Chapter 13-A Beautiful Lie
The rice fields in the Xing countryside were set aflame by explosions that blossomed across the bountiful water logged fields. Laser bolts and bullets flew through the air at their respective targets as the Autobots and Decepticons shot at each other in total warfare. Lugnut and Barricade were on the ground trying to fight off the Autobots, a team consisting of Optimus, Ironhide, Bulkhead and Prowl. Nightshade was perched on a cliff on one of the valley walls laying down cover fire for her fellow Cons.
"This isn't getting us anywhere." She muttered. The Autobots had another stasis panel in their possession and she was trying to lead her force into trying to get it back before the enemy had a chance to retreat, but so far nothing was going their way. "Where the hell are you, Starscream?"
The tell tale crackle of a sonic boom echoed in the valley as the three Seekers flew in from above firing their auto-cannons at the Autobots. Skywarp and Thundercracker took point and dropped cluster bombs on the Autobots to scatter them and peppered the ground with fiery plumes of flames that darkened the air and actually made the ground rumble.
Nightshade noticed that pieces of the canyon walls were starting to fall onto the combatants below and called up Starscream. "Starscream, don't use too much firepower or you'll cause a landslide!"
"Don't tell us how to do our job!" Starscream shouted back and continued his assault on the Autobots. He grunted when a laser blast grazed his wing, courtesy of Bulkhead. "You two deal with the brutes."
"Got it." Skywarp said and teleported himself and Thundercracker above Bulkhead and Ironhide, firing everything they had at them.
"Now, where is Prime? Ah, there he is." Starscream spotted Optimus fighting Lugnut, fighting the bruiser off with his battle blade. He made a b-line towards their position and prepped his cruise missiles to fire at the Prime's unprotected back. Unfortunately, he didn't see Prowl come out of cover and fire two missiles at his underside, one of them hitting his wing and sending him off balance.
"No!" Starscream hollered as his missiles were fired off target. One hit the ground near Optimus and the other slammed into Lugnut's chest, blasting him off his feet.
Nightshade saw the fumble and cursed, knowing that things were not going to go their way at this rate. "Starscream, fall back!"
"Never! I still have the advantage!" He bellowed and went into robot mode, powerlinking with Grid. His arm converted into his null ray and pointed it at Prime, firing his weapon at full blast.
Nightshade was already racing towards him in her beast mode, but she was too late to stop the Seeker from attacking. As she had expected from Prime, Optimus was able to dodge the beam and fire his ion rifle at the Seeker. With his own superior eyesight, Prime had no trouble hitting Starscream's leg, almost taking it off and disrupting his balance.
Starscream hit the ground and rolled through the mud and water, rolling to a stop. He winced at the pain in his leg and pushed himself up as a large shadow fell over him. He looked up to see Optimus glaring down at him, and his face lost even more color than he naturally had.
"N-no, don't! Spare me!" Starscream stammered, losing all of his earlier bravado.
"You've already been given a chance, Starscream." Optimus said and leveled his ion rifle at his head. Before he could pull the trigger, he was forced to jump away to avoid the rain of micro-missiles fired at him from above.
Nightshade landed beside Starscream in her raven mode and glared at Starscream with her thin red bird eyes. The flames from the burning fields made her black armor glint dangerously, making her look even more menacing. Starscream held back any witty quips, knowing she was seconds away from stabbing his eyes out with her beak.
"All units pull back." Nightshade said to her team. "We're retreating."
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Upon the Nemesis, the Decepticons were licking their wounds, recovering in CR chambers in the medibay, while Nightshade and Starscream were on the bridge reporting their failure to Megatron.
"What the hell were you thinking? We had the Autobots on the ropes-they were running!" Starscream hissed. Nightshade pushed him back with a sneer.
"Don't pin this on me. You and your lackeys almost blew the rest of the team up in that valley. Not to mention that screw up of yours almost put Lugnut in critical condition!"
"My target was Prime!"
"You never take Prime on alone unless you're Megatron, and you're definitely not Megatron!" She replied and laughed humorlessly. "I ordered you to stay back, and what do you do? The fragging opposite!"
"For your information, I was doing my job. Which was much more than what you were doing in that battle!" He said angrily.
"You think you're such tough slag, Starscream, but it only took Prime five kliks to drop you out of the sky and on your knees begging for your life." Nightshade spat. "Just because you're a Seeker doesn't mean that you're all that. In the battlefield, the Autobots don't care about your noble status, they just want you dead. So shape up or you'll have more than your ego to worry about."
"Is that a threat, Nightshade?" Starscream growled.
"No, it's a promise." Nightshade sneered.
"Silence, both of you!" Megatron commanded.
The warlord's anger made both Cons clam up and stand at attention. Megatron glared at them both before turning back to the window. The ship was currently passing through some clouds, and sunlight cut through them and into the command center. The calm, sunny day outside did nothing to quell the growing annoyance he was feeling at the situation right now. Soundwave stood on the side, watching silently.
"For the past month, the Autobots have been steadily growing stronger. Though they rarely use more than a few Minicons at a time, the fact remains that they have so many at their disposal, and according to our sources, they are currently on the trail of another." Megatron said and faced his two subordinates. "Our performance is nothing short of disappointing, and fighting amongst ourselves will only make things worse."
"Then try to keep Starscream on a shorter leash so he won't embarrass us again." Nightshade grumbled.
Megatron glared at her before getting to the real reason he called them there. "Soundwave just detected a stasis panel on one of the Elladan islands. The humans call this island Lemnos. The signal has been showing up at irregular intervals, which is not normal for a stasis panel. The three of us are going to go to that island and retrieve that panel."
"T-the three of us, sire?" Starscream blinked.
"I didn't stutter, Starscream." Megatron grunted. "Take some time in the medibay and report to the shuttle bay at once. That is all."
Nightshade and Starscream glared at each other and left the bridge. Both of them knew this mission was going to be the death of them.
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The island of Lemnos was a land that was the source of legends. To the humans, it was the home of a matriarchal society women who killed their fathers, brothers, uncles, husbands and sons. Nightshade heard this little tidbit from Knockout in passing, and wondered if all human mythological stories were as bloody as this.
They exited the ground bridge on the island's southernmost beach. Starscream sniffed and kicked away a crab pinching at his foot and looked around the beach. "This place doesn't look too bad. I could do without the crabs though."
Megatron shouldered past him and looked at the jungle before them. "We aren't here to look at the scenery you fool. We have a job to do." He said and looked down at Leader-1, who was staring down at his scanner. "Where is the panel?"
"Hard to say. I'm getting a signal from the jungle, but I can't tell how far it is from us. This thing's been acting crazy since we got here." Leader-1 said.
Megatron frowned and looked at the jungle. The region looked plain and unassuming, but so did Nyx, and that place had dragons breeding on every corner of the continent. It would be a waste of time to search the island from top to bottom, so there was only one logical way to go about this.
"We'll split up. Starscream, search the caves or any underground passages that may be hampering the panel's signal. Nightshade, search the mountains. I will remain and ground level and search the surface."
"W-why do I have to search the caves? I'm a Seeker, not some mining drone!" Starscream exclaimed.
"You will do as you are told because I said so. If you do not cease your whining, I'll bury you alive! Now shut up and get moving!" Megatron yelled.
Starscream gulped and nodded, running into the jungle and disappearing in the trees. Megatron went to leave the beach, but stopped to look at Nightshade, who was staring at the mountains with an unreadable expression.
"What's wrong?" He asked.
"Nothing. I was just making sure we were alone." She said. Megatron nodded and continued into the jungle while Nightshade turned to her little companion. "Be on your guard. Something's not right here."
"Yes, ma'am." Songbird said and linked up with her mistress. Converting into an arm-mounted railgun, Songbird remained on high alert.
Nightshade took a deep breath and walked forward, knowing that this was going to be a long day.
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In the middle of a dark chamber, three sisters stood in a circle, a floating crystal ball floating between them. They sensed the arrival of three intruders, three strange beings who were not of this world, and immediately convened to discuss what they should do.
"Do you feel it, sister?"Asked the younger sister.
"Yes, Israfel. We have visitors." Said the oldest sister.
"Odd ones at that, much different from the humans who came here all those centuries ago." The middle sister said. "They…are like that those metal toys the mortals play with, but much smaller, and somehow…alive."
"That is impossible! We are the only ones blessed by the Oracle with the gift of life! These things are nothing but metal dolls controlled by the humans or whatever lies beyond this star system." Israfel spat. "To think of them as anything else would be blasphemy in the eyes of Her Grace, Nuriel!"
"Calm yourself, Israfel. Do you not feel their souls? They are alive, like us, with souls like the jewels that beat within our forms. How…interesting." The oldest sister, Gabriel, waved her hand over the orb and focused on the red one, Starscream. "Let's see what makes them tick. If they are anything like us, then this will give them some credence over the disappearance of Michael, Uriel and Raphael in Emmeria."
Israfel wasn't happy about the idea, but the word of her older sister was law. "Very well, we shall look into their hearts."
"And see into their memories." Nuriel said.
"And bring them to their knees." Hummed Gabriel.
Then all three sisters chanted as one. "For the grace and glory of our goddess Jubileus."
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By sheer luck, Starscream found the entrance to a large cave that went underground for what seemed like miles. Grumbling to himself, he hovered into the cave on his boosters, descending into the darkness and switching his lights on. The cave opened up into a massive cavern that probably extended throughout the entire island and maybe even under the shallow beach.
He hated every minute of this exploration. He hated being in places where his powers of flight were useless. It wasn't uncommon for a flyer like him to be unnerved by the dark, dank caverns of the earth, to feel restrained because the world tried to leash him to the ground with gravity. Thundercracker and Sandstorm, the bipolar bastard he was, were the same in that regard. He was a Seeker, a king of the skies with skills rivaled by no one, not even that glitch Nightshade.
'No one save HER.' Starscream thought bitterly. 'She was always better than me. No matter what I do, she was always looming over my shoulder like some god forsaken shadow. Even in death, people still compare me to her.'
Starscream blinked and shook his head. Why was he thinking of her now, of all times? His sister was dead and buried, gone forever in the Allspark along with her madness and filth that threatened to drag the Seekers to ruin. He had no regrets about killing her!
"Boss?"
"What is it, Grid?" Starscream asked rudely. Grid looked up at him strangely.
"What's with you? You've been staring at nothing for a few kliks there." He said. Starscream took a deep breath and continued walking.
"It's nothing you need to be concerned about. I was just lost in my thoughts." He replied annoyed. "Let's move on."
They went deeper into the cave, and the sounds of the outside world slowly faded into barely audible background noise. The only sound they heard was the metallic scrapping of their feet on the sharp rocks. Eventually they came upon a jagged opening in the cave ceiling that had water falling down from a stream up top. It was a pretty sight, but nothing that helped Starscream get closer to his objective.
"Starscream."
He froze in place, eyes wide as he heard a voice he spent so long trying to block from his mind.
"W-who's there?" He stammered. He didn't hear Grid calling out to him as he stumbled forward, looking around frantically.
"Starscream."
"Stop playing games and show yourself!" He shouted.
That voice…that accursed voice was something he never wanted to hear again. It was the voice of a femme who made his life hell every single day since he matured from a protoform.
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The city of Vos was a place where those who ruled the sky ruled the people. It was home to Cybertron's Aerospace Defense Force, composed of the Seeker brotherhood that dominated the state. The city was composed of towering spires and bridges connecting said buildings like a web that crisscrossed the landscape in a clutter that rivaled Iacon.
In the main citadel that acted as both the senator's residence and the Seeker headquarters, Starscream stood inside the atrium staring at the jagged skyline of Vos, the city he called home. It was dusk and there were many flyers zooming about in the orange sky, weaving through the buildings with such ease that it looked like they were swimming.
'This is the life. Living above the ground-bound lower castes and doing practically nothing with my life.' Starscream thought. He frowned as he realized that little tidbit. His life was boring as hell. Though with how things were heating up in Tarn, he knew things were going to get fun really fast.
"Screamer!" A jovial voice exclaimed.
Starscream groaned. "Oh Primus no."
A tall (even for a Seeker) femme entered the chamber-she was mostly green and red with a silver face plate and red visor. She jogged over to Starscream and threw an arm around his shoulders.
"How's my favorite little buddy doing?" Skyfire laughed.
"Fine, Skyfire, just fine." Starscream said in a sickly sweet voice. 'If it isn't dealing with Sunstorm's religious ramblings, it's being Skyfire's drinking buddy.'
"So, what're ya doing up here all by your lonesome? Not pretending you're Sentinel Prime I hope!" Skyfire cackled.
"Nothing of the sort, Skyfire." He wasn't that ambitious. With everything that's been going on lately, he did not envy Sentinel's job. "Now what brings you here? I thought you were out on patrol."
"Decided to come back early. I have a planned date tonight." Skyfire's voice was practically grinning.
"It's Slipstream."
"It's Slipstre-wait, how did you know?"
"She won't shut up about it. What else?"
Skyfire was going to make a witty remark when the door slid open and their commander walked in-Deadscream. She was a slender gunmetal grey femme with deep red eyes that bore into their very Sparks, just as soulless and dark as Deadscream herself. She was the acting air commander of the Seeker armada of Vos, and Starscream's biological sister. Though one wouldn't think that if they saw how she treated him. Starscream and Skyfire jumped apart and stood straight as she approached them slowly, like some predator on the prowl.
"G-good evening, sister. How was your day?" Starscream asked.
Deadscream looked down at him, both figuratively and literally since she was a head taller than him and only a few inches than Skyfire. After staring at him tensely for a few seconds, she looked at Skyfire.
"Skyfire, could you give us some privacy please?" Deadscream asked, though it was definitely not a request.
"Sure thing, boss." Skyfire said and quickly made her way to the door. Whenever Deadscream was alone with Starscream, it usually led to Starscream getting dented.
When Skyfire was gone, Deadscream didn't even wait a second before backhanding her brother in the face, knocking him against the window. She glared at him in a rare show of anger.
"What do the hell were you thinking, you fool?" Deadscream snarled.
"What do you mean? W-what did I do?" Starscream stammered, though he knew exactly what she was talking about.
"Don't play games with me! You were making deals with the Decepticons, weren't you?"
"How dare you accuse me of aiding those marauding band of barbarians!" He coughed. "I would never do such a thing."
Deadscream held up a holo-disk and showed him a recording of him, Skywarp and Thundercracker talking to Megatron and Nightshade in the medibay of a gladiator pit. It showed the three Seekers bowing and owing their allegiance to Megatron's cause-and a place at the table in Megatron's revolution.
"Minicons are very useful in ways that don't involve flashy power-ups." Deadscream said dryly.
"I-I was simply securing a place for the Seekers in the new world to come, dear sister. The Decepticon revolt has gained speed since the Great Fire and it's only a matter of time before war between the Senate and Decepticons breaks out. As one of the most powerful groups on the planet, we all deserve a seat at the table, don't we?" He grinned nervously.
"YOU IDIOT!" Deadscream roared, her crimson eyes flashing with barely restrained madness. "Did you forget our creed? A Seeker is only loyal to himself! We are loyal only to our brothers and sisters of the sky, and no faction will control us! What you did could bring both the Senate and the Functionists along with that damn fool Sentinel down on us! You placed our autonomy in jeopardy. And for what? To move yourself up in the world and sate your inferiority complex!"
"I was just-agh! Starscream was cut off by a solid punch to the chest that brought him to his knees. Deadscream kicked him onto his back and stomped her foot on his chest.
"Just what? Speak up you whimpering fool! Show me that arrogance you always parade behind my back when you think I'm not looking!" She growled. When he remained silent, she huffed and took her foot off him. "Just what I thought. You're only brave and tough when I'm not around to show people what true leadership is. Cease your dealings with the Decepticons or so help me I will rip out your voice box so you'll never embarrass the Seekers again. Do you understand?"
"Yes, sister." Starscream muttered.
Deadscream sneered at her brother before marching out of the room. When she left, Starscream got to his knees and looked at her hands. They were trembling.
He was sick of this. He was sick of being treated like trash. His sister may think that she could act like nothing was happening on Cybertron, like no one would dare attack them, but she was wrong. There was a war coming, and he planned to be on the winning side with the Seekers-and without Deadscream.
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Starscream gritted his teeth at the memory. Deadscream was as stone cold as they come and she always lorded her position over him. It didn't help that she was a certified point one percenter, just one more thing to hold over him.
He shook his head-now was not the time to be thinking of the past. She was dead, he was alive, and in command of the mightiest force in the Decepticon army. That's the end of it.
"That's what you think."
A bolt of energy hit the ground in front of him, and Starscream leapt back, powerlinking with Grid to summon his null ray.
"Who's there?" Starscream yelled. "Show yourself or face my wrath!"
"Oh, Starscream, we both know that you're nowhere near as fearsome as you think you are." A feminine voice laughed. "All you are…is hot air."
A figure stepped into the dim light and Starscream's enraged expression melted into one of disbelief and fear.
"No…that can't be." He breathed. "Deadscream?"
His sister gave him a devilish smile, teeth and all, as she advanced upon Starscream.
"Hello, brother."
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Nightshade flew up to the mountain near the center of the island, focusing on a small cliff that caught her eye. The mountain was hundreds of meters tall and rose from the earth like the tip of a spear, and the red dust running down the sides made it look like blood. It reminded Nightshade of the towering spires that dominated the landscape of the Badlands back on Cybertron. The spires were extremely tall, twisted pieces of warped metal jutting up from the ground that fit all too well with the grim motif of the region-where the downtrodden and forgotten bots of the lower castes resided.
She landed on a cliff and transformed to robot mode, her keen eyes scanning the cave entrance before walking in. Nightshade paused and glanced back at the sprawling sight behind her, the cliff giving her a perfect view of the island. As much as she hated being stuck on this planet, she had to admit that this world had some amazing natural scenery. It was a shame that much of this world's natural wonders were being destroyed by the humans.
'Though, it's not like we weren't treating our planet any different.' Nightshade thought, thinking back to how the war had drained Cybertron of its resources and cataclysm after cataclysm rendered it uninhabitable. None of Cybertron's wonders survived the war, not even the beloved Helix Gardens, which she came to love after spending just a few minutes in. 'But it wasn't our fault. The war wouldn't have even begun if those bastards in the Senate didn't try so hard to control us.'
Nightshade's expression fell as she remembered a time when she was not the Decepticons' second in command or the leader of a revolutionary group-back when she was simply Nightshade, the scavenger with wings as black as the darkest night.
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The Badlands of Cybertron were among the harshest territories on the planet, next to the Sea of Rust. The ground was black as the bots who lived there, and the landscape was marred by towering spires of twisted metal that reached to the sky and even lined the tops of canyons, like giant mouths lined with sharp teeth. It was believed by historians that the Badlands were the site of some battles from ages past and one particular disaster turned the entire region into one black scar on the planet. However, that theory had yet to be proven with the lack of credible evidence.
Nightshade flew over the blackened land in her beast mode with two energon cubes clutched in her claws, her red eyes scanning the skies and ground for any stragglers who might be following her. You could never be too paranoid when it came to the Senate.
She flew over to a small mountain range and saw the edge of Kaon ahead. Diving low, she flew in close to the ground as she approached the factory district on the edge of the city. As soon as she reached the old dusty streets, she changed to bipedal mode and landed on solid ground holding the two cubes in her hands.
Nightshade made her way to the hold house at the end of the street, which looked like it had gotten hit by one too many acid rainstorms. She looked around one last time before ducking into the house, kicking the door closed behind her.
"Damus, I'm home!" She called out.
"In here!"
Nightshade tossed the cubes onto a pile of energon cubes stocked inside a little alcove and walked into another room, where a red and orange mech was sitting at a desk writing something while listening to music.
"Primus, Damus, are you really listening to that song again?" Nightshade groaned. Damus, her conjux endura, turned his bright yellow eyes onto the much taller femme.
"Don't talk smack about the Emyprean Suite. It's a work of art." He said.
"It's annoying as hell."
"Don't snap at me because you don't have any musical appreciation." Damus shrugged. His lover was one of those "new age" bots who liked the garbage they pated in the Ky-Alexian clubs.
Nightshade sighed and slumped into the old chair next to him. "Not now, Damus. I just flew in from Styx today and I'm exhausted."
"Styx?" Damus blinked at her. "Whoa, Shade, that's a good 500 miles from Tarn. What were you doing flying over there?"
"Getting us energon. Those oil holes over in Styx have laughable security. It's not problem snatching cubes from there." She said.
Damus didn't say anything. He hated that she had to go to so much effort just to get enough energon to last them a little over two days. It was a dangerous world out there for beast formers, and it wasn't getting any safer with the growing riots and rallies these days.
"Relax," Nightshade said, sensing his discomfort. "I don't mind flying the distance if it means that you get to function properly."
"Still, if I could just go outside, then I can get some cubes from the refinery-"
"No, too risky. You know that the Senate's lapdogs have been sniffing around for anybody stupid enough to go against the system." She said. "And a mech who can turn into a tank working as a musician is not part of that system."
Damus sighed and looked at his hands. His large, bulky frame held an all-terrain tank alt mode that was built for combat, but he hated fighting and wasn't the type of mech who did well under the strain of military conduct. His main love was for music, listening to musical pieces of his own design that he would sell to some people. He even gained a bit of a fan base among the people in the neighborhood, fellow outcasts and workers. Such interests went against his function, and thus went against the hard line doctrine of the Senate and Functionists. The thought of what they would do to him if he was found out almost terrified him as much as what they would do to Nightshade.
"I know it's dangerous, but it's better than having you risk your life every day just for a few scraps of energon. You're strong, Nightshade, but not strong enough to take on the entire world."
Nightshade took his face in her hands and turned him so he was facing her. "Damus, as long I have you, I will keep fighting. I don't care about the risks; all I care about is making sure you get to live your life the way you want to. Together, we can fight through their oppression."
Damus smiled at her. "I love you, Nightshade. Even without my music, I can still make it through this with you."
Nightshade smiled and pressed her forehead against his. "We'll always be together, won't we?"
"Always."
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'Damus.' Nightshade thought forlornly. The thought of her lover made her Spark ache. It had been centuries since she last thought of him with the war going on, but she didn't know why she was suddenly thinking about him right now. 'It must be the scenery. It's getting me sentimental.'
Nightshade inhaled the fresh air through her olfactory sensors and walked into the cave. The tunnel sloped downwards, going surprisingly deep into the mountain and somehow large enough to accommodate her height. She looked at her scanner and saw no sign of the stasis panel's signature anywhere near her.
"Songbird, do you detect any sign of the panel? I'm not getting anything on the scanner." She said.
"No, mistress. I'm still detecting the signal, but now it's below us." Songbird said softly.
Now this was getting strange. Nightshade descended deeper into the darkness, now going by her single spotlight to see in the dark, but after almost fifteen minutes of searching, she didn't find anything. And she got the feeling that she was no closer to reaching the end to this tunnel at all.
"What the hell is going on here?" Nightshade growled. She extended her sensors to analyze the area around her to see how close she was to the bottom, but something was blocking her scanner. She had no idea where she was! "Enough of this!"
Raising her arm, Nightshade fired a blast from her railgun to blow a hole in the wall. She jumped through the hole, but instead of finding herself outside, she was inside another cavern.
The cavern was massive, with clear, prismatic crystals sticking out of the walls and ground from one end of the cavern to the other. They glowed with a radiance that just made the entire place seem magical. Looking up, Nightshade saw that the cavern was also very tall, reaching up hundreds of feet above her, seemingly extending the entire length of the mountain.
"Beautiful, isn't it? You've always loved crystals, the natural beauty they displayed."
Nightshade froze and spun around, raising her weapon upon hearing the voice. "Who said that?"
"Don't you remember me, Shade?"
Nightshade slowly turned around as she saw a red figure walking out from behind a large crystal. Her arm fell to her side as the figure came into view, her eyes widening.
"D-Damus?" She gasped.
Damus smiled and held out his arms. "Hello, my love."
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"Deadscream?" Starscream gasped, stepping back in shock. A second later he berated himself to showing fear to this…ghost and steeled himself. "How are you here? I…I killed you!"
"Is that fear I hear in your voice, Starscream? Even after all these years you still tremble at the sound of my name?" Deadscream let out a horrible cackle that sent shivers up his spine. "Pathetic! And here you are, clamoring to be the top dog of the Decepticons."
"Shut up!"
Starscream fired a blast from his null ray at Deadscream, but to his surprise, the beam missed her and hit the wall behind her.
"You're so terrified you can't even hit me. Fine then, if you're not going to draw first blood, then I'll go first!"
Deadscream leapt forward, a pair of barbed swords emerging from her arms, spewing blue flames from her feet as she charged at her brother. Starscream also brought out his cobalt bayonet and deflected the strike she sent at him that knocked him back into the wall.
"Fight back!" Deadscream howled. She stabbed at his chest, but he deflected her blade and jumped to the side, only to get kicked in the face. "You coward, fight back!"
He was trying to do just that, but something was distracting him. A soft hymn at the back of his mind was making it hard to properly focus. He fired his null ray again, but she dodged it and slashed at his shoulder, spraying energon from the wound in his arm. Her attacks were as quick and precise as they were all those years ago. He was no slouch in close combat, but she was making him look and feel like garbage just like she always had.
They fought furiously, sparks flying from clashing blades as they tried to land a critical hit on each other. Starscream knocked her blade arm down and tried to behead her, but Deadscream tilted her head so that the blade went past her cheek and jumped up, kicking him in the chest with both feet with enough force to send him flying almost a foot through the air before landing at the entrance he came in earlier. She pounced on him and she pinned him to the ground.
"I'm going to kill you, Starscream. Nice and slow." Deadscream purred. "I'm going to pay you back for killing me all those years ago!"
That jogged something in his mind. Yes, he did kill her the last time they talked-a long time ago in the twilight days of the Decepticon Uprising.
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It was dusk when Starscream, Skywarp and Thundercracker were having a very tense and important discussion about the state of things going on in Kaon. The Decepticon revolution was reaching its zenith and things were at a critical moment for the Decepticons and the Seekers. What made this conversation so important was that their actions would reflect on the Seekers and bring unwanted attention to them, which could bring Deadscream's wrath down upon them.
"We need to do something, Starscream. The Senate is heading to Kaon for Megatron's trial and he needs us there for the plan to work." Thundercracker whispered. "If we miss this, the Cons will tear us to pieces."
"I'm well aware of that, Thundercracker, thank you very much." Starscream muttered, rubbing his forehead.
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go already before your sister gets wind of this." Skywarp urged.
"Oh, don't worry, we're leaving all right." Starscream huffed. "It's only a matter of time before the riots start in the streets."
Deadscream was going off the deep end as the situation in Kaon deteriorated. She had placed the Seekers in a precarious position by murdering Senator Crocus in his home and pinning the blame on the Decepticons to keep any like-minded rebels from planting seeds within their borders. No one knew of the crime, of course, but Starscream knew that people will connect the dots once they thought long and hard about what kind of person Deadscream was. The Seekers now had full control of Vos under the guise of keeping the peace, but at what cost?
"But after we help Megatron, what are we going to do? Deadscream will brand us as traitors and hunt us down." Thundercracker said. "And Primus help us if she starts something with Megatron."
"I'd actually love to see that." Skywarp chuckled. Thundercracker rolled his eyes at him.
"You fragging would."
The comm-link sounded and they heard Slipstream's voice ring through. "Yo, boss lady wants you three down in the command center on the double."
Slipstream didn't even wait for a reply before hanging up and Starscream sighed as he got to his feet. he and his subordinates went outside onto the balcony and changed into jet modes before flying over to the highest tower in the Vos Aerospace Citadel that acted as their main base of operations.
They switched back to robot mode as they reached the landing platform outside the command center and quickly entered the chamber, where they found that most of the high ranking Seekers were assembled in the main hall used for debriefings. Deadscream stood in the front of the room looking at them like they weren't even worth her time.
"Bout damn time you three joined us." Deadscream said coldly. Thundercracker looked around for a certain green flyer.
"Where's Skyfire?" He asked.
"She ditched us, along with Sunstone and almost a quarter of our numbers here to join up with the Autobots." Slipstream hissed.
"A quarter?!" Starscream gaped. Skyfire and Sunstone defecting wasn't a surprise-they were never cut out for the more cutthroat side of their dealings-but to have a quarter of their forces defect to those so-called Autobots? That was unbelievable.
"Deadscream, I know you want us to remain independent, but you and I both know the Senate will come down on us once they learn what we did. We need to side with the Decepticons for protection." Starscream urged his sister. "We need their military support to keep the other states off our backs."
"I have told you one too many times, Starscream, that we Seekers adhere to no one! If those pencil pushers from Iacon want a fight, then we'll give them a fight. We have the superior numbers and the home field advantage, and we will win."
"But-"
Deadscream leapt up to him, standing close enough to him that he could see her optics through her optical lens. "I will not throw away our independence because you are too scared to fight like a true warrior!"
"I'm trying to preserve our way of life! The Decepticons are on the rise, and in the coming days they're planning to deal a massive blow against the Senate. If we want to be on the winning team, then we need to join with them!" Starscream yelled back. "The Decepticons will rule Cybertron and the Seekers will be at the vanguard of their conquest, and we deserve the glory of changing the future of this world!"
Deadscream punched him in the face and sent him to the ground, and began kicking and stomping on him. The other Seekers, though riled up by Starscream's words, hung back knowing that they'll only be killed by the crazed femme.
"I AM THE COMMANDER OF THE SEEKERS! NOT SKYFIRE, NOT SENTINEL, AND CERTAINLY NOT YOU!" Deadscream roared, stomping on the back of his head. "I AM SICK OF YOUR COWARDICE! YOU ARE A DISGRACE TO OUR BROTHERHOOD, AND I WILL NOT TOLERATE WEAKNESS FROM ANYONE, ESPECIALLY FROM MY FAILURE OF A BROTHER!"
Each word hurt more than the blows he was taking. She abused him, treated him like dirt, insulted his pride…but this time it was different. She was accusing him of being a traitor to the Seekers, to his kin. That was something he was not going to take from her. He was trying to bring the Seekers into the future, give them a place in the new world order and become the mighty armada they were supposed to be. He was the traitor…she was!
"I AM NO TRAITOR!"
Starscream's unexpected roar made Deadscream pause, and that gave him enough time to jump up, his arm blade shooting from his arm as he leapt at her. With a thrust of his arm, the bayonet sank into Deadscream's chest, emerging from her back as it pierced her Spark core. Both twins stared at each other in the eyes as the light faded from Deadscream's eyes, her face stuck in a shocked expression as the life faded from her body.
Starscream slowly pulled the blade from her body, letting her fall back to the floor, staring at the corpse in shock. She…she was dead. And by his own hand no less. A smile spread across his face as he finally processed what just happened. He was finally free of her!
Looking up at the other Seekers staring at him in shock and awe, Starscream stood tall over his sister's body, trying to look every bit the commander he now was.
"Seekers! Our leader is dead! As the highest ranking officer here, it is my right to take command of the Seekers of Vos." He declared. "Are there any objections?"
No one spoke up-in fact, they were all happy with the passing of leadership to Starscream, with everyone now showing relief that Deadscream was gone. No longer did they have to fear for their lives, or tip toe around her hoping not to trigger her psychotic temper tirades.
Starscream smirked. "Good. Now all Seekers, prepare to head to Kaon. We're going to make history."
XXXXXX
He killed her because she was leading the Seekers to ruin, infecting them with the same stagnation that took hold of the Senate and the entire world. He did Cybertron a favor by snuffing out her Spark!
'And if she was dead, then this specter,' Thought Starscream. 'This ghost isn't her at all.'
"I see now. You aren't Deadscream-you're nothing like her!" He growled, making her freeze. "You're an imposter. The real Deadscream is dead and rust, I tossed her body into the Sonic Canyons myself. And Deadscream never plays with her food!"
He pushed her away and stabbed his bayonet into the fake Deadscream's chest, just like before. But unlike the last time, her body began to shimmer and fade, like a hologram. Starscream grinned as the illusion faded and crossed his arms.
"Now why don't you come out so we can have a real battle." He called out into the cave.
"Be careful what you wish for, alien." A raspy voice said from seemingly everywhere. "You will regret that decision."
Starscream saw the air in front of him shimmer and distort before a large, misshapen form appeared in front of him. His eyes widened a she laid eyes on the alien creature before him.
"What…what are you?"
XXXXXX
"Damus?" Nightshade whispered, her voice little more than a whisper. "Is that really you?"
"It is, my dear." Damus said, smiling. "Look at you. I'm amazed at how strong you had become. You truly are a predator."
Overcome with emotion, Nightshade disengaged Songbird from her arm and ran into the arms of her lost love. She hugged him tightly, afraid that he might disappear again.
Songbird transformed and looked at her mistress. This was her lover, Damus? But, she heard from Nightshade that he died long before the Clampdown on Cybertron. There was no way he could still be alive at this time, let alone be on this planet of all places. Something wasn't right.
Then she saw it; Damus's body shimmered for a split second, but her large, keen eyes caught it in time. Like an illusion…or a hologram!
"Mistress, it's a trap! That's not Damus!" She called out.
Her words didn't reach Nightshade, because unknown to the Minicon, there was a high pitched noise ringing in Nightshade's audials. Seeing that her words were not reaching her mistress, Songbird decided to take drastic action. She transformed to her weapon mode and fired off thrusters from her handle before firing an electrical blast at Damus. The beam shot over Nightshade's shoulder and hit him in the chest, knocking him back. Nightshade spun around and glared at her.
"Songbird, stand down!" Nightshade shouted. "He's not your enemy!"
"That is not Damus, mistress. He is an imposter-look!"
Nightshade turned back to Damus just in time to see his body ripple like water before returning to normal. Her eyes went wide and she winced as the noise in her head got louder.
"Shade, is something wrong?" Damus asked.
"W-Who are you?" She grunted.
Damus cocked his head. "Excuse me?"
"Who the hell are you?" Nightshade shouted. The ringing was getting louder now and it was only making her angrier. "You…you're not Damus. The Damus I know is dead!"
How could she forget her greatest mistake? Damus, the real Damus, died because she wasn't strong enough to protect him.
XXXXXX
Nightshade flew over to the familiar street where she lived with her lover. Walking over to their rundown house, she was about to call out to Damus when she noticed that the door was smashed in, and there were signs of a battle along the ground and doorway.
"Damus?" She called out as she ran into the house. "Damus, are you here? Answer me!"
The interior of the house was a mess, ransacked. The energon cubes were gone, and there was some energon pooled on the floor, definitely spilled from someone. Nightshade looked in Damus' music room to see that most of his instruments and recording equipment was destroyed, and as she looked to the ground, she saw another gruesome sight.
A pair of severed hands.
"No…" Nightshade whispered. They got him. Those Functionist bastards got him!
"Aww, is the little birdy sad that her boyfriend got taken away?"
Nightshade spun around and saw a light blue femme walk out of the storage room. She had a very sharp, lithe, angular frame, with long arms tipped with sharp claws that were jagged like thunderbolts. Her head was curved and v-shaped, and her blue eyes glowed with barely unrestrained energy.
"Who are you?" Nightshade growled.
"Sourcefield, proud agent of the Functionists, and you must be Nightshade." Sourcefield ran her eyes along Nightshade's body. "My, you certainly are easy on the eyes, aren't you?"
"Where is Damus?"
"Your boyfriend's been shipped off to get some…reconditioning. To know of his true place in the world, you know? Don't worry, he'll live. Which is much more than what I can say for you, animal."
"Tell me where he is!" Nightshade snarled. Sourcefield laughed.
"You'll have to do more than that just to give me a scary-"
Nightshade transformed in the blink of an eye and slammed into Sourcefield, smashing her through the wall and throwing her outside into the street. Sourcefield quickly encased her body in lightning and began firing bolts at Nightshade. Nightshade changed forms and switched to robot mode and ducked under the bolts, letting them crash into the remains of her house before leaping at Sourcefield.
Sourcefield ducked under her punch and delivered a lightning covered punch of her own to Nightshade's face, sending her to the ground. Nightshade took out her dagger and stabbed it into Sourcefield's thigh.
"Agh!" Sourcefield hissed. "You glitch!"
Nightshade let go before Sourcefield could electrify the knife and her with it, jumping to her feet and quickly stabbing her knife into the femme's torso, right through the t-cog and pulling the blade upwards. Pain erupted in Sourcefield's body and she coughed up energon as her chest was slowly carved open. Nightshade didn't stop until the blade was touching the femme's Spark casing.
"Tell me where Damus is or I will make your death a slow and painful one." Nightshade hissed. Sourcefield tried to summon her electrical aura, but Nightshade twisted the knife in her chest to stop her. "Tell me!"
"H-He's at the Rivets Field facility." Sourcefield groaned, coughing up a laugh. "Good luck trying to get in. The place is too heavily guarded for you, animal."
"I'll deal with that as I see fit." Nightshade said before pulling the knife up through Sourcefield's chest, slicing her Spark core in half all the way up to her face.
Hours later, after a long, hard battle in which Nightshade and her hired help, the Stunticons, infiltrated and massacred the facility's security teams and staff. She made it to the holding cell where they operated on patients, covered in cuts and burns as she blew open the door and ran into the chamber.
"Damus? It's me, Nightshade. Please, answer me!" Nightshade called out.
"S-Shade?" A weak voice answered. "Is that you?"
Nightshade looked to the far side of the room and saw her lover strapped to an operating table. She ran over to him and broke his bonds, pulling him into her arms and off the slab as she put his head onto her lap. She got a good look at his face and hands, and gasped.
"W-what's wrong?" Damus asked deliriously. "Why do I feel so strange?"
"D-Don't talk. Just rest, you've been through a lot, but you're safe now." Her voice cracked a bit as she was slowly overcome with emotion.
"Shade, what's wro-" Damus' voice trailed off as he tried to reach for his face, only to see that his hands were now three clawed manipulators. "What is this?"
Nightshade said nothing as she let Damus stumble for his feet and reach for the first reflective object he could find to look into it. What he saw staring back made him give a horrific scream of agony and pain. His face was gone, replaced with a round head with a single yellow eye in the center.
"WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO ME?!" He wailed, falling to his knees. "MY HANDS, MY FACE! THEY TOOK IT ALL AWAY!"
Nightshade said nothing as she stood up and wrapped her arms around him, holding him tight as he sobbed tearlessly over his lost face and hands.
XXXXXX
"You are not Damus." Nightshade growled, glaring at the illusion hatefully. "He's dead, and he's never coming back."
"What? But I'm right here. I'm as real as the crystals you see around us." Damus said, but she shook her head.
"The mech I loved died that day, when the Functionists stole his hands and face!" Nightshade drew her swords and pointed them at the fake Damus. "And how dare you desecrate his memory by wearing his face. Show yourself to me, you hellspawn!"
Damus frowned. "But I am Damus. Don't you remember how we would argue about my tastes in music? How I always loved listening to classics from Harmonex?"
The ringing was getting louder, but Nightshade was doing her best to ignore it. "No, I saw him die in my arms. He's gone, now and forever! And there's nothing anyone can say about that! So get out of my head!"
Songbird powerelinked with Nightshade and fired a beam at Damus. The beat hit him in the chest, and this time, his image shattered like glass before fading into nothingness. The crystals around them went dark, dimming into a dark blue glow that cloaked them in shadow.
"Well done. Not many can ignore my songs so easily." A female voice said. "As a reward, you shall be the first to hear my trumpet as I sound the end of your world!"
Nightshade looked around for the speaker, but flinched when she heard the deafening sound of a trumpet ring in the cave. The bellowing horn reverberated throughout the island, signaling that the façade had gone on long enough. It was time to end this farce and eliminate their enemies immediately.
XXXXXX
Every fiber of Megatron's being was screaming that something was wrong. It first began when he followed the trial of the Minicon panel into the most remote area of the island, a marsh that led deeper into the jungle. Then he had lost contact with Nightshade and Starscream, as well as their Minicons.
"I don't know if it's the mineral composition of the caves around here or our different locations, but I'm not picking up their comm-signals." Leader-1 said. It was slightly unnerving to him, seeing as he was always used to being in constant contact with his Minicons subordinates.
Megatron only grunted in response as he continued on his path through the forest, hacking away at trees in his way. Leader-1 struggled to catch up to his master's large strides.
"You aren't going to look for them, sir?" He asked.
"Unlike Prime, I can trust my lieutenant to take care of herself. As for Starscream, self preservation is a running gag for that ambitious fool. He'll be fine as well. Right now, I have a job to do, and I intend to finish it." Megatron said, not looking at his little assistant. "Can you detect anything in our vicinity?"
Leader-1 scanned the local area for the panel's signal and saw that it was only a few feet ahead of them. He relayed the information to Megatron, who grinned.
They went deeper into the forest, and the sunlight was starting to be blocked by the thick, grey clouds that slowly eclipsed over the island. They made it out of the dense brush and came upon the edge of a courtyard.
In the yard was the remains of a temple or shrine, though most of the structure was gone, exposing the interior to the humidity of the forest around them. The floor of the half destroyed temple was smooth and tiled, patterned with murals; there were twelve in all, each one depicting a powerful warrior performing a dangerous labor of some kind. Megatron studied them for a second before looking at the large statue at the center of the twelve murals. As he laid eyes on it, something about the eroded statue sent a sharp pain through Megatron's Spark.
'What is this?' He thought as he walked closer to it.
The statue was of a man with half his face missing holding the broken form of a woman in his arms. The woman was little more than a torso, and she was caressing the man's face with her one arm. Both figures were staring at each other with unbridled love, knowing full well the tragedy of their situation.
"I'm so sorry, Megatron. I wasn't strong enough."
Megatron gritted his teeth as a memory rose from the depths of his mind. Images of a broken body in his arms, the burning remains of buildings and bots around them, the rough feeling of a blackened, scorched hand running down his face as he watched the light fade from her eyes.
"Sir? Are you alright?" Leader-1 asked.
A loud trumpet bellowed around them, and Megatron could hear it deep inside his head. He winced and covered the sides of his head, but the horn still rang through his audials, getting louder and louder until he couldn't even hear his own thoughts anymore.
"STOP IT!" Megatron roared. Then he heard a voice in his head, a voice that still haunted his memories since Cybertron's fall.
"Megatron, I know you don't want to be in power, but if you want to realize your dream, to see this movement gain strength, then you must take charge. Never give in, never show weakness. Because it is by showing defiance that you prove to them that you are a threat the likes of which they have never seen before. You are someone they cannot intimidate or subjugate. When they realize that they cannot silence you, or coerce you to take a different path, that is when they'll learn that you are stronger than all of them combined. That is the strength of the individual heart, your heart. There is only once place at the table, Megatron…and you must make sure that you are the only one ready to take it."
Megatron's eyes snapped opened and he let out a mighty roar at the sky that could be heard all over the island. "RRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Leader-1 jumped back as he felt some sort of wave wash over the area, and felt the previous dense atmosphere become lighter. He didn't even realize that until now. Megatron fell to one knee, panting as he held a hand to his aching head.
"Lord Megatron?" Leader-1 said cautiously. He didn't want to be anywhere near the warlord if he was going to have another outburst like that.
"Leader-1, powerlink with me right now." Megatron commanded.
"Wha-"
"DO IT!"
Leader-1 did as he was told and connected to Megatron's left arm, splitting apart his arm to extend his arm blade coated in electricity. Megatron got to his feet and called out into the ruins.
"Come out and face me!" He bellowed. "Your illusions will not work on me anymore!"
The air around the statue shimmered like water before a large form appeared hovering in the air. The creature was humanoid, standing almost as tall as Megatron, and was female. Her skin was smooth and hard like marble, and she had six wings made of solid gold, in addition to six arms, three on each side. Her most defining feature was that her head had three faces, each depicting a different emotion-anger, sadness and happiness.
"Who are you?" Megatron demanded.
"I am Gabriel, leader of the Archangels, and queen of Lemnos." The creature said, smirking at the Decepticon leader. "And I know who you are, Megatron of Tarn."
"If you know about me, then you should know better than to try to defeat me with magic tricks." Megatron pointed his sword at her. "Who the hell do you think you are to interfere with me?"
Gabriel gave one simple answer that summed up her entire existence on this planet. "God."
Gabriel's face switched to Anger and her two main arms glowed bright red. Placing her hands together, she fired a bright red beam at Megatron, who jumped aside. It was just in time, as the beam was so hot that the armor on his right leg actually heated up just from being near it. The beam tore through the trees behind him, carving a smoking path through the foliage for almost two feet before stopping.
"Try as you might to kill me, you will only wear yourself down. Even as we speak, my sisters prey upon the memories of your soldiers, growing stronger from their suffering." Gabriel said. "It's no use defying us."
"The last person who said that to me was killed by my bare hands!" Megatron growled. "No one is greater than Megatron!"
Megatron charged at Gabriel, who summoned another beam to shoot at him, signaling the start of a very ferocious battle.
XXXXXX
Starscream burst out of the ground in his jet mode with five beams of light chasing him. He performed a complicated series of maneuvers in the air to avoid the fast moving beams, just barely getting out of the line of fire. Not long after, another larger form rose out of the ground and into the air at break-neck speeds after him.
The being known as Nuriel was a being Starscream was hard pressed to have seen before. Her body was massive, reaching almost 35 feet in height, with a humanoid body made of brown and yellow stone, looking as if a master artisan had carved her with utmost care. She had four arms, and two faces, both portraying the emotions of Anger and Sadness. She had four wings behind her that were made of the same beige stony material as the rest of her.
"Why do you run, when I can chase you to the ends of this world and the next? You did not run from your sister, and she was much more savage than I." Nuriel said.
"Shut up!" Starscream curved around and fired two missiles at her. But just before they could reach her, they exploded against something invisible.
"What hope do you have against me, a holy warrior of the mighty Host?" Nuriel laughed. She opened her mouth and sang a low musical note that rose in tempo.
Her body glowed before the light aura gathered into a halo and extended outwards. The wave washed over Starscream and he cried out as he felt his body get heavier before he was pulled down to earth by a powerful force. He crashed into the beach, sending sand flying everywhere and getting partially buried in a crater.
"Move boss!" Grid shouted.
Starscream pushed himself out of the crater and used his boosters to leap away. A millisecond alter, the spot he was just in caved in, like all the gravity in the world compressed into that single spot.
"You, a warrior who fears the earth so much that you scorn those who are not blessed with flight. I shall burn your wings and anchor you to the ground by your soul for your hubris!" Nuriel declared.
"Don't you ever shut up?" Starscream growled. He boosted into the air and flew at Nuriel like a bullet. Nuriel sang again and this time Starscream felt the air around him get thicker. He dived to the side as a deep boom rumbled through the air, and kept flying at her.
The air was alive with thunderous booms as Nuriel tried to crush Starscream into oblivion. Each time the Seeker managed to avoid being turned into a living cube of cybermatter, but the compression orbs were appearing faster and faster, increasing his chances of death each second. His window of error was decreasing by the minute.
'Let's finish this!" Starscream thought. He flew high enough so that he was on Nuriel's level and fired his null ray at her face, making sure to put more power into it.
"Arrogant fool." Nuriel sang and the beam dissipated before it reached her face. She returned her focus to Starscream…only to find that he was gone. "What?"
Something caught the corner of her eye and she turned to see Starscream right beside her. "Time for your encore."
Nuriel screamed as the full powered null beam tore into her face and blasted her head apart. Starscream's attack tore apart her head and most of her upper torso, leaving the rest of her body to crumble apart and scatter like dust in the wind.
And so the first sister fell.
XXXXXX
The underground cavern shook violently as the deafening sound of a trumpet echoed throughout the interior of the mountain. Nightshade hid behind a stone pillar to avoid the sonic wave that crushed the boulder next to her into dust.
Her opponent was as vicious as she was thorough. Israfel was a being who had a feminine humanoid form, her a red, clay-like body and unlike her sisters, she had two arms and wings, both glowing with bluish violet veins. In her hand was a golden trumpet which she used to signal the call for war.
"I thought you liked music, my dear?" Israfel said, still using Damus's voice. "Don't tell me you like that new age crap these humans listen to!"
She blew into her horn and released a powerful musical note at Nightshade's hiding place. The femme ran out of cover just as the pillar was blown apart by the sonic attack.
"Not when I hear music as bad as yours!" nightshade replied. She fired a blast from her railgun, but the angel dodged it. "What are you? What the hell is your problem with us?"
"Our problem?" Israfel growled. "This is no mere problem. Your kind invades our island, taints our world with your war and your very presence. Your lives were forfeit the minute the minute you stepped foot onto our shores! But fear not, for through death, you will avoid the eventual destruction of the old world as we usher in the new one."
"Wonderful," Nightshade ducked under another wave and fired again at the angel. "A religious nut who thinks she's some deity. I don't believe in gods."
"You will after today-when I send you to yours!" Israfel bellowed.
Nightshade transformed to beast mode and flew at Israfel. The angel blew into her trumpet and sent out another devastating sonic wave that hit her body with debilitating force, but she weathered through it and kept flying. Israfel wasn't expecting the Decepticon to keep going and was rammed into by Nightshade, sending them both crashing through the wall. They smashed through three layers of rock nonstop before emerging outside, where Nightshade kicked her away and fired her micro-missiles at her.
The missiles hit the angel in various parts of her body, blasting off chunks of her clay skin. Israfel glared at the Con and blew another deafening sonic attack that destroyed the missiles and hit Nightshade in her right side, crushing her arm and mangling her wing. Even still, she kept fighting.
Songbird delivered the finger blow, firing one precise blast when Nightshade raised her arm and hit Israfel's head dead center. The angel's expression was one of surprise before her body went still and she fell to the ground, crumbling to pieces upon falling.
Nightshade landed on the ground and fell to her knees, clutching her damaged arm. Songbird detached from her arm and climbed onto her shoulder. "Mistress, are you okay?"
"Y-yes, Songbird, I'm fine." Nightshade sighed, wincing at the pain in her arm and wing. "Nothing a few minutes in the CR chamber won't fix."
'Megatron, be careful. These things are no joke.' Nightshade thought. If there were more of these things on Terra, then this planet just got a lot more dangerous.
XXXXXX
Megatron cursed as he was forced to dodge another beam barrage from Gabriel. She had him on the defensive, constantly firing an endless array of beams that kept him moving so that he didn't gain enough time to use his fusion cannon. Smart, considering it was his most powerful weapon. Gabriel changed her face to her Sadness expression and her beams lengthened into photon whips that tore apart everything they touched.
"Why do you resist? I am trying to give you a merciful death." Gabriel said. "You should be honored to be killed by me."
"And why do you continue your pointless chatter? You're no different from any other worthless life form on this world. Always talking and doing nothing!" Megatron said. "This is why you creatures are below us!"
"And yet my planet is not a dead husk from an endless war." She retorted.
Megatron fired his fusion cannon and she dodged the plasma beam. She lashed out with her whips and he ducked under one of them, but it caught his shoulder, leaving a searing burn on his armor. The other wrapped around his sword arm and slowly began burning through his armor.
"It will when I'm finished with it!" He roared.
Megatron planted his feet on a stone pillar and pushed off it to launch himself at her. Gabriel changed to Anger and fired a beam at him, but she could hit his shoulder as he thrust his arm forward and stabbed his blade into her face. Before he could do anything else, Gabriel summoned a photon barrier to block his blade. He tried to force his sword through, but it couldn't pass her defense.
Gabriel smirked and expanded her shield, releasing a force wave that blew Megatron back and sent him crashing into a tree. She floated over to him and slashed one of her whips along his chest, leaving a deep gash in his chest plate. She changed to Happiness to keep her anger at bay. Such feelings were not befitting of a holy warrior serving under the Divine Goddess.
"Megatron, the fallen hero who failed to deliver his promise of freedom and prosperity for his people. You have sacrificed so much to get to where you are now, including the life of the only person you loved. And what do you have to show for it? A dead world? A dying species?" Gabriel taunted. "Please, tell me what else I missed."
Megatron gave her a bloody smile. "Nothing you'll live long enough to see."
Twin pulse blasts hit her wings and Gabriel spun around to glare at the Minicon that attacked her. Growling, she switched to Anger and prepared to obliterate Leader-1, but to her surprise, a large metal hand grabbed her wings and pulled hard, ripping them from her back. Megatron tossed the wings aside and slammed his fist into the side of her head, staggering her before following up with a clothesline that sent her to the ground. Grabbing her around the throat, he kept her pinned to the ground so that she could look into her eyes.
"Now I ask the questions." Megatron hissed. "What are you? Who sent you here to this world?"
Gabriel smiled, despite being on the verge of death. "We were born on this world long ago, shaped by the hands of Her Grace. This world is ours, and you will not take it from us, alien."
Megatron growled and squeezed harder until he felt her neck shatter under his grip. He stood up as her body began breaking apart, and even then she was still laughing at him.
"You think you're all powerful, but you have no idea what your arrival to this world has wrought upon your people. You will live through your battles only to see everyone and everything you hold dear crumble to dust at your feet and rule over a kingdom of ashes. And when the end of the world comes, I will be there to sing of your death." Gabriel said as the light faded from her eyes. "May the great Jubileus...grace you…"
Gabriel's body crumbled to pieces and Megatron stared at her body, holding onto his wounded shoulder. Leader-1 walked up to him, holding a stasis panel.
"Lord Megatron, I found the panel." He said. "It was behind the statue."
"Good. Locate Nightshade and Starscream, and then call Soundwave for a ground bridge. We're leaving this hell hole."
"Yes, sir."
Leader-1 scampered off and left Megatron alone in the courtyard. He stared at the statue of the man holding the dying woman in his arms. He didn't show it, but Gabriel's sorcery brought up painful memories that he tried very hard to bury. Memories that he'd rather stayed buried.
He raised his fusion cannon and blew the statue apart in a single shot. Then he walked away, eyes closed and Spark heavy.
"Nevermore."