Arcee was growing weary of watching Airachnid stare at her. She had done nothing but stand there and stare for weeks. She wanted to shout at her, but she couldn't make her vocodor work.

And then Airachnid walked forward. She held out a servo as if to stroke Arcee's cheek, but the femme instinctively flinched away, moved her helm to the side. But Airachnid pressed her claw into her cheek, and scratched a nice long gouge into the formerly perfect faceplate. Acid started to bubble in the wound and Arcee tipped her helm back and howled in pain. Somehow, Shockwave had given her the power to both make and tolerate acid. The evidence was left to eat into Arcee's cheek.

Airachnid pulled away after scratching her and she backed out of the room, locking Arcee into the cell once more and went back to pretending that Arcee did not exist.

ooo

Arcee hung by her arms as she had for years. She was skinnier. Airachnid hadn't fed her in a week and she worried that Airachnid was gone, or somehow killed, but then she would have been found...or perhaps...she had been forgotten. Perhaps there was no one left to remember her. Perhaps everyone had all died, and she was the last one alive.

But Airachnid came in the evening, unkindly shoving jellied Energon into Arcee's mouth, then unchaining her and letting her drop like a sack of framework to the floor.

"Get up, you useless pile of scrap metal. We're moving, and unless you want to die, you will come and do as you're told."

Arcee could barely lift her helm. She regurgitated the jelly, struggled to get up, and laid back down again. Her legs were useless. She hadn't used them in so long, they had become useless and unfeeling. They had given up while she had come close, but never really submitting to the fact that she was as good as dead.

Airachnid drug her out of the cell by her arm, and doors opened. Prisoners were also drug out by blind and mute drones. Arcee realized that she was not the only one in Airachnid's hold.

But, due to a lack of resources to carry all prisoners, Airachnid killed the weakest, sparing Arcee, and she killed all but one of the blind and mute drones. Then she drug those remaining over Cybertron's bent and splintering plates. Arcee's legs collected a lot of wounds, wounds that wept blue over Cybertron's once gleaming face only to mix with other trails long forgotten.

Somewhere along the way, Arcee had passed out due to the loss of Energon.

When she woke, she was in a new cell. If at all possible, it was damper, darker, and colder than the last.

Airachnid was staring at her, having forced jellied Energon down her throat again to get her to wake. When she saw that Arcee was awake and alert, she left.

Arcee looked down at her legs. They were bandaged, but the bandages were already soaked-through with blue Energon. She let her helm rest on her shoulder and she blinked slowly. The pain kept her awake, though the weariness demanded that her optics closed.

In the end, they half-closed and Arcee made a small moan in pain.

She didn't react to the sounds of agony. Airachnid was making the list of prisoners shorter. The drone was spared, and unfortunately for Arcee, so was she.

ooo

Arcee was getting tired, exhausted, and she was seeing things. Seeing Tailgate hanging beside her. Hearing him beg her to look at him. Hearing Airachnid laugh and tell him it was futile.

Then when she would look, Tailgate would still be there, staring at her with scared blue optics.

"What did she do to you? Arcee? Arcee, look at me."

Her helm dropped.

"Arcee, look at me...don't close your optics."

Her optics closed.

Airachnid laughed more, clearly enjoying herself. When the door creaked shut and was locked, Arcee lifted her helm to whine in pain. Her leg wounds were infected, and the acid that Airachnid had put in the wounds simply for her amusement wasn't helping.

Tailgate was cooing to her, never ceasing, no matter what Airachnid did to him.

Then, they both received unusually good care. Arcee had gained some weight, and Tailgate was getting lively again.

That was when Airachnid came, praising Arcee for how strong she was. That was when Arcee knew she was in trouble.

"I believe that no matter what I do to you, you'll never crack. Am I right?"

Arcee glared at her.

"That's what I thought." And she moved closer to Tailgate.

Arcee started to squirm against her bounds. "No. Stop. Don't. Please!"

"You know what I want, dear Arcee."

"I don't know the attack coordinates! I don't!"

Airachnid looked at her, at Tailgate, and back again. Then one of her multiple legs came forward, arching over her helm, and struck Tailgate. It punctured his spark. He died instantly. Arcee doubted he felt a thing.

But that didn't stop her from howling and sobbing as if she had been struck instead of her partner. She pressed her face into her shoulder, hoping Tailgate would stir.

The only thing that moved was the Energon trickling out of his chest and the door as it closed behind Airachnid.

Time seemed to slow down as Arcee watched him bleed out. The Energon drips came slowly and the puddle slowly crept and grew out, searching for the far corners of the room. Arcee begged for him.

"Tailgate?"

He didn't stir.

"Tailgate, look at me."

He didn't lift his helm.

"Tailgate..."

His optics were dim.

Arcee knew that hers would be the same soon. Airachnid would grow bored of her, just as she did with Tailgate. She was simply bored of him, bored of keeping him around. So she killed him.

Arcee would be no different.