I'm so sorry for disappearing for a month but school threw a crap ton of more homework at me and I found myself with no time! For the first two weeks I had major writers block. But you don't want to hear my excuses, I promise to try to upload faster.
I do not own Transformers Prime but this story is all mine!
Chapter 19
Arcee awoke and transformed out of shock almost making a hole in the roof, she observed her surroundings and found herself in Jack's garage. For the past couple of days she's been having the exact same dream; she walks down a dark corridor and finds Starscream. Only something was wrong with him, green energy pulsated through his helm, he had a deranged look in his optics. It would usually end with Starscream savagely tearing into Arcee's frame, her screams of pain and his roaring of laughter echoes through the corridor.
Arcee shuddered remembering each experience, even though it was a dream it felt so real to her. She could feel his claws digging into her body, she could feel every wave of pain as Starscream tore into her. She mentally berated herself, she told herself to never become this close to another mech or face another broken heart. But she did anyway, with Starscream no less, the same person who killed Cliffjumper. How could everything go down hill so fast?
"Arcee?"
Arcee nearly jumped through the roof, she looked to the door and found Jack staring back her questioningly.
"Y-yeah?"
"Are you ready to go?" Jack asked.
"Uh yeah sure," Arcee answered getting out of her stupor.
Later...
Arcee entered the base, as Jack stepped off and headed over to Miko and Raf who arrived already Arcee transformed walking towards Optimus. Optimus was conversing with Ratchet about matters that Arcee didn't know, but from the look on their faces it looked urgent.
"Good morning Optimus, Ratchet," Arcee greeted.
The two mechs turned instantly but albeit hesitantly.
"Good morning Arcee," Optimus said politely.
"Good morning," Ratchet said with little enthusiasm.
"Has there been any Decepticon sightings?" Arcee asked.
"Nope everything's been quiet. Too quiet if you ask me, I'm not one who particularly enjoys our situation here but at least something gives me piece and quiet in the base." Ratchet grumbled.
"Arcee why don't you go out on patrol, contact us if you find anything," Optimus said.
Arcee was confused but she complied either way, she transformed and made for the exit.
"Now where were we?" Optimus said facing Ratchet.
"I believe we were discussing what to do about the Decepticons," Ratchet said matter-a-fact.
"Right, even before the sudden disappearance and memory loss of Starscream they have been working in the shadows for a while now. There may have been those few incidences where they were mining energon but aside from that there has been less sightings. There hasn't been any activity since our last encounter with Starscream," Optimus explained.
"They must be planning something big if they are willing to pass up so much energon, we have managed to gather a surplus of energon that they didn't even bother to destroy once they realized the battle was lost." Ratchet stated.
"The appearance of the Processor Destabalizer only helps prove that fact, Megatron decided to ignore the energon because he knew it wouldn't have mattered. If Megatron captures at least one of us he plans on using that device to delve into one of our subconscious, he will gather the data he requires and slaughter us all with his army." Optimus said grimly.
"What can we do to stop this from happening?"
"For now old friend, we wait."
"With all do respect Optimus if all we do is stand by and wait it might be too late," Ratchet stated.
Optimus mulled this information over, then he got an idea.
"Rafael," Optimus said walking over to the small child.
"Yes Optimus?" Raf said pausing the game he was currently playing.
"Ratchet and I are leaving the base for recon, would you mind working the ground bridge while we are away?" Optimus asked.
"Yeah sure." Raf answered.
Optimus nodded and towards the ground bridge controls, he stepped past a very confused Ratchet while doing so. He put in the navigation code and began walking towards the bridge, he stopped and turned around beckoning Ratchet to come with. Ratchet raised a brow ridge but complied and entered the portal with him.
Elsewhere...
Optimus and Ratchet were walking through a dense forest, their journey was filled with silence as neither one attempted to speak. Optimus was ever calm and vigilant, Ratchet on the other hand was confused and curious as to where they were headed. The continued silence started to aggravate the old medic, he looked around this unfamiliar territory with nervousness. He hasn't been on the field as much as the others, he was never trained to be a fighter and he was never needed. He tried looking up at the sky to attempt to determine the time but to his annoyance the dense forest was keeping even the most thinnest crack of light from entering.
Ratchet couldn't take it anymore, "Optimus where are we headed?"
"You recall a month or so ago when we fought the Decepticons for the contents of a fallen battle cruiser?" Optimus asked.
"Yes, that was the last major Decepticon operation before everything started turning to slag! Well more so than usual," Ratchet said with disdain.
"Correct, Megatron was far more desperate than he ever was before. A battalion of Vehicons were standing guard as Megatron and his crew prepared to raid the ship-
"Destroy them," Megatron roared aiming his fusion cannon at the oncoming Autobots.
A large squadron of Vehicons activated their blasters and fired at the Autobots, Megatron and Soundwave retreated inside a large battle cruiser that crashed in the dense forest which this battle took place in. Aside from Vehicons every other Decepticon was present and accounted for, the Autobots didn't like these odds one bit.
"Optimus were severely outnumbered, whatever is in that cruiser must be very important. But we won't make any progress at this rate," Arcee stated through blaster fire.
"Understood, Bulkhead can you make a diversion?" Optimus asked.
"I can make more than that," Bulkhead laughed transforming into his alt-mode.
Bulkhead drove into the mass of Vehicons mowing them down, the other surprised Vehicons were easy pickings for the Autobots. At this rate there was still some hope for the Autobots yet, as the confusion and hysteria continued Optimus activated his comm.
"Ratchet we require assistance"
"Wh-what!? Are you sure about this Optimus?"
"Megatron seems awfully desperate to retrieve whatever is in that cruiser, we'll need all the support we can get to make sure Megatron doesn't succeed." Optimus said.
"Primus," Ratchet grumbled to himself.
Ratchet turned to the kids who were playing another one of they're many racing games, Ratchet was curious has to how they could play these games so much without getting bored.
"Rafael I need you to man the ground bridge," Ratchet said in exasperation.
Raf complied as Ratchet opened the bridge and stepped inside. As he exited he was met with enemy fire and the smell of spilled energon. A lone Vehicon charged at the defenseless medic firing away, Ratchet activated his blades and started deflecting the blasts. Ratchet ran at the Vehicon and decapitated it with one swing.
"I'm too old for this scrap," Ratchet grumbled.
"Ratchet I require assistance!" Optimus called. "Can you all manage on your own until we return?"
"We've got everything under control Optimus" Arcee answered tearing into a few Vehicons.
"Yeah tell buckethead I said hello!" Bulkhead said crushing some poor cons with his maces.
Bumblebee beeped in affirmation blasting down the remaining cons.
Optimus ran into the cruiser with Ratchet in tow, they followed the sounds of someone typing on a keyboard. They entered what appeared to be the cockpit and saw Soundwave typing at a terminal but no Megatron.
"DIE AUTOBOT!" Optimus was tackled to the ground by the rampaging Decepticon war lord.
"Optimus-"
"Ratchet don't mind me, you have to stop Soundwave," Optimus commanded while grappling Megatron.
Ratchet nodded and prepared to duel the Intel Officer but when he turned around Soundwave was missing. As Ratchet searched around the cockpit he didn't notice a figure creeping up behind him, Ratchet was sucker punched but he was not out. Ratchet swiped at Soundwave with his blades but he deflected them with his bare hands, Soundwave overpowered Ratchet and pinned him to the computer terminal.
"I'm too old for this scrap!" Ratchet repeated through clenched dentals.
Tentacles sprouted out from Soundwave's frame staring menacingly at the trapped medic, Ratchet kicked Soundwave in the chest knocking him back a few. While Soundwave was stunned Ratchet used this time to his advantage and cut a deep gash on Soundwave's chest.
Smirking Ratchet prepared to strike again until he realized the wound on Soundwave's chest, his bare chest. Where is Laserbeak! The sound of a blaster going off and screams of pain ensued, Ratchet collapsed to the floor watching as Laserbeak reattached itself to Soundwave's chest.
Megatron's attention from his current wrestling match with Optimus shifted over to the victorious Soundwave. Megatron threw his opponent across the room.
"Soundwave is the downloading process complete?" Megatron asked earning a nod of confirmation. "Alright we are done here!"
Megatron and Soundwave both transformed and flew out of the cruiser, Optimus helped Ratchet up and they soon made chase.
As they exited they saw their team fighting against their designated rivals, Megatron and Soundwave were standing from afar as a ground bridge opened.
"Decepticons we got what we came for, retreat!" Megatron ordered.
Knockout, Breakdown, Airachnid and what was left of the Vehicon squadron entered the ground bridge. Then all was silent.
As Optimus finished retelling what occurred that day Ratchet began to finally recognize where they were.
"Yes I remember Optimus but why are we going back? If you recall Soundwave deleted everything of use when he hacked into that terminal," Ratchet said.
"It never hurts to look," Optimus simply answered.
They continued to walk in silence until they finally reached a clearing, a familiar large battle cruiser stood in the middle.
"Optimus?"
"Yes Ratchet?"
"The day Starscream defected back to the cons, when Megatron mentioned the Destabalizer you seemed pretty surprised to see it. Almost as if you knew what that thing was," Ratchet accused.
Optimus sighed, "Yes I knew about that horrible device. It is a devastating weapon that was developed by a scientist named Mindwipe. He was always curious about how our processors work and wanted to unlock its secrets. He created that thing for a better understanding of how our minds work but it was turned into a weapon. I do not know the details of this weapon for it was confiscated and locked deep within the Iacon vaults when I still worked there. When the war started he joined the side of the Decepticons and stole back his invention, he took it with him and escaped into the far reaches of space. Who knew his horrible invention would wind up here of all places."
Optimus finished speaking as he and Ratchet were currently walking through the halls of the cruiser, they entered the cockpit remembering where their battle took place. They both began typing at different monitors inside the cockpit hoping to find anything that would shed some light on the perplexing device. Sadly their prayers weren't answered, they scanned through various empty files all of which were most likely deleted by Soundwave. Every terminal was empty, no data was found. Ratchet slammed his fists on his terminal in rage of the situation. A 'click' sound could be heard, both Ratchet and Optimus watched as what looked to be a PDA slide out from the side of the terminal.
Ratchet grabbed it and turned it on looking through with excitement, "Optimus this appears to be Mindwipe's journal!"
"He must have placed it in here when he ejected this cruiser from his ship carrying half of his blueprints," Optimus said in wonder.
"Mindwipe must have expected someone to find this, he must have placed schematics or a way to destroy his device somewhere in here." Ratchet said as he and Optimus made for the exit.
"Yes, we just might be able to thwart what Megatron has planned for the Destabalizer," Optimus said in agreement. "Rafael activate the ground bridge."
No sooner when he made the order did the familiar green vortex appeared.
Optimus and Ratchet entered the base, Ratchet walked over to his terminal connecting the PDA to it. The data was copied and placed into a file for safe keeping.
"If you don't mid Optimus I would like to look into this myself," Ratchet said.
"Are you sure? I wouldn't want to burden you," Optimus said with concern.
"Its fine, I am very curious to read what a prestigious scientist such as Mindwipe would right in his journal. Who knows, there might be a little more than schematics for his weapon," Ratchet said.
"Well alright but do not strain yourself old friend," Optimus said exiting the control room.
Ratchet began reading various entries that were written thousands of years ago, talk about how his device would revolutionize how we would think today. How it could unlock our processors true potential, pages filled with complex equations that even Ratchet scratched his head at appeared. To his surprise these were all equations on how to develop a long lasting artificial power source, Ratchet made sure to highlight it and save it for later. The more he read the darker the writing seemed to get, it talked less about helping others and more about how it could be used for more dangerous means. Ratchet came to an entry that was entered around when the great war began, he read it over and over again but he couldn't believe it.
"By the Allspark!"