space girl | bumblebee

xix.

"Check this out," Simmons said, holding up a file that had the words "PROJECT BLACK KNIFE' stamped on it. He began pulling out photos of numerous Cybertronian altmodes, eventually surprising Onyxia when she saw her own altmode from the 19th century. She snatched the photo from his hand and stared at the photo. 

"Y-You knew I was here?" she stuttered, suddenly feeling very uncomfortable. Simmons nodded, not picking up on her discomfort. Bumblebee put a hand over hers, intertwining his fingers with her own and bringing their hands to their sides.

"Robots in disguise," Simmons continued, "hiding here all along. We detected radioactive signatures all across the country. I pleaded on my knees with S-7 to investigate it, but they said the readings were infinitesimal, and that I was obsessed. Me. Can you imagine that?"

Sam completely brushed off his rhetorical question. "Megatron said that there was another energon source here and that these symbols, maps in my head, would lead him there," he explained.

"You talk to your Autobot friends about this?"

"No, no, no, the source is before them. Whatever the energon source is, it predates them. It's before them."

"So, it comes before them," Simmons repeated.

"Correct."

"Well, then we're porked, unless we can talk to a Decepticon. I mean, I'm not on speaking terms with them."

"Actually, I am," Mikaela spoke up, causing Onyxia's head to snap towards her with horror.

"What? Don't tell me it's in the..." She turned to Bumblebee slowly and his bright blue eyes widened as he understood what she was insinuating.

The Decepticon was in the boot of his altmode.

Mikaela and Sam left to get the Decepticon, which required Bumblebee's holoform to be unsummoned. Onyxia's hand longed for his own hand's warmth the moment he left her side. She forced the thought to the back of her mind, refusing to acknowledge her feelings for her partner who she knew would never feel the same. She sighed.

"What's up with you, lady? Didn't see your car outside," Simmons asked her.

"Megatron ripped out my spark," Onyxia answered blankly. "He forced it into my holoform, making me human and subjecting me to a final decade of life where my body will slowly degrade and kill itself." The room was silent at her confession. 

"What," Leo said bluntly.

"The Cybertronian spark is not built for a human body, Leo," she snapped. "Common sense, idiot. Nothing in my body is what my spark needs to survive. While it is keeping me alive, my body will be fighting it, believing that it is a foreign object. While stronger than the human heart, the spark can only endure so much. It will shut down in around a decade's time, making me nothing but a husk of what I am now. I will grow weak and ill and useless. A fate worse than death."

"I'm sorry to hear that, Onyxia," Simmons spoke solemnly, surprising Onyxia at the honesty of his words. "I hope you can figure out how to return it to your Cybertronian body." He even used the correct term when referring to her race. She was touched by his words, a part of herself forgiving Simmons for his actions towards her in the past.

"Thank you, Simmons. My father would've known how to help me, I'm sure of it...now he's dead." Her spark hurt whenever she admitted out loud that he was dead. It hurt whenever she realised she had lost her body. It hurt whenever she thought of all the things she lost.

"Grief is not an easy feeling," Simmons said softly. "It takes help from others to quell its grip on your heart...or spark, or whatever it's called." Onyxia snorted, shaking her sorrow away so that she could focus on the task at hand.

"Thanks, Simmons." 

Mikaela, Sam, and Bumblebee returned to the room and Mikaela placed a metal box, which visibly shook, on the table everyone was gathered around.

"Let me out!" the Decepticon inside the metal box yelled, his voice greatly muffled.

"This is going to be a little sad," Mikaela said before she opened the box and pulled on a chain that was attached to the Decepticon which tried to launch itself at the closest person.

"Wheelie?" Onyxia exclaimed, attracting the attention of the Decepticon. He made a noise of surprise when he saw the familiar face of her holoform.

"Master!!" he cried with joy, trying to grab onto her but Mikaela continued to pull on the chain. 

"I did not raise you to be a Decepticon!" she scolded him, which made him whine.

"They threatened my life, master Onyxia," he defended himself, sneering at Mikaela and yelling at her to let the chain go.

"It's alright, Mikaela, he won't hurt us, will you, Wheelie?" Onyxia said, crossing her arms as she glared at her creation. The Cybertronian's creator had brought life to more than ninety percent of Cybertronians, but there were a select few Cybertronians who had the skills and knowledge to create their own, which was the remaining ten percent. Onyxia's creation, Wheelie, was a part of that ten percent. While Onyxia's origins were unknown. Her father did not create her and all he knows about her creation was that he had found her abandoned and broken. He took her in and cared for her, raising her to fight for the rights of others.

Her father had always said that she was his favourite creation despite never having created her. She never asked him why. Strong, brave, independent...he never saw her as a weapon. He raised her from a Sparkling to who she was today. He was her father and she was his daughter, a familial bond that could not be broken through death or distance. It couldn't stop her from feeling the sorrow that came with his loss.

"How the hell do you know him?" Sam exclaimed.

"I created him," she spoke softly, "in a desperate attempt to give myself company here on Earth. He has a part of my spark which gives him life. Where is your brother, Wheelie?"

"He was lost, master Onyxia. I have been unable to find him during my time with the Decepticons," Wheelie explained with a tinge of sorrow. 

"How did...how did your spark become that?" Simmons asked incredulously, motioning to Wheelie.

"I gave parts of myself to build him. Without rarified energon, the life source of all Cybertronians, and our creator, we are left to give parts of ourselves to create others. It's a great sacrifice, and one I had made recklessly. I pulled my body apart to build Wheelie and his brother, Brains. You could call them my sons, almost. They were lost when I was taken by Sector Seven all those years ago," Onyxia explained. "They are small because I would have to have killed myself, giving all of my spark and body so that they could live."

"Fascinating..." Simmons muttered, going to reach for Wheelie but the Decepticon scratched his hand.

"Watch it, meat stick!"