Transformers are not mine. Hasbro owns them. I own Nightsky and Eloise.
Chapter 1
The alpha of the omega
Deep in the desert at the foot of a volcano a young Autobot by the name of Nightsky stood at Teletraan one. He was a handsome black mech of about 17 feet tall with white hands and face, royal blue chevrons on his forehead and a black helmet. He does have a battle mask which is all black, this hides his white face making him less inconspicuous. He is a gentle, friendly mech who loves fun but he is not a mech any sensible decepticon would want to come up against when he is in battle mode. He has a left arm which will transform into a double edged sword, capable of slicing through the toughest transformer metal and a plasma cannon. On Cybertron Nightsky found himself fighting in some of the most ferocious battles but he preferred the road of peace rather than war. Peaceful solutions were never found with the decepticons who would not stop fighting, even after Cybertron was destroyed by the ravages of war and they had to leave because energon was hard to come by.
On Cybertron he always was one for speed and style and would often compete with Jazz as they trained together in the hologram room. Jazz always seemed to win, which wasn't surprising considering his repertoire of swift moves and style. When they were living on Cybertron Nightsky saw Jazz as a mentor. Jazz was honoured that the young mech would want to learn off him and would teach Nightsky everything that he needed to know, especially once the war begun. Nightsky was just a youngling then and very vulnerable to the decepticons who had started to kidnap Autobot sparklings and younglings to destroy them; he had to learn to fight and survive very quickly!
The young black scout stood in front of teletraan one,
"Teletraan one, anything happening?" he drawled in his Southern accent.
Teletraan one started to bleep and run through a selection of pictures before it brought up the scene of Eloise's disappearance. Nightsky put his white hands on his hips as he watched Teletraan one, his black head cocked to the side. A frown came across his faceplates, "Eloise! Why is that name familiar to me?" He was sure he'd heard her name before, he remembered a chance meeting in the street when a girl run out in front of him but he wasn't sure if she was the girl or not.
Teletraan one showed pictures of investigators going over the small red car Eloise was driving and checking out the surrounding area. One of them, a tall, athletic man of about 40, known as Sergeant Davy appeared to be leading the investigation. He wore a dark suit, under an equally long dark coat and his "lucky scarf," as he called it. The bald headed man looked in the direction Eloise's car was pointing in, a deep frown furrowed in his brow while his grey eyes were struggling with the glare of the light on the snow. He placed his sunglasses over his eyes and turned to a younger officer,
"I don't understand how a girl can just disappear into thin air, without a trace, leaving no evidence. It just…doesn't…happen!"
This was one of the most puzzling and frustrating case he ever dealt with and he knew he would have to drop it; there was very little solid evidence and no leads.
"I know sir. It's an absolute mystery!" the younger officer replied,
She was a younger woman who was just starting out in her career. She was quite attractive with blond hair pulled back tightly into a bun and deep blue eyes which were full of compassion for Eloise and her family, she knew it would be their job to break the news to her parents.
"In all my years of experience I have never seen anything like this. I mean look at the size of these footprints here." Officer Davey exclaimed,
Another officer who was going over the car came up to the two standing together,
"There is blood in the car sir"
"That's not good!" Officer Davey replied sadly, shaking his head again.
The three officers walked up to the car and looked at the area with the blood.
While Nightsky was watching Teletraan one Optimus Prime was wandering through the Ark talking with Prowl and Jazz, he saw the young warrior and placed his hand on the mech's shoulder,
"Any activity?"
"I don't know Optimus Prime. Teletraan one has brought up the scene where the girl disappeared but I don't understand why; the case was closed a little while ago. I believe her parents have already been informed"
"Strange!" Prime replied as he leant forward to get a closer look, "Is there anything to suggest it was Decepticon?"
"I don't know sir! Perhaps the decepticons were involved otherwise why would Teletraan one pick it up?"
"Hmm!" Prime thoughtfully rubbed his mouth guard, " I agree with you Nightsky, Teletraan one obviously has reasons for bringing this to our attention otherwise it wouldn't have happened. Jazz and Prowl I would like you to go and investigate."
"Yes sir!" they both replied.
Jazz and Prowl drove to the scene of Eloise's disappearance and looked around. It wasn't difficult to find; there were no clouds in the sky and the moon was full, shining its gentle light on the snow, the ice glistening in the moonlight. In the distance the mountains were silhouetted against the night sky. The car had been moved but they could still see the footprints frozen in the snow. Eloise's small ones and Starscream's big ones, there was nothing to suggest that the police had been there, everything had been neatly cleaned away. All that was left was a tiny piece of tape from the police cordon laying frozen in the snow and a lonely bunch of flowers fluttering in the icy breeze. The last snow fall was just before Eloise disappeared so seeing the footprints there was no surprise but they would disappear soon, because snow was expected that night.
"What do you think?" Prowl asked the 3IC.
Jazz shrugged his shoulders. He was also perplexed,
"Ain't nothing here to suggest it's Decepticon apart from those footprints. Anything else left here belonging to the girl would have been taken by the human investigators as evidence. It's very strange, Decepticons usually leave a lot of damage and mess."
They continued searching the area but came up with nothing else,
"Come on" the saboteur said, "We'd better let Prime know, I hope she hasn't fallen foul of decepticons"
"So do I Jazz! So do I!" The 2IC replied, "But I don't understand why they would want her? She doesn't seem to be a human who would attract decepticon attention. I believe that nothing came up on the police searches."
The Autobots drove home silently, both contemplating what may have happened to the young red head and who the footprints belonged to. Optimus Prime and Nightsky greeted them,
"Well! Did you find anything?" the leader asked,
Optimus Prime wasn't really expecting them to find anything, he knew how thorough the human investigators were. Anything that would be of importance to the case would have been removed.
"Nope! Not a thing! We're just as much in the dark as the humans are" Jazz replied,
"Well we'll just have to wait until the decepticons have contacted us. If they do have the girl I'm sure they'll be letting us know their plans soon. Until then we'll just have to wait" Prime replied,
"What? We can't leave her there anything could happen to her! We need to rescue her!" Nightsky insisted.
"I know Nightsky but until we have proof that they have her, we can't do a thing!" OPtimus Prime answered.
"Her poor parents." Jazz replied, "She's disappeared without a trace, they have no body to bury or any way to say goodbye to her."
He walked off shaking his head wondering if there was anyway to get to the bottom of this. Prowl looked after Jazz, he too feeling sorry for the human parents of the young woman.
There were times when being a leader required Prime to make the most difficult decisions. He had a feeling that decepticons were involved but he coudn't act on just a feeling, which went against his beliefs of freedom being the right of all sentient beings. It was a great burden for him to think she could be there and suffering at the hands of their enemy, a burden he would have to carry for the rest of his life if anything was to happen to her, but what else could he do? He was greatly saddened! Prime watched his 3IC leave and turned to return to his office. He sat at his desk, the silence was very welcoming but interrupted as thoughts of Eloise went through his head. There was a knock at his door, Prime called for the mech on the other side of the door to enter. He glanced up from his data pad with Jazz and Prowl's report on it. It was Ratchet! The red and white medic sat in front of his leader,
"What's on your mind?" the medic asked.
Optimus Prime looked at his friend and smiled weakly,
"What am I to do? She could be suffering and I can't do anything about it!"
"Well you could always contact Megatron and find out if she is there" Ratchet replied,
"That is an option I'm considering right now." Prime replied,
"Well then why don't you do it instead of worrying about her?"
"I'll do it in the morning" Prime replied
"You look like you could do with a cube of energon and a good rest. If you have trouble recharging I can give you something to help you." Prime looked at Ratchet,
"Thank you old friend" Prime smiled.
The two mechs got up and made their way to the rec room where other mechs were relaxing. Some were sitting at tables and others sitting back in the chairs in the lounge area, their feet resting on smaller tables. They quickly sat up and moved their legs off the tables as their leader walked into the rec room,
"At ease!" Prime called.
He then got himself a cube of energon and did the same. He sat with Ironhide and Mirage who were reminiscing about the golden age of Cybertron. Nightsky and Bluestreak were listening to the stories, they were both too young to know about this precious time and enjoyed the stories which fascinated both of them. Mirage sighed,
"I just wish we could get back to Cybertron. I really miss it!"
Optimus Prime looked at Mirage,
"One day we will Mirage, one day!" he reassured Mirage, but not entirely convinced himself.
Meanwhile in the decepticon base it had been brought to Megatron's attention that fuel reserves for making energon had become increasingly low. The decepticons started to raid human settlements, military installations, oil fields and refineries for the fuel they would need to make the pink fluid. One such place was the oil refinery which Eloise's father managed. If it wasn't for the Autobots arriving when they did the decepticons would have got away with the fuel. As a reward for saving the refinery John had promised the autobots a supply of oil whenever they needed it. Optimus Prime thanked the human and occasionally took the man up on his offer, to which he found the human's generosity astounding. Prime had spoken to both Prowl and Jazz and suggested that they offer protection to John and the oil refinery in case of further attacks from the decepticons; it wouldn't be too long before they would find out that John was supplying them with oil. Red Alert and Ratchet went to the refinery to set up an early warning system and direct line to Teletraan one. It hadn't occurred to anybody that a decepticon would go for his daughter.
It hadn't gone unnoticed either that as the energon levels were diminishing in the decepticon base, they were increasing in the autobot base. This didn't please Megatron one little bit, he was pacing his office trying to work out why. He called in his 2IC, Starscream who sat in his office smirking; he had the solution to the problem but he wasn't going to inform Megatron. Oh no! he had other ideas for the fiery redhead he had come across, who happened to be the daughter of the manager of one of the biggest oil refineries in the nation. Megatron turned to Starscream and Soundwave who he was looking to for answers, neither of which had any. Well...one didn't! Soundwave looked at Starscream, he knew that smirk and he hated the smugness eminating from the seeker, "I shall have to find out what he knows" the cobalt blue mech promised himself.
"If we don't do anything soon then we are going to die on this dirtball of a planet" Megatron seethed, "We shall have to attack the autobots and steal their energy."
"Negative" Soundwave replied, "We have insufficient energon. "
"Yes Megatron I agree" Starscream continued, "Every mech is now on rations, if we were to go and raid the autobot's energon supplies we will lose and use up our remaining energon."
Megagtron roared and slammed his fist on his desk making a dent. Being faced with the idea that he could be defeated by the autobots yet again didn't please him one little bit.
"Well what do we do then? And why are the autobots well supplied with energon?" he retorted,
"The human who runs the oil refinery has a daughter, we could take her and use her to bribe her father into giving us fuel" Soundwave suggested.
A smile came to the huge grey leader's face, while Starscream inwardly cringed
"Good thinking..." The Megatron purred,
"Not possible Megatron." Starscream interjected "I was watching the human news a few earth days ago, she's disappeared without a trace."
"Well find her then!" Megatron yelled at the blue and white seeker, his blood red optics glaring with malice at the seeker, "I shall leave it in your capable hands Starscream. Don't let me down!" he snarled getting right into Starscream's face.
Starscream was happy about this. As long as he could tell Megatron he couldn't find the girl, suspicions wouldn't be aroused that he already had her.
It had been a while since Eloise's disappearance, ever since she had arrived she had not made life easy for Starscream. In actual fact the cantankerous young woman was beginning to get to Starscream. He was beginning to wish he'd left her alone, he was beginning to think that maybe it is a good idea to take her to Megatron because right now he was sure his leader could hear her. He had been out on several expeditions pretending to try and find the young woman but would always come back to Megatron with bad news. Megatron was beginning to lose his patience with the seeker, he sent Thundercracker and Skywarp to join him on his search for Eloise but they too couldn't find her. In the end Soundwave pointed out to Megatron that all this extra activity was going to use up the last of their energon and maybe they should set a trap for her. Megatron liked that idea and told the seekers to come back to base.
Starscream went back to his quarters to relax. He was exhausted after all the extra flying he had to do and Eloise's continual ranting. He took her out of her cage and placed her on the table next to her cage. It was the first time she was out and she was scared to move in fear of what this monster may do to her. She sat quietly looking around the room which appeared to be some sort of a bedroom except everything was huge. Her green eyes moved around the room slowly, she could see a berth, which didn't look very comfortable at all, the table she was on and the chair Starscream sat in, but that was all. The walls were plain grey and metal with no windows which added to the starkness of the room. On one wall there was a frame with an inscription on it which was written in strange symbols unrecognisable as an Earth language. There was a strange pink glow emanating from a purple symbol, the same as the one Starscream had on his wing. The temperature of the room was cold, that was the only way she could describe it. Very… cold!
Eloise was certainly beginning to feel the cold and was grateful for her leather jacket, which was helping to keep her warm in the frigid room. The young woman was thankful she hadn't taken it off when she got in her car, something the young student would normally do once it got warmer. She delved her hands into her pockets to keep them warm, as she did she felt something in her left pocket. The 24 year old was pleased to see the welcoming sight of her licence and a $10.00 bill. "Well there's a small mercy!" She took a quick glance at Starscream, he hadn't noticed her checking out the contents of her pocket. His eyes were dim and the energon cube in his hand was slowly starting to tip as he started to go into recharge. Relief flooded Eloise's body when she saw the contents of her pocket and the sleepy mech. She could prove who she was, not that it would do her much good there! Unfortunately she couldn't find her mobile, which was always in her right pocket and was disappointed. Another thing which bothered the usually chirpy redhead was the continual, endless silence. To add to the quietness was the loneliness, there wasn't anybody to talk to and she resented that, Eloise loved to talk! Her friends would often have to stand before her and tell her to be quiet, her fiancé would often place his finger on her lips to hush her.
Heavy footfalls could be heard on a metal floor. Eloise looked up alarmed and quickly stuffed her licence and the money back in her pocket, then went to stand up to see who was coming but as she did Starscream's hand grabbed her and quickly threw her into her cage,
"Ow!" she yelled as she rubbed the parts of her body which came into contact with the bars,
"Shut up! You'll alert others to your presence." The surly mech hissed as he wached his door. The footsteps died away and all was once again quiet. The peace soon ended though as Eloise started her barage of questions and ranting at Starscream about her displeasure in being where she was,
"Where am I?" Eloise snarled,
Her green eyes glared at him, demanding an answer, an answer which wasn't going to be offered to her, not yet anyway!. He looked at her and smirked as she kneeled in her cage galring at him,
"Well?... I want...an answer!
"Did you hear me? Where am I?" she yelled
Now it was Starscream's turn to glare at her. He quickly moved up to her cage, Eloise whimpered as his face got right into hers,
"You'd do well to speak to me with respect… little femme! and to not make a fuss. You will get yourself killed and get me in trouble!" Starscream retaliated,
"I don't care about you. Now get me out of here!" she yelled even louder banging on her cage.
The twenty four year old was known for picking up a bone and not letting it go. What she didn't know was that Starscream was a Decepticon who could easily squash her if she pushed too hard. She lifted her head and stared at him squarely in his eyes,
"If you don't be quiet I will leave you at the mercy of Megatron!"
Starscream angrily grabbed the cage and shook it violently as he spoke to her, he then calmly put it down,
"Now little femme it would be in your best interest to pipe down or I will shut you up. Permanently if necessary! After you have given me what I want!"
"And what would that be?" Eloise clipped,
"Fuel from your Father's oil refinery"
"Yeah! Like that's going to happen! You will never get any help from me" the redhead screamed
"Oh you will!" Starscream reassured her, "One way or another you will!"
"Why should I! It's not like you asked me for my help, you just turned up and took me. Why should I help you?"
"If you help us I will release you" Starscream stopped in his tracks and appeared to be thinking, "Or maybe I will keep you here...as a pet." he smirked
The young woman sat there looking at him seething with rage. There was no way! she was going to help him, nor was she going to be a pet to this…this monster.
Suddenly the seeker heard movement outside his door. He quickly grabbed Eloise's cage and placed her in a cupboard. The young woman looked in horror at where she was about to go,
"Hey what are you doing? Don't you shut me in the cupboard!" she screamed, "Let me out of here!" Eloise started to bang the side of the cage and scream at the top of her voice. Starscream was beginning to feel confused, he quickly shut off his audial sensors and turned around to find the familiar form of his brother standing behind him,
"Hey Screamer! What are you doing in here and why is there so much noise?"
"Frag!" Starscream thought to himself, it was his brother Skywarp. He had entered Starscream's quarters uninvited and was curious to what Starscream was doing,
"What's that noise Screamer?"
"How many times do you have to be told to knock, you glitch!" Starscream snapped,
"Oh come on Screamer I just want to know what you got"
Starscream quickly turned around and watched his brother edge closer to the cupboard. He was suspicious of Screamer's shifty behaviour
"Nothing Skywarp!" Starscream purred. He cycled air through his vents in frustration at the noise Eloise was making and his brother's rude entrance into his quarters,
"Shut. Up. Femme!" he hissed through the door then quickly turned around again to face Skywarp,
"What? I will not shut up. Now LET ME OUUUUUT!!!" Eloise screamed even louder.
"Nothing for you to know" The red and white mech replied defensively to Skywarp. Starscream was getting increasingly frustrated as he tried to deal with Eloise's screaming and Skywarp's annoying curiosity.
Skywarp wasn't convinced, as he bound forward and pushed Starscream to one side. He proceeded to open the cupboard but Starscream quickly got up and pushed Skywarp out of the way, as he did the cupboard door came off its hinge. Skywarp's eyes bulged, Starscream swore and Eloise screamed. Starscream quickly composed himself and bashed the side of the cage Eloise stopped instantly, the bars were buckled from the brute force of Starscream's punch.
"What have you got there?" Skywarp looked closer, "Eew it's organic! How could you screamer! It's so-so-so gross!"
He poked his finger through the runs of the cage and into Eloise's abdomen. She bent over in agony and embarrassment as the finger dug right into her, causing to her to retch. She stared at them in abject horror as the terrifying realisation hit her that this monster was not alone!
"You glitch! What did you do to her. Get out!" Starscream yelled at his brother,
"You'd better be careful. You know how Megatron feels about squishies. You wouldn't want him finding out about that thing!"
Starscream looked at Skywarp,
"He is not going to find out Skywarp. Right!" Starscream hissed quietly,
"I don't intend to say anything, but I won't defend you if Megatron finds out. Mind you if he did he'd terminate her and then that would be one less human to worry about. Why have you got her anyway? Is it another one of your schemes to outdo Megatron? You know you won't succeed, he's too clever for you!"
"Oh but Skywarp you don't understand this human is the daughter of a man who runs an oil refinery Megatron asked me to find her, she will become very useful!"
"But we came with you and couldn't find...hang on a minute! You had her here all the time?" Skywarp couldn't believe that Starscream would do that to them,
"Yes and Megatron doesn't know. So don't you tell him"
"You glitch! Do you think you can keep her secret for long. You know how good Soundwave is at smelling a rat as humans put it. Not to mention that Ravage will find the girl. Her pheromones will give her away eventually." Skywarp ranted
The two mechs started to talk in Cybertronian making it hard for Eloise to understand,
"Hey what's all the noise?" This time it was Thundercracker. He walked into Starscream's room. Starscream huffed in frustration at yet another intrusion,
"Can't a mech get any peace around here?"
"Sorry I just wanted to kn…Hey isn't that the femme who disappeared? She must also be the one Megatron wants us to look for."
"Starscream has another plan, this time involving the human femme" Skywarp laughed
"You wanna be careful Screamer if Megatron finds out you're holding out on him, you'll be punished. And we all know what that will mean-for all of us" Thundercracker warned,
"Yeah well, he's not going to know!"
Neither Skywarp or Thundercracker could believe Starscream had the girl all the time, they were annoyed that they had wasted all that time searching for her when she was already in the base. They could have been making energon already, they could have had plenty of energon and no longer be on rations. They weren't surprised, after all Starscream often did things which were not much good for the decepticons as a whole, but would be of more benefit for himself. They nearly always an attempt to overthrow Megatron and this time was no exception. When he unveiled his plans of getting her to lead him to her father, and taking the oil to convert into energon for his own consumption so that he'd be stronger than Megatron they just stood there shaking their heads and laughing,
"Don't laugh at me. I will do it and when I have I will rebuild and rule Cybertron. No the universe!" he bellowed victoriously,
"Yeah, Yeah, Yeah Starscream! We've heard it all before. Oh mighty wannabe ruler!" they laughed.
Eloise sat there looking at them in disgust, then turned her back on them, swearing angrily at the three decepticon seekers. It did very little except cause them to laugh.
"She's so funny!" Skywarp chuckled, speakingin the earth language they knew as English, "What else does she do?"
Eloise looked around at the jets, then she snorted and turned around again in disgust. She was fearful of the one they called Megatron and what he could do. Then just to add to the ridicule her stomach growled in the loudest way possible. Skywarp heard it and looked at her,
"Hey organic! What was that noise? Do it again!"
Eloise was now annoyed at the seekers she turned around and looked at Skywarp, Thundercracker and Starscream with such hostility, making her green eyes into slits,
"I can't do it again and for your information it is my stomach telling me it's time to eat. So being as how I'm here for your pleasure perhaps you'd like to get me some food and drink. After all you wouldn't want to explain to your oh so precious, monster of a leader that the disgusting smell coming from your quarters is a dead, rotting human. Who isn't even supposed to be here and who you neglected to feed.
They stopped laughing at her. Skywarp's faceplate turned from one of laughter to one of anger towards the frightened young woman, he poked his thumb and finger through the bars of the cage and grabbed Eloise. He squeezed her back and chest until he could feel every vertebrae and every rib straining under the pressure of his grip. He wondered what would happen if he squeezed harder and gave it a try. Eloise was terrified as she gasped for every breath believing it to be her last. He pulled her toward him so she was squashed against the cage and loosened his grip,
"Hey squishy you will speak of Megatron with respect. He is not a monster he is merely trying to do all he can to keep our race alive"
"At the expense of my race and world" she retaliated .
"Well… there has to be a sacrifice somewhere" he replied lightly,
"Well go and find another planet to destroy. Don't destroy ours! Who are you to decide who has to make a sacrifice anyway?"
Skywarp let her go and gave her a hard shove. She fell backwards onto her knees and could feel every tendon and muscle strain until they burnt. Her eyes started to fill with tears as the pain went right down to her ankles and up to her hips. Her back and chest were just as painful from Skywarp's grip and she was sure bruising was beginning to form.
In the Autobot base Nightsky was in his quarters pacing his floor, unhappy with the outcome of Jazz and Prowl's findings. He didn't want to think about the girl in the Decepticon base but for some reason she was playing on his mind. He was sure she was the one he met before but couldn't be certain, one thing he did know everytime he heard her name mentioned it would tug at his spark. He left his quarters and made his way to find Jazz. He couldn't find the black and white mech anywhere but he found himself by Mirage's quarters and went to knock on the door but Mirage opened it before he could knock,
"Woah! What's been eating you?" he asked,
"Eloise!" Nightsky replied,
"Eloise, isn't that the femme that disappeared under mysterious circumstances?"
"Yeah! Surely there is something we can do about it."
"What does Optimus Prime say?"
"We can't do anything unless we have proof Decepticons have her."
"Well he has good reason to say that. We can't just go and attack the decepticons if there is no reason to. Our fight with them is for Cybertron, it's just we have become involved in protecting humans now because the decepticons are trying to destroy their world too. Come on you look like you could do with a good dose of high grade. Don't worry about her!"
Nightsky went with the Mech but he still wasn't happy about it. He thought about going to Ratchet and asking him for something to take his mind of the missing human but decided against it. Although Nightsky knew that if Ratchet found out he was in the state he was in, the medic would no doubt haul him into the med bay for a lecture-Ratchet style! The two mechs went to the rec room for a cube of energon and who should be in there? Ratchet!-
"Oh no!" Nightsky groaned and turned his back on the medic so his face was hidden. Not that that would do any good because Ratchet was able to scan the mechs no matter which way they were facing. When Mirage and Nightsky went to a table the medic had left, the young black and white warrior heaved a sigh of relief.
"Just one question Nightsky. You're not going to do anything silly like go to decepticon base and try and rescue her are you?" Mirage asked the young mech.
Nightsky looked at his friend thoughtfully,
"No!" he simply replied.
Mirage nodded at his friend, then they both downed the energon before watching tv.
Eloise was beginning to look bedraggled, her green eyes had lost their sparkle and she hadn't had a shower in weeks; decent meals were not very forthcoming either. Starscream entered his room with what looked like a bowl and water. He poured the water into the bowl, he then took the cage with Eloise in it out of the cupboard and placed her on the table.
"What's that for?" she asked,
" You smell! You are going to draw attention to us!"
"You mean I'm going to draw attention to you."
"No femme, Us! If you are found then I get in trouble too." Starscream snipped,
"Told you! I will draw attention to you, I'm not supposed to be here..."
"You are supposed to be here. You are going to tell your father to give us fuel so we can make energon. Oh and you'd better do that because if you don't you will be at the mercy of Soundwave or Hook. They will not be so gentle!" Starscream warned the already frightened girl.
The seeker walked towards her with a sly grin, Eloise backed away looking at him suspicious of his next move. Starscream grabbed her and lay her on the table while holding onto her and tried to grab her clothes and take them off,
"Don't you dare!" she growled,
"Alright then" he picked her up and put her straight into the water with all her clothes on, except her jacket which he had successfully prized from her.
It was freezing! It took her breath away! She sat in the bath shivering as she washed her face in the waist deep water. Goosebumps started to form all over her body as her teeth started to chatter. Starscream laughed as he pushed her under the water, giving Eloise barely enough time to take a breath. He pulled her out and gave her a piece of material to dry herself with but it was not affective against her wet clothes and hair. The seeker picked up her jacket and went to take it away,
"Oi! Give that back. It's mine, I need it!"
He looked at her with disgust as she stood on the table huddling herself and shivering, begrudgingly he threw the jacket back at her. She put it on before she was placed back into her cage, crawling into a corner she sat down, still shivering and glared at him,
"Y-you w-won't g-get away with this. The police are looking f-for m-me!"
Starscream looked at her,
"The police?" he said incredulously, "what makes you think the police will be looking for you? And if they do what are they going to do against me!"
"They are and when they find me…"
"Ah ha ha ha ha ha! They'll never find you, you silly little human. They don't even know where our base is." Starscream roared with laughter at the frozen drenched woman.
Eloise sat back down defeated. Despair! Despair engulfed her as the last words Starscream spoke sank in. She then looked up at him and with pure hatred etched on her young face, her warm green eyes turned cold and hard as she darkly snarled,
"I hate you! Whoever you are I hate you!"
Starscream looked at her, he was beginning to like the feisty femme. He walked to her,
"No you don't! Not really, what has old Screamer done to you, for you to hate me huh?" he purred with a smirk,
"Get me some food and drink. I'm hungry again."
"Don't you dare order me around like that!" he snarled, "Nobody orders me around. Nobody!"
As soon as he said that Rumble's voice was heard over the radio
"Starscream to Megatron's office. Now!"
Starscream's jaw components dropped as he looked at the red haired woman, who was smirking at him with satisfaction.
He slammed his fist down on the table next to the cage, got up, placed her back in his cupboard and left to go to Megatron's office
"Hey what are you doing? Let me out of hear. You can't do…" she screamed at the highest decibel possible so that even her own ears hurt. Starscream's optics narrowed,
"Shut up femme before I shut you up!" he hissed darkly and slammed the door shut.
He could still hear Eloise screaming at him and hurling abuse. Eloise heard his footsteps disappear as she sat down in her cage. Once again Eloise was shut in the dark, left with only her thoughts and memories of life when she was free. A tear slid down her face. How she missed her family and fiancé. She desperately wanted to get out of the cage, the room, to run into her fiancé's arms, to feel his strong arms wrapped around her, and hear his soothing voice whisper in her ear, it's okay. She resolved to escape, not knowing that somebody else could rescue her and not knowing she was deep under the ocean, she resolved to escape soon and started to think of plans.
"You wanted me lord Megatron?" Starscream asked snidely
"Yes Starscream. Have you found the femme yet?"
"No lord Megatron. Like I said before she has disappeared."
"Well hurry up! We need that fuel for energon." Megatron ordered,
"Yes lord Megatron we are doing all we can to locate the girl" he replied.
Starscream left Megatron's office, he went to the entrance of the base and waited for Shockwave to raise up the tower before he left to find Eoise food.
It wasn't long before Starscream returned with some food and water. He unlocked the cupboard and placed her cage on a table in his quarters, he opened the door and tried to get her out but Eloise huddled into a corner hanging onto the bars.
The redhead wasn't expecting the blue and red seeker to tip up the cage and shake her out. She fell into his massive blue hand, got up and tried to run to the edge but he quickly folded his fingers around her,
"Ah ah ah! You can't escape me my dear! Starscream will not allow his little pet to leave. What would he do then?"
"I don't care!"
"Now now now! Don't you get all surly with me."
He produced some energon rope from his subspace so he could tie her to the outside of the cage. She looked at him, he glared back at her with his ruby red optics. He handed her the food, a cheese bagel with salad, followed by an apple. She looked at him suspiciously,
"Where did you get this from?"
"Go on! Eat!" he encouraged, "Eat for Starscream"
Eloise snatched the bagel from him and scoffed it down quickly, Starscream looked away in disgust at her manners and wondered if this was normal human behaviour at mealtimes,
"Do you always eat like that?" he snarled,
"Only when we aren't fed often enough. So where am I and who are you?" she said with a mouthful of food.
"My name is Starscream and I am a decepticon. You are in the decepticon base, don't try to escape it is underwater." She looked at him, "Dammit!"
"Now that we seem to be on speaking terms perhaps we could come to some sort of an arrangement between the decepticons and your father. We need the fuel Eloise, we will die without it."
Eloise looked at Starscream alarmed at what he asked? She loved her father to bits, there was no way she was going to allow this beast to get hold of him or the oil refinery, who knows what they could do? She looked at Starscream with anger and growled,
"I'm not doing that. I'd rather rot here then let you get hold of the oil. You would use it for your malevolent desires"
"Don't you value your freedom? Think of your fiance and your family, I know they are missing you. It would be in your best interest to do this or I will hand you over to Megatron." Starscream replied,
Eloise sat there and thought about her family, it would be nice to see them again, it would be nice to be free and pick up her life from where it was taken. Then she thought about the cosequences. How free would she really be knowing the decepticons had fuel to destroy her world? What about the innocent lives lost? She knew what her answer was,
"I'd rather die before doing that" she said defiantly as she glared at the mech asking her to do this, "If you wanted that information so badly why did you take me and not my father?"
"You were easier to catch, after all you were driving on a quiet road. Nobody saw me take you and nobody knows if your dead or alive. I've watched the police investigate the case, they're baffled. They told your parents they closed the case" he smirked smugly,
"Liaaaaarrrrrr!! You dirty, rotten liar. That's not true, they wouldn't do that" she hissed at the mech through gritted teeth, her face twisted with despair and grief,
"Yes they would my dear. You don't think they'd worry about an insignificant human like you, do you?. Now are you going to help us or not?"
"No! I won't!"
"Then so be it!" Starscream snarled angrily as he stormed out of his quarters. Eloise sat in her cage and started to sob, deep wrenching sobs. SHe looked at the remains of her meal and threw it out of the cage. She suddenly felt very tired and lay down just as Starscream returned with his brothers. She pretended to be asleep for as long as she could and listened to the conversation,
"Hey guess what!" Thundercracker said in his raspy voice full of smiles,
"What?" Starscream snarled,
"Prime sent two Autobots to check the scene of the crime" Thundercracker laughed,
"Yeah!" Skywarp jeered, "You're a criminal. The Autobots and humans will come after you"
Eloise could barely open her eyes but tried when she heard this piece of information, "Who is Prime and who are the Autobots?" she thought sleepily, then lost her battle to unconciousness. Skywarp placed his hand on the table and slowly edged it closer to where the sleeping girl lay. Starscream slammed his hand on Skywarp's hand,
"Hands off!" he growled and gently placed her back into her cage.
That night Eloise slept heavier than she'd slept for a long time. When he woke up, she sat up still feeling groggy from her sleep. She tried to lift her right arm to rub her hands through her greasy, dull hair which had fallen over her face, but it wouldn't move easily and hurt. The frightened woman fell against the side of her cage and yelped as she landed on her sore arm. There was a dull ache in her head which thumped every time she moved it. Curiosity got the better of Eloise so she took off her jacket and lifted her shirt sleeve. She was horrified by the sight that greeted her eyes. There in all its boldness on her upper arm was a decepticon symbol tattoed in purple. She opened her mouth and screamed a high pitched scream, she was sure the whole base would have heard it. Starscream raced into his quarters,
"SShh! Sshh! Shut up" he bellowed at her,
"What have you done to me?" she ranted as panic rose up from the pit of her stomach, "You have marred me! Get it off! I don't care how. Just take it off!" she bellowed as tears coursed down her face, "I bet you drugged me to put it on didn't you? You put something in my food, that's why I feel the way I do"
"Can't" he replied victoriously, "It's there forever. Now everybody will know you as a decepticon. And you are mine!"
"I will never subscribe to you decepticons and your malevolent cause." she growled, "I will never speak to my father on your behalf, I would much rather take my chances with your Megatron rather than betray my father. You have no idea what you are asking me to do. How dare you mark me this way. How dare you!"
Eloise was seething with the mech, seething with what he was asking her to do and done to her,
"I hate you! You despicable piece of junk. How dare you!" she hissed bitterly through gritted teeth.
Eloise suddenly stopped yelling at Starscream as she felt her stoamch bubbling and the remains of her meal from the previous night rise up. Not knowing what else to do, the young woman bent over as she hurled all over her cage, she broke out into a cold sweat and groaned in pain before collapsing into a heap. Starscream run towards her, her healthy complexion turned pale, she closed her eyes and turned her back on him swearing in the process. He quickly scanned the sick girl, her heart rate had become rapid and quick, her breathing was shallow, her temperature was low and she was shivering and sweating. Starscream didn't know what to do and started to panic; he couldn't take her to their med bay, Megatron would find out. He quickly placed her into the cupboard before accessing the human internet for an answer. He went back over to her and was relieved to discover her colour had retuned and she was now sleeping again. He scanned her again to find her heart rate and respiration were back to normal and her temperature was rising, air escaped through his vents in a sigh of relief. He tried to clean up her cage around her, not wanting to wake her up, feeling guilty for making her ill.
A long time had passed since Eloise was tattooed. She sat in her cage trying to work out how long she'd been there for but it was very difficult. She still hadn't accepted the mark and the fact that she was there. She still hadn't agreed to helping Starscream or the decepticons and knew it was only a matter of time before Starscream's patience really runs out and he takes her to Megatron. She had seen less of the surly, cruel mech as they had increased their raids to gain fuel, their most successful one being on an oil tanker. They had managed to trick the autobots with the use of holograms and hiding signals with the help of Soundwave, so they could raid the tanker. They came back to base with sufficient fuel to produce enough energon to last a while but it wasn't a long term solution. Then a different solution came through giving the decepticons the upper hand against the autobots.
Starscream was rostered on for monitor duty and was alone, everybody else was patrolling the decepticon area, except for Megatron who decided he was going on a mission with his communications officer. Starscream brought Eloise out of her cage and took her up to the communications room with him. Nobody else was going to be in there so he knew his secret would not escape. The only other Mechs who did know were his brothers and they would keep his secret safe as long as he kept them sweet. He sat her down on the desk near enough to him so she couldn't run away and hide in a corner. He noticed that she had become quite skinny and her hair had lost its shine. She always looked sad and never smiled.
She looked around the room, it was huge. There was a huge screen on the wall with a computer underneath, next to that one there appeared to be what resembled a sort of radio, similar to something the humans would use to communicate with airline pilots or police officers out on patrol, and that was about all. She looked at him as she thought about how she could annoy him today, unaware of the danger her behaviour could put her in. She'd never had the pleasure of meeting Megatron, she'd heard about him when Starscream and his brothers talked about him. She was about to say something to him when the screen flickered on and another funny looking purple Mech with a yellow eye came on,
"Message for Megatron. There is an Autobot femme coming through the space bridge. She is injured and vulnerable, if we can get her first it will bring down the morale of the Autobot army and then we can attack them and defeat them."
Starscream smirked as he heard the message,
"Good! We could use her to bribe the autobots into giving us their fuel, no the name of their supplier but we will kill the femme, she will be of no use to the autobots by the time Soundwave has finished with her. Then when we have defeated the autobots we can go back to Cybertron to rebuild it. Cybertron will be ours FOREVER! Ah ha ha ha ha ha aha!" Starscream laughed victoriously.
He looked at Eloise menacingly,
"Not a word!" he said threateningly "or you will be severely punished. I no longer have use for you. Your days are numbered femme!" he spat viciously.
Eloise looked over at the sardistic mech and looked away as tears welled in her eyes. She knew of the Autobots from the conversations the seekers had in Starscream's room. She didn't know who they were but she wasn't going to let Starscream get away with this. Eloise watched Starscream stand in front of the screen and talk to Shockwave. Slowly she made her way over to the huge buttons on the second communication device, keeping an eye on him to make sure he was still distracted and making sure she wasn't seen. She turned on the two way radio, the screen blipped. Eloise froze and slowly turned around to glance in Starscream's direction frightened of what she may be greeted with, but neither Starscream or Shockwave took any notice; the screen always blipped. The frightened yet hopeful woman turned a knob still watching the two decepticons. She relayed a message through the microphone unaware that she had turned to the frequency of teletraan one
"If anybody receives this message, My name is Eloise. I was kidnapped by Starscream who is keeping me here against my will in the decepticon base. Please help me! Please somebody help me before he kills me, ple-ea-ease!" she cried desperately.
She quickly turned the device off as she heard the two mechs concluding their conversation,
"Starscream out"
Eloise quickly closed the line as Starscream turned around,
"What are you doing?" he yelled at her as he picked her up and squeezed her,
"How dare you touch anything. You've got know idea what you've done" he growled as he tried to catch the message but it was too late, it had been received by Teletraan one.
In the autobot base Sunny was on monitor duty, he was laid back in a chair, legs up and hands behind his head with fingers interwoven. Eloise's message came through Teletraan one. Sunny leapt forward as he listened to it. He heard about the missing human but really didn't pay much attention to the news, as far as he was concerned it wasn't an Autobot problem. This message changed everything! He immediately called Optimus Prime on his comm link. Prime raced to Teletraan one,
"What is it Sunstreaker?"
"Teletraan one received a message from someone called Eloise. She is asking for help" Sunny replied as he pushed the replay button. Optimus Prime listened to the message relieved, at last she had become their concern and now he could do something about it! He opened his radio link,
"Autobots to the ops room! Now! He ordered through the radio link. Every available Autobot went to the ops room and sat down wondering why they were called.
Eloise was once again locked in her little square cage in the cupboard while Starscream went to give Megatron the message. She had been told that there would be no food or drink for her for two earth days and she would be locked in the cupboard until he decided what to do with her. She knew she'd pushed him too far and he was going to harm her now. Suddenly a little beeping noise could be heard, "That sounds like my phone!" she thought. Eloise looked around her cage hopefully but didn't see it. A light caught her sight, there sitting a little way from the cage on the same shelf was her mobile phone. The young woman was sure a signal wouldn't get through and hoped it wasn't bleeping because the power was low. Encouraged by what she saw Eloise stretched her hands through the cage and tried as hard as she could to reach it, but it was no use! Her green eyes looked around for something to reach it with, but there was nothing around. Eloise sat back and thought. The red head tried again, pushing herself right against the bars, straining every muscle from her shoulder to her fingers desperate to reach it,
"Come on Eloise! Come on you've nearly got it just a bit more" she encouraged herself, putting everything she had into reaching the phone.
Finally her fingers touched the phone and Eloise managed to move it closer toward her. Just as she did that she could hear Starscream's footsteps coming toward the cupboard where she was,
She grabbed the phone just in time before the cupboard doors flew open and Starscream's face appeared in front of her cage,
"What are you doing" he asked suspiciously,
"N-nothing!" she replied with a smug smile.
Suddenly a voice was heard from the radio,
"Quarter search!"
Well that is Chapter 1!
Hope you enjoyed it!
Hope to get chapter 2 up sooner rather than later.