Ch. 53

Starscream tiptoed carefully along the outside of a small hill, using his servos to leverage himself against the dirt. A line of Autobots trailed behind him and he almost found himself amused by the situation. Almost.

Arcee came up just behind the seeker, murmuring gently, "Are we close?"

He nodded and pointed ahead of them, "There. That's the entrance to the cave. Airachnid will be there with the Insecticon and Megatron should be in there fighting it."

The group paused outside the mouth of the cave and Starscream took a large intake, "So, do I need to recap anything?"

Arcee smirked, "For Bulkhead's sake, you should."

The green mech nudged her, "Yeah, yeah, go ahead and get it out of your system."

Optimus nodded, "Myself and my team will remain observers in the higher part of the cavern. When the fight is over, we will apprehend Megatron."

"Not me," the femme frowned, "I'll go after Airachnid."

Starscream nodded, "And I will try to cut the spider off if she tries to flee. We need to get rid of her now."

Bumblebee beeped, asking if he should follow after Starscream and Arcee, but the seeker shook his helm, "Not a good idea. Dreadwing is going to disobey Megatron's order to stay on the Nemesis. He will be rather honorable about letting you leave alive if you let him collect Megatron. Unfortunately, Megatron is not so generous, so have your blasters ready to take down some Eradicons."

The yellow mech nodded and beeped in agreement. A loud clang from inside the cave told the group that the warlord was already delivering some heavy blows; Starscream shuddered.

"Do your best not to let Megatron know where I am," he grumbled as he started to head into the woods, "And keep the focus on him. Or shoot him. Really, I don't care if he gets maimed through all this..."

Optimus watched the seeker leave, a look of concern on his faceplates; he looked down at his team, "Autobots, keep your guard up. If we see an opportunity to change our overall plan, we may have to do so."

Bulkhead walked into the cave first, his blaster ready, "What would we change? Going after Megatron? Or Airachnid?"

Arcee growled, "We're not letting her get away."

The Prime hummed gently, "If we have a chance to successfully remove only one from this war, either in capture or death, then we may have to allow the other to escape."

The femme spoke again, "Optimus, please, Airachnid should be our priority today. If Megatron is weakened-"

"We cannot allow personal grudges to dictate our actions, Arcee," Optimus frowned, "We must remain focused on the task at hand; whichever target is more accessible and therefore easier to eliminate. That is our goal."

Arcee growled, but nodded, "Yes, Optimus..."

The group cautiously made their way into the main chamber of the cave, metal on metal clashing a couple hundred feet below them. Bulkhead carefully leaned over the side of a ledge to peek down, grimacing.

"Yep, it's them alright," he murmured, stepping back, "Scream was right. Megatron is fighting an Insecticon just below us."

Arcee optics glanced to the side and she scowled, "And there's Airachnid," she hissed.

The spider was watching from another level in the cave, sneering as her Insecticon scout bit into the warlord's forearm. She was so focused on the fight she didn't see the Autobots above her, taking position.

She snarled angrily as the Insecticon repositioned himself and Megatron prepared for another attack, "Finish him!"

Optimus carefully surveyed the warlord's movements. He was getting very weak. A cut along Megatron's neck cables was dripping a slow leak of energon.

The Prime hummed deeply, "Autobots, we are to forgo Airachnid's capture or elimination; our target has shifted to Megatron. We are going to end this now."

Arcee glared up at Optimus and shook her helm, "Do what you want, Starscream and I can handle Airachnid ourselves!"

"Arcee, wait!"

But the femme ignored the order, transforming and driving hard to launch herself into the air and down onto the spider below, Airachnid hissing in surprise.

"You," she snarled, backing down into the tunnel behind her.

Arcee glared and transformed out her blades, lunging at Airachnid. The spider dove and continued to back up, firing shots of webbing. Arcee tried to lunge again, barely able to dodge another round of web shot, and switched to her blasters. A rapid firing of blue plasma lit up the dark of the cave and Airachnid growled, near throwing herself at a wall as she drilled her spider legs into it, creating an escape. Arcee continued to fire into the hole then sighed angrily, transforming her blasters away to crawl after her target.

The tunnel was dark and her optics began to glow brightly to adjust. She saw the tunnel curve and fall downward just ahead. Arcee paused, transforming her blasters out again, and frowned as she slid down, aiming for anything that moved. When she saw nothing, she transformed her blasters away again and began to crawl until something wet and sticky oozed in between her digits. The femme's optics widened as she held up both servos, webbing coating them both thoroughly.

"Scrap-"

The word was barely uttered when the area around Arcee erupted in webbing, her chassis ensnared in a trap. Airachnid was above her on a tree limb, pulling the femme's form up from the hole with a smirk.

Arcee struggled, but the spider took hold of her helm roughly, sneering, "This may not be the day I take Megatron's spark, but it is the day I remove yours!"

A loud missile shot rang out and Airachnid fell to the ground, energon leaking from a small wound on her side as fire exploded around her. Starscream slid down a small hill just in front of Arcee, snarling angrily.

"I told you I needed more than a couple of minutes to get here!" he aimed his second missile and fired again when Airachnid moved, the projectile missing its target when the spider dug herself a new escape route; the seeker huffed, glaring at the blue femme, "For once, I didn't mess up."

Arcee's optics widened angrily and she roared at him, "You're blaming this on me?!"

"Who else?" Starscream growled, flexing his claws, "I said ten minutes! You're lucky I got here at all!" he cut the femme down, helping her to the ground gently, "If you had stuck to the plan, I would have been able to catch her unaware and would have actually finished her off!"

Arcee scoffed, "You?! Finish her?! Oh, of course, because you've been having such luck with that!"

"If you had given me the chance-"

An explosion of dirt behind him threw Starscream to the ground. He felt a sharp digging in his back as Airachnid dug her spider legs in, hissing.

"Working with the Autobots now, little moth?" the spider smirked, "I must say, losing you earlier this evening was a shame, but it must have hurt you more when Breakdown finally died. I doubt you convinced them to help you in time."

Starscream growled and tried to get up but Airachnid kept him pinned and chuckled, "Oh, no, Starscream, I'm not letting you get away this time. I may be injured but I can still end your miserable little existence. Don't think I'll hesitate to make it hurt..."

The seeker felt the edge of a spider leg dig in to his lower back and he winced when he felt the light drip of energon begin to leak, "A-alright! Alright... I'll tell you what you want to know, Airachnid..."

Arcee snarled, "Starscream, you traitor!"

Airachnid hissed and shot a glob of webbing at the femme's mouth to silence her, "I'll deal with you later!"

The blue femme struggled hard in the webbing, glaring not at the spider but at the seeker, her optics glowing in the night.

Starscream ignored her as Airachnid flipped him over, pinning his wings painfully under him at an awkward angle; the silver mech hissed as the spider knelt in close, "Tell me the future. Tell me when I will take over the Decepticons."

The seeker winced again as his wings rippled in agony, then sighed softly, "I'll... I'll do you much better than that, Airachnid..."

Airachnid's purple optic flashed in excitement and she smirked, "Speak..."

Starscream leaned up with a smile, whispering into her audials, "I foresee... an army before you... one you command... I foresee great strength in them, their numbers are undefeated... I foresee... I foresee..." the seeker slowly glared, "your quick and embarrassing demise," he purred deeply.

The spider flinched back in surprise, frowning, "What?"

Starscream sneered, "You DIE. You END. While the rest of us go on, you will be bested and defeated not only by your arrogance and hubris but by one whom has been patiently awaiting your death. It's over, you wretch. And there is NO STOPPING IT."

Airachnid shrieked, aiming her blasters at Arcee, "I WON'T LET HER HAVE THE CHANCE!"

Arcee's optics widened and she shrunk in tightly, but Starscream sprung up and grabbed the spider's arms, throwing her off him. He didn't hesitate as he transformed his servos into blasters and fired down upon her, Airachnid snarling as she jumped out of the way and dug to make her escape.

The seeker kept his blasters trained on the hole then grumbled, slowly standing. He transformed his weapons away and made his way over to Arcee, carefully cutting away the webbing from her chassis.

"Whatever you may think of me and all... this," he murmured, "I am trying to change things. I'm at least doing my best."

As soon as the blue femme had an arm free, she smacked him, sending Starscream back into the dirt.

He sat up with a growl, glaring, "I just saved your life twice more!"

Arcee pulled the webbing from her mouth and snarled back at him, "Doing your best?! Is that what you told yourself when you killed Cliff?!"

The seeker rolled his optics and let himself fall back into the dirt, "Oh, so that's what this is all about now."

"Don't you dare shake this off like it's nothing!" the femme warned, pulling herself free from the rest of the webbing, "Airachnid is going to answer for what she did, but YOU?! If you think we're going to work well together as a team, you've lost your mind!"

Starscream sat up again, hissing, "I've lost nothing! I knew telling Bumblebee what I had done would upset you! Do you think it was easy admitting to it?!"

Arcee stood over the seeker, her servos clenched into fists, "I think it was just as easy as killing my partner. Because you seem to think that all you're doing is making up for what you did. That every little 'mistake' you correct means we will accept you. Well I can't let this go anymore. I thought I'd be able to, but I can't."

The seeker's optics narrowed, "So, where does that leave us? At a stalemate? Because I don't get the sense that you're going to kill me over this either."

The femme looked away, her fists beginning to shake, but the both of them flinched in surprise when the quick silence was broken by a deep voice.

"No one will be harming anyone," came Optimus's order, the large mech walking into the area with Bumblebee and Bulkhead in tow, "This needs to be handled delicately. Not with violence."

Arcee looked up at the Prime then turned away. Starscream didn't bother glancing.

Optimus stood taller and nodded gently, "Status report?"

The femme sighed, "Airachnid got away."

The seeker grumbled, "She has another wound to her side. We'll see if that amounts to anything."

The Prime nodded again and activated his COMM, "Ratchet, send us a ground bridge."

A portal opened close by and Bumblebee and Bulkhead rushed in, but Optimus stopped Starscream and Arcee before they could go through, "The both of you will talk about this tomorrow. If I have to supervise the discussion, I will not hesitate to do so. Have I made myself clear?"

Arcee nodded, "Yes, Optimus."

Starscream huffed, "Yes."

"Good," he let the pair go then led them into the bridge, the portal closing and bringing back darkness to the night.