(For Barricade2007 and Karmela-Drake, as requested)
It was, in the end, her lack of dramatic presence that sealed his fate. One might have thought, like a film, that the hero would burst into the villain's lair, confront them with philosophical truth, and punish them for the error of their ways. But she was not a hero - she was a soldier. This was her job, her duty. And so Karmela Drake dropped to the narrow catwalk with practiced grace from the hatch that led up to the roof. Man, Barricade would kill her if she knew she was out here. She’d promised she wouldn’t take the mission - he could be so protective, sometimes. But the truth was, this was important - and she was the best one for the job. She hated lying to him, but this was necessary. The hangar was massive, part of a yard designed for the construction of ocean liners. The cascading catwalks and ramps that trickled down hundreds of feet to the floor were apparently ignored by the dark shape of the Fallen, occupied below with the hurried construction of his machine. She crept along the walkway slowly, moving for a better, uninterrupted shot. With utter silence, she set her rifle over the rail, peering into the scope. Only a few seconds passed as she scanned the huge figure, searching for the weakest point. Maybe, just maybe, she could pull this off - and if not, the planet was toast.
Then she saw it. Just a flicker of movement, a twitch beneath one of the reptilian plates that lined his back. A segment of his internal musculature. An explosive-tipped round would be crippling there - but only, she realized, if she could hit a two-inch gap from a couple hundred feet in the air. The doubt didn't linger in her mind long. The scope, the barrel, they were an extension of her mind as she lined up the shot. Three, two, one..
The ancient twisted just minutely to access a panel, his back panelling shifting together as a blast of fire made impact. He growled in anger, his own internal furnaces ablaze as he wheeled around.
She cursed under her breath. Without thinking, a second shot. It exploded violently in his face, searing his optics and causing the massive mech to stumble backwards, A third, burst against his throat. And then he was gone in a flicker of dimensional reality, charred flecks of armor plating and debris still drifting to the ground. Immediately she shouldered her rifle, dashing towards the end of the walkway - from observing Egypt tapes and those of several other encounters, his default strategy seemed to immediate dissipation followed by a quick and violent retaliation. She leaped down to the next layer of walkways, rolling to a stop and readying her weapon again. Where was..
There was a violent lurch as the level of platforms above her buckled and snapped, torn from their support cables section by section to crash heavily on the concrete dock a hundred feet down. Behind the veneer of dust drawn up by the sudden impact, the twisted form of the ancient clung to the ceiling silently, gone again by the time she’d aimed her rifle. Although she was now on a separate walkway, she started moving again, fast, sprinting towards the next level of descent on the other end of the hangar.
“I understand how unfair it must seem to you, fleshling.” The voice echoed through the lofty heights of the hangar, and she searched for the origination. The massive hooks and hauling equipment, abandoned plating, and lifting machinery that lined the ceiling in between layers of narrow suspended walkway made it difficult to pinpoint where he was. Was that.. there. She lifted, took another shot, precision. The explosion let a massive load of iron beams snap, making impact with the floor below and filling the hangar with reverberating thunder, through which the voice could still be heard.
“I have, however, no grievance against your kind. I shall take no pleasure in your destruction.”
With a resounding snap of cable and chain, the opposite end of the catwalk collapsed, and Karmela leaped to the safety of the next support section as the last one buckled and fell. By the time she had spun around, again, he was gone, lurking in the shadows of the ceiling or perhaps behind her..
“Indeed, had you not chosen to interfere, your life might have been prolonged.. but you have made yourself too much a nuisance.”
Even as the ancient leaped from the wall behind her, snatching the walkway down with him, she did not scream. The flooring dropped from under her with frightening speed, and she found herself in freefall, tumbling sickeningly, the air whistling through her ears as she reached out, caught a long chain descending from the roof above. The act of catching it dislocated her arm immediately, and brought her to a stop with a sickening lurch that ripped open her hand on the rough metal, but she snatched the chain up with her other hand before she had the chance to fall further. Below, the ancient and the flimsy walkway both hit the ground, and his burning red optics turned back up towards her. She wrapped her legs around the chain, struggling not to let the absolute agony her arm was going through distract her as she tried to stay alive.
“When the life of my world is restored, and our children once again walk the streets of our cities, we shall remember your kind. Your sacrifice will not be forgotten, and the ashes of your world shall be honored.”
A mere gesture with his fingertips, and she was drawn forcibly down from her precarious position, as though a thousand pounds had been strapped to her back in an instant. She closed her eyes as the concrete floor came rushing up with incredible speed, ready to take her life. She had failed..
She opened her eyes a second later, to find herself hovering just a few feet from the floor. She looked up, confused and bewildered, to the great and twisted frame of the Fallen, as the tip of his blade pierced her chest.
“Your death shall not be among them. Every second I am delayed, another child of our race dies. You have only prolonged their suffering.”
He glanced at her curiously as she choked on her own blood, and crimson blossomed through her shirt and began to pool on the floor below - she didn’t even feel the pain. Just surprise, confusion, as her vision began to fade.
“We have met before, I think. Your face is familiar to me. I regret that your end came so unfortunately. Greet your creator on my behalf.”
As her body went limp, the alien metal withdrew from her chest, and the polarity field allowed her body to crumple to the floor. It was at that moment that the massive iron doors flew open with a powerful shock, and the ancient turned to the form of an armored mech entering the hangar.
“Barricade, is it not? Do you not have a perimeter to enforce? The fleshlings have already penetrated the hangar. These operations are delicate.”
Barricade froze, his spark pounding in dread. There, blood soaking into the concrete - was that? No. It couldn’t be. He’d ensured she’d be safe, they’d agreed she’d decline this mission.. but.. no. He knelt close to the body. Even through the blood, the crumpled form, it.. it was her.
She was dead. Unmistakeably. His processor struggled to even accept the fact.
“I disposed of her without issue, but it would be wise to increase attention to the periphery so as to avoid further interruption.”
His optics, wide in shock, glanced up to the Fallen.
The ancient looked down at him in confusion. “I am capable of dealing with a single human, yes. It was no great feat.”
The large mech turned from Barricade back towards his great machine. Quickly, the shock and dread that had filled the enforcer transformed into rage - uncontrollable, like it would tear his spark apart. This hellspawn had left her to die in her own blood, and it was nothing to him. He.. he would never have her back. She was gone. He rose violently, leaping towards the ancient, the roar that rose inside him echoing throughout the hangar as he brought a spiked mace down into the Fallen’s back.
The ancient snarled in agony, twisting around and feeling the weapon tear apart his back plating as it dislodged from him. “Have you become defective?”
A powerful punch, another, a sweeping kick sent the Fallen sprawling against the concrete floor, stumbling into the trench that ran along the center of the hangar. The furnaces that burned in his frame flared as he rose again, reorienting his damaged guard plating. This time, as Barricade charged towards the ancient with weapons drawn, faceplate torn in a grieved roar, the Fallen was ready. He stepped through the Void, arriving inside Barricade’s reach and immediately shoving the mech down hard, the bot’s own momentum tearing him up against the concrete. The ancient vanished again as Barricade rose, shaking his helm, growling.
“You.. you killed her!” He cried, searching, spinning around, trying to locate the ancient. A dark voice emanated seemingly from every direction.
“I would advise you to remind yourself of your allegiance, enforcer. She is not the first human to die for the sake of our resurrection, and she most certainly will not be the last.”
“Show yourself!” The enforcer shouted, wheeling around as the blade pierced his back, twisted, was violently removed, carrying a door wing and forcing a number of armor plates to detach from his musculature. He roared in agony, spinning around to land a heavy blow against the twisted ancient - effective, pounding the Fallen’s shoulder with damaging strength, but clumsy. The knifelike point of the Void Scepter darted under the enforcer’s heavy guard, shearing off metal banding from his side, opening up internal piping and mechanisms. Energon began spurting from the mech’s side, and as he shuddered to plug the wound, the ancient was gone again.
“Humans are a dangerous race to care for, Barricade. Surely you realized this when you began. So fragile. So short-lived. Even if you had saved her today, she would expire of old age in a very near tomorrow. There is no reason to grieve.”
The ancient appeared, struck again, this time from the side, dealing a heavy blow to Barricade’s helm and sending his optics into a spasm of static, as another slice opened the other side of his abdominal plating.
“Her life..” He heard the words echo from behind him, and knew the attack was inbound. “Was already over.”
The Fallen struck, leaping into the air, bringing his spear down into Barricade’s helm, but he wasn’t expecting the stocky mech to spin suddenly, shunting the scepter’s point away from him, and seize the ancient, directing him towards the ground. The Void Scepter skittered away across the floor as Barricade leaped on to the fiery ancient’s chest, his spiked maces collapsing into his fists as he pounded the mech hard. Faceplate, neck, chest plating, the reinforced fists of the enforcer slammed like piles of bricks, scattering armor and internal components gorily across the floor - many mechs he’d beaten in this fashion to the point of death, but few so brutally, so full of anger and hate. Even the Fallen’s remarkable resilience was waning as the blows came, making it impossible to think, to see, to hear more than the Barricade’s grievous roar and the thunder of his fury. He tried to dislodge the mech, but the weight kept him down, the considerable pain he was dealing rendered the attempt infeasible. There was only one option left that might indicate survival. Barricade was too occupied to notice, perhaps, the twitch of the ancient’s fingertips, as the Void Scepter slowly dragged itself across the floor towards him, and as the enforcer raised both fists for a final, skull-crushing blow, the scepter flew into the Fallen’s clutch.
Barricade brought down his fists with a mighty roar, or tried to. As his frame brought down upon the Fallen’s, he never fully noticed the moment at which the razor blade of the Scepter punctured his spark, or just at what point his own momentum brought it out through his back. This.. this was it. Over. There was almost a feeling of relief as his optics sparked and extinguished, as his spark pulsed out its final beats - a life without her was something he would never have to experience.
The ancient rose from the broken body of the enforcer, stumbling, barely able to keep his balance with his damaged stability regulators. He collapsed against the side of his machine, and gazed over the two of them as his self-repairing mechanisms began to stabilize his condition. The rage of the bereaved, he knew, he had felt before. He understood. Ultimately, though, it was a waste - and their deaths had been for nothing beyond their own pride.
