Chapter 8

New Divide

"Let it be enough to reach the truth that lies across this new divide, there was nothing inside but memories left abandoned, there was nowhere to hide, the ashes fell like snow"

"Not his fault, a complete accident. He was tainted, poisoned. There's something wrong. Controlled, somehow. Can't just live off spite alone-" Sam stopped and almost choked. His throat was sore. What had he been saying? And in what language?

Something you shouldn't be able to speak, young one. Our Language, one long dead even to our descendants. Cybertronian. The language of the Primes. Look at what you've written. Read it.

There was a jar of paint and a paintbrush in Sam' hand. It was bright green, the color of the cheap synthetic energon that was used in the free clinics near mines before the war. He was over knowing things from a dead planet that even some of the bots he knew didn't. It was normal now and almost expected. Writing symbols was also normal. What wasn't, was not remembering covering the walls of his dorm in them. The walls and the TV and even the curtains were covered in neon green glyphs. It gave the odd impression of glowing in places and it actually was kind of interesting to look at, but who wants to spend all their free time reading history and old myths written on their walls?

Wait- since when could he read it?

It was there, though, as easy to read as English. Well, most of it was, the story of the Primes' desperate search for energon near the beginning of Cybertron's history and again, centuries later when they stumbled on Earth. The chunk that should have said what happened when they found his planet was indecipherable to him, though. The glyphs were shaky, like he had been fighting himself to write them and they were smudged so badly that he couldn't read it. He didn't bother to read past that- he had a feeling that everything after it would be the same. Whatever it was that had been compelling him to write must not have wanted him to be able to know what happened next. Apparently, he had to figure it out himself. But how?

We will guide you. Yeah, because the Primes in his head had been so very helpful as of late. He had always wanted to have a huge breakdown in the middle of his class.

The door behind him opened and he turned to see Leo and that girl, Alice standing there. Didn't she take the hint last night? "Hey! Have you ever had a song stuck in your head and it's like the worst song ever but it just keeps repeating itself and repeating itself and repeating itself and repeating itself and repeating itself and repeating itself and kitten calendar kitten calendar kitten calendar kitten calendar kitten calendar…"

Leo was amazed and more than a little freaked. First, his walls are covered in those freaky symbols and second, how the hell did Sam manage all that in one breath? And that was a seventy-inch, plasma screen TV that he just destroyed. Oh yeah, they were gonna have some problems. "Dude, what the fuck?"

"I know you're freaking out. Don't freak out. Don't freak out. Easy fix. Puzzle-code in my head, now it's on the walls. Everything is good. This is the part that- Shhh! Shhh!" Couldn't they take the hint that he didn't want them there and leave? Alice didn't even live in this part of the dorm and Leo had been perfectly fine doing whatever he was doing away from their room. He was starting to work out what had happened and the Primes in his head were clambering, yelling over each other to make their bit of advice heard. But they were still there so, "Okay, what were you saying?"

"Alice, I'm horrified you had to see this. Let's go."

She didn't even look at him, her eyes glued to the glyphs like she could read them. "Get out."

"What?"

"Get out," she repeated and promptly shoved him out the door, ignoring his protests and showing off more of that unnatural strength.

"Sam, I knew there was something special about you."

He started backing away from that glint in her eyes. He just knew it was dangerous. "I know that you know that when two people in the know get together, they-" she grabbed him and slammed into the door with the smudged symbols. This girl seemed to do that a lot, "are genuinely amazing in bed."

"All right, listen. Boundaries." He held his hands up and backed away until the back of his knees hit the edge of his bed. She just grinned that shark-toothed grin and pushed him down onto it. Now he knew he was screwed. And not in the good way. She straddled him and he just kept talking. This word vomit thing was annoying as hell, but it might actually be useful this time. "Flag on the play. I am very ticklish."

"We have all have needs, Sam. Relax." Relax? How in the Pit was he supposed to relax when he was getting molested? Well, not molested but his personal space was being invaded and he did not take kindly to that.

"Whoa! Jeez!" He pressed his face into the pillow and kept up with the word vomit. "Uh, what about this economy? It's crazy, isn't it? You're very aggressive." And so not human, he realized. He could see the dangerously spiked prehensile something hovering near his ear and, against what little common sense he had left, he lifted his head to look and that how she got him. Right in the kisser. Well, more like she kissed him.

The door opened and that creepy thing Alice was controlling disappeared, for which Sam was thankful until he saw who it was.

Shit. Mikaela.

And she saw Alice kiss him. Double shit.

"Is that your girlfriend?" Man was he tired of her voice.

Do I look terrified to you? But all he said was, "Uh huh."

"Ex." Then she slammed the door. Ouch. He jumped off the bed and nearly ran to the door, "Mikaela, wait. I can explain every-" at which point something distinctly slimy wrapped around his throat and proceeded to choke him and throw him across the room. That wall hurt like hell and that TV was definitely broken beyond compare. It was a nice plasma screen, too.

The door banged open again and Mikaela stood there, staring wide-eyed at Alice as she and her creepy tongue dropped Sam. Leo leaned in to, "Sam, your bed-buddy, Alice- whoa! Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Sam couldn't move for a minute so he just settled on screaming as loud as he could. He was surprised he hadn't already scratched his throat enough to lose that particular octave. He'd screamed often enough in the past two years. Mikaela snapped out of her little trance and threw the heavy looking box she had been holding at Alice. It didn't do more than break the window but it was enough.

Sam could feel the heat on his legs as she blasted the door open and he just ran faster. He grabbed Mikaela's hand as he ran past- her and those damn stilettos- and dragged them all out towards the library. Leo tripped over the steps, too busy looking back at the Pretender following them. She had dropped her human disguise and followed in nothing but her protoform. Only Sam saw the significance, only he knew what she was saying by doing that. She was calling them all weak, walking around with no armor, saying that she didn't think they could do anything to hurt her. And it hurt him to know it was true. "All right, come on!" He was just a few steps further up and waving to Leo. "She's an alien robot! You gotta move!"

"Is this real?"

Sam grabbed Leo's arm and dragged him up the rest of the steps, "Just run! Shut up and run!"

They made it through the door and hid on the balcony on opposite sides of a reading desk and Leo was still freaking out. "Oh my god. Oh my god I can't believe I once had sex with her in my dream!"

"I can tell that you really missed me a lot, Sam!" And they should be quiet but Mikaela was whispering and Sam felt the need to defend himself. Even if he couldn't win.

"Look, It's not my fault, okay?"

"Oh. It's not your fault?"

"Listen! Listen, I am a victim!"

"You're a victim? Of what? A little eighty pound girl?"

"Of, of molestation! It was like getting humped in the neck by a mountain ox!"

"You didn't have to put your tongue in her mouth!"

"I didn't! Look-"

"You did!"

"Look, have you ever had your stomach tongued by a mountain ox with a five foot tongue? It was not fun for me, Mikaela. It smelled like diesel. It had like a diesel-y tinge to it!"

"You are such a little girl!"

"We're gonna have ten seconds of silence right now. I'm not talking to you for ten seconds." He held up his hands and started counting.

"You can't give me the silent treatment! You know what?"

"I'm not talking to you for ten seconds. You have three seconds left."

"You know what? You can give me the silent treatment all you want, but that doesn't stop me from talking."

Ten seconds done, he leaned over like he hadn't heard anything she said. "What were you gonna say?"

"I hope you had fun because this? This is over."

Leo leaned over Mikaela, "She violated your orifice with her nasty alien probe? She did it? She went in there? All her little embryo alien babies are gestating and hatching inside of you." Sam held up a finger, pleading for Leo to stop. Spasms were going through his stomach again and Leo was not helping his keep his bile down. But the idiot kept talking, "They're growing right now, probably! You need to vomit right now. Yak it! Yak it right now!"

And there went all of Sam's bile. On somebody's leather Converses. "Dammit, Sammy, I liked those shoes!"

Mikaela look disgusted, "Who are you?"

Gabriel leaned down and poked his head through the hole Sam and Mikaela had been talking through, "Gabriel Armstrong. Haven't we met already?"

"Hi Gabe. Not you, this weirdo beside me." What momentary softness in her face for Gabe disappeared as she turned icy blue eyes on Leo as she waited for his answer.

"Leonardo Ponce De Leon Spitz. Okay? I'm the key to this. The aliens, they want me 'cause of my site," his eyes widened and he cut off his ridiculous story. "Whoa! Guys, Right there!" And then the floor exploded.

Sam jumped and landed on the light fixture, his hands burning as he grabbed hold. Leo helped Mikaela onto the metal rolling stairs beside the balcony and got on next. Gabe was nowhere to be found. Sam just jumped from the light, landing on a table and rolling off it. Alice was slowly blowing apart the library as they ran, screaming students and staff pushing and shoving. The whole campus was in a panic now and it was hard getting anywhere.

Mikaela stopped once they got out side, looking around before running off in the direction of his dorm. "We gotta get that box." They found it and Gabe in the parking lot. Sam grabbed the box she had brought here and Gabe broke into the car he was standing beside. "Come on, ya'll, get in. Here, I'll take the box." They piled in and Mikaela shoved Gabe over when he took too long hotwiring the car.

"Oh my god, you know how to hotwire a car? So hot." And Gabe may have accidentally elbowed Leo in the face for that comment while he was climbing into the backseat but it shut him up so no one cared.

"Drive, drive, drive, drive- she's right there! Right there!" Sam still hadn't gotten control of his mouth and he was giving himself a headache with all the yelling but he couldn't stop.

Alice sped up and when she was close enough, she jumped on the hood and broke a hole in his window with her- "Tongue, tongue, tongue!" He was half out of the car and her tongue was wrapped around his neck again. What was it with her and that thing? Mikaela swerved hard and Alice slid to the other side releasing Sam and breaking a whole in the windshield to keep herself on the hood.

"Kiss this, bitch," and Mikeala rammed her into a light post. And ran her over again. Smiling all the way.

"Remind me not to piss her off. You like the crazy ones, don't you, Sam?" Gabe was in the backseat, curled around Mikaela's box and wide-eyed. Sam just nodded.

Leo leaned in between the seats, sweat covered and panting, "Okay, so what else don't I know, alright? Since you guys forgot to mention some minor details!"

"You are in the middle of a war, man," this from Gabe who, while completely right, looked ridiculous curled up in the seat like a child and trying to pry open the box. It had started shaking and he was curious.

"That thing you saw back there was nothing but a little baby- Whoa!" There was a dangerously low flying helicopter with a way too sharp grappling hook coming straight for them. It easily sunk through the roof and lifted the car slowly. Sam was pretty sure that it was waiting for the oncoming SUV to ram them. The car slammed into them and the helicopter lifted off as Sam's door flew opened and he slid out. He grabbed the door handle and screamed. His shoulder was dislocated, he knew and he wasn't sure it could make his fingers hold on for much longer. He really wished he hadn't cut gym so much, maybe then he would have the upper body strength to pull himself up. "Pull me up!"

"Sam!" Mikaela's manicured nails dug into his arm as she, Gabe and Leo pulled him up.

Leo held Sam in the seat like a seat belt and just pushed his feet on the dashboard and wedged himself in the seat. That door hinge was broken and it was not going to close and Sam was not taking any chances. "Whoa! I don't want to die! We're gonna die! We're gonna die! Oh my god!" Leo just couldn't stop screaming and Sam wondered if he had sounded like that the first time. Probably.

The Decepticon, because Sam had decided it was a Decepticon, flew the across the Milestone river and unceremoniously dropped them through the glass roof of an abandoned warehouse. The car landed on its nose and flipped onto the roof, where it was promptly cut down the middle. "Oh Jesus. Oh Jesus." Looking up into Starscream's red optics all Sam thought was, No God is gonna help us now, Leo. He hasn't bothered with them in millennia, why help us now?

Megatron loomed over the railing behind Mikaela as they got out of what remained of the car. Sam held his hands up as he was pinned by the red optics that haunted his nightmares. "Come here boy." Sam swallowed; he hated being called boy. It never boded well for him. He moved forward anyway because he wasn't dumb enough to deny this behemoth. "Closer…" The mech growled as he slowly moved to the stair leading to the ground level of the warehouse. He heard Mikeala and Gabe whispering behind him. "Okay. Okay"

"You remember me, don't you?" Megatron's voice was gravely, low like a smoker's and there was this sickening sweetness that existed to mock and scare Sam.

He was tainted, poisoned. Who had said that? "I did what you said, okay? Don't hurt them."

"Shut up." And then he was flying. He landed on the table in the middle of the room, his whole spine feeling bruised. He arched up off the table and Megatron pinned him down with those claws he called servos. Sam finally got a good look at the mech and saw that being dead and buried at sea had done him no favors. He was rusted in places, especially his servos and faceplates, his optics were cracked and only seemed partially functional, and he could hear the warlord's systems struggling. The All Spark may have given him back his spark but it did not heal him. "Wait, wait, wait! Ahh!"

"It feels good to grab your flesh. I am going to kill you, slowly, painfully, but first, we have delicate work to do."

"Ah! Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait!"

"How I could snap your limbs off!" Megatron grabbed the arm Sam had been trying to lift and twisted it painfully before pinning it to the table again. "Doctor, examine this alien specimen." Sam watched in horror as the microscope on the table next to him transformed into a little spider-like Decepticon with huge red optics with round clear glass mounted above them that Sam assumed could be moved at will and used like glasses.

"I'll scan you for Megatron, take a look at your face, ah? I'm ze doctor, ze odd job. Information!" the little creature said in an odd mix of Cybertronian and English. Sam grunted and it kept talking at lightning speed, "Yeah! Beseeching my shard. Easy or tough way?" the doctor didn't give him time to answer before producing a worm-like probe covered in synthetic mucus. Sam recognized it as the ones used for particularly difficult patients in free clinics on Cybertron. They had eventually been outlawed because of how violent and painful they tended to be. Sam didn't even have time to struggle before the thing was forced down his throat. All he could do was gag while it went down his esophagus and back up his nose, searing for nerves to latch onto and scan. The thing crawled back out the way he came and Sam's eyes rolled back in his head as his airway was cut off for a second too long. The doctor plugged the thing into his neck and projected the symbols in the air in front of them. "Oh, there they are," Megatron was almost fond when he said this, like he was talking about beloved children that had been hiding from him.

"Those are the symbols I've been seeing in my head." Along with some of his memories. And this time he could read them. 'Primes' was the first one he caught, except it was modified to mean 'kings'. A number next, three. The three kings… Then the projection was gone.

"These symbols can lead us to the energon source."

"We must have ze brain on se table. Chop, chop!" Sam was really getting tired of that little bug of a doctor. What were those pests Ratchet used to complain about? Scraplets. The doctor looked like a scraplet.

The doctor started examining Sam's head and his panic leaked through again, starting up that annoying word vomit. Thankfully, it made sense this time. "Hold on. I know you're pissed. I know you're pissed. I tried to kill you and- and it's completely understandable. Somebody tried to kill me; I'd be upset too. I think that we have an opportunity here to start anew and- and develop our relationship and see where it leads us, okay? So, you just call Doctor Inspector off and let's just talk for five seconds!" he had no idea how he managed that with the doctor standing on his windpipe and hanging half in his mouth. He was almost proud until a mini saw appeared, going straight for his head, "Wait, wait, wait-!"

The roof caved in. Optimus Prime. And then the wall followed. Way to make an entrance, Bee.

Sam ran as soon as he was released, Leo, Gabe and Mikeala right beside him. Apparently, Bumblebee packed a punch in those cannons of his because he easily kept Megatron busy while Optimus dealt with Starscream. Once the coward flew off and Optimus turned to Megatron, he ran too, leaving Bee and Prime to pick up the humans. Bee took Mikaela, Leo and Gabe, who somehow still had that box, and went in one direction while Prime took Sam and went straight after Megatron.

They were long out of Princeton, on the highway somewhere in the middle of a forest when Sam leaned out of Prime's window and shouted, "Here he comes!" Immediately, he was let out of the big rig and told to run.

Then, the battle began.

Optimus grunted out insults as he fought, quickly gaining the upper hand. It was one of the most natural things in the universe to him now, battling his brother. He could even almost make himself think he was back in the practice rings in Kaon, letting Megatronus teach him how real mechs fight, down low and dirty. Optimus turned every one of those tricks on Megatron now, raining blows and not letting the mech get a breather. And it worked until a cry of, "Decepticons!" and he was suddenly outnumbered three to one.

Starscream hit the dirt hard, searching the trees for Sam. "Come here, boy." His voice was a taunting purr, like a cat playing with a mouse and Sam winced. He hated being called boy. His parents never used his name when he was in trouble, just that word, his teachers said it when they thought he was stupid, Trent never called his name. The word 'boy' only ever meant bad things for him. He backed away, wide-eyed, trying to stay hidden in all the downed trees. Prime grabbed the Air Commander before he could close though and Sam breathed a sigh of relief. That is, until he realized that Prime was losing. The odds and numbers were against him it seemed, and when Megatron blasted Optimus in the chassis, Sam wasn't sure he was going to get up. Megatron stood where he was, already gloating over his win. "There is another source of energon on this planet," he said, "and the boy could lead us to it."

"Optimus!" he yelled. They weren't paying attention to him now, stalking towards the downed mech like a pack of wolves.

"Is the future of our race not worth a single human life?"

Prime spat out a gear and used his sword to push himself up to one knee. From Sam's spot hiding in the roots of an upturned tree, he could see how bright his optics suddenly were. He could also see the resolve forming on his face, the determination. "You'll never stop at one," he said, unsheathing his second sword. "I'll take you all on!" And he stood and turned with a speed he shouldn't possess and did exactly what he said he would; he took them all on. Sam had watch Optimus fight before and he fought with a lethal grace that he knew came from far too long training. This, though, this was something different altogether. There was a savage sort of anger, a rage that fueled his movements and made them even more unpredictable. In seconds he had ripped Starscream's arm off, beating him with it and rendering him useless. In the next moment, he was on Grindor's back, using two curved swords Sam had never seen before to rip the Decepticon's processor in two. When he jumped down, he looked for Sam, calling out, "Sam! Where are you?" It was that one moment of distraction that cost him so dearly.

Megatron, ever the opportunist, came up behind the Prime and ran his spark through. He lifted Prime up, still impaled on his sword like some gruesome trophy and Sam caught a glimpse of his optics. The nightmarish red had dimmed, giving way to a murky purple and he looked sad, devastated for a nanosecond before his faceplaces twisted into an ugly sneer. "You're so weak!" And then, Megatron shot his only brother through the spark and left him for dead.

Optimus' optics were still bright, though. His helm lolled until he found Sam and he whispered, "Sam, run. Run."

Then they went dark and the Autobots showed up- too damn late- and Sam felt like his ears were stuffed with cotton because he could barely hear anything.

"Autobots, attack!" It was Ironhide, leading the charge, cannons blazing- too late.

"Bumblebee, get them out of here!" Ratchet, the practical one, the miracle worker. Even he couldn't save Optimus now- still too late.

There was the femme, too, the new one he met two days ago. She was there and she looked devastated. He had never seen a Cybertronian look so heartbroken. Or maybe it was spark-broken. Then, he watched something in her optics snap as she stood and stared at the dead Prime- "Sam, come on, we have to move." Arms were wrapped around him and he caught the scent of car wax and paint- Mikaela. But didn't want to leave, he'd be leaving Prime alone and it was his fault and-

"NO!" It was the most terrible scream he'd ever heard and it wasn't his. He wanted to scream so badly because it would relieve this pressure but it wasn't him. It was the femme, Strikezone. Ironhide held her around the waist as she tried to transform. It looked like she was a flier too, a triple-changer and she wanted to go after the retreating Decepticons because, "-they killed him! He's dead!"

"Strikezone…" it was weak and quiet but Sam heard it because he was still standing beside Prime's helm and somehow, so did the femme herself. She stopped for a moment and then fought harder, this time to kneel beside him. Ironhide dropped her and backed away wearily, watching, not fully trusting her not to fly off and get herself killed. She just knelt in the dirt, suddenly silent and searching and, while he didn't say anything else, his optics were still lit. She smiled then and whispered, "Orion." They only stayed lit for a moment longer and then they were dark again. This time, Sam knew they were never coming on again. She pressed her helm to his graying one and suddenly, Sam knew that he didn't need to watch and gave into Mikaela's insistent tugging. He still heard the femme whisper, "Looks like I'll never get to tell you…"

Sam slid into Bumblebee's driver's seat turned back to the clearing created by the battle. He watched as Strikezone stood from the ground, her black armor gleaming deadly. He could imagine how formidable this femme must look in battle. She lifted her helm slowly and looked in the direction that Megatron and Starscream had flown off in. She just glared for a minute before driving one of her swords violently into the dirt beside Prime's grayed frame. Sam knew what it meant; an oath for revenge and it was one he sincerely hoped she fulfilled. He watched her until Bee had driven too far and the trees obscured his sight.

He was guilty, sick with it, and he just wished he could curl up and sleep and nothing would ever bother him again. But he couldn't because Optimus Prime was dead because of him and the mech was not going to stay that way. He understood now. He and the Primes in his head were in perfect accord.

Save him. He's not dead yet.