Phew! Another one bites the dust! Hope you all enjoy this latest chapter!
Monaco
It was late in the afternoon when the silence of the manor finally ended.
The peaceful lull ended suddenly, with the shift of navy blue metal, and the unholy inhuman scream that followed, interspersed with the sounds of lines tearing, and plating shifting around.
Ira and the twins snapped awake, jerking bodily away from the noise that now assaulted their protrusions and had their helms ringing like struck bells.
And then the situation dawned on them.
Ira flung herself away from the Orichiono's, acting on impulse the moment they caught that first guttural bellow that was building within the twins lower chassis, the plates of their face shifting around and aside to allow them to fully bare those hooked razor sharp plates hidden behind.
Derrick was in agony, writhing on the spot as his back continued to transform, lilac energon spraying out and across his flaring wings and thrashing helm and neck.
Ira's back hit one of the walls of the bunker, and she held as still as she could, vents labouring as she tried to process what the unholy hell was happening.
The twins were a growling snarling mess of limbs, half rising onto all fours to fully cover their younger brother, ridged back flaring and the scythes of their wings snapping out from beneath the feathers that normally hid them.
She heard a noise then that made her spark drop, and almost without thinking she sent a ping to Ironhide and Optimus.
"IF YOU CHERISH YOUR CONTINUED EXISTENCE, STAY THE FUCK IN YOUR ROOMS!"
By some miracle they apparently decided to heed her warning.
Which left her stuck pinning herself to the wall as the screaming slowly died out, Derrick dropped limp on his side, and the twins one track mind put it's focus on him and not any outside threat.
Didn't mean she moved a single millimetre away from the wall.
The twins suddenly went lock still, helm upside down under themselves staring at something Ira couldn't see.
But she could hear it.
Warbling, from a much smaller source.
It hit her then, and she almost laughed, but by some miracle was able to swallow it and keep her head.
Turns out Derrick hadn't been alone at the bottom of the ocean.
The twins shifted back and pushed themselves up onto their legs fully, their chassis drizzled in the lilac energon of their younger brother, which was already starting to solidify and grow crystals, they'd fall off in time.
There, laying in a rather confused state, was a mechanical peacock, looking rather racked off and soaked in drying lilac energon.
Ira swallowed the laugh that wanted to come out, it would seem they had found Derrick's companion, the little bugger had been latched on from the get go.
She thought back to when they'd had to open their spark chambers, how they had lines that ran in ways that caused them to tear when they opened the plates.
Looks like that was the case this time.
She then thought about Keeley, her companion had been attached to her front when she first came too in that forest in Germany.
To say it had been unpleasant and very much gorey the first time Keeley had detached was an understatement, tore a bunch of small lines under her chassis and around her side plating when she broke away.
When she'd slid into the spot on her back for the first time, there had been just as much of a mess.
Safe to say Derricks little buddy had latched onto the back during the jump over, and had only now figured out how to separate himself.
Which from her personal experience, was something she still hated having to do.
Feeling something or someone else slides part of their anatomy through her own? Nope, a hundred thousand nopes.
But, they all needed to have hands sometimes, and companionship, so they all had to live with it.
Given Derrick had had no time to get such a warning about all of that, it was no wonder he'd screamed unholy bloody murder when a good chunk of what he probably thought were his own insides decided to vacate and tear through a whole chunk of his circulatory and nervous systems.
Given he wasn't moving, he'd probably passed out from the shock.
The much smaller peacock chirred, helm tilted back and back and back further trying to look at the comparatively gigantic twins who seemed to be trying to process what it was in fact that they were seeing.
They were probably safe again now, so she spoke. "Twins?"
She noted the minor shake that went through them, a half flinch at the new voice, and turned to regard her slowly, still keeping one of their optics on their younger half brother.
Okay, that was good, they hadn't gone for a killing lunge, good, she was safe. "Looks like it was more than just yah little brother Barricade dragge' across the Atlan'ic." She remarked.
The twins somewhat numbly nodded, as the plating of their own back shifted, and Hera dropped free, transforming fully into her own form.
The peacock trilled in alarm, and struggled to rise, the ground around him still slippery despite how quickly the energon was crystallising.
Hera crooned, dropping her head down in a placating manor.
The peacock seemed to jolt in alarm, and warbled back.
What followed was an illegible conversation as Hera slowly eased herself closer, before finally dropping a wing over the others back, and using her head to help push the similarly sized bird up onto it's longer legs.
The new companion was unsteady, but Hera's bulk was enough for the other to lean against.
Ira huffed, like handlers like companion apparently.
She sent a ping to Optimus and Ironhide then. "It's safe to come out now."
She picked up the sound of the two hanger size doors sliding open and the two mechs cautiously stepping out.
Optimus arrived first, catching the twins gaze when they turned at his approach, still standing over their energon coated sibling, slowly Wren gestured with her wing to Hera and the new companion. "They figured out how to separate from Derrick."
Ironhide glanced out from behind Optimus, Freedom perched up on his shoulder trying to get a good look at the scene too. "The kid alright? That's a lot of energon."
The twins nodded, nudging the smaller mechs side with Wren's wing tip. "Yeah… the shock of it just knocked him out."
"It?" Optimus inquired, still trying to process what he was seeing.
They pointed to the new companion that Hera was now grooming, running her beak through the iridescent feathers of the new companion.
"Ah…" Optimus muttered, glancing to the twins and then Ira, after a moment he stepped over to the smallest Harpy, and offered his servo to help her up.
Ira happily took the offer, grunting a bit when her joints and gears popped.
Unsurprisingly, sleeping strewn over the twins wasn't the wisest of decisions.
Metal hardly had the same give as warm flesh.
Letting out a muttered cuss as one of the joints in her left leg jammed for a moment, Ira glanced up to the worried expression of the Prime. "Don'cha worry abou' li'l ol' me, jus' slep' funny yah know."
He seemed to let it rest when the final joint finally unjammed itself and full motion was blessedly returned.
It took a few more minutes for Derrick to start coming round, and if Ira subtly put herself between the twins and the two Autobots? Well that was just a little coincidence.
By this point Hera had mostly succeeded in getting the energon off the new Companion, and had nudged him back over to settle next to his handler, where he remained perched just to the left of where Derrick's own helm rested.
Which meant when Derrick's sea green optics slowly cycled back open, the first thing he saw was the smaller Peacock, leaving him to mumble. "Epsi?"
The smaller Peacock warbled happily, and jumped back up to turn and start nuzzling his smaller helm against his handler, tail feathers ruffling and flaring happily in a way that was strangely reminiscent to a dogs tail wagging
Despite the pain he was still in, Derrick could only laugh, clumsily trying to put a wing over his pet to pull him closer. "Epsilon! You're here! You're okay!" The surprise and joy was telling, as was the building sheen of lubricant visible through his navy blue visor.
What tension there had been in the twins frame seemed to just drop off them like a five tone block, and they slowly shifted around their younger brother to settle back onto the ground behind him so that Aria could stretch her wing over him and Epsilon to give them some privacy.
Seeing this, Ira nudges Optimus, and gestures with her helm to give the reunited family some room.
Catching her intention he nods, and gestures for Ironhide and Freedom to follow as he ambled after Ira, who's heading towards one of the few fully completed rooms in the Bunker, the energon storage.
It had been something of a priority to have that one set up quickly given Ironhide and Optimus' early move into the base.
Once the door to the store slid shut, Ira rubbed her wing struts together. "So… tha' happene', tha twins flipped because yah know, their little bro' jus' woke up screamin' bloody murder in their ear, with his back coming apar' a' tha seams…"
"Hence why you told us to stay in our rooms if we cherished our continued existence." Optimus added.
Ira felt a half smile quirk on the side of her face. "Hea' ah tha momen'."
There was a few moments of awkward silence before Ira sighed and spoke again. "Tha twins are gonna need some time tah catch up with Derrick, and he's gonna need help gettin' used tah all of this, so just give them space okay? I'll be flyin' back to Rome once the sun goes down, so if yah have any questions tah ask now we've all ha' some res', ask'em now."
Ironhide went first. "Yeah, should Ratchet get over here to check the kid over?"
Ira pursed her lipplates, none of them had needed medical attention specifically, but the fact that Epsilon was going to have to do a frontal latch at some point too… so that Derrick could have some dexterity... "If anythin' happens where Ratchet is neede', i'll be more tha' twins bookin' i' tah Barcelona with him. Yah know, li'e they did las' nigh'?"
Ironhide frowned, but nodded, relaying the message back to Ratchet over the bond, the CMO had already been halfway to the airport, despite how much of a nightmare Barcelona's traffic was.
Another beat of tense silence, Ira felt a headache coming onto her, this wasn't what she was good at, she was the hacker, she was good with computers not… this, whatever this was.
And Optimus was asking another question. "Are you doing well Ira?"
She stalled, glanced between the two mechs, and tried to prevent a grimace from showing.
She couldn't try and slip away, and she doubted any amount of squirming and diverting the topic would get her out of this, she'd backed herself into this corner to give the twins and Derrick some time to recover.
She'd made this bed, she was going to have to lie in it. "No… no ah ain'... well…"
Optimus glanced to Ironhide, and then gestured to one of the reinforced containers the crystalised pure energon was being kept in.
Ira didn't need to be told twice, and with a little hop and a grunt when her tail feathers caught, she was sitting on the crate.
Optimus slowly eased himself down into a kneeling position, and carefully reached out a servo to place it on Ira's upper knee joint, his optics for once level with hers. "Ira, do you wish to talk about it?"
She flinched and her knee jerked away from his touch on impulse.
Gritting her denta fully now she hissed out a sigh. "Maybe…" She got out, ducking her helm down into her neck guard to try and get out of the Prime's direct line of sight, but like a predator, they tracked her visor down.
Ironhide nudged Optimus to get the mechs attention, but spoke to Ira instead. "You wanna talk in holoforms upstairs?"
The perk in her protrusions was subtle, but it had a little smirk of victory form on his features.
Ira finally nodded a full assent, and then her frame went limp, slumping against the wall behind the crate.
The two mechs exchanged a look, and shifted down into sitting positions themselves, before activating their own holoforms upstairs.
Surprisingly, Ira wasn't in the main kitchen or lobby, she was actually outside, pacing the side of the large pool the twins had added to the Manor before they'd moved in fully.
Ironhide stepped out the sliding glass screen doors first, catching the woman's attention.
Her distress was much more obvious now, features twisted in a grimace and sharp nails digging into the flesh of the opposite arm.
She stopped pacing, and instead moved to one of the poolside lounge chairs and sat down, form somewhat slumped in dejection.
::I'll go see about procuring something from the kitchen for her.:: Optimus sent over the com-link, letting Ironhide start whatever this was going to be.
Ironhide just nodded, focused both on Ira, and keeping his bond with Ratchet as open as possible to let his mate monitor her.
Ironhide eased his own much bulkier frame down onto the lounge chair closest to Ira, then in a move he hadn't had to do since he and Ratchet were still raising Bumblebee and Red Alert, he opened his arms out in the offering of a hug.
The look of shock and surprise on Ira's features was telling, as was the moment when her features cracked, and she was practically throwing herself into his arms, her own wrapped around his neck in a vice like, desperate grip while his own trapped her in place around her back.
He could feel her fingers flex and clench into the fabric of the heavy leather jacket he was wearing, face pressed almost impossibly tight against his broad neck as she shook and whimpered.
It wasn't crying specifically, but it was close.
Ratchet sent a very subtle keen over the bond, the urge to more actively join in the comfort of the smallest Harpy even surprising the medic himself.
Looked like Ira had unintentionally wormed her way into their sparks and they hadn't noticed.
Ratchet sent a half humoured ping that it had probably first happened when she'd called him out and slapped him repeatedly during their first meeting.
He sent back a humoured confirmation, before putting his full focus back on the now very much crying form in his arms.
It was such a spark breaking sound, half sobs, half whimpers, all very much reminding him of when he and Ratchet had first taken on Bumblebee, when the youngling had done nothing but cry trying to call his creators back to him.
They'd never come back of course… but that didn't make the sounds then or now any less painful to hear.
Optimus appeared again some time later with a simple glass of water of something he assumed was an attempt at a sandwich, just two pieces of bread with some of the meat left overs from whatever the Harpies had had the night before in their holoforms.
Once Ira had calmed enough to register the offerings, they'd been chugged and gulped down before Optimus' had even properly recognised they were no longer in his holoforms hands.
Once he did, he let out a low chuckle, and eased himself down into a kneel next to the lounge chair. "Are you feeling any better now Ira?"
She gave a little nod, shifting to put her face back into Ironhide's neck for a moment before pulling back to properly answer. "Yeah… yeah ah'm betta now… jus' go' ah bi' shaken up yah know…"
They both nodded, allowing the sounds of the pool, the wind and the bird song drifting from elsewhere to fill the silence.
At some point Ironhide felt the tension leave the holoform resting against his side, and it took him a moment to realise she'd slipped into recharge.
He'd intended to, with Optimus' help, lay her down on the lounge chair and leave her to rest, but the moment he tried to pull away and rise, her hands clamped tight around his arm with a little whimper leaving her.
Ironhide glanced to Optimus. "I'll keep her company Prime, you go check on the Orichionos."
Optimus glanced back to the manor. "I think I'm going to go on a patrol actually, they've got two years to catch up on, I don't wish to disrupt that."
The weapons specialist hummed in understanding. "Alright Prime, take care out there."
The other holoform nodded, then flickered back out of existence.
Ironhide put his attention back on Ira, and eased himself to sit on the ground next to the lounge chair, letting her keep her vice like hold on his hand. "Don't worry kid, I ain't going anywhere."
Barcelona
He was pacing again.
Kia watched from one of the walls as Barricade seemed to war with himself over something or other.
Sighing she pushed off the wall and approached. "You'll have to go soon, I doubt Starscream will accept you being late."
Barricade scowled. "No offense… boss… but I really don't want to have to keep seeing your brother bringing in mutilated corpses."
Kia didn't flinch from the statement, she'd seen the reports now, she fully understood the situation. "We need an eye in there, and you're the only one who can do that."
Barricade regarded her for a moment and stopped pacing. "What's your endgame?"
Kia's protrusions flitted up for a moment. "I'm sorry?"
"Your endgame, what are you trying to do here?"
"End your war, of course."
Barricade snorted. "Good luck with that, once the Decepticons find Megatron, and he puts Starscream in his place, this war's just gonna start right back up again here like it did on Cybertron."
Kia didn't even flinch, she just turned, and looked to one of the large doors in the bunker. "Look in there."
As if activated by voice command, the door slid slowly open, revealing a dark room beyond.
Barricade couldn't see inside from his angle, and glanced to Kia. "You still need me online, correct?"
Kia raised an unseen optic ridge at him. "You think I'd really kill such a useful asset such as yourself? You've more than earned your keep, considering you've not only been dutiful in your orders, but you, albeit without really understanding the gravity of it, reunited the twins with their half brother, that on it's own puts you far off my personal hit list. And the Twins." She assured him.
Barricade regarded her for a few more moments, before seemingly accepting her statement, and walked close to the door, Frenzy even scampering out from his hiding spot to get a good look at what was inside.
Once he saw what was, as it turned out, the only thing in the room, Barricade froze, his processor stalling as the sheer… impossibility of what he was seeing, stared back at him.
Frenzy keened in alarm at what he too was seeing.
The grey of an offline frame, not the gunmetal grey he'd known for so long…
A vicious snarl still held in place, even if it seemed to be somewhat limp…
He looked down, waiting to see the rest of his former Lord, his former friend…
Nothing…
A clean cut, just below the helm.
Without even realising it, he stumbled backwards, Frenzy whined in alarm.
A wing caught him just below the door wings.
Words were being spoken but he didn't hear them.
The empty optics of Megatron glared back at him, just as offline as the rest of his helm.
His decapitated helm.
The wing coaxed him into a sitting position, Kia loomed over him, expression as impassive as ever, those protrusions for once laying flat to her helm.
Then, she walked away, leaving him to process what he'd just seen.
It was three hours before he shakingly approached the Harpy, her attention had been on the gaggle of humans that had seemingly crawled out of the cement work, tools of all kinds in hand as she'd ordered them to continue work on the bunker whilst she supervised.
She'd noticed he was coming, but didn't turn to face him right away, still looking over the human construction crew as they readied to start blasting another room.
The joys of having the rebuild the families bunker from scratch, scaled up large enough to house alien robots.
"Yes Barricade?"
"Did… did you?"
"No, I wasn't the one who put him down." Kia responded. "That little act was the Twins, we ran a calculation, it was this, or him remaining, the... frozen lab rat of the American Government, allowing them to further discover the secrets of your kind. We determined that was a rather unfavourable option. Our alternative was, put him down, destroy all the research, and put us at such an advantage, and them at such a disadvantage, they wouldn't even try a full offense, the American Government hasn't sent more than a dozen spies to try and infiltrate us, the Twins also dealt with that dozen, they won't be causing us any trouble any time soon."
Barricade stumbled back into a half step, letting his processor struggle as it tried to run over all of that information.
Kia regarded him, and then a sliver of sympathy wormed itself free from her usually vice like grip on her emotions, and snuck into her hybrid heart.
Sighing she fully turned her frame to him, and sent a pulse to Nibbler to drop and re-attach on her front.
For once the Bateluer didn't try to protest, he dropped, shuffled between her talons even as he was still transforming, and vaulted himself up to latch onto her front, a shiver going through their combined frame as the frames re-attached to each other.
Once the secondary limbs were formed, and under most of her control, she reached out and rested one of the smaller limbs on his lower arm. "I'm… sorry… at the time your relation to him as friend or subordinate was not within the equation… but even then, we would of still ruled to remove him from the war, and of his own misery."
Barricade invented, and then released it back out with a rattle of his vents, shaking his helm. "He wasn't my friend… the Megatronus I once knew is long gone…" He glanced back to the dark doorway. "Just… More now than before…"
Kia felt her jaw clench, this wasn't something she was good at.
But at the same time, this was information being offered up at the small price of comforting this mech… a good trade in a way.
So she brought Nibbler's other merged limb up to rest on his other lower arm, and shifted her frame to bring her larger helm level with his, and, after a moment of hesitation, let her visor slide up and away.
The sound drew his attention, and all four optics snapped to attention, locked on the optics that had been always hidden by the impassive black pane.
Optics like molten pools of gold and amber stared back at him, framed by the deep rouge of their face, it was quite the contrast.
This whole time he'd assumed they'd be blue, the colour of the enemy.
Funny how nothing made sense, and anything he believed as true was becoming false.
"Barricade…"
Words failed her at that critical moment, so she just coaxed him into a hug with her wings, pulling his smaller form against her, his helm clanging against the panes of her chassis, after a moment of hesitation,she lowered her helm and rested her lower jaw on top of his helm, being careful of where the sharper edges of said helm were.
Barricade felt his four optics widen in surprise at the entombing embrace, and before he could stop himself, he was leaning in, arms going up to wrap around the tapered waist of the Harpy…
Only to stop when he realised he couldn't just push his arms through the feathers at her sides. "Err…"
Kia huffed above him. "The feathers hide all the workings."
Barricade just nodded and instead just allowed the hug to be given, he didn't want to look like some lovesick fool and try and get his arms around her neck to return the hug.
That's something he did with Dust, not this half stranger giving him some comfort.
He glanced to where Frenzy was now clinging to the side of his leg, keeping away from the Harpy as much as he could.
He looked just as shaken.
Sighing out a vent, he lowered a servo down and grabbed the minicon up by the scruff and gave him a little hug.
Kia watched this, her helm up and tilted down to observe.
That was when she made a split second decision. "You're staying here."
His helm snapped up. "What? You just said you needed me back monitoring those maniacs!"
Kia shook her helm. "No, I've run a new equation, one that takes you into consideration, specifically your mental well being. If my brother saw you now, with your emotions visible, he would tear you apart, without any hesitation, and with all the sick joy he can. We learned that the hard way a long time ago now, and I'm not putting my best asset in a situation where my own flesh and blood will ruin that, by flaying you alive!"
He stepped back out of the hug at the intensity of her declaration, and Frenzy looked to him in alarm. "What good am I here? Those Autobots will be moving in here soon won't they?"
The sound of another round of blasting put the starting debate on hold as Kia's visor snapped back into place, she didn't like showing her optics anymore, it was far too personal.
"That's a while off yet. And you will do plenty of good. If you wish to remain active, continue shielding your signature, and I will send you out to do work unrelated to Cybertronians."
He huffed. "Oh? Like what?"
The side of Kia's lips perked up in a smirk. "I'm still in the process of taking control of the Criminal Underground's organised crime, you can help me with that."
He perked up. "I'm listening."
She nodded, and offered a wing to cover him from behind. "Come then, we have much to discuss."
He nodded and let her lead him elsewhere in the bunker.
Orichiono Manor Monaco
Time had passed, the sun had set behind the mountains, and it was time for Ira to return to Rome.
She accepted the offered embrace from the twins, now much calmer after having their private catch up time with their half brother. Their protrusions didn't hide the guilt they were feeling though, so she made sure to have her own display her forgiveness, which seemed to calm them as they released her, letting Derrick shuffle over, he'd managed to get upright, but proper walking was going to take a while.
Unsurprisingly, it's a completely different method of locomotion and his centre of gravity was drastically off what he was used to. "Have a safe flight Ira, okay?"
She ruffled her plating. "Ah lay off it Der-der, i's har'ly an Atalntic crossin'. You jus' keep tryin' no' tah fall over yahselves. Got it?"
The Peacock Harpy nodded. "You got it!"
Derrick shuffled back into the cover of Wren's wing, and watched with no small amount of intrigue as Ira turned to Optimus and Ironhide.
Ira stepped closer, and opened her own wings as Ironhide did the same with his arms, returning the quick hug. "Don't be afraid to talk to us when you need to, you got it kid?"
Ira nodded. "Yes 'Hide, ah know, thanks for helpin' me ou' earlier, both of yah."
Both nodded, and with the goodbyes handled, she turned to the tunnel and began her running launch, disappearing into the darkness.
Once the sounds of wingbeats vanished from audible range, the remaining Harpies and Mechs turned to each other.
"We're going to call it an early night I think, come on Derrick, you can share our room for the night." Wren stated as they turned their attention on their smaller sibling
"Okay!" Derrick chirped, letting them push him along as he shuffled his taloned pedes.
The two Autobots watched them seal themselves away for the night, before Optimus turned to Ironhide. "I believe I will go on a patrol before I retire, recharge well old friend."
Ironhide nodded. "Same to you when you're done Prime. Don't be out too late."
They went separate ways then, Optimus leaving for the city, and Ironhide retiring for the night with Freedom.
Optimus was barely down the hill cut road down into the city when something pinged on his HUD, an Energon Signature, one he had a nagging suspicion he recognised.
He was never good at telling one from another, but one suddenly appearing, in Monaco, had alarm bells ringing in his helm.
So, he followed where it was coming from, hardly a challenge, it was completely unshielded, and seemed to be pulsing outwards from the parking area of a hotel not far from the middle of the city.
Over the past month or so, he'd become rather adept at navigating the city, meaning that it only took him about twenty minutes of navigating traffic to reach the underground parking area.
Only to come up short when he realised the entrance wasn't high enough for him to enter.
Humming out a vent, he reversed and parked on the opposite side of the street, and activated his holoform, and walked back inside.
There were easily a hundred vehicles inside, a number of which being higher end luxury sports cars.
And that's when he spotted it.
The white and silver car he'd watched Narisa Solvermore and her friends get into after she'd departed his holoforms company.
This was the hotel they were staying in.
Without even realising it, he was drawn to the vehicle, and ran a finger over the pristine bonet.
He was surprised to find himself disappointed when he realised that the vehicle wasn't the source of the Cybertronian signal.
No, that honor went to the rather, comparatively at least, banged up Mercedes Benz SLR with a black paint job, parked just to it's right.
It could of been the light playing tricks on him, but he swore he saw the vehicle shudder minutely under his gaze.
"There is no use hiding. I know you are sentient." He stated, regarding the vehicle.
Suddenly the engine revved to life, and with a squeal of tires it shot out of the parking space, reversed back further into the parking lot, and then began to transform.
Gold optics stared at him in unbridled terror from behind a soft blue and very broken visor.
"Please! Don't kill me!" The mech exclaimed, shielding his helm with his arms, that seemed to be almost… heat warped on the edges...
That was when he spotted the bright red cracked Chevron, and realisation struck him like a punch from Megatron to the face.
This was his lost Third in Command...
One believed offline for… for a very long time...
"... Prowl?" He managed to get out.
The fear didn't go away, but the arms lowered enough, and his TIC whimpered. "Please… please don't kill me…"
Yes it's a cliffhanger, no I am not sorry, you'll just have to come back again to see what happens next, so until next time!
Moon
