(( OOC: This is a joint post between Phoenix and me. There's a lot going on that we wanted to cover without interruptions so it's quite lengthy as we spent a lot of time on it, but read carefully and respond to anything you want with your characters accordingly. ))
"You didn't see it? I saw that white mare of yours explode missiles in thin air. Could she always do that? Or was that just a fluke?"
"I got no idea," Rattrap had told Blackarachnia before he rolled out.
"Yer probably just hallucinatin'. Tarantulas has control over yer mind again."
"Don't tell me you want to get all heroic and fight off grapeface?"
"I ain't stupid enough to go mano e mano with him, dat's Optimus's job. I prefer sniper attacks from afar," the dragster rodent hollered back at her as he had pulled away, driving toward Ironclaw at the moment to lend him some back up...
-----
Zodiac was pleased to find that Optimus was still distracted, this time with firing at Megatron. No doubt he was attempting to protect his precious girlfriend, the white mare that the shapeshifter had grown to despise. His dedication to her would be the end of him, the pretender would see to that.
His shoulder cannons, a trait he had copied off Primal's mentor, popped into place and within a split second they had fired at the Maximal's backside.
"You never learn," the shapeshifter accused as he fired a second shot at his foe.
"Kind of ironic, in a sense, that you turned out to be so much like Nexus."
-----
There was a sudden pressure and sense of heat that Optimus felt impacting his backside which was exposed while using his turrets on Megatron. Zodiac's shot pushed him forward, automatically retracting his "back pack" weapon as he used his hands to brace his fall, landing on his knees and palms in the snow. Instead of growing angry at the shapeshifter's words, a small smirk appeared across his mouth, hidden from Zodiac at the moment. He rolled to the side, avoiding the second shot that he predicted was coming after the first comment he made.
We always learn from our mistakes, he thought bitterly to himself and the voice in his head. He immediately got to his feet and stood defiantly, glaring at the pretender while his back ached and his chest continued to slowly seep blood from the slashes Zodiac happily gave him earlier.
His optics glanced at the shoulder cannons Zodiac had just used, recognizing who he stole them from... Nexus. His hands at his sides balled tightly into fists.
He's using those on purpose, Primal complained to the whisper.
Of course he is! He wants to intimidate you and make you weak. So what are you going to do about it?
-----
The mischievous trickster could not help but notice the glare Optimus was giving him, a fact that brought about the all-too-familiar smirk. It pleased him so to bring his foe pain and it was obvious from Primal's reaction that he recognized the cannons Zodiac had just used to shoot him with.
"Your mentor always did have a fine attention to detail. Remember when he had these upgraded?" He let the question linger for a moment.
"Oh that's right, you don't remember much about that time in your life. Almost a little convenient, don't you think?"
His smirk suddenly dropped as he took a step closer, his cannons following Primal's every move.
"He put up a good fight, you know, for his age and all."
-----
Zodiac was incredibly cruel with his words. More so than Megatron had ever been. And he absolutely despised that smug smirk of his. Unlike Megatron's firepower which could easily penetrate his armor and damage him, Zodiac's words infiltrated his emotions, which were incredibly raw and vulnerable while he watched his mentor's cannons follow him. He was boiling inside.
"What did you do to him?" he inquired with a tone as cold as the blustery air around them.
-----
The pretender merely crossed his arms, briefly testing the strength in his newly re-attached wrist and finding it to be adequate.
"Now this conversation is starting to sound familiar.. Of course this time we are on more equal terms. Well.. as far as equal goes between you and me." A hint of a smile showed at the corner of his mouth.
"Nexus is still around.." He fired another blast from his cannons, deliberately aiming it at the ground right next to Optimus.
"Well.. parts of him anyway." He chuckled briefly at his own joke.
-----
Shards and debris of rock and snow sprayed into the air right beside Primal's feet since his own voice in his head told him,
Don't move! He stood his ground and hardly flinched, maintaining his glare while his mind briefly envisioned Nexus from his memory.
"Considering how obsessed you are with taking my life and everyone else's, I can only assume one outcome for someone who meant everything to me. But, for your sake, you better tell me the truth. You better tell me that he's being held captive. Did you kill Nexus Prime?! Tell me!" he snarled, licking the scar across his mouth. He wanted to know but he was not prepared to handle it.
-----
Zodiac tilted his head to the side, staring at Optimus with a look that almost seemed filled with sorrow for a moment. Almost. The moment passed, however, and the pretender spoke up again.
"I didn't kill Nexus Prime," he said with the utmost conviction, taking another step closer as he spoke. As soon as his words had come out or perhaps even a moment before, his facial features started changing to that of Optimus. The old Optimus, the way he was back when Nexus knew him.
"As far as Nexus was concerned, this is the face he was looking at near the end." He smiled again, almost looking a bit apologetic for a brief nanoclick. Of course that was all an act since each and every word he told Primal had been carefully selected. It didn't matter if Optimus knew the truth now that he was about to get his skull split open by Nexus' own weapon, absorbed after the fact so that the shapeshifter could keep it as a trophy.
"Nexus died believing you were the one who killed him."
His voice grew colder as he spoke the last sentence, knowing that this fact would no doubt push Optimus off the edge.
-----
Primal watched Zodiac's appearance shift... to the way Optimus was before he left Cybertron. His once defiant stance suddenly came crumbling down. His knees felt weak, he felt nauseous, and his spark sank considerably as it felt squeezed.
"No... You're lying..." he muttered, trying to process his words.
"YOU'RE LYING!" he hollered at him. Imagining Nexus seeing him... murdering him... On the verge of tears, he fought them back while trying to remain standing up when his legs wanted to buckle.
"This is a nightmare. This can't be real," he muttered, his gaze dropping from his old self standing before him, one of his fists covering his mouth as he caught his breath. His spark raced. His breathing increased. He couldn't focus or comprehend.
Strike him now! Use your hatred and rage to rip his head off! You're stronger than you let yourself to be!
That's what the ape imagined himself doing by that point as he finally snapped inside. It took
everything to keep him from jumping at the shapeshifter to complete that task by ending his foe's life.
You won't regret it because he deserves it! Just imagine Nexus, helpless and quite possibly critically wounded and restrained, seeing you approaching him thinking you were there to save him... You, whom he saw as a son and his protege, instead striking him down and giving him one least blow as he probably pleaded for his life!
Optimus shook inside, trembling as much as the mountain was. He knew he had the power to kill him. It would be justice, wouldn't it?
We can do it. We'll do it. We'll finish it now. I don't care about the consequences. I'm done with him! He killed him! He deserves the same fate! I'm going to do everything he did to him! Or he could stab him with the syringe and watch him pathetically beg for his life on his knees as he unwillingly lost all of his abilities.
That might be more satisfying... And then he could just leave him to his own devices, alone and defenseless on the planet. Megatron would surely find him eventually and end all of this. At this point, he had completely forgotten about Whitegrazer and what she would say or do. He lost all of her guidance and forgot the meditations he had learned from her. There was no green meadow. There was no support from her. There was no bond. He felt nothing from her. He felt nothing at all as his world came crashing down. An empty void. Nexus was long gone.
Closer..., the voice whispered.
Then let him get closer, inject the vial and watch him fall with great satisfaction. Pretend to be overwhelmingly devastated and let him get closer. Optimus shook his head and fell to a knee, seemingly allowing himself to be completely vulnerable as if he was giving up.
-----
For but a moment, the shapeshifter stopped and merely stood there, watching Optimus as he fell to the ground.
"What reason would I have to lie?," he responded rhetorically, seemingly calm on the outside despite the fact his spark was racing with excitement on the inside.
"You would have been proud of the old geezer. He stayed strong even as his men were slaughtered and he was the only one left behind, in captivity. At least for a short while." The changeling had been honest about his employers wanting to keep Nexus as a prisoner, but temptation had proven to be too strong for the rebellious shapeshifter.
"You should have seen the look on his face when he saw you enter the cell. It was pure joy at first, only to turn to dispair." He took another step closer.
"It was beautiful."
Deciding there was no point in wasting more time, the shapeshifter prepared his weapon to fire again. This time at close range, leaving Optimus with no escape.
-----
"Stop it...," he pleaded softly without looking up at the fraud. Although, there was little grief behind his words. He seemed to be... emotionless. The shapeshifter kept talking, his words filling his head and making his deeper emotions run rampant. High and low, sad and angry, up and down, uncontrollable.
"Shut up..." He imagined Nexus's expression upon seeing himself and it crushed Optimus again and again, as if his spark was flickering like a candle in the wind. A single tear fell to the snow, freezing on impact.
And then his demeanor changed to how he was really feeling now, giving up the disguise of mourning. His hands balled into fists again and he eventually stopped listening to Zodiac. His head was full of rage, hatred and the desire for vengeance.
This is it. Show him who you really are. You will not be made a fool of! You will not let Nexus Prime's death be in vain! He's close enough now, it's time to take him down! TAKE HIM DOWN NOW!
Optimus reached for his subspace, his breathing was an angry huff of air with every exhale. His jaws clenched tightly. Hiding it with his hand, he grabbed the syringe and made deep breaths that were full of both anger and agony.
-----
Zodiac shook his head again, his cannons locked on Optimus' form. The other male was yelling at him, begging him to stop, but the shapeshifter had no intention to. Not now.
"Give my regards to Nexus," he told him coldly as he prepared to fire at point blank range.
-----
Those words really tore him up. He felt like he was going to explode and he didn't care. He was seeing red and almost lost control.
"You've underestimated us, Zodiac," he threatened him instead in a deep, quiet voice, slowly looking up at him and ignoring his last comment. His nostrils flared with every excessively forced exhale of breath. As quickly as he could, he lunged at Zodiac and swung his arm with the hand holding the syringe in an attempt to stab the needle into the shapeshifter's side again, immediately injecting the substance inside.
-----
The shapeshifter looked a bit puzzled at Primal's choice of last words. Had his madness truly gone so far that he wasn't able to realize what was happening? It was hard to say given the Maximal's eratic behavior as of late, his mind had not been the same ever since he returned from the Darksyde a broken bot in a way.
Yet nothing could prepare the shapeshifter for what was about to happen. In a sudden move, his broken foe leapt up and lunged at him. Zodiac attempted to side step, but this time he was too late. He didn't fully realize what had happened before he felt a sharp sting in his side. He gasped and smacked the syringe away, but the content had already been pumped into him and was making its way through his system.
He took a step back, fully expecting the sedative to start taking effect like it had before. But oddly he wasn't feeling sleepy.. if anything he felt.. The sudden onset of an excruciating burning pain spread through his chest and abdomen as if someone had just lit him on fire on the inside, causing Zodiac to clutch his abdomen before falling to his knees much like Primal had but few moments before. The pain continued to spread throughout his body, with every pulsation of his spark. Intense.. pain.. throbbing and burning him with an intensity he had never experienced before.
"What.. did.. you.. do?!," he demanded between groans.
As bad as the implementation process had been, the pain he felt right now must have been ten times worse.. and all at once. Every limb in his body was aching, and his nanomachines.. they were screaming, he could hear them. Pure chaos had erupted in the otherwise controlled environment. And then, as the pain slowly subsided, so did the screams.. replaced only by silence and a feeling of being hollow. Zodiac shuddered at that feeling, still not sure what to make of what just happened.
-----
Yesssss, YES! Mwahahahahahahaha! Optimus and his voice laughed together. After the successful injection, Primal stepped back, eagerly watching for the effects like an excited mad scientist, an ominous smile crossing his mouth as he licked its scar like he was hungry for Zodiac's suffering.
Noticing Zodiac's perplexed expression and then falling to his knees, he looked down at him as the pretender tried speaking through the pain he must have been enduring. His smile remained. Optimus proclaimed loud enough for others to hear,
"This ends now, Zodiac! The revenge, the hunting, the murdering, it ends by MY hand. I helped develop you, and now I'm going to dismantle you! How does it feel to be so helpless and vulnerable?! Now you know what each of your victims have gone through, including Nexus!" As he said his mentor's name, he went to knee Zodiac in his chin out of pure rage to add emphasis with his vengeance. Then, seemingly involuntary, he banged his fists against his chest as he would have in his beast mode, proclaiming his power and victory, his knuckles hitting the lacerations and smearing the blood both on his pecks and on his hands, ignoring the pain by releasing it with a hellish gorilla-like scream into the snowy air.
-----
In Zodiac's current state, Primal's enraged kick to his chin was more than enough to send him crashing onto his backside with a pained groan. His wings partially folding over him in the process, he forced himself to glare at Optimus. With the last of his nanomachines shutting down, Zodiac's face had returned to normal again. On the outside he looked like himself, but on the inside he felt like anything but. It was so quiet inside, even Whitegrazer's infernal chatter had stopped for a moment. Like a big part of him had simply gone missing.
Slowly, very carefully, he tried to sit up. But he felt weak, much weaker than he'd ever been, and somewhat lightheaded to boot. Realizing what just happened, that his nanomachines had all been deactivated, Zodiac glanced over at Whitegrazer, before slowly turning his attention back to his hated foe again.
You lose. The female's warning echoed in his head as the first noise he heard after the fact. Well, aside from Optimus' gloating of course. Zodiac merely stared at him in silence, too weak to even move at the moment.
-----
"You should see the look on your face," Optimus said bitterly as he lowered his arms, mimicking what Zodiac had told him just moments before when he had tricked Nexus into thinking it was Optimus who killed him.
"I imagine it's a similar expression that Nexus gave you, you sparkless coward." He kept his glare on him, holding himself back from doing any more damage to the murderer squirming on the ground.
"You're right; it's beautiful," he mocked his own words again.
"It would seem you took your technology for granted."
-----
Zodiac did not wish to admit it, but Optimus' last taunt made him squirm a bit on the inside. He opened his mouth as if to speak, but no words came out. He had nothing to say? No, that wasn't entirely true.. A part of him wanted nothing more than to chew the other male out for what he had done, to scream and throw a tantrum much like a little child would have. But the seriousness of the situation had started to dawn on him and he found himself feeling.. concerned.
"You.. bastard..," he finally managed to say, but the words came out far less menacingly than he would have liked. He would have added how he would kill the Maximal for this, but as things were that did not seem like a likely outcome.
-----
Optimus let out a low chuckle, as if to rub more salt into his wound.
"You did this to yourself. You could have stopped what you were doing, you could have left this planet, but you were too consumed by your own revenge. And for what? Giving you extraordinary technology that you embraced?" He shook his head, watching the once cocky and confident bot now having a very difficult time just finding the words he wanted to say let alone fight back or even stand. Had it really weakened him that much? He certainly hoped so. He hoped he was feeling every bit of hopelessness and helplessness that each of his victim's felt who died at his hands, especially Nexus Prime.
Do you really care at this point?
Primal didn't answer the voice.
"How does it feel, Zodiac?" Oh, he was dying to know.
-----
It felt downright awful, Zodiac thought but without verbalizing it. It was bad enough he felt as if he'd gone to the pit and back, and now had a massive headache, some residual pain, and he felt like he was about to throw up at any moment. His own systems started coming back online now, allowing Zodiac the strength to stand.. if a bit unsteadily. He slowly got up, raising his hands a bit as he did as not to provoke the Maximals to shoot him now that he wasn't able to heal instantly anymore.
"I've never been better..," he lied but his body language made it more than clear that he wasn't being honest. He was honestly halfway expecting one of them to kill him on the spot. It’s what he would have done. It’s what anyone with their sanity intact would do.
-----
"You must be a pathological liar," the Maximal sneered at him. That was fine if he wanted to lie, Primal knew he was suffering. Something dark deep down inside of Optimus wanted to take advantage of this surreal situation, to do exactly what Zodiac was likely fearing now; destroying him once and for all and extinguishing his spark now that it appeared that he may have lost his ability to heal himself.
How tragic, he thought sarcastically. Optimus glanced in Whitegrazer's direction to see how she was coping now, assuming that the shapeshifter had lost control of the nanobots inside of her as well.
"You should have stopped," Primal told Zodiac again, observing his stance as he finally got to his feet. The Maximal stood there making no attempt of arresting him or harming him while the battle continued around them, as if giving him the opportunity to leave while he still had a chance to do so. Or simply waiting for someone else to step in and shoot him to death.
-----
Zodiac stood perfectly still for a moment, waiting for Optimus to make his move. Truthfully he was fully expecting a bullet to the head but it never came. Lowering his arms, the former shape-shifter gave his foe a quizzical look, still not sure what to make of this.
He's letting you go, fool, so go on! Get out of here before he changes his mind!, the renegade thought to himself.
He glanced over at Optimus, attempting to read his face to decipher if that is truly what the Maximal was allowing him to do. But he couldn't read him, not this time. The pretender sighed. Revenge could wait until he'd figured out how to reverse whatever they did to him. He was still feeling weak, too much so to put up a fight at present. Lowering his gaze to the snowy ground, he started to walk away. If Optimus was to shoot him now, at least he wouldn't see it coming.
-----
Primal stood there coldly and maddeningly, watching Zodiac glance at him again. He desperately tried holding himself together now knowing that Nexus had been murdered by him disguised as Optimus. He wanted to fall apart and sob but he couldn't; not in front of everyone and not during a battle.
I can't believe you're letting him go. You don't even know if that vial is permanent or temporary. What if his abilities return? You're wasting a perfectly good opportunity to finish him! Put away your pathetic sense of pity and mercy and be rid of him once and for all!
"Yes..." he agreed at first, out loud as he appeared to be talking to himself, but he was also in a daze while he tried comprehending everything. Still, he was about to use his personal turrets as his pack started to lift off his back.
"No!" he suddenly corrected himself and put the weapons back.
"This is what separates us from him, Megatron and Ironclaw! I have never taken a life and I am NOT going to start with HIM!" Anyone who heard him probably thought he had finally lost it. Maybe he did.
So we'll just let him go? Where is he going to go now?
"That's his problem," he kept speaking aloud to the voice in his head.
What if the Predacons take him? You know what will happen then.
I don't care. He killed Nexus... I'll never speak to him again because of Zodiac... Nexus taught me everything. He prepared me for my own crew and vessel. And he's gone! Gone because of some selfish revenge! He finally kept the rest of his argument to himself.
He also lied to you and kept everything covered up only to let your past catch up with us and put our Maximals' lives in danger. Some Admiral...
SHUT UP! He was protecting me! He was everything to me! Optimus fought very hard to keep his sadness suppressed and hold back the tears. He easily ignored his physical pain from his wounds. There was a point he searched for Whitegrazer to find her support but he let it go. All he could see was his imagination playing over and over Zodiac pretending to be him while murdering Nexus... Red... He saw a lot of red... He wanted to rip his worthless spark out and make sure he would never hunt him again.
-----
Zodiac did not look back. Not even when he could hear what sounded like Primal's weapon shifting into place. He knew the sound well, having disguised himself as Primal several times in the past and even served alongside him while working for Nexus. But for a moment he slowed his movements a bit, waiting for the blast to come. It didn't. Not yet.
He didn't need special powers like those of Whitegrazer to know what was going on inside Primal's mind right now. Well, perhaps not about the voices, but he was certain Primal was contemplating firing at him. Struggling with himself, being the Maximal he was, despite Zodiac's best efforts to turn him into a killer. A quick system check-up revealed what he had suspected, that his own weapons were offline. Knocked out by whatever Optimus had given him to deactivate his nanomachines. Sadly he relied on those machines more than he had even imagined as they were responsible for running his weapons along with other systems. Without them he couldn't activate his firearms and as things were he was too weak to even transform and fly away. Was he even capable of transforming without the nanomachines? It had been so long, he wasn't sure anymore.
He had managed to put a short distance between himself and Optimus when a few shots at his feet, coming from an angle in front of the direction he was going, stopped him in his tracks. The heat from those shots stung his feet as they graced him but none were a direct hit. Zodiac stopped his movements, his optics darting to the ledge where Nemesis sat and smiled at him. And it certainly was not a friendly smile. A moment later she dropped down in front of him, landing with a thud in the shallow snow.
-----
Out of the corner of Rattrap's green eye, he spotted Optimus and Zodiac facing off. But instead of his fearless leader being on the ground it was Zodiac. Of course, Primal was injured, but there was something wrong with Zodiac. Had he managed to inject him?! Slamming on his brakes, Rattrap spun around and drifted a little as he turned his direction from Ironclaw to Optimus, Zodiac and Whitegrazer. A few shots from Nemesis who fired at Zodiac also caught his attention. This time the rodent in his dragster mode hit his brakes so hard that he flipped into the air and transformed into his robot mode, landing on his feet and drawing his weapon as he sprinted toward the ape.
Primal had grabbed one of his clubs in reaction to the gunfire that hit the ground near Zodiac, which suddenly snapped him out of the darkness that was beginning to consume him. His optics followed their origin upward to find Nemesis. What did she want?
"What happened?!" Rattrap asked, realizing that the shapeshifter was actually walking away from Optimus.
"Did it work?!"
"Yes," was all the taller Maximal said, glancing from Rattrap and back to Nemesis.
The Spy appeared bewildered, but also unaware of Primal's current psychological state, which was crumbling.
"How do you know it worked and he ain't just fakin' it?"
Optimus didn't answer him. Instead, he asked Nemesis with an unemotional voice,
"What do you want?"
-----
Zodiac let out a deep sigh as he eyed Nemesis standing right in front of him. There had been a time they were close, close enough to rely only on each other in a world that was otherwise set against them, but that time had long since passed. He knew very well why she was here, now, and it was not an encounter he would enjoy.
Nemesis, on the other hand, merely pointed her weapon straight at him, making sure he wouldn't move while she addressed the Maximals.
"Isn't it obvious, Optimus?," she called over to the injured ape,
"I've come to claim this traitor on behalf of the Predacons," giving a quick nod to Zodiac as she spoke.
The former shapeshifter glanced back at Optimus and then briefly at Whitegrazer before settling back on the ape. Gone was the rebel and schemer. If anything he looked more like he was lost, confusion and sorrow evident on his face. He knew exactly what would happen if the Predacons took possession of him.
-----
"Yes! Let 'er take him!" Rattrap joyfully agreed, standing along side of Optimus.
"We did our part. He probably ain't a threat to us anymore. If they want 'im, they can have him."
Primal's gaze, although hurt and full of rage and sorrow, shifted from Nemesis to Zodiac. He looked so... pathetic. Was he actually remorseful? He doubted it. However, this was a foreign expression on the very vulnerable shapeshifter. In fact, he hadn't seen this silent plea for help from him since... Primus, since back on Cybertron when they were experimenting on him. But why should he feel sorry for him now after everything? After learning that he killed an Admiral who was his friend, teacher and father figure. Why did he suddenly feel like defending him?
"No," Optimus told Rattrap.
"Uh, did I hear you right? No? No what?" Rattrap demanded an explanation.
"We can't let the Predacons take him. You know what they'll do."
"So what?! It ain't our problem! Dat maniac brought dis all on ta himself! He deserves what's comin' to 'im."
"Does he?" Primal questioned without looking at his shorter friend, his optics remaining on the pretender and Nemesis.
Rattrap grew incredibly confused and his face showed it.
"Of course he does! He killed a lot of people!"
-----
Nemesis folded her arms across her chest, looking like she was getting a bit impatient by the Maximals squabbling over what should be such an easy decision. Ever since he set foot on this planet, Zodiac had done nothing but hurt them. He'd gone so far, in fact, that he'd nearly killed the lot of them and had lumped Nemesis in with the others to do it.
"You know he deserves this and more," she called back to Optimus, realizing that the Maximal programming was getting the better of him.
"Megatron will be more than happy to do your dirt work for you. Besides after we get him, we'll leave this place and you won't have to worry about any more casualties."
Zodiac, on the other hand, remained silent. Nemesis and Rattrap made persuasive arguments and had the situation been reversed he wouldn't have hesitated to make the call. Of course since he was now on the receiving end and would no doubt be tortured to death by Megatron and his stooges, it was not an outcome he was willing to accept.
-----
"Uh, need I remind you, Optimus, dat he almost made you kill all of us. He almost killed Whitegrazer a couple times! And Aurora! And you wanna let him live?!"
Primal's thumb nervously rubbed on the handle of his club, standing there and stewing about this interesting turn of events while Whitegrazer's and Aurora's injuries flooded his mind. So many mixed emotions... What was the right thing to do? His moral compass was skewed now. Part of him wanted to kill him himself, but another part of him knew it was wrong. What would Whitegrazer do? Let him live. What would he do despite everything that this selfish, callous criminal put them through? Let him live... It was his integrity and Maximal code.
Optimus looked at Nemesis, processing her words. Both of them wanted Zodiac punished and dead. Even if he allowed Megatron to kill him, it would still be on his conscience and his hands. If he could prevent lives being taken, then he should, no matter who they were. Even if it was Megatron. Would Zodiac have spared his life? No. Just moments ago he was prepared to kill him just like he did with Nexus. But, again, this was what defined Optimus; his mercy and selflessness.
"The way I see it, he has already been punished for what he has done. If he's no longer a threat to us, Rattrap, as you stated, then there's no point in taking such a drastic measure of ending his life. What we have done to him... We have taken away his livelihood. Everything he knew and used to his advantage is gone now. He's practically helpless. This war has claimed enough lives... I don't wish to see anymore lost."
Rattrap didn't know what else to say to convince the ape. Was he being too soft? Was he letting him off too easy?
"Look, if the Preds wanna take him, who're we ta stop 'em? He ain't our responsibility. You just aren't thinking clearly, Optimus."
Primal suddenly turned to Rattrap and placed the end of his club on his chest, offended by his words despite them being quite accurate, while spewing out angrily,
"I have more right than anyone else here to decide his fate! He has been hunting ME! -I- helped make him who he is! Of course he's MY responsibility! All of your lives were in danger because of me!" He kept shoving his club into the Spy's chest, a little harder each time to emphasize what he was saying.
Rattrap grew quiet, his gaze looking down at the club pressed against his chest and following it up to Primal's orange optics full of mixed emotions and uncertainty. He was quite worried about him now... He wasn't right. Something happened to him inside.
-----
Zodiac's posture changed ever so slightly as he realized that Primal was prepared to just let him go, despite everything that had gone down between them. Had he not hated the monkey so much for what he had done, in the past as well as more recently, he might even have been touched by this gesture. But as it was, it meant that Primal had only delayed the inevitable. The Predacons would no doubt hunt him, as would his employers and even the aliens. The hunter becoming the hunted, how ironic. Perhaps that was ultimately Primal's goal. Turn this disaster into a sport.
Nemesis merely shook her head at this display of Maximal foolishness.
"Very well. If you won't hand him over, we'll just have to help ourselves." As to show her sincerity, she followed up her statement with a brutal kick to Zodiac's abdomen, causing him to keel over from the pain. He was already aching all over and felt about as weak as he had been when the guards were dragging him back to his cell after yet another session with the scientists. Could this day possibly get any worse, he wondered, his hands holding his throbbing abdomen.
-----
"Do you think he really cares if you show him kindness and mercy now?" Rattrap asked Optimus.
"It doesn't matter if he cares, -I- care! You should, too! It's about forgiveness," he pointed out.
"And if it comes back to haunt us, then it can't possibly be any worse than what we have already been put through." Primal quickly averted his attention back to Nemesis when he noticed her movement and witnessed her brutally kick him. His own abdomen still felt sore from the shapeshifter's kick earlier, along with the painful lacerations across his chest, and the wound on his back. All from Zodiac. And yet here he stood trying to defend his foe's life. Maybe he really was going crazy.
"No, I won't allow it," Primal told Nemesis, taking a step toward her and raising his club a little bit.
"Let him be. He will suffer enough from now on."
"In dat case, wouldn't it be the humane thing ta do ta put 'im outta his misery now? Why let 'im suffer for the rest of his life?" Rattrap pointed out.
"Because he will adapt! And maybe, JUST maybe, he will find remorse, forgiveness and peace. I expected better of you, Rattrap," he briefly glared at him.
The rat opened his mouth to speak but there was only silence.
Now he's soundin' like Whitegrazer, he thought. And he seemed to hang his head in shame for a moment. He understood what Optimus was trying to do here, but was it really worth it? Was this guy's life worth it? For some reason, after EVERYthing, Primal seemed to think so.
-----
Zodiac had braced himself for Nemesis' physical outburst, knowing her well enough to see something like that coming. What he was a bit surprised by, however, was this newfound devotion she had towards Megatron and the Predacons. They were both of Decepticon heritage after all even if their bodies had been upgraded since then. The loyalty she obviously possessed towards the Predacons was confusing to him.
Holding his gut at the point she had kicked him, the kick certainly not helping the nausea he'd been having since he got injected, he slowly stood up and glared at the female.
"Changing one prison for another, Nemmy?," he asked her, some of his attitude returning. She returned the glare just as quick.
"I'd hardly consider a commanding position a prison..," she argued,
"Now let's go. Megatron is waiting."
Zodiac chuckled lightly at that, albeit it was a humorless laugh. So she'd actually fallen for Megatron's false promises.. Well.. he shouldn't be too surprised.
"And I thought Primal was losing it..," he then admitted, shoving her aside with his shoulder as he kept on walking. He was not ending up like his comrade.
-----
Commanding position? Optimus thought. She was given a promotion when they helped her clear her name and allow her to return to the Predacons?
It's only beneficial to Megatron. I'm sure it means nothing, his voice told him. Still, it was an interesting piece of information.
"Alright. Here's what I'm gonna propose, Optimus, since you won't give this up. I'll compromise a little bit. We can arrest him and take 'im back with us. He ain't gonna escape since he lost all his magical powers."
Optimus calmed down a little and blinked before looking down at Rattrap.
"So he's ours, Nemesis. Step away and leave him ta us," the rat said as he walked toward her and Zodiac, his gun targeting her shoulder.
Optimus quickly moved with him to enforce their position as they approached her. He picked up on Zodiac's attitude lifting a bit in his voice, watching him shove past Nemesis. He took little to no offense to his words declaring Primal's insanity; he knew something was wrong with him. He knew he was mentally unstable.
"No, no, Zodiac. Stop right there!" the rodent hollered at him when the pretender started to walk away.
-----
Nemesis hissed at Zodiac's words, her hand immediately grabbing for her sword. If her former friend wouldn't come willingly, she'd gladly drag his bleeding and mangled form back. As far as she was concerned, Zodiac deserved everything that was coming to him for what he had put her through. And she was certain Megatron felt the same way, especially if his handling of Night Terror was any indication.
And she probably would have impaled him with her sword right there, had the rodent not come to his defense. Her optics narrowed at the rat, her patience with the Maximals' interference growing thin.
"Are you sure you Maximals aren't suffering some ill effects from the virus?," she responded, angrily pointing the blade of her sword in Rattrap's direction as she did.
"Because you are making no sense! He is a traitor to us all. Let us deal with him as we see fit."
Zodiac couldn't help but find the entire situation a bit obscene. Only a short few days ago he was about to complete his work and all the Maximals would be dead at Optimus' hand. The Predacons were about to succumb to the virus he had staged for Night Terror to release. And all of a sudden, now, the roles were reversed. He was the one at everyone else's mercy. Or lack thereof as was the case with the Predacons. And without his powers, with no weapons, and thus far without regaining his ability to fly or transform, he truly was at a loss. He really didn't know where he would go, just away from here, from this place and all its bad memories.
Although he heard Rattrap's words, he only briefly slowed down to look at the rodent. Had the Maximals changed their minds now too? He really didn't wish to linger to find out.
-----
"No, Nemesis!" Primal snapped at her.
"What you wish to do with him is no different than what he wanted to do with all of us. He has a lot to answer for, and I still have a lot of questions for him. We will take him with us." He lifted his club higher in protest to her reaching for her sword.
"I said stop! Yer under arrest!" Rattrap yelled at Zodiac, jogging up behind him and holding the barrel of his gun to his back to try and persuade him.
-----
Finally Zodiac stopped, only to glance down at the rodent who was barely more than half his own size. Well.. wasn't this just the perfect ending to an otherwise horrific experience. If he'd been able to get any more embarrassed than he already was, he'd probably melt into the ground.
"This isn't happening..," he muttered in disbelief, mostly to himself. It was like some nightmare he simply couldn't wake up from. Just watch.. In a nanoclick he'd probably wake up, back on the ship, with Dirge standing idly by and Night Terror talking too much like he always did.
But the barrel of a gun to his backside proved all too well that it wasn't just a dream and he really was in this situation. He raised his arms a bit again in quiet surrender, simply too exhausted and vulnerable to put up a fight right now. Still he was halfway pondering to merely punch the annoying creature out and be done with it.
Nemesis growled in frustration at these stupid Maximals.
"You don't have the courage to do what needs to be done," she accused Primal,
"Can you imagine what would happen to him if any of the others he’s betrayed gets a hold of him? We'd be doing him a favor in the end."
The rough weather patterns of this mountain were really starting to show themselves by now, gusts of icy wind were ruffling her transmetal feathers and whipping the snow around. There was no sight of Megatron or anyone else other than those immediately surrounding her.
-----
"Do us a favor and just cooperate with us," Rattrap told Zodiac. Looking up at his size while standing behind him, he sighed and put his gun away only to replace it with some harmless energy bonds to cuff his wrists. Roughly, he kicked the back of one of his knees to forcibly make him kneel so that the smaller Maximal could reach his wrists. Some of his kick was a release of anger toward all the trouble this jerk had caused them and also disappointment toward Primal's decision to leave him alone thus putting him in this position.
"It's either us or Megatron, who we both know is gonna torture you worse dan he did Optimus and then kill you. You should appreciate Optimus valuing yer life," he said as he took his arms and cuffed his wrists together with the bonds.
"Although I can't follow his point of view on this. I think he's crazy. But you better rethink your existence on dis planet now. You got no one else and no where ta go."
"You and Megatron really should stop underestimating me," he said darkly in a threatening manner toward Nemesis's words.
"That's not our decision to make," Optimus growled at Nemesis.
"And 'doing what it takes' is the coward's way out, only to benefit your own ambitions. You and Megatron can mock me all you want, but you only force me to be stronger and to better myself. What do you have to show for your lack of mercy by taking someone else's life in your hands? Power? Callousness? Real impressive," he ended with sarcasm.
-----
Nemesis lowered her arm with the sword while Optimus was still talking. Despite everything he'd been through, the Maximal leader carried the burden of leadership well. They may not be fighting on the same side in this war, but the avian female still respected him a great deal. Perhaps even more so for the mercy he had shown her more than once.
"I hope you know what you're doing," she told Optimus in a low voice for nobody else, especially Zodiac, to hear.
Oddly enough Zodiac did not resist as Rattrap kicked the back of his knee to get him to kneel on the ground. The kick was a little rougher than what was necessary to make his knee buckle, resulting in a slight flinch as the former shapeshifter dropped to his knees in the snow. Zodiac avoided looking straight at Rattrap and merely stared blankly ahead. It was far from the first time he’d been in a position like this but it wasn’t something he had endured ever since he became a specialist. But back in the days, while they were still trying to merge the alien technology with his own, every little sign of disloyalty was met with similar strict measures. And worse.
“How the mighty have fallen..,” he remarked, mostly to himself, but still loud enough for Rattrap to hear. The irony of this situation was not lost on him.
But he didn’t struggle.
He knew what the alternative was and it was not something he ever wanted to experience for himself. Megatron’s methods were brutal and cruel, he knew, for he’d seen them used on Optimus and even experienced a bit of it on himself when he was posing as Nexus. And he had used similar methods and perhaps even worse ones himself as well, and it was enough to know he never wanted to be on the receiving end of them. Not again.
But as he allowed the rat to grab his wrist, part of him almost wished they would simply have put a laser beam through his spark. This was certainly not how he expected to go out. On his knees, being tied up by the most pathetic of Maximals.
"Of that I have no doubt," the renegade replied to Rattrap’s comment about how he should feel grateful the Maximals were willing to spare him from Megatron’s wrath. Was he grateful, no, not really. Prison was still prison regardless of who the guards were. Still it seemed like the better of two terrible choices, so the renegade remained still and merely kept his gaze on the snowy ground in front of him.
He was surprisingly calm, all things considering. But then again he had spent most of his life as a prisoner of some sort so the sensation was certainly nothing new to him. While allowing Rattrap to finish up, he turned his head to face the mountain. An eerie feeling was growing within him, telling him they needed to move.
"We should go," he said to nobody in particular.
-----
"I'm still learning every day," Optimus admitted to Nemesis speaking just as quietly, though he had come a long way since this all began as inexperience as he was. There was some slight uncertainty in his voice, but also a great deal of appreciation for her not making this harder on all of them. As she lowered her sword, he lowered his club, the slashes on his chest stinging him every time he stretched and moved his arms. Perhaps there was a mutual respect for each other. Nemesis had been put through many experiments as well. He couldn't blame her for her hatred, distrust and discontent for Maximals, but she had proven herself before to put those aside and work with them, even if it was just for her own benefit, because not all Maximals were like the ones who tortured her. And as she also proved, along with a few other Predacons who weren't bent on world domination and sucking up to Megatron, was that not all Preds were the same either, even those who were former Decepticons. There may yet have been hope for the possibility of these two allegiances coexisting in peace instead of one oppressing the other.
"We finally agree on somethin'!" Rattrap exclaimed to Zodiac. Then he yanked upward on the menace's arm as a gesture while saying,
"Get up."
"Optimus, we better clear out. Umbra and yer new bestie there," he said pointing at Nemesis,
"decided it was a grand idea ta blow up the mountain with a ton of explosives." It was still rumbling and trembling inside of it as the charges nearly finished their domino effect, he assumed.
Primal looked worriedly from Nemesis to the mountain behind her. There was a lot of smoke and heat escaping the top. So he agreed and nodded to the Spy.
-----
Albeit he waited until Rattrap gestured for him to get up before making any attempts at moving, the rodent did not have to tell him twice to get up. The mountain was rumbling, the ground underneath their feet shaking with a few tremors. The renegade twitched uncomfortably, testing the strength of the energy bonds that were keeping his arms secured behind his back. There was no give to the bonds so he quickly stopped trying to wiggle them off.
Nemesis cast a glance over at the two, the gleam in her optics showing that she found the situation somewhat amusing.
"Do I want to know why you keep a pair of those on you?," she asked Rattrap, unable to hold back the teasing tone in her voice. She was a Predacon and as such had different ideologies than the Maximals, but she had spent enough time with these Maximals to know them a bit. Then the tremors emerging from the mountain caught her attention as well.
"I don't think that's caused by our explosives," she disagreed, almost taking offense to the rat accusing her of such carelessness.
"Those sounds are coming from further underground."
"The machine itself..," Zodiac concurred before repeating his earlier warning,
"The aliens must have built in a fail-safe. Very soon there won't be anything left of this place to fight over. We need to move." Or at least he needed to move. If the explosion happened to take out the others, he would certainly not shed a tear. But as things were, he was more than likely to get attacked by the Predacons if he tried to get away on his own.
-----
Rattrap gave Nemesis a playful wink to answer her question about the cuffs he conveniently had on his person, hoping to creep her out, assuming that was possible. He looked down at his feet when the ground shook, then to the others before settling his attention back upon Zodiac.
"Well, you'd know all about dat, wouldn't you?" he accused him of being in cahoots with the Vok. Pulling his gun back out, he nudged the taller bot with the barrel of it, signaling him to get moving.
Rattrap brought up a valid point about Zodiac's possible connection with the aliens. It was definitely something Optimus wanted to question him about, and he was determined to have that chat. Unfortunately, it would have to wait as he, too, looked about their surroundings while everything vibrated and trembled. He decided to heed Zodiac's warning and started to walk with his faint limp away from Nemesis to regroup with the other Maximals.
-----
Nemesis followed the retreating Maximals and their prisoner with her eyes as they started making their way towards the remaining members of their team. The snow was really starting to pick up, making visibility poor, but fortunately she had seen exactly where they were headed to. She waited until they were almost out of sight before hailing Megatron.
"We have an issue with the weapon," she told the tyrant via their private com link.
"It seems this place is rigged to blow shortly. However, I thought you'd be interested to know that the traitor is vulnerable right now. The Maximals are taking him down the mountain. We should be able to cut them off at the mountain pass if we stage an ambush there. " She followed up her message by transmitting the exact coordinates Zodiac had left for, giving Megatron a chance to finish what he had started earlier.
Meanwhile Zodiac had barely managed to avoid rolling his optic when Rattrap pulled out his weapon and aimed it at him again. Was the rodent truly expecting him to make a run for it, straight into the sight of Megatron's fusion cannon? Although the shorter male did make a valid point about the aliens. Thus far the renegade had managed to avoid talking about that aspect of his life. Then again the last hour by this planet's timeline had held a lot of unpleasant new experiences for him, and he was sure there were more to come in the near future. Even though the rodent had been correct about the Predacon methods being much worse indeed.
He sighed and came along peacefully, at least for the time being. If he was going to have a chance to escape, he’d have to wait until both the Maximals and Predacons were distracted to do so.
-----
"Everybody, listen up!" Rattrap called through his comm. link to other Maximals including Blackarachnia while he guided Zodiac with his weapon trained on him from behind.
"We're leavin'! Dis place is gonna blow!"
, and even cuter now that her eyes are open and checking everyone out now :3
Also, congratulations, uncle DarkSpark! ))