Ruby - Transformers: The Last Knight

Calm Amongst the Chaos

Ruby crashed through the road blocks as the sun tried to rise. Pastel colours leaked out from the mass in the sky that was Cybertron. 

Ruby drove blindly through the gunpowder haze and the grenade smoke. The car bucked and skidded over the rough terrain. Her foot forced the accelerator all the way to the floor. The steering wheel grew warm with white light as her power flowed into the car, pushing faster, faster, faster.  

Only when a huge crater threatened to swallow her whole did she slam on the breaks. The car spun. Ruby stepped out, still and deadly among the chaos. 

Armed forces were everywhere, running around in groups, yelling over the constant hum of engines and gunfire and smacking helicopter blades. But not an alien robot in sight. Ruby looked up. 

Cybertron loomed above them, taking up the entire sky. It was now well and truly in Earth's atmosphere. It was made of hexagons upon hexagons, six sided shapes spiralling out, fitting into each other, joined by cables and scaffolding thicker than skyscrapers. It's size was beyond comprehension. And that must be where Optimus was. Where Tom was. But how was she going to get up there?

Ruby closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. After she was done choking on all the smoke, she tried to remember how she had hovered yesterday when she was mad at Crosshairs and Hound. She imagined gravity dropping away, she imagined feeling weightless, floating like in water. 

Nothing. She didn't have time for this. 

Ruby stalked up to the closest aircraft: a small cargo copter. 

"Stay where you are."

Ruby held up her hands and ground her teeth. And silently removed the KSI cannon from Lennox's grip. She turned to face him, lowering her arms as the cannon appeared to dissemble its self in midair. The parts fell to the ground.

"You shouldn't be here," said Lennox. He looked much the same as the last time Ruby had seen him; hair a mess, uniform covered in black ash, eyes rimmed red. 

"This is exactly where I should be," Ruby looked up at Cybertron again.

Lennox's hands went to his weapons but he didn't draw them. He knew it would be pointless. 

"Where is Grimlock?" sweat slid down his temples.

"I'm not possessed," Ruby said flatly, "I just want my family back."

"Optimus is not himself,"

"I'm not talking about him." Ruby wiggled her ring finger.

Lennox's face went as white as a sheet. Finally, someone who understood the full danger of a woman enraged with world-destroying power.

"Oh," he managed.

"Lennox!" his boss, Santos, called from the helicopter. "Get in here, we're going up."

"We have a situation!" Lennox called back.

"No we don't, bring the girl with you, god knows we need her."

Ruby walked towards the open door. At least this army tough guy called her a girl and not an asset.

"Ruby," Lennox kept pace with her, "Please, think about this,"

"I'm done thinking," she said, hopping into the copter and taking a seat. He copied her. "All I've done is think, strategy, 'how do we hit this target with minimum casualties, how do we stop the latest alien threat?' I'm tired, Lennox. You made me retire. I remembered that I was human first, that I am human. Now I'm going to do what normal humans do, and protect my family with all that I've got no matter the cost."

"We don't have a choice Lennox," said Santos, "She's an excellent distraction at the very least."

Distraction. More like bait. Ruby didn't care.

The blades of the helicopter became too loud for words. Burning fuel and hot metal stunk out the cabin in an instant. The sky was not a safe place to be. Deception ships were afoot. Bullets flew. Ruby protected their aircraft with a force field, keeping them out of the crossfire until they were over the lip of Cybertron. They landed on the corner of a large, flat hexagon.

Ruby was the first out, swiftly followed by Lennox and Santos.

"I want constant eyes on Ruby!" yelled Santos to his team, "Do not let her out of range!" he readied his machine gun, "After you."

Behind them, the helicopter exploded in a ball of fire. Hot air blasted across their faces. So this was Cybertron. Black skeletons of towering structures spiralled into space. Segments of giant hexagons held onto the planet core by stretched cables, creating giant craters for them all to fall in. 

Ruby danced around the hexagon outlines, pulling ahead of the TRF. Her feet tip-tapped over the metal. This place felt familiar. Perhaps she had been here in her dreams. Perhaps the autobots had shown it to her many years ago. Bits of planet, big and small, floated around her. She ducked and dodged, skirting round debris and craters. Some hexagons were hollow all the way through; looking at the green Earth so far below made Ruby's stomach turn. 

"COVER!"

Ruby dived into a crater as rapid gunfire exploded overhead. 

"That's no ordinary weapon, human or alien!" said Santos.

The shooting redirected elsewhere. Ruby popped her head above ground.

"It's heavy artillery, perched above some sort of cave entrance to our left,"

Santos looked for himself; "That's the heaviest of heavy, it's a rocket launcher, rapid and more advanced than anything I've ever seen," the jets of fire reflected in his wide eyes.

Ruby was unconcerned with their weapon fascination. She had to find Tom. 

She launched herself out of the crater and ran along the edges of the hexagons right into the open. The huge guns turned on her like hungry predators. Ruby could smell their hot powdery breaths. She could see down their gaping barrels, see the metal turning gold with heat as they powered up. She powered up too.

Something hit her from the wrong direction, something cold.  She somersaulted through the air and landed on her feet like a cat. Her ribs gave a ghostly ache. She narrowed her eyes at the transformer casting her in shadow:

"You."