Eyes of the Eons

Chapter 11: Disobeying Orders

By the time Megatron landed and transformed, Minerva's adrenaline rush had worn off. She was a groaning, bloody mess, curled up in the fetal position around her arm, fingers holding back the flow of blood with something akin to success.

Megatron was talking again, but his words were difficult to make out. She focused on breathing, but even that was askew, it's rhythm too fast, too panicked. Minerva felt herself sliding out of Megatron's grip and moaned loudly as her sense of safety vanished.

There was a light touch on her shoulder, the sound of another voice, and then Minerva felt no more.

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The first sensation that returned upon the arrival of consciousness was pain. Her arm felt stiff and a sort of prickly pain radiated from her forearm. A whine escaped her lips, followed by the opening of her eyes and an assault of bright lights.

No, bright optics.

"Optimus?" Minerva mumbled.

"Unfortunately, no," the bot took a step back and Minerva could see the yellow and black paint of his face.

Immediately, she jumped to conclusions, her body jumping forward and springing off of whatever surface she'd been on. Her vision swayed with black dots and Minerva stumbled sideways for a moment, her arms outstretched, and then set her sights on the bot.

"You!" Minerva sneered. "What have you done to Megatron!?"

"Uh," the bot put his servos up in surrender, "nothing! He's out searching for Optimus."

Minerva's eyes narrowed. "How do I know you're telling the truth?"

"Because he's Bumblebee," a new voice cut in.

Minerva turned again, this time, surprised to see a man in his twenties. His hair was messy, but had an incredible amount of volume. It was brown, like his eyes, which were watching her from behind a set of simple black glasses. Below that was a muscular body, barely concealed by long white sleeves and a brown vest.

"I'm Rafael Esquivel," the man told her, "but you can call me Raf. I'm Bumblebee's partner. We came on the behalf of Optimus Prime to help you and Megatron get out of this mess."

Agent Darby's call to Arcee came back to her. "Don't worry, I know. Raf would tell Bumblebee, and Bumblebee would tell Optimus."

Minerva relaxed a bit. "So why is Megatron searching for Optimus?"

"He was taken at the same time you were," Raf explained, glancing at his computer. "We're almost certain your enemies hired MECH to deal with Optimus. Megatron's flight abilities give us the advantage of covering more ground in the search. We don't have the tech Fowler provided us with back in the old days, so our range is limited."

Minerva frowned. "MECH? Agent Fowler?"

Raf nodded. "Agent Fowler was the government liason of the Autobots about a decade ago, back when the war was in motion. He, unfortunately, died of heart failure a few years back. MECH, on the other hand, is still very much alive. They're a terrorist organization that loves taking bots apart. Their goal has been to create a stable human-cybertronian weapon."

Minerva licked her lips. "So what are they going to do to Optimus?"

Raf looked down. "We... don't know for sure. For now, we can only search and hope he is okay."