The Femme and the Beast
Once upon a time in a far away land, there lived a royal family that lived in a castle. The young prince that lived there had everything he had ever wanted until one day his world fell apart. His mother had fall under a great illness that had no cure to help her, she died within a week. And his father had left him after his mother died; saying that without her around, the young prince meant nothing to him.
Stricken with grief and despiser the prince became spoiled, selfish and unkind. He changed his body completely, misplacing his robot parts with ones that didn't match and also destroyed every picture that had him and his parents in it, not wanting to be reminded of his past.
As the stellar cycles went by the prince grew up, but still remained his bitter self. But then one stormy night an old elderly femme came to his castle and offered him a single rose in exchange for shelter from the cold. Disgusted by her appearance, he refused the gift and turned the old femme away. But she warned him not to be misguided by appearances for true beauty lied within. But he still refused to let her stay. So the old femme transformed into a beautiful sorceress, though the prince did try to apologize, it was too late. The sorceress had already seen that there was no love in his spark and therefore casted a powerful curse upon the castle and all who lived in it.
All of the prince's servants turned into common household appliances while the prince was forbidden to ever leave beyond the forest outside his castle. But he never wanted to leave, he was so ashamed by his appearance, he concealed himself within his castle, with only a magic mirror as his only window to the world beyond the forest. The rose the femme had offered him was truly magical, it would continue to bloom until at least 20,000 stellar cycles went by. If the prince could learn to love someone and earn her love in return by the time the last rose petal fell, the spell would be broken. If not he and his servants would be doomed to stay in castle forever.
But as he continued on with his life, the prince started to give up hope. For who could ever loved a monster like him?
…
Almost 20,000 Stellar Cycles later…
Beyond the forest were the castle was there was a small village. And in the small town lived a young femme named Jena. She had dark brown metal skin with navy blue armor, bright aquamarine optics with long dark organic-like hair. Now Jena was a bit of an odd femme at least according to the rest of the village. She had no interest in mechs or trying to look beautiful-even though some people had to admit that she was quite beautiful- like other femmes did, instead she liked to read. No matter where she went people always saw her with her face usually buried within a book. Also it never took her very long to read her books it seemed she would always go to the library and get new books or return the ones she had.
And even though Jena loved her town, she found it sort boring. Nothing new or exciting would ever happen, it was always the same thing every single day. She dreamed of someday leaving the village and go out to explore the world, but there was one thing that kept her connect to the village. Her farther, Wheeljack, was a great inventor, but he often had a problem with blowing up some of his experiments. Many of the villagers called him crazy for making such wild contraptions, but Jena would always support him to do his best. She could never leave him along and try to fend for himself.
Currently, Jena was walking home with one book that she had read many times before. It was one of her favorite stories; it was about princess finding her prince charming. How she wished that someday she could find her own prince charming. Unfortunately, there was one mech that claimed was her prince, his name was Sentinel Prime. He was the most obnoxious, self-centered mech she ever met and though there were many other femmes that fawned over him, he only showed interest in her.
And speak of the devil; while she was walking home, he jumped out of nowhere right in front of her.
"Hello, Jena."
"Good morning, Sentinel." Jena kept her tone polite and tried to walk away after that, but the blue mech came up and snatched her book right from under her nose "Sentinel, may I please have my book back?"
He started to flip through some of the pages at the book, only to look at them with confusion "How can you read this? There are barely any pictures."
"Well some bots kind of prefer to use their imaginations."
Sentinel tossed the book lazily away making it land in a mud puddle "Jena, it's about time you get your head out of these stupid book and pay attention to more important things." Jena tried to recover her book, but Sentinel stepped in front of her "Like me."
Jena looked to see a few femmes sighing longily at him, but simply rolled her optics. She picked up her book while Sentinel continued his rant "The whole town talking about it. It not right for a femme to read. Soon she starts getting ideas and starts thinking."
"Wow, Sentinel you are so…generous when you talk about what a femme should be like." Jena said, her voice dripping in sarcasm
"Why thank you, Jena." She rolled her optics again; it was obvious that her sarcasm was lost to him. And yet that didn't stop him from putting his arm around her shoulders "What say you and I go back to my palace and we can look at all of my trophies?"
Jena knew that the "trophies" he was referring to were the one he got after he went hunting. And for Jena, she didn't really like the idea of looking at dead animals that were probably stuffed all over his walls "Maybe some other time." She pulled out of his grip "Please, Sentinel I have to get home and help my farther."
Ha! That crazy old rust bucket, it amazing he hasn't blown up the entire town!" Jena turned to see another mech she wasn't very fond of; she often called him Sentinel's partner in crime. His name was Swindle; he was a sleazy arms dealer who was always trying to sucker people into buying his merchandise. He was so low sometimes, Jena was sure that Swindle would probably sell his own mother to the highest bidder.
"My father is not crazy, Swindle!" Jena protested "He's a genesis!"
Just as Jena said that a somewhat large explosion came from her house and she quickly ran to it as fast as she could, ignoring the sound of the Sentinel and Swindle laughing.
Jena opened the door only to have a large amount of smoke to rush into her face "Dad, are you okay?"
She heard a groan and spotted her father once the smoke cleared. She heard him cough a few times before answering "Yes, I'm fine, Jena. No need to worry."
"You know every time you say that, I just worry even more." Jena turned to look at his newest invention "So what are you making for the fair this time?"
Jena watched as the fins on the side of Wheeljack's head glow a bright blue to show his excitement "I'm working on a special way for people to be able to go from one place to another without having to take such a long trip. I'm calling it a space bridge."
"Sounds cool. How it working so far?"
"It still has a few minor glitches, but I'm determined to get it to work. Just think with this you could travel anywhere you want to go."
"Hmm…Dad, you think I'm…odd?" Jena asked nervously
Wheeljack looked at her with confusion "Now why would you think something like that?"
Jena fiddled with her hair "Well…it's just some days I feel like I don't really belong here. There really no one I can really talk to."
Wheeljack placed a servo on his daughter's shoulder "Now Jena, you are not odd. You're a very special and intelligent femme. And don't ever let anyone tell you any different."
Jena smiled "Thanks dad. You need any help loading this stuff into your wagon?"
"Sure."
Once Jena and Wheeljack got all his space bridge stuff into his wagon, it was time for him to head off.
Jena kisses him on the cheek "Bye, dad and good luck."
Wheeljack removes his faceplate over his mouth to kiss her forehead "Bye, kiddo. Take good care of yourself while I'm gone."
With that Wheeljack shook the reins causing his cyber-house, Starchaser, to begin the long journey he had ahead of him. He looked back one more time to see Jena waving at him as he got farther and farther away from his home.
…
Wheeljack was starting to get a little worried. It had to at least been a few megacycles and he was still wandering around in the forest. He took a quick look at his map to see if maybe he missed a turn or something. Up ahead he could see there were to some signs, it rekindled his hope a bit, thinking maybe they could help tell him where he was. But when he held up his lantern to get a better look, he frowned. The labeling on the signs were almost completely cleaned off.
He decided he would try going right, despite the fact that Starchaser was trying to pull the wagon to the left. But after a short while, he started to regret his decision. Nothing on this path look familiar so he tried to turn back around, but he back up too far and bumped into a tree causing some cyber-bats to fly around and scare Starchaser so much that, Wheeljack fell off and watched as his horse went deeper into the woods without him.
Wheeljack looked around it was going to get really dark soon; he needed to find some shelter. And the situation didn't help as he spotted some cyber-wolves headed his way. He ran, knowing that his vehicle mode wouldn't do him much good with so many trees in the way. He wasn't paying attention and fell down a steep ledge, but luckily when he did he spotted a gate. He quickly ran up to it "Help! Is anyone here?"
Just as he thought that he was doomed the gate opened it appeared it was never locked, but he quickly closed it with a kick of his pede. Just barely escaping as the wolves tried to snap at him. Once he knew he was safe, he turned to look at the place in front of him. It turned out that he mange to find a large castle though he was hesitant in going in, seeing it's slightly gruesome appearance, but it was the only thing he had. He went up and knocked on the door, but the door slightly opened on its own. He stepped inside and closed the door just as it was staring to rain.
"Hello?" He heard his voice slightly echo back too him, but no answer
"Hello?" He tired again, still no answer
Wheeljack was starting to get scared because he was now starting to hear voices, but there was no one else around him
"Poor mech, he must have lost his way in the woods." Said one voice
"Shh, be quiet. Maybe he'll go away." Whispered another
"Is someone there?" Wheeljack asked "I don't mean to intrude, but I need a place to stay for the night."
Unknowingly to Wheeljack there was someone in the room with him, two someone's to be priece. On the table next to him, he didn't notice a white and black candle with a blue visor talking to a black and gold clock with a blue visor as well.
"Not a word, Jazz. Not one word." The black and gold clock said
"Oh, come on Prowl have a spark would ya?" Jazz tried to say something, but Prowl covered his mouth. Jazz didn't stay quiet for long since he forced Prowl to let go after his used one of his candle holder hands to burn Prowl's hand "Hey, mech feel free to stay as long as you need."
Wheeljack looked around him in confusion "Who said that?"
"Over here." Said Jazz
Wheeljack jumped when he say it was a candle talking to him.
"Great, Jazz. You really did it this time." Prowl scolded
Wheeljack's optics widened "You can…talk and move."
"Sure can mech." Jazz jumped off the table and started to head towards another room "Come on you can warm yourself up by the fire."
As Wheeljack followed Jazz, Prowl started to protest "No, no, no, Jazz you know the master won't tolerate a stranger coming in here."
…
Little did the three know that up the stairs, hiding in the shadows was a pair of red optics, filled with anger as he watched the intruder enter his home before disappearing into the darkness once more.
…
Once Jazz had leaded him into the living room, Wheeljack gratefully sat down and allowed himself to relax a bit. Though the clock known as Prowl continued to beg him to leave, his protest came to an end when he was nearly run over by a cart that entered the room. On the cart was a teapot, a cup and a feather duster.
"Hello, my name is Red Alert. Would you like some energon, sir?" Asked a red and white teapot
"Why, yes thank you so much." Replied Wheeljack
"I'm Arcee, I'll be your server for this evening." Said the pink and white feather duster as she pour some energon into a small yellow and black cup that had to little horns on the front.
As Wheeljack picked up the cup and removed his faceplate to take a sip, he swore he heard someone giggling.
"Hahahaha, hey that tickles!" Wheeljack pulled the cup back in surprise to see it was the one laughing "Hey, names Bumblebee and sorry for scaring you. I'm just kind of ticklish."
"That's alright." Wheeljack placed Bumblebee back down on the cart "Thank you all for your hospitality. I noticed you mentioned something about the person who lives here. May I see him?"
Wheeljack noticed that all of appliances frowned and looked at each other nervously after he asked that question.
"Uh…sir" Arcee piped up "You probably…don't really want to see our master."
Wheeljack cocked an optical ridge "Why not?"
"The master not really a…people person." Replied Jazz
"But still I wish to thank him properly for letting me stay. After all if his home wasn't here, I probably wouldn't have survived the night out in the woods." Wheeljack was starting to get more curious since none of the appliances seem to relax "Is something wro-"
The door that lead to a living room suddenly opened and a large gust of wind put out the fire sending a cold chill into the air and down Wheeljack's spinal strut. He heard heavy footsteps enter the room and noticed all of the appliances looked in horror of whatever came in.
"Uh…master allow me to explain. You see the mech here was lost in the woods and he just gonna spend the night till-"Prowl was silenced the moment his master shot him a look that clearly said 'Be quiet'.
Wheeljack griped the armrests of chair, hoping it would stop his current trembling. He was terrified to look behind him, but he managed to muster up some courage to look over his left shoulder. But it shocked him to see no one was there, but he knew that was impossible, he was sure that he heard someone come in. But when he turned his head around to look over his right shoulder…
"Ahhh!" Wheeljack fell out of his chair as he stared at the figure that suddenly seems to appear at his side. It was too dark to the person's face or body. The only thing that really stood out was the mech's piercing red optics.
"Who are you and what are you doing here?" Asked the dark mech
Wheeljack stammered "I…I was lost…in the woods and I-"
"No one is allowed in my castle." Interrupted the mech, his voice was tense
Wheeljack quickly apologizes "I'm sorry…I…I didn't mean to intrude your home. I just need a place to stay."
The mech leered darkly at him "Oh, I'll give you a place to stay alright."
Wheeljack looked in horror as the mech grabbed him and started dragging him to who knows where. All the while he was thinking 'Primus, what have I've gotten myself into now?'