Chapter Text
“Arcee?”
Oi, Jack, would you mind keeping it down? She has the headache of the century right now and she does not need you yelling for your guardian at the top of your lungs.
“Bulkhead?”
Hazel whined, trying to lift her head so she could maybe, possibly get Jack to stop yelling so freaking loudly in her ear, but a weight atop her skull was preventing her from moving.
What in the-
“Miko?” Jack, could you please stop yelling?
She tried to open her eyes, to get a glimpse of the young man and practically beg him to lower his voice, but she was met with pitch black and more pain behind her eyes.
“Hazel?” Oh, so he was calling for her now, was he?
Grunting, she tried to lift her hands to wiggle free before inhaling sharply when whatever was over her started moving, immediately changing tactics and tried to cover her head instead.
Dull light pierced through the darkness, stabbing her eyes as she blearily blinked up.
Oh yeah, she was buried.
Which meant that the weight above her head was none other than a mountain of rocks.
Lovely.
Jack’s face appeared above her, dust and grime coating his skin as he continued hauling the boulders away.
Whining softly she gingerly shoved up, attempting to aid the teen and yelped when the rocks beneath her gave way and sent her tumbling into the cavern Jack was standing in, landing roughly at his feet.
“Are you ok?” He asked, bending down and offering her a hand.
She blindly reached up and took it, coughing and used her free hand to dust herself off. “Never better,” she muttered, taking count of the new situation.
Rocks, lots and lots of rocks were surrounding them, and she realized all over again that this cavern was built by titans. Towering, robotic aliens and she had never felt as small as she did right then, gazing up through the fog at the impossibly high ceilings.
“Didn’t Arcee say a stripped mine could be unstable?” She asked dryly, releasing his hand and ran it through her curls.
Well, she didn’t feel any blood, so that was something, but her ankle was beginning to ache something fierce. The one time she didn’t have a tensor bandage with her, or the rest of her first aid kit. No, she left it all in her new purse back at base.
Figures.
Jack frowned, her eyes clearing enough and adjusted to the surrounding darkness to catch the concern on his face.
Hey, it was better than being buried.
Hazel winced when she tried putting pressure on her ankle, hauling off her new cardigan (which was already ripped, yay) and gingerly sat back down on the stones. She felt Jack watching as she folded the fabric into a makeshift bandage, quickly wrapping her ankle before reaching a hand back up.
Jack took it and helped her back to her feet, keeping her steady as she gingerly tested her foot again.
Well, of course it still hurt, but at least this way the swelling could hopefully be kept under control until they could get her to June.
Sometimes it was nice having a nurse for a temporary guardian.
“Ok, so- now what?” She asked after a long, heavy silence, Jack shifting her so most of her weight was leaning across his shoulders. One of these days she was going to tell June that she raised him right, but for now that was not something she was going to concern herself with.
“We need to figure out a way out of here,” he replied, eyeing the cavern warily. It wasn’t lost on her woozy mind that they were likely gonna run out of oxygen before they could dig their way free if they couldn’t find Arcee.
Nevermind that they had no way of knowing what happened to Bulkhead or Miko. She just hoped they were alright.
As alright as one can be, buried under a mountain and all.
“Well, I can put a bit of pressure on my ankle, but I don’t know how much help I’m gonna be,” she sighed, proving her words by allowing more weight to rest on her injured foot. It must have twisted in the fall.
Jack nodded, but was interrupted from suggesting anything when several rocks fell behind them.
If it was another cave-in she was going to take a page out of Phoenix’s playbook and shoot something.
Jack immediately turned to look, peering over her shoulder and she watched as a smile formed over his expression.
“Huh. Well that could come in handy.”
She frowned, twisting her neck to see. “What? What is-” she cut herself off when she saw the giant Decepticon machinery he was referring to, and, figuring Jack would have more knowledge on how to deal with it than she would, allowed him to begin walking them across the uneven terrain over to it.
It was a massive, purple and black drill, clearly meant for Cybertronian use and nowhere near accessible to humans, but that was probably exactly what they needed.
If they wanted to get out of this alien-made mess, then they would need to use alien technology. It was only fair.
When she finally managed to limp over she stared at the towering machine, Jack unhooking her arm and hauled himself onto one of the treads.
If you could even call them that. She didn’t know how else to describe it.
“Here, give me your hand,” he called down, pressing his chest down on the metal in order to reach, holding his arm out for her.
She raised a brow skeptically but bit her tongue, shimming her way to the tread and, after ensuring she would not be falling again today, leaned her weight on her good ankle and reached her arm up for Jack.
Thankfully neither of them were short, Jack grabbing her wrist and hauled her up with minimal struggle.
She didn’t move from where he had deposited her, watching as he continued climbing the machine until he could reach the control panel.
“Do you know how to drive this thing?” She called up, the boy shrugging and typed a few things into the screen.
Within seconds he had the drill spinning and the engines running, and she merely laughed at his pleased grin.
Forget she ever doubted him.
“Hold on to something,” he called, and she, in all her wisdom, decided to heed his advice and tried to find something that wouldn’t result in a limb being cut off.
He waited until she was steady, pushing on the leaver and propelled the drill onwards.
“Roll out.”
– – –
They sat in silence for a time as Jack used the drill to begin tunneling his way through the cavern, Hazel’s mind circling around back to the cause of their mess in the first place.
“Hey Jack?” She called over the drill, frowning when he poked his head over the side. “Who were they?” She doubted she needed to specify, and judging from the mixture of emotions that spread across his face she knew he understood.
“Starscream and Megatron,” he said quietly, returning to the drill and resumed operating it.
She heard those names before, briefly, when the Autobots were telling her about the war. To run into both of them at once, during a trip that was meant to be reconnaissance only, was far from fortunate.
“What were they doing down here?” She called back, bracing as he led them over a bumpy patch. “Didn’t Arcee say that this mine had been stripped?”
She knows it was. They should have had no reason to come back here, least of all when the Autobots were investigating.
What wretched luck.
“I don’t know, Hazel,” Jack sighed. He pointed the drill at a random wall and eased the machine into it, rocks falling in their path. “But we need to find the others before they dig themselves free.”
Free. Megatron and Starscream were around here somewhere.
Her heart dropped, because if she had survived the cave in, then the two leaders of the Decepticons most likely did, too.
Love that for them.
She sat in silence as Jack worked, taking care to stay out of his way and that of falling rocks.
It was probably long after dark at this point, and she absently realized that Miko wouldn’t be cashing in on her concert tickets. A pang of sympathy hit her, before remembering that Miko was the one who ran into the mine to begin with.
Hazel chuckled softly, shaking her head and smiled. That girl really was something.
The more pressing thing on her mind, however, was that if it was after dark, and they were in the same time zone, then her parents already knew something was wrong. They would have tried calling her by now, if they didn’t as soon as the bank reported the transaction.
Her smile fell instantly, subduing a shudder and looked up. Jack was concentrating on operating the drill, a focused twist to his expression. She was lucky she woke up when she did, because going through all this alone…
There was a damn good reason Bridget never really left her side.
Hazel gingerly climbed to her feet, favouring her twisted ankle and slowly began climbing up to where the boy was standing. It was probably safer up there than on one of the treads, anyways.
Free from falling rocks, at least.
Jack glanced over when she hauled herself up to the control panel, furrowing his brows and halted the drill. He smiled, stepping over and helped her up the rest of the way.
“You ok?” He asked, threading her arm around his shoulders again.
Wordlessly she nodded, following him back to the controls and watched as he resumed drilling, keeping a steadying hand around her for support.
They didn’t have a direction to go in, their only strategy being to dig until they found someone, or someone found them.
Preferably an Autobot. That'd be nice.
They drilled in silence, the screech and shrill cries of the drill pounding on her ears, and not for the first time she wished her head would stop aching.
“I think I found something,” Jack said after a while, making sense out of the alien scanners as he pulled the drill back out from the hole he just dug.
Maybe it was another cavern, maybe if they were lucky one of the others would be somewhere on the other side of the wall.
She unhooked her arm from around him and gingerly eased herself down against the console, Jack stopping the drill and ran over to the side to call down. She really hoped it was Arcee, god knows they could use an ally right about now.
Her hopes were dashed when Jack froze, hauling herself to her feet and wobbled over to investigate.
“I suppose, helping those less fortunate would be completely out of the question.”
Oh you have got to be kidding.
She reached the edge of the control and found the leader of the Decepticons glaring up at them, wholly and utterly trapped in the rock.
Megatron didn’t seem to care, his glare sharp enough that one would assume they were the ones trapped, and weren’t the ones with a Decepticon drill at their disposal. “If that is the case, you might as well use your drill to finish me,” he taunted when neither of them spoke. “I guarantee you will never have a better opportunity, then right now.” His voice sent chills racing down her spine, the eerie red glow of his eyes bathing the rock trapping him in the same ruby light.
Hazel scowled, turning on Jack. “You missed?”
The boy tore his gaze away from Megatron, raising his hands defensively. “I thought it could have been one of the bots,” he protested, watching as she turned her glare from him back down to the cause of all their problems in the first place.
He was the reason she couldn’t go home.
He was why Phoenix took her from her cabin, why she was unable to contact her parents and explain where she was and what was going on. He was the reason Ratchet was stuck dealing with her and her dog, and he was the reason her ankle was currently protesting every step she dared take.
“I thought you were supposed to be smart,” she snapped, the titan blinking once, venom lacing her words as she met his glare with one of her own as anger bubbled up in her throat.
Hazel was more than simply mad. She was absolutely furious.
He had upturned her life, and the lives of an entire planet, and for what?!
If the Autobots were to be believed, then Megatron was responsible for the destruction of Cybertron, and the deaths of so many their team cared about. He was the one threatening Earth, and was single handedly why she wasn't able to go back to her cabin and promise her parents everything was alright.
She now understood why Phoenix took her from her home, and holy hell was she pissed about it.
She shoved past Jack and braced her hands along the rails, catching a faint twist of amusement in the way Megatron’s mouth tilted.
He had no right to be amused by this.
“If even I know that a stripped mine could be unstable, then you would think that a supposedly renowned Warlord would know the same," Hazel snapped. "What the hell were you thinking, opening fire on us?” She demanded.
Did he care so little for his own well-being that he would risk this situation all over again, on the off chance they were hurt in the process? What the actual hell had she gotten herself into?!
Jack flinched when Megatron started laughing, a quiet, dangerous sound that Hazel, at any other point in her life, would wisely put as much distance between as she possibly could. But right here, right now? Screw it.
“How dare you-”
She opened her mouth to continue spitting at him, but Jack’s sudden vise-like grip on her arm made her pause, whipping her head over but hesitated at the look on his face.
Oh. Oh, shit.
Standing down she reluctantly nodded, wordlessly telling Jack she understood and would not risk their spy, her cover or anything else she wanted to yell at him. She would allow Megatron to remain oblivious and stupid, if that was what was required.
Jack loosened his grip on her arm, sending Megatron one final glare before walking her out and away from the Warlord’s line of sight.
“Are you going to kill him?” She whispered when he sat her down next to the leavers, and Jack’s hesitation and the confliction on his face told her that no, no he would not.
“Well? What are you waiting for?” She watched as Jack shuddered at Megatron’s taunting yell, the boy turning his attention back to gaze at the Warlord. “Think of the glory! Seize the day! Optimus would.”
Resolve and determination came to rest upon Jack’s shoulders, then, and though she was unable to see his face she recognized the posture immediately. Her father adopted the same one whenever he had to face a losing case.
“No, he wouldn’t.” Jack’s voice was quiet, but carried strong in the echoing cavern walls. “Not like this.”
Hazel scooted out of the way as he shook his head and turned from the titan mocking them, Jack not meeting her eyes as he reactivated the drill and powered them away, as far from Megatron as they could get.
“I will be sure to share the details of our little conversation with Optimus, the day I rip out his spark!”
– – –
The silence that existed between the assassin and their spy was calm, both of them content to watch the sky above one of the oldest mountain ranges on this planet.
Phoenix let out a breath and watched it cloud in the air before her, a small smile tugging at her derma.
She spared a sideways glance at Starfire, the seeker watching the sun gleaming across the snowcaps with rapt attention.
She took in the seeker's lithe frame, the healed mares and scrapes speaking of her history and everything Starfire had survived up until this point, and not for the first time Phoenix felt respect begin to overpower her previous conflicted feelings about her.
“Well,” Phoenix said at last, dusting her servos and raised an unamused optic ridge at the cliff when a few rocks broke away. Yeah, try it- “I should be returning to base.”
Starfire turned, nodding wordlessly when Phoenix brought a digit to her audial to call Ratchet. She figured she would leave the bond alone and call home the old-fashioned way, if nothing more than to keep the doctor in the loop.
Starfire said nothing and watched as the portal opened next to the mountain face, steps away and simultaneously blocking the entrance to the tomb embedded into the cliff.
It was only when Phoenix took steps towards it did she frown, tilting her helm slightly. “Can I ask you something?”
The assassin paused, glancing over her shoulderplate expectantly.
The seeker appeared to be grappling internally, and Phoenix watched her mentally decide to frag it and blurted out her question, “what was her name?” She blinked, and Starfire clarified. “Your human, I mean. What is her name?” She repeated, though there was a slight edge to her tone that Phoenix immediately picked up on.
She frowned, ignoring the bridge for a moment. “Hazel, why?” She asked, but Starfire quickly schooled her expression and shrugged.
“Just curious,” she claimed, but Phoenix hadn’t gotten to be known as the Warlord’s Assassin for nothing. Starfire was hiding something, she could see it in the way her posture tensed.
Then again, Starfire had also just given her an enormous show of generosity by revealing this tomb to her, so prying into their spy’s further secrets was not something she was overly inclined to do right away.
Phoenix shrugged, deciding to drop the matter but kept a mental note about her odd reaction before she turned and proceeded through the portal, waving once over her shoulderplate before walking out of sight.
– – –
I watched the former assassin leave through her bridge, and cursed soundly the instant it closed behind her.
“Hazel, why?” Such a simple question and already I was coding a secure channel to the village. The Chief needed to be made aware of this development, this was too much of a coincidence to ignore.
The call very nearly went to voicemail, and I knew I couldn’t leave a message, it was a risk that I knew I couldn’t take, not if I wanted to keep Silas, Soundwave and Shockburner out and away from their borders.
“This is Chief Catori.” Utter relief threatened the stability of my kneeplates, her voice sending unreasonable amounts of comfort through my systems.
“Chief, it’s me. I have reason to suspect the Vanzandeeks have resurfaced.” I didn’t have time to waste with formalities, not with the information I carried. If I was right, if it was their daughter, then everything I had ever worked towards these past 300 years has just been thrown into massive jeopardy, and the Autobots didn’t even know it.
I think I had stunned her, the Chief taking a quick moment to gather herself. “What evidence do you have, Abigail?” She demanded, her voice cold, a calculation to her tone that no one ever wanted to hear.
I shook my helm, mentally debating the odds of Phoenix stumbling upon the one ticking time bomb humanity had at their disposal. This could not have come at a worse time.
“I will not say,” I replied, running another scan and working overtime to ensure this line remained secure. “Contact Dannie, I need to know what the Vanzandeeks know,” I added, and would call him myself if I didn’t have to worry about Bryce or his people eavesdropping on my conversation.
Daniel was the liaison and Ambassador for the village, it would not be unusual for him to receive a call or message from his people, but if I reached out it would open up an investigation into his files and I was not about to risk our clearest link into the government.
“It will be done. We will be in touch,” Catori said curtly, and I knew we were both praying that I was wrong.
The chances of that being the case were not looking too high, unfortunately.
The call disconnected and I raised a tired servo above my faceplates to glare up at the peeking sunlight.
Primus, if this was some sort of joke, then it was in very poor taste. Just want you to know.
Grumbling, I jumped off the ledge and transformed, jetting up to the atmosphere to rejoin my patrol coordinates and make my way back to the Warship.
The moment I reach my quarters I need to look into everything that Lawyer and his wife have been up to for the last 20 years.
– – –
Staring at the phone in her hand Chief Catori hardly noticed her people walking past in the halls, a ringing in her ears drowning everything else out until Starfire’s warning was the only thing she could make sense of.
They didn't have time to waste, however, finally shaking herself from her shock and pocketed the device. Taking a slow breath she faced the doors to the meeting chamber and cracked them open, quietly slipping back inside.
Within the grand room sat her council, the elders of her village listening as Albert, the leader of their border guard, recounted the week since their last gathering.
“We found M.E.C.H activity three days ago,” he was saying, acknowledging her return with a small dip of his head before turning to readdress the others. “The Guard tracked one of their scouts from the edge of the cancellation field and followed him towards the eastern region.”
Catori quietly slid back into her seat, acknowledging Josh’s glance without turning from their Guardsman.
The eastern region was in the direction of their stream, and she had half a mind to make a note about its quality. From what Starfire has reported, she was unwilling to put poison past M.E.C.H and their leader.
Albert crossed his arms, eyeing the map laid out on the table before them. “They watched as he entered the mountain range, though they fell back once they lost sight of him,” he finished, slowly sitting back down as the council started murmuring to themselves.
Catori frowned, noting the orange pin marking the map where M.E.C.H disappeared into.
Another problem for another day.
“I’ll send word to Fowler,” Luka said, taking a step forward from his position standing behind Albert’s chair. He was Albert’s right hand and designated runner between the Guard and the government. Luka’s great grandmother had arrived with her children from occupied Poland in the 40’s, his bright blond hair a striking contrast to the majority of those at this table. “He should be aware that Silas is still active in this area. Perhaps he’ll be able to get people to investigate the eastern region,” he added.
The council nodded, giving their approval.
Catori sat up, folding her weathered hands on the aging table and interjected before their agricultural minister could give his report. That could wait, she had already assured Starfire about their reserves earlier and she did not believe much had changed since this morning.
“I am afraid I am going to need to divert the purpose of this meeting,” she said quietly, and 12 sets of eyes turned her way immediately.
Josh nodded. “What is it, Chief?” He asked, his expression growing wary when she closed her eyes and took a slow breath, a grounding practice that sent alarm bells ringing through every member of her council.
“Abigail believes the Vanzandeeks have resurfaced,” she said at last, lifting her head and catching the flash of fear that crossed every elder’s face simultaneously.
Josh gaped, Albert sitting up straight in his seat. “Did she say how?” The leader of the Guard demanded, his dark eyes narrowing when she shook her head.
Esmeralda cursed, Kayla's mother and elder responsible for handling their childcare sector wringing her weathered hands.
“Not where Soundwave could overhear,” she replied steadily, turning to the youngest member of her council, Josh having only ever heard stories about what they did so many years ago. “Abigail needs you to get into contact with Daniel,” she continued, the young man’s expression growing resolute. “She is directing him to initiate the protocols she put in place for this situation and tell Daniel to monitor the Vanzandeek residences. We will run interference and get into contact with Fowler should the situation get to that point,” she ordered, and at once Josh nodded and excused himself from the meeting.
She prayed to the Spirits that it wouldn’t get to that point, but decades of experience warned her that it was better to be prepared, just in case.
If the government knew just how much Abigail was hiding from them… Catori shook her thoughts away, the table alight as her council immediately changed priorities and were already making plans on what they would do should the Vanzandeeks follow through with their 2-decade threat.
“Chief, what do we tell the Network?” Muna, her elder responsible for coordinating their responses and integrating the village with new technologies asked, concern lighting her expression when Catori didn’t have an immediate response for her.
This revelation affected everyone, and the more time Starfire’s Network had to prepare the better their odds of coming out intact.
“We tell them the truth,” she replied, catching the eyes of her council one by one. “But we wait until Daniel responds and Starfire reaches back out, is that understood?” She asked, her council responding as one.
“Yes, Chief.”
– – –
Walking into a near-empty main room was weird, Ratchet closing up the bridge behind her when she stepped through.
She could still feel the dried tears on her metal, but thankfully Ratchet didn’t pry, instead crossing his arms when he caught her optic.
“How’d it go?” He asked carefully, visibly relaxing when she smiled.
“It went well,” she replied, and genuinely surprised herself at how true her words were.
She wasn’t sure if Starfire wanted her to share the tomb’s existence with the rest of the team, but at least she could say that she felt a whole lot lighter.
She couldn’t find it within her spark to continue being mad at the stubborn, unpredictable flier.
Ratchet nodded, tinkering and adjusting a few things with the bridge panels.
A glance at the human area told her that the team was still out, though that didn’t really surprise her much since Miko was dead set on attending her concert this evening.
What was strange, however, was that she couldn’t find her sparkmate.
“Where’s Optimus?” She asked, Ratchet passing her on his way to the medbay.
The doctor gestured to the lifts, an unreadable look to his optic that set her on edge. “Up top.”
Her smile faded, eyeing the doctor warily. “Why?” She asked slowly, unease lodging in her tanks like a rock when Ratchet didn’t offer a response.
This late in the cycle?
She brushed past him and made her way to the lift, riding it wordlessly and stepped off when she got to the top.
A surprisingly cold wind whipped at her metal, the moon rising high above the Nevada desert and cast shadows streaking across the mountain, and the abandoned human landing platform glinted behind her.
At her first scan she couldn’t spot Optimus, and figured perhaps Ratchet was wrong, and missed him returning, but when she approached the bond she realized the tether was still guiding her up.
Following it she looked heavenward, past the gaping jaws of the cavern that could practically conceal the Nemesis and towards the utter top of their base.
What in Primus’ name was Optimus doing up there?
She recalled the look in his optic that morning before he left for a drive, and though she didn’t push it then she would be damned if she didn’t address it now.
With a final glance around she walked towards the sheer climb, an assent that she normally wouldn’t give the time of day. She faced much worse back on Cybertron, but now she had half a thought to wonder if her stabilizer would be able to hold her weight.
Shrugging, she started to climb, gritting her denta when she slipped half-way up the cliff, digging her digits into the rock and caught herself before gravity took her down.
Just try it-
Phoenix gradually reached the top of the mountain and hauled herself over the lip, lifting her helm and made a mental note to resume training her stabilizer in the morning. This was ridiculous.
She paused, however, when she spotted her sparkmate, gingerly climbing to her peds and frowned when the wind howled around them.
He was just… standing there, his backstruts to her, motionless. She had half a panicked thought to wonder if he was still online, that's how still he was, but the bond would be destroyed if he wasn’t.
“Optimus..?” She asked slowly, peering past him, but she wasn’t able to catch a glimpse of what he was looking at.
Phoenix hesitated, uncertainty warring in her processor and she wondered if she should turn around and give him this privacy, but she was unwilling to leave him, not alone. Not like this.
The wind covered the sound of her pedsteps, but Optimus didn’t appear surprised when she came to stand at his side, acknowledging her only through a flicker in their bond and a twitch of his digits.
She wanted to reach for him so badly, to break this silence between them, but her spark leapt in her throatlines when she followed where he was looking and realized what exactly was under the small pile of rocks at their peds.
Cliffjumper.
Grief and guilt threatened to unsteady her, and her spark was beating so loud she was sure Optimus could hear it over the desert wind and the shining moon.
She let her servo fall back to her side, unable to bring herself to speak, recalling that horrible cycle when Starscream stumbled upon the eccentric Autobot.
It wasn’t supposed to happen.
She had sent the Vehicons away, leaving the energon surfaced and clear for the team to pick up on. She remembered analyzing their patrol patterns, and knew Cliffjumper would be the closest one to finding it in the least amount of time.
She hadn’t seen the team in weeks, and she was looking forward to staging a battle with the mech, allowing him to get away with a generous amount of energon and return to base with a cheerful update and story to tell while she would fend doubt off with a simple shrug and smile.
But then Starscream showed up, and the troopers returned and Primus Almighty everything since has gone horribly wrong.
“Sometimes,” Optimus spoke so quietly she almost didn’t hear him, “I wonder if things could have been resolved another way.” At first she didn’t understand, her ridges furrowing.
From the corner of her optic she watched a gathering of rare storm clouds start to roll in, but her mate didn’t look away from the grave they were standing before.
“Optimus,” she whispered, damning everything and grabbed for his servo. She held on and squeezed it as tightly as she could, her spark fracturing into a million pieces when he hardly reacted.
Primus please…
“I wonder,” he said distantly, a rumble from the storm brewing muffling his words, “if I had simply kept quiet, if I hadn’t so clearly contradicted him in front of the council, then perhaps… perhaps it wouldn’t have come to this.” Lightning snapped across the sky, thunder echoing close and drowned out this confession.
Phoenix didn’t know what to say, her optics darting from her Conjunx to the sky to the grave, and words failed her.
“If I had chosen my words better, then…” It killed her that she couldn’t take away his grief, covering their joined servos with her free one.
“Optimus, you couldn’t have known,” she murmured, silently begging for him to react, for some glimmer of him to shine through the desolate space encroaching within their bond.
She swallowed thickly, shifting closer till they were shoulder to shoulder, praying that her presence and words would be enough. “You cannot blame yourself for the choices he made,” she added softly, and her spark broke all over again when Optimus shook his helm.
“Maybe if I was more careful, if I took the time to look I could have convinced him that war and death was not the answer,” he whispered, but she knew, she knew that even if Optimus had done things differently, Megatron would still have declared war on Cybertron.
“Optimus, don’t forget that I knew him, too,” she breathed, and tightened her grip when memories of before rose to the surface.
She recalled her time in the gladiator training arena, her Sire’s words imbued in her sword and processor. She was young, too young according to her Carrier, but she wanted so desperately to fight, to prove herself worthy of being their sparkling that she enlisted in the Academy and worked her way up through their ranks.
It wasn’t long before recruiters began seeking her out, impressed with her skill and sheer determination to rise above her class and prove her metal, no matter what it took from her to do so.
Her Sire warned about the vipers the arenas produced but she didn’t care, and it was there that she met her first and only other sparkmate, Windstar, a recruiter and a powerful mech in his own right.
Megatron, then Megatronus, was familiar with her not-yet sparkmate, and through her training with him they both came to land on common ground.
Her spark ached remembering both of them that way, before they twisted her, molded her how they saw fit, and a mixture of grief and sharp, blistering pain bubbled up in her throatlines.
Megatron would have waged this war no matter what she, Optimus, or anyone had to say about it, and there wasn’t a single doubt about it in her processor.
The gathered clouds broke open, then, and within seconds they were both drenched from helm to ped, and they both watched as rivets of water snaked through the rocks and no doubt soaked Cliffjumper, too.
Her optics narrowed, and her grief melted away and was quickly replaced with anger, anger at the injustice, anger for the one who was standing stoically at her side. If it wasn’t for him, for her sparkmate and Prime, then Cybertron would have fallen to Megatron eons ago. She would very likely still be a mindless extension of the Warlord’s very will.
Her dark blue optics hardened, lifting her helm above the thundering rain and shifted in front of him, partially blocking his view of the grave.
“This is in no way your fault,” she said above the torrent, narrowing her optics at her sparkmate when he went to protest. No, she wasn’t going to have it, not from the sweetest, kindest, most generous mech she had ever had the sheer fortune of getting to know.
Phoenix brought their joined servos to her spark, letting him feel for himself the conviction of her words through their sparkbond. “Optimus Prime, you were chosen by Primus for a reason,” she said firmly, refusing to allow him to doubt himself, doubt this team, the Autobots. They rose up to follow him, and him alone. She was standing here, on this rain-drenched mountain, healing, because of him.
And through everything, through her bloody history and unstable past, he chose her. He was pure, and just, and kind, and this war was not his fault.
It was Megatron’s, and she believed this war was a facet in time, and so instrumental for their planet that it had to happen.
“The Autobots chose to follow you,” she continued, “because you are the one mech who can inspire the hopeless, motivate the defeated, and rally the masses to rise in the face of utter and remarkable evil.” Her sparkbeat pounded against her chassis, knowing she was once the very evil she spoke of, but she didn’t care. She needed him to know this, pressing his black servo against the rain-slicked red of her frame.
“I choose you too, Optimus. From now until we become One with the Allspark,” she declared, and just so she knew he heard her she repeated herself through their sparkbond. The sacred tether joining them until the cycle they both went offline, because she knew that where he went, she would follow. She couldn’t bear living in a plane of existence without Optimus by her side.
He was hers, and by the Allspark she was not going to let anyone or thing take what belonged to her. Not even Optimus himself, damnit.
He slowly brought his other servo up to cup her cheekplate, brushing his thumb along her metal, and she closed her optics and leaned into his touch, bringing her free one up to cover his. She had craved connection, didn’t realize how starved she was for it in the Decepticon ranks until this team touched her without immediately following with pain.
For the first time since the war began, this team proved that she could let her guard down, and by Primus she was not going to take it for granted ever again.
“Phoenix.” She opened her optics at his quiet vocals, his servo to her spark feeling every beat, grounding him to the present. She chose to believe that it was only rain on his cheekplates, her optics softening as she smiled up at him.
He helped pick up her broken pieces and hold her together until she could begin to repair herself. The least she could do was offer to do the same for him.
Optimus leaned down, brushing his forehelm to hers as he closed his optics. Slowly, she felt his end of their bond ease, the taught tension she hadn’t even realized was there gradually dissolving until the only thing remaining was soft, simple gratitude and love.
She tilted her helm and brushed her derma against his, and when he didn’t pull away removed her servo from her cheek and threaded her arm around his neck.
She held him close, lowering the walls of their bond completely, baring herself to him entirely as the thunder and rain acted as a barrier between them and the rest of the world.
Their kiss was slow, reassuring, proving to them both that neither of them would have to face anything alone, ever again.
When he finally pulled away she opened her optics, and the sheer joy and relief that hit her when he smiled threatened to turn her kneeplates to jelly.
Thank the Allspark…
Optimus laughed softly, leaning down for another kiss and brought his arm from her cheek to her hips, pulling her in close, their joined servos on her spark a reminder and a sworn promise.
She was his, and he was hers, and together nothing in this Universe could get between them.
She chose him, all of him, until they were both One with the Allspark.
– – –
It had been several hours since Ironfoot had instructed Magnablade to tear apart Arachnid’s service records, time the rest of them spent in an odd sort of limbo.
Magnablade had rejoined the squadron for their patrol, shrugging when asked and simply stated that his programs were running and there was very little he could actually do until they produced something.
The squadron had kept their questions to themselves, and Steelheart was relieved. She wasn’t opposed to sharing information with them, but the uncertainty surrounding this situation was far more dangerous than usual. The less they knew the safer they would be, and Ironfoot agreed.
While they flew they had picked up on the Lieutenant’s signal hovering around the eastern continent, but Ironfoot had refused to deviate their squadron from their patrol trajectory.
Whatever Starfire was up to was none of their concern for right now, not when they were still unaware about what exactly her intentions were.
“My intentions are to survive,” Starfire had submitted a snippet of her conversation with Optimus Prime to Soundwave, as further evidence on how she had gotten the Autobots to trust her so completely that they would expose their own outpost to her.
Even still, it was no secret that her survival may very well mean their undoing.
For now, they just had to watch and wait for Magnablade’s programs to operate, and simply hope that Starfire wouldn’t find out in the process.
– – –
Neither she or Jack spoke for what felt like ages, the young man directing the drill with a laser focus that she felt bad for disturbing.
But she had questions, and was bored with nothing to do. “So that was…?” She said slowly, Jack hardly looking at her as he drilled into a nearby wall.
“Megatron.”
Noted. “He’s the one who…?”
“Yes.”
He is the one responsible for the whole entire war, and Jack’s words continued to pace around her aching skull while he drove.
“Well? What are you waiting for? Think of the glory! Seize the day! Optimus would.”
“No, he wouldn’t. Not like this.”
The steady confidence of Jack’s voice, the note of sadness and sheer determination was something she was going to sit on for a while, long after they managed to dig themselves out of this mess.
He had a clear shot and didn’t take it.
Hazel didn’t know if she would have, either.
Jack turned their drill down towards another wall, easing them into a secondary cavern that continued to go on for what felt like miles.
She really hoped they found Arcee or Bulkhead before their oxygen ran out.
“Hazel?” Jack said after another long silence, steadying his footing when the drill hit a snag. She shifted and braced a hand against the screen until they got past the rough patch.
“Yeah, Jack?” She prompted once they broke through, lifting her face but wasn’t able to read his expression.
Her stomach churned uneasily.
Jack slowed the drill to a dull roar, shifting slightly to face her. “What were you going to say to him?” He asked, and elaborated at her confusion, “when you were chewing out Megatron.”
Oh.
Clarity hit her like a trainwreck, taking her lower lip in between her teeth.
What was she going to say to him?
She wanted to scream at him for how stupid he was, and how angry she was that he had single handedly prevented her from going home, and for causing this whole mess to begin with. If they had killed him it would have been his own damn fault for being so damn stupid.
Jack narrowed his eyes at her silence. “The more we give him to work with, the more powerful he becomes,” he murmured, kneeling so they were eye level. “We cannot afford to lose our cool in his presence.”
She nodded wordlessly, her heart hammering against her chest when the boy stood, reactivating the drill and carried on their way.
Whatever it was that she was going to say, to scream at the titan buried in the rock, Jack was right to shut her up.
Hazel feared she still had a lot to learn when it came to the workings of this war.
“Megatron will not hesitate to use us against the bots,” he said over the roar of the drill. “It’s our job not to give him the opportunity.”
Hazel frowned. “Is that why you left him alive?”
Jack flinched, and she regretted asking.
They rode on in silence, each of them acutely aware of the Megatron sized threat lurking in the shadows, though neither of them brought it up and she wisely kept her mouth shut as long as she could.
That was, until a resounding bang reached her ears and haphazardly waved for Jack to stop as she scrambled to her feet.
“Do you hear that?” She blurted, twisting her head to peer over the top of the drill. Jack paused, slowing and subsequently quieting the machine.
Bang.
Bang.
“There it is again,” she insisted, ignoring Jack’s frown and obvious uncertainty. She turned to look at him, the boy merely shrugging before turning the drill in the direction she was pointing in.
She could be wrong, her father warned that cave systems had a way of distorting sound, but it was better than drilling around idly waiting for Megatron to dig himself free.
They had only been drilling in that direction for a minute before a loud crash and a scattering of dust and rock pelted their drill, Jack and Hazel sharing an alarmed look before wordlessly picking up speed in the direction of the rock slide.
Jack pushed the drill to its limits, lurching when they broke out into a long, untouched cavern, though the cause of the cave-in still remained hidden from their sight.
“Quiet the drill, maybe we can hear something else,” she said, Jack pushing the levers away from him and slowed the drill to a halt, both of them straining against the sudden silence in the hopes they could make out where to go next.
Hazel frowned when a shrill echo floated down the hall, tugging on Jack’s sleeve and pointed.
Jack furrowed his brow but waited at her insistence, his eyes slowly widening as more and more words reached them through the cave.
“That’s it, Autobot! I will-!” That sure didn’t sound like a friend, nevermind the fact that there was no way an Autobot would be addressing their team in that manner. His voice was too screechy and irritating to have come from one of the bots.
“What? You’ll what?! Make me bring down the ceiling on top of all of us?” There was a brief pause, but Jack was already powering the drill and making a beeline for where the voices were coming from.
“Run Miko!”
“Who is that?” She asked, having had barely a second to get steady before Jack was powering them through the cave, a determined frown fixated on his face.
“Starscream. And if Bulkhead is telling Miko to run then we need to get there, fast,” he said grimly, and not a moment later he began drilling into the closest wall in the approximate direction the voices were coming from.
Hazel frowned but didn’t say anything, keeping her head down to avoid any potential falling rocks as the boy rapidly began tunneling their way into the fight.
“Yes, run Miko.” Starscream taunted, Hazel gritting her teeth at his screechy tone. “I would love to see you try! Really, I would!” Ok, this Starscream person was seriously beginning to tick her off, aggravating her headache and everything, and not a moment later they broke through the wall and sent the Decepticon towering over their friends flying into the back of the cavern.
She winced when they barely missed Bulkhead, who, upon inspection, appeared to be holding the weight of the world above his head.
Holding the rocks above from crushing the young girl at his feet, preventing him from properly defending her from Starscream’s taunts.
“Jack, get Miko out of here, now!” Bulkhead ordered as soon as he saw who was commanding the drill, Jack abandoning the controls and leapt down to the tread next to where said girl was hesitating.
He held out a hand the way he did for her earlier, stretching himself down as Miko turned fearful eyes back to her guardian, Bulkhead straining against the ceiling weighing down on him. They had minutes, at most, before his arms gave out. She could hear his metal creaking and straining and had half a second to worry about his fate.
“Come on, come on!” Jack urged, but the young girl still hesitated, unwilling to leave her guardian at the mercy of Starscream.
“Run, Miko!” Bulkhead snapped, his arms buckling and threatening to drag the ceiling down on top of them all.
Hazel hauled herself over to the edge of the drill, ignoring the pain in her ankle, and her heart broke for Miko when she saw her, the young girl crying and was locked in a mental battle between her loyalty to her guardian and her own self-preservation. Miko’s lip quivered when she turned away from Bulkhead, tears streaming down her cheeks.
Jack’s hand was still outstretched, the young man pleading for her to take it.
“Miko, take Jack’s hand,” she called down, watching the tears pool and fall when she finally extended an arm to grab Jack’s.
The whole thing took not even 30 seconds, but Hazel had little doubt that to Miko it felt like an eternity.
He hauled her up onto the tread, immediately climbing back up to the controls while Hazel made her way down to where Miko was sitting, crying. “We can’t leave Bulkhead,” she sobbed, watching her guardian through tears and looked up when Hazel knelt down next to her.
She wrapped an arm around the girl to hold her steady as Jack restarted the drill and quickly backed them out, rocks falling in their wake and very nearly took Starscream out again.
Hazel held Miko as she caught her breath, looking up at Jack when he forwarded the drill and pointed them back towards the main cavern they had left.
“Arcee will save him, won’t she?” Miko breathed, rising to her feet when Jack spared them a glance.
Hazel had half a thought to urger her back down, she was clearly worse for wear than she was and the sudden oxygen flow had to be overwhelming, rising up beside the young girl.
“We just need to find a way out of here before Megatron digs himself free,” he said firmly, Miko gasping and grabbed Hazel to steady herself against the drill’s aftershocks.
“Megatron’s here too?!”
Yeah, unfortunately, he was.
Jack didn’t say anything, redirecting his attention to the drill and the task of getting them as far away from Starscream as they could get.
Which, as luck would have it, was not far in the slightest, the cavern shaking in response to quick, steady footsteps.
Jack ran to the edge of the control panel and gasped, Miko helping her to the side of the tread so they could make out what the problem was for themselves.
Hazel silently prayed that it just wasn’t Megatron. That was the last thing they needed, and with Bulkhead tied up the way he was and no sign of Arcee, then she did not want to calculate the odds of their survival against the Decepticon Leader.
Fortunately for them, however, it was not Megatron, Miko’s relief evident in the way her shoulders slumped.
Arcee lowered her blaster at the sight of the children, their relief mirrored on her metal when she ran over to them. “Are you all alright?” She asked quickly, examining the three of them and Hazel waved her off when her gaze snagged on her ankle.
She would be fine, it was Bulkhead they needed to worry about.
“Bulkhead’s in there alone with Starscream,” Jack reported quickly, Arcee nodding and helped the three of them down from the drill.
“Stay behind me,” she ordered, quickly moving on ahead while Miko and Jack helped her limp over to the gap in the wall their drill had made.
They kept quiet as Starscream taunted Bulkhead, as they stopped near the gap and leaned over to watch as Arcee approached the Decepticon, and Hazel felt a sincere sense of satisfaction at the look that appeared on Starscream's face when he heard Arcee’s blaster arm, watching him turn around only to realize he was outgunned.
“Don’t move, Starscream.” The Autobot’s voice was cold and void of patience, keeping her weapon trained on the Decepticon as she glanced behind him to their teammate, and Miko’s guardian. “Hey Bulk.”
The green Autobot smiled, still struggling with the weight of the mountain above them. “Hey, ‘Cee.”
Miko wiped at her eyes, leaning on Hazel as much as Hazel was leaning on her.
Arcee’s smile vanished as soon as she redirected her attention to the Decepticon at the end of her weapon. “Raise your hands.”
Starscream tried to resist, to move away from her blaster or get any sort of leverage or leeway from the Autobot, but Hazel simply smiled gleefully when he whined and had no other choice but to comply.
Miko breathed out a huge sigh of relief when it became clear that her guardian was safe, that help had arrived and they could finally, finally get the hell out of this stripped mine.
What a day this had become.
– – –
The early morning sun was streaming down through the trees when they finally managed to get out of the mine, and Hazel could hardly believe they had spent all night trapped down there.
Really put a whole bunch of things into perspective, considering the matter of calling her parents had been taken out of her hands entirely.
She sighed, scooting out of Bulkhead’s passenger seat alongside Miko when they pulled to a stop not that far from the entrance to the mine.
She wobbled when the mech transformed, Miko quickly offering her arm for support.
The Autobots and their charges turned back to stare at the cave-in, the weight of the world resting down on the Decepticons beneath.
“We could finish them, here and now,” Arcee mused, coming to stand next to the green Autobot while she and Miko limped over.
Bulkhead slammed his fists together, his metal glinting against the morning sun. “Shame we didn’t bring any grenades.”
Yeah, remind her never to get on their bad sides? Please? Thanks.
Jack frowned, glancing at the bots above their heads. “Would Optimus, finish them..?” He asked quietly, and for the first time since he made the decision to spare Megatron Hazel picked out a note of confliction colouring his voice.
He chose to spare the leader of the enemy. That’s gotta be quite a hefty burden to carry.
The Autobots were silent as they contemplated his words, Arcee slowly shaking her head. “No, he probably wouldn’t. Not like this,” she said after a moment, and at once Hazel saw the weight lift slightly off of Jack’s shoulders.
It wasn’t like she wasn’t right there and could have made the decision to kill him herself. Hearing that Optimus wouldn’t condemn Jack for the choices he made was likely a massive boon for the young man.
“But Optimus wouldn’t rescue them either, right?” Miko asked slowly, Bulkhead sighing and turned, moving away from the cave-in and the two leaders of the Decepticons.
“Let’s go home.”
They called for a bridge and within moments one was spinning away right where it had dropped them off yesterday, and Hazel felt herself grimace as she remembered all over again just how much she hated bridge travel.
If she got a headache this time she was gonna break something-
Miko helped her limp through the portal behind the bots, the five of them stepping clear into the main room devoid of most life, excluding Ratchet himself.
Surprisingly, Bridget wasn’t already leaping down the stairs to greet her.
Her stomach flipped, and if she wasn’t so determined not to throw up the remnants of yesterday’s breakfast she likely would have heaved right there on the floor.
Fortunately for all of them, especially Miko who was helping her away from the bridge, Hazel managed to keep the contents of her stomach contained.
Bridget was fine and this was just the aftershocks of bridge travel. That’s all this was.
The doctor was giving them an odd look, closing the bridge down behind them as Miko helped her hobble to the metal stairs. “What happened?” He frowned. “You were supposed to call for a bridge hours ago.” Yeah, tell her about it. She would have taken the concert over dealing with the Decepticons any day.
“Where’s Phoenix?” She asked instead, the doctor gesturing absently down towards the back of base as she and Miko reached the foot of the stairs, and was clearly still waiting for a response.
Miko scowled at the ground at the reminder of what she just missed, shaking her head and slumped down on the stairs right next to Hazel. Let the bots explain what happened, she was far too tired to care at this point, and she had a suspicion Miko felt the same.
Jack frowned, coming up to stand over the two of them. “I’m gonna call my mom,” he said after a moment, eyeing her wrapped ankle warily. After who knows how many hours she just spent walking on it, having the nurse take a look was probably a sound idea.
Her white cardigan was thoroughly and completely stained, and was going into the garbage once this was all said and done.
While he stepped to the side to make the call the two Autobots exchanged a glance, and wordlessly the green Autobot shook his head and ambled over in the general direction of the med bay. At the very least his arms should be looked over, if the way they were shaking was any indication, leaving Arcee to fill the doctor in from her version of events.
Ratchet’s expression grew more and more concerned the longer the two-wheeler spoke, and by the time she was finished June was calling base for a bridge.
One was opened for her and as soon as the nurse drove through and exited her car she made a beeline for the two girls sitting on the metal stairs. Ratchet spared her only a glance, in the process of examining Arcee before he left to check on Bulkhead.
Jack had returned after his call and was sitting on the floor at their feet, turning tired eyes up to his mother when June ran up to them.
“We’re fine, mom,” he insisted, but his words were punctuated with a yawn and a tired rub of his eyes.
The nurse frowned, setting her bag down and Hazel immediately felt like squirming under her piercing stare. “I’ll be the judge of that, Jack,” she replied, gently nudging her son out of the way and knelt down in front of the two girls. Miko was practically asleep on her shoulder, hardly stirring when June began unbandaging Hazel’s ankle.
She winced at the discolouration, muttering under her breath and quickly began her examination, sparing a glance up when Arcee sat on the crates next to the stairs, having been dismissed from Ratchet’s care.
“I thought you guys were going to a concert.” The nurse directed her question to the blue Autobot, her hands gentle as she pressed her fingers against her ankle, and murmured an apology when Hazel hissed and flinched away.
“That was the plan, mom,” Jack sighed, resting his head on his knuckles as he watched her work.
They were all covered in an unruly amount of dust, dirt and grime, and from the furrow in June’s expression she knew the nurse was far from pleased about this turn of events, less so when Arcee explained about the cause of the cave-in.
“These children were brought face to face with Megatron?” She demanded, digging through her bag for the tensor bandages she brought with her. “You were supposed to be keeping them safe!”
Arcee bristled, but Hazel spoke and sat up before the blue Autobot could bite out a retort. “She did, June,” she murmured, honestly too tired to be putting up much of a fight, but she was going to make damn well sure June knew that they owed their lives to the blue warrior.
Hazel explained how quickly Arcee assessed the situation, how she stood her ground and got both her and Jack out of the line of fire and protected them from Starscream, saving Bulkhead in the process. “And besides, she was the voice of reason through the entire evening,” she added. Miko barely stirred. Hazel smiled at her temporary guardian. “Arcee did her best and got us out of there alive.”
As much as she would have rathered none of it happened in the first place, she was just glad that they had the team there with them when it did.
The nurse frowned, carefully wrapping her ankle with the bandage. “I see,” she said, sitting back and sighed when she took in the sight of the three of them. “Thank you, Arcee,” she added quietly, and the Autobot only nodded.
June sighed, packing up her things and shook her head. “The three of you are coming to my house today,” she declared finally, rising to her feet and gathered Hazel’s cardigan in her arms.
Hazel elbowed Miko, the girl stirring from her power nap and gingerly rubbed her eyes. June smiled gently. “We can return to base this evening, but you three could do with a shower and a long sleep.”
Sleep sounded absolutely marvelous right about now.
Hazel nodded and gingerly pushed herself to her feet, Jack offering her an arm as Miko climbed up to hers. She frowned. “June? Is Bridget-?”
The nurse nodded, placing a hand on Miko’s shoulder and began guiding them to her sedan. “She’s at the house. Ratchet called me when I was off work and practically begged me to come pick her up.” Hazel rolled her eyes as she limped to the car, shaking her head with a sigh.
Of course Ratchet would get sick of her dog, but unfortunately for him Bridget was coming right back this evening, and he wouldn’t be able to get rid of them so easily tonight. Grr.
“I’ll be at the house shortly,” Arcee said to June, rising from her spot on the crates and grimaced when she took in her dusty and filthy frame. “I need to make a stop at the washracks.”
June nodded, helping the three of them into the back and opened the door to the driver seat. “Take your time, Arcee. You deserve to get some rest, too.”
The two-wheeler smiled, nodding when the nurse climbed in and started the drive back to their house.
Hazel sighed, slumping against the window as they left the base. A weight felt like it had been lifted from her while June drove, Miko once again passed out on her shoulder as she stared out the clear glass.
At least she didn’t have to worry about lying to her parents anymore. The deadline had come and gone and so now she would just wait to see what they would do, but so long as she was in the care of the Autobots then things would work themselves out.
Hazel closed her eyes and quickly fell into a deep, much needed sleep, and figured she would deal with things tomorrow.
– – –