The Ascension of Nova Black 17/17

[stainless]

The Ascension of Nova Black

Part 17 of 17

Verse: G1 AU (all characters are OCs.)
Wordcount: 2,800+
Rating: M for violence, dark themes, etc.
Warnings: Violence (battle scenes, damage from fighting, etc.)
Summary: Nova confronts her final enemy. And when she does, her own recklessness finally catches up with her.

Yes, folks. This is the last chapter. The behemoth is finished. I want to thank all of you for coming with me on this wild ride, and I hope seeing it finished might get a few curious people on board as well. Creating this 'verse and these characters has meant so, so much to me and I am beyond elated that so many of you have responded so positively. I wrote this for very personal reasons and it means a lot to me that other people have found enjoyment and meaning in it.

And yes, the title is changed. No, that's not new -- I knew a long time ago what the real title should be, but wanted to wait to reveal it until it was all over.

Thanks muchly to meaisin_caoin for betaing.

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7 - Part 8 - Part 9 - Part 10 - Part 11 - Part 12 - Part 13 - Part 14 - Part 15 - Part 16 - Part 17

"You?" Nova Black's lip plates twisted in derision. "Why would I want you when I have him?"

Oh, it wasn't that Grandeur's offer was all that bad. If his new blue optics were any indication, he'd had more than a little to do with the weapon bedeviling her team. That made him a decent enough prize, if he wanted to do something stupid and Autobot like offering himself in exchange for the bot she was killing.

More than that, he was the closest thing the Settlement had to a leader. If she killed him, the other Decepticons would no doubt be impressed.

As would their superiors. This mission, if it succeeded -- and right now she could not see any way for it to fail -- would get her noticed. Killing him would get her doubly noticed.

The trade was a good one. An excellent one, all things considered. Still, Nova stood by her words. She had, quite simply, been waiting for her revenge too long to make the trade.

"He's not the one who organized all of this," the other bot insisted, his engine revving as he spoke. "He left the war behind, like he said."

"He tore my teammate to scrap," Nova countered, hoping he hadn't heard her say she'd wanted to kill Winder herself.

"He's not the one who set this whole thing up. He's not the reason the Autobots -- the reason we -- installed that weapon here."

His optic strip flared azure. "I am."

"You are." Nova's good arm twitched at Brightbolt's neck. He gave a high cry of pain. "And now you're going to throw all that away to save some vain little bastard who you say didn't even help you much?"

She gritted her denta. They scraped together with a metallic squeal. "Did becoming an Autobot short out your logic circuits, or did I just not realize you're an idiot?"

The battered golden head lowered. "This is my fault."

Brightbolt thrashed under Nova's hand. She kneed him hard between the legs and he went still, his visor flickering.

"It is," Grandeur said. "For not seeing all of this coming sooner. For not seeing you --" he waved a hand at Nova -- "for what you were until too late."

Nova's engines revved in anger. She hissed to calm herself down. He wanted her to kill him. That meant she shouldn't let him provoke her into it. At least not until she knew what was going on.

"You've won, Eclipse --"

He was going to make calming down hard, wasn't he? Her wings flickered. "That's not my name."

"My point is you've won. The weapon's half in flames. I failed the Settlement. I failed myself. I even failed you."

Nova snarled. Her injured arm rose, despite the pain that shot through it as she lifted it. The heat crackling through her laser soothed it. Whatever Grandeur had in mind, he wouldn't have to worry about whether Nova wanted him dead.

His visor flared again. He stared evenly at the gun leveled at him. "There's nothing more I can do here. Except maybe act like what I just became, and trade my life for someone who knew what was happening. Someone who tried to stop it while I pretended not to see what was right in front of me."

Nova's optics narrowed. Could he be telling the truth? As a rule, Autobots did. She hadn't gotten a comm from the others -- but the ground at her feet wasn't shaking any more. Hadn't been for some time, now that she thought about it.

"That's it?"

His blaster fell from his hand and clattered to the ground. "That's it."

Nova's scarred faceplates twisted into a grin as she slid her hand from Brightbolt's neck.

Grandeur nodded, but made no other move.

Nova's good hand transformed in a blur of purple. Snarling again, she plunged the gleaming energon dagger into Brightbolt's chest.

He did not even cry out. His visor flared -- as did his spark, bright as the violet blade that pierced it -- and Nova grunted at the burst of heat. Then he went still, sliding to the ground as Nova slid her dagger free.

"No deal," she answered, her injured arm twitching as she fired.

Grandeur froze, his head thrown back in pain as the lavender light flared around him. Then he shook once, his battered frame gleaming with purpose, and snatched up his blaster.

Slag, Nova thought again. Still, she'd half expected that. He was a grounder, and a big one. And he'd lived here long enough to prove he didn't just die easy.

She transformed again, willing herself to ignore the pain as her arm locked into place and rocketing into the sky just in time to avoid a stream of orange fire from his blaster.

He hesitated, turning his head to half-stare at something behind him. Nova wondered what had caught his attention, even as she took advantage of the free moment and fired again.

Shaken out of his reverie, Grandeur threw himself hard against the wall, narrowly evading Nova's shot. Then his shape shifted as Nova watched.

He's transforming? That won't help him, unless he's got some way to use his weapon in his other --

A half-altered arm reached out and pressed the blaster into a socket on the top of his vehicle mode. It locked into place with a heavy click, swerving in its new mounting, and fired.

Agony flared through Nova's wing. She roared, thrown off balance, and accelerated to avoid slamming into the wall behind her.

To Nova's surprise, Grandeur didn't shoot again. Instead he turned sharply away, at a speed far greater than Nova would have expected. It wasn't nearly as fast as a Seeker in the air, though, and she raced after him, raining purple laser fire at his retreating form.

Some of it hit. Unfortunately for Nova, it didn't seem to do much more than that first shot had. She cursed, racking her processor for something to do about it, when suddenly she heard a voice through her comm link.

"Bane to Nova. We're done here. And leaving. Wherever you are, do not engage any further enemies. Meet us at the fuel reservoir."

Nova's engine roared. "I'm busy right now. Subcommander."

It wasn't technically true. He wasn't shooting back. For all she knew, he was running away.

But damn if that satisfied her. She wasn't just going to leave an Autobot alive when she had him in her sights. Besides, wherever he was going, it would be close to the rendezvous point anyway. She could see the Autobot weapon up ahead, one of its cells dark and the other two shot through with cracks.

Damn. She really had missed it. Her engines revved again, half in pride and half in anger. Still, it didn't matter. She hadn't shot the thing to bits herself, no, but she'd done this. She'd brought the others here. She'd put down this rebellion.

And they knew it.

And whatever Bane wanted, this was the middle of a battle. Surely it wouldn't take too much to convince him she was getting shot at right now.

"Get out of there, Nova Black," rumbled the voice on the other end of the comm. "Now."

She fired as he spoke, hoping it would both hit her enemy and convince Bane she hadn't heard him over it. Then she cut the comm.

She stared at the weapon, cracked and broken, and then at Grandeur, veering to avoid her fire. Was that where he was going? Was it possible that thing could run on the broken, barely-glowing cells that remained?

It didn't matter. She was faster than he was. And he'd have to drive up to it, which meant he wouldn't have a straight shot at it, not when the ground was piled with bodies and rubble and pitted with holes where missiles had hit or where the ground had cracked open --

Nova's engine stalled as she stared. A set of stubby maroon wings extended from Grandeur's back, locking into place with a metallic click. They looked new, less pitted with holes and cracks and dirt as the rest of Grandeur's aged frame. And in their centers, they bore red Autobot insignia, the proper painted kind.

They were ungainly and hideous and whatever mockery of flying the newly-minted Autobot called what he was doing, it was terribly slow.

Still, they were doing their job, and their owner was just-barely-flying toward the weapon's controls, unhindered by the many obstacles on the ground.

"Get. Out. Of. The. Sky," Nova roared, pure rage lending her speed. Violet energy tore from her weapons systems in a blinding burst so intense she could feel her energy levels dropping. She didn't give a damn about that, about herself, about anything but bringing the abomination in front of her down and then tearing it to shreds.

That shot connected, and her systems surged with satisfaction as her enemy twitched, metal clicking against metal as his old frame could no longer hold out against it. Fall from the sky he did, landing in a blackened heap near the weapon's controls.

Nova roared again, heading straight for him, so intent on her prey that she barely saw the charred heap of metal stir to life, crawling toward the control panel.

No! she thought, frantic to pull out of her dive.

Then the world flared orange.

The light came before the pain, bright and terrible and all-consuming, as if she'd been plucked from her battle and transported, somehow, to the center of some hostile planet's sun.

Then agony lanced through her every system, her sensor net aflame with it, her plating cracking as it came apart, or was it melting, or was it both -- ?

She didn't know. She bellowed with rage, half-transforming without realizing she was even trying to do so, desperate to fight this, to survive this, to defeat this, somehow, because she couldn't possibly come this far only for some flying Autobot perversion to destroy her.

Then the light swallowed her completely, and she knew nothing more.

###

Everything was pain.

Pain, and static. Nova Black tossed her head. Or at least she thought she did. Did she have a head any more? Did you need those in the Pit?

She half-smiled. If I'm dead, at least I died fighting.

Winning, if that last communique from Bane had meant anything.

She could see something now, pinpricks and streaks of fiery crimson above her. Others, looking at her.

Welcoming me to hell? she thought feebly, and laughed. Or would have laughed, but what came out was a thin rasp, a grinding sound of gears clicking against one another the wrong way.

Broken, she thought. I'm... broken.

Which means I'm not dead.

Yet.

She croaked, in lieu of a curse. If she wasn't dead, she was dying. She had no doubt of that.

And if she was dying, that meant she'd lost. Her team had won, but she had lost, flying off after the last and greatest of her enemies, sure she could scour her little piece of Cybertron clean.

She'd failed. Failed, and was dying, and if those red things were optics -- which they were, she realized, as her damaged optics focused for a brief moment on the faces of her teammates staring down at her -- then she was doing it in front of everyone.

Slag.

"Her critical systems are unstable, her structural integrity compromised. Permanent deactivation is imminent," rasped a familiar voice. "Estimated time: five minutes."

"Shut up, conehead," she croaked, her hands clutching at nothing, her voice more ruined than Leech's. "Dying, like you said. Leave me alone."

With a supreme effort, she lifted her head and looked down at herself.

She could see nothing recognizable, only twisted, blackened metal and cracked glass. She looked like nothing. Like debris. Like scrap. Hissing in defiance of what she'd seen, she put her head down again.

Fine. She'd die. But not like this. Not thinking about what that damn ray had done to her.

Light glinted off of something long and sharp. It pierced her. Her optics flared in anger, but she didn't otherwise respond. It was pain on top of pain. Why should she care?

Then she felt a jolt of energy, every part of her sensor net flaring to an agonized mockery of life.

"The slag -- are you -- doing?" she snarled, staring at the small green repair drone -- no, it's our medic, she remembered, the influx of energy making her thoughts momentarily clear -- that was pumping the energy into her. "Not -- gonna -- hel --" The rest of her speech became a scream.

Someone -- some big bot, grounder probably, was tearing off the damaged chestplate with his bare hand. Her optics flickered with static as the pain of it overwhelmed her, but she heard a clang as he unceremoniously tossed it aside.

She heard a deep voice now, a calm voice, a voice she'd always hated for its evenness, rumbling as he stared down at her insides. "Her spark is fading."

Leech just told you I'm dying, you lazy idiot, Nova thought, unable to resist lifting her head again and looking for herself. The bright orb still swirled with light, but it was dim, as dim as an enemy's when it finally went out. What the hell did the others think they were doing?

The big one bent over her again. It was Colossus, she saw now, a small plate of metal screwed into his shoulder where one of his arms had been. He was carrying a similar piece of metal, large and angular and, from what Nova could tell, lighter than his.

She turned to look at Bane, surprised. She was dying. Why was it so easy to tell what was going on?

"Critical systems unstable," Leech said again. "Estimated time until shutdown: ten minutes."

The medic chirped, waving its other appendages.

"Then we're getting somewhere," said Bane.

"Why?" Nova started to say, but another surge of energy cut her short, racing through all her systems and shocking her into awareness again.

Awareness, mostly, of how much pain she was in. Who cared if she had another five minutes? Dying was dying.

Unless this was Bane's way of getting her back for killing his favorite little yes-bot. Five more minutes of hurting like slag.

Bane's huge head loomed over her, his visor gleaming angry red. "Why? Because even though you're the sort of damned fool who is more interested in getting herself killed than in prudence, you're the reason all of this happened in the first place."

Another surge blinded her, lightning crackling in her audios. Leech hissed some readout she couldn't hear, and then she heard Bane speaking again. "Because you always were the best fighter I have.

"And I like it when the good ones owe me."

"Slag you," Nova snarled, beyond caring what Bane thought. Bane smirked and twitched his wings. Nova growled, envious, knowing her own wings were completely out of her control.

"Lower it," Bane said.

The medic chirred, its optics flaring, sounding almost as irritated as Nova felt. Her faceplates cracked into a grin.

"It is correct, Subcommander," Leech put it. "While my readings are encouraging, we do not know yet if her spark has retained enough energy to be viable, or if it will simply gutter out for good in a few minutes."

Colossus hovered, frowning, the temporary cover in his hand.

"If she dies, she dies," Bane answered, still smirking. "If we don't get that cover on soon, more promising readings won't matter anyway. If she's strong enough, she'll live."

Nova growled again as Colossus lowered the cover. If she was strong enough? Fine, she thought. Failure or not, she'd live just to spite the bastard.

Leech nodded. Nova gave another wheezing laugh. Before her vision had cleared she hadn't noticed, but now she could see that the cone on the top of his head was bent and twisted, the pale metal blackened where enemy fire had hit it. You look even more ridiculous than usual. I didn't think that was possible. If she died in spite of all this, at least she'd get to do it laughing.

The medic skittered over her frame, his steps sending new flares of pain through her sensor net. Then, using his appendages, he screwed the cover into its place on her chest.

They waited, the medic chirping urgently at Leech, who nodded and waved his scanner at Nova whenever he did. Nova had the distinct impression Leech was doing it because his little green friend was telling him he was supposed to.

She hissed a curse at them. She hurt like slag, and she wasn't sure exactly what they were all waiting for, anyway.

"Well?" Colossus said finally, his broad faceplates creased into a frown.

Leech bent over Nova again, staring intently at the scanner in his hand.

"Critical systems stabilized," he finally said.

Comments

[eerian_sadow]

an excellent ending to a fic that i've enjoyed every moment of. ^_^ i will miss Nova and her sass and wit.

[stainless]

Wow! Thank you so much!

And hey, as I said in the last post, there may be sequels. Just not for a while yet.

[eerian_sadow]

oh yeah. it's always a good idea to take a break between things. otherwise it's easy to end up with something half-asseed, low quality and unfun for everybody.

[senmut]

Congratulations, and job well-done!

[stainless]

Thanks! I'm thrilled you enjoyed it.

[snowdropexplodes.myopenid.com]

"If she dies, she dies," Bane answered, still smirking. "If we don't get that cover on soon, more promising readings won't matter anyway. If she's strong enough, she'll live."

Nova growled again as Colossus lowered the cover. If she was strong enough? Fine, she thought. Failure or not, she'd live just to spite the bastard.

Sounds like the essence of 'Con philosophy (at least as it appears in your fic) summed up in two lines of dialogue! (Also, the sort of pigheaded survival instinct that I deeply respect in anyone - "I'm going to live, just to spite the universe that tried to kill me!")

Very curious to know whether Grandeur was undercover for the Autobots all along, or whether he joined them because he believed it was the best way to help the Settlement, or some other reason?

I love how the final failure (as Nova saw it) seemed so inevitable as it was happening, but never saw it coming until the final moments.

[stainless]

Thanks SD!

Do you want the answer to that question, or not?

[snowdropexplodes.myopenid.com]

Ooh, now... that's actually pretty tricky. Would I be happier with a definite answer, or would I be happier pondering the question in my own way? I could make that case both ways...

I think I would like the answer, although either way the answer would be meaningless without a little bit of the reasoning behind it, if that makes sense? All of which leads to "but now I want to hear the WHOLE story!!!" (This is how I get addicted to books, TV shows etc...)

So, at the risk of all that - yes please.

[stainless]

All right then.

No, he wasn't an Autobot until she left. He was always aware that he leaned more toward that side than the other, but he felt uncomfortable with the idea of openly fighting the 'Cons because of his friend. Who had left, yes, but who never quite got over his visceral dislike of Autobots, even when he was working in close quarters with them to save his new comrades. Grandeur just felt it would be disrespectful to his memory so he settled for being generally approving of Autobot resistance fighters, but doing nothing more than that.

Once Nova informed him in no uncertain terms that she wasn't like his friend and then flew away, he realized exactly what was going on, and contacted them.

[erin_c_1978]

I finally went back to get caught up on this and ended up reading straight through to the end. I read very little Transformers fic, but damn, this is good. I wish I had something more specific to offer, but my brain's sort of broken right now, so I'll just say this -- I'm surprised at how caught up I got in the characters you created, Autobot and Decepticon both, especially your (anti)heroine.

[stainless]

Wow! That's really high praise. I'm very glad that you enjoyed the story, especially when you're not in the fandom. I really appreciate your positive feedback.

Long comment is long!

[lost_carcosa]

This mission, if it succeeded -- and right now she could not see any way for it to fail -- would get her noticed. Killing him would get her doubly noticed. This made me think 'holy crap no! Bad things are about to happen to Nova!'.

I must be a horrible person, but Nova continuing to hurt Brightbolt was very satisfying to read :D And as for what ultimately happens to him, I did feel sorry for him, but far more pleased for Nova!

I love this paragraph: A half-altered arm reached out and pressed the blaster into a socket on the top of his vehicle mode. It locked into place with a heavy click, swerving in its new mounting, and fired.

This as well, excellent description and worldbuilding: A set of stubby maroon wings extended from Grandeur's back, locking into place with a metallic click. They looked new, less pitted with holes and cracks and dirt as the rest of Grandeur's aged frame. And in their centers, they bore red Autobot insignia, the proper painted kind.

And this, damn: The light came before the pain, bright and terrible and all-consuming, as if she'd been plucked from her battle and transported, somehow, to the center of some hostile planet's sun.

She half-smiled. If I'm dead, at least I died fighting. SQUEE!

And this caused even more squee: Failure or not, she'd live just to spite the bastard.

Also, I love how this chapter reveals what's really going on with Leech and the adorable little medic.

*applauds*

That was such an enjoyable and highly entertaining fic. I'm so glad it ended like this, and I can't help but hope that one day there might be a sequel ;)

Re: Long comment is long!

[stainless]

I'm really glad you enjoyed it so much!I really wanted to make sure the ending was interesting and engaging. I'm very glad it worked!

Grandeur's little hybrid wings were actually a late addition. I had wanted Nova to fight a flying Autobot, but I just couldn't find space for an extra battle. I was very upset about this, because I really wanted Nova to be utterly disgusted by actually finding herself face-to-face with a flying Autobot. Then I suddenly thought of Tracks, and I had my answer to my problem. ;-)

And I'm glad that you noticed the bit with his weapon, as well. I always really liked the idea that most Autobots don't come with their weaponry built in because they're not war machines. But I didn't want them to not have guns, because even though I'm an unrepentant Decepticon myself, that's just not sporting! ;-) So I thought of that solution, where it's fairly easy for him to use his blaster in both modes, but it's still noticeable that he doesn't have an integrated weapon system.

I'm really glad you liked the fic. I really hope it doesn't fade into obscurity now, though. *hopeful look*

Re: Long comment is long!

[lost_carcosa]

I love Nova's disgust at facing a flying Autobot, and her desire to get him out of the air is very well done.

Re. the blaster - that makes total sense, and fits in beautifully with the worldbuilding.

I really hope it doesn't fade into obscurity now, though. *hopeful look* I hope it doesn't either! I've edited my squee post over on tf_fic_squee to note that it's now complete. And it's on the Master List of Squee, which people have told me that they use.

Have you posted it on ff.net? I find that people tend to still click on fics I wrote and posted back in April (when I first joined ff.net), and I sometimes get reviews on things that are months old! The culture is so different to LJ and DW, where comments all tend to turn up in the first 24 hours after you post something.

[(Anonymous)]

I just finished reading, but I'm having login issues over at FF.net at the moment, so I thought I'd comment here.

While I have to admit this is not my usual cup of tea, I am quite impressed overall. You've created a well-rounded world with layered characters and it was interesting and lovely to follow them throughout the narrative. Thank you so much for writing this and for directing me to it. :) - Zuzeca

[stainless]

You should be able to comment at FFN whether logged in or not now.

I'm really glad you enjoyed this story... and, honestly, that you gave it a chance. A lot of people don't. They'll read all 70whatever other fics I have up but never touch this. Even if they're the "where's the longfic?" types.

Sigh.

Of course I respect their right to read only what they prefer. But it saddens me. I've never really understood why OCs are seen as such a no-no. What's so wrong with fanworks where people borrow the setting but not the characters?

I've never understood the "borrow everything or borrow nothing" absolutism in fandom.

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you, I dropped off a review over there as well. I do hope that you get more readers on this, it's a nice piece of work.

I don't see anything inherently wrong with borrowing only elements of a particular universe. I've not read it, but I've heard that Wide Sargasso Sea does something along those lines with Jane Eyre; it's hardly uncommon. I suspect people tend to be leery of OC fics, particularly on FF.net, because a lot of them seem to follow the same old 'superpowered/inexplicably amazing OC falls in love with canon character' song and dance. Which is disappointing, because there are some good OC fics out there. It just takes a bit more sifting to find them.

I admit I've been tossing around the idea of a Bayverse OC-centric fic for a while now, but I've been hesitating because I'm uncertain what the response to it would be. Maybe I'll give it a shot, see where it goes.

- Zuzeca