Duty and Deceit
Chapter 50
One Shall Rise pt. 3
Disclaimer: I do not own the Transformers, or the television series Transformers: Prime.
Okay, so I know this came with absolutely no warning, but this is the final chapter of Duty and Deceit. Thank you all so much for your amazing support all through this story's progression! Your feedback truly did help this story to come alive and run away with itself, and for that, I am ever grateful.
Have no fear! Terabyte's story is by no stretch of the imagination over, so be on the lookout for the sequel to Duty and Deceit, which will be titled The Honor in Duty. I'm hoping to have it up in about a month, maybe less if you're all lucky and I get enough motivation (this is where you lovely people come in... *winks*)!
As the finale, I can't wait to hear what you all thought, so read, enjoy, and most importantly, review!
She stood quietly on the launch pad. She'd been here for about a joor now, maybe two, she wasn't quite sure at this point. Her optics were dry and slightly over-heated, but her coolant supply had run out a while ago.
She had come to see Skyquake off that morning. If she had cared, the lift off was a magnificent sight to behold. The white and blue flames danced around the thrusters, pushing the ship heavenward with a billow of smoke, the spectators cheering as they watched her last friend break orbit and disappear into the starry daylight sky. The stars never left their planet, day or night.
The little femme could still feel her best friend's arms around her in a gentle hug as they said their goodbyes. She could hear their broken, half-sparked chuckles at his attempts to open the obsidian puzzle box she had spent many a long night cycle crafting.
It was supposed to be a gift to thank him for everything that he'd done when Soundwave finally decided to deny her requests to delay getting promoted. That promotion would mean that she would be reposted to serve permanently under Soundwave and the Lord Protector in Kolkular.
The promotion would have been inevitable in the end, yet she estimated that she could continue to delay it for another vorn or two. Then she would have had time to tell Skyquake and the two of them would pull in some favors and he would get reposted somewhere nearby, so they could still meet every now and then.
A highly classified mission to an unknown planet half-way across the galaxy had not been in her plans.
She choked down a dry sob, brushing her face gently where she could still feel his comforting hand when she'd lost her composure and started crying. His deep, rumbling baritone rolled though her processors, 'Tera... don't mourn for me. I love you. I don't ever want to hurt you, in frame or in spark. Don't mourn me - Pit, it's not like I'm dying - just promise you won't forget me."
To which she had replied by giving him the puzzle, whose many facets were engraved with the most memorable of the times they had spent together. She'd told him that that was to make sure he - in all his bolt-helmedness as she had teased weakly - wouldn't forget her either. No matter if he was gone for a couple quartex or a couple decavorns.
Her logical mind had added, or forever. Skyquake had sworn on his spark that it wouldn't be forever. He had sworn it with such determined confidence; a confidence so strong that for a moment she was convinced.
But now he was gone.
The mech who had stood by her ever since she first stepped foot in Decepticon territory. The mech who had got her her job, who had taught her to fight, to get the vengeance she wanted, and protected her every step of the way. The mech who literally would kill to protect her and had proven over and over again that he would die to protect her as well.
The one friend that was always there for her when she needed him most.
Until now.
/First Major Terabyte, third in command of CI. Status./
She straightened up, snapping her mask into place, shoving all thoughts and emotions harshly to the side of her mind. Sentiment would get her killed. He was gone now, and she had a duty to perform. A duty and a promise.
/Good cycle, Commander Soundwave. My current ETA is one point three seven one five breems. Forgive my tardiness, I assure you it will not happen again./
/Understood./ The comm line clicked off with a hiss of static as the small femme stiffly strode off the empty launch pad, leaving with it her unprofessional thoughts and feelings.
This rotation signalled the end of another chapter of her life. Once again, ending in a burning fire. Once again, fuelled by the things she loved.
Previously on Duty and Deceit...
/Unicron is power incarnate, and you - the last of the Primes - shall perish./
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."
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."
"If you transport us to this planet's core, I can lead you directly into Unicron's spark... The very heart of his darkness."
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."
Terabyte followed at the rear of the group, walking backwards with her cannon charged as she scanned the whole chamber once again, though she already knew that it would come back scrambled. The Dark Energon was too powerful here for scans, communications, or any other means of transmission to function properly.
The violet walls of the cavern continued their eerie pulsating, the brightening and fading of the lights almost hypnotic to her weary, pain-laced processors. She was in no condition to be on this mission. Not that Megatron cared. She was an asset to be exploited to the fullest, and while she by no means understood the twisted warlord's plans for her, she knew for a fact that they would not be pleasant.
Bumping into a solid object, the spy spun around to find that the Bulkhead had come to an abrupt halt in front of her, holding himself up with his hands braced on his knees. Bumblebee bleeped and whirled in wordless query, laying a hand on the ex-Wrecker's back.
"I'm fine, Bee..." Bulkhead answered, venting tiredly, "Just woozy."
She frowned behind her mask, her scarlet optics narrowing. "The Dark Energon. It was not estimated to begin affecting us quite yet..." She ran another useless scan on the large green mech. "Its effects must be mass-related in nature."
While ordinarily this would mean that she would be the absolute last to be affected, the spy could already feel her energy being sapped by an external force. Her self-repair systems were already over-taxed with the task of keeping her online, making her more susceptible to the Dark Energon.
Terabyte watched the Prime and Megatron with scrutiny, noting that the 'Lord Protector's' purple optics and bio-lights had brightened significantly since their arrival in Unicron. "I suspect the Prime will be experiencing its effects soon as well, if not already."
"Steady..." Arcee warned, helping the mech keep his balance as he straightened, "Easy go, Bulk."
A deep rumble from Megatron had her straightening, returning her guard to their dim surroundings. "He is preparing to expel us."
Her helm jerked up at a faint whirring, her finials spreading out and swivelling to catch the sounds as best as possible, only for her to snap them back together when she caught sight of the swarms of silver, winged creatures glowing with Dark-En. Long, tendril-like tails trailed behind each insectoid drone.
"What are those things?" Arcee asked, dropping into battle readiness along with the rest of their small band.
"As we are within Unicron, it stands to reason they are some form of an antibody." Optimus replied calmly, watching the silver Decepticon leader to gauge his reaction. To everyone's surprise, he too prepared for battle.
"Aim for their wings. I would also advise shutting down communications systems, as I am picking up high-frequency emissions from the 'antibodies' meant to scramble your processors' sensory data translation. Bumblebee should be able to second that conclusion, since his doorwings and my finials both register frequencies beyond that of ordinary Cybertronian hearing." Raising her charged fusion cannon, she could see no form of weaponry on the creatures, but was not about to give them the benefit of the doubt.
"Sorta. Just sounds like screaming gibberish, but translation's not my forte."
Battle protocols activating... Error: Full energy reserved to self-repair systems. Reroute? Y/N.
Yes. Rerouting...
Rerouted. Warning: Protoform repair - cancelled. Equilibrium sensor repair - cancelled. Fuel tank repair - cancelled...
She brushed aside the flurry of errors from her HUD, shuttering her optics with an off-balanced sway as the world seemed to spin around her. Ignoring the false sensory data that came of her equilibrium repairs being post-poned, the femme fell into a ready stance, relying solely on the information her extended finials provided to approximate the velocity, proximity, and threat-level of each approaching creature.
Whirling, Terabyte fired the first shot, her efforts being rewarded by a shrill cry of the swarm's herald falling. Soon the air was filled with the shrieks and sizzles of blaster fire, mixed with the deep roar of the warlord's cannon and the slightly less impressive booming of her own mini-cannon.
She mentally rerouted the focus of her repairs to her equilibrium, venting heavily.
"How do you do that? Your optics are shuttered!"
"I trained under Makeshift and Soundwave himself alternately."
More of the creatures fell, until the spy hissed at the data she was receiving, drawing her Energon dagger instead of her cannon. Carefully calculating, the femme leapt over the yellow scout, firmly planting her left hand on his shoulder for balance, cartwheeling off of him to blindly impale a drone that had snuck up behind him.
She dared to open her optics for a moment, falling back on her aft from the blow of dizziness that the action brought. A flash of purple was interrupted by gold and then she slammed her optics shut again. "Also, necessity. Self-repairs and battle protocols do not seem too fond of sharing my life-force."
Bumblebee latched onto her arm and pulled her up to her pedes, from which point she sprung away and swung around in a full circle, feeling her dagger slice through metal, hearing the spurt of severed life-lines. Her pede slipped on the spilled fluids and she bit back a shriek as she felt herself starting to fall backwards, her hands scrabbling for purchase on the slick bridge from which she was falling.
Equilibrium systems repaired. Moving to protoform repair. Terabyte rolled her shuttered optics at the irony. Kind of late for that.
Her claws dug into the metal, but she could hear the screech of it giving way, she could feel the metal tearing out from under her. Crimson optics flung wide with fear, locking on to the black metal shavings raining down as her only life line peeled away under her claws.
A single silver hand the size of her helm reached down and wrapped around both of her forearms, pulling her up with practically no effort at all. She didn't take her optics off of the warlord for an astrosecond once he set her down, swinging her dagger over her helm to stab a drone leaping for her back.
"Twice in one day, femme. Remember that." Megatron commented, dancing away with the deadly grace of a Pit-fighter, leaving a trail of the offlined.
As the battle progressed, the drones just kept coming. The lifeless husks littered the bridge they were on, and all the bridges below them were strewn with their frames, yet the drones simply kept flying in in droves. Droves of drones. Skyquake would love this.
She allowed the drones to herd her towards where Megatron and the Prime stood back to back, dripping in engine oil. Their blades shone in the dim light of the cavern, slicing fluidly through drone after drone. And they fought so perfectly, so seamlessly, Terabyte couldn't help but find herself gazing at the two of them in awe.
They fought with the utmost trust of each other. If she didn't know better, she would have thought they were the best of friends, rather than the leaders of two warring factions. Neither Megatron nor the Prime paid heed to guarding their weak points, each one knowing the other's every weakness and defending it accordingly.
"Whoa." She breathed quietly before howling as for the second time that day she felt a wall of shrapnel cut into her dorsal plates, this time consisting of an internally pulverised Unicron spawn, crushed by Bulkhead's wrecking ball.
The femme returned her attention to the battle around her, away from the flawless teamwork of the Prime and the Lord Protector. She sliced through one glowing purple drone, along with the wing of another, sending both over the edge of the bridge. She stumbled over an eviscerated drone and fell to her knee-plates.
Warning: Registering dangerous levels of Dark Energon flowing in life-lines. Attempting to process... Unable to process. Full systems purge advised.
How in the world did she get the Blood of Unicron inside her? Outside, yes, that made sense...
Her optics slid down to her dagger, which she just now recalled that she had shattered on Unicron's thumb. Another moment's study revealed that the dagger had shattered partially inside her forearm, severing a main powerline. Said shattered dagger was dripping with Dark Energon, allowing the dark matter to roll into the severed powerline.
Just as she made that realization, the battle around them suddenly fell silent, though she and Bumblebee could hear the tell-tale whirr of an approaching second wave of drones. Seconds later, the whirring grew loud enough for the others to hear.
"Megatron?" Optimus questioned warily, watching oil and Dark-En drip down his own twin blades, one of which was snapped in half. When the frozen warlord didn't respond, the Prime repeated more urgently, "Megatron!"
Rolling his shoulders, Megatron cocked his helm to the side faintly, the purple of his bios fading temporarily before growing brighter. "Unicron's spark lies just beyond!"
"H-how... do we get in?" Terabyte asked, forcing her protesting frame to stand upright with the same crisp flare that she always held, belying the damages she had taken. Had she not offlined her pain receptors, she doubted such stubborness would have been possible. Even with the receptors deactivated, she still ached all over in a way that wasn't exactly pain, but hurt nonetheless.
"By fooling Unicron's defenses into thinking we are not a threat." The silver Decepticon replied simply, stepping up to the door so that his spark was hardly an inch away from its surface.
The door peeled apart to reveal a somewhat damp, dark passage way glowing with the Destroyer's life force. A wave of anger and revulsion washed through the opening, hitting them with an almost tangible force.
"Autobots," Optimus began, regal tone holding a depth of passion that hinted to how likely he thought it was that he would survive. "I would have you to keep our attackers at bay for as long as you can. Remember... No matter what comes, you are stronger than you believe."
"Terabyte, accompany us."
She started slightly at Megatron's order, her jaw clenching angrily as she realized that she could not disobey the mech. In spite of that, the femme snarled, "You do not command me, Megatron."
He cocked an optic ridge at her, signalling his clear disbelief. His determined gaze didn't change, though he seemed bemused by her futile show of defiance. "Then let the Prime, however, I believe there ought to be one to bear record of my saving the world alongside Optimus my brother."
The Prime simply nodded, knowing that it would profit little to argue with the warlord. As she entered the passage, attempting to disguise her slight limp, Optimus turned to his team and with grave tones said, "May Primus smile on us all."
The second the Autobot leader was clear of the door, it stretched over itself, locking them in with the very spark of Unicron. She repressed a frame-wracking shudder as yet another pulse of pure hate washed through the room, emanating from the pulsating sphere of life in the center of the chamber ahead.
Terabyte slipped into the chamber silently, her limping pedefalls not making a sound on the smooth floor of the cavern. Her finials twitched in agitation, splaying out to catch all the sounds and vibrations of the Titan's spark and its surrounds. She bit back a snarl as Unicron's voice reverberated through the room, shaking her to the struts.
Optimus swiftly moved to open his chest-plates, to bare the Matrix and his own spark for all to see, approaching Unicron's spark. A low, nigh on inaudible whine filled the air and the spy's optics widened, her hand reaching out to the Prime of its own accord. "Optimus! Get back!"
Her warning coming too late, the Titan's spark flashed bright with a blinding white light that seared through the three Cybertronians as though their life-En had turned to magma, the force of the blast knocking her to her hands and knees.
Rebooting her optics to clear the static that laced over her vision, the femme remained stationary, ignoring a new onslaught of agony and error messages. A bellow of pained anger shook the cavern, drawing the little spy's gaze up to its source.
Megatron stood over the Prime with his sword unsheathed and raised over Optimus, where the Autobot lay on the floor where he'd fallen, watching his brother with wary optics. The silver warlord roared again, a purple aura glowing brighter around him by the second. "Megatron. Is commanded by. NO ONE!"
"Matrix of Leadership!" The Autobot leader cried out, once again rising to direct his spark and the Matrix intertwined with it to Unicron's own. "I call upon you-"
Terabyte gasped as Megatron, freed for a time from Unicron's control, once again froze in his place as the Chaos-Bringer fought to control him. "Megatron! Fight him!"
The warlord howled, turning his indignant gaze to her for one spark-stopping moment, bellowing, "What in the Pits do you think I'm doing?!"
She cringed minutely, stumbling to her pedes, only for another pulse of pure spark-energy sent the three of them crashing to the floor again, each intruder writhing as the burning power coursed through them.
"You cannot defeat me, Disciple of Primus." Unicron declared, his own voice rumbling from Megatron's chest, a form of violet flame burning from the warlord's spark and optics as he prepared to slay the Prime. "I have transcended physical being! By my will alone, all on this world shall fall into chaos!"
"Not... While. I. Still. Function!" Optimus roared back, pushing himself up again with a grunt, flinging his arms back as the Matrix within him seemed drawn towards Unicron's spark, glowing exponentially brighter with every pulse of his spark. "The Matrix will light our darkest hour!"
A stream of blue light burst from his chest-plates, colliding with Unicron's spark in an explosion of lights, shaking the whole chamber violently as the spark fought and writhed against the power of the Matrix, the Titan's howls echoing through her helm.
Scrambling upright, Terabyte flung herself at Megatron with a fierce cry, distracting the Unicron-possessed mech from landing the blow intended to pierce the spark of her Prime. A scream shattered the air as the silver mech easily deflected her attack with a single swing of his arm, hitting her square across the face with enough strength to send the tiny femme flying across the room. She heard more than felt herself slam into the wall with a sickening crunch.
Knocked senseless by the impact, she faintly registered that she was lucky to still have her helm.
The blue and purple lights danced across her blurring vision in a beautiful array before fading into darkness as both light sources fizzled out, leaving only the dim glow of the Dark Energon in the walls.
"Terabyte, come."
Her helm jerked sideways and she shivered, suddenly feeling like she no longer had even the slightest bit of warmth left in her, yet she felt herself push herself up to her pedes and stumble over to where Megatron and the Prime were.
Megatron stood over the scarlet and cobalt Autobot, gazing down at him with a curious expression as the Prime slowly came to from having apparently blacked out. She shivered again, her spark rolling discontentedly within her. Something was wrong with Optimus. Horribly wrong.
"M-Megatronus?" He asked softly, looking around in confusion, allowing the silver Decepticon to help him up. "Where are we, Megatronus?"
"Don't you remember, old friend?" Megatron replied, sounding surprisingly gentle, like he'd just discovered a long-lost friend he'd thought dead.
The doors burst open behind them and the three Autobots they had left outside rushed in, weapons charged. Bulkhead caught sight of them first and called, "Optimus! Are you okay?"
The Prime frowned at the ex-Wrecker, not recognizing any of them, while Terabyte continued to stand stiffly to attention at Megatron's side. Her processors were too bleary from her collision with the wall, and she felt like she'd just survived being run over by one of Earth's 'trains'. She needed to take the Prime back home with the other Autobots. He needed a medic. She needed a medic.
Yet she couldn't seem to convince herself to move. Her optics widened fractionally and she shot Megatron a glare, earning herself a tiny, victorious smirk. She should have been more wary of Soundwave. She should have known that Ratchet's recovering her memories was far too easy. She knew better than to hope that she would be free so easily.
Soundwave never hacked a bot without leaving a failsafe.
"Why did he call me that?" Optimus Prime asked, his mild confusion budding into worry.
Arcee glared at her and Megatron, sending a shudder down her stiff frame. She winced and then hissed as her swollen and still swelling face-plates rubbed against the badly crumpled mask.
"What did you do to him?" The blue and pink two-wheeler snarled, her indigo gaze scathing.
The Prime glanced up between her and Megatron with distinctly un-Primely fear in his crystal clear optics. "Who are they?"
"Our mortal enemies." Megatron replied with a snarl, clenching his fist for emphasis. Beside them a groundbridge swirled to life. "Go, Orion! Terabyte, escort our friend home, I will cover for you!"
Terabyte opened her mouth to come up with some sort of defiant retort, but then the Prime looked into her optics with such pleading, confused trust that all protests died on her vocalizers. She nodded stiffly, her battle-torn frame screaming for her to simply lie down and succumb to stasis.
Instead, she reached up and laid a comforting - if trembling - hand on the mech's elbow, gently pulling him through the open bridge to the Nemesis as he watched 'Megatronus' engage their 'mortal enemies'. She offered the amnesiac Prime a weak, unseen smile before turning to Knockout, who was staring at her in shock and befuddlement, obviously trying to decide whether he was supposed to rush up and repair them both, confine them, or simply blast them both to scrap and order clean up.
"I am under my lord Megatron's orders, Knockout..." She bowed minutely, biting hard on her lip against the pain, gesturing to the red and blue mech standing next to her, gazing about in curious awe. "Allow me to introduce a long-lost friend of the Lord Protector's: Orion Pax."
As Knockout gaped, Terabyte swayed unsteadily, feeling the tight grip of undefiable orders slipping away, allowing the myriad ailments of her frame to catch up to her, threatening to make her glitch from the sheer excruciating agony that made up her being.
Large arms caught her with a surprised exclamation before Pax said hesitantly, concern weighing heavy in his much lighter, more innocent tone, "This femme needs a medic! Quickly!"
She sighed, feeling her systems begin to shut down, one last train of thought cycling through her processors. Orion Pax needed her help if he was ever going to be Optimus Prime again, and slave-code or no, she would save the Prime, and thereby the Autobot cause.
This was her mission now. This was her duty.