Nova Black 12/?
The Ascension of Nova Black
Part 12 of 17
Verse: G1 AU (all characters are OCs.)Wordcount: 1,730+
Rating: M for violence, dark themes, etc.
Warnings: Not much, really, this time around I don't think.
Summary: Nova returns to the Settlement to set things up for the coming battle.
Thanks muchly to
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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
Nova Black tapped her shoulder, grinning. Things were about to get interesting. "Nova to Quake. Are you receiving?"
"This is Quake," chuckled the voice on the other end of the comm link. "How's it going, Eclipse?"
"Just reminded you. My name is Nova Black," she snarled back.
"Fine, Blackie." He paused, then added, softly, "So they haven't slagged you after all."
"I didn't come all this way to get myself killed." Her wings twitched. "Besides, you wouldn't have worked as hard as you did to get me to fly back here if you'd just wanted me shot. You've got weapons of your own." Her lip twisted into a fierce grin again. "Unless you're admitting you're too big of a coward to try."
"Hey, I remember what you did to those poor bots who crossed you a while back. I do have guns, but I would have been a damn fool to point them at you. Even before you headed back to the Decepticons."
Nova chuckled. "And now?"
"Now... I'm just glad we're on the same side."
"For the moment."
"Easy there, Decepticon. We're betraying the same bots. For the same reasons."
Her new optics flashed, though the big bot wasn't there to see them. "No, you're betraying the bots you chose to live with because you think it'll work out best for you."
She turned her head, looking at one of her wings and the purple symbol gleaming in the center of it. Staring at it, she felt a dull ache, a last, faint reminder of what she'd endured to earn it. "I just went home."
"A Decepticon who thinks she's got the moral high ground?" She heard a grating, metallic whistle. "Now I've heard it all."
"That's not what I said."
"Isn't it? Making this all about 'going home.'" He huffed, his vents expelling air in a great burst of noise. "Just remember who convinced you to do that in the first place."
"Don't flatter yourself, big bot," Nova shot back, her optics flaring again. "You didn't make me want to come back here. You just convinced me that if I did come back, I'd have a chance."
"Heh." Quake chuckled again, metal creaking as his faceplates shifted. "Don't tell me you commed me just to debate."
Nova's hands tightened into fists. "No, I commed you because we have something to do. Just tell me whether you have a shift in the tower."
"Of course I do. Tomorrow. First shift."
Nova grinned again. "Excellent. I'll be there."
###
She circled high above the Settlement. The problem with the Tower, she reflected, was that heading there meant she'd be obvious to anyone looking for her.
She had reinstalled and activated the device altering her paint job, as much of it irritated her to hide her new brands. She'd also transformed, so no one would see her new red optics either. But after she'd been gone for days, she doubted anyone who saw her wouldn't be suspicious. She could do her best to lie, but she'd already burned those bridges.
And she couldn't lurk up here forever. She dove, trying to keep behind as much cover as she could find, but there wasn't much. She sped toward the tower, hoping speed would make up for visibility, and hit the ground transforming as she rushed inside.
She hurried into a dark corner, transformed, and dimmed her optics. Quake had told her that he would be alone here, and she had no particular reason not to believe him. Still, it paid not to take any chances.
"Ecli -- Nova," said a familiar voice. Nova heard the creaking of the big bot's joints shifting as he turned away from the dimly lit console.
She spared him a tight little smile. "Yes, it's me."
"You don't look any different," he answered, the beady yellow optics shifting in their sockets as he looked her over. "At least not from here. Step into the light, will you?"
"I don't look very different now, no, but I will later. Besides --" She stepped forward, brightening her optics.
He whistled, a grating, metallic shriek. "So you really mean to do this."
"Yes." She smirked and walked over to the console.
Quake's servos groaned as he hastened to get out of Nova's way, the round optics wide.
"Scared of me now?" Nova chuckled, opening her comm link.
"Nova to Base Six."
A familiar, raspy voice answered. "Base Six here. Receiving you clearly."
She smirked, seeing Quake shudder beside her. "Excellent. And my signal?"
"Masked by the signal dampener at the moment."
Nova's wings twitched in spite of themselves. The damned thing was an impediment at the moment, but if it still worked, that meant all she'd done to keep it operational had worked after all.
"It won't be for long," she grunted, moving over to the signal dampener. It stood mounted in a bright field of energy, surrounded by the half broken hodgepodge of devices that Nova and others had installed to amplify it and keep it running.
She had considered shutting it down gracefully, deactivating each of the systems that provided power amplification one by one. In the end, she simply reached out and grabbed it, the energy stinging her hand as she ripped it free. There was no need for subtlety now. As soon as she deactivated it by whatever measure, her signal would be obvious to anyone. She'd hidden her identity to get here, but there was no need for subtlety now.
Quake stared at her, his wide mouth curling in admiration, disgust, or both as alarms blared through the control room. "That's one way to do it, 'Con."
She ignored him, quickly moving to install the device in a port in her side. It had been hers before she'd given it to the Settlement, after all.
It was poetic in its way. She'd stolen it once so she could leave Base Six. Now she was stealing it so she could leave Settlement Four behind. She chuckled, running a hand along it idly.
"We're picking your signal up loud and clear," rumbled a familiar, hated voice.
Not for long, Subcommander, she thought, turning it back on again.
"And now you're gone," Winder yowled over the comm, as if her signal's disappearance were some sort of affront.
"But everyone else isn't," she snapped back, though even he couldn't possibly be stupid enough not to know it. "Just making use of a resource, since I've got it."
Bane rumbled again, this time in a clear warning.
"Relax, Subcommander," she hissed back. "I've got no reason to fly off now. Where the slag do think I'd go, exactly? I'm on my way to the rendezvous point now."
She cut the comm, her hand moving to another device and hesitating there. The electronic paint job had served her well over the stellar cycles, but after returning to Base Six she'd only come to loathe it more with each passing day. Looking down at herself while wearing it disgusted her, but even seeing it there in her port made her lip curl in disgust.
She didn't need it. She wouldn't need it. Her weapons systems hummed as she imagined tearing it from her port and blasting it into oblivion.
But however obvious she'd just made her signal for a moment, a pretty lightshow of lavender laser fire in the tower would be a bit much, she knew.
And someone, whether back at Base Six or somewhere else in the sector, could use such a handy device. Hell, even Winder was more of a spy than a fighter. If she threw it out and blew it up, she'd likely have to hear him screeching about how impossible she'd made intelligence-gathering for the next ten stellar cycles. No, she couldn't just incinerate the thing, however much she liked the idea.
But she didn't have to leave it on. Not now. Not when the tower's alarms were blaring so loud they echoed through her new audios. Not when the entire Settlement was surely looking at one another in mounting worry, wondering why they suddenly could sense one another's signals again after stellar cycles of invisibility.
Not when every last pair of yellow optics in Settlement Four was surely staring up at the sky, looking for something shaped like the Seeker they finally knew for sure had returned, and brought betrayal with her.
She pressed her fingers to the device, wings clicking in satisfaction as she watched the dull blues and grays of her disguise deepening to black and darker gray, the yellow pinstripe on her wings gleaming bright defiance in the small control room.
Quake stared, his already round optics growing impossibly wide as he stared at the bright metal of her new frame, the new weapons on her arms, the sleek shape of her new chestplate... the span of her new wings.
The brands adorning them, gleaming lustrous purple even in the dim light of the tower.
His mouthplates clicked as they ground against one another, but no words came from his broad mouth.
Nova didn't wait for him to think of them. She had no time for that.
"I'm leaving now, like I told them. I'll be flying. You know where I'm going already."
She smirked. "The only question is whether you've got the ball bearings to come with me, or whether you're going to roll off somewhere and hide while everything burns."
He stared back, his yellow optics still wide. "In the beginning," he said, his mouthplates clicking as they moved, "I thought you'd be too scared to go through with any of this, Seeker. You said you'd left your old life behind and I believed you. And didn't like you much, because I thought you had no spark.
He blew air noisily through his vents. "Now you're calling me terrified, and you might just be right. This scares the slag out of me, now that it's happening for real.
"But everything I might have reconsidered is already happening. I'm with you. I'll be there, if they don't catch me on my way down and stop me."
He chuckled with a sudden thought. "Or shoot you out of the damn sky."
She didn't pause to answer him, or even to acknowledge him. She was taking off and transforming already, his words trailing behind her as she rocketed into the sky.
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I finally had time to read it, and I am in envy of your character building.
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Thank you, as always, for sharing your writings.
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i love this fic a little more every chapter.
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A few lines I particularly liked:
He whistled, a grating, metallic shriek.
But however obvious she'd just made her signal for a moment, a pretty lightshow of lavender laser fire in the tower would be a bit much, she knew. Although I bet she wants to ;)
Quake stared, his already round optics growing impossibly wide as he stared at the bright metal of her new frame, the new weapons on her arms, the sleek shape of her new chestplate... the span of her new wings.
The brands adorning them, gleaming lustrous purple even in the dim light of the tower. Gorgeous.
I like how Winder shows up so briefly in this, and yet kinda steals the show a little ;) Not from Nova (can't steal the show from Nova), but from Quake. That said, Quake's final speech - very nice. He's a thoughtful mech, and I like how he isn't concerned about admitting his fear in front of her.
*applauds*
And now there's not more... noooo...
You have written a skilled, female seeker who isn't a sue!
I didn't think it was possible.
You astound me.
Re: And now there's not more... noooo...
I'm elated you approve so intensely!