Out of the tense twilight and into a battlefield of simmering arguments, Airachnid almost ran right into one of Optimus' legs. The plating was hot to the touch, the cables underneath coiled with something he was struggling to keep restrained. In front of him, his medic was too busy burning his optics and vocaliser out to notice her arrival. Likewise, she was too wrapped in the atmosphere of suspended rage to take in much of the Autobot's base, a place few bots with a Decepticon insignia ever saw and left alive.
"Optimus, no, this is where I draw the last line. Primus knows what's happening to Arcee right now, and you want to bring along her... the one who murdered her teammate in front of her!?" As he dramatically waved a servo, he finally caught sight of dull black plating behind Optimus, optics narrowing as the Prime moved aside to let her past.
"It was her own suggestion, Ratchet," Optimus insisted. "She is the only one here who knows the layout of the Nemesis, not to mention guard patrols and defensive measures waiting for us on board." But Ratchet didn't seem to be listening to him. As soon as Optimus was no longer a wall in front of Airachnid, he marched up to her in cold swathes of old fury.
"You think just because you've left the Decepticons that everyone's forgotten what you've done?" His vocaliser was a hissing thing, rusting with grudges, daring her to strike at him. Airachnid was almost impressed at how controlled his anger was, considering how long it must have been stewing away for.
"Ratchet." Optimus matched the medic's growl with one of warning, but for all Ratchet glared he and Airachnid were the only living souls in the room.
"You think you can just waltz into our home, cower behind our own leader's goodwill and expect us to-?"
"Ratchet! Enough!" Airachnid had never heard Optimus snap his vocaliser at anyone, and apparently neither had Ratchet. The medic blinked in shock at the Prime's snarl, and the fire in his eyes was extinguished by the time Optimus forced himself into the space between the two bots. All trace of the vulnerable metal shell she'd left of him on the island was gone, and only a small part of her was relieved. "I will not waste any more time arguing this, not with a life at stake."
Though Ratchet nodded and grumbled, his optics were still smoldering away when Airachnid pushed past Optimus to put herself under them again.
"I can get us all onboard the ship, with minimal risk of running into a patrol," she told him, claws gouging into her hips. "So unless you'd rather send a team of corpses to rescue Arcee, I suggest you get used to my company for now, medic."
Ratchet made the face of a mech swallowing something bitter and broken, most likely his own pride, and it was still lodged in his throat when he grumbled, "Get on with it, then." He threw his helm in the direction of Ground Bridge controls, and she was only too happy to immerse herself in the calibrations. Even so, it was hard to ignore Optimus when he walked up beside her, back to the wall and facing out to the open foyer.
"You didn't tell them?" she asked, not shifting her optics from the screen.
"No," he answered quietly, a ghost of sadness casting a veil over the word. "Now is not the time." That was implying there ever would be a time for spreading desperate lies of miraculous rebirth, but Optimus changed the subject with a rough cough. "How will you get us to the Nemesis?"
"It's fairly easy to link one Ground Bridge to another, so long as you can lock onto the other Bridge. You just need to be careful no-one tries to get in from the other side." Airachnid sighed as she finished setting up the link, pulling on old databanks of standard Decepticon scouting knowledge. Barely ten klicks after being told she was a dead Autobot, she was giving lectures on Bridge set up to her alleged sparkmate. It wasn't the strangest experience she had, but it ranked somewhere in a top ten list. She stepped back from the controls, listening to the Bridge framework humming and watching the portal spark. "If the guard schedule hasn't changed since I left, then there'll be two Vehicons guarding the Bridge, at least one at the controls. Kill them quickly enough and they won't raise the alarm."
"Noted." Optimus nodded once and slipped away, and she watched him exchange words too quiet for her to hear with Ratchet. When she amped up her audios, she only caught the end of the conversation.
"I'm telling Bulkhead everything when he wakes up. At least... so Arcee won't tell him anything before we can," the medic said, while Optimus gave another single nod.
"I understand. Just answer me if you can... where is Bumblebee?"
As if out of nowhere, the yellow scout lunged into the foyer with fists up and peds skipping back and forth. "Alright, Optimus, let's go, I'm ready to kick some Con-" The war dance ended abruptly when he saw Airachnid standing in front of the buzzing Ground Bridge, and his optics whirred in and out like broken cameras. "She... she's coming with us?"
Once again, all Optimus had to do was nod.
"Why do I feel like I just walked into a bad Tyrest opera?" the scout beeped to no one in particular, though Airachnid could have been asking herself the same question.
xx
Two dead Vehicons later, and Airachnid was leading them through the dark corridors of Megatron's last stand against the universe. She and Bumblebee were more suited to the slinking than Optimus, whose peds were like anvils dropping on the ship's hull, yet somehow they successfully wreathed through the Nemesis' maze to where, according to Airachnid, prisoners were stored away and forgotten about.
"I recognise it," Bee confirmed, his whirrs dimmed down to latent chirps. "This is where they held Fowler a while ago."
Airachnid was busy scanning the closed entrance, whispering the while. "Thanks to Wheeljack's own escape, Megatron started placing at least two guards with every prisoner. We're much deeper into the ship now, so gunshots will attract attention. Be quick." She said it to both of them, yet she seemed determined to pretend that Optimus wasn't right next to her. To be expected, considering... the mess that Optimus had made of what should have been a celebration. If he was even right about it.
But for now, he tried to keep his spark and processor a blank slate, nothing but a list of tasks he needed to do. Find Arcee, and get her to safety. Whatever came afterwards wasn't as impatient as him, it could wait.
With Airachnid hanging back on lookout, Optimus and Bumblebee flanked either side of the prison door and burst in together, lighting the stagnant air up as they took down the two Vehicons opposite each of them. The third drone in front of Arcee's dangling figure was more stubborn, but Optimus managed to drag him in range of a well-aimed blast from Bumblebee.
"Arcee!" The scout disregarded all notions of stealth as he stumbled up to the chained femme, tipping her heavy helm up and fearing any bruise or cut that would greet him.
Instead, there was only a tired smirk from her. "About time you showed up..."
Optimus sighed in relief, sweeping optics over the dead drones to ensure none decided to come back to life and inevitably glancing up at Airachnid holding sentry down the corridor.
At least Bee managed to stay focused on the mission. "Your signal just went blank, what happened?"
"S...Starscream..." Arcee coughed as if just saying his name had a toxic effect, keeping herself limp so Bee could more easily release her. "Turns out he came back from the dead,decided to drop out of the sky and haul me off as a goodwill gift to Megatron."
Bumblebee snapped open the stasis lock on her left wrist, holding her as she sagged to the ground, but he hesitated on the other lock. "Look, Cee, before I release this cuff, there's something you should know-"
Optimus realised nothing was blocking the line of sight towards Airachnid the same instant Arcee did. "WHAT THE PIT IS SHE DOING HERE?!"
"Ah, too late." Bee clicked nervously and, in a not-quite shining moment of glory, pulled Arcee up over his shoulders before releasing her last cuff. "Please don't hate me, Cee!" he pleaded, running out with the femme thrashing wildly against his plating.
"BEE, IF YOU DON'T PUT ME DOWN THIS FRAGGING INSTANT-!" Arcee was reduced to hoarse muffles as Bumblebee very bravely clamped a hand over her mouth, risking denta through his digits to keep her quiet.
"I'll meet you at the Bridge!" he called back to Optimus and Airachnid, both of whom were still trying to put together how a bot like Bumblebee survived the war until now.
"Is this how all heroic Autobot rescues go?" Airachnid asked as Optimus pulled up next to her.
"Usually they go much worse," he admitted with a shrug, and he wasn't quite sure why she was laughing when it was true. Still, it was refreshing to hear despite the strange way it pulled on his already-sagging spark. No, not strange... he knew exactly why now.
He didn't notice she was moving ahead until she looked back at him, inclining her helm into the corridor. "Drones will be coming this way from the ration stores, so our best bet back to the Bridge is going outside the med bay," she explained, already heading off while he was still trying to gather himself. How she managed to concentrate on anything right now, juggling half-remembered patrol patterns and directions with the mass of confusion he'd no doubt seeded in her spark, he could only attribute as even more proof that she was just Elita in a different frame. And he needed all the proof he could get if he ever hoped to convince anyone else, especially Airachnid herself.
Ahead of him, she inched her legs along the wall as if she could sense what was behind them, sliding along after them as they tapped away. She only folded them when they reached a wide junction, the corridor branching off in two different directions. Optimus thought he recognised the outside of the medbay, from when Megatron managed to fool him as Orion Pax, and he followed closely behind Airachnid as they crossed the deadly open space between them and the corridor ahead.
They only made it halfway when the med bay doors hissed open.
"Well, unless you find a way to fix this, Knockout, know that I will have every layer of your protoform removed with a laser scalpel-" Megatron didn't so much freeze in front of them, it was more like every system in his frame shut down simultaneously. Even his cooling fans stalled, only for a nanoklick before the blades whipped up in a flare of potent rage Optimus had only rarely seen across miles of battlefield. But the warlord wasn't focusing the lens of his fury on Optimus for once- it was all reserved for Airachnid, caught like a turbofox in headlights.
"You... YOU! AIRACHNID!" Optimus was already shoving Airachnid forwards as Megatron regained control of his limbs, his servos thrashing at the air as he aimed his plasma cannon and turned the space just behind them both into a charred pile of rubble from the caved-in pile wall. They ran blindly; Optimus pushing her onwards and around corners, expecting to greet a squadron of Vehicons at every one. The frantic ricochet of Megatron's shots and the bitter ozone billowing from each one followed behind them, almost as close as the warlord himself giving chase. Hearing ragged, hoarse vents almost buffeting his back, Optimus was on the verge of sweeping Airachnid up and just carrying her when she seemed to recover. No longer dragging herself through the halls, she stabbed her peds into the ground with each lunge forwards so that Optimus struggled to keep up. Other blasts from behind joined in, smaller rounds from drone ion barrels as Vehicons flocked to Megatron's aid, and Optimus felt stings skimming his back armour. Getting his own weaponry out would take too much time, when one nanoklick of distraction could mean a bullet through his helm. The only thing that saved him from deeper wounds was constant movement, skidding around corners and following Airachnid as she tried to lead them back to the transport room, their only safe haven.
They must have been close when she started shouting out directions in advance for him. "Right! Left! Through this doorway-" Just before she managed to dive for the passage with the Ground Bridge just beyond it, a plasma round melted through the top of the framework and reduced the opening to a hoard of broken metal and bent supports, everything above crashing down in an avalanche of sparking wires and snapped paneling. Airachnid's legs twitched, as if she debated trying to pull the rubble aside, but with Megatron just turning the last corner she was already heading further off, skirting around the room to the second entrance on the other side. Optimus caught a glint of Megatron's optics as he wrenched himself around to follow her, and the flare of red light held more fire than all the magma pits in Darkmount. On one hand, the rage made his aim frenzied and inaccurate and was possibly the only reason they were still running. On the other... he stopped himself thinking about what that rage would make him do if he caught them, with the claws-on-steel sound of Starscream's voice lilting ahead to distracting him.
"I'm sure Lord Megatron's newest pet won't object to me visiting the flight deck, at the very least. Only been onboard for ten klicks and I already feel like I need some air-RACHNID?!" The Seeker got the exclamation out just as Airachnid propelled herself up on her legs and slammed a fist into his jaw, still running while he crumpled with newly cracked denta, not even trying to trip Optimus up as he passed.
Behind him, the constant drilling bass of stampeding peds paused. "Starscream?! What on Cybertron- of course! You are working with Airachnid!"
"What?!" Starscream's outrage was somewhat slurred as he flicked his glossa against dislodged denta. "My liege, I-I arrived bearing a humble gift in return for your generous mercy, and this is the thanks I get?!" For once in his life, the Seeker was actually useful in giving Optimus and Airachnid enough time to reach the other entrance without a barrage of bullets trailing behind them. At least, until Megatron loudly refocused his drones.
"What are you all looking at?! GET AFTER HER!"
The order went out as the door slammed shut behind them, and they would have sagged strengthless against it if not for a much more worrying struggle happening right in front of them; Bumblebee trying to pull Arcee into the Ground Bridge portal, and Arcee very determinedly holding onto a railing. Not even Optimus marching up to them made the tug-of-war end, with Airachnid sealing the door shut and webbing the mechanism gaps for good measure.
"Bumblebee, let her go. Arcee, what is the problem here?" he asked, completely expecting the utter shock she gave him once Bee relented and let go of her ankles.
"What is the prob-? Optimus, I'm not setting one damn ped through that Bridge until you tell me what the frag you and Bee are doing with Airachnid!"
"Again, I never told her a thing, Optimus," Bee put in, though Optimus almost wished he had.
"Arcee, please, this is neither the time or place-"
The femme aimed her optics as glowing daggers at him, while the familiar war drums of programmed peds approaching thumped outside the door. "You've already lied to me once, Optimus, I'm not gonna wait just so you can do it again!"
Airachnid growled as she finished up her weaving, layering the door with a screen of webbing. "Just tell her already, for frag's sake!"
At the time, Optimus wasn't quite sure what Airachnid meant by telling her, so he foolishly went with the easiest revelation at just four words long. "Arcee, Airachnid is Elita One!"
Like someone plunged her into a vat of liquid nitrogen, Arcee went numb, which is partly what Optimus was hoping for. All that moved was her optic lids, blinking rapidly as if she could see the words coming from his vocaliser and didn't believe a single one. "Wh... wha... no... Optimus, what?" Bumblebee showed the complete disbelief more violently, optics bulging and vocaliser threatening to break itself even more from the torrent of chirps and beeps he was trying to get out. He knew exactly how confused the mere notion made them, how impossible it would be for them to connect everything to the truth, and as much as it hurt him to force it on them so early, he'd learned his lesson from keeping secrets.
"Please, just... take her back to base, Bee, I'll explain everything when we're out of danger!" Despite Optimus' recent penchant for avoiding explanations, Bee just nodded slowly and nudged Arcee, a glitching mute trapped in shock that was yet to give way to even more anger, towards the vortex waiting for them. They vanished just as the door started to strain, fists and plasma battering against the steel, Optimus' only shield from the Decepticons impatiently waiting behind it. The gap between the two door halves split, revealing a Vehicon visor just as Optimus unloaded a plasma shell into it. With the webbing holding the creaking infrastructure together, only Megatron himself should be able to get through. And he was most likely already outside.
Optimus stepped up to the Ground Bridge as Airachnid finished flourishing with the controls, and he knew he didn't have time to ask what she was doing. "Airachnid, come on!" She looked up from the panel and gave him a look that almost managed to rival Megatron's, that of a tyrant looking down at an insect or something equally chilling, before forcing her helm downwards and motioning for him to go through first. He was halfway into the embrace of the portal when she followed behind, a servo outstretched behind her and hovering over the control console.
"One last thing to do..." With talons fanned out, she gouged them into the controls and yanked out the guts of the navigation system, wires still clutched in her claws as she had them both fall back into the Bridge just before it closed for the last time.