Title: Daughter of Cybertron
Rating: T
Disclaimer: We own nothing, that title belongs to Hasbro
Okay there are references to the "Five Servos of Doom" episode in this chapter.
Prowl's optics flickered before coming back online. He found himself lying on the floor, unsure where he was or what he was doing. He blinked and then slowly pushed himself up into a sitting position.
He felt a wave of pain flow through his circuits as he looked around, trying to figure out where he was. He seemed to be in a room, something like a holding cell, but he couldn't remember anything right away…
Then slowly, it began to come back to him. He'd been captured and put into a cell, unable to do anything.
Lizy!
That one thought sprang into his mind and he was instantly on his feet, ignoring the pain. He moved toward the doorway of the cell slowly, not wanting to go offline again. However, when he reached out with his hand, he found that there was no barrier or resistance whatsoever; the force-shield was gone.
He stepped out of the cell without hesitation, and gasped softly at what he saw. The room was a complete mess. There were definitely signs of a fight having occurred in the room due to burn marks and dented holes in the walls, floor and ceiling. It looked like someone had had a fight with energy weapons. On top of that, what little furniture had been in the room was destroyed, including the table that Lizy had been strapped to, and Starscream's equipment and tools lay scattered all over the floor.
But Lizy herself was no where to be seen. For that matter, neither was Starscream.
Prowl immediately began to search around for Lizy. Somehow, his spark told him that she wasn't too far from him. He searched a few of the surrounding rooms, his search becoming more frantic when he didn't find her anywhere.
He was almost about to call the others at the base for help when he suddenly spotted her, lying in a dark corner within one of the rooms he was passing. He immediately dashed to her side, and gasped softly at the sight of her. She was lying very still; the only movement she made was her chest rising and falling as she breathed.
And then Prowl noticed her left leg—it now had metal armor on it as well, only it had an all-to-familiar purple color to it.
"No!" Prowl said out loud, kneeling over her. Starscream had put some of his own technology into her!
"Prowl to Ratchet, do you copy." He said opening his comlink.
"Prowl, where the slag have you been?" came the reply of the medic.
"Never mind that, Starscream had kidnapped us both and Lizy is injured." Prowl said hysterically.
There was a moment of silence from the other line. "We're on our way. Give me Lizy's condition."
Prowl looked down at the girl now held in his hand. "She's alive, but Ratchet… he put some of his armor into her."
"Slag," Ratchet cursed as sirens blared in the background. "We'll get there as soon as we can. Until then stay where you are."
Prowl cut the link looking back down at the girl in his hand and then around at the room in which they were in. He wondered exactly what had happened here while he was knocked offline temporarily.
Before he could ponder it too much Lizy let out a small whimper that sounded almost painful. Fearing that something had happened he ran what scans he could over her and did not like what he was seeing.
Starscream's circuitry was begging to override his, killing off his one by one.
Prowl was going to have to do something, otherwise Lizy was going to die. He pulled out one of his connection cables and plugged it into a small port on her side.
He felt a strong pull come from the connection, like something was dragging him down. Then he was forcefully pushed backwards as Starscream's coding mixed with his.
This was going to be a tough battle and he was determined not to lose. But he also noticed something else while trying to push back Starscream's systems. Another connection was made to him and he could feel someone going through his systems.
It then stopped and poked at his processor, where he stored most of his memories. The poke was soft as though whoever was doing it, was asking for permission to enter.
Prowl would never allow anyone to access his files, no matter who it was. But this was different as he felt her wanting to get to know him better. He slowly brought down his firewalls and she slipped in, up linking to him and then downloading his files.
Prowl couldn't afford to pay much attention to what Lizy was doing because he had divert most of his attention to the Decepticon's coding. He worked frantically, attempting to block Starscream's coding as it attempted to access his processor, threatening to enter him like a virus. It tried to slip in through the access port that he allowed Lizy to enter, but his security systems blocked it out.
Meanwhile, Lizy was looking through Prowl's files, and found herself experiencing his own feelings and his own memories as if they were her own. She began to see all of the recent events that had transpired, from the moment she had awoken in the medical room, through his optics. She saw everything he saw from his perspective, and she felt everything he had felt.
What she felt in response to what she was seeing and feeling caused her mind to freeze up with shock. On the one hand, this was the very first time she'd ever gotten to know anyone like that. But also, what she saw in his memory files completely astounded her, and for the first time in her life she actually knew what it was like to feel… loved.
Prowl cared about her simply because she was a part of him, he didn't want to use her in any way and he certainly wasn't doing anything out of pity for her. And what's more, the only negative emotions she could find that he'd felt toward her were the times when he felt frustrated, or when he felt like he had failed her in some way.
He… really does care about me… Lizy thought. The realization had hit her like a slap to her face. She felt his anguish and shame over not telling her the truth about him being her father. She even saw flashes of what happened with Yoketron, and how Prowl had vowed to himself to get her out of there even if she would have nothing to do with him again after this.
Lizy began to feel something she'd never really felt before—shame over how she'd been treating Prowl, and shame over how she'd been acting in general.
And right now… he was risking his own processor to save her.
Deciding that enough was enough Lizy up-linked with Prowl's systems and began to fight back.
Prowl having felt her uplink, understood what she was doing instantly. Lizy was helping him to fight Starscream's programming.
More determined then ever Prowl began pushing back against the cons, feeling Lizy do the same thing.
Together the two were able to fight against him, often times he would come on strong and fight back.
It was a tough battle as each time they gained control over a certain circuitry; Starscream would take over a different. It was a win/lose battle that was getting them nowhere fast.
Prowl was getting worried as Starscream's circuitry suddenly took five different things at once. He felt Lizy starting to weaken as she fought to push back, but due to the experiment, it was getting harder.
She went unconscious after a few more minutes of trying to push Starscream back. But it was getting too much for her and Prowl was left to take care of it on his own.
Angered that the con was doing this to her, Prowl took his optics offline and concentrated. It was easy for him to bring up the power of the processor over matter technique. Although he hadn't mastered it completely, he was determined to use it to help him.
Prowl could already feel it working as he began taking back what Starscream had taken over. It was a tough battle, but he was determined to win over the con and save his daughter.
Funny that word still sounded weird to him, but yet he felt something within his spark. It was a slight pulse and he knew that it belonged to Lizy and that she was giving him strength.
Finally, Prowl managed to override the final remnants of Starscream's code, wiping it out completely. Then he began to relax slightly, although he poked around her systems a little more to make absolutely certain it was all gone.
He felt Lizy coming back to awareness, and he sensed that she knew he was still in her mind. He began to withdraw, feeling that he was intruding a bit, but something made him hesitate. It was like she was calling out to him, asking him to stop.
It took her a moment to regain her strength—she was mentally exhausted after that hard battle against the Decepticon's programming. But he could tell there was something she wanted, and he was determined not to withdraw until he knew what it was.
Then a simple message came to him from her thoughts: Look in my memories. It was a simple enough request, although it made Prowl hesitate. Did he understand correctly? Did she want him to look through her memories, like he had allowed her to look through his own?
He had to admit he was curious… and it seemed that she wanted to do this in exchange for allowing her to look at his own memories. He also wanted to get to know her better, to try and understand just what it was that made her act the way she did, and why she pushed everyone away. He also had a feeling that the files from Fanzone barely scratched the surface when it came to knowing about her—the true Lizy who lay beneath the surface. He wanted to know her better, and part of him also wanted to see if he could find anything at all that might help him find out who did this to her.
So without further hesitation, he accepted his daughter's invitation, and went in.
It was like a mix of emotions running through him all at once. He could feel the loneliness of when she was a little girl, when her parents were barely home. Then it changed to not understanding when her parents had died in the car crash, wondering when they would come home for her.
It changed again to the time when she was in the orphanage and was being beaten up and picked on by the other kids there. Then the day came, to when she started fighting back against them as she started growing stronger.
Then the day came to when she was adopted out by a couple, who were willing to help her. Prowl could tell that the couple wanted their adoptive daughter to accept them as her new parents. But with the amount of time she spent on her own at the orphanage, it would never be.
Lizy gave them points for trying, but she could just never love them like she had her own parents.
Suddenly a memory surfaced, that confused even her. Prowl prodded into it further and found himself witnessing a memory that would help in into solving who did this to his daughter.
Lizy was walking down a street, one he had been to once before on a bad side of the city. She had a purpose in mind as she walked down the sidewalk. Then the sound of screeching tires came and a white van pulled up next to her.
Two men jumped out of the van and grabbed hold of her, and throwing her into the back of it. She struggled against the one who tied her up, placing a gag in her mouth after the screaming she was doing.
They drove for a while, until the driver slammed to a stop outside a building, that lay out of the way of town. She struggled to get out of their grips, but she was not strong enough against their brute strength.
They took her inside and into a room, strapping her down onto a table. She struggled with the bonds until a man with white hair walked in and speak to her. Then after that, everything grew dark as she was given a sleeping aid.
Then there was another memory, although it was very sketchy because it was something that had happened presumably when she had drugs in her system and when she was in a lot of pain—her body wasn't sure what was happening to her or how to adjust, no doubt. But there was another memory that took place after she was given a sleeping aid while on that table, but before she woke up in the Autobot base for the first time.
She remembered screaming like a madwoman and somehow managing to get herself free. Energy seemed to erupt from something that came out of her arm, like some sort of extension, and she took a few shots at the people who were doing this to her. The one with white hair had fled from the room already, but she managed to injure a couple others before fleeing altogether.
She then vaguely recalled running through the streets with no real destination in mind, until she arrived at the park, where she collapsed and blacked out. Prowl's memories, which she had downloaded, filled in the blanks then—he'd been out on patrol and found her lying there on the ground, unsure what she was at first. He'd thought she was a Decepticon at first then realized that she was human with Cybertronian technology in her, and he'd taken her back to the base.
As the memories began to cease flowing back and fourth, Lizy felt herself growing drowsy. This entire ordeal had been exhausting, both mentally and physically, and she felt like going to sleep. But there was something she had to say before she slipped into sleep, something she felt she could only say full-heartedly in the privacy of their shared mental link.
Prowl, she told him mentally, I love you… thank you for everything you've done.
Prowl smiled and a warm feeling passed from him into her. Lizy… I love you, too.
Lizy seemed to smile back, then she slipped off into sleep. Prowl took that as his cue to withdraw from her mind, and then he unplugged his connection cord from her port. Just as he put the cord away, he heard the sound of sirens and screeching tires outside.
It only took him half a second to realize that the others had finally arrived.
Author Notes: Like we said up top there are references to "Five Servos of Doom" episode, even though this story is taking place during the first season. Hope you enjoyed!