Chapter Fifteen
Megatron screamed in rage and hate, literally picking up Sunstreaker and throwing him into the base, destroying the walls and caving in the ceiling. Sideswipe shouted in surprise, alerting Ratchet to the injured mech, and both make their way to the base to tend to Sunny. The Autobot mech was cussing up a storm, the electronic clicks and beeps sounded foul even to the mechs not close enough to catch the words. Ratchet almost laughed as he hauled Sunny to his feet.
"You're alright." he grunted. "You're turning the air blue – you must be fine."
"I slagging well better be turning the air blue!" Sunny spat. "Let go of me! I'm gonna find that fragger and tear his slagging head off!"
Silver rolled his optics as he cautiously picked his way across the debris. "I can see a couple centuries haven't cleaned out your mouth any." he muttered. Sunny shot him a glare.
"Pit-spawned traitor." Sunny growled under his breath. Sides looked just as livid as his twin, setting Ratchet on edge. Silver simply pushed his way past them, picking his way to a pair of steel beams and lifting them up and to the side. Ratchet turned to the twins.
"What the pit was that all about?" he demanded.
"We used to serve with Little Silver before he was exiled." Sides explained. He was a bit calmer than his twin. "Silver made friends with a Decepticon and even attacked Sunny to protect the slagger. Hot Rod was the leader of our unit at the time – he was forced to exile Silver for his treason." Ratchet shook his head.
"And the past comes back to haunt us." he murmured.
"I'll agree with that." Sunny growled. "I could just kill him now and save us a whole lot of headache."
"I don't think the others would let you get away with that." Sides pointed out dryly.
"Hot Rod ordered us to kill him on sight if he came anywhere near the Autobots again."
"Not Optimus. Him."
Sunny and Ratchet glanced behind them. Sheol, a Decepticon, was helping Silver dig through the wreckage. Ironhide had already forced his way out and was growling something decidedly foul-sounding under his breath, and all three of them were working to free Jazz. One of the support beams had pinned the mech's legs when the base had collapsed. Ratchet already knew that the spy was not in any immediate danger of going permanently off-line. He was keeping up a pretty cheeky conversation with Sheol.
Ratchet shook his head and turned back to the others. "The base is gone. Something as big as the AllSpark would have been unearthed by now."
"Maybe." Sunny said. "But don't forget – that human went down there too. She may have found it before they did."
"Possibly." Ratchet glanced again at the group, where Jazz was finally back on his feet and Silver and Sheol continued to dig, probably trying to find their human companion. Ironhide said something to Jazz, who nodded and followed him back into the fray. Apparently they had some sort of plan.
"Let's get back to work." Sides said. "There's still more Decepticons to turn to slag."
/---/
Rae groaned in pain. She could already tell her left arm was broken; white-hot blood was trickling down her elbow from where the bone had punched through the skin. Case was going to have a field day with that one. Aside from the arm, she was a collection of aches and pains, most of it from the steel beam that was pinning her down across her stomach. It had probably broken a few ribs, she figured, judging from how hard it was to breathe. It was so dark she couldn't see, but using her free, uninjured arm she could feel the gaps in the debris around her. She could probably climb out, if she absolutely had to.
If the support beam holding her down would move.
She tried to move, and screamed in pain.
I can help you.
Rae coughed, her voice raspy due to lack of air and floating particles. "How?"
Be prepared to move.
With that the AllSpark in her pocket heated up, and the beam began to tremble and shake. Slowly, ever so slowly, it began to lift just enough to ease the pressure on her ribs. She cried out once again, the lack of pressure opening new hurts and aches, but it kept lifting bit by bit.
Finally, Rae deemed it sufficient that she could get out, she began to squirm backwards, out from under the support beam. It took some doing, but finally she was free. The AllSpark went cold again, and the beam shifted back into its former position. Rae shivered at the sounds.
"All right." she whispered. "Time to get out of here." She reached up with her good arm, found another chunk of metal stable enough to support her weight, and lifted herself up.
/---/
Optimus and Veris stopped suddenly in their battle. Megatron stood in front of them, an insane light to his optics that neither had seen before. He looked on the verge of losing what little reasoning skills his CPU still possessed. Or maybe he had already lost it. Optimus couldn't tell, and Veris's stone cold expression revealed nothing of his thoughts. A wry smile twisted Prime's faceplates. At least that one thing had not changed. Veris was still as unpredictable as ever.
"You will give me the AllSpark, Prime." Megatron hissed. "And I will use it to end this war. Don't you want all of this to end?"
"It can." Optimus said simply. "You can surrender."
"NEVER!"
"That's real smart, Prime." Veris muttered. Optimus shot him a filthy look.
"I won't let him take the AllSpark, even if he can't control it." he snapped.
"Probably a good thing, too." Veris commented dryly. "He'd probably kill you with it." He took a step forward, raising his voice as he addressed Megatron. "We don't have the AllSpark, you pit-slagging fool." His optics shifted past the Decepticon leader, but only for a second. "Chances are, you destroyed it when you destroyed the human base."
Megatron's optics lit in sadistic glee. "I killed your pet human too." he whispered.
Veris stiffened. "Somehow, I doubt that." he said quietly, his voice instantly turning frigid in his anger. Megatron laughed. Prime shifted ever-so-slightly away from Veris. It might have been cowardly, but he had no desire to get caught in the crossfire between an insane Decepticon and a pissed-off Veris.
"I killed her! I was going to kill her anyway, but this is so much sweeter. Now I can watch your comrades suffer her death!"
At that moment, Starscream struck.
/---/
AN: I'll do it again – Three reviews, or no chapter! (laughs) Actually, you'd get the chapter anyway, but three reviews would make me feel better. Just let me know you're reading it.
