Yikes!! Please let BB have a malfunction, nooooooooo Ratchet!! not Ratchet and Arcee!! OH NOES!! For Optimus, he should change his call..from Let's Roll to Let's Fly!!! Go Prime ..and the first bot he takes out is Starscream, can't fly without your wings Poor Skids and Mudflap..."Processor Challenged" good one!! As usual, a good update..was worried it was going to be a mushy one..glad you got to the fighting, you know what Autobots and Decepticons do best!! ....and we know and love them for it!!
Ratchet and Arcee? Gone? AW crap. This seems very similar to Beast Machines and War for Cybertron, if you ask me.
I have just read the next chapter Black Oracle and it seems very dark and bleek. Ratchet and Bumblebee gone. Oh no! what will the Autobots do now
kick ass as always black orcale i hope arcee and ratchet are okay the autobots can't lose anymore warriors.
Chopperface, good observation about the similarity of this multi-part story to BW and WfC! I'm afraid you're all going to have to endure alot more emotional turmoil in this chapter, folks. I'm not holding back! The remaining Autobots are determined to finish their mission to find and destroy the Decepticon clone hatchery, but the price is going to rise even higher. With the mounting losses, will any of the Autobots survive? Just a reminder for any new readers, all the first person narrative chapters and segments of this fic are coming from Optimus Prime's POV. One more chapter to go after this one to finish these "Dystopia'" chapters! Bet some of you have already roughly guessed what has been going on so far in these chapters. But can anyone guess where it's all leading to? Chapter 19: Dystopia – Part 4 "Their…their energy signatures are gone…" I, Elita and Sideswipe stare at Bumblebee speechlessly after he reports his internal check on Ratchet and Arcee, none of us willing to accept the meaning of his words. "They've…gone offline…," Bumblebee announces heavily, "They didn't even make it to the hatchery…" Sideswipe's hand flies to the in-built com-link on the side of his head. "Ratchet, Arcee, come in!" he barks. He is still for about five kilks as he listens intently to the sound of emptiness. Elita and Bumblebee lower their heads hopelessly. Elita's hand rises slowly over her spark. "Ratchet, Arcee!" Sideswipe demands again. Nothing. "NOO!" he roars suddenly, his hands clenching into fists. His head swings manically from side to side. "Sister..." I hear Elita moan quietly. My head drops. Ratchet and Arcee… Then Sideswipe snaps his head back toward us, a driven determination on his face. "This is not over yet!" he declares angrily, "We're going in instead!" Without warning, he speeds off toward the citadel. Elita's head snaps up urgently to him. "Sideswipe, wait!" Elita calls out. Suddenly the sounds of whirring gears cause us all to look back at the battlefield behind us. Some of the intact Decepticon drones are rising to their feet again. "Head for the citadel! Quickly!" Bumblebee directs, pointing to the ominous structure. Without question, we follow behind Sideswipe as he makes for the open citadel doors. The slow and steady footsteps of the reactivating drones follow behind us in turn. We hear the charging of their firearm weapons. Sideswipe, Elita and I enter a long corridor as we run into the citadel, but Bumblebee suddenly pauses at the entrance. I stop and turn back to him, observing him standing to one side of the entranceway. His hand is held over something on the outside wall. He looks at us with a solemn but smiling hue in his cyan optics. "Bumblebee?" I ask tentatively, "What are you doing?" He glances over his shoulder at the advancing drones then turns back to me with a gentle expression. "I'm glad I got to see you alive once more, Optimus. See you on the other side." He slams his hand onto the outside wall and the citadel doors abruptly slide shut, blocking him from us. I rush forward to the shut doors and begin to press against them. They will not budge. "Bumblebee! No! NO!" I cry. Elita runs beside me and makes a brief attempt to push the doors open as well, but they do not move. Sideswipe watches us wordlessly. Elita stops and looks to me in resignation. "He's...he's jammed the doors from the outside," she announces despairingly, "He's preventing the drones from following us." "We cannot leave him behind!" I declare. The sound of laser-fire and Bumblebee's cry of pain from beyond the shut doors hits our audios then. There is a crash as a body falls... "BUMBLEBEE!" I roar. My body seems to go numb with dread… I bring my arm back, preparing to knock down the doors...but a silver hand on my fist stops me. "Optimus, don't!" Sideswipe orders, "Bumblebee's just sacrificed himself to give us a chance in here! Don't waste his sacrifice! We have to find the clone hatchery!" I throw his restraining hand off mine and bear down on him with the full intensity of my heated glare, momentarily succumbing to anger. Bumblebee is dying outside and he is telling me to abandon him! Then I notice that he is trembling, from anger or grief I cannot tell, perhaps both. My anger dissipates quickly. Then Elita slowly approaches me as well. "Sideswipe is right, Optimus," she heavily agrees, "Our comrades will have died in vain if we do not accomplish the mission. There's nothing more we can do for Bumblebee now." I look down at them both in undisguised despair. An expression of grim determination hides Sideswipe's grief and anger. Elita silently pleads to me to stay with them. With an intake and expelling of air, I relent to them. My shoulders fall. I nod reluctantly. Sideswipe turns and begins to lead the way down the corridor. "Come on," he tonelessly beckons without looking back at us. Elita touches my arm briefly, a subtle encouragement, then slowly follows after Sideswipe. I glance back once more at the shut doors then tear myself away to follow my last two remaining comrades. The Twins, Ratchet, Arcee and now Bumblebee... How could we have lost them all so suddenly? We reach the end of the corridor and enter a great hall. Ahead of us on the opposite wall are the doors of an elevator. Sideswipe comes to a stop at them and from his arm brings up a small holographic map flashing the coordinates of the clone hatchery. "We're directly above it!" he announces, "We just need to take the elevator shaft down and..." The sound of running footsteps alerts us. We look behind us to see a group of Decepticon drones charging toward us. These drones are of a different type to the ones we encountered outside though. They are armed with metal lances that serve as their right arms and rectangular energy shields in their left hands. "Get those elevator doors open!" Sideswipe orders to us. Before we can stop him, he takes off toward the charging drones, arm blades at the ready. I turn quickly to Elita. "Do as he says!" I instruct her, "I will assist him." Elita moves to study a number pad on the wall beside the elevator. She raises a hand toward it and plugs a few wires from her wrist into it, attempting to break the security code requirement. I face the drones and begin summoning my internal energies again. The familiar heat spreads through my systems, illuminating my body with veins of blue energy. To one side, I spot Sideswipe clashing his blades with the lances of two drones simultaneously. I hold my hands out, sending out my telekinetic energies to seize hold of most of the drones in the hall. With the rise of my hands, I lift the drones up into the air. I slowly curl my fingers into fists, feeling the armour of the levitating drones buckling under the compression of my invisible powers. Steadily and with concentration, I crush the bodies of my captive drones with my telekinetic energies. Then I drop their disfigured bodies noisily onto the floor. As my internal energies settle again, I feel a mild weariness from my exertions. I place a hand over my forehead. My head feels quite heavy. "AGGHHH!" I am snapped out of my tiredness by a pained cry from Sideswipe. I look to where I last saw him. I freeze. "Sideswipe! NO!" I hear Elita call, petrified. He has been impaled through his abdomen by the lance of one of the drones. It has run straight through him, emerging from his back. But one of Sideswipe's arm blades also has impaled the drone through its abdomen and it has already been deactivated. Sideswipe takes hold of the drone's weapon arm and pulls it out of himself with a pained grunt. A gaping hole in his body is exposed. The deactivated drone slides down onto the floor. Sideswipe falls to his knees then collapses sideways onto the floor as well. Elita and I rush over to him. Our feet are stained by the pool of leaking energon spreading from underneath Sideswipe's body. Fear rises in me as I realise that he has likely been mortally wounded. Kneeling in front of his sideways body into his pooling energon, I gently lift Sideswipe's head up in my palm. "Hold on, Sideswipe," I plead. He gazes upwards away from me, a distant look in his dark blue optics. "Sun…," he murmurs. I stare at him intently, not understanding. An unusual expression of joy lights up his face as he continues to look up away from me at something. "Sun…streaker…," he clarifies, his voice quivering, from happiness or weakness I am unable to discern. A wide smile that I have not seen since his early days with his twin brother spreads across his mouth. "Can you see him, Optimus?... He's beautiful…" With those last words, Sideswipe shuts down. His head lies dark and still in my hand. I begin to sway my head slowly from side to side. This cannot be happening… But it is… I lower Sideswipe's head back down onto the energon-stained floor. From the corner of my vision, I am barely aware of Elita's head falling, her azure optics dimming to their darkest shade possible. My gaze focuses down upon my energon-stained hands. I lose myself in them. "Is this my destiny?" I hear myself uttering tonelessly, "Always to be the last? The last of the Primes, and now the last of the Autobots… My existence is cursed…" Elita's hands reach for and grasp mine. I raise my gaze to hers. "I'm still here with you, my love," she quivers. I do not register the emotion on her face, only that she is still functional, still alive before me…the only one left…my sole companion… I cannot lose her like everyone else… I seize her in my arms and hold her tightly against me. "Stay with me, beloved…," I plead. Her fingers reach up to my face. Her optics seek comfort from mine and offer it simultaneously. Her lips part to say something, but words fail her. We are shocked from our grief and despair suddenly as we come under heavy fire. Several lines of laser fire narrowly pass around us. Then one hits me in the shoulder, penetrating the armour. Small sparks immediately pour out from burnt circuitry. "Ugh!" I release Elita from my arms and clutch my damaged shoulder instinctively. Glancing behind me, I see more Decepticon drones coming into the hall and firing short-range guns at us. Elita quickly points back toward the now open elevator. "This way! Into the elevator!" she orders. I rise to my feet, my lower legs and hands stained with Sideswipe's energon. We run toward the elevator. Running beside Elita, I attempt to cover her from the rain of laser fire following us. I am hit a second time in the side at my waist. I grunt in discomfort but ignore it. We finally make it into the elevator and the doors shut behind us, cutting off the laser fire. The elevator begins to travel downwards. Leaning back onto its metal wall, I place a hand over the second wound in my side. I can feel some exposed internal wiring crackling and spurting a few sparks. Elita moves toward me in concern. "Optimus, are you alright?" she asks. "Just moderate damage," I reassure her, "I can still function." She nods, slightly relieved. "We should be heading down toward the clone hatchery now," she informs, "We will be able to complete the mission. The others will not have perished for nothing."
Aw HELL no. Whoa, this is like Beast Machines Endgame... Prime/Primal is going to be the last TF on Cybertron to fight Megatron... Oh dear. Sideswipe... is Silverbolt! Bumblebee is Cheetor, Elita is like Blackarachnia in love with Prime, Ratchet could be almost Rattrap... can't figure out Arcee or the Twins... Starscream could be Obsidian/Thrust, the drones are the Vehicons... Wow. mental breakthrough.
Good chapter..but I'm not buying that a bunch of drones can take out the Autobots.. just refuse to buy it, sorry, but THEY are tougher than that.. and Prime should use his "powers" to get the fallen Autobots to safety and for a much more aggressive defense. B_O don't know why you're making the Autobots a bunch of weaklings.. but hopefully this too will be a dream..needs to be a nightmare Guess I'm just surprised with the very negative turn of events here.. maybe you are one of those Decepticon fans and feel THEY need to win one.. but at least for me..the good guys should always win, otherwise what's the point???? I know its a fictional story and can go either way..as the writer chooses..but if Fanfiction is a place for the Decepticons to win, then I don't need to read it..but if we're out to have an epic battle, losses on both sides and a somewhat positive ending, then I'll keep reading and hoping this is just a cliffhanger, with some good stuff to come...Just my humble Ok, rant over..at least for now.. you see--you did stir some emotions
it is a nightmare MPL it's a possible future optimus is dreaming or in stasis lock. BO excellent as always the ending should be awesome!
^^^ I hear ya, but we don't have confirmation that it's a dream.. B_O likes to mess with us and get us stirred up, well for this chicky, Mission Accomplished, I'm shaken and stirred up ... which reminds me, I need a martini!!
Wowsas, seems i may be driving some of you to your limits. Mission accomplished indeed! Many of you have been very warm with your early guesses about all this. mpl, hang on until next chapter and an answer to all this 'unbelievability' will be presented... dum dum duuuum!
See what you've done to us, B_O.. we're taking to the drink.. OMgosh!! Ano---Red or White..or something in between?? (You know how I love my Autobots...I just can't take much more..agggghhh!!)
Uh oh, i'm encouraging alcoholism. Not quite what i intended to do to you two. Not too much ladies. You should be sober for the next chapter!
Oh, see there you go.. Promises, promises Okay, I'm holding on..but hurry, all my fingernails are broken from hanging on these cliffs!
There are no words to discribe the feeling about these events. After I read it this morning I just grabbed a number of tissues and bawled. BTW-Keep up the good work.
I know I'm double posting but, I have to agree with Jgoss that this is a total nightmare. Could this be an alternate reality for Optimus or is he dreaming, i just hope its still a dream, we can only hope
