"Alright," Optimus said, turning to Vesper as she nervously leaned against a nearby rock. "I am going to first teach you about a few moves with that blade of yours," he said, gesturing at her left servo. She looked down at it, then formed the servo into the blade and held it up. Optimus nodded before forming both of his own servos into blades, making Vesper's cyan optics widen in shock.
"Y-You have two?" she asked, confused, and Optimus nodded. "O-Oh…"
Optimus sighed as he transformed one back into a hand. "If it makes you feel better, I will not use both, okay?" he asked, and Vesper nodded as she pushed herself away from the rock, biting her lip as she did so. Optimus smiled softly. "Do not be worried, I will not hurt you." Then he jumped forward, giving Vesper little time to react… but, much to the Prime's surprise, the femme jumped out of the way and landed expertly and lightly on her feet, almost as if she'd encountered a similar move before. Gritting her teeth in order to hide her pain, Vesper dodged again and again as Optimus leapt at her. "Good work, Vesper," Optimus said as he finally jumped back. "Where did you learn to dodge like that?"
The femme shrugged. "I used to do some martial arts; it was a hobby of mine." She shook her head. "I got to the end of the training, but…"
Optimus nodded knowingly. "It was informal; you were never supposed to apply it to actual wartime."
Vesper nodded in agreement. "Correct." She smiled softly at Optimus, who felt his spark flutter, and he couldn't help but smile back. Neither bot realised that their smiles had the exact same effect. As Optimus lunged at Vesper again, the femme realised that he was going to keep doing that until she retaliated, although she didn't want to hurt the Autobot leader. It didn't help that she still felt shaky on her feet, although it had lessened considerably from the shaking that had been occurring a few hours ago.
Suddenly Vesper felt something slice her chassis, and she realised that she'd been too caught up in her thoughts to notice that Optimus had been slowly stalking towards her. She looked down at the wound, which was beginning to ooze energon, then looked back at Optimus before slashing at him with her blade. He jumped backwards, dodging her blow, but then changed in his own blade back into a servo and regarded her with a concerned frown.
"Is something the matter?" Optimus asked, slowly approaching and looking at the wound that he'd inflicted. Vesper looked down and gingerly reached up to touch it, flinching when a small sting went through her chest. "You seemed… distracted, for a minute there."
Vesper shook her head. "I was just thinking up a strategy," she lied, nervously looking away. A flood of warmth made her arm tingle then, and she looked up to see that Optimus had placed his hand on her forearm. His optics were warm and concerned, and her spark started to beat a little quicker. If Optimus noticed, he didn't mention it.
Instead, he said softly, "Please do not lie to me."
Vesper blushed. "I…" She hung her head and sighed as she realised that there was no point in telling Optimus anything but the truth; he was, after all, a Prime. "I did not wish to harm you, and I did not want to retaliate."
Optimus shook his head slowly as his servo moved from her forearm to her shoulder. "You need not worry about harming me. It is nothing I cannot handle."
Vesper felt the blush on her face deepening as her shoulder tingled. She wanted so badly to kiss Optimus, to let him know how she felt, but she knew that it would be foolish to think that, even for a moment, he liked her back in the way she liked him. "I… I will take that into consideration, sir," she said softly, looking away from Optimus, who was regarding her curiously. She looked up and smiled at him, then sighed as she looked down at her blade. "Shall we continue?" she asked, looking back at him.
Optimus nodded, then transformed his servo back into a blade before swiping at her again. This time she dodged, jumping into the air, then slashed downwards as she landed. She hit Optimus right shoulder, but managed to refrain from actually cutting through it. The damage, however, was done; his arm went limp at his side and his blade transformed back into his servo. One of his eyes – his right eye, the closest to the wound – was squeezed shut in pain, and Vesper immediately regretted hurting him. She immediately went over to him, transforming her blade back to a usable servo, then looked sadly at the wound.
"I am sorry," she said, reaching out and touching the edges of the wound with the tips of her fingers. Surprisingly, Optimus did not flinch away. Instead he sighed and, using his undamaged arm, put his fingers to his audio processor.
"Ratchet," he said, "Can you please open a Ground Bridge?" He winced as his arm fell to his side, then he became aware of the fact that Vesper was touching him. She wasn't looking at his face, so she didn't see his eyes widen, and she didn't see the blush that appeared on his face. He looked away, trying to desperately slow his rapidly beating spark, but to no avail. Before Optimus could do anything else to try and calm himself, a swirling green portal opened up, and Optimus sighed with relief as he got to his feet, his shoulder agonising him, and stepped towards the bridge. Vesper didn't move, which concerned Optimus; he turned around and regarded her curiously. "Are you coming?"
Vesper shook her head slowly, then looked away. "I… think I will stay here for a bit."
Optimus sighed and walked back over to her, hearing an irritated grunt from Ratchet in his audio receptor. He placed his servo on her shoulder, but she shrugged him off. "Vesper you absolutely cannot stay here on your own. Please, do not be foolish, and come back to base."
Vesper shook her head again. "I… cannot." If she had been able to cry, Vesper knew that tears would be welling up.
"Oh for Allspark's sake," Optimus heard Ratchet growl, "Don't be stubborn and just get back to base!" He spoke in such a way that made Optimus believe that he had also commed Vesper, and the look on her face confirmed his suspicions.
After a bit more coaxing on Optimus' part, Vesper finally agreed to come back to base, but as soon as they stepped out of the Ground Bridge the femme took off towards her own room, and Optimus sighed. Before he could go after her, Ratchet stopped him by grabbing his good arm and shaking his head. "You need medical attention," he said, eyeballing the gash on Optimus' shoulder before pointing at the medical table and harshly saying, "Sit."
Optimus was about to disagree, but the expression on Ratchet's face seemed to warn him that if he tried, he would end up on the medic's dissection table rather than the medical one. He sighed and relented, then sat down on the table. Ratchet immediately started to scan the wounded area, then sighed.
"She did this?" he asked, "With no formal training?" His optics met with Optimus' own, who shrugged and mentioned what Vesper had told him about her informal training. Ratchet clicked his tongue, but said nothing else on the matter. Instead, he decided to say, "The others haven't come back today."
Optimus frowned. "Is it a school day for the children?" he asked, then looked around and noticed that Bumblebee was not present. "Where is Bumblebee?"
Ratchet shook his head. "It's Monday, so yes, it's a school day… But Bumblebee was sent out on a mission earlier, and I've heard nothing from him."
Alarms started to go off in Optimus' head as Ratchet started to repair his shoulder. "Have you attempted to—"
"Locate him?" Ratchet interrupted, and Optimus nodded before Ratchet sighed and said, "Yes. No response."
Optimus shook his head, trying to remain calm. As the leader of this small Autobot faction, he had to maintain a level head when it came to decisions such as this. However, this was quite alarming, considering Ratchet hadn't contacted him about this earlier. When Optimus asked this of the medic, Ratchet explained that Bumblebee had gone off the radar only minutes before Optimus had patched in and asked for a Ground Bridge.
And if it weren't bad enough, soon Bulkhead made contact and asked if anyone had seen Arcee.
Ratchet blinked in shock. "Wasn't she with Jack?" He looked over at Optimus, who looked just as worried.
"Yeah, she took Jack to school, but… she wasn't there when school let out," the former Wrecker explained. "I have the kids with me."
"Well," Ratchet said, "That's okay. They're okay… but that still leaves the question of where Bumblebee and Arcee are." This was met with astounded, horrified silence, so Ratchet said, "Get to somewhere where you can't be seen and I'll open a bridge."
"Right," Bulkhead said before cutting communications.
Ratchet turned to Optimus. "This is bad."
Optimus nodded in agreement. "It is indeed, old friend," he said, his voice low as he cast his eyes towards the direction of the Autobot personal quarters. "When Bulkhead and the human children return, I will go get Vesper, and we can discuss our next move."
Ratchet nodded, then said nothing as he received coordinates from Bulkhead. The medic immediately opened a Ground Bridge, and Bulkhead, in car form, came screaming through. He braked suddenly and the kids immediately opened the doors and stepped out, allowing Bulkhead to transform into his robotic form. Optimus immediately stood and walked towards Vesper's room, stopped in front of it and raised his servo to knock, but it opened before he could to reveal the femme standing there, a small frown on her face.
"Is something wrong, sir?" she asked, and Optimus nodded and informed her of the situation. This caused her to tense up and say, "I doubt I would be of any help."
Optimus shook his head. "We need all the help we can get. Please," he said, looking at her with a frown on his face. Vesper was about to say no, but as soon as she looked into his optics, she was entranced by how mesmerising they were to her. So, instead of saying no, she sighed and nodded, drawing a relieved smile from Optimus. "Thank you," he said, then turned on his heel and walked back to the main room of the base, followed closely by Vesper, who subconsciously found herself admiring his aft. She quickly shook those thoughts out of her head and silently chastised herself, but walked straight into Optimus because she was unaware that he'd stopped. He turned and caught her as she stumbled backwards. "Sorry," he said, realising that he'd not given her any warning.
"It is alright," she said, smiling back. Then they both looked down as Miko giggled and whispered something to Jack, who gave her an unimpressed grimace.
Ratchet cleared his throat, drawing everyone's attention away from Optimus and Vesper, then explained the current situation. Raf looked upset that his close friend had gone missing, and Jack just looked confused. Then Optimus explained that they were currently at a loss for what to do, as they had no idea how to get in contact with either bot, considering that neither Arcee nor Bumblebee were answering their comm.
It was actually Vesper who came up with something. "Bumblebee was sent off on an energon scouting mission, was he not?" she asked, looking at everyone. Ratchet nodded in confirmation, to which Vesper replied. "What if Decepticons found him and captured him?"
Ratchet frowned. "Usually they would attempt to kill us…"
Vesper shook her head. "Megatron is a cruel tyrant, but he would want information about the access code." She tapped her processor. "There is also something else that I carry, something I have not shared with anybody."
"And that would be?" Bulkhead asked.
Vesper sighed. "The weapon on board Megatron's flagship… was only one part of a whole." The room was silent. Each Autobot had a matching expression of shock and mortification on their faces. The three humans were simply gaping at Vesper, stunned. The femme immediately looked down at her feet and bit her lip, an almost overwhelming wave of sadness washing over her spark. "I am truly sorry for not telling any of you… but I know the locations of each part of the weapon… as well as the weapon's purpose."
"Can you tell us this?" Optimus asked, his voice not showing his mortification.
Vesper hesitated for a few minutes, then nodded tentatively. "The weapon is made of three parts. Each part is hidden here, on this planet." She turned away and rubbed her upper arm. "Megatron had the first part, which is the barrel of the weapon."
"So the weapon is a giant cannon?" Ratchet asked.
Vesper nodded as she turned back around. "Correct. It was a cannon to be mounted on a ship. The second part is the large base, which has the weapon controls attached to it." She shivered. "And the third part is where the power source and ammunition for the weapon goes." She squeezed her eyes shut. "And I believed that it is for that third part that Megatron captured Bumblebee and Arcee."
The looks of horror that she received made Vesper so miserable that she turned her back again and refused to look at them. Optimus breathed, "Why do you possess the information of this weapon?"
Vesper cringed; she knew that she should have expected this question. "Because…," she choked out, "I was one of the only ones who ever knew of the weapon's creation."
She heard Bulkhead curse. "Why didn't you tell us beforehand?" he asked.
Vesper whipped around. "Because the weapon was built by a bot who became a Decepticon!" This effectively silenced everyone, and Vesper looked around. "He is dead now, but… not before Megatron found out about the cannon… and had the first part put in his ship."
Optimus' servo clenched into a fist, and Vesper shrunk back in fear. However, she relaxed when he said, "Do not worry; I will not hurt you," and forced himself to relax. "I have but one more question, Vesper." He frowned. "Why would Megatron require Arcee and Bumblebee?"
She cringed yet again, then took a deep breath. She didn't know how hated she was going to be if she told them, but she knew that she absolutely had to.
"The weapon… is powered by the spark of a Cybertronian."