-1And now the part THEY'VE been waiting for…
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The resistance they had encountered thus far barely counted as such in his mind as all six met force with force, proving that even despite human ingenuity they still had the edge. "We make a great team," Megatron said during a lull in the fighting. Everyone else nodded at that. They'd fought Decepticons and won, so what threat could humans pose? 'Pirated' technology was brought out and taken down with great efficiency as Sector Seven threw everything they had at them. Enemies or not, even Megatron took care to kill as few as possible whenever he could. Eventually the futile assault ended as their enemy simply ran out of firepower to use against them. The passageway swiftly cleared out as the Autobots pushed past the wreckage they had created, continuing toward their goal… another set of huge doors down at the end of said passageway. Stepping closer, Megatron gave a wry little smile as he saw the denting and warping he himself had left behind as he broke free through those selfsame doors. "We're very nearly there," he said with no small amount of satisfaction. "I passed this way myself, once." As they had done at the entrance, Optimus stepped forward to help his brother pry the doors open, followed quickly by the others as said doors proved to be quite a bit tougher to open than the others had been.
Trying to peek through the doors even as they opened, Megatron's eyes widened as he saw what lay beyond. "Zephyr…" And indeed, there she was. All of them stared at where a web of scaffolding and wires held her ice-coated body in a standing position, eyes dark and face frozen in an expression of desperate, pleading horror. "Just like they did to me," Megatron murmured in a mixture of stark horror and the black rage he had known in the bleakest depths of the war. He had known deep down what he would see, but that didn't make the sight any easier on him. Given additional strength by the horror he felt, he flung the doors wide and was the first one in as they entered. Striding closer to her frigid prison, his claws flexed agitatedly as he began to circle, looking for a way to free her. "I'm here now, Zephyr, it's all right…" Optimus was by his side in an instant, beginning to pull away the wires that held her. Taking his brother's cue, Megatron used his powerful claws to rip and tear at the scaffolding that dared to imprison his beloved. "Be ready to catch her if she falls," Optimus advised. A quick nod was all the response he got, and he needed no more.
As the last of the scaffolding came away, the only warning either of them got was the soft sound of cracking ice as, released from the supports that had previously held her in a standing position, Zephyr's frozen body toppled straight into Megatron's arms. To his credit, he only stumbled slightly as he caught her in an embrace. Still out cold, her head rested against his shoulder as he eased her limp body to the ground, laying her on her back and making her as comfortable as possible even though she obviously couldn't feel it at that point. She would be comfortable when she awoke, and that was what mattered. Once he had done so, he immediately looked to Ratchet. Not a word needed to be spoken as the medic stepped closer and knelt, getting to work on repairing the damage Sector Seven had left behind. Anger mixed with equal parts disgust and horror as they all became aware of the exact nature of the damage to her chest. "They went after her spark chamber…"
Megatron barely waited for Ratchet to finish before he took her in his arms and held her close, cradling her against his chest and praying the warmth of his embrace would chase away the last lingering remnants of the ice and cold that had held her mind and body in its grip. He couldn't believe they'd done this to her… He had thought he would have been the only one they would dare do such a thing to, and that only because they didn't know who he was! How could they knowingly cause such pain and suffering to a being they had to know was just as alive and aware as they were? Thoughts of revenge whirled through his mind before he tried to banish them. "How dare they treat her so shamefully…"
All thoughts of revenge left his mind as the body in his arms stirred slightly and gave a soft groan. "…Zephyr?" Murmuring softly, she gave a slow, lazy stretch, only to start slightly as she felt herself encircled by a gentle embrace. Waking up a little more, she opened her eyes and looked up at the smiling face of the one she had longed for more than anything. "Megatron," she said softly, weakly trying to reach up to return his embrace. Seeing that, he shook his head slightly. "Just rest, my darling. Sleep. I'll still be here when you awaken; I swear it." Smiling faintly, she snuggled up a little closer to him and yawned softly. A moment later she was sound asleep in his arms, a small smile on her face. The link they shared poured her tiredness into his mind to mingle with his own, and so he wasn't all that surprised to find himself yawning as well. "I suppose it's been a long day for both of us." Off to the side, Optimus chose that moment to speak up. "Indeed it has. This whole ordeal has been far harder on you than it has been for any of us. You should sleep too, Megatron. After all, didn't you yourself just say you weren't going anywhere?" Taking his brother's advice, he gently shifted Zephyr off his lap so he could then lie down beside her and snuggle up close, wrapping his arms around her and laying his head against her shoulder. A moment later he too was sound asleep, resting peacefully in the arms of his beloved.
Optimus smiled at the sight of the two lovers snuggling on the floor. His brother was finally getting some decent rest. It had been a real chore getting him to go sleep while they had been searching for her, and even when he did his dreams were full of turmoil, nightmares about what he had been sure she was going through, preventing him from sleeping well. Ironhide fidgeted a bit, feeling as if he was intruding upon an intimate moment, then turned to leave the room, intending to stand guard over the area in general. Bumblebee just couldn't bear to look at the scene laid out before him. Had he been human, he would have blushed at the sight. Ratchet smiled at the sight of both of his patients napping quietly. Looking around, Optimus spotted a tarp stretched out over a very large stack of pipes used for maintenance of the dam itself and had an idea. Stepping closer, he pulled the tarp off the pipes it had been covering before dragging it over to spread it out over the two lovers where they lay, using it as a makeshift blanket in an attempt to keep them both warm as they napped on the cold, damp floor of the facility she had been stored in. Warm and safe, together again at last, Megatron and Zephyr slept on.
Megatron stirred slightly with a soft, troubled murmur. Even Zephyr's presence couldn't fully soothe him as he dreamed of the last time he had seen the room in which they both rested. The anger and desperation he'd felt hadn't kept him from remembering the faces of the comparatively helpless humans, civilians all, who had been unfortunate enough to get in his way as he finally broke free. He had known of how short the lives of the puny little humans had been, had been aware that the ones responsible for imprisoning him were long dead. Aside from himself, none had still lived who could remember the time when he had been imprisoned. No, none of the humans he had faced had even been born yet at that time, and in some cases their parents hadn't been born yet. He had never been one to believe in inherited guilt, but that thought had been secondary to just getting out of there. And besides… The war he himself had started had stretched for uncountable eons, longer than the life of the species that had imprisoned him and the very planet they called home, but that almost unimaginable length of time and the multitudinous battles he had fought still had yet to render him cynical enough to be fully impervious to its horrors. His own men had considered him almost evil incarnate, but there had been a part of him, a part he'd kept hidden deep down in the core of his spark, that had always hated the thought of harming innocents, of killing civilians who had committed no crime against him. Even during the earliest days of the war, before the conflict had spread to encompass the stars themselves, he had despised the thought of attacking civilian targets, especially when children were involved. He himself had never issued such an order, though a few of his higher-ranking subordinates had done so in his stead. He'd never been able to directly countermand such orders for fear of being perceived as 'weak', since such a stigma would certainly have led to his being overthrown if not killed outright. It wasn't as if Starscream had needed the excuse, and most of the rest would have relished the opportunity to get rid of him. About all he had been able to do in that regard was refuse to participate in attacks on civilian targets, mostly on the basis of being certain that his subordinates could handle such things without him. He'd had some standards, after all. The Autobots, for their part, had always believed such things had been done under his orders, and in all likelihood the assertion that no civilian had perished at his hands would have been called an outright lie.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Is that a cute image or what?
Read and review, please!