CHAPTER 40
XR moved stealthily toward the door to the control room, doing his best not to make any sounds that would alert Nos-4-a2 that he was there. But he didn't have to worry about that. The energy vampire was making so much noise that XR could have set off a bomb and he never would have noticed. That didn't serve to ease the robotic space ranger's mind, though. The energy vampire had surprised him before by acting distracted when he really wasn't.
"Oh I hope he keeps his eyes on the monitors," the smaller robot said, poking his head into the control room.
Nos-4-a2 was seated on one of the chairs, his attention focused completely on the screens.
Oh good. He's distracted.
XR moved carefully into the room, reaching inside his drawer in hopes of finding some kind of weapon he might have missed. "Now if only-"
A sudden burst of laughter from the energy vampire's voice box made XR dash back itno the hall. He poked his head inside, expecting to see Nos looking in his direction. But Nos-4-a2 wasn't paying any attention to him. He was laughing at something on one of the monitors. XR looked up at the screen and saw the other energy vampire crash to the floor. So that's what he was watching.
Good. If he was laughing it up at the expense of the other energy vampire then it was fine with him. She was just as creepy and he didnt' feel bad for her.
The robot moved back into the room and carefully made his way over to him.
"I just love seeing my enemies get what's coming to them," Nos-4-a2 started talking to himself. "It makes me feel all good inside to get revenge on those who thought they got away with doing such dreadful things to me." he laughed. "As they say, what goes around comes around."
Just then his spun the chair around, taking XR by surprise. Now he was facing the other robot who froze, his optics widening in terror as the energy vampire locked eyes with him and grinned. "Isn't that right, Little One?"
Sari stared from the offline Prowl before her to the key at her feet. Satisfied that Prowl would not get back up, she deactivated the blades in her arms and picked up the key, holding it before her. "What is this?" she asked, turning it over in her hands.
Suddenly something seemed to click. Her mind filled with images of what had happened since she'd first met the Autobots. All the things they'd done, all the fun they'd had. All the adventures and danger they'd gone through. All the times she came to Prowl to tell him her problems. He'd listened. He's always listened and was always grateful when she helped him. He'd always smiled after thanking her...
He was her friend after all. Like an older brother, or her father when he'd been kidnapped by Megatron.
"Prowl?" She blinked. Her eyes changed back to their normal blue, as she remembered more. They flicked red again. She shook her head, removing the mind control by force of will. No! i won't allow it to come back!
Her eyes blinked back to blue and this time they stayed that way. She stared at the key a little longer than focused her attention on the unconscious Prowl who lay in a pool of his own vital fluids. "Prowl!" she exclaimed in horror, kneeling down.
She wrapped her arms around his frame and pulled him gently into her lap, turning him over so he faced her. "Prowl!" she screamed. "Wake up! Don't do this time me!" she shook him tears springing to her eyes. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean it! It wasn't my fault! I knew you wouldn't let me down! I'm sorry for saying such things I couldn't help it!"
Still she received no response. "Prowl?"
Was he dead? She rested her hand on his chest and closed her eyes, concentrating, tears running down her cheeks. If he was gone she didn't know what she was going to do. But. No, he wasn't dead, just dangerously close to it. She had to do something. But what?
Sari opened her eyes and looked at the key in her hand. It hadn't worked right since she'd used it on herself. In fact it hadn't worked at all since then. It was what most people considered dead. So then why did he keep it? she asked herself. and why did he carry it around?
She looked down at his face. Why?
Well she couldn't ask him if he was dead. But how was she going to save him? She had no way of repairing him. Unless...
She looked back at the key. "Unless I can get this to work," she said out loud.
But how? How was she going to get it to work? It wasn't that easy. She'd tried it before.
Well there was no time to worry about it. Prowl's life was fading and she had to do something. "Even if it doesn't work..."
She gently set the robot onto the floor and wiped the mech fluid off his chest. Then she carefully opened pulled open the damaged plating and looked at his inner workings, searching for the thing she'd put the key into before. Finally she found it. Taking a deep breath she lifted the key and gently inserted it into the opening.
Nothing happened.
"No!" she exclaimed, angrily. "Don't do this time me!" she pushed it in further. "Work! Work you blasted key!"
She almost yanked it out and threw it against the wall but when she did she found it was stuck. "O great, now it won't come out," she grumbled, wiggling it around. "Is this punishment for me being turned into a vampire minion and almost killing him? I didn't mean to, honest! It wasn't my-"
Suddenly her hands started glowing, she stared at them in shock. As the illumination grew brighter the key began to light up as well. As she watched it, brightened up until it was at full power. The light spread from the key to Prowl's body, illuminating it in a soft blue light. All the damage he'd sustained slowly began to heal itself and after a few seconds he was completely repaired. The key then powered down and went gray, turning cold in her hands.
Sari blinked then lifted the key to her face. "Did I do that?" she asked herself.
Prowl moaned, taking her thoughts off what had just happened. It wasn't important anymore. The only thing that was was the Autobot. She turned her attention back to him. His optics flickered then lit up to full brilliance. He stared up at her face. She smiled. "Welcome back, Prowl."
"Sari," he said, his voice filling with relief. "You're you again."
"Yes, I'm me," she said smiling and waving the key. "Nobody can be me but me." she grabbed his shoulders and pulled him into a hug. "I'm so glad you're okay!"
He raised his arms and returned the embrace. It felt so good to have the girl back to normal again. "But how did you-?"
She let him go and waved the key in front his his face. "How else?" she asked. "Thank you."
He smiled.
"Now why don't you tell me what's happened?" she looked around herself. "I've never seen this place before. What's going on?"
Shadowstar was fighting a losing battle. Every time she or the beings below her killed a hornet, two more would take their places. It eventually became clear that she wasn't going to win against them. In fact she was already losing. Her power levels were dangerously low and she was covered in damage. If she didn't feed on something soon she was going to go into stasis and she couldn't afford to let that happen.
"One," she said, diving toward the machines. "Just one."
She'd nearly reached one when she was hit with a blast from behind. The femme screamed and crashed onto the floor, landing on her stomach. As she pushed herself onto her hands and knees, she felt a horrible agony in her wings and glanced over her shoulders. The black and red appendages were covered in spidery cracks. She would not be able to fly anymore. But who had hit her? The blast seemed way too powerful to be from a mere hornet.
"Direct hit."
The femme glanced over at Zurg. He held one of his three barreled blasters but he wasn't aiming it at the hornets still shooting around them, he was aiming it at her!
"Zurg!" she exclaimed, her optics widening in shock. "What is the meaning of this?"
"I think you know the answer to that, my dear energy vampire," he responded, moving over to her, totally ignoring the fight going on around them. He didn't care about that, his full attention was focused on the damaged femme kneeling before him. "If I had just gotten rid of him like I'd planned instead of allowing you to convince me to teach him a lesson this never would have happened."
She backed away, her optics locking on that gun. "You didn't have to agree," she told him, trying to come up with a way to make him lower the weapon. "I never made you agree to it."
"Silence!" he ordered, aiming the gun at her face. "I agreed to it because it seemed like a good idea at the time. Now I know that the only reason you wanted that was because you intended to do things to him. You never had any notion to kill him, you just wanted to have fun."
"That is not true!" she protested. "I did intent to kill at him first."
"At first?!" he boomed. "So you changed your mind then? You thought that I'd go along with it because I'm stupid and you can't take me seriously?" the gun charged up and she could see the barrels glowing green. "Well who's the idiot now? I'd like to see you make light of this!"
He fired.
Shadowstar's reflexes were the only hings that saved her. She dived out of the way, just barely avoiding the blast. She landed on her stomach. "Sparks!" she cursed, more angry at herself than the evil emperor. "How could I have been so stupid?"
She heard the sound of his gun charging up again and scrambled to her feet, dashing out of the way just in time. The floor exploded behind her, sneind her flying across the room. She hit the floor again but got up quickly and continued moving.
"Oh no! You'te not getting away that easily!" she heard him yell behind her.
I won't be able to go anywhere soon, she realized as the warning message started screaming before her optics. I'm getting too low.
Her optics fell onto a hornet that seemed to be just standing there. Knowing it was her only chance she charged over to it, avoiding those plasma blasts coming from Zurg's gun, and grabbed it, biting it as soon as her hands were on it and draining the energy.
The robot's power didn't do much on repairs but it did make the warning go away. She felt a bit better now as she dropped the drained shell onto the floor but that didn't do much to help her situation. Zurg was still after her and now some of the hornets seemed to have the same idea. They also gave chase, firing away.
She had to get out of there.
The femme's optics fell onto the door. It was her only chance. Unable to transform due to the damage, she took off running.
"Uh hi," XR said, backing away from the energy vampire who got out of his chair and moved toward him. "I was looking for something. Have you seen it?"
His bad excuse didn't work. "I know what you were doing," Nos-4-a2 told him, smirking. "Your Autobot friend sent you in here to take care of me." he laughed. "You of all people! He should have known it was a bad idea, after all you're afraid of me."
The energy vampire was right about that. XR was scared of him and who could blame him? He felt the biggest urge to run but he knew he could not do that. Prowl was counting on him to take care of the energy vampire so Sari would be freed from his control.
"Now let's not get too hasty here," he said, putting up his hands. "We can both avoid trouble by you just dropping your control on the girl and allowing her to return to herself."
"Drop my control?" he laughed again. "Why would I want to do that? I rather like her the way she is." he rubbed his fingers against his cape then looked at the sharp nails. "Allowing her to have her free will back wouldn't be a wise idea seeing as then she would betray me and I can't have that. Besides, I rather like her the way she is, she's not so annoying anymore."
Well trying to convince him was a dead end. That only left force. "Nos-4-a2!" he shouted, pointing a finger into his face. "If you don't cease and desist controlling that girl I'm going to-"
"You're going to what?" the energy vampire asked. "Use that same trick you did back on Star Command? Blow me up like Ty Parsec did?" he snickered. "My dear little one, you should know by now that you are not the one with the advantage here." he grasped the chair and lifted it easily. "I on the other hand have everything you don't!" then he threw the chair.
XR moved quickly to avoid being hit by the flying piece of furniture. As he did Nos-4-a2 activated his wings and lunged at him. The robot space ranger let out a yelp and turned on his jetpack, shooting up and over the robot's head.
The energy vampire let out a roar and flew after him. XR maneuvered in the air, barely avoiding the vampire. The room was too cramped to do much of anything except zip out of the way when his claws got too close. He would have to get out of there and hope Nos-4-a2 followed him.
When the vampire made a grab for him dodged out of the way and shot out the door and into the hall.
"You won't escape me that easily, little one," the vampire called, flying after him.
"Craters," he grumbled. "Now how am I going to deal with him now?" He hadn't really come up with a plan at all. "Ugh the things I do for my fellow machines." he looked back and saw Nos was catching up. "Ah!"
Nos-4-a2 laughed. "Resist me not, Litte One," he called. He was almost upon the smaller robot now. Just one little swipe and he'd come down. Lovely.
But he never got to do it.
Just then a huge orb of blue energy shot down the hall toward him. XR instantly moved out of the way but Nos-4-a2 wasn't fast enough. The orb hit him head on. When it impacted with him it exploded, making his wings deactivate and knocking him back. He crashed onto the floor, his entire frame screaming in agony.
"Ow," he moaned, sitting up and rubbing his aching head. "What the bloody heck was that?"
"That would be me," a familiar voice spoke up.
Nos looked toward it. Further down the hall he caught sight of the Autobot and a figure standing next to him. Sari. Her eyes were blue again which meant she was no longer his servant.
"How'd you break my control!?" he exclaimed, shocked.
"Oh, it was easy," she said, walking toward him, smirking. He noticed something in her hand. A key? "I just needed a little help from a friend."
At that moment XR flew up beside her and as he did so the draft blew up her skirt. She yelped in surprise and pilled it back down. XR stared at her, looking innocent. "Sorry," he said.
"You stupid jerk!" she yelled, kicking off his head. "You just ruined the moment, pervert!"
XR's disembodied head landed at Prowl's feet. "Yeah she's her normal self again." he commented, looking annoyed.
"You didn't have to fly past her," Prowl pointed out, reaching down and picking it up.
"I didn't think she would to that!" the other robot protested. "and how was I supposed to know that that would happen to her dress?"
"Oh sure," she growled, folding her arms. "Just make up excuses, you haven't changed at all."
"Well neither have you!" he shouted. "I can't believe I nearly got myself killed to save your sorry servos!"
"Wait what?" she blinked.
"You heard me, you ungrateful little-"
"Okay that's enough," Prowl spoke up. "No reason to use such language."
"She started it!"
"I did not!"
While the group argued Nso-4-a2 took advantage of their distraction and pushed himself off the floor. He activated his wings and shot back down the hall. The sound of his roar alerted the others.
"He's getting away!" Sari shouted, moving to stop him. "Well I'm not going to let him. That creep-"
Prowl's hand on her arm prevented her from going anywhere. She looked back at him with wide eyes. He shook his head. "Let him go," the Autobot said. "He won't get far in the state he's in."
"I hope you're right," she said, watching the energy vampire vanish around the corner. "Because when I see him again I'm going to teach him to control me like that!"
"Let's get out of here," Prowl advised.
Shadowstar had managed to get away from Zurg and the hornets, but not before gaining more damage from point blank shots. Even though her energy levels were out of the danger zone it didn't help her in other areas. One of her legs was dislocated and bleeding mech fluid behind her. She knew if that kept up she would die not from being low on power, but from losing too many vital fluids.
"Sparks," she cursed, leaning against the wall as she limped down the hall. "I knew this was a bad idea. I shouldn't have ever agreed to it. I should have just killed that Wannabe when I had the chance instead of obey Zurg's orders about bringing him back! How dare he outsmart me! I was supposed to outwit him!"
She stumbled and nearly fell but caught herself in time. "I have to get out of here," she said to herself. "I can't let them kill me. have to-"
Suddenly she was hit by a blast of plasma. She screamed in pain and was knocked to the floor on her back. Pieces of her wings snapped off and littered the floor. She took a sharp intake of breath, forcing herself not to cry out. But it hurt so much she couldn't hold back a whimper.
"So we meet again."
Shadowstar lifted her head and found Nos-4-a2, his cape rip to shreds and his frame covered in scratches, leaning over her. He was smiling. "I didn't expect to run into you so soon," he stated reaching out a hand and grabbing her chin. "How lovely that I get to have my revenge so soon."
The femme really didn't need this right now. "G-get away from me!" she screamed, slapping his hand away.
He looked at his hand, noticed the scratches on it from her claws then shrugged it off. "What do you intend to do if I don't?" he asked, his optics scanning her severely damaged frame. "From what I can see you can't do much of anything in your current state."
"I can still bite you!" she snapped, hoping that would work.
He laughed, completely unfazed. "I'd love to see you try." then he slammed his hand into her shoulder, shoving her onto her back.
Shadowstar tried to get up but he landed on top of her, grabbing her wrists and pinning them over her head. Even if he didn't have legs he could still hold her down by the weight of his body. "Looks like your time is up," he stated. "You've had your fun but now it's time you realized just who is the real vampire around here." his optics fell onto her neck. "and seeing as you went and invaded my personal space with that mouth of yours, I think I'll take back what is rightfully mine."
He leaned over her and she knew right away what he intended to do. She struggled to free herself but she was just too damaged and weak to do anything. After only a few seconds she was worn out and had to rest. The moment she did so she felt his fangs sink deeply into her neck.