Author's Note – Special thanks to reviewer sparklespepper for being so patient with me while at the same time gently poking me now and then about this story. It's not that I believe in the practice of an author demanding reader interest for her to deign to continue a given fic. Quite the opposite, in fact – I hate when writers do that. This story sitting fallow as long as it has, has been due to some logistics glitches in the story itself, namely working out the "blocking" of the coming battles (I have a strong-ish theater background, can you tell? XD), as well as RL attempting to eat me alive for the past year and a half. But sparklespepper's continued interest has encouraged me to keep coming back and trying to pick at the battle sequence and block out something workable, especially given the number of characters present. My deepest apologies if I flub any characterizations, now or in later chapters. I have tried – and will continue to try – my hardest to handle everyone well. My New Year's Resolution is to finish this fic this year. :jazz hands!:

My thanks also as always to my friend, MyAibou, for always being willing to beta for me, especially in a fandom she's not familiar with. ILU, BB!

Cybertronian time measurements: vorn = 83 Earth years, stellar cycle = 1 Earth year, deca-cycle = about 3 Earth weeks, solar cycle = 1 Earth day, a joor = about two Earth hours, breem = 8.3 Earth minutes, astro-second = .498 Earth second.

Disclaimer – "Transformers" and all related characters, events, and concepts belong to Hasbro, Takara, and any other related owners/distributors/producers. I get no monetary benefit from this. My benefit is the enjoyment of dealing with beloved characters.

"Paid in Full"
by DragonDancer5150

Chapter 7 – Terms of Engagement

Desolation Canyon, Utah
Three hours later

If there was one gripe Optimus Prime had about Earth with its odd, ever-changing terrain, its speed-limiting traffic rules, and its even more limiting vehicular builds, it was how long it could take to get from Point A to Point B, especially when time was of the essence. And there was no available transport shuttle, living or otherwise. Not that he didn't completely understand the causes of and the needs for such limits, but it grated on him all the same at times. Like now.

As it was, they'd broken speed limits whenever safe to do so to make it as far as they had in the time they had. Also, Prowl's alt-mode as a police cruiser, Inferno's fire truck alt, and Red Alert's alt as a fire chief's vehicle had proven extremely advantageous, changing intersection lights and using their sirens to get people to move. And the rest of the convoy expertly sticking bumper-to-bumper and door-to-door with no visible drivers – plus the sight of the Dinobots flying low overheard – was generally enough to keep others from trying to fall in among or too close behind to take advantage of their momentum.

The sun had dropped over the horizon a joor ago. Optimus had lost visual on his two aerial scouts due to loss of the artificial lighting that came with civilization and a thick cloud cover blanketing the stars from view. True, he could track them via onboard scanners, and they were well within communications range, but there was something comforting about being able to see his mechs.

Especially considering what they were up against.

Megatron had Wheeljack. And he had what seemed to be a fully-functional Negavator. Optimus remembered the incredible power of the last one and could only hope that he was mistaken about the "fully-functional" part now. Not because he had any question about his chief engineer's abilities, but because he knew to rely on them. Because he knew that if Wheeljack had been at all able to slip it in, he would have sabotaged the terrible weapon. Wheeljack was a lot of things, but Optimus knew as well as anyone that, when push came to shove, the engineer was absolutely no fool.

He just hoped his engineer was all right.

"Grimlock!" Swoop's voice over the company-wide comm cut through Optimus' thoughts just then. "We coming up on canyon soon."

"Confirmed, Prime." That was Powerglide. "Me an' Swoop are about to zoom over it now, which means you guys're probably Ee-Tee-Ay about a breem, maybe breem-and-a-half."

"Understood, Powerglide, Swoop. Prowl, Grimlock, take your teams and split off following your scouts' advice. Everyone keep open comms. Remember – minimal contact with the Decepticons. We don't want a drawn-out fight. It could get Wheeljack hurt if not killed, plus it would give Megatron far too much chance to turn that Negavator on us. We got lucky that no one was seriously hurt by the last one. I don't intend to press that luck. Get Wheeljack, destroy the Negavator, get out."

"Him Wheeljack maybe not still there."

"I'm aware, Grimlock. In which case, Jazz's team will extract him with Bumblebee, or else we'll hunt him and his captors down between there and here. Let's just focus on one thing at a time for now."

"Dinobots hunt good." The threat in the T-rex's growl was crystal-clear.

The two flanking teams split off, Grimlock leading Snarl, Slag, and Sludge while Mirage, Red Alert, and Bluestreak veered away behind Prowl's lead. Remaining with Optimus were Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, Smokescreen, Trailblazer, Warpath, Ironhide, Gears, Huffer, Inferno, and Windcharger.

Optimus couldn't help feeling surprise that, rather than have to be cajoled, Grimlock had offered his team for this assault from the get-go. Despite the T-rex's outward ambivalence earlier, Optimus should have known that Grimlock and the others were just as outraged at their creator's capture as the rest of the company. The one mech the feral Dinobots, including Grimlock, would heed, even when they'd listen to no one else, was Wheeljack. They tended to keep to themselves with little regard or respect for the rest of the company more times than not, but Wheeljack they loved and could be protective of him as they were no one else. Woe betide the Decepticons if the engineer had been harmed in any measurable way.

"Anything?" Optimus asked.

"Found canyon," Swoop put in helpfully, "but nobody home."

Ironhide grunted. "The cowards're probably hiding."

"Ambush?" asked Smokescreen.

"It'd figure," Gears snorted.

"All scanners on high sensitivity," Optimus ordered. "Ambush or not, we've got a fellow Autobot to bring home."

"Assuming he's here."

"We've already addressed that, Huffer," Optimus commented patiently. The Minibot was, as he referred to himself, a "realist." But Optimus could hear it in his voice – he was scared. The Minibots, like the Dinobots, had been built by the engineer, and Huffer was just as genuinely rattled as anyone.

"Don't worry, buddy," Sideswipe assured the Minibot. "One way or another, we'll get him back."

"Yeah," muttered Sunstreaker, "and then I'm gonna kick his tailpipe myself."

"How about deciding that after we see what the 'Cons have done to him first, eh?" Trailbreaker suggested.

Optimus wholesparkedly agreed.

Upon reaching the canyon, he rolled straight into it without bothering with stealth. He knew that Megatron knew he'd be coming. The main force was a decoy as much as anything, hence his keeping some of his sturdiest mechs with him. His real plan lay with his flanking teams. His own team's best hope stood in the fact that Optimus could almost always count on Megatron's ego to keep him from a truly successful ambush. Any time the Decepticon leader had some new toy to bring to bear on the Autobots, the mech gloated first and shot second, giving Optimus and his mechs those precious astro-seconds they needed to get out of Dodge.

"You're too late, Optimus Prime!"

Right on cue. Optimus transformed, sending his Combat Deck a safe distance back out of the way. He noted his mechs transforming around him as he turned to scan the tops of the cliffs. He easily spotted the silver gleam of Megatron's armor even without the benefit of starlight.

"Your precious engineer serves me now!" Megatron reached one black hand to pat the flank of his Negavator, which Optimus guessed must have been hidden under some kind of camouflage until now. "And look at the parting gift he's given me for you. I'm sure you remember this. Did you know it would be here waiting for you? Did your birdbrained Dinobot even know what it was?"

Optimus hoped Grimlock wouldn't react too soon to the insult to one of his mechs, nor allow Swoop to do so. To his relief, there was no response from the cliffs.

There was, however, a response from the ground. Standing by Optimus' hip, Warpath pointed at the Decepticon with a growl. "BLAM! Why don't you come down here and say that, Mega-Turkey?"

"Oh, I think not, my rambunctious Minibot. I rather like a good game of shooting retro-rats in a barrel. Decepticons, attack!"

"Autobots, take cover!"

Optimus didn't have to tell them twice. The company scattered as two flights of Seekers strafed them from opposite ends of the canyon, with Starscream, Thundercracker, and Skywarp streaking overhead from in front while Ramjet led a charge from behind them trailed by Dirge and Thrust. Rifle shots perforated the ground around the Autobots' feet as they split up to press their backs to the canyon walls and return fire. A shot from Ironhide put a sizable dent in Dirge's fuselage, and Gears and Huffer coordinated fire to try to take down Skywarp. Thrust managed a solid shot on Smokescreen, who fell back clutching a wounded arm. Trailbreaker's force field was doing an excellent job of protecting his fellows on that side of the canyon with him, but he kept having to drop it for astro-seconds at a time so the others could shoot – the shield kept in as much as it kept out. Optimus glanced around to spot Sideswipe and Sunstreaker scaling the canyon wall to his left, around enough of a bend in the rock that they weren't in immediate sight of most of the Decepticons. He could only guess what the twin frontliners were up to and prayed they didn't get themselves killed first.

So far, the main force was holding its own well enough, and Optimus put off calling in reinforcements. They wouldn't be able to go back if they had to – the canyon narrowed too much to be safe – but if retreat proved necessary, it wouldn't be impossible to push forward from this position through a slight bottleneck of rocks into what looked like a wider area beyond. But then movement in that space caught his attention . . . green movement. Six construction vehicles drove into sight. Optimus barely caught Scrapper's voice over the din of combat and the roar of his own ion rifle, but it was enough.

"Constructicons, merge to form Devastator!"

Okay, now was the time to call in the reinforcements.