[Location: Dauntless]
Kup and Ratchet stepped through the ground bridge roughly an hour after Elita-One, Arcee, and Smokescreen left, the pair being greeted by shouts that sent themselves and Jazz running back to the repair bay. Ratchet rushed past the others, making sure not to step on any of the children as he did so, and quickly took in the situation. Optimus had begun to thrash about in pain and to keep him from doing more damage to his form the others were holding him down. Running on instinct, the medic picked up where Elita had left off with the repairs, knowing exactly what systems he could bypass to ease his friend's pain. As he worked he listened as the others filled him in on what they knew about the situation.
"Just hang on, Optimus," Ratchet told his dear friend. "I don't know how yet, but we'll get you fixed up."
[Location: Alden Military Base]
Pulling up to the outside gate post of the base, Elita pulled out her wallet and showed her old I.D. card to the guards there. The one that was actively looking at it nodded before handing her back her wallet and waving at the one manning the controls inside the guard house to open the gate. Elita wasted no time in pulling through as soon as there was a large enough and drove straight to the building that Agent Fowler's office resided in. Both Fowler and June were rushing outside to greet her, most likely thanks to the guards at the entry calling him to let him know that she had arrived. Pulling to a stop, she sighed as she slowly got off of her larger form, adjusting the sunglasses she was wearing.
June had noticed cut above her right eye that had already been stitched up, joining the one she had gotten earlier in the week from battling Insecticons while protecting Jack, but she fought the urge to rush back in to get her examination kit since it looked like her friend had already taken care of the wounds.
"What's going on, Elita?" Fowler started out.
"First of all, the kids are all alright," Elita said first, smiling as June physically relaxed at the news. "Secondly, I need the body of Nemesis Prime loaded up on a trailer and ready to go. Things are bad."
"I can guess that," Fowler crossed his arms. "Megatron's already declaring himself a winner of this war."
"Not if I have anything to say about it."
"I always liked your spunk, kid. Let me go talk to General Bryce about getting you Nemesis, but it'll take time to get it ready."
Elita sighed, "Please hurry. I don't know how much longer Optimus can hold on."
Fowler nodded, serious in his demeanor. "I understand. But while you wait, there's someone that you might need to speak to."
[Location: Darkmount]
It took time, but Smokescreen and Arcee managed to reach the base of the Decepticon strong hold undetected, despite the increase in Megatron's troops. The tower looked as foreboding as its inspiration that resided on Cybertron. With the latest patrol's scream of engines fading from their recent overhead pass, Arcee stepped out from inside the boulder that Smokescreen's phase shifter allowed them to hide in, Smokescreen stepping out right behind her as he let go of her shoulder.
"Where do you think Megatron's hiding the Forge?" he asked, holding a hand over his eyes to shield them a bit from the sun.
Arcee's own optics settled at the top, her face firming as she thought over her answer for his question. "Knowing him, he'd want to keep it as readily to access, but away from prying hands." It was then she pointed to the Decepticon warship. "Chances are he's got it on the Nemesis."
"Let's get to it then."
The Elite Guardsman grabbed a hold of Arcee's shoulder once more before the pair proceeded to head into the strong hold. Floor by floor they made their way up, tucking into dark alcoves and walls to avoid patrols. They heard chatter among the Vehicons about how Megatron was not thrilled about the recent lack of success that his second in command had been showing as of late and they had wished that Dreadwing had gotten his hands on Starscream before Megatron terminated him. Sharing a look, the two Autobots wondered how long it had taken Megatron to find out that Dreadwing had given them the Forge of Solus Prime and if that was why the tyrant had killed one of his most loyal followers.
[Location: Alden Military Base]
The M.E.C.H. soldiers were questioned one by one, each taken into an interrogation room and asked the same questions, none of them said anything except their names, ranks, and serial numbers. All answers that the military had trained them to give when taken captive by any enemy combatants. But apparently they thought that they had something new with him. Sitting cuffed and foot at a table that was bolted to the concrete floor, facing the mirror that he knew was a piece of one way glass, and waited again for his interrogator to arrive. When the door finally opened again, he looked over at it rather bored fashion, mostly to show that he wasn't wearing down under their treatments. When the MP who opened the door stepped out of the way Joel jerked upright in his chair. Cut up, bruised, and looking as if she had been in the fight of her life, stood the last person he had ever expected to see.
"Ellan," he breathed out.
Elita stepped further into the room, not yet having removed her sunglasses, and only glanced back slightly as the MP shut and locked the door behind her. Looking back at Joel she kept the firm look on her face as she looked him over. He looked as if he was torn between fear and awe at seeing her. When he tried to stand up she just ordered firmly, "Sit."
Dropping back into his seat, Joel stammered a bit as he tried to find his words. "It's great to see you babe. I thought you were dead."
His tone was that of wonder, as if he had honestly missed her. Flexing her hands at her side, Elita moved over to the other chair across the table from where her ex-boyfriend sat. "And why would you think that?"
Blinking at her, Joel just sat back in his chair as he took in the woman before him. She looked different, almost glowing in the light. He never recalled her hair looking that full, or shiny, since he knew she constantly worked herself past exhaustion and quite often missed meals. She looked healthy with more meat on her bones than when he had last seen her, or at least when they had their last date. "Come on, babe. The police found your car off the side of a cliff and burnt to a crisp. And then later on someone gives your mother an urn with your ashes in it. We even tested it to make sure that it was really you. I was there at your funeral."
"Who had my ashes tested?" Elita asked.
"Um… well, I told your mother that it needed to be done to make sure it was really you. Sometimes DNA does remain in the bone sometimes after they're burnt."
"Why were you near my mother?"
"Babe, I loved her, too. You know that. So when I found out that you were missing I checked up on her as often as I could."
Elita's mouth firmed, but she pulled out her MP3 player and began to fidget with it in her hands as she rested them on the table. "So you knew that she was sick again?"
His shoulders fell as he nodded, "Yeah. I tried to get her to take care of herself, to hold out for you to be found since there was no sign of your body in the wreckage." He focused down at the MP3 player in her hands, recognizing it with a fond smile. "I see you managed to keep your music. You always did your best work while you were listening to it."
"Yeah, that's why you made sure that I had it with me."
Joel jerked his head up, an audible pop coming from his neck as he did so. "What?"
"I know who kidnapped me, Joel. I know quite a bit. A mask only covers up so much when you don't hide your voice or behaviors." She knew she caught him by the way the color drained out of his face. "You worked for Bishop, a.k.a. Silas, for years in his M.E.C.H. program. I know he pulled all sorts of strings to get me into Special Operations because of my personal skill set. It was after that that you began to date me, but your job was to keep tabs on me at all times, especially after I shut Bishop down with Damocles. When I got sick of you pushing your boundaries as a boyfriend and ditched you, that's when you and your buddies kidnapped me and shoved me into that laboratory to work on Adaptation. Then you decided to push your advantage and had your buddies help hold me down by promising them that they could have the same after you were done. That's the only thing I have to thank Silas for interrupting before you ruined more than just my shirt when you ripped it off."
"T-there's no way that you know it was me."
"Quote, Now you can't tell me no, unquote. There wasn't anyone else that I had to constantly tell no to about that. When you refused to respect that I let you go and I'm guessing that made Bishop really mad."
"You're right it made him mad, and he took it out on me because of it. We were planning on nabbing you anyways. I was to make it look like we eloped so that your mother didn't get suspicious. But no, you had to go and get a spine and dump me, so we came up with the plan to kidnap you and make it look like an accident."
"And after the earthquake? When I had disappeared?"
"I kept an eye on your mom to see if you ever showed up. We saw Agent Fowler drop off your urn, so we thought that you were either with him or with the transformers so we knew that you would show up eventually, but when the test came back indicating that it was your body in the urn we figured that you had died when the lab collapsed and they took you and the project. After our systems picked up them digging through our mines and saw a bot with the same frame as Adaptation and your vocal patterns we knew that it was trouble."
"So you set up a data mine using my Dionysius virus to take me out."
"We were hoping that we'd get a hold of your structure and figure out how you did what you did, since we needed it for Silas." It was then that he realized that he had already said too much.
Elita smirked slightly at him when he clammed up. "Oh, come on Joel. You can't go quiet now. You never shut up before hand, so why start now?" When he remained silent she sighed softly. "See, you guys really can't get out of this. I had already given Agent Fowler and his superiors that were investigating M.E.C.H. your information and that of your buddies. Add to the fact that every one of y'all were caught red handed at an established M.E.C.H. base, you guys can pretty much kiss your rear ends good-bye."
"We wouldn't have been discovered if it didn't escape and bring the Air Force down on our heads."
She scoffed a bit, "Do you seriously think you could have gotten away with getting anything past Jacksonville? Really? Do you guys not know the satellite capabilities that they have there? Or did you really think that your piggy-backing their systems would have gone un-noticed? You already were in hot water before you kidnapped the bot."
"It doesn't matter. You found one base, and we have the others in our other bases," Joel retorted. "Or did you not think that there was a reason we've hidden right under the military's nose for so long already?"
"I want the locations of the other bases where you're keeping the … transformers as you call them."
"Over my dead body."
Before he realized exactly what was going on, the table that was between them was already flipping up into the air to his right, bolts and bits of concrete shooting up, and she was standing as she held him up against the wall by one hand on his throat. MPs were rushing into the room behind her, but waited tensely as they watched. Her sunglasses had slipped down her nose a bit, giving him very alien eyes to stare frightfully into.
"I can arrange that," she told him, a cold, angry edge to her voice. He had purposefully been prodding her to make her mad, had always done so because he like to see that tint of red on her cheeks as she fought to hold back her temper. Now … not so much.
"What happened to you?" he asked, more gasped out due to not being able to get a full breath.
"Energon and human bodies do not mix. In fact, as Silas found out personally, it is quite deadly. You have no idea what harm you've caused, the lives you've stolen, or the mess that's got to be cleaned up now thanks to your traitorous group. Now, unless you wish to personally feel it eating away at you one atom at a time, you will tell us where every single M.E.C.H. base is world wide."
Behind them all Agent Fowler stepped into the room and cleared his throat. "E, it's ready."
With a growl, Elita let the man go, watching Joel crumple to the floor like he was a wet towel, and turned to leave the room as she pushed her sunglasses back up on her face. "Let me know if he doesn't talk."
"Yes, ma'am," one of the MPs answered as she stepped out of the room.
"She- she can't do that, the Geneva Convention…"
The man that had been interrogating the M.E.C.H. agents up to that point just looked down at him. "Thanks to your little group, she doesn't fall under it anymore. You must have been a piss poor boyfriend to make her willingly want to torture you."
Once outside, Elita thanked the soldiers that had hitched the massive trailer to the back of her larger form and bid Fowler and June a farewell, letting them both know that the Autobots would be in contact with them as soon as it was safe to do so. With a light wave she headed out the gate and towards the ruins of the old Autobot base.
[Loation: Nemesis]
Once they reached the Nemesis, Arcee followed Smokescreen's lead since he had most recently visited the Decepticon tyrant's vault, knowing that they were running out of time. Both of them searching the massive chamber made short work of the task, the Forge of Solus Prime hovering in a protective field right beside the Dark Star Saber that Megatron had crafted with it. Smokescreen stepped into the field and began to pull it free with all of his might, but the sudden give of the field and the weight that returned to the item once pulled free sent both he and the item tumbling to the ground.
Arcee grabbed the bottom of the handle to carry it while she let Smokescreen grab a hold of the head of the hammer, balancing it on his knee as he turned on his phase shifter, before nodding to her to lead the way. Returning the nod, the blue femme began to walk the long way back out of the ship, down the massive tower, and back under where they had called home for years at this point. Once they walked through the ground bridge Kup grabbed the Forge from Arcee so that they could carry it faster to the medical bay.
"That went way too smoothly," Arcee mumbled. In her experience, when a group split, one or both pairs ran into trouble. As she looked over at Ratchet as he continued to work in the overall silence of the room as everyone watched tensely. Privately she was hoping that trouble didn't find her friend.
[Location: Throne Room of Darkmount]
Sitting on his throne, Megatron was waiting very patiently for his query. He had shown one hand to his enemies, now he was waiting for the Autobots to make their move. No doubt they had already gotten a hold of their little human pet, somehow avoiding the Decepticon's constant search. They might be good, but Soundwave was better. Also Megatron had full confidence in Soundwave's abilities, which proved fruitful when they had detected a lone Autobot leaving the wreckage of their former base. An Autobot that Megatron wanted to make sure he eliminated.
Of course he had let her go, since she was driving away from his stronghold and towards the human's military base nearby. He would let her get comfortable with her little trip, let her drop her guard that he wouldn't attack while she was vulnerable. She would return, and when she did he had a surprise waiting for her.
Soundwave appeared right beside Megatron, Starscream already standing in the presence of his Lord, as the silent Decepticon indicated that there was something that his ruler wished to see. Following his most loyal through the ground bridge portal he had opened up, Megatron smiled viciously as the screen that Soundwave lead him to showing that his query was not only driving back towards him, but it appeared that she was hauling a huge trailer, the large tarp only covering part of its content.
"Scan them," Megatron ordered. With the shift in information on the screen, the size and details taken in my Laserbeak indicated that Optimus Prime resided on the trailer without his spark energy present. "It seems that my old friend has indeed joined the Matrix. Now it's time to send his little femme to join him." Turning towards Starscream, the tyrant smiled darkly. "Send her the cage."
Starscream bowed, a little startled by the order, but he quickly obeyed, leaving promptly to do so. The cage, as Megatron had named it, was little more than a large box that's door opened from the bottom, the contents it carried violently thrashed about inside, making it shake with each metallic thud. It was to be carried by four Vehicon jets before the door was opened and what was inside to be released.
[Location: Ten miles from Darkmount]
In the cloudy skies overhead, Elita did not see Laserbeak flying above her, recording her every move as she made her way back to the base. She had remerged with her larger form, so her holographic image, with its helmet, was visible. She would have preferred to go without it since she was burning enough energy with the extra weight to the ride, but a motorcycle without a rider looked too suspicious. As she neared her old base, the smoldering ruins visible in the distance, she heard the scream of low-flying aircraft heading her way, and from the direction the sound was coming from it was most likely Vehicons.
"I don't have time for this," she muttered, continuing to drive.
The Decepticons flew overhead, buzzing right over her with their package, and opened it up right in front of her. The contents landed with a roaring crash, breaking the roadway and making her have to quickly skid to a halt. Elita had to release the trailer to keep from flipping over as she slid sideways, both she and the trailer spinning out of control for a few seconds, but unlike herself the trailer with Nemesis Prime was not able to correct itself and it and the form on it crashed into the sandy rocks. Elita had to transform to stop her wild spin, but gained her feet quickly as she look at her foe.
Standing before her, in the crater it created, was Dreadwing, his form glowing with the dark energon that powered it.
"Scrap."
Author's Note: I don't own the show.
Yet another step closer, but still a ways to go.
Thank you everyone who has read my stories and especially those of you who have left comments. When writer's block strikes I go back and re-read them and it helps me work through it.
