You think that that you're more than a plaything to him, Vesper? the voice in her head breathed, and she tried desperately to ignore it as she nestled against Optimus, who was sleeping peacefully. Vesper had found herself unable to sleep due to the thunderstorm, but she was taking comfort in the fact that she was wrapped in Optimus' arms. He will use you, and then he will throw you away when he's sick of you, the voice hissed, and Vesper squeezed her eyes shut. She didn't want to listen to that voice anymore, but she had no choice. It had been there since she'd been a sparkling, a dark spot, always commenting negatively whenever she was happy.
"N-No," she whimpered, trying to fight off the voice and trying to stop it from pervading her mind. "Leave me alone!" she whimpered as she buried her head into Optimus' chest, and she felt him tighten his grip around her. He did not, however, wake, and Vesper was grateful. Although she would have liked to talk to him about it, she knew that he would be unable to help, something that made him very miserable and made him feel useless.
You can't escape, Vesper, the voice breathed, and Vesper stiffened. I will always be with you…
"NO!" Vesper screamed, the loudness of her voice jolting Optimus out of whatever dream he'd been having. She sat up, roughly shrugging off Optimus' arms as she clutched her head. "LEAVE ME ALONE, PLEASE!" she screamed, shaking her head wildly and beginning to sob. Optimus' optics sparkled with fury; he hated the fact that Vesper was suffering and he could do absolutely nothing for her. That fury disappeared when Vesper stopped her wild movements and just sat limply on the ground, just sobbing. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into his lap as he sat down.
"Shhh," he breathed as Vesper put her head against his chest, sobbing hysterically. However, she wasn't just sobbing; she was saying something underneath her breath in Cybertronian. He frowned and leaned next to her head, trying to find out what she was saying, and his eyes widened as soon as he heard what she was saying. He leaned away from her, his optics wide, but he said nothing. Instead he looked up to the skies and prayed that the others would find them soon.
The others had been on the move for at least an hour, and were almost at Jasper. Bulkhead and Bumblebee had both been instructed to take Miko and Raf home to tell their parents that they were fine, whereas Jack and Alice didn't need to do that. Ultra Magnus had also advised Team Prime that they get into contact with Agent Fowler, and Ratchet had decided that he would take care of that.
When each bot got to their respective destinations – Bulkhead to Miko's, Bee to Raf's, the others to the destroyed Autobot base – the majority of Team Prime was appalled by the devastation that had been wrought on their base. However, the base was not their real destination; they were going for something behind it. Ultra Magnus' ship had been untouched – it hadn't even been found by the Decepticons – and for that, Team Prime was grateful.
Ratchet, after making a call to Agent Fowler and explaining the situation to him, called Bulkhead and Bee, telling them to meet them behind the base. Bulkhead was able to, considering that Miko was in no trouble, but Bee was a different matter. Raf had been grounded by his parents for being away with no contact for so long, but somehow he managed to get out of it, and soon enough the four were reunited with the team.
"Alright," Ultra Magnus said once everyone was packed into his ship. As Ratchet was second-in-command due to Optimus' absence, he got to sit in the passenger seat, something that was also better for Alice due to her broken ankle. "Now, we'll start our search for Optimus and Vesper."
"Do we even know where they are?" June asked, frowning.
"No," Ultra Magnus admitted sheepishly. "However, we should be able to find them if we fly over the ocean. There aren't many islands through the open seas, I would hope," he said, and everyone fell silent as Ultra Magnus' ship took off, and they flew towards the open oceans in search of their missing comrades…
Finding Optimus and Vesper, however, was more difficult than Team Prime had initially anticipated. For hours they flew over the oceans, keeping high in the sky to avoid detection, but every island that they flew over was completely deserted. There was only one that they hadn't checked, one that was in the midst of a giant storm, but Ultra Magnus couldn't go too close; cumulonimbus clouds were dangerous to fly through, and if Ultra Magnus went any lower, he risked the team getting found.
"Scrap," Ratchet hissed as he looked out of the window for what seemed to be the zillionth time. Alice had fallen asleep on his lap, and everyone else had remained quiet for the duration of the journey. They had no idea what they could say, other than ideas on where to go next, but they'd exhausted all of their options earlier. The only place to look now was the one place that none of them could get to: the island with the cumulonimbus cloud covering it.
"We can't fly through that," Wheeljack said, his voice quivering with what seemed to be nervousness. Ultra Magnus nodded in agreement, not needing Wheeljack to elaborate; he was fully aware of what could happen. A storm cloud like that would be a nightmare to fly through, and the risk of damage was a great one. But there was really no alternative other than flying low, close to the ocean waves, which was not something anyone wanted to do for fear of being seen by strangers.
"We may have no choice," Arcee scowled. There was nothing around, but that didn't mean the bots felt any safer. She looked over at Ultra Magnus, who was just making the ship hover for now. He was gazing down at the menacing cloud, biting his lip and pondering his next move. "Sir, what are we going to do?"
Ultra Magnus looked back at her and, by default, the others. "We have no choice," he said. "Flying through that cloud is the only way to avoid being spotted by humans…" Then he pointed to something out of the window. "And to avoid being detected by them."
Everyone looked in the direction Ultra Magnus was pointing, and in unison their eyes and optics widened as they saw the Nemesis floating a fair distance away. Ratchet immediately turned to Ultra Magnus and hissed, "Do whatever you have to, just get us away from that thing!"
The warrior nodded and grabbed the controls of the ship, then pushed them down. The ship began to descend, and headed straight into the depths of the cumulonimbus cloud. Wheeljack was horrified, but knew that this was the best course of action unless the group wanted to be blown out of the sky by the Decepticons. Of course, flying through the storm was not the best course of action, or the safest. Lightning cracked and flashed all around them, and it was a testament to Ultra Magnus' piloting skills that he managed to not get struck by lightning. Thunder rumbled and crashed every so often, freaking out the humans, and making Alice especially whimper as she huddled in Ratchet's lap.
"Don't fret," Ratchet said, looking down at her and frowning. "We'll be fine."
Alice would have believed him in any other situation. But as a bright flash emanated and a jolt went through the ship, Ratchet found himself regretting his words and Alice found herself not believing them as the ship began to spiral downwards uncontrollably. Alarms were ringing in the interior and Ultra Magnus was trying with all of his strength to regain control, but the controls were jerked out of his servos.
"Scrap!" he yelled, before turning to the others and yelling, "Brace for impact!"
The others hurried to hang on to something and protect the humans at the same time. Wheeljack grabbed June and hugged her close to his chassis before steeling himself. Bulkhead, Bee, Ratchet and Arcee all followed suit, grabbing their human charges and holding them close as they prepared for a crash landing.
It was a crash landing, alright. The nose of the ship dipped just at the last minute, and Ultra Magnus found himself recoiling in terror as the ship slammed into the wet sand. It didn't skid along the ground, however; the whole ship flipped and then landed. The ordeal was a nightmarish one; bot and human alike were thrown all over the joint, getting dents and bruises everywhere.
Smoke rose from the ship as Team Prime collected themselves. Their ordeal had not gone unnoticed, either; Vesper and Optimus were staring with wide optics at the vessel, stunned that it had actually survived such a landing.
Optimus slowly rose to his pedes, leaving his sparkmate sitting under the alcove as he ventured into the rain. He flinched as it touched him but still made his way over to the crashed vessel, peering in the window to see everyone shaking their heads and Ratchet making sure that nobody was seriously injured. It was the medic who actually turned to see Optimus, and he grinned before turning to Ultra Magnus and saying something that the Prime failed to hear.
Eventually the others were standing in front of Optimus, getting absolutely drenched because of the storm, but none of them cared. They were all just happy to see their leader alive. Ratchet, however, was more concerned about Vesper, because he'd noticed that she was avoiding looking at the others. He told Alice to talk to Optimus before walking over to Optimus' sparkmate and kneeling down in front of her.
"Vesper?" he asked, and the femme jumped before looking at him, cyan optics wide with alarm. "How are you?" he asked before she could say anything, and she frowned.
"I am fine, Doctor," she said, keeping her tone smooth and polite.
Ratchet didn't believe her for a second, but didn't push it. Instead, he asked, "Can you walk properly, or do you still need rehabilitation?"
Vesper seemed a little happier to answer that. "My leg is quite fine," she said, a gentle smile appearing on her face. "Optimus has been assisting me."
The doctor looked back over at the rest of the group, who were all asking Optimus a myriad of questions. He seemed to be happy to answer them all, and Ratchet felt a small smile appear on his face as he turned back to Vesper. "Well, that's good." Then he stood. "Come on; we'll get you guys into the ship and take you off of this tiny island."
"Is that ship even capable of flying anymore?" Vesper asked as she stood and walked out of the alcove, wincing when the rain touched her. She walked over until she was standing beside Optimus, who looked down at her with a smile on his face. The femme smiled in return, but Ratchet noticed the worried gleam in the optics of both bots. He said nothing, however, and looked over at Ultra Magnus.
"Can we still get out of here?" he asked, and the warrior nodded, although he did have a frown on his face.
"Yes, but we won't be able to gain much altitude," he said, looking back at his damaged vessel. "We'll be an easy target."
"What do you mean?" Optimus and Vesper said at the exact same time. This earned them a funny look from everyone, which they promptly ignored. Optimus repeated the question, this time alone, and Ultra Magnus informed the two of the Nemesis' proximity.
"We have to get out of here soon, though," Jack said, and everyone looked over at him. The human boy had a concerned expression on his face, one that reminded Team Prime of Optimus whenever he was concerned. "We have no idea how long this storm is going to last for, and the more time we spend here…"
"The closer the Decepticons get," Raf finished, shivering.
Ratchet nodded. "Indeed. I—" He cut off whatever he was going to say when he noticed that someone was missing, and he frowned before looking at Bulkhead and asking, "Hey, where's Miko?"
The olive green bot pointed to her. "Over there, by the water."
This seemed to alarm June. "Miko, get back over here now!" she yelled, an angry expression appearing on her face, but Miko didn't seem to be listening. "You'll get swept out to sea if you go into the water during this storm!"
"I'll be fine, trust me!" Miko exclaimed, smiling cheekily. She was absolutely soaked due to not being sheltered by her guardian, and now June was becoming worried that the young Japanese girl was going to get hypothermia. She didn't voice her concerns, however; Miko wasn't going to listen anyway.
"Miko, please," Optimus suddenly said, gaining the girl's attention, "Get out of the water. It is not safe."
Miko groaned, but complied. She walked over to Bulkhead and picked her socks and shoes up (which were soaked), but didn't put them back on. Ultra Magnus, after Miko had returned to the group, decided that it would be best to start heading back to the mainland, and began to hustle everyone towards his ship.
He didn't give voice to the turmoil inside of his spark. He was worried, deathly so, that they wouldn't be able to escape from the nearby Nemesis…
Mainly because, with his ship's systems damaged as they were, they would definitely not be able to get away.