Chapter 16
With Optimus gone, the base took on a whole new atmosphere. It seemed a hell of a lot more melancholy and I couldn't blame the Autobots or the rest of my fellow human companions for that feeling either. The feeling of helplessness pervaded the air, along with the feeling of fear. Ah Fear, the greatest emotion out there. People say that love and happiness are the greatest and most powerful emotions that a person can have. I disagree. Fear drives people to do pretty amazing things. Terrifying things. Fear overrides the simplest desires; it is the most basic of all human instincts and emotions, along with anger. Controlling those two emotions gives a person control over just about everything else.
In hindsight, I suppose, the Autobots had succeeded in what they set out to do, stop Unicron. Although it came at a price they didn't see coming. While the Autobots seemed focused on getting Optimus back, I was focused on getting vengeance. Silas still aroused thoughts of anger, hatred, and a lust for his blood after what my mother had told me now three days ago. Arcee had attempted to get Optimus back but Soundwave was too cunning and had ground bridged her somewhere else. I thought at first that Arcee would have had a chance at resurrecting Prime's memories, but now I heard about the artifact that Jack held and the AllSpark whispered history into my ears. I now knew that in order for the Autobots to get Optimus Prime back, Jack had to go to Cybertron and go to Vector Sigma. I was determined to go with him, for my own reasons. I needed this AllSpark out of me and it needed to go. I loved the history lessons, honestly I did, but I just wanted the Dark Energon out of my system. I shivered remembering the dark thoughts that had emerged when Unicron emerged. He even encouraged my crusade against Silas, which gave me pause to consider what I was doing.
I was listening to the Autobots argue and I was shaking my head. They finally stopped with the decision to seize the spacebridge that the Decepticons were building, so I warmed myself up to the idea and accepted it as well. Then another unthinkable thing happened, Starscream contacted us.
"Let me come," I said.
"No, it's too dangerous," Flare said.
"Like I haven't been in dangerous spots before?" I said.
"This is something totally different!"
"Is it?" I asked. "I've been trained to spot liars and get the truth out of them."
"Starscream isn't human," Ratchet said.
"It's still the same principle," I said.
"How so?" Ratchet asked.
"If he lies, I'll let you know."
Ratchet sighed and nodded his consent that I could come along. He plugged in the coordinates and activated the ground bridge. "Do you think we can trust Starscream?" Raf asked.
"No," I answered. "Although, he has helped us in the past when it benefitted him."
"So you're saying this is to benefit him?" Flare asked.
"Correct," I said. "From what I understand, the Cons have turned on him and if he needs help who else can he logically turn to?"
Bulkhead, Ratchet, and I walked through the ground bridge and saw Starscream sitting against a rock. He was bleeding Energon pretty heavily.
"I told you to come alone!" he cried.
"And since when do we listen to you?" Bulkhead asked, transforming his right hand into a weapon.
"Where is Optimus?" Ratchet demanded.
I stood there with my arms crossed and waited for Starscream to answer. "Patch me up and perhaps I'll tell you," the rouge said. The three of us that had come through the ground bridge looked at one another and Starscream growled. "Have sympathy, I'm leaking here."
"Then I suggest that you speak quickly," Ratchet ordered. "Has Optimus been harmed in any way?"
"He's fine," Starscream answered. "Fine. Can't you see that I'm the one that's been harmed!"
"Well, where is he?" Bulkhead yelled.
"Where do you think?" Starscream yelled back. "He's on Megatron's warship!"
"Which is located where?" Ratchet asked.
"Now? Hehe, who knows," Starscream replied. "It's a ship! It moves! It took me months to track. Only to get fired upon."
"You wouldn't go through the trouble of calling me here unless you had information to trade," Ratchet said. "Real information."
Starscream sighed and said, "Very well. Your beloved leader may have lost his senses. He goes by the name Orion Pax now and it seems Megatron has led him to believe he's a Decepticon."
Bulkhead snorted, "Tell us something we don't know."
I looked up at Bulkhead and said, "Hey, be nice here."
"What! How could you possibly know that?" Starscream cried indignantly.
"We're wasting our time," Ratchet said.
We turned to leave through the still open ground bridge when Starscream said, "Wait, that's all I have. Really, you can't just leave me like this."
I stopped and turned around and replied, "Yes, we can unless you have something of greater importance to us that we already don't know."
"And unless you know where Megatron is hiding his spacebridge you can stay here and rust," Bulkhead threw in.
Starscream gasped and looked at the three of us like we were insane, which we might have been just a tad but eh that's the world am I right? "Spacebridge? Do you mean to tell me that they actually finished building it without my supervision!" Starscream raged.
"Yes," I said.
Starscream laughed and motioned to his bloody leg, "It hurts most right here, Doctor."
Ratchet and Bulkhead looked at me and knelt down to my level. "Has he been lying to us?" Bulkhead asked.
"No, he hasn't he really wants that leg patched up," I answered quietly.
Ratchet sighed, stood up, and then looked at Starscream. "Very well, I'll patch you up after you tell us the location of the spacebridge," the medic said.
"We have a deal, Doctor," Starscream said with a smile on his face.
Ratchet got the coordinates and then patched up the rouge Cybertronian. The three of us walked through the ground bridge and back to base. Ratchet recalled Bee and Arcee from their patrols and laid out the plan. "The Decepticon spacebridge is located here, underground," Ratchet said pointing to the big monitor screen. "Within an Energon mine."
"Adjacent to a raw fuel supply," Arcee said. "Clever."
"Very," Flare said.
"What's our intel?" Arcee asked.
Bulkhead and Ratchet looked at each other and exchanged glances before Ratchet replied, "Aaaaaaa, reliable source." Arcee glared at the medic and Ratchet continued, "So, do we have a consensus?" This time he looked at the gathered humans, June Darby, Agent Fowler, Jack, Raf, Miko, and myself.
"Do we even know if people can breathe your atmosphere?" June asked.
"I'll hook Jack up," Fowler said. "Completely state of the art. I still have connections at NASA."
"It's too dangerous," June said looking at Jack sadly.
"Mom, I know that this is hard, but Optimus risked his life to save our planet and he's not even human," Jack said. "We owe it to him."
"Jack may be the only one who can do this, June," Arcee said. "But don't think for one moment that I'll let him travel un-chaperoned."
"I won't either," I said speaking up.
"You're not going!" Flare said.
"What if Arcee is protecting Jack from more than one enemy and more keep coming?" I asked. "Who will protect Jack then?"
"He's got a point," Fowler spoke up.
Flare glared at him and he looked away from my guardian. "Beau, we've been over this, you've even said it yourself, you're no match for Cybertronians!"
"If my sacrifice gives Jack enough time to access Vector Sigma, then so be it," I said, "I'm not a little kid, Flare. I've been through hell and back and I know how to handle myself in difficult situations."
"If you're going then I'm going!" Flare said.
I shook my head, "Think logically here, Flare, they need all of the help they can get holding the spacebridge once we get it."
"Beau's right," Ratchet said.
Flare finally nodded her consent, although I could tell we were going to have a long discussion about this if we both came back from the ensuing trials looming ahead.
"Not everyone is destined for an ordinary life," Ratchet said after a while of silence. "Optimus Prime was once Orion Pax after all."
June looked sadder than she had and looked at Jack. "When you were little you always wanted to be an astronaut," she said.
Fowler left through a ground bridge and retrieved two sets of space gear and once he got back, Ratchet went over the battle plan. "We will ground bridge directly into the Energon mine and make our way to the spacebridge chamber neutralizing any Decepticon forces we encounter," Ratchet said. "Once we secure the spacebridge, we'll send for Jack and Beau." June rubbed Jack's back lovingly and I cracked my neck. "Stealth must be an absolute priority. We most certainly will be outnumbered, and if any Decepticon should transmit an alter to the warship,"
"The odds become four hundred to one," Bulkhead finished.
"Scrambling communications upon entry will certainly provide an edge in this regard," Ratchet said.
"Taking the bridge is the easy part," Arcee said. "You four need to hold it long enough for Jack, Beau, and me to get to Cybertron and back."
"If Rafael climbed to the top of the rope in gym class, we can do this!" Ratchet said.
"What does gym class have to do with anything?" Miko asked. "And if Ratchet gets to go on a commando raid, I'm going too."
"Miko, you'll help Rafael manage our ground bridge and manage the communications hub," Ratchet ordered.
"Urgh, can't go to Cybertron, can't storm the Decepticon spacebridge!" Miko huffed.
"And Nurse Darby will stand by in case of emergency," Ratchet continued.
"Son, it's time to suit up," Fowler said looking at Jack.
Jack nodded and grabbed the smaller space suit and I took the larger one. I saw that it was specially made so that my prosthetic would be out and the suit would still be pressurized. I didn't even want to know how they had made this. I just knew that it would be skin tight near the beginning of the prosthetic. I removed my holstered Glock and put on the suit. After I was suited up and put the holster back on over the space suit and checked to see how much ammo I had. I had three clips attached to the belt of the holster and one clip in the gun.
"Strike Team to base, objective secure." Ratchet commed in.
Fowler turned to Jack and me and said, "That's your cue."
I nodded and grabbed the helmet and held it in the crook of my arm and Jack did the same. He put his helmet on, but I didn't yet. We both stood in front of the opened ground bridge and Raf came down to join us.
"Bring me back a souvenir," Raf said.
"So, what happens when you have to go to the bathroom?" Miko asked with a mischievous look on her face.
"Safe journey, boys," Fowler said sincerely.
"Just go already," June said approaching her son. "Optimus needs you."
"Come on, let's go, Jack," I said. I hated long good-byes. I don't know why, maybe it had something to do with the long good-bye my parents gave me all those years ago.
Jack nodded and he turned towards the ground bridge. Together the two of us walked through it and as we walked through it, I put the helmet on.
We arrived at the spacebridge and Arcee was standing there waiting for us and Ratchet noticed immediately that we had arrived without even turning from the spacebridge counsel. "Locking onto Cybertron," he said.
"You ready?" she asked.
"Let's do this," Jack said.
"I'll leave the spacebridge portal open in order to eliminate any communication lag over the great distance," Ratchet said. "And make it easier for you to locate when you're ready to return."
"Easier to locate?" Jack asked. "You're not bridging us straight to the big V?"
"Vector Sigma's true location is shrouded in myth and rumor, Jack," Ratchet replied. "It is said that the Path of the Primes leads there. We must be confident that Optimus will guide you."
"Don't worry, space bridging is just like ground bridging," Arcee informed Jack and me.
"And here I was worried we'd be thrown into a star," I muttered to myself.
"What was that?" Flare asked.
"Nothing, nothing," I said. I took a deep breath and rolled my head around in an effort to relieve some stress. It worked for a little while until I remembered that I could potentially be going to my death.
The spacebridge opened and Arcee yelled over the noise, "Just a little more intense!"
"Thanks, Cee," I muttered as Arcee and Jack walked towards the open portal.
I turned around and looked at Flare and motioned for her to kneel down. "What is it kid?" she asked.
"In case I don't come back, I left a letter in your quarters explaining everything," I said.
"A letter, huh?"
"Yes, read it if I don't come back," I repeated. "If I come back I'll explain things to you in person."
"We have a deal," Flare said. "Now go on."
I nodded and turned towards the portal and followed Arcee and Jack through it to Cybertron. I was blown away by the destruction that I saw, along with the potential of what it had been. I personally loved the two moons that the planet had.
"I…I can't believe it," Jack said after a while. "I'm actually on another planet. Arcee, this is incredible!" Arcee was silent so Jack asked, "Arcee?"
"This isn't how I wanted you to see my home," Arcee said sadly.
"I…I'm sorry," Jack apologized.
"In the fog of war it's hard to see beyond the next leg of a mission, or beyond the next punch in the fight," Arcee said. "We did everything to save Cybertron. And when the fog finally lifted, there wasn't much left to save."
Sad as that was, I was personally disappointed that nothing had happened to me yet. My mother had told me that the only way for the AllSpark to get out of my system was for me to be on Cybertron. Well here I am! I didn't feel any different and I was still getting a mini history lesson on Cybertron's past. Maybe I hadn't given it enough time or maybe I was insane to believe a person that hadn't been in my life for the past nine and a half years. I was still looking around the ruins of this once great planet when our comms unit buzzed in. "Arcee, Jack, Beau," Ratchet's voice said. "Do you copy?"
"Roger, we're on Cybertron," Jack answered.
"Just keep a sightseeing to a minimum, huh," Bulkhead suggested.
"Indeed, we don't know if your journey ahead is five clicks or five thousand," Ratchet interjected.
I smiled and shook my head. "No problem, Bulk," I answered. "The sights can see us."
"Understood," Arcee responded to Ratchet's comment. "We're out."
"Okay, Ratchet said the card would guide us," Jack said. "But I don't see how or what I'm supposed to do."
Jack was holding the card out and it was glowing a faint blue color. He moved it around and it hit a section where it glowed brighter and then when he moved it away it dulled in color until he moved it back to the place it had glowed bright. "There ya go," Arcee said as she transformed into her motorcycle form.
Jack got on first and I got on behind him. I had the eerie feeling that something was about to happen and I didn't know if it was going to be a good thing or a bad thing. Arcee drove off and Jack led the way with his shining, glowing, card of destiny. Eventually we were arriving towards a place that the installed memory of the AllSpark had given me and I recognized because of it, Kaon.
"That way," Jack said.
"Toward Kaon?" Arcee asked in shock.
"The Decepticon capital," Jack said in disgust. "Swell."
We approached a giant building and Arcee stopped allowing Jack and myself to dismount. "We're on foot from here," Arcee said. "Don't want engine noise to attract the wrong kind of attention."
"Cons?" Jack asked.
"Vermin."
Jack pulled out his Glow Card of Destiny once again and said, "This way."
"Did you hear that?" I asked.
"What?" Arcee asked.
"I though I heard clanking," I said.
"Arcee's walking," Jack said.
"That isn't us," I clarified.
"We must be close," Jack said once his card glowed even brighter than before.
We entered the courtyard of what I was assuming to be Darkmount, or something close to that and the ground started to rumble. My eyes narrowed and I transformed my hand into a gun. The ground gave way as Jack's card glowed with a burning intensity as a structure rose from the ground. We approached it and a doorway revealed itself.
"Vector Sigma is down here?" Jack asked in shock.
"Kaon didn't always belong to the Decepticons," Arcee said. "Megatron took it as his capitol, apparently without realizing what laid beneath his feet."
"What was that?" I asked.
"What?" Arcee asked as some rock hit us. She looked up and an insectoid looking robot jumped down at us.
Insecticon my memories that weren't mine told me. I aimed my gun up and got a shot off before the Insecticon landed. Arcee dove out of the way and rolled and I shoved Jack farther into the chamber that led to Vector Sigma. Arcee started firing at the beast and enraged it tackled her. Jack emerged from the chamber and started running toward Arcee as I fired upon the beast and it saw what Jack was holding and ran right past me. "God damn it!" I swore.
Lucky for me, Arcee got its attention back by firing at it again. "We're being attacked by some giant bot beetle!" Jack commed in to Ratchet.
"An Insecticon!" Ratchet said confirming my AllSpark induced memories.
"Jack, go!" Arcee ordered.
"But…" Jack started to argue.
"Etetet, no ya don't!" I said silencing him and grabbing him by the arm and dragging him into the confines of the chamber. "If you don't do this, Jack, Optimus is lost to us! Without Optimus Prime, the earth is as good as lost! Do you want all of those innocent lives on your hands because you hesitated?"
"Nnnnooo," Jack stuttered.
"Then move your ass along and get those memories back," I said. "I'll help Cee out!"
"But…"
"GO!" I roared at Jack as I shoved him.
Arcee used her agility to fight the Insecticon and I used my wits. As Arcee fought the creature, I would run forward, slide underneath it and shoot it. This worked a couple of times before I was thrown backward by an explosion from a too close to call shot from the Insecticon. I shook my head to clear my thoughts and then I started to feel fuzzy and cold. I looked at my prosthetic and saw that it had transformed itself back into a hand and out of the gun mode. My body seemed to be glowing and I started to feel faint.
"Beau, your vitals are dropping, what happened?" Ratchet asked me in concern.
"I'm…I'm not sure," I whispered. My vision was dancing between dark and light as I stood up. "I'm fine."
"Beau…" Ratchet's voice seemed lost to me as I sank to my knees after only just successfully standing up.
My eyes opened and I realized that I was on my back laying down. I was still on Cybertron and I quickly sat up. Arcee and Jack came out of the chamber and picked me up.
"You okay?" Jack asked me.
"Yeah, yeah," I said. "Fine."
We approached the point of pick up and Arcee wasn't getting a response from Ratchet. "Something's wrong," she said.
"My guess, Megatron found out what we were up to," I said.
Arcee went through first, followed by Jack, and I took up the rear. I came through in time to see Jack give Optimus his memories back. How Optimus got to the spacebridge location was beyond my ability to think at that moment, I just took it as a good omen. Megatron came charging across the cavern and jumped up with his sword coming down at Optimus. The Prime caught the weapon and said, "Megatron, be gone!" And then to my undying joy, punched the bastard.
"Ratchet, how did we get here?" Optimus asked the CMO.
"Long story my old friend," Ratchet answered.
I took a couple of steps forward and felt that odd sensation of being fuzzy and cold again. I collapsed onto a knee and shook my head. Jack helped me up and asked, "Are you sure that you're alright?"
"No," I answered.
A ground bridge opened and Arcee said right away, "It's ours."
We rushed towards it and entered it to arrive back at the missile silo that served as the Autobot base of operations. I removed my space helmet and sat down. Everyone was in the main area as the big man himself walked through and the melancholy feeling finally lifted. I could tell that the game had changed though. Both sides now had drawn battle lines, we were just more willing to defend ours.
Flare knelt down next to me and said, "What did you have to discuss with me?"
I smiled and looked up at my guardian. "I made it back, I guess I have to spill," I said.
"Indeed."
"Meet me topside in half an hour and you'll get your explanation," I promised.
Flare nodded and I went off to change. I changed into a sleeveless black tee, black shorts, my dad's dog tags, my dog tags, and sneakers. I cracked my back and my neck before I headed topside. I was stopped by Ratchet though. "Can I help you, Ratch?" I asked.
"Yes, it's about what happened on Cybertron," the medic said. "When your vitals dropped."
"It was nothing," I with an even voice. "I think that it was just the hit I took from the Insecticon."
The CMO wasn't impressed but he let it slide. I headed up top and found Flare waiting for me. "Spill," she said.
I sat down with my feet dangling over the rock face's edge and sighed. I told her about how my mother was still alive, how she ran the agency that both Fowler and I worked for. I told her how when I was eight the AllSpark had been planted inside of me and the only way to get it out of me was to head to Cybertron. I told her how I found out that Silas had killed my real father. I told her how I wanted vengeance. I finished and looked up at the shocked face of my guardian. "You can't tell the others," I begged. "They mustn't know!"
Flare nodded and we gazed at the starlit sky together. After what seemed like an hour Flare asked, "Did it work?"
"Did what work?" I asked.
"The trip to Cybertron?"
"I honestly don't know," I answered. I tried to transform my prosthetic into a gun but it failed to do as I wished. I tried again and again the same result. "It appears that it has."
"Well, let us hope that it stays that way," Flare said.
I looked down at my prosthetic and thought, Yeah, let's hope it stays that way. I doubt it though. To many freaky things have happened for all I know the AllSpark jettisoned right into the prosthetic! I managed to stay awake to watch the sun rise, a dawning of a new day in this war and one where I knew the course had been altered.
Author's Note:
It's been a while since I've last posted, I have taken down the sequel for this story and have decided to just consolidate everything into one story. This is still the second part of the story and it will be a bit darker. Welcome to Part II of a Wonderful World: Fade to Black!
With love,
Porter-Fuzz1218