Duty and Deceit
Chapter 49
One Shall Rise pt. 2
Okay guys, here you go! Next chapter! This chapter was quite a lot of fun to write, so I'm hoping you will enjoy it as much as I did! Can't wait to hear from all beloved readers, so read, enjoy, and review!
Disclaimer: I do not own the Transformers, or the Transformers: Prime television series.
Her spark pounded in its chamber, the roar of her life-En pumping through her audials. The little femmeling circulated a large draft of air through her systems. She huffed at the steam that came from her vents in the frigid Urayan plains. Her dented and scratched plating pressed against her form to keep as much of her body heat from escaping as possible.
Her one bent finial twitched and sparked painfully as the badly damaged blue and yellow youngling crouched in the small alley way shivering. Loud voices and stomping pedefalls filled her audials, making her shake with rage and fear where she hid under the rubble of a building that they had probably blown up the same way they blew up her home.
She'd been on the run for a long time. Long enough that she'd lost count of the orns, her chronometer having broken along with a lot of other things that her HUD kept telling her about. She didn't know what most of the errors meant though, so she just hoped she wasn't dying.
Mr. Fixall hadn't taught her class about first aid yet. She wasn't supposed to be taught that for a few more frames.
The youngling sighed, biting hard on her lip. Mr. Fixall was her favorite teacher. He was probably dead too. Guess he couldn't fix everything after all.
As the small team of about seven Autobots trudged dangerously close to her hiding spot, the third-frame youngling shivered again and offlined her vocalizers to cut off the keen that kept trying to fight its way out. She shuttered her optics and tried to ignore the throbbing in her broken arm that doubled in intensity with every jarring pedefall of the passing Autobot team.
She could hear the hum of charged energy weapons, and the mechs sounded like they were confused. They were looking for her. Her life-signal was on their radar and they had seen her run from them. They knew she was nearby, but they couldn't find her.
The youngling's mouth opened in a silent scream when light started shining into her hiding spot. A mech shouted directly above her, "I found her!"
Frantically, she dug at the rubble behind her with her one good arm, digging until her servos started leaking life-En, but she didn't stop. She couldn't stop. She had to get to Kaon! To avenge her home!
She couldn't let them kill her now. She'd come too far!
Just before the mech had gotten enough of the rubble moved to get to her, the Protihexian youngling broke through and ran for her life, leaving a small puddle of life-En behind her. She heard their shouting behind her, their calling to her as though they weren't the bloodthirsty killers she knew them to be.
Every inch of her frame screamed in pain as she ran, a bunch of words scrawling across her HUD with urgent, meaningless messages that she simply ignored. She shivered as she ran, the icy air cutting through her light, civilian youngling armor with ease, chilling her to the protoform.
Tripping over a rock, the youngling looked over shoulder quickly.
The Autobots were coming for her!
A huge green jet seemed to materialize in front of her and she crashed into pede, bursting into tears as her numerous wounds erupted with pain. Skyquake smirked down at her coldly, "Everyone's dead, Terabyte. Dead or gone. Every time fate gives you a family, you always screw it up."
She jolted awake, coolant streaming down her face at the childhood memory-turned-nightmare. She didn't want to be awake. Being awake meant going to the launch pad to watch her last friend fly away for the last time for the indefinite future.
Today was the day.
Previously on Duty and Deceit...
"The Cons killed a Unicorn?"
"Okay..." Jack started slowly, his fleshy face squinching up in concentration, "So what happens when Unicron wakes up from his billion-year nap?"
"Yeah!" Miko agreed instantly, "Does he stretch and - kapow! - Earth poofs to dust?"
"Nonetheless, we must find a way to ensure that this force of nature never fully awakens... The fate of your planet depends upon it."
/Optimus, I'm detecting a swell in Unicron's spark activity./ Ratchet said aloud and through the public comms. /Have you uncovered any further signs of his emergence?/
The reply that came was a deep, rumble of what sounded like a hundred mechs speaking in synchronized unison, shocking all listeners, /Unicron is power incarnate, and you - the last of the Primes - shall perish./
The medic grunted, "I take that as a 'yes'."
/We're on our way, Prime./ Arcee assured instantly, motioning the awaiting team towards the ground bridge as she did so, drawing her blasters in preparation for the huge battle that they would find upon bridging.
/Negative./ Optimus countered firmly. /Unicron cannot be defeated by sheer force. I am who he wants. This fight must be mine alone./
Terabyte stopped in her tracks, along with the rest of Team Prime, looking to Arcee for further instructions. She held her ruby gaze neutral; her skeptical frown hidden beneath her mask. The Prime didn't seriously expect them to sit around at base while an ancient being superstitiously revered as the god of destruction tried to terminate him did he?
By his or her expressions, everyone else was thinking the same thing. Arcee jerked her helm to bridge as Ratchet opened the portal.
Bulkhead smirked, "I'm guessin' we never heard that order?"
"Right." The blue and pink femme confirmed, striding through the swirling green gateway, her team close behind.
Stepping out into the midst of a dusty battlefield, Terabyte instantly dropped to a crouch, levelling her mini-fusion cannon on the first stone animation she saw. Her optics narrowed at the sheer number of 'Unicrons' there actually were. According to her sensory read-out, she ought to have been swimming in the 'Blood of Unicron'.
Hearing a roar, the spy glanced over her shoulder to watch a stone helm turn to dust beneath Bulkhead's wrecking ball. Optimus glared at all of them, "Did Ratchet not relay my order? Return to base immediately."
From the cliff edge far above them, Unicron chorused, "Reinforcements will not prevent your destruction, Disciple of Primus."
Arcee glared back at their leader stubbornly, "Optimus, you're Unicron's target."
"Maybe you should consider going back to base." Bulkhead suggested with a light shrug, already knowing that the Prime would never consider that an option. Bumblebee whirred in agreement.
She scowled slightly. All that returning to base would accomplish was luring Unicron straight to their center of operations. To do so would be beyond foolish. "Unicron has already proven that he can locate the Prime at any location on the planet. Not even the base would be a guaranteed safe-house."
Bulkhead, Bumblebee, and Arcee all turned to glare at her sharply, making the spy's flared armor shift uncomfortably.
"Not helping, Terabyte."
"I will not put others at risk." Optimus said finally, his tone and gaze clearly expecting no further argument.
The older femme shook her helm, laying a hand on the Matrix-bearer's elbow, "Then fall back and let us take the lead. Just this once."
The huge red and blue mech looked ready to protest further, until his optics dimmed, suggesting an internal communication. His frown deepened, and then his shoulders fell in defeat. "Very well."
Nodding in grateful acknowledgement, Arcee waved a hand, motioning them forward into the battle, "Let's move!"
Terabyte's optic ridges pulled together as a message pinged on her HUD. From Skyquake? She opened the message swiftly, ignoring the questioning glances - and bellows - from the rest of the team, who had just reached the front line of battle.
/Don't die out there./
She rolled her crimson optics, smirking behind her mask at the concise, yet amazingly clumsy glyphs. Honestly, she had no idea how the mech even managed to write so sloppily. She couldn't write that messy if she tried. Charging her cannon, Terabyte joined the fray, obliterating two stone Unicrons before she even reached the rest of the team.
/You doubt my skill, mech? Really, how do you think I survived all these vorns?/ She fired her cannon one last time before three Unicrons cornered her, at which point she released her dagger, bracing for hand-to-hand combat.
As Unicron swung his mace, the spy nimbly leapt onto the weapon, using his arm as a ramp straight to his helm, where she plunged her dagger in as far as it would go. Pulling the blade from the mound of dust and rubble she was now standing on, the femme swung it up just in time to block the next Unicron's punch, effectively shattering the stone limb.
/Oh, I don't know, I figured you owed your survival primarily to me. After all, you couldn't even pay for your meals most of the time./ Skyquake sent back cheekily.
The Unicron bellowed in rage right before eating a charge from her fusion cannon. Too late to block against the last of the manifestations that had blocked her in, the navy and black femme crumpled to her hands and knees under his club, biting back a scream as she felt her dorsal plating fold in on itself on impact.
She'd let herself get distracted.
Groaning at her sluggish reaction time, Terabyte rolled over in a painful attempt to dodge the final blow that never came. She blinked at the shower of dust that fell over her, coating every inch of her frame and grinding into her protoform. When the dust cleared, she found the yellow scout standing over her with worry evident in his large blue optics.
He bleeped questioningly, asking, "You okay?"
She repressed the howl of pain that fought to escape as she rose to her pedes slowly, letting out a low moan in its place. Swaying slightly before regaining her balance, she swiped aside the warnings on her HUD. "Thank you, Bumblebee, for coming to my aid. I am fine."
The bright mech didn't seem much convinced, but he nodded anyway. For the moment, that appeared to have been the last... one. Her optics locked onto the significantly larger manifestation of Unicron, this one nearly twice the size of Skyquake. The second thing she noticed was the fact that he had just fired a blast of Dark Energon straight at Bumblebee's back.
He'd never dodge in time.
Frame springing into action moments before her processor caught up, Terabyte felt herself leap forward and tackle the scout with full force, knocking both of them out of harm's way. She landed on top of the mech, the impact pushing a short cry from her vocalizers as the cliff side where they had previously stood exploded in a spray of rubble, shards of rock cutting into her exposed back.
Working up the strength to shove herself off the yellow Praxian, she only succeeded in rolling over next to him, hissing as the action drove the newly accumulated shrapnel deeper into her leaking, shredded, and crumpled dorsal plating.
She assumed that the fact they yet lived meant that the Prime or some other bot had demolished the massive stone manifestation of Unicron.
"You still okay?" Bumblebee queried, standing over her with a hand extended, one thick black optic ridge raised high on his forehelm.
There was no way the mech would believe her, but she nodded her pointed helm stubbornly and reached up, allowing him to pull her light frame to a standing position. Her left finial flicked agitatedly.
"I remain fine... I bel-" She cleared her vents harshly, lowering her mask just long enough to spit out the mouthful of life-En that had been obstructing her vents. "I believe that makes us even?"
/We have fought well this cycle./ Optimus announced over the comms., drawing them all instantly to attention. /However, Unicron is not going to be so easily discouraged. For now, we must call for retreat. Autobots, transform and roll out./
/Optimus? We've got a bot down... I'm not sure if she can-/
Terabyte cut the scout off with a sharp glare as she threw herself into transformation, landing in alt-mode and revving her engine in discomfort. Her glyphs were crisp and tight as ever, /Bumblebee's concern is appreciated, however I can manage well enough on my own. Coordinates?/
/Follow my lead. Optimus out./
The line fizzled out and the five drove off into the desert, staying close behind the red and blue semi that was their leader. She rolled on, allowing her processors to focus on every rotation of her tires, rather than the long distance they had yet to go. Just a few more turns.
She should never have gotten injured this badly. She allowed herself to get distracted and it ended with her being cornered by three Unicrons who would likely have terminated her had Bumblebee not intervened. Why the Autobot had intervened, she had yet to determine.
Yet at the same time, they had all also made it very clear that they trusted her with their very sparks. It was confusing. They trusted her. They had no reason to; she certainly hadn't proven herself trust-worthy, what with being brainwashed, and jeopardizing everything they stood for.
Even the Prime trusted her.
It filled her spark with a joy she hadn't felt for at least seven vorns.
All of a sudden the femme screeched to an abrupt halt, turning sideways to slow herself farther and bumping into Bumblebee in front of her. Transforming with the rest of the team, Terabyte swayed back a step to catch her balance.
"Why-" Refocusing her attention, the femme's gaze locked on to the colossal stone mech in front of them, towering above them with a size that far exceeded anything she'd ever seen before. This Unicron stood at least as tall as the Kaonian citadel.
"Is that Unicron? For real this time?"
"No, not Unicron himself, Bumblebee, but yet another of his manifestations." Optimus corrected, staring up at the Titan along with his team.
Bulkhead's engine rumbled in disgust, "If we can't beat Unicron, and we can't outrun him, what are we supposed to do?"
The Prime turned to look at his soldiers with a grave expression. "All we can do. Neutralize his vessels as they appear, until we can destroy him without destroying this very Earth upon which we walk."
Each mech and femme nodded in solemn acknowledgement, falling into a ready stance, weapons charged and locked on the massive Titan under whose shadow they stood. Terabyte shuddered, clenching her jaw against the pain of her injuries. She had fought with greater afflictions, in situations almost this dire.
The ground shook beneath her as the Titan began to stomp towards them, the hard earth of the desert sinking under his steps. The femme's processors and battle protocols were already whirring at top speed as she ran towards their opponent, firing her fusion cannon in rapid succession. By the tiny puffs of dust where her shots landed, one would have thought she were an insect, futilely attempting to poke him to death.
Crimson blasts of energy joined blue in the team's efforts to bring the Titan down, yet his every step knocked them to their knees. Every time they fell, their chances of escaping the next pede-fall grew slighter, and every shot they fired only heightened Unicron's rage.
A thick blackness suddenly hovered over her and she looked up in horror, falling back on her aft as the ground shook violently beneath her. Terabyte hissed, firing her cannon once before it powered down, flashing a tiny notice that her cannon required a half breem to cool down.
"Slag!"
She shrieked as the Titan's fingers curled around her frame, picking her up like she were no more than a doll. Extending her scarlet Energon blade, the spy stabbed and slashed at the hand that held her captive with the frantic vigor of a bot who could see death approaching. As Unicron's grip tightened, the femme's screams faded out into choked vents heaving to cool her panicked, overheating frame.
One final time, she swung her blade with all of her strength, her faceplates going slack in shocked defeat as the blade snapped in half. She could feel her armor buckling under the pressure, but she was too crushed to make a sound. Her optics turned down to the ground just in time to see the Prime collapse as Unicron's enormous foot bore down on him.
"I am this world's past and future... And as of this moment..."
A single, hot pink coolant tear slid down her faceplates, though she couldn't tell if it was from the thought of all five of them dying, or from the intense agony coursing through her while she was being squeezed to death.
Far below her, she heard Arcee howl, "NO!"
"The line of the Primes is past!"
Darkness tinged the edges of her vision, her frame going limp in Unicron's grasp. She rebooted her optics, watching her ruby bio lights flicker forlornly as the pressure continued. The tiny femme could already feel her systems shutting down from the pain. Soon the cool embrace of stasis would lick away the misery...
/Skyquake? Thank you... for everything./
An explosion so loud her audials shorted out erupted all around her and the Titan crushing her bellowed. Her whole frame went into a full reboot, her optics going blank as she vaguely registered heavy, dust-laden air rushing past her, but beyond that she felt and sensed nothing.
Moments Later
"Who did that?"
"Wasn't me."
"Me neither."
"What happened?"
She jerked back into consciousness, her optics onlining to find a wall of silver in front of them. The wall shifted and shook in a steady rhythm in time with the thudding of everything around her. Her helm lolled slightly, her frame refusing to do anything more than lie completely relaxed, all of her systems practically sighing in relief at the release of the spark-crushing pressure.
Her vents heaved, her fans whirring gently in her frame. Warnings scrolled endlessly over her HUD informing her of the processes of her slowly recovering and re-equalizing of internal pressures. Her armor was damp with her own life-En, but that revelation failed to fully compute in her mind.
"I happened." The silver wall in front of her rumbled smugly. His voice rang familiar in her processors, yet she couldn't quite identify it in her current state of mind.
Whoever it was, she owed him her life.
Arcee snorted at an unheard set of comments, "Don't be so sure. Megatron just saved Optimus' tailpipe. Terabyte's too."
... Megatron?
She shifted, letting out a quiet, questioning, and disoriented groan. Last she remembered, she was dying. Maybe she had died and the mech carrying her was her herald to the Well.
"It is rather ironic, considering our last encounter." The mech pointed out smoothly, "If memory serves, you were desperately attempting to extinguish my spark."
That didn't line up with the theory that she was dead. Not at all.
"That option remains very much in play." Another voice... Optimus... snarled, just above her helm.
The mech carrying her chuckled, a deep laugh that somehow chilled her to the spark. "I would expect nothing else. However," She felt herself get raised slightly in a general gesture to her whole self, "I have a proposal, and with it, a token of good will."
There was a heavy pause before he continued, "Join me in defeating our shared enemy - Unicron, the Chaos-Bringer."
Another pause that gave her the distinct feeling that there was some other form of communication in use, then Optimus replied, "Because Megatron's pride would never allow anyone other than himself to rule this planet."
Again the mech laughed, "You know me all too well, Optimus."
Terabyte looked up blearily to identify the mech who had saved her life and her tanks roiled. Megatron. Growling, the spy punched the warlord hard in the face with all the power she could muster, springing from his arms in a clumsy, panicked back flip as he simply blinked in mildly impressed surprise. She landed roughly on her pedes, and shakily stood her ground, feeling life-En ooze down her back.
"Herald of Primus..." She scoffed disgustedly at herself. Louder, she snarled, "Go rust in pit, Megatron, we don't need your help."
He just grinned at her, "Actually, I beg to differ." He shrugged his massive, spiked shoulders casually, "Besides, I would watch your glossa if I were you, because the day will come when you will obey your master once again."
Her helm jerked painfully to the side of its own accord at his words, her optics widening as she realized at once what the warlord meant. His optics narrowed triumphantly and she hissed, straightening defiantly. There, for a split second, he had had full control of her, and they both knew it. She bit her lip. Of course.
"But you lead an army of Cons." Bulkhead interrupted -his tone distrustful. The Autobots were all oblivious to what had just taken place. "Why come to us?"
Megatron turned to the large green ex-Wrecker with a smirk, "Because this particular endeavor requires something beyond the realm of my command-"
"The power of a Prime." Optimus finished solemnly, an amount of resignation in his tone that frightened her.
Arcee snorted derisively, "Then I guess we don't need you."
"On the contrary," The silver warlord drawled, "Optimus may be the only one who can defeat Unicron, but I remain the only one who can guide you to him. Unicron's lifeblood runs through me. Only I can hear his thoughts... anticipate his movements. Optimus, our past alliances - Autobot, Decepticon - no longer matter, not while Unicron lives."
The Prime's engine growled with an anger she'd never heard from him before, "The past always matters!"
Her face went slack behind her mask at the sheer, broken rage behind that statement, and the extent of what it could entail. The past always matters.
Terabyte swayed again, losing balance quickly as the pain continued to catch up to her. Bumblebee came up behind her and stood close by. She nodded gratefully at the silent offer, leaning heavily into the mech for support, venting with relief as the scout held the majority of her weight for her.
"A truce between Autobot and Decepticon? And how long are we supposed to expect that to last?" He blipped scornfully, shifting to better support her without exacerbating her injuries.
"Only so long as is mutually beneficial." Megatron stated plainly, a hint of threat behind his civil tone.
"And when our proposed shared mission is complete?" Optimus prompted.
The warlord shrugged a shoulder, "I will conquer this Earth. My way."
"Brutal honesty from a Decepticon." Arcee commented dryly.
Terabyte blinked her optics repeatedly, fighting to focus on something other than the streams of errors scrolling over her vision. She was beginning to wonder if there was any part of her left that wasn't damaged or malfunctioning.
"Do you think you've witnessed the full power of Unicron?" Megatron taunted, "Those foot soldiers were nothing more than a taste. Unicron has yet to fully awaken. With each passing moment, the "Bringer of Chaos" evolves, mutating Earth from the inside out. What we have witnessed until now is but a prelude of the utter devastation his rising will wreak upon this world."
"Like your quest for power destroyed Cybertron?" She retorted sharply, lowering her battle mask to cough up a vent full of life-En.
"Make no mistake, this time, there will be a planet left for me to rule."
"Because-" Terabyte cleared her vents harshly, "Because that's worked so well for you so far."
"Silence!" The silver mech ordered sharply, watching with satisfaction as she cringed. The next time she went to speak, she found her vocalizers muted. Crimson optics burned into the warlord as she fumed, unable to further voice her disdain.
Arcee propped one hand on her hip where she stood on the other side of Megatron and Optimus, "Even if we agree, Unicron's all the way down at the center of the Earth. How are we supposed to get there? Drive?"
Half a breem passed in seeming silence. Terabyte scowled at the message on her HUD telling her that her comms system was among the disabled.
"Yet another strong argument for soliciting my guidance." Megatron rumbled, cocking one of his huge, sweeping optic ridges. Another blank silence. "If you transport us to this planet's core, I can lead you directly into Unicron's spark... The very heart of his darkness."
Arcee frowned, her engine humming discontentedly, "Optimus, even if we survive the jump, how are we supposed to stop Unicron?"
"With the Matrix of Leadership." Came the Prime's regal reply.
She drew herself upright, pulling away from Bumblebee's support with a deep vent, biting down a groan. "This mech... is pure evil, Prime. No amount of - of hoping for his redemption will bring it into fruition. To trust the Lord Protector is to invite death upon us."
The warlord gave her another chilling grin, inclining his helm in a show of humility, "I am glad to see that my soldiers continue to hold me in such high regard."
Her heated remark was interrupted by the earth shaking beneath their pedes. All turned to watch as the ground began warping and stretching out into three colossal re-animated statues of the Titan, the same size as the one that nearly killed them all.
Bulkhead grunted, "More incomin'. Whatever we're gonna do, it's now or never."
"Ratchet, set the ground-bridge."
Within moments of the Prime's order, a portal swirled to life just meters away. Bulkhead and Arcee both ran for it, closely tailed by herself and Bumblebee and lastly, Optimus himself. Before going through the gateway though, Arcee stopped. "Wait. We're opening a direct portal to our base with Megatron standing right there?"
"Yeah, and seriously, he's gonna risk his own spark to save us?" Bulkhead added, nearly laughing at the sheer absurdity of the concept.
"Hardly my nature." Megatron scoffed, turning to face the Titans with no more to aid him than the cannon/sword on his arm. "Consider my offer. I shall keep them busy."
She bit back a snarl, involuntarily arching her back away from the medic's trained touch. The little femme growled when Ratchet's wrench collided with her helm. "I said sit still! You wouldn't be injured at all if you'd stay off the comms during battles with Unicron!"
Terabyte wisely remained silent, leaving Ratchet to work out the shrapnel from her dorsal plating while venting his frustrations. Arguing one way or the other would only elicit further violent applications of the wrench. It wasn't entirely her fault anyway. Skyquake ought to have known better than to distract her during a battle.
Not that she was really blaming him. The brig was not in her list of most exciting, interesting places to be kept. They had never been told that they had to stay in the brig, yet she didn't blame them for keeping themselves confined.
She winced again as the medic pulled out a significantly large shard. Ratchet had already fixed her communications array, and hooked her up to some sort of machine that was helping to more slowly re-adjust her systems to not being crushed. She was sitting quietly and patiently in the only properly secluded room of the med-bay.
The reason for her seclusion being that she was perched on the medic's berth in preliminary armor, carefully working out the dents in the cheap, gray civilian-grade prelim-armor. Her battle armor was currently in the lab portion of the med-bay, being repaired and reshaped by Jetfire; the external armor having been too badly damaged for a magnetic stylus to sufficiently fix it.
Her paint job would be completely totalled.
If the medic were not so aggravated with her for the extent of her wounds, she needed to talk to him about how to fix Soundwave's failsafes. However, now was not the best of times, since the rest of the team mostly had little more than bruises, dents, and a few dislocated joints. Easy fixes. Then there was her, with practically every system in her aching frame at least bruised.
"Medic?"
"What?" Ratchet snapped, ripping out another piece of shrapnel and setting it on the berth beside her. "Unless it's going to kill someone if you don't tell me, I'm kind of preoccupied digging half the mountain out of your struts."
She didn't reply for a while, choosing instead to fiddle with her bright ruby biolights. At long last she shook her helm. Until Megatron was gone, there was little she could safely do without angering the warlord.
The medic shrugged and returned to his work until a light series of taps sounded on the door, followed by Arcee swinging around the corner. Her tone was anything but pleased, "Megatron is here."
Ratchet dropped the tool he was currently wielding and put a hand on her shoulder for an astrosecond to detach the pressurizing machine before moving on to hastily tidying his supplies. "You'll need an orn or so for your self-repairs to finish up and make you actually feel better. For now, I'll have Jetfire bring in your battle-grade armor. I'm going to make sure Miko doesn't get herself vaporized."
Terabyte nodded indifferently, but the medic had already left. Her tanks churned as the Decepticon's booming voice seemed to permeate the air. Other voices overlaid each other in a jumbled, unintelligible burbling. Soon enough, Jetfire came barging in, unceremoniously depositing her armor in a heap beside her.
The white jet smiled at her encouragingly, "You should be glad to be alive. I dare say it is not every day that a femme lives to say she's been held in the fist of Unicron."
Clicking her outer armor sloppily into place piece by piece, she simply grunted noncommittally.
Out of politeness, the scientist had his back turned to her as he went on, "I have further examined the organic sparkling's blood - a new sample from the recovering patient - and the results have been rather disappointingly inconclusive. If Ratchet would allow it, I would like to endeavor upon more detailed studies. Perhaps you could persuade him? He seems fond enough of you."
"The dents in my helm would suggest otherwise, Jetfire." Terabyte said tonelessly, maneuvering around the jet and looking over her shoulder before leaving the med-bay with a mostly hidden limp, "When more pressing matters have been settled, I'll try to look into it for you though."
Catching a glimpse of her reflection in the glass walls dividing the med-bay from the main chamber, the spy couldn't help but wince behind her mask. She looked like she'd just crawled out of a pit of Sharkticons. All things considered though, she looked far better than she felt.
"Terabyte." The Prime stated, inclining his helm slightly, drawing her attention back to things of importance with his commanding tone, "Obtain destination coordinates from our guest."
She stiffened visibly, tightening her EM field and flaring her armor forcefully. Any objections she may have had fizzled out before being voiced, however, and she merely bowed respectfully to the Matrix-bearer. "Yes, sir. By what means shall I obtain them?"
"You could start by asking nicely." The silver Decepticon suggested dryly from where he stood a ways off in the center of the room, having hardly moved since his arrival.
A finial twitched in agitation.
The midnight blue and black spy's lips pursed together under the safety of her mask, yet the visible part of her face remained impassive. Striding over to the mech, she minutely and against her will, tilted her helm to her former leader. In spite of her best efforts, her armor shrank a fraction closer to her frame as she looked up resolutely at the mech. Her helm barely reached his midriff.
"After all, I am here to offer my aid." Megatron finished, lazily evaluating their base. "Something you are in dire need of, it would seem. Tell me, Terabyte, what about these Autobots did you find so intriguing that you would betray your own people?"
"Their leader not being a homicidal, Unicron-possesed megalomaniac bent on galactic domination may have been a contributing factor." She cocked an optic ridge, her finials flicking back in a sign of her building anger, "Learning that you had deceived me for over a decavorn so that you could utilize my bloodlust for your own twisted purposes... That may also have had a sizable influence. Now if it is not too much trouble for you, I did not come to discuss the terms of my defection."
He smirked down at her, his voice disgustingly cool, "Ah, yes. I suppose that is reasonable. I can see why Soundwave thinks so highly of you. In spite of your being an utter failure."
Her optics narrowed. "Coordinates. Now."
"Infiltrate Autobot ranks, and then send me all information you gathered; that was your assignment. Instead, I find you assimilated into their happy little family, bringing Skyquake down with you." The mech laughed at the concern growing in her optics, "Or had you not told them why you originally joined them? What can I say? I am not often inclined to be politically correct when treated as a hostage."
She could feel the other Autobots' gazes locked on her, but she refused to look in their direction. One trial at a time. "If you do not supply the requested coordinates within the next klick, I will obtain them by far less pleasant means."
"21.4762, 98.2759, 107.3402."
Venting deeply, Terabyte spun on her heel, storming away to deliver the coordinates to Ratchet, who plugged them into the bridge terminal without even glancing at her. She then made her way to the Prime, who had just finished speaking with Jack.
Before she could voice her request however, the Prime spoke, "Terabyte, if your injuries allow, I would like you to join us for this mission."
Her optics widened and she shook her helm faintly, "My- Prime... With all due respect, this mission will be difficult enough without your soldiers constantly fearing betrayal at my hands. Megatron announced my initial purpose to them all. I will not put this mission at risk."
The Prime shook his helm, his lip-plates quirked up in a sad half-smile, "Terabyte, they already knew that you came as a spy. You have won my trust, and you have won my team's trust. However, the decision to come remains yours."
"I think the femme's skills would be put to good use on this endeavor."
A shudder ran down her struts, her very life-En seeming to chill at Megatron's not-so-subtle threatening undertone. She stretched her neck struts, allowing her armor to shift uncomfortably against her battered protoform.
"In that case, I do not believe that I have much of a choice."
"Locked and ready." Ratchet announced calmly.
Terabyte bowed to Optimus again, following the Matrix-bearer through the portal after the rest of the team. She hissed as she emerged on the other side, falling the short distance between the bridge and the floor, jarring her sore frame.
Bumblebee glanced at her, buzzing in concern, which she waved off distractedly. The whole cavern around them glowed an eerie violet hue, Dark Energon crystals sparkling all around them. Bridges of an unidentified substance stretched above and below them individual fibers in an immense web, each strand glowing in fluctuating pulses of light.
Arcee spoke first out of the awed group, each member of their expedition gazing around them with wide optics. "So, how long before Unicron knows we're here?"
At the front of the party, Megatron's sinister voice echoed around them in the monumental expanse of whatever part of Unicron they had transported to, "Make no mistake... He already does."