"You're going to do this, you know," Jazz said amusedly.
Evelyn glared back at him. "No, I'm not."
"You're acting like a child."
"I am a child."
He arched a ridge plate, deliberately mocking. "Really?"
Her eyes narrowed back. "Jazz-"
"Evelyn, the thing's been set up." He folded his arms and looked steadily back at her. "Really, the only thing holding this back is you. And you don't have a good reason for not doing it."
::Megatron?::
He hesitated. ::I think… we should go for it.::
::Fine:: she said flatly. ::But this is a bad idea, and when shit comes down I'm putting all the blame on you.::
::Why not Jazz?::
She snarled at him. ::He isn't the person who's always supposed to back me up!::
"Fine," she told Jazz aloud, brusquely. "But there are conditions."
He grinned down at her, all teeth and metal. "Name 'em."
"I can't be a target," she began. "The soldiers know that stuff can go wrong. And, for heaven's sake, don't tell them to go easy on me."
Jazz shifted slightly, a minute movement that left her scowling at him with a gimlet eye. "Don't, Jazz. I can take care of myself."
"I know. But- ya're still a girl, Evelyn." He shrugged, lightly. "And they're not the most meek guys in the world."
Her lips twisted. "An understatement."
He frowned suddenly. "Are you still broken up 'bout Bla-"
"Of course not," she said smoothly, cutting him off. "…but this is still a mistake, Jazz, and when Prime's screaming bloody murder for you I'm not going to bail you out. Promise."
"Eh," Sideswipe muttered, lowly, to her. "Prime's more than used to screaming. He's not going to snap at you, not if he's not done for us."
She made a face. "It'd be just my luck, to see him snap at me, after you pushed him to the brink."
"Pessimistic much?" Sunstreaker asked archly.
"You're one to talk," she retorted acidly. Turning to Jazz, she warned again, "this is a bad idea."
He leaned down and said cheerfully, "Good thin' we thrive on bad ideas, then!"
She threw her hands up. "Fine."
That single word held a wealth of anger, but Jazz didn't seem to notice- or more likely, care.
Stalking out, she didn't look back.
Sideswipe remained hunched over his arms, optics gazing blankly at the metal.
He was, normally, an easygoing mech. He laughed, played pranks, and shot Decepticons. He abused Prowl, irritated Prime, and not so much as annoyed Ratchet as worked him into a frenzy.
And he was absolutely, utterly, undeniably an Autobot.
In the space of a few months, that faith had gone; his lackadaisical nature was being ruptured; Sunstreaker was acting weird.
In fact, Sunstreaker was the source of a lot of his problems. The mech had not talked to him about the possibility, though both had acknowledged her potential in the back of their minds. Sideswipe had never intended to act on the damn idea.
Sunstreaker had.
And he had bound the two of them to an organic creature that had no abilities beyond manipulation and speech. She was weak, and their bonding to someone such as her was more for her protection than for them. That… that rubbed him raw, in ways he couldn't express. It was a mockery of a higher truth he'd never truly understood, but lay at the bottom of his values all the same.
He couldn't believe Sunstreaker.
His twin had retreated almost immediately, avoiding the rest of the base- moreso than usual. There had been a snarl on his face, the one time he'd tried to talk to him. Probably, the idiot regretted what he'd done. It had been a move that was as foolish as any of Sideswipe's schemes. There was a very, very small part of him that recognized that irony and laughed.
What the hell had Sunstreaker been thinking? She can't-
Jazz watched him, now, with too-knowing optics. That presumption galled him, Jazz's assumption of what he felt. Jazz didn't know Sideswipe, anymore than Sideswipe knew him. They were joined only through blood and war and debts.
And, his mind commented archly, one earthling femme.
He wanted to snarl back at that smug little voice, but bit back the words with an effort. This was... done. Finished. He could only move on, not cut it off.
"You think she's weak," Jazz said shrewdly, optics hidden behind his visor.
Sideswipe struggled not to react, then decided that stoicism didn't matter, not when it would come out anyway. Better here, when they were alone, than outside, where it could have repercussions he couldn't even guess at.
"You don't?"
Sunstreaker shifted, looking ready to speak, before subsiding at a gesture from Jazz.
"She's a human femme," Jazz said evenly. "She's not very strong, in the sense of the word that you're probably thinking of."
"Oh, I know exactly what she's capable of," Sideswipe said, with a bitter laugh. "She's smart and manipulative and cunning, and the only reason why she took our bonds was because she already had you. She wouldn't be hurt by the Autobots with your protection, and she needed someone to go against the 'Cons. Who better than front-liners like us?"
That she had taken the meaning of that bond and twisted it into a weapon was degrading for all of them.
Jazz waited, watching him calmly. "You're right."
"I am?" Sideswipe echoed, startled.
Sunstreaker frowned too, but continued to avoid speech.
"Yes. But what you need to know- to realize- is that she is not who you think she is."
"What?" He asked, genuinely confused.
Jazz tipped his head to one side. "What crimes has she confessed to?"
He hesitated, and Sunstreaker answered. "The beginning of a civil war, the mass-genocide of femmes and sparklings, the death of Chromia-"
"Exactly," Jazz interrupted, levelling a finger at Sunstreaker. "But what you need to know, is that she ain't responsible for any of that shit. Megatron's responsible."
…a novel idea. Sideswipe felt something shiver deep inside his spark chamber.
"She's incredibly smart," he said quietly. Earnestly. "And very, very good at acting. You'll never see past her shields if she doesn't want you to- and even that takes an immense amount of trust. I don't think anyone's actually one of her true confidantes."
"What do you mean?" Sideswipe asked blankly.
"I mean," Jazz said bluntly, "that whatever else she tries to become or tells you that she is- she's still a youngling, Sideswipe. She's fast and sharp and angry, and dangerous as any mech, but she ain't independent. By human standards, she isn't even an adult. She's strong, but terrified out of her mind. Imagine-" he broke off, fingers curling frustratedly. "Imagine that you had to enter such a world. She's dealing, but there's a hell of a lot of slag she can't deal with. She needs protection, and guess what? She fought for it."
"I can't-"
Jazz shook his head. "I'm not explaining this well. Just see, yeah?"
The screen flickered on around them. Sideswipe barely had a moment to admire the clarity of the images and smoothness of Jazz's plan, before his entire focus was on the fight in front of them.
In his peripheral vision, Sunstreaker straightened, from disinterested slouch to wary alertness.
On the screen, the fight had clearly just begun.
Lennox and Epps circled Evelyn, all three bodies hunched slightly. The two soldiers prowled the edges, eyes watchful and body language threatening.
Evelyn moved much slower. The silent confidence the others exuded still was not clear in her body, and Sideswipe could identify eleven different badly-defended positions that were results of just plain ignorance.
He resisted the urge to point them out.
Then, Epps moved.
It was a quick, sudden lunge across the metaphorical circle they'd been treading. Evelyn leapt back, jumpy, but Epps was larger.
Use your speed! Sideswipe wanted to howl.
She swung out a clumsy leg, and managed to land- perhaps- a bruise.
Epps bore down on her, adrenaline letting him ignore that slight pain-
Watching grimly, Sideswipe readied himself for the inevitable kill shot.
-Epps punched her across the face.
She landed on all fours, shoulders hunched, about three feet away from them. Her head remained bowed, and there was a slight edge of defeat there.
Sideswipe turned to Jazz. He almost asked what the point of this useless exercise was, because she wasn't strong enough nor trained enough to take on two Army Rangers. There was no purpose, so why would he…
The thoughts trailed off, because Jazz had a smile on his face.
Now, Sideswipe was certain that Jazz was not a sadist. He'd never been anything other than swift in dealing death. He'd always been honorable and…
…scheming.
He whirled around to the screen, just in time to see her head snap up- a predator's slow arch suddenly clear in ever line of her body.
Her eyes were chalybeous, and Sideswipe felt dread sink into every wire of his body.
Epps hadn't noticed the danger, but Lennox had. Evelyn- Megatron, Sideswipe reminded himself firmly- took full advantage of that fact.
She pushed herself upright, muscles locked down under flawless control. Her stalk forward was quiet; as Epps suddenly whirled around at the realization of a threat behind him, she acted.
A leap upward, as she delivered a kick to his chest. He wheezed, pushed backwards- but Lennox had entered the fray by that point, so it didn't really matter.
She was sinuous as a snake, twisting around their bodies in a flowing motion that reminded Sideswipe, vaguely, of Ravage before the war had begun. Of a dance, in Kaon, amidst thousands of other mechs-
-"Primus," Sunstreaker whispered hoarsely, at the same moment. "Is she dancing?"
Nobody answered.
Her arm twisted Lennox's back, just as he tried for a punch; in one movement she twisted upside down and wrapped her legs around his head, forcing his own weight against him-
-Epps lunged out of the darkness and managed to get a fistful of hair in his fist.
"Let. Him. Go." There was a steely note in his voice, and none of the shock of adrenaline had bled through.
Sideswipe could almost feel impressed.
Except he'd made a fatal mistake, and she didn't hesitate.
The world had faded to shades of grey.
A punch across her face had left her control shattered, and Megatron had not hesitated. He'd leapt to the forefront of her mind.
While she'd struggled to overcome the shock- more than the pain- he'd taken control; she was left to watch numbly as he accomplished what she'd never be able to do.
::Okay:: she said slowly, as he leapt, clinging to the wall for a brief second before landing on the ground, lighter than a cat, ::when the hell did you watch Iron Man, and why do I feel like I know the Black Widow's stunt moves better than her?::
::If you didn't want me to watch something, then you shouldn't have told me not to watch it.::
She sighed irritably. ::I'm not using reverse psychology on the voice in my head, Megatron.::
::What am I?:: He shot back. ::A voice, or Megatron? Make up your mind, femme.::
Epps aimed two punches at her stomach, and she fell silent in favor of watching Megatron dispatch him. The high kicks and rolling gait were not natural to Megatron's frame of mind- and it showed in the choppiness of his blocks.
::You're the lovable voice I listen to when everything else is lost, you piece of metallic scum. Can we get a move on, or are you just trying to deny Epps the bliss of darkness?::
::Frag you, Evelyn:: he snarled eloquently.
She grinned back, all teeth and blood and vengeance. Megatron had met his match, at least, in her wit.
The liquid assurance in her stance was startling, especially when contrasted with the hesitance of before. This was no human girl, to be chary of the two soldiers. She was Megatron, and millennia of experience boiled down to this moment.
This, Sideswipe realized, was the mech who had battled Prime to a stand-still again and again, all the while fighting on two fronts.
Epps crashed to the floor within seconds.
Her jabs had been perfectly aimed, from solar plexus to the small bundle of nerves in the back of the neck. He'd never had a chance.
"That," Jazz said into the stunned silence of the watching room, "is what I was talking about. Evelyn doesn't need protectors in that sense. What she needs are… ugh. To put it one way, she's a girl in over her head. Struggling to stay afloat, and we're her land. She needs us to be solid, and there, at the end of the day."
Sunstreaker huffed a laugh that was only half-tired. "She picked a hell of a group to be stable."
Jazz shrugged. "I'm not her keeper, Sunny. Neither are you, or Sides, or anyone else. Megatron isn't responsible for half her slag and gives her ideas for the rest. She's damn good at what she does, and doesn't need babysitters."
"How do you know so much about her?" Sunstreaker asked, voice particularly dry.
"I asked. And I noticed. As much as she says a lot- pay more attention to what she doesn't say. Makes stuff a lot more interesting."
"To say the least," Sideswipe muttered.
Jazz leaned back against the wall, deliberately threatening. "Still not convinced?"
"That she's that good?" He asked flatly. "Not a chance in hell, Jazz."
"Then what about the argument that she's scared out of her head?" Jazz asked. "That she needs someone to stop her from flattening us all, because if she panics then she has the ability to completely break us apart?"
"What?" Sunstreaker asked, just a hint worried.
Jazz bared his teeth. "She's got the nuclear launch codes of the United States of America. One of the largest armed countries on this planet. Things get too bad, and she's not above committing suicide if she thinks slag's too much. If we become too much of a threat-"
"Primus," Sideswipe managed, voice a hiss. "She's suicidal on top of everything else?"
Jazz quirked a smile. "Listen, and see, Sideswipe. I promise- there are issues there. But not so many as to completely break you. Swear."
"You're saying I should give her a chance," Sideswipe said slowly. "You're saying I have assumptions, and they aren't correct."
"Are they?" He asked wryly. "We all want her to fit in a mold, Sides. Autobot, or Decepticon. Human, or Cybertronian. Good, or bad. When you're in Spec Ops…" He shrugged. "Stuff happens. You can't see the world one way or another. You two leapt into a bond with someone you wanted to be a certain way, and I swear to Primus she isn't that."
Sunstreaker nodded. "We can… try. This is done. Prime said it- we can only go forward, though we ought to learn from the past."
"Doesn't mean we shouldn't prepare for the future," Evelyn said levelly, walking into the room. Her eyes met Sideswipe's calmly, and he wondered exactly how much she'd heard. A far more exasperating realization was that she and Jazz might have orchestrated the whole thing from the start. "I know this was sudden. None of you guys wanted this, and it happened, and you're struggling to move past that. I get it. When… when Megatron entered my head, it was bad."
Which was clearer than she'd spoken to Jazz, if his frown was anything to go by.
"Really bad," she continued. "But you sit down, and cry, and moan about life. Then you do what needs to be done, because doing anything else isn't an option."
Sunstreaker leaned forward.
She turned to him, and said intently, "I'm sorry, for what I did to you. I said this to Jazz- and I'll say it to you. I take care of my own. I… I play people. It's in my nature, like shooting is for you. But, now, I won't. You deserve better, and I'll treat you like it." A wry smile. "I suppose Nabokov put it best, didn't he?"
He arched an eyebrow. "Who?"
"Vladimir Nabokov," she said. "In Lolita. It goes… 'Don't cry, I'm sorry to have deceived you so much, but that's how life is.' A… true statement, isn't it?"
The corollary to that statement was if they betrayed her, she would destroy them. For every action, an equal and opposite reaction. For every deeper bond, betrayal bled more.
Sideswipe wasn't a mech used to thinking over things so much. That was Sunstreaker's job, but for a brief moment they'd swapped lives. She was Evelyn- organic, weak, and small.
She was Megatron- and the word weak had never applied to him.
"I think this is the start of a beautiful relationship," he said. Optics narrowing on her small smile, he flashed her a carefully cultivated grin. "What d'you think about pranking?"
He ignored Sunstreaker's groan- but did notice Jazz's amused, "go on and break his heart, Evelyn."
"I hate pranks," she told him easily, but her eyes sparked with laughter that startled him. "But if you and Jazz were to do one to… say, Ironhide…" She grinned at him, and turned to Sunstreaker with an open, infectious laugh. "I won't be able to deny nor confirm my people's involvement. The amusement the entire base gets would be… a complimentary bonus."
He gaped at her.
"I think this is the first time a CO has given me permission to play pranks," he said unsteadily.
Her grin grew slightly waspish. "I haven't given you permission, Sideswipe. Just…"
"Just not not given permission," Jazz broke in.
Evelyn mock-glared at him. "Did I ask for your opinion?"
"Did ya need to?"
"Of course I did," she said primly. "I'm your… CO. According to Sideswipe. I quite like the ring of that, don't you, Sunstreaker?"
Sunstreaker startled badly, and looked quite… irritated at that. Sideswipe stifled a snicker at his attempt at looking haughty.
"Of course," she continued, lips twitching, "I can't imagine that either of you two would coerce somebody else to do such a thing… would you?"
Jazz murmured, all wide-eyed innocence and roses, "Of course not."
"Mmm-hmm. Enjoy your week off." She rose for the door. "Next week we begin planning."
She had always danced.
It had taken Megatron a long time to understand that his appearance hadn't meant she would drop everything to help him. It had taken her just as long to acknowledge that she'd have to be willing to sacrifice everything if she wanted to succeed.
But she had loved to dance, and even when he sneered at her moves and called her notgoodenough she'd limited her reaction to tiredness and muted fury.
Over a year, they'd sketched out possible reactions and likely movements. They'd plotted a plan, pulling Megatron's knowledge and Evelyn's shrewdness, and received for all their efforts survival.
Her plans had begun to run out.
And that terrified every cell in her being. She'd improvised a little, here and there, but the basic elements: bring Jazz back, protect her parents, and reveal Megatron's existence had all been achieved. The next goal was both shadowy and clear.
To bring Megatron back into his own body.
That… would take some work. She'd already told him to scale back their plans, and they were- by nearly a year. Slowing down reactions and actions; she hoped to limit their rage and, if nothing else, understand their culture before she began ripping them apart.
It had taken him about seven weeks to tell her why he spent the time after her dance lessons so silent. When he finally had, she had presented an answer-
-and a question.
He'd loved the ambivalence.
The choreography had taken months, because they were building a new dance form from the basics of seven varied ones across Cybertron. Each kick had been analyzed and broken down; every damn movement across metal and wood and stone planned and executed slowly.
Her instructors had told her it was stupid. They'd looked at her plans and sighed, eyes shouting impossible even while they helped her out. She'd smiled sheepishly and, secretly, bared her teeth.
The height of the leaps were Praxonian in influence; the tumbles and falls had only been taught in Kaon; the tap-tapping of her feet against the metal was undoubtedly from Vos.
The ending, though, was all hers.
They'd debated for the longest over how to end it, and if they did, how to ensure that it was appropriately dramatic. They both knew that ending it with a whimper was not an option.
He'd thought of the fall- it was an idea she'd never've come up with. His grim amusement had left her thinking she was being duped.
He'd shown her his reasons, then, and Evelyn had cried bitterly for hours.
Because the depth of remorse and guilt Megatron had for his actions was enough to drive anybody crazy. It was… terrifying, in a sense, how close he was to that metaphorical cliff.
She was the one thing keeping him from leaping off, and that scared the living shit out of her.
Sunstreaker and Sideswipe were wary of her- still- and she couldn't exactly blame them. Had she not known her goals, she would have been suspicious too.
Knowing what she knew, she was mistrustful.
If you breathe, and pay attention, things will work themselves out, she reminded herself. One step at a time. Slow down. Build up your relationships, before you try anything else.
Slowly does it.
There were many things they hadn't known about her.
Only now, watching, did Sideswipe see exactly how much of what she had projected was a front; he'd suspected the darkness but not imagined that it had been so… pervading.
He had thought her flamboyant, in many perspectives. She had rocked their world and torn their assumptions to shreds- didn't that require some sort of aura of ostentatiousness?
Apparently, no, he thought, now, sitting with her on the roof of their hangar.
He hadn't imagined that she would be so intensely private. From anger to hurt to irritation, she rarely showed those emotions- but that didn't mean she didn't feel them. That was a… strange idea.
Then there was her relationship to Prime.
That was fraught with emotional trauma, on all three sides of this equation. From what little Sideswipe could tell, she disliked Prime on principle, Megatron hated him on experience, and Prime was beyond wary of the two of them. The situation had cooled down, though, from outright hostility to cooler reactions, and he suspected that that would be the best he could expect from such… strong personalities.
"I didn't want to do this," she said quietly, letting her hands rise up to swipe over the stars above them. "You know, when this began, I thought I could just go… back. Like a fucking cat." She wiped a hand over her face, and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like a curse under her breath. "I thought it'd be glamorous and pretty and- and God help me, I'm still that idiotic idealist."
"If you're a leader, I think it's a requisite," he said, trying to soften his tone from caustic to dry.
She flopped backwards, ungainly as he could never be. "Nope. That's just Prime."
Maybe, in another seventy years, he'd have the courage to ask her what she saw in Optimus to make her sound so… disdainful. Right then, he was most assuredly not fool enough to push.
"How did you begin?" He asked, keeping his voice inquiring and not nosy. "With… all this?"
Lines around her eyes crinkled, as if she were amused, though she didn't smile. "I talked. To Megatron. A lot. It was… enlightening, in some ways. He wanted to know things about human culture, and I wanted to know things about Cybertronian culture."
"Like what?"
"Like… what you liked to do. Types of dance, or song, or popular hobbies," she elaborated. "It has a way of changing your view of the world, you know, when someone starts asking you why you play basketball with a large ball and tennis with a tiny one; why food's tend to be colored green and gold and red but never, ever purple; why humans smile when they're happy and it's the exact same emotion- with the same movement- in an alien race that had never interacted with us…"
Oh, yes, Sideswipe thought. He could definitely understand what she meant. He'd been a visitor on hundreds- if not thousands- of alien planets. Every facet of his home had been dissected and prodded, and there had been some part of him that had hated it deeply.
But even in the shallow tides of their conversation, the truth shone- an unmistakable beacon. It died the water red; it flooded over his pedes as if he hadn't noticed it already.
"You don't trust him."
She met his gaze, and he thought there was a flash of amusement, deep within that level stare. "Not… completely." A smile that was no little amused. "His goals and mine converge, for now. I can trust him for that. When they don't…"
She would be ready for the knife in the back.
Is it betrayal, if you are expecting it?
She sighed, and said, quietly, "I trusted him, at first, you know. I… there was a part of me that saw the horrors he'd gone through and thought it was- romantic. That I'd help him out and reveal myself and Megatron'd be happy, and we'd all dance off into the sunset like in a fairytale."
"What went wrong?" He asked, just as grave.
"Our first mission." She shrugged helplessly, hands opening wide and innocent. "I'd had him in my head for… maybe two weeks? We'd known each other for that long, at least. And I trusted him, unconditionally."
"I'm sorry," he said, trying not to imagine what Megatron could have done with such absolute trust.
She smiled, then, just a hint wry. "So was I. He said he wanted to go to find his body, see if there was anything there he could scavenge. It was a fool's mission- but I trusted him. So, when my parents decided to go on their annual honeymoon, I begged off and told them I had tests. Then I called the school and told them I was going to be gone for a week."
Sideswipe tipped his head back, and took that thought to its logical conclusion. "Nobody knew where you were."
"Nope," she agreed lightly. "And then we took a road trip to California."
"What's in California?"
"The Mariana Trench." When he didn't nod, she said flatly, "Megatron's body."
…and that, Sideswipe thought, is how we know she isn't one of us.
Her smile tightened, but he thought he saw sadness in the hard planes of her face. "I had just turned fifteen, my parents were in Europe, and nobody even knew to look for me, much less knew where I was. I didn't know how to drive, so I let Megatron do most of the work, and just sat there and looked around." Her eyes darkened, slightly. "The closer we got to California, the weaker Megatron got. That… was scary."
He winced. If Evelyn admitted to being frightened, now, then that meant it had been truly bad then.
"Once, I was pulled down with him," she went on, voice sharper. "It hurt, in the darkness. It was cold, and heavy, and dark. Then I woke up, and just barely managed to stop our car from driving off the overpass. I was… scared out of my mind. I couldn't walk, or talk, or even fucking think. I had no idea where I was, and I didn't know how to drive."
"And where was Megatron?" Sideswipe asked, soft and deadly and vicious, because even if this had already happened Megatron had put his Lord in intentional danger and he was a fragging Iaconian noble. They knew how to get revenge, when it mattered.
Her left hand rose, swept over the sky above her as if to cup the stars in her palm. "Silent. Gone. He didn't answer, and I didn't dare get too close to that hole in my mind." She laughed, harsh and brittle, like an avalanche of beautiful, deadly snow. "Most people learn to drive from their parents. I learned on an empty highway at three in the morning, because if I didn't, I'd die."
He considered commiseration, but then remembered her first advice to him.
(Get over it… there are more important things than themselves.)
"Don't we all deal in death?" Callous, perhaps, to expect surety from a child. More than a little cruel. But even if it was, war had inured him to the subtleties of morality a long time ago. A line in the sand, and nothing more. "Failure is no longer disappointment… but more. It's the world you're now part of, Evelyn."
Her skin was colored silver against the silk of the night sky. She looked small, on the shadowed roof, Evelyn looked young.
Then her back straightened, and he could see the steel in her eyes.
"No," she agreed grimly, voice unbending as Prime's. "It is not a nice world, Sideswipe. And… and I cannot dance where there are shards."
Her eyes bored into his, flattened silver coins instead of shifting brown. "I cannot fail. Not because of what it means to you, or Jazz, or even Megatron. Not for myself, either."
Sideswipe didn't dare move, didn't dare breathe.
"Because I am your last hope." She shifted, sinuous as a twisting snake, and continued before he could get over his first reaction of deafening rage. "Because there is a darkness coming, and all we can do is hold the light within ourselves."
He struggled not to show his anger, then decided it didn't matter. "A dark- what the hell are yo-"
Her tone hardened, turning cold and clear and frozen- a thing of polished flawlessness. "The war is over. Megatron will not fight, the Autobots have won. The Decepticons will be repatriated, as under Prime's orders, and they will follow him."
He frowned. "…what's the problem?"
Hadn't that been what they were fighting for? Wouldn't that be the ideal ending?
"All of the reasons for this war will still exist," She declared grandly. "For every selfish person, Sideswipe, there had been two with a reason. With an injustice. With something against Cybertron. When your planet fell- the Decepticons cheered."
It represented their greatest triumph, and building it out of the ashes into its former glory would forever alienate the 'Cons.
"We can't just sit by, and let them do this," he said quietly.
"No," she said, voice lowering. She sounded almost… defeated. "We can't. I just… tragedies, Megatron, and you. I needed someone to hold, for some time. I used you, like I've done to so many others. And there are too many things between the Autobots and the Decepticons, too much blood and death and gore. Too much, and the only way to bring them together is to build a bridge."
He stared at her.
She smiled crookedly at him. "We're the fucking bridge, Sideswipe."
His spark stopped. Everything stopped. The world stopped.
For such grand revelations, Sideswipe decided, there should be a designated area. A sunlit battlefield, with pounding hearts and vicious blood, perhaps. Maybe a war room, with battle plans and leaders.
Certainly not a darkened roof, a half of a broken pair of warrior refugees, and a girl with too much knowledge and a monster in her head.
"Please tell me this wasn't your idea," he said disbelievingly.
The smile dripped off her face like paint.
"A thin wall between armies," she agreed softly. He couldn't help but notice the determination there. "But it is all we have. All I have. So… you can stand down, Sideswipe. Or you can open your eyes and see what everyone else is too blind to."
"That is blackmail," he said shakily, hands trembling and optics blown wide and legs aching to run away, away, away from her. "You can't-"
He stopped himself there, because the worst part was that she could. She could stand there and tell him what she wanted, and it was more of a choice that she was giving him than any other Lord would have given.
She turned, deliberately away from him, and faced the sky.
"How many worlds are out there?" She murmured, voice almost soundless. "How much has been lost to senseless violence in your rampage across the universe?"
He didn't try to hide his reaction to the stinging words.
She went on, voice thinning into a rapier. "Do you know what a greater fool is?"
He paused. "It…"
"It is a person who is the perfect blend of arrogant and confident, who thinks they can succeed where nobody else can." She spun around, lightly, and he could see the fierce smile on her face. "My country was built by greater fools, Sideswipe. I am one."
"You're dragging us down with you," he whispered.
Her face softened, the razor-edges of her spine flopping into something calmer. "I'm giving you a choice," she corrected. "You can jump ship now, Sides, if you want. I will never hold it against you. But if you stay… I'll expect you to be onboard."
He hated Decepticons. His life had been simple, hewn in black and white and maybe, sometimes, sepia. He'd been content with that.
He thought he could learn to hate Evelyn Monroe, for her arrogance.
"I can't fragging do it," he hissed at her.
She jumped, and he was inordinately pleased at her reaction.
"Do what?" She asked warily.
"Kill them!" He snarled. Her eyes widened, flashing blue for an instant, before she turned away and bent over. It took him a minute to understand that her shaking shoulders were out of laughter, and not tears. "I'm serious."
She turned back, and he could see what she would have looked like as a child, before this had happened. Pretty enough, he thought, by earth-standards. Average, all told.
She was not so pretty now. The innocence had been wiped from her eyes, under Megatron's heartless hands. She was no child, not when she toyed with forces that could choke the very vibrancy out of the universe. Not a child- and not an adult. The beauty had been hardened and softened at the same time.
He wondered what she would have been like before Megatron.
A pale shadow, he decided, walking the threads of fate, and forever in the shadow of a greater destiny that could have been.
The past year had toughened her, from iron to steel; she walked the path, now, of a leader of mechs and men. Events had conspired, had left her no choice, but in the end it was one so few ever walked. It was one Megatron had feared to tread, and one Sideswipe had never considered.
"In so many ways," he said quietly, "you are like Prime."
She bared her teeth back, mood switching from incredulous to outraged in an instant.
"I am nothing like Prime," she said, voice trembling with barely-leashed indignance.
He grinned down at her, and made sure she saw the blood-lust in that one movement. He wanted her to know that she held a wolf by the jaws, and she could not let it go nor hold on for much longer. Her leashes were only so strong.
Her eyes stared back, smooth and unreadable. "I am not."
"Are we kids, now?" He asked her amusedly, "to debate in yeses and nos?"
She sighed, and the tension faded from her shoulders.. "I know the world is ending, now."
Now that he was the mature one, he realized wryly.
"Yeah," he muttered. "Anyways, Sunny should be back from the patrol in about a joor, so you can tell him what- What is it?"
She was frowning, grooves carving into her forehead with disturbing ease, in such a young face. Then her face whitened alarmingly, and she gripped his leg tightly.
Lifting it to meet his gaze, she managed, "Sunstreaker doesn't normally have a patrol today, does he?"
"No," he said easily. "But it's nothing to worry about. The patrols change a lot, based on how mechs're feeling, and probably Sunny just… what is it? You're-"
"Sunstreaker has not irritated anyone," she said clearly, eyes hooded. "He has barely spoken to anyone, Sideswipe, in the past two weeks. No… and it wasn't changed on the normal schedule, so…"
She spun around and met his optics, sudden, horrified realization filling them. "How likely is it that an Autobot has turned traitor?"
"…why?" He asked slowly, hating where she was going- what the hell-
"The roster wasn't changed on the public postings," she said impatiently. "Only on your private ones, and whoever Sunstreaker's- oh, God." Her tone turned sharp, swinging. "Tell me he had a partner."
"Yeah," he said, digging up the file. "Hound. Why?"
"Because I'm looking at the security footage from seven minutes ago, of the Rec Room," she said grimly. "And Hound's in there, laughing his head off."
"…Sunstreaker's alone?" He asked numbly.
::Sun-::
It broke off, the signal too far for even a twin bond to reach.
"I can't reach him," he announced.
She tilted her head, in the barest hint of a nod, and stiffened. Her voice grew clipped, all emotion fading in favor of taking care of the problem.
"Go talk to Jazz," she ordered. "We need to find out if there was anything out there that's been on the down low for the past… couple weeks? That sounds good, right?"
He nodded and leapt down the roof.
When he looked back, she was gone.
God, why does this happen to me?
::Megatron?::
::Yes, dear?::
She pushed away any amusement. ::Start looking at the logs. If there's any chance we can catch them before they've altered the footage, it's there. And even if we can't for that, we can narrow down who it was.::
::Yeah:: he mumbled. ::It's kinda sad how… unprotected the files are once you're inside the Autobot base. Maybe I should tell Red Alert.::
::Tell him and you'll receive a blow to the head in response:: she said flatly. ::And seeing as it's my head, I'm going to ask you to avoid that thought until you've got your own body.::
He faded further from her mind, sinking into himself and finishing the process of downloading the files remotely. She waited, pacing the asphalt of the base's parking lot angrily- mainly to avoid the sense of horror waiting just beyond the next revelation. She could feel that in her bones.
::Has he irritated someone?:: She burst out, suddenly, impatience taking over. She needed to do something, and for perhaps the first time could understand the obsession with action some warriors had. It was infinitely easier to be in the thick of battle, because even in the depths of panic and worry, there was the secure knowledge that it was you against them.
Sitting like this, hidden away, was nerve-wracking.
::Megatron?::
::Even if he had:: he replied finally, scathingly, ::no proper Autobot wou-::
::Don't.:: The wash of tiredness was unexpected but not unwelcome. She sounded exhausted, and she was. ::Do not underestimate them. I told you, failure is no longer a feasible option. This is not an experiment, and even if it was our control doesn't exist and there is no fucking hypothesis!::
He hissed something, then sighed and said grudgingly, ::He hasn't offended anyone in the past two weeks, if his interactions with the other denicens of this base are to be taken into consideration.::
She frowned, letting her instincts run over that. ::What about… hurting people? By… ignorance, I suppose, if not deliberation?::
::The only victim who might yet hold a grudge is… Hound.:: He spat that last word as if it could lessen his rage. ::How dare-::
She was strongly tempted to run after Hound, to drag him to Prime and bring the fucker to his knees. Sunstreaker was hers, and she would damn every person who tried to take him from her three times to Dante's hell and seven to her own.
The possessiveness was instinctual- was driven into her with bonds and loyalty and Megatron himself. She was their Lord, and any hurt they came to under her was supposed to be either met with retribution or silenced with wereguild.
So, she had two choices: go after Sunstreaker, or go after Hound.
It didn't even take a heartbeat.
As they rode over the desert in a hot-wired car, Evelyn sank back into conversation with Megatron.
And while Megatron was brilliant, with a mind that could make leaps of native intelligence- rather than experience- Evelyn was a genius at reading people.
If she had a superpower, that would be it, she thought. Reading people and deducing who they were- what they were like.
And Hound, whatever else his issues, had never struck her as vengeful.
::I… don't think that… it was Hound:: she said quietly, breaking the tense silence. ::It is not… his nature.::
::It is his nature if pushed, Evelyn:: Megatron shot back immediately. ::Never underestimate-::
::I'm not:: she murmured. The worry and anger still roiled through her, a tempest waiting to be unleashed. She had never felt such rage before- and that terrified her. The mild words were a way of countering the growing tide. ::But Hound would not. Why-:: she broke off, as stark dread clutched at her heart and a revelation flowed through her.
::Not so much a dead end:: she whispered, angrily. ::Not a silence, because he would not defend himself if that were the case. But it is always- always- easier to fight for others than for yourselves.::
::No:: he said flatly. ::You cannot mean-::
She dropped her head into her hands and growled in frustration, pressing the pedal flat to the floor. It had suddenly gotten utterly important, their warning.
::That Hound has one friend out of all of the mechs on base who could have done this- without any questions asked?:: She asked grimly. ::That Wheeljack might be that mech? Oh, yes, Megatron. That is exactly what I'm saying.::
He fell silent, but it was not the silence of anger or even shock- rather, she thought, the silence of someone thinking very hard.
::We must warn him:: he said finally. She resisted the urge to point out that they were already doing so. ::And, Evelyn?::
::Yes?::
::The tapes have been edited.::
Another strike against Wheeljack. There were relatively few mechs who could have achieved this in silence, and for better or for worse, she trusted their officers.
Which meant there were perhaps two mechs who could have achieved the entire rigmarole without being caught: Wheeljack, or Perceptor. Both worked on the security systems; both were never questioned.
::And what about Bluestreak?:: She asked slowly, knowing the meager barriers against her rage were no longer going to be enough. ::Didn't you say you'd held him?::
Megatron froze, and remained silent for a long time. She bit back her furious recriminations and instead watched the sand dunes flit by at the fastest speed the car could go.
::…yes:: he said finally, a wealth of regret in that voice. ::Starscream got to him.::
Her hands tightened on the steering wheel until the knuckles were white and she thought the ridges of the leather would forever be imprinted there.
::We're going to get him:: she said, fierce and strong and so damn certain.
He didn't contradict her.
They were too late.
Sunstreaker already had his weapons hot; the 'Cons were speeding in for the kill. There was no way he'd win this fight, and he was dead before he'd begun.
I am so, so sorry, Sunstreaker. Please… forgive me.
She screamed.
It was loud, and sharp, and all-encompassing. The fear she'd felt from before and the rage from Wheeljack's deception… she couldn't control this. This was no longer a chess game…
Breathe, Evelyn.
The scream cut off, leaving them all in a preternatural silence. She looked up, through wet lashes, directly at Sunstreaker.
Then she clenched her jaw, and spun to meet Starscream's darkly amused glare.
Game. On.
So. Chapter nine is up. And... this fic just crossed the sixty-thousand word mark. I should be celebrating! And, referring to Evelyn's interaction in the first part of this chapter: she's a very dry-humor sort of person. I tend to see Sunstreaker as being like her, and Jazz and Sideswipe as more... prank types. Meh. Could be completely head canon, but what'll ya do? Yes, I used the Mariana Trench instead of the Laurentian Abyss. Honestly, Michael Bay: what. the. hell. You thought the deepest part of the earth was the Laurentian Abyss?
Also, I used that because California is a hell of a lot easier to travel to from Nevada than the 'eastern coast of Canada.'
Sarielgrace: I love your reviews! They always make me smile. And, you raised a lot of pertinent questions in your review. Seriously. Evelyn's not a... hero, in that she doesn't do things just because they're the right thing to do. She tends to have multiple reasons- and that screws with everyone's heads, because no fifteen year old should be so manipulative or ruthless.
She's still a bit crazy, but mostly she doesn't know how better to express herself. For being so good at reading people, she's not so good at building meaningful relationships with others. It's a character flaw.
And, yes, she's completely, utterly human. That affects her decisions in a lot of ways, and that confuses Megatron sometimes, too. She's very... strong, in that sense.
A few other things- these are some quotes/paraphrasing I took from other people.
Wolf by the jaws: Thomas Jefferson:
Greater Fool: Newsroom
Dante's Hell: Dante's Inferno
Reviews inspire me! See you guys next time.
-Dialux
