Chapter Eleven - Whispers

Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers or any of its characters. Just simply my oc's and this story.

Hope you enjoy.


Screaming.

It seemed like that was all they'd done.

Get tortured and poked and prodded. Scream and react. Fall into recharge from exhaustion when it was over. Or black out before that.

Repeat.

Bolt didn't know how long they'd been at this base. How long they'd been in pain.

Shockwave had disabled his internal clock.

Probably to mess with him even more.

The front liner didn't know how long ago that had been either. It felt like a long time ago.

It felt longer since they'd first been captured. Longer since they'd last been free.

Longer since the team was all online and together.

Dully, Bolt glanced towards the still frame beside him.

"Sky?" he rasped, voicebox long worn out from screaming in pain.

Fear seized his spark, just like it always did, when she didn't reply.

"Bolt," she finally replied after what seemed like breems.

A deep vent of relief escaped him, just like it always did when he got a response out of her.

He never knew when the time came that she wouldn't answer at all anymore. He didn't want to think about that. Not more than he had to.

But he knew it would happen.

If he didn't stop replying to her first.

"What- What do you- Think Cloudbreaker is doing right now?" Bolt asked, pausing to cough partway through his question.

"I don't know," Skyshadow replied quietly, not opening her optics.

"Hope-" Bolt stopped to cough again. "Hope he's okay."

Silence.

"Me too, Bolt."

"I don't think Shockwave is just torturing us for information anymore."

"No. He's examining our energon that he's taken. It looks like he's testing it or something."

"Yeah. I don't think I like that."

"Me neither."


Cloudbreaker snarled when he heard the door at the end of the hall open. Backing further into his corner, the Seeker glared towards the mecha who had entered.

Making the small space seem so much smaller.

Funny. It hadn't seemed small when Cloudbreaker first was put here. He thought he remembered it being big and empty and lonely when his few remaining friends were taken elsewhere.

They were still alive. How much, Cloudbreaker didn't know. But he heard them screaming sometimes. From somewhere. He didn't know where they'd been taken to. Or why they'd been separated. Or why he wasn't being tortured too.

Razordrift paused in front of the Seeker's cell, watching him quietly. Cloudbreaker growled lowly, watching him in return.

Neither said anything for what seemed to be a long time.

Cloudbreaker's internal clock had been damaged, so he didn't know how long things really were anymore. Internally, deep down, he knew it probably wasn't that long that they stared at each other through the cell bars.

But it felt like a while.

Maybe it was.

Feeling his wings start twitching again, Cloudbreaker adjusted his position. That helped him to keep them still. It would, at least, for a little bit.

He'd become twitchier lately, the twitching especially effecting his wings. It bothered him, because he knew that was a bad sign.

What also bothered him, was that he couldn't remember why it was bad.

"How are you doing this orn, Cloudbreaker?" Razordrift said coldly, finally breaking the silence.

"Shut up," snarled Cloudbreaker. "You've come here to gloat, but it won't do you any good. I already know my friends are still alive, so you don't need to bother to tell me. If you're leaving me energon, just leave it and go!"

"Hmm, someone got up on the wrong side of the berth this oncycle," muttered the former gladiator lightly. He bent, setting a small cube of energon just inside the cell and picking up the empty one.

Straightening, he scanned the young Seeker carefully. "Don't damage your wings by shoving them into the wall, Cloudbreaker. You wouldn't want to not be able to fly now, would you?"

Cloudbreaker's faceplate turned to one of horror, shoving himself away from the wall, glancing back at it like it was going to come over and hit his wings.

At the dark chuckle coming from the opposite side of the bars, he turned his helm and glared up at the mech.

"I suppose that you can't fly already. Unfortunate. You Seekers seem to like flying so much," Razordrift taunted, beginning to walk away.

"If I happen to see your friends, I'll send them your regards."

Cloudbreaker didn't move until he heard the door open and close again, leaving him alone again.

He then, lunged towards the cube of energon, carefully picking it up and drinking it eagerly.

"I hope it's not poisoned," he mumbled after it was gone, examining the glass.

Usually, he would try and check it first, as much as he knew how.

But this orn, or offcycle, whatever it was, he had been starving.

"Maybe they forgot about me for a few orns."

Cloudbreaker didn't know.

All he knew, was that he was alone. That he hurt. And that he felt like something bad was happening to him.

As he thought, he looked warily around.

It was dark. He was alone.

Except for the shadows he thought he sometimes saw.

"But it's just me in here," he muttered to himself. "Just me and the four walls."

He sent a dark glare at the one behind him.

"That seem to be getting closer."


Razordrift sat in his quarters, thinking.

So far, the ex-gladiator had not been able to think of a way to get Skyshadow away from Shockwave.

For some reason, the scientist was set on using her for something.

Razordrift had only caught glimpses of what the plans for her and the front liner were.

He pitied them in a way.

However, the femmeling had offlined Speedburst.

Baring his denta in a snarl, Razordrift slammed a fist onto his desk.

"How am I supposed to avenge him if Shockwave won't let me offline her?"

Then, a thought came to him.

"Maybe, I cannot get to her directly," he said out loud, slowly. Tapping sharp digits on the desk, he thought about who he could target instead.

"She seems to be close to the remaining front liner, but Shockwave is intent on keeping him too. The Seeker isn't as close, but they seemed friends. But obviously, if Shockwave is able to torture the other two in each other's presence without them breaking, then it will not matter if I do the same to the Seeker."

Then, Razordrift remembered overhearing something the young Autobots had talked about once. Something they didn't know he had heard.

Something, he was sure Shockwave didn't know.

Otherwise, the scientist would have sent him on a little retrieval mission already.

"Skyshadow has a twin," the ex-gladiator thought. "There are different kinds of twins, but if they're split-spark- "

Razordrift got to his pedes and headed out of his room. A dark, malicious smirk formed on his faceplates as his optics brightened.

"You offline one, you offline them both."

Perhaps, Skyshadow would enlighten him to who, and where, this brother of hers was.

He was sure that Shockwave wouldn't mind if he borrowed his experiments for a few kliks of interrogation.

Who knew, maybe the loud-mouthed Bolt would tell him too.


Skyshadow sat quietly, studying the pacing Decepticon carefully. Her hands balled into fists as she tested the cuffs strapping her wrists to the arms of the chair.

"Don't bother, Skyshadow," hissed the tall mech as he circled the Autobot. "It won't do you any good."

Ignoring the blue optics glaring at his back, Razordrift continued. "The ones on your pedes will not release easy either."

Skyshadow's glance flicked downwards for an astroklik. She had just been about to try and move her pedes to check, but the Decepticon had confirmed her suspicions.

To her dismay, she knew he was correct in telling her it was basically pointless.

"What do you want, Razordrift?" Skyshadow spat, turning her full attention to him. "Might as well get this over with quickly," she thought. "You haven't interrogated me since the other place. Why is it your turn all of a sudden?"

The Decepticon paused in front of the femmeling, letting out a short, harsh laugh.

Skyshadow's optic ridges furrowed as he turned his helm to face her.

"This visit of ours is long overdue," he said, mouth turning up in a snarl as his optics narrowed.

The femmeling's optics narrowed as well, watching him closely. Razordrift pulled a second chair from the side of the room, the legs making an awful screech that made them both wince slightly. Settling the chair in front of his bound captive, the Decepticon seated himself on it, leaning forward to rest his servos on his knee joints.

"So." He stared into the optics of his enemy. "Let's talk business, shall we?"

Not being able to help herself, Skyshadow let out a harsh laugh of her own, throwing her helm backwards. After a few astrokliks, she regained her composure, mouth upturned in a small smirk as she spoke.

"You sound like you wish to strike a deal with me, Razordrift. But the thing is, I have nothing to give or trade you. And I'm sure you have nothing that I'd want that you're willing to grant me.

"So, let's not talk business. Neither of us has something the other wants."

Razordrift returned the smirk. Lifting his chin, he answered without missing a beat.

"That is what you think. But you are wrong."

"And maybe you're wrong to assume that I'd give you anything," Skyshadow answered immediately. "Even if I had something you wanted."

Chuckling, Razordrift leaned closer. Lowering his voice to a whisper only she could hear, he spoke, his words chilling her to the core.

"I want the name and location of your twin."

Mind racing, Sky's optics opened wide, faceplate shocked.

"How does he know? How can he?"

"Well?" Razordrift asked neutrally. "What is his name?"

Recovering some from her horrified shock, Skyshadow's protective instincts kicked in. "I'll never tell you," she growled darkly. "And if you dare touch him, I'll off' you."

Drawing back into his own chair, Razordrift shook his helm. "With both of those bold statements, you are wrong. You will tell me. And you cannot touch me. You likely will not last much longer here anyways. I'd simply like to tell your brother your last goodbyes for you."

"Liar!" Skyshadow hissed through her bared denta. "I know you. You want to get me through him. He's out of your reach though, you'll never get him. The city-state is too heavily guarded, even for you," she continued in a sneer.

"Smart femme," Razordrift said. He shook his helm. "Too bad for you, I am smarter."

"Well, you are an idiot if you thought you could get that information out of me?" snarked the Autobot. Her optics glowed brighter as her glare darkened. "How did you know about him?"

"Don't you know? Walls have audio receptors. You all should be careful what you say, unless sure you're alone."

"Are you certain we are alone," shot back Skyshadow. "Does Shockwave know that you took me from his lab?"

Razordrift shrugged. "If he does, he will not care." Pausing, the Decepticon dropped all emotion from his faceplate. "However, he does not know about your twin. He would have made that known to you by now if he did."

Fear invaded Skyshadow's optics again.

"You seem to have an idea of what he would do to you both if he knew."

"Twins are a rarity," Skyshadow whispered.

"Exactly. You would be- Studied. Now, you have a decision to make. Tell me what I want, or Shockwave learns an important thing about you, which he might eventually figure out anyways. And he has ways of extracting information from mecha that are less than pleasant."

"The Cortical Psychic Patch." Optics widening in horror, Skyshadow's processor raced. She'd heard about the scientist's invention. The invention that allowed him to enter a mecha's processor and access information there.

That sometimes offlined the victim in the process.

"Yes. I think that you aware that he will not hesitate to use it on you if he hears of your twin."

"What do you want with my twin?" Skyshadow forced herself to ask.

Razordrift simply smirked, then rose from his chair. "I'll give you some time to think about your choice, now that you know your options."

He left then, leaving Skyshadow to sit in her chair in the dark. Alone.

"What can I do?" she thought. "If I tell Razordrift, he'll go after him and likely offline him. If I don't, Razordrift will tell Shockwave."

There was a third option, but Skyshadow did not want to take it unless necessary.

It could potentially offline both her and her twin.

Meanwhile, Razordrift made his way to the room where he had moved Bolt.

Thinking over the conversation he'd had with Skyshadow, the Decepticon realized something.

"She basically told me where her twin is. Perhaps I can get one of her friends to give me a name and description. And if I get that, I know someone who can likely get his exact location for me."

The Decepticon warrior smirked. He perhaps did not even need the femmeling to find her twin. But she might tell him yet with the threat of him telling Shockwave hanging over her.

Not that he really intended to. Shockwave did not need to know. He did not need to know why one of his experiments suddenly offlined due to mysterious outside events.

And Skyshadow didn't need to know he was not going to tell him. It was simply motivation.


"I'm not telling you nothing!"

Razordrift stood in front of the mechling with his servos crossed, digits tapping one servo in impatience.

"I haven't even asked anything yet," he said neutrally. "How do you know that you do not want to tell me?"

Bolt glared up at him, a sour look on his faceplate. But he said nothing.

"Hmm. Where's all your fire now, Bolt? Not even going to talk back to me?"

The front liner leaned forward and spit at the Decepticon's pedes.

Razordrift rolled his optics at the satisfaction on the Autobot's faceplate.

"I've always wanted to do that," snickered Bolt. "Thanks for the opportunity. You're a great victim."

"I'm flattered," Razordrift monotoned.

He began to circle the confined Autobot, giving the chair a wide berth.

"Now that we have that out of the way, what do you know about your dear friends?"

Bolt didn't bother trying to hide his confusion. "What?"

"You know, the remaining two. What's their background? I assume the Seeker is from Vos, but I'm not sure about you and the femmeling."

"Why do you care?" Bolt spat, following the Decepticon with his optics.

"Oh, I don't know, something to talk about."

"Right, cause I believe that."

"Such a lovely conversation we are having," mused Razordrift, pausing from his pacing to examine his sharp talons. "I must say, I was looking forward to an argument. You were such fun to annoy before, now it's so hard to rile you up. Whatever happened?"

"Riling mecha up is my job," Bolt growled, good optic narrowing. "As I remember, it was you who got annoyed."

"Perhaps it was both."

"Don't you have someone else to bother?"

Razordrift shrugged. "Not really."

Seeing he would have to work harder to get the front liner to accidentally spill something, Razordrift suddenly switched tactics.

"Unfortunate for me, even if you got angry, your friend wouldn't be able to hold you back." Pausing to judge the young mechling's reaction so far, Razordrift turned all of his attention to Bolt. He continued, slowly, so that every word was heard clearly.

"Jolt seemed to be the only one who could truly hold you back. And sometimes, with just words. Just your name alone seemed to work wonders to stop you from doing things you'd regret."

Bolts faceplate paled, then darkened. "Yeah, it is too bad. Cause if I was able to get a hold of you right now... I'D OFFLINE YOU LIKE YOU ALL OFFLINED HIM!"

Razordrift smirked at the outburst and his success. That had been easy.

Apparently, both Skyshadow and Bolt's weaknesses were the mecha closest to them.

Or in Bolt's case, the mechling who had been closest.

Funny how Shockwave hadn't thought of that yet. Razordrift had wondered about it. For all the scientist's intelligence, he sometimes missed things. Maybe it had something to do with having no emotions, only logic.

"Too bad you cannot," said Razordrift.

"You offlined him! Brutally! He didn't even have a chance against Treads!" Bolt yelled, tears threatening to fall from his optics.

"He hasn't had an opportunity to vent properly," Razordrift realized internally. "Or at least, not a proper target to let out his anger towards yet."

"I bet you'd like revenge," the Decepticon said carefully. "I might be able to offer you a chance to get it."

Blazing, angry blue optics met angry red ones.

"Treads is offline," spat Bolt. "What else can you give me?"

"Information that could assist you in taking Shockwave out. He's the one who is really to blame, isn't he? For- Everything?"

"What do you want in return?" Bolt asked, his voice breaking as he started to cough violently.

Razordrift patiently waited for him to be able to vent properly again.

"I also want revenge, on Shockwave mostly."

Bolt tilted his helm. "For what?"

Razordrift let his mask slip for an astroklik. Just long enough for Bolt to see the hurt in his optics. Then, like it had suddenly disappeared, the anger was back.

"Because of Shockwave, I lost someone the same orn you lost your friend."

Bolt scoffed, even as he frowned in confusion. "And who's that?"

"Speedburst."

Throwing back his helm, Bolt laughed, stopping only when he started hacking. The coughs racked his frame. "Oh, that's good. Him? Why do you care? And how- " More coughing interrupted him. "How is revenge for him comparable to my wanting revenge for- Jolt?"

"Despite what you must think," Razordrift said quietly. "Even Decepticons care for their brothers, foolish youngling."

The once bright orange and red mechling stared blankly at the Decepticon. Then, what he had said, clicked.

"You mean, Speedburst was-" He trailed off, optics widening.

"Yes," came the flat reply.

"So- Why do you want to tell me about something that could help get rid of Shockwave? Why can't you just do it yourself?"

"Simple. I help you get your revenge, with my assistance. You help me get mine. Shockwave is not the only one that has to pay for Speedburst's death."

Bolt thought back, trying to figure out who he meant.

"Wait, it was- Skyshadow. Skyshadow was the one that offlined Speedburst. "

"So, tell me, Bolt," Razordrift said darkly, leaning forward to be on level with the smaller mechling. "What is the name of Skyshadow's twin brother. And where is he stationed? Tell me, and I'll tell you how to get rid of Shockwave."

Glaring, Bolt considered his options. He figured he knew why Razordrift wanted to know.

He wanted to offline Skyshadow's brother in revenge for her offlining his.

Bolt couldn't betray Skyshadow, but if it was her brother, was that really betraying her?

She wanted revenge on Shockwave too, Bolt knew this. So would Cloudbreaker.

"Do you need time to consider it?" Razordrift growled.

Shaking his helm, Bolt looked Razordrift in the optics. Coolly, he replied, "No. I know what my decision is."

Seeing the Autobot's look, Razordrift grinned widely, optics glinting.


Whispers of..

Doubt? Betrayal? What?

You might have to keep reading to find out :P

Thanks for reading. Please let me know any comments you may have?

Credit Song: No Escape - Sam Tinnesz