XXXI - The Eleventh Hour
We all cleared the Spark Extractor's Invisible radius before it detonated, but many of Megatron's troops were not as fortunate. Horrified, I watched, waiting in horror for something gruesome. Droves of the Vehicons and a few Insecticons intermixed collapsed simultaneously, as if it had been choreographed. I stared at their chassis numbly, not really registering what had just happened. Megatron hurled a shard of metal he got from somewhere, or someone, I thought darkly as it pierced the Spark Extractor.
Bulkhead whooped, seeing only a handful of Decepticons remaining, Megatron and Soundwave among them. We converged on them all, weapons raised.
I strode towards the larger silver mech and a couple others shuffled out of the way to admit me. I raised Valor, meeting the warlord's optics. "Game over, Megatron. Cybertron is ours! You LOST!" I cheered and thrust my sword into the air, an action so uncharacteristic of me that I got the sense the others had stopped to watch out of my sight. I couldn't help myself, I was practically drowning in the euphoria.
He watched me, bemused. "On the contrary, my dear Seven. Dreadwing!" Immediately, four cables dropped from the bottom of the Nemesis and attached themselves to the top of the Omega Lock. My tank sunk as I watched the ship pull upwards and a loud shriek emanated from the metal, whether coming from the Nemesis or the Lock, I couldn't tell at first. But finally, it gave and the circular top of it came free, the strange blue liquid in its hollow center still swirling and giving off that eerie light. The remaining Decepticons transformed and flew up to their ship, which, incredibly, began to ascend with its new load. And slowly, the Nemesis began to turn, facing a massive space bridge that had just opened.
Megatron's magnified voice called down to us, triumphant laughter filling his tone. I could just make out his shadowy form on the prow of his warship. "Autobots, the dawning of a new age is upon us: the Age of the Decepticons! You see, why rule only one world, when I can rule two?" I sheathed Valor into its place on my back and glared up at him, albeit there was no way he could make out my expression from that distance.
The Omega Lock's glow increased in intensity, and shot a massive beam of blue energy straight into the heart of Cybertron, into the Well of Allsparks and then Primus himself.
The spectacle abruptly ended, and still carrying the Lock, the Nemesis completed its turn and flew through the bridge, vanishing in a flash of white light. I wanted to impale myself on Valor.
"We're doomed," Smokescreen stated bluntly.
"Keep thinking like that, soldier, and we shall be." Ultra Magnus said gravely.
Optimus turned to the rest of us slowly, sheathing the Star Saber to his back. He was leaking energon from a few wounds, none of which looked serious, least of all mortal.
"Upon this day, we Autobots face our darkest hour. Earth is in grave peril, and unless we stop the Decepticons, Cybertron could remain a graveyard and Earth could be destroyed. We must not tarry."
One short trip in Magnus' ship through a space bridge later, courtesy of Knock Out (I assumed Megatron was too busy trying to conquer Earth to notice the space bridge had been opened), we arrived back at our sad half of the Harbinger. Things were looking bleak indeed.
"Why are we still here?" I snapped, "Megatron is undoubtedly doing something atrocious to this planet as we sulk here! Aren't we going to stop him?!"
"You tell me," Smokescreen growled, twisting the phase shifter's face so it deactivated. "You're the high-and-mighty Seven, who single-handedly made sure that the Keys fell into our servos, did a pretty bang-up job of it too! And look," he waved a servo, "it didn't matter, did it? The 'Cons have won!"
I was about to retort but Bulkhead beat me to it, "Smoke, I never thought you the type to give up so easily." he scoffed.
Ratchet stepped in, "Please! You three are acting like sparklings! Will bickering really get us any closer to defeating Megatron and his goons?"
Ultra Magnus seized the opportunity, "The doctor is correct. However, we lack ready means of locating the Nemesis."
A familiar mech suddenly stepped out of a ground bridge, drawing all of us up short. "I believe I can help with that," Knock Out smirked.
I gaped at him, "You're a lifesaver."
"I know." he preened, flashing me a smile.
My school gets out at three in the afternoon, so it was understandable that there was a lot of confusion when the bells began to ring shrilly at noon.
"I'm telling you, I used to play the viola, not violin–" Will broke off as the bells began to ring, ceasing to gesture with his sandwich. Kids at other tables had begun to rise, clutching half-eaten food with disinterest, whispers whipping around like it was a fire drill, an actual fire, an earthquake, I even heard one kid mutter something like "we're all targets."
Tony gave me a confused look from across the lunch table, and the three of us rose in unison, our lunch trays forgotten. Teachers had begun to usher students to the gym urgently, tossing whispered comments around like "giant spaceship," and "they're saying it's Japanese," and "looks alien to me."
Will and I froze. "The Nemesis," I mouthed at him, and he nodded, clearly sharing my thoughts. Tony still looked confused and nervous. "C'mon!" I said, and led the three of us to the fringes of the crowd, out of sight of the teachers. I furtively glanced around for a door, and found one a few meters on the wall to my left. We rushed towards it and flung it open, jogging outside and praying that no teacher or snitch had seen us. Once we were out of the building, the heavy door slammed shut behind us.
I looked up and stifled a gasp. The thunderheads rolling in weren't terrifying, but the Nemesis was. Sure enough, the Decepticon warship hovered in the air not too far above us, something circular with a glowing blue liquid in the middle hung beneath the bottom of the ship. If I squinted, I thought I could see Megatron standing at the prow of the ship, but it was without any certainty. Suddenly, the strange liquid began swirling faster and faster, and a blue laser shot out from the side of it, a beam of pure energy. We all instinctively flinched. It met the landscape maybe a half mile away.
"What is going on!?" Tony shouted over the noise once he had found his voice. I looked over at my friends, who both had gone very white.
I pulled out my cell phone from my pants' pocket and fumbled with the dial buttons, trying to reach the Harbinger's comm link. After the third ring, Ratchet answered. "What is it, Oliver? We are right in the middle of things over here!"
I sensed he was about to hang up on me and shouted "Wait! This is worth your time, I promise!" I received an expectant silence in answer, so I continued. "The 'Con warship is right above my school, with some weird, circular device hanging beneath it," I glanced upwards, feeling chills go down my spine. "jeez, the thing is freakin' huge!"
"What are your coordinates?" He snapped urgently.
"I–I don't know," I looked to my incredulous friends, "We're at my school, its a few miles southeast of my house, just look it up…" I trailed off as the medic dissolved himself into grumbles. "Where are the others? I was expecting Optimus."
He hung up.
Will threw his hands up into the air, "Oh, thank you Ratchet! You–" he cut himself off as a ground bridge opened in front of us.
Seven dashed out first, his outline slightly blurred, clutching a red, wicked-looking sword. I rubbed my eyes, but he remained the same. He seemed to move faster than what looked possible, and wasn't happy. Optimus came out behind him, holding the Star Saber. He was followed by Arcee, who carried the Apex Armor, then Bulkhead, empty-handed, Bumblebee wearing the Polarity Gauntlet, Smokescreen sporting the phase shifter, Knock Out, surprisingly, and a blue mech whom I had never seen before, holding a massive rifle of Cybertronian make.
"Sev!" Will cried, racing over to him. The Seeker looked down with a haunted expression as if in a daze, and sheathed his sword. His outline returned to normal, but his expression remained the same. Will, seeing this, slowly backed off.
"What happened, Optimus?" I asked, striding over to the Prime, who looked a bit banged up, as did everyone else. "Was there a fight?"
"What does it look like?" Knock Out huffed. "I wish I were there…"
"Be glad you weren't." Seven interjected, looking as though he had mentally shook himself.
Once Tony had picked his jaw up off the ground, he half walked, half dragged his feet over to the 'Bots. "Are you real? Please tell me I'm not dreaming, 'cause I don't want to wake up. Ever."
Will grabbed a dazed Tony by his sleeves and tugged him back inside the high school, promising him he'd explain everything. My friend was back beside me a moment later.
"What happened?" I asked again.
"That is a story for another time," the blue mech I didn't recognize stated gruffly.
"We are on a tight schedule, so to speak…" Bulkhead trailed off, looking to the Prime.
"How are we going to get up there?" Smokescreen piped up, "It's not like we can fly."
Seven rolled his optics, striped wings fluttering and he cleared his throat—(do they have throats?)—loudly.
"Right." The white mech corrected, "But one bot isn't going to be able to do anything against the 'Con army."
"Smoke is right," Arcee cut in, "we need a new bridge." The Decepticon warship began to ascend quite rapidly into the sky until it became a black smudge against the cloudy sky. It still wasn't raining.
Bumblebee chirped something, looking irritated.
Optimus looked at the yellow scout, "The Nemesis is still within range of a ground bridge, Bumblebee." They all looked relieved.
"Wait, what about us? Can we help? I could fight off 'Cons with the Apex Armor…" Will trailed off.
The Prime looked down at him sternly, "I am afraid that is out of the question. We will not put you at unnecessary risk."
"Hey, this is our planet Megatron's shooting a laser at!" I protested snappishly.
Seven glared at us, "The best thing you two can do right now is make sure you stay safe. We'll let you know when the battle's over." And with that, he whipped out a device I instantly recognized: the ground bridge remote.
"Why do you keep hiding that?" Arcee bristled.
"It's useful," he shot back. The Seeker activated it, and Optimus led the charge through, then the blue mech, and everyone else. Suddenly, Will and I were alone.
"Good luck," I muttered into thin air.
I cautiously stepped out of my ground bridge, onto the edge of the circular Omega Lock. The cables supporting it were so thick that I doubted if even the Star Saber could cut through them. Like either side wanted to destroy the Lock by sending it crashing into the Earth far below us. Megatron landed in front of Optimus, the blue glow of the strange liquid in the Omega Lock giving his silver paint a garish hue. I assumed that mine looked similar.
"Megatron," Optimus rumbled, "stand down."
The warlord tutted, and raised his fist into the air. The blue laser shooting out of the Lock immediately shut off, and Dreadwing and Soundwave, along with a horde of drones leapt from the belly of the Nemesis to join us.
"May the rightful leader of Cybertron be the last mech standing," Megatron snarled.
Optimus held his sword up as well, mirroring the silver mech's stance. "I am but a soldier, Megatron. And you are a prisoner of your own twisted delusions!"
The warlord laughed coldly, "Time will tell, Optimus."
The Prime stepped forwards and swung his sword, trying to get under the warlord's guard. But Megatron sidestepped, dodging it with ease as his gladiatorial sword slid out. The fight resumed from there and I unsheathed Valor, my sights set on Dreadwing. Time skipped a step and slowed around me. I grinned maliciously, loving the sensation as much as the first time. More, maybe. The blue Seeker had other ideas, however, and charged Bumblebee with his own silver, unremarkable blade. The scout disengaged from a Vehicon and turned his blasters on Dreadwing, forcing the other Seeker to seek shelter from the onslaught of plasma. Arcee and Ultra Magnus were cutting through the Decepticon troops almost with ease. Knock Out and Bumblebee were now focusing their attention on Dreadwing, the blue Seeker firing occasional bolts of red plasma at them with his minigun. Soundwave and Bulkhead were also dancing around each other, trying to land deadly blows, an unlikely pair if I ever saw one.
"Of course, they leave me to the drones again." I grumbled, and began dispatching them alongside Arcee and Magnus. A few minutes later, the few troops left were retreating, and the three Decepticons left were fighting with a new fervor. Megatron managed to fend off Ultra Magnus and Optimus. I grinned, watching the battle with a new hunger; it was just a matter of time before the warlord fell.
I swept Valor around at Soundwave, who had come too close for comfort. He activated the resonance blaster attached to his wrist and I was blasted with a sound wave so shrill that I felt my audials short out, before reactivating with a loud ringing. I shook my helm, feeling dizzy. The blue mech advanced, the same impassive visor glaring at me. He blasted me with it again, and this time I fell. On the edge of my vision, I saw Ultra Magnus' sprawled chassis near Megatron's pedes with a large dent in his helm, apparently unconscious. Serves him right, I thought.
I scrambled to my pedes again and transformed my left servo into a blaster, firing a few shots at the blue mech while clutching Valor like a life preserver to enhance my speed, dancing out of his reach each time he drew close.
I suddenly found myself pinned between Dreadwing and Soundwave. The two blue mechs closed in on me slowly, with malicious optics in Dreadwing's case, knowing I was cornered. But they took too long. Bumblebee sprang to my aid just as Dreadwing had raised his sword, blocking it on the edge of the Polarity Gauntlet.
"Thanks!" I gasped, ducking away from the two. Behind the scout, Megatron shoved the tip of his silver blade through one of the gaps in the center of the Star Saber. He clapped his servos over the flat of the Prime's blade, and the sword was wrenched from Optimus' grasp.
Bumblebee saw this and made to retrieve the Star Saber for the Prime, as it was out of his reach. With a swift thrust, Megatron shoved his sword through the center of Bumblebee's unprotected back plating, right between his door wings. He crumpled, sliding off the blade's tip with a smear of energon and without a sound.
"NO!" Arcee and Bulkhead shouted, charging towards him. But Megatron pulled his chassis up by a pede as the scout's large blue optics turned black.
My vision blurred, maybe from lubricant, but most certainly from a cold fury. The yellow mech didn't deserve to die, and he was still so young. I screeched and slashed Valor at Dreadwing in a cruel, crimson arc, cutting deep into his side. Soundwave hit me with another pulse from the resonance blaster, but I hardly felt it. I watched, wings low, trembling with rage and grief as Megatron hauled the scout's offlined chassis up, using him as a shield from the rain of blue blaster fire.
I made me so sick to watch that I gagged, but nothing came up. Bumblebee's chassis was unrecognizable, I wouldn't begin to describe it. Megatron, deeming his "shield" useless, tossed him into the swirling, electric blue liquid of the Omega Lock. I don't know what disjointed lines of programming propelled me, but I lunged forwards, reaching for his servo. It was missing the middle two fingers. But I had leaned too far, and with a splash, I landed in the liquid, clutching his dead servo like it was life itself.
I opened my optics, not registering I had shut them in the first place. The liquid burned every inch of my chassis and wings. I screamed, feeling the tight grip of panic closing around my spark, knowing with every circuit in my chassis that I was dying too, and accidentally swallowed a large amount of the stuff.
Arcee, Bulkhead, and Knock Out's distorted figures stood above me, looking much farther away than they actually were. At least, I assumed the figure in the Apex Armor was Arcee. I thrashed my limbs and flapped my wings, trying to swim out of the liquid, but it was so thick that I could barely move. The burning sensation seeped down my throat and I gasped, swallowing more of the stuff. The last thing I saw was Arcee diving in after me, arm outstretched.
My optics onlined and I coughed up a sizable amount of whatever that liquid was. Bulkhead pulled me to my pedes, but I didn't feel weak like I had expected. Every scrape and dent was gone from my chassis, I noted with amazement, gawking at myself. Valor was, miraculously, sheathed in its scabbard in between my wings. Sure, I still was weary, but my chassis had never felt this good in all of my or Starscream's memories.
But the real shock came when Knock Out exclaimed "Look!" and pointed to the other side of the ring. Bumblebee was on his pedes, glowering at Megatron. His entire chassis looked good as new. Better, even, just like mine.
"Megatron!" He shouted. He has a voice. I thought I might've fainted for a split second; the world flickered black around me and I caught myself tipping over.
Rain continued to drum down, and my thoughts immediately focused back to Bumblebee. Or at least, what happened to he and I. Ideas started going off like explosions in my helm, shattering my thoughts each time. Raw cyber-matter was the only explanation; that was the only thing that could have repaired our chassis that quickly and efficiently, so "magically" that it had quite literally resurrected the scout, and restored his vocalizer. That's how it would restore Cybertron, I realized. Everyone else looked just as shocked as I felt.
But then my thoughts did a rapid somersault and I gasped, almost losing my balance as I ran away from the battle. My pedes thudded to the rhythm of the rain: in an erratic, sloppy way. My thoughts were so unclear, still going off like miniature explosions in my helm that I could barely understand them, staggering around like I was extremely overcharged and grinning like a fool. A memory spontaneously surfaced of when I actually was, in Megatron's failed interrogation.
A balloon of hope was rapidly inflating under my chest plate, so quickly I felt lightheaded. What if… what if what happened to Bumblebee could happen to Starscream? Could we have him back? Could I really…?
Starscream.
I threw myself off the Omega Lock, grinning like I'd lost my mind.