Ruby - Transformers: The Last Knight

Old Alliances and Heavy Artillery

"Come here, girl," 

Megatron's distinctive deep voice growled at Ruby. The ridiculous tusks curling around his face obscured his mouth.

"What?" said Ruby, cupping her ear with her hand, "Come again?"

"RAWR!" 

Megatron lunged for her. His red eyes flashed like lasers. Ruby darted between his huge feet and shot white cords of power out of her hands. She lapped him, tying his legs together.

The giant went crashing to his knees. The sound rebounded around her head, but Ruby left him there and hurried on. Bullets ricocheted off the metal structures all around her, pinging and sparking too close for comfort. That heavy artillery was getting annoying.

"You can't escape ME!"

Megatron swung his axe. Ruby bent over backwards with a gasp. The deadly blade whistled over her face, a hair away from the tip of her nose. Her hands went down and she flipped backwards onto her feet. 

"Get out of my way you oversized walrus!" she cried.

"Why? Looking for someone?" Megatron's red eyes flashed lilac and back again.

He knew about Tom. Ruby bared her teeth. She threw up her hand and blasted him with a fire ball. He dodged it and dropped his axe. Ruby sidestepped out of the way and the axe head clanged against the ground like the toll of a giant bell. It's sharp edge tore into the metal structure and stuck. 

Megatron's shoulders grinded against his armour as he tried to pull it free. Ruby danced along the axe's handle and brought forth a white line of her power to wield like a lightsaber. Her fingers trembled as the raw energy burned and struggled against her hand. With a feral scream she ripped into Megatron's arm. 

"ARGH!" he scrambled backwards and swiped for Ruby with his good arm. She swivelled under his elbow and severed his arm. The ends cracked and snapped like she'd cut a live wire. The sparks showered Ruby's hands like a thousand needles but her muscles sang with strength. 

She wasted no more time with Megatron; he'd only find another way to come back from the dead if she killed him. Not worth the effort. She turned her attention to the rocket launcher perched above the cave, dusty bronze and the size of a house . Next on the hit list, then she could search for Tom without distraction.

"Keep Meg down!" she heard Santos call to his men, "Ruby, take out that artillery!"

"I don't take orders from you," she spat over her shoulder, "But I just happen to be going that way."

Ruby zigzagged towards the weapon, her shield unwavering in the line of fire. Despite all the madness and energy and explosions, Ruby felt the coldness of the dead planet. She felt it beneath her rapid feet, it blew across her face and crept into her pores. Empty, lost, hollow. It wasn't right. The bracelet vibrated around her wrist. She clenched her teeth and ran on, until a voice stopped her:

"Heads up! I'm gonna blow a hole in that son of a-"

Hound unleashed his alien machine gun in a deafening fashion. Ruby turned in time to see the rest of the autobots and Cade come up behind him. He locked eyes with her. 

They might try to stop her. She couldn't let them, and she sure as hell couldn't hurt them. She sprinted for the cave, sending ripples through the air. Her hair streamed behind her like a gold streak.

Bullets whizzed past, soldiers shouted, aliens roared, and over it all, Ruby could hear someone calling her name. It spurred her on. She drew deep into her power as she ran, pulling more and more from within herself. It filled her lungs. Her arms tingled and tremored. Red, blue and white light swirled around her entire body. Her leg muscles coiled beneath her and she sprung ten feet into the air. With a scream, she hurled the power at the artillery. Blood pounded in her head. More and more power burst from her palms like fire. 

The weapon blew to smithereens. A shockwave slammed into Ruby and she cartwheeled over, all limbs and hair and light. Her ears rang.

"RUBY!" 

She took a deep breath, dusted herself off and looked at Lennox; 

"What?"

He pointed to the cave below the smoking remains of the weapon. 

"Prime just emerged from there,"

Ruby's eyes frantically searched the hexagon maze, but it was no use, it was too hard to see. 

"Please Ruby," Lennox continued, "You don't have to face him. Let TRF bring him down."

His brutal choice of words made her flinch. Her eyelids fluttered. Bring him down? Disarm him, perhaps, or trap him. But bring him down? It couldn't come to that.

"You make it sound like it's possible," said Ruby. 

"Please,"

"You keep saying that!" Ruby grabbed fistfuls of her hair, "What is with you?"

"They're going to kill you!" Lennox blurted out, "Santos wants to use you, you're lucky this all happened, it distracted them; the whole reason TRF was formed in the first place was to hunt you down!"

"Pfft, TRF has had plenty of good shots at me over the last few days and here I am," she held out her arms.

"It's true! They're using you for now, but then... It's why I'm not in charge, it's why I'm here in the first place, because I know you, because I trained you. They threatened my family." He couldn't look her in the eye. So that's why he looked so broken. His heart was split in two, like hers.

Ruby rolled her shoulders. "Right. Now I see. The government is using you too. Of course they are, God," she put one hand on her forehead and the other on her hip.

"They want to wipe the slate clean, no transformers, no alien weapons, no loose ends."

"Yep, I get it." She paced away a few steps, muttering about being a 'loose end' then came back.

"Look, none of this matters any more. Help me find Tom, he's better at explaining than me, it's all medicine and science and blah,"

"Explain what?"

"Just help me get him to safety."

They stared each other down in the middle of the battle field. Ruby, her skin glowing with power, in a ripped hoody and filthy jeans. Lennox, cropped hair sprinkled with grey, sweat glistening on his face, gun loose at his side. He looked away.

"We used to trust each other." said Ruby, "Trust me one last time."

He swallowed. He nodded and took up his weapon. Ruby nodded back.  And together they made for the cave.