AN: I am not dead! I swear I never meant for it to take this long to get a new chap up. Swear it. Just a ton of personal and medical issues popped up and everything went to hell in a pretty hand basket. Only a few good things came from this, and one of those things was this! Thank you Zilv, for all your help even if you didn't know you were helping. ;)
I only own Lilith/Midnight and the slight deviations from the movie script. Everything else belongs to another person and I really don't want to get in trouble thanks!
If there was one thing that made military men jumpy, it was silence. Especially when they knew there was going to be a battle coming up. It might help if they weren't afraid to speak, since they were in an alien robot.
Will Lennox shifted a bit in the passenger's seat, glancing at the dash and at Epps before trying to break the silence. "Sooo…." Well, at least he tried.
Midnight chuckled in response, softening her seats a bit. "So what?" Midnight could see the allspark in Bee's back seat, and looking at it again made her shiver slightly. She didn't want to remember what had happened with Sector Seven. Every time she did, she could feel phantom flickers of pain on her sensors.
She resisted the urge to twitch when Lennox pat the dash awkwardly, feeling the shiver that had the others tensing or wincing. "Are you alright? You've done that a few times now."
Midnight sighed, slowing minutely before getting back up to the speed she'd been at. "Not really. It's not really something that you should concern yourself over though. You can't do anything about it."
Again, the human shifted. Why couldn't he just sit still? Then again, he had that look that Prowl would get when he decided to be 'Second in Command Prowl'. "It does nobody any good if you go into this fight with something on your mind. You'll be distracted, and a liability to those of us fighting. Either you talk, or you walk."
Midnight growled, revving her engine. "Listen well human. I don't take orders from you. Unlike humans, bots can shuffle everything distracting out of our processors at a moment's notice. You try almost dying and end up back here, where the only thing you're sure of is another fight!" She revved again when Bee began to slow, nearly tapping his bumper to get him going. They did not have the time, nor the luxury to stop. Megatron was awake, and the only way to get the cube away was through human means. That, and they had to pray for Primus to grant them the small mercy of it being safe in human hands.
"So that's your issue. You think you should be dead now, and you have an issue with not being dead? I'm pretty sure most of us are grateful that you are not dead." Lennox sighed, leaning back a bit. "You know, for being a giant alien, you're remarkably human. It's understandable that you're anxious. The shock of nearly dying hasn't worn off yet, and here you are, charging into what's going to end up being another fight for your life, and the lives of your comrades."
Midnight was silent, processing what Lennox was saying. He was right. She'd set one foot in the Matrix, she was certain of it. She'd heard a voice, or was it many? Who had been speaking anyway? Was it her Creators? She finally settled for just humming, neither denying, and not really confirming what Lennox was thinking.
She was glad when things settled into silence once more. Her spark skipped a beat when cybertronian signatures appeared on her scanners. It was unlikely for Cons to use a convoy formation, or remain in vehicle mode once they were detected. "Thank you Primus for small miracles!" Midnight laughed a bit, seeing the multicolored rig and honking at him for the hell of it.
Lennox jumped at the unexpected noise, calling out a protest as he tried to calm his heart. "They better be backup for you! Jesus, give me heart attack…" Lennox let his head hit the seat, cursing under his breath as Midnight opened the main Comm. only to get bombarded with messages.
"Midnight! You and Bee ok?" – "I am detecting that you have lost energon, yet I detect no injuries." – "I am detecting Allspark energy, from both of you. What happened?"
"Shut up and let us talk mechs! Primus…" Midnight vented hard, but knew they had several more minutes before they reached mission city. She also let Bee, who'd joined the interrogation by now, answer everything as best he could with sound clips.
It was silent over the comm. for several seconds once Bee was done, broken by a quiet and nearly hesitant voice. "Midnight?"
"I'm fine Jazz. Hate this alt mode, but I'm fine." Midnight knew she wasn't convincing. She didn't need the pity from the other bots. She was fine and she was going to prove it!
"Fine you may be, but you did lose energon. You should refuel when you get the chance Midnight. Do not make me get my wrench." Ratchets tone was sharp, a growl betraying what Minight had always thought. The old mech really did care far too much.
Midnight just snorted over the comm. link, growling right back as they entered the more populated highway. "Right. I'll do that once we stop, barring pot shots from seekers, Megatrons appearance, and humans. Have I mentioned humans are crawling all over the place we're going?"
"Midnight' there is no reason for your tone, nor your disrespect. Prowl would be ashamed of you right now, and you know it." Primes quiet, yet commanding voice made Midnight flinch. Why did he have to play the Prowl card?
"Sorry Chet. I have spent far too long as a human. I've regressed to having some of their behaviors." Midnight sounded almost timid and mentally sighed in relief when Ratchet just grumbled at her. Though Ironhide had to make his opinion known' and it made her shiver a bit.
"Is that so youngling? Perhaps I should take you out to the desert and see if you've gotten rusty in your hand to hand as well?" Ironhide chuckled darkly over the comm., making it obvious that the training was a promise, and not a threat.
"Maybe you should. I've missed sparring with you mechs." Though Midnight didn't really enjoy getting trounced in sparring, she had learned a fair amount from the older mech.
Optimus cut over any responses with a dark tone. "Everything's going to have to wait, we have incoming Decepticons. Barricade and Bonecrusher are headed our way!"
"Slag it. Bee, I'm passing you. Stay in the middle of the caravan. We cannot let them get to the Allspark… is he insane! Bonecrusher incoming!" Midnight tightened the seatbelts on the humans, quickly passing Bee and praying the humans didn't turn to see the buss het torn in two.
Ratchet and hide were moving to block Barricade and Optimus had gone to engage Bonecrusher. She couldn't help the cackle when Optimus sent a databurst to her, giving her access to the codes that would allow her to access the part of her locked away for a limited time. Her form shivered in anticipation, watching Barricade run off the road by the Tag teaming Ironhide and Ratchet. Things were looking up, and it was only going to get better.
