Title: The Prime
Genre: Action/Drama, Friendship/Romance
Rating: T for mild transformer swearing, some violence, and crude language
Short Summary:
When a young mech destined to be the next Prime is exiled by his evil uncle, he must learn what it means to become a great leader.
Chapter Fifteen
The femmes all gaped at Elita One as if she was crazy. They couldn't believe she had said that. They couldn't believe she was willing to leave her home because of what was happening. Though, they didn't think they could blame her.
"You are going to run away?" Moonracer asked finally after the initial shock wore off.
Elita One shook her head, still quite serious. "I am not running away. I will be back. But I think it's time that all of this," she motioned to outside her balcony door. "It is time for it to stop. Megatron, the Decepticons, all of the hate and fear needs to stop. I am going for help. We need to find mechs and femmes who will help us fight back." She said with determination.
The femmes listened to her and slowly began to nod. They saw her point. They had to agree with her. It was time to fight back. For the freedom of Iacon and for the freedom of Cybertron. They knew that Megatron wouldn't be just satisfied with Iacon. He would want more.
Chromia, her face plates set like iron, stood up. "I am going with you." She said firmly.
Elita One and everyone looked surprised but then the rest stood up firmly, nodding in agreement. "No." The pink and silver femme said, shaking her head. "It is too dangerous."
"And it isn't here?" Arcee asked skeptically as she folded her arms. "Think about it, Elita. If you leave and Megatron cannot find you, what makes you think he won't come after us next? He wants heirs. We are perfectly capable of bearing sparklings too. He will attack us next."
Slowly, the femmes nodded in agreement. They knew they couldn't stay either. It was just too dangerous for them inside the city than outside.
Elita One studied all of her femmes, including Slipstream before she sighed and smiled faintly. She had no choice but to relent. "Very well. We will all go." She said before she frowned firmly and glanced out the window. "But first, we need to do something before we leave."
Stumbling and staggering, the medical officer growled at the three Decepticons who were shoving him, dragging him to his death. He wasn't afraid like he had been before. But he sure didn't want to die either.
Ratchet knew very well that he was about to die. He just didn't want to go down without a fight.
The problem was, he had stasis cuffs on and it deactivated his weapons systems, as well as his transformation unit. He was nothing more than a helpless mech about to be killed soon.
It was depressing to say the least. He had worked so hard in his life and he did regret a few things. The biggest regret was not exposing the truth to anyone when he had examined, against Megatron's orders, Lady Beta's dead frame. He had always known it had been foul play when he found traces of Dark Energon in her systems. He knew she had been murdered.
Problem was, he just hadn't said anything yet. And now he wouldn't ever.
"Right here looks good. Let's do it here. It's away from prying optics and I don't wanna go too far from the city." The Decepticon, Rollerforce said.
Makeshift nodded before he roughly shoved Ratchet, making him stumble and trip over his own feet. The medic fell hard onto his front, unable to catch himself in time. He groaned before pushing himself up to his knees. He was going to take his execution with pride and a brace face. He would not cower in fear, even if there was a spike of it deep within.
"All right. Let's get this over with and go get High Grade." Blackout said as he transformed his arm into a cannon. He raised it and aimed right at Ratchet's head.
Ratchet vented heavily, knowing this was it. He was going to die. He had only two regrets in his life that he wished he could rectify. But he would never get the chance. "I pray to Primus that every one of you get what you deserve. One day, someone will make you pay for every wrong you have done." He said firmly before he closed his optics and waited.
"Blah, blah, blah. Who fragging cares? Just shoot him, Blackout." Rollerforce said stepping back.
Blackout nodded as he charged his cannon and started to fire.
Suddenly, there was an explosion of cannon fire and a blast or two slammed into the Decepticon flier, sending him flying away from the medic, all the while startling his companions. The medic himself flashed on his optics again when he heard them cry out and he turned just in time to see Rollerforce and Makeshift get shot just like Blackout had. He looked past them to see several femmes charging forward, still shooting at the three Decepticons, though it was mostly the powder blue femme who was doing all of the shooting. She didn't stop until the three Cons were completely off line.
Looking up at Elita One as she approached him, Ratchet heaved a relieved sigh. He watched her as she bent over him with the sunset pink femme, Moonracer as she examined the stasis cuffs. "I greatly thank you, Elita One. But you know killing the three Decepticons will only anger the rest. Megatron will not take this very lightly." He told her.
Elita One shook her head as Moonracer unlocked the stasis lock, freeing the medical officer. "By the Megatron finds out what we have done, we will be long gone from Iacon." She stated to him.
Ratchet frowned slightly as he stood up with her help. "You are leaving?" He asked of her.
Nodding, Elita One stepped back with her femmes. "We are going to look for help. To find someone or many Cybertronians that can help us fight Megatron and his Decepticons. He must be stopped. The day he had become The Prime was when everything went wrong for us. So we are going to find someone who will remove him from the seat of power. He has ruled Iacon long enough." She said firmly.
Ratchet only listened for a moment, taking everything to thought before he nodded. He agreed with her. "Well, in that case, I cannot possibly allow a handful of femmes to wander off by their selves. May I join you? If I try to return to Iacon, I may be captured and executed without several femmes to rescue an old mech like myself." He said.
Elita One frowned for a moment but then she smiled and nodded in agreement. "Very well. We could use a mech in our group. We never know that whoever we come across will not even try to listen to us. After all, we are femmes and because of the treatment of our genders due to Megatron, they may only listen to you."
Ratchet just nodded with a faint smile. "Then I will be glad to help you, my lady." He told her fondly.
Elita One smiled back before looking over her femmes, pausing on Slipstream. "Slip, will you keep a high optic in the sky? Just to make sure we do not run into trouble?" She asked her.
Slipstream smirked before transforming into a sleek, small jet and taking off into the sky.
"Everyone, I do not need to tell you but this journey may be dangerous and who knows what we will find. But remember, Primus is with us at all costs." Elita One stated. "If you wish to go back, do so now and I will not take ill thoughts of you."
None of the femmes spoke. They just remained standing tall and firm with determination. Even Ratchet remained silent as he stood tall and proud to follow their appointed Leader.
Smiling, Elita One turned with her own determination set. She knew it was time to take action. It was time to fight back.
Thus, they began their long, tiring journey into the vast Badlands, with hope in their sparks. They could only hope that someone, or many would answer their pleas to freeing Iacon and all of Cybertron from Megatron's cruel servos.
Hidden high in the sky, like a aerial predator ready to swoop down on small prey, Laserbeak sent a message to his creator. ((Targets are on the move. Shall I attack and stall them until enforcers arrive for capture?))
There was a moment's pause before Soundwave transmitted his reply. /Soundwave acknowledges. Acquisition denied. Let them leave, Laserbeak. We will tell Lord Megatron the femmes somehow escaped our optic./
Laserbeak nearly stalled, quite surprised. He had been ready to swoop down on top of the femmes. ((Are you sure, Master? Will Lord Megatron not be furious?))
/Yes, he will be. But in my opinion, I think the femmes deserve a chance. If Elita One should be forced to be returned, she will gravely punished and forced to bear sparklings when she does not want to./ Soundwave answered normally and curtly. The disapproval was quite clear in his tone.
Nodding in understanding, Laserbeak was already swinging back towards Iacon. ((Ah, yes. You have never been fond of harming and forcing interface on femmes like most of the other pitiless Decepticons. You know, Lord Megatron sees pity and mercy as a weakness.)) He stated back to his master.
/That is my business, my pet sparkvulture. And Megatron will never know that I do have a weakness for femmes. He does not need to know. Now return to Iacon. When the time comes, I will accept Megatron's fury. But I will not seek enforced ruling on Elita One or her femmes. They deserve to leave and seek redemption./
((Very well, my precious creator. Laserbeak acknowledges and obeys.)) And the aerial Cybertronian began his flight back.
The raid was going magnificently well as always. No one suspected them as they crept shadow to shadow, gathering what they needed from their list.
"Energon ammo ejection canisters for grumpy afthead." One asked.
"Check." The second said.
"New battle mask for Oppy?" The first asked again as he went over the list.
"Scientific data pads for Screamer?"
"Check." Piped up the youngest.
"You know, I don't see why we agreed to pick anything up for him anyway. My aft still hurts from when he dive bombed us." The second retorted grumpily while rubbing the said part.
The third rolled his blue optics as he shook his head. He couldn't believe that his friend and older adopted brother was still complaining about getting his aft handed to him by their older brother. It wasn't like it was the first time.
"You two deserved it. You shouldn't have jumped on him while he was practicing his flight patterns." The youngest rebuked them.
"Hey! Who's side are you on, Bee?!" Sideswipe pouted giving the black and yellow botling a look.
Sunstreaker nodded as he shared his twin's look, not amused that Bumblebee was defending someone like Starscream. "Yeah! He is the only Seeker within miles! So how are we suppose to practice our Jet Judo?"
Bumblebee huffed, looking away with a frown. "I am just saying maybe you shouldn't pick on him so much. He already is temperamental. And you know Prowl will defend him because of how close he, Optimus and Starscream are. They are best friends. And from what Star told us, he has been through the whole massacre of his entire race. He is practically the last Seeker in existence." He said in his adopted older brother's defense.
"Exactly! Which is why we need to practice on him with Jet Judo!" Sideswipe piped up.
"Oh, why do I bother?" Bumblebee huffed again in irritation.
The argument died when the three continued along the way, 'borrowing' supplies they needed. They nearly had all they needed before they started to return to their little sanctuary.
Of course, some raids just didn't always go the way they wanted.
As Bumblebee, the youngest of the entire group, age 17 vorns old had been creeping along the shadows of the allies when a heavenly scent reached his sensors. He immediately stopped and peered around to find the source and his optics fell on a rust bar stand, where freshly welded rust bars were cooling from the boiling out oven vents to be sold or stolen by Decepticons.
Feeling excitement perking up inside of him, Bumblebee figured why not take a platter. It had been a long time since any of them had any rust bars. And Optimus had been looking down that early morn. He and a few of the others had noticed the way his optics had seemed dimmed, as if something was wrong.
It had not escaped Bumblebee's or anyone else's attention of how sometimes their largest friend would get. They knew something was wrong. Jazz had tried to pry a few times, to find out what was wrong with him. But Optimus didn't like sharing his past.
Everyone knew Prowl knew what was eating Optimus but even he kept quiet. He refused to share, stating that if Optimus wanted them to know what had happened to his friend in his past, he would be the one to tell them.
So no one really pried until they knew Optimus would be ready.
Bumblebee smiled faintly to himself, figuring he would perk up Optimus a little. He really looked up to his adopted brother. He was everything that the young bot wanted to be. Proud, brave, noble. He always went out of his way to protect everyone in their strange mixed family. He was...well, honestly, a picked out Leader by everyone. Even Jazz and Ironhide looked up to him, though he was much younger than them.
'Yeah. I think I will get him some rust bars.' Bumblebee thought to himself and slowly made his way over to the stand. He kept an optic out for anyone but saw no one in the vicinity.
Shrugging, the young bot went up to the rust bar and began plucking up the energon sweets, quickly shoving them into his inner compartments. He knew he needed to hurry. He didn't want to get caught stealing the sweets and he was suppose to meet up with the twins outside the city.
Spinning around as soon as he had enough, Bumblebee began making his way back when he ran smack dab into someone.
Startled, his innocent blue gaze snapped up to the larger mech and his spark nearly ruptured as they met sinister, sly red optics. He cringed back to see the Decepticon leering down on him.
"Well, well, well. What do we have here? A little thief, I say." The huge Con sneered.
Bumblebee gulped before whirling around to make a break for it only to crash into another Decepticon's arms. He whirled in surprise and tried to back away as quickly as he could but found himself trapped. "Let go! I am sorry! I will put them back!" He cried helplessly.
"Oh, we don't care that you stole rust bars, little botling. We do it all the time. But you sure are a sturdy looking thing. And quite cute too. I am thinking the slave traders will pay a good amount for this one, don'cha think, Strikedown?" Said the Decepticon in front of Bumblebee.
"Yeah. He is a brightly colored one. Really flashy. And young, so he will make a great slave. I hear the richie rich Decepticons pay big loads of energon for pretty little slaves like this one. Let's bag him!"
"N-no! Please! Let me go!" Bumblebee began now thrashing to get loose.
"Hey! Let 'em go!" Snapped a gruff, familiar voice.
Bumblebee felt relief flush through his systems as he turned with the two Decepticons to see a big glaring black Cybertronian standing there with a very tall, serious looking red and blue one. Both had battle masks down, and cannons ready to use.
Nonetheless, with the two glaring back at the two Cons, they did look pretty dangerous.
"Hey, this slave belong to you?" The Decepticon called Strikedown asked, motioning to Bumblebee. "We'll pay good energon for him."
Ironhide glared harder, his cannon whirling in a threating manner. "He ain't a slave and he ain't for sell. Now let my kid go, or you'll find yourself without a head!" He growled.
The Decepticons glared harder at him before roughly shoving Bumblebee to the ground and whirling their weapons out. "Every little bot is for sell. But if you don't want to sell him, then we will just take him." The second Decepticon growled.
There were twin clicks of metal sliding against metal from behind the Cons and they turned to see the silver and yellow twins smirking devilishly at them. Right beside them, deadly red slits threatened them like hot fiery coals. To see a Seeker, stunned the two Cons.
"Uh-hem."
The two Cons turned back to see a not so amused sleek silver Cybertronian standing beside the big black Cybertronian, along with a black, white and purple one; all glaring at the two.
"Might I suggest you back off from our youngest botling? I am afraid his adopted creator here," Jazz stated giving Ironhide's wide chassis a light slap before using his other hand to motion to all of the mechs standing around them. "And all of his brothers are rather protective of him. They will not hesitate to off lining you two if you threaten him again."
And to add for a show, the tall red and blue Optimus closed his fist, allowing a fiery hot energon blade slip right out of his arm, ready to use. His burning blue gaze narrowed in warning. "I suggest you listen to Jazz." He spoke with a deep rumbling voice.
The Cons accessed their situation before putting their weapons away and backing off. "You better watch the little one very closely then. Cause the next time we see him, alone and unguarded, he is ours." Strikedown growled before whirling around and dragging his companion with him. "C'mon, Autoclave."
And the two left.
Sighing in relief, Bumblebee stood up and smiled around at everyone gratefully, before he cringed again at all of the serious looks he was getting. He was in trouble.
And so were the twins, they realized it when Ironhide glared at them. They both cringed. "Oh, scrap." The two both murmured.
"Let's go home. We can finish this when there are no Decepticons around to listen." Optimus suggested and everyone nodded.
"Double scrap." Sideswipe murmured miserably as he and Sunstreaker slouched, knowing they were going to get it bad when they got back to the sanctuary.