Transformers Dawn
Closure
Get ready for some feels guys, because there's going to be a scrap load of them in this chapter!
After leaving the laboratory, Rodimus walked through the corridors of the Nemesis, in the search for a room with a ground bridge he could use to leave the ship. He had looked through several rooms aboard the ship, but with no success.
Ratchet had left in such a rush to get to the Predacons, that he had not told Rodimus where on the ship he could find a ground bridge. So Rodimus was left on his own to find his own way off the ship.
As Rodimus continued to walk through the corridors, a red mech turned left into an area where the corridors intersected and came across Rodimus. Upon seeing the stranger Knock Out reacted to his presence in the way he knew best. With a compliment.
"Nice paint job!"
"Thanks!" Rodimus replied, pleasantly surprised by the sudden compliment. He had not seen anyone else aboard the ship and had not expected the first person he encountered to give him a compliment.
Knockout looked closer at the flames emblazoned on Rodimus' chest and remarked in awe and with a hint of envy, "Those flames look stunning!"
"Yeah I like them too!" Rodimus agreed enthusiastically. Rodimus was thrilled to meet someone who admired his paint job so much.
"My name is Knock Out by the way, automobile enthusiast and medic here on the Nemesis." Knock Out held out his servo for Rodimus to shake.
Rodimus accepted his offer and shook Knock Out's servo. "My name is Rodimus."
The temporary distraction of meeting Knock Out soon began to wear off and Rodimus jerked his head up when he remembered what he had set out to do.
"Hey! Do you know where I can find a ground bridge around here?"
"Of course and I'll personally show you the way." Knock Out led the way with a sweeping gesture of his arm.
"Thanks."
"Not a problem." Knock Out replied.
Knock Out and Rodimus walked quietly through the corridors of the Nemesis for a while, the only noise present being the hum of the ship's engine and the sound of the two Cybertronian's footsteps. Rodimus began to feel a bit awkward, so he attempted to start a conversation to give himself and Knock Out something to do as they walked.
"So what do you do for fun around here? It seems pretty boring on this ship."
"Well… as you can see from my lustrous finish, I like to keep myself presentable by polishing my finish and from time to time, I like to indulge in a bit of racing." Knock Out told Rodimus happily, pleased that Rodimus was taking an interest in him.
Rodimus' brows rose at the sound of the word 'racing'. His lip components spread into a smile. Racing was just the thrill that he was looking for. Rodimus loved a bit of danger and competition and racing was the perfect activity to experience both.
"Perhaps you might like to join me someday? I bet you'd be pretty fast." Knock Out surprised Rodimus with another compliment.
"You really think so?!" Rodimus asked excitedly.
"Yes! But not as fast as me of course." Knock Out said arrogantly.
"We'll see about that." Rodimus challenged Knock Out with a smirk.
"You've got attitude kid. I like that." Knock Out smiled.
"Anyway we have arrived." Knock Out informed Rodimus and entered one of the rooms in the Nemesis.
Knock Out then went up to a control panel and asked, "Where to?"
"Autobot boot camp."
Knock Out entered the co-ordinates into the control panel and pulled the ground bridge lever down, making a swirling green vortex materialize.
"See you around Hot Rod!" Knock Out waved at Rodimus.
"That's not my name." Rodimus told Knock Out, feeling a bit annoyed at the nick name.
"It is now." Knock Out teased him. It amused him to banter with Rodimus. With Breakdown gone for such a long time, Knock Out had not had the chance to have a playful conversation with anyone else.
Knock Out watched as Rodimus rolled his optics and entered the ground bridge tunnel and disappeared from view.
At the Autobot boot camp, Smokescreen was struggling with his new responsibilities as a drill sergeant. It had been him of course that had begged to be put in charge of the Autobot boot camp, but on days like this Smokescreen occasionally regretted his decision.
Accidental injuries were almost inevitable, no matter how carefully he instructed his students and there was always rebellious, day dreaming or trigger happy bots that he had to deal with.
"Blaster! Get your head out of the clouds, those targets are not going to shoot themselves!" Smokescreen ordered and approached the offending student.
Blaster snapped out of his reverie and turned his head towards Smokescreen.
"Blaster! You have to FOCUS, if you want to improve!" Smokescreen lectured his student with frustration.
Blaster listened to his drill sergeant carefully, as if being snapped out of his day dream had put him on guard. From the corner of his optic, Blaster noticed a strange creature sneakily enter the boot camp before Smokescreen could have a chance to spot it.
"Uh… sir? What's that?" Blaster pointed to the intruder.
Smokescreen turned towards where Blaster had indicated and recognized the creature.
"Airachnid! How did she get here?!" Smokescreen exclaimed.
The only time Smokescreen had ever seen Airachnid was when she was safely locked up inside a stasis pod, never to be released. So to see Airachnid at large was a distressing sight for Smokescreen.
Airachnid screeched and lunged towards one of the students.
"Never mind that! Shoot her!" Smokescreen dismissed his previous statement and activated his blaster and fired three shots at Airachnid, which she tried to dodge.
Two of those shots missed Airachnid, while the one that met its mark only enraged Airachnid and failed to stop her from draining the energon of a nearby student.
"No!" Smokescreen exclaimed as he watched one of his student's body crash to the ground in a lifeless heap.
Sounds of the student's screams and scrambling footsteps filled the camp, as the students watched one of their peers fall to the ground.
Smokescreen turned to Blaster and gave him a new set of instructions, "Blaster! Round everyone up and split them into two groups. I want a perimeter around the camp and an inner group to hold her off. We can't let her get to the populated areas!"
"What are you going to do, sir?" Blaster asked, a little confused about the whole situation.
Blaster was a fairly inexperienced student and no drill Smokescreen had ever put the students through could have prepared him for this. With all the duties delegated to him, Blaster wondered what other possible duty Smokescreen could do.
"I'm calling for backup." Smokescreen put his hand to his head and turned on his com-link, as Blaster went out of sight and began to organize some troops, while blasting at the re-animated body of the former student.
"Wheeljack! This is Smokescreen! We've got a situation here. That freaky spider lady's back. Think you can come here and give me a hand?!"
"Hey, no problem, kid. I'll be there soon. Think you handle yourself until I get there? I'm only a few klicks away from your position." Wheeljack replied over the com-link.
"I think so, but if you don't hurry up, we'll all be zombies!" Smokescreen said.
Smokescreen then terminated the communication and contacted Ratchet.
Ratchet was on board the Nemesis besides Hound's medical berth. He scanned Hounds stasis-locked chassis with his medical scanner for any sign of improvement, when he received an incoming transmission from Smokescreen.
"Yes what is it?" Ratchet responded irritably. He had not finished his scan and did not like to be interrupted during important matters. Especially when it concerned an old friend.
"Ratchet! What do you know about zombies?" Smokescreen asked.
"Excuse me?"
"Airachnid's at the boot camp and she's attacking everybody and sucking out their energon! You fought Decepti-zombies before, how do we stop them?!" Smokescreen asked urgently.
Smokescreen had already called for backup, but he wanted to be certain that the mission would succeed, so he asked from a voice of wisdom who had experienced a situation such as this and would be most likely to comprehend and find a solution for the situation.
"Megatron was the only one who had access to dark energon and was able to control his soldiers back then. Unless…" Ratchet ceased the transmission and let his finger slide from his com-link.
With perfect timing, the instigator of the incident entered the laboratory.
"KNOCK OUT! Is there something you want to tell me about?" Ratchet asked angrily.
Although not yet aware that it was Knockout who was the perpetrator of this incident, Ratchet made a fairly logical assumption that the scientist may have had something to do with the occurrence of undead Cybertronians.
"Not particularly. Why?" Knock Out answered innocently. Years of his self-serving nature had made Knock Out very efficient at steering away blame and punishment from himself.
"Then please explain to me why Airachnid has escaped and is turning people into so called 'zombies'?!" Ratchet demanded to know, beginning to lose his patience.
"Ah… I was hoping that we wouldn't have to get to that." Knock Out admitted.
He had been safe for now, but the consequences of his actions had finally caught up with him.
"Start talking. NOW!"
"Well… In the search to produce a perfect soldier for Lord Megatron, Starscream and I experimented with a mix of synthetic energon and dark energon. And we created Decepti-zombies in the process." Knock Out finished his sentence quickly, as if saying it faster would make Ratchet overlook it and spare him from punishment.
"Is there a cure?!" Ratchet asked, voice filled with hope that bloodshed may be spared.
"With an experimentation such as this, I would have to say no. The process is irreversible. And don't go for the head! Aim straight for the spark, I learned that the hard way." Knock Out added helpfully to try and redeem himself.
"Very well, I will inform the others. But know this Knock Out, you may be on our side but the blood of the Cybertronians who have fallen victim to Airachnid is on your hands." Ratchet condemned Knock Out and looked back sadly at Hound's medical berth.
Starscream ran as fast as he could through the streets of Cybertron, desperate to get as far away from the Autobots as possible. He knew that once the Autobots discovered that it was him that had tried to kill the Predacons with the Cybonic plague, they would want to punish him for his behaviour.
But years of mistreatment by Megatron made Starscream underestimate the Autobot's leniency and he expected nothing short of a thrashing from the Autobots, like his former leader Megatron had done so many times.
Breathing hard and constantly looking over his shoulder, Starscream was not paying much attention to the things in front of him and he crashed into Rodimus, who was making his way to the Autobot boot camp.
Rodimus stayed steady after the impact, but Starscream lost his footing and fell backwards to the ground and landed on his aft.
"Sorry about that, let me help you up." Rodimus offered his servo to Starscream.
"I don't need your help Autobot." Starscream pushed Rodimus' servo aside, rose from the ground and uttered the word 'Autobot' with as much contempt that he could muster and stormed away from Rodimus.
Rodimus frowned and sighed with frustration. Rodimus was a good natured bot and liked to help people, but it wasn't easy when they didn't let him.
"Do not waste your kindness on people like him."
Rodimus heard an unknown voice address him and noticed that the strange voice respectfully refrained from calling him Autobot.
Rodimus turned around and saw a tall, grey Cybertronian standing next to a statue of Optimus Prime.
A distant memory of a cruel Decepticon with blood red optics flashed through Rodimus' mind as he looked at the face of the Cybertronian. Rodimus shut his optics instinctively from the disturbing stimulus, shaking his head in an effort to block the memory from his mind.
The Cybertronian raised his brow in intrigue.
But the Cybertronian that stood there was much unlike the Decepticon in Rodimus' vision. His optics were magenta, his armour looked organic and rough; resembling the texture of bone. The spikes on his armour resembling huge fangs.
Rodimus frowned and tried to figure things out. Could it be that they were the same being, despite their obvious differences?
In his spark, Rodimus knew what the answer to that question was.
"It's OK. It doesn't matter." Rodimus shook his head.
"You are much more forgiving than most Cybertronians, quite like Optimus." Megatron remarked.
"Did you know him well?" Rodimus asked.
Although able to access Optimus Prime's memories and knowledge of his acquaintances, there were some things that were vague to Rodimus. Names may be familiar, faces as well, but for some like Megatron, the extent and the duration of his acquaintance with Optimus was unclear to Rodimus.
He knew Optimus and Megatron were mortal enemies, that much he knew, but what he did not know was their past history together from long ago.
The Megatron that stood by Optimus' statue seemed forlorn, not like the Megatron that Optimus had known and Rodimus had a feeling that there was more than meets the eye with a person like Megatron.
"Yes, he was like a brother to me. But we had our differences and we went our separate ways during the Great War." Megatron shared his story with Rodimus.
"Did you ever settle your differences before he… died?" Rodimus asked reluctantly.
If Megatron and Optimus had indeed been like brothers, Rodimus wanted to know whether there had been a peaceful resolution between the two leaders of warring factions, because like Optimus he believed in second chances and felt sympathy for Optimus' old enemy.
"In my spark I hope that we did and that he has forgiven me. Because I have come to realise that it was Optimus who saw through my erroneous thinking from the beginning. He believed that the Decepticons could redeem themselves and achieve peace with the Autobots, but I was too blind to see it." Megatron confessed and closed his eyes sadly
"He forgives you, you know." Rodimus told Megatron. Rodimus did not need to access Optimus Prime's memories to know that. He knew Optimus well enough to know that now that Megatron had ended the war, and that the scars of the war were beginning to heal. That Optimus would have forgiven his old nemesis.
"What did you say?" Megatron asked, intrigued by what Rodimus had revealed.
"Uh… I mean I'm sure he would forgive you, if he was still alive that is." Rodimus quickly corrected himself, to ensure that Megatron did not figure out that he knew more than he was letting on.
"You intrigue me young one, you speak as if you knew him well." Megatron remarked.
"In a matter of speaking, yes. I do know him well. I heard about him at school and uh… it sounds like the kind of thing he would do." Rodimus fabricated a lie with a half-truth.
It was true that the Great War had been discussed during Rodimus' primary programming and it was true that Rodimus knew Optimus well, but the manner in which he did, was not something that Rodimus believed Megatron should know.
"Hmmm… yes. Very well, I will trouble you no further." Megatron excused himself.
After a few minutes, Wheeljack arrived at the boot camp followed by Arcee, Bumblebee and Bulkhead. A small number of undead Cybertronians lay on the ground, indicating Smokescreen's efforts, but a few still remained.
"What took you so long?!" Smokescreen reproached Wheeljack.
"Sorry Smokie, I was too busy taking an oil bath!" Wheeljack apologized sarcastically.
"You didn't need to bring everybody! This is a small situation, the two of us could have handled it!"
Bulkhead bashed one of the infected students with his wrecking ball, as it sneaked up behind Smokescreen, sending it flying into the air and crashing into a group of infected students.
"Are you sure about that Smokie?"
"OK! So maybe I do need help." Smokescreen admitted. Smokescreen always liked the opportunity to prove that he was capable, but at times of need he knew when it was important to ask for help.
The Autobots split into two groups consisting of Arcee and Bulkhead, and Bumblebee, Wheeljack and Smokescreen, with Smokescreen keeping a close distance to his students, if things got out of hand and they needed his help.
"We've got to stop running into undead zombies like this!" Arcee took note and stabbed one of them in the chest, penetrating the spark and killing it.
"I don't know Arcee, I kind of missed them." Bulkhead joked and lifted a zombie into the air by the chest and smashed it to ground, fracturing its chest, rendering it dead.
Arcee smiled wryly and swerved to the right, narrowly missing one of the zombie's secondary mouth.
Meanwhile Bumblebee's group was having similar luck and had almost succeeded in decimating every last infected student.
Bumblebee, Smokescreen and his students had their blasters locked onto Airachnid, continually firing at her to stop her from converting any more students into zombies, while Wheeljack picked off the last remaining ones, to put an end to this battle once and for all.
One of the zombies shot out its secondary mouth and tried to bite Wheeljack in the face to get a taste of his energon, it so desperately craved.
Wheeljack ducked and avoided its attack and leaped into the air, blades in both hands and landed on its chest and stabbed it, making its body crash to the ground.
Wheeljack stepped aside from the body and scanned the area for any more zombies, his sharp reflexes spotting the very last one near his side.
Wheeljack positioned himself into a defensive stance and swiped at the zombie with his blades, slicing it in half.
"Anyone else?" Wheeljack challenged with a smile. He could do this all day.
Feeling cornered by the students and the Autobot's constant fire, Airachnid charged through their group with a bestial strength, sending many of the students falling to the ground. Airachnid escaped the boot camp and climbed up some nearby buildings to make a safe get away.
"Wheeljack! Arcee! Bulkhead! Airachnid made a break for it!" Bumblebee called out to his fellow Autobots and pointed to the direction she took off.
Arcee frowned and swore, "Not. This time."
Bulkhead watched as Arcee transformed into her vehicular mode and chased after Airachnid. Bulkhead followed after her.
"Don't start the party without me." Wheeljack called out and raced towards Arcee and Bulkhead.
Bumblebee remained, waiting for Smokescreen.
"Don't wait up for me Bee, I'm staying here." Smokescreen told his friend.
"Alright then." Bumblebee nodded and transformed into his vehicular mode and chased after his friends.
"It's ok guys, you can come back now." Smokescreen called out to the students forming the outer perimeter.
He had not forgotten their valiant efforts to defend them and summoned them back, so that they may get the rest they deserved. They slowly returned, followed by Rodimus who had finally arrived at the boot camp, running in.
"What happened here sir?!" Rodimus asked Smokescreen, noticing the tired faces of his peers and the bodies that littered the floor.
"A Decepticon attacked us, she was infected with dark energon and synthetic energon. She made converted students like her and we were forced to kill them…" Smokescreen informed him sadly.
"Where did she go?!" Rodimus asked urgently, fearing for the safety of others.
"Towards Darkmount I think." Smokescreen told him.
Rodimus transformed into his vehicular mode and accelerated towards the tower.
"Rodimus don't! THAT'S AN ORDER!" Smokescreen shouted at his student, his command falling on deaf audio sensors.
Meanwhile at Darkmount Airachnid had retreated to a safe place, at the highest point of tower where the Autobots couldn't reach her.
The Autobots fired at Airachnid, but she was too high up and it was too difficult to make an accurate shot.
"This ends here!" Arcee broke away from the group.
Bulkhead grabbed Arcee by the arm and cautioned her, "Arcee, don't do this."
"Don't try to stop me. This is personal." Arcee broke free from the grasp and entered the tower. She traversed up the tower and went through the outer doors that led to a bridge that was split across a smelting pit and acted as a makeshift plank.
Rodimus soon arrived at the scene, tires screeching as he came to halt. He transformed from his vehicle mode and spotted a familiar blue femme at the top of the tower.
Airachnid was on the other side of the bridge in a defensive stance, hissing and ready to pounce on Arcee like a predator. Arcee came closer to Airachnid, nearing the edge of the bridge. Arcee activated her blaster and was ready to shoot, when Airachnid bent her legs and prepared to attack.
"ARCEE! NO!" Rodimus screamed out Arcee's name, as he realised the danger she was in.
Without thinking Rodimus got his bow out, focussed on his target, pulled back the string and released the two arrows. He had to do it, there was no other way. No one else could reach Airachnid, but him. If he didn't kill her, Airachnid would kill Arcee and pose a threat to everybody on Cybertron.
As he released the string and the arrows flew into the air, Rodimus had a vision.
A vision of Optimus Prime flying towards the Well of All-Sparks and releasing the Matrix of Leadership into the well.
Optimus Prime's action in the past and Rodimus' action in the present…
Both of their actions heralding the beginning of something new, both actions done for the greater good, but both actions requiring a sacrifice. A sacrifice that would be felt by many, or just the one…
The Autobots turned their heads away as they heard a splash and the agonizing screams of Airachnid being melted by the scorching heat of the smelting pit.
Their heads turned to the source of the shot that had struck Airachnid; Rodimus.
Rodimus stared at the spot that Airachnid had previously occupied in horror and let his bow fall to the ground, the shock that he had killed someone weakening his legs, making him drop to the ground.
From high above Darkmount Arcee watched as Rodimus' familiar burgundy and orange form fell to the ground.
"Rodimus…"
Back on the ground level Wheeljack looked at Arcee's saviour and felt sympathy for the young bot. Based on his reaction to Airachnid's death, Wheeljack guessed that this was the young bot's first kill. It was a harrowing experience for anybody, but it must be even harder for a bot as young as him.
Wheeljack approached Rodimus and kneeled down beside him. He took hold of one of Rodimus' servo and helped him rise up. Wheeljack placed his servo on Rodimus' back to support him.
"Take it easy kid, it's OK"
"I killed her. I didn't think…I didn't mean…" Rodimus stammered, too shocked to form coherent sentences.
Wheeljack looked at the others for help. He was a lone wolf, he wasn't good at this sort of thing, but he realised that the young bot desperately needed some comfort right now.
Before the others could add anything, Wheeljack turned to Rodimus and said gently, "You did what you had to kid, you were just protecting Arcee."
Rodimus shut his optics tight and looked down at the ground, trying to block out everything, bad and otherwise.
"She's killed others before and would have kept on killing if you hadn't stopped her." Wheeljack reassured him.
Rodimus said nothing and continued to stare at the ground, completely devastated at what had happened.
Wheeljack didn't know what to do and looked up at the others once more and saw Arcee approaching and moved away from Rodimus.
Arcee kneeled down beside Rodimus and hugged him tightly, "Thank you Rodimus."
Rodimus remained silent, looked up at Arcee and hugged her even tighter…
Hi guys, I hope you enjoyed reading my story. Please let me know what you thought of it. Thank you.
Arcee's disgust at the smelting pit being the only active thing on Cybertron for all these years really left an impression on me. Since the pool has been included a few times in the show, I thought it could serve one last purpose of being the thing that extinguishes Airachnid's spark once and for all. You weren't expecting that were you? ;)