Author's Note: Thank you to all who have followed/favored this story so far. Hope you all enjoy the second installment! Also, highly enjoyed Transformers: Rise of the Beasts-I'm excited to see how the series will develop from this movie!
Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers. Electro is my creation.
II
Energon runs were lonely and, unfortunately, often unsuccessful. During their three years on Earth, the Autobots have been constantly seeking a stable energon source; however, their efforts mostly produced small deposits that kept them and their equipment operating at average power. They could only hope that, if they were struggling with energon supplies, then so were the Decepticons.
Electro had been following a narrow, winding road through a mountain range for the past two hours, and her sensors had not detected a single shard of energon. The most excitement she had witnessed was a human attempting to drive and operate a cellular device simultaneously. He had neared the edge of the drop-off too many times, and Electro truly feared she would have to save the human from a deadly plunge.
"So," Electro drawled over the comm, "you get the sunny west coast, and I'm navigating a deathtrap. Is this punishment for the racing incident?"
Though always attentive to general communications from the team, Electro and Optimus usually kept their personal comms open, conversing casually or sharing the silence. These scouting missions were their opportunity to speak freely, without the weight of attentive audials attuned to their every word. Of course, the Autobots were aware of their relationship. The shared quarters, partnered missions, and Electro's random, flirtatious remarks were bold indicators. Besides, despite the obvious signs, Electro and Optimus gravitated to each other, like a moon circling a planet. (A Cliffjumper analogy, to which Arcee had asked who was the moon in the relationship. Electro almost said herself, but Optimus had surprisingly interceded, insisting that he was the planet–only if Electro was the sun. She told Optimus later that he had been terribly cliche–but she loved him more dearly for it.) Nevertheless, even if their relationship was known, she craved these private moments–when the war seemed distant, when Optimus was not a Prime, when Electro was not calculating spacebridge possibilities. They felt normal.
Optimus's voice pulled her from her thoughts. "Ratchet sent us to various coordinates with potential energon deposits. There were no assigned destinations," he mused. "Although, he did suggest that you should stay at the base."
"Ha! Did he think he could ground me?"
"Evidently not."
Electro followed another bend in the road, peering up at the peaks looming above her. Wispy clouds draped across the jagged formations, distorting the sunlight."Want to switch? I think you're better suited for the mountains."
"And why is that?"
"Obviously you're as tall as one."
Optimus hummed. "There are no height requirements in scouting. However—hold, I am receiving another transmission."
Electro heard the comm click off, and she sighed as she continued the journey along the winding road. She considered flicking through the human radio stations when Optimus pinged the Autobots' collective comm. The warmth in his voice had dissipated to strict urgency.
"Arcee, Bulkhead, Bumblebee, Electro—rendezvous back at base and prepare to groundbridge."
Not good, Electro thought. She slowed to a stop, giving herself a grand view of the misty valley below. She noted that Cliffjumper had not been included in that list and wondered if the bot was in trouble. It had been roughly a week since she encountered the Decepticon in the street race, alerting the Autobots to some enemy activity. However, that had been a human sport—a random encounter. Nothing had developed since that evening. What did you find, Cliffjumper? she wondered, worried.
Suddenly, a groundbridge swirled open a few feet ahead of her. Her tires squealed as she raced through the vortex and, seconds later, emerged in the Autobot base. She transformed as she crossed the threshold, joining Arcee, Bulkhead, Bumblebee, and Ratchet. Arcee stood apart from the others, servo held to the side of her helm as she tapped into her personal comms. Electro overheard her repeated calls for Cliffjumper–and, based upon her troubled expression, she was receiving no response.
Bumblebee poked Electro's shoulder and whirred, "What's the emergency?"
Electro shook her helm. "Optimus didn't say."
"Cliffjumper is in need of backup," Ratchet snapped over his shoulder as he reopened the groundbridge for Optimus.
Kliks later, Optimus drove through the portal and transformed, skidding across the concrete. Immediately, he barked, "Ratchet, lock onto Cliffjumper's coordinates." His optics scanned over the team, pausing on Electro. She saw a flicker of fear within his gaze, unsettling her spark. "Autobots, prepare for battle."
Ratchet altered the coordinates again, causing the groundbridge to stutter and cycle through another unit of energon. Once the cobalt and violet swirls resolidified, Optimus collapsed into his alternative form, and the team followed his lead. They charged through the vortex, colors pulsating to the rapid tempo of Electro's spark, and they eventually emerged amongst a smoking wreckage. They all transformed, naturally falling into battle stances. Electricity crackled along Electro's forearms; however, upon surveying the waste before them, she allowed her energy to dissipate. The smell of exploded energon permeated the air, and Electro scrunched her face.
Optimus deactivated his gun. "An untapped energon deposit."
"What's left of it," Bulkhead rumbled.
Electro sighed and stared down into the crater, scanning the pitted earth where energon shards had once sprouted. Not a single blue vein remained amongst the desecrated ruins. Her shoulders slumped. A shred of hope burned to a cinder. Lifting her optics, she scanned the field for any signs of the Decepticons–or Cliffjumper.
Ratchet stepped forward. "The first Decepticon activity in three years."
"Aside from Electro's escapade," Arcee noted, cutting her optics at Electro. "Racing."
"It wasn't ideal," Electro said, "but it wasn't a coordinated attack."
Arcee nearly retorted, but Optimus intervened. "If they're scouting for energon, they may be preparing for his return."
Electro frowned, remembering their conversation that night. Megatron, she glowered. She did not want to believe he would return to this planet after such a long absence, but the Decepticons' lingering presence always carried the subtle threat. Megatron was not the priority right now, though. They needed to find Cliffjumper.
They approached the crater. Arcee, Bumblebee, and Electro bounded down the rocks, energon dust kicking up under their feet. Searching among some of the rubble, Electro pinpointed shattered pieces of purple armor. She picked up a piece and turned it over, discovering half of a Decepticon emblem emblazoned on the armor piece. Whatever had transpired, the Decepticons had fallen victim to the carnage, too. She nearly spoke, but Arcee's gasp snatched her attention. Arcee knelt and plucked a shard of metal from the dirt, whispering no. Electro strode to her side–and realized the metal was one of Cliffjumper's horns, blackened by the explosion's blast.
Optimus and Ratchet approached, and Arcee showed them her findings. Optimus said, "Ratchet, can you track his position?"
Ratchet opened his scanners. A low, ominous hum emanated from the panel imbedded in his arm. "No…" Ratchet mumbled. All optics stared intensely at him. Finally, he said, "Cliffjumper's life signal just went offline."
A pregnant pause blossomed—and kept expanding and stretching until, finally, Arcee snapped, "That can't be right. Check again."
Ratchet gently closed his scanners. "Arcee—"
"He could be held by the 'Cons!" Arcee pressed.
Her optics flicked to all of them, finally landing on Electro, seeking support. Electro may hold a scientific background, but she had no medical training. Of course, she would follow Arcee to any battlefield, especially to save a comrade; but she had no knowledge surpassing Ratchet. She let her gaze fall away. Arcee clenched her fists around the discarded horn.
"Optimus, if there is a chance…" Arcee pleaded.
Electro glanced at Optimus, catching a flicker of sadness cross his features. "Arcee," he said slowly, "though I hesitate to make a judgment on Cliffjumper's fate, we do not currently possess the means of locating the Decepticon warship." He and Ratchet exchanged a glance. "And, I'm afraid, I do not have the means of contradicting Ratchet."
Arcee tensed, and Electro expected an explosion of anger. Arcee was a fierce warrior with unprecedented fury. Furthermore, Cliffjumper was her partner—had been for several cycles. They were as inseparable as Electro and Optimus. It made Electro's spark ache to imagine that feeling of loss—that aloneness.
Instead, Arcee collapsed to her knees, holding the broken horn. Bumblebee whirred, wings drooping as he sidled next to Arcee and laid a hand on her shoulder. Electro approached Arcee's right side and knelt beside her, their shoulders touching. Three years of inactive Decepticons had given them the grace of bliss. War and all its accomplices had seemed postponed—distant. Of course, the horrors of Cybertron never left any of them—that would be pure ignorance—but Earth had been a relatively safe haven. Now, in one random strike, they had lost a comrade. Arcee had lost a partner.
Electro lifted her optics to Optimus, who looked on with a troubled expression. His words echoed in her head: I fear something…terrible is coming. If this was only the beginning, she dreaded the days ahead.
Later that solar cycle, as the sun sank toward the horizon and orange-tinted clouds drifted lazily across the sky, Team Prime surrounded Cliffjumper's memorial. Of all the natural wonders of Earth, Electro enjoyed sunsets second (the crackling lightning of a thunderstorm would always impress her the most); however, in this moment, burying their comrade while still carrying doubts of his fate, stabbed her spark with sharp grief.
They gathered together, solemn and quiet. Electro lingered beside Arcee, but the two-wheeler kept a notable distance from everyone, cradling the horn of Cliffjumper. When they had returned to base, Arcee had searched for Cliffjumper's signal again. However, as Ratchet had warned, Cliffjumper's life had disappeared from the monitors. It was possible that he had been captured and the Decepticon warship was masking his signal—but everyone quietly acknowledged the mercilessness of the Decepticons and the devastating explosion of the raw energon. A multitude of fates could have struck Cliffjumper, and none of them were hopeful.
Electro knew that Arcee had lost a partner on Cybertron: Tailgate. Electro never met the Autobot, but his life and death left a notable scar on Arcee's spark. To lose another close friend and partner—it was inconceivable. Despite Arcee's grief, however, she never wholly unbottled her emotions. Arcee was not unlike Optimus, in that way; but, at least with Optimus, Electro knew how to speak, to console, to listen. Arcee remained a mystery.
Finally, Optimus stepped forward and began to speak. "We must not allow our anger over the loss of Cliffjumper to impair our judgment." He looked upon all the gathered Autobots, optics resting on each individual. "As of today, only we six Autobots remain on this Earth. We owe it to ourselves—to the memory of Cybertron—to any Autobots in any galaxy seeking safe harbor—to humankind." He paused, and Arcee stepped forward, placing the horn down on the ground in a shaft of sunlight. Optimus finished, "And we owe it to the memory of our fallen comrade, to survive."
A breeze swept over them, and Electro shuttered her optics. Her memories of Cliffjumper were brief but poignant: agreeing to race around the base (she won), or accepting a dare and leaping off a dangerous cliff in Ireland into pesky saltwater (Optimus and Ratchet stationed both she and Cliffjumper at the base for a month). If left unattended, their sparks deviated to trouble; hence why, perhaps, their respective partners balanced their innate craving for dangerous adventures. Cliffjumper had also been an aggressive and clever warrior, and Electro always trusted he would guard her back. She wished she could have helped him in the same way today.
When she unshuttered her optics, she caught Arcee walking away from them.
Optimus called after her. "Arcee?"
Arcee's shoulders stiffened, but she did not look back. "If Cliff's gone, standing around here sulking won't bring him back. So unless anyone minds, think I'll get back to protecting humankind."
She transformed and sped away, dust trailing her. Electro stepped forward to follow her, but Bumblebee caught her forearm.
He whirred, "I'll go."
Electro nodded, and Bumblebee spared a quick glance at Optimus—who gave him the affirmative—and drove after Arcee.
Ratchet sighed. "Optimus…helping humans will only result in more tragedy."
Electro stepped beside Optimus and clasped his servo, squeezing tightly. He returned the gesture, but he did not look away from Arcee and Bumblebee, who were fading into the horizon. "Your opinion is noted, old friend," he murmured.
Electro tinkered with the groundbridge network, delicately removing data cards and rewiring poor connections. On Cybertron, she had been a research assistant, dedicated to the construction and testing of multiple bridge experiments. Of course, on Cybertron, spacebridges had been the primary mode of transportation. Many had been destroyed during the war, and Electro never had the resources to properly (or safely) construct one for the Autobots. When Team Prime arrived on Earth, however, she had been able to aid Ratchet in the construction of the groundbridge. It was not perfect, and Electro regularly found herself improving upon the system. Nevertheless, it had given them valuable transportation across the planet's surface. If only she had the means to construct a durable spacebridge, as so many expected of her.
Footsteps approached her, and she glanced over her shoulder and saw Ratchet entering the main hangar. His gaze had been distant until he saw Electro. "Something wrong?" he asked, drawing beside her.
"With the groundbridge? No." She slotted a data card back into place, and the energon lines flashed blue again, repowered. "Everything else is not so great."
Ratchet harrumphed—though not unkindly. He approached the computers, optics scanning the digital globe spinning on the screen. He wanted to see Cliffjumper's life signal spark into existence. Everyone did.
A wire zapped her digits, but the energy merely danced along her armor. She was an outlier, blessed (or cursed, depending on the bot speaking) with innate abilities that did not require a modifier. She could conduct and generate electricity, which proved useful during the ongoing war. Before Cybertron fell into the throes of civil conflict, however, outliers had been a disgrace within society. Electro had kept her powers restrained for vorns, for she had wanted to keep her position as a research assistant and not resort to attending the Jhiaxian Academy of Advanced Technology. She did not need other bots to tell her how to use her powers, and she certainly did not want to wear her social stigma like a badge. She had survived thus far–perhaps not gracefully, but she had learned much through her mistakes. She also had a team that did not shun her status or overtly rely upon her as a weapon–and not solely because she was promised to a Prime.
As she reevaluated her work, she said, "Optimus hasn't properly recharged in weeks." From her peripheral vision, she saw Ratchet turn to her. "Three hours maximum. Sometimes he just lays there, thinking, and other times he goes for a drive."
"Or he has to bring you back to base," Ratchet added, crossing his arms.
Electro slotted another data card. "Well, his restlessness makes me restless."
"Optimus has much to consider."
"Don't you think I know that?" she asked, raising an optic ridge. Ratchet mumbled yes, yes, looking away. Electro shook her helm and said, "I'm just worried."
A few moments passed, and Electro finished reconfiguring the groundbridge. As she closed the panel and rose, Ratchet said, "I will reevaluate his vitals and give my best recommendation."
Electro stared at the Autobot emblem painted on the concrete, scuffed by their pedes over the past three years. She absently wondered how many times she had seen Cliffjumper pacing this room or lobbing with Bulkhead. "He would listen to you," she murmured with a soft smile.
"You could learn from him."
"That would disrupt the balance." She glanced at the medic. "Thank you, Ratchet."
He harrumphed and turned back to the monitors. "Just keep the extracurricular activities to a minimum. With the Decepticons showing more activity, we don't know when or where they will strike again. And if we lose more comrades, that will cause more damage than just some lost recharge."
Electro nodded, even though Ratchet was not looking at her. He did not have to explain those consequences to her. She knew the cost of losing family and friends. They all did. She did not want Cliffjumper to be a part of that tally, but she vowed he would be the last. That was her promise to him.
