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Pain. That's all I felt as my systems restarted, the poison making everything sluggish.
"Ow…" I muttered to myself, slowly sitting up. The moon was setting and on the horizon you could see the light from the sun just peeking over to light the sky in shades of purple and pink. I felt sick, resisting purging my tanks as I signaled Prime for help. I don't remember laying back down or falling back to sleep, but I was roughly awoken a while later.
"She's ova here!" I heard someone call out, but I couldn't tell if they were close or still far away. "Hey, can ya hear me?" Slowly, I onlined my optics, the blurry image of an orange mech hovering over me making me close them again. I felt their hand on my shoulder, pain searing through my frame.
"Frag off!" I lashed out, using my good arm to push him away. Everything spun as I tried to stand, falling once more into someone.
"Easy, Starlit, it's us." Optimus gently put his arm around me to help me stand.
"Sorry, I didn't mean ta hurt cha." Ironhide was the one who had touched my damaged arm. I know he meant no harm and I over reacted, but I couldn't see clearly or feel their EM fields.
"Stop moving will ya!" Ratchet was on me in an instant, getting the bleeding to stop finally and putting my arm in a temporary sling. "Primus, what the slag got to ya?"
"L-leopard." Still feeling dizzy, I could hardly focus on my words. Ratchet shone a light in my optics, making me see spots. Optimus pretty much had to keep me standing at this point as I struggled to tell them. "Poison…spider."
"Spider?" Optimus seemed to know what I was talking about. "That means…she's online?"
"If yer talkin bout Blackarachnia, we need her antivenom." Ratchet's tone was full of worry. "I pray she didn't give a full dose, though you wouldn't be standing if she did. Look at me kid." I tried to focus on the medic. "'Tis was I thought, it's not just the poison, but energon loss as well. How long have you been out here bleeding out?"
I shook my head as much as I could, not really sure what time it was when we were attacked. Wait…where was Bumblebee?!
"Ain't we missin something?" Ironhide seemed to read my mind. "Where's Bee?"
"Taken…" Optimus' optics narrowed at my word.
"Ratchet, can you handle getting Starlit back? Ironhide, you and I are going to find where Arachnia went…" Optimus made sure Ratchet and I were set before he and Ironhide sped off in the direction they saw their tracks lead. I wanted so badly to warn them about the others, but my systems failed me, forcing me into stasis until I was repaired.
"Wake up…"
"You can't stay here…"
Whispers pulled me out of my forced stasis hours later. Without opening my optics, I knew I was back at the plant in the med bay, the smell of disinfectant told me Ratchet had repaired my arm and shoulder while I was out. My optics felt heavy, protesting as I forced them open, seeing my vision had greatly improved. The edges were still blurry, but I could focus them properly. By my peds was a bundle of thermal blankets, within, Sari had burrowed herself down to rest. I guess she came over after hearing about us.
"Yer awake." I looked to my right to see Ratchet changing out an energon drip that led to my arm. "How ya feelin?" I shrugged, still feeling numb from the poison. "It'll take about another day for that slag to filter out of yer system, but thankfully with the energon drip, you're able to be pain free."
"You're so loud…" the blanket pile spoke, the covers pulled over her head to drown us out.
"Sorry, kid. Forgot you were there." Ratchet smoothed the blanket out a bit in an attempt to tuck her back in. "Get some rest you two. We'll talk more in the morning."
———————————————-
Bumblebee's View:
My helm pounded as I came online, system errors popped up as I tried to sit up, only managing to lean against a wall. Blackarachnia's poison really packed a terrible punch.
"S-Starlit?" I held my helm in my hand as I tried to look around. Was she ok? Where was I? I realized I was not back home, nor in a place I recognized. It reminded me of the mines, but there was an eerie greenish glow around the room.
The smell of old energon and fluids made me gag as I pulled myself up, using the wall to stand. I seemed to be locked in a makeshift cell made of rocks. The stalagmites and stalactites had been ripped from their natural homes and shoved into place to keep me from escaping this hole in the cave wall.
"Hey! What's going on!?" I yelled down the corridor, the echo of my voice ringing through the cave. "Anyone there!?"
"Waspinator make Bumblebot pay!" I jumped back as the large bug mech came tearing out of the darkness and launched himself into the makeshift cell bars. The rocks buckled but didn't break as he grabbed for me through the narrow openings. I pressed my back against the rock wall to keep away from his claws.
"Settle down, will ya." Blackarachnia was behind him, pulling him away from the cell. "You'll have your fun soon enough. Now then…" she turned back to me. "What to do with you…" her optics were bright with excitement.
"Where's Starlit? If you hurt her I…"
"You'll what? Scream? No one can hear you from here, so go ahead." She wasn't concerned about what I could do, because she knew just as much as I did that I was trapped. I tried to activate my stingers only to find they were jammed, two black bands were around my wrists acting as stasis cuffs for my weapons.
"Haven't you done this once before? It failed if I remember right." I looked over to Waspinator, dreading that that was what she was going to do to me. "What makes you think this will be different?"
"Your little friend is helping me." The sneer she gave me told me she wasn't playing around. "I gave her an ultimatum, solve this puzzle before I do or you get to be next." She leaned against the stalactites in a manner that made me jealous of the damn rock. If she wasn't so insane, I'd be crazy enough to call her hot.
"Wait…Starlit's helping you? Even for a 'Con, that's a pretty bad lie." There was no way Starlit would help her…
"Oh, don't be upset. She's only doing it for you." She purred. "Besides, she seemed on board with it." I couldn't tell if Arachnia was lying anymore, her optics hadn't dimmed or flickered this whole time.
"Tsh…maybe to fool you." She hissed at me, spitting her webbing at me to shut my mouth. She missed, hitting my servo and pinning my hand to the wall. Apparently she didn't want me doubting Starlit's trust.
Starlit's View:
The moment I could stand on my own, I threw myself into looking into techno organics. At first, Sari didn't want me to scan her, afraid I was going to just use her as a science experiment.
"I'd never do that to you!" I assured as she sat on a medical berth. "I only want to compare RNA samples. That just involves an energon sample, which could honestly be any fluid."
"Like spit?"
"Um…sure?" She shrugged and went to grab a cup. Once I realized spit was their term for oral fluid, she'd already spit into the cup a few times. "Oh…actually I need a cheek swab. Apologies for being unclear." I said handing her a cotton swab that was more her size.
"You could have said that before I filled a cup!" She teased, swabbing her cheek for me. "That's it right? No probing?"
"You have a weird obsession with probs. Who gave you that idea?" I placed the swab on the RNA scanner as we talked, using my RNA as a base. I had a sample of the oral fluid the leopard mech left and Blackarachnia's poison held a small sample of her fluids as well. With four samples to work with, I hoped to solve this by later today.
"Ratchet might have said he should use one to figure out how I worked." Sari says on a medical berth nearby, watching as the computer created a composite of the different RNA samples.
"Medical probs aren't very invasive though, but I understand not wanting one. The newer scanners we have now for medical procedures do most of what the probes used to do. Though, your organic systems might not let us use one. Maybe a human scanner could work for you."
"Humans don't have scanners like you guys. We have x-rays, but those won't work on me." She scoffed as the computer dinged. Four RNA samples pulled up on the screen, each one significantly different from each other.
"Woh…" comparing similarities was going to be much harder than I anticipated.
"Which one is me?!" Sari poked her head around to look around my frame. I pulled the images to a mobile screen and showed her three of the samples, mine, hers and the spider lady. Hers was on the right, mine was middle and Aracnia's on the left.
"Woh…it's like a human dna thingy but…" I understood what she meant, the DNA helix of a human was shown, but cybertronian RNA was delicately sewn into her makeup. She was the perfect techno-organic, but the question was how.
"Amazing, you're like the perfect blend of both cybertronian and organic." Mine of course was pure cybertronian, the liquid grey metal helix was smooth and untampered with. Blackarachnia and the leopard's though we're an absolute mess. RNA and organic DNA were braided together, Blackarachnia's looked slightly more put together, but the liquid metal had been broken open and was twisted forcefully back together with the organic material braided in between. The leopard's was similar but there were several organic strands weaving their way through the RNA like little needles.
"Fascinating…I hate to say it, but Blackarachnia is actually very close to replicating the process. Thing is, once you've turned half organic I don't think there's a way to go back." I thought out loud.
"You're not actually going to help her, are you?" Sari gave me a skeptical look.
"Of course not. I couldn't imagine forcing someone to go through this process. The pain…it's ripping the fabric of someone's makeup, torn apart just to be haphazardly sewn back together. The way she's doing it anyway."
"Hey, you said you weren't looking into helping her!" Sari teased.
"Tsh, the only way to perfect it would be to replicate what created you." I gently shoved her shoulder. "But we still have no idea how your protoform got to Professor Sumdac in the first place." Or if a replication was even possible.
To say I lied to Sari was an understatement, no, the understatement of this century. Once everyone was asleep, I ran multiple simulations on Blackarachnia and the leopard's RNA sample to figure out how to correct the problems. Using Sari's as the blueprint, the corrections were slowly fixed and stabilized to the point I was certain I could recreate it.
A passing thought of testing it was quickly squashed when I thought of Bee. I could never harm another living creature like that…
"See you're burning the midnight oil." Optimus' voice startled me out of my thoughts.
"Oh, hey. Sorry if I woke you, I'm just running a simulation…" Prime was watching the screen as it pointed out errors and corrected them. "I just don't know what to really do with this information. I refuse to use it on anyone…but it's helpful for techno-organic research."
"As long as it's intended for informational purposes, I don't think you're doing anything wrong. Just…don't go kidnapping bots to test this on?" Prime knew I wouldn't, but the person we were doing this for sure as slag would.
"Anything on where she went?" His answer was a silent shake of his head. I'd given him the coordinates she'd given me even, but it was a clearing in the woods, nowhere near her hiding place. "Prime…what if I pinged her back? Just to draw her out."
"And if she doesn't respond? Blackarachnia's not stupid, she'll know it's a set up." Prime sighed.
"I think I know a way that she won't suspect." Optimus hesitated, but gave in.
"Alright…do it."
Blackarachnia, I've deciphered what you wanted! You're sick for what you've done…but I did it, Now give back my friend!
I pinged the 'Con, making sure the desperation didn't sound faked. The response was almost immediate, her eagerness to get her hands on it could be felt through her message.
"She took it. There's a new place she wants to meet." I told my team as we got ready to go.
Bluestreak hated when everyone was getting ready to leave, forcing all of us to give him a snuggle or a nose boop before leaving. Honestly, it was the best way to start, the tiny huffs he made in happiness were enough to get anyone through a hard mission.
"Alright, little mech. Ya gotta let everyone go now." Jazz said softly as he took Blue back from me. "She'll be right back." Jazz nuzzled their noses together, elighting a happy noise from the tiny mech. While Bluestreak was distracted, I snuck off with the rest to find Bee.
The location she sent us too was on the edge of the forest and the beach, literally on an edge of a cliff. She was nowhere to be seen when I pulled up, making me wonder if she dipped out on us after all. Prime and the others hid in the trees, as best they could anyway, keeping out of sight of the crazed femme.
"There you are." The familiar voice hissed just to the left of the forest's edge. She kept out of sight in the tree line, far better at hiding in the foliage than the team. "Come now, I thought we were friends." She fringed being hurt about me putting my defense up.
"Friends don't hurt one another…" I shot back, looking for her. "Why won't you come out? I have what you want…"
"That you do…but you see, I don't just want the information. I want you." I heard a growl and saw the leopard had snuck up behind me, but behind him was Ironhide in the trees, who tackled the mechanical cat before it could pounce.
"Got'cha! You…wild beast!" They wrestled until Bulkhead picked them both up and separated them, holding the cat by its scruff as it tried in vain to get away.
"Bad Kitty!" The green lug swung the leopard into a tree trunk, knocking it out.
"I see, you brought back up. Well…you're not the only one." There was a rumble and a large, ape-like creature tackled Bulkhead, pinning him to the ground with his large foot. It banged its fists on its chest and yelled, picking up our large mech and swinging him around like a toy.
"Waaaaaaaaaaaaaooooooooooh!!" Bulkhead yelled as the ape used him to knock Ironhide and Prime backwards off the cliff.
"Prime!" I tried to help but tripped, Blackarachnia's webbing entangled my peds.
"I don't think so!" The sting of her fangs pierced my shoulders, I quickly succumbed to the poison, joints locking up and rendering me immobile, but awake. "I'm tired of these games, you are going to give me what I want even if I have to force it from you!"
"Let her go!" Ratchet used his magnets to try to pull her off, but a third mechanized organic grabbed him and flew off. The large bug thing I recognized as Waspinator, carried him off over the cliff as the ape threw Bulkhead at him.
"Stupid monkey!!" Waspinator cried out as he dropped Ratchet in order to correct himself in the air. "Waspinator will destroy!"
"ROOOOOAAAAAAWWWWWWWWAAAAA!" The ape screamed in the bugs face when he got to close, grabbing his antenna and slamming the bug into the dirt.
"Enough! We got what we came for." The ape snorted before coming over to me, throwing me over his shoulder as she led the way. "Such a good boy." Blackarachnia cooed at the ape. So that's how she does it…she manipulates them into submission.
"Let go…" I struggled a bit in the apes hold. Nothing I said seemed to phase him, like I was talking to a hairy, brick wall. "Ugh…at least take a bath next time! You reek…"
"Save it, youngling. He doesn't answer to you." Blackarachnia turned her helm to glance at me, leading us to an abandoned Zoo. "Here we are, home sweet home."
"The slag is this place?" It wasn't on a map and looked pretty old.
"This place was closing up when I got here. They finally left when a few of their animals went missing, leaving me to my work. Place her with the other..." She pointed to a darkened cave area, the faded sign said BAT INCLOSURE. "I'll deal with her later…" with that, the ape took me into the dark caves where he pulled out a stalagmite from a hole in the wall and threw me in. The rock was shoved back into place, trapping me in a dimly lit cave.
"Ow…" I couldn't move much still and landed hard on my face. I tried to move but could barely wiggle my fingers.
"Starlit?" A familiar voice to my left spoke up, but I couldn't push myself up. "You ok? I gotcha." Bumblebee helped me roll over, placing my helm in his lap. "Can you move?"
"N-not really." I looked up at him as best I could, my optics the only thing I could move freely. "Are you ok?" I asked as he gently brushed my cheek with his thumb, feeling a burn from the scratches on my cheek.
"Yeah, I'm ok." He looked rough, like someone had hit him a few times, but there wasn't anything broken at least. I desperately wanted to wipe off some dried energon that he had on his lip, only to realize he had a split lower lip. "Don't worry about that, Wasp took a shot through the cage." He titled his head to the broken stalagmites and stalactites that they were using as bars.
"Looks sore." I could feel the poisons hold fading away, but it would be an hour before I could walk again.
"It was…is. Why are you here? I thought she wanted something from you, not…well you."
"Guess she changed her mind. I get the feeling she does that a lot. She didn't experiment on you, did she?"
"She's threatened to take me apart, does that count?" He smiled softly, trying to lighten the mood. "I did hear her talking about these new guys she's got though. Apparently they're animals with cybertronian RNA infused into them, but I can't figure out who's RNA she would have used."
"H-hold on…you mean they're actually animals?" The grim look on his face told me I had heard right. "Frag…then, you think they're clones?"
"Maybe, at least their RNA could all be similar." Bee gently relaxed his hands on my shoulder and chassis, I noticed the cuffs, the same ones that Sideways had once used on me. I must have them on too, but I don't remember them being slipped on. "At least only two of them are functioning, she has a few more but…they didn't look alive." Who knows how many other failed projects she had stashed away.
"Daw, how cute." We were interrupted by our capture. "Still can't move? Shame, I had hoped we could get started." She snapped her fingers and the ape appeared again, easily pulling a stalagmite out of the way to reach in and grab Bee. This shoved me off his lap and back onto my front, only this time I caught myself. My arms felt heavy, but I forced myself onto my knees as I reached for Bee.
"L-let go!" The ape was squeezing a bit too hard, keeping Bee's arms pinned to his sides. "Ugh…" I heard his frame straining against the force.
"Stop!" I cried, gaining the apes attention and, to my surprise, he loosened his grip on Bee.
"Gently now, we can't risk him being too damaged." Blackarachnia waved for the ape to follow, the three of them leaving my sight. I pushed myself off of the ground, stumbling towards the opening they left. I had to lean against the rocks to stay standing, but from here I could see two green transwarp containers.
"No…" The vision from the Allspark…it was her?! She's part of my destiny?! "P-please don't…" I watched in horror as Bumblebee was thrown like a ragdoll into one of them, the container locking on the outside. Bee pounded on the door, his cries muffled but the desperation very clear.
Move…move…MOVE!! I willed myself to move, rushing towards the console to break the switch. Unfortunately, Bee was wrong about the others being offline and a giant rat bit my leg. The fraggers teeth dug into my circuitry, cutting off movement to my right leg.
"Though you could get away, eh?" The rat's voice…
"Rattletrap?" The mech who assisted Megatron in his trial was now a techno organic?!
"Yeah, that's right! You're gonna get me out of this fraggin' mess! I don't wanna be on this planet, let alone whateva monsta I've been turned inta!" Apparently he was still just as stupid, not realizing that Blackarachnia was the one who forced this on him.
"That's right. She's the one that knows how to change us back." The vision from the orbs of light told me how this could play out, I just had to time this correctly.
"I don't think I can. The research I've done and the simulations…look." I was allowed to pull up my holographic screen to show the four samples I had. "Pulling one thread from the braided RNA sets would cause a catastrophic unraveling. You'd end up with a pile of circuitry and…well goo!" This made both of them glare, their deadly intent focused on me. "You'd almost need a pure protoform to create a perfect scenario where you could even have a chance to separate the two." The theory just came to me, but a very slim, very dangerous chance could prove a successful separation.
"You said you solved it…well, prove it! You're the one that figured this all out. Now show me!"
"No!" As she pulled the switch, I was close enough to the transformation unit that I pulled an important coil out of the base, causing the system to light up with a sickly yellow light. Bumblebee's screams were far more spark wrenching in real life than in a vision. Without the coil, at most he was just getting a very hot steam bath and not having his RNA ripped to pieces.
"You haven't proved slag! You only know what I already knew!"
"Then why are you doing this?! You can't go back to how you were, but that doesn't give you the right to keep forcing your fate onto others!" I kicked Rattletrap hard with my good leg, getting free from his hold to grab the switch to open the transportation units. Thick, greenish smoke poured out of them, a metal thunk was heard when Bee fell out of the container.
"Damn you!" Blackarachnia aimed to stab me with her fang like arms, missing and plunging it deep into the console. "No! Look what you've made me do…" the entire system shorted out, the circuitry where her poison hit melting into a bubbling goo.
As she rose back up, her fangs at the ready, Bumblebee grabbed me and shoved me away from the transwarp units. Something ignited, causing a small fire to erupt in her lab. Bee and I used this opportunity to break the glass of the aquatic exhibit to escape out the back.
Once we were a ways away, Bee stopped to allow me to check the damage on my leg. Unfortunately I couldn't transform with it, but we were lucky that our team hadn't given up finding us.
"BUMBLEBEE!" An excited cry came from behind him. In the twilight, it was easy to pick out our fellow large mech bounding his way over. "I can't believe I found ya!" Bulkhead scooped us up in a tight hug. "I was so worried that Blackarachnia had turned ya into a thing like Wasp!"
"Bulkie, we owe ya one." Bee grinned as Bulkhead held us tightly. "Could ya do us a favor? Star can't walk."
"What happened to your leg?" He noticed my leg was dripping energon. "I gotcha." Bulkhead put Bee down to carry me a bit more comfortably. "But seriously, what happened?"
"There ya are!" Ratchet in vehicle mode drove up, transforming the moment he saw us. "Ya found em?! And yer bleeding again?!?"
"Promise I won't make that a habit." I winced as Ratchet clapped the leaking energon line. "You aren't gonna believe what Blackarachnia has been up to."
Once everyone one was filled in, Prime left us to be alone. I had wondered for a while about how he felt about Blackarachnia, and now I knew that he was pining for her. Despite being twisted, he still cared for her deeply. While the others continued to come up with plans, I snuck off to check in on our Prime.
I found him out back, leaning on the wall and looking out towards the tree line that was slowly encroaching on the old factory we called home.
"Optimus?" I announced myself.
"Oh, hey Starlit." He was startled at first, not expecting anyone to have noticed he left. "I…just needed some air."
"You good?" I nudged his arm as I leaned on the wall with him. "Usually you're the one to make the plans."
"I'm just not sure…I mean I think I know how to go forward, it's just, I didn't expect her to return." Prime sighed. "You didn't go on that mission with us, but you know what happened to Wasp." He explained what happened on Dinobot island when Blackarachnia decided to change Wasp into Waspinator. Apparently she saved the team from a catastrophic overload to his system by absorbing his transwarp energy; everyone assumed she had died in the event.
"Well, I can tell you she's very much alive. Apparently she was warped to a zoo that was going down hill." I told him what happened earlier.
"I only wish she'd accept her new reality and come back…she was never his way before." I put a hand on his arm.
"Maybe one day…but she's obsessed with changing back. I wish I could tell her there was a way but…oh slag…" I just realized I might have said something that I had only theorized to her.
"What? You think it could happen?" The hope is Prime's voice had me worried he wanted her back, but only if she was her "true" self.
"Not really no, but a theory I had I might have spilled to her. A pure protoform might act as a conduit for her Cybertronian half and pull her "free," but the chances of her organic half corrupting the process is high. Her RNA would be pulled into two different directions, possibly ripping her in half along with it."
"I see." Prime took a moment to mull this over.
"Do…you want her to change back?" The question had been needling in the back of my processor for a while now.
"No. I mean…if it were safe…but it's not." He sighed again, looking up to the stars. "If you're asking if I'm disgusted at what she became, no, I'm not. Mostly, I'm sorry it even happened, but happy she's online. It's…complicated." He smiled sadly. "What I want most is for her to come to terms with it and realize, not everyone is revolted by her like Sentinel is."
"I don't think anyone should listen to what he says." That mech was a piece of work.
"Ha…that's true. Ugh that just reminds me of the upcoming election…" he pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Oh yeah…it's been such a weird week I forgot about that. Anything we can help with?"
"Just promise me you won't be bribed like your boyfriend." Optimus jokes. "We've gotta be ready for whatever Sentinel throws my way, including anything he throws at the rest of the team."
"Don't worry, Optimus, I'm always gonna be on your side." I gave our leader a hug, his arm gently pulling me close as he gave me a half hug. It was easy to forget that our leader was just a regular mech with a high ranking title. Even Prime needed reassurance that his team was on his side at all times.