cure for the virus, we are basically doing the same thing we did to save Optimus from the Cybonic Plague," Ratchet elaborated as he faced the teenager. "We are hoping she knows it because if not we will have to go storm the Nemesis again. Or give her to Claw."

"Who's Claw?" Miko asked as she noticed all the Autobots faces turn sorrowful. "I take it he's a bad guy?"

"He was/is Artemis's sparkmate. They were forced to bond because of how Artemis was a commander and had no one bound to her spark to protect it. She managed to avoid him for eons before she was forced to by the remainder of the Cybertronian High Council. Optimus and I tried to get her to bond with us, but she wouldn't because it would be out of pity instead of love. So they bonded and he was cruel to her. What we didn't know is that he killed her sire during a gladiator battle. She tried to get away but he just became more and more cruel," Ratchet explained as he looked up towards the children. "Now he will do anything to spite her and get rid of everything she cares for."

Meanwhile, Optimus made it to the gladiatorial pit and looked around and saw many familiar bots. He took a turn down one of the halls and looked into the rooms. Inside he saw Megatronus and Artemis holding hands and talking. He frowned and stepped in more to hear their conversations. "Are you sure you are up to this? That virus is getting worse" Megatronus said as he touched her cheek and then her forehead. "You are burning up more and more," he said with a worried tone.

Artemis nodded her head before coughing a little bit. She had yet to earn her gladiatorial crest and didn't have as many scratches over her frame. "I'll be fine, besides Arcee needs the energon before she takes that test to make it to a higher caste," she says. Artemis coughs more and some energon comes up as well. Megatronus frowns and pulls her closer to him."I need to do this, I can't let this stupid virus get the best of me."

"Please, sweet spark, let me fight for you," Megatronus begged as he leaned down and gently kissed her helm. Artemis shook her helm and Megatronus just sighed because of how much he cared for her. Artemis pulled away and leaned up on her tiptoes and kissed the silver mech. Megatronus picked her up and spun around with her before walking out of the room together. Optimus frowned and followed the two. He made it to the gladiatorial pit and saw Artemis getting ready to fight.

Optimus frowned and mumbled, "If only the war didn't happen, they could have still been together." he mumbled. Optimus took a couple of steps back into the hallway and watched the two of them walk down the hallway.

"WAIT!" Miko screamed, "Her and Megatron, the leader of the Decepticons, were together?" All the kids, as well as the Autobots, looked at Ratchet in pure shock. "This is just some joke right? Like this is just a dream in her head that didn't actually happen?" Miko questioned.

Ratchet cleared his throat, "They were together for quite a while before the war, and they loved each other very much. They were even close to bonding when Megatron left to be a politician and Artemis stayed being a gladiator. They would've still been together and bonded if it wasn't for the war," he explained. "I bet they would've still had a sparkling together and started a family." Ratchet frowned and looked at the monitor

Optimus followed the two to the gladiatorial arena, then he appeared in it. He looked over and saw Artemis lying on the ground with a pool of energon around her. The Prime rushed over and saw Megatron's blade covered in energon. His optics widened and he took a couple of steps back. He heard Artemis clear her throat behind him. He turned around and saw the current femme there. "This was when he almost killed you before the war?" he questioned.

Artemis nodded and pointed to her body over there. They saw a small spark float up from it. Megatron glanced up at it and a tear fell before he left and vanished from the arena. The whole area turned white. A tear fell down her cheek and looked up at the Prime.