Black Wolf

Chapter 6

Optimus woke up in his berth room with a startle. He usually didn't dream much while recharging, but this time he did. Dream was a bit of a stretch. Nightmare seemed to describe it better.

In his dream, he was back in the demolished remains of their former base. The Decepticon warship was hovering overhead and a giant alien fortress could be seen few miles out. Optimus noticed that he was unharmed even while everything around him was burning. But when he looked closely at the wreckage, he found the bodies of his team, lifeless and gray. Then he found Arcee, venting slowly. He rushed over and cradled her in his arms. She felt cold and her optics were flickering.

"Help me," said Arcee quietly. Before Optimus could say anything, Arcee's optics blinked out and her frame started turning a grayish color. Optimus felt tears running down his faceplate. Then, he heard laughter above him.

"Didn't I tell you? You could never save them."

Optimus looked up and saw Black Wolf standing in the smoke and fire. The spider's laughter continued to rattle on even when Optimus had woken up. He wanted to curse. That Primus-forsaken mech had peered into his spark and rooted out his deepest fears! Optimus tried to get his mind off of the matter by visiting Arcee in the med bay.

It had been a few days since Optimus' fight with Black Wolf. Agent Fowler had finally found a place for the kids and contacted Raf and Miko's families. June Darby barely let Jack out of her sights. No doubt he was being smothered with motherly love. But who could blame her?

Arcee was a bit of a different story. Airachnid's venom had severely damaged her systems during the 24 hours while she was held captive. Her color had return to its normal blue hue, but Ratchet had to work 24/7 to keep her in a stable condition. When Optimus walked into the room, Ratchet was gone and Arcee's monitor was beeping regularly. He walked over to her berth and sat down. She looked like she was still recharging, but Optimus spoke to her softly.

"Arcee? How are you feeling?"

She opened her optics.

"Like pounding Airachnid in the faceplate," Arcee gave Optimus a small smile and chuckled. Optimus smiled back.

"Thank you for coming back for us."

"Arcee, I wouldn't have let anything happen to you or Jack," he took Arcee's hand into his own, "Never again."

Optimus vented in relief. He would fight to his dying breath if it meant his team could live another day.

How could he have done that? I had him where he was most vulnerable. He shouldn't have been able to smoke me out.

Black Wolf sat in the command center of the Reaper quietly. During the fight, he hadn't taken much damage from the Prime, but the shock that he felt when Prime had taken him down in the dark threw off his focus. The darkness was his realm, his sanctuary!

Black Wolf tried to wrap his helm around previous events.His once perfect plan was now shattered. If they didn't have Optimus Prime's head, then Airachnid couldn't win back Megatron's favor with it. Their revenge was out of reach once again. Black Wolf started stroking his chin.

Airachnid came into the command center.

"What are we going to do? Your old plan will never work now. And it never will."

"I know that," Black Wolf snapped, "I just need time to think! Megatron isn't going anywhere at the moment. We have more than enough time."

Airachnid looked at him puzzled.

"His forces are growing stronger every waking moment. What makes you think that we have time to wait?"

"Intuition," Black Wolf folded his servos together. A smile started to creep onto his faceplate and got bigger as an idea began to grow.

The End

I know that this was a relatively short chapter and it leave a lot of cliffhangers. But bear with me! I'm going to end this story here to be able to work on my other stories. BUT, there will be a part 2 to this that will wrap up the whole thing. If you guys have any suggestion or things you would like to see happen, don't hesitate to leave me a comment! Laters!