A/N: Chapter 3 is here! And so is the fight between Infernocus and Optimus Prime.
I would like to thank those who followed/favorited/reviewed. Those really do give me more motivation to write more. Oh, and to the individual who reviewed under the name Ashley: Bayverse Prime is one of my favorites as well. Probably tied with Transformers Prime Optimus.
Anyway, here's the next chapter; filled with fighting, pain, Prime, robots, and… yeah!
Enjoy!
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"Do you know who I am?"
The black-horned menace roared, red optics burning with barely contained savagery. And then it charged.
Optimus set his feet and prepared. Infernocus was an arms reach away when Optimus ducked under its arm and spun. His sword grazed the side of the towering mech, chipping off bits of metal plating. Infernocus let of a guttural groan of pain as a thin trail of blue Energon began leaking out of the wound.
He swung his arm backwards in a wild attack. Prime jumped out of the way of the massive limb. He held his sword at his side and rushed forward. Sword pierced metal nearly up to the hilt. Optimus used it as a handhold and climbed the back of Infernocus as it tried to swat him off. Freeing his sword, Prime plunged it through the head of his opponent. The chamber shook as the monstrosity fell to its knees. The Prime leaped off and landed in a roll.
Blue optics turned their attention to the floating form of Quintessa. "Now for you." Optimus marched around the fallen form of Infernocus.
Quintessa, unexpectedly to Prime, smirked. "Is that what you believe?"
A sound of shifting metal reached them both. Immediately after, Prime yelled out in more surprise than pain as a small clawed hand ripped into the lower right of his back. He looked down to see what looked to be a smaller, simpler version of Infernocus glaring up at him. Optimus reared back his elbow and slammed into the face of the attacker. It was knocked to the ground and impaled through the Spark by Prime's sword.
Optimus stood ready as several other mechs like the one he just offlined surrounded him; the body of Infernocus nowhere to be seen.
"May I introduce to you the Infernocons, Optimus Prime," Quintessa said with a smugness in her voice.
He watched them carefully as they all circled around him, five in total now. Prime had not expected Infernocus to be a combiner, but it made more sense due to its size. Now, he had more of a challenge.
The first one to leap at him was to his left. He sliced the Infernocon in half at the hip before driving his sword into its head. Prime spun on his heel, analyzing each remaining Infernocon, sword held at the ready.
A second pounced at him then, arm transforming into a jagged sword. Prime deflected one strike and went to counter-attack, but the Infernocon rolled out of the way. Before Optimus could attempt to take it out, a set of claws torn down his left arm. The third Infernocon gained Prime's sword through its chest. As its optics faded to black, Optimus ripped his sword free. Two more remained.
Making a quick decision, Prime threw his sword at one of the last Infernocons. The Knightly blade entered the neck of Quintessa's beast, ending it. As its body collapsed, Optimus transformed his arm into a cannon and took aim at the last one. A shot torn through its right shoulder, severing the entire arm. The second shot blew half of the Infernocon's head to tiny metal bits. A third, and final shot, snuffed its Spark.
So, there stood Optimus Prime, standing amongst the graying frames of the Infernocons, glared up at his Creator. Then his optics set on his sword, still within the neck of one of the 'Cons. He walked up and pulled his blade free. Now was time to end his Creator. She was evil. Evil destroyed Cybertron, and she had deformed his homeworld. He was going to end her to ensure no one would ever be threatened or harmed by her.
As he got closer, Quintessa began clapping slowly. "Well done, Optimus Prime. Infernocus was made to be one of the most fearsome of my creations. And you defeated him. You are everything that I remembered."
Optimus scowled. "You defiled my world! Put my friends in danger! I'll kill you!" He raised his sword to end Quintessa in one clean swing.
Then Quintessa made a gesture.
A chain launched from the floor and latched onto his sword arm. Prime lost his grip on his sword as the chain became taut. He tried to lash out with his free arm, but that was caught in a chain as well. Two more chains pierced just below his neck and pulled him to his knees. When Prime tried to struggle, an electric shock was sent through each chain.
Prime's body slacked briefly as he vented hard. Then he lifted his head to look as Quintessa. She smiled… that quickly turned into a sneer. She lift her hand, and a beam of blue energy shot out. Without getting electrocuted again, Optimus was not able to see what was happening behind him. Then he heard a guttural groan from behind. A massive black hand grabbed his head and forced him to look at Quintessa.
"Your war doomed Cybertron!" She said.
Prime received a hard kick to his back from the newly revived Infernocus. "Megatron started the war!"
Quintessa grabbed her creation's chin and jerked his head up more, surprising the Prime with her strength to do so for a being much smaller than himself.. "You destroyed your world, you fool! My greatest creation… and you're going to help me fix it, or the race of Transformers will die forever."
"I'll never help you," Prime replied.
That earned him a backhanded slap from her. Prime groaned in pain as he felt a burning sensation spread along the left side of his head. A dull red coloration had formed. A mark to show he was owned by her, but he still wasn't fully hers.
"I made you. You are mine to command," Quintessa said in a silky voice.
Prime set his face in defiance. "Never. As I told your bounty hunter, I am slave to no one."
Quintessa floated back, putting space between her and Optimus. "We shall see about that." A prolonged electric shock was sent through Prime's body. "If you won't obey me willingly, I supposed I must break you."
"You can try…"
Quintessa let out a light scoff. "Oh, I will."
Earth—South Dakota
Cade Yeager had finally returned to his hideout—a junkyard on an Indian reserve. There wasn't much else he could do. He was wanted by most governments of the world for assisting the Cybertronians that have crash landed on his homeworld. The good ones, at least.
Now, he stood outside his home and stared up at the tiny dots in the coming night sky. Cade looked for the brightest star he could see and remembered words once spoken to him:
"Cade Yeager, I do not know. But when you look to the stars, think of one of them… as my soul."
"I miss ya, Prime," he said softly to the star. "I hope you're okay. It has been a while since you left. We could use you back here, though. It has been chaos lately." He chuckled. "I'm surprised the 'Bots haven't beat each other to scrap yet."
"Do you always talk to yourself?"
Cade nearly jumped in surprise at the voice of a little girl. He looked and saw the girl and her bot from the Chicago No-Go Zone. He ran a hand down his face.
"Oh, no. You can't be here. You gotta go. I got enough strays as it is," he said to her.
The girl scrunched up her face. "I'm not a stray. I'm useful. I can fix shit, better than anyone. And I have a name you know. It's Izabella with a 'Z'."
Cade walked past her and towards the old car mechanic building. "I don't care if it's 'Z', an emoji, or a dollar sign. This is no place for…," he sighed. "Just go home. Please."
Izabella stopped in her tracks. "I ain't gotta home. And they…," her voiced cracked. "They killed the last person I called family. So, no. I'm not going. I'm gonna stay, and I'm gonna fight them!"
"Them? You can't fight them. That have limitless funds, the entire backing of the world. You can't fight them, and you're just a kid." He turned and walked away towards the ladder that led to the roof of the building where he had set up a few chairs to relax on, but he heard the sound of small feet trailing behind. "Why are you still following me?"
He climbed the ladder and hoped that would deter the girl. It did not. She followed right behind. Two lawn chairs and a table with an umbrella sat off to the side. Cade sat down on one of the chairs as Izabella looked on what was on top of the table. It were a two framed photos, one of a girl in her late teens and the other was the guy (looking younger than he was now) and a female looking older than the teen. Both were playing with a little girl with blonder hair. The teen had blonde hair and wore a white tank-top and jeans. The woman in the other photo had blonde hair as well. Mother? Was the teen his daughter?
The inventor, seeing that the girl wouldn't be leaving anytime soon, decided to broach a question. "What happened to your family?"
"You first," Izabella responded back.
"Wife passed away. Daughter went off to college; she might as well be on the moon."
"At least she's still here, bro."
Cade snapped his head to look at the girl. "If I go to visit her, we both get arrested. Is that bad enough, bro?" Then he looked away. "Your turn, unless you're too tough to share."
Izabella took a quick breath. "Decepticon fired a rocket." That gained Cade's attention. "Parents were home, I wasn't. There was no way I was going to foster."
He felt truly sorry for her. He really did. But she couldn't stay here. It was too dangerous for a little girl to be here. TRF, or something worse, could arrive at any time. "You gotta go. You can't be here. I'm sorry."
Izabella pursed her lips before nodding. "Fine." She began towards the ladder. "I'll bounce in the morning."
That surprised Cade at how easily. He called out before her head disappeared behind the edge of the roof. "Alright. Well, I got some frozen burritos back at my trailer and maybe some Smucker's in the fridge."
Just then, the girl poked her head up from the edge. "And I'll tell everyone where you are."
Cade rose to his feet and put his hands on his hips. "Am I seriously being blackmailed by a twelve year old?"
"Fourteen."
He rolled his eye. "You know, you're really missing out, because it's okay to be a kid, little J. Lo." She chuckled at that. "You think you're a badass, huh? Well tough guy, I got a pop quiz for you." He walked up to the edge of the roof and knelt down to get closer to her. "You got an in-line Energon leak on a Slant-Six. You gotta get it fixed. Autobot is about to bleed out. You got thirty seconds now. What are you gonna do?"
Izabella crossed her arms. "Alright, first of all, Transformers don't have a Slant-Six. It's a Chrysler engine from way back in ancient times."
"The late Sixties are not ancient times."
"Well, if I was fixing an Energon leak, I'd cauterize the artery and re-channel the central flow into the…," she started snapping her fingers with her eye closed as she held on to the ladder with her other hand. "Whatchamacallit… the tube…"
"The doohickey thing," Cade finished for her.
"That's it."
He nodded, impressed. "Not bad, kid. Watch your mouth."
She gave a little smirk before climbing down the rest of the ladder. A burrito sounded good right about now.
"Hey!" Izabella looked up to see Cade's head over the side of the roof. "While I was gone, a junker brought a new voice box for Bumblebee. Let's see if you're as good as you say tomorrow."
"Better than you!"
"Ha ha, very funny. I'm regretting this decision already."
Cybertron—Quintessa's Chamber
The sorceress had chained up Optimus in such a way that his arms were pinned to his torso. Infernocus pulled him along by the end of the chain. Quintessa led them to a large, engraved wall. In the center was what appeared to be a staff. On each side of the staff were six, knight-like figures cared into the wall.
"Have you heard of the Knight's of Cybertron, Prime?" She asked, staring at the wall.
Optimus examined the wall before answering. "Yes, in ancient texts in the Iacon Hall of Records."
"And what did the texts say about them?"
"The Knights were protectors of Cybertron. They were called upon during times of great strife, but some time after the war, they vanished. What about them?"
"The Knights were my creations. Originally, I built twelve. Then, I built five more. Of those five, four reached Knighthood. The fifth became a Prime. That was out of my control. The other sixteen betrayed me. They took my Staff and hid it somewhere on Earth. I want you, my Last Knight, yo find it for me. It is the only way to bring life back into your shattered world, Optimus."
Prime looked from Quintessa, to the wall, and back again. "The humans have a phrase they tend to use from time to time. I believe it would fit in this situation."
"Oh? And what is this phrase?"
Prime locked optics with his Maker. "Go to Hell."
Quintessa hissed in anger before throwing an energy pulse at the Prime. He dropped to his knees, groaning as pain coursed through his entire being. When he tried to stand back up, he was hit by another pulse. They next second time he tried to get up, there was no pulse thrown at him. Even with his body in great pain now, Optimus Prime stood to his full height with pride. He was showing Quintessa a defiance that would only bring him more torture.
"Infernocus," Quintessa said, optics locked with Optimus. "Lead my creation to the observation room."
The large brute grunted acknowledgment and began tugging on Prime's chain. But Prime tugged back. Infernocus walked up to him and grabbed him by the back of his neck before throwing him to the ground. Prime tried to get to his feet again, but Infernocus was already pulling him up himself.
"Get off me," Optimus demanded. That earned him a punch to the back of the head. Prime's vision blacked out for a moment. Actually, the punch caused him to drop to his knees. He had not even realized until Infernocus was dragging him along by his neck.
The room he was taken to had a large opening that looked out into space. Optimus saw sections of his world, held together with tendrils of metal, floating around the view as the planet moved through space. Cybertron was moving quite slowly though. He even made out the planet they were passing by, and the realization nearly stopped his Spark.
The other planet was the one the humans called Neptune. Cybertron was on course for Earth.
Infernocus latched on a large chain to each of Prime's arms before releasing his previous bindings. The new ones had him hanging over a slight drop. His feet barely touched the platform behind him. Then Quintessa flew into view.
"Are you willing to submit, Optimus?" She asked.
Prime's replied with silence.
"Very well."
Massive amounts of electricity was sent through the chains. Optimus spasmed, his vision flickering the entire time. And then it stopped, leaving him venting hard. Before he had time to recover fully, another surge went through the chains, this time for a longer period of time.
When that shock treatment was done, Quintessa lifted Prime's head with a her finger. "It'll only get worse. You can stop it sooner rather than later, Prime. Are you ready to obey?"
"I'll obey you the day Energon stops flowing through my veins…"
Quintessa sighed. "How disappointing." Then she stuck Optimus across the face. "Infernocus, double the voltage."
Her beast grunted. Prime cried out in pain as more electricity was sent through the chains that held him and into his body. Error messages began to display all over his HUD. Spark temperatures were reaching unsafe levels. Circuitry was in danger of frying. He would sooner die than obey this menace before him. But he did not plan on dying. He would end the life of his Creator before that.
The torture session of Optimus Prime continued for several more hours. More electric shocks. More physical strikes. More threats thrown his way. While the Prime held on to his determination of not letting Quintessa break him, he wasn't sure how much his body could take. He was still mortal. He still felt pain. He was getting weak. Quintessa was relentless. She wanted him to submit as soon as possible.
Quintessa looked Prime over as he hung from his chains. His head was hung low as he vented hard, each vent bringing about a slight wheeze. She turned around to stare out into space.
"Again," she ordered.
Optimus groaned as another electric shock was given. It wasn't enough for Quintessa's liking She ordered the voltage up again to nearly lethal levels. The affect was easily seen as Prime's body convulsed in a more erratic manner than before.
Then the convulsing stopped.
Quintessa whirled around and gestured for Infernocus to halt the shock. She floated over to the now motionless Prime and lifted his head to get a look at his face. His mouth hung open slightly while his optics, while not offline, shone a dull grey color. The sorceress smirked. His body had taken too much in a short amount of time. He was hers now.
She caressed the side of Prime's face, thumb running over the red mark she gave him. The mark became a prominent blood red instead of its previous dull coloration. Her creation lifted his head on his own volition then.
She gave him some space before addressing him.
"You destroyed your world. Do you seek redemption, Optimus Prime?" She asked.
Prime's body began trembling faintly. Gears whirred to life. His battle mask snapped into place. The dull grey of his optics faded into a bright, menacing purple.
"My Maker… I do."
A/N: And there we have it, ladies and gentlemen or whatever you identify as. I don't discriminate. All are welcomed. Even toaster ovens.
So, in the movie, I felt that Prime was too easily put under Quintessa's command. This chapter I kinda made it seem more realistic in terms of what Optimus would have done. He wouldn't have joined willingly. So, I changed that. I made Quintessa have to work for it. I hoped it turned out okay.
Anyway, if you did enjoy, why don't you leave a follow? Or a favorite. Or a review. You know what, why not all three?