When Bulkhead and Miko awoke, they noticed that they were not alone. Arcee and Jack, as well as Bumblebee and Raf, were sitting in the clearing, and just arriving were Alice and Ratchet. The olive green bot and the Japanese girl immediately stood and greeted their fellows, happy to see that most of them had made it alive and well. However, each and every one of them became miserable when they noticed that two of their little convoy – Optimus Prime and Vesper – were missing.
"I'm sure that they've simply been delayed," Arcee mused, although she had no idea of the truth. "They were heading for the last part of the weapon, after all; who knows where it was?" she asked, shrugging her shoulders.
Ratchet nodded in agreement, although he could definitely not shake the feeling that something was off. He did not mention this to the others, however, who were chatting animatedly, as if nothing was amiss. The only one who seemed to share Ratchet's feelings was Arcee, who was simply standing back and just listening to what the others were talking about. Currently, Bumblebee was explaining how he'd managed to keep himself entertained while Raf had been grounded without blowing his cover, which could not have ever been easy for the speedster. Laughter followed Bee's story, and then Miko launched into a story about what she and Bulkhead had done while trapped in Tokyo.
Hours passed, and soon enough all tales had been told. Now, silence reigned as the group waited for Optimus, who was slowly driving towards their position. Twice he'd broken down, and pain wracked his entire body as he drove. Quite a number of times the Prime had had to pull over due to the incredible pain, but he'd soldiered on in an effort to get to the rendezvous point before the others began to panic, wonder where he was, and do something irrational.
Unfortunately, he just could not do it. His engine failed him yet again, but this time, he knew that he was not going to be able to restart it. He flicked on his hazard lights and pulled over, then turned off and sat there quietly, struggling to breathe and to fight against his pain. He knew that he had to attempt to patch communication through to the other Autobots, and he knew that – even though he was in incredible pain – he had no choice but to make contact.
"This… is Optimus Prime," Optimus gasped as he attempted to make contact, although he had absolutely no idea if Ratchet or any of the others had heard him. "I… will not be able… to make it to… the… rendezvous point," he managed to choke out, then had no choice but to cut off the communication. He did not want Decepticons to find him, and he did not want the others to be harmed because of him.
He fell asleep for a while, but was rudely awoken when he felt a tap on his grille. He came to and scanned his surroundings, then found that he was not alone. There was an ambulance in front of him, and a human girl with white hair was sitting inside. To his right there was a blue motorbike with a teenage boy sitting on top, as well as an olive green armoured car with a younger human girl inside. Behind him, there was a yellow and black muscle car, and inside of that there was a young boy. The humans got out of their vehicles – except in the case of the teenage boy, who stepped off of the motorcycle – and walked over to the unmoving Peterbilt.
"Optimus," Alice breathed, running her hand along the side of the Prime's cab. "You're in a bad way." She shook her head and sighed, then turned back to the ambulance. "Ratch, can you—"
"I cannot help him. Not here," the medic replied, and Alice heard herself sigh again. Then she turned back to Optimus and frowned. Ratchet released a sigh. "He needs to be towed to a more remote…" He trailed off as he realised that something was definitely wrong. Optimus was completely alone. "Optimus," Ratchet breathed, "Where is Vesper?"
"Never mind that for now!" Jack stomped his foot down, drawing everyone's attention. "Shouldn't we get Optimus somewhere where we can repair him?" He looked at everyone, who all sighed in agreement. Soon enough, Bulkhead and Bumblebee were towing Optimus off-road, and the Prime was trying not to complain about how much pain he was in. It was not just physical pain, either. The fact that Ratchet had mentioned Vesper had just reminded him of how little he had been able to do for her.
When they got to a safe place, the rest of the Cybertronians transformed into back into their primary modes. The only one who did not transform was Optimus himself; he found himself in too much pain to even attempt it. Unfortunately, Ratchet informed him that he could not perform repairs unless Optimus forced himself to transform, no matter how painful it was for him. Optimus, although he did not want to, forced his body to undergo transformation, although the agonised scream that came from him was not pleasant to the ears of anyone who heard it.
When Ratchet finally took a look at Optimus, he was astounded by the amount of damage that had been caused. Optimus' spark chamber was half-crushed due to the brute force that Megatron had used to inflict damage, and Ratchet began to understand that Optimus and Vesper had come under attack.
"Yet that still doesn't explain where Vesper is," Ratchet mused to himself, but Optimus heard him and coughed. Everyone looked at him, and it was then that everyone noticed the emotional pain. It was very clear on his face, in his optics, and not a single one of them wanted to ask what had happened. There were only two answers that Optimus could give: Vesper was dead, or Vesper was a captive of the Decepticons.
"I hope that she's only a captive of the Decepticons," Alice whimpered, and Optimus looked over at her. She looked over at him, and her body stiffened when she saw the agonised look in the Prime's eyes. "I mean," she said, looking away, "It's better than her being dead, right?"
"At present time," Optimus said, his voice a little stronger, which was a good sign, "It would be better off for Vesper to be dead."
"Wait, why?!" Raf demanded, shocked. Optimus looked away, his spark hurting as everyone's eyes rested on him. "Optimus, you can't be—"
"Do not," Optimus choked, looking back at everyone, his voice quivering as he resisted the urge to start crying. "Please." He looked away yet again. "Vesper… is to be used as the sacrifice. Her spark is to be used to power the weapon."
"Then you can't give up!" Miko exclaimed, storming over to Optimus and poking the Prime in the leg. "Vesper needs you!"
This drew anger from Optimus. His head jerked around to face her and his turquoise optics narrowed dangerously. "Do you think," he hissed, "That I do not know that?" He stood up, swaying on his pedes, and glared at the girl. Then he sighed as he stumbled and fell back on his aft. He tried to suck in a few breaths of air, and then clutched at his chest. "I… am sorry, Miko," he said, looking apologetically up at Miko, who shrugged it off like it was nothing. But it wasn't nothing. Optimus knew that something was horribly, horribly wrong. And he was right, even if he did not know it.
On board the Nemesis, Vesper was in agony. Every part of her was in pain, and she just wanted to be put out of her misery. Megatron had organised for Starscream to be her torturer, and torture it was. She had endured horrible things – being prodded repeatedly by an energon prod, having large gashes inflicted upon her person – but only one thing had made her as sore as she was. She could still feel him inside of her, and it made a tingle run up her backstrut.
Yet, even being put through torture of that kind had not been enough to get her to give up the weapon parts that she had in her possession. Vesper knew that she was not to give them over, no matter if it cost her everything, including her spark.
The door suddenly opened, and Vesper weakly looked up to see Megatron stride through the door. This time, however, he was unaccompanied. He looked very irritated, and as soon as he met Vesper's defiant eyes his irritation grew. He stormed over and stopped in front of the hanging mech, then crossed his arms and snarled at her. "You are becoming a problem," he growled, which only drew an unamused snort from the femme.
"As are you, Megatron," she said, her tone light and conversational, but this only drew an angrier snarl from the Decepticon warlord before he slapped her. Her head jerked to the side as pain bloomed within her cheek, and her optics widened as she looked back up at him, shocked.
"I would hold your glossa, you miserable whelp," he hissed as he wrapped his fingers around her throat and squeezed. "You will give me those weapon parts!" He leaned closer, and she flinched away as his dentas neared her face. "Or you will suffer even more."
"It does not matter to me how much I suffer," Vesper stated determinedly. "The only thing that matters to me is that you do not utilise the weapon for your own twisted schemes." She turned her head away, expecting another blow, but nothing came. Instead, she heard cold laughter, and she looked back to notice that Megatron had walked back over to the door, and was looking back at her with a smile that revealed all of his sharp dentas.
"Well, aren't you feisty," he said, his red optics blazing. "But you will not keep the weapon parts from me forever," he hissed, then he turned on his heel and departed, leaving Vesper dangling in the room on her lonesome. She struggled and squirmed, trying to get out of the damned manacles that held her, but she found soon enough that her bonds were inescapable. Suddenly the door opened again, and she looked up just as Knockout walked in. He didn't pay much attention to her at first; instead he grabbed something from nearby. Then he turned his attention to Vesper, a cruel smile on his face as he held out the tool, which happened to be a scalpel.
"If you don't give up the weapon parts," he said, his voice low as he regarded the femme before him, "One limb comes off, and so forth." Then he looked up, his optics filled with sadistic glee. "You get the point."
Vesper snorted. "Cut off my servos! Cut off my pedes! Do what you will to me!" she exclaimed, her defiance getting the best of her. She knew that it would be better for her to just relent, but she also knew that if she did, she would never be able to live with herself knowing that she had helped to destroy humanity… and the other Autobots. "But I will never give you the pieces of the weapon!"
Knockout snorted. "Well then, if that is how you'll be," he said, snarling for once. "Then I will have no choice but to start with—"
Vesper kicked out, smashing Knockout in the chin and sending him flying backwards into a nearby wall, as well as causing him to drop the tool he was about to attack Vesper with. He growled as he stood up, then stalked back over only to get kicked in the chassis. Vesper, doing this, grated her foot against the Decepticon's chest, mangling his perfectly buffed paint job… which only served to infuriate him. He immediately changed his servo into his trademark buzz-saw and stormed towards her, and it was then that Vesper realised that she had gone a little bit too far.
The door opening saved her life, and Vesper was much relieved… until she saw that it was Starscream who had saved her. This time, however, Starscream didn't appear to be in the sort of mood to play games, and after he screamed at Knockout to leave (and he did, very quickly too), he turned to Vesper as the door closed and his optics narrowed.
"You have been very annoying," he growled as he stalked forward and lightly ran his finger over her cheek, causing the femme to flinch away in both disgust and fear. "Lord Megatron is not pleased, nor am I," he hissed, his voice low as he said the last part.
Vesper's upper lip curled in disgust, baring her dentas. "I am glad that you are not plea—ah!" she cried as Starscream touched her in between her legs. As much as she hated it, the femme couldn't help but feel thrills of pleasure shoot up her body.
"Let's have a little fun, shall we?" Starscream hissed, his voice even lower as he forced her valve open. Pain made her cry out, and she immediately tried to close her legs, but Starscream jammed his leg between hers and stopped her.
As Starscream touched her and horribly pleasured her, Vesper struggled and tried to stop him, but she just couldn't. Her throat closed up, her processor turned to a useless clump of melted metal. Her spark was beating wildly, and she prayed to Primus that it would stop. But she knew that the likelihood of Primus hearing her pleas was minimal; what she had done previously could never be redeemed.
"S-Stop!" Vesper pitifully whimpered, and Starscream paused, cocking his head to the side, his eyes glowing maliciously.
"Give me the pieces of the weapon," he hissed, pressing his body against hers so that Vesper felt his shaft digging into her thigh, "And I will."
An ultimatum that she had been given many times before, and not once had she considering giving in. Even now she did not consider it, but there was also a small part of her – small, but growing – that wanted this vile pleasuring – this forced interface – to stop, and it was that small part that was willing to give everything up.
Vesper looked up at Starscream, gazing into his lust-filled, expectant eyes. It was almost as if he were daring her to decline giving him the weapon parts. Vesper sighed, looking away. She squeezed her optics shut, cursing herself for what she was about to do, and she prayed that Optimus would understand… if he ever found her.
The femme opened her optics and looked into Starscream's before saying clearly, "Fine. I… will give Megatron the parts." She hung her head, ashamed and upset. "Take me to him."
Starscream was disappointed that the femme had finally relented, but at the same time he was gleeful. He stepped away from the femme and her valve closed as he unchained her from the roof. She collapsed to the ground before shakily standing, then stared miserably down at her wrists as the Seeker clapped a pair of cuffs on them, then led her out of the room and towards the bridge, where Megatron was.
The Decepticon warlord was pacing, growling something at the silent Soundwave, but he stopped in his tracks when Vesper stumbled in, being led by Starscream. The Seeker forced her to her knees in front of the warlord, who smiled slowly, revealing his sharp dentas. "Well?" he asked, awaiting Starscream's report, although it was clear to all that he already knew that Vesper was giving up the weapons.
Starscream smirked. "She has finally relented, master," he said, stepping back as Megatron strode forward and grabbed Vesper around the head.
"The weapon parts, then," he hissed, and Vesper tiredly nodded before Megatron dropped her. She summoned the two parts from her personal subspace, and they fell to the ground with loud clangs. Soundwave immediately gathered them up and walked away, towards the area where the first part of the weapon was contained. "Thank you, Vesper," he said, turning away from her and looking at Starscream, nodding at him, which was a silent order to take her away.
Starscream picked the femme up and bowed to Megatron before dragging her away, back to where she had been imprisoned earlier. Then, after he chained her back up, he departed, the door closing after and plunging her into gloomy darkness yet again. She hung in silence, ashamed and defeated. She could not believe that she'd done such a thing; she had betrayed the Autobots. She had betrayed humankind.
"So," she sobbed to herself, "He was right after all." She squeezed her optics shut. "My mentor knew that this would happen… and I did not listen." Her spark throbbed with pain and betrayal. "Optimus Prime, forgive me…," she breathed, even though she knew that he would not hear her. In fact, she doubted that he would hear her, and if he did…
She doubted that he would ever forgive her for what she had done.