Transformers Prime: Lost, But Found
Part Two
Once more Jack awoke with a start, the events of the last several hours flooding his mind like a splash of artic water. His head swimming, Jack stumbled to his feet, body aching, before nearly toppling over as a wave of fresh nausea assailed him. Before he could hit the rubble strewn floor at his feet, Arcee's metal arm was there to keep him upright.
"Easy, Jack." She told him gently. "You humans don't recover all that quickly."
Trying to fight through the vertigo and the haze of pain that seemed to cover him from head to foot, Jack tried to blink his sight clear, being reminded almost instantly that one of his eyes was still sealed shut by the long dried blood which had run down from a gash along his brow.
He recalled, absently, tearing a strip from the hem of his shirt while Arcee had slept, using it as a makeshift bandage.
"I'm fine." Jack said, trying to regain some measure of composure. "I must have dozed off. Sorry."
"Don't apologize. I appreciate that you watched over me as long as you did." Arcee replied, lacing her long fingers about him protectively. "I just wish it hadn't taken me so long to restore my systems. By my count, we've been here for a little over five hours."
That gave Jack pause. When the first missile had appeared to target them during their patrol, it has been sometime after 7:00 in the early evening. Their evasive actions and subsequent arrival in the mining town had taken about an hour's worth of time, give or take. Jack came to the conclusion that it was sometime after 1:00 am.
"No one's come looking for us?" Jack inquired.
"I wouldn't be able to tell if they did, or even if they still are. My sensors are still being interrupted. Ditto for communications." Arcee informed him. "If we're going to get out of here, it's going to have to be on foot."
Easing from her grasp, Jack tested his legs and balance. Besides the throbbing in his head and the lingering ache in his chest from a broken rib, or two, he was steady enough. "How about you? Can you move? Or shift?" Jack asked her.
"I can move well enough, if a bit slowly. My power levels are still a bit low. I can't use any of my energy weapons, and the internal damage is too severe for me to shift forms." Arcee answered with frustration. "We're doing this the long way."
"Well," Jack said. "If we can get to the Highway, I might be able to flag someone down. Even this late, there has to be a few drivers."
"I think that's the least of our problems." Arcee observed.
"What do you mean?" Jack asked her.
In response, Arcee held up the long sliver of sharp, twisted metal Jack had pulled from her chest. "My sensors might be on the fritz, but my eyes work just fine." Arcee explained. "This metal isn't anything normal. I thought at first that it had come from one of the buildings when the explosion hit us. But, it's too dense, and I can't even bend it." Arcee handed the shard to Jack.
"To make matters worse," she continued, rising from her crouched position, walking across the room to a near by wall. "I spotted these while you were out." Jack watched as Arcee ran her hand down several small holes, only a few fingers wide, scattered across the old concrete. "Look familiar?"
Moving slowly to join her, Jack probed the small holes. Almost instantly, his fingers contacted the same metal he now held in his hand. "That explosion…" Jack ventured.
"Was a scatter mine. Thing was filled with these metal fragments." Arcee explained. "On Cybertron, during the War, the Decepticons used devices like that to booby-trap skyways and choke points. Those of us on patrols learned to keep an eye out for them." Arcee shook her head. "I wasn't expecting something like that. Not on this planet. The 'cons haven't used them since we've been here. But someone has a long memory."
Jack was silent for a moment. "So, you do think it's Decepticons after us?"
Arcee nodded. "It's either the 'cons, or someone else from Cybertron with a grudge. That only leaves one other option."
"Airachnid." Jack breathed.
Once more Arcee nodded, though gravely. "It would explain why we haven't been attacked again. She's playing with us. She wants us to run."
"You mean, she could be watching us right now?" Jack asked quietly, trying not to make it obvious he was scanning the desert night just beyond the shattered wall nearby.
"Maybe." Arcee said. "If she is, she's been patient. This is a game she wants to make last."
"What's the plan?" Jack asked pointedly.
"Same as before. We make for the Highway. Carefully." Arcee told him. "If we can avoid anymore surprises like that mine, we'll draw her out. I might not have my canons, but I can still give her some payback." To emphasize, Arcee brought out one of her long blades, the look in her eyes deadly.
"She nearly killed you. Twice." Arcee said coldly. "This time, she won't be getting away."
"Arcee. She tried to kill you as much as she did me. I want to see her scraped just as badly for that. But, I think we might be better off just trying to get outside the range of whatever it is she has that's keeping us cut off." Jack said, resting his hands on her forearm. "Neither one of us is one hundred percent. If she got the drop on you…"
Arcee sighed reluctantly. "I know. We need support." Retracting her weapon, Arcee moved to the lip of the shattered wall, peering out into the night from the modicum of cover. " Full moon tonight. So, we make a break for the edge of town. Once we're out in the open desert, she won't have the element of surprise. Even if she burrows, we'll be able to hear or see her coming out there."
"Sounds like a plan." Jack responded, moving to join her.
"Can you make it?" Arcee asked him. "Energon is low, but I can carry you."
Jack tried to feign wounded pride. "Last time I checked, being carried around by your girlfriend isn't exactly heroic."
Arcee stared down at him, a strange look and small smile across her face.
"What?" Jack asked her.
"That's the first time you've called me your Girlfriend." She teased.
"Sorry." Jack offered apologetically.
"No." Arcee answered, returning her gaze to the outside. "I like it."
At her back Jack smiled despite the gravity of their current circumstance.
Though her sensors and scanners continued to be accosted by static, Arcee's well trained eyes surveyed the street and the scattering of buildings between them and the terrain beyond. Nothing appeared to be out of the ordinary, and Arcee marked the locations where further explosives might be placed for maximum effect.
It wouldn't be a straight route, that was for sure. But, as long as they remained watchful, they would be able to escape, finding some cover as they went.
"Okay." Arcee told him, her tone firm, all pretense at levity gone. "We move as quickly as possible. You stay low and on my six. Got it?"
Jack merely nodded.
Satisfied, Arcee moved around the rim of the wall, stepping out for the first time into the open night, Jack close behind her. Moving tentatively, Arcee scanned the darkness, ensuring they were, hopefully, in the clear, before moving at a steady, though not overly rapid, pace towards the corner of a building just a few yards away. Trying to keep up with her, Jack endured his physical discomfort in silence.
Hunkered down, Arcee kept her eyes alert, sweeping them over various locations even as she spoke to her partner. "There's an old power station just past those row of outbuildings. I remember seeing it on the way in. If we can reach it, it should give us good cover all the way out of town."
"Got it." Jack told her.
Without another word, Arcee was out again and moving with a purpose, Jack struggling somewhat to maintain the close spacing, his ribs feeling as though they were moving about far too loosely with every step, chest filled with fire. Jack did his best to conceal his labored breathing. By the time they reached the next building, however, Arcee was taking notice.
"Jack," She told him firmly. "Let me carry you. Once we clear the next building we're going to have to double the pace to get to the plant without being exposed for too long. I don't want you passing out halfway across."
"I'm…fine." Jack insisted. "Carrying me will…only slow you down."
Arcee shook her head. "Males." She whispered irritably. "Skin or Metal, you're all stubborn Sparklings when you're hurt."
Jack was about to form a retort, before he realized he didn't know what a sparkling was. By the time his mind wrapped around that, Arcee was already taking him into her arms, being as gentle as she could manage for the sake of his injuries. Jack protested weakly, something which Arcee duly ignored.
Cradling the teen close to her chest, Arcee swept the area with her optics once more before starting out briskly. She had managed to make it several dozen feet before a glint caught her peripheral vision, almost unnoticeable. Past battles, however, and the reputation of they're hunter willed Arcee into action within milliseconds. Unable to shout a warning, Arcee rolled, trying to keep Jack from being crushed against her. Just inches from where her head had been, something buzzed through the air, continuing on towards what looked to have once been a flag pole. There was the sound of metal on metal, and suddenly the pole was toppling over, cut cleanly through at the middle.
Eyes wide, Arcee sprinted for the nearest protection she could find. Gathered several yards from the power station were the derelict husks of flatbed trucks which had been thoroughly gutted sometime long ago. Arcee leaped over the cabin of the nearest, coming down on the opposite side. Though the cover was minimal, it was enough to keep both her and Jack out of the line of fire.
"What…was that?" Jack asked her, his breath coming in gasps.
"Hacks." Arcee told him quietly, trying to peer around the empty engine housing. "Flat disks, about the size of a tennis ball. Get them spinning, and the damn things almost never stop moving, regardless of what they come in contact with." Arcee's gaze was suddenly distant, seeing something in memory which made her shiver ever so slightly. "Megatron used to enjoy using them to clear out bunkers."
"Why haven't they ever used them here before?" Jack asked.
"They're rare. Made from a synthetic polymer that can't be manufactured on Earth."
"So how did Airachnid get her hands on some?"
"I don't know." Arcee admitted. "But let's hope it wasn't a large surplus."
From the darkness, nothing further came, and all was quiet. Even with her cybernetic audio receptors, Arcee could discern nothing, the night mostly silent save for Jack's breathing and the odd distant coyote. Arcee gauged the distance between the truck and the power station's periphery.
There was plenty of open space for the Cybertronian psychopath to make good use of further Hacks if she had any remaining. There were few options before them; wait for Airachnid's aerial weapons to cut through their meager cover, or make the run across the proverbial no man's land to the dilapidated building. Either choice left a cold feeling in Arcee's chest.
"Jack?" Arcee said quietly. "We have to break for the station. If…if the Hacks take me down, I need you to keep going." Before the teen could interject, Arcee continued. "You get to the Highway and you get in touch with HQ or Fowler. You go and you don't look back."
"You can't believe for a second that I'd just leave you…" Jack fought to say.
"Jack, listen to me. If that monster kills us both, then it's all for nothing. We don't know how she was able to shut down coms and sensors and she could do this to the others. Bulkhead and Miko. BB and Raf." Bright azure eyes gazed into his intently. "Is that what you want?"
Jack struggled with those words, and the plausible consequences of refusing, before merely shaking his head.
"Then hold on to me." Rising slightly Arcee gave a silent prayer to the All-Spark, eyes sweeping the night around them, before sprinting from behind the confines of the flatbed, armored legs beating deep furrows into the desert's hard-packed soil. The pair had crossed almost half the distance seemingly in seconds, time seeming to slow, before Arcee felt the first strange vibration roll through the ground underfoot. Before her Positronic mind could process what was happening the planet itself seemed to heave, the ground rising up several feet before falling away into the void, taking both Arcee and Jack down once more into darkness.
…
When Arcee awoke, she new almost instantly that she was not where she should have been. The explosives which had dropped both her and Jack into the abandoned mining tunnels beneath the town had not robbed her of consciousness. Though she had come down, hard, loosing Jack in the fall, Arcee had scrambled to find her young love before being struck from the darkness, her enemy at long last seeking to bring the game to a close. The burst of electromagnetic energy had been mild, but her already damaged systems had succumbed easily. Though she had fought, desperate to protect Jack, the Autobot had felt herself drift away, her partner's name on her lips.
Now, what could have been days or hours later, her internal chronometer having been disabled in the energy blast, Arcee's optics slowly regained focus, revealing an open chamber hallowed out from the rock, dimly lit by a series of makeshift rigs salvaged from the tunnels likely nearby. There was no sign of Jack.
Her senses quickly returning, Arcee realized, much to both her frustration, fury, and even fear, that her hands and legs were bound, constrained by magnetic cuffs that, judging by their crude design, were as makeshift as the chamber's lighting. Though she new the action was in vain, Arcee struggled at her bindings, but the crude tech held. It was only after shifting slightly in her struggles Arcee realized that, though Jack was not imprisoned with her, she was not alone.
Though the lighting rigs in the chamber permitted her enough illumination to see around her, there were pockets of shadow beyond them and it was from within one of those someone, or something, stirred, moving from one pocket of darkness to another, it's footfalls heavy.
"Airachnid?" Arcee roared. "Where is Jack? Whatever you want to do to me, do it! But if you did anything to him I'll come back from the All-Spark itself to tear you apart!"
The figure remained silent, optics she could not see fixated on her. If the Decepticon torturer was relishing having Arcee under her thumb and at her mercy she gave no indication.
"Why are you hiding, Airachnid?" Arcee mocked. "Afraid of me even with these on? Coward!"
Her captor continued to say nothing, merely watching. Her fear for Jack's wellbeing nearly driving her to madness, Arcee renewed her struggles against her magnetic bindings, the force of her effort causing her to spill over on her side. Enraged, Arcee shouted her fury at the figure in shadow.
"Where is Jack? Tell me where he is!" Despite her rage, Arcee could hear her voice nearly break under the strain of her emotions. If indeed Airachnid had taken her final vengeance on Jack, Arcee knew nothing else would matter. There would be nothing left in her but a soulless, empty shell.
Jack had been the only thing keeping her whole, keeping her full of hope for something other then the fight or the War. If that future, whatever it held, was gone, then she would be truly dead. Even if the spark in her chest continued to burn.
"Just…tell me! Please!" Arcee pleaded. Had she the capacity to shed tears, she knew they would have flowed freely. As though aware of this as keenly as she, the figure at last stirred, stepping forward enough to give her captor greater definition. It took only one look at the hulking form gazing out at her from the near darkness to know she was not looking upon her old enemy.
"Who…who are you? Why are you doing this?" Arcee shouted.
When, at last, the figure spoke, the voice was chilling. Empty, almost purely metallic, yet, beneath the icy tenor, there was something…familiar. Something which nearly stilled the Spark in her chest.
"Do you remember? Sidonis? Mountains so high they touched the stars. Do you remember when they hit our patrol? They had us separated. Fire reigning from the sky, everyone dying, everywhere death."
As the voice like cold steel continued to speak, Arcee could see a face rise in her mind's eye, a face suggesting the impossible. Things she could not accept least what remained of her sanity be shattered.
"When we were apart from you, fighting for our lives, did you ever fear for us, as much as you do for…him?"
Stepping from the shadows the figure moved into the light, at last revealing himself in full, a twisted form out of Arcee's deepest nightmares. Her body shaking, Arcee fought not to scream at the horror of it.
"Tell us, Arcee. Did you ever love us as much…?"
Mouth agape, Arcee eyes were wide with a scream unvoiced.
"Nothing more to say…to an old partner?"
"Cliff…?" Arcee heard the name as though standing outside herself. And then she screamed.
To be continued…