A/N: HA! I GOT IT DONE! Lol. Sorry, I am just happy I got this done before 3, cause I would've gone to bed right after Sci got off if it was and I had one line and author's replies to do first.
I'm sure you all will be happy to hear that we are back with Amelia and them. :)
Author's Replies:
Sailor Shinzo: Well, you'll find out if you read this chapter. :)
Luna Prime- Awesomeness: Glad you liked it. :D
Princess Thil Galel: I want to know who could've? Lol
Jazz-Transformers: Don't worry, we return to them in this chapter. ;)
Mercedes Wolfcry: Thanks!
ilikeanimeandmanga: Yeah! And I finally beat Trypticon too! I love that game. Glad you liked it and I'm glad you liked my OC race too. :)
Jayna Prime: You reviewed a story that's not IOW-TTT! XD Sorry, it's just been awhile since you read my stories aside from that one…I am glad you liked it, sis. And yes, I am evil *grin* Cliffhangars! And point of view switches! XD lol
xVentressx: Thanks! Glad you like it!
And NOW! The chapter you've all been waiting for! Returning to the main story…Enjoy!
Chapter 25: Trapped Without a Voice
~Aboard the Nemesis, Normal PoV~
"You never told me why our friend was in stasis back there, Megatron," Orion Pax told the large silver mech as he led him toward the med bay where the femme was at the moment.
Megatron scowled a little, not that Orion could see it from behind him. He had already convinced the mech that Cybertron's fall had been Ratchet's doing and had his agreement to search the files he had gotten from Iacon. He didn't want to risk the femme ruining his plans, but he knew that if he had any hope of her behaving, he would be wise to keep her around Orion since she likely wouldn't want to inadvertently prove to him that Autobots were cruel and vicious. That was why he had ordered Knock Out to disable her vocals and her internals.
"She was…injured by our Autobot enemies," Megatron explained. "She had gotten attacked by one of Ratchet's lackeys during our venture to rescue you."
Orion's expression grew hard. If what his old friend was saying is true, then he did not particularly care for these…Autobots. Still, he had a hard time believing that the Ratchet he had known was capable of such horrors that left Cybertron in shambles. But then, he had no reason to doubt Megatron's word.
"Wait here," Megatron said just as they reached the med bay doors. "I will see if she is up to visitors."
"Of course," Orion said and waited while his friend went in.
Megatron entered the med bay, the door closing behind him and blocking all sound from the hallway and found the amusing sight of his medic cowering behind a med berth while the femme fumed with a wrench held threateningly in her servo. He could see a dent on the side of Knock Out's helm, no doubt given him by the Autobot femme wielding a wrench. As much as he would've enjoyed seeing the medic get pounded by the femme that was obviously irate, he had to set this situation straight before he let Orion in.
He took a step closer, even as the seemingly oblivious femme clenched the wrench in her hand and grabbed her around the throat. He calmly moved his head to the side to avoid the wrench thrown in his direction before snarling at the femme.
"Knock Out! Have you deactivated her vocals as I asked?" Megatron asked.
"Did more than that," Knock Out said. "I removed them. They're safely in my locked storage container. I was unable to change her energy signature…" Megatron sneered at that proof of Knock Out's incompetence, seeing as how he had had a week to work, "…as she came to before I had a chance, but I was able to disabled her internals as you commanded, Lord Megatron."
"Good," Megatron said, holding the femme in the air. "Now femme, I don't know who you really are. But know this. One wrong step and your precious Prime will be a pile of scrap. Who, might I say, has no memories of being a Prime, and it will stay that way, do you understand? Otherwise, he won't be the only scrap pile around here."
The femme squirmed a little more as a whining sound escaped her throat, evidence of the missing voice box. The downward tilt of her door wings, however, proved to him that she would behave for the sake of her amnesic Prime. He sneered again before setting her on her pedes and releasing her throat. He was well aware of the glare that threatened to burn through his armor plating as he went to allow Orion entrance.
~Amelia's PoV~
I rubbed at my throat, glaring daggers at Megatron's back as he went toward the door. I glanced at Knock Out to see him glowering at me for the dent I gave him on the side of his helm. When the door opened, though, he walked away, likely to fix his face. If my voice box wasn't missing I would've grumbled about how annoying it was to lack a voice. But then, that wouldn't be something I had to grumble about I suppose.
I tried not to offline in pure shock when Optimus walked into the med bay. Megatron did say he didn't know he was Prime after all. Megatron was probably twisting things to bend Orion Pax, for I did recall Optimus had said that's who he had been before, to his will. Probably spouting some nonsense about the Autobots being responsible for some kind of ruin. And that it was the Autobots that wanted to conquer the Earth. If Megatron had his way, Orion would believe the opposite of the truth indefinitely. I was sure of that.
"She cannot speak as the Autobot that attacked her damaged her voice box beyond repair," Megatron said and my door wing twitched in my irritation at the blatant lie.
Orion misunderstood it though, clearly believing my irritation was at the fictional Autobot attacker. I wanted so bad to tell Megatron to stuff it and drag Orion out of here and tell him the truth of the matter. Even as Orion gave his comfort and Megatron told him I would remain with him in the data station until further notice, I wished I could just punch Megatron in the face, but something told me that wouldn't be such a good idea.
This must be how Bee felt when he first lost his voice, I thought to myself as Orion and I were led out of the med bay. Except I dunno if this is worse or his situation was worse.
We were led through the corridors and as we walked past a door a few kliks after we had left med bay, I was hit by an eerily familiar smell. It was that tampered Energon smell from that mission with Ratchet in the swamp. The same smell that had led us to the twins. And Shockwave. I didn't realize I had stopped and was giving the door a weird look until the two mechs had stopped as well and looked back at me.
"What is it, Amelia?" Megatron asked, sounding quite irritated.
Great, he knows my name, I thought bitterly, even as I made motions with my hand to say something smelled from behind the door.
"It's just Shockwave's lab," Megatron said. "You're probably smelling his work."
He continued on, but Orion waited for me to take a place next to him and I was sure he didn't miss my shiver, even though Megatron failed to notice. Whether he misunderstood it due to Megatron's deception or if he took it for what it was, was hard to tell. He did, however, put a hand on my shoulder briefly in a comforting gesture, but quickly dropped it when it appeared as though Megatron had been about to turn around.
The leader of the Decepticons led us to a room and I could see barely down the hall where a couple Cons were guarding a different room. I eyed them suspiciously even as Megatron ushered us into the room. There were a few computers with one main one taking up most of one wall.
"This is where you'll be working," Megatron said. "If you wouldn't mind, I'd like you to start Project Iacon right away."
"Of course," Orion said.
Megatron turned and walked back out the door, roughly putting a hand on my head and shoving downward a bit. I growled at his back as he walked out before the door closed.
"Well, Amelia, I'd better get to work," Orion said, turning to the computer console.
I gave an exaggerated motion with my hands before sighing and walking over and sitting against the wall to Orion's right. I pulled my knees to my chest and wrapped my arms around them before placing my forehead on my knees. My door wings drooped as the reality of my situation fully sank in. It was a pretty grim outlook on things.
I was trapped on a Decepticon ship, which apparently had Shockwave aboard. Optimus Prime thought he was Orion Pax and Megatron's clerk or something. I couldn't talk. I couldn't use my internals, cause I had tried. My throat was sore from where Megatron had choked me. I had no way of contacting the Bots and no way of telling Orion the truth without Megatron knowing. I had a feeling this room was more closely monitored than he let on. After all, if I were Megatron, I certainly wouldn't trust an Autobot with a bot I was deceiving no matter how mute that Bot was.
I put my helm back and it touched the wall just hard enough to give a small clack and gain Orion's attention. I sighed heavily, optics moving to what he was working on. What would he find? What kind of help will this ridiculousness give Megatron? And how do I stop it?
"Are you alright?" Orion asked, pausing in his work.
I raised an optic ridge at him, giving him a look that meant I was not. I wanted to tell him exactly what was wrong so that maybe he'd believe me, but I was not sure how to do so without my voice. I held my hands out helplessly instead, not really knowing what else to do.
"I am sorry," Orion said. "It must be hard losing your voice. I wish I could help you."
Just go get my voice box from Knock Out's lab and put it where it belongs! I screamed in my head, taking my frustrations out mentally since I couldn't calmly tell him what really happened. Outwardly, I merely sighed.
"Hmm, perhaps this will allow you communication," Orion said, pulling a datapad out of nowhere. He handed it to me before turning back to the computer.
I blinked at the mech, looked at the datapad, blinked at it and then looked back at Orion. I had no idea that Optimus kept a blank datapad on him all the time. But clearly he must've always done that, seeing as how Orion Pax knew it was in his subspace. I looked back at the datapad before looking at the work that Orion was doing. It appeared that he was decoding some files, likely stolen from some Autobot stronghold during the war on Cybertron. I huffed a little, but this time Orion did not seem to pick up on my irritation or he assumed I was huffing about something I was writing.
Deciding that merely thinking about it wasn't going to get me anywhere, I began the slow process of translating my thoughts into Cybertronian writing.
~Autobot Base, Normal PoV~
The atmosphere in the base was filled with a sense of unease and frustration. The bots looked non-stop for their wayward leader and the femme that had been taken with him for the past week. The humans still to go on with their normal lives, but they helped search when they got out of school, and in Jack's case, off his shift at KO-Burgers.
Ratchet growled a little at the error message that came up on the screen. Despite the modifications he and Raf had made to the systems, they still had the occasionally problem with bugs. One seems to have appeared with the modifications he had retrofitted to try to find the location of the Nemesis. He figured that would be the best place to start. If they could find it.
"Another bug?" Raf's voice brought him out of his thoughts.
"Yes," Ratchet said with a sigh as he turned slightly to see the boy walking up.
"Here, let me see," Raf said as he removed his backpack from his shoulders.
Ratchet reflected that there was once a time when he would've doubted Raf capable of fixing the bug. But the young human had proven time and time again that he was very adept when it came to human computers. So he merely waited for Raf to plug in his laptop and find and fix the problem, whatever it may be.
"Try it now," Raf said, looking up when he was finished typing in a set of command codes.
Ratchet typed in the commands to have the new modifications run and this time it worked. The system began a systematic scan, searching for even the slightest sign of a large space craft flying in Earth's atmosphere. Now he just had to wait and pray that this idea worked. The modifications were basically a power boost to the sensors that usually searched out Cybertronian signals, to allow for better results. It was a long shot expecting it to be able to find the cloaked Decepticon warship, but he hoped it would at least find Amelia's spark signature. Her signal had popped back up with the others, but it disappeared when she had been taken to the Nemesis. He hoped it was simply the cloaking causing them to be unable to find it.
"Ironhide to Base," Ironhide's voice in the communications system startled Ratchet momentarily. "Anybody home?"
"Ironhide?" Ratchet answered.
"Ratchet! Just thought I'd call to let you all know we're gonna be entering the atmosphere tomorrow," Ironhide said. "Our mission was a success. We brought back some reinforcements."
"Acknowledged," Ratchet said, thankful that their group at least had had good luck.
"Jazz won't leave me alone until I ask," Ironhide said. "How's everybot doing down there?"
Ratchet sighed. "Hope you're sitting down," he said. "It's a long story."
There was a pause on the other end as the bots on the other side took that in.
"Why wha' happened?" Jazz's voice entered the conversation.
Trying to ignore the way his spark cringed at what he had to explain to those bots that were on their way.
~The Nemesis, Amelia's PoV~
As I wrote, I could feel Orion glance at me every now and then, no doubt wondering what was taking me so long. I was taking so long because of two reasons. One, Megatron popped in earlier to check on progress and I had not wanting him poking his nose into it so I had quickly hid it in my subspace. Orion, thankfully, had caught this and didn't tell Megatron a thing about the data pad. The second reason was that I was translating a very carefully worded synapses of what he needed to know.
I underlined, bolded and starred the words "Optimus Prime" before hiding the pad behind my back as the door opened. I tensed slightly when a couple of Vehicons entered and one of them looked right at me, even as Orion turned around in his spot to look at the Cons. He glanced toward me when he saw one of the looking at me as I shrank back a little, holding the pad behind my back. He turned back to the Vehicons as one walked toward me, though I knew he was keeping an optic on him.
"What is this about?" Orion asked.
"Megatron wants to see the femme," the one that hadn't moved toward me said.
The other dragged me to my feet roughly. I growled as I pulled my arm from his grasp, but he only grabbed me roughly again and began dragging me toward the door.
"Is the force really necessary?" Orion asked and I could see in his optics he wanted to stop the Con from manhandling me further, but thought he couldn't.
"It is when she is an Autobot spy," the Vehicon holding me said.
Orion's optics widened minutely and I looked at him, begging him silently to remember where he stands in this war. I had dropped the pad when the Vehicon had dragged me to my feet, but I didn't dare motion to it for fear the Cons would catch my movement.
"Come on you," the Vehicon holding my arms behind my back said and roughly pushed me toward the door, breaking my optic contact with Orion.
I let out a small growl that was bordering a whine as I walked defeatedly toward the door.
~Normal PoV~
Orion Pax watched as Megatron's men escorted the femme known as Amelia from his work station. He couldn't help but feel that letting them walk off with the femme was the wrong decision. They were being needlessly rough with her, even though she wasn't fighting back. And the look in her optics when she had looked at him tore at his spark, calling him to some kind of action that would save her from whatever Megatron had in store for her. Somehow, behind the pleading in her optics had been what appeared to be a firm belief in him, but he had no idea where that belief had come from. He had been in stasis for a long time if Megatron was telling the truth.
When the three bots were gone, he turned back toward his work, feeling as if there was something he was missing. He was about to get into the archives again when he spotted something out of his peripheral. Laying on the ground in the spot the femme had occupied was the datapad he had given her, that she had been writing on for several breems. He looked at the door again, realizing she had left it on purpose, she could've easily subspaced it. He found himself curious and walked over. If she was indeed a spy, then it would contain copies of what was on the monitors. If not, then he wanted to know what she had wanted to tell him.
He walked over to the datapad and leaned down to pick it up. He could tell right away that she was not practiced with writing on datapads, making him wonder what she used to record things usually. He stood up straight and leaned against the wall as he read what Amelia had written.
Hey, you need to know some things. First thing, the Autobots are not behind my lack of voice. I figure Megatron has told you a few things that are his fault are the Autobot's fault. Words of advice, never believe a thing he says. It's all lies. That is why he is called "Decepticon", not whatever crap he told you about the reasoning. And he is very good at it too. So is his second-in-command, Starscream. Lies are in their nature.
I can't talk, because Knock Out, Megatron's medic, took my voice box out. He disabled my internals too. And apparently he had also been order to change my energy signal…though I question if that is actually possible. Ratchet once said that that was so integral a part of a bot it can't be changed without changing the bot…ok moving on, cause I don't want to think about that.
The second thing you need to know is that the Autobot leader seems to have lost his memories. Reason I know this is because, you are him. No, I am not joking. You are actually *Optimus Prime*, have been for a very long time, but you apparently lost your memories when you kicked Unicron's aft using the Matrix's energy. Dunno how we'll fix that, but I am completely serious here. Look it up in the archives on that computer, I'm sure it is there somewhere. Possibly heavily encrypted though. But I know you can break those, you always come through in the end. Or maybe I'm just biased because you are like an older brother to me, but I believe in you. The others believe in you too…
The message ended there and left Orion more than a little confused. Him? A Prime? And what was this about kicking Unicron's aft? Unicron was defeated centuries ago, long before he ever came into being. Either she was lying, trying to turn him against Megatron, or Megatron was lying and using him against the Autobots.
"There's one way to find out," Orion said and set to work on the computer, looking up the Decepticon archives.
He typed in commands to do a search for the name "Optimus Prime" and when a file came up he was surprised. He read the file, finding that Optimus Prime was the leader of the Autobots.
"But Megatron said Ratchet was the Autobot leader," Orion said to himself. "And Amelia claims that I am this Optimus…Someone is not tell the truth."
He looked at the information again, using his skills from his days as a data clerk on Cybertron to analyze it for any falsities. What he found confused him and made him suspect that it was not the femme who was lying to him. The files were very heavily encrypted, but he failed to understand why they would be. So he set to work unencrypting the one on this Optimus, to find what he was not seeing. The picture on the screen began to change, pixelating and the pixels moved about until it finally settled down on a shocking sight.
"How could I possibly be, Optimus Prime?" Orion asked himself, staring at the picture that looked exactly like him.
~Amelia's PoV~
I could feel my door wings droop as the Vehicons led me out of the lab where Orion worked. There goes my chance at saving one of my closest friends from a life serving Megatron…or turning into scrap. I couldn't help the feeling of failure as I was led through the corridors. Shoved was a better term actually.
"Come on move it!" the Vehicon behind me shoved me roughly from behind, causing me to stumbled forward.
I turned back and glared at the Vehicon, letting a low growl escape me in warning. If this mech shoved me one more time, I was gonna whack him with the nearest object. My growling, unfortunately, had a very negative affect on the mech and instead of merely glaring and commanding me to move again, he swiped at me with his clawed hands, catching me on my face.
"Autobot scum," the Vehicon said.
I glared at him defiantly, deciding that if that was how he was gonna be, I'd stop walking entirely. So I did just that, while trying to get my hands free from the binders they had put on them. This, of course, infuriated both Cons and the second one shoved me forward.
"Move it, femme!" he said.
In response, I defiantly sat down, not budging an inch. That was about the worst course of action I could've taken. It was great defying bad guys and all, but I really should've considered the option of running first. I say that, because the next thing I was aware of was pain in my chest. It took me a moment after falling backward from the hit that the Con had kicked me really hard.
"You want to play that game, huh?" the Con said menacingly. "Well we have our own games we like to play."
With my servos bound, I couldn't do much to defend myself as the Cons started kicking and punching me. They didn't pull out any weapons, but they didn't need to in order to make their point. Every blow felt like a car hitting me, which in hindsight is a pretty accurate analogy. And they kept at it too, non-stop. I tried to kick out at them with my legs in a feeble attempt to defend myself, but that was quickly quenched when one of them took out a blade of some kind and sliced a gash into my right leg. I yelped in pain, instinctively pulling my legs into myself and curling into a defensive ball as much as possible. I closed my optics, preparing for the worst when a sound very welcomed reached my audios.
"Enough!" Orion Pax's voice wafted through the corridor. "What are you doing?"
"What do you care?" one of the Vehicons asked.
There was silence a moment, during which I tried to move into a better position to find out what exactly was going on. The attempt sent pain through my leg, however, and I only managed to cause myself to whimper in pain. I felt Orion's optics on me briefly before he must've turned back to the Cons.
"Enough of this," he said. "You said Megatron wanted to see her."
"She needed to be taught a lesson," one of them said.
"Well, I'm afraid, it stops here," Orion said.
I spaced out for a moment, getting vaguely reminded of the Optimus that I had met by the tone he spoke in when he said that. When I became aware of the sounds again, I heard the sound of punching and kicking before blaster fire.
"I am armed?" Orion's confused voice had me opening my optics just in time to see him fire another shot in defense.
I let out a whine, to try to get his attention. He looked over at me before turning his attention back to the fallen Cons. When his attention returned to me, he easily saw the Energon leaking from my leg. He stood and walked over, crouching down behind me and I felt him remove the binders, which I was thankful for as I immediately sat up with a groan. I could feel almost every dent the two Cons had pounded into me and it hurt like I had been hit by a train. One of my door wings felt like it was half way off its connection.
"Can you stand?" Orion asked, kneeling next to me.
One way to find out, I thought as I tentatively nodded. I managed to get to my pedes with Orion's help and he began leading me the opposite way from which I had been going with the Cons. Orion supported me, since I was limping heavily with the wound on my leg.
"We need to find a way out of here," Orion said, though it sounded more to himself than to me.
I made a whirl of agreement.