14. On-Her-Knees Catechism
"Kneel," commanded the Autobot hunter.
Catechism shook her head, wings flicking defiantly. The sword came at the back of her legs, biting in just deep enough to make her shudder and, with another slash, fall. Her face knocked against the floor, and the guards hauled her up into a kneeling position.
Catechism rocked back and forth and flopped over face first, grinning despite herself. Though she might be on the floor, if they wanted her to kneel, she would at least deny them that satisfaction.
Then, the guard hauled her up and brought forth a pair of spikes and a hammer. Catechism had a habit of missing the obvious, but she hoped that they were not going to do what she thought they might do...
...oh, they were, Catechism noted dimly as they sat her up into a kneeling position and drove the spikes through her upper legs, down through her lower ones, and into the floor. The Seeker grimaced, biting her lower lip hard enough to tear the metal and stared up at her captor.
Intoned with all the life of a drone, her fate was pronounced, "You will be shipped back to Cybertron for trial..."
Catechism looked past her captor, past the empty words, and into all the trappings of her capture. Long-estranged from their Autobot kindred, they had taken up Decepticon guise to catch the last of the Decepticons. When the Autobot hunters returned her to Cybertron, she would be executed – standing, if she had any say at all, but they, misborn peacebreed, would be forced onto their knees by their very kin for their cunning and cruelty. Looking from them to her, the red-faces, in their infinite blindness, would see no difference. To take her out, they had changed their view to her own.
Catechism smiled.