Okay guys, here's the deal. I've been pretty busy as of lately and can't make anymore posts until early next week. I know, I know, I apologize, but you know how life gets. Sometimes it gets crazy and you end up posting faster than you can type lol. So I promise to keep working over the remainder of the week, and the weekend to bring you closure to this story. Of course, as always, thank you to all who have given such great reviews! Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own TF, but I DO own P7.
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Eight looked to Ratchet as they were talking and saw something that interested her.
"Hey you! Medic!" She yelled.
Ratchet looked up to her wondering what she wanted, "Are you speaking to me?" he asked.
"Yes... You have managed to create a reproduction of her arm, and I want it... It will do for now..." she said as she turned to the group completely.
"I'm afraid that it's not yet complete," he said as he took it out and looked at it.
Eight growled and said, "I don't care! Just give it here, now!" she demanded.
Ratchet mumbled something inaudible to the rest of the group and threw it at the woman, who caught it with ease.
"What the hell did you do that for?!" Mikaela asked, Sam tried to quiet her, knowing that Ratchet really didn't have much of a choice.
Eight turned and walked over to Cat, who was still managing to hold herself up in a sitting position. The woman bent down to her and tore the remaining scrap components from Cat's arm, Cat flinching in the process. Then, to everyone's amazement, Eight put the arm down on the ground and clapped her own hands together, putting one hand on Cat's shoulder and the other to the shoulder component of the arm. Within seconds the arm was attached to Catherine.
"She has Alchemy powers too!" Sam pointed out, him and everyone else surprised.
Eight glanced back at the group and smirked, "Of course I do! I'm not weak like other humans!"
Eight then looked back to Cat and clapped her hands together again, putting both of them to the other woman's shoulders. The group watched as the scratches disappeared, Cat could feel the broken bones and her internal bleeding heal. She opened both eyes wide as she saw her newly bent up legs begin to repair to one hundred percent. Eight stood up and backed away a few feet, allowing Cat a moment to pull her senses together.
Looking over herself, Cat realized that was completely healed. She almost couldn't believe it herself. Even her own Alchemy powers didn't allow her to heal flesh like that. She leaned forward, putting both hands on the ground, then set her legs up to stand. As she got to her feet she knew that this wasn't because Eight was showing some sort o mercy for her.
"Catherine? Are you all right?" Optimus asked, the others all stunned.
Cat wiggled her metal fingers around, ensuring that they were all functional. She gave a half smile and looked up to her friends and nodded. Sam and Mikaela smiled in relief only briefly before Eight spoke up.
"All right, enough messing around!" she yelled, annoyed.
Cat turned a side glance to the other woman and eyed her.
"It's time you paid back what you owe me!" Eight growled.
Instead of standing in a defensive position getting ready for a battle, Cat only turned to her look-a-like and softened her eyes.
"You look different now... But I still know who you are, no matter what you try and do to seem different... Five..." Cat said in a soft voice.
Everyone gasped in shock.
"This is Five?" Ironhide asked.
Lillian took a few steps forward towards Cat and said, "No, Seven... Five died years ago. This is Eight."
"It's her... I know it is... And now that I see you, I should have known what you were doing to me all this time... Trying to make me think that I was losing my mind were you?" Cat asked, coming to a realization.
"What's she talking about?" Sam asked.
"Five" gave a smug grin.
"So that's what you were up to!" Lillian yelled out, also coming to a realization.
The Autobots looked back and forth between Lillian, Cat and Five, confused.
"Whenever you acted like you were asleep, you were using warfare against Seven! Weren't you?!" Lillian asked angrily.
"Can someone fill us in?!" Mikaela asked.
"Another one of the governments little experiments that they tried on us," Cat began to explain, "Several different kinds of neural stimulators that were injected into us. They wanted us to have some kinds of "psychic" abilities so that we would be able to use them against our enemies. Making them think that they were losing their minds in order to defeat them easier. It's a form of Psychological warfare."
"Except it didn't work as planned, " Lillian added, "They were only able to use the ability against each other!"
"You were using it on me in order to make myself and those guys over there think that I was losing my mind!" Cat turned back to Five.
"That much I understand, but what I don't understand is how you're here in front of me..." Cat said, her eyes narrowing in suspicion.
"They told me that you probably thought that I had died that night... I suppose that they had to tell you something other than the truth, as always... But the truth is, is that I was the only one, besides your own cowardly hide, to survive. And it gave them a chance to try something new..." Five explained.
"My god... Even at the higher levels... They went even farther into their sick experiments!" Lillian exclaimed.
"Where do you have room to talk?" Mikaela asked, Lillian turned to see her, Sam and the Autobots giving her the raised eyebrow look.
Lillian snapped back with, "I would have never gone along with something like that... I barely had any reasoning over any of the my co-workers. I was always outnumbered, no matter what it was that they wanted to do! It wasn't something I could control..." she looked back to Cat and Five with tears in her eyes, the others doing the same, deciding not to press forward anymore for the moment.
"Long story short, you were supposed to believe that I had died in order for them to keep the eighth project under complete silence. When you escaped, they wanted me to help them find you," Five explained further.
Cat's eyes widened, "You brought them here to take me back?!"
Five scoffed, "Of course not! I killed some of them and escaped myself. But I knew that I still had to find you..."
"Why? If I might ask," Lillian asked.
"You betrayed me Seven..." Five looked to the ground solemnly, her voice beginning to build a dangerous tone.
"You betrayed me, even when I fought to protect you... You wouldn't help me..." she went further.
Cat couldn't look at Five either. She knew what Five was doing... She was making her relive that moment in her mind like she had every day for the past six years.
"Don't..." Cat demanded in a trembling voice, on the verge of tears.
Five looked up at Cat with a glare.
"Don't make me remember it again... I've lived that moment in my mind so many times already... I couldn't Five... I was so scared... I saw the blood on you, your hand reaching out to mine... For once I was seeing you just as scared as I had always been... And it terrified me..." she explained.
"Which is why I've come to find you... I gave my entire life to protecting you, showing you the reasons for living, and you left me for dead. So now, you owe your life to me! And now... I'VE COME TO CLAIM IT!" Five shouted as she lunged forward, striking Cat in the chest, causing her to slide hundreds of yards away.
"NO!" The group shouted, running to Cat's aid.
Five watched as the Autobots and the three humans ran to Cat, helping her up.
"Is this how you battle now, Seven?" Five taunted.
Cat rubbed the area that she had been struck in and looked up at Five suddenly.
"You've gone from being protected by me, to being protected by robots from another planet?" She continued to antagonize.
"Are you all right?" Lillian asked as she and the rest looked Cat over.
"Get away..." Cat said in a low tone.
"What?" Mikaela asked.
Cat stood up on her own, keeping a glare on her twin and said, "Just go... Get away from here, now!"
"No... No! Cat! What the hell are you thinking?" Sam asked as he and Mikaela got on either side of the girl, tugging on her arms.
"You can't fight her! You'll be killed!" Mikaela added.
"I said... Go..." Cat replied, not looking to anyone in the group.
Lillian ran around to the front of Cat and put her hands on both of the girl's shoulders looking into her eyes.
"I know what happened that night, Seven! But it's not your fault! It's hers!" she yelled.
Cat gave a surprised look to Lillian.
"You didn't plan to try and leave the lab that night... It was her idea! You were so young, and scared! She shouldn't have expected you to be the machine that you were supposed to be built for... Because you were only a child!" Lillian took the girl's chin in her right hand to make sure that her eyes didn't stray.
"You didn't pull the trigger..." she said softly, but sternly.
Five frowned and yelled, "She may as well have! She could have helped me! Saved me from being so close to death! But she was too much of a coward!"
Cat looked from Five back to Lillian.
"You don't owe her anything..." The older woman tried to reason.
The Autobots were completely at a loss as to what to do. On the one hand, Cat would be at great risk. On the other hand, they had seen Five's handiwork when she knocked StarScream's head clean off of his shoulders, so they would be at risk as well if they had tried to protect her.
Cat looked down to the ground for only a moment before she looked back up to Lillian and said, "She gave me everything she had back then... And I repaid her by watching her die and did nothing to stop it, even though I was the only one who could have stopped it... I owe her everything..."
Five went from a frown, to a smirk.
"No... No! You can't do this!" Mikaela yelled.
Optimus stepped forward and said, "This is Cat's decision. We cannot force her to do anything that she doesn't believe she's obligated to do."
"Optimus, come on! You guys can fight this can't you?!" Sam pleaded.
"This isn't their battle! This is mine!" Cat stood firm as she continued, "You guys, you've got her to show you where you need to get the Allspark. Go!"
The Autobots looked to one another, wondering if it was the right thing to do.
"Right... Let's go Autobots!" Optimus ordered, the group transformed, Sam guiding Mikaela to Bumblebee who sat in waiting.
Optimus opened the passenger side door and said, "Lillian, you must come with us..."
Lillian looked back to the group that was waiting for her and she turned back to Cat.
"Look, I don't know if I can trust them... I need you to-"
"Trust them... I need you to take them to find the Allspark and Megatron..." Cat replied, looking to Five who stood, annoyed.
"Megatron?" Lillian asked.
Cat looked to the woman and said, "The other one... The one that is in the same facility where Five and I grew up. I know you know it's there... He's a bad one Lil, and he and rest of the other bad ones need to be destroyed, "Cat said as she looked back to the Autobots.
"I don't know why, but I trust them... Their intentions are for good. They saved me on more occasions in the past few days than even Five has ever done for me when I was growing up. Go to them, please..." Cat said as she walked forward a few feet and stopped again, turning her attention to the woman who stood perhaps not more than one hundred feet from them.
Lillian looked to Cat for a moment, then nodded. She started to walk away but stopped, not turning back to look at Cat and said, "This isn't the right fight to give your life for. You're worth much more to everyone who needs someone to fight for them... Cat..." and she walked to the semi truck and climbed in.
The vehicles sped off, in moments, only leaving Catherine and Five who faced each other in a moment of silence.
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Chapter Teaser!
"Get up and fight!" Five ordered as she pulled the girl to her feet, holding her by the front of her white tank top.
"No..." Cat replied, refusing to raise a hand as her body collapsed to the ground upon the release of Five's grip on her.
"You were designed to be a soldier! A soldier capable of mass destruction upon your enemies! And you will stand to fight your enemy!" Five yelled to the girl, angry.
"I was designed to be a soldier of war... But you are not my enemy..." Cat replied, ready for the final blow.