A week later, Rochelle had to give it up and believe that she would never be free of bruises again. This week she had mercifully been spared pizza, but only replaced with peanut butter and bread. Eventually she had managed to get different kinds of jellies, so that helped, but food was woefully in adept. What she would give for fried chicken!

Flatline was quiet as he usually was, but Rochelle felt proud of herself that she was managing to get the stiff scientist to loosen up some around her. It especially helped since he could find nothing wrong with the nearly month early Nitrostreak, and he seemed pleased that the sparklings would come out okay. Still, he didn't do much playing of any—if he wasn't updating and constantly watching the levels of the seventeen Decepticon hatchlings to come, he was conducting small experiments and fiddling with the broken space bridge pillar that had been delivered.

Still, against her will, she was starting to have . . . fun. In a weird kind of way. Maybe it was because Nitrostreak was such a bright spot of all her days now. Either way, both she and Shockwave had to adapt to Nitrostreak waking up in the middle of the nights crying out for energon and naturally, Rochelle lost track of when it was day or night.

However, nothing could compare to how she missed Optimus. Sure, she missed all her other Autobot friends as well, but her heart was crying out for her spark mate. It was killing her to be separated from him, and more than once Rochelle had found herself crying herself to sleep, little Nitrostreak echoing her out of compassion.

At the dawning of the third week, Shockwave suddenly transformed down into his alt form and began to roll out.

Surprised, Rochelle jumped to her feet. "Wait—Where are you going?" She could have slapped herself for asking the grim Decepticon a question when he never answered. As he started to disappear out, Nitrostreak chirped pitifully after him, trying to follow. Rochelle had to hold him back by his thin shoulders. "What's going on? Shockwave, slaggit, where are you going?"

Nitrostreak chirped more when Shockwave just disappeared out into the tunnel's darkness, and she gathered the baby Decepticon up in her arms.

"Shh, it's all right," she cooed to the sparkling. Nitrostreak's red eyes stared wide back at her. "Shockwave should be back soon . . . I'm assuming. It'll be all right. He's just got a rock stuck under his hood, that's all." She nuzzled her nose to the quieting Decepticon. "Don't you worry your little spark out. He'll be just fine."

With Nitrostreak pacified on her shoulder, Rochelle walked herself over to Flatline who was currently bent over the broken space bridge pillar. "Hey, Flatline? What's going on? Where'd Shockwave go?"

He didn't glance up from his work he was so focused, but he did respond. "It's just another raid for energon," he stated, hands moving slowly and meticulously. "Shockwave has decided to take part in them since the Autobots know who is leading now. It will also—Glitching slag—! Fraggit!"

Instinctively, Rochelle clapped her hands over where Nitrostreak's audio receptors were even though she was sure he could hear Flatline's colorful string of Cybertronian curses. They ranged far and wide, some Rochelle had never known before he withdrew his hands from the offending pillar and retracted his claws to normal.

Rochelle chalked it up to the fact that something had gone wrong. Ratchet was known to lose his temper as well, though mercifully held his tongue in check from the awful curses that Flatline had graced her ears with. "What happened?"

Flatline grumbled to himself a minute more, glaring at the pillar before he finally said, "It is technology beyond your years and capabilities to understand. It would take me twenty of your years to get you to understand the basics of what went wrong."

Great, now he was insinuating she was stupid. "Right, okay, sorry I asked."

Flatline removed his incinerating frown from the pillar to look at Rochelle again. After several long moments of thinking, he finally said, "A miscalculation of circuit wiring."

Rochelle gave a little shrug and an overly gracious smile. "Thank you. Not so hard, huh? Now what were you saying before that?"

It took him half a second to remember where he was going with it. "Shockwave being on the battlefront when Optimus Prime shows up with bolster the Decepticon morale. It has been some time since they have had their leader take him on head to head—to know that they have a leader strong enough to engage in battle with him will bolster their confidence."

Rochelle felt a little blood drain from her face and her lips go dry. She licked them. Now she was kinda sorry she had asked. When Nitrostreak wiggled in her arms, she sat him down on the ground, watching him scamper across the floor. He skidded back and forth happily, scratching up the ground with his metal.

That was right. They were still enemies, cute little Nitrostreak or not. Rochelle felt something cold bar her heart. Nitrostreak was her hold to the Decepticons, the one thing that kept her from outright hating them. He was the putty that held them together in a sort of alliance for greater good. Without Nitrostreak and the other unborn sparklings . . . Rochelle would outright hate them. She would. And now, she found that hatred was crippled in seeing that they were doing the one thing the Autobots had failed to do:

While Optimus did all he could for the greater good and he always tried to be righteous in all of his decisions, not once had the Autobots mentioned saving their home planet. Not one did they have the gumption to create sparklings to save their dying race. They were just as set on stopping the Decepticons as—when Megatron was ruling—the Decepticons had been on destroying Autobots. With Shockwave in control, they had reconsidered their options and set to the greater cause of saving their planet once again.

Rochelle felt her heart skip an unsteady beat when Nitrostreak looked back to her with happy chirping. With a rather sickening feeling, Rochelle realized that she while she wasn't a Decepticon, she wasn't truly an Autobot anymore, caught in the cross roads.

Her faith had been shaken.

Shockwave's abduction of Rochelle had left the Autobot ranks in turmoil. Mirage had despaired in worry. Kim had succumbed to hysterics. Lennox had responded with a stricken face, but could only relapse into his commander mode and push the bother away. Sideswipe and Sunstreaker were hot under the collar for Decepticon blood. Quiet Grapple watched Optimus in worry. Hound lost his usual cheerful mood knowing his leader's spark mate was lost. Cliffjumper vowed never to forgive her for becoming a traitor. Powerglide exuded a constant vigilance of insane determination to scout out and find her somehow, someway from the air. Ratchet clamped shut tighter than a vice, refusing to speak for the first two weeks.

Yet, watching Shockwave race away with Rochelle in his evil grasp had ripped Optimus to shreds, and he still trembled inwardly at the thought of letting him get away.

And he couldn't let it show. Optimus had to stand strong and show that impenetrable determination so the others would get a grip. He needed his soldiers to regain their senses, and with positive words from Optimus, he had managed once again to comfort them all in the fact that the Decepticons would never get away with their ugly deed. Their ranks held strong with the drive to rescue Rochelle no matter the cost.

But, how could he possibly keep himself together?

In light of the new situation, Optimus felt many things, none of which he should be feeling as a righteous and compassionate leader. He felt blinding anger for Shockwave, a terrifying lust to destroy the heartless slagger once and for all and crush the Decepticons for the last time. He felt overwhelming fear for Rochelle's safety, and his spark was torn ragged in despair for not being able to protect her.

Inadvertently, he felt frustration towards Rochelle. She knew he couldn't risk her safety in that perilous surgery to become an Autobot again! Why couldn't she have waited until they safely managed to recover the Matrix of Leadership and the Heart of Cybertron that now granted him life could give her back her Autobot form? Why was she so stubborn? So head strong? So easily angered? Still, Optimus always felt a chill of failure creep in his spark at these thoughts.

How could he have let her go out alone?

It was all his fault! If he hadn't have let her storm out like that, she wouldn't have been caught so far away without any protection. Shockwave wouldn't have been able to get his malevolent hands on her, and she would still be safe, still be safe in his arms.

Optimus felt despair clot his throat. His spark cried out for her. What was worse was that because she wasn't an Autobot, he couldn't feel her online as all the others, and the apprehension ate away at his sanity. The two weeks of no Decepticon activity had Optimus's mind wearing thin as he forcibly restrained himself from anything rash.

Then, the raid for energon happened.

Optimus led his troops to the current location, NEST forces around them. He took Sunstreaker for his anger he knew that would fuel him, but left Sideswipe because he feared both furious brothers together would lead to both losing control in a slaughter Optimus would be forced to intervene in. Instead, Sideswipe would support little Kim who was still nervous enough to cry at the drop of a hat.

Besides Sunstreaker, Optimus had with him level-headed Grapple, skittering Cliffjumper, worried Mirage, solemn Hound, and the vigilance of Powerglide.

Optimus let his determination and longing for Rochelle surge. Somehow, they would get a clue of her whereabouts from this battle. He wouldn't let it happen any other way. He needed her—his spark cried out in agony. This time, the Decepticons would NOT get the upper hand!

Optimus floored it a bit harder, speed gaining some as they tore down to the electrical factory. As they crested over a hill, Optimus saw that this was no petty diversion for energon—they were hitting the factory and hitting it hard.

Decepticons were all over the place. Optimus could almost sense Octane somewhere deep within, heavily guarded with Decepticons loading him high with energon. The seekers swerved around in the sky into a tight formation of five, Thundercracker at the lead to square off with Powerglide and hinder the Autobots. A small group of Decepticons barred the front entrance to the factory, and there were no humans in sight.

Before Optimus could even begin to speculate the lack of forces on the front, his answer was bullets erupting everywhere around them.

Unbidden, the fight began at once. Without even having to order, both the slower Grapple and Hound screeched to a halt, transforming to take on the Decepticon ambush set early before they made it to the entrance. The speedier Optimus, Sunstreaker, Mirage, and Cliffjumper gunned it, driving towards the front.

The seekers all ganged up on Powerglide. The brave Autobot was a master at dog fighting and could hold his own, but Cliffjumper slowed and transformed to help his friend survive. Optimus, Sunstreaker, and Mirage all waylaid the Decepticons in the front, attacking relentlessly.

Already, Optimus's mind turned pensive. His forces were spread too far apart. Grapple and Hound were so far back, Cliffjumper alone in the middle, and his strongest in the front. True, once they smashed through this wall of Decepticons, Optimus could take Mirage and Sunstreaker and find Octane deeper within and apprehend the energon before they could take off, but . . . For some reason, Optimus's spark didn't sit at ease with the plan. Something was wrong. They wanted him to leave his troops here and move on to the energon at his fingertips.

The Heart sat heavy in his spark chamber. Rochelle—he was adverse to taking prisoners, but maybe they could get some information from one of them.

It took a hardly a second longer for Optimus to realize that he had been pushed to the side, the Decepticons he fought in between him and Sunstreaker and Mirage. What was this? Usually, it wouldn't bother him, but for some reason it was sending warning bells blaring all around—

Then, he saw him, and Optimus felt his eyes harden.

The dark purple Charger transformed, whipping out both his deadly gun and left-handed blade on his wrist. Optimus snarled, and the other Decepticons immediately ganged up on Mirage and Sunstreaker.

"Shockwave!" he growled at the silent Decepticon. "Where is she?"

Astonished, he heard an equally eerie snarl patronize him. "Where is who?"

"Rochelle!" Optimus bellowed, squaring off with the Decepticon, twin energon blades drawn. His spark thundered in his chest. "Where is she!"

"Safe," Shockwave drawled. "For the moment."

Suddenly piqued violently, Optimus charged with a guttural yell, lunging under the blasts from Shockwave's gun to attack. Shockwave's blade parried him quickly, plated gun used as an effective shield.

"You're too late," Shockwave hissed to him. "Octane escapes with the energon as we speak."

Filled with fury, Optimus hacked and slashed at the Decepticon so that it put him in a swift retreat. His aggression surprised even himself, but it got the sure Decepticon to shut his vocal processors for just a bit.

Shockwave screeched in pain when a blade tore through his upper arm on his sword side. Still, Optimus couldn't stop him from lifting the nozzle of his gun high enough to make a barrage of bullets lambast into the Prime's stomach. Optimus groaned, and before he could lunge back in for the attack, Shockwave spoke again.

"You're precious spark mate is not what you believe her to be."

Both bots wounded, Optimus couldn't help but be stopped by his subtle words. Energon swords still raised high in aggression, Optimus barked, "What are you talking about, Shockwave?"

An agonized cry from Hound briefly cut through Optimus's thoughts, but he pushed it aside, trusting his fellow soldiers to support each other.

Shockwave gave a morbid laugh, gun held higher than his wounded arm as he rested it. His one eye slit disturbed chills through Optimus's spark. "Do you really not know? Do you really believe I kidnapped her?"

Optimus felt his limbs start to twitch in barely suppressed anger. "What are you talking about? Explain yourself, fiend!"

He just gave another undaunted laugh that was so dark Optimus felt chills. "You think I am some monster. You think I honestly took that girl against her will." Shockwave snarled slightly, eye narrowing. "Get this straight, Optimus: I did not kidnap her; she stepped into my car of her own free will."

Irate rage blinded Optimus's sensors. Unable to stomach his blatant lies, Optimus yelled his war cry and brought the wrath of his sword against the deceiving miscreant. Shockwave fought well, too well for the Prime's liking, and Optimus suffered a blow to both attacking arms when Shockwave's gun morphed. A blade suddenly jutted out, slicing first across the opposite arm and then impaling in the same shoulder Sentinel had severed. Optimus grunted low, stifling all sounds of pain as he swung back at Shockwave's exposed side. The Decepticon quickly brought up his left blade to parry, but made a mistake. He blocked with the sharp of his blade instead of the flat, and Optimus's blade skidded down and sank into the back of his hand, tearing up the plating and cutting deep. Shockwave howled when the blade sliced through extremely sensitive wiring like veins, bright blue energon gushing.

They both backed away for the next engagement, but Shockwave tried to throw Optimus again. He scoffed on the inside at the Decepticon's futile efforts to rattle him, but unwittingly lent him a scared ear.

"Think about it, Optimus," Shockwave's voice crooned like a snake. "She was certainly bitter enough at you to do something like this, wasn't she?"

Against his will, Optimus felt himself hesitate in the attack as cold fear doused over his wiring. "No. Rochelle would never do that."

"Wouldn't she?" Shockwave laughed against, rasping and awful, sinister on levels Optimus hadn't first comprehended. His red eye glared at Optimus, a glaring triumph glinting. Worse still, Optimus thought he could hear a ring of truth in his voice. "Rochelle's allegiance does not lie with the Autobots anymore. Anymore, given a choice, she would side with the Decepticons."

"She would never!" Optimus belted out, energon swords rising for the attack again. A short, cold laugh from Shockwave stopped him short.

"Love is blind. A fit saying, I think," Shockwave said mockingly. He rolled his wounded arm restlessly, keeping himself warm. "Can you truly not see it, Optimus?" A chill ran through Optimus's wiring—out of all his mortal enemies, none had really called him Optimus so much—it was always "Prime." Now, with Shockwave speaking his name, apprehension wove its way into his spark. He crooned his name like snake, the 's' hissing a seductive threat that upset Optimus's mind.

Shockwave laughed again, taunting the Prime that stood frozen in indecision. "Surely if I had kidnapped her, she would have screamed the most hideous threats. Surely something would have recorded it. Or, better yet. Have you even thought to watch the alley we were in?"

Optimus kept himself as still as stone. If he moved, he was sure he would break. This was impossible. It was not true. Rochelle may lose her temper, but she was righteous. She had a good heart, and Optimus knew it. He couldn't fathom the thought of her turning traitor—it was improbable!

It took Optimus a moment to detach himself from his thoughts and focus as the Decepticons finally began to fall back. Shockwave's one eye, red as hell's wrath glinted back in triumph. Optimus felt his own blue eyes widen in horror—he had done exactly what Shockwave had wanted him to do. He was doubting.

"I did nothing to your precious Rochelle," he hissed to the stiffened Prime. "She stepped in and turned her back on you of her own free will." Optimus's mind locked down in a mode of denial. "See it for yourself." Shockwave began to back off, gun still raised but pointed at another instead of Optimus. Still, Optimus didn't—couldn't—move even with the opening. "Rochelle is a Decepticon, and given the free choice, she will stay that way."

Then, Shockwave transformed down, the Charger speeding off with the rest of the Decepticons, leaving Optimus with a sickening hole of uncertainty eating away at him.

"Don't listen to a damn thing that slagger said," Sunstreaker snarled, physically restraining himself from pursuing all of the Decepticons. His body quaked. "The Decepticon name speaks for itself, Optimus—they're deceivers and liars, all of them!"

Optimus was fairly sure he was frozen; maybe his spark had deadpanned when he wasn't paying attention. The bickering continued.

"I say he's right!" Cliffjumper declared hotly. "She's a dirty traitor just like that Sentinel!"

Could it possibly be true? Optimus knew Rochelle to be devastatingly head-strong, but . . . could she possibly do something so drastic?

"Cliffjumper, don't say that. Rochelle is Optimus's spark mate—she would never—"

"So what, Grapple! Sentinel was Optimus's mentor! And he betrayed us just as readily!"

Dread crept in. What if Shockwave's words WERE true? There had been a horrifyingly truthful tone to the Decepticon that had nothing to do with deception. And he had been unshakably confident that Rochelle would now choose Decepticons over Autobots . . . If it were true, what could have possibly moved her motives in the other direction? Unspeakable terror clawed at Optimus's throat—not his own spark mate. Not his own spark mate—!

"That was different. She's joined by Optimus's spark—there is no way she could betray him like that."

Optimus coerced himself to stay sane. He slowly rerouted himself and calmed down, struggling to retain his grip on sanity.

"Is that what you think, Mirage? I don't know what to think anymore. For all I know she could be sitting like a comfy queen on a pile of pillows with those Decepticons wrapped around her finger!"

"See? Listen to reason, all of you! Powerglide agrees with me! She's a slagging traitor, and she's been conspiring against us this whole time!"

"But she saw what the Decepticons did to Ironhide! You weren't there, Cliffjumper, none of you were—but I was! She was devastated! La mia povera ragazza . . ."

"Poor girl!" Sunstreaker's mocking voice joined in. "I say if she did stick with the 'Cons, then she just got what she deserved!"

"No! None of you understand! La mia ragazza isn't—"

"Silence!" Optimus bellowed. "All of you!"

His spark thundered violently in his chest. Every Autobot with him fell quiet immediately, and it gave way to other sounds—the stifled moans of the wounded NEST soldiers.

Trembling on the inside, Optimus turned around to survey the damage and his spark flopped. Every plane or helicopter was down, those dying or dead being dragged from the wreckage. Lennox was shouting orders, but it was clear they all understood what was going on with the strife between Optimus, Shockwave, and Rochelle; none of them intruded.

Optimus took a steadying breath before speaking. He raised his head, refusing to show how much Shockwave had shaken him with his words. "Nothing of Shockwave's words is of any caliber yet. Whether this warning of his is true or if it is just a way to undermine me, we cannot be sure." Optimus let himself look each Autobot in the eye. His eyes rested on the wounded Hound, Grapple supporting the weakened Autobot who kept a hand over the gaping wound in his abdomen.

"Unfortunately," he said to his calmer troops, "he has led us on a slight diversion for answers. None of us will rest fitfully until we know now truly if Rochelle was taken against her will or not. Until then, I suggest we look at this supposed clip of this mysterious alley, and we will take our steps from there."

Optimus pinned each Autobot down with a serious gaze. "Until then, the situation stays in the state we left it in: Rochelle is an unwilling prisoner of the Decepticons, and we will do all in our power to rescue her."

"Why hello. Nice to see you back in one—" Rochelle swallowed her words the moment Shockwave really drove into the room, watching the faint trail of energon leaking. "Piece," she finished wryly. Unfortunately, she had to swallow—she bet he had faced off with Optimus. Optimus had to have dealt those wounds. But what was she thinking now that she didn't want Optimus to hurt him? Rochelle watched Nitrostreak bound around the Charger, chirping both happily and worriedly.

Flatline glanced up from his futile endeavors with the broken space bridge pillar. "Shockwave? Why didn't you go see the medic?"

He transformed, and Rochelle immediately saw the two wounds—both on his left arm, a good mark on his upper arm and a worse one on the back of his hand. Rochelle shivered at the one on his hand—in her human form, that would be the equivalent of the entire back of her hand being a flap of skin that exposed the white bone amid crimson muscle. It looked beyond painful—Rochelle shivered again, thinking it agonizing.

Still, Shockwave just heaved a deep sound, much like a weary sigh, and he sank to the ground. Clearly, his hand was in more pain than he let on. "Superficial wounds," he hissed quietly, Nitrostreak prancing around him in worry. The tiny sparkling chirped his crying as he shifted near Shockwave's hand, skirting around the blue energon that still gushed out. Rochelle couldn't fathom how Shockwave managed to lift a finger to touch Nitrostreak gently on the head before letting it fall limp. "You are more than capable."

Flatline paused, and Rochelle watched the scientist's eyes widen, brightening in a small amount of alarm in the dim cave. "What? You can't be serious, Shockwave, just have Knockout come out. I—"

"You are more than capable," Shockwave repeated, fixating his giant red eye on the hesitating scientist. "Knockout is tending to those much more wounded than me, and I will not interfere with his work with something as trivial as my own. You know enough of the medical practice to tend to my repairs."

After a brief moment more, Flatline moved forward, hands transforming yet again to the proper tools as he inspected the wound on Shockwave's upper arm.

Rochelle was vaguely aware that she was gathering up Nitrostreak in her arms, telling him Shockwave was going to be just fine, but her mind was stalled back at Shockwave's words. His words . . . sounded like Optimus. He willingly let himself writhe in what was clearly excruciating pain so that those hurt with a more lethal wound could heal first. It was so similar to something Optimus would do that it made her heart flip.

Then, jerking back to reality, Nitrostreak wriggled out of her arms, and Rochelle gave the sparkling a pat on the behind as he raced off to play with himself. Rochelle glanced up and she frowned at how Flatline had to reroute and configure some wires. However, she saw his hands moving the red wire to the—

"Flatline, don't do that."

Both Decepticons looked up to her instantly. "What?" Flatline finally managed to ask.

Rochelle felt heat in her cheeks. Well, if he attached the red wire to the red port—"If you hook it there, you'll short out his whole arm, if not his whole body."

Flatline blinked at her. "Don't be ridiculous. Rerouting is what I'm good at."

But there was a difference in rerouting a computer and a living transformer. Rochelle remembered her lesson with Ratchet where he had berated her thoroughly for making the same mistake Flatline was: she wanted to hook the same colors to same ports as usual, but in a living transformer that was switched so it was opposite. Rochelle shook her head when Flatline ignored her, believing himself better.

"Suit yourself. Not my fault."

Next thing she knew, Shockwave's one eye had fixated itself on her, calculating, before a jolt made that eye widen, and then fall black.

Flatline was utterly frozen. He had already disconnected the wires, and he stared in horror at the shorted-out Shockwave before looking at Rochelle with slightly panicked eyes. Rochelle shrugged as Shockwave came back online.

"But that shouldn't have—"

Shockwave detached his gun from his arm to free his right hand, and it snapped around Flatline's wrist, moving his hand away. His one eye pierced Flatline with a glare that silenced him before he looked back to Rochelle. "Next time, listen to her."

Rochelle felt her jaw going a bit slack at his words. Really? Then, she squeaked when Shockwave reached over with his good hand and picked her up. Grasping on for dear life, Rochelle felt herself deposited on Shockwave's shoulder, and it was the most uncanny sensation ever.

"Teach him."

And just like that, Rochelle found herself openly accepted.

"Um . . . Uh, o-okay." Tentatively, Rochelle seized the lead and helped Flatline to repair a living transformer for the first time. It was fairly easy, and Flatline quickly caught on, but Rochelle couldn't help feeling odd as she coached him in the basics of healing. However, she got on a roll, and she intently watched Shockwave's hand while Flatline worked.

"Shockwave," Rochelle said, automatically correcting him, "when you're fighting, you gotta remember to block with the flat of your blade." His one eye looked down on her, but Rochelle was too preoccupied to care. "When the sharp of your foe's blade hits the sharp of yours, that's what makes it skid. Primus, you were luck to keep you hand. I'm pretty sure Optimus would have—"

Rochelle swallowed her own tongue. What was she doing tutoring a Decepticon in the arts of battle? Heck, why hadn't Optimus's blow been enough to sever his hand? "I—Yeah. Anyway. I think that's it. I think Flatline can handle it. Let me down."

Shockwave complied without a word, and somehow his silence made Rochelle even more unnerved than usual. Searing blush of mortification on her cheeks, Rochelle sought Nitrostreak as a natural shield to Shockwave.

Without knowing, Rochelle had breached the gap between her and her captors, and now respect flowed both ways.

Author's Note:

Shockwave's twisted mind . . . Truth or lies?

Also, heh, yeah I'm dangling that cameo in front of you. But you can't have Knockout yet! :D All you rabid KO fan-girls (like myself) will have to wait for that sexy Decepticon later ;) I'm saving him and hoping I can get his smexyness right