First off, I know this doesn't quite jive with many of the characters fates in the later movies but I started this fic after AOE was announced but before it came out so it isn't going to match. I just wanted to finish it the way I intended.
Override flew down the road like at flaming bat out of hell. She would find ransack and crumplezone and make them pay for the autobots that died today. She knew they would not have gone far. As she got further from the city and more into the back roads leading into the mountains, she picked up their signals. She came around a corner and was met with the sight of her targets waiting for her. They transformed and both had a sneer on their faces. She transformed as well, a look of pure hated met theirs.
"why?!"
"you know why!" ransack sneered
"you ditched us all to rust and die so you could run away" crumplezone added
"you two have lost your minds. I have no idea what you are talking about, but I lost my friends today because of you, and im going to make you pay!"
"we lost everything because of you!" crumplezone spat back
"you are full of slag" she responded
"you know what happened, you had to. You left right when it started. You left us to die" ransack frowned
"when what started?"
"the rust plague. It spread across the planet, just after the autobots picked you up. You had to have known. Either that or your stupider than I thought"
"what?!"
"it spread across the planet, crumbling every road, every home…" crumplezone shouted
"every bot" ransack finished
"impossible, there was no sign.."
"spare us, we know youn knew, that's why you ditched us so fast"
"I left because I wanted to leave, wanted more out of life"
"yeah right, you ruled a planet and you manted mooore" ransack sneered
"how did you get away?"
"we got out with one of the Ogygias escape pods while everything else was going to hell"
Her eyes flared and almost burned with fury
"you…you inferno spawned cowards, the ship could saved thousands, you could have saved them"
"we were watching for ourselves, just like you"
"I. DIDN'T. KNOW! The rust didn't kill our people, you did!"
Having had enough, the duo formed their weapons and opened fire on her. Already adding to the wounds she already had, she knew she very well wouldn't walk away from this but was hell bent that they wouldn't either. She returned fire, focusing most of her shots on the larger threat of crumplezone. He took multiple direct hits to his torso and the pair soon transformed and took off down the road. She struggled to transform to follow them, leaving puddles of leaked energon and ruptured parts along the ground where she had stood. The internal and external damage was extensive; she likely only had one more transformation in her before stasis lock or even deactivation. Regardless, she took off at full speed after the vile pair. She worried she was losing power and speed since there was no sign of the pair. She was now on a high road hugging the mountain side with cliff overlooking the woods on the other side. From her guess the drop had to be at least a mile, maybe more. She rounded a bend and was met by the sudden sight of crumplzone, who grabbed her car mode and hurled her against the rock face. She luckily landed back on her wheels and through the ringing shock and internal damage warnings she could make out the sound of the duo laughing sadistically at her pain. She recalled the many times she had heard them doing to others they had tormented back on velocitron. She was suddenly filled with a new burning rage, remembering all those she had known and were no gone because of them. Reconfiguring all her energy into her hydraulics, she surged forward at high speed, ramming crumplezone right in the chest. The high speed damage to his chassis aside, the force of the impact sent him flying over the cliffs edge.
"crumplezone!" ransack cried out
He spun around and watched his screaming partner fall and fall until he vanished among the trees. All that was heard after was a loud thud. Ransack turned back around, ready to open fire but was met with the site of the mangled mess of override transforming. Parts of her body chipping and fracturing between the stress and the constant damage she had received today.
"this is for velocitron!" she shouted
With terrifying war face she ran forward and tackled the stunned mini bot, both flipping over the cliffs edge.
It was nearly an hour before the other autobots reached the area, having followed her weak signal after she left the base. Bumblebee had of course come, as well as optimus, ratchet, drift and hound. Crosshairs had been left behind to watch over leadfoot. They reached the battle damaged stretch of road and examined their surroundings. Drift and bumblebee examined the blast marks and chunks of rock missing from the mountain side. Bumblebee was already overcome with despair and self lo0athing. This was his fault, he was the one who brought up ransack and crumplezone to override when they were the last thing she should have been thinking about. What he felt even guiltier about was letting her go; letting her go off on her own, knowing what state of mind she was in. If something g had happened to her he would never forgive himself. Ratchet was furiously examining the scattered energon pools and pieces of metal and circuitry. Optimus and hound silently scouted the area in each direction. It was optimus who first noticed the shredded railing and gouges in the pavement leading towards the rock face. He looked over the edge and saw the clear disturbance to the woodland below.
"autobots, we go down" he announced
No knowing the area well enough and assuming how long it would take to back track to a main route, the autobots instead scaled the cliff side downwards. Aside from the awkwardly shaped hound, the others managed the climb fairly well. Hound finally lost his grip after his belly scraped a jutted out rock and cried out as he fell. The others looked with concern, only to roll their optics when they realized he was safe as they were only about two stories off the ground. After getting over his embarrassment, hound rolled over to try to get up when he met a surprising sight. The other autobots jumped down to see it as well, the lifeless body of crumplezone face down in the ground. Ratchet moved in closer and examined him.
"hound, lean him up please" the medic requested
Hound grunted then hoisted the cadavers upper body part way out of the dirt so ratchet could get a better look. After the doc bot nodded, hound carelessly dropped the body back down.
"offline" ratchet declared
"duh" hound countered
"how?" optimus asked
"he took a lot of shots but it was definitely the fall that killed him"
Bumblebee glanced over and saw not far off there were some other trees that had been damaged.
"over there" he shouted as he ran off
The other autobots jogged to keep up and they cleared the trees to a small clearing.
"holy slag!" drift shouted
The group was greeted to the gruesome sight of a pointed, broken tree stump, on which ransacks body had been impaled. His energon ran down the stump and through the grass; a look of pain and horror permanently formed on his face.
"you ah…you wanna check for a pulse, doc?" hound quipped
Ratchet glared at him and turned away to examine the dead con. ransack was a small bot so the thick trunk protruded through most of his torso; his empty spark core visibly hdangled from the wound by some wires.
"I once ripped off a bots head and used it to beat another bot to death and even I think this is brutal" drift broke the silence
"was that before or after you switched sides" hound glared
"I…do not recall" drift awkwardly lied
Ratchet stood up and turned back to them.
"the stump was the killing blow but the impact isn't hard enough for a fall. He didn't land like this"
"meaning he was put on it" optimus finished lowly
"brutal" hound huffed
"obviously override won out, but then where's…"
"Override!" bumblebees voice rang out
The others rushed over about 30 yards away to where bumblebee was holding overrides badly damaged body. Optimus and hound had to forcefully pull the grieving bot away so ratchet could tend to her. She was very badly damaged. Ratchets tending finally roused her mild consciousness and she coughed up energon.
"be still, every system and sub system is shot" ratchet cautioned
"thanks doc bot, but I don't think it'll matter much.
"don't say that" bumblebee choked
"im sorry bee, I didn't want you, any of you, to see this"
"why did you do this?" Optimus asked
"justice. For sideswipe, for mirage and for the wreckers. And for my people. So many suffered because of those two, and because of me. I had to make it right.
"not like this" ratchet scolded
"I've avenged velocitron and our friends today, and I'm at peace with that. I made my grave doc, know I get to lay in it" she said lowly
"you…you did right by them lass, that's what matters" hound nodded solemnly
"thank you all. I was just a racer looking for a new thrill. And you took me in, treated me like I was one of you"
"you are and always will be… an autobot" optimus struggled to get out
Ratchet scanner her internals again and gave a depressed frown up towards Optimus. Bumblebee broke from the primes weakening grip and dropped down beside her, taking her hand.
"please, no. don't do this to me. I've lost too many that I care about, human and autobot. I can't lose you to. Not you"
She smiled up at him as her eyes began to flicker.
"you have a strong spark and a loud voice bee, never hide it away from the world again" she smiled
"i…I wont"
"bee, I love..yo…"
Her voice trailed off and the audible sound of internal systems shutting down filled the air as her eyes went black. Bumblebee broke down and fell over, hugging her lifeless chassis. It was all optimus could do to hold a stern face and raise his arm in an honorable salute to the fallen autobot. The other three autobots followed sweet. It was some time before they could pry the grieving bumblebee from her and load her body into optimus' trailer. They called the military contacts to clean up the decepticons. The group headed back in silence, and optimus could do nothing but remember overrides words over and over.
"how many of our kind, friends, have you sacrificed as shields for their kind. They chose to fight for OUR home, not theirs, not for them. And now our home is gone, you chose to sacrifice it for them as well. You chose earth over cybertron, over our home! you care more about them more then about us!" the words echoed in his mind
Optimus broke off from the group after giving hound his trailer to haul back. He needed some alone time to organize his thoughts. He spent some time alone when suddenly he was surrounded by a large amount of black military vehicle bearing a logo he did not recognize. He transformed, assuming they knew who he was. There were no words, just the thunder storm of gunfire as the wordlessly attacked. Unwilling to attack and injure the humans, he fought his way through and drove off managing to get away. As he drove his comm suddenly rang with report from ratchet, who had broken from the others to scout. He reported being followed by military vehicles. Suddnely another report came in, from crosshairs.
"prime, do you read me?"
"what is it crosshairs?"
"the humans have gone rogue, they attacked the base. Me and leadfoot split up and took off but think they followed him. The place it trashed and i… I think they took the others' bodies"
"…get clear and await orders"
Optimus was in despair, the day had come and he fought the pain in his spark before sending his next order, mass broadcasting it on all autobot frequencies.
"calling all autobots. We are under targeted attack. Cease all contact with humans"