Chapter 10: Trial and Truth
"Acheron, you have been brought before this Council, accused of treason against all Cybertronians, animals, and humans! Not to mention the illegal control over an army that was under a treaty with the United Cybertronian Empire which you used as weapons of destruction to blame the original leader, Tigressa, of breaking the deal and almost forcing us to consider revoking her privileges on both Earth and Cybertron.
"Furthermore, her father is helm-high with complaints and debates from his own council, consisting of leaders from across the five main galaxies, whom are starting to demand action against Tigressa as we speak. We're sending a messenger right now to put all these new problems on Kanji to rest.
"Now, Acheron, do tell us why you did these criminal acts and why you wanted to take it out on your own home planet so malevolently. Why did you betray us?" Alpha Trion finished with an insulted frown upon his silver face plates.
Acheron studied the Council members closely. Among them was Optimus, Elita, wincing every time the Autobot Leader looked her way, and Megatron, but Tigressa loomed in the shadows behind the old mech, sitting silently and loosely on the Elder's chair with her clawed feet propped up on the table in front of her and her tail lurking off the edge. She was swinging her shaded sword in her servo. Her yellow-red eyes were narrowed and one of the only things visible in the darkness, but he knew she was staring irately at him.
"Acheron, speak," Optimus urged.
The black and white mech sneered, "Or what, Prime. Are you going to sick Tigressa or her dim-witted brothers on me? Pathetic. If you want me to talk, you should come down and make me!"
"Oh, I'm sure we could arrange something like that," Megatron mocked, "In fact, why not give you to the Metal Heads you've imprisoned for so long. I'm sure they'd 'love' to meet you again."
Acheron had no trace of a smirk now. "Alright, if you must know, I hate Cybertron! You all think you're Gods, even the Kanjians think so, even the humans too, but you don't know what a God is nor what they are capable of. I wanted to show you true power; I wanted to show you there can only be one God for this planet as well as the others.
"You all bask in luxury and treat other species like scrap, especially the lower classes. You have no respect for those lower in title for you. The only reasonable thing I could think of to even the crooked table was to make you suffer the way we did all those years ago.
"And your precious Princess Tigressa is the worst out of all of you. She makes life a living Hell for anybody who isn't her own species! She's selfish, cruel, and uses her army for only…personal use…when she could use them for so much more!"
On the corner of his eye, he could see Captain Silos tense and dig his claws into his own skin. The Council looked horrified from that sort of accusation, and Tigressa still remained seated but with more of a hint of fury flowing from her optics.
Bumblebee snarled behind him, "You fucking hypocrite! That's what you've been like so far and F.Y.I., she has 'used' them for a greater purpose! She's killed many with them, conquered worlds even; she's the one who practically made the first Decepticon and haunted him ever since, though he didn't go by that title during his reign! But at the same time, she's not an idiot like you! She knows she can't be a God no matter what! The highest she could be is a Queen! She's better than you; every Metal Head is a better ruler than you could ever hope to be!"
Acheron turned towards him with a murderous look upon his face. The shadows casted under his eyes made it appear scarier. He scraped his denta together while his stare never lost its sinister façade.
Before both of them could say anything, Optimus quickly cut in, "Acheron, you're statements are unjust and those assumptions about your former fellow Cybertronians only applied in the past. The Civil War is over, only peace and tranquility reign throughout this planet. Every planet has problems; we have oppressed a majority of them. The classes are even, and we do not see ourselves as Gods, only mortals with natural-born armor protecting us from most attacks by any other species, even our own.
"We have learned what went wrong years ago and we've been given a second chance by both Primus and by Ghost, whom of which was kind enough to bestow the gift of revival, despite the spirits of the fallen needing a physical body to come back to. You are no longer a 'lower-class' bot; you've got as much freedom as I. The only difference between you and me is that I have earned the right to make judgments as has this Council. Rodimus is almost to the point where he'll be able to do the same."
Acheron continued to grind his teeth together as Optimus prolonged the speech, "As I stated before, your evidence against Tigressa is meaningless, for we already know this and have contained her behavior and actions; even she is stuck under our laws for as long as she stays on Earth or Cybertron.
"Acheron, this Council finds you guilty on all charges named earlier on Earth, this also now includes kidnapping a high guardian, holding eight bots hostage, and reckless usage of an army bound to one person and one person only. You are sentenced to life in prison with no chance or right for bail or a defender. Primus will not have mercy on you!"
Immediately, the Fortress' Elite Guards stormed around the black and white mech swiftly. Two seized his restrained arms as the others watched with no emotion visible.
"This isn't over Optimus, Tigressa! I will return! I swear it!" Acheron yelled as he was forcefully pushed towards the exit by another guard.
Optimus constricted his optics while the other mechs and femmes just observed his struggling. He was unmoved by the insane mech's threat. He had heard something similar before, multiple times, by the one who originally started the Civil War who was right beside him.
As Acheron left the Council's domain, Tigressa sulkily removed her feet from the table and stood up, connecting her servos together to stretch. She felt a few joints pop and moved to her neck which she heard cracking a second later. Admittedly, she was dead tired but she did her best to hide it from the surrounding Cybertronians.
"Tigressa, do you require anything before you take your leave?" Optimus asked as he approached her as she headed toward the Elders' personal passage that lead to a fancy villa where they usually conversed about different matters. It connected by one bridge and the outside surrounding it; a perfect place to fly away.
"No, I'm fine. I…just need to go back to the Nest and straighten things out. Besides, you can already guess I do not like being here. I still cannot stand Cybertron, and I highly doubt the families of those I've hunted before will be pleased that a Prime is allowing me to walk among them."
The Prime stood there is silence as the tiger-dragon squeezed through the archway which slightly splintered as she got her chassis and tail completely unstuck. His eyes roamed the floor before looking back up at the ripped doorway.
"Tigressa! Tigressa, come back!"
Bumblebee shouted her name over and over, but no response. He made his way to the villa but saw no one inside or around the area. She already left.
Silos heard his call and met him staring at the multiple ships docking and leaving the towers around Fortress Maximus. In an attempt to sound reassuring, the Captain said, "Bumblebee, she will not come when she is called, you know that. She can probably hear you but will not comply, for she may feel trapped here."
"Trapped? She weighs more than Megatron and is a tiger-dragon, how does she feel caged in a place she once attacked and almost conquered for the Fallen?"
"She most likely knows she is not wanted here by Cybertron's inhabitants. If she were to stay, she would gain a sense of disparage, hate, and loathing from them. It would haunt her mind and captivate her trust, leaving her to feel threatened and unnerved. She does not act well upon emotions like that. You've already seen some of it long ago," the Metal Head voiced as he turned his attention to the stars above.
"You know, I find it strange how much Tigressa sees in you despite she has only been near you a couple times since you first met her. I've noticed, regarding her behavior towards Cybertronians, she becomes concerned about you whenever something on Cybertron or on Earth goes wrong almost like…she sees you as a son…as Eve.
"She usually keeps it hidden from others' views, but she confirmed my suspicions after I saw her expression when I awoke her during the battle at Russia's volcano; when I told her what you were going to do, her face was horror-struck as if someone just told her that her own metal and blood had died. It was unusual to see her like that but that's why she was reluctant to go with you here. She was afraid of you; she felt she would hurt you, mentally most likely if you were to find out the truth."
Bumblebee stood there shocked, gaping with wide eyes at the Captain. "She cares about me? I remind her of Eve, don't I?"
Silos nodded, "She's afraid she'll lose you and suffer heartbreak again if you learned the truth and turned her down, just like Eve did because she saw her true side as was repelled by her real nature."
The warrior sat himself on the bridge in disbelief. "All that time? I wouldn't turn her down. I never knew my true parents, and Optimus, as well as the rest of Team Prime, were the only family I had. Arcee was like an older sister; Optimus and Ratchet took on the father role for me. Tigressa, however, I can actually see being a mother figure if she tried to be. She can be my mother slash friend if she wants, I wouldn't mind at all."
Captain Silos' ears twitched curiously towards him. The mask limited the appendages' movements though so it went unnoticed. "Perhaps you should talk to her. Clear this mess out before it compels you to do things you'll regret, the same with her. Tigressa would appreciate it."
Bumblebee smiled but didn't see Silos turn to face the visible city and mimic a sad expression on his hidden face.
Tigressa scrambled up the stairway towards the Nest's central egg chamber. Any Metal Head she passed just stared at her in confusion as she climbed upwards frantically. She made her way through metallic webbing and solid, Dark Eco-infused structures that grew naturally all over. It was an obstacle course to her.
She finally made it to the purplish glowing room where black, purple, and yellow-skulled seeds were stuck to the wall by translucent slime while being monitored by Metal Geckos who littered the spaces in between the eggs.
Calmly, she maneuvered around them, sometimes converting from the ground to the wall and to the ceiling over and over. She sniffed against a few and warned some Geckos that the offspring in those were ready to hatch. She could hear the spawns rattling as their inhabitants struggled to move in their tight area.
All of them looked so peaceful, so delicate yet deadly all the same. To anybody who didn't know the species, they would've mistaken the babies as cute, cuddly creatures which would lower their guard from the true terror within each.
Ever since Kor's death, however, the Metal Heads have been relentless and urging their mates to lay more eggs. Tigressa knew she couldn't control their willful manner, but it troubled her to see them pressure one another to repopulate what had been lost from constant wars and hunting. They were desperate.
As for the tiger-dragon, she admitted she could not rush a process like that, even if it was her reproducing an offspring. The only problem was she had never had a child of her own. The closest she had was Artemis/Eve.
Would she have been a good mother if she did have a sparkling? The mere thought made her feel sick to her stomach, not because of her being a mother, but not being a good one in general. What if she did something wrong? What if she lost her baby…again?
She gave a low bellow and paced near a group of Metal Elephant eggs on all fours. Then Bumblebee came to mind. The mech wasn't a child anymore, nor did he most likely want someone like her to be a parental figure. Much to her dislike, she had feelings for the warrior but only wanted to protect him. After Acheron's reign was over and hearing all the voices of her legion telling her what happened while she was immobile made her panic about him.
He didn't deserve to be in a situation like that nor did he be worthy of death at such a young age. She felt like tearing the world in half at the thought of him dying in the hands of a madman. Perhaps she was becoming soft? Old, now that she thought of it. The tiger-dragon was becoming an old femme with no sparkling to call her own and forcing herself to believe the yellow mech was a son to her.
She immediately scowled to herself. Some Metal Heads lay near her gave a small noise of recognition to her anger. Growling, she stomped past them to her throne that Acheron had placed in the chamber with a view of the valley below.
Tigressa clawed her way through the gold scattering the ground and finally felt at peace once she sat in her chair. She slumped against the metal throne and but her servos together silently. The gold throughout the room disgusted her and sent horrible memories back to her thoughts. The yellow metal-rocks were as useless as rust. They didn't do anything for her lying around here, and she couldn't do anything with human money so selling them was out of the question too. Disgraceful paperweights!
Sighing loudly, she stared towards the valley with an unreadable expression. Right under the gaping hole with transparent white webbing lie a waterfall roaring as it jumped from under the Nest's top levels. How steep the drop-off was she didn't care but it shimmered beautifully with a vast jungle setting its background. Perfect climate; perfect habitat to raise the newest generation of Metal Heads and perhaps a sparkling too. Perhaps.