Chapter Sixty-Six

Negotiating

Meanwhile on the Warship, Arcee and Donatello watched as Bumblebee sat there unresponsive with the cord still attached to the back of his head.

Unlike the others back at the base, they couldn't see nor hear what was going on, and they felt so anxious.

In fact, Donatello was started to wonder whether it would have been better if he had remained back at the base with the others then he had an idea of what was happening, since being left out of the loop was something he hated.

Arcee had the same mindset as she kept on the lookout yet at the same time she looked back at her friend.

"Come on Bee!" she muttered in frustration and impatience "What are you doing in there!?"

Donatello was also clutching at straws as he watched, but he nearly leapt through the ceiling when he heard the doors of the laboratory open and he looked behind him to see Arcee had gotten to her pedes and was looking through the gap in their hiding place to see Starscream, Knock Out and Soundwave walking in.

"Knock Out," Starscream spoke up as he approached Megatron's body.

"If you would be so kind as to provide your expert opinion to Soundwave for the historical record."

The three Decepticons walked over to the hooked-up body of the Warlord and Knock Out gestured to one of the screens monitoring his brain.

"Simply put." Knock Out reported "Unaided, Megatron could remain in this deathless slumber forever."

Starscream put on fake sadness as he shook his head.

"Our Master would not have wanted to be seen this way." He said with a sigh "To stand idly by while he remains captive in his own body is not just."

Soundwave approached and lifted his arm before pointing at the screen getting Starscream and Knock Out's attention as he spotted Megatron's brainwaves were spiking which they hadn't noticed before.

"Brainwave activity not evidence of consciousness." Knock Out theorised "But merely an endless dream from which Megatron will never wake."

"Soundwave." Starscream sighed yet tried to keep his glee contained that with Megatron fully gone, he had full leadership over the Decepticons, which was what he had wanted for over millennia.

"We must face reality, Megatron is lost to us."

"The only honourable option would be to show him mercy." Knock Out said in a solemn tone.

"A simple throw of the Switch." Starscream said.

"Quick, painless, compassionate." Knock Out agreed.

From their hiding place, Arcee and Donatello watched and listened in horror before looking at each other.

"If they flip the switch?" Donatello asked.

Arcee didn't answer, instead she tapped her comm link.

"Ratchet? Are you hearing this?" she asked in a panicked tone then looked at Bumblebee.

"If Megatron perishes, Bumblebee's mind will remain separated from his body!" Ratchet reported over the link "Forever."

Donatello went pale.

"What? No!" he cried looking at Bumblebee, then he heard more distressed sounds over the comm link.

"No! Bee!"

"Lotus..."

"No fucking way!"

"Pandora!"

Pandora and Kemeko had started getting distressed as they heard Ratchet's words.

"No! Don't let it happen!" Pandora cried.

"We can't loose Optimus and Bumblebee!" Kemeko wept We can't!"

"It's not fucking fair!" Pandora wailed.

"Girls! Girls!" Splinter quickly jumped in to try and calm the girls and Monalisa quickly hugged Pandora close to her whilst Michelangelo hugged Kemeko despite his fear over what Ratchet had announced.

"Getting angry and upset will not help Optimus, nor Bumblebee." Splinter said "We must trust Arcee to make sure that does not happen, and Bumblebee to find what he's seeking."

Leonardo meanwhile grasped his head in stress.

"No! No Shell no!" he cried as he looked at Optimus who was still struggling to keep it together and Ironhide was speaking to him in Cybertronian trying to keep his awake and focused.

"Ironhide..." Optimus gasped.

"Prime!" Ironhide snapped "Don't! Just hold on alright? You kept Arcee and I focused in the Arctic until we were bridged back after the Scraplet invasion! You've been through a lot during this war! You're not going anywhere! I won't let you! That's a fact! Stay strong! Stay strong for you, for us, for your friends! You're not going to join the All Spark! Not yet! Not here! We need you!"

Meanwhile, unaware of what was happening in the Real World, Bumblebee watched Megatron stalk around him.

The Warlord was still trying to get round the fact that the Scout was in his head.

"The only way you could have entered my mind is by cortical psychic patch!" he demanded "But the question remains, what happened to me!?"

Bumblebee stared silently at Megatron as the warlord looked deep into his optics and the Decepticon Leader started to remember the Space Bridge and how he had tried to bring the undead army from Cybertron to Earth, but how the Autobots had rigged it so it would explode, and he remembered how he had tried to reach for the Undead as they approached, yet the explosion occurred...

"The Space-Bridge Explosion!" he exclaimed "And yet if...if you're in my head," he mused "Then I am not one with the All Spark..."

He frowned then turned to Bumblebee, staring down at the yellow Autobot who came up to the lower part of his chest.

"Do I still function?"

Bumblebee was silent but then he heard Ratchet's voice in his ear.

"Bumblebee, we are out of time!"

Bumblebee felt his spark beat faster and he knew he had to get to the point, so he started to bleep and whirr as he explained everything to Megatron.

"Cybonic Plague?" Megatron asked. "Someone besides myself is unwell?"

Bumblebee nodded and bleeped.

Megatron thought for a moment then he realised.

"Optimus!"

The warlord then began to laugh and cackle as he heard that.

"Such irony!" he said, "That after ages of endless battle," he exclaimed waving his arms in dramatics "The mighty Optimus Prime is felled by a simple virus from distant past!"

Bumblebee frowned as he listened.

"And what makes you think I would save the life of my oldest enemy?" Megatron challenged.

As he said that, the voice of Optimus was heard behind him, and Bumblebee saw another figure of the Prime approaching.

"Megatron, your treachery..." yet he didn't finish the sentence as Megatron shot him into dust without even turning around.

Bumblebee then bleeped and whirred as he pointed at Megatron.

"Oh, and what is it you think I want most Scout?" Megatron asked placing his hands on his hips and cocking his head.

Bumblebee bleeped again and Megatron chuckled again as well as scoffed.

"Did you not see?" he asked, "I do slay Optimus by my own hand at will, whenever I desire!"

Bumblebee bleeped in a lower tone then spoke again in his language to Megatron answering his question.

At the same time back at the base, everyone listened, and Bulkhead's eyes widened.

"Whoa! Good one Bee!"

"Atta Boy!" Ironhide agreed.

"What did he say?" Michelangelo asked and the two girls looked up from crying into his and Monalisa's chests and looked up.

"What's happening? What's going on?" Pandora asked.

"Bee's told Megatron that if he lets the plague destroy the real Optimus, Megatron will never get the chance to do it himself!"

The girls stared at each other in shock, yet Raphael blinked.

"Smart move there, kid!" he complimented.

"Twisted!" Michelangelo agreed.

Meanwhile back on Warship, Starscream, Knock Out and Soundwave were standing before Megatron's body to discuss the Warlord's fate.

"Soundwave." Starscream spoke "Do I take your silence to mean to concur with Knock Out's Medical Expertise?"

Soundwave just stared silently at Starscream.

"Speak now, or forever hold your peace..." Starscream warned before reaching for the cable over Megatron's chest.

"Going..." he said "Going..."

From their hiding place, Arcee and Donatello watched everything, and Donatello almost jumped out to distract them, but Arcee pushed him back and activated her blaster to shoot but Soundwave lifted his servo again and pointed at the cord that was connected to Megatron's head!

Starscream followed his digit and started to inspect it then saw it purple lights on the cord.

Arcee's energon ran cold as she realised Soundwave had spotted the cord and that it would lead to where she, Bumblebee and Donatello were hiding.

"Scrap!" she cursed as she dropped down deeper into their hiding spot and pushed Donatello down as well.

"Oh Shell!" Donatello squeaked "What do we do Arcee?" he asked.

Arcee shushed him and readied her blaster.

"Stay here!" she ordered then looked at Bumblebee.

"Bee! Hurry up!" she muttered.

Back in Megatron's mind, the Warlord was still musing over Optimus's situation and thinking back on the Great War on Cybertron and despite the darkening of their planet how things had never changed, even now.

"After our deep History together," Megatron spoke "To not watch the spark eb from Optimus's eyes with my very own..."

Bumblebee bleeped in agreement then Megatron smirked.

"Well played Scout." He said then produced his servo and opened his palm to reveal a cube with Cybertronion date within it.

"The chemical formula for the cure you seek! Not that I expect you know how to read it."

Bumblebee bleeped excitedly and reached out for it, yet Megatron closed his palm.

"Not yet!" he said to which Bumblebee whirred in disbelief and protest.

"And how am I to accomplish terminating Optimus as you propose but I'm trapped here in a perpetual daydream."

"Once you release me from this prison, you will have the cure!" Megatron proposed.

"You must guarantee my recovery, or Optimus fades to gunmetal grey! The REAL Optimus!"

Back at the base, Ratchet who had been watching everything on the screen had managed to see the formula and pause and rewind the footage to get all the equations for the formula and he instantly got in touch with Arcee.

"Arcee! We have the formula! Disconnect Bumblebee now!" he ordered.

The Hamato Clan were ready to cheer, as were Ironhide and Bulkhead yet they hesitated.

Even though the formula had been found, they still needed to get Arcee, Donatello and Bumblebee home.

Ironhide looked down at Optimus and smirked.

"You're gonna make it Prime!" he said, "Just a little longer!"

Optimus vented painfully and gave a small smile back.

At Ratchet's orders, Arcee quickly disconnected Bumblebee and as she did so, within Megatron's mind, the area of Kaon started to crumble around him!

Megatron blinked and looked around in alarm then looked back at Bumblebee with a mix of anger and shock.

"You were watching!" he exclaimed "You tricked me!"

Bumblebee looked at his hands then up at Megatron as he started to fade to dust along with all the area around him as he was pulled from the Warlords mind.

"NO!" Megatron roared as he leapt for the scout as he started to fade away with the world around him.

"Take me with you! TAKE ME!" he roared...

Meanwhile Arcee pulled the cord from Bumblebee's head, yet the scout didn't wake up straight away.

"Hurry Bee!" Arcee cried shaking him.

"Wake up Bee!" Donatello cried poking him with his bo staff "Wake up!"

She turned to see Starscream walk over to their hiding spot and peer inside and the Seeker was alarmed to see Arcee, Donatello and Bumblebee there.

"What in?" he asked, yet he didn't finish his sentence as Bumblebee awoke and at the same time a Ground Bridge appeared behind them and scooping Donatello into his servos, the scout ran through it, bleeping at Arcee to follow him.

"Intrudors!" Starscream bellowed and activated his arm cannon, yet Arcee smirked and aimed her gun at Megatron.

"Allow me!" she stated then fired and the missile hit Megatron's chest, and the cable attached to it.

She then leapt through the Ground Bridge before Starscream could move and vanished.

Starscream grunted in anger then stood up to look to see how bad the damage was to see Megatron with a gaping hole in his chest from where the cable was disconnected.

He smirked then put on a sad look for Soundwave and Knock out and sighed.

"It was the inevitable outcome." He said yet Soundwave stood before him and glared with his screen face and pointed to Megatron's body as if to say 'Well?'.

Starscream collected himself and shook his head with a growl.

"Of course, it would be wrong to allow Megatron to perish by an Autobot's hand!" he snapped.

"Knock Out!"

Knock Out meanwhile shrugged and took the cable before placing it back in Megatron's chest hooking him back up the life support.

Starscream glowered as once again he had been forced to keep Megatron alive due to the insistence of Soundwave.

Yet he hoped that this activity meant that Megatron's chances of survival were still slim and that he could still hold onto the position of leader a little longer...

Bumblebee was able to play the game well and he secured the formula for the cure!

Tune in next chapter for see how thing progress from there, though I'm sure many of you know what's going to happen next, if you've seen the show.