Author's Note:
Put up early in response to a close friend not having internet for tomorrow and an indefinite amount of time possibly over a week who wanted to read this before she lost internet.
Anyways . . . I'm experiencing severe writer's block on EVERYTHING I am writing, so you guys are lucky I'm a couple chapters ahead of schedule or else you would have had jack squat this week XD
I'm SOOOOOOO ready for the next two chapters! :D :D :D
Nightstalker literally began to shake so hard her metal tinkled together. TOGETHER. With a Decepticon zombie!
"Awesome!" Miko cheered. "It can't touch them either!"
Her outburst caught its attention. Skyquake turned to them, and Nightstalker felt her mouth run dry.
She was their only protection. Against a bot almost twice as big as she was? Nightstalker shook harder. Her training skills didn't amount to anything for this!
She popped her machine gun out of her back, shouting at the paralyzed kids, "Run!" Dear Primus, what was she doing, what was she doing, what was she doing—!
Taking aim at a target impossible to miss, Nightstalker shot at him, distracting him from the kids while they got a little bit of a head start of running. Her energon curdled in her tanks when Skyquake looked directly into her line of fire, her bullets doing nothing more than tingeing off of him.
"Move it, move it, move it!" she shouted out to them, dashing along when Skyquake took a swipe at her. Dear PRIMUS how were they going to get out of this one!
Nightstalker squeaked when she almost stepped on Raf who tripped, and she went staggering to the side. "Move it, son!" she ordered him, picking him up and giving him a push towards the other humans—who cowered behind a rock.
Nightstalker's spark pounded hard as she ducked into cover with them. "Move it!" she growled, giving a jab in the other direction. "We don't have time for dallying!"
"My glasses!" Raf pleaded. "I can't see without them!"
Nightstalker ground her teeth and peeked around to corner to see said zombie marching along towards them and the offending glasses on the ground. Shooting a couple times, Nightstalker burst out, snatched the glasses, and ducked back into cover as he gained ground.
"Here!" she burst. He quickly grabbed them and shoved them on his face. "Now get moving!"
She tried to contact Cliffjumper again. "Cliff? Cliffjumper, listen!" She could barely hear herself through the static, and she prayed to Primus that Cliffjumper could. "We're in an alternate dimension with a zombie Decepticon! Cliff!" Still, nothing. She tried base. "You guys?" Nightstalker wanted to run faster when the zombie roared behind them, and she looked to the slower humans. They were just fast enough to stay out of his range, but if that zombie suddenly decided he knew how to run . . . "Guys, zombie 'Con on our afts!" she shouted into the comm. link, hoping they could possibly get something. "Zombie 'Con! Zombie 'Con! I've got the kids—guys—!"
Sensing the 'Con getting closer, Nightstalker took the chance to put another round in him, but her bullets still did nothing.
"Maybe we could set a trap!" she heard Miko suggest as they ran. "You know? Try to crush it!"
"With what?" Raf shot back. "Nothing here is solid except us and the ground!"
"You can take him, Nights!" she shouted up at her.
Nightstalker let out a humorless laugh. "Miko, I'm half his size! Bullets are doing nothing? I couldn't possibly do anything to him!"
"Sure you can!" she persisted, albeit a little less enthusiastic. "I bet you've had to torture guys that big before, so I don't see the problem!"
"Problem is," she yelled, "before they were tied up in chains!"
Miko huffed. "Well, we can't run forever!" Nightstalker could have smacked herself. Of course they couldn't! The kids would run out of energy first, and then Nightstalker would eventually run out of energon. However, Mr. Happy Zombie 'Con Guy would never need a rest. "But maybe we can hide!"
Nightstalker gritted her jaw. That wouldn't work—there were only so many hiding places, after all. But, maybe they could try to get a hold of base again.
After running for a lot longer, they found themselves in a small corner, a dead end, but a small enough corner to hide themselves in. Luckily for them, Skyquake was a ways behind, and the kids had a chance to catch their breath.
Nightstalker felt a ring through her communicator. "Cliff? Cliffjumper!" She paused as if she could hear him, and when it was nothing but static, cursed and cut the transmission. Half a second later, Jack's phone rang.
"Hello? Arcee? Hello! A-A-Arcee!" He groaned, ending the call. "Nothing."
"That's all I've been getting," Nightstalker told them, looking over the boulder for Skyquake. "Otherwise we would have had help by now."
"Guys," Jack said, and his tone of voice made Nightstalker look back down at him. "The phone RANG. We're getting a signal!"
It took Raf all of five seconds to suggest texting. "Text me!" Miko burst. "If my phone's back at the base, maybe they'll see it!"
Jack quickly began to type on his phone, and Nightstalker felt a rumble through her peds. Oh Primus . . . Peeking around the corner, she saw Skyquake approaching, and she cursed.
"Type and run!" she ordered them, putting away her machine gun—it was doing no good. Running up, she jumped on said zombie-'Con with her spark in her throat, and she got up on his back. Skyquake roared, swiping at her as the kids ran beneath, and she pulled out her little blade from her arm. With a bravado she didn't feel, Nightstalker jabbed down at the back of his neck. The 'Con roared, and she got to stab him once more in the sensitive area before a hand grabbed her and threw her. The world spun, and Nightstalker felt every breath expelled from her body when she hit the canyon wall.
Her fuzzy optics tried to process Skyquake lumbering towards her and the kids still running. Primus, he had thrown her all the way in front of the kids? She couldn't even process how far she had been chucked. "Run," she gasped to Jack, Raf, and Miko, staggering to her feet again. Where was her knife? After a quick scramble, she found it drenched in blue energon.
"Déjà vu!" Nightstalker heard Miko cry. "Doesn't this look familiar to you?"
"Not really!" Jack shouted back.
"Dude, we just ran one big circle—! Oomph!"
Nightstalker froze when all three humans ran straight into Starscream's arm. She cursed on the inside and dropped back to the oncoming Skyquake.
Nightstalker slipped between the zombie's legs, trying to hack at him, but it wasn't doing too good. Yelping, Nightstalker ducked beneath his hand and put her knife away, opting for her whips. Slamming them against his front in hopes to short him out, she didn't do much more than infuriate it farther. Darting away, Nightstalker jumped up on the side of the canyon wall and straight for the 'Con's head, and she slammed both electrical whips into his head. The power of voltage should have been enough to down any normal 'Con, but the zombie just snarled and his shorted-out optics turned towards her.
Nightstalker screamed when his claws raked down her front, leaving four deep gouges in her body. Falling from Skyquake's shoulder, Nightstalker groaned on her back. Her optics widened at the foot that descended towards her. Tumbling away, Nightstalker jolted to a stop when his foot trapped her whips beneath his heel. Her breathing quickened in panic. Yanking at them, the sheer weight that pinned them was too much. A hand clamped around her body, and she screamed in terror.
She was first thrown into the canyon wall, and Nightstalker bucked when she felt one of her wings crumple beneath the weight of her body. That hand grabbed her again, and threw her down to the ground. Pain exploded across her front, the dust getting in and irritating her four open wounds from his claws. A rough kick sent her flying over the kids, and Nightstalker gasped, energon leaking from her mouth.
An explosion rocked out, and she lifted her fritzing optics to see a rough image of the kids at Starscream's arm and a cloud of smoke obstructing Skyquake. "Ha! How do you like us now!" Miko crowed in triumph, and that was when it dawned on Nightstalker. A weak laugh spilled through her.
They had used Starscream's missile against Skyquake!
However, that was short lived.
Nightstalker stared in horror when Skyquake roared out in fury, purple optics glazing from the smoke. She watched one of his arms dangle, and then fall. When it flipped over, all four of them snapped out of their daydream.
"Run!" Nightstalker shouted at them, and she didn't have to say it twice. The humans all took off while a completely sentient arm ran after them as well, faster than said zombie 'Con who lumbered after them.
Nightstalker forced herself to her feet, staggering a little, but she kicked away the offending arm when it came too close. Hovering near the humans now, Nightstalker recoiled her whips and pulled out her machine gun to shoot at it—which didn't go over well, she had awful aim and it was fast. She switched out for her curved blade again when the zombie arm approached too close.
Things proceeded like that until the humans stopped again back at Starscream's used arm, gasping for breath.
"Starscream!"
Nightstalker gasped, leaning on her knees as she struggled to catch her breath. Starscream approached from the front, but she quickly assured the worried humans, "He's in the other dimension! We would have seen him a bazillion times from going in circles!"
"You rightful master has returned!" he proclaimed to the air—preferably, to Skyquake.
"Keep moving!" Nightstalker barked at them. "Run through him, we've got zombies on our afts!" Kicking the offending arm again, Nightstalker jogged after them. However, all four skidded to a halt when a ground bridge exploded in front of them and Starscream.
"A ground bridge portal?" Raf wheezed.
"That has to be our way out of here," Jack asserted, brows pinching.
"The Autobots must have saw our text!" Miko crowed.
"Wait!" Nightstalker gasped for breath, holding a hand to her bleeding front. She gave a weak gesture. "Screamer. I can't—"
She looked back to the zombie arm after them. Brandishing her blade with the last of her will, Nightstalker whispered, "Wait for my say." Starscream wasn't moving, luckily, and she narrowed her optics at the arm, calculating the distance and the speed, and—
"Go!"
All three humans took off, and Nightstalker waited the breath of a moment as Starscream saw them burst from the other dimension. "What? Humans—"
Nightstalker leapt through the bridge. Starscream screamed like a sissy at the unsuspecting attack that took him to the ground, and Nightstalker jabbed her blade into the first place she found which happened to be between the joint of his shoulder and his arm. He howled in pain, and Nightstalker leapt off of him. Sprawling in the dirt, she turned around to see the zombie hand leap through and grab Starscream's face. He shrieked more, thrashing.
Another ground bridge blasted open. Nightstalker saw the Autobots, and honestly, it was probably the happiest she had ever been to see Optimus. Cliffjumper's optics popped wide.
"Nights!"
Her hand gripped her blade like a vice, and she staggered to her feet, unknowing of how wild she looked. Cliffjumper scooped her up bridal style, and Nightstalker let him, too tired to even help herself anymore.
"Primus, you look horrible . . ." The blinding sun dimmed, and it dawned on Nightstalker that Cliffjumper had brought her through the ground bridge. "Ratchet!"
Nightstalker felt hands on her—oh, probably Ratchet's. She gritted her dentures when he touched her, and she keened a sound in between her teeth when her wounds agitated her.
"Easy, Nightstalker," she heard him saying. "I'm going to put you into power down. It'll make this a whole lot easier."
The last thing she heard was Cliffjumper protesting that Ratchet never did that for him.
"Nightstalker! Wake up, or I will give you a taste of my wrench!"
Nightstalker jolted to the land of the living with a thin gasp, hands latching to the first thing they found. Her wild optics collided with blue ones, and by the shape of them, she registered that they were Ratchet's. She let go of him and crossed her arms, trembling like mad.
"All right, calm it down, Nightstalker. Deep breaths."
When his hand took hers in the dim silo, Nightstalker grabbed it and held it close to her chest. She bit down on her own hands holding his, fighting the panicking that wanted to overcome her. Carefully regulating her breathing, Nightstalker's fanning wings slowly began to still though she was still upset.
She shivered to herself, cringing as if his screams were in the present, a haunting of things past that she could never shake. "Easy, Nightstalker," she heard Ratchet saying, much more gentle than she had ever heard him before. Her jumpy optics registered an energon cube being pushed to her. "Drink this."
She shook her head, feeling optic lubricant welling up. "I don't want it," she rasped.
"You're low on energon," Ratchet said stiffly. He tried to wrest his hand from her grasp, but her grip was too tight. "I would have woken you up regardless of the nightmare. Now, drink."
When she still shook, Ratchet grumbled to himself and sat down next to her, holding the cube to her lips. Nightstalker drank with his help, gagging a bit sometimes because her body didn't want to hold it in.
"When is it going to stop?"
Nightstalker didn't have to explain the reoccurring nightmares to the medic, but he just shook his head. "Whenever you finally forgive yourself. Now, drink."
She took another sip to appease him and held his hand closer to her chest. "Does it happen to Cliffjumper too?"
Ratchet pressed the cube to her lips again. "Drink."
She turned her face away to look up at him. "It does, doesn't it?"
Ratchet paused, frowning down at her. "More than once he has been wandering the halls. But that isn't the problem right now." He pressed the energon towards her again, and Nightstalker tried to ignore her upset stomach to drink more and refuel.
After several quiet sips, Nightstalker felt the optic lubricant starting to drip down her cheeks. "I'm sorry," she whispered ashamedly, and she pressed her face into the large hand she held. "It's my fault . . . I'm sorry . . ."
There was a beat of silence before she felt Ratchet's finger wiggle, gently stroking her cheek. "After possibly one of the most courageous days of your life and you're crying?"
Nightstalker swallowed, pressing into one of his knuckles. "W-What?"
Ratchet gave a grunt in the dim lights of the silo. "The kids couldn't stop talking about how brave you were. I'm pretty sure Miko blew it out of proportions—come to think, absolutely certain that she blew it out of proportions—but they couldn't stop narrating your fearless battle with Skyquake."
Nightstalker felt her vocals hitch, steady tears rolling down her cheeks. "I was terrified," she whispered tightly, wings beginning to flutter.
"Ask any weathered warrior how many times he was afraid going into battle," Ratchet chided her gently. "It's normal. Don't beat yourself up over it. You did what needed to be done when it needed doing, and must I remind you, without the proper training of even the lowliest soldier." His thumb wiped a tear. "Now stop all this crying, you're liable to lose the energon faster than I can get it in you."
Nightstalker took a shuddering breath, following his instructions. Drinking a bit more, knowing that after her hard battle and losing much energon she needed to, no matter how it made her gag every time. Finally, Ratchet deemed she had enough fuel to last her enough for his peace of mind and let her relax on the medical berth again. Nightstalker swallowed and released a stressed breath, and closed her optics.
"Thank you, Ratchet."
He merely grunted, and a smile played at the edges of her lips. Poor medic. He thought he could hide his caring side from people.