Chapter 22:
When Prowl and Maeve had run off after the fireball, Lennox swore. This was not going to end well.
He hurried after them, shouting orders to his soldiers, as they grabbed their gear and started running on the old dirt road. They were hampered by the difficult terrain, however, and the Autobots had to slow down to keep a cohesive unit.
This infuriated Ironhide, as Prowl and the woman were running into a battle they couldn't win, and they were quickly running out of time. Lennox and Epps were running next to him, and at certain points, he picked them both up and moved them over obstacles in the road. Optimus and Ratchet soon started doing the same thing to the other soldiers, as it enabled them to move faster.
Then they heard Maeve scream Barricade's name, shrill and haunting as it echoed through the forest. Will and Epps gave each other a wary look as they hurried to Animas Forks, desperate to get to the clearing to battle the Seekers. The forest began to clear, and soon they were at the ghost town, the forest suddenly giving way to cleared land so abruptly that it was a shock to find the night sky directly above them, the shadows of the forest fading.
Will held up a hand, his soldiers halting in a line next to him. He could hear them breathing hard, struggling to take in oxygen in the high-altitude environment. He also could feel their adrenaline, their clear desire for a battle.
They saw Maeve, bravely advancing on Starscream alone, her rifle aimed high and steady.
I underestimated her. Taking on Starscream alone? Jesus... Lennox thought to himself, disbelief echoing through his head. As the Autobots crashed around him though, he brought himself back to the battle and signaled to his soldiers. Countdown...
"Now!" Lennox yelled as the Autobots rushed the Seekers, Optimus Prime in front looking terrifying and deadly, his optics pulsating with murderous rage as his two edged energon sword blazed orange and blue, and his newly acquired energon battle axe primed and ready for some Decepticon ass-kicking.
Adrenaline coursed through Lennox, burning his veins.
Sounds of jets taking off echoed towards them as the Seekers took off into the night air, fleeing like the cowards they were. A whoosh of air rolled over Lennox and Epps, the heat roiling over them.
"Dammit, I owe her a hundred bucks now," He heard Epps next to him grumble as three of Maeve's shots hit Starscream in the face, and then several more hit Starscream in crucial joints. Lennox smirked, as he fired several shots towards Starscream, the sabot rounds whistling through the air towards their intended target. Lennox would have been lying if he said he wasn't immensely enjoying the amount of ammunition hitting Starscream at that moment, making the Seeker jump and twist around like a marionette.
Lennox watched as Ironhide started to rush towards Starscream. Get that bastard, 'Hide.
"You miserable organic! I will destroy you after I get what I want from you!" Starscream yelled in mixed desperation and rage at Maeve, taking off before Ironhide could get a good grip on his wing.
"Dammit, Screamer, I'll get you one of these days." Ironhide grumbled before he punched the ground angrily, leaving a large crater in his wake. Lennox and Epps started moving towards Barricade's still form, avoiding the spilled energon that was beginning to seep within the dirt, creating a toxic mixture.
"This doesn't look good, Lennox." Epps muttered as they stopped next to Ratchet, who was furiously working on the almost unrecognizable Decepticon police mech. Barricade looked like he was hanging on by a tiny thread; his spark a dull blue and tiny in size, barely flickering or showing any life.
Lennox set his mouth grimly, as they watched Barricade's precious energon seep into the ground beneath his still and battered form. "No kidding, Epps."
His eyes found Maeve a few yards away. She was jogging towards them, her mouth taut with concern, and Lennox noticed how she struggled to stay strong, and stay upright. Pain flashed upon her face, and she winced and shook her head slightly as if trying to wish it away.
"Prowl, is he going to be all right?" She yelled out.
In a split second, Lennox saw the Seeker known as Skywarp swoop down after Thundercracker had let loose one of his infamous sonic booms.
"Oh shit," He and Epps groaned in unison before running towards Maeve, hoping against hope they could reach her before Skywarp did.
They were too late; Lennox's blood pulsating in his ears as he skidded to a stop.
Maeve shrieked as Skywarp picked her up and transformed into his jet mode. Lennox swore he saw something small and silver drop from Maeve, glinting just barely in the light from the Autobots. He wondered if he was seeing things.
"Maeve!" Prowl yelled, reaching a hand towards her. Lennox winced from the loud decibels Prowl unleashed, forcing himself not to put his hands to his ears.
Ironhide tried desperately to get a hold of Skywarp, but lost his grip, the ground shaking as he hit from the fall. "Fragging pit-spawned bastard!" He growled, a menacing scowl forming upon his mouthplate. "I hate Seekers!"
Prowl shuddered as he felt Maeve's terror flow through him via Barricade's Guardian link with her. That at least was one way for him to know his brother's life was not yet ended and sent to the Well. Spasms of pain flooded through him, as his self-repair nanobots tried to heal wounds they could not ever have a chance of healing.
His spark was twisting dangerously, pulsating slower and slower as did his brother's. They were fading.
:Brother... we must survive..: Prowl begged his brother over their twin-bond before he let himself succumb to the welcome pain-free darkness.
Ironhide stomped angrily over to where Optimus was standing, anger radiating from his violet optics, his natural blue of the Autobots having long disappeared. If one looked around the ghost town at the assembled Autobots, they would have seen each Autobot with varying degrees of scarlet melting within the blue.
Ironhide was so angry with himself. He had failed Prowl; he had failed himself. The woman was gone, and Barricade and Prowl were almost certainly going to offline. Everything had gone so wrong. Ironhide was seething, his systems throwing off warnings as his anger threatened to overload him.
Letting forth a furious blast from his cannon into the treeline, blowing up a few harmless pines, Ironhide hissed, "Slaggit! I swear, those Seekers are going to have a sweet date with my cannons one of these days and I will rip them to pieces! Prime, what do we do now?"
Optimus cycled his vents as he brought a hand to his optics, feeling as Ironhide did, though he could not show his emotions like Ironhide had. Not now. Barricade was quite possibly off-lined, Prowl was severely injured and likely to go to the Well if his brother did, and now the woman had just been taken by Skywarp and certainly on her way to Starscream.
Frag this day to the Pit and back, he thought to himself. Optimus' spark pulsated with grief and sorrow as he turned to Ratchet, his optics grim.
"Ratchet, what is Barricade's condition?"
The grumpy old medic looked up grimly at his Prime, taking a moment to give a concerned look at Prowl, who had drifted into stasis lock but thankfully more stable than his brother, before he spoke softly, "Barricade is so deep in stasis lock that I am not sure he will ever recover. He's close to the Well, Optimus. Prowl is following him. I must get Barricade and Prowl back to the base now if I have any hope of saving them, as Jolt will be there to help, and I just don't have the necessary components to save them here. I need Fireflight."
Optimus cycled his vents slowly. Fireflight was their only option in this desolate landscape as Silverbolt was far too large and cumbersome to land in this rocky and remote terrain. Fireflight was also the fastest, and that was something they needed now.
He had no choice; if Prowl and his brother were to be saved, Maeve would have to wait until Fireflight had arrived and evacuated Ratchet and the injured mechs. Optimus grimaced... he could only hope they'd reach her in time before Starscream acquired the All-Spark shard from her.
Slag it all to the pit, we have to go after her, but I cannot leave Prowl, Barricade and Ratchet here undefended... this should never have happened.
AUTOBOT EMERGENCY FREQUENCY ACTIVATED
:Fireflight, priority. You are to immediately proceed to these coordinates for injured mech extraction...:
During this, Lennox had been wandering around the area from where Maeve had been taken. He knelt down into the soft dirt, noting her AR-15 which had broken into pieces lying in front of him.
Epps, a few feet from him, cocked an eyebrow as he watched the Major on his hands and knees sifting through the dirt.
"And just what do you think you're looking for?"
Lennox shook his head. "Don't know. Swore I saw something else fall when Skywarp took her. Call it instinct."
Epps rolled his eyes but nodded. "Let me know if you find anything, then."
"Will do..." Lennox muttered softly as he gazed upon the dirt. He only had a slight idea what he was searching for, the small piece of silver metal he swore had fallen from Maeve when she had been taken.
He had an uneasy suspicion and fear that it was the shard of the All Spark that Starscream wanted so desperately. He feared what would happen if Starscream realized that Maeve didn't have the shard. He'd most likely kill her, as she'd be expendable without the shard.
A gleam of silver glinted next to a small alpine plant.
Lennox dropped his head, and sighed, before he looked back up. He reached out and grabbed the piece of metal. He hoped it was just a long-forgotten piece of human metal. Holding it in his hands, examining it, he knew otherwise, the ancient grooves and cyberglyphs rough on his skin as his fingertips lightly touched it.
His fear of it being the All-Spark shard that Maeve had held was confirmed. His eyes grim, Lennox stared up at Epps and the Autobots. What now?
Barricade had been fighting the Seekers when Ramjet, that bastard, had shot him in the chest. It had missed his spark chamber by mere inches. Still, his prior injuries and now this one had crippled him.
The pain had been excruciating; like molten lava rushing through his veins, burning up everything in its path. He had seen his brother fighting Slipstream, had heard him scream shrilly when Barricade had been shot.
Then he heard Maeve shriek his name. Her voice had cut through to his very spark.
Damn you, Maeve, why are you here? You aren't supposed to be here! He had looked up and seen her at the edge of the forest, worry cascading down her face as she stood. Her very stance caused him sparkache.
His spark had scorched him with the Guardian link, blazing with intensity and his own fear that she'd be hurt, or worse, taken by Starscream. He had yelled at her to run, had told Starscream he'd never get her. He'd tried to get up and then... Starscream had blasted him with a missile.
Then darkness. It seemed like an eternity of darkness before he was able to come to. He opened his optics to find himself in a strange place. It was hazy here, and dark. Not black of night darkness, but more like dusk.
The landscape before him was an arid desert, heat waves shimmering as a red sun's waves beat down on him through the haze. He felt no heat, his tactile sensors feeling nothing. No pain. Barricade looked down at his chest and found it... whole. Where in the world was he? How were his wounds healed? A sound from behind him caused him to turn around swiftly, bringing his arm up, instinctively activating his weapon.
… Only to find that his weapon was gone.
"What the frag?" Barricade growled, checking his arms visually and his internal weapons systems. Errors popped up in his processor, irritating beeps alerting him. Make that two weapons gone. What in the Pit was going on?
"They won't work 'ere, Cade." A sad-sounding voice echoed in front of him. He knew that voice... but that wasn't possible. Barricade's optics flitted upwards from his arm to find the mech he least expected to see standing before him.
"You're dead." Barricade whispered, more than a little frightened at this point, as he stared at the silver Autobot in front of him, who was giving Barricade a tilted smile that he knew far too well from the time in which he had been at his brother's side, before he had defected.
"Yea', bein' ripped in two does that to ya," Jazz spoke softly. Barricade shifted uneasily on his feet, as he remembered that moment from four years ago. His thoughts drifted then to why he was here, in this place... wherever this place was.
"Am I dead, then?" Barricade didn't really want to know that answer, but he needed to. He felt numb as he waited for Jazz to answer. Seconds seemed like an eternity; waiting was agonizing.
Jazz cycled his vents softly and shook his head. "No, 'Cade, ya ain't dead. Came close to it, an' ya more close to the Well than ol' Prowler would like, but ya ain't dead, old buddy. Ya're so far in stasis lock that ya're in a coma like those humans can have."
Barricade was stunned, his quadruple optics blinking several times. "If I'm not dead, and this isn't the Well, where in the Pit are we? And why the frag are you here?"
A chuckle escaped Jazz, and if his visor hadn't been down, Barricade would have seen how his soft blue optics sparkled with amusement. He motioned to Barricade to walk with him, and Barricade did so, ignoring his hesitancy. Something drew him to Jazz, to follow him and to see what destiny had to offer.
It astonished him when suddenly the landscape changed to that of the Grand Canyon. He was back on the North Rim. Barricade didn't even want to contemplate how the landscape shifted. He saw the place where he had stopped with Maeve. Saw her footprints, saw where he had slammed his fist down in front of her, saw where she had knelt down in agony as he had forced her to remember the murders of her family.
Barricade resisted shuddering and instead focused on Jazz.
Jazz sighed, "I could be all philosophical an' say that ya're on the brink of a new divide, or somethin' like that, an' go on an' on like Primus wants me too 'cause the senile old aft doesn't know when to shut the frag up, but really you're just stuck. This place is in between the Well an' reality. I'm just here to keep ya company until the Hatchet gets ya goin' again. It's not your time for the Well, 'Cade."
Barricade stood at the top of the North Rim, letting Jazz's words sink in.
He cycled his vents deeply.
In this dusky haze, the Canyon looked even deeper than it had when he had taken Maeve there. It was foreboding, and menacing. Barricade couldn't help but think it was rather symbolic of the chasm he had created within himself. Decepticon, all he had been... and now, what Maeve had changed him into. Certainly not an Autobot, which caused Barricade to shudder. Anything but that. Yet... something in between.
It was vexing, and troublesome that he couldn't somehow connect the two. Suddenly he realized that he had to. He could not remain the broken and tattered mech that he had allowed himself to become.
However, he also knew that he would never again be the bloodthirsty Decepticon that he once had been, and that he'd never again be the naive youngling who had joined the Autobots at his twin brother's incessant prodding. He had to stop fighting himself, and the changes that Maeve and Prowl had evoked within him.
He was truly neutral now. Except when it came to one thing, or rather... one person. Maeve.
Barricade turned to Jazz, intensity flowing through his scarlet optics. "Do you know of Maeve? Is she all right?"
Jazz chuckled again. "That little lady has got her work cut out for her." He sobered as he saw the pained look in Barricade's optics.
Jazz continued, somber this time, "She's all righ'. For now. I don't know all the specifics, as Primus doesn't like to tell us little mechs of his grand ol' plans, but she needs ya bad, Cade. If Hatchet doesn't get ya out of stasis lock soon, she's gonna get hurt by the strength of your bond an' ya being 'ere. She also got some downright weird stuff goin' on in that chest of hers, an' you're part of fixin' it or... somethin'. Like I said, Primus can be a daft slagger, an' he don't really explain things right. I don't know what the frag ya were thinkin' going after all those Seekers on your own, but Primus is mighty pissed with ya. All those perfect little plans of his almost went out the window. They, uh, still might if Ratchet doesn't fix ya."
Barricade's mouthplate dropped. He didn't really understand a damn thing Jazz was saying, except apparently the dead mech had been communicating with their god and that he hadn't been hallucinating about the Guardianship bond being so strong. The only thing he couldn't fathom was that apparently, Primus, their sacred god, was pissed with him. Oh, and Primus was apparently a senile old aft and slagger.
Barricade was essentially speechless.
"Ya know, the whole mouthplate open thing ain't exactly attractive, Cade. Especially when yours is so... pointy." Jazz chuckled.
Barricade glared at Jazz, his optics blazing a deeper scarlet for several seconds and Jazz merely grinned, amused by Barricade's indignation.
Cycling his vents several times, and taking a few paces, Barricade mulled over what Jazz had spoken of besides the... strange parts about Primus and Jazz's nearly blasphemous words. He stopped suddenly, his shoulders sagging, as he looked up again at Jazz.
Barricade's optics showed his melancholy, and fear, as he spoke, "I'm stuck here then, until... or, if Ratchet fixes me."
"That's the gist of it, yea." Jazz whispered, wincing as he could sense the Decepticon's pain radiating from him. He could guess Barricade's next question.
"If I don't make it, what happens to Maeve? Isn't there something I can do to help myself? I can't go to the Well yet, you said it yourself it's not my time..." Barricade rambled, his fear getting the better of him. He'd always said he'd be ready for death, that he wouldn't mind the Well, but now that he'd finally found something worth living for, Barricade didn't want to die. He didn't want his spark to flicker out, and he sure as Pit didn't want to go to the Well. His mission wasn't done, Maeve needed him and he... needed her.
Jazz sighed, "Hope, Cade. All ya can do now is hope. An' well, I'm not supposed to say nothin', but find Maeve with your link. Find Prowl with your twin-bond. Keep those ties ya got with the outside world. Don't let 'em go, refuse to let 'em go. Fight for what ya 'ave an' what ya want, an' that'll help the Hatchet keep ya on that side. Don't fade. Ya have more choice than I ever did. Don't waste it."
Barricade let out a whoosh of air from his vents that he wasn't aware he had been holding. Hope... fight...
A flood of conviction flowed through his lines, bringing a sense of relief and determination to him. Barricade sent another look to the strange Grand Canyon in front of him.
Fight he would.
:'Warp, this is not a good idea.: Thundercracker's voice echoed over their com-link, Thundercracker trying to keep his worry and a touch of anger at Skywarp's insanity from showing in his voice.
Skywarp grimaced as the human inside him kicked and screamed, her frantic movements and loud screaming hurting him.
Skywarp and Thundercracker had not, as the Autobots assumed, followed Starscream. Instead, Skywarp had led his close friend to another part of the San Juans, a deep and remote place where no one could hope to find them. The two Seekers had shut off both of their energy signatures as they flew to their destination, not wanting the Autobots or Starscream to follow.
Thundercracker wondered what Skywarp had in mind, and was frankly a tad worried his friend had finally gone off the deep end. Starscream would not let this go easily, and frankly, Thundercracker wondered if Skywarp could take another one of the worst beatings he'd ever get in his life - which would happen if they didn't return to base soon.
:'Warp...:
:Starscream knows nothing! He thinks the shard she carried was the important one, but he is an imbecile! His madness has overcome him, and I refuse to give this woman to him! This madness is not what we once stood for, Thundercracker!: Skywarp finally responded vehemently, the rage of being a prisoner to his glitch for so many thousands of years finally overcoming him. He had known, flying over the battle at Animas Forks, that the shard the woman carried in her pocket was not what Starscream had claimed. That shard did not have the information to rebuild their civilization.
However, it was only after he had scanned her, with what little scientist scanning he had left after that damn glitch, that he knew immediately what Barricade's obsession with her had been, his mission, and why she was so important. He had grabbed her then, taking off in the aftermath and chaos of the battle.
Thundercracker had expected him to take her to Starscream. Skywarp had refused. Starscream, and that maniac little Dr. Scalpel would have mutilated her and killed her before they knew her secrets. They wouldn't be able to ascertain and control the... power within her before killing her, and then all would have been lost. Skywarp could not let that happen.
Of course, he hadn't quite expected her incessant screaming when he had grabbed her. Primus, it was energon-curdling! And the kicking and hitting just hurt, more than he ever thought a little insect could inflict upon him. He was in a foul mood already.
Finally, there was the area he had mapped out quickly before he had taken her from the battlefield. Still within the San Juans, not that far from Animas Forks, but perfect for what he had in mind. He quickly found an open space just below the summit of the large mountain, high above the tree line. The alpine tundra was freezing cold, wind whipping through the open landscape at forty-five mph, and little animals scurrying for cover under the moss-covered boulders as Skywarp and Thundercracker transformed into their mech forms.
Maeve was shocked by the cold thin air as she found herself transferred to a hand from the warm cockpit, as all of her exposed skin immediately became goose bumped, her hair rising on end. Her vocal cords were protesting from her screaming, a sharp ache spreading down her throat. Her chest was giving off painful spasms, the left area of her chest especially burning with pain. Her heart beat irregularly, the bruised skin above it finally turning completely black.
The black bruise was quickly spreading to her entire chest, and to her arms, and she could feel it like a snake slithering upon her skin. Her hands began to tingle with the cold, as she struggled to breathe. Her head swam in the thin air, and she gulped back bile.
Yeah, let's not puke on the giant alien bad guy carrying you, Maeve. BAD idea, girl.
Skywarp dropped her onto a large boulder, rather carelessly, and Maeve gave a painful oomph as she landed on the hard rock, her duty belt digging hard into her hip. She had dropped her AR-15 when Skywarp had grabbed her, but she thanked the stars that she still had her 9mm Glock and her Colt 1911. At least she had some protection...
Suddenly Skywarp was staring at her, leaning down, pushing his face towards her uncomfortably close, his red optics giving her a hard glare, staring at her up and down. All right, so "protection" was probably the wrong word. Something the equivalent of an "annoying BB gun" was more like it to these creeps.
She felt a sharp uncomfortable tingle rush through her entire body, and she shuddered. She felt violated and wasn't quite sure why. She wanted to yell at the Decepticon but found herself biting her tongue. This Seeker wasn't like Barricade.
He reminded her of some of the mentally unstable people she and the SWAT unit had had to take down over the years. Not completely unstable like Starscream but... calculating and unstable. Hall had once called a guy they had taken down particularly hard a "schizophrenic sociopath", and Maeve, thinking of that incident, suddenly wondered if perhaps that was who this Seeker reminded her of. She resisted shaking her head for fear of retaliation from the already furious Seeker, and instead simply watched the two Seekers in front of her, analyzing each as best she could.
A fierce garble of clicks and whirrs echoed over her head as Skywarp stood.
:We should just kill her.: Thundercracker grumbled angrily, and Skywarp resisted the urge to hit him.
:We cannot, Thundercracker. Starscream was right that she is important for the continuance of our species: Skywarp spoke impatiently, giving the human a quick glance before he stared at Thundercracker. :He was wrong about the shard, as I already told you. The shard she carried outside her person wasn't important.:
:What the frag is, then? Stop prancing around the issue and just fragging tell me!: Thundercracker responded with more than a hint of irritation.
A deep dark smile spread across Skywarp's mouthplate, causing Maeve to practically hyperventilate. That was not a look she wanted to see at that moment.
Skywarp, like the rest of the Decepticons, knew of Earth's languages. He didn't particularly like the brutish and uncivilized English language (at least it seemed so to his audio inputs), and wasn't the best at speaking it, but he knew that if he was to communicate with this human, he had to try.
He looked down at the woman, who was looking as if she was about to bolt from the large rock on which she sat. He enjoyed her fear, his maniac side of the glitch practically reveling in it, breathing it in and sighing with happiness. Of course, his scientist side was furious at the maniac side, and he almost felt like Blitzwing with how he was divided.
Enough, Skywarp. Focus.
"Human."
His deep voice, even deeper than Barricade's, surprised Maeve with its steady tone. She was expecting a voice like Starscream's. She stared up at him, and gulped back her fears, forcing herself to become like she had on so many SWAT raids, so many encounters with asshat convicts; essentially allowing herself to fall deep within her training as a police officer. And frankly she was cold, hurt, unhappy and in serious freaking pain.
Her eyes went hard, as she snarled, "What the fuck do you want?"
Skywarp cocked his head at the profanity, sending it through his parameters, and chuckled when he received the rough Cybertronian equivalent. His faceplate grew serious though, as he contemplated the human.
"What do I want? I want to know if you know what's in your body that's causing it to go... black? I think that's the right color."
Maeve stiffened, refusing to look at the Seekers in front of her. She knew exactly what Skywarp was referring to, and frankly, she had ignored it this whole time, giving herself excuses to not remember. She didn't want to tell him.
A distinct whirring sound caught her attention, as Skywarp began to power up his energon cannon.
Maeve groaned, putting her head in her hands. She was going to die here. She looked up again, and gulped as the blue energy was pointed directly at her.
"Tell me now, human." Skywarp's voice was twisted with disdain and sadism.
Maeve quickly nodded, trying to summon up the courage. She sighed, and dropped her head, her soft auburn hair caressing her cheeks. She took a moment, allowing all the memories she had ever repressed from the past four years to flood through her, and then looked back up at the Seekers who both had quite the impatient looks on their faceplates.
She finally found the words, "Yes, I do. At least, I know how it happened. You probably know exactly what the damn thing is, but I'm still not sure..." She let her voice trail off. Maeve wondered if she would die up here, if this admission wasn't enough for the two Seekers standing in front of her on some remote mountain.
Skywarp was silent. If she did not know what exactly it was... well, at the very least, he wished to hear her story. Thundercracker's optics were furious, and he was about ready to shoot the insolent human, but Skywarp quickly sent him a com for him to stand down and merely listen... and perhaps then, once the entire story was known, he would understand as Skywarp now did.
He fought the urge to grin and gloat. His glitch had finally been beaten, at least in this particular instance. He looked down at Maeve, who was staring at him with an apprehensive look, her hazel eyes showing the barely contained fear she held within.
"Well, human, speak. Listen we will."
Why, certainly, Master Yoda, listen you shall. Like I have a damn choice to not say anything, Maeve retorted in her mind. She sighed, running a hand through her hair. She tried not to let the cold air affect her as she thought of how best to begin.
"Four years ago, I was a Mission City police officer..."
The Battle of Mission City...
Screams filled the air, one of them being Maeve's own scream as Megatron threw the minivan she knew all too well behind him.
That van had held a childhood friend, and she was certain, that friend's family. Four little girls, and their mother, probably just coming back from the mall, a simple shopping trip. They were supposed to meet up after Maeve had gotten off work for a quick dinner before Maeve headed off for a family camping trip. Now her friend and her precious girls were dead, crushed within their minivan. More lives ended in this bizarre battle in the middle of the city.
So much death... Maeve could barely breathe as she fell to her knees on the shattered sidewalk, as the two behemoths before her continued to fight. Everything she knew was crashing down around her, her blood pulsating through her ears. Tears streamed down her dirt-covered face, as she looked at her bloody hands with despair. How many friends would she lose today?
Her family was safe this day, having left for a camping trip a day early before she was to join them, but how many more people would lose their lives because of some alien war that had been brought straight to their doorstep?
"Give me that cube, boy!"
Maeve startled at the sinister voice from the silver robot in front of her, and instead of drowning in her sorrows, finally took notice of her surroundings. She saw a young teenage boy, maybe sixteen, running through the intersection, wearing a brown hoodie and blue jeans, carrying... a silver cube with strange glyphs on it.
I don't even want to know what the hell that thing is... She thought to herself, but instead of running away from the battle, she made up her mind to run after the boy. Her curiosity got the better of her, and she ran, dodging debris and searing blue energy and large shots of ammunition that rained down from above.
Of course, she wasn't quite expecting the boy to fall and the cube to send out a jolt of blue energy.
"Holy god, a Mountain Dewbot." She muttered, as she ran down an alley to escape the street of awakened machines. When she ran out from the other end of the alley, she was out of breath. And she'd lost the kid.
"Shit."
More explosions rocked the city, and she could hear the U.S. Military fighting back with nearly everything they had in this urban battle. Maeve, taking a moment to rest, leaned against the stone building, breathing in as many deep breaths as she could. If she had to move, and move quickly, she wanted to be ready. Getting a cramp was bad news in this environment.
The sound of an Army Blackhawk echoed from overhead, and she watched it as it flew close to an elegant old building a block away. It hovered, and then... a whistling sound rushed through the air, and Maeve could see the telltale sign of a missile heading straight for it.
"Oh my god," She whispered to herself as the Blackhawk fell and twisted, tumbling as metal pieces flung outwards and smoke billowed. She watched this, and then her mouth dropped as the silver robot, the one who had screamed about the cube, ripped through the top of the building with a mace-like weapon, debris following and... the kid. He fell head over feet until the blue and red robot suddenly whisked him out of the air, cradling him in his hands.
Maeve, unconsciously, while she struggled to take this entire scene in had been moving to their location, only a few yards away now. She fell to the concrete, scraping her hands raw and her uniform tore at the knees, as the blue and red robot smashed into the ground, the earth trembling from the force of the impact. The silver robot followed directly after, the ground shaking even more as strips of asphalt flew through the air.
I can't believe this shit, Maeve thought in awe as she watched from a devastated car close to the two fighting robots. Debris rained down upon her, and she narrowly avoided getting clocked by a large piece of rebar. She looked at it with unease.
Okay, maybe I'm too close...
She began to back away, ready to turn tail and run, when she saw that damn Saleen again, staring at her from another alley.
She was distracted long enough that it was only the missiles from F-22 Raptors and shots aimed at Megatron from the U.S. Military that were suddenly surrounding her that made her move again. Of course, she ran towards the bots instead of away, a moment she'd later ponder why she had lost all sense of direction and common sense and narrowly avoided getting squished by the big red and blue bot's foot.
She slid behind a cab and watched in horror as the silver robot tried desperately to get the kid directly in front of her.
"No, Sam!" The blue and red bot cried out, as the kid (rather bravely, Maeve thought), shoved the cube into the silver robot's chest.
What followed changed her life forever.
When he raised the Cube, unbeknownst to Maeve, the energy force that attacked Megatron's spark and seemingly "melted" into him hadn't quite melted the entire Cube.
Several pieces were expelled from the cube with such force that one, a sliver roughly three inches long, about an inch wide, and several smaller jagged pieces, flew through the air and burrowed itself into Maeve's chest, her skin tearing from the jagged metal.
Maeve felt like she had just been branded with a hot iron, and screamed as the shards came to rest within her left chest, below her collar bone, leaving a fresh wound behind. She pressed a hand to her chest, as blood flowed down.
She thought she was just grazed by the metal, but deep enough to cause her danger. She didn't realize the metal instead rested within her, burrowing itself within her muscles and blood vessels, creating for itself a cocoon of protection.
"Yeah, bad idea, Maeve. Let's just follow the big giant robots and then get hit with a piece of effing metal and bleed to death. Great plan, you moron." She muttered to herself as she sifted one hand through the dirt at her feet.
Her finger was suddenly burning, and she looked down to find a silver metal shard of the cube the kid had been carrying. She picked it up, examined it, amazed at the detail of the broken glyphs upon it. She shrugged then and pocketed it. Might as well keep a souvenir from this craziness.
The silver robot had died, and Maeve suddenly realized that more robots were appearing, and some of the military guys were giving her concerned looks. One, a tall brunette man, came over and asked her if she was all right.
Dizzy now from the lack of blood, Maeve just shrugged. "I don't know. Does any of this look all right to you?" She waved a hand around, at the scene before them. Her words began to slur from blood loss, and the man quickly called for others.
The next thing she knew, she had woken up in the hospital, her shoulder and left chest awkwardly bandaged, and a doctor trying to explain to her that she'd have to live with shrapnel forever embedded in her left chest and that they had nearly lost her on the operating table when they had tried to remove it.
Her clothes from that day, and everything in her pockets, had been given to her husband for safekeeping, and by the way, she really should drink and eat something as she had been out for several days. She was barely listening to this though, as she saw her husband and her child, standing before her hospital bed. Her husband had a relieved smile, her baby was clapping that Mama was going to be all right.
Present...
Maeve hugged herself as she came out of the memory. The two Seekers were silent as they watched her. Skywarp was intrigued by the number of emotions present on the woman's face. It was as if happiness, rage, sadness, and complete grief were all rolled into one and placed upon her face. He could see the water droplets the humans called tears threatening to spill from her hazel eyes.
The only thing that Maeve kept seeing though was the vivid memory of waking up in that hospital bed and seeing the ones she loved standing there. No matter the nightmare of Mission City, they were there, they were alive... had been alive, she reminded herself.
Her chest ached, and Maeve pressed her hand to the scar, pressing her fingers lightly upon the disfigured tissue. That scar was always her reminder of how her life had been utterly changed after the battle. She shuddered. She would not think about what happened after. She'd already had a breakdown at the damn Grand Canyon, and looking around her at the Seekers who were giving her some very... disturbing looks, she really didn't want one here.
"There, now you know. Now, you tell me, Einstein, what it all means." She grumbled, hugging her knees to her chest. The cold was getting even worse as midnight approached.
Maeve stared up at the two Seekers, wondering how in the hell she was going to get out of this alive.