Titled this one Predacon.
I am messing with so much stuff right now. SO AU. (I just really liked the image of the Autobots with a Predacon ally okay. There's this image I have of a huge ass dragon(ess) standing in front of injured Autobots, wings spread wide, a snarl on her face, and daring anyone to come close to her Clan while it is vulnerable.) So I KNOW Predacons come in later after Shockwave plays Mad Scientist but SHHHHHH We're rolling with my AU curve balls okay.
TIME MEASUREMENTS:
Astrosecond: .5 seconds
Nano-klik: 1 second
Klik: 1 minute
Breem: 8 minutes
Cycle: 1 hour 15minutes
Deca-cycle: 4 weeks (one month)
Mega-cycle: 96 hours (four days)
Meta-cycle: 12 months (one year)
Stellar Cycle: 6 months
Vorn: 83 years
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She had been wild for vorns.
She had no one. No Clan, no Elders, no Alpha, no Healers…she had been alone. Her Clan was gone.
For all that her kind were the best of hunters, the best predators they were not meant to be alone. They were meant to thrive with a Clan.
Most never learned of this nature in a Predacon.
They were terrified of them, aimed to kill them or use them before they allowed a Predacon close.
Eclipse hated being alone. Her Clan was gone- wiped out when they refused to bend and follow Megatron. Her Clan had been proud and strong. They had been loyal. They had an Alpha and would not follow any other while he lived especially someone like Megatron who was a False Alpha.
It disgusted Eclipse as it had disgusted her Clan. Alphas were meant to be the protectors of their Clan, were meant to lead their Clan with the best of intentions for them. Meant to keep their Clan thriving and healthy. They were not meant to lead their Clan into wars and battles, or to hurt their Clan for the slightest of slights. They were not meant to be a bot that would claim to want the best for his people, only to lead with fear and brute force as Megatron did. It was these actions that earned Megatron the title of False Alpha. He had not earned his place he had forced it.
And so her Clan had refused him. Only to be killed. She had escaped only thanks to her Creator and Carrier choosing to sacrifice themselves for her. She had sworn on her fallen Clan she would see the mech known as Megatron offline for what he had done to them.
That had been a meta-cycle ago. She had taken to attacking Megatron and his forces whenever she could in that time. Over the course of it she'd saved the lives of a few Autobots including their leader Optimus Prime, their Weapons Specialist Ironhide, and the Medic Ratchet (alongside his patients- that had been a crazy battle, she'd actually had to land on the ground for it. She'd stood between the Decepticons and the Autobots Healer, her wings spread out in warning and protection.).
Optimus was a mech who had earned his place for all the weight his title of Prime carried. He was an Alpha who had earned his place at the top of his Clan as leader-protector-shield-sword. She would not allow the Clan of Autobot to suffer the loss of their Alpha as she had.
She would not realize what her actions had done in saving so many of the Autobot Clan until a later battle.
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Autobots and Decepticons had been clashing below her, while she flew above them keeping the Seekers from interfering with the Autobots. The Seekers had long since learned to be wary of her and her flames, teeth and claws.
She was not merciful with them and they had the welding scars to prove it. Unfortunately there seemed to be three sets of three- three Trines- flying around her this time. They seemed to be working together in an attempt to ground her.
Eclipse snarled a warning her flames licking through the air in an attempt to get space. She was being overwhelmed. It wouldn't usually happen, except Eclipse had been fighting for many deca-cycles now with no Healer. She was hurt and kept getting hurt each time she came out onto the battlefield with only her self-repair systems to heal any wounds she had gotten…and while Predacons healed quicker than most others the damage Eclipse kept taking wasn't allowing her the time to heal properly. (Her Healer- Shadowstrike- would have had her wings for going out as injured as she was)
It was showing now.
Her screech echoed over the battlefield as a three-way strike of Decepticon claws at her wings landed and she began to drop from the air drawling all optics to the sky for a moment as she plummeted.
She could hear the Seekers victory cries, but she was falling her long serpentine neck twisting to look at the ground instinctively. The mechs and femmes on the ground were scattering to avoid her as she plummeted towards them.
She twisted her body instinctively the moment she realized she could not slow herself down or glide with her torn wings. Her wings snapped down close to her body her neck and head jerking back in a curving 'S' over her back while her legs tensed and braced for the fall she was about to take, her long scythe tipped tail lashing instinctively.
When she hit the ground she snarled. She had managed to land on her pedes for a moment before the momentum sent her tumbling and rolling across the ground. When she finally stilled her frame throbbed. She couldn't move for a moment as her systems tried to deal with the crash she had taken despite knowing she had landed on a battlefield. She could hear running pedes and her processor screamed that she needed to get up and defend herself but she couldn't quite manage it. She twisted her neck lifting her head and snarling a warning that cut off when she recognized the Autobot Healer and Weapons Specialist.
They had slowed at the sound of her snarl but quickened their pace as she cut herself off. "Hurry Ratchet" the black colored mech spoke to the Healer as he turned to the battle field "I will cover you while you work."
The Healer- Ratchet- had nodded sharply as he approached her, hissing his displeasure when he noticed all the self-healing injuries on top of the ones she had just taken to her wings. "What did you do to yourself?" he growled as his servos began to fly over her frame. Eclipse snorted softly as she lowered her head to the ground curling her neck slightly around the medic as he worked.
"I fought" she answered him softly causing both mechs to jerk with surprise "without a Healer. There was no one to help me but that did not mean the battles stopped nor did it mean I didn't need to be there on the field."
She closed her golden optics for a moment before she opened them again, scanning the surroundings for threats from her shielding place of the Healer. She knew the weapons specialist realized what she had done by curling her neck and head around the smaller bot when his optics trailed over her position before he nodded his thanks and acknowledgement to her.
(She towered over all the bots really- she was large enough for their Prime to sit on her back and appear small despite her slim build when compared to others of her kind so it was no trouble to use her neck as a shield.)
As she noticed a threat that Ironhide- as the mech had introduced himself- could not deal with she lifted her head from its place with a snarl, the until them soft metal spikes on her back trailing along her spine and down her tail straightening and hardening into sharp points, even as she quickly snagged the medic into her front claws gently holding him against her chest with one claw even as she stood flames licking around her fangs, the slim almost delicate looking mandibles on either side of her mouth plates opening threateningly alongside her mouth. She didn't hold back as she opened her mouth wide and bathed the area in her flames. There were no Autobots to take the blow within the range she had used for that blast and Ironhide was dealing with enemies on her other side so she saw no reason to.
As soon as the Decepticons were melted into slag she closed her mouth huffing out any smoke left, mandibles settling back into their places as she scanned the area again. She lowered her head, those same mandibles opening and gently taking the medic into them as she twisted her neck and head around to gently place the mech onto her back before releasing him. "Stay there please." She commanded even as her armor plating shifted and hardened, all the spikes on her spine around the place she had placed him hardening into dangerous dagger like protrusions around him.
She had placed the medic where Predacon sparklings were placed before they learned to fly and her body responded to having a living cybertronian inside by activating all the protective measures that would trigger with a sparkling to protect. The spines on her back around the hold would harden and become electrified to the touch when she wished, the armor would shift to mostly cover the opening, and the placement ensured she could reach the hold to deal with anyone who managed to get to close with her fangs. She turned to Ironhide darting to his side and dropping her head, those same mandibles (used many times to pick up and hold unruly sparklings) opening "I will place you on my back. Hold tightly to the spines around you. I will be moving quickly." She didn't give him a chance to respond the mandibles closing around the mech as she quickly twisted around to place him on her back.
He grumbled about being handled like a sparkling, but he gripped the spine beside him as she lifted her head and began to dart through the battlefield. Eclipse was quick, her tail, claws, fangs, and fire taking care of any Decepticon in her way as she darted for the Prime.
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Eclipse isn't sure exactly how she ended up following the Autobots to their base.
(The Prime and the Healer were convincing.)
Either way she finds herself in the very center of Ratchet's med bay, her wings spread wide (she touches either wall and it takes some creative maneuvering. Eventually she decides to move all the way to the wall and open one wing at a time) for the medic to treat. She is thankful for his gentle servos as he takes care of the numerous injuries she had accumulated even as his words are sharp and angry. She recognizes that he is angry she allowed herself to go without treatment and made some of the injuries worse for it and doesn't hold it against him as he flings insults and threats in equal measure.
After she is treated (and threatened with wrenches about straining anything) she sees the Prime. She wasn't expecting the bot to offer her a place in his Clan. He explains that the Autobots had already seen her as 'one of them' due to her numerous fights at their side even if she had never gone back to 'base' with them. She accepts the offer of housing, dipping her head in agreement.
The Prime is not her Alpha yet. He is an Alpha and a good one, but he is not yet her Alpha. He has yet to earn that place.
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It is after a tiring stressful battle a vorn and a half after Eclipse joins the Autobots that Eclipse realizes Optimus Prime has become her Alpha somewhere over the many battles they have faced together.
She is exhausted and aching, but whole thanks to Optimus. (It had been a crazy maneuver in which the Prime had run up her foreleg and took a flying leap at Megatron to knock him away from her wings after she had been pinned by sheer numbers despite the Autobots efforts to help her)
The Prime approached her as soon as they arrived back at the base to ask after her wellbeing and it hits her that Optimus Prime had been her leader-protector-shield-sword…her Alpha…for many meta-cycles. Her optics widen as she has the thought, turning to face the bot in her bipedal mode blinking with surprise.
She pulled herself to her pedes from where she had been sitting and to her full height at the realization nodding to him "I am fine Optimus Prime…and it is time I did something."
She backed away from the Prime as she finished speaking, triggering her transformation sequence so that she stood before him in her Predacon from, all Autobots in the area turning their way at the tone in her voice. As soon as she was far enough away she pinned her optics to the Prime who watched her with confused optics. They wouldn't be so in a klik.
She pulled her right foreleg back just above her hip joint as she lowered her body into a crouch, extending her left foreleg forward as far as it would go as she spread her wings as far as she could. She then lowered the front of her neck so her head hovered just above her forelimbs and bent her body into a bow, her wings fully extended and flat to the ground as she could make them with her optics closed.
She heard the sharp intakes of the bots and the Prime as they realized what they were seeing.
"My Alpha" she greeted him from her place on the ground in a bow her instincts humming happily in her processor. "Thank you for your care."
It was a sign of great trust for a Predacon to lower themselves into a bow as she had as it left many places vulnerable to attack. The only time a Predacon bowed to someone it was to their Alpha alone or in the case of a great honor done to them- as they would bow if another saved their sparkling in thanks- so for Eclipse to be bowing as she was, it was a shock to the bots. They knew her view on bowing to anyone. They knew what it meant to see her lowered into a bow before Optimus Prime.
Optimus' optics were huge as he stood frozen for a moment before stepped forward "Rise Eclipse" he intoned, his voice giving the words the weight the moment deserved as the bots around them remained absolutely silent and still.
Eclipse opened her optics slowly lifting herself up, pulling her wings to her sides and shifting her forelimbs so that she can stand on them keeping only her neck and head lowered so she can stare on even ground- optic to optic- with Optimus.
::This is my Clan now:: she tells the Prime, eyes gleaming, and voice heavy with all the weight the word 'Clan' holds for her.
And Optimus understands what she doesn't say: that she will stand with them through the Pits, will face down Unicron and Primus themselves to shield them, will protect and guide and stand beside them through everything to come in this war.
That Eclipse would die for them.
He responds in a way that tells her the feeling is mutual and leaves her proud this is her Alpha.
::This is our Clan::
O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~
Eclipse is mostly black with gold-white sort of accents (she made me think of a Solar Eclipse hence her name) and golden optics. She stands about 35 feet in bipedal form- making her taller than even Megatron- and while in 'beast' or 'Predacon' form is a large slim but strong black armored dragoness with spines down her back and tail with a retractable scythe blade on the end of said tail. She's got long claws on each of her limbs. If anyone wants to adopt this let me know~