Lines

A Transformers Prime Fanfiction

Set During Evolution

::Warning Spoilers::

"I don't want to talk about it kid," Wheeljack growled out as his blue gaze seared into the human standing at his peds with a faltering smile on his fleshy face.

"Scram," the wrecker put as much venom into the one word as he could; leaning down and revving his engine low and dangerously at the raven haired youth staring up at him.

He was pretty sure the Prime had sic'd the little pest on him. It might just be like Ratchet said and Jack really was a younger copy of Optimus and could sense a breaking spark no matter what front you put up but it irked the mech that a human could be that perceptive and the thought that it was the Prime's doing was much more palatable. Reluctantly the human turned away with a promise that he would always be handy to listen. The soldier gave a long exvent and dropped his helm back into his crossed arms. On second thought maybe Optimus didn't have anything to do with this. After the stories Bulkhead and Miko had shared about Jack, what he had been through already, it would be cruel as the pit to lay this on him too. The Wrecker shook off the train of thought with a growl of his engine.

Ratchet and the Prime were tending to the badly injured Ultra Magnus. Arcee and the human nurse had given the Wrecker what first aid he had needed. Somewhat to his surprise the Darby femme had been pretty scrapping good at what she did. The oddity of that had almost distracted him for a moment but then the gnawing discomfort had returned with full force. Arcee and Bulkhead were off in another hanger refining the energon they had collected; the only bright spot in this mess. Bumblebee and the rookie had been sent out to scout the area around the human's military base for any threats. He had found a dark corner of the hanger and for now he was blessedly alone.

"Hey Jackie, what's shakin'?"

So much for alone. A soft little hand pressed against his bruised mesh sending the double tempo pulse of a human heart beating into his systems. The mech suppressed a groan and lifted his optics fractionally to glare at the miniscule femme. Two honey-golden eyes stared back at him defiantly and he flinched away under her gaze. He did not want to deal with her at the moment.

"Not now Miko."

"Really?" she snorted. "Listen up mech. I want to know what happened and the big Bots are all busy. So spill! Mags lost a hand and you are all twitchy-"

"I am not twitchy!" Wheeljack snarled pushing her off of him.

The rhythm of her pulse seemed to be driving into his processor. She was so alive, so young, so…not guilty in all this mess. He knew what she wanted, didn't want to give it to her. The kid shouldn't have to bear up under something like this; shouldn't have to share in the Wreckers' guilt. Not yet. Not ever.

"Jackie…" she whined as she scrambled right back onto him. "What happened?"

"Nothing you need to know about!"

"Come on! Tell me! Something has you all worked up and feeling down! But you won!"

"You don't want to know kid," he snapped standing, unable to stand the feel of her against him any longer.

The silence behind him should have been a warning to Wheeljack as he walked slowly away.

"So Jackie," her voice was soft and cloyingly sweet, "how long have you been such a good liar?"

The mech spun on her furiously, straining his new repairs.

"What did you say?" he growled.

"Do Wreckers keep things from each other?" the human demanded.

"Of course not!"

"Am I a Wrecker or not?"

The final question whipped through the narrow space like a bullet. Wheeljack snapped his dentia shut and stared blankly at the girl.

"You said I was a Wrecker!" she hissed stalking forward. "Did you really mean it? Or were you just humoring the little girl?"

The warrior's shoulder guards slumped in defeat and he eased himself down to a sitting position as the pain in his damaged legs resurged.

"You're a Wrecker," he conceded rubbing his servos over his faceplates.

"Then quit being such a glitch and tell me!"

"Fine!" he snapped out. "You want to know what happened? You want to know what we did? We ended the Predacon clone threat for this round!"

The girl let out an excited cry and scrambled up onto his lap to perch crouched on his thigh armor. The plating there was thick, but not so thick he couldn't feel her heartbeat. Once more it began to pound into him.

"How many were there? How big were they? Did they put up a good fight-of course they were just beast-cons but the dragon thing was scrappy! It must have been a great win for Team Prime!"

"There were about a dozen," he growled, cutting into her monolog. "They weren't very big, hadn't finished growing in the vats Shockwave had them in but he was all set to let them out soon enough."

He heard her go quiet, felt her heart rate suddenly pick up. She understood the implications of that but there was a forced smile still on her face. He was going to destroy that smile he knew, break something inside of her, didn't want to, but she had demanded the truth, and a Wrecker deserved it.

"I lobbed a grenade at the set up and we got out of there. We were tearing down the cave when a groundbridge opened up and this big ugly mech stepped out. Introduced himself and proceeded to kick our afts."

He could pick up the subtle chemicals in the air now, the ones organics gave off when they were stressed.

"They weren't beasts Miko," no more beating around the bush, no softening the blow. "Predaking spoke to us while we were fleeing the blast wave-"

"No," she whispered.

That little organic pump inside of her was going wild now; twice what it should be.

"-The one that destroyed the Predacon sparklings."

"No, that can't be right," she shook her head frantically.

"Wreckers don't lie kid; not to each other, not to ourselves. You wanted to know."

"I-you-they," she whispered doubling over with an arm around her middle as if her internals were suddenly paining her. "They were just sparklings?"

"Yup."

She mercifully hopped off his leg, staggering a few steps away and taking her bio-signs with her. Miko hugged herself and shivered, not looking up at the larger Wrecker. He turned from her with a grunt and glared at the wall. At least that would shut her up- A soft touch on his pedd and the warm little bundle was in his lap again, her hands pressing into his chestplating and golden eye staring pleadingly up at him.

"But, it's not like you knew?" she whispered. "You didn't mean to, right?"

Wheeljack leaned back with a snarl.

"Not the point kid. Never the point."

"Then what is the point?" she demanded.

For a long drawn out moment The Autobot just stared at her. The silence went on for so long she began to shift uncomfortable. One great hand came up and closed gently around her.

"Stop fidgeting."

She stopped, thank Primus, and settled down on her aft with her arms wrapped around her knees. Without letting her go the Wrecker drew in a long vent.

"What's the difference between an Autobot and a Decepticon Miko?"

She blinked, surprised at the question and could only point up at the red shield on his armor.

"Yeah, but what does it stand for? Back at the start of the war the Prime spelled it all out; honor, loyalty, compassion. So everyone would know what an Autobot was. There were things Autobot's just didn't do and that code laid them out plain. A whole pretty set of rules, ideals. Some of them were pretty obvious but some just made no sense in war. A mech had to be practical if we were going to come out on top. So we shaved the corners off the rule book so to speak; all for the greater good. We could do things, would do things, other Autobots wouldn't."

A moment of silence stretched between them and he could have sworn he heard the gears turning in her processor.

"So what's the difference between a Wrecker and a Decepticon?" she asked as if the question had left a bitter taste in her mouth.

"We had lines we never crossed Miko. There were certain things we never did, and we never killed sparklings. We never offlined a Guardian still bound to his sparkling. There were others, but that was the big one."

The quiet crept in again and he felt the human in his hands shiver.

"I crossed that line today Miko," he said hoarsely. "I crossed that line and now it's gone and never coming back."

The small body leaned into his plating and a pained whimper slipped up through his servos.

"So tell me kid? What's the difference between a Wrecker and a Decepticon?"