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Prime came to a halt and the others came into line beside him. All of the Autobots were there as had been directed by their mysterious enemy. He had made an attack against the people of Earth but promised to stop when the Autobots came to him. Only there would he make a deal to stop his attacks.
They waited, then a large ship appeared and a humanoid alien being came out, "So, you are here.”
"We are, you promised to stop your attack," said Prime.
"And I have done so, as you may discover."
"What do you want?"
"I have heard that the Autobots are noble. That they would gladly sacrifice themselves to save others, or die for them."
"That is true," said Prime.
"We shall see. I will leave this world only when that is proven to me. So what I propose is this, that one of your number sacrifice himself for this world. But know the consequences of this. The one to make the sacrifice shall become my slave and know no other way in his lifetime." He laughed, "And I am an incredibly hard and cruel master. I will give you sufficient time to make your decision."
The alien moved away, leaving the Autobots alone.
"What can we do, Prime?" asked Ironhide.
"I don't know, but this alien has proven himself to be more powerful than us. I can see no way out except to make the sacrifice."
"But to become a slave to him?" questioned Bumblebee.
"Would you not sacrifice yourself for your friends, both human and us?"
"You know I would, any of us would."
"But only one of us can be the sacrifice. The question is which one?"
At first there was silence. Then they began to debate over what they should do, how they should choose one of their own to become a slave willingly. They were all willing, but some had specialties they needed, so they couldn't be sacrificed. Arguments started up, it really wasn't getting anywhere.
So no one really noticed that one of them had rolled off down to the alien ship.
"What so you want?" asked the waiting alien.
"I want to make the sacrifice."
"You, but they are still arguing up there."
"I know and they'll make a bad choice. I am expendable, they won't miss me."
"You understand all that the sacrifice entails?"
"I think so."
"Then you must understand fully. You will be my slave. I can do anything to you, anything at all. You can do only as I tell you to do or I will punish you. You are a machine creature, but you can feel pain. You disobey me at your peril. And I will not allow you to be destroyed. You will remain with me until the end."
"I understand."
"Very well. From this day forth you also have no name other than Slave. Now come into the ship. I wish to leave."
The Autobots saw the ship take off and disappear. Prime asked who was missing. When the answer came back that it was the ever impulsive Cliffjumper, Prime ordered everyone back to headquarters.
No one spoke of the sacrifice. The alien had proven true to his word and had left the Earth. There was absolutely nothing anyone could do.
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The alien travelled the Universe calling himself a problem-solver. Though a lot of the time he caused the problem in the first place. When he wanted something, he forced others to make sacrifices to him, and he always got what he wanted.
Cliffjumper saw it all and for quite some time he managed to obey his master and not feel his wrath. But the injustices he saw being performed got too much for him. He saw a chance to help the people who were being asked to sacrifice valuable refined minerals to the alien. He left the ship in an attempt to help them. He did not get far. He suddenly lost all energy, then when it returned he found himself back in the ship, before his angry master.
"And where do you think you were going?"
Cliffjumper did not answer; the alien had demonstrated so much power as it was.
"You know there will be a penalty for your disobedience," the alien came to him and forced him to kneel down. The alien touched him on his forehead, attaching a disc there. Then he moved back and a beam shot from his hand, striking the disc. Cliffjumper screamed with the pain. He wanted to raise his arms, but they were frozen. The alien sustained the punishment for a full ten minutes, then he released it. Cliff collapsed face first on the ground. The alien left him alone. He could not move for quite some time.
"You are behind in your duties," came a warning from his master. Cliff pulled himself up and slowly walked off to do what he had to do.
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The alien found himself near the planet Cybertron. He knew it was where his slave originally came from and for that reason thought it might be interesting. At the time, Megatron happened to be there when Shockwave saw the ship coming in. Nothing the robot could do could stop the alien ship from coming down. The alien came out to face them with his slave following behind. The Deceptacons were distrustful of the humanoid, but to see one of the hated Autobots with him.
"It's a trap, see Megatron, I warned you it would be," said Starscream.
"Shut up, Starscream," ordered Megatron.
"But I've seen that Autobot, I know he is called Cliffjumper -"
Megatron aimed his gun at him and he quickly shut up. Megatron recognized the Autobot too; he did not have to be told. But he did not recognize the alien.
"Who are you, and what do you want?" he asked.
"I want nothing you have. I was merely interested in seeing what this world was like."
"Then why do you have an enemy of ours with you?"
The alien looked back at Cliffjumper. "You mean my slave?"
"Slave?" Starscream asked in surprise.
"This creature is my slave, he came to me willingly."
Megatron looked at the Autobot, "Is this true?"
Cliff did not raise his eyes or answer.
"You may answer his questions," the alien laughed.
Still without raising his eyes, Cliff answered, "Yes, I am his slave."
"Willingly? You gave up your loyalty to Prime?"
"I am his slave willingly..." he stopped, unable to answer the rest.
The alien turned to look at him, realizing that he had not answered the rest.
"I wish I knew how you did it," said Megatron, "Then I would have my victory over the Autobots."
"If you could ever afford the price, I might tell you how."
"Price?"
"Don't ask, Megatron. At the moment you could not afford it," he paused, "Anyway. I have seen all I want to see here. We might meet again," he turned back into his ship with Cliff not far behind.
Megatron watched in disbelief, but there was nothing they could really do to stop his going. "I wonder what he meant?" he pondered as they watched the ship disappear.
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The alien had needed to replenish his food stocks; therefore he chose the nearest planet which had what was necessary. Finding the rulers home, he put the ship down there and kidnapped the King. He told the people they merely had to sacrifice food for their leader's life. Cliff watched in dismay. The people would have a great difficulty in meeting the deadline, especially as they would have to import some of what the alien demanded, but they'd have to pay for it first. Knowing his master's cruelty, Cliff knew he wanted it that way. But Cliff decided that if he were careful, he might be able to help the people in their plight. He left the ship to offer his services. He had no idea that the moment he did leave, his master knew immediately.
The alien watched Cliff go, he knew he could act at any time, he decided to see what his slave would do. The more he did, the more he would be punished for.
Cliff carefully made his way to the palace and quietly convinced those left to get the sacrifice together, that he could help them. He could take someone much quicker to the neighbouring country to get the imports needed. So the man chosen to make the payment got into Cliff and they took off.
However, when close to the border the passenger ordered Cliff to stop. He got out and said he had to take a rest stop. So Cliff waited for him, completely unaware that the man had taken the money and run.
It was then that the alien decided to interfere. He appeared before Cliff with a laser whip in his hand. "Were you given permission to leave the ship?"
Cliff knew he could not escape, "No master."
"Were you given permission to help these people?"
"No master."
"Then why are you here? Do you not have duties to attend to?"
"Yes master."
"I thought you had learned from your last venture like this, but I was mistaken," he raised the whip and brought it down across Cliffjumper. The Autobot felt pain and it left a black mark on his metal body. His angry master struck him over and over, causing pain which drained him of energy.
The alien stopped, "That will do for now, but this is not the end of your punishment." The alien vanished taking Cliff with him back to the ship.
As the deadline drew close, the people realized that they had been tricked or that was what they believed. Then the body of the man who went with Cliff was found. The Autobot was blamed for his killing. The alien went to receive his payment and the people tried to explain that they had been conned by a metal creature, and so they didn't have the full payment. He angrily demanded that they should have no excuses; he had their ruler after all. They were forced to pay more for his release.
Cliff was low on energy when he found himself transported out of the ship. He was soon discovered by the people from the palace, they took him prisoner. Cliff was confused enough after the transportation, then to find himself being taken prisoner by the very people he had tried to help. And worse, they were accusing him of murder. He was placed in chains, but the people could not decide what to do with him, they had never had to deal with a machine creature. The alien appeared while they were trying to decide. He brought instant quiet to the crowd. They had finally gotten his payment together and told him as much.
"Very good," he said, "But what is this?"
"This creature tricked us into believing he was helping us against you. Then he murdered one of us. We captured him, but we cannot work out how to punish him."
The alien smiled, "I could do that, all you would have to do is let me have him as a slave."
They all agreed.
Cliff was brought to his master and soon the beam struck him on his forehead. The alien kept at it for a quarter of an hour. Cliff collapsed before his master, who then took his leave and returned them both to the ship. Cliffjumper had lost consciousness during his punishment and came to finding himself in his quarters, connected to his energon link. He could still feel pain in his circuits. And wished he was back on Earth.
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On his master's next visit to a planet, he found himself called upon to attend him. Cliff was ordered to auto mode and then carried some freight for his master. They went to a water storage area. There his master began to empty the freight's contents into the water.
"Change and help me," ordered his master.
Cliff reluctantly transformed and slowly obeyed his master, highly suspicious of what they were doing. Then they returned to the ship. A short time later his master turned his ship's cameras on the city close by and made himself comfortable. Cliff resumed his duties, but he could not stop worrying about what he had done. A couple of days later his fears were justified. He came to his Master's viewing room; his Master was conversing with someone.
"If you deliver what I want I will supply you with the antidote."
"We will do whatever you want," came the reply.
Cliff wanted to know more, but he held back. His Master changed to news reports from the city.
"And a report just in, Government officials have reached a deal with the terrorist over an antidote for the epidemic which had already claimed at least 50 lives..."
"No!" cried Cliff.
His Master turned to look at him, "Get back to your duties," he ordered.
"You made me help you kill those people."
"You are my slave; you do what I tell you to do."
"No, I don't care what you do. I can't do this anymore." He took one step forward, then the beam struck him and it lasted half an hour.
Cliff lay on his back; his Master walked over to him and looked down. "You will do as I say, Slave, or do I go back to your Earth and take the price I wanted. Kill some of your precious humans?"
Cliff could not move and as he lay there he could hear how much his Master relished the suffering he was causing before he left to collect the price for the antidote. They left soon after. But it was not to be the last time Cliffjumper defied his Master.
The alien also was a mercenary and quite often hired out as an assassin or an executioner. It was to an execution they headed next. Cliff discovered that those to be killed by the alien were innocent, but their rulers wanted them dead to crush all opposition to them.
Cliff was taken along by his Master, to the place where the execution would be performed. While his Master mingled with the rulers, Cliff could not keep his eyes off the young people who were to die. It was not fair, but he noticed one other thing. He saw a way he could rescue them and get them away. He knew he would be very severely punished by his Master, but he decided to risk it. He didn't care.
While all were distracted, he took his chance, changed to auto mode with the four prisoners inside and took off as fast as he could. There was uproar when it happened and his Master quickly disappeared from the assembly. He was furious with what his slave had done; he would have to forfeit the payment he had taken. He switched on the tracking device he had on his slave, then set the cameras on the place. Cliff had stopped and the prisoners were leaving him, thankful and fearful at the same time. Cliff watched them go and waited. He knew his Master could take him at any moment. And he was right. A few minutes later he stood in robot mode before his Master.
"Haven't I told you over and over that there would be a price to pay for any type of disobedience, you have made me look ridiculous in front of my clients. I have forfeited the payment they gave me. In fact they are demanding that I must pay them! You may not care now, but you will Slave, oh you will."
His Master activated the beam, and satisfied that it was working he left Cliff to suffer under it. This time he lost track of how long the punishment went on, though he somehow remained conscious until it was turned off. And when he did come to on the floor, he felt the ship was moving again, though the room was darkened. His Master only did that when he was sleeping. Still Cliff could not move a finger, nor could he get any commands out. He began to wonder if the sustained punishment had short circuited him. Yet he could feel his neural pathways quivering, they always did when he was punished. All he could do was lay there. He was still there in the morning when his Master came in.
"Are you waiting for more?" demanded his Master. Cliff did not answer. "Well, get up or I will give you more."
"I can't," pleaded Cliff. "I can't move, Master."
His Master produced the laser whip and hit him. Cliff groaned and tried, but still he could not get a thing to move. His Master hit him a few times, but realized it was getting him nowhere. His slave truly couldn't move.
"I can't keep you like this, perhaps I can sell you on Cybertron."
"I have not been serviced in so long, Master."
The alien thought a moment, then moved to the control panel of his ship. He immediately got it moving. Cliff had no idea of where they were headed. But if it were Cybertron, he did not mind, death might be preferable to the slavery he had given himself in to.
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Cliff felt the ship come to a stop, then his Master appeared near him and a few more minutes later, he found himself in a very familiar place. A ceiling he had seen many times before, and then some familiar faces hovered over him.
"Cliffjumper, can you hear me?" It was Wheeljack.
"Yes, my hearing is fine. It's my body that doesn't want to work," he answered.
"We'll have you right again, ol' buddy," continued his old friend. He was soon lifted on top a work table, Ratchet and Wheeljack looking down at him.
"Cliffjumper, how could you get in such condition? And these black marks, what are they?" He had not expected to be brought there and he was ashamed to tell them what had been going on.
"Have you been sticking your fingers into electric sockets? All your neural pathways have been overloaded. It must have hurt like hell!" said Ratchet.
Still Cliff could not answer; instead he changed the subject and very quietly asked, "How is everything here?"
"Not much has changed since you... left. Only we have missed you."
"What is my... the alien doing? How is he...? Is he forcing you to care for me?"
"Care for you? You are one of us; we would always care for you. You know that."
"But I'm not one of you anymore. I belong to him, I am his slave. I gave myself to him, remember!"
Both Ratchet and Wheeljack could see that their friend had changed. "He asked for our help freely and we freely gave it," answered Wheeljack.
Cliff went quiet again and stayed that way even when they tried to draw him out. Not long after he was able to move again and his neural pathways were beginning to clear.
"I still wish you'd tell us how this happened to you. And these marks on you, they look like laser fire."
"I'm sorry. I can't, I..." Cliff saw his Master coming over to him.
"Well now, that's much better. I see I shall have to make sure he has regular maintenance checks in the future."
"I've strengthened his neural pathways, but I hope you'll stop him from giving himself anymore electrical shocks."
The alien eyed Cliff, surprised that he had not told them what had happened to him. "Oh, I'm sure he'll try not to let what happened occur again. I think he has learned a lesson from it. I am grateful for your help to your old friend. Now I will keep to our original agreement and leave your world."
"Are you ready?" he asked of Cliffjumper.
Cliff moved over to his Master, "Yes sir." He looked back at his friends and knew that he was truly stuck with his life now. His friends would not be able to help him and he was ashamed of allowing it to happen to him. They vanished and the ship was soon on its way from Earth.
"I meant what I said back there, Slave. I hope you have learned your lesson."
Cliff could not answer him; he did not know what would happen in the future.
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The alien continued to make trouble where ever he went, but Cliff only received minor punishments along the way. He knew he could not help most of the time anyway, so he decided not to risk the painful beam for no gain. But his Master did not enjoy that. He took sadistic pleasure in punishing his slave, that was why he made the deal, humanoids tended to die too quickly. So he had taken the opportunity to take a machine creature that felt feelings and could know pain. So on his next venture, he deliberately chose to goad his slave into disobedience.
Arriving at the next planet, the alien went ahead and attacked. Cliffjumper watched in disbelief. His Master had not asked for anything. He seemed to revel in the destruction he was causing.
Cliff moved up to him, "Please Master, don't do this."
The alien turned, "Get back to your place, Slave."
A city was devastated on the screen. Cliff could not bear it. "Please Master; you are killing them for no reason."
"I need no reason and you have no reason to question me. Now get back before I punish you."
"I will do anything, Master, if you will stop," pleaded Cliff.
The alien hesitated, "Anything?"
"Yes, Master, anything."
"Very well." He stood away from the console. "I will keep you to that promise. But for now I find that you still do not know your place." The beam struck Cliff and the agony began again.
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Cliffjumper answered the call from his Master. "Slave, I am to have company, bring refreshments in one hour to my quarters."
"Yes Master."
Cliff returned to his duties, they had never had anyone else on the ship before, not even to visit. When the time came, he carried a tray to his master's quarters. Just outside the door he could hear a female talking.
"Anyway, to my business. I have some very important information for you. How much will you pay for it?"
"It depends on how important it is."
"It's very. It concerns you."
"Very well, I will give you a price worth it."
"Your own people have traced you to this galaxy."
"So."
"So, they have offered rewards for you, including sightings."
There was silence for a time.
"Thank you; you will receive a substantial reward."
He got up, "Hey, where are you going?" she asked.
"I have plans to make."
Cliff chose that moment to enter.
The alien tossed the tray out of his hands, "Get out of the way, Slave. Escort our guest on her ship."
The woman stood naked before Cliffjumper watching him leave. "Well, what are you?" she asked approaching him
Cliff was dumbfounded; he had never seen a naked humanoid before. "Answer me!" she demanded.
"I am an Autobot."
"Oh, a machine creature. He called you Slave?"
"That is my function."
“Interesting. Very interesting." She began to dress. When she was ready she said, "Take me to my ship, thank you." Cliff led her to the docking bay.
"Your Master's in for trouble, you know. I'd take my first chance to escape if I were you," she warned as she went into her ship.
Cliff watched her ship leave, hoping that trouble would come and it would all end somehow. He felt their own ship accelerate and wondered what his Master had planned. He had no orders, so hurried to the flight deck to get them.
His Master was standing at the controls in thought, but Cliff had no doubt his presence was noted. His Master turned and looked at him for a long moment, then he smiled and turned back to the controls. He punched in planetary coordinates, then turned back to Cliff.
"You promised to do anything recently, didn't you, Slave?"
"Yes Master."
"Good. I've decided what I want. If I am captured, you must protect me with your life. Is that clear?"
"Yes Master."
"You will do it."
"Yes Master."
He stared at the Autobot. He had answered without any emotion. "You want it to end anyway, don't you?"
"Yes Master."
"Well you won't have it all your way. Don't forget. You must protect me with your life, you promised it."
"Yes Master."
"Return to your duties."
Cliff was forced to leave. Sometime later he felt the ship decelerate and hurried to the flight deck.
The alien smiled to see him. "I won't be needing you, remain in the ship," he ordered.
"Yes Master." Cliff moved to a viewing port and saw to his horror that they were at Cybertron.
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The alien was meeting with Megatron.
"And the price?" asked the Deceptacon leader.
"Well, besides the survival of my personal Slave... You must agree to protect me should the need arise."
"Sounds reasonable. You have a deal."
"Very good. Await my signal, then make your attack."
Megatron and the alien parted. Neither noticed the listening device that hovered nearby at Cliffjumper's command.
The alien was surprised not to find the Autobot on the flight deck when he got back. He was still sure his slave would have seen where they were, that was why he had left him there. He dismissed it though and turned his attention to the next step in his plan. He headed the ship to Earth.
Cliff stuck to his duties while he tried to piece together what his Master might be up to. He gathered that he was seeking as much protection for himself as was possible, against his own kind. But what did the deal mean with Megatron. Why must he survive? He knew the ship was on the move again and he wanted to know the destination.
The alien smiled to himself when Cliff finally made an appearance on the flight deck. "Your duties have kept you extremely busy today, Slave."
"Yes Master, they have."
The alien did not face him, "I have new orders for you. You are to remain in your quarters until I call for you. Is that clear?"
"Yes Master."
Cliff could see their destination on the screen; he could also see they were getting close. And he wondered why he was to remain in his quarters. He obeyed and left.
About a day later he felt the ship decelerate, he had done none of his duties and his Master had not called him. He was sure his master had made a deal to attack the Autobots with the Deceptacons. And despite everything, he was loyal to his own kind. He had to find a way to warn Prime. Then he thought of it. He could get a message out without his Master knowing. Down in the docking bay there was a separate control panel and it had a communications channel on it. He could use that, arrange a meeting with Prime, because he would have to be quick not to be detected. So carefully he made his way down and got the thing working. He had only a few seconds to get the message out without being caught. And because of that he also could not take the chance of contacting Prime himself, he decided to send the message through Teletran One. It went off and he turned everything off before hurrying back to his quarters.
His Master didn't call on him so he assumed the message had gone out safely. Now he had another hard thing to do. He had to escape to make the meeting with Prime, he knew the alien would know where he was through the tracer and he would be severely punished, but he didn't care about that. He cared about his friends, he had to try and warn them. Again Cliff realized that his only way off the ship was through the docking bay. He made his way down there and was able to get a scan of where they were. They were on Earth, over America. He decided to wait until they were close enough, then he opened the docking bay doors and when he felt he was close enough, he jumped.
Changing to Auto mode got him safely to earth and he raced to his meeting place with Prime. The thought that the alien would know he had left forced him on. He was not many miles from the meeting place and yet he could hear the faint sounds in the sky. He pushed himself to his limit, certain now that his Master knew where he was and was coming for him. He saw Prime ahead, the sounds were getting louder, very familiar.
"Prime!" he called and the truck Autobot turned to him, “Prime, the alien has enlisted the Deceptacons.”
Right at that moment, Starscream came down firing at Prime, the other Deceptacons right behind him. Prime had to take evasive action to escape. He took a few minor hits, but he was outnumbered. Cliff stopped in shock, the Deceptacons ignored him. He could not help Prime; his Master had long since removed all his weaponry from him.
But he did not have to, other Autobots were turning up to join the fight and it wasn't long before the Deceptacons turned tail. As they did, two of the Deceptacons grabbed Cliff and carried him off. The Autobots watched them leave as a group.
"I'm glad I insisted on keeping a tail on you Prime," said Ironhide. "If we hadn’t, they'd have had you."
"Yes, it seems it was a carefully laid trap," he said.
"And Cliffjumper lead you into it. He is a traitor."
A few others echoed Ironhide's thoughts.
"It appears so..." said Prime.
"He went with the Deceptacons, he is our enemy now. We can never trust him," continued Ironhide.
Again others echoed his words.
Prime looked into the sky where the Deceptacons had disappeared. It was hard to believe that Cliffjumper had betrayed them.
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Cliffjumper was dumped unceremoniously to Earth before his Master, but he gave his attention to the Deceptacons first.
"Where was your help!" demanded Megatron. "We could have destroyed Optimus Prime, but the others turned up too quickly."
"They must have been suspicious to have done that."
"You promised us help and we got none. We brought your slave back."
"And he fulfilled the role I gave him,” said the alien.
So it had been an arranged escape. His Master had planned it all. Planned to turn him into some sort of scapegoat. A traitor to his own true leader.
"They'll not trust him again," warned Megatron.
"Oh, I have no doubt of that."
"We're going, we owe you nothing, so don't look to us for any help." Megatron lead the Deceptacons away.
The alien looked down at Cliff; the Autobot remained where he had fallen.
"So you thought you would warn your kind," he laughed. "You are so gullible sometimes, and now they have branded you a traitor. You've got nowhere to go if anything happens to me."
The next moment they were both back on board the ship. Cliff felt more miserable than ever. His Master had not physically punished him, but then he didn't have to. He was in the same position he was in on Earth, kneeling before his Master. "I may have nowhere to go, but you will never have my loyalty. I will always be loyal to Prime and the Autobots. Always," shouted Cliffjumper as he got to his feet. The alien turned to face him, surprised at his anger. Then he simply raised his hand and the beam hit Cliff.
"I don't care where your loyalty lies. I possess you and I do what I want with you. I gambled on your loyalty and it paid off. I used you, as I will always use you. You are mine, never forget that."
Cliff was fighting against the pain and was forced back on his knees. The alien laughed as he inflicted the pain on his slave.
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The alien moved his ship to a remote part of Earth and settled in. He could no longer afford to travel out in space, not when others were searching for them. And he felt he might have a good chance at survival there as well.
Teletran One warned of another huge alien ship approaching Earth. Prime decided to contact it once he saw how similar it was to the one who possessed Cliff. They answered his hail.
"We are searching for a renegade from our home world, an evil being that we have traced this far."
"He has been here causing trouble. We are not sure where he is now," answered Prime.
"He has not left this area, probably still on this world and we intend on finding him."
"And what do you want from us?"
"We want you to stay out of the way."
"As long as the people of this world are safe, we will not interfere with you."
The new alien nodded and left. He and the others on his ship would find the renegade.
The alien was watching the ship, he saw that it stopped near the Autobot headquarters and that worried him. He called his slave to him.
"An enemy of mine has met with your friends, will they help them?" he asked of Cliff.
"Your own kind has caught up with you, you mean."
The alien's eyes narrowed, he had been surprised again by his slave. Still defiant and rebellious. "I asked if your friends would help them."
Cliff just stood there. The next moment the beam struck him and his master turned back to his screen to watch what might happen. Cliff fell forward when the beam was shut off.
"So, they got no help there. Good. But they will keep looking for me... We'll be safe here for now. I want you back at your duties, when you can."
The alien left him. When he knew he was alone, he made every effort that he could to move. His energy was low, he needed energon badly, but he knew this might be the only chance he would get. He got to his knees, but couldn't get any further, so he crawled to the command panel, then he hit the nearest buttons. Alarms went off everywhere. The alien ran into the room, he switched everything off, he saw the big screen, the ship was headed his way. He turned to Cliff producing his laser whip which he applied in his full fury.
"Damn you," he shouted as he did so, then he stopped. "Your meddling has brought this about. They'll find me now."
He looked at the screen again, the ship was closing. He left to prepare for their coming.
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He was in formal dress when he came again to the flight deck. The other ship was landing not far from his own.
"Come Slave," he ordered of Cliff, who was able to stand again, but his energy was still low. He followed his Master out, ready to face the consequences of his actions.
The alien faced two more of his own kind.
"So we have caught up to you at last."
"I expect you have, seeing you are here."
"I am surprised you gave yourself away. It would have taken us quite some time to find you here."
"That was an accident. Now what do you want. You don't expect me to surrender, do you?"
"Expect no, but what other choice do you have?"
"I will not surrender and I will not allow you to take me."
"You will not be allowed to go on. You are evil and we will not stop until you are stopped."
He merely laughed.
The other looked back at Cliff. "The machine creature serves you... unwillingly from what I see."
"It is my Slave, it belongs to me. It owes me much."
The alien saw the other nod and knew that he had figured out where the source of the signal had come.
"The end is near," said the other before he turned back to his ship.
The alien did the same. He went to the flight deck with Cliff following.
"So it has come to this," he began watching the other ship taking off, he turned to Cliff. "I will remind you of your debt, Slave. You are sworn to protect me. I left those pathetic people alone because you begged me to, now you must do as you promised. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Master," Cliff answered.
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The battle between the two alien ships began. Cliff's Master attacking the other ship harder at first. But then they fought hard and forced him back down, disabling the ship. He fought frantically trying to find a way to get it back up, then to get the weapons back on line, but it was to no avail. He moved to his chair and sat down, quietly he said, "Remember your vow, Slave."
A few minutes later the other alien and several guards arrived. They pointed their weapons at him. "In the name of our home world, I demand your surrender."
"I will not surrender to a world that has wronged me." The guards raised their guns. "Go ahead if you dare."
They hesitated, but Cliff moved to stand between them.
"Get out of the way, machine creature," ordered the other alien.
"I cannot, I am sworn to protect him."
The other alien nodded, one of the guards fired at Cliff. He collapsed.
His Master got to his feet and moved to him. Cliff was disabled, but not destroyed.
"That shot would have killed me."
"Yes, it would," the other alien answered.
"Very well, I surrender," he said.
Cliff could see them take his Master away. A few minutes later he was transported off the ship and left lying on his back as he had fallen. He tried to move, but found he could not, he had been damaged, he just didn't know how much.
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About a day later he heard vehicles approaching. He heard them slow as they got closer.
"Over there," came a familiar voice.
Soon he was surrounded by Autobots. Wheeljack knelt down to him, "He's badly damaged."
"We should leave the traitor behind," someone demanded.
He saw Prime. 'I didn't betray you, Prime. I was used as bait by my Master," said Cliff.
"Load him in me; we shall go back to base."
The Autobots did as their leader had bid and they were soon on their way. Once there, Cliff was placed on a bench for Wheeljack and Ratchet to work on him. Prime ordered the other Autobots away. The pair did not say much as they worked. It would have been hard anyway.
Later Prime called Wheeljack to him for the diagnosis. "It's bad Prime, very bad. In effect, Cliffjumper is paralysed. He came close to it the last time he was here, this time his neural network has failed. We would have to completely rebuild him to save him."
"Thank you," he said. "I will tell him, I want to talk to him anyway."
Cliff saw Prime come above him, "It's not good, is it?"
"No Cliffjumper, it isn't. You are completely paralysed. Wheeljack says he would have to rebuild you."
"No Prime, I don't want that. I want an end to it now. I've seen too much, I've suffered and I've been responsible for the deaths of humans." He told his story in full to his true leader. "Please Prime; don't tell the others about it. It was my own choice back at the start and I've paid a price for it."
"It would have been another of us to go."
"And they would have gone through the same. He liked to cause pain and hurt, he enjoyed it. And I brought a lot of it on because I couldn't stand by and allow him to, that's why he took one of us as his slave, because he knew we could take more than a humanoid could. I am tired Prime, I want to rest, let me go. Let it end here."
"We will remove your personality circuits and keep them safely stored with Teletran One. Perhaps one day we will have need of you again."
"Sure Prime and thank you. Do it now, please," he begged.
Prime touched the small Autobot on his shoulder, then opened him up and quietly shut him down. Then he removed his personality, the most important part of the race of machine creatures. He moved over to the computer and gave the circuits to Teletran One.
Later the other Autobots helped Prime to take away Cliffjumper's useless body. They were sad, but Cliff was free and it was the way he wanted it. Prime told them that Cliff had not betrayed them. In fact he was a hero for going with the alien. He had saved that city, but in the end it had been at the cost of his life.
But he was a slave no more.