Skyfall felt her joints pinch with the sudden collision and the crunch of metal on metal that sent her careening out of the Nemesis. "Son-of-a—" if any bot asked she never screamed. But the sharp clench of her spark was a largely human feeling and she had a moment where she forgot that she was a Transformer and truly believed that death was imminent. This deeply ingrained fear was what led to a scream (not that she will ever admit it). Truly, not an awe-inspiring look for a member of the Decepticon cause.
Skyfall flipped about madly mid-fall till her very being was enveloped in an EM field filling her circuits with warmth and assurance, reality came back to her and Skyfall's processor kicked in. Instantly she transformed and gaining a handle on her situation. Leveling her sensors out and easing into a slow glide her sensors picked up on the very familiar field behind her. "Soundwave!" Skyfall yelled at the grey drone that was on her six as she coasted over a forest, "What the fuck?!" The moment of anger was doused in cold water, she knew he was here because she slapped him…shit, Sky thought she had made a swift getaway. Guess his anger about Ratchet was not able to overshadow his alteration with Skyfall.
Her day was going sooo well.
"Soundwave: Land."
Skyfall's engines sputtered when the message pinged loudly on her HUD. Immediately she dropped into the trees, transforming sloppy and unbalanced stumbling until she braced against a tree her wings sagging low in apprehension, talons digging into the soft wood with an eerie creak. Her antenna picking up on all of Soundwave's movements as he gracefully landed amongst the trees and prowled up to her. Turning to face the lean bot she kept her visor and mask on. Leaves fell around them and the forest grew silent.
"Be reasonable Soundwave…I was not thinking when. W-when I hit you." Nervousness shown on her wings as they twitched with each step the taller bot took.
Soundwave was upon her in seconds his spindly servos moving over her chest plate and over her arms, each touch without pressure as if he was inspecting her. Skyfall's HUD pinged with an alert, she had just been scanned. Skyfall could hear him releasing an outtake of air and the toughness of this soldier's ease, his slim digits were slow in their movements against her seams as if he was cataloging each divot in her armor and each dent. Skyfall could feel the rush of energon to her faceplates, getting felt up in some random forest was not on her to-do list for today. Clearing her vocalizer she looked off to the side, wings tilting to one side.
"I'm ok Soundwave." Skyfall deactivated her visor and mask grabbing the purple mechs servos and giving him a nudge with her EM field. She could feel the static charge on her plating it made her core tingle and her bio lights brighten just slightly. It was strange how much she could feel with a metal body. "I wasn't hurt. Megatron wouldn't allow that. I may be creeped out by the Autobot's words but that's all that happened in the mines."
The emotionless mask just stared at her and she smiled softly at the mechs antics, "Come with me." Pulling the mech along she took him a small clearing they had flown over granite rocks cut out the trees and stood smoothed by time along the cliff's edge. Sitting on the very edge she pulled the silent mech down with her. The sun was setting just in front of them, bright oranges and deep purples colored the mountains in soft navy light, Skyfall leaned back on her servos with a sad smile. "Out of the horrors of battle, I find refuge in the simplicity of the planet around us. These colors…they nearly stop my spark. I find that if I escape to places like these the war becomes easier to bear." She lifted a servo to the light of the setting sun casting streaks of shadows on the two Cons. "Soundwave." The said turned his helm towards her and she turned to him her other servos laying over his, "Thank you for caring." Skyfall leaned her helm towards him and tapped his visors with the crest of her helm. Looking at her reflection in his visor Skyfall glared at the mech with bright citrus optics. "But if you tackle me off the Nemesis again, they won't find your body."
Soundwave leaned back quickly with a jolt then a whirring sound came from his frame.
His fans. His fans kicked on when she threatened him…
Skyfall's mouth hung open and her faceplate felt warmer due to the rush of energon coloring them bright blue.
"Skyfall I need you in the Command room. We have much to discuss for my upcoming plans. Bring Soundwave."
"Y-yes, Lord Megatron." Skyfall stood up and flicked her optics at Soundwave quickly, "We're requested back on the ship." With that she quickly flipped off the cliff and sped up towards the Nemesis, not looking back to see if he was following her.
Skyfall walked through the main doors to the Command room. She could feel the push of Soundwave's energy as he followed her into the room, she kept her face blank and her EM field reigned in. Knockout was watching Megatron as he faced the screens depicting the current planetary alignment. His servos crossed behind his back. Skyfall could tell there was something wrong. The energy around them was heavy and it bit into her own field like a miasma, a warbling sound made her antenna twitch it was grating and seemed to pierce her processor. It was enough to make her pause mid-step, clenching her fist she pushed forward towards the source of the scourge.
"I did not seek the blood of Unicron to simply keep my spark a flame, but to rule undead armies and conquer worlds, and to accomplish that I require more than this mere slice which lies within me. So, where is my dark Energon?!" With a roar, the massive mech turned and stomped the bridge his ruby optics in a maddened blaze searing into the candy apple red mech.
The shiny Con jolted lightly and then motioned with his servo dramatically. "Out there, Lord Megatron, just waiting for you to reach out and pluck it."
The entirely unamused 'why do I keep you around look' Megatron gave Knockout made Skyfall pause and bite her lip to stop the smile that was forming.
"But you shouldn't push yourself so hard. You've had setbacks. You were in stasis." Knockout tried to reason yet he only succeeded in sounding like a fake rehab doctor.
The small mech was grabbed instantly by the unstable warlord. "Precisely why I must make up for lost time! I can see the future vividly, but I must ensure its outcome, for I am the rising darkness of which the prophecy speaks!"
Skyfall cycled her optics slowly and rubbed her temples. The crazy had begun…
o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o
Dawnbreaker wasn't necessarily avoiding the Autobot base. She just took extra patrols and decided to take June to work every now and then… Not to mention the absolutely thrilling Nevada desert was just breathtaking to spend hours in, either reading data pads or just soaking up the endless sun. Wonderful. Sandy, irritating, suffocating fucking desert. Kicking a rather large boulder she punted it over the horizon. Fan fucking-tastic.
It didn't take long for the yellow and grey femme to roll back into the base, the sound of the children's idle chatter made her feel just a bit lighter. Dawn transformed and stretched with a groan.
Ratchet let out an awkward laugh startling her and the children with how out-of-place it sounded. It even sounded like he laughed without realizing it. Dawnbreaker felt a twinge of sorrow the old mech never seemed to truly laugh.
Jack Darby chuckled and turned his attention to Optimus who stood by the screens going over data, "Um, Optimus, do you want to see something funny?"
"No."
The kids looked aghast and Dawnbreaker nearly choked on air. 'Whoa, savage.'
"Don't take it personally, Primes are built that way." Arcee shrugged as she and Bulkhead filed into the main room.
"Never seen Optimus laugh, cry, or lose his cool," Bulk added in agreement.
"While Optimus certainly keeps his emotions in check, I've known him far longer than any of you have, and he was different before he was made a Prime," Ratchet added from where he continued to work at his station.
Dawnbreaker tilted her helm in thought. Unlike Skyfall, she had little to no knowledge about any Transformers lore and history. She did watch some of the Michael Bay films, but that didn't help her here, at all. So to learn that Optimus Prime wasn't always a Prime was kinda weird.
"Optimus wasn't always a Prime?" Raf asked. Voicing what Dawnbreaker and the children were thinking.
"On Cybertron, one isn't born into greatness. Rather, one must earn it."
"So, different how? We talkn' party animal?" Miko was quick to ask.
Ratchet made a motion with his servos, "No, no. Optimus was more like…Jack."
All three of them looked to Jack as the said eyes widened in complete shock. Nervously he ran his hands through his hair. "What? I'm nothing like Opt—"
"PRIME!" Agent Fowler yelled over the comms. " Those techies my department's been tracking, we figured it was MECH on account of the stealth tactics until moments ago when a security feed at the Pennington Ebbs Particle Collider captured this." The vidscreen changed to a shitty surveillance feed with none other than a snap of Soundwave in the human facility.
"Raf can swap that out for you with a funny cat." Miko offered.
Completely ignoring the children agent Fowler continued. "The Con without-a-face made off with a cutting-edge phase conductor. Here's a punch list of everything else we've confirmed stolen to date."
Ratchet looked at the list, "Plasma injector, neutron shield, tesseract? There's only one thing missing if they are intending to build…another space bridge."
o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0oo
Skyfall was analyzing the schematics in the war room, her arms were crossed behind her back and she stood off to the side slightly bored of this already tedious briefing. Honestly, she wasn't allowed to go out on missions, why in gosh golly was she required to be at this meeting. Lazy orange optics swayed over to Knockout who stood a little behind Megatron explaining some inane report or smooozing the Decepticon warlord. Sky didn't know. Her optics moving over Soundwave briefly, only to glare at Airachnid who stood closest to the console typing information. That spindly waste of space, blight on the universe, foul venom slinging she-slut was still here acting as SIC. Skyfall rolled her optics, it's only because she was deemed 'unfit for duty' till Megatron saw fit to allow her back into battle.
Small pointy servos raised dramatically, catching Skyfall's attention. Knockout was talking again… "The Decepticon space bridge 2.0 is nearly ready to launch. All we require is…"
Soundwave's visor developed an image with a whirl and beeps.
"What Soundwave said— an ample power source."
"This one lies within a highly fortified location, by human standards." Airachnid sounded too amused by the humans' attempts at security. "I could tunnel in."
"The time of prophecy is nearly upon us!" Megatron snapped clenching his iron fist at Airachnid making her and Knockout take a step back in fear. They looked at each other with a similar distrust of their leaders' mental stability. " We can no longer afford stealth." With a very noticeable twitch and grating denta Megatron looked at all his officers with bloodthirsty optics.
Standing at the command center of the Nemesis, Skyfall stood with her arms crossed behind her back observing the Combaticon's fending off the humans at the U.S. military lab. A small team was sent to rile them up and obtain the core, the rest of the aerial support was to wait for the power fluctuations of Primes team opening a ground bridge. When the sensors pinged on the incoming bridge the air-based vehicons to engaged while the ground team moved the power source.
"Lord Megatron, package secured, but the Autobots have arrived," Breakdown spoke over the com as Skyfall stood awaiting Megatron's orders.
Megatron growled his optics twitching, turning to Skyfall he snapped. "Prepare the warship for rendezvous. The package will be ready for pickup!"
Skyfall bowed low to Lord Megatron, "As you command my liege ."
With that, he stormed out of the room and by the look of the Nemesis's sensors he had flown out of the ship himself.
Taking control of the helm of the ship Skyfall redirected their course to the small base. Her optics closed for a moment, she remembered whom will suffer the most today. Looking at the view of the clouds below her she sent a small prayer to little Raf. Filled with determination Skyfall decided to do what was right.
'Dawn, are you there?'
'Sky what's wrong? What happened? Ratchet is opening the ground bridge for a wounded Autobot. I'm not sure I have time to talk…' Dawnbreaker was looking at the now opened ground bridge with unsure optics.
'Oh Dawn it's not an Autobot…it's Raf Megatron shot Raf!'
Dawnbreaker felt her spark stop, right then and there. "No…" She turned around quickly to Jack and Miko looking at them with so much sorrow and worry. "Skyfall…are you sure?" At her outspoken question, the kids and Ratchet looked at her.
'Call June Darby NOW.' With that their connection died.
Dawnbreaker looked at Ratchet then to the now visible forms of Bumblebee and Arcee carrying little Raf. Ratchet was quick to rush them into his lab but while they were hooking the boy up Dawnbreaker stayed by the ground bridge controls, dialing in June's number. "June it's an emergency bring your equipment to the base."
As Ratchet was trying to get Raf's vitals up on the screen but was having a hard time. It showed with how panic-stricken the Doctor was. "Rafael isn't responding. We must run diagnostics of his assemblage— eh, vital statistics. Ugh! My tools— they're all wrong!" Ratchet threw whatever he was holding across the room in frustration.
Bumblebee voiced his distress and worry while the children looked at each other.
Jack took out his phone, "We need to call my mom."
"Already done," Dawnbreaker spoke up from where she stood. While she set in the coordinates to pick up June via the ground bridge.
"His mother may be a nurse, but does she know anything about the effects of energon on the human body?!"
"Do you know anything about the human body?" Dawnbreaker got in Ratchets face with a snarl. "I'm bringing someone in who does, so you can work together to save his life." Pulling the lever to activate the ground bridge Dawn felt a weight lift off her shoulder at the sight of June's small white car roll in. Moving back she watched as June threw open the car door and ran to Raf ordering Jack to get her bag. Dawnbreaker closed her optics and turned away, Raf is in good hands now.
o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o
Skyfall heard the sound of gunfire and battle just down the hall, activating her blaster and blade she stood ready. As foot falls closed in Megatron's voice came over the ship's speakers.
"Hear this! Any Decepticon who lays a hand on Optimus Prime will answer to me. Soundwave, lock on to my coordinates and lead my opponent to his destiny!"
Disengaging her weapons system, Skyfall looked back to see Optimus walking towards her the smoke from his cannons hazing the already dark hallways. "You need to stop him Optimus."
"I plan to."
When the ground bridge opened behind her Skyfall moved out of the way of the larger mech. She watched him walk into the swirling vortex and vanish. Determination filled her systems her combat visor activated and she made her way back into the control room her orange optics narrowing on Airachnid. Moving up to the dark grey mech she placed her servo on his armor, his purple boi lights flashed for a moment and his faceless mask turned to her.'Soundwave in light of Megatron's infatuation with the prophecy Airachnid will try to stage a coup. We best keep her under constant surveillance, take direct action at any hint of treachery.'
"Soundwave: Affirmative."