The Beauty of the Beast.

Warnings: this is not a smut, no lemons, no PWP, but it has an odd pairing, some angst, a bit of tension, a bit of ogling, and one big mech x one small human female in a room.

"Would you love a Monster-man, could you understand beauty of the beast?" – Lordi Would you love a Monster-man.

Timing: post season's 2 finale.

Rating: M.

Pairing: Megatron and June Darby.

Disclaimer: Transformers Prime © Hasbro. Story's plot and Gavin © me.

Part 10 – Queen of the Night.

Megatron entered his quarters and was glad to see June just where he left her. His internal chronometer told him that he was out for perhaps twenty human minutes, which wasn't very long. June was still trembling, her hair was wet and he observed goose bumps on her skin. Her upper garment looked slightly less moist, but it still had wet spots where it was plastered to her bare skin.

Human femme eyed him warily as he showed his chair closer to the desk. He sat heavily and then gave her closer look, he failed to do it before and the photography didn't give her justice. Such a miniature femme.

"I have brought you items that you may deem useful." He stated putting small box on his desk. "As I understand you should dry yourself and keep your body temperature at steady level. You should find necessary items inside."

Megatron allowed his optics to linger on her as she opened the box that for her was more like medium sized chest; and peered inside. He never observed a human femme from this close before. She was slim and delicate built yet there was strange air of strength around her, she radiated this odd aura of authority that he ascertained had to come from the fact that she was mother and nurse. Her colours added to her fragile look with the contrast between dark hair and light skin tone. It was pleasant look for an optic.

The woman looked up and caught him staring at her but said nothing in the subject.

"Thank you." She said and then dove in the box again. She took out one towel started to dry her hair with energetic movements. Megatron looked fascinated as she did so, organics were indeed weird creatures. Their hair (or fur in case most of mammals) was an odd thing. When wet it was capable of keeping a lot of moisture in.

Normally he wouldn't be so fascinated with what he considered inferior species but in current circumstances he found himself interested. Humans did surprise him on numerous occasions and proved to be quite an aid for Autobots. Of course they were also a weak link, but in most cases they managed rather well. Megatron loathed even to thinking that, but they proved their own worth many times.

The smallest of them survived Dark Energon blast (though Megatron suspected that June Darby and Ratchet had a lot to do with it) and gave Soundwave run for his fuel quite a few times, not to mention that accursed virus that they discovered, but only after it sent the Iacon Data base to Autobots. Soundwave was livid in his own way.

The impertinent femmeling also showed what she can do when she killed Hardshell. True she did it with missiles from that damned Wrecker's ship, but the point had been made – she was aggressive enough to fight back using any means.

And Jack, one that in Megatron's optics was almost as bad as Prime himself. A kid who not only spared him in that collapsed mine, returned Primes memories with Key to Vector Sigma but – what was the most humiliating – managed to save entire Nemesis by dropping the Dark Energon from the engine. The part that pained Megatron the most was that it was his own action that led them to be in such vulnerable predicament in the first place, and though he wanted to do just the same, it was the brat who actually managed it. True, the little worm did it to spare the human city, but the end result was all the same.

And those were the kids. There were two adults on top of that. While agent Fowler proved to be nuance on more than one occasion, he simply did his job. Megatron understood that the human was assigned to the Autobots and not chose to work with them. In the end they cooperated well, but the fact was that Fowler simply did his job.

The nurse, the human femme was entirely different case. It was safe to assume that she met the Autobots because of her son but, as the intel indicated, she wasn't as enthusiastic about the entire situation as children were (she didn't have a 'guardian'). That opened few possibilities for Megatron. While he knew that the nurse supported Autobots, he also knew that she remained sceptic about them being entirely good. Especially after the whole revenge stunt that Wheeljack and Miko pulled.

Megatron refocused on June, she sat with her back turned to him unwrapped the towel from her hair and brushed it with her fingers to manage them to the best of her ability. The black mass was already much drier. Then she took off her top. That was another aspect of humans that Megatron found plainly weird – they could took off their equivalent of outer armour so easily. The femme took the mysterious part of human garment and wrapped the loner strap around her ribcage and buckled it with its tiny buckle. Then she put her arms into the loop that shorter straps formed, the bowl like structures were in from of her and Megatron guessed that they were now covering her mammal glands. 'So, that's what it's for' – he thought. Now that he knew it seemed logical, though why would she cover her glands with additional part of garment was beyond him, it was probably some cultural matter. The femme stared for a moment at the blouses at picked one coloured almost like her own flesh then put it on. Megatron noticed that it was half transparent and how the glad cover was slightly visible.

"I know it wasn't you who went out for those, but it was very thoughtful to provide me with bra." June turned to Megatron who observed how she looked in what Gavin brought.

"Yes, I already praised the Vehicon who did look for all of this." Megatron leaned back in his chair as she pulled one blanket and wrapped it around herself. "Though I am curious about one thing."

"I guess that's why you brought me here. To ask questions." June hid her legs under the blanket. "Probably about where the Autobots went. I hate to disappoint you, but I don't think anyone know where all of them are."

"That was one of the question I would ask, but thank you for answering it, though I am not sure if I believe you." There was slight grin on the tyrant's face. "I was thinking about something less crucial for a start. Let's see, how did you met the Autobots? I was always curious how you learned about them. Did your son introduced them to you or did he hold their secret until you learned on your own?"

June eyed the Decepticon with suspicion, there was no way that he would ask that just because he wanted to know, he was up to something but for now she had to play along. Perhaps stale as much as she could. She hoped for someone to rescue her, but she had to buy them time. And if there was no help from outside, she still had to get herself more time to figure how to get out of here on her own.

"M.E.C.H. and Airachnid kidnapped me to get to my son and Arcee. Later I learned that it happened shortly after they caught Breakdown. They wanted Arcee for their sick experiments and Airachnid wanted revenge on Jack and Arcee for destroying her ship. That was the big secret that my son held, and I thought that he simply used his bike for illegal racing." June involuntary smiled under her nose. Right now she would prefer illegal racing over alien robots.

"That's interesting. You raised your son to be responsible yet you suspected him for something so reckless?" June huffed. He had a point but as a mother it was her duty to expect the unexpected.

"He is a teenage, no matter how mature he seems; he is far from being an adult. Teens tend to make haste choices, especially when it comes to social situations. If someone in his school would challenge him he would accept just to prove himself and to keep his teen pride intact. As a mother I must foresee such situations and prevent them as much as I can. You never had children, have you?"

"No, I never had the opportunity to sire a sparkling. Nor I was made a caretaker of one born out of the Well. But I believe it is I who ask questions here." Megatron tensed immediately, he would not lose control of this situation. Not to puny organic.

"Qui pro quo Megatron" June smiled inwardly realising that Miko would probably called her Hannibal Lecter. "You didn't think I will give you what you want that easily, didn't you? For start you kidnapped my son and his friends and threatened them with horrible death. Second of all you are the enemy who want to see my kind and Autobots Destroyed."

"You know I can always torture you. You will give me what I want when I will put you through excruciating pain." Megatron rose from his chair and stood close to his desk towering over the poor woman in intimidating way, but somehow it didn't worked. To his utter shock she only lift up her head as much as her neck allowed it and smiled crooked, nasty smile that he only saw in gladiatorial den.

"Go ahead. I was giving birth to Jack for 28 hours, without anaesthesia and in so called "natural" way. If that's not excruciating then nothing is."

Megatron winced. He was happy to claim that he knew nothing about organic childbirth other than the fact that it was messy and violent event with ripping tissues and sipping organic fluids. He knew that the Cybertronian equivalent made him feel strangely queasy and it was quite organised procedure performed in civilized conditions by trained medics with professional equipment.

He sat and narrowed his optics at the human femme who was now standing with her hands on her hips.

"Fine, femme, I will humour you this time as I have nothing to lose. But don't make a habit of crossing me, I am not known for my patience and I won't allow any puny human to order me around in my own quarters. Femme or not, if I find you too annoying I will simply squish you."

"Works for me." June sat and wrapped herself with blanket while hiding trembling hands. She believed when he said that he will squish her. "You asked me two questions and I answered both of them. I asked you one, which leaves me with one more before it's your turn. Am I right?"

"It would seem so." Megatron pulled his chair closer to the desk. He could play along as long as he would get his answers. The fact that she would lie to him when it came to crucial issues was given, but she would always give some information without even knowing it and that was what he counted on. Perhaps he could even sow a seed of uncertainty in her mind? He didn't have to lie to do that, the truth about so called Golden Age was enough to cause her doubts about Autobot cause and their dream of restoring the Autobot order. He didn't knew of what use that would be, but it could come in handy at some point, even if only to work on Autobot nerves or cause Prime some moral helm ache. It didn't matter. He would wait and see.

"Fine." June sat cross legged and looked Megatron up and down. It was time to stall a bit; she had to choose her question wisely. "You said that you never been sire nor care taker, what's the difference?"

Megatron stared at her for few moments and then made a face, oh great, of all questions she had to ask for that! He already made up his mind, so he wouldn't back away, but he didn't like this question either. He didn't knew how much that accursed Autobot medic told her, so he had to tell the truth, but on the other hand, the truth could work for him.

"Basic, my dear. Cybertronians have, or rather had, two ways of procreation as a race. The sexual reproduction where carriers would conceive new spark and basic protoform that would develop further and gain upgrades as it matured. The second one – and original – was by Well of Sparks." He waited a second to see if June took the bait, after she didn't interrupted he continues. "Sparklings born from the Well had no creators; they were brand new set of genetic material and settings, no heritage, no family connections. They were given to pairs of Cybertronians that volunteered to take care of them. Such a sparkling would receive their upgrades and medical service from the caste they were taken into. Majority of them ended up in lower castes, only few had more luck. Orion Pax was one of them; Soundwave on the other hand was one of the majority that ended low. All depended on a council that performed evaluation of a sparkling, the council was corrupted of course, and usually sent the most promising sparklings to low castes, so they wouldn't stand in a way of noble sparklings future careers. Only when there was a need for such a well-developed sparkling, then it would go to higher caste caretakers." He stopped to see if June managed to follow his explanation.

"Please continue." She asked, her eyes were wide and her face focused. She never suspected that it was so complicated. But her plan worked, Megatron talked and time flew.

"As you wish. Higher castes were composed of nobility – long family chains. To become part of them one had to be born a noble or be taken from a Well by a noble family. Sometimes young sparklings that lost their creators or caretakers were taken in, but it was rare occurrence. Sparklings from higher castes had carriers and sires and usually bonded to a femme from another noble family or took a femme from the Well. In lower castes a femmes were rarity and so sparklings with actual creators and not caretakers were also rare. I was such a sparkling. My sire came from military caste that after the age of wars ended was sent to serve as workers because of their heavy built, my carrier came from the Well, but was one of those who were left in lower castes because of her military built. Higher castes preferred unarmed femmes."

"So you were literally born for warfare?"

"Indeed, you can say that. But I believe it is my turn to ask." Now, Megatron almost laughed, was time to get some information. "Children have their guardians, why don't you?"

"Because they're children." June was lost, why ask that? Shouldn't he ask for some back-up plans? "I'm an adult, I can drive on my own, I work, I can't depend on someone to drive me around. Besides, I never came to battlefield, for you I was just another human."

"Oh, but I remember you well from that one time when I visited Autobot base. As I told your son, I never forget faces."

June huffed. Megatron took few second to analyse what she said. So, Autobots weren't guarding their charges all the time? It was logical; they had their own duties, so they probably left the children in school or home and only drove them in between localisations.

"My turn." June focused on Megatron. Time to play Hannibal Lecter. Something psychological then.

Two Ch-47s hovered above ground as their precious loads were been un-hooked. General Brice watched with grim face as two wounded aliens laid there, one of them conscious, the second barely clinging to life. It didn't look good, and the general knew that there will be voices that will gladly blame those particular aliens for the entire mess in Jasper. General knew better than that. Even if Autobots never showed on Earth, Decepticons would come sooner or later on their own; he had no doubts about that.

Somewhere in the back another helicopter landed, it was agent Fowler judging after angry commands that were given. Then quick steps that came closer and closer until the special agent was standing next to the general.

"What's the status?" General never looked away from the scene before him, where the impromptu stretchers were packed on the special trucks to take them underground.

"Nurse Darby had been taken by four Decepticons by their Ground Bridge. I suspect that she was taken to the ship as the tower is fresh construction and probably unfit for use yet. I saw three Vehicons, two purple and one silver. Silver ones must be new because I never saw them before. The fourth looked like Starscream which would suggest that he returned to Megatron."

"What about others?" Brice finally looked at Fowler. His stare was hard and not necessarily friendly.

"Only Ratchet and Optimus know where they are. We can communicate with use of several e-mail accounts that were set for occasions such as this, but I think the safest option is for them to stay 'lost'." Fowler felt like shrinking under general's heavy gaze. "Soundwave will be looking for them, and while Ratchet or Arcee have rather common looking disguises, the rest not so much. Big, green ATV and two sport cars, one eye-screwing yellow and one with two striking 38's on its doors; stand out like di… I mean are easily noticeable. Their pictures will be in the web in no time. Sir, you have no idea how many pictures of Bumblebee and Smokescreen Raf deleted from various sites."

"I see." General returned to observing his men strapping two Autobots to their 'gurneys'. "But sooner or later they will have to get back together."

"Yes, but only after we are fully prepared, we will have to transport them, if they will drive on their own the danger of Soundwave finding them is very high. We will have to find them new base, they can't stay here forever."

"Agreed. But I'm not so sure about the new base, how did Decepticons found them in the first place?"

"Soundwave had to follow them for some time now. The new place has to be either in heavy populated area where it will be easier for them to simply disappear in the traffic, or in some completely isolated place where they will have to use Ground Bridge to get closer to civilisation so Soundwave won't be able to follow them back to base." Fowler followed after two truck taking 'Bots away. He learned to treat them as friends, even Wheeljack with his attitude problems. He didn't know Smokescreen for too long, but the kid reminded him of himself just after his training as Ranger, so eager for action. It wasn't easy to watch the team scattered like that.

"Again agreed, but for now we have bigger worried. Contact Ratchet and tell him to go to the nearest military base then call you back, our people can keep Prime alive, but I don't think that they can fix him. The other one shouldn't much of a problem. I don't know about the nurse. She may be dead already."

"Yes sir. But I don't think that June… eh, Nurse Darby is dead. They took her alive for some reason. Megatron will probably want to interrogate her and we both know that their ways of asking questions is violent in nature. But then again, if she was taken as hostage, he won't risk harming her, at least not too much, before trading her for something or someone."

"You think he will try to trade her for Prime?"

"That is possible. That's why as soon as it will be possible I want to mount rescue mission, preferable with Wheeljack and perhaps Arcee, if she will be available." Fowler held his breath, general could agree but could decide to wait for Megatron's move. Maybe even agree to trade June for Optimus.

"We can't give Megatron Prime; first of all we do not negotiate with terrorists…" General Brice stopped for a moment when Fowler gave deep sight. "But we can't rescue her on our own. Let's wait until morning for Megatron to make his move, if he won't do anything, then we will think about rescue mission."

"Thank you sir." Fowler's knees almost gave, Brice was strangely agreeable, but then again the man finally saw what Decepticons are capable of. He knew before that their only way of defence is Team Prime, but now he had chance to see against what exactly they were defending them from.

"Now, let's see what our own doctors and engineers will say about Prime's condition." General showed Fowler way to the elevators that would take them under ground.

Arcee woke with a start, she quickly checked her surroundings but all came clear. Some night creatures were making quiet noises, crickets were chirping in the grass of the clearing, the night sky was clear and distant start twinkled like small diamonds. A perfect night. Except for the circumstances that led her to this tranquil place. She looked at her partner who was sleeping soundly just few feet away, luckily her little panicked awaking didn't rose him from his slumber. Primus knew that the kid had a rough day. Firstly he was abducted by 'Cons, then he was chased away from his home and to complete the horrible day – his mother, only parent he really had, was kidnapped by the same 'Cons that took him earlier. And he couldn't do anything about it. She knew how he felt, and that made her feel even worse. After all she was his guardian above anything else; it was her duty to protect him. But how one can protect from life itself?

The dark blue femme laid back and settled for some more recharge. She had to be well rested in the morning, for now they were still safe.

Ratchet drove, he didn't care where exactly, he just had to be in the move. So many things occurred. He couldn't gather his own thoughts. Decepticons invaded Jasper and found their base. Optimus fate was unknown to him. Wheeljack was shot down by that flying glitch Starscream, who reunited with Megatron! And Optimus destroying Omega Lock, taking away their hope to ever coming home! Ratchet seemed furious but in reality he was depressed. Others saw grumpy old medic with bedside manner of Earth creature called wolverine, but in reality Ratchet was very emotional mech with really poor bedside manner. He covered his delicate inside with foul outside. It was his only defence mechanism against cruelty of war.

He checked his e-mail accounts without enthusiasm, he wanted to be left alone, hopefully they would stay empty. No such luck. The second account had one message from agent Fowler. Ratchet grumbled angrily. He was in no mood for interaction with organics. He didn't blame them for what happened; he blamed himself for not sending the Ground Bridge to children so they would be safe with him instead ending as 'Con's hostages. He just didn't want to have contact with locals; he didn't need to be reminded that he was far away from home. But those were emergency accounts; if Fowler contacted him then it had to be important. Ratchet opened the message and started to read it.

"Base had been destroyed. Optimus was inside when that happened. We managed to get him and Wheeljack to safety. Wheeljack's fine, but Optimus is barely alive. Our own doctors and engineers are keeping him alive but it's all they can do, he needs your help. Don't worry about spare parts; we have full set thanks to Nemesis Prime.

June had been kidnapped by 'Cons, we don't know what Megatron is planning to do with her, but it's either interrogation with obligatory torture or he took her as hostage and will want to trade. In any case we're giving him time until tomorrow to make his move and then we'll see.

If you're still in US or on any of the NATO countries territory; head to the nearest military base and then contact me."

Ratchet stopped leaving skid marks on the road and stood there for good five minutes digesting what he just learned. Wheeljack survived his crash and was wounded, but mildly enough for humans to take care of him. But Optimus was in the base it was destroyed – by Decepticons, who else – and suffered whatever injuries that caused. Could he forgive Optimus for destroying Omega Lock? Could he not forgive? There were so many things about that situation. There were the children. There was the Earth – which interference in communications had to be when Megatron lounged the beam – which Optimus tried to protect. There was Unicron and multitude of unknown consequences of that beam reaching his spark chamber. Optimus had to think of all of those aspects of entire situation. And then again, why not just take the keys or just one, out of the lock? Did Optimus know something they didn't? Did Optimus saw Omega Lock as something more than a way to restore Cybertron?

And then it hit him. An old legend, more like grim fairy tale, old wives' tales – a nonsense repeated by few lunatics with imperialistic inclinations, an absurd that even Megatron wasn't daft enough to consider a fact. A story that Cybertron, while being an actual planet, could be used as battle ship to conquer galaxies and that it was equipped with weapons to fight and subdue other worlds*), a purpose from before fight between Primus and Unicron.

Could Optimus consider Omega Lock as one of such weapons to subdue and transforms conquered worlds? Was it the reason why he saw fit to rather destroy it than allow Megatron to stay in possession of it? And if it was so, did Optimus know more than one way of restoring their home planet? Was there even other way? And when Optimus ejected the Allspark from their world, did he take measures to be able to locate it later?

So many questions that Ratchet didn't knew answers to despite being much older than Optimus.

And June. Megatron took her and who knew what he was doing to her at the moment? Ratchet cared about the nurse; he valued her skills and respected her goal to become a doctor. They traded medical stories, she taught him much about human health and he in turn taught her basics of Cybertronian medicine. He never showed it, but if they would ever return to Cybertron he would truly miss her.

All of this resulted in one ambulance making a U-turn and speeding with sirens on in the direction of nearest military base (that he knew about). He had to hurry and he couldn't be bothered by some human traffic laws.

TBC.

*) Idea taken from Transformers War and Peace, issue 6, page 15 "(…)Realize that the world you see before you is no mere planet, but a living, evolving weapon. (…) What army could possibly withstand the onslaught of a planet-sized warship?" – Shockwave about his plan to conquest the Earth.

So, my darlings, two to four chapters before us still. I'll try to upload new ones as they will come.

June and Megatron will continue their game and realize some important truth about each other. No, not romantic, or at least that's not the point. I will show more romantic side of this pairing in fics I already promised, and there is possibility I will write more JunexMegs later on.