Feeling the stares of the other Autobots, the femme stopped struggling and turned to stare back, almost sympathetically. Under her eyes were barely legible, Ancient Cybertronian symbols. Sentinel continued to babble and brag while the other Autobots exchanged glances.
Feeling pity for her, Optimus spoke up against Sentinel's plans to put the femme in the Elite Guard Prison, "Sentinel, shouldn't we at least learn her incentive before throwing her in prison?"
"Incentive," Sentinel argued, "does any Decepticon really need an incentive? You, more than anyone, should know how evil they are!" Optimus glanced at the Decepticon femme and frowned when his team medic spoke up.
"He does have a point, kid," Ratchet said in his old, rusty voice.
"I don't care," Sentinel glared at the other Prime's words, "I want to get to the nub of the situation, after all, if any Decepticon would choose to strike an onslaught on Autobot officials, why now?"
Optimus did have a point. After all, the Decepticon leader, Megatron, had been captured on Earth by his crew, at a terrible price. But the imprisonment of their leader had caused many Decepticons to retreat; and because there were fewer battles, there were a decreasing number of wounded and deceased Autobots, as Ratchet put it. Optimus remembered the old field medic's exact words, "Fewer battles: Fewer catastrophes."
The other Autobots stared at Sentinel, waiting for his decision. He glanced around at the others with a dumbfound look, and then glanced at the Decepticon with a frown. After a long moment of awkward silence, he sighed, finally bored of the argument, "Fine," he turned to Safeguard, who had separated into Jetfire and Jetstorm, "Take off the prisoner's gag, let's hear what this 'con has to say…"
The femme jerked her head and started yelling beneath the gag again. Jetfire held her arms at her right side while Jetstorm carefully removed the gag; she was easily a head taller than the twins. Optimus started to think that he might have made a mistake. Sentinel gave him an "I-told-you-so" smirk, mixed with a "This-is-why-we-don't-do-that" frown. After a small struggle, Jetstorm finally managed to remove the bind covering her mouth.
"Down with Lenitness," she blurted out, glaring up at the Autobots.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Sentinel scowled down at the 'con, while the twins held her on either side so that she was stooping over.
The femme glanced up at Sentinel and smirked wildly, "If you don't understand, then Cybertron is in more trouble than I thought," she said while pulling herself up to her full height, effectively shaking off Jetstorm and Jetfire, "Now if you'll excuse me," the Autobots tensed and drew out their weapons as she vainly attempted to remove the stasis cuffs, "I have somewhere to be, places to see."
"You is not going anywhere…" Jetfire said as he created a ball of fire in the palm of his hand with his special abilities.
"Yeah, you is being arrested for your crimes, Decepticon," Jetstorm finished as he bundled his fists and created wind currents around them.
She screwed up her face in a scowl, "I am no Decepticon…"she glared at Bumblebee, Bulkhead, and Ratchet, who all glared back, "And I have a name, you know."
"Why would we want to know your name, Decepticreep," Bumblebee hissed as he raised his stingers, "After all, you're all the sa-"
"That's enough, Bumblebee," Optimus raised his hand for Bumblebee to stop, "Let's hear what she has to say."
"Optimus," Sentinel raised an eyebrow while the other Autobots stared in disbelief, "Don't tell me you're on her side!"
Optimus raised his hands to explain, and hopefully calm down the seething pink-painted Prime, "I just want to hear what she has to say," he turned to the femme, who had started stooping over again do to the power of the stasis cuffs.
I'm surprised that she's even awake, let alone functioning, Optimus thought.
"Now," he started, "You said you had a name, care to tell us what it is?" he raised an eyebrow when the Long Arm-look-alike smirked.
"I call myself Never, Never Ever," she straightened up a little and her smile grew, "Now, I'd shake your hand, but I'm a little tied up at the moment."
"Pff, Never Ever," Everyone turned to look at Bumblebee and Bulkhead, who were holding in there laughs, "What-hahaha-kind of a name is that?"
Never rolled her optics, and her smirk lessened as she sighed, "As a matter-of-fact, it's the answer I get whenever I tell this tin can," she jerked her head towards Sentinel, "that I want to be in the Elite Guard."
Bumblebee and Bulkhead stopped laughing and everyone stared at Never with wide optics, the very air seemed to stop and hold its breath.
Optimus glanced at the faces of his teammates; they all stood still, petrified as they thought of the same thing as he did, or rather of who they thought of. He looked at Bumblebee and Bulkhead, who had been in the same Autoboot camp dorm as Shockwave when he was hiding under his fake name. Shockwave had disguised himself as an Autobot to gather information for Megatron and had almost killed Ultra Magnus with his own hammer. And now, this, Long arm-look-alike, this femme, who had broken into the Elite Guard Command Center, pranked the acting Magnus, and had openly said she hoped to be an Elite Guard was standing there looking at them as if they were all destined for the scrapheap!
She looked at them; her brows furrowed together, a sad smile written on her faceplates. They were afraid of her, afraid because of the way she looked, afraid because they were so lost in the idea that you were evil because of how you looked; because of what the "Important Ones" said about you, that they always went by the book, always did what they were told, always stood at attention when ordered. Had all hope died away? She hoped not. Never glanced at the red-and-blue One, He became an Important One the day everyone started paying attention to who he was. He was Optimus Prime, and if she could get him to trust her she might just have a chance.