(ooc: Partially a joint post that OOP and I were simply getting too tired to finish properly..)
Yes, Zodiac. I have. Just to have those same people condemn for what they ordered me to do. After all, who would listen to war criminal? We were ordered, threatened, to do what no one else had the power or gumption to do. Could we have said no? Sometimes, you don't have the power to say no.
It would appear she was familiar with that sensation. The renegade recognized it all too well. And still, despite knowing more about the white mare than even most of her comrades were aware of, he still felt non-the-wiser. She was an enigma to him.
"Let's go!"
Zodiac merely shook his head as calmly as he could. Nemesis had truly lost it if she believed he would come along willingly to what would surely be his execution. Albeit he couldn't see the Predacon tyrant anywhere, he was certain he was still here.. somewhere.. just waiting for a chance to get his hands on the former shapeshifter whom he had deemed to be responsible for the recent virus that plagued the Predacons and Maximals alike. The renegade had indeed been responsible, but it wasn't something he planned to discuss with the Predacons at length.. or at all for that sake.
"I will have to pass on your most gracious offer," he told her as he glanced at her. Through the corner of his optic he saw Rattrap racing to reach them in time, his weapon firing at Nemesis.
"He ain't goin' no where with you!"
Not having expected Rattrap to arrive so quickly after she had seen him shoot Zodiac in the shoulder, Nemesis had ignored the rodent until now. Her focus was on the traitor at her feet, a scumbag she would love to bring to Megatron so that he could administer the punishment he so rightfully had deemed fitting for the crimes the traitor stood accused of. As much as she hated Zodiac for what he had done to her, she wanted to bring him to Megatron as her gift to him. A token of her appreciation for not only accepting her back but promoting her in the process. Impatiently she took a step closer to Zodiac, ready to cut him should he be foolish enough to keep resisting.
The female suddenly let out a yelp as one of Rattrap's shots penetrated straight through her hand that was holding the sword, the weapon falling into the snow where it landed with a soft thud mere inches from Zodiac's arm. It took the renegade but a moment to realize what had happened, his optics darting to the gaping hole in the newly appointed Predacon commander's hand. If Nemesis had been angry before, now what she was feeling could only be described as pure rage. She whirled on the approaching rodent, holding up the wounded hand while using the other as support it.
"Why do you foolish Maximals always insist on interfering?!," she demanded with a sneer, her hand already starting to heal. She gave the nanomachines a moment to finish their repairs before she lunged at the rodent, much like a feral beast about to dismember its prey.
The former shapeshifter merely watched for now, seriously considering using this distraction to slip away unnoticed.
Rattrap's optics enlarged a bit when he realized who he had just picked a fight with. Nemesis still had her nanotech abilities, and she was known for injuring and killing others just to heal herself. She could easily overpower him considering their size and strength differences. He hadn't intended on shooting off her hand, which obviously infuriated her, and now had her charging at him, but it was what it was.
"It'll grow back! Don't be such a drama queen," he said jokingly as her hand, indeed, was healing rather quickly. The Spy fired a few more shots at her as a distraction before quickly grabbing one of his electrocuting demo charges from one of his compartments with his free hand, activating it, and tossing it at her when she got closer. It had a magnet that could cling to her armor and once ignited, it would send enough voltage to numb the area or an entire limb but only temporarily.
"A pity you won't," she sarcastically growled back at him, swiftly making a couple of rolls on the ground to avoid the remainder of the incoming shots. Flexibility had always been her strong suit, a trait she shared with Zodiac. Perhaps it had to do with their training, or maybe the selection process itself only called for individuals who'd be good at combat in close quarters. She maneuvered herself closer to Rattrap while at the same time trying to make her movements unpredictable as to make it much harder for him to hit her again. Of course she hadn't anticipated his next move would involve a magnetic demo charge so despite the fact she attempted to avoid it when she got within range to grab a hold of the annoying critter, it still stuck onto her arm.
Nemesis grabbed the smaller Maximal with both arms, using her larger size to tackle him to the ground with her on top. For the time being she was so focused on Rattrap that she didn't really consider the fact she'd left her backside available to attack by someone else. That attack came in the form of Landslide, who fired a number of shots directly at her. Her wings managed to block several of them, but a few still pierced through the transmetal armor and hit her in the shoulder and lower backside. Wincing from the new blows, Nemesis wasted no time and wrapped her fingers of the arm that now had the magnetic disc on it tightly around Rattrap's neck in order to keep him still while she used the other hand to plunge her sai deep into his spark. But as fate would have it, the charge suddenly went off and sent a powerful surge through the arm. The pain was much worse than the shots had been, likely due to the fact the electric shock had effectively rendered her nanomachines useless in that extremity. It was as if someone had ripped the arm out from its socket, leaving the useless limb feeling like it wasn't even there.
Unable to maintain her grip with her twitching, numb fingers, Nemesis yanked the arm back with her remaining, functional one, the grimace on her face more than revealing how painful and thus effective the rat's new toy truly was.
Rattrap gasped as he was tackled to the ground by the bigger Pred. This wasn't exactly how he had planned things to go, but he waited for the charge to do its thing and maintained his grip on his gun. Fortunately, while Nemesis was on top of him, Landslide threw in a few shots which prevented her from driving her sai into his spark. No doubt that's what she intended. And then, with impeccable timing, his charge went off and electrocuted her. Even though it was his first test with one, it went better than he had expected. Likely numbing her arm, she finally released his neck as he coughed from her tight grip and withdrew from her initial attack. Rattrap sighed with relief, grateful for the beetle's gunfire buying him those few extra seconds.
"A pity I won't? You and I both know you don't want me around anyway so spare me you're fake sympathy. Deep down you'd miss me, though." Lifting his weapon, the barrel resting in close proximity to her lower abdomen, the rodent fired several shots in a desperate attempt to get her off of him and away from him.
Nemesis caught a glimpse of Rattrap moving his weapon against her abdomen, quickly using her functional arm to grab for the weapon as well to smack its aim away from herself. It wasn't that such an onslaught would kill her or even seriously damage her given her ability to regenerate, no, and upon getting injured like that she could merely absorb the metal from the weapon or perhaps even the rat himself. Instead her instincts told her to prevent further damage to herself, at least until her nanomachines were fully operational again. Most of them still were but some had temporarily been shut down due to the earlier sneak attack on her arm. So she grabbed Rattrap's wrist, violently slamming the arm with the weapon away from herself with such force it actually could have caused some damage if the rodent wasn't as sturdy as he was.
"I wouldn't bet on it," she hissed once the threat had been neutralized. By now the sensation in the other arm was starting to return as well, her nanomachines coming back online in that arm too.
"But perhaps I'll keep a small momentum." She grabbed for her sai with the fully functional arm again, letting the other push Rattrap against the ground.
Meanwhile Zodiac had slowly, very carefully, forced himself to his feet again. His shoulder still ached from Rattrap's earlier shot and he knew it would continue to do so for quite a while since he had no means to repair himself right now. Well.. He'd worry about that later. He glanced around, still tempted to just use this opportunity to run. Of course if he did that still left him with a rather significant problem.. The Predacons would no doubt come after him and he'd have no way to fight them. Unless..
Zodiac, Rattrap and Landslide will help you. Do what you can to get away from Predacon hands.
I can handle myself!, he told her firmly via their shared link but there was the smallest amount of hesitation in his otherwise determined statement. Rattrap and to a lesser extent Landslide had gone out of their way to protect him, a fact he found strange still.
His optics fell on the two combatants, Nemesis presently on top and preparing to impale the Maximal. The renegade would certainly not mourn the rat if he met his demise in a moment, however the opportunity was simply too good to pass up on.
He looked around, trying to locate Nemesis' sword that had fallen mere moments ago, but he couldn't see it in the snow. Oh well, he'd just have to make do.
As Nemesis lifted her sai, preparing to plunge it into Rattrap's chest, a sudden pressure around her throat caused her to stop her movement in an instant. She gasped for air as the force only got tighter before she got yanked up to a standing position. Her still numb hand grabbed for whatever was choking her, only to realize it was a pair of handcuffs that were now digging into her neck.
Zodiac!
Feeling the female struggle against him, the renegade merely tightened his grip around her throat even more and yanked her backwards another step before he spoke.
"I'm leaving this place. Call your goons off or I will rip your head straight off, Commander," he told her bluntly before turning his gaze to Rattrap.
"That goes for you as well, Maximal."
Now nothing seemed to be working in his favor. Rattrap was about to give up. His arm slammed to the ground made it throb, nearly bending his elbow in the wrong direction. He gave a shriek of pain and was forced to release his weapon upon impact. Trying to get up, he was pushed back against the ground again onto his back into the impression of the snow that he had already created with an,
"Oof!" Dis is it. Dis is the end. I'm gonna die, he thought, helpless against Nemesis in his position. She was just too quick and healed too fast. Groaning as he desperately wiggled around to free himself, his panicked optics glued to the sai in her hand that lifted up and was about to pierce his TransMetal armor.
Then, she stopped. What happened? Someone had come up behind her and basically had her in a choke hold. He thought it might be his Maximal comrade Landslide but the handcuffs he spotted wrapped around her neck suggested that it was actually Zodiac. The former shapeshifter lifted her up to her feet with a hard yank, pulling her off of him. Without any hesitation, he grabbed his gun and rolled in the snow away from both of them, quickly jumping to his feet and targeting them with his weapon. Well, he focused it more on Nemesis than Zodiac since he had seemingly just assisted in helping him in his dire situation and prevented her from murdering him.
"I can't let you go, Zodiac, but we can get you outta here. Either help us or let the Preds take you back to your coffin," Rattrap reminded him.
Zodiac merely shook his head, slowly walking backwards with Nemesis held in front of him as a shield. She was still struggling, leaving him little choice but to tighten his hold on her to a point where the cuffs were almost starting to crush the armor of her neck. Almost. Nemesis let out a slight gurgling sound but stopped struggling as much.
"So you can haul me back to prison?," he almost snorted at the thought,
"Yeah, I think I prefer my alternative to that option. Now back away or you'll have to live with the guilt of having her death on your conscience." He jerked a little harder at the cuffs, trying to get Nemesis to move a little faster. It was true Rattrap wasn't as sentimental as most Maximals, but despite it all he still had that flawed core programming that all Maximals suffered.. To preserve life,
all life, even the ones who so clearly didn't deserve it.
Nemesis was starting to feel more than a little lightheaded by now, so much so that her movements were slowed and she nearly stumbled a couple of times while Zodiac backed off with her. Where did he even think he was going? Even if he killed her, the Predacons would come for him. And with as much pressure as the renegade was applying to her throat, she couldn't even speak up and certainly wasn't able to abide to his request.
As if on cue, Megatron's voice cut in and wanted a status update. The tyrant had many skills.. and bad timing was certainly one of them!
"Status report, has Zodiac been dealt with?"
For obvious reasons, Nemesis was unable to respond at this very moment. She avoided opening the channel so that Megatron would remain clueless as to what was going on. For now at least.
"Don't get me confused with Optimus. I ain't as forgiving as he is, and he ain't here." It was somewhat of a threat but Zodiac probably knew better.
"You think I really care what you do to her? She obviously wants me dead so you'd be doin' me a favor." Rattrap took slow steps toward them as Zodiac forcefully led them both backwards away from him.
"Anyway, Optimus just wants ta talk to ya. Beyond dat, I don't know yer fate. But it's either a chance with us and stayin' alive or death by Predacons." He kept his gun targeted on them, trying to ignore Nemesis' gagging and struggling. Why wasn't she just letting her nanobots devour the handcuffs or his hands?
"Come on, Zodiac. You kill her and I'll just have ta open fire on ya and THAT'S gonna hurt." He got quiet when he also heard Megatron's voice over his new "Commander's" comm. link.
For a moment, Zodiac slowed down a bit, Rattrap's words making a bigger impact than he would care to admit. Although he'd been careful not to break Nemesis' armor, thus preventing her from using her nanomachines against him since she wasn't able to control them like he had been able to, there was no telling what she'd do if Rattrap opened fire on them and hit her in the process.
"Look who you're trying to bluff," he started, again attempting to persuade the rodent to leave,
"Now shouldn't you be helping your comrades against.."
That is as far as he got. Nemesis, who had been clutching onto the handle of the sai since her earlier attack on Rattrap, suddenly plunged the sharp weapon deep into the renegade's thigh, twisting it as she forced it deeper as to do more damage. As the renegade cried out from the sudden pain, his leg twisting away from her which prompted her to release the sai but now it was sticking out of his leg and inflicting even more pain for every movement he attempted to make. The female wasted no time, grabbing a hold of her attacker's arms and using his surprise to her advantage as she pulled him hard enough to yank him over herself and send him slamming into the ground once more.
"That.. was the last straw..," she threatened after initially letting out a gasp, her voice sounding a lot raspier than normal but otherwise she seemed no worse for wear while the renegade clutched his wounded leg.
The smaller Maximal watched with almost as much surprise as Zodiac showed on his face when Nemesis stabbed him in the leg with her weapon and effortlessly flipped him over herself, slamming him onto his back in the snow with her sai still stuck in his thigh. It looked really painful, making Rattrap cringe a little with just the sight of it. He tried not to stare.
"Hold it right there, Nemesis!" he said in an attempt to distract her not wanting her to kill him. He fired a warning shot at the snowy ground between where Zodiac laid and where she stood. The ground trembled beneath all of them, violently shaking with the volcano.
"We're runnin' outta time, and I ain't handin' him over, not until we get the information we want."
"What do I care about your wanted information?," she hissed back as some snow whirled up from the warning shot right in front of her, pulling out her own assault rifle for good measure before pointing the weapon at Zodiac,
"Megatron wants him dead!"
"Since when did you start following orders?," countered the renegade, wincing as he pulled the sai out of his leg and leaving three puncture wounds in the leg in the process. He wasn't quite sure which part of the process was worse; the pain, the grinding sound as the metal of his armor was bent from the strain exerted on it, or the mech fluid that now started seeping through the open wounds. Nemesis merely grimaced at him in return, her finger lingering dangerously close to the trigger while she maintained her aim straight at his chest. She had wanted to save the honor for Megatron, but he had given her permission.. Deciding to go for it, to finally rid herself of the traitor she once considered a friend, her finger moved so that she'd be able to fire the weapon.
Nemesis looked a bit hesitant for a moment, finding it oddly difficult to execute someone she'd come to rely so much on during her darkest days. But the expression changed, however, when she made her decision.
"Just about to meet his maker," she finally responded to Megatron, her finger starting to apply the barest amount of pressure to the trigger when.. Another earthquake, this one so powerful it almost knocked her over, hit them with an unrelenting force. Zodiac took the opportunity to move a little bit, as much as his wounded shoulder and leg would allow him to, at least to get out of Nemesis' aim should she actually fire at him. He was already in a substantial amount of pain and really had no intention of getting shot again.. or worse. The onset of another quake caused him to glance from his two foes back to the mountain.
"We're short on time. Do you really wish to continue this here.. now?," he asked of Nemesis, his hands applying pressure to his bleeding leg as he attempted to get back up.
Yet another quake hit them mere nanoclicks after the previous one, this one accompanied by a deep rumbling from the mountain. Zodiac had forced himself to his feet by the time the quake hit but he was barely able to sustain himself in this position with all the movement underneath their very feet. If the ground collapsed underneath them, they would no doubt end up in the tunnel system and get swallowed up by the lava that flowed through them.
"Do you care about ANYthing?" Rattrap asked her rhetorically. What was the point of existing if you didn't care about someone or something? He also wondered how they ever gave her refuge and helped her clear her name.
The acting Maximal Commander shuddered slightly as Zodiac pulled Nemesis's weapon out of his leg and managed to get to his feet. Rattrap was about to squeezed his trigger when he saw the female target Zodiac again but a powerful quake interrupted all of them nearly knocking them on to their skid plates. The rodent found it easier to maintain his balance with his center of gravity being closer to the ground, but it still took some effort to remain standing, gun in hand.
The Maximal's question was bewildering to her. It was true she tried to keep her emotions under wraps, mostly because such a thing was usually deemed
weak and
useless by her kind.
"He's a traitor to us all," she finally told Rattrap after mulling over his accusation for a bit.
"Killing him is the only way to restore order to the chaos he created. Surely you can see that?" Her optics drifted to Rattrap but it was obvious he disagreed.
"I'm wasting my time here..," she finally stated, aiming her weapon at Zodiac once more. And fired.
Rarely had a delay caused by two individuals talking been more welcome than this one was for the renegade. The distraction was enough for him to be able to twist to the side, not enough to avoid the shot entirely, unfortunately, but still enough to keep it from doing any severe damage. Instead the shot went straight through his thus far undamaged wing and extracting another painful yelp from the dragon.
"Perhaps. But how can one trust anything Zodiac says?" he asked rhetorically. "And even if he does get the answers he seeks, I'm more concerned about how he will handle the information. He has been put through a lot, as we all have, but everyone has a tipping point. I have known Optimus for a long time, but this is nothing he has ever been through before. Nothing could have prepared him for this war," the engineer explained as he finished up covering the hole and reinforcing it with more metal sheets. "He's strong and he has a pure spark, but even this is beyond all of our expertise combined. If we ever make it home, none of us will be the same."
Aurora grew silent while Rhinox shared his thoughts on Optimus' mental state and even as he brought up Cybertron. Such a foreign concept to her, this home that everyone else kept talking about. From what she knew of the place, which was only information gathered via the computer and stories shared by the others, it was a planet consisting of metal.. With no organic creatures roaming about. No Earth vegetation. Just a somewhat sterile and cold environment. She honestly didn't care how many energon cubes they had over there. It would never be
home to her.
"I'm sure it's.. lovely there," she said after a brief pause to find a suitable word to describe this world she'd never seen. Well, that probably wasn't the right word to use but she couldn't really imagine living in such a place. "Sounds like Optimus could use a vacation," she said next, acknowledging the horrors her leader and friend had gone through recently. That they
all had gone through. Her thoughts then drifted, as was often the case.
"What do you think happened to Nexus? The real one I mean. Zodiac seemed to know so much about him, and he did show up here in Nexus' ship."
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