Chapter 8 Dismay
Starscream cackled as he continued to grow. Power was racing through him and he knew that no one could stand in his way. A pinprick of annoyance flooded his mind and he glanced down at Whitesilence automatically. She was frowning, her arms folded across her chest, and leaning heavily on her left leg, causing her hip to lift up in an almost seductive manner.
"What?" he asked as he tilted his head.
'Thanks for making me feel like a sparkling again, tall, dark, and deadly,' she snorted.
He chuckled before he finally stopped growing. He stretched his arms out before focusing his power to shoot him into the sky. He burst out of the volcano in a shower of rocks and magma, earning surprised shouts from the Autobots and Decepticons fighting on the beach. He sneered down at them, internally amused by their horrified expressions.
'Sit and stay?' Whitesilence asked in a bored tone.
'If anyone tries to get the Keys and the Omega Lock, kill them,' he ordered.
'Of course, Commander,' she replied with a soft purr.
'Supreme Commander,' he pushed.
'Don't push your luck,' she replied sternly.
'Aww,' he whined playfully before landing on the ground. "Say hello to the new supreme ruler of the cosmos!" he laughed.
Whitesilence sighed as she rolled her head on her neck and lightly put pressure on her right leg. She winced as pain flared up her leg straight to her cranial unit; damn Prime to the darkest reaches of the Pit. She pulled another pained expression as she bent down to gauge the size of the wound behind her knee. Energon trickled down her leg, not as profoundly anymore, but it needed to be stopped before she bled too much and passed out. She glanced around before sighing and limping over to the magma pool beside the Omega Lock's pedestal. She braced herself before sitting down and lowering her injured leg into the magma. She shuddered in pain as the intense heat seemed to melt her armor and circuits, but she knew it just hurt and that her mind was merely making the assumption that it was heavily injured. She sat there for another minute, shaking and silently screaming, to make sure the cauterization was finished.
'Ow,' she whimpered to herself as she pulled her leg out and let it cool down.
She heard voices not far away and shakily hauled herself back to her feet. She walked back to stand in front of the Omega Lock, waiting for the intruders to come. She could feel the ground quaking before she spotted an ancient spaceship flying down the mouth of the volcano. She growled as she took aim with her back-mounted cannons at the ship and fired. They hit dead on, and she heard a grunt before the ship crashed into the ground and transformed. She smirked before walking over and giving the ship a good kick in the side.
"Coward," the old mech coughed at her feet. "Attacking from the shadows. And when I thought you could sink no lower, Megatron."
'One slight problem with that assumption,' she laughed darkly as she bent down and wrenched the old mech's head up to look her in the optics, 'I'm not Megatron.'
The mech's optics widened in surprise and slight fear. "What?" he asked in shock. "Who are you?"
'My designation is Whitesilence,' she replied before she tilted his head to the side to expose his major fuel lines. 'Remember it, because it is the last name you will ever learn,' she hissed before she went for his throat.
"I don't think so, lady!" a voice shouted before she was knocked aside.
She snarled as she rolled back to her feet, mentally summoning her Cyber Planet Key. She felt it enter her back and the two attachments on her back snapped off and fused together to form her sword. The chain materialized after she caught it and she turned to face her opponent.
'Wingsabre,' she half purred as she shouldered her blade, 'how delightful to see you again.'
"Shoulda known you'd turn up where the side lines of a battle are," the silver mech snorted.
She gave him a fanged grin before shaking her head. 'Aw, you didn't miss me? Now you've hurt my feelings,' she cooed before bringing her blade down.
"You don't have feelings!" Wingsabre shouted before calling his blade out.
'Starscream,' she called evenly as she readied herself for a fight, 'I'm going to need back-up.'
'I'll send someone,' he replied hastily, almost like he was trying to focus on something else.
She smirked as she easily parried Wingsabre's attack. The silver mech kept attacking, trying to give the old mech enough time to reach the Omega Lock. She kicked the silver mech aside before turning on the old mech in time to see the mech get shot at. A speedboat came racing over the magma towards them, a huge four barrel gun sitting in the middle of its deck.
"Someone call for back up?" a female voice called out.
Whitesilence frowned at the voice; Starscream had sent this to help her? Equality to the Pit if her voice sounded like that! 'I was expecting someone a little more…sophisticated,' she replied before she brought her blade up to block Wingsabre's futile attack.
"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?" the boat demanded before she transformed.
She took one look at the femme and snarled. 'You sent me THAT as help?!' she snarled in disgust.
'Thunderblast is capable of fighting,' Starscream growled in reply. 'Just work with her.'
She growled before flaring at the femme. 'Protect the Lock, you useless glitch!' she ordered.
"Who says I'm taking orders from you?" Thunderblast sneered.
'If you don't listen I'll rip that pretty little head of yours off and give it to my Scrapmetal as a chew toy!' she snarled before baring her fangs in rage.
"Fine, fine, geez what a grouch," the other femme whined before she started firing at the other mech again.
'Useless,' she grumbled darkly as she fought with Wingsabre. 'Absolutely useless.'
"Just can't find good help anymore can yah, Silence?" Wingsabre teased.
'Well now, this coming from the mech that shot his own commander,' she crooned as they parried each other's attacks.
"Heard about that, huh?" he asked.
'No,' she replied before she pulled him into a headlock, 'your mind told me the last time we met.'
Wingsabre thrashed around in her grip, trying to break free even though he knew it was pointless. She had a steel-trap grip that she had learned from her father and knew just how to use it. "Wingsabre, hand on!" the old mech shouted.
She let out a mental howl of agony as a sword stabbed through the back of her shoulder. Her grip slackened enough for Wingsabre to escape. "Later, babe," he called as both mechs took off.
She clutched her shoulder tightly, gritting her dental bands together, before she spun around and advanced on the whining femme. 'Why didn't you defend the Omega Lock?!' she snarled as she grabbed the femme by the top of her chest plate and lifted her up.
"I was shot into the lava," she whined. "Now my armor's all charred.
She snarled again before she pitched Thunderblast into the lava again. She went to the edge, scooped some of the molten rock up, and slammed it onto her injured shoulder. She hissed at the pain, but did not remove her hand or the molten rock until she was sure the wound was shut. Thunderblast was complaining and shouting at her for the treatment she had received, but she ignored her.
'Redscream, Blacksprite, come here,' she ordered over her mind link with them.
'Coming Auntie!' Blacksprite replied.
'Right away, Mistress,' Redscream growled.
She glanced at the still complaining femme before disengaging her Cyber Planet Key. 'The Autobots took the Lock, Starscream,' she stated. 'My sincerest apologies.'
'Never mind, take Thunderblast and follow Megatron; he's heading for Cybertron after the Lock,' he growled.
'Understood,' she replied before she felt Blacksprite and Redscream bump against her legs. 'New orders; we're following Megatron and his Decepticons to Cybertron.'
"But why us?" Thunderblast whined.
"Because Uncle Starscream ordered us to," Blacksprite mewed.
'Correct,' Whitesilence replied before transforming into her jet-mode. 'Now move out,' she ordered after Redscream and Blacksprite had hopped on her back.
She blasted out of the volcano before Thunderblast could complain more. She looked over at Starscream, mentally smirking at him severely thrashing the Autobots, before flying towards the open space bridge. Her backpackers leapt off when they got close enough and waited for the boat-former to catch up with them since she had to take the land route. She turned up a moment later, complaining about something or other, before they went through the open space bridge.
"Someone's following us," a male voice commented as they reached the end of the space bridge.
"What?" Megatron's voice demanded.
Whitesilence fell back behind Thunderblast as the boat exited the space bridge. "A boat," the voice replied.
"Wait, don't shoot!" Thunderblast squeaked.
"Give me one good reason," Megatron demanded.
"I'm on your side," she replied, dragging everyone's attention away from the space bridge.
She stepped out while Thunderblast was giving her speech. None of the others noticed her; they were focused solely on the floating femme in front of Megatron. She felt fury boil in her lines as she watched the other femme turn from side to side before reaching out and touching his shoulder.
"Someone like you," she giggled.
'You fragging slut!' she screeched in rage, causing everyone to grab their helms in pain. She stormed over and grabbed the other femme by her throat, slamming her down onto the path of the space bridge. 'I leave you alone for one slagging minute and you go and hit on the first mech that you see!' she snarled, fangs bared as she slammed her foot down on the other's chest.
She snarled at the now hysterical femme before Megatron chuckled behind her. "As aggressive as always, my dear," he stated before his hand fell on her shoulder. "But this is not necessary," he added in a hardened tone.
'I will not stand for such blatted disregard of respect for your superiority,' she growled, letting a barely audible hiss pass through her fangs.
He chuckled again before gently pulling her off. "I will handle the punishment," he replied as Thunderblast staggered to her feet.
"Who's she?" the little red mech asked.
She squared her shoulder before giving him a bored look. 'I am Whitesilence, head general of the Decepticon army,' she stated calmly.
The new mechs that she didn't recognize all jumped slightly. "She's…telepathic," a large red mech stated.
"And powerful," Blacksprite purred as she leapt over. "She's the most powerful femme in the entire Universe."
Whitesilence shook her head as she knelt down to scratch the young femme's helm. The large mech, whom Blacksprite called Scourge, raised an optic ridge before smiling slightly. She gave him a withering look before straightening up; she didn't like the path his thoughts had taken.
"Now, Thunderblast," Megatron said in a sickly sweet voice, "as long as you are loyal, you can remain with my army. But don't think you'll get off easy just because you're cute."
"Yes!" Thunderblast squealed. "You won't regret this," she added before she flew past him.
Whitesilence turned towards her father, her face twisted in horror. 'Please tell me you were not just flirting with her,' she begged.
Megatron gave her an even look before chuckling. "Is there a problem?" he asked.
'She's a slut! There is no way possible that I would ever accept her as a creator!' she snarled, making sure that she sent the message only to Megatron.
"Who said it would go that far?" he chuckled before he turned around.
'It had better not,' he growled as she followed him, elbowing Thundercracker aside before transforming into her car alt. mode.
She revved her engine once before following Megatron down the bridge path. Why didn't they just open a warp gate to Cybertron? This was ridiculous. She could hear Redscream scrambling to keep up with them and a loud yelp of surprise as Blacksprite latched onto one of the others for a ride. She snorted bitterly until she picked up worried mind waves and smirked; Autobots.
'Sir, Autobots detected about 25 miles ahead,' she stated.
"You can sense that far?" Thundercracker asked in shock.
'The extent of my range is 30 miles,' she replied evenly. 'And you're mind is disturbing me; stop thinking about Thunderblast's aft.'
The others snickered as Thundercracker let out a shout of disbelief. "I am not!"
She chuckled before Megatron gave the order to transform and prepare to fire. They all transformed and Whitesilence smirked when she saw Override's surprised face. She bared her fangs before lowering herself down to Redscream as the Scrapmetal growled happily.
'Fetch,' she laughed, pointing at the Omega Lock in Override's hands.
Redscream snarled happily before she spun around and charged. Override, Leobreaker, and Evac all yelped in surprise before they tried shooting at Redscream, only for the lithe little femme to dart out of the way at the last second and fire her own cannon. They darted aside, leaving enough of a gap between them for the red Scrapmetal to tackle Override and tear into her in an attempt to get the Lock. Override tried to beat her off, but the Scrapmetal got what she wanted and headed back to Whitesilence.
'Good femme,' she cooed gently as she pet her pet's helm. Redscream purred happily as she dropped the Lock into her hand. She stood up before glancing at Megatron. 'How about I hang onto this since I seem to be the fastest one here…and know when to haul my aft out of here.'
He glanced at her, blue optics hard as he tried to see if she was bluffing about it, before he nodded. "Very well," he replied before he turned back to the Autobots. "Care to surrender?"
Leobreaker snarled. "We stand a better chance on Cybertron; come on!" he shouted before they all turned and jumped into the broken fabrics of the cosmos.
"Well…that was brilliant," Blacksprite commented. "Hope they get lost."
"It's a clear shot from here to Cybertron," Thundercracker snapped. "No way they can get lost."
Whitesilence spun on him and had her hand around his throat in a split second. 'Care to correct that remark?' she asked coldly. 'Perhaps you didn't notice, Thundercracker, but the space between here and Cybertron is shifted and mashed, much like your CPU.'
Thundercracker thrashed around for a moment, snarling insults at her until Megatron finally stepped in. He simply had to grab her wrist before she reluctantly allowed the blue Seeker to fall back onto the "ground". He glared up at her, but she ignored him as she turned to look back at the chopped up section of the road. She frowned slightly before Megatron stepped up beside her. He glanced at her before growling and a huge purple aura encased him.
'Show off,' she stated in a bored tone before she focused her power into a pure white aura around her.
She heard a chuckle before Scourge stepped forward, surrounded by a dark green aura. "I should not be surprised that the mighty Megatron's own sparkling is so powerful," he stated calmly.
She bared her fangs at him before tossing her head back. 'Slag off, I'm taken,' she spat at him.
"Yeah," Blacksprite mewed as she leapt over. "Uncle won't be happy that you're making moves on her."
"Wait…didn't she call Starscream that?" the little red mech, Ransack, Redscream mentioned as she licked her front leg, asked.
"Yeah, what's your point?" Blacksprite asked with a tilt of her head.
"Does that make Starscream her boyfriend?" Ransack asked.
She smirked before she followed Megatron into the mashed up space. 'You make that sound like a bad thing, little one,' she replied evenly.
"HEY! WHO ARE YOU CALLING LITTLE?!" he shouted after her.
She had to put all her focus on following Megatron through the mess. She felt her armor itching all over and it was taking everything she had not to obey the internal command to reach over and scratch her irritated armor; one moment of distraction and she would be lost forever in this mess. Megatron barely glanced back at her before he weaved around some of the obstacles blocking their way.
'Do you understand now why I told you to stay on Cybertron?' he demanded.
'Your reasoning is beyond me,' she replied as she caught up to him and flew beside him. 'But please, enlighten me.'
He growled slightly before they both dodged at the same time around another obstruction. 'I can sense your discomfort; that is the start of serious injury,' he replied.
'I'm a soldier, just like every other mech in the army,' she replied evenly as she flew back to his side.
'No, you are not; you are far more important than any of the other mechs,' he growled before he darted to the side to avoid a large asteroid, brushing his hand gently over her shoulder at the same time.
'Why? Because you are my creator?' she asked darkly.
'I need a successor, Whitesilence,' he replied as he went back to her side, his optics focused in front of him. 'And you are my only creation and have the throne in your birthright.'
'And if I chose to be Starscream's mate?' she asked. 'Would you revoke that right?'
'I would rather that you found a better mech for a mate,' he replied.
'Like Scourge?' she hissed angrily. 'I will never mate with a mech like him.'
'He would make a finer mate than Starscream,' he stated coldly.
'You know nothing about Starscream; don't you dare compare him to that gutter-minded dragon!' she snarled in reply, turning her head away to bare her fangs at him.
He reached out and grabbed her, yanking her close to him as another asteroid flew by. His arm stayed locked around her stomach for a good minute, both of them waiting patiently for Scourge to catch up. They both hovered there, lifting an optic ridge in surprise when Thunderblast flew up beside Scourge. Her gaze froze on them pressed front to back before her optics narrowed angrily. Whitesilence rolled her optics before she leant back and gave Megatron's jaw a small kiss.
'I owe you one,' she stated before pulling away.
Thunderblast glared at her while Megatron shook his head and continued leading them. "You have a lot of nerve," she snapped at her.
'What? I can't give my creator a thank-you kiss for saving my aft?' she asked in annoyance before following him.
"Creator?" the other femme asked in shock. "He's your creator?!"
'And the glitch just catches on; I thought the horns and spikes would give it all away,' she sighed in annoyance.
She saw the femme's mind go into a confused state, unable to put the two of them together in such a manner. How anyone could not see the resemblance was beyond her; she was a female version of him. She snorted before continuing on, easily weaving past the slower moving asteroids to keep up with Megatron. He glanced at her as she flew up beside him, a low growl of disproval leaving him.
'Oh come on, like it's going to hurt anyone knowing that you're my creator,' she sighed. 'The entire army knows.'
'Perhaps I did not want her to know about it,' he replied angrily.
She stopped and gapped at him. 'You...you honestly mean…you…,' she gasped before she lost control of herself. 'YOU ARE HONESTLY CONSIDERING HER AS A MATE?!'
She sensed Scourge and Thunderblast pause, caught in her telepathic range. Megatron stopped and turned to face her. "Whitesilence," he warned.
'Answer my question,' she snarled as she clenched her fists. 'Are you considering her as a mate?'
"That is none of your concern," he replied.
She glared at him for a moment before straightening up and hovering closer to him and touching his helm. He tried to jerk away from her but she latched onto his shoulder and held him there as she dug through the files in his CPU. He snarled at her, making it quite clear that she did not have permission to shift through his thoughts, but she ignored him as she found what she was looking for. She read through his feelings for Thunderblast before she wound up and punched Megatron across the face.
'I can't believe you!' she snarled as she backed away, her optics filling with tears. 'The femme you choose as a potential mate is a slut!'
"Whitesilence," he growled, his ice cold optics on her, "you are stepping beyond your boundaries."
She bared her fangs before she spun around. 'I should have stayed with Starscream,' she spat before she transformed and headed for Cybertron. 'Then maybe I could be spared of knowing that you want that miserable little excuse for a fighter!'
"Whitesilence!" Megatron roared after her, but she ignored him as she gunned her engines and headed for Cybertron.
She flew faster than she thought she could through the horribly mashed up space towards her home. She knew that Blacksprite had opened a warp gate there already and was waiting, but right now she didn't care. She just wanted to put as much distance between her and her father as she could. Of all the femmes that she had encountered, Thunderblast was the worst yet; what did her father see in her? Oh, that's right; a huge chassis and a nice aft. Mechs, you just couldn't trust them. She saw the large metal planet coming up fast and transformed, flying down into the atmosphere before pulling up to slam her feet down into one of the still standing buildings.
She stood up slowly, ignoring anything else that was happening and just trying to calm her angered circuits. She watched as Megatron, Scourge and Thunderblast landed not far away, but she crouched down and slid into the shadows, her optics glaring daggers into her creator and the other femme's head. She just wanted to kill that femme now, but she had to wait for a more perfect time. She watched in amusement as her creator easily repelled the three Autobots that attacked him before Optimus Prime turned up.
The fight didn't last long before Megatron vanished into the fire dimension to hide from Optimus. She shook her head before starting to count the minutes until he came back out after Optimus went after him. She counted off ten minutes before the Autobot leader came back out, shouting at the old mech, Vector Prime, to open a warp gate across the fire dimension one. Her optics opened in horror as she realized what he was going to do.
She watched in disbelief as the entrance to the fire dimension began to entangle itself with the odd green one that the old mech had created. 'No,' she whispered before she watched it vanish. 'No!'
She almost leapt off the building to attack the Autobots in a blind rage before she saw the seams of the warp gate slide back into existence. She watched as the opening opened wider, electric bars appearing between the two sides and revealing Megatron as he ripped the dimension open. She grinned before she realized something with a sickening thud; he would never be able to escape if he had to hold the gate open.
She took off towards the gate as Scourge and Thunderblast rushed past. 'Cowards,' she snarled at the same time Megatron did.
She hovered in front of Megatron for a moment before setting her hands on the side of the gate and began to push the sides apart, trying to give her creator a chance to escape. He glared at her before growling. "Get out of here," he ordered.
'Not without you,' she replied as she strained to keep the gate open.
"That is an order," he snapped as his arms began to shake.
'I guess that I don't listen, now do I?' she replied as she felt her arms shaking from the strain.
He was silent for a moment before his struck his foot into her chest, sending her flipping end over end away from him. She growled before she looked up to watch his armor beginning to shatter. He opened his mouth in a roar of pain before his entire body shattered into dust and the warp gate closed forever. Her optics widened, staring at the place he had been a moment before, before optical fluid fell down her face. She tipped her head back and for once in her life, a fully audible scream of pain raced past her lips, filling the air of Cybertron with the noise. The Autobots on the surface of the planet stared at her in shock as they swear they heard the sound of something fragile shattering into a million pieces before her white body fell back towards Cybertron, only to be caught by Scourge and carried away.
She curled against the red dragon's chest, sniffling slightly. 'He's gone,' she whispered as she clutched her chest, feeling all alone for the first time in her life. 'He's dead,' she whimpered before she felt one word form in her throat and make it's way past her blockage. "Father," she mewed into the vastness of space, the nothingness devouring the word as quickly as it had left her, almost as if she had never uttered it.
She broke down into tears against the dragon-former's chest, sensing his distress over her reaction, but she didn't care; her father was dead and it was because she hadn't been able to save him. She sobbed silently even after Scourge had dropped her onto an asteroid; it was all her fault. She sensed other land around her, sensing their hesitation about coming closer. A soft growl sounded before Redscream's head nuzzled under her arm.
'Mistress?' she asked softly
'He's gone, Red…he's gone,' she sobbed as she hugged her pet close to her chest.
'Mistress,' Redscream whimpered softly, understanding immediately and licking her cheek gently.
She lay there for a long time, holding her pet close to her as she sobbed painfully over the loss of her father. Blacksprite curled up against her stomach, mewing gently and trying to comfort her as the others whispered venomously about her display of weakness. She glared around her tears before she stood up and faced the mechs, barring her fangs at them. Thundercracker sneered something that she didn't catch, but the others snickered, and she grinned predatorily before she lunged for his throat.
