Disclaimer: do not own Transformers.
Author note: Second-to-last chapter! We're almost there! : )
Becoming
13
Past
It was just another day.
Will burst out of the foliage, transformed without stopping, hit the ground running with his paintball cannon at the ready. He locked onto his fast-moving target, and fired. A cheerful pink colour splashed over an already blue-and-red marked Ironhide.
"Pink?!"
Will couldn't help it; he grinned as maniacally as he dared before turning around and getting the heck out of there.
He was off again; Ironhide was much stronger than him, but Will proved to be the faster of the two.
In the distance, he could hear nothing short of a cackle emit from Mikaela's vocalizers, while Sam laughed and Epps let out a triumphant yell.
Yes, just another day.
Present
Not only the plant, but the nearby town had been drawn into the chaos.
And they—Autobots, humans, and beings stuck in between—were left to pick up the pieces.
Will was moving some debris—a mindless, repetitive task that helped to keep him calm—when he heard something. Something that he hadn't heard in a long while.
He looked in the direction of the sound. "Epps?" he said, nudging his partner. Robert looked at him, his optics contracting and then widening in a questioning look.
"Yeah, Lennox?"
"Did you hear that?"
"Hear what?"
Will looked at him incredulously. "Turn off your radio, and max out your audios."
"Oh." He titled his head, listening. His optics widened. "I think that's a kid."
"This way," Will said. They made their way through the maze of fallen buildings.
"You ever thought…back then…that we'd be doing this?" Robert said distractedly, scanning around for that child. He stepped over a pile of rocks and rubble—an impossible feat, back when he had been physically human.
"Back then?"
"You know, when we were first…" Robert gestured up and down at his form. "Changed."
Will looked away on the pretence of scanning an already cleared area, and then answered, "I don't remember what I was thinking back then."
"Me either. I just remember bein' real angry—angry at the agents, angry at the world, angry at the Autobots, if you can imagine— but then I woke up one day, thinking to myself…that I was going to make the best of it."
"You ever get to thinking that…that we're not human anymore?"
Robert, now a good distance away from him, looked back at him, his expression incredulous. "No, Will. Bein' human…I think that comes from the inside, you know? And I'm a 'Bot, but I'm a human too. Doesn't need to be one or the other. I'm still me, no matter what."
Will stopped, and then looked at him. "What?" Rob asked. "Did I say somethin' wrong?"
Will shook his head slowly. "No. I was just…thinking."
"Oh. Well, you want to try and think and walk at the same time?" he asked, his tone slightly amused.
Will gave him a playful punch on the shoulder. "Come on, then."
They found her, her backs to them, crying and fretfully rubbing her eyes with clenched fists.
"Hey there," Will said gently.
She whirled around, petrified and ready to bolt. His movements slow and easy, Will lightly tapped at his Autobot insignia.
Then she startled bawling. They looked at one another, and then back at the little girl, completely unsure of what to do. Then, she rushed into Will, burying her face in his shoulder.
"Calm down, kid," he said gently. "It's okay. It's all over now."
Through her sobs, he made out a muffled, "Can you take me to my parents?"
Putting her securely in the crook of his arm, Will walked to a temporary refugee site. He and Robert separated at the entrance, Robert promising to tell the proper human and Autobot authorities who they had found.
Will looked over the vast sea of tired, frightened people, wondering how in the world he was going to find this child's parents, when—
"Emily!"
"Daddy!" She reached outward, nearly leaping out of his grasp. He set her down, and watched as she and her father rushed towards one another. Her father picked her up, and held her tightly.
"Emily…I thought I lost you…"
"Daddy…"
"Thank-you, sir," her father said, finally noticing Will there.
"Not a problem." I had a daughter once, too…
Emily's father turned, and started walking away, when Emily looked over her shoulder and said, "Thank-you, Mr. Robot."
Though he was now physically incapable of such a thing, he could still feel his throat tighten.
He walked out of the refugee compound, where Ironhide was waiting for him outside.
"Will…"
"'S'alright, Ironhide," he said, optics widening and contracting quickly. "I'll be alright."
Ironhide doubtless didn't believe him, but he nodded anyway.
He still didn't know who he was. He didn't know who he was becoming. But he did know that…that Rob was right. That the human and the Autobot were one and the same, and no matter what the past held and what the future promised, he was Will, and would always be Will.
And, for now at least, that would have to be enough.
Past
It was raining again.
Prowl hissed as a droplet of acid hit him, immediately eating through the thin protoform shell. Barricade drew him closer, trying to make full use of their tiny shelter, and immediately applied a healing salve so that the acid wouldn't do any more damage.
"Thanks."
"Anytime," Barricade answered. He looked up at the unforgiving clouds. They were near a city, judging by the strength of the acid rain, but they didn't know which one. Every mid-spire looked the same to them. "Well, the bad news is, it's raining pretty bad, we don't know where we are, we're closer to ground level than we expected, and this potion jar," he said, motioning to the salve, "is almost out."
"What's the good news?"
"Neither of us have glitched for the past couple orns."
Prowl held his brother tighter. "Don't worry 'Cade. We'll get out of this. We'll make it out of here, squirt," Prowl promised. Barricade didn't say anything; just nodded slowly, and clung closer to his brother.
Present
Prowl had disabled Barricade's weapons during the fray, but his own were now useless—mere sparking pieces now, lying in the dirt.
Prowl needed to buy Bumblebee and Mikaela time, to give them what he was never given…to give them their friend back.
Barricade pushed Prowl off. Prowl twisted, landing on his feet and whirling to face the Decepticon. Barricade's claws were out, several rows of sharp teeth bared. Marks were scratched in the armour—old scars and new wounds.
"Hello again, brother," Barricade said, almost pleasantly. They circled one another, unwilling to stay still, unwilling to let their enemy get behind them.
"You are not my brother," Prowl said, almost automatically. How many times had they've been in a fight like this before? How many times had Barricade baited him with those same words? Prowl figured out long ago that he couldn't afford to let his affections for someone long gone to cloud his judgment. The price for learning that lesson had been high.
"Is that what you believe?"
"It is the truth."
Suddenly, Barricade rushed towards him, and Prowl stopped his attack. They grappled, one's hands crushing the other one's, faceplates inches from one another. Inside their minds, their frequencies thrashed, trying to find a weak spot in the others' firewalls. It was a useless ploy, with both their resident technopaths occupied—but it was still an opportunity to get the other distracted, to get the other to make a mistake.
"I am your brother."
"My brother is gone."
"You never fought for me."
"I fought for him." Prowl gained the upper hand, and twisted, sending Barricade along the ground, leaving deep gouges in the earth. "It wasn't enough. You murdered him, Barricade. You are the virus that was never cleansed."
"No, I'm not!" Barricade snarled, getting back on his feet. "I am here—I am real! You never fought for me, Prowl! No, you didn't! You abandoned me! You fought me, every step, every turn! What happened to you?"
He charged him again, and Prowl didn't move fast enough. He was hit, sent sprawling backwards, and Barricade dug his knee into his back, twisting his arm and pinning it behind him, as he dug his faceplate into the dirt.
Prowl took his still-free arm, then took drew out his claws from the tips. He dug them into Barricade's knee. Barricade howled, and the pain caused him to loosen his grip enough for Prowl to break his hold, and toss him off.
Prowl made it to his feet at the same time that Barricade did.
Barricade smiled at him. "Claws, Prowl?" he asked, inspecting the energon trickling down his leg. "You're learning, I see."
They circled one another again, and Prowl looked at him coolly. He needed to stay calm. He couldn't let Barricade to him. Not again, never again. "You are not my brother," he repeated.
Barricade bared several rows of sharp, pointed teeth—and then tilted his head to the side, as though receiving a message…or an order.
He gave a low, savage growl. "Until the next time, Prowl," he said. He backed off, burning red optics never leaving Prowl's cool blue, and then transformed, tearing down the road with high speed, as though expecting Prowl to follow him.
Prowl didn't. He never did.
Past
Blaster leaned against the entrance frame. Soundwave was carefully packing away what few possessions he had. On the berth, Obsidian was recharging, her optics open to mere slits.
You're leaving?
I must, Soundwave answered, turning towards him.
Why? Megatron—
Megatron will see us into a new Golden Age, Soundwave said, his frequencies gaining a sharpened edge before softening again. A better future, Blaster. Just think of it.
Why can't I come with you?
Soundwave's frequencies pulsed with amusement, and connected with Blaster's. Soundwave placed a hand on his shoulder. You must finish your studies.
Ultrasound and Wavelength…Blaster didn't bother putting words to the rest of that sentence. Soundwave knew their creators' shortcomings just as well as he did. They didn't have the luxury of unconditional love from their creators.
They know what they are doing. Though they come short as creators, they are excellent teachers.
Blaster's shoulders sagged. Obsidian's optics opened, and she stalked towards them, circling around Soundwave before resting against Blaster's leg. I'll miss you, Blaster said finally.
Soundwave regarded his younger half co-creation. When the time is right, I will come back for you, he said finally.
Promise?
Promise.
Present
Mikaela's optics were dim, and Bumblebee wasn't sure if she was still conscious or not. Precious energon was still flowing from her shoulder—too much. She'd been disarmed, her weapons snapped into pieces and thrown yards away. Ravage was stepping on the injured shoulder, energon staining her claws. The rest of the cassettes surrounded her, looking down at Mikaela disdainfully. Soundwave stood a little in front of them, preventing a rescue attempt by Steeljaw, Ramhorn, Eject, and Rewind.
Blaster, standing a little in front of his own team, must have lost his main weapons during the fray, and now he was depending on a smaller pistol, slightly lowered to the ground as his gaze flipped between Soundwave, Mikaela, and Bumblebee. He and his cassettes had patches where the electrical wiring was nicked and now sparking, and deep marks were gouged in their armour.
They gave as good as they got, though. Soundwave's cassettes didn't look any better, and the mech himself had had his visor knocked off and one optic was nearly disconnected, dangling by the wires as a tiny amount of energon coated the socket and trickled down his faceplate in a thin, tiny, glowing stream.
Soundwave and Blaster seemed to be in a silent conversation. Bumblebee could catch snatches of the messages that they sent to one another via their frequencies, but they were nothing but a jumble of sounds. Around them was only tense silence, as their respective cassettes glared at one another, looking warily between the opposing side and the being that Bumblebee was trying his damndest to save.
"Don't lie to me!" Blaster suddenly burst out, making almost all of them jump. "Never again!"
None of them heard what Soundwave said in reply, but Bumblebee got the feeling that, if Blaster had been human, he would have paled.
At Blaster's silence, Soundwave half-turned towards Bumblebee. His cassettes looked up briefly, before turning their attention back to Mikaela. "Release him."
"Bumblebee," Blaster said evenly, and Bumblebee knew that he was trying to keep Mikaela, Sam, and himself calm. Whatever Soundwave had been telling him had been forgotten, at least for the moment. "Get behind me."
Slowly, Bumblebee neared Blaster. It felt like it took an eternity to cross the last few feet, all optics on them, everyone's weapons trained everywhere.
Bumblebee felt Sam double over inside him, his fingers curling with inhuman strength around his steering wheel. Bumblebee slowed to a crawl. "Sam?"
Sam just gave a soft whimper. "Stop the noise," he whispered.
"What noise?" he asked desperately. His attention switched quickly between Mikaela—her optics still dim, her precious energon still flowing from her shoulder, too much, just too much—and Sam, who wasn't answering him but clung to him almost painfully.
Sam didn't answer, and Bumblebee checked the frequencies. Bumblebee wasn't equipped for what was going on in Sam's mind. He was trained for his position—he used frequencies to scout out surrounding enemies, to recognize from a distance who was enemy, and who was friend. But Sam was trained in a different way…Sam needed something different. Bumblebee could vaguely feel it, the onslaught of frequencies that slammed into Sam's mind: the invading frequencies of Soundwave and his team, and then the frequencies of Blaster and his cassettes rushing in, trying to defend Sam's already fragile psyche.
"I'm sorry, Sam," Bumblebee said, feeling totally helpless.
Sam didn't answer him; he might not have heard him, for all that Bumblebee knew. So many voices going on in his head, maybe Sam wouldn't be able to hear one speaking to him in the outside world.
Bumblebee made it, and opened his door. Sam stumbled out, and Blaster's cassettes immediately surrounded him. He leaned heavily against Rewind, his eyes unseeing and face so pale, the silver implants criss-crossing his face and entering into his eyes prominently sticking out from the flesh.
Bumblebee transformed quickly, standing beside Blaster, retrieving his weapons, and raised them—only to lower them again when Ravage pressed her claws into Mikaela's wound, causing her to cry out, her optics slowly flickering online.
"Bumblebee?" she said, looking at him as he could only look back at her, looking warily at her, at the cassettes surrounding her, and then at Soundwave. Her gaze turned towards Sam, whose frame nearly disappeared behind those of Blaster's cassettes. "Don't let go of him," she said.
"I won't."
"Release her," Blaster said.
"First, release him," Soundwave answered.
They just needed to stall. Backup was coming…Prowl had called for help. They just needed time.
But with Mikaela in the hands of the enemy and with her life literally dripping away from her, they couldn't wait forever.
"Why?" Soundwave asked coldly, looking straight at Blaster. His weapon too—a secondary rifle—was lowered, but Bumblebee did not trust that "passive" pose. "Why?" At their silence, he said, "You have stolen him: why?"
Bumblebee felt his optics growing wide, and knew that Blaster, his cassettes, and Mikaela were also looking at him in surprise.
"We've stolen?" Blaster asked, anger lacing his tone. "You are the one who—"
"Sonar," Soundwave said. In the peripherals of his viewing screens, Bumblebee saw Sam, still leaning against Rewind for support, look up at him, tears following the track of silver implants coming out of the sockets of his eyes and going down his face. Soundwave, his movements slow, and deliberate, and…and deceptive, put away his rifle. He stretched his hand towards Sam, palm facing upward. "Come." Bumblebee's spark gave a painful pulse as Sam made a move to step forward, as though in a trance, but was stopped by Steeljaw, who positioned herself in front of him and pushed him back gently.
"Sam," Blaster said, his own weapon still not put away. Bumblebee wanted so badly to shoot Soundwave, and he knew that Blaster wanted to, too, but the warning look that he got from Ravage, and the sight of Frenzy's blades threatening to dig into Mikaela's throat stopped them "Sam," Blaster repeated, and, as though with great effort, Sam looked up back at him. "You stay right where you are."
Soundwave's attention turned back to Blaster. "Why?" he asked again.
"What do you think we're doing this for?" Bumblebee finally snapped. "We're here to rescue Sam." He moved to take a step forward. Ravage dug her claws in a little deeper, and Mikaela hissed in pain. Bumblebee stopped almost in mid-step.
Soundwave's head tilted slightly to the side, as though in amusement. "Rescue?"
"Sam," Blaster said again, his voice tight. Bumblebee knew right then and there what Blaster was going to tell Sam, and his cassettes knew, too; they tightened around Sam protectively. "Sam, you're not who you think you are. You're not who they--" he gestured towards Soundwave and his team— "have been telling you that you are."
Sam looked uneasily between Blaster and Soundwave. "What do you mean?"
"Sam," Blaster said slowly, as though dreading whatever madness the truth could bring. "You were reprogrammed."
X x X
She had never felt Sonar's frequencies act so badly before; they were worse than the time they were afraid that he would terminate. They were wild, out of their grasp, tangling with desperation to the frequencies of the femme under her claws and those of the mech that held him. She couldn't connect with him—Blaster had caged him, had cut him off from them. Blaster had him trapped, and those two Autobots were the chains.
He was their prisoner, but not for long. Even if she had to do it slowly—especially if she had to do it slowly—she'd kill every last one of these Autobots for doing who knew what to her brother.
Ravage wanted to rip off the white Autobot's head. Unfortunately, they still needed her. The Autobots may not have valued Sonar, but it seemed that they would go great lengths for this former squishy. She was a handy bargaining chip, even if the Autobots seemed highly reluctant to hand over their prize.
They could see him. He was behind the Autobot cassettes, his frame nearly hidden behind theirs. Blaster stood in front of them, preventing them from just going over there and grabbing their sibling.
Little glitch, she said to her brother, even though she knew that he couldn't hear her. How did you get yourself in this mess?
It made her feel frantic, but she was skilled enough not to show it, to not let it effect her. Those emotions wouldn't help get Sonar back.
Blaster was the mastermind behind all this. They could feel it, his frequencies throwing up firewalls, preventing them from fully contacting Sonar and bringing him back to his senses. Blaster had almost hidden their sibling away from them, and it was only because Soundwave was skilled enough to see through the illusion that they had finally found him…right at the nick of time, it seemed.
Blaster was always trying to take what was theirs. He had tried to take Ravage before, claiming that she belonged to the Autobots, and that it was Ravage who was the fake, and not the glitched Autobot programming.
And now…now he was trying to turn him against them.
"You were reprogrammed."
Ravage and her siblings gave each other quick, desperate looks, their frequencies scrambling in vain to reconnect with Sonar's. Sonar knew little about reprogramming; he didn't know that what had been done was to save him. He only believed the stories that the older officers told the New-cons, to keep them wary of the Autobots.
Don't get caught, or else those Autobots will reprogram you!
"What?" Sonar asked, and he looked in between them.
"He kidnapped you, brainwashed you, and made you forget everything—your parents, your friends, Mikaela, Bumblebee—he made you forget who you were…who you still are, underneath it all. You belong with us, Sam," Blaster said, in a gentle, deceptive tone.
Ravage was furious, and her anger reverberated in the frequencies of her siblings.
"You do not own him," Ravage hissed.
"And you call us 'Decepticons?'" Frenzy snapped.
"Ravage," Sonar said, looking at her. She hadn't seen him look that lost and uncertain since he was newly sparked. "Is it true?"
Ravage looked up at Soundwave, who gave a small nod. "Yes," she said slowly.
He looked horrified.
"You don't even deny it?" Blaster asked. Trust an Autobot to twist the circumstances in their favour.
"Sonar," Soundwave said, and his voice took on a tone that Ravage hadn't heard in a long time. "You were reprogrammed. But it was to save you."
"What?!" the Autobots demanded in unison.
"I was going to tell you…when you were old enough to understand."
"Understand what?"
Soundwave looked at him, almost pleadingly, and then glanced at Ravage. He needed help…to talk to his youngest, he needed help from the oldest. He had spoken aloud, and very slowly, unused to have to communicate in this way, but Sonar just wouldn't understand it if he just used frequencies. Sonar couldn't receive the signals properly because of what Blaster had done, and he couldn't understand words in frequencies yet. Ravage had never before seen their creator so clumsy…so vulnerable. It was hurting them; she saw her expression mirrored in her siblings' faceplates, her pain echoed in their frequencies.
She swore that she'd rip out Sonar's implants, piece by piece, for putting them through this when he was back with them, back safe and sound.
She turned to Sonar, and said, "You came to us, lost…confused. Lost in the programming of a virus, your powers growing beyond your ability to control them. Remember all those voices you kept hearing, how they scared you so badly?"
Sonar nodded. How could he forget?
"It had been worse for you. The Autobots didn't help you. We did."
"You called for me," Soundwave said, his tone and frequencies very gentle despite the situation, as though Sonar was newly-made again. "But, try as I did, I could not find you then."
"What do you mean?" Blaster said. Ravage really just wanted him to shut up. "You took him, right from the Autobot base!"
Soundwave looked at Blaster, his voice once again level and cool. "Assumption: incorrect. Infiltration: not possible. Human quarters of Autobot base: almost impenetrable. Sonar came to us."
"What?" the yellow Autobot challenged. Ravage's optics narrowed when she felt his frequencies cling tighter to Sonar's. "You mean to tell us that he just waltzed out of our base and straight into your hands?"
"How else," Ravage hissed. "How else do you explain how your base was left intact that day?"
"If it was us, Autobot," Rumble said. "You would have seen a body count."
"We're efficient like that," Lazerbeak put in. "If we'd gone in far enough to rescue Sonar, we'd have also planted a virus in your base, to make sure you wouldn't follow."
"A virus would have alerted us to you. You wouldn't risk all that you stole," Eject said.
"We didn't even know that Sonar was there until Soundwave brought him back to us," Ravage said.
Soundwave cast a look at Sonar, a look that conveyed only the surface of his worry and affection for him. "We did not find him. He found us. Luck was on our side."
There was a pause, and then the yellow Autobot said, "Don't listen to them, Sam, they're just lying to you."
Sonar just looked in between both sides, an expression that could only be described as lost writ all over his pale face. Inside their minds, his frequencies twisted and tangled until they ceased to make sense.
This was going nowhere.
Ravage looked up at Soundwave, quietly sending him a request.
Looking evenly at those who would take his creation from him, he said, "Words: useless. Proposition: an exchange."
"What?"
"I am not leaving here without a youngling, Autobot," Ravage said quietly, her words punctured by the white femme's sharp hiss as she dug her claws a little harder into the smaller frame. "If you deny me that one, I shall take this one from you, instead."
X x X
Ravage moved, as if to sever the last remaining energon lines keeping Mikaela alive—
"Wait," Sam said sharply. They all turned to look out him. He looked at Ravage, at the rest of the cassettes, and then at Soundwave, his expression unreadable. "I'm coming." He took a deep breath, and then started moving towards them, and Blaster's cassettes surrounded him. "Let me go," he said softly. They looked up at Blaster, waiting for instruction.
"No, Sam," Bumblebee said, moving forward. Soundwave's cassettes tensed, their optics a bright red, and the mech himself raised his weapons just a little bit…but then Blaster put a hand on Bumblebee's shoulder.
"Blaster?" Bumblebee asked, looking up at his comrade. His look of horror mirrored Mikaela's own.
Blaster looked pained, and ashamed, and said, "Let him go."
"What?!"
Blaster took him to the side. Using his frequencies, so that Mikaela could hear, too, he said, We have to let him go.
Why? We almost—
Mikaela is already injured. If we continue to stand between him and Sam, Soundwave will order her execution. He is through with talking.
Mikaela fought down her fear. I"ll be okay. Just take Sam.
Backup is arriving any moment, Bumblebee argued desperately. We just need to stall, just a little longer…
Sam has made his choice, Blaster said. Mikaela felt her captor tense, saw out of the corner of her viewing screens that Steeljaw and probably the other cassettes were preparing to engage again, too. They had been wary, but willing to talk. Now, they were moving on to brute force.
They couldn't stall. They'd lose one or both if they did.
Soundwave will not wait.
Soundwave moved forward, his weapon put away, already declaring himself the victor. Already preparing to claim what he had stolen. If they were to hold back, to try to stall for just a little longer…Soundwave's other cassettes glared at them, and Ravage gave them a curious, triumphant look, as though daring them to try and keep Sam.
Logically, they knew that what Blaster said was true, but they screamed on the inside.
Blaster looked at Bumblebee, and then at Mikaela. This hurt him as much as it hurt them, but he had to continue. Sam will survive. Mikaela will not. She has already lost too much energon.
Blaster gave his team a small nod. They glanced at one another, and then reluctantly moved away from Sam.
Slowly, Sam crossed the space in between the two groups. Soundwave crouched down, ready to take him…but he passed Soundwave without once looking up at the mech, and stopped in front of Ravage. He looked down at Mikaela, his expression completely blank.
"Sam," she said, her optics wide and pleading, although deep inside she knew that there was no other way. "Go back."
What he did then would mystify them all—including the being himself—for vorns to come. He turned away from Mikaela, and then wrapped his arms around Ravage's other leg. "Please," he said softly, but still loud enough for all of them to hear. "Please, please, please…"
She said something back to him, something that Mikaela couldn't hear. Then Sam gasped, perhaps in pain, perhaps in surprise, perhaps both, as her massive jaws closed around his shoulder, and she put her prize into Soundwave's awaiting hands.
Sam looked up at Soundwave squarely in the optics. A message passed between the human and the mech…but Blaster couldn't hear it.
He transferred the tiny form onto one of his arms, and with the opposite hand, he removed Blaster's halo, and Sam slumped in his arms, eyes closing.
Without looking back once, Soundwave took Sam, and he and many of his cassettes disappeared into the darkness.
And Bumblebee could only stand there, helpless.
He was helpless. Helpless when Ravage had gotten Mikaela, helpless when Sam was torn between truth and deception, helpless when Soundwave was telling his lies, his quiet words driving them into their processors.
Lies. All lies.
Soundwave had taken Sam before, had stolen him and they didn't know what he did to him and now would never know…and he was doing it again.
Soundwave had won.
We lost him.
We lost him.
Sam, I'm so sorry.
Forgive me.
It was a great effort, but Bumblebee forced himself to come back to the task at hand. Sam was gone, but they could still save Mikaela. There was only Ravage to contend with, now. Despite the fact that she had won, it wouldn't be beneath Ravage to kill Mikaela out of spite.
"You have what you came for," Blaster said. "Now let her go."
She tilted her head just a bit, as though amused. Amused that they entertained the thought that she would let Mikaela go. Bumblebee raised his blaster, ready to fire…
But then Ravage was gone, disappearing into the shadows.
They rushed towards Mikaela, but the fraction of a second it took to get to her was more than enough for them to flee with their prize…to cover their tracks from Blaster and Bumblebee and from the cassettes completely.
They moved to stop Mikaela from bleeding out, but she was beyond knowing or caring.
She didn't notice Blaster, didn't notice Bumblebee, didn't notice Eject and Rewind and Steeljaw and Ramhorn. She didn't even notice when Prowl, with many other Autobots, officers and New-bot alike, came.
Too late. They had come too late.
They had lost him.
All that they had hoped for, all that they had worked for…just gone.
And Bumblebee looked blankly where Sam disappeared while Mikaela howled to the skies, with Steeljaw, Ramhorn, Rewind and Eject comforting them to no avail while Blaster frantically tried to console them in the only way he knew how, by sending a soft lullaby in their shocked minds.
X x X
He woke up slowly. He was aware that he was being carried, and his frequencies stretched out, checking out his surroundings. Soundwave was carrying him, with Lazerbeak and Ratbat each perched on a shoulder. Rumble and Frenzy were walking on each side, and Ravage was behind the party a little ways, pausing to look back every so often before catching up again.
He snuggled deeper in the crook of Soundwave's arm. He felt so exhausted. What had he done all day?
Forcing himself to focus, he tried connecting to the frequencies surrounding him. Soundwave's frequencies caught his, which were more clumsy than usual—and set them back securely behind the safety of their firewalls.
Ratbat looked down at him, optics glowing warmly. "Look who's back."
Soundwave stopped, shifting the position of his arms to accommodate his stirring creation.
His siblings crowded around, and Soundwave went down on one knee so that they could see him. Ravage neared him, and Soundwave lowered his arms a bit more so that she can view her sibling properly. She gave him a gentle nudge before looking back at the dark again. He had never seen her so act so…nervous before, for lack of a better word. It scared him.
His eyes focused, unaccustomed to using visible light, let alone using that part of the spectrum to see in the dark—and then he bolt upright quickly. Too quickly. Every inch of his body stung at the sudden movement, and he went back down, groaning. He looked back at them, his eyes widening. "What happened to you?"
They looked terrible—more injured than he had ever seen them before. His siblings had sections where layers of armour had been scraped off, and he could see the energon trails. Some of their wires had also been cut, and he could see them sparking.
When they were silent, he looked up at Soundwave for an answer, and jumped so badly that he nearly fell from Soundwave's arms. Soundwave's hand set him securely back on his perch, but he could only stare.
Soundwave, along with the same scrapes and cuts that his siblings had, had also had an optic nearly gouged out. He could see that the metal and glass were held in place only by the wires, and processed energon lined the optic socket, gathering in the middle of the groove and trickling downward in one thin, tiny, glowing stream.
"Soundwave?"
He was answered with a pulse of reassurance. His panicking frequencies were quickly enveloped by everyone else's—smooth, calm, comforting.
He looked at them again, and at the area around them. He got the feeling that they were very far from the Decepticon base grounds.
He ran his hands over his face, and stopped immediately when the plates scraped uncomfortably over his flesh.
Where were they? Why were they here? Where had his faceplate gone? Why were pieces of armour missing? Where were his weapons? Where were his Raven drones? He couldn't even feel them, he was so far from them.
"What happened?" he finally asked.
His siblings looked at one another, and he couldn't tell what the expression was on their faceplates. Their frequencies felt wary, and violent, and uncertain.
"Sonar," Soundwave said. He looked up, surprised. He hadn't heard that particular tone in Soundwave's voice for a long time.
What had he done this time? More importantly: did he do something to make Soundwave angry?
"What do you remember?" Soundwave continued.
He thought back to it, and then shook his head. He drew a blank. "Was it another virus?" he asked instead. Soundwave ignored the question.
"What do you remember?" he repeated.
He closed his eyes, took a deep breath in, and then out. His family's frequencies still surrounded him, and their strength was comforting. "We were training," he finally said. The events of the past couple orns came back to him slowly, in disjointed and fragmented parts, and he was sure that there were many pieces missing.
"And then?"
"And then…I partnered up with someone."
"Who?"
Try as he might, he could not remember. Every time he thought he found a pathway to the past, he was lead only to a…a block. The truth lay on the other side, but something was stopping him…like a wall of glass, only he couldn't see out and…
And now he wasn't making any sense.
He shook his head. "I don't remember a thing."
His siblings glanced at one another again, and he looked up at Soundwave.
The mech didn't seem to be surprised at his youngest creation's lost memories.
"You have had a traumatic experience," he said carefully. "Your mind has blocked out the memories in self-defence."
"I've had a what?" he almost yelled, panicking and rising from his position. Soundwave firmly pushed him back down, his frequencies strengthening, sending a low, smooth melody in his head. It worked—he calmed down almost immediately. "What have I done this time?" he murmured, quieting.
"Nothing we couldn't get you out of, glitch," Frenzy told him, blades bristling, his frequencies promising him that he'd protect him. "That's all you need to know."
"It'll come back to ya later," Rumble said.
"We can deal with it then," Lazerbeak added.
"Sleep now," Soundwave commanded. "You require rest to recover."
The frequencies of his family members strengthened, surrounding him, tangling with his own, calling him to a healing slumber. He began to nod off. Soundwave straightened, and they resumed their pace.
He still didn't know what he had done, but Soundwave didn't seem angry at him, and whatever it was, his siblings got him out of it. His memories would come back eventually, so it was useless to fret about it. He'd think about it when the time came...but for now, he was with his siblings and with Soundwave. All was well in the world, and that was enough for him.
"Sonar?" Ratbat asked. "Why are you leaking?"
His hands came up to touch his face, and, to his horror, tears were streaming freely down his cheeks. "I don't know."
But even though all was well in the world, something deep inside him cried, and he had no choice but to cry alongside it, while Ravage, Frenzy, Rumble, Lazerbeak, and Ratbat, though not understanding the source of his grief any better than he did, comforted him anyway, and while Soundwave (with some difficulty) stopped and cradled them all, his frequencies crooning to them gently, a soft lullaby playing in their connected minds.