Hey there... man it's been awhile. I had a lot of decisions to make about the future of this story, so posting this chapter involved a lot of thought (and strangely, energy, hah). Might end up changing my mind and revising but for now I've decided to take this path (I hate it when I'm stuck between options to move forward! Usually I know where I want to go, but there were several routes I could take here).
Shoutout to the lovely Colorful Crayola for all her help - I've actually changed the chapter a lot since she gave her input. These chapters are the most difficult to write, where we have a lot of characters giving a lot of emotional responses, and I have to stop and ask myself questions about whether or not their responses seem natural. A second opinion is so valuable in this case.
Anywho, a nice long chapter 11 is here...I'm gonna go pass out.
Piper hadn't realized she'd been dreaming until she awoke with a jolt, finding herself curled on her side in her assigned room on the air base. She hadn't meant to fall asleep, but without anything to do but wander the base and risk having to talk to anyone, she was left with only her room to spend her time in while it was still daytime.
It had been the first deep sleep she'd managed for awhile, even if it was a fairly short nap, and she knew she hadn't had any nightmares. Piper strained to remember her mind's somewhat pleasant wanderings, but even as she tried to recall it, the dream was already slipping through the cracks in her mind and disappearing.
Figures, she huffed, shaking her head.
Checking the clock she could tell that it was already evening, and she stretched as she stood from the bed, bringing the blanket up with her and wrapping it around her shoulders. She then swivelled her head from side to side and surveyed her surroundings.
The movement caused her head to fog up and she felt a queasiness hit her stomach, she was suddenly grateful she'd asked Lennox not to deliver dinner that night. Even with the concussion finally gone, Piper was still getting chronic headaches and could still only stomach two meals a day - barely. She never could finish what was brought to her. But with how little energy she used throughout her day, Piper felt she would not have needed the middle meal anyway.
Turning toward the desk beside her bed, she found what she was looking for in her bottle of water and two little pills. Normally she would have taken them with lunch, but she had been feeling alright and hoped to begin weaning herself off of them.
So much for that idea.
She gulped the pills down just as a knock was heard at the door, and she wondered darkly if it was Lennox there to pressure her into speaking tomorrow. It had been an awkward conversation over lunch that day to say the least - with Lennox waiting for her to offer to speak while Piper, in turn, waited in muted dread for him to request it of her.
Or maybe he's brought dinner, she thought, and wasn't sure which thought horrified her more.
Opening the door, she was unpleasantly surprised to find Epps standing in front of her - and if it wasn't bad enough, he held a tray of food in his arms. The smell hit her like a train and she was immediately turned off, recoiling in an instant. She wrinkled her nose and attempted to shut the door once more.
"Hey, wait up!" he called, sticking his boot in the door jam.
Goddamn steel toes, she thought irritably.
Scowling, she pulled it back open. "C'mon, I came to apologize. I really didn't mean you any harm. You should know that by now, right…?" he asked, his face a mask of sincerity.
Piper blinked. He still seemed to think she was upset over him bringing her in.
It was an unpleasant turn of events, and a little humiliating but...
"I'm not mad about that. Frankly, I don't really care anymore," she told him, shrugging her shoulders. "But you'd better get that out of my face. I don't want it," she told him, motioning to the food he carried. He seemed ready to argue, so she was forced to continue lest he try to convince her. "Lennox knows. I have trouble eating a lot so I just have two meals. You can keep it."
"Oh," he said, glancing at the food almost sheepishly. "Sorry. Didn't know." Piper nodded. He took a step back.
"I just wanted to help you is all-" he started.
"You don't need to apologize. I don't care-"
"-but I guess I went about it the wrong way, and-"
"Seriously, stop."
"Lemme finish, christ! I just want to say sorry, even if ya don't care," he scoffed. Piper looked back at him tiredly. Sure, it ground at her pride a bit that she'd been caught so easily, and by this foolhardy-seeming man no less. But she knew he hadn't had bad intentions, and in honesty, she hadn't really thought much of Epps since her capture. She sighed.
"It isn't your fault," she told him then. "You're not to blame for any of this."
Epps felt her silent implication, and he couldn't help but want to refute it.
"...girly, neither are they."
She immediately bristled.
"Don't call me girly. And you don't know shit."
Epps wanted to groan, they were back to square one and she seemed ready to close the door again.
"Look, even they feel bad for what happened. The Autobots would never hurt you," he reasoned. But Piper wasn't having it.
"Yeah? Wow! Thanks for letting me know. In that case, we should all just become besties. Big happy fucking family. That definitely seems like something I want."
"Okay, but if you'd just give them a chance-"
"So they can, what? Keep me captive? Because that is such a new development. Bravo, beating my expectations already," she hissed, lowering her head and lightly clapping her hands.
Christ, this chick.
"I know, I know you'd rather be home. I understand," Epps continued. "I do. But trust me, you're in good hands. The Autobots are good dudes, they're not gonna let anything happen to you. And if you ask me, I'd tell you that they make some pretty badass allies if you decided to put your trust in 'em."
Piper gave a heavy sigh. He wasn't giving up. "I have no interest in putting my trust anywhere near their kind, much less allying with them. I will do what I have to to leave this place and get home, resume my life. But that's it, that's all, the bare necessities and I'm out. The less I have to interact with them while I'm here, the better," she snapped, scowl on her face.
There was a pause then as Epps tried to figure out how to respond. He knew it was probably fair. That was probably enough, and he should stop pushing. But still...
If she could just see what we see, then-
"...The Decepticons are enemies to us all," he continued quietly. "I've see a lot of good men and women die in this war with them, soldiers and civilians alike. But the Autobots have lost too many of their own as well - and I mean, not to mention their whole planet... to this war, and fuck, they blame themselves for bringing the war here, when all they want is peace. C'mon… there's no way you haven't seen any differences between them…?" he prompted.
Irritation was making it's way through Piper, and she wanted to lash out at Epps, tell him just where he could shove this whole war that had nothing to do with her. After all, why should she have to feel bad about all that shit? They were right to feel guilty. So many innocent lives, torn away... including her own, almost. And where had the Autobots been?
It wasn't fair that Epps was asking her to consider them, when the injustice of her own situation was still so...so raw, so relevent. She hadn't done anything wrong. She didn't want to feel guilt.
She didn't want to feel anything.
And yet, she was still just standing there, looking at Epps and unable to say anything. Just as quickly as the anger had consumed her, it was already gone, and she was left feeling suddenly exhausted. Deflated. And it was as if her mind was running without her control, because she couldn't help but recall the face of the Autobot leader as he spoke to her, apologizing...and then, the red bot, Sideswipe, from the night before and - and - whatever that was with him. Not an apology. Not exactly. And it was all -
Just so exhausting -
Epps's mind seemed to have gone a similar direction, because his next words startled Piper from her thoughts.
"...yeah, I guess Sideswipe didn't make the best first impression… I mean, Optimus at least apologized, but Sideswipe...he's a prideful ass for sure. He and his bro are new to Earth and don't really talk much. He probably won't apologize to ya, but… they're not bad, either, really," he said, and then a realization seemed to hit him. "And, now that I think of it, it was actually Sideswipe who told me I made a mistake, in the way we brought you in. He said what we did was cruel. I hadn't thought like that before," He rambled on awkwardly. But her eyes were locked on him as she listened, so he continued. "What I'm tryin' to say is, even the Autobots feel bad about it all, so at the very least, even if you don't like me, don't blame 'em - it was my idea. I'm sorry." Epps put his hands up in defeat, bowing his head a bit apologetically.
"...That robot said something like that?"
Epps's eyes shot up at her voice, and he was met with a dark pair of her own which were watching him with a strange sort of curiousity he couldn't really understand. But that was better than a glare, and - and it seemed like something about it had gotten her attention. He tried to think of more to say about the exchange, but not much more had been said.
"Yeah," he responded automatically, startled. Then, with a bit more exuberance, he started again. "Yeah, the guy really let us hear it. We were all surprised, like, the fuck? Those twins don't hardly ever talk to anyone but eachother, ya know," he babbled, trailing off with some nervous laughter.
He'd been encouraged by her apparent interest, but the silence fell upon them again as they stood for a few more moments, and the girl in front of Epps seemed to be lost in her own musings as he watched her face go from incredulous to frustrated.
"...Well, give it some thought, alright? That's all I'm askin'. We're all on the same side here," he told her.
"Right. Same side. Right." She answered robotically, averting her eyes and shifting in discomfort. He couldn't peg if it was sarcasm he heard, or if she just wasn't paying attention to him any more.
There was more awkward silence after that, and Epps vaguely wondered if he'd gotten through to her on some level. It didn't seem like she had it in her to snap at him again, which he was relieved for. Her earlier responses in comparison had been so enflamed, so immediate, and kind of...
...defensive. The word wandered into his head despite himself.
He had no intention of voicing the thought, however, so it seemed like neither had anything else to say. He decided to excuse himself gracefully and quit while he was ahead.
"Well...I'm gonna hit the hay. You have a good night," he told her. She glanced up.
"Night," she responded, feeling a small relief come over her at the hope of putting an end to the encounter. She saw him smile a bit as she closed the door, and then listened until she heard his steps making their way away from her and down the hall.
Left alone, she sighed, sinking down onto her bed once more and wrapping the blanket securely around her. She closed her eyes and tilted her head back, exhaling deeply.
That had been unexpected, and not just a little uncomfortable. If it were up to her, she'd rather just give her story and pretend like there weren't any Cybertronians on this base at all, never having to acknowledge their presence.
Except I can't fucking do that much, she thought with a scowl. Pathetic, pathetic…
But suddenly she heard a different voice separate from her own in her mind.
"You are not pathetic," it said quietly. Her eyes opened as she recalled her odd encounter with the red bot and the forced, uncomfortable way he'd said the words, and the hold she had on the the edge of her blanket immediately tightened.
She attempted to banish the replay of that memory from her mind, even as her more recent conversation with Epps came back to her.
Stop it Piper. It's no use to have a change of opinion. I have no intention of involving myself with them any more. If I can just finish telling them what happened, I can go back to my life - never see them again. Out of sight, out of mind, she thought, not for the first time.
But the thought of being back in that seat, in that little room, with the cameras and Lennox looking at her with that expression... surely, there had to be a way to make it all easier. She felt her stomach tighten into a ball just thinking about trying again.
Setting the blanket aside, she moved onto the wooden desk chair and opened a drawer in front of her to see if there was something she could use. A pen and an industrial pad of paper sat alone inside, and she pulled them out with a sigh.
They've really thought of everything.
Pulling the cap off, she set the pen to the paper and then paused, trying to remember where she'd left off. Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, she began to write where she had stopped in her debriefing. Barricade's quarters…
"Congratulations. Looks like you won't be dying in the mine, after all," Barricade's voice came from behind her and she turned away from the wavy view of the outside to look at him. There was no expression in his voice, no sneer or smirk on his face. Piper did not respond, too afraid to speak. She was sure that whatever he had planned for her by bringing her here would happen whether she questioned it or not.
He watched her passively. The decision, at first, had been difficult - he had had no desire to interact directly with the humans after their initial capture, have a human in his quarters, and much less to have one touching him. But the femme had proven herself to be both stubborn and compliant in all the right ways, forcibly refusing to die through complete obedience.
He hadn't thought about taking the fleshling as his own personal servant, in truth, until he had seen the usefulness of Starscream's - but he hated the thought of Starscream believing he was copying him.
However, her success in his repair earlier had led him to a snap decision.
After all, he thought, if I don't like her, I can dismiss her immediately.
Still, he watched without enthusiasm as the organic peered around his quarters, her face a strained, expressionless mask of controlled fear and confusion. Barricade vented, feeling tired already.
"If you have questions, ask them now," he snapped. The human looked back at him blankly. It seemed that she had no idea where even to begin, and was, most likely, too terrified even to speak.
But Barricade wasn't exactly an expert at these things, either. He barely even knew what he wanted from the human, other than to have her there if he needed her - after all, he'd rather rely on a human than Starscream if push came to shove.
But even then, her uses are limited unless she's trained. What does Starscream have his servant do for him, if not repairs…? Barricade wondered, but halted the thought in annoyance and deleted it from his processor. He was not going to copy Starscream.
"...Why am I here?"
The quiet voice broke him from his thoughts, and he looked down at the human sharply. She was looking up at him with her dark, organic eyes.
Of course that is what it wants to know.
"You are my servant now. Your job will be to do whatever I tell you," he said plainly, no other ideas miraculously coming to mind.
But she seemed to ponder his answer for a few moments, observing the space again before asking another question.
"Will I stay here?" She asked, gesturing to the room. Barricade swept his gaze over the room, realization setting in.
Ah, I seem to have overlooked a few things. No matter, he thought.
"These are my quarters. You will not leave them unless I take you from here myself. Is that understood?" He asked. The human nodded. "I will set up a space for you-" he paused to consider for a moment, then. What do humans need? he wondered. Glancing out the viewing portal above his berth, he saw a stream of the the planet's most abundant element, water, and knew it would likely be the most necessary thing.
"-here, then," he finished, and she flinched as his servo came down around her. He lifted her to the the viewing portal, where the force field shivered before her. Setting her on the ledge in front of it, he cleared the surface of any stray items he'd abandoned there (a few data pads and an empty Energon cube) in order to begin making a space for the human.
"You may leave through the force field only when necessary, and can go no further than that stream. Clean yourself, do what you must and then return swiftly. I want no part in your human activities otherwise. But be warned, If I have to come retrieve you, you will not be returning alive," he told her seriously. "I do not need a servant who tries to run. I'll find a new one."
Piper nodded dismally.
The first week went by fairly uneventfully, except on the second night where Barricade caught her watching him while she thought he was sleeping.
"My sensors are much more keen than your own. I dare you to try and get down here without alerting me, even while I'm in recharge," he'd told her, the threat evident in his tone.
Piper hadn't known what she wanted to do while watching him. She'd considered trying to pull out some wires near his throat area, but worried it wouldn't have a fatal effect like it did on humans and would just piss him off. And she'd also considered climbing down and over him to try and escape from the other side of the room, but even if she could get past him and then get the door out of his quarters open, she would be lost within the ship and likely found by another. Her easiest route might have been escaping outside while he was in recharge, except that sometime during the first week Barricade had installed a barrier limiting her access only to the stream, so that direction was a no-go as well.
Still, it was hard not to be unnerved while trying to sleep only a number of feet above Barricade's head. And since he did not need to recharge on a daily cycle like she did, his irregular sleep patterns made it hard for her to get used to. Piper took to sleeping while he was away or even standing at his workbench across the room if she was desperate. She never slept well while he decided to recharge so close to her.
At the end of her first week in his quarters was the first time he called on her.
He'd wandered into his quarters in a foul mood, muttering about Blackout 'always wandering off' and standing at his workbench. He was fiddling with his wrist, trying to dig the fingers into it with his other "hand", and Piper wondered if he was injured again as she peered at the scorch marks that reached his shoulder.
As if sensing her stare, he turned and locked gazes with her, and his scowl deepened. Piper quickly averted her gaze.
But his voice called her attention again a few moments later.
"...Human," he called. When she turned back, his face was contemplative. Meeting her gaze and seeing the look of anticipation there, he made up his mind. He walked to stand in front of his birth before saying, "come here."
Immediately, Piper dropped her legs over the side of the ledge and hopped down onto the berth, wincing as her feet made contact with the hard surface. She made her way quickly to him then, and he waited without comment.
It was only when she got close that she noticed the extent of the damage.
It would have been a gruesome sight, had he been human - but the sight of his blackened hand with the two missing fingers while the others hung limply, scorch marks running up over his wrist arm, left Piper feeling curious.
"I have received damage to my servo, which must be taken care of at once. You will help me repair it," he demanded.
Her eyes widened as she took in what he said, and then moved over his hand. Confusion and fear overwhelmed her as she looked at it doubtfully.
"I will instruct you," he continued. "Just do as you're told."
Piper had been nervous as she began slowly looking over the damaged appendage more carefully, but gradually, she began to recognize certain parts. The workings of his hand were not nearly as foreign to her as she imagined, and curiosity tinted her fear. Barricade had been giving her instructions for awhile as she worked, watching her as she closely followed along. He flinched every now and then as she pulled out damaged wiring, and at first she had violently recoiled, fearing that he would immediately kill her. But his face appeared set in a grim look of determination, as if he were bracing himself, and it seemed that his discomfort was necessary and even expected as repairs were being done. She vaguely wondered if there were some form of numbing agent like morphine for robots.
But then, he probably knows what I'm doing by what he feels. Maybe he can't afford to numb the pain.
"Watch it, human!" He snapped as she pushed a warped piece of metal back into place. She flinched again before continuing.
...or maybe he's just stubborn.
After a time, Barricade lifted his servo away from the girl, examining it. She had done surprisingly well at removing all the damaged bits while leaving intact what could be spared. What needed to be replaced was then clear to him now that the "injury" was clean, and Barricade found himself perplexed at how little he'd needed to clarify or repeat himself. He glanced down at the girl, who wasn't looking at him. Instead, she rubbed her hands - which appeared red and irritated. It occurred to him again how weak and soft humans were, how ephemeral their lives were. Expendable, short-lived creatures even on their own planet, even in the best of circumstances. He scoffed.
Wiring and circuitry sat in a small pile next to her, and he used the damaged appendage to scrape them into his free servo. She looked up at him then, watching curiously, but Barricade ignored the question in her eyes as he turned back to his workbench and placed them into a large metal box that sat to one side of the surface, fused with the wall behind it. A large ventilation pipe extended from it, trailing up the wall and into the ceiling above them.
Wiggling his remaining fingers on the damaged appendage, he cringed as he re-assessed them. He wondered if it wouldn't be worth it to scrap them all, reform and then reattach them. But tearing them off didn't sound appealing just then, so he decided to leave them for the moment and repair the wrist first.
With the damaged bits of his wrist in the box, the scrap was compressed, superheated and then melted until finally pooling in a disc-shaped mold in a tray beneath the box. The machine would sort the metals as they melted at different temperatures, and each mineral and element would be in it's purest form by the time it was reformed. He would then be be able to use it for his own repairs, creating more wiring and casing that could be re-fashioned and used again in his body. It was a more rudimentary means of repair than what he'd been used to on Cybertron, but it served its purpose. He glanced at his damaged servo again with a scowl.
Though it would be a lot easier if I had a medic's programming and versatile digits, he vented. His fingers could not repair such small damage, and he'd be slagged if he was about to ask Starscream. Blackout wasn't much better, though it was a more positive alternative than working on oneself.
Barricade's digits worked decidedly better on machinery than in the delicate wiring that ran throughout their bodies. And though he'd always been a warrior, in the long pauses between the times they'd battle the Autobots, during the many vorns of space travel as they pursued them, he had found he had a knack for inventing weaponry - which is what he now did in his free time. And it was an invention that had got him into this mess in the first place, malfunctioning and backfiring on his servo as he messed with it.
He vented again. He wasn't about to tell the human that.
With a shudder, Piper lifted her eyes to the walls of the room, suddenly feeling extremely claustrophobic. Dropping the pen, she went to the bed to lay down in case she was about to have an attack.
Couldn't even finish, shit, she thought with scowl. She's have to try again tomorrow.
Piper was suddenly grateful she had not had anything to eat since lunch. However, even as she stretched her body, the room only felt more constricting.
Damn it all, and she was out of her bed in an instant, turning toward the door. Always at night. She needed a change of scenery soon, or she felt like she'd lose it again.
Where to go, though? She wondered, stopping again. You've already been found there once, her inner voice said. Do you really want to go back?
Pausing at the door, Piper shook her head. No, she thought, it's already been confirmed that I can't escape from there. He won't go back to check again. She placed her hand on the door handle and tried to hold on to that hope.
Despite the skepticism that still nagged at the back of her mind, she yanked the door open with more force than necessary and swept into the hall. This is something I need for myself. I won't not go just because I was found.
With renewed determination, she made her way swiftly and quietly down the human-sized halls toward the mess hall once more, seeing no sign of movement around her as she did so. The shared corridor was vacant as she entered, and reaching the doors, she let her hand rest on the handle for a moment longer than she normally might have before gritting her teeth and giving it a gentle push - opening it just enough to peer inside.
Relief flooded through her when she found the room wonderfully empty, the only light illuminating the space being the mix of natural and artificial light filtering through the large window.
Making her way to the closet after closing the doors behind her, she once again removed the step ladder and took her time climbing to her perch, wincing at each creak and scrape of the cafeteria furniture as she maneuvered it around.
Finally settled, she took in the sight of the night sky, releasing a long and ragged breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. Yes, Piper had needed this - the feeling of being in a space that did not represent confinement, even if it was only an inaccessible image of the outside she could rest her eyes on.
Heartbeat slowing, her mind wandered back to her debrief, and she cringed for about the thousandth time since it happened. She wanted to tell them what she knew and leave this place - really. However, the thought of a repeat of the humiliating experience made her want to hide in her assigned room and never come out. She wanted to believe it was a one-time thing, but she couldn't help the feeling that it wasn't. That she had some psychological issues and post traumatic stress that ran deeper than her panic attacks, deeper than she had previously assumed.
She didn't feel like she was blocking memories, like it should be too terribly difficult to talk about - sure, she hadn't really wanted to go into...certain things, but it shouldn't have been impossible. She recalled everything, as far as she knew. The screams, the faces, their suffering, deaths, all of them… even Megatron… she'd rationalized and rationalized, all of it, everything. And she'd been caught completely off guard when her voice had failed her while recounting the events she thought she'd at least be able to mention.
What was it that was causing her to express so much latent trauma, such violent stress responses? What was it about her time with the 'cons that was causing her so much grief, if she really was able to handle it all all as well as she thought she could?
Yes she felt guilt, guilt that sometimes tore at her insides. But it was all very… understandable, and she didn't even have it in her to regret what had happened. She'd make the same decisions again if she had to, she was sure - the decision to leave behind those who were too frightened to escape, despite all of their attempts at convincing them… the decision to leave behind the stragglers who did come with them, even. To leave behind Al, who'd howled and screamed...
Shaking her head, she tried to clear the thoughts from her mind and focus on the sky, but another distraction posed itself before her, drawing her eyes back to the base outside. A car was driving in, it's headlights coming toward her in the distance.
This late? she wondered.
She watched it come closer through the darkness, soon reaching the dim radius of the base lights at a fast pace. Her eyes widened as she took in the colorful sports car, the flashy yellow camaro as it sped by. Two others followed, a sleek silver Pontiac Solstice and a red Ferrari, their headlights flashing over her face as she scrambled backwards and off the window sill, landing on her feet atop the table.
Those are Cybertronians, she thought, panicked. Did they see me…?
Creeping back onto the footstool, she peeked her face over the sill to look outside again. No others seemed to be following, and all was still outside once more. She was about to give a sigh of relief when the whole building rattled, and she let go of the ledge in alarm.
The hangar doors are opening for them. The mess hall being connected to the hangar, the sound shook the whole room as the gigantic hangar doors opened. The new bots were entering the building.
Jumping lightly from the table top, Piper made her way quickly to the exit, but she froze as she heard voices outside - tinged with the familiar metallic edge Cybertronian voices always had. The voices were in the shared corridor, and Piper considered how quickly she could make it through it and into the shelter of the human-sized hall before being spotted.
Taking a deep breath, she placed her hands on the door, pulling it open as quietly as possible and peaking into the space beyond. Two figures were above her, and glancing up, both sets of optics were already looking down at her. Piper gazed back for a moment before quietly closing the door.
Fuck.
Before she could even begin to wonder how someone as careless as her had managed to escape from the Decepticon base, harshly berating herself, the large doors were sliding open with a whoosh, and her form froze as the two entered.
"Hey, that's no way to greet us, little lady. Could'ah least said hello," the small silver one said as he entered, and Piper backed toward the door in a panic. The yellow one spoke next.
"You know this area is closed at night. A soldier should know better than to wander around after curfew," he lightly scolded her, tilting his head to the side as he watched her.
They don't know who I am, she realized. Briefly then did she remembered she was wearing army fatigues.
"Kinda a scrawny one, ain't she?" the other remarked. The yellow one shuttered his optics, and Piper swallowed. She felt compelled to speak before they made any deductions, and she cleared her throat.
"Yeah, you're right I shouldn't have come. Sorry. I'll just leave now," she tried, hoping to avoid any further confrontation.
"Wait," The yellow bot interjected, his optics trained on her. "Your name first, please," he requested, his voice firm but not menacing. Yet.
Shit. The last thing she wanted was for her nightly outings to be reported… it'd be better if they thought she was just some soldier. The two exchanged glances as they waited, and Piper eyed the door, considering her options. Her decision was made when the yellow one reached an arm out toward her as if to grab her. She made a break for the hall then, darting into the corridor as fast as her legs would carry her. She punched through it at full speed.
"Hey, come back-!" He shouted, starting for the door after her.
Even running toward the human hall as fast as she could, his long legs counted one for every ten of her strides, and he blocked her exit with a ped and reached for her again. "Why are you running? That's not suspicious or anything," she heard him say, and his servo caught her form gently - but too gently. She wriggled free and slipped from his grasp, and in his alarm he closed digits further, ending up managing a firm hold on one of her legs. She screeched.
"Let go...!" She shouted, and he quickly let go in fear that he'd hurt her. Piper took off again, doubling back toward the mess hall even as she knew it was futile.
Dodging around his hands and zig-zagging back and forth, she burst back through the doors, finding the silver mech in the same position as before with a bewildered, if not somewhat amused, look on his faceplates. But when the yellow bot dashed back in after her, he doubled over in laughter.
"Bee, what's up? I thought you went out there to catch this one," he snickered, holding his knees. Bee shot him a glare, not finding the humor.
"Shut up! This one's a slippery one," he said, trying to herd her away from the doors.
"Looks like she really doesn't like you, man," he chortled. The silver bot looked absolutely entertained even as the yellow one's frustration grew. "Reminds me of the time you tried to get Sam to show ya what he was reading from that magazine. I'd never seen the boy move so quickly."
"Don't think this is the same thing," the other retorted, but the conversation was going over Piper's head.
She found herself in a corner and cursed. Spinning around, she faced the mech with her hands in front of her.
"Back the fuck off," she snarled in her last ditch attempt at avoidance. The yellow bot immediately recoiled a bit, startled by her tone.
"Oh shit, that miss is angry. What'd you do bro?" The other mech was laughing again, but the yellow one stared her down with a confused expression.
Piper braced herself as he once again reached for her, feeling every nerve in her body scream in denial.
The screeching of tires filled the air however, and the mech reaching for her froze as the doors opened with a hiss and another bot skidded into the space at full speed. A voice filled the air then.
"The frag are you doing?" Looking up, her eyes met with the optics of Sideswipe, who appeared to have come in a hurry.
"Found this one running loose in here, saw her from outside. Soldiers are not supposed to be here after hours," the bot before her argued, pointing a large finger her way.
Sideswipe sped forward, getting between her and the slightly smaller mech. "You didn't see her here, you understand?" he said quietly, though the seriousness in his tone made it sound like a command. He held out one large metal finger as if to enforce his point.
"What...?" the other asked confusedly.
"Who's the lady, Sides?" The silver one piped up then, his laughter finally subsiding as he took in the strained look on his comrade's face.
"She's not a soldier. She can come here. But you didn't see her. Alright?" He persisted.
"Alright man, alright. But you'd better explain a thing or two," the silver mech continued.
"Yeah. Like why she's so freaked," the yellow one said.
"No thanks to you," Sideswipe snapped back.
"Nah dude, don't think it's just Bee who's got her freaked," the silver one interjected, peering around the two. "If she were happy to see you, I don't think she'd be hiding in that closet," he added.
Sideswipe turned back just in time to see the closet door snap shut. His optics widened in surprise, and then he vented in defeat.
Slag.
So, you probably already understand this but I feel it's important to mention - I write flashbacks in 3rd person, despite them being Piper's 1st person (of course) recollections. I do that for the audience's benefit. Therefore, I'm gonna hope you all recognize that things like Barricade's thoughts are not being conveyed in Piper's testimony. That isn't something Piper knows, it's just ME telling YOU. So yeah. Go with it.
Again, sorry for the slow update, but the next one might also take me awhile...I'm finally catching up with myself, and it only gets more tedious the more I write...after all, I have to be consistant at this point, I want to make as few edits as possible to chapters already posted (but that doesn't mean there won't be, erg, always mistakes that escape me and ideas that come to me later on...). On that note, here's a quote I heard in one of my classes recently.
"A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people." -Thomas Mann
Thank you for reading, and as always, I hope your recent endeavors are all fulfilling and rewarding...be it school or work or whatever occupies your time.
-PK
