Enter Dante, The Rev-9: Book 1: Rogue

Chapter 25: One Shall Rise: Part 2

3rd Person POV

Autobot Base

Dante retracted his exoskeleton out of the computer and turned to face the others as Ratchet called Optimus. "Optimus, have you uncovered any further sign of Unicron's emergence?"

"Unicron is power incarnate, and you, the last of the Primes, shall perish."

"I'll take that as a yes," Ratchet grumbled.

"Gee, you think?" Dante muttered.

"We are on our way!" Ratchet called and prepared to open a Groundbridge, but Optimus cut him off.

"Negative. Unicron cannot be defeated by sheer force. He wants me, Ratchet. This fight must be mine alone." With that, Optimus cut the link.

"What is it with your Sparkmate and his stubbornness?" Dante asked Elita, who only shrugged.

Sighing, Dante turned toward the other Autobots. "Look, we all know that he's going to need help. Orders or no, I don't think anyone here wants Optimus to get himself killed."

Ratchet nodded. "The Groundbridge is still locked on Optimus's position. Get ready to move." Ratchet promptly activated the Groundbridge and opened a portal.

Dante looked over at Arcee. "Be careful out there."

She smirked. "Always am."

"That doesn't really reassure me."

Arcee just shrugged and charged through the Groundbridge along with Elita, Bulkhead, and Bumblebee.

As the portal closed, and he watched his partner go through the Groundbridge, Dante thought back to the time he and someone he cared about went on a rescue mission against Legion.

Flashback Start

It had been two years since their encounter with Dani Ramos, and Katie was now thirteen. After they had returned to their base with the food supplies, Dante had immediately gone to work, removing the rubble while Katie sat and watched, occasionally eating a banana or something.

Once he had finally managed to open access to their food supply, they rarely needed to go out to collect more food. Katie had suggested that they plant a tree using seeds from an apple. Dante had not known how to do that, so she had taught him what she had learned from her mother. Eventually, they had managed to get a nice little forest of apple trees going. It hadn't been very big, but within a few more years, the trees would have been large enough to grow apples.

Currently, Dante was doing some maintenance on one of the choppers while listening to some nightcore music on a radio that he and Katie had found earlier. Dante was in the middle of rigging one of the missile suspensions when Katie suddenly shouted in his ear, "Hey, Dante!"

Yelping, Dante jerked upward, slamming his head against the bottom of the chopper.

Groaning, Dante extracted himself out from under the chopper and faced Katie. Katie had grown a few more inches and had donned some resistance armor that they had resized to fit her. She currently wore the armor over her hoodie and her jeans, while also having her rifle strapped to her back and her sword/pistol at her side.

"Why must you always get my attention like that?" Dante complained. "Does it amuse you or something?"

Katie grinned. "Yep."