And again, one longer chapter)
DO YOU IMAGINE HOW MUCH TIME I SPENT ON WRITING IT?!
I added a better discription of Rumble's and Frenzy's looks. I can't imagine them as the way they look in cartoons and the movie. They're kids in this fanfic.
Hope you'll like 'new' twins)
"Alarm! Someone's coming!" Ratbat loudly whispered looking through the split in the doorway. She flinched away as the figures came closer and landed on Rumble's back timidly looking from his shoulder. Twins stood up from their seats and freeze not knowing what to do. Rumble looked at his younger brother with 'we are offlined' look but Frenzy just shock his helm commanding him not to make any kind of noise. They heard someone talk behind the door and then it slide open.
Shockwave and Starscreem entered the room. The two stopped their conversation as noticed three youngling looking at them with their optics wide. Starscreem's expression turned to the most unpleased one as he gazed at them with fire in his optics and roared making the younglings flinch "What are you doing here?!"
The three exchanged nervous looks "We... Ehm..."
"You are not allowed in this sector." Shockwave coldly stated but this wards made Frenzy's all fear disappear.
"This is Soundwave's office!" the youngling shouted.
How dared they! Frenzy could see what these two was up to: Soundwave wasn't around anymore, Shockwave being the first candidate to take her place, was already looking forward to his new position and as for Starscreem, he was the 'Con who would help Shockwave in reaching this aim. For the Decepticon Second in Command having one of his bots on such a high position and at the same time getting rid of Soundwave, the 'Con who always messed up with his plans, was a grate advantage.
"Your master hasn't been around for a while and you don't have permission to be here without his presence! Now, get out of my site, before I make you pay for not obeying the orders!" Starscreem commanded pointing to the exit. Frenzy was glancing at the 'Con with his optics narrowed but Rumble brought him back by pushing his shoulder and nodding towards the door. Frenzy eyed Decepticons for several clicks and walked out with Rumble hurriedly pulling him out with the hope of avoiding any trouble.
The three quickly reached Soundwave's and their chamber not meeting anyone in the corridors and were now in twin's room.
"Argh, this is useless!" Frenzy mumbled letting himself to fall on his berth his faceplate down. He was tired after make researches for so long and not getting any results was making it worse. "They won't do a thing for retrieving Soundwave! Guys were right, we're on our own." he turned on his back and leaned on his arms lifting his chassis a bit upper then looked a Ratbat and Rumble sitting on the second berth.
"And do you know what's the worst? These traitors take the advantage of this situation. "
"Well, we both know you can't call boss as the most loyal either..."
"We're the only ones who know that, and Soundwave's reasons aren't selfish. At least boss uses her power to keep Meg's temper under control... We both remember how many times she stopped him from sacrificing our own soldiers. Bot! She even saved this Autobots from being terminated for hundreds of times!" Frenzy fell on his berth again as Rumble continued,"Yeh, and the coolest thing's that no one noticed! Seriously, how's boss doing that?! Sometimes I think Soundwave's the only 'Con here whose processor's workin'." youngling made his siblings giggle at his ward and he smiled leaning to the wall.
Frenzy was lying on his back, left servo hanging down from the berth. He was still very young and not a strongly built bot, with a light gray protoform and a white faceplate. His optics weren't actually red but orange colored and were now covered by gauzy yellow visor, which Frenzy has just made to slide down from his helmet. The helmet was round and red, with white color at the edges and a small black antenna near the fastening, which made the visor slide up and down. Frankly speaking, the headprotector looked a bit similar to the ones humans use for mountain skiing. The youngling didn't have a massive armor; it was flatter and thinner than older transformers had. The armor was red with white and black details and some attritions on the helm, servos and knees, which was normal for a mech youngling. Frenzy had red glove-like armor reaching his elbow and red armor on his hands. There was also a small screen like gadget on his left hand as his own computer. One more thing he used was a small case with instruments fixed on the belt at his right. Peds were the same red color with white and black elements and without any special details because he and his brother didn't have ability to transform into vehicles: they were young and were counted as simbiots. But honestly, unlike flyers, they couldn't transform to become a part of Soundwave's armor. Still there were several reasons for them getting this title. First, that made Soundwave responsible for all their actions and mistakes, which meant protecting twins from punishments. Second, being simbiots meant getting orders from one 'master' even if it meant mishandling other orders and again all responsibility was on Soundwave.
As far as Rumble was conserned, he was almost similar to Frenzy but looked a bit stronger then his twin. The armor was not red but blue with a light blue gauzy visor on his helm and his optics were orange color as well. There were also different tools and small cases on his belt.
"Guys, I wonder how would Autobots react if they knew that we and Soundwave are more like a... neutrals." Ratbat suddenly asked.
"Hehe! First, I don't think they'll eva' believe and second, if they did, that wouldn't change much. Autobots and Decepticons are more similar than they think."
"Good point Rumble. Ratbat, remember what did Soundwave say. Both have wrong ideas of each other. Soundwave managed to notice that and became neutral. She chose helping both side but for THEM that would mean not choosing any of sides. Who would listen and let alone trust someone who, as they think, can't choose..."
"Arg! Why's all so complicated!" the femmling flapped her wings and leaned to the wall. Te next moment they heard voices of their siblings in the main room.
"They're back!" Ratbat smiled jumping up. The door opened and Ravage jumped inside "Rumble, Frenzy, Ratbat: collect your belongs, we are leaving?"
"What!?" the younglings jumped as the panther rushed out again. They stopped at the doorway to see birds fly around collecting different belongings.
"Wait! Where?" Frenzy started as Ratbat jumped in front of him "Why? What's happened?"
"Yeh! Did you contact Soundwave?"
"She contacted us." Buzsaw informed landing on the desk and getting another tool.
"The visor was taken. Soundwave's order: leave the base." Ravage explained walking to them.
"They know!?"," Can't be!", "And what's about 'Cons?!" the three attacked panther with questions.
"Calm down, we'll explain the details later," Buzsaw answered nodding to Ravage to continue whatever he was doing and went on "prepare the medical kits and the most needed belongs. We will use the coordinate that Soundwave once gave us. There is a special place prepared for this kind of situations." younglings looked at the condor still not sure of what was going on...
"Oookay, but how're we all supposed to leave the base at the same time? Someone will notice that's weird."
"You and Frenzy: coming with me. I will deal with problems if such will exist. Others: will fly away. Meeting is out; the place is chosen." Ravage answered. They had to hurry. Who know when Autobots will contact Megatron again and reveal the truth.
Iacon. Autobot base. Command centre.
Command centre was a large illuminated room with different screens on the wall. There was a big round table in the centre. Ten Autobots were in the room, sitting in their seats or standing by the table.
"Must admit that this situation still sounds more like a joke for me." Prowl said sitting in the seat his one servo on the table.
"Not a joke. That's the craziest thing ever!"
"Blaster, you're an Officer so act like one and control your emotions."
"Excuse me, sir. I forgot that you're around! Bot! Ultra Magnuse, do you even realize what's happened?"
"This situation doesn't change anything. I don't even see the point in this conversation." The commander of Wreckers coldly stated looking at Jazz, who was ready to lose his temper.
"Primuse! Soundwave is a femme! A femme! Are Blaster and me the only ones who find it ridiculous?!"
"Jazz, Blaster, please, sit down." Optimuse asked and his ward made officers calm down a bit. "The situation is indeed more than confusing."
"I don't want to disagree with you, sir, but in my point of view, nothing changed much." Ultra Magnuse's wards made Jazz and Blaster give displeased smirks as others continued to listen. "What I mean is that Decepticon is a Decepticon and always will be. No matter mech or femme."
"The ward 'always' is wrong here, if you ask me. And, Ultra Magnus, I must disagree that femmes deserve the same kind of treatment, even if the are Decepticon allays."
"Yes, but if you want to use old questioning technique, go on. No one's holding you. Beat the information out off the femme but after that don't even talk of a honor." Jazz 'suggested' with an irritated tone.
"I haven't even talked of beating! Still, we all now that we need the information she has. And let me remind you, it wasn't me who broke the visor in the first place!" Ultra Magnus said and Ironhide couldn't stand aside after these ward.
"We didn't know she was a femme!" the warrior roared munching the table with his strong fist.
"Enough!" Vector Prime's wards made everyone silent in a moment and the old warrior looked at Optimuse to continue.
"We are not here for a fight and I hope that you remember that we all are on the same side." Seeing that his comrades took their emotions under control Optimuse took a sit. Vector Prime was at his right, RedAlert at left. In front of them were sitting Ultra Magnuse, Mirage and Jazz. Prowl was righter, while Blurr, Ironhide and Blaster sat at the left side of the round table.
"May someone explain me why did Soundwave try to escape, clearly realizing that there was no chance to getaway with so low energy recourses?"
"Blaster, that doesn't matter anymore. Jetfire is already bringing her back."
"Actualy, it does, Blurr." Autobot leader noticed, "Any kind of detail might make the situation clearer."
"What do you mean, Optimuse?" RedAlert asked.
"There might be more about Soundwave than we can imagine. We have already seen that she appeared to be not the one we used to think she is." He then looked at Ironhide, "Is there any possibility of hiding the new found fact?"
"Not sure about it, Prime," Ironhide started "Sideswipe and Sunstreaker might have already told the others. We didn't have opportunity to have a 'talk' about confidentiality yet."
"And Soundwave has also used that trick when we were holding her on a gunpoint. I'm not sure that HotRod and Cliffjumper can keep it as a secret. In addition, cameras were on. Who was on the shift? They might have seen as well." Blurr reminded.
"Did she really take the visor off in front off you?" Mirage didn't understand why would Soundwave do such a thing.
"You don't think that we would have let her go if the situation was different, do you? 'Con sacrificed the secret just to get an opportunity to get away."
"Or, may be, Soundwave thought that it wasn't a secret anymore. She doesn't see any reason for us not to divulge the truth to others."
"Optimuse is right; soon, when our people find out, it won't take long for 'Cons to hear the news." Mirage agreed as Jass tried to continue "Okay, Let's imagine it in a different way." He stood up, walked around his sit and put his servos on it's back, "Let's say she has a mech twin." Mirage slapped his faceplate coveting his optics, while Prowl rolled his and looked at the officer at his left, "Jazz, do you even here yourself?"
"Don't cut ma' wards. Yes! A mech twin, who's the true Soundwave we all now about. And sometimes they replace each othe', so that means we just got the wrong bot!" most of the Autobots smiled at his enthusiasm but, "Stop make a fool of yourself." Ultra Magnus emotionlessly commanded not even turning to face him.
"What?! Just a theory! At least I'm tryin' to find an explanation. Bot! We're talkin' about Soundwave! The wordless everything conrollin' 'Con who once nearly managed to take Megatron down!"
"I wanna see Meg's faceplate while realizing he was once nearly beaten by a femme." Blaster smirked.
"This is another thing that makes me worried." Optimuse said "Soundwave admitted that no one instead of her simbiots knew. Megatron isn't the one to trust a femme to do an important job. If he find out, Soundwave may get in trouble."
"Come on, he won't deal with Soundwave just because she appeared to be a femme, or will he?" Blaster commented but realized that he might be wrong.
"Her keeping it as a secret is not surprising. But why did Soundwave even become a Decepticon if it may become dangerous for her, that's illogical."
"RedAllert, that is why I am telling that there is more about Soundwave we still don't know."
The next moment the doors opened and Jetfire entered the room.
"We brought him back."
"Were there any difficulties?" Prime asked standing up.
"No. 'Con's engines went off and he had to make the landing. He didn't even try to fight us. What shall we do with him now, Optimuse?" Some of the Autobots couldn't keep their smiles of irony as Jetfire said the ward 'he' and they looked at Optimuse wondering if they should let the flyer know. Realizing what others were waiting for, Optimuse coughed in his fist and looked at the white armored bot.
"Jetfire, you see, we have got al contingency ." Optimuse started as Jetfire looked at others not understanding their reaction as some were with smiles on their faceplates looking down or watching for his reaction.
"Am I not getting something?"
"During the interrogation we managed to get Soundwave's visor off and… It appeared that Soundwave is a femme."
It took several clicks for Jetfire to make sure he heard Optimuse correctly and then he stepped back his optics widen. Not able to say a ward at first he did managed to ask "You aren't telling that…"
"He is." Jazz answered from his seat his servos crossed as Blaster joked still looking at Jetfire, "Bot, I wish I could get the recordings of all reactions to this news."
"But… Eh…" Jetfire was standing still as Ironhide stood up, "So, Optimuse, what's the plane?" he walked to wight armored Autobot and with an approving smile patted his shoulder, "That's alright, Jetfire. You're not the first, you aren't the last." And then turned back to others waiting for commaned.
"What is Soundwave's condition."
"Ehm, condition? Right. Well… Not counting the fact that he-. She's barely standing on her peds, doesn't look like there are some serious damages." Jetfire informed and Optimuse pressed the bottom on the helm contacting his friend throught the comlink, "Ratchet, prepare the med bay."
Is Soundwave a neutral?! Well, you can call it this way:)
I though that discribing meeting in the command centre won't be interesting for me, but I enjoyed it) Hope it wasn't too boring for you...;))
Sorry, no Soundwave in this chapeter, I wanted to add more, but it would be too long for me to write, so till the next one)