Warning: The following chapter contains a mild instance of gore; viewer discretion is advised.
I don't own Transformers or the Riordanverse; they belong to their owners.
Chapter 54: A Hero's Last Stand.
Hot Rod was woken up by the sound of someone calling his name.
"Hot Rod, get up!"
Hot Rod jolted awake and looked around. He saw Thalia and Grover picking themselves out of the mud nearby. They looked wet and miserable.
Rain still fell down, and thunder boomed in the distance.
"Thalia! Grover!" Hot Rod cried.
"We're fine!" Thalia said. "After you hit the bottom of the hill, you transformed back into robot mode, and we fell out."
"Yeah, we do that on instinct after a crash sometimes." Hot Rod explained as he stood up and tried to get his focus back by rubbing his head and stretching.
"Where are Luke and Annabeth!?" Grover asked worriedly.
"Over here!" called Luke.
Hot Rod, Thalia, and Grover looked over and saw Luke waving his hands a small distance away. The three walked over and noticed Annabeth was clutching her leg, and Hound was lying on his back with his eyes closed.
"Oh no!" Hot Rod. He ran over to Hound and started to shake him. "Hound!" he cried. Despite his attempts, Hound wouldn't wake up.
"I already tried," Luke said. "He's out cold... I think he got hit pretty hard in the crash."
"We'll have to get Ratchet to fix him later." Hot Rod muttered.
"Wait, we're just gonna leave him!?" asked Luke in disbelief.
"No. I'm gonna drag him out of here if I have to." Hot Rod said. He looked around to get their bearings properly. They were in some kind of woods, with a string of hills in sight along the way.
Grover breathed a sigh of relief seeing those hills. "We're almost there." He said finally lighting up a bit. "Camp Half-Blood is over those hills."
"Good…"Thalia muttered.
"Yeah. Let's get moving." Hot Rod said. He motioned to pick up Hound so he could drag him there when Annabeth let out a moan of pain.
"Guys… my leg..." she cried.
Everyone looked down to where Annabeth was holding her leg; a bone stuck out from the side.
"Ah crap, it's broken!" said Luke; he moved to help Annabeth get up by lifting her arm over his shoulder.
There was rustling in the woods nearby. Grover gave a sniff and recoiled.
"They're almost here…" he said.
"We need to move now!" Luke shouted. He started to run, holding Annabeth.
Annabeth moaned. "Guys… I can't run anymore…" she panted.
Thalia looked back at the monsters that were about to be right on them.
"It's just one more push, Annabeth," Luke said as he picked her up. "We can make it."
"Yeah! It's just over that hill!" Grover assured her.
Hot Rod froze. He'd seen this before.
In his dream, on the eve of the first week of them meeting Thalia, Annabeth, and Luke.
He remembered what happened in it—how Thalia had sacrificed herself to help her friends get away.
He knew he couldn't let that happen. His eyes narrowed with determination.
Thalia turned to face her friends. "Guys—"
"Kids," Hot Rod said, interrupting her.
The four paused and looked at Hot Rod. With his right arm, he pulled out one of his pistols and turned his left arm into a buzzsaw.
"Run." Hot Rod ordered.
Thalia's eyes widened. "Hot Rod, no!" she protested. "It's me they want! It has to be me!"
"And it shouldn't be." Hot Rod said. "You deserve to live, Thalia. You deserve to live a full life. I'll make sure they don't hurt Hound either."
He hung his head. "I made a promise to you, Thalia. I'd always be there for you. This is me fulfilling that promise."
"No, I'm not leaving you!" Thalia cried, her tears mixing with the rain that was pouring down on all of them.
The rustling in the woods got bigger, and the sound of jet engines got closer.
"No time to debate this!" Hot Rod shouted. "RUN!"
Luke, who looked equally heartbroken, grabbed Thalia by the arm and pulled her. Thalia looked back. "Goodbye," she said.
"COME ON!" Grover yelled, and he led the three kids towards the hill line. Thalia gave another look back. Hot Rod gave one last look at Thalia. Their eyes met, and the two nodded at each other.
And then Hot Rod turned to face the horde. "Come and get me," he said.
And that's when dozens of hellhounds and the three furies erupted out of the woods.
Hot Rod screamed a battle cry and rushed into the horde, swinging his buzzsaw at a hellhound that leaped at him, slicing it in two. A fury charged him, but Hot Rod just backhanded her. He began to wildly swing his buzzsaw around and fire his gun in all directions, pushing the monsters back.
"Foolish alien! You shouldn't even be here!" One of the furies proclaimed as it dodged and weaved under Hot Rod's wild swings.
Hot Rod shot the Fury midair with his pistol. "Don't care," he said. The distraction allowed a hellhound to sneak up behind him, and with its magical jaws, it bit down on Hot Rod's leg. Hot Rod grunted in pain, but he recovered fast and kicked the hellhound away.
That's when Starscream and Skywarp showed up; the two jets flew onto the scene and transformed into their robot modes.
"Scrap him!" Starscream yelled.
Skywarp gave a grim smirk and teleported behind Hot Rod and punched him in the back. Hot Rod staggered forward, and one of the furies slashed him upward across the chest.
"Why give your life up for such an insignificant being!?" Starscream asked as he fired his wrist blasters at Hot Rod.
Hot Rod braced himself for the blast and took the shots, then he looked up defiantly at Starscream.
"Because she's my friend." Hot Rod stated simply.
"And Thundercracker was ours," Skywarp said coldly. He teleported right next to Hot Rod and grabbed his buzzsaw in his left arm and pulled; the buzzsaw was ripped right out of its socket, and Hot Rod screamed in pain.
The furies and hellhounds took that as their chance; they charged in and started biting and slashing at Hot Rod as he took attacks from all sides. The attacks exposed some of Hot Rod's circuitry, and it sparked and fizzled.
Hot Rod let out a roar. He turned his left hand back to normal, dropped his pistol, and grabbed one of the furies with both hands. He twisted her in different directions, snapping her spine, and she dissolved into dust.
The other two furies didn't seem to care about the death of their sister and scratched Hot Rod again. Hot Rod picked up his dropped pistol in his right hand and pulled out another one with his left and began firing wildly; Skywarp and Starscream let out their own flurry of laser fire as Hot Rod began to back up the hill that led to camp…
As Thalia, Luke, and Annabeth ran down the hill with Grover, they could see it. Camp Half-Blood, the place Luke's father had told them about all those months ago. It was too dark and rainy to make out clearly, but they saw multiple buildings, some of which still had lights on.
"We're almost there!" Grover said.
A huge scream of pain erupted from behind them. Thalia paused mid-run.
Grover, Luke, and Annabeth came to a halt. "Thalia, what are you doing!? Asked Luke. "We gotta keep moving."
Thalia kept looking in the direction of the hill. She heard Hot Rod scream in agony and pain again; she saw a laser shoot out from behind the hill, and then a couple of other laser blasts, followed by more screaming.
"Thalia, come on, we're almost there!" Grover said. He grabbed Thalia by the arm, but Thalia yanked it out of his hands, and she turned to look at her friends. Tears came out of her eyes.
"Thalia?" asked Annabeth, woozy. Luke and Grover were silent but gave uncertain glances.
Thalia hesitated before saying what she did next. "...Till all are one."
With that, she brought out her can of mace, extended it into a spear, and brought out Ageis. Before anyone could stop her, she started running towards Hot Rod.
"THALIA, NO!" cried Grover, but she was already gone and running up the hill...
Hot Rod was forced down to his knees, and Skywarp held his arms around his back. The hellhounds bit down on his legs, and the two remaining furies swarmed around him. Hot Rod struggled to get out, but he was too weak from his injuries.
Hot Rod gave a defiant look as Starscream walked up to him and grabbed him by the throat. "Poor, poor Hot Rod." Starscream taunted. He let go of Hot Rod's throat and aimed his wrist blaster at his face. "All alone with no one to save him this time."
Just then a burst of lightning came down all around them, causing Skywarp, Starscream, the Furies, and the hellhounds to scatter. Several of the hellhounds were hit directly and dissolved into dust.
"He's not alone."
Hot Rod released himself from everyone's grip, swerved his head, and saw Thalia, standing at the top of the hill, her spear and Aegis out.
Hot Rod's eyes widened in horror. "Thalia, what are you doing!?" he exclaimed in terror.
"Saving my friend," Thalia said confidently. She took a fighting stance. "Because that promise goes both ways."
"Works for me!" Skywarp laughed, and he charged up the hill at Thalia along with the others.
Hot Rod couldn't decide if he wanted to praise Thalia for her bravery or get mad at her for putting herself in danger. For now, he just got up and charged up the hill to join her, making sure to smash every distracted hellhound that he could.
Starscream flew up to Thalia, but she jabbed her spear in his face, making sure to put an electric charge into the attack, knocking Starscream backward. A Fury came at her, but Thalia shoved Aegis in her face before jamming her spear right into her while she was distracted. It went in deep, and the fury dissolved with a scream.
Hot Rod continued to fight, bashing more hellhounds. He tried looking for the remaining Fury, but things had gotten so chaotic in the field he couldn't see her; he just started swinging wildly and hoped he'd hit something.
Lightning surged all around Thalia and Hot Rod; the two fought in perfect unison as the lightning seemed to dance around them. Hot Rod uppercut Sywarp before grabbing him and flinging him into Starscream, who was recovering from the stab Thalia had given him. Thalia bashed Ageis at an incoming hellhound before jumping over it and stabbing it in the gut.
Everything became a blur for the two. Pretty soon, Hot Rod was relying on just instinct. Nothing was in focus; nothing mattered, except for the fight.
And then he felt a sharp pain in his gut as a blast of laser fire went right through him.
Hot Rod screamed in pain and fell forward. Skywarp had managed to get a shot at him from behind and was now standing with his left wrist raised, with the gun on it smoking.
Hot Rod whimpered on the ground; he tried to get up, but the combination of the pain and the exhaustion made it impossible.
Thalia paused when she saw what had happened to her friend; she saw Starscream walk forward and place his foot on Hot Rod's back, pinning him to the ground.
"Hot Rod!" cried Thalia. She started to move forward. "I'm com—"
Just then, when Thalia was at the very top of the hill, there was a small "squishing" sound.
Hot Rod turned to look at Thalia; the remaining fury, Alecto, was right beside her with her claws out; a red liquid was pouring from a gash on Thalia's throat.
"No…No!" cried Hot Rod.
Thalia brought her hands to her throat and started gagging. She collapsed to her knees and gripped her throat, trying to stop the bleeding, but it was no use; the Fury gave a cruel smile.
Skywarp gave a cruel smile of his own and lifted his foot. "This is for Thundercracker!" he taunted.
"NO!" cried Hot Rod.
Right before Skywarp could stamp on the innocent girl, a volley of laser fire erupted and hit him from the front, knocking him backward.
Hot Rod thought he heard Hound's voice say something, and he thought he saw Hound come in and tackle Starscream off of him. He also thought he heard Annabeth and Luke scream in terror.
But none of that mattered right now; the only thing he could focus on right now was Thalia, who was still collapsed on her knees and getting weaker and weaker.
Their eyes met, and for an instant, time seemed to pause. Thalia gave a sad smile.
"Hot Rod…" Thalia choked out through the blood. "Thank you…"
"Thalia, no! NO!" Hot Rod cried. He tried to reach out to her, but his strength was failing; he could feel himself fading away into stasis lock.
Just then, from the sky, out of nowhere, a lightning bolt came right down on Thalia.
It was the last thing Hot Rod saw before everything went dark again.
Sorry for all those who were hoping Thalia would be spared by the adaptation. Truthfully? I don't think I had it in me to rewrite the entire Percy Jackson series with Thalia alive. Too many variables.
But in any case, thanks for reading, and don't forget to leave a review!