*Part 21*
She just sat there and remembered the past.
The very same people she had helped so much as a civilian in the past, were now the very same she was being detained as a criminal by.
This was not new to her.
She had spent a very long time working on all sorts of different ways to redeem herself. Not that she was guilty of anything by Cybertronian laws. She just didn't care what they accused her of, she didn't care what anyone accused her of anymore really.
Some people just get to a point within themselves where it doesn't matter anymore and so she had let herself get taken in by that detachment. She hadn't even fought against one of them once yet. And because she had taken no action, it had made them anxious. They wanted to know what was happening and she wouldn't tell them.
She didn't have much on her mind except the past.
She remembered many things, including the one now in front of her when he was younger.
They had been staring at each other for many a breem already and neither side was prepared to give an inch either way.
Despite her easy going and laid back nature, Steelwind was the master of stubbornness. She was also considerably patient and could wait for however long it took to get what she wanted when it was needed. Right now though, she was neither intimidated by the mech in front of her, staring her down, nor was she worried about the position she was in, so she just sat back, relaxed and waited.
After the battle with Devastator, she had silently admitted to herself at the time that the combiner was more than she could handle on her own with the energy reserves she had. She had sworn to herself for going all out and not keeping any backup reserve energy. The item she had taken from Shadow had not yet adjusted to her completely and she had still been using most of her own energies for combat, despite the orb giving her added protective armour.
One of the other reasons she had allowed herself to be taken was to buy her time, to cycle down her systems and allow it to recharge.
And now she was sitting with a mech across from her at a table being questioned, and so far she had not uttered a word. She just sat back in the chair she had been provided with the light noise of the energy pulsing coming from her body shackles, being the only sound made in this featureless detention room.
The silence could be considered somewhat deafening if one wanted to see it that way.
Not only was this frustrating to the mech doing the questioning. He wanted her to explain what was going on. These things from the past, she didn't have the slightest of interest in at the present moment.
The governing agents of the Council that were controlling the Autobot soldiers for the most part then had forced her off Cybetron under false accusations and it seemed those crimes were still on the record books after all this time.
What had transpired back then, was around the time that corrupt behaviour from the ruling Council had been exposed and she had been part of that group doing the exposing and questioning their behaviour and their overactive need to control. She like many others had either been hunted down and terminated as criminals or labelled as traitors or had their records permanently marked as a result if they got away. This was all due to the efforts of the Council to cover up what was going on amongst them so they could stay in control of the population.
This had all been happening around the time of the rise of Megatron and the formation of the Decepticons and she had been marked as a member of their cause as a result of her actions, despite the actions being completely independant, just because all she had done was stand up to the Council. The thing she found funny was that she had never had a membership within the ranks of the Decepticons, nor had she considered it.
"This would all go a lot smoother if you just start talking." The mech stated.
Steelwind just lounged back in her chair and waited for her somewhat idle systems to finish charging back up again.
She remembered this mech. When she still on Cybertron in the past, he was a young up and coming who was favoured by the council for his loyalty to their cause. She had to laugh to herself. For a faction as good as the Autobots, even it had its delusional and blindsided individuals. He was certainly by the book, not that it mattered to her.
She was glad she had left when she did, not that she didn't have a good business as a merchant and freighter going and could live off world away from Cybertron. It just may have been the only good thing she ever did to help others back then and it landed her in so much trouble at the time.
She stopped processing her thoughts of the past and returned her attention again to the mech in front of her. She still wasn't the slightest bit intimidated by or interested in him and so continued to choose to ignore him and his continual verbal demands.
When he finally left due to being called away by his compatriots, she just sat back and relaxed once again.
She could easily use her special ability to just get up, walk out the door and leave this facility altogether, but she couldn't be bothered, it would drain her energy more quickly than what she was charging up right now. She tried to avoid using that as little as possible. And there was no harm in waiting patiently till she was fully recharged anyhow, so she went back into her stasis nap once more.
Elsewhere in Iacon.
"Even I have a hard enough time getting Ultra Magnus to back off when he gets an idea in his head," Optimus commented blithely passing a data pad report to an unknown mech on his left. "But you have to admit that the situation isn't good, considering Steelwind's history."
"History?" Came a reply from his right, "That particular history is not correct and was falsely documented."
"Be that as it may Ranger, we will need to discover for ourselves." Optimus advised the femme. "If she is innocent as you say, we will have her back to you in as short a time as we can manage."
Optimus had realised that as soon as Ranger had told him Steelwind's full story, it had been an attempt on her part to assist with the Autobots in their investigation. But Optimus had not realised there was any issue with Steelwind until Ultra Magnus had brought her in with stasis cuffs after the battle at Darkmount. And as loathe as he was to agree with his Cybertronian Second in Command in this case, he went along with it and kept in mind the information Ranger had given him to support Steelwind.
Ranger was walking alongside him and they both continued to discuss the situation further.
Optimus knew more than anyone that in the time his predecessor was leader, the Council manipulated many aspects of the Autobot faction including Sentinel Prime himself. Many innocent people were wrongly accused of their corruption. He wanted to give Steelwind the benefit of the doubt after hearing Ranger's story, but he also had to follow due process as well.
He didn't like it but it was the fact of life as the Commanding Officer.
Though he did see the value in a lot of what Ranger had already told him and was willing to see her point of view, he also had to deal with Ultra Magnus and with this old report about Steelwind.
When Ultra Magnus got an idea in his head, that was it, he saw it through to the end. Especially if it had something to do with seeing justice served.
Many things had presented themselves to him since these strange femmes had started to turn up on Earth. Many things from the past had started to become unearthed as well. This situation was just another one of them. And the more simplistic he wanted the situation to get in that regard, the more infinitely complex and confusing it became.
Optimus had stopped in his stride and sighed, rubbing his digits in the area between his optics, one of the many habits he had picked up while on Earth.
"Leave it with me and let you know." He said to her when she had stopped talking. She turned and left and as he watched her leave, he thought about how much more complicated life had become since all these femmes had come into their lives. And once again he sighed to himself.
The Combat Holofield.
This was a training area that had been constructed within Iacon, specifically for the purpose of training established soldiers and new recruits. The entire program was run by solid light projections and was nicknamed 'The Arena' by most instead of its official name.
Right now Sideswipe along with Jazz, had snuck away from the Medical bay and Ratchet. And were on the platform overlooking another individual who was training below in the arena's pit.
"Y'know Sides, I could always pull rank and make y'take me back to th'bay." Jazz commented, "Ol' mech Ratch' won' be 'appy. Y'know he'll come lookin' f'us."
"You see there's the thing," Sideswipe replied, "I know you won't because you want to get away from him as much as I do and this was the perfect place for now."
"Yeah, b'not like this?" Jazz queried to his friend.
He had questioned Sideswipe's actions over allowing a sparkling access to the combat arena and was still questioning himself for letting Sideswipe talk him into it.
Not that it was easy to talk Jazz into anything. He was one of the very few who could out-sweettalk Sideswipe, but in this case he was also curious about the youngster who had taken to following Sideswipe around like a lost mech sheep. Not only was he concerned for the sparklings welfare, he was just as concerned for the fact Sideswipe was just as attached and wondered how many other rules the red Lamborghini had broken just to amuse her over the last few weeks.
Jazz doesn't even know how she had convinced the big red warrior to let her play in the combat room and he still didn't want to know how either. He assumed it was just because he needed the authorisation of an officer to enter.
It would have already given Ratchet a trace tag to find them within the base. When the Head of the Medical department wanted to find you, it was no holds barred. And that's what always worried him when it came to Ratchet. Jazz was usually easy going and on the level with everything, but even Ratchet made him wary at times.
Jazz was still concerned about the sparkling, if anything, he agreed to come along so that Sideswipe wouldn't do anything stupid as he was sometimes prone to do and to keep an optic on the little femmes welfare.
Bit by bit he watched as Sideswipe elevated the program each time the little silver and gold sparkling had finished with one program after another.
What was surprising Jazz was that she was proving capable at fighting at their level, showing skills that a seasoned soldier would have had, certainly not a skill that a sparkling should have had, nor should she be enjoying herself. Many of the combat programs available in the holofield system were ones they themselves had made up for the recruits and he watched on stupendously as the femme beat each one with ease.
Jazz watched her intently, knowing that there was something else at work. He recognised the fact that she had an adaptive combat program like he did and wondered if it was a similar component of technology to his.
"Amazin'!" He mumbled to himself.
"What was that Jazz? You say somethin'?" Sideswipe asked over the noise on the floor below.
Nothin' Sides." He responded, "I think that's enough f'now." Jazz told his friend and reached over to switch the program off.
Sideswipe didn't want to finish the program, but just as Jazz switched off the last combat program he heard the familiar whirring of the door being opened to the combat chamber itself.
He and Jazz both knew they had jammed the door so that it would lock from the inside and they wouldn't be disturbed, but it looked like someone had been found to override the encoding.
Both of them sighed to themselves and then stood there like innocent angels when Ratchet presented himself and laid their optics on both of them, hoping that the sparkling would stay out of sight.
"And just what in the Pit do you two think your doing?" He questioned angrily with his usual elevated angry voice. "Neither of you are in any condition to be performing any sort of training, let alone in here of all places?!" He glared at Sideswipe for a moment expecting this sort of behaviour from the Lamborghini, but not so much expected from Jazz. "And don't think I won't be telling Optimus." He prodded the white Porsche with his left fore digit. When Ratchet said the last part gruffly and flatly Jazz knew there would be trouble.
"Guess I bett'r get goin' then eh?" Jazz said meekly while trying to slip away while Ratchet's attention was centred on Sideswipe. "Go report m'self an'all!"
"Oh, no you don't." Ratchet reached out to grab his shoulder brace that had just been welded back on and was still meshing back into his superstructure. Ratchet's grab was so sudden that Jazz suppressed the urge to let out a yelp of pain. He knew the Head Medic had done it to make a point and didn't want to give him the satisfaction.
Sideswipe on the other hand wasn't so fortunate, he received most of the verbal punishment.
The red mech was used to it and was just standing there quietly taking it all in and ignoring it as he usually did when Ratchet suddenly yelped and fell on the floor, grabbing his leg.
Jazz was relieved at the release of pressure on his shoulder plating but was even more amused that the little sparkling had kicked the Medic in the lower leg plating in defence of Sideswipe and it had been hard enough to take him off his peds.
This made both the wayward Autobots look at each other, Sideswipe grinned and Jazz silently thumbed towards the door. Sideswipe got the message and certainly wasn't going to stick around, not while he had an opportunity to get away from the evil head Medic. Sideswipe silently thanked his friend for the cover and left with the sparkling eagerly followed after him.
From the floor, Ratchet yelled, "Hey get back here you…" He slapped the floor with his hands in frustration, "Damn it."
Jazz reached down with his good arm and helped Ratchet up off of the floor.
"I'm not done with you yet." Ratchet said flatly, grabbing Jazz by his wrist joint to drag him back to the Medical bay.
'Oh well!' Jazz thought to himself, 'Freedom was good while it lasted! I hope Sides' and the little lady stay outta trouble.'
Somewhere in Iacon.
All those who were not Autobots or in the Medical bay being attended to were being kept here under watch in this makeshift lounge area.
Ranger and Galaxy had come back here when they had returned to Iacon out of good faith to their hosts as well as their loyalty to Steelwind, as well as wait for their other companions to return to normal health so they could travel and be on their way.
In the meantime it gave the rest of the healthy individuals some free time.
The youths that had returned with Skydive were being kept under watch for now due to the fact they were in Autobot Headquarters and they were getting increasingly bored as a result.
"Well at least they have a decent bodyshop?" Redline commented to the others.
"I wish you would whine about you precious paint job somewhere else." Catastophe argued.
"You're just jealous because I'm just that much better looking than you are!" He mused in return. "And taller." He had to rub it in.
That last bit was enough to make her react. "Ugh." Catastrophe got up, grabbed her flagon of energon, turned swiftly and suddenly dumped the contents of her container all over Redline, making him cringe from the sticky fluid now covering most of his upper half.
She grinned as he walked away, leaving him trying to shake off the rest that was dripping off his armour, "Guess you'll have to leave us and go back to the bodyshop!"
He pursed his lip components, murmured a few choice cuss words very quietly under his venting and left in a huff.
Redline knew better than to argue with Catastrophe. She always had much meaner methods of getting back at him and it usually involved his paint job suffering so he wasn't going to fight all that much, but it never stopped him from nitpicking every now and again.
"Now that's we have some peace and quiet again, let's get back to the game." Catastrophe announced.
She was currently in the middle of a multi level chess-like game with Twilight and the interruption from Redline had cost her a piece with Twilight's next turn while she was dealing with her cousin.
Gladiator had already given up quite some time ago with the game and had just stayed to watch as he had nothing better to do and was interested to see who would win this time.
Catastrophe though, felt that she may as well give up too. As new as Twilight was to the game, he had become very good at it and was beating her most times. She finally conceded when he took her last piece after another hour of play.
When it was all done she needed to find something else to occupy her need to do something.
Over by one of the windows, the mysterious silent drone who had been following their group around for some time now, was standing looking out the window. Catastrophe, every now and again, looked over to it to see what it was doing while she was conversing with her friends during their game play.
No one knew what to call it at first and the unknown drone had inadvertently picked up the name 'Goldie' from their little group. The name had helped them to associate with it and it also responded to the nickname, but whether it understood anything else, no one really knew. It did not speak either. No one had tried to find out, they had just assumed that because it kept quiet and to itself that it probably did not have the capacity to.
"I wonder if it has a vocal receptor?" Commented Gladiator.
"Haven't we already gone over this?" Twilight asked.
Gladiator looked at him blankly, "Did we? I don't remember?"
Catastrophe sighed, shook her head and looked at Twilight who started laughing at the whole situation with his new friends. Twilight had come to realise very quickly that Gladiator wasn't always on the ball when it came to discussions and he often forgot things, especially at the most inopportune times.
Catastrophe answered, "It doesn't talk, no one has bothered trying to ask it if it can so it probably can't talk anyway."
"Oh?" Gladiator scratched his helm, "Oh yeah I remember now!"
Meanwhile over at the window, 'Goldie' was still looking out the viewing screen.
They were right in knowing it did not understand them, but that was because it did not speak modern Cybertronian, but an older form that barely anyone would remember.
This was due to damage it had suffered when it had been injured in the past, before it had found them. That situation had damaged it so badly and had prompted its survival programming to seek to repair itself by whatever means necessary and it chose to follow this group of others it had found later.
This had worked out for it as the little band were actually time travellers who had been from place to place, before they had arrived home once again. Following along with them had allowed it to gather other parts to fix what it could of itself to be reasonably functional.
Although its ability to communicate was still non functional and it was still not able to communicate with any others, nor understand them. The damage caused had switched its system to another, older communication program when its previous one could not function. And along with the severe damage to its memories, this really did not help anyone, least of all the drone itself.
It had not been able to remember much of anything, only that it needed to go somewhere and do something and had been following the group around for some time.
Enough of its memory of being able to fix things remained, as did the high level of its combat ability. It had been able to fix itself enough to move aptly and fight very well, but that was all, and it had remained with the group to try and find out a way to fix the rest of itself that was not functional and try to find a way to do something about its communication system.
Twilight looked up from their new game for a moment and looked the strange drones' way. "I wonder if we will ever get to know about it, who it is, where it's from…?"
"And why it's been following us around?" Catastrophe cut in. "I guess it doesn't really matter right now, so long as it stays on our side."
"Or whether it's a he or a she?" Gladiator added.
"I don't think that even matters really," Twilight spoke.
Catastrophe tapped her chest casing right in front of where her spark was located, "I believe it's a she."
Twilight and Gladiator just shrugged at their friends' weirdness
"I just want to go home!" Gladiator lamented. Being somewhere other than at home with his family, made him miss them terribly. Even though he did not often appreciate them when they were around, he really missed them now.
"We'll get home eventually G', don't worry about it, just take in the moment and see where this adventure will take us for now." Catastrophe responded.
"I don't have your level of enthusiasm Cat' but sure I'll give it as much a go as I can. It's just not going to make me feel all that better though." Gladiator lamented again.
Steelwind had had a long stasis nap and had begun to stir again when her detection systems, that were operational whilst she was offline, notified her of the small femmes' presence at her cell door.
At first, she was still half in her stasis nap mode and had not yet come online completely and she thought she was seeing things. But there, by the door, was a small silver and gold femme sparkling tapping on the wall to try and get Steelwind's attention.
"Feh." Steelwind said to herself in amusement, "Was wonderin' when ya'd come back t'me on y'own."
Steelwind knew exactly who the femme was even if the little one did not appear to know itself. The little femme looked the older one quizzically and tilted her head before she turned her attention to the doors, looking all around for something.
"Hey who's sparkling is this!" Yelled an unknown guard, "The prison cells are no place for a kid?" Apparently the tapping had alerted the guard.
A few mechs in their respective cells turned their attention to the yelling mech and also saw the small sparkling in the hall but paid it no mind.
Meanwhile the guard at the other end was frantically trying to get hold of his superior officer through his radio comms. "Yes. Yes. There's some sparkling in the maximum security ward. No, I don't know how she got in here or who she belongs to. Yes Sir. I will take care of it and find out who's responsible for it." When the soldier disconnected the communication, he wasn't too happy about the audio bashing he had just received for his lack of watchful optics and was not able to explain how a sparkling had gotten into the maximum security prison ward on its own or past him.
"Hey kid get away from there!" The guard had just begun to yell at the little femme as he thought she was playing with the keypad to a maximum security cell. "That's not a toy to be played with now get out of here!"
He grabbed the little femme by the shoulder braces and set her down about a metre away and pushed her off, waving his hands away thinking that she was going to get the idea that she had to leave.
The guard faced her down when she didn't move, "I said get out of here!" He yelled angrily, hoping to scare her.
She still didn't move, but she did point behind him.
But he thought he was smarter than some sparkling, "Nice try but I'm not going to fall for it." So the sparkling shrugged.
Apparently the guard had been too busy prostrating himself and putting on a show to scare the sparkling away to even hear the retraction of the energy grid that held the bars in operation of Steelwind's cell keeping her incarcerated, nor had he heard the cell's resident sidle up quietly behind him.
"Then maybe ya might fall f'this one, mate?" He heard behind him.
The sparkling knew what she was doing, not actually playing with the keypad but opening the cell, yet the guard realised too late after he ended up in a crumpled heap on the floor.
By the time the prison area's Commanding Officer had arrived, Steelwind's cell was wide open and there was no one there in the hall bar an offline guard on the floor and other detainees in their own respective cells.
Earth.
"Oh c'mon Vi', it's 'Spring Break', even I'm taking a break from my studies just to come and see you!" Casey whined, "Why do you have to work?"
"Because I made a choice to stay with the Autobots, and while I am under a provisional membership, I must keep to their schedules and rules, stay out of trouble and show them I'm not suspect."
"So…uh…have you been out on any missions yet?" Casey asked curiously. She knew that her other friend Rusty was under the same stringent scrutinising and had not been on any missions.
Violet did not answer straight away as she had put a visor over her faceplate and began welding some materials together. Casey had to step back due to the sparks, but her friend answered her as soon as she was done. "No. I am still under trial and they will not allow me to go on any missions as yet."
"But you'd prefer to be locked up in here all day anyway wouldn't you, with all your science gizmos and dusty old doohickey's right?"
Rusty was different from Violet in that regard though, the orange red femme always got out of the base and went driving as much as she could in her spare time while Violet often kept to herself and stayed indoors more than went outside to fly. Where Rusty was mainly a physical persona, Violet was an intellectual one.
Violet gave her a flat look. She was certainly very busy and had a lot of work to do. While she didn't mind on some levels, Casey's incessant chatter, she had even gotten used to Bluestreak, who was worse, but she wanted to get this work done and she wanted to be alone.
Violet said flatly but politely, "Casey, I have too much work to do, Can you please go and entertain someone else, like Rusty for instance."
"Ok ok, I get it, I get it, you're too busy, I'm going I'm going." She said as she disappeared out the door.
Violet shut off her optics and vented a long sigh as her friend left. She often wondered what it would be like for her to be quiet for even five minutes. Being quiet for five seconds was hard for her in the company of others and she wondered how her friend had managed to get through two years of a History major at University while sitting quietly in the lecture halls listening to her classes.
However that was a mystery for another day and so Violet went back to her work in earnest.
Elsewhere on the Autobot base.
Someone sighed, "Just one time I wish I could get a good hand!" Lamented Huffer.
Hearing their comrades' whining, two Autobots instantly decided to up their bets.
"Ya know Huffer, you really shouldn't play poker if you rave on like that." Rusty commented. She didn't like easy games of chance, she preferred a little bit of difficulty to make it fun, even when it was amongst friends.
"I reckon' he can say what he wants." Windcharger noted.
"For once I'd have to agree with him." Brawn responded flatly. Even though Huffer grinded his gears with his constant complaining, Brawn was short on credits and needed a win at their game, Rusty had already cleaned most of his credits out.
"Fair enough." Rusty replied. She was just being fair to everyone. She was good enough at the game not to worry about others and their player 'tells', but she didn't want someone to deliberately lose because of their own issues. Huffer was enough of a headcase in her own opinion as it was, she was just being polite to let him play.
She would have continued if not for the fact Casey had just meandered in and asked Bluestreak who was at another table, to help her up on top so they could talk.
"Ok folks, all yours, I'm out." Rusty said as she wandered off.
"You're not even going to take your winnings?" Brawn called out.
Rusty had won a fair bit already, she didn't care about the rest, "If you want it Brawn then its all yours, I've got other business to attend to.
Brawn wasn't going to say no to that, considering most of it was his anyhow. He took what Rusty left behind and then spoke to Windcharger. "He's all yours!" Then got up and left the table.
Windcharger slammed down his cards and got up. "Slag. Well I'm out of here too."
"Just my luck," Commented Huffer, "Everyone leaves me when I'm in the middle of a game." He vented as he got up to leave.
"That's one weird mech!" Rusty commented about Huffer to her new tablemates.
"He does that a lot, I mean all the time really, because he complains a lot and not many like it, but I don't mind him, sometimes he talks about interesting stuff…" Bluestreak chattered on.
"Yeah whatever." Rusty responded. She had brought her glass of energon over to the new table with her and drank the last of it, ignoring Bluestreak's chatter. He talked as much as Casey did so she didn't need to say much, just sit and listen to the two blabber on about nothing as they usually did.
Once there was an opening she interrupted the two who were deep in conversation, "So what are we going to do for the rest of the day?"
"We could go outside, it's a nice day, we could go for a drive or a picnic at the park or something else…" Bluestreak rambled on.
Rusty got up from her chair as he was still talking and patted him on the helm. "Outside is good enough." She said. She grabbed Casey, who was used to Rusty and her rough hands now and put her friend on her shoulder struts. "Let's go. I have somewhere in mind we can drive to. But first let's stop by the lab and see if Violet wants to come with…"
Casey interrupted, "She's too busy, kicked me out just so she could finish her work."
Rusty stopped for a moment and thought about it, then shrugged, "Oh well, more fun for us then!"
Later.
On their drive out to their destination, Rusty had plenty of time to think as Casey had elected to sit with Bluestreak.
She wondered if Violet also lamented about the restrictions.
Rusty had joined them in the absence of their Commanding Officer and felt it was a way to get away from Shadow and what she owed the femme while she was gone for the time being. So far the Autobots were putting up with her bad language and unruly, impulsive behaviour and she had been driving Red Alert around the bend. Though she had not yet done anything to break any major rules, she was still allowed entry to their base under provisional membership and assisted wherever she could or was asked to.
And meanwhile Violet was the poster girl for good behaviour and still at least they treated both of the femmes equally, none better than the other.
Rusty wasn't allowed to do much and was restricted to certain parts of the base. Being chained down like that drove her up the wall most of the time because at her other home she had unlimited access to what she wanted. She did often prefer down time in their base, getting to know the others, but sometimes she wanted to be outside, like now. She was impulsive like that, one of the most endearing personality traits that Casey liked about her.
"Better than the alternative I s'pose!" She mumbled to herself, thinking about all the money she owed Shadow.
Just down the road she cruised into a dirt road very well hidden in amongst the trees and almost lost Bluestreak with Casey in tow who were not paying attention.
"Wow!" She exclaimed when she got out of Bluestreak's cab, "This place is great! How did you know about it?"
They had been driving for about an hour, straight south along the coast, and had ended up in a nice little forested area.
"I haven't been here for little while but we shouldn't be bothered here for a bit." Rusty pointed up at a nearby tower, "This thing always messes around with transmissions so no one will bother us for a bit."
But just as Rusty pointed up to the tower, they were rained upon, not with water or rain but with a shower of laser blasts forcing them to take cover.
Of all their luck they had turned up to a place that the Decepticons had previously staked out for themselves and one of their plans for energy theft. The group of three had just walked into major trouble.