A/N: Whoops, sorry to keep you waiting.

11. Rescue


"This is as far as I go, Nova."

"Don't call me that," I growled, flinching, glaring at my partner. He grinned.

"Right, sorry, couldn't resist. Void it is."

"You can't get any closer?"

"Hey, I trust my cloaking device, but I'm not landing in the middle of Megatron's base, and I'm not going in there with you. All I can do is give you this." He databurst a file to me. "That goes against my code of ethics, you know, giving out info about my favorite client."

I downloaded the file to find a detailed map of Megatron's underground base, detailing passages, chambers, even defenses. Lockdown shuffled sheepishly. "As long as it'll help you get back to work in one piece."

"I… thanks." I shook myself – thanking Lockdown?! What had gotten into me lately?! – and tried again. "If it makes you feel any better, I'll erase it from my processor later." It was a lie, of course, and Lockdown probably knew it. I was a Decepticon at Spark, even if Megatron had blotted out my insignias, and I would never give up this kind of advantage over my old nemesis.

"No funny business," Lockdown warned me. "You get in, grab your big shuttle boyfriend, and get out. Megatron's credits keep the energon in your fuel tank, got that? You're only valuable as long as I can afford to keep you, and if you terminate the mech with the money, well…"

"Fine. I won't kill him." Though if I ran into him I would have no qualms about seriously injuring and/or humiliating him.

Lockdown landed the ship at the mouth of a canyon and activated the cloaking device. "Megatron's back door is down this sucker," he said. "I don't think he even knows about it. But old Lockdown knows the ins and outs. Old human mine, this is, so it can get confusing. Use that map I gave you. Don't get lost."

I nodded and activated the airlock.

"One more thing. If you get caught, you're working alone, understand?"

"Perfectly."

I landed outside the ship, looking around in disgust. I truly hated this planet – all the rocks, all the trees, all the mud.

"Hey, partner, good luck," Lockdown said, appearing to float in midair as he looked out of the airlock. "I'll give you one megacycle. After that… you're on your own."

The airlock hissed shut, leaving Lockdown safely hidden. I moved with short bursts of my thrusters, trying to avoid walking on the dirt and gravel as much as possible, since they were murder on my thrusters. My sensors detected no sentries, but I went carefully even so. Although Lockdown and I had cobbled together a new scanner to detect even the dampened energy signatures the Decepticons here had, it was possible that they'd upgraded since then. When a quick visual scan failed to spot any defenses, I accepted that Lockdown had been right: Megatron didn't know about his "back door." I would have known every entrance to my base if I were… no. No, I couldn't think about that any more. Those ambitions were dead. Now all I wanted was to free Skyfire and… and get back to work with Lockdown, anonymous and stable. There would be no "happily ever after" for Skyfire and me, no flying off into the sunset.

The abandoned mine was dark and labyrinthine. The forgotten carts were emblazoned with the symbol of Sumdac Systems; they were robots, then, deactivated and left to rust. I sneered and left the drones behind, using the map Lockdown had given me to find my way through the endless passages.

I kept my audios and optics tuned for Decepticons, but encountered none. Perhaps they had gone in pursuit of an Allspark shard or the like, but I took no chances. Rather than relax, I only became more cautious. Many long stellar cycles had taught me to treat everything with suspicion; even the clearest area could be a trap, was even more likely to be a trap.

Lights ahead made me duck into a side corridor. I had my own signal blocker, but I was still visible to the optics. I didn't hear footsteps, just a hum and whirr. A drone passed by in the tunnel I'd just been using, floating along with headlights ablaze. Its camera-style optic revealed it to be a security droid and little threat. As soon as it had turned the next corner, I carried on, now aware of the potential danger of discovery.

This security was laughable. Was Megatron so arrogant, so sure of himself that he'd left his stronghold open? No. He may have been arrogant, but Megatron was no fool, I could give him that. It was luck that had kept me from running into higher security… luck, or design?

What passed as a "brig" seemed to be a series of storage rooms that had been refitted with locks. It was here that things got mildly tricky – there were blinking red lights in the shadows around the ceiling: cameras.

Well, I was not Lockdown's partner for nothing. I pulled a scrambler from my subspace – it was a device of my own design, releasing a concentrated EMP that would short out the cameras and the locks on the doors. I pressed the button and set it rolling into the room, retreating to a safe distance so my own systems would escape the pulse. There was a bright flash and the red lights vanished. I had to hurry now; if anyone had actually been watching the cameras, they would now know that something was amiss and send reinforcements. Quick steps took me back into the brig. The locks had been deadened as I'd planned, making it a matter of simply pushing the doors open.

Skyfire was behind the third door, crouched in a room far too small for him. Our optics had barely met when an alarm sounded loudly over whatever communication system had been set up here.

"Intruder detected," it said again and again. I ignored it and entered the cell.

"Void? What are you doing?" Skyfire asked. I rendered the stasis cuffs useless with a shot from a null-ray and Skyfire easily freed himself.

"It's called a rescue. No time to thank me now, let's get moving."

There were lights down the tunnel I had taken to get here. Skyfire and I took another way as I checked the map Lockdown had given me. It was a long, circuitous route to my "back door," but the front entrance would be heavily guarded, as would the sky entrance.

The base was built in a once-volcanic mountain… Megatron's command center was just below the shaft, where the ceiling would be made of solidified magma. In other words, the weakest part, easy to destroy. I altered our course; evidently Skyfire recognized it.

"Why are we going toward Megatron?"

"Because I can blast through the roof and escape. You can come too if you keep up."

"Why are you doing this? Why should I even trust you?"

No so naïve after my betrayal. He'd finally learned something. "Because. Stop talking and keep moving!"

I shot down a few security drones in our path. More were on our trail and gaining, but we were nearly to the command center. Intensely grateful that I'd thought to bring one, I unsubspaced a blaster and handed it to Skyfire.

"I don't…"

"You don't have to kill anything. When we get to the command center, just aim at the ceiling and shoot."

We skidded into a large, open area. Computer banks, throne, huge Decepticon insignia – this was the place. "Shoot at the roof!" I ordered, then turned just in time to take on the drones who had followed us. There were dozens of them, but I hadn't been promoted to second-in-command of all Decepticons for my pretty face. These third-rate drones and their pathetic armaments were nothing.

I'd just finished the last of them when I heard the sound I least wanted to hear right now: the very familiar sound of the unique-in-all-the-galaxy fusion cannon readying to fire.

I turned. My processor registered several things at once: first, that Megatron stood across the room, cannon aimed straight at Skyfire's back and in the final stage of the firing sequence; second, that Skyfire was looking at me and didn't see him; third, that there was no way for Megatron to miss a target that big.

Megatron fired and I moved in the same moment. I thought I must have broken the sound barrier from a standing stop… any slower and I wouldn't have made it.

I didn't even feel it for half a nano-klik; then my damage sensors went crazy, alarms shrieking in my audios and flashing in my optics. The force flung me back into Skyfire, who'd finally turned. With speed and instinct born from his training at the Academy, he caught me and blasted off, folding protectively around me as we burst through what remained of the ceiling.

We landed on the mountainside two nano-kliks later, Skyfire cradling me gently in his arms. I saw him as a white blur above me; his voice seemed to come from a great distance. "Void… why would you…?"

"Couldn't… leave y— behind… again," I forced out with the last of my strength. "You big… moron…"

Before I could see sudden, horrified recognition light his blue optics, I fell into darkness.