Ratchet and Ultra Magnus were back-to-back; Ratchet had his surgical blades extended, while Ultra Magnus was wielding his hammer. Both of them were absolutely surrounded by Decepticons, and nearby, another circle of 'Cons were surrounding Arcee and Bumblebee, while yet another circle of 'Cons were surrounding Wheeljack and Bulkhead. Miko, Jack, Alice, Raf and June had all – thankfully – been able to hide, thanks to Ultra Magnus detecting the Decepticons arriving, but they were absolutely powerless to do anything. All they could do was hide and pray that the Autobots could defeat the Decepticons.
"We're scrapped if we don't figure a way outta this," Wheeljack hissed to Bulkhead, and the olive green bot nodded in agreement as his azure optics scanned the circle of 'Cons around him. He noticed that they were just plain old Vehicons, easy to take out, but they were accompanied by someone they hadn't seen in a while: Airachnid. Arcee was gnashing her dentas in fury, wanting badly to get revenge for Tailgate, but she knew that trying to attack the Decepticon femme was foolhardy, especially in the current situation.
"Well," Airachnid purred as she walked over, using her actual legs rather than her spidery ones. "Lord Megatron shall be pleased." She walked over to the group of Vehicons surrounding Arcee and Bee, and smiled maliciously to the Autobot femme. "And I will certainly relish killing you," she hissed, directly to the femme, who simply snarled in response.
Ultra Magnus was looking in Airachnid's direction, his eyes ablaze with fury. He didn't know Airachnid well, but he was certainly not liking the fact that she – at current time – was capable of killing one of the Autobots, especially since the others could do nothing in response. Well, most of the others couldn't do anything. Ultra Magnus was unable to use his hammer to attack the Vehicons, but his lightning powers weren't widely known, and could take down most of the Vehicons within seconds.
The plating on his fingers moved, exposing the conduits underneath, and as Ultra Magnus felt the electricity course through him, he smiled lightly. One of the Vehicons seemed to notice what was happening, but it noticed far too late; Ultra Magnus raised his hand and, from it, discharged a huge amount of electricity, targeting the black and purple bots and leaving the others untouched. This also affected Airachnid, who was of a very similar colouration, and the Decepticon femme screamed in agony before collapsing to the ground, falling eerily silent. As all the Vehicons – absolutely cooked – dropped, Arcee jumped over to Airachnid and was about to kill her when Ultra Magnus told her to stop in a harsh voice.
"Why?" she asked, her voice filled with anger and hatred for the fallen 'Con female. "If we kill Airachnid, we can get rid of a problem!"
Ultra Magnus frowned and looked down at Ratchet, who was staring at Airachnid with a concerned expression on his face. Then he sighed. "Doctor, is something on your mind?"
"Yeah," Ratchet admitted. Then he looked at his arm as a part of the plating slid open, and a green screen appeared. Dots – life signals – appeared, and Ratchet frowned as he noticed the Decepticon life signals disappearing rapidly. "I don't think that Airachnid will ever be a problem to us again."
Everyone blinked at Ratchet. The humans even emerged from their hiding place to blink at him, wonder what he was talking about. He didn't care if they were confused, however; he knew what he'd said, and he knew what had happened. Ultra Magnus had used a decent voltage… to kill them all. It was plausible that the lieutenant hadn't even meant to offline anyone, that he'd just meant to knock them out and give Team Prime some time to escape. He'd given them plenty of time to escape, at the very least.
"Ratch?" Alice asked as she hobbled over, and the medic looked down at his injured charge. "Something bothering you?"
He was about to shake his head, but he realised that it would be pointless to lie and nodded instead. "I know it was an accident on his part, but… Ultra Magnus just killed about thirty Vehicons and Airachnid without even trying to."
Everyone was stunned silent. They couldn't believe it; not even Ultra Magnus could believe that he'd done that. He raised his hand, looked at the conduits in his fingers – now covered again – and frowned. He knew that the electricity he could control was powerful, but he had been so sure that he hadn't used that much… He sighed as he clenched his servo and let it fall to his side. "In any case, we have been given precious time to—" He cut himself off as he noticed something odd attached to the underside of Wheeljack's elbow. It was barely noticeable; Ultra Magnus couldn't even believe that he'd spotted it. However, now that he had noticed it, he could see that it occasionally flashed. "Wheeljack," he said suddenly, and everyone looked over at the hammer-wielding warrior as he said, "What is that on your elbow?"
The Wrecker frowned. "What are you—"
He didn't get to finish his sentence; Miko frowned as she walked over and spotted what Ultra Magnus was talking about. "Hey, he's right, there is something there!" she exclaimed, and Wheeljack frowned before looking at his elbow. However, the device was attached in such a way that, no matter how much he tried, the Wrecker would not be able to spot it.
Bulkhead strode over and looked at the small, flashing device. He was soon followed by everyone else but Alice and Ratchet, who could see it from where they were standing. Then he grabbed Wheeljack's elbow and yanked it in a way that caused the white Wrecker to help in surprise. "Jackie, this is a Decepticon tracking device," he said after giving it a closer look.
"Which is how the Decepticons found us in the first place!" Jack realised, and everyone was horrified as they realised the exact same thing. Bulkhead was quick to detach the tracking device, throw it to the ground, and crush it to oblivion.
"Scrap, that means that they know that we're here," Arcee said as she shook her head and crossed her arms over her chassis. "That means we've gotta move out soon."
Ultra Magnus nodded. "Indeed."
Ratchet, however, shook his head. "We can't, not until we get some sort of communication from Optimus or Vesper!"
Alice sighed. "Ratch, there's no point in staying here. They're still alive," she said, smiling up at her worried guardian, "And it's most likely they're out of communication range."
She was correct; Vesper and Optimus were still on an island in the middle of the ocean. They were not, however, sitting underneath a tree; Optimus was instead helping Vesper to regain the use of her leg. She was making excellent progress, but there were still problems. She was managing to walk without too much pain – at most, she felt a small twinge, like a fibre being pulled or something – but sometimes a massive pulse of pain occurred, and she collapsed to her knees. It didn't help that she decided to try walking along the shore, closest to the water, and kept toppling over when the sodden sand gave out underneath her. That proved to be hilarious for Optimus, but the waiting period afterwards – especially if she fell into the water – was not so funny.
Now they were sitting together, waiting for Vesper to dry off yet again. Now, she and Optimus were looking up at the clouds as they floated overhead, trying to pick out shapes among them. They didn't really spot anything of interest, so they ended up lying on the sand, with Optimus' arm around Vesper's shoulder.
"How long are we going to be trapped here?" Vesper wondered, although she didn't realise she'd spoken out loud until Optimus said that he didn't know. "I mean, as much as I like being alone with you," she said, nuzzling into Optimus' side, which made him smile, "I am very worried about the others."
Optimus nodded as he leaned down and rested his cheek on Vesper's head. "I am too, Vesper. But there is not much we can do, stranded here as we are."
"We could always swim," she grumbled, which caused Optimus to chuckle, lean down, and kiss her forehead.
"No, I would rather stay here with you for a few days longer," he said. "Just you and I."
He didn't allow her to speak again; he leaned down and pressed his lips against hers. She immediately sunk into the kiss, although a very small part of her – a dark part – warned her against it, saying that she would just end up harmed. She shoved this thought, however, to the deepest part of her mind as she felt Optimus' servos gently caressing her.
The Prime forced her lips open with his own and slid his glossa into her mouth, and her breath hitched as Optimus' fingers brushed the top of her thigh. She found herself thinking about what he could do to her, and that thought made her shiver with anticipation. But as she found herself tingling underneath every brush of Optimus' fingers, that dark part of her came back full force.
You will end up as nothing more than a plaything, that voice whispered menacingly, And when you do, you will be broken and worthless. He will not care about you after that.
"No!" she cried, pulling herself away from Optimus and sitting up. He was shocked at first, but immediately became aware of what had happened as he too sat up and simply looked at her, a concerned frown on his face. Vesper huddled where she was sitting, her servos clasping her head, and her head shaking side-to-side. "He would not do that! He is different!"
"Vesper?" Optimus breathed, confused, and he reached for her as she began to sob. The minute his fingers brushed her shoulder, however, the femme cried out and tried to scramble away. "Vesper, calm down! It is alright!" he said, desperately trying to soothe his sparkmate. He felt something deep within his spark – feelings that menaced Vesper, menaced her sanity – and he knew that he had to try and calm her down.
"Stop it!" Vesper suddenly yelled, and Optimus flinched back, initially believing that she was screaming at him. But that thought was soon put to rest when Vesper yelled, "He is not like that! He would never harm me, not purposely!"
Optimus crawled over to his frantic, panicked sparkmate, then wrapped his arms around her, even though she started to scream when he did so and began to struggle. He didn't release her – she could have escaped regardless, for he wasn't holding her tightly – and it paid off. With heaving sobs the femme finally stopped screaming and struggling, and she wrapped her arms around Optimus' neck and hugged him tightly as she cried. He rubbed her back as they sat on the beach, the sun only now beginning to set.
"Optimus, I am so, so sorry," Vesper eventually managed to choke out, and Optimus frowned sadly as she buried her face into the place where his shoulder and neck met. "I just do not want to be used again…"
"Shhh," Optimus breathed, pulled her closer to him. "I will not use you. I could not harm you like that."
"You mean it?" she whimpered, misery still rather evident in her voice.
Optimus nodded. "Of course," he breathed, kissing the top of her head yet again. "I will protect you from everyone who intends to hurt you, yourself included." He then laid his cheek on the top of her head. "And if I ever hurt you, then I am not worthy of you."