Well, well… on last episode, we witnessed Sedna saving Strongarm after she escaped and the cadet falling unconsciousness from the fall when the unthinkable event came unpredictably. So let's focus on the questions: Will the team believe in her or not? Or will she keep it for herself?
Disclaimer: I own only my OC Sedna
Music for inspiration: Breaking A Promise from Elysium, Ryan Amon
Would They Believe In Me?
The following morning
There was no happy atmosphere over the scrapyard. There was no pleasant atmosphere either or joyful one. There was only sorrow, agony and suffering. The entire sky seemed carrying the heavy sorrow as the sun was blocked away behind heavily thick clouds. The sunlight barely got through, which created the sun just like a yellow fireball illuminated behind silver.
Tension rose high and it was becoming too tensed as the Autobots helped each other to fix, cover and support. For Strongarm it was too spark-breaking that she could've swore herself how pathetic she was. Everyone was full in tension what she had noticed. Their optics shared the same questionable gazes: how could Sedna escape?
Why didn't I stop Sedna?
It was the same question that swarmed inside her processor endlessly while she gave assistance to Bumblebee who sat, grunting dizzily in pain. Not far sat Sideswipe murmuring as Drift and his minibots surrounded him and checked on every limb, the spinal column, the helmet and abdominal areas to make sure he was okay and finding any damages that required attention.
The cadet focused on Optimus. His entire chest and facial features looked completely bruised up. Fortunately, he was capable to help the others despite how painfully his bruises looked. She and he helped the rest while Grimlock, who was still functioning well, supported Bumblebee. The lieutenant had regained consciousness but he felt dizzy like he had been riding on roller coaster up and down in spirals. He looked like he was about to puke too.
But the one who had the worst conditions was Windblade. She was unconscious. The wings lay next to her as the seeker was lying on her abdominal areas at a broad berth. Fixit worked intensively on her to stabilize the conditions and trying his best to fix the severe ripped off shoulders. Four monitors were standing near her, connected with tubes, cables and lines that supplied her vital fluids and held a precise, watchful eye on her conditions. He had difficult to believe on it. How could the Akhlut Predacon do such a thing? Ripping off two wings apart from a seeker so violently, yet so easily?
The humans put their focus helping the minibot too.
"How could the Predacon do this to Windblade?" Russell asked heavily. "I mean, just ripping off her wings so easily?"
"I wish I could explain it," Fixit answered, depressed over the view on the damages. He wished so much over that this should never happened. "The kind of power the Predacon showed in front of us last night… that's nothing I can match with any of Autobot or a Decepticon can have."
Strongarm overheard them talking and she went to Optimus. "Optimus," she said his name. But then she hesitated. What shall she tell?
"What is it?" noticing her hesitation, he looked at her with a concerned frown. "Is there something you wish to tell me?"
"I… I failed to stop her. It was a landslide that made me losing sight of her," she whispered to him. She stood extremely close to him.
"A landslide?" he whispered back. At first, she thought he looked like he suspected her for a crime she did not commit but the truth was he was more willing to listen on her and speak with her privately if they could. Unlike the other members, he knew somewhat better about the Akhlut Predacon than anyone and he had seen Sedna's expressions before.
"Yeah…" a single nod came from her as agreement.
"You did not tell us about it," he sensed that she was hiding something that she did not want to tell the whole team but to him only.
"I didn't tell because –"
"Cadet, I need to speak with you," it was Bumblebee who commanded Strongarm and she obeyed, still feeling frightened somehow. He was not alone for Sideswipe got clear from the checking and decided to sit beside him, clearly wanting to discuss with them too.
"Yes, lieutenant?" she questioned.
"I'd like to know what really happened. How could Sedna easily escape?" he demanded some answers from her.
She swallowed. "I lost her out of sight. She managed to find a short cut to the ocean, a tricky one… and then a landslide occurred."
"A landslide?" it was Sideswipe's turn to question. He and Bumblebee stared her, seemingly not believing on her. "Is that even possible to occur?"
"Explain to us clearly," the black and yellow mech demanded. "How did it happen?"
"I… it's not easy for me to explain really," Strongarm avoided optic-contact and gazed down on her pedes. "I tried my best to catch her but then it happened and prevented me from even reaching her."
"Strongarm, is it true you're saying?" again, Bumblebee's optics showed no belief that were glaring at her.
"Yes. I am speaking the truth," her voice squawked like a mouse. Her shoulders started to jerk a bit. Just then, Grimlock, Drift and the minibots had gathered on place to listen on the interrogation.
"Cadet, I need some real evidence. Why didn't you –" the lieutenant narrowed his glaring optics tighter.
"I said I tried my best to catch her but then came the landslide that took me to the cliff and I fell down," she raised her voice suddenly, defensively. "I fell into unconsciousness because I crashed on the cliffs… and then Sedna came."
"What are you saying exactly?" Bumblebee snarled. His sharp gaze shared the same with the red prankster that shot daggers upon her.
"She came and saved me."
"What?! Are you telling us that the Predacon saved you when all she did was simply ruining everything here and damaged us pretty much enough for us?" Sideswipe yelled. "What an awful excuse from you."
"Sideswipe, enough," the black and yellow mech raised a servo gesture to silence the prankster down. "Strongarm, is this true you're saying? Is it true or not?
Strongarm's shoulders quivered more. She felt how her throat gear thickened tightly as she was getting the limiting line between mental strength and emotional breakdown. She bit on her under-lip plate. "Yes, it is the truth. She saved me and took me to the nearest cove."
"Then why haven't you told us about it on first place?
"I didn't tell you until now because…"
"Because of what?" Sideswipe hissed, sounding more taunting than bitterly angry. "Were you scared to break another rule from the pad? Like professional silence?"
A pause came as Strongarm struggled back and forth. The silence from her became uncomfortably intensive for the others and for herself. She clenched her servos hard.
"Answer us, Strongarm," Drift decided to take action. "Right now."
No reply came from her instantly.
"Come on, Strongarm," Grimlock, unlike the rest, besought her. "You better tell us now or we'll never get to know."
Again, no reply came. The silence thickened and the tension rose higher until she finally decided to speak up. "I didn't tell you because I felt that either all of you would believe me or not."
And she was truly right about it.
"You got saved by that Predacon while rest of us got so much injury and the entire scrapyard good as ruined," Sideswipe growled more. "Take a look at Windblade, huh? She's nearly dead by now thanks to you and Sedna!"
"And that you didn't prevent her from taking her and ripping the wings off," Drift added with a sharp glance. He witnessed the event too, which Strongarm failed to notice it earlier and triggered realization on her. "You didn't stop her. Now we may lose Windblade who is our only seeker because you took no actions to prevent it."
Strongarm swallowed again. She did not throw a single gaze on them. They're accusing me, it was her only thought.
"Hey, Strongarm, explain to us now," the prankster taunted her again. "Why. Didn't. You. Stop. Her?"
"Cadet, I saw you were the one who woke the Predacon up," it was Bumblebee who made her feeling extremely close to her limits. "How could you do that?"
"I did not mean to wake her up. I neared into her and she woke up without warning," now she threw her optics up at her lieutenant with her jaws tightly clenched. "She didn't want to harm me though."
"She didn't harm you at all?" again, Sidewipe's voice made Strongarm feeling more uncomfortable than before. Slag what she really wanted to give him a hard punch on his face right now. He had no rights. "Well, apparently you've got too attached to her."
"That's not true!" she yelled in response. It did actually scare the prankster up. He didn't expect her to yell at him. "Sideswipe, explain to me then why she then saved me for?"
"Ehh, like how?" for the first time of the day, he looked stupidly dumbfounded as if he had literally no idea what to answer or how to describe it. It was a sly strategy by the cadet.
"Very simple to answer," Strongarm then said after a short pause. "She saved me because she has sympatric sense. She found me unconscious and wanted to help me!"
"Sympatric sense you mention, huh?" the prankster did not fell into the trap. "Well… sure she does have sense of sympathy but she's nothing else but a vicious monster!"
"You're wrong! She's not a monster," Strongarm yelled back. "She attacked the rest of you because she got surprised by Bumblebee and she reacted just like any animal would do."
"That's very right, Strongarm. She's a dangerous monster that would terminate us all without any problem."
"You're wrong… you're good as an idiot who failed to see it."
"Enough both of you!" Bumblebee silenced them both. Then he said: "Cadet, what I've noticed on you is that you've got spared from her. Explain to us why."
But while he spoke, he reached out his servo to touch the cadet. She did not allow him to do it because she stepped a few steps backward, refusing to look at him.
They're accusing me, the thought repeated again like an inside voice within her processor. They are accusing me for everything.
"Strongarm, what's wrong?" the lieutenant spotted her behavior and found it unusual on the cadet.
"Don't touch me," she hissed, now with her voice raspy and closely into tears. "I don't want any of you to touch me."
"Strongarm, knock it off. All we want is a reasonable explanation," Grimlock tried to encourage her. Somehow, he sensed that she was close into her breakpoint and didn't want to upset her. Neither did he want to force her speaking it right out either. "We want no harm to you. You know that."
"No harm to me? All I can see and hear are nothing else but your judgments," she barred her denta with tightly closed optics, still refusing to shoot a single gaze on the other members and her clenched fists compressing so rough that the knuckles cracked. "I knew it. I knew none of you would believe in me. You want nothing else but accuse me and put me inside a stasis pod for good. You will see me nothing else but a dishonored cadet who should've never joined to Earth…"
"Strongarm, knock it off," suddenly Bumblebee sounded pleading. "We don't want to make you upset or anything."
Then, as it happened, she shifted into her vehicle mode and drove off, but not before she said to them: "You'll be so much happy without me."
"Get back here!" Bumblebee shouted when he felt a servo taking grip on his shoulder and squeezed it.
"Let her go," it was Optimus. "She needs some time for herself. She'll come back. Eventually."
"Optimus…"
No answer came from the Prime. But Bumblebee could undoubtedly see the melancholic expression on his former leader.
Strongarm, Optimus thought sad, feeling how his spark broke in pieces after witnessing the cadet being so upset that she was close to break apart. He wished dearly to speak with her alone instead. Now he regretted for standing in silence and not taking any action to prevent this from happening. Please come back to us soon… I believe in you no matter what happens. You don't deserve this.
I knew it.
She told her inner self as she drove crazily fast on the road. She drove so fast that she was close to collide on another car three or four times on a row as the road looped like a snake over the landscape. She needed a place for herself away from the rest of the team and humans.
I knew it. I knew it. I knew it!
Again and again she kept saying it. She knew it all the time that they were not going to believe her. The cadet accelerated faster and faster until she reached the maximum speed. But then she had to slow down for the speed signs appeared and warning signs for a narrow road on a cliff area. Also, she did it for safety too. As she did, Strongarm felt how fast her spark pulsed in a merciless speed that would end in a result of spark attack.
I knew it. I knew it. I knew it!
The inner words inside her processor kept repeating like a recorder that'd never shut down. So upset, so angry and so... emotional. It was the emotions Strongarm felt from within. Her spark cried, bleeding in the pain of the emotions.
She asked herself mentally with two obvious questions: Why didn't they spend even a single klik listening on me? Why blaming me for everything? I did my very best…
While driving on the slim road, she held on the speed slightly below the allowed speed. But it was not a good moment for her. Her emotions thickened tightly. She needed to get off the road and drive uphill or downhill and hide herself in the forest. Strongarm got to find a place quickly as possible, only meant for herself and nobody else. Then she spotted a small gravel road that was removed once the cliff road shaped into a safer and wider one. She swung to the left side where the gravel road was rising uphill. Driving slowly, the inner words changed to altered ones.
How worthy am I to them? How worthy am I really? Can I be trusted again?
The gravel road reached to its peak on the hill where Strongarm stopped and transformed up. Silence swept on her presence. The wind breezed grieving as if it shared the same pain as she had. Her spark pulsed intensively, vibrating upset as the emotions burned like a firestorm so the Energon boiled. She heard the pulsing Energon inside her audio receptors.
"Why…" she whispered for herself. "Why don't they want to believe in me?"
That's because they see the Predacon only as a dangerous and mindless monster, nothing more else than that, the inner voice from inside her spoke chillingly. They have not seen the other side of Sedna yet. They'd only seen the bad side of her.
"The bad side of Sedna," she said, biting on her under-lip plate. "Sedna is not a monster. I know that because I saw a glimpse of goodness through her optics."
That's right. You have seen something they have failed to see. Sedna doesn't want to harm anyone. She only reacted in response of Bumblebee's shout. She got threatened by him, not you.
"It's lieutenant Bumblebee's fault. It was he who startled Sedna on first place," Strongarm nodded as a yes-reply to the inner voice. "He should be the blamed one, not me. Yet, everyone's blaming and accusing me for nothing. It hurts so much that I want so badly to prove them they are all wrong."
Exactly, and as a punishment…
"I shall never forgive to them, and I will never be one of them ever again. They'll get far more satisfied without me. They will be so happy knowing that I'm good as gone forever out their own sights."
Absolutely! They will regret so much, and yet, they will so slagging happy when they find out you left them for good. Maybe even left this planet as well without they'll ever know about it!
"But how can I leave this planet?"
There are many ways to get out from this world. Always search and never give up your searching. When you find one, don't hesitate about it. Don't even give them a final farewell as well!
"Yes… yes, yes, yes!"
Good. They shall feel what you have experienced throughout your entire life!
"Yes. They will know about it," Strongarm had raised her servo and placed it hard on the crest on her helmet, squeezing as if she got a horrible migraine.
The cadet shut her optics intensively tight so it hurt badly enough to force herself holding the tears back against her own will, and the urgently refusing need to let them flow. For more resistance, she used her raised servo to lower it down to her chin where she bit her thumb digit, causing it to bleed slightly. And as the urge of tears got forced back, Strongarm's anger increased. Her spark pulsed with a rapid beating, creating a real fierce fire inside her chest plates. She knew what to do.
I'm not gonna come back to them, she told herself mentally, making her decision. I'll never reunite with the team ever again!
The decision had never felt so bittersweet for her before. Now she can show them that they had no rights to accuse her when she tried everything with her very own best. The entire team shall face their worst punishment.
"Once I trusted them, now I cannot trust them nor can they trust in me," Strongarm said. "So be it…"
After a long moment alone on the peak on the hill Strongarm eventually drove downhill, but she never took the same direction back to the scrapyard. Instead she took the opposite way that was heading south. She drove past Crown City. Clearly as said she was not going to take a single stop on the road.
Never shall I reunite with lieutenant Bumblebee and his team. I will never forgive them.
The same words echoed inside her processor, drifting her decision even more powerful and stronger that she'd seriously wanted for. By then the silver clouds were getting darker and heavier ones before they released a tearful rainstorm upon the landscape. The raindrops hammered onto the frame window.
The rainstorm turned out not only to be a heavily grieving one but definitely an upset one just like Strongarm. While driving on the soaked roads that crossed, departed from main roads or changed into highways, she had her radio set on, prickly choosing songs for her shifting mood.
"Fixit to Strongarm, do you read me?" suddenly Fixit's voice interrupted through the comlink.
There was no reply from her for she quickly disabled both the comlink and the signature signal that provided the minibot the location's coordinates where she was momentarily. With the quick disturbance gone, Strongarm set the radio again and sought after some songs fitting for the moment.
Fixit, you will never contact and find me anymore, she thought. I'm good as done with you guys.
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear… so what will happen next to dear Strongarm? How long will her absence last? Will the entire team seek after her straightaway or not until a couple days later or even after a week perhaps, who knows? Or will Sedna find her before they do? If so, what kind of actions will both they'll do once encounter?
Ahhh, so many questions that got to be answered very soon are swarming in the air.
I will probably take a tiny break right now to focus on more else than just writing but it doesn't mean I'll give up this story. I'm not gonna give up this one that easily. It's going to be a temporary break. As always, I'm open for suggestions, advices and constitutive criticism.
