Author's Note
Chapter 4 of 6 posted today
Alright, so final battle time, part two. Hydra's dealt with, time to take care of some robot and Cybertronian scum!
Go onward and enjoy!
Honor to the End
The city is swarming with Stingers by the time they make it back to civilization, screaming and explosions everywhere. They dodge as much of it as they can, but they still meet resistance. The Dinobots plow their way through, Strafe soaring high above them providing air support.
Ari directs them towards Sideswipe, knowing getting to him, Joyce, and the Seed is the fastest way to end all of this. But she feels like they don't have a lot of time, a force pressing against her chest like she's watching a soccer ball fly towards her in slow motion.
It's going to hurt when it hits her, but there's no avoiding it.
They find Joyce and the N.E.S.T. soldiers holed up in a restaurant, firing through the windows while the rest of the Autobots and the Avengers try to keep a circle around the building, holding the Stingers back. They're surrounded with nowhere else to go.
Sideswipe calls out that he's almost out of ammo, getting shoved to the ground as a Stinger launches on top of him before he can get his swords out.
Ari sees red.
Carefully, she gets her feet beneath her, crouching atop Slug's back. Just as he charges past Sideswipe, eyes set on his own prize, Ari jumps off of the Dinobot's back. Darcy and Jane call after her, but she doesn't hear them, bringing her alien sword up while in midair.
She collides into the Stinger's back with a heavy thump, plunging her sword into its back, slicing right through where the spark chamber should be. Even without a soul, it does the job, the Stinger making a strangled gurgle sound before slumping, offline.
Ari jumps to the ground as Sideswipe pushes the body off of him, rolling to his knees. She moves to his side quickly, pressing a hand to his faceplates ready to call upon her Healing mark if necessary. "You okay?" she asks, breath coming in short gasps as she wills her heart to calm down.
"I'm fine, sweetspark," he replies, pressing a kiss to her palm before looking over his shoulder at Grimlock taking a bite out of a Stinger. His brow goes up, impressed. "That's quite the cavalry."
"Optimus's idea, and a very long story. But they're on our side and they want to help."
"Well, that's good enough for me."
Hulk charges past them, plowing into a Stinger that was trying to sneak up on them. The Stinger tries to get back to its feet, a deep dent in its chassis but not done yet. Slug suddenly comes up from behind, taking a big bite out of the Stinger's head and munching happily, sparks spitting out from between his teeth.
Hulk stares for a second, mesmerized by the triceratops, and then grins like a little boy, letting out a big roar.
Slug gives an answering roar of his own and together they go off to smash more Stingers.
"Aww, Hulk made a friend," Darcy says, picking through the rubble towards Ari and Sideswipe, Jane and Phil trailing after her. Jane mutters to herself, pushing buttons on the device she carries furiously, but it doesn't so much as make a sound.
"So does that thing actually work?" Ari asks, kind of hoping the answer is no.
A rocket flies by just over her head, the explosive force behind her warming her back. She pulls out her gun, ducking behind some rubble, taking aim, and firing at the Stinger who almost hit her in one fluid motion.
Then again, a warp hole gun could come in handy right about now.
"This should be right," Jane mutters in frustration, completely oblivious to the battle around them. Darcy and Phil join Ari behind the pile of rubble as Sideswipe rejoins the fight with his blades, Jane just standing there as she stares at her device.
"Jane, get down!" Darcy hisses, grabbing the scientist by the hem of her shirt to pull her down with them.
"But it should be working," Jane says absently, poking a few buttons on the side of the machine. "I double-checked the calculations and it should be firing. Why isn't it firing?"
"We should have stayed on the ship," Phil says, drawing his own gun instead of pinching his nose in exasperation. "It's not too late to go back to the ship, is it?"
"Sorry, Phil, but I think it is." Ari holsters her glock, taking the sword back in her hands to transform it into a gun again. She fires at a nearby Stingers getting a bit too close to Natasha, looking down at the gun afterwards in appreciation. Nice response, and a single shot to the chassis takes a bot down instantly.
She likes this gun.
"Ah ha!" Jane crows in delight, her own gun powering on with an ominous hum of power. She shoves it into Darcy's arms, the intern taking it dubiously as Jane pulls her phone out of her back pocket. "Darcy, you fire. I'll control the size and power of the wormholes with my phone."
"There's an app for that?" Darcy asks incredulously, hoisting the gun in her arms awkwardly and taking aim at the closest Stinger.
"It's not an app. I've connected the gun's controls wirelessly to my phone so one person doesn't have to do all the work."
"So, yeah, there's an app for that."
Jane rolls her eyes. "Just fire the fragging thing!"
Phil glances at them worriedly. "Are you sure about-?"
Darcy fires, the kickback sending her backwards out of her crouched position to land on her butt. A swirling ball of energy hurls through the air, landing in the middle of the Stinger's back. The energy pulses for a split second before expanding, a dark pit of spinning nothingness opening up in the center that sucks the Stinger in before it can so much as blink.
Jane taps at her phone, the wormhole blinking out of existence as soon as the last scrap of Transformer metal disappears.
They all blink owlishly where the Stinger used to be, Darcy's glasses hanging skewed on her face. She turns rounded eyes towards Jane, raising a shaking hand to push her glasses back up her nose. Then she grins. "That was fragging awesome!"
"Right." Jane takes a deep breath, a small, accomplished smile pulling at her lips. Her thumbs fly across her phone, adjusting on her haunches to look over their rubble pile. "Let's go again."
It all ends quickly after that.
Jane and Darcy and the Autobots and N.E.S.T. and the Avengers and the Dinobots all work together seamlessly, fighting around each other and with each other like they've been doing it for years. The number of Stingers finally starts to go down, those not fleeing ending up in smoking piles of scrap metal or blasted into the opposite end of space.
The calm descends abruptly, N.E.S.T. soldiers and Joyce poking their heads out of the restaurant hesitantly before streaming out into the eerily quiet street. Ari takes a headcount, not seeing anyone too bad off, but she does notice one absence that turns her stomach sour.
There's no sign of Megatron. Not among the retreating Stingers and not in the lifeless forms around them. He let his soldiers die while he got away, like the coward he is. He could be regrouping with the remaining Stingers, but she hopes maybe he gave up for today.
But there's always tomorrow.
"You," Optimus growls, glaring down at the group of humans with optics like boiling oil. He climbs down from Grimlock's back, stalking towards them.
The soldiers part, leaving Joyce in the line of fire. Optimus zeroes in on him with a fury she's rarely seen in him.
"Who?" Joyce stammers, voice dangerously close to a squeak as he clutches the Seed to his chest.
"You," Will repeats, pushing Joyce forward to take a couple stumbling steps closer to Optimus.
This man has a lot to answer for.
"Your science will be responsible for humanity's extinction," Optimus scolds, and Ari seriously can't tell if he's two seconds away from telling Joyce to go sit in timeout in a corner or if he's about to bite the man's head off.
Grimlock steps closer curiously, head lowered with his optics locked on Joyce gleefully.
"Alright," Joyce says, holding up his free hand calmly towards Optimus while eyeing Grimlock warily. "I know you're sensitive to this whole bioethical dilemma-"
"Maybe all he wants to hear you say is that some things should never be invented," Ari tells him, her own fury simmering low in her belly. "What you did was wrong, Joyce, on so many levels. An apology is the least you could do."
Grimlock roars in Joyce's face, making the man scream like a little girl about to wet her panties.
"Okay!" he screams. "Okay, I'm sorry!"
Optimus huffs in satisfaction, Grimlock standing back up with a smug tilt of his head. This conversation is far from over, but it's a start. "We'll lead you out of the city," Optimus says, gripping his sword tightly in his hand. "Get that Seed safely to the hills."
The Autobots transform into their alt modes, a couple soldiers jogging down the street to hotwire some cars to allow the Autobots to transform back in case they need to. Ari goes straight for Sideswipe, though, dragging Joyce with her. "Come on, get in."
"He almost ate me!" he hisses, clearly not amused as she holds back a chuckle.
"No, he didn't. You'd be missing a lot more than your hair if he did."
He runs his hand self-consciously over his mostly-bald head, allowing himself to be pushed into Sideswipe's passenger seat.
They drive through the city as fast as the destruction allows, civilians running for cover on the sidewalks. Panic and fear brim in the air, saturating the lungs and setting everyone into crazed motion. This is not their first alien invasion. It may not even be the last. The fear gets worse every time as they wonder—will they live through it this time? Will this ever end?
Ari doesn't have an answer for them. She can only protect as many people as she possibly can.
The shinging of metal and sharp beeping drive her out of her thoughts. She looks to her right, at the Seed sitting in Joyce's lap
Parts of it have opened up, lights powering on and emitting a steady beeping.
Like a timer.
Ari swallows heavily, trying to stay calm and failing utterly as her voice raises in pitch. "What did you do?"
"I don't know," he stammers out, hovering his hands over the device cautiously. "I don't…I don't know, but it's an issue."
Understatement of the century. Does the AllSpark know how to diffuse a bomb?
"Did you press a button?"
"Is it gonna blow up?" Sideswipe asks, and she can feel him debating on tossing Joyce out.
Now, there's an idea.
"I don't know!" Joyce snaps, sweat trickling down his face.
"A bomb starts beeping, that means something bad, right?"
"I'm just saying that it's a," Joyce licks his lips nervously, placing shaking hands on the Seed to tilt it for a better look, "it's a steady blinking light, which could be a timer of some kind." He pauses, eyes lighting up as something clicks in his head. "Unless it's signaling location."
Ari stares down at the Seed numbly and then lifts her eyes to the sky, looking at it through the windshield like she can already see what's coming for them.
"Well, frag."
She really hoped they would have more time. And she wasn't expecting the tracker.
"What is it?" Joyce asks with rising panic. "What's coming?"
"Lockdown."
"What, you mean the crazy robot with the canon face that Galloway convinced to work for him?"
"If we can make it out of the city before he gets here, maybe we can outrun him," Sideswipe says hopefully, but not convincingly.
They turn a sharp right. Sideswipe slams on his breaks as Ari's heart tries to beat through her ribcage.
It's too late.
Lockdown's ship ghosts through the air just a few blocks away. The bottom of it has opened up to reveal some kind of large, circular machine with a spinning light. As the ship moves down the road, the machine sucks things up into the air, anything metal, like a massive magnet. Debris goes up, spins around, and then gets tossed back down to the ground, crushing anything unlucky enough to be in the way. Like a catapult, anything metal turning into a weapon.
And it's coming right for them.
"Back up, Sides," Ari says, quiet voice underrating how not okay this is. They are fragged. They are so fragged. "Sides, back up, now."
He punches it into reverse just before a ship propeller crashes down, slicing into the asphalt where they once were.
The Autobots transform around them, running after them while beating back the debris flung through the air. The vehicles with N.E.S.T. and the Avengers veer off down side streets, Sideswipe trying to do the same, but the ship follows them.
Fragging tracker.
An entire cargo ship goes barreling towards them, tossed like a little plastic toy, except this thing isn't little, it's massive and big enough to take out the entire block. Not even Optimus is big enough to block that.
Sideswipe takes a hard left, driving them right into a building through the storefront windows.
Heaving breaths echo in Sideswipe's interior.
Until small metal objects start levitating in the air around them.
"Oh, God," Joyce breathes.
Sideswipe gets yanked upward, jostling Ari and Joyce in their seats as the magnetic force of the ship above the building pulls them up against the ceiling.
"Out, out, everyone out!" Sideswipe yells at them, popping open his doors.
Ari and Joyce tumble out of Sideswipe's alt mode, Joyce clutching the Seed to his chest. But he doesn't stay on his feet for long. The magnet catches onto the Seed, pulling it up. And Joyce along with it.
"Pull me down, pull me down!" he screams, rotating wildly in the air as he tries to keep a hold of the Seed. His back hits the ceiling with a hard thump, the Seed pressing into his chest as it tries to continue its journey up to the ship.
Ari jumps after him, wrapping her arms around his shins with her fingers digging into the slick fabric of his slacks. She grunts with the effort to hold on, hoping her added weight can bring him back down, but it's no use. This magnet sucked up an entire ship. The two of them weigh nothing compared to that.
"It's crushing me," Joyce grits out between his teeth, the Seed trying to push through him to keep going up. "C'mon, pull!"
All of a sudden, the magnet lets go, dropping them into an unceremonious heap on the floor. She winces in pain, Joyce landing on top of her with the Seed digging into her stomach. Her pain disappears in a flash as Sideswipe sends her alarm over the bond, her eyes flying back open. She shoves at Joyce, rolling them both over to narrowly avoid getting crushed underneath Sideswipe as he falls back to the floor as well with a sickening crunch.
His own pain blossoms across the bond, sending Ari scrambling to her feet and to his side.
"You okay?" she asks with the bond, worry heightening as the pain only recedes a little. She holds her hands out to the side of his alt mode, sparks beginning to flow across her skin as her Healing mark lights up.
"I've been better," is his tense reply, and she wishes she could see his face right now, but there's no room for him to transform.
"Hold on a moment and you'll be right as rain."
She can feel Joyce boring holes in the side of her head with his bewildered look but she ignores him, focusing on healing Sideswipe as fast as possible. The AllSpark power crackles over him, finding the places that hurt, which are thankfully few. If he was a real car, that fall would have totaled him, but being Cybertronian makes him a lot more resilient.
A few seconds later, he's fully healed, roaring engines echoing the gratitude and reassurance pulsating over the bond. She sighs in relief, backing out of the destroyed building so Sideswipe can get out.
That had been close. There've been way too many close calls.
Looking back at the building they all almost just died in, she sees Joyce still stands in Sideswipe's way, gaping motionless at her. She sighs heavily, rolling her eyes while grabbing a fistful of his rumbled business jacket. "Come on, we've got places to be."
"But…." He stumbles after her, barely hanging onto the Seed as his feet catch on every little bit of rubble. "But…you just…what was…."
"If I hear one insulting word come out of your mouth, I'm going to take that Seed and leave you here."
He sags, equal parts weariness and desperation. "Please, do me a favor."
"It'll be by knocking you out so hard you won't feel it when a Transformer stomps on you."
That gets him to clamp his mouth shut, finally.
Ari peers up at the sky, the ship several blocks away and smoking slightly from the super magnet at the bottom. Nothing else floats up beneath it, the machine no longer spinning or lit up. She reaches for her ear comm. "Someone manage to take the magnet out?"
::That would be me,:: Optimus replies, a grim edge to his voice that she doesn't like. ::It should be safe for you to get the Seed out of the city.::
::What about the remaining Stingers?:: John asks. ::I still see a lot of them crawling around.::
::We can take care of those,:: Steve suggests. ::Ari, you and N.E.S.T. just focus on the Seed. We'll handle the rest.::
::And I will draw Lockdown away to buy you time,:: Optimus adds.
"Don't, Optimus," Ari says, shaking her head even though he can't see it. "Not by yourself."
::You feel it is your responsibility to take care of Hydra. I must deal with Lockdown. I am the one he is after. I must end this.::
"That doesn't mean you have to do it alone." No reply. She grits her teeth together, pressing harder on the comm like that actually makes any difference. "Optimus? Optimus!"
She feels Sideswipe roll up, transforming into his bipedal form to kneel beside her. "What do you want to do?" he asks, but he already knows the answer.
This is them they're talking about. They face the impossible every day. But they don't face it alone.
She shoots him a grin, slightly crazed, but they live on crazy. "We go after him, of course."
"You're not serious, are you?" Joyce asks, looking about ready to fall over either in exhaustion, fear, or simple bewilderment at their supposed recklessness.
"He's family," she answers simply. "And family means nobody gets left behind."
"Or forgotten," Sideswipe adds, barely containing a chuckle.
Joyce glowers. "This isn't a Disney movie, kid."
"No frag," she deadpans, turning her head at the sound of approaching engines. Oh, good, their backup is back. They know her so well. "This is war, and unlike you, I've actually fought before." Ironhide and Ratchet come into view around a corner, screeching to a halt so close to them Joyce scrambles away a bit. She smirks. "So you're going to get out of here. Get the Seed and yourself somewhere safe. We've got this."
Ironhide's door pops open for him but Joyce simply stands there, somberly looking between her and Sideswipe. He opens his mouth, closes it again, and then utters, "I truly am sorry for everything. None of this would have happened if it weren't for me."
Now there's something she thought she'd never see out of him. Sincerity, and true regret. But she shakes her head. "Doesn't really matter. It was Hydra. If they didn't have you making Transformers, they would have come up with some other crazy plan to take over the world. Probably flying death machines or something like that. And Lockdown was never on you. He would have been after Optimus one way or another, with or without you and Hydra."
He nods slowly, still grimacing. "Still…I'm sorry."
She pushes at his shoulder, shoving him lightly towards Ironhide. "If that's true, then get out of here."
He nods, placing a hand on the open door. "Good luck."
He drives off with Ironhide and Ratchet to meet up with the others while Sideswipe returns to his alt mode, door open invitingly. "You ready for this?" he asks as she slips into the driver's seat.
"Let's do it," she nods, door slamming shut and seat belt clicking into place, the both of them zooming towards Optimus's location.
Tense silence follows them, filled only with the rev of Sideswipe's engine and the distant explosions of the Avengers still fighting Stingers. Ari breathes deeply through her nose, trying to calm her racing heart. Fear grips at her. She's been in fights before. It's one Cybertronian against her, Sideswipe, and Optimus. This guy can't be any tougher than Megatron.
And yet her stomach twists into painful knots. This isn't an ordinary fight. She knows it, somehow. This fight means more than saving Optimus or the city. Or even saving the world.
Defeating Lockdown is more important than any fight she's ever faced before.
"What is it, Ari?" Sideswipe asks, her fear feeding his own. She doesn't want to worry him but there's no hiding from him. They carry their worries together. A blessing and a curse.
"Something's coming, Sides," she answers quietly, like someone can hear them even across the bond. "I've been feeling it for a while."
"You mean Unicron?"
"I don't know. Maybe. But it feels bigger than that."
"Unicron wants to destroy everything. What could be worse than that?"
She doesn't know. And she's terrified of finding out.
They find Optimus facing Lockdown in some kind of old factory, maybe an industrial site. It reminds her of when she saw Sideswipe transform for the very first time with huge buildings, heavy machinery, and concrete silos. Just like back then, she worries about people still being inside, but then shakes her head. Everyone must be long gone by now, since the battle in the city started.
At least, she hopes no one sticks around for this. No matter how "epic" it would be to get shaky video footage of two aliens duking it out.
Optimus draws his sword, slashing at Lockdown left and right, but he dodges easily. Like a veteran fighter. But if he never participated in the Autobot-Decepticon Civil War, then how is he a fighter? Where did he learn those skills?
Where has he been using them all this time?
Sideswipe skids to a halt several meters away from them but they don't so much as glance over, too busy grappling with each other. Ari steps out of Sideswipe's alt mode, the air shifting behind her as he transforms into his bipedal form. With her sparkmate standing at her back and her friend in trouble in front of her, she raises her alien gun, aims, and fires.
The blast catches Lockdown in the shoulder, knocking him off Optimus and catching his attention.
"Who are you?" Ari calls out, gun poised to blast him again if she needs to. For now, he's at least distracted enough to allow Optimus to roll away and get to his feet again, sword gripped in both hands.
"If you do not know my name by now," Lockdown gets to his feet as well, wearing a cocky smile that somehow reminds her of Galloway, "then you are even more pathetic than I thought, human."
She shakes her head impatiently. "I know your name, Lockdown." He actually blinks in surprise at that. He really didn't expect her to know. "But that's not what I'm asking. Who are you? Who do you work for? Why are you here? How did you avoid the war on Cybertron?"
He sniffs haughtily, like an aristocrat speaking to a peasant. "And why should I tell you? You have no right to know. This has nothing to do with you."
"I do have a right to know." Shouldering her gun, she rolls up her left sleeve, revealing her AllSpark marks. "Primus gave me a right to know."
"Impossible," he breathes, wide optics brimming with disbelief and disgust. He spits out, "The AllSpark! What did you do to it?"
"I destroyed its last vessel in order to defeat a Decepticon. The power then transferred into me. I am the AllSpark now, making me as much a part of this fight as any of you."
Lockdown growls, arm turning into a blaster he then levels at her. "You lie!"
"I don't!"
Reaching inside herself, she draws the AllSpark to the surface. Blue sparks crackle along her skin as her AllSpark mark glows brightly, giving him just a taste of what she's capable of.
Still, he looks ready to protest again, and so she slips off her Autobot pendant for good measure, the one that hides her AllSpark energy signature. There's no real change that she can feel. Not in herself. Not in the air. Just that Lockdown's arm falls to hang limply at his side to stare at her.
No denying that. Nothing has a power quite like the AllSpark. It is unique in so many ways and it is hers to control.
And despite what others may think, even herself, she is worthy of that power.
"Who do you work for?" she demands, the queen to his aristocrat. "Primus wouldn't want any of this. He wouldn't have given me the AllSpark and the mission of stopping the Decepticons if he was just going to send you to round up all his creations. And he definitely wouldn't have sent someone so filled with hate for anything other than himself. So what did you mean when you said your 'creators' sent you?"
"Primus is not our only creator," Lockdown answers numbly, shock making him slack-jawed, his voice pliant by just enough.
"Do you mean Unicron?"
"Yes, but...Primus and Unicron did not actually make Cybertronians. After the battle, they gave the task of creation to another."
Okay, that does sound familiar. Primus and Unicron started to make the universe. Unicron despised it and tried to destroy everything. Him and Primus fought. Primus made the seven original Primes to help him stop Unicron. Unicron was defeated, and then Primus gave the AllSpark to the Primes to pick up where he left off.
"So are you talking about the Primes then?"
Although, all of them are dead. And she's sure of it this time.
Lockdown's face screws up in distaste. "No. They made a handful of our race—those who started the Prime lineage—but it was another who brought the Cybertronian species into being."
Another? She had never heard of another. True, the history of the Cybertronian race is something the AllSpark keeps under tight lock and key—she barely even knows anything of the original Primes—but she never suspected there was even more to the story.
An images flashes across her mind again, of purple optics. Purple optics staring out at a barren landscape covered in metal.
Cybertron.
"Who? Who is your creator?"
Lockdown opens his mouth as if to answer, but then he scowls, shaking his head furiously. "Enough talk. You won't live long enough for it to matter anyway."
Lockdown raises his blaster again, ready to fire. Sideswipe reaches down to snatch her out of the way, but Optimus is faster. He shoves into Lockdown's side, toppling them both to the ground. His sword clatters away and he scrambles to his feet, reaching out for it.
But Lockdown grabs it first.
"No!" Ari screams as Lockdown impales the sword through Optimus's chassis, the blade going clean through. Optimus falls backwards with the force of the blow, crying out in pain as Lockdown then pins him to the wall of the silo right behind him.
"You saved the human instead of saving yourself?" Lockdown shakes his head in disappointment. "You bring shame upon us all."
A snarl tears its way out of Ari's throat as she brings her Cybertronian gun up and fires. Repeatedly, over and over again, taking Lockdown by surprise as she hits him in the shoulder.
"Stay away from him, you big ugly psycho!"
She feels Sideswipe coil beside her before launching himself forward, clashing with Lockdown to get him away from Optimus. Keeping a safe distance away, Ari fires at Lockdown whenever she sees an opening, shooting between blades and limbs and suddenly glad Ironhide insisted she spend so much time at the shooting range.
But Lockdown is strong and bigger than Sideswipe and it doesn't take long until Sides gets tossed to the ground like a rag doll.
Ari shoots furiously, pushing Lockdown back and giving Sideswipe time to get back on his feet again, but they are seriously outmatched. They need Optimus.
She glances over her shoulder at him, still pinned against the silo and struggling to get the sword out without accidentally taking out his spark chamber as well. He needs help. She sees it, maybe. A tow truck parked not far away. If she can get the chain hooked around the sword, maybe the truck can pull it out.
But if she turns her back on this fight for even a second, she knows she and Sideswipe will be done before they know what hits them.
An engine revs angrily, drawing all of their eyes to Sunstreaker barreling into the factory grounds. He skids to a stop long enough for Lina to climb out of his alt mode, and then he transforms to join Sideswipe in the fight.
Ari shakes her head, wanting to be angry but unable to keep the small smile off her face.
"You never listen," she chastises lightly as Lina runs up to her, keeping her eyes on the three battling bots and continuing her own assault. "Whatever happened to staying with Nick at the Triskelion?"
"Long story," Lina huffs, like she's been running for miles. "Stingers attacked the Triskelion. We got out in time in the helicopter, but the building is a little...broken now."
She spares her a curious glance. "How broken?"
"Like, missing some pretty big pieces kind of broken. But, you know, they needed to redecorate anyway."
Ari snorts, taking a shot at Lockdown's head but he twists at the last second and she misses. Slaggit.
"Anyway, we met up with the others and then I made Sunstreaker bring me here. Though he didn't put up much of a fight. Like we'd really leave you guys hanging."
Ari really can't decide if she wants to scold her or hug her. Because, really, they do need help. And it's not like she can send them away now.
She watches the fight, making sure Sides and Sunny can handle things, before turning away to face Lina completely. "Do you know how to hot wire a car?"
Lina grins. "Of course. Sunny showed me how."
Ari rolls her eyes. Somehow she's not surprised.
They run over to the tow truck, Lina working on getting it started while Ari grabs the truck's tow chain. She pulls, using her enhanced strength to run the end of the heavy chain over to Optimus.
"Ari," he grunts, pushing at the hilt but unable to get enough leverage to loosen it. "You should just get out of here. This is my fight."
She doesn't even spare him a glance at the ridiculous statement, tossing the chain hook over the sword and then hooking it in one of the chain links to secure it in place. "Not happening, big guy. We do this together."
Yanking on the chain one last time to make sure it will stay and catch on the hilt, she calls out to Lina, "Drive!"
Gravel spits out from the truck tires as Lina punches it, chain going taunt as she speeds away. The truck jerks to a standstill, tires spinning as it pulls at the sword. It gives, a few inches at a time, but it slowly starts to come loose.
Sunny crashes to the ground with a strangled grunt, hand going up to his side where energon spills through his fingers. Ari rushes to him, confident Lina will have Optimus free in a few moments. Sparks tinge at her fingertips as she heals him quickly, watching him get back up on steady legs before rounding on Lockdown.
No one hurts her brother and gets away with it.
Pulling her makeshift strap around to bring her gun back in her hands, she fires, hitting Lockdown again and again. He looks at her like she's an annoying mosquito buzzing around his head but it gets his focus away from Sideswipe so he can get back to his feet as well. He's not hurt—she can tell with the bond—but it was close.
She keeps firing, Sides and Sunny jumping back into the fray, but they barely put a dent in Lockdown's armor. He's just so fast. Lockdown kicks out at Sunstreaker, sending him to the ground again, before going low at Sideswipe. He catches Sides in his legs, tossing him clear over his shoulder.
Ari winces at his pain, but only gets a few steps before Lockdown suddenly spins on her.
She scrambles to fire but Lockdown snatches the gun out of her arms, crushing it into scraps in his hand.
Frag. She liked that gun.
"You see my face," Lockdown rumbles, pointing his blaster at her, "your life is done."
The breath barely catches in Ari's throat before the blade of Optimus's sword pushes through the center of Lockdown's chassis from behind. Lockdown's optics go wide with surprise, energon spilling out of the corners of his mouth. Optimus savagely pulls the sword up, slicing Lockdown clear in half from the waist up.
He flops to the ground, completely offline, with Optimus standing over him in grim victory.
"Honor to the end," Optimus states proudly, more to himself than anyone else. But the words are true. Lockdown may not have approved of what Optimus has been doing on Earth. Associating with humans. Protecting them. But whatever Lockdown was planning, he was the one who was wrong.
But they still don't know what that plan was.
This fight may be over, but that something still hangs in the air, rife with far too many questions they don't know the answers to. Who was he working for? Who is the Cybertronian with the purple optics? How are they still on Cybertron and no one even knew about it?
Death's warning rings in Ari's ears as she watches energon pool beneath Lockdown's body. Unicron is coming.
But he isn't alone.
Author's Note
And that takes care of that. Ari's left with more questions than answers, but at least this fight is over.
Time to deal with the aftermath.
Hope you enjoyed, PLEASE REVIEW, and see you all next time!
