Die Alone Die Together

Ch. 18 Reality

Out of nowhere, Galvatron was rained upon from the side with a hailstorm of bullets.

"Over here, A-hole!" A familiar gruff voice shouted, momentarily catching the Decepticon off guard. Crosshairs nimbly weaved in and out of cover, spraying bullets at his opponent whenever he had the chance. He was trying to turn Galvatron completely away from Song.

"Crosshairs, No!!" Song forced herself to sit upwards, trying to gather enough strength to fight back and aid her friend. She knew Galvatron couldn't be killed, not with normal cybertronian weapons at least. He had no spark!
Crosshairs was practically taunting death itself.
...........

From the very beginning, she had always been on their side. Her loyalty unwavering.

She'd helped him. She gave everything she had and more, just keep him safe. He'd been a jerk towards her and yet, she still gave away her life's work, her property, her dogs, her only friend. And she would have readily given her life, if that's what it would have taken to protect him. To protect them. 

And when he was on the ground, she could have run away. She could have so easily left him for dead. But she didn't. She saved him. She kept working with him, steadily chipping away the icy wall he didn't even realize was there.
She kept her promises.

And then, they were partners. Traversing the wilds, enduring the hardships, and ultimatly working together to survive. There were times they could have left eachother for dead, but they didn't. They stayed together, and they would continue to stay together to the bitter end.

He promised himself that.
...........

"Idiot!" Galvatron yelled to his attacker. He turned around and locked onto his target. The second Crosshairs made the mistake of changing cover at the wrong time, he fired. He fired the shot that had been meant for her...

"Crosshairs!!" Song cried out in horror.

Crosshairs froze, an excruciating pain began to burn it's way through his chest. He dropped his guns. The weapon fired upon him had been especially made to damage Sparks.

The blue in his optics dimmed considerably. He slowly looked down to see black smoke beginning to rise from his spark chamber. He glanced back up to see Song watching in utter terror. What was it he saw in her optics? Fear? Anger? Sorrow? Regret?
He took a final gasp as he helplessly fell to the ground.

Song couldn't speak, she couldn't even think, her entire body locked up. It was as if, for the moment, she didn't even exist on Earth.

Galvatron turned back to his prey, stalking over to her in fury. Reaching down, he grabbed her by the throat, lifting her above him in the air. She dwarfed him by a mile, and then some. Truly, she was nothing more to him than a pesky mouse that needed to be taken care of... perminatly. He pressed his cannon directly onto her spark chamber, powering it up a second time.

"No! Don't kill her!" Roger shouted, still watching from above. And whipped around, looking at his employees, "Review the overwrite codes. Prepare to set an immediate emergency shut down on all prototypes."

His assistants looked shocked, and quite frankly, terrified, "But Sir... Galvatron! He'll--"

"Do it now!" His face was distorted in rage, "He's going to kill my daughter!"

They fearfully obeyed, furiously typing various codes into their terminals.

"Galvatron! We had an agreement! You told me you wouldn't kill her!" Roger cried frantically.

Galvatron, still glaring at Song as he held her up by her neck, replied callously, "I made no such promise."

Roger's mind raced for a solution. Any solution. He hadn't spent seven years tracking down his only child for nothing.
In truth, there was a small part of him that regretted how he had raised her... if he'd raised her at all. When it came down to it, all he ever wanted was to start over with her again. He just didn't know how to go about it. And only now, too late, did he realize he'd been wrong... about everything.
"I can overwrite everything you've done! Then I'll wipe out whatever's left of your army with the press of a button!"

"You what?!"

Roger turned to his crew, nodding to them, "Do it."

All at once, every remaining prototype left in the city collapsed as their life signals were abruptly shut down for good.

Infuriated, Galvatron threw Song to the side carelessly. She was too small a matter to deal with now. He repositioned his cannon to the sky, directly at Roger.

Song pushed herself off the pavement, but her mind was foggy, not functioning what-so-ever. She saw her father from the corner of her eye, but it was almost as if she couldn't recognize him... like he was a different person. Someone she'd never known.
She turned towards Crosshairs, and began to use all her strength to pull herself towards him.

Galvatron fired, hitting the helicopter and sending it flying backwards into its twin. Both aircrafts fell to the ground in a fiery heap.

The world seemed to slow as some of the dinobots and Autobots returned from transferring the Seed safely over the bridge. They had no hesitation in coming to their teammates' aid, charging forward on a full on attack against Galvatron.

The Decepticon knew he was now outmatched, and made a quick escape through the mazes of the city.

While her friends passed her by, chasing him down to make sure he didn't return, Song continued to crawl towards Crosshairs' body. Amazingly, she seemed to gain strength with every foot she drew closer. Before long, she was at his side.

The sight of him broke every fiber in her being, inside and out. His optics still open, but dully blue--almost gray... Much like the once vivid, eye-catching green that colored his body and armor, and that brilliant trenchcoat he had fanned out underneath him.
His spark chamber was still steadily releasing smoke, energon leaking from the gaping hole. It was everywhere. The amount of Energon he'd bled seemed unreal to her... Her hands were covered in it.

It was like the reoccurring nightmare she'd finally stopped having over four months ago, the night she'd met him. Only now, it wasn't a dream or memory. It was reality.