Chapter 11: Break Me
Artemis was in the training area working with both Bumblebee and Bulkhead. Raf and Miko were watching from the sidelines. "Alright, now both of you get into your normal stances," Artemis said as the two mechs did so right in front of each other. Artemis walked over and gently fixed Bumblebee's stance by pushing his peds apart a little with her own and making his posture better and having him lower his door wings. "There, just a simple adjustment to help you be prepared to strike faster. You may not be as big as Bulkhead but you are faster, use that to your advantage. That goes for hand to hand and when using your blasters," Artemis explained "As for you Bulk, your stance and stuff is fine, it fits a Wrecker and a mech of your stature."
Artemis stepped away from the both of them and allowed the duo to sparr. Artemis watched the two carefully, "Careful Bulk it is just sparring don't hurt the kid," Artemis said as she watched Bulkhead slam his fist into Bumblebee's chest and causing him to slide backward and fall to the ground. Artemis went over and helped Bumblebee to his peds. "This isn't wrecker sparring and I know you didn't mean it but still."
"I'm fine Artemis, don't worry about it," Bumblebee beeped as he looked up at the blue femme.
Artemis nodded and then looked over at Bulkhead before smirking. "I know, but allow me to show you how to easily put Bulkhead onto his aft," Artemis said as she walked towards Bulkhead. Bulkhead took a couple steps back before the femme ran at him and swung around and kicked him in the chest sending him sliding back and crashing into the wall.
Bumblebee, Raf, and Miko looked at the femme in awe. "How did you do that?" Miko asked as she ran over. "I haven't seen anyone take Bulkhead down like that in one kick!" she said.
"Practice and training in the pits," Artemis said before she went over and helped Bulkhead stand. "Sorry Bulk, that was a little harder than I wanted it to be," she said and Bulkhead just shook his helm and smiled before laughing.
"No problem Artemis, I know how hard you could have kicked me, after all you did it to Jackie when he challenged your spot as being the commander of the Wreckers," Bulkhead said and noticed the others looking at him with a look of confusion. "Oh yeah, I should probably explain myself," Bulkhead said.
"You mean when Artemis was beating up soldiers to prove a point," Ratchet said as he walked in and Artemis just shrugged.
"There was a reason why I was chosen to lead the Wreckers before someone forced me to give up my spot," Artemis said as she walked over towards the medic. "And I wasn't chosen because I was a commander that bots walked over instead to make those that didn't listen to me. As for Wheeljack, he didn't like the fact I wouldn't allow him to go blow scrap up whenever he wanted. He also thought he would make a better commander. So I allowed him to fight me for the title as well as to earn the rank of Commander, no weapons, just our fists," Artemis said and noticed Miko looking at her intently. "I simply dodged his attempts to punch me then I did the same thing I just did to Bulkhead. Wheeljack flew back and crashed through at least two walls in the base and after that, he never challenged my authority like that." Artemis said.
"Always so brutal when it comes to training others," Ratchet said as he shook his helm. "Anyways, Artemis I need to speak to you," Ratchet said as he motioned the femme to follow him.
"Of course, Bumblebee and Bulkhead keep practicing and maybe I will allow you both to challenge me at the same time," she said as the two older bots walked out of the training area. Once out of the view of the others Artemis slouched more and groaned. She was exhausted but had been trying to hide it best she could around the others.
"You need to refuel and rest," Ratchet said as he looked at Artemis who was about to fall over from exhaustion. "You can't keep running like this, you haven't rested and refueled in months since Claw has returned," Ratchet said as he placed her arm around the back of his neck and walked with her towards the medical bay. He placed his other arm around her back to help keep her standing. Artemis groaned and allowed the medic to help her. Ratchet sat her down and handed her an energon cube. "Drink," he said as he glared down at the femme.
"Yes sir," she smirked before drinking some of the energon cube. She drank a good portion of it at once. Artemis went to go say something but the warning went off alerting the Autobots to Decepticon activity. Artemis walked over with the medic as Bulkhead and Bumblebee came running out with their human companions. Ratchet pressed a few buttons on a control panel and noticed the Decepticons were in a canyon near where a relic or something from Cybertron was presumed to be due to a unique frequency being emitted. "Ratchet, prepare a groundbridge and alert Optimus and Arcee," Artemis ordered as she made her way towards the area in front of the groundbridge before glancing back to see a worried look on his faceplates. Artemis smiled before motioning Bulkhead and Bumblebee to follow her.
The trio was groundbridged onto the base and saw Megatron, Starscream, and Claw all there. Clearly this relic was something that the Decepticons really wanted due to having so many strong members there along with vehicons. Artemis motioned Bumblebee and Bulkhead to move together and watch her back as she made her way towards the group as she hid behind some rocks.
She activated her blaster and exhaled before aiming at Megatron. Artemis hesitated for a slight moment before feeling a pain shoot through her spark. This caused her to shoot up into the air before falling out from behind the rock. She retracted her blaster and placed her hand over her spark chamber. "Frag," she cursed loudly as tears began to fall from her optics. She felt another jolt be sent through her body.
The others turned to look at her and Claw just smirked. "You should have known that I would've sensed you my dear sparkmate," Claw said as he made his way towards the femme. He retracted his blade and smirked. Bulkhead and Bumblebee had been found by Breakdown and Knockout. Claw kicked the femme so she was on her back clutching her chest in pain. Her spark chamber was glowing and so was Claw's. "What's the matter my dear? Unable to fight back?" Claw taunted as he placed his blade beneath the femme's chin. Her breaths became more ragged as more fear took over as well as the pain of him casually causing her spark to shatter more in her chest. Her optics flickered slightly.
"I would rather die than be bonded with you," she said as she coughed up some energon. "I would rather deal with Unicron than be with you!" she screamed as she smacked his blade away and spun around to kick him but he caught her ped and threw her towards Megatron. She landed at his beds and forced herself onto her hands and knees and looked up at the gladiator. She then let out a scream as Claw made her spark break more as he clenched his fist. Artemis looked up at Megatron with pleading optics. 'Please help me Megatronus,' she pleaded through her failing spark, 'You promised you wouldn't let him hurt me.'
Megatron stood there coldly and just watched as she was being destroyed from the inside out by Claw. He could however hear her faint call for help for the small bond they had. "Claw, stop toying with her," Megatron said as he glanced towards the black armored mech. Artemis forced herself to stand and glared up at the silver gladiator and energon fell from the corner of her mouth and tears from her optics as her spark faintly glowed. Her optics flickered but it was clear she wasn't going down without a fight. "It is best you just yield then go down like a gladiator," Megatron said as if he cared in those moments. 'Please Artemis, do not have me watch him destroy your spark, you damn fool.' Megatron said through the bond. He knew Artemis still somewhat loved him but knew her spark might belong to someone else. Though that didn't make him want to see the femme he still loved be destroyed from the inside out.
"Frag off," Artemis said as she activated her side blades and turned and glanced at Claw and at Megatron before looking up at Bumblebee and Bulkhead. She felt her spark breaking more yet tried her best to show no pain like she did when she fought in the gladiator pits on Cybertron. "I dare you to try and break me," Artemis said as her optics flickered to red for a moment as she looked at Claw. Claw just smirked and broke his bond more as Artemis stood there as if she couldn't feel anything. She turned and walked towards the mech. She glanced out of the corner of her optic and saw Optimus, Arcee, and Ratchet had already taken down Knockout and Breakdown and were waiting for the right moment. Artemis groaned as she felt her spark getting closer to shattering as she went towards Claw.
The mech swung his blade up at Artemis and she easily deflected it before freezing and collapsing to her knees as cracking could be heard from her chest "Guess I have finally found your weak sparks breaking point," Claw said as he moved and fully severed the bond with ease. She let out a scream and her optics widened before going dim and she fell to the ground. "About time," Claw said as he went and leaned down to pick her up. Optimus and the others came running down, Claw dropped the femme before turning and looking at Ratchet and smirking. "Good luck saving this lover," he taunted before the Decepticons made their way into their own groundbridge portal.
Ratchet ran over and knelt down and held her against his chest. She groaned and opened her optics before closing them. "I'm here," he whispered before picking her up. Optimus had Raf open a groundbridge before they all quickly went through to try and save Artemis. Even though Ratchet knew he wouldn't be able to save her alone. 'Stay with me Artemis, please.' Ratchet pleaded in his mind.