Ruby - Transformers: Age of Extinction fanfic

We Are Done

Optimus found the flight controls in no time. With the push of a bulbous green button, they were away. There were no windows and barely a hum from the engine, making it hard to believe that they were even moving. At least Optimus seemed to know what he was doing.

"When did you come aboard, Drift?" asked Ruby, "Why weren't you with the others?"

He knelt down next to her, surprisingly quiet, and said, "I was. I split off from Crosshairs and Cade to find Optimus while they went to look for his daughter."

Ruby clasped her hands around her shins and rested her chin on her knees; "Huh. Crosshairs didn't tell me that when Tessa and I caught up to them,"

"He isn't very happy with me,"

Ruby heard metal popping and clicking as Drift's shoulders sagged.

"I left him with the humans. He is very reluctant to help humans as all he has seen them do is hurt and murder our fell comrades; our friends."

Ruby said nothing. She had no reason to defend mankind right now. Humans feared what they didn't understand. And that was just it; a misunderstanding. KSI had thought autobots were decepticons, and killed them for their own selfish gain. But someone had told them that, told them wrong, and that someone would pay.

"Hound is less rude about it, but he does not want to help either," said Drift, "Each warrior must choose his own path." He sighed, something Ruby had never heard an autobot do before. At least that's what she thought it was, it sounded sort of like a fan, winding down.

Ruby couldn't blame them for feeling that way, but his words blanketed her with sadness. The autobots of NEST had always fought to protect others, no matter what. Organic or metal. 

Optimus had sworn to never hurt humans once. He had enforced that promise passionately. That passion, that promise, was gone.

A long time again, Sam told Ruby that Ironhide offered to take out his parents for being 'irritating'. He said it had been a joke, but Optimus hadn't found it funny. She doubted he'd find it funny now, but he probably wouldn't object.

In her eyes, Ironhide had been a big softy. He had never hurt anybody innocent, not even Sam's pet Chihuahua when it had cocked its leg over his foot.

Gosh, she missed him. Ironhide, her brother in arms, and the only one who had cared enough to check on her before the others even believed she, and the bracelet existed.

She missed the whirring of his cannons in battle, his unwavering loyalty, how fiercely protective he was over his friends. 

Ruby's fingers went to her throat. And her heart dropped. Right through the floor of the ship, plummeting through the air and burrowing deep into the earth below. The ruby pendant, the necklace Ironhide had made for her. It had been the last defense in the trash compartment of Lockdown's ship.

Ironhide, though gone for several years, had saved her, one last time. And now the necklace was gone. Part of her, another part, gone. So much gone, never to be regained.

Tears flowed between her fingers as she hid her face behind her hands. Her chest constricted tighter with the thought of each person she missed, and it was a very long, very painful list. Sideswipe, Sam, Simmons, Major Lennox, even Mearing. Where were they now? Were they safe? Hidden? Hunted?

"We are almost there." Optimus' heavy voice roused Ruby from her grief.

She wiped her face with her sleeve. Would she ever get hold of clothes that actually fit?

"Where?"

"Somewhere safe. The others are already there, they picked up my signal."

The sun set in an orange glow over the abandoned train station. The air was fuzzy with a dusty haze, but it was a thousand times better than the prison ship and Ruby drank it in, savoring the coolness against her raw throat. And the freedom. Being in that prison only reminded her of her own prison, back in KSI. Though the ship had been hot and dirty, and her cell had been cold and clean, the feeling was the same.

"For youuuu,"

Bumble bee unloaded a truck full of clothes next to Ruby. They smelt crisp and fresh. The exact opposite of Ruby. Despite the pain in her chest, she smiled.

"Thanks, Bee."

His fingers clacked against his chest as he bowed.

Luckily, thank the sun and the moon, the station still had running water. Ruby scrubbed off the dried blood, cleaned her blisters, and washed the stink of Lockdown's ship from her skin. It wasn't enough to sweep away her sadness.

She put on a pair of canvas trousers and a black vest (sleeves having annoyed her too much in the past few hours) and joined the others. They stood at the railway tracks, arguing.

"We should leave!" snapped Crosshairs, "There's nothing here for us anymore but death."

"He's right," grunted Hound.

"But the Seed?" said Drift, "If what the girl says is true, the humans have it."

"And? Not our problem."

Tessa sat on the edge of the platform, looking solemn whilst pulling a brush through her long, messy hair. Ruby sat down next to her. She offered Ruby her hair brush and they exchanged a small smile.

Cade was next to Optimus' giant foot, his hands on his hips.

"What is this seed thing anyway?"

"The Seeds were used by our Creators," said Optimus.

"They're terrible, but powerful things," said Hound.

"Once activated, the Seed converts all organic matter into what the humans have called Transformium. This is harvested and used to make us."

"Wait, all organic matter?" Cade started to pace, "How technical are we talking? A whole city? An entire country?"

Optimus' optics clicked and rotated, glowing in the low light of dusk.

"I do not know. Seeds can be of variable sizes. But I do know that some could wipe out this planet."

"What?" cried Ruby, "Then we have to get it back, destroy it!"

"We should warn the KSI guys," said Cade, "I bet they don't know. They could activate it anytime."

"Wait, what about Megatron?" Brains whizzed around their feet. Where he'd been hiding all day, Ruby had no idea.

"What about Megatron?" hissed Hound, "You said you dissected his broken body?"

"But his mind, it was very much alive."

"I sensed his presence when I fought Galvatron," Optimus admitted.

"He planned to transfer himself to Galvatron," Brains explained, "To make it his new body, and make the rest of the human-made transformers his army!"

"And you're only telling us this now?" Ruby snapped at him, "Unbelievable."

"I say he's the humans' problem!" roared Crosshairs, "They built him; it's their fault!"

"But he's more powerful than ever," said Drift, "It is our duty to stop him."

"Call that man," Optimus told Cade, "Warn him about Galvatron. Find out where they have taken the Seed. We will get it back."

"Okay, good," Cade took out his phone and started punching in code to get the right number for KSI's Thomas Evans.

"And then we are done."

"What?" Fear flickered in Ruby. Not even when she had first met Optimus had she felt afraid.

"Done helping humans. I once swore to never kill humans," said Optimus, his voice hard, "But when I find whoever is responsible for killing my friends, for taking you, Ruby, they are going to die!"