So Tuesday had been a good 80 degrees or so, nice temperature, I enjoyed it.
And what do we get on Wednesday?
36 degrees.
I hate bipolar weather.
Anyways, thanks for coming back here everyone! I hope you like this chapter, I made it specially intriguing for all you guys!
Enjoy!
Of The Spark And Heart
Part 2
Chapter 63
Insanity can be described as a great many things. Whether it be as the weak, unbarring for all their supposed faults, seeking haplessly the fruit of the strong, or the strong themselves, yearning endlessly for greatness - to grow past possible. The cycle proved evident of the strive for growth. Many a some expected to achieve the best merely if they willed it enough to be so. But by the flesh of the fallen, many a some could not return from their journey for greatness. Husks tumble through the weeds of ash, weaving amongst corpses littered along the roads and paths left in the wake of travelers.
A poisonous breath, circling into the lungs of the young, eating away their resolve, not a smite of innocence may be spared. Perhaps it was this that granted the souls their indifference of life. Perhaps it was this that pumped blindness through wretched, ragged veins. Perhaps it was this that spurred courage into a consciousness numbed to all that but the flay of the flesh of a comrade as they lay dying or dead on the earth.
Why fight on when all but failure was evident in one's path? Why fight on when the exact outcome of circumstances arose indefinitely from times passed? The answer, though brief, provides such clarity in happenstance of mugginess, thus bringing on a great wisdom that there was a single fact blared high into the hearts of many. It was burned into the mind - seared onto flesh as irrevocable scars, winding through emotion until it was but run dry and empty for the next soldier to fill in their place.
And as she walk between the many pacing through these cold and insufferable halls a of stone-grey prison, she knew only a blatant idea arose in her mind of the ones stepping before, around, next to, or past. They had no expression. Deep lines carved into their stalwart faces. Not one dare show happiness or relaxation in this era of war. It was always war. No peace reined for longer than a month, this she knew. And it was with that sad intelligence that she pat a shoulder or hug a peer, if only to change their face. She couldn't handle seeing them that way. She needed change.
They wanted to be free - that's all any of them wished for. To break the ceaseless cycle of day and run freedom dry was what these people sacrificed everything for. It was what he had sacrificed everything for. The one she'd fallen in love with... The father of her child. And now they were both gone. Maybe not her daughter completely, however, she was gone in body. The titan moving about with the same name, voice, and words, was but a beautiful dream. Things would never be the same. She smiled brightly at a passerby young soldier who had his arm in a sling and his head wrapped in bandages.
Just because things couldn't be the same didn't mean Sarah Danielle Lennox would stop hoping.
"Tell me the report again."
Two glowering, crimson optics, nearly black in a profusely darkening hue, narrowed on the tiny form trembling before him. They were but a fourth of his height, made for easier transport by their master, whom at this moment should be working on tracking the Autobots alongside his peer Bekos. They were a ghastly violet color, with green highlights along their arms and chassis. A lens protruded from their front, giving them a proper adornment for their name. They were a sniveling, cowardly Cassettecon, with no Cybertronian's condition in processor but their own and their creator. Arachnid found him absolutely annoying.
"The human has been located, however..." Reflector began again, shrinking into himself and fiddling with his servos. Arachnid noticed her irritation steadily rising with this pest, and her arms tightened over her chassis. She was leaning against the back wall, covered in shadow, with but the lightest of glints that bounced from her armor betraying her presence. The sharpness of her digits shone a keen white along their edge while she tapped them impatiently against her bicep armor. If this didn't progress soon, she was sure she would have to get involved.
"However...?" Galvatron prompted, egging the 'Con on.
Reflector cringed again, knitting his digits together over and over again while he fumbled with what to say. "However...the human was located...it is simply that she may not be in the condition...that you would particularly desire, my Lord-"
"Get to the point, you tire my patience!" Galvatron snapped.
Reflector appeared as though he wanted to disappear. Arachnid didn't blame him. She'd felt the same way once. It was merely satisfying watching another squirm under the scorn of their leader rather than she.
"Fera Lennox is...dead, my Lord..."
The very life of the room ceased. Digits stalled above their boards, hovering mid-type while their frames paused. A various array of emotions flooded forth from these beings. Including Arachnid, it involved shock and curiosity, as well as a great shade of confusion. Vents whirred lowly when not a word breached the icy still. Lights above flickered as they always did. Humming vidcasts from the projector screen at the front wall were muted in sake of including all available audios into conversation. But only a crackle split its speakers.
Galvatron was stone standing atop his throne. Arachnid watched him with an odd mix of satisfaction and anticipation. Whatever he would do now, would be entertaining. The chaos he created was delicious to behold. As she had looked down upon her peers, Arachnid had grinned until her lip plates hurt while they begged and pleaded like the wretches they were. Not one deserved less than a severed limb for failure now. The war was in its brink of glory. If the Decepticon cause could not obtain that of which held value, serious consequences would rein. It was necessary to instill a bit of fear into their soldiers and warriors at a time such as this.
However fear would do nothing in an occasion like this one. Their sole priority - the one designated Fera Lennox, human child of the Autobot cause, was terminated. As well as this, they held in their possession the Galvanizer, of which Fera was supposed to have been Keeper to. Would the Autobots merely use her in creation of their latest technologies and then extinguish her in attempts to keep her from Decepticon control?
No, they wouldn't. They didn't have it in their weakling sparks to deadspark a human. Especially her. She was too personally and strategically valuable. Then again, the Autobots were known to get desperate...
The deepest of rumbles abruptly rocked from the very bowls of the ship. Plates rattled along the walls that bowed over the gathered. Wiring fizzled and the screens of the monitors soldiers sat at flickered in and out. The floor itself trembled as if wholly frightened from the sound emitted from the being standing in the middle of its surface. Arachnid herself had to restrain the rigid tenseness of her frame, or a hint of reaction on her faceplates. Though she could not prevent herself from digging intensely sharp digits into the shell of her armor. They gave her the anchor she needed to keep reserved.
Galvatron's body had swelled. The plates were literally floating on onyx smoke as it tricked forth from the seams. His optics were a darkened ash color. The titan took his time making his way down the short flight of steps that led the walk to his throne. The ground where he left in his walk towards Reflector left a charred print. His shadow seemed to completely engulf Reflector when he stopped directly in front of the rattling Cassettecon.
"What do you mean...dead?" he snarled, his tone so beyond him that Arachnid believed another entity had possessed him where he stood. Reflector looked about ready to flush himself. His body fell to his kneebolts, arms risen in preparation to protect his faceplates. His paint blurred at the edges as the slates vibrated in his terror.
Arachnid neither could say, nor do, anything. Her sights were locked on this behemoth glowering over her fellow peer. There was nothing that she had quite seen proceeding him that matched such an...otherworldly essence. Even in landing on Earth, she hadn't felt such unfamiliarity or overwhelming awe.
Reflector thrust his servos before his faceplates, trying to protect himself as Galvatron came within a yard or so from his position. "The Autobot allies have made no attempt to hide her presence, as they buried her in a mass graveyard north of their original base of operations, Lord Galvatron," he reported with a badly shaking voice.
The Decepticon leader's shoulderbolts hunched, his servos balling into fits. Those around him backed away from the walkway into the lower ring of the soldiers by the projectors. Galvatron's fury was clearly written across everything from his body language to the edge in his tone. He was prepared for energon shed. Now whose energon that would be would depend on the culprit to this failure.
"She is no longer living," Reflector confirmed hesitantly.
Galvatron snapped to attention, immediately heaving massive amounts of air around him while his anger reached unfathomable heights. Failure of this magnitude had yet to be heard of in Galvatron's leadership. Despite herself, Arachnid smiled in the shadows. Nothing of this caliber had happened during her ruling.
"It appears as though you have ultimately failed, oh Lord Galvatron," she sniped mockingly from her corner. Galvatron rounded on her, aiming those core-stabbing orbs on her. They tore straight through her curtain of shadow and pierced into her very spark, causing her to falter for a nanoclick. Forcing down her unease, Arachnid went on. "What is it you plan to devise in Fera Lennox's destruction? She was your reason for continuation of this war after all."
"Perhaps," Galvatron began, stalking at her with agonizingly measured steps, "we would have prevented such happenstance for our human priority if combatants of mine hadn't the ignorance of throwing the fleshling into a rock wall." His accusation hit Arachnid hard enough to make her frown. What he said was true, no matter her determination to deny it. It had been her that held Fera in her servo before being attacked by Rethalia Prime, eventually sending the human female flying into a rock cliff not fifty meters away. How was she supposed to have been aware of that wall? She was in the middle of battle!
When Arachnid opened her lip plates to speak, another mech cut her off, "What will this mean for the Galvanizer? She was the Keeper! She was the only one to control the Tool!" He was on his peds, standing tall in the sea of witnesses around him. When Galvatron turned on the light blue Seeker, all those near the mech inched away. Cyclonus himself tethered to the spot, unable to move when he was singled out.
"This circumstance provides no room for error in my ranks henceforth!" Galvatron roared, making all those who watched him grimace when the monitors shook and the ship groaned. "Because of foolhardy default of my warriors, we have lost our goal in this war!" his voice lowered, "The scales have tipped in Autobot favor, deeming it necessary we take action instantly. Without mercy. Without relief."
"What are we to do, my Lord?" Platon questioned evenly from Cyclonus' side. Galvatron found the mech and caught him in a moment of consideration. Arachnid withheld a shiver from crossing herself when seeing those lifeless optics of Galvatron's rake over Platon's being. How the mech dealt with that merciless gaze as calmly as he did confused her.
The warlord finally grew silent. For the first time since Reflector had relayed his news, Galvatron's presence reduced. If but slightly, the atmosphere lightened. Arachnid suddenly realized her vents had been struggling for a cycle, as her systems were stressed by the invisible weight. As she rubbed a servo over the armor covering her aching spark chamber, she observed her leader in earnest from behind. What sorcery was this? The sheer power he exhibited was being echoed by the ship, as if he were somehow connected to it - a part of the vessel itself.
"There must be another way," Galvatron reasoned. Though, may that be with himself or one of his troops, she couldn't be sure. The mech was known for his tenancy to speak to the nothing. "There must be. They are foolish enough to refuse letting that human perish...There has to be another way," without warning, he spun around, flashing two brilliantly vicious, red optics. "Arachnid!"
The fembot jerked at the sound of her designation. To make up for it, she shot to a better stand and held herself tall against the assaulting ray of her leader's gaze. "Yes, Lord Galvatron?"
"Take Platon and awaken Punch," he ordered flatly. "I desire to have a word with our favored traitor."
Arachnid nodded and began towards the door alongside the torture specialist, making sure to throw one last cold comment over her shoulderbolt on her way out, "It is my pleasure."
In leaving, she could have sworn she heard the chilling laughter of Galvatron. There was no warmth there. Not a hint of emotion but ruthlessness arose. The sound grated against her audios, greatly contradicting the joyous cackle of most. She herself had chuckled at the beautiful demise of the Autobots as the images sailed across her processor once. But then had been a disillusioned time, when she had been influenced by what she now assumed as Galvatron's detached spark essence. She hadn't known then that her faction would come to this. She hadn't known that Galvatron would acquire a consciousness powerful enough to outweigh her authority. She'd been stripped of hierarchy in a matter of astroseconds. And it had all fallen at her peds.
Everything she had created, gone. Just like that. All because of that single voice which had sung in her audio and lulled her with sweet nothings. Those decisions hadn't been her own. If she considered arising Megatron as she had then again, she would strike down the idea with extreme prejudice. If only she'd known then.
Arachnid walked through the door of the room that Punch would be located in. When the barrier slid aside to reveal the massacre that was beyond, she felt her spark turn cold. It was too similar to the scene left in the wake of those warriors she had deadsparked upon Galvatron's orders not a groon before. Skyquake and Octane fell without pain to her, as Hex had injected them with sedatives before she gave the final blow. However it was the mental backlash she received from committing to that task that made her doubt herself know. Platon passed her by to return to his work, unaware or unconcerned with her self-discouragement. How many Decepticon warriors would still be alive if Arachnid hadn't awakened Galvatron? There would be more following this, she was sure.
What have I created?
Fera again shifted her limbs to tuck her arms flush to her chassis. The jarring of the vehicle threw her up high enough to slam her back into the ceiling. Though her legs weren't necessarily long, they were forced to be folded beneath her and pinned underneath her weight. When they moved, the cramp space tossed her so violently that she was certain her plates would fly off her protoform.
Her helm was smashed to the window hard enough that she could hear the wind whistling by outside. This incredibly small space hadn't truly given her a chance to speak with Titanios during their trek. Which, at this point, Fera was certain was never going to end. On several occasions, she'd tried speaking to either her Guardian or Titanios himself, however, as soon as she'd maneuvered herself enough to free her faceplates, they'd begin to move faster again and she would be chucked backwards to hit the back of her cranial unit on the seat. Not a fun time.
After giving up the fourth time, she'd simply sat back and 'enjoyed' the ride. It didn't look like there was anything else she could do. During those long hours, she'd rested as best she could against the awkward curve of the seat and door, with her helm turned to the side to watch the outside world pass by or study Solas' alt mode as he followed closely behind Titanios.
There was the hologram of a soldier in Solas' front seat at the wheel that Fera could see. Through the darkness of his front windshield, she found him relaxing against the door, one arm folded in the open window. He seemed content enough.
Suddenly his steady blue eyes locked on Fera through the glass. A grin stretched across his tanned features. The skin around his eyes crinkled and the thin stubble adorning his squared jaw lifted. Then without warning, his eyes crossed and his tongue shot from between his teeth. His nose twisted and his head tilted to the side.
Fera started and pressed her noseplate to the window to see better. At first, she was concerned for her comrade. He didn't usually look like that. Was something wrong? Before she could ask, his features returned to normal and she saw him rear his head in laughter. Then it hit her: Solas was making a face at her.
Now irritated, Fera huffed and shoved her frame sideways to back from the window. If Solas wanted to be silly, he could do it all on his lonesome. It wasn't nice to go and make her think he was sick, or possibly glitched. Titanios' frame rattled a bit when a deep rumble came from the frame surrounding her. The radio flared in short bursts, the knobs circling quickly. It was here she realized he'd been laughing as well.
"Please, laugh it up!" she called as she again shifted herself to lay on her tanks. "I'm glad to be your entertainment for the evening."
The laughing continued for a good minute until fading off. A voice picked up across the radio waves in its place. "You must let yourself unwind Fera, Solas is merely trying to have fun with you. I am sure your frame is tense from this strenuous trip," Titanios reasoned. To prove his observation, her carrier hit a particularly rough patch and Fera grunted, her faceplates knitting in soreness. Her spinal support was killing her, and her left arm had fallen numb. How long had they been driving for now? They hadn't stopped for the past day and a half, leaving her tossing and turning in a tiny cabin until she was nearly banging her helm into the window on purpose just to find something to distract herself.
A sigh escaped her vents as she decided to flip over onto her spinal support. Her legs settled a bit better after being relieved of her weight, and her servos found a nice spot to lay on her abdominal slips. Her neck was still at an odd angle from being crammed up into the door, but at least this was more comfortable.
"I don't mind fun," she commented as lightly as she could. "It's not being allowed to leave this death cage that is putting me on edge. I can barely move in here, and even if I could, I am still bored beyond belief." Her peds touched the window and she applied the softest of pressure. She could imagine stretching her legs again beyond the glass merely by shattering it. Titanios could get another window. It wouldn't hurt him, would it? Maybe she could...
Titanios' radio buzzed, getting her attention. "I understand Fera, and I apologize," he conceded gently. "However, we must keep going if we are to collect your comrade before he is executed. Time is not on our side."
A heavier feeling passed over Fera in hearing the mech's words. They were true, as she was all too familiar with. The knowledge that a fellow Autobot was in danger because of her made her all too willing to get to him as soon as possible. It was because of him that she was alive now, and that was enough to convince her. She could still recall clearly the anger in Solas' optics as he had argued with Titanios about bringing her.
The mech curled a fist and barred it across Fera's chassis, keeping her from stepping towards the large figure at the front entrance. Mirage was at Titanios' side, watching the Guardian and his charge as they spoke. They had been there for a few minutes now, and Fera was becoming impatient with the mech and his stubborn pride.
"I'm going," she stated firmly again for what seemed the millionth time. The color of Solas' optics darkened to a dangerous hue. For a moment, she considered backing down. Solas only wanted was he thought was best for her and what would keep her safe, but at the same time, there were some things that she knew were best. It didn't feel right to leave her savior to the mercy of the enemy, especially when they could do such horrid things to their own kind. So she stood tall, her arms crossed and her expression vigilant.
"No, you're not. It isn't safe, Fera. You don't even have armor yet!" Solas opened a servo at her, gesturing at her thin covering. She held back a retort and dug the tips of her digits into her arms. The thought of injury scared her a bit, yes. The truth was that she wasn't one hundred percent sure if she could even pull off what Titanios wished for her to do. It would be dangerous. There was no telling if they would come back unharmed...or come back at all.
Fera swallowed back her uncertainty and gathered her strength into her voice. "I am my own being Sol, I can handle myself," she snapped. She almost smiled with the sound of certainty in her tone. It was stern and hard, making her sound far more prepared than she actually was. "I don't even have to get into combat, it's simply a search and rescue mission. If anything, it will be Titanios or you who will be in action if we get caught. I'm safe."
Solas scowled, obviously displeased. Fera nearly scoffed at him and how ridiculous it was. He was thinking too hard over this, especially when he thought he could control her. If he believed he was able to simply order her around without consideration of her stand, then he had another thing coming.
"Here," Solas bit, suddenly jerking up his arm. His digits closed over her protoform, roughly pinching a wire beneath. Fera yelped in pain and jumped away, rubbing the spot while she looked at Solas with confusion.
"What was that for?"
"That hurt, didn't it? Fera, you don't understand what you are getting yourself into. Those 'Cons out there, they don't care about you," Sol claimed. His arm lifted, his digit aimed at the open door, "They will stab you through the spark quicker than you can shutter and optic, and you want to sneak into their most heaviest-armed compound to rescue a mech we can retrieve ourselves? Mirage, Titanios, and I are perfectly capable enough to carry out this mission. I simply do not wish for his rescue to be at the expense of you getting hurt."
Fera's frame sagged a bit in guilt when his words sunk in. Was she putting them at risk going? She wasn't properly in armor, or in a complete Cybertronian frame for that matter either. A part of her was questioning her sanity. After all, it had been the Decepticon's fault that she had lost everything: her body, her memories, very nearly her life...everything. But then she remembered that Punch was with them now, and they could very well do the same to him. And so all that doubt - all that second-guessing herself and confliction would leave her. She had to do this. She had to.
Solas came closer and ducked down, his volume lessening a notch. "This isn't your time. Let us bring him back. I don't want to lose you again," he rose a servo to put on her shoulderbolt, but Fera stepped away. Her features were cold in determination, her lip plates pressed in a straight line.
"I'm not yours to lose," she murmured. "I can make my own decisions Solas." When she passed his still form, she saw the hurt in his gaze. The glazed teal color had deepened in the split second she'd caught his sight. But then she had left him behind, thus breaking the contact and throwing her into a loop of chilling remorse. Solas only wanted her to be safe, and she was making that impossible to do. Nonetheless, this had to be done. Discussion was out of the question.
Fera stepped across the floor to close the distance between her and the two mechs waiting by the door. Solas could be heard a short sparkbeat later following behind. They said nothing when they came to meet with Titanios and Mirage, and Fera made sure to keep any part of her frame from accidentally brushing his. She couldn't feel sorry now. That would be for later.
Titanios dipped his helm at the both of them respectfully before speaking. "The others are either on patrol, or dealing with the electrical glitch in the communications center of the building," he began. "Now is our chance to leave without detection."
"What is your plan?" Mirage asked evenly.
Fera turned her helm to the spy curiously. His paint had finally been redone and completed, however it was not the red that everyone on base had expected and known it to be. It was the lighter blue of his disguise, with a few touched-up white spaces here and there. The change fit him. It was more the calm, controlled demeanor that Fera was used to seeing in him, instead of the furious scarlet color that she'd imagined on him.
"You are to stay here, to keep in communications with the base in the state of emergency," Titanios informed. The camouflaged former 'Con then nodded toward Fera, making her stiffen. "Fera is to come with Solas and I to board the Nemesis, where Punch is being held. Once there, Fera will be able to use the Stone of Primus to track Punch's essence and lead us to him."
"What about a distraction? The Decepticons won't merely land their vessel for any reason and allow us past," Solas intoned grimly. Fera fought the urge to see his faceplates, knowing she wouldn't like what she saw. Instead she focused on Titanios, who was considering the Guardian carefully.
When he had taken a moment, he lifted his chin. "I am to create a ruse. While Fera is on board the Nemesis with you, I am to draw the attention of the Decepticon crew. Once you are safely outside with Punch, you may inform me through private comlink and I shall use this," he lifted a circular device, "to allow us escape. It will create a shield of electrically charged smoke, which shall obscure our vehicles and spark signatures."
Fera did let herself touch Solas this time. She couldn't hide the facts anymore. She was scared. Yes, she said it. She was scared. And by the way Solas touched her upper arm with more force than he usually did, he was too. They were going on board a Decepticon vessel...
And there was no promise that they would return.
"We are reaching our destination," Titanios announced, drowning out Fera's musings and bringing her back to the present. She twisted her neck around to see out the window. The landscape was basically the same, if but more rocky, with mountains far off in the distance rising from the earth in enormous, foggy glory. They cut through the dreary clouds like knives, their tops keen and immensely dark.
She flipped back onto her kneebolts and elbowjoints to get a better view. The strain on her neck was ignored while she gazed in awe of the gloomy beauty. Ice capped off ridges of the uneven surfaces and trees lines the brown soil so thickly that it was a sea of green against the rolling hills. A lake could be seen in the far off lands bouncing the rays of the dying sun off like a diamond. A strange, fluffy creature, with four legs and curled horns atop its head zipped along the faces of cliff without a care in the world.
Why did the Decepticons want to ruin such a beautiful place? What did it gain them to destroy life such as this? They'd already wrecked their home world, why come here just to do the same? Solas had told her it had been for the AllSpark cube that Samuel Witwicky's ancestor had come across a centur ago. Megatron and many of his followers had been killed to recover it. When he had been resurrected, another ancient artifact, the Requiem Blaster, had been blown apart in Egypt. And if that wasn't enough, Megatron had been killed for a second time in Chicago after battling for the Pillars, another creation of a great and mighty Prime long ago named Sentinel. Ironhide had been murdered from behind in the crossfire by a cowardly shot to the spark from Megatron. It was a relief he was long dead now.
As Fera simmered, she hadn't noticed that she had been lodging her digits into the padding of Titanios' door. She ripped back in alarm, crossing her arms over her chassis. "Sorry!" she blurted.
"Are you alright, Fera?" Titanios inquired, ignoring her flustered apology. She forced herself to nod, but then she remembered that the mech couldn't see her, and so she gave a small 'yes' as answer.
It wouldn't be right to include Titanios in her personal problems. As such, she would keep up a strong wall and put on a brave face. It was for the better that she didn't tell them what was bothering her. It didn't make sense. It would only distract them unnecessarily. She diverted her optics to Solas again as he kept behind them. The holoform at the wheel was looking ahead, not paying any attention to Titanios. He seemed more interested in the landscape itself rather than the truck carrying his charge.
There was something off about his features, as they were less relaxed than before. He was thinking. About what, she couldn't be sure. But she wished she could get in his processor for once to experience what it was he thought about sometimes. Solas was a strange character to crack, and as difficult a persona to get along with as they came. And yet, Fera couldn't imagine life without him. He'd apparently been at her side in those last months of her human life, and he was the first life she had seen when she'd awoke. It only seemed appropriate that she would be curious about him. It was only taking longer than she though to crack into that steely spark of his.
"Titanios, could you ask what Solas is thinking about?" Fera wondered, not taking her optics off the holoform for a sparkbeat. Titanios gave no response, but Fera could hear the crackling of the radio as it tried to find the right frequency. When he did, Solas' holoform peeked up in an almost startled way. What could have the mech this distant?
As the silence drew on, Solas' holoform eventually picked up his eyes to look straight at Fera. His lips moved while he spoke back to the radio, and then he was leaning back into the seat. The holoform and fembot continued to stare at one another until Titanios' voice came over the speakers.
"He relays to me that is considering our surroundings. They are familiar to him."
"Why?" Fera asked, her optic ridges burrowing.
"I am not certain. It may be that this is nearby the location the Decepticons held yo-"
~Titanios, focus on getting to the fragging ship,~ Solas cut in over the comlink channel. ~Punch cannot wait for us forever.~
Fera sent a glare at the holoform behind them and he met her gaze with two icy eyes of his own. His fingers were splayed over his chin, his gaze set on her with avid seriousness. He didn't appear at all satisfied. What had gotten into him? And what had the Decepticons held? Had it been another artifact like the Stone of Primus? What about another Autobot?
There were so many secrets that the Autobots kept from her, and she was tired of it. She wanted to remember her old life. All of it. And if that meant the bad parts had to come with that knowledge, so be it. It was ridiculously painful to watch snippets of corrupted images pass by her in her recharge and have absolutely no idea what they meant. What's worse is that when she asked Solas about them, he would say they were just corrupted files from when the Galvanizer woke her up and she should ignore them. But how could she ignore a knife being plunged into her side? Or kissing Solas' holoform? Or inconceivable pain that would make her limbs freeze as if she were seizing? It didn't make sense, and the only ones that could help her were ignoring it.
Fera withheld her frustration as she always did. One of these days, she was going to get her memories back. It didn't matter if she had to try linking with Solas like Ratchet did with her, and end up in the white room all over again. This not knowing was going to drive her insane. She wanted to know who she was - why she was here. She shouldn't have been, but she was. There had to be a reason.
"Fera prepare yourself, we are encroaching upon our rendezvous point," Titanios reported. His tone was grave, as it should have been. It matched the atmosphere fine, as it did Fera's mood. It was all coming crashing down on her that it was all real. This was actually happening. Was she crazy?
Yes. The answer was yes.
She wrung her servos together and let go of a shaking length of air from her vents. Her plates shuddered on her protoform. Darkness overcame her when she she shuttered her optics for a brief collection of herself. She was mentally preparing for this mission, for it wasn't her life only on the line. Punch, Solas Kaon, and Titanios were all depending on her. This was it.
Titanios' alt crept along the ground at a far slower pace than before. Tight knots gripped Fera's tanks in nervousness when the tires lurched her to the side. Why was she worrying? This would go great. I have Solas and Titanios looking out for me, she though reassuringly to herself.
Then why do I feel like something bad is about to happen?
She couldn't question Titanios or make a comment at all, as Titanios had come to a complete stop. The cabin was shrouded in shadow, blanketing everything in total darkness. Fera's optics adjusted to the abrupt change and she inclined her body forward to get a look out the window. From her angle, she could only see a hulking bulge of rock. Beyond that she was blind.
The door she rested on opened without warning. Without support, Fera cried out as she tumbled out of Titanios and onto the unforgiving ground. Hardly-packed dirt met her spinal support and aft, sending a jarring snap up her spinal relay. A hiss escaped her and she carefully sat up, running a servo on her aching spinal support. It was already stiff from the ride here, and the impact only added to that.
Behind her, she could hear Titanios beginning his transformation, although it was a little slower than usual. Fera knew it was because he didn't want to make a lot of noise, however, the longer it took him to reform, the longer they would be exposed. She set the servo on her relay onto the ground and let her helm fall back to see Titanios. He was standing tall, his mandible inclined to give him better vision. He was already a good three feet taller than Solas at least, which gave Fera a good idea at how large the boulder covering them really was.
It was merely a blob of stone on the edge of the line of trees facing them. After it, was an enormous stretch of flatland. Mountains surrounded them from that point on, leaving them in a bowl of sorts, with cover on all sides. It was a nice place to meet for a quick getaway, and Fera found a grin coming over her lip plates. Way to go Titanios.
Solas walked in front of her line of sight, forcing her to look up. He was bent low, his servo outstretched toward her. It was here she realized she'd still been sitting where Titanios had left her, and with an embarrassed frown, she took Solas' help to stand. The mech ushered her to the boulder next to Titanios, keeping her in the middle of himself and their giant comrade. With a bulky pile of walking war machines on either side of her, it was impossible for Fera not to feel safe. She didn't like it.
The fembot edged around Solas' frame as he faced the boulder and tried getting a peek around it. When Fera laid a servo on his spinal support to see better around him, he turned back and gave her a funny expression.
"What are you doing?"
"Trying to see," Fera told him. "Now can you move?"
Solas' mandible visibly tightened and his optics danced across her profile. "No." And his faceplates jerked up to Titanios. "Do you see anything?"
Fera's lip plates fell open in shock before clapping closed. She placed her fists on her hipbolts and gave her Guardian her best condescending glare. "Excuse me-"
"The Nemesis should arrive soon," Titanios interrupted. Fera groaned louder than she'd meant to and Solas clapped a servo across her lip plates. The power behind this action sent her into the boulder. Optics wide, Fera found Solas ducking low beside her audio receptor.
"Stay quiet," he ordered. "If we are found, there is definitely no chance for us to escape this."
A string of fear washed through Fera's very energon when hearing that. Solas didn't sound the same. There was more a soldier-like edge to him that Fera wasn't sure she liked or not. It was a side of him that she had never expected to see aimed for her. It stayed in his aura when he pulled away from her as well, as if whatever friendship they shared before was lost to the moment. It made her know that then, right there, that this situation was final. There was no going back now, and they only had this one chance, so she better not screw it up or they were all dead.
Swallowing back her terror, she tried organizing her foggy processor. This was overwhelming for her. For her first walk off of base, she had been thrown right into the fray of war. Perhaps not the worst of it, but who was to know how this mission was to go?
A reverberating, thunderous roar hit her audios with astounding might. Its incredible loudness forced her to cup her servos over her sensitive audios in fear they might burst. She could feel the ground shake beneath her peds and sense the air as it vibrated along the plates of her meager armor. The attachment to the side of her helm clicked furiously in her discomfort, and she tightly squeezed her optics shut in attempts to block out the sound. It was building, stronger, stronger, until an all-consuming quake had befallen her.
Releasing a silent squeak, Fera squatted low and used all her strength to protect her audios, to no avail. It helped only marginally to block out the rocking intensity. What could the noise be? Surely Solas and Titanios were effected by it too?
Fera opened her optics and looked to both mechs. Solas had his spinal support to the boulder, his helm turned sideways with a grimace overtaking his features. He didn't seem in pain as she was, but then again, he had been in war his entire life, meaning he was probably used to this abuse. Fera switched to Titanios, only to find he too was still as iron. The space around his plates shook enough to blur the very edges of his paint, but he wasn't in pain. He didn't even move a single faceplate as Solas had. Was she the only one suffering?
The personal earthquake began to die away into nothing, leaving the three Autobots in tense quiet. Fera could still feel her plates shaking, though there no longer was sound. She rose again to inch closer to Solas and take in his strong presence. She fed from his stoic ease in such a high-anxiety moment. It was impressive.
"The Nemesis is here," Titanios murmured just loud enough for them to hear. "The members of its crew are unloading and coming into the open."
"We should shoot them now, while they are exposed," Solas growled while he watched from the other side of their rocky cover.
"There are too many, we would be outnumbered and overwhelmed before we could take more than four," Titanios paused, leaving the air heavy with unsaid conversation. "Who in Primus name..." he stopped himself as his optics narrowed into the gathering of Decepticons surely becoming in the meadow. Fera wished she could see what they did, but she knew she would soon enough when she boarded the ship.
Solas lifted from his spot, looking over at Titanios. "What is it?"
"Nothing. Nothing, just...move on my mark," the warrior commanded briskly. Fera wanted to question the uncertainty in Titanios, but when Solas obeyed his peer's request without a word otherwise, she decided it would be wise not to ask.
Minutes passed by, feeling like hours as they waned through their process. Voice, though low, could be made out from the space past the rock. Mechs, all of them, if but for one or two that could be fembots. Fera tried coming up with images in her processor of what the Decepticon's armor could be. It couldn't be similar to the Autobots, as she had been told that if she ever saw a Decepticon, she would know it was a Decepticon. They couldn't be so different from Autobots, could they? They were all Cybertronian. They all had sparks and a protoform, and armor, and-
"Titanios, they are in the meadow, we should strike now," Solas debated heatedly. "They must be waiting for their captain, otherwise I see no other reason to wait longer."
When no response came from Titanios, both Solas and Fera turned to the warrior. His expression couldn't be read. His frame was too still. The plates were risen by the smallest amount in anger or anxiety. There was something in the way he stood that was off. Could he be having second thoughts about his former faction? Fera was having doubts herself if they could be trusted.
Solas reached across Fera to touch Titanios' bracer. "Titanios-?"
"Solas pay attention, you are going to compromise this mission," he answered back coldly. The sting of his retort struck Fera, and she gave Titanios a queer gaze before following Solas' lead. They had to be on alert. They couldn't lose a second of cool.
Fera didn't know what was happening, but she could tell from the way Solas hung on the boulder that it wasn't good. He was itching to get action, however, the plan didn't call for his necessary involvement. He was to protect her while she found Punch, and if required, defend her from attackers. That was it. But maybe there was a chance that they would get caught in another fight. Solas could get hurt again, or herself even, and where would that lead them? Titanios would be outside with the 'Cons, too busy to know their condition. What was their fallback plan? She wondered if Titanios had one at all, or if-
Any thought she could have had was stripped from her.
Her helm smashed against the boulder with an explosion of white. Agony seared along her helm. The abruptness stole the voice from her, leaving her without chance to call out. Her frame immediately collapsed against the rock, leaving her weak and unstable as a limp bundle. Thoughts blurred as her sight did. Sounds became muffled background noise to the beating of her hammering spark. It was frightened, but oddly, she wasn't. She didn't feel anything at all. Not even pain anymore.
If she could smile, she would. Pain was a subject she'd known since awakening again. To not feel it at all was bliss...
"I'm sorry."
A massive figure passed before her, taking up the entirety of her vision. The one whom had been standing in front of her was also on the ground, on his front, his helm turned toward her. His optics were open, but fuzzy and out of focus. Solas.
Fera released a gasp when the wisdom came crashing down onto her. The lack of feeling in her arms made it impossible for her to reach for Solas and shake him back to awareness, but her optics had cleared enough to show her the world again. Something large swooped from above to hook Solas Kaon into a sort of cradled position as if he weighed nothing at all. Fera's helm fell back and she raised a weak servo at Solas in helplessness. They were taking him away.
The figure chucked Solas from behind the boulder and into the meadow out of Fera's line of sight. She choked on a sharp intake again, leaving her struggling for the name of her Guardian when he disappeared. It was then her turn to be grabbed, her upper arms nearly denting from the pressure. She flew upwards into two arms, held against a broad chassis that let her pounding helm rest against. It was warm and it felt safe, but she knew it was fake. This wasn't safe. Whoever this was was the enemy.
The world began to pass her by as her captor stepped forward away from the boulder. They didn't throw her as they had Solas, but she still clung on in case they decided to. She was trying so hard to see who held her, but she couldn't. She let go of a whine and stared up into the blinding sun, which sent a halo of crimson and gold behind the helm of this stranger. Who were they?
Those arms holding her up vanished to let her drop as a dead weight onto the ground. Fera moaned, gathering her arms beneath her to lift herself up. No...this wasn't right...they needed to get back behind the boulder before they got caught.
Fera laid there, simply wishing to become invisible. This wasn't happening. This wasn't safe. "Solas..." she muttered, desperate to find her Guardian and make sure he was ok. She gathered her arms under her to push up onto her servos and rose her chin. There, right there, she saw a ped. It was not a foot from her faceplates, covered in a sickly grey and violet armor. It was wide and thick, built upon with countless scratches. She followed it up the leg until she was forced to come to sit on her kneebolts.
Vicious faceplates and the Decepticon insignia met her sights and her spark dropped to somewhere in her peds. Her tanks twisted and her vents ceased. This wasn't Solas. And who that was standing next to the massive Decepticon wasn't Solas either.
It was Titanios.
Thank you guys so much for sticking with me so far in OTSH pt 2 so far :D
I love you all, and I hope you still love me after that little cliff hanger :)
But I am sad to say that I am again taking a short break in OTSH...
But I will return!
Soon, soon, soon, I assure you :D
This is not a Part 3, but simply a short break for me to let you guys catch up, digest, and accept all that has happened so far :)
I'll be seeing you all again!
Thank you!
*Chapter Inspiration: Outside= Staind*